We just finished our warm days. After 60 over 20 -dgr. C -days, including 2 heat waves, we had 2 dgr. C less than 20 ,so it was over with the fun, but we just had the best summer here in Holland. No complaints, not at all!!!!
In Germany still a 1.022 km, in an LS 8 T/18m. and  1.018 km. flight in a Nimbus 4 DM, last weekend and many over 900 km. flights.
Still 79 Flights from Holland last Sunday, best by Paul Wijsman in Ventus CT /17.5 m. ;605 km.[ 400 FAI triangle]and several over 500 k’s. Some flying with great pleasure under cloud streets.
Sikko Vermeer even flew a 300 FAI triangle from Soesterberg in the St Libelle.[415 in total!!]
In parts of Austria and the N of Italy the first snow has fallen , so slowly we move via autumn to winter. My friends in Africa and Down Under do it the other way around.
In about 3 weeks,some gliders move again from their home fields to Namibia , South Africa and Australia.Time flies!!!

—————

French Female Nationals at Pont Sur Yonne;

As shared by the organizers.

7 Out of 7 day’s for the ladies!!! TOP !!!!
Aude Untersee , who flew in Hosin in the 2 seater with one of the Aboulin’s , won task 4, 289 km. with a speed of 92 km./u .The” good old ” Hornet is still doing well and I read she LOVES flying it!!!!
Task 5 was small as it was a difficult day with late starts [ Aude  at 4.35 PM, Melanie  at 5. 07 ] as it took the weather a long time to improve. A 1.45 hour AAT was set and she won again;154 km in time 1,51.
She was about 20 km.further and 10 km./h. faster  than the runner up Melanie Gadoulet in the Pegase.
3 Outlandings

Waiting on day 5.
As shared by the organizers.

Task 6 showed another AAT this time 2 hour.  Anaïs Gaubert won the day in the LS 4; 254 km in time 202.59. Nice speed of 100 km./h.. She was one of the 3 unlucky out-landers the day before.
Task 7 , so the last day , with the message ” the rain stopped at 9am, followed by a beautiful skyline and ceilings at 1800m.” all ladies got theirselves in gear again.
Due to a nice speed and great flying , the ladies de-valuated the scores for a task of 203 km.
Magali Russier-Corcy,won with 108 km./h.in the SZD 55.

ONLY 4 out landings during the entire competition!!!

And the winners “en Francais”;
🥇 Championne de France : Aude Untersee  in Hornet ;4.937 points.
🥈 Médaille d’argent : Magali Russier Corcy  in SZD 55 ;4.889 points
🥉 Médaille de bronze : Mélanie Gadoulet in Pegase    ;4.537 points.

Aude has this title already since 2014. She is only 23 years old and studies meteorology at the National School of Meteorology.

Top ladies!!!!
as shared by
Centre de Planeurs du Sénonais

—————-

Junior Nationals at Lasham;

Lasham Junior Nationals and Regionals….
as shared by Alix Pentecost

Juniors;
After some “miserable” weather with small tasks and 1 pretty good task from 255 km. [with 1000 points for Finn Sleigh] finally on Saturday a “normal” task with 313 km. Simon Brown in the ASW 15 won the 1000 points. This brought him from 9 to 5 overall.
Also on the last [Sun-] day, there was no task. In the end the juniors flew 4 out of 9 day’s.
Junior Champion; Jake Brattle [ who was 3d on the last day] with 3.592 points in the DG 101.
Silver and Runner up; Clement Allen with 3.406 points in St Cirrus.
Bronze; Jordan Richards with 3.353 points in St Libelle.

Regionals Blue;
293 km. on the one but last flying-day and as there was no flying on the last day this turned out to be an important day. By the way the day before [task 7 with a  2 hour AAT] ,there was  ONLY ONE finisher [ 223 km. in time 2.56 ] and a runner up George Metcalfe, who  in the ASW 28 had a splendid day  . He flew 177 km . was the first on the list of “out-landers” whilst the next pilot flew ” only ” 72 km!!!
The  task-8-day was won by either Hughes or Davis sharing the St Cirrus with call sign E.George was runner up and with his good last run’s he moved from 5 to 2 overall.
Tom Arscott on the number 1 overall spot was 3d so he consolidated his first spot.

1. Tom Arscott in St Cirrus with 1.993 points.
2. George Metcalfe in ASW 28 with a few points less 2.830 points.
3 . Mark Holden in Duo Discus  T with 2.792.

Regionals Red;
405 km. on the last flying day and Phil Jones won, for the 2 d time. After an out landing in his Ventus 3 T, on task 5 with only 430 points from the 982 going to winner of the day Dale/Dale in the ASH 25 , he had with this weather no chance to climb up back to the overall-top again and stayed on spot 5.
In the end Dale and Dale won in the ASH 25.

1. Dale/Dale in ASH 25 with 2.901 points
2. Alistair Nunn in JS 1B with 2.783 points.
3. Dennis Heslop in ASG 29E with 2.720 points.

——————-

 Not far away,
… a few more UK TOPPERS were flying for the Cotswald Nationals 2018,
from Aston Down.

2/3 Out of 9 day’s were flyable.
In open class Andy Davis won in JS-MD1C  and gathered over 3 day’s 2.112 points. Russell Cheetham was runner up in JS 1C with 1.834 points and on 3. Tim Jenkinson same glider a few points less ;1.816.
In St. class Leigh Wells won in LS 8 with 1.522 points after 2 day’s. Just ahead of his dad who gathered 1.432 points also in LS 8. Good to see Martyn is still flying!!!
In 15 m.Tim Scott won also after only 2 day’s of flying in ASG 29E with 1.616 points. Chris Starkey was runner up and Matt Cook number 3.

One of the good day’s!!
As shared by Cotswold Nationals 2018

—————-

——After Ostrow there was a lot of “talking” about the interval starts. Some are in favor, some are strong against it and some think it might be a good idea BUT,…. with better and strict rules set by and backed up by the IGC.
Adam started in his blog a discussion about it .
I share Adam’s start of this discussion in the hope the future for gliding remains SAFE or even better ….get’s safer!!!!!

Adam’s opinion;

“Interval Starts, reminiscing over the day that 37 of us went through the start line together at the POL 15m WGC – unreal!

Incredible to watch and be apart of, thankfully it all ended up with no plastic being bent.. Overall I think I’m a fan of the concept, though I think the organizers should be provided with some guidelines on how to set them properly, when to use them etc, rather than the IGC saying we want you to trial them – good luck with it, not real fair on the CD and task setter…

——-Perlan is getting higher and higher;
I read; ” 62 000 ft. New altitude record in Andean mountain wave“.
This is about 9000′ higher than the flight last year for which they were awarded a world record!!!!!
The highest recorded glider flight!!!History is written AGAIN. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

RIETI…….Coppa Città di Rieti

Rieti skies as I remember them SO well.
Courtesy Clara

——The comps in Rieti for the Coppa Città di Rieti, continued BUT they had to wait till Friday;
“Today we return to fly, after three days of bad weather! Take-offs are scheduled for 12.30pm. Three tasks were assigned: three areas each with an average length of 350 km and a time of 2h45 ‘. There are 25 degrees, the QNH is 1016 hPa, good climbimg conditions are expected, wind will be irrelevant and some rain is still forecasted.”[Clara]
So 3 AAT’s from 2 hour 55[A groupe] ,2.45 [B groupe] and for the “new ones” 1.50.

Great weather in Rieti and I remember every building.
Pictures courtesy Clara.

Only 5 finishers in the B group, with as winner Peter Hartmann;349 km. in time 3.04. Young Davide was one of them, I noticed on the pictures he is a FATHER now, with a lovely baby and wife. Time flies. I still see him with TC Leonardo in Husbos at the junior worlds.
Also Thomas was back and team Alberto Sironi in the ARCUS T.
The A group had Luca again as winner.[Discus 2A]

Scrubbed on Saturday after a small AAT was not possible. Take offs were supposed for 12 PM but at the briefing they said already to leave straight away because of thunderstorms after 4 PM. In the end the day had to be cancelled, as the rain started at noon just after launching the first pilots, who had to come back..

Building up TOO quickly. As shared by Clara.

They  only had a valid task in one class; group B and not all left as the weather was just miserable, some were launched , landed again, tried hard but in vain and gave up.Thomas won the 1.30 AAT with 171 km. in time 1.35. Only 11 from 27 finished in this class.
Unfortunately the weather did not co-operate in the normally always sunny Rieti area; 3 day’s out of 7 in group B.
1. Davide in ASG 29 E with 2.004 points, well done Davide!!!
2. Thomas in the Ventus 3 with 1. 933 and 3. Peter in the Antares.
Alex and Dane from NZ were 5th, guess they never saw this kind of weather during their Rieti trips.

On the last couple of days, Aldo, the Competition Director in Rieti,  had to assign a Finish Ring of 25km radius, so the sporting performance could be completed before considering the alternatives of a different airfield or trying the glide back home.Good on him.

Packing the glider in the trailer again.
Nice picture shared by Clara. THANKS Clara for the news and pictures!!!

With Luca on the highest spot  in group a…  Duo Discus XLT- team G. Marchisio + F. Cavicchio and Lisa Scheller from Germany in LS 8/18 m.!!!
and Davide WITH his  little daughter in group b with Thomas and Peter.
as shared by Clara.

 TEXAS  15 m and open class NATIONALS.

Found this picture in my file. FABULOUS picture of THE CONCORDIA with Dick Butler !!!!!! As seen by Jacek Lewinsky.
Don’t even remember where it was, but I wanted to share a picture from the CONCORDIA.

—–The comps in 15 m and open in Uvalde got some good flying as well after the pretty unusual rainfall for 4 day’s in a row.

15 m;
Sean Fidler was THE man on day 2. In his ASG 29 he flew 344 miles with a speed of 81 m/ph.
Day 3 was for Rick Indrebo , [same glider]who flew 275 m. with a speed of 85 m./h.
Sarah is flying as well and pretty good in her Ventus 2ax , she was after 3 flying/contest day’s on spot 5.
David Leonard, who won day 1 flew very consistent and topped the overall list every day till now .

David was 7th on day 4 and that cost him 100 points so he moved from 1 to 3. Rick won the day and is leading now. But John Osbourne is on his heels ; difference in points 3827 for 3804.
Day 5 was for Ken Sorenson, flying the Ventus 3 in 15 m. configuration and John is the overall leader now 3d for the day, Rick 7th.
David was 14th and “dropped” to 5.
AND SARAH climbed up to 3 overall good on her.Runner up for the day!!!!

