Yesterday was the OPENING of the 7th FAI WWGC in Issoudun in France!
Tasks day 1 have been set!

Jacques Aboulin , after flying the T6 for practise the day before.
In the WGC in Benalla in 1987 Jacques was 3d in standard class flying a DISCUS and 1 of the 4 pilots in this class gathering more than 10.000 points over 12 days of flying.
He also is Laurent ‘s dad….YES ….the WGC Champion in open class in Uvalde flying the QUINTUS.
Pictures shared on FB after practise on Friday.

It was drizzle all morning on Saturday but later in the day the sun showed up carefully for the
openings ceremony, with all ladies walking behind the flag of their nation after a 3 hour AIRSHOW with all kind of mostly French designed planes. Not only the pilots and crews were impressed also the between 5000 and 10.000 people from the area.
The French Royal Air Force “stole”  the show with a high standard and Stef, in the SZD 49 closed the show as the French said “brilliantly.” True as I could see it on a short video.

As Kerrie Claffey from Australia said
–“The day gradually cleared & a/c arrived for the airshow – a Harvard, Stampe, Fouga Magister (v-tail jet), Patrouille Cartouche Dore (3 a/c formation team), ASK21 & SZD59 (impressive aero’s!) – plus a few model a/c – Super Cub & helos – unfortunately the ASH flown by Aboulin didn’t arrive – then the opening ceremony, 52 pilots from 15 countries lead by the smallest team from Aus, followed by the largest teams from Czech (9), France (9) & Germany (11) & finished by the next smallest team from US. All starts tomorrow – local wisdom is next 2 weeks’ll be good!–“

Natasja from Holland with her TC Hans, crew , Ronald and Jan and coach Lia who flew years ago the Europeans in Issoudun.

The ladies from the UK and Kerrie with her crew /TC /husband Tom from Australia.
Pictures courtesy Swaantje.

Enough visitors for the AIRSHOW!

We had , by the way, our own demo here in Alphen as , like last year planes flew over to The Hague where the VETERANS were honoured and King Alexander saluted all of them.

Not the best pictures SORRY but  a nice flight over the house from helicopters, F 16’s , Hawker Hunters, DC 10 etc.

BACK to the WWGC;
Today the game starts and the weather looks OK, as I heard a nice blue sky NO RAIN!!!
Tasks 269 km. for club class, Standard class 311 and 15 m. 337.7 km Good luck girls.
You can follow it all by the tracking system at;
www.livetrack24.com

Nice weather on Wednesday, called as well “a smoking day” on FB,  but several outlandings too.

What happened during practise?
An unofficial practise day was on Wednesday, with a task of  358 km. in club class and Lithuanian Edita flying a Jantar was the best  just 3 points ahead of UK  pilot Claudy.
6 Choose not to fly or were still busy with other important things as scrutineering and 6 outlanded!
Standard class had 380 km. and Russia practised well with Nina flying in the LS 8 with a speed of 104 km./h followed by the German girls , Sue and Cornelia.
2 Outlanded 6 choose not to fly.
In 15 m. only 5 girls flew the 387 km. and 2 of them outlanded. Good practise from Alena and her mate Lenka, both flying the ASG 29 , both from the Czech Rep.and winning the day.[107 km/h.]

Alena here in Uvalde!

Last Thursday there was a compulsory practise day for all women flying in Issoudun.

At 1.30 PM as shared on FB after the last take off.

A day with a careful meteo forecast but it turned out nice , with 15 from 20 finishing in Club class over a  speed task with 2 hours ,1 out -landing and 4 did not start.
Good practise for Sarah as she was 2d.
In standard class a 2.30 speed task with French pilot Amelie flying 222 km. and best of the day.8 Finished 5 out -landings amongst them Natasja but she was in “good company” as the 3 German ladies practised “going au vache “as well. One Russian lady did not fly.
In 15 m. class  , 2.15 speed task with by some airspace violations,[ heard the airspace gave already lot’s of discussion ] and 2 Czech ladies in the top.

That was it about practise,  as the next day it drizzled and the day was cancelled.

Even more than drizzle!
Picture as shared by Frouwke.

The official scores from day 1 in Hobbs were different than the preliminary ones and not Dick Butler, who started about 15 min. later than the rest,  but Ron Tabery in the ASW 22BLE won the day in open class, with 358 miles in 4.24. YES MILES!!!! Out of habit I wrote km.,but the USA uses of course  statute miles instead of kilometres.  Thanks Tony!!!!

So back to Ron’s flight; 358 miles is x 1.609= 576 km.
9 From 12 finished and in 15 m. only 12 from 27!!!! One of my friends had and unlucky outlanding, which damaged his glider but he was fine.
And reading Andreea’s blog [ http://wordsaboutsoaring.com  and on  www.ssa.org ] ] , Ron had an interesting day at the least;
—” SS , Ron had quite an adventure flying in a flooded canopy, as his water valve separated and the water travelled towards the fuselage and into the canopy, but he still made the best flight of the day in Open, so congratulations – repairs were done until late at night to replace the valve.—“

Briefing and line up under the hot sun.
Pictures courtesy Andreea.

Day 2 was blue , had 8 kts. wind gusting to 18 and about 36 dgr. C. and another 4 hour TAT, [Turn Area task…. regular task with turn points, minimum distance and minimum time] they do know there as well MAT’s. [Modified Assigned Task…allows the pilots to add extra turn points of their choice to their flight after they complete the assigned task, it only has a minimum time.] Thanks Andreea!
Pilots called it “an incredible day, with great soaring and lots of fun” BUT “ to the North the weather failed again”.
Looking at the scores ;
Dick Butler won in the Concordia with 385 miles in 3.57. Ron Tabery was 2d , starting 13 min. later and flying 363 miles in 3.52.
In 15 m. class it was David Mockler [365 miles in time 3.52] before  Dennis Linnekin [TC in Uvalde from the USA team ] and Ken Sorenson [CD from the Uvalde comps] was 6th for the day.

Line up at the strip and “helping hands” by one of  the kids from one of the pilots . Mostly having their holidays at airfields they know what to do, as they also did in Uvalde during the WGC.

Day 3 was a hot day again, as usual in Hobbs.
—“Today ‘s weather predicts good to excellent soaring, some cu’s, average lift 7.8 kts, light winds and 102 F. The tasks are all TAT. —” 4 HOURS!!!!
What happened on day 3? Dick and Ron started 1 minute later than Rick in the ARCUS. Dick flew in the CONCORDIA 361 miles in 4.05, whilst Ron in the ASW22 BLE flew 348 in 4.02 which is in points,  20 less. Rick finished at 3.54 and was 8th for the day after 303 miles.
In 15 m. it was Rick Indrebo who was the daily winner with 344 miles in time 4. 04.

Day 4 as summed by Andreea;
—“At the pilots meeting we had an interesting weather prediction – morning t-storms, 8 kts winds, partly sunny, scattered clouds of all kinds , 99 F and chances of T-storms throughout the afternoon in different locations of the contest area, but plenty of lift – so the CD and his advisers did not have an easy day in figuring out the tasks so that the pilots are both challenged and not exposed to bad weather or risks due to that.—”
A 3 hour MAT was set for both classes. And Ron “raced” over the task from 337  miles, [= 542 km] with a speed of  99.95 mph.= 160km/h.
That IS impressive!!! With 11 TP’s , [this is kind of a POST task pilots flew in Uvalde in 1991 as well] , he finished at 3.22.29.
Dick, flew even more miles , starting at 2 PM, 11 minutes earlier then his mate Ron, he flew 345,91 miles [556 km.] rounded 11 TP’s and had a speed of 96,48 mph.[= 155 km/h] and was runner up.
Cumulative points after 4 days; Dick 3910 and Ron 3902!!!!!
In 15 m. Mark Keene won with 296.26 miles [ 477 km.] in 3. 09 and 9 TP’s.
As Adreea mentioned;”The weather was better than expected and all pilots came home happy. I think the CD called a good task allowing them to go where they choose after the first turn point, this way everybody could make their pick as clouds and stay away from any possible T-storms. It was another nice day in Hobbs, with only one land out, close and safe.”

Day 5 was yesterday cancelled.And you can see why on the picture from Andreea at 11 AM.

—“Do not be tricked, this is not a sunset at the airport, it is the way the grid looked around 11 am after the pilots meeting. As we headed for the meeting it all looked normal, we had our weather brief (which was not great, but we were still hoping to fly), congratulated the winners from yesterday and went outside to get ready. 

