Post ;1.417 on Mai 3 2023
Last Sunday it was FINALLY SPRING here. Sunny, great clouds and no coat….18 dgr.C!!!! Full of enthusiasm I wanted to look at the flights on the OLC and WeGlide, BUT……a fatal accident at Terlet tempered the joy.
Terlet is the home of the Gelderse, but also host of different other clubs. One of the members of those clubs, a 57 year old lady died after hitting the trees on the S. of the field. SO SAD!!!!!!They had a spring camp at Terlet.
PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!!!! PLEASE REMAIN CAREFUL !!!!

——————————————————————————–

KLIX….Germany
 28 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

After 2 non-flying days , Sunday finally was the day to start this competition.
Task 3 on flying day 1. A pretty challenging day, blue with a base of 1100 -1500 m. max.
Club class; with 27 pilots from Germany, Italy , The Netherlands , Poland and Hungary got a 227 km. racing task. Among them Frouwke Kuijpers, Elena Fergnani and Lilian De Bruijn.
Daily winner Jacek Flis from Poland in LS 3WL; 91.78 km./ h was the best speed.
A total of 6 Polish glider pilots in this class; They were on spot 1-2-3-4-5 and 26, due to an airspace- outlanding. They all started at the same time.
26 Started 24 were in. The last to finish was Frouwke, BUT she was IN!!!!. Good on her!!!!
Standard class; with 19 pilots from Italy, Germany, Denmark, Poland, The Netherlands and France. Among them Sabrina Vogt and Michelle Fergnani. Their task; 329 km.
1000 points for daily winner Poulkim Larsen from Denmark in an LS 8T.
19 Started , 16 finished.
Double-seaters; 25 teams, mainly from Germany and 2 from The Netherlands; Task; 234.60 km.
Hillebrand & Meyer in the ARCUS M were the daily best; 106.68 km./h.
Only the BACK family was out, from the 25 who started!!
18 m. class; 405 km……34 participants, a few fly as team in Nimbus 2 D or ASH 25.
Daily winner; Helge Liebertz for 1000 points. Norbert Kalish [ somewhere I think he flew in the past with us in Tocumwal] was runner up in the ASH 25 and Dutch pilot Steven Raimond was 3d in his ASG 29.

Task 4 on flying day 2; a tad less good weather and flights over Poland. For those back it was party time.
Club; 193.20 km.…Nicola and Elena, brother and sister, started together. Elena is as you know the World Champion from Lake Keepit. Both fly a Discus. Nicola was just a tad faster with 69.15 km./h for 67.29 km./h. Runner up was that great little Libelle flown by members of the Kronitzer family.
From 26 starters only 13 were in. One of the out-landers was Jacek who won the day before!
Note; I was wrong in sharing the news that Elena is the current WWGC champion. She won in Lake Keepit. The current WWGC champion is of course Petra Piskata from the Cezch Rep ,who won in HusBos.
Last week Petra flew and trained very well with the Czech ladies team, at the FCC in Prievidza were she was 8th overall from 21.
SORRY ABOUT THAT.
Standard; 239.87 km.…Good day for the Dutch pilots with Jeroen [Verkuijl in JS 3] as winner [ 69.74 km./h] and former World Champion Sjaak [Selen] as number 3[ 65.39 km./h in Discus 2A] . In between Lorenzo [Monti] from Italy. [64.96 km./h in LAK 19]
19 Started 9 were in.
2-Seaters; 206.74 km.…Even slower was the speed in this class. The DG 1000 from Dinger & Zoller flew around with 57.73 km./h.
24 Started and only 3 were in. With the DG also a Duo Discus XLT and an ARCUS T.
18m/open; 194.82 km....With 88km/h Norbert won in his Nimbus 4D the day. For sure he would not have taken out his glider out of the hangar on such a day at home.
31 Started and 26 were in. One Danish pilot started too early and “got” ZERO points. Pfff….

No task 5 yesterday on Mai 2, due to the weather. Neutralized.

Mai 3; today! No news yet.

—————————————————————-

Gauteng Regionals from ORIENT.
29 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

They started on Sunday as well with 2 classes, sports-class [ 11 pilots ] and open .[7]
Task 1 in sports class was 234.39 km and won by John [Coutts] in a Libelle 301;117 km./h.
John won task 2, a 2 hour AAT as well [ 182 km with 88.86 km./h] and for today he and his mates have a 2.45 AAT at the menu.
Task 1 in open 299.49 km. was won by Laurence Hardman with 123 km./h. Oscar was runner up; 122 km./h. Oscar however, won day 2 ,with a 2.30 AAT flying 307.69 km with 111.36 km./h.
For today a 3 hour AAT has to be flown.

———————————————————————

COPPA CITA DE VARESE [CCV] / Italian OPEN CLASS NATIONALS.
Calcinate Del Pesce
30 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

No flying on the first days but a bigger task on Mai 2. Not good in Klix, but good in Calcinate.
15 Pilots in all kind of gliders between the EB 29DR and LS 6 fly for the COPPA or title. [Walter Vergani Trophy]
From the UK Jon Gatfield participates [AS 33es/18m] and from Austria 3 pilots with Peter Hartmann.[JS1C/18m]
Well known Italian pilots; Alberto Sironi,[ARCUS T] Margherita Aquaderni [ Ventus 3F/18m] and Stefano Ghiorzo. [Ventus 3T./18m]
Task 1 on May 2; 506.97 km…..later changed in 3 hour AAT.…
Daily coppa winner; Luca Castelli in JS1B EVO; 332.67 km with 90.44 km./h. showing it was a difficult day!
From 14 starters only 5 finished.
Daily open winner; Luca and only 3 finished in this class. 10 started .
More on SUNDAY.

——————————————————

TEUGE_2-DAYS-COMPETITION 2023.[The Netherlands]

The Dutch juniors started their competition season with a 2-day-competition at Teuge. AND …they did well. Niels van Nieuwland in his LS 8 was the best over the 2 days with a spot 2 on both days.
Task 1 had 323.59 km and was won by Halmar Lakeman. On task 2 he was 6th in his LAK 17/18m. over 179.88 km.
The other juniors Noud [Kaay] and Tim [Kremers] flew the Duo Discus to a first spot on day 2.
The AG is one of the 2 “junior-glider’s ” and Lucas [Vink] flew it last Sunday for the first time .
A total of 11 pilots participated.
It’s REALLY nice to see that several of them are children from long time mates!!!!
By the way Maurits [Hebels] had all those great flights in Varese , I wrote about a few weeks ago. Even a 1000 in an ARCUS T.

———————————————————————

Yesterday ,not far from where I live , just over the border in Belgium at KEIHEUVEL, pilots had a very good soaring day with 760 km [500 FAI triangle] for Wim Akkermans in his Ventus 3 F/18m. and 691 km for Ward Geysemans in DG 400/17m.
On April 30 Tijl [Schmelzer[ flew from Keiheuvel 693 km in his Ventus 3 T/18m
Terlet and Soesterberg had up to over 600 km as well yesterday. Lizzy flew from Soesterberg a 300 FAI triangle , in her LS3A, as practice for the WWGC in Spain soon. Her very first WWGC.

————————————————————————

And to finish,… this spectacular picture with Kenshi and Matthew . I guess with a Go Pro on the wing. Aussie Matthew [Scutter] is in Japan and flew there with Kenshi Tagami [as far as I remember Kenshi flew with us in Toc.] over Mount Fuji.
I only drove past ” the mountain” when I was in Japan. BUT,….I saw all the fabulous cherry blossom.

More on Sunday with the final results on Klix, Gauteng and Calcinate.

Cheers Ritz