——-Final day’s from the French Nationals in open class;

Ready for day 5. VERY BLUE!!!
As shared by Arne.

Montluçon-Guéret in  France were they flew these open class Nationals, had another 312 km. day last Wednesday and the same winner as the day before; Laurens [Goudriaan] . It looks he has found his “French rhythm” .
As Laurens is not French ,the daily prize was for French female pilot Anne Ducarouge  [JS 1 C 18m Evo ]  just ahead of  Stéphane Aboulin in an ASH 25, both 88 km./h.

Anne as daily winner after task 4.
as shared by Pôle France Planeur

Task 5 on Thursday was a bit bigger; 422 km. Another HC pilot, this time Peter [Eriksen}  from Denmark, won the 1000 points. French pilots Francis Svobodny and Laurent Aboulin were runners up but remarkable slower [96,55 km./h for 89 and 86 km./h] . In points a bigger difference; 888 and 881. Reason. Peter “found the convergence”!!!!
Laurens was the first on the list of out-landers in his 18m. JS 3.[481points for the day] .So his “found rytm” was uset again.

day 5 winner, Francis as shared by Pôle France Planeur

Task 6 and the last but one day, with a 3 hour AAT and the French showed they know the circumstances in their own country pretty well.Philippe [  de Péchy ] won the 1000 points; 346 km. in exact 3 hours, Denis [Guerin] the 924 and Sylvain [Gerbaud] the 891,… equal points with Arne.
The scores were very close.By winning this day Philippe passed Denis, who was first every day till now. And by …..exactly 50 points.On spot 3 Francis Svobodny, but in between 2 HC Danish pilots Arne and Peter.
BUT ,…still ONE day to go, so a lot was still possible!!!. They all would go for “the win!!!”

Happie chappies Arne and day 6 winner Philippe!!
as shared by Arne.

Task 7 was the cherry on the cake with a set 445.96 km. task.
What happened? Laurent Aboulin WON!!!  Speed ; 105 km./h in the ARCUS T. Overall he was 7th.
Stephane Aboulin was runner up [ 5th overall] and Philippe was 3d that says it all, he is the NEW FRENCH OPEN CLASS CHAMPION in a  21 m. JS 1 C. [6.534]
Denis [6.443]  in the same glider was 5th for the day but remains vice champion!!!
And Francis stayed on 3 for the French Nationals[5.934] !!! In between HC pilot Peter [6.116]Good on him.
A last word from Arne;
“A great competition ended with old and new friends. I spoiled my overall 3rd place and 1.st place in the 18 class by pushing too hard on a otherwise strong day as we pushed over the forests to the north where it suddenly got very weak. The jet worked just fine and took me to the nearest 2m/s to 2.300m…. My mistake and nothing else. But what great training for the Worlds in 3 weeks.”

Well done, great comps, congrat’s to ALL.

The champion ,vice champion and number 3 and HC pilot Peter Eriksen .
As shared by Philippe .

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——Final day’s from the Spanish Nationals;
Another small task in La Cerdanya on Wednesday. 2 hour AAT for open, 1.45 AAT for 15 m. and a set task from 122 km. for club. At least they flew!!!
Robert Pratt won in open class 256 km in time 2.02. Lukasz Wojcik in the Diana 3 was runner up. Total points in this class after 4 tasks 2693  for Robert,… that say’s enough about the weather.
They did not fly on the next 2 day’s , a pity as Spain normally ALWAYS has good weather.
In 15 m there are 4 pilots with over 2000 points after 5 tasks and in club the overall score after 5 day’s was 1.236 points.
Open had one reasonable good last day with 302 km. won by Serge Leclercq in the Nimbus 4DM. This made him the new Spanish champion in Open Class with 3.402 points.
Robert who is French had 3.555 points so he was the winner.
In the end 5 out of 8 day’s as the last day [Saturday] had better weather and showed a 1.45 AAT for club, 280 km for 15 m and 335 for open.
4 From 12 finished in open, some pretty close after 287 km .

In Club Frederic Crespo Nomen won in an ASK 21; 1,236 points.
In 15 m. Jorge Arias Riera is the new champion with 2.914 points. Italian pilot Aldo Cernezzi [DG 600] was runner up with 2.856 just a tad better , 10 points, as the vice champion Aldo Rodriguez [ASW 20]

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———USA;|
43 from the 50 flights on page 1 from the world wide OLC on June 26, were for pilots flying in the USA.
From Parowan 5 over 1000 km flights one in an LS 6!!! One in an ASH 26 E from 942 km. The pilot , Russ Owens,  attempted and set a 1.040 km flight but, “it was getting too late to attempt final turnpoint.”
Best speed by Keith Essex with 150 km./h  over 1.183,71

Paul Remde who flew at that moment in Nephi in Utah ,where the 2018 Sports Class Nationals took place shared the next news:
“We flew further East into the “Martian landscape” than I’ve ever been before. it was spectacularly beautiful, but we were glad to be at between 15,000 and 17,000 feet for most of that long leg of the flight. The cumulus clouds looked great and were reliable indicators of where to find thermals. We flew about 392 miles (630 km) and our contest task speed was 85 mph (my best). The fastest pilot and glider flew 105 mph! We continue to have a blast in one of the world’s best soaring locations. 2 more flying days to go.”

