CIM after 3 days of flying!

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday  August 18 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

After 2 days of waiting the pilots competing in the CIM , received a nice long task for  soaring day 1  and those pilots were ready to go for it. In open class Alexander Mueller flew with a speed of 146.2 km/h over 426 km, winning the day.
Last year I noticed already what a good pilot Alberto Sironi is, now he showed that again flying in the ARCUS T with a speed of 136 km./h. over also 426 km. By the way 3 ARCUS gliders are flying in this dual-seat- competition. The rest is duo discus and young Davide flies a JANUS CM.
 No doubt about Giorgio Galetto flying in Rieti; in 18 m he won with a big marge on number 2 Swiss pilot Werner Danz in the Antares. Speed from Giorgio over 426 km.; 147.7 km  and Werner 134, while the brand new world champion Stefano and Thomas  flew with a speed of  129/130 km . This time no Diana’s for them; Thomas flies Ventus 2 CM and Stefano HPH304 S.
In 15 m. class Luca de Marchi, who flew last year very good and got my attention for that, was the winner on this first soaring day with a speed of 134 km/h over 388 km. in a Ventus 2 a.  Austrian top pilot and well know aerobatic pilot Reinhard Haggenmueller was 5th. with a speed of 118 km/h.
Good old Simon Leutenegger flew his DG 303 in Standard class to a nice first place with a speed of 133 km/h over 388 km  and in club class Flavio Del Pan did the same in his Club Libelle  with a speed of  86 km/h over 266 km.
A great first soaring day of the CIM.[= Coppa Internazionale del Mediterraneo] Base was 2200 at Rieti and pilots could use wave up to 2650 mainly over the first 70 km. and the rest was thermals and ridge-soaring.

Day 2 had again great and even slightly  bigger tasks; Club 289 km.—- Standard  and 15 m . 413 km.—-18 m and 20 m 458.7 km and open class 476 km. All pilots returned at the airfield but some pilots were scored as a virtual outlanding as they violated the airspace of Terni and Perugia,  and if you look well at the scores [ www.aeccvv.it   click on soaringspot, by the way for non Italians there is www.aeccvv.eu  in English and some parts for downloading also in German, Spanish and French ],  you see that Alvaro in 18 m. class started nearly 45 minutes later then the rest. This was not a tactical decision but as the propeller stuck to the engine bay doors, while attempting to start the engine for the flight recorder check, he decided to land again and check what was going on. On the ground it was all OK, [ a sticky engine bay door , problem solved with a drop of  grease on the edge] so off he went again, still flying in good conditions and  still coming back home with a 13th place! It was what I heard a great real- Rieti- soaring -day!

On day 3 , yesterday, another good soaring day. In 18 m. class Giorgio started 8 minutes ahead of Thomas and Stefano, but the 2 of them could not catch up or pass  him , so he won another day; 121 km/h over 372.6 km. with Thomas and Stefano on a good 3d and 4th place. [prelimanary results!] and same places in the overall results after 3 days with Swiss pilot Werner Danz in Antares at spot 2! Open class had a task of 406 km and the speed of  day-winner, Josef Kammerhofer from Austria was 2 km slower then from Giorgio in 18 m. class. Interesting to see that from the 10 gliders ,only 2 Schempp-Hirth gliders [ a Nimbus 2 b and 4 DM] fly in open class in Rieti. There are 2 ASW22 ,4 ASH 25, 1 Antares and 1 ETA.
The Swiss “Leuteneggers “, won the first 2 spots in 15 m. class and I guess that Simon is the one I met years and years ago in Angers, where I also met Heinz Hammerle and his wife, great to see that they still love their comptition soaring. Caught up last year with Heinz and his wife and they did not change at all, was good to see them.

I was wondering about the change of names in Bailleau  for their classes and from one of the young winners in the amical class I got the link below and I would really recommend to read the link as it is a nice philosophie on the way we look at competition soaring. Thanks Bart and enjoy all who are going to read it! Specially my friends in FAI and IGC.

http://www.cvve.org/new/docs/2010/concours/presse/Bailleau_2010_News_1_EN.pdf

It does n’t happen often that an airliner is hit by lightning. This week it happened at the Island of  San Andres . The 737 700 from Aires  was hit in descend at about 80 m height and crashed breaking in 3 parts. ONLY one female passenger killed through a heart attack, so quite a miracle that so many , 126, survived. The weather was very bad with thunderstorms gusty wind and heavy rain, but under the circumstances the pilots did a good job , though I wonder IF it was smart to land in such weather [ guess they are used to it]  and everybody was lucky that no fire started! Atleast 5 people survived with bad injuries, the rest had minor injuries. On TV I heard the story of  a mum and dad looking quickly at each other seeing they were well then to the chairs behind them where their children were ….but …..there was NOTHING as the plane broke just behind them . Scaring!

More sad news  as one of the former top RED BULL RACERS Alejandro Maclean [only 41 years old] from Spain died yesterday, crashing his plane during a training flight not too far S from Madrid. Alejandro was also  twice Spanish aerobatic champion , married and  father of 2 children who, for sure,  are going to dearly miss him. [ANP news]
The ex-husband of our princess Irene, Prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme,  died this morning early from prostate cancer.[80] Though he was not part of the Royal family and not much here, he was pretty much loved in Holland. The wedding of his oldest son Carlos jr. in Brussel on August 28 is postponed.
And…talking about royals….the [ female] Australian premier wants Australia to be a Republic after the UK queen dies or announces that she stands down.????!!!!

Enough for now, it’s raining cat’s and dog’s here, but…the weekend will be nice with 24/26 dgr. The owners of beach-cafe’s seem not to happy with this weather, they even claim to have earned up to 20% less this summer, which according to them was less good as 2009. I was pretty happy with this summer and a lot of pilots as well. CU you on Sunday,
Ritz

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