Very INTERNATIONAL 50thiest Hahnweide! Fabulous weather in parts of middle Europe !

Klix.

After the accident during landing at the field, killing a 21 year old female pilot, the organizers neutralized the next day and on that day they also decided to not continue with the competition.
When you are interested in the final scores after 5 days [4 for st class] you can go to www.aeroteam.de

You can go  to Wettbewerbe , then to Wertungen and Gesamtwertung from every class.

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Hahnweide.

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The skies on day 5 and the morning-message from the organizers;” Any questions”?
As shared by the organizers.

So day 5 was a great one!!!!No doubt about that. So after the miserable weather with several cancelled days the organizers and pilots had GREAT fun, and that’s what’s all about.
Standard;  had to go for nearly 400 km. and Michael Buchtal raced over the course with a speed of  127.7 km./h. in his Discus 2 A. The runner up , Cornelia in her LS 8, was fast too , but not as fast; 124.93 km./h .
NO out-landings  of course ,but a few struggled with the start height and got some penalty points.
After 3 days Michael leads followed by Howard from the UK and Adam from Australia.
15 m; got a task from 445 km. and all 9 pilots raced over the course as well and nearly all flew with a speed of over 120 km./h.
Freddy Hein was the fastest with 127.39 km./h in his Ventus 2ax.
After 3 days he leads the pact but only just;14 points difference with Nils Prokisch in the Ventus 2a.
18 m ;498.64 was set for the 38 pilots in this class and they were like all others ” in a hurry”. Matthias [Schunk] only needed 3 hours and 42 minutes and was back home; speed 134 km./h. He was followed by French pilot Christophe [Abadie] and Tijl and Bert Schmelzer from Belgium.
Some were so eager to go that they went too fast some too high , but great soaring on track.
Matthias out-landed on day 1 but won day 2 and 3 and moved up from 19 to 10 to 7 overall.
open class; “only” their 2d flying day and they were on a mission. Task 543 km. gave them all possibilities.
All 16 pilots had a ball and the winner was Conrad Hartter in a JS 1, ahead of ASW 22 BLE,  Antares 23 T as well as Nimbus 4 DM or EB 28.
After 2 days former World Champion Holger Karow [Antares 23T] is on spot 1 just ahead with 25 points on Stephan Beck in the ASW 22 BLE.
2 seater class; they had to go for 410 km. and they did,…ALL of them. Best was the ARCUS T with Mayer and Willems 135.14 km./h  as Wolfgang and Andy flew a tad slower; 134.85 km./h.
After 2 days the daily winners were on 1 and Wolfgang and Andy on spot 3.

Day 6 on May 5 had reasonable but tricky weather. Only 3 days to go including this one.
A difficult day with mainly blue conditions , a strong Easterly and early in the morning a low base,  later good visibility.
St. Class; 249 km and the 3d win in a row for Michael. Howard was runner up , Cornelia on spot 3.
15 m; 254 km. and the 2d win in a row for Freddy Hein. Bernd Weber from Schempp Hirth was runner up. Tim Scot [UK] on spot 3.
18 m; 295 km. Daily win for Belgian pilot Bert Schmelzer jr. He was the fastest for the day with a speed of 116 .69km./h. Runner up Swiss pilot Rolf Friedli.[ 116. 59]  Matthias was 3d.
open; 292 km. and  Swedish pilot Jim Acketoft was in before French pilot Sylvain Gerbaud.
2 Seaters; 246 km.and Theisinger /Koster won the day in the ARCUS M.

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On the first row; Matthias Sturm, Katrin Senne, Conny Schaich and Bert Schmelzer jr., not former as I wrote last but still the current WGC Champion.
Behind them 3 Jones brothers [Phil, Steve and Howard] , behind them  Wolfgang Janowitsch and Michael Buchtal and to the r. Holger Karow and Andy Davis. Great shot!!!!!Shared by Boerje Eriksson.

Very INTERNATIONAL but also a very high level as I read on their site:”  The 50th International Hahnweide competition has totally 114 Teams in all classes. This year participates 11 world champions. It’s the highest level of pilots ever seen in our competition. That means statistically: in one of ten gliders is flying a world champion.” NOT BAD !!!!!
You can find pictures from the 11 and of course their names on the site; http://www.wettbewerb.wolf-hirth.de/

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Some air-shot’s from the field as shared by the organizers.

Day 7 ;”Good morning! The sun is shining! We are expecting another great competition day.”
AND….. “In our area we will have mostly blue thermals, but over the mountains there are some good cumulus with cloud-base up to 2400 meters. For this reason today’s  tasks are going direction Black Forest.”
What ‘s there more to say ??!!
Relative late starts, so no time to mess around at the start-line , as ALL had to go for the A task.

Standard class; 336 km….4th consecutive win for Michael, now 129 points ahead of Howard.
15 m. ;356 km….3d consecutive win for Freddy , 372 points ahead now of Nils and UK pilot Tim Scott.
18 m; 375 km…. 3d win for Matthias , after climbing up from 7 to 3 he is now at spot 2 !!!! REMARKABLE run from him.
open; 389 km…each day another winner, now French pilot Sylvain. At spot 4 now overall.
2 seaters; 329 km….also here each day another winner. Thos time the The Broquevilles from Belgium, climbing from 5 to 3 opverall.

THE VERY LAST DAY on May 7;
Morning message; ” Today we are expecting good weather conditions again. Later in the afternoon there will be some showers, into the black forest might be some thunderstorms as well.The tasks are between 354km (15m) and 399km (18m).”
So a very interesting , maybe even tricky day where the correct choice of departure might be more than important.
Small differences in overall scores,  so EVERYTHING is possible in the top 10.

St. Class; as Michael Buchtal was the best on the last day AGAIN, it was no secret that he was the new champion in this class. He flew the set task of 357 km. with a speed of 126 km./h.
On day 1 he finished on spot 7 after he won EVERY day, so a deserved winner.[5294] Runner up was Howard Jones [UK] with 4996 points and on spot 3 German pilot Soeren Noelke.
5 out-landings one of Andreas Belz, who was on spot 3 when he started the last day, but out-landed and dropped from 3 to 10. He started in the middle not too early not too late…..

15 m.: Freddy Hein did not win the last day but  the result was still good enough to win the 15 m. comps;5238.
UK pilot Tim Scot , 3d on the last day moved up to a runner up spot [4912]With being 7, Nils lost around 240 points which gave him a 3d place.[4811]

18 m.; Young Swiss pilot , [the Swiss do have a few good young ones] Rolf Friedli, got the 1000 points on the last day, ahead of toppers like Reinhard Schramme and Bert Schmelzer jr, on spot 2 and 3.
Overall Simon Schroeder was the best. He did not win a day but flew very consistent. Good on him.In his ASG 29 E he gained a total of 5060 points over 6 days. Matthias was runner up [4948 and a great result!!!] and Bert on number 3.[4886]

open; 5 out of 9 days so less days to proof themselves .But some did. Specially the last days , Swedish pilot Jim Acketoft in the EB 28 proofed his class .[4591] He did not win the last day, he was runner up, but overall he just was better than Holger [Karow] and Sylvain [Gerbaud].Sylvain won the last day and moved from 4 to 3[ 4519]. Holger remained on spot 2.[4550]

2 seaters; Team Martin Theisinger and Juergen Koster  won the last day in the ARCUS M and with that result the comps. [4338]
They started after 2 days on a 5th spot overall. They won task 3 and 5 and moved from 5 to 4 and to 1 at the LAST day.
On the morning of the last day  Mayer and Williams were still on spot 1 , but they did not have a good last day and lost nearly 300 points dropping from 1 to spot 4.
Runners up were the THE BROQUEVILLES [4278] and Andy and Wolfgang finished on spot 3.[4261]

And then it was over and out ; a great competition that 50thiest edition at the Hahnweide!!

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Finishes on the last day as seen by Kathrin.

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With a check by Uli Kremer  at the Schleicher Airfield, the brand new ASG 29 Es, with call sign GPS was ready for Dutch pilot and former European champion [Pocuinai] , Rene de Dreu to take home. Rene is the Schleicher representative for the BENELUX.
Good luck with and in the beautiful glider.

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As shared by Alexander Schleicher.

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Denmark ; Danish Nationals in 5 classes .

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Ready to go as shared by Arne Boye Moeller.

They started on May 5 with good/top weather and still have good weather.
11 Pilots in club and after 6 days Jan Andersen is on spot 1 followed by Rasmus Orskov only 28 points behind and on spot 4 good old Henrik Breidhal.
9 Pilots in St class and Mogens Hoelgaard is the leader at this stage, with only 22 points on Frederik Noddelund.
13 Pilots in 15 m. class and at this stage, also after 6 days Jan Schmelz Pedersen tops the overall list.Good old Stig Oye is on spot 4.
12 Pilots in 18 m. and a better difference in scores for Arne Boye Moeller in this class; over 300 points on Peter Eriksen. Arne won 45 of the 6 days and on the not-winning-day he was runner up.
11 Teams in the 2 seater class and Tom Joergensen leads with his mate with quite a big margin in the Duo Discus [3991] . They won day 1 , flew consistent after and topped the overall list till now. My friends the Arndts in the DG 1000T are on spot 2 at this stage as the comps continue till the 15th.[3545]

TODAY  TASK 7 and long distances;
Club 325 km,……St. Class  398 km……15 m. 398 km…..18 m. 3.30 AAT…..2 seaters 33.30 AAT as well.
More next week !!!!!

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Interesting OLC flights ! SO MANY!!!!!!!

The great weather was “ON” and you could see that on the fabulous flights. Some toppers were flying comps so could n’t do what they wanted to do , but others enjoyed soaring to the fullest. Clouds EVERYWHERE!!!! On the map it looked like a million sheep had disappeared out of Australia and walked over European soil !!!
May 4; 33 over 1000 km. flights ,  flown from Germany, Holland[1 ]  Luxembourg [1 by Guy Bechtold 1.141 km. 1000 FAI triangle in the Quintus M] and Belgium [1 by Jean Luc in the 18 m. ASG 29 E], what about that and what about a 970 flight [700 FIA triangle] in the St. Libelle by Marco Barth!!!!!?????A total of 1284 flights on a Wednesday, but in Holland most had the day off because of Memorial Day.
From the 33 even 4 x an FAI triangle !!!
Tilo [Holighaus]flew  in his brand-new Ventus 3, the longest flight till now in this fabulous looking ship.1005 km.[817 km. Fai Triangle]
On FB he said ;  “I was a bit hesitant in the morning and only declared an 800km FAI flight. After finishing, the weather still looked great so I added another 200 km to the flight.”

EVEN a 1000 from Holland flying direction NE. Great flight by Robin van Maarschalkerweerd and Jeroen Kole in the NIMBUS 4 DM. AND,…784 [641 FAI triangle] in an LS 4 by junior team squad member , Rick Boerma, is not bad either. All in our flat-as-a pancake- country. Great stuff as well; junior pilot Jelmer Vis flew 786 [ 300 FAI triangle] in the St. Cirrus.Both flew more or less together from Hoogeveen.
By the way the Dutch 1000 km. was on spot 71 on the OLC for points. So a tremendous good day!!!!
A 700 km. out and return in a Duo Discus is worthwhile talking about too. A total flight of 830 km and the out was to Stendal 350 km from home and back to Veendam in the N.E.  of Holland by Alexander and Allard. Clearly happy chappies!!!

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Well deserved cold beer after a long flight!!!
Picture shared by Alexander. Chapeau !!!  And the 1000 km from Robin and Jeroen. Picture shared by Lars Groot.

May 5; We in Holland celebrated our Freedom , LIBERATION DAY, so a day off , but blue.
2 Dutch top pilots Sikko Vermeer and Alfred Paul Alfers started for a short European tour leaving on Thursday and coming back on Sunday direction Germany ,Czech Rep and Poland.They first flew to Bayreuth and from there they flew into the Czech Rep to eventually land later in the day at Klix.
One 1000 was flown in an ASG 29 /18m. from Burg Feuerstein.

May 6;1.100 km. flight by Matthias Schunk in the Quintus M. from Ohlstadt. 818 in the St. Cirrus by Boris Zorz from Lesce Bled.

May 7; Matthias Schunk was not yet tired and flew now 1.155 km.[Germany]
904 km. from Lienz in a Kestrel 17 is not bad either; [Austria] 851 in an LS 6 from Bolzano, just TOP!!!![Italy]
Rainer Cronjaeger flew his first declared 1000 FAI tringle in the ASH 31 MI/21 m. from Hausen an Albis [Switserland].
So another 3x 1000 km.
SO YOU SEE GREAT WEATHER IN PARTS OF EUROPE !!!!!

May 8;On this day a 372 km. was flown in Australia from Kingaroy in a Mosquito and from Itakura in Japan 303 km. in a DG 400/17 m. So not only the middle of Europe is good.
Rainer added another 1000 km. flight to his list .
From Mifflin County in the USA great outstanding ridge-soaring-flights from 1.032 km. in a Schweizer  [1-26] by Dan Sazhin and        1. 240 in an ASW 20 by Evan Ludeman.

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Pictures shared by Dan on FB.

May 9; a just-1000 km, from a place I never heard of in Germany . So good the flight was added to the OLC , as I know now about Alkersleben !!![NW of Bayreuth] Must have heard about it when I was at the WGC in Bayreuth.
great weather in Norway, where Arne Martin Guettler [Discus BT] flew together with Per Morten Lovsland [LS6]  ; 608 and 554 km.

May 10; yesterday Poland topped the OLC list with an 822 km. flight in an 18 m. ASG 29 E.

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Sailplane Grand Prix in Russia.

The new airfield of Usman had a total of  7 days out of 8. Sebastian Kawa was the clear winner with 45 points. Petr Krejcirik had 35 points and Vladas Motuza had 30.
The last day had 265 km. task
I copied and pasted for you the organizers news of the last day.
“Eighth (seventh racing) day of FAI Sailplane Grand Prix Russia 2016 Usman. That was really grand finale: unexpected champion of the day, [Anton Minskiy] expected champion of the whole competition (who else but Sebastian Kawa) and overall joy. This was the open day, so general public came to designated area, got acquainted with small aircraft and gliders, and enjoyed the aerobatics show by Chelavia and First Flight aerobatics teams. “

VARESE in Italy is next ;May 14 till 21.

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French St Class, 15 m and 2 seater Nationals.

43 Pilots were active and with 6 out of 8 days it was a good competition in one handicapped class.The first flying day, straight away had a 500 km task which  was won by Christophe Cousseau in the ASG 29.
After,.. it was more around 300 km and AAT’s from 3 and 2 hours.
Champion; Louis Bouderlique Discus 2A and 5133 points,  runner up, Christophe Cousseau in ASG 29 and 5032 points and Christophe Ruch finished on spot 3 with 4899 points in a Ventus 2 AX.

GIRO d’Italia!

Not the Tour De France , but the Giro D’Italia, talking about cycling now,  raced through Holland. Starting at Apeldoorn with a time trial and the next day racing from Arnheim to Nijmegen and on Sunday the other way around. After ,…all ” bikers” and staff fly to Italy.
Close by Nijmegen is the NIJAC the club at Malden. So as helicopters flew over, a bit of great PR was made to draw some attention for soaring as well.

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Picture from TV . Shared by Albert Alders from the NIJAC.

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That’s it, feeling a bit better now.
By the way we moved up in temperature from the coldest April 27 [ 8 dgr C. winter coats] to the hottest May 5. [25 dgr. C.shorts] Last Sunday we had 27 dgr. C. Upcoming long Pentecost-weekend back to 12!!! Yes the weather remains the weather.
Hope it will be flyable for the 51 participants from the CAE- BENELUX comps here at Terlet in Holland.[May 17-27]

AND
My soccer club PSV won the Dutch title on the last day and totally unexpected . Ajax was the favorite for the title with equal amount of points but a difference of 9 goals in their favor,when they started on the last day. With  3 points for Eindhoven and 1 for Amsterdam, a huge party exploded in the S. of Holland.
Very pleased.

Cheers Ritz

One of my good friends , Theo, passed the flower beds in Lisse,…… great is n’t it?
AND
Please do not forget to read the article below. It’s important for everyone.

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