Races will be held from December 1-7 based around three categories: 18 Metre and Open wingspan, 15 metre wingspan, and the unballasted Sports Class for older, lower performance sailplanes.

For the first time, the championships will use the Handicapped Grand Prix racing and scoring system, according to Veteran Contest Director and Temora Gliding Club Secretary, Daryl Connell.

"The Grand Prix format sends competing pilots around the same course in groups based on their performance class, with small adjustments at some turn-points to even up performance differences within the class," he said.

"With all gliders in a group starting together, this means that the first pilot across the finish line is the race winner, and scores most points for the day.

"Pilots score one point for each competitor they beat, a bonus for crossing the finish line, and an additional bonus point for the day winner."

With 25 competitors registered so far, races for this competition will be set daily according to the forecast weather, and generally be around 200 to 500 kilometres and take 2 or 3 hours to fly.

One competitor hailing from Temora, Scott Lennon, is gearing up his own glider for the championship.

"I started gliding in 1993, and have become fairly regular at national events and state championships," he said.

"I would have flown in half a dozen or more competitions here in Temora too."

The competition will present a new set of challenges to Lennon this time though, according to the pilot.

"I'll be flying out of my class for this one, because there are a fair few competitions going on around the Riverina in the next month which means all our race numbers are skewed so there's a few people missing," he said.

"Normally we'd have around 40 or so racers, so because some are missing from one class I'll have to slot in at a higher grade.

Lennon's glider is built to fly in the standard class with a 15m wing span, but for the upcoming championships he will be flying in the open class.

"That means I'll be up against 21 metre wing spans with a higher performance," he said.

"But we have a handicap system here now so that will hopefully even out the performance a bit."

Practice flights begin on November 29 and 30.