April 15 ; I love the daily blog from Rick, which you can find under news at soaringspot.com.
His English is SO much better than mine. It’s just a pleasure to read it and, as Wednesday’s story was short I share it with you. It “shouts out ” how powerless a CD is ,when the weather does n’t co-operate.And that’s what happens in the USA at the moment with the PAN AMERICAN comps.
“ We accept many uncertainties in weather forecasting, but the question of whether the front has passed is usually settled by the morning Briefing. Not so in our case today.
The so-called stationary front passed over us at least twice today, leaving many in doubt about what was going on, and some of us in doubt about the definitions of the terms “stationary” and “front.”
There was general agreement that the rain was slightly less intense on the dry side.
The tasks were cancelled at Briefing. ”
April 16 by Rick;”Cancelled again! This leaves us with only two days to achieve a 4th valid competition day, which will allow us to declare the Champions. We remain optimistic that we can do this.
AND THEY DID!!!
Here is the final story from Rick:
“As you know, we had some very bad luck with the weather at the 1st FAI Pan American Gliding Championships, the first Continental Championships ever held in the USA.
After 12 days of trying, we had only 3 valid contest days in both classes (15 Metre Class and the “Handicap Class,” which is the Club Class with a few Standard Class gliders added). We needed another day in both Classes to
declare Champions.
With the approval of our Chief Steward Renato Tsukamoto (BRA) and the IGC Bureau, we extended our competition into the Reserve Day. The day promised to have good conditions, subject to unpredictable over development and storms.
With the excellent forecasting of Tony Condon and Task setting by John Good, we were able to able to keep the gliders in the area of the sky that stayed free of storms for most of the day.
In the end, however, rain cut off the the final leg for both classes, and only 5 gliders in the 15 Metre Class made it home, with Erik Nelson (USA) leading the way.
It quickly became clear the that 15 Metre Class would have a validChampionship, with the minimum 4 days. This was very good news for Sarah Arnold, who had put so much time and effort into creating this new Championship.
Nobody in the Handicap Class made it home, so we began the waiting game to see if enough of them had made the minimum distance for the day to be valid in that class. Because it was raining, we set up the podium indoors and prepared for the closing ceremony.
The first pilot to walk in the door was Tony Condon (USA), who turned out to be the winner of the day. We gave him a well-deserved ovation. The last was Sergio Bassi (BRA), who was a bit muddy as he and the Brazilian Team Captain, Valeria Caselato, accepted our applause. A few minutes later our Scorer John Godfrey announced that the Handicap Class results were also valid!
Our Jury President Bruno Ramseyer (IRL), made it official, and the 1st PAGC went into the history books with big smiles from all who participated. Thank you Bruno!
The Champions in the 15 Metre Class were Jerzy Szemplinski (CAN), and Phil Gaisford (USA) in the Handicap Class. The Team Cup went to Canada.
The FAI flag was presented to the two South American Team Captains with the expectation that one of them would organise the next PAGC in 2017.”
There you are in the end REAL CHAMPIONS not “just winners”.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!!!!!
Both champions were on spot 1 overall every day, so deserved titles!
412 FABULOUS pictures from Maria are at ;http://pagc.ggc.aero/
Jury president Bruno and the pilots.
Courtesy Rick.
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THE FLIGHT CHALLENGE CUP
Not such weather-problems for the over 100 pilots in Prievidza in Slovakia. Though after the nice weather , one day was cancelled and then it was COLD.
So they only missed one day till now. I continue with their races with happy pilots.
As you can see , a waving happy pilot!
Courtesy organizers at http://www.fccgliding.sk/
Handicap/mixed class;
Day 4; 3 hour AAT
Chapeau for Sebastian [Kawa] ; a head trick. He can’t make 3 goals in a row , but for sure win 3 days in a row and even more.He flew 348 km. during the 3 hour AAT, so a nice speed of 114 km./h.That was 6 km. faster than the runner up and 18 km. more in distance.In the overall scores he is already 600 points ahead of the runner up.
You can fly or you can’t!!!
Great to see Lubor [Kuvik] doing so well.He is on spot 4 at this stage.
Day 5;racing task from 357.3 km., later changed in a 2 hour AAT
AND,…WHY not trying,…to win every day!!!! Sebastian won AGAIN, he is a class apart. The day turned out not too bad as he flew 297.4 km!!!!, in 2.12.Nice speed of 134 km./h.He won 5 days in a row now.
Day 6; no tasks due to unstable wet weather.
A new day 6 was created with a 3 hour AAT.
A tough day with only 9 finishers among them also father and son Petr and Radek Krejcirik.
BUT,….the winner was , who else ….Sebastian. He flew the 288 km. in 3 hours and 42 minutes and was with a speed of 77.5 km./h. the best!!!6 Daily wins in a row now!
Today day 7 with another 3 hour AAT. More about that next Wednesday.
Picture from their gallery from April 18.
Club class;
day 4; 2.30 AAT.
234 km for both Roman and Ondrej,GOOD! This time not Ondrej Dvorak but Ondrej Bordowski, all flying St Cirrus.
Nice to see “good old” Stanislav Wujczak from Poland on spot 4 for the day in his St. Jantar3. Roman and the 2 Ondrej’s top the overall scores after 4 days, but more to come.
Day 5; racing task from 313.5 km., changed in 3 hour AAT.
Swedish pilots , yes they are in Prievidza as well. AND,..Gunnar [Axelsson] won day 5 in the St Cirrus with 290.6 km. in 2.59,34. AT THE DOT!!!!!
About the same for Roman, only missing out on 4 points! Per Carlin also from Sweden and a good photographer, as I remember from Eskilstuna, was on spot 4 and his mate Erik Ottosson on 6. Of course they flew together starting at 13.59 helping each other to the TOP. A good Swedish day.
day 6; cancelled but a new day 6 was created , with a 3 hour AAT.
Great to see that Stanislav won the day in the St Jantar; 223.5 km. in 2.36,27. He climbed up from 12 to 7 in the overall scores! The 3 Swedish pilots finished as well, so did Roman, but he got a few penalty points for being less than 0.50 km. from the boundary of the turn.50 points is quite a bit on a 566- daily -points- day.
23 Pilots from 54 finished.
Picture from their Gallery from April 18.
Day 7 today; 3 hour AAT.
15 m. class;
day 4;3 hour AAT
Another head trick in this class; 3 days in a row for Christophe, in the DISCUS 2a.
Chapeau! As French pilot he understands! 315.9 km. in 3.01,44, so a speed of 104.3 km./h.Not so far ahead overall, but still nearly 100 points . Lucasz from Poland , Pavel from Czech Rep and 3 Lithuanian pilots among them Gintas [Zube] and Piotr from Poland are also in the race to win.
day 5;racing task from 358.6 km. changed to a 2.45 AAT.
Several pilots got penalty points by flying above the absolute set altitude limit.One of them Christophe, but even by not doing so , he would not have won the day, but would have been 2d. Now he was on spot 8.
Daily winner; Piotr Jarysz from Poland in the LS 6, 333.2 km.in time 2.47,52, so a speed of 119.1 km./h. After 5 days Piotr is on spot 4 overall behind the Discus 2a [2x] and Diana.
Day 6; cancelled, but also here a new day 6 with a 3 hour AAT.
Also for the 15 m. pilots a difficult day with only 6 from 38 finishing. Christophe was the last to do so.About 30 did not make the 100 km.
3 Lithuanian pilots formed the daily top 3, flying up to 250 km.!
” The conditions were difficult – a strong north wind about 11 m / s, rain and snow, low clouds.” as they mentioned on their site.
Day 7 today; a 3 hour AAT.
Nice picture from April 16 as shared on their Site
http://www.fccgliding.sk/
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THE AZ CUP
Zbraslavice in Czech Republic.
Another 100 pilots among them Thomas Suchanek and Jan Louda, fly in a mixed and club class their competition also in the EAST of EUROPE; this time Zbraslavice in Czech Republic.
They got on day 1 , last Thursday 382.7 km. in the mixed class and 301.2 km. in club.
In the mixed class 4 from 31 flew the task. Alena [Netusilova in ASG 29e/18m.] won the 905 daily points. Good on her!!!She was 6 km./h. faster than Tomas [Suchanek in Ventus c /17.6 m.].
In club class 26 from 5 finished and Jan [Louda] in the ASW 19b, was on spot 2 behind the St. Cirrus from Zdenek [Boruvka] .
Day 2 , yesterday, had a 2.30 AAT in the mixed class and it turned out to be this time a prey for Tomas;253 km. in 2.40,49. Alena was on spot 5.
Club class had a non-flying-day.
It looks they will have racing tasks in both classes for today. More on Wednesday.
———–
The skies were beautiful yesterday here in Holland, so when I came back from a trip to Amersfoort I checked the OLC. BUT,….it was not only good in Holland parts of Europe had a booming day .I counted 13 x a 1000 km. , nearly 1000 in a Discus 2 and 816 in an ASW 19 and what about 764 in a St Cirrus and 736 in an LS1 d.
Holland did well too with 135 flights on the OLC and 2 over 880 km. flights; 2 friends Mark and Alfred-Paul, bought an ASG 29 e and try it out, what a success!
They set a 750, but when the cloud streets were SO impressive they followed them and enjoyed the racing; 112 km./h.
Sikko, also from Soesterberg flew 763 km. [600 km. FAI triangle] , had to use the engine close by to get home, but loved his flight. He flew first up N. then into Germany and back to Holland over Terlet.
Yesterday was THE day here, today is “nothing” at least not yet!!!
From Keiheuvel in Belgium 760 km flights by Dennis [Huybreckx] and Jeroen [Jennen] in LS 8.
By the way Eddie from Sportaviation at Tocumwal Airport mentioned; The ADS-B is now working at Tocumwal F-YTOC1
” Being grounded today because of weather, I installed the FlightRadar24 ADS-B receiver on the hangar roof.
Now we will get radar tracking to ground level.”
CU next Wednesday.
cheers Ritz