5th FAI JEGC
at Pociūnai, Lithuania

Wednesday July 21;
23 dgr. C and a cold front passed by and destabilized the air. Launches later in the day.
After rain there was sunshine. Wind WNW 14 km./h gusting to 22.
Club; 1.30 AAT....”Later in the day” turned out to be at 2PM.
Some pilots started early at 15.17 others and among them the daily winners, after 4PM.
The feeling , looking at the videos of the UK pilots, was a good one, all happy chappies and it shows in their performance.
The 2d win for Finn [ASW 20] with 187 km. in time 1.39; speed 112.80km /h. . Romanian pilot Tudor Ionut [St. Jantar] was a good runner up with 185 km. in time 1.44, so speed 106.49 km./h.
UK pilot Toby [Freeland] was 3d.
Short task and finally a bit of speed.
ALL STARTED AND ALL FINISHED this AAT, so a good day!

Standard; 1.30 AAT.…AND,…another young Brit won in this class; Henry [ Inigo-Jones].He started at 15.54 ,as the last one and 1 minute behind Simon and Jaromir [ Macoun] , the number 1 and 2 at this stage overall.
Tactics are in full swing!!!

2d Daily win for Henry , in a row, who is busy to recover lost ground. 3 Days ago he was on 7 overall, then 6 and now 5.
He flew 205 km. in time 1.39…Speed 123 km./ h. Fastest day till now!!!
Cloud base 2000 m and lift up to 3.5 m.
The Czechs in this class “smell” the medals as well with a 2d and 4th spot.
Totals are VERY close, with 2 days to go, have a look;
1. Simon [Germany] with 3.012 points, 2. Jaromir [Czech Rep.] with 2.927 p.3. Thomas [Pavis UK] with 2.884 p. 4. Jan [Zapletal Czech Rep] 2.865 p and 5. Henry with 2.863 p.

Thursday July 22;
18 dgr. C with a fresh Northerly 7-11 km.h. Longer tasks again, so for all a possibility to show what they can. Pilots were in good mood as it looked like a super-day and there was hope for 1000 points for the daily winner, as only task 6 showed those points ; What happened???
Club; 270 km....The start line opened at 12.57.Most pilots waited for half an hour to go on track, so around 13.30. The German boy’s went at 19, belonging to the 4 early “birds”.
In hindsight a good decision as Tobias won and Nils was 3d with Danish pilot Lasse Edslev in the middle …… Finn was 4th.
Speed around 89 km./h ,…..the UK ASW 20’s had a speed of 90 km./h but their handicap is over 105 compared to the 102 from the LS 4.
Our Dutch mates , proudly toppers of the overall scores for several days, had a less good day finishing at spot 16, 18 and 24. We all know then that this has consequences , certainly on a 1000 points-day.
So quite a few changes in the overall scores after the last but one day. Simon dropped from 1 to 7, Jelmer from 2 to 4, Lars from 3 to 5 and the winning pilots; Nils from 4 to 1, Lasse from 6 to 2 and Finn from 7 to 3, BUT “it ain’t over yet” . Scores are very close between the top 7 [sometimes ONE point difference]; between 4.445 and 4.271.
The Czech girls are doing a great job by being on spot 6 [Tereza] and 9 [Michaela] , good on them!!!!
One day to go.

Standard; 316 km….and at 13.11 the standard boys and [Czech] -girls were allowed to go. They all started within 13 minutes.
92 km./h was the best speed flown by Dutch junior Mark, in his LS 8, followed by Philip Lauer [Germ.] Nuutti Luukkonen from Finland and Henry and Thomas from the UK. They were the last ones to depart in sink and quite low, but finished “under a massive cloud street“.
Simon the current, overall leader finished on spot 8, lost a few points but still has enough to go as overall leader into the last day.[3.900]
Jaromir was on 2 and stays there [ 6th for the day] Thomas is still on 3 and Henry moved to 4 now, so winning again one place.

The last day is today…more in a new post.

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Concours International de Bailleau 2021

We continue with task 3 for all classes and not one day was “missing” till now.
July 21;
Vitesse; ….. 271 km…The Duo Discus XLT team Corporaal x2, was the daily winner with Lars [Groot] as runner up in his ASG 29 and father and son Max and Caspar van Bree were 3d.
All 32 started and finished!!!
Grands Vols; July 21…..367 km...Bas Seijffert did well, yes , sorry, another Dutch top pilot. He won the day with 128 km./h.in his JS 1 C/21m.
Bert jr. was runner up just ahead of brother Tijl.[ both Ventus 3T] Dad Bert sr. was on spot 20.
In the top 10 also former European Champion Steven Raimond, and when you think “only Belgians and Dutchies”… no as on spot 7 was Nathalie Lueben, from Germany [ASH 31 MI/21 m. ] who flies a lot in South Africa and on 9 Giancarlo Grinza from Italy[Ventus 3F] .
All 21, started and finished.

July 22;
VITESSE; 261 km...Very interesting……3x a Duo Discus [XLT and T] in the top 5. Speed 113 km./h and thought except for one everybody was “in”, it looked like a rather difficult day.
Grand Vols on July 22; 386 km….Bert jr, is back as daily winner. In the end he must have “lost” brother Tijl, as he finished as 12th.
Bas was 3d and the Dutch pilots in the big birds , Jeroen [ASW 22BLE] and team Van Doorn/van Empelen in the Nimbus 4DLM were on spot 2 and 4.

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UK CLUB CLASS NATIONALS
17 July 2021 – 25 July 2021

From Husbands Bosworth the nationals continued, with good weather, no rain till now!!!!!
July 21;
Task 5…222 km...Only 1 out and Alistair Emson as new face at the podium; 93 km./h in a St Cirrus. Tom was runner up and Ge 3d and good to see Claudia [Hill in LS1 f NEO] who flew the WWGC in Lake Keepit on spot 4. Jake was 4th and our former Tocumwal -tuggie Tim [Milner in LS 3] was 7th.
July 22;
Task 6;…302 km...and today they had it finally TOTALLY right. Tom and Jake started and finished together and were both on spot 1.
Tim was a good 3d!!!He moved from 7 to 3 overall , but is still pretty far away from the top.
Tom has now 5.200, Jake 5.105 and Tim 4.687.
The former top juniors are a class apart.

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The MIDLAND REGIONALS 2021
17 July 2021 – 25 July 2021

Also from HusBos, these very interesting regionals , though there is one pilot who is really good!
July 21 task 5, 161.16 km…….and Russell won 3 of them and was runner up on one day. This day he won AGAIN, so number 4 in the pocket; just 100 km. /h and a start at 4 PM.
July 22 task 6…274.15 km.… Paul [Crab] was the daily winner with a speed of 102 km./h. Steve Pozerskis was runner up in ASG 29e.
Of course Russell still leads overall, but was 7th for the day.

Blogs are getting long again, so more news tomorrow .
Looking ahead at a great last day in Pocuinai; 3 hour AAT’s!!!!!
Cheers Ritz
P/S to finish some nice pictures from the INTERNATIONAL EVENING, it’s all about friendship/camaraderie….talking about gliding with mouth ,hand and feet and of course some nice drinks and food.
Pictures are shared by the organizers in the photo section. There are many more;https://jegc2021.lt/photos/