Post 1.540 on August 30 2024
UVALDE TEXAS
Garner Field, United States
18 August 2024 – 31 August 2024
My goodness me, I nearly felt from my chair when I saw in ONE view on soaring spot, that 3/4 Dutch glider pilots proudly were on spot 1 on task 11.
Not that I ever doubted their ability, they were of course sent to Uvalde as “our” toppers and all have flown already WGC’s, but it is rather special that this happens.
So in 18 m; Jeroen Verkuijl on spot 1,” Great day. Finally a day on what you planned worked”
in 20 m; Erik and Mathijs/ Borgmann & Van Houweninge “ Late start, was not the plan. started again and at the last TP we had super lift and met the rest and arrived together”;
in open; François Jeremiasse. “A challenge to keep up with the German team when you catch them and his first daily win at a WGC” . He started 2 minutes earlier than Michael and Felipe.
The boys called it Dutch weather, with a high ceiling.
EXELLENT STUFF!!!!! No I am not a chauvinist , but only really happy. A triple orange podium.
About today; The SA team was not too optimistic [” Today started looking misty and miserable but we were promised that this is a normal Uvalde day. Well it seems the wise ones were right and the day has turned into what looks like a wonderful soaring day. Gliders have just started landing back, and the crew is slowly but surely preparing containers for the packing which is planned to start tomorrow. Fingers crossed for today’s scores.” but indeed it turned out a great day.
Unfortunately not for them.
Tasks and results on Thursday August 29, day 12 and task 11.
To be correct 18 m and 20 m had till now 10 out of 12 days, open 11 out of 12. That’s just GOOD!!!! Even with one “off-day!”
18 m; 4.30 AAT….with Alena’s glider most probably written off , there are still 31 pilots in this class and 2 did not finish. Jeroen Verkuijl started at 13.56, not early not late , together with team mate Sjaak . Jeroen flew 639.90 km in 4.32 so a nice speed of 141 km./h. That was the best result for the day; 1000 points. Scores were close as French Christophe still had 911 points on spot 9.
Matthew was on 8 with 2 more points;
“Today’s task was a pleasant surprise in that it was only slightly overset. We still had a bit of a grand prix start, but at only a 4.5hr AAT we could cleanly get around within the reliably soarable window.I had to work extremely hard on the southbound leg to catch up. I had an excellent run, but missed the opportunity to utilise the sea breeze convergence onto final glide, so just a midfield result.
I really need a miracle to get on the podium now. more on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
Rich from the Uvalde media team on today’s tasks;
“The 18 Meter Class was sent off on a 4:30hr Assigned Area task of 591km nominal. After start, they went northwest to Martin Ranch, southeast to Laredo, northeast to Seven C’s Ranch and then northwest to finish. The last turn area of this task had prohibited airspace in it, so the pilots had to be careful. However, several pilots did suffer the penalty of entering forbidden airspace. With all the technology we have in the cockpit, we still seem to make the same errors when we flew with cameras. The first leg did not look bad. However, the pilots who could get across the foothills higher all seemed to do better on the scoresheet. Being higher allowed them to connect better with the clouds and maintain good forward momentum. The foothills are like transition areas on ridges. You cannot allow yourself to get low. There were basically two places where pilots made their turn in the first area. One was on the northeast corner and the other was right around the nominal point. The second and third legs did not present too many problems until the 3rd turn area. The airspace did cause issues. Some had to make a turn that was less than advantageous, but others journeyed into the forbidden airspace and were landed out on the scoresheet. Final glides going downwind is always a joy, and unless you were landing at 7:30pm, did not cause many issues.”
Overall scores with 1 day to go, will be mainly I guess for spot 3 as the German pilots Stefan and Simon are far ahead, but Christophe and Jeroen can “fight” for spot 3.
Matthew shared this picture from the unfortunate JS3 from Alena in the water;
20m. multi seat; 577.80 km……they started as the last in their class, as said not planned , but it went that way. They restarted at 14.06 ,not that much later than many other pilots, but they went well and raced straight to pilots starting earlier. Speed 132 km./h. for 1000 points.
I talk of course about Borgmann & Van Houweninge, Erik and Mathijs.
Only 3 points more then the French, but even 3 points can be important, as in this class a lot can still happen for the podium!!!!.
Rich ; “In the 20 Meter Class, they were sent on 578km racing task that went west to Anacacho, southeast to Callaghan, north to Aero Saylee, west to Indio Faith and northeast to finish. Straight lines, good energy lines and staying consistently in the upper third of the height band worked for this group. Not many issues on this flight.“
With one day to go the overall scores look like this; VERY EXCITING!!!!!!
Arnold & Striedieck; 8.694, loosing a bit but still on top.
Woolley & Gateley; 8,572
Rubaj & Matkowski; 8,570, very close …..
Lutz & Janowitsch; 8,499
Borgmann & Van Houweninge; 8,458
Bouderlique & de Péchy; 8,446
In this class EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
open; 613.66 km…and the 3d podium for the Netherlands with François Jeremiasse ; 129.65 km./h. just a tad faster than the German pilots .who started 2 minutes behind him.
A miserable day for the JS5 pilots all 3 were ” punished” for entering forbidden air space and THAT COST!!!! 274 points only for them. And that was then their Uvalde WGC, a pity.
Attie dropped from 4 to 7 and Oscar from 9 to 11.
“Well… not much to say but Oops. The Open class guys had a setting issue on their flight computers which didn’t warn them about the airspace they were approaching. We’ve checked the settings hundreds of times this comp, but for some reason today, the system failed us. Not much to be done about it but to learn from this and understand how not to make it happen again. Bad luck guys!
Fun is still being had by everyone and there is lots of learning to be had from this comp.”
Rich; The Open Class also had a racing task of 614km (382mi) that went south to Santa Maria Ranch, northeast to Silverhorn Ranch, north to Kerrville and southwest to finish. Again, straight lines, staying high and getting through the third leg and not get stuck, were the keys to a good finish. Getting low in the foothills cost a few pilots minutes of being in the lower half of the height band. Again, the German team showed how they fly so consistently well in all types of conditions. Felipe Levin and Michael Sommer finished second and third respectively today. If you did not realize, the Netherland Team garnered the top spot in all classes today. Winning in Open Class, and completing a clean sweep was Franois Jeremiasse (Netherlands) with a speed of 130kph (81mph) over the 614km (382mi) task. I think we should give the pilots and captain a round of applause in the morning. Nice flying!!
Indeed Joyce as TC and Baer as coach are doing a great job for the Dutch team. I do also “see the hand from Baer”.
Looking at the overall scores with 1 day to go is less exciting than in 20 m. Felipe and Michel are far ahead, but in the worst case they can instead of winning the day equal, loose a day equal. Just hypothetical, as I know they ARE GOOD!!!!
But the 2 French, Laurent and Sylvain, [ I know TC Eric has special things on his sleeve for a last day] and Francois and Jim Lee can fight for the podium too.
Last day tomorrow.
Will be back later in their morning with pictures from the “orange army” at the podium!
Mind you for a few crewmembers, it was an early morning/late night due to borrowing trailers and retrieves. All gliders except from Elena were on the grid this morning. Sterling job!!!!
CU LATER.
cheers Ritz