It’s all about France to start with. The terrible/horrible action from one lunatic to drive his truck in a crowd , to kill as many people on the National Day ,Quatorze Juilliet, in Nice is just unbelievable.How is it possible that a big truck [15m] can drive so fast and so long, over a boulevard, before they can stop it and avoid what has happened now!!!!
84 Innocent people, several children,  died ,after a happy evening with fireworks to close the important day for France ; a day for liberty, fraternity and equality. How,…where,….what?????

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French Nationals.

As shared by JC.

After Wednesday the weather improved and they could fly each day till the end.
Women;
Wednesday;189 km. and Aude Undersee is doing very well . She won the day with 90.70 km./h and was the only one in the ninety.
Thursday;219 km. and Aude is still in great form and won the day again. 3 out of 5 days a daily prize for her.
Friday;251 .Martine Lesage in the Pegase won the 1000 points for the day. Aude was 4th. Only 1 out-landing.
Saturday; LAST DAY!!!146.86 km.
Some kind of coup by Magali De Cachard [ 3476] on this last day.She won the day and moved from spot 4 to spot 2 overall so from “nothing” to SILVER. Good on her! Aude was far ahead so no worries for her GOLD.[3640] The bronze was for Amelie Audier [3419] Melanie Gadoulet moved from 2 to 4 [3390]
A huge difference in start times on this last day between 2.07 and 3.30.
6 out of 8 days.

The CHAMPION as shared by JC.

18 m;
Wednesday;282 km and Jean-Denis Barrois won the day together with Arne from Denmark.Both 721 points. Gilles Navas was 2d.
Thursday; 406 km and finally a 1000 points day. This time for Antoine Havet. Denis Guerin was runner up and Jean Denis 3d.
Friday;341 km. Danish mate Arne won the day [118.58 km./h.] and got 950 points. The French number 1 was Denis Geurin with 924 points.ALL pilots finished.
Saturday; 248 km and Jean Denis Barrois won the day and moved to SILVER.[4605] Denis Geurin remained on the GOLD spot but he had not over much. [4645 so a difference of 40 points] Good “old” Gilles is on the bronze medal spot [4571]
7 out of 8 days.

Gilles Navas as shared by JC.

open ;
Wednesday;292 km and Laurent Aboulin raced best for 774 points. 4 x JS 1 in the daily top , all ahead of the EB 29 from the THE Broquevilles at spot 5.
Thursday;406.80 km and another winner; Christophe Cousseau [JS 1 c] with the The Broquevilles HC as runners up.
Friday;405.80 km.All pilots finished so a good day! Sylvain Gerbaud [1000 points] was just ahead of the The Broquevilles.[909]
Saturday; 255.77 km.With a speed of 104 km./h the the Broquevilles won the day and Pierre and Arnaud added 782 points to their total and that was enough to call them WINNERS [they are from Belgium] of the French open class Nationals.[4151]  It’s their 2d win this year and they love their new glider the EB 29.
The new French CHAMPION is Sylvain Gerbaud [JS1 C] who won the last 2 days.[ 4080]Jean Marc Deycard [JS1 C] was silver champion and the bronze medal was for team Jean Marc Caillard. He flew with Hersen . I remember a monsieur Hersen from Angers in the 70 thies, maybe he/she is family.
6 days and 2 x a 1000 points day.

The THE BROQEUVILLES, Pierre and Arnaud.
As shared by Jutta.

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The Spanish Nationals.

The briefing as shared by Aldo.

Santa Cilia De Jaca Airport,in Spain,was the venue between July 1 and 9 for 30 pilots flying in 3 classes.

       

Santa Cila is according to Aldo a gorgeous airfield and area to fly in/over. [Pyrenees] So to see ,….that’s totally true.
Pictures courtesy Aldo.

Out of the 9 days they flew 7 , under reasonable good circumstances , though on each day there were out landings.
In club class, 11 pilots among them former world Champion Stefano Ghiorzo in the Silent 2 Targa.
Task 1 was a pretty marginal one [225 km] with only 2 finishers and 1000 points for Jose Antonio in the KA 6.
Task 2 [1.30 AAT] was for Stefano .
Task 3 with a 2 hour AAT was for Stefano as well.
Task 4 with 247 km. “boring”…but Stefano won , finally a 1000 points day.
Task 5 [157 km.] was for the KA 6 pilot and task 6 [2.30 AAT ] for Stefano in the Silent.
Task 7 [219,48 km] was for Stefano as well, so no doubt about the Champion in this class Stefano, [4727] but as he is Italian , he is the winner and Jose Antonio Blanco Quesada the new Spanish Club Class CHAMPION.[4586]

Stefano in his Silent Electro.
Picture shared by Alisport.

Standard/15 m; with 10 pilots.
Task 1 with 287.77 km. had only 3 finishers…still a 1000 points day for  Francisco Artega [ ASW 27 B]
Task 2 had a 2.30 AAT and Jorge Arias [Ventus b] won the 1000 points.
Task 3 a 2.30 AAT and it was a daily win for Francisco again.
Task 4,  with 334 km. was Jorge and
task 5 for Francisco. They happily seem to share the days; each one every other day!
Task 6 with 281 km however was for Francisco again . Task 7 with 332 km. as well ,….he was in the racing mood!!!!
But it was not enough to beat Jorge, who clearly was the new Spanish champion[5903] with Francisco as runner up[5762]

Open class ; with 7 days as well and 9 participants.
Task 1 and 304 km. Alvaro Orleans- Borbon [ASH 31 MI/21 m] ] won the day so 1000 points for him.Aldo Cernezzi , [ARCUS M] my colleague at Gliding International was runner up.
Task 2 was a 2.30 AAT and now it was Aldo ahead of Alvaro.
Task 3 had a 2.30 AAT again with a brand new name up front for the 1000 points; Inaki Ulibarri [ flies at La Cerdanya and is a Spanish-Catalan from Barcelona ] in a DUO DISCUS, with Alvaro as runner up  and ouch,….Aldo was one of the 2 out-landers after 314 km.
Task 4 with 354 km was a “correction on the day before” for  Aldo, he won and Inaki was runner up and Alvaro did not start, as he had home/family-obligations. But according to Aldo he could have been the Champion.
Task 5 with 233 km. was for Aldo and
task 6 with 337 km. for another new name; Ricardo Rodrigeuz Menchero [ASH 31]  and,..Aldo unfortunately was out at 314 km. Only 2 finishers that day.
Task 7;Aldo won the last day and ,….. there was a total of 5900 points for him as a VERY CLEAR WINNER of the Spanish championship.Aldo is also from Italy so the new champion is Inaki , but….with 1000 points less!!![4900]

Open class winners!!!1. Aldo , 2 Inaki and 3 Steve [Ollender].

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QSGP in the UK.
Bicester July 10-17.

With 3 days cancelled due to bad weather, they expected to have good soaring conditions from Thursday  .
Ian Macarthur was the winner of Race 1 of the UK SGP and race 2 was for German pilot Jan Omsels. 18 Pilots and 3 are from Germany.

  

Ian and Jan.

Race 2 winners after prize giving as shared by the organizers. Jan in the middle and the the left Andy to the right Francis.

Race 1 was a race from 135.85 km and Ian [JS1] won with a speed of 86.7 km. /h. Runner up was Derren in a Ventus 2cxa and number 3 on the podium was Ken Barker in a JS 1c.
After 3 days rest they continued with race 2 and with 245 km. and an early regatta start at 1.01 PM, the pilots could race. They did!!! Jan flew around with a speed of 124.7 km./h. in his ASG 29 ES and Andy had 123.3 km./h.[JS 1c EVO]
For a -tad –too- fast- start he got 5 pen sec. {Starting above max speed 171 km/h.}
Friday was cancelled again so Saturday and Sunday were the only possibilities to gain more points.
Saturday was cancelled so it was ALL about SUNDAY the last day.
AND ,…they flew!!!!103.75 km. was set and this time Andy was the best but even with 11 points for the last days , he could not win this GP. He had a bad first days with no points.Young Jan Omsels from Germany did.He won race 2 and was 7th on race 1 and runner up during race 3.
Jan had 21 points and  Andy 19.

To read back about  the event you can go to http://www.sgp.aero/uk2016

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Interesting OLC flights.

July 15; One of the good flights last week was from Ramy Yanetz:” Had another 1000km flight today. Flew out and return across Nevada. Bagged 3 states in one flight. Turned deep in Utah 18 miles from Delta and within easy glide from Nephi, and back to the Whites in California. Great lift under strong clouds but overcast and strong wind (25 knots) made it a bit more challenging and slower.” Can only add GREAT flight.

July 17; As I told you ,…it was only waiting for a long list of 1000 km-flights from Fuentemilanos and it already happened on July 17 and with 34 pilots in the air 6 pilots flew a 1000 and 6 a 900 plus and 9 a 800 plus task.Not only in open class gliders but also in LS 9 and DG 400/17m. and ASH 26.

July 19; it was hot in Europe yesterday with a strong high. 3x 1000 km flights in Germany.On the OLC  page all first 50 flights were GOOD even the one from 636 km in an ASW 15.
756 from Bex in Switzerland in an LS 4 must have give the junior -team-pilot David Leemann ,joy as well.

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To finish a great picture from and shared by Robin , our junior runner up in Narromine and courtesy to his dad Martin Smit. It’s a cut-out from a bigger picture .

CU next week, 30 dgr. here over the last days, pretty hot! And today maybe 38!!!!At least hotter than yesterday and we had in a shopping center in the Hague out side in a pretty dark lane 34.8 dgr. C.