Looking back shortly on the UK and German Nationals and as every year I made a picture-diary from my visit to Keiheuvel.

Lasham.

They squeezed out another day on Friday,[ number 5] , during the 18 m. Nationals in the UK last week.
254 km. was set but nobody managed to finish.
The best pilot flew 213 km. Andy 207 and Pete 202 km.
Saturday the final day , was cancelled.
Pete [Harvey] was on the first overall spot during the whole competition and won in his JS 1 ; well deserved 3.898 points .
Andy was 2d with 3464 points also in JS 1 but this time a JS 1-c and on a third spot Steve Jones with 3576 points.
The Parallel-Regional comps were scrubbed the last 2 days, so they had 4 days.

————

Stendal.

To make it a valid German 18 m and open class National Competition, they added the extra available day and then it worked out well.
Pffff….IT WAS A VALID NATIONAL COMPETITION WITH CHAMPIONS.
And I am really happy for the organizers and pilots.I read that unless the weather the atmosphere remained TOP. So it should!!!

In 18 m. class it was Mario Kiessling in the ASG 29 ,who is the new champion ;2620 points, I guess the lowest he ever had to become a champion.
Runner up was Matthias Sturm with 2619 points also in an ASG 29 .
Michael Streit was the number 3 pilot with 2518 points and on spot 4 Swedish pilot Markus Ganev with 2431 points.

2015 NATIONAL 18 m. classs CHAMPION.
MARIO KIESSLING
As shared on their site.

Open class was won by Michael Sommer with 2954 points in the EB 29.
Runner up was Stephan Beck in the ASW 22 BLE with 2842 points.
On spot 3 Stefan Langer in the NIMBUS 4 with 2776 points.
GREAT to see Bruno Gantenbrink on spot 4. He is been in competition soaring ” for ages” and got 2747 points.

2015 NATIONAL OPEN CLASS CHAMPION
MICHAEL SOMMER.
As shared on their site.

A bit “tough”  for all , to see that pilots last Sunday flew up to 588 km. again, at least the comps pilots had 3 fast days as well!

———-

THE KEIHEUVEL DIARY.

This year the friendly competition— with a very serious touch— ,was a bit later than normal and you could see that. Most pilots were back from other comps and pleased they could go to THE KEIHEUVEL as well. Instead of 23 they had 48 participants now.GOOD!!!!
The atmosphere was as always unique- pleasant. Maybe because I have been there so many times that it feels like coming home.
Great to see many young pilots as well, a great mix.
I was late there at Saturday, so I was pleased that Joeri shared a picture from the start. We just noticed the last 4 launches  in the car and arriving at the field the last incoming tuggy.

Junior pilot Robin Smit, behind the tug on Saturday.
As shared by Joeri Cools.

The Huybreckx family always takes care that we have  a ”  roof over our heads ” and this time we had granddad’s camper -van. Very posh!Only sad note was that granddad is not so fit. We wish him all the best.

Unfortunately we straight away forgot the key, so our neighbor Eddy[de Koninck]   helped my friend Ans, [ I started gliding with her in 1967,]  to get in.

They had a nice task in each of the 4 classes;
Club had 112 km and the sport class 208 . The 2 classes with transponders, sport 235  and open 260 km.
It turned out to be a tough day in the blue with some high cirrus-firmaments and as the weather later during the day would supposed to be best to the West , the last leg was in that direction.
Finishes took place between 4 and 6.30 PM and as we sat first row, we could see them all. Except of course those from the “out-landers” and there were many.
In club only 1 glider [ from 4]  finished; team Claes and Keymis in the G 103 twin II.
In the sport class 5 from 10 finished and Geert de Palmenaer was the best in the Pegase with 685 points , just ahead of Stijn Vanden Boer in the LS 8 who flew faster but lost on handicap.
In the transponder-sport-class 14 participants and 5 finished. Best was junior Nick Fremau in the LS 7 who won from pilots as Jeff [Kell] , Dennis [Huybreckx] and Tijl Schmelzer, so a great job done; 895 points.
In the open-transponder-class, it was , former European champion, vice WGC champion and many times Dutch National Champion, Ronald Termaat who won. [815 points]He was the only one with a speed above 100 . He flew the JS 1 from Marco Vermeer and Jeroen Kuijl. When I complimented Marco with his good results lately he mentioned that this is a TOP JS 1 ; it’s call sign APU.
7 From 19 finished. Dutch junior Robin,  “Smitje” Smit, was runner up [ 739] and another Dutch pilot Robert Werts was 3d, [714] just ahead of WGC champion Bert jr Schmelzer, [701] who drove up all the way from Zurich in Switzerland, to participate in this for him,  home-field- competition and drove back in the afternoon of Sunday again.
Johan Lemmens , his SO MANIEST  time at Keiheuvel, was on spot 5 in the ” old”  MS from Kees Musters.
Some impressions from the pilots:

Belgium junior Pieter Daems and Dutch junior Robin Smit and Dutch senior Robert Werts.

Marco vermeer [left] and Hans Biesters [right] both from Holland and  World champion Bert jr . from Belgium.

Sunday was another day with big hope.Briefing was at 10 AM.Daily prizes ready to hand out.

The weather should be difficult with cirrus coming through first, then some cu’s and an early finish of the thermal activity around 4 PM. If it all fitted, they had a window to fly in.
They tried hard , but in vain. It did not fit.
The sniffer could not stay up, then they tried again, it was better but not good enough and  the time went on ; after 2 PM they decided to cancel.
So the winners from day 1 are the total winners as well.A pity as it looked rather well at 2 PM, with some cu’s , but at 5 the first rain arrived and it turned into torrential rain, so a good decision by CD Stijn.

Marco, waiting for the first prize won by his mate Ronald, as he could not fly on Sunday … AND the CD Stijn in action.

For Ronald, who had to go home, Marco was there to fly on Sunday,so he got the prize to share.All first prizes are money prizes , sponsored by the family Emsens, so in fact you have a “free”  weekend.The other 3 sponsors donate as well; TOP METEO , with a one year free connection to the weather.GLIDER PILOT SHOP with vouchers for a discount on their products and LTB Antwerpen, with nice cleaning material for the glider.

A special prize , sponsored by the Schmelzer family , the ALBERT SCHMELZER -prize,  a beautiful bronze eagle for the best junior of this competition , was for the winner from the transponder sport class Nick Fremau.

Nick and Bert Schmelzer sr.

The next competition will be on August 20 and 21 in 2016. From March onward you can have a look at their site to see if you can enter,  as 50 is the limit for this field. AND,…I can tell you it is great fun and as I heard more new guests thought the same.So don’t miss out! I won’t !!

The only not-so-good-news , this weekend, was that NONE of the Belgium juniors can go to Narromine, which is really sad as they have potential top 10 pilots. A REAL PITY. No money.

——-

last but not least; RENCONTRE ASK 13 IN the rain, at Aerodrome St. Crepin.Some special pictures as shared by them;

Cheers Ritz
CU next Wednesday.

A short blog in between my trip to Amsterdam and Keiheuvel with interesting news about the VERSVS and great pictures from SAIL from one of my friends ,yes from the ZES, Theo.
By the way JULY is the warmest month ever worldwide, according to NOAA an organisation involved with meteorology and oceanology; 16.61 dgr. C.!!! Also Europe was “hot”  with heat waves and temperatures up to and over 40 dgr. Lot’s of rain as well.

The 13.5 m. VERSVS.

When I heard about the Diana 2 VERSVS,  I was highly interested. After the first WGC in Pocuinai with excellent weather and great soaring, this glider proved itself by winning with big marge.
There was the Silent 2 Electro, already a great project and from this same company ALISPORT , there was as we know now, also a co-operation with Stefano.
Of course I knew Stefano is a great pilot and former world champion, but even a great pilot needs a good glider to perform.
In fact it is even more of a pity now that the GP 14 VELO could not fly with Sebastian, due to the fact that  it was not ready.
If we were doubting this 13.5 m. class, there is enough to look forward for the future.
So here is the latest by Stefano about this winning “little ship”.

Here below I send you some further details about my glider. Please note that:

———-

Lasham.

Sorry to tell you but day 4 and 5 were cancelled and yesterday no task was set. Hopefully today they can continue.
After the 3 flown good -distance- days [3 and 3.30 AAT and 411 km.] Pete Harvey [ 2812] leads the pact from 35 in this 18 m. class with Andy Davis as runner up [2593]

———–

Stendal
AND….THEY FLEW!

As shared by the organizers.

Yesterday the weather finally was good enough and a 2 hour AAT was won by Mario Kiessling in the ASG 29E, flying 256 km with a nice speed of 121 km./h.
278.8 km was set for open class and after all the waiting the “big ones” were going for it. Bruno [Gantenbrink ] in the Nimetax won the day with his big- wings -glider; 109 km./h.
He tops after 2 pretty marginal days the overall list as well with 1058 points followed by Michael [Sommer] in the EB 29 with 1035 points and Norbert Kalisch [ASW 22 BLE] with 1003, all others are under the 1000 points-marge.
TODAY’s task is more like it ; 505.6 km. for open and 521 for 18 m.
THAT IS SOARING again from Stendal and ALL will forget about the bad weather.
Estimated first launches at 11.30.

———-

Told you about the promotion from gliding during the introduction week of the Technical University Eindhoven. They did a great job; 22 very enthusiastic first -year-students AND 8 became a member straight away , 3 are pondering, so between 8 and 11 new glider pilots for the future!!! Well done.

———-

And the promised pictures from Theo. Love them all.
SAIL 2015 
in AMSTERDAM.

CU on Wednesday with all the latest and my visit to KEIHEUVEL.
Last I saw; 49 from 50 available places in this 2-day-competition .
So a FULL HOUSE!!!!
Cheers Ritz

The 18 m. and open class in Stendal had a tough day last Sunday. Yes they flew and yes some pilots got points and whilst waiting longer it WAS a day in both classes!!!!
18 m. was won by Michael Streit ,..he got 166 points 1 point more than Claus Triebel. Best speed today; 65 km./h over 145 km.Both fly ASG 29E.
In Open class Norbert Kalisch was the best in his ASW 22 BLE. He flew 183 km with a speed of 70 km./h and “got 260 points. 20 More than Michael Sommer .
Monday unfortunately had to be cancelled again.How terribly unlucky can you be with such weather.Feel for the organizers , pilots and crews. BUT,…..It looks the weather will improve and the overall scores are low, so EVERYTHING is possible!!!

By the way we had here in Holland,  the lowest EVER August 18  with 15.2 dgr, C. and at some places 100 ml. of rain.More than normally in one month!!!As said the weather is the weather , nothing has changed.

Tuesday; cancelled.

———–

The 18 m. Nationals at Lasham in the UK  [ August 15-23] started last Saturday with 34 participants and another 29 [2 HC] in the regional’ s, flown parallel with this competition.
Day 1 had a 3 hour AAT won by Pete Harvey in the JS 1. He flew 12 km. more than the runner up and in a time  to be happy with ; 3.01. Frank Davies was runner up, Philippe de Pechy from France on spot 3.

Day 2 with a 3.30 AAT, was for Afandi Darlington; 401 km. with 113 km./h. with Steve Jones as runner up.Quite some toppers missed out on some points. Andy Davis was on spot 15, Russell Cheetham on 20, Mike Young on 22 and my Lasham/Tocumwal friends Roy and Patrick on spot 25 and 26. The other Toc/Lasham friends are David flying the Duo Discus T in the regionals [amber] and Hugh, but I could not find him on the entrance list, but for sure he will be there!!! MMMmmmm, ….I might be wrong.

David in the Duo Discus T ,flying in the REGIONALS AMBER and after 3 days on spot 5.
As shared by his wife Sandra.

Hugh on a boat ?????
As shared yesterday by Graham Coules.

It’s nearly unbelievable but on Monday , day 3, they flew 417 km. from Lasham.We are all sitting in the rain, THEY FLY!!!And…from 34 pilots  31 flew the task plus 1 HC. Only 3 out -landings.
Who said it’s always raining in the UK??????? When I was there a couple of years ago, I even got sun burnt!!
Andy [JS1-C] won; 112.71 km./h. He climbed from 6 to 2 overall behind Pete.

A picture from Lasham.As found on their site.

Tuesday;and off they went again for a 237.9 km. task.HOWEVER,….this time the weather did not co-operate. The start was postponed from 12 to 12.30 and later, the task changed in B task and then they had to cancel the day.

 Most probably you know already, that  Lasham Gliding Society have been awarded the 2017 Flapped European Championships. ” A great boost for UK gliding.” they say.It IS!!

————

Kathrin and Eberhard Woetzel , her dad, with the wooden sculpture , created for every WGC or EGC which takes place in Pocuinai!!!!What a great idea and a permanent memory!!!
So next year another will be added for the WGC over there for standard, club and 2 seaters. They can start already.

Just read that the Diana 2 VERSUS is NOT from the DIANA factory but it’s ” done ” by Stefano [Ghiorzo ] himself and the team from Alisport.
 So,…. Stefano modified his own  Diana 2 to a Versus ; his own project and the practical site was done by ALISPORT an Italian firm where Stefano is nowadays the managing director .
And ….ALISPORT means …: ”  SILENT 2 ELECTRO, with its nose-mounted electric propulsion system constructed specifically for the Silent, is the most modern and environmentally conscious design capable of satisfying the needs of ever increasing sailplane performance. ” The number 3-4-6-7-8-9 during this first 13.5 m. WGC.
What a small world!!!!www.alisport.com
Did not know that, so I checked with Kathrin ,who gave me already some info, but more  about this by Stefano himself. SO STAY TUNED!!!!!

 Stefano in his Versus as shared by Kathrin.

———–

JWGC in Narromine:
Dutch team;Already DURING her participation in Arnborg junior pilot Annemiek, who WON 2 days, heard that she is selected for the JWGC in Australia as well. During the “road to Narromine ” , 2 pilots decided with pain in their heart that their graduation- study at the Delft University [Steven] and the pilot training for KLM [Stefan] HAD to be more important, so Annemiek fills in for Stefan, for whom she was in first case crewing in Narromine , and for Steven it will be Robin Smit, who showed his talent already a few times over the last years!
Together with Nick Hanenburg and Ronald Deerenberg they will start in Corowa , where the 2 St Cirrussen [AU and AG owned by a foundation to support young pilots ;Stichting Zweefvliegevenementen Nederland] and 2  LS 8’s arrive with the COROWA TRANSPORT. Young and former JWGC CHAMPION Tim Kuijpers will assist as coach and Ger Kwant ,[by the way his uncle]  who brought home already 2 JWGC CHAMPIONS, will be the TC.

Team UK; goes with 4 pilots as well, 2 in standard 2 in club. One of them Andy Davis’, [who is the TC, ]  son Matt, who participates in a JWGC for the 3d time. Twice before  he flew in club class.
The other pilot in this class is Mike Gatfield, who flies a JWGC for the first time.
Club class pilots are Sam Roddie , who competes for the 2 time and Tom Arscot , for whom it is the first JWGC as well.

———-

A REAL ADVENTUROUS FLIGHT AND NOT WITHOUT RISK!!!!

Through my writing I get to know many very interesting people.
Also last week; Got some news by a now 77 year old pilot, Peter Asam, who checked if  I might be interested in a story and he gave me the link, WITH the message/advise; don’t do this!!!!!
So I wrote him back to get some more details about a flight in FOEHN/wave over a top from 9100 m.

The pilot was Peter himself flying his 3d diamond in the end of the 70thies.
Over the top of this mountain , the ZUG SPITZE, 3 airline-tracks cross, so a fiat/validation to fly there was then and now NOT possible.Those years however the air traffic was not as busy as now , so he took the risk to fly with his glider, LS 1f,  a glass- fiber plane invisible for radar, around Christmas,over and around the top.
First they flattened the snow from the piste/launch area, by driving up and down with cars and then a brave tuggie took him up during a very turbulent “ride”.
Peter is still top fit, but does not fly anymore!!Thanks Peter….for sharing your pretty daring flight with us.
Here is the story with pictures.AND,…he is busy with another project …and you will hear about that later as well.
Interesting guy.

In the foehn/ wave, which comes from the South, he flies direction West .He turns here to fly/surf back in the wave. On the right site of the picture below, the top from the ALPSPITZE.

 Flying in wave from West to East .In the middle ” das ZUGSPITZPLATT” up to 8000 m MSL.
Of course with oxygen.

To avoid the fact to NOT see the ” ground” anymore through incoming clouds , it was time to quickly go down.

Here you can see the incoming clouds/front with the  “bad” weather.

Going down….. the beautiful view on the “Walchensee” and the river ISAR.

Mask off at 4500 MSL , as you can see a bit of a provisional army- mask. He had an emergency-one on his parachute as well. Peter was an experienced parachutist, one of the reasons he “dared’ to start this adventure.

Home sweet home, end good all good!!AND a 3d diamond in the pocket!

THANKS for this picture -story Peter.
You can find the FULL story on FB now too and all pictures in ;

Föhnflug über der Zugspitze…9100 m. where you find as well a story about the Speed Canard and the Bolkov Bo 209:

http://online.flipbuilder.com/Asam/rxxd/#p=11

During the introduction week of the new university year the ZES promotes her sport .Heard already that there is a lot of interest also by the ladies. GOOD.

——-

Cu next Wednesday with news from the VERSUS [maybe already on Friday]and pictures from my annual trip to the airfield of KEIHEUVEL in Belgium this upcoming weekend, where over 45 pilots have entered. 4 Places to go,…then all available places are gone.
Some juniors will be flying too,so I can check what their situation is on “the road to Narromine”.Will be great fun again!!!
Talking about Narromine I just booked my accommodation arriving on Wednesday the 9th and departing on Sunday the 13th of December after the prize giving.
AND,…just noticed Geoff Pratt flew already 538 [500 FAI Triangle] from Mareeba in his PIK 20 E.. GOOD ON HIM. The season down-under starts already.
Off to Amsterdam , where SAIL starts today with about 600 ships among them some ” TALL SHIPS ” from everywhere in the world.

Cheers Ritz

Pocuinai, after-fun!
What a nice competition it was over there in Poncuinai.
And what a great and memorable last flying-day , won by Francois with Tony as runner up. T
Due to this achievement, team USA took home the bronze for TEAM CUP as well. Behind Italy [876 points]and France [ 783] they were the number 3 with 766 points!!!
Again congratulations to CHAMPION Stefano, VICE CHAMPION Vladas and “still a bit unexpected” on a  3 place… Francois!!

 Vladas , Stefano and Francois proud on the podium
Courtesy Kathrin[Pilotessa Design-com]
And Stefano’s glider the Diana versvs.

AND
team Italy
with Alberto , [Luciano Avancini ]  and Stefano winners of the TEAM CUP.

and the prize ceremony for the TEAM CUP with the recipients representing  Italy, France and the USA.

team USA ,Leah and Tony, thanks for the updates!!!

Happy chappies!

AND Tony and Francois, last day-winners.

Sorry I do not have much info or pictures about VICE CHAMPION Vladas so I publish this one again.

THAT WAS ALL ABOUT POCUINAI;
THE FIRST 13.5 m WGC.

———–

Stendal, hoping for good weather.

As they say; Good morning Stendal, good morning world”.
Shared by the WM organizers this morning early, and at 11, so there is hope.

They bravely continue with trying-hard!! A new day, new hope and today not in vain.
At briefing small tasks were handed out , 2 hour AAT in 18 m. class and 2.30 in open; an estimated first launch at 11.30.

AND……… they have started, open class first then 18 m.Start lines opened at 13.17 and 14.02!!!!!
If all goes well and they started straight away, they will be back in 2 hours.
Most after a few kilometers already,though one open class pilot flew already 130 km.
For news and scores you can look at http://dsm2015.lsvst.de/
My next news on Wednesday.

———–

To keep the blogs going with interesting news sometimes really  time.  To figure it all out is a big job with many pages open on my laptop, but I am VERY pleased with the great PR by some sites and mainly by team members or people over there.
The news by stewards this season was interesting.  I did n’t want to do that job anymore because it is expected that as a steward you are totally neutral and as you know I am pretty out going, so I like to talk with anybody and I like to say what I think.
SO THANK YOU TO ALL for your PR. I only delivered that news to a bigger audience, within my own stories as an extra appendix.
Just to let you know!

————

After all the happy news I finish again , UNFORTUNATELY, with sad news. The mountains bring joy and happiness BUT…..it looks for this year too much  sadness.Tragic news again, as we lost 2 mates yesterday. This time in the Mont Blanc- area, the Italian site of it, during good weather .A Swiss [65] and New Zealand pilot [66] , both very experienced, lost their lives when their brand new ARCUS M crashed. Bizarre, all ingredients for a SUPER day and it ends so TRAGIC.

CU on Wednesday again.
Cheers Ritz

The competition season is nearly over. Days are getting shorter here, longer down under. We had a fabulous season I think, the weather did not always co-operate but, …this is Europe mate….Some comps struggled more than others. Pocuinai had so to see, the best weather.So that’s good for the next WGC over there.
Still a few interesting comps in August as the French Juniors from Tours and in the UK, [August 15-22] the 18 m. Nationals from Lasham combined with the regional’s.[August 15-23]  Lasham is promoting their field for a WGC, and a PR talk was held in Rieti during the EGC, good idea, great field and you can NEVER predict the weather.
And in September the FINAL GRAND PRIX from Varese.

Pocuinai;
The first 13.5 m. WGC is over with CLEAR winners. Still a pity that Sebastian could not fly. That would have stirred the scores maybe as well.
Leah,  crew and wife from Tony Condon keeps us updated.
”  first launches 12:30pm. The area task opened at 12:57 pm. ”
And before I know Tony is back : ” Home sweet home. Total blue. Good climbs. 83 kph.”
What happened?
With an early start at 13.55,  Stefano took it all in his own hands. He started raced , flew 260 km. and was 3d ,…he is the very deserved WORLD CHAMPION.Morgan and Alberto, left with him , Vladislav as expected,  about 15 minutes later.
With 10.879 Stefano showed his ability as TOP pilot.
Vladislav with 10.487 is a worthy vice World champion.
Then,…about spot 3…….WINNER TODAY,…Francois PIN,[ who started at 14.06, ]from the USA, 1000 points, less kilometers [254] than Stefano but a better time 83 for 81 km./h.
With this day he moved to spot 3 overall. Good on him!!!8954 points.
Morgan was 4th.Great day for Tony as well, who ” practiced pair/team flying ” with Francois. He was runner up today.
” Team USA 1st and 2nd for the day and Francois appears to move up to a Podium spot! 3rd Place! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO” by Tony!
The winners from today again on the pictures I showed already as tribute to 3R, Rick Walters!!!!!!

A quick first reaction from Tony;“It was a tough day in the blue. We got a good start at 2 PM and had a pretty rough first leg. The whole flight I felt OK but not great about how our speed was. Climbs were pretty good but we weren’t pushing very hard between. Maybe that was the secret…

We won the day! 1st and 2nd. What a great way to end the contest. AND, Francois moved up into 3rd place for a podium finish. Fantastic!! We are pretty excited of course.
Not sure about the Team Cup. Will let you know when we know. Lots of excitement here. Farewell party tonight, and we gotta get the gliders all cleaned up and packed up for the drive tomorrow. More later!!” 

Francois

AND the new WORLD CHAMPION in 13.5 m.
Stefano Ghiorzo
As shared by his wife Kathrin, who flew a HORNET in the parallel pre -worlds these weeks.

Stendal;

After they cancelled the 18 m. class , the open class start was postponed to 3PM, then 4 PM. The short 2.30 AAT, should be still possible.In the end it turned out to be day 5 which was cancelled, ..but still 7 days to go, so EVERYTHING is possible.Only a bit of a nuisance now.

Rieti;
Pictures from the Champions and TEAMCUP Prizes ; 1. France, 2. Czech Rep. and 3. the UK.

15 m.

1. Didier Hauss France          7188
2. Peter Hartmann Austria    7112
3. Christophe Ruch France  7086

Standard Class;

1. Lucasz Blaszczyk   7408
2. Sjaak Selen                 7293
3. Dmitriy Timoshenko 7071

Club Class;

1. Ondrej Dvorak      7341
2. Jan Louda        7302
3. Josef Kozar      7256

AND the Champion and runner up both from Czech Rep.

AND the FRENCH team
as shared by Pole France Planeur,
with Eric [Napoleon TC] to the right and the CHAMPION Didier in the middle and Christophe 2 more to the left.

This it IT!!! Rieti 2015 is over now.Czech Rep is next.

Maybe more tonight!
Cheers Ritz

13.5 m. WGC in Pocuinai

Lithuania.

As shared by the SSA. Picture courtesy Eric frere.
“ How Lithuanians do grid time!”

August 15 ;
Aussie team; ”  Day 12 – last day. We have a 3 hour AAT. The forecast is for blue conditions, and today I believe it.”
A 3 hour AAT to finish indeed is a good final for these great first 13.5 m. comps. What weather they have had and such good flying.
Yesterday Stefano consolidated his first spot by starting and staying with his biggest concurrent Vladas. They were 2 and 3 for the day.
Daily winner was French pilot Antoine Havet, on his way to the podium,  as Morgan in his first BIG competition was only on spot 10 loosing some valuable points and his 3d overall spot to Antoine.
So if nothing goes wrong , spot 1 and 2 are occupied but today will be interesting for the spot 3. Will it be Antoine, now with 8146 points, or maybe Morgan with 8032 who might play all or nothing, or maybe the 3d pilot “fighting” for this spot Alberto Sironi with 8017. As a very experienced pilot I expect  the “all or nothing-attitude” more from him.And let’s not forget an other experienced pilot who “smell chances ” ; Francois Pin.
Let’s wait and see.Tonight we know!!!

Yesterday was forecasted as a blue day. It turned out a GREAT day with the one but  longest task till now.;347 km.
The organizers write today:
” A useful part of every weather briefing is a thermal forecast for the afternoon, based on an actual sounding from a station upwind of the home airfield. Today the wind was from the east, and we learned that there are no radiosonde stations east of here. Something to do with politics. Instead, metorologist Viktorija based her cloudbase forecast on a sounding from Latvia, to our north, and her forecast was “no clouds all day.”
It turned out that the air to our east was not as dry as the air in Latvia. As Tony and Leah Condon brought JEN to the grid one of them took a photo through the windshield of the crew vehicle. By the time launching began, we had 3 octas in all directions.”

Blue………….???????
as shared by the organizers.

———-

EGC in Rieti

Italy

It’s over and out, great flying, difficult flying and no flying,…it was all there in Rieti.

—” A difficult start for the last competition day: climbs of 0.5 m/s at the start, but going to Celano, thermals were up to 5.8 m/s and in that area there was some rain, it was also raining over L’Aquila. Wind was from south, south/east but very weak: 16/18 km/h. Cumulus base was 2500m at the beginning of the task and after up to 3000m. Somewhere along the mountains there was a beautiful line of cumulus. The top speeds for the day for club class was 108 Kmh, standard class 125 Kmh and 147 Kmh for 15m class. Now all the gliders are in their trailers and at 8.00pm we will have the farewell party at airport restaurant.”—-As shared by the organizers,

That was it ….in Rieti. As always great!!! Only a  pity that several gliders were damaged.
What happened on the last day?
club class; 2.30 AAT,
2 Italian daily winners who started early and again young Davide won a day. A pity from the days he out -landed. Luca Urbani was runner up.
6 Times a St Cirrus in the daily top.
What does this all mean for the overall score??
Ondrej was today on spot 5 and Jan [Louda] his mate on 4. They started late together to see what was possible on this last day. Chasing the rest and passing them,…. it worked more or less.;they did not win the day but consolidated and climbed up.
Ondrej Dvorak  is the new CLUB CLASS EGC CHAMPION.[7341]  Good on him. Winning task 8 a few days ago, on August 12,  together with Jan, brought him from 8 to spot 2 overall. Only Josef Kozar from Slovakia was in his way, but on the last day he was on spot 11, so the runner up is JAN LOUDA.[7302]
Josef is on spot 3.[7256]
UK pilot Ge Dale who was on top for quite a few days finished on spot 4, having a few relatively “poor” last days.

standard class;2 hour AAT.
Lucasz had to defend his first place overall and he did,…but only just 236 km in 2.08. He was on this last day on spot 18 !!! But he was far enough ahead to be THE NEW EUROPEAN CHAMPION in Standard class.[7408]
Runner up ” our ” Sjaak Selen, a very consistent pilot.On this last day he started 13 minutes ahead of Lucasz  and flew 251 km. in 2.03.A total of 7293 points.
On spot 3 at the podium;Russian pilot Dmitriy Timoshenko, with 7071 points. He slowly made his way from 8 to 3 over the last days. Well done by Dmitriy.

Sjaak as vice European Champion.Proud on him.
As shared by EK Zweefvliegen and the podium by Frouwke.

15 m. class; 1.30 AAT.
I thought NOTHING could go wrong for Peter Hartmann. But on the last days it did n’t go as well as before. Yesterday he was one of the out -landers today he was on spot 11 , loosing points again. Unfortunately for him too many as he is now runner up with 7112 points.
THE NEW EUROPEAN CHAMPION IN THIS CLASS IS DIDIER HAUSS.[7188] After day 7 he was still on spot 9 overall, but he raced to the top eating every day a bit of the points from Peter who topped the overall list for 6 days.
The French had a strong team together occupying spot 1 ,3 and 4.The number 3 is Christophe Ruch.
The last day was won by Jaroslav Tomana with a speed of 147 km./h.

Good bye Rieti by TEAM UK.

———-

Looking back at Arnborg!

It’s a tough job to win a prize.
Sabrina with the club class trophy and for her and the other champions ,…a trip to the USA, as I heard from Frouwke who was steward during these comps.
Picture courtesy Frouwke.

It was not always easy for the girls.Certainly in the beginning, the weather did not co-operate. Already during practice it was impossible to do good training- flights. They still managed to fly 9 out of 13 days, some pretty marginal.
But all went well. We have great CHAMPIONS , fantastic runner up’s and good third- place-holders.
What is AS is important is the friendship created over the days. I hear and read above all sadness that it is over. SO IT WAS GOOD!!!!
I was pleasantly surprised by the flying of the Dutch girls. Natasja [ spot 8 from 10] had only flown 1 WWGC , for the others , Annemiek [spot 9]  and Lilian [11]  and Doortje,[12]  it was the debut. All 3 flew in club class with 17 participants.Dutch female gliding is up and running.
Annemiek,  as said still a junior, won 2 days , was 2 times 3d and 3 times at the bottom of the list. So a bit more consistency and she will win in the future; her talent still has to be developed over the future years.
Elena is such a rough diamond as well and for sure more young girls, but I don’t know them all.
I sometimes felt for the Aussie girls Kerrie and Jo, flying in total different circumstances as down-under, on days they would not even think to go the airfield home.
Jo mentioned; “  It’s always a bit sad to end a comp. Especially one as special as this one!
Lots learnt and new friends made. While the flying was supremely difficult I wouldn’t have missed a moment.”

Kerrie, who is full of humor,  mentioned;
“ Denmark is a wonderful country – green countryside, neat farmhouses and fields, extremely friendly & hospitable people –
we’re determined to come back and visit again – but next time in summer!” 
She was grateful to many also ” to the  to all the Danes who offered help, encouragement, support and a shoulder to cry on  – esp the two pilots at Christianshede (gliding club) who individually came up to apologize for the Danish weather!”
Jo shared the pictures from the prize winners, who are all on their way home now again with awesome memories on a very friendly easy going competition. Compliments to all !!!!
Specially for Swaantje who after battling her cancer, was in full swing again during this WWGC. She was 14th , but who cares, she PARTICIPATED!!! Good on her.She is on the left ,first row on this picture with ALL the German team members , who were so successful!! As  shared by Frouwke.

The Club Class Champions: Sabrina ,Chrissie and Edita.

The 15 m. class winners; Anne, Marilyne and Katrin.

The Standard class winners; Aude, Dana and Jana.

———-

Bailleau

NO FLYING on the last day in Bailleau so nothing changed in the scores.
—” Frank Hiemstra is “Le Champion Grande Vitesse de Bailleau 2015″.—”
Best of 37 ,so a good result!!! Congratulations to Frank .Runner up was another Dutch pilot Robbie Seton, also one of my former juniors. He just missed out on 4 points!!!Well done Robbie!
In the friendly class 2 Dutch pilots on top Stefan Knoop and Thomas van Heeswijk in the Duo Discus and Michael de Wert in the Discus.
In the long flights class the winners are from home; Bailleau pilots Henry and Negri in the ARCUS T.[750 kg.]

As shared by Ben Hiemstra……Robbie, Frank and Jan.

Already for years and years a VERY PLEASANT competition!!!!

——–

18m and open class in Stendal

NO FLYING for 4 days.

NOW WE KNOW WHY!
By the way we had yesterday, 43.000 lightnings here as well.
As shared by the organizers.

BUT they try today ; Racing tasks were set, BUT the thunderstorms started again. 18 m. in the back of the field was cancelled at 12.30.
Open has to try;2.30 AAT. But first they secure the gliders till after the storm.
More tonight or tomorrow.

———-

Slowly a very careful beginning of the season in Australia with 300 km. flights from Warwick and Kingaroy.
AND a great ridge soaring day in the EAST from AUSTRIA. From Wiener Neustadt they flew  yesterday, 1.150 km. in a DUO DISCUS.And here we are looking ahead at autumn.

More tonight or tomorrow depending on the news!

Cheers Ritz

WWGC in ARNBORG

DENMARK.
Last day cancelled:
“The last day here has been cancelled. Ironically a warm airmass is the culprit.”
Aussie team.

It happens!!! One day you are the glorious winner, the other day you land out. Yes it happens and not only for Annemiek who raced yesterday, all alone to a win from everybody in her class with half an hour.
She writes; ” from hero to zero,”  as welcome from Uys also in Denmark, so to share that is a good self reflection as well.
Don’t forget Annemiek is a JUNIOR!!! She is still a student at the Technical University of Delft. Last year she was one of the racers, driving the solar car from Darwin to Adelaide and her team WON.
She flew already in Australia and in South Africa so with her young years she is already a bit experienced. In my eyes a rough diamond ready to be polished to GLOW.

Club class; 2.30 AAT, with a blue day and up to 1200 m cloud base it might have been better to not fly alone but to stay with the group. Annemiek decided not to stay in a gaggle but fly home on her own initiative, as yesterday.  This time unfortunately it did not help her , as everything what “helped” yesterday did not help today and as she adds,”   just STUPID!”
The others did quite well.
Elena from Italy [186 km in 2 .50] ,had her bad day  yesterday and was on top today, she went from zero to hero! Chrissie from Germany, who knows what it is to be a women-world- champion was runner up.
AND,…it looks like today might not a day so the scores from today might be the WWGC champion scores.If so; Sabrina will be the new SOARING-QUEEN , and Chrissie the runner up and Lithuanian Edita the number 3.

Standard class; 2.30 AAT.A good day for the girls from thew Eastern countries; Dana, Jana, both  from the Czech Rep , Joanna from Poland and Hana from The Czech rep , formed the toppers.
SO,…when there is no flying today Aude from France will win with 10 points on Dana and 29 on Jana.Sue will be 4th.

15 m. class; With Marilyne and Anne winning the day, their route to fame and glory was clear. Anne was so far ahead that she will be the new queen of World soaring. Marilyne as runner up and Katrin as number 3.

A lot of gliders landed at the same time , so as the German blogger mentioned;”  Within 5 minutes it looks white here”.
TODAY LAST DAY!!!!BUT,…will there be a last day. NO GRID Before briefing!!!!
WHEN they fly a lot is possible with these scores in club and standard, up and unfortunately also down the list.
NO FLYING DAY, so the QUEENS are the QUEENS, the runner up’s, the runner up’s and the good third , the good third!! A pity it is as it is.

Was this one of the last finishes yesterday??
Shared by Team Germany.

———

13.5 m. WGC in POCUINAI

Lithuania.

Lithuania local Vladas has started his race to win this WGC just a bit too late. He won again, did so 5 times,  but before he was in the right groove , after the out landing on day 1, Stefano was already “gone”.
Today Stefano was only on spot 6 , but with a lead of 400 points you don’t have to take risks. He is TOO experienced to do so.
Morgan was last today ….” first- big- competition- Jitters ??????”  … but he is still on spot 3 , though Alberto from Italy, nice fellow, is now just 65 points behind him….. And Francois not too far behind him. 2 Days to go.

Vladas in his Mini Lak ,as shared by the organizers.

Here is team USA :

—” We had a great day flying together!    The cloud base was very low at launch time so we spent over 2 hrs waiting for bases to rise and to start the task. We started with the French and Russians.
The first leg had some great cloud lines and we were even with the French at the first turnpoint.
Leg two to the north featured a decent blue hole and we working into the wind. We found some great lift lines though. We rigged and the French zagged and they beat us to turnpoint two.

The run south was not as well defined as we came back across the blue. We caught up to Luka and just beat the French into the turnpoint although they were higher and we were pretty much even.

The day was starting to get soft so they zigged and we zagged again. God I love this sport. We caught a good climb which got us to final glide altitude and made it home about 3 minutes ahead of them.

Turns out we  nailed the timing on the day and placed 2nd and 3rd!! The standings in the middle of the pack have compressed significantly and François is well poised for getting on the podium.

Two more days!—–”

What a great gesture from Tony and Francois:
” The 13.5m team USA pilots Tony Condon and Francois Pin would like to dedicate their 2nd and 3rd place finishes yesterday along with their flights today to to Rick Walters 3R.—”
A great mate who ,as I wrote to you, died after a bike accident.

A great tribute to 3R..Rick Walters.

One but last day in Pocuinai; Flying day 11 !!!!! Value for money!!!
Task;347 km. more later. They claim for a blue day, but on a picture you could see already nice clouds!!

Latest news PLUS picture,  about the GP 14 VELO which should have flown during this competition by Sebastian Kawa, from GP GLIDERS,  as shared on FB by the SSA;
—“Despite our best efforts it just wasn’t in the cards for us this time. It’s those little details that seem to grab your attention the most. Although GP 14 VELO won’t make it to Pociunai this week, we have had quite a year, designing a new glider from the ground up, aiming to lead in design, technology, construction and performance. Again we want to thank our team and all of our loyal supporters, whose number is constantly growing. Best of luck to our competitors in Lithuania also, may the best take the win! Hopefully this is not the last WGC in 13,5 m class and it’s in our hands to promote it as well as we can. We have great faith in its potential. This is just the beginning for us, we are building the sail planes with precision and quality so that each GP Glider will be flying for many years to come. Right now we will take short vacation, regroup and come back fresh and stronger. Our GP 14 VELO will have its first flight in coming weeks and later on intense test program is planned, stay tuned for more news.—” 

———-

EGC in RIETI

Italy.

These pictures from the Libelle say enough about  the weather.

but this is what the organizers said:
” Today there were thunderstorms in the northern part of the task areas, many gliders had a lot of rain and about 25 outlandings. the task. Some pilots could avoid the rain and finish their tasks with 115 km/h.
The south area was very fast with strong thermals, 4 m / s, and the cumulus base was up to 3200m over the mountains but lower in the valleys.”

This is what steward Terry had to say:
—“Weather was for more humidity which would make the day end a little early but hopefully no storms. Well “1 out of 2 aint bad”. It was humid so the day ended early, greatly assisted by the storms. 26 outlandings at last count. 2, maybe 4, gliders damaged. One young Swiss pilot landed in Val Denira (death valley) and hurt his back so they had the ambulance and fire truck sent out to help him. Seems he is OK but a little sore. A lot of tired faces this evening. Still trailers arriving after a late evening in paddocks. We are hoping that tomorrow may be better??—” 

And some words from pilot Ian from team UK;
—“Another hard Rieti day – didn’t climb off Terminillo and had to have a relight, so started late. Was a truly humming run for me and was having so much fun – climbs peaking 8-9kts to 10,000ft and I got up to the last turn as G was coming out. Gliders were climbing in front of the large shower, but by the time I got there just rain and sink. Was stuck in the valley with a cu-nim to the south and rain to the north and ended up taking the safe airfield option with a lot of other gliders. Timing was unlucky, the sky redeveloped about 40 mins later.”—

The UK club class pilots Ge and Ian.

Standard class ; 323 km.
With a 2d daily place , Sjaak looks , with one day to go , to consolidate his 2d spot overall. Winner was Russian pilot Dmitriy , well known for years, flying different classes. He moved up from 4 to 3 overall, whilst Polish Lucasz is still firm on top!!
Only 9 from 21 finished.

Dmitri daily winner.
As shared by the organizers.

15 m. class ;366 km.
A daily win for JELMER!!! Good on him.11 From 24 finished in this class . Peter [Hartmann] out-landed after 314 km. so did Leigh [Wells] and Louis [Bouderlique] , about 6 trapped in the same area.
Peter still leads with 37 points on Didier who moved from 4 to 2 , as one of the finishers.
Luca [De Marchi] moves up from 5 to 3 , he was “in” as well.Louis is now on 5 and Giorgio Galetto on 6.

Jelmer Wassenaar [Holland] , in the past he was one of my juniors, now he is married ,has a beautiful little child and a great job as development engineer with DG Flugzeugbau and is/was involved in the Volocopter-project.

   LAST DAY TODAY and it looks they are flying. Grid orders are out, tasks not yet,only for club; 3 hour AAT.

———–

Bailleau in France.

No flying yesterday but TODAY tasks have been set.LAST DAY, too much excitement !!!
Friendly pilots;1.30 AAT..Holland/Eindhoven leads with a Duo Discus and Discus , they should be OK.
Long distance pilots ; 2.15 AAT very small marge in this class overall.
Speedy pilots ; 1.45 AAT. VERY close scores!!!!

———-
Open and 18 m. Nationals in Stendal

Germany.

No flying yet.3 days have been cancelled. Today they try again.First estimated launch at 13.30.
More later.

———-

You are up to date with all the latest on the BIG comps. CU tomorrow.
Cheers Riz

WWGC in ARNBORG.

Annemiek as seen by Frans Guise.

AND the winner in club class was ; ANNEMIEK. Her 2d daily win. With an early start, cause the meteo mentioned an early end of the day, she left before the rest. She lined up for the start line,…. it felt good and….. off she went for the set 300 km.
She flew alone and passed the girls on their way to the most Northerly TP, when she was on her way to the next one already. After finishing she was the only pilot back at the field and could see some finishes from the other 2 classes.
All in all she was about half an hour faster than the rest, gaining 1000 points, where the runner up Sarah,  “got” 869. Well done!!!!!Annemiek  moved from 10 to 7 overall.
A less good day for Elena; an outlanding after 288 km. she dropped from 3 to 8.A pity!

Standard class;The German girls did well with 4 pilots among the first 5, with on spot 3 French Aude who tops the overall list.[4366]  BUT,…3 times world champion Sue  and current world champion, is on her heels only 63 points is the overall difference.
3 Outlandings.

15 m. class ;5 from 9 finished with German Katrin , a former world champion as well, as the best, JUST ahead of French Marilyne who got 3 points less.
When Anne from France keeps up her performance she cannot loose this WWGC. With 300 points she leads but ….we have seen “weird” things happening on the last 2 days, so let’s wait and see.

TODAY;2.5 AAT’s in all classes on what it looks a blue day. Tomorrow last day and farewell party in the evening and the prize giving on Saturday morning.

———-

13.5 m. WGC in POCUINAI.

Day 9; A good day for local hereo Vladas,…he won !!Nobody managed to stay around the 2 hour from this AAT, he came close with 237 km in 2.35 . Some, like Morgan  had 2.22 but less kilometers, 184.
A “horrible”  day for the French team as they both “out-landed” , Frederic after 48 km and Antoine after 128.
Stefano flew solid and was on a daily spot 2 with 213 km in 2.21.
USA pilots Tony and Francois were on spot 5 and 6.
Morgan had an interesting day and comment;
–“Yesterday I got 872 points for an outlanding. Today the winner got less points for coming home. Just a result of the ever-lurking “day devaluation” rule. I made a lot of points against my main competition for 3rd and fell further behind 2nd place.
I shared a thermal with a big flock of storks. Maybe 50-100 of them. I flew completely around the flock several times before they decided to move on.”–

Day 10. by the Aussie team;
“Woke up to an overcast sky with pilots doubting we are going to fly. Briefed for a 310km task for 13.5m. Mixed class has a trip round the Kaunas airspace.
Ready on the grid for a 12:00 launch with a rapidly improving sky.”

As shared by Morgan.

———-

EGC in RIETI.

After 3 days of thunderstorms , sight seeing , beer drinking and talking they had to fly again yesterday.
So back to the rhythm and to work.A 3 hour task was set for ALL CLASSES on August 12.
Club class;
13 from 20 finished and some toppers were “out” as Roman , Ge, Davide and Gilles.
The Czech pilots did well, occupying spot 1 and 2 for the day.

—” Today was not an easy day! In the area south of the tasks there were medium climbing values: up to 2 m/s, but in the north there were dry thermals and very weak climbs. Wind was still from north/east. Many pilots waited about an hour before starting. For the club class the start line opened at 1.35pm but many gliders started their task around 2.30pm and some 15m pilots started after 3pm. Probably it wasn’t a good choice as 17 gliders landed out and the last glider landed on the airfield at 8.00pm.—” as shared by the organizers.

Standard class; 6 out landings and also here some good pilots as Jay, Christophe, Vittorio and John Coutts.This moved him from spot 0verall to spot 4 .French pilot Lucas won and overall 1 pilot now from Poland Lucasz was runner up. The Swiss did well with a 3d and 4th place, which brings Stefan Leutenegger to a 3d spot overall behind Sjaak Selen.

15 m. class ; 3 hour AAT. 14 from 24 finished and it was a FRENCH day with Louis, Christophe and Didier on top all flying over 300 km .Peter Hartmann was on spot 6 and leads the pact overall, where the 3 French pilots try to chase him on the last days.

Today THANK YOU TO THE TUGGIES!!!!

August 13 today news from team UK:
—Briefing done, racing tasks for all three classes with a B task briefed if the weather doesn’t shape up as hoped.
Club class 260k
Standard class 323k
15m class 366k
All tasks are in the same area and in the same direction, South east, north west them south to the finish.
First launch 12.30--” Postponed to 12.45.

———–

German Nationals in open and 18 m. class in Stendal.

2 hour AAT s today. That should be possible!

———–

Bailleau, speed and long flight classes.

Another Dutch win in speed class for young Frank Hiemstra in his St Cirrus. AND,..he is back on the top ONE spot overall.Only 17 from 35 finished and a few of the overall toppers belonged to the out-landers. Yes this is soaring.
So 2 Dutch pilots Frank and Robbie top the overall list with just FOUR points between them. I know both, very FAIR but  they want to win!!! Looking forward to today and tomorrow .
13 from 20 in the “long flights ” finished!

———-

More competition news tomorrow and on Saturday

Cheers Ritz

Confusing weather in Europe, bad, good, better ,best!!

13.5 m. WGC in Pocuinai.

Winning these prizes is the mean reason they fly ….extra motivation/inspiration.
As shared by the SSA.

When I finished by blog last Sunday I just could add the news , that the day was cancelled. Thunderstorms appeared faster than expected, so after 7 days of flying this is no problem, in fact it is GOOD!!!
Monday was an official rest day so they continued again on August 11.
” After 7 straight days of racing, we get two days off (storms today and official rest day tomorrow)“. by team USA.

Team France;Antoine and Frederic
As shared by Pole France Planeur.

August 11 ; ” we have good weather again, with a 340km task .”
—Mostly sunny. Clear. High 31C ,low 17 dgr. C. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 km/h.—
So,…the start gate opened at 12.55 and off they went for another day.
WOW….Stefano did SO well. He was the only pilot to finish. Great job as well from Morgan coming close ;314 km.French pilot Antoine Havet had 307 km.
Local hero Vladas had 304 km. !!!So except for Stefano , all out-landed in real or virtual.
Not bad those FES engines!!!!

I share the Aussie report including news from the pre -worlds flown parallel with this 13.5 WGC. Aussies Toby and Dylan fly/practice in that competition.
“A great day for the Aussies yesterday. A day win for Tobi, now leading the club class and Morgan was 2nd (only one got home), solidifying 3rd overall. Dylan also solidified his 3rd overall in the mixed class – none of whom got home.

The weather shut down with what felt like a sea breeze crossing the airfield, only it came from inland. The best guess was that the cold front that cad crossed the day before had reversed back into us. This shut down all thermals on the last leg much earlier than predicted.”

August 12; “ Today we have a 2 hour AAT – we need 35 degrees to break a low inversion, but 36 degrees will cause widespread thunder storms.”
More on that later.

———–

WWGC …ARNBORG in DENMARK.

Italy [Elena]   AND Australia [Kerry]

Holland [Natasja] AND  France [Aude]

Sunday August 9;
The ladies fly!!!Finally a day with cu’s and a base between 1200 and 1700 m. So the girls were “high”!! The best even got 1000 points for the day.
standard class; 315 km.Most started just before 2 PM.All finished within 4 minutes. The last came in at 6.30 PM. One out-landing.
It was France , then twice Czech Rep, France again and Czech Rep and 4 times Germany.2 Times Poland, once Denmark and the out landing for Australia. Daily winner ,Melanie Gadoulet, 3 overall now after Jana and Dana.

Club class; 303 km.best speed 80.4 km./h. by Aussie pilot Jo Davis in the LS 4, but due to handicap Elena was faster in her LS1f.[77.93 km./h/]Her 2d daily win over the 6 days they flew.
The Dutch girls did well,   on spot 3 and 4 the German girls , early starters were on spot 11 and 12 from 17.
Sarah, who won even 2 days was on spot 14.
The overall top 4 is CLOSE; 3011 for Sabrina from Germany in the St Libelle, Lihuanian Edita in the St Jantar 2999,Italian Elena with 2994 and Chrissie from Germany with 2945 points.

15 m. : 310 km. and one out landing. 2 French girls in the daily top Marilyne and Anne, then Anette and Katrin from Germany and Jana from Czech rep. ALL flying 80 km./h.
Overall; Anne leads with more than 300 points on Marilyne. Then Annette and Katrin.

Monday August 10; cancelled!!
International Evening.
AND,..Annemiek who won day 1 ,”got ”  her prize, a flight in the open 2-seater G2 from 1950.According to steward Frouwke Kuijpers , this is from the 10 built , the only one still flying.

Tuesday August 11 ;
1.30 AAT’s in each class.BUT,…the weather changed ,….and a longer B task , 2 hours was predicted , but when they did so, the weather turned back to “so-so” again.
Reason to cancel club and 15 m. class and as the standard has one day less ,they were allowed to fly for the B task back to 1.30.
The line opened at 3.35 PM with a base of 800 m. and 1 to 1.5 m lift. Reason for several pilots to stay close to the field.BUT ,…they started so they had to go!The 13 girls left within 4 minutes between 4 PM and 4.04.
12 Flew over 100 km./h. Nearly all were back just before and 2 just after 6PM.
French girl Melanie and Aude are “chasing” the Czech girls for the overall top.

August 12;
Decent tasks today; 331 for standard, 300 for club and 373 km. for the 15 m. girls.
More later.

———–

EGC in RIETI.

Nice picture of Davide at Briefing, after he won the day, on August 8.
as shared by the organizers.

Sunday August 9;
“For today, the Contest Director, decided “no task” because of bad weather forecast with many thermo-convective thunderstorms all around Rieti. As we can see in the photos Terminillo mountain is in the clouds. Tomorrow it will be rest day: a weather system coming from Atlantic is pushing a cold front over Italy with heavy thunderstorms and some risk of hail.” 

The Terminillo.

 BUT,….lot’s of FUN with the preparations of the NATIONAL EVENING!!!!!!
AND… enough happening as you can read in Terry’s  story for the day;
“First part of my post fell off? We had the international evening tonight, a great event. My favourites were the Russian Vodka, the Polish Vodka, the Austrian clear stuff, the Dutch orange stuff, the British gin stuff, The Czech beer, the Czech Vodka, The Slovak Vodka, the Spanish Sangria, the Finnish Korsakova stuff, the Belgian beer, plus various food tastings plus a whole lot of other clear stuff that I cannot remember for some reason. ” 

And  TEAM UK;
“A full report of last nights international evening, we won. Although most teams might not consider international evening as a competitive event we did, and it went well. We quickly decided that for environmental reasons it was better to serve our eton messes straight into the mouths of our victims, and this was then quickly washed down with a appropriately strong glass of gin and tonic. This led to some competitive sausage eating and more eastern european vodka than is healthy for anyone. I wouldn’t expect many more posts from the team today, the camp is very quiet and we are two team members down at the moment, location unknown.”

Monday August 10;
Official rest day! GOOD,….looking at the pictures and video of the INTERNATIONAL PARTY, , they might need 3 days of rest !!!!!!

Tuesday August 11 ;
The morning-weather in Rieti as seen and shared by team UK.

NO TASK…

Wednesday August 12;
They are flying again, not yet with the great Rieti circumstances but they fly;
Today area task of 340 km for club class, 430 km for standard class, 379 km for 15m.

———-

GERMAN OPEN and 18 m. CLASS NATIONALS.

During practice!
As shared by the organizers.

In Stendal Borstel, they started yesterday with the always exciting open and 18 m. class Nationals.
A few HC pilots as well; from Holland Alfred Paul Alfers [ASG 29] and Sikko Vermeer.[ASG 29 E]  From Belgium Pierre de Broqueville [EB 28] ,from Sweden Boerje Eriksson and Markus Ganev [both ASG 29 E] and from Rusland Maksim Okhapkin.[ASH 25]
A total of 76 pilots !!!!
August 11..Day 1 ;
estimated first launch at 12.30, tasks to the east. In the end the first launches started at 2.30 PM.
18 m.;272 km. but after a field briefing reduced  to a 2 hour AAT.
open class ;269.5 km. C tasks were valid but nobody flew higher than 500 m. so the day was CANCELLED in both classes.
Can’t say they did not try!!!

August 12 tasks; are not on yet but according to some people over there the weather is not yet “flash”.They set a racing task as task A and the B task will be an AAT.
More later.

———-

Bailleau.

70 at the grid as seen and shared by Ken.

They carefully tried with a 1.30 AAT for the experienced pilots;speed class. One class ” The friendly one” was cancelled the other called ” long flights” got a 2 hour AAT.
After 2 cancelled days pilots are eager to fly again. But it is waiting and waiting as you can see on the picture shared by Frank Hiemstra.

No worries ,..they flew last Sunday. Stijn Vanden Boer from Belgium flew 163 km. in his 15 m. version LS 8, with a speed of 109 km./h. good enough for 378 points. Frank [Hiemstra] from Holland in the St Cirrus was runner up ; 161 km. in 1.39.
The Long flight pilots flew as well, had indeed a longer flight just over 200 km and the Bailleau- locals did best!18 from 19 finished.

August 10;
228 k. in the ” friendly”  class, 435 in the” long flights” and the “speed ” class got 302 km.
Rik and Stijn Vanden Boer did well in the speed class starting pretty late , chasing and winning the day in an LS 8 and St Libelle.
Except for one pilot they all flew the 435 km.in the “long flights” ,good on them!!
August 11;
19 Pilots left in the Long Flights and with a 2.30 AAT ,the 4 best spots were for the locals from Bailleau; 270 km. with a speed of 108.12 km./h. in a Duo Discus XT gave 760 points.
The speed -pilots had 2.15 as time for their AAT.A good day again for Stijn winning the day with 195 km. in his St Libelle.Not such a good day for Frank as he was 23 and loosing more than 200 points.

Bailleau as seen by Dennis Terpstra one of the competitors.

August 12; 396 for the long flights and 297 for the speedy ones!

———–

Fuentemilanos ;  was hot again during the last days, hot as in HOT /warm and hot as in many good flights.
Kilometer -eater Guy Bechtold added number ???? to his list of thousands.
Vinon;” Sometimes difficult, sometimes easy”. was the comment from Bert Schmelzer jr. on his 811 km. flight in his “new”  ASG 29. Together with his partner Barabara and his brother Tijl they fly in Vinon this week.

Unfortunately I read some VERY sad news too about the French mountains in Le Figaro. One pilot ,53 years old died when flying from Serres already on August 2 but they only found him on the 10th, another one both German by the way, only 32 years old crashed in the Haute Alps [Embrun] yesterday. TRAGIC!!!!

———–
For those interested;

“The countdown to one of the most exciting and competitive sporting events this fall has started. 20 of the best pilots in the world will be coming to Varese, Italy, where they will compete for the title of FAI World Sailplane Grand Prix Champion. Using the latest 3D presentation and video technology, the organising team at Varese will bring you all the drama, tension and excitement live, with race coverage every afternoon from 5th to 12th of September. Follow all the action each evening!”
I will follow it as well , with so many others!

———-

To finish also for those interested ;

Kingaroy Soaring are the proud hosts of the 2015 Gliding Queensland State Championships.

All information can be found at the following link – http://kingaroysoaring.com.au/

Save $50 by registering by the 3rd September meaning all you will pay is $100 registration.

You are up to date, with the latest,CU when there is enough and exciting news again.
Cheers Ritz

I start with the comps that finished and continue then with the cat 1 comps who finish on the 14th/15th.

KLIPPENECK.

Klippeneck ready to go.
As seen and shared by Fabian Mauchle.

I left you on Friday morning, just be able to give you the daily distances for all classes. Here is the last  day!!!!
Flying on Saturday, August 8,  was for private reasons cancelled.
5 out of 8 days !!!!
It was after day 2 , either Jeroen and Dennis or Dennis and Jeroen on TOP of the overall scores-list.Who is going to win this family get-together in St class???

August 7;So this was the LAST day in Klippeneck and one with hail and showers
“One of the most difficult flights ever, made it home by just 50m! Hard day to stay together, couldn’t follow Dennis today. Finished together though, amazing finish of a strange but excellent week.” as shared by Jeroen [Jennen].
Standard class got a 280 km. task and the Belgian boys/cousins flew 272 km. , best of the day but the handicap factor from the St Cirrus and LS 4 gave more points for the winners[258 and 264 km]  then for the 2 LS 8 pilots. Nobody finished.
The Klippeneck winner in St class is Dennis, ONE POINT AHEAD of Jeroen.They were in this class the only pilots with over 4000 points; 4366 and 4365. Number 3 with 3975 flying an LS 7 was Lutz Heydecke.
Don’t forget Jeroen is a JUNIOR!!!!
Jeroen; “ Overall winner of the standard class, second place and best junior performance at the competition! Proud to be part of the team, proud to fly with Dennis! Amazing week with difficult weather and hammer weather.. Credits to the organization and our helpers!”

In 15 m. 276 was set and ONE pilot managed to fly that distance;Stefan Knoll in the Mosquito. He “jumped”  from 6 to 4 overall. On the last day Winfried Schulz [ASW 20] missed out on just 10 km. and this brought him from spot 2 to 1 overall.

In 18 m. 364 km. and this last day was for “The Schmelzers” club mates from Jeroen and Dennis.With 6 other pilots they managed to finish on this difficult day.Only 7 from 28 did so.No real changes in the top Rolf Friedli won , 12 points ahead on Marcel Duenner , both flying ASG 29.

2 -seaters. All 22 gliders FINISHED in this class so they had a good run.292 km. was the set task . Hermann & Bieber [ARCUS T] were more or less EVERY day on  top in the overall scores , so also on the last day!!

open class ;Markus Gaumann won 4 from the 5 days and was the deserved winner;4348 points.

That was Klippeneck for this year! Next year version 48!!!

———-

DUTCH JUNIOR NATIONALS.

Happy crew members. Pilots are in bed,……….
As shared by Emmo Koetje jr.

5 Out of 8 days.
Last day , yesterday, had a 2.30 AAT. After Friday was cancelled,… one more chance to “shine”.
Guess the crews are tired I noticed on FB , happy party times.Good on them, they are young and still have the “power” to continue for hours.We did as well.
4 Young pilots are in the 3000 range so it looked one of them would be the WINNER.
Jelmer Vis [St Cirrus 3531] ] , Arne Kaas [Discus 3408] ,Mathijs Huls [LS4 3351]  and Sjors van Loon [LS8 3289] and well known Dutch pilots Andy van Helden and Rob Looisen are the SCOUTS today.
The weather did not co-operate straight away, AND also not later, so it was over and out for the juniors.The day was scrubbed.
Party time for some of the crews again, this time not with beer, but they could fly the glider!!!!
The Champion is Jelmer, runner up Arne and Mathijs did well with his 3d spot. Congratulations!!!
The first “injection” of competition-soaring is now in their blood, the future will show how this works out for them.

———-

13.5 m. WGC IN POCUINAI.

Just before he left Tony mentioned that it was hot and that it could be a tricky day. After some delay  the launches started at 13.30.
It turned out to be tricky for team USA, as they had to “motor” home. Good the USA team flies Silent electro’s. After 240 from the 255 km. they run out of thermals. Late starts at a quarter to 3 PM.The others finished between 5.12 and 6.08 PM.
Great job again for Stefano and the Diana as “they” won again and slowly the marge between him and the runner up grows over 200 points but local pilot Vladas keeps in the race being 2d again.
Tony had an interesting day ; he flew with eagles.

About day 6 some news from the organizers:
“A combination of a short towrope and a sudden prop blast resulted in Stefano Ghiorzo (Italy) losing control of his glider on takeoff. He quickly released, and there was no harm done. During the preparation for his second launch, somehow his tracking device was left behind. So those of us on the airfield did not know how he was doing until he flashed across the finish line, ahead of everyone else. His speed of 103 kph made him the winner of the day, with 795 points. His barogram confirms his report that it was a struggle until he reached the forest in the south part of the task area.

Vladas Motuza (Lithuania) had a similar experience and was second across the finish line, earning 783 points. Third place went to Frederic Hoyeau (France), with 636 points.” Ricardas Rusteika.

The Aussie team is now used to Europe and here is their news;
” Day 7 and more good weather. When was the last time we saw 7 consecutive competition days? Tomorrow we may get a task. Monday will be a rest day (and probably bring some needed rain)
Visibility is not the best here, so Morgan is enlisting some help for the Flarm from one of the clip on koalas we brought.”

August 8;
This day 7  ,yesterday , gave the pilots another good task with 378.64 km.
The weather; Sun and clouds mixed. Very hot. High 33C. Winds S at 10 to 15 km/h.
Next message; ” Tony launched at 1:45 pm and the task opened at 2:14pm. He and Francois are out on task over Poland.”
Not such a good day as Tony had to “motor” home again; 85 km. for him.
” Bad day for me. Didn’t make first turn point.”
9 pilots finished and it happened the TOP 3, was among them. 2 Just missed out on 10/15 km.
Good to see Morgan is “hanging in” during his first competition.
Stefano won with a speed of 97 km./h. and his lead is increasing.

August 9;as shared by Team USA

—” Lots of hope going on today. First Launch at 1. Temp peaks about 2 PM. Front approaching from the west.  Vytas confirmed today is flying day, tomorrow rest day. Finish ring with 250m minimum and 500m maximum. Penalties for being low or high.” —
Task 1.45 AAT.
team cup after 6 days.
1 Italy with Stefano and Alberto ; 876.
2. France with Antoine and Frederique ; 808.
3. USA with Francois and Tony; 748.

And as shared by the Aussies:
—” Yesterday was good for Morgan. With a late start to the day and predicted early cut off, everyone started close together.
The early cut off happened, trapping all except Morgan, Vladas and Stefano before the up wind turn point. Most of them made it back, but slowly.

Today we have a 1:45 AAT with late start and storms predicted for the end of the day. Cloud cover right now may make the start even later.
Tomorrow is a rest day (today may become one as well)”—
Today is cancelled!!!!

———–

WWGC in ARNBORG.

Low flight  and traditional rituals as shared by Arne Boye Moeller.

AND
One shared by Frans Guise with the Dutc witches.

No, the pilots are not SO frustrated by the weather that they move to brooms instead of gliders. this is TRADITION and it is an honor to belong to this exclusive club of girls/witches.
But yesterday,  they flew again as well,…in gliders ….and yesterday a task was set from 301 km. in standard, 258 in club and 307 km. in 15 m. class. Finally the weather gods are good for the girls,….maybe the witch dances……??????
A cold air mass , for the ladies today, was the message from the meteo.

Standard class; The Czech girls , Jana and Dana, flew well again.There is only a difference of 10 points between them, so this upcoming week will be interesting. Former World champion Sue from Germany is slowly making her way to the top as well; from 7 to 6 and now on 4.
12 from 13 Finished today.

Club class; 1000 points for German pilot Sarah who just flew a tad faster[69,79]  than the French girls Amelie and Aude.[69,69 and 69.50 km./h.]16 Finished in this class.
7 Girls in this class are between 1926 and 2071 points; 2 from France, 3 from Germany and 1 from Lithuania and from Italy. So a lot can happen next week.

15 m. A German day with 3 girls in the lead. Then 2 from France. though the overall-differences in this class are bigger , it can go ALL ways.

August 9 …today’s tasks. Standard class 316.53, club class 303.96 km., 15 m. 310.70 km.More in my next blog.

———-

EGC IN RIETI

August 7;a difficult day.
” 5th day. The air was very unstable: there were good thermals with base of cumulus at 2800m, from the start to Val Roveto, and some thunderstorms from Poggio Bustone to Val Nerina. Some pilots said that the visibility was very poor and was difficult to see the cumulus in the distance. Peter Hartman was very fast, 130 Km/h, but he said the yawstring was wet for more than one hour!” as shared by the organizers.
For some even a “terrible” day.Par example for Davide who out-landed after 233 km. from the set 370 in club class.
2 St Libelles in the daily top with German pilot Helmut Koelle and UK pilot Ge Dale. Juhani JUST made it home but lost a few [over 400] points and dropped from 1 to 7!! Ge moved up from 4 to 1 and Roman Mracek, who flew so well in Ocseny, is doing so again; he is now 2 overall.
Standard class;a 3 hour AAT was set and Couttsie did well;” 1024″  points for him but HC.[373 km. in time 3.05;120.67 km./h.]
Daily winner……SJAAK. Good on him and 1000 points for him , bring him back to spot 2 overall.He flew 365 km in time 3.04; speed 119.03 km./h.

John Coutts [NZ] as HC winner of the day and Sjaak Selen …..both got a bottle.
As shared by the organizers.

15 m. also a 3 hour AAT.
as said already a speedy day for Peter Hartmann, who knows the Rieti-mountains as well as the  mountains in Austria; 401 km. in time 3.03; speed 131 km./h. Speedy day as well for his mate Michael Rass and also former WGC Champion Leigh Wells had a great day;he was 3d with 407 km. but needed 3.20.

Worried faces in the tower during the finishes and after the sunshine from the last days…..some cool rain.
As shared by the organizers.

The day seen through the eyes of the steward Terry;
” Well, that was a surprise. A nice day expected again, with 3 hour AAT for the heavy gliders and 370km fixed task primarily in the northern part of the task area for club class. The cloud base was 8-9000 ft but visibility made it alittle tricky – when you cannot see if there are clouds ahead until you get there it is a little unsettling. Despite that all classes has a great day – until the thunderstorms hit. A couple of spits of rain which upset my afternoon in the shade suddenly escalated to a fierce thunderstorm over the top of Rieti with lighning and thunder and torrential rain. Perfectly timed to coincide with the expected return of club and Standard class.  Many gliders finished at 2-3000 feet so they could cross the finish circle and then escape to the east to wait for the storm to move away. G Dale did confess that this extra 3000 feet was gained in a 9 knot climb so not a major imposition. One glider has supposedly gained a small burn hole in the surface of the glider, from a lightning strike. 5 gliders outlanded, a couple quite close to the airfield. One glider suffered major damage in a paddock and will not be able to fly again. Another needs a bit of work. I spent my evening earning my keep with holding a Jury meeting to review a protest. Brian Spreckley and Max Bishop are the remote jurors and we held the meeting using a rather shaky skype connection. More on that later.” 

And by the UK TC;
” Leigh was blinded by multiple huge flashes of lightening whilst on final glide, he was 4600’ feet over glide and lost 3000’ having no choice but running through the heart of the storm with awful visibility, mountains on each side and sinking at 12 and when he landed there was a hole in his left wing about 5-7 mm round, we have no idea what could possibly have caused it.”
Leigh was 3d that day.

AND the still full of adrenaline story from TEAM UK;
“A bit different today… Our start was aimed pretty much straight away, to attempt to get round the thunderstorms before they got bad, but not to be too early in the weaker first area to the north. I started too late again after a minor delay but made good progress by taking large detours off track to score some strong climbs. I caught G as we ran back south back towards the higher mountains, but it was already too late and the storms had developed with large showers and lightning starting. We had to dive through some strong rain to get to the bottom point, where we climbed in the sunshine to cloudbase at 9000ft. Now we had to get back past the storm so headed back around the other side. It wasn’t looking good as another large cell had developed just to the north. We saw a small gap on track between the rain and it seemed to be the only option.. With regular lighting all around we hit 6kts lift which built to 10kts. As we climbed, the two large showers merged, closing the gap just behind us. We raced out of there at 100kts and a line of lift was marked in the clearer skies for the remaining 50km to our last turn. All the while, the radio was alive with the status of the storm at Rieti – Dave and jay were on glide and it was pouring down at the airfield with rain, thunder and lightening, and all classes were approaching home. G and I found a strong climb which peaked at 9kts to get to a really safe height before racing back into the stormy valley. The rain had just cleared the airfield as we approached but the run into the valley was adrenaline filled.

Proof of the 9.8 lift. As shared by Team UK.

Behind Ge in poor visibility . as shared by team UK.

August 8 yesterday;
After all the hectic from the day before and still thunderstorms around , some smaller tasks. Also a morning with fog but burning off later.
Club – 2:00 AAT   15 m. and Standard. – 1:30 AAT
” Short and snappy day – incredible climbs, best peaked at 10kts to 11,200ft above terminillo“.
” some blistering speeds, Cb’s locally now“.
You can only LOVE the UK comments.
Not a lot of points to give, but great fun!!!
Club class; a great pity he out-landed yesterday, but today he won again ; Davide!! With 118 km./h. he raced with his St Cirrus over 236 km. just in 2 hours ..at the dot,…!!!!All 20 pilots finished and raced ,…as local thunderstorms were predicted for later in the day.
Standard class ; French pilot Christophe Cousseau,  raced harder than hard; 160 km.h.!!!
He flew 244 km. in 1.30 .01.
4 Discus 2 gliders in the top. All 21 gliders finished . Sjaak was on 6 with 146 km./h.!!
The SLOWEST pilot flew 134 km./h. over 200 km. What weather again in Rieti!!???
15 m. class; 166 km./h. for Italian pilot Luca De Marchi !!!!!! He flew 250,73 km. in 1.30 AT THE DOT!!!One outlanding and the slowest pilot flew around over 207 km with a speed of 135 km./h. WOW!!!Crickey!!!

Words from the organizers;
” A very fast day, as we can see on Soaringspot, 166 km/h in the 15m class! The early start at 12pm and the short area task were a good choice to allow the gliders to come back to the field before the thunderstorm. Gliders could exploit the instability of the air before the thunderstorm, flying back to Rieti. During the landings there was a spectacular sky: dark and full of rain to the east, blue with beautiful cumulus to the west (see the photos). When the landing finished we had a very strong wind gusting up to 30 km/h and some rain.”

August 9 ;Today 
News shared by the UK team, GREAT GUY’s they KNOW about PR!!!!!
—” Another sunny start to the day here but trouble is on the way in the form of Cb’s later on. At the moment we aren’t sure whether there will be time to get a task in before it starts to go bang. Briefing is at 10.30 so we’ll
know more then. International evening this evening, Gin and tonic, Eton mess ( if we can find any strawberries) with a rest day tomorrow, probably in the rain guaranteed..”—

———–

BAILLEAU .

The last 2 days had to be cancelled.

————

What’s happening more?

My friends in Australia shared some news I want to support. The Snow family did not only rebuild Canberra Airport to the best, most modern and innovative one in Australia, but son Tom is a “fighter” for equal marriages as well.
” This evening from around 5:30 pm Canberra Airport will be taking a big stand on marriage equality. This is an issue that you all know is close to my heart [ Tom Snow]  I’d ask that you all “share” some of the images I post. And please retweet @CanberraAirport on Twitter. ‪#‎WeCanDoThis‬

Canberra Airport welcomes politicians with rainbow terminal.
As shared by Tom.

Our Soaring world does n’t exist ONLY out of comps. You might think so , as I write a lot about it, I know,..but I LOVE to follow them.
Pilots just love their flying where ever , how ever. A good day is a good day and gives EXTRA joy.
Last Friday a few 1000 km. flights have been flown again, from Bex in Switzerland and from Sisteron and Puimoisson in France.
940 in an LS 6 from Vinon is worth mentioning as well and 951 with an LS 6 with winglets from La Motte also.

Cheers Ritz,
CU you on Wednesday or earlier when I write TOO much [again!!!].