Not yet open de KEUKENHOF, but it does n’t take that long anymore.

With a few very sunny, though  fresh days and little tops of plants popping up, it feels like spring is around the corner, even with wet snow and hail.
Last Sunday the first cross-country flights from German airfields and not long and they start here as well.
From Bad Neuenahr Ahr, direction NW Aachen, which is close to the Dutch border , a flight in an HPH 304 “SHARK’ from 317 km. and from Grosses Moor in an LS 8/18 m.  351 km. That’s SO early serious flying!!!

And France is active as well. From Bruno a flight on February 22 with up to 2.5 m. lift , up to 1200 m.
With only 8 flights on the OLC , the day before yesterday,and 7 yesterday [1 from Benalla; 460 km.]  it’s really an ” in- between-period” now.

As shared by the Association Aeronautique du Val  d’Essonne.

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After the many great , long,  fast, distance flights during the season, in Namibia and South Africa, dominating the OLC …..a few less but also long and exciting and fast in Australia, the Aussies and there guests continue the season a bit longer and are dominating now;700 km. from Stonefield in the Nimbus 4DM on Thursday February 19.
Kilometer-eater Terry Bellair flew last Saturday 856 km. [645 FAI triangle]  in his DG 400/17 m. from his home field Raywood and from Ararat, 792 was flown in a Discus by Gary Stevenson.[734 FAI triangle]
Tocumwal had 662 in the ASH 26 by Terry Ryan [ 557 FAI triangle] and Benalla ‘s Tobias Geiger in his LS 4 602 km. [440 FAI triangle] All these pilots you can qualify as kilometer-eaters, they LOVE their distances.
Most flying in Victoria and the SW part of NSW due to storms else where.
So Sunday’s best flights were from these areas;Pipers Field 622 in Ventus 2 c/18m., Tocumwal 572 in ASH 26 e, Temora 500 in LS 8 and 563 from Ararat in a Discus 2.
Australia was  confronted last week,  with 2 cyclones one in the top end and the [N]E, causing quite some damage.

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After 5 days the SQUAD week in Narromine had close scores.Looking at club class the difference between number 1 Bryan Hayhow [Discus] and number 2 Lisa Trotter [ASW 20] was 6 points. Mind you there were 2 over 400 km. days , the rest over 300, till then!
And in Standard Class between Peter Trotter [LS 8] and John Buchanan [ASG 29/15 m.] 3 points with over 500 km. days.

With only 2 days to go an interesting event,”  between”  the ” seniors and juniors”!
During this squad week the juniors get some extra training on high level, it’s practice in many ways [ avoiding all kind of penalties, making speed against toppers and flying in time with an AAT] .
The AUSSIE team for Narromine 2015 exists out of  Matthew Scutter , Ailsa McMillan,  Dylan Lampard in Std.Class.
Club class pilots; Joe O’Donnell ,James Nugent and Eric Stauss.

I ” know ”  3 members of the Aussie junior team in these classes; Matthew and Ailsa in Standard class  and Eric in club class.
James Nugent was doing a great job, whole week. He won 3 from 6 days , so a promise for the JWGC. From Mandy I heard he is only 16 years old!!!!!!What a talent.
He won day 6 , a 4 hour AAT in club class, in his LS 3 with 479.7 km. in time 4.10 , [speed 115 km./h.] taking away the 1000 points, whilst “senior” Bryan lost nearly 200 points.
Day 7 was won by Eric Stauss,  so the young ones also had their win  and Joe was always in the daily top 4 however on day 7 on 5.
That day a 3.30 AAT was set and Eric flew 371 km. in time 3.30 at the dot!!!! Good on him!!!
The final scores show a junior on top, James with 6683 points and Lisa on 2 with 6638 points.

Day 6 was a 4 hour AAT in standard class. Tom [Claffey] won with 560 km. in time 3.56, so a speed of 140 km./h.!!!Day 7 was won by Butch; 471 km. in time 3.20.11.
The “fight”  between the seniors and juniors was tougher in this class. Butch won 3 days, Peter Trotter 2 x, Pete Temple 1 and Tom Claffey 1.
Butch won with 6862 points, Peter had 6833 and Tom 7588, but Tom did not fly the last day.
Matthew ,[DISCUS 2a-4920] Dylan [3780 LS 8-] and Ailsa [LS 8-4506] trained hard, but after 7 days ended on the bottom side of the overall scores. No worries, it’s ALL about the training.

