Wednesday September 21 2022,in the evening, after a lovely 2-day-shopping-event with my daughter Inge and grand daughter Indya…….blog 1383…..

E4GLIDE
Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, France
11 September 2022 – 17 September 2022

After 4 practice days in St Auban, the 12 pilots were ready to give their gliders with electric batteries a go over several races, to define a winner with ZERO points!!!
Note that the scoring is time based, with the leader on 0, and everyone else some number of minutes behind them.”
Here is what the organizers write about it and more below, a great informative article from Matthew who flies this competition.;
“The Eglide format is for electric gliders that are permitted to use up to 2kWh of power in an otherwise unpowered Grand Prix gliding race. The engine power produced by an electric battery of 2kWh is approximately 3,500ft of climb over the distance of the racing task. This is the fourth championship to apply these rules.
Pilots are now becoming used to the opportunities provided by this use of engine power during a glider race. At the last Eglide event, the competitors began to develop new strategies. It will be fascinating to see how racing tactics and the glider technology has developed since the last event.”
So pilots from 6 European countries , even from Australia , were ready for this GP-style competition.
Day 1 on September 11; 160 km....Regatta start at 15.10 and former junior World champion Matthew Scutter was the first daily winner. His power consumption was 2326Wh ,his speed 104 km,/h , his glider and LS 8 e Neo/18m.[handicap 113]
Runner up was Giorgio Galetto from Italy with a consumption of 1956Kh, speed of 107 km in his Ventus 3F /18m.[handicap 122]

September 12; 259 km...Regatta start, rather late at 14.30. Tilo Holighaus [Germany] flew in his Discus 2c FES around with a speed of 99.80 km./h and ” used “1810 Wh.[handicap 113]
On September 13,they had a task and it was flown but everybody outlanded…..no valid day! Giorgio still managed to fly 150 km. 2 Other pilots , Luka and Matthew, flew over 100 km. as well.
On September 14…no flying….showers and storms.
On September 15 ,task 4, a 249 km. task was set AND flown by all except one. So a good day, specially for daily winner Jernej Lokovsek from Slovenia in his Duo Discus XL FES!!!!! They used 2926 Wh and flew with a speed of 96.10 km./h [handicap 113]
The start was at 2 PM.
Runner up was Giorgio again and Matthew was 3d.
Not winning, but being very consistent makes Giorgio at this stage the overall best!

On September 16 the penultimate day , task 6 was set with 219 km…..AND Matthew won the day with a speed of 88.21 km./h.in his LS 8. Tilo . in his Discus 2c FES , was a tad slower; 88.03 km./h. Both have the same handicap.
Matthew “used” 2068 Wh and Tilo 1670 Wh.
Benjamin Neglais was 3d and Giorgio 4th. Overall Giorgio still leads.
The start was at 15.20, so a late one again to have at least a window to fly in and 2 were out.
Matthew wrote a long story about the day and started with “Very interesting day today, the beginnings of the Mistral coming through with much stronger winds 20-30kts through most of the task.“
More on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
On September 17 , on the very last day the pilots got a 185 km task, but there was serious doubt if it could be flown because of the mistral.
NO WORRIES, they flew and Luka was the daily winner using 1144 Wh. his speed in the 18m Ventus 3 F was 120.88 km./h the fastest of the day!
3 Km/h faster than Giorgio in the same glider. One did not start, one was out.
The overall winner was and remained Giorgio [Galetto] followed by Matthew and Benjamin.
An interesting competition, I am going to learn more about it.
“And… that’s a wrap on E4Glide. Unfortunately miracles were not forthcoming and I was unable to recover from a major error earlier in the week, so second place it is.
Congratulations to Giorgio, who I am not upset to come second to as his map of St. Auban is ten years older than me!
Flying these mountains was much more technical than Varese last year and even though I arrived very early to practice I underestimated how hard it would be.” by Matthew and more from him on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

I liked Matthew ‘s explanation of this type of soaring, specially because I don not know much about it , so I share it with all of you who have the same “problem” as I have.
Matthew;
“This week I’m racing at E4Glide at St. Auban, the only electric glider race. For those not familiar with the concept, every competitor gets an allocation of energy proportional to their weight which they can use during the task, typically enough to climb perhaps 1000m/3000ft in total.
The naïve use of the energy is usually to save it for when you make a mistake, while better pilots tend to use it to avoid getting into trouble in the first place.
In the mountainous sites it can really make the experience a lot more comfortable because some of the dodgiest parts of mountain soaring, like turning in broken lift below the tops or ridge soaring too slow in light wind can be entirely avoided with strategic usage.
Even if you really mess up you usually have energy leftover to get to an airfield rather than a tiny field in the valley.
Note that the scoring is time based, with the leader on 0, and everyone else some number of minutes behind them.”
More on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

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The Brazilian Nationals
Luis Eduardo Magalhaes, Brazil
10 September 2022 – 17 September 2022

Last Saturday morning I noticed a message from Henrique Navarro who was really enthusiastic about his flight during the Brazilian National and I thought…”Ouch I nearly forgot to write about this competition”.
His message; “Brazilian Nationals, Task 5. Today I did the fastest speed ever recorded in Brazil by a glider: 180 KPH, in a 500 km task.”
Wow and indeed I was enthusiastic straight away too.

They started on the 11th in 2 classes open an racing and they had 7 good days!
Task 1 was on September 11 with a 4.59 AAT for the 4 participating pilots . Well known pilots as Claudio Schmidt in ARCUS M who won the day with 801 km.
Runner up Henrique another well known name flew 806 km with s speed of 161 km./h but his handicap is 123 for 118.
Another well known name Egon Rehn was 3d with 793 km and a speed of 149.82 km./h
What distances and what speed during a National Competition.
The other 6 days had between 400 and 500 km tasks and speed from 156 km./h, 162 km./h, 171 km./h, 152 km./h ,180 km./h, 126 km.h and 163 km./h!!!!!WOW!!!!
Henrique won 4 days .Claudio 2 and Egon 1 day.
Best speed; 180 km./h
Overall scores for OPEN CLASS:
1. Henrique Navarro in Nimbus 4T with 6.324 points.
2. Claudio Schmidt in ARCUS M with 6.191 p.
3. Gustavo Shigueno in Ventus 2cxa/18 m with 5.969 p
4. Egon Rehn in ARCUS M with 3.849 p. He did not fly on the last 2 days.

“We can be heroes, just for one day…
Brazilian champion for the 9th time, flying with great pilots and friends.
Sooooooooooo happy!“Henrique.

In racing class 7 pilots were flying to try to become the National Champion in gliders as Jantar, St Libelle Discus and DG 1000 and tasks around 300 km.
Luis Carlos Affonso in a Jantar 3 won day 1, 3,5 and 6 and the NATIONAL title.[6.428 points]
Runner up was André Goldenstein in Jantar 2 with 6.289 p and on 3 was Luis Valenca in Discus-2cT 15m with 6.601 p.

