Not long ……and the 2013 season is over. The metrological autumn will start this Sunday here and spring down under!
Looking at Holland this summer was not TOO bad. According to “weather-on-line”, spring was cold, June still not as it should be , BUT summer was good with an average of 17.5 dgr. C , about 0.5 more than normal and will go in the books belonging to the warmest summers since 1903.
We had 630 hours of sun [ 36 average less,  is normal] and it was pretty dry [ 160 mm. of rain and normal is 209 mm.]

At the moment the weather here is still perfect. Yesterday several flights were flown over 600 km here in Holland ; one in the DUO with dad Ferdi and son Casper Kuijpers in it. They found the weather MARVELLOUS in their comment.
Rieti still has over 700 km. flights and from the EAST of Australia kilometer-eater Alan Barnes flew already 577 km in the 18 m. LS 8.

The last competitions have been held and quite late in the season there were still a few. Some end-of-the-season-parties are announced already , this one from Rayskala and posted by Katja.

Great very- early-spring conditions already down-under in Kingaroy and sometimes you see a glimpse of autumn here in Holland.

Early spring as seen and shared by Adam from Kingaroy.

Foggy early morning conditions  as seen by Jeroen in Holland [Malden] .

And early toadstool as seen and shared by Max in Holland.

Better go quickly to some of those comps.

LÜSSE.

I guess you can call a day with an average speed of 130 km. /h. during  a National Competition , in the Discus 2 ax, a pretty GOOD one. Patrick Puskeiler flew that speed over 322 km. on the last day in Lüsse!
The day before was not bad either ; a 3 hour AAT with best distance [336,9] and speed [109,43km./h] for Markus Schieber. As said before the day-winners were every day different.

In club class  Wolli had a great 3 hour AAT being 2d on day  6 , flying 283,6 km in the HPH 304 C in 301 and on day 7 , the last day, the LS 1f was the best over 279 km.

With 7 out of 10 days ,the new German Champion in Standard class was Jan Omsels [ 5658] who had that great flight on day 5 gaining nearly 200 points on the rest, that WAS another “weird ” last day!!!!
Runner up was Mario Kiessling “SUPER MARIO ” [5636 ] both in Discus and on spot 3 a Dutch young and talented pilot Alfred Paul Alfers in LS 8![5452]

Champions and winners in standard class and club class.
As shared by the official site!

In Club class it was Thomas Melde [ 5111] before Kai Glatter [ 5084] both in St. Libelle and on spot 3 Helmut Kölle [ 4978] also in a St. Libelle.
As Swaantje mentioned; ” We had some interesting weather. Only 1 pilot out of 8 defended his place in the National Team. The other 7 are complete newcomers!”
Interesting, very interesting!!!Swaantje finished on spot 38.

A St Libelle as seen last week at Keiheuvel airport!

BICESTER; UK  18 m. Nationals

They had 4 days ,…..then only cancelled/scrubbed/canned days!
So the UK National champion in 18 m.class is Russell Cheetham in JS 1.
A pity that the pilots could not show more of their soaring, as the first 6 pilots are within 200 points, the first 11 within 300. But ,…that’s soaring!!!!
As Graham mentioned on FB; “So the Nationals are all done for 2013, now the voting begins for the World’s next year.
Who will it be..?”

UK  18 m. National Champion Russell Cheetham.
He was runner up a bit earlier in open class as well.
Picture shared on the Jonkers FB site.

And to finish some stats from Jonker Sailplanes;
” Interesting statistics: JS1 won every National Competition in Europe in which it entered this year. The French 18m, The Polish open class, the Dutch Open Class, The UK 18m and the UK Open Class (top three places). Next on the list are the Nationals in the southern hemisphere.”

 NYMPSFIELD; The UK JUNIOR NATIONALS

Team members Matt Davis, [St Cirrus] Sam Roddie [ ASW 24/15m. ] and Luke Dale [St Cirrus] were locking out the podium at the UK Junior National Championships after four flying days.
Matt was nearly 200 points ahead on Sam, who still felt the “hot breath in the neck ” from Luke,  as the difference was only 36 points. The rest was too far away to be on the podium.
Friday was cancelled , so in the end they had 4 days of soaring and 4 days of “forced rest!

La Roche sur Yon; The FRENCH JUNIOR Nationals .

With 36 competitors and 6 days of soaring the French top juniors from the JWGC showed they are indeed the best. On the last but one day,   the world champion Valentin Grit, was only 4 points ahead of the runner up during the JWGC, Benjamin Vades.
Do you remember the difference in points from the final scores during the JWGC between Valentin and Benjamin ????? No here you are; 22!!!!
Valentin  won the last day by starting earlier than Benjamin at 14.26 . Over the 2.30 AAT he had a speed of 62 km. over 161.8 km. in the HORNET in time 2.36.
Benjamin left at 15.01, flew more kilometres [226 ] but the speed from his Cirrus was 60 km./h. over 226 km. but he used 3 hours and 45 minutes!
Only 7 from 35 finished! Some flew over 4 hours.
Longest task of these Nationals was 261 km.
Parallel with these comps the standard and 15 m. Nationals have been flown with 28 participants. They had  6  days and also here well known names in the top; Frederic Hoyeau [Discus 2a] and Denis Geurin [ Ventus 2] .Also Richard Montigny did well in the Discus 1, gaining just 51 points less than Denis.

 Lisie Katy; The Polish Junior Nationals.

Also in Poland a JWGC pilot tops the list; Mateusz Siodloczek, who was on spot 5 in the final scores then, just before the 2 Dutch pilots in standard  class, is now on top again , with other competitors, but also with a very small difference in points as another Mateusz is on his heels; just 60 points difference!
On the last day “the other Mateusz”  won , but it was not enough to win the title; 14 points difference!
Judyta and Jakub ,both also flying the JWGC followed on spot 5 and 4 in the final scores.
After 5 out of 9 days in this class and only 4 in club class , it was a competition with small tasks. But the last day turned out the best; 204.7 km. in club and 308 in standard class and except for 2 , ALL finished in standard class![ to be totally correct; on day 1 they also had a bigger task;  316Km.]
In club class  Wojchiek Majewski won the comps and title in the JUNIOR! On the last day he was 3d and except for 2 all pilots finished on this last day.

CZESTOCHOWA.

Difficult NATIONAL competition in Poland. Here is what Jonkers Sailplanes had to say about day 4:

–“The 4th day of the Nationals in Poland was a strange day. A very short period of thermal activity allowed 9 pilots to fly the tasks. For most of the others it was not even possible to get away from the airfield. Lukasz, flying the JS1, was one of the unlucky pilots and he lost his 1st place overall. Today he revenged himself by winning the day and moving up into second place overall again. Well done!–“

Young Aussie pilot, Ben Loxton, who crewed in Leszno for Matthew Scutter keeps as I mentioned a blog about his flying in Europe also from this competition . So for all “in’s and out’s “, you can go to ;

https://www.facebook.com/bensflyingadventures/posts/149292351945759

Great weekend at Keiheuvel Airport, even with some rain, it was just pleasure! No doubt about it. Thanks to all over there, for making us SO welcome!

LÜSSE

Back to the normal blog-style again and time to look at the Lüsse Nationals where German standard and club pilots are still busy with the comps.
We did unfortunately not miss a lot, as the weather was not co-operating over the last days, but yesterday they flew again, after 3 non-flying days.
Last day was Friday with a 246 km racing task for standard won by Achim Reuter just before Mario.
In club a 216 racing task won with a standard Libelle with 80 km./h. By the way 12 Libelles fly in this class, 4 in the top after 4 days! Remains a great beauty that Libelle!

Yesterday 401 km. to fly for the standard class pilots and NOBODY FINISHED!Every day another winner, this time Jan Omsels who flew 210 km! That was very good as in the end, the runner up only had 160 km. Jan , who climbed from 7 to 1 overall , leads now with 44 points on Super Mario, who was on spot 20 today. The overall scores in this class are vey tied!!!! Look at this:
Jan Omsels   Discus b 3963 points
Mario Kiessling  Discus 2 a 3917
Alfred Paul Alfers  LS 8 a 3910
For all scores at both classes;
http://www.strepla.de/scs/Public/scoreOverall.aspx?cID=220&className=STD&dateScoring=20130820

The club class pilots had 323 km and also here nobody finished at Lüsse, only those who returned to the field. Most flew between 100 and 130 km. and the first TP was the “new” airfield! 388 Points for the winner.

OUTLANDINGS, a lot in one “New” airfield as shared by Swaantje.

 BICESTER [UK]

 The UK 18 m. Nationals are flown in Bicester at the moment with 40 pilots. After 2 days Russell Cheetham is on top overall in the JS 1 , than 4 ASG 29 gliders and than Andy Davis in JS1. A lot more hopefully will happen till end of this week when the weather is good enough!
Yesterday they all went up in the air for 389 km and nearly all of them FINISHED!
Ed Johnston won the 1000 km. before Russell and Andy and Steve Jones.
My friends as Michael, Roy and Patrick were all in the middle bracket.

All UK pilots UP in the air.
Courtesy Alix Pentecost via FB.

Czestochowa[Poland]

In Poland they fly the open class nationals with 36 participants amongst them Zbigniew Nieradka but also young Ben Loxton from Australia. He keeps a blog and when you are interested you can read all “in’s and out’s” from this competition at; https://www.facebook.com/bensflyingadventures?ref=stream&hc_location=stream

—“Just a note to let you know that I am currently flying in the Polish Open class nationals at Czestochowa, Poland as preparation for the WGC 2014 next year in Leszno! – Im putting posts up regularly and will try to put some posts here as well! – Ben Loxton—“

After 4 days of flying no surprise,…Zbigniew [Ventus 2cxa] is on spot 1 overall and good old Janusz Centka [ASG 29] on spot 2. Further on other Polish toppers as Lucasz Wojcik and Karol Staryszsak.
Ben [ Ventus c] is on 15 from 33 ,…for sure NOT BAD!!!!

30 Juniors are flying in the UK [Nympsfield] and in Poland an other 39 in 2 classes from  Lisie Katy , to see who is their NATIONAL best in 2013. Their results are at www.soaringspot.com

Off to Amsterdam now. Over the next weeks I get some overseas guests and due to lack of time and to let my back and neck heal better from not sitting so much behind the laptop , I will publish soaring.eu temporarily ONLY on WEDNESDAY. On Sunday you can read my soaringcafe column as usual. www.soaringcafe.com This Sunday,  an exclusive interview with the new JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPION in standard class Peter Millenaar AND  his parents look back their way. Interesting to read!
2 Instead of 3 must be no problem for you and will be good for me.

cheers Ritz on Wednesday August 21 2013.

KEIHEUVEL.

First things first and most important the
WINNERS;
Here they are!

The winner in Sport class; Bert jr. Schmelzer, who arrived in time from Zurich.
The winner in Sport class with transponder; Jeroen Jennen.
The winner in club class Sander Heeren.

 What happened?
As you already knew, I left to visit the Royal Club of Keiheuvel last Friday. A 4 hour trip and looking outside of the train and car windows…. only  SUPER weather; 28 dgr. ,greatlooking  clouds , nearly no wind and  sunny.
Our caravan already placed on a good spot by the 85 year old nestor of the family Huybreckx, [thank you so much!!!]  was already hooked on electricity , so we just could start to unpack, talking and kissing. Quickly we heard that the weather looked better than it was. Anyhow flying-in-pilots made it , the rest came by car and trailer.

A lovely evening with great food in the KEI, the local restaurant from the parents from Jeroen [Jennen] and lot’s of friends. Till after mid night we were sitting outside, drinking and as usually old memories revived, a lot from the Sportavia time , as friends as Bert sr. ,Hilde, Danny, Dennis, Tim,Tijl,  Emiel and more visited Tocumwal in the past.

Dennis, Tim, Tijl and Bert jr and Danny.
Sorry about the quality of the pictures. Still not too familiar with the new Nikon.
I took all pictures on portrait!!!!!! Except those who are nice CLEAR!!!

Saturday morning the briefing was at 10. We had rain in the night and early morning, but the forecast for later in the day, was pretty good. A new briefing,  to see how good, was held by the organisers at 12 and not long after 1 PM the launches started by 4 tuggies for tasks between 101 km for club and nearly 190 km in a small window to the S and SE for the sport class and the sport-transponder-class.
It turned out not a really good day, but certainly NOT  a bad day with some strong “legs”; some struggled with the wind, some with the restricted areas. Unfortunately one of the reasons Keiheuvel has only a weekend competition is the terribly complicated airspace nowadays.

We had the pleasure of really “spiffy ” finishes, first the brothers Schmelzer at around 4.30 PM, and later  the JS1 and Ventus bt. in formation.
We listened how p.e. Emile de Wachter who arrived in the night from Bailleau, where he still had flown his last day on Friday, started really late….. nearly an hour after the rest, left high at 1100 m.  but too late, as his wife already carefully mentioned, cause some “milky-stuff” came in for a while, making conditions more difficult.

Emile and Godelieve

 Later however the weather improved and pilots finished till just before 6 PM.
BUT,….We also heard that several pilots had to land out or returned to the field, as Emile did.
The ARCUS, which was still flying the day before in Bailleau, with Francois Jeremiasse,[he finished on a nice 2d spot!]  was occupied now by father and son Fred and Mark van Bremen, [Glider Equipment ]  not only competitors, but also sponsors from this competition and another sponsor  was represented by Rene de Dreu in the JS 1. [ Glider pilot Shop]
Money prizes for the winners were donated by the Emsens family and the Albert Schmelzer Cup for the best junior was ready to be presented.

Rene taking the stabilo out and father and son van Bremen, today for change in an ARCUS.

I had a “lump in the throat” when I saw the MS and carefully investigated if it was the MS,  in which Kees Musters won the WGC  in Hobbs.
IT WAS!!!!!
It looked terrific and is owned, after a few different owners, one even in the UK, by Mark van Bremen, who did a lot of work on it, together with pilot-for-the-day Johan Lemmens. It also has been refinished , both fuselage and wings in Poland and looks like NEW.

The MS in full glory, flown by Johan Lemmens who flew for the 30thiest time/year at Keiheuvel and Mark and Fred.

Though the temperature dropped after 6 we all enjoyed outside,  a nice grilled chicken with salad,  at the club house called Motelleke. Everybody was hoping for a next day with soaring,  but expectations were low as the forecast was for RAIN. And….it rained. They tried hard with another briefing at 1PM, but it was not meant to be. A great weekend with lots of stories and catching up with “ mates.”

RAIN!!!!

TC from the Belgium team in Leszno Paul Vandenboer and EGC pilot in Ostrow and part of the organisation Jeff Kell[l]

Top pilots enough at Keiheuvel ; as the NUMBER 1 in Mengen at the recent 18m and open class German Nationals, Yves Jeanmotte and his mate Jean Luc Colsson and their partners.

Ken Evens , who was coach in Leszno and father and son Marc [TC in Ostrow for the Belgium team]  and Tim Huybreckx, soon to be father himself.

Tijl Schmelzer [EGC in Ostrow] and Eddy De Koninck and Danny and Peter[if I remember well!]

That’s it. A lovely weekend is over. More tomorrow in soaringcafe.

Cheers Ritz.
On Sunday evening August 18 2013.

KEIHEUVEL BELGIUM

Restaurant to the left and caravan park to the right. Huge ” runway” in the middle.

What a paradise Keiheuvel is!!!! And such lovely people. The airfield is in the middle of trees and white sand, the caravan park under the trees and a high quality restaurant, meeting -place for everybody, on  side. It feels so at home, maybe because I was there already when I was [really] young. Looking forward to my visit!

LÜSSE GERMANY.

In Lüsse they had day 2 on Wednesday  with a lot of re-launches at noon, but also finishers in the early evening. But not a lot . Only 18 in club class from 43 made it home and 32 from 42 in standard class. Tough day!!!!
Still 1000 points for the winners in each class , for that reason big losses in points as well when you were on the wrong site. Good day for Alfred Paul from Holland; he is on spot 1 overall after 2 days in standard class.

On Thursday [ today and day 3]  early starts at 11.15 with standard class upfront. Great launching over there as I read that this class was in the air at 11.39!!!
In ONE hour they got them all airborne ; great job!
Startlines opened at 12.05 and 12.37 and the weather was just GOOD!
So I presumed not so many outlandings.
Pilots had 345 km. [st] and 301 km. to fly and went direction S. first and then to the Polish border for some well know after Leszno.
In standard class all 41 returned home, best was Mario Kiessling , Super Mario, with 120 km./h .which was  11 km. faster then the runner up. Overall after 3 days some strong pilots; Mario, Alfred Paul and the 2 Levins.
In club class it was Gerrit Feige who just won with 100.95 km./h flying together with his mate Lars Hagemann, also in St. Cirrus with 100.79 km./h.
Gerrit  and Lars were last on day 2 after an outlanding close by at 34 km , both gaining only 78 points. Today they got the most points, 995 and 992. Good on them!!!

8 Days to go so I will come back on Lüsse when I am back.

CIM in RIETI

Weather wise a fabulous day 8/9, as I read, with strong thermals and high speed .
Lucio Bordin won day 9 in clubclass last Wednesday [305 km over 3 hour AAT, speed 95.4 km./h.] and that was his 4th victory. No secret he topped the overall scores, with more than 400 points over Austrian pilot, Rudolf Schneider and 600 on Andrea Tomasi.
Vitorio Pinni won  day 9 in standard class; 393 km. in a 3 hour AAT with 125 km./h. .  I know him as a fast pilot when he flies the Rieti skies. Till now he was mostly in the top 10 with ONE outlanding when 8 other pilots finished, now he finally won a day.
In 15 m. also day 9 and also a 3 hour AAT , won by Ricky with 385 km, in 3 hours on the dot; speed 128 km./h.
Leigh was 2d, flew more km. [403] but needed nearly 12 minutes more. Dane was 3d with 411 km but 21 minutes late.
18 m. started on Wednesday for their 8th day  and this time Peter [Austria] was the winner again with 412 km over a 3 hour AAT with a nice speed of 136 km./h.
Louis [France] was runner up and UK pilot Afandi [ASG 29] was on the daily spot 3 again. Good on him, as both Louis and Peter are WGC pilots , Afandi is not [yet] !!
Louis is busy with a race back to the top! On day 4 he out landed and lost 600 points on Peter [ASW 27] .
Slowly he climbed up again in his JS1 from spot 8 overall on day 4,… back to  3 overall on day 8, still with a difference in points from  138 on Afandi and 801 on Peter.
In open /2 seater also day 8 and also a 3 hour AAT. Alvaro [ASH 31] won with 410 km. ;speed 133.2 km.!!! His 2d daily win whilst the Swiss Leutenegger/Buedke – team won 3 days.

Last day today with a 2.30 AAT  in all classes, a day with a lot of wind , forcing a few pilots to either land or virtual land , one even in the fence at the airport, as the gliders and storm arrived both on the same time, as Clara mentioned.
I saw  a Finnish pilot land against the fence, a few years ago, only damage to the glider, pilot then was  not hurt.
In club class  Andrea Tomasi won and as these scores are preliminary they can still change ,but Andrea would finish overall on spot 3.
In Standard class Reinhard Haggenmuller was the best on day 10, John Coutts will win as he is about 500 points ahead of his country mate Ben Flewett.
In 15 m. no big surprises, Dane, Leigh and Ricky.
In 18 m.Louis won and came closer to Peter but it was not enough. BUT Afandi outlanded ,…..loosing about 350 points, so Louis will finish on spot 2 overall. Young Davide passed by as well,  so he is on spot 3 and Afandi….. he unfortunately had to be satisfied with a 4th place.
In open/2-seaters Aldo won the day and the Leutenegger team lost a few points by being on spot 8, but no worries they had points enough. Bad day for Alvaro who landed out ; only 205 points for him.

It looks like the scores are pretty definitive, though not yet official. Champions in Rieti will have their prizes tomorrow at 9;
Club class; Lucio Bordin
Standard class; John Coutts
15 m. class; Leigh Wells
18 m. class; Peter Hartmann
Open /2 seaters; Leutenegger/Beudke

For all other scores please look at www.soaringspot.com Thanks!

Bailleau.

With a 3.30 AAT , a 313 km racing task and a 400 km. one , Bailleau had a good last but one day. With hopefully one day to go the highest scores in each of the 3 classes are at this stage for Holland, Germany and Belgium.

For the latest news and the concept of the 3 classes in Bailleau, you can read http://2013.planeur-bailleau.org/  and the scores will be there and also on www.soaringspot.com

Good flights from Bayreuth and Fuente today where another friend Michael was added to the ones already there! Have fun!

As I will not be there on Sunday,  already this latest news today
on  Thursday evening August 15 2013.

cheers Ritz

Last words about the JWGC

with 2 French and 2 Czech pilots [ “we” fly in pairs nowadays!] in the top 3 and a Swiss and Dutch pilot [ very proud on Peter and all who accompanied him through the years  to this success] , it was a nice mix of countries , with  this time not the dominance of the mostly big providers from champions as Germany [ 1999 x 2, 2003 x 1, 2005 x 1, 2007 x 1, 2009 x 2, 2011 x1]  as well as the UK. [ 2001 x 1, 2003 x 1, 2005 x 1 ]
BUT…..that does n’t say anything for 2015 in Narromine. So we can look ahead at a new great JWGC in Australia with experienced young pilots , but also with “fresh new blood”.
Reading now what they all think whilst looking back is ; that it was a fabulous 3 weeks, for winners but also for those on the bottom of the scoring list, for crews TC’s , coaches and even for all interested readers.
Lots of experience gained, lot’s of new friends made. That’s what it is all about!
I can advise you the blog from young UK pilot Charlie Jordan  [good reading] who looks back his way at :
http://www.glidingteam.co.uk/?q=blog/last-day-and-comp-review-868

I did not write a lot about Boyd Willat representing the USA in Leszno, but he gets the last words:
–“Had a amazing trip in the JWGC 2013 Poland! Met a lot of GREAT people, learned a lot of lessons in the air, and most of all I had fun.  I would like to that everybody who helped make this experience happen, without your donations this wouldn’t be possible.  Sadly I wont be bringing a medal home but with what I have learned I hope to be a contender in Australia 2015.  To the other juniors flying and starting to race, GET GOING!!! We need to send a full team in 2015.  Even though team Great America was fun.–”

Boyd, as shared on FB.

The CIM

On Sunday,  when I had time to follow the CIM again, it was till then after 5 days, New Zealand on top overall in standard class with John Coutts on 1 , Ben Flewett on 2 and UK pilot Jay Rebbeck on 3. The other 13 followed amongst them Vittorio Pinni, [Italy on 6] Rene Schneebelie, [Switzerland on 8] , Reinhard Haggenmüller [ Austria on 10 ] and another Italian friend Manuele Molinari.[on 14]
John was  553 points ahead of Ben when day 6 started!!! So he could allow himself a mistake. When he was not scored in the evening, I thought maybe he outlanded, but no he was 8th loosing just over 100 points on the number 1 and he easily could afford that.

In 15 m. also New Zealand on top in , what New Zealands well known chief editor from Gliding International called “the mecca for soaring” Rieti.; with Dane Dickinson as daily winner on Sunday  and through that he ended on spot 2 overall after 6 days. [ 4935] Former WGC champion Leigh Wells from the UK  was overall on spot 1 after 6 days, [5451] with Ricardo Brigliadori on a 3d place [4869] .

Also 18 m. was interesting with after 5 days still Peter Hartmann on top overall with 3967 points winning 3 days. On Sunday [ day 5 for them] he won again;  another 1000 points added this time for  a 398 km racing task.

In open/2 seater after 5 days still team Leutenegger on top [4837] with Giorgio Galetto on spot 2 [4653] . Both fly ARCUS T. First single seater is the Ventus 2CM with Thomas Gostner on 4.[4105]

Waiting on Monday!
As shared on FB by Massimiliano Moricci.

CIM on Monday  ;
Standard class went for 309 km. winner Rene Schneebeli,with speed 126.3 km./h.  before the 2 NZ pilots.
15 m. for 320.8 km. winner Leigh Wells with 120 km./h. his 4th daily-win.
18 m. for 352 km. winner,…no….not Peter Hartmann [ he was 2d] but Louis Bouderlique this time with 132 km./h. and Afandi on 3.
Open/2-seaters. also with 352 km. Winner here was Stefano Ghiorzo with his co pilot. Late starts around 14.40 and an off-day for Alvaro with an outlanding after 201 km.
In the evening at 6 the organisers got an alarm from the PLB from one of the standard class pilots. SAR and forest  rangers, mountain rescue and police, all were active in a flash.
At midnight they found the pilot alive , in the glider on the top of the trees South from Polverina Lake, according to the message from Clara. She is not only a nice girl but also writes GOOD, unfortunately for all of us not always in English[news at www./soaringspot.com .]
I do remember, when I was there that they were searching for 2 days  for an Austrian pilot a few years ago. Sadly enough he did not survive!Luckily this incident only finished in hospital for checks and minor injuries .Pffft….

SAR, as seen a couple of years ago. TERRIFIC GOOD people!

CIM on Tuesday day 7/8;
club class 308 km. Winner Lucio Bordin
standard class 356.5 km. winners John Coutts and Reinhard Haggenmüller
15 m. 385 km. 1. Denis Guerin 2. Leigh wells, 3. Dane Dickinson 4. RicardoBrigliadori
18 m. 396 km. Best 3; copy from day 6. Louis, Peter , Afandi.
open/2 seaters  396 km. First 2 places 2 Swiss ARCUS teams, then Giorgio and another Swiss team, in EB 28 this time.

2013 UK open class and standard class Nationals

were flown in Aston Down from August 3 till August 11 2013  and organised by the Cotswold Gliding Club. Missed that one due to the JWGC, but look with pleasure back at the results as UK Nationals are ALWAYS interesting, with strong competitors.
Open class had 12 participants with toppers as Pete Harvey , Andy Davis  and Russell Cheetham , as well as  Richard Kalin, who flew in the past a lot in Tocumwal.

Who also flew in the past in Tocumwal is Standard class pilot Alison Mulder, who even learned there to fly cross country .She is one of 17 , with toppers as Howard Jones who flew in Uvalde and Ayala Truelove who finished on the silver spot during the last WWGC.
And if I remember well Russell Francis , in this class, flew with us in the past too.

Russell.
As shared on FB by Sven Olivier.

3 JS1 C /21 m. gliders in the top 3 after 6 days of flying in open class and 2 scrubbed days, when the last day started last Sunday.
Andy Davis who won 2 days and was 2d on 3 other days .
Russell Cheetham who won 2 days.
Iain Evans with a  one day-win on day 2.
So they needed to secure their spot 1-2-3 ranking on that last day.
AND they did!!!!! Andy WON the last day as well being 11 km./h faster than the daily- runner -up Russell and Pete was 3d but that was not enough to be on the podium . He ended on spot 6 overall, after loosing in his Nimbus 4 T, most points in the beginning and on the last but one day.

In standard class 3 scrubbed days and in the top Howard Jones [Discus 2] , Richard Hood [LS8] and Paul Fritche [Ls 8] each winning a day and Howard even 3 !!!!BUT,… here something went wrong on that last day, as Howard finished on a 2d spot Richard won and instead of Paul it was David Bromley on 3!!!

Interesting to analyse  what happened on Sunday on the  last day in standard class ?????
First the time difference in start was BIG; ONE hour between the first starter at  13.58 and the last pilot departed at 14.57!!! But it was all about Howard, Richard and Paul and they started within 8 minutes from each other.
The last starter did not make it home and landed after 174 km. Richard won the day and “got” 867 points whilst Howard finished on spot 14 , gaining only 570 points. That was enough for Richard to win.[4900 points] Howard was runner up [4754] and David flew a bit better than Paul and beat him overall with 9 points.

All winners in both classes.
Courtesy Jonker Sailplanes , proud on their 3 winners in the JS 1C . So they should!

Bailleau

This is a friendly “open” competition still with good/high level pilots . As usual ,a lot travel up  from Holland!
20 Pilots  in the VITESSE [speed] class  and 8 in the “amical” class and another 20 in the GRAND VOLS class [big flights].
They started on August 6 and continue till Sunday.  They had 3 days of soaring and 3 scrubbed days, when I had time to “dive” into it.
After those 3 days the 2 ARCUS gliders  were on top; Dutch dealer for Schemmp-Hirth and open class pilot for Holland on WGC’s and EGC’s , Francois Jeremiasse and for Germany good old Sigi Baumgartl .
In the other class the Duo Discus from Eindhoven in Holland was in the lead , flown and shared by 3 pilots.
The GRAND VOL class had on day 3 a 6 hour 30 AAT [  475,0km/793,6km (632,0km)] which was won with 668 km. by French pilot Eric Garnier in a Ventus 2C 18 m. Dutch pilot Leon Mol flew 705 km. but in a Quintus M, so he finished that day on spot 5.

On Monday small tasks [results at www.soaringspot.com] and yesterday bigger again with 389.6 km .in the speed class  and 503 for those who liked the ” long flights” and nearly all pilots finished.
Today’s tasks have been set;
Amical 300 km. ,Vitesse 5 hour AAT!!!!!, Grand Vols 464 km.

Lüsse

The German Nationals in club- and- standard class started yesterday in Lüsse and continue till August 22. 85 Participants in 2 classes including some international pilots started with a 2 hour and 2.30 AAT , some building up from cloud streets and local showers later in the day.
Amongst the 42 pilots in standard class; Enrique and Filipe Levin, Mario Kiessling [first Junior World Champion in The Netherlands] Patrick Puskeiler [also a blogger ] and another blogger Benjamin Bachmeier who flew with his mate Fabian Peitz, who is competing as well , in Australia and last but not least Michael Buchtal. Also Dutch pilot Alfred Paul Alfers flies in his LS 8 a in this class.

In club class ; Marco Barth just back from Leszno, Arndt Hovestadt, Swaantje Geyer and Sabrina Vogt, Wolli Beyer and Helge Liebertz and MANY more.

Day 1 in club class;
Unfortunately a bad start of the comps for Marco Barth who only got 51 points for 30 km. of flying and then outlanded. The winner Lars Hagemann flew 170 km. and received 619 points, quite a difference, but it is still only day 1. Swaantje was on 10 and Sabrina landed out after 99 km. and was one of the 10 in total in this class.

Day 1 in standard class;
850 points for daily winner Marko Zettier who flew in his Discus 2A, 248 km.Alfred Paul was on 6 [239 km] and Patrick on 7 [ 229 km] and 3 outlandings.

Tasks for today with about the same weather, less rain,  more cloud streets  due to a tough wind  :Standard 399.9 km and Club 308.5 km. Both A tasks at this stage.

OLC news

Did n’t look for a while at the OLC, missed that way the nice 1000 km. by Bostjan and Tanja Pristavec in the EB 28 from Livno [ Bosnie Herzegovina] with 130 km. /h. with one leg from 350 km., nearly an out and return, up to over 4216 m MSL. And also from Livno a 820 km. flight from Milan celebrating 30 years of gliding in Europe and Australia. Seems to be a great [wave-] soaring week there. Andrej Koller flew yesterday just over 800 km and mentioned “never ending convergence lines.” On August 8 he also flew 842 km. Most flights over 3000 MSL.

The Livno area as shared by Uros Krasovic by mobile.

Last Sunday I was more than pleased to see Hans Wiesenthal flying a 1000 again this time from Fuentemilanos. From 17 pilots flying that day he was the only 1000 km pilot. Old friends enough over there as Pepe flew 960 km. that day and Reinhard 819.
Fuente still had good flights yesterday over 800 in the Ventus 2CM.
AND,…  908 km. from Parowan in the USA in an ASH 26 E is not bad either!

Sorry that I missed a few items due to spending a lot of time on the JWGC. I still love comps and it has my” heart and soul” ! When you missed the normal soaring-eu-stuff sorry about that. Will make it up again!

To finish; Last Monday we were all sad and even a bit in shock in Holland , as in the morning Prince Friso died. He was only 44 years old .
In February 2012 he was covered by snow due to an avalanche while skiing outside the set track, in Lech in Austria. We hoped, but in fact knew, he would not survive this accident. After complications he died , in a way still unexpectedly, in the Royal Palace in The Hague on Monday morning. He will be buried by his family and friends only on Friday on a small cemetery , only 5 minutes walking from where Princess Beatrix end of this year is going to live and where Friso spend his young years!

As shared by the Telegraaf on internet.

Cheers Ritz…. off to the 2 day -competition at Keiheuvel Airport in Belgium for the weekend. So the blog will be late [ don’t take the laptop] on Sunday or Monday morning, just to let you know!
Written on Wednesday August 14 2013

STUDIO LTV Jacek Lewiński idea!!!
As shared by MANY on FB.

Whataday it was on Wednesday ,….so marginal with the expectation it would NOT be a competition day ,…..and then it was!!! Great flying from the juniors.

On Thursday [20 km.h. wind] and Friday [cooler but thunderstorms]  the weathergods were not helping;  both days were cancelled and then you start thinking as Matthew did. A nice  philosophy;
—“So we’re now faced with the stark reality that there might not be any more flying days! Tomorrow looks like a wipe, and Saturday looks sketchy. Of course I’d like to fly, but tactically I’m not sure it’s a good idea! Last week we all went tenpin bowling with the Polish and Swiss teams, I noticed that while none of us were very good (some slightly better than others), there’d be huge swings in the scores even over a 2 hour game, and I’ve been thinking about this ever since and how it relates to gliding. Most of the time, my strategies at competitions have essentially assumed the competition is infinitely long – fly consistently every day and you’ll do well. But gliding competitions, particularly in Europe, are most certainly finite in length and I think there’s a lot of tactics at play to maximise your performance. In tenpin you don’t have much capacity to ‘hold’ your position, and you’re forced to ride the highs and the lows and when the music stops you’re just where you end up. In gliding however, we have the opportunity to choose who we’re going to start with and fly with, almost as though we have the option of taking our competitor’s result sight unseen over our own potential result – a very logical tactic if you are in the lead or are lacking self confidence on your next move. So I think the ‘optimal’ strategy is to just keep playing the odds and trying to differentiate yourself until you find yourself ahead of where you think you’d place in an infinitely long competition, then try and hold that position by choosing to take the result of those beneath you / fly with your challengers. So where does that leave me now? Well, I think I’m possibly 1-3 places below my theoretical placing in an infinitely long competition, but emotions are a factor too as I think there’s a step in perceived value between 10th and 11th and I’m not sure I want to risk falling beneath that too much. So, I haven’t yet quite decided how I’ll attack the last day if we end up getting one. That’s my musing for the moment, let me know your thoughts – I’m off to sleep on it.”—

Thoughts of a young pilot, I am pleased to share and yes it is difficult also for older pilots; trying to win the title,  as for some only ONE spot counts the NUMBER 1 or being happy with a good well fought runner up place or 2-3 or…! It’s all very subjective. Matthew by the way ended on a good 9th spot overall  and is still young enough to participate in his own AUSTRALIA on the next JWGC in Narromine!

The Dutch team did well, no doubt about that ,so crew was very tired from working [too] hard as you can see on the by them shared picture

 

 

After a thunderstorm the gliders were prepared for gridding at 12 on Wednesday morning
Picture by Leszno FB.

Wednesday; After some thunderstorms in the night it did not look too hopeful, but tasks were set .
Task A: racing task for STD 186 km.Task B: STD 151  –
2 hour AAT for the CLUBBIES!
Task C: Paintball contest at 17PM.

During briefing” the light was directed ” for a short while on Narromine the next stop for the JWGC in 2015.
Then it was waiting, changing tasks and ,…starting but before the standard class could pass the start line,….. their day was cancelled, they had to come back and land again. Confusion, but the message was ; return to the field without delay.

Clubbies went on for their small/reduced task; 1.30 AAT.
A very tough day .
In the end they ALL landed somewhere, luckily not TOO far away from Leszno! At least 13 should be over 100 km. and that did happen !!!!
Even 21 got over it!!!! Well done!!!!!!
Petra from Czech Rep.  [ who has some Dutch fans and for good reasons] won the day with 130 km. and really deserved the 192 points. Hana also from Czech Rep. flew together with her and ended on spot 3 with 187 points. The girls had a good day!
Unlucky day for Benjamin Vades from France who missed area 1 by 500 m. and dropped from 3 overall to 5. Luckily the points were not expensive ; 50 penalty points and a score for the day of 58 points.
Good thing; all outlandings were OK and everybody was home in time for a good night rest.
Some were spoiled as Belgium pilots Jeroen and Neil who got pizza delivered!

pizza dinner in the paddock!!!!
As shared by Team Belgium

On Tuesday  2 interesting stories about how it was in the air by the pilots themselves. Specially cause I know not a lot are on FB.
Here is from South Africa Iain;
–“A shocker of a day. Battled from start to finish. After a good first leg things started to come in stuck in the second. Day started to shut down and had to take weak climbs to stay alive. Third leg got even worse with the speed over 50km dropping to 30kph as myself and the Czech team worked a 0.3m/s thermal for what seemed like ages. Eventually climbed onto final glide at the last turn. My Nav then decided to pack it in. Luckily not to far from home. Learnt a hell of a lot today and sukkeled like never before. Ended up last out of those that got home putting me down at the bottom overall. A few more days to go so we will see.”—-

Yesterday Iain had a much better day , though it did not give him a lot of points[ 185] he surely must be more satisfied with this flight being on spot 7 for the day.

And here is Aussie pilot Matthew;
—“Today was meant to be 3500ft building to 6000ft, totally blue until 5-6pm but instead we had very scattered cu at 7000ft and tremendously variable climbs in the blue. It was forecast to go late, but from my reading it was going to shut down early again, so we’d planned to start early but simply couldn’t get to cloudbase when we wanted to. The cu’s would last a couple of minutes before starting to decay, and the bubbles were just a few thousand feet tall and even if you caught one it’d cycle completely before you reached the top of it. Ended up starting a little below cloudbase with a good group for a great run through the blue and under the scattered cu towards the trough line in the distance. As we approached the trough (over 100km out of the task area) the climbs were stronger and stronger, up to 6kts at time, but with such short bubbles it was tough to keep with the gaggle. At the turn a miscommunication lead Eric and I to lose the gaggle and …we pushed on by ourselves in the blue, now away from the trough and ended up pulling in a thousand feet below the gaggle. Missed the bubble and ended up having a low spot, but the gaggle was having trouble too so I kept just one climb behind. Some pilots snagged a monster climb up to 7000ft in 7kts, but quite a lot of us stumbled around to the next turn at 2000-3500ft. I ended up catching the Dutch and the Czechs enroute to the last turn by consistently taking 1-2kts while they kept pushing looking for something stronger and often ended up taking 1kt, but 40k out from home they finally hit one and had a decent climb which I missed. With conditions rapidly deteriorating (climbs mostly 1kt to 2000ft) and total cirrus cover advancing quickly and less than 10k away, the gaggle just stopped in 0 and it became a waiting game for who’d push on and find the next climb. I was the lowest, so when the bubble ended I had to lead out from 1500ft and didn’t find anything until 0.2kts from 750ft, which very slowly built into 3kts up to 4000ft for a slender glide in thankfully dead air. I was punished heavily for being 1000ft lower in such a weak climb and finished considerably later than the rest of the gaggle, but with the germans and a pole both hitting the deck I was quite happy just to get around and picked up half a dozen places for it. The trough is just about to pass over now, so glider’s boxed. Not looking forward to rigging in the forecast 36c tomorrow!!—“

From the USA I got the message that there are “whispers” of  a soaring segment on the AVIATORS .
–“Psst, GLIDER and SOARING fans… we’re thinking of releasing a complete segment as a season 4 FREEview… and the one we’re considering is our long awaited Soaring segment!
But the decision isn’t made yet and we think the producers could use some encouragement. How about some comments and Likes from you soaring enthusiasts!!!!!–

To make the blogs not TOO long, I try to publish a bit more during the last days of the LESZNO JWGC. So keep looking.

cheers Ritz on Thursday morning August 8 2013

Courtesy Katja.

The Belgium pilots in club class are on “full steam” now  and when Neil would have saved himself the 56 penalty points on day 3 , he would have had last Monday his second day-win instead of his first.
As I said already earlier most teams have a very experienced TC and or coach with them.One way or another I think that the Belgium coach , Ken Evens, lovely and very experienced guy, has a very good influence on the soaring from the Belgium boys. Good on them!!!!
It turned out to be a rather difficult day for some and their coach already said in the morning;
—“During our team briefing after the general briefing it became clear the start time would be critical. The window with good thermals was limited and we have learned from the previous days that thermal activity decreases rapidly as from a certain point.”–

Coach Ken briefing the Belgium team.
Courtesy Belgium site.

Club class had a 3 hour AAT and Neil [Deijgers] flew 294 km. in 3.01 Jeroen[tje Jennen] was 3d behind Marius from Lithuania [ 311 km. in 3 hours on the dot but not in a Libelle but LS 4]  with 291 km. in 3.01 as well. Only one pilot “aux vaches”.
After 4 days the French pilot Benjamin Vades tops the overall list in the St. Cirrus , with Marco Barth from Germany on 2 and Maxime Petitpierre from Switzerland on 3 and the 2 Dutch boys both with the same amount of points on 4.

2 Libelles from Neil and Jeroen.
Courtesy Belgium team via FB.

Jeroen and Neil

Standard class had an A racing task from 292 km. which changed later , just prior to the start,  in a BIGGER racing task over 324 km.
Winner in this class , Peter Millenaar who started really late at 13.49, [ his coach later mentioned “tactical the correct decision”] whilst the first pilots already were over the start line at 12.56 [Alexander Späth who finished as number 3!] .
Overall number 1 Petr lost 250 points by finishing as number 20.
Overall number 1 after 5 days was now Peter again.

