Post 1.501 on May 29 2024

FAI QUALIFYING SGP in NORWAY
Elverum Starmoen
MAY 19-25

Race 3; 260.22km…start at 14.40;
“We are ready for another competition day under a sunny, blue sky! A task of 260km is set, proposing different challenges for the pilots.First they will visit the flatlands to the south of the airfield. Then the task will take them towards the mountains and valleys in the north.” the organizers
Good to see that the Scandinavian pilots “topped” this day. Ronny [ Eriksson] from Sweden, won the 10 daily points with 101.4 km./h in his brand-new JS3RES.
Norwegian Arne Martin [Güettler] was runner up with 99.6 km./h in the same brand-new glider.
Joachim and Matthew were virtual out after 256 and 254 km. , as 3 more pilots.
Matthew; “new game plan – under NO circumstances would I lead out onto final glide. Got myself to the top of the lead gaggle and refused to lead out. Went with a couple of other great pilots and sat behind them waiting for them to find the final glide climb. We all started engines and those behind us got something and got home. WTF. 0 points.”
Here is Arne Martin;
“Another blue day today at the third race of the Norwegian FAI Sailplane Grand Prix. It went well for the first half, as I was able to keep up with the leaders. Then I got in trouble on the leg towards Lillehammer. Got low, had to circle in a 0.5 m/s thermal to have enough altitude to move on, and watched the entire field pass over me. Then it was a change of gear, climb up again, and try to stay high for the rest of the task.
And on the return towards Starmoen, I suddenly found myself at the top of the gaggle. I was then even lucky and got a nice 3 m/s thermal which most of the others missed, which got me onto a comfortable final glide, which got me to the finish in 2nd place, only behind Ronny Eriksson!”
https://www.weglide.org/flight/403981

Race 4; 295.62 km…estimated first start at 13.00….it was in the end 13.35.
Conrad Hartter won again 126.1 km./h and added 10 points to his score!33 now!!!
Joachim was just a tad slower; 125.8 km./h. Another German pilot, a bit of a German day,Michael Pfenning had 124 km./h. Matthew was 4th and Kato from Norway, 5th for 5 points.
Kato shared some pictures after his flight. This is on the way to TP 1.

FAI Sailplane Grand Prix

Arne Martin; “Today I made life difficult for myself, by getting low and far behind on the first leg. Good fun chasing the rest down afterwards, but it was too much of a task to catch them all, so 9th and a single point was all I could do.
Still I have scored points every day, and miraculously, my single point today moved me up from 4th to 3rd overall! But very close from 2nd down, while Conrad has an almost impossible lead by now.”

Race 5;176.28 km…Start time; 13:20… Matthew won with 122.8 km./h. Klaus and Arne were on 2 and 3 with 121.3 and 120.3 km./h.
With 1 day to go, Conrad is still on top with 39 points. Followed by Arne Martin with 25 points, Matthew with 24 and Klaus with 23 p. So for the last 2 younger ones, it all depends on the last day.
Here is Arne Martin Güettler
“Unstable weather with Cb and showers expected. But we found good lift and I was able to stay with the leader group, headed by Matthew Scutter’s Gliding.
Had an exciting moment when I started getting smoke from the SDCard reader of my flight computer! But luckily I was able to eject the SDCard, and the smoke stopped, and the flight computer worked after a reboot. But lost some concentration there, and lost contact with Matthew.
And towards the end the chasing group started catching up, and Klaus Kalmbach managed to sneak by with a more risky final glide. But I still ended up in 3rd place, and moved up to 2nd in the total results.”
Matthew; “Overcast skies, slow building CB’s everywhere. My kind of weather. A major routing decision had to be made out of the gate, and almost everyone got it wrong. Lead out the whole day and home first without any big issues. 10 points!”

Race 6;penultimate day!!!!!189.38 km.…start;13.00 .
” All pilots are launched and the start-line will open @13:00. The conditions are booming“
Even without flying Conrad was the winner, [39 points before flying on the last day] but excitement enough for the runner-up-spot.
It turned out however, more difficult than expected, “overdeveloping Cumulus today, which eventually became spread out and made the flying difficult. 2 pilots returned to the field after the start, as they used their engines. A Norwegian pilot and young Joachim Schwenk, a pity. He will stay on 16 points.
Daily winner was Swedish pilot Ronny Eriksson. He got the 11 points for a speed of 105.1 km./h.
1. Conrad Hartter [Germany] in JS1C with 39 points.
2. Klaus Kalmbach [Germany] in JS 3 with 31 points.
3. Arne Martin Güettler [Norway] in JS3 RES with 31 points.

Arne Martin explains why he is 3d:
“Coming into the final day I was in second place, with 3 other pilots barely behind. We were all flying as part of the leading gaggle, so it was going to be a close finish. In the end one of them managed to sneak past me by the narrowest of margins. So I ended up in 4th place today, and 3rd overall by the tiniest of margins. Equal on points to second position, but lost out due to him having a day win, while my best result was second.“
“Those points I lost due to being 3m too low on the first day turned out to be costly.Never the less, I’m very satisfied with 3rd place overall in my first ever international competition!“
The “wrap” from Matthew on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

The 17 competitors and the last words are for the organizers;

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——Off to Germany now for the next races from edition 12 in mixed / standard/15 m class. Practise at the airport of Aalen was last Saturday, but was cancelled due to RAIN!!!! Race 1 was on Sunday May 26 continuing to June 1.
A lot of good pilots ; a mix from very young and “older”. A total of 33!!!!! But 20 in the SGP among them 2 pilots from the UK
Along the FAI qualifying SGP they fly the Ostalb GP in 2-seaters. 13 Teams in ARCUS and DUO DISCUS including ,an Austrian and Belgian team.
EXPERIMENTAL.
“As part of the experimental development of Sailplane Grand Prix in our sport, the SGP Germany 2024 team offered to test SGP format and rules with a new class, the popular double seater 20m class. This Sailplane Grand Prix is therefore not part of the official Serie 12 and will not qualify any pilot for the official Finale in 2026. But many pilots are looking forward to compete SGP in double seater in next future!“
https://sgp.aero/germany2024

18m;
Race 1; on Sunday May 26……280.85km start at 1.31 PM. A tough day with 4 “outlandings” among them …Tilo after 242 km. The winner in Ventus 2A was Steffen Göttler; speed 105.5 km./h.
Monday was CANCELLED for good reasons , as you can see,

but on Tuesday a new race was set….
Race 2; 228.46 km…with an early estimated start at 12….but it was 13.06.
News from the organizers;”Today’s race will be intense!The weather forecast isn’t very optimistic for the next few days so the pilots know that they need to collect points today if they want to have a chance to step on the podium.To add a bit of challenge, the weather conditions are forecasted as “tricky” along the race with very wet areas.But the pilots are ready and it will be very exciting to watch!”
In the end it was an interesting race, with all pilots a bit in the same situation TILL nearly at the end ,30 km before the finish, when some out-landed, some were low “but found something and some made it home!”
Daily winner; Björn Gintzel just 30 seconds ahead of Jan Knischewski; 98.7 for 98.3 km./h. David Bauder was 3d.

So after 2 days of flying , but hopefully 4 more to come, the overall scores are; 16 for Jan, 15 for Steffen and 13 for David.

2-seaters;
Race 1; 241.66 km….ALWAYS GOOD!!!! Wolfgang [Janowitsch] and Andreas [Andy Lutz] won the day in the ARCUS M,[102.5 km./h] followed by another ARCUS M with Alexander Schmidt.[95.6 km./h]

Monday was cancelled
Race 2; 205.55 km….start at 13.40. 9 were “in” and 3 were “out” and 1 did not start.Winners. Wolfgang and Andy for 10 points !!! Team Schmidt got as runner up 8 points.
18 points for Andy and Wolfgang now so topping the list with 4 days to go. Runners up; team Schmidt with 14 points.

——Straight after it’s ITALY , running the race from Varese , between June 2 and 8. Very strong “field” of pilots. 14 From the 20 participants are well-known toppers!!!!!
You can follow it all on https://sgp.aero/italy2024

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18 m and 20 m UK NATIONALS;
Lasham May 27- June 4.

A great way of announcing the NATIONALS with such a picture shared by Lasham Comps
52 pilots in 2 classes. Can’t wait!!!!!
“A fast window is expected today before an occlusion arrives from the west this evening. Racing tasks have been set for both classes.”
June 25...
18m;
task 1; 347.63 km…..41 pilots in this class and only 2 were “out”. Best speed by  Gary Stingemore in the AS33es; 120.58 km./h
Just a tad slower ; Pete [Harvey] in VENTUS 3; 119.04 km./h.
2 JS3 pilots Ian MacArthur and Russell had 118 km./h.
20 m;
task 1;  347.63 km….11 pilots/teams in this class and daily best; Garry Coppin in the ARCUS 2. Mike [Young] in ARCUS M was 4th and Andy [Davis] in DGA 1000 s was on spot 8.

June 26 had tasks ,239.14 km and 160.84 km. but they were CANCELLED.
It seems this will be the WETTEST spring ever in Europe.

June 27; same task for both classes.
18m; 239.14... changed in  160.41 km….. With better luck , but only for some, as from the 35 starters , only 4 finished and best was AGAIN Gary.86.37 km./h. The AS 33es is going well.
Chris Starkey, Liz Sparrow and Matt Davis were “IN” as well. GOOD!!! One of the pilots was only 10 k out.
20 m; 239.14 km.…changed in 160.41 km……still too long as NOBODY FINISHED!!!
4 Flew over 100 km.

June 28 had NO TASK.

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The French 18 m and OPEN CLASS nationals.
Beynes Thiverval 26 May 2024 – 1 June 2024

36 pilots in one mixed class of open and 18m gliders with also here several TOPPERS.
4 HC pilots ,Guillaume[ Dohet] in ARCUS 2 T Pierre [de Broqueville] from Belgium in his EB29DR and Peter [Eriksen] from Denmark, who was 3d at the Danish Nationals and should be “in the groove”.from Italy Luca [Urbani] participates.
They started last Sunday with day 1 ; a 2.30 AAT.... BUT,…the day was CANCELLED.
Task 2 was last Monday; 2.30 AAT....UNFORTUNATELY, CANCELLED as well.
NO TASK on Tuesday..

–—-Some of the French ladies are flying the AZ CUP 2024 in  Zbraslavice in the Czech Rep.
82 Competitors in 3 classes ;15 m mixed, open mixed and club. They started on May 24 and continue till June1.
Aude and Melanie, fly in 15m mixed together with 15 other pilots among them some ladies from Czech Rep; Dana Novakova, Jana Treslova and Barbora Moravcova.
In the mixed open ; 38 pilots among them more Czech ladies as Alena Netusilova and  Hana Treslova.
26 fly in Club class among them Tomas Suchanek. He won in his ASW 20 task1; 1.30 AAT.
They had till now 2 tasks in the mixed 15 and today a 3 hour AAT.
In mixed open 1 task and today also a 3 hour AAT.
In club 2 days flown and today also a 3 hour AAT.

As I am not there you can find all results on ; www.soaringspot.com

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The CANADIAN NATIONALS 2024 flown from Cu Nim, were hit by rain as well and a lovely gorgeous evening rainbow.
Till now the weather was not good at that part of the world either, so only 1 day was flown and Dave Springford was the only finisher from 7, on an AAT of 2.15 , flying 227 km with 89 km./h.
In club they had a 2.30 AAT and 4 from 15 finished.

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—-VIRTUAL SOARING NEWS.….. Overall Results of the Pro Championship – FAI Virtual World Gliding Championship 2024 .

The month of MAY is nearly over and it was here in The Netherlands the wettest ever. Specially in my area we had , close by, up to 200 mm rain in 1 day due to a cloud burst. That’s much more than normally in a whole month. Result, flooding’s !!!

Hope you find your way on the net, when I am away.
I often hear that people read my blogs to follow the comps, short and compact in one go.
CU again on June 26.

Cheers Ritz

To finish these BEAUTIFUL pictures shared by John McCaw
“Most beautiful light yesterday, returning from a wave flight at Springfield over the Torlesse range and the Canterbury plains with Greg Tucker flying the Canterbury Gliding Club‘s Janus C”