As shared by Kingaroy Soaring Club
Picture courtesy Peak Pictures

—–Kingaroy Formula 1.0 Gliding GP.
The Kingaroy GP, started task 5 when I left you and all day’s before in 15 m. were Adam’s.
So I was interested to see how he went, but it turned out to be the last flying-day, cause the weather turned poor and as far as they could see the fore cast there said; no soaring possible anymore .
Not unusual in this early spring time in the East of Australia.
15 m;
Task 5; 247 km…. and YES with 129 km./h Adam raced to another daily win. Lisa [Trotter] and her husband Peter, were runners up.
After 4 tasks Adam leaded with the max amount of 40 points, Peter was 2d with 26 and Lisa 3d with 21 points.
A happy and excited Adam;”Cracking day, 130kph and first across the line! Self, Trotter and Dalton got ourselves into a very good position for the start, which we were able to capitalise on. I took a go at the bonus point today, but was beaten to the post by Justin in his SZD55 – well done! Thanks to the task setters, it was super!”

“Adam and Lumpy do it again. Perhaps we need to increase their handicaps. Well done boys.”
As shared by Kingaroy Soaring Club

 the 15 m. champion winning EVERY day and winners.

“Having fun at the QLD State Gliding Championships presentation dinner, we ended the comp today at briefing, as the weather is poor now until the end. I was fortunate to win all four days & be declared this year’s champion ahead of two of my idols, Peter & Lisa Trotter.” Adam.
As shared by the Kingaroy club.

18m/open;
Task 5 ;291 km….After 1 “off-day,”  Lumpy was back to his “good-day-style ” and won the last race with a speed of 122 km./h. Greg [Kolb]  in Ventus 2 CX was runner up and Brian Du Rieu in his LS 10 3d.
In the end a total of 36 points for Lumpy,Greg was runner up with 27 and Andrew 3d with 26. Brad [Edwards] had 25.

Lumpy won again!!!
As shared by Kingaroy Soaring Club

Lumpy as number 1 and Greg and Andrew as number 2 and 3. AND, the CD of the comps.
As shared by the Kingaroy Club.

After the final dinner there was of course the presentation……..AND time for Music.
Good “old” Brad [Edwards] still singing as at the WGC in  Uvalde 1991 !!!! Love it!!!

As shared by the Kingaroy Gliding Club.

And to finish my blog’s ” 2d FORMULA 1.0 edition”, another GREAT picture from Peak Pictures

———-

——-South African Nationals;
they continued first with a cancelled day and then…they  flew 3 more tasks , so 6 out of 7 good day’s.
15 m;
task 5 ;308 km…and the difference in speed between the winner AGAIN Mark [Holliday] and the last finisher was 121 km./h for 84 km./h. His ASW 27 has a handicap from 104.
Task 6 ; 3.30  AAT….. 487 km. in 3.31 for Wayne [Schmidt] Chapeau !!Speed 138 km./h. So 1000 points for him.
70 Less for Mark who was runner up but still leads the pact.[4.291] Wayne as runner up has after 5 tasks 4.022.
task 7 ; 434 km…Another great win for Wayne with a speed of 126 km./h .
With 6 out of 7 days, Mark is  the 2018 S.A Champion in his ASW 27 with 5.239 points. Wayne was runner up with 5.022 points and Hanno Du Toit was 3d [4.404]

Club;
task 5 ;250 km.…same daily winner as every day before ; Jonathan [Cross] in his St. Cirrus. Speed just over 100 km./h. and all 7 finished.
task 6; 3.30 AAT…Jonathan performs and performs AND performs….402 km in time 3.33 so a nice speed of 113 km./h in his St Cirrus!!!Runner up Konrad Stark in a Cirrus flew 389 km in time 3.37 [speed 107 km./h.]
task 7 ;394 km.….NO,…it was not Jonathan who won EVERY day!!!  A pity, as he was runner up on the last day behind Jason Adriaan,but loosing 16 points did n’t hurt him. Jonathan is NATIONAL CHAMPION in club class ;5.430 points, quite a big marge. Jason was runner up 4.912 and 3d was French pilot Xavier-André Michalon with 4.521 points.

18m/open;
task 5;345 km….Klaus  [Kalmbach] flew around with 138 km./h. John Coutts in a JS 1 was runner up with 136 km./h. and Oscar was 3d with 132 km./h.
Task 6 ; 3 hour AAT….GREAT result for Natalie in her ASH 32 MI,; 480 km. in time 3.12 so 149.84 km./h !!!!!!When she starts and finishes with the “toppers”, she wins on handicap.
A pity she was “only” 15th on task 5.
Klaus was runner up with 153 km./h. and Oscar 3d for the day.
AND , after being sick, Laurens was back again at the field and in the air; 7th for the day.
After 6 tasks Oscar leads with 4.273 points, ahead of Klaus with 4.197 and John Coutts from N Z but living in S A. 4.117.
task 7 ; 509 km…...With the fastest speed for the day,149 km./h., Oscar won the day and with that the NATIONALS; 5.273 points. Runner up was Klaus with 5.072 and 3d was Couttsie with exactly 5.000 points!!
Natalie was 6th with 4.886 points.

A 2017 Nationals picture from Oscar in his JS 3, shared by Jonker Sailplanes.

———–

—-News from HpH Sailplanes about the  Maiden flight 304MS SHARK S/N 100

304MS SHARK s/n 100 bij LKKO. …….at the airport of Kolin AND….. Instrument panel 304MS SHARK s/n 100 in retro style 

 Test Pilot Martin and Production director Jaroslav.
As shared by HpH Sailplanes

—————-

—–Great weather already in Tocumwal with high temperatures as well. Swiss Chris is back in Toc and shared this picture.

“First short flight of the season. The winglets did not make it out of the paint shop yet 😉 it was fun and the 27 flies also without them. Best climb 9kt. Lots of bugs. Need bug wipers tomorrow.”
As shared by Chris.

More  Australian early spring weather;  on the way from Narromine to Broken Hill as you can see, IN A CAR; 725 km.

Courtesy William Stalenburg.

By the way,…the LAKE KEEPIT WWGC [Australia; January  3, till  January 17 in 2020] will be flown in 3 classes; 18 m.,standard and club class!!!!! Just approved by the IGC.

————–

And to finish a fabulous picture from N.Z top photographer Geoff Soper…Enjoy!

As shared by Geoff.     Geoff Soper Photography

Cu Next week,
Cheers Ritz

As shared by Aeroclube de Bebedouro.

—Brasil Nationals from Bebedouro;
Open;
Day 4 with task 4 was challenging. AND,…in the end it turned out to be the last flying day!!After all the great weather it was an AAT -day.
2 hour AAT….. Not Henrique, who won every day till now, but 2 other pilots were the best on this AAT day;604 points both [on handicap] for a Nimbus 4 [266 km]with Alberto Kunath  and an Arcus M. [258]  with Claudio Schmidt. Henrique was 3d.
Day 5 was cancelled and there was no task on the last day.
So we have winners and a champion; Henrique Navarro in N1 a Nimbus 4T; 3.536 points. AND his 7th time!!
Runner up ;Alberto Kunath with 3.268 points…. 5 times Brazilian National Champion.
And Henrique shared a “story”  about these 2 Nimbus 4 -gliders.
“Nimbus 4 reunion! The last time these two N4 flew together was in the WGC in Makfing, South Africa, in 2002 maybe. They were flown by Alberto Kunath (TM) and Pete Harvey (N1).
Now we are at the Brazilian Nationals, and they seem to be having a good time together.”

As shared by Henrique.

Racing; 1.45 AAT….196 km. in time 1.47, in a St Jantar by Guilherme Ribeiro was not bad;518 points for him.
Day 5 was cancelled.Day 6 had no task;
Champion; Itamar Lessa in ASW 20 B with  3.254 points. Runner up  Luis Affonso in St Jantar with 3.181 points.

Club;1.30 AAT and only 3 finishers. Valeria did not fly.
Day 5 was cancelled.Day 6…no task
Sérgio Bassi was the clear winner and CHAMPION. In his ELFE S4 he “got” 2.893 points. Runner up Luis Improta in St. Libelle with 2.678 points.

Open class AT the “podium”.Other classes around.
As shared by Henrique.

————-

—-More news from Brasil as 3 pilots flew over 900 km. on September 26.
On the 25th of September the 2019 OLC started with lot’s of points for Brazilian pilots or pilots flying there.
On the 26th from Bahia 926 km in a Ventus CT/ 17.5 m, trying a 1000 FAI triangle!!!Pilot Pablo “got” 1.040,16 OLC points.
973 km. by Branco in the Nimbus 3T 25.5 m.His comment;
“Tried a declared FAI 1000 with Tato. The first couple of hours was low and slow, but after that we got going. The second turn point was in a blue hole and we were behind the schedule, so we cut it short and moved the last TP to Barreiras. Going downwind to Barreiras was easy: all the Cu’s worked and we were able to utilize a number of long lift lines. At the end, I ran out of daylight, otherwise another 30 km was possible.”

Branco and his mates;

“12th straight day of great flying at Bahia Gliding!!! ”
as shared by Branco.

————–

—On the 29th the South African Nationals started at Potchefstroom.
A lot of pilots in 18m./open; 22 to be correct and a few less in 15 m., club and 2 seaters a total of 38!!
They started last Sunday .For the 2 seater scores , only 4 gliders, please look at www.soaringspot.com
15 m;
task 1; 325 km...with a speed of 125 km./h Mark Holliday [ASW 27] raced of the circuit and all others [ 6 ] finished as well.[844 points for Mark]
task 2; Maybe task 1 was too short so  the 7 had to fly 412 km!!!AND, except for one all flew the distance!!!Nice speed as well 113 km./h. so another win and now a 1000 points day for Mark .
Task 3; 315 km….Believe it or not but Mark won again, he seems to be a one-of-a-kind- 15 m. pilot! Good on him. AND,..look at the speed …140 km./h.
Wayne Schmidt also ASW 27, is mostly runner up for the day, BUT,  is about 300 points behind him overall.
Hanno Du Toit was runner up this day with 137 km./h on the clock. He is 3d overall.

club;
task 1; 271 km….6 pilots in this class Dave Maver flew in his ASW 20 with a speed of 102 km.h but on handicap he was runner up as the St Cirrus from Jonathan Cross flew 97 km./h.
task 2; 359 km…..and Jonathan Cross was the daily best with 104 km./h.in his St Cirrus Well deserved 1000 points.
task 3;258 km….same story ,….Jonathan is the soaring-ace in club class winning every day till now. With 109 km./h he was the best.

