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

The soccer competition in Alkmaar between AZ and PSV was great fun! Loved it!

 

“Grabbed”  straight away by the Mascottes…………. and the PSV players warming up for the match.

The Good Better Best day was not in the order I thought, in my last blog,  as the best day last weekend was clearly on SATURDAY , though some pilots still were a bit disappointed with the weather that day. It seems after the forecast they expected MORE!
From Holland pilots  tried to fly to Hamburg, but it ended up around the Bremen area, where it spread out ….still NOT BAD EITHER!
703 km. direction NE from Soesterberg. Thermal activity was good , bit of a tough wind, sometimes blue, sometimes over cast  as high clouds were blocking the sun, but also  good lift.
One of the pilots said to others in the sky,”  I am going to Hamburg , are you coming along?” So a few did!
More great flights from Holland.  In the top 25 from the OLC I counted 8 flights from Holland on Saturday!!!!! All between 600 and 700 km. For Holland this is just good!
Sunday here was a nice 300 k day !

With ” Weak wave, good ridge, great thermals.  Excellent conditions to the south, weaker, lower, and snow showers to the north.”  Michael topped the OLC that Saturday flying from Atlantic in the DISCUS 2 with just over 1000 km. and also flight number 2 on the OLC that day was good as Brian flew 927 km. from Ridge Soaring in a PIK 20 b,   with  “smooth/strong ridge till sunset.”

My LASHAM friends had a good day as well with Roy flying 500 k. in the ASG 29e. The juniors were ready on Sunday , the last day of their training camp at Lasham, with no good weather to start the week with, but building up to a good  finish.

As shared on FB.

 

The UK junior team [ from l to r]  Luke Dale , Sam Roddie, Charlie Jordan , Oliver Barter and Matt Waters  , without Matt Davis plus TC Pete Masson…………. and flying high!

On Monday it was already day 7 of the Prievidza comps. Zbigniew “found the groove” and won on Saturday and Sunday in the 15 m. class. His mate Sebastian won in the mixed class on Sunday , so with a new week to start ,an “sprint to the finish” to win each in their class had started. Sunday was n’t even a brilliant day , as the weather fore cast was not very optimistic. But during the day it improved!

 

As seen on their site www.fccgliding.sk on day 8; Look for many more good pictures at this site.
Under GALLERY.
Here are some hard working people there , we should not forget!

 

Monday had  good task , not an AAT but a race from 344 in the mixed class and 314 in club and 325 in 15 m.
Though the first launches were postponed to 11.30, pilots had a good day.
In the mixed class the German ARCUS t team won the day with 137 km./h, while the best speed was for Petr Krejcirik with 140 km./h. in the Ventus 2CX /18m.
In the club class 3 Hungarian pilots put their strengths together and were 1-2 and 3.
110 km./h in a Jantar is not bad. 2 Of them started together and the other one joined in and within 10 minutes of each other they finished .
In the 15 m. class 2 Polish pilots bundled their strength and won the day each in LS 8 with 128 km./h.!!!

On Tuesday , day 8, an AAT from 2 hours in the mixed class and Sebastian showed his class by winning the day with 258 km. in 2 .01. He is on his way to the top and moved overall to spot 3 not 100 points behind Pavol who defends his spot 1 by being 2d for the day.[249 km. in 2. 05.]
A bit of an off-day for Roman, who proudly was the number 1 overall for  ALL days except day 1;  he ended on spot 28 loosing more than 200 points. A pity!

Relaxed pilots in sunny conditions in Prievidza as seen on their site, where many more recent pictures are on;
http://www.fccgliding.sk/

With a 9 AM briefing this morning you could expect long tasks. Today ‘s tasks have been set and for the mixed class it will be 580 km. a day “to separate the boys from the men,” as they say!
In club class  today; 514 km. and in 15 m. they have today 535 k. Looking forward to the results tonight and than only 2 days of soaring to go as Friday will be the last day!
www.soaringspot.com

The new ASG 32 from Schleicher will be on display in Friedrichshafen. This is the new flapped 20 m. 2 seater and it will be interesting to see how it compares to the ARCUS.
Here some pictures from the Dutch dealer for Schleicher Rene and I share them for the not-FB-fans!;

 

The brand new ASG 32!!!
Courtesy Rene de Dreu.

Love the affiche from the 7 th WWGC in France. REALLY try to be there for a few days. Not sure only how to get there.

As shared by Jarislav and the WWGC on FB.

Some news from Australia about future comps; The multi class National will be flown in Kingaroy in October 2013; www.kingaroynationals.com
And …….specially for the young ones who want to practise in Narromine for the JWGC ;
—-” Please see the below details of this years Joeyglide competition. Joeyglide also provides coaching for young pilots not able to, or ready to fly in the competition. I would encourage you to promote Joeyglide to your junior club members, who are looking to compete with like minded junior pilots, further their cross country skills and meet other junior pilots from around the country.
Furthermore, as this year is the 10th Australian Junior Nationals, we will be having in conjunction with the Final Night Dinner, an informal 10 year reunion, and would like anyone who has participated in Joeyglide in any facet to attend. Please contact me directly to RSVP.
Place: Narromine, NSW – Home of the Junior Worlds
Dates: Saturday 7 December to Saturday 14 December 2013 (Saturday 7 December being the official practice day)
Final Night Dinner: 14 December 2013, venue TBA.
Entries Open: Monday 25 March 2013.
Entry Fees: $150 competition entry, $100 coachee entry (please note that the entry fee’s will increase to $250 and $150 respectively after 1 November 2013).
Over the next few months we will be providing more details and specifics about the competition. For further information and to keep up to date with the day to day developments, please see:
www.joeyglide.com.au and The Aus Junior Gliding Facebook Group
If you have any questions or queries, please contact me directly.
Thanks,
Liam Donald Comp Director Joeyglide 2013
Email: ldonald87@hotmail.com

The March-April Newsletter from the Perlan Project is on line! Interesting news about the progress on construction and more is to be read on;
http://perlanproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/The-Perlan-Project-Newsletter-March-April-2013.pdf

To finish , an IN MEMORIAM for a good friend, fine colleague at Sportavia and true gentleman BOB SMITH. Bob joined us in Tocumwal as a mechanic on our tugs ,  3 Bellanca Scout’s and even built one,  number 4, from  parts of a Tasmanian wreck ;VH-PEV. How proud he was! I was there when tuggy Bill,  made the test flight,…of course with bubbles after AT the field!
He also was the mechanic on the Dove and Albatross and made several flights in them with Bones, Giles and George.
When I was in Tocumwal in January I caught up with him twice. I knew he was terminal ill. Last Sunday afternoon he died. He specially travelled back from Darwin where he lived the last couple of years to work as mechanic on Mallards for Paspaley, to die “at home” . Bones,  flying as Chief Captain on the Mallard at Darwin and knowing Bob’s  experience in Tocumwal on the Albatross introduced him and his wife Margareth to this new life in Darwin and his new job.
It’s getting [too] crowdy at the Tocumwal cemetery as lot’s of friends are already there. May he rest in peace!!