Day 6; Very last day and AGAIN a good one for Sarah!!! She was on a daily number 3 spot but with that she consolidated her runner up spot as vice USA 15 m. champion!!! Well done!!![5.624]
Rick won the day AND the comps so he can call himself the new USA champion in 15 m.[ 5.707]Congratulations!!!
Ken mentioned :”Uvalde 15M Nats last day. Definitively a nationals caliber task. Large blue hole with dead air had to be crossed at the beginning of the first leg. Once across the hole the soaring it was screaming good with cu and strong climbs to 8000+ ft. until the final leg home which was mostly blue and weaker. Speed on the task was determined by how you crossed the first hole how you set up to fly the last leg home. Challenging day but great fun. Another example of why Uvalde is a world class soaring site.”

With Peter Deane, Gary Itner, Rick Indrebo, Sara and David Leonard the top 5 from this class!!!
As shared by Soaring Society of America

Open;
Being number 2 on day 1 changed quickly on day 2 for Dick Butler [DB] in his Concordia, the majestic “ship”.He won and topped the overall list.
Here is what Steven Leonard, very kind, nice and wise man, who I met in Uvalde in 2012,  had to say on FB:Steven flies a NIMBUS 3/25.5 m.
About day 2;
“Big task today (362 mile assigned task). Cloud base was about 4000 AGL when we started. Got higher as the day went along. Had a tough time on the legs going south (Uno Mas, then to Laredo), great run to Eagle Pass, then a slow trip to Dilley (along with a pretty big detour trying to find a climb), and a bit of a nail biter getting home. Just over 5 hours on course today. Good fun (since I got around!).” [601 OLC km]
AND
“Day 3 ….. 316 mile assigned task. Really weak lift early, started too soon, struggled on the first leg. Got passed by the winners part way down the second leg, and that was my wake-up call. Or something. Got a couple of good climbs, some confidence in reading the clouds, and started running a LOT faster. Again 9th place for the day, 9th overall. Each day has been faster than the last one for me, so I hope I can keep that trend going” [534 OLC km]

On day 3 Dick was runner up with a speed of 91 m./h. over 314 m.
But day 4 was for Dick again;323 m with a speed of 83.22 m./h. With more than 100 points he leads the open class now. As was day 5!!!! Another 1000 points bringing him to 4.978 points in total with one day to go.

Day 5 as seen by Steven in his OLC comment:
“Day 5 US Open Class Nationals. Blue at the field, slow to cook, so first in line (me) gets to be the sniffer. Found acceptable climbs to barely acceptable height, and the launch was underway. 3.5 hour Modified Assigned Task.
Got a good start with a climb right at the edge of the cylinder, then out to a cloud for a 6 knot climb to 7K MSL. Off into the blue down the first leg! Some struggling and feeling sorry for myself and watching other gliders disappear into the distance on the FLARM. Push, and you can catch up. Or go down fast. I think I caught a few and had a pretty good run. Every time after the first leg when a good climb was needed, one appeared. Interesting that there were pretty good climbs even after the cu was gone. Looks like 6th for the day with just under 900 points. One more day, and it is shaping up to be a good one.”

Day 6 was a prey for Dave Mockler in the JS 1c/21 m. who is the new vice USA open champion.
But,…Dick was 3d , so no worries to get to the highest spot to receive his so maniest open USA title.[5.936]

Day 6 seen by Steven; Thanks Steven for sharing!!!!
“Day 6 is complete, and so are the US 15 Meter and Open Class Nationals. I managed to fly 275 miles at just under 84 MPH average today, which was good enough for, are you ready for it…. 9th place (again)! I am nothing if not consistent! I set my anchor on the first day, and held to my position for the entire contest.
Uvalde is a very special place. If you have not yet flown there, you need to find a way to get there and fly. You will not regret it.”

471 km. with a speed of 127 km./h.

From r to left;  1st: Dick Butler, 2nd: David Mockler, 3rd: Jim Lee, 4th: Keith Essex, 5th: Ron Tabery

As shared by Soaring Society of America

—— In our Tocumwal past we converted MANY hang glider pilots to glider pilots. Here is a picture of 3 hang glider mates who grew out to WGC toppers!!!! No they did not convert with us, but I remember the easy way of flying and living from them. So relaxed!!!!

Tomas Suchanek [Czech Rep] Pete Harvey [UK] Alland Barnes [Australia] all “performing” in Hosin.
Courtesy Allan.

–—–Visited KEIHEUVEL last Sunday; My annual trip to this very pleasant airfield, but unfortunately there was no competition-flying this weekend. The yellow dry field, burnt by the sun ,looked a bit sad and  to avoid damage they cancelled and postponed the 2 day’s Keiheuvel CUP, the 12th edition,  till next year.
But I caught up with several people , had a fabulous lunch prepared by Rudy and Chrisje, finally got to meet Rosa again, madre familias , from the HUYBRECKX family ,89 years old, but she still knew who I was…amazing….Had my annual LEFFE brown Trappist beer WITH grenadine, visited the Schmelzers at their chalet and congratulated Tijl with his inspiring-every-day- win in Klippeneck and Peter with his title in Bailleau.
Some pictures;

Field looking dry and yellow and sandy.But de KEI ,the restaurant “shines” in the sun and was VERY busy!!!

The Stearman , ” lives” at the Keiheuvel, but  left for a FLY IN to Zoersel , an old timer event and Pieter helps the pilot [back seat] and guest .

and a totem pole full of gliding-trips all over the world in the garden from the Schmelzers

Being so busy with Hosin I missed a”nearly 1000 km” from Tijl from Keiheuvel on August 9, in the Ventus 2CT/18m ;983!!!!!!
Tijl flew this year already 4x a 1000 km and in total already over 20 most from Belgium and with all airspace -restrictions  I can tell you,… that IS SPECIAL!!!!! He is a master in planning his flights!!!
On that day August 9 a few more great flights from Keiheuvel; 838 km. by Jeroen Jennen in LS 8 and and 696 by Tim Huybreckx in Discus 2.

a more recent picture from Tijl after his 1000 k in June . Plus all those winning-day’s in Klippeneck,…it has been a great year for him!!!
AND my youngest brother and his wife.

—–UK JUNIOR NATIONALS at LASHAM;
And parallel 2 classes flying for the regular regional titles. A total of 86 pilots in 3 classes.
They started on August 18 but pilots had to wait for 3 day’s before they could fly. A dip in the glorious weather from this 2018 season.
On day 4 [August 21] they started with task 1 ; 255 k.  for the juniors and 256 for Regionals blue and 324.96 for red.
I counted 45 juniors, but only 15 finished from 39 who started ,2 of them HC. Finn Sleigh in the St Libelle won with a speed of 80.99 km./h.
Red; Phil Jones in the Ventus 3 won with a speed of 80 km./h. TOUGH day!! 8 From 16 finished.
Blue; Mark Holden in the Duo Discus before Tom Arscott and Shaun Lapworth both in St Cirrus.7 Finished from 21.
All scores are preliminary.
Comps finish on August 26 so more next week.

——-French FEMALE Nationals flown from Pont Sur Yonne, in club class and till now 3 pretty good days.
Day 1; with 272 km. and a Pegase as winner from the 1000 points with in it Céline Rault.
Day 2; a 2 hour AAT with a new face on spot 1 ;Anaïs Gaubert in the LS 4….154 km in time 2.01
Day 3; 316 km and another Pegase won the day;Mélanie Gadoulet got the 1000 points for a speed of 90.44 km./h.

day 2 and day 1 winner; Anais and Celine.

More next week.

All 13 ladies ready for day 1.
all pictures  shared by Centre de Planeurs du Sénonais

—–And PERLAN news!!
Daniel L Johnson

HOSIN….FAREWELL….            CU in 2 years in ….STENDAL.

Preparing the container for return to S.A.    and…a nearly empty airfield in Hosin again.

I will remember Hosin for a long time. NO I was n’t there,… but the organizers made me feel I was there. Of Course there is a huge difference , mostly missing out on mates-for-years AND the pure excitement from comps. Sometimes I just feel sad I am getting older, but so be it. But it all felt easy to follow even from far.
Thanks to the HOSIN team. Great job from Tomas Rendla as CD even more by his very confident 17 year old son Matej, bringing the WHOLE closing ceremony to an excellent end.
A pity I could not hear the noise from clapping etc,[ there was no sound!!] but for sure I find it somewhere again.
They all left with memories for a lifetime!!!!
Thank you  to Carol from South Africa who allowed me to share her words and to Matthew and Adam for sharing parts of what they wrote in their blogs!!

Carol, Adam and Matthew last 2 pictures courtesy Benjamin Neglais.
On Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures and on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding you find their last words on HOSIN.

AND,…the last words are for Tomas Rendla CD of this competition;
“HOSIN,…..THE PLACE WHICH WAS THE WORLD’S CENTRE OF GLIDING FOR LAST THREE WEEKS! GLIDING ENTHUSIATICS AND FRIENDS WERE WATCHING FIGHTS FOR MEDALS IN “HEAVY” CLASSES. DUE TO MODERN TECHNOLOGIES THE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD HAD CHANCE TO SEE OUR LIVE BRIEFINGS, LIVE RACES, ALMOST LIVE SCORING, LIVE STREAMS FROM THE PARTIES AND ALSO LIVE STREAM FROM CLOSING CEREMONY.

AS A LAST WORD OF THIS BIG AND GREAT EVENT I HAVE TO SAY BIG THANKS TO MY FAMILY, WHO SUPPORT ME A LOT WITH PREPARATION AND RUNNING THE COMPETITION, TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE ORGANISING TEAM, TO OUR YOUNGSTERS WHO MADE A GREAT ATMOSPHERE, TO ALL PARTICIPANTS AND CREWS.

SPECIAL THANKS BELONGS TO ALL OUR PARTNERS, SUPPORTERS, TO OUR SPONSORS, TO THE CZECH ARMY WHO ALLOWED US TO USE THEIR DEDICATED AIRSPACE FOR COMPETITION FLYING AND ONE REALLY BIG THANKS BELONGS TO AEROKLUB OF CESKE BUDEJOVICE, WHO RENTED US AN AIRFIELD FOR THREE WEEKS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GLIDING SEASON!”

The FAI flag was handed over by President of the Jury Rick,  from Hosin hands in to Stendal hands. Germany next!!!

As promised the pictures from  the winners and that was not even easy.
I got a tip to look at the tweets and yes they were there. Here you are thanks to TEAM MARU gliding Crew‏ @TeamMARUgliding 7

18 m. class With Wolfgang in the middle, Mario to the l. and Jean Denis to the r.

The open class champions in the middle Michael, to the l Felipe and to the r. Petr. In front of them the pilots who got a certificate; From l to r. Ricardo, Pete, Philippe and Sylvain, Andy, Zdislaw and Henrik.

    

——-As said before, Ge Dale will be back in Narromine this year. As just” decorated” new UK champion in Club class  he will start coaching again. There are only 3 courses left for 2018!!! So be quick if you wish to be part of it.

“It’s on again, G. Dale is returning to Narromine and will be in residence for all of November & December this year!!
Whether you are an early Cross Country Soaring Pilot or a highly experienced Competition Pilot you can benefit enormously from a week of performance coaching with G Dale.

