The contest has ended

The 2nd FAI Pan American Gliding Championship is over.  Congratulations to the new Champions, Claudio Schmidt of Brazil in the Standard Class, and Martin Bossart of Argentina in the 15 Meter Class.

The last landing of the contest occurred somewhere around 5pm on December 15, 2017. Retrieves were involved, so we had to wait a few hours for the final scores to appear. Then the results of the entire competition were presented to the FAI Officials for review.

Chief Steward Alfonso Soto and Jury President Angel Casado

Finally, at about 9:30 pm, Director Eduardo Toselli convened the prizegiving ceremony, and Jury President Angel Casado declared that the results were final. The winners took their places on and around the podium as pictures were taken and the FAI flag was lowered.

Our best results were achieved by Ryszard Krolikowski (7th in the Standard Class) and Fernando Silva (5th in the 15 Metre Class). Fernando says that his first international competition was very valuable as he prepares for his second one, the World Gliding Championships in Poland this coming July.

In keeping with the Argentine tradition, the farewell dinner started up right on time at about 10:30 pm. A jovial crowd of pilots, crews, and organisers assembled in the hangar and partied until who knows when.

Today we begin the journey back to winter and to our homes in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Vermont. We take with us memories of a happy, well run competition, and we look forward to seeing all of our friends again at the next PAGC, in Ontario, Canada in 2019.