 

Bob second to the right……………………………and a recent picture on the boat at Darwin, thanks to Bones!

Ritz …..on April 24 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com      www.soaringcafe.com       www.glidinginternational.com

 

 

On my way by train to Eindhoven, I noticed that last Thursday was a splendid -SPRING- soaring day here, BUT,…. yes there was a but, the wind was up to 8 bft. and gusts up to 90 km. A goal flight could have brought a pilot far , but it did not happen , so I am sure it must have been impossible.
Still a great day for a yo-yo , as Belgium pilot Yves Jeanmotte [ASG 29 /18m.] proved with a nice 1000 km. flight from St. Hubert! Great job, as I think this is the first thermal flight over 1000 km. for the season!!!
Correct me when I am wrong.
S.E. from St. Hubert , in Luxembourg, Guy Bechtold tried one as well flying in his Quintus; he flew 934 km. but commented that it was a pity the weather from the W. created overcast too early. He had wind up to over 40 km. /h.
In Holland Tim Kuijpers the JWGC winner from Musbach, was home to fly from Malden in the LS 4 ;370 km. Wind on the way was max. up to 72 km. /h. and under 700 m. it was very bumpy!
Trigger words by Tim ….intensive, spectacular, challenging, turbulent, streets!!!!

The UK Juniors, having their training camp last week and this weekend at Lasham had  not the weather they hoped for;
—“We should’ve brought sailing boats rather than sailplanes to Lasham, but at least we got a bit of soaring yesterday evening. End of the week looking more promising.—”
The weekend is here and the weather too!
On Friday already  David  [ Masson] flew a nice 515 k from Lasham showing the weather was good, better maybe today and hopefully best on Sunday.

Prievidza is over this weekend and had pretty good weather, though day 4 was cancelled, as was day 1.
Soaring day 3 was promising with an AAT of 3 hours for mixed and 15 m. class. Pilots could find their own way to go as far  as they wanted in the sectors. And they did.
In the mixed class Roman Mracek won in his ASG 29, flying over 329 km. in time 3.02!!!
The German ARCUS pilots were 4th [ by the way, they lost their -preliminary-winning- day- 2 -1000 points by- disqualification !!! ]  behind the 2 French WGC pilots , finishing on the dot of 3 hours with 309 km
In  club class Swedish Gunnar Axelsson is doing a great job. Was he 2d on day 1 and 14 on day 2 , he WON day 3! Flying 248 km. in his  Cirrus 75, he arrived back in just 5 minutes after the set 3 hours. One pilot in the top 10 was back 2 minutes before time, all others much later. Gunnar is 2 d overall after 3 days, behind Boris Zorz.
In 15 m. also 3 hours and best result was 316 km. in an LS 8 in 3.19.
The French had a good day 3 , in 15 m. and mixed class!

Soaring Day 4;
Club class…3 Czech pilots started together , finished about in the same time and topped the day list with 228 km. in time 2.03 over a 2 hour AAT in St Cirrus and Ls 1’s.[660, 648 and 645 points]
15 m. class …2 German pilots started together and more or less finished together and won the day, over a 2.15 AAT flying 305 km. in time 2.14 and 2.16 [ 700 and 687 points] They were followed by 4 Czech pilots.
In the mixed class , mixed results with a French, [700] a German and[690] ,…a Polish pilot Sebastian[682]. They flew over the AAT of 2.15 a distance of 314/316 km .

For the last -day- results an AAT of 2 hours  and for club 1 hour 45, I refer to www.soaringspot.com or on Sunday later during the day in www.soaringcafe.com, where I will finish the story myself. When looking at the CAFE, please go to the blog from Benjamin as well, about the Mü 31 project, a brand new 15 m. glider for the future, look also at the pictures of the stress test!!! 3 pages of very interesting news!

More comps in Italy ; The Nationals for the 2 seaters flown in Varese with 9 x 2 seaters . 4 ARCUS T gliders , 3 x a DUO DISCUS T and one normal DUO DISCUS and a JANUS C. Good pilots as well, may I mention  Alberto Sironi and Stefano Ghiorzo? And young pilot Davide Schiavotto who flew amongst other comps in the JWGC in Husbos and Vittorio [Pinni] . The other pilots I do not know and I look forward to see how they fly.
They start today Saturday!
On their site www.acao.it  I found a wonderfull picture of the Quintus and I share it with you. Don’t know who made it but is a great picture.

For those who do not know too much about Calcinate – Varese here is what I found as well. Have never been there myself, so I share their text.
—“Once again our wonderful airfield wil host an Italian Championship.This year we will host the 20 m double-seater Italian Championship.For those who don’t know Calcinate and have never flown here, we would like to point out that  all the area of the pre-Alps offers amazing possibilities to fly both long distance and speed tasks. It is really easy to get into the Alps and very often you can meet wonderful conditions along all the Alps or in the border between the Alps and the flat area of Pianura Padana. Besides the town, Varese, offers a really big variety of activities and is for sure worth visiting .(www.vareselandoftourism.it)!—“

The Junior Nationals in Switzerland are starting today as well with 17 juniors , not bad! They will be flown in combination with the Regionals in Birrfield, with 12 pilots in open class and 16 in 15 m.!
Will keep you informed!
During the next JWGC in Leszno Switzerland will be represented by 6 juniors, all of them participate in these Nationals. Interesting to follow!

