Alphen aan den Rijn    Friday August 6 2010         ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

I’ll take you through today on an hourly base or when “things”are happening!

9.00; On TV I noticed this morning at the news, that the weathermap for the Mid of Europe did not look too good. But….In Szeged they have set tasks on days we would not bring our gliders out. So everything is still possible! Quite an interesting day yesterday!As long as pilots come back the task setter is correct. The German pilots did very well in open class ,ALL of  their 3 pilots on top.Michael is ready and will be assisted by his mates to win his 3d title. In a discussion with him, a while ago,  he only smiled when I told him he has a possibility to be better then the till now best ever pilot Ingo Renner. Ingo won 4 times a world title and should have won in S.A but lost a day as both his loggers failed. When Michael wins he only needs one more title to be AS GOOD!!! Good on him and he is still young enough to get that 5th one as well.I keep an eye on him. Good luck today, Michael!!!
In 18 m. class the 2d pilot from Poland Nieradka is on top now  and Uys[SA]  is in the middle.” Guess “they all want to win , so when they fly today tactics will be “hot”. Staryszak , who “dropped “to 3, wants his first spot back so between the 2 Polish pilots might be some stress and Attie on spot 5,  will help his brother Uys to get on spot 1. The “fight is on “, between the ASG 29 and the JS1. Great effort from Ricardo and Yves yesterday to make it home!! They “climbed” on the overall scores list.
The 15 m. boys  had another though day yesterday with only 12 pilots flying home from 49. Leigh for sure want to fly but the Italian friends Ghiorzo and Thomas, are ready to fly for what they are worth, as well. They practised so long together to achieve what they are about to do. Though 1 and 2 would have been better in overall, but also that can still happen. The Diana’s are flying well in this class.Only 3 Diana’s performing and one is at spot 1, the others on 3 and on spot 5. Good on them, it is a great looking glider, but I always worry a bit when they start and land.
So now ONLY the weather has to be good enough to make it a fair day and then tonight we KNOW, who are the winners of this 31st  FAI WGC 2010.
It seems pretty windy and they can see upcoming cirrus…….. Tasks are set by the organization which is normal on the last day, you try as long till it is imopossible and then you can only “surrender” to the weather gods. The German meteo predicts heavy thunderstorms in the afternoon [coldfront] , with hail and “thinks” that flying today “will be not likely”. Gridding is on and the last briefing is at 10.am. In Budapest it is raining already!!!
Back later;

10.30;the tasks have been delivered and on the back the meteo info is written WITH WARNINGS!!
SUPERCELLS AND SQUALL LINE ARE POSSIBLE WITH STORMY GUSTS AND LARGE HAIL 2cm .
 Now the “game” is starting; …waiting…waiting… hoping on a yes or a no for the day…and waiting. By the way here are the tasks, to make it easy for you:
15 m. class a racing task of  254.9 km
18 m. class a racing task of 258 km.
open class a racing task of 315 km.

12.00; The day is cancelled. At least they tried!!! Pilots and crew were “running”to bring their gliders to the trailers or maybe today the other way around as the severe thunderstorms were already close by.
At 1 the 3 new world champions will be in a car parade each in a car with their National flag and of course a glass of bubbles and All cars available should be following! Nice idea!
So the World champions are ; Open class Michael Sommer his 3d title. Well done Michael ! Great 2d place for Steve Jones from the UK and a fantastic results for my Belgium friends Arnaud and Pierre de Broqueville with their 3d place.Compliments!!!!
In 18 m class the 2 Polish pilots did well with Uys in the middle. Zbigniew Nieradka, difficult name, is the new world champion.
In 15 m. class it was one day too many for Leigh to add a new world title to his list. But great team flying from Stefano Ghiorzo who is the new World champion and Thomas for being 3d. A great 2d place still for young Leigh Wells.
Out of 13 days the 15 m. boys flew 7. The 18 m as well and the open class 8.
More news and an evaluation on thje comps on Sunday. Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Thursday  August 5 2010                ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

As the prognoses for tomorrow according to the German meteo-man are only 20% of a chance to fly, the organization set long , over 400km. tasks for all classes , but changed that straight away in a B then C and finally D task for 15 m and 18 m. The Open class boys had to fly their A task an AAT in 3.30 hours.
While everybody hoped for and expected that the weather would improve it only deteriorated over the field and pilots had to struggle at a pretty low base, with bad visibility and a chaotic organization. On track it was better and pilots mentioned good speed over the first leg in 18 m. class.

So what happened on the end of the day? The German pilots did a great job in open class. No doubt about that!! Michael flew 402 km with a speed of 102 km/h, on such an average day.  Pierre and Arnaud from Belgium did well with 386 km..
More succes for Belgium as only 2 pilots in 18 class came back home and Yves was one of them, together with Italian “mate” Ricardo.
I am a fan as well from the Hungaryian pilot Gyorgi , so very plesased today with his 1000 points in 15 m. class and through the years as well from Henrik from Denmark. They do not win every competition , but are pretty constant and good , always friendly pilots. 
A bad day for the number ONE pilot overall over the last days the Polish pilot Karol. Did the nerves get hold on him!?He out landed after only 134 km, poor guy, but this gives new opportunities/hope for other pilots!
For sure there will be chances in the top, which really makes it even more interesting.
What will tomorrow bring, one more day or…are the results from today also the final results!!!
Current leader Leigh landed not far from the field, he needs one more day to be back on spot ONE, as he will  loose that spot today.But,…Stefano and Thomas are very good as well and did fly together over the last couple of years!
Let’s wait and see. For the full results which will be  be later today , due to the many outlandings you can look at the site www.wgc2010.hu
See you tomorrow! Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn        Wednesday August 4 2010         ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Dundee is enjoying his stay here in Holland  even when we cannot do everything I wanted to do , due to the FLU!!!!
My Aussie guests arrived with flu after their long flight , recovered mostly in Switzerland and France, but still were not very fit after arriving here and now I got it as well.
So there was not a lot of time to keep you updated , but I guess when you are interested in the WGC you have read their site and know all about it.

What struck me most was the fact that Graham Parker flying for Australia in 18 m. class gave up as as he said  “, I have been worried for my safety on every flight in this competition.” I know Graham for years. His glider was several years on line with us. He is a very good pilot several times Australian champion and a very serious person. Very unusual!!!
Of course the fact that his country mate Lars hit a truck does not really help either. The truck driver seems in stable condition at intensive care. The rumour is that he has to miss both his eyes, but the family has chosen to not say anything about his condition. The OSTIV members and all pilots and crew are donating money to help the family of the unlucky truckie. 
Hope he can continue his life in the best way under the conditions.
It must have been a shock for Lars as well; hitting a car on the road!!!!???? Luckily enough he had nothing but the glider was total loss.
 It is still beyond me how this is possible! Why not start with a finish ring straight away,or a set height over the road,  to avoid collisions like this. Another truck stopped when he saw the low finishing gliders, otherwise it could have been worse.
Here is the official news about the donation, so when you feel like giving you are very welcome to do so;

—On 29 July, 2010 at the World Gliding Championships in Szeged, there was an accident involving a glider and a truck. Fortunately, the glider pilot was not injured, but this was not the case for the truck driver. Under the supervision of OSTIV, a collection was established to help with the expenses of the driver and his family. If you wish to contribute to this fund, you may do so by sending a check or by making a bank transfer to the OSTIV Office in The Netherlands, or by using a credit card via PAYPAL. Please indicate that you wish these funds to be a donation for the truck driver. 

OSTIV c/o TU-Delft
Fac. Aerospace Engineering
Kluyverweg 1, NL-2629 HS Delft
The Netherlands

Bank: ABN-AMRO, Bastiaansplein 4-6, 2611DC, Delft,
The Netherlands
BIC Code: ABNANL2A
IBAN Code: NL93ABNA0500747709

Another “thing”, was the difficulty to get over the border from Serbia and Hungary. All 15 m. class gliders landed in Serbia. The organizers had made arrangements but it was more difficult then expected. A Russian pilot could not find his glider back anymore and that was another reason to come back “home “late. Some at 4 in the morning , some even the next day at noon!!!! Reason to give the 15m. class a day off, but as not everybody in that class got the message some were up early again.

Yesterday finally was a “normal” soaring day with good conditions, but still something went wrong, or am I too pessimistic now!? One of the tuggies launched the bicycle from the female steward Frouke from Holland. As they said on the official site:
—-“Yesterday was a very very good weather. Even a bicycle could transform into an Unmanned Air Vehicle 🙂 It has flown a short distance with a very good average speed!”
She borrowed the bicycle, so she was not amused!
But the always good pilots managed to fly well under the mostly difficult circumstances the days before.
So we have in 15 m. class  Stefano Ghiorzo on top at this stage, flying the Diana. His “mate” Thomas Gostner is on a good 4th place. Both were the winners yesterday with a speed of 114 and 112 km over 427 km in their 3.30 hours AAT.Stefano tops Leigh Wells with only 34 points so with 2 days to go still a lot happening if the weather co-operates. Friday is the last flying day.
Today they do not fly in open and 18 m. class but 15 m got a task which might be  cancelled at 12.Last night had severe thunderstorms and wind, but not too much rain. Still very humid!
In 18 m. class  the “real” soaring day was won by former WGC champion Wolfgang Janowitsch with the 2 S.A brothers  Uys and Attie as runners up in their own JS1. The totals are for 2 Polish pilots fying a ASG 29 with Wolfgang now on 7.
In open class good old friend Michael Sommer is ONE in the totals in his EB 29 . His mates Stephan and Holger both had 1000 points yesterday!They flew with a speed of 122 km/h over 427 km. The UK boys Steve and Pete, were 3d and 4th with 121 km ‘h.
On 2 overall is Steve Jones from the UK and Jan Andersen who won the first very marginal day is still on a great 3d place!

The rest of Europe flew as well  and on the 1st of August Fuentemilanos topped the OLC with several 1000 km flights;8 in total and 5 over 800 km. The last day of July was as good there in Fuente, with 3 x1000km , one by kilometer eater Guy Bechtold from Luxembourg. One pilot flew 997 km!!!!!! GRRrrr….!!!Fuente is as always in this time of the year FULL and very pleasant !!!

Just heard that the 15 m. class is going today for a 2.30 AAT .
That’s it for now! Tomorrow and Friday to go and then both WGC ‘s are over. We are all ”working” to the next ones in Uvalde Texas and Chaves in Argentina. Argentinian pilot  Damian Goldenzweig is not doing too bad under these circumstances with a 20thiest place in 18 m at this stage. See you on Sunday, back to normal, cheers Ritz
Maybe earlier when I have time and more inside news from the last 2 days in Szeged.

Alphen aan den Rijn    Friday July 30 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Szeged Thursday; Finally ; the weather-gods are kind enough to help with some nicer weather. Still not super but flyable for all classes. The open and 18 m. use adjacent start-lines. Interesting to see how this works out for 100 gliders. Tasks are between 333 and 380 with B tasks with the same TP’s but in an AAT of 2.30 hours. A few delays before the first launch , but then the 31st WGC really started, though the open class friends had a rainy extra practise day , counting as their first competition day, with some pilots happy, as they REALLY did well and some unhappy as it just did n’t work for them. Atleast not TOO many points were lost.

Then it looks like a reasonable day  till the evening when Lars from Australia[15 m. class]  hit with his wing a truck passing by on the road at the approach end of the runway and hurting the driver. Straight away I have to think of HusBos where I was the TC of the WGC juniors , where a glider hit a famous photographer ,who died at the spot, with 5 of my young crew members around him. Hopefully the driver is OK, the pilot seems to be OK , the glider is totally damaged, as it fell in the fence around the airfield!

Scores are less important when things like this happen, but on the other hand life goes on. Good to see then that Pierre and Arnaud from Belgium won the day in open class and my Dutch friends Ronald in the JS 1 and Rien,  did well with a 2d and 3d place in 18 m. class. Lot’s of outlandings in 15 m. class where only 4 pilots arrived home.

Friday; A TC meeting at 8 AM. Result; a finish ring has been introduced and as most countries were happy with that , it is going to happen, WHY not earlier, why not starting with it, as your approach is over a highway????!!! ????
Of course you expect pilots to fly safe and not to take risks and not to have a too marginal final glide, but it HAPPENS…..
As the family from the truck driver does not want to give any information on the condition , we don’t know more but some truck drivers passed the airfield in the morning blowing their horns.Hopefully he will recover !!!
Pilots got tasks as well for today B for 15 and 18 m. and the last TP was in the middle of a thunderstorm causing most 18 m. and 15 m. planes to land in a field. Some even landed at Becescaba where in the past the EGC was flown. 2 Pilots Stefano from Italy and young former WGC champion Leigh from the UK did well in 15 m. and came home!!!
In 18m. 9 pilots ”made it home”. In open class 7, with my Belgium friends Tijl/Bert sr and Pierre and Arnaud. Also Michael Sommer , who I hope will be the next Ingo Renner ,did well. He has 2 WGC titles alread ”only” 2 to go!!!

All in all, to be honest, I do not feel too happy about the WGC’s this year. Too much negative things happening and it takes my enthusiasm and excitement a bit away to happily write about my favourite sport. Tomorrow might be better. Let’s wait and see.Cheers for now Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      Tuesday  July 27 2010      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Monday; The weather in Szeged was not good enough to fly yesterday, but they tried hard to make it a day. While gridding it was raining.  They first cancelled the 18 m. class and the other pilots were supposed to leave with a B task in the pocket, but in the end they cancelled the day for all classes. The minimum height of 800 to be launched and 1000 m cloud base to open the line, was not reached!! In the morning I read on the German site already that their Meteo man gave it a 30% chance that soaring was possible, and after briefing he stuck to his opinion. The UK pilots and the Dutch would have known what to do with such weather, but it is better to not have a lottery day, certainly NOT with so many competing pilots !!
A pity the weather changed so much from ”bloody” hot to rain and cool, but …that’s the weather. Today is another day, but there seems not a lot of hope that they can fly day 1 of this competition.

The weather did not everywhere turn from hot ….to cool with rain. 2 Days ago several pilots flew in Germany for the OLC nice FAI set 500/ 600 km., triangles. On Monday young Belgium pilot Bert Schmelzer flew a very nice 788 km from Vinon, after travelling from Prievidza in the Slovak Rep. via Belgium to France. Bert jr. was 6 in Prievidza, a great achievement!!! His mum and dad and brother Tijl are in Szeged now where Tijl flies a nimbus 4 D with father in the back. I remember when my son Dennis flew the WGC in Benalla in 1987 with his dad; a once- in- your- life -time -thrill.
Yesterday Bert flew another nice flight of  632 km. The French mountains gave a lot of pleasure to many pilots over the last days.

Tuesday; The meteo from the German team predicts 20 to 25 % of a chance to fly today, so I guess he is right again and day ONE might not start today. Most of the pilots and crew , I heard ,do it easy and wait a bit till they go to the grid. I heard yesterday an Hungarian pilot took the risk to not go at all, but …he must have known what he was doing.
From several sites I hear that the difference between Priviedza and Szeged is big. Szeged has a too small camping, open showers and , for a WGC it seems all pretty “poor”, and….. still not real good working organization.
It is very pleasant  to hear that several people ”miss me” over there!
ALL classes got a task and a B task if necessary. First start was supposed to be at ;13.00.
Flights were set to the West then into Serbia and home. BUT…..the day was cancelled for 15 m. and later in the air ,  the 18 m. class was asked to come back within half an hour and a pretty average first day to fly the B task  for the open class. Lots came back on the engine, but 2 Danish pilots made it back home, earning on this devalued day 461 points. Jan Andersen who won the day is already for years a TOP pilot!!!! He and his mate decided to fly to the worst looking site with rain, all the others to the other more clear direction. After flying between 300 and 800 m., they came 250 m. higher out then the rest and came home.Well done!!!They expect better weather for tomorrow, let’s hope, wait and see!

In between a Lufthansa freight plane  got fire in the air and crashed full of freight at Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia. The pilot and co-pilot had only minor injuries, the plane , a McDonnell Douglas MD11 broke in 2 pieces and was totally destroyed. As the pilots warned the tower, emergency teams were waiting at the place of the landing. The plane departed on Tuesday morning from Frankfurt .
And then this morning a passenger plane [Airbus] crashed in the jungle 20 km. before Islamabad in Pakistan. The plane from Airblue  a Pakistan company was on its way to Islamabad from Turkey via Karachi with 146 passengers and 6 crew. Looking at the pictures from the burning plane I guess not a lot have survived. But at this stage they have not yet reached the place of the crash and the expectation is that passengers HAVE survived!!! The weather over there; rain with bad view.

Wednesday morning;  The expectation for today is on several sites around 20% of a chance to fly. But if they start in rain and let pilots fly between 300 and 800 m. then you never know. At-least in the early morning it was raining and they expect more, but…tomorrow might be finally the day they can ALL fly. The weather is and will always be the weather…you just depend on it and nobody can change it, not even for a WGC.
Now the grid  is “under construction” [ open between 10.00 and 12.30]and pilots go to briefing first, they might cancel the day, if the rain continues. Pilots got 2 hour AAT ‘s and then….the day was cancelled. As the briefing was  as some call it,  “chaotic ” and the pilots had a noisy wake up call early in the morning from an AG plane flying LOW over the camping, it all sounds a bit let’s say it friendly  “un-worlds”. In the next issue will be more news about Szeged. If you want to know NOW  what ‘s going on,  you can find all the news and the scores  on the Hungarian site ;
www.wgc2010.hu

Here in Holland the sun is shining and my Australian friends who travelled further to Finland enjoy 32 dgr. over there! They have nowhere had bad weather, everywhere in the low thirties or high twenties, even in Switzerland, so I guess they have the wrong opinion now about European weather. They might think it is the same as in Australia, how many times we all must have said “this is not normal”.

Leave you now as next guest, Tocumwal friends for sure remember him,   Dieter Dundee arrives this afternoon. As he lives 9 months a year in Australia and 3 in Germany he is more or less an Aussie now as well. Looking forward to hear all his stories! Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday July 25 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Sorry for the delay in writing, I was busy from the early morning till the late evening but had a “ball” with my Australian friends. They left this afternoon and before the next guest arrives on Wednesday,  there is some time to write. Not a lot happening in Szeged at the moment,  as after the very HOT weather, they have rain now and I heard they might have rain till Thursday!!!! Hope not!!!
After all the problems with the internet and the server loosing lots of important data and on top of that their CD , it seems the organization is still far from ideal. The delay by the rain might help them to get better organized. 
Pilots however seem to be ready; for them it can begin, this 31 WGC in Szeged for flapped gliders. Quite a lot of my friends are over there , so I try to write as objective as possible.
Who is going to win??? No idea! But..I put my money on a few; as Pete Harvey, Michael Sommer, in open class, Ronald Termaat, Ricardo Brigliadori , Giorgio Galetto and David Jansen and Killian Walbrou, in 18 m. Leigh Wells and Györgi Gulyas in 15 m class.
A REAL strong ” field”  in 18 m. class!!!!

Yesterday was a SUPER DAY in Holland. One of the pilots Jeroen flew 832 km. in a discus bT. Very special such long nice flights in Holland. Not flown over a big area but it shows Holland can really have some good gliding weather as well. Sicco flew 887 km. starting on the first cable and arriving home in his Ventus 2b 17 m when nearly everybody had gone home. I was with my guests touring through the canals in Amsterdam and looked at the fantastic skies , knowing “things” were happening.
A bit of rain here today and temperatures dropped from the low 30thies to the low 20thies, so I guess no nice flights here today!

Since I had my guests  the weather has been great in several parts of Europe. Bayreuth in Germany had 1000 km. flights again so did Fuentemilanos. Nice flights also in Austria and Prievidza, Angers in France, Nitra and Norway.
Friend Daan [Pare] travelled to the USA to one of his fgavourite airfields Ely. He was there in the right time as the USA had booming weather also in Truckie and Minden. Daan flew 2 1000 km. flights and several 800 and 900 km flights.

Very sad about the disaster in Duisburg where 19 people were “crushed to death “, as nearly 1.4 million people visited  the LOVE PARADE while the field where it was held was “only” for 500.000 people. One 22 year old Dutch student was amongst them as well as an Aussie girl from NSW from 27. “All those young people came to celebrate and instead they are dead or injured”, is what Chancellor Angela Merkel had to say.

A bit tired so more news on Wednesday or tomorrow when they fly in Szeged, cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday  July 18 2010      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Back to the normal edition on Sunday after a few extra editions covering the last days of the 31st WGC in Prievidza. Hope you enjoyed them. Was a bit emotional, I see now, about the lottery day and more special about the fact that pilots would not have had a fair chance to start. But with no complaints everybody must have felt like treated fair. When on  that day pilots would have not  flown, the tasksetter would have had atleast 9 out of 10, is what I hear.

Heard the Germans celebrated with bubbles in their pool  yesterday evening, so they should, great achievement. Forgot that Volker who is 2d in Club class was the Junior World Champion in Rayskala. Bright future for this young man!
Matthias who ended on a very nice 4th place was WGC champion in Rieti in club class in 2008.
SUPER Mario  2 d now, won the 2009 European Championships and bronse winner today, Mighty Michael won the 2008 WGC, so these boys are just good!!! And..as I know already for years their team on the ground is super , with cars on track to see how the situation is on the TP’s  and they mostly have a very experienced meteo person with them, I even remember a doctor one year.
Interesting is also that THE winner in Club class Arndt ,seems to have NO International experience, but he was 2d during the 2009 German Nationals.
That’s it about the the 31 WGC for non flapped gliders. As I expected the organization was top, let’s give the accidents and incidents a place and remember all the great flying and the TOPPERS who won. What great class they showed! Sorry I did not mention the world class too much, to be honest it is less interesting for me, but there are still a few VERY good pilots flying in that class!Szeged is next. Some leave straight away after the prize giving from Prievidza to be tonight in Szeged. It is about 400 km. so not too bad for the travellers who are used to much longer distances of driving to visit comps.
For the last pictures and stories I advise you to go to the site of your country or the WGC site at www.wgc2010.sk

This weekend is the busiest weekend  on the road and in the air for Holland and for more parts of Europe.  About 1 million people go on holiday. About 475.00 travel from Schiphol Amsterdam Airport.
In the UK is a busy weekend as well and for some, 16.000 a bit of a tragic one as one of the bigger tour operators got broke. People on holiday  in Turkey and Greece have a problem, though the guests from Turkey travel home as expected but Greece and people still going on their holiday might have a ”nightmare-holiday”. Talking about Greece it is SO HOT overthere that huge fires in the area around Athens have started. 8 Special water-bomber-planes and 4 helicopters help the fire brigade busy on the ground.

Got newsletter number 3  from the JS1 importers  and they “go” with the new ways of PR, having their own Facebook site. 6 Pilots are flying the JS 1 in Szeged, of course both owners of the business Attie and Uys Jonker and further on some TOP pilots as Ronald Termaat from Holland, Russell Cheetham from the UK and good ”old” John Coutss from New Sealand and not to forget Bill Elliot the current USA National winner in the JS1.

Jonker Sailplanes will use their Facebook page for daily updates on the JS1 results during the WGC2010. You can find the Facebook page via de following link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jonker-Sailplanes/188010050668?ref=ts

Also in the news;
–In addition to the “WGC Six”, Jonker Sailplanes personnel will be at Szeged to assist the pilots (and crews) of theJS1 Revelations with technical support, a range of proprietary spares and a wealth of information. As active gliderpilots, Jonker Sailplanes recognises the need for good continuing support after delivery.

And Todd Clark and Brett Hunter are the newly appointed agents for JonkerSailplanes in Australia and New Zealand. So good news for my friends over there.
toddclark@hotmail.com    for Australia and    hunter.b@ihug.co.nz   for New Zealand

CU Ritz, busy weeks ahead so I might not be there on Wednesday. My friends from Australia arrive that day.Please check if I am there otherwise maybe on an other day, it will be for a few weeks a bit irregular. Sorry about that.

Alphen aan den Rijn      Saturday  July 17  EXTRA EDITION       ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

And the [ preliminary ] winners of the 31st WGC in Prievidza are ;
 standard class;                                     Club class;                                           World class;
1.Sebastian Kawa    8547                    1.Arndt Hovestad  9317                  1.Laurent Couture   7747
2.Mario Kiessling    8466                    2.Volker Sailer       9265                  2.Martin Hrivna       7462
3.Michael Buchtal   8417                     3.Mario Schupfer  9243                  3.Denis Guerin         7434

Today I will follow the last day of the WGC with you, or when you have n’t got time you can at-least read about it through my view on things. Keep in mind that I am NOT over-there, but get my info from reliable sources, from reading other blogs  and that I only try to analyze what’s happening over there!Everything is MY opinion!

One thing is sure, the 7 pilots who made it back yesterday did a great job. Congratulations ,if coming back is a measure , they proved the tasksetter right at-least for one class. In the end it LUCKILY did not mix up the scores TOO much , as that would have been very unfair. Don’t know how they call it in Prievidza, but I call a day like yesterday, with many others,  a lottery. When that is part of a WGC , so be it! At many competitions I am sure they would have cancelled such a day!!!
I hear very mixed reactions and hope today will be better.
AAT’s from 2 hours, with nearly the same weather as yesterday, hot but…as they predict —very important—NO  thunderstorms during the day…. only and heavy one’s during the night . First expected launch at 12.
I like the way the German blog writer mentions it; ” Horac the weatherman tells us that showers are east of us, and yes he is correct as we can see that ,but….he forgets to look at the other directions. ”
For sure one glider in world class will not fly today as it was too much damaged yesterday to be able to fly today. Other gliders had damage as well as I hear the grass over there is pretty high for a safe outlanding.
I was still pleased to see my young friend from Lithuania , Vytautas, win yesterday’s club class scores with a flight of 218 km earning 800 points in his standard Jantar.
I guess today a lot will follow Art and look at the tracking system. I heard that in some newer gliders the carbon won’t allow transmission to the satellites, so that for most of the time they do not receive data. Interesting!
Here is what Art had to say;
“The broadcast yesterday was fun.  We had lots of DRAMA [ look at it in a positive way like a play! Ritz] – watching pilots trying to avoid the rain and make contact with the assigned areas – and watching glider after glider land out.I don’t know yet if we have trackers today.  I’d better go find out so I can prepare.  Another AAT – not much fun for me unless it is another landout day, and nobody wants that.” Thanks Art and have a good trip to Szeged where he will be involved with ”weighing” again. By now he is so experienced that EVERYBODY wants him! Don’t know if they have a tracking system there otherwise we will hear him as well.

The briefing was “torture” for the tasksetter. He was whipped by a red hooded ” KKK-look-alike” as punishment for the ”bad” tasksetting/read;many outlandings; 97 in total.  [when you are interested please look at the pictures]. The organization shows humour as well, which is good. By the way my Australian friends think different then I do, here is what Mike thought about yesterday;
“There’s a rumour the guns want to cancel the day, I can’t see why, it was an interesting challenge and this is the worlds. “
If you are interested in his full story you can go, with permission as I asked first,  to the Australian site at; http://teamdingo.blogspot.com/

And then the last day of this 31st WGC is a fact  when the lines are open for all classes; world 12.35, club 13.06 and standard at 13.37!! What will it bring?! Who is back in 2 hours with the most kilometers on the ”clock”! Who flies far into the sectors? Some pilots yesterday went for distance while in the end coming home was more important! But that was yesterday !!!
I ”hear” that it looks not too bad with up to 3 m lift to 1800 m. That sounds great! Let it be a FAIR day, this last one! I believe only ONE team has filed a protest about yesterday, so all other TC’s talking for all their pilots must have been more or less happy with the lottery-day” .That means we readers at home should be happy too.
One of the pilots mentions that ” this looks like the best day till now and then only a 2 hour AAT”, but others think it looks better then it is. In 2 hours the first were back, no thunderstorms, maybe a later start might have been better??? Let’s wait and see.!

In standard class number 2 and 3 , Super Mario and Mighty Michael went on track at 12.56, while number 1 Super Sebastian left at 13.02.
 The German boys won in GRAND STYLE with a speed for Mario of  125 km/h!!!! Still not enough to win gold , but it is silver with a golden edge.
In club class  the number 1 Arndt [007],left at  13.24, with his German team mate Volker [BW3] while Austrian pilot Mario [MS]left  at 13.32 and German pilot Matthias [M4] at 13.32 as well. Mario won the day but with not enough points to win the title he remains a good 3d”.
Congratulations to the German team with their excellent performances for nearly all pilots. From the 9 competing pilots there were 6 within the first 10 and one on 15 and on  36 . Great result!!!! For sure they will win the World Team Cup as well. NO they did not…Poland past them with 48 points. Well done Poland!!

And then this ……….why the mixed feelings?
“keep gliding, keep smiling” was the message on the last briefing! And ..they are right. Of course we all do ……..maybe not Alexanders wife and family.
Mixed feelings…….Sad and good ones. First of all there was the accident with  Alexander, who leaves a wife and children , then baby-boy and ”future-junior-champ”  Fin , son from the proud parents Chrissy and Uli. Death and new born life in one competition. Though I know the organization was strong and good, they must be feeling a bit disappointed as well, it is NOT their fault that a pilots dies and it is not the first time either during a competition, it is not their fault that pilots sometimes fly aggressive to win and cause mid airs and nearly mid-airs, it is not their fault that a pilot ”jumps” over a fence and injures his back, but in the future history this 31 WGC will be remembered as well by what has happened. Also by the birth of Fin , not the first time this is happening either during a competition, as we had in the past Marina Galetto who received Chiara , was it on the last day in Bayreuth? and Inge Gantenbrink who got one of her children in Hobbs in New Mexico. And now I think of it we had in Bayreuth a fatal accident as well. An AKA-flieg pilot from Germany  during the practise in Bayreuth.

BUT…with a great day as today is it nice to finish a competition ”on a high”, with a big party and a great prize giving ceremony for winners who are just the best. Enjoy!!!! Pilots leave with, prizes, certificates,  new experiences and all kind of memories on this well organized 31WGC in Prievidza. Thank you Prievidza for giving us 12 days of good and interesting soaring! You see I quickly forget about the lottery day.

By the way at http://www.daec-segelflug.de/events/10/wmclubstd/news/100717.php you can see the red hooded torturer, a funny site of this competition and ……..newborn baby Fin. Congratulations Uli and Chrissie!!!! He is a beauty!!!

I enjoyed writing and analyzing and will continue to do it the same way if possible with my guests, when Szeged is on!!
 See you tomorrow Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       Saturday July 17  EXTRA EDITION    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com    blog 321.

As you might have noticed I published a blog last Friday as well, to remain  ”fresh with the news” now we are in the last stage of this interesting WGC. When you missed it, no worries it is under this one, maybe you read blog  320 first.
I will share with you the last days by looking most of the day on what happens.

Friday July 16;
Friends in Prievidza heard rain on their tent in the morning!!!! But….though the meteo man was less convinced about the weather,  the forecast on the radar and the ”models” of the meteo-stations said ”FLY”. They changed from AAT’s from 3 hours to 2.30 in all classes , while the radar showed again showers and the pilots and crew could see a thunderstorm close by. Would it disappear ???

 These showers killed all activity over the field. Would it be still a lottery in the end !? I hate that to be honest. The best pilots should win not the most lucky ones just flying behind a shower or upfront when others have to land or cannot depart. I know it is a WGC , and the best pilots in the world should be able to fly under difficult circumstances as well, some use the “‘good site” of thunderstorms to climb really high……but still….
 I followed Art’s voice on the tracking system and they showed there as well the map with all the thunderstorms in the first sector at Trencin.  The ”art” is to find your way around them. Good luck guy’s! Nitra had to the S also thunderstorms but they did not reach their sector. But…while looking I saw altitudes of 600 m. up to 1800 m. and heard that some st. class pilots could not find the connection in the dead air after their launch and had to come back and start again, after waiting quite a long time!
In fact EVERYBODY should have a fair launch and possibility to start, also the last ones on the grid!!!!! If not ….they should neutralize the day for this class;my opinion! You have only 3 chances to be launched ,when it then still not works it is over and out! That happened!
Others up in the air had 2m climb. The word lottery is in everybody’s mouth now , not only in mine. But…I know that some countries love this weather.

Sorry but I do not really understand the organization! One day , a good-weather-one they give small tasks to be sure everybody comes home as we have seen that outlandings can be very difficult in the Prievidza-area —perfect—good thinking—so you avoid  more damage and yesterday they send over 100 pilots out , with the sure knowledge that a lot would go ”au vache”.
”This is a WGC”, does n’t count then.

It was only 2 hours and 30 minutes flying, but it turned out different for most pilots! Except for 7 ALL  of them had to land out as there was just no way to go to no direction. Differences in start-times are huge. I saw that Belgian pilot Wim , on a nice overall-position before today, started at 15.46 with 2 hours and 30 minutes to go! Sunset is at 20.40, so that would not be the problem, but I read that Martin is the field which is visited by many pilots and that is NOT Prievidza. A pity if such a day ”makes” the scores in the end of a mixed-feeling- competition!
Of course great class from the pilots who made it back home.  Were they lucky, or is it just their class??? From SUPER Mario , Mighty Michael and SUPER Sebastian, you can for sure say that they might have been lucky but they have for sure high quality soaring skills!!!The other 4 home-finishers I do not know good enough to to judge. But for all 7 GOOD ON YOU!!!!!

Happy news in between as the Team Captain from Germany Uli and Chrissie have received this morning a healthy young new future pilot with the name Fin. Congratulations to them!!! More happy news for the German team as out of the blue 2 pilots called 10 km.;Y4 and AK. Mario and Michael are back!!!!! But…topper Sebastian is back as well. It will take some time to find out about the scores.

CU tomorrow the last day of the comps, hope that is not such a lottery day!! Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Friday morning   July 16    EXTRA EDITION    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

An extra edition as we now are in the middle of the final stage of the 31st WGC for standard,-club and world class!!!!Otherwise the blog is getting too long and maybe boring to read!

The promised heavy weather for Holland arrived in the afternoon  on Wednesday with down -bursts and mini tornedos causing a lot of damage . Unfortunately a 62 year old lady died when her caravan was blown in the lake. Several caravan’s ended up in the lake as well and 4 more people had to be brought to intensive care. Whole roofs of farms disappeared with the wind and trucks were blown over. For the first time in Dutch history  5 electricity- poles of 40 meter high, broke like if they were matches!!! Damage bill up to maybe 75million Euro!!!!! Belgium was hit pretty bad as well and had the next day still no electricity in some places  and …..after it left Holland this heavy weather ”visited” Germany.

The last days of a competition give some extra tension, certainly at a WGC ,but when you can expect that the weather will be nice and no real ”lotterie-weather” can change the scores from up to down, it is a bit easier.
Last Wednesday was such an easy day again with nice results for the UK , making their TC Pete happy on the day of his return out of hospital. Howard Jones, yes from the famous Jones family, where I knew father Ralf pretty well in the past, was 6th . The 3 ”kids” Howard , Steven and Philip grew up in a soaring family , where I saw them through the years  grow up from kids to young men. 
 Have n’t seen them for a while now but  they are in their late thirties , early forthies and still good looking .
All 3 fly in the WGC this year.Howard in Prievidza and Philip and Steven in Szeged.Very special!!!!!In the Gliding International of July is a nice  story about the boy’s ,being  “the personalities of the month” ![written  by Walter Kahn.]
As said Wednesday was an easy day no great changes in the scores but only 79 points difference between Sebastian and Mario in standard class!!! The German ”boys” top the Club class with Austrian pilot Mario on a nice 3d place then the 2 UK boys G and Ian and then the reigning champion Matthias Sturm on 6!!

Thursday was hot ….hotter ….the hottest in  Prievidza and on day 10 the officials warned to drink a lot and to wear hats!!! This weather is NOT normal for Slovakia , like this weather here is very unusual for us. Global warming!!??
In Russia already 1700 people died by drowning after swimming drunk or just be unlucky. It is a terrible heat wave there as well with temperatures in the low 40thies!
Back to soaring; Racing tasks today in all 3 classes; 248 for the PW’s, 310 for club and 347 km for Standard class. But ….the late starters had a ” nail-biting ” day as it started to rain around 16.30, while thunderstorms were in the area around as well. Coming home was more and more difficult.
Then it is interesting to look at the st. class. The German boys started at 14.11 as the last pilots together with Sebastian…Sebastian made it home in 3.13 while our German friends needed 10 minutes MORE…..84 points lost!!! Sebastian leads now overall with 163 points!
Reigning “Welt-meister “, Matthias Sturm won in club class, storming to place 4 overall in his Hornet and I was very pleased to see that Luca won in the world class making it a good day for Italy .He is more then 1000 points behind the French number 1, so he won’t be world champion , but for sure he has had a few good days.
Belgium friend Bert jr. is  5th overall, SUPER Bert!!!!By the way, talking about unique  families. The Belgium family Schmelzer is one as well. Bert jr. flies in Prievidza, girlfriend Liesje is his crew  and mum Hilde is the Belgian TC in Slovakia. In Szeged son Tijl is flying and dad sits in the back of the nimbus, on top of that they are one of the loveliest families in the world!!!!
By the way our Dutch pilots have had very good days but also some ”off-days” as happens in comps! I know they are all top-quality and still can make the top 10. Let’s wait and see! And what about the day winner Erazum Polutnik and runner up Tobias Geiger. I never heard of Erazum, [nice name] but know that Tobias is a kilometer eater and often to be seen on the OLC. Good they had a great day!!
The day ended with some electrical storms causing problems,  as kiling the power  for the scores-computers  and other computers and laptops. A few BIG drops fell as well.

The biggest passenger plane in the world , the Airbus A 380, visited last Thursday Holland and hundreds of ‘spotters ‘were on side to make pictures. It departed the same day, as it visits different airfields in Europe to check the operational part of such a mega plane.
The merge between British Airways and Iberia has been ratified and American Airlines will be also a member of this new alliance with the name; Oneworld!

And then this, received it from an Australian friend;
—And a “funny” story about a stupid Australian. A 36 year old (old enough to know better) man had too many drinks at the pub in Broome and decided he would go and try to “ride” a crocodile. He climbed over several fences to reach a 5m adult male croc named Fatso (notoriously aggressive) who promptly took a chunk out of his leg. The man managed to climb back over the fence and stagger back to the pub, from which he was transferred to hospital, and then discharged today. Police are deciding whether to lay charges.—

No crocodiles here, but we know about ”drunk” people. See you in 2 days on Sunday, with the latest on the last 2 days of Prievidza!!!!!

Cheers Ritz