List of qualified pilots to the World Final 2023

 
The 🇩🇪 German Pilot did not have to compete to the Qualifiers of the 2nd FAI Virtual Sailplane Grand Prix, as he has been automatically invited after the St Auban event, to join the 2nd World Final, with the aim to defend his crown 🫅 🕵️‍♀️ Ben is

The 🇩🇪 German Pilot did not have to compete to the Qualifiers of the 2nd FAI Virtual Sailplane Grand Prix, as he has been automatically invited after the St Auban event, to join the 2nd World Final, with the aim to defend his crown 🫅 🕵️‍♀️ Ben is 27 years old and he started gliding aged 13, in 2009, while he was already playing on Condor a year before. He has not always been able to fly in real life, because of his studies and his job, but Condor as always helped him to stay connected to the gliding world. 🤝His face may seem familiar to our recent followers, because Ben is a journalist and has been helping a lot to comment our races. We have been very luck to have him by our side to explain to the public, what is virtual gliding! But now is the time to get back in the seat of his glider. He is never flying without his VR headset, that we could compare to a Formula 1 helmet. When he wears it, he is part of the machine and can stay focused for hours. 🏎 🤔You were looking for the best pilots ? Good for you, he is one of the best. Maybe the best. But to prove it, he will need to beat Witold again, surrounded and protected by the Polish team...and all the other pilots who want to take their first World Title 🏆 🚩His secret weapon? For sure his Ventus 3 and his german colors 🇩🇪 Best of luck to become the best of the best once again, Ben!

🇵🇱 Witold Rożak is the vice-World Champion of the 1st Virtual SGP - World Final that took place in St Auban, in 2021. He got his ticket to compete to the 2nd Virtual SGP World Final quite easily, as he qualified by winning the qualifying Virtual SG

🇵🇱 Witold Rożak is the vice-World Champion of the 1st Virtual SGP - World Final that took place in St Auban, in 2021. He got his ticket to compete to the 2nd Virtual SGP World Final quite easily, as he qualified by winning the qualifying Virtual SGP of Borås 🇸🇪, which was the first event of this serie! He definitely is a different pilot. 🕵️‍♀️Witold is 46 years old. Member of Norfolk Gliding Club since 2013. He has always been interested in aviation and really enjoys the beauty and challenges of gliding. He is always excited to compete with the best Condor pilots and hopes to get to the top of the podium this time! 🏆Witold started competing in online glider races over 17 years ago. He is the current title holder 🥇of the Condor World Cup (a non-official, community event). He also won this event in 2018, was second 🥈 in 2019 and 🥉third in 2020 and 2021. Witold also successfully participated in many smaller Condor competitions over the years with many top places including wins in 2020 Regatta Cup and recent Regata Pirineos. 🏋️‍♂️He has been very active the past two years to create a national team in Condor and it is paying off! With five polish pilots (out of 20) who qualified for this final event, we can say that the mission is already a success, and that it is a massive achievement for the 🇵🇱 country already. 🚩 Witold will be flying the JS3-18m during the competition! Welcome to one of the best virtual pilots! We hope to see you fight until the end 💪

Let's talk about a Norvegian Pilot 🇳🇴, who qualified during the 1st Qualifying VSGP event of this 2nd Serie, in Boras 🇸🇪, who scored an impressive amount of 5,309.48 points with a crazy last race win! 🕵️‍♀️Arne Martin Güettler had a fairly late

