Tomorrow our summer starts , with temperatures not really summer-like but we should not complain.
Our spring here was so-so. March and April were pretty good, May was too cold.
For soaring we had some really great days this 2015 SPRING, as you have read in my blogs.
Let’s wait and see what summer brings.

Yesterday I visited Terlet, the beautiful airfield N of Arnhem, in the middle of the VELUWE, fabulous nature, the best Holland has to offer.So a great place to visit, certainly cause I lived there in the past most weekends with the kids for at least 15 year at the caravan area.
3 Clubs were flying, 2 in front of the restaurant THERMIEKBEL and one the biggest , The Gelderse, with over 200 members, “on the Hill” , at the L-strip.
A feast of recognition even with only about 20 members active on a pretty cold but great soaring day with 4 m. lift and nice clouds.
Caught up with members I had not seen for 25 years but also with one, Wim who was tuggy for the day on the HUSKY and  who I had not seen since my ZES time in 67/68, when he was a member from the Delft Student Aero Club.

We stayed for dinner ,after George [my ex] was launched for the first time in more than 25 years on a cable of a winch ,…sitting in the Duo Discus XLT with instructor- for -the- day Bas , friend now and in the past from my kids, but also from us.
The old KA 6 was at the field , noticed a KA 8 but also an EB 28 with it’s majestic wings passed on final nicely over our heads. I was surprised did not even know there was an EB in Holland. But,…4 of the young kids from the caravan park at Terlet, now end 40 , early 50 thiers , bought one!!

I was looking forward to the dinner, we were 6 on a table and more tables were occupied, but the chef had the day off and we had to eat what the sous-chef had prepared.She did a great job and with 6 different choices we all had a great looking dinner with lot’s of vegies, salad, french fries and chips.
Sander, the new young manager,member of the Frysian Aero Club and very out going, was in full swing pouring beers [they have a huge list of all kinds of beer] and good wines. Good luck to him in the Thermiekbel.

  

Sander Terpstra the new manager [so you recognize him when you come in] , pouring beer and wine.

 

———-

Uppsala Masters 2015 from Sundbro.

The last  Masters in 2013, version number 1, put this competition on the map and what a great job they did over there again.Great champions/MASTERS , excitement, good and less good weather , good and less good days for some pilots also toppers, it was all there. You can read it below!
When I left you, the 2 classes each had 2 Hour AAT’s , possibility for showers, but pretty good looking clouds to the South as well.So let’s continue!

Day 4 weather looking to the S. As shared by the organizers.

RACING CLASS;
Wednesday May 27, day 4, it turned out to be a difficult end of the day. Marginal final glides, out landings, it was all mentioned. The last pilot [EY] even landed in the rain, but the day was set well, both task and meteo info.
19 From 30 finished among them, Teresa, Tapio, Markus ,Ake, Gunilla and the Letho’s.
Winners as well;Simon Landqvist in the LS 8 [592 points] ,Janne Nordh [ 586] and Ronny [583] .

Thursday , May 28, day 5.They woke up under blue skies ,but a 395.33 km. racing task was set,  as clouds popped up nicely.
” Met man says:
Healthy airmass with good opportunities for XCflying. High and medium high clouds drifti in during the day from SW. Holes where the sun shines exist but exactly where is a tough call.”
With a 1750 m. cloud base at Sundbro and a good looking task -area all pilots went on their way.
Ronny won the day and got the 1000 points for his speed of 106.83 km./h.
Aku from Finland was a tad slower; 101.65.
Somewhere “on the road” Ronny lost Gunilla , she finished about an hour later and unfortunately, that cost!
Specially the pilots who had already troubles en route had it difficult in the end when the weather-window was closing on them. One of them was 9 X Markus [Ganev] , who fought till the end;345 km…..just not enough. Also Teresa was out.

Friday May 29, day 6. 2 Hour AAT and the weather looked good, as you can see on the by the organizers shared picture,  so they could go straight away.But it turned out a weird day with huge differences in start times and unexpected out-landings.
Good to see…young Aku , who started early at 12.56, won this day ;229 km.in time  2.25.[755 points] Janne, who started very late at 14.23 ,so finished late as well.[just after 5 PM.]  was runner up with 699 points and Gunilla was on a good 3d spot. This time she lost Ronny en route. He out landed after 52 km. Another 6 out landed too.
Differences in the overall scores now, as Ronny dropped from 2 to 8, Janne stayed on 1, about 239 points ahead of Aku.
It will be an exciting last day!

OPEN CLASS ;

Wednesday May 27, day 4, They had a better day only 2 pilots out-landed and Goran missed out on staying in the overall top by an airspace violation.[48 points]
Best distance and with good speed for Martti; 237,68 km. in time 2.01, so nearly at the dot. Speed 117 km./h. and 608 daily  points.
1P , team Acketoft, was runner up with 561 points.
The organizers “closed”  the day with the next words;”We shouldn’t loose sight of the fact that the main point of doing this is to have fun and share beautiful experiences!” Totally agree!

Thursday ,May 28, day 5. 393.90 km.
With 3 daily wins for the Acketoft team , there are 2 days now in a row for Martti;1000 points for a speed of 111.71 km./h. The Acketoft’s were runner up with 49 points less.[speed 108.99]
They are the only pilots at this moment, in the 4000 margin of the overall scores;4231 for 4144!!

Day 5 weather looking EW.
As shared by the organizers.

Friday May 29, day 6. 2 Hour AAT. with the message:” Sniffer reporting 2.4m/s and cloud base at 1250m.” , the pilots knew they definitely had another day of flying.
A bit less exciting as 18 m. as the same toppers are on top; Martti won the day,.. number 3 in a row …with 221.54 km. in time 2.03.[623 points]  The Acketoft’s had more kilometers and more time ;595. Both had 3 daily wins!!!So with one day to go the difference is ONLY 63 points!!!!!!!
BUT WILL THERE BE A LAST DAY?????? The weather forecast was not too promising.

Weather on Friday morning, as shared by the organizers,
AND
Fridays daily winners both from Finland Martti and Aku with CD Boerje in the middle.
As shared by the Finnish team.

Saturday May 30 NO  flying-day 8.
The FB message I got yesterday morning , one from at least 200 to keep us all informed was :
“ The last day is officially cancelled. Checkout in the clubhouse from 12:00. Banquet lunch will be held in the briefing hangar with a showing of the film at 13:00. Prizegiving will begin at 14:00. Welcome”.
That is a pity! Certainly for those who still had hope.
But it was a great 2d version of the UPPSALA MASTERS  with deserved MASTERS.
Open;
1. Team Acketoft [EB 28] with 4830 points.
2. Martti [ASG 29 E/18m] with 4767,
3. Ronny Eriksson [ASH 25 MI] with 4200,
4. Goeran  with 3865 points.[ASH 31 MI/21 m]

In fourth place and Swedish bronze medalist: Göran Ax. In third place and Swedish silver medalist: Ronny Eriksson with co-pilot Mika Saväng. In second place and Uppsala Masters silver medalist Martti Koivula. Finally in first position Winner of Uppsala Masters and Swedish national champion we congratulate Jim Acketoft with co-pilot Wilhelm Wendt!

 

Racing;
1. Janne [Discus 2 T] with 4640 points,
2. Aku [Discus 2A] with 4401 points
3. Mikael Widen [ARCUS M] with 4395 points
4. Gunilla [LS 8] with  4299 points.
The rest of the scores you can fins as always on www.soarinspot.com

That’s it about the MASTERS 2015 .In 2017 the Uppsala Masters will be flown again, something to look ahead to.

In fourth place and Swedish bronze medalist: Gunilla Lindell. In third place and Swedish silver medalist: Mikael Widén with co-pilot Bengt Göök. In second place and Uppsala Masters silver medalist Aku Jaakola. Finally in first position Winner of Uppsala Masters and Swedish national champion we congratulate Jan Ola Nordh!

———-

French Nationals in 18m. and open class from Buno.

What a wonderful competition with some good long tasks. Also on Flying-day 7 the very last day, 585.88 km. later changed in  a B task from 356.23 km., still good enough to make the difference, you can follow it below!!!

But first back to Wednesday; 604 km. was set  for both classes. Pretty exciting!!!What happened?

Before they left for their 600 km., the  QUINTUS M pilot Laurent and JS 1c pilot Sebastien, shared their thoughts.Thumps up!
As shared on FB.

OPEN CLASS.
Wednesday May 27,  day 4. 15 Finished and 11 of them flew over 100 km./h. ,  1 out landed and still did well; 584 km. Daily number 1 was German pilot [ so HC] Stephan Beck with “our” call sign MM, in the ASW 22 BLE, winning the day with a speed of 116.21 km./h.over 604.32 km;1000 points.
Daily winner ; Laurent [991] and runner up Killian [980] just ahead of Pierre who flies HC.
After 4 flying-days the overall scores are lead by Sylvain, followed by Killian and then 2 HC pilots Stephan and Pierre with  Arnaud .At 3 Sebastien in the JS 1 c.
Glider PAP did not fly. The Duo Discus out-landed earlier in “high ” circumstances, but so to see nice soft grass.

As shared by the AAVE.

Thursday May 28, day 5, a 2.30 AAT was set.
With 383 km. in time 248.21 , Killian was today the winner. The Bocciarelli’ s in their 26 m ASH 25 E,  were runner up.The 2 Quintus gliders finished with ONE point between them, 840 and 841 points on 3 [Sylvain]and 4 [Laurent ]
Killian tops the overall scores again with 21 points on Sylvain.
Friday May 29, day 6, with a 232.69 km. task in both classes later changed in a B task from 189.38 km..
The 3d daily prize already for Killian flying with a speed of 110,43 km,.h.A difficult day but not to many points won or lost.
With one day to go, Killian still leads with 59 points on Sylvain. It’s ALL about these 2 pilots …..who will be the new 2015 champion.
THE VERY LAST DAY was yesterday with a 585.88 km. task for both classes, later changed in a B task from 356.23 km.
Except for one, ALL pilots finished and the winner was ….Killian . He got the 1000 points [108.52 km. /h.] and with that also the title of FRENCH CHAMPION in OPEN class.[5690 points flying the JS 1c]
Well done Killian, such a nice guy! !
Sylvain was runner up with 5612 points in the Quintus M.
3d [HC] was Pierre  in the EB 28 with 5077 and bronze was for Sebastien in another JS 1 c.[4993]

18 m. CLASS .
Wednesday May 27 ,day 4. Ouch Didier out-landed!!! And he was so close;547.26 km. Another pilot was out after 543 km. and Jean Louis Bouderlique after 109 km.
The rest , 17 in this class, survived the 604 km. and with nice speed as well.10 Flew with a speed of over 100 km./h.
Best in this class Denis Guerin with 109.24 km./h. over 604.32 km. good for 1000 well deserved points.
Gilles had 8 points less, Jean Denis 22 , Eric 25 and Louis [Bouderlique] 27.All pretty close!
One pilot nearly flew 7 hours but FINISHED!!! Good on him.
Thursday May 28, day 5, a 2.30 AAT as well.
Except for one ALL finished.Best distance and time for Denis ; 287.88 km. in 2.41. good for 875 points.
He won 2 days in a row and is overall after 5 days on spot 2 just 22 points behind Eric. AND,…Gilles is 18 points behind Denis. AND,…17 ahead of Jean Denis .
Gilles was runner up, Louis 5th , Anne [Ducarouge] on 8 and Didier on spot 9.
Friday May 29, day 6,  a task of 189 km. and a 3d daily win for Denis, good on him! ALL pilots finished and the runner up was Louis.With one day to go the overall scores are; Denis, Eric, Louis and Gilles with only 155 points difference between them.
The last day will show who is going to be the CHAMPION.

And yesterday , day 7 had as said a task with 585.88 km. later changed in 356.23, so fast brave pilots still could make the difference. As we all know pilots can loose on a last day as well. In fact that happened today to Denis. So many times daily winner and proud -number- 1- overall -on the last day.
He just had a bad day, did not start too early or too late but finished as number 13 for the day loosing more than 200 points and with that dropping to spot 3.[5486]
The new FRENCH CHAMPION in 18 m. after 7 days of flying ;Louis Bouderlique with 5529 points  he moved from 3 to 1 and look at the difference with runner up , Eric  with 5517 points…. ONLY 12 points!! He will think ” where did I loose them” .HC pilot Olivier Sevrin from Belgium  won the last day and moved from spot 5 to 3 with 5115 points only 2 points difference!!!!
So /but the French bronze medal is for Denis.

Both pictures shared by the organizers on FB. Thanks!

———-

Swiss Nationals from Buttwil.

After a non flying day on Tuesday, they continued again on Wednesday with racing tasks from 387,27 in the mixed racing class and and 433,42 in the mixed open class. Good tasks to show quality.
Compliments for their very informative and clear news tickers with copies of the tasks.I was impressed!
At noon the people ….there were many,  on the ground could look at a superb show from the Patrouille Suisse.
Impressed again !

As shared on http://www.sgzuerich.ch/index.php/sm2015  news ticker day 5.
With an awesome 15 minute show video as well…. have a LOOK!!!!
And
THANKS FOR SHARING !!!!!

In the mixed 15 m,..13 from 14 finished and the more well-known names were on top;Stefan Leutenegger [1000 points ] and Rene Schneebeli.[995 points]
Jurg Haas was 5th.
On Thursday the pilots got a 285.1 km. racing task for day 5. They had to postpone the first start a few times but at 2.15 PM it was so far.With the late start the task changed as well;183.10 km.
Start line opened at 3.12.With a late start , you have a late finish as well.But all arrived before 6 PM.
Bad day for Stefan who missed a TP  and new names upfront.
Rene who was 10th today is still on top overall with 73 points ahead of Juerg , who had a good day[5th]  and moved up to spot 2 and Stefan is now on 3.
On Friday a 333.04 km. task was set for day 6. They had a strong wind from the W and the flight was again over the Jura. The task was changed to a 2.30 AAT , due to less good circumstances and a later than foreseen first start.
The day was won by Stefan with 223 km. just ahead of Rene with 222 km. starting together and finishing together. With them as well Juerg. 6 Out-landings.

One but last day, number 7, a 1.30 AAT! With a late briefing at 12.and a TOO TOUGH day for this class, so it ended as an invalid day.
Last day  flying day 7;  170  km.More on Wednesday.

In the mixed open,…Markus Gauman had his 2d win;1000 points for him and his NIMBUS 4M. Gabriel Rossier had 5 points less. One out-landing; ONLY just out….427.86.
318 km. was set on Thursday their flying day 5. Later they changed it in a B task  with 216,45 km.due to the late starts.
Only 3 finishers and one of them was, Marcel Duenner who won the day in the ASG 29 with a speed of 107 km./h. the other  Markus, who has a big overall lead now.
For day 6 a 402.03 km. was set but later changed in a 2.30 AAT  when the sniffer could not find good lift and the first start had to be postponed several times.The day was won by Thomas Suetterlin in the ASH 25 EB28. Gabriel was runner up and Markus 5th.4 Out-landed.

One but last day , number 7. In this class Markus went,  as I read to the Jura,  at 1400 m. later came low climbed up again to 1400 and won the day;199 points.43 Other pilots managed to fly over 100 km. so a valid day 7 for them.
214 .3 km. Today for their last day.More on Wednesday.

———–

15 Meter  and Standard class Nationals in HusBos [UK]

The 15 m. Nationals in the UK showed a list of 18 pilots among them Phil Jones, Leigh Wells and a bit older pilots as Chris Starkey , Richard Kalin and Dave Watt.
After 4 flyable days,  2 won by Phil  and no 1000-points-days, Phil was in the lead with 2 days to go ahead of Nick Tillett and Leigh. On 2 days nobody finished, pilots really had to struggle with the elements.
These 3 pilots are still in the race for the title.
Friday was scrubbed but yesterday looked like a good day;

The standard class pilots , 17 in total, had also 4 days . Among them ,and good to see,  Ayala and Alisson.
All pretty marginal days , but DAYS with points however and on 2 days only out-landers  . After 4 days Howard [Jones] leads the pac.
5 Pilots between 2500 and 2570 points so exciting 2 days with better weather.
More on Wednesday as today is their last day, but ,…it was raining in the morning. You can read it all on Wednesday.

———–

Great flights over the last couple of days;
Lesce Bled !!!1.405,50 km. by Bostjan and Milan in the EB 28. They MUST have had fun!!!!!117 km./h. not bad either.
843 km in the St Cirrus by Boris Zorz is worthwhile mentioning too.
Noetsch in Austria with 1.210,49 in a Ventus 2c/18 m. and 1000 from Feldkirchen. The ALPS were HOT and worked!!!
Rayskala in Finland with Kai in the DUO DISCUS flying 700 km. on Wednesday  and 795 for Kristian Roine . Thursday it even got better. He had already some practice , now he flew 1006 in his ASW 20.… good/great  from Kristian !
With a PROUD comment;” Finnish 15m class record in “Free Distance using up to 3 TPs”, 918 km. First OLC-1000 km flight!” Well done Christian!
Lot’s of great flights from Rayskala that day ;915 in ASG 29E /18m, and 629 in LS 1f.

The good old ASW 20.

———–

Sad news as well for my Japanese friends. On FB I read the news from Gavin Wills who is doing a cross country course in Japan.
” We were all shocked this afternoon when one of our course members Matsuda-san was killed in his glider only 11 km from the Takikawa Sky Park. It appears that the glider may have spun in while he was preparing to land on a good meadow field between the mountains and the rice fields.
Matsuda-san was from Tokyo and had over 1000 hours gliding in Japan and Australia and was the youngest member of our course. Our thoughts and condolences go to his family at this sad time.”
Tragic !!!! My condolences and sympathy to his family, the pilots doing the course with him and to GAVIN and ….to all my Japanese friends!!!!!

For those who want some extra practice in Australia; The Standard Class now has been added to the Lake Keepit comp in November and  entries are filling fast;  already 29 starters.
When you are interested don’t wait too long.If you wish to compete in this comp here is the entry form to be found;  www.keepitsoaring.com.

 There is a limit of 60 entrants. Up to 31st July, entries will allocated to paid applicants on the basis of IGC ranking. After the cutoff date, any places not filled by the above process will be filled in the order that valid entry applications are received and paid for.

Just to let you know!

CU back on Wednesday.
with more news from the UK, Germany and the Open Military Comps from Malden in Holland. They look ahead a GOOD weather.
Cheers Ritz

To start with….. the Champions from the FIRST BENELUX comps at St. Hubert.

Robbie with his daughter, Dennis as Champion and Jeroen as number 3 in the combi class.
Courtesy Willemijn.

Jean Luc, Yves on the highest spot and Maurits on 3.
Courtesy Willemijn.

Looking at the scores for Holland only to determine the Dutch Champions in the combi class;

Sjaak on 2, Robbie on 1 this time with his son, and Steven on spot 3.

and in open / 18 m.

Marco on 2. Maurits on 1 and Mark on 3.
Courtesy Willemijn

And the Belgium combi- podium as seen by Loes Reynders

With Jeroen on spot 2, Dennis on spot 1  and on spot 3 Jeff, but for sure he had to work again so his wife Gitte is there with their kids Leon and Anna.

To be totally complete;
Belgium winners in open/18 m. Yves on spot 1, Jean Luc on 2 and Wim on 3.

———–

Uppsala Masters;

Briefing with ” good old  ” Ake Pettersson to the r.
as shared by the organizers

The Uppsala Masters , with Boerje Eriksson as CM, continued on Monday unfortunately not with a flying day, but a cancelled day. No worries, they had a long first day with for some 5 hours of flying only and a few out-landings and an easier 2d day, with only finishers!So,…they flew already !

   

Great pictures from day 1, as shared by the organizers .

So 2 flying days and 1 cancelled day, when “we” continue on Tuesday .
But ,..as I read  ” A lot of energy in the air today -our meteorologist promises showers with a chance of meatballs!” 
Racing class;
May 26, day 3,  3 hour AAT,  with a start-line-opening at 12.05.
290,61 km. was flown by Ronny Lindell in time 2.52,38.With that he got the 1000 points.All 33 pilots finished.
Team Lehto from Finland was at spot 8, young Finnish pilot Aku at 4 and talking about Finland, Tapio at 7.
Gunilla Lindell, yes Ronny’s wife,  in the LS 8, [2417] was on spot 2 with 3 points less than her husband and tops after 3 days the overall ranking. Good on her!
Aku is 2d after 3 days and Janne as well, both 2407 points, so only 10 points less.
It’s always nice to see a husband and wife flying in the same competition.I know a few couples in Australia, at least one  in Africa, but not too many in Europe and to see Gunilla and Ronny both in the TOP is TOP.
Ronny , who lost 265 points on day 2 is on an overall spot 6. They always start together, but of course not always finish together.
Today; 2 hour AAT task…. first task at 12…showers predicted.

open class;
May 26, day 3, with Jim and Gert, team Acketoft in the EB 28 with callsign 1P,  strongly on top after 2 daily wins.
Day 3 is another day,….also with a 2.45 AAT.
At 12.23 their start line opened! One pilot [Ulf, on spot 5 overall] returned back to the field with a technical [motor] problem.A pity.
After 117 km. Peter Johansson returned home as well.
The rest finished and who was the daily winner??? Yes again Jim and Gert. 280,47 km.in time 2.42,20.
Goran was runner up [286,69 km. in time 2.50,54]  and Martti Koivula , [ASG 29…another Finnish mate,[I was there of course a few times!] was 3d.[270,92 in time 2.31,52]
After 3 days , team Acketoft is on spot 1 [2719] , on spot 2 is Martti [2536] and Goran is on spot 3.[2428]
Today; 2 hour AAT task.

———–

French Nationals in open and 18 m. class at Buno.

FRENCH NATIONALS from Buno with Benjamin Neglais as CD.

They started on May 21 and 22 with practice days, not used by all.
The REAL thing happened on May 23 last Saturday for the 23 pilots in 18 m. class among them 3 HC as they are from Holland [2]  and Belgium , so they can’t be French champion, and 20 in open class with 3 HC pilots from Belgium [2] and Germany.
Top pilots in Buno, so a great competition to be expected!!

Glider 41… PH-1341 is of course Dutch , the VENTUS cxt from Irene van der Swan, flying HC.
As shared by Philippe de Pechy flying at Buno.

18 m. class;
May 23, day 1 with a 2.30 AAT:
A 1000 points-day  for Eric Bernard, [299.84 km in time 3.11 so not a too easy day] with 14 finishers.
Eric was the WGC champion in Finland in club class in 2014.
Among the finishers ,Anne Ducarouge [3] Louis Bouderlique [4] Didier Hauss, Denis Guerin and Gilles Navas on 6-7 and 8.
May 24, day 2, with a racing task from 249.39 km.
Best speed , 108.14 was for Gilles [Navas ] winning the 722 points. All pilots flew the distance.
May 25, day 3, no briefing before  1 PM. Still a small task ;1.15 AAT. First launches at 3 PM. But all pilots had to return to the field.
The day was cancelled!
May 26 , day 3, with a 2.45  AAT . Jean Denis Barrois was the daily winner with 283,19 km. in time 2.39,50; 866 points.
Eric,Didier and Louis followed. All pilots finished.
Today;604.32 km. Good luck to all.

As just shared by Philippe

open class ;
May 23 , day 1, with an 2.30 AAT as well.
Different distance 270,97 km. and time 2.39 for the winner Killian [Walbrou in the JS 1c] ] and 860 points. Runner up was Sylvain Gerbaud in the Quintus M with 270,51 in time 2.40.
15 Finished and 4 from them had a bad start by entering the airspace of Orleans.
May 24, day 2, with 243,81 as racing task. This day they changed places,Sylvain was daily winner [ speed 125,97 km./h.] and Killian runner up.[ 125,78 km./h.] All pilots finished among them Sebastien Dubreuil on 3 and Pierre de Broqueville [HC but between 3 and 4 Laurent Aboulin] .
May 25, day 3, briefing after 1 PM and also for them they try a 1.15 AAT with the launching starting at 3 PM, so a later-in-the-day-window!But,..it did not work for a valid day.
May 26, day 3, with a 245 AAT.  It turned out not to be a fast day, as the daily winner flew the 277.12 km. with a speed of 95,71 km./h. Sylvain won again;958 points.
The other QUINTUS M with Laurent was runner up.
Today; 604.32 km. Briefing at 10 first launch at 11.30.

For more news;http://aave-buno.net/

———

The Swiss Open Nationals 2015 at Buttwil.

They started in 2 classes a mixed open [ 11 pilots] and a mixed 15 m. class [14 pilots] on May 23.
Mixed open.
May 23, day 1;
They set a 2.30 AAT and it was a good day for Markus Gauman, [Nimbus 4M] who flew till now many WGC’s , as he won day 1. A bad day however for Gabriel Rossier, as he was one of the 3 ” outlanders.”
May 24, day 2, another 2.30 AAT .Gabriel [ASH 31 MI.21 m.] corrected that straight away, he WON and this time Markus was runner up.
May 25, day 3,with a 1.45 AAT and a BAD day for most, not only because of violations. A day however, on which pilots did not loose a lot of points, as the daily winner only got 159 points. Only 3 finishers Markus was one of them.

Mixed 15 m.
May 23, day 1, with a 2.30 AAT, won by Juerg Haas in the ASW 27. When I remember well he flew the ASW 27 from Swiss Chris in Tocumwal.He was one of the 3 finishers. Renee Schneebeli , Edi Inaebnith and Stefan Leutenegger were not so lucky and belonged to the “out-landers”.
May 24, day 2, a 2.30 AAT and all finishers, no out-landers. Rene, did what Gabriel did in the other class, he corrected straight away his position and won the day.
May 25, day 3, a 2.00 AAT with NO finishers  and no points. Best was Juerg with 72 km.

No flying yesterday in both classes.
Today;no tasks yet.

———-

And to finish some flights interesting enough to mention;
One from Riesa Canitz where they did a training- camp for cross country pilots.
On Sunday one of the pilots, Florian Heilmann in the LS 1d,  started before the briefing for  the famous  “trip around Berlin” ;606.1 FAI triangle [ a total of 645.6 km] on not the easiest day.So a great job!
Several between 600 and 800 km. flights in gliders as LS 1f, LS 4, LS 6, LS 8 and St. Libelle.
Luesse not far from Berlin, hat several pilots flying for the Luesse Cup. A lot over 600 km. flights.
Holland was blessed with another St Cumulus day; flights over 600 km. from Terlet and Soesterberg.
A great way to spend Pentecost; 150 flights on the OLC from Holland only!!
1630 Worldwide!!
And as John Williams mentioned yesterday a nice day from Kinross in beautiful Scotland in the UK :
” A low level cloudy wave day. Easy to fall out of the wave by pushing too hard, but great fun.”
604 in the Antares 20 m.  and and 553 in the Discus bt.

———-

Last but not least news for my Aussie mates. I wrote about it already but now tomorrow it will be ACTUAL;
“The radio frequency at the Tocumwal Aerodrome will change from 122.9 to 125.5 on the 28^th May, 2015.  A NOTAM will be placed from the 26^th May, 2015 and for a period after the change to assist visitors to the aerodrome.  The lights will be left on from sunset on the 27^th to daylight on the 28^th in case there is confusion with airmen in relation to the timing of the change.” 

———–

Cu , most probably, on Sunday with the latest on Uppsala and the French and Swiss Nationals.
cheers Ritz

Happy Pentecost.
A bit later than normal on Sunday, as I waited for the preliminary final results from St. Hubert and Arnborg.
The changed final results are under P/S.

The BENELUX Championship 2015.
Always a bit difficult for a blogger doing research on ALL what’s available, when soaringspot is out for improvements/upgrades,  even temporarily , but …in the middle of several comps.
Have to get used to the new soaringspot , but it looks spiffy. Poor scorers at those comps in progress, felt sorry for them.

Mats and Piotr at the Uppsala Masters, have to deal with the new system
As shared by the organizers.

NO BENELUX- news to be found at the official site or at the soaring spot site.Always a pity as we can’t ” feel or taste at home ” what’s going on.
Excellent pictures however…. ,on FB,  from the BENELUX  comps, at least something !!! AND ,live tracking of course!
When you have 2 cancelled days, 2 flyable days and again 2 cancelled days, the weather gods seem unhappy, BUT a change arrived just in time to add  a few more days.
We had 12 dgr. and a slow “LOW” over Belgium and Holland, with pretty heavy rain,  but no worries friendships were renewed or started.

A good moment to mention 50 years of COMPETITION_soaring for “my” instructor DICK TEULING. He and his wife Liesbeth have visited lot’s and lot’s of comps together. They met on a ZES-soaring-camp in Venlo in 1967 ,.. I was there as well.Dick flew already comps then.The ZES  had NO field at that time, but 3 camps a year ,one at Venlo, one at Malden and one at Terlet together with the Delft Student Aero club.

Dick and Liesbeth “honored”  by Patrick during the BENELUX Nationals.
As seen by Willemijn.

and in 1967/8 when I went solo at Malden. Pretty serious stuff is n’t it?

No flying news at the moment,…..but NEWS ENOUGH.
Here is the brand-new ASH 32 MI rigged and ready to go for promo flights in St. Hubert. For all news contact Rene de Dreu,  the BENELUX agent.
Francesco and Grietje, from Australian Soaring Center Corowa ,are the first to have one flying down under this upcoming [for them] summer.

As shared by Rene, who is in St Hubert at the moment.
And  Willemijn shared the very first action of this great looking glider, on tow and in landing!!

  

Willemijn, really has an eye for glider details look at this;

The FES on the Ventus 2 cxa from Francois [agent for Schempp Hirth in Holland] …Front Electronic Sustainer,…the future?

BUT,….back to soaring. As said the next couple of  days look good.
Thursday May 21;
For the combi class  a 4 hour AAT was set for day 3 and the most kilometers were for one of my HUSBOS juniors Robbie Seton in the LS 8 ;448 km. in time 3.57,8.
Also the runner up was from Holland Sjaak Selen, yes brother from…..
Jef , Dennis and Jeroen all from the Keiheuvel in Belgium, followed.
The overall scores are close; Robbie now on spot 1 with 2730 points, Jeroen, Dennis,Jef and Sjaak all within 100 points.
By the way lot’s of penalty points for airspace violations and altitude in both classes most in this class.
And,…the LS 8 SR, from Robbie will be shipped soon to Australia, as he and his dad Jan, “give”  the glider to use by the Dutch team,  in Narromine at the JWGC. Great gesture!
So the Dutch team travels down under, with 2 St. Cirrus gliders  and 2 LS 8 gliders. GOOOOOD!!!!!

  

Sjaak and Mark [Leeuwenburgh]
As see by Willemijn.

In 18m./open also a 4 hour AAT on day 4 ; 474 km. in time 4.01 was flown by Yves Jeanmotte in the ASG 29 and also the runner up was from Belgium Francois Delfosse.
The overall scores here are pretty close as well. Yves has 3117 points, Jean Luc 3070 and Maurits 3011.
VERY bad luck for the number 3 overall from day 3, Sebastien Mercier, he did not fly this day he was sick. What a pity on such a great day, with such great days behind him.

NOT flying the BENELUX comps but enjoying the Luxembourg weather, that is what Guy Bechtold did, he flew a 1000 [932 FIA triangle !] from Useldange in his Quintus M.

Friday May 22;
And yes the weather was GOOD and tasks in a style to lift this competition to a higher level.
5 days of flying in 18m/open class till now and Friday showed a good racing task of 407.60 km !!
Nearly all pilots finished, the best 3 were from Belgium; Wim [Akkermans] 1000 points, Yves 998 and Jean Luc 994. Then 3 Dutch pilots; Marco, Mark and Dick.

The smaller ships also got a nice long racing task on day 4 from the ST Hubert BENELUX comps; 367.52 km.
Sjaak from Holland won this day with a speed of 112.47 km./h, just ahead of Robbie with 110. 04 km./h.
All pilots finished and Robbie and Sjaak seem to be in a winning mood.

Saturday May 23;
A little dip in the weather again,  but small tasks are maybe possible; 1 hour,  [open /18m.] and 1.30 AAT’s.
They were possible ,but what a terrible day !!!!!!!! Luckily not too many points to loose.
Bert jr and Tijl,  the Schmelzer brothers gathered each others strength and were 1 and 2 and got 66 [114 km. in time 1.37] and 63 points.[95 km. in time 1.25]  They started early and finished before 4 PM.
The first Dutch pilot and the ONLY finisher was Sjaak on spot 9 flying 104 km.. He flew 2 hours and 35 minutes. It could be worse ;Jef flew nearly 3 hours for 56 points over 88 km.
13 Did not finish, one of them Patrick [Stouffs] with 11 points for 23 km.
Total scores after 5 days Dennis [Huybreckx ]with 3722 points ,just ahead of  Robbie [Seton] with 3718 and on 3 Jeroen [Jennen] with 3690. Sjaak is on spot 4 with 3682. It will be an exciting last day !!!!

In open class , Wim won again gaining 68 points for 98.83 km in time 58 minutes and 47 seconds.21 Pilots finished 3 did not fly.Total scores after 6 days; Yves [Jeanmotte] 4160, Marco [Vermeer] 3865, Mark [Leeuwenburgh] 3856, Maurits [Dortu] on 4 with 3832 and Olivier [Brialmont] with 3808 points . Also still in the race Wim with 3769 and Hans [Biesters] with 3764.Father Schmelzer with 3738 points,…who knows!

  

Ready to go,…..as seen by Franz Bertrand.

Sunday  May 24; It ALL depends on THIS day !!!!
The last day of the BENELUX comps,…who are going to be the champions?
In both classes still possibilities enough,… though to be honest, in open Yves has a nice lead.BUT, on a last day everything is possible, certainly when pilots play ALL OR NOTHING.
What happened?
Combi class ;2.30 AAT
The daily winner was Daan Spruyt in the LS 6, he started with a ” win” on day 1 and finished with one on the last day.[227 km. in time 2.31,22]  Good on him.
Dennis was 2d and Jeroen 3d; with that the 2 Keiheuvel boys/cousins won the comps, Dennis as Champion , [4474] Jeroen as runner up with 49 points less. [4425]
Robbie who was on spot 8 today dropped to spot 3 in the overall scores! [4420] ONLY…5 points behind Jeroen!!!!
Daan finished on 11 overall.

The NEW CHAMPION DENNIS.
As seen by  Gitte.

18m./open ; 2.30 AAT
With a speed of 98 km./h over 277 km. Jean Luc won the last day.Yves had ONE point less;999.
No worries , for Yves, more than enough to keep the first spot overall and to be the new CHAMPION.[5159 points]
Maurits climbed from 4 to 2 as Marco [daily spot 9] and Mark [daily spot 15] had a less good day and dropped to 4 and 6. Wim was 3d , so had a good day and climbed from 6 to 3.
A lot happened that last day!!!
Sorry could not find a picture from Yves.
Both classes have a CHAMPION from Belgium !!! No worries, they /we are ALL mates !!!

Last finish of the first BENELUX Championships.Till next year ….at…..TERLET.
Great picture by Willemijn.

P/S
As said the scores were preliminary and changed later in the evening.
Here are the correct results:
Open ; 1. Yves [5181], 2. Jean Luc [5126] 3. Maurits [4697].
Combi class; 1. Dennis [4464] , 2.Robbie [4420], 3. Jeroen [4415].
Congratulations again!!!

———–

DANISH NATIONALS with an excellent last day,..for some!

Arnborg in Denmark, with the Danish Nationals, was not much better, they started with 2 flyable days , added then another 4 scrubbed days , to continue again on Wednesday.
Club class; had a 2.30 AAT on day 3 and for the 3d time Jan [Andersen] won with a speed of 90.6 km./h. over 231 km. in the ASW 20C, good for 798 points.
Henrik was runner up, Ole 3d ,but Rasmus had a less good day; 199 points for 175 km. and it must have been a real tough day for him ,….but he gave not up…. as he needed nearly 4 hours [3.41]
Both Jan and Rasmus started at 3 PM.
Standard class; day 3, also a 2.30 AAT. 6 From 10 finished and 4 LS 8 gliders in the top. Frederik Noddelund flew 212.8 km. in time 2.26.700 Points were his!!!
15 m. class; day 3,  a bit more time for this class a 2.45 AAT and good old Stig Oye still knows how to fly; 250 km. in time 2.47, pretty good and good enough for 900 points. Johnny Jensen was runner upo with 222.2 km. in 2.46. Ib was on spot 6.
18 m.; got a 2.45 AAT on their plate as well on day 3. Arne and Peter started at 14.39, Arne flew in time 2.54,27 a total of 272.5 km. [ 900 points] and Peter in 2.45,49 a total of 247.3 km. good for 831 points.
2 Seater class; day 3 with 245 km in the ARCUS over a 2.45 AAT in 2.45.50.

Thursday was scrubbed for all classes.

Friday May 22; was a valid but pretty difficult day.
In Club class only 4 from 12 finished among them Jan [Andersen]
In 15 m. a task from 210.8 km. Stig was runner up.
18 M. had 176 km but it was a slow race with Peter [Eriksen] as the fastest with 87.8 km. Except for 1 pilot all finished.

Saturday May 23;
Standard class had a 160 km. racing task, Club ,140.5 km. ,20 m., 173.3 km.,15 m., 160.2 km. and 18 m., 173.3 km.
They waited , tried , hoped and had to give up. Sunday should be better,

Sunday May 24; also here the very last day it all should happen NOW!!!!
And,..the weather-gods were pleased so was the meteo ;
“The weather forecast promises fine competition-weather, and we hope that we will not be cheated this time.
The race organizers are ready with exciting tasks to the east and northeast, and the pilots should expect a relatively early start time. 11.30.”
AND….indeed exciting tasks for a last day,tasks on which “the difference can be made ” .
Early starts as announced , as they expected a front coming in from the NW around 17.00.
Great use of the day !!
Club was the last to be launched and their start line opened at 12.25. Would there be the “last-day-cat- and- mouse -start-game”  ???
Standard class 329.2 km ;
start times between 11.51 and 13.13.4 From 9 finished!Hoelgard Mogens [Discus 2A] who started at 13.00 was the daily winner and runner up in this class in the overall scores.
Champion Kim Larsen Poul in the LS 8 . He started today at 12.19 and finished as runner up. So it did not really matter ,an early or later start.
Club 299.5 km ;
all started within 4 minutes[12.26-12.30] Jan and Ole had a great day as daily winner and runner up. Henrik missed out on 20 km. and Rasmus just did not finish ,……he flew 298.2 km. !!!!
Champion in club class; JAN ANDERSEN about 700 points ahead !!!
2-seaters 346.9 km;
start times between 12.12 and 12.47
2 From 7 finished!Also here one pilot with 345.6 km.
CHAMPION in the 20 m. class;team Hansen /Joergensen in the ARCUS.
15 m. 329.2 km ;
start times between 12.12 and 12.40
6 From 14 finished and the daily winner was Johnny Jensen in the ASW 27 b just ahead of Stig Oye. Stig is older now but still sharp as a knife and  wins the Danish Championships in 15 m. class [3866] Johnny was runner up.
By the way for the young ones, Stig was world champion in 1983 in Hobbs New Mexico in standard class in an LS 4 !!!!
Ib was 4th.
18 m. 346.9 km ;
start times between 11.55 and 12.33. Peter Eriksen won the day and climbed from 4 to 3 , [3730] , so on the podium.Arne was runner up today and moved from spot 3 to spot 2 overall.[3748]
Elmgard Steen was 1 and stayed on 1 overall, he is the new Danish champion in 18 m. class.[3815]
8 From 11 finished!!!