In France the Coup du Ventoux will be flown this upcoming week with 15 participants in one mixed class. Carpentras is the place to be!

And the 2013 AZ Cup started last Thursday in the Czech Rep [ Zbraslavice] and continues till the 27th with 81 competitors in 2 classes.

Holland is preparing for THE day in 2013 April 30; the Abdication or Queen Beatrix and the inauguration of the new King Willem Alexander and his Argentinian wife Queen Maxima. The world will look at Holland as it seems EVERYBODY is interested in the future “young monarch”. There will be 18 hours of live-TV here, with rail cams in the church and over the square [at height 300 m.] in front of the Palace. A HUGE JOB, with 115 camera’s in Amsterdam, outside Amsterdam another 45. There will be 13 satellite cars,  a helicopter and a plane involved as well.I believe more than 1000 journalists have been  accredited from ALL over the world.
Hope it all goes without difficulties.

After the sadness for the killed and injured people in Boston, and the intense man- hunt on the 2 young offenders , now West, close to WACO and not too far from Uvalde in Texas, where we all had such a good WGC – time, was breaking news with the fire and explosion of a fertiliser plant killing more than 15, injuring even more still missing arouind 60 and making “pulp” from the houses from at least 50 of the 2700 inhabitants of the small town. More sad people.

As life continues I am off to Amsterdam now to see tonight AZ [Alkmaar] – PSV[Eindhoven] , talking soccer this time and being there live on invitation, never done that before!! That’s why I am one day earlier with my blog.

The cherry- blossom -pictures from my front garden are specially for ALL my JAPANESE friends!!!!
And also for the 2 pilots who flew such a long flight over Japan [up direction NE and back] topping the OLC on Friday and that does n’t happen too often. Good on them,….. flying a Ventus 2 CT/18 m. and DUO DISCUS from Nagano; 715 km. and 603.
I can imagine their happiness!!!
The blue flowers from my back garden are spring-greeting to all of you and specially for Yves for the first 1000 of the season not flown in wave. Spring 2013 is THERE!
Cheers Ritz  …..on April 20 2013.
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com      www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com

 

 

  

Last Sunday turned out to be a real off- day. The weather was not good here neither for soaring or to sit in the sun, as that sun only arrived here after 4. I just expected TOO much, I guess and,… believed the meteo-forecast!!
An unlucky day for one of the Eindhoven gliderpilots as well ,as he damaged his glider [ASG 29, pretty badly] and his leg, [minor injury]  with a not too good landing. He returned to the field to land, as he did n’t feel well.
No great results, no top weather, just another day,….and no… definitely not in paradise!! Though,…..
Still a nice mix of good flights worldwide on the OLC, that Sunday.
First of all another good-one from Jim and Dennis from good old Minden flying direction far south and back;1.367 km. of course in their DG 1001 M.
Another nice one , not that far but pretty fast also from Minden and in a DUO DISCUS ;625 km. with 149.12 km./h.
From France some nice ones as well, with Robert Pratt flying his Arcus M. over 860 km. from St Gaudens in blue wave and in the beginning, with wind 210 and 15 kts.

 

Courtesy Per Carlin 2006

Prievidza in Slovakia started their Flight Challenge Cup 2013, with 119 participants in 3 classes, mixed club and 15 m..
Unfortunately day 1 , that stupid Sunday, was cancelled but on Monday a 2.45 AAT was set for the mixed class , 2.30 for the club and 15 m.
Quite a bunch of interesting pilots have entered as  the current top pilots, Zbigniew Nieradka and Sebastian Kawa, but also so some great Czech, French and German pilots and more.
What happened that Monday in the mixed class with 35 competitors ???
A few penalty points for flying above the absolute altitude limit, 3 outlandings  and a German winner in an ASG 29 E [920 points-298 km. in 2.48,48]] before Sebastian also in an ASG 29.[887 points -306.1 km. in 2.57,25]
In the club class 48 participants, one did not fly, 6 had to go “au vache”, and an Hungarian winner in a Standard Jantar flying 234 km. in 2.40, [868]  before a Swedish runner up flying the Cirrus 75 over 249 km. in 2.54 [866]
In 15 m. class , 34 participants, 4 outlandings a few penalty points and 2 German pilots on top both flying about the same distance and time;267 km in 2.34.

Yesterday day 2 was a fact with a 3 hour AAT for the “mixed” and 15 m. pilots and  2.35 for the club.
The German ARCUS T was the best in the mixed class, 8 Czech pilots in the top 10 in club class and in 15 m. Radek Krejcirik was the best and could “collect” the 1000 points.

Today tasks have been set for soaring-day 3 ; AAT of 2.30 for the mixed and 2.15 for the 15 m. pilots and 2 hours for the club.
For all results you can go to www.soaringspot.com

One of the pilots flying in Club class in an LS 1f, Per Carlin [Sweden] is not so well known maybe , but he made some great pictures during the Swedish WGC in 2006, that’s why I never forget him.
All today’s 2006-pictures are from Per!
And ,..he was on spot 18 on Monday and 12 yesterday.

 
To enlarge you can click on the picture.
Courtesy Per Carlin 2006

“Flying with the Champions” is running very well as I heard!
You remember????
Ludwig Starkl and Wolfgang Janowitsch started this new business ,with the glorious text; Do not dream your life, but live your dream!!!
—“from our 14 places we have sold 10 already, there are only two to three in the first (1. – 7. Nov.) and the same in the second block (8. – 14. Nov.) available.
We have five Arcus M, one Arcus  E and two ASH 25 as our training gliders, I am sure there is worldwide no other event with such a big Arcus fleet.

 Our trainees are coming from the whole world, we have one Pilot from Brasil, three from Holland, three from Germany, two from Switzerland and one from Austria. We have pilots who participated at the last WGC in Uvalde and we have pilots with no competition experience. So a wide range of skill, which makes it very interesting, also for the champions. All of us are looking forward to an outstanding event.—“

This is all going to happen in new season in Kiripotib Namibia.AND,…
Wolfgang and Ludwig will be at the aero in Friedrichshafen, April 24-27, where Tilo Holighaus allows them to present “Flying with the Champions” and their  new renting company   “rent-a-glider” on his exhibition stand.
—” So there, all interested pilots can meet us personally and can have any information to our event, or renting a glider out of our fleet. All these, who are not able to come, find us on the internet on www.rent-a-glider.com—-“

So if you are interested as well, this is your time as,these are the latest details/updates , I got yesterday!!! So very recent!!!

