With 11 out of 13 days , even 2 days with tasks  over 500 km. you can say it was a GREAT competition there in Prievidza for the 119 pilots flying for the Flight Challenge Cup Gliding 2013 !!!
When I left you on Wednesday , they were ready for over 500 km. flights.
It turned out to be a very challenging day; 14 from 34 in the mixed class managed to finish, with the French ARCUS as the daily 1000- points-winner, nobody [from 46] finished in club class still 1000 points for daily winner Frantisek Sobek for 445 km. and 9 from 33 pilots made it home  in 15 m. class.
Enough outlandings and returns to the field by aborting the task , due to changed weather circumstances, but enough finishes as well!

 
15 m. class gliders returning home.
XY , Gintas as winner of the 1000 points. AX, Eva, finished as number 6.
Courtesy gallery FCC ; by Lenka Sivakova

On the last but one day , Thursday, long tasks again for soaring day 10, a day with cu’s!
Pilots in the mixed class had to go for 522 km. , in the 15 m. class for 517 and the club pilots after their tough day had to go for 502 km.
In 15 m. class it was a FRENCH  day with Christophe Ruch and JD Barrois both with 1000 points and a speed of 117 km. p/h.
In the club class 3 St. Cirusses topped the list with Jan, Boris and Petr.
In the mixed class the German ARCUS was the best again; 126 km./h. Runner up was a Polish ASG 29 E with 130 km./h., while the French finished on spot 3 and 4, followed by Roman and Sebastian.

Friday ; LAST DAY…day 11 !!!! 300 km. tasks in each class, on a sunny day,  a set racing task for club [ 303 km ] and 15 m. [ 315] and in mixed class [335.7 km.] !
Tension enough on this last day; in 15 m. with only 42 points difference between number 1 Zbigniew and 2, JD Barrois who for sure could count on help from his mate Christophe on spot 3.
The French were always good on a last day, flying together makes them strong!!!
In club class the difference on the last day was 80 points between the Hungaryan Standard Jantar from Ferenc and the ASW 15-b from Czech pilot Karel.
In mixed class it was even “worse” ; ONLY 8 points between number 1, [7812] Pavol in the Ventus and  number 2 [ 7804] Christophe in the JS1 .On spot 3 Sebastian [ASG 29] is only 5 points ahead of the French Arcus on spot 4.[7761 and 7756]

SO…WHAT HAPPENED in the end!!??? To be expected ,….but to be flown first, ….Sebastian won the last day with a speed of 137 km./h. No nerves , just go! Pavol ended on spot 16 and lost 189 points and his first place overall went to SEBASTIAN, you would nearly say,….who else!
Christophe was on a daily spot 9 and finished as runner up , while Pavol ended on spot 3.What a result!

A relaxed winner; Sebastian.
Courtesy FCC site gallery.

AND WHAT about the 15 m. pilots. ONE point difference between the winner Zbigniew and the runner up JD Barrois!!!!And Christophe ended on spot 3! The French love Prievidza!!!And for sure they tried HARD to beat Zbigniew. They were better on the last day but just not good enough to win the cup!
But,…for that reason Zbigniew is still the number ONE pilot in the world on the ICG ranking list with Sebastian on his heels. Hurray for Poland!

The club ; 20 points difference between the Cup winner Ferenc and the Swedish pilot Gunnar who won the last day!!! And Karel ended on spot 3.

To see the small margin between the top pilots in each class, you can look again if you have n’t done so before at www.soaringspot.com and CONGRATULATIONS to the winners.

The 2 seater Nationals in Italy flown at Varese had  on Wednesday  their first day with a task of 300 km and the 946 points were for “good old mate” Lucianio Avanzini in the ARCUS, followed by the ARCUS from Alberto Sironi. Not too bad was the 3d place for young Davide in the Duo Discus T!
A 3.00 AAT was set for Thursday and this time they changed places; Alberto was first [278 km. in 3.07] and Luciano 3d [ 266 km. in 3.02] while Stefano Ghiorzo was 4th  and Davide 5th.

The PRE WGC in Leszno in Poland in open, 15m and 18 m. class started yesterday and continues till May 5. More news on Wednesday.

Flat-as-a-pancake- Holland and  Belgium ,at least the N. of Belgium had some nice flights again yesterday, 600 in the Discus by Tijl Schmelzer from Keiheuvel in Belgium and 573 from Woensdrecht in Holland in the ARCUS.
According to Niel, who flew from Diest in N Belgium to far up N. in Holland, there was  “all day a convercence line from Antwerp to Amsterdam.”
Best flight yesterday on the OLC in an ASW 20 from Lanzen Turnau over the mountains from Austria; 901 km.

The AERO finished and I hope that due to the recession still a lot of people will buy gliders and instruments. The boys from NAVITER are OF COURSE in Friedrichshafen as well.
Jelmer from DG is there and they look ahead at a good year 2014 , full of orders!!!
Flying with the champions’ Ludwig and Wolfgang shared a corner from the big Schempp Hirth stand.
For all AERO news you can read the www.soaringcafe  site.

 
Rene to the l. and Andrej to the r.  ………………………………The DG 1001 2 seater.

 
Flying with the Champion’s corner and the Schempp-Hirth gliders.

 

Just got some more info via Jo , THANKS Jo, about the multi class Nationals in Kingaroy Australia;
—” The 2013 Multi Class Nationals will be held at Kingaroy from October 14th to October 25th 2013.
The competition website is http:// www.kingaroynationals.com 
Please enter online using the Entry Form provided on the competition website.

 We will accept up to 60 entries in total, of which 10 are reserved for foreign pilots. If we have received more than 60 entries by 1st September, then entries which are lowest on the current Australian Ranking List (see GFA Website for this list) will be placed on a waiting list and will be the first accepted if there are any cancellations.
Entries received after 1st September 2013 will be accepted strictly in order of receipt.—“

The 21th International Gliding Cup in KLIX  [Germany, South from Berlin] started last Friday with 5 classes  as well the Zrenjanin Soaring Cup in Serbia.
Klix had , like we here in Holland RAIN that day, but they managed to set a task which was flown by many pilots !
In the 2-seater class , 15 from 21 finished the 249.7 km. distance.
In club class a 2 hour AAT was set and the best distance combined with time was 180 km in time 2.06.
In Standard class 25 participants and 15 made it back. 255 km in the 2.30 AAT was flown by the winner in time 2.38!
Baer Selen’s brother Sjaak did well with a 5th place!
In the 15m. class 15 participants and only 5 finished.
In the 18 m./open  class ,22 participants and 16 finished. Another success for a Dutch pilot. Robert Werts won in the Nimbus 3D. Robert flew last year a 1000 k from Holland.
Yesterday was a “soup-day” and today they expect rain, with the smallest possibility of flying. Tomorrow looks better!!

That’s it for now, Holland is under the spell of the chance of CROWN on Tuesday with LOT’S of activities. Last Friday 1.3 million kids had a day -full-of-sport at school, The Kings Games, with a healthy breakfast before sporting all in the same orange t-shirts. The planning is to keep this new idea from former top tennis player Richard Karjicek, for the future.The royal guests ,[ lot’s of crown princes and princesses,]  from  Willem Alexander and Maxima, will have their dinner in the new RIJKSMUSEUM on monday evening, which had since it opened again, in less than 2 months time,  already over 100.000 guests/visitors!!!!

cheers Ritz on Sunday April 28
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com