Post 1.439 on Saturday August 12 2023.

21st FAI EUROPEAN GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Leszno Strzyzewi, Poland
26 July 2023 – 11 August 2023

Only 3 days to go so we quickly look what happened.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9; task 6 in 18 m and 7 in open and the 2-seater class. Another late start due to changes in tasks and “fiddling around”. At 9 in the morning it was still raining and completely overcast. At the briefing at 11, they set rather big tasks which were down seized several times to get to a D task which was smaller. Indeed, it did not look too bad.
“EGC2023
Contest Day 11 – Task D – Yes TASK D!
Short-ish racing tasks today for all three classes into a reducing Wx window.1st launch confirmed for 1435L hrs. 18M are first to go followed by Open and then 20M.” British Gliding Team

18 m; Task 6…..251.77 km….and a good day for Peter Millenaar, who won with a speed of 122.75 km./h ahead of Lucasz W and Sebastian.[120 km./h]both of course from Poland.
All 36 were eager to start and 2 were “out”.
open; Task 7….255.54 km…Both UK pilots Tim and Andy flew around with 125 km./h on the “clock” after a rather early start. Tim won the day.
All 15 started and finished…GOOD!!!!
2 seaters; Task 7…. 228.64 km..during the days 1 Arcus was damaged during start on the ailerons and 1 during landing on the undercarriage. So 20 left. And those 20 flew and finished!
Daily winners Philippe de Pechy and Louis Bouderlique.
Late starts just before 4 PM and finished after 6 PM, the last ones in the Duo Discus and Twin Shark at 6.42 and 6. 48.

THURSDAY AUGUST 10; another good day! SO happy for the organizers and pilots /crews. Waking up at such a sky……AND,…the first hot day…..
Base around 1700 m and first estimated launch at 10.45.
Sniffer for the day was well known glider pilot Lasse Virtanen from Finland.
Only ONE more day to go!!!!!

18m class; Task 7…503.43 km…it looks that the first 4 overall before the start today , have the most chance to become European Champion. The difference between Lucasz W, Sebastian , Peter and Lucasz G is just over 30 points, so this 500 is very IMPORTANT!!!!!
What happened today as a big task can change a lot?
2 km /h faster than the rest gave a day-win for Russell Cheetham; 130.56 km./h!!!
More important was the runner-up-spot from Peter and the 15th spot from Lucasz W and Sebastian. They moved behind Peter to spot 2 and 3 overall. NO no I know it ain’ t over yet!!!!
But Peter moved to spot 1 now. Not a lot of points difference; Peter 4.892 and Lucasz 4.836.
open; Task 8….501.60 km….the first 4 overall have at the start today over 4000 points and the difference between them is possible/bridgeable ; Markus on 1 has 4.222 points, but Tomasz Rubaj [4.137] , Sylvain [4.073] and Francois [ 4.063] are close.
David Mach and Sylvain Gerbaud were the best for 1000 and 988 points. Francois started late and lost 180 points, a pity! Dropped from 4 to 5.

2-seaters; Task 8 ….467.81 km…..9 teams who are still in the race in my opinion …..It’s Finish team Juha Sorri/ Kettunen on top overall at this stage; 4.558 p. UK pilots Pete Harvey /Dawes follow with 4.444 p and the other UK team Gary Coppin/Steve Jones are on 3 with 4.362. All in ARCUS M.
Who will be the best on this longish 467 km race???
Speed between 124.30 km./h for winners Müller & Hörber [call sign HLB] AND Ørskov & Mix both with equal 1000 points and 103.76 for the last finishers. Unfortunately those were the Belgian pilots dropping now from 5 to 9. Whilst HLB moved up from 9 to 6.
Kettunen & Sorri were on a daily spot 6 only loosing 50 points.

None of the pilots out landed.Perfect!!!! A male might say,” the task was too easy”, a female is happy with everybody home.

FRIDAY AUGUST 11. ….VERY LAST DAY!!!! AND,…another 500 km race,a nice big task to define the new European 18m. Champion.
18m. Task 8.…501.40 km; Of course the 3 -Polish- pilots -tactic would be to try to finish on the first 3 spots with a “coup” to “remove” Dutch Peter from spot 1. Sebastian and Lucasz G. left at 13.02 and Lucasz W. 4 minutes later.Peter started at 12.52.
They partly succeed in their plan ,but on this last day Łukasz Wójcik won and was sure of EGC GOLD.
Sebastian was on 3 and Lucasz G on spot 32!
Peter on spot 11 loosing 88 points on Lucasz which was just enough to be vice EGC CHAMPION.

EGC 18m class CHAMPIONS;
1. Łukasz Wójcik from Poland in Ventus 3T with 5,836 points.
2. Peter Millenaar from The Netherlands in JS 3RES with 5,804 p.
3. Sebastian Kawa from Poland in VENTUS 3T with 5,794 p.

Open class;Task 9….511.79 km
Markus Frank won the day with 118.70 km./h. Francois was runner up,with ONE point less and Oliver Binder number 3. Markus consolidated his GOLD medal, so no changes in the top 3 overall

EGC CHAMPIONS in open class;
1. Markus Frank from Germany in EB 29R with 5,178 points.
2. Sylvain Gerbaud from France in EB 29R with 5,071 p.
3. Tomasz Rubaj from Poland in JS1C with 5,024 p.

2-seater class on this last day:
Task 9 ;476.02 km
Borgmann & Wolff were the best , they won 2 days and fought themselves during this competition from spot 21 on day 1 to 4 on the last day, I call that GREAT PROGRESSION !! Italian team Riciardo and Davide followed. Pete Harvey and his mate were on an equal spot 3 with the German team Müller & Hörber.
The Finish number 1 Kettunen & Sorri overall before this day, were on spot 11 ouch , but with 150 points less that was just no disaster for them. They stayed TWO POINTS AHEAD!!!

Here are the final EGC scores for 2 seaters;
1. Simo Kettunen & Juha Sorri from Finland in ARCUS M with 6,358 points pffff…..
2. Harvey & Dawes from the UK in ARCUS M with 6,356 p. pffff….
3. Coppin & Jones from the UK in ARCUS M with 6,196 p.

The Dutch team won the TEAM PRIZE!!! TOP JOB Guy’s.

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6th FAI FAI JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
Svæveflyvecenter Arnborg, Denmark
29 July 2023 – 12 August 2023

Still NO FLYING in Arnborg on Wednesday day 11, due to that “bloody” storm HANS!!!
On the JEGC site was written:” Storm Hans is weakening but today is still cancelled. Thermals are getting spread by the remaining strong wind blowing at 18 KT on surface and 32 KT at 900m AGL.
Our local weather specialist Niels Thomsen is already analyzing the first forecast models for tomorrow, let´s get a sight into his work.”

http://termikudsigten.dk:

At least some fun in the evening as they have their “Danish National Event'”

Thursday August 10 and 1 more days to go, which was NOT flown no task 7.
THEY FLY!!!!! Still 25 km./h wind at flying height but after so long , a bit of flying will push adrenaline in the veins from the young ones again.
Competition day 12 , flying day 4 and only 3 days to go including today.
Club class; Task 6….2.30 AAT.…with distances between 277 and 280 km 1 Hungaryan and 3 French pilots were the daily best.On ,..what they then DID NOT KNOW, this last day [task 7 was cancelled] of this by weather dominated JWCG. Their speed; between 109 and 113 km./h.
All 36 started and finished which must have given all of them a good feeling. Maybe not so much for Toby as he missed out somewhere during these days on ONE point to win!!!
Toby was 17th for the day [725 points] and Kim 21st.[682 p] Kim was 44 points overall ahead on Toby before starting the last day.PFffffff…….so close!

JWGC CLUB class champions;
1. Kim Toppari from Finland in LS7 with 2,823 points.
2. Toby Freeland from the UK in ASW 20 with 2,822 p
3. Alexandre Fierain from France in ASW20 with 2,773 p

Standard class; Task 6….2.30 AAT...6 in this class flew around 288 km with speed between 112 and 113 km./h. After task 3 the Czech pilots took over the overall spots from the Danish boys.
Not really enough tasks to show how good everybody REALLY was.

JWGC STANDARD class CHAMPIONS; after only 4 out of 14 days [including 1 rest day];
1. Lukáš Kríž from Czech Rep in LS8a with 2,878 points.
2. Jaromír Macoun from Czech Rep. in LS 8 with 2,793 p.
3.  Michaela Rendlova from Czech rep in LS 8 with 2,769 p.
The Danish boys Lasse Edslev and Jacob Bøgelund Lassen in LS 8 NEO and Discus 2A stayed close with 2,723 and 2,655 p, whilst young Dutch pilot  Niels van Nieuwland really did well on spot 6 with ONLY 3 points less than Jacob.

The Dutch team was runner up for the TEAM CUP behind the Czech Rep.
Not too many days they surely hoped for more but when I look at pictures and read stories the atmosphere was good and so to see, many new friendships have been started!

