Sebastian Kawa (born 15 November 1972,

Zabrze Zabrze (; German: 1915–1945: , full form: , , ) is an industrial city put under direct government rule in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. It lies in the western part of the Metropolis GZM, a metropolis with a population of around 2 m ...

) is a Polish glider pilot, eighteen-time

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, FAI world leading glider competition pilot, the World Champion in

15m Class Competition classes in gliding, as in other sports, mainly exist to ensure fairness in competition. However the classes have not been targeted at fostering technological development as in other sports. Instead classes have arisen because of: * t ...

and European gliding champion in 18m Class. In 2024, together with Sebastian Lampart, he became the first pilot in aviation history to fly over K2 in a glider. He is the recipient of the

FAI Gold Air Medal The FAI Gold Air Medal was established in 1924 by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and was first awarded in 1925. This award and the Paul Tissander Diploma are the FAI's two highest awards. It is reserved for those who have contributed ...

, the highest distinction conferred by the

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The World Air Sports Federation (; FAI) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintains worl ...

. Kawa is a second-generation glider pilot, together with his father Tomasz Kawa (an accomplished competition pilot as well) associated with the Mountain Gliding School "Żar" in southern Poland. In his youth, before becoming a pilot, Sebastian Kawa was a competitive sailor in

Cadet A cadet is a student or trainee within various organisations, primarily in military contexts where individuals undergo training to become commissioned officers. However, several civilian organisations, including civil aviation groups, maritime ...

Optimist Optimism is the attitude or mindset of expecting events to lead to particularly positive, favorable, desirable, and hopeful outcomes. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass filled with water to the halfway poin ...

and

420 420 may refer to: Science and technology * 420 (number), in mathematics * 420 Bertholda, a main-belt asteroid * 4:2:0, a chroma subsampling layout Cannabis culture * 420 (cannabis culture), informal reference to cannabis use and celebrations ...

class, with multiple titles in national championships and participation in top level European and world events. He is also (like his parents) a qualified physician, working at the General Hospital in

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; ; , ; ) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 166,765 as of December 2022, making it the List of cities and towns in Poland#Largest cities and towns by population, 22nd largest city in Poland, and an a ...

. He is also known in the Polish gliding community for numerous Web writings and films popularizing the sport. His autobiography and advanced gliding tutorial ''Sky Full of Heat'' (English and Polish language editions) was published in December 2012.

Sport biography

Family tradition

Sebastian Kawa's parents, both physicians, settled in

Międzybrodzie Żywieckie Międzybrodzie Żywieckie is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czernichów, within Żywiec County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately north of Czernichów, north of Żywiec, and south of the regi ...

so his father Tomasz could practice gliding (as a competitor and instructor) at the nearby Mountain Gliding School "Żar". The Mountain Gliding School "Żar" is one of the birth places of the sport in Poland. Tomasz Kawa is a longtime top level glider pilot, among other accomplishments representing Poland in World Championships.

Sailing

The "gliding roots" notwithstanding, first sporting activity of Sebastian Kawa was competitive sailing. He was the member of the sailing club "Neptune" sponsored by the local automobile factory ( FSM Bielsko). From 8 to 18 years of age he raced in

and

class. He regularly placed first in National Championships and was representing Poland in World Championships. Sebastian Kawa fondly recalls receiving a trophy from

Princess Diana Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William ...

after (2nd place) one of the races off the shore of Wales. As his club (a recurring theme during all his sporting career) did not belong to the mainstream of the power structure of the Polish sport establishment, Sebastian Kawa had to sometimes overcome obstacles caused by petty bureaucratic favoritism. At age 18 Sebastian Kawa had to quit competitive sailing. At this age, the sports rules required transition to the classes of sailboats his club was not equipped with (e.g.

470 __NOTOC__ Year 470 ( CDLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Iordanes (or, less frequently, year 1223 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...

class) and could not afford. The transition from the communist rule in Poland and associated changes in industrial ownership caused his club to lose the sponsor. This probably cost Sebastian Kawa his chances for an Olympic sports career.