Peter finishing.
courtesy Rob[his dad]

Good on those low/flatland -country-boys from Belgium and Holland, both with a day-win! One of the other Dutch pilots was warmly welcomed too in the camp he flew 4 hours and 27 minutes, but FINISHED!!! He started as the last one at 13.58 .Sometimes taking a risk, pays out sometimes not. No worries a learning curve up! Chapeau!
There were about 7 outlandings in this class.

JWGC as seen by Katja

 Yesterday [day 5/6] another scorcher-day with high temperatures and the expectation of difficult weather; blue and some cirrus, base at around 1600 m. and in the West were they expected some cu’s up to 2000 m. and max lift 2 m.
Club class has a racing task of 292.6km and a B task of 244.5km. and standard class a  3.45  AAT. [  310.2km/579.2km]  So it will be another interesting day!
First launch was postponed as the sniffer an ASW 22 without water found lift , but not that easy; he , Janus Centka, had to go TWICE to do a proper job and found 1.7 at 950 m.
So tasks were changed into 240 km and 3 hour AAT. And pilots went from 12.30 onwards, whilst unexpectedly clouds popped up to the N.

Tuggies as seen by Katja

Around 4 …..messages from outlandings , OUCH, as the 2 German toppers in standard class Enrique [EL]and Alexander [ALB] who both landed in the SAME field , about 54 km. from Leszno, both in the 3d sector, both early starters. Also one of the Dutch pilots Ronald [EJ] and  Thomas [YB] from Belgium landed.
In the end 43 in club class finished and 27 in standard, on a 1000 points-day, so expensive for those who missed out.
Peter Millenaar flew the most kilometers but used a bit too much time in comparison with others; 3.29.
3.05 was as close as one came.
Winner in standard class was from Zwitserland Reto Frei. [292 km. in 3.08] Oliver Barter was a good runner up [ 283 km.  in 3.04] and Lukas Huber from Austria was third.[ 287 km. in 3.11]
I expected a lot from Peter and also from Radek and they do both well[spot 1 and 4 overall]
In club class it was Sweden, [ glider H4 with 944 points] Zwitserland [ GQ 934] and Germany [922]   in  the top 3 and for Aussie -girl Ailsa it was a good day , all electrics worked again and she could concentrate on soaring only,  being 14th for the day. Good on her!

 
Happy Ailsa on the rest day!
As shared by my Aussie friends on FB

Today ‘s tasks are not yet published, but briefing is at 11 and grid time at 12.00

Dutch Junior Nationals; In Holland is quite a lot of talent in soaring as you can see already, when you follow the JWGC.
Young pilots who are ready to go for their first steps in competition soaring have started their NATIONAL JUNIOR competition in the S of Holland and fly from Venlo. Being good at Venlo means going up higher into the different comps.
They started last Saturday flew already 4 days and today is day 5. Not bad!
In standard class it is Friesland on the top with Sander Terpstra and Jens Bouma  but yesterday a young member of the Gelderse settled in between overall ,after winning the 2 hour AAT-day,  and in open class Rick Boerma from Hoogeveen who strongly leads and local pilot Wiek Schoenmakers who is on a 3d spot, with Odin van Oord from the ACVZ[Amsterdam] as runner up , all of course for the time being, with still 3 days to go.

The CIM has started in Rieti in Italy on Monday with  76 pilots in 5 classes.
Club with 6, standard with 16 and 15 m. with 12 including Ricardo Brigliadori and Dane Dickinson , who flew the Junior Worlds there in the eighties and former WGC champion Leigh Wells.
Also 18 m. with 26 participants and Peter Hartmann from Austria and Louis Bouderlique were 1 and 2 on the first day. You surely remember their mid air collision in Uvalde. Also Davide Schiavotto flies in this class, he was/is one of the top junior pilots from Italy, but not so junior now anymore, still not old though.
The 2 seater class is combined with open class and there are 15 pilots as Giorgio Galetto [ARCUS T] Alvaro[ASH 31] Aldo Cernezzi who writes for Gliding International [ARCUS M] Alberto Sironi [ ARCUS T] and the good Swiss pilots Leutenegger [ARCUS T] and Schneebelie.[ARCUS M]
And not to forget former world champions Thomas Gostner and Stefano Ghiorzo , who was unlucky on day 1 landing out as the only one from all classes and loosing 800 points .  You definitely need “luck” as well.
Have great memories on the several comps I was invited to write there . I am sure they are going to miss Leonardo, who spend a lot of time in Rieti. Of course he was remembered in the opening briefing.
A very mixed group of pilots from several countries even from Australia and New Zealand but also from other European countries . A lot from Austria.

Yesterday they had tasks between 428 in the open class and 313 in club class. In open it was Switzerland again with the Leutenegger team flying with a speed of 114.5 km./h. Giorgio and team partner were runner up.3 Outlandings in this class.
In 18 m. 2000 points for Peter Hartmann after 2 days!
For all scores in the several classes you can go to www.soaringspot.com

I noticed that during the USA hang glider Nationals in Big Spring in Texas still the same pilots are in the top as Atilla Bertok and Davis Staub. Jonny Durand had a bad second day with only 36.7 km. but was 4th on day 1.

Enough news for this day see you on Sunday.

cheers Ritz
On Wednesday August 7 2013.

LESZNO !

Waiting! TC Bob from the UK.
courtesy; shared on FB/ UK site

It was a long “wait” again on Wednesday as the wind was tough with 25 kts. and some showers from Germany had to pass by first. Launches were postponed till 2 PM.
Time enough for Katja to post some pictures from all flags. Nice! Here is one of them the most important;

The day continued with , chairs , tables and tents blowing away whilst the pilots hung on  onto their gliders and as one of the teams mentioned:
“What did we do today ?
Went to the briefing, rigged the gliders ,went in grid , got a A and B task , waited…. Then it rained, waited some more… got a C and D task, standard class got cancelled and 30 min later club class also…”
You can’t say they did NOT try. A pity though , but we could already see that the good weather was around the corner!!!!
 “We are promised three good days when this system clears.”
So both classes cancelled on Wednesday. After pin pong swimming and afternoon naps, video/movie time for a chance!
A great picture from the South African team. I had to laugh when I read that Iain killed his time  “killing flies with a shoe. His current tally is 40.”

At least the bird will fly today !!!!!

Thursday; yesterday there were high and well-founded expectations for flying in both classes; the meteo maps looked good and as said before , “it was promised”.
So tasks in BOTH classes 249 for club class as A and a B task for “when necessary”, not smaller BUT bigger 260!
It turned out to be the 249km. task and that was already pretty difficult for some; 5 outlanded!

One of the Dutch gliders.
Courtesy Dutch site.

