Post 1.384 on September 28 2022.

When the OLC starts season 2023, we/I follow them and look back at how good it was and even now, how good it still is.
On September 21, when the astronomical autumn starts on this site of the world, The Netherlands still had a flight from 500[minus3] km in a Duo Discus XLT from Malden.
Dad Ferdi and son Caspar Kuijpers, set a task, flew up to the N then E. into Germany and back.
They mentioned that after a week of rain here, the earth was still dry , which created beautiful thermals, specially for this time of the year.
In Germany a pilot even flew 625 km in a Discus 2c/18m.
Several over 400 km. flights, not bad for nearly the end of September.
Last Sunday, September 25 , it was still nice, as you can see on the picture below.

On this picture at Terlet , Dad Rein and son Lars are flying together from Terlet to Venlo in the south of Holland then into Belgium to Keiheuvel and via Woendsrecht back home to Terlet; 360 km.
Not easy with some rain and overdevelopment, but on the other hand great visibility.
https://www.weglide.org/flight/220471
And from Gilze, also in Holland Robin and Kyra flew 399 km in the Duo Discus XLT.
Flight 10 from 177 on the OLC 2023 !!!. https://www.onlinecontest.org/
Whilst from Stadtlohn, not far from the Dutch border a 522 km. flight was still possible in a Ventus 2ct/18m.
Yesterday a few interesting flights in wave from 993 by Gil Souviron in Stemme S10 from Perpignan, 1000 by Klaus Ohlmann in Antares from Serre and another 1000 k from Grenoble in an ASH 31 /21 m. by Thomas Pudhod. https://www.onlinecontest.org/ on September 27.

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Last season was TOP. Hot, pretty dry , lot’s of thermals and good visibility ….all ingredients for a lovely season, which will be not easy to forget.
Looking at the statistics world wide in 2022 ;
—-The best OLC-plus flights were in the USA and all 3 flown from Minden in Nevada.
Jim Payne flew in the NIXUS 2.581 km., Keith Essex 1.906 km in a DUO DISCUS!!!! and Uwe Kleintempel 2.027 km in Ventus 2cm/18m.
—-The longest flight , the distance record, was by Jim Payne in the ARCUS M; 2.907 km. Also flown from Minden.
2 German pilots Klaus Ohlmann and Thomas Horz , flew from Zapala in Argentina, distances from over 2.800 km in the STEMME S10.
—-Who flew the most km’s??
Nicolas Bennett and Keith Essex, both members from the Minden Soaring Club; 58.996,91 km during 97 flights and 57.151,31 km. during 59 flights.
—-Which airfield was the busiest? NO, not Bitterwasser this time but
1. Puimoisson in France; 619.844,63 km. during 1326 flights by 218 pilots. Good on them!!!
2. Bitterwasser in Namibia; 550.815,16 km. during 713 flights by 112 pilots.
Our Dutch airfield Terlet was on spot 4 with 374.669,55 k. during 1193 flights by 198 pilots.
—-Which club was the busiest;
The Gelderse flying at Terlet in the Netherlands; 420.893,24 km. during 1201 flights by 108 pilots. Several of them by my grand daughter!!!
The Minden Soaring Club was runner up with 347.796,50 km. during 585 flights by 30 pilots.

The Dutch OLC champion is Tim Kuijpers ,yes son from Ferdi and brother from Caspar, with 5666,78 points.
The Belgian OLC champion is Francois Delfosse with 5248,82 points.
The German champion is Alexander Mueller with 7257,01 points.
The French Champion; Baptiste Innocent with 7662,89 points.
The Australian champion is Toby Geiger with 6523,59 points.
The South American champion; Juan Pablo Verdura with 6708,67 points.
The African champion; Alexander Mueller with 7884,31 points.

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Not long and the South African Nationals are on the schedule.
They start on October 1 at Potchefstroom with 29 competitors in 3 classes and continue till October 8.
I will follow them for you.

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Frauke Elber from the Women Pilots Association shared the next news;
“The 2022 WSPA seminar is history. Flying wise it was the best seminar ever. 24 pilots from as far away as Germany and Alaska and 12 Staff and Instructors participated.
Hopefully we will have the next WSPA seminar in Germany.” in Uebersberg,Pfullingen from July 3 till 7 2023.
This was the 43d seminar where they had workshops , shared meals and lectures and had a general membership business meeting .[voting and state of WSP]

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In February, Magazine.Weglide.org announced the start of the JSChallenge. Two juniors get the opportunity to experience an adventure in South Africa. Now the winners are nominated.
“It should be emphasized that the JSChallenge is an international competition. Every junior worldwide has the opportunity to assert themselves and get the support they deserve. However, we all were pleased to nominate internationally in the first year!”
One is USA junior Zach Yamouchi ,who never flew outside Nevada and California, so he will be in for a nice surprise. The other one German junior, Niklas Hahn.
“The competition is starting in less than two weeks. A big thank you to Jonkers Sailplanes for making this adventure possible. We will report about them afterward, stay tuned!
Keep an eye on it, great challenges for the 2 juniors.”

Also in this MAGAZINE, ….WECOACH.….the stories from 2 German juniors Eric and Gerrit ;about their memorable experiences in Puimoisson.

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News for my Aussie mates;
Not long ago TT, Tony Tabart passed away and some of his mates are organizing a farewell for him in Tocumwal, where he was in his younger years one of the instructors from Bill Riley, the founder of Sportavia. This is what I got;
“One of the soaring greats, the much loved Tony Tabart  from Victoria in Australia has left us and is on his eternal final glide after 86 years on earth. Tony was a modest man, but a few of his friends have decided that his passing cannot go unpunctuated by the chance for a few friends to get together and salute Tony with a few drinks, and to tell a few stories of skill and daring.

To that end, on Saturday 15 October 2022 there will be that chance for friends of Tony Tabart to catch up at George Schuit’s yellow hangar at 145 Burmah Road (the home of Outback Soaring and the Southern Riverina Gliding Club), Tocumwal from 4:00 pm until exhaustion sets in.

It will be a night to celebrate the life of a good guy, tell a few stories, and to hear from those who were touched by the fun, generous, and talented legend of soaring that Tony was.

There is plenty of tie down space for those flying in.
Some food and drink will be provided. Those with specific needs should bring their own.

If anybody has photos of Tony that they would like to be shown on the screen on the night, please forward them to me and we will put together a slideshow.

Please contact me as soon as possible, or at least before 30 September, on 0418 897 256 or sholding@hotmail.com to advise attendance so that we can organise the catering.

If any of you know people who might like to attend, please provide this information to them.
With best wishes,
Simon Holding”

Note; Reaction from Tony’s wife Jo:
“Tony Tabart was adamant, no hangar party.  No funeral.  No fuss please.“
If – if – Tony were to want a huge party, then he would choose the WW II hangar at Tocumwal, where he instructed for so many years.  Or Horsham, where he flew Horsham Week for decades, from inception.  “
Jo Pocklington

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Western Australia NEWS about the MORNING GLORY;
“Rob Hanbury (GCWA) and Grant Rookes (BSS) finally meet the Morning Glory. It is quite a sight “
AND,…they experienced the MORNING GLORY . I have never seen such great pictures from those “rolling clouds” So I share both of them. Courtesy Grant Rookes.

Some last VERY EARLY NEWS;
The Dutch 2023 Nationals will be flown from Terlet from Thursday May 18 till 27. Host is the Gelderse.
May 16 and 17 are practice days. Somewhere in January 2023 you can apply as participant.

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

Wednesday September 21 2022,in the evening, after a lovely 2-day-shopping-event with my daughter Inge and grand daughter Indya…….blog 1383…..