Rather than heading for brunch, we headed for the airport to secure the glider, as gusts of dust were blowing everywhere. This continued as we decided to put it in the trailer and in the end the CD decided to cancel the day, as the winds and dust continued.—”
A big thank you to Andreea who goes home, but Karin [Weissenbühler] will take over her job for the SSA!

I mentioned TONY [Condon] earlier! He just mentioned :”Greetings from Genua Colorado;316 mile -508 km….diamond distance!!!! Good on him. The flight was upwind and up-hill and in a Standard Cirrus and he started at Sunflower.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=3088570

Here is the comment of a HAPPY pilot.
—“Kansas Kowbell Klassic 2013. Wow what a day. One of the earliest starting days I recall in recent history. Nice looking cu 30 minutes before I launched. Thanks to Jerry in K7 for saving me at the first low point. Let’s see…after that I mostly tried to stay between the blue and the OD, then had to turn north to stay east of a big shadow from some thunderstorms in Colorado. After that the whole flight was mostly just trying to stay in the sunshine and get as far away from Sunflower as possible. Was hoping to get enough to make Limon but was a few thousand feet short. Master chase crew Leah was only 40 miles behind me anyway and we were on the way home before sunset. Should be good for Diamond Distance. Happy Day!—“

Some of my soaring-friends are in Ocana in Spain at the moment enjoying good weather and flights up to over and just under 800 km. Good weather in Europe??????? We nearly forgot what that is!!!!
ELY was “hot/booming “again with some good over 1000 km. flights [ 1.244, 22 with a speed of 138.45 km./h yesterday in an ASH 31] and what got my attention as well was the LS 6 WL flight from Parowan;1.005 km . with 123 km./h. Pilot Thorsten Streppel mentioned he declared a 1000 jo-jo, but had to abort about 75 km. before the last TO due to OD, but what a great flight!

In Holland they flew a ONE-DAY-COMPETITION yesterday at Soesterberg the -place- to-be  for the Amsterdam Gliding Club; Amstelglide grand Prix 2013.
With 15 pilots in the combi class, 11 in club class and 11 as well in 18 m. always a great comps, with not the very best weather, but improving during the day and tasks for the combi pilots of 235.9 km., 158.2 for the club and 260.7 for the 18 m. contestants.

As shared on FB by Herbert van Zomeren “Briefing”and Adrie Batenburg “rigging”.

Indeed the weather improved and it turned out to be a nice afternoon. In the combi class 9 pilots finished after the Regatta start at 2.16 PM.2 Duo Discus XLT in the top with 9 and 8 points.
In the club class only 4 finished so not a lot of points to win there; 4 for the winner Nick Hanenburg in the LS1f.
In 18 m. it was the Nimbus 4 M, Frank van Empelen, winning after starting 8 minutes later than the rest. [handicap 105]

Ostrow is ready for their EGC starting on July 5 and going till July 21. They shared a nice picture on FB so I share it with you. Pilots and crews are arriving, a very interesting “bunch” who  for sure are going to give us great joy.92 Pilots in 3 classes and a few VERY good ones! 35 in club , 34 in standard and 24 [x 2 pilots,]  in the 2 seater class.
Great to see as well some well-known names participating in the 20 m 2-seater class this year.

What a great effort from the Schempp Hirth business . They delivered on June 20 their 100ths ARCUS to the MBB SG of Augsburg. Well done Schempp Hirth and congratulations and many safe flights in this beautiful glider to the Augsburg glider pilots.

Great to see how good Birgitte looks.
Picture as shared on FB by SEGELFLIEGEN das MAGAZINE.

Take care all the best and CU on Wednesday.
cheers Ritz

On Sunday June 30 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com      www.glidinginternational.com

Here they are , 50 from the 53 women participating in the WWGC in Issoudun. What a great idea by the organisers, to make a compilation of the pictures.
Thanks for sharing it on the competition WWGC site.
On the official entries list I counted 15 ladies in 15 m. class, 22 in club and 14 in standard class.
15 Different countries with 15 TC’s some very experienced, some dad or husband, anyhow ALL of them will be there with a mobile with a French SIM card.

This Saturday the opening will take place including an airshow for all. Then the girls have to perform on Sunday June 30 till July 12. That day is the farewell party in the evening and on the 13th the prize giving.
Chief steward is Marina [Galetto] from Italy and steward is Frouwke [Kuijpers] from Holland. Gisela Weinreich is the president of the jury.
CD is Roger Eyrier, task setter Benjamin Neglais who has been TC several times as well at big comps and Brian Spreckley is involved in the operations and as deputy CD.
A strong team with more people on different jobs.

Knowing a lot of them , makes me extra sad to NOT be part of it for a couple of days as was planned. A real pity!!!!

But from home I can do a lot too , with help of my friends over there of course.

For the first time in history there is a lady flying for the USA and for Holland, during a WWGC , so a bit of history here in soaring. Maybe even more ladies , but I did not hear about that.
The USA has Sarah, who runs with husband Jason a flying school at Chilhowee Gliderport. She can repair gliders and tugs and fly gliders both as instructor and as pilot during comps. At Uvalde during the WGC, she was the only female tuggie. In Chaves she was a participant in the WGC.
This will be her first time in a WWGC and with TC Francois Pin and her crew , she has all possibilities to do well.
Sarah will fly a St.LIBELLE in club class with a few strong concurrent’s  as Danish World Champion Agnete Olsen and  the German and UK girls .
Here is Sarah with Jason at home and on a recent picture.

Natasja is the name of the Dutch girl and before she departed she told me how much work was done before , by Bas [Seijfert] who gave her his glider SEI, the ASW 28, to fly in standard class. For the Zander,  he built in quickly an audio,  to have her prepared in the best way for all to come and he spend quite some time to explain her EVERYTHING.
Natasja flew the Pre WWGC by accident last year. She was flying a competition there at the same time and was invited to participate in the Pre worlds ,”why are you not flying with us “?  of course she did this  at once.
Natasja flies in a strong class with the World champion from Germany Sue Kussbach and former World champion Gill Spreckley .
Here is Natasja last year at the Pre Worlds with the famous Jill vd Broeck  , who sadly passed away later in the year ……and before flying.

My friend Teresa [Sweden] flies in 15 m. class in the ASW 27 b and I am glad that she can fly after the fire in their work shop at the airfield not too long ago.
A strong class where Susanne Schödel from Germany defends her title and there are a few who want to take that title home this year. Let’s see if Susanne who flew in the Uvalde WGC last year can hold her position. Together the German girls can be strong, as the French and don’t underestimate Johanna from Poland.

Susanne at briefing in Uvalde and with Andreea in Uvalde.
Andreea is at the  moment in Hobbs New Mexico covering the open class/15 m. Nationals.

Slowly the ladies arrived from last weekend onwards  and set up camp.

Swaantje has arrived and made camp for the BIG German team and the UK girls have their camp reserved as well.
Pictures as shared on FB.

Looking forward how this competition will go and I hope for SUPER FRENCH SUMMER weather. Will keep you informed, depending on what happens maybe more than twice a week!

And,….talking about women the always progressive London Gliding Club tries to get more women in soaring. Here is the Flyer as shared by Sandra and a picture from Aeroclub Les Goelands , where they have a girls weekend end of this week. It looks like there will be more than enough tuggies available!!!

Great stuff!

There is more!
The USA NATIONALS IN HOBBS. They started with a practice week in which not a lot was flown.

Ready for a good week of top soaring.
Courtesy Andreea.

Here is the news from Andreea which I received last Sunday:
“Just a quick resume of what is going on here –
starting Monday we had a week of almost daily t-storms, either here or close by,
pretty strong winds and not much flying going on. On an average I would say 5-10
gliders flying, mostly in the area. Right now we have close to 25 pilots already
here, although tomorrow is the first practice day.”

And 3 more of her first pictures;

Dick Butler and his famous CONCORDIA. I liked the remark from Robert [Danewid];
“There is no substitute for span!”

And Heinz Weissenbuhler [l.] who flies according to George, the “old”by Dick modified ASW22, the ETA BITER, again quoting George, “The best ASW 22 in the world.”
Heinz is the father from Hannah and married to Dutch Karin Schlösser.
Pictures courtesy Adreea.

Here is the family as I met them last year in Uvalde.

Yesterday was the first official flying day and 43 pilots went up in the air. They had 5 tugs available  !As Andreea mentioned ;
“The weather was HOT and it will get  hotter and hotter here, starting to resemble more as Hobbs weather. Today we will have less winds, still from the SE and better flying conditions overall. And if I look outside, I do see some scattered Cu’s.–“
BIG task for 15m and open ; 4 hour AAT.

