13.5 m. WGC in Pocuinai
Lithuania.
As shared by the SSA. Picture courtesy Eric frere.
“ How Lithuanians do grid time!”
August 15 ;
Aussie team; ” Day 12 – last day. We have a 3 hour AAT. The forecast is for blue conditions, and today I believe it.”
A 3 hour AAT to finish indeed is a good final for these great first 13.5 m. comps. What weather they have had and such good flying.
Yesterday Stefano consolidated his first spot by starting and staying with his biggest concurrent Vladas. They were 2 and 3 for the day.
Daily winner was French pilot Antoine Havet, on his way to the podium, as Morgan in his first BIG competition was only on spot 10 loosing some valuable points and his 3d overall spot to Antoine.
So if nothing goes wrong , spot 1 and 2 are occupied but today will be interesting for the spot 3. Will it be Antoine, now with 8146 points, or maybe Morgan with 8032 who might play all or nothing, or maybe the 3d pilot “fighting” for this spot Alberto Sironi with 8017. As a very experienced pilot I expect the “all or nothing-attitude” more from him.And let’s not forget an other experienced pilot who “smell chances ” ; Francois Pin.
Let’s wait and see.Tonight we know!!!
Yesterday was forecasted as a blue day. It turned out a GREAT day with the one but longest task till now.;347 km.
The organizers write today:
” A useful part of every weather briefing is a thermal forecast for the afternoon, based on an actual sounding from a station upwind of the home airfield. Today the wind was from the east, and we learned that there are no radiosonde stations east of here. Something to do with politics. Instead, metorologist Viktorija based her cloudbase forecast on a sounding from Latvia, to our north, and her forecast was “no clouds all day.”
It turned out that the air to our east was not as dry as the air in Latvia. As Tony and Leah Condon brought JEN to the grid one of them took a photo through the windshield of the crew vehicle. By the time launching began, we had 3 octas in all directions.”
Blue………….???????
as shared by the organizers.
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EGC in Rieti
Italy
It’s over and out, great flying, difficult flying and no flying,…it was all there in Rieti.
—” A difficult start for the last competition day: climbs of 0.5 m/s at the start, but going to Celano, thermals were up to 5.8 m/s and in that area there was some rain, it was also raining over L’Aquila. Wind was from south, south/east but very weak: 16/18 km/h. Cumulus base was 2500m at the beginning of the task and after up to 3000m. Somewhere along the mountains there was a beautiful line of cumulus. The top speeds for the day for club class was 108 Kmh, standard class 125 Kmh and 147 Kmh for 15m class. Now all the gliders are in their trailers and at 8.00pm we will have the farewell party at airport restaurant.”—-As shared by the organizers,
That was it ….in Rieti. As always great!!! Only a pity that several gliders were damaged.
What happened on the last day?
club class; 2.30 AAT,
2 Italian daily winners who started early and again young Davide won a day. A pity from the days he out -landed. Luca Urbani was runner up.
6 Times a St Cirrus in the daily top.
What does this all mean for the overall score??
Ondrej was today on spot 5 and Jan [Louda] his mate on 4. They started late together to see what was possible on this last day. Chasing the rest and passing them,…. it worked more or less.;they did not win the day but consolidated and climbed up.
Ondrej Dvorak is the new CLUB CLASS EGC CHAMPION.[7341] Good on him. Winning task 8 a few days ago, on August 12, together with Jan, brought him from 8 to spot 2 overall. Only Josef Kozar from Slovakia was in his way, but on the last day he was on spot 11, so the runner up is JAN LOUDA.[7302]
Josef is on spot 3.[7256]
UK pilot Ge Dale who was on top for quite a few days finished on spot 4, having a few relatively “poor” last days.
standard class;2 hour AAT.
Lucasz had to defend his first place overall and he did,…but only just 236 km in 2.08. He was on this last day on spot 18 !!! But he was far enough ahead to be THE NEW EUROPEAN CHAMPION in Standard class.[7408]
Runner up ” our ” Sjaak Selen, a very consistent pilot.On this last day he started 13 minutes ahead of Lucasz and flew 251 km. in 2.03.A total of 7293 points.
On spot 3 at the podium;Russian pilot Dmitriy Timoshenko, with 7071 points. He slowly made his way from 8 to 3 over the last days. Well done by Dmitriy.
Sjaak as vice European Champion.Proud on him.
As shared by EK Zweefvliegen and the podium by Frouwke.
15 m. class; 1.30 AAT.
I thought NOTHING could go wrong for Peter Hartmann. But on the last days it did n’t go as well as before. Yesterday he was one of the out -landers today he was on spot 11 , loosing points again. Unfortunately for him too many as he is now runner up with 7112 points.
THE NEW EUROPEAN CHAMPION IN THIS CLASS IS DIDIER HAUSS.[7188] After day 7 he was still on spot 9 overall, but he raced to the top eating every day a bit of the points from Peter who topped the overall list for 6 days.
The French had a strong team together occupying spot 1 ,3 and 4.The number 3 is Christophe Ruch.
The last day was won by Jaroslav Tomana with a speed of 147 km./h.
Good bye Rieti by TEAM UK.
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Looking back at Arnborg!
It’s a tough job to win a prize.
Sabrina with the club class trophy and for her and the other champions ,…a trip to the USA, as I heard from Frouwke who was steward during these comps.
Picture courtesy Frouwke.
It was not always easy for the girls.Certainly in the beginning, the weather did not co-operate. Already during practice it was impossible to do good training- flights. They still managed to fly 9 out of 13 days, some pretty marginal.
But all went well. We have great CHAMPIONS , fantastic runner up’s and good third- place-holders.
What is AS is important is the friendship created over the days. I hear and read above all sadness that it is over. SO IT WAS GOOD!!!!
I was pleasantly surprised by the flying of the Dutch girls. Natasja [ spot 8 from 10] had only flown 1 WWGC , for the others , Annemiek [spot 9] and Lilian [11] and Doortje,[12] it was the debut. All 3 flew in club class with 17 participants.Dutch female gliding is up and running.
Annemiek, as said still a junior, won 2 days , was 2 times 3d and 3 times at the bottom of the list. So a bit more consistency and she will win in the future; her talent still has to be developed over the future years.
Elena is such a rough diamond as well and for sure more young girls, but I don’t know them all.
I sometimes felt for the Aussie girls Kerrie and Jo, flying in total different circumstances as down-under, on days they would not even think to go the airfield home.
Jo mentioned; “ It’s always a bit sad to end a comp. Especially one as special as this one!
Lots learnt and new friends made. While the flying was supremely difficult I wouldn’t have missed a moment.”
Kerrie, who is full of humor, mentioned;
“ Denmark is a wonderful country – green countryside, neat farmhouses and fields, extremely friendly & hospitable people –
we’re determined to come back and visit again – but next time in summer!”
She was grateful to many also ” to the to all the Danes who offered help, encouragement, support and a shoulder to cry on – esp the two pilots at Christianshede (gliding club) who individually came up to apologize for the Danish weather!”
Jo shared the pictures from the prize winners, who are all on their way home now again with awesome memories on a very friendly easy going competition. Compliments to all !!!!
Specially for Swaantje who after battling her cancer, was in full swing again during this WWGC. She was 14th , but who cares, she PARTICIPATED!!! Good on her.She is on the left ,first row on this picture with ALL the German team members , who were so successful!! As shared by Frouwke.
The Club Class Champions: Sabrina ,Chrissie and Edita.
The 15 m. class winners; Anne, Marilyne and Katrin.
The Standard class winners; Aude, Dana and Jana.
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Bailleau
NO FLYING on the last day in Bailleau so nothing changed in the scores.
—” Frank Hiemstra is “Le Champion Grande Vitesse de Bailleau 2015″.—”
Best of 37 ,so a good result!!! Congratulations to Frank .Runner up was another Dutch pilot Robbie Seton, also one of my former juniors. He just missed out on 4 points!!!Well done Robbie!
In the friendly class 2 Dutch pilots on top Stefan Knoop and Thomas van Heeswijk in the Duo Discus and Michael de Wert in the Discus.
In the long flights class the winners are from home; Bailleau pilots Henry and Negri in the ARCUS T.[750 kg.]
As shared by Ben Hiemstra……Robbie, Frank and Jan.
Already for years and years a VERY PLEASANT competition!!!!
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18m and open class in Stendal
NO FLYING for 4 days.
NOW WE KNOW WHY!
By the way we had yesterday, 43.000 lightnings here as well.
As shared by the organizers.
BUT they try today ; Racing tasks were set, BUT the thunderstorms started again. 18 m. in the back of the field was cancelled at 12.30.
Open has to try;2.30 AAT. But first they secure the gliders till after the storm.
More tonight or tomorrow.
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Slowly a very careful beginning of the season in Australia with 300 km. flights from Warwick and Kingaroy.
AND a great ridge soaring day in the EAST from AUSTRIA. From Wiener Neustadt they flew yesterday, 1.150 km. in a DUO DISCUS.And here we are looking ahead at autumn.
More tonight or tomorrow depending on the news!
Cheers Ritz