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Some short news;

News from Jonker Sailplanes
“Our main service partner M&D Flugzeugbau proudly presents the first test flight of the LS4 D-KENO with their TJ 42 JET engine installed. Keno Markwald was delighted with the first impressions. Have a look.”
https://md-flugzeugbau.de/neuigkeiten/

News from the USA by Tony;
“Happy Day! 1938 Minimoa is the star of the meet this year and I got a chance to fly it this afternoon. Took off at 4:30 and stayed up 1:34, made a climb to 7400 MSL.
Glider flies pretty good for it’s age. Not much happens when you make control movements. Takes a lot of deflection to get a soft response. Mostly use rudder then however much aileron it takes to coordinate. Thermals at 35 mph. No issues banking up to 60 degrees but it seems to climb best about 40.
Cruise at 40 mph, approach at 45. Taking off and landing into the 20 mph wind was fun.
Thanks Jerry Wenger and Tom Evolo for the opportunity!!!!”
https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/gliding/flightinfo.html…

I checked with him how many types of gliders he has flown by now , his answer; “36 now by my count“. Not bad!!!

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And to finish a great picture of the new king to wish him all the best in these difficult times, as we in Europe also depend on him .Hope he will be serving as well as his mum or maybe better[climate] for the UK and the Common Wealth.

CU next week
cheers Ritz

WEDNESDAY….SEPTEMBER 14 2022

VINON!!!!!
4 September 2022 – 10 September 2022

They continued in Vinon with race 4 with 211 km to soar.
In a short time , 12 pilots were “out” [ between 17 and 48 km] and 8 still flying! Not GOOD and GOOD!!!
Didier ,Tilo and Gilles however, managed to fly 137 km. Great effort , BUT,…unfortunately not enough to make it a valid day!
So in the end …..NO race 4!
On Thursday race 4 is on ;334 km. and new chances.
Later changed in 193.80 km.
“It took a while before the start as some cirrus clouds were crossing Vinon area around 1pm and last for almost 2 hours there. CD Régis had to switch to the backup task.”
A German winner this time……Tony Kittler in the Ventus 3T .
Here is the official news as I got it;
“Fantastic race today in Vinon with nearly 200kms taking our competitors from Gréoux to Serre Ponçon’s dam, then Orpierre, and back to Vinon.
On the first branch, two very different routes were chosen by two different groups : one close to the branch and another one more to the east. In the end, the first one paid off.
The second branch was rather low in altitude for most with some as low as 1100m in Saint Genis !
Maximilian turned first in Orpierre and opted for the Corne de Lure while Toni headed more west.
In the end Toni arrived couple of minutes before Maximilian followed by Tilo.“

After 4 races and 2 to go there are 2 pilots with 20 points JD Barrois and Mike Young. Max has 18 points.

Friday penultimate race 5; 317 km. with 121 km/h won by Mike Young who slowly’ rises’ to the top. With the 10 points he has a total of 30 points now, 8 more than Adrian, Max and JD, who are on 22.
Last race 6; 154 km....a day on which 4 pilots were “out”. One of them JD, so no points for him. Erik won and got 11 points ,one extra for the last day. Uys was runner up.
Not a good day either for Mike, he was 12th and did not get any daily points.
So a bit of nail baiting there for him.
BUT,…he won….only ONE point difference with Erik. 30 for 29!!!
Max was 3d with 27.
Both Mike and Erik live in the mountains in France. Mike is from the UK and Erik Dutch.
AND,…Both Erik and Mike go to the PAVULLO final race next year! Well done!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!

This is a flash back from 1987!!!!
Mike and our son Dennis at the WGC in Benalla.

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ABOYNE!!!!
4 September 2022 – 10 September 2022

On Wednesday , day 4, they could finally set a CC flight too; a 1.30 AAT between 66 and 143.8 km.
“Good old ” John Williams won the day with a speed of 72 km./h over 108 km.in an 18m/LS 8.
9 were out and 5 did not fly.
A lot …23….tried to have the best height gain.
Mike Stephens gained 8429 [lowest point 2394, highest 10.823] , John Williams 7015 and Jordan Richards 6709 ft.
Thursday; day 5 was damp again!!! So no CC-da,y but launching to achieve height was possible till 6 PM.
Friday; “Out of respect for Her Majesty and the Royal Family we have decided to cancel normal and UKMSC flying today. There will still be a weather briefing in the clubhouse which will also be accessible by Zoom.
We will make a decision about Saturday flying later today.“
VERY UNDERSTANDABLE!!!!
They did not fly anymore; John Williams won the CC competition with 484 points just ahead of Jordan Richards with 478 points.

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Club Class Nationals in the USA.
Moriarty
August 30- September 8

When I started writing about the Club Nationals ,Gary was mostly in the lead, meaning, he won the first 3 days, but later he lost a few days to other pilots.
On September 6 day 7 of the nationals the daily winner had again another face; after Sylvia, Gary [he won day 5 ] and Mike this time Michael Marshall in the ASW 20, was the daily winner. Tony and Gary were both on spot 8 with 509 points.
On contest day 5, Gary was still 330 points ahead, now only 160 with 2 days to go.
Club Class Day 7. as shared by Tony.
BEFORE……”Club Class National’s Contest Day 7 is looking to be a blue day. Grid time is noon mountain, racing task. First launch planned for 12:52pm mountain. Potential task A start gate open time of 14:15 mountain.”
AFTER…..”It was going really great until the wheels fell off the bus at Ortiz. Fun run with UN. At least it was fun for me. Major suffer fest just staying airborne, getting back to the higher ground, and finally found a good climb and a good line to bump home on.”
It was a very good day , blue with convergence lines and in the afternoon a base of 14.000 ft.
Task ; 224 km.

Club class Nationals; day 8 with ONE day to go…the penultimate day.
They had a 3.30 AAT.
“Today on the grid we were entertained by a weather balloon floating by at 101,000 feet.”
AND,….”Great fun running up past Angle Fire and back. Mostly good climbs. A lot of good streeting. A bit of redemption after the trouble I had up here the last time. Got a good climb over Ortiz Mine too which was nice considering how it treated me yesterday.” by Tony.
He flew 475 km in his Cirrus with a speed of 101.54 km./h.
https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/gliding/flightinfo.html…
Michael won another day and Tony was runner up!!!! Gary was 4th and his biggest concurrent Tom, 3d.
[Gary 4715 for 4557 points]
Sylvia was on spot 16. She is now on spot 8 overall [3994 p]

AND,…then it was over! They tried hard ;
“Last day at Moriarty. Cirrus from Hurrican Kay overhead but breaks. Short grid squat then sniffers got above 10K. Fleet launched. Task was a four area turn to the north and east with 2hrs min time, B & C back to 1:45 and 1:30. D Task was a really fun looking double lap of the valley to Zorro and Wagon Wheel for 155ish km.
Task was cancelled and contest declared over at 2:20 PM.
Several of us got up and had a really fun time flying the D Task. 10 knot climb to 16,000 feet will be a fond memory of this contest at Moriarty,” by Tony on the OLC comment.

So after 8 days of flying, the overall scores are as follows;
1. Gary Ittner in Discus 2a with 4715 points.
2. Tom Holloran in LS 8/15 m. with 4557 p.
3. Christopher Gough in Ventus cb/15m with 4387 p.
Tony was 5th with 4302 p. Sylvia on spot 8 with 3994 p and Kathy 15th with 3728 p.

Thank you to Tony to share his view on the flights in Moriarty and to his wife Leah for the pictures .

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STEMME GRAND PRIX 2022
6 September 2022 – 9 September 2022

A short competition of only 4 days, but they were “merging Stemme HORIZONS & our GP in St. Auban.
Anyone interested in a Stemme, maybe not yet a (Stemme) pilot, will have the chance to fly with an experienced pilot and get an introduction.
For pilots we’re hosting a competition with challenging flight tasks. The goal is to have fun, learn something and to spend time with the Stemme crew.“
On Wednesday ,task 2 with a 200 km , the 7 pilots had a difficult day with only 3 finishers. Reginald Watson won with 71 km./h. All 3 Belgian pilots were “out” after 149 km.
On Thursday, task 3 with 216 km…..won by UK pilot Reginald …69 km./h. His 2d win.
3 Finished 1 was “out” and 1 did not fly.
On Friday …task 3; cancelled.
So 3 days of flying with Reginald as winner with 8 points. Congratulations!!!

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Something about the weather; This summer in 2022 was the hottest EVER in Europe!!!!!
The European institute for research ,Copernicus, concluded this, after looking at satellite information. The temperature was 0.4 dgr C, higher than the heat record from last year.
We here in the SE of The Netherlands felt it as well and it is still 25 dgr. C after a well needed good drop of rain.
Today lot’s of rain and in the weekend it will be 15 dgr. C.

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Found a fabulous real soaring- picture as PR for young new glider pilots in the UK.

To finish this blog; This picture shared by KIKI.

Last Thursday Queen Elisabeth passed away. I cry easily, but thought , this is still far from my bed. The announcement on the BBC was made and tears just dropped down.
Elisabeth was queen of the UK and the Common Wealth, head of the Angelical Church and the armed forces and mother, grand mother and great grand mother…..granny.
She was a good friend of our royal family and loved by nearly ALL on earth, as she was for 70 years a tower of strength for her country and the people in the Common Wealth.
An other “icon” has gone.
She tried to comfort the world after 9/11,with the words “Grieve is the price you pay for love“.
So true!!!!!
R.I.P. MADAME.

Cheers Ritz ………CU next week, NOT in the morning but EVENING of WEDNESDAY.

The Formula 1 , car race, in The Netherlands was ONE BIG PARTY. 3 Day’s in a row and on Every day 105.000 ecstatic people in orange!!!!A pleasure to look at. Gives a proud feeling.
They all arrived by train or on the bike!!!! So a green feeling as well.
The fact that Max won was the cherry on he Dutch- GP -weekend- cake.
It’s unbelievable, how they got the logistics right in a small town ,Zandvoort ,with 17. 000 inhabitants.
They did!!!!!

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FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX in VINON.
September 4-10

The 11th series of FAI GP’s settled this weekend in Vinon, and for mountain specialists this is party time.
When I looked at the entries, I thought,……OH,…. only TOPPERS!!!
20 Pilots entered from 7 different countries. Not bad!!!
Among them 3 ladies Ayala Truelove in JS 3 from the UK , Aude Grangeray in JS 1 [ 2x WWGC champion] and Katrin Senne from Germany [2x WWGC Champion] also in JS 3. Both just flew the Hus Bos WWGC.

3 Pilots, Jon Gatfield, Ayala and Mike Young, represent the UK
Belgium and the Netherlands each have one pilot; Dennis Huybreckx and Erik Borgmann. Both live in France.
From South Africa Uys Jonker and from Lithuania Gintas Zube. From Switzerland Yves Gerster.
7 Pilots from France; Didier Hauss, JD Barrois, Louis Bouderlique and Aude , Max Seiss and Gilles Navas and Adrien Henry.
5 Pilots from Germany; Michael Streit, Christoph Limpert, Tilo Holighaus, Katrin and Toni Kittler.

Last Saturday was the last practice day; 150 km…..won by JD Barrois.
And on Sunday the races started.
Race 1; flown on a good soarable day , 30 dgr. C and clouds. Task 320 km. Start time 13.50.
Uys Jonker on his JS3 “UJ” was the winner of day 1 .He flew the task in 2:34 with average speed 124kph. He did a lot of training in St Auban with the French team, that shows now!
Runner up was Erik Borgmann on JS3, +14 seconds and Jean-Denis Barrois on AS33, +33 seconds. Didier Hauss is 4th with +4:59 on his JS1 and Mike Young 5th with +8:33 on his Ventus-3.

Race 2; 260 km….“due to stormy conditions forecasted, organisation had to design a bit shorter race going first to North-West (again in the Die area, Drôme Valley), then to North-West close to the “Parcours” before heading “home” to Vinon.”
and,…Mike Young was the best. They all started at 2 PM and he flew around with a speed of 115.8 km./h. That was 3 km./h faster than Adrian Henry in his JS 3.
Race 3; 193 km; The 3rd race of the qualifying #SGP of Vinon has started with a very fun 2 laps track. “Due to unpredictable stormy conditions (forecast was even telling “stay home, no distance possible today”), race designer chose the safe way to keep all competitors away from the highest mountains to avoid the “sorrry guys, locally too much energy” effect well known in South Alps.“
So they HAD a day , did the task twice and the 10 daily points were for Yves …speed 112.9 km./h and 8 points for Gilles…speed 112.8 km./h In fact 8 pilots arrived with 112.6/5/4/3/2/1 km./h!!!!
“Because task was rather short with its 193 kms all participants arrived almost at the same time.
Due to rather conditions and possible thunderstorms, Régis [Kuntz CD] decided on small branches to stay local of well known airfields : Saint Auban and Puimoisson.” by the organizers.

Still 4 days to go. Race 4 today [ 211 km.] and race 5,6 and 7. In my next blog.
After 3 race days the scores are; 19 points for JD Barrois,[AS 33] 17 for Uys [JS 3] 15 for Gilles Navas[ ASG 29] and 14 for Mike Young in Ventus 3T.

You remember the Jonker- brothers helping out at the WGC??????
This time Tilo from Schempp-Hirth helped out at the FAI SGP;
“Gliding Manufacturers helping each other continues! This time the CEO Tilo Holighaus from Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau is returning the favor! He helps Uys Jonker to fix a belly landed JS3 at the FAI Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in Vinon – France. This is what our gliding community is all about! Helping each other and enjoying our beautiful sport.”
I could n’t agree more!!!!

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UK Mountain Soaring Championship in Aboyne
September 4-10

27 Pilots try out distances and height in the UK mecca for wave flying!
This is their 25th edition.
“cross-country and height gain competitions” will be on al week.
As always the Deeside Gliding club is the host for all guests, with a nice BBQ last Saturday evening.
Day 1 message was ;”Our first briefing was at 09:00 this morning and the 25th UK Mountain Soaring Championship is open.  Its currently raining cats and dogs, and has been raining all night.”
A new briefing was held and a 1.30 AAT was set and the sun even came out!
In the end the CC flying was scrubbed, but the height gain was on.
Best “gain” was 3.078 ft.
Unfortunately the weather was not friendly and day 2 was scrubbed , but 2 “heroes” gained 515 ft..
After a night of rain they wait to see what happens today, no cross country till now but 2 days with height gain.

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Till September 8 the CLUB CLASS NATIONALS in the USA are flown from Moriarty [NM]
I know more or less, 4 from the 24 pilots flying there; Tony Condon, who I met in Uvalde in 2012 and Kathy Forsha and Sylvia Grandstaff , who I met at the WWGC in Lake Keepit.
Kathy flies a Discus B, Sylvia an ASW 24b and Tony a St. Cirrus.
And Gary Ittner, one of the long-time-USA-WGC pilots ,who I met in Uvalde 2012 as well. Gary flies a Discus 2A.
Tony shares his comment on the OLC
Club Class Nationals Day 1. Crazy Day. Landed at Patterson Ranch. Very friendly folks there.
Won by Gary, the only finisher for the day with Sylvia as runner up.

Club Class Nationals Day 2. No storms to dodge. Some streets. Worked the wind line. Only one low point that got my blood pressure up. All in all a good day.
Gary won for the 3d time and Tony was runner up . Sylvia 10th.

Club Class Nationals Day 3. A “Classic” Day (in quotes). I remember reading in the textbook that staying upwind and in the sunshine is probably a better plan… Won by Gary. Sylvia was 4th and Tony 12th.
Club Class National Contest Day 4 Task B is open at 12:47pm. Winner is 6T! Congratulations Sylvia!
1.45 AAT as thunderstorms were predicted in the afternoon. They used the “small window” very good.
Gary was 4th. Tony 11th.

Club class National Contest day 5; Gary won another day and leads with more than 300 points. The A task from 350 km was changed in 311 as the weather was pretty tricky. Only 4 finished the task.
Tony mentioned; “Another crazy day. Once I was ready to start it was pretty late, needed to do decent speed. Became apparent on first leg that wasn’t going to happen. Struggled at first on the mountains then had a good run. Stayed out of the ABQ Class C where the cloudstreet went. Another long glide across the Valley of Nothing. Didn’t land at Patterson Ranch this time but I watched two others. Found a weak climb, couldn’t get high enough to improve my position so came back to Moriarty. No where to land on task past Patterson ranch.“
Club Class National Contest day 6; A pretty good day with ” a very fun run across the valley. Awesome cloudstreet on middle leg’.
An “odd-day” for Gary who was “only” 20thiest. BUT,..he still leads with 200 points. Mike Westbrook won the day. He is 4th overall.
Club Class Nationals Contest day 7; a racing task with blue skies but good lift as well.
“It was going really great until the wheels fell off the bus at Ortiz. Fun run with UN. At least it was fun for me. Major suffer fest just staying airborne, getting back to the higher ground, and finally found a good climb and a good line to bump home on“. Tony.
Gary was 8th.
Overall scores till now: Gary Ittner with 3.762 points, 2. Tom Holloran in LS 8 with 3.601 p and Christopher Gough with 3.474 p.[ 15m Ventus B]

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The STEMME GRAND PRIX in St Auban
 6 September 2022 – 9 September 2022

With 4 STEMME S12 and 1 STEMME 10, they started yesterday a grand prix in St Auban only for Stemme’s. There are not that many, but 5 pilots are trying out this GP….3 from Belgium, 1 from South Africa and from France.
Yesterday race 1 was good for 253 km and though it was SLOW, it must have been a good feeling for Pierre [de Brouqueville] to win this first race. It started at 2.05 PM and only 4 started.
No task yet for today.

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Checking quickly the OLC;
Last Thursday pilots still flew over 600 km in The Netherlands, with the much shorter days a real good effort.
The French and German pilots enjoyed even flights from over 800 km. So did the USA pilots flying in the wave from Minden, Boulder and Ely.
Last Monday Keith Essex flew 1.142.91 km in an ASG 32 MI, from Salida Harriet, never heard of the place but it is SE of Boulder.
Yesterday that whole area had good weather again with up to 1.100 km flights.[Salida Harriet] and 1.069 km from Minden.

That’s it for now.
CU next Wednesday

Cheers Ritz

Welcome back to the regular Wednesday morning blogs.

It is still so hot here, that I forgot that tomorrow the meteorological autumn starts already .
Yes, AND spring for my many friends down under.
I noticed because I saw on FB , last Friday, the packing and departure from containers to Kiripotib.
It’s that time of the year already.

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And the first competition in South Africa is already announced;

We’re excited for the Gliding Nationals 2022
*Entry Form for the SA Nats 15m, Club and Two Seater.*
Where: Potchefstroom Airfield
When: Practice Day 30 September 2022, Comp Days 1-8 October.”

“See you all there!”

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The Rencontre ASK 13 in St Crepin is not only a competition between teams flying the ASK 13, but their pictures are absolutely fabulous. I follow them already for a long time.
Pilots from club’s with an ASK 13 meet, talk and fly. On day 5 St. Crepin was in front of St Remy and Suisse. They flew 200 km. with a speed of 84.4 km./h!!!!
overall result;
1. St Remy with 4945 points.
2. St Crepin with 4879 p.
2. Suisse with 4879
There are 25 teams.
Here is a picture from August 26

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Indeed on Sunday morning I found some pictures from the prize-giving on my laptop and though it is rather late now, the girls will be, for ever famous, not only on the prize giving day. Being a WORLD CHAMPION in 2022 is FOR EVER!!!!!
I love the picture from Petra with her gorgeous little baby. In Lake Keepit [ [2019/2020] she had a little one still in the pram and Petra’s mum was taking care of her.
Now this looks like a new little long-haired beauty in her mums arms.
What better trophy to have!!??

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A few more comps finished, one of them the Junior National Championship in the UK. These comps were held in Keevil,[ United Kingdom] between August 20 and 28 and hosted by the Bannerdown Gliding Club
Out of 9 days they had 6 valid days, so enough to find out who the best UK junior would be.
They had short tasks,[87 km] longer ones,[ 251 km.] late starts [4 PM] and JWGC CHAMPION, Finn Sleigh , who won 4 days.
Like during the JWGC ,he teamed up with Toby Freeland, who was runner up.
1. Finn Sleigh in ASW 20 with 3.464 points.
2. Toby Freeland in ASW 20 with 3.267 p.
3. Alistair Emson in St Cirrus with 3.201 p.
4. Henry Indigo-Jones in St Cirrus with 3.053 p.
36 Pilots competed and another 12 2-seaters with experienced pilots to “help” out with coaching.

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From happiness to sadness!
TT, Tony Tabart passed away. Another gliding icon lost in Australia, in the world. Another MATE gone!!!AND,…one of my longtime mates and a good friend.

Some words from Tonies family, good friends and soaring mates;
“20 years ago I sat at a bar in Tocumwal and got talking to a man who had forearms like Popeye. As we addressed a couple of pints of wine, I had no idea I was talking to an Australian gliding legend. He was a man with whom I was to become a friend.”
AND
“Tony Tabart made it to 86 years of age. He was fiercely competitive, generous, fun, smart, mischievous, and a fine friend. Old mate, you will be missed.” by Simon

“Tony enjoyed a great innings over his 86 years; an adventurous, interesting and fulfilling life, and wonderful friends.” Jo.

“Mr Tabart has enjoyed considerable success in the sport. He represented Australia at home and overseas, in France, Sweden, Italy, Austria and former Yugoslavia. He was the first Australian to win a day in an international competition, in Yugoslavia in 1972. He was also the oldest winner of the Australian Open Gliding Championship in 2004, has been Australian Open champion four times and set several gliding records – including being the second person in the world and first Australian to complete a 1000-kilometre triangle.” Horsham Gliding, Tony loved to fly there, and since 1966 till recent he flew all Horsham weeks.

“He was steadfast in his love and support. Always tolerant, always available, always interested.
Through thick and thin, Tony and Jo have been a part of my life, Indea Moffitt’s life and then to his great grand children.
I can’t really express this loss… and my heart is with Jo, and Julie, for their loss is deep.” daughter in law Anita.

“I remember Tony Tabart doing a high speed water dump run in his Nimbus 2 as Gough Whitlam opened the Waikerie World Gliding Championships in January 1974. A wonderful pilot with a wonderful gliding record still competing at Horsham not many years ago too. We are sadly losing some of the very best.” Neil.

“Sad news for Australian Gliding with the passing of Tony Tabart at the age of 86.
Tony spent a lot of time as one of the very best glider pilots in Australia, representing his country at the highest level many times. Tony was very generous with his time as an elite cross country coach. It’s also worth noting that Tony was the last surviving member of the Australian team chosen for the 1974 World Championship held at Waikerie in South Australia, a landmark event in Australian Gliding.” Gliding Australia

I got to know Tony in the early eighties. We met the Aussie team in Rieti in 1984 at the Pre Worlds and Tony was one of them, a tall slim sheep farmer from Australia. When we talked he was not just a farmer, but he had thousands of sheep. We were impressed. An Aussie we only knew from “books and films”
Then we had already the feeling to once visit Australia and in retrospect, that visit to Rieti in 84 , changed our lives TOTALLY.
We moved to Australia and spend at least 30 Dutch winters in the Tocumwal sun , as I have written many times. We even lived there for just over 10 years and ran the SSC .
Tony and Jo stayed our friends all over the years till NOW. So did Bruce by the way and Griffo, all from the same ’84-holiday.
Over the last years I could see that Tony , every year I met him again became a bit older , but still full of spirit and we shared lots of long soaring stories, good wines and food.
His passing is rather unexpected, but with 86 and a double pneumonia , you know it might go wrong.
It did, but I am sure Tony was more than HAPPY with his life, he had ” his low’s, but also a lot of high’s.”
I will ALWAYS remember the SUPER FINE and SPECIAL times with him and with Jo.
I wish her and Tonies sister Julie all the best.

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To finish the final results from the World Gliding Aerobatic Championship 2022 in Issoudun

On August 28 the weather here was still good for soaring, so good, that one of our pilots Sikko flew a 500 in the ST Libelle from Soesterberg. He started, went straight up with 1.5 m/s to 900 m, had wind on the tail, cloud streets and flew till his battery was empty; 612 km[ 534 FAI triangle]
What do you want more that late in the season. Huge fun!!!
The German squad flies in Puimoisson and Michael Sommer is one of the coaches. A few 900 k’s in the EB, also not bad in this time of the year!

Last day of a fabulous SUMMER/August……
CU next Wednesday,
cheers Ritz

Liz get’s the last word about the last flying day:
“Hugs all round on the final day of racing here at the Women’s World Champs! The day started off with low developing cu’s but gradually the cloud base raised high enough to make cross country flying feasible. With tight points in all three classes, everything was to play for today. The first sector everyone managed to go deep into but the second sector caught a lot of pilots out. The tops of the cu’s began spreading and the lift turned off, half the field landed out, but those who made it back had really big gains on the leaderboard. AeroSPARX finished the night out right with an amazing aerobatic, pyrotechnic display here at the Gliding Centre.“

Of course the French were very happy with their 1-2 in 18 m. class with Anne and Melanie. So they should!!!As said yesterday , it is Anne’s 3d title as WORLD CHAMPION!!!
With the great French results they were runner up in the TEAM CUP!!!!!!

After 2 weeks of ” variable weather and challenging racing“…
The team CUP was for Germany with 922.74 points. They had 3 ladies on the podium.
Runner up was France with 919.11 with 2 ladies at the podium
Third Czech Rep with 918.85, with 3 ladies at the podium.
THE UK was 4th with 783.71 AND Claudia at the podium and the 5th spot was for Italy with 761.25 points.

The last finishes!!!!

AND NOW I would have loved to share the pictures of the CHAMPIONS and WINNERS in each class. Like every other comp I write about. BUT…. NO!!!!!
I waited all day, no pictures about the prize giving, no stream to follow it at home, as in Tabor or Szeged.
Maybe a a bit of a missed chance , from the organization, for the people looking at home at a laptop screen with for 20 hours the same news on the day of the prize giving!!
Finally in the evening Lilian from the Dutch Gliding Team shared 2 pictures; TOP!!!!! THANKS Lilian!
The prize giving was under a sky full of cu’s and a nice warm temperature, so no winter jackets necessary anymore..

First the TEAM CUP winners with a smiling , clapping and laughing Mandy to the right. The German girls in the middle, The French girls to the l. and the girls from Czech Rep to the r.

I used over the last 2 weeks a lot of pictures and special THANKS go to the WWGC photographer Georgia and the FAI photographer Markus.
Other friends, who co-operated to make this blog successful,….. a HUGE THANK you!!!!!

That was that, all done and dusted….now…pfff….
A lot have to “race” to the harbor, to get their timeslot on a boat ,bringing them back to the mainland.
Another nice competition where life-long-friendships have been made again.
Soaring/gliding is such a nice sport!!!!!

CU Wednesday

Cheers Ritz

AND,…look at these skies in Tocumwal Australia, this morning in “not-yet-spring-time” and so nice green!!!!!

11th WWGC
Husbands Bosworth, United Kingdom
14 August 2022 – 26 August 2022

UPDATES ; after quite a spectacular day in Husbos with pilots dropping from 1 to 5, in club class and 1 to 3 in 18 m. Only Cornelia in standard could hold her first spot!!

August 26 VERY LAST DAY in Hus Bos!!!
After 5 practice days, and 13 days on which they flew in club class 6 valid days and in standard and 18 m. 8, it’s time for the very last day.
Day 1 was the absolute best day and set expectations for the rest of the days, but the weather is the weather, nobody has influence. Luckily they had that one TOP day!
And,…. you can only say they tried HARD!! EVERY DAY.
Yesterday parts of the UK needed winter coats, we here nearly melted with 35dgr C. in the shade.

BUT there is ONE MORE DAY!!! TODAY!!!!
No flying yesterday and the day before , so no “looking back ” report, by Liz.
But the pilots and crews were busy with paper -glider- throwing-comps and gummy-boot-throw-comps: “Welly Wang day.”…won by Team Germany ll.
A picture from todays weather published at 7.30 UK time.

First I thought this must be a British joke, UK humor, they are good in that, but when I checked I got the message ; NO JOKE, LONG AAT’s.
So that fog should burn away!!!! And …indeed then you could have a real good day.
Tasks were set and long tasks too , AAT’s from 3.30 and 3 hours .
Would they start with a top day and finish with one????
I really hope so!!!!! Though day 1, was as said, one of the best ever , maybe even the best, in the UK weather-wise…a one-of-a-kind-day!!!!

August 26; last day
Last briefing for Liz and her team and with the words “the next briefing will be in Spain” she finished that part of her job.
The next one will be in 2023 in Soria-Garray in Spain.

Order today; club, 18 m. and standard.
First launch at 12.
then…12.15.
The trigger temperature was not reached …more delay till 12.30 AND
a B task.
then more delay….12.45! Cloud base still only 2200 AGL.
The sniffer has no problem to stay up, but the cloud base is a bit of a problem.
Then…12.45 it IS!!!!
And,…off they go for the last time during this WWGC.

Thank you to the scorer Benedict Smith and task setter ; Harriet Gamble

With a big thank you to ALL TUGGIES!!!! Here is one of them……

AND,…
to all field runners.

Club class; 3.30 AAT…..changed in 2.45….Gate opened at 13.25.
Looking at the overall scores between at this stage Aude at 1 and Ulrike at 5 , the difference is less than 200 points. SO EVEYTHING IS POSSIBLE for them and Petra, Claudia and Ines!!!
UK pilot Carol was the first on the score board, …. unfortunately she was out after 106 km..
The Ukraine girls flew far South into the sector ….did they make more kilometers???
MAYBE YES…. Valentina has just finished at 16.48 BST! She flew 200 km with a speed of 61.66 km./h.
So to see, Ines was 200 m. higher than the rest …AND she was runner up for the day.
Edita , winning task 5 as the only finisher, was OUT, after 213 km. With her 11 more!!! .
One of them the number 1 Aude, was not counted for, she might celebrate already or be sad! So I had to wait with the final scores for this class.
Updated!!!!No Aude was not celebrating, after being on spot 1 overall for 4 days, she was out after 197 km and sad for her ,dropped from 1 to 5!! That hurts!!!! Petra is the new number 1 and world champion.
In 18 m Czech Rep’s Alena lost the first place, in this class Petra wins the spot.
More hectic in Club,…. as Ines with her runner up spot is now number 2 overall, AND an EQUAL runner up spot for Claudia!!! Hope they have 2 SILVER MEDALS!!!
NOT NECESSARY,..it changed again and with ONE point Claudia is runner up and Ines 3d.
Elena is 4th

Standard; 3 hour AAT…changed in 2.15…Gate opened at 14.02.
also here is the difference between number 1 Cornelia and the number 6 Aude [Untersee] not huge; about 300 points!!! Who takes risks and are the other team members ready/prepared to help the one above them? That seems NO problem.
The 3 German girls fly together , hoping to keep their positions on 1 and 2 , also the 18m girls could help out!
It helped,…. Cornelia won the day with French Anais as runner up. Chrissie was 3d. Sabrina 4th.
It’s reasonable to say with 3 not yet counted for, that the overall top 3 is nearly the same as yesterday. Only Jana [4] and Barbora [3] swapped places!!! Cornelia Sabrina and Barbora.
After 19 years [2003] Cornelia is WORLD CHAMPION again. Good on her!!!

18m; 3 hour AAT….changed in 2.15...gate opened at 13.42.
the numbers 1,2 and 3 at this stage have 4.402, [Alena] 3.878,[ Anne Ducarouge] 3,870 points [ Melanie ] Will she be able to defend her title??? The difference with number 4 Stefanie and 1 is nearly 400 points,…..too much for 1 day.
UK pilot Jane, used her engine to get home…after 150 km. So did Diana. The rest is still going well, but the last leg seems to be TOUGH!!!!
Only Katrin is not scored yet but I can say now that PRELIMINARY the new CHAMPION is ANNE DUCAROUGE from France. The 3 flew together…. Anne started 3 minutes behind Melanie , who lost her title to Anne with only 11 points!!!!
Alena lost her first place on the last day! She was there for 5 days. She was out after 201 km. and is 3d overall now.
Pfff what a day!!!!
Katrin is now scored and was 5th for the day and overall. She was 2 days on 1 overall.

After 13 days, 6 valid days in club and 8 in both other classes.…WE have winners and CHAMPIONS;

club class;
1. Petra Piskata from Czech. Rep in LS 4 with 4,282 points and WORLD CHAMPION!!!!
2. Claudia Hill from the UK in LS1f neo with 4,181 p
3. Ines Engelhardt from Germany in LS1f with 4,182 p. ONE POINT!!!!

Standard class;
1. Cornelia Schaich from Germany in LS 8 with 4,692 points and WORLD CHAMPION!!!
2. Sabrina Vogt from Germany in Discus 2a with 4,503 p.
3. Barbora Moravcova from Czech Rep. in LS 8b with 4,350 p.
That ‘s only 2 points more than Jana [ 4,348 ]and 3 more than Aude. [4.345] SO CLOSE!!!!!

18m class;
1. Anne Ducarouge from France in JS 3 with 4,411 points….WORLD CHAMPION!!!!
2. Mélanie Gadoulet from France in JS 3 with 4,400 p.
3. Alena Netusilova from Czech Rep. in ASG33es with 4,369 p.
Anne is for the 3d time WORLD CHAMPION. She won already in Issoudun [2013] , Herning [2015]
All preliminary.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CHAMPIONS AND TO ALL PARTICIPANTS!!!!

Now it is time to look at my garden ,house, friends and specially my family again.
Writing EVERY day for 4 Cat.1 events [ EGC/ 13.5 WGC in Pocuinai, WGC in Szeged, JWGC in Tabor and WWGC in Husbands Bosworth] is VERY time consuming!!!!
But it was my pleasure.
Tomorrow some pictures from the prize giving and then……
back to the normal regular Wednesday blog.

CU next Wednesday
Ritz

Tonight party time in Hus Bos

And for the FUTURE this message from Adam;
“Entries for the Australian Pre-world‘s are building nicely, Beryl runs a fabulous competition, & with such a great task area with associated conditions, it’s set to be another top one! Entries & form found here: http://www.narromineglidingclub.com.au/…/AusGlide2022…

P.s. 15m & Club as a stand alone class already, come on Standard pilots, get your entries in“

And last but not least, The Netherlands won for the first time in history medals in aerobatic gliding…. category Free Unknown. Bjoern Straijer and Erwin Vorenhout were those TOPPERS!!!

11th WWGC
Husbands Bosworth, United Kingdom
14 August 2022 – 26 August 2022

After a spooky evening, with witches from several parts of the world , the WWGC starts it’s penultimate day.

After the fun night, NOW the more serious …..last-but-one-day!!!
It started grey however and with the message “no gridding before briefing!!!!”
That’ s what you do not want to read/hear, on such a day!!!

August 25; it’s cold there, they put on their winter jacks……HERE in the Netherlands it with 35 dgr. C .
Another heat wave!!!!
Briefing delayed till 11 !!!!

It took a long time before we heard any further action.
But gridding was NOT BEFORE 13.15.
So late starts in a hopefully nice window.
Whatever would happen…..Tasks were set for all classes.
Task 12.…out of 12…flying day 5 in club and 7 in standard and 18 m.

club; 105 km....
standard; 121 km….
18 m; 145 km….

But THEN, there was the last message for the day…day cancelled for all classes!!!!
A pity , but it is as it is!
It seems NOBODY was sad about the cancellation.

Hopefully tomorrow ONE MORE DAY!!!!

Cheers Ritz

11th WWGC
Husbands Bosworth, United Kingdom
14 August 2022 – 26 August 2022

AUGUST 24 2022; task 11 today on flying day 6 out of 11 in club and 8 in standard and 18 m.
AND,…I just learned a new word after I learned penultimate day, which is tomorrow , I now know the word;
ANTEPENULTIMATE day. TODAY…...

First of all Liz with her view on yesterday;
“A low and messy day for all, there were those who climbed away from 500 foot and those who didn’t. The course was switched to B task on the grid to make the most of the good weather in the East. Upon being launched, all three classes struggled in their dropzones. Although launching began at 1230, it was 1540 before the final pilots got away through the startline. Landouts ranged from 15km after the start to 3km before the finish. The pilots who could make a clean getaway really extended in the East, it was only 2500 cloud base near the airfield but increased at the far end of the task. Once most of the landouts had returned to the club we partook in a quiz night. With the final day of competition on Friday, we will have a closing celebration on Friday night with food stalls, music and an aerobatics performance by AeroSPARX’

Enough out-landings yesterday ,one of them was Claudia;

As I said yesterday already, a day of big losses for some and high “climbs” for others. But still 2 days to go.
In Club ,Petra still flew 157 km. yesterday!!She remains on spot 2 overall. Ines [4] is only 20 points behind Claudia [3] now. Aude [Grangeray] is still on 1.
In standard Aude [Untersee] was only 5 k out, but “paid” with a loss of 2 places; 4 to 6. Jana moved up from 6 to 3!! Cornelia from Germany has a nice lead of 155 points on her team mate Sabrina. On the last days they might have to “fight” for their selves.
In 18 m the outlanding from Katrin hurt, she moved from 4 to 6. Alena is more than 150 points ahead but between the number 2 and 3, Anne and Melanie , both from France the difference is 8 points!!!!

What happens today on August 24;
Order, club, 18m and standard.
Tasks have been set, straight away 3…
An A, [ area task to the east] B [ racing task to the east] and C task [short racing task to the south] have been set for each class.
FIRST LAUNCH AT 12!!! THEN at…12.30! Then 13.00!Then the day was CANCELLED in all CLASSES.

club; A task….AAT 2.45...CANCELLED
standard; A task…2 hour....CANCELLED
18 m; A task…2.15...CANCELLED.
…NO TASK 11…..

Short after, ” a weird” flag appeared under the FAI flag!!!??? A Witch!!!!

So to see not the best weather so time for “serious” Fun!!

Today is Baba Yaga, an important event for the ladies. The “old witches” welcome the new witches in their middle. Very special!!!! For the die-hard readers of this blog, you recognize this picture from USA pilot Kathy Fosha last time in Lake Keepit, straight away.
I attended it last time , for the first time and it had quite an impact on me.

No soaring today, so not much more news.

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Yesterday I shared the picture of the French Junior Winners.
I got a comment on that news from Marie-Christine and I share it with you with HUGE pleasure .
“Comment on the French junior championship, it is worth noting that the class club winner, François-Xavier Poisson, was the youngest in the comp and the youngest to ever win at just 17. Well done indeed and good luck to him for future competitions.“

What a great young man , with a bright future!! I share the picture again; indeed he looks young and very happy. Great talent!!!!!

Hopefully 2 more days to follow. Certainly for CLUB CLASS.
More pictures from todays event , hopefully tomorrow.

With the biggest drought ever in 500 years , here in Europe, I say CU tomorrow, hope “no witch had to disappear.”
Cheers Ritz

11th WWGC
Husbands Bosworth, United Kingdom
14 August 2022 – 26 August 2022

First of all Liz with her view on yesterday;
“An impending front with high winds tipped the race director to cancel the club class early and just grid 18m and Standard with the chance to do minimum distance tasks in a short weather window. 1145 the grid began launching into a quickly changing sky. The first half of the race was under the sun with some stronger thermals present. The pilots were pleasantly surprised with the good conditions in such a short window. The race really came down to having a good start and nailing the final glide. It was a spectacle watching over 10 pilots in standard class all arriving back at the field within two minutes. Due to the minimum distance it wasn’t a 1000 point day so the overall leaderboard didn’t shift a lot. Tomorrow is looking similar but a tiny bit warmer so the chances for another short racing window are high.”
We’ll find out today.

When you wonder who is behind Claudia’s Gliding Page then, have a look this is Claudia.

In the evening they often have dinner together to look back at the day and to “just be together”

TUESDAY August 23;
for CLUB task 10…flying day 5…, for standard and open task 10 and flying day 7.

During briefing, Mandy Temple [Australia] ,one of the stewards in Hus Bos , who was the perfect CD in Lake Keepit, gave , as I heard an excellent presentation of the use of the parachute.
I know her already for a long time , not really good I must admit , but from comps and as “fellow-TC’s” or as her soaring-journalist at the/her last WWGC and I never knew she was an experienced sky diver.
With the recent JWGC we could see again, how important the knowledge of a parachute is when you have to bail out. Luckily that one went OK again.

“The weather this morning doesn’t look inspiring. Low clouds covers the site, with the occasional break. However, all gliders have been asked to grid, in all classes. The comp team is obviously hopeful for a weather window big enough to launch everyone”; Women Gliding

Prize winners from the day before were honored and the French “coq” created some fun. I remember the young man from Lake Keepit.

Tasks were set!!!! For all 3 classes this time. It is supposed to be better than yesterday, so a bigger window hopefully today.
BUT …then the message…changing to B task for ALL classes.
order; club….standard…18 m.
12. 15 first start. THEN…12.30….off they went….
At 12.45 the base was 1000 m. MSL and 1 m/s lift…..but whilst reading what is going on, I learned that the base was more going down,…. rather than up.
BY THE WAY……….All start gate openings are in BST. [British Summer Time]
So here in The Netherlands I have to wait for an hour ,as we are one hour later.
A few were really low and some needed a relight. A really VERY tricky day!!!!
In the end with “losers” who were in the top and winners who went UP.!!!!
You can nearly call it a lottery-day today!

Club; 212.36 km;…..changed to 160.13 km….gate opened at 13.10 . Klara the runner up overall had to land for a relight. And to get away from the field was too difficult.
She was out after 2.85 km. So sad!!!!
Some ,as our Dutch Lilian also landed out not long after they started.;15 km.
Also Olena from Ukraine landed out after 49 km.
Paula from Argentina ,yesterday runner up, could not get away. She tried 3 times..in vain!!
BUT,….there were finishes!!!!!
The first to finish was Ukrain pilot Valentina!!!It took her 3 hours and 17 minutes to fly over the set 160 km.
She was 3d for the day.
The German girls had a perfect day ; Inez in LS 1f and Ulrike in LS 4 finished as well. They are on spot 1 and 2.
4 in and Claudia was only 10 k out…… and 9 outlandings .
It’s waiting now for 5 pilots and I know 3 of them are out. Don’t know about Elena and Alizee.
A tough day for 456 points.
Will come back later on them.
UPDATE; Elena was out after 145 from the 160 km. I know Petra did not finish and ” poor” Klara and Paula good NOT get away!!!

standard; 221.23 km….changed to 172.13 km.…gate opened at 13.28. Some were at 1000 m others at just 600. Team Germany flew together ,but when one misses the “lift”, it gets difficult. Chrissie had to land, after 24 km, but she missed already out on a valid start…..ONLY o to 0.5 km. from the start line
58 km./h and Czech pilot Barbora is HOME!!!! equal 3d with Jana.
What a great day for the Czech team.
Also finished … Francesca Roberts from the UK. [5th today]
But then a few more arrive!!
Cornelia and Sabrina from Germany and Czech pilot Dana. POOR Sabrina it seems she forgot her PEV!!!!!
The French girls Aude and Anais are not yet counted for, as is Ayala, but already 6 finished from 13.
So it should be a valid day!
A tough day here as well for 350 points, but each point is important.
UPDATE: Aude and Anais just could not make it; 167 and 163 km…..Ayala is not yet counted for. more tomorrow.

18m; 248.46 km…..changed to 188.14 km….gate opened at 13.47 MM [ Diana] and BK [Katrin] put on their engine just before 3 PM after 35 and 37 km. Around that time the lift was only 0.3 m /s.
Whilst waiting for scores, that takes longer when many are “out” , I noticed 5 pilots in in 18 m; TOP.
The 3 Czech girls Alena, Jana and Hana and 2 French girls Anne and Melanie.
With a rather late start Elena flew around with 79.51 km./h, whilst the other 2 had 74km/h. and The French 74 km./h.
It looks like a valid day in this class! 6 in and 5 out, one not yet counted for.
Mind you, Alena was already world champion in 2003 in 15 m. class in Jihlava, the same year that Chrissie won in club and Cornelia in standard class. NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO and then all 3 WORLD CHAMPION and now all 3 participating in this WWGC!!!!
Max amount of points today is 336.
UPDATE; Sandra is not yet counted for, more on her tomorrow.

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And to finish this HUSBOS -DAY a great picture AND story from 14 year old Kai Gray, the young scout who walked with the sign LUXEMBOURG in the parade. He adopted team MM from Luxembourg , as his team and visits regularly.
He is a super aviation enthusiast, who wants to become a professional pilot.
At home he has already an airbus simulator and flies around the world in it.
Every day is at the field as one of the field runners.
What a great young man!!!!!
On the picture thumps up from Kai for Diana.

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In the French place Beynes the French Nationals for Juniors were flown and they finished yesterday. Due to bad weather they only had 3 flying days out of 7. Not a lot of flying , but fun enough so to see!!!

In club class the winner was François-Xavier Poisson. They had 2 days with over-300-km-tasks and one 2.30 AAT. So only 3 competition days!
Nicolas Caudrelier won 2x 1000 points by 2 daily wins in the Pegase. Not enough to win as the consistent flying of Francois-Xavier gave him 2.437 points and Nicolas 2.266 .
Nicolas was out on task 2, loosing about 300 points that day.
12 Pilots and 2 HC one from Belgium and one from Switzerland.

The other class with standard class gliders, 2-seaters and 15m gliders was won by Timoté Gard in LS 8.
Out of 17 he was the best with 2.617 points.
4 LS 8 gliders in the top.
They had a 2.30 AAT, a 408 and 350 racing task. Nice tasks, unfortunately not too many.
17 participants and 3HC pilots , 2 from Germany and 1 from Belgium.

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AND,….for the Free Known Program this World Glider Aerobatic Championships 2022 is over;

CU tomorrow! Then only 3 day’s to go in Hus Bos.
Might take a while ,when Liz keeps travelling like this!!

Cheers Ritz
All scores very preliminary!!!

11th WWGC
Husbands Bosworth, United Kingdom
14 August 2022 – 26 August 2022

The day started with the message that” 18m and Std. Classes have been asked to grid this morning. Club class is getting a day off!”
Club has already one day less!!!
The met man said;
“We have 2 occlusions coming. If one does n’t get us, the other one will”.

Liz had some words too yesterday evening about day 8;
“All still to play for half way through the competition, with very tight points on the leaderboard all three classes still have the chance to mix it up. Although it was forecast today to be similar conditions to yesterday – with rough weather and high winds – it really cleared up nicely to be a fine soaring day. It wasn’t without its challenges, the two AAT sectors were both amazing and awful depending on the timing that you were going through. With 6 knot thermals and 4500’ cloud base in some zones and the complete holes in others, today had a lot of luck involved. Back on the ground we had Suzanne Morgan and Mandy Hickson give inspirational speeches to the crowd gathered at the open day. They shared stories from their aviation careers – Airline Captain for British Airways and Tornado GR4 pilot in the RAF respectively. It was fantastic to host the local community at The Gliding Centre for the open weekend and we hoped they enjoyed it as much as we did.”

I was wondering how many tow planes there are and how many tuggies and if there were maybe female tuggies and YES there is one.
There are a total of 12 tug pilots available.  They try to operate 7 tugs each day, but it is usually only 6.

“Yesterday I flew together with my honorary team mate @la_nena_blu for a bit but then she left me for dead as usual , and she won the day (but I’m back up to 4th so that’s ok).
Well done Elena! ” Claudia’s Gliding Page

It’s Monday August 22 now and they start with task 9 for 2 classes.
Everything is early today, due to the expected rain.
Briefing at 10 and first expected launch at 11. It turned out to be at 11.45 for the A task.
When they can fly THEY FLY.….so they should.
Off they went , 18m upfront and then standard.

Standard; 121.77 km.…gate opens at 12.37…All pilots flew the task!!!! Most started 10 min past the gate opening and raced over the track to be back before the rain. All were back just after 3.
Daily winner is Aude with 87 km./h for 257 points. The UK girls did well, Ayala and Francesca had a speed of 86 and 85 km./h.

18 m; 148.94 km..….gate opens at 12.18…Within 10 minutes they were all on track! Pretty good speed for Astrid from France;106 km./h for 282 points. The 3 Czech girls followed and 2 more French girls , all flying over 100 km./h.

Another flyable day in Hus Bos was created in a short window!
They were all in and it started to rain.
Good set task!

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I owe you a picture of the winners from the CIM, here they are. First the mixed class winners , then the open 18 m. CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN!!!!

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And I owe you some pictures from THE KEIHEUVEL, where history was written , without I knew it.
The 2d day was unfortunately cancelled . I was a bit worried , but in the end not necessary.
There was a scramble at the military airfield of Kleine Brogel, very close to Keiheuvel. Such a thing never happened, but it did now.
A Turkish plane was on his way to London WITHOUT radio contact and had to be intercepted and escorted by F 16’s from Kleine Brogel which was QRA.
Everybody in the air had to stay under 2500 ft and return to the airport!!!!
In the organization from this competition was also an airline pilot from KLM and a traffic controller from Kleine Brogel and they solved the problem very professional.
All pilots were grateful, for the solutions to the problems and in the end they had a partial good day of flying as well…no scores though!!!
But what a way to loose a nice soaring day??!! HISTORY!!!
BUT, an important mission in these weird times.
So the winners from day 1 , were the winners of this 2 day-event.
1 in the sport class local “hero” Jeroen Jennen with 704 points.
1 in open 3 pilots team Snyers & Bielen in the ARCUS T and Daan Spruyt in the Ventus 2AX both with 849 points. Daan was on spot 8 from 24 in open class, in Szeged during the last WGC. [EB 29dr]

The Junior cup was , indeed, for the best junior and that was this time Noud Kaay flying in the 18 m. ASG 29 on spot 7.
This CUP is in MEMORY of the late father from Bert Schmelzer sr and the grand sons Tijl and Bert jr.
He was the very first instructor at the Keiheuvel, made the first winch start at the , at that stage new airfield on a sandy and dusty plain, which opened in 1956. He flew the first 300 km in an  Olympia-Meise , from Keiheuvel to Dieppe in Normandie in 1958, to achieve his Golden C and till 2002 when he died he was a member of the LSV Viersen at the Keiheuvel.
An interesting cup with huge history behind it, to receive.
Some pictures not from gliders but from pilots;

All happy young people who are the bright future!!!

Cheers Ritz.