 
Briefing on day 1 and line up in HOT HOBBS.
Courtesy Andreea.

The  preliminary scores; Tom Kelley won in the ASG 29/15m.  the first 1000 points by flying 320 miles in 4.06 .
In open class 2 of my friends were high in the points. Dick Butler with the Concordia flying 322 miles in time 4.05 good for 1000 points and Rick Walters in the ARCUS 306 miles. in 3.57 with 977 points. Heinz was 5th [814 points] Not everybody in both classes is scored yet and the weather up North was not as good as expected.

Rick, Andreea and Ritz in Uvalde.

The Latest magazine of SEGELFLIEGEN is out, this time p.e. with the story of the European record from Mathias Schunk and much more .
http://www.segelfliegen-magazin.de/?page_id=547

Last but not least I told you about the 50thiest birthday of my “old ” club de ZES. Last weekend they had their special day to show Dutch glider pilots how a summer-camp is at a student aeroclub, somewhere in a paddock in the middle of Holland.
The weather did not really co-operate but for fun weather is totally unimportant. As one of the organisers Karin said when she announced the weekend was on; ” No guts,  no glory!”
I noticed lot’s of “thank you’s ” on FB and I knew it could be only good. Here is a short resume by Arjan, who also shared the pictures.

For her 50th anniversary the Eindhoven Student Gliding Club (ZES) organised a unique “Pasture Day” (Dutch: Weiland dag) on June 22^nd 2013 .They invited the entire Dutch gliding community to make an outlanding on a field a farmer named Harold was more than willing to provide. All were invited to join them afterwards for a beer, barbecue and a party. Their aim was to share the great ambiance of their much loved summer camps.

Despite the very mediocre weather forecast they decided to go ahead!

 Just in front of the occluded front the gliders were towed cross-country from their homebase De Peel to the grass land some 40 km’s away. The gusty wind and the turbulence asked for alert towing and sporty landings. A special tribute to Dick Teuling and Francois Jeremiasse who made their field landings coming from Malden even though the weather didn’t improve after the front passage. A total of 14 gliders reached the field with, as it should be, nearly all perfect landings.

 And… the party was waiting for them! On the other side of the road a big tent with an impressive barbecue installation and bar were already set up. Complete with a big campfire and karaoke disco the night ended very late for many. Very convenient that also a one-day-only-campsite had been created on the field with breakfast included!

  

Day 8 winner in open class Erik Borgmann flying the QUINTUS with speed 146.3 km./h. over the 205 km. task. Brilliant! That was the fastest speed in open class.[pic.2]
courtesy Dutch team as shared on FB.

The in the end nearly nail biting EGC in Vinon is over and I take you through the last days.
I left you with the message that  Wednesday could be difficult, weather-wise in Vinon. The briefing was postponed and already early in the morning the day was cancelled for open class.
A bit later for 18 m. as well.
The 15 m. had to grid as the expectation  was for a “maybe-window” later on the day ! So a 2 hour AAT was set. And.. whilst the people on the ground had to strengthen the ropes of their tents cause of the tough ground-wind, the 15m. pilots were launched at 15.35! Most did not even expect it.
Base over the field was around 1600 m. and it was VERY bumpy, but there was also some nice lift , AND ….light wave up to 2000 m. for most pilots ,  but not for some as one of the  Belgium pilots landed back, he could not get away.

Day 8 in 15 m.ended with another daily win for Christophe[Ruch]; 210.6 km. in 1.59,59 how about that!!!! COOL!!! 600 points in the pocket!
His French mates JD and Louis were on spot 4 and 5 , loosing 5 and 6 points on him!!!!
In between on spot 2 and 3, Swiss pilot Fridolin Hauser [ Ventus 2A] and German pilot Steffen Schwarzer.[ASW27]

After 8 days Christophe could if he wished, take a day off , as he was already more than 1000 points ahead of the number 4 UK pilot Phil Jones. Louis,  however was only 24 points behind him,  so still a strong concurrent/mate! JD is 500 points behind Christophe.
Would on the last day each of the 2  fly for himself??  I guess so, both want to be EUROPEAN  CHAMPION and trying to be both on spot 1 by leaving a fraction later for Christophe would be a too big risk to loose the title  and nearly a nearly impossible action, it only once happened as far as I know, by sheer luck . So what happened on the last 2 days!!??

The next day was after a full night of rain, cancelled for 15 m. [ so no points to gain for the 3 French Musketeers, ] and open class. Only the 18 m. flew and got an AAT speed task of 1.45 for their day 8, after 2 cancelled days.
French pilot Christophe won the day starting more than an hour earlier [14.10] than his mate Didier.[15.31] ??That cost Didier,  as he finished on spot 8 and lost his overall first place to ,…who else, Sebastian.
So on the last day it’s between France and Poland, for the decision who will be European Champion. Only 61 points difference, so,…………..everything was possible!!!!!!

Day 9, a good last day for all pilots of this interesting-to-follow-even-from-home-competition. What would happen in 15 m. class? Would it be Christophe or Louis going home with the cup? At least it stays in France!
What in 18 m. , where Sebastian was ready to keep his lead, but 2 French were ready to do whatever needed to be done to keep this EGC cup away from him?
And in open class no worries about Michael but , though I strongly believe in the “team-flying” from the French, {in my opinion they are doing this at the moment  best, though Christophe and Didier proofed me wrong on the last day!!!!!!!} the Germans do know about it too, so would Killian keep his 2d place, can Ronald end in the top 3?

The weather co-operated [2200 m. local, nice clouds also in the mountains!] and tasks on this last flying day were set to make the final scores definitive!
15 m; 347 km.  launched first
18m ; 406 km.
open; 371km. launched last

At 13.37 all gliders were up in the air and the tactic-games could start. The weather remained good so I expected good speed.
AND,…it was a good day. Different still than I expected certainly in 15 m. class as not Christophe won, but Louis went home with the gold.
They started exactly at the same time but in the end Louis was 4 minutes faster and won the EGC title with 23 points on his mate , who won SIX days. Louis won 2.
JD was on spot 3 . Henrik was 2d on the last day and finished overall on spot 5 behind Phil Jones.

The champion and the winners in 15 m,
courtesy FB site team France.

In 18 m. it took a long time before we knew who would be the winner as Didier was not scored, ,…..he OUTLANDED!!! He started together with Christophe Cousseau only had to stay together as Christophe won the day, but something must have gone wrong, A pity for Didier!
So, Sebastian won the EUROPEAN title before Christophe who climbed from 3 to spot 2 and Roman Mracek ended with the bronze!!! Good on Sebastian, I don’t know how he does it every time, even not after reading his book.
Didier dropped from 2 to 5, with Uli who did well, on 6!
What a nail-biting day!!!!!

The Champion and the winners in 18 m.
As shared on FB

In open class Peter Hartmann won the 9th day with a speed of 130km./h. and a later start, about half an hour later than the rest.[15.08]  Pretty special that both Peter and Louis won each in their class this last day. Straight away it came to me that they  had that scary mid air collision in Uvalde, where they both came out unharmed, one bringing the glider home , one bailing out.
European Champion was Michael Sommer  started earlier than normal [14,37] with his mate Marcus Frank . The Dutch,  specially Ronald,  tried to overtake them in a chance to get that spot 3 overall for the JS 1. Together with his mate Erik, they started 13 minutes later and settled for a 2 and 3 day prize. Ronald missed out on 72 points .
French pilot Killian was 2d and Marcus 3d.

The Champion and winners and numbers 6 to 10 in open class
As shared on the German site.

With 5 scrubbed days and 9 days of flying we could see and follow [ good tracking system] a splendid competition,  with sadly to say another black edge. I don’t want to be a nuisance but only in the last month we lost 4 soaring mates! 2 In Germany , [ In May,  1 pilot from 52 and  a bit later a pilot from 35]   in Holland [during a competition] and one in France [competition]  and even maybe more I did not hear of,…. not good!

