We just finished our warm days. After 60 over 20 -dgr. C -days, including 2 heat waves, we had 2 dgr. C less than 20 ,so it was over with the fun, but we just had the best summer here in Holland. No complaints, not at all!!!!
In Germany still a 1.022 km, in an LS 8 T/18m. and 1.018 km. flight in a Nimbus 4 DM, last weekend and many over 900 km. flights.
Still 79 Flights from Holland last Sunday, best by Paul Wijsman in Ventus CT /17.5 m. ;605 km.[ 400 FAI triangle]and several over 500 k’s. Some flying with great pleasure under cloud streets.
Sikko Vermeer even flew a 300 FAI triangle from Soesterberg in the St Libelle.[415 in total!!]
In parts of Austria and the N of Italy the first snow has fallen , so slowly we move via autumn to winter. My friends in Africa and Down Under do it the other way around.
In about 3 weeks,some gliders move again from their home fields to Namibia , South Africa and Australia.Time flies!!!
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French Female Nationals at Pont Sur Yonne;
As shared by the organizers.
7 Out of 7 day’s for the ladies!!! TOP !!!!
Aude Untersee , who flew in Hosin in the 2 seater with one of the Aboulin’s , won task 4, 289 km. with a speed of 92 km./u .The” good old ” Hornet is still doing well and I read she LOVES flying it!!!!
Task 5 was small as it was a difficult day with late starts [ Aude at 4.35 PM, Melanie at 5. 07 ] as it took the weather a long time to improve. A 1.45 hour AAT was set and she won again;154 km in time 1,51.
She was about 20 km.further and 10 km./h. faster than the runner up Melanie Gadoulet in the Pegase.
3 Outlandings
Waiting on day 5.
As shared by the organizers.
Task 6 showed another AAT this time 2 hour. Anaïs Gaubert won the day in the LS 4; 254 km in time 202.59. Nice speed of 100 km./h.. She was one of the 3 unlucky out-landers the day before.
Task 7 , so the last day , with the message ” the rain stopped at 9am, followed by a beautiful skyline and ceilings at 1800m.” all ladies got theirselves in gear again.
Due to a nice speed and great flying , the ladies de-valuated the scores for a task of 203 km.
Magali Russier-Corcy,won with 108 km./h.in the SZD 55.
ONLY 4 out landings during the entire competition!!!
And the winners “en Francais”;
🥇 Championne de France : Aude Untersee in Hornet ;4.937 points.
🥈 Médaille d’argent : Magali Russier Corcy in SZD 55 ;4.889 points
🥉 Médaille de bronze : Mélanie Gadoulet in Pegase ;4.537 points.
Aude has this title already since 2014. She is only 23 years old and studies meteorology at the National School of Meteorology.
Top ladies!!!!
as shared by
Centre de Planeurs du Sénonais
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Junior Nationals at Lasham;
Lasham Junior Nationals and Regionals….
as shared by Alix Pentecost
Juniors;
After some “miserable” weather with small tasks and 1 pretty good task from 255 km. [with 1000 points for Finn Sleigh] finally on Saturday a “normal” task with 313 km. Simon Brown in the ASW 15 won the 1000 points. This brought him from 9 to 5 overall.
Also on the last [Sun-] day, there was no task. In the end the juniors flew 4 out of 9 day’s.
Junior Champion; Jake Brattle [ who was 3d on the last day] with 3.592 points in the DG 101.
Silver and Runner up; Clement Allen with 3.406 points in St Cirrus.
Bronze; Jordan Richards with 3.353 points in St Libelle.
Regionals Blue;
293 km. on the one but last flying-day and as there was no flying on the last day this turned out to be an important day. By the way the day before [task 7 with a 2 hour AAT] ,there was ONLY ONE finisher [ 223 km. in time 2.56 ] and a runner up George Metcalfe, who in the ASW 28 had a splendid day . He flew 177 km . was the first on the list of “out-landers” whilst the next pilot flew ” only ” 72 km!!!
The task-8-day was won by either Hughes or Davis sharing the St Cirrus with call sign E.George was runner up and with his good last run’s he moved from 5 to 2 overall.
Tom Arscott on the number 1 overall spot was 3d so he consolidated his first spot.
1. Tom Arscott in St Cirrus with 1.993 points.
2. George Metcalfe in ASW 28 with a few points less 2.830 points.
3 . Mark Holden in Duo Discus T with 2.792.
Regionals Red;
405 km. on the last flying day and Phil Jones won, for the 2 d time. After an out landing in his Ventus 3 T, on task 5 with only 430 points from the 982 going to winner of the day Dale/Dale in the ASH 25 , he had with this weather no chance to climb up back to the overall-top again and stayed on spot 5.
In the end Dale and Dale won in the ASH 25.
1. Dale/Dale in ASH 25 with 2.901 points
2. Alistair Nunn in JS 1B with 2.783 points.
3. Dennis Heslop in ASG 29E with 2.720 points.
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Not far away,
… a few more UK TOPPERS were flying for the Cotswald Nationals 2018,
from Aston Down.
2/3 Out of 9 day’s were flyable.
In open class Andy Davis won in JS-MD1C and gathered over 3 day’s 2.112 points. Russell Cheetham was runner up in JS 1C with 1.834 points and on 3. Tim Jenkinson same glider a few points less ;1.816.
In St. class Leigh Wells won in LS 8 with 1.522 points after 2 day’s. Just ahead of his dad who gathered 1.432 points also in LS 8. Good to see Martyn is still flying!!!
In 15 m.Tim Scott won also after only 2 day’s of flying in ASG 29E with 1.616 points. Chris Starkey was runner up and Matt Cook number 3.
One of the good day’s!!
As shared by Cotswold Nationals 2018
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——After Ostrow there was a lot of “talking” about the interval starts. Some are in favor, some are strong against it and some think it might be a good idea BUT,…. with better and strict rules set by and backed up by the IGC.
Adam started in his blog a discussion about it .
I share Adam’s start of this discussion in the hope the future for gliding remains SAFE or even better ….get’s safer!!!!!
Adam’s opinion;
“Interval Starts, reminiscing over the day that 37 of us went through the start line together at the POL 15m WGC – unreal!
Incredible to watch and be apart of, thankfully it all ended up with no plastic being bent.. Overall I think I’m a fan of the concept, though I think the organizers should be provided with some guidelines on how to set them properly, when to use them etc, rather than the IGC saying we want you to trial them – good luck with it, not real fair on the CD and task setter…
What do I mean by that? This particular day as every competitor saw it, the task too long for the weather – therefor we all knew, be high and ready when the gun fires! That’s exactly what happened, of course the ‘Kawa effect’ was in full play this day, as it was most days, seen in these series of pictures.
So if the interval start is used, then I think it needs to be shorter than the traditional task that maybe set. This will give the competitors a chance to play a game, chase points, select the optimum, take a gamble, make a bad start and try again later?
As we saw from this GP start day, the best pilots still wins. Which is ultimately what we all want. In fact, with this many pilots perhaps it’s easier for the first 5-10 leading pilots to do better than the rest? What I noticed was that they had clear air and were able to best extract the energy. The trailing people are forced to behave, fit in and just miss each other for the first 20-30km – by then, the leading 5 have pulled ahead and are off for the day.
Perhaps this is why it worked better at the UK EGC, as their was always three choices of start gate times, not as many competitors, which meant smaller packs?
What don’t I like about the interval starts? Only one thing really and that’s the points. As I see it, there’s only one optimal start time each day, naturally every pilot wants to be on it. At the UK EGC what I noticed that if you were in this group, you’d fly around all together holding hands and finish within minutes of each other. The points, there would be nothing in it. So to me, if this start technique was used often, I’d see it as hard to catch up points if you were behind, and easy to maintain the top dog position if you were at the top.
A solution? I’d like to see lead points used, like our hang gliding brothers & sisters use. Go through the first gate, 100points to that group of starters, 2nd gate 70pts, 3rd… etc They’re numbers I’ve pulled from thin air, but you get the point I’m sure. There would be a day factor of course and linked to speed – black magic?
What do you think of the interval start idea? Thoughts on the above? Solutions? What have I missed?
As shared by Adam
Good on you Adam to start the discussion.I know there are a lot of strong opinions in favor and against.
Also OGN is a “source of worry” !!!!
Hope the IGC listens and takes action, rather sooner than later.
——-Perlan is getting higher and higher;
I read; ” 62 000 ft. New altitude record in Andean mountain wave“.
This is about 9000′ higher than the flight last year for which they were awarded a world record!!!!!
The highest recorded glider flight!!!History is written AGAIN. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!
More news from Daniel L Johnson:
“New glider world record flight today – Jim Payne and Morgan Sandercock (without Morgan, this glider and this project would not exist).
The pilots had 63,100 msl on their altimeters, set to 29.93. The Armstrong Line is pressure altitude 63,000 ft. Their personal goal was to exceed that.
The record altitude will be determined by the FAI, after reviewing the records of both flight recorders. It will at least be greater than 60,000 ft. The exact GPS altitude isn’t known.
Jackie Payne says that 60,669 ft gps altitude will be claimed (she expects a slightly tighter altitude will be recognized after calibration).
The celebratory dinner lasted until almost midnight. I’ll embellish this properly tomorrow.
Two photos by Morgan from the back seat. One shows a high rate of climb; the other shows the near-top altitude.”
CU next week.
Cheers Ritz