According to the scores at SOARINGCAFE they had no task on Sunday, BUT THEY DEFINITELY had.
Look at dm.dsvu.dk

———–

One way or another Poland had better weather and the many pilots over there flew 4 days in a row during the POLISH OPEN CLASS NATIONALS.
Day 5 however with a 2.15 AAT, was in the end cancelled.
Also the next day with a 1.15 AAT was not valid .Only 3 from 30 flew over 100 km….but they did …. CHAPEAU. They started at 4 PM.Among them Sebastian and Adam flying 147 and 143 km. in a time OVER 2 hours…but for no points.
After 4 days Sebastian was again the CHAMPION with 3300 points . Adam [Czeladski] was the runner up with 3235.

A Happy Sebastian , with another MEDAL!!!!
As shared on FB by Ecc Czeladz.

———-

NO flying in Italy, from Varese for the 20 m. NATIONALS, on Wednesday. The 2 seaters could stay tied up.
No flying on Thursday either , I heard it was snowing in the mountains.
But on Friday they continued with a good 1000 points -day and those points were for Luciano [Avanzini in ARCUS T] .
BUT,…he had to share them with Alberto [Sironi in ARCUS M] who got the same amount of points both flew the 317.5 km. with a speed of 98 km./h.
On Saturday a small window with a small task; a 1.30 AAT and Peter Hartmann who missed out on winning the last days , must have thought it was  HIS turn again, so he won;128 km. in time 135.5.
Only 357 points for him but it helped to get back to spot 3 overall [ 2957] , passing Stefano [with 2952 points], who  just missed out on 5 points . Top spots for  Luciano [3155 ] and Alberto [3035].

———–

The UPPSALA MASTERS .
Sundbro.

  

Ready to go! And,…the last glider on tow.
As shared by the organizers.

Started yesterday in 2 classes with 46 participants.

  

Flight tracking with a very interested new generation.
As shared by the organizers.

Follow the action here;
http://www.flightradar24.com/59.33,18.07/7
Like we did in Holland during the Nationals, they use  SMS groups, for all special and  important announcements. It works SUPER.
After  a practice day, they started day 1 yesterday, with SUPER weather;500 for open/18 m. and 416 for  a racing combi class.
With a speed of 113.21 km./h. over 500,47 km.in the EB 28 team Acketoft was the daily winner in open/18m.
All pilots finished!!!!

26 From 32 finished after 416 km. among them Aku Jakuula and my friend Teresa Toivonen as well as Markus Ganev who won not long ago at Hahnweide, the speed- prize to visit the Chateau from Pierre de Broqueville in France.
Daily winner with a speed of 114 km./h. flying a Ventus 2 bx was Finnish pilot Tapio Tourula. 71 Points ahead of Ronny Lindell in the Discus 2t.

Today on Sunday, day 2,  the pilots were asked the evening before, to be at the grid BEFORE briefing.
Tasks from 220.82 for the racing class and 276.62 km. for the big ships.
Some started at 1 PM others at 15.35 !!!

Ready as the organizers mentioned ” for an uncertain future” for today.
It looks at least less good than the day before.

All pilots in open/18 finished .The EB 28 with team Acketoft, early starters, early finishers won the day with 108 km./h.
About the same speed for Finnish pilot Martti Koivula in the ASG 29E. He started 34 minutes later!
In the racing class all 31 pilots finished as well.Best was Janne Nordt in the Discus 2T.
Aku was at spot 12 and  team Lehto at 16 in the ARCUS.
More on Wednesday.

———–

Some great flights last Thursday! What about 748 [720.8 km. FAI triangle] in a St. Cirrus [Pirmasens-Germany] and 828 [ 577 FAI triangle] in an LS 6? And of course the earlier mentioned 1000 from Useldange.
A 750 FAI triangle in an LS 8 is not bad either [914,92 km]
Friday was even better, 1000 km. from Bamberg and Bayreuth in EB 29’s and many over 800 and 900  km. flights. 2 Of these over 800 km. flights by 2 LS 4 gliders with winglets from Ludwigshafen.
Even Tilo got one of his gliders out [Ventus 2ax/15 m.]  for a nice run starting at Hahnweide to far up NE and he  claims a new record  for an out and return in this 15 m. class. Good on him! Great practice for the German Nationals soon at Erbach.
The Riesa Canitz cross country week had quite a lot of participants and pretty nice weather. Some pilots mentioned they would , on days, never have flown without the support from pilots as Tassilo Bode and a great weather forecast.
And on Saturday the Canadian Rockies “rocked” with a 969 km. wave-flight in a Ventus 2ct /15 m.  ,from Invermere, which started pretty rough.
“Rough start (in more ways than one) so abandoned task and went cruising.”[Ian Spence on the OLC]

———-

Enough news
Till Wednesday
Cheers Ritz

 

THE BENELUX comps have started!
courtesy Franz Bertrand.

From the one interesting competition we move to the next one.And there are a few at the moment.

THE BENELUX comps at ST .HUBERT.

SUNDAY May 17;a day with ZERO ” out-landers”.
SAINT HUBERT , continued last Sunday with 2 times a 300 hour AAT for the BENELUX pilots.
For 18 m. class day 2. Best pilot was from Belgium this time, Jean Luc [Colson] with 347.5 km. in time 3.17,52 flying an ARCUS.
In this class 13 from 24 are Dutch pilots.Runner up also from Belgium Sebastien Mercier in ASG29 /18m.
A bad day yesterday for Bert [Schmelzer sr.] and Alfred Paul Alfers] but day 2 was better for them, with a 4th and 6th place.Also an unfortunate day for the winner from day 1, Francois, today he was last with only 358 points. He started more than an hour later [14.54] than the first starter [13.39]

The LS 8 from Jeroen [Jennen] and in the air with Bert Schmelzer jr.
courtesy Jeroen Jennen.

For the mixed class , with 22 participants [15 from Belgium ,7 from Holland], it was day 1. Also here our Belgium mates did a great job. They occupied spot 1 till 4.Daily winner ; Daan [Spruyt] with 318.1 km. in time  3.06,18 in an LS 6.
One of the pilots in this class is the instructor who let me go solo in 1968; Dick Teuling, still very active.Another one Jeroen, both flew MANY Nationals and international comps.

  

Dick and Jeroen [Verkuijl] with his daughter.
as seen by WILLEMIJN.

MONDAY May 18;
Day 2 for the mixed class; AND,.what a day 2….task from nearly 400 km.;388.3 km.!!!!
BUT,….They had a B task in the background and ,…used that one; 320 km.
Some said in the end task A would have been possible, but there was a tough wind and it was pretty turbulent.
Former European champion Steven [Raimond] , just back from the Klix- competition “got”  the 1000 points; speed 84.4 km./h. over 320 km..
World champion Bert [Schmelzer jr.] got 6 points less. His brother unfortunately out-landed; Tijl flew 228.4 km.
7 From 22 did so. Of course Mac is not participating here as Hahnweide where he flew overlapped.
The numbers 1 -7 are within 86 points, so MORE days please!!!
As Sebastien Mercier , number 3 at the moment, mentioned in his comment on the OLC;
“Tough over Germany on the return leg, but then way easier for the last 80kms.“

  

Dennis [Huybreckx] at this stage number 3 overall, just ahead of Patrick [Stouffs]  and cousin Jeroen [Jennen] at this stage number 2 overall, just behind Daan.
As seen by Gitte.

The bigger ships had 418.9 km. for their day 3, but they also got the B task from 317.
On day 1,  4 Dutch pilots on top, on day 2 Belgium pilots , on day 3  another 5 Dutch pilots. Daily winner for a few moments, our former crew and club mate Marco {Vermeer}  in his new  JS 1;105.4 km./h. over the B task with 317 km.
He missed however out on 1000 points because he got a 46 point penalty, for his “finish altitude”, so finished in the end on spot 3 behind Maurits on 1 and Jeroen [Verkuil] on 2. Jeroen was pleased with the nice cloud streets against the wind.
On Spot 4 Francois, who gathered some finish-altitude-penalty points as well, other wise he would have had 999 points. Such a pity. But rules are rules!
All but one finished. After 3 days the ARCUS with Jean Luc tops the overall scores.

B tasks at the grid.
as seen by Willemijn.

TUESDAY May 19 ; shows 2 AAT’s from 2 hours. But,……though on the picture the weather looked nice and everybody was ready at the grid, to go for it, the weather circumstances were just not good enough.
Next Sunday more about these comps.

Yesterday’s weather, BUT from the SW a low with severe showers passed to the NE.

———-

ARNBORG,
Danish National Championships.

They started on May 14 in 5 classes !
Club, with 12 participants and on day 1 the first daily winner was Jan Walther Andersen in the ASW 20 C.
Also Rasmus Orskov was on of the 3 finishers on day 1 with a 2.30 AAT; 188.8 km. in 2.34,17.
Ole [Arndt] and Henrik [Breidhal] the other 2 I know in this class were on spot 5 and 9.
On day 2  they got a racing task from 248.3 km. AND,….again Jan was the best and …again only 4 finishers. Henrik was IN, Ole and Rasmus were OUT.
Then 4 cancelled days.

Standard class,with 10 participants, started with a 2 hour AAT and Mogens [Hoelgaard] in the Discus 2 A was the daily winner; 207.7 km. in 2.01. Only 2 pilots did not finish.

On day 2 it was AGAIN Mogens who got the highest score over 288.3 km.;800 points. Only 3 pilots finished this time.
4 Days were cancelled.

15 meter, with 14 pilots and 2 of them I know, Ib Wienberg and Stig Oye. They started on day 1, with a 2 hour AAT as well and 8 finished, Ib and Stig on spot 2 and 3.
Day 2 was with 288.3 km, for some TOO much. Ib won the day, Stig was 2d and with them only 2 more pilots finished.
4 cancelled days.

18 meter, with 11 participants and a 2 hour AAT on day 1. 7 Finished but Arne [Boye Moeller] and Peter [Eriksen] missed out ,they had enough kilometers but did not make it home.The winner Ulrik Sorensen, had 200 km. in just under 2 hours.On day 2 they were in the right groove . Arne won the day  [292.9 km racing task] and got 1000 points, Peter was 4th.
4 scrubbed days.

2-seaters/20 m.,with 7 pilots, all with pretty difficult names. One ARCUS and the rest DUO DISCUS in all variations. They started with a 2 hour AAT and 4 pilots finished.
On day 2 nobody finished;292.9 km. was TOO long.
Then 4 scrubbed days.

———–

Some good news from Scandinavia. 
Notodden in Norway had special weather on May 14, sorry I missed that with all the comps. 2 Pilots flew just under [ in ASW 20] and just over[ in Discus BT] ,  800 km.!!!!
” My longest flight ever, both in time and distance!
Somewhat tricky conditions the first hours, but got better later in the day”, was what Arne Martin had to say about it.
AND.. as always also great pictures.

 

The summit of Gaustatoppen. As you can see a hiker was active as well.
But also an other glider pilot.see below!
Courtesy Arne Martin.

———-

The 40 thiest Polish Nationals in OPEN CLASS
Stalowa Wola.[May 15-May 24 ]

Polish skies over the forest, as shared on FB.

With so many good pilots, it is always interesting to follow the Polish Nationals. A ” bunch” of top-pilots , among them Sebastian [ASG 29/18m] , Janusz Centka [ ARCUS M] ,Adam Czeladzki [JS 1 C] and Tomasz Krok [ LAK 19/18m] as well as 2 Italian pilots,  Luca Monti in the LAK 17/18m and Lorenzo Monti in the LAK 19/18m. A total of 30 pilots.
They started on May 16 with a 3 hour AAT. Best distance combined with speed was  for Krzysztof Luniesky ; 437 km. in time 3.06, 40 ,so a speed of 140 km./h. in an ASG 29/18m. 1000 points for him !
Day 2 the pilots got a 2 hour AAT won by Sebastian ;300.4 km. in time 2.01,33 so a an even faster speed of 148.3 km./h. Not a 1000 points day , but 610; too short, too fast.
Day 3 had a racing task of 607.7 km. !!
An exciting long day , won by,………Sebastian with a speed of 111.6 km/h.!He and 4 other pilots , including Janusz and Adam, managed to finish. Some just did not make it; 590 km. The Italian pilots flew 472 km.
25 Out-landings!

In between , Sebastian has time to make pictures as well, here is one he shared on FB.

287.3 km. was the task for day 4 yesterday and most of the pilots finished. Nice speed as well 124.8 km./h. for the winner in the ASH 31MI/21 m. Christoph who moved after 4 days to spot 3 overall.
Sebastian was on a daily spot 4 and still is the overall leader.

Another 47 pilots fly parallel with the open class , for the CLUB A Nationals also from Stalowa Wola. Among them quite a few female pilots as Joanna Biedermann and  Judyta Czyz.
On day 3, they had 509.4 km.
Unfortunately NO finishers in this class, meaning 47 out-landings,  but 501 km. was still VERY  GOOD! [ASW 19b]; so 1000 well deserved points.
141.9 km. was the task for day 4.

Sebastian even shared one from the out-landing-spot from Judyta.

———

The ITALIAN 20 m. class nationals
VARESE [May 16-May 24]

Day 1 , [Sunday] after one practice day the comps started with a 316 racing task;  a prey for Luciano Avanzini.
1000 points for a speed of 85.1 km./h. in the ARCUS T. Runner up was Austrian pilot Peter Hartman in the DUO DISCUS T.
A total of  11 gliders in this National Competition , 6 x ARCUS [M or T]  3 variations of DUO DISCUS ,a  DG 505 M/20 m. and a JANUS C-FG and pilots as Aldo Cernezzi, Stefano Ghiorzo, Alberto Sironi and Gianni Spreafico, many times Italian TC.
Day 2, [Monday] gave the pilots their own choices; a 2 hour AAT. They all started around 1 PM , one pilot  45 minutes later. Peter who flies a lot in Italy knows the area very well and he flew 216.7 km.  in time 2.10. As daily winner he ” got” 670 points.
Day 3, showed a 1.30 AAT, the weather is pretty poor at the moment at most places in Europe.
But they flew in Varese, just for a few points but still,…..6 from 11 finished and the daily winner was Alberto [Sirone] ; 136 km. in time 1.32,35 for 250 points.
3 Days , 3 different daily winners.

———-

More good flights over the last couple of days. Last Sunday a 737 km. [600 FAI triangle]  in Holland from Midden Zeeland in an ASH 31/21m. by Nico Koster. Another top day in Holland the so maniest.
But now we suffer from the LOW as well and it looks today also,but  then it should get better according to the meteo on the morning news.
Also the Finnish mates had a great Sunday with flights up to 650 by Markku Kuusisto.
Yesterday Lesce Bled had a good day;720 km. in a DG 300.

———-

And to finish a nice picture from the SHARK

 HpH Sailplanes UK
With text;
“Shark Jet Sleeping…. Great shot by Jacub Nanowski”

An early departure to Amsterdam, so CU hopefully on Sunday with the latest on all those comps,
Cheers Ritz

 Great pictures from Willemijn again good she is there!

Last Thursday the BENELUX comps started at St. Hubert, just when the weather was superb in Holland.
The day before nearly 800 was flown again in Holland, in an ASW 22 BLE, , Sikko even hoped for a 1000 and was ready for it , but it was not “there” and young ones as the brothers Tim and Caspar Kuijpers flew for the first time 300 km.  far away from house during their 600 km. out and return in an LS 4. Good on them!!!

The international combination of Nationals is something which stimulates soaring  between the Belgium and Dutch pilots. Both have a few very strong ones and I don’t put any money on, who is going to win in each class.
They fly in 2 classes a mixed class with standard, 15 m.  and 20 m. and a combined 18m and open class.

MAY 15 Day 1 ;
with rain and fog the day started. Then 15 m. was cancelled but there was a window for the 18m/open class so 125 km. was set.
First start at 17.06, so at the end of the day. Most were back at around 7 to 7 .30 PM,……BUT,they flew.
Francois [Jeremiasse ] from Holland in the Ventus 2cxa FES, won with the highest daily score of 376 points. Followed by Jeroen [Verkuil] in the ANTARES 18 T and Maurits [Dortu] in the 18 m. ASG 29.
All 24 in this class finished!! So a pretty good day.

    

All ready for day 1.
Courtesy Willemijn.
open class daily winner Francois

Day 2 was cancelled!

Day 3 flying day 1/2;no tasks yet , only briefing, so more on Wednesday.

———-

Hahnweide continued:

Wednesday May 13 another flying day,…. EXCEPT for the 18 m. pilots. Their class was scrubbed.
Open class 264.8 km;
It was for the 2d time that Werner Meuser could call himself daily winner.Not fast just  88 km./h. as the weather was just not faster, but in the EB 28 EDITION, he won the 997 points.He was the only one under 3 hours but just; 2.59,29.
8 From 19 did not finish.
YY did , here he is ,as shared by the organizers, in this case Kathrin, who not only has a great eye for ART , she is the artist of the colorful paintings, cards etc from pilotessa.com, but also for photography.

Bruno in his gorgeous NIMETA. A series of 9 of this finish at
http://www.wolf-hirth.de/hww15/gallery/gallery.inc.php?mghash=83486bd2027f7baa195187003fab788d&mggal=13
Courtesy Kathrin

2-seater class 172.3 km;
A very tough day for ALL in this class. NOBODY finished, best distance 159.7 km. in the ARCUS and that is pretty good as the runner up had 133 km!!!!

15 m. class 193.9 km;
Just to show the outlanding the day before was a “mistake” , Phil put things straight this day, winning with a speed of 81.9 km./h.
Only 5 from 11 finished and unfortunately Stefanie was not one of them.She flew 160.8 km. but still leads the overall scores.

standard class 178.3 km;
It was Mac-day in Hahnweide. He won with 62.9 km./h whilst runner up Felipe flew with 53.6 km/h. Brother Enrique finished as well and that was about it as only 4 from 19 finished and Jan [Omsels] was last, how sad he only got 22 points, and he started the comps SO well.
Himmelhochjauzend, zum Tode betrubt, a bit as from heaven into hell.
In the total scores between the brothers there is a ONE_POINT_ difference.Jan is on 6 now.

Thursday May 14 another tricky day, with hopefully a window.
18 m. Was upfront at the grid and started, but it was not meant to be. You have to stay up to start with 121 gliders.
In the end the day was cancelled for all classes.In the evening they all had a BBQ  …..and cocktails.

Friday May 15, only 2 days to go!
After the BBQ  and cocktails, it was as I heard  for some a bit late [understatement] , but no worries it rained in the morning, so a sleep in was possible.
All good and well, they come to fly, so it was waiting for a briefing at 11 and hopefully soarable weather.
Another scrubbed day, so only 1 day to go.

The field on a day the weather was good!
courtesy Michi Berger.

Saturday May 15….day 8 ….flying day 4/5;Last day!!!!!
To show on the last day how good soaring at Hahnweide can be, the weather gods presented the pilots with good soarable conditions and the organizers turned that into nice long tasks. Finally a REAL day again.

open class 420.6 km;
A bit more than 50 points between the number 1 Jim/Wille, from Sweden and the number 2 Killian from France, before they start their last day.
11 From 19 finished; Jim finished on a daily spot 6 gaining 966 points. Killian was 5th with 965 points. So NOT enough to pass Jim. Pierre and Arnaud had 964 points, good enough for a final score on spot 4, just outside the medals as Markus Frank was 3d overall and for the day.
The NIMETA flew 274.6 km.

 Wille and Jim as seen by Kathrin.

2 seater class 376.9 km;
Only 20 points between the number 1 Martin/Nils and the number 2 Wolfgang/Andreas and 30 points with number 3. ALL is possible.
Only 2 from 29 finished !!!!!The  Fröschles in the ARCUS M and Wolfgang and Andreas in the ARCUS M.Both got 1000 points.
Martin/Nils were 36 km. out.
Overall scores now; 1.Wolfgang/Andreas  with 2902 points and 2 .Martin/Nils with 2782.
The  Fröschles plus Hilmar,  were 41 points behind on spot 3.

Andreas and Wolfgang as seen by Kathrin

18 m. class 429.3 km ;
first at the grid, nice long task, they will be happy.Russell has 2062 points topping the list and the next 3 , Markus from Sweden, Mario from Germany and Andy from the UK, are in the 1900 range.In this class 6 from 38 pilots finished !!!!
Russell flew 376.2 km.  whilst  Mario  flew  the full 429.3 km and faster than any other pilot; 113.1 km./h. HE is the well deserved new HAHNWEIDE CHAMPION in 18 m. class.
Several pilots were within 25 km. from the finish line.
Reinhard Schramme, still on spot 6 on day 3, was one of the finishers , 11 km. “slower” than Mario, but he climbed up to spot 3 overall, just 4 points behind Russell who finished on spot 2.
Pretty exciting all of this!

Mario as seen by Katrhin.

15 m. class 389 km;
52 points ahead for Stefanie,[ the only woman in the class, ]will she be able to keep it like that, or maybe improve?????
4 Of 11 finished in this class and SHE was one of them on spot 4!!!
One pilot missed out on 3 km!!!!
In the end Stefanie hold her first position just ahead of Phil Jones who finished as 2d today. He missed out on 32 points.
Good on Bernd Weber who was the 3d finisher and climbed up from 5 to 3 overall.

Stefanie as seen by Kathrin

Standard class 335.7 km;
The Levines differ 1 point in favor of Enrique,when they start their last day,  then there is a “hole” from 200 points……
4 from 21 finished!!!Among them Felipe but Enrique was out after 295.7 km. Also Mac flew 296 km.
So Felipe is the WINNER in this class, ahead of Enrique. Jan came all the way back from 6 to win the bronze. He finished as 2d today and got 999 points. Revenge, good on him!

And here pictures from all WINNERS!!! Thanks Kathrin for making and sharing them.
By the way, the fastest pilot with 140.6 km./h was from Sweden Markus Ganev .
He got from Pierre the wonderful prize.

Pierre and Markus.

Felipe and Enrique Levin and Joachim Koelle in standard class.

Stefanie ,Phil and Bernd in 15 m. class.

Mario, Russell and Markus in 18 m. class.

Jim /Wille , Killian and Markus [Frank] in open class.

Last but not least a “full bunch” in the 2 seater class;

Wolfgang an Andy, Nils and Martin and  Franz Gall / Hilmar Schill / Bernhard Fröschle / Reinhard Fröschle

———-

On a sad note; Tim Mc Grath , died in Tocumwal. Tim was one of the tuggies at the Sportavia Soaring Center in the past. Quite a few of you from the earlier years, might still remember him.Tim had a heart attack and was found dead at home.
Sad, very sad. R.I.P.
On a more happy note; Caught up with the Gilberts in Amsterdam.Tom and Jane from Temora in Australia, visited as last part of their 8 weeks  European trip …Amsterdam. We had lunch, bubbly bubbles , tea and some good talks with lots of memories.Today they fly out back home down under.
Tom and Jane are agents for DG and LS and AMS in Australia , run a work shop[ nowadays I heard together, with their son in law,] do repairs, sales as the DG 1001 Club to the Australian Airforce  for their Air Force cadets , [they did the registrations as all those gliders were shipped to them] and they have/sell spares.
They had the best weather, not only here but in several countries they visited.

 

With Jane ” at Loetje” , straight at one of the canals in Amsterdam.AND…the beautiful area of the red- light- district.
Pictures courtesy Tom.

See you on Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz

HAHNWEIDE .

Last Sunday,….
As shared by the organizers.

There was no day 1 for the open and 2 seater class last Saturday, but my goodness me, did they have nice flights last Sunday on their flying-day 1.
Mind you there are a few former WGC champions between all those 121 pilots at Hahnweide, as well as JWGC champions.STRONG field, a REAL competition.
May 10;
open class; task 515.1 km;
Killian in the JS 1 won the first 1000 points, with a speed of 119.8 km./h. ,…is n’t it the first step that counts??? I know how good he is. Let’s wait and see, they only just finished day 1 and there are 6 to go.
3 from 19 did not finish.By the way Killian was the JWGC champion in Rieti in 2007.
When you see YY, you know it is Bruno, already for years and years.He was 6th this day, in his fabulous TOY the NIMETA.
The Broquevilles [Pierre and Arnaud] finished on spot 3.Pierre has , also this year, a nice surprise ;
“Broqconsult Sprl (Aviation and Business Consultancy), the person behind is Pierre de Broqueville, again sponsors a special prize for the pilot who achieves the highest average speed. The prize involves a four day stay for two persons at Golf du Chateau de Pallanne. This is located in the Gascogne in the south of France. What to do there? You can either play Golf or even better… do Gliding. Pierre, who will be there as well, has a Nimbus 4DM on site. In the proximity of the Pyrenees, for sure an attractive starting point for beautiful flights. Last year even two pilots, Kilian Walbrou and Sylvain Gerbaud, won this prize.”

2 seater class ; 401.9 km;
I forgot to mention one of the toppers in this class; Wolfgang Janowitsch in the ARCUS M. I noticed that because he and young Andreas, WON the day with a speed of 110.3 km./h.!!! Good on them.1000 points!!!
15 from 28 finished , my Dutch friends got stuck after 228.7 km.
My Belgian friends in the DUO made it and were on spot 11.
The Prat’s flew 390.4 km. just a tad too short.

18 m.;task 457.4 km;
Mario[Kiessling ] is HOT, as he won 2 days in a row.Speed 112.2 km/h. Mario still seems SUPER MARIO!!!He won the JWGC in Musbach in 1997.
Russell was 2d and Boerje 5th.,  Andy on spot 8.
29 from 38 finished !7 from them flew over 400 km.
Some lost points by penalties [start height or start speed] as well.

15 m.; task 439.9 km;
on day 1 Phil [Jones] from the UK missed out one a daily prize on 2 points;Jurg Haas flew with a speed of 90.3 km./h.,  Phil [Ventus 2cxa,]  with 89.9
On this day 2 , he won and got 1000 points.
7 From 11 finished and Jurg [ASW 27] was one of the non-finishers with 427.2 km.

standard class; 399.3 km;
The young pilots, the Levine brothers Felipe [109.6 km./h.]and Enrique [ 109.5 km./h.] and Jan Omsels were the best on day 2 each in their Discus 2a.
The day before Jan was 3d , Felipe 6th and Enrique 9th .
Overall after 2 days Felipe leads  and just behind ex-aequo Enrique and Jan.
Only 2 from 21 did not finish.
Talking about champions,  Felipe was twice JWGC champion in Finland [2009]  and Germany.[2011]
Mac is back from Japan for his European season and I will catch up with him in Australia this year.He was on spot 5 yesterday and 11 today.

MAY 11;
Monday flying day 2/3. Briefing at 11.
It was all a bit slow that day, but reason was the not-so-good-looking-weather. All went to the field with A and B tasks.
First they cancelled the standard, 15 m and 18 m class .
The open and 2 -seater class both with already one day less had to wait,maybe a small window could let them fly,  but the lift was just not strong enough to let them go.
All classes CANCELLED.

Tuesday May 12;
day 2/3. A hot day with a forecast temperature of 31 dgr. C and the possibility of thunderstorms maybe with hail.By the way ,we here in Holland, had yesterday the first SUMMER day with 25 C. at the measure points De Bilt in the middle of Holland.
Some places in the SE had up to 28 dgr.

open class  323.2 km;15 from 20 finished. 2 EB 28 ‘s one by Swedish pilot Jim [Acketoft] and good old Werner [Meuser] topped the day list with 116 and 114 km./h.
Killian lost a few points , more than 150, so did the Broquevilles.Bruno just flew back after 30 km.
Jim leads the overall scores now after 2 days, Killian is about 80 points behind. Werner climbed from 12 to 10.

2-seater class 271.7 km ;a REAL battlefield in this class!!8 From 29 finished. 10 ARCUS T or M or “just” ARCUS in the top 10.
8 Pilots flew over 200 km. Wolfgang was in, Sigi was out but only just, though 50 km. might be in this case not just.
Wolfgang and Andreas are still on top after 2 days.

18 m. class  289.5 km; 38 pilots , 26 finishers. Russell and Andy both in the JS 1 started and finished about the same time and were 1 and 3. As they later said  to Kathrin, they followed a convergence line.
Speed 139 km./h. In between at 2, Swedish pilot Markus [Ganev] in the ASG 29 with 140.6 km./h. he had 9 penalty points otherwise HE would have been the winner.
Mario nearly made it home but after 275 km. it was over and out for him on day 3.
After 2 days on spot 1 , the overall score list is now topped by Russell, followed by Markus and Mario, Andy and Boerje.

15 m. class 232.2 km;What a day for some,….in this case NO not good ! Phil Jones was out after 23 km. But 7 from 12 finished, so that cost, only 33 points for him from the 525 for the daily winner,another UK pilot Timothy Scott.
After 3 days Stefanie Muhl tops the overall list, good on her!!Bernd Weber from Schempp-Hirth is runner up.

standard class 227 km: A very tricky day with gusting wind and more than half of the pilots did not finish.In thios class 16 from 20 are Discus types in all variations.Late start at 4 PM but 3 pilots managed to fly with a speed of 117 and 119.4 km./h.
Jan, Sebastian ,Felipe and Enrique and Mac all finished between spot 4 and 9.
After 3 days the overall score is Jan, Felipe with 2 points less and Enrique.

In the evening Schempp-Hirth  invited all for chili con carne, not bad!
As I heard they could look at the building thunderstorms.

———-

ARNBORG.

Same as at Hahnweide  ;a NON flying day on Saturday,…. but Sunday showed a 3 hour AAT. Weird was that only 2 pilots seem to have flown a “few” of those kilometers. They went just over the 100 km. mark and got 1000 points [Ojvind Frank] and 942 [good old Stig Oye!]Later Jan Hald was added and for the 45.2 km. he flew he got 416 points.
It looks like the rest did not bother.If so, a very expensive day.
The  2 days after were cancelled.

———–

Koningsdorfer Wettbewerb 2015.

Koningsdorf shows a lot of good flights on the OLC through the year. They started on May 9 with a competition in 3 classes. One for pilots who just start competition flying, one for those who have “tasted it” it already and one for the experienced pilots. In this class flies Mathias Schunk [Quintus M] a real kilometer eater and Benjamin [Bachmeier]with a mate in the ARCUS T.
12 gliders  and 15 pilots.
Mathias flew nearly 1500 km. from Koningsberg in April 2012 and several over 1000 km flights.
Day 1 was cancelled, but day 2 had a 3.30 AAT in which pilots could prove their experience.
Mathias flew 364.7 km. ,but the QUINTUS M has a handicap from 123, so he was 2d this day with a speed of 97.8 km./h.The day was won by Ecki Wehnert in an 18 m. Discus 2.
Last Monday  a 271.3 km. racing task was set. Mathias won with 130 km./h.
Benjamin and Michael were 2d.[114 km./h]
Yesterday 297.4 km. was set in this class and Mathias was 2d , Benjamin 3d.
For the 2d time Ecki won the day [on handicap] .

———-

 Grand Prix news.

Dear All,

We would like to kindly invite international pilots to sign-up for FAI Sailplane Grand Prix Żar 2015 in Poland held 20-27 June. This is the last qualification for the SGP World Final in Varese. Still 6 places are available.

 

We have received entries from 14 pilots, 7 pilots from abroad (Denmark, Germany, Russia) and 7 pilots from Poland. Interestingly, two of the participating pilots from Poland (Sebastian Kawa, Zdzisław Bednarczuk) already qualified for the finals at Frydlant/Czech Republic, so pilots competing in Poland will have an opportunity to fly with the best and still have a good chance to win qualification for the finals.

More details at the SGP website http://www.sgp.aero/poland2015.aspx?contestID=6452 and in the updated bulletin:http://sgpstorage.blob.core.windows.net/sgpmedia/979985/sgp-zar-2015-bulletin-1v2-6.05.2015.pdf

Deadline for entries is 15 May.

Regards, Marcin Prusaczyk  SGP Poland

So when you are interested ,qualified and always wanted to fly a QSGP, here is a chance for you

———-

I know they flew a 1000 in Japan in the past, but the flight from last Sunday , by Takeshi Saito , in the Discus BT, was an excellent one as well; a declared 750 FAI out and return.
It ‘ not easy to fly long distances as Japan is a big island with lot’s of sea breezes, but also most airfields are on river beddings, so not the best spots to start from.Congratulations!

Also last Sunday Giorgio [Galetto… Ventus 2cxa] had a nice mothers-day present for his Marina; a 1000 km. flown from Bolzano.
To the east of Bolzano you find Lesce Bled and there they flew 823 in an LS 8 and 730 in a St Cirrus.
613 ..a 500 FAI triangle in an LS 1d from Dobenreuth [SE of the Wasserkuppe] was not bad either.
From Holland , this time the S. [Venlo],  still just under and just over 500 km. flights in a Ventus 2 cm/18m. and a DUO DISCUS!
On Monday Keith Essex had a fun day again from Minden;
When you have not read it here is what he wrote about his 1000 km. flight on the OLC.
“I was expecting a marginal thermal day with low bases and broken thermals due to high winds from the south. It was just westerly enough to produce wave. Fell apart quickly at the end of the day. Fun flight but very, very cold!!!”
Nice speed in his ASH 31/21 m.  as well;156.60 km./h.

The fact is, that Brutus, [Peter] after visiting Hahnweide continued via Lesce Bled, so I can share a picture from there.
Courtesy Peter During.

———-

That’s it for now.Have to be very early in Amsterdam, so no more latest news for today. Try to be back on SUNDAY.

Cheers Ritz

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY !!!!

Today I start AND finish with overseas news !!!! Yes I know, the summer season here has not yet really started and after some great spring days we hope for more great weather here in Europe, but WHEN you plan, you have to do it in advance so here is the exciting , interesting and pretty HOT news I got from Ludwig first .

“We are glad to announce that together with the Bitterwasser-team we can offer ‘Flying with the Champions’ at the biggest and most traditional gliding site in Namibia. Additionally to the event in Kiripotib we will offer two courses in the first two weeks of November 2015, for four pilots each.

 Gliders available will be EB 28, Arcus M and the new ASG 32 from Schleicher, we are quite excited about that!

There will be some new faces among the champions, for sure Arndt Hovestadt, Holger Back and Reinhard Schramme from Germany, Brad Edwards from Australia and Phil Jones from Great Britain. With some others, we are still negotiating.

In the meantime, our event became so popular that capacities in Kiripotib are at their limits. Therefore, we appreciate the cooperation with Bitterwasser to give even more interested glider pilots a chance to participate in this worldwide unique training event. The top quality we can offer – thanks to our champions – has made the rounds!

From now on you have the choice to book our courses in Bitterwasser as well, find more details on our homepage

http://www.rent-a-glider.com/view/p-1485/Flying-with-the-Champs/

or on the Bitterwasser-link:

http://www.bitterwasser.com/

———-

At more and more competitions, STAR photographers appear. Also at the QSGP; Jan Smekal!!!!!

Shared by the organizers on FB.

The QSGP in Czech Rep.

April 6..Flying day 4 ,take 1; On day 2 young Martin Piskacek got the honors at the prize giving for his spot 3. Unfortunately on day 3 he out-landed . The organizers shared some pictures.Beautiful BIG field.

  

After the briefing at 12, the meteo was optimistic;there would be a window!In the end it was task B for barbeque. the day was cancelled.

April 7 …Flying day 4,  take 2; Already day 6 and 2 scrubbed days. If they have the weather, we had here, I do understand that soaring is not possible.
In Holland on May 6 even 2  girls , ONLY 20 YEARS OLD, were killed by lightning. They were walking in a park and from nothing it started to rain, they rushed to a tree, there were many of them and just this tree was hit by lightning. This bad weather comes in a flash. Short  and snappy.
In the N of Germany a tornado ruined part of a small town on May 5.
Just to show you a bit of the European weather last week.
But back to soaring.
After the cold front had passed flying day 4 started with a 350 km. task!!!!
7 Pilots managed to fly this distance . Best was ,…it’s getting boring, Sebastian with 104 km./h. But he  is ” SIMPLY THE BEST.”
8 Points for him. A few just made it, getting some penalty seconds for a too low finish height.
Petr [Panek] was 2d, this is also the overall scoring list;Sebastian 32 and Petr 26.
Some spotters make great pictures as well, look at this one shared on the FB from the organizers by Mr.SALADYGA.

April 8…Flying day 5. Better weather was forecasted AND a 4th tug was added o the fleet. Briefing was at 12 and a task of 245.7 km. was set.Regatta start at 2 PM.
It turned out a real racing day, as Sebastian got his 10 points for a speed of 127.8 km./h.
The runner up with 8 points, Luka, got 8 points for his speed of 112.6 km./h.
In their comment the organizers thought of PR as well.
“ After the start over the airfield at 1500m AMSL, the pilots had to round the “beloved” turn point, Lysa Hora, below 1500m for the benefit of the spectators expected to be present on top of this mountain, the day being a national holiday as well as to be filmed by the organisation’s cameramen.”

With 42 points Sebastian is already the Frydland-QSPG -champion in Czech Rep.
Runners up are both Petr [Panek] and Luka with 28 points ,..who is going to keep that spot on the last day????
And Sebastian could help his Polish mate Zdislaw, on spot 4 with 27 points,  a bit higher up.
By the way,….Next QSGP will be in Zar [June 20-28] in Poland, home place from Sebastian, so,……He and his mate do NOT have to qualify anymore,….

One of the 4 Tugs as seen by SPOTTER Mr. Saladyga.

April 9 last day; number 6.
The briefing was set for 12 for this FINAL RACE. Tricky weather they said, but there would be a last short race,
118 km. was set ,when the sniffer found up to 1 m./s lift with a cloud base of 1200 AMSL.
At 14.50 the last regatta start from this QSGP.
ONLY 2 pilots finished Sebastian,…and,…..Zdislaw who got the 4 points, Sebastian who did n’t need points got 1.All in all Zdislaw was 2d with 32 points.So both go to the final in VARESE.

I don’t think Sebastian ever flew with a speed of 37.6 km./h. A great , never-giving-up QSGP champion with 43 points. Now on his way to win Zar, Varese,…the world.

Sebastian , with dad and daughter, seems to say “What can I say,…it ‘s really not that difficult”
As shared by the organizers .Courtesy David Dorda who made 247 great pictures on the last day.
https://www.facebook.com/david.dorda/media_set?set=a.10203046584200456.1073741827.1680885458&type=1

———-

KLIX 2015.

When I left you they were about to announce what was going to happen on Wednesday.With 4 days to go EVERYTHING was still possible.
Wednesday started with a later briefing at 11.
Overcast, without hope. Day was cancelled.

Flying day 5;sunny but still a pretty strong wind, gridding BEFORE briefing.So all had to get back in their rhythm again.
Tasks were set; AAT’s , from 3 , 3.15, 3.30 up to 4 hours mainly because of the difficult weather, [wind and showers] But faster than expected high clouds covered the field and club and 15 m. class were cancelled before the start.
A tough day for the others.
In the end it was a valid day for 18 m./open and for the 2-seaters. Unfortunately not for the Standard class pilots.
Great to see that Frouwke and her husband Ferdi [Kuijpers] won the day in the Duo Discus XL  , but they nicely took 981 points to their tent.They flew the 345 km. with a speed of 89.07 km./h. They moved to spot 4 overall.
I told you about the Belgian family , THEY,  the Kuijpers,  are a Dutch soaring family; Frouwke flies and is very much involved in gliding activities and one of our Dutch IGC delegates, Ferdi flew nationals and international competitions , Tim was junior world champion and Maaike and Caspar both fly as well.
The Dutch had in both classes a good day , as Hadriaan in his 18 m. DG 808 was 2d in 18 m./open gaining 999 points.They had a 3.30 AAT and he flew 403 km. in 3.50.[105.21 km./h]  The winner 422.8 km. in 4.02,58[104.45km./h] After 4 days Hadriaan tops the overall list.

  

Frouwke and Ferdi, daily winners, as shared on FB.AND Ferdi..with Steven and Marion

Flying day 6 started with sun, less wind but this time middle high clouds “rolled”  in.
Racing tasks between 295 and 355 were set.
A day with out landings , but also “6 m./s lift” , so some had a good ,…..some had a bad day.

294.90 km. for club class and 1000 points for Rolf [Engelhardt] in the LS 1f.
354.75 km. for standard and the Belgian boys did not disappoint me , this time they were 1 [Dennis] , 2 [Jef] ,3 [ Wim ] and 9 .[Tim]
Wim has a total of 4445 and Dennis 4408,….what will happen on the last day?????? Flying together or against each other,….I think I know.
354.75 as well for 15 m. class and the good old LS 6 did well; Dutch pilot Ronald flew around with a speed of 106,64 , whilst the runner up Tobias [Barth] 101,92 in the Mosquito.Ronald , a junior from the Delft Student Areo club, won the day!!
Not even 100 points difference between number 1 and number 2 so all is possible here. Tobias is now on spot 2 behind Sebastiaan Maas.
308.30 km. for open/18 m. and the low countries are doing well as Dutch pilot Hadriaan won the 1000 points. [speed 124.84] Overall he has 4556 points so nearly 300 points ahead of the runner up, for the last day.
316.61 km for the 2-seaters and NO this time no Dutch or Belgian pilots , but German in the DG 1000/20m
The ASG 32 MI has 4547 points and the runner up in the Duo Discus 4261. It looks easy but it still has to be flown…tomorrow.

   

Dutch daily winners Hadriaan and Ronald. Lot’s of calendars [ read daily prizes]  go to Holland.
As shared by Frouwke.

With Steven handing over a calendar to Robert.

BUT,….there was NO tomorrow! At least not for soaring in Klix. Already in the evening before they mentioned that ” maybe the champions would be already sure”.In the morning from Saturday they had rain, then for a short while a sunny window and then it would be rain/hail/thunderstorm etc, so no day to fly.

So yesterdays overall winners are still the best. A pity for those who wanted to excel on the last day and gain those points to be just a step better. BUT,….of course you can loose as well.
Here are the final results .

Club class; Rolf Engelhardt in the LS 1f with 4122 points. Runner up, Helge Liebertz , same glider , but with winglets ; 4095.
Standard class; Wim Akkermans from Belgium in the LS 8 with 4448 points just before his brother in law Dennis Huybreckx also in LS 8 with 4408 points.
15 m.; Sebastian Maas in the DG 800/15 m. with 4285 points just ahead of Tobias Berth in the Mosquito [4191] and ahead of Dutch pilot Steven Raimond who won 3 days but out-landed on day 4.[4159]
18 m./open; Hadriaan van Nes , one of our top pilots in his DG 800/18 m. with 4556 points. Runner up in an 18m. LS 6 Herbert Horbrugger with  4278 and Peer Konitzer in the Discus 2c/18 m. 4197 and with 20 points less Robert Werts from Holland in the Nimbus 3.
2 seater class ;Leucker/Anklam with 4546 points in the ASH32 MI, followed by 2 German Duo Discus’ with 4261 and 4088 points.

NICE comps !!!!!! And ….they were happy as well; all Huybreckx grand- children, as said before , the NEW generation. Partying and prize giving in the evening for all at 8.

———-

The Polish 15 m. Nationals.
Rudniki-Częstochowa

These Nationals were between May 2 and 10 and count 13 participants. Parallel were some regional comps from this field.Quite a strong “fight” in the top as 4 competitors were close to each other on the last day.
Thomasz Krok in the LAK 19 had after 4 days 3879 points. Lucasz Blaszczyk flying a DISCUS 2A, had 3745 points and just behind, Leszek Staryszak in the LAK 19T, had 5 points less.

They got a 1.45 AAT on day 5 and 500 points were ready for the daily winner. Leszek was 3d, Thomasz 5th and Lucasz 9th and though there were not a lot of points to earn , the number 1 held his spot ,Lucasz and Leszek swapped places.
Thomas Rubaj in the DUO DISCUS won 2 days, but finished on spot 4 overall.

———-

LX Cup 2015 in Hungary
Szatymaz May 2-10

43 Participants in one big mixed class, between EB 28 and LS 3 . Only 4 days of flying and they were all won by Bostjan Pristavec in his EB 28.[handicap 126]
No rain, but tricky conditions in Hungary like in many European countries.
Gyorgi Gulyas flew as well, but could not make this time the difference. He finished on spot 12 overall in a Janus C FG.
Laszlo Halasz in the JS 1 won the last day and moved to spot 2 in the total scores.
They had not one 1000 point-day, but a great atmosphere as I read and that’s important too.
Bostjan was ” only” 4th on the last day but no worries, he was the new winner of the LX CUP.[3061 points]

———-

FATRAGLIDE 2015
Martin Airfield Slovakia

26 Participants in 2 classes. After a few cancelled days they started with a BANG, as on the first flying day, 508 km was set in combi and flown by one pilot Lubor Kuvik;1000 points. 7 Pilots flew between 196 and 423 km.
Club had 350 and also in this class ONE finisher in an ASW 15 B. 1000 points for Zsolt Siket and 16 pilots flew between 4.2 and 269 km.
The next day they had 2.30 AAT’s in both classes and most pilots flew the task.

Yesterday was flying day 3 and the last one.
” In between warm and cold fronts we will try to make one small task. This evening is party and prize giving ceremony.”
Last year,  after the comps one competitor , who was part as a competitor of Fatraglide for 15 years, died in a car accident. Tragic!
” At to days briefing we paid tribute to late Roman Kříž – our friend who died last year after fatraglide competition in car accident. Roman family very generously donated money for all todays competitors for towing fees. We as well agreed to prepare Roman Kříž trophy for next years to keep his legacy among our gliding community. We would like to thank Roman’s family very much, we appreciate that a lot.”

So on donated towing fees the pilots went with mixed feelings, I guess, but determined to honor their mate, for 1.45 AAT’s. It was not meant to be for all, yes they were launched but over development spoiled the day and most club class had to land again.One pilot, Szolt,  fought HARD for zero points.He was the winner anyhow.[1856 points after 2 days]
In the mixed/combi class ONE pilot flew 149.2 km. in  just over 2 hours and got 172 points, Lubor did not finish , he was forced to use his engine on final glide,  due to rain, but flew 131.7 km.[130 points] It turned out a valid day for them! Lubor  was the overall winner![1929 points after 3 days]
At least there was the famous goulash in the evening. Not bad.

The weather on the last day, as shared by the organizers.

———-

THE 49th HAHNWEIDE 2015

A Dutch arrival at the Hahnweide; Jeppe [de Boer], Rob [Looisen] and Francis [van Haaff] All 3 KLM pilots, flying the Duo Discus XT. They fly in the 2 seater class  class with 28 other teams.

Registration was on Friday between 4 and 8 PM and they just started yesterday with day 1.
5 Classes 121 gliders;
Standard class with 22, among them toppers as the Levin brothers , Sebastian Naegel, Mac Ichikawa from Japan , Eduard Inaebnit and a friend from Italy, Manuele Molinari.
15 m. with 12, and among them Phil Jones and Bernd Weber.
18m. with 38  among them TOPPERS as Andy Davis, Reinhard Schramme, Russell Cheetham, Mario Kiessling  Werner Amann and Boerje Eriksson.
open with 20 , toppers here as well as Killian Walbrou , Werner Meuser ,Sylvain Gerbaud, the THE Broquevilles and Bruno Gantenbrink in the Nimeta and as said
29 in the 2-seater-class with Sigi Baumgartl, Holger Karow together with Uli Schwenk, Robert and Helene Pratt and my Dutch friends.

Day 1; Windy , but afternoon flying was possible. That is,…NOT for the open class and the 2 seaters.
At 14.30 launching started for 3 classes;st. class with 172 km., 15 m. with 187 km. and 18 m. with 203 km.
You can find pictures of the 3 best in each class on the site.
More next Wednesday and in between Katrin , who is a female-top-glider-pilot-herself, keeps you informed with all the latest at ;
http://wettbewerb.wolf-hirth.de/

   

Nice clouds on day 1 for the classes who could fly, but as you can see a tough wind with pretty strong gusts.
As shared by the organizers.

TODAY; Big distances, great weather. 515 for open class, who is up front at the grid. 401.9 for the 2 seaters, 457 for 18 m. class,439.9 km. for 15 m. ,399.3 for standard class.

———–

The FOR-DM 2015 in Denmark started with a cancelled day , yesterday but there are still a few days to come , I guess , with better weather, as Denmark and Holland are not that far away.45 Pilots in one mixed class,[from St Libelle to ARCUS T]  with Peter Eriksen , Arne Boye Muller, Henrik Breidhal, Rasmus Orskov and some more to me well known names as, Ole Arndt and Ib Wienberg. More on Wednesday.

———–

In the latest GLIDING INTERNATIONAL you find news about the new VENTUS III [Schempp-Hirth press release] , about how to soar the Himalayas, about the GLOW… the birth of a new era , an evaluation by Aldo from the STEMME S6, but also about drone-rules , solution to battery storage and the story from the Solar Implse and much more as the May-June issue counts 64 pages.Enjoy!

———-

And LAST BUT NOT LEAST:
For those who are interested to have some Australian practice before going to the the JWGC this Club and Sports National Championship  might be a great opportunity.

Place – LAKE KEEPIT SOARING CLUB

Date – Monday 9th to Friday 20th of November 2015 at Lake Keepit Soaring Club.

Entry fee – $400 per aircraft, plus $50 per additional pilot, less $50 discount if paid before August 1st.

Entries – Maximum 60 entrants will be accepted with maximum 40 in one class. Up to the cutoff date of 31st July, entries will allocated to paid applicants on the basis of IGC ranking of the pilots. Up to the cutoff date 5 places will be reserved for International pilots, allocated by pilot ranking. After the cutoff date, any places not filled by the above process will be filled in the order that valid entry applications are received and paid for.

 http://www.keepitsoaring.com/LKSC/index.php/club-sports-nats-2015/nats-entry-form

Of course in 2017 the WGC is in Benalla  between January 8 and 21 and some news from the OSTIV;
” The OSTIV president, Rolf Radespiel has advised that the OSTIV board has agreed to hold their next congress alongside the Benalla world comps. Benalla has excellent facilities to host such an event.”

———–

Enough! Cu on Wednesday again and,..next Thursday the OPEN BENELUX comps start at St. Hubert.So more Belgian and Dutch soaring-power!
Cheers Ritz

As shared on FB
http://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2015/05/04/13-iconic-dutch-liberation-photos/

MAY 4-5-6 2015 .

We celebrated our freedom yesterday [MAY 5 1945 so 70 years] with Celebration-day with lot’s of music festivals and unfortunately not the best weather.A pretty wild thunderstorm moved from the SW to the NE . It arrived in a flash [was announced on TV] and for a few minutes it was really spooky, also here.A lot of events were cancelled , but straight after the 15 minutes of heavy rain and storm gusts up to 90 km. it was over and the sun started to shine but a wind with 7 bft. stayed.
It was very inspiring to see several 90 year old Canadians who fought here during the war in a parade, mostly sitting in vintage military vehicles and a lot of Canadian students, who came here to be part of history and to keep that history  for the future.
Also the Canadian premier Stephen Harper was in Holland at several festivities on both May 4 and 5.

Last Monday we thought of all those who lost their lives during that TERRIBLE WW2 or fought for our freedom  70 years ago, but also later during peace missions overseas, as in Irak ,Bosnia or Afghanistan.
At the National Monument on the DAM in Amsterdam, more than 20.000 people gathered and at 8 they were ALL silent for 2 minutes, as all who could do so , in the rest of Holland. Pretty impressive!!!!
Today life continues. It’s I guess special, for most of us who have been born just after  WW2. It means we know freedom and how many do NOT.Just something to EXTRA think of on days like these.
It’s also 70 years ago that Anne Frank died in Bergen Belsen, she is still a symbol for all what should have NEVER happened.
Young and old, WORLDWIDE,  have read her diary [ translated in 70 languages!!!] and about 1.2 million people still visit every year the ” ACHTERHUIS”  in Amsterdam.

———-

Looking at our sport. May  started PERFECT; May 1 was a good one,….and a day off for many in Europe .
Just under 850 in an ARCUS and in an LS 8 from Grosses Moor in Germany,[ one day later 1000 km.!!! in an ARCUS T] ]  over 500, AGAIN from places in Holland and nearly 600 from Locktow in a St Cirrus.
On May 2 Terlet, the Dutch National Gliding Center and “home” for the Gelderse , hosted the Gelderse one-day-competition and 33 decided to go and fly there as the weather was “pretty ”  good.
240 km. was set for the 10 club class participants , 13 pilots in the combi class got 340.6 km. and 508.2 km. for the 10 open class pilots.

Great pictures [74] by Willemijn de Lange.
Shared by ZWEEFPORTAAL on FB
 https://www.facebook.com/Zweefportaal

In club, Frank Hiemstra was the fastest with 95 km./h. in the St Cirrus. Runner up in an ASK 21 from the Gelderse; Thys Bastiaanse and Robin Smit . Robin will travel in the end of this year to Narromine .
In the combi/mixed class , former junior world champion Tim Kuijpers with Wout Sliedrecht in the DG 505/20 m. showed that despite the lack of soaring-time due to his his career as an airline pilot , Tim still belongs to the best;99.9 km./h.
In open class 5 from 10 finished the 508 km. task. Maurits Dortu in his ASG 29 flew with a speed of 115.6 km./h and the runner up Max Leenders / Jan Willem van Doorn, with 105.1 km./h. in the Nimbus 4DM.

Happy chappies ,Thys and Robin.
As shared on FB by them.

THE WINNERS;

  

Mourits in open class and Tim and Wout in the combi class !

And Frank in club class.
All fabulous pictures from Willemijn de Lange![With her permission]

Beautiful sunset, after another TOP event at one of the most fabulous places in Holland; TERLET.
Her site ” , under construction ” at the moment;
www.willemijndelange.nl

Other pilots enjoyed, no LOVED another Dutch TOP day!!!May 2 a day to remember.In fact you don’t have to go anymore to Africa or Australia to fly your 1000!!!You can do it here in Holland!!!!
Not that it is a fait accompli, as in Africa or Australia, but you CAN!!!

On May 2 , our young new ASG 29 e/18m. owners , Alfred Paul and Mark, tried their gliders out again and,…they flew 1.071 km. They needed the engine to come home on the last kilometers , but who cares. They knew that already on track ,as they could see the high clouds coming in from the SW and these would cut them off from any more good thermal activity in the end.
It’s not often that pilots fly a 1000 from Holland, so it even was on TV in the evening!!!
By the way these were the first 1000 km. flights from Soesterberg. In the beginning and at 400 km. OUT, they had a speed of 145 km./h. but they finished with 118 km./h.
AND,…Sikko [Ventus bt/17.6 m] flew ,also from Soesterberg, a 800 declared FAI triangle!!!!! WHATADAY!!!!

More great flights and sorry when I am so enthusiast but it is pretty special all those nice long flights;
632 in a ST Cirrus by one of our junior pilots, Nick Hanenburg,  participating in the JWGC in Narromine this year as well. His longest flight till now!!Good on him!!!
706 in a Duo Discus the very first over 700 km. flight from Veendam, 620 in a PIK 20 b etc…etc.

———-

Gauteng Regionals from Orient in South Africa.

The Gauteng Regionals continued from Orient and when I left you they started their 4th day last Wednesday.
Tasks were 1.30 AAT’s, just to see what was possible.
In 15 m. 3 ASW 27’s arrived at the same time with Wayne[Schmidt] just a tad faster;137.7 km./h. for 137.5 and 137.3. They started at 2.o2 , raced together and finished about the same time.
Day 5 showed a small task as well;182.5 km.Wayne….yes won again. When he would not have had 20 penalty points on day 1, he would have won EVERY day, till now.
Day 6 was for Mark Holiday, Wayne was 2d and 149 points were his. Some did not fly, some out-landed and 3 flew the 145.4 set km.
After 6 days a clear regional champion. Wayne Schmidt.[2344]

In open class day 4 had a 2 hour AAT. Distances around 300, just over and under, were flown. Winner of the day Martin [Lessle] in his 17.6 m Ventus CM. Best speed of the day 140.7 km./h. by Pieter Nouwens in the JS 1.
Day 5 ;250.3 km. AND Martin did it again!!!!A pity he out-landed on day 1.
Day 6 ;145.4 km….do you know what happens when you fly 145.4 km with a speed of 144.7 km.h.?????
You get 202 points!!!!!
That happened to Oscar! Of course he was the new regional champion!!![3653]

———

Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in the Czech Rep.

I liked their welcome words written by Miroslav [Valek] :
” We live for gliding and gliding is part of our life. It is not a cliché, it is just like that. We wish to all competitors to spent relaxed and enjoyable time in Frydlant, in the beautiful corner of the Czech Republic and at one of the nicest airfield of this region. Man must come and see it to be able to understand what we are talking about. Man must come and fly over the Beskydy mountains to feel the beauty we are enjoying every flight.

Come and glide.”

BIG organization before it all starts at Frydland. Building up by the volunteers , checking out the radio by Mr. Grand Prix himself, Roland,..it’s all part of this event.

Not a lot of pilots flew during the practice day’s but the set 154 km. on Wednesday, was flown by 3 and Thursday’s 216 km.- task as well.The rain spoiled Friday as a practice day. But the scrutineering that day, was in full swing , so was the preparation for the opening at 6 PM and the rock concert after.

  

The LAK 17 bfes.
Pictures shared by the organizers.

In the evening  All pilots ” raised in rang”.Why,….how???????
” Yesterday we had a great opening ceremony. All the pilots became citizen of the Wallachian Kingdom. After having one shot of slivovic they got a brand new passport with all possible visas. After that we had a nice party under the big tent.”

Sebastian and Petr [Krejcirik] during the ceremony ,as well as Roland;Shall I or shall I not!
I had to smile to see their faces!

Good luck and save flying for ALL QGPS participants.
Pictures shared by the organizers.

Day 1;After rain over night and a foggy morning the 13 pilots [4 from Poland , 1 from Slovenia, the rest from Czech Rep] went to briefing at 10 and knew already that there would be a task for them.
There were even 2, one from 223. km [A task]  and one from 114,… depending on the weather.
A second briefing started at 1  and as the forecast was for a  rapid improving cloud base  AND  good thermal activity in the afternoon, they went for task A.
But,they could not start straight away, as it all went a bit slower than hoped for, so it turned out to be task B;114 km.
At 4 PM however the regatta start !!!! And 2 Polish pilots got the 10 and 8 points for the day. 10 for Zdislaw and 8 for Sebastian.Both flew with a speed of 92.3 and 92.2 km./h. Petr Panek was on spot 3.

Day 2; 212 km.

Day- 2-start from Lysa hora.
As shared by the organizers.

The start was at 12.20 with sunny conditions but with the remark that later in the day high cloud cover was to be expected.After what they called “an excellent race”  ,it was Sebastian who got the 10 points. For some it was a difficult day as they finished more than an hour behind Sebastian. 10 Made it back home!
Martin Piskacek,a young Czech pilot was 3d and so to read he is very talented!!!
As they said in their daily report; ”  Racing in these conditions requires a lot of intelligent decision making from the pilots and there is no doubt that experience is a significant advantage.”

 Great picture from the finish by one of the participants as seen by

www.jansmekal.cz

and the daily winners.

With Sebastian in the middle, Martin to the right and Luka to the left.

Day 3 ;was  a difficult decision! After the rain they hoped for,  and expected a small window, maybe even with wave. To be sure, they had a new briefing at 12.
” Meteoman Johnny Horac is optimistic. The first launch is expected at 14:00. Task distance is 119 km. The task has two turning points Policna and Cesky Tesin.”
They were airborne, but it was not meant to be. Rain arrived most had to land back and the day was cancelled.

Roland in action as CD.
As shared by the organizers.

The new Day 3; started with the message from the organizers ” 2nd briefing at 12:00. Sniffer landed shortly after he had been released. He reported only one lift but very turbulent. The wind is strong.”
In the end they squeezed out a rather nice day with the start at 14.10 and with 7 finishers within the minute and as winner Petr [ Krejcirik with 9 points  runner up Petr, [ Panek with 7 ] and Sebastian with 6 points.
8 Pilots finished.

———–

Italian club class Nationals .

Day 2 last  Saturday had a 252 km. set task, but none of the pilots manged to fly it. Some did better than the others as the best distance was 206.9 km. in a H301. The pilots on spot 1 to 3 overall last weekend ,Stefano, Alberto and Davide had a less good day, though Davide managed to fly 136 km.whilst Stefano and Alberto both in the Silent Targa flew 107 and 56 km. That changed the overall scores quite a bit, and as the last day Sunday was cancelled it was an invalid championship with 2 days and with winners no champions; Stefano just hold his first spot, [1189] Davide [1133]moved to 2 and Alberto to 4.[1077] On spot 3 Ugo Pavesi[1113].

————

KLIX 2015 with 127 gliders in 5 classes.

On day 1 ;4 out landings and all others finished.Racing tasks up to 320 km. were set.My Belgian friends Tim Huybreckx] , Jef [ Kell, maried to Gitte Huybreckx] , Wim[Akkermans, married to Sofie Huybreckx]  and Dennis [Huybreckx]  so one big flying family flew together to spot 7-8-9 and 12 in St class.
2 Dutch pilots topped day 1 in 15 m. Steven who already won Klix once and Ronald [Deerenberg in LS 6]
A Danish pilot topped the open class in a Discus 2C / 18m.

Gitte and Jef as shared by the organizers in their gallery
http://aeroteam.de/index.php?whl=20010300&lg=de

  

cousins Dennis and Tim

 Wim and Sofie AND uncle Marc [Huybreckx, father from Tim and Gitte] [via FB]
I do know the Huybreckx family as well as the Schmelzer family already for more than 40 years, both LOVELY families.

Day 2 ;was another good day with a base between 1200 and 1600 m MSL. Over 500 km. for the racing class and 2 seaters. It was good for some just a bit too long for others . 11 Out landings mostly because the air in Poland was n’t too good.
The 2 seater class was won by an ASH 32 MI with a speed of 111.49 km./h. over 515.3 km.
In racing class they had 511.4 km and AGAIN Steven [ASW 27] was the best, it was however a bit TOO much for the LS 6 .Ronald out landed after 424 km. Not bad!!
481 km. for st. class and “the family ” did pretty well though Tim out landed after 365 km from the set 481.7 km.Wim and Dennis landed on spot 1 as a family TOGETHER, both 1000 points. Jeff was at spot 7.

Steven as daily winner 3 x in a row.

Day 3 ;hot air was arriving but hope for a small window for 15 m, standard and club .18 m. and 2 seater pilots had the day off.It worked out well it was already day 4 for these classes.
800 points for the winner in the Club class, Joshua [Arntz]  flying a Hornet.[2.30 AAT]
1000 points for German pilot Peter [Pollack] in the Discus in St class. Dennis and Wim on 4 and 5, Tim on 9 and Jeff on 19.[3 hour AAT]
No “brakes” on Steven, he won day 3 and was the only one flying in this class over 100 km./h. over 321 km during a 3 hour AAT.

Day 4;started with nice CU’s and the 17 tuggies had the 127 gliders high up in the air ,in 90 minutes. Pretty good!!! All went for task A …..17 did not finish.
It was a Belgium day in St. Class!!! AGAIN 2 of them got 1000 points ;Wim and Dennis and to keep it in the family spot 3 and 4 were for Tim and Jef. After 4 days Wim and Dennis top the overall scores with more than 100 points.
Helge Liebertz won the day in club class in the LS 1f with winglets and tops the overall scores now, but it is not over yet as Joshua and Rolf [Engelhardt]  are close behind him with less than 45 points.
For Steven in 15 m. it was a bad day after the 3 daily wins. He flew the best distance 328 km. during the 3.30 AAT, but did not finish and that does n’t help with points; only 471 on a 1000 points-day.He dropped to spot 3 with about 150 points behind the number 1.

The Belgium future looks BRIGHT as a new generation of Huybreckx pilots is already at the comps now.

 

Anna and Leon from Gitte and Jeff with uncle Tim

  

The twins from Tim with grand dad Marc.And the daughter from Sofie and Wim here with Jef.
Can you still follow me???
By the way Jeroen [Jennen] belongs to the family as well as son from Chrisje Huybreckx and Rudy Jennen.Jeroen will be in Narromine for the JWGC.
As shared on FB and because they are kids,…with permission.

Day 5;started with rain and was after briefing cancelled.

————

On May 4 Finland was blessed with top-weather; 712 from Hyvinkaa [DG 808 b/18 m]  and 660 km. for Martti during his first flight of the season in his ASG 29 from good old Rayskala.[121 km./h.]
Also Japan had some very good soaring days with flights up to 440 km.
From La Cerdanya in Spain Klaus Ohlmann flew up and down the Pyrenees direction West in the Stemme; 1.390 km.

———-

It’ already May again. Time flies!
April 2015 was here in Holland on spot 5 with sun-hours; 240 and 178 is about normal.
It was however, NOT warm,an average of 8.9 dgr,C. and 9.2 would be normal.
CU back next Sunday, so much news [Frataglide,Hahnweide, last days at Klix , last days from the QSGP] otherwise blogs get TOO long.

Cheers Ritz