G. Dale is a professional gliding coach and will be running his outstanding Cross Country Coaching Courses throughout each week at Narromine starting Monday October 29 right through to Friday December 21. 
The course offers both theory and practical training. You will be flying one on one with G in the Narromine Duo Discus or you can fly a lead and follow with G in your own glider.
Flying each day will commence with a full weather and task briefing followed by either a group or one-on-one cross country coaching session. The courses can be tailored to suit your experience level and requirements from first cross country to National Competition standard. G will be running his famous 5 day full time cross-country performance coaching course each week.
See the Narromine Gliding Club website for full details and to make a booking. http://www.narromineglidingclub.com.au/NGC_GDaleCoaching.html…

AND
a picture after the prize giving in Dunstable.

Ge with the CUP, shared by my Narromine friends.Pic by Liz Pike.

    

35th WGC at HOSIN !!
Wednesday ;August 8, day 11 ,task 10 !!!!

Some news first;
Toppers/Winner from Tuesday a pretty difficult day, due to the weather, but fast as you have seen already.

The Goudriaan brothers on spot 4 and 5 and Jean Denis from France on spot 1 in 18 m. class
As shared by Pôle France Planeur

Party time as well ; INTERNATIONAL EVENING. All teams prepared food from their country and that’s always a great success.

Both my “home-country-” mates.
The Dutch, with Peter Millenaar in charge  and the Aussie’s Pam [Butch wife] and Adam and his mum.  Both countries  nicely presented their food.
As shared by the French and the organizers.
AND it was …….VERY BUSY

And ………the FAI flag has been stolen….AGAIN.
OH, OH !!!! Not the first time, not the last time either.

Some S.A. News; “Once again launching was delayed today until 12.30, still Task A 3 hr. AAT, as the lift was slow to get going over the airfield. First the sniffer, the met man, took a launch and was soon back on the deck. Then they have an Arcus in the air which is carrying a camera-man for in the air-to-air photos took a launch and was soon reporting lift, and then finally Sebastian Eder of Austria launched – he was involved with the mid-air two days ago, and has decided to withdraw from the competition rather than to continue flying. He opted to self-launch, as the glider is fine, and so launched and has flown back to Austria. Conditions rapidly developed to the west and many set off on task as soon as their start gate was opened.  On the airfield we have had a little bit of rain and some rumbling. Could be an interesting day.”
AND it turned out to be a very interesting day GOOD for some, BAD for others. Thunderstorms and showers ,cirrus and the last 50/60 km. DEAD AIR bothered the pilots!!!!!
Let’s have a look who could cope with this weather, who was lucky or unlucky. All part of our sport!!!

open; 3 hour AAT… gate open at 14.22… South Africa and France did well in this class flying with a speed of 131 km. /h.  Uys [ Jonker] and Philippe [de Péchy]   both shared the win and got 1000 points. AP [Kotze] and Sylvain [Gerbaud] were number 3 and 4 !!! 8 JS 1C’s in the daily top. Uys and Attie will be pleased.
4 Used the engine one of them Pierre and Arnaud in the EB 29 DR. Such a pity!!! Not a lot of changes in the overall top, though Sylvain moved from 9 to 7.

18 m.; 3 hour AAT…gate open at 13.38…MOMENT OF TRUTH IN THIS CLASS.
After the international event, now an international finish as 13 different nationalities flew their selves in the top 13 today; Vladimir from Slovakia was the best with 391 km. in time 2.58; speed 130 km./h.
Then Adomas from Lithuania, Peter from Holland, Lucasz from Poland, Jurg from Switzerland, Bert j. from Belgium, Mario from Germany and Tomas from the Czech Rep. Russell from the UK, Wolfgang from Austria, Takeshi from Japan, Peter from Hungary and from Italy Giancarlo.
Only 26 from 43 finished the rest landed mostly virtual, using engines to come home. Among them the overall number 1 till now, Christophe who dropped from 1 to 8 and that hurts!!!!!
Also Adam and Butch were “out” , Oscar ,Laurens and Mike , as well as Jeroen AND Katrin [ dropping from 2 to 6] and Matthias. OH OH!!!
Overall top 3 now;Mario, Wolfgang and Jean Denis with Peter on a very good 4th place!

20 m.; 3 hour AAT…gate open at 13.55…380 km. in 3 hours was the best and flown by Allan and Matthew getting better and better by the day; 126 km./h.
Sebastian an his mate were runner up and Antti and Juha were 4th.
12 From 17 finished so for some a “bad” day as well. Specially for team Belgium dropping from 5 to 11.

Matthew say’s it all in his blog;
“Great day for 20m class today. CAPE was off the charts and although we originally expected the storms to be mild, by launch time it was clear they would be early and often.
We started as the gate opened and most of the fleet followed in hot pursuit.
Out the gate we flew over 100km at 100kts jumping from storm to storm at cloudbase. Sebastian Kawa started just behind (LEECH! 😁😂) but somehow managed to catch and outrun us about 80k in. We were planning to keep going along the line of storms, but we saw a number of gliders going away from the storm line, and not wanting to be alone for a tricky jump ahead we went with them. We’d thought everyone would follow us anyway so it wouldn’t matter if it didn’t work as fast as the storms. Unfortunately the gaggle behind just plowed along the storm line and overtook by an unassailable margin. Surprised to discover Kawa was one of the gliders who’d gone off track we eventually hobbled around with him for the next few turnpoints hopping from scattered storm-cu to storm-cu and avoiding heavy showers. Now heading back to Hosin, it looked unsoarable in the last sector, and the only way to make any more distance was to head a long way off track into a very murky rainy storm line. All the gliders that had passed us were forced down this path because on an AAT task, if you’re fast you have to fly further. We, being slow had the luxury of being able to turn for home at this point and shot a 42:1 required glide from the last cloud back to Hosin effortlessly. The Arcus just goes and goes and goes. The gliders who’d got well ahead of us plowed into the dark storms in the distance, got low and got home much later, giving us a day win for free. Kawa opted to deviate 90 degrees for a very long way for one more climb, perhaps safer than our 42:1 glide but I guess speed doesn’t matter much when you’re leading by 300 points.
No movement in the placings, but slowly working our way to the top.”
Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

A day with changes in the overall scores, with 3 day’s to go,  as on the 11th in the evening, flying is over and party time is on, with on the next day the 12th the prize giving and closing ceremony.

THURSDAY AUGUST 9, day 12, task 11 and then 2 day’s to go!!!!

The “world” in HOSIN.
as shared by Team USA.

Some news first; “Yesterday’s  incredibly fast development of thunderstorms caused a complete shuffle of the rankings. Unfortunately in Open and 20m class pilots had to start their engines not far from the airfield. 18m class had mixed results after a challenging flight with huge deviations from the track.” as mentioned by team Belgium.
And S. A; wrote ;
“This morning is pleasantly cooler and there was some rain last evening. The forecast is expected to be similar to yesterday with probably overdevelopment and showers – yesterday they had showers in every sector and had to navigate around it deviating far off track at times.”
It seems that today is the last hot day in Hosin with 33 dgr. C.
We had our change here in Holland yesterday and are back to 22/25 dgr. C., after a short [ 15 minutes] but vicious [thunder-]storm.
Very unusual, for Holland,  but we had 2 heat waves this summer!!!
The Belgian team shared this news;
“Although the sky still is quite blue, first cumulus clouds are appearing and all pilots are in the air already. Still hot hot hot today, and optimistic speed tasks of around 400km for all classes were given. Let’s cross fingers now!”

First start not at 11.30 but at 12.15. A -tasks are on. More wind  and even “wave” up to FL 93!!!! Another interesting day, as those who miss out on the wave,will have a totally different day!!!
By the way the FAI flag is back! Hurrah!

On one of the video’s I saw a young man behind the table. It is Matej Rendla son of CD Tomas; I noticed Matej when he was a little boy and his dad flew open class, just a flying family like we were, also our kid’s always were part of it!!
Matej, organizes/runs the briefings every morning and helps out when and where necessary and what I heard/read he is doing a great job. ONLY 17 YEARS OLD!!!! One for the future- top- comps!!!!What a gem !!!! Such charisma!!!
Motto from the meteo man because of the heat and the drought ; ” Save water-drink beer“ (but after the flight)”

During the day ,Art Grant and his wife Judy arrived from Canada in Hosin. Well known by many and a nice get-together again!!!
Next week I will catch up with them in Amsterdam.

Official news;  “THE LATEST START GATE HAS BEEN OPENED AT 14:03 FOR OPEN CLASS. ALL CLASSES ARE FLYING IN NICE WEATHER. WE HAVE 2/8 CU OVER THE AIRFIELD WITH CLOUD BASE MORE THAN 2000M ABOVE GROUND AND WITH CU CLOUDS IN AREA OF TASKS AS WELL. TEMPERATURE ON GROUND REACHED 35 DEGREES.”

Open; 424 km.
FINALLY the hard work put in by Andy and Pete during the UK Nationals delivered POINTS!!!! They practiced hard on flying together to be good at this WGC and today they “got” the 1000 and 996 points!!! Good on them!!! Uys found HIS way to do things correct and was 3d;  956 points.
2 Pilots just saw the” finish” but could not finish. The rest , 27 pilots, did well flying with a speed of 104 km for number 27 to 137.69 km./h. for Andy.
With 2 day’s to go Michael’s place looks pretty secure with 9.862 points. Felipe has 9.778 and Petr 9.479. Ricardo 9.302.
But it is only over at Saturday evening!!! I have seen weird things on the last day’s.

18 m.; 415 km.
More excitement in the overall top in this class.
Today was THE day for Gyorgy Gulyas from Hungary, who I follow already for a long time. HE WON ; 135.27 km./h.!!!!Good on him!
Just a tad slower was Mike Young , who I also follow since 1987, when we met in Benalla in 1987, when he was still a young lad;134.97 km./h.  Christophe is “back” after the difficult day and finished as 3d. Wolfgang was 4th.
BUT,…..several of the toppers as Mario, Katrin, Matthias, Adam and more had a less good day . Arne even “out-landed”/pulled the engine.
Another day with changes in the overall top.
WOLFGANG is number 1 now!![9.420] he swapped places with  Mario who is on spot 2 [9.389] and Jean Denis stayed on number 3 with 9.196 points . “Our” Peter still on 4!!![9.147]
All pretty close, reason for excitement for the last 2 day’s.

Gyorgy in his new sponsored jacket as daily winner.
Shared by Gagula Darko

20 m. ;387 km.
121 km./h for the Swiss ARCUS M.[Cronjaeger & Sidler] and 1000 points for them. Not a real good day for Antti and Juha, being 11th for the day.
Pretty clear for the next 2 day’s is that it will be difficult to keep Sebastian away from another title; 9.784 points.
Team UK, Steve and Garry,  is still going strong on spot 2 [9.543.] More exciting will be if Antti  and Juha can keep their spot 3 with 9.393 points , as Allan and Matthew are closing in with a total of 9.361 points.
I know them all, so may the best ‘win’ .

