Swedish Junior Gliding camps

New Zealand is not the only country promoting youth development. The following is from our new Swedish correspondent Kjell Folkesson who visited Omarama during our youth camp. Folkesson is the president of Västergötlands Flygsportförbund (VGFSF) a district airsport association in Sweden that has organised junior gliding camps annually since 2006.

He says, “We do it because we must help our juniors to become established in our gliding operation. It is also important for teenagers to be able to tell their friends that it is not just older people involved in gliding, as they are often the youngest member of their club. We have between 10-20 juniors who participate in our camps which are 5-16 days long. In 2008 we had our camp in Poland and (world champion pilot) Sebastian Kawa was one of our instructors. In 2011 we will go to Krizanov in the Czech Republic.”

One aim of the 2010 camp was to hold a Junior Grand Prix. Kjell Folkesson planned the contest and set the task; a short one of just 55 km, which was the same every day. The weather was not ideal but they still flew four of the five days, with weak thermals. Youth competitors flew in two seaters with safety pilots and were challenged by the contest conditions.

One of the youth competitors said “I learned a lot from this flight. The biggest lesson is probably that it is actually possible to fly, even when it looks completely useless to even pull the gliders out of the hangar. Grand Prix is a really fun sort of competition.”

Photo Janne Andersson