WEDNESDAY….SEPTEMBER 14 2022

VINON!!!!!
4 September 2022 – 10 September 2022

They continued in Vinon with race 4 with 211 km to soar.
In a short time , 12 pilots were “out” [ between 17 and 48 km] and 8 still flying! Not GOOD and GOOD!!!
Didier ,Tilo and Gilles however, managed to fly 137 km. Great effort , BUT,…unfortunately not enough to make it a valid day!
So in the end …..NO race 4!
On Thursday race 4 is on ;334 km. and new chances.
Later changed in 193.80 km.
“It took a while before the start as some cirrus clouds were crossing Vinon area around 1pm and last for almost 2 hours there. CD Régis had to switch to the backup task.”
A German winner this time……Tony Kittler in the Ventus 3T .
Here is the official news as I got it;
“Fantastic race today in Vinon with nearly 200kms taking our competitors from Gréoux to Serre Ponçon’s dam, then Orpierre, and back to Vinon.
On the first branch, two very different routes were chosen by two different groups : one close to the branch and another one more to the east. In the end, the first one paid off.
The second branch was rather low in altitude for most with some as low as 1100m in Saint Genis !
Maximilian turned first in Orpierre and opted for the Corne de Lure while Toni headed more west.
In the end Toni arrived couple of minutes before Maximilian followed by Tilo.“

After 4 races and 2 to go there are 2 pilots with 20 points JD Barrois and Mike Young. Max has 18 points.

Friday penultimate race 5; 317 km. with 121 km/h won by Mike Young who slowly’ rises’ to the top. With the 10 points he has a total of 30 points now, 8 more than Adrian, Max and JD, who are on 22.
Last race 6; 154 km....a day on which 4 pilots were “out”. One of them JD, so no points for him. Erik won and got 11 points ,one extra for the last day. Uys was runner up.
Not a good day either for Mike, he was 12th and did not get any daily points.
So a bit of nail baiting there for him.
BUT,…he won….only ONE point difference with Erik. 30 for 29!!!
Max was 3d with 27.
Both Mike and Erik live in the mountains in France. Mike is from the UK and Erik Dutch.
AND,…Both Erik and Mike go to the PAVULLO final race next year! Well done!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!

This is a flash back from 1987!!!!
Mike and our son Dennis at the WGC in Benalla.

—————————————————————–

ABOYNE!!!!
4 September 2022 – 10 September 2022

On Wednesday , day 4, they could finally set a CC flight too; a 1.30 AAT between 66 and 143.8 km.
“Good old ” John Williams won the day with a speed of 72 km./h over 108 km.in an 18m/LS 8.
9 were out and 5 did not fly.
A lot …23….tried to have the best height gain.
Mike Stephens gained 8429 [lowest point 2394, highest 10.823] , John Williams 7015 and Jordan Richards 6709 ft.
Thursday; day 5 was damp again!!! So no CC-da,y but launching to achieve height was possible till 6 PM.
Friday; “Out of respect for Her Majesty and the Royal Family we have decided to cancel normal and UKMSC flying today. There will still be a weather briefing in the clubhouse which will also be accessible by Zoom.
We will make a decision about Saturday flying later today.“
VERY UNDERSTANDABLE!!!!
They did not fly anymore; John Williams won the CC competition with 484 points just ahead of Jordan Richards with 478 points.

———————————————————–

Club Class Nationals in the USA.
Moriarty
August 30- September 8

When I started writing about the Club Nationals ,Gary was mostly in the lead, meaning, he won the first 3 days, but later he lost a few days to other pilots.
On September 6 day 7 of the nationals the daily winner had again another face; after Sylvia, Gary [he won day 5 ] and Mike this time Michael Marshall in the ASW 20, was the daily winner. Tony and Gary were both on spot 8 with 509 points.
On contest day 5, Gary was still 330 points ahead, now only 160 with 2 days to go.
Club Class Day 7. as shared by Tony.
BEFORE……”Club Class National’s Contest Day 7 is looking to be a blue day. Grid time is noon mountain, racing task. First launch planned for 12:52pm mountain. Potential task A start gate open time of 14:15 mountain.”
AFTER…..”It was going really great until the wheels fell off the bus at Ortiz. Fun run with UN. At least it was fun for me. Major suffer fest just staying airborne, getting back to the higher ground, and finally found a good climb and a good line to bump home on.”
It was a very good day , blue with convergence lines and in the afternoon a base of 14.000 ft.
Task ; 224 km.

Club class Nationals; day 8 with ONE day to go…the penultimate day.
They had a 3.30 AAT.
“Today on the grid we were entertained by a weather balloon floating by at 101,000 feet.”
AND,….”Great fun running up past Angle Fire and back. Mostly good climbs. A lot of good streeting. A bit of redemption after the trouble I had up here the last time. Got a good climb over Ortiz Mine too which was nice considering how it treated me yesterday.” by Tony.
He flew 475 km in his Cirrus with a speed of 101.54 km./h.
https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/gliding/flightinfo.html…
Michael won another day and Tony was runner up!!!! Gary was 4th and his biggest concurrent Tom, 3d.
[Gary 4715 for 4557 points]
Sylvia was on spot 16. She is now on spot 8 overall [3994 p]

AND,…then it was over! They tried hard ;
“Last day at Moriarty. Cirrus from Hurrican Kay overhead but breaks. Short grid squat then sniffers got above 10K. Fleet launched. Task was a four area turn to the north and east with 2hrs min time, B & C back to 1:45 and 1:30. D Task was a really fun looking double lap of the valley to Zorro and Wagon Wheel for 155ish km.
Task was cancelled and contest declared over at 2:20 PM.
Several of us got up and had a really fun time flying the D Task. 10 knot climb to 16,000 feet will be a fond memory of this contest at Moriarty,” by Tony on the OLC comment.

So after 8 days of flying, the overall scores are as follows;
1. Gary Ittner in Discus 2a with 4715 points.
2. Tom Holloran in LS 8/15 m. with 4557 p.
3. Christopher Gough in Ventus cb/15m with 4387 p.
Tony was 5th with 4302 p. Sylvia on spot 8 with 3994 p and Kathy 15th with 3728 p.

Thank you to Tony to share his view on the flights in Moriarty and to his wife Leah for the pictures .

—————————————————————–

STEMME GRAND PRIX 2022
6 September 2022 – 9 September 2022

A short competition of only 4 days, but they were “merging Stemme HORIZONS & our GP in St. Auban.
Anyone interested in a Stemme, maybe not yet a (Stemme) pilot, will have the chance to fly with an experienced pilot and get an introduction.
For pilots we’re hosting a competition with challenging flight tasks. The goal is to have fun, learn something and to spend time with the Stemme crew.“
On Wednesday ,task 2 with a 200 km , the 7 pilots had a difficult day with only 3 finishers. Reginald Watson won with 71 km./h. All 3 Belgian pilots were “out” after 149 km.
On Thursday, task 3 with 216 km…..won by UK pilot Reginald …69 km./h. His 2d win.
3 Finished 1 was “out” and 1 did not fly.
On Friday …task 3; cancelled.
So 3 days of flying with Reginald as winner with 8 points. Congratulations!!!

—————————————————–

Something about the weather; This summer in 2022 was the hottest EVER in Europe!!!!!
The European institute for research ,Copernicus, concluded this, after looking at satellite information. The temperature was 0.4 dgr C, higher than the heat record from last year.
We here in the SE of The Netherlands felt it as well and it is still 25 dgr. C after a well needed good drop of rain.
Today lot’s of rain and in the weekend it will be 15 dgr. C.

———————————————————-

Found a fabulous real soaring- picture as PR for young new glider pilots in the UK.

To finish this blog; This picture shared by KIKI.

Last Thursday Queen Elisabeth passed away. I cry easily, but thought , this is still far from my bed. The announcement on the BBC was made and tears just dropped down.
Elisabeth was queen of the UK and the Common Wealth, head of the Angelical Church and the armed forces and mother, grand mother and great grand mother…..granny.
She was a good friend of our royal family and loved by nearly ALL on earth, as she was for 70 years a tower of strength for her country and the people in the Common Wealth.
An other “icon” has gone.
She tried to comfort the world after 9/11,with the words “Grieve is the price you pay for love“.
So true!!!!!
R.I.P. MADAME.

Cheers Ritz ………CU next week, NOT in the morning but EVENING of WEDNESDAY.