This post is only for those who are interested in my travels, like the Aussie diaries.
The next blog about soaring is on June 26.
By the way we had marvellous soaring-weather ,last Sunday [June 9]when I travelled back from Schiphol to my home town in the SE . The skies” “exploded” and you just have to look at Weglide or the OLC, to see what happened.
Many European 1000 km flights and nearly 1 from The Netherlands ;956 by Francois in an EB 29. Even more special was the flight from Jeroen flying an LS 3WL over 879.23 km. The club from Amsterdam at Soesterberg , had their 1-day-competition and they gave pilots the option to fly 1000 km.VERY UNIQUE!!!!Task 2 was; 1.043,36/2.320,49 [ 1.150.92 k]

THE SOUTH AFRICAN DIARY.

When the World Gliding Championship was hosted by the organisation of Mafikeng in S.A. more than 20 years ago, I could have been TC for team Holland, but I reckoned it would be better to sent a male person, as I did n’t like to go there as nobody could guaranty the safety of the pilots after an out-landing. Of course that problem can be everywhere, but in that time S.A was a bit “restless”.

Hence,…this was my very first vist to this great part of the world and I loved every minute!!!!!.
My family invited me to come with them to Madikwe, where they had stayed earlier in the Madikwe Game Reserve. My grand children , now 18 and 20, tried hard to convince me and were more than pleased when I said YES, and….. I thought WHY NOT.
We stayed 2 nights in the Hilton at Johannesburg, travelled to close to Rustenburg, to a great holiday park from ANEW, where we stayed in 3 bungalows also for 2 nights. During the trip the rain was pouring down and heavy thunderstorms with a huge amount of rain accompanied us, but we knew it would be better.
It is winter in S.A. and at 6 it is dark outside. Temperatures between 0 at night and 24 during the day.
At the ANEW resort you could swim, play tennis, or golf, race on quads, so a lot of sportive events. But also a place for congresses and readings.
The 3 ladies , my daughter, granddaughter and I, choose to have a massage, and / or foot pedicure. I had the 1 hour massage and felt new. My neck could move again to the r. and l, which was good for the safaris waiting for us.

The total trip from Johannesburg to the Madikwe Reserve was nearly 5 hours, so a 3 hour voyage was still waiting. My main goal was to see a giraffe and the first animal we saw when we entered the reserve, was a GIRAFFE.
Madikwe has over 20 lodges surrounded by villas-for-rent and a lot of private houses.
We stayed at the Rockfig lodge, a small and intimate lodge nestled in the unspoilt wilderness , with a pool, a “braai” area ,garden and point to look over the wilderness and a waterpoint to see animals passing by for a drink. And YES we saw them, just behind the house; zebras, impalas, monkeys AND elephants.
https://rockfigmadikwe.co.za/villas/inkwe-private-family-house/

We arrived at 2 PM and 4 very friendly staff-people were waiting for us with a warm wet towel and a drink in front of the lodge.
We straight away felt welcome. We got a lovely personal assistant, bringing out the food but also “reading” all our wishes. The ranger , Kagiso, was one of them and at 3 , after a short high tea, we had our first safari trip already in the open 9 person jeep.
Amazing how many animals we saw during our first drive with Kagiso, who was very good. He knew the places where to go and could tell us all we wanted to know.
At sunset around 5.30 , he stopped EVERY day, somewhere on a nice spot, for a drink and a “bite” and to see the sun go down in 5 minutes .
Then to finish the safari, we left to the waterhole where giraffes, elephants, zebras, buffalos, rinoceros and many other more small animals finished their day with a drink .
A 3 course dinner in the lodge, finished our day and off we went to our beautiful ‘ Inkwe private family’ house for 6 persons…totally in in oriental style!
Warning; you put on weight!!!!

Wednesday June.5…..Alarm was set for 5.40….Light breakfast before departure . Kagiso had put blankets, a hot-water- bottle and a cape with fleece inside and wind protection outside, on the chairs. There was frost over night.
Inge told me before to take “layers: with me. So several clothes over each other [ to remove when necessary ] and a warm hat and gloves.
Excitement …a lion was spotted by other rangers!!!! And yes …. we saw the lion , with a “fat: belly after a good meal overnight, sunbathing in sand. He was sleepy from the hard work, but when he heard us he was willing to put his “photographic ” face on.

After the morning safari it was time for a continental breakfast, combined with a cooked one to your taste. Then time to swim, sunbath or read a book completely undisturbed by noise. You hear only birds……totally relaxed.
At 3 high tea with sweet and sour again, prepared by 3 good chefs, an experienced one,a younger one and a nice young lady.
3.15 safari. A total new route with giraffes keeping an eye on us . And of course ALL other animals.

Kagiso, driving through the gorgeous flora.

The day was finished at the waterhole again now with nearly 200 buffalos trying to get in the water and to drink. And of course all the other “usual suspects” ,but it’s weird how quick you get used to it.
The ranger had a big light and the buffalos all looked in that. Very interesting specially because there were SO MANY.
I found the elephants sometimes intimidating!!!! Certainly when they were close b

Thursday June 6; A special day as in the evening they would prepare a “braai” for us outside along the bonfire! BUT,…first we went on the safari trip again and this time we “found” 2 lionesses. About 4 and 6 years old according to our ranger. We really needed the jeep, as we drove over bushes higher than the car, to see them. Unbelievable how strong that jeep was.
In the evening I did not go for another safari, as I hit my knee on the stairs from the jeep.
So I could see all preparations for the “braai”.
Table was beautifully set out side, bonfire was burning with chairs around it to keep warm. The chef and his assistants cooked our bread rolls and meat on the “braai”.
Very special evening.

Friday June 7; On the early morning , on another very special day…we left at 8 and would drive till 6.15PM to see all Madikwe flora and fauna this time with a lunch in the bush.
And …..another high light, as “we found” a cheetah. Another gorgeous animal. Look at it.

We drove to nearly the Botswana border and followed the Madikwe river on our search for hippo’s. They were not where they should be. We saw/smelled a dead giraffe,…old age, according to Kagiso Party time for wild dogs and hyenas, and not to forget vultures.
We had wine with our cooked lunch. Yes he “cooked” spare ribs outside and had all yummie, bites going with it, for us, as meat pie , a wrap and scones.

Mountains existing out of red stone were new again and beautiful.Not glued together, but not falling down. Amazing.
We noticed 3 wind socks and a plane. I had a few words with the 2 young pilots , making hours to continue later in the aviation world. There are 2 runways, 1 from gravel and a 1.2 km. long concrete runway. Lot’s of cross wind there. They often fly guests to the reserve.

Another long day was over.

Saturday June 8, day of our departure but first AGAIN a safari at 6 AM.BUT,…no worries, we had to go through the bush again as the message was …4 lionesses. Another car was already there and indeed we saw the 4 animals.
That was pretty scary as Kagiso drove very close and we were surrounded by 3 of them. I felt a bit sorry as those poor full -eaten- animals, just wanted to sleep. Indya took pictures.

At 1 we had our last lunch, said good bye to the chef and his helpers, to the GM and Kagiso.
We had a SUPERB time!!!!

Here is a 38 sec video from a lot of the animals we have seen by Indya.
5f8ae71f85e2450497e2e91f994c4791.mov

5 hours over toll roads this time and at 6 we were in Joburg. During the nearly 11 hour flight I only slept 1 hour, so I was worn out, but made time to share the diary with yo over the next days. Mind you . I had to go to the dentist too on Monday as I lost my golden crown and just missed out on swallowing it.
It’s back now in my mouth.

What a HAPPY week with my lovely family and all those hardworking, caring staff members of the RESERVE.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
A SPECIAL THANK YOU to Indya for her excellent pictures.
To make it an even better HAPPY END, we just heard that Dexter has passed his high-school -exams with good notes!!!! TOP!!!!!

Cheers Ritz
P/S Off now for my annual 1 week holiday with my high-school- friends.
Back for you on June 26!!

Post 1.501 on May 29 2024

FAI QUALIFYING SGP in NORWAY
Elverum Starmoen
MAY 19-25

Race 3; 260.22km…start at 14.40;
“We are ready for another competition day under a sunny, blue sky! A task of 260km is set, proposing different challenges for the pilots.First they will visit the flatlands to the south of the airfield. Then the task will take them towards the mountains and valleys in the north.” the organizers
Good to see that the Scandinavian pilots “topped” this day. Ronny [ Eriksson] from Sweden, won the 10 daily points with 101.4 km./h in his brand-new JS3RES.
Norwegian Arne Martin [Güettler] was runner up with 99.6 km./h in the same brand-new glider.
Joachim and Matthew were virtual out after 256 and 254 km. , as 3 more pilots.
Matthew; “new game plan – under NO circumstances would I lead out onto final glide. Got myself to the top of the lead gaggle and refused to lead out. Went with a couple of other great pilots and sat behind them waiting for them to find the final glide climb. We all started engines and those behind us got something and got home. WTF. 0 points.”
Here is Arne Martin;
“Another blue day today at the third race of the Norwegian FAI Sailplane Grand Prix. It went well for the first half, as I was able to keep up with the leaders. Then I got in trouble on the leg towards Lillehammer. Got low, had to circle in a 0.5 m/s thermal to have enough altitude to move on, and watched the entire field pass over me. Then it was a change of gear, climb up again, and try to stay high for the rest of the task.
And on the return towards Starmoen, I suddenly found myself at the top of the gaggle. I was then even lucky and got a nice 3 m/s thermal which most of the others missed, which got me onto a comfortable final glide, which got me to the finish in 2nd place, only behind Ronny Eriksson!”
https://www.weglide.org/flight/403981

Race 4; 295.62 km…estimated first start at 13.00….it was in the end 13.35.
Conrad Hartter won again 126.1 km./h and added 10 points to his score!33 now!!!
Joachim was just a tad slower; 125.8 km./h. Another German pilot, a bit of a German day,Michael Pfenning had 124 km./h. Matthew was 4th and Kato from Norway, 5th for 5 points.
Kato shared some pictures after his flight. This is on the way to TP 1.

FAI Sailplane Grand Prix

Arne Martin; “Today I made life difficult for myself, by getting low and far behind on the first leg. Good fun chasing the rest down afterwards, but it was too much of a task to catch them all, so 9th and a single point was all I could do.
Still I have scored points every day, and miraculously, my single point today moved me up from 4th to 3rd overall! But very close from 2nd down, while Conrad has an almost impossible lead by now.”

Race 5;176.28 km…Start time; 13:20… Matthew won with 122.8 km./h. Klaus and Arne were on 2 and 3 with 121.3 and 120.3 km./h.
With 1 day to go, Conrad is still on top with 39 points. Followed by Arne Martin with 25 points, Matthew with 24 and Klaus with 23 p. So for the last 2 younger ones, it all depends on the last day.
Here is Arne Martin Güettler
“Unstable weather with Cb and showers expected. But we found good lift and I was able to stay with the leader group, headed by Matthew Scutter’s Gliding.
Had an exciting moment when I started getting smoke from the SDCard reader of my flight computer! But luckily I was able to eject the SDCard, and the smoke stopped, and the flight computer worked after a reboot. But lost some concentration there, and lost contact with Matthew.
And towards the end the chasing group started catching up, and Klaus Kalmbach managed to sneak by with a more risky final glide. But I still ended up in 3rd place, and moved up to 2nd in the total results.”
Matthew; “Overcast skies, slow building CB’s everywhere. My kind of weather. A major routing decision had to be made out of the gate, and almost everyone got it wrong. Lead out the whole day and home first without any big issues. 10 points!”

Race 6;penultimate day!!!!!189.38 km.…start;13.00 .
” All pilots are launched and the start-line will open @13:00. The conditions are booming“
Even without flying Conrad was the winner, [39 points before flying on the last day] but excitement enough for the runner-up-spot.
It turned out however, more difficult than expected, “overdeveloping Cumulus today, which eventually became spread out and made the flying difficult. 2 pilots returned to the field after the start, as they used their engines. A Norwegian pilot and young Joachim Schwenk, a pity. He will stay on 16 points.
Daily winner was Swedish pilot Ronny Eriksson. He got the 11 points for a speed of 105.1 km./h.
1. Conrad Hartter [Germany] in JS1C with 39 points.
2. Klaus Kalmbach [Germany] in JS 3 with 31 points.
3. Arne Martin Güettler [Norway] in JS3 RES with 31 points.

Arne Martin explains why he is 3d:
“Coming into the final day I was in second place, with 3 other pilots barely behind. We were all flying as part of the leading gaggle, so it was going to be a close finish. In the end one of them managed to sneak past me by the narrowest of margins. So I ended up in 4th place today, and 3rd overall by the tiniest of margins. Equal on points to second position, but lost out due to him having a day win, while my best result was second.“
“Those points I lost due to being 3m too low on the first day turned out to be costly.Never the less, I’m very satisfied with 3rd place overall in my first ever international competition!“
The “wrap” from Matthew on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

The 17 competitors and the last words are for the organizers;

———————————————————-

——Off to Germany now for the next races from edition 12 in mixed / standard/15 m class. Practise at the airport of Aalen was last Saturday, but was cancelled due to RAIN!!!! Race 1 was on Sunday May 26 continuing to June 1.
A lot of good pilots ; a mix from very young and “older”. A total of 33!!!!! But 20 in the SGP among them 2 pilots from the UK
Along the FAI qualifying SGP they fly the Ostalb GP in 2-seaters. 13 Teams in ARCUS and DUO DISCUS including ,an Austrian and Belgian team.
EXPERIMENTAL.
“As part of the experimental development of Sailplane Grand Prix in our sport, the SGP Germany 2024 team offered to test SGP format and rules with a new class, the popular double seater 20m class. This Sailplane Grand Prix is therefore not part of the official Serie 12 and will not qualify any pilot for the official Finale in 2026. But many pilots are looking forward to compete SGP in double seater in next future!“
https://sgp.aero/germany2024

18m;
Race 1; on Sunday May 26……280.85km start at 1.31 PM. A tough day with 4 “outlandings” among them …Tilo after 242 km. The winner in Ventus 2A was Steffen Göttler; speed 105.5 km./h.
Monday was CANCELLED for good reasons , as you can see,

but on Tuesday a new race was set….
Race 2; 228.46 km…with an early estimated start at 12….but it was 13.06.
News from the organizers;”Today’s race will be intense!The weather forecast isn’t very optimistic for the next few days so the pilots know that they need to collect points today if they want to have a chance to step on the podium.To add a bit of challenge, the weather conditions are forecasted as “tricky” along the race with very wet areas.But the pilots are ready and it will be very exciting to watch!”
In the end it was an interesting race, with all pilots a bit in the same situation TILL nearly at the end ,30 km before the finish, when some out-landed, some were low “but found something and some made it home!”
Daily winner; Björn Gintzel just 30 seconds ahead of Jan Knischewski; 98.7 for 98.3 km./h. David Bauder was 3d.

So after 2 days of flying , but hopefully 4 more to come, the overall scores are; 16 for Jan, 15 for Steffen and 13 for David.

2-seaters;
Race 1; 241.66 km….ALWAYS GOOD!!!! Wolfgang [Janowitsch] and Andreas [Andy Lutz] won the day in the ARCUS M,[102.5 km./h] followed by another ARCUS M with Alexander Schmidt.[95.6 km./h]

Monday was cancelled
Race 2; 205.55 km….start at 13.40. 9 were “in” and 3 were “out” and 1 did not start.Winners. Wolfgang and Andy for 10 points !!! Team Schmidt got as runner up 8 points.
18 points for Andy and Wolfgang now so topping the list with 4 days to go. Runners up; team Schmidt with 14 points.

——Straight after it’s ITALY , running the race from Varese , between June 2 and 8. Very strong “field” of pilots. 14 From the 20 participants are well-known toppers!!!!!
You can follow it all on https://sgp.aero/italy2024

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18 m and 20 m UK NATIONALS;
Lasham May 27- June 4.

A great way of announcing the NATIONALS with such a picture shared by Lasham Comps
52 pilots in 2 classes. Can’t wait!!!!!
“A fast window is expected today before an occlusion arrives from the west this evening. Racing tasks have been set for both classes.”
June 25...
18m;
task 1; 347.63 km…..41 pilots in this class and only 2 were “out”. Best speed by  Gary Stingemore in the AS33es; 120.58 km./h
Just a tad slower ; Pete [Harvey] in VENTUS 3; 119.04 km./h.
2 JS3 pilots Ian MacArthur and Russell had 118 km./h.
20 m;
task 1;  347.63 km….11 pilots/teams in this class and daily best; Garry Coppin in the ARCUS 2. Mike [Young] in ARCUS M was 4th and Andy [Davis] in DGA 1000 s was on spot 8.

June 26 had tasks ,239.14 km and 160.84 km. but they were CANCELLED.
It seems this will be the WETTEST spring ever in Europe.

June 27; same task for both classes.
18m; 239.14... changed in  160.41 km….. With better luck , but only for some, as from the 35 starters , only 4 finished and best was AGAIN Gary.86.37 km./h. The AS 33es is going well.
Chris Starkey, Liz Sparrow and Matt Davis were “IN” as well. GOOD!!! One of the pilots was only 10 k out.
20 m; 239.14 km.…changed in 160.41 km……still too long as NOBODY FINISHED!!!
4 Flew over 100 km.

June 28 had NO TASK.

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The French 18 m and OPEN CLASS nationals.
Beynes Thiverval 26 May 2024 – 1 June 2024

36 pilots in one mixed class of open and 18m gliders with also here several TOPPERS.
4 HC pilots ,Guillaume[ Dohet] in ARCUS 2 T Pierre [de Broqueville] from Belgium in his EB29DR and Peter [Eriksen] from Denmark, who was 3d at the Danish Nationals and should be “in the groove”.from Italy Luca [Urbani] participates.
They started last Sunday with day 1 ; a 2.30 AAT.... BUT,…the day was CANCELLED.
Task 2 was last Monday; 2.30 AAT....UNFORTUNATELY, CANCELLED as well.
NO TASK on Tuesday..

–—-Some of the French ladies are flying the AZ CUP 2024 in  Zbraslavice in the Czech Rep.
82 Competitors in 3 classes ;15 m mixed, open mixed and club. They started on May 24 and continue till June1.
Aude and Melanie, fly in 15m mixed together with 15 other pilots among them some ladies from Czech Rep; Dana Novakova, Jana Treslova and Barbora Moravcova.
In the mixed open ; 38 pilots among them more Czech ladies as Alena Netusilova and  Hana Treslova.
26 fly in Club class among them Tomas Suchanek. He won in his ASW 20 task1; 1.30 AAT.
They had till now 2 tasks in the mixed 15 and today a 3 hour AAT.
In mixed open 1 task and today also a 3 hour AAT.
In club 2 days flown and today also a 3 hour AAT.

As I am not there you can find all results on ; www.soaringspot.com

——————————————————–

The CANADIAN NATIONALS 2024 flown from Cu Nim, were hit by rain as well and a lovely gorgeous evening rainbow.
Till now the weather was not good at that part of the world either, so only 1 day was flown and Dave Springford was the only finisher from 7, on an AAT of 2.15 , flying 227 km with 89 km./h.
In club they had a 2.30 AAT and 4 from 15 finished.

——————————————-

—-VIRTUAL SOARING NEWS.….. Overall Results of the Pro Championship – FAI Virtual World Gliding Championship 2024 .

The month of MAY is nearly over and it was here in The Netherlands the wettest ever. Specially in my area we had , close by, up to 200 mm rain in 1 day due to a cloud burst. That’s much more than normally in a whole month. Result, flooding’s !!!

Hope you find your way on the net, when I am away.
I often hear that people read my blogs to follow the comps, short and compact in one go.
CU again on June 26.

Cheers Ritz

To finish these BEAUTIFUL pictures shared by John McCaw
“Most beautiful light yesterday, returning from a wave flight at Springfield over the Torlesse range and the Canterbury plains with Greg Tucker flying the Canterbury Gliding Club‘s Janus C”

Post 1.500 on May 22 2024

WOW 1500!!!!!! Proud. And that’s mostly from around 2006. Before , in the nineties, I wrote a daily blog at Sportavia for 10 years.

I own you the last 2 days of the great and exciting Danish Championship. Pilots dropped places after out-landings , but still WON!!!
This is what happend on the last 2 days!

Danish Nationals 2024
9 May 2024 – 19 May 2024

With 2 days to go,after task 6, the overall scores in the 5 classes looked as follows;
Club; Uffe [3.093] , Jan [ 2.899] and Felipe [2.824].
Standard; Filip [ 2.421] Lasse [ 2.397] Kevin[ 3.283 ]
15 m; Rasmus [2.499] Morten [ 2.444] Knud[ 2.835]
18m; Jan [2.792] Arne [2.727 ] Peter [2.617]

May 18. big tasks!!!!! meaning great soaring weather.
Club; Task 7…. 403.66 km..a day on which 17 club class pilots started, 7 finished and 7 got “airspace” behind their call sign.
2 ASW 20 WL in the top. Jan Walther [Andersen] used to fly in open class, when I knew him, won the day for 1000 point; 94.45 km./h. Runner up Steen [Elmgaard] started and finished at the same time and “got” 993 points.
Uffe [Edslev] proudly on top overall was out and “got” 414 points meaning he dropped from 1 to 3. Ouch….
Standard; task 7….442.47 km…..Lasse Edslev had a better day ; 1000 points for him.105.82 km./h for him.
2 points less for Jacob in a Discus 2a.
All 8 started and finished. TOP DAY!
15 m; task 7… 442.47 km…Morten Bennick, flew with 105 km./h to the 1000 points.
10 started and 2 were out. Henrik was 4th.
18 m; task 9 ..572.40 km….weather can be really good in Denmark as in other Scandinavian countries , but wet as well. This was a “nice” day. Specially for Arne Boye Møller in his JS 3.With 113 km./h he was the daily best and after his out-landing on task 6, when he dropped from 1 to 2, he is “fighting” himself to the top again.
20 started and 14 finished and several got “airspace” behind their call sign. Stig was one of them dropping from 7 to 11. A pity.
2-seaters; task 8..515.60 km…….Jørgensen & Rahtkens won the day in the ARCUS T, moving up from 6 to 4 overall.
All 13 started and 8 finished.

May 19 LAST DAY.….one more day of tough work in the “office”, meaning more hours in the air.
Club; task 8…4 hour AAT.…Not for Jan Walther Andersen, he flew 426.28 km with 98.47 km./h. Good enough for spot 1 overall with quite a marge. Jan won 3 days.
18 started and 14 finished;
Overall scores and the new Danish CHAMPION in CLUB CLASS;
1. Jan Walther Andersen in ASW 20 WL with 4,899 points. Congrats Jan.
2. Jens Andersen in MOSQUITO with 4,615 points.
3. Uffe Edslev in LS4a with 4,479 points . That was 6 points more then Steen.

standard class; task 8….4 hour AAT [ 360.66 km  /  632.80 km  (486.43 km)….with 427 km in an LS 8 neo Lasse Edslev won the last day; 104 km./h. over 427 km, but just missed out on the title with 7 points.
Philip in the Discus was 3d.
All 8 started and finished on a ‘high’.
Overall scores in standard class and new Danish Champion ;
1. Filip Bojanowski in Discus 2b with 4,404 points . He won 1 day but flew very consistent.
2. Lasse Edslev in LS 8 neo with 4,397 points. Won 4 days but on the day they all were out he lost 136 p.
3. Kevin Kjær Andersen in LS 8 with 4.270 points.

15 m class; task 8…4 hour AAT….490 km with 110 km./h was the best result for Poul Kim Larsen in a Ventus 2cT. Rasmus and Henrik were on spot 3 and 4. Morten was 7th and lost just 7 points too much and tumbled from 1 to 2. Henrik passed him on the last day to be for the first time during these nationals , on spot 1 overall. That’s called “peaking” at the right time.
Overall scores in 15 m class and Danish NATIONAL champion;
1. Henrik Breidahl in JS 3 with 4,279 points. Congratulations Henrik!!!
2. Morten Nørgaard in ASW 27B with 4.272 points.
3. Rasmus Ørskov in JS3 with 4,248 points. Good on you Rasmus!

18 m. class; task 10….4 hour AAT….Arne managed to fly 496.54 km with 120.91 km./h good for again 1000 points. He started pretty late,14.22, taking I guess a calculated risk to be in the end THE CHAMPION. Peter started at 14.08 was runner up and only lost 2 points on Arne.
Stig was 6th and going up again from 12 to 11.
Overall scores in 18 m class and Danish national CHAMPION;
1. Arne Boye Møller in JS 3jet with 4.727 points. Great job Arne!!!!
2. Jan Jørgensen in ASG 29 with 4,679 points. Don’t know Jan but congrats!!!
3. Peter Eriksen in AS33es with 4,471 points. Well done Peter.

2-seaters; task 9…. 4 hour AAT.…Mix & Christensen in a Duo Discus XLT won the last day.452.77 km with 111.93 km./h.
All 12 starters finished.
Overall scores for the 2 seater class and National Champions;
1. Dantoft & Dantoft in Duo Discus WL with 4,643 points.
2. Mix & Christensen in Duo Discus XLT with 4,602 points.
3. Sørensen & Sørensen in ARCUS T with 4,387 points.

With 7 out of 10 days and on some of them, absolutely perfect soaring weather, these nationals have been really nice to follow!!
Between 1970 and 2023 , I read, there have been several top pilots participating. Jan and Stig both won 21 nationals. Jan added this year another title…22!!!! AMAZING!!!!
Arne had 14 titles and added 1 too. And Henrik had 8 ..now 9!!!
Nice to see that they keep going for years and stay on a high level!!!.
GOOD ON THEM.

Jonker Sailplanes added :
“The Danish Gliding Nationals 2024 saw two new JS3 RES pilots participating in respectively the 18m and 15m classes – and it was a nail-biting race to the end with a total of 7 mostly blue flying days of 10 possible where both champions had to fight hard to crawl up the ladder. The competition started with mediocre conditions and turbulent (low buoyancy / sheer ratio due to 20knot winds) and some 3.600′ when it was good – but later the weather turned stronger and the last two days were strong with 6.600′ base – and nearly all of Jutland was traversed from central Jutland to the North and to the South with often stunning views of the west coast and inner fjords.”

Thanks AGAIN Arne for the Pictures. Here is the last one a funny ,but a VERY SERIOUS one, looking at the face of this little one.

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The QUALIFYING FAI SGP in NORWAY.
Elverum Starmoen
19 May 2024 – 25 May 2024

After Spain, this is the 2d race from edition 12 ; flown in 18 m.
Race 1;
“After several practice days in good weather, the pilots have been exploring the contest area with the hills and mountains to the north, and the flatlands to the south.”
“Our pilots showcased incredible skill over the 177.93 km course, starting strong in this thrilling series!”
Start at 13.45. 15 pilots attend and they are from Germany, Sweden ,Australia, Czech Rep and of course Norway.
Matthew mentioned; “Strong first day at Norway Grand Prix with 2nd place. Complex weather to the north resulted in a task under the 5500ft airspace to the south, which was very challenging with a heavily overdeveloped 8000ft cloudbase. Very hard to pick the climbs up under 8/8ths when always so low. Eventually dribbled back out into a booming convergence (pictured) for final glide.I did all the right things and made no major errors, but could only cover so many bases and a few got away from the pack, with one making it work! Congrats Conrad“
Arne Martin Güettler from Norway mentioned;
“That didn’t go as planned! Got way too low twice, but was lucky to make it out of it both times with a decent thermal. Raced Matthew Scutter’s Gliding to the line for second place, but was beaten by one second. And was a few meters too low too, giving me a some more seconds of penalty, dropping me two more places. If I was only 3m higher and 2 seconds faster I would have been 2nd… But at least got some points for 5th place.The Grand Prix is underway at last.”
Mind you;….Arne Martin is the WORLD CHAMPION of the VIRTUAL SGP .
You can read all about it on
https://sgp.aero/news/warm-up-a-dive-into-the-mind-of-a-arne-martin-gettler-world-champion-of-the-virtual-sgp
Winners from day 1;

Race ; “New day, new opportunities!Weather situation has given us a calm morning after a great day of racing yesterday.A layer of clouds is covering the task area until late noon. Weather looks good for afternoon and early evening with dry thermals and maybe some whisks of cloud up to 1800m AGL.”
In the end the day was cancelled.
“Todays temperature never reached 20 degrees as forecasted. Thus the thermals never reached the strength and height needed to compete today.”

Race 2; start at 13.30 and 257.24 km to go!! Start-line open at; 14.30.
“The sun and the heat is on for our third day and 2nd race for QSGP at Elverum, Norway. Gliders are gridded and the launch is about to start at 12:30.The competitors will fly a task of 257km today mostly in the valley of Østerdalen to the north of the airfield. Task will be flown in blue thermals up to 1900m AGL.
We are expecting an exciting and challenging race in the valley today.”

Indeed a very blue day, not good for everybody!
Klaus Kalmbach from Germany in a JS3, flew 119.7 km/h and got the daily 10 points. Runner up was another German pilot Conrad ,[119.3 km./h ] who won race 1 already and 3d was Joachim Schwenk; 118.05 km./h for 8 points. It seems the finishes were impressive!
Quite a few penalties as well.
Arne Martin Güettler; “Was forecast to be mostly blue, but we actually got some clouds in the northern part of the task, which helped. Still, I lost a bit too much time on the long southbound leg, never felt I got the good climbs I needed.” he was 6th for the day.
Matthew had to use his engine after 253 km and here is why?;
“The SkySight convergence forecast on the LX didn’t save me from myself today – I utilised it to get myself into prime position for a day win, but leading the gaggle out from cloud base to find the final climb of the task, I missed it and the gaggle behind got something else. Just needed 3kts to make it happen and instead got my first engine start in as long as I can remember. 10 points to 0 points!“

You can follow the next races on live tracking ; https://sgp.onglide.com/
Race 3 today; 260.22 km..…estimated regatta start at at 13.30.
More next week…
It seems that the “The automatic scoring has been full of errors in dishing out penalties, so they’ve had to do it manually, and it’s still being updated.”
So scores I wrote down are for now preliminary.

——————————————–

—–News from 13th FAI Junior World Gliding Championships & 5th FAI 13,5m WGC 2024
“Dear Pilots and Team Capitans Championship is getting closer We have confirmed 67 entries on JWGC from 21 countries Today self briefing have been publishedYou can find it on the competition website https://jwgc2024.pl/en/2024/downloads

–——The Boeing 777 from Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 took off from London Heathrow last Monday night and had a scary few minutes.:
“A British grandfather [ 73, on his way to Australia] has died and dozens are injured after a Singapore Airlines flight was hit by extreme turbulence.There were 211 passengers, including 56 Australians, and 18 crew members on board as the plane dropped 6,000 feet in just a few minutes before being diverted to Bangkok.” 9 news.
It seems the granddad died of a heart attack. All passengers , who could still fly, have landed in Singapore this morning.

That’s it for now. Enough writing over the last week, so CU next Wednesday again.
Just to let you know already; NO BLOGS between May 31 and June 26, due to renovations to the house and holidays.

Cheers Ritz.

Post 1.499 on May 20 2024 on WEDNESDAY post 1500.

Words combined with pictures!!! It’s a real clear way of sharing our sport.
You might have seen in my last blog, the picture from the 6 Dutch juniors participating in the JWGC in Ostrow in July 2024.
I met a few last Saturday , among them Tim and Jasper. Lars was there as well, he even won the last day.
Both Tim and Jasper, were in Australia during the WGC period in Narromine.

This is Tim helping out to put the glider in the trailer. Evelien really helped hard as well and was soaked from the rain.

Jasper had the time of his life, visiting even my family in Tocumwal. He flew a competition as well in Leeton and was runner up.
History repeats I can nearly say; His dad Edgar, was a friend of our Dennis. I picked him up at the station of Woerden and he stayed with us at several weekends soaring at Terlet, as did Wouter and Niels .
Now my granddaughter Indya travels with him to Ostrow, as his crew. This world is so “small” and recognizable.
By the way Edgar’s dad and Jaspers grand dad, Ben was a colleague of George at Transavia.
No picture from Jasper, he out landed on the last day.

BUT,…I found one later in the day in the glider with his mates among them Tijs Vermeer on the r. son from Marco!

Thies ; relatively new for me, was runner up during that WGC, but had an incident with his glider behind the car on his way to the grid, meaning he could not fly the last days and a “may-be” title was gone. BUT a very well deserved Dutch NATIONAL CHAMPION TITLE is pretty good too.

Former Junior Robbie [Seton] , [I was his TC in Husbos, years ago,] won in the combi class. Robbie and his family are real Keiheuvel [ Belgium] members. Robbie is over the last couple of years the CD at the Keiheuvel comps in August. He was a good young pilot , he still is a good pilot.

The BB team Hans Biesters and his LONGTIME crew, was ready just before the storm and as you can see they were really pleased to have the glider in the trailer in time. This couple “works” together as long as I know them.

It’s always GOOD to be back at Terlet. I lived with my children many years in the caravan on the camping , best place to be!!!Our caravan was a “home” for several young ones. Great fun.
It’s good to see that our granddaughter Indya loves gliding as much as I did .
With my daughter Inge she stood in the pouring rain , even with big smiles, to help granddad and Diana with their gliders. Mind you the youngest was 20 during this National Championship the oldest nearly 75 and that was George.

The open class winner was Francois. I have been at several comps were he participated. In August he travels with Frans ..the photographer of the pictures in my last blog from the prize winners, to Uvalde for the WGC over there. THANK YOU FRANS, got them !!!!!
He allowed a picture as well, straight after the closing ceremony.

Did I see mates from my age??? Yes several, Harold was there, Hans and not to forget Eagle.
I had to have a few words with him, but a NICE picture was allowed.Here you are.

Last but not least a picture of Steven and Marion, specially again for Art in Canada.
Steven and Marion both retired from KLM . Steven bought a new glider the AS33es , he told me he is very happy with it, he won the Nationals as well. He is not so much in the mood anymore for big comps, but the nationals remain on his list.

That was the “story” of Terlet NK 2024 for me. 1 Day ,but enough to catch up again with the atmosphere of soaring I inhaled, for so many years.

A BIG THANK YOU to the very experienced,already for a few years, organizing team with Rik as CD.

Wednesday more about the 2 last BIG days during the Danish Nationals and the start of the FAI SGP in Norway.

Enjoy your 2d Pentecost- day.
Cheers Ritz.
P/S lot’s of rain creates super mushrooms even on the holy grass of Terlet.

P.S 2. I found a much better picture of the thunderstorm from Robert Jungblut

Post 1.498 on May 19 2024

Dutch Nationals flown at Terlet.
May 9-18 2024.

Wednesday May 15; small tasks BUT …tasks!!!!
First the winners were cheered on from Tuesday. Steven[18m] was one of them.

