Great pictures from Willemijn again good she is there!
Last Thursday the BENELUX comps started at St. Hubert, just when the weather was superb in Holland.
The day before nearly 800 was flown again in Holland, in an ASW 22 BLE, , Sikko even hoped for a 1000 and was ready for it , but it was not “there” and young ones as the brothers Tim and Caspar Kuijpers flew for the first time 300 km. far away from house during their 600 km. out and return in an LS 4. Good on them!!!
The international combination of Nationals is something which stimulates soaring between the Belgium and Dutch pilots. Both have a few very strong ones and I don’t put any money on, who is going to win in each class.
They fly in 2 classes a mixed class with standard, 15 m. and 20 m. and a combined 18m and open class.
MAY 15 Day 1 ;
with rain and fog the day started. Then 15 m. was cancelled but there was a window for the 18m/open class so 125 km. was set.
First start at 17.06, so at the end of the day. Most were back at around 7 to 7 .30 PM,……BUT,they flew.
Francois [Jeremiasse ] from Holland in the Ventus 2cxa FES, won with the highest daily score of 376 points. Followed by Jeroen [Verkuil] in the ANTARES 18 T and Maurits [Dortu] in the 18 m. ASG 29.
All 24 in this class finished!! So a pretty good day.
All ready for day 1.
Courtesy Willemijn.
open class daily winner Francois
Day 2 was cancelled!
Day 3 flying day 1/2;no tasks yet , only briefing, so more on Wednesday.
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Hahnweide continued:
Wednesday May 13 another flying day,…. EXCEPT for the 18 m. pilots. Their class was scrubbed.
Open class 264.8 km;
It was for the 2d time that Werner Meuser could call himself daily winner.Not fast just 88 km./h. as the weather was just not faster, but in the EB 28 EDITION, he won the 997 points.He was the only one under 3 hours but just; 2.59,29.
8 From 19 did not finish.
YY did , here he is ,as shared by the organizers, in this case Kathrin, who not only has a great eye for ART , she is the artist of the colorful paintings, cards etc from pilotessa.com, but also for photography.
Bruno in his gorgeous NIMETA. A series of 9 of this finish at
http://www.wolf-hirth.de/hww15/gallery/gallery.inc.php?mghash=83486bd2027f7baa195187003fab788d&mggal=13
Courtesy Kathrin
2-seater class 172.3 km;
A very tough day for ALL in this class. NOBODY finished, best distance 159.7 km. in the ARCUS and that is pretty good as the runner up had 133 km!!!!
15 m. class 193.9 km;
Just to show the outlanding the day before was a “mistake” , Phil put things straight this day, winning with a speed of 81.9 km./h.
Only 5 from 11 finished and unfortunately Stefanie was not one of them.She flew 160.8 km. but still leads the overall scores.
standard class 178.3 km;
It was Mac-day in Hahnweide. He won with 62.9 km./h whilst runner up Felipe flew with 53.6 km/h. Brother Enrique finished as well and that was about it as only 4 from 19 finished and Jan [Omsels] was last, how sad he only got 22 points, and he started the comps SO well.
Himmelhochjauzend, zum Tode betrubt, a bit as from heaven into hell.
In the total scores between the brothers there is a ONE_POINT_ difference.Jan is on 6 now.
Thursday May 14 another tricky day, with hopefully a window.
18 m. Was upfront at the grid and started, but it was not meant to be. You have to stay up to start with 121 gliders.
In the end the day was cancelled for all classes.In the evening they all had a BBQ …..and cocktails.
Friday May 15, only 2 days to go!
After the BBQ and cocktails, it was as I heard for some a bit late [understatement] , but no worries it rained in the morning, so a sleep in was possible.
All good and well, they come to fly, so it was waiting for a briefing at 11 and hopefully soarable weather.
Another scrubbed day, so only 1 day to go.
The field on a day the weather was good!
courtesy Michi Berger.
Saturday May 15….day 8 ….flying day 4/5;Last day!!!!!
To show on the last day how good soaring at Hahnweide can be, the weather gods presented the pilots with good soarable conditions and the organizers turned that into nice long tasks. Finally a REAL day again.
open class 420.6 km;
A bit more than 50 points between the number 1 Jim/Wille, from Sweden and the number 2 Killian from France, before they start their last day.
11 From 19 finished; Jim finished on a daily spot 6 gaining 966 points. Killian was 5th with 965 points. So NOT enough to pass Jim. Pierre and Arnaud had 964 points, good enough for a final score on spot 4, just outside the medals as Markus Frank was 3d overall and for the day.
The NIMETA flew 274.6 km.
Wille and Jim as seen by Kathrin.
2 seater class 376.9 km;
Only 20 points between the number 1 Martin/Nils and the number 2 Wolfgang/Andreas and 30 points with number 3. ALL is possible.
Only 2 from 29 finished !!!!!The Fröschles in the ARCUS M and Wolfgang and Andreas in the ARCUS M.Both got 1000 points.
Martin/Nils were 36 km. out.
Overall scores now; 1.Wolfgang/Andreas with 2902 points and 2 .Martin/Nils with 2782.
The Fröschles plus Hilmar, were 41 points behind on spot 3.
Andreas and Wolfgang as seen by Kathrin
18 m. class 429.3 km ;
first at the grid, nice long task, they will be happy.Russell has 2062 points topping the list and the next 3 , Markus from Sweden, Mario from Germany and Andy from the UK, are in the 1900 range.In this class 6 from 38 pilots finished !!!!
Russell flew 376.2 km. whilst Mario flew the full 429.3 km and faster than any other pilot; 113.1 km./h. HE is the well deserved new HAHNWEIDE CHAMPION in 18 m. class.
Several pilots were within 25 km. from the finish line.
Reinhard Schramme, still on spot 6 on day 3, was one of the finishers , 11 km. “slower” than Mario, but he climbed up to spot 3 overall, just 4 points behind Russell who finished on spot 2.
Pretty exciting all of this!
Mario as seen by Katrhin.
15 m. class 389 km;
52 points ahead for Stefanie,[ the only woman in the class, ]will she be able to keep it like that, or maybe improve?????
4 Of 11 finished in this class and SHE was one of them on spot 4!!!
One pilot missed out on 3 km!!!!
In the end Stefanie hold her first position just ahead of Phil Jones who finished as 2d today. He missed out on 32 points.
Good on Bernd Weber who was the 3d finisher and climbed up from 5 to 3 overall.
Stefanie as seen by Kathrin
Standard class 335.7 km;
The Levines differ 1 point in favor of Enrique,when they start their last day, then there is a “hole” from 200 points……
4 from 21 finished!!!Among them Felipe but Enrique was out after 295.7 km. Also Mac flew 296 km.
So Felipe is the WINNER in this class, ahead of Enrique. Jan came all the way back from 6 to win the bronze. He finished as 2d today and got 999 points. Revenge, good on him!
And here pictures from all WINNERS!!! Thanks Kathrin for making and sharing them.
By the way, the fastest pilot with 140.6 km./h was from Sweden Markus Ganev .
He got from Pierre the wonderful prize.
Pierre and Markus.
Felipe and Enrique Levin and Joachim Koelle in standard class.
Stefanie ,Phil and Bernd in 15 m. class.
Mario, Russell and Markus in 18 m. class.
Jim /Wille , Killian and Markus [Frank] in open class.
Last but not least a “full bunch” in the 2 seater class;
Wolfgang an Andy, Nils and Martin and Franz Gall / Hilmar Schill / Bernhard Fröschle / Reinhard Fröschle
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On a sad note; Tim Mc Grath , died in Tocumwal. Tim was one of the tuggies at the Sportavia Soaring Center in the past. Quite a few of you from the earlier years, might still remember him.Tim had a heart attack and was found dead at home.
Sad, very sad. R.I.P.
On a more happy note; Caught up with the Gilberts in Amsterdam.Tom and Jane from Temora in Australia, visited as last part of their 8 weeks European trip …Amsterdam. We had lunch, bubbly bubbles , tea and some good talks with lots of memories.Today they fly out back home down under.
Tom and Jane are agents for DG and LS and AMS in Australia , run a work shop[ nowadays I heard together, with their son in law,] do repairs, sales as the DG 1001 Club to the Australian Airforce for their Air Force cadets , [they did the registrations as all those gliders were shipped to them] and they have/sell spares.
They had the best weather, not only here but in several countries they visited.
With Jane ” at Loetje” , straight at one of the canals in Amsterdam.AND…the beautiful area of the red- light- district.
Pictures courtesy Tom.
See you on Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz