RIP BILL RILEY! Pribina cup !Great Easter-Sunday for some…! Top soaring in Italy, France , Holland and Minden !

It does n’t often happen that I forget to publish my blog!!!!Maybe Easter Monday is debit to it. Anyhow SORRY!!!!!

———-

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Sad , very sad news to start.
BILL RILEY died today at 5.30 Australian time . Bill was a real entrepreneur, started SPORTAVIA, was mentor and supporter from  Ingo and followed him at several world comps.
He was an heroic RAF pilot in war time and since we met a FRIEND FOR LIFE OF OUR FAMILY!!!!
Next week he would have turned 91.
It was not meant to be, but a great age for such a vivid man
.
R.I.P. Bill.

Bill Riley and Ritz

R.I.P Bill.

———-

Forgive me my enthusiasm, but on Easter Sunday APRIL 5, it felt if the soaring season had REALLY started here. I had my breakfast outside , mind you at 10 in the morning ,which is a sun with 9 summertime strength and I looked at the most gorgeous clouds. THAT early!Not yet the nice sharp lines around them, that happened at noon, but flat dark bottoms were already clearly visible.
In the evening I looked straight away at our Dutch OLC list and YES ,Sikko [Vermeer] flew 721 km. in his Ventus BT 17.5 m. and 701 km. [after Easter breakfast] for Mark[ Leeuwenburgh] in the ASG 29. Lot’s of just under and just over 500 km. flights. Have a look!What a fabulous day!
Only in Holland 98 flights were added to the OLC list,  5 in the top 10 in club class gliders and a total world wide of 1437 and it is only the beginning of April.

My garden looks fresh and new, after a great day in the fresh air.That was good too!
AND,…it was SUPER-weather at a lot of other places!!!!

———-

SPEED 249,83 over 2.907, 47; 

An epic Easter Minden Wave day along the Sierra.
The day played out as forecast…blue in the south and too much moisture in the north…Minden had a 40% chance of rain after 11 am.
Declared a 1,018 km Out & Return…completed the task in 3 hr 59 min 27 sec for
World, North American, and US record claims of 255 kph.
Also beat the US 750 km O&R speed record plus the North American and US 500 km O&R speed records and US 300 km O&R speed record.

How can I say it better than Jim himself in his OLC comment.
Congratulations to Jim Payne and his co Alan Coombs.

11091172_826565847424046_3522177623054203771_n

Alan [to the left] and Jim and Jackie.
Picture shared by PAUL REMDE from Cumulus Soaring Inc.

For more details and photos see Jackie’s blog at SoaringBlog.tumblr.com.

With 2.181 km, with 186,84 km./h in the DG 1001 M from Inyokern and 1.127,73  km. with 171,74 km./h in the ASW 27 , from Minden, indeed a fabulous wave day.

A day earlier Minden was a fun day again for Keith [Essex] What great wave flights he has had till now.On EASTER Saturday he flew in his ASH 31/21 m. another “fast and furious” wave flight in blue conditions;speed 168.24 km./h. and distance 1.606,21 km. Since mid-March he flew between 1.336 km and 1.907 km. during 4 flights!!!!

———-

Early soaring action in Italy.

zzzzWalter 1

BEAUTIFUL picture!!!!!
Courtesy Walter Giordani.

” 1010 km declared task; Italian record ” was the comment on the OLC on April 1 and no it was not a joke!!!! Knowing what a good pilot Alberto [Sironi] is, I straight away had a look at his flight [ARCUS with Albero Consolini]  from his home field Calcinate del Pesce;1.217.04 km.  was the total distance.
Also good old Luciano [Avanzini] had a wonderful flight in his ARCUS M;726 km. whilst from Trento Walter [Giordani] flew 876 km. in the Ventus 2CM /18m.
Good spring conditions now in Italy, though tough with strong turbulence and still SNOW!!!!!
Also Giorgio [Galetto]  took his glider for a ride , his second flight of the season and flew from Bolzano; 543.2 km.

IMG_2106

Alberto here at the SAP last week.
Picture one of 35 as shared during this height- performance- camp at
http://acao.it/

Walter shared some fantastic pictures from his flight on March 29, here you are and above;

zzzzWalter 3 zzzzWalter2

———-

Staying in Italy, as the 43d Trofeo Internazionale di Citta de Torino, started on Good Friday with 16 participants in one mixed class.One of them my collegue at Gliding International, Aldo Cernezzi in the ARCUS.
On the first day they had a 2.30 AAT but 55 km. was the best distance. The weather was just not good enough. Also the days after,  the weather did not co-operate with the wishes of the pilots and organizers though all tried hard.
On Easter Sunday they cancelled at 3PM as it started to rain. I could see rain in Rome as well, when the pope said his Urbi at Orbi to the world.

Easter Monday the weather improved and a 331 km. task was set for the 16 pilots.Unfortunately the full task was not possible but some pilots reached 297 km!!!!After this weekend ,they continue again the next weekend, so on Friday April 10 .

———-

THE PRIBINA CUP 2015.

zzzzPribina

Lovely to write about comps again!!!
The weather was n’t the best to start the Pribina Cup,some drove to Nitra through SNOW,  but after the rain the pilots could fly on the first practice day.
” Although the weather was not ideal (very strong wind and showers) we had a flying day.
Thursday was n’t too good, but on Good Friday the 123 pilots  [ club class, 15 m. class, 2-seaters and open class] hoped for a start on day 1.
BUT,…it rained, the sun came, it rained , there was hope,….. but in the end the day had to be  cancelled, as they could not get all pilots airborne in time, it was just too late. At least they tried hard; some started after 3 and flew the set task as extra practice.

On Saturday , still some showers around, but THE PRIBINA CUP 2015,  had started.AND,…it turned out a really nice CU -day!

zzzNitra 1 zzzNitra 2

Courtesy Toni Sibanc flying in the DUO DISCUS!

In all classes a different length racing task for flying day 1.
club class;176.7 km.—15 from 25 finished the task.Till spot 8 it was Poland, Germany, Poland and Germany.Interesting to see that some pilots started just before or after 1 PM , the winner , Marek Niewiadomy, in a St Jantar 2 however,  started at 3 PM.More than 1.5 hours after the runners up. The right decision! Easy to say after the race, I know.

15m class;189.3 km.—German pilot Patrick [Puskeiler] beat with 3 points the 3 Polish runner up’s; 3 Discus 2A and an LS 8.
12 From 30 finished in this class.

20 m. class;191.6 km.—16 x 2 pilots in this class and the Germans [6 teams] did very well on this difficult first day.From the 16 gliders only 4 did not finish.Most started at around 1 PM and the German DG1000 and DuoDiscus topped the list ahead of the ARCUS from Wolfgang [Janowitch] .

open class;223.4 km.—Another German topper, Matthias [Sturm] won in his ASG 29 /18m.this class, just ahead of 2 Polish pilots.Matthias started at 2.26 PM, whilst the number 3 in his LAK 19/18m. started at 1.18 PM and still made good speed.Matthias flew with 121.9 km./h. Fastest of the day!
Only 25 from 35 finished.
In this class Swaantje, who has been VERY sick, flies with her mate Helge Liebertz in the ASH 25/26 m..Great to see her back in the air!!!!

Elfo is making his fantastic pictures again, so I share a few he shared on the site.

zzzzElfo 3

zzzzElfo 1   zzzzElfo 2

Flying day 2 was very promising!!! With longer tasks , the pilots were send out for their Easter Sunday-outing, with the message good weather over flat areas,cold and humid unstable air —GOOOOD!!!!—-and  local showers in the mountains.
Like we ,they had early clouds popping up!!!So for that reason, early starts at 12.
AND,…at 12.51.50 all 123 pilots were airborne. VERY good!

club class;—248.6 km. In his St Cirrus Roman [Mracek– CZE] finished as 11th on day 1. He knew he could do better , so he won day 2!!!Good on him.16 From 25 finished. Blogger Benjamin [Bachmeier] just missed out .He flew 244 km!
by the way out-landings were sometimes difficult.  After the rain and snow some fields were really wet and muddy.

15 m. class;—302 km.I remember Miloslav [Cink –CZE] as a young promising pilot.On day 1 he was unfortunately the first out-lander, but on day 2 he set that right and WON in his LS 8 /15m. Only 5 out landings in this class and all pretty close.

20m. class;-–332.7 km. Best speed of the day in this class; 125.2 km./h. 5 ARCUS gliders in the top, not bad!Only 2 from 16 did not make it home.

open class;—340 km.5 x An 18 m. glider in the top 5 before on spot 6 the EB turns up with Bostjan [Pristavec–SVN] The 5 were from Poland ,Denmark and Austria.

Nitra seen trough the eyes of ELFO

zzzzElfo 4

zzzzELFO 5    zzzzElfo 6

Early Easter, so just COLD.
Courtesy ELFO.SK

Flying day 3, looked better again, with early clouds, but also the message “ there is quite a lot of mid-level clouds coming from the north which can have a badly influence on soaring conditions in our area as well.
Launching started at 11.30.
It turned out a difficult , windy and VERY cold day! Some out-landed after 7 km. some flew the task. Here is what happened!

club class; —227.6 km.From the 25 pilots 7 finished , in the top 4 German pilots among them Benjamin [Bachmeier] . 2 Flying St. Cirrus and 2 LS1f. 9 From the pilots landed just after they started within 16 km. of the field.

15 m. class; —274 km.An early start at 1.21 PM looks like the right decision. The more early birds finished, others starting after 2 or even at 3.25 had no chance.9 From 30 did not finish, 2 of them by entering forbidden airspace[vertical].

20 m. class; —279.5 km.From 16, 10 finished in this class.4 ARCUS gliders in the daily top.Best speed 105.6 km./h.

open class; —328.5 km.A 1000 points day in this class and Matthias [Sturm] already once WGC winner in Rieti in 2008 in club class, won another day.17 From 30 finished.

Peto Hubka shared on the official site some interesting lang pictures ,here you are and all 14 of them at ;
http://www.pribinacup.sk/2015/photos/?gal=day03_2015-04-05/2015-04-05_Day03_Landings_by_PetoHupka

zzzzPeto Hubka3 zzzzPeto hubka2

zzzzPeto Hubka1

Courtesy Peto Hubka

Flying day 4; The weather turned out worse than hoped for.

Club class;—245.7 km—nobody finished but some did a great job missing out on only 10 km.2 Pilots from Czech Rep. in ASW 19 and St.Cirrus and 2 from Germany both in the H301, formed the top 4.That was good for 761 points up to 823.

15 m. class;—333.1km.—16 from 30 in this class finished. 5 Germans in the top with one pilot from Slovenia on 3 in the middle. A 1000 points-day, so expensive for the out-landers!!

20 m. class ; —314.2 km.—only 2 finishers , with former world champion Wolfgang [Janowitsch] and his co pilot on number 1. Another 4 teams flew over 300 km.

open class;—342.4 km.—Also in this class only 2 finishers and on spot 2 we noticed Helge and Swaantje. Good on them!13 Pilots managed to fly over 300 km.

zzzzELFO 8

zzzzELFO7

Not too many finishers but great pictures from them  AGAIN by ELFO.

———-

The pilots from Rencontre ASK 13, [Aerodrome St. Crepin] shared some great pictures . Look at this;

zzzzzWave zzzzWave 2

Talking about ASK 13 I think of years ago and whilst doing that I had to go back to Angers in the early 70thies. The French team had a BBQ and was busy to “create” onion soup. One of them Bernard Balay, what a gentleman. We, the Dutch team , were sitting downwind,in the smoke of this BBQ and were invited to come and see how they made REAL onion soup. We did, a night to remember. Forgot how many bottles of white wine went into the soup and how many fresh onions. A great night, a bad morning for some. Not me I was a “good girl”!
RIP Bernard!

I guess it’s that time now that soaring mates just a bit older than I am, say farewell to live. A Dutch LEGEND ” Nemy de Vin” , died age 88 . RIP Nemy .

———–

EARLY SOARING FUN IN FRANCE AS WELL!!!!

HOT!!!! Not as in warm ,[ some really had cold feet] , but in exciting good; that was the weather in Serres and Puimoisson last week. After a bit of an off-week a bit earlier now it was SPOT ON.
What fabulous mountain-training for the German pilots!!!Told you in my last blog already that Uli [Gmelin] is not only a top TC but also a great coach/gliderpilot. With another topper , a bit younger though, Mario Kiessling, they raced the ARCUS over 1.225 km. flying from Puimoisson.
When the weather is good and you have enough pilots to fly, they can all have a booming day; the OLC top ten was for Serres and Puimoissin, where between 701 km. was flown in an ASW 27 and 1.225 in the ARCUS with 3 more 1000 plus flights and several just under 1000 km.

Serres La Batie topped the list with 3 flights. One by topper Klaus Ohlmann in the Stemme, flying 1.430,80 km.with a speed of 121 km./h. , one from 1.388 km in the DG 800/18m. and one from 1.366 km. in the ARCUS. The whole area over France and Italy was  ” rocking”.

From Austria good news too. Johannes Hausmann, started his 2015 season with 2 far over 1000 km. flights in his Ventus 2C /18 m; 1.337,19 and 1.127,85 flown from Noetsch.Good on him!

Mind you on April 3 Geoff Prat flew DOWN UNDER still 500 km. in his PIK 20 E!

———-

The First PAN AMERICAN GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP started on Monday with an opening and unfortunately, a first and second non flying day. More about this competition in my next blog.
Canadian -team-crew [from JS] Dan Daly shares a blog as well;

http://sailplaneracing.com/pagc/

zzzPANAM 1

As shared on their FB site.
Courtesy to top photographer Maria Szemplinska, who’s husband Jerzy is one of the pilots.

———-

When I have time I will be back on Sunday with the latest on the Pribina Cup, the PAN AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS and the Tropheo in Torino.
Cu then.
Ritz

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.