Competition News

Der heutige Task ging über 80 Kilometer im Haupttal von Krushevo hin und her. Es war bereits vor dem Start klar, dass es taktisch nicht viele Möglichkeiten geben würde, so hielten sich die Schweizer an die "Schwarmtaktik". Alle Schweizer möglichst zusammen und im vordersten Bereich des Feldes. Diese Taktik hat sehr hat funktioniert, Stephan Morgentahler führte immer wieder, flog zum Teil tief und zog das Feld hinter sich her. Er konnte somit den etwas höher fliegenden Teamkollegen wertvolle Hinweise geben und sie ebenfalls an der Spitze des Feldes halten. Das Team funktionierte in sich nahezu perfekt, jeder gab seine Informationen weiter, die den anderen etwas nützen könnten. Noé war leider stumm, da sein Funk nicht richtig funktionierte. Sarah spühlte es in der Hälfte des Task in die zweite Gruppe und sie konnte nicht vom Teamfunk profitieren. Am Ende konnte Roger die Taktik in den Tasksieg umwandeln, herzliche Gratulation! Open: 1. Roger Aeschbacher 8. Stephan Morgenthaler 41. Tim Rochas 47. Noé Court 72. Jérôme Kägi Women: 5. Sarah Zimmermann Der Wettbewerb ist noch lang doch ein Grundstein ist gesetzt und die Stimmung gut!

On the final day of the 2026 Disentis Open we experienced two technical problems:

The correct approach to Elevated Goal was not indicated properly to all pilots, leading to some of them underflying goal or even not reaching it.
The ranking used for the prize giving ceremony was incorrect.

This is to show the results of the analysis of those two topics, and what measures will be taken to avoid them in the future.


1. Elevated Goal
Instruments and apps used to navigate during paragliding races fall in two broad categories:

Those that have a built-in model of the terrain altitude, and can therefore give altitude above ground (AGL) besides the altitude above mean sea level (AMSL)
Those that do not have such a model, and can only give AMSL

In addition, since Elevated Goal was only introduced with the May 2026 update of Section 7F of the FAI Sporting Code, not all instruments and apps support Elevated Goal yet. If they do, they can receive all the required information from the task file (thanks to Jérôme Kägi, this was introduced in the XCTask file format a few months ago). If they don't, a task file with an Elevated Goal (instead of the classic "ESS then goal") could be refused by some. And even if it is accepted, pilots will need to be active themselves to make sure their app or instrument guides them to goal at the required altitude.

To cover this all automatically, we would need to publish the task in several different ways. This increases the risk of mistakes, because each pilot would have to know exactly which QR code or task code to use for which instrument or app. So in an attempt to make things easy for pilots, we published only a single file, which did not use the Elevated Goal feature (and would therefore be understood by all instruments and apps), but which gave the goal waypoint 300 m above the actual altitude of the goal field.

This worked fine for all the apps and instruments of the second category, the ones only using AMSL. It also worked for some that do use AGL (e.g. SeeYou Navigator). It did not work well with the official version of XCTrack: XCTrack always guides you such that you reach classic goal cylinders at ground level, regardless of what the goal waypoint's altitude is. As a result, those who aimed for an arrival altitude of 0 m, as indicated by XCTrack's "Altitude over goal" indicator (thinking that was 300 m above goal), arrived at the goal cylinder at roughly waypoint altitude. Marco Vergari and I had discovered this before the Disentis Open, and I should have made this particular point much much clearer when we discussed the task and Elevated Goal. In the end most of you reached goal quite high anyway, the two pilots who were affected (Raphael Oerer and Stefan Bahn) accepted the outcome.


Consequences
As had been suggested by a few of you, from now on, when we set a task with Elevated Goal, we will publish the task as such: Goal waypoint altitude is the actual altitude, and the task file contains the information that this is an Elevated Goal task, along with the used elevation. If necessary, it will be up to you to adjust the task on your instruments to make sure that you arrive at the correct altitude. As an example, here is the last task of the Disentis Open, given with Elevated Goal: https://tools.xcontest.org/xctsk/load?taskCode=e1d8cda1073edcca - the code is "nepo". Try this out, especially with instruments and apps without Elevated Goal support, to see if it is accepted (and then maybe requires adjustment) or if you need to plan to enter such tasks manually. This all will go away as more and more apps and instruments are updated to include Elevated Goal.


Support for Elevated Goal
To my knowledge, as of now, the following support Elevated Goal:

SkyTrackPro: Full support for Elevated Goal
XCTrack:

the official version accepts Elevated Goal tasks, but you have to manually ensure that you arrive high enough: If the landing is in flat terrain, you can use "Altitude over goal" and aim for the 300 m elevation. If the goal is on a slope, it's better to use "Next TP Height", configure its "Shown value" as "AMSL", and remember your target altitude (goal altitude plus 300 m elevation).
XCTrack has full support for Elevated Goal since June 2nd in their beta versions, but they have not yet made an official release that includes it (https://xctrack.org/Change_Log.html).

SeeYou Navigator: Accepts the task information, but ignores the Elevated Goal information. You can set the "Finish altitude" in AMSL (goal altitude plus 300 m elevation), which results in what we want.





2. Final ranking mixup
After the prize giving, we discovered that the results used for the four podiums had been created without FTV. Once FTV was applied, the podium changed in two of the four categories. What had happened?

When Katherina set up the comptition in our scoring software, she applied the usual template for Swiss competitions, with all the categories predefined. I forgot to mention to her that unlike in our weekend competitions - which we run without discards - this one would use FTV with 25%.
After Katherina published the competition results for task 2, pilots remarked that no FTV was used. Katherina was unavailable, so I made the change in the competition settings, published the results, and saved the file.
Katherina had the competition file still open on her computer, without my changes, and continued working on that for task 3. So when she created the results after 3 tasks, they were without FTV again.
I noticed that a few minutes before the prize giving, and rushed to correct it again. I thought I deleted the result files without FTV, but must have picked the new ones with FTV.
To copy the podium pilots' names to my notebook, I opened the latest files, without looking at the actual numbers - but these were the ones without FTV from before.
Only after the prize giving, when Fred Monnet asked for some details, did I notice that those latest files did not include discards.
When I recreated them with FTV, we saw changes in two categories:

In the Junior category, Nic Jacomet and Thierry Stoll switch first and second place
In the Overall category, Davide Licini moves to second, third is Simon Steiner, and Bruno Liard goes to fourth place


Consequences:

Internally at Volirium, we will now start each session by closing FS if it is still open, and loading the latest version of the competition file.
Competition results will always be verified by at least one, ideally two additional people before the prize giving. (We want to maintain the element of surprise and therefore prefer not to publish them to everybody up front.)
Volirium will cover the registration fee for Bruno's and Thierry's next participation in the Disentis Open.
Volirium will not charge the organizer for the scoring of task 3 of the Disentis Open.

Nach dem gelungenen Trainingstask stand die offizielle Eröffnung der EM auf dem Programm. Krushevo zeigte sich von seiner besten Seite. Mit folkloristischer Musik und Tanz wurde der Eröffnung der würdige Rahmen gegeben. Der Stadtpräsident zeigte sich Gleitschirm und Delta freundlich und war stolz auf die beiden neuen Startplätze die eröffnet worden sind, um das Gebiet noch attraktiver zu machen. Tolle Flugbedingungen und wie erwähnt, wunderschöne Startplätze sind nicht nur für Events, sondern auch für Freiflieger ein Genuss. Die Athleten der Schweiz sind voll motiviert, treffen doch die Bedingungen ihren Geschmack, 3-5 Meter Steigen und dadurch schnelles Fliegen, so soll es sein. Heute war das Deutsche Team sehr stark,, aber auch die Engländer und die heimischen Nord Mazedonier gehören sicher in den Favoritenkreis. Morgen gilt es das erste Mal ernst, sind wir gespannt!

Das Schweizer Team hat den Trainingstask erfolgreich gemeistert. Roger, Stephan und Jérôme haben gepusht, die anderen das Rennen von hinten kontrolliert. So können wir morgen gut in den ersten zählenden Task starten. Resultate: https://lt.flymaster.net/bsCompetitionFrontPage.php?idgroup=7800

By Jörg Ewald: Good weather, finally! Sunny, very little wind at altitude, dry, it looked almost perfect. The only hair in the soup: the super-heated Surselva would pull in air from both North and South - some reports even talked about the onset of "shallow Föhn", which we had gotten to know already at the beginning of the competition. Our objectives for the task were therefore: Go big, go to places we have not been yet this week, stay away from the areas most affected by the inflow from the South, and therefore land in Trun instead of Disentis. The task led first to the West, towards Oberalp pass, then crossed the main valley towards Vals. Another long crossing led to the Flims and Laax ski arena, with two turnpoints (Cassons and Grap Masegn), back across the valley one more time to Bündner Rigi, and then goal in Trun, for 99.3 km. The first few climbs were rough and fast, and pilots had no problem with getting to a good position for the race start. Some attempts to do the first valley crossing before the start and take the start cylinder on the South side had to be abandoned, in the end the whole field started together racing towards Oberalp pass. Conditions there were much more turbulent than expected: With no defined wind direction, every thermal going off would pull air towards it, making for a wild mix. Back to launch and crossing towards Garvera worked well, the pilots did not even have to go deeper towards Piz Muraun to make maximum altitude and continue onward. Originally we had planned to fly to the mountains to the South-East of Vals, but ultimately decided to turn earlier towards Flims, to avoid the expected turbulence in that area (thanks for the hint Martin!). From there, most pilots followed the "logical" route along the eastern ridge, which worked really well by then. Only, Noah Kiener had a different idea, he headed straight North, along the western rim of the Vals valley, This worked even better, and he arrived at the Cassons Grat turnpoint with a lead of about 20 minutes. But what looked like a decisive lead started shrinking again quickly when Noah struggled finding the one thermal that would give him enough altitude for the final crossing of the Rhine valley. The followers had almost caught up with him when he finally hit the right spot, climbed out and flew to victory, still with a 7-minute lead on the followers. In total 44 pilots made goal in this long and demanding task. Their arrival times ranged from 2:45 h to 5:18 h. As one of them put it: "It was level 2 all the way around" - meaning "sporty, demanding, but OK to fly". Unfortunately, two pilots lost control of their gliders during the race and were unable to recover. The first incident required a complicated helicopter rescue out of steep terrain, the pilot was transferred to the hospital, and we all wish him a speedy and full recovery. The second pilot had enough altitude to deploy his reserve parachute, ended up on the ground unscathed, but in steep, rocky territory he could not leave on foot. With REGA having an incredibly busy day, he needed to wait for nearly 3 hours until they came to fly him out. Day winners Junior: Nic Jacomet (SUI) Sports Class: Frédéric Monnet (SUI) Women: Violeta Jimenez (USA) Overall: Noah Kiener (SUI) This was the conclusion of the 2026 Disentis Open. A new crew stepped into huge footprints, and ran a successful competition - with kind guidance by members of the previous organization team from the sidelines. Despite starting out with the worst weather forecasts for the week that we all could remember, we managed to fly three interesting and challenging tasks that showed once again what a fabulous spot Disentis is for paragliding racing. Some mistakes were made, and either fixed on the spot, or taken as a lesson, to improve on for the next edition. The final mistake being that for the prize giving, the author (Race Director and acting presenter) mixed up some names when calling pilots to the podium. This is why the pictures below do not completely correspond with the actual final rankings: Junior 1. Nic Jacomet (SUI) 2. Thierry Stoll (SUI) 3. Nicola Heiniger (SUI) Sports Class 1. Frédéric Monnet (SUI) 2. Gaëtan Gerber (SUI) 3. Loïc Theubet (SUI) Women 1. Zaborowska Agnieszka (GBR) 2. Violeta Jimenez (USA) 3. Linda Hoch (SUI) Overall 1. Lars Meerstetter (SUI) 2. Davide Licini (SUI) 3. Simon Steiner (SUI) Photos by Martin Scheel.

Die Schweizer Nationalmannschaft ist gut, komplett und mit allem Material in Kruševo (Nord Mazedonien) angekommen. Das diesjährige Nationalteam besteht aus: - Sarah Zimmermann / Ozone Enzo 3/Zeno 2 / Gin Genie Race 5 - Noé Court / Niviuk Iceapeak X-one / Niviuk Rocket R - Stephan Morgenthaler / Ozone Enzo 3 / Ozone Submarine - Jérôme Kägi / Ozone Enzo 3 / Ozone Submarine - Roger Aeschbacher /Ozone eNZO 3 / Ozone Submarine - Tim Rochas / Niviuk Iceapeak X-one / Niviuk Rocket R - Dani Graf / Teamleader Der 8. August können die Pilotinnen und Piloten locker angehen, es steht die Registration, freies Fliegen und das General Briefing an. Der 9. August wird aus einem Trainingstask bestehen. Ab dann gilt es ernst und es werden bis am 19. August Tasks geflogen. Die Wartezeit auf das (reservierte!!) Mietauto war dann allerdings fast so lang wie der Flug, doch das Team zeigte sich motiviert und auch diese Unannehmlichkeit wurde locker weggesteckt. Drückt uns die Daumen!

The forecasts hold, everything is shaping up great for a big day: Sunny, weak winds from the SW, good thermals, no rain. The program stays, see you at Caischavedra middle station for a 10:15 task briefing.

In short: The best day of the week, let's go big! We will be at the south side of a high-pressure system centered over Germany. This brings drier and cooler air to our area. At altitude, we still expect westerly winds, but quite weak in the afternoon, only 5-15 km/h, maybe 20 km/h at 4000 m. Thermals should be stronger than today, at a 2.5 m/s average (today was indicated with 1.5 m/s), up to 3400-3600 m, where cumulus clouds will form. The air in our area is drying, so no overdevelopment is expected, as well as no rain in the main valley and to the north of it. There is a small chance for some isolated showers to the South-East of us. The plan is as usual: Get up by 9:30/10:00, be ready for a 10:15 task briefing. We expect to set a big task, get enough rest! Next update at 8 tomorrow morning.

Task distance: 35.8 km Launch window: 11:15 Race start (SSS): 12:15 Status: Task stopped due to incoming rain in the east — but with most pilots already safely on the ground A Short Window, A Fast Task Today's weather only offered a narrow window to fly, so the task committee opted for a short but punchy task. It turned out to be exactly the right call: a compact 35.8 km course that delivered fast, tactical racing and a goal field full of smiling pilots. Conditions Before the start, cloudbase sat low at around 2300–2400 m, gradually building through the morning. By the time the start gate opened at 12:15, cloudbase had climbed to roughly 2700 m — enough to give pilots a solid position for the start. The clouds themselves developed quickly, and staying clear of cloud base in the final minutes before the start proved tricky for the field. The Route Out of the start, the task led west along the ridge to the first turnpoint, then out into the valley for the second. From there, pilots faced the day's first real tactical choice: take the longer line along the high ridge, or push the shorter, lower ridge line toward turnpoint 3. The leading gaggle chose the low route — but arrived at the crossing point undercooked, leaving the valley crossing to turnpoint 4 with only around 2300 m. That decision would go on to define the entire race. The Key Moment The chasing group played it safer, topping up to around 2800 m before committing to the same crossing — a difference of roughly 500 m that proved decisive. On the other side, the leading gaggle pushed for the ESS on the south side of the valley first, but their thin altitude margin forced them to cross back to the north side in search of lift just to reach ESS and goal. Not everyone made it — several pilots landed just a few hundred metres short of the ESS cylinder. The chasing group, by contrast, arrived with height to spare and could fly the optimised line straight to the ESS without any detours — closing, and in many cases erasing, the gap to the leaders in the process. The Finish With rain moving in from the east, the task was eventually stopped — though by that point the vast majority of the field was already on the ground. A well-timed call all around: the short window was used to full effect, producing a fast and genuinely exciting racing task. Most pilots came into goal with a smile. Results: Overall: 1. Morane Montavon 2. Lars Meerstetter 3. Martin Kubicek Sports Class: 1. Stefan Bahn 2. Raphael Oerer 3. Thierry Stoll Women: 1. Violeta Jimenez 2. Agnieszka Zaborowska 3. Martina Hauri Juniors: 1. Thierry Stoll 2. Nicola Heiniger 3. Jean Morisetti Fotos: Martin Scheel

A quick 35 km task to Piz Ner and back. Livetracking: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=7409

It's less humid and foggy/cloudy than expected, which is great. Wind at 3000 m will be around 10-15 km/h from WSW. Higher up it increases to 20-30 km/h at 3500 m, and 25-35 km/h at 4000 m, from SW. With a cloud base predicted at 2800-3000 m, we do not expect flying up there. Down low it's calm, with the regular valley breeze from East to West. Rain and small thunderstorms in the afternoon, to the South of us, from around 15:00. The northern side should remain dry for most of the afternoon. Thermals will be weaker than on Wednesday. Top values then were given at 2.5 m/s (that's an average, of course we always find stronger lift somewhere), and today only with 1 m/s. Let's go up with the 9:30 & 10:00 gondolas, and be prepared for a 10:15 task briefing.

After a cloudy but mostly dry day today, we see a good chance for a task tomorrow: The pressure increases in the north, to a difference between Zurich and Lugano of up to 6 hPa before noon, and then starts to drop again, but will influence the weather here throughout the day: Accelerated valley wind, and drier, cooler and more stable air flowing in. At 3000 m, the wind starts out from West, and turns towards NW throughout the day, at around 15-20 km/h. At 4000 m it turns more towards SW and reaches up to 35-40 km/h. We will see some low, fog-like clouds in the morning, but they should dissolve between 10 and 11. Cumulus clouds above, with a cloud base at around 2800 to 3000 m. The thermals will be weaker than yesterday. There is a risk of rain to the South of us, where more humid air arrives from the South-West. The northern side of the Rhine valley should remain dry. Therefore, the plan for tomorrow: go up with the 9:30 / 10:00 cable car, be ready for a briefing at Caischavedra middle station at 10:30. The next update follows tomorrow at 8:00, to confirm the timing, or announce adjustments should the forecast change drastically. P.S. Saturday still looks fantastic!

The main theme for yesterday was "finally flying a task". Given the wind (Sout-West to South up high, North-West low pushing in as an amplified valley breeze), the options were limited. So we opted for a classic with a twist: Flims and back - but with a few modifications: - While the pilots were free to choose their line for the leg to Flims (around the Nagens area), we set four turnpoints on the way back, leading them out towards Ilanz, then back towards Crap Masegn, then out to Brigels, back up to the top of the mountain behind Brigels (La Cauma) before the End of Speed Section around Piz Dado to the East of Brigels. - With the wind coming in over the Lukmanier pass, landing in Disentis was not an option, so we set the goal in Trun, 10 km down the valley. The total distance was 69 km. The day started out with good thermals up to about 3300 m, more cumulus clouds than anticipated, and a noticeable drift towards the north up high. After the start it took the fastest pilots less than 45 minutes for the 34 km to the first turnpoint in Flims. But then conditions changed. From the second turnpoint onward, pilots rarely managed to climb above 2700 m, and the closer they got to the last two turnpoints near Brigels, the more difficult climbing became in general. The leader at that time, Lars Meerstetter, arrived in Brigels below 1800 m, and had to take a detour to Piz Dado to get up again, which took him 17 minutes. The following group arrived 8 minutes later in Brigels, and found a climb between La Cauma and Piz Dado. Nicolas Poncelet was the first at the last turnpoint, and secured the fastest time with a clever move to ESS behind Piz Dado, beating Lars by 2 minutes. Only, this was not enough to overcome Lars' leading point advantage. Behind the leaders, the pilots who had managed to make more altitude before flying into the Brigels area had an easier time reconnecting and getting to the final turnpoint, but as Lars had demonstrated, with patience and skill, even getting up from quite low worked out. The climbs were quite rough at times, due to the mix of wind directions - due East on the ground in Brigels, South to South-West higher up. In the end 46 pilots made goal, and all but four were already on the ground when the task was stopped due to a shower east of Disentis. Winners Overall: Lars Meerstetter (Switzerland) Women: Lene Spaarwater (Chile, 8th overall) Sports Class: Frédéric Monnet (Switzerland, 7th overall) Junior: Jean Morisetti (Switzerland, 3rd overall) All photos by Martin Scheel.

