Post 1.490 on April 3 2024

They hoped for 4 days in a row in Seminole to finish of the 20 m Nationals.
That was hope….. Both in the USA and Australia the word El Nino is mentioned a lot. When I lived in Australia the El Nino mostly meant “a good season” for our soaring center, but dry and hot and often disastrous for the farmers. It’s not 1 year but more!!!
Rich with his good and funny stories about the 20 m Nationals writes about it this way:
“Experts call the weather pattern we are in now, El Nino which I believe in Spanish means boy. Well, boy I wish we had a girl in our weather pattern. The jet stream has descended into the lower portion of the US which has disturbed our normal excellent soaring conditions during the spring. This is highly unusual, and I have not seen this for the last 10 years. We still get good soaring, just not “buckle up and hang on” type of weather.”
And, I guess you understand it straight away ...NO FLYING for Wednesday the 27th.
BUT….hope for Thursday and for sure Friday.
“Weather Weather, It Has to Get Better” by Rich.

Thursday; March 28…..”No joy again today at SLGP.
This from Rich:Weather, Weather It Didnt Get Better”
“We are getting a little tired of the weather pattern this month. Next week looks great for boating, flying and anything else you want to do outside. We are still trying to get day 6th in, but we fell short one more time. Tomorrow looks like a good day to fly. This afternoon the sun came out; the winds were still 15 gusting to 20 knots.”
They tried HARD and everybody had to go to the grid after a 2d briefing at 12.15, with a 1.45 AAT in the pocket.
“The weather late looked good, but the day was going to end early. If we could get into the air by 2pm, we might have a chance.
The second pilots meeting was held and yes, we were gridding. This process went very well and soon all the ships were in launch position. Looking at the low clouds, the CD was looking for a break. Finally, the order to launch 90 came and Bob Fletcher went into the bleak looking sky. He was reporting 2,300ft maximum height at 1 to 1.5 knots. Time slipped by and Bob finally made it above 2,500ft, the minimum height for launching the grid. Unfortunately, Bob reported very weak climbs and few thermals to keep everyone airborne. The CD made the right decision to cancel the day and send everyone back to parking after Bob landed.”so far Rich. On top of that they had winds over 20 knots.
Hope gone for Thursday BUT,…….new hope for

Friday ;March 29……..Very last day and the numbers 1 and 2 overall had a difficult time finishing the day on spot 11 and 12, BUT,…still enough points for Jim in the ARCUS J and Pete and Rich in the ASG 32MI to keep ahead on the rest. A racing task was set.
Rich;”Marshall was sending us on a racing task in the blue. It was a challenging route. At the start, Pete and I wanted to get on course early and avoid a late arrival over Lakeland. We found a good starting point on the line and left hoping to hide our departure. Unfortunately, we had a few folks right behind us, but the race was on. The last leg was getting soft, and we found ourselves in some very weak thermals.”
In the end they had a very strong thermal that got them to final glide and a Mc 4.5 glide home.
1. Team Jim Frantz in ARCUS J with 3618 points.
2. team Alexander/ Owen [Pete and Rich] in ASG 32MI with 3473 points.
3. team Mandelbaum/Gaisford in Duo Discus with 3408.
Those 3 Duo Discus types did wel on spot 4 and 11 from 14 participating 2 seaters .
Loved the stories from Rich, so THANK YOU for sharing them with us. And of course Bo for het fantastic pictures!

——–Talking about the USA, Garret Willat is put in the centre of attention by Schempp-Hirth. He is their US representative. I know from the past that he helps all international questions from pilots flying from Europe in the USA as well. Certainly when it concerns World Championships. Very nice fellow!!!
Garret has a lovely family and runs Sky Sailing and Yankee Composites in Warner Springs, CA.
He is a flight instructor and a very accomplished competition pilot.
Very nice from Schempp-Hirth to put him in the spot light.
yankeecomposites
AND,…this year is the WGC in Uvalde for the 3d time.When he has time he might be able to help you.
I was there in 1991 as TC for The Netherlands and in 2012 on invitation as editor of SOARING CAFE, the on line Magazine from Bill Elliott and Rand Baldwin. We had a great time!!!Such a pity it does n’t exist anymore.

This 2024 SPRING period is SUPERB. Too much to write about , but you can find most of the flights on the OLC or WeGlide.
Have a look , worthwhile doing so!!!

–——-On March 24 we could see a very interesting flight from Swiss pilot Yves Gerster. He flew from St Auban in France , to Corsica over Italy; 1.328 km. in a JS1C/21 m.
You can find his flight on with beautiful pictures on
https://www.weglide.org/flight/368985
It was n’t over for Yves after this flight; On March 30 he flew with a mate in an ARCUS T 1.220 km!!!

–——On March 29 ....2 interesting comps started the new competition-season in Europe. One in Nitra in Slowakia ….the well known PRIBINA CUP till April 6 …..and 1 in Italy the even wellknown 51 Trofeo Cita di Torino till April 7.
The Pribina Cup has 2 classes. In 15 m we see 12 pilots. In open 21.
Task 1 had a small task, some tried but for both classes the day was cancelled.
Day 2; 1.30 AAT won by Czech pilot Pavol Klein in a St. Libelle. 6 from 9 finished.
Same task for open ; Czech pilot Jan Pavlik won in an LS8/18m with 166 km /96.47 km./h. 20 started ,5 were out.
Task 3; 1,45 AAT for both classes.…

The Trofeo has 20 pilots in one class. They have a sports class and 18 m class. Also their first day had to be scrubbed, as was their next day. They meet again on Monday morning.

——-On March 29 the weather WAS GOOD!!!!!Klaus [Ohlmann] took his glider …a Stemme S10….out for a “ride” and when he does, you know it will be a long day for him: it was 1.493,53 km!!!! Long as in kilometers ,not so much in time. With a speed of 170 km./h he raced over the nearly 1.500 km in 8 hours and 44 minutes!!!!!!!! Good on him!!!!
The comment from Klaus below. The nicest thing however is that he has flown so many long and special flights …he is still HAPPY /cheerful with each of them.
“Wow, what a day. The adventure started one day before with motor going to Oloron. After a very sportif landing under a big rotor we struggled to turn on the very wet surface. Good luck, Benoit, the chief pilot helped us to take the plane out of the mud with his car.
Great thanks again…Next morning, 5:00, it was raining. and the forecast gave us a tailwind. Good luck again, after cleaning the glider 3 times we could lift off. Meanwhile a small foen gap was closed and it was raining a little bit everywhere. We decided to look for wave more eastwards and found very good conditions southwest of St.Gaudens. Big run untilnorth of Carlit and Marseille gave us a clearence to FL 195 and approved a straight line and constant descent towards M.Ventoux. Nice rotorclouds until m.Blancwith southern winds. Wind turned more and more to west, Tailwind on the whole task. I admit, that I didn`t expect to be able to reach Nitra in Slowakia. But finally we could make it in time. But the.. Vienna control forced us to descent from our comfortable 4500 m to FL 080. No way to reach Nitra. So, we decided to land in Wiener Neustadt. Wonderful reception from our glider friends. What a fantastic experience. Thanks for all who helped us to achieve this flight.”
2 More 1.000 km flights that day 1, by Noah in an ASG 29 /15 m. from Harris Hill in the USA and 1 from Spain from La Cerdanya in an ARCUS T.
1 Day earlier, now back in the USA again , Gordon Boettger flew in the ARCUS J 1.409 km with a dazzling speed of 238.10 km./h. from Eastern Sierra. He had a back-seater , Brad Jackson, who “worked” as well.
Gordon;”Took off from Bishop after landing there last night. Waited for the wave to set up and Brad recommended doing a speed run which I had not considered. The Owens Valley wave was on fire. Climbed in rotor to the wave then it was full afterburner for the two hour speed run. Flew 568 km in 2 hours at 284 kph and then headed north back towards Minden. Decided to add some legs in the wave closer to home. A beautiful day ended with a landing in easy winds for once. SKYSIGHT was SPOT ON !!!!! Thanks Matthew Scutter for your product. Thanks to my good friend Brad for doing all the speed calculations and for the teamwork.”

–—-And MORE incredible flights this time from Germany on the 27th of March….Mathias Schunk flew 1.629 km with a speed of 157 km./h. Glider; Quintus….departure; from Koenigsdorf…..time; 11 hours and 10 minutes.
WeGlide mentioned;” Insane flight by Mathias Schunk.He maxed out the day by not returning to his home but rather landing in the eastern Alps near Wien. Funny to see how the views on his flight increased throughout the day!”
With pictures on https://www.weglide.org/flight/366859

On Saturday March 30 more great weather!!!!!Several 1000 plus km from Switzerland.
Looking at the very exciting boatrace on the Thames between the ladies and men from Canterbury and Oxford ….both won by Canterbury…..I noticed great skies above the UK as well. Indeed 500 k was flown from Lasham.
BUT,…….3x over 1.300 km and 5 x an over 1.400 km flight is for Europe pretty special...Interesting to see 2 are flown by young pilots as Benjamin Bachmeier ,who I remember from one of the JWGC’s in Ventus 2BX and Nils Fecker [ Johannes Beyer] in an ARCUS M.who did so well in Bitterwasser last season.
A 1.270 in a Discus 2CFES/18m is worth while mentioning too..
30 over 1000 km flights ..indeed when the weather is there, you have a glider and time,..you can do it.

——-News from Romain Fhal. I write sometimes about him and his wife as they are fabulous aerobatic pilots and world champions. r.fhal@extraaircraft.com
They announced on March 28 a new website.https://extraaircraft.com/
“As we put more and more focus on social media and producing content to share with aerobatic pilots and enthusiasts we’ve recognized that it’s time to overhaul our website and bring it to the appropriate decade! Today we’ve pushed our new website into production and it’s now live! We’re looking forward to updating the site and adding various informational resources as time progresses. We’re looking forward to hearing everyone’s feedback, and if you have any suggestions we’d love to hear them!”

——N.Z. now…have a look at the site from Geoff Soper. the most wonderful pictures.
To be found on Geoff Soper Photography page.
“Warbirds Over Wanaka handful of images from practice day.” so more to come.

SORRY dear SOARING-READERS, No time to check what I had written already…got a bad influenza and was in bed for a few days, “coughing my lungs out”. Off to bed again now.

Cu next Wednesday , by the way the Belgium Nationals will be flown from St Hubert between June 29 and July 7 2024
Cheers Ritz