He said already in his OLC comment that he had not a lot of time to write as he had to prepare for another good [long] day of flying.
So he did; Jim Payne flew after his day with 1.367 km on Sunday another long one in wave on Monday; 1.484 km. this time from Rosamount and again with Dennis in the back. What a stamina those boys must have and they are not 25 anymore. Good on them!

In my last blogs both on soaring.eu as on soaringcafe.com I wrote about the juniors who are going to participate in Leszno. Got some extra info from Frauke Elber who knew more about one of the young men from the French team.
—“One of the first time French pilots will be Antoine Lucas. Antoine is third  generation glider pilot in his family. His grandfather, whom I befriended at the  Dahlemer Binz in Germany in 1962 was a glider instructor. His mother learned to  fly at the Dahlemer Binz and in 1979 spent a year with us here in the US where   she  flew our Ka8.
She later married a French glider pilot who was an instructor at St. Auban. So young Antoine and his brother Christian are continuing the family tradition.
Susanne -the boys mother- and I will be briefly visit the  Women’s World Championship before the family has to get ready for the Poland  trip. I wish Antoine the best of luck.—-”

So you have practised with 27.000 other runners,  every week to be fit for the Boston Marathon, ready to party afterwards and than… 2 bombs…  killing at least 3 and others have to live without feet , an arm or a leg. TOO tragic for words!!!! WHY?

And to finish this blog the last 2 pictures from Per Carlin.
Cheers Ritz
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com

 

Eskilstuna 2006
Courtesy Per Carlin.

 

 

 

The Alps have given and are still giving pilots great pleasure ! The always active German Sport Soldiers have their training camp in Lienz [Austria] since Wednesday  .
Marco Barth , not long ago flying from the airport of Chaves, is one of “the soldiers” and he  flew already on Wednesday 643 km. in the ASH 25.
After a few off-days,  the weather improved and yesterday and today it should be better , at least that’s what’s expected/hoped for.
Don’t know about today but yesterday they flew around with  500 km. flights
Also around 700 km. flights by other guests flying in Lienz,  as Alexander Müller.

Another  group of German pilots is in Puimoisson and Patrick Gai, JWGC Champion in Rieti in 2007, flew himself to the OLC top with 725 km.[515 FAI triangle] in an ASH 31MI/21 m. last Friday.
And,…knowing that the weather would be good this weekend and seeing with my own eyes great cu’s yesterday, I hoped for fantastic flights ,…..but it is raining this morning with the promise from the meteo, that we should not doubt him; it will be a great spring day/afternoon with up to 22 dgr.
I was also sure that ” good things were happening” yesterday . But it was so-so. It started too late here , pilots still flew 350 with a start at 3 PM and p.e. in Lienz  they struggled in the morning with the aftermath of the thunderstorms in the night, so late starts as well.
Calcinare in Italy had pretty good weather as Luca De Marchi topped the OLC list yesterday with 700 km, a declared 500 FAI triangle in it, [a speed record with 110.6 km.h. starting on a leg] in the 15 m. Ventus 2AX.

Not long ago I mentioned a very interesting movie on TV about the ladies in the RAF, working for ATA. On FB, Sandra shared a message about one of the ladies passing away,on FB,  from the Magazine “Flyer” ;
I agree; WE SHOULD NOT FORGET THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE WAR.
For that reason I share it with you.
Here is what was written and what a glorious picture;
—-“Maureen Dunlop de Popp, a pioneering female pilot, has passed away aged 91. Dunlop was a pilot with the WWII Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), one of the 164 femal…e pilots who transported planes between factories and military airfields. With the ATA, Dunlop mastered the controls of 28 different single-engine and 10 multi-engine aircraft types, which also included the Hawker Typhoon, Hawker Tempest, Avro Anson, Mustang, Bristol Blenheim and Vickers Wellington. Aside from her flying duties, Dunlop also became a wartime icon in 1944 with this photograph which was featured on the cover of Picture Post magazine, showing Dunlop leaving the cockpit of a Fairey Barracuda. The image is remembered for changing the perception of women who worked for the war effort.–“

Talking about the WW II, I went with my daughter to the musical Soldier of Orange[Soldaat van Oranje] last week, based on the autobiography of Eric Hazelhoff Roelfsema.
He, an aristocratic Dutch student was one of 6 ,who were totally not interested in politics but became heroes in the resistance or sadly lost their lives.
Only ONE word; MAGIC!!!!!!
It was in a hangar at the military airport of Valkenburg.
Can’t believe the guts from those students to help out in the resistance. I saw the movie , read the book but this musical, where we were sitting in the middle with about 1500 people and the audience was turning around on a big round scale, while the decors were firm built around the audience.
That way we “visited” the beach in Scheveningen, the rooms from the students , their society-building and we could look outside , as the doors from the hangar were opened, at a very old DC 3 bringing the former Queen back from London to Holland. Though it was sad  as well, it was too impressive to say in words.

The young pilots will not know him, but it is good when they hear from him. Herbert Frehner died age 84. I met Herbert as the TC for the Swiss in the past and I met him in Anger. A wise and kind person and very down to earth.
He was one of the first European pilots flying in Australia and even visited Tocumwal.
In his later years he flew in Namibia [Bitterwasser] .
One of his close friends said: ”  Today I received the very sad news of the passing of my good  friend Herbert Frehner – 1931 – 2013 – Herb was a very important guy in my life – he invited me to Bitterwasser the first time which had an incredible  positive effect and influence on my life – we flew together in GT  at  Bitterwasser for several years and became the best of friends – we   shared  incredible experiences in the air and on the ground – Herb was a very  tough guy and took me on my first 1000 km flight -”
May he rest in peace!

Back to the present;more news for pilots who are going to fly the 17th EGC in Poland,Ostrow!
Please read through the news on the licence validation:

http://egc2013.eu/licence/

For those however who do not have their medical certificates according to EASA requirements, some additional exercises are needed.

As shared by the organisers.