Club; 121.81 km….task to the NE …The LS3 from Jeroen [van Dijk] flew fast!!!! 99.96 km./h Runner up Robin [Smit] in LS 4 neo flew 86.29 km./h.
All 9 started for this short task and ALL finished.Some started at 13.40 the winner at 14.07 and the last on 15.08!! Maybe problems??? I don’ t know….Lars is still very young.
18m; 158.99 km….There was a difference from 3 points in the scores between winner Hadriaan and runner up Steven [Raimond]; 110.90 and 110.88 km./h.
All 14 started between 14.04 and 14.22 and they all finished.
open;  173.31 km…CANCELLED.
combi; 134.31 km….start times between 13.38 and 14.42; Ralph Nijhoff from the Gelderse flew the ARCUS with 94.29 km./h. and he started at 14.25. All 11 started and 2 were out

Thursday May 16; NO TASK.

Friday May 17; small tasks due to uncertain weather, but they fly. Tasks more to the NE where the weather should be best. Flying day 7 out of 9, for Club, open and 2 seaters and 8 for 18 m class.
In the evening there is a a special event to raise money for the juniors travelling to the JWGC. Part of the payment for all drinks will be for the young ones.
See picture below.
Club; 114.95 km….
18 m; 163.49 km….
open; 173.81 km..
combi; 133.18 km….
All flights were cancelled. So no changes in the scores with 1 day to go;

Saturday May 18. Possibility for showers and thunderstorms on the very last day of these interesting NATIONALS.
Should I go to Terlet or not?
I went, and good I did as they flew on the last day. And as always it was great fun.
Club; 185.22 km….the last couple of days 3 pilots were in the top 3. Thies, Robin and Jeroen. On the last day , number 4 Lars [van Breemen] in LS4b Neo did well; 80.59 km./h.They were in before the thunderstorm arrived.
One was out .
After 7 out of 10 days we got a NATIONAL CHAMPION , a runner up and a 3d place in club class;
1. Thies Bruins in ASW 20WL with 4.567 points.
2. Robin Smit in LS 4 neo X with 4,424 points.
3. Jeroen van Dijk in LS3 with 4,321 points.
Lars who won the last day missed out on 10 points to be on spot 3 as well.

18 m; 233.75 km….We heard at the ground that some pilots had difficulties with the showers but before we knew they were back. Jeroen won the day with a speed of 123.35 km./h in an ultimate attempt to get on spot 2. That worked; 10 km/h faster than the rest. Steven was on spot 1 most of the comps and with a good last flight as number 3 , he was sure of the CUP. By the way Dutch Lasham pilot Mark Weering was runner up.
Hadriaan had a bad day. Starting as number 2 overall in the morning, he was only 10th BUT IN. Unfortunately for him he moved from 2 to 3 overall.
4 from 14 were “hit” by showers with bad air behind them, so they used their engine.
After 8 out of 10 days we had a Dutch 18 m CHAMPION we had seen before;
1. Steven Raimond in AS33es with 4,106 points.
2. Jeroen Verkuijl in JS 3 with 4,017 points.
3. Hadriaan van Nes in JS1 BTJ with 3,976 points.

Open class; 262.78 km….there was no doubt that Francois in the EB was going to be the champion, but also he had to fly the last task first. He did; he was runner up with 122,45 km./h. Rien Bastiaanse & Jeroen Kole [ASH 30 Mi] were the Daily winners and all 9 started and finished on this last day.
So the new Dutch CHAMPION was CLEAR;
1. Francois Jeremiasse in EB 29R with 4,465 points.
2. Marco Vermeer & Ronald Termaat in the NIMBUS 4DT with 4,083 points
3. Max Leenders & Bart Renckens in EB29DR with 3,715 points.

Combi class; 216.34 km ……Sylvain van der Meer won de last day in his LS6.Great effort.102 km./h. All 11started and 2 were out. The had a better window than the rest.
The champion is this class;
1. Robbie Seton in LS 8 neo with 4,439 points.
2. Tom Conings in LS8 with 4,082 points.
3. Ralph Nijhoff in ARCUS T with 3,988 points.
Eric Borgmann and his mate flew HC , practiced hard for Uvalde and “got” 4,039 points.

——————————————————-

The Danish Nationals flown from Arnborg
9 May 2024 – 19 May 2024

They continued on Wednesday with short tasks, but in all classes TASK 5 was cancelled.
Till now 3 tasks out of 7 in club, standard and 15 m and 4 out of 7 in 18m and the 2-seaters.
So we look at Thursday May 16;
But the message was clear no flying BUT,…. HOPE for better weather.

So after 2 non-flying days they continued on Friday with small tasks indeed also here counts; THEY FLY.
Friday May 17.
Club; 173.34 km…..a difficult day and only 3 pilots from 18 finished. Felipe Cvitanich did well and won the day in his DISCUS CS.57.15 km./h!!!!!!!!Uffe Edslev in LS4 a and Jens Andersen in Mosquito are worth mentioning for their finish.
Standard; 170.73 km…Lasse Edslev in LS8 neo won with 67.24 km./h and 5 from 8 finished.
15 m;  170.73 km….Poul Kim Larsen [Ventus 2CT] won the day with 81 km./h that was faster than Rasmus who flew 67.62 km./h. in the JS 3.
18 m; 169.06 km….Arne Boye Møller showed what he can and won the day’ 90.44 km./h 18 started and 13 finished.
2-seaters; 159.84 km….Døssing & Knudsen in the ARCUS t were the only finishers from 13!!What a day for them.80.46 km./h was their speed.

BUT the better weather arrived and on the last 2 days they REALLY had some tasks. Nearly 600 and a 4hour AAT in 18 m.
I write more about them on Wednesday as today is not yet scored and they deserve time as well.

—————————————————————–

——-The British Junior Flying Team has 2 pilots in 2 classes. They travel to Poland to fly from the well known field of Ostrow for the JWGC between July 13 and 27 2024. Here they are;

—–The DUTCH Junior flying team has 6 pilots and here they are;

–——Tocumwal Soaring Centre; this is their news for the new season….. LOOKING GOOD!!!!
“We will have two new gliders on line for this season !
In addition to our already awesome fleet which includes,
4 X LS4’s
Discus B
Ventus B
Ventus 2CXT
2 X Duo Discus
and many more !
We are adding an almost brand new JS3RES and Ventus 3M for our customers
These are the latest 18m world class ships from Jonker Sailplanes and Schempp-Hirth, both having self launching capabilities.
These will be available from the first of October this year, please check the terms and conditions before booking these awesome gliders.
Any questions, drop us an email at
info@tocumwalsoaring.com

——- News from WeGlide
” 8000 uploads in 4 days – you guys are amazing .We want to thank you . From the 9th to the 12th of May we had record-breaking uploads stats. The best day was last Thursday with more than 2300 flights worldwide.“

The spectacular finish of the Danish Nationals with big tasks nearly 600 and a 4 hour AAT for 18 m, on the last 2 days you will find on Wednesday.

Cheers Ritz, tomorrow I will share some pictures and stories I made on Saturday.

Post 1.497 on May 15 2024

Dutch Nationals at TERLET
 9 May 2024 – 18 May 2024

In one year , May 2025, the FAI SGP will be flown in The Netherlands from Terlet and I hope they have the same good weather as till now. Many pilots are interested. Also from Belgium and Germany.
You might have seen, that I published a blog last Sunday. TOO many words..it’s not interesting for you readers ,so a new blog today with the rest of the Dutch Nationals AND the Danish.

Sunday May 12; Task 4
club; 318.24 km…it turned out not to be a speed day ,but a distance day. Thies flew most kilometers; 241.18 and that was really good ,when you look at the next best distances; 224 [Robin] and 219 [Alexander] the rest was Under 200 km. BUT,..all 9 tried hard!!!
18m;  307.05 km…4 finishers in this class. Steven, Hadriaan, Piet and Jeroen. I don’t know Piet but he did well!!!He flies a DG 808b and was equal runner up with Hadriaan.
The others fly ECG’s and WGC’s and you more or less expect good results.
Daily points for these 4 pilots; 534, 531×2 and 522, the rest , among them real good pilots had less than 400 points.
All 14 started and 10 finished.
open; 299.38 km….3 finishers in EB 29R [Francois] Nimbus 4DM Marco and Ronald] a JS1C21m. [Jaap Horsten] Speed from Francois; 81.15 km yes in the EB, meaning a real tough and challenging day!!!!!
REAL WORK in the office.
All 9 started.
combi; 342.23 km…NO FINISHERS. 295.64 km was the best distance by van Breemen & Danen for 451 p.
All 12 started!

Monday May 13. Task 5 ONLY for 18 m and open due to predicted thunderstorms and hail.
18 m; 158.86 km….Steven [Raimond] is doing so well in his new glider the AS33es. He won the day 95.08 km./h whilst runner up Steven [Huiskes] in Ventus 2CXT, flew around with 85.99 km./h. Not many points to gain or win; 268 for the winner and 115 for number 13 and 14 [equal] meaning they all started and finished.
Open; 174.17 km.…Francois in the EB won with 273 points and the number 9 had 188 points. All in this class flew and finished.

Tuesday May 14;it’s already a valid competition as 4 days have been flown.
warm, with up to 28 dgr. C , but with a forecast of local thunderstorms.
They arrived later in the day in the East of the Netherlands and here in the SE at 5.30 PM. Result; flooding in little towns, as the storm STAYED ABOVE them.
Club; 243.14 km….All 9 started and except for 1 , finished.Robin [Smit] won the day; 95.95 km./h.
18 m; 272.35 km…with 123.86 km./h. Steven [Huiskes] won the day just ahead of Steven. [Raimond] 123,86 for 123.09.
All 14 started, 1 was out and 1 by an airspace problem.
open; 309.34 km….The EB from Francois was clearly faster; 126.88 km.h Runner up Hans[Biesters] in a JS1c/21 m flew around with 118.35 and the NIMBUS 4DM with 112.99 km./h.
All 9 started and finished.
combi; 257.05 km….3x an LS8 in the top and Belgian pilot Tom[Conings] flew with 103 km./h. Robbie [Seton] Dutch but flying for years already at the Keiheuvel in Belgium was runner up with 100 km./h.
11 started and 1 did not finish.
Task 7 for each class today; club;  121.81 km….18 m; 158.99 km….open; 173.31 km and combi; 134.31 km
BUT,..another day with possible thunderstorms and a huge difference in temperature between 27 up N and under the showers here,in the SE 18. Normally it’s the other way around.
Already 6/7 out of 7 days ….that is, if they really fly today .WOW….NOT BAD….GOOD!

On my FB site this picture showed up as a memory of 14 years ago. The organizing team in 2010!!! I was the editor that year ,of course with writing stuff and camera in my hands.Nice to share!

—————————————————

The 2024 Danish Championships
9 May 2024 – 19 May 2024 from Arnborg

These Nationals are flown in 5 classes.
They had NO TASK on May 9 , on May 10 task 1 was cancelled
May 11 task 3;
club; 317.80 km...18 in this class started and 3 were out. Daily winner Jan Walther Andersen in ASW 20 WL and Uffe Edslev in LS 4,got both 1000 points!!! Speed 86.72 and 82.46 km./h.
Handicap for ASW 20 is 1.114 and for LS 4 1.059.
Standard; 300.56 km..…8 in this class and 2 were out. Kevin Kjær Andersen in LS 8 was the daily best with 96.27 km./h.
15 m; 303.56 km…….Rasmus Ørskov in a JS 3 won the 1000 points ; 95.56 km./h. Good to see Henrik is flying too. I follow Jan from club and Henrik as well as Rasmus already for a long time.
10 Started AND finished.
18 m;  313.42 km….20 in this class and also here a few I know from comps. Peter Eriksen [AS 33es] won and Arne Boye Muller [JS3 jet] was runner up. ….The only 2 flying over 100 km./h. Only 1 was out and Good “old” Stig Oye in a Ventus 3m and still going strong was 12th.
2-seaters; 290.13 km…..Hans Christian Hoeck in ARCUS M was the daily winner and the only 1 flying over 100 km./h.
All 13 started and finished.

May 12; task 3/4. a bit of a weird day with many “outs”.
Club; 288.21 km….. Morten Hoeck Petersen in a Glasfluegel 304 won the 1000 points. Uffe was runner up and Jan on spot 3.
ONLY 8 from 18 finished!!!
standard; 372.11 km….NO finishers. Filip Bojanowski had the best distance as it turned out a distance day and not a speed day.; 363 km,…nearly home! All starters flew more than 250 km.
15 m; 372.11 km….Finishers!!!! 3 from the 10 FINISHED!!!!Knud Møller Andersen in Ventus 2CT flew around with a speed of 66 km./h. Good on him. Rasmus finished as well as runner up and Morten Nørgaard was the number 3; 64 and 61 km.h.
18m; 371.44 km…. Only 19 started and 12 finished. Jan Hald in a Ventus 3T got the 1000 points. 29 more than Arne. Stig was 4th.
2-seaters;  323.85 km….Thomas Dantoft in a Duo Discus WL was the best; 77 km./h. The Arcus T was a tad faster with 80 km./h. but lost on handicap.
13 started and 8 finished.

May 13; only 2 classes got a task; 18 m and 2-seaters;
18m; 2 hour AAT...Another win for Arne,with 166.60 km. and a speed of 83.30 km./h.for 218 points. Only 3 from the 19 starters finished. Peter and Carsten belonged to the 3 finishers.
2-seaters; 2 hour AAT...NOBODY FINISHED, but the distance was giving up to 144 points.144 km. in a DUO Discus.

May 14;
Club; 2:30 AAT…Uffe Edslev …daily winner again, with 177.12 km and a speed of 61.43 km./h. Good, when you see that from 17 starters only 7 finished.
Standard; 2 hour AAT…Another Edslev this time LASSE inLS8neo, won with 166. 80 km in time 2.34. So tough for them as well.BUT,…from 8 6 finished.
15 m; 2 hour AAT…Knud Møller Andersen [Ventus 2CT] was daily winner with 199.49 km with 59.40 km./h.
10 started and 2 were out among them a potential winner of the championship Rasmus.
18m ; 229.26 km …..20 started and 10 were out. Among them Arne and Peter..ouch! Not too many points lost on a day like that; Arne “:got” 352 and Peter 326.
Jan Schmeltz Pedersen , daily winner, won the 533 points for a speed of 75.77 km./h Stig was “in”.
2-seaters; 212.67 km…… Sørensen & Sørensen did their best with a speed of 75 km./h. That means ,..they had to work hard for it.
No tasks yet.

Briefings are busy in Arnsborg.

More next Sunday or Monday as it is Pentecost weekend and I might go to Terlet on Saturday.

Cu most probably in the weekend.

Cheers Ritz.

Post 1.496 on May 12 2024
EXTRA EDITION!!!!! SOooo many comps…posts are getting TOO long!!!!

HAHNWEIDE EDITION 56.
4 May 2024 – 11 May 2024

They were not lucky with the weather. When I left you they had only 1 day out of 4.
Wednesday was not better , but they tried hard again to send 18 m with 34 pilots/gliders up in the air.

18m;
Task 3; 164.85 km…. May 8. They had to wait,……gliders and pilots at the grid, ready and eager to go!!!! For sure the weather looked a tad better, but to send 34 gliders up in the air , this air should be strong enough to give them good height.

In the end they had to wait too long….. the small window to fly in did not appear. The ETA sniffed again managed to fly the task,[with it’s long wings] but only just, so wise decision to scrub the day.
In the evening time to socialise with the “BERGFEST”, a BBQ with so to see nice meat and lots of vegies .

May 9….FINALLY…GREAT WEATHER!!!! HURRAY. After 4 non flying days the weather gods must have thought “This is Hahnweide they MUST fly here ” !
Pilots however knew that this was going to happen as they have a good meteorologist over there.
So well- rested ,they start hopefully ,3 good days. In the evening there was fun again with a special dinner for Fathers-day.
In 1 hour and 30m minutes they had all 97 gliders airborne. Great job!!!!!
Flying-day 2;
15 m; 369.81 km….a bit of a French day as 5 ended in the top 10 for the day. Lucas Oyaux in Discus 2 won the day; speed 103.89 km./h AND …a 1000 points day!!!
All 22 did start,but 1 had an airspace infringement, so he got DNS in front of his name.
18m; 515.77 km….and Mario [Kiessling] won again, after he won task 1 already;119.93 km./h. I remember him as young guy at Terlet for the first JWGC.[1999] UK pilots Pete Harvey and Phil Jones followed with 117 and 116 km,/h.
open; 504.55 km...EB/ETA- day. With 121.15 km./h Markus Frank [EB 29R] was the daily best for 1000 points.His mate Holger Karow [EB28 edition] , was just a tad slower; 117.96 km./h whilst the ETA with Uli and Keith flew around with 110.87 km./h.
12 started and 3 were out.
2-seaters; 410.31 km…..All 20 started and 4 were out. Tomas Rendla & Pavel Jiranek [ARCUS M] were the daily winners with 116.38 km./h. Louis Bouderlique & Philippe de Péchy had 20 points less for 114.96 km./h.

Flying day 3; May 10 ….. penultimate day.
First launch at 11.30. In front of the grid ; 18 m ,then 15 m and the 2 seaters and open.
“today they fly in open the biggest distance till now.The competition area is not the easiest to fly.“

15 m; 399.05 km …..all 21 still in the race, started and FINISHED!!!Julien Duboc won with 127 km./h quite a bit faster than runner up Sebastian Naegel with 122.56 km./h . Sebastian is in the lead overall with 1 day to go.
18m; 592.45 km…..5x a Ventus 3 in the top 5.“Super Mario “won ,127.76 km./h. The manufacturer of his Ventus 3, Tilo was runner up, Sebastian Beule, Thomas Gostner and Wim Akkermans followed with speed between 126 and 123 km./h36 started and 1 was out after 538 km.A pity!
open; 572.88 km….yesterday it was Markus and Holger, today it is Holger and Markus;130 11 km./h.
10 started ,2 had problems with airspace and 1 was out after 462 km.
2-seaters; 433.45 km….9 ARCUS-types in the top 10. Best speed by team Norbert Sommer; 125.39 km./h. Runners up; French team louis and Philippe.
ALL 20 started AND finished!

Flying day 4; In the end they got the real nice soaring weather. Tasks were inherent to that. So pilots could gain or loose, as of course on every day, but on the penultimate day ,it is binding!!!
FINAL day;
15 m; 4 hour AAT...435.38 km with a speed of 107.29 km./h was flown in a Discus 2CT by Jannis Däuble. He was the first to go on track at 13.29. Timothy Scot had a great final day and moved up from 4 to 2. Sebastian on 1 overall was 7th, but just held on.
All 21 started and 1 was out.
FINAL SCORES in 15 m. after 4 out of 8 days;
1. Sebastian Nägel [Germany] in Discus 2A with 3,571 points.
2. Timothy Scott [UK] in ASG 29 with 3,557 points.
3. Howard Jones [UK] in Discus 2A with 3,545 points.

18m; 4 hour AAT….Good “old” Tilo in his own Ventus 3 started early with the 2 Italian pilots Stefano and Thomas. 479.12 km with 116.57 km./h. Mario was on spot 12, but hold on as did Pete, who was on a daily 13th spot after keeping a tactic- eye on Mario , as they were on spot 1 and 2 overall.
All 37 started and 1 was out due to airspace .
FINAL SCORES in 18 m;
1. Mario Kiessling [Germany] in Ventus 3T with 3,739 points.
2. Peter Harvey [UK] in Ventus 3T with 3,559 points.
3. Sebastian Beule [Germany] in Ventus 3M with 3,539

open; 3.30 AAT...494.41 km with 135.90 km./h was the winning combi for Markus. Nearly 10 k faster and nearly 30 k more, than Jim who was runner up .
All 12 flew and finished.
FINAL SCORES in open class;
1. Markus Frank [Germany] in EB 29R with 3,600 points.
2. Holger Karow [Germany[ in EB 28 edition with 3,330 points.
3. Jim Acketoft [Sweden] in EB 29DR with 3,269 points.

2-seaters; 3.30 AAT….Louis and Philippe flew 389.90 km in 3.31 so a speed of 110.62 km./h in the Arcus M. When the day started they were overall behind Norbert[Sommer] and his mate Franz. When the day was over they topped the list!1000 points for 945.
All 20 started and 1 was out after 284 km.
FINAL SCORES in 2-seaters;
1. Bouderlique & de Péchy [France] in ARCUS M with 3,628 points.
2. Sommer & Gall [Germany] in ARCUS M with 3,589 points.
3. Hillebrand & Kopsieker [Germany] in ARCUS M with 3,457 points.
That was only 10 points more than team Schramme; 3447 points.

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FAI SGP in SPAIN….Santa Cilia De Jaca
5 May 2024 – 11 May 2024

These races ar flown in 15 m figuration.
Race 1; 141.98 km…was won by French pilot Max Seis. Kevin Faur [FR] in Ventus 2a, was runner up. Jon Gatfield [UK] was wing-to-wing with him , both got 8 points.
Race 2; 218.26 km…..with a start at 14.20 for the 9 pilots on that day. A race starting with many mistakes by several pilots and I missed Ayala from the UK, who flew in race 1. She then was on spot 10 from 12. Max won again and needed 1.53,50; 115.4 km./h . 20 points in total now for him.
Jon in an AS33es was runner up; 113.8 km./h. and 16 points for him.
Race 3; 237.74 km....Glider 85, was the best and that’s the JS 3 from Max.; time 2.13.48 meaning 106 km./h . With 104 km./h it was Kevin and Stanislaw Biela in Ventus 3 just behind him.Max leads comfortably after 3 flown races. 30 points. Kevin has 24 and Jon 23 points.
11 started and Ayala was one of them on a daily spot 7 and overal with 3 points.
Race 4; 268.39 km...Jon was just a tad faster than Max, so not another daily win but still 38 points overall for Max and leading. Jon has 32 and Kevin 30. Ayala did well with a 4th spot for the day.
Race 5; 303.92 km…start at 14.30.…Kevin won! He is still very young, flies a lot as far as I can follow and is getting better and better.BUT NO,…a few minutes later it was Klaus Kalmbach in JS 3 who won the day.
With 45 points Max still leads followed by Kevin with 38 and Jon with 36.
The final-day games started!
Race 6, penultimate day; 208.45 km changed in task B; 199.84 km.. Start at 14.50. Who wins the 2 tickets for the FINAL????? In the end it turned out the 2 French pilots.
When you have flown SO well and get an extra point by winning the last day, the 11 points were for daily winner Max. Only just, as his speed was 128.8 km./h for 128.6 for Stanislaw.
FINAL SCORES for the first stage of the 12th edition.
1. Maximilian Seis [France] in JS 3 with 56 points. off to the final later.
2. Kévin Faur [France] in Ventus 2a with 45 points.
3. Jon Gatfield [UK] in AS 33 with 42 points.

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Dutch Nationals 2024 at TERLET
7 May 2024 – 18 May 2024

Thursday May 9 was the beginning of this competition with 44 competitors in 4 classes. They had bad and reasonable practice days , Bad as in NO FLYING , pretty good as in results of 112 km./h over a set task over 323 km.in 18 m.
Task 1 straight away had “nice” weather;
Club; 288.07 km….9 pilots in this class….Thies Bruins was the daily winner. A bit unlucky with a wind-gust in Narromine at the WGC, damaging his glider behind the car, he shows again what a talented glider pilot he is. He then was runner up with a few days to go. Now he started well in his ASW 20WL. All 9 started and 1 was out after 281 km. Grrrr…..
18 m; 359.86 km...14 pilots….nearly all of the 14 participants in this class have flown WGC ‘s or EGC’s. Only 1 was out. Jeroen Verkuijl [JS3] won the day ;109.22 km./h.
open; 369.94 km..…9 pilots or teams…All 9 started AND finished. Daily winner in EB 29R was Francois Jeremiasse;118.78 km./h. Marco Vermeer and Ronald Termaat in Nimbus 4DT were runner up; 108.08 km./h.
combi; 315.48 km...12 pilots or teams ….Erik Borgmann and Matthijs van Houweninge in the ARCUS M were the best ; 102.71 km./h . They l;ook READY for Uvalde in August. On spot 3 another pilot with over 100 km./h ; Ralph Nijhof in ARCUS T. In between ” my” former junior Robbie [Seton] in LS8 neo; 95.90 km/h.

Friday May 10, another GOOD DAY! First start at 12 PM.
task 2 was changed before start.
club; 286.27 km ……changed in 219.77 km...same winner and runner up as the day before; Thies and Jeroen and NO they do not start together; 14.03 and 13.54.
All 9 started and finished.
18m; 377.20 km….310.73 km. Hadriaan van Nes in JS1BTJ won the day with a speed of 117.77 km./h Good to see Belgian guest Rik [van den Boer] was runner up in JS3j.
All started and finished.
open; 410.78 km…359.56 km..Both EB’s did well. Francois won again with 115.71 km./h and runners up Marco[Vermeer] and Max [Leenders] had 108.10 km./h.
All 9 started and finished.
combi;  323.30 km….291.10 km...Good practice again for Erik and Matthijs. If they want to score high in Uvalde they have to fly well, so they do. Mind you Erik was already WGC runner up in Borlange [1993] in Standard Class behind Andy Davis.

Saturday May 11; it started good here, about 100 km more S. with blue skies and clouds popping up , but at 11 it looked more “milky”. They fly direction East into Germany, but not far. Borken and Kleve
Task 3;
Club; 2.45 AAT...with 230 km and a speed of 83.19 km./h “Thies did it again.” Robin [Smit] runner up at the JWGC in Narromine, was runner up for this day.
9 pilots started AND finished!!
18 m; 2.30 AAT…our Belgian friend Rik won the day. 233 km./ 91.76 km./h.just ahead of well known toppers in the Netherlands Sikko and Steven.[90.37 and 90.14 km./h]
14 started and 2 were out.
open; 2.30 AAT…240km/ 93 km./h for Marco and Ronald in the Nimbus 4DT. Good to see Bas [Seijffert] in this class, he just lost his dad.
9 started 1 was out.
combi; 2.30 AAT…NO Erik and Mathijs but van Breemen & Danen in ARCUS M, on the daily highest spot; 221 km/82.80 km./h. Runner up in LS 6 Sylvain vd Meer from the DSA, the students from Delft!
All 12 started and 11 finished.

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—Too many comps at once so a great picture from Aero Club Adele Orsi Acao . The Coppa from the town of Varese was flown between May 4 and 11.

After 4 out of 8 flown days, the CUP was handed over to Peter Hartmann & Passardi in ARCUS T.
The open class was won by Alberto Sironi & Venturini in ARCUS T.

——The Rayskala open 2024 was won in CLUB CLASS [with 12 participants] by Kim Toppari in LS7WL, after 6 out of 8 days.
In OPEN ,with 6 participants, Nuutti Kankare in Ventus 3 was the winner after 7 out of 8 days.

—-Europe ,but also THE WORLD, at least parts of it, had amazing colorful skies AURORA, the Northern Light was on its best.The strongest sun/solar storm since 2003 created the best of the best we ever saw. A stunning display of lights /colors.

EXTRA edition to avoid soar eyes from too long blogs.
Enjoy.
Back on Wednesday with the latest on the DUTCH NATIONALS!
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.495 on May 8 2024

31thiest KLIX competition
26 April 2024 – 4 May 2024

They continued on Wednesday ,after I published my blog.So here we go again….
Only 1 class had the privilege of flying that day; May 1…only 2-seaters.
Task 6;
2-Seaters; 2.45 AAT…..My Dutch mates , Van Nes & de Boer, Hadriaan and Ronald, “used” the day well by winning in their DUO DISCUS XLT/FES; 259 km/ 94.33 km./h.
ALL 27 pilots STARTED and FINISHED!!!!!

May 2; definitely better weather …. they flew in all 4 classes. But,.. at places,….wind up to 50 k /h.
Task 7;
18m; 3.15 AAT……31 started and 27 finished. To win the day with 395 km. with a speed of 121.54 km./h you needed a NIMBUS 4D. Team Wilken / Swagemakers did so for 921 points.
2 ASH 25’s followed and the first 18 m class glider was the ASG 29 from Swedish pilot Peter Johansson.
Start times between 13.08 and 13.41.
2-seaters; 2.45 AAT....27 started ,22 finished. ASG 32 MI -day as they were on spot 1 and 2. Scheffe & Losse won the day with 324.44 km with a speed of 114.21 km./h which was about 8 km./h faster than the runners up [299.94 km/2.46.28]
The DUO from Hadriaan and Ronald was 8th for the day, but they still lead overall in this class.
In the end it turned out that this was their last flying day.
standard; 345 AAT.…17 started and 15 finished. An Italian daily winner; Lorenzo Monti in a LAK 19.Good on him. 367 km /96.75 km./h.
Chrissie and Sabrina were on spot 4 and 6, starting together but with many more pilots at 13.02.
It turned out to be their last flying day.
Club; 2 hour AAT..…Top 3, Germany, Italy and Sweden….Julius Lübstorf won in an LS 3A and moved up from spot 7 overall to 2. Food day for him. Alessandro in a Discus was runner up, whilst Samuel in a MOSQUITO B was 3d.
After 7 tasks the Italians are on spot 1, 6-7-8- and 10 overall.
26 started and 19 finished.

May 3; only 1 class flew….. CLUB. A fday with less wind but with thunderstorms and rain.
task 8; 2 hour AAT…..very marginal day with 28 starters and 3 finishers. Marcus Dawert in a DG 300 was the daily winner and moved up from 4 to 2 overall.
He was followed by 2 Polish pilots in a Pegase and SZD 55.
With 1 more day to go Alessandro leads before Marcus and Julius; 3.070…3.011 and 2.950.
Everything is still possible on this last day when the weather co-operates.

May 4; very last day!! Only 2 classes fly and YES club is one of them. They tried hard, but…..
Task 9 for 18m; 233.65 km….CANCELLED
Task 9 for CLUB; 141.61 km….CANCELLED

Overall scores ;
18 m after 9 task [5 flying days];
1. Andreas Kühl from Germany in JS 3 with 3,795 points
2. Dirk Windmueller from Germany in AS33es with 3.780 points.
3. Steven Raimond from The Netherlands in AS33es with 3.742 points.

Overall scores 2 seaters after 7 tasks [5 flying days] ;
1. Van Nes & de Boer from The Netherlands in DUO DISCUS XLT with 3,256 points.
2. Tom Jørgensen from Denmark in ARCUS E/M/T with 2.927 points.
3. Scheffe & Losse from Germany in ASG 32MI with 2.921 points…..6 points ONLY.
And as they only missed out on 10 points on number 3; Schmied & Becker in DUO DISCUS.[2.911]

Overall scores STANDARD after 7 tasks [5 flying days] ;
1. Janne Nord from Sweden in Discus 2T with 4,045 points,…. a very clear winner!!!
2. Christian Lampert from Germany in Discus 2A with 3,692 points.
3. Poul Kim Larsen from Denmark in LS 8T with 3,682 points.

Overall scores CLUB after 9 tasks on 5 flying days;
1. Alessandro Bassalti from Italy in Discus a/b/cs with 3.070 points.
2. Marcus Dawert from Germany in DG 300 with 3.011 points.
3.  Julius Lübstorf from Germany in LS3a with 2.950 points.

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In Germany they continued with another very interesting competition the one close to the Schempp-Hirth business; Kirchheim Teck; THE HAHNWEIDE.

56th International Hahnweide competition.
Between May 4 and 11 another 93 pilots will participate in 4 classes.

Seventy2one keep a blog and here is their first news;
“The first day of Hahnweide 2024 is finally here and the anticipation is building as the grid is set and ready for the initial launch. Team Schwenk, Uli and Joachim will be taking to the skies today ,while Keith takes some time to recover from jet lag.
The forecast looks promising after the next couple of days when a few showers are expected to pass through.The last half of the competition is forecast for clearer skies and better flying conditions.“

Saturday May 4; Remembrance day here in The Netherlands.
Base ; 1700 m.
15 m; 2.30 AAT.…22 in this class from 4 different countries. 4 Discus gliders in the top 4. Daily winner; Jannis Däuble in Discus 2CT. [237.22 km. / 93.40 km./h] Runner up from the UK; Howard Jones; 251 km/.91.56 km./h. Sebastian Naegel was 3d. I know him from his junior time.
All 22 started and 4 were out. The French fly with 9 in this class.
18m; 2.30 AAT….39 pilots and a few former world champions from 10 different countries. Mario Kiessling [Germany] was the daily best with 270.90 km/ 103.84 km./h. Runners up from the UK, Russell Cheetham and Pete Harvey, missing out on 10 and 17 daily points.
36 started and 9 were “out”….. Among them Italian toppers Stefano Ghiorzo and Thomas Gostner.
open: 2 hour AAT….12 pilots , a few REALLY good ones!!!! 5 EB’s in different figuration, 4 JS 1 c/21 m, ASH 31Mi/21m, the Eta and an ASH 25Mi.
All 12 started and the EB 29DR with Swedish pilot Jim Acketoft was the daily best;237.50 km/ 113.76 km./h. German pilots Markus Frank and Holger Karow both in the EB were on spot 2 and 3. Markus started at 14.31 so rather late and Holger at 13.56. Last departure was at 15.21.
2-seaters; 2 hour AAT….20 pilots and several WGC participants.All 20 started and finished!!!! Except for an HP 304 M, Duo Discus and AS( 32. ALL gliders are and ARCUS M or T.
Daily winners Sommer/Gall and with equal points Bouderlique/Depechy . Both 677 points for 239.70 km/ 109.34 km./h and 220.73 km/ 109.31 km./h

NO flying on Sunday May 5.

Monday; May 6. NO FLYING!!!

May 7; 18 m class flies!!!! Day 2 from 4,…not the best weather there unfortunately.
18m; 175 km….. but CANCELLED.

The better weather is definitely coming. I hope for a few good last days over there at the Hahnweide.
You can read it next Wednesday.

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FATRAGLIDE
Martin, Slovakia…..28 April 2024 – 7 May 2024

They were more blessed with the weather. A long time ago 2 pilots from Martin flew with us in Tocumwal, nice “blokes”. When we spoke about FATRAGLIDE, we found out that there were mountains; the TATRAS.
We Dutchies in Australia had no clue. Must have been end nineties.
Their slogan ; The mountains are calling!
They accepted 60 pilots and ..THEY GOT 60.

