On my way by train to Eindhoven, I noticed that last Thursday was a splendid -SPRING- soaring day here, BUT,…. yes there was a but, the wind was up to 8 bft. and gusts up to 90 km. A goal flight could have brought a pilot far , but it did not happen , so I am sure it must have been impossible.
Still a great day for a yo-yo , as Belgium pilot Yves Jeanmotte [ASG 29 /18m.] proved with a nice 1000 km. flight from St. Hubert! Great job, as I think this is the first thermal flight over 1000 km. for the season!!!
Correct me when I am wrong.
S.E. from St. Hubert , in Luxembourg, Guy Bechtold tried one as well flying in his Quintus; he flew 934 km. but commented that it was a pity the weather from the W. created overcast too early. He had wind up to over 40 km. /h.
In Holland Tim Kuijpers the JWGC winner from Musbach, was home to fly from Malden in the LS 4 ;370 km. Wind on the way was max. up to 72 km. /h. and under 700 m. it was very bumpy!
Trigger words by Tim ….intensive, spectacular, challenging, turbulent, streets!!!!
The UK Juniors, having their training camp last week and this weekend at Lasham had not the weather they hoped for;
—“We should’ve brought sailing boats rather than sailplanes to Lasham, but at least we got a bit of soaring yesterday evening. End of the week looking more promising.—”
The weekend is here and the weather too!
On Friday already David [ Masson] flew a nice 515 k from Lasham showing the weather was good, better maybe today and hopefully best on Sunday.
Prievidza is over this weekend and had pretty good weather, though day 4 was cancelled, as was day 1.
Soaring day 3 was promising with an AAT of 3 hours for mixed and 15 m. class. Pilots could find their own way to go as far as they wanted in the sectors. And they did.
In the mixed class Roman Mracek won in his ASG 29, flying over 329 km. in time 3.02!!!
The German ARCUS pilots were 4th [ by the way, they lost their -preliminary-winning- day- 2 -1000 points by- disqualification !!! ] behind the 2 French WGC pilots , finishing on the dot of 3 hours with 309 km
In club class Swedish Gunnar Axelsson is doing a great job. Was he 2d on day 1 and 14 on day 2 , he WON day 3! Flying 248 km. in his Cirrus 75, he arrived back in just 5 minutes after the set 3 hours. One pilot in the top 10 was back 2 minutes before time, all others much later. Gunnar is 2 d overall after 3 days, behind Boris Zorz.
In 15 m. also 3 hours and best result was 316 km. in an LS 8 in 3.19.
The French had a good day 3 , in 15 m. and mixed class!
Soaring Day 4;
Club class…3 Czech pilots started together , finished about in the same time and topped the day list with 228 km. in time 2.03 over a 2 hour AAT in St Cirrus and Ls 1’s.[660, 648 and 645 points]
15 m. class …2 German pilots started together and more or less finished together and won the day, over a 2.15 AAT flying 305 km. in time 2.14 and 2.16 [ 700 and 687 points] They were followed by 4 Czech pilots.
In the mixed class , mixed results with a French, [700] a German and[690] ,…a Polish pilot Sebastian[682]. They flew over the AAT of 2.15 a distance of 314/316 km .
For the last -day- results an AAT of 2 hours and for club 1 hour 45, I refer to www.soaringspot.com or on Sunday later during the day in www.soaringcafe.com, where I will finish the story myself. When looking at the CAFE, please go to the blog from Benjamin as well, about the Mü 31 project, a brand new 15 m. glider for the future, look also at the pictures of the stress test!!! 3 pages of very interesting news!
More comps in Italy ; The Nationals for the 2 seaters flown in Varese with 9 x 2 seaters . 4 ARCUS T gliders , 3 x a DUO DISCUS T and one normal DUO DISCUS and a JANUS C. Good pilots as well, may I mention Alberto Sironi and Stefano Ghiorzo? And young pilot Davide Schiavotto who flew amongst other comps in the JWGC in Husbos and Vittorio [Pinni] . The other pilots I do not know and I look forward to see how they fly.
They start today Saturday!
On their site www.acao.it I found a wonderfull picture of the Quintus and I share it with you. Don’t know who made it but is a great picture.
For those who do not know too much about Calcinate – Varese here is what I found as well. Have never been there myself, so I share their text.
—“Once again our wonderful airfield wil host an Italian Championship.This year we will host the 20 m double-seater Italian Championship.For those who don’t know Calcinate and have never flown here, we would like to point out that all the area of the pre-Alps offers amazing possibilities to fly both long distance and speed tasks. It is really easy to get into the Alps and very often you can meet wonderful conditions along all the Alps or in the border between the Alps and the flat area of Pianura Padana. Besides the town, Varese, offers a really big variety of activities and is for sure worth visiting .(www.vareselandoftourism.it)!—“
The Junior Nationals in Switzerland are starting today as well with 17 juniors , not bad! They will be flown in combination with the Regionals in Birrfield, with 12 pilots in open class and 16 in 15 m.!
Will keep you informed!
During the next JWGC in Leszno Switzerland will be represented by 6 juniors, all of them participate in these Nationals. Interesting to follow!
In France the Coup du Ventoux will be flown this upcoming week with 15 participants in one mixed class. Carpentras is the place to be!
And the 2013 AZ Cup started last Thursday in the Czech Rep [ Zbraslavice] and continues till the 27th with 81 competitors in 2 classes.
Holland is preparing for THE day in 2013 April 30; the Abdication or Queen Beatrix and the inauguration of the new King Willem Alexander and his Argentinian wife Queen Maxima. The world will look at Holland as it seems EVERYBODY is interested in the future “young monarch”. There will be 18 hours of live-TV here, with rail cams in the church and over the square [at height 300 m.] in front of the Palace. A HUGE JOB, with 115 camera’s in Amsterdam, outside Amsterdam another 45. There will be 13 satellite cars, a helicopter and a plane involved as well.I believe more than 1000 journalists have been accredited from ALL over the world.
Hope it all goes without difficulties.
After the sadness for the killed and injured people in Boston, and the intense man- hunt on the 2 young offenders , now West, close to WACO and not too far from Uvalde in Texas, where we all had such a good WGC – time, was breaking news with the fire and explosion of a fertiliser plant killing more than 15, injuring even more still missing arouind 60 and making “pulp” from the houses from at least 50 of the 2700 inhabitants of the small town. More sad people.
As life continues I am off to Amsterdam now to see tonight AZ [Alkmaar] – PSV[Eindhoven] , talking soccer this time and being there live on invitation, never done that before!! That’s why I am one day earlier with my blog.
The cherry- blossom -pictures from my front garden are specially for ALL my JAPANESE friends!!!!
And also for the 2 pilots who flew such a long flight over Japan [up direction NE and back] topping the OLC on Friday and that does n’t happen too often. Good on them,….. flying a Ventus 2 CT/18 m. and DUO DISCUS from Nagano; 715 km. and 603.
I can imagine their happiness!!!
The blue flowers from my back garden are spring-greeting to all of you and specially for Yves for the first 1000 of the season not flown in wave. Spring 2013 is THERE!
Cheers Ritz …..on April 20 2013.
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.soaringcafe.com www.glidinginternational.com