E4GLIDE
Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, France
11 September 2022 – 17 September 2022

After 4 practice days in St Auban, the 12 pilots were ready to give their gliders with electric batteries a go over several races, to define a winner with ZERO points!!!
Note that the scoring is time based, with the leader on 0, and everyone else some number of minutes behind them.”
Here is what the organizers write about it and more below, a great informative article from Matthew who flies this competition.;
“The Eglide format is for electric gliders that are permitted to use up to 2kWh of power in an otherwise unpowered Grand Prix gliding race. The engine power produced by an electric battery of 2kWh is approximately 3,500ft of climb over the distance of the racing task. This is the fourth championship to apply these rules.
Pilots are now becoming used to the opportunities provided by this use of engine power during a glider race. At the last Eglide event, the competitors began to develop new strategies. It will be fascinating to see how racing tactics and the glider technology has developed since the last event.”
So pilots from 6 European countries , even from Australia , were ready for this GP-style competition.
Day 1 on September 11; 160 km....Regatta start at 15.10 and former junior World champion Matthew Scutter was the first daily winner. His power consumption was 2326Wh ,his speed 104 km,/h , his glider and LS 8 e Neo/18m.[handicap 113]
Runner up was Giorgio Galetto from Italy with a consumption of 1956Kh, speed of 107 km in his Ventus 3F /18m.[handicap 122]

September 12; 259 km...Regatta start, rather late at 14.30. Tilo Holighaus [Germany] flew in his Discus 2c FES around with a speed of 99.80 km./h and ” used “1810 Wh.[handicap 113]
On September 13,they had a task and it was flown but everybody outlanded…..no valid day! Giorgio still managed to fly 150 km. 2 Other pilots , Luka and Matthew, flew over 100 km. as well.
On September 14…no flying….showers and storms.
On September 15 ,task 4, a 249 km. task was set AND flown by all except one. So a good day, specially for daily winner Jernej Lokovsek from Slovenia in his Duo Discus XL FES!!!!! They used 2926 Wh and flew with a speed of 96.10 km./h [handicap 113]
The start was at 2 PM.
Runner up was Giorgio again and Matthew was 3d.
Not winning, but being very consistent makes Giorgio at this stage the overall best!

On September 16 the penultimate day , task 6 was set with 219 km…..AND Matthew won the day with a speed of 88.21 km./h.in his LS 8. Tilo . in his Discus 2c FES , was a tad slower; 88.03 km./h. Both have the same handicap.
Matthew “used” 2068 Wh and Tilo 1670 Wh.
Benjamin Neglais was 3d and Giorgio 4th. Overall Giorgio still leads.
The start was at 15.20, so a late one again to have at least a window to fly in and 2 were out.
Matthew wrote a long story about the day and started with “Very interesting day today, the beginnings of the Mistral coming through with much stronger winds 20-30kts through most of the task.“
More on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
On September 17 , on the very last day the pilots got a 185 km task, but there was serious doubt if it could be flown because of the mistral.
NO WORRIES, they flew and Luka was the daily winner using 1144 Wh. his speed in the 18m Ventus 3 F was 120.88 km./h the fastest of the day!
3 Km/h faster than Giorgio in the same glider. One did not start, one was out.
The overall winner was and remained Giorgio [Galetto] followed by Matthew and Benjamin.
An interesting competition, I am going to learn more about it.
“And… that’s a wrap on E4Glide. Unfortunately miracles were not forthcoming and I was unable to recover from a major error earlier in the week, so second place it is.
Congratulations to Giorgio, who I am not upset to come second to as his map of St. Auban is ten years older than me!
Flying these mountains was much more technical than Varese last year and even though I arrived very early to practice I underestimated how hard it would be.” by Matthew and more from him on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

I liked Matthew ‘s explanation of this type of soaring, specially because I don not know much about it , so I share it with all of you who have the same “problem” as I have.
Matthew;
“This week I’m racing at E4Glide at St. Auban, the only electric glider race. For those not familiar with the concept, every competitor gets an allocation of energy proportional to their weight which they can use during the task, typically enough to climb perhaps 1000m/3000ft in total.
The naïve use of the energy is usually to save it for when you make a mistake, while better pilots tend to use it to avoid getting into trouble in the first place.
In the mountainous sites it can really make the experience a lot more comfortable because some of the dodgiest parts of mountain soaring, like turning in broken lift below the tops or ridge soaring too slow in light wind can be entirely avoided with strategic usage.
Even if you really mess up you usually have energy leftover to get to an airfield rather than a tiny field in the valley.
Note that the scoring is time based, with the leader on 0, and everyone else some number of minutes behind them.”
More on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

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The Brazilian Nationals
Luis Eduardo Magalhaes, Brazil
10 September 2022 – 17 September 2022

Last Saturday morning I noticed a message from Henrique Navarro who was really enthusiastic about his flight during the Brazilian National and I thought…”Ouch I nearly forgot to write about this competition”.
His message; “Brazilian Nationals, Task 5. Today I did the fastest speed ever recorded in Brazil by a glider: 180 KPH, in a 500 km task.”
Wow and indeed I was enthusiastic straight away too.