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C.I.M. in Italy
Rieti 1 August 2023 – 11 August 2023

Another busy day in the office on August 9 with task 7, with a 450.86 km race and Matthew really got the hang of flying in Rieti. With 144.70 km./h he raced over the track and even had time to make a picture from the Grand Sasso!! In the end he was grateful” to Jon Gatfield, Ben Flewett and Katrin Senne who babysat me for the first few days until I got the hang of it.“
24 started and 1 was out in open class.
In the mixed class, it was Pirker/Pirker again with a daily win. A pity they were out on task 4, loosing more than 500 points, a pity.

August 10 task 8;
Open class…..3.15 AAT...2 Swiss pilots topped the daily list; Stefan and Felix and they moved up overall to spot 2 and 3 with Matthew,who was 4th for the day, still on spot 1. Only 1 day to go!

Mixed class on task 8; 2.50 AAT...Dal Grande & Raffaelli in their ARCUS M won the day with a distance of 358.36 km ,speed 126.48 km./h. That was quite a bit faster than Thomas [Gostner] and Stefano[Ghiorzo] mostly flying together ; 115 km./h for Thomas and 114 for Stefano.
22 started and 9 were out among them Pirker/Pirker. An UP and DOWN competition for them.

Friday August 11; LAST DAY!!!! 9 out of 10 possible days. Not bad!
Open ; Task 9; with Matthew as he is there.”We had a forecast for the trickiest day of the competition, with spreadout and storms combined with little to no wind on the ridges.
All I had to do was go around the task roughly in proximity to the two Swiss pilots, and for most of the task managed to do that, but I was a bit nervous about them pushing too hard at the end and turned home early, which got me a day and overall win!”Matthew Scutter’s Gliding more to be read there.
So he won the day with 133 km./h just ahead of 1 of the Danish pilots in the EB and Katrin Senne in her JS 3.
On this last day 24 started and 5 were out, 1 of them Jon from the UK who was on spot 4 overall and dropped to 5.

Open class winners;
1. Matthew Scutter from Australia in JS3/18m RES with 8,129 points.
2. Stefan Sidler from Switzerland in ASG 29E with 7,764 p.
3.  Felix Schneebeli from Switzerland in Ventus 3TP/18 m with 7,700
On spot 4 was Giorgio with 7.400 p.

mixed ; Task 9 2.45 AAT….354 km was flown by Thomas Gostner and with that he won the last day. Speed;127.38 km./h.
21 started and 3 were out.
As Matthew mentioned about flying in Rieti I could partly agree;” Rieti is often characterised as a very difficult or dangerous site – I think that is probably true in club class or standard class gliders, but 18m+ performance makes it quite relaxed.”
You have to have flown there before you fly a competition, knowledge and info from others HELPS!!
The mountains can be very unforgiving.
But Rieti is also beautiful/magic I liked it there.

Mixed class winners .
1. Team Leutenegger & Rüegg from Switzerland in ARCUS T with 7,965 points.
2. Team Flewett from the UK in ARCUS M with 7,868 p
3. Thomas Gostner from Italy in Ventus 3T/15 m. with 7,652 p.
Pirker/Pirker were 7th.

Congratulations to ALL

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—–In between INTERNATIONAL Bailleau 2023 is over . They finished yesterday after 4 flown tasks out of 11 days.
In the “LONG FLIGHTS CLASS” 22 pilots tried hard to win, among them 12 Dutch pilots.
Bailleau is a loved competition destination for the Dutch.
You would expect that a dutch pilot might be a winner, when there are so many, but you STILL have to fly the competition.
In the end they did and had a number 1 and 2 , with Hadriaan van Hes [WGC pilot] with 3,431 points. Ronald Kaay was runner up with 2,949 points just 6 more than French pilot Eric Garnier on spot 3.

In the ” SPEED CLASS ” 37 pilots and 8 are Dutch [among them 4 teams x 2]. Also here a Dutch champion who is in The Netherlands already well-known for his good flights and still pretty young ; Roelof Corporaal in LS 7WL. Ronald son Noud was 8th in this class.[LS8/15m]

In the AMICAL CLASS[friendly one for beginners] 7 participants only 1 Dutch , but 4 from Belgium[ among them 1 DuoDiscus] Also 4 tasks in this class and the winner was Antoine Daiwaille in a Pegase, [1.243 points] followed by Dutch pilot Matthijs de Graaf in LS4b.[1.213 p]

—- The Dutch juniors flew in Venlo between August 5 and 12.Quite a few as 18 had entered!!!GOOD!!!
Here they are;

I visited them and will have a SPECIAL on this competition tomorrow!

—–More about the LASHAM REGIONALS [5 August 2023 – 13 August 2023] with 48 pilots on Wednesday cause they still fly .

CU tomorrow again,my fingers “hurt” ,though the young ones are important and I hope to have a few more pictures and maybe quotes from the last comps.
Cheers Ritz