FATE IS THE HUNTER
AND THIS TIME SEBASTIAN KAWA WAS THE GAME The story of how a tiny piece of metal jeopardised Sebastian's chances of success in a contest and almost led to disaster. WORDS BY TOMASZ KAWA TRANSLATED BY TOMASZ CIESIELSKI SUPPLIED
S
EBASTIAN KAWA WAS to defend his world title in 13.5m class in Italy in the first half of September 2019. We were looking forward to this trip to Italy and the wonderful Apennine Mountains. The Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas embracing the Italian peninsula have a significant impact on the local climate and enhance the soaring weather phenomena over this mountain chain. Two opposing sea breezes sweep over the coastal areas to finally meet over the mountains. Days are often clear and sunny. Wonderful cumulus clouds build up in the convergence zone but frequently overdevelop and produce mountain storms. Flying in the mountains in good conditions is a delight and offers many alternatives for soaring pilots, but it also requires a large amount of knowledge, experience and skills to make the most of it. You must respect the mountains where the amplified atmospheric dynamics and topography produce lots of
invisible traps. Emergency landing zones in the mountains are difficult to find in general; in this region of Italy it is even harder. Here, for thirty centuries, man has used the bottom of the valleys and gentle slopes to build villages, farms and stone fences. The larger pastures and fields are on the steep slopes. Sebastian’s mountain experience has been acquired at home in the Carpathian Alps, the New Zealand Southern Alps, the Andes, the Pyrenees as well as his exploration of the Caucasus and Himalayas and represents a significant asset. Once again, he was flying the GP-14 Velo, the great Polish 13.5 m glider developed by Grzegorz Peszke from Krosno. The competitivity of this new design in which Sebastian won 2nd FAI World 13.5 Class Championship in 2017 was further enhanced by new rules allowing the use of water ballast in the 13.5 m Class. We were full of optimism.
The event was well planned. Pavullo airport, nicely situated among the hills had new function/briefing facilities. A spectacular opening ceremony was planned with a parade in the city and impressive airshow programme at the airport. The media coverage was good. Sebastian was almost ‘dressed in laurels’ before the competition even started. However, nobody has influence on the weather. The opening ceremony was ruined by a storm. An overheated and humid air mass parked over the competition area offered lazy thermals or early overdevelopment and show stopping storms. During the second practice day the lid closing the compartment of the BRS (Ballistic Recovery System - parachute deployed by a rocket) in Sebastian’s glider came loose and disappeared. This not only impacted the glider performance; the open compartment created an unbearable noise.
