PRIEVIDZA.
When I left you, there was only 1 more day to go, but we still have to look at Wednesday soaring day 9 with long distances. Here we go;
At the grid they changed for club into a B task from 300 km. as the 500 km task would lead them into bad weather circumstances over the High Tatra mountains, their first TP.
The other classes still got 553 and 631 km.
BUT,…..Club was cancelled.
For 15 m. it was a STRUGGLE 553 is far, 631 even further but with better gliders they were supposed to get farther.
BUT THEN …. the day was stopped/neutralized ..…..
AS there was the sad message/official report from the director:”On Slovakian – Poland border one glider fell down into the forest. Based on reported SAR it was told that the pilot is dead. We immediately announced to all participants immediate landing. There would be no mass crash,as reported by the media. All other competitors have returned to the airport in Prievidza or safely landed at other airports or on the ground.”
” Commemorative farewell to the deceased racer Martin Mężyk will be tomorrow morning at the briefing at 10:00. This is followed by the declaration of the results. Organizers express sincere condolences …”
Sad very sad…..another accident….. TOO many in a TOO short time.Some pilots only heard it when they were in radio contact again after a long flight. Sebastian flew 552 km. not knowing that his Polish mate had died during his flight in the same combi class.On flying day 6, Sebastian and Marcin were even 1 and 2!!!!!
R.I.P Marcin and condolences to the many Polish pilots flying from Prievidza and all other mates involved in this competition.Not to forget the organizer,s also for them these are tough moments, I know all about that.
The last day was cancelled.When you are interested in the final scores you can find them on ; www;soaringspot.com
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LA CERDANYA.
Racing the mountains around La Cerdanya.
Courtesy Philippe De Pechy.
Day 4 turned out to be a tricky day and the race was postponed to 14.30. They started at 15.20.
In the end the winner, Christophe Ruche flew the set task from 176 km. with an average speed of 198 km./h.
Louis flew 187.2 km./h and Philippe 174.2 km./h.What do you want more?
Philippe has not only time to race the mountains , but also to make another interesting picture from 6 balloons.
Courtesy Philippe.
Day 5 ; Rain in Spain.
Courtesy Philippe.
Day 6;Ready to go!! With the morning news:”weather clearing for a possible race today starting at 14.00 with low cloudbase and weak thermals it should be very exciting.”
So race 5 was on and……Won by “racer” Mike Young from the UK ;9 points for him, though he did not round the last TP correctly. He accepted a 5 min. penalty, which was 300 s.but still remained the leader for the day. [a total of 24 p after 5 races]
Christophe was runner up [33 p] and Louis 3d.[39 p]
Courtesy Philippe de Pechy.
Race 6 never happened unfortunately:” The last day is cancelled because of Thunderstorms growing on the first track. Congratulations to Louis Bouderlique a worthy winner.”
I can only agree.
From l to r. the 3 French Musketeers; Christophe, Louis and Philippe.
Courtesy Philippe.
By the way the Qualifying GRAND PRIX from France will be in June at Rennes. As far as I know the 2 winning participants Louis and Christophe will fly there as well.
Before that the “circus ” goes to Russia, with Jantar’s only [May 1-8 at Usman] and Italy [May 14-21 at Varese] .
Courtesy Laurent Couture
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The CAE OPEN BENELUX Comps 2016.
This contest will be flown between Mai 18 and 27 and till May 10 you can enter. At this stage 53 pilots have entered; 11 in 15 m./standard, 13 in club class , 12 in open and 17 in 18 m. class.
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In between the Dutch pilots flew a ONE-DAY-COMPETITION in Holland from Terlet.; organized by the Gelderse for that reason called The Gelderse-one-day-competition.
The weather , last Saturday, looked and was pretty miserable at times, cold, {minus 10 in the cockpit}hail , a bit of sun as well but also unstable and great clouds…… the organizers ” FOUND A WINDOW” ,…..SO THEY flew. And good they did as one day later there was PURE snow in the East of Holland, not in the air but at the ground causing several incidents and accidents on the road.
4 Classes,.. 44 pilots ….so for this weather still enough die-hards. And what’s more,…they had GREAT fun!!!!
Picture courtesy Ronald Stellaard.
In club class 138.44 km. was set and 8 pilots were ready to try. They did well!!! 5 Finished and the winner was Frank Hiemstra with 87 km./h in the St Cirrus. Runners up were Nick and Robin who participated earlier in the year in Narromine at the JWGC.
In the combi class 6 pilots started for 154 km. and 4 finished; Winner Jeroen Verkuijl in an LS 6 with a good speed; 103.59 km./h. The runner up in LS 8 had 97.48 km./h.
Open class had 16 on the list but 12 started and flew the task from 193 km.and 9 finished. Winner; Peter Millenaar in the ASG 29 with a speed of 117 km ./h. Ronald Termaat was on spot 3 in the JS 1-C/21m.
12 Teams for the 2-seater class and 8 finished their 159 km. task. Jasper Keuper and Jan Willem van Doorn in the Duo Discus flew remarkable faster than another duo Discus who was runner up;113.83 km./h. for 94.21 km./h.
All in all a nice day, one of the first of the many competitions in Holland this year. Some impressions as always great, from top photographer Willemijn.
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AND…GP GLIDERS.
finally a picture of a GP glider. They were supposed to fly at the first 13.5 WGC , but everybody had to wait a bit longer. Nice result here at the picture by Sebastian from the glider at the big AERO in Friedrichshafen.
Roomy cockpit.
Courtesy Sebastian Kawa.
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FATRAGLIDE.
In Slovakia at Martin Glider Airport, FATRAGLIDE 16 , started last Saturday and they continue till May 4. They do have some problems with the cold and bad weather in parts of Europe. No flying till yesterday. A 2 hour AAT was set in club class and 2.30 for the combi class.
3 From 7 finished in the combi class with the SHARK on spot 1.[206.63 km. in 2.14]
In club the St Cirrus did a great job again; 141.37 km. in 1.56.
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Club class NATIONALS in Italy.
The Italian Club Class Glider Pilots gathered at the airport of Alzate Brianza, to find out who will be the new 2016 National Champion. For me all new names from the 8 Italian pilots and 1 Swiss pilot with a very Italian name; junior Davide Giovanelli. I wrote about him not so long ago after he added a very nice flight on the OLC. He is a member of the Swiss Junior team.
They started last Friday with a set task of 208 km. and Davide won day 1.
A non flying day followed and on Sunday they continued with 263 km. won AGAIN by Davide.
Finally a good day of soaring with a 3 hour AAT on Monday. Italian pilot Franco Poletti won the first 1000 points during this competition in the Discus B wl; 362.24 km. in time 3.48. Other pilots flying that day from Alzate flew up to 781 km. in a Ventus 2cxa, flying up N to the mountains.
No task yesterday.
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GAUTENG REGIONALS S.A .
From Orient the Gauteng Regionals were flown starting last Sunday in 3 classes.
Open class has 7 pilots among them Oscar [Goudriaan] and John [Coutts]. They got on their first day a set task from 294 km. and the weather was ” challenging”,all 7 went on track, but nobody finished .
Oscar flies the new toy the ASG 32.
In 15 m. class 8 participants among them husband and wife Maneste and Wayne Schmidt.
Dick Bradley flies HC in an ASH 25.
They set on day 1, 203 km. for 2 ASW 27 ‘s , 1 Ventus and 5 ASW 20’s.In the end the day was cancelled also for club with 3 pilots.
Today they have a set task from 261 km. in open, 205 in 15 m. and 145 for club.
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Some great OLC flights last week;
Last Sunday, one from Italy Aosta, by Alessandro Busca in an ASW 24; 1.020 km !!!!
And 2 from Switzerland, Locarno; 2x just over 1000 km by Bert Schmelzer jr [ASG 29/18m] and Rainer Cronjager.[ASH 31 MI/21m]
One later on Monday an ITALIAN WAVE- day with 5 x a 1000 plus, though Austria Lienz, was good as well with 1.126 in the Antares.
1.211 km. for Giorgio Galetto from Trento in the Ventus 2 cxa and from Calcinate Alberto[Sironi], Davide [Schiavotto] and Peter [Hartmann] each with an over -1000 km.- flight.
Yesterday was pretty normal again with over 500 k-flights in the UK !!!COLD though….!!!!!!
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Pneumonia is back in full action. Extra heavy antibiotic now! Hope it helps this time.
A month ago ,a lower dose did n’t do the job.Never had pneumonia now 2 times in 2 months.
Very tired, so not too much news!!!!!
Kingsday in Holland. I was supposed to sell “things” at the free market with my grand children. Looking to the TV in bed now!!
Cheers Ritz