When I left you last Wednesday I was still in some kind of shock, as I could and can not believe what happened to Stefano and Thomas. The next day I straight looked if things were different,…..but no they were not. So I have to accept the decision of the organization.

This is what I heard ; one of the Italian pilots had to start his engine pretty early and instead of flying back to the airfield ,he helped his mate by showing him the thermals.
Let’s look at the continuation of the EGC and WGC 13.5 m.

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13.5 WGC in Pocuinai.[Lithuania]
4th EDITION
July 3-15-2022

On Wednesday they had task 4, a 1.30 AAT. Another day with NO FINISHERS, but some nice results, specially for the Netherlands as the Narromine WGC runner up, Robin [Smit] won the day with 213 km. Only distance points; 167. But,….when you can loose on ONE point , EACH point counts. It took them nearly 5 hours to get the 167 and 164 points.!!!
3 from 11 pilots [25 %] had to fly over 100 km….that happened; 213, 209 and 191 km.
A grown-up- tactic- flight by 2 young men, fighting for every point.
Character building, but character they had already!
Dutch Nick, was 3d. Nick ,was from one moment to the other, on top of the overall list when after task 3, Stefano and Thomas dropped to 10 and 7 from 11.

NO TASK on Thursday.
Task 5; 1.30 AAT…..cancelled.
Task 6; 1.30 AAT, you can see they are trying hard. Another tactic day?
NO, they flew for points with speed. Darius flew 80 km in time 2.15, which says enough but he made it a valid day together with the 2 Dutchies who flew a bit further ,but needed more time;183 and 184 km in time 2.18 and 2.32!
Thomas seems to be disqualified so is out of the comps and Stefano has withdrawn from the comps.
9 left. Only 9 …not good for the image of competition gliding.

Task 7; 3 hour AAT…..B task…2.30 AAT….Finally a GOOD DAY!!!! All PILOTS FINISHED!!!!
Nick flew 250 km in time 2.30 at the dot for 801 points,….finally some points…. and Robin flew 272 km. in time 2.48 for 755 points.
Nick was the only one flying over 100 km./h.
Task 8; 2 hour AAT....From the 9 pilots 3 flew the task and finished. 2 Lithuanian pilots and Nick from the Netherlands. The rest was out. 3 Flew over 100 km. among them Robin after 115 km..He must have “lost “Nick as they try to fly together.
Nick still leads ahead of Linas and Darius from Lithuania and Robin, who lost over 300 points.
July 12; declared REST DAY.
Then,……3 days to go.
TODAY ;2 hour AAT.

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The 21st FAI EGC at Pocuinai
July 3-16 2022

Such a pity that the Lithuanian organizers have to deal with “bad” weather. But as we know it’s part of our sport.
On July 6 and 8 there was NO flying.
July 6 had NO TASK.
July 7; a 1.30 AAT for the 3 classes , some flew but “no valid day.” One “hero” in club class , the only class not scrubbed, even finished…. Szabolcs Veigli from Hungary; speed 42 km./h in his ASW 20.He was the only one. TOP…..no points but a big chapeau/ thumps up!!!!!
July 8 ; another 1.30 AAT but nobody flew. In the evening…INTERNATIONAL NIGHT!!!!

