Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday August 8 2010 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
The 2 highlights on the soaring agenda 2010 are over and though I still have some mixed feelings it is great to see fantastic winners in both Prievidza and Szeged. The best 9 from the world in the flapped classes are from Italy [2, gold and bronse, both in the Diana], Poland [2, gold and bronse, both in ASG 29] the UK [2 both silver , one in ASG 29 , the other in a Nimbus 4] South Africa[1, silver in the JS1], Germany [1, gold in an EB 29], Belgium,[1,bronse in EB 28 edition]. The weather was pretty mediocre and the real racers flying in hot and fast conditions had less luck, then the pilots who love to fly in rainy and cloudy conditions. But that is part of soaring.
Prievidza was blessed with a real good organisation who, as I heard ”could read in the eyes your wishes”! Super!
Szeged was less lucky with their organisation,[ words as far from ideal and chaotic were heard often and read in all blogs]. I guess loosing your CD just before the comps start due to an accident does not help either!
One of my friends said it in a more pleasant way; “It was not all that bad, just not up to the standards the other contests have set”.
So let’s forget about that and remember the great winners, the smiling faces at the pictures on the different parties and the camraderie between pilots , crew and organisers from the world.
It would be unfair to forget that a lot of volunteers within the organization did a great job with a big smile..
It is pretty difficult to write stories about comps without being there. I depend on inside stories from friends and from reading all blogs I could find to make it easy for you. That might have sometimes influenced/coloured my opinion a bit. But that’s the way it is.
So 2 more years and Uvalde [Texas, big ships] and Chavez [ Argentina, smaller ships] are on the schedule! In between there is enough to write about and to look forward to.
The Dutch Junior Championships in Venlo were on since July 31 and only 3 days were unfortunately flyable . It is nice to see that “our” future looks bright with 24 participants. One of them is Thijs, the son of Daan Pare. He ended on a nice 3d place! Sietske, who was in the organisation of the Dutch Nationals , where I got to know her, is flying good. She was 7 on day 1, but lost some points on other days so ended at spot 17. The young pilots have scouts who are helping them in the air. One of the scouts this year was our top pilot and former EGC winner Steven Raimond. Also 2 of our junior TOPPERS Tim [European -Champion- runner -up] and Rene [European Champion] are helping out as scouts and looking at the pictures they have a lot of fun over there. Tim is not only a great pilot , but sings and plays the guitar just in a fantastic way.
In Bailleau an international competition started on August 2 with 54 pilots in 3 classes ,lots of them Dutch pilots. Another young lady , being in the organisation team of the Dutch Nationals, Natasja is flying there. Till now they have flown ALL days [5] and in the class “Vitesse” former WGC junior Robbie Seton [LS8a] is on spot 1 from 24 pilots. Natasja is on spot 15 at this stage in an LS6 17.5m. .
20 Pilots fly in the class “grand vols” where flights of 617 km have been set and the best pilot flew 615 km. At this stage David Muller from Holland is on spot 1.
In Rieti 33 pilots have flown for the well known Coppa Citta de Rieti. Between August 1 and 7 they fought for the nice cup. Unfortunately the weather is spoiling this competition a bit as the last flying day was last Wednesday. After 4 days the champion was Austrian pilot Gregor Stoegner , with Alvaro from Spain as runner up and Italian pilot Giancarlo Grinza as number 3.
The well-known CIM will be from August 13 till August 22 2010, with lots of international guests.
4 Days with new guests better see them now. See you again on Wednesday.
cheers Ritz