What went wrong with Didier I read this morning written in a resume of this last day in Vinon by the lovely father of Sebastian, who I met in Uvalde.
Be aware it is the way Thomasz sees it .
It’s shared many times already but I share it too.
Here you are and THANKS THOMASZ;
–“To bylo velmi dramatycke.” (“It was really dramatic”)

Yesterday was something of an emotional rollercoster but life has more suspense and surprises than Alfred Hitchcock could ever hope to come up with. The plan was simple. Sebastian was to keep his ambitions on a very short leash and leave at the best time. We have calculated that for the 407 km… task this time would come between 14:30 and 14:45 accepting giving up 3 to 4 minutes to the rivals. We came to an agreement with our southern neighbours to fight together to hold our places in the table. It turned out that the white-red-blue HQ had exactly the same judgement of the weather situation and tactical goals. The weather was great with visibility typical for Polar circle so the usual pre start dance did not take place. The French run away and were caught by the first mountain range. Didier and Sebastian were uncontested so they could do a lap of honour but it does not work like this with the alphas. In the Morgon region clouds spilled out and suppressed the lift. Everyone had a different way of dealing with the situation. They spread out over Durace valley by Gap and Sisteron. For the next two sections the weather was capricious ut over Morgon Sebastian caught up with a group marked by Cousseau’s tracker. Dider did not have one on this day. Turning point was set at behind the lake deeper in the valley. It is common knowledge that in such a pipe one can meet only devil playing with winds so everyone after the turn made a random escape. The Cousseau group went north with the wind to look for support on the slopes of Ecrines. Sebastian decided to go back straight to Morgon, which some minutes before offered excellent lift. There is a reason local pilots show respect to this place. Although the western slope was exposed to the Sun and perpendicular to the wind it welcomed Sebastian with sink instead of lift. The reason was quite simple. It was here where the convergence area was starting and clouds kept on forming all day which prevented the rocks from warming up and only from time to time the stone giant was giving salutary breaths.
The boy was having a hard time for a long time by the rocks to no avail and when it started to get really nasty as the stone rubble at the foot of the mountain was getting dangerously close he decided to fly towards the river valley by Gap. Literally a few minutes after his departure the slopes began to work and saved from great trouble Jarek Tomana. Sebastian made a save, little rocks at Durance did not fail him but he no longer could count on the bottle of wine for winning the day.
It also seemed that his golden medal was growing more and more pale. We were surprised though not to see Didier Hauss at the finish line. Would he have landed at another part of this huge airfield and stashed the glider in one of the hangars? It turned out that the pressure had its effect. When the initial group fell apart Sebastian kept his emotions in line and saved on height. He could not be persuaded by a Czech colleague to jump to usually excellent Pic de Bure and he laboriously worked through not to impressive thermals under weak clouds. Didier pushed on forward as the conditions seemed excellent and… he had to pay a visit Ohlmann at his airfield. This news did not really make us happy as the day was drawing to its close and we still havent heard from Mirek. He did not answer the radio, his cell phone was silent, he had no tracker, SPOT was not on. The organisers shared our fears and started to get the rescue team ready. Nice. Would it be a deja vu from a few days before? When we joined the rescue activites right before the sunset Mirek’s engine roared over the airfield. Sebastian saved his first place.

PS
You cheered Riabczansky in Argentina. This time all eastern Europe teams kept their fingers crossed for Sebastian. Rascvietali yabloni i grushy, poplyli tumany nad ryekoy…Pazdravlayu !
Tomasz Kawa

What a lovely family, both Thomasz and Sebastian, very much dedicated to each other…CHAPEAU!!!!!
picture as shared on FB.

In a few days , from the 25th of June till the 4th of July, [Practise days on June 23 and 24] the USA Nationals for 15 m. [ 30 participants]  and open class [ 15 participants] start in Hobbs New Mexico and one of my colleague-bloggers Andreea , ” Miss Daisy ” is going to cover these Nationals for Soaringcafe and she is also the designated blogger and photographer for the SSA.

Andreea!
Soaring Society of America Volunteer Development Committee
www.wordsaboutsoaring.com

Pictures from the Concordia in Uvalde.

With the WWGC about to begin in France,  the EGC in Ostrow and the JWGC in Leszno both in Poland , we have busy times ahead! Everybody is preparing for these comps also Issoudun, where they built a brand new reception desk, classroom and flight simulator !This will be all ready for the WWGC starting with a flight show on the 29th day of the opening as well.
The closer it comes the more sad I am that I can’t be there, but such is life! [ Neck and back are OK, but not yet good enough for more action than sitting in a chair , laying on a bed, some walking and shopping]

EGC logo
as shared on their site.

Some of my Finnish friends have started the open Finnish Club and 18 m. Nationals in Teisko .  This competition started yesterday with small 1.30 AAT’s and continues till the 30thiest of June. They had to cancel day 1 but tasks for today are in “the make” .

And,…the Arcus M has received type certification by EASA. Congratulations to Tilo and his family and their staff.

http://easa.europa.eu/certification/type-certificates/docs/aircraft/EASA-TCDS-A.532_Schempp–Hirth_Arcus_T-02-20062013.pdf

To finish I would like to strongly recommend to you the story of a pilot who survived a bad crash in the mountains  to be read on www.soaringcafe.com
“The end of the road for TA-part 2 , the crash report” by Frank Paynter.
—“I had miraculously survived the crash with very minor injuries, but I still might not survive the mountain.”–

Will keep you informed over the next weeks, maybe even on more days than normal, as old news is no news!
By the way it rains cat’s and dogs here and the 35 dgr. from last week turned into 16. 2 Nice 2-day-comps have been cancelled this weekend.
Cheers Ritz

With 7 days of flying in a row, the organisation set a well deserved day-off for the EGC pilots in Vinon on Monday. Not always the easiest circumstances due to the weather and lot’s of high mountains , where you have to be alert ALL the time ; a good decision.
Certainly when pilots in the evening of day 7 , hear that one of the pilots had a fatal accident, by hitting a cliff.
Always TOO sad for words! I know all about it,..poor family, wishing them all the best!

Life continues, how weird that is for family and friends of our Spanish “soaring-mate”, so we all have to continue as well.

Interesting to look at what has happened in the first 7 days.
Specially the open class is worthwhile looking at.
Was it in the past one or 2 types of gliders occupying/dominating the best places,  this year there are 8 different gliders in the top 10 from 22 participants.
In this class Michael Sommer in the EB 29, is the man-to-beat as he leads after the first 7 days with more than 300 points on French pilot Killian Walbrou flying the JS1-C.
Than there is a Quintus M. on spot 3, an ASH 31 Mi, a JS1,  a Nimbus 4T, an EB 28edition, an ASW 22 BLE and if you want to be really perfect the ASH 31 is different to the ASH 31 Mi., that makes 9 different gliders.
With an outlanding on day 7 this  is also not the competition for Pete Harvey [Nimbus 4T] , who normally flies in the TOP. He is on spot 13 after 7 days.
I wonder what would the CONCORDIA  have done against the EB 29 under the circumstances in Vinon?  About the same span, but a different wing load.

In 15 m. it seems only French pilots are flying!!! The 3 musketeers Christophe, Louis and JD are 1000 and over 500 points ahead on number 4 UK pilot Phil Jones! Christophe won 4 days from the 7.

In 18m. Didier Hauss who was in 1987 one of the French team pilots flying for the first time a 2-seater ASH 25 with Gabriel Chenevois, [he died already some years ago] during a WGC in open class, leads after 7 days. Didier , a very nice fellow, even invited my son Dennis , who flew with his father George also in this Benalla-WGC in a Nimbus 3D, to visit St Auban for a stage.
On spot 3 is the other French pilot Christophe Cousseau and in the middle is Sebastian . It will be very interesting to see what happens in this class.

Whatever happens the French showed they are a very strong team in flying together over their own country.

On  FLYING-day 8 , the organisers only send the open class up in the air. A 205 race was set. They expected wave ,but also overcast. There was also a lot of wind up to 40-60km./h with gusts later in the day forecasted  up to 80 km./h. higher up!
Not everybody got in the wave, some even struggled to stay up , some even had to land and start again.
In the end there were not a lot of points to win; 361 for the daily winner Erik Borgmann from Holland with the nice speed of 146.3 km./h.. As said before Erik flew in the past EGC’s and WGC’s for Holland, but living in the Vinon area now , he did not a lot of this competition soaring over the last years. So VERY good on him!
Here is what Ronald  [Termaat JS 1] shared with us on FB. Thanks Ronald!
—“Today was an another interesting day. Some people got the wave, others didn’t. I was unhappy to belong to the latter…. Started at 1600msl where others climbed to 2700. Mmm, I did my usual cursing then. To make it worse the task was only 200km and there was 40km/h wind. Connecting with the mountains needed some more height than what I had. At St. Auban I was down to 1000msl, about 600 over the airfield. Climbing in a slow 1,5m/s. Knowing the others started high I pushed on to La Beaume. It was not on track but I had to climb. Luckily there was good lift and after some climb I could connect to the mountains. I pushed really hard and at the turn I saw EB and V2 5 to 600m above me. Not good. But they took a different route to the second turn and I pushed hard along the ridges. A short climb at the Maloup allowed me to connect to Authon where a good 4m/s climb brought me at final glide. To my surprise only Erik was finished with a staggering 146km/h. The people above me at the first turn were not there. So I ended up with 128km/h on the 6th place only minutes short of 3rd place. So not to bad after all and allowing me to climb up to 4th place overall.
But many respect to Erik and his daily win!—“

For today gridding is postponed , but whatever happens, you will hear it all on Sunday.