 

On Mai 2 the new new TMA EHEH above the airport of Eindhoven here in Holland, will be active bringing a lot of changes , also for the glider pilots. On Thursday April 18 there will be an information evening organised by the Royal Air Force to inform everybody about the new rules, to make the change as smooth and safe as possible.[ from the newsletter KNVvL] The Dutch Nationals have been informed by the CD as well.

Yesterday the totally renovated RIJKSMUSEUM in Amsterdam [ www.rijksmuseum.nl ] has been opened for the public. It took TEN  years , instead of the planned 4.5 year and a huge amount of money, [125 million MORE than planned!!!]but according to all who have seen it already it was worth every penny. A guruh-art-journalist from the USA , mentioned that this museum belongs now to the TOP 5 in the world. So when you visit Holland, you know where to go when you like ART.

The Belgium Junior Gliding Team is known; 3 pilots in the 2013 JWGC club class and 2 in standard class. The Dutch have 6 , 3 in each class and the German team has a few very experienced pilots; 4 of the 6 have flown the JWGC before .Young Matthew Scutter represents together with the brothers Mike and Nick Maddocks, Australia.
More news on the very typically -great- Katja -site; www.jwgc2013.eu
At this stage 85 young pilots from 22 countries, amongst them a few who have made name already in the senior WGC. Something to look ahead to between 28-07 and 10-8- 2013.  AND,…11-08-2013 will be a reserve day if necessary.
By the way, the practical info about this competition is very clear and extensive.
The Preparations for the 9th JWGC in Narromine 2015 are in progress as well and you can enter now for JOEY glide to practise in the end of this year, the first 2 Aussies have entered the list.
http://www.joeyglide.com.au/index.php/contest-info/comp-entry
Also news about the juniors in my CAFE BLOG today!

Busy day today full of sport on TV, the Formula 1 in China, the Marathon from Rotterdam, the clash between the 2 soccer toppers Ajax and PSV and the one and only BIG race on the bike IN Holland , the Amstel Gold Race in the south of Holland. As the dry nice weather should arrive from the S. they should be OK.

And …….as I heard readers like the pictures I put a few on the top and below from one of my favourite soaring-photographers Kai Monkkonen. I know I have published them before but for the new readers it is nice to show them again.

 

 

Cheers Ritz
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com

After the coldest April-6-night  in history ,here in Holland, 11…. MINUS, SPRING  finally arrived. The cold dry Eastern wind gave great pleasure before already to glider pilots , even those who, like here in Holland or Belgium, are used to flat-land-conditions only, now the nice warm sun on Sunday, was a pleasure for everybody.

Ready to go behind the Pawnee with Bart Konings.
Picture courtesy Arjan Scheffer, who is a member from the ZES and digitalised all my old pictures and from many other friends , from the 50 -year- ZES- past for the lustre not long ago. For sure he knows to make a picture!!!!!

With 89 flights in Holland and 15 from Belgium a lot more pilots world wide added their flight to the OLC; over 1200 is a good number after a long winter here .
Junior pilot Jeroen Jennen topped the Belgium list with a good flight from 615 km. flying direction S.E.  from Keiheuvel in the LS 4.
Several FIRST flights for the season from Keiheuvel and as I have quite a lot of friends there, I was pleased to see them happy.

Kilometer -eaters have ” woken up ” as well and one of them,  Guy Bechthold flew in his brand new QUINTUS , a x-country flight from nearly 1000 km. ;935 [622 km. FAI Triangle] from Useldange in Luxembourg.
TOP-SPRING-CONDITIONS!
And yesterday it was Alexander Müller who flew from Lienz [Austria] the first flight for the summer season 2013 in his ASW 22 BLE;540 km. MANY more kilometers will follow for both pilots.
And more good flights from Sunday,…. 934 in Germany in an ASG 29 from Leverkussen is not bad either., as well as 720 [605 triangle]  in an LS 7 from Mannheim.
Like to mention 665 [500 Fai triangle ] from Aachen close the the Dutch border and Belgium border as well in an LS 1f !!!!
Best distance in Holland was flown by Etienne Dillen and Roland Termaat in the Nimbus 4 DT, as after some fog in the morning the weather started to “boom” and they flew 783 km [ 760 Fai triangle] from Terlet, also in the SE direction.
From the S. of Holland , Venlo, several over 500 k. flights, one  in an ASW 19 and over 600 in a Discus.
Denmark had nice conditions on Saturday and 2 pilots spending their winter in warm Corowa, flew with snowy and cold conditions this time,  from Arnborg, over 300 k. in a DG 808/15m.  and and LS 1 d.
And the first flights from Räyskälä are a fact as well, young Aku Jaakkola flew N. of   the airfield over 130 km. in the LS 8!

No FAI sanctioned comps at the moment, the end of April is close by with the KLIX comps from April 26 till May 4 and a competition in Serbia, called Zrenjanin Soaring Cup starts at the 26th as well going till May 5!
The Dutch Nationals will be flown  starting on May 8 with an official practise day and continue till may 18 [ will be there with my laptop for 3 days!] and HAHNWEIDE is from May 3 till 11.
Also starting on May 4 the Qualifying Sailplane GP in Sweden from Langtora Airfield , the Alpe Adria Cup in Austria , from Feldkirchen and the Italian Nationals from Italy in Thiene.
On may 9 there is the Danish National Competition from Arnborg.

And to finish the Aussie comps-season here a picture from the winner in club class, first time amongst  the seniors ; Adam Woolley on tow.

Some news from the 17th EGC in Ostrow, Poland .

WORLD CLASS NEWS:

Because the minimum number of competitors in the world class wasn’t reached, the registration continues until overall competitors limit is reached or until the 5th of July whichever is first. At the same time, the maximum number of pilots in the world class is increased up to 3 per NAC (change approved by IGC).
The entries will be accepted in order of delivery (up to the overall limit of 120 crews) with priority for the world class pilots. Please remember that the entries are valid only with official entry form confirmed by NAC and with entry fee payment (entries must be sent via info@egc2013.eu).

We also ask the Team Captains to enter any possible reserve pilots in all classes.

