Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday July 11 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
Lots of rain here over the last days, really “bucketing from the skies”! The one-day-competition, Amstelglide Grand Prix , was so lucky with their good weather on Saturday, as on Sunday it was raining cat’s and dogs here!!! It must have been great fun as well, as all beer was “gone” after the party. In the end 41 gliders were up in the air, with 12 outlandings or “used engines”.I had an invitation to visit but was otherwise occupied!
The same luck had Silverstone; Saturday horrible rain, Sunday sunny conditions with a great winner Mark Webber and Vettel on 3, not bad for Red Bull.
By the way did you enjoy all sport that Sunday afternoon as well ??? What great , magic tennis between Federer and Murray and the youngest participant of the Tour de France, 22 years old , won the day.
2 Impressions from Issoudun by Hans Spekkers , crew from Natasja van der Neut.
The WWGC day 2 got a B task on Sunday; instead of the first set 208 km., the girls had to find it out by their selves in a 1.30 h. AAT. There was about 25 kts wind and the pretty heavy rain had been active all night; so a wet airfield and wet paddocks, for that reason the tough wind was good , not so much however for the 110 gliders ready to be launched by 13 tugs at 2 PM.
Yes 110 as now along the 37th International and the Libelle Cup, the women and 18 m. pilots joined in as well.
From the 37 women, 11 did not finish. Best distance was 149.2 km. in 1.33.50 and French pilot Marylene Abadie-Berard got the 384 points as daily winner. Nathalie Hurlin was runner up. A good pilot, as I saw myself at JWGC’s. Natasja ended up on a good 22d place after her outlanding the day before.
Natasja before and after a flight. courtesy Hans Spekkers.
In 18 m. French pilot Denis Guerin was the best in their 2 hour AAT with 198.2 km. in 1.56.19. He “received” 550 points. From 34 pilots 10 did not finish amongst them toppers as Gilles Navas , Jeremie Badaroux and Peter Eriksen.
By the way, Denis will fly in club class in the Chaves WGC [Argentinia] in the beginning of January together with Louis Bouderlique who flies in 18 m. this week as well.
The Libelles and rest of the class did NOT start and the open class was won by Antoon Kerkhofs with 147.8 km. in the Duo Discus in time 1.42.11.[AAT time was 1.30]
On Monday new chances for all pilots in France/Issoudun. But still not the TOP weather! Small tasks as 2.00 AAT for the women and 1.30 for the 18 m. pilots.
Pre WWGC; Best distance that day was 193.5 km. in 2.05 by Anne Ducarouge.[582 points] Natasja was on spot 23 [355 points]
18 m.: he outlanded on Sunday after 61 km. but took revenge on Monday; Peter Eriksen from Denmark won the day with 181.2 km. in 1.48. Gilles , who “went au vache ” on Sunday as well, was 7th .
37th edition;2 hour AAT for the small gliders and I was very pleased to read that Brian Spreckley won in the Libelle [475 points]. In the mixed open class the Issoudun ASH 25 pilots won the 1.30 AAT with 154.2 km. in 1.33.
On Tuesday , after 4 hours of waiting, the day was cancelled. They are not lucky with the weather.
BUT>>>>>WOW , ELY is “Hot”, what great flights and specially from Ramy [Yanetz] , which 2 super flights in a row. After the 1.126 km. flight on Saturday he added on Sunday an FAI triangle from 1000 km. and on top of that he flew some kilometers for the OLC; a total of 1.228 and that in the ASW 27, good on him. A bit of a difficult beginning of the day , he claims, but strong thermals later gave “epic conditions” [Buzz] to fly big distances. Nice to read the enthusiasm from Buzz Graves flying in the DG 800S/18m. his first 1000 km. Congratulations!!!
And….what about Uwe Kleintempel; On Monday he flew a 1.131.km FAI triangle his third-in-a-row 1000 and added on the “awesome day” some more kilometers topping the OLC list with 1.356 km!!!! In a Ventus 2CM/18m. More wows!!!!
And…Ramy was still not tired, he started later that day but still flew 1000 km for the OLC, with a 760 Out and Return and a 489 FAI triangle!!!
Also good weather in Spain in Fuentemilanos kilometer-eaters Hans [Germany] and Pepe [Spain] and Alfredo [Italy] flew over 700 km in their ASH 31/21m. and Uwe from Villacastin in the DG 808 C/18m. flew 680 k.
Former junior champion Christophe Nacke flew the LS 1d to a nice flight over 500 km. in Germany. So while it was pretty miserable and unstable here in this part of Europe, other places had good soarable conditions. Some places in the South , as Italy and East as Bulgary suffer from heat-waves up to over 40dgr. while the Mid of Sweden suffers from flooding due to heavy rainfall.
In the USA still lot’s of problems due to the heat as well. The first 6 months of 2012 seem to have been hotter there then ever before.
From Rand I heard that the claims for the new records from Bert and Tijl flown in Morroco have been received by FAI. I copied it for you;
Claim number : 16580
Sub-class :DO (Open Class Gliders)
Category: General
Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 100 km
Course/location : Ouarzazate (Morroco)
Performance : 179.00 km/h
Pilot : Bert Schmelzer (Belgium)
Crew : Tiji Schmelzer (Belgium);16200,
Glider : ASH 25 EB28 / Schleicher operated by
Date :03.07.2012
Current record : no record set yet
AND
Claim number : 16579
Sub-class :DO (Open Class Gliders)
Category: General
Type of record : Free distance using up to 3 turn points
Course/location : Ouarzazate (Morroco)
Performance : 1219.01 km
Pilot : Bert Schmelzer (Belgium)
Crew : Tiji Schmelzer (Belgium);16200,
Glider : ASH 25 EB28 / Schleicher operated by
Date :04.07.2012
Current record : 1148.1 km (20.12.2011 – Johan Luyckx, Belgium)
All the news from Uvalde you can read on Sunday in Soaringcafe. Cheers Ritz