July 9; marginal weather with a small window….they hoped…
Club; 1.30 AAT...a valid day as enough pilots managed to fly over 100 km…..but no finishers!
Czech pilot Jan Ratz was the best flying 148.52 km. for 228 points. UK pilots Jake and Tom “got” 226 and 225 points for 143 km.
Jake , runner up today, shared the day with soaring world;
“Day 4 (again) – A short weather window before an occluded front came in and wiped out the task area. 1.5hr AATs were set for all classes. We had some lovely streeting conditions pre-start, which very quickly gave way to large areas of spreadout between the first and second sectors – requiring a huge detour back to the north for 13.5m, 15m and standard class gliders to dip into the north side of their second sector and then scrape back home. Unfortunately, the club class sector was just too far away from the soarable conditions meaning we spent a lot of time just staying airborne and waiting! Eventually a convergence line from the leading edge of the front swept us up and allowed us to finally get into our second sector and back out. It was quite spectacular climbing on its leading edge in 8kts+. The next problem was that we had to go through the rain on the back of the line, and after a long glide averaging 18:1 through the rain and into a strong headwind, we finally all ended up in fields near the control point about 25k from home.“
Standard; 1.30 AAT...13 from 28 finished!!!!!Swedish pilot Jan-Ola Nordh was the best with 147 km in time 1.49.80 km./h!!!
German overall toppers Mario and Enrique had a bit of an off day being out after 100 km., so they lost some points and dropped from 1 and 2 to 8 and 11.
The differences are very small. My Belgian mates Dennis and Jeroen moved to 2 and 3 behind Jan -Ola. But it ain’t over yet!!!!!
15m; 1.30 AAT...Karel Novak won with 154 km. in time 1.29…good….and “got” 138 points!!!!!
Sebastian was runner up for 96 points;152 km in time 1.54.
The Italian pilot, Lorenzo Fornari, in this class withdrew!
25 Pilots left.
Poor Henrik from Denmark was out after 44 km and “got” 22 points.
BUT,…..19 finished. There are many overall scores with a marge of only ONE point, so a lot can still happen.

July 10; longer tasks! Hopefully NOT MASS OUTLANDINGS again.
B tasks were set as there were more middle-high-clouds than forecasted.
BUT…..NO OUTLANDINGS as EVERYBODY FINISHED!!!!!! GOOD!!!!!
A great RACING DAY!!!! Pilots and crews deserved that.
club; 2.30 AAT....2 hour AAT….27 finishers!!!! Best was Tomas Suchanek in his ASW 20, [229 km in time 2.08] followed by Danish pilot Lasse Edslev in LS 4.[217 km. in time 2.06.]
At spot 3 “our” Thies [Bruins] …yes our Dutchies do well….220 km. in 2.10.
team UK [Paul] wrote; “The club class got very low between two huge lakes and had to scratch away in weak lift. Passing over them at 3,000 ft looked nasty down below. But Jake and Tom did what they do best .”
standard; 2.30 AAT....2 hour AAT...Lukasz Blaszczyk in his Discus 2a, [229 km in time 2.04.50] finished ahead of Jan -Ola .[237 km. in time 2.11.
The German boys recovered from their less good day and were now on 4 and 7. My Belgium friends were on 5 and 8. Everybody was pleased with a finish AT the field.
15m; 3 hour AAT…2.30 AAT...4 eastern pilots, 2 from Czech Rep [JS3] and 2 from Poland [Diana2] formed the top 4 in this class. They flew over 280 km .and finished just before 5PM. Speed between 111 and 113 km./h.
All 25 finished!!!!Good day!

July 11; The skies looked good, but again many out-landings. 14 in 15 m, all gliders in standard[invalid day] and 20 in club class.

Club; 1.30 AAT…..A real European top 3; Danish pilot Lasse won the day with 121 km…speed 79 km./h for 130 points. He is in the right groove now!
UK pilot Tom was runner up with 127 km…speed 75 km./h. and Tapio from Finland with 134 km in time 1.47 was 3d.
Only 7 from 27 finished!!! “Poor” Claudia, with her already “battered” LS1 f neo, after so many out-landings, …by the way she makes nice out-landings…. was on spot 27 with 35 km.
Tomas Suchanek [LS4] still leads overall, ahead of Thies[LS7] from the Netherlands and Tapio [LS7] from Finland. BUT,….UK pilot Tom and German pilot Lukas are only 16 and 17 points behind Tapio.
Standard; 1.30 AAT.…..Only 2 Czech pilots , Miloslav and Jan, flew over 145 km. so the day was invalid! Well done to Miloslav and Jan.
15 m; 2 hour AAT….Polish toppers Sebastian and Lukasz in their Diana’s dis well again.192 km. in time 2.02, for 323/2 points.
From 25 only 11 finished, the last one of them Henrik, so a good Danish day!

A great write-up by Tom, who is flying there in Club class, so you also know all in’s and out’s from the “horses mouth”.;
“What a strange day. Short AATs set in all classes, with the threat of showers developing from the early afternoon. Sure enough, shortly after launching, under a cloud base not much higher than release height, the start sector started getting wet. Club class and 15m class were able to make an early start and set off through the rain. Jake and I rolled the dice and headed south at best glide with wet wings until eventually we connected to a weak climb from 700 ft. From there, the flight was great fun, dodging showers and running energy on the front of them, all in a very low working band. Both club class and 15m class had a great run home from the second sector, watching competitors still starting their first legs in the opposite directions. 2nd and 5th for the day was a good result, but unfortunately very few points for today. For the standard class, the later start opening time meant Nigel and Paul were forced to land back and wait for the showers to clear. By the time they made a start, most of the first sector was behind a shower line and despite their best efforts, they landed out in the best field available. With less than 25% past min distance, it was not a scoring day for standard class. With weather warnings for wind and rain in place, tomorrow has been declared a rest day. We go again on Wednesday with three possible days remaining.
Tom

July 12; Rest day for all classes.
Reparations for many gliders after the many out-landings;
” Good morning from the European Undercarriage Door Refitting championships. “British Gliding Team

July 13 TODAY….1.30 AAT for club, 2 hours for standard class and 1.30 for 15m.

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Both in the USA and Europe there were some over 1000 km. flights. A very interesting one last Thursday, flown from Ely in an LS 6 by German pilot Thorsten Streppel, with” a long and marginal 105km final glide in dying conditions which could be extended by ridge lift in the final part to avoid a landout and make it home safely.“
He shared this picture over pretty remote areas!

On July 11, last Monday Ely-Arpt was GOOD again. Kilometer eater Keith Essex went for a nice race of 1.329 km, a real FAI 1000 km triangle in this flight. His speed 160.44 km./h. [ 8 hours and 17 minutes]
For the triangle he sat 7 hours and 53 minutes with 132 km./h.
He flew a EB 29R.
There were 2 more 1000 km.-flights from Tonopah, a FIELD ON one of the legs SW from Ely, but also one from Fuentemilanos in Spain where it has been “bloody” hot over the last weeks with real heat waves, up to over 40 dgr. C.. In the ARCUS M Frerk Frommolz [Germ] and Guy Bechthold [Lux] flew 1. 135 km.
The heat and good soaring conditions felt good for more pilots so Gil [Souviron] and Baptiste Innocent “took” their Stemme S12 to Fuente and flew yesterday 1.223 km.[over 800km FAI triangle]
Guy and Frerk flew another one , this time a bit longer;1.187 km. Normally the season starts now in Fuente but with 6 over 1000 km flights yesterday, it looks like a great start of the Fuente-season, where many different Nationalities meet each year.
A real place for long-time-friendship and great soaring.
To complete yesterday’s 1000 km. flights. James Lee flew one from Minden;1.171 km [974 Fai triangle] and Ramy Yanetz his so maniest this time 1.048 km. Only in July 2022 8 x.
Young Simon Schroeder flew one in Germany in his Ventus 3. He flew a 1000 km. FAI triangle …GREAT JOB!!!!!

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Soaring creates FRIENDS FOR LIFE!!!!
Talking about long-time-friendship!!!!
No , this is not a gliding field in Europe, Australia or Africa, as you would expect seeing these faces, …..but glider pilots/friends on their way on motor bikes through Norway; at the picture….Arne,[ Denmark], Bruce [Australia] Katrin [Germany] and Arne’s wife Anne.
No TP’s on maps but rest points to enjoy the awesome beauty of Norway.

From motor biking back to the finals from the WGC and EGC next week. Most probably on Sunday!!! Standby.

Cheers Ritz
To finish this great picture by Tobias Barth who creates those great soaring calendars.
More of that soon here: www.aviation-calendar.com
www.instagram.com/tobi.barth.photographer