Let's talk about a Norvegian Pilot 🇳🇴, who qualified during the 1st Qualifying VSGP event of this 2nd Serie, in Boras 🇸🇪, who scored an impressive amount of 5,309.48 points with a crazy last race win! 🕵️‍♀️Arne Martin Güettler had a fairly late start, experiencing his first glider flight at the age of 32. He then quickly caught on, and used Condor a lot to learn and practice. Two years later, with 110 real life gliding hours, and about 1000 Condor hours he entered his first real life Norwegian Gliding Championship, and got a great start, winning the first contest day ! He managed to keep his lead throughout the contest and won on his debut ! 🔝From then he has establishing himself as one of the top Norwegian pilots! He won the Open class nationals this year, making a total of 3 gold and 3 silver in the Norwegian championships he has entered. He also finished on the 5th position, only a few points away from the podium during the 1st Virtual SGP World Final in 2021. He is a very complete pilot in both real and eSports races. ✅ 🏔 Arne Martin particularly enjoys flying in the mountains, both in his native Norway, but also in expeditions to amongs other places the French Alps and New Zealand. 🆒He is a recent (and lucky) owner of a JS3 RES, and we will see him more often at an international level in the coming years for sure! 🚩He will fly his virtual beast for this 2nd World Final!

🇵🇱 Artur Dziuk qualified easily in his home VSGP of Zar in Poland, last year! He won 3 races out of 7 during the event... pretty amazing!! His total score was 5,182.05 points, which an average score of around 863.7 pts/ per race... top pilot! (ie.

🇵🇱 Artur Dziuk qualified easily in his home VSGP of Zar in Poland, last year! He won 3 races out of 7 during the event... pretty amazing!! His total score was 5,182.05 points, which an average score of around 863.7 pts/ per race... top pilot! (ie. only the 6 best results out of 7 were taken into account for the Qualifyings). Do you know what makes him so special? He is only flying on Condor for 3 years!!!! 🤓He is flying with Virtual Reality goggles, using the Oculus Quest 2 and a forcefeedback joystick. He is looking forward to fly the finals in the Appenine mountains, because he still needs to improve over flatlands. 🚩Artur will be flying the JS3-18m from Jonker Sailplanes! Congratulations for qualifying, it's already a massive achievement and we are all looking forward to see you among the best

His nickname? "Kuba" !! 🔖He has qualified through his home Virtual SGP as well, with the event in Zar 🇵🇱 Artur and Kuba, paired together to win the qualifying contest, he they were also helped by the strong polish community, trained by one of the

His nickname? "Kuba" !! 🔖He has qualified through his home Virtual SGP as well, with the event in Zar 🇵🇱 Artur and Kuba, paired together to win the qualifying contest, he they were also helped by the strong polish community, trained by one of the best Condor pilot.. that we will present in the coming days 😉 🔙His gliding story began at the age of 16 when he completed his basic glider course. Virtually, he started gliding back with Condor 1 over 6 years ago! Now with Condor 2 and looking forward to Condor 3; he flies using VR goggles, a forcefeedback joystick and rudder pedals. 🎙If you ask him about what does this adventure brings him, he will reply: 'This is a hobby in which I feel truly like myself.' 🚩Kuba will compete with the JS3-18 as well.

David lives in a quiet acreage property on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia with his family; and retired recently from working in a mechanical engineering, operations role in a mining company. His retirement has given him more time to enjoy life

David lives in a quiet acreage property on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia with his family; and retired recently from working in a mechanical engineering, operations role in a mining company. His retirement has given him more time to enjoy life with his wife, kids, cats and his two border collies... and fly Condor of course! 🫡 He has been flying condor for close to two decades now, but he used to fly in real life. He hasbeen interested in flying from a very young age. When he left school he really wanted to be a pilot. Unfortunately he had a condition called CVD (more commonly known as colour blindness) and he was never able to pass the color vision test to get his license. ☹️ Many years later he got the opportunity to learn to fly hang gliders and he was HOOKED! 🔰 David learned to fly in 1990 and quickly progressed to thermal flight and competitions around Australia and was lucky enough to compete in Indonesia. Back then things where simple. All you needed was a glider, a harness, a map, compass, vario/altimeter, helmet and parachute. Navigation got very interesting if you dropped your map in flight though! 🦅He does clearly remember the day when two massive sea eagles joined him in a thermal at approximately 10000’ (3000m). These creatures were huge. At first he thought they would attack his glider as their feet and claws were nearly as big as his hand. Luckily for him they where just inquisitive and one flew in under his wing where they had clear eye to eye contact. He could almost touch one of their wing tip feathers. Truly a memorable experience. 🪂He retired from hang gliding in 2000 to raise a family. He has always stayed in touch with flying through Condor Sim. Back in the day, he only had “Dial-up” internet and it seemed to work just fine. 💻🕹David still just uses a basic computer with GTX1660 graphics attached to two monitors and a trusty Microsoft FFB joystick. 😞He unfortunately does not have any experience in actual Gliders (Sailplanes), other than a few amazing joy flights. He does enjoy watching YouTube videos of glider competitions anywhere around the world and general flights through mountains. 🚩Dave will represent Asia and will fly the JS3-18 from Jonker Sailplanes !

