Lasham…Stendal …and the KEIHEUVEL DIARY.

Looking back shortly on the UK and German Nationals and as every year I made a picture-diary from my visit to Keiheuvel.

Lasham.

They squeezed out another day on Friday,[ number 5] , during the 18 m. Nationals in the UK last week.
254 km. was set but nobody managed to finish.
The best pilot flew 213 km. Andy 207 and Pete 202 km.
Saturday the final day , was cancelled.
Pete [Harvey] was on the first overall spot during the whole competition and won in his JS 1 ; well deserved 3.898 points .
Andy was 2d with 3464 points also in JS 1 but this time a JS 1-c and on a third spot Steve Jones with 3576 points.
The Parallel-Regional comps were scrubbed the last 2 days, so they had 4 days.

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Stendal.

To make it a valid German 18 m and open class National Competition, they added the extra available day and then it worked out well.
Pffff….IT WAS A VALID NATIONAL COMPETITION WITH CHAMPIONS.
And I am really happy for the organizers and pilots.I read that unless the weather the atmosphere remained TOP. So it should!!!

In 18 m. class it was Mario Kiessling in the ASG 29 ,who is the new champion ;2620 points, I guess the lowest he ever had to become a champion.
Runner up was Matthias Sturm with 2619 points also in an ASG 29 .
Michael Streit was the number 3 pilot with 2518 points and on spot 4 Swedish pilot Markus Ganev with 2431 points.

2015 NATIONAL 18 m. classs CHAMPION.
MARIO KIESSLING
As shared on their site.

Open class was won by Michael Sommer with 2954 points in the EB 29.
Runner up was Stephan Beck in the ASW 22 BLE with 2842 points.
On spot 3 Stefan Langer in the NIMBUS 4 with 2776 points.
GREAT to see Bruno Gantenbrink on spot 4. He is been in competition soaring ” for ages” and got 2747 points.

2015 NATIONAL OPEN CLASS CHAMPION
MICHAEL SOMMER.
As shared on their site.

A bit “tough” for all , to see that pilots last Sunday flew up to 588 km. again, at least the comps pilots had 3 fast days as well!

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THE KEIHEUVEL DIARY.

This year the friendly competition— with a very serious touch— ,was a bit later than normal and you could see that. Most pilots were back from other comps and pleased they could go to THE KEIHEUVEL as well. Instead of 23 they had 48 participants now.GOOD!!!!
The atmosphere was as always unique- pleasant. Maybe because I have been there so many times that it feels like coming home.
Great to see many young pilots as well, a great mix.
I was late there at Saturday, so I was pleased that Joeri shared a picture from the start. We just noticed the last 4 launches in the car and arriving at the field the last incoming tuggy.

Junior pilot Robin Smit, behind the tug on Saturday.
As shared by Joeri Cools.

The Huybreckx family always takes care that we have a ” roof over our heads ” and this time we had granddad’s camper -van. Very posh!Only sad note was that granddad is not so fit. We wish him