Back on track, but not yet 100 % fit. Even the one-week-holiday with my high school friends ,did n’t stop the tired feeling, after I got my booster jab on December 19.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that ,whilst I was gone, the “reading of my blog ” continued. I expected zero readers , but no it was the normal average and on June 30 even much higher. Thanks for that.
So here we go again, not to the” fullest” as I lack time to investigate all comps, but as much as I know now.

First of all congratulations to Dick Butler, who at his age won the open class comps in Hobbs New Mexico. He flew the well known CONCORDIA.
He won 4 days out of 9, so …..as always great weather in Hobbs.
10 pilots flew in open class. On June 25 ” the Concordia and Dick Butler smoked the field, completing 564km at 161kph. ” wrote Rich Owen , Team 98 Backseater.

The 15 m. class was at the same time at the same place and Rick Indrebo was the winner there in the ASG 29. He won also 4 out of 9 days.
There were 24 participants, among them Sylvia who flew the WWGC in Lake Keepit. She was now on spot 15.
Then congratulations to Davide Schiavotto who won with ONE point ,the 18 m Nationals in Italy . The one point lost was for Ricardo Brigliadori, so congratulations too…….OUCH ONLY ONE POINT!!!!!
Difference ….Winner and RUNNER UP.
Hope you found all the comps and news about the EUROGLIDE, so I concentrate now on the cat 1 comps.

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The 4th WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP for 13.5 m gliders counts 11 competitors and is flown from Pocuinai in Lithuania, between July 3 and 15.
They fly in the Versus/[Diana2] , LAK or Mini LAK [FES] .
After 3 practice days , they started on July 3 for the real “thing.”
Task 1; 237.80 km……..Challenging circumstances , not a lot of landing places and low cloud base,…. no finishers but the Italian team , Stefano [Ghiorzo] who already won once in 2019 and 2015 and Thomas [Gostner] were close; 5 and 15 km. out.
2 Dutch pilots , both former juniors, had to get in the groove of this kind of glider; they were 5 [Nick Hanenburg ] and 10 [Robin Smit] .
Task 2; 2 hour AAT….The smiles on the Dutch faces were back. They were on spot 1 and 2. They flew 189 km in time 2.04 for 628 and 625 points.
Ouch , Stefano was out,…after 113 km.
Besides the 2 Italians and 2 Dutchies there are 2 Lithuanians and one pilot from the Ukraine, Latvia ,Poland and Hungary.
Task 3; 296.93 km.…ANOTHER PREY for Stefano who was the only finisher, in his Versus/Diana 2 !!!! 70.79 Km./h., so a fight but IN.
But then something you don’t see often on a WGC…both Stefano and Thomas were disqualified for the day!
VS Stefano’s call sign got as remark; “Attempt to obtain external help. First Offence. Day disqualification”
GT Thomas call sign; “Cheating. First Offence. Disqualification”
5 Pilots were over 250 km. Thomas flew 203 km. but that’s not from interest anymore.
I need to know more to have my own opinion about this! Very remarkable and the organization cast a slur on both Stefano and Thomas, but when they are correct, I guess they don’t do this without reason as it concerns 2 top pilots, the decision 0f course stands.

The overall results after 3 challenging days and lots of “problems” on task 3 to say it euphemistic;
1. Nick Hanenburg [The Netherlands] in Mini Lak with 1.741 points.
2. Linas Miezlaiskis [Lithuania] in Mini LAK FES with 1.586 p.
3. Luka Znidarsic [Slovenia] in MINI LAK FES with 1.568 p.

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The 21st FAI European Gliding Championship in Pocuinai, is running parallel with the WGC for 13.5 m.
They fly in Club [28 entries] , 15 m.[ 26] and standard class [27] .
After 3 practice days they also started to sort out who will be the EUROPEAN champion in each class . And day 1 was some kind of disaster as all 88 pilots and and all 11 pilots [13.5m] were out!
“Tricky first day for all competitors with a lot of relights, and a mass land out in all classes. A solid start for the British team however.”
I don’t know why they often set such long distances in Pocuinai, with as result MANY out-landings!!!!It’s not the first time! Are they TOO OPTIMISTIC???
CLUB;
Task 1; 235.37 km…. NO finishers ,but a few were close. French pilot Hugo Corbille flew 216 km. The German boy’s Lukas Blattmann and Uwe Melzer, 202 km. and the 3 UK pilots Tom Arscott and Jake Brattle 201 km. and Claudia Hill 197 km.
Task 2; 2 hour AAT....Czech pilot Tomas Suchanek flew 164.76 km in time 2 hours at the dot. Dutch pilot Thies [Bruins] flew more kilometers 181.75, but needed 13 minutes before, so 1 and 2 both flying ASW 20.
2 were out.
Task 3; 237.75 km….Same order as the day before; Tomas first, Thies runner up, [starting 8 minutes earlier]and only 6 pilots IN; behind Tomas who is from Czech Rep, those were the 2 Dutchies, 3 French and 1 from Belgium.
Claudia from the UK ,a real nice lady who I met in Lake Keepit and who writes really funny stories, [ Claudia’s Gliding Page] was the first of the out landers, after 232 km;
“Another day, another mass landout. And lots of scratches under CH’s belly from a stony field. We had to go via a control point located exactly on the last leg of the task, we could see the airfield from our last climb but had to deviate to turn that control point. Without it I would have been on glide.”
With her the other 2 UK pilots, Tom and Jake were out after 228 km.
After 3 difficult days the overall scores are ;
1. Tomas Suchanek [Czech Rep.]in ASW 20 with 1.871 points.
2. Thies Bruins[ TheNetherlands] in ASW 20 with 1.809 p.
3. Arturas Pilvinis [ Lithuania] in ASW 20f with 1.615 p.
More next week.

STANDARD ;
Task 1; 278.73 km….as said NOBODY was “in”. But,..3 pilots flew over 250 km. Czech pilot Pavel Louzecky, Swedish pilot Jan-Ola Nordh and just over 250 Lithuanian pilot Ringaudas Kikalas.
7 Pilots reached 249 km. among them the German pilots Mario Kiessling and Enrique Levin and the Belgium pilots Dennis Huybreckx and Jeroen Jennen.
All flying either LS 8 or Discus in all variations.
Task 2; 2 hour AAT.….good day for the German Team, winning the day with 203 and 193 km in time 2.11 and 2.06 and the Belgium team flying 188 km in time 2.07.
Mario and Enrique started together lost each other ” somewhere”, hence the 5 minute difference. The Belgian cousins started and finished together.
“Dennis and Jeroen had to take a weaker climb to get themselves back on track after a lower point. They were not so happy in the beginning but after all we can say the result wasn’t that bad!”Belgian Gliding Team
Only one pilot was out.
Task 3; 306 km…..NO FINISHERS!!!! BUT, French pilot Valentin Leleu-Lambour did well with 258 flown km.. So did Swiss pilot Remy Hirt who flew 4 km. less but,.no not the set 306 km.
In the evening the message was ;“Low and slow in Pociunai! Today a cover a cirrus was hiding the sun and made a very difficult day for our pilots. The organization set up a B task a little bit shorter than the first one and more “crew friendly”, we wouldn’t go far into Poland.” by Belgian Gliding Team
Indeed the crews are VERY BUSY!!!
Overall result after 3 days;
1.Mario Kiessling [Germany ]in Discus 2A with 1.546 points.
2. Enrique Levin [Germany] in Discus 2A with 1.515 p.
3. Dennis Huybreckx [Belgium] in LS 8 with 1.497 p.
4. Jeroen Jennen [Belgium] in LS 8 with 1.493.

More to come next week, a lot can still happen.

15 m CLASS;
task 1; 299.33 km….no finishers but Lithuanian pilot Gintaras Drevinskas , with a rather late start, only missed out on 11 km.[288,21 km]
Swiss pilot Yves Gerster flew 281 km. and Sebastian Kawa and Lucas Grabowski 275 km.
6 Pilots could not reach 100 km …so it must have been a very challenging day!!!
Task 2; 2 hour AAT...Yves started at 1 PM , Sebastian 24 minutes later. They were 1 and 2 with 202 km in time 2.04 [97.59 km./h] and 228 km in time 2.20,45 [97.35 km./h]
7 Were out, among them Lars Groot. [The Netherlands] Tim Scott [UK] and Felipe Cvitanich from Denmark, all 3 have flown already pretty good this season.
Task 3; 344.12 km.…2 Polish pilots, [Lucasz Grabowski] and Sebastian, 2 French [Julien Duboc and Kevin[Faur] and one Finish pilot, Harri Hirvola, were in and that were the 5 finishes! Harri flew /fought over 5 hours.
20 were out!
After 3 days the overall scores are;
1. Sebastian Kawa [Poland] in Diana2 FES V with 1.996 points.
2. Lukasz Grabowski [Poland] in Diana 2 with 1.923 p.
3. Harri Hirvola [Finland] in Ventus 2A with 1.875 p.

More next week.
NO FLYING TODAY, it rains “cat’s and dogs!”

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JUST TO LET YOU KNOW!!!
The 2022 WWGC will be in August in HUSBOS.
The 2023 WWGC will be in Soria in Spain. They now fly there the Pre WWGC.

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Looking at the OLC yesterday, it was a GLORIOUS soaring day. Also here in the Netherlands, where Steven Raimond flew 770 km, but even better in Germany and Luxemburg [had a bit of it as well] ;a 1000 by Guy in the Quintus.
Germany had 15 x a 1000 with the best result at first of 1.123 km in an ARCUS. AND,…what about an 982 km flight in an LS 4 by Eric Schneider!!!
And then…..
“Crazy weather conditions in Germany! Alexander Müller has already achieved 1300km and his altitude is still over 2800m. Will that be sufficient for the magical 1400km?“Glider Forever
AND YES …he did it ; 1.421,66 km!!!!![ 963 FAI triangle]best flight of the day/ year?????!!!
In his EB 29, he had to sit for just over 12 hours! What stamina.
Speed 117 km./h…GREAT PERFORMANCE!!!!!
His comment will follow later, you can read it on the OLC or WEGLIDE.
The German weather as seen and shared by Tobias Welsch and by Frerk Frommholz in the ARCUS M taking off from Anspach Taunus.

That’s it for now, more next week. I am very interested what happens to my mates Stefano and Thomas and to see if the meteo and task-setter in Pocuinai keep setting those too long, too optimistic tasks.
Cheers Ritz