18m;
task 1; 387 km….23 pilots in this class and an exciting class with real S A toppers participating. BUT,..it was a German pilot winning the day in a S A glider the JS 3. ;Klaus Kalmbach. He started together with Laurens and finished together both had the daily prize!!AND,..908 points.
Oscar was a tad slower, also in JS 3 ; 907 points!! Exciting finish.
task 2; 424 km……Good on he,r a powerful lady on top; Nathalie Lueben !!!In the ASH 32 MI, [handicap 116] she flew around with a speed of 131,42 km./h. good for 1000 points.
Not the fastest speed as 132.73 [Klaus] and 132. 85 km./h [Dawid Pretorius] was a tad better but their handicap from 120 and 121 gave them a few points less .[957 for 944]
Task 3;352 km.….Oscar was the “man-on-a-mission” this day. He flew faster than all others and by a big marge; 151 km./h. Runner up Martin Lessle in a JS 3 /15 m. flew around with 140 km./h and Danish Anders Andersen in his 18 m. JS 3 with 144 km./h.
One way or another Laurens did not fly!?
Oscar leads now with 3 day’s to go. German pilots Natalie and Klaus are 2 and 3 at this stage.

———–

—-The Queensland GRAND PRIX is on at Kingaroy!! With other words the annual Queensland State Comps,with 18 participants in standard/15 m and 10 in open /18 m. and GP scores .
Adam won 2 day’s [310 km. and 160 km.] so 20 points for him in the St class/15 m and Lumpy did the same;  20 points for task 2 and 3 , no secret both lead!!![370 km. and 281]
Task 4 was for Adam again[297 km.]   but Lumpy “lost” from former WGC champion Brad Edwards , both in JS 3.-[348 km.]
After 3 tasks Adam leads in 15 m. with 30 points followed by Peter Trotter with 23.
In 18 m. Lumpy still leads with 25 points and runner up  Andrew Georgeson has 21. Brad is now 3d.[20 points]
How is this way of competition- flying different ???
They declare that as follows;”Conventional gliding competitions can require a huge financial commitment. Formula 1.0 is centred around the club class handicap of 1.0, which means that pilots can buy a competitive sailplane for less than $10,000. In the first running of the contest in the 2017 / 2018 season, the contest was won by Nathan Johnson in a borrowed 1976 Glasflugel Hornet”

———-

—–An end of a spectacular era!!! Frank Versteegh , former Red Bull Air Racer is selling his plane , EXTRA 300 L, ….a certified Aerobatic Aircraft…. to somebody who will fly it more than he does now , but treats “her” with the same respect. There MUST be somebody in this world who can do so.
Frank ‘loved’ his plane and did unforgettable “things” with it. Thanks Frank!!!!!
With the aerobatic coaching weekend run by Grant Piper in Tocumwal last weekend ,maybe Australia is an option??

Good luck to this little beauty!!!!
Pictures and message shared by Frank.

————–

—-On the last day of September ,French pilot Philippe de Pechy , brought an ode / ballade sur le Golfe du Morbihan.
From Rennes Saint-Sulpice he flew West to the coast in his 21 m. JS 1,…..and what great pictures of fabulous isles,  he took. I share 3 of them.More on his FB site.

Commune de l’Ile aux Moines   and       Île-d’Arz.

Golfe du Morbihan.
All pictures shared by Philippe.

————

—–AND,… the British Gliding Association shared this news this morning:
“Another John Williams epic from Portmoak – an OLC 1.225 km at 128 kph… inc a trip to N Ireland!.”
Wow look at his flight on the OLC. Lot’s of water!!!! And the Scottish wave was not always THAT high!! He took off  in his ANTARES from  Kinross.
John’s dry comment; ” Always wanted to try Ireland from Scotland (and back).”
Also Edward Downham flew over 1000 km.on this wave day from Kinross.[ASH 25EB 28] AND,…in a Discus with Santiago Cervantes,  970 k. is not bad either!!!!

And another LONG flight yesterday from Europe,..the Stemme with Klaus flew from La Cerdanya in Spain 1.300 km. with a speed of 116 km./h.!!!!Their wave went much higher .

And another one from France, I heard about the mistral and Robert Prat flew 1.203 km. at 127 km./h. from St Gaudens in the ASG 29 /18m.
Super flights.

Cu Next week.
Cheers Ritz

We thought this 2018 -summer was never ending here in Holland, but on Friday , the day the astronomical autumn started, it turned into REAL autumn with wind BFT 9 , heavy rain and… a drop of temperature from 27 on Thursday to 15 on Friday.
Sunday was RAIN and more RAIN over 20 mm.
By the way it was the coldest EVER 23 d of September in history with a temperature of 10.9 dgr C. measured at the official meteo- station of De Bilt.
My friend Art in Canada suffered from the first snow in autumn and wind breaking trees. Ottawa was hit by a tornado and lot’s of houses an trees were ruined!!
My Aussie mates “splash” in early spring weather and fly up to over 600 km.!!!

Several “lucky ones” are looking ahead with great joy to their overseas trips. Most had a great European summer, but  also in the soaring-scene the grass is ” greener ”  on the other site.
It’s a bit like competition soaring ; a feast of recognition from friends with the same interest.
Sportaviation welcomed his first overseas guest already.

So I looked , as there is not a lot happening , in my holiday books and found a few interesting ,old pictures for you.
Enjoy!!

We are going back to the last day of 1989 in Tocumwal and the first scary day’s from 1990 with the huge fires around the Tocumwal airfield.
Most of you know and remember the day our Dennis crashed with the Scout between Tocumwal and Jerilderie close to Finley. That was on January 3 1988. So this was our first holiday , back to the place we loved,after this tragic event and our family was with 3 now; George and Inge and I.

mother and daughter.                     Stan Witek [RIP] with some Polish friends. Stan was then instructor at Sportavia.

After Dennis died the founder of Sportavia, Bill Riley,  did not want to continue. The story is that he said so at a bar in town. 3 Farmers Don Escott, [RIP]  Jeff Close [RIP] and Stewart Crawford heard this and after thinking about it they bought Sportavia.
Here at the picture Don and his wife Joan and Stewart, who was there only for a short while. Not at the picture but working very hard, Jeff and Margie. It was Don and Jeff  and Margie with CFI Eddie who ran the business.Not to forget David Riley, Peter Menhennitt and Corkey working on the gliders and planes.
Don sold his shares to us in 1995.

And then it was day 1 of 1990 and the party went on till the early morning.
Then disaster struck again !!!!AND,…again on January 3.
A huge fire , one of the biggest in Australia , hit Tocumwal too and the airfield was surrounded by huge fires and smoke. The worst inferno since 1983, ASH Wednesday, when 72 people died in Victoria.
At Tocumwal 6 houses burnt down including the Tocumwal Hotel and 1500 residents and campers at the Murray River were threatened. The fire even “jumped over” the river.
This all happened on January 3 and I wanted to be at the cemetery at 5PM, but was n’t allowed to go. Only the next day I saw why no…..t the fire just moved along the street there.

Scary moments we wanted to leave but that was impossible as the fire surrounded the hangar area.
We were lucky ,…the wind turned and the airfield was saved, not the forest on the East side and many animals died. SAD, very sad!!!!

My friends Gerrit [Kurstjens] and Geoff [Moar] looked at how close the fire reached to Geoff’s house. He kept the area wet by standing on the roof with a hose. The fire brigade was nor really happy with that.
Gerrit took Geoff’s wife and 3 children in the car to safety and went back later.

Shortly after the fires , happier times again, we moved to the NATIONALS in Benalla and caught up with Bertje [Kuypers ] from Holland and Wolfgang [Janowitsch] from Austria. YES with beautiful hair!!!

Bruce [Brockhoff] and George [Schuit] participated as well.

Another weird year full of stress but also fun. A memorable 1989 /1990. Hope you enjoyed the memories.

By the way Benalla was in the news this morning!!! GOOD news. In September 2015 the gliding club of Victoria  started negotiations with the Rural City Council:
“Three 25-year leases have been finalized for the Gliding Club and its hangars, the Aeropark for the accommodation area and the State Gliding Club for the clubhouse.”
Absolutely fabulous news!!!!!!!

———–

—- Competition  in progress this week in Brasil from Bebedouro,September 22-September 29 in open ,[7] racing [10] and club [7] class!! They had great weather with good tasks till now.

60º Campeonato Brasileiro de Voo a Vela

Ready to go .
Courtesy Henrique Navarro.

Open; day 1 started with a 3 hour AAT and Henrique Navarro in the Nimbus 4T won the day with 392 km in time 3.05.1000 points!!! Only 4 from 7 finished!!!
Day 2; 440 km. was a prey for Henrique again ;speed 142 km./h.
Day 3; 485 km. Herique-time  again; 137 km./h.
With 3000 points he leads at this stage overall.

Racing;3 hour AAT and 10 participants . Luis Affonso flew in St Jantar 340 km. in time 3.05 and “got”  the 1000 points. All finished.
Day 2; 357 km. and Itamar Lessa was the next daily winner; speed 129 km./h in ASW 20 B.
Day 3; 405 km and the win from the day earlier tasted after more….Itamar won again now with 116 km./h on the ” clock”. 2836 points after 3 days for Itamar and 2.735 for Affonso. Everything is possible.

Club; 3 hour AAT and 7 pilots started AND finished. Winner was  Sérgio Bassi in and Elfe S4; 261 km. in 3 hours at the dot!!!!
Day 2; 288 km. and,…it’s getting boring but also here the same winner as the day before;Sergio flew around with 98.91 km./h.
Day 3; 2.30 AAT …also for Sergio with 237 km. in time 2.42.
One of the pilots in the club class is Valéria Caselato. She shared this picture and text to the groupe Female Glider Pilots. She flies a St . Libelle and was 6th. on day 1, unfortunately out on day 2 and 3 , but that’s practice as well .

“My first experience as a competing pilot in the Brazilian National Gliding Championship: I and my Libelle! My goal is going to Australia 2020… maybe 🙋🏼😃😊”

Not only one lady but 2 and they shared more news from Bebedouro.
“This is the first Brazilian championship that counts on the female participation of two competitors, Valéria Caselato and Carolina Foganholo. For 10 years there were no women participating in the national stage of the competition. Another important fact is the participation of the Air Force Academy, with a tugboat, 3 gliders and all its staff. For 17 years the Air Force Academy Sailing Club did not participate in competitions.”

Carolina flies in the KW 1 Class and is 5th from 7 participants. Good on her.

————–

—-Whilst most gliders are on their way to overseas destinations, the S.A gliders just arrived back in time for the Nationals. They start on the 29th and “go” till October 6 with 37 participants in 4 classes from Potchefstroom.

As shared by Oscar.

————-

——-And,…last Monday it was a long “sit ” again for Klaus Ohlmann and co pilot  Marcel Zemauli from France;1.268,43 km from Serres in his Stemme . A goal flight from one site of the Alps Serres in France  to the other Lesce Bled [Slovenia];
“We are very happy!!! Weather exactly like in the forecast. We followed the windfield, used some thermals in the Pustervalley and then Karawanken Surf like planned.
Marcel first time from Serres to the end of the Alps, first time 1000 km, first time Austria. Total happiness…….” was the OLC comment.
Starting from Noetsch , to the West of Lesce , but in Austria, a 1000- up -and -down, was flown by Johannes Hausmann from Austria in an 18m. Ventus 2C.
And a bit later a flight from Noetsch was added in a KA 6; 693 km. good on you Dietmar Poll.

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

Shared by Matthew;”Low drag low lift configuration.”

——What about 1.749,93 km. with a speed of 206,99 km./h.?????? The Perlan Arcus J raced with this speed from Inyokern with Dennis Tito and Bill Hill.
They are doing an amazing job, those Perlan people!!!!!!!!
One way or another I heard or read that Matthew Scutter…[ JWGC champion in Narromine]  seems to be involved in the Perlan Project, so I checked with him:
“My company, skysight, supplies perlan’s weather forecasts. So I came to visit to help out and see how it’s going“.
Not bad, not bad at all.
I get already for a long time, all Perlan-updates and part of the last one was about the flight from Jim and Morgan:
“For Flight #53 the objective was envelope expansion and a functional check flight of some recent upgrades performed by the Perlan Team. The goal was to fly faster, not higher, to clear more flutter excitation modeling to the right. (More details below.) Our weather man Walt Rogers was joined by Matthew Scutter, founder of SkySight, to analyze the potential clouds and any possible stratospheric wave.  Lots of clouds and very little chance of lift was the verdict. Perfect for our purposes.”
Yes even written in part of an update by Jacky, Jim’s wife in the Perlan Blog after his flight with Morgan.[perlanproject.org]

On September 2 Matthew shared this picture [ SkySight ]  :

Matthew;
“Perlan has recentred into the best lift on the SkySight forecasts and has continued climbing through 73,000ft!
You can see the glider position on the “Perlan” region on SkySight, and the height at ”
http://www.perlanproject.cloud/VirtualCockpit.html

All his data are from cloud computers via Amazon and Google!!!!!!
Great job!!!!
Of course I googled his business as well and found news on his own site[ https://skysight.io/]  and  on one from the USA;
“SkySight is the next generation soaring weather forecast service for Australia & NZ, South Africa, Europe and America. [ Japan as well] It was created by Matthew Scutter of Australia. It works great with SeeYou for PC to help you optimize your cross-country soaring and wave flying.”

• 5+ days forecast range
• Half-hourly time steps
• High resolution forecasts
• One price for access to all covered regions
• Route forecasts
• SkewT forecasts
• Modern user interface
• Phone & Tablet friendly

https://www.cumulus-soaring.com/skysight.htm

———–

— September 13 was ,especially in the UK ,a top day. Roy [18 m. ASG 29 E] added his 570 k-flight to the BGA ladder and finished with the comment;”Probably the best September day that I have flown! Second leg of task at 146 kph so underset, an easy 500k day starting at noon.”
Also Gary and Andy flew a 563 k in an ARCUS T. Both flights from Lasham.
http://www.bgaladder.co.uk

——————-

——Containers for Corowa were packed last weekend and the truck picked them up on Monday. As always it was a smooth and easy going “happening” under supervision of Francesco.
The containers ETA , is on November 11 with the 15th as the first possible flying day.
On February 15 2019 is the last flying day for the season.

Pictures courtesy George Schuit.

—————

—-Of course I support ALL flying with and for women. I noticed a message from Aldo ;
“The international women pilots’ meeting FlyDonna2018, hosted by ACAO Varese, has reached “top national TV news“. GREAT PR.
So I had a look at the short video and noticed ENOUGH female pilots and parachutists in Italy. As president of the ACAO Varese, Margo Aquaderni was making good PR as well. She is good for Italian soaring!!!
So is Aldo by the way. And not to forget Marina and Giorgio.

—–Tocumwal is a bit more in the news nowadays.The latest;
“The Tocumwal season has officially started today with Lumpy completing a flight just over 357kms in the LS4.
The day had a max temp of 16 deg with Cu’s around, going to 5000 feet.”
He took a few pictures as well.

The area around Tocumwal with the canola in full yellow bloom and the mighty Murray river with so to see enough water.The bridge is part of the Newell Highway.
Courtesy Lumpy Patterson.

Also Kingaroy had top soaring conditions early in the season and Adam’s dad Chris Woolleyflew 665 [500 FAI triangle] yesterday and from Mareeba not bad either, 455 in a PIK 20 by Geoff Pratt.

———-Bahia Gliding [Brasil] shows a great month of September-soaring with flights up to  819 km.!!!
They proudly shared a picture from the OLC from 2 day’s ago topping the list with 4 flights.
Branco[Stoikovitch] mentioned in his comment;
“A complicated day with high clouds and OD. Still a lot of fun flying the Big Bird for the first time this season.”
The big bird is of course the Nimbus 3T/25.5 m.

——-Another extremely good day here in Holland , as well as yesterday! 30 dgr. C in mid September AWESOME!!!!
Cu next week, Off early in the morning, so an early publish of the blog.
cheers Ritz

The weather in Holland on September 7 as seen  and shared by top photographer Arjan Vrieze.

By Arjan.

Still great autumn-soaring conditions in Holland as you can see. That day a flight from 578 km. from Axel in an ASH 26E.
Down under they flew at the same day, from Kingaroy in some nice spring conditions just under and above 300 km. flights.Today even a 500 FAI triangle and a total of 556 in an 18 m.  Ventus 2 CM. by Adam’s dad Chris Woolley.
And from the N of Queensland in Australia a flight from 482 in a PIK 20 on September 10!!
On the 9th Matamata pilots in N.Z. enjoyed flights from 406 km. in DG 300 and 481 k. in JS 1 B.
It’s slowly finishing here and slowly starting there.
By the way Dundee, frequent flyer at Tocumwal is already back home there.

Sportavia Tocumwal, where the SRGC from top pilot and ” true gentleman”, Ingo “lives” ,added several gliders to their fleet, mostly club class gliders. The latest edition, an LS 4 , CQL, only has 1800 hrs since new and flies beautifully, as they say. It will be on line this upcoming season.
This club is on the N side of the airfield.
AND,…Sportaviation Tocumwal from Eddie, on the S side of the field; he is ready for a new season as well.

The new LS 4 from Sportavia and the great looking entrance from Sportaviation.
as shared by Sportavia Tocumwal  and by SportAviation Tocumwal

South Africa and Namibia are ready for a huge new season as well. Sven shared this picture from the Breede Valley [S.A.], where you can still see the last snow , but disappearing soon now it is spring there.

By Sven.

Also Bahia’s Gliding in Brasil is ready with 2 over 800 km. flights yesterday

—————–

—–Looking back at the 2018 OLC season, busiest day’s, “we”  started with the first real busy day on Saturday April 14 with 1355 pilots . A day with a 750 k. in a Nimbus 4T  in Germany.
One week later[ April 21] it was 2195, the season was “ON” with 5 over 900 km. flights.
Busy day on Mai 12 with 2590 flights some over 800 k. Topped by Mai 26 with 2816  flights, several over 900 km.
Mai had 7 days, with over 1000 km. flights.
June; busiest day was the last one,…June 30 with 2233 flights with 4 over 1000, even 1.202 km.
July; busiest July 7 with 2019 flights. Many busy days in that month; 14 over 1000.
August; 1884 flights on August 26 and not that many busy day’s; 7 over 1000.
September ; the first day had straight away 1012 flights.

Mind you as most pilots have the weekends off, most of these busy  day’s are Saturday or /and Sunday. Of course the busiest are not automatically the best day’s.

————–

——Most of the tuggies from our Sportavia -past are doing extremely well.
Here is Ashok, with us known as Bones because when he was young and started with us , he was slim, very slim.
In the past I showed you several pictures from his flights and career on flying boats, with Paspaly Pearls, flying from Darwin.
Now he flies , the big machines, in the USA.
Here is his news:
“Few of the returning Aussie Fire Fighting Heroes via LA after risking it all saving lives n homes in California wild fires.. 6 weeks of 19 hr days ! …. NSW and QLD Rural and Aviation Fire Dept…. Bless”

With some fellow Aussie mates.
As shared by Bones.

———–

——Some containers are packed at the moment here in Holland ;these  go to Namibia, this upcoming weekend they pack the containers for Corowa. Hopefully for another exciting overseas season.

These ones travel to Namibia. “Container pleasure; packing the first gliders for Namibia; New adventure!”
Shared by Luc Stalman.

—————-

—–On September 10, Israel topped the OLC list. Israel???? Yes !!!!! Gaby Tabak, flew in a Twin Astir a distance of 520 km. The speed from 75 km./h was unimportant!!!
Also Rafi Luske and Yehuda Yavets chen flew a nice distance 524 k. ,  from the same airport Beer Sheba Teyma in a 20 m. DG 505 .Good on them.
Also from Megiddo good flights;450 in a PIK 20 B, 447 and 421 km,. in an ASW 24.
Special day !!!!!

————-

——Fly Girls, shared this message AND picture  in “zwevers” ;
“Colonel Regina Sabric, call sign “Torch”, of Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania has become the first female Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Col. Sabric is also commander of the 419th Fighter Wing at Hill AFB in Utah, a unit she assumed command of in April of 2018.  [ theavionist .com] 

Congratulations, Colonel Sabric!!!”

Wow what an exciting life!!!

Ready to go. Great job!

The season slows down , so do I ,till it is full active again.
CU next week. Hope hurricane FLORENCE does n’t create TOO much damage on the East Coast of the USA.
Cheers Ritz

The meteorological autumn started and here in Holland we got some stats on the 2018 summer.
AND …a real summer it was!!!! But in the night from last Thursday into Friday we had our first night frost -0.3 and that was early for the season.
All summer months this 2018 were hot. 2 Times we had a heat wave!! Average temperature was 19 dgr. C , which is 2 dgr. more than normal.
We had only 100 mm. of rain and normally it should have been 220 mm. So a very dry year. I could see that on my garden ; brown grass instead of green.
Though Holland is just a small country, there was a remarkable difference in rain looking at the N part and the S.;120/160 against 40/70, so that declares my dry yellow garden.
So the hottest summer EVER. Interesting!!!!! BUT,…at least GREAT for some fantastic gliding as well.
Still great weather with up to 27 yesterday!!!!
AND,also good for gliding,…….September 1…….465 km in the N. of Holland by Frank Hiemstra in the St Cirrus and same glider but with Robin Smit more in the S. of Holland 548 km [400 FAI triangle over Holland, Belgium and Germany]!!!!AND,….691 k by Mark Leeuwenburgh in the 18m. ASG 29 !!!

———–

With a lot of pleasure I read the renewed digital version of GLIDING INTERNATIONAL.
I have n’t been a real fan from digital reading ,but now it was easy and pleasant and I read it all!!!
“We have spent considerable time updating the format of the Digital version  of Gliding International.”
Well,….they did!!!!
What’s to be read in the new 2018 September/October issue volume 11 number 5? Lot’s!!!
—The B-version of the ASK 21,…..this well proven 2-seater trainer receives a major upgrading!!! The trainer has been purchased already by the Royal Air Forces from Australia, Portugal and the UK.

–The AS 33; the new 15/18 m. sailplane by Schleicher , the successor of the mighty successful ASG 29!!

–Soaring,..a sport in need of identity….by Australian correspondent John Styles.

–Piper Cub; history about this tug I know from when I just was involved in gliding. I remember Kees[Musters] flying one, a nice green military “toy”.Story written down by Joseph King.

–World Aviation news for glider pilots about 12 pages and one page full of “things with wings”.
A total of 62 pages of interesting reading.
Janice is the one who takes care of the subscriptions.
Office@glidinginernational.com
www.glidinginternational.com

—————

NEWS from the FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX;

“Bid deadlines for 10th series FAI Sailplane Grand Prix

10th FAI Sailplane Grand Prix final to be held in Turkey as a participating event in the FAI World Air Games.

The 10th series national events will be held between June 1st 2019 and June 30th 2020. Bids should be sent before the 31st October 2018.

Something different than gliding…riding my bike over the old railway station to Eindhoven. [25 km up and down] One lane in the middle of the most beautiful nature.
We stopped for lunch at the “silicon Valley” from Europe;The HIGH TECH CAMPUS in Eindhoven…all kind of languages and all kind of food. Never knew it was there.
Loved the words from Albert Einstein;” Logic will get you from A to B .Imagination will take you everywhere”.

Pretty busy and beautiful place. Guess all overseas mostly very bright guests will feel happy here.

The lab from Philips is there as well, and then we have a link to soaring as Mr. Frits Philips was the beneficiary from our gliding club the ZES . One of the glider ‘s the KA 7, even had his name on the fuselage.

March 29 1967 …. unfortunately the name of F. Philips is not very visible anymore on this old picture.
with Theo in the glider, Henk and Martin at the canopy and Liesbeth and I looking with freezing cold conditions.AND,….on high heels???!!!Ha Ha,……

——————-

After the remarkable epic flight from the Perlan-glider “AIRBUS” the Perlan Project shared this picture. I looked at the video too, AMAZING!!!!
“Fasten your seat belts and see what it’s like to soar above 76,000 feet pressure altitude. Check out this raw footage from today’s extraordinary, record-setting flight in the engineless Perlan 2 glider on #AirbusPerlanMission II.”

Heroes,….that’s what they are!!!!

AND….

The next news was shared after last Sunday’s flight

RESPECT!!!! Higher and HIGHER !!!
Shared by Soaring Society of America

—————-

And,…to finish 2 great pictures shared by Arnaud de Broqueville, flying at the Binder week on day 3, from

Aérodrome de Saint-Gaudens – Montréjeau.

.

Having fun with Michael in the majestic EB’s!!!

Cu next week, by the way Keith Essex flew yesterday, his 17th over 1000 km. flight this season; 1.106,93 km from Minden, with a speed of 145.70 km./h.
His best speed was on April 11; 174.89 km./h over 1.197 km. also from Minden.
Starting on April 10 and,…it’s back to work now,…season is over for him and a great one it was.

Cheers Ritz

We just finished our warm days. After 60 over 20 -dgr. C -days, including 2 heat waves, we had 2 dgr. C less than 20 ,so it was over with the fun, but we just had the best summer here in Holland. No complaints, not at all!!!!
In Germany still a 1.022 km, in an LS 8 T/18m. and  1.018 km. flight in a Nimbus 4 DM, last weekend and many over 900 km. flights.
Still 79 Flights from Holland last Sunday, best by Paul Wijsman in Ventus CT /17.5 m. ;605 km.[ 400 FAI triangle]and several over 500 k’s. Some flying with great pleasure under cloud streets.
Sikko Vermeer even flew a 300 FAI triangle from Soesterberg in the St Libelle.[415 in total!!]
In parts of Austria and the N of Italy the first snow has fallen , so slowly we move via autumn to winter. My friends in Africa and Down Under do it the other way around.
In about 3 weeks,some gliders move again from their home fields to Namibia , South Africa and Australia.Time flies!!!

—————

French Female Nationals at Pont Sur Yonne;

As shared by the organizers.

7 Out of 7 day’s for the ladies!!! TOP !!!!
Aude Untersee , who flew in Hosin in the 2 seater with one of the Aboulin’s , won task 4, 289 km. with a speed of 92 km./u .The” good old ” Hornet is still doing well and I read she LOVES flying it!!!!
Task 5 was small as it was a difficult day with late starts [ Aude  at 4.35 PM, Melanie  at 5. 07 ] as it took the weather a long time to improve. A 1.45 hour AAT was set and she won again;154 km in time 1,51.
She was about 20 km.further and 10 km./h. faster  than the runner up Melanie Gadoulet in the Pegase.
3 Outlandings

Waiting on day 5.
As shared by the organizers.

Task 6 showed another AAT this time 2 hour.  Anaïs Gaubert won the day in the LS 4; 254 km in time 202.59. Nice speed of 100 km./h.. She was one of the 3 unlucky out-landers the day before.
Task 7 , so the last day , with the message ” the rain stopped at 9am, followed by a beautiful skyline and ceilings at 1800m.” all ladies got theirselves in gear again.
Due to a nice speed and great flying , the ladies de-valuated the scores for a task of 203 km.
Magali Russier-Corcy,won with 108 km./h.in the SZD 55.

ONLY 4 out landings during the entire competition!!!

And the winners “en Francais”;
🥇 Championne de France : Aude Untersee  in Hornet ;4.937 points.
🥈 Médaille d’argent : Magali Russier Corcy  in SZD 55 ;4.889 points
🥉 Médaille de bronze : Mélanie Gadoulet in Pegase    ;4.537 points.

Aude has this title already since 2014. She is only 23 years old and studies meteorology at the National School of Meteorology.

Top ladies!!!!
as shared by
Centre de Planeurs du Sénonais

—————-

Junior Nationals at Lasham;

Lasham Junior Nationals and Regionals….
as shared by Alix Pentecost

Juniors;
After some “miserable” weather with small tasks and 1 pretty good task from 255 km. [with 1000 points for Finn Sleigh] finally on Saturday a “normal” task with 313 km. Simon Brown in the ASW 15 won the 1000 points. This brought him from 9 to 5 overall.
Also on the last [Sun-] day, there was no task. In the end the juniors flew 4 out of 9 day’s.
Junior Champion; Jake Brattle [ who was 3d on the last day] with 3.592 points in the DG 101.
Silver and Runner up; Clement Allen with 3.406 points in St Cirrus.
Bronze; Jordan Richards with 3.353 points in St Libelle.

Regionals Blue;
293 km. on the one but last flying-day and as there was no flying on the last day this turned out to be an important day. By the way the day before [task 7 with a  2 hour AAT] ,there was  ONLY ONE finisher [ 223 km. in time 2.56 ] and a runner up George Metcalfe, who  in the ASW 28 had a splendid day  . He flew 177 km . was the first on the list of “out-landers” whilst the next pilot flew ” only ” 72 km!!!
The  task-8-day was won by either Hughes or Davis sharing the St Cirrus with call sign E.George was runner up and with his good last run’s he moved from 5 to 2 overall.
Tom Arscott on the number 1 overall spot was 3d so he consolidated his first spot.

1. Tom Arscott in St Cirrus with 1.993 points.
2. George Metcalfe in ASW 28 with a few points less 2.830 points.
3 . Mark Holden in Duo Discus  T with 2.792.

Regionals Red;
405 km. on the last flying day and Phil Jones won, for the 2 d time. After an out landing in his Ventus 3 T, on task 5 with only 430 points from the 982 going to winner of the day Dale/Dale in the ASH 25 , he had with this weather no chance to climb up back to the overall-top again and stayed on spot 5.
In the end Dale and Dale won in the ASH 25.

1. Dale/Dale in ASH 25 with 2.901 points
2. Alistair Nunn in JS 1B with 2.783 points.
3. Dennis Heslop in ASG 29E with 2.720 points.

——————-

 Not far away,
… a few more UK TOPPERS were flying for the Cotswald Nationals 2018,
from Aston Down.

2/3 Out of 9 day’s were flyable.
In open class Andy Davis won in JS-MD1C  and gathered over 3 day’s 2.112 points. Russell Cheetham was runner up in JS 1C with 1.834 points and on 3. Tim Jenkinson same glider a few points less ;1.816.
In St. class Leigh Wells won in LS 8 with 1.522 points after 2 day’s. Just ahead of his dad who gathered 1.432 points also in LS 8. Good to see Martyn is still flying!!!
In 15 m.Tim Scott won also after only 2 day’s of flying in ASG 29E with 1.616 points. Chris Starkey was runner up and Matt Cook number 3.

One of the good day’s!!
As shared by Cotswold Nationals 2018

—————-

——After Ostrow there was a lot of “talking” about the interval starts. Some are in favor, some are strong against it and some think it might be a good idea BUT,…. with better and strict rules set by and backed up by the IGC.
Adam started in his blog a discussion about it .
I share Adam’s start of this discussion in the hope the future for gliding remains SAFE or even better ….get’s safer!!!!!

Adam’s opinion;

“Interval Starts, reminiscing over the day that 37 of us went through the start line together at the POL 15m WGC – unreal!

Incredible to watch and be apart of, thankfully it all ended up with no plastic being bent.. Overall I think I’m a fan of the concept, though I think the organizers should be provided with some guidelines on how to set them properly, when to use them etc, rather than the IGC saying we want you to trial them – good luck with it, not real fair on the CD and task setter…

——-Perlan is getting higher and higher;
I read; ” 62 000 ft. New altitude record in Andean mountain wave“.
This is about 9000′ higher than the flight last year for which they were awarded a world record!!!!!
The highest recorded glider flight!!!History is written AGAIN. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

RIETI…….Coppa Città di Rieti

Rieti skies as I remember them SO well.
Courtesy Clara

——The comps in Rieti for the Coppa Città di Rieti, continued BUT they had to wait till Friday;
“Today we return to fly, after three days of bad weather! Take-offs are scheduled for 12.30pm. Three tasks were assigned: three areas each with an average length of 350 km and a time of 2h45 ‘. There are 25 degrees, the QNH is 1016 hPa, good climbimg conditions are expected, wind will be irrelevant and some rain is still forecasted.”[Clara]
So 3 AAT’s from 2 hour 55[A groupe] ,2.45 [B groupe] and for the “new ones” 1.50.

Great weather in Rieti and I remember every building.
Pictures courtesy Clara.

Only 5 finishers in the B group, with as winner Peter Hartmann;349 km. in time 3.04. Young Davide was one of them, I noticed on the pictures he is a FATHER now, with a lovely baby and wife. Time flies. I still see him with TC Leonardo in Husbos at the junior worlds.
Also Thomas was back and team Alberto Sironi in the ARCUS T.
The A group had Luca again as winner.[Discus 2A]

Scrubbed on Saturday after a small AAT was not possible. Take offs were supposed for 12 PM but at the briefing they said already to leave straight away because of thunderstorms after 4 PM. In the end the day had to be cancelled, as the rain started at noon just after launching the first pilots, who had to come back..

Building up TOO quickly. As shared by Clara.

They  only had a valid task in one class; group B and not all left as the weather was just miserable, some were launched , landed again, tried hard but in vain and gave up.Thomas won the 1.30 AAT with 171 km. in time 1.35. Only 11 from 27 finished in this class.
Unfortunately the weather did not co-operate in the normally always sunny Rieti area; 3 day’s out of 7 in group B.
1. Davide in ASG 29 E with 2.004 points, well done Davide!!!
2. Thomas in the Ventus 3 with 1. 933 and 3. Peter in the Antares.
Alex and Dane from NZ were 5th, guess they never saw this kind of weather during their Rieti trips.

On the last couple of days, Aldo, the Competition Director in Rieti,  had to assign a Finish Ring of 25km radius, so the sporting performance could be completed before considering the alternatives of a different airfield or trying the glide back home.Good on him.

Packing the glider in the trailer again.
Nice picture shared by Clara. THANKS Clara for the news and pictures!!!

With Luca on the highest spot  in group a…  Duo Discus XLT- team G. Marchisio + F. Cavicchio and Lisa Scheller from Germany in LS 8/18 m.!!!
and Davide WITH his  little daughter in group b with Thomas and Peter.
as shared by Clara.

 TEXAS  15 m and open class NATIONALS.

Found this picture in my file. FABULOUS picture of THE CONCORDIA with Dick Butler !!!!!! As seen by Jacek Lewinsky.
Don’t even remember where it was, but I wanted to share a picture from the CONCORDIA.

—–The comps in 15 m and open in Uvalde got some good flying as well after the pretty unusual rainfall for 4 day’s in a row.

15 m;
Sean Fidler was THE man on day 2. In his ASG 29 he flew 344 miles with a speed of 81 m/ph.
Day 3 was for Rick Indrebo , [same glider]who flew 275 m. with a speed of 85 m./h.
Sarah is flying as well and pretty good in her Ventus 2ax , she was after 3 flying/contest day’s on spot 5.
David Leonard, who won day 1 flew very consistent and topped the overall list every day till now .

David was 7th on day 4 and that cost him 100 points so he moved from 1 to 3. Rick won the day and is leading now. But John Osbourne is on his heels ; difference in points 3827 for 3804.
Day 5 was for Ken Sorenson, flying the Ventus 3 in 15 m. configuration and John is the overall leader now 3d for the day, Rick 7th.
David was 14th and “dropped” to 5.
AND SARAH climbed up to 3 overall good on her.Runner up for the day!!!!

Day 6; Very last day and AGAIN a good one for Sarah!!! She was on a daily number 3 spot but with that she consolidated her runner up spot as vice USA 15 m. champion!!! Well done!!![5.624]
Rick won the day AND the comps so he can call himself the new USA champion in 15 m.[ 5.707]Congratulations!!!
Ken mentioned :”Uvalde 15M Nats last day. Definitively a nationals caliber task. Large blue hole with dead air had to be crossed at the beginning of the first leg. Once across the hole the soaring it was screaming good with cu and strong climbs to 8000+ ft. until the final leg home which was mostly blue and weaker. Speed on the task was determined by how you crossed the first hole how you set up to fly the last leg home. Challenging day but great fun. Another example of why Uvalde is a world class soaring site.”

With Peter Deane, Gary Itner, Rick Indrebo, Sara and David Leonard the top 5 from this class!!!
As shared by Soaring Society of America

Open;
Being number 2 on day 1 changed quickly on day 2 for Dick Butler [DB] in his Concordia, the majestic “ship”.He won and topped the overall list.
Here is what Steven Leonard, very kind, nice and wise man, who I met in Uvalde in 2012,  had to say on FB:Steven flies a NIMBUS 3/25.5 m.
About day 2;
“Big task today (362 mile assigned task). Cloud base was about 4000 AGL when we started. Got higher as the day went along. Had a tough time on the legs going south (Uno Mas, then to Laredo), great run to Eagle Pass, then a slow trip to Dilley (along with a pretty big detour trying to find a climb), and a bit of a nail biter getting home. Just over 5 hours on course today. Good fun (since I got around!).” [601 OLC km]
AND
“Day 3 ….. 316 mile assigned task. Really weak lift early, started too soon, struggled on the first leg. Got passed by the winners part way down the second leg, and that was my wake-up call. Or something. Got a couple of good climbs, some confidence in reading the clouds, and started running a LOT faster. Again 9th place for the day, 9th overall. Each day has been faster than the last one for me, so I hope I can keep that trend going” [534 OLC km]

On day 3 Dick was runner up with a speed of 91 m./h. over 314 m.
But day 4 was for Dick again;323 m with a speed of 83.22 m./h. With more than 100 points he leads the open class now. As was day 5!!!! Another 1000 points bringing him to 4.978 points in total with one day to go.

Day 5 as seen by Steven in his OLC comment:
“Day 5 US Open Class Nationals. Blue at the field, slow to cook, so first in line (me) gets to be the sniffer. Found acceptable climbs to barely acceptable height, and the launch was underway. 3.5 hour Modified Assigned Task.
Got a good start with a climb right at the edge of the cylinder, then out to a cloud for a 6 knot climb to 7K MSL. Off into the blue down the first leg! Some struggling and feeling sorry for myself and watching other gliders disappear into the distance on the FLARM. Push, and you can catch up. Or go down fast. I think I caught a few and had a pretty good run. Every time after the first leg when a good climb was needed, one appeared. Interesting that there were pretty good climbs even after the cu was gone. Looks like 6th for the day with just under 900 points. One more day, and it is shaping up to be a good one.”

Day 6 was a prey for Dave Mockler in the JS 1c/21 m. who is the new vice USA open champion.
But,…Dick was 3d , so no worries to get to the highest spot to receive his so maniest open USA title.[5.936]

Day 6 seen by Steven; Thanks Steven for sharing!!!!
“Day 6 is complete, and so are the US 15 Meter and Open Class Nationals. I managed to fly 275 miles at just under 84 MPH average today, which was good enough for, are you ready for it…. 9th place (again)! I am nothing if not consistent! I set my anchor on the first day, and held to my position for the entire contest.
Uvalde is a very special place. If you have not yet flown there, you need to find a way to get there and fly. You will not regret it.”

471 km. with a speed of 127 km./h.

From r to left;  1st: Dick Butler, 2nd: David Mockler, 3rd: Jim Lee, 4th: Keith Essex, 5th: Ron Tabery

As shared by Soaring Society of America

—— In our Tocumwal past we converted MANY hang glider pilots to glider pilots. Here is a picture of 3 hang glider mates who grew out to WGC toppers!!!! No they did not convert with us, but I remember the easy way of flying and living from them. So relaxed!!!!

Tomas Suchanek [Czech Rep] Pete Harvey [UK] Alland Barnes [Australia] all “performing” in Hosin.
Courtesy Allan.

–—–Visited KEIHEUVEL last Sunday; My annual trip to this very pleasant airfield, but unfortunately there was no competition-flying this weekend. The yellow dry field, burnt by the sun ,looked a bit sad and  to avoid damage they cancelled and postponed the 2 day’s Keiheuvel CUP, the 12th edition,  till next year.
But I caught up with several people , had a fabulous lunch prepared by Rudy and Chrisje, finally got to meet Rosa again, madre familias , from the HUYBRECKX family ,89 years old, but she still knew who I was…amazing….Had my annual LEFFE brown Trappist beer WITH grenadine, visited the Schmelzers at their chalet and congratulated Tijl with his inspiring-every-day- win in Klippeneck and Peter with his title in Bailleau.
Some pictures;

Field looking dry and yellow and sandy.But de KEI ,the restaurant “shines” in the sun and was VERY busy!!!

The Stearman , ” lives” at the Keiheuvel, but  left for a FLY IN to Zoersel , an old timer event and Pieter helps the pilot [back seat] and guest .

and a totem pole full of gliding-trips all over the world in the garden from the Schmelzers

Being so busy with Hosin I missed a”nearly 1000 km” from Tijl from Keiheuvel on August 9, in the Ventus 2CT/18m ;983!!!!!!
Tijl flew this year already 4x a 1000 km and in total already over 20 most from Belgium and with all airspace -restrictions  I can tell you,… that IS SPECIAL!!!!! He is a master in planning his flights!!!
On that day August 9 a few more great flights from Keiheuvel; 838 km. by Jeroen Jennen in LS 8 and and 696 by Tim Huybreckx in Discus 2.

a more recent picture from Tijl after his 1000 k in June . Plus all those winning-day’s in Klippeneck,…it has been a great year for him!!!
AND my youngest brother and his wife.

—–UK JUNIOR NATIONALS at LASHAM;
And parallel 2 classes flying for the regular regional titles. A total of 86 pilots in 3 classes.
They started on August 18 but pilots had to wait for 3 day’s before they could fly. A dip in the glorious weather from this 2018 season.
On day 4 [August 21] they started with task 1 ; 255 k.  for the juniors and 256 for Regionals blue and 324.96 for red.
I counted 45 juniors, but only 15 finished from 39 who started ,2 of them HC. Finn Sleigh in the St Libelle won with a speed of 80.99 km./h.
Red; Phil Jones in the Ventus 3 won with a speed of 80 km./h. TOUGH day!! 8 From 16 finished.
Blue; Mark Holden in the Duo Discus before Tom Arscott and Shaun Lapworth both in St Cirrus.7 Finished from 21.
All scores are preliminary.
Comps finish on August 26 so more next week.

——-French FEMALE Nationals flown from Pont Sur Yonne, in club class and till now 3 pretty good days.
Day 1; with 272 km. and a Pegase as winner from the 1000 points with in it Céline Rault.
Day 2; a 2 hour AAT with a new face on spot 1 ;Anaïs Gaubert in the LS 4….154 km in time 2.01
Day 3; 316 km and another Pegase won the day;Mélanie Gadoulet got the 1000 points for a speed of 90.44 km./h.

day 2 and day 1 winner; Anais and Celine.

More next week.

All 13 ladies ready for day 1.
all pictures  shared by Centre de Planeurs du Sénonais

—–And PERLAN news!!
Daniel L Johnson

HOSIN….FAREWELL….            CU in 2 years in ….STENDAL.

Preparing the container for return to S.A.    and…a nearly empty airfield in Hosin again.

I will remember Hosin for a long time. NO I was n’t there,… but the organizers made me feel I was there. Of Course there is a huge difference , mostly missing out on mates-for-years AND the pure excitement from comps. Sometimes I just feel sad I am getting older, but so be it. But it all felt easy to follow even from far.
Thanks to the HOSIN team. Great job from Tomas Rendla as CD even more by his very confident 17 year old son Matej, bringing the WHOLE closing ceremony to an excellent end.
A pity I could not hear the noise from clapping etc,[ there was no sound!!] but for sure I find it somewhere again.
They all left with memories for a lifetime!!!!
Thank you  to Carol from South Africa who allowed me to share her words and to Matthew and Adam for sharing parts of what they wrote in their blogs!!

Carol, Adam and Matthew last 2 pictures courtesy Benjamin Neglais.
On Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures and on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding you find their last words on HOSIN.

AND,…the last words are for Tomas Rendla CD of this competition;
“HOSIN,…..THE PLACE WHICH WAS THE WORLD’S CENTRE OF GLIDING FOR LAST THREE WEEKS! GLIDING ENTHUSIATICS AND FRIENDS WERE WATCHING FIGHTS FOR MEDALS IN “HEAVY” CLASSES. DUE TO MODERN TECHNOLOGIES THE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD HAD CHANCE TO SEE OUR LIVE BRIEFINGS, LIVE RACES, ALMOST LIVE SCORING, LIVE STREAMS FROM THE PARTIES AND ALSO LIVE STREAM FROM CLOSING CEREMONY.

AS A LAST WORD OF THIS BIG AND GREAT EVENT I HAVE TO SAY BIG THANKS TO MY FAMILY, WHO SUPPORT ME A LOT WITH PREPARATION AND RUNNING THE COMPETITION, TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE ORGANISING TEAM, TO OUR YOUNGSTERS WHO MADE A GREAT ATMOSPHERE, TO ALL PARTICIPANTS AND CREWS.

SPECIAL THANKS BELONGS TO ALL OUR PARTNERS, SUPPORTERS, TO OUR SPONSORS, TO THE CZECH ARMY WHO ALLOWED US TO USE THEIR DEDICATED AIRSPACE FOR COMPETITION FLYING AND ONE REALLY BIG THANKS BELONGS TO AEROKLUB OF CESKE BUDEJOVICE, WHO RENTED US AN AIRFIELD FOR THREE WEEKS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GLIDING SEASON!”

The FAI flag was handed over by President of the Jury Rick,  from Hosin hands in to Stendal hands. Germany next!!!

As promised the pictures from  the winners and that was not even easy.
I got a tip to look at the tweets and yes they were there. Here you are thanks to TEAM MARU gliding Crew‏ @TeamMARUgliding 7

18 m. class With Wolfgang in the middle, Mario to the l. and Jean Denis to the r.

The open class champions in the middle Michael, to the l Felipe and to the r. Petr. In front of them the pilots who got a certificate; From l to r. Ricardo, Pete, Philippe and Sylvain, Andy, Zdislaw and Henrik.

    

——-As said before, Ge Dale will be back in Narromine this year. As just” decorated” new UK champion in Club class  he will start coaching again. There are only 3 courses left for 2018!!! So be quick if you wish to be part of it.

“It’s on again, G. Dale is returning to Narromine and will be in residence for all of November & December this year!!
Whether you are an early Cross Country Soaring Pilot or a highly experienced Competition Pilot you can benefit enormously from a week of performance coaching with G Dale.

G. Dale is a professional gliding coach and will be running his outstanding Cross Country Coaching Courses throughout each week at Narromine starting Monday October 29 right through to Friday December 21. 
The course offers both theory and practical training. You will be flying one on one with G in the Narromine Duo Discus or you can fly a lead and follow with G in your own glider.
Flying each day will commence with a full weather and task briefing followed by either a group or one-on-one cross country coaching session. The courses can be tailored to suit your experience level and requirements from first cross country to National Competition standard. G will be running his famous 5 day full time cross-country performance coaching course each week.
See the Narromine Gliding Club website for full details and to make a booking. http://www.narromineglidingclub.com.au/NGC_GDaleCoaching.html…

AND
a picture after the prize giving in Dunstable.

Ge with the CUP, shared by my Narromine friends.Pic by Liz Pike.

    

35th WGC at HOSIN !!
Wednesday ;August 8, day 11 ,task 10 !!!!

Some news first;
Toppers/Winner from Tuesday a pretty difficult day, due to the weather, but fast as you have seen already.

The Goudriaan brothers on spot 4 and 5 and Jean Denis from France on spot 1 in 18 m. class
As shared by Pôle France Planeur

Party time as well ; INTERNATIONAL EVENING. All teams prepared food from their country and that’s always a great success.

Both my “home-country-” mates.
The Dutch, with Peter Millenaar in charge  and the Aussie’s Pam [Butch wife] and Adam and his mum.  Both countries  nicely presented their food.
As shared by the French and the organizers.
AND it was …….VERY BUSY

And ………the FAI flag has been stolen….AGAIN.
OH, OH !!!! Not the first time, not the last time either.

Some S.A. News; “Once again launching was delayed today until 12.30, still Task A 3 hr. AAT, as the lift was slow to get going over the airfield. First the sniffer, the met man, took a launch and was soon back on the deck. Then they have an Arcus in the air which is carrying a camera-man for in the air-to-air photos took a launch and was soon reporting lift, and then finally Sebastian Eder of Austria launched – he was involved with the mid-air two days ago, and has decided to withdraw from the competition rather than to continue flying. He opted to self-launch, as the glider is fine, and so launched and has flown back to Austria. Conditions rapidly developed to the west and many set off on task as soon as their start gate was opened.  On the airfield we have had a little bit of rain and some rumbling. Could be an interesting day.”
AND it turned out to be a very interesting day GOOD for some, BAD for others. Thunderstorms and showers ,cirrus and the last 50/60 km. DEAD AIR bothered the pilots!!!!!
Let’s have a look who could cope with this weather, who was lucky or unlucky. All part of our sport!!!

open; 3 hour AAT… gate open at 14.22… South Africa and France did well in this class flying with a speed of 131 km. /h.  Uys [ Jonker] and Philippe [de Péchy]   both shared the win and got 1000 points. AP [Kotze] and Sylvain [Gerbaud] were number 3 and 4 !!! 8 JS 1C’s in the daily top. Uys and Attie will be pleased.
4 Used the engine one of them Pierre and Arnaud in the EB 29 DR. Such a pity!!! Not a lot of changes in the overall top, though Sylvain moved from 9 to 7.

18 m.; 3 hour AAT…gate open at 13.38…MOMENT OF TRUTH IN THIS CLASS.
After the international event, now an international finish as 13 different nationalities flew their selves in the top 13 today; Vladimir from Slovakia was the best with 391 km. in time 2.58; speed 130 km./h.
Then Adomas from Lithuania, Peter from Holland, Lucasz from Poland, Jurg from Switzerland, Bert j. from Belgium, Mario from Germany and Tomas from the Czech Rep. Russell from the UK, Wolfgang from Austria, Takeshi from Japan, Peter from Hungary and from Italy Giancarlo.
Only 26 from 43 finished the rest landed mostly virtual, using engines to come home. Among them the overall number 1 till now, Christophe who dropped from 1 to 8 and that hurts!!!!!
Also Adam and Butch were “out” , Oscar ,Laurens and Mike , as well as Jeroen AND Katrin [ dropping from 2 to 6] and Matthias. OH OH!!!
Overall top 3 now;Mario, Wolfgang and Jean Denis with Peter on a very good 4th place!

20 m.; 3 hour AAT…gate open at 13.55…380 km. in 3 hours was the best and flown by Allan and Matthew getting better and better by the day; 126 km./h.
Sebastian an his mate were runner up and Antti and Juha were 4th.
12 From 17 finished so for some a “bad” day as well. Specially for team Belgium dropping from 5 to 11.

Matthew say’s it all in his blog;
“Great day for 20m class today. CAPE was off the charts and although we originally expected the storms to be mild, by launch time it was clear they would be early and often.
We started as the gate opened and most of the fleet followed in hot pursuit.
Out the gate we flew over 100km at 100kts jumping from storm to storm at cloudbase. Sebastian Kawa started just behind (LEECH! 😁😂) but somehow managed to catch and outrun us about 80k in. We were planning to keep going along the line of storms, but we saw a number of gliders going away from the storm line, and not wanting to be alone for a tricky jump ahead we went with them. We’d thought everyone would follow us anyway so it wouldn’t matter if it didn’t work as fast as the storms. Unfortunately the gaggle behind just plowed along the storm line and overtook by an unassailable margin. Surprised to discover Kawa was one of the gliders who’d gone off track we eventually hobbled around with him for the next few turnpoints hopping from scattered storm-cu to storm-cu and avoiding heavy showers. Now heading back to Hosin, it looked unsoarable in the last sector, and the only way to make any more distance was to head a long way off track into a very murky rainy storm line. All the gliders that had passed us were forced down this path because on an AAT task, if you’re fast you have to fly further. We, being slow had the luxury of being able to turn for home at this point and shot a 42:1 required glide from the last cloud back to Hosin effortlessly. The Arcus just goes and goes and goes. The gliders who’d got well ahead of us plowed into the dark storms in the distance, got low and got home much later, giving us a day win for free. Kawa opted to deviate 90 degrees for a very long way for one more climb, perhaps safer than our 42:1 glide but I guess speed doesn’t matter much when you’re leading by 300 points.
No movement in the placings, but slowly working our way to the top.”
Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

A day with changes in the overall scores, with 3 day’s to go,  as on the 11th in the evening, flying is over and party time is on, with on the next day the 12th the prize giving and closing ceremony.

THURSDAY AUGUST 9, day 12, task 11 and then 2 day’s to go!!!!

The “world” in HOSIN.
as shared by Team USA.

Some news first; “Yesterday’s  incredibly fast development of thunderstorms caused a complete shuffle of the rankings. Unfortunately in Open and 20m class pilots had to start their engines not far from the airfield. 18m class had mixed results after a challenging flight with huge deviations from the track.” as mentioned by team Belgium.
And S. A; wrote ;
“This morning is pleasantly cooler and there was some rain last evening. The forecast is expected to be similar to yesterday with probably overdevelopment and showers – yesterday they had showers in every sector and had to navigate around it deviating far off track at times.”
It seems that today is the last hot day in Hosin with 33 dgr. C.
We had our change here in Holland yesterday and are back to 22/25 dgr. C., after a short [ 15 minutes] but vicious [thunder-]storm.
Very unusual, for Holland,  but we had 2 heat waves this summer!!!
The Belgian team shared this news;
“Although the sky still is quite blue, first cumulus clouds are appearing and all pilots are in the air already. Still hot hot hot today, and optimistic speed tasks of around 400km for all classes were given. Let’s cross fingers now!”

First start not at 11.30 but at 12.15. A -tasks are on. More wind  and even “wave” up to FL 93!!!! Another interesting day, as those who miss out on the wave,will have a totally different day!!!
By the way the FAI flag is back! Hurrah!

On one of the video’s I saw a young man behind the table. It is Matej Rendla son of CD Tomas; I noticed Matej when he was a little boy and his dad flew open class, just a flying family like we were, also our kid’s always were part of it!!
Matej, organizes/runs the briefings every morning and helps out when and where necessary and what I heard/read he is doing a great job. ONLY 17 YEARS OLD!!!! One for the future- top- comps!!!!What a gem !!!! Such charisma!!!
Motto from the meteo man because of the heat and the drought ; ” Save water-drink beer“ (but after the flight)”

During the day ,Art Grant and his wife Judy arrived from Canada in Hosin. Well known by many and a nice get-together again!!!
Next week I will catch up with them in Amsterdam.

Official news;  “THE LATEST START GATE HAS BEEN OPENED AT 14:03 FOR OPEN CLASS. ALL CLASSES ARE FLYING IN NICE WEATHER. WE HAVE 2/8 CU OVER THE AIRFIELD WITH CLOUD BASE MORE THAN 2000M ABOVE GROUND AND WITH CU CLOUDS IN AREA OF TASKS AS WELL. TEMPERATURE ON GROUND REACHED 35 DEGREES.”

Open; 424 km.
FINALLY the hard work put in by Andy and Pete during the UK Nationals delivered POINTS!!!! They practiced hard on flying together to be good at this WGC and today they “got” the 1000 and 996 points!!! Good on them!!! Uys found HIS way to do things correct and was 3d;  956 points.
2 Pilots just saw the” finish” but could not finish. The rest , 27 pilots, did well flying with a speed of 104 km for number 27 to 137.69 km./h. for Andy.
With 2 day’s to go Michael’s place looks pretty secure with 9.862 points. Felipe has 9.778 and Petr 9.479. Ricardo 9.302.
But it is only over at Saturday evening!!! I have seen weird things on the last day’s.

18 m.; 415 km.
More excitement in the overall top in this class.
Today was THE day for Gyorgy Gulyas from Hungary, who I follow already for a long time. HE WON ; 135.27 km./h.!!!!Good on him!
Just a tad slower was Mike Young , who I also follow since 1987, when we met in Benalla in 1987, when he was still a young lad;134.97 km./h.  Christophe is “back” after the difficult day and finished as 3d. Wolfgang was 4th.
BUT,…..several of the toppers as Mario, Katrin, Matthias, Adam and more had a less good day . Arne even “out-landed”/pulled the engine.
Another day with changes in the overall top.
WOLFGANG is number 1 now!![9.420] he swapped places with  Mario who is on spot 2 [9.389] and Jean Denis stayed on number 3 with 9.196 points . “Our” Peter still on 4!!![9.147]
All pretty close, reason for excitement for the last 2 day’s.

Gyorgy in his new sponsored jacket as daily winner.
Shared by Gagula Darko

20 m. ;387 km.
121 km./h for the Swiss ARCUS M.[Cronjaeger & Sidler] and 1000 points for them. Not a real good day for Antti and Juha, being 11th for the day.
Pretty clear for the next 2 day’s is that it will be difficult to keep Sebastian away from another title; 9.784 points.
Team UK, Steve and Garry,  is still going strong on spot 2 [9.543.] More exciting will be if Antti  and Juha can keep their spot 3 with 9.393 points , as Allan and Matthew are closing in with a total of 9.361 points.
I know them all, so may the best ‘win’ .

Worth mentioning from the morning briefing;
Terry , the IGC delegate for Australia and I believe vice president as well, now TC from team Australia, spoke about the WWGC in Lake Keepit!!
Carol wrote it down for us!!!
“Terry Cubley of GFA (Gliding Federation of Australia) gave a brief presentation of the next Womens World Championships to be held at Lake Keepit in January 2020. At this stage they are uncertain whether there would sufficient support for all 3 classes, Club, Standard & 18m., and there will be a brief survey carried out and a decision would be made by October 2018. Lake Keepit is a full-time operation so one could go visit anytime and there would be gliders to hire in Australia for those wishing to participate in the WWGC. There is local self-catering accommodation, as well as other accommodation approx. 25 minutes away in the towns. ”
www.keepitsoaring.com
Have been there several times. Great soaringspot on a lake. Most finishes come in over the lake. Great accommodation close by as well, so if you go please contact them asap, if you like to have a nice little house at the field.

A short wrap up from the circumstances ON THURSDAY by Carol;”The conditions today by all accounts were difficult in that you could not definitely know where and whether the thermals would work, and it appeared to be tricky, and then died again on the final leg, so some have had to use their engines to get back.”
And from team Belgium;”Although there were good thermals today, they were not necessarily correlated to the clouds. So not an easy day. ”

To finish the day this lovely fly-by from the tuggies!!!

“A great fly by by the tugs!”As shared by Graham TC from Team UK.

FRIDAY; AUGUST 10; day 13, task 12 , one but last day!!! BUT.…NO task 12 , day cancelled.

Some tweets from team UK this morning;
“ Good morning from an overcast and much cooler Hosin. Temperatures are considerably cooler this morning with 8/8ths cloud cover. After the heat and humidity of the last 3 weeks, it is quite a welcome change.”
And
“No grid before briefing and so probably a no-fly day!”
And official tweet
“Good morning. Briefing at 10.00. No gridding before Briefing.”

After briefing the French were the FIRST to share this message;”La journée d’aujourd’hui est annulée, pas d’épreuve.”
So the day is cancelled , no tasks today!!
AND the WEBCAM this morning

News about the WGC in France shared by Carol ;” Jean-Nicolas Barelieu of the French Federation gave a short presentation of the 2020 FAI World Championships for the Club, Standard & 15m. classes to be held at Chalons-en-Champagne, from 8th – 22nd August 2020. The venue is approx. 2 hrs drive to the east of Paris. He stated that for those interested there would be an International Champagne Cup event for Standard & 15m. classes (handicapped), which would be held to coincide with the French Club Class nationals from 4th – 10th August 2019.”

By the way,…the flag is stolen AGAIN!!!!!!

SATURDAY; AUGUST 11, day 14, task 12 !! LAST DAY !!!!
The metman said the day before ” it should be flyable”.

To finish; 3 HOUR AAT’s for ALL CLASSES!!

With the official tweet from the organizers the last day started after a day off ,due to a cold front passing by;
“Good morning and welcome to the last day of racing. We expect AATs today.”

Early clouds to the West as shared by Team USA.

Unless the great looking clouds the first launches were postponed 12.45. It remains exciting, even at home,…such a last day. Will their be” coups” from those who only believe in spot 1 and not 3 or 4?
In a few hours we know!!!
First of all they had to use a reduced A task, due to a late start! Now 2.30 AAT’s for all classes.

A pity,…. look at the skies as seen by Arnaud at their last take off from Hosin Airport, in the back of the EB 29.
A clean sky with great cu’s.

open;
gate open at 14.40. FAST AND FURIOUS race by Philippe de Pechy; 142 km./h over 363 km!!! Michael was 5th, Felipe 7th.
NO SURPRISE, but Michael is AGAIN the new WORLD CHAMPION in OPEN CLASS . Congratulations Michael!!!!
Felipe is VICE WORLD CHAMPION. So a great result for Germany!!!!
Petr remains on his good bronze position. All 3 flew EB 29 DR or R.
2 Other pilots are over 10.000 points-mark Ricardo [ 10.075] and Pete.[10.006]  Well done!!!
1. Michael Sommer; 10.662 points.
2. Felipe Levin ; 10.571 points.
3. Petr Tichy; 10.301 points.

18 m.;
gate open at 14.06. The gliders WO and I from Wolfgang and Mario , number 1 and 2 overall, played a cat and mouse game at 14.55, as I read. Mario left, Wolfgang followed one minute later, BUT,…Mario returned!!!The difference between them is ONLY 31 POINTS!!!!! When they both go wrong, one way or an other, Jean Denis and or Peter will be ready to take their places.
Wolfgang left at 3 PM and finished after 2.32 flying 363 km!!! SPEED ; 142,91 km./h. He was really on a mission!!!! Was already WGC champion wanted to be it again!!!!
It was waiting for Mario……At 6.22 PM, no sign from a score from Mario!!!Does he think/know he has won and drinks bubbles already?????
TC Wolly had called before flight with Bernd Fischer from Top Meteo,for the best weather options.
I feel the pain from Mario, he was “only” on a daily spot 13 !!!
Peter on 17 They tried but in vain!!
What doe this mean???
Wolfgang is the new WORLD CHAMPION again!!!
Mario held on ,on his 2d place so VERY GOOD VICE WORLD CHAMPION. He  restarted 5 minutes after Wolfgang but as I read he had to fly alone.
Jean Denis stayed on 3 so bronze for him and Peter stayed on 4!!!
2 VENTUS 3T in the top and 2 pilots with over 10.000 points.
A great 8th spot for Katrin.
1. Wolfgang Janowitch ;10.236 p.
2. Mario Kiessling ; 10.097 p.
3. Jean- Denis Barrois ; 9.915 p.

20 m.;
gate open at 14.19. With a 4th place for team Kawa they  knew they were the new WORLD CHAMPIONS in 20 m. class. Also the UK -chaps finishing as 5th, were pretty sure from their VICE-WORLD- CHAMPION title.
It was all about Allan and Matthew and Juha and Antti. The Aussies were a bit faster 134.71 km./h but that was not enough for the bronze. The difference was 21 points after 12 day’s of fabulous flying!!!
So
1. Team Kawa with10.600 p.
2. Team UK with 10.335 p.
3. Team Finland with 10.211 p.
Worth mentioning 3 other teams over the 10.000 mark; 10.211 p. for Allan and Matthew,….German team Ladenburger & Krohmer 10.123 p they won the last day with 137.82 km./h…..French couple Aboulin & Untersee with 10.058.

Official news:
“SO THE LAST COMPETITION DAY IS OVER. SPEEDS AGAIN REACHED 140 KPH AND SOON WE WILL KNOW NEW WORLD CHAMPIONS. STAY TUNED…
FAREWELL PARTY STARTS AT 19:30, CLOSING CEREMONY IS TOMORROW AT 10 AM AND WILL BE STREAMED ONLINE VIA FACEBOOK.”

Some pilots finished with the words spoken on their radio…. “Thanks for the last three weeks”
And from several pilots involved in MANY WGC’S I heard  “Hosin” the best ever.”
SO,….the 2018 FAI WGC in Hosin is over again.Such great fun. It seems they had a FABULOUS  atmosphere and that specially the young organizers from Hosin , got a lot of credit for what they did. Very relaxed is what I heard most about Hosin.
The weather was absolute REMARKABLE and used in the correct way.
Thanks to ALL. I loved it even from HOME!!!! Great movies from every day’s flying, from the briefing , live tracking…etc. We all felt part of it and the enthusiasm shared in tweets and FB messages showed the pleasure the pilots/crews/organizers had!!!
All go home now with unforgettable memories!!!! I still have them from comps over 35 years ago!!!!

Not to forget the TEAM CUP goes to GERMANY!!!!
1. Germany……………..919,13 points
2. France …………………916,30
3. Czech Rep.. …………904.57
4. The UK …………………902.
5. The Netherlands….881,98

————-

—–CIM…..Rieti had a storm as well on Wednesday so no flying. Also not on Thursday, more rain and wind.

A real down burst at the airport. After the all the high temperatures in Europe we have severe storms!!!!

Here is Clara; ” At around 4pm, a thunderstom hit the airfield, dumping heavy rain. Wind speed was recorded at 37 knots steady, gusting 48 knots.
The wind was strong enough to move Bouderlique’s Arcus M (GT2) for over 40m. It came to a rest against nearby trailers, damaging the right aileron and the rudder.”

A tough day in Rieti.

On Friday , after 2- non- flying- day’s, it was Rieti at it’s best again with tasks from 456 km. in 18 m/open and 320 for  15 m. class.
Luca Urbani won in 15 m [96 km./h.] and OH OH, Giorgio out landed after 306 km. A pity. He lost 460 points.
Jon Gatfield from the UK won the day with a speed of 102 km./h in the ASG 29ES. Jon leads the overall scores now with 4.905 points followed by Giorgio with 4.866.

Clara finished the day with :” It was a tricky day with strong and weak thermals. Some pilots were happy, they said: “A fun flight! Good task to the north!”, three gliders are outlanding.”

Saturday , LAST DAY IN RIETI, was according to CD Aldo a “typical ” Rieti-day, which means GOOD!!!!
Clara added ;”Today’s weather forecasts announce the presence of a line of convergence from Roccaraso to the north of Foligno on the Adriatic side of the Apennines: the three tasks, in fact, will go to exploit this area. We think it will be a fantastic flight to finish in the best way this Cim.”

Aldo at briefing and last launches for the 2018 CIM.
As shared by Clara.

What happened on the last Day ???
18 m. After one off-day , Giorgio was himself again and won the the 422 km. set task with a speed of 127.15 km./h. His 6th daily win this week.
Jon Gatfield who won the day before and was 1 overall, was 12th now, and  lost 140 points.
Winner of the CIM 2018 in 18 m. is GIORGIO with 5.936 points. Jon was runner up, Werner Amann 3d..
IOpen class ; Alexander Mueller won in the EB 29 with 5.920 points.
15 m. class ; the top 3 here was between Luca Urbani, Remy Hirt and Aku Jaakkola . Today Remy from Switzerland won and added more points to his overall total;5.622 points.
 20 m. class; The French ARCUS T Denis Guerin / A Donnay was clearly the best ;6.053 more than 600 points ahead of the runners up Team Gerster from Switzerland.

The 18 m. class winners. Giorgio, Jon and Werner.
As shared by Marina.

—–Bailleau had on Wednesday a 4.15 AAT for the “Long-flight-pilots” . Dutch pilot Sjoerd van Empelen, the current junior world champion, and  student at the Delft University [Aerospace Engineering] flew a Nimbus 4 M. and he did very well as runner up with 476 km in time 4.13 !!!!
No flying on Thursday. RAIN !!!!!!
With one day to go “our” Junior Sjoerd is 1 overall with 6.516 points followed by Dutch Jeroen Oostendorp;6.408 points in ASW 22 BLE.
In the speed class with one day to go Belgian Pieter Daems is the best. I know him from Keiheuvel nice young man. He always, was with his dad Jeff at the field when dad flew comps and Pieter  still was a young kid.
Unfortunately, he lost quite some points [ around 300!] on Wednesday being 21st.
But still leads with 6.069 points. His Belgian mates in the Duo Discus are runner up and coming closer!;5.992.
Friday August 10, last day in Bailleau and it goes out with a big BANG!!! After the rain the weather turned extra good and 502 km. was set for the “long flight” pilots.
The speed pilots went for 334 km.
A tough day as some pilots flew 6 hours 17 over the 502 km.!!!But 17 from 26 finished!!
Sjoerd van Empelen, was runner up for the day,so our JUNIOR won GOLD on this pleasant but serious competition, with 28 pilots in this class; [7.476 points]
The other class showed some long flights in time too. 334 km. in nearly 5 hours.
Here young Pieter Daems won the GOLD.[ 6.979 points].24 from 36 finished.
One of the out-landers was Belgian pilot Tom van den Eynden . He was going so well but could not make it home.
He shared a great picture from his out landing!!!

Pieter HAPPY, after an acro demo.
FB picture.

As shared by Tom.

So  8 out of 11 day’s GOOD!!!! !!!! A great INTERNATIONAL BAILLEAU 2018-comp is over again.
there was an “amical “class as well with newcomers to competition soaring; 6 pilots in this class,3 from France , 3 from Holland and 1 from Italy.
The first 2 prizes were for the Dutch the 3d for France.

——-UK Club class Nationals at Dunstable; A small 162 km. task on Thursday, as also in the UK the sun has left and rain has started.Finally the heat has been broken in parts of Europe. Bad is the result after the heat; SEVERE STORMS!!!!!
Task 2,3 and 5 were a prey for Ge Dale in his “little” Libelle. He leads overall with 4.722 points.
Just behind him 2 Junior pilots from the UK squad doing a great job; Jake Brattle in DG101G ELAN and Tom Arscott in the St Cirrus.[4.602 and 4.551 points]
After 5 day’s and 5 tasks , Thursday was a day off for all because of the weather….so scrubbed!!!!
Friday was cancelled as well.
For the LAST DAY In DUNSTABLE, a 209 km task was set. AND,… Liz Sparrow won just ahead [69.12 km./h]of Ge [68.58 km./h] Slow but great finishers.
I presume this was their last day if not I come back on it on Wednesday.
For now;1. Ge has 5.557 points. 2. Jake 5.335 and 3. Tom 5.277.

——-Dutch Junior Nationals; No flying on August 8 and 9 due to the change from heat wave to normal Dutch weather, via not-normal-heavy-thunders storms.
228 km. was set for Friday August 10. Very tricky weather with wind and local showers, but 4 from 20 managed to cope and finished!!!
Steffen Landman flying an LS 6 /18 m. flew around with a speed of 100 km./h. The runner up , Filip Verver, [LS 8] had 63 km./h. but still leads the overall scores.[3.322]
Steffen moved from 5 to 3.[2.987]
Saturday August 11 also the last day for the Juniors. A 3 hour AAT was set.
I can see from here, about 100 km. N of them,  great cu’s [5/8 at 12 PM] but also feel a tough wind.

The “young ones” did well. At the news I just saw pictures from cloud streets ,so it could be expected.
Niels Van Nieuwland in an LS 4 flew 273 km. in time 2.56 and that turned out to be the best ; 1000 points!!!.
Niels was mostly on spot 2  but he nearly won; 4. 352 for him.
Felip ,who lost 25 points had a total of 4.360 points.
He is the DUTCH NATIONAL JUNIOR CHAMPION.DIFFERENCE 8 POINTS.
Luckily they are young and have strong nerves!!!
Steffen won the bronze;3.934.

6 Young pilots from my “old” club the  “ZES ” were participating,  2 in a Janus 18.2 m., 2 in a Twin III and 1 in a Mosquito and 1 in an LS 4. Great to see the ZES is going strong!!!
Interesting; Uys Jonker donated a daily prize to one of the juniors; The lucky one was Wout Sliedrecht , flying an LS 4, member of a real soaring family at Malden.

Busy weeks so from Wednesday on “NORMAL ” blogs again. More about the 15 m [13 pilots] and open class [14] Nationals in Uvalde Texas, next week. DB flies his CONCORDIA there as well.
When I have/find pictures of the prize giving I will share them on Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz