It was not a bad season till now, in fact just a great season, but the weather is “off” at the moment and will be off here till next week.
Last Monday, so 2 days ago,  was an extremely good day in this area.
On this day, June 26,  Tijl Schmelzer [ Ventus 2CT /18m.] flew a great 1000 km. from Keiheuvel in Belgium over a very small area AND,…mainly over our small FLAT  country The Netherlands!!!!! TOP JOB!!!!
“Incredible day of an already incredible season. Unfortunately the weather area was tiny, but the airmass inside was fantastic. This flight would not have been possible to plan without Topmeteo. Astonishing how accurate it was today (as it was also most of the season).” OLC comment from Tijl.
The whole flight was under 1670 m. AGL and it took just over 11 hours ;1.023.7 km. speed 92.6 km./h.Good on you Tijl!!!!

Tijl at another occasion.

During my absence Tijl flew a 1000 as well this time with his mate Ken in the Nimbus 4DT;
Here is Ken’s story about that day with a free flight over 1.028 km.
“Well, I didn’t have to think long when Tijl called me on Tuesday June 13 at noon and asked, what about another 1000K together tomorrow? I called my dad and asked if the Nimbus was available for an early takeoff the next day. Around 11 o’clock at night, everything was ready and we all prepared to sleep at the airfield.

Night rest was short but good. We prepared on time, no rush. Wil, our towpilot also showed up on time and prepared the Husky. Last meteo updates still showed the possibility for a 1000km flight.

Goal was to break the Belgian Record for out an return with a turnpoint in Czech Republic near Karlovy Vary. Tijl checked all the loggers one more time and off we went. The Nimbus was fully loaded but takeoff was no problem for the Husky. Runway 09 also gave us that little extra obstacle clearance.

Wil towed us towards the Belgian border near Maastricht. Clearance to climb to 5500ft was already obtained from Kleine Brogel before the start and confirmed once airborne. When we released, a quick check of the turbo was done and we accelerated towards the startline into Maastricht airspace.

8:47, we zoomed the speed back to 120kmh and set course straight to Weisweiler. Headwinds were much stronger than expected, 17kmh instead of the forecasted 3 to 4kmh. Our glide ratio was only 40 where we wanted at least 50. Arrival altitude at Weisweiler was only 450m. Still, clouds were already visible and we discussed the outlanding possibilities in case the power plant did not work and the turbo would fail.

1,9m/s average was the first climb. Unfortunately we didn’t get higher than 1100m and our first try to reach Bergheim was abandoned. Headwinds were still too strong. On the second climb we got up to 1200m and with some indication of lift on our route we decided to continue.

Bergheim delivered as promised and we could quickly continue to Dormagen. The cumulus clouds developed nicely over the Sauerland but the cloudbase did not go as high as expected. Nevertheless we were almost on speed and progressed as planned.

Tijl and I changed controls every 45 minutes to an hour. The heavy Nimbus behaved perfectly. She climbs incredibly well although being filled to max takeoff weight. She really is a joy to fly.

Towards the Wasserkuppe the cloud cover changed from scattered, to broken and eventually overcast. We decided to fly a bit slower and keep high. Once past the high terrain it opened up and we increased our speed in between thermals again. Where were had to avoid some airspace in the beginning, we could now set course straight to our turningpoint.

But what happened then really caught us by surprise. In just 10 minutes time the sky turned from textbook soaring weather to blue. Did I fell asleep for a few minutes and missed something or did the clouds disappear just by a blink of the eye Tijl asked out loud. A warm airmass came in from the south and was not forecasted, at least not this far north.

We continued on course but with the first climbs in the new airmass it became obvious the goal of flying the out and return would be very difficult if not impossible. 30km north we could see the cumulus clouds over some higher terrain. 120km before Karlovy Vary, we decided to abandon the task and go for 1000km free distance.

Climb rates under the clouds were good compared to the blue thermals. But planning the new course to make the 1000km was challenging. Airspace, large blue areas proved to be a difficult at times. But we managed to plot the best course, especially when Tijl eventually had 4G coverage and could upload the last satellite picture.

Back over the Sauerland and to the power plants to complete the 1000 became the game plan. Unfortunately optimum distance of the LX9000 did not take departure from the start line of turbo test into account but calculated from Kiewit airfield. So we started to calculate ourselves.

Arriving back in Dormagen was uneventful and we could immediately continue to Bergheim. Tijl flew the turbulent thermals over the power plants and I performed the stretches in between the plants avoiding the area over Jülich every time. Bergheim proved to be the best with climbs of 7,0m/s and 6,4m/s the second time. Weisweiler seems to be much weaker, still no complaints with an average climb of 3,4m/s.

On our last arrival over Weisweiler we could not get a real positive climb, only an average 0. We waited for a few minutes but when it became clear the plants would not produce more we decided it was time to go home. We were convinced we already passed the 1000K mark and glided towards Maastricht again.

The turbo was started at 500m. Clearance to cross Maastricht was obtained. Kleine Brogel was already closed and we speeded up towards Kiewit. We had to postpone our arrival a bit for a late incoming ultralight but once he was on the ground we could make our low pass over runway 27 followed by a landing on 09.

Once again 1000. Number 6 from Belgium for Tijl (when writing this he is at 7!…June 26!!!) and he did not know how many total, 12 or 13 he thought. For me a bit easier to count with 4 in total and 2nd one from Belgium, also with Tijl. Passing the 1000K mark still remains magical, especially flown out of Belgium.

Tijl’s comment at the end was the perfect resume of the flight, that was a heavy one! 😉
Tijl’s comment;“Magnificent but not easy day for Ken and me. We had to cancel the original task since the good forecasted area turned blue. We then made the best of it.”

So, thank you Tijl for another wonderful flight together. Although the flight lasted again 12:53 (exactly same time as the one in 2012), I didn’t feel that long. Thanks dad for your help and the glider. Hilde for your help, what would we do without you. Wil for the tow and everybody who showed up and gave us a hand.

The evening ended with some delicious hamburgers, comfort food for pilots and crew after a long day!”

Good story Ken!!!

      

Selfie over the start line. ……..  Clouds over the WASSERKUPPE……….Tijl focused

        

Joining Wilfried Grosskinsky over Weisweiler…….Masks on over the power plants. …..   Almost sunset.
Pictures and text shared by Ken Evens.

Back home! 1025km OLC, 1028km Charron. Tired but happy 😊

Back to June 26.…..Dutch pilots ,who did not have to work enjoyed distances till over 77o km. even over 700 in the Pegase.
The USA had straight forward weather as well. Wave-Soaring-Mecca’s as Ely and Minden showed several over 1000 km-flights with Keith Essex topping the list that Monday flying 1.189 km in the JS 1.[145 km./h.] from Ely.
His OLC comment;”A manic flight. Few of the energy lines went to where I was going. Heartbreaking flying across cloudstreets instead of with them. Lots of time spent getting low. The last 150k were in the blue. Ridge soaring isn’t something you do in Ely but had to do a little bit to make it make to Ely“.
Mitch [Polinsky] is such a [wave]-kilometer eater as well; “Declared 752 km triangle. Completed at 157.04 kph. Challenging weather to the north and a big blue hole coming home from my last turnpoint. Fantastic lift along the ridge north of Mt. Jefferson. A fun flight with lots of variety of weather.” Mitch flew the EB 29  from Ely.

Most comps had till now , a good amount of flyable days, but you will see it is getting less.
There are still a lot of comps in progress at the moment so let’s quickly have a look.

———–

Club and 18 m. NATIONALS in the UK.
June 17-25 2017

I left you after 3 good days “The soaring gods have blessed us with another cracking day for the comp”  and 2 cancelled days, so day 6 was on the menu for Thursday. BUT….”We’ve just announced that the day is scrubbed.”
After thunderstorms and heavy rain they could n’t do anything else. We expected those thunderstorms here as well last Thursday.They hit Holland but not us .
On Friday ,…no flying,…scrubbed.
On Saturday,….FLYING again !!!!
” The Strato-Cu sheet has broken up a bit in the last hour and the temperatures are increasing slightly quicker than expected.”
After 4 non flying days a short task number 4 , was set and with respect, the “oldies” are doing a great job in club class.
Brian [Spreckley] won in the St. Libelle and got the full 152 points for the day, for a speed of 66 km./h. over 122 km. Only 9 pilots finished the last finisher in a DG 200 with 53 km./h. TOUGH day!!!
No changes in the overall scores; Timothy still leads with 26 points ahead of Ian Macarthur and Brian is just 14 points behind!!!

18 m. started their day 4 before club , with 173 km.  and the 18 m. ASH 31 MI was the best with Tim Jenkinson flying it;97 km./h .for 575 points.13 From 25 finished, so a bit of a battlefield as Andy and Chris [Luton] and  Chris [Starkey] were “out.”
Changes here as Steve Jones [Ventus 3] moved to 1 overall, then 4 JS 1’s with Pete [Harvey] , Richard [Browne….3 points behind Pete], Russell [Cheetham] and Andy. Tim moved from 12 to 7.

There was NO day 7 so the overall scores after 4 out of 9 days stayed;
club; 1. CHAMPION Timothy with 2800 points. 2. Ian 2774 and 3. Brian with 2762 points.
18 m.; 1. CHAMPION Steve with 2943 points, 2. Pete 2863 and 3. Richard 2860 points.

I really hope the weather shows it’s best face at Lasham for the EGC !!!!!!

————

Club class Nationals 2017 in Hobbs USA.

Hobbs is a good “name” for us Dutchies as Kees Musters became world champion in Hobbs New Mexico.
Now the club class is on with 23 pilots.
They started with 2 practice days and on June 20 contest day 1 was on the program with an assigned task from 224 miles, won by Mike Westbrook in the Discus 2BW who put the first 1000 points in his pocket.
Day 2; with 210 miles was for the son from CD Ken in Uvalde 2012, Danny Sorenson.
Day 3; 193 miles. Mike Opitz was 3d but climbed from 3 to 1 and leads the overall pact now. Good on him!

No contest day on June 23 and 24!!!!

Day 4; They did fly on June 25. New daily winner Michael Marshall in an ASW 20 and he straight moved to the top overall.A 2 hour TAT was set and Michael flew 137 miles in 1.57. Danny had a less day being 13th and dropping overall to 6. 2 Mikes at this stage on 2 and 3…Mike Westbrook [daily 7th] and Mike Opitz.[daily 9th]
Day 5;a 3.30 TAT was set [distances between 179 miles and 317] and again changes in the scores. Mike [Opitz] won the day with 202 miles in time 3.49 and moved to 1 again. Mike [Westbrook, 5th for the day is at spot 2 and Bill Snead in an LS 8 is 3d now overall. Danny moved up from 6 to 4. Michael Marshall is 5th now.
All these scores are “fresh” so preliminary.

———–

GERMAN 20 m. and Standard class NATIONALS 
Zwickau June 20 -30 2017.

On Thursday they started with day 3 with blue skies in the morning a forecast for thunderstorms in the afternoon, so A and B tasks were set …and they flew.
I just heard on the radio that Hamburg has been hit by violent weather after the heat, even a tornado.

Day 1 , 2 and 3 in Standard class;
Day 1 with 360 km was pretty straight forward for the 38 pilots as only 3 out-landed. Daily winner…. young Sebastian Naegel in a Discus 2T.
Day 2 got a B task so less straight forward weather and Robert Schroeder was the daily BEST in the LS 8 neo.
Day 1 had 3 Discus’ in the top day 2 ,3 Ls 8’s.
Day 3;Robert liked his win,  so he did it again!The 270 km A task was set and flown by ALL 38 pilots

Day 1 , 2 and 3 in 20 m. class;
Day 1 was good for the “dosis” as well;380 km. for the 28 pilots and their 28 team mates .Lot’s of ARCUS types in this class but also still the Duo Discus,  not to forget the new ASG 32 MI. Martin Theisinger won the day in the ARCUS T; 1000 points.
Day 2 with a 209 km.  B task and another ARCUS T. Markus Geisen was runner up and Serena and Claus Triebel in there fancy ASG 32 MI did not fly.
Day 3 with 287 km. was an ASG 32 -day both in the top.
On Sunday there was not much hope, but the “meteo” did not give up and kept hoping no gridding yet. So a new briefing at 11, and YES the weather was flyable and at 12 they had to be ready at the grid.Hurry up hurry up,……as a 2.30 AAT was set…..

And they flew last Sunday; day 4 had 237 km. as the best distance combined with the time[2.33.] in standard and 26 from 36 finished.
The “dosis” saw Markus and his mate as best with 285 km. in time 2.29.
22 From 26 finished.
Monday was cancelled, so was Tuesday.
No gridding at this stage in Zwickau, if they have “our”  weather …RAIN…., there will be no flying there today, but there might be a “window”, you never know!!!

———–

SGP in France.
8th Series in Buno June 25-July 1-2017.

As shared by AAVE.[Association Aeronautique du Val d’Essonne]

With 2 practice days and a total of 17 pilots [2 from Belgium and 2 from Germany]  this race started last Sunday for another 7 exciting races.
Race 1; Christophe Abadie [ASG 29] walked away with the first 10 points. He flew the 179 km. in 1.58 [90.9 km./h] . His mate Frederic Hoyeau was runner up [8]  and from Belgium Daan Spruyt did well in the ASW 27 .[7]Four pilots did not finish.

as shared by AAVE.

Race 2; With 110 km. a short race. Christophe was still in the right groove and won again, [10] followed by Didier [Hauss….8]
13 Pilots finished.
A photo- impression from day 2 as shared by the AAVE.

      

Before,…during,….and after.

Race 3; The midday-message from the organizers was ” 1st launch not before 14:00 … sky is not really promising on the race area but all sailplanes are on the grid.”
In the end they had to cancel the day.
This morning no better news:” good morning everybody. As expected weather forecast is really rainy for today. Race of Wednesday is canceled. See you tomorrow.”

The face of disappointment!!!!!

Benoit-Jacques Pontanus chief pilot in Buno and so to see tuggy,…

and well known TC  and coach from the French juniors and now in the organisation Benjamin Neglais.

———–

WGC 13.5 m. in Hungary.
Szatymaz, Hungary – Jun 29 – Jul 16, 2017

Preparations are in full swing and USA pilots Francois Pin and Tony Condo traveled all the way from the USA to Europe and then by car to Hungary. Francois will serve as Team Captain and competitor for team USA.In the previous event he was 3d.

Tony ready for a new adventure.

Never a boring moment whilst travelling. Unexpected Tony arrived in Spain instead of Italy. He had never been there, so “done that and ticked off’.
“Unplanned layover. Missed my connection due to first airplane throwing a brake fault warning light the couldn’t clear. Took a couple hours to find another plane load it up and fill it with gas. So instead of direct flight to Milan I got to swing through here.”[Madrid]
More next week when the comps are in progress.

Now in progress;
Finnish Nationals 2017 at Rayskala with 22 pilots in open and club class from June 25-July 2 .
Czech open Nationals 2017 at Pribam , the PRE WORLDS for 18 m., with 64 pilots in 3 classes from June 25-July 5 .With pilots as Butch and Adam from Australia and Steven from Holland and Wolfgang from Austria [Happy birthday Wolfgang];
“Writing to you all from Czech Republic atm, I’m here at the 18m pre-worlds. Naturally having a good time, for my gliding updates should you be interested can be found at Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures ”
More next week.

Both scores to be found at www.soaringspot.com

———-

Cheers Ritz

It is June 21 ,..summer has started and we have today the longest day here and shortest night, time to start up the blog again….on my way to 1000!!!!!
It’s really summer here as the temperatures reach over 32 dgr. C and tomorrow they hit the 35.
A bit later then expected as the server in the USA was down and they “serve”  my blog. Good old Bill quickly fixed it so I really can start now.
The move to the South was  tough,…..  but many hands make a job light and before I knew I felt happy and really settled. Then it was waiting for internet, TV  and a landline. It’s not all working perfect yet as I need more gadgets to see TV upstairs and to not see all the time ” no connection to internet”.
The last technician was here yesterday as well and he organized my internet upstairs. A few extra euro’s but now it works well and I get not frustrated.

So back on track after a pretty tough removal and my one-week-out-with -the- high-school girls last week.
Refreshed now so let’s go.

 

The weather here was weird. May started colder  than ever [[the apple harvest was lost]and finished hotter than ever before [2 tropical days with up to 34 dgr. C]. June was mainly HOT here.
All in all it was a good month for gliding and as there were several comps so that was perfect!!!
No time for real research and a daily eye on the news, but in retrospect I can share my views with you, when you should be still interested.

————

HAHNWEIDE 2017.

Hahnweide , edition 51, was on with lot’s of interesting top pilots from all parts of Europe even from the world with participants from Australia, Matthew and Adam and South Africa Laurens Goudriaan who really enjoyed himself and will be back.
Great weather with 6/7 out of 9 days made it to the best ever competition in their history as they mentioned.
They flew in 5 classes and in all of them the first day was cancelled.
St Class had 28 pilots among them Matthew Scutter the JWGC -champion from Narromine and Adam Woolley, but also toppers from the UK as Howard Jones and Mike Gatfield. Not to forget the best pilots from Germany as the Schroeders Simon and Robert, Jan Omsels, Enrique Levin, Sebastian Naegel and from Holland Sjaak Selen who always flies well at  “the weide”.
With 6 out of 9 days Simon [5482] and Robert Schroeder [5395] were the best. Matthew won 3 days, but had also days he was “aux vaches” and finished overall on spot 15 .
In 15 m. class 2 German pilots, Steffen [ASW 27] and David [ Ventus 2A] managed to get exactly 1000 points each on a 449 km. -day. They repeated that on another day with 373 km.and when they were not equal in points they missed out on 2 . Clearly flying together with a good result;both on spot 1 with 5759 points after the 6 days in their class. Phil Jones [UK] followed with 5447.
In 18 m. it was a former Dutch National champion in 2009 AND Junior World Champion in 2013,Peter Millenaar [ASG 29E/18m] who turned out after 7 days of flying to be the best!!![6247]
Steve Jones was runner up and the JWGC champion from Husbos Christophe Nacke was 3d.
In the 20 m. class ” the dosi’s” ,some great names as well. What about Killian Walbrou and Holger Karow. It was VERY close between the ARCUS M from Andy Lutz and the ARCUS T from Killian; 6013 and 6006. They had 7 days and there were 27 competitors.
Open class is always nice to follow. Felipe Levin junior world champion in Rayskala flew an EB 29DR and with that glider he won! [5876] Very clearly as the runner up, Uli Schwenk had ” only” 5487 points.18 Participants and 6 days for them.

————–

BELGIUM NATIONALS 2017.

The Open Belgium Gliding Nationals were flown from St Hubert and they had 7/8 out of 9 days.
In club class it was mainly between good old Patrick Stouffs in the Silent 2 [friendly put at his disposal by Stefano] and young pilot Pieter Lievens in the St Cirrus. There was no last day ….cancelled….but the final flying day was top for Patrick and more or less a disaster for Pieter who outlanded after 31  from the set 168 km.
No worries though Pieter was more than 600 points ahead and kept a difference of around 200 points in the overall scores and was Belgian CHAMPION.[3182 for 2967 points]
In the combined 15m./20m. and st.class , Manu Litt lost nearly 600 points on day 1 but,….won 2 days as well. Here it was mainly between Daan Spruyt and Dennis Huybreckx; Daan won [6353] and Dennis was runner up [6098] with Manu on spot 3 and Tijl [Schmelzer] on spot 4.They flew 8 days in this class.
In the 18m./open class it was between Yves Jeanmotte [ASG 32 MI] and Bert Schmelzer sr.[Ventus 2CX/18 m.] Yves won 5 from the 8 days and with that he was the new champion.[5455 points]  Bert sr was a good runner up [5442] …….the number 3 had 4710 points.

————-

DUTCH NATIONALS 2017.

The Dutch Nationals nowadays called the KLM FLIGHT ACADEMY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS were blessed with some good 400 km. -days, but also with struggling days to “just make it home or not”. 3 Days in a row had to be cancelled but they still had 7 days out of 11 and after those 3 scrubbed days, the “real” thing started.
On the last day of May, the weather really improved and Ronald Termaat [open class] won the 1000 points for a 532.39 km. task. 6 From the 8 participants finished.
In club class a 4.30 AAT and 391 km. was flown by Jelmer Vis in a St Cirrus.
In the combi class some pilots even flew 457 km.
On June 1 with 2 days to go again long tasks.4.30 AAT’s for 18 m and open and 412 for the “combies” and 350 for club!!!
The last day was as always exciting and good tasks , maybe a bit underestimated , were set.
234 in 18 m. class and looking at the distance, the speed and for that result the “low”  points, tasks could have been longer, but,….it was the last day and the weather was going to change. It did not …yet. Jelmer Wassenaar in his LS 10 a won the day with the best speed of the day; 130 km. p/h.
Jelmer was already 3 overall, so he stayed on that spot. Good old Sikko Vermeer won with 99 points over Hadriaan van Nes and is the new Dutch Champion.

Open class, had on the last but one day also a 4.30 AAT and Jeroen [Verkuijl] won with 430 km. On the last day the best speed was just under 120 km./h. No worries for Ronald Termaat he is the Dutch National champion for the so maniest time!!!5657 points just 51 points more than Jeroen.

In the combi class Joost and Erik turned out the best in their ARCUS T. They had 361 points more than Robbie [Seton] in his LS 8 who flew an excellent competition as well.

Joost and Erik, as shared by Joyce.

In club the former junior beat the new juniors. Frank Hiemstra in the St Cirrus was nearly 200 points ahead of Sjors van Loon [same glider belonging to the junior team]Frank had a total of 4954 points.

Congratulations to all!!!!! Hope to be there next year again.

As shared by ZWEEFPORTAAL.

And to finish, 2 spectacular finishes from this championship by Arjan Vrieze. WOW!!!!! Thanks for using them.

In front of the Thermiekbel where lot’s had a great time as always.

———-

THE WWGC IN ZBRASLAVICE.

A WWGC.
As shared by Pole France Planeur.

The WWGC in Zbraslavice, Czech Republic, was also blessed with good to very good weather. Out of the 14 days they flew 12.
The last day was the ALL- deciding -day in the 3 classes. 3 Hour AAT’s ; task C [showers were closer than expected], in all 3 classes were set to define the champions!!
Australian young lady Ailsa , 23 years old so still a junior, was on top of the racing board for most of the days in club class but in the end the German girls , Sabrina and Sarah, bonded together and against Sabrina who was already the 2013 world champion it is a tough fight!!!And don’t forget the “other” Sarah from the USA who was 3d once.
Ailsa’s outlanding on day 11 cost her dearly,” despite being just 4km short of the finish line. 500 points lost compared to the winner and has shuffled her down to 4th place overall.”
She is still young her time will come. She did a GREAT JOB now and maybe in her home country she will win .[at Lake Keepit 2019.]
In all 3  classes by the way  the German girls were superb after a pretty bad/difficult start  . Also the French and the Czech girls did extremely well.
Congratulations to all ladies!!!!!

 

Ailsa from Australia ready for Lake Keepit.

Looking back at the last day in club class;
The French ,Amelie and Aude, started and finished together at 13.02 and were the best on this last day with Elena [ about the same start time] from Italy on a daily spot 3.
Amelie flew 331 km in time 3.04, Aude about the same.
Sabrina lost 36 points, Sarah 71. But no worries. Sabrina [St Libelle] stayed on spot 1 overall [8662] , Sarah Arnold [St Cirrus] who I met in Uvalde in 2012 and 2 years ago in Benalla, stayed on spot 2. Sarah Drefenstedt had a great run over the last 3 days. She moved from 6 to 3 and stayed there.
Elena was 4th [LS 1-f] , Ailsa 5th and our Annemiek [LS 4] was 6th.For all scores www.soaringspot.com

Claire Scutter ,…yes sister from Matthew,….from Australia flew in club class, her very first WWGC; Here is part of her last comment ;
“After 12 days of competition flying the contest has now come to an end. The last day was the best day of flying that we had for the whole competition. Cloudbase was up at 7000ft and quite often we experienced climbs up to 10knts. What a fantastic end to the competition flying!”
And;“The final night party was absolutely fantastic, everybody was invited and food, drink and entertainment was supplied by the organisation.The organisation at this competition went above and beyond in every aspect. I am so very impressed with how well this competition has been run and I think that they have absolutely nailed it! 10/10! From gridding, to task setting to party events (and even the weather!), everything has just been fantastic.”

    

Amelie daily winner  and Aude in her HORNET, as daily runner up.
As shared by Pole France Planeur.

   

Sabrina and Sarah Arnold.

   

Sabrina between 2 Sarah’s,….no not 50 years old but top glider pilots from the USA and Germany.
As shared by Sarah Arnold.She wrote me . ” I had the time of my life!”
And with the picture;”I’m happy and proud to stand with these amazing pilots and represent the USA. Thanks to all for the help and support along the way.”

Club Class as shared by the organizers.
1. Sabrina Vogt, Germany
2. Sarah Arnold, USA
3. Sarah Drefenstedt, Germany

Last day in standard class;
A good last day for Dutch pilot Doortje Grunder who won the day in her LS 8 with 349.80 km. in 3.07. She moved from 10 to 9 overall.She won before, task 7 as well.
French Aude Grangeray won 3 days in her Discus 2A and won the overall scores; 8881 points. She was already world-champion in 2015 so she extended  her title GOOD ON HER!!!
Cornelia Schach [LS 8]  from Germany moved slowly over the last days from 4 to 2 [8736] and Jana , one of the 3 very strong flying Czech girls was number 3. Dana and Hana flew mostly together with her to top 1- 5 spots during the comps.

  

Aude ; a continuous success!!!
As shared by the FFVV.

Standard Class as shared by the organizers.
1. Aude Grangeray, France
2. Cornelia Schaich, Germany
3. Jana Veprekova, Czech Republic

Last day in 18 m. class;
Also here “strong-flying ”  Czech and French girls and not to forget former WWGC champion [2007] Katrin Senne[ASG 29-E] . She was most of the time “on top overall” as well on the last day so champion again.
On the last day the toppers started about the same time and Melanie Gadoulet won the last day in her JS 1C-EVO;378 km. in 3.05.
Alena from Czech Rep flew the same glider and was 2 overall. A pity she out-landed on task 2.
Then the 3 French girls Anne [ last WWGC champion in Herning] , Marilyne and Melanie on 3-4 and 5…strong team.

18m Class as shared by the organizers.
1. Katrin Senne, Germany
2. Alena Netusilova, Czech Republic
3. Anne Ducarouge, France

So 4 German ladies in the top 3[2 x gold , 1x silver and 1x bronze], 2 French [ 1x gold and 1 x bronze] and 2 from Czech Rep [ 1x bronze and 1x silver] and one from the USA.[1x silver]

The team CUP was for France with Germany as runner up and Czech Rep as number 3.

Picture shared by Benjamin [Neglais] TC of France proudly in the middle.

An other interesting WWGC and the next one will be in Lake Keepit in Australia!!!! Will try to be there!!!

AND,…….the FAI- flag goes to,….Australia.

———–

The FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX was in between in Spain, Poland and Italy.

Spain; May 7-14 at Santa Cilia with 11 participants and UK pilot Jon Gatfield as winner [30 points], runner up Italian pilot Thomas Gostner [28 ] and on spot 3 Swiss pilot Fridolin Hauser. 5 Races from 7 were flown.
Poland; May 27-June 23 with 17 participants in Wroclaw and no doubt,…Sebastian as winner with 45 points.Runner up was Lucasz Wojcik [23] and on 3 Gintas Zube from Lithuania.[19]   5 Races from 8 and 4 were won by Sebastian.
Italy; started on June 10 with their GP in Varese and 15 participants quite a few from Germany and ,…from the UK …Jon again.
On Thursday with 2 days to go it was Mario Kiessling [Ventus 3] from Germany in the lead with 26 points after 3 from 4 days flying. Interesting, certainly with only 2 days to go,the same amount of points for Tilo and Giorgio….[.both in a Ventus 3] with 21 and both keen to be better than the other. Alberto [Sironi] is still in the race as well with 19 points.
Race 5 was “bad” for most, only not for Ugo Pavesi in his ASG 29. He was the only one who finished.But,…not a lot of points for the winner. Mario still on spot 1 overall.
“Ugo Pavesi, was able to complete the task because he was the only one who was able to interprete the day.
He flew, in fact, as a perfect windy day trying to stay always very high”.
The last race 6 was won by Giorgio, so 11 points for him. A weird day as they expected not to fly. It was raining early in the morning,.but,…it changed to a pretty good day. Giorgo stayed high and was not full of water and reached the highest speed of the week; 120.2 km./h..
For Mario it was not a good day, he finished ,….yes but slow 1 hour and 19 minutes later than Giorgio, so he must have been in real trouble,….but made it home. What was his trouble? He missed TP 1.
He dropped to spot 3 and Tilo was the good runner up!!

     

Numbers 1-2-and 3 and all pilots and Margot [l.] and Aldo[r].

The last news from the GP -site:

“Wonderful day today !
The conditions were great in spite of that there were some surprises along the task. It was a good mixture of wind and thermals, quite rough but some pilots could also fly the wave.
Jurgen Wenzel, the fastest pilot, at 125km/h, touched an aerospace just before the starting line.
Mario Kissling missed the first turning point so he had to go back to do it.
The winner of the day was Giorgio Galetto, followed by Ugo Pavesi and Tilo Holigaus.

JS-3 news

The new owner of the Tocumwal Sportavia hangar , Lumpy Paterson flew to Potchefstroom in South Africa:
Here is the story shared by Jonkers.
“What do you call someone who flies halfway around the world to try out a modern streamline cockpit? A passionate glider pilot. Lumpy Paterson just did that!

Attie did design the JS3 cockpit for a 1.94m, 120kg pilot, but in reality we were all a bit nervous when our better-build customers were placing JS3 orders.

Lumpy did us a big favor playing model for a couple of days, evaluating our computer aided ergonomically design cockpit.