Talking about Poland, Ard Tielenburg a very enthusiastic young DUTCH glider pilot hopes to fly with 5 of his mates in Poland during the 8 th JWGC in Leszno; 3 in club and 3 in standard class ALL talented young men.
For this event, Ard is trying to find a glider as a Discus 2a, LS8 or ASW 28?
When you can help him, please let me know and I send him the happy news.
THANKS!
Ard is an Apache pilot and flies for the Royal Air Force here in Holland.

As shared by Ard on FB.

More help wanted, if you can please let them or me know!
Eskilstuna’s Flying Club are looking for a DuoDiscus T, XT eller XLT after the fire. Any tips?

Found some very nice pictures on FB. One of the Dutch glider pilots , Alexander Venema, participating in the May National Comps, practised last weekend in the beautiful LIBELLE.

 

As shared by Alexander’s club; The Noord Nederlandse Aeroclub.

That’s it , will finish from now on, with the date etc. as that looks better when they link this blog to SoaringCafe.

cheers Ritz on April 10 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com      www.soaringcafe.com       www.glidinginternational.com

ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN   SUNDAY APRIL 7 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com

A GREAT pity!!! The weather gave up on Nitra , so Vladimir and his team could not do what they wished to do so badly; set a great competition to win the Pribina Cup.
Next year all pilots surely will be back and it will be a great event again as before and as used in Nitra!

briefing in the bar!With Reitze and Jens.
courtesy FAC @ NITRA.

This is the official announcement;
—“Briefing is over and so is the competition….
The weather forecast for the next few days days looks very unpleasant and wet and the runway will not be usable probably for the rest of the competition. Therefore, after a long term discussion, Vladimir and Dominink decided that there is no reason to elongate the waiting. Pribina cup 2013 is called off. The weather did not favour us this year and there is no way we could influence that. We are very grateful for everybody who had taken a long journey and had come here and we hope to see you next year. You, pilots are the ones that make this competition and we thank you so much for the patience with this year Pribina. I bet you will recall to all the nice flight you have had here in the past and you will come again. Drive home safely.—“

Pilots and crew who really enjoyed themselves in Chaves and visited Beuenos Aires ,see now that the weather , which was not TOO good during the WGC either,  could have been even worse.
In the beginning of April there was one ONE day as much rain as normally in a month, killing 75 people and creating chaos, flooding  and also a lot of other damage due to very strong winds.
The Argentinean weather institute claims that at some places they measured 150 mm. in 2 hours time.

What happened with this nice-set-up?

 

Buenos Aires town, the damage was in parts of  the province Buenos Aires.
Courtesy Frans Guise!

The Queensland Easter comps also continued after Easter! So DAY 4 was another interesting day; 2.30  AAT for the 3 classes!
Goondiwindi is a nice place by the way, not that I know it well, but travelled through it several times on my way to Brisbane and Noosa? To be honest I did not know there was a soaring field over there!

POSITIVE soaring news on day 4 from Bruce who flies his JS 1 in sports class.
—“More people should go gliding. Today was another load of fun, helped by a well-set task. The weather was forecast to be blue west of us and to have some clouds to the east, and that was pretty much how it happened. At launch it was very slow to start, and the cus were far away, but shortly after the start we contacted …some nice clouds and then it was go – go – go!! I went as Far East as I could and then ran south down the edge of the Great Dividing Range to stay under the fattest clouds. That seemed to work well, and the good conditions remained until right down at the bottom of our second (final) turn, where I had to glide out into the blue to ensure I didn’t get home early. After I turned it took a little while to connect and get up and running again, but basically I had a good run today. I know the eastern area a little; even though I haven’t flown there a lot it is very similar to home, and I felt comfortable. So, tomorrow is my last day of flying, as Anita and I are going to a wedding in Sydney on Friday and I will be packing up tomorrow afternoon. I’m not sure I will have time to write anything after I leave, but we’ll see. Thanks for the support, see you all again soon. BT.–“
So far Bruce , who is so kind even during a competition,  to share his impressions with all of us. Thanks for that BRUCE!!!

Day 5 started like this with the message from Adam; task AAT 2 hours!

Adam ready to go, on what he thinks will be a great day!

And a great day it was ,…according to Allan Barnes who flew his LS 8 in the sports class.
—“Great day – 2:45 AAT down to Moree [South from Goondiwindi] then Mungi. I decided to start early, had a couple of 4kt climbs then hit a beauty 9kt which made me slightly overestimate the strength of the day. Pushed hard into the Moree sector but had to take 4kt that grew to about 7. Turned there, and headed NW into the second sector. I had gone deep enough in Moree that I only needed to touch the sector before turning for home, but I hit a nice cloud right on the boundary so pushed through to the far side of it before turning. The final leg was a little slower, into wind. Came home 10 minutes or so over time for 111kph off the stick.—“

The last day , yesterday the weather was as I heard ” so-so” . The day was cancelled!

All in all I only heard HAPPY comments on this first great competition from the airfield of Goondiwindi.
You might have noticed some problems with the scores. Those from club class were under 2 seater and they got stuck more or less after day 3. But ,….the scorers worked hard to get their act together and produced the scores and the final scores.
We forgive the scorers , [all beginning is difficult and fair is fair, they had the results on the last day AND the final scores]  and look ahead with the pilots to more comps from this field.
Results from 6 days out of the 8 with “normal” scores and Aussi rules scores;
Club class;  WINNER;  Adam Woolley ,[4896] winning 3 days, did not fly on day 1 [lay-day, you can skip a day in an event which has not the level of a National competition and get the average of the points so you can have a rest  in case you need it!] and 2 times 2d! Winner over 5 days and as winner  awarded  of ” our three best performances ” .

2 seater class; Winners; team Kingaroy [  Greg Schmidt (President, coach) & Nev Donald (coachee)] with the Duo Discus XL with 5719 points.

