ISSOUDUN
One of the 70 pictures from the air by Mark Pal.
Yesterday evening she was still going , not as strong as normal maybe, but still. This morning she went to the doctor and she found out she had a throat infection with fever. She got medicines and still was able to start, but when her ears gave problems too, she had to abort the flight and she flew back to Issoudun.
Poor Natasja from Holland had to give up . I know how much she LOVED to be part of the WWGC. It was not totally what she hoped for with flying, as she said I can do much better and I know she can, ….she was not planning to get sick either,….. but it all happens and you have to deal with it.
It was however all she hoped for qua friendship and being together , an unforgettable experience and great practice for next time!!
Good decision to fly back, you need to be fully fit to fly a task.
Also a next time for Natasja! No worries!!!
Natasja is now a new WITCH.
Jutta is already longer part of the WITCH -TEAM. A great ceremony for the flying-ladies!
In briefing Jill van den Broeck was remembered and will NEVER be forgotten. She “was the mother ” from women-soaring, she did such a lot!
Gill here with Natasja , last year during the Pre Worlds in Issoudun.
In between the other ladies were flying.
In club class some took a risk to start later, but it turned out to be a good decision. The German girls and Elena started at 14.25, Sarah even one minute later as the last in the class, whilst Ayala started already early at 13.47.
The daily winner was Sarah, “rolling them all up” and winning the 878 preliminary points. Kerrie did not have a good day and was “aux vaches ” after 59 km.
You come all the way from DOWN UNDER to see the cows!!??
as shared on FB.
The toppers swapped places, it is now Doerte on 1, Chrissie on 2 Sarah on 3 and Ayala on 4 [ finishing 9th today] with Elena on spot 5. Will one of these 5 be the WORLD CHAMPION in 2 days????? It remains all very tight and exciting!!!!
Last day on Friday including the party and prize giving at Saturday.
Sarah on her first WWGC , winning day 1 and 8!! Good on her!!! And her induction into the “flying witches” at the official Babayaga ceremony.
In standard class, also late starters , this time the Czech team Dana and Jana, winning the day. Sue keeps the lead overall, as Cornelia lost nearly 500 points today. Dana and one of the 2 Jana’s are climbing on the overall-ladder!
In 15 m. class 4 outlandings , ….Teresa flying again which is good and ….also a Czech winner before Susanne, Eva! On 3 Alena [Czech Rep] who flew in Uvalde.
Susanne has past Anne now [41 points ahead] , who lost 62 points by being 5th. All scores preliminary.
Tomorrow is the last but one day.
Who keeps the head cool who get’s the jitters? Let’s wait and see.
The weather seems to look OK, so we can expect day 9 for sure!!!
OSTROW
What an original view on the grid!
As found on FB
It turned out to be a 3 hour AAT for Club class. Was not mentioned in the morning , but looking at the distance I expected this.
A day with a front coming in, so would you wait and take the risk “it” comes in later or go as quick as possible???
On top of that the International Evening is tonight!!!
Early launches at 11.30.
Decisions, decisions today for the pilots. They shared a nice weather picture on FB , so I show you as well what’s going on, here it is!
Indeed the clouds are hanging over “my” part of Holland too.
Lot’s of teams have their own “meteo-man” , he/she can advised on days like this.
In club class we see more good Polish pilots. Poland is very blessed with such a large bunch of flying toppers including a TOP TC. A great soaring culture over there!
Well done as well by the 2 Dutch pilots being on spot 4 and 5. The bad weather did not come . Some pilots started early at 12.09, others at 13.41.
About the weather Matthew clearly described in his blog what happened. He flies in standard class and here is his news from de day, couldn’t do it better:
—” Feeling pretty cheated today – short task set because thunderstorms were forecast for 3pm with the front coming through and unsoarable after that. I started at about 12.40 with a few other gliders in the weak/developing conditions and was quite happy with having navigated my way along the first leg and a half at 85kph in 4000ft blue/haze dome conditions with 30km/h crosswind. I was keen to get moving and head south as the cold front was visible on the horizon maybe 50-100km away. After a bit of a tumble down the bottom leg I got things going a bit quicker in the rapidly strengthening conditions with a few 5kt climbs and 5000ft cloudbase – and then was ecstatic to find quite a few big names in a gaggle on the way home, seemingly having turned much shorter than I in the bottom sector. Or at least, so I thought… until they left the climb… heading in the opposite direction…. seems they all started over an hour after me having known the cold front had stopped moving! I would have restarted, but the start gate had already closed.
So, quite disappointing – I thought I’d done well to hold together a somewhat respectable speed in fairly poor conditions, ended up thrashed over flying in drastically different weather. 7pm now and the cold front is still visible at least 50k away.—“
Indeed Matthew started at 12.4o, 2 minutes after Howard Jones from the UK who finished on a 25th spot with Matthew. Sara Kelman from the USA who I know from the CIM in Rieti, started at 12.48 , but finished on a 10 th place for the day. The late starters or re-starters departed at 13.26 my Belgium friends Bert and Tijl even at 13.38. In the end it was the Czech team, Radek and Miloslav who finished first and 3d, with Sebastian in the middle.
In the 2 seater class my Dutch friends Peter and Ard got a bit disillusioned with their outlandings or slow flights, with only one 6th day – spot. But today they put the “fire” on and ended on a good 2d place behind the German pilots, Florian Theisinger/Thomas Starck, who got their 2d daily prize!
It is rather interesting to see the “jumping -up- and- down ” from several pilots, wellknown too, on the scoring list in this class.
All scores of course preliminary as I just grabbed them from soaringspot.
Another interesting day both in Issoudun and in Ostrow. Looking forward to see what happens tomorrow. Will be back tomorrow evening or when the scores are late the next morning.
Cu Ritz
on Wednesday evening 10 PM. July 10 2013.