Latest news and GREAT news for the Aussie  juniors, indeed it’s a lot of things  helping to create a champion;
“A big thank you to Shinzo who has offered his office, briefing room and hangar to the Australian Junior Team for the Junior World Gliding Championships in December this year. THANK YOU SHINZO!!!”
By the way last Monday Shinzo flew 784 km.[600 FIA triangle] in his Nimbus 4DM.

I know Corowa helps out with their containers for our Dutch juniors and in another hangar at Narromine, from a Dutch couple  William Stalenburg and Evelien Nijland, running a gliding school there during the season, they can place/park their gliders.NOT bad, not bad at all.It ALL helps, also the factor LUCK!!!!!!
Our Dutch juniors are and think positive too, though it is far away ” that place Narromine” . But I know they are going to love it.
They shared this picture from the GLIDING BIBLE and I share it with you.

It’s going to be a great event!  I heard and read of so many potential champions. Try to be there for the last week!

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Looking ahead at Europe’s soaring; Calcinate [Italy] organizes a HIGH PERFORMANCE STAGE. It’s a bit later than usual, but that gives them a  chance to ” devote special attention  to long flights and distance and speed records.”
The organizer is Alberto Sironi and he co-operates with Giorgio Ballarati . The week is from March 24 til 29!
Lot’s of skilled coaches, a lot of them members of the Italian team, will take one or 2 participants by the hand.

—–Pilots participants should have a good experience of mountain flying, full control and effectiveness of the techniques of centering and climbing in thermals (even along the ridge), good mental and physical form and a keen interest in the objectives of the SAP”

—-The fee for the days of flying and towing are free for junior national team pilots, that will then pay only the registration fee of € 120.00.—-

All info at ; http://acao.it/en/high-performace-stage-2015/

A picture from another year with Alberto in the middle.
Courtesy ACAO site.

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One of the first big comps is always the Easter competition at Nitra, [Slovakia] where they fly for the Pribina Cup from April 3 till 11. At this stage they have already 100 pilots who have registered  in 4 classes and they come from 15 different countries. A total at this stage from 33 from Germany and 18 from Poland.
Interesting as well; ” In case of more than 10 entries of FAI 13,5m class gliders, a separate class could be created for them in order to promote this class and allow to pilots to test their performance and equipment before the 1st FAI World Gliding Championship 2015 in this class. ”

As shared on FB by the organizers!

 And to finish this blog a nice picture shared by DG.
DG-1000T and DG-808C Competition formation flight.

Cheers Ritz

Did you have a happy and pleasant VALENTINES day?
I had the flu, did not do TOO much,…. but feel slowly better again.

The season is about over and it’s waiting now for gliders to come back and for the spring season to begin here in Europe!
Last Thursday only 24 flights were added to the the OLC list.
On Friday the 13th , not everybody hided….30 pilots took the opportunity to fly.

Last Sunday we had early SPRING weather; blue skies, 10 dgr C. and and a full sun. I guess everybody here went out walking , biking or visiting the beaches for a long good walk with the doggies.
SPRING is on it’s way!!!!!

Looking at the stats of world wide airfields on the OLC from Australian destinations on February 15 ,4 ended in the top 10.
Mind you most places fly till Easter and the East Coast can fly through winter as well, so some more flights will be added ;
Benalla on spot 6 with 69 guests , 563 flights and a total of  208.000.08.
Benalla will be busy over the next 2 seasons with the pre worlds and worlds.

Corowa on 8 with 29 guests mostly staying for the full 3 months so they do not have to fly every day, but still made 339 flights and a total of  192.707,08 km. WHEN they fly, they really fly big distances!
They added to their list; 80 briefings and 114 tows AND 2097 hours.
Their containers are on the way home now !

