WWGC in ARNBORG

DENMARK.
Last day cancelled:
“The last day here has been cancelled. Ironically a warm airmass is the culprit.”
Aussie team.

It happens!!! One day you are the glorious winner, the other day you land out. Yes it happens and not only for Annemiek who raced yesterday, all alone to a win from everybody in her class with half an hour.
She writes; ” from hero to zero,”  as welcome from Uys also in Denmark, so to share that is a good self reflection as well.
Don’t forget Annemiek is a JUNIOR!!! She is still a student at the Technical University of Delft. Last year she was one of the racers, driving the solar car from Darwin to Adelaide and her team WON.
She flew already in Australia and in South Africa so with her young years she is already a bit experienced. In my eyes a rough diamond ready to be polished to GLOW.

Club class; 2.30 AAT, with a blue day and up to 1200 m cloud base it might have been better to not fly alone but to stay with the group. Annemiek decided not to stay in a gaggle but fly home on her own initiative, as yesterday.  This time unfortunately it did not help her , as everything what “helped” yesterday did not help today and as she adds,”   just STUPID!”
The others did quite well.
Elena from Italy [186 km in 2 .50] ,had her bad day  yesterday and was on top today, she went from zero to hero! Chrissie from Germany, who knows what it is to be a women-world- champion was runner up.
AND,…it looks like today might not a day so the scores from today might be the WWGC champion scores.If so; Sabrina will be the new SOARING-QUEEN , and Chrissie the runner up and Lithuanian Edita the number 3.

Standard class; 2.30 AAT.A good day for the girls from thew Eastern countries; Dana, Jana, both  from the Czech Rep , Joanna from Poland and Hana from The Czech rep , formed the toppers.
SO,…when there is no flying today Aude from France will win with 10 points on Dana and 29 on Jana.Sue will be 4th.

15 m. class; With Marilyne and Anne winning the day, their route to fame and glory was clear. Anne was so far ahead that she will be the new queen of World soaring. Marilyne as runner up and Katrin as number 3.

A lot of gliders landed at the same time , so as the German blogger mentioned;”  Within 5 minutes it looks white here”.
TODAY LAST DAY!!!!BUT,…will there be a last day. NO GRID Before briefing!!!!
WHEN they fly a lot is possible with these scores in club and standard, up and unfortunately also down the list.
NO FLYING DAY, so the QUEENS are the QUEENS, the runner up’s, the runner up’s and the good third , the good third!! A pity it is as it is.

Was this one of the last finishes yesterday??
Shared by Team Germany.

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13.5 m. WGC in POCUINAI

Lithuania.

Lithuania local Vladas has started his race to win this WGC just a bit too late. He won again, did so 5 times,  but before he was in the right groove , after the out landing on day 1, Stefano was already “gone”.
Today Stefano was only on spot 6 , but with a lead of 400 points you don’t have to take risks. He is TOO experienced to do so.
Morgan was last today ….” first- big- competition- Jitters ??????”  … but he is still on spot 3 , though Alberto from Italy, nice fellow, is now just 65 points behind him….. And Francois not too far behind him. 2 Days to go.

Vladas in his Mini Lak ,as shared by the organizers.

Here is team USA :

—” We had a great day flying together!    The cloud base was very low at launch time so we spent over 2 hrs waiting for bases to rise and to start the task. We started with the French and Russians.
The first leg had some great cloud lines and we were even with the French at the first turnpoint.
Leg two to the north featured a decent blue hole and we working into the wind. We found some great lift lines though. We rigged and the French zagged and they beat us to turnpoint two.

The run south was not as well defined as we came back across the blue. We caught up to Luka and just beat the French into the turnpoint although they were higher and we were pretty much even.

The day was starting to get soft so they zigged and we zagged again. God I love this sport. We caught a good climb which got us to final glide altitude and made it home about 3 minutes ahead of them.

Turns out we  nailed the timing on the day and placed 2nd and 3rd!! The standings in the middle of the pack have compressed significantly and François is well poised for getting on the podium.

Two more days!—–”

What a great gesture from Tony and Francois:
” The 13.5m team USA pilots Tony Condon and Francois Pin would like to dedicate their 2nd and 3rd place finishes yesterday along with their flights today to to Rick Walters 3R.—”
A great mate who ,as I wrote to you, died after a bike accident.

   

A great tribute to 3R..Rick Walters.

One but last day in Pocuinai; Flying day 11 !!!!! Value for money!!!
Task;347 km. more later. They claim for a blue day, but on a picture you could see already nice clouds!!

Latest news PLUS picture,  about the GP 14 VELO which should have flown during this competition by Sebastian Kawa, from GP GLIDERS,  as shared on FB by the SSA;
—“Despite our best efforts it just wasn’t in the cards for us this time. It’s those little details that seem to grab your attention the most. Although GP 14 VELO won’t make it to Pociunai this week, we have had quite a year, designing a new glider from the ground up, aiming to lead in design, technology, construction and performance. Again we want to thank our team and all of our loyal supporters, whose number is constantly growing. Best of luck to our competitors in Lithuania also, may the best take the win! Hopefully this is not the last WGC in 13,5 m class and it’s in our hands to promote it as well as we can. We have great faith in its potential. This is just the beginning for us, we are building the sail planes with precision and quality so that each GP Glider will be flying for many years to come. Right now we will take short vacation, regroup and come back fresh and stronger. Our GP 14 VELO will have its first flight in coming weeks and later on intense test program is planned, stay tuned for more news.—” 

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EGC in RIETI

Italy.

   

These pictures from the Libelle say enough about  the weather.

but this is what the organizers said:
” Today there were thunderstorms in the northern part of the task areas, many gliders had a lot of rain and about 25 outlandings. the task. Some pilots could avoid the rain and finish their tasks with 115 km/h.
The south area was very fast with strong thermals, 4 m / s, and the cumulus base was up to 3200m over the mountains but lower in the valleys.”

This is what steward Terry had to say:
—“Weather was for more humidity which would make the day end a little early but hopefully no storms. Well “1 out of 2 aint bad”. It was humid so the day ended early, greatly assisted by the storms. 26 outlandings at last count. 2, maybe 4, gliders damaged. One young Swiss pilot landed in Val Denira (death valley) and hurt his back so they had the ambulance and fire truck sent out to help him. Seems he is OK but a little sore. A lot of tired faces this evening. Still trailers arriving after a late evening in paddocks. We are hoping that tomorrow may be better??—” 

And some words from pilot Ian from team UK;
—“Another hard Rieti day – didn’t climb off Terminillo and had to have a relight, so started late. Was a truly humming run for me and was having so much fun – climbs peaking 8-9kts to 10,000ft and I got up to the last turn as G was coming out. Gliders were climbing in front of the large shower, but by the time I got there just rain and sink. Was stuck in the valley with a cu-nim to the south and rain to the north and ended up taking the safe airfield option with a lot of other gliders. Timing was unlucky, the sky redeveloped about 40 mins later.”—

The UK club class pilots Ge and Ian.

Standard class ; 323 km.
With a 2d daily place , Sjaak looks , with one day to go , to consolidate his 2d spot overall. Winner was Russian pilot Dmitriy , well known for years, flying different classes. He moved up from 4 to 3 overall, whilst Polish Lucasz is still firm on top!!
Only 9 from 21 finished.

Dmitri daily winner.
As shared by the organizers.

15 m. class ;366 km.
A daily win for JELMER!!! Good on him.11 From 24 finished in this class . Peter [Hartmann] out-landed after 314 km. so did Leigh [Wells] and Louis [Bouderlique] , about 6 trapped in the same area.
Peter still leads with 37 points on Didier who moved from 4 to 2 , as one of the finishers.
Luca [De Marchi] moves up from 5 to 3 , he was “in” as well.Louis is now on 5 and Giorgio Galetto on 6.

Jelmer Wassenaar [Holland] , in the past he was one of my juniors, now he is married ,has a beautiful little child and a great job as development engineer with DG Flugzeugbau and is/was involved in the Volocopter-project.

   LAST DAY TODAY and it looks they are flying. Grid orders are out, tasks not yet,only for club; 3 hour AAT.

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Bailleau in France.

No flying yesterday but TODAY tasks have been set.LAST DAY, too much excitement !!!
Friendly pilots;1.30 AAT..Holland/Eindhoven leads with a Duo Discus and Discus , they should be OK.
Long distance pilots ; 2.15 AAT very small marge in this class overall.
Speedy pilots ; 1.45 AAT. VERY close scores!!!!

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Open and 18 m. Nationals in Stendal

Germany.

No flying yet.3 days have been cancelled. Today they try again.First estimated launch at 13.30.
More later.

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You are up to date with all the latest on the BIG comps. CU tomorrow.
Cheers Riz