The CIM, started as you know already with 2 cancelled day’s.
But then the weather improved and soaring was a fact in good old beautiful Rieti!!
They started carefully in both groups on Wednesday with
Group 1;
Task 1 …2.30 AAT ; in this class lot’s of 2 seaters as this is the Italian 20 class m. National Competition as well.
Daily winner; Maldivi/Ferrero in ARCUS T with 224 km. in time 2.30 at the dot, [89 km./h.] followed by 2 ARCUS M.
Task 2…279 km;
Alberto Sironi/Bassalti was the best with a speed of 110 km./h. Not yet the fast Rieti weather,….. but building up…..
The Bouderliques from France were runner up in ARCUS M and on spot 3 Katrin Senne with Arnaud de Broqueville in ASG 32 MI.

Task 3….3 hour AAT;
2 Italian teams up front with 2 Swiss teams following. Vitorio [Pinni] flew around over 326 km. Alberto over nearly 350 but they needed a bit more time.
In this class also 2 single seaters ; a Discus 2A [Handicap 11]and 2 bWL.[109]
Task 4…2.45 AAT;
” Today the temperature varies from 31° to 34° depending on the area. QNH is 1016hPa, 10/15 knots from the north-east. Cumulus bases at 2000-2400m, good thermals but broken by the wind. The air is humid but getting drier. Wind from the northeast may create wave phenomena (unfortunately) on the eastern side of the Apennines. “
A “mighty” distance of 324 km. for the Bouderliques in their ARCUS M; time 2.51!!!AND,…not even for 1000 points…946.
BUT,….climbing from 4 to 1 overall!!!!
The next best performance shows the difference; 287 km. in time 2.52 by the Stefano [Ghiorzo ]-team;805 points.
4 Were out ..among them Vittorio dropping from 5 to 10 overall.

Group 2;
Task 2…2.20 AAT;
You remember for sure that task 1 was cancelled but still flown by Bert Schmelzer jr with big speed.
He repeated this effort for points now ,winning the task; 296 km in time 2.39 in his Ventus 3T.
He was followed by the UK pilots Pete Harvey and Steve Jones with less kilometers but better time;269 and 265 km in time 2.24 and 2.26.
6 Pilots had an airspace violation even pilots from Italy who have flown a lot in Rieti. Luckily it was in the last part of the task.
Task 3…339 km.;
AND ,…a 1000 points day and those points were for Arne [Boye Moeller] from Denmark in a JS 3/18m. [112 km./h] Followed by Bert in the Ventus 3T[110 km./h] and the UK pilots Derren[ Francis] and Pete both in Ventus 3.
Bruno Gantenbrink in the ETA missed out on 1 km.; he flew 338.17 costing him 100 points.
4 Airspace violations in this class.
“It was fun and interesting at times and difficult flights. The landings were safe despite the north wind, Bruno Ganterbrick’s Eta gave us the spectacle of his landing from the south! “

Task 4…3 hour AAT;
For today they expected” a maximum temperature of 32 degrees , QNH is 1016, cumulus bases between 1600 and 2400m. In the north, thermals will be powerful but broken, in the south they will be weak and disturbed by some coverages. There will be beautiful convergence but also some rains. “
377 km. in time 3.27 was flown by young German Lukas Blattmann in the Ventus 3T.
The ANTARES from Peter Hartmann from Austria was on his tail but has a handicap of 124 to the 120.5 for the Ventus.
Alvaro [Spain] in his ASH 31 MI was the first “not-finisher’ and only 1 pilot abused the airspace.
Giorgio [Galetto] only lost 19 points on the winner as number 3 for the day.
After 4 tasks Bert jr. still leads but Arne is on his heels ; 2.749 /2.735points.

Task 5…3.10 AAT;
The best daily 4, flew around 360 km. around time 3.08.
2 Italians, Giorgio and Davide, and 2 Austrians Peter and Christian[Derold]
12 Were out, virtual or by airspace violation and maybe in “real”. Among them the 3 UK pilots, who were doing so well and the winner from the day before, Lukas after 86 km. That hurts….dropping from 4 to 18 overall.

“ Today, August 9th, is the Official Rest Day.
There will be an informal briefing at 10.30 with meteo info and.. personal considerations.
National rules say that must be a rest day after a maximum of 7 consecutive flying days.
We have a total of 5 more available days (9 consecutive).
Forecasted excellent weather starting from Monday.
Towing and operations active as usual under the 2 local clubs’ management.”

Looking at the overall scores from the Italian Nationals after 1 week;
Alberto leads the 20 m. class with 3.115 points.
18 m.class Giorgio with 3.615 points.

So with just 3 day’s to go, [ 3 August 2020 – 13 August 2020 ]as it seems the 12th is the last flying day, we continue with
Group 1;
Monday..Task 5 …372 km;WOW,..what speed over those kilometres . Team Stefano flew around in the ARCUS T with 154 km./h!!!
So no 1000 points but “only” 766.
Vittorio in the Duo Discus XL was with 148 km./h runner up and Katrin and Arnaud were 3d with 152.82 km./h.

Tuesday..Task 6…351 km;
Bouderlique-day again !!! Speed of 129.55 km./h over the set task. Team Alberto and team Katrin were runner up and on spot 3.
With one day to go the Bouderliques have 4.842 points , followed by team Stefano with 4.673 and team Alberto 4.593 points.
Only 64 points less for team Katrin, so a lot is still possible in this 20 m. class National Competition.
Looking at the scores for the nationals…Team Alberto [ 4.777] is more than 500 points ahead of runner up as team Brunazzi.[4.237]

Wednesday;task 7 last day!!!No task yet so an update tomorrow!!!

Tuesday…Task 7…401 km;
Davide in the JS 3 won the day ahead of 5 x a Ventus 3 and 1 Antares.Nice speed of 143 km./h.
The UK pilots Pete and Steve starting and flying together, were on spot 2 and 3.
4 Pilots did not finish and Alvaro did not fly .
Arne mentioned; ” Complex 401km day in Rieti. Decisions, decisions, decisions. As an afterthought the met man mentioned there might be a bit of cb activity. A bit? But man, is this fun and exhilarating! “
And;” heavy rain and lightening, the occasional adrenaline moments, blue thermals and sheer wonder that all this is possible. What a great day and kudos to the pilots who just blazed through.  “
With other words wet,wet,wet. They needed shelter after the flight.
Sorry,..the picture does not fit anymore, will try tomorrow.

With one day to go;Bert leads with a bit more than 100 points on Arne.
Looking at the Italian comps it is Giancarlo who leads with 5.226 on Giorgio with 5.180 and Davide with 5.098…the rest is far behind!!!
Exciting!!!!

Wednesday…task 8...no task yet. so see the update tomorrow!!

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The GLIDING INTERNATIONAL is as you now already a monthly “happening” now. I must say it is so much easier to read it digital now. Not flipping over the pages, but just a download and scroll down over the nearly 60 pages.
What’s in it?
—A very interesting story about Benalla, AND a fascinating story from there about a Grunau Baby in 1948...Had not read or heard this story before.
“The glider and pilot were sucked into a mammoth cloud that took them to a height of 13,000 feet. “
Of course having gone solo in the Grunau Baby the story got some extra attention.
—Jonker Sailplanes...the story of the success from the brothers Uys and Attie and Dr. Johan Bosman their Chief Aerodynamic Design Engineer .
—-membership…As I know John, the chief editor is very involved with this issue.
“My interest in this subject goes back well over 35 years. In those earlier times, we had 120,000 soaring pilots which has dramatically fallen to today’s estimate of 79,000.”
—-the international accident report from June and July 2020, does n’t make you happy.
—The best “tug undergoes major performance changes.” ..all about the Super Piper Cup.
— lot’s of aviation news , “thing’s with wing’s” ….. Lot’s of claims for new world records!!!! …..and much more!!!

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I do realize that a lot of the young pilots flying great distances at the moment, are having [temporarily] no job as due to COVID-19 lot’s of staff including pilots have been sacked at airlines all over the world. An awful time for many,…I wish you all lot’s of luck and hope you are having your job back when possible again.

Last Saturday a 2-seater crashed in Belgium, not so far from where I live , with an 57 year old instructor and an 18 year old female student, as I read during a summer-camp , it……makes me shiver, certainly because my own grand children fly now as well!!!!
SO SAD!!!!!!

We are still in a 9 day heat wave here in Holland with up to 38 dgr. C. In my garden in the sun it was 49 dgr.C.
It’s the 29th official heatwave since they started ….we have the 2d regional here already now in 2020.
No fun as most of us have no air co’s. Normally not necessary.
By the way this has NEVER happened before!!!!The hottest EVER period here.
I hear , experts say so, that we are going to a more French climate now here in Holland.

Cheers Ritz CU tomorrow with an update of the last day in Rieti and then again next week.
Do have some problems with space on the server. Good “old” Bill is looking into the case again.