Flight training

In the meantime, at the age of 16, Sebastian Kawa completed ab-initio gliding training and became (July 1988) a student pilot. For the next 2 years, all while engaged in sailing, he quickly advances in subsequent stages of glider pilot training, logging over 200 hours. In 1989 he gains his first "diamond" to the gliding badge (declared 300 km closed loop flight) and makes the >3 km gain of altitude flight. He trains extensively in Pirat,

Junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

, Foka and

Cobra COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

gliders. He also obtained glider ratings for night and instrument flying. During this time, he also commenced extensive cross country flight training. In his biography, Sebastian Kawa credits his father for passing him the knowledge and experience necessary to compete effectively in this sport.

Competitive gliding

From 1992 (win in Polish Junior Nationals in Leszno flying the

glider), Sebastian Kawa climbs the ladder of progressively more elite gliding competitions, gradually advancing his placements up to the 3rd place in the 1999 World Championships in the World (PW-5) class and the win in 2003 in the same class. From this moment on, he wins virtually every topmost level competition he starts in, accumulating 9 gold medals at the world championship level and becoming the most decorated gliding pilot in history. In his biography Sebastian Kawa vividly describes the process of accumulating experience and knowledge necessary to compete at elite level. He expresses the opinion that "it takes about 10 years of maximal concentration and effort to get to fly against the masters". In many places however he reminds of an always present factor of chance in aviation, referring to, and in the spirit of the cult book ''"

Fate Is the Hunter ''Fate Is the Hunter'' is a 1961 memoir by aviation writer Ernest K. Gann. It describes his years working as a pilot from the 1930s to 1950s, starting at American Airlines in Douglas DC-2s and DC-3s when civilian air transport was in its inf ...

"'' by Ernest Gann, the chance which had to be reckoned with, even with most minute and knowledgeable planning. In November 2024, he was awarded the

, the highest honour conferred by the

, becoming the first Pole to receive such recognition. The ceremony took place in

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...

in the presence of the

Saudi Royal Family The House of Saud ( ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi State, (1727–1818), and his brothers, though the ruling fa ...

Personal life

Sebastian Kawa graduated (some classes with honors) from the city of

Żywiec Żywiec () is a town on the River Soła in southern Poland with 31,194 inhabitants (2019). It is situated within the Silesian Voivodeship, near the Żywiec Lake and Żywiec Landscape Park, one of the eight protected areas in the voivodeship. H ...

high school and got his medical degree from

Medical University of Silesia The Medical University of Silesia ( Polish: Śląski Uniwersytet Medyczny) is a university located in Katowice, Poland. The university has 10,218 students and a teaching staff of 1201, including 295 professors. There are five faculties: Medi ...

(obstetrics and gynaecology). His work at the

General Hospital he describes by the remark "...it seems all children choose to be born at midnight". In his free time Sebastian Kawa actively teaches at Mountain Gliding School "Żar". He is married to Anna, with two children.

Gliding instructor

Sebastian Kawa is very active promoting the sport and teaching and training gliding enthusiasts at all competence levels (including student pilots). Training with him is often available individually at the Mountain Gliding School "Żar" and during training camps organized jointly by the Mountain Gliding School "Żar" and Karkonosze Gliding Association

Current/Recent major competition

Sebastian Kawa had won the Champion title in the 18m Class at the 17th European Gliding Championships at

Vinon-sur-Verdon Vinon-sur-Verdon (; ) is a commune in the northwestern part of the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. The town is on the left bank of the river Verdon near the Gorges du Verdon. The commune is on ...

.Report from last competition day of 17th EGC (2013) by the Team Captain (Tomasz Kawa) (in Polish)
/ref> This is his first major title in the 18m Class. Sebastian Kawa defended the European Champion title in the Standard Class at the 17th FAI European Gliding Championships (2013) in

Ostrów Wielkopolski Ostrów Wielkopolski () (often abbreviated ''Ostrów Wlkp.'', formerly called simply ''Ostrów'', , Latin: ''Ostrovia'') is a city in west-central Poland with 70,982 inhabitants (2021), situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship; the seat of Ostr ...

(5–20 July 2013). After to silver medals in Sisteron and Räyskälä in 2014 Sebastian defended again 15m class champion title in Leszno Wilkopolskie. Since gliding classes have multiplied ( with 20m class and 13.5m class added recently ) there are two editions of competitions each year and with Sailplane Grand Prix it gives three possibilities to participate in FAI first class events every second year ( except if competition fall at the turn of the year ). In 2015 Sebastian Kawa defended his 18m class title from France winning competition in Őcsény. He claims the busy season did not give a chance to prepare for SGP finals in Varese, resulting in a bronze medal.

Highlights of Vinon-sur-Verdon (18m Class) competition

Position after 9th and the last competition day: first, giving the Europe Champion title. Results
of 17th European Gliding Championships at

*Day 1: very late and handicapped start (4pm for 400 km, 50 min after main competitors, >600 m lower), from well below allowed altitude due to very weak thermal conditions near airfield. Managed to place 4th flying a good synergy of thermal and ridge lifts on the second half of the course.Reports from 17th EGC (2013) by Sebastian Kawa and the Team Captain (Tomasz Kawa) (in Polish)
/ref> *Day 2: tricky conditions at first part of the task (subtle subinversion blue wave). Deep penetration of AAT areas (second mileage of the day) flown to a second place. *Day 3: decisive win (>10 min ahead of next competitor) flown ahead of the gaggle. Edge over well acquainted with local conditions French competitors possibly partly due to unusual for the season weather (very wet), negating and reversing their advantage of intimacy with the local airflow patterns. Move to the lead in general classification. *Day 4: a solid win (task done 5 min faster than next competitor) while initially chasing the gaggle. Kawa had problems with getting an adequate start altitude, which allowed main competitors to break away at the start with a 5-minute lead. Keeping the visual contact, Kawa managed to chase them into the upper parts of the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, where the combined skills and experience of present pilots assured safe and speedy transit of the whole group. A final breakaway attempt by Kawa failed due to mastery of

knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...

of the local wind patterns by French competitors. *Day 5: a win in time close to minimum allowed. A rather chaotic day caused by weak, unpredictable and rapidly changing weather. Kawa's report suggests that the outcome was decided by both luck and meticulous husbanding of whatever the luck offered. At one point an advantage of a few meters in altitude was what decisively put him ahead of part of competitors, who could not fly the straight route over a particular ridge he could. Didier Hauss used his knowledge of the area to fly (with some companions) deeper into assigned areas, but this turned against him as the conditions deteriorated penalizing those tarrying longer. *Day 6: task in a rain over the mountains, with Kawa 10th with a dismal speed and as a late last of those who finished the task. In places the decisions to race aggressively had the potential downside of a forced landing in the mountains, depending how the dice lands. Half of the competitors did not finish. Jaroslav Tomana of the Czech team flew the longest route to the win, with French team placing close second. Remarkable accomplishment for a non-local Czech pilot in very hard conditions. Kawa slipped to second position in a general classification. *Day 7: second place in an unpredictable weather. One of competitors crashed. Last finishing competitor landing close to the sunset almost 2 hours past the winner. Maintaining second position in a general classification. *June 17: competition for the day cancelled due to a fatal glider crash on the previous day. *June 18: competition for the day cancelled *June 19: competition for the day cancelled *Day 8: third, but Didier who restarted the task over an hour later came eight, so Sebastian regained the lead. Didier Hauss gambled and restarted the task in the middle of the first attempt to take advantage of improving weather, the gamble failed. *Day 9: 4th, but with Didier Hauss outlanding this was enough to defend the first position in general classification for the Champion title. Both Kawa and Hauss flew individually and aggressively (as opposed to just defend their 1st and 2nd positions flying in a gaggle), which had put both in tight corners.

2013 FAI European Gliding Championships

17th FAI European Gliding Championships (2013) in

(5–20 July 2013). Sebastian Kawa competed in the Standard Class, flying Schempp-Hirth Discus-2a and defending his 2011 Champion title.List of 2013 EGC Ostrów competitors
/ref> * Day 1: Sebastian Kawa took 1st, Christophe Cousseau of France 2nd. Incidentally it is exactly the same order as final results of 18 metre class Championship competition a month before. Sebastian Kawa mentioned the deteriorating weather as one of the factors allowing him to win – such conditions gave the advantage to pilots flying aggressively to lead.Report by Sebastian Kawa from the Day1 of 17th EGC in Ostrów
/ref> * Day 2: 1st position again, leading two other team members (Paweł Wojciechowski and Łukasz Wójcik) to 2nd and 3rd place. This was an AAT task, Polish team took the longest route. What is interesting, the team flew together to a win in 2 different types of gliders (Discus2a/ax and LS8). * Day 3: 1st, for a perfect score of 3000 points for 3 days. Places 2 and 3 taken by Łukasz Wójcik and Paweł Wojciechowski. * Day 4: 2nd, with 999 points due to a 7-second loss over 438 km course to the winner, Łukasz Wójcik. Again, Polish team took first 3 spots. Remaining at the lead of general Standard Class classification. * Day 5: 2nd, behind Radek Krejcirik of the Czech Republic. Polish team keeps top three positions in overall classification, with Sebastian Kawa first. * Day 6: 2nd (behind Peter Millenaar of Netherlands). * Day 7: first. * Day 8: 2nd (all 3 pilots of the Polish team took first 3 spots). * Day 9: 13th. Close shave, Sebastian Kawa nearly outlanded (happened to half of the competitors this day). Remaining as #1 in the general classification.Sebastian Kawa on Day 9 of the 17th EGC
/ref> * Day 10: 15th. Late start due to instrumentation problems, some competitors managed to use the wave lift (rare occurrence in the lowlands competition area). Enough to win first place overall (with 2 other Polish pilots in the Standard class – Łukasz Wójcik and Paweł Wojciechowski – taking silver and bronze medals).

Himalaya Gliding Project

In late 2013 Kawa was engaged in a reconnaissance to learn of practical gliding conditions in the high parts of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

range. The aim was to fly over the highest peaks of

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

using Schleicher ASH 25Mi glider.Sebastian Kawa's Everest Gliding Team website
retrieved on: September 09, 2013 On 20 July 2024, Kawa and Sebastian Lampart took off in a

Schleicher ASH 25 The ASH 25 is a two-seater high performance Open Class glider manufactured by Alexander Schleicher from 1986 until September 2008, originally with a 25-metre wingspan. It was superseded in production by the ASH 30. Design and development In ...

glider from

Skardu Skardu (, Tibetan script: སྐར་མདོ, ) is a city located in Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kas ...

and soared over K2 and

Masherbrum Masherbrum, formerly known as K1, is a mountain located in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of the Karakoram mountain range. It has an elevation of 7,821 metres (25,659 feet), ranking as the 22nd highest mountain in the world and the 9th highest ...

. The flight was the culmination of obtaining many permits and driving the glider overground from Poland to Pakistan. It was the first time a glider has flown over K2.

Major titles

By winning his fifth (Grand Prix excluded) World Champion title in 2012 (Uvalde), Sebastian Kawa became the most successful Championships pilot in history, exceeding Ingo Renner's of Australia lifelong record of four championship titles. Since then, Kawa has won eight more World Championships, at Chavez ( 2013 ), Leszno ( 2014 ), Benalla (2017), Ostrów (2018), Hosin (2018), Stalowa Wola (2019), Prievidza (2019) and Montluçon – Guéret (2021). Sebastian Kawa held a world record for the "Three Turn Points Distance" in World Class in 1999 but this has since been superseded.

Sources

Personal website of Sebastian Kawa (in Polish)

Everest Gliding project website''Sebastian Kawa, condorul polonez''
in Romanian); Pilot magazin, 24 2010
''3rd FAI World Sailplane Grand Prix Final''
in Gliding International, March 2010 *

References and Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawa, Sebastian Polish glider pilots Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1972 births Glider flight record holders Polish aviation record holders