“Flat-as-a-pancake-country” -toppers!

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Courtesy Katja.

The Belgium pilots in club class are on “full steam” now  and when Neil would have saved himself the 56 penalty points on day 3 , he would have had last Monday his second day-win instead of his first.
As I said already earlier most teams have a very experienced TC and or coach with them.One way or another I think that the Belgium coach , Ken Evens, lovely and very experienced guy, has a very good influence on the soaring from the Belgium boys. Good on them!!!!
It turned out to be a rather difficult day for some and their coach already said in the morning;
—“During our team briefing after the general briefing it became clear the start time would be critical. The window with good thermals was limited and we have learned from the previous days that thermal activity decreases rapidly as from a certain point.”–

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Coach Ken briefing the Belgium team.
Courtesy Belgium site.

Club class had a 3 hour AAT and Neil [Deijgers] flew 294 km. in 3.01 Jeroen[tje Jennen] was 3d behind Marius from Lithuania [ 311 km. in 3 hours on the dot but not in a Libelle but LS 4]  with 291 km. in 3.01 as well. Only one pilot “aux vaches”.
After 4 days the French pilot Benjamin Vades tops the overall list in the St. Cirrus , with Marco Barth from Germany on 2 and Maxime Petitpierre from Switzerland on 3 and the 2 Dutch boys both with the same amount of points on 4.

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2 Libelles from Neil and Jeroen.
Courtesy Belgium team via FB.

Belgium Juniors Jeroen  Belgium Juniors Neil Deijgers

Jeroen and Neil

Standard class had an A racing task from 292 km. which changed later , just prior to the start,  in a BIGGER racing task over 324 km.
Winner in this class , Peter Millenaar who started really late at 13.49, [ his coach later mentioned “tactical the correct decision”] whilst the first pilots already were over the start line at 12.56 [Alexander Späth who finished as number 3!] .
Overall number 1 Petr lost 250 points by finishing as number 20.
Overall number 1 after 5 days was now Peter again.

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Peter finishing.
courtesy Rob[his dad]

Good on those low/flatland -country-boys from Belgium and Holland, both with a day-win! One of the other Dutch pilots was warmly welcomed too in the camp he flew 4 hours and 27 minutes, but FINISHED!!! He started as the last one at 13.58 .Sometimes taking a risk, pays out sometimes not. No worries a learning curve up! Chapeau!
There were about 7 outlandings in this class.

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JWGC as seen by Katja

 Yesterday [day 5/6] another scorcher-day with high temperatures and the expectation of difficult weather; blue and some cirrus, base at around 1600 m. and in the West were they expected some cu’s up to 2000 m. and max lift 2 m.
Club class has a racing task of 292.6km and a B task of 244.5km. and standard class a  3.45  AAT. [  310.2km/579.2km]  So it will be another interesting day!
First launch was postponed as the sniffer an ASW 22 without water found lift , but not that easy; he , Janus Centka, had to go TWICE to do a proper job and found 1.7 at 950 m.
So tasks were changed into 240 km and 3 hour AAT. And pilots went from 12.30 onwards, whilst unexpectedly clouds popped up to the N.

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Tuggies as seen by Katja

Around 4 …..messages from outlandings , OUCH, as the 2 German toppers in standard class Enrique [EL]and Alexander [ALB] who both landed in the SAME field , about 54 km. from Leszno, both in the 3d sector, both early starters. Also one of the Dutch pilots Ronald [EJ] and  Thomas [YB] from Belgium landed.
In the end 43 in club class finished and 27 in standard, on a 1000 points-day, so expensive for those who missed out.
Peter Millenaar flew the most kilometers but used a bit too much time in comparison with others; 3.29.
3.05 was as close as one came.
Winner in standard class was from Zwitserland Reto Frei. [292 km. in 3.08] Oliver Barter was a good runner up [ 283 km.  in 3.04] and Lukas Huber from Austria was third.[ 287 km. in 3.11]
I expected a lot from Peter and also from Radek and they do both well[spot 1 and 4 overall]
In club class it was Sweden, [ glider H4 with 944 points] Zwitserland [ GQ 934] and Germany [922]   in  the top 3 and for Aussie -girl Ailsa it was a good day , all electrics worked again and she could concentrate on soaring only,  being 14th for the day. Good on her!

 Ailsa
Happy Ailsa on the rest day!
As shared by my Aussie friends on FB

Today ‘s tasks are not yet published, but briefing is at 11 and grid time at 12.00

Dutch Junior Nationals; In Holland is quite a lot of talent in soaring as you can see already, when you follow the JWGC.
Young pilots who are ready to go for their first steps in competition soaring have started their NATIONAL JUNIOR competition in the S of Holland and fly from Venlo. Being good at Venlo means going up higher into the different comps.
They started last Saturday flew already 4 days and today is day 5. Not bad!
In standard class it is Friesland on the top with Sander Terpstra and Jens Bouma  but yesterday a young member of the Gelderse settled in between overall ,after winning the 2 hour AAT-day,  and in open class Rick Boerma from Hoogeveen who strongly leads and local pilot Wiek Schoenmakers who is on a 3d spot, with Odin van Oord from the ACVZ[Amsterdam] as runner up , all of course for the time being, with still 3 days to go.

The CIM has started in Rieti in Italy on Monday with  76 pilots in 5 classes.
Club with 6, standard with 16 and 15 m. with 12 including Ricardo Brigliadori and Dane Dickinson , who flew the Junior Worlds there in the eighties and former WGC champion Leigh Wells.
Also 18 m. with 26 participants and Peter Hartmann from Austria and Louis Bouderlique were 1 and 2 on the first day. You surely remember their mid air collision in Uvalde. Also Davide Schiavotto flies in this class, he was/is one of the top junior pilots from Italy, but not so junior now anymore, still not old though.
The 2 seater class is combined with open class and there are 15 pilots as Giorgio Galetto [ARCUS T] Alvaro[ASH 31] Aldo Cernezzi who writes for Gliding International [ARCUS M] Alberto Sironi [ ARCUS T] and the good Swiss pilots Leutenegger [ARCUS T] and Schneebelie.[ARCUS M]
And not to forget former world champions Thomas Gostner and Stefano Ghiorzo , who was unlucky on day 1 landing out as the only one from all classes and loosing 800 points .  You definitely need “luck” as well.
Have great memories on the several comps I was invited to write there . I am sure they are going to miss Leonardo, who spend a lot of time in Rieti. Of course he was remembered in the opening briefing.
A very mixed group of pilots from several countries even from Australia and New Zealand but also from other European countries . A lot from Austria.

Yesterday they had tasks between 428 in the open class and 313 in club class. In open it was Switzerland again with the Leutenegger team flying with a speed of 114.5 km./h. Giorgio and team partner were runner up.3 Outlandings in this class.
In 18 m. 2000 points for Peter Hartmann after 2 days!
For all scores in the several classes you can go to www.soaringspot.com

I noticed that during the USA hang glider Nationals in Big Spring in Texas still the same pilots are in the top as Atilla Bertok and Davis Staub. Jonny Durand had a bad second day with only 36.7 km. but was 4th on day 1.

Enough news for this day see you on Sunday.

cheers Ritz
On Wednesday August 7 2013.

 

 

 

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