   

Leaving with such nice soaring-weather is not always easy.
Picture from their site at ;http://www.australian-soaring-corowa.com/

Narromine on 9; Their squad week started last Sunday so they will add a few more flights. With 83 guests and 446 flights they flew a total of 171.990, 89 km. The SQUAD week delivered yesterday a nice distance by Matthew Scutter in his Discus 2 a; 628 km. Other toppers as Mat [Cage] and Tom [Claffey]  participate in this week as well.
Today was according to Morgan Sandercock a ripping day with thermals up to 11 kts . He even had too much lift to get down and that when it is nearly autumn!!!! 420 [300 FAI triangle] in the Duo Discus and the day before 480 [400 FAI triangle]
Tom flew 512 k. with the next message; “ Task too short for AAT timing. 147kph, cannot change start times?”
And Brian Hayhow flying the Discus 2 mentioned:
” Great day out at Narromine… 123kph task speed for a 369km task a maxed out AAT… good streeting on second leg really helped and everything just lined up beautifully… my fastest speed dry!” 
Narromine will be extra busy end of this year with the JWGC.

Tocumwal on 10; 73 guests flew a total of 129.289,76 km. during 343 flights. They will be busy till Easter and had during the last few weeks several Japanese pilots. Toc was always a very popular place for Japanese pilots but also for the Chinese pilots. All willing to learn or improve their skills, in the quiet period .Again several declared FIRST  300 and 500 km. tasks were flown. A few of the happy chappies as shared by Sportaviation. CAMPAI !!!!!

Lake Keepit on 11;with 59 guests they had  332 flights with a total of 116.824, 07

A great finish over the LAKE.

Looking at the stats for Australia only, these places are on 1-2-3-4-and 5 and Waikirie proud on 6.
Looking at the top 5 from the OLC Aussie CHAMPIONS till now 2 Dutch pilots Bart and Max are on top , then a German pilot Hans-Juergen and a Spanish Pepe and Mac from Japan.
The first 3 ONLY flew from Corowa, Pepe used mainly Narromine and Corowa and Mac flew from everywhere.[Narromine, Temora, Tocumwal, Waikirie and Gawler.]

Looking at the best flight in Australia according to the OLC, David Jansen is the top ONE with his 1.582 flight from Kingaroy to Benalla in his ASG 29e/18m..
Pete Temple follows with 1.121 km from Waikirie in the ASG 29/18 m. and
Mac on 3, flew 1.061 km. from Tocumwal in his LS 8.
Within this TOP 10, 3 flights from Tocumwal, 2 from Corowa , 2 from Waikirie , 1 from Kingaroy, 1 from Pipers Field and one from Benalla.

Looking at all flights in Australia; Benalla had 2 pilots with Nick Woods [55 flights] and Bob Nichols [48]  flying over 25 000 km. each.
Pepe had 1000 km. less in 39 flights.
You are up to date again.

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HORSHAM WEEK/VICTORIAN STATE COMPS

Day 3 at Horsham week had a 3 hour AAT, but unfortunately the front arrived earlier than expected and the early starters were lucky to get away, though most of them did not arrive “home”  .
412 km. was the best distance , flown in 18m./open in an ASG 29 by Craig, his second win that week and a nice speed of 113.4 km.
Peter Busser was runner up with 332 km. [110.8 km./h.] and Morgen Sandercock, yes the one from the Perlan Project was 3d in the Duo Discus from the Hunter Valley.[255 km. in time 3.01]
In club class only the JANUS d finished ;223 km. in 2.56. All other pilots did not start [ 5] or did not come home [9]
In st. class [2.30 AAT] nobody made it back and in 15 m. one pilot tried at 3 and one at 4 but they decided to go back.

Day 4 was cancelled at the strip ,maybe as well,as you look that it was Friday the 13th!!!!…..for some a day to ” stay in bed” and what’s worse they have 2 more this year!!!!!
On Valentines-day , a much more happy day, they had the last briefing from this Horsham week and squeezed out another day 4.
As I heard the weather was not as good as hoped for that week;
” Only 4 flying days and not good conditions despite a booming forecast the week before. ”
It is, as you know,…as it is.
This last day with a 3 hour AAT in 18m./open and a 2 hour AAT in  club  and even 3.30 in standard class and 15 m., they can look back at another good Horsham Week.
Rolf Buelter in his LS 8 won the last day in St Class .He trained with his Geelong club 2 weeks during their summer camp in Tocumwal in December/January, so he had some hours of cross country flying under his belt.
With just under 100 km./h. he flew 345 km.
Winner in this class was John Orton, flying the SDZ 55 to a total of 3751 points, more than 800 points on the runner up.

