Post 1.422 on Wednesday May 24 2023.

Last Sunday I published an extra blog…… otherwise they really get TOO long.
{When you scroll down you find the last news on the final days of the HAHNWEIDE.}
That day only 2 classes flew in the Dutch Nationals, due to forecasted heavy local thunderstorms with huge rain, lightning and thunder, hail and gusting wind. Code yellow! A too short window to launch all classes.

Dutch Nationals at TERLET
16 May 2023 – 27 May 2023

May 21 : task 4 on day 4.
Club class; 129.06 km…..In the end it turned out to be a VALID day in this class with a winner , Wiek Schoenmakers, in his LS 3; 56.13 km./h!!!!!
4 from 9 finished. Robin was out, but Jeroen was in and overall on spot 1 now. Robin dropped to 5.
Combi class; 143.13 km.…2 from 14 finished. Good on them, but not enough to make it a valid day. Daily toppers/finishers with a speed from 49 and 48 km./h ; The Arcus T with Rien Bastiaanse and Marco Vermeer and the Duo Discus from Annemiek Koers and Sikko Vermeer [no family from Marco]
In the end there were storms , very locally, but we were lucky here…nothing happened.
Open/18m; NO TASK.

May 22; no flying. Still some thunderstorms “hanging around”!

May 23; Task 6 on competition day 5/4. Still not a real flash day, but for sure better in the afternoon.
Club; 182.59 km....with 93 km./h Jeroen in his LS3WL was the best for the day. All 9 started and 1 was out after 171 km. A pity.
combi; 199.26 km…96.86 km is pretty slow for that beautiful ARCUS, but they got the best out of the task and weather…..They?? Yes Erik and Joost. They won on every VALID day.
open/18m;258.42 km....Jelmer Vis won the day; 113.73 km./h in his Ventus 3T. Jelmer is a former junior, STILL VERY YOUNG and talented. He had a rather late start at 14.50
The for a longer time successful pilots in comps, Jeroen and Hadriaan ,were on 2 and 3 [112.30 and 109.09 km./h]
“Bugger day “for Sjoerd, after 189 km. he was out, dropping from 2 to 10 overall….Indeed “bugger”!!!
21 from 22 finished.

May 24; Task 7 on competition day 6/7 with a busy morning; Briefing at 10.15, box at 11.30 and first launches at 12.
Club; 182.16 km...
Combi; 199.03 km...
open/18 m; 232.30 km.….

More when I am back from Terlet.

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Danish Nationals 2023 at ARNBORG.
18 May 2023 – 28 May 2023

They started already last Thursday and in 5 classes they had straight away 4 tasks !!!! In wet and rainy Europe …pretty good. But a bit more N the weather is better.
A few well known pilots in the several classes.

Club class; 14 participants and the 4 tasks were between 182 km and 283 km and former club-WGC-champion in Poland [2018 Ostrow] Rasmus Orskov won 3 of them in his ASW 20F. Jan Walther Andersen won day 1 and was 2x runner up.
Standard class; with 15 pilots and on the first 4 days tasks between 176 and 372 km .
Thorsten Mauritsen won task 1 and 4 but Lasse Edslev is overall after 4 days 39 points above him.
15 m class; with 10 pilots among them Henrik Breidahl [JS 3] had 4 tasks between 176 km and 372 like standard class. Henrik won task 1 was runner up on task 2 ,1 day later number 3 and on day 4 7th.After 4 days he is 2d behind Poul Kim Larsen who won task 3 and 4.
18m class; with 16 participants among them Arne Boye Moeller, Stig Oye and Peter Eriksen..Their 4 tasks were a bit bigger; between 174.80 and 379.44 km. Arne won 3 days in a row but on task 4 he was 10th, BUT the last from 16 to finish. He still leads with 101 points after those 4 tasks.
2-seater class; 9 teams fly and their tasks were about the same as 18m. Their last day had only 2 finishers a Duo Discus and an ARCUS T . Must have been a difficult day for for all classes.

On May 22 last Monday, they had no task.
Same, same on May 23.
BUT,….

On May 24, today, they fly on a crisp cool morning with “hope”
“The last two days’ battle between fronts has moved a good distance to the east – so rumor has it that a little flying can be done today – maybe a little more.” the organizers.
Club; 2.30 AAT.….
Standard; 2.30 AAT.…
15 m; 2.30 AAT...
18m; 3 hour AAT….
2 seaters; 3 hour AAT….
More when I am back from Terlet.

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—–Got a news Flash from Jonker Sailplanes about the great results from their gliders during the Hahnweide Competition.
“The 55th international Hahnweide competition is just done and dusted. Dusted is maybe not the correct word to use as there was a lot of moisture funneled in by low-pressure systems from Italy dominating the European weather conditions.
The task setters did an amazing job with the given weather situation and squeezed out the maximum possible tasks and really challenged the pilots every day. 
This was the first big competition where the JS3 RES participated and did so with great success. Despite the very, very weak conditions experienced throughout every task it seemed that Peter Millenaar (Netherland) and his JS3 RES had no problems dealing with the problems at hand. Peter flew most of the days with 2 batteries installed (50 kg of batteries on board) but also selected to fly in the sustainer configuration (only 1 battery 25 kg), when the forecast predicted very poor climb rates.
Winning 3 of the 4 days at the end Peter secured the gold medal in front of Jürg Haas (CH) and Andrew Davis (GB). The first 6 places in 18-meter class were taken by five JS3 and one JS1 glider. “

—–Interesting tows are always SUPER to see. Like this one. I know you can “hang” more gliders behind a tug but in the past in our SPORTAVIA time with Eddie and Don, “we towed” 3 Blaniks behind the Scout. Somewhere I must have pictures too, but where????

Talking about “tows”!!! What about this one, the ETA with Keith and Uli at the Hahnweide on the 2d and for them last flying day.

Cu soon again ,not sure when ,as I will travel to Amsterdam on Friday and spend Saturday at Terlet . Sunday back home!
Cheers Ritz.