This is the morning from day 9 as seen and shared by the Dutch.

It’s still waiting a FULL year but the EAC organisation has announced the EUROGLIDE 2014 from June 23 till July 5 2014!!! A lot of soaring-hearts are beating faster now!!!!! Holidays are planned, busy,busy!

Not so long waiting, in fact already this weekend on June 21 at 8 o’clock , Gavin Wills will visit Hahnweide and talk to all gathered pilots about flying in the mountains, “Adventure Soaring ” in New Zealand. This evening is organised by Uli [Schwenk]
Gavin is the owner of Glide Omarama a very successful flying school  in New Zealand.
Worthwhile to visit and listen to the stories and looking at the pictures!

Unfortunately I can’t go, can’t even go to the WWGC in France due to back and neck problems after the incident with the car last Thursday. Had X rays yesterday and at least a week of good rest and fysio is  recommended!!!

ELY in the USA had fantastic weather last weekend creating superfast flights as 173.5 km./h over 910 km. in an EB 28 by UK pilot John Bally!!!!!
Also 160 km./h in the EB 29 is not bad over 862 km. Nice to see that this French pilot from St. Gaudens is flying in ELY,  whilst his club mate Robert Prat flies from St Gaudens a 1.318,41 km. on the same day in the ARCUS M!!!

Yesterday one of our former guests at Sportavia Uwe Thiele , a real kilometer-eater, started flying in Ouarzazate and straight away showed the “appetite”; 1.190 km. He will love it.
Lot’s of German guests there this year with flights over 1.300 km. Some of the guests commented; “Morocco is worthwhile visiting!”

AND,…. the Scandinavian countries are ready for their MIDSUMMERNIGHT. We here in Holland do have a something special too. Bar’s are open all night here in Alphen on the 22d , but in Holland there is a new young club of enthusiastic glider pilots , GAE [ Gliding Adventures Europe] flying from the National Gliding Centre of Terlet and they start soaring when the first light is on at 5.19 AM and continue weather permitting of course till 10.04 PM. This is all happening on Saturday the 22d of June. After that,….grrrr…. the days are getting shorter again.
The Club counts about 100 members , flies from Wednesday till Sunday every week in the season and made last year 6700 starts!!!! They have 12 gliders and on the 22d everybody is welcome for a joy flight. They count on 10 guests in the air per hour!!!!
Wishing them a day full of sun, pleasure and safe flights. At www.zweven.nl you can enter for a flight if you wish and find all other relevant info.

The next EGC for Club standard and 20 m. is as you know soon in Poland here is some news;
–“The Organiser offers to arrange a room for team with strong internet cable connection in the central hangar. PC set with laser printer and basic furniture (tables and chairs) also power supply 220V is included. The price for such room is 449 EUR for all the period. If your team is interested to use it during the event, please indicate this by an email to our address info@egc2013.eu —”

Cheers Ritz,….by the way summer arrived here with yesterday the first tropical day in the “weather-measurement-town “the Bilt and even 32 in the S.
Today will be even higher but, than it is over again after expected severe thunderstorms with hail.
on Wednesday June 19 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com      www.glidinginternational.com

Coming back from a lovely relaxing holiday, I quickly checked what had happened last week. First of all of course, the EGC in Vinon and surprise, surprise, after the very nice sunny practise days , the start of the comps was weather-wise less good.

Vinon during the practise days as shared on FB.

Practise days normally don’t say anything, but I was pleased to see the practise days at Vinon just before I left. The toppers showed up in the top and it looked in advance like a GREAT competition with fierce fights between them.

As shared by our Belgium friends during practise!

After a cancellation in the beginning of the comps,  day 1 on the 10th of June was pretty bad for former European 15 m. champion Steven Raimond. I hoped and believed he would be in the top 3 from this EGC , but on day 1 he  had to go “au vache” after 55 km. , after a pretty late start. Loosing nearly 600 points is not too good  and it even get’s worse for Steven as on day 2 he “meets the cows again in the field” ,  now after 21 km and a start time  like most other pilots.
In between the 3 French pilots Louis Bouderlique, Christophe Ruch and JD Barrois, form a strong pact against the rest of Europe in this class, winning nearly every day.
Steven however re-invented himself and was after 5 days on a better daily spot, 6 and 6 and 2! No secret that the 3 French are after 5 days on spot 1,2 and 3 overall.
By the way, NO 1000 points-day till than!
Good to see Henrik [Breidahl] from Denmark on spot 4! It only needs one day with mistakes for the 3 French or “meeting bad weather” and,….  ??!! But that’s not what we hope for and on top of that they lead already after 5 days with 500 points !
Guess their  TC is satisfied and proud on his men in this class.

In 18 m. they had in the first 5 days 2 x a 1000 points-day. In this class it is Russell Cheetham, Sebastian Kawa and Didier Hauss who were flying theirselves in the top.
Russell won the 1000 points on day 1 , Didier on day 2 and Sebastian won the next 3 days in an ASG 29/18m . Something different for him this 18 m competition-flying, but ,…..it is soaring, he is good in soaring , so what ever class ,….Sebastian is just good; after 5 days he leads with 200 points , but also here the French [Didier and Christophe Cousseau] have a strong pact and are trying to go for the gold.
Russell lost 300 points on day 2 and 400 on day 3 so he dropped a bit in the overall scores. He is after 5 days on spot 11.

In the open class it is a well-known name Michael Sommer who leads after 5 days in the EB 29 and it is interesting to see Luciano[Avanzini] in the Quintus behind him and Killian Walbrou from France on spot 3 in the JS 1-C. Michael won 3 days and flew on day 5  a distance of 415 km. in time 4.04 during a 3.30 AAT. About 30 km. more than runner-up  Stefan Beck.

Ronald Termaat who flies his brand new JS 1 in the open class , keeps a blog and here is what he said about day 1;
—-“First day of the EGC. Not too bad coming 3rd. But it was a mistake to come back too soon. It was a bit difficult. Even to get high before the startline. Together with Erik [Borgmann, who was 2d in “my” team in the Borlange WGC] we flew to the first sector where I flew a bit different route and we lost each other. Going up northwest I took a big detour to stay under the Cu’s and away from the mountains. Third sector was bad. Overcast and some rain. The JS1 is going fantastic. What a good glider in open class as well. The two JS1’s in open class ended up in the top 3. Only Michael Sommer in the EB29 was a bit faster.—“

“RT phoning home” on day 4 , when he is the daily winner with a speed of 122.9 km/h over the 366 km task, climbing to an overall 7th position.

Yesterday was day 6 in each of the 3 classes and the next tasks were set ; AAT’s from 3 hours in 15 and 18 m. and 2.45 in open!
A day you had to have patience and good info from the ground about the weather and for the French the local knowledge was a not to forget PLUS.
In 15 m. there is no measure on the 3 French  15 m. pilots, Christophe and Louis both got the 1000 points and JD 19 less. Than the German -2 , the Lithuanian LS 6 and Phil Jones from the UK all in the 900 points region. A few out landings as well , also Steven , so this is definitely not HIS competition.
In 18 m. it was Jaroslav Tomana who started pretty late but won the day with 335 km. in 3.02. The French followed and very nice to see Uli Gmelin as pilot instead of TC at an EGC. Good pilot as well, on spot 7 after 6 days!!! From the 20 pilots only 10 finished and the last one getting finish points was Sebastian, who is 2d overall now after 6 days with Didier Hauss on spot 1.
In open it was again the outstanding Michael , in the outstanding EB 29, who won the 1000 points. He started as last pilot , p.e. 30 minutes after the 2 Dutch boys and flew 364 km. in 2.49. Ronald and Erik were on spot 3 and 4 just before the 2 UK pilots. Ronald is gaining a few more points every day being on spot 4 now after 6 days.
12 From 22 outlanded, amongst them Peter Hartmann, Alberto Sironi and Luciano Avanzini, a pity, but it is not over yet!!!

Glider Q, the Quintus Erik Borgmann is flying for the Dutch Team.
As shared on FB.

Todays tasks;15m: 367 km., 18m: 396 km., Open: 440 km.
The International Party seems to have been a great success yesterday and as you know, that’s a VERY  important part of a competition.

I told you about the flooding in Germany and other parts of Europe, this is how you keep your glider dry!

Gliders hanging on the ceiling to avoid the HIGH water.

And here is Arne Martin again; I asked him to be my guest when there were interesting stories.
Looking at the OLC you “see” a lot,  but a story behind it sometimes gives you a totally different view on a flight, so here is
—-” Another amazing flight in Norway yesterday:
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=3048413

Not any formal record, but crossing the mountains between western and eastern Norway has always been a challenge, as there’s quite a stretch of unlandable terrain and the weather is rarely good enough on both sides on the same day.  There have previously been some flights which
have crossed them one way and landed at the other side.
But yesterday Jo Inge Bjørø did the ultimate challenge by taking off from the west coast of Norway, crossing the mountains to eastern Norway, and returning in the same flight!  That won him a pallet of beer from a bet”.—“

Got a nice mail from Rolf from the Geelong Gliding Club in Australia as well, here you go;
—“A quick note to let you know that we are not completely in Hibernation here.
Every June Queens Birthday weekend members of the Geelong Gliding Club venture
to the Grampians (the Victorian ones, not those in Scotland) as guests of the
Grampians Soaring Club at Ararat. We go there never loosing hope to encounter
elusive wave conditions and this year we were lucky. Two days, Sunday and Monday
we had wave, Sunday up  to 20,000 ft. I’ve attached a picture taken at app.
16,000 ft from below the Lenticular.

There are more pictures at:
http://www.gliding-in-melbourne.org/new/component/option,com_gallery2/Itemid,37/?g2_itemId=5425

 Talking about Australia here is some news I got fro Jo about the next club class Nationals in Waikiri.
—“just a note to let you all know that entries are open for the 33rd Club &
Sports Class Nationals that are being hosted by the Waikerie Gliding Club
in South Australia. The event will run from the 2nd to the 11th January
2014 with an official practise day on the 1st January.—“

The competition website can be found here: http://clubandsportsnationals2014waikerie.blogspot.com.au/

And,…talking about wave, here is a picture from Arne Boye Moller as shared on FB, from wave in Denmark.

Nice lentis on a monday afternoon over Arden in a DG-1000 doing a 300km FAI at 104.5kph.

And one shared by Sven Olivier in S A, with his story for those who are not on FB.

Flight level 195
But not real lennies
Lots of fun

—-“It was VERY cold – I was dressed for 25 000 feet though, with clothes I had last worn in Sweden in 2006 – thermal underwear and very thick socks – but not the electric socks- and a thick woollen cap and neck cover. I only wore thin gloves but next time I will go for the socks and thick mittens.  Your body still requires adjustment and I landed very early (at 15h00) as I had too much to drink before and during the early parts of the flight.—“

Pilots are good with gadgets and use them when possible, also in soaring as you can see on the pictures by Tjalling, who flew in Husbos in “my” JWGC team.The go-pro nicely on the glider gives great results. He flies at the moment in France [Les Mees]

The next EGC in Ostrow is doing great PR and to support them here is what was written on FB;
—“On Wednesday, 12th of June a press conference took place at the airport in Ostrów. The press conference was regarding of 17th FAI European Gliding Championships organized by the Aeroclub of Ostrow.  The competition will run from 5 to 20 July. The organizers informed that over 130 pilots will compete from 24 European countries plus Argentina, Australia, Japan and the U.S.A. During every day at the airfield more than 1,000 people will appear. The competition will take place in four classes: Standard, Club, World and 20meter two-seater. The Polish representatives will participate as titled champions as Sebastian Kawa (currently successfully representing Poland in Vinonsur Verdon in France in the 18-meter class), Janusz Centka, Tomasz Krok, Lukasz Blaszczyk. Aeroclub of Ostrow has already proven that it can efficiently and effectively organize air events at the highest level: good location, no dangerous areas for glider pilots in the sky, over 20 yea…rs of tradition and experience. It encoruaged FAI air international organization to inclined to organize the European Championships in Ostrow. This is great promotion for the airport and for the whole region. Mrs Joanna Mucha, the Minister of Sport and Tourism took a honorary patron of the Championships.   The partner of the event is the city of Ostrow Wielkopolski and the Marshal of the Wielkopolska Region. The European Championships will be streamed live on the official website of the portal http://egc2013.eu/, wlkp24.info and cable television Proart. Tracking system will be used for tracking routes gliders presented at the entrances to live with commentary and current information and results will appear at the event. Enjoy this time to Ostrow Wielkopolski. .—“

Last but not least, the A 350made it’s first test flight and it was successful. The new big A 350 is the concurrent in the future for Boeing’s Dreamliner 787, a new generation of airplanes, lighter, using less fuel and hopefully better for the environment .

That’s it for now. On the last day of our nice holiday, we had a bit of a mishap as a jeep hit the backside of our car standing still for a t- intersection-look-out and we 5 girls all had pain in the neck and a head ache, I still feel it a bit, certainly when writing too much, so next time there will be more!
cheers Ritz

What a day last Sunday !!! At 10 AM, I could see clouds popping up already and I felt during the day the cold but strong wind from the thermals here in Alphen.
Looking in the evening at the OLC , it indeed was a great day!
Cloud Streets till late in the evening, good thermals  and convergence ,  it was all there.
From Venlo,  a new Dutch record was flown over 1.061,40 km. by Robert Werts and Luc Stalman in the Nimbus 3DT. Robert flew a 1000 from Holland last year as well.

Ready to go early in the morning!

  
Pictures courtesy Luc Stalman from the back seat. One from  Robert  after they just were on their way and a “happy- thumbs -up- Robert “in the end of the flight.

From Eindhoven, long time friend Gerrit flew in the Duo Discus 645 km.
Mark [Ventus 2] and Alfred Paul both flew from Soesterberg straight South to,….St Hubert, 802 km. yes the place where they only could fly 3 days during the Belgium Nationals. When they finished the comps the better weather arrived. Grrrrrr…..have seen that too often!!!!
Holland had a total of 111 flights and the first 49 flights were between 327 and 1.063 km!!!!! Mostly flown over Holland and a bit into Germany and Belgium. VERY special!!!!!
Several out and returns as well.

The weather at 7.30 PM as seen and shared by Natasja close to Soesterberg.

 With this great weather, how lucky can you been, the open military comps started at Malden and on Monday they got an AAT in all 3 classes.
But what AAT’s; Club 5 hours, combi 4.5 hours and open 4.5 as well. When you are interested you can follow the pilots the rest of this week, if you did not do so already,  on
www.live.glidertracking.com
40 Participants in total and day 1 was well spend by Jeroen van Dijk [ club class with 13 participants] ] who arrived home last week with 2 CUPS from Romorantin and won in Malden day 1 with 405 km. in the Mosquito in 5 hours and 4 minutes! He clearly was still in the winning mood!!!Good on him! Normally you go to France for good soaring weather , but after one day of competition-flying there,  he found out that the weather here in Holland is TOP!!!!
Oh oh that weather!!!
In the combi class with 13 pilots, Adriaan Oudhuis won the 1000 points flying in the ASW 20 384.5  km. in 4 hours and 32 minutes.
In open class [ 13 pilots] Tim Kuijpers [DG 800 S/18m.] won the 1000 points before his mate, Rene de Dreu [988 in JS 1 Revelation].Tim flew 391 km. in 3.48.
3 Of the Kuijpers family are flying. Dad Ferdi, in the Duo discus was on spot 2 in the combi class and mum Frouwke had a less good day in this class being last after an outlanding on 85.5 km.

The weather as seen and shared by Rene on day 2 of the Open Military Championships in Holland [Malden] . Not bad is it?

On Tuesday an other nice day , number 2, with for the CLUB pilots 260 km. on the menu and the winner for the day was Frank Hiemstra one of the boys behind GLIDERTRACKING.
He flew his St. Cirrus with a speed of 74.5 km./h. over Holland and into the 1000 points.
Jeroen was with 830 points runner up!
In the combi class the 13 pilots had a much more difficult day to fly their 270 km., with only 385 points for the winner in the Duo-Discus and 11 outlandings . In Open class Tim and Rene departed again together and finished in the same time as well. But on handicap Tim won the 1000 points, Rene had 7 less.
6 From 13 made it home!
Today they fly again till June 7 and they keep this great weather!
Tasks today;Club 325km Combi 443km Open 451km. NOT TOO BAD !!!!
The day ended however TOO BAD! Very sad but the day was neutralized after a deadly accident with one of the single seaters killing the pilot.Tomorrow is cancelled as well.
Condoleances to the family and friends of the pilot and a lot of strenght for those who had to witness the crash after the cable broke.

Today’s tasks as shared by glidertracking.

From Diest in Belgium a nice flight in a Duo Discus last Sunday, nearly all over Holland with a cloud street in the evening till 9.30 PM!!!

Also Finland had it’s share. On TV the meteo said already that the North of Europe had great weather and yes they were correct ; Olli Teronen [ASG 29 e/18m.] flew 714  within it , a nice 500 km. triangle from good old Räyskälä. Young Aku Jaakkola flew from the same field in the LS 8 645 km. The best flights till now for this season from this field, where I for sure go back one day!!On June 8 the Finnish Nationals start in Räyskälä and Woolley has arrived already from Australia to practise for next years WGC.
There are 19 pilots flying in St.Class, 7 in Club amongst them Australian guest Adam Woolley and 23 in the handicapped class.
The official news;
—” Welcome to Finnish Open Nationals and Club Class Trophy – the Pre-WGC.
The Pre-WGC in Club, Standard and 20-m Multi-seat Classes will be organised from 8th to 16th June 2013 in Räyskälä in conjunction with the Finnish Open National Championships in Standard, 15-m and 20-m Multi-seat Classes.—“

For our UK friends in club class and the pilots flying the  regionals,  the comps is over and what comps they were.
What an epilogue of the UK club class nationals last Sunday.
What a hero that Will Ellis, flying his KA 6E to 1000 points with a speed of 103 km./h. Stunning good!
Great to see how many pilots flew this competition and lovely to see they had atleast 4 top days weather-wise and a total of 6.
As my English is less good than the real ” pommie English”,  I copied and pasted a few words I firmly back up.
—“Massive congratulations to Pete Masson on becoming the UK Club Class Champion . An epic achievement, especially after a few years without competing.
We can only hope some of the talent  rubs off on us—“
I had no time to write about the Regionals so here we go;. Andy Davis also put on a masterclass
Dave Watt won the 1000 points on the last day before Andy, who clearly won the regionals in the ARCUS;5869 points. Dave did well too with 5708 points.
For the PW 5 pilot  the 407 km. were a bit TOO much. He flew 138 km.! On day 2 he flew 430.2 km. but it was too difficult with those long tasks to finis on either of the 6 days.
Still a great effort!!!
And,…..—“Andy Davis also put on a masterclass in the Regionals to win another title.”—NICE!
More pilots flew that Sunday from Lasham and Roy was one of them flying 790 km[700FAI triangle] in his ASG 29 E.

Dave Masson had the day of his life as well. Maybe not even realizing how good the weather was, as he had not really had a look at it, he finished his day flying his LS6 WL, with a great out and return up N.
—“If the paperwork etc  is ok then it is the first 15m 750 O/R so I can get the distance and speed records and I’ll be jolly pleased with myself .—“
So a great day in the UK as well and it seems we keep this weather for a while!

Germany , specially the South and East, however struggle with too much rain, too high rivers and for that reason FLOODING, the highest level of water in 100 years.
Passau has a risen water-level of 15 m. and this has not happened for 500 years. 3 Rivers join there and all are full of water!!!
I heard that even the airfield from Unterwössen , where some of my friends fly, is flooded!!!I checked with Maria;
–“ that’s correct the airport is flooded but the gliders are on a safe place. They count on a level of 2 or 3 meter at the field. It seems a dyke has been broken at Bernau as well.—”
Not good, also Prague is in problems and the army tried to keep the beautiful old town safe from too high water. Switzerland and Austria suffer as well.
People have been killed and several people are missing.

Kilometer-eater Guy Bechtold from Luxembourg moved to Ouarzazate and the 3 gliders flying there had quite good weather.Janusz Centka [ARCUS M] flew his 5th over-1000-km. flight and the manager from the German soaring business Fly Down Under at Stonefield in Australia , Konrad Mayerhofen just missed out on a 1000 in the DG 500 M /22m.
Since May 23 pilots  flew 11 over 1000 km., flights in Morocco and you cannot always count there  on a 1000 , as I heard last year from the Schmelzer boys.

On Monday I was in Amsterdam again and after picking up the kids from school we went for a “cruise” on the canals with an Australian guest. Mike, Moo for insiders,  arrived, flying his Airbus 340 as captain  to Amsterdam from Hong Kong and spend the day with Inge and later with all of us. Both Inge and Mike made their hours as former Sportavia tuggies.
Sad news as well for “old” Sportavia fans;  a couple of  years after Maureen died, Dolf her husband died yesterday.  Though Dolf was not involved in Sportavia [ his wife Maureen was…. as secretary for years!!!] he visited the WW2 hangar a lot and flew his own light plane.

Around 70 people and 20 gliders have registered for the “special -student-summer-camp-day on June 22 in a paddock in the middle of Holland. One of the highlights of the ZES- lustum- 50 years!Will be a lovely happening! I am invited but unfortunately I can’t go.

Good luck for all pilots participating in the VINON EGC with 20 pilots in 15 m. class, 23 in 18m. and 24 in open.
Looking foreward to see how the JS 1 with Killian and Ronald will fly compared to p.e. the Quintus, EB ‘s, Nimbus , ASH 25 , ASH 31 and Antares.
And a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY  in Vinon to Marion the more than faithful crew from R1 , Steven Raimond! Such a great team together , such lovely people and already for years and years and years!
No news this upcoming week as I will be on holiday WITHOUT a laptop. SORRY.Next news on the 16th. Have fun. Here is a link to follow the EGC;http://www.egc2013vinon.fr/en/

Cheers Ritz

With 2 nice sunny days last Monday and Tuesday , this SPRING is one to quickly forget.
I loved Amsterdam however last Monday,how different does the world look with blue skies, a bright sun and with all the  fresh light- green leaves on the trees.
Some pilots who really had some great flights this spring, must have loved their few great days, but for sun-bakers and people liking to sit on terraces, it was a tough time certainly after the too long winter.
Overall it was much too cold, in the beginning too dry , in the end too wet, more autumn than spring.
Looking forward to the 2013 SUMMER , which started yesterday, here with 9-15 dgr and dry.
Hope we will have one!!!!!15 dgr. is 5 under the average for this time of the yaer.

By the way it was Ingo’s 75 th birthday yesterday, celebrated as I heard , with birthday cake and champagne and dinner later in the Terminus , for those who wanted to come along. Congratulations Ingo.

Know I have showed this picture before but I like the happiness on both  faces!And one shared by Judy from yesterday!!! Go Ingo!

The Austrian Nationals in the end squeezed 3 days out of the 8. Last day was yesterday and the pilots  in 4 classes got an 1.30 AAT and in open 15 minutes more!
A day to gain some points for some as they needed only a few,  to be winners.
It turned out different as I read on their site,  as the day was cancelled for 18 and open and neutralized for the rest as some pilots were dropped off in wave [outside the drop zone!] , others had huge problems to stay in the air as rain showers passed by . So the organisers took the difficult decision before opening the start lines, to be fair to ALL and neutralized the day. In the end it seemed a good decision as they said it would have been a lottery.
National champion in club class Andreas Hudler ,winner in this class Karel Mares from the Czech Rep.
In standard class Jan Jagiello  and winner in this class was Miloslav Cink .
In 15 m. Heimo Demmerer was the National Champion and the winner was Dominik Jancik.
In 18 Peter Hartmann is the National Champion, also with the most points.
In open Sebastian Eder Austrian Champion and winner in his class.

The Swiss Nationals ended up with ONE day in the mixed 15 m. class, winner Manfred Hahn with 708 points in Ls 8 /15 m. and 2 in the mixed 18 m. and the open class.
In the 18 m. class Rolf Friedli won in the ASG 29/18 m. with 1179 points and in open Marcus Gaumann in the Nimbus 4M /26.4 m. with 1193 points , only 11 more than Dirk Reich in the EB 28/28 m.

The Belgium Nationals had their last day yesterday and….that day was scrubbed! With that , they had 5 cancelled and 3 flyable days!
Bert Schmelzer jr. is the Belgium CHAMPION in 15m/21 m. before his brother Tijl  and in open class it was Jean Luc Colson before Olivier Brialmont.

The Grand Prix Slovakia in Prievidza had 2 out of 7 days giving Roman Mracek the 10 points. 8 For Sebastian Kawa and 7 for Lubor Kuvik. So nothing changed there , no more flying!

In the UK they managed to fly the last days again with better weather,during the Club Class Nationals and Pete Masson started day 4 with 3000 points in the pocket. He did not add another 1000 as he lost 20 points to G . Dale in his Libelle. Former tuggie Tim kept doing well and was on a shared 5th place.
Brian and Ayala both had a not too good day in their Libelles, both outlanded and lost over 500 points.
304.08 was the task on day 5 , not bad! .
38 From 40 finished and a new name on the daily top; Jon Meyer in a Libelle 201 b.But most important was how the top 3 would fly!?
Pete was on 3, G. on 13 and Tim on spot 4. So changes in the overall scores with one day to go!
Pete with 4903 points, Tim with 4638 and Jez Hood moved from 4 spot 3 and by loosing 200 points G dropped out of the top 3 and ended on spot 4 with John Meyer climbing up to a nice 5th place.[from 7]

A last day always brings extra tension, but also “all -or- nothing -games -as- only- spot- 1- is- THE- spot”. Don’t have to tell you that.
So only tonight we know the CHAMPIONS. BUT of course I will come back with an update tonight!
UPDATED with today’s news: Briefing for day 6 last day of the comps , was at 10 AM and gridding was BEFORE the briefing.
Everybody is up in the air for 510.8 km. Well yes ,……why not!!!???
Will be a long day for some but tonight we know the CHAMPION in the UK Club Class.
Stay tuned! So here we are!
————————————————————————————————————
Today had another winner this time in a KA 6E,  Will Ellis was the one who collected the very much deserved 1000 points for the day. And,….with a speed of 103 km./h.
WOW!!! In a KA 6E!!!!!
His handicap;81! The day before Will  outlanded as one of the 4 from 41 in total.
He must have thought “bugger it” I am going to fly at my best this last day, no guts,  no glory!
Scores,…all preliminary of course!
Pete was on spot 2 , Jon on 3 and G. on 5 with Tim on spot 13.

So the final results look like this;
Pete is the clear winner with 5847 points. Jez stayed on spot 2 but with the same amount of points as Jon, who did so well the last 2 days.[5557]
G ended on spot 5 [5546] and Tim dropped from 3 to 6.[5470]
A very interesting competition to follow! Congratulations to all.

——————————————————————————————————————

In  the REGIONALS Andy Davis leads the class on day 4 after winning that day on which only 12 from 35 made it home, just before Dave Watt .
On day 5 a 327.5 km.  task, long enough to see an interesting day again. Kim Tipple was the daily winner with Andy on spot 3 and Dave on 2.
VERY INTERESTING day today with 407.4 km!!!!!!!!Also the PW 5 in this class has to try and fly it!!!!
By the way,….We have GREAT soaring-weather here in Holland too today!
Robert Werts , [with Luc Stalman,] managed like last year, to fly a 1000 km.from Venlo in the S of Holland in the Nimbus 3DT. More on Wednesday!!!

National Air 2013 at Romorantin: After 6 cancelled days and a lot of patience by all, the pilots FINALLY could fly on the 27th and 29th ….that is,…only on the 27th for Club class.
Denis Geurin and Eric Soubrier , both flying a St Cirrus, bundled their efforts with success and “got” the 1000 and 999 points for a distance of 321 km. during a 3.30 AAT in 3.28!!! Very experienced pilots. So Denis won the comps with one day of flying and 1000 points.
Good to see a Dutch pilot , Jeroen van Dijk, flying his Mosquito to a 3d place with 993 points in 3.33.

Only one day of flying, but being 3d means a deserved CUP, even 2.
Picture  courtesy AC van der Vlist , as shared on FB by Ton Staassen.

901 Points in 15m./.21 m. were for Frederic Hoyeau in the Discus flying with 108 km./h over the set 282 km. and the 1.30 AAT was won by Amelie Audier, in her Discus 2 A.
Winner after 2 days Frederic with 1290 points.
In open class the 2 days were both for Gerard Lherm flying the EB 28. Total amount of points;1726!!!!
It says enough about the weather! But,…good winners!And a 3d place for a Dutchie!
By the way the Dutch Military Comps will be flown next week .

 As time is running out for the wave season in the USA , Jim and Dennis “tried ” the 29th, knowing there was much more NW wind then hoped for but ,…they still managed to fly 1.587 km. from Minden in Nevada.
One day earlier Janusz Centka had a good day in the ARCUS M. flying from Ouazarzate [Morocco] 1.182 km.
June started good for the Ouazarzate pilots with 2 nearly 1.300 km flights.

Last time I wrote about great conditions in Norway. Because the flight was so high I presumed it was flown in wave. It was NOT, as I heard from Arne Martin, the pilot, good on him….. like the interaction, as you know;
—“I was the pilot who flew at Hokksund. It was not wave, just regular thermals
that went quite high (over 3000 m in some places). This was by far my longest
flight, so cool that it’s noticed and mentioned here, thanks.—“

Thanks for the info, Arne Martin!”And,…. he had some extra info about the Norwegian Nationals
class) this week and….. I was allowed to use some very nice pictures!

—“Yes, it’s the Norwegian open class nationals this week (really just one handicapped class].Longest flight yesterday, and also day winner, Jo Inge Bjørø, with his  16  year old son Sondre, after finishing the task climbed up again and flew a couple of hundred km more!  Apparently they thought the task was too short “—
434 km one part Nationals, one part fun-flying in the Duo Discus!
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=3007058

Arne Martin’s Discus bT ready for his longest flight till now!And…Norway from above with the airfield of Fyresdale.

A great picture of the Lake Bandak. AND…Rjuka, Valley, looks like you have to stay high there, pretty remote area.

On the question of one of the admirers of the picture, about landing possibilities the answer was :
“From this height (or even 1000 meters less) I can easily reach Notodden airport. There are some fields along the way there too, if I can’t reach all the way.
And there are a few possibilities down in the the valley below too, although they are not good fields, so would only use those if I can’t reach any of the better fields.—

 And for those who want to fly there once,  I add the comment of Ragnar Stenerson, just to completely inform you :
“Several huge, good fields where the Rjukan valley ends up in Tinnsjø – very few (if any) usable fields along the west/east side of Tinnsjø towards Notodden.
I outlanded there a few years ago; 6-700m available, no obstructions, easy acces by car/trailer. Can recommend a daytrip by car covering Telemark/Buskerud, inspecting different landing areas.”

Last Friday I visited with Inge, George and Diana the Captains Dinner at Terlet. The manager from the club house at Terlet, starting in 1984 till ????, was cooking for those who were interested and a lovely bunch of old friends visited, nearly a reunion. More about this in soaringcafe later today.

Young Australian pilot Matthew Scutter travelled to Europe to learn, see , fly AND participate in the JWGC in Leszno! He keeps a blog and when you are interested you can follow what happens to him on
https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding?fref=ts
It looks life is good for him, but he found quickly out about the 2013 European spring:
-“Rained all day yesterday and all day last night. The airfield appears to be underwater, but they assure me it will drain quickly.Turns out the hangar leaks quite badly, so I ended up making some makeshift rain covers for the glider at midn…ight and then precariously balancing buckets all over the wings to stop the dripping water. Accuweather says it’ll be a hot and dry summer, looking forward to it!! —“

Here the Midnight makeshift rain covers, as shared by Matthew on FB.

AND…………

Nice way to be introduced to soaring in Poland, is n’t it?
Picture from Matthews blog.

And to finish a link to the pictures Bert Schmelzer jr. took on his 1.011 km. declared Out and Return. A great story goes with the pictures. You have to see and read this.
https://picasaweb.google.com/101367179377196465151/180520131011Km
DeclaredOutAndReturn#5884133680741302466
Here are a few already:

Rene Schneebeli  as pictured by Bert and direction Arlberg pass.

Rene and the HOCH König were they “had ” 3 m./sec.

The National Dutch Female Soaring- day is this year not one day, but a whole weekend , THIS weekend and on one of the Northerly islands Ameland. With 40 to 60 km./h wind from the NW it was yesterday no flying weather but time for lot’s of fun also walking along the beach.

As shared by the girls on FB.

 Cu on Wednesday and then NO news  from Friday to Friday as I am on my annual holiday with my High School-friends, this time with 5 , so one less as Lily is married for 45 years and spends her time with family in Italy.
A bit unfortunate that the EGC and some other comps are in this period. Sorry, but we will pick them up or analyse them later!!!!

Cheers Ritz
On Sunday June 2 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com