Sports class; Winner;Lisa Trotter [5436] and this was a close call as she was just 6 points ahead of Tom Claffey. Allan Barnes was the number 3 also in the 5000 points, the rest had lower points. Bruce Taylor won 3 days but did not fly every day.
Looking only at those 3 days he was the winner, with “scores of the best performances of the week.” In that case, Lisa, Tom and Allan followed.
As Adam said in his blog:
” Ladies & Gentleman, that’s it for another AUS soaring season. The QLD Easter Gliding Champs are now over, next up is my Finland adventure before the AUS Winter sets in..!
I managed to jagg my first seniors win of my soaring career, both on aggregate after flying 5 of the 6 days, & also on the best three performances of the week!
Thanks to the CD & his team, an amazing competition, very friendly, very safe, just brilliant! We’re all hoping we’ll return here soon .
 Thanks to all my competitors in Club, you really pushed me along – looking forward to seeing you all next time. Congrats also to Bruce Taylor for taking out Sports, with Lisa Trotter close behind in a very competitive field.”

AND,…  “My father came 6th, 1st of the ‘rest’ (ie, he was beaten by all the current Uvalde WGC team.”
Thanks Adam for your contribution!

Puimoisson, Serres La Batie, Sisteron , Vinon; all those places are busy and  buzzing with pilots from all parts of Europe. The mountains seem to be  happy with that and provided them last Wednesday, with pretty good weather with lot’s of over-500 km. flights, a few over-600 and even over- 700 km.
Lucky ones ;  Italy, Spain, Portugal and Slovakia still suffer from rain.

From Torino , where the 41 st Trofeo Internazionale  de Citta di Torino, is in progress since March 29, the next news on April 5 by Clara ; ” Oggi meteo pessima: i tutti a terra!” Only the word pessima says enough! “The weather is not good,  ALL over the world!”
Last soarable day was Saturday one week ago ,so  only flying on March 31.
They tried hard yesterday; briefing at 10.45 than 12.30 and 13.00; task 120 km. BUT the weather was just not good enough and  at 14.30 the day was cancelled , so with one day , won by Luca Di Marchi, [ 514 points] this competition finished. A pity!!!  “annullata per insufficienti condizioni meteo” even I do understand that!

Better weather still in Australia where Ingo flew a nice over 500 km. flight in his Discus from good old Tocumwal. He even “topped” the OLC list on Friday.
And 324 k. in the Kestrel is not bad either from Temora.
Nice ridge flight by the way from Ridge Soaring in a PIK 20B on  Wednesday ; 900 km. even with a “loss” of more than 3 hours to fly home due to a ” block-of-the-road ” by snow showers.

AND,…….YESTERDAY we had an extremely good soaring-day again here in Holland. Nice cold [-8 to,  – 10 up in the air!!!] unstable air, dry and strong thermals , [from nice big-well-formed-cu’s] , as I could feel in my garden again.
Flights from 602 km. in an 18 m. LS 8 in the N. of Holland flying direction E. into Germany by Siem and Rene flew in the ASG 29 from the same field [De Voorst] into Germany; 647 km.
On the news in the evening they showed during the weather great cloud streets!

One of the Dutch pilots , not in the air as you can see,  noticed the cloud streets as well.
Courtesy Alexander Venema via FB.

Not difficult to guess that the N. part of Germany had strong soaring conditions as well with 705 in an ASH 26  from Boberg. But also the UK had great weather!!! David Masson managed to fly 693 km from Lasham direction N.
Also Booker and Dunstable had great flights for the beginning of the season.
But with 1595 km. in wave,  Jim Payne topped the list yesterday from Minden ; as he mentioned “Minden Rocks” so to see it did!

They say that this upcoming week will “FEEL” more like spring here, 10 dgr. today[ normal average is 13]  hope it is true , as our farmers are getting sad/worried about the in their eyes  longest cold-period in history. Everything that grows is slow now!!!Too slow and it is VERY dry at the moment as well! But with the SW wind it will be warmer and we will have rain!
Normally this time of the year I see the most colourful flowers along the rails when travelling by train to Amsterdam. Now it looks a bit like the desert in Australia!

And to finish a few nice pictures from a young, Belgium blogger Niel Deijgers. [in English]www.nieldeijgers.blogspot.com/

 

at 5 AM  and ready to go!

 

Finishing and ….landing [in corn]

See you next week.
Cheers Ritz

ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN      WEDNESDAY APRIL 3 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com       www.soaringcafe.com        www.glidinginternational.com

4 DUTCH glider pilots topped the OLC list flying IN/FROM  Holland on APRIL 1!!!!!

NO,…..No April-fools-joke;  Easter monday was a GOOD/SUPER  day. April started cold , we are used to that now, but not too bad for soaring! I read several times that when this is the beginning of the 2013 season, it ‘s very morish.
With lot’s of nice high , even strong looking clouds here in Alphen , where you could feel some strong passing thermals in the garden, the weather else where in Holland was pretty good too.

 

As seen and shared by Frank Hiemstra who flew 412 km in the St. Cirrus and loved every minute and his sister Ilse on FB.

From Teuge not too far from Terlet Sander Luimes flew in the 18m. LS 6, a yo-yo-like -distance of 416 km!!! He comments that even with heat- packs and double- socks his feet were “frozen”, but his day was TOP, for him it might be such an Easter monday every day!
Specially the middle and East of Holland were good and flights over 500 km. in -flat-as-a-pancake-Holland early in the season in ASW 20 and Duo Discus are just good.
Even a nearly 500 km triangle [478 km] was flown by Bart Renckens [Ventus 2CM 18m] , the Dutch TC in Chaves from Soesterberg and a REAL FAI  500 k .triangle by Sikko Vermeer in the Ventus BT./17m. a total of  685 km..for him.
Sikko send me that great video from the reparation of the ARCUS at Terlet, you remember?
755 in the NIMBUS 4 D as well, flying direction East to Port Westfalica in Germany, 698 in the Ventus 2CT/18m. SPRING has arrived for soaring not for sitting in the garden, or,…you should do so behind glass!!!
What about a 548 k [ FIA triangle 462 k. ] from Bart Berendsen who was  once , in the past one of my juniors; free distance-Ahlhorn -Borken-Salland starting slow,  but still going strong thanks to cloud streets but sometimes “blue”  as well. IN a ST. CIRRUS
I am getting a bit too excited with so many long x-country flights, I better stop now , before I get you bored , you can see the rest at the OLC;  800 flights world wide!
AND,….. yesterday was a nice day again , not a lot of people had a day off, but those who had enjoyed some nice soaring , nearly 600 km in a NIMBUS 4M  from Terlet direction NE into Germany.

Only a bit more than a month and the Dutch Nationals are on and the organisers are pleased with  already  53 pilots and you can still enter when you wish. The organisation added another 2 weeks! Good , no great news, so many participants!

With the snow gone at the airfield from Nitra, there was hope that gliding carefully could start. The organisation in Nitra does n’t exist out of  “softies”,   but “experienced-whenever-you-can-fly-,we-fly- types.”
Unfortunately not all 124 preliminary entered pilots have arrived , but still 74 might GO UP from 16 different countries!!!
The situation is ; 32 in club class, 14 in the 2 seater class, 16 in open/18 m. class and 12 in 15 m. class. But this changed due to the weather again.
7 In total from the UK , but I heard it is their squad training as well!

Easter Monday was cancelled not so much due to the weather , as it was dry and sunny with cu’s, but after the [melting-] snow and a day with rain, the runway was not suitable to launch all 74 gliders. Hardworkers as they are, they dried/drained as much as possible, to let pilots who wished so, “snif ” the NITRA- air.About 30 did from the tarmac runway!

courtesy;FAC@ Nitra

Very sad for the organisers and pilots and crew travelling up to Nitra but day 3 was cancelled too, due to the condition of the runway and the expecxted rain in the afternoon.
What can you do? Nothing, it’s all in the game!!!
Some more pilots have left for home, some love the atmosphere and will stay till the end, some just got a launch for a short flight from the tarmac runway!!
Today the briefing is in the bar, WHY not!!! They continue as real professionals as,…It rains again, extremely sad for Vladimir and his team and for the pilots. But” flying in the bar ” can be fun too, not what they hoped for , but atleast an alternative.

They showed a nice Dutch 3.03 minute-video from  Jens Bouma,a member of the FAC on Tuesday, which you can find on ;
PribinaCup Nitra at youtube.
Jens made nice short videos during the Nationals in Holland as well and the organisers started  the briefing with it .Like Hubertus Huvermann , he is a talent and Hubertus made those nice videos to start the briefing with in Finland.

 

Look for the great and larger pictures from ELFO on
http://www.pribinacup.sk/2013/photos/?gal=day03_2013-04-01/2013-04-01_Day03_Floatplanes_by_Elfo&P=2

The Queensland Goondiwindi Easter Comps started with a day of reasonable good flying and than a full day of rain, meaning sitting and waiting ! But , it’s part of soaring as well.
Day 2 , from the final competition of the Aussie season, was a 2 hour AAT[ they only set AAT’s during this competition!]  Was Bruce the winner on day 1 gaining the full 1000 points and Tom Claffey as runner up, day 2 was a prey for Lisa Trotter and runner up this time was Chris Woolley, father from Adam.
Bruce, Tom, Lisa but also her husband Peter  and Kerry [the wife and crew from Tom]  represented Australia in Uvalde during the last WGC and are flying here in Goondiwindi. So a strong field.
In club class Adam Woolley was the winner on day 2, whilst Michael Codling won day 1 . Allan Barnes [flying in the sports class in Goondiwindi] represented Australia in Chaves in the world class.
And,… former Sportavia-guest/employee Alain Potier [ season 1987/1988 under Bill Riley!!!] won day 2 in the Puchacz.[YES , Puchacz, of course I know that glider!]

As seen by Adam Woolley.

 

Goondiwindi  field courtesy Adam and the place itself between Narromine and Brisbane as shared on FB, by Mike Codling.

Day 3 as seen by Adam Woolley winner in club class this day and of course with his permission, in his blog Gliding Adventures for more you can go to; www.glidingadventures.com.au
—“Another great day in Queensland, was as forecast. The goal today went well, got a lot out of it – unfortunately made one monumental stuff up with routing options (judged a street to parallel the wedge, in fact it was off course by over 10*).
All good, a great learning exercise. New focus was to follow the original goal of straight lining between clouds, plus leaving them efficiently; with the added goal now of, getting on with the show (putting the best flight in from this point forward).
Flew a good flight, & took climbs when I needed them, straight lined (felt good). Was showing 105kph at one point & looked to be coming home early, then we crossed into the wet lands…
Slowed right up, & tried my best for what was in front of me. Forced to take 2.5kts from the ground to final glide, slowed my speed back to 96kph for the day.—“

Bruce Taylor looked on FB back on this day as follows:—- “Ahhh, more fun was had today. The weather turned on a typical south east Queensland day, and we all romped around a sky full of cumulus for the afternoon. We went down south, well into the Lake Keepit task area, charging along using 6 – 7 knot climbs under big, fat clouds. The wind increased a bit, and the next leg was heading north west with flatter clouds that still gave good climbs and some long runs with no stopping. Occasionally there was some company to share the fun, and  think most of us got home comfortably before the dreaded early finish to the day came into effect. It was just one of those flights that was a load of fun, and a real joy to share with other like-minded souls. It is amazing when this all happens over miles of standing water and soggy paddocks. Just don’t look down!—”

Winners in each class for day 3 with a 2.30 AAT; club class Adam Woolley!2 Seater class Erich Wittstock in a PW6U and in the sports, Adam’s dad Chris was the best. Good on the family Woolley!!!

The Italian top pilots are since March 29 together for their beginning-of-the-season-competition in Torino. Unfortunastely I was only been able to find one flying day till now,  on March 31, withe Luca De Marchi as winner of the 279 km. long racing task. 2 ARCUS gliders followed with in one Alberto Sironi and a co pilot and the other Luigi Avanzini with his co pilot. Other well known pilots were on spot 4 , Giorgio Galetto, on spot 11 Stefano Ghiorzo and  on spot 13 Peter Hartmann, from the 31 in total, not counting the co’s .All fly in ONE class with handicap!

And to finish; A fire in the workshop in Eskilstuna damaged wings , a fuselage from a top glider and other material. More news about this “NIGHT MARE for pilots”  in soaringcafe on Sunday!!!
Maybe somebody can HELP already now! Or has an idea or,….
‘Dear friends I have lost my wings. There was a fire accident at the Eskilstuna club. No  people was hurt bur I lost the wings to my fox. Now I need to rent, borrow, buy or steal a Fox or a Swift to the team.

Best regards Pekka Havbrandt’

When YES , please let me know and I will forward the message.
Cheers Ritz