2022 - A Gliding Recap

One spectacular flight followed the next and the like and comment function on our platform was used more and more actively. We are very happy that the WeGlide community is growing together!

Various 1000km flights with club class gliders, 1400km flown in Germany, spectacular travel by glider flights, and exciting league weekends in Germany, Australia, Switzerland, and France. We couldn't stop being amazed.

But that's not all, because we find flights and adventures that don't appear at the top of the rating lists just as exciting. An occasion to demand the filter function properly again!

The most outlandings worldwide

Stories that arise when you land in a paddock are usually just as little forgotten as personal bests. But who has the most stories in stock in 2022? Here are the top three outlanders:

Noah Lichter, a German junior from Brandenburg, is among the front runners with eight outlandings. As the winner of the SteFly Challenge, he had the opportunity to use the Std. Cirrus of the ffs-sh. Noah, we hope you've learned a lot this year and wish you great flights in the coming season!

The British pilot Jake Brattle was also able to record eight outlandings, which mainly made the fields unsafe at competitions in Germany and Lithuania.

Not forgetting Vincent Hayoz. An experienced French pilot who can also rave about eight outlandings in 2022.

The earliest outlanding

While we're at outlanding, let's go straight to the earliest one. Sometimes you gamble too high and if there is no engine available you are on the field earlier than some people appear on the airfield.

This year, the German Alpine pilot Jan Lyczywek can tell you a thing or two about it by sitting down with his Ka 6 in a field near Innsbruck at a quarter to ten after a long fight in the Inn valley.

Jan, we hope you still had a nice day in the Inn Valley on the ground!

The earliest outlanding at a different airfield

Here we were able to make very interesting observations. Various morning flights with self-launchers were undertaken. Without investigating further, we simply interpret this as "commuting in style". Anything you can think of to avoid the morning traffic.

The strongest bladder

Let's continue with the longest flight. The 2022 season was characterized by breathtakingly long flights, such as Alexander Müller's 1400 km flight or Baptiste Innocent's 1570 km. Even if Baptiste has already spent more than 15 hours in the cockpit to fly this distance in waves and thermals, another pilot has shown even more stamina, and that in a wooden glider!

Markus Beckmann spent an incredible 16 hours and 8 minutes in SFC Hirzenhain's K8 this summer to break the existing club record. Dynamic on the slope in the morning and then in thermals until late in the evening. According to the pilot, "everything has to fit!". Markus, we take your word for it and hope you can walk again!

Fly high

Getting up in the middle of the night, rigging up the plane in the dark, taking on an endless aerotow. It's crazy how creative some glider pilots can get when flying days get scarce in the off-season.

The action of Lukas Gruchot and Pirmin Schneider was particularly spectacular, who, in their young 22nd season, directly achieved the greatest gain in altitude starting in Germany. With a final altitude of 7220m MSL, the two were able to win more than 5000m in pure gliding!

On vacation

Who flew gliders in most places? We suspect that many of you would bet on Stefan Langer, who regularly delights us with high-quality videos from all over the world.

However, Stefan was trumped by a pilot. Swiss Yves Gerster is in first place with eight different countries! He was in South Africa, Lithuania, France, and Hungary, ... just take a look at his flightbook, it makes you dream!

Flying different gliders

The French Junior Malo Poulain de Saint Père flew an incredible 16 types of gliders this year. Consistent use of the WeGlide type list!

Hero of comments

Finally, we took a look at the comment statistics. Phillip Bagus is in third place with 79 comments. He was topped by Max Maslak, who congratulated others on 101 flights.

But as many probably already guessed, Jens Kammerer deservedly took first place. 147 flights have enjoyed his recognition this year!

In the meantime, even colleagues rush ahead with his famous comment. Jens, "wir glauben, wir werden welk" and you continue to inspire the community to comment diligently!

Team WeGlide wishes everyone a Happy New Year!