Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday May 16 2012

ritzdeluy@soaring.eu     www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com

That great weather we had on Saturday turned out even better on Sunday with less wind and a more enjoyable temperature. 3833 Pilots logged their flight on  the OLC!!!

 
Great picture by Stan Heerink.

Dutch glider pilots were  in great spirit, as I could read on the different social media, certainly 2 pilots from the S. of Holland, Venlo, who flew a declared  FAI 1000 km. triangle !!!!!AMAZING!!!! Heroes!!!
Robert and Bart looked the day before with some friends at the weather! Long cross- countries were planned. The weather was not even TOP, as they said in their comment, but an early start and a late finish  ,[ still good thermals in the end of the day,] and certainly some good flying in between, made this unique flight possible, the first ever in Dutch history. They flew the Nimbus 3DT. Of course they started in Holland and flew then direction E. into Germany, as Holland is for those who do not know, much too small to fly a 1000.

 
The Dutch heroes Robert and Bart!
Picture courtesy, via Zwevers by Rick Janssen.

19 x 1000 km. PLUS in Europe, for sure you can call that a great day!! Most of them in Germany, but also Belgium enjoyed from the great weather circumstances as Dennis Huybreckx flew in the LS 8 874 km., while a Belgium Nimbus 3DT flew a 1000FAI Triangle as well from Keiheuvel.
I have never seen so many 800,900 and 1000 km flights on page 1 from the OLC!!!
Very impressive also the ASW 27 FAI 1000 km. triangle!!!
And…the 20 m Antares FAI Triangle from Landau. Loved the comment; “A dream comes true. How many times did I have to abandon my first 500 k. Compared with that flight this was a stroll”.

Hammerwetter , as well on Sunday at the comps on the Hahnweide. Day 2 had tasks as 548 for st.class and 15 m, for 18 m. 626, and for open 631 , while the 2-seaters had to go for 518 km. THOSE ARE COMPETITION tasks!!!
Not everybody made it back home. But in St.class Mac [Ichikawa] was number 1 in the LS 8.
Wolfgang Janowitsch got the 1000 points in 18 m. class , with ONE point difference to Reinhard Schramme.
What I liked in open class  is that ALL 25 pilots flew the 631 km. 2 Daily winners, Wolfgang Clas and Steve Jones with 1000 points and a speed of 131 km. /h.

On Monday they started day 3 with a bit smaller tasks but still long enough to make a bit of difference between the fast and a bit slower pilots; between 310 and 510 km.
509 km. For the 18m. pilots who were launched first.
First in this class to finish was Russell Cheetham and WO [Wolfgang] lost some [117] points being 15th. 5 UK pilots upfront with Bert Schmelzer jr. as a good 6th.
In st. class Mac [Japan] won again. Good on him!
In 15 m David Bauder won the 386 km. task. We will see him in Uvalde as pilot in the 15m. class.
In open class Michael Sommer showed he is in the rhythm now and received the 1000 points for 477 km. with a speed of 123 km/h. Michael will defend his open class title in Uvalde.

 
Russell Cheetham in 2006
courtesy Fritz Schweikart

On Tuesday after 2 nice long days of soaring the weather was not good enough to fly so the day was cancelled in all classes.
Today they continue…..maybe, ….as it rains right now but at 12 there will be a briefing.

The Italian 18 m. class Nationals flown from Varese, counts 16 competitors one of them Giorgio Galetto. They started at the 12th but the first result from Varese is on Monday the 14th with Giorgio Galetto winning the day over 374 km. Speed just over 100 km. tells us that it was not an easy day, also the fact that only 4 pilots finished on day 1.
On day 2  they had a 2.30 AAT. Giorgio won again with 308 km. in 2 .39. Luciano Avanzini, dad of the lovely Valentina, [and …another beautiful daughter] was 2d with 281 km. in 2.32.

The Swedish Eskilstuna Open, started last Saturday at Ekeby Airfield. My friend Teresa is one of them. Börje Erikkson who flies in Uvalde, is practising as well and won the first flying day.
Göran Ax and Pall Einersson , the Lindells , all 6 fly in the racing class.
Wolli Beyer from Germany won day 1 in the club class in an HPH 304 C.
In open class 2 airspace violations gave zero points. No more flying since that day…

 
courtesy Fritz Schweikart.

The Danish pilots,15 in a mixed class, do have their competition in Arnborg. Also here some familiar names. After day 1 was cancelled , day 2 had a 342 speed task and a for me unfamiliar name Jan Hald won. VERY well known pilot Stig Öye , still a topper, was 2d, while Ib Wienberg flew himself to a 5th position , all others,  also Arne Boye  Möller made an outlanding.
1 Day out of 4 , so 1000 points for Jan and that’s it!

The Dutch pilots  start tomorrow and the weather does n’t look too bad. Today and yesterday afternoon,  it was like autumn again, but tomorrow will be fine some sun, some local showers , some clouds, at-least that is fore-casted.I depart on Friday to Terlet and stay over for the weekend and will take my laptop and camera. Lot’s of hail on some places yesterday, it looked really white . Nearly as in Serajewo, where they had last week 27 dgr. and the next day 10 cm. of white snow!!! Unbelievable!

I leave you with that and CU over the weekend from Terlet. Ritz