Back on track after a lovely sunny holiday at the beach with my 5 high-school friends,  just on the border of Holland and Belgium.

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The FAI Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in Poland started last Saturday at Zar, with a difficult 130.61 km. day.
9 Pilots , 1 from Denmark [Rasmus Orskov] and Germany [Rolf Gerzmann]  , 5 from Poland , among them Sebastian and 2 from the Czech Rep.[Petr Krejcirik and Petr Panek] , try to qualify for Varese.
When you have read the book from Sebastian, SKY FULL OF HEAT, you know all about ZAR
Day 1 had as best result 84 km. by Rasmus, not enough to make it a day.
Day 2, had another small task, just over 100 km., they tried HARD, BUT……
—” No flying today. First briefing took place at 10:00, second at 13:15. During the second meeting some rain appeared. Next briefing was scheduled at 15:00. Then the task was cancelled.” —

No flying on day 2 .
As shared by the SGP site.

On day 3 138 km. was set, many tried hard again, but it was n’t meant to be, so no valid day.
No task set yet for today!

Sebastian had time to upload some pictures. Here one of his out-landings as shared by him on FB.

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The German Nationals flown from Zwickau, this time for club-pilots and 2-seaters, started on June 15 with a practice day and are still in progress till the 27th.
Not the best weather there either, though day 1 was a 1000 points day for the 43 club class pilots.
321 km. was set and only one pilot out-landed just:292 km.Several toppers in this class as former Junior World champion Cristophe Nacke.
The 2 seater pilots flew on this good day as well, got points but the day was “neutralisiert” ! According to the rules everyone had to be weighed before and that had not happened. After the protest….. ZERO points in this class a pity!

day 2 had a pretty long task for the clubbies; 404.9 km. and Stefan Delfs in the St. Libelle , who won day 1, could add another 988 points to his overall scores for winning this day as well.
423 km for the 2 seaters was flown by 31 from the 32 pilots; 325 km.
Casten Freier in the ARCUS T won the day.

Then 4 cancelled days in club class and 3 for the 2-seaters, but,..they flew last Sunday again, their 2d day.This 2 hour AAT was won by Serena Triebel in the ASG 32 MI. Runner up was Angelika Mayr in the ARCUS M, so the ladies are doing well.
Well known team captain from the German teams, Uli Gmelin was 3d in an ARCUS M.
A total of 23 ARCUS- types in this competition with 32 participants [ by 2] .

No action due to the weather.
As shared on their site;
 http://dm2015.acz.de/bilder-2/#gallery/2763/601

So 2 days out of 6 in week one. AND week started not too good either, but what can you do, just keep the spirit up. Monday rain, yesterday thunderstorms and wind so both days were cancelled.
BUT,..with 4 days to go there is hope, as the weather seems to improve. Summer started like it was autumn, but the meteo promised a few summer days again, here so most probably for Germany as well.

Today they FLY!!!!  Tasks are “in the make” and briefing is at 12. At 1 PM, they have to be ready at the grid for launching.

———–

Talking about 2-seaters ,…what a great addition these nowadays TOP- gliders are for soaring. The ARCUS is till now the best 2 seater and the ASG 32 MI is going to prove that it is good as well.
Nowadays many club members “take”  a glider for a week of flying and between 1300 and 2000- plus km will be flown with a crew in the car following. From Holland they go to Germany or France as I noticed.Great fun and a more social aspect of soaring as in the evening with some BBQ food and a good beer or wine,they all still “fly” and talk gliding.

No Competition,…just flying for fun.All members from the EAC, since YEARS!!!
Jos, who specially flew over from Canada, Gerrit, Chris and Marc.
Courtesy Marc v.d. Putte [Putje]

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First day of Norwegian championship was on June 22 flown from Elverum Starmoen in the Sports class.
” As usual bad forecast, but we’ll fly anyway.” is what Arne Martin said. And as he mentioned about this day 1 :” Well that was an awful start, a completely unnecessary outlanding.”
So a not too happy chappie.
No more flying after.

The Nationals in Norway are in progress.
Courtese Arne Martin Guettler.

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Last Sunday we had the longest day and summer started. Not that it WAS summer. Rain and 17 dgr. BUT the rain was necessary!!!
If I was a pessimist I would say now; ” Winter is around the corner, days are getting shorter”. But summer is still to come yet.
I remember how much fun we had at the several Midsummer night festivities in Sweden and Finland during the several comps I attended over there.
For that reason I was pleased to see some pictures from Finland shared by Katja. It brings all feelings back.

  

Mid summer night with the bonfires.
Courtsey Katja Soikkeli

———-

Last weekend, at Saturday, the AMSTELGLIDE should have been at Soesterberg. It’s a one-day-competition in 3 classes, BUT, though the weather on my way back home from Cadzand was not too bad ,[they were flying at Woensdrecht] I could see already that the Soesterberg weather this time was not so good. 46 Pilots had entered but it was unfortunetely not meant to be.

———–

Whilst on holiday I got the next message;

Dear all,

After a long and difficult illness, my mother passed away this morning at the age of 84. She was a Belgian National Gliding Champion, a feat I have never been able to achieve, a Pelagia Majewska Medal recipient and she has always been a big inspiration for me; not only in this sport but in life in general.

Baude

Exactly as on the picture below I remember her. Big smile ,very outgoing, always a word ready and when we were at comps she mostly flew with Gill [VandenBroeck] in a 2-seater . Both were pioneers in female soaring and put it on the map.
As you can see Geogeo received the Pelagia Majewska medal as well. I feel very humble, but mostly proud to be on a list with her.
Will get mine in September and will, at receiving, think of Georgette.

St Hubert, where , not long ago the BENELUX comps were flown, was in 1983 host of the European Championships for women. Gill was CD and Geogeo flew herself to a 3d spot. Geogeo flew also several records and was Belgian National Gliding Champion.
R.I.P.

R.I.P  Geogeo.
Picture courtesy Baude.

———-

The application period for the RANGA Scholarship for the coming year will close on the 3rd July in AUSTRALIA.
I love this way of supporting young and talented glider pilots, several countries here in Europe support their young ones,  in several ways here is what’s all about down under;

—” The Royal Australian Navy Gliding Association (RANGA) has established a scholarship valued at up to $1500 annually to be awarded to a person who can demonstrate a strong commitment to aviation but who is not yet at solo standard in any form of flying.

The money is a grant to assist in training in gliding, and will be paid to the club which provides that training.

The rules for the scholarship, and the process for applications, can be found on the GFA Website in the GFA Awards section.

The scholarship runs from 24th July 2015  to 23rd July 2016.  Applications can be made until 3rd July 2015.  Navigate to the GFA Awards documents in the Administration area of Docs/Forms on the GFA Website.

———–

Before I left , 2 soaring friends were so kind to drive up and down for 250 km. to help me with my buxus.VERY GRATEFUL!!! Thanks Max and Dillen.

Great guy’s, great job done AND we had lot’s of fun that afternoon.

That’s it for today.
Cheers Ritz CU next Wednesday.

3 x a declared 1000 from Holland, special, VERY SPECIAL.
soaringminded-Holland is celebrating!
UNIQUE !!!!!

I was a bit disappointed in the evening, to see no 1000 km. on that great Sunday,but it was SO good to see an other EXCELLENT day of soaring in Holland. The best distance was 880 km. [697 FAI triangle] and with that Paul [Wijsman] topped the OLC list.In the Ventus CT /17.5 m. he flew direction ENE into flat parts of Germany and commented later;there was MORE in this day, but still a lovely flight!!!
Another top flight from the S. of Holland Venlo, close to the German border. Andy [van Helden] flew in his ASW 19 a distance from 733 km.[ 642 FAI triangle]
A declared 750 by Stefan Telkamp in the ASW 20 16.6 m. is fabulous as well.He started early, had the wind in the back and at Bremen 6m. integrated.He had clouds , blue holes, blue thermals and was home in time.

AND THEN,on Monday morning early, …….. no disappointment anymore , only joy, maybe even too much…if so,…sorry!!!!;
Last Sunday we HAD ……3 x a 1000  from HOLLAND all 3 DECLARED!!!!!!
Finally and who would not have wished for him this 1000 km. badge flown in HOLLAND  one for Sikko Vermeer. He tried often and Sunday was HIS day.So deserved!!!Congratulations Sikko. As a young pilot he was ” with me”  in Finland in 1988 at the EGC and in 1991 in Uvalde Texas.
In his Ventus BT 17.5 m.he flew a more or less  out and return [ first leg was 493 km. ] declared,  from 1.018 km. [Plau – Hodenhagen – Uelzen – SSB (task of  1116 km) and in his comment he writes VENTUS BT FOR SALE. He has done it!!!!!!
By the way , on task, he lost one of his bug wipers. No worries together with Peter Jansen he runs the SERVICE CENTER TERLET, a top repairplace.  http://www.sct-terlet.nl/nl-NL/contact

Finalglide to Soesterberg at 21.15 , after more than 11 hours of flying and a  1000km FAI diploma
Shared by Mark.

And MORE excitement; You remember Alfred Paul and Mark who flew a few weeks ago a 1000 from Soesterberg ? They DID IT AGAIN!!!! Chapeau gentleman!! Their new ASG 29 E pushes them to huge achievements. Congratulations to both Mark and Alfred Paul.
So,…3 Declared 1000 km. flights from Holland, [Soesterberg] you can’t be anything else than excited!!!!
Alfred Paul mentioned in his comment;
“Official 1000km FAI flight. Went for 1120km task Soesterberg-Plau (495km out) – Hodenhagen – Uelzen – Soesterberg. Needed the turbo for the last 100km after 1020 declared km. ”

OLC Sikko Vermeer: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2…/gliding/flightinfo.html…

OLC Mark Leeuwenburgh: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2…/gliding/flightinfo.html…

A bit later today as I waited for the scores of the last day in Italy and most of you were flying on such a great day anyhow.
And WHAT_A_LAST_DAY in ITALY at Ferrara. Mind you those scores are still preliminary.
Had to check some Dutch results as well before publishing.
In between I enjoyed tennis. What an epic match between Stan and Novak at Roland Garos.
Tonight the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Canada and that after a superb day outside as well.Anxious to see what happened in the air today. More on that on Wednesday.

When you don’t know what to say you talk about the weather.
No , it’s not that I have nothing to say, TOO much happening at the moment, as you can read below.
BUT,…..
We had absolutely weird weather here last week .
4 Seasons in 4 days!!!!
Last Tuesday we had some kind of winter day ,cold, wet and 13 dgr C. On Tuesday it was a bit better , you could call it a nice autumn day with 17 dg. C but very windy. Thursday gave us the feeling of spring, an even good spring day with 21 dgr. and Friday it was SUMMER, with a predicted temperature of 32 dgr.
When I arrived from Amsterdam in Alphen passing the pole with time and temperature,… it was 35 dgr.!!!!
It was an official  tropical day with over 30 dgr. in The Bilt where they measure.
Last year the first one was on July 18.
Thunderstorm arrived here at 6.30 Code Orange was given for the West of Holland.Some fire-damage by lightning not too bad ,….bad enough however for those involved and a drop of 10 dgr.in temperature.
In Germany , at a Rock festival, 33 people were injured, 4 of them badly.

  

Thunderstorms in Belgium as seen by Jeroen, in France as shared by the AAVE
and
in Holland shared by Frank.

This morning I had breakfast in my garden at 10 and friendly strong clouds popped up, mind you that is 9 AM sun-time.With some polair air, pretty fresh Northerly wind , but in the sun marvelous, it might be another great day in Holland.
By the way in the South of Holland they had 0.2 dgr. C. this morning , the coldest ever June 6/7 night since they started looking at it.
At FB I noticed early birds at Terlet and Soesterberg,  as well as a  great picture from Marlous  on her run  around the Terlet gliding center this morning.

What about this? Can’t have it better as PR is n’t it?
Thanks Marlous!

———–

German Nationals in standard and 15 m. class.

STANDARD CLASS:
On Wednesday June 3, day 6,  a hot and blue day, the pilots had to go for a nice distance 411 km.  and with very tight overall scores, EACH day is important. For sure a long-task-day!
Unfortunately the distance was just a bit TOO long. Only out landings and a lot of pilots JUST could n’t make it and were about 30 km. out. SO CLOSE!!!
One of them Felipe [Levin] and as it was a 1000 points-day, they were all for him bringing him on an overall score from 2 to 1. Felipe [4339] an Robert [Schroeder] flew 381 km. and Robert [4264] just “got” 4 points less, making him number 2 on the overall score list at this moment. Jan [Omsels] lost unfortunately more than 200 points by being 19th, but still is at this stage on a number 3-overall-spot.[4167]

Thursday June 4, day 7, 3 days to go!Today’s task; 353.1 km.
The Schroeders did well today, Simon and Robert in a Discus 2ax and an LS 8 both 1000 points!!! And good to see young Sebastian Naegel as runner up. Felipe was 8th.
Overall he stays on 1 but the runner up , Robert, comes closer.[5289 for 5264]
Jan [Omsels] is still 3d with 5112.

A 3 hour AAT- task for the very last day, number 8. It’s all happening NOW!!!! Who is keeping his head cool with temperatures around 30 dgr.? A mainly blue day with local showers and these can spoil all fun, as you know.
Looking at the final daily scores I missed Jan [Omsels] , ouch he was the first on the list to not make it home. The Levines did finish , Robert did,…and ANDREAS BELZ. He was always hanging around a 4,5th place overall, never won a day, flew consistent and got the last 1000 points of this competition.
All of this brought of course changes in the top. ” Poor” Jan dropped from 3 to spot 10.
Andreas in the DISCUS 2a flew himself to a 3 d spot, [6032]  so bronze for him, Robert was on 2 and stayed on 2 [ 6129] , Felipe at 1 and stayed there so the is the new GERMAN STANDARD CLASS CHAMPION with 6213 points.
I am sure they celebrated till late.Congratulations!!!!!

15 m. CLASS;
When I left you on Wednesday morning very early we knew already that Michael [Eisele] was going well.
This day 6 was a day for THE GIRLS! Nobody finished, but here as well a 1000 points day and enough to win.
Anja [Kohlrausch] won these 1000 points with 348.2 km flown from the set 376.7, Stefanie [Muehl ] was 3d and Katrin Senne 7th.
Michael with 314.6 km. was 10th. and with 4909 points he still is number 1 overall.Thomas [Wettemann with 4861 points ] is still on 2 and Uli [Schwenk] with 4829 points on 3.

Thursday June 4, day 7, 326.8 km. to fly!! It changed in a B task from 264.5 km. and after ALL the out-landings, this was good as only 4 did not finish. Starts at 3 PM. or after and new name on the daily-winner-list; Felix Huttel. He got the max. 790 points for the day.
Not such a good day for Uli as he was 21st and dropped from 3 overall to 5.
Stefan Lichtmannecker climbed from 4 to 3.

On the VERY LAST  day number 8, the pilots had to go for a 2.30 AAT .
12 from 33 out landed on this last day.BUT,..the overall toppers all arrived with the first 5 so did well. Stefan however had a less good day he belonged to the out-landers and dropped out of the top 3 again but still finished on spot 5.
Who is the new  GERMAN 15 m.  CHAMPION ?Yes Michael Eisele son from Walther the CD from ,…was it Bayreuth?
He got a total of 6449 points.Runner up and silver medal winner Thomas Wettemann and a surprise on spot 3. Climbing from 5 to 3 with a great last race Uli,  taking some kind of risk by departing en route as the LAST from his class.[ at 15.45, the first to leave was Tilo at 15.06] BUT, with his experience at EGC’s and WGC’ s  you expect that he knows what he was doing.
So a tough last day for some!!Congratulations to ALL as it was HOT in the end, WET in the beginning and not always easy in the middle, but still 8 days of flying!!!!!
Stefan Brehm did a great job as Live Ticker-messenger.

Uli in the white shirt on spot 3.
As shared by the site.

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Italian UNICA comps and the FLY PINK CUP 2015.

As said in my last blog NO FLYING on Wednesday.No flying on Thursday either , as was already announced on the competition-schedule ,BUT,…it all happened again on Friday with a 330.63 km. racing task.
46 Pilots had 2 days rest and now 32 from 42 out-landed, the rest had fun. Most fun for Luca [De Marchi] who won the 1000 points for the day.Peter [Hartman ] did well too with 997 points. And team Alberto [Sironi] in the ARCUS T was on spot 3 gaining 988 points.
Ricardo [Brigliadori] lost 200 points, so did young Davide and Giorgio lost a few as well,  on this blue day with changing circumstances.

Yesterday they had  253,93 km. and I was VERY pleased to see that young Davide won the day. Met him at the JWGC in 2005 in HusBos when Leonardo was his coach.Speed for him 124. 109.24 km./h.Ricardo was 4th , Peter 6th ,Alberto 11th and Giorgio 15th.

    

Davide receives his daily prize from yesterday ,so did Ricardo on day 2.
As shared on the FB site of the Aeroclub

Today is their last day and they go for 218.64 km. The weather is less good than yesterday.And it was a day with the moment of truth. Peter Hartmann, who knows Italy as good as his homeland Austria, out landed OUCH!!! After 193.80 km. it was over and out for him. That hurts as he was 1. on the overall top over the last 2 days.
Alberto out- landed as well after 209 km. so JUST out!!!
Riccardo was  3 days at the top in the beginning. Today he was 5th but that was enough to make him the WINNER. [4975] He climbed from 4 to 1 in his 18m. ASG 29 with call-sign LEO, in honor of his dad Leonardo.
At spot 2 Giorgio who climbed from 5 to 2 with a 6th place.
Davide was 4th today and 3d overall. Good on him.
Bernd Hubka from Germany, is not scored yet and he was overall on spot 2.But oh, oh he out landed as well after 189 km.
Great to see the Fergnani “kids”  both finished on such a difficult day.
As they said on their FB site;
“ With today’s flights the ranking is completely changed. Today it was important to start immediately as soon as the starting line opened, so, there were good climbing values everywhere. Gliders who started the task later had to switch on the engine or to go for outlanding. “

By the way there are 3 comps at Ferrara at the moment, This UNICA competition, then the Campionato Italiano Promozione with 6 competitors and very important the competition for ladies for the FLY PINK CUP 2015 with 9 ladies among them 3 Russians, 2 from Hungary,  Liz Sparrow from the UK and 3 Italian ladies.
Some ladies drove for 6000 km. WITH a trailer to participate on this competition.
No worries for the 7 tuggies,  they launch a total of 70 pilots in 1.30.

On day 1 Liz had the best speed over 229 km.[ 74.96 km./h.] in her St. Cirrus and the most points;786.
4 From 10 finished.
Day 2; with a 2 hour AAT was again for Liz, this time flying 133.68 km. in time 2.22. She and and German pilot Andrea Broker were the only finishers.
Day 3; with 246.51 km. was a prey for Liz again, 3 daily wins in a row, good on her!!!Only 1 pilot did not finish.
Day 4; slowly the days are getting better and a 253.56 km. task was set. No, not Liz this time on top as she out-landed just before Ferrara, after 247.98 km.
A good day for Russian lady Irina Gajnulova in her St.  Jantar 3.Only 8 girls left in this Pink Ribbon Competition.
Day 5; 247.82 and an other daily winner this time from Hungary; Timea Markus with just over 80 km./h.
And 3 days in row Italian pilot Margherita Acquaderni was runner up.
Day 6; yesterday and the last day for the ladies, 201.63 k. was set .
On the beginning of this  day the overall scores were for 1.Margherita, 2. Liz and 3. Timea.
At 4 Andrea and these 4 girls flew their-selves in the 3000 points.
It was AGAIN Liz who won day 6 , this time with a speed of 80.40 km./h. Slower than the Ventus 2ax,  from Margherita/Margot ,  but on handicap she won the day.7 Girls still flying and 1 out-landing from Russian pilot Irina.
7 pilots finished at 17.34 and 4 at 17.35. Busy, busy!!
Day 7 ; very last day is today with 170.70 km.! The 3 overall toppers from this morning all finished;  Margot [Italy] , Liz [UK] and Viktoria [Hungary] .
Liz won the day with 586 points , whilst Margot finished 4th  with 396 points and Viktoria was 2d with 479 points. All preliminary. This means that LIZ passed Margot/Margherita and WON, [4649] , Margot was 2d with 4506 points and Viktoria 3d with  4067. They were also the only 3 girls in the 4000- range.The next one Andrea from Germany is 400 points behind, so it should be all OK, though preliminary.
Congratulations to ALL.

Some GIRL POWER in ITALY!

  

Margot Aquaderni from Italy and Nina Shalneva from Russia.

  

Irina Gaynulova from Russia and Andrea Broker from Germany.
all pictures shared by the AEROCLUB VOLOVILISTICO FERRARRA.

 

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OMK in Holland

No action on Wednesday, as seen by Maurits van Lelyveld.

The sniffer did his best on Wednesday, but in the end he had to land. New possibilities had to be looked at, but could not be found. The day was cancelled, BUT the good weather was on it’s way! THE ABSOLUTE GOOD DAY is supposed to arrive on Thursday.

Here you see my former 2005- junior Rens, tear up his task for the day.

As shared on FB by Adrie Batenburg.

Thursday was a blue, but warmer and indeed better day.Not for some though.
Club class; 310.9 km. 2 From 12 did not finish and the winner Jeroen van Dijk in a Mosquito, flew with a speed of 87,63 km. and “got”  1000 points. Father Ben and son Frank Hiemstra did well. Ben was on spot 8 and Frank at 2 ! Nick Hanenburg was 3d. Jip landed after  7.30 PM, but finished!!!He arrived more than 3 hours after the first finisher in this class. Chapeau for JIP!!!500 Well deserved points for him.

Combi class; 368. 3 km. Quite some out-landings in this class as only 3 pilots finished. Winner former Dutch National Champion Peter Millenaar in the Discus 2a.

open class ; 508.6 km. later changed in 413.56 km. Jeroen [Verkuijl] won again and has the full amount of 1780 points overall after 2 days. He was the only one flying over 100 km./h;108

Another great picture from Rens at 2000 m. on his way , retrieve, from Borkenberge to home [Malden]  where the BBQ was waiting.As he said; “: Being too late for the BBQ, is no option“!!! So Rens!

The last day!!!!! An all or nothing day? The weather was so-so, pretty stable and 35 dgr. C. Just TOO hot.Also possibility of local thunderstorms, with heavy rain, and hail and severe wind. I which corner from Holland was that going to happen!?
So small-not-too-far-away- tasks to finish this great OMK, from just over 100 km.

Before they could go they all tried to find shade, the gliders however had the full HOT sun.

  

Pictures courtesy Frouwke Kuijpers one of the competitors.

They started and flew but not all finished. At 5.30 the message;” FX en 2T finished, HJ buiten en PI op Emmerich.”
It was more or less a battlefield in CLUB class; Only 3 from 13 finished on this last day, so you would expect changes in the top. Alexander Venema won the day and flew himself  in the DG 300 with winglets over 105. 59 km. to 80 points!!!But with less than 100 points nothing really changed overall.
Runners up had 74 [Joop Gooden in the St Cirrus] and 70 points [Jip]  points.
We had in the overall scores Nick, Ben and Alexander on top after 2 days. After 3 flying- days it remained NICK who is the new OMK champion and…. with his St Cirrus AG, ready for Narromine in a few months.[1527 points], good “old”  Ben  is the runner up [1397] and  Alexander 3 d, with just 9 points less[1388] and an excellent last day.
By the way, just heard he flew 650 today from Veendam in his DG 300

The COMBI CLASS had on day 2 many out-landings on the last day they ” only ” had 11 from 19. Young Apache pilot, Ard Tielenburg , was with his mate the daily best in the Duo Discus XL, over 104.91 km.After 2 days Adriaan Oudhuis in the ASW 20, was overall on 1 and with a 5th place on day 3 he stayed the NUMBER 1.[1970 points]On spot 2 Johan [Lemmens] defended this place and remained runner up.[ 1875] The Duo Discus from Haamstede got 155 daily points and with that they kept their 3d place.[1577]At spot 4 the Duo Discus from Adrie Batenburg and Rens Van Broekhuijsen and with that Adrie was the military champion in this class.
The Kuijpers family,  Ferdi and Frouwke finished on 11 and 14.

  

Adrie to the left with Rens in the middle receive the Military Cup.To the right on picture 1, Ard.
And ,…the helicopter he flies on picture 2.[from my archive]
As shared by the organizers.

In the open class a 124,29 km. task was set. Not much but at least a 3d flying day. 5 From 9 finished but topper Jeroen was out after 56 km. NO WORRIES he had a good lead and still won the OMK.[1874]

  

Jeroen was again the best. With him on the picture  Aukje who finished as 12th in club class. Both are members of the Aeroclub from Rotterdam. Aukje runs her business Flight Deck Business Consultancy at Terlet .
The black and white picture from Jeroen is just excellent and courtesy to Martin Smit[“Smitje”  and father of Robin who flies later this year in Narromine at the JWGC.]

That was all the news from Malden. A pity that there were only 3 days , but they had fun for a full year!
Picture from Malden shared by Alexander.

———-

That’s it for today. Will look a bit later again to see if the official scores  are different from the preliminary ones in Italy.
More news on Wednesday with glorious scores today in Europe have a look at the OLC already!!!
2 Times 750 from Holland in an ASW 20 [FAI triangle] and Duo Discus [630  FAI triangle] are already on.
726  flights added at this moment. And that will be MUCH more!!!!
Then you have to excuse me till the 24th of June, as it is my annual high-school holiday. NO LAPTOP permitted!!!
Cheers Ritz

Swiss Nationals in mixed open and mixed 15 m. class.

Who is going to win the cups!?

Last Sunday was the last day from the Swiss nationals and with marginal point-differences in the 15 m. class , it could be a very interesting day.
Tasks were set; 15 m. got a 170.51 km. on their plate and open had to go for 217,28 km.
In open where Markus [Gauman]  has a lead of nearly 500 points the tension was less big than in 15 m. where there were possibilities for 3 pilots each sharing daily wins; Rene[Schneebelie], Stefan [Leutenegger] and Juerg [Haas].
Specially the “fight”  between Rene and Juerg with a bit more than 100 points between them , kept my attention.

Ready to go, as shared by the organizers on their site http://www.sgzuerich.ch/

Start lines opened at 13.13 for open and 13.36 for the 15 m. class and the weather was sunny and good.Stefan , Rene  and  Juerg started about the same time;13.32.
A new daily winner,Simon Gantner, but it was all about who was going to be the CHAMPION. It was Rene, with 4193 points, followed by Juerg 4036 and Stefan with 3914. So nothing really changed in the final scores! Here they are , the Swiss heroes as shared on their site.

The open class , turned out in the end to be more exciting. Gabriel in the ASH 31 MI, /21 m. won the day. Markus was “only” on spot 7 loosing more than 200 points, but NO WORRIES, he had such a good lead , that those points were peanuts.4606 was his final score  and the runner up, Marcel Duenner [ASG 29/18m]  had 4202 points. Gabriel was on spot 3.
Markus, a gentleman pilot , who has flown many WGC’s was in the overall lead EVERY day.
Congratulations to all and with the news-tickers and pictures a nice competition to follow. THANKS!!!

——————

HUSBOS; UK-15 m. and standard class nationals 2015.

On the last day, Sunday, the weather did not co-operate at Husbands Bothworth , so the Nationals had already finished one day before . A total of 5 soarable days.
The message from Mike was ;
“The clearance behind the fronts is not good enough to offset the 25kts+ wind. Prize-giving will be at 13:00″.

They had a good day , the best of the comps on Saturday, with even the first 1000 points in the standard class for Andy Holmes; 393.07 km. with a speed of 117 km./h. which was 6 km. faster than the number 2.
A lot of LS 8 gliders in this class.
Out of 5 days Ayala [Truelove] was the best. She did not win a day but flew consistent over all days. She gained a total of 3388 points and is with that she is the new UK standard class CHAMPION.Congratulations Ayala !
With 3354, Richard [Hood] was the runner up.Howard Jones was 4th [3304], Jez Hood 5th [3252]and Matt Davis 7th.[3213]

In 15 m. class the 1000 points on Saturday were for Ed Johnston. [ASG 29] ; 391.8 km. with a speed of 123.3 km./h. AND,..with that he was also the new 15 m. UK CHAMPION.[3675]
Runner up with 2 daily wins but loosing over 100 points on the last day, was Phil Jones with 3666.
Former world champion Leigh Wells finished on spot 5.[
They had an” an enjoyable and safe competition.”

Adam [Woolley] shared on FB this impressive picture from a UK finish. As far as I can see on the call signs the picture is not from this competition, but a very nice picture to close this item.

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The German Standard and 15 m. class NATIONALS 2015.

When I found out they were flying , they had one week behind them with 2 flyable days . They started on the 26 th with a scrubbed day , then had 2 flying-days , another 2 scrubbed days and continued again last Sunday. Here we look back on the days.

Standard class;
May 27 day 1, with 169.1 km. and all 39 pilots in this class finished. Winner and runner up both “a”  JAN, one Omsels , one Umlauf , who I know from his long flights with us in Australia.Nice guy!Both fly a Discus [2a and 2br] and both flew about the same speed 100 km.h.
May 28, day 2, with 462.3 km. another good day for Jan Omsels; he was 3d with 864 points. Not so good for the other Jan, he was on spot 34 loosing quite some points.
Robert Schroeder had a good day as runner up and tops after 2 days the overall scores. The Levine boys are trying to get in the right groove, so is Sebastian Naegel.
May 31 day 3, with a B task from 300 km. to fly.In this class quite some pilots finished 31 in total. Robert had another good day , 9th, with 918 points.The Levine brothers were at 5 and 10 and Jan [Omsels] on spot 4.

June 1, day 4, the meteorologic summer has started not yet in Ulm- Erbach, as a racing task from 169 km. was set, later changed in a 2 hour AAT. They managed to get 72 pilots in the air in 1.25.
22 From 39 finished the task.A good day again for Jan [Umlauf] as he was 4th,  not so good for Jan [Omsels] who was at 19.Felipe at spot 6 did well , Enrique was ” au vache” but flew 260 km. The winner today, Simon Briel,  flew 268 km. with a speed of 128.19 km./h.
After 4 days Robert is at spot 1 with 2802 points , then Jan [Omsels] 2979, at 3 is Felipe with 2763 and at spot 4 Simon with 2754.

June 2, day 5, with 346 km. SO close all those top 4 pilots so today with a long task, new chances and possibilities.
232.6 was however the new task number C.
8 Times a Discus in the top today.
2 Pilots flew over 100 km and “got” over 600 points. A good day for Jan [Omsels] and Felipe. The overall changed; 1. is now Jan,[3382]  2. Felipe [3339] 3. Simon[ 3315] and Robert dropped with a day spot 26 from 1 to 4[3268]

15 m. class;
May 27, day 1, with 210.5  km. In this class 32 pilots finished , one unfortunately was out, after 139 km.Lot’s of nice girls in this class but day was not for them; winner Henrik Bieler in the Ventus 2b .
May 28, day 2, with a big task 512.2 km. A 1000- points -day for the winner Michael Eisele, the winner from day 1 Henrik had 925 points. Freddy Hein had 2 good days and after 2 days he leads the pact with 1497 points and the next 6 pilots are within less than 100 points.
May 31, day 3, with 416.8 km. and for most that was TOO much. Not however for Kai Lindenberg in the ASW 27, as he won the day with a speed of  83 km./h.Tilo [Holighaus ] had till now not really great days, but today he was runner up in his VENTUS 2ax. Stefanie Muehl, just one of the winners from the Hahnweide comps, was the only girl finishing and also the last finisher with a speed of 69.64 km./h. But she made it.
Some were just out; on 401 km.
Only 12  from 33 came finished !

June 1 , day 4, started with a 2 hour AAT. Also here, 22 from 33 finished, so a tough day.Thomas Wetteman was the winner with a speed of 124.07  km./h.over 270.8 km. Michael had the same amount of points 619. Tilo finished on spot 9. 22 From 33 came home.
After 4 days 2 pilots have the same amount of points and share the first spot; Michael and Thomas….3026.

June 2, day 5, with REAL tasks; a racing task from 403.5 km. Unfortunately they had to change to task B; 327.9 km. and only 5 did not finish. One of them Kai Lindenberg [ after 265 km.] who was at an overall spot 3 , when the day started.On the end of the day he was at spot 10 overall.
Extra hard ,….as it was a 1000 points-day in this class; Those points were for Ulrich Schwenk and runner up was Michael with 979. Thomas was on spot 5 with 965 points.
After 5 days the overall scores look as follows; 1. Michael 4005, 2. Thomas 3991, 3. Ulrich 3926

No tasks set yet but the weather looks good. More on Sunday.
Mind you the last days scores are not yet official.

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The Italian UNICA class championships 2015.

With 46 compititors in ONE class [unica] the comps started in Ferrara [ where a new hangar was opened in 2014] on May 30 with a lot of friends and well known names and a good looking ,  very kind but above all very experienced and talented meteo- man, Guido Guidi, a lieutenant colonel but also an Italian meteo man at TV!
I met him at several comps in the past.

In Rieti 2008, had to really search for ”  him” in my archive.

Good looking or not, for the first day he could not give the pilots very good weather.But,…264.6 km. is not bad to start with and this day was won by Giorgio [Galetto] and 34 from 46 finished with him!!! 8 pilots flew over 100 km./h.
Riccardo [Brigliadori] was the runner up.
May 31, day 2,  had less weather and an AAT from 2 hours was set. This time Riccardo won and Giorgio finished at spot 8.
Great to see young Davide [Schiavotto] is doing so well 6 yesterday and runner up today. Also good to see 3 members of the Vergnani family flying , where I know Elena and Nicola , but not Michelle.
June 1, day 3 ,was for Giorgio again. He flew with a speed of 109,14 km./h. over 295,35 km. Thermals with 2 m./s. average as Clara mentioned. Giorgio [Ventus 2cx /18 m.] , Davide [ASG 29 e]  ,Peter [Hartmann ASG 29 e] ] and Alberto[Sironi ARCUS T] ] followed.
June 2, day 4, a better day again with cu’s and a cloud base of 1500 m. so 301 km. was set. A new name for the daily prize; Antonio Soffici in the Nimbus 4 T, followed by Peter and Giorgio.
After 4 days the overall scores look like this; 1. Riccardo 2893, 2. Peter 2875, 3. Giorgio 2874 so ONE point less.
On 4. Bern Hubka from Germany in the JS 1 with 2832 and Davide on 5. with 2806.

The next days will be exciting to follow.They continue till the 7th.

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The Open Military Championships at Malden in Holland.

The 50thiest version of the OMK. Congratulations!
They started on Monday and continue till Friday, last day. 42 Pilots in 3 classes , club, combi and open.
Summer starts with not -too- soaring weather, for that reason pretty good tasks to begin with and ….they promise that midweek the temperatures will go up from 17 to 27. BUT,…as we all know nice weather does n’t mean per definition great soaring weather.
The skies looked great as you can see, but  quite a few pilots had to out-land.Here is the story.

A total of  outlandings on day 1.
As shared by the organizers.

Club;
Monday June 1; 184.64 km. The first to finish was Ben [Hiemstra] instructor at the Friese Aero Club and ” an engine ” for EVERYTHING, p.e. as webmaster from Zweefportaal .He flew the distance in nearly 3 hours, and had good clouds, lot’s of shadow, but also rain en route.He thought it was a tough day. He was NOT the daily winner.[3]
Another topper had that honor,   tracking -systems-genius ,  Jip in the LS 4; speed 96 km./h. He started last at 3 PM , when the weather improved , the first started at 13.15.

Runner up, was one of the juniors who travels to Narromine in November Nick Hanenburg in the St Cirrus AG , also travelling down under.
Nick keeps a blog in Dutch to share his comps with all of us , on his way to Narromine;
http://www.dutchjuniors.zweefvliegen.net/
There is still some money needed for our Dutch young ones. They are saving hard , are supported by their parents and friends and if we Dutch friends want to see our mates become junior world champion a donation can be made at ;
rekening nr NL17 FVLB 0226197212   van C.N.Koster, Hellouw onder vermelding van:  WK junioren
They will be for ever grateful.

Back to club class.From 13 in this class 5 finished.
Poor Alexander he was 3 km. out!
Tuesday was cancelled for all classes!!! Wind up to bft. 8 and showers etc. All gliders stayed in the trailer or hanger. No worries that 2 storey hangar is HUGE.

Everything fits, even the” brand-new-tug” !!!
As shared by the organizers.

Combi;
Monday June 1; 218.27 km. Johan Lemmens in the Ventus 1, frequent flyer at all comps at Keiheuvel in Belgium , was runner up  this day with 74 km./h.[833 points] .
Adriaan Oudhuis in an ASW 20 won the 844 points for the day.
11 from 19 finished!

This picture was taken by one of ” my”  HusBos JWGC  pilots Rens, who flies in Team M 1 in   the DUO DISCUS in the combi class
Beautiful Malden from above! with the huge double storey hangar , the camping to the right and the bar, not unimportant to the left.

Open;
Monday June 1 ;247.38 km. Frequent WGC pilot, Jeroen Verkuijl won in his JS 1 with 101 km./h. 4 others from 10 finished as well.

  

HJ ,[ the Janus c RG, ] finish.

No task set yet for today.

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SOLAR IMPULSE.

Somebody wrote under this by Kiki shared picture;
” bon voyage, incredible courage, can only support that.

It’s a big step so many kilometers over the ocean, only 20 minutes naps and gone for days and all by ONE man Andre Borschberg.; 8000 km. from China to Hawaii with the great Ocean in between. Unfortunately the weather was too bad , so an in-between -landing in Japan at Nagoya had to be put in. When the weather improves the flight will be continued.
As Betrand Piccard said from the control-center in Monaco; ” We are no daredevils, we are explorers!!!
And WHAT explorers!!!!!
This flight from China to Hawaii is the 7th leg, still 4 to go to final destination Abu Dhabi , were they started in March.They hope to arrive in August,  to make this dream come true.

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And to finish 2 great pictures from the recent  French Nationals.

As shared by the AAVE. [Association Aeronautique du Val d’Essonne]
Till 2016!!!

Cheers Ritz