FINAL RESULTS

Billabong World Hang Gliding Championships - Forbes Australia 1998
Sponsored by Billabong

Competition Officials are members of Canungra Hang Gliding Club.
This page maintained by D Tim Cummings.

 Guido Gehrmann
Guido Gehrmann is the 1998 Hang Gliding World Champion.


Individual final results, Teams final results
Teams Summary
Place
Points
Country
1st37725Austria
2nd36525Germany
3rd35646Italy
4th35150Australia
5th34635United Kingdom
6th34498United States of America
7th33582France
8th32828Switzerland
9th31135Brazil
10th29425Japan
11th26620Czech Republic
12th23425Sweden
13th21301Spain
14th20072Holland
15th19674Hungary
16th18431New Zealand
17th18124Norway
18th17428South Africa
19th16475Canada
20th9808Luxembourg
21st9625Ukraine
22nd9587Ireland
23rd4062Slovenia
24th3316Argentina
25th3072Chinese Taipei
26th1913FAI

Day 12 - 7th February

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner
Day 12 had northerly winds and some nice cumulus. It looked like a good day except for an approaching front with high overcasting cloud before it. A long task with an easy downwind leg, followed by a crosswind leg and then finishing with a short but hard headwind stage.
The guys got going down the course but the front was more severe than we hoped and the bad weather beat them.

Day 11 - 6th February

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner
Grey overcast skies greeted (?) us this morning, but there was some blue off to the southwest. Lowish cu's were forming under the higher cloud by 10:00 and a sort of triangular out and not quite return was called.
The cumulus improved with clear sky above and it eventually became quite a good day.

Day 10 - 5th February

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner
A trough and general low pressure around a large area dominated Day 10's weather. There was a stiff westerly wind and the idea of going into the rising hilly ground to the east looked dicey in terms of thunderstorms. Crosswind to the south looked OK, but the longer goals in this direction were unavailable, so a trip to Boorowa was the go.

Day 9 - 4th February

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner
We had a trough sitting immediately to the north of Forbes and strongish northerly blowing above a general calm layer on the ground. We set provisional tasks that rely on northerly drift but the trough moved overhead and started upsetting the plans. We thought about changing the task, but what actually happened with the weather depended solely on the drift of the trough, so we thought it would be prudent to let the day and the scoring program sort out the results.

Day 8 - 3rd February

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner
Today started with westerly winds and what looked to be good thermal conditions. A 200 km task that took the pilots NE, then NNE was called as it looked like a small southerly change to the wind would occur. The southerly shift came later than expected, but the thermals were better than what we thought.
What the heck! It was booming!

Day 7 - 2nd February

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner
The day started overcast with a trough being the main influence to the weather. There was some high cumulus development off toward the northeast, so a straight-line task to Bodangora airstrip seemed the best bet. If the convection held there would be a lot at goal, if it just got bigger (as the forecast suggested) it would rain and ruin the day. In the end, a bit of both happened.

Day 6 - 1st February

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner
Day 6 started with predictions of lightish SW winds and thunderstorms and rain for the Forbes area. By the time we were out in the paddock that was obviously not going to happen. We had significant southerly winds and booming thermals so a task of about one hundred miles to the NW was called.

Day 5 - 31st January

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner
Day five started with forecast northerly winds, 2000m cloudbase and massive over-development. A short out and return task was called, but then the day turned out to be clear skies, with SW winds and booming thermals. The task was 100 km too short. We have a sophisticated electronic thermal forecasting which has been wrong with cloud predictions every day so far, and the thermal predictions have not been consistent. Tomorrow we will be using more traditional means of predicting the weather.

Day 4 - 30th January

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner

Day 3 - 29th January

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner

Day 2 - 28th January

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner

Day 1 - 27th January

Individual results, Teams results, Day Winner

FAI Class II

For those interested in why Class II gliders such as the Exxtacy aren't flying in this event, FAI rules state that at least 8 entrants from 4 countries are required to run a separate class. Only one entry in Class II was received by December 1997, and this was later withdrawn because the entrant could not afford to come here.
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