11th WWGC
Husbands Bosworth, United Kingdom
14 August 2022 – 26 August 2022

Already early in the morning 3 racing tasks were set just under or just over 300 km in club and standard and 349 in 18 m.
GOOD,…another day of soaring.

A bit of a weird day for Team Denmark, as yesterday after the long flight the girls were on 7 and 9. A bit later Julia was on the lowest spot, problems with her oudi; admin penalty as they call it.
Luckily she could borrow one from an English gentleman and she is ready again to go today!!
HusBos people are very kind. In my year there in 2005,[ JWGC] one of the boys had a car incident with the trailer, which was pretty badly damaged. Somebody brought from rather far away a fitting trailer. PERFECT!!! That’s soaring too!!!

As every day Liz looked back yesterday evening with an excellent analyze of the day:
“Due to the slow departure of the front today’s task was set East to West. The pilots had decent conditions for the start, in the 18m and Standard classes most pilots went deep into the first sector and struggled in the second with a very strong Westerly breeze making it a long trek across. In the Club class the winning pilots opted for a shallower first sector as for them it was looking blue to the East and then they pushed it in the second right to the back. Winning pilots seemed to be operating in a narrow height band – staying high and climbing more often paid off. Although the competitors found the day extremely tough, every class still had a 1000 point day and only a handful of gliders landed out. Tomorrow’s forecast has the chance to be even better depending on the progress of an overnight front. The Gliding Centre is hosting a family fun free weekend with glider simulator, STEM activities, shopping and food stalls, music and much more! Hopefully there’ll be plenty of racing for the public to follow while they are here.”

Katrin Senne was not yet scored late yesterday but she was in the morning; she was 4th behind the 3 French girls.
The Czech girls did well yesterday in club class with a number 1 and 2. Petr their TC is a huge part of the success of the Czech girls.

And when you want to see a nice and funny picture- story about yesterday you can go to Claudia’s Gliding Page

Time to look at today Saturday August 20 ; NOT an easy day due to” overdevelopment in the NW and a “Blue hole” in the east.” I read and heard.
You can’t say they are not trying HARD.

Club; 282.06 km….changed in 217 km at the grid…. gate opened at 12.25. BUT then the message that club class had troubles to get away due to over development …several landed back….
then club class was cancelled. For those still up, the day was cancelled in the air, but most were already back at the ground.

At 3 , they started the other 2 classes and off they went again in a tricky sky.

standard; 301,65 km… 12.38 gate opening,….changed in 125 km….. BUT also they landed back …. they re-planned the launches of this class with a new launch time at 3….for a C task.
Gate opened now at 15.39!
It turned out to be a “German” day . Cornelia, Sabrina and Chrissie flew together and had about the same speed; 88 km./h!!! So a difficult character building day!!!
The 2 Polish girls followed then the 2 French girls, the Czech girls and last but not least the 3 UK girls.

18 m; 349.74 km... 13.00 opening gate BUT changed in 170 km.… as also they landed back. All went for C task, first launces at 3 PM.
Gate opened now at 16.04….And Alena was with 99 km./h. the daily best;, she started 5 minutes after the opening. Then 2 and 3, Anne and Melanie [France] with 96 and 95 km./h. I guess their ‘mate’ Astrid tried as well but maybe could not get away ,as she started at 5 PM and was out after 127 km..

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The UK 18m and 20 m. NATIONALS.
13 August 2022 – 21 August 2022

So ONE more day. The penultimate day starts with Leigh Wells on top and Andy and Russell with equal points as runner up in the overall scores.
What will the day bring??
In any case TASKS and no overdevelopment or blue holes, as in Hus Bos , so no change of tasks.
BUT,….when I checked at 5 Dutch time I noticed already 3 out-landings in 18 m, but all over 100 km.

18 m; 329.14 km.…BUT,….then at once….. 3 pilots IN. Chris Starkey, Derren Francis and Leigh Wells finished ,…but Andy Davis was out after 134 km!!!! That means his 2d place overall is in difficulty.
When I looked again, totally different scene; Pete Harvey on top in his Ventus 3T with 1000 points in the pocket, just not enough to be on the podium and Gary Stingmore as runner up in AS33es.
And Chris and Leigh were now on 6 and 7!!!
For the last day tomorrow this means that Leigh [4.158] , Gary, [4.153] Russell [ 4.147] and Pete [ 4.084] are very close, so it will be an exciting last day!
And between the number 5 and 6 is ONE point difference.