Peter Buskens won the 18m/open class . Great to see Bernie Sizer from the Southern Riverina Gliding Club from Toc win the last day and overall he finished on spot 2 in the PIK 20 b.In 15 m. another PIK 20 b , moving up from 3 to 1 overall, won the week.

My friends Tony and Jo were there for the week as Tony [TT] had to defend his title as Victorian State Champion but he did not succeed , this time, though he tried hard.On the first days he was in the race like any other of the competitors being 3d and 6th  ,but on day 3 the winner of the day had 1000 points and Tony ” out-landed ” and had only 424 and you can’t make up that loss in one day, even being third on that last day.Mind you Tony is 78 and still very active !!!!! Compliments!

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Looking at Soaring in Europe in February, you can say it’s slowly , very slowly starting in the mountain-wave- areas. The UK had some good flights in Scotland from Kinross in the beginning of February,even  one from 655 in the Antares. On February 6 , an ASW 20 flew 667 km.from Offenburg Baden in Germany.
Ocana in Spain had a glorious spring day on Friday the 13 th ,used for a 200 km. flight.

———-

The 50thiest open military championship in Holland will be flown only in June, to be precise from June 1 till 5 and you could register from last February 1. In NO time , 24 hours, they had 50 pilots and now more than 60. SOARING IS ALIVE!!!!!

———-

To finish;
RIP
David Ferguson who died unexpectedly , age 78. David was an excellent guy and a great pilot and glider pilot.He lived and worked in Australia [Ansett 1963/1989 based in Melbourne ] and Singapore as a captain 747.

CU next week.
cheers Ritz

The ” die-hards ” must have missed my Wednesday blog on February 4 , as in years I did not miss one un- announced.
REASON; My laptop crashed!
But it is in good order now thanks to Inge and Diana!!!
Luckily I published a blog on  Sunday February 1 as well, to be up-to-date with the final scores from the QSGP in Chile over the gorgeous Andes-area and the club class nationals in Drury NZ.

So here we go again, laptop in good order, me too!

Australia has/had some fantastic February weather. Though the days are shorter and launching starts later, pilots flew great tasks and nearly every day! Look at this and when you are interested ……at the OLC for February.
NARROMINE ; had 2 x a 1000 km. flight. Gerrit flew one on February 1 [800 km. FAI triangle]  …..and a 1000 out and return on February 4 in his Quintus M.This even is a record and send to the GFA.
The claim is in open class for an Australian and Continental FREE Out and return distance 1063.12 Km. , Australian Out and Return Distance 1054.91 Km.

Also his wife Pam had a new record on the same day in her ASH 31 MI;
Australian and Continental Feminine Out and Return Distance 904.04 Km,
Australian Feminine FREE Out and Return distance 918.47 Km.

Both flew up to the NW from Narromine. Congratulations!
On Monday February 9 Gerrit flew 941 km., and his mate John “Butch” Buchanan 874 km. in an ASW 27…..the weather was still good!!!!

On the 8th Shinzo flew in the NIMBUS 4DM , also from Narromine , where he runs a soaring-center, a good 924 km. task [858 FAI triangle]

GAWLER; another 1032 km. flight for Pete Temple  with 136 km./h. in the ASG 29 on February 7.
This flight has been send to the GFA as an Australian_and Continental Oceanian Initial Record Claim Notification :out and return distance in 18m/open and free out and return distance in 18m./open.
His 3d 1000 km. flight this season, 2 from Gawler….. 1 from Waikirie.

COROWA;had several over 800 km. flights and the last 2 weeks before they are packing,  the pilots enjoyed the great weather.They start packing the last European gliders on the 19th.

TOCUMWAL with temperatures up to 40 dgr. C. in the weekend had up to 700 in an ASH 26 e and 765 in the ARCUS and 937 in an LS 8 flown by MAC on February 8.He just could not reach Toc , due to a strong incoming South Westerly.Unfortunately that spoiled the day.
Today Terry flew 626 in his ASH 26.

BENALLA up to 620 in a 15 m. Ventus BT.

WAIKIRIE had up to 860 in an ASH 31/21m. 795 km. task

STONEFIELD had 720 in a PIK 20D!!! Still all February -flights.

TEMORA with a great flight by Nathan [Johnson] in the St Cirrus ;795 km.!!! And also on the 8th in the LS 10/18 m. 905 km. by Brian Du Rieu.

WEST WYALONG added a 1000 on February 8.A very special one , flown by Ed Marel in his ASH 31/21 m.
His first 1000 km. and flight number 1000 in his logbook. That IS special!!!!

Talking about Tocumwal;When you are FAMOUS, even ” only ” in our small word you are spoiled. As you can see on the picture below where Ingo got a present with the information of his Discus with call sign XX and registration VH- XXA on it.

” Special present to Ingo Renner from “Balkan Boys Band”! Handcrafted by master of gliding accessories Darko Gagula!
“Deluxe By Gagula“!”
as shared on FB by the SRGC.

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HORSHAM WEEK/VICTORIAN STATE COMPS

You can call Horsham WEEK the end of the Australian season. They started their week on February 7 and run it till February 13. It’s a competition ,  combined with competition-coaching. As they say:
“Horsham Week is a fun, relaxed comp ideal for early XC pilots almost entirely flown over large, grain-stubble fields of the Wimmera. To encourage coaching, Victorian Soaring Association  pays the entry fees for aircraft used for coaching. So the only expenses are the tow fees (about $50) and glider hire ($48/hr, Max $198/day).
 If you’ve ever wanted to try competition soaring or improve your XC speed and confidence, you can start in the VMFG Duo Discus XT VH-ZRD this year.”
All details on ; http://www.horshamweek.org.au/
The CD is Ian Grant and between March 8 and 14,  he organizes also an ALPINE-coaching-week in the mountains at Mount Beauty.Great to see all these activities in Victoria, the Southern part of Australia.

33 Pilots compete in this week in 3 classes;18m/open, 15m/standard and club class.
On February 6 it was good practice weather ;679 km. in a DISCUS.A day with a cloud base at 10.000 ft.

Day 1 was cancelled, day 2 a very blue day as well.They tried hard, a 2 hour AAT was set but it did not work out well and the day was cancelled on the grid.
On Monday they had their day 1, with a small task.A 2 hour AAT for 3 classes and 2.30 for club.
In 18m./open the best distance was 185.4 km. in an ASG 29, about 35 km. more than the next pilot. 10 Pilots in this class.1000 points for Craig from Waikirie.
In 15 m. 6 pilots and the best Bruce Cowan, flew 180.8 km. in the Ventus b. and got the 1000 points.
In standard class the best pilot flew 190 km. !!!! in an SZD 55.1000 points for John Orton.
In club class, they had half an hour more and 2 PIK 20-thies were the best here.For over 200 km. those pilots got 1000 and 989 points.

On day 2 a 300 km. task was set for the 18m./open pilots and another 1000 points day , this time the winner was Peter Buskens in the JS 1. Still pretty difficult as you can see on the speed , 99.7 km./h.
In 15 m. a task of 306 km. and with 2 out-landings , the rest finished wuith 1000 points for the Mini Nimbus pilot.
In standard class the SZD 55 won again and John leads in this class with 2000 points , 500 points ahead of the runner up.
In club class a KA 6 was the best with a Twin Astir as runner up.

They had a 10 o’clock-briefing today, noticed at least one task at this stage in standard class; 2.30 AAT.

A nice mix of gliders and pilots!!!!

———-

Europe had a nice wave flight in Scotland from the famous field of Kinross.As John [Williams ], who flew the triangle in his ANTARES mentioned in his comment:
“After a 14 month wave famine in Scotland this should be a new 500 km Fai triangle UK speed record at 121 kph.Much blue, much overcast, but it did work from really down.” 

In Argentina, {Los Antiquos} Jean Marc flew a 1000 in the 15 m. DG 800 yesterday.