Tomorrow brings a lot of clouds all day long, and rain from around noon. We do not see any chance for a task, and cancel the day. We do not give up on Friday yet, and Saturday will be really good.

Endlich scheint das Wetter zu passen! Der Task ist gesetzt und schickt die Pilotinnen und Piloten von Disentis nach Flims und im Zickzack zurück nach Trun. Wir dürfen gespannt sein!

From what we see right now, tomorrow Wednesday will be the best day of the week: - A slight north over-pressure will build up over the next hours, so the Föhn is gone - At altitude, the wind stays from SW, maybe turns a little more towards S, but slows down to 15-20 km/h at 3000 m. Above that, it will still be around 25-30 km/h - While the rest of Switzerland will see early over-development, we are somehow protected, first rain should reach our area around 17:00 to 18:00. - Good thermals from around 11:00, with few Cumulus clouds form 12:00. Base at 3400-3700 m Therefore, we run the "normal" program: Get up to the middle station with the 9:30 or 10:00 cable car, and be ready for a 10:15 task briefing. Outlook Right now Thursday looks rained out, Friday still very moist. But with the experience of the last few days, I believe that there is still a considerable chance for an improvement and tasks on both days. Saturday should be a good flying day in any case. Next update tomorrow morning at 8:00.

While the pressure gradient dropped (which should reduce the wind), we are now right at the front of a trough moving in from France. This accelerates again the South flow. It's not a classic Föhn, but the winds at 3000-4000 m are expected to be from 30-40 km/h all afternoon. Marc says in these kinds of conditions the locals would fly only early in the morning, towards the East, and land early. We don't think a task will be possible under these conditions. Therefore the task is cancelled. If you want to fly, go up early, and remember our Mantra: Trun by Noon! That would be L02. It could also be Brigels (L11), or even Ilanz (L12) if you're fast. But be aware that the wind up high will be considerably stronger than yesterday, and the wind in the valley will turn eventually from normal valley breeze (East to West) to the reverse (West to East) and become very gusty. Raphael will send an update on alternative activities shortly. The outlook for tomorrow is definitely better, with much less wind. Next update tonight at 20:00.

The low-pressure trough to the west is developing as expected, splitting off and moving South to the Mediterranean. This will turn the pressure situation across the Alps around Wednesday night. For tomorrow, we can expect the same pattern as the last few days, with a few improvements: - SW winds up high, around 15-25 km/h - South wind entering the Rhine valley from the southern passes, starting with Lukmanier (the one to the south of Disentis), then successively further east. This will neutralize the valley breeze probably all the way down to Ilanz. The effect should be less than the last two days, though. - Thermals starting around 10:00, improving steadily, up to 3300-3500 m, blue at first and only a few CU in the afternoon. - Thunderstorms are expected to happen mainly in western Switzerland, our area should stay dry and unaffected by Cb. With these conditions, we should be able to fly at least to Flims. Preliminary plan: 9:00 Cable car for the task committee 9:30/10:00 Cable car for the others From 9:15: Coffee, croissants and tracker at the middle station 10:15: Task briefing Next update tomorrow at 8:00