20 m; 277.65 km....with 114 km./h Matthew Cooke won the day in the ARCUS T . Steven Jones flew around with 110,91 km./h and Garry Coppin with 108.54 km./h….2 and 3.
Their last day “might” be less exciting, MIGHT be, as Garry [4.250] and Matthew [4.218] are very close 32 points difference, but Steven is more than 400 points behind, but that was ONE out-landing……and an out-landing CAN happen even to the best, as we saw today with Andy.. He moved from 2 to 20, that really HURTS!!!!!

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THE C.I.M. in RIETI in ITALY
10 August 2022 – 20 August 2022

After 2 non flying days the pilots will be eager to finish this competition with a good day.
The weather has been pretty wild in the middle of Europe, so I hope they CAN fly. Tasks have been set;

Task 10; day 10….flying day 7.…last day!
the North looked perfect, the Terminillo [ I have been on top of it several times, the nicest thing is that you see gliders pass by at eye-height] was still a bit covered but they all left at 1800 m!!!!
-The winds at all altitudes are NW, weak in the low layers.
– Very light isolated rains east and south east of Rieti
-Cumulus base variable from 1.600 to 2.500 meters in the race area.

mixed class; 328.60 km….start gate opened at 14.25. The Austrian ARCUS M team , Pirker & Richter-Trummer won the day; speed 110 km./h. and moved from 5 to 4.
8 Pilots were out on the last day.
Winners from this interesting competition after 7 out of 10 days;
1. Sironi & Venturini from Italy in ARCUS T with 6.037 points.
2. Bouderlique & Bouderlique from France in ARCUS M with 5.964 p.
3. Coutts & Walters from NZ and UK in ASG 32MI with 5.792 p

18m/open; 350.03 km…The top pilots all started just after 3 PM.
French Guillaume and Slovenian Boris flew with a speed of 113 and 111 km./h. and were the daily best. Just not enough for Guillaume to enter the podium.[5.221]
UK pilot Jon was 3d. Austrian Werner on 8 .
So in the end the final scores after 7 out of 10 days are;
1. Boris Žorž from Slovenia in JS 3 with 5.491 points.
2. Jon Gatfield from The UK in AS 33es with 5.299 p
3. Werner Amann from Austria in AS 33es with 5.276 p.

Time to party now. ENJOY!!!

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The 2- day-competition in Belgium at the Keiheuvel starts today; the KEIHEUVEL CUP 2022.
I will be visiting them tomorrow so maybe less news on the above comps for once.
Today they have tasks for all 3 classes with 50 pilots, several from The Netherlands as Keiheuvel is just over the border ,where I live.
There are 19 pilots in the sports class with transponders, 25 in open and 9 in the friendly class, who are pretty new to competition flying and will have shorter tasks more fitting to their gliders as St Libelle, KA 6e and an Astir.

sport XPDR class; 247.36 km….All 18 pilots finished! Interesting to see is, that the top places are for pilots who just flew cat.1 comps.
Jeroen Jennen, a real local pilot who lived all his life at the Keiheuvel-airfield, , won with a speed of 109,42 km./h. He was the last to go on track in his LS 8. Jeroen flew the EGC in Pocuinai and was 6th.
Runner up was Robin Smit in the LS 4 NEO, who flew already in the 13.5 m WGC.; speed 104.94 km./h
At 3 and 4, “our Dutch juniors ” flying in Tabor, Simon v.d Eijkel [LS8..104 72 km./h] ] and Lars van Bremen[Discus 101.85] . That team was then 3d as group !
These 4 pilots were the only ones flying over 100 km./h.

open XPDR class; 287.98 km.…the winner was team Snyers & Bielen in the Arcus T, local pilots; speed 109.81 km./h
Daan Spruyt in the Ventus 2x was as fast , so 2 pilots on spot 1.
Wim Akkermans another local pilot was 3d in the Ventus 3 F, 114.42 km./h.
4th Tijl Schmelzer in Ventus 3 also a local pilot; 114.35 km./h.

Tomorrow they continue and I will visit this airfield!

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And to finish this nice picture of the

Off tomorrow to Belgium, so no time to search the internet, but for sure I gather enough news to share the most important items from the day, later in the evening. CU then.

Cheers Ritz