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And to finish a link to a sport-TV -program [in Dutch] with world champion Bert Schmelzer jr. Enjoy!

http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozone/sporten/andernieuws/1.2233209

Bert jr. to the left with brother Tijl and Dad Bert sr. after being “crowned”  as the new world champion in Rayskala.

Cheers Ritz

ANOTHER EXTRA SUNDAY BLOG!!!

Looking back at South Africa’s season; It ‘s getting pretty quiet now on the soaring-scene with Namibia and most South African destinations closed till next season. Talking about South Africa , more of my friends than other years, visited South Africa. A very enthusiastic Max shared his Nimbus 4DM with other pilots when he had to work and flew himself a lot of new Dutch overseas records, with several pilots , as Jeppe ,Herman and Edo. All 22 flights were from Douglas Backhouse in November and January. He shared this interesting picture on FB, from all his impressive flights.

  Looking at the OLC statistics for South Africa ,we see that Gariep Dam was very busy and 4th on the list under the 3 Namibian destinations. Gariep had 62 pilots flying a total of 296.499,63 km. during 514 flights.
Douglas Backhouse had 57 pilots as guests, they flew a total of 225.915,38 during 360 flights.
Bloemfontein had 31 pilots flying 89.771,57 during 215 flights.They have lots of UK guests, but also from Holland, the USA  and France . They continued till the end of January and still had some very nice flights on January 29;860 km. in an ASG 29.
Kuruman Johan Pi had 13 guests, mainly German families as the Wiesenthals and the Kalisch’ with their friends,  but also Dutch guests. Together they flew 78.564,59 km. during 98 logged flights.
Worcester ,Potchefstroom  and Welkom had under 50.000 km. .They had great comps , Worcester that interesting QSGP, but are not really called ” big “-overseas destinations.

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This last week Australia still had some great flights, their season continues a bit longer.
Corowa had on January 28 still 8000 ft. for their tasks and pilots flew up to 850 km. [800 FAI triangle] in the ARCUS M. On the 29th a 900 km. was still possible and flown in the Ventus 2 CM/18 m. Some pilots are ready to prepare the glider for the way back home in February so for them it was their last flight for the season and they all sound HAPPY.Some continue till February 19 when they are starting to pack their containers . Their estimated time of unpacking in Holland should be then April 11.
From Tocumwal Stephan flew 560 km. in his LS 4  and earlier in the week over 600 km. On the one but last day from January he even flew 641 km. A great day with clouds and Tery [Ryan] flew in his ASH 26 e a distance of 773.7 km.
February started with a 1000 km. task[ 800 FAI triangle]  by Gerrit Kurstjens in his Quintus, flying from Narromine]  Speed 133 km./h. VERY good for February , but still possible as we can see and have seen in the past . His wife Pam flew in her ASH 31/21 m.  922 km. A nice day out for my friends!!!

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Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in Santiago/Chile 24-1-2015 – 31-1-2015 Club de Planeadores de Vitacura

Day 5´s task consist of 397,8 km. with the Northern point at Pelambres Mine! As shared by the organizers.

After day 4 they easily continued with day 5 [397.8 km.] and Thomas who was already 2d on day 4 was now in the right CHILE-grove  and won the day with a speed of 140 km./h.;8 points for him, as a few did not finish!!
Day 6 had another 356 km. task, but it was difficult. The toppers managed to finish , the rest did not and that showed in the points; 5 for Carlos , 3 for Juergen, 2 for Thomas and 1 for Rene. The organizers:” Today´s race was full of tricky areas, it appeared to be a simple task but the results show it otherwise. Only 4 pilots finished the race in an intricate ¨fierce battle¨ for positions today,a fierce head to head race till the end!”  On this picture shared by the organizers you see they great environment the pilots fly over and this is one of the TP ‘s on day 6 Inca Lake, deep inside the Andes and close to the Aconcagua. WOW!!!!!

Last Saturday at 3 they started for  day 7, but also this day some pilots choose to abandon the task from 356 km. 5 Of them finished and Thomas and Rene arrived about the same time;speed 123.5 for Thomas and 123.3 for Rene, but,..it shows again in the points 6 and 4. All the way Thomas was a bit higher than Rene , but all the way they stayed together. Only in the end Thomas passed and won the day.As the SGP team  wrote :  ” Today´s race was full of surprises and by far was the most breathtaking race we´ve seen on all these days!” 

After 7 days and with ONLY one to go the scores overall are as follows; Carlos 38, Thomas 35 and Rene 30.Pretty exciting!!! A lot is possible! NO ROOM FOR MISTAKES!!!! Which pilots could qualify for the finals in Varese. What happened? This is how the organizers described it and they WERE there!!! “ What an amazing breathtaking race we had today! Sometimes Vidal leaded then Gostner took the first position, finally Wenzel passed them all from high up above (5400m) with one magical lucky thermal which helped him mark the southern turnpoint from a straight line and also the northern one after recharging a little bit of altitude in the same thermal!” You will ask what happened to Carlos? It was a 7 points day. Carlos did finish got 4 points for this race over 217.4 km. which brought his total on 42!!! Congratulations. Thomas did well got 3 points for the day, and Rene did a bit better , he got 5. Not enough to be the final runner up as Thomas [38 points] got that place and Rene [35 points ]was third. Juergen Wenzel won the day. A great pity he got during the races several penalty points , maybe he COULD HAVE EVEN WON.Now he was 4th with 32 points. As I read it was great fun over there , here in Holland it was fun too , to follow it. Next QSGP is in the Czech Republic.Looking forward to that race. After it will be Poland and then the FINAL in VARESE.

Line up at the grid.As shared by the SGP team.

———-

The Club Class Nationals at the airport of  Drury on New Zealand’ Nord Island 20-1-2015 – 31-1-2015

With a low cloud base, as I read it was NOT supposed so be so low, the pilots were send for a 2.45 AAT on already DAY 9. For some it was difficult ; only 7 from 17 finished Best in club class again,…Steve Wallace in the Mosquito. His 5th daily win!!!! Michael [Strathern] in the ASW 20 was runner up and this was his 4th runner- up -spot,on top of that  he won 2 days as well. Both top the overall scores on the last day but with a small margin of 45 points.

The MSC Contest 2015 parallel on these comps but starting later, have 6 days now and PAT DRIESSEN [Ventus ct 17.6 m] ] won each of them; 6000 points!!! On day 5 Pat and Nigel [Mc Phee in ASW 27] were the only 2 finishers [ from 7] and with that they topped the overall scores as well. That day was a REAL struggle as I read!!!

Day 9 and day 6 were the last days as the very last one had to be scrubbed. No tactics anymore as the game was played. After 9 days it was Steve Wallace [Mosquito] who won the club class nationals and he is the new club class CHAMPION.[7405 points] Runner up with 7360 points was Michael Strathern in the ASW 20. The MSC contest had a very clear WINNER; Pat Driessen, 6 days ,6000 points what do you want more!!!

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For those who live in the USA and with interest in the 13.5 gliders and comps and WGC, here is some news from the Soaring Society of America. One of the participating pilots at the first 13.5 WGC in Lithuania this year will be Sebastian Kawa: “Team EY (USA), myself (Tim McAllister) and my wife Susan McAllister, are proud to announce that the GP Series of 13.5 meter span gliders from the manufacturer Peszke S.C. of Krosno, Poland, are now on offer to the North American gliding community.
As the exclusive North American sales broker, more information and requests for more details may be accessed at www.gpglidersusa.com
The rollout of the product line is a work in progress, as is our website, but you may expect to see and be able to receive more detailed product specifications, photos and product renderings, calculated performance numbers, blog posts, as well as pricing details, including special promotion pricing for the first 15 units (any model) of the GP Series sold wordwide (11 positions still available). It is our pleasure to introduce you to the gliders that we feel offer performance minded pilots, of all means and aspirations, terrific value in today’s glider marketplace. Say Hello to the Evolution of Performance. Sincerely, Tim McAllister EY (USA) GP Gliders USA Dallas, TX”  

GP 11 Pulse  Proto Type www.gpglidersusa.com

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And to finish 2 pictures I found interesting on FB this week. About…the weather . A MICRO BURST as shared by Gary Adams

And thunderstorm this week over Perth as shared by my friend Vanessa who lives there [Perth Now Sunday Magazine]  more on http://trib.al/Ev6zktJ

Cheers Ritz