On September 5 the FINAL of the FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX in St. Auban in the Provence area, started with 20 top pilots. Some were early in St Auban, which is the National Soaring Center , so was, Tilo Holighaus who flew “en passant” 756 km[530 FAI triangle] before the start of the BIG final!!!
Every day we got to see a new picture of the participants 20 in total, so we were in the mood already.
2 Ladies in the final race; Katrin Senne, and Melanie Gadoulet…top job!!!
Closer to the day more pilots tried to practice but the weather was not really flash, with some rain on Thursday.

On Friday the first official training;
“First training race was difficult with showers and cloud cover. But the pilots are happy and (almost) ready to race!”
164 km. was set.
On Saturday the 2d! 205 km was set and the day was won by Sebastian in an AS33e.
Then the final starts!!!!
With live coverage /Live Commentary with 3D Tracking and a YouTube playlist. Look at
https://finals2021.sgp.aero/race-coverage
Live race coverage will start at 13.30 each race day and a highlights video each evening at 19.30 each evening Follow the contest at Sailplane Grand Prix Finals 2021 (sgp.aero)
On Facebook FAI Sailplane Grand Prix | Facebook
On Twitter FAI SGP Series (@faisgp) / Twitter

September 5....RACE 1; 313.65 km.
Mario[ Kiessling]”got” the first 10 points in the Ventus 3; speed….134.7 km./h. Pretty good day!
8 Points for Sebastian [Kawa] , 7 for Gilles [Navas] , 6 for Katrin [Senne] , 5 for Max [Seis], 4 for Philippe [de Pechy] and 3 for Werner [Amann] with 2 for Thomas [Gostner] and 1 for Oscar [Goudriaan].

September 6…Race 2; 271.53 km. Interesting day, pilots upfront in the end did NOT win.
They had excellent mountain thermal conditions up to 2.700 m.
It was Mario again, who gained 20 points in 2 days. His Ventus 3 brought him over the circuit with 129.6 km./h.
Max was runner up in the JS 3 [128.8 km./h] and Christophe [Abadie] 3d [ 128.4 km./h.]
So exciting finishes.

https://youtu.be/M8z81-uk-uw

September 7...Race 3; Stable weather, cu’s between 1500 m. and 2000 m and 2500 and 3000 in the mountains. A and B tasks were set but A was flown; 333 km.
UNBELIEVABLE but SUPER MARIO wins again…3 in a row!!!!
BUT,…only JUST…beaten at the line!!!!
3 days 30 points!!!!!
Speed 136.4 km./h.
“Incredible photo finish about to happen at the SGP. Mario is really sticking it to the man!” Matthew Scutter who is commenting on the eSGP, which matches the task of the real SGP each day with the world’s best Condor pilots.
“The pass must have been painful. Kawa had him cold and behind, then Kiesslings 2 m/s thermal (well behind) grew to 5.5 m/s. Kinda lucky  considering the average climbs at that time on course, but 3 day wins in a row is no accident!!!!  well done Mario!!!” is the comment of Sean Michael who followed the tracking.
And; “Race 3: After a very tight race, Mario Kiessling managed to find a better climb at the back of the gaggle, catch up with the gaggle and won the day. Sebastian Kawa and Katrin Senne had a very tight final, fighting with 4 other pilots during the last kilometers.“
Sebastian was runner up[136 km./h] and Katrin 3d [135.9 km./h] …good on her!!!
“Mario Kiessling makes a spectacular comeback after falling away from the leading pack to beat Sebastian Kawa across the line for his 3rd Day win.“
from the official site.
Frank had as comment: “Awesome race! This is what Grand Prix racing is all about!!! 
Christian;”Keypoint was again Pic de Bure, where Mario Kissling, 6km behind Sebastian Kawa, followed his tilting wings an got a private 10 knot lift. Converted into kinetic energy, it was enough to sneak in front of Seb for the win. What a race!“
Jonker Sailplanes;”The first 3 days were won by Mario Kiessling by flying brilliantly and aggressively when required. As the commentary team said it is some of the most entertaining flying to watch. No wonder why Nintendo named their game after our SUPER-MARIO!
It is the first high level contest where the latest generation of new “3” gliders (Ventus 3, JS3, AS33) are competing against each other. As the gliders are limited to a 48 kg/m2 wing loading their ultimate performance at high speed is negatively effected, especially the JS3 and AS33 who needs to compete 40 kg lighter than a V3.”

4 races to come …..”But the weather might not be so cooperative. Will there be four more race days or will there be a forced rest on Thursday? ” from the official news.
After 3 races Mario leads with 30 points, followed by Sebastian with 21 and Max with 16.
Today is race 4…337.2 km. Another exciting day you can follow on the info I gave you.
More next Monday.

Parallel with the Grand Prix, they fly the E-Sport-Final-Series, with , from this area, Tim Kuijpers from the Netherlands and Jeroen Jennen from Belgium.
“In addition to the World Final flown in real time each day there will be a virtual race each evening with live presentation and commentary. The virtual FAI/SGP will be contested by twenty pilots from nineteen countries, flying the same tasks as the actual SGP. The pilots selected for the virtual FAI/SGP World Final are not all glider pilots but are proven accomplished virtual sailplane racers. There is also an “open” FAI/SGP virtual contest with 240 contestants already registered. The virtual FAI/SGP final will be live on the SGP channels with live commentary from the dedicated FAI and FFVP virtual race team.”
Virtual FAI/SGP races live from 20.00 CET each race day.
More information on the virtual event can be found at esport SGP

After 3 races the scores overall on soaringspot were;
1.  Donat-Pierre Luigi from France with 10 points.
2. Ben Fest from Germany with 8
3. Jeroen Jennen from Belgium with 7.
All 3 fly Ventus 3S.

The E3Glide in Varese

I hope you enjoyed and followed Matthew in Varese on the link I gave you.
He did a top job, both flying and writing.
I share his last post as a tribute to him.
“That’s a wrap, we had yet another flying day yesterday making 10/10 flying days in a row for me and permitting me to defend my title.

Varese is an extraordinarily diverse and challenging site to fly, but the eGlide concept makes it possible for even beginner mountain pilots to compete effectively as most mistakes can be papered over with a bit of engine time.
The dynamics of the event were totally different to last year where we needed them just to stay airborne, while using them here for strategic and speed advancement and never actually needing them. The ability to use them proactively greatly increases the safety in the mountains with much less time spend grovelling below the tops or squeaking over passes, and it becomes a good concept to teach mountain flying.

The contest instead becomes more about medium-long term strategy rather than sequences of perfect short term decision making that normally dominates flying in the mountains. I think the key decisions for me that helped were coming four days before to familiarize myself with the task area, and bringing such a viceless and forgiving glider that gave versatility in all the weather we had. I was really happy with how I was flying with only one major error through the week that the scoring system let me get away with.

Thanks to the organizers for running a great contest, to Holger at DG Group for lending me his beautiful LS8e Neo, and everyone else who supported me to get here!”

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ABOYNE in Scotland.
5 September 2021 – 11 September 2021

I always like the coverage of the 24th Aboyne Mountain comps in the UK.
On September 5 the weather was sunny in the morning ,”but will it get hot enough to produce those magical thermals we require?” was their question.
Then there was the message ;“The top cover is spoiling our fun at the minute and rain is forecast later on, first launch not before 13:45“
Unfortunately they had to skip the cross country part of the comps but local soaring and height climbing were available, for the 14 participants.
Some got in the wave, before the rain arrived.
All 14 gliders took a launch, with most making it above 5000 feet.
Mike Stephens won the day with a high point of 8,591′ resulting in a gain of 5,217′
On September 6, the weather was still not “flash” as we are used to by now, THOUGH it will be 28dgr. C here in the Netherlands today. Bit of a good after summer.
“The weather is challenging this morning, its a lovely morning, but maybe not so great for soaring.” was the Aboyne news.
BUT,….IT WAS!!! A task was set,…1.30 AAT,… the sniffer sent up to check/feel the conditions, the start announced for 12.20, the gate opened later and they had finishers as well.
“There is a stream of gliders calling 10km out, at the same time, we have a queue of aircraft ready to launch to make the most of the evening wave.”
Adrian Dogherty won the cc in the Duo Discus XT;132.10 km. in time 1.37.
Martin Phillimore managed the greatest gain (6,949′) and highest height (10,492′) 
September 7; 2 hour AAT.
Sniffer went up and “she” found wave .
At 12….”Blue wave is about and a few thermals but not currently enough to launch everyone into. “
But,…in the end the CC was cancelled , the height gain was available.
No result yet.

You can follow the action on Glide and Seek

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On September 3 the “rent-a-glider” boys. Ludwig and Wolfgang shared the next news and pictures;
“The new Namibian season is opened. Today we started to prepare our 3 containers and also packed the first gliders for the next Kiripotib- season. 13 gliders will start the long trip to Namibia end of next week. If you want to visit us, some gliders are still free, don’t wait to long to ask for.

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After 36 years the F 1 race was back in The Netherlands at the Zandvoort -circuit.
And what an epic race,…. what a day it was!!!!
Goosebumps!!!!!
Double Dutch Delight!!!!
Max won and got a few more points in the totals than Hamilton…only 3 but still a long way to go.
EVERYBODY loved the day, world wide. A relief for the organizers as they had a huge amount of troubles before it all started.

Next week I publish on MONDAY September 13.
Back at September 29 for the regular blog on Wednesday.

Cu then.
Cheers Ritz