Overview

Welcome to the most extreme form of competitive glider racing. Sit back as you are taken to one of the most remote corners of the Earth; this video will amaze you with some of the beauty our planet has to offer and grip you with the spectacle of 16 of the world’s most incredible pilots pushing themselves, and their aircraft, to the limit. The DVD traces the first steps in the creation of a new televised format of sailplane (glider) racing, a field of 15 of the world’s top pilots fighting it out for the World Championship. It’s fast, it’s dicey and it’s unbelievably gripping; Formula One without the fumes. This DVD takes spectators previously limited to peering through binoculars and gives them a front row seat. It virtually puts them in the cockpit and lets them fly with condors. It shows them some of the world’s most spectacular – and at times threatened – landscapes, all at speeds nudging 300 km/h. This is not just for sailplane aficionados – there are enough features in the suite to hook anyone with an eye for beauty, a love of the environment and a passion for sporting spectacle.

	WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.

Table of Contents

Sailplane Grand Prix in the Andes:
Televised in more than 160 countries around the world during the summer of 2010, this is sailplane racing like it’s never been filmed before."Sailplane Grand Prix in the Andes’ little brother" (12 minutes, Dolby 5.1):
Lure your newbie friends into the world of SGP with this pared down cut. All the high definition, half the time, audio to the max.Dinámica - One day in Sailplane Grand Prix:
Focusing on one decisive day's racing at the World Championship Finals in Santiago. An insider's view and a pumping soundtrack. What more could you ask for?The "Aquarium" shots:
Throw out your fish tank; we bring you more than 35 minutes of stupendous High Definition sailplane footage set to original music. Turn on, turn up, soar away... Or just whack it on in the background at parties.Kawa in the cockpit:
Fly with reigning world champion Sebastian Kawa as he puts his aircraft through its paces high in the Andean Cordillera.Day Six raw race animation:
One for the sailplane nerds among us: watch how tactics and lift, experience and nerve play out with the complete race at 20 x real time. Pilot course and tracking over mapped terrain through a six-point, 330km competitive flight.

FAQ

What are Sailplane Grand Prix?
A new form of sailplane competitions where the planes start in a line (“regatta start”) and the first plane across the finish line wins. It was developed six years ago bythe Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Gliding Commision (IGC) led by Roland Stuck, a vice-president of the IGC, to help make sailplane competitions easier for the public to follow, especially with a view to presenting them on TV.What is the FAI?
FAI stands for Fédération Aéronautique Internationale the organization that oversees airsports worldwide.What race is presented in the film “Sailplane Grand Prix of the Andes”?
The Final of the 2010 World Championship for Sailplane Grand Prix, which took place in Santiago, Chile, in January 2010.What were the results?
Sebastian Kawa from Poland took his third successive World Championship title. Local hero Carlos Rocca finished second and German Mario Kiessling third.How is Sailplane Grand Prix different from traditional glider racing?
It’s a streamlined, pared down version of conventional glider racing. In conventional competitions, each pilot chooses his starting time and races against the clock. The result is only known when the last pilot has completed the course. It presents different challenges, but it is unsuitable for TV. With Sailplane Grand Prix, however, the number of participants is strictly limited to 20, making for a compact, competitive field and a racing format which is more accessible and understandable for non-experts. The length of the race is only around two hours, which keeps the sailplanes closer together and can produce very dramatic finishes.How long is an SGP event?
The SGP final is the culmination of 18 months of qualifying events. The final takes place over several days, with pilots accumulating points from each day’s racing. The recent final in Santiago, Chile, comprised nine days of racing.So what’s all this about “being in the cockpit?"
Tracking devices used with freely available mapping images of the ground provide a 3D image of the race in progress. Viewers can interact with the race by choosing to follow a particular pilot at any given time. The onboard and helicopter-mounted cameras provide live images of the racing and the stunning backdrops of the various venues (see the Gallery).What about the environmental aspect?
Sailplanes can penetrate some of the most beautiful, threatened and inaccessible corners of the globe without leaving so much as a trace. No noise, no emissions, no footprint. This is a sport which basically relies on solar energy, that most renewable of resources. SPG requires very little ground support and provides a riveting, competitive spectacle with little or no environmental impact.