Alphen aan den Rijn   Sunday April 29 2012

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com

  
Prievidza day 7 before start and during finish!
courtesy FCC.

A very interesting  competition in  Prievidza. It’s over now and the pilots look back on a good competition and ahead at their own Nationals  and some one-day- competitions and…THE WGC’s. Not long and the Dutch Nationals will be held as well. Not writing this year but visiting for sure! The 1 official Bulletin from Uvalde is out and to be read at    www.wgc2012uvalde.com   under documents /contest center.
April was for us a cold and unpleasant month to quickly forget, looking ahead at May.A lot of comps have started will try to keep you informed!

The last days of the FCC :
 B-tasks on Wednesday the 25th, created a new soaring-day 7. The A task for mix was 394 km. Club had a 3 hour AAT and 15m had to fly 367 km.
It all changed however in  3 hour AAT’s!
And MORE CHANGED!
Outlandings from toppers as G Dale and Jan Louda…..
In the mixed class;ALL he taught his National teams was showed by Uli Gemelin, coach from the German team. HE won the day in the ARCUS T. Great effort!
Roman, in the duo discus,  still remains in the race as 6th , but Sebastian lost some points being 19th., at least NO outlanding! This means that Roman is on spot 1 now with 2 days to go!!!
In club, G. Dale did not have his best day and after 190 km. he was out, while others flew 285. But time is important as well for them so the 1000 points went to Boris Zors, with 260 km  in 3 hour 2 minutes, bringing him on spot 3 overall. Jan Boruvka in the standard cirrus held place and is 1 now . Sadly for our UK pilot G. he dropped to 4! But as said 2 days to go!
In 15 m.as said Jan Louda, who was flying so well till now,  had a bad day, being out after 280 km. Pavol Cerny held with a 7th place. Radek Krejcirik in the Ventus 2ax won the day with 350 km in 3 hour 15.Overall scores;Radek is now 1 , Pavol on 2 and Jan is on 4.

 
Finishes.
courtesy; FCC site.

Day 8, it is not over yet.Again distances between 300 and 350 km. in the 3 classes. A lot can still happen. Who had bad luck yesterday can win today, nothing is sure till the last glider has finished on the last soaring day! The meteo predicted low cloud base and warm wind. Mmmm….after all those cold days , that must give a good feeling for pilot and crew.

 
Beginning of the comps  and the last days!
Courtesy; FCC site.

Day 8;
Mixed class; Sebastian straight away put things straight by winning the day just before Uli and Christine in the ARCUS T. Doing that he is back on 1 overall with one day to go!!!
Uli has a great end-sprint and is now on spot 8. Roman still on a very good spot 2.
Club class;G. Dale did exactly the same ,with a top flight, only loosing 5 points and is still on spot 4 but… nearly 500 points behind the number 1, Jan Boruvka and normally that is too much. An expensive misser for G. on day 7, but that belongs to soaring too. Very good and consisting flying from number 1-2 and 3 in this class!
15 m. class;Enough to fight for in this class as well. Jan Louda who won several days had one expensive misser as well but still can be with the first 3 on the podium. Radek was 2d for the day only loosing 7 points and is still on spot 1 overall.

Day 9; LAST DAY of an as said interesting competition, even to follow at home. A race for all classes, not too long[ 199 for club, 249 for the mixed class and 15 m had to fly 227 km]  but good to give the pilots a possibility to consolidate or to still fight for more.

 
Ready for the last day at Prievidza and the hardworking active ground crew during launch.
Courtesy FCC site.

Before the gulash party started we knew already who were the winners;
Mixed class;Christine and Uli won another day and “seem to have seen the light ” during the last days. They rushed up in the ARCUS T to spot 7, good on them. But the big winner is Sebastian Kawa, in the Diana 2, to be honest I expected it. And…. Impressive flights both in Nitra [ he won club class there!] and now in Prievidza from Roman Mracek and co pilot Agata Kaszczuk in the duo discus.
Club class; G Dale won 3 days but had one real bad day and yesterday with a 24th place was n’t the best either . Still he managed to be on spot 7. I presume he played “all or nothing ” on the last day, by leaving last in the hope to catch the others and so be fast that way. But that is a guess from far away.
Winner is Jan Boruvka who won a few days as well , runner up Ondrej  with Boris on spot 3.
15 m. class;A pity for Jan Louda, who won the first 3 days,  but still on spot 4 after an outlanding and 2 10th places on the last 2 days.
Winner was Radek with a Polish pilot as runner up [very difficult name!!!] and Pavol Cerny on 3.
2 Czech pilots and one Polish on top and so to see on the pictures [I do not know them] , 2 new young pilots,together with topper Sebastian. Good! Congratulations to all.
This was the 5th edition of this Challenge Cup and they put theirselves good on the map in 5 years!

  
The winners in mixed, club and 15 m. class. Congratulations!
courtesy; FCC site.

The Club class Nationals in Italywere held last weekend at Thiene  [Vicenza ] and this weekend, including Friday;  12 pilots participated , under them several junior pilots. Not the best weather there either. Day 1 was cancelled , then  a difficult first day as well, with out- landings and virtual outlandings by violations of the airspace. Young Nicola Fergnani won the 235 km task in LS 1f. His sister Elena [Discus A] was less lucky with a violation at 53 km. out.
Some top pilots as Stefano Ghiorzo were flying as well. Stefano flew the Silent 2 and was 4th.
Friday was n’t a good day to fly. Yesterday the other JWGC pilot Davide won the day. After 2 days of soaring he tops the list in the St. Cirrus, today is another day with new chances.

 Nicola [l.] during the JWGC in Finland.

Several good long distance flights from Rieti last week. That part of Italy  had better weather.Also from Switzerland with a nice 6-leg 1000 km by Rainer Cronjäger in a Duo Discus from Hausen Am Albis!! Also Lesce Bled [SL] had good flights.
Heard from Maria that in Munich the temperature is 29 dgr!!! So busy enough at Unterwössen this weekend.
While Blairstown is still in a great ridge-flow, proved by pilots flying over 1000 km in 2  SZD 55’s  and an LS 3 . Not bad either; 780 in the Schweitzer.
The declared FIA 1000 k. is TOP!!!! But also the yoyo in a homebuilt glider SZD 55 EGRET by Marian Novak from the Toronto Soaring Club. Never even heard from it till now!
And what about the speed from Jim Payne who “hopped ” in the DG 1001M again with mate Dennis Tito and  as he said ” went on an OLC speed mission!
931 km with a speed of 206 km/h.
Nice to read his comment on April 26 .

Klix has started last Friday with a competition with 4 classes. On day 1 AAT’s.
Yesterday was a no-flying day ; it was too stable! But enough days to go ; 30 dgr like in Munich! 11 here!!! Grrrr….More next Wednesday!
The Belgian Nationals stat today also about this competition more next week.

For news about the Perlan Project; The March -April -News- letter is ready to be read under NEWS at www.perlanproject.org  

And to finish this;
From Judy Renner I received as member of the SRGC the next message. Maybe nice for you as well;
–“The video of the 1974 Waikerie World Comps, called ZR – Good Start, has been put onto DVD by the original producer and Paul Remde in America.