They started on the 11th in 2 classes open an racing and they had 7 good days!
Task 1 was on September 11 with a 4.59 AAT for the 4 participating pilots . Well known pilots as Claudio Schmidt in ARCUS M who won the day with 801 km.
Runner up Henrique another well known name flew 806 km with s speed of 161 km./h but his handicap is 123 for 118.
Another well known name Egon Rehn was 3d with 793 km and a speed of 149.82 km./h
What distances and what speed during a National Competition.
The other 6 days had between 400 and 500 km tasks and speed from 156 km./h, 162 km./h, 171 km./h, 152 km./h ,180 km./h, 126 km.h and 163 km./h!!!!!WOW!!!!
Henrique won 4 days .Claudio 2 and Egon 1 day.
Best speed; 180 km./h
Overall scores for OPEN CLASS:
1. Henrique Navarro in Nimbus 4T with 6.324 points.
2. Claudio Schmidt in ARCUS M with 6.191 p.
3. Gustavo Shigueno in Ventus 2cxa/18 m with 5.969 p
4. Egon Rehn in ARCUS M with 3.849 p. He did not fly on the last 2 days.

“We can be heroes, just for one day…
Brazilian champion for the 9th time, flying with great pilots and friends.
Sooooooooooo happy!“Henrique.

In racing class 7 pilots were flying to try to become the National Champion in gliders as Jantar, St Libelle Discus and DG 1000 and tasks around 300 km.
Luis Carlos Affonso in a Jantar 3 won day 1, 3,5 and 6 and the NATIONAL title.[6.428 points]
Runner up was André Goldenstein in Jantar 2 with 6.289 p and on 3 was Luis Valenca in Discus-2cT 15m with 6.601 p.

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Some short news;

News from Jonker Sailplanes
“Our main service partner M&D Flugzeugbau proudly presents the first test flight of the LS4 D-KENO with their TJ 42 JET engine installed. Keno Markwald was delighted with the first impressions. Have a look.”
https://md-flugzeugbau.de/neuigkeiten/

News from the USA by Tony;
“Happy Day! 1938 Minimoa is the star of the meet this year and I got a chance to fly it this afternoon. Took off at 4:30 and stayed up 1:34, made a climb to 7400 MSL.
Glider flies pretty good for it’s age. Not much happens when you make control movements. Takes a lot of deflection to get a soft response. Mostly use rudder then however much aileron it takes to coordinate. Thermals at 35 mph. No issues banking up to 60 degrees but it seems to climb best about 40.
Cruise at 40 mph, approach at 45. Taking off and landing into the 20 mph wind was fun.
Thanks Jerry Wenger and Tom Evolo for the opportunity!!!!”
https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/gliding/flightinfo.html…

I checked with him how many types of gliders he has flown by now , his answer; “36 now by my count“. Not bad!!!

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And to finish a great picture of the new king to wish him all the best in these difficult times, as we in Europe also depend on him .Hope he will be serving as well as his mum or maybe better[climate] for the UK and the Common Wealth.

CU next week
cheers Ritz

WEDNESDAY….SEPTEMBER 14 2022

VINON!!!!!
4 September 2022 – 10 September 2022

They continued in Vinon with race 4 with 211 km to soar.
In a short time , 12 pilots were “out” [ between 17 and 48 km] and 8 still flying! Not GOOD and GOOD!!!
Didier ,Tilo and Gilles however, managed to fly 137 km. Great effort , BUT,…unfortunately not enough to make it a valid day!
So in the end …..NO race 4!
On Thursday race 4 is on ;334 km. and new chances.
Later changed in 193.80 km.
“It took a while before the start as some cirrus clouds were crossing Vinon area around 1pm and last for almost 2 hours there. CD Régis had to switch to the backup task.”
A German winner this time……Tony Kittler in the Ventus 3T .
Here is the official news as I got it;
“Fantastic race today in Vinon with nearly 200kms taking our competitors from Gréoux to Serre Ponçon’s dam, then Orpierre, and back to Vinon.
On the first branch, two very different routes were chosen by two different groups : one close to the branch and another one more to the east. In the end, the first one paid off.
The second branch was rather low in altitude for most with some as low as 1100m in Saint Genis !
Maximilian turned first in Orpierre and opted for the Corne de Lure while Toni headed more west.
In the end Toni arrived couple of minutes before Maximilian followed by Tilo.“

After 4 races and 2 to go there are 2 pilots with 20 points JD Barrois and Mike Young. Max has 18 points.

Friday penultimate race 5; 317 km. with 121 km/h won by Mike Young who slowly’ rises’ to the top. With the 10 points he has a total of 30 points now, 8 more than Adrian, Max and JD, who are on 22.
Last race 6; 154 km....a day on which 4 pilots were “out”. One of them JD, so no points for him. Erik won and got 11 points ,one extra for the last day. Uys was runner up.
Not a good day either for Mike, he was 12th and did not get any daily points.
So a bit of nail baiting there for him.
BUT,…he won….only ONE point difference with Erik. 30 for 29!!!
Max was 3d with 27.
Both Mike and Erik live in the mountains in France. Mike is from the UK and Erik Dutch.
AND,…Both Erik and Mike go to the PAVULLO final race next year! Well done!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!

This is a flash back from 1987!!!!
Mike and our son Dennis at the WGC in Benalla.

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ABOYNE!!!!
4 September 2022 – 10 September 2022

On Wednesday , day 4, they could finally set a CC flight too; a 1.30 AAT between 66 and 143.8 km.
“Good old ” John Williams won the day with a speed of 72 km./h over 108 km.in an 18m/LS 8.
9 were out and 5 did not fly.
A lot …23….tried to have the best height gain.
Mike Stephens gained 8429 [lowest point 2394, highest 10.823] , John Williams 7015 and Jordan Richards 6709 ft.
Thursday; day 5 was damp again!!! So no CC-da,y but launching to achieve height was possible till 6 PM.
Friday; “Out of respect for Her Majesty and the Royal Family we have decided to cancel normal and UKMSC flying today. There will still be a weather briefing in the clubhouse which will also be accessible by Zoom.
We will make a decision about Saturday flying later today.“
VERY UNDERSTANDABLE!!!!
They did not fly anymore; John Williams won the CC competition with 484 points just ahead of Jordan Richards with 478 points.

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Club Class Nationals in the USA.
Moriarty
August 30- September 8

When I started writing about the Club Nationals ,Gary was mostly in the lead, meaning, he won the first 3 days, but later he lost a few days to other pilots.
On September 6 day 7 of the nationals the daily winner had again another face; after Sylvia, Gary [he won day 5 ] and Mike this time Michael Marshall in the ASW 20, was the daily winner. Tony and Gary were both on spot 8 with 509 points.
On contest day 5, Gary was still 330 points ahead, now only 160 with 2 days to go.
Club Class Day 7. as shared by Tony.
BEFORE……”Club Class National’s Contest Day 7 is looking to be a blue day. Grid time is noon mountain, racing task. First launch planned for 12:52pm mountain. Potential task A start gate open time of 14:15 mountain.”
AFTER…..”It was going really great until the wheels fell off the bus at Ortiz. Fun run with UN. At least it was fun for me. Major suffer fest just staying airborne, getting back to the higher ground, and finally found a good climb and a good line to bump home on.”
It was a very good day , blue with convergence lines and in the afternoon a base of 14.000 ft.
Task ; 224 km.

Club class Nationals; day 8 with ONE day to go…the penultimate day.
They had a 3.30 AAT.
“Today on the grid we were entertained by a weather balloon floating by at 101,000 feet.”
AND,….”Great fun running up past Angle Fire and back. Mostly good climbs. A lot of good streeting. A bit of redemption after the trouble I had up here the last time. Got a good climb over Ortiz Mine too which was nice considering how it treated me yesterday.” by Tony.
He flew 475 km in his Cirrus with a speed of 101.54 km./h.
https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/gliding/flightinfo.html…
Michael won another day and Tony was runner up!!!! Gary was 4th and his biggest concurrent Tom, 3d.
[Gary 4715 for 4557 points]
Sylvia was on spot 16. She is now on spot 8 overall [3994 p]

AND,…then it was over! They tried hard ;
“Last day at Moriarty. Cirrus from Hurrican Kay overhead but breaks. Short grid squat then sniffers got above 10K. Fleet launched. Task was a four area turn to the north and east with 2hrs min time, B & C back to 1:45 and 1:30. D Task was a really fun looking double lap of the valley to Zorro and Wagon Wheel for 155ish km.
Task was cancelled and contest declared over at 2:20 PM.
Several of us got up and had a really fun time flying the D Task. 10 knot climb to 16,000 feet will be a fond memory of this contest at Moriarty,” by Tony on the OLC comment.

So after 8 days of flying, the overall scores are as follows;
1. Gary Ittner in Discus 2a with 4715 points.
2. Tom Holloran in LS 8/15 m. with 4557 p.
3. Christopher Gough in Ventus cb/15m with 4387 p.
Tony was 5th with 4302 p. Sylvia on spot 8 with 3994 p and Kathy 15th with 3728 p.

Thank you to Tony to share his view on the flights in Moriarty and to his wife Leah for the pictures .

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STEMME GRAND PRIX 2022
6 September 2022 – 9 September 2022

A short competition of only 4 days, but they were “merging Stemme HORIZONS & our GP in St. Auban.
Anyone interested in a Stemme, maybe not yet a (Stemme) pilot, will have the chance to fly with an experienced pilot and get an introduction.
For pilots we’re hosting a competition with challenging flight tasks. The goal is to have fun, learn something and to spend time with the Stemme crew.“
On Wednesday ,task 2 with a 200 km , the 7 pilots had a difficult day with only 3 finishers. Reginald Watson won with 71 km./h. All 3 Belgian pilots were “out” after 149 km.
On Thursday, task 3 with 216 km…..won by UK pilot Reginald …69 km./h. His 2d win.
3 Finished 1 was “out” and 1 did not fly.
On Friday …task 3; cancelled.
So 3 days of flying with Reginald as winner with 8 points. Congratulations!!!

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Something about the weather; This summer in 2022 was the hottest EVER in Europe!!!!!
The European institute for research ,Copernicus, concluded this, after looking at satellite information. The temperature was 0.4 dgr C, higher than the heat record from last year.
We here in the SE of The Netherlands felt it as well and it is still 25 dgr. C after a well needed good drop of rain.
Today lot’s of rain and in the weekend it will be 15 dgr. C.

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Found a fabulous real soaring- picture as PR for young new glider pilots in the UK.

To finish this blog; This picture shared by KIKI.

Last Thursday Queen Elisabeth passed away. I cry easily, but thought , this is still far from my bed. The announcement on the BBC was made and tears just dropped down.
Elisabeth was queen of the UK and the Common Wealth, head of the Angelical Church and the armed forces and mother, grand mother and great grand mother…..granny.
She was a good friend of our royal family and loved by nearly ALL on earth, as she was for 70 years a tower of strength for her country and the people in the Common Wealth.
An other “icon” has gone.
She tried to comfort the world after 9/11,with the words “Grieve is the price you pay for love“.
So true!!!!!
R.I.P. MADAME.

Cheers Ritz ………CU next week, NOT in the morning but EVENING of WEDNESDAY.

The Formula 1 , car race, in The Netherlands was ONE BIG PARTY. 3 Day’s in a row and on Every day 105.000 ecstatic people in orange!!!!A pleasure to look at. Gives a proud feeling.
They all arrived by train or on the bike!!!! So a green feeling as well.
The fact that Max won was the cherry on he Dutch- GP -weekend- cake.
It’s unbelievable, how they got the logistics right in a small town ,Zandvoort ,with 17. 000 inhabitants.
They did!!!!!