Kelvin is the first pilot from the Southern Hemisphere to qualify to the World Final! Congratulations! He has done spectacular races and qualified through the old 15m class event in Lithuania.

Kelvin is the first pilot from the Southern Hemisphere to qualify to the World Final! Congratulations! He has done spectacular races and qualified through the old 15m class event in Lithuania.

Stewart Henshall has been called as a reserve pilot. He is replacing Jeroen Jennen (BEL), who qualified by winning the VSGP of Varese (ITA), but who is unfortunately not able to join the final event. Stewart narrowly missed automatic qualification i

Stewart Henshall has been called as a reserve pilot. He is replacing Jeroen Jennen (BEL), who qualified by winning the VSGP of Varese (ITA), but who is unfortunately not able to join the final event. Stewart narrowly missed automatic qualification in Poland and had some strong performances in other qualifiers! He is a relative newcomer to competition in Condor, so it is a special moment for him! He is usually busy flying an Airbus A340 for a living, or his DG-100 in real life. Condor is an extra adventure in the virtual world, with his busy life. He has one FAI Diamond badge, and is working on the others! When not flying he’s working hard to push the use of Condor and VR in gliding training. He’s pleased to join this elite group of pilots and will be flying the JS3 in the final.

He becomes the second finnish national to compete to a final, after Mikko Nurminen in 2021. He qualified after its second place in Italy 🇮🇹 🔧Jarmo is 60 years old and currently lives in Rauma, a south-west coast harbour city in Finland. He works

He becomes the second finnish national to compete to a final, after Mikko Nurminen in 2021. He qualified after its second place in Italy 🇮🇹 🔧Jarmo is 60 years old and currently lives in Rauma, a south-west coast harbour city in Finland. He works as a technical specialist in a local manufacturing company. 🕹He only flies virtual gliders as he purchased Condor1 immediately after release in 2005! Since then he has a total of over 5000 hours and over 500 000 km in his virtual logbooks! That's over12 times around the globe... and more than 208 days spent flying Condor. What a massive achievement! 🫡 Even he doesn't fly for real, he does have several years experience in real life competitions as crew member, Finnish nationals, pre-WGC2007 and WGC2008 in Rieti. Jarmo is passionated about the sport, and always ready to help 💪 📹Back in Rieti, that was the first time he saw a real race coverage with commentary using Condor simulator. The show was only presented at the airfield for crew members and other audience. He has been twice in a real glider and during its second flight in 2008, he was asked to show "if there's any use of that simulator". Obvisouly, he was able to keep ASK21 totally in thermal center without losing it, maintain correct speed and proper bank angle and managed to climb to cloudbase. That did surprise his instructor back then as he said: "did it better than many real life pilots, even experienced ones." 🧐I don't know how you feel about that, but I think it's time to stop under-rating virtual pilots and the efficient use of simulators in our gliding clubs, isn't it? 🔝The simulator is one of the best tool to demonstrate lessons on the ground nowadays, thanks to partnerships between national gliding associations and Condor. Things have changed! 🚩Welcome to this World Final Jarmo, best of luck with your JS1-18m !!!

Wiek qualified to the final by winning the VSGP of Germany. He competed to the 1st Virtual SGP-World Final in 2021 as well! 🔰He has been flying Condor 1 since the very beginning and he did some online competition in the early skybattle cup races. T

Wiek qualified to the final by winning the VSGP of Germany. He competed to the 1st Virtual SGP-World Final in 2021 as well! 🔰He has been flying Condor 1 since the very beginning and he did some online competition in the early skybattle cup races. Thereafter he didn't fly much due to real world obligations. With the release of Condor 2 he got active again and flew the Condor World Cup every year with top 10 finishes in several years. He also won the very first official Qualifying VSGP in Varese in 2021. ⚒Wiek is also involved in the development of Condor 2 and 3. He has made several planes and all the animations for Condor 2. He has recently worked with Chris to upgrade all Condor 2 planes with the new features and improved 3D models for Condor 3. It wasn't easy for him to find the time to compete in a qualifying VSGP, but the 🇩🇪 Eisenhuttenstadt event worked perfectly with his schedule. 🫶He is a fan of the SGP competition format more than the classical races, so he is very happy to have qualified to this year's final! 🚩Welcome Wiek, and good luck with your Ventus 3 for this Final!

Tim is a math and physics teacher from Denmark and began gliding at the age of 13! He flew for 10 years, but then had to stop gliding due to education... and never had the chance to pick it up again. 🕹Luckily, he has been flying Condor for the last

Tim is a math and physics teacher from Denmark and began gliding at the age of 13! He flew for 10 years, but then had to stop gliding due to education... and never had the chance to pick it up again. 🕹Luckily, he has been flying Condor for the last 12 years and he has attended a lot of virtual competitions like Skybattle, Condor World Cup and Eurobattle (which he is hosting with the Danish community)... and of course, the 1st Virtual Sailplane Grand Prix Final where he ended up with a solid 8th place and 17 points! 🔝He qualified to this year's final thanks to its second place at the Qualifying Virtual SGP of Eisenhüttenstadt! 🇩🇪 🎥Back in the times, when he was flying in real life, he was a member of the Danish National Youth Team. Tim has only been flying in flat areas like Denmark, Sweden and Poland, so he has no real life experience with cross country flying in moutains... but trust me, he knows what he his doing in Condor, as this guy is flying EVERY SINGLE DAY. You can probably have a look at his youtube channel where he is livestreaming his flights: https://www.youtube.com/@TimKielstrup 🥳You can follow and support him everyday with the competition starting on the 26th of August. 🚩Tim will be flying the Ventus 3-18m during the competition!

🇭🇺 Norbert Kiss from Hungary qualified with 4,631.55 points, thanks to its regularity throughout the event, with 2 daily wins and some podiums! He made it to the 1st Place overall with a pretty good margin of almost 600 points 😱😵 💪 He is 48 yea

🇭🇺 Norbert Kiss from Hungary qualified with 4,631.55 points, thanks to its regularity throughout the event, with 2 daily wins and some podiums! He made it to the 1st Place overall with a pretty good margin of almost 600 points 😱😵 💪 He is 48 years old and has been a fan of Condor since 2006. He regularly flies in various online competitions as an electric wheelchair user. He flew in real life between 1991-2000, but had an unfortunate accident during a bad terrain landing.. He completed his Gold badge at the end of 300 km, in the summer of 2000 in a Cobra glider. 🔝Norbert is one of the best european pilot. He also organises eSports events for the community. We are looking forward to see him race amongst the best!! 🕹He has been a premium member of the Condor Club since the beginning (2006). Its current logbook is C1= 9 976 hours for 1 171 701 km / C2= 3 287 hours for 425 521 km. Game or simulator? Condor only, nothing else. 😉 Norbert has completed countless competitions. There are also some podium finishers among them. He is proud that they managed to win a team competition a long time ago. Coupe ASK13 - Saison III 2009 no2 place and Gliders on Patrol 2014-15 no1 place (Team Hungary) One of the server starters of the winter CWC competitions (servers-H). He tries to compete safely, to take care of himself and others. 👏He never takes as many risks as some. Nowadays, it is more and more difficult for him to participate in evening competitions, but in the final he puts himself as much as possible. 🚩 The Hungarian pilot will fly the JS3-18m during the World Final!

🔛 Mihaly started gliding in 2012 and got his flight licence in 2014. He flew until 2020 in real life but he has continued flying virtually. He discovered Condor in 2014 and cannot stop flying online since then... 🕵️‍ Data: he has flown 62,729 km i

🔛 Mihaly started gliding in 2012 and got his flight licence in 2014. He flew until 2020 in real life but he has continued flying virtually. He discovered Condor in 2014 and cannot stop flying online since then... 🕵️‍ Data: he has flown 62,729 km in more than 16 days 10 hours and 30 minutes already in 2023!!! He is also ranked 2nd overall in the World Series 2023 🥈that will end at the end of the year. 🚩 Mihaly is ready to fight during the World Final. He will use the Ventus 3-18 by Schempp-Hirth!

Another Hungarian pilot! 🇭🇺 Tamas Mayer won the VSGP of Vinon, with 5,471.59 points. A good margin of almost 600 points on the 2nd and a big gap with the followers. He definitely used his experience in the Alps as he competed to the 1st Virtual SGP

Another Hungarian pilot! 🇭🇺 Tamas Mayer won the VSGP of Vinon, with 5,471.59 points. A good margin of almost 600 points on the 2nd and a big gap with the followers. He definitely used his experience in the Alps as he competed to the 1st Virtual SGP World Final in 2021. For sure, it has helped him to get to a ticket for a new World Final 😎 🚩Do you remember it? He finished on the 15th position with his JS1-18m in 2021, but this year, no one can stop him with his Ventus 3 by Schempp-Hirth !! ✈️ Last but not least, it's important to mention that Tamas is also an airline pilot and has plenty of experience in the gliding world... #️⃣What will be the rank of Tamas for this final? How fast can he go?

Sean Churchill is the first UK pilot to ever qualify to a Virtual SGP World Final. He will have some fans pushing him for sure! Sean started gliding in real life when he was 13 and flew in a number of cross-country competitions including the British

Sean Churchill is the first UK pilot to ever qualify to a Virtual SGP World Final. He will have some fans pushing him for sure! Sean started gliding in real life when he was 13 and flew in a number of cross-country competitions including the British Junior Championships. He unfortunately stopped over 20 years ago due to work... but he has started flying Condor over 18 years ago. He will fly the JS3 during the World Final.

Darius Gudziunas is from Vilnius 🇱🇹. Twice Champion of Lithuania in Club class, winner of different National championships, he took second place in the 4th FAI WGC in 13,5m class last year. Also regular winner of National virtual championships, he

Darius Gudziunas is from Vilnius 🇱🇹. Twice Champion of Lithuania in Club class, winner of different National championships, he took second place in the 4th FAI WGC in 13,5m class last year. Also regular winner of National virtual championships, he has a lot of international championships experience. The man from the Baltics is also working as a Captain in business aviation. What makes him so special? He has competed to BOTH real-world SGP and Virtual SGP in Serie 11, which makes him a record holder in the Sailplane Grand Prix era. He won the Qualifying VSGP of Australia 🇦🇺 with a significant lead, and ended up on the podium (3rd place) of the Qualifying SGP of Lithuania 🇱🇹 ! He will definitely by a 'one to watch' during the final! 🏁

Joshua has been flying glider simulators since childhood and started gliding when he was 14. Joshua Arntz 🇩🇪 has qualified to the World Final with a 2nd Place at the VSGP of Gawler 🇦🇺 ! He has been flying glider simulators since childhood and st

Joshua has been flying glider simulators since childhood and started gliding when he was 14. Joshua Arntz 🇩🇪 has qualified to the World Final with a 2nd Place at the VSGP of Gawler 🇦🇺 ! He has been flying glider simulators since childhood and started gliding when he was 14. He started flying competitions a few years later aged 17, which gave him the opportunity to become a "Sportsoldat" in 2015. Sportsoldaten Segelflug is a big opportunity for juniors in Germany! It allows them to fly for a year, with the financial support of the Army. https://www.sportsoldaten-segelflug.eu/startseite It's now very common to see those pilots flying their first SGP in real or virtual competitions! ✅ So far Joshua has flown over 20 competitions, including German national championships in 18m and club class. One of his biggest achievement was to complete a 1000km flight, and he has over 2000h as PIC in gliders. 🚩 The JS3 is his absolute dream glider, so he has decided to fly it for the VSGP World Final!

Wojciech has been virtually gliding in Condor for 3 years only!! Thanks to the help of of the Polish team he quickly became very competitive. Apart from Condor he is an airshow pilot flying on a paramotor with the Flying Dragons Team. 👏🪂 🇵🇱 The

Wojciech has been virtually gliding in Condor for 3 years only!! Thanks to the help of of the Polish team he quickly became very competitive. Apart from Condor he is an airshow pilot flying on a paramotor with the Flying Dragons Team. 👏🪂 🇵🇱 The polish pilot has had an incredible time in Worcester with two daily wins and three other podiums over seven races! He qualified with an impressive score of 5,549.13 points! 🤯 🎥 He will be livestreaming the races from the pilot perspective, and we all invite you to follow him here: https://www.youtube.com/@WojciechSotysik 🚩 Wojciech is flying with a VR headset and a ForceFeedback joystick. He will fly the Ventus 3-18 from Schempp-Hirth 🇩🇪

Zbyszek Tkocz has had a beautiful time during the Qualifying VSGP of South Africa, that took place in Worcester 🇿🇦. Amazing mountaineous area where our pilots have been challenged with thermals, ridges and even waves!! It shows that Zbyszek has th

Zbyszek Tkocz has had a beautiful time during the Qualifying VSGP of South Africa, that took place in Worcester 🇿🇦. Amazing mountaineous area where our pilots have been challenged with thermals, ridges and even waves!! It shows that Zbyszek has the whole technical panel of a top Virtual Gliding pilot 🙌 🕹 He has been flying Condor for about 15 years and he also organize competitions such as the "Regatta Cup"! 🇵🇱 The polish pilot will fly the JS3-18 as well!

❌🇨🇱 With the cancellation of the SGP of Chile, only 9 qualifying events took place, instead of 10, while the best two pilots qualified through each event. With 🇩🇪 Ben Fest being automatically invited as World Champion, 🇫🇷 Donat-Pierre Luigi ha

❌🇨🇱 With the cancellation of the SGP of Chile, only 9 qualifying events took place, instead of 10, while the best two pilots qualified through each event. With 🇩🇪 Ben Fest being automatically invited as World Champion, 🇫🇷 Donat-Pierre Luigi has been invited to the World Final to be the 20th pilot! 🚀 He scored an impressive amount of 4,879.99 points in 🇦🇺 Gawler, making him the best 3rd place performance of the entire Serie by far! ⛵️ The french man started sailing at a very young age and competed to a high level. He then started gliding in the UK when he was an engineer student and then continued his passion in the USA when he had the time to do it! He never gave up gliding, thanks to Condor and Virtual Reality. After winning the first FFVP eSport Series back in December 2020, he decided to restart flying in real life! He has done his first solo again after a few flights, and got his license back in 2021. He is now flying crosscountry from Challes-les-eaux and La Motte du Caire, in the French Alps. Donat-Pierre is used to flying virtually and finished 4th at the 1st Virtual SGP - World Final that took place in 2021. He always ended up with solid performances during the qualifyings and he definitely deserves a place! Donat-Pierre will fly the Ventus 3 from Schempp-Hirth! Good luck 269!