With 7 days of flying in a row, the organisation set a well deserved day-off for the EGC pilots in Vinon on Monday. Not always the easiest circumstances due to the weather and lot’s of high mountains , where you have to be alert ALL the time ; a good decision.
Certainly when pilots in the evening of day 7 , hear that one of the pilots had a fatal accident, by hitting a cliff.
Always TOO sad for words! I know all about it,..poor family, wishing them all the best!
Life continues, how weird that is for family and friends of our Spanish “soaring-mate”, so we all have to continue as well.
Interesting to look at what has happened in the first 7 days.
Specially the open class is worthwhile looking at.
Was it in the past one or 2 types of gliders occupying/dominating the best places, this year there are 8 different gliders in the top 10 from 22 participants.
In this class Michael Sommer in the EB 29, is the man-to-beat as he leads after the first 7 days with more than 300 points on French pilot Killian Walbrou flying the JS1-C.
Than there is a Quintus M. on spot 3, an ASH 31 Mi, a JS1, a Nimbus 4T, an EB 28edition, an ASW 22 BLE and if you want to be really perfect the ASH 31 is different to the ASH 31 Mi., that makes 9 different gliders.
With an outlanding on day 7 this is also not the competition for Pete Harvey [Nimbus 4T] , who normally flies in the TOP. He is on spot 13 after 7 days.
I wonder what would the CONCORDIA have done against the EB 29 under the circumstances in Vinon? About the same span, but a different wing load.
In 15 m. it seems only French pilots are flying!!! The 3 musketeers Christophe, Louis and JD are 1000 and over 500 points ahead on number 4 UK pilot Phil Jones! Christophe won 4 days from the 7.
In 18m. Didier Hauss who was in 1987 one of the French team pilots flying for the first time a 2-seater ASH 25 with Gabriel Chenevois, [he died already some years ago] during a WGC in open class, leads after 7 days. Didier , a very nice fellow, even invited my son Dennis , who flew with his father George also in this Benalla-WGC in a Nimbus 3D, to visit St Auban for a stage.
On spot 3 is the other French pilot Christophe Cousseau and in the middle is Sebastian . It will be very interesting to see what happens in this class.
Whatever happens the French showed they are a very strong team in flying together over their own country.
On FLYING-day 8 , the organisers only send the open class up in the air. A 205 race was set. They expected wave ,but also overcast. There was also a lot of wind up to 40-60km./h with gusts later in the day forecasted up to 80 km./h. higher up!
Not everybody got in the wave, some even struggled to stay up , some even had to land and start again.
In the end there were not a lot of points to win; 361 for the daily winner Erik Borgmann from Holland with the nice speed of 146.3 km./h.. As said before Erik flew in the past EGC’s and WGC’s for Holland, but living in the Vinon area now , he did not a lot of this competition soaring over the last years. So VERY good on him!
Here is what Ronald [Termaat JS 1] shared with us on FB. Thanks Ronald!
—“Today was an another interesting day. Some people got the wave, others didn’t. I was unhappy to belong to the latter…. Started at 1600msl where others climbed to 2700. Mmm, I did my usual cursing then. To make it worse the task was only 200km and there was 40km/h wind. Connecting with the mountains needed some more height than what I had. At St. Auban I was down to 1000msl, about 600 over the airfield. Climbing in a slow 1,5m/s. Knowing the others started high I pushed on to La Beaume. It was not on track but I had to climb. Luckily there was good lift and after some climb I could connect to the mountains. I pushed really hard and at the turn I saw EB and V2 5 to 600m above me. Not good. But they took a different route to the second turn and I pushed hard along the ridges. A short climb at the Maloup allowed me to connect to Authon where a good 4m/s climb brought me at final glide. To my surprise only Erik was finished with a staggering 146km/h. The people above me at the first turn were not there. So I ended up with 128km/h on the 6th place only minutes short of 3rd place. So not to bad after all and allowing me to climb up to 4th place overall.
But many respect to Erik and his daily win!—“
For today gridding is postponed , but whatever happens, you will hear it all on Sunday.
This is the morning from day 9 as seen and shared by the Dutch.
It’s still waiting a FULL year but the EAC organisation has announced the EUROGLIDE 2014 from June 23 till July 5 2014!!! A lot of soaring-hearts are beating faster now!!!!! Holidays are planned, busy,busy!
Not so long waiting, in fact already this weekend on June 21 at 8 o’clock , Gavin Wills will visit Hahnweide and talk to all gathered pilots about flying in the mountains, “Adventure Soaring ” in New Zealand. This evening is organised by Uli [Schwenk]
Gavin is the owner of Glide Omarama a very successful flying school in New Zealand.
Worthwhile to visit and listen to the stories and looking at the pictures!
Unfortunately I can’t go, can’t even go to the WWGC in France due to back and neck problems after the incident with the car last Thursday. Had X rays yesterday and at least a week of good rest and fysio is recommended!!!
ELY in the USA had fantastic weather last weekend creating superfast flights as 173.5 km./h over 910 km. in an EB 28 by UK pilot John Bally!!!!!
Also 160 km./h in the EB 29 is not bad over 862 km. Nice to see that this French pilot from St. Gaudens is flying in ELY, whilst his club mate Robert Prat flies from St Gaudens a 1.318,41 km. on the same day in the ARCUS M!!!
Yesterday one of our former guests at Sportavia Uwe Thiele , a real kilometer-eater, started flying in Ouarzazate and straight away showed the “appetite”; 1.190 km. He will love it.
Lot’s of German guests there this year with flights over 1.300 km. Some of the guests commented; “Morocco is worthwhile visiting!”
AND,…. the Scandinavian countries are ready for their MIDSUMMERNIGHT. We here in Holland do have a something special too. Bar’s are open all night here in Alphen on the 22d , but in Holland there is a new young club of enthusiastic glider pilots , GAE [ Gliding Adventures Europe] flying from the National Gliding Centre of Terlet and they start soaring when the first light is on at 5.19 AM and continue weather permitting of course till 10.04 PM. This is all happening on Saturday the 22d of June. After that,….grrrr…. the days are getting shorter again.
The Club counts about 100 members , flies from Wednesday till Sunday every week in the season and made last year 6700 starts!!!! They have 12 gliders and on the 22d everybody is welcome for a joy flight. They count on 10 guests in the air per hour!!!!
Wishing them a day full of sun, pleasure and safe flights. At www.zweven.nl you can enter for a flight if you wish and find all other relevant info.
The next EGC for Club standard and 20 m. is as you know soon in Poland here is some news;
–“The Organiser offers to arrange a room for team with strong internet cable connection in the central hangar. PC set with laser printer and basic furniture (tables and chairs) also power supply 220V is included. The price for such room is 449 EUR for all the period. If your team is interested to use it during the event, please indicate this by an email to our address info@egc2013.eu —”
Cheers Ritz,….by the way summer arrived here with yesterday the first tropical day in the “weather-measurement-town “the Bilt and even 32 in the S.
Today will be even higher but, than it is over again after expected severe thunderstorms with hail.
on Wednesday June 19 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.soaringcafe.com www.glidinginternational.com