Back on track after a great week with my high school friends. Was n’t the fittest person in the world, we did not have the best weather either , but we did what we wanted to do; having fun, lot’s of talking, shopping, even walking [ every day,…. but 2 times 10 km.] and biking[ once 25 km.]!!

So life goes on and last Monday was some kind of jubilee. I wrote my first soaring-eu blog from Holland exact 10 years ago. In total I have written 20 years. Starting when we were running Sportavia from 1996 onward with the Latest News.

Back to news about soaring and comps or GP’s NOW.
By the way I visited on my way to the holiday resort,  for an half hour the airport of  Malden where the Open Military Championship was busy with it’s last day.
Impressive is the only word for the new club house of the NIJAC . It looks like a glass tower , on the first floor, where you can sit outside with a drink to oversee the airport.
The old club house has been renovated and looks enjoyable and spiffy as well.

 

QSGP [18meter] in Austria.
June 18-25.

With 19 competitors , 7 from Austria, 1 from Switzerland  and France, 2 from Slovenia and 8 from Germany this competition is flown from Niederöblarn in beautyful Styria.
They could start straight away on Saturday with a 158 km. task, won by well known Swiss pilot Werner Danz. He got the 6 points for the day.
Christian Hynek, flying the ” SHARK” was the unlucky one for the day,  missing the start line and “getting” 5 minutes penalty.A pretty tricky day with several re-landings before the regatta start with a max start-height of 2000 m.

The more lucky ones from day 1; Werner on spot 1, Robert [Schroeder 4 points] on 2 and Klaus Kalmbach [ 3 points] on 3 and number 4 was Wolfgang [Janowitsch.. 2 points] and 5 was Mario [Kiessling.. 1 point].

Sunday, was cancelled.
Monday, was cancelled.
Tuesday, was cancelled.

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The Cotswold Nationals and 2016 Regionals.
June 18-26.

With 23 pilots in the standard class Nationals and 15 in the 2-seater class this is a competition flown from Aston Down in the UK. Another 10 fly the Regionals.

Unfortunately day 1 on Saturday June 18 had to be cancelled, Small tasks were set but “in vain”.
Sunday was cancelled as well, but the forecast for the rest of the week was better.
Monday was a no-go, but on Tuesday tasks were set; 206 for standard, 239 for the 2-seaters and the Regionals had to go for 164 km.
They were reduced to 153 km for standard and at least 3 pilots finished with a start just before 4 PM and finish between 6 PM and 6.38. They got 553, 527 and 526 points for their efforts.
So 3 Finishers  and 15 over 100 km. [107-to 150 km.] . Close but just not ” in ” was Ayala Truelove. She got 471 points for her 150.60 km.
16 LS 8 gliders from 23 in this class.
155 km. for the 2-seaters and also here 3 finishers; Andy Davis with the ARCUS T with a speed just under 80 km./h.[440 points]  Kim Tipple in ARCUS T also,  was runner up[434]  and Peter Hurd in the Duo Discus XT was 3d.[398] Number 4 flew 144 km in a Duo Discus T still got 353 points.
87 km. for the Regionals and at least 2 finishers.
All results preliminary.

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15 m, standard and Open class Nationals in Nephi Utah [USA]
June 20-30

Bruce Taylor from Australia traveled all the way up to Utah to fly the USA Nationals. Here is his first impression from his ” Taylor’s Gliding Place” . For those who cannot follow that on FB , I copy and paste it here with his permission;
—-” We have arrived at Nephi, Utah for the Open Class nationals, which begin on Sunday. After crossing into Utah amid the red and brown I was expecting, it became steadily greener towards Nephi, about 70 miles south of Salt Lake City. Tomorrow I will have my one and only practice day, and the weather looks to be OK. Early next week the weather could become extremely good… Fingers crossed! Photo is from the airfield car park. Reminds me a little of Mount Terminillo in Rieti.—“

Indeed he is right.

Practice ;
—” First day flying today, and I managed a personal best. I know for many it is not so impressive, but in 6500 hours I have never had a thermal climb to 18,000 feet. I have been (much) higher in wave, but not in thermals. The day was generally a bit difficult, and at one stage I even contemplated the embarrassment of an out-landing first day out! However we dropped some ballast and struggled out of trouble. I didn’t fly a huge distance, but did start to get a feel for how things work, and I have to say that it is different to all the other mountain sites I have visited. The trees grow quite high up the slopes, and all the greenery seems to affect how the thermals develop. I think on a good day there will be thermals everywhere, but on cooler blue days like today it is only the very hottest bare peaks that work. I was watching the only cumulus in the sky about 50 km East of Nephi, and late in the afternoon I went to explore, and found a little convergence there. Cloud base looked to be around 20,000 feet, but the limit for us is 18,000. Shame The next couple of days are going to be similar, with some wind around, but Tuesday looks like being a monster.. Can’t wait!–-” 

Official practice day on Sunday June 19;
Bruce; ” False alarm. We have two practice days, competition begins on Tuesday. Today is blue, blue, blue with a 3 hour AAT. That means we have a choice in which piece of blue we use. Most pilots are flying, as for many of us it is our first visit here.”
and
—“A bit more of the same today, except lower and slower. We were set a 3 hour AAT, north-east, south then west before coming home, probably about 380km scratch distance. The weather was pretty slow again, and we were mostly working below the ridges, with some tippy-toe flying amongst it all. Further south and out of range for our task there were some high cu’s and lenticulars, no use to us at all. The day took a long time to start, and I was afraid it might stop early. For me at least it did, and the final 100km was almost totally dead. After landing though, there were a few signs of wave on the final leg, so maybe I just flew in the wrong place.

Despite the tough conditions, I felt slightly more confident today. It’s always hard going to a new site, as flying well is so much about confidence, and today I felt like I could push along a bit more and stay out of trouble. It almost turned to worms on the last leg, but we got home somehow.
Photos are out east of Nephi. As you can see it is quite green and scenic. Not a description normally associated with great gliding, but I think this place might be different.—” 

For what it is worth Bruce won this BLUE practice day in his 18 m. ASG 29 with a 3 hour TAT[turn area task] !!!Different mountains, different tasks as in TAT etc, so good on him.
BUT,…..there are a few very GOOD pilots in his class , as in 15 m. and standard. So let’s wait and see what this upcoming week brings.

   

Practice day 2 on Monday June 20 was won in open class by Dick Butler , now in the CONCORDIA and not in the SUSI-1A he flew in on practice day 1. I had to go to Wikipedea to find out more about this glider and here you are ;
—” The Sisu 1A is a competition sailplane built in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Originally designed by Leonard Niemi as a homebuilt sailplane, its first flight in 1958 showed such promise that Niemi decided instead to manufacture it in series production. Niemi formed the Arlington Aircraft Company for this purpose. The Sisu 1A quickly proved itself as the most competitive American sailplane ever developed, winning the 1962, 1965, and 1967 U.S. National Soaring Championships. On July 31, 1964, a Sisu 1a piloted by Alvin H. Parker became the first sailplane ever to fly farther than 1000 km. “—-

So would Dick add 2016 as a new winning-year in this old-timer with many world records behind it’s name ??????
The answer is NO. During the comps he flies the CONCORDIA!!!!! He was 7th on day 1.
I hear from insiders that the SISU  is a pretty heavy glider but with great performance on high speed.

Bruce’s experience till now , is a good one as well ;
“Nephi looks to be a great soaring site, my first experience of the western US. Big thermals!”
Practice day 2 was good practice and Bruce finished as 5th.
” Today will be 100 degrees. At midday it is still blue, but the nice weatherman says we will have some cloud today. Heights may be above 18,000 feet. I smiled at the forecast thermal strengths… 8-10 knots, peak climb rates to 15.5!! Could be fun.”

Yesterday they started the comps and
—“ First day of organized gridding, and I have to say it wasn’t… at all…. 4 hour AAT and the weather looks pretty smokin’ hot. Hopefully more time bouncing off the height limit. If we do anything like predicted speeds we’ll need every inch of the areas they’ve set us, so will have take care of that, but there is usually something to slow us down. Photos of the grid thing, with JS waiting patiently. —”
As said Uys in the JS 1C-21m. won the first day. Keith Essex in the same glider was runner up. Bruce was 14th after an out-landing and RESPECT for his next story about day 1 !!!!!!!

—-“I’m unsure how to begin. Today I escaped having an accident by a tiny amount, and whilst I believe that it is important to tell the story, I don’t want to scare those who care about me. I am back in our house, safe and sound, but severely humbled. I care not about the fact that I out-landed, but I do care about what happened earlier in the flight. I flew down to a frighteningly low height above totally unlandable terrain, and I went within an inch of breaking a borrowed glider. The scenario contained both poor decision-making on my behalf, a lack of knowledge of the area, and some weather that simply caught me out. The attached photo was taken looking down my intended track about 20 minutes before this whole episode. The attractive cu’s overdeveloped quite rapidly, but even after this started I thought that they would still be working. I did get a long run of good air, but should have realized sooner that there were no more climbs to be found. I deviated right, which is west, to chase what I thought was the more active side of the clouds, thereby putting myself further into trouble. Long story short, I arrived at the very far right of this photo incredibly low. My only option would almost certainly have meant a broken glider, and I have never done that. Finally I climbed away, after a radio call to explain that I was in serious trouble, I continued the task for some time, then got low again, then climbed again, from where I realized that I had safe glide to a nice, paved airport. I’d had enough excitement for the day, so landed and took an aero-tow home. I now have a very much greater respect for this site, and a heightened awareness that I am not infallible.—”
This is the picture Bruce talks about.

    

Ready to go on day 1 with happy and exciting expectations for a great one.
More about them next week.

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EUROGLIDE 2016.

Started last Monday. A monster trip through Central Europe of 2400 km. All pilots LOVE IT!!!
In the past they started at Eindhoven but all gliding operations from Eindhoven Airport have ceased. Now they start from Venlo in the South of Holland and the organisation of Euroglide 2016 is a joint operation now of both clubs.
So start and finish of Euroglide 2016 will be on Venlo airfield.
Here is the news from the site:
The basis of the route is a triangle with start and finish at Venlo and two turn-points in Poland. The first turn-point is Plock, just North-East of Warszawa. Then to the South of Poland where the turn-point is either Nowy sacz or Krosno, depending on the class.

The Gliders and Self launchers have the first leg to Plock via Borkenberge and the Turbos have the first leg to Plock via Dahlemer Binz.

The total distance of the two tasks is around 2420km.
More details can be found in the Euroglide 2016 Rules, available on the rules page.
http://www.euroglide.nl/

2 Dutch teams …ready to go. Good luck to ALL.

On Monday it was raining “cat’s and dog’s”   up to 25 mm at some places, but the weather will improve!!!!
On Monday evening at 11.10 PM, Luc Weber published this picture;

It was either waiting or displacement by car. At least some German beer was available for some yesterday evening[Oerlinghausen and Flugplatz Dinslaken, Borkenberge ] so quite a few moved by car…trailer on “tow”.
Today looks good!

———-

They have already good weather in Brazil at Bahia Gliding. Look at this!
32 Dgr. C and a cloud-base of 2000 m.

———–

AND.
news from Graham Garnett from the UK.
About
LASHAM GLIDE 2016 the prequel for the EGC 2017.

—-” To all my gliding friends in the UK and abroad please read and share this post.

Lashamglide 2016 (30 July – 7th August) which consists of the 15m and Open Class Nationals also has an 18m competition.

It has now been decided that the 18m competition will be a handicapped competition with the handicaps ranging from 105 – 111 (UK handicap rules)

By the way, we have had the longest day yesterday and on the same day the astronomical summer started here with a bit of sun. On Monday it felt like autumn. BUT,.. we will have up to 30 dgr on Friday,…yes…..with thunderstorms.
The first half year Holland had more rain than ever counted for in history. Up to 500 mm. where 300 to 350 is the normal average.
Still terrible weather in Europe.
Warshaw in Poland had a severe down burst on June 17 with heavy rain and wind. Tornado’s at Serbia on Monday and heavy hail in SE Italy last Sunday. [Puglia]
[ https://www.facebook.com/severeweatherEU/]

Cheers Ritz