Great picture shared by Paul Remde.

24 Pilots participated in Nephi , a desert area, with mostly great conditions and they started their day 1 on June 19 with Gary Ittner [ Discus 2A] as winner; 415 km. with a speed of 93,88 km./h.
Day 2 was BLUE with light wind and Bill Gawthrop in the JS 1 C/18 m. dealt best with the circumstances; 428,78 km. with a speed of 91,38 km./h.
Day 3 was for David Leonard in the 15m ASG 29; 599 km. with a speed of 136,92 km./h.
Day 4 was described by Bruno from glider B4, in his daily bulletin , as ;”Today proved that Nephi is a pure mountain site when the lift doesn’t go up very high and its blue.  We had moderate winds from the northwest so we knew we would be able to use the western faces of the mountains to get around course.”
Another winner on day 4…… Bruno Vassel in the ASW 27 with call sign B4. Not only a good writer but a good pilot too.
Day 5 according to Bruno was “ windy, blue, clouds, fun, scary, low and high all in ONE flight.” AND ,…again another daily winner , this time young  Daniel Sazhin with an LS 3/ 15m !!!! He flew 563 km. with a speed of 102 km./h.
After 5 days there was a difference from TWO points between Gary and Daniel; 4636 and 4634 !!!
Sunday was a restday!!
Day 6;Monday June 25 started with another good day as Bruno mentioned;”with booming thermals going well up into the flight levels. ” The new week started also with another winner; Michael Marshall. Not a very good day for Gary as being 4th for the day moved him from 1 to 2, whilst Daniel with his daily runner-up-spot, was now ONE overall.
Daniel flew 428 km. with a speed of 121,83 km./h. In that LS 3!!
Day 7; Tuesday , June 26…you guessed it already another winner this time John Cochrane, in the ASH 31 MI. Gary dropped from 2 to 4 by being 19th for the day. Daniel was again runner up and still 1 overall.  He flew with a speed of 144 km./h over 645 km.
David had a good run and moved up from 4 to 2 !! Bill Gawthrop flew 809 km. that day with a speed of 145 km./h ”
His OLC comment for the day; “fast day over the desert. Good strong cu”
Day 8; With only 2 day’s to go !!!!
Bruno mentioned;”The day was predicted to have clouds and good lift in the northeast quadrant of our tasking area of the high Uinta Mountains.  The winds would be higher but manageable out of the south.  Many pilots were concerned about the aggressive task call, but our weather man stood by the models and said there would be good lift up high, a convergence line on our third leg going down south over mars landscape, and a good tailwind headed home.

     

Day 9; Thursday LAST day of the USA Sports Class Nationals!!!BUT NO CONTEST DAY cancelled on the grid.
So Daniel won in his [borrowed… from the Aero Club Albatross] LS 3, Gary was runner up and though David had a less good last day , being 15th he was 3d, so congratulations to them and THANK you to Bruno who finished overall as number 5 , for his fabulous wrap up’s from the day’s. Loved them!!!!!! I noticed more about Bruno. “Mr. Organization Extraordinaire…. Bruno Vassel” is what they mention him. Busy guy!!!

Daniel surrounded by Gary and David. “Youth ” in the middle”
As shared by the SSA.

Bruno Vassel who really has a nice style of writing and “the party is over  ” but the dinner party is on.
As shared by the SSA
all pictures courtesy Leigh [Zimmermann].

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——-Not far from where live, is the popular and lovely place Balen in Belgium. The Keiheuvel is the well known flying spot for power planes and gliders.

SUPERB weather! The Keiheuvel in Belgium as seen by Eddy.

On Thursday they had superb weather and Tijl [yes Schmelzer] and Wim Akkermans flew a 1000 from there in the Ventus 2ct/18m  and ASG 29 E/18 m. GREAT JOB guy’s!!! Also over 600 and 700 flights. St Hubert , more the Frecnh airfield in Belgium had great weather too with flights over 600 km .In Belgium it is even more difficult to fly a 1000 due to complicated for bidden zones, even more difficult than from Holland. So compliments!!!!
They flew partly, “on steam” to Germany and raced there over a 358 km.leg  and some shorter ones, over 1000 km!!!
From Terlet in Holland Jeroen [Koole] flew in a Nimbus 4DT 853 km.
Jeppe mentioned;”600km flight from the southwest to the northeast of Holland. 
Best cumulus day of 2018 by far!”
We had a great summer week with up and just over 30 dgr. C. Not bad!!!

——–EUROGLIDE 2018;
started with a briefing for all on Sunday evening. On Monday they could leave “like tigers out of a cage”  where they had to stay for 2 years!!!MORE than ready they all were!!!

Venlo…briefing room…
As shared by Max,Leo and Bart.

AND THEN,….it was Monday morning, after 2 years of waiting they left around noon, [ between 12.41 and 13 .50, with blue skies around 29 dgr. C and a tough N Easterly wind, for 2,354.46 km . But fabulous weather for some as they reached TP 1, South  of Rostock in the NE of Germany..

Ready to go as seen by Patrick Hoeve, who is part of TEAM DL.

There are 13 teams in pure gliders from 4 different countries. Each team has between 1 to 8 people.
Another group are the gliders with low turbo’s. There are 18 mostly Duo Discus’.
Another group with high turbo’s, as Nimbus 3/4 and ASH 25 and Ventus. Baer Selen, double world champion flies in this class with an  ASW-28/18E.
The last group are  the selflauncher-teams;29 In this group.
All gliders have their own  handicap.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!! I know they are going to have a ball!!!!!
Day 1 was for the best pilot’s a visit to TP 1 so around 500 k. Day 2 was longer and qua weather even better. Some were at 2500 m with up to 6 m. p.s. lift in the Southern part of Germany on the way to Ostrava in the Czech Rep!!Over 750 for some even more .
The OLC say’s; Max  and Bart from the Amsterdamse in the ARCUS  909 KM !!!! Thom from Venlo/Eindhoven;894 km. in the ANTARES, Vincent from my club de ZES flew 765 in the DG 800S/18 m. and the Duo Discus from the Gelderse with Maurice and Mark;745 km.
Could they be back today?????? After they left on Monday at noon for 2.354 km.???????!!!!!!!

You can read the daily reports on www.euroglide.nl

Friends from Eindhoven “en route” and what do you want more “accommodation and glider on ONE spot.
as shared by Frouwke and Huib Zwart.

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———The 35th FAI WGC in Ostrow in Poland starts with unofficial practice days today!! The USA was early and made their camp ready for the pilots who arrived over the weekend. A lot of pilot’s drove through Europe either with their own glider from their own country or with a borrowed car and trailer with “glider inside”.
It’s all happening soon. It’s too complicated to write from home , so “only” updates from important things.
More teams were early as the Argentinian, USA and Danish pilots  flew already before the weekend.

As shared by the WGC organizers.

——- WGC’s;
Whilst Laurens flies here and there in Europe,as good practice, [ he was 7th in France ] , Oscar has arrived in Hosin, their 35 th WGC for the flapped gliders is in about 3 weeks.
Jonker Sailplanes mentioned:
“The European chapter of WGC2018 started. Attie and Bossie arrived first at Hosin, and started offloading the JS3s going to Poland. Tomorrow the Hosin-Ostrow leg starts.”

Aussie team Adam and Dylan have arrived in Germany and got the Ventus 3 for Adam, which he flies at both comps so in Ostrow and in Hosin. Adam was very grateful to Benjamin [Negalis] working for Schempp-Hirth who prepared the glider!!!!

‘The journey is still continuing, effectively without rest. Dylan & I found ourselves picking up the company Ventus & are now enroute to Ostrow! 

This trip & timing couldn’t have happened without a huge thanks to Jitka & Petr of CZE, who drove to MUC last night to deliver the car after I missed my connections. Forever grateful, how good is the gliding community?!

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And to finish… I could finally read my digital GLIDING INTERNATIONAL again. All kinds of good news as always.
—Bruce Taylor shares his Cross country techniques with the readers. ” Gliding efficiently is as much an art form as it is a science”!very interesting.
–“Sebastian Kawa explores the Pyrenees”…..The next G.P. final , organised for June 2019 from the Aeroclub
La Cerdanya is in the Eastern Pyrenees. Good reading.
Sebastian starts with :”Gliding Grand Prix have become the most sophisticated form of any gliding competition.”
–the 40thiest GPS anniversary , but the under tone …..unit’s and software program’s are becoming too expensive.
–explaining how winglet’s really work..”They are not as new as you might think”.
–lot’s of other news we all should know….enjoy the JULY-AUGUST ISSUE of Gliding International!

More next week, hot here, feels as if I am in Australia, which is GOOD.
Unofficial training , with fabulous weather, is over now in Ostrow…. it’s about to begin……. the 35th WGC.
HUGE EVENT for our Glider World.

As shared by the organizers.
cheers Ritz