Yesterday was their last day, so I look back on what happened on 2 of the 3 class; Club and combi.
Club;
Task 1; 3 hour AAT…..27 started and 15 finished.Quite a lot forgot their PEV. But they had a winner too; Jozef Kozar in an LS1f; 244 km. speed 79.16 km./h. Tibot was 11th and HE visited us , I even believe twice.
Task 2; 2.30 AAT….24 started and only 4 did not finish. Julia won the day, good on her; Julia Walowska in a St Jantar; 239.85 km/ 94.32 km./h.
Task 3; 2.15 AAT....26 started and 4 did not finish. All starts around 2PM. Jan Horak in ASW 20 b was the daily winner.
Task 4; 2 hour AAT….Martin Sabla [ASW 20] was the lucky daily winner; 210 km with a speed of just over 100 km./h The only pilot with a speed over 100 km./h.
Task 5; 2 hour AAT…..a 2d daily win for Jozef Kozar.191.60km/ 89.88 km./h.
23 started and 10 finished
After all the “hard work” the pilots did not fly on May3 . NO TASK.
Task 6; 368.34 km racing task. A 1000 points-day!!!!Best speed 102 km./h for 2 pilots; Simon Siska in ASW 24WL and Milan Surovcík Jr; 20 points difference. Tibor [ASW20c] was 3d!
On May 5; NO TASK.
Task 7; 2 hour AAT….Simon and Milan-day again. ….won by Simon in his ASW 24 with 210 km. / 103/41 km./h. and Milan missed out on 8 points this day.’ 210 /103. 71 km./h.
They are on spot 2 and 3 overall ,as on spot 1 it is Wiktor Czubski in SZD 55, a very constant pilot flying himself except for 1 day [10th] in the top 5.,,,but no daily win.
On May 7 NO TASK.

Overall scores after 7 out of 10 days.
1. Wiktor Czubski in SZD 55 with 4,689 points.
2. Milan Surovcik Jr. in ASW 20 with 4,527 points.
3. Simon Siska in ASW 24 WL with 4,486 points.

Combi class;
Task 1….3 hour AAT.…28 started and 3 did not finish. Tibor Noga in Ventus 2c won the day; 311 km/ 103.70 km./h.
Task 2; 3 hour AAT.…28 started/24 finished. Milos Srank in ASG 29 won; 322.82 km/ 106.42 km./h.
Task 3; 272.04 km…a racing task …all 28 started again and 22 finished. Marek Straka was the daily winner in Ventus 2CXT; 107.7 km./h.
Task 4; 2.15 AAT.…Vaclav Hruza flying a HpH 304MS Shark 18m 600 kg was the daily best and Pavol Cerny, the only name with Tibor, I know from all these pilots , was runner up in the same glider.519 and 511 points.
All 28 started and only 2 did not finish.
Task 5; 2 hour AAT....won by Pavol Cerny with 191.53 km/95.77 km./h.
On May 3 NO TASK.
Task 6; 435.27 km….nice racing task for the pilots. Pavol won again and he was quite a bit faster than the runner up Roman Petro in a DG 1000T; 111.13 km./h for 101.81 km./h. Only 4 pilots flew over 100 km./h.
25 started the day and ONLY 7 finished ,some were close.
Task 7; 2 hour AAT....Marek Pechanec in JS3 RES won the day; 252 km/ 124.63. Clearly the best as the runner up flew 238,52 km/119.26 km./h in JS1BTJ.
On May 7 NO TASK.

Overall scores after 7 out of 10 days;
1. Pavol Cerny in HpH 304MS Shark 18m 600 kg with 4,173 points.
2. Marek Pechanec in JS3 RES 18m with 4,070 points
3. Branislav Jesensky in JS1-C TJ 21 with 3,711 points.

The JUNIOR CLASS had 10 pilots and was won by Wiktor Czubski in SZD 55.

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Last week I showed a picture from a glider hanging “nicely” in a tree, after a misjudged, “just that much” miss, ” a dozen meters away from the border of the field” by hitting with a wing the tree, for a soft arrival in it.
Here is how they got it out and it still looks pretty OK.

—–Here in The Netherlands we had some great skies certainly on Friday may 3. Look on these pictures from Arjan at Terlet; CU’s changed in CB’s.
All gliders were in time in the hangar or trailer.

–—One of the great glider pilots , an outstanding person in the Dutch gliding world , passed away on April 25 , age 89.
Frits Seijffert was also known as TC at several WGC’s. [Marfa, Yugo Slavia] His son Bas is a top glider pilot nowadays.
Frits was a very likeable guy, you could only like him. I know him as some kind of soaring-hero, as he was the generation just before us, very involved, specially in competition flying. We looked up at them!
I am sure also a lot of my older international readers know him.
When Frits was a member of the Delft Student Aeroclub [DSA] , I was a member of the ZES, gliding club from students from Eindhoven. We had some contact, but getting older we met at more comps.
R.I.P. dear FRITS.

Last year I was still talking to him during the DUTCH NATIONALS, he was pretty fragile then.
These Nationals start tomorrow AND….the weather seems to co-operate! Sunday is also MOTHERDAY and it might be 27 dgr C here.

The first of the 12th FAI SGP events has started in Spain flown from the Santa Cilia Aerodrome. They fly in 15 m configuration.
Today is day 2 , they did not fly on day 1 MAY 5. Yesterday , RACE 1, 141.98 km with a regatta start at 14.35 was won by Max Seis from France [JS3 jet ] followed by Kevin Faur also from France in Ventus 2A..
More next week.

CU next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.494 on May 1 2024 LABOUR DAY

The competitions during this early pretty cold spring ,continue and one of them is the busy one flown from Klix in Germany between April 26 and May 4. They have 107 pilots in 4 classes.
On April 26 they started straight away with task 1;
18m; 2.30 AAT.…. Pawel Wojciechowski from Poland was the first daily winner in this class. With 338 km. in time 2.48…120,79 km./h….. he deserved 748 points in his ASG 29.
Same speed but just 12 points less were for my Dutch mate Steven Raimond in his brand new AS 33 /Es /Me 18m. 3d spot for him, in between as runner up Swedish pilot Markus Ganev in Ventus 3 FMT.
In the end 33 started in this class and 26 finished.
double seater;2 hour AAT....Wollschläger & Kaufeld in a Duo Discus X-plus, [many times XL,XT,XLT XLFES] 219 km speed 103 km./h. About the same as the Dutch runner up’s, Hadriaan van Nes/Ronald de Boer.
25 started and only 1 was out.
standard; 2.30 AAT…327.54 km for daily winner Christian Lampert in a Discus 2a.
18 started in this class and 13 finished. Quite a few TOP-“girls” in this class as Chrissie [Grote] world champion in 2003 and 2013, Sabrina [Vogt] , world champion in 2015 and 2017, Petra [Zimmermann-Lauer] and from Italy the youngest from the Fergnani family ,Michelle.
club; 3 hour AAT.…Lukas Brune flew in his ASW 20 290.55 km with a speed of 96.85 km./h. for 1000 points!!!
All 31 started and 24 finished among them Elena world champion in 2020, and her brother Andrea Fergnani fom Italy.

April 27 Task 2;
18m; 385.53 km….with 120 km./h in a Discus2C/ TFES, the daily winner was Christian Schneiders.
31 Started and 28 finished.
double-seaters; 239.08 km….. Hadriaan in his Duo Discus won with a speed of 119.62 km./h Of course the many Arcus types were a bit faster with as best speed 124 km./h flown to spot 3 by Danish pilot Tom Jørgensen. Nice to see that Aldo , who has done lately many comps as CD, is flying now in an Arcus and was runner up with his mate Etalle.
26 started and 24 finished!!
Standard; 278.69 km….120 km./h was the fastest flight by Janne Nord in a Discus 2T.About 5 k faster than the Danish runner up Poul Kim Larsen.
18 started and 1 was out. Bit of an off-day for Chrissie on spot 15.
Club; 262.09 km….Marcus Dawert in a DG 300-plus, flew around with 107 km./h Runner’s up 2 Italian pilots in Discus and ASW 24.
All 31 started and 27 finished.

April 28 task 3 ONLY for 18m and standard class;
18m; 261.47 km….
Standard; 203.64 km….
In the end they cancelled for ALL classes.

April 29; Task 4 and better weather…so all classes FLY!!!
18m; 3 hour AAT.. and “our” Sjaak Selen [ASG 29] won the day;310 km with a speed of 99.32 km./h for 668 points. Just a tad less points for “our” Steven in his AS33es; 658. They started and finished about the same time.
31 started and 28 finished.
2-seaters; 2 hour AAT…..27 started and 25 finished.Good to see Aldo won the day in the ARCUS [ 199 km and 98 km./h. my Dutch mates in the Duo Discus keep going well too; runner up with 193 km and a speed of 90 km./h.
Standard 3 hour AAT....The Scandinavian pilots are doing well in Klix , specially in this class.Swedish Janne flew 277 km [speed 89.66 km./h] and Danish Poul Kim 271 in time 3.04 ; 88 km./h.Sabrina and Chrissie were on 5 and 6 .
17 started and 15 finished.
Club; 2 hour AAT…..30 started and 26 finished .Best for the day Italian pilot Lapo Alessandro Busi in ASW 20. Elena, also from Italy, in her Discus was 3d and started 15 minutes later.

April 30; Task 5..even better weather, they hoped!!!!Flying day 4 out of 5.
18 m; 3.30 AAT….The Swedish pilots did well with a first and 4th spot, this is a bit their weather; Peter Johansson in an ASG29 flew 324 km in time 3.19[speed 97,47 km./h] But for sure the weather was not perfect as only 18 from29 finished. Late start , mostly around 3PM and the last finisher at 6.35 PM.
2-seaters; 2.30 AAT.…Maybe for that reason the day for this class was scrubbed.
standard; 3 hour AAT….ONLY 3 from 17 finished. Both flying a DISCUS.Carsten Büddig flew around with 80 km./h over 252 km and that says enough of the struggle the pilots in this class had. He had an early start at 2.09PM.
The runner up Janne Nord showed a lot of stamina ,he needed 4 hours and 23 minutes, BUT HE FINISHED. Compliments for Janne from Sweden, who flew 331 km with a “speed” of 75 km./h.
club; 2.15 AAT....scrubbed.

NO TASKS YET for today. If they get the heavy thunderstorms we had last night , it might be tricky.

The weather in Germany was yesterday really good for soaring on other places ; 1.037 km in a Ventus 3 from Binningen and from Austria 1.336.76 km was flown in an ASH 31 /21 m. [Trieben] and from Wiener Neustadt in a Ventus B/15 m. with Wing lets 1.209.87 km.

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——–Glider Forever /Jens Trabolt shared news in their very good and informative MAGAZINE NORDIC GLIDING, about the newest on Schempp-Hirth:
“Ventus self-launches electrically for the first time!
Schempp-Hirth made the maiden flight yesterday [April 25]afternoon with the fully electrified Ventus E at Hahnweide. The basis is the Solo system, which we also know from the JS3 RES, but Schempp-Hirth has upgraded some of the main components, including bigger motor and propeller.”
https://nordicgliding-com.translate.goog/ventus-selvstarter-elektrisk-for-foerste-gang/
https://nordicgliding-com.translate.goog/ventus…/…

———Schempp-Hirth mentioned;
“#VentusE Airborne on its own for the first time!
Not only did we make the maiden flight yesterday with the Ventus E, we also did the first self launch!
Efficient, smooth and beautiful to look at – these are only a few characteristics, which describe our new baby well.
We are very proud of our whole team, who worked hard for this success and are looking forward to the next steps with the best support!“
On a short video you can see it goes up smooth and fast.

———Gliding Australia sent a very sad message last Sunday;
“We are deeply saddened to report an accident yesterday at Mount Beauty Airport involving a Grob G109B Motor-Glider, which resulted in two fatalities. Our deepest sympathies are with the families of both the pilot and the passenger.[A lady] Gliding Australia is providing full support in the ongoing investigations. For more information, please read our complete statement: https://glidingaustralia.org/glidingaccidentapr24/ “
VERY SAD!!!! Mount Beauty is a pretty active club in one of the most beautiful areas in Victoria. Have been there and enjoyed every minute.So sad that this happened.