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FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX in VINON.
September 4-10

The 11th series of FAI GP’s settled this weekend in Vinon, and for mountain specialists this is party time.
When I looked at the entries, I thought,……OH,…. only TOPPERS!!!
20 Pilots entered from 7 different countries. Not bad!!!
Among them 3 ladies Ayala Truelove in JS 3 from the UK , Aude Grangeray in JS 1 [ 2x WWGC champion] and Katrin Senne from Germany [2x WWGC Champion] also in JS 3. Both just flew the Hus Bos WWGC.

3 Pilots, Jon Gatfield, Ayala and Mike Young, represent the UK
Belgium and the Netherlands each have one pilot; Dennis Huybreckx and Erik Borgmann. Both live in France.
From South Africa Uys Jonker and from Lithuania Gintas Zube. From Switzerland Yves Gerster.
7 Pilots from France; Didier Hauss, JD Barrois, Louis Bouderlique and Aude , Max Seiss and Gilles Navas and Adrien Henry.
5 Pilots from Germany; Michael Streit, Christoph Limpert, Tilo Holighaus, Katrin and Toni Kittler.

Last Saturday was the last practice day; 150 km…..won by JD Barrois.
And on Sunday the races started.
Race 1; flown on a good soarable day , 30 dgr. C and clouds. Task 320 km. Start time 13.50.
Uys Jonker on his JS3 “UJ” was the winner of day 1 .He flew the task in 2:34 with average speed 124kph. He did a lot of training in St Auban with the French team, that shows now!
Runner up was Erik Borgmann on JS3, +14 seconds and Jean-Denis Barrois on AS33, +33 seconds. Didier Hauss is 4th with +4:59 on his JS1 and Mike Young 5th with +8:33 on his Ventus-3.

Race 2; 260 km….“due to stormy conditions forecasted, organisation had to design a bit shorter race going first to North-West (again in the Die area, Drôme Valley), then to North-West close to the “Parcours” before heading “home” to Vinon.”
and,…Mike Young was the best. They all started at 2 PM and he flew around with a speed of 115.8 km./h. That was 3 km./h faster than Adrian Henry in his JS 3.
Race 3; 193 km; The 3rd race of the qualifying #SGP of Vinon has started with a very fun 2 laps track. “Due to unpredictable stormy conditions (forecast was even telling “stay home, no distance possible today”), race designer chose the safe way to keep all competitors away from the highest mountains to avoid the “sorrry guys, locally too much energy” effect well known in South Alps.“
So they HAD a day , did the task twice and the 10 daily points were for Yves …speed 112.9 km./h and 8 points for Gilles…speed 112.8 km./h In fact 8 pilots arrived with 112.6/5/4/3/2/1 km./h!!!!
“Because task was rather short with its 193 kms all participants arrived almost at the same time.
Due to rather conditions and possible thunderstorms, Régis [Kuntz CD] decided on small branches to stay local of well known airfields : Saint Auban and Puimoisson.” by the organizers.

Still 4 days to go. Race 4 today [ 211 km.] and race 5,6 and 7. In my next blog.
After 3 race days the scores are; 19 points for JD Barrois,[AS 33] 17 for Uys [JS 3] 15 for Gilles Navas[ ASG 29] and 14 for Mike Young in Ventus 3T.

You remember the Jonker- brothers helping out at the WGC??????
This time Tilo from Schempp-Hirth helped out at the FAI SGP;
“Gliding Manufacturers helping each other continues! This time the CEO Tilo Holighaus from Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau is returning the favor! He helps Uys Jonker to fix a belly landed JS3 at the FAI Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in Vinon – France. This is what our gliding community is all about! Helping each other and enjoying our beautiful sport.”
I could n’t agree more!!!!

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UK Mountain Soaring Championship in Aboyne
September 4-10

27 Pilots try out distances and height in the UK mecca for wave flying!
This is their 25th edition.
“cross-country and height gain competitions” will be on al week.
As always the Deeside Gliding club is the host for all guests, with a nice BBQ last Saturday evening.
Day 1 message was ;”Our first briefing was at 09:00 this morning and the 25th UK Mountain Soaring Championship is open.  Its currently raining cats and dogs, and has been raining all night.”
A new briefing was held and a 1.30 AAT was set and the sun even came out!
In the end the CC flying was scrubbed, but the height gain was on.
Best “gain” was 3.078 ft.
Unfortunately the weather was not friendly and day 2 was scrubbed , but 2 “heroes” gained 515 ft..
After a night of rain they wait to see what happens today, no cross country till now but 2 days with height gain.

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Till September 8 the CLUB CLASS NATIONALS in the USA are flown from Moriarty [NM]
I know more or less, 4 from the 24 pilots flying there; Tony Condon, who I met in Uvalde in 2012 and Kathy Forsha and Sylvia Grandstaff , who I met at the WWGC in Lake Keepit.
Kathy flies a Discus B, Sylvia an ASW 24b and Tony a St. Cirrus.
And Gary Ittner, one of the long-time-USA-WGC pilots ,who I met in Uvalde 2012 as well. Gary flies a Discus 2A.
Tony shares his comment on the OLC
Club Class Nationals Day 1. Crazy Day. Landed at Patterson Ranch. Very friendly folks there.
Won by Gary, the only finisher for the day with Sylvia as runner up.

Club Class Nationals Day 2. No storms to dodge. Some streets. Worked the wind line. Only one low point that got my blood pressure up. All in all a good day.
Gary won for the 3d time and Tony was runner up . Sylvia 10th.

Club Class Nationals Day 3. A “Classic” Day (in quotes). I remember reading in the textbook that staying upwind and in the sunshine is probably a better plan… Won by Gary. Sylvia was 4th and Tony 12th.
Club Class National Contest Day 4 Task B is open at 12:47pm. Winner is 6T! Congratulations Sylvia!
1.45 AAT as thunderstorms were predicted in the afternoon. They used the “small window” very good.
Gary was 4th. Tony 11th.

Club class National Contest day 5; Gary won another day and leads with more than 300 points. The A task from 350 km was changed in 311 as the weather was pretty tricky. Only 4 finished the task.
Tony mentioned; “Another crazy day. Once I was ready to start it was pretty late, needed to do decent speed. Became apparent on first leg that wasn’t going to happen. Struggled at first on the mountains then had a good run. Stayed out of the ABQ Class C where the cloudstreet went. Another long glide across the Valley of Nothing. Didn’t land at Patterson Ranch this time but I watched two others. Found a weak climb, couldn’t get high enough to improve my position so came back to Moriarty. No where to land on task past Patterson ranch.“
Club Class National Contest day 6; A pretty good day with ” a very fun run across the valley. Awesome cloudstreet on middle leg’.
An “odd-day” for Gary who was “only” 20thiest. BUT,..he still leads with 200 points. Mike Westbrook won the day. He is 4th overall.
Club Class Nationals Contest day 7; a racing task with blue skies but good lift as well.
“It was going really great until the wheels fell off the bus at Ortiz. Fun run with UN. At least it was fun for me. Major suffer fest just staying airborne, getting back to the higher ground, and finally found a good climb and a good line to bump home on“. Tony.
Gary was 8th.
Overall scores till now: Gary Ittner with 3.762 points, 2. Tom Holloran in LS 8 with 3.601 p and Christopher Gough with 3.474 p.[ 15m Ventus B]

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The STEMME GRAND PRIX in St Auban
 6 September 2022 – 9 September 2022

With 4 STEMME S12 and 1 STEMME 10, they started yesterday a grand prix in St Auban only for Stemme’s. There are not that many, but 5 pilots are trying out this GP….3 from Belgium, 1 from South Africa and from France.
Yesterday race 1 was good for 253 km and though it was SLOW, it must have been a good feeling for Pierre [de Brouqueville] to win this first race. It started at 2.05 PM and only 4 started.
No task yet for today.

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Checking quickly the OLC;
Last Thursday pilots still flew over 600 km in The Netherlands, with the much shorter days a real good effort.
The French and German pilots enjoyed even flights from over 800 km. So did the USA pilots flying in the wave from Minden, Boulder and Ely.
Last Monday Keith Essex flew 1.142.91 km in an ASG 32 MI, from Salida Harriet, never heard of the place but it is SE of Boulder.
Yesterday that whole area had good weather again with up to 1.100 km flights.[Salida Harriet] and 1.069 km from Minden.

That’s it for now.
CU next Wednesday

Cheers Ritz