Post 1.413 on April 12 2023.
Hope you had a wonderful, Happy Easter period!!!
We had fog in the morning of Easter Saturday ,then it was dry and sunny and over the weekend up to 17 dgr. C…….. FINALLY. Though to be honest,..it was less good here than forecasted. Hope the rest of the countries around us will have improving weather as well. For sure after next Monday it will be between 17 and 20 dgr.C.

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Italian 18 m NATIONALS / 50thiest Trophy of Torino.
 31 March 2023 – 10 April 2023

After 4 days of rest, [they only fly 3 days in the 2 weekends] they continued in Torino-Aeritalia, their 18 m comps which is included in the Torino Trofeo, with together 18 pilots.
Aldo [Cernezzi] is the very experienced CD !
With a midweek-rest, the pilots gathered again for the 18 m Nationals included in the 50thiest Trophy in Torino.
Friday had a 1.45 AAT, but the day was cancelled in the end. One more or less extra rest day. So also there the weather was not good YET!!!
Easter-Saturday the weather improved dramatically and a racing task from 337 km. was set.
Nice to see that Andrea Florence, who flew on Saturday with Alberto in the back of the ARCUS T , reached 10.000 followers on his enthusiastic posts, in which he shares his passion for soaring. Congratulations Andrea.
Task 4; 337 km..…in 18 m. class. 13 pilots started all between 2.06PM and 2.19. They all arrived between 5.05 and 5.30 PM. All flew over 100 km./h and the daily winner Stefano in his Ventus 3 T, was the fastest with 117 km./h . That was 1 km/h faster than Andrea Ferrero in the AS 33es.
Looking at the not-18m-pilots, Alberto in the ARCUS T was the best; 3d from 18 in total.
Task 5; 220 AAT…. Very last day……Vittorio Squarciafico in his ASG 29 won the day with 224 km and a speed of 95.85 km./u. Alberto Pozzi was a tiny bit slower and missed out on 2 points to win the day; 95.66 km./h.
The winners in 18 m.
1. Stefano Ghiorzo in VENTUS 3T with 3,155 points and ITALIAN 18m. CHAMPION.
2. Giancarlo Grinza in Ventus 3FES with 3,085 p.
3. Andrea Ferrero in AS 33e with 3,074 p.
4. Alberto Pozzi in JS 1 with 3,052 p….pretty close…..

the “fight” for the Torino CUP was as follows;
1. Stefano Ghiorzo with 3,274 points.
2. Alberto Pozzi with 3,238 p.
3. Giancarlo Grinza with 3,214 p.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL pilots flying this early in the season competition.

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PRIBINA CUP NITRA. [Slovakia]
April 7-April 15 2023

With 102 pilots in 4 different classes, this is the biggest -International- early-in-the-season-competition , from the year.; The Pribina Cup edition 21.
26 pilots in Club class, 27 in 15 m, 14 teams in the 2-seater class [20 m] and 35 in open class/18 m. .
Specially the open/18 m. class shows some top pilots.
I hope ELFO is there to make his fabulous pictures!!!
On April 7 Good Friday, no task was set for the 4 classes.
On Easter Saturday the message board showed early news; “Good morning everyone!- No grid for today- Briefing at 10AM”
The weather did not want to co-operate;” We woke up to the over casted morning and the weather stayed pretty much the same for whole day with some light rain showers. In the airport we had a relaxed atmosphere and after the morning briefing most of pilots went to explore Nitra city or some other tourist attractions in the area. We hope you all enjoyed some free time. Weather forecast is getting more promising for next competition days and all of us are having fingers crossed to have a first competition day in the following couple of days.”
Patience at an airport, we all know about it…no worries!!!
Easter Sunday the expectations were high, so a 2d briefing was set for 12 PM.
Indeed Tasks WERE SET;
Day 3 task 1; in the 4 classes Club, 15m., open and 2-seaters a 2 hour AAT was set. With first launches at 1PM. BUT,……”
“Unfortunately, the weather conditions did not allow us to race today. Therefore today is cancelled for all classes.”

New hope for day 4 with task 2 flying day 1.
In Club 205.52 km. was set. 20 Pilots started in this class from several countries.
10 finished and 10 were out! Daily winner ; Jelle from Belgium, in an ASW 24 WL,…..good on him.
In 15 m. 267.10 km…..Best for the day and flying an LS 8; Robbie[Seton] from the Netherlands but flying a lot at Keiheuvel in Belgium.
23 Pilots started and ONLY 3 finished!!!!Robbies speed was 66.77 km./h. Runner up Marin [Jurovic] in the VENTUS CT was a tad faster, but just finished a tad to low.[67.46 km./h] Hana [Ventus 2ax] and Jana Treslova [LS 8] were on spot 6 and 9.
in open/18 m. 301 km…...32 started and only 3 finished without a penalty. 2 finished but ended on 9 and 11 after penalty points.
Proud on Dennis [Huybreckx] who won the day for Belgium in his VENTUS 3 ; 75.25 km./h. Runner up was Nicolas Bernhard [Ventus 3] from France ;73.78 km./h.
Marius Pluscauskas was the fastest in his ASG 29E; 89.38 km./h, but,…a too low finish.
Some pilots REALLY were close ;297 km. Such a pity, 7 just started and were already out after less than 50 k.
in 20 m 261.03 km…..4 from 13 finished!! Daily winners team Schwan/Hudler from Austria in an ARCUS T. The number 4 finisher was after 2 more Arcus types a German DUO DISCUS X70.55 km./h. ; !!!
The “LOW” countries Belgium and The Netherlands did well….with Jelle, Robbie and Dennis as first-day-winners.
Daily summery from day 4 by the organizers;
“THE FOURTH DAY!
Finally we had a nice sunny morning so every pilot was excited to race today. We settled a grid on runway 33, with first expected launch at 11:30. The weather prediction looked quite promising and therefore we declared a racing task for all classes in a range of 205 – 301 KM. First launch was postponed to 12:15 and 90 sailplanes went to compete in the air. By pilots references it was a challenging day with different weather conditions on every turnpoint. In every class we had pilots who finished their tasks so a big congratulations from our side to them. Tomorrow there is a occluded front coming to our direction and we have only small chance to fly but we will see in the morning.”

No task yesterday,…too much wind. Easter is early in the year and that shows!

tasks today; Task 3 ,flying day 2. …….more next week.
club; 252.08 km
15m; 324.20 km
open;360.16 km
20m;320.02 km
a racing day,…good!!!!!

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ARNBORG EASTER CUP.
 6 April 2023 – 10 April 2023

More EASTER SOARING this time in Denmark from Svæveflyvecenter Arnborg!!!
A Multi class competition with 16 participating pilots flying between LS1f[handicap 100] and ASH 31.MI /21 m.[ handicap 121]
Task 1 ; 2 hour AAT……was straight on the first day with Filip Bojanowski in the Duo Discus XLT as daily winner; 209 km with a speed of 104 km./h. They started at 13.41 and finished at 15.42.
The other Discus, a T, flown by team Asger/Miles flew further,[217 km] started nearly an hour later [14.30] and finished an hour later [16.41] ; speed 99.62 km./h.
Task 2 ; racing task from 132 km……the Duo Discus T did well again …THEY WON the day with 90 km./h , nearly 10 k faster than runner up Lasse in an LS 8.[82 km./h.]
Only 14 starters and from them 4 were out.
Task 3; 128.70 km.…pretty marginal day with speed around 70 km./h which says enough. Late start between 3.30 and 4 PM , not all started and from those 10 who did, 3 were out.
Task 4;121 km…..12 pilots choose to fly on this last pretty tricky day, 7 were out and 5 finished.
Michael Mix in the LS3a won the day; speed 88 km./h.
Mathias Valentin ,who topped the overall list ,in his LS 8 was out after 78 km and was in the end on spot 3!
Filip in the Duo Discus XLT, was 3d on the last day and moved up to SPOT ONE and…..WINNER of the CUP.
Lasse Edslev had a less good day as well, he was 3d overall but moved on this last day to spot 5by being , after an out-landing after 78 km..
All final scores pretty close;
1. Filip in Duo Discus XLT with 1.378 points.
2. Team Asger/Miles in Duo Discus T with 1.371 p.
3. Mathias Valentin in LS 8 with 1.348 p.
Their last comment;
“Rigtig god stemning og måske bliver Arnborg Påskecup også en ting næste år.”
I presume the translation means “the atmosphere was really great and till next year.”

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Last Wednesday , after that beautiful Monday April 3, [ 5x a 1000 plus] full of cloud street over parts of Europe, 2 pilots still managed to fly a 1000 from Grabenstetten in Germany in an 18 m ASG 29 E and from Grenoble in France in an ASH 31/21 m.
A DUO-DISCUS even flow 866 km [ 738 FAI triangle]!!!!! They reached 1744 AGL / 2106 MSL and started from Weinheim in Germany.
One day later on April 6, still good thermals but also wave over the Alps up to nearly 4000 m MSL ; 2 wave flights over several European countries, both in a Nimbus 3/4 DM and just over 1000 km. starting at Lienz Nikolsdorf in Austria . Also from Trieben in Austria a 1000 in an ASH 31 /21 m.
From Germany several “nearly” 1000 km flights.[3 over 900 km in Ventus 3 M and 1 in EB 29]
The EASTER-weekend was good for many. See below!

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VINTAGE flying!
From Lasham ,this Easter weekend a recently restored 1942 Schweizer TG3a by Gary Pullen, became airborne, behind a tug…..the first flight ever of the type in the UK .
Gary flew the TG3a for 25 minutes .”the glider needs two hands to bank, which makes some sense given the Waco glider that the pilots were due to fly after training on the TG-3.
The glider will now undertake a flight test program at the hands of Richard Moyse before becoming a part of the GHC flying fleet” [Gliding Heritage Center]

The UK started with the nice weather, on Good Friday and the rest of Europe was still waiting for their clear CU skies , to remove the overcast from West to East. Look at this;

What an Easter weekend we are having! Nearly 300 glider launches across the past two days and several thousand kilometres flown by the cross country pilots from the grid pictured on the runway here by Roy P.
Whilst the forecast is slightly trickier on Easter Sunday, we expect yet another busy flying day!

The weather here in The Netherlands over Easter was not as sunny as expected, though some areas enjoyed SUN.
Easter Saturday showed only 2 flights , but Easter Sunday had 53 pilots who were willing to fly; The ARCUS M from Soesterberg flew 602 km [ 500 FAI triangle]. Germany still had some cloud streets, so most Soesterberg pilots flew direction East into Germany.
SO…..PRETTY GOOD EASTER SUNDAY!

Enough news more next Wednesday, specially about the prestigious PRIBINA CUP.

Cheers Ritz