14th FAI Junior World Gliding Championships 2026
EDPA Aalen-Elchingen, Germany
August 2nd to 15th, 2026
International Evening
International market hall atmosphere in Elchingen. The Junior World Championships celebrate multi-culturally: International Night fosters new friendships The International Evening at the 2026 Junior World Gliding Championships (JWGC) in Aalen-Elchingen took place on...
JWGC 3rd Day of Competition
Challenging Conditions at the World Championships The 14th Junior World Gliding Championship at the Elchingen airfield got off to an ideal start with three consecutive days of competition. Despite intense heat, challenging thermals, and nighttime thunderstorms, the...
JWGC after the 2nd day of Competition
A Challenging Start to the World Championships: Heat puts Young Glider Pilots to the Test over the Ostalb With two challenging days of competition, the 24th Junior World Gliding Championships at the Elchingen airfield have entered their most intense phase. Extreme...
First Day of Competition at the Junior World Gliding Championships
The in-the-air competitions finally commenced on Monday, August 3rd On the first official day of competition at these 14th Junior World Gliding Championships weather conditions immediately played a significant role. High temperatures and a cloudless sky made...
Junior World Championships are declared open
August 2nd has been the day of the grand opening ceremony. The festive program began in the morning with a train ride on the Härtsfeld Historical Railway. That railway is affectionately known as the “Schättere” (rattler) because of its rattling noise. After the train...
2nd training day
Intense heat, convergence lines, high base levels - almost African-like conditions. On the second day of training there was again free training for both classes. The conditions were ideal for a training day - and not just for the World Championship participants, by...
1st Day of Training
All the pilots have now arrived at the Elchingen airfield. Many have already had the chance to explore the region by glider over the past few days. On Wednesday, with excellent thermals, some pilots flew really long distances.Today has marked the first official...
XC Therm presentation
Next generation in thermal forecast On July 30, 2026 Ramona Eckert from XC Therm will present the next generation in thermal forecast. 8 p.m. in the briefing hangar
Frequency updates – Bulletin 5 V2.0
Rev. July, 22nd 2026 V2 Bulletin 5 published NAC frequencies updates Link to Documents and Files...
Supplier Week
Support and Trade Show during the Training Week From July 27 to July 31, 2026 we managed to invite aircraft builder and suppliers for aviation equipment and aircraft parts to our airfield. LX Avionik, FLARM, Light Wing Aircraft, HP Optics, XC Therm, SteFly and Ülis...
Gliders and their various classes
Worldwide, there is a wide variety of glider types with different performance capabilities. This naturally makes it difficult to evaluate them fairly within a competitive setting. A sophisticated points and class system is intended to ensure this fairness.
At the Junior World Gliding Championships in Elchingen, competitions are held in two classes.
Club Class
In this class, many different types of aircraft fly. Especially for juniors, it is a very affordable way to get started in competitive gliding. The aircraft are mostly older designs that can no longer keep up with modern machines and are often no longer manufactured. However, such aircraft are not bad — quite the opposite. Many clubs worldwide own these models. This allows them to operate these aircraft without major financial expense and make them available to young people. Aircraft development has advanced so far that no wooden gliders compete in this class anymore, only fiberglass sailplanes. To a layperson, these aircraft are very difficult to distinguish from high-end models.
Club-class aircraft rarely have a glide ratio worse than 1:38, meaning: a loss of 1000 meters in altitude for 38 km of flight distance. Many different types compete in the club class. Therefore, to ensure fairness, all achieved performances within the class are adjusted using an index that reflects the particular qualities of the respective aircraft. In the club class, flying is done without water ballast.
Standard Class
The standard class is one of the FAI classes, meaning it is established worldwide. In it, new-generation aircraft with a wingspan of up to 15 meters and without flaps on the trailing edge of the wing, are flown. Retractable landing gear and integrated water tanks in the wings are permitted.
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