Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday May 2 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
May!And …May 1 did not start too bad for some, meaning pilots flying in Germany Slovenia and Austria with 800 and 900 km. .Here we had thunderstorms and lot’s of rain but….today the sun is shining!
I had to look twice! 1.746 km in a Discus 2T /18m. But it really happened last Sunday! Pilot Gerhard Heidebrecht flew this distance in föhn-wind. In his comment he says; ” The declared distance of 1,281 looks a bit pale with the flown distance”!!! What an amazing day that must have been, from Königsdorf.
A total of 13 x 1000 km -very- much-PLUS from Germany and Austria!!!
On Monday we celebrated here in Holland the Queens birthday and we all showed her our respect , that she continues her job so good in difficult times ! The last day of April made up for all the bad, cold and wet weather with 22 dgr! Hurray! Even great soaring , with nice cu’s also here in Alphen but around 4, we had overcast, but not yet the predicted rain. Flights in Holland from around 400 km.
Very active on the Queens birthday on the airfields from Holland.93 flights for Holland on the OLC and most around 300 km. and…in total many more flights ,as at Terlet one of the clubs [GEZC] had one of the busiest day ever!!!
Holland [the Airport of Hoogeveen] as seen by Frank Hiemstra.
And Drente as seen by Renate van der Zaag. [Borger where a lake arised due to sand-digging ]
But in Belgium,this time not so close to the Dutch border but to the French, the Nationals had some soaring but not enough kilometers to make it a day. After day 1 was cancelled,they tried 2 days in 3 classes and only 4x 15 m pilots finished over 183 km. on day 1. Yves Jeanmotte [Discus 2] who flies in that area won the day and Tijl, yes from the 1000 free distance , this time in the discus 2 and his mate Dennis [LS8] both from Keiheuvel were 2 and 3. Both boys were in Tocumwal.
In open class ONE pilot flew on day 1, 115 km from the set 202 km. the rest stayed around 80! He flew the ONLY real open class glider a Nimbus 3DT. Interesting here was that the start time was around 5 PM.
Jeroen Jennen who flew his first JWGC in Musbach last year, is doing a great job but…for ZERO points. He won both days with 68 km and 105 km in the LS 4. Runners up had 42 and 57 km. That says something from Jeroen! Good on him!
Luckily day 3 yesterday, was flyable and Jeroen won the 2 hour AAT with 176 km in 1 hour 41!
In 15 m good old friend Emiel de Wachter [LS 8] won the 2 hour AAT with 184 in 2 hour 5 with the Schmelzer brothers as runners up. From 23 pilots in this class , 14 went “au vache”.
In open class the winner from the 2 hour AAT was a LAK 17 a;188 km in 1 hour 59.20. Spot on.
Jeroen in Musbach.Picture courtesy Katja Soikili.
The French open class pilots as well as the pilots in the 2 seaters, started with 2 cancelled days, but then the weather turned out to be slowly more friendly. On Day 3 the first soaring day the pilots still struggled. Gerard Lherm is a great pilot as we have seen over the last weeks already but also still a good competition pilot . I know him from quite a few comps in Angers in the 70thies.
He was the only pilot on day 1, who finished after the 2 hour AAT. The devalued day gave him 274 points for 152 km in 2 hour 8.
Pierre de Broqueville , who flies HC as he is from Belgium, [ he can be winner but not National Champion!] was 2d in the EB 28 edition.
Flying day 2 showed a task of 400 km. that seems more like it for open class gliders!
The 2 seaters had a 312 km. task , their first day had no finishers , nobody even flew more then 80 km.
Winner in open Alain Mazalarat,[ASG 29], Gerard was 3d with 13 points less.
In the 2-seater class 4 duo discus-gliders on top. From 25 pilots x2 , 13×2 went “au vache”. A total of 16 Duo discusses’ are flying, 2 ARCUS T and 2 DG 1000 and the rest is Janus .So most gliders are from Schempp Hirth.
Look for all results at www.soaringspot.com
In Potchefstrooma nice 5 day-N -W -Regional- Competition in 3 classes has been flown. Specially the 18 m. class had some interesting pilots, as 4 of them will fly in Uvalde this summer.Though he only won one day Oscar Goudriaan [JS 1] travels home with the first prize! Attie [JS1] and Mannie [ ASG 29] both won 2 days but still ended on 2 and 8, mainly because Mannie outlanded on day 3 after 35 km.
In club class 4 days of soaring; Winner Konrad Stark.[ASW 15]
In 15 m. Wayne Schmidt was the winner after 4 days.
Some different pictures from the JS 1 on a different moment;
courtesy Iain Baker.
Klix, after 5 days and 2 days of soaring Helge Lieberts is 1 in the club class in the LS 1 f. [ day 1 only gave 0 points to all pilots in this class/cancelled]
In st. class with 2 days WITH points Carsten Büddig is one spot 1 and our Dutch pilot Peter Millenaar on spot 3.
In the 18 m. class Steffen Trapp is first and Swedish pilot Börje Erikksson is on spot 3 .Quite a few international pilots in Klix as well.
Also comps in Slovenia, Junior Nationals in Switzerland, comps in Hungary , Serbia , Poland [18 m. and club] , Spain and in more countries. Look for the results at www.soaringspot.com
Cheers Ritz