Dutch Nationals, to be precise the KLM Flight Academy National Championship soaring 2019.

When I left you on Wednesday morning at 10,  tasks were not yet set, but looking from my window it should be a pretty good day.
It was and what a day!!!
It’s not often that we fly over 500 km. at a national competition , though, through the 50 years,  I have been at a few comps, where they did.
And one, but that was an EGC in Rayskala , with on the first day a 1000 km, flown by many!!
You never forget those moments. So,….

Wednesday…Day 7 task 5; with blue skies and nice high white fluffy clouds!!!

Ready to go for a nice long day! Looking gooood!!!!!
Courtesy Martijn Alders.

open…541.65 km;AND,…. yes they did it,…Ronald [Termaat] was the best and with 120 km./h., he “got” the 1000 points. Runner up Rien Bastiaanse in the ASH 30 MI  and Joris Felsbourg in the same glider was 3d. All 7 pilots who started flew the 541 km!!! Good on them.

18 m…527.94 km; 13 from 15 finished in this class. Hans Biesters won the day ;1000 points. Ronald Kaay was runner up and Steven Raimond was 3d, all flew ASG 29.

combi…450.12 km; Great result for young Lizzy winning the day in the LS 8, her very first 1000 points!!!!  She started and finished together with Stephan Grunder who got 999 points. The other lady in this competition Annemiek was out after 439 km. and the 2 young “hotshots” from the Gelderse, both sons from top-national pilots,[Rien Bastiaanse and Tjeerd Reitsma]  in the Duo XL were out after 422 km. Such a pity and so “expensive”,  loosing 600 points and still so close at the goal.

club…351.97 km; “Smitje” Robin in his RS the St. Cirrus, won the day 1000 points for him. 14 Started 2 were out. Thies was 8th, lost 120 points but still leads with 300 points.

Robin as winner of the day seen by Arjan Vrieze. Another great picture!!

In the evening they had a BBQ and I guess only smiling faces!
That same day pilots declared 1000 km. Alfred Paul tried one from Terlet but had to start his engine at 8 still 958 km. [ASG 29E/18m] And from Veendam the ASH 25E flew 928 km.
As said a TOP day!!

Thursday day 8 NO task . The day was cancelled in the morning ,but we decided to travel to Terlet anyhow, to see our daughter Inge and her family, as granddaughter Indya was supposed to have DBO lessons. The weather was supposed to clear at noon, but only when we drove home at 5,  it was perfect weather for lessons , too late.
Interesting day anyhow ,as I saw the new LS 4 from our Dutch junior team. One of the St. Cirrus gliders has been sold and the LS 4 replaced it.

Friday day 9 task 6; And yes they flew again. It looked great in the morning but the afternoon showed over-development and pilots had to struggle to come home.
open..266 km; another daily win for Ronald in his JS 1C. His speed from 99 km./h showed that it was not easy. On the long-good- day, the day before it was 120 km./h. His direct opponent Mark was out after 230 km. but he is still runner up,…though with around 500 points less.
5 From 7 finished

18 m. class 245 km; It’s all about Steven and Sikko, both very experienced and both have been in my teams so I know them a bit. And,..both are top guy’s!!! The difference was ONE point. Sikko started and just behind Steven left and both arrived at the same time.
I am very proud on the performance of Rens [van Broekhuizen] who was in my Junior team in Husbos in 2005. He was 3d and flies now a Ventus 2CT. Overall he is 5th!!!!
Only 5 from 14 finished!!

Combi class 231 km; Great to see Erik [Borgmann, who was in my team in  Borlange at the WGC and finished as runner up!!] and his mate Joost [ Also a mate of my son Dennis] flying the ARCUS T to a daily win!!
8 From 14 finished!

Club class 211 km; and Frankie [Hiemstra] won again. Bad day for the till now -every-day-overall -winner Thies ,who outlanded after 189 km. loosing around 400 points, but he was 300 ahead.
11 From 16 finished.

So with 1 day to go  the championship “looks” to go between Ronald and Mark in open, Steven and Sikko in 18 m.
3 possibilities in the combi class where  scores are pretty close; Jeroen Verkuijl, Nick Hanenburg and Joost / Erik.
In club also 3 possibilities; Thies who had such a big lead is now only 13 points ahead of Roelof Corporaal in Pegase 101A and around 60 on Patrick van Breemen Schneider.
Everything can happen!!

Saturday day 10 task 7 , WOW,  that’s pretty good for a Dutch National Competition. 7 Good flying day’s.
They were allowed to find out their own way on this last day, a hot one up to 28 dgr. C. Tomorrow 33!!!
We left via Malden for Terlet again and were part of the launches and finishes, both in many way’s spectacular.
The weather did not develop as expected ,….
open;  3 hour AAT..later 2.15. with late starts around 3 PM.  All pilots finished ,Rien in the ASH 30 MI as the first one in this class,  in front of a full terrace, with oh’s and ah’s because of the spectacular character of some finishes. Ronald was runner up and Mark last in this class so a bigger difference between the 2 in the overall scores.
Straight after the flight Ronald posed in front of the Thermiekbel surrounded by his daughter Anouk and my granddaughter Indya. It will be our Dennis 50thiest birthday on July 3 so a picture from one of his friends with the new generation felt appropriate to me.

  

Indya, Ronald the new open class CHAMPION and Anouk.

18m. 3 hour AAT; changed in 2.15; Victor Wetzinga in the ASG 29E was the daily prize winner. Sikko was 3d , Hadriaan 3d and Steven 4th .This was in a different order the final score between these pilots.Nothing changed.

combi class 3 hour AAT; changed in 2 hour; Stefan Grunder was the daily winner with 208 km. in time 2.04. Jeroen was runner up with Lizzy as 3d.

Club class 3.30 AAT;changed in 2.15. the “little ones” started and had a nice day in front of them. Interesting as well as differences were small in this class!!!Thies who won 3 days and was 1 overall after task 6 lost grip on his soaring with and outlanding on the one but last day and a last daily spot on the final day. The story is that when his wife had to go home to work again things changed for him. I don’t know if that’s true, but somewhere it went wrong as a for me unknown young man with an open smile won the Dutch title; Roelof Corporaal. Member of the FAC the club from Friesland in the N of Holland.
The joy was immense for him and his club members.

A very happy Roelof

   

Pouring beers for his mates from the FAC and a brand-new pop-up-design after his win on a white t shirt by Sander Terpsta.

So here are the final scores from this well organized [CD Ton did a great job , but admitted that great weather had nothing to do with him] ;
Open class;
1. Ronald Termaat in JS 1C with 6.268 points a real CHAMPION.
2. Mark Wering in JS 1C 5.528 p.
3. Rien Bastiaanse in ASH 31MI with 5.268.
Pretty big differences!!

18 m. class;
1. Steven Raimond in ASG 29 ES with 6.131 points and Dutch National Champion.
2. Sikko Vermeer in ASG 26 ES with a few points less 6.036 p.
3. Hadriaan van Nes in JS 1Btj with 5.639.

Combi class;
1. Jeroen Verkuijl in LS 8 with 5.789 points.
2. Nick Hanenburg in Discus 2A with 5.572 p.
3. Erik Borgmann and Joost Wolff in the ARCUS T. with 5.533.

Club class;
1. Roelof Corporaal in Pegase 101A with 5.718 points and for the first time DUTCH NATIONAL CHAMPION.
2. Thies Bruins in ASW 20 20WL with 5.535 p,.
3. Patrick van Breemen Schneider in DG 300 WL with 5.532.
So after being ahead with over 300 points Thies just[3 points],  finished as number 2. I felt sorry for him, but Roelof flew very well and was mostly runner up anyhow on the 6 day’s Thies leaded.

Not the last day for tuggies Daan and  Bertje, [Sjoerd has to leave on Monday] . As always they did a great job!!! But on Monday so tomorrow starts the OMK the Open Military Championship, so more towing bur also the winch will be active.

courtesy Willemijn de Lange

and a last picture from Arjan

No words needed.

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2019 HAHNWEIDE.

Started the day on Wednesday with the message;
“While the weather doesn’t look very nice currently, our meteorologist Jupp is a bit more optimistic. However, the weather window will probably not be large enough for all 5 classes and the airfield is a bit wet… The Pilots of 2-seater and open class are allowed to rest a bit more. :-)”
First starts after 12 and day 3 from 5 in 18m. 15 m. and standard class was about to begin.
18 m…241.26 km;15 m…211.40 km;club…196.59 km;
BUT,……..They waited patiently and some showed on pictures how wet it was!!! This one is from Matthew with the message :“Hailing on the grid. 3.20pm. 200k task. Yawn.”

In the end the day was cancelled.

 

Thursday they got the weather we had here on Wednesday, hence nice long tasks at the Hahnweide.
Day 6 flying task 3;
18m. class 428.35 km; with Andy Davis flying around with 128.56 km./h. the day meant for all except for one,…coming home, though some a bit too low.999 points for Andy. On the other hand some started too high as well.
Mario Kiessling was runner up and got 7 points less. Boerje Eriksson had 982 p.. So an interesting day.
Andy flew the JS 1c and behind him were 6 Ventus 3 T’s.

15 m. 356.61 km.; and 1000 points for Ulf Ringertz from Sweden in his Ventus 2CX. All 14 finished and  UK pilot Timothy Scott was runner up.
Stefanie who won the day earlier had a difficult start :” She had to land again because of a technical problem on the glider. In the end, she crossed the start line at 2:15 p.m., about 1:45 h after the Sweden Ulf Ringertz. At this time Ulf was already on his way to the 2th turning point”

2-seaters 434.84 km.;the Germans did well with Martin Theisinger winning before Holger and Sebastian all in ARCUS M.

Open class 489.22 km. ; with a speed of 123 km./h. Felipe  Levin [EB 29R] won the day with French pilot Christophe Delort as runner up in ASH 25MI. Then again Germany with Uli Schwenk [ETA]  and France with Sylvain Gerbaud.[JS 1C/21 m.]2 From 15 were out .

St. class 336.86 km ; and AGAIN it was Matthew Scutter from Australia. He must”read” his ‘”OWN” meteo very well and takes according the correct decisions. As you know he is the founder of SkySight.
All 19 finished with speed between 94.88 km./h and 128.98 km.h. for Matthew.

Day 7 flying day 4 in all classes;
265 km. in 18m.; with Mario as winner . Speed 120 km./h. 5 Ventus 3 T gliders in the top 5!!

2 hour AAT in 15 m; and David Bauder flew 218 km. in time 2.04 with which he won the day.

2 hour AAT for the 2-seaters; the TOP 7 was all ARCUS M. Norbert Sommer won with 230 km in time 2.05.

268 km. in open class; and a NIMBUS 4T won the day with in it Max Kollmar.

2 hour AAT in St. class; 223 k. was flown by 2 German pilots Christoph Kahler and Michael Wisbacher in Discus 2B and LS 8 NEO. Matthew was 4th and not amused with the “leeches” as he called his at least 6 followers. Trying to get rid of them influenced his own soaring.

Day 8 and last day!!! AND they flew!!! AND,..it was a great day!!!
18 m..4.30 AAT; and it was Mario again who won the day with 562 km. and a speed of 124.06 km./h!!! 27 started and one was out. Boerje was runner up.

15 m. 412.89 km.and Swiss pilot Uli Messmer won the daily prize with a speed of 110.42 km./h Runner up was Steffen Schwarzer and David was 3d.All 14 finished.

2-seaters had a 4 hour AAT; It’s all between Norbert and Martin and Martin won the last day.16 started and finished.6 did not fly.

open 4 hour AAT; another JIM-DAY!!!!534 km with a speed of 128.17 km./h !! Sylvain and Felipe followed. 15 started and finished.

st. class with 402 km. and the combination weather {SkySight] and Matthew is a winning combination no wonder so many tried to hook on his tail. 1.11km./h was the winning time. Followed by 2 German and 4 UK pilots.
Matthew wrote;
“ A nice week of flying in Hahnweide with only a couple of major errors and rewarded with a good result (4,226 out of a possible 4,246 points). Daily convergence influences gave me an advantage with studious use of SkySight, and the strong streeting conditions with light winds gave me a good advantage in the Discus 2, even though we were limited to 50kg/sqm.

It was nice to do some training here as well with the British Junior Team (for which I am the team captain in Hungary this year) and after a weeks flying together I am sure they will be strong contenders. Thanks to Sophie for crewing, and Hahnweide for running a great competition as always.

2 -seaters;
1. Team Norbert Sommer in ARCUS M with 4.275 points.
2. Team Martin Theisinger in ARCUS M with 4.164 p.
3. Team Sebastian Beule in ARCUS M with 4.132.
Also in this class small margins.

open class;
1. Felipe Levin in EB 29R with 4.166 points.
2. Uli Schwenk with Aussie Keith  is their vintage ETA with 3.934 p.
3. Synvain Gerbaud [France] in JS 1C /21 m. with 3.901.

Standard class;
1. Matthew Scutter [Australia] in Discus 2AX with 4.226 points!!!!
2. Franz Poch in Discus 2T with 3.733 p.
3. Peter Carter {UK} in LS 8 with 3.522 p.

 

Another Hahnweide competition is over looking ahead already at next year.
All pictures courtesy HAHNWEIDE ORGANISATION.

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UK Club class Nationals.

Cold and wet at Aston Down on day 2 with a new briefing at the grid.
courtesy  Cotswold Competitions 2019

With 32 participants younger and older, they started last Saturday with task 1 and only ONE pilot , Steve Barter, managed to finish the 249 km. task with a speed of 79 km./h. in a Discus CS.
“Heroes” as Ge Dale , Tim Milner, Ayala Truelove and Tom Arscott were out early, some nearly reached the goal. One of them Alison Mulder, who learned to fly gliders with us in Tocumwal, years ago. Great to see she flies in an LS 4 now and only missed out on 3 km. that first day.

No task on the Sunday.

Task 2 ..187 km. on Monday was a prey for Tim Milner, yes also he flew with us in Toc, as tuggie even for 2 seasons.
Tom Arscott was runner up and G Dale was 3d. Only 8 finished and Steve was 13th.

Task 3 ..128 km; weird short day with nice speed as daily winner Jake Brattle won in his ASW 20 with 121.59 km./h. Nearly all finished. Jake is one of the juniors who will fly in Hungary at the JWGC  at Szeged from the 28th July 2019 to 10th August 2019. Finn Sleigh another junior was runner up.[121.03 km./h]
” Behind the showers, the weather was very nice with the task (128km) being done in just 1 hour, 1 minute and 30 seconds by the fastest pilot.”

courtesy BGA.

The organizers ;”A notable mention to Rich Hood who completed the task at 117.35kph without turning more than 90 degrees other than to round Hereford Cathedral and Tetbury. Good efforts all round.” He was 4th in an ASW 20ax.

Wednesday was cancelled.
Thursday‘s message was ;”Competition Day 6 has been scrubbed because of the weather again. The cloudbase isn’t high enough to launch the grid and there’s quite a brisk wind. At least it’s nice and warm and there’s some blue sky and sun around. There’s no planned entertainment for this evening so please enjoy the peace.”
Friday was cancelled as well. “All tasks are cancelled for today so the day is scrubbed. The cloudbase never reached more than 1,800′ above site and thermals were weak if any.”

This morning on the very last day the message was ;
“Good morning! Please do not grid. We have a briefing and prize-giving at 12:00 so it would be appreciated if as many people attended as possible.”

With 4 out of 9 day’s the weather gods were not kind to this comps.
Yesterday a small task was set from 190 km and enough flew the task to make it a valid day though nobody finished. Tim Milner won and was only 10k out.; 645 points for him which was just NOT enough to make him the champion as Tim Fletcher had only 20 less.

So the NATIONAL CLUB CLASS CHAMPION IS;
1. Tim Fletcher in St Libelle with 2.250 points.
2. Tim Milner in Ls 3 with 2.229 p.
3. John Roberts in ASW 19b with 2.048 p.

As shared by Cotswold Competitions 2019
Many more pictures to be seen there.

 

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The WORLD FINAL of the  GRAND PRIX in LA CERDANYA [June 1-8] started yesterday with an official training day ….Flying in the Pyrenees………….they  worked hard there in the days before to set it all up.;
www.sgp.aero/finals2019

The 200 km-training day was won by Louis Bouderlique in JS 3 before Thomas Gostner in Ventus 3T.
On the first day, today, a task was set from 258 km.
There are 19 top pilots from all over the world.

More next Wednesday.

By the way this was BLOG NUMBER 1.111. Interesting number!
June 1 is Ingo’s birthday. Happy birthday Ingo!!!
His club shared the next message:”
Happy Birthday to the gentleman of our skies! With over 37000 hrs in gliders, you have and continue too inspire glider pilots from all over the world.
A true legend and great ambassador of our sport.
Happy Birthday Ingo

Tocumwal Soaring Centre

Cheers Ritz