Worth mentioning from the morning briefing;
Terry , the IGC delegate for Australia and I believe vice president as well, now TC from team Australia, spoke about the WWGC in Lake Keepit!!
Carol wrote it down for us!!!
“Terry Cubley of GFA (Gliding Federation of Australia) gave a brief presentation of the next Womens World Championships to be held at Lake Keepit in January 2020. At this stage they are uncertain whether there would sufficient support for all 3 classes, Club, Standard & 18m., and there will be a brief survey carried out and a decision would be made by October 2018. Lake Keepit is a full-time operation so one could go visit anytime and there would be gliders to hire in Australia for those wishing to participate in the WWGC. There is local self-catering accommodation, as well as other accommodation approx. 25 minutes away in the towns. ”
www.keepitsoaring.com
Have been there several times. Great soaringspot on a lake. Most finishes come in over the lake. Great accommodation close by as well, so if you go please contact them asap, if you like to have a nice little house at the field.

A short wrap up from the circumstances ON THURSDAY by Carol;”The conditions today by all accounts were difficult in that you could not definitely know where and whether the thermals would work, and it appeared to be tricky, and then died again on the final leg, so some have had to use their engines to get back.”
And from team Belgium;”Although there were good thermals today, they were not necessarily correlated to the clouds. So not an easy day. ”

To finish the day this lovely fly-by from the tuggies!!!

“A great fly by by the tugs!”As shared by Graham TC from Team UK.

FRIDAY; AUGUST 10; day 13, task 12 , one but last day!!! BUT.…NO task 12 , day cancelled.

Some tweets from team UK this morning;
“ Good morning from an overcast and much cooler Hosin. Temperatures are considerably cooler this morning with 8/8ths cloud cover. After the heat and humidity of the last 3 weeks, it is quite a welcome change.”
And
“No grid before briefing and so probably a no-fly day!”
And official tweet
“Good morning. Briefing at 10.00. No gridding before Briefing.”

After briefing the French were the FIRST to share this message;”La journée d’aujourd’hui est annulée, pas d’épreuve.”
So the day is cancelled , no tasks today!!
AND the WEBCAM this morning

News about the WGC in France shared by Carol ;” Jean-Nicolas Barelieu of the French Federation gave a short presentation of the 2020 FAI World Championships for the Club, Standard & 15m. classes to be held at Chalons-en-Champagne, from 8th – 22nd August 2020. The venue is approx. 2 hrs drive to the east of Paris. He stated that for those interested there would be an International Champagne Cup event for Standard & 15m. classes (handicapped), which would be held to coincide with the French Club Class nationals from 4th – 10th August 2019.”

By the way,…the flag is stolen AGAIN!!!!!!

SATURDAY; AUGUST 11, day 14, task 12 !! LAST DAY !!!!
The metman said the day before ” it should be flyable”.

To finish; 3 HOUR AAT’s for ALL CLASSES!!

With the official tweet from the organizers the last day started after a day off ,due to a cold front passing by;
“Good morning and welcome to the last day of racing. We expect AATs today.”

Early clouds to the West as shared by Team USA.

Unless the great looking clouds the first launches were postponed 12.45. It remains exciting, even at home,…such a last day. Will their be” coups” from those who only believe in spot 1 and not 3 or 4?
In a few hours we know!!!
First of all they had to use a reduced A task, due to a late start! Now 2.30 AAT’s for all classes.

A pity,…. look at the skies as seen by Arnaud at their last take off from Hosin Airport, in the back of the EB 29.
A clean sky with great cu’s.

open;
gate open at 14.40. FAST AND FURIOUS race by Philippe de Pechy; 142 km./h over 363 km!!! Michael was 5th, Felipe 7th.
NO SURPRISE, but Michael is AGAIN the new WORLD CHAMPION in OPEN CLASS . Congratulations Michael!!!!
Felipe is VICE WORLD CHAMPION. So a great result for Germany!!!!
Petr remains on his good bronze position. All 3 flew EB 29 DR or R.
2 Other pilots are over 10.000 points-mark Ricardo [ 10.075] and Pete.[10.006]  Well done!!!
1. Michael Sommer; 10.662 points.
2. Felipe Levin ; 10.571 points.
3. Petr Tichy; 10.301 points.

18 m.;
gate open at 14.06. The gliders WO and I from Wolfgang and Mario , number 1 and 2 overall, played a cat and mouse game at 14.55, as I read. Mario left, Wolfgang followed one minute later, BUT,…Mario returned!!!The difference between them is ONLY 31 POINTS!!!!! When they both go wrong, one way or an other, Jean Denis and or Peter will be ready to take their places.
Wolfgang left at 3 PM and finished after 2.32 flying 363 km!!! SPEED ; 142,91 km./h. He was really on a mission!!!! Was already WGC champion wanted to be it again!!!!
It was waiting for Mario……At 6.22 PM, no sign from a score from Mario!!!Does he think/know he has won and drinks bubbles already?????
TC Wolly had called before flight with Bernd Fischer from Top Meteo,for the best weather options.
I feel the pain from Mario, he was “only” on a daily spot 13 !!!
Peter on 17 They tried but in vain!!
What doe this mean???
Wolfgang is the new WORLD CHAMPION again!!!
Mario held on ,on his 2d place so VERY GOOD VICE WORLD CHAMPION. He  restarted 5 minutes after Wolfgang but as I read he had to fly alone.
Jean Denis stayed on 3 so bronze for him and Peter stayed on 4!!!
2 VENTUS 3T in the top and 2 pilots with over 10.000 points.
A great 8th spot for Katrin.
1. Wolfgang Janowitch ;10.236 p.
2. Mario Kiessling ; 10.097 p.
3. Jean- Denis Barrois ; 9.915 p.

20 m.;
gate open at 14.19. With a 4th place for team Kawa they  knew they were the new WORLD CHAMPIONS in 20 m. class. Also the UK -chaps finishing as 5th, were pretty sure from their VICE-WORLD- CHAMPION title.
It was all about Allan and Matthew and Juha and Antti. The Aussies were a bit faster 134.71 km./h but that was not enough for the bronze. The difference was 21 points after 12 day’s of fabulous flying!!!
So
1. Team Kawa with10.600 p.
2. Team UK with 10.335 p.
3. Team Finland with 10.211 p.
Worth mentioning 3 other teams over the 10.000 mark; 10.211 p. for Allan and Matthew,….German team Ladenburger & Krohmer 10.123 p they won the last day with 137.82 km./h…..French couple Aboulin & Untersee with 10.058.

Official news:
“SO THE LAST COMPETITION DAY IS OVER. SPEEDS AGAIN REACHED 140 KPH AND SOON WE WILL KNOW NEW WORLD CHAMPIONS. STAY TUNED…
FAREWELL PARTY STARTS AT 19:30, CLOSING CEREMONY IS TOMORROW AT 10 AM AND WILL BE STREAMED ONLINE VIA FACEBOOK.”

Some pilots finished with the words spoken on their radio…. “Thanks for the last three weeks”
And from several pilots involved in MANY WGC’S I heard  “Hosin” the best ever.”
SO,….the 2018 FAI WGC in Hosin is over again.Such great fun. It seems they had a FABULOUS  atmosphere and that specially the young organizers from Hosin , got a lot of credit for what they did. Very relaxed is what I heard most about Hosin.
The weather was absolute REMARKABLE and used in the correct way.
Thanks to ALL. I loved it even from HOME!!!! Great movies from every day’s flying, from the briefing , live tracking…etc. We all felt part of it and the enthusiasm shared in tweets and FB messages showed the pleasure the pilots/crews/organizers had!!!
All go home now with unforgettable memories!!!! I still have them from comps over 35 years ago!!!!

Not to forget the TEAM CUP goes to GERMANY!!!!
1. Germany……………..919,13 points
2. France …………………916,30
3. Czech Rep.. …………904.57
4. The UK …………………902.
5. The Netherlands….881,98

————-

—–CIM…..Rieti had a storm as well on Wednesday so no flying. Also not on Thursday, more rain and wind.

A real down burst at the airport. After the all the high temperatures in Europe we have severe storms!!!!

Here is Clara; ” At around 4pm, a thunderstom hit the airfield, dumping heavy rain. Wind speed was recorded at 37 knots steady, gusting 48 knots.
The wind was strong enough to move Bouderlique’s Arcus M (GT2) for over 40m. It came to a rest against nearby trailers, damaging the right aileron and the rudder.”

A tough day in Rieti.

On Friday , after 2- non- flying- day’s, it was Rieti at it’s best again with tasks from 456 km. in 18 m/open and 320 for  15 m. class.
Luca Urbani won in 15 m [96 km./h.] and OH OH, Giorgio out landed after 306 km. A pity. He lost 460 points.
Jon Gatfield from the UK won the day with a speed of 102 km./h in the ASG 29ES. Jon leads the overall scores now with 4.905 points followed by Giorgio with 4.866.

Clara finished the day with :” It was a tricky day with strong and weak thermals. Some pilots were happy, they said: “A fun flight! Good task to the north!”, three gliders are outlanding.”

Saturday , LAST DAY IN RIETI, was according to CD Aldo a “typical ” Rieti-day, which means GOOD!!!!
Clara added ;”Today’s weather forecasts announce the presence of a line of convergence from Roccaraso to the north of Foligno on the Adriatic side of the Apennines: the three tasks, in fact, will go to exploit this area. We think it will be a fantastic flight to finish in the best way this Cim.”

Aldo at briefing and last launches for the 2018 CIM.
As shared by Clara.

What happened on the last Day ???
18 m. After one off-day , Giorgio was himself again and won the the 422 km. set task with a speed of 127.15 km./h. His 6th daily win this week.
Jon Gatfield who won the day before and was 1 overall, was 12th now, and  lost 140 points.
Winner of the CIM 2018 in 18 m. is GIORGIO with 5.936 points. Jon was runner up, Werner Amann 3d..
IOpen class ; Alexander Mueller won in the EB 29 with 5.920 points.
15 m. class ; the top 3 here was between Luca Urbani, Remy Hirt and Aku Jaakkola . Today Remy from Switzerland won and added more points to his overall total;5.622 points.
 20 m. class; The French ARCUS T Denis Guerin / A Donnay was clearly the best ;6.053 more than 600 points ahead of the runners up Team Gerster from Switzerland.

The 18 m. class winners. Giorgio, Jon and Werner.
As shared by Marina.

—–Bailleau had on Wednesday a 4.15 AAT for the “Long-flight-pilots” . Dutch pilot Sjoerd van Empelen, the current junior world champion, and  student at the Delft University [Aerospace Engineering] flew a Nimbus 4 M. and he did very well as runner up with 476 km in time 4.13 !!!!
No flying on Thursday. RAIN !!!!!!
With one day to go “our” Junior Sjoerd is 1 overall with 6.516 points followed by Dutch Jeroen Oostendorp;6.408 points in ASW 22 BLE.
In the speed class with one day to go Belgian Pieter Daems is the best. I know him from Keiheuvel nice young man. He always, was with his dad Jeff at the field when dad flew comps and Pieter  still was a young kid.
Unfortunately, he lost quite some points [ around 300!] on Wednesday being 21st.
But still leads with 6.069 points. His Belgian mates in the Duo Discus are runner up and coming closer!;5.992.
Friday August 10, last day in Bailleau and it goes out with a big BANG!!! After the rain the weather turned extra good and 502 km. was set for the “long flight” pilots.
The speed pilots went for 334 km.
A tough day as some pilots flew 6 hours 17 over the 502 km.!!!But 17 from 26 finished!!
Sjoerd van Empelen, was runner up for the day,so our JUNIOR won GOLD on this pleasant but serious competition, with 28 pilots in this class; [7.476 points]
The other class showed some long flights in time too. 334 km. in nearly 5 hours.
Here young Pieter Daems won the GOLD.[ 6.979 points].24 from 36 finished.
One of the out-landers was Belgian pilot Tom van den Eynden . He was going so well but could not make it home.
He shared a great picture from his out landing!!!

Pieter HAPPY, after an acro demo.
FB picture.

As shared by Tom.

So  8 out of 11 day’s GOOD!!!! !!!! A great INTERNATIONAL BAILLEAU 2018-comp is over again.
there was an “amical “class as well with newcomers to competition soaring; 6 pilots in this class,3 from France , 3 from Holland and 1 from Italy.
The first 2 prizes were for the Dutch the 3d for France.

——-UK Club class Nationals at Dunstable; A small 162 km. task on Thursday, as also in the UK the sun has left and rain has started.Finally the heat has been broken in parts of Europe. Bad is the result after the heat; SEVERE STORMS!!!!!
Task 2,3 and 5 were a prey for Ge Dale in his “little” Libelle. He leads overall with 4.722 points.
Just behind him 2 Junior pilots from the UK squad doing a great job; Jake Brattle in DG101G ELAN and Tom Arscott in the St Cirrus.[4.602 and 4.551 points]
After 5 day’s and 5 tasks , Thursday was a day off for all because of the weather….so scrubbed!!!!
Friday was cancelled as well.
For the LAST DAY In DUNSTABLE, a 209 km task was set. AND,… Liz Sparrow won just ahead [69.12 km./h]of Ge [68.58 km./h] Slow but great finishers.
I presume this was their last day if not I come back on it on Wednesday.
For now;1. Ge has 5.557 points. 2. Jake 5.335 and 3. Tom 5.277.

——-Dutch Junior Nationals; No flying on August 8 and 9 due to the change from heat wave to normal Dutch weather, via not-normal-heavy-thunders storms.
228 km. was set for Friday August 10. Very tricky weather with wind and local showers, but 4 from 20 managed to cope and finished!!!
Steffen Landman flying an LS 6 /18 m. flew around with a speed of 100 km./h. The runner up , Filip Verver, [LS 8] had 63 km./h. but still leads the overall scores.[3.322]
Steffen moved from 5 to 3.[2.987]
Saturday August 11 also the last day for the Juniors. A 3 hour AAT was set.
I can see from here, about 100 km. N of them,  great cu’s [5/8 at 12 PM] but also feel a tough wind.

The “young ones” did well. At the news I just saw pictures from cloud streets ,so it could be expected.
Niels Van Nieuwland in an LS 4 flew 273 km. in time 2.56 and that turned out to be the best ; 1000 points!!!.
Niels was mostly on spot 2  but he nearly won; 4. 352 for him.
Felip ,who lost 25 points had a total of 4.360 points.
He is the DUTCH NATIONAL JUNIOR CHAMPION.DIFFERENCE 8 POINTS.
Luckily they are young and have strong nerves!!!
Steffen won the bronze;3.934.

6 Young pilots from my “old” club the  “ZES ” were participating,  2 in a Janus 18.2 m., 2 in a Twin III and 1 in a Mosquito and 1 in an LS 4. Great to see the ZES is going strong!!!
Interesting; Uys Jonker donated a daily prize to one of the juniors; The lucky one was Wout Sliedrecht , flying an LS 4, member of a real soaring family at Malden.

Busy weeks so from Wednesday on “NORMAL ” blogs again. More about the 15 m [13 pilots] and open class [14] Nationals in Uvalde Texas, next week. DB flies his CONCORDIA there as well.
When I have/find pictures of the prize giving I will share them on Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz

35th FAI WGC in Hosin started with the last week !!!!

As you can see on the picture from TOP PHOTOGRAPHER Maria Szemplinska shared by Rick some really needed a rest day !!!

MONDAY August 6, day 9 task 8 .

Hosin from above. Courtesy Arne.

On a rest day there is enough to do ,….going to a castle ,….. to Prague or building a [ team]-hut with mates for crew pilots and …..for a GLIDER.

S.A. team always looks happy.
As shared by Arne.

In between the girls had fun as well, Katrin changed her hat for a USA hat.
““International Accord” Katrin Senne (flying IG in the 18m Class on the German Team) is an admirer of the US Team uniforms, so she traded hats..”
As shared by TEAM USA.

  
And team Holland is ready for the last week!!! With Jeroen,[15]  Peter [11] , Hadriaan [6]  and Ronald.]7]
Courtesy Frans Guise.

First launches postponed but at 12 the “flying circus”  started again.
“The conditions are going to be… Interesting…” – Met man
And the official short news :” NO CU CLOUDS TODAY, WE HAVE 4/8 OF CIRRUS CLOUDS FROM SW, BUT TASK AREA STAYS CLEAR.”

Open ; 422 km…..later changed in B task from 323 km;Gate opened at 14.00;
A SLOW day, after all the huge speed , we are used to, from the last day’s. Felipe continued his great performances at Hosin and won the day with 109,75 km./h.
Ricardo in the JS 1C is really doing well. My good friend Leo[nardo ] , his dad would have been so proud!!!
Also Michael flew 109 km./h.,  those were the 3 daily best!!
It seems that an Austrian  EB 29 R and an Hungaryan JS 1C ” touched”  in the air at 20 km. S. from the field , but both pilots were quickly back at the field in their gliders !!!!
“Unfortunately there was a connection of two gliders earlier in the afternoon but thankfully both pilots and the gliders appear to be miraculously OK – they flew back to the airfield and landed safely. Some t.l.c. (tender loving care) some polish and buffing and they will more than likely be able to fly again tomorrow.
Apparently in Hungary yesterday there was a mid-air collision which was mentioned at this morning’s briefing – there the pilot used his parachute and his glider was upside down in a field. How important – LOOK OUT, LOOK OUT, LOOK OUT. The message is spread time and time again.”

18 m.;430 km….B-task.. 326 km. Gate opened at 13.22.
An INTERNATIONAL top 5 with Oscar from S.A. winning the day with a speed of 108 km./h.[1000p]  Followed by , Arne from Denmark in more or less the same time.[999 p] Then Jeroen from Holland ;107 km./h. 994 p. same as Katrin !!! And the number 5 is Oscar’s brother Laurens !
Except for Jeroen [14.20] they all started together at 14.13
So 5 JS 3’s in the daily top!!! 2 “Out-landings”.
S.A.team;” the team effort today has paid off for Katrin (who said it is a man’s world? – well done Katrin) moving into 2nd place overall, Oscar moving up into 7th position and Laurens up to 11th. ”

Laurens in the air in LG …As shared by Arne.

20 m.; 402 km.… B Task..321 km. Gate opened at 13.34.
97 km./h was the speed by daily winners Juha and Antti from Finland! And another great performance in the TWINSHARK by Steafano and his mate; runner up with 94 km./h.
3 Out in this class.

With Oscar winning 18 m. Antti and Juha winning 20 m and Felipe winning open class.
Picture by Gagula Darko

And to finish the day

As shared by TEAM UK.

Website: team.gliding.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/britishglidingteam
Twitter: twitter.com/GBGlidingTeam
Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/BritishGlidingTeam
Instagram: www.instagram.com/britishglidingteam

Power ladies and already SO Long in our gliding world; GREAT picture from Carol , TC from S. A . to the L with Andy’s [Davis]  wife Pamy and crew to the r. They have all met as well in Swalu, the place from the Helli Lasch Challenge were winners of WGC’s are invited too.
‘Every second year, the best of South Africa’s glider pilots gather with the current World Gliding Champions for two weeks in the heart of the Kalahari, doing what they love doing…. gliding!”
If I remember well,  Katrin and Arne were there as well last year.

TUESDAY ;August 7 ,day 10 , task 9.

Official morning tweet from the organizers:
“Good morning. Today will be blue. We expect medium length Racing Tasks today.”
The day before they flew ALL day in the blue no cu’s at all, so today seems the same.Not always easy though dry thermals can be as strong as wet ones!!!!
The S. A. News;
“A clear blue sky this morning with lower temperatures and a gentle breeze. This evening we will be having the International Evening – this will comprise all of the various teams providing a variety of different foods and/or drinks that are typical of their country, so possibly pasta from Italy, wine from France. The S.African have wine, springbokkies & melktertjies drinks to serve and with possibly something to nibble on with the drinks.
The metman says it will be very hot with temps in the 32 – 33 deg mark, possibly better than yesterday, but quite likely to be blue up to 1600 – 1700 m. with only some cumulus in the mountains perhaps up to 2000 – 2200 m. There could be some showers to the south in the evening.
Yesterday there was a midair collision, but thankfully both pilots and their gliders were moreorless OK and they were commended for their actions after the incident. They both flew back and landed safely at Hosin.
The Organisation will accept zero tolerance for reports of safety incidents, and as a result the pilot of HAB will receive 0 points for yesterday’s flight.
The Safety Committee spokesperson, Andy Davis, again spoke about a number of incidents yesterday in the Open class. He again highlighted the need for pilots to have more respect and to give pilots more space, especially when joining other gliders in an existing thermal. He said pilots were often pulling up too sharply, joining too close, joining too fast, or going straight through the gaggle – this was all totally unacceptable and all of these actions would endanger the lives of others. One needed to join at a tangent from the side and slot in. He asked pilots to remember that everyone had wives/husbands/children who no one wanted to be left as a widow/widower. Look out, look out, look out.”
i can only agree. LOOK OUT….FLY SAFE!!!!!
For years I say; a competition is GOOD, winning is even BETTER ,but going home safe is the BEST.

Just during and after start Carol mentioned;”The high cirrus thickened over the airfield during tow and several gaggles of circling gliders could be clearly seen at not the highest of altitudes and now that all the gliders have been launched there are two gaggles of the Open class circling slowly above and close to the airfield. Off to the SE the high cirrus is clearly evident as well. “
Looks like a very interesting day!
It turned out not …..TOO BLUE!!!

As shared by Team USA around 3.30 PM.
AND
The Message from the organizers;
“THE WEATHER TURNED OUT TO BE MUCH BETTER THAN EXPECTED. WE HAVE 4/8 OF CUMULUS CLOUDS OVER THE HOSIN RECENTLY. OGN SHOWS PILOTS CLIMBING TO MORE THAT 1800M AGL AT THE MOMENT AND AS THE TASKS WERE SHORTEN TO ONLY 270 KM WE EXPECTED FIRST ARRIVALS AROUND 5PM.”

Back to flying and again later starts now at 12.15 and B tasks.:

Open 364 km.; Later changed in B task with 302 km;gate open at 14.00….Same start, about the same finish, speed 141.75/08 and difference in points SEVEN, that’s the day in a nut shell for Michael and Felipe.
Ricky had another great day and was 3d;139,66 km./h.
Aussie Scott did not fly, and after the “touch in the air” Sebastian Eder EB  [call sign FJ] was out as well

18 m. 360 km.; Later changed in B task with 270 km; gate open at 13.22> 2 did not fly, 2 were out , the rest finished and the best was French pilot Jean-Denis Barrois with a speed of 139,35 km./h!!! Butch was runner up , Wolfgang 3d and the Goudriaans followed with Katrin.
The difference in the overall top is Christophe with 7.623 points and  Katrin with 7.617 points.

20 m. 317 km.;Later changed in B task with 267 km; gate open at 13.34 …Kawa team did it again with a speed of 127,94 km./h. About the same as the Swiss team, who were runner up.

“A devalued day for all the classes since they flew the task in under 3 hours. ” Carol.
Everybody back in time for the International EVENING!!!!
And I heard it was yummy, late and just GOOD!!!!!
All scores at www.soaringspot.com 

—————-

—-Tijl back from Klippeneck!!!”
What a week :
Very timely, for the 50th anniversary edition of its competition, Klippeneck turned into “Bitterwasser auf der Alb.”
Just an all around incredible experience.”

Winning 7 day’s out of 7 is MAGIC!!!!! Well done Tijl,congratulations.

So Tijl again on a picture from my file. No clue who made it. Sorry!!

——–Bailleau;
With the expectation of thunderstorms they had small tasks in Bailleau last Tuesday day 8 task 7; 1.45 and 2 hour AAT’s. They had a rest day as well on Sunday and after the well deserved rest straight away a long task  from 535 km. won by the french ARCUS. All 27 pilots finished .
In the speed class 370 km. and a Belgian day as 5 from the first 10 places were for them. 3 From 35 were out!
Tuesday had tasks but they were cancelled due to expected storms.
I heard that the weather change arrived and the temperatures were 10 dgr. lower. That’s what we expect now too.

—-CIM in Rieti;
It’looks like a Giorgio Galetto show in 18 m. Like Tijl won every day in Klippeneck, it seems Giorgio is trying to do the same winning all 4 day’s.
In open Alexander Mueller is the best. but Still a few day’s to go.
Couple of day’s ago they had very bad weather at the finishes.
Clara mentioned:
“Very difficult landings today with strong south west wind and heavy rain from 5pm to 6pm, not preview. But meteo was as expected with good conditions and quite right task. As two pilots wrote to the Contest Director: “Dear Aldo, the task has been really exciting and interesting. Good job!”
So no worries.

   
Bad weather at Rieti as shared by Clara.

—–Sikko is one of our technicians at Terlet but also a great pilot. He was already in my team in Finland during the EGC in 1988.Last weekend he flew in his glider to Stendhal to attend the VGC rally!! The weekend before he flew to Jena , visiting the club camp from the AcVZ, going up and down with a detour via Lusse , a total of 2.500 km.

    
Flying up and down in his ASG 29E/18 m.
What a life!!! As shared by Sikko!

——–Dutch Junior Nationals
Always important, as that’s “our future generation” .
They , the 21 young ones, could not start on Friday for day 1 due to a bush fire close to  Venlo . Chinook helicopters had to have room to “work” VERY understandable.
But Sunday started well with a 314 km task. For some that was the very first 300 km.!!!
Great coaches/ scouts helping them out in the air. What about Steven Raimond[former European champion]  and his wife Marion.
Sjaak the very fresh WGC champion from Ostrow with in the back Tim [Kuijpers] current European champion and former JWGC champion, helped out as well. What do you want more as a junior???

Sjaak and Tim helping/advising the young mates!!

216 km. on the next day with 2 outlandings and yesterday a 3 hour AAT with Rob Looisen as one of the coaches. Fantastic to see that our top pilots who once started as juniors spend their time to help out.
Best distance was in an LS 8 287 km. with 93 km./h.

—-Club class Nationals in the UK from Dunstable;
4 day’s till now also there they have fabulous soaring summer.
Task 1 was won by Iain Macarthur, so further with task 2, 319 km. a prey for Ge Dale with 104 km./h in his Libelle 201 bwl . Tim Milner was runner up and all 41 finished!!
Task 3 was a 4 hour AAT and again Ge had the fastest flight; 376 km in the “little” Libelle in time 4 .04.
Tim in the St Cirrus was number 3 now.
Yesterday a 280 racing task.And some of the younger and older favorites in the top 4;Jake Brattle in DG101G ELAN with 94.98 km./h!
Runner up Tom Arscott with 93 km and Ge with 92 km./h and Tim with 91 km./h.
This is the overall top 4 as well after 4 day’s but in another order; 1 Ge. 2. Jake .3.Tom, 4. Tim.

Off to Eindhoven now,  to bring my guest  to the station. Cu on Sunday with the latest!!!
Today in HOSIN.; 3 HOUR AAT’S

Cheers Ritz

Wednesday;August 1, day 4, task 4.

Felipe in WB and Michael in EB,  2 German top pilots, ready to go for day 4.
As shared by team Germany.

I gave you already some morning news in my last blog, on Wednesday, so we continue with what happened that day.
AND,…you can still follow the briefings LIVE; https://www.facebook.com/wgc2018cz/videos/2215404022012771/
What happened on this “bloody” hot day, not only there in Hosin, [32 dgr.C] but also here in the SE of Holland with 33 dgr.C.
First some news from team S A as they are there. This news is written by Carol and she is a lovely and very competent lady in the “men’s world. Met her already years ago when there were only 3 female TC’s. She allowed me to use her news.
“So launching was again delayed from 11.30 to 11.45, then to midday, and then finally first launching was at 12.15. There are clouds developing all around, and there is also stronger wind than was predicted. The radial-engined Smelaks are not as strong as the others and launching from runway 06 was somewhat disturbing to watch the combination headling quite low over forested area after take-off.
The start gate has opened already for the 18m. class at 13.26, for the 20m. class it will open at 13.40 and for the Open class it will open at 14.06. ”
Weatherman Jan predicted 2 day’s ago, when he mentioned that every day would be flyable, for Thursday a small front passing by, what if it would come earlier???Maybe late[r]  on Wednesday??
Anyhow they all started with the A task…. Found big blue holes, found lift in it as well and later another air mass a bit hazy and later at places rain.

open; 470 km; gate opened at 14.06…. some started straight away , a lot  around 14.14 ,so did Michael and Felipe. They are just “magic” !!! With 1000 and 999 points for a speed of 139.43 and/31, they added even more points to their overall scores. Unbelievable!!!
Felt sorry for Aussie mate Scot, he was so close in the Quintus but it stopped for him after 403 km.
Great job from Ricardo [Brigliadori] from Italy on spot 3 in the JS 1C.138,46 km./h and …several more ….19….flew over 130 km./h!!!!

18 m. ;485 km. gate opened at 13.26. A great day for my Aussie mates Butch [135.16 km./h] and Woolley [134.08 km./h] ! John won the 1000 points in the JS 3 and Adam 988 in the Ventus 3. They have been able to compare the gliders now!!! For sure we once will hear about it.
2 Guy’s who’s flying I estimate high , are Matthias Sturm and Mike Young. They were out after 440 km.
Great job from Katrin Senne, being on spot 7 for the day.
She mentioned :”What a day! Great thermals, rain showers, spread outs, big blue holes end at the end the final glide thermal with 7,0 m/s integrated. Cool!”
Russell Cheetham , the current WGC champion, JUST made it home after 4 hours and 36 minutes.  The last to come “home” on spot 32. He started rather late as did Mike , both at 13.58.
The winner  by the way, Butch, did “it” in 3.35!!
And a HAPPY Adam;
“ Check out the final climb, from near the ground to the moon! I was eager to start early today after advice pre-launch from Mac, also from what I learnt earlier & I wanted to trust myself. Glad we did, as unforcast showers cut off the late starters & we got lucky. Thanks to Wolfgang [ Janowitsch ]who drove the show when it got tricky at the last, then Mario [Kiessling]who charged on at the right moment. The last climb was magic, 10.5kts bottom to top to come home fast – sometimes you just get lucky!!”
Wolfgang was 4th and Mario 5th. In between on 3 former hang glider pilot Tomas Suchanek.

20 m. ;442 km. gate opened at 13.40. With a speed 3 km. faster than all the rest, Sebastian and his mate flew with 127.12 km./h ” home”. The UK ARCUS T [124.89 km./h]  team did well just finishing before the Finish ARCUS M team. [123.50 km./h.]
Also Heinz and Karin from the USA on spot 5 did a great job.
Matthew and Allan were happy to be home.
As Matthew mentioned ;”Couldn’t string a glide and a climb together to save our lives today, but when it turned to worms and unexpectedly stormed up we made some good calls and survived unscathed. Moved up another place.”
He just made it home on as he mentioned “a tricky day”.!!

The official evening news ; “UNLIKE THE LAST FEW DAYS WE CHANGED DIRECTION OF TASKS TODAY. ALL CLASSES FLEW TO NORTH EAST WITH THE FAREST POINT IN CZECH/ POLISH BORDER. MOREOVER IT WAS AN EDUCATIONAL FLIGHT OF CZECH GEOGRAPHY, UNTIL TODAY WE FLEW ON EAST SOUTH AND WEST FROM US MAINLY, BUT NORTH EAST DIRECTION STOOD UNDISCOVERED. AS THE FORECAST FOR THIS DIRECTION WAS REALLY GOOD TODAY WITH NO PROBABILITY OF SHOWERS WE DECIDED TO SHOW TO OUR FOREIGN FRIENDS ANOTHER PART OF OUR COUNTRY.ON OUTBOUND LEGS WAS A GOOD WEATHER BUT UNEXPECTED TROUGH WITH STORMS APPEARED AROUND MIDDLE OF INBOUND LEG, SO PILOTS HAD TO GET THROUGH. AND THAT WAS THE CRUCIAL PART OF THE TASK. THE PILOTS WHO WERE ABLE TO CATCH A REASONABLE LIFT BEHIND CAME HOME WITH SPEEDS ALMOST 140 KPH AGAIN.”
“This happened as well;

As shared by Matthew .
Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

And the S A news ;
Here you are day 4 in a nut-shell:
“Around 6 p.m. the gliders were coming in in their droves with often as many as 8 – 10 on finals for both the concrete runway as well as the grass runway. Oscar says there was all sorts of weather at the eastern part of the task around the 3rd & 4th turnpoints with rain, blue holes, and all sorts (I will not repeat the exact wording!!). It would appear that setting off on task shortly after the gate opening was definitely the right decision even if everyone else then followed. For some it appears that they had to start their engines.”
Oscar was 6th and Laurens 8th. And as said Katrin 7th.

This is Carol the TC from S A. talking to Eric the TC of France.
Just to show you who writes the daily news I can share.
As shared by the organizers.

And then it is EVENING.

THE GALLERY OF TRIIN JAGOMÄGI FROM ESTONIAN TEAM shows a fabulous series of pictures.
As shared by the organizers.

Thursday; August 2 ,day 5, task 5.

Two methods of getting airborne
Great picture shared by the organizers.

Mind you they had some long and 5 very good practice days, before as well. On the day they did not fly they had the opening!!
But this is a WGC  so life goes on with  AAT’s for day 5  and task 5 , shows 3 x a 3 hour AAT.
Mind you not all top competition pilots are top AAT pilots.
Some more news first; Here is Carol after briefing;
‘Another blue sky morning with little to no wind. Gridding has again been on 06 runway, and the tasks are 3 hr. AATs for all classes (Open class 289.6km/585.4 km; 18m. class 262.3 km/551.5 km; & 20m. class 249.6 km/506.0 km), so perhaps the task setter is not too sure exactly what the weather is going to do and making it the pilots’decision as to where they fly!! They are expecting the front in the east to dissipate, as well as the front off to the west. There could be showers and storms to the west of the country. The wind is still weak NE’ly, and by 6 p.m. there will probably be no lift, but it could be good earlier up to 2200m. and higher, with more instability & climbing cumulus. “

open ; 3 hour AAT…gate opened at 13.17 ….New name as daily winner,…from Hungary,….Richard Bartolf flying a JS 1C. [431 km. in time 3.04 so 140.20 km./h] And,…the 2 Czech Petr’s missed out on ONE point; both 999. [140.16 and 140.12 km./h]
Then ,…9 points less for Michael [470 km. in time 3.22.] and 28 for Felipe.
Another great day in Hosin-Paradise!!!
The Dutch and UK boy’s started early at 13.19 , the winners around 13.24/25.
One outlanding after 361 km.

18 m. ; 3 hour AAT…gate opened at 12.37; A UK -day and again even faster than open class. Russell [JS 3]and Mike [VENTUS 3] were in a hurry , started 3 minutes after the gate opened …learning from the day before,….and flew 451 km. in time 3.11/12 so a speed of 141.85 km./h and 140.87 km./h.
Mario did well in his VENTUS 3 and after 5 day’s he tops the overall list!!! Arne was 4th and KATRIN 5th and,..she is 3d overall now!!!Top job!!!
But a week to go and scores are VERY CLOSE!!!!

20 m. ; 3 hour AAT….gate opened at 12.51; Hurray for the UK !!!! Again a daily winner this time team Jones /Coppin. Nearly all started after 13.00, so did they 13.15. They flew 404 km in time 3.05 so a speed of 130.57 km./h. A tad faster than the Lithuanian team missing out on ONE point.

A good idea , those AAT’s, with storms here, there and everywhere.
Nice to see the live video from TEAM UK during the finishes certainly with their dry comments.
I expected maybe a rest day,  but they announced the plans already for

FRIDAY; August  3, day 6, task 6.

Serious looking faces from team France at the morning briefing.

French team listening at the briefing.
As shared by  Pôle France Planeur

Some S. A. News this morning;
“Some rain last evening has damped the airfield and temperatures for the moment are a little cooler which is a pleasant change.
We have racing tasks today for all classes with a first launch expected at 11 a.m. and again off runway 06. Open class has 516.7 km. , 18m. class 541.1 km. and 20m. class 455.2 km.
This evening is going to be the Czech party in the hangar and the team captains were asked to attend a short meeting last evening to establish if Saturday or Sunday should be a rest day. The decision has been made that Sunday will be a rest day, so guess the pilots will not be imbibing too much of the Czech drinks this evening!”

“First launch was finally postponed to 11.45 and again took just under 1 hr. 20 mins. The clouds that were supposed to possibly overdevelop in the west, in fact were exploding to the east with large blow-off and even to the north of the 1st track there are some quite big developing clouds, with some blow-off as well.” By Carol.

the weather at launch time. pictures courtesy  Caroline and Dutch team.

Big tasks again;
open 516 km; gate opened at 13.33; Another new face on the daily spot 1 not somebody we don’t know; Ricardo Brigliadori!! He started straight away at 13.36 and was “home” at 17.18,39 so a speed of 139,32 km./h!!!.
12 Minutes later than Ricardo, the German EB-boy’s, Michael and Filipe, started and managed to be just a tad slower to be on spot 2 and 3. [138.85 and 84] both 993 points!!!
Petr Tichy “holds on”as well he was 4th!!! And Dutch mate Hadriaan 5th. Mind you the first 14 flew between 131 and 139 km./h. Slowest speed today 115 km./h.

Daily winner Ricardo, as shared by Gagula Darko

18 m. 541 km;gate opened at 12.55; I guess Adam has the feeling he is in a dream. He won 1 day in the OSTROW WGC and now one in the HOSIN WGC.  He surely is doing a great job and the many hours he spend on soaring are paying off as well the believe in the VENTUS 3. Adam flew with a speed of 141,36 km./h. quite faster  2 km./h ,than the runners up Marion and Mike both also in Ventus 3.
Adam’s opinion about the VENTUS 3 is written very clear in  Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Here is his FB comment;
“Thank you for the day win John Buchanan, without your help it wouldn’t have happened. Thank you too to my team captain, Terry Cubley for providing forever helpful & encouraging words. I got lucky on the start when I couldn’t get to altitude, John was in wave & couldn’t pass up his good opportunity – especially as at the time, 45 competitors thought it was going to be a distance day as the showers rolled in at the start line.

I started after the main gaggle, but not by choice. What I did notice though was when I was finally climbing up for the start, on the other side it was all sunny & pumping conditions – so the above thought went out of my mind. I didn’t get greedy though & set off straight away once at base.

One outlanding in total and in this class after 440 km.

20 m. 455 km; gate opened at 13.08; TEAM-KAWA -day again , starting quickly after the opening of the gate at 13.12, he and his mate raced in the ASG 32 MI to another podium spot; 131,88 km./h.
Good day as well for team Finland, UK and Belgium!!

A difficult and tricky day was the expectation, but it all went well. It is a great bunch of pilots over there!!One more day to go and they have a rest day!!! Czech EVENING now !!

SATURDAY; August 4 day 7 and task 7.

Some official news first;CZECH EVENING STARTED FROM 19:30 WITH INTRODUCTION OF ORGANIZING STAFF, TOW PILOTS, FAI OFFICIALS. THEN THE PARTY STARTED WITH SERVING CZECH MEALS AND BEERS. THE APPLES – GIRLS BAND – PLAYED GREAT MUSIC AND PLENTY OF PILOTS WERE DANCING IN FRONT OF STAGE ALMOST UNTIL MIDNIGHT.
Must have been a good night.

The APPLES as shared by the organizers.

BUT work has to be done again. One more day in the “office” and then an OFFICIAL REST DAY after 7 day’s of full -on flying.
3.30 AAT’s for all classes. Later changed in 3 hour AAT’s. Launches started later than normal at 12.45.

Open; Gate opened at 14.32; Good S.A. day, as Uys won in his JS 1C, flying 465.85 km. in time 3.11 so a great speed of 146.11 km./h. Great speed by many. Pilots 1-11 flew over 140 km./h!!!!
Pilots 12-27 flew over 130 km./h!!! One outlanding after 382.84 km. A pity.
Overall scores after 7 day’s; 1. Michael 6.383 points. 2. Filipe 6.303 and 3. Petr [Tichy] 6.174.
All other pilots have less than 6000 points!!

18 m.; Gate opened at 13.54. With 457.62 km in time 3.01 Christophe set a HIGH standard for the day!!! Speed 151.42 km./h. beating the open class time from Uys!!!
Arne and Katrin started and finished together and were runners up;147 km./h.
Though Matthias Sturm did well [ spot 5] with an early start at 13.59, his mate Mario finished  with a later start at 14.23 on spot 28. He lost before the rest day his first overall spot.
Now it looks like this with still a week to go;1. Christophe with 6.172 points. 2. Mario with 6.090 and 3. Katrin with 6.074.
3 More pilots are in the 6000 points -range.

20 m.; gate opened at 14.07 and the HPH 304 TwinShark flew with Stefano and his mate to a great daily win;411 km. in 3 hours at the dot!!!136,53 km/h.
Antti and Juha were just a tad slower 999 points for 442km. in time 3.14 so a speed of 136,47 km./h.
5 Teams in the 6000 points-range; 1. Matkowski & Kawa 6.351. 2. UK team Coppin/Jones 6.203. 3.Emmanuelidis & Jeanmotte from Belgium 6.075. 4. Sorri & Lehto 6.062 5. Barnes & Scutter with 6.010 points.

The official wrap from Saturday;”The weather before launches did not look very promising today. There was completely blue sky and the reports from the sniffer were not as optimistic. However launches finally started at 12:45 and the task time was reduced to three hours for all classes. As it showed up later, when pilots managed to climb up in blue thermals and get on the track, everything suddenly became much better. Again pilots got to experience one of the best possible gliding weather Czech Republic has to offer and the best speed today was above 150 kph! The thunderstorm which developed to the west of the airfield waited for everybody to land before moving further NE. Tomorrow there is forecast of showers and thunderstorms so pilots will have a chance to enjoy their well deserved rest day. “

 SUNDAY ; August 5 OFFICIAL REST DAY!!!!
More in my next blog! Looking forward to that last week!!!!!
One of the WGC -tweets yesterday;
” JS3 and Ventus 3 proved to be the future of 18M class as they are occupying the first 18 spots in total results.“

—————–

——-Klippeneck showed 5 daily wins in a row for Tijl Schmelzer!!!! VERY SPECIAL !!!On day 5 , dad was runner up!!! Great such a family holiday!!! And day 6 , you guess it already was for Tijl too ;336 km with a speed of 138.16 km./h so “NOT a piece of cake” , though for him it is so, it seems.
Yesterday was the last day and though he could have taken a day off Tijl still flew; AND,…won the last day too, so 7 out of 7 days !!!! Pretty AMAZING!!!3 Hour AAT, 392 km. in time 3.01 so a speed of 129.95 km./h.
Overall scores 6.087 . Runner up 5.256 points.
Well done Tijl!!!!!

——-CIM in Rieti; after 2 good days  with in 18 m./open a 487 km task and a 2.10 AAT, both won by Giorgio, the news on Friday morning from Clara was ;” No task today for all classes.The risk of long, heavy storms over RIETI is too high. ”
55 Pilots from different Nationalities as Aku Jaakkola from Finland in 15 m. winning day 2, 13 teams in 20 m. among them the FRENCH Bouderliques in ARCUS M.
In 18 m/open also Alexander Mueller, Bruno Gantenbrink and Alvaro De Orleans.

——-The Club class NATIONALS in the UK started yesterday [ till the 12th] with 42 pilots from Dunstable with good weather and a 348 km. racing task.
Ian Macarthur won day 1 in the LS 4

——Frank Versteegh, former RED BULL Air Racer, shared some pictures from Holland from above. One  on August 1 in 2018  and one on on September 3 in  2015!!!
Look at what happened, scary!!!!!

WET in 2015 , dry in 2018, same place!!! Holland Oosterbeek, Rosandepolder.
Courtesy Frank MH Versteegh.

CU Next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz

35th WGC in HOSIN.
Monday July 30; day 2 ,task 2;

“I always think it’s very special, all these different countries having a great time together on a few square meters when you think of all the issues going on in the world.” by Caroline Termaat-Douwes.
I could n’t agree more!!!

Some news first; bit cloudy morning , blue later,hot, maybe complicated again, let’s wait and see. The meteo , Jan Horak, was very optimistic about this WGC;” we will fly every day“!!! AGAIN ,…let’s wait and see.
Official news ;”This morning we started again with overcast left from yet another dissipating front. Briefing was at 10:00 . The weather started to improve faster today compared to yesterday and the high clouds have already cleared from the airport. We expect first launches around 12:00. Two tasks are prepared for today. Task A is racing about 350 km due to showers and thunderstorms we expect around Hosín in later afternoon. In case the weather would suddenly improve we have task B ready, racing with distance over 400km for all classes”.
First starts at 12.15. Well look at what happened!!!!!!
AND, because of the distance and the speed still no 1000 -points- day yet, only in the practice period!!!
open; 350 km.; gate opened at 14.04… 12 minutes later Michael [Sommer] left on track, and mind you,….. he was back after 2 hours and 10 minutes; speed 161.32 km./h !!!!!! I met Michael several times, when he lived in Australia and frequently flew with us. I know he was fast, but this even astonished me.Great job Michael !!!
In the slip stream  but, as good a pilot ,Felipe [Levin] started at the same time and finished 2 minutes later ;159.30 km./h!!!!!
Number 3 Dutch pilot Hadriaan [van Nes] in a JS 1 C, was a tad slower ;154,66 km./h and then a whole bunch followed. Crazy!! looking at the first 29 pilots speed was between 127,37 and 161,32 km./h !!!

18 m ; 357 km.; gate opened at 13.24…NOT faster than open class this time , but good speed by the French boy’s, Christophe [Cousseau] and Jean-Denis [ Barrois], both in JS 3.” Bloody fast toy!!”
10 minutes after the gate opened they raced away and in 2.30/33 they were back.
45 pilots nearly back at the same time and speed between 118 km./h for the “slowest” and 142.20 by Christophe.
WOW !!!!!!

AND as I had no picture of the French team in my last blog , I share them NOW.

The French team with TC Eric Napoleon to the left.
Courtesy Eric.

20 m.; 349 km.; gate opened at 13.38… All pilots left after 2 PM and maybe,… inspired by Rasmus who took the title home from Ostrow to Denmark…, his mates Nielsen/Jorgensen in the ARCUS T won the day; speed 134.24  km./h.. same as Team Poland both share equal points [841] and Germany followed  with 133.22 on the clock!!!!

I liked the official news on the end of the day;”WITH GREY AND BROKEN SKY AT THE TIME OF OPENING THE START GATES  WE WERE NOT SURE IF THE TASK SETTING FOR TODAY WAS RIGHT. EVERYBODY ON GROUND WATCHED TRACKING AND HAD DOUBTS ABOUT THE CALCULATED SPEEDS. WE HAD GREY SKY AROUND HOSIN WHOLE DAY, WITH ALMOST NO USEABLE CLOUDS. BUT PILOTS ARRIVED WITH AMAZING SPEEDS”
Tomas Rendla the CD, mentioned :”Better than Texas”??? He should know as as far as I remember Tomas flew there himself.
It seems the tasks JUST fitted the weather, as it deteriorated quickly later in the day. But,…no worries ALL were back !!!

Back ” home” ready for a cool drink.
The web cam!

Tuesday July 31 last day of July, day 3, task 3:

Not totally blue!!
As shared by Team Belgium.

Some news first: nice long tasks for “big ships”. HOT and HUMID day!!!! First launch not at 11 but at 11.45.All gliders up in about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Good job!!
Team USA showed a video from one of their 2 seaters in the air showing that the combination 161 km./h and the weather from the day before was pretty weird and unexpected. Interesting! Maybe even “insane”.
Team Hosin added about the 161 km./h. ;“Outright unbelievable on this cloudy day.”
And,…finally a 1000 points day in all classes!!!

Official news: ” We expect a blue day with long tasks into the higher terrain areas.”
And later ;;”We are lucky with the weather today again. We waked up to clear sky and meteorologists expect this day to be the hottest of the year. Briefing was at 10:00 as usual. Don’t forget you can watch briefings live on our facebook page and see all of them uploaded here. There are just about one to two octads of cumulus clouds around the airfield now but thermals are strong.”
And after the flights:”Today it was extremely hot. Temperature was nearly 36°, humidity above 30%, almost no shade due to just few clouds and very weak wind. However that is nothing our competitors should complain about. For them it meant strong updrafts up to flight level 95 which is the maximum altitude pilots are allowed to fly during the competition. Even though there were less thermals around Hosín there was enough of them in the area of the task.”
OSTIV Congress continues subjects of Aeroelasticity, Performance and further Meteorology research on Atmospheric Waves and Convection. Please be invited on evening lecture on Flutter.

Starts in progress as shown by the web cam.

Open;  522 km; gate opened at 13.35…Most started before 2PM for this pretty long distance. Zdislaw Bednarczuk in the JS 1C was the daily winner [136.65] just ahead of Michael [135.99] and Felipe [135,93 km./h] !And another Philippe this time from France was number 4.
Another HUGE bunch of ” fibre”, dropped down at Hosin as in between 17.37 and 18.05 a total of 19 open class gliders finished. A few out-landings as well. A few flew over 400 km!!!
At the last TP from open there was a shower, that might be the explanation!!!

18 m.;  512 km.; gate opened at 12.55….second day in a row , a daily prize for Christophe, with a speed of 134,95 km./h in the JS 3. That’s about as fast as the “open-boy’s” . Laurens was runner up with 134.72 km./h. …difference in points ;3!He must have lost his brother somewhere as they both started but Oscar was back 23 minutes later.

20 m.;  453 km.; gate opened at 13.09…124.79 was the best speed and flown by Allan and Matthew from Downunder!!! They all started before 2PM and ALL finished; the slowest pilots still had 107 km./h.
Team Cronjaeger & Sidler from Switzerland was runner up.
The Polish team was 3d!

Here is Matthew;   Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

“It’s been a busy few days at Hosin with the 35th Multiclass World Gliding Championships, but finally we have some newsworthy results to share. We had an average first two days with small errors placing us well down the results. The common factor was that we often broke ahead of the gaggle just as we were coming into a tricky area where we would suffer alone.
Today we were surprised to see everyone start almost half an hour ahead of when we wanted to. We got ourselves together and went with them a bit behind, and in the strong conditions our Australian nature seems to give us an edge and we caught the early starters in the first hundred kms. The key difference today was hitting the skids and waiting for a few pilots to catch us up so we had some friends for a blue gap before the leg along the mountains. Our luck was exceptional as we had Laurant Aboulin and Sebastian Kawa join us (both current World Champions), and we flew with them through the tricky patches and on to home. Sebastian did as Sebastian does and slipped ahead at the end but not by enough so we are celebrating our very first day wins at a World Championships.”

So another mass land back at Hosin airport today!!! ALL classes arrived around the same time frame.

Wednesday August 1, day 4, task 4!

Some news first and the tasks,…. the rest is for next Sunday.
One comment by TEAM USA more specific team ARC,Heinz and Karin,  about the day before.
“Tough day for Team ARC. Towed off into wrong sector, then tried to figure out what caused the jet like roaring sound….By time teammate 70 confirmed our gear door was hanging down 45 degree, we had few choices; land and fix it and loose contact with our class ( this is a big grid & not a quick land/fix/relaunch situation), or suck it up and fly with our barn doors open.

With Chief steward Robert in the middle, the meteo man Jan to the left and “in green” Tomas the CD.
As shared by the organizers.

Tasks for today
open; 470 km.
18 m.; 485 km.
20 m.; 442 km.

————–

—-In between they fly at KLIPPENECK  [Germany] with 85 competitors in 5 classes. They started at July 27 and continue till August 2.
Belgian Tijl Schmelzer [ ASG 29] flies here instead of Hosin where his brother is. AND he does well…already 3 day’s NUMBER ONE in 18 m. class !!!
Tijl flew on day 1 , 373 km. with speed of 133 km./h…… on day 2 , 503 km with a speed of 140 km./h!!![ 15 km. FASTER than the runner up!!] and on day 3 a distance of 603 km. with 134 km./h on the clock!!!
His dad Bert sr. [Ventus 2XT] was a bit slower but still fast enough; 122 km./h.

——AND in Bailleau in France with 70 competitors in 3 classes between July 31 [first flying day on July 31] and August 10. Yesterday was their first day with just under and 50 k above  300 km. tasks.
today; 385, for the long- flight -pilots, 283 for the speed -racers and 188 for the “new ones”.
Results for both comps at www.soaringspot.com

——  Benvenuti alla CIM 2018! Welcome to CIM 2018! [Coppa Internazionale del Mediterraneo]  in Rieti . It’s  on as well, between August 1 and 13.
40 Participants,less than other years,  as a few are just back from Ostrow , others are still in Hosin!!!

Opening briefing by Aldo in Rieti
As shared by Clara.

—-It’s raining 1000 km flights again. Europe has in many parts had the dry -est and hottest July!!! Last Monday another 12 x a 1000 km. from Germany  [best was 1.212.94 km…..declared 860 FAI triangle….from the Wasserkuppe in an ASG 32 EL!!!] and 2x Switzerland and great flights from France as well.
What about 619 km in an ASK 13 from Grenoble ???by Stephan Houdier!!!
Yesterday another 1.100 km. by former WGC champion Jan Rothhardt in VENTUS CM /17.6 m. from Jena Schöngleina .

Cu soon …get a guest this upcoming week, but try to write on Sunday and Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz