WOW,…blog 1000 is a fact . Who would have ever thought so!!
When I started gliding on March 27 in 1967 I NEVER expected, to be SO MUCH involved in gliding!

First solo flight with instructor Dick Teuling from the ZES.

I wrote blogs already in my TOCUMWAL/SPORTAVIA period [ 1996-2006] and did that for a few years called “THE LATEST NEWS”. EVERY day, also after a tiring, long and hectic day. Never missed one. So in total I might have written over 2000 blogs.
Never forget the last blog there, when “Mr”. Cawsey sold the business in an auction except for the hangar and the acres around. I was sitting in my caravan and writing with the laptop on my knees tears falling over the keys and the music from “For ever young” was loud on the radio to comfort me.

The FABULOUS Sportavia WW2- hangar after NOBODY took care of it for years.

But with soaring.eu , I started when the late Tony Lentino, set up this Word Press blog ,as he enjoyed reading my scribbles as well. He was a frequent flyer at Sportavia.
When being back in Holland I needed something to do as I was a bit lost. My Aussie friend ,the late Maureen Huber, told me I should continue writing “you are good Ritz.”
I am glad I had the spirit and guts to do so. I had to find my way as there was no gliding in my back garden, nothing happened around me. Slowly I found the concept to “use”  my friends all over the world by helping me with articles, pictures and short comp-reports from places I could not attend.
Later internet and FB helped as well, so did SOARINGSPOT  and the OLC.

Also the CD’s from several WGC’s and JWGC’s invited me to write at their comps. I did a lot of writing there with great pleasure and enthusiasm.The JWGC in Rieti and  the WGC in Rieti both with invitations by the late Leonardo Brigliadori,[ I was juror there as well]  the WGC in Eskilstuna on invitation from Robert Danewid,[ I believe a Swedish guest at Sportavia recommended me] ,  the EGC in Raiskala on invitation by Silva and Jorma [ I was steward there ]  as well as the JWGC in Rayskala. Several CIM’s with Giorgio Ballarati and several comps, some just for a few days to feel the atmosphere as p.e.the field at Keiheuvel or Lasham.

The “boy’s ” from Soaringcafe “found”  me and I blogged for them . Bill still is “my host” on his server. Thoiugh I do not see them a lot they are friends for life.
So is John Roake ,who was president of the jury at the WGC in Rieti . He invited me in Italy, to write a column for his NZ-magazine GLIDING INTERNATIONAL.
I did that for a few years. Still help out when necessary. Loved it.

My last trip as WGC editor should have been in Uvalde at the 2012 WGC. But they had already somebody else. When that person did not show up, they asked me , but then I was committed to SOARINGCAFE already. The co-operation with 2 of the organizing-ladies in Uvalde was terrible, they tried HARD to spoil my 2d visit to Uvalde. I will not go into details here, but that was the ONLY “mishap/sad moment” in 50 years!!!
BUT,…ALL other people in Texas were awfully kind to me, so I still had a great time. I even was member of team USA and got to know all their pilots and TC , Dennis and assistant CD John.

To be honest it is pretty time consuming and not easy to write from a distance about a competition. I tried over the last years and did my best. Got lovely reactions as ” all comps on one site in a lovely way I don’t have to look anywhere else anymore“.
You won’t believe, how much time research costs, as you have to follow the news EVERY day and read all sites you can find to create a nice story. Follow the tracking to see what happens …
The other point is that without being at a field ,you loose contact with the pilots and crews,…in fact with all involved at a field and the great feeling of being AT a spot is difficult “to translate”  on a chair in my office. You do not know a lot of them anymore and then it is difficult to write about them as you cannot add personal “stuff”.
So slowly I grow out of this world of competition soaring, but I will always be interested.

Getting older now ,I have decided to NOT follow comps and write about them anymore at home for my blog. Lasham was the last one.
Looking back on big comps,….yes. Organizers and crews , TC’s,  they all blog and vlog so I am not needed  anymore for news. Soaringspot has all scores ;daily and total.
The social media are faster and used by ALL.

In the future I will keep publishing on Wednesday. Shorter blogs, still with I hope, enough nice news and I want to “dive”in the many picture books I have full of histories about comps since 1972.
Also the progress of the restoration of a unique Caproni single-seater  A -15 . This proto- type was specially built for Angelo Zoli to fly the WGC in 1972 in Vrzac in the former Yugo Slavia. This was the only A -15 glider built. Much more news in the future.
Also about the HP-10 another “oldie”.

I will share old pictures and stories mixed with weekly news. I hope you get used to that too. Got great reactions on my Benalla combination from 1978 and 2017.

THANK’S for reading my blogs over the years and for all the positive comments and the friendliness. I keep going as long as possible.
Thank you for always saying yes when I asked for a story or a picture. It was NEVER a problem!!!NO WORRIES.

Very pleased still with the Pelagia Majewska Medal for my contribution to soaring over the years. Very proud!

Here with Loek Boermans at the FAI Award event. One year later I got the GOLDEN PIN from the KNVvL.

THANKS !!!!!!!!

———–

A bit of soaring news as well from last week.
—–After Lasham finished , summer started again and in Holland flights from over 600 km. were flown in the end of August. Nice!!
Hans Biesters , flew from Soesterberg 686 km. in an ASG 29 E/18 m.. Sikko flew 579 same glider same place and Alfred Paul same story but 647 km.
58 Pilots in , Holland only, jumped in  their glider for a day out.

—–The total sun eclipse was seen, in the USA by a lot of friends at the airfield from Sarah and Jason ” Chilhowee Gliderport”  in Tennessee.Sarah even went up in her tug to tow Dennis [Linneken] in his glider to see the reactions in the air. AWESOME was the most read reaction!!
Reaction from Dennis on the question  “Did the lift weaken noticeably during totality??”
“Sarah towed me to 5,000 agl about 20 minutes prior to totality. It was glass smooth during the tow and my glide back down. Not a bump! A dark sled ride!”
Sarah; “In the final 15 minutes before totality the lift completely quit and cumulus clouds disappeared.”

Sarah shared some pictures as well from the air and on the ground before and after the eclipse.

      

Picture shared by Sarah and courtesy to Amy Stevenson Etheridge

—–And the French organized their RENCONTRE ASK 13 again [August 26-September 2]  at the Aerodrome de St Crepin.
27 Teams flew day 1 and the St. Crepin team won day 1, a 1.30 AAT with 166 km. and a speed of 111 km./h. Good on them!!!
How they manage to ALWAYS make from a glider picture “a state of ART” is SUPERB.They shared this one!!!

AND

When we doubt out future in gliding,
look at this picture;
the grid from the  45 juniors in the UK and a group of 10 coaches.; 55 gliders.

At Bristol and Gloucestershire,with 6 out of 9 days and Jake Brattle as champion [3.518 points] flying the DG101G Elan 3caxj.
Runner up;  former Benalla JWGC champion Tom Arscott [ 3.405 in St. Cirrus]
picture shared by David Tansik.

———–

SO CU on Wednesday with the weekly news and “look back”.
It was MY PLEASURE.
RITZ

Still having troubles with my blog .  Every time I want to start writing, ONLY the message   “Your IP  has been flagged for potential security violations ” shows up  and that means I cannot get in. But…working on it.

EGC LASHAM.

Perfect weather for the last day.
As shared by Arnaud.

 

August 23…day 11…task 5/ 8;Small tasks again and a day starting with 8/8 of Cirrus. Open first then 18m and last but not least 15 m. Tasks are B tasks, and that was already TOO much. Wind again, but another tiny window to fly in…!!!!
15 m……1.30 AAT; No finishers!!!  Most kilometers …80 km. …by Freddy Hein and all for nothing as it was another invalid day for 15m. class. A pity.

18 m….racing task of 136 km; The ONE AND ONLY FINISHER from all pilots, was in this class; Wolfgang who managed to come back in his VENTUS 3T. A bit of a lower finish than as requested,  cost him some points , but for ALL THIS he got 147 points.
Also in the “over-190-points” runner up Arne and number 3 young Peter Millenaar from Holland.Michael had 189 and Jeroen 187 points and most probably they really had to fight for those against the wind.

open; racing task of 164 km; 2 Pilots came very close,…Ronald [140,75] and Russell [140,43 km.] with not far behind with 138 km. Pete.

August 24…day 12…task 5/9; with better weather and “normal” tasks in which in 3 hours the pilots can find their own “best” way. But,…ouch after the open had started the message; ” there appears to be showers further north“.
15 m; 3 hour AAT….”only” 219 km. ,meaning another tough day in the office but a VALID one in this class. GOOD!!! The UK boy’s did well.Tim and Gary won the day in time 3.08 and 3.02 , a speed of 69/68 km./h. but they were in!!! Freddy and Uli from Germany followed.
6 From 14 flying were out!
How does it look with ONE day to go? Nail-biting….
1. Tim with 4.298….. 2. Freddy with 4.269…..3. …..Uli with 4.214 and 4. Gary 4.214. One of these 4 most probably will be the CHAMPION!!! Let’s wait and see.

     

Freddy and Uli before start.
As shared by the German team

18 m; 3 hour AAT…What ever weather, what ever happens ,…Wolfgang keeps his soaring-strength!! SO GOOD!!!! He won the day with 217 km. in time 3.02. Slow,..71 km./h… for an 18 m. VENTUS 3, but the circumstances did not allow more speed , finishing was already super. Mike finished 2 as runner up ..both in VENTUS 3T [seems to fly well in less good weather]  and Swiss pilot Juerg Haas , who I remember from when he flew in Tocumwal on Swiss Chris glider, was 3d. Good on him!!
Arne was “out”  and that’s a pity!!
How does it look;
1. Wolfgang 5.264….2. Mike 5.170….3. Christophe Cousteau 5.008 and still a change on a lot-of-points-day Bert jr with 4.991 on 4.

Maybe, maybe,…it is the concentration before the start.
As shared by the organizers.

open; 3 hour AAT…WOW,  the British pilots are doing well in their own country. Russell won the day  with 233 km in time 3 hours so at the dot and Eric Bernard had a good day on spot 2.Michael and Holger lost some 100 points on Russell and Ronald more. A pity.
11 From 17 finished.
So with one day to go……1. Michael with 5.660….2. Pete with 5. 519 … 3.Russell with 5.473. Still in the race also Holger with 5.424 Still hope also for Ronald with 5.327 but that might be really “hope”. And,…if Michael does n’t do anything wrong , and I never saw that,it looks he will win but it’s over when the last pilot is in on the last day.
One of the pilots called the day HORRIBLE. The task-setting team agreed, I read!

Some pictures shared by Arne , before he had his less good day.

      

Andy as CD with a new task at the grid………Henrik and Arne listening very concentrated……. colorful laundry and banners.. Brilliant!!!

 

August 25…day 13…task 6/10; VERY LAST DAY at LASHAM. With nice longer tasks, sunny and it felt like summer again !!
15 m; 305 km. racing task… AND,.. to show that you want to be champion,  you and the team have to do their utmost best. That happened with Freddy who received the last 1000 points for speed of 96 km./h. The top 5 from this day started all within 6 minutes.
Adam was runner but flies HC , good day for him!!!! I believe his European holiday is finally over now. Sure he learned a lot and had more than fun!!!
The overall scores from yesterday were Tim, Freddy, Uli and Gary . What happened for them on the last day?
They all came back close to each other but there were chances in the top.
As said Freddy won , Gary was runner up, Uli was 3 and Scott 5, so he lost more points. Scores were so close that Freddy moved to spot 1 and is the new EGC CHAMPION.
Tim moved to spot 2 and Gary to 3 so silver and bronze. “Poor”  Uli missed out on 6 points to be at the podium.

1. Freddy Hein  from Germany in Ventus 2 ax with 5.243 points.
2. Tim Scott from the UK in ASG 29 with 5.165 points
3.Gary Stingmore from the UK in ASG 29E with 5.133 points.
Congratulations to ALL.

18 m; 354.79 km….AND Arne showed his qualities once more ,by winning the day straight after the day he was “out”; 1000 points for him.
Dutch Peter and Belgium brothers Bert jr and Tijl followed. Wolfgang followed on spot 11 and Mike on 12!!
How was the score from yesterday and how now? 1. Wolfgang, 2. Mike, 3. Christophe.
Wolfgang had enough points to loose a few and is the new EGC CHAMPION. Mike lost a few as well but still had enough to win the SILVER.
As Christophe was on a daily spot 8 he lost a few points as well, making it possible for Bert jr to pass by on this last day. Bronze for him with only 5 points difference with Christophe after 10 day’s of flying!!

Bert jr. and his brother Tijl.
As shared by team Belgium.
and Dutch  Jeroen and Peter.

   

 

1. Wolfgang Janowitsch in the VENTUS 3T with 6.169 points.
2. Mike Young from the UK in the VENTUS 3T with 6.073 points.
3. Bert Schmelzer jr. from Belgium in the VENTUS 3T with 5.950 points.

open; 356.35 km,….Michael did what he had to do WIN another day. So without any doubt he is the new EGC CHAMPION! Russell and Pete were on his heels. So pretty easy in this class. Pete stayed on spot 2 for SILVER and Russell had the bronze.

1.  Michael Sommer from Germany in EB 29R with 6.660 points.
2. Pete Harvey from the UK in JS 1C  with 6.419 points.
3. Russell Cheetham from the UK in JS 1c with 6.377 points.

Michael after his “last” flight at the Lasham EGC.” a great day”
As shared by the organizers.

THE WINNERS…..with Dutch pilot Ronald to the r.

AND, where would we be without them. CHAPEAU!!!

The tuggies.
As shared by the organizers.

The team CUP was for Germany with the UK on spot 2 and THE NETHERLANDS with their 4 pilots on spot 3!!!A fabulous achievement .
Looking at the teams the UK did very well with 5 top 3 places and Germany had 2 both,… gold that is. So Germany won the TEAM CUP.

The German winners from the TEAM CUP @ LASHAM.
as shared by the German team

Austria had 1 and Belgium also, but the Dutch team did really well too with a 3d team spot and Ronald who flew himself for several days to an overall  top 2/3 position then one black day with a too early start and getting caught by a line of still passing showers the other pilots missed due to a later start.He dropped from 2 to 5 and then 6. And not to forget Marco [Vermeer] who flew in open class in the JS 1C and finished on spot 12 with 3 top 10 daily places.
Also Peter and Jeroen were in the top 3/4 so hence a great 3d spot.  Look at the 3 orange t shirts on the pictures.

With the TC from Germany  on top [Holger]  and the UK [Max] and Dutch TC [Ger] to the left and right. Did you notice his wooden shoes??
As shared by Frouwke.

It’s over and out. Both EGC’s are history now, both were plagued by the weather, rain and wind ,but both were still good and each had  at least one good week . All went home with new and great memories.

What a great last day, a pity summer is back when it is all over!!!
Lot’s of praises for this competition at Lasham. The word excellent was used a lot both for the organisation and running a  competition parallel with the EGC. All went smooth and fast enough so nobody had to worry about not being in time in the air. As one pilot said;” Any international comp where they can also launch over 80 club gliders as well as the comp grid without causing any significant delays gets my vote. Had to wait for the comp grid to launch but still had plenty of time for the 326k club task.”
Also the tracking system got praises.
“The total task distance set was 7568 km and the total number of kilometers flown is a staggering equivalent to 3.5 times around the equator!”

Another 2 years and the next EGC’s will take place. This one in Poland.

Some better pictures from the champions shared on the UK site from the British Gliding Teams.

OPEN CLASS

AND

18 m. class

AND

15 m.

———-

SGP CELJE.

      

Pictures shared by the organizers.

Today’s [August 23 day 3 ]task; CANCELLED!!!
So was August 24.
BUT….

Friday August 25 ; was a good day again and  task 4 showed 219.33 km. and nobody else than the every-day-winner -Bostjan got the prizes again. He has 33 points now whilst runner up Klaus Kalmbach from Germany has 20. Klaus was 5th for the day.Runner up was Werner Ammann who has 18 points. Between these 3 is the winner from this CELJE SGP . With one day to go ……

Saturday August 26 last day; 203 km. was set with a regatta start at 2.30 PM. NO,..not Bostjan but Werner won the last day. “Drama” enough on this day as the number 2 from the general scores, Klaus,  “out-landed at the spot he violated the airspace ..so after 49 km.
As expected Bostjan won this SGP with 40 points. Good on him.
Werner added 10 more points so he is the runner up with 28 points.
2 German pilots with 20 points Klaus and Robin Sittmann.

Happy smiling faces.
As shared by the organizers.

Another SGP , so now the last FINAL WORLD GRAND FINAL of the 8th series in Vitacura Chile.
At http://www.sgp.aero you can find already the first bulletins.
In bulletin 1 you can read…..
1. Transportation of Gliders from Europe: As per proposal to host 8th series final GP, organizer will provide free transportation upto three containers from Germany to Chile and return. Details of transportation: o Pilots must carry their gliders to Cobra trailers factory (pilot´s cost)
2. Insurance: no extra insurance to be covered by organizers. Personal glider insurance as extension for overseas transportation (small pilot´s cost)
3.ATA Carnet is required for temporary export.
4.Gliders will be loaded in “frames” up to six gliders each, to be fitted in 40 foot high cube containers.
Much more news  and more bulletin’s on the site.

————

This was blog 999. On my way to 1000. After, there will be some changes, but not too bad. Mind you I am nearly 71!!!

Cheers Ritz
CU on WEDNESDAY FOR BLOG 1000.
Will drink some bubbles on it!!!!

A few years ago at the Dutch Nationals.

EGC IN LASHAM …continuing story...

August 21…day 9…task 6/8; REAL English weather arrived.
Morning news from Lasham;”We can’t even see across the airfield this morning, and low cloud is forecast for all day. So today we’ll be keeping it on the ground.  I  think even the birds will be walking today!”
SCRUBBED! A bit of rest after the always “demanding”  INTERNATIONAL NIGHT is not too bad.

August 22…day 10..task 6/8; More UK weather….
Tasks were set BUT,…….whilst waiting the message….
“We will be following the weather closely to see how cloud bases rise.
Launching is planned for 13.00, but if it looks like the weather won’t play ball, we won’t turn the afternoon into a grid squat, and call a scrub in good time.”
2 Hours later the day was scrubbed . A few hours later most were sitting in good conditions at the BBQ. The window came TOO late.

So the annual DUTCH/British BBQ  with Irish and Danish “blood” as well, was good fun and in dry,[ between showers ] though so to see not “bloody hot ” circumstances.

      

As shared by Caroline Termaat-Douwes.

Also the German team had a team BBQ.

          

Happy circumstances at this BBQ as well. No worries about rain!!!
shared on the EM blog.

August 23…day 11…task 6/8; no news yet as the briefing still has to start,  but more in the next blog.

————

FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX in CELJE [SLOVENIA]

Day 1 [see last blog] had in the end several pilots who got penalty points for a too fast or too high start or entering a forbidden zone and only 2 finishers ; both from Slovenia. The prize giving looks like fun;

as shared by the organizers.

On day 2 there were new chances;201.49 km. was set. Bostjan in the JS 1C was AGAIN the best pilot , this time followed by Werner Amann from Austria in an ASG 29 .
On day 3 showed 223 km. on the task-sheet and 10 points for the daily winner,…Bostjan! He now has 23 points in total  and 3 “win’s” in a row. Klaus Kalmbach from Germany, also in JS 1C is runner up for the day and overall with 15 points.2 Pilots have 10 points Sebastian Ramsak from Slovenia and Werner Amann from Austria.

As shared by the organizers.

Day 4 in Celje, where the latest SGP of series 8 is in progress. THEN after this one,…. the final race with all winners ; WORLD FINAL in Vitacura in Chile between January 13 -20 in 2018. Who will go to Chile from the Celje SGP???
Not much news yet for today. Dobro jutro!
10:00 briefing
11:30 grid close
12:00 first launch
More on Sunday.

———–

Rieti !!

August is a busy month in Rieti with several comps. I informed you already about the CIM 2 weeks ago, with smashing good weather. Quite a few pilots stayed for the next competition ; the Coppa Citta de Rieti. And the weather hold !!!
56 Competitors had the time of their live in 3 classes.
Looking back at the B groupe with most internationals and 25 pilots, you can see what great weather they had.
On day 1 August 14…”A good day,  with dry thermal in some areas and  cumulus  up to 2700/3200 meters in the best areas.”[Clara]
A racing task from 439 km. was set and Riccardo Brigliadori in his JS 1 C raced over the circuit with a speed of 149 km./h.
25 in this class and 4 were out mainly due to airspace violations.
On day 2,… 517 km.Good day with cumulus up to 2700/ 3400 meters in the best areas and another very fast race by Ricardo this time with a speed of 166 km./h.  Giorgio [Ventus 3] was runner up with 158 km./h.
Day 3  Meteo forecast for today is similar to yesterday but the air is more humid and slightly unstable, with another racing task now 466 km. was won by Alvaro in the ASH 31 MI /21 m. AND Ricardo both with a speed of 167 km./h. !!!
Day 4 with 542 km. was again for Ricardo who was in great flying-mood. 169 km./h. !!!! UK pilot Jon Gatfield was runner up with 157 km./h.
On day 5 , ” Today there will be less cumulus than yesterday” but no worries for Jon he even won the day with a 3.15 AAT. He flew 519.50 km. in time 3.17 so a nice speed of 157.80 km./h.
Day 6 ;  Meteo forecast day 6- The situation has changed. A cold air impulse is trying to enter the Italian peninsula from NW to SE. so  a 3.40 AAT was for Swiss pilot Werner Danz. He flew 580 km. in time 3.41 so a speed of 157 km./h in the ANTARES 18 T.
On day 7 the weather was on a hold as the cold air from NW had entered and “only” a 2.10 AAT was possible. But team Frigerio in the ARCUS M still flew 326 km. and in time 2.12, so 148 km./h.
Everybody was back in time for the dinner and prize-giving.

Great speed there in Rieti and as I know always a fabulous competition with nice pilots and most come back every year.

Winners; 1. Riccardo with 6.518 points. 2. Giorgio with 6.090, 3. Alvaro with 6.056 points.
Congratulations.

As shared by Clara Bartolini, who also shared the meteo info in her blog. Thanks Clara.

———-

CU on Sunday when my WORDPRESS holds . It seems to be attacked by violence and is cut off sometimes by the WP-flag system, meaning I can’t enter.

Cheers Ritz

You can can call the EGC in the UK, already now a success. I know there were some pilots, who were very skeptical when the vote for Lasham was published and straight away said:” I am not going to sit in the rain at Lasham!” They were definitely WRONG.
YES,….They had rain, the field was sometimes soggy after over- night- rain, ….pilots had to bring their gliders some days to the strip over the tarmac, but ….no worries they flew in the afternoon.After rain,..there is sunshine…correct in the UK.
On one day ALL out-landed, but,….not for the first time during a competition.
BUT,….also….on one day they launched the 18 gliders in open class in 6 minutes!!!!And,….several over 500 km-flights were flown. Not bad,…not bad at all!!!For those who love Formula 1 as well, as I do, here is a picture from SILVERSTONE , shared by Arne.

Great picture!!!!!

————

19th EGC in the UK at LASHAM for flapped gliders

August 17…day 5..task 4/5; ” Good morning! The Met Man says that there is a good chance that we will fly this afternoon. Grid is delayed to 09:00 to allow the airfield to dry out after last night’s rain.”

Morning-weather as shared by the organizers.

AND then ……they set a 3 hour AAT for all 3 classes, with B and C tasks if necessary, from 2 .5 and 2 hours. At 13.15 ,still no flying but TC’s at the grid.

Improvement of the weather as seen and shared by Team Germany.

   

AND Team Belgium.

    

Still a low cloud base!

AND

CD Andy with the latest at the grid! A task for 15 m.  B task for open and 18 m.

First launch 15 m. 13.30 ….First launch 18 m. and Open 13.50
As shared by the organizers.

15 m.; 3 hour AAT… They started ,but nearly all had to re-start after finding NO LIFT AT ALL , to go up and a tough wind. In the end the day for this class was cancelled, so still only 3 days of flying in this class.
Adam;”Day cancelled due to sporting & fairness reasons for the 15m class.“

18 m.; 2.5 hour AAT…changed in a 2 hour AAT…task D….. and many “came back under steam”, just a short run as some nearly could see the finish ring. Their day 5 was a difficult one. 6 Pilots came in with around 200 km and without engine- use. Christophe from France, Jurg and Marcel from Switzerland and Wolfgang from Austria.Later also the Belgian brothers Bert jr. and Tijl finished.
The rest had the kilometers but did not finish so not too much points lost. Finishers between 629 and 740 points , non-finishers but close by between 500 and 600.
Tijl mentioned; “Crazy day at Lasham. Didn’t get up, started as latest in 750m ground, which was the highest altitude I saw for the first 3/4 of the track. Then at didcot power plant I found a thermal with Michael Sommer around the chimney. And in the end I found as the only one a wave, which brought me home for the last 40km. A rest day would be welcome.”
Mike and Arne  just missed out [614 and 589 points ] and were the first non-finishers. Arne  mentioned;
“A good day turned difficult for all. Was heading out with those who actually completed the task (kudos!) but didn’t get the final climb when they did. Not that it was easy for them either. Saw the same airspace, villages, pubs, churches and the odd flock of sheep 4 times before I together with the open class gambled the sorry remains of stratus up wind – only 250m short of final glide to the finish circle.” 

open; 2.5 hour AAT…Also here a lot flew back with the engine and some where really close by. TWO finishers ONLY….Michael and Ronald…good on them !!!77 and 75 km./h.[753 and 749]  Pierre and Arnaud were ” out “but on spot 3, [696 points] most flew between 140 and 200 km. Only 50 points between ” in and out”.

It turned out a marginal day. Specially the WSW wind was a “killer” in the end for any lift to come home.
“ Today was a tricky day to forecast, with the air being slower to dry out than hoped for. The Open and 18 Metre classes were launched on task, we are expecting finishers soon. Some gliders are close to the airfield, but some seem to be struggling in very weak lift to get back on glide.”

    

Lined up …gliders and tugs..Day 5.
As shared by the organizers.

Looking back on the day with team Belgium with 2 finishers;
Team Belgium; “Quick debrief of yesterday: the day started with the usual ballasting of the gliders below the low, fast moving stratus clouds and the odd bits of rain. The meteoman announced soarable weather for all classes, with strong winds of 35kph. The waiting game on the grid could begin. After towing and cancelling 15m class, 18m and open got D – tasks with starting points more to the north, away from the seabreaze. Getting away from tow was difficult and conditions on track proved to be likewise. The real battle though, took place in the last 15km and was a fight, together with about 30 gliders, between 150 and 650 metres, against the incoming stratus clouds. 1 glider only took the easy road and thought it would be clever to climb into wave and enjoyed a relaxing way home, watching the battle below him. Well done, Tijl! 👍😁
In the end, for open class only 2 gliders and for 18m class, just 6 gliders completed the task.

August 18...is a rest day!
“Today is a REST DAY. There will be no competition flying. After a few long and tricky days the pilots will have a chance to rest and relax with a traditional “pub games” night in the clubhouse this evening.”
And with day without tracking and F5 the organizers suggest as follows;
” Please enjoy this selection of photos taken over the last few days by Tony Cole to see more of his work visit his page here – Tony Cole Photography & Digital Art

Here is one of them, Marco “with his ears up!!” Indeed excellent pictures  have a look!!!

Courtesy Tony Cole

Looking to the overall scores,  after one week ;
15 m with 3 valid tasks; 1. Uli Schwenk in VV the VENTUS 2A with 2.311 points, 2. Freddy Hein in FH the Ventus 2ax with 2.286 points and on 3 for the time being Tim Scott  in ZR an ASG 29 with 2.151 and not far behind Lucasz Grabowski in RP the Diana 2 with 2.131 points on 4.

18 m. with 5 valid days: 1. Wolfgang in WO the VENTUS 3 with 3.315 points,2. Christophe in FC the JS 1 with 3.293 and on spot 3 for the time being Jeroen in 630 the ASG 29E [as far as I understand a great glider from Roy Pentecost] with 3.195. Bert jr in the brand new Ventus 3 is on spot 4 with 3.183 and all also very close number 5 , 6 and 7  Peter  3.181, Roman 3.177 and Jurg with 3.123 points. So close a lot can happen in week 2.

open with 5 valid days; 1.Michael Sommer with 3.652 points in EB 29R, 2. Lucasz Wojcik with 3.467 and close behind on 3 Ronald with 3.456 points. On 4 and 5 Russell and Holger 3.421 and 3.390.

Saturday…August 19…day 6…task 4/6.Human batteries are charged again, so another day in Lasham. AND…. 10 tuggies available!!!
“Today, we’ve received AAT tasks for all classes again, although outside it still looks a bit cloudy and rainy, but the meteoman seems to think that it’s soarable, but ‘complicated’. Let’s cross fingers for a lovely flying day. 
Tonight is also the international evening, so busy day for the ground crew as well, as we still have some waffles to bake. 😋”
MUST be Team Belgium and of course it is.
Though there was still rain,…the sniffer went up to “investigate”. First launch not before 12.45.
15 m.; 2 hour AAT….task 4, so a valid competition in ALL classes.
Another difficult but flyable day at Lasham and UK pilot Tim Scott ,used the UK-weather for the distance and time best in his 2 hour AAT;189 km. in time 2.02.
With such short distances it is always difficult to find the best start time. For sure it should be on the best part of the day but sometimes is difficult. They all started however within 8 minutes.
12 From 16 finished so a good day and runner up was Freddy Hein, whilst his mate Uli was “ only on shared spot 6 loosing around 78 points.

18m.; 1.30 hour AAT…The even shorter AAT from 1.30 was also a prey for a UK pilot this time Mike Young; 153 km. in time 125.26. He started STRAIGH AWAY whilst some waited for half an hour.
The Belgian brothers Bert and Tijl , used to Belgium and Swiss weather dealt with the circumstances AS good, starting 13 minutes behind Mike and were on spot 2 and 3. Peter Millenaar used to Dutch conditions was on spot 4.
20 from 25 finished and it was a tough day for German pilot Michael Streit who only got 33 points!! Wolfgang was on spot 12 with 121 km. so not his best day.

open; 2 hour AAT…Very  short for an open class , but on a competition you have to fly the set task; 2 hours. Best and also used to real European weather Lucasz Wojcik from Poland;221 km. in time 2.02.55.
Not a good day for team Germany. Michael Sommer was only 10^th due to among other things, a too low finish and lost around 100 points to the daily winner who “got” 619 points. No worries for his overall scores…still leading the pact.

August 20…day 8…task 5/7.  For all about the same set distance in a racing task and the 2d time they used the interval-startline. Real racing looks different, but a lot finished. ” “The window with flyable weather will not be long due to an approaching bad-weather- front.“

15 m. ..201 km.   Good to see a daily win for Henrik Breidahl, I” know ” him already for so long . He flew the task with a speed of 86 km./h. Tim Scott and Gary Stingmore had a good day as runner up and number 3. Most were happy to be in, before the first raindrops!!

Henrik as daily winner. Picture shared by the organizers.”Thanks to Benedict for the extra pictures from the tower.”

18 m. ..207 km. Also in 18 m. a nice win for a Danish pilot Arne! Good on him; the only one who flew just over 100 km./h.
The Belgium team did well;
“In 18m class, Bert and Tijl had a fun grand-prix-style race, against all other pilots of their class, as everybody started exactly at the same time, the earliest possible time slot. In 15m class, Daan took a later start slot and had a really fast race. Unfortunately, his last climb underneath the high cloud cover, didn’t bring him home and he outlanded close to the airfield. ”

Open…212 km. and Pete Harvey raced in some kind of super-flight, to his daily win with 117 km./h ,followed…but  10 km./h.. slower by the THE Broquevilles. Pete in the JS 1C started at the same time as Pierre and Arnaud in the EB 29DR. Interesting to find out WHY??!!
Team Belgium mentioned; ” Yesterday’s flying day was a partially good day for the Belgians. Before the entering frontal clouds and rain, Pierre and Arnaud choose an early start slot (designated start times) and did very well, resulting in a fantastic second place of the day.”

Pierre and Arnaud, the famous THE BROQUEVILLES.
As shared by team Belgium

All scores from today are preliminary.

Today the tuggies “green team” were feeling good,” they launched the whole grid in 34 minutes, they are trying for 30”

“Thanks to Benedict for the extra pictures from the tower.”

————

More latest news from Schempp-Hirth.

“An era comes to an end:

Just before closing down for our summer holidays, we test-flew the final second-generation Ventus. Ventus-2cT serial number 246 was the last of 664 produced Ventus-2.

The Ventus-2 was originally designed by Klaus Holighaus und has been produced & continuously improved since 1994.

———–

The FAI SGP in Slovenia in CELJE
August 19-26.

This event in 18 m. counts 12 pilots from 4 different countries and started today . The regatta start was at 3 and  the distance 164.44 km. but not all are yet scored . It seems Bostjan Pristavec has “the best papers”  to win day 1.
Their latest news;
“Most pilots are back in Celje, the others are on the way back from the field. Today’s fastest pilot was Bostjan Pristavec.”
In the end only 2 pilots finished Bostjan and Luka both from Slovenia.
More in my next blog.

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KEIHEUVEL

I was at the Keiheuvel weekend yesterday. My friend Ans and I visited this year just for one day, but had enough time to talk to most friends. We fell with our nose in “the pies”  as there were about 5 big ones on the table for the birthday of the 2 children from Jef and Gitte and the party was at the field .
We could congratulate Tim Kuijpers with his EGC win and Jeroen Jennen with his bronze and share our sympathy with the unexpected death of Jef ‘s dad and Pieter’s granddad. We had a good Belgium beer in the KEI and great food as always.
Unfortunately there was no flying. On Saturday the weather started to be better after 4 when they had to cancel and today looked better , they tried and started, but in the end it was not meant to be.CANCELLED.
A pity next time we go for the full 3 days again.

cheers Ritz

Unbelievable weather in the UK last Sunday on the day of the first tasks!!!! Sooooo pleased with finally a real good day again in this part of Europe for soaring !!!The open, 18 m. and 15 m. will have fun!!!
I had to laugh about Erazem’s remark that Sunday:
“EGC2017, Lasham all competition gliders launched. Now only 93 local gliders left on grid.”

And look what happened when the JWGC was over,….they got the “normal”-Lithuanian- summer -weather. Such a pity!!!

    

Benjamin from France on his way home and Tony from The USA as well. Both are more or less nostalgic about leaving.
That’s a great sign that the weather has not spoiled anything.
Tony;”See you next time Lithuania, it was great.”
Benjamin:”as usual good weather is now here. Thank all Lithuanian people I met there. It was a real experience . See you on the grid and go fly !”
As shared by them.

BUT the next big event has already started so quickly to the UK.

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19 th EGC in LASHAM !

MANY gliders ready to go, 61 ,  from the comps [18 in 15 m., 25 in 18 m. and 18 in open]   and the rest from the club.
As shared by the organizers.

AUGUST 13 !!

August 13…day 1…task 1 ;fabulous weather till later in the day, when spread out and cirrus “killed”  some ambitions.
15 m; 503.44 km.!!!!!Great day for the German team; 2 pilots with 1000 points, Freddy Hein and Uli Schwenk; 109 km./h. Good day as well for Belgium pilot Daan Spruyt who , together with Czech pilot Ondrej Bordovsky gained 991 points.And good old Russian pilot Dmitriy Timoshenko had 990 points.
Adam Woolley from Australia who flies HC, keeps his blog and I copy and paste it for those who can’t find it.He also shares his opinion about the start.
Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

“Today was a really nice start to the comp, weather wise. 503km! I had my game plan to make the 2nd gate start (using thr GP 10min intervals here), which turns out to be the optimum I think for the day.
I flew with the crowd for the first 30km while the airspace was a little tricky. Once out in the open I did my own thing, even got out in front.
I made my mistake on the 3rd leg when I went South of track. I knew it & radioed into my team mate to take the north leg – he caught up so it was the faster option. I think this is where I lost the day. Still 850 points to start off the comp, not too bad, not the end of the world, but not so good either..

18 m.; 4 hour AAT with a speed 0f 118 km./h. Mike Young [Ventus 3T] received the first 1000 points and daily prize for 485 km. in time 4.06.
Also in this class good flying German pilots as Sebastian Huhmann and Michael Streit, both in ASG 29 E. They were the runner’s up with Wolfgang Janowitch from Austria in VENTUS 3 T on number 4.”Our” Peter Millenaar [ASG 29 E] was on spot 5 all these pilots flew around 116 km./h.

open; 625 km. !!!!! Their start line opened at 12 for a long , for sure 5 hour flight in the “fancy machines”.  I hope they all knew how to deal with the new start rules.Then the “hammerweather” get’s a hick-up” later in the day ; Cirrus. Dutch pilot Ronald [JS 1C] started relatively  early at 12.20 and was back early. He won the day; 1000 points for him…..Speed 115.45 km./h.
3 Km./h. faster than Michael [Sommer] in the EB 29 R.who was the runner up.[964]
Till TP 3 some flew with an average speed of 140 km./h. with a base of 1800 m. and up to 4 m. lift.
5 Pilots did not finish but still flew between 583 and 511 km.
The Swiss pilots in an ASH 25 flew 7 hours and 25 minutes!!! But they made it home.
The French pilots Sylvain Gerbaud and Eric Bernard, both toppers, had to use the engine to get home. The way the French say that is so much more friendly;vache moteur!!!

 

AUGUST 14!!

August 14…day 2…task 2;

the weather first had to sort it self out was the early-morning- remark on the official site. So a later start and 15 m. upfront with 18 m. and open. A and B tasks and first launch not before 12.45 and a drop of rain at the grid. In the end the first launch was at 14.15. So long waiting for some. NO finishers and virtual and real outlandings along the road.
In the end the windows to fly in were not big enough.
15 m.; 150.96 km….changed in 104.27 km.
Nobody finished. Best distance 103 km. for Uli. Only one over 100 km. so not a valid day.  Uli was nearly “in”.He still flies so well!!!!
Adam; ”
“Funny day, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but ultimately I’m not sure what would’ve come of the other option too – ie, launch 2hrs earlier on task A. Who knows, but it was very weak pre-start.
I started with the Germans, easing down the first leg with Owen too. Our first climb was 0.8kts, Owen & I called ready to move to the next cloud – the Germans read our mind & rolled out 180* later. 2km down the road, 3kts on the 15kt tailwind leg. This gave me confidence & from here I lead out to do my own thing, only to meet up, above & high after a low point we shared. It was possible to find our final glide from this area with some searching, so 77 & I used up our 1000′ advantage to join with Uli & Freddy again. Safety in numbers right?
From here we all flew home together in empty gliders, only to land at Popham airfield – in great company, we missed you not being there though Uli!!

18 m.; 179 km….later changed to 134 km.No finishers but 19 over 100 km. so a valid day. Christophe Cousseau flew 121.85 km. and for that he received 359 points. Dutch pilots Jeroen and Peter were runners up.
FB works in case of “help” too. Tijl out landed on a military base . “If someone knows the 4 digit gate code of Brimpton Airforcebase, or knows someone who knows the digits, it would be of much help. Quite quiet here today.”
The problem was solved quickly.

      

A few Belgium team members;  Bert sr. crew, Bert jr [Ventus 3] and Tijl [ASG 29 e] as pilots and the THE Broquevilles Arnaud with uncle Pierre, both in the EB 29DR.
As shared by the Belgium team.

open ;2 hour AAT….later changed in 1.30 AAT. No finishers but a valid day. UK pilots Russell and Pete [Harvey] flew 168 km. good for 493 and 494 points. The 2 Polish pilots Lucasz and Adam “got” 489 and 490 points.

Day 2 wrap up;”Rainfall has inundated the tasks areas, so a mass landback/landout has occurred. Gliders turbo’d back to the field ” Though several had to drive with car and trailer.More typical UK weather!

 

AUGUST 15 !!

August 15..day 3…task 2/3; After the rain in the morning,…no, no drizzle but real UK-rain, the organizers set long and good tasks again as the weather was just good again. Still a bit “lost”  after the total-out-land from the day before, the pilots left for their tasks.
15 m; 4 hour AAT….A UK-day today!!! Gary [Stingmore] and Tim [ Scott] flew  after a “late”  start at 13.15, 420 and 417 km,.in time 4.17 and 4.18 ,so another long ” day in the office”. Lucasz [Grabowski] in the Diana 2 was 3d he flew 398 km. in time 4.07. Most started around 13.02.

A happy smiling Lucasz in the Diana 2.
As shared by the organizers.

9 VENTUS variations in this class, 5 ASG 29-variations and 2 ASW 27, a DIANA 2 and a LAK 17. 3 From 18 out-landed.

18 m.; 501 km,…..5 toppers in this class; Roman [Mracek] on a daily spot 1 with a speed of 107.94 km./h. On number 2 and 3 Dutchies Jeroen and Peter with 107.24 and 107.14 km./h. and Bert jr from Belgium and Andy Lutz from Austria with 106.90 and 106.70 km./h.
3 Outlandings one by entering a forbidden zone.
25 gliders in this class; 4x a JS 1 variation, 14x an ASG 29 variation and  7x a VENTUS variation .

Arrival of the Dutchies. With Jeroen, Ronald and Peter.
Both pictures shared by the organizers.

 

open ;522 km….7 different nationalities in the top 7. Lucasz [Wojcik] from Poland got the 1000 points for a speed of 116.58 km./h .Sylvain Gerbaud from France was runner up, Pete Harvey [UK] on spot 3 , Pierre and Arnaud de Broqueville from Belgium on spot 4.
On 5 Petr Krejcirik from Czech Rep and on 6 Holger Karow from Germany with Ronald Termaat from Holland on spot 7. A nice international mix!!! In this class 3 out-landers so another good and long day.Longest flight in this class ;5 hours and 50 minutes.

This day the sea-breeze spoiled for some the end of the flying-day.

 

AUGUST 16… TODAY !!

the weather.

August 16…Day 4…task 3/4. Shorter tasks. But again a flying day. Who still doubts the UK weather??? I never did!!!
Nice news from team Belgium about the evening before:
“Competition day 4: after the very nicely organized beer and music fest of yesterday, this morning the FAI flag is missing and has been replaced by a bottle of wine overnight. 😁 
Today, the day starts cloudy, but tasks have been prepared for all classes. 

The weather improved during the day into a very nice window. First they thought the day would be scrubbed due to the cirrus but the sun burnt them out. Not too many cu’s were expected and there was quite some wind. BUT,…..They were ALL launched and start games were played, as some waited long to pass the start line.

15 m.: 203 km…. B task….146 km,….difference in start times; 13.54 and 14. 34. Uli and Freddy had another good day. They started at 13.54 ;number 1 and 2 for the day, with 95 km.h.

18 m.; 2 hour AAT…. changed in 1.30 AAT…start times between 14.12 and 14.32. The Czech pilots Roman and Petr [Tichy] flew 166 km. in time 1.37. That was the best result for the day. They started at 14.26.
Not a lot of points , but Roman tops the 18 m. list overall now, just 7 points on Jeroen, who leads on his mate Peter with 14 points!!!!

open ; 245.39 km….later changed in a B task from 195 km. The difference in start time in open class was HUGE; between 13.28 and 14.39. So ONE hour and 11 minutes. Well which choice was the  best!!!
UK’s Russell and Pete ,were the last to leave for this short task.Pretty clear, the late starters had the better day. Michael, Russell and Pete started late and won the day; Michael flew with a speed of 110.39km./h., Russell, 104.06 and Pete 102 km.p/h!!!

All results preliminary. I published a bit later today, to write about day 3/4 as well.

As shared by Baldrick and the UK team.

 ———–

And I got news from the Perlan Project Inc.

The Perlan 2 is in Argentina – Follow our flights

The Airbus Perlan Mission II is flying periodically over the Andes. Our goals are to expand our flight envelope to higher and higher altitudes, gather data on the world’s largest stratospheric waves and to inspire young people to seek careers in science and engineering.

We expect to fly next on Wednesday, August 16th.  Join us for the flight.  You can follow our flights on our Virtual Cockpit:  http://perlanproject.cloud/VirtualCockpit.html

For Airbus Perlan Mission II updates including notifications of when our Virtual Cockpit will be live, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @PerlanProject.

When you read this today you can go to the link to join the flight.

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Latest news from Schempp-Hirth.

“On Thursday last week, we proudly delivered the 250th Arcus. New owner is Mr. Michael Boik from Great Britain, who is looking forward to hopefully many memorable flights.

Michael’s glider is an Arcus-T and equipped with the proven, simple to use Schempp-Hirth Turbo sustainer engine system.”

AND

“Last Thursday, we had our traditional Schempp-Hirth Staff Summer Barbecue at our premises in Kirchheim/Teck. Unfortunately, the weather this year wasn’t quite what you’d expect in early August, but that didn’t keep us from having a nice evening with several guests – and with the bosses traditionally at the barbecue.

Apart from it being a tradition, we celebrated the deliveries of both the 700th Duo Discus, the 250 Arcus (see below) and, in a few weeks, the upcoming deliveries of the 200th Discus-2c and the very last produced Ventus-2.”

As shared by Schempp-Hirth.

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Cheers Ritz,…. till Sunday….I hope..VERY BUSY!!!!

EXTRA BLOG ON SUNDAY !!!! ENJOY !!!!!

JWGC in POCUINAI finishes with hail and a thunderstorm AND….. a DUTCH and GERMAN CHAMPION!

Wednesday..August…9…task 6/7. Pretty good weather certainly looking back at the days till now. Only 4 days to go. Farewell party already on August 12 at 7 PM.
With a change to the local rules about the minimum height for crossing the finish ring , the boy’s and girls started for task 6 and 7. Expectations for another challenging blue day , this time with more wind, so less high speed!!!!
club; day 6 with 266.61 km.
It turned out not so good and as difficult as the other day’s. ONLY 3 finished in both classes, so a great job from those 3 in club after nearly 4 hours of fighting against the wind;a Polish [Wojciech Wojtaczka]  , Austrian [ Paul Altrichter ]and French pilot [Thibault Alasnier] . Chapeau!!!!! Paul got 993 points and though they flew the same distance the French and Polish pilot got penalty points for a too low finish;989 and 964 points.
standard;
day 7 with 305.19 km.
As said no finisher. Best distance 260 km. flown by 2 pilots, Lithuanian Joris and Czech David,  who both got 1000 points.
The 2 Top pilots overall ,from Sweden had a tough day, as they already out landed after 80 km.; 107 and 103 points for them. A pity they dropped from 1/2 to 7/8 overall!!!

Ready and waiting at the grid for a flight on August 10,…but it was not meant to be. The day is cancelled and they had to rush the gliders in the trailers for another thunderstorm. Poor “kid’s”!!!! CANCELLED.

As shared by the Dutch Team.

Friday…August 11…task ???? The weather is cloudy with 23 dgr. C. One but last day; foggy morning and hope for a window to fly in. 2 Hour AAT’s in both classes.
They moved the launches from 12 to 12.30 and so on till 3PM. Then the day was cancelled.
As Tony mentioned;”Rig, grid, cancel, de-rig. At least they gave us enough time to get them in the box and stay dry this time.”

LAST day from this by the weather troubled competition in an area where the circumstances are normally good to booming, this time of the year, but still 6/7 days , better than nothing;
Saturday…August 12…Task 6/7 out of 14;
2 hour AAT’s  on a day with strong wind , blue conditions and 34 dgr. C. with on the end of the day possible thunderstorms. Hopefully NOT a lottery-day!!!
Who are the first  in both classes and can they hold their positions!!??
Club;
1. Austrian Paul [ LS 4] with 5.294 points,
2. German Julian [ St .Libelle] with 5.143,
3. German Stefan  [St .Libelle] with 4.925
4. Dutch Nick [St. Cirrus]  with 4.911
5. UK Jake [ DG 101 G elan] with 4.884
5. UK Thomas  [ St. Cirrus ] with 4.729.Tom is the current JWGC champion.
On such a small -task- day not a lot of points are to gain so let’s wait and see.

Standard;
1. Dutch Sjoerd [LS 8]  with 5.724  points
2. Lithuanian Ignas [Discus 2 A] with 5.637
3. Lithuanian Joris  [LS 8] with 5.635
4. German Enrique [Discus 2 A] with 5.445
5. German Kilian AND Polish Jakub both with 5.275 [ LS 8 NEO and LS 8]

First launch postponed to 12.30!! Then…13.00 !!Also 13.30 and a bit later they see some improvement in the skies….is it going to happen??
They tried HARD!!!! 1.30 AAT’s now!!! First launch at 14.00 !!!!!….14.30   the sniffer tries again…….The sniffer CLIMBS and even goes through the inversion ………TOUGH wind though up to 45 km./h.!!!!!!! AND….thunderstorms were forecasted for later in the day ……Whilst waiting some played cricket in the grid……… sniffer at 1200 m…….”good ” 1.7 climbs…..What will the organizers do???
They decide to fly!!! 2.30 first start!!!!! Hopefully the “window”  is BIG enough, so they don’t have to finish in a thunderstorm!!!!!

Ready to go for the last day.
As shared by Team USA.

Club; 1.30 AAT…
For some it was NO fun!!!! They outlanded straight away as French pilot Thibault after 34 km. and a young Danish pilot after 17 km.. But there were finishers as well Julian Klemm from Germany the overall number 2 . He had to fly through hail, but made it home.Will this mean he wins the title??? He even wins the day!! Congratulations!!!
Number 1 Paul from Austria  outlanded, just  in front of the finish ring. He will not be happy with loosing at least 200 points AND his first spot. Luckily points are not expensive but still too many points lost.
The 3 USA -boy’s finished!!!! So did the 2 NZ boy’s Nick and Alex. Well done!
Dutch pilot Jelmer had a 4 m. thermal, I read and is runner up for the day !!!!!30 From 37 finished. In the end it turned out that the  soaring conditions were good .
SO the JWGC champion from 2017 is AGAIN from Germany; Julian Klemm in the St.Libelle.5.545 points.
2. Paul Altrichter from Austria with 5.448 points.
3. Stefan Langer from Germany with 5.256 points.
CONGRATULATIONS. Also to Dutch pilot Nick who is 4th.

Standard; 1.30 AAT…Sjoerd van Empelen from Holland nearly gave me a heart attack!!! He was “only” on spot 21 with 263 points but the 2 Lithunian pilots were on spot 14 and 15 and lost some points as well. Daily winner from Poland JAKUB.
29 from 30 finished so a good decision to fly in a small window on the last day. Quite a responsability!

         

Sjoerd relaxed and HAPPY with his fabulous achievement……….. And …..this is how extreme happiness looks like.AND… no winner without a good crew!!!
As shared by the Dutch team.

So the final scores are pretty close:
1 . JWGC CHAMPION;  Sjoerd from Holland, with 5.976 points. AGAIN a Dutch JWGC winner after Tim [2011] and Peter [2013] and a runner-up -spot for Robin in Narromine in 2015. AND we had a European champion this “summer”as well , yes the same Tim who won the JWGC in 2011.
2. Ignas from Lithuania with 5.938 points.
3. Joris from Lithuania with 5.933 points. Only 5 points difference. That happens when you start, fly and finish together and you are good in it.

After “the window” ,….it rained and hailed and in a short time 2 cm water in the tent-camp from the young ones….no electricity either!!!! They might not bother after a few drinks.
As one of the UK bloggers mentioned;”We’ve just had the most monumental storm which has taken power/wifi down“

No words needed.
As shared by Juha.

Well that was the 10th JWGC !!!!Chapeau for all those kid’s ….flying with 40 to 45 kts is not really fun and hail on a glider is not good either and waiting rigging and de-rigging on many day’s neither, but time enough to see the surrounding and socialize though that’s NOT the MAIN goal of the JWGC!!!
You may say this competition with this weather is character building , but I still feel sorry for all the young ones from the world that they had to fly under these difficult circumstances with many out-landings, driving over unknown roads with a trailer and long days.
I know they still had fun , made new friends , suffered together,  but laughed together too.A lot is new and for that reason exciting.
That’s what it is all about, as the weather is in nobodies hands…it is as it is.
Unfortunately it was one of the worst summer-months of July and August [till now] in parts of Europe, whilst June was like summer has to be.
USA soaring teams said:

“Labas Rytas! Today is the final day of the competition. Forecast is hot and humid, with an approaching front that will kick off convergence and then storms. The task…looks familiar. 2 hr AAT.

One objective of the World Championships is to Foster friendship, cooperation, and exchange of information among soaring countries.

We have had an incredible amount of help from the other teams here in Pociunai and really need to thank them. Vladas Motuza helped arrange our cars and gliders and has provided invaluable on site support with spare parts, tools, and local soaring advice.

TEAM CUP:
1. Germany
2. Poland
3. UK

The next JWGC is in 2 years in Hungary. New place, new chances for them who are not over 25. Looking forward to it!!!!Last but not least the HAPPY DUTCH TEAM.

Around the specially for this JWGC carved totem -pole,  commemorating the championships. A great Lithuanian tradition!
To the left the Standard boys , Lars [18] , Sjors [1] and Sjoerd [9] , with TC Annemiek called “Annie” during these comps, to the right the club boys, Nick [4] , Robin [26] and Jelmer [36].
As shared by the Dutch team.

————–

EGC in LASHAM for flapped gliders.

As seen and shared by Jeroen Verkuijl Dutch pilot in 18 m. class.

65 Competitors in 3 classes [ 15 m…18m….open]are ready for the first flying day on Sunday August 13[till Friday August 25]  after some practice days, who unfortunately were all non flying days due to steady rain. Yes also in Lasham poor weather like in many parts of Europe.

No words needed…as shared by my Dutch friends the  Termaat family.

The Schmelzer family, friends from Belgium, are in Lasham too. Both Bert jr and Tijl will fly.
Tijl in the ASG 29 from Bert jr., whilst Bert jr. will fly the VENTUS 3 .
This brand new glider, the first in the BENELUX, is delivered to them just a few day’s before the Kippeneck comps. Due to bad weather Tijl, who flew it there,could not show the excellence of this glider.
They love to fly on this high -situated airfield [ the highest in Germany] and call it one of the most beautiful airfields they know and I can tell you they have seen MANY.
I heard that Schempp-Hirth has a waiting time now from 3 years for their beautiful bird!!! So business is GOOD for them!!!
Below 2 pictures as shared by Bert sr.

the delivery from 2 X , the first BENELUX Ventus 3, from Schempp-Hirth to the Schmelzer family with in the back “Madre familias ” Hilde and Bert jr. ,Tilo and Tijl.
As shared by Bert sr.

The Ventus 3 with Tijl on the slopes of of Klippeneck.
Picture courtesy Elke Zumbrink.

For the 10th of August hope was HIGH to fly and that was the first official practice day .
And the weather was pretty good, certainly for the UK.
15 m. got 308 km. and quite a few flew with as winner Lucasz Grabowski from Poland. 20 Pilots in this class.
18 m. got 336 km. and Roman Mracek was the winner from this official practice day, with 26 participants.
open 346 km. and 19 pilots in this class. Russel Cheetham had a good day. 6x JS 1C in the top 6.

August 11; 2 hour AAT’S for ALL pilots.

Not too bad looking for a small task
picture shared by Caroline Termaat.

The 2 hour AAT’s were flown by half of the competitors  and in 15 m. French pilot Didier [Hauss] flew 173 km. in time 2.08 and with a speed of 81 km./h he was the best on practice day 2.
In 18 m. Danish pilot Morten Hugo Benninck [nice name] flew 175 km and was the best for the day. In this class 4 x a VENTUS 3T flown by Bert Schmelzer jr. from Belgium Andy Lutz and Wolfgang Janowitsch from Austria and Mike Young from the UK.
Open class  pilot Holger Karow managed to fly 196 km. in time 2.03 in the EB 29 DE.

Last practice day; Practice is necessary, as they work here with a new start line system with 10 minute window’s; DIS …meaning designate interval start.
Pilots have to align their time when they cross the startline with the start of the 10 minute windows or interval’s.
Very interested to see how this works in real.
Message from the organizers with as CD Andy Davis;
“Today all gliders must land before 17:30 local time please
Air display starts at 18:20
Opening ceremony 19:00”
Tasks; 2 hour AAT’s...very popular task with this challenging weird weather.
Not a lot of pilots flew. In club only one finisher from Spain Francisco Ortega Casariego.
In 18 m. 6 finishers and in open 8 with the first flight in Lasham from Michael Sommer and he straight away topped the last daily practice.

opening of the 19th EGC in Lasham.
Picture courtesy Adam.

Today day 1 and the weather looks GOOD!!!!Grid order; open..15 m..18 m. that looks promising for big tasks.
15 m; 508 km.
18 m; 4 hour AAT
open; 625 km.
WOW………and this in the UK!!!!!! So glad for them!!!! Sick of all this “s..t “weather this summer!!!

———–

This year’s CIM is over again…..with 8 good days out of 10??????

After the mandatory rest day on August 8 after 7 days of flying,Clara’s news on Wednesday August 9 with task 8 was;
“12 am. Today we have wind from South/West. Only in South East of the task’s area there will be good thermal activity with cumulus above 4.000 m. Good SW winds North of the task’s area; weak winds from SW with Adriatic sea breezes in the SE area. Probably wave of SW wind. Thermal activity will probably decrease at 5 pm LT in the center area, at 6 pm LT over the North area. Forecast Error Factor: today fire smoke could decrease solar radiation on some areas: meteo model can not forecast this scenario. QNH is 1014 with 35 degrees and 30% of humidity.”
Due to tough tailwind gliders had to be in the back of the field and close to each other.
Then they could fly;Task 8 had a task of 413 km in 18 m. class. The UK boy’s did well and Jon and Leigh flew the task with a speed of 159 km./h. One out-lander and Dane and Giorgio were on spot 3 and 4 for the day.
Open had 424 km. and again an easy-winning- flight for Peter; speed 146 km./h. All 9 finished. Slowest speed; 125 km./h.
Mixed ; the 3 hour AAT was for the DUO DISCUS XLT and it’s pilots; 130 km./h. Austrian team Pirker and Wolff unfortunately out landed so they dropped in the overall scores from 1 to 2 with Vitorio Pinni now on spot 1 overall.

NO flying on August 10 due to heavy crosswind. They only use one runway in Rieti.
Clara mentioned:”At 2,20 pm, after launching 4 gliders, the contest director, the line manager and the chief tow pilot jointly decided to stop the take offs and to cancel today’s task due to excessive and gusty cross wind: 10/18 Kts from west. “

August 11,last day!!!
The meteo for the last day,….so another great Rieti-weather-day!!!
18 m; 460 km. And on the last day Dane was the winner which brought him not enough points to be the number 1 overall. Leigh was 3d for the day and only lost 91 points. Not enough for Dane.
SO… 1. Leigh Wells; he is the deserved winner in 18 m. class!!! [8.406 points]
2. Dane is a great runner up with 8.311 and
3. Giorgio is his own Italy flew to a total of 7.937 points.
Open;460 km.And frequent -local- flyer from Austria Peter Hartmann won the day and the comps.147 km./h. [8.654] Alberto was runner up and stays on 2 overall [8.098] and Alvaro was 5th for the day and stayed on spot 3.[7.826]
Mixed;  385 km. Pirker/Wolff from Austria won the day with a speed of 149 km./h in the ARCUS M and after one off-day during the comps they finished on spot 2. [7.521] 1. Vitorio Pinni and his mate[Duo Discus XLT]  were 4th for the day but no worries they were the best .[7.921] On spot 3.  team Team Ferrero/Sarti in the Arcus T .[7.064]

GREAT comps fabulous edition of this CIM with as CD Aldo Cernezzi.

Last words from Clara, THANKS Clara: “This evening the prize-giving ceremony will take place during the closing dinner. We are expecting about 100 people.”
It will be early in the morning for some.

   

The 18 m. winners with Leigh proudly in the Middle surrounded by Dane and Giorgio. And the open class winners on spot 1 Peter surrounded by Alberto and Alvaro.
Picture shared by Marina and the organizers.

———–

UVALDE TEXAS ;18 m. NATIONALS with an AUSSIE as HC champion.

August 9…task 7. First of course Bruce as he is there:
Morning news…..”During the launch the sky already looks a little wet. We have a 4 hour MAT, which is very like the old POST task. After the first two points we basically chose our own direction. By tonight we will all know what the weather has in store for us this afternoon.”

As shared by Bruce.

BRUCE WON THE DAY ,whilst  Jerzy was 7th for the day and Dave Mockler runner up. Of course Bruce still on top with Jerzy as runner up and Gary Ittner on 3.
One day to go, also weird weather in Uvalde!!
Evening news from Bruce;
“”I felt lucky a few times today. Everything I tried just seemed to work out OK for me. Early on in the flight there were some rain showers around, and having decided to go south after the first mandatory turn, I felt like I was constantly flying myself into a corner. The sky was changing rapidly and required a number of plan alterations to stay ahead of it. I was concerned that I might quickly use up too many turnpoints, as the MAT task only allows a maximum of eleven. While I was considering my options my whole instrument panel blacked out, and it took a moment to get some power back in the system. Once I had gone as far south as I dared, I turned north determined to fly as far as I could without changing direction. This was mostly to avoid using too many turns, but also to help get into some sort of rhythm. My track took me pretty much along the Mexican border. I had to run through a heavy line of rain showers, but could see plenty of sun on the other side, then further north I had a fantastic line of lift around the west side of the last rain area. Faced with a large area of dead air, I judged that I had enough height to safely make some fat, healthy-looking clouds up in the hills. I arrived there to find a huge climb from quite low down, and this whole area was really pumping along nicely. After a quick lap up north, the sky over Uvalde had opened up again (I did say I felt a bit lucky today)and offered an easy ride back south to pick up the last mandatory turn and home for 85mph.”

August 10…task 8 last day!!! So 8 out of 10 day’s.
Canadian pilot Dave Springford won the last day. Bruce was “only ” 7th and Jerzy 9th.
He had to land in a paddock;”The pooh has hit the fan just a little! Our souther turnpoints were swamped by the sea breeze, and a very big percentage of the field are spread all over the countryside  I wonder if Mark will survive this. Not much idea how I went today. Nice ranch, big airstrip and Hangar, fancy house, long wait. ” 

      

as shared by Bruce.

BUT,…no worries,..Bruce won the 18 m. Nationals [6.842] with Jerzy [ 6.608] and Dave [Springford] as runner up and number 3[6607] ONLY ONE point difference between the 2 Canadian mates.
Here is Bruce!!
‘We are done! I was slightly worried that the craziness of today would throw up the wrong result, but the fact that a very high percentage of the field did not complete the task devalued the day enough to keep me in front. Today’s task was very difficult to complete, and I take my hat off to those who made it around. Our southern turns were swamped by a huge and fast-travelling sea-breeze front. We all knew it was a possibility, but still could not get down there fast enough to beat it. I ended up getting into both southern turns, but too low to continue towards home with safety. I landed on a huge private airfield, and super crew Jim got on the road quickly to come and get me. We arrived in the presentation ceremony at about 9:30pm, to much applause and many whistles.

A huge thank you to all the readers for your support and interest. It has been a really challenging and interesting competition, and I am leaving with an extremely satisfying result. The organisers have done a super job, especially given the uncharacteristically difficult weather. Many thanks to Mark Huffstutler as CD, and Kerry Huffstutler-King for running the show. And I’d like to thank my super crew Jim. It has been a pleasure having you around to help.
See you all next time!‘

as shared by Bruce …..THANK YOU and congratulations!!!!

————–

Looking back at BAILLEAU.

In between busy comps,  68 participants flew in France ,from the well known field at Bailleau in 3 classes. Lot’s of guests as every year from Holland and Belgium. 7 out of 11 day’s which is good for this weird European summer.
In the “speed race” with mixed gliders and 37 participants, Dutch pilot Steven Huiskens  [ASG 29/18 m.] won with 4.798 points followed by good old Sigi Baumgartl [ 4.565] in ARCUS T [750 kilo] and on 3 Stevens dad Harry [ 4.457] in a Ventus 2cxt/18 m.

In the “long flights” also mixed gliders with 24 pilots and another Dutch winner Mark Leeuwenburgh in an ASG 29/18 m.[5.185] on spot 2 Belgium pilot Yves Jeanmotte [ 4.872] and his mate in an ASG 32 [850 kilo] and on 3 French pilot Eric Garnier [ 4.848] in ASG 29/18m.
A total of 11 Dutch pilots in this class.

In the “amical” 5 pilots in KA 6e, LS 8 /15 m. Janus  and Discus. They only flew for 4 days and winner was French pilot Francois-Louis Henry with 3.252 points . He flew the KA 6E.

———–

CU next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz

JWGC in POCUINAI !!!

On Sunday  day 8 … task 4,  small tasks; 1.30 AAT for club and for standard as well. Not such easy weather and again many out-landings. Start lines opened at 15.14 and 15.36, pretty late, but it was only a short task.
A lot of club-pilots got stuck at the first sector.
In the end it was not a valid day in Club class.
Standard ; 8 pilots finished,…great job…. and a total of 14 pilots flew over 100 km. so a valid day with only 276 points for winner Joris Vainius in the LS 8 for 147 km. in time 2.17

On Monday  day 9 … task 4/5, better weather ,so bigger tasks.
Club got 257 km. and 3 Polish young ones flew “nicely”  together and finished on spot 1-2-and 3.From 38 a total of 37 finished!!
Standard; got 284 km. and 2 Swedish pilots had a ball and won the day with a speed of 106 km./h. Closely followed by the German team. ALL pilots finished!!!
The Dutch team started early, flew all way “up front” read …made their own decisions ….and finished on spot 12 and 14.

Happy Dutch team.
As shared by them.

On Tuesday day 10 ..task 5/6 even better weather and they deserve that!!! BUT,…blue and not all pilots like blue conditions and better….nearly no wind..
In Club a set task of 305 km. and Kiwi Alex Mc Caw was the daily winner flying an Hornet. This time his mate Nick was the unlucky one. He was “out” at 264 km. Also out and after 183 km.Robin, who now  falls out of the top 3 . A pity.
26 from 37 finished!!
At this stage after 5 days; 1. German junior Julian Klemm in the St. Libelle [4.445] 2. Dutch junior Nick Hanenburg in the St Cirrus.[4.313] 3. Austrian junior in an LS 4 Paul Altrichter[4.296]
In standard 355 km. and the Lithuanian pilot Ignas Bitinaitis is doing a great job. 2 Day’s ago he was number 2 now number 1 for the day. Only one out-lander in this class.
At this stage , after 6 day’s the overall scores look like this; 1. Swedish pilot David [4.853] 2. Swedish pilot Erik [4.873[] 3. Lithuanian pilot Ignas. On 4 Dutch pilot Sjoerd !!

The INTERNATIONAL NIGHT was yesterday. For sure great fun !!
Tony shared this news and pictures:
“Fun International night. We had hot dogs and Jack Daniels. Dutch brought beer pong. Trivia was great fun. A bit of overnight shenanigans though. The Dutch flag is gone (again). Australia is upside down. My hat was stolen and the FAI flag pole is GONE.”
By the way the flag pole is BACK!!!!

  
Team USA and team Denmark as shared by Tony.

And fun they have , also during the day’s….here is Aussie girl Ailsa with Titas Jovaisa.

As shared by Tony Condon from Team USA.

Today; Club; 266 km.
Standard;305 km.

———-

CIM in Rieti!!!

Clara at 10 AM on Sunday;
“10am. Forecast for today: West and South West weak wind. Cloudbase  from 3,500m to 4,500m on the South, East  side.
The best area will be:Gran Sasso, Gorzano, Fabriano, Avezzano, Rivisondoli, Orvieto, Arezzo.
Sea breeze and convergences area. Adriatic sea breeze.
Good, strong and regular thermal, but in the Rieti area, worm air at 2.000 m will initially block thermal activity. The thermals begin to deteriorate from 5pm in the center task’s area and at 18 local time in the North and South area. In Serano mountain rain at 18- 19 local time.”
AND at
3.PM….”Difficult task setting today. Initial task vetoed by civil aviation authority due to multiple airborne firefighting operations inside the competition area. Contest director somehow found ways to fly around the affected zones. Launches delayed until got the tasks approved.”

.
August 6….Task 6
in 18 m; 2.45 AAT…Kiwi Dane ,who flew already as far as I remember the JWGC in Rieti in 2007 was the best and flew 412 km. in time 2.45 AT THE DOT!!!! Leigh flew more kilometers [414 km.] in time 2.50 so great speed by Dane 149.87 km./h. and Leigh 146.27 km./h. Only one pilot did not finish and “poor”  Jon flew in a forbidden zone and got 191 km.
in open; 3.15 AAT and good old Bruno in the ETA won the day 1000 points for 458 km. with a speed of 138.78 km./h. Slowest speed was 126.28 km./h.
in the mixed class; 352 km racing task and racing they did. The Italian ARCUS T pilots won with a speed of 128 km/ h.

Clara on Monday;11.30 am. Weather situation has changed: wind is from NE. Good day, but we expect rain showers in Rivisondoli, Pescasseroli, south and south east area, East Gorzano. Weak winds from northeast with breezes of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Cloudbase from 3000 to 2.200 meters on South and NW side. Very low cloudbase on the Adriatic side. The best area wiil be Avezzano, Valle di Trasacco (?) Orvieto, Chiusi. Convergences area for Adriatic sea breeze. Today cloudy and cumulus coverage will locally prevent solar radiation and thermal activity. “

And at 3 PM; “Finally, today’s beautiful cumulus also in the Rieti valley and great visibility! Temperatures are lower: around 36 degrees. All the gliders are in flight and will be back from around 6 pm. There are new fires: one is west Monte Nuria and another on the south of Monte Giano.”
August 7…Task 7..
18 m.; 3.30 AAT and again Leigh was the best. He flew 526 km. with a speed of 148.60 km./h.1000 points. Dane was runner up with 999 points!!!
No miracle that overall after 7 days Leigh [6.666] and Dane[6. 506] top that list with Giorgio [Galetto]  following in “his Rieti with 6.337.
open; a 3.30 AAT was set and frequent-Rieti-flyer Peter from Austria won the daily 1000 points. He flew 533 km. with 151 km./h.!!!
The overall scores in this class after 7 days; 1.Peter [6.694]. 2.Alberto [6.413] 3.Alvaro [ 6.207]
Mixed; 387 km. and another ARCUS this time an M won the day with a speed of 138.81 km.h.
After 7 days the overall scores with 3 days to go are ; 1.H. Pirker + M. Wolff from Austria in Arcus  M [6.338] 2. V. Pinni + P. Lanzieri in Duo Discus XLT [Italy 6.282] and 3.A. Ferrero + E. Sarti in ARCUS T[Italy 5.699]

Fabulous weather there and awesome speed!!!! Looking forward to the rest of this CIM.

———-

UVALDE TEXAS 18 m. NATIONALS.

No flying on August 6 and 7 in Uvalde,…very weird I thought the weather was ALWAYS good there.
Last message from Bruce;
“The day has been cancelled. Steady rain falling. Bit of a shame. It feels like the area would dry off quickly, so if it clears then tomorrow would be flyable, but there might still be some weather around for a couple of days. We are mooching around with sad looks on our faces. Sitting on the ground at a gliding competition is not our first choice 🙁”

AND,….the VERY LAST news from this morning;
“This is what it looked like towards Uvalde on our final leg today. Most of the flight was pretty straightforward, except that good climbs were hard to find, there were blue areas to avoid, and most of the thermals were short-lived. There has been a lot of rain over the past couple of days, and there is still plenty of moisture in the air. As expected there was substantial overdevellopment moving down from the north through the afternoon, and our fearless competition director got the task just about right. Three-quarters of the way through our Assigned Area Task we came back to Uvalde, which gave us a chance to judge how the rain was moving. Then we had a fun ride along the edge of the storm out to the next turn before returning home. I think about ten pilots outlanded, so getting back was still not easy.
I think the final two days should be better, as the airmass dries out a bit. The competition is very close at the top, so the last days should be fun!!”
August 8-Scores as well very preliminary;1.Dave Mockler in in ASG 29 2. John Cochrane in the same glider and 3. Bruce in ASG 29 as well. Overall Bruce is on top with Jerzy as runner up.

————

Looking back at the last days of Klippeneck.

Not the best weather , so not much to say. The last day’s were cancelled. Only 3 out of 8 day’s and 4 in standard class.A pity it shows a bit the “face of this summer”.
Winners;
15 m.; Karl Eugen Bauder      1.861
18 m.; Fredy Zulliger               1.866
20 m.; Protzer&Roehm           1.583
Open; Max Kollmar                 1.738
Standard; Felix Ruof               2.186

————

And about to begin,…the EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR FLAPPED GLIDERS at LASHAM.

———–

CU next Sunday for that and more news
Cheers Ritz

–

To make the blogs not TOO long, which happens when there are a few comps at the same time, I publish on Sunday now too.
SO EXTRA BLOG.
Enjoy.

AND

TIIIIMMMIIIEE is one of those happy shouts of excitement and pride from his young mates, when Tim Kuijpers wins a competition. After he became JWGC champion, he now is European champion as well. You can read the story below. CONGRATULATIONS TIM!!!

The continuing story of the last days of the EGC in the Czech Republic.

As shared in the gallery of the organizers.

The last couple of days are always exciting ,sometimes stressful, but mostly great fun to follow. Tactic’s, reading the weather well and staying calm,…. all ingredients for those last days. Here we go with the last 3 days and hopefully after the bad first week the weather holds now for a few day’s more !!!

Wednesday…August 2….day 11…task 5; after morning-rain there were good looking skies , task A was on …so what happened!?
club; 241 km.
UK_DAY!!!!! Ge won in the St. Libelle. Not an easy flight, but he made the right decisions is what he said. It seems that the last leg had 2 possibilities a good fast one and a less good hard-working-one.
Boris Zors from Slovenia was 3d and overall he is on spot 2 now .
Tim is still on spot 1 ,[3.709]  lost a few points being 9th for the day.
Fabian Peitz has 3.510 points on spot 3 overall and on 4 with only 3 points less Russian pilot Sergey.
Most started around 14.51 Tomas Suchanek at 14.36, that turned out in the end too early, he was on spot 16 for the day.

As number 1 overall you are a prey for the press. Tim is used to it as JWGC champion.
As shared by the team.

standard; 257 km.
Czech -day as Pavel and Miloslav were on spot 1 and 2, after an early start and for them it worked. Starts between 14.56 and 15. 21. My Belgian mates were on 3 [Jeroen] and 5 [Dennis].
Overall with 2 days to go;
1. Pavel with 3.518 points, 2. Miloslav with 3.500 and 3. Dennis [3332] and 4 . Jeroen with 3326 points all pretty close.
20 m; 2.15 AAT.
Kilian and his mate were the daily best, but team Kawa had only 3 points less.
Overall results at this stage ;
1.Kawa/ Matkowski 3.564, 2.Jones/Coppin  3.517 , 3. Cronjaeger/Heidemeyer 3.383 and Kilian has ONE point less!! Wim Akkermans and his mate are still in the race as well with 3.325 points.

Nice finish picture. As shared by the German team.

Thursday…August 3…day 12…task 6; “We will fly soon and fast”  , but in tricky weather. The morning alarm clock was not necessary, as a loud thunderstorm passed by with as loud rain. Launching starts at 11.30!! That was delayed to 12 o’clock. But in between the front slowly arrived!!! Thunderstorms were forecasted for later in the day.Such a day could be a real LOTTERY, but it turned out not to be.
They left , had a few drops of rain during start, but messages for the crew were ” 2300 m.”. Not bad. The task just fitted the weather, though JUST!!! A real fitting-WINDOW!!!! Some finished however in heavy rain.
Differences in points in club and standard are MINIMAL.
Club; 2 hour AAT.
They ALL finished and Tomas Suchanek as the best;171 km. in time 2.01. Pretty good! The overall toppers did well Boris was 10th , Fabian 3d and Tim 5th. So nothing changed. About 100 points between 1 and 2 and 2 and 3. Russian pilot Sergey “smells” podium-victory and is only 17 points behind Fabian.
The other German pilot Dennis started after the bad weather had passed for the second time, about 45 minutes later than the rest. Quite a risk but it all went well he finished as number 12 in his Libelle. After it was WET REALLY WET.
Standard; 1.50 AAT
Miloslav was better during the day [6th…98.50 km./h.] than Pavel [11th..97.64 km./h.] but there is still some points between them; EIGHT to be correct!!!! So Miloslav is chasing his mate and for sure it’s less team work now for the last day’s, though they both started and finished together, but Miloslav flew 2 km. further.
My Belgian mates swapped overall places too. They flew together  as well,but Jeroen , still a junior, is on 3 overall now and Dennis on 4. Difference ; THREE points.
20 m.; 1.45 AAT.
Jones /Coppin lost a few points this day whilst Team Kawa  won . Still on spot 2 though behind Kawa,  but enough points difference;4.101 for 3.973. Only 3 outlanding during this very tight window, and in this class.

as shared by Sebastian Kawa who won his third title this year.One in 15 and one in 15.3 and now in 20 m. class.

LAST DAY OF THIS IN THE END EXCITING EGC.
After the very bad first week they flew in week 2 EVERY day EXCEPT THE LAST DAY; 6 days out of 13.
So the scores from August 3 stand and NO way to gain 3 or 8 points anymore, to be just a tad better,…it’s all in the game.
“NO WINDOW”  to fly in today, a pity on the last day, but you can only accept that and go to the party in the evening and CELEBRATE!!!!!

Champions;
Club class;
1. Tim Kuijpers    4.248  [The Netherlands]
2. Boris Zors        4.158    [Slovenia]
3. Fabian Peits    4.048   [ Germany]

as shared by the Dutch team.

Standard class;
1. Pavel Louzecky  4.024    [Czech. Rep.]
2. Miloslav Cink    4.016     [Czech. Rep.]
3. Jeroen Jennen   3.846    [Belgium]

as shared by OSKARKILO

20 m. class;
1. Kawa & Matkowski                4,101   [Poland]
2. Jones & Coppin                     3.973    [UK]
3. Cronjager &Heidemeyer     3.895 [Switzerland.]

As shared by Sebastian.

Congratulations to ALL!!!
The TEAM CUP was won by Poland [871.70] with as VERY good and close runner up Germany [871.22] and then France [ 866.79]and Belgium.[855.92]

————

The continuing story of the JWGC in Pocuinai.….thunderstorms…..
Wednesday …August 2 ….day 4…NO task .

Thunderstorms again,..they had tasks, were at the grid,…..but the skies looked BLACK and they had to run for the storms.
Tony from Team USA mentioned :”
“That was a thrill. Grid. Watch storms approach. Launch delayed half hour. Wait watch wait. Day cancels 15 minutes before front arrives. We got out quick and got the glider in the trailers quick.”

  

As shared by team USA and Jill from New Zealand.

Thursday…August 3…Day 5…no task.

Friday…August 4…day 6…task 2. FINALLY THEY COULD FLY!!!THE WEATHER- GODS GAVE THEIR BLESSING.
It’ s pretty demanding for the young pilots to be ready every day to only find out that there will be no flying. But,…it’s over now ,…they fly!!
club; 252 km.
Standard; 275 km.
But the task might,   have been overrated, after 4 days of rain,too ambitious or optimistic.
NOBODY finished.
Here is the story from team NZ.
“Today the whole fleet of 70 gliders in both classes landed out all over Lithuania! The day started with great promise and the grid was launched at 12pm into a great sky. Alex and Nick were blasting along well then high cloud moved over the track and made things tricky for everyone. We (M3 crew) got the call to hook up and roll about 4pm so we headed off for an easy retrieve to pick up Alex out a field after he did 117km. He had a German and Italian sharing the paddock. Nick pressed on in his Libelle and squeaked out 212km to gain 5th overall for the day. 
A good day to test the crews and we had both Kiwi battlers back for tea by 8pm .
Tomorrow we fly again!!
Mike S (Crew M3)“

     

Pictures shared by Junior TEAM NZ.

Saturday…August 5…Day 7…task 3;
Club; 312.12 km.
YES a better day, THOUGH some had to make a restart and one “light” shower still past by before launching started!!! However….1000 points for Wojciech Wojtaczka from Poland in an SZD-48-3m. THOUGH ….23 from 36 only finished. Did the USA team a great job on task 2 , on task 3 they were all out and last. A Pity.
Standard;340.48 km.;
Great day for the young Swedish pilots; number 1 and 2; 1000 and 999 points. No need to tell you they flew together. Well done!Enrique [Levin] from Germany was on spot 3. Dutch pilot Sjors van Loon on spot 4!!
14 From 32 finished so a lot of the “young ones”  saw more paddocks these days and with that more from Lithuania than they hoped for.

Today SUNDAY they might fly there was some drizzle….. more on Wednesday.

THE CIM…continued story.

On Wednesday Clara wrote;
“For today we are expecting dry, very strong and high thermals: between 3900 m and 4700 m! Temperatures are rising during the day and will reach 37 degrees, the QNH is 1019 hPa, take offs will start at 13.00. Open class has a task of 500 km with 4 turning points.”
So another excellent day in good old Rieti!! Where other places suffer from rain and thunderstorm , the south of Europe suffers from the HEAT.Clara mentioned ;” Weather forecasts announce long convergence lines on the ridges; there are 38 degrees and air is very dry: 20% of humidity, the QNH is 1018 hPa.”
Task 2 for all classes.
18 m.;425 km.
Former world champion Leigh Wells used those convergence lines best and won the day with a speed of 154 km./h. Jon Gatfield flew with him and had 992 points. All pilots finished.
open; 502 km.
Alberto Sironi, from Varese,  showed his skills in Rieti where he flies a lot. His speed….159.30 km./h. in his Quintus M. Alvaro was runner up. 6 From 10 finished.
mixed; 412 km.
Austrian pilots Pirker/Wolff flew the task with a speed of 128 km./h.

On Thursday good tasks [3] again :
433 km for 18 m. and again Leigh who showed his skills so did Jon; again 1 and 2.All finished ,”worst speed “115 km./h.
500 km to fly for open and Alberto won again with the 2 German pilots [JS 1 C and ETA] on his tail. Worst speed 124 km./h.
Vitorio Pinni and his mate won in mixed, the 3.45 AAT with 525 km. and a speed of 138 km./h.

Friday; Task 4…It’s getting boring,  but stay with me,….AGAIN in 18 m. Leigh and Jon; 1000 and 999 points for speeds of 139 km./h. over 541 km.
Open; 498 km. and Peter won the day in his ANTARES 23 T.
mixed; Austrian team Pirker won the day with a 3.30 AAT; 531 km.!!! in time 3.40 so a speed of 144 km./h.

Saturday was another good day with task 5; Clara mentioned in the morning;
“A great meteo also today with strong thermal activity (4,5,6 m/s), good ridge with enough west wind and with convergence conditions to fly straight ahead!”
18 m.;Something went “wrong” Between Leigh and Jon as it was now Jon who won the 465 km. with a speed of  146. km./h. Dane was runner up and Leigh “only” 4th. [120 points less than Jon!!]
Open; A 3.15 AAT for open and Peter [Hartmann] managed to fly 498 km./with a speed of 149.66 km./h.
Mixed had a 3.15 AAT as well and here the 1000 points were for Pirker and Wolff [ARCUS M] though,….they got 990 as they delivered the paperwork too late.They flew 482 km. in time 3.29.

What great weather in ITALY. Rieti the MECCA of soaring ,,,yes it proofed it again.
3.45 AAT’s for TODAY for 18 m. and open  and 425 km. for mixed.

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18 m. NATIONALS in UVALDE [TEXAS]

First daily win was as said before, for Bruce .

Nice prize as shared by Bruce.

Day 2 according to Bruce;
“Today we have an MAT, which has a mandatory Start point and first turn, then we get to choose the rest of the points, a little like the old POST task. This was chosen as the weather is an unknown today. The forecast says it will be terrible, but looking out the window it doesn’t look too bad at present. “

Aussie mate Bruce as shared by Bruce.
Taylor’s Gliding Page on FB

It turned out a tough day  2 , with a 3 hour MAT !!!
Here is what Bruce said;”There we were, averaging better than 85 mph when the sun went out and the rain started! I took my last climb to cloud base, which said I was about 1500 feet above a 4 knot glide home… but there was rain to go through and all that height vanished. I made it into the finish circle, but below the required height, so I don’t know what the penalty is for that. Three of us landed on the Continental Tyre testing facility near the airfield, including Brad. Interesting day, and a bit of fun really.”

Winner of the day good old Dave Leonard, good on him. ; 277 miles in in 3.29. He tops the overall list now together with Dave Mockler; both 1743 after 2 days.Bruce and Brad had difficulties in the end. Jerzy and Keith [Essex] ,Ray [Gimmey] ,Dave [Alexander] and Dave [Nadler] all had not a top day.

Day 3 as seen by Bruce;
“As expected, today became a very difficult trip. At launch time, it was reasonably easy to climb to cloudbase , but within half an hour or so everything was over developing. Most of the field started very soon after the gate opened, and it was obvious that we were in for a challenge. By the time we arrived at the southern turn, anything going up was great, and for a few hours we worked between 1,000 feet and 2,000 feet. Hey wait! Is this Uvalde we are talking about? I was sure that we were in for an enormous outlanding event for the entire field, but eventually 16 out of 35 made it home. It was a really interesting day, and in an odd sort of way quite enjoyable.
Tonight we were entertained by Mark and Kim Huffstutler at their house, which is just gorgeous. It was a super evening with lots of talk about the day’s flying, great food and fine company.”

They flew, so there was a daily winner; Bruce won the day!!! In an ASG 29 and there are 18 from 35 in this competition. Equal points so 2 number 1 places ;Gary Ittner had 974 points as well.

Day 4 as seen by Bruce;
“another tough day 😅 As of 8:00pm, the scoresheet shows just 11 finishers. We had a 4 hour AAT, and the problem was the overdevelopment in the first photo turned into a pretty big storm, which wiped out a huge area in the middle of our northern turnpoints. The outflow from the storm made it difficult to navigate around it, and caught a lot of people out. The finishers, except for one or two, mostly did a circumnavigation of the storm, which made for an interesting flight indeed. The other photos are heading south past the far side of the storm, final glide into Uvalde about 30 km out, and a Texan sunset.
Today will shake the scores up a bit more. This comp is becoming a bit of a battle of attrition!”

And the winner was……Canadian pilot Jerzy with Aussie Bruce as runner up. Bruce tops the overall list but flies HC with Jerzy now as runner up.

as shared by Bruce!

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More on Wednesday, also on Klippeneck.

Cheers Ritz

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19th FAI European Gliding Championships

Moravská Třebová, Czech Republic
23 July 2017 – 4 August 2017

It’s such a pity for pilots, but also for the organisation, that the weather gods REFUSE to co-operate.
Wednesday was cancelled too, but you can only wait for the better weather to come. Many parts of Europe suffer from miserable weather ,but there is always hope!!!
Pocuinai, was “optimistic” for their first training day on Thursday.
Thursday in Moravska, was scrubbed too and a kart race for all who wanted was on the menu.
I have done that once too with all pilots and I can tell you some pilots/crew , really “turned into madmen”.But it was great FUN!!!! I was the slowest but had the fastest start.

They moved the INTERNATIONAL EVENING to this rainy week,..good thinking,…. and as you can see the pilots still had good fun, though some are “BORED”, we all understand.

All teams did a good job !!!
Picture shared by the Dutch team.

Friday…July 28…day 6 …flying day 1 ???;the first news for the day was “CZECH EVENING, 19:00″.
BUT they had a briefing at 10 and gridding after the briefing.Team UK mentioned in the early morning;”we are sitting in the rain currently but we are hoping for a gap.”

Hope grows on Friday, as shared by the Belgian team.

The organisation mentioned;”Please remove the gliders from the grid ASAP. More water is coming.”
Scrubbed again BUT,……..you can’t try harder than they do!!!!!AND,….
From Saturday on,  it looks very promising for a full week so,…NO WORRIES.

Saturday…July 28…day 7 …Task 1;

    

The weather on Saturday morning. As shared by the Belgian and the Dutch team.

The message was  “Dnes poletíme!” ” We will fly today”!
A few words only but they express SO much happiness. It’s HAPPENING…finally!!!!!! Organizers and pilots…… Everybody is ready and HAPPY.
Club; 327.91 racing task.
A good day and 1000 points for daily winner Thomas Suchanek in the St. Cirrus. Runner up , same glider but a Dutch pilot Tim with 931 points. Only one out landing and he still flew 311 km. in his ASW 24.
standard; 358.14 km. racing task.
Miloslav Cink won the 1000 points. He flew together with his Czech mate Pave ,also in LS 8 and he “got” 984 points. They had a very early start at 13.36. Danish pilot Mogens had a very late start [14.23], for what reason I don’t know, but he just could not make it back in his Discus 2A; 284 km.
20 m.; 356.61 km. racing task.
The combination Kawa/Matkowski in an ASG 32MI looks like a winner !!!!They won the first 1000 points.[ 110.82 km./h.]  UK team Jones/Coppin [106 km./h.]was runner p with Belgian team Akkermans/Vandebeeck[ 104 km./h.] as number 3 just ahead of French team Walbrou/Corbille.[102 km./h.] All in ARCUS T or M.
3 Out-landers.

SUNDAY…July 29…day 8…task 2 ; A blue day ,…quite challenging….and it turned out to be challenging for some. 30 dgr. C.

      

As shared by the Dutch team.

club class ; 3 hour AAT.
The best time combined with kilometers was for Russian pilot Sergey Serov. He flew in his St. Cirrus, 221 km. in time 3.04 and received 858 points. Only 17 from 37 finished and for some this first day after waiting so long with still some hope, was a big deception.
Standard; 2.45 AAT.
The Belgian pilots did a great job. Dennis and his cousin Jeroen, flew together in the LS 8 and reached 253 km. in time 2.52 for 950 and 946 points. They started straight away at 14.05,far ahead of the rest who were still  playing the departure game. The last pilots on track, left at 14.48 but still finished on spot 6 and 11. Only 2 from 27 did not finish.
20 m.; 2.30 AAT.
Czech pilots Rendla/ Rendla flew 235 km. in time 2. 29 in the ARCUS M!Experience enough there.800 points for them and ALL pilots in this class returned home.

MONDAY…July 30…day 9…task 3; with a base of 2000 m.!!!But also thunderstorms expected to be ” staying” in the N.

      

Ready to go .
As shared by the organizers.

club; racing task 236 km.
With no out-landers a good day. Specially for Thomas Suchanek as he will be given the daily prize in the morning. Good on him. Those former hang-glider pilots “feel”  the air.  Good day for Rasmus Orskov from Denmark with a 5th place. Less good day for the Dutch and German pilots. But “only ” around 200 points less for the slower pilots, who followed another route than others.
Standard; racing task 259 km.
Winners for the day were from Germany Marko Zettier and Holland Sjaak Selen, with a nice speed of 116 and 111 km./h. and 688 and 628 points. No one “aux-vaches”.
20 m.; racing task 251 km.
Another team- Kawa- from- Poland- daily- win. But good runners up from Finland Visa Matti and Harry. GOOD!!!600 for 549 points. All pilots were “in”  and team Rendla now was last.

TUESDAY…August 1…day 10… task 4; base between 1700 and 1900 up to 2000 m,…crosswind and tough/strong-ground- wind.
club; 2 hour AAT.
A great day for the Dutch, with Tim as daily winner [643 points for 212 km. in time 2.06] and Frank as number 3 with between them Danish pilot Rasmus. One non-finisher  and UK pilot Ayala as number 4 …good on her!!
Only 3 days to go and overall Tim is now number ONE!!!
standard; 2 hour AAT.
2 Finn’s [Aku and Juha with 618 and 617 points] , 2 Germans  [Marko and Andreas with 646 and 643 points]and 4 Discus 2A/b in the top and 2 non-finishers
20 m.; 2 hour AAT.
Team Steve Jones/Garry Coppin had the best combination km’s and time;251.39 in 1.58 for 588 points. Just ONE point less for Swiss team Cronjaeger/Heidemeyer. 5 x ARCUS T /M in the top.

More news next week, or maybe Sunday evening.

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10th FAI JUNIOR WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Pociūnai, Lithuania
30 July 2017 – 12 August 2017

They were a bit more lucky with the weather. After arrival , it was not really flyable but no worries,  the pilots could organize their “infrastructure” for this JWGC period, do their shopping and relax from the long trips for most.
“Infrastructure” looks different for all.

      

Team USA with their beautiful base. HEINEKEN GROUND,.. can only be DUTCH. Team France setting up the “radio-tower”.
As shared by the teams.

The 3 official practice day’s showed set tasks and 2 hour AAT’s in which practice was really possible,as well as out landings.Only 6 from 22 in standard ,finished on day 1 a day with a set task from 273 km.In club 14 from the 23, who were flying.Distance ;249 km.
Practice day 2 had 2 hour AAT’s. The weather looked good but was not as good as it looked. Some flew the task others choose the “fly around”

As shared by the Dutch juniors.

Practice day 3 had set tasks; 170 km. in club and there were 3 winners all 512 points Dutch pilot Nick and UK pilots Thomas and Jake with Robin from Holland just a tad later 512 points.
So enough good training,…. the REAL thing happens NOW. First the opening in a big sports-and entertainment-arena, in the local town of Prienai.
Here all team captains. Dutch Annemiek proudly in the middle.

With to her right the CD of the comps Vytautas Sabeckis  and top TC Benjamin from France.
As shared by team USA via Tony.

    

as shared by the teams UK, USA New Zealand.

      

Team Germany, as shared by them.
President of the jury Juha Silvennoinen, who was CD at the JWGC in Rayskala [2005]and the EGC .As shared by Juha.
Team Holland as shared by them.

SUNDAY…July 30…day 1…task 1;
Club; 281 km.
A great beginning of the comps for the German team with Stefan and Julian on spot 1 and 2 in their Libelle’s. 1000 and 997 points. Great spot 3 for Nick from NZ. He flew together with Alex but Alex missed a “connection” and landed just 20 k. short. 29 from 38 finished this first day. So a few disillusions for some but it was only day 1 a LOT can happen.
Standard; 336 km.
The Polish pilots Thomasz and Jakub, in this class had a great start as well. Flying together to spot 1 and 2 in the LS 8 for 1000 and 921 points.

MONDAY…July 31..day 2…no task ; No, they gridded, had tasks,… but decided NOT to fly!!

Thunderstorm close by .
as shared by Tony.

TUESDAY…August 1…day 3 … no task.Partly sunny with thunderstorms …..AGAIN. Seeing the pictures,…good ones too.

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18 m. CHAMPIONSHIPS in UVALDE TEXAS.

As said before Bruce and Brad , my Aussie mates, are flying this competition and as you know too, Bruce always reflects on his flights in his  Taylor’s Gliding Page
“Arrival in Texas has been greeted by heat, dust, storms and the usual fantastic cu’s and streets. Can’t wait to get airborne.“

      

That’s exactly, how I remember my 2 trips to Uvalde in 1991 and 2012 as well.
As shared by Bruce.

“An average day in Uvalde is better than a good day in most other places 😊Today started a little bit blue, but some clouds started to appear not long before launch. Brad and I flew for about 3 1/2 hrs, and did a run to the south, (where it looked the worst but was actually the best) then north-west and north-east (where it looked great, but was a bit of a fiddle to find the best climbs)
The photo is to the south of Uvalde, and Brad is just above my winglet. 
Good start, we are rigged and set up, and the flight discovered no real problems. Tonight we are eating in, so we can all get a decent sleep. Yesterday was a big day of driving, and we got to bed rather late.”

As shared by Bruce.

Yesterday was the first day and with an assigned  task of 285.29 miles the 33 pilots made the best out of the day. Bruce WON !!! Good on him, speed 88.13 miles /ph. Jerzy was runner up  but as Bruce flies HC, Jerzy won the day.All AG 29 in the top 6.
Brad was on spot 18.
“A big part of today was smokin’, and the other part was a bit rubbish. The trip was pretty fast until we went down to the south east, where the cirrus was a bit thicker, and the air was not as happy to go up. We had to slow up for about 40-50 miles, then it came good on the way home. Today was fun; there were a couple of fast guys just ahead of me, and I almost caught them at the edge of the difficult bit, but then I went slightly the wrong way and they stretched ahead again.” By Bruce

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HpH Sailplanes UK
NEWS
AND THEN THERE WERE THREE… Evening of 25th July with a very strong wind blowing, Jaroslav Potmesil, owner of HPH sailplanes took the TwinShark on a short maiden flight. A huge thanks to the team who beat the odds to make this happen. The Twinshark is now the third and latest 20m flapped sailplane to market.

As shared by HpH Sailplanes Uk.

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49th KLIPPENECK competion in GERMANY

Between July 29 and August 5 , 83 participants are flying in 5 classes for the highest honors  .
On day 1 the pilots got IN THE AIR the B task so change of instruments and mindset.
So also there not the best conditions and a struggle for tasksetters to “work around the thunderstorms”.
2 Days of reasonable short tasks  around 200 km. and 1.30 AAT’ s and 2 days of no- flying in 4 classes,
Only Standard flew yesterday ,  so “only” 17 pilots in the air and nobody finished.
The set task was 171 km. and the best pilot flew 119 km. Tough day in the office!!!!

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C [oppa] I[nternational] del Mediterranio]  in Rieti in Italy
August 1-12

Aero club di Rieti ” Alberto Bianchetti”.
As shared by the organizers.

Aldo , my Gliding International colleague, from Italy is the CD from the CIM in Rieti; His message ;
“I’m directing the CIM in Rieti. Astonishing weather! 167.3 km/h in the Open Class…I envy them!” 
They started yesterday,….38 competitors in 3 classes. I visited the CIM several times, great fun, STRONG competition!!!!

Day 1 in 18 m. was a prey for Leigh Wells from the UK and Dane Dickinson from NZ. Both 1000 points for 154.94 km./h and 154.97.
In open Alvaro was the best in his ASH 31 MI; 167.28 km./h. WOW!!!!903 points. He was followed by pilots who fly there every year, as Alberto [Sironi 163 km./h] Peter Hartmann [ 161 km./h.] , Bruno Gantenbrink [159 km./h.]
In the mixed class the best speed was 157 km./h. in an ARCUS.
You can visit the next site to follow this competition. Scores on www.soaringspot.com   AND
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=aero%20club%20di%20rieti%20alberto%20bianchetti

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To finish some sad news.
One of our longtime friends and guests at Sportavia and a special friend to me, Maria Boettcher from Muenich,  has died of cancer on July 26 at age 81. She was one of those people who impressed others by how she looked, reacted and with her wisdom and interest, specially in soaring.
Her husband Dieter, who lives since nearly 2 years, in a house for people with dementia, survives her.
The manana tree at SPORTAVIA, was already sad , now it will NOT be used anymore.
My good friend Margie from Tocumwal, who was one of the Sportavia owners before us and who knew her well too mentioned ;
“I will remember Maria as a happy, friendly person who was still knitting woolen socks when it was 37 deg.”

A pretty recent picture which Maria send to me a few weeks ago.

RIP Maria.

Ritz