On Friday, August 3, 2018 at 1:45:05 PM UTC-7, Chris Rowland wrote:
At 20:05 03 August 2018, BruceGreeff wrote:
On 2018/08/02 22:20, RobKol wrote:
On Thursday, 2 August 2018 07:58:33 UTC-7, waremark wrote:
Kawa flew an Arcus in Russia. He gave a talk at our club about that
exciting trip. I wonder how he comes to be in a 32 this time.

Mr. Matkowski, the other ASG-32 "MD" crew member is Schleicher dealer.
The choice is obvious.

And I think it supports my thesis that the pilot makes the difference.
The top manufacturers attract the top pilots, but the gliders are so
close in performance overall - I doubt equipment is the decisive factor
in most recent contests.
Dr Kawa will be hard to beat in anything remotely competitive...


Is Sebastian Kawa the first professional competition glider pilot?

Someone who spends his entire life competing and preparing to compete. No
other day job.

Rather like the Golf and Tennis stars.

What we see is that level of commitment brings an extra level of
performance.

Chris

Aren't the French teams professional? I was under the impression they are given a glider, a coach and a stipend to just train together as a team.