French pilot Benjamin Vades won the FIRST day from the JWGC in club class and got 809 points. In the top 10, 3 French pilots, 2 Dutch, 3 German  and 2 Italian pilots.
Standard class got a 3.15 AAT [ 290.9km/467.9km (375.5km)]  was 3.30 first  and 9 pilots did not finish!
It was a Swedish pilot who won the 2 day of this class; Simon Landquist. Good on him!!!
He flew 337 km. in 3.16, speed 103 km./h. Peter Svoboda was 2d and Peter Millenaar 3d. He leads overall after 2 days with 12 points on Simon and Peter S. is 3d.

Nice air shot as see on the Dutch site.

All in all not an easy day as you can see;
” It was n’t exactly the epic day we were hoping for”  UK team.
“Rough day today.100% spread out around the start and along the first leg made for some very tricky conditions.  Everyone seems to have experienced the same appalling conditions (except the pilots who started extremely early), but the pilots who took the strong climb at the power plant had a big jump on the rest of us who were working 1-2kts for the last 120km.”
Parts from Matthews blog so Australian team for the rest of the story about their day you can read at
https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding/posts/492248880866698?notif_t=notify_me
“Our Juniors had a very difficult day, all had difficulties getting up to comfortable altitude and missed the good startwindow. When they got past the startline, it was already too late. Weather deteriorated and they never got back in their rhythm” Belgium team.

The day finished with the INTERNATIONAL EVENING, always a top event.

Eager to see who comes in first.
UK team and Dutch team…..POMMIES AND CLOGGIES…. friends as long as I am in gliding.
courtesy Rob Millenaar.

Today Friday tasks .
Clubklasse 4h AAT (263-522Km)
Standard class 372 racing task. A task changed later into B task, same distance but they stay more to the East. 18 Minutes after 1 PM the lines were open for both classes! Long day for the clubbies! AND a BLUE day! Dry thermals, not for everybody easy, but clouds in the East.
Lift about 1.5 average in the beginning up to 1300m. , and as expected with a blue sky ….gaggles!

Blue day, very blue!
As shared by Matthew!

While waiting some nice pictures from Katja

Some need more naps ,some concentrate on the “job in the office”.

Nice Libelleke and where would we be without the TUGGIES!!!!

Well ,….on the hottest day in 5 years here in Holland, I tried to keep an eye on “things”.
Good day in Leszno. Peter S. [Czech Rep] won the day whilst Peter M. [Holland] was runner up… talking standard class.
After 3 days Peter M is on top , Peter S on a 2d spot and Jacek from Poland on 3. AND,…don’t underestimate the German boys Enrique and Alexander busy after a bad first day on a race to the top.
On a blue day you should not miss the boat by doing too much alone. By the way, Ingo Renner was one who had no problem with that!!! But that’s  history for these young ones!
So gaggles till the end as you can see on a great picture by Jacek Lewinksky as shared by Patrick Stouffs. By the way,….what a great photographer!!!!!

you have to double click to really see this picture!
courtesy Jacek Lewinsky.

The clubbies had a big and long day! But ….they were ready for it. Luke Dale [ family from G Dale] and Matthew Davis [son from Andy, if I remember well] from the UK, had a great day flying together and “deserving” the 1000 and 986 points; 330 km. in 3.57. Another good Swedish pilot David Gustavson on spot 3 , Italian pilot Claudio on 4 and then Ard, Nick and Stefan from Holland with Jeroen from Belgium in his libelle on spot 8 with more kilometres but also [much] more time;4 hours 32.
3 Outlandings and 6 not yet scored. All scores of course preliminary. German team was happy, Dutch team was happy, UK team was happy, all “happy chappies”. Belgium mentioned “winning by not loosing”, so happy enough too!!!

will be continued!

MENGEN!

They were a bit more lucky in Mengen with the weather on Wednesday. Not that it was SUPER,  but good enough for a speed of 124 km./h. for Michael  who won the day with 410 km. in 3 hours 18.
As said they had 2.30 and 3 hour AAT’s and the day turned out much better than hoped for/forecasted.
Runner up was Tassilo. who flew together with Michael. They started both reasonably late  at 12.22 [only Patrick Puskeiler started later at 13.06 but ended up on an 18th spot.] and finished together 1000 and 990 points for the day.
A bad day unfortunately, for Uli who finished as number 23 but still is on spot 2 overall, with  33 points ahead of Tassilo AND young Patrick Gai was only ONE point behind Tassilo. All fly an EB version. Nice to see Bruno [ Gantenbrink] is still competing too, he flies the ETA.

In 18 m. “only” 830 points for winner Sven Weiland [ASG 29 E] flying 314 km. in 2.34. Yves was on spot 3, but is still strongly leading the overall scores. Werner was on spot 13 , but was still on spot 4 overall behind Robert and Jean Luc.
Only 2 days to go and they looked good!

Thursday; yesterday 487 km for open and 463 for 18 m. that sounded better. Bleu thermals were predicted , but also occasional cu’s. Temperature 34 like we have in Holland today!
In open  Michael won again;906 points. Uli had 905 and Tassilo 902!!!!
In 18 m. Robert was on a good 2d place , Yves at 5 and Werner at spot 9.

FRIDAY LAST DAY!!!! Another HOT day , we all get nice warm tropical African wind bringing African temperatures.
Last day had good tasks to make up for the 4 non flying days; a 3 hour AAT for open who started first and 2.30 AAT for 18 m.
So after 7  days nothing is decided in both classes. On this day 8 they all have to fight to keep their place or to get higher, though with 300 points ahead of Uli and 344 on Tassilo and knowing Michael, he would be absolutely not giving that away. Who wins the silver , who the bronze????
In 18 m. Yves will be most probably the WINNER , not the German Champion as he is from Belgium. So who will be the CHAMPION??? Robert [4886] , Werner [ 4794] or maybe Claus Triebel [4661]????? We’ll know later.

At 13.24 the open class pilots could start, line was open. After winning day 2 Ewald Bombelka raced in his Nimbus 4 M over 349 km. in 3.17, so a 2d day-win. Patrick Puskeiler also in Nimbus 4 M was runner up, but both were not fast enough to make it difficult for Michael who is the new GERMAN CHAMPION with 7014 points.
Good runner up Uli Schwenk with 6668 in the EB 29 and Tassilo is 3d with 6633 points. Bruno with the ETA finished on a nice 12th spot. Young Patrick ended on 7 overall, loosing 105 points today with a 16th place.

In 18 m. Claus Triebel won the day with 289 km. in time 2.34.  Robert was 2d so he will be the new NATIONAL CHAMPION in 18 m. Yves , from Belgium, won however, with 5939 points. Robert had 5707 and Werner Meuser still going strong, is on spot 3 with 5566 and Claus on 4 with 5489.

Interesting competition AGAIN to follow!!!

And a message from Australia; “560km done in the middle of Winter out of Kingaroy.”
No more words needed! Maybe only who did it?  David Jansen, who flew the last WGC in Uvalde ,  in the ASG 29E/18m.

That’s it for today, do you know what’s VERY interesting…..the INTERNATIONAL HACKERS festival is here in Holland!!!! 3000 ” Nerds ” have their tents and laptops close to Alkmaar.

Will be back on Monday , have Australian guests for the weekend, so will be busy!!! CU on Monday.

Cheers Ritz on Friday August 2 2013
www.soaringcafe.com    www.glidinginternational.com