——--Young Ben Fuglsang-Petersen flew in the “old” ASW 15 B a distance of 846 km and “used” 9 hours and 36 minutes to do so, on April 23. CHAPEAU for this young man!
A nice long jo-jo -flight flight, with an early start, in arctic air with clear visible cu’s so not a lot of thermalling, he could nearly go straight forward .
https://www.weglide.org/flight/380531
“It was really nice to see where others flew the energy lines!” said Ben Fuglsang-Petersen after his furthest flight in his ASW 15 B.A remarkable performance in a glider type first flown in 1968!”[weglide]

——The Gelderse ONE- DAY -COMPETITION was supposed to be flown last Saturday but the weather did not co-operate. Also Sunday was not good due to pretty heavy wind.
In Switzerland however one of my friends Bert jr flew 1.143.81 km. from Hausen Am Albis in the Ventus 3T on Sunday and on Saturday Carl Audissou flew in France 1.376 km. in an Antares 20.
April really does what it will and that’s not for everybody good.
I liked the comment from Bert jr;
“After being for a couple of months in Asia the temperature shock was pretty big, from 40°C in Hanoi to -25°C in my beloved glider within a timeframe of 24 hours.
A late but very easy start into a sky filled with nice energy lines, especially on the West to East legs. In the evening the weather collapsed quite rapidly but thanks to some thermals, ridges and weak rotors I almost made it home. Due to an incoming patch of moisture the entire Swiss Mittelland was covered. The only way to reach Hausen in VFR style was flying underneath.”

Now the season has started in Europe it remains VERY IMPORTANT to fly SAFE!

——–To finish, MORE GIRLS FLY,....ready for an AIRSHOW!!!

Cheers have a nice week,
CU next Wednesday.
Ritz

Post 1.493 on April 24 2024

When you have 107 guests you want to be , as organizer and host , on your best, BUT unfortunately in our gliding world , we ALL know; the weather cannot be organized.

FCC GLIDING 2024
Prievidza, Slovakia
14 April 2024 – 25 April 2024

Task 2 on flying day 1 out of 4;
Club; 2 hour AAT.…CANCELLED
Combi;2 hour AAT….CANCELLED
15 m; 2 hour AAT.… CANCELLED

Task 3 on flying day 1 out of 5 till now . And indeed finally the great weather arrived not only here with blue skies and great Cu’s but also in Priviedza. GOOD!!!
They had a strong wind from the N. for that reason they used runway 040…to be seen on the picture as shared by the organizers

Prievidza is THE PLACE from the Dynamic planes and their new tow planes , the WT9 – dynamics with ROTAX 915 engines ,did a great job.
So bigger tasks were set; 3 hour AAT’s;
Club ; 3 hour AAT….. First to start from the grass and at 12.06 their start line opened.
3 French pilots each in an ASW 20 were the daily best with 303,315 and 317 km ; speed 97.58, 96.50 and 99.97 km./h. AND 1000 points for the winner, 961 and 945 for the other 2.
Alexandre Fierain, Philippe Lata and Nicolas Caudrelier made it a “French day”.
A total of 27 starters and from them 21 finished.
Quite a few penalties for incorrect landings or NO PEV or crossing the boundary. For sure they will be more careful next time !!
Combi; 3 hour AAT..…. they started from the asphalt and their start line opened at 12.43.
A mix of 5 Nationalities in 4 different gliders in the top and NO 1000 points for the daily winner. 4 Of them flew around with 113 km./h over “around” 340 km.
Nuutti Kankare was the daily winner in a Ventus 3FES/18m. Czech pilot David Mach was runner up in JS1C TJ 18 EVO. Hungaryan pilot Janos Sindely also in JS1C TJ 18 EVO was 3d. Lithuanian pilot Vytautas Rasimavicius was 4th in JS1B/18 m and Rumanian team Kessler & Lingureanu in an ASG 32MI/ 800k.
46 pilots started and 39 finished.
15m; 3 hour AAT.. last on the grass with a opening of the startline at 12.57
307 km / 100 km./h was the best result by Polish pilot Wojciech Domanski in Ventus 2A was the daily winner for 740 points.The 3 Czech ladies flying in this class, Dana, Jana and Barbora were on spot 5,6 and 8. All 3 fly an LS8.
33 Started and 23 finished….Sebastian [Diana 2] finished on spot 12.”The day just did n’t go as he wanted.”

Task 4 on flying day 2 from 6 showed smaller tasks,
“Today we set the grid at 22 and considering the fact that we have an occlusion front moving in quite quickly from the west, which will spoil the thermals in our area in the early afternoon, we tried to do everything we could to take advantage of the interval that today’s weather offered us.“
First start at 11AM.
Club; 2 hour AAT....11.46 opening of start line and 200 km was flown by several pilots. Best flight was from Czech pilot Michal Lesinger in an ASW 20; 199.76 km in time 2.05.54 .Start at 11.57.
27 started and 25 finished, nice!!!
Combi ; 2 hour AAT...start line opened at 12.22 and Polish pilot Leszek Staryszak flew in his ASG 29E/18m a distance of 243.69 km in time 2.05.46and was the daily winner. He left at 12.29.
45 started and 42 finished…good.
15 m; 2 hour AAT.…12.29 opening of start line and the biggest distance and best time Sebastiaan Kawa; 239.15 km in time 1. 53.58. That was 12 km further than runner up Czech pilot Pavel Louzecky and 3 minutes.588 and 540 daily points.
3 Polish pilots including Sebastian started early , straight away, at 12.32. There are 12 in total in this class.
ALL 33 pilots started and only 1 was out. GOOD!!!!
French pilot Kevin Faur was 4th and had time to take a picture., the other 2 French pilots on 3 and 5.
Live tracking is on  live tracking

NO task on April 20- 21 and 22-23. The weather gods are still not too happy., whilst in Italy and even the UK great long distance have been flown.
“Today we regretfully had to declare a no-fly day. The weather was not the worst. But the runway and all the grassy areas of the airport were so wet that every movement of a plane or a car on the area left deep marks. We considered all the options, but in the end we had to choose the least popular one. Fortunately, our competitors took it really sporty and went on various hiking trips around the area .” on April 21.

On April 23 , very last day!....a bit of a sad message from the organizers, as the last days of the comps had finished with 4 non-flying days…. SUCH A PITY!!!!Really feel sorry for them.
“Dear competitors and attendees of FCC 2024!
We just wanted to say a huge thank you for spending nearly two weeks with us, despite the terrible weather we experienced this year. I hope you had a blast and had some fun in Prievidza anyway! While the weather was the worst we ever had, I hope it didn’t put too much of a damper on your experience. Your understanding and patience are greatly appreciated.
I understand that this was not the outcome that anyone had expected, but I hope that we took all the bad luck for a couple of next years, and we will have a nice and successful competition in the future.”
For sure they will with all their experience.

Overall winners after 2 flying days;
Club;
1. Alexandre Fierain from France in ASW 20 with 1.582 points.
2. Philippe Lata from France in ASW 20C with 1.575 p.
3. Ferenc Tamas from Hungary in LS3 WL with 1.566 p.
combi;
1. David Mach from Czech Rep. in JS1 CTJ/18 m EVO with 1.561 points
2. Kessler & Lingureanu from Romania in ASG32MI/ 800 with 1.552 p
3. Nuutti Kankare from Finland in Ventus 3Fs/18 m with 1.539 p.
15 m;
1. Sebastian Kawa from Poland in Diana 2 with 1.234 points
2. Julien Duboc from France in Ventus 2ax with 1.218 p.
3. Piotr Jarysz from Poland in LS6a with 1.215 p.

—————————————————————

—— SAP 2024….. I wrote about the several 1000 plus flights from Calicinate last week/Tuesday. All those pilots participate in a High Performance Stage organised by Alberto Sironi flying from L’Aero Club Adele Orsi . This is the 16th edition!!50 pilots from different countries were part of this SAP.
All organized by Alberto.
I remember a day in Rieti, when we had drinks with him at this caravan ,that they were talking about a set up for this SAP.

The next day, Wednesday April 17, blue skies and less wind for the 4th flying day!!! AND,…..Hope for more good results.
Many pilots flew and most between 500 and 890 km in a Ventus 2 B,by French pilot Stefane Andre.!!!!
20 went up.
They share no news, but flights are on the OLC [ https://www.onlinecontest.org/] and Weglide. [https://weglide.org/ ]
I took this picture from that gorgeous field in the N of Italy taken by Alberto from their site.

The weather was not “flash” on Thursday the 5th day of the “camp” and with the prospect of 2 more good days , Alberto gave the pilots “a day off”, for a nice rest after 2 intensive days.
A 4 minute 16 beautiful video by Andrea Venturini from this 16th SAP High-performance training camp 2024 is to be seen on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFTLxGYfgc0
Friday; a ‘free” day to spend as you like. With thermal activity and wave. Several 5000 m -height-gain-flights were flown.
35 Flights and 1 up to 758 km flown by Dutch pilots Maurits and Aert in the ARCUS T..
Saturday; LAST DAY AND GOOD weather!!!!
That’s what was promised and the picture shows it was!

Great flights one also by Alberto himself flying with Davide Schiavotto in the ARCUS T;1.501 km.
2 Toppers in a top glider!!!!
My Dutch mates Maurits and Boudewijn flew 1.309 k. [ARCUS T]
Stef Andre in the Ventus2B ;1.252 km.
AND,…5 more over 1000 km. flights What a SUCCESFUL High Performance Stage 2024!
Congratulations to all!!!!!
Alberto in his comment:”Beautiful weather and wonderful flying with my friend Davide on the last day of the 16th edition of the High Performance Gliding Training Camp (SAP) which took place in Calcinate del Pesce (Varese). On the last day of the SAP, 8 flights of over 1000 km were made, 6 of which were declared and completed! This is another SAP and ACAO record!
1.412 km declared task (3 TP FAI)
2 Italian Record
Second pilot: Davide Schiavotto.”

10 over 1000 km flights in total from Italy also from Aosta and Trento Mattarello .
To finish this item a very nice picture of Davide and Alberto.

——-AERO Friedrichshafen; last week Schempp- Hirth, this week Jonker Sailplanes in my opinion the 2 biggest manufacturers at this moment.

Jonker Sailplanes had big new as well:
“We are pleased to announce that as of last Friday, DG Aviation and Jonker Sailplanes GmbH (Germany) have obtained approval from LBA for the Production Organization of JSDG Production GmbH.This significant milestone establishes a strategic partnership poised to leverage the combined technical prowess of both entities. Through this strategic collaboration, DG Aviation can build new DG aircraft with the combined expertise of both companies. Moreover, we aim to capitalize on synergies to optimize cost efficiencies and address challenges related to skilled labor shortages within the industry.”
Good idea!!!!

——In my Dutch paper I read that the weather phenomena El Nino has finished . I do believe the people from the Australian weather bureau ,whose message it was, as they are always correct and very much up to date. This El Nino started in the summer from 2023 and created high temperatures in the Pacific around the equator. It disturbed the weather in many countries.

——We had that very cold but nice artic- soaring-weather last week on April 18 with flights again over 700 km from Belgium by Wim Akkermans from Keiheuvel in the Ventus 3T. As you know that field is about half an hour driving from where I live , so I could see again the great skies, blue and huge CU’s.
My UK mates from Lasham , Roy and Andy had a good day too; 618 km in the ARCUS T.
On April 19 Lasham pilot Garry flew 912 km just missed out on a few km’s to finish his set task.
On April 20 Italy and Switzerland had 1000 km flights up to over 1.500 km.
On April 21 a 750 flown from Lasham in an ASH 25WL[25.6 m]by Nik Smirnow and young Toby Freeland.
From Grosses Moor in Germany 2x a 1000 k in an ARCUS M and VENTUS 3 M/18m!!!!
They are all dressed pretty WARM. Also in Slovakia at the FCC.
Such a pity they don’t have that nice soaring weather.

——-Tomorrow is April 25….. ANZAC DAY.…. .In Australia they commemorate all those who have served their Nation. In Tocumwal especially those, who served at RAAF Station Tocumwal between 1942 and 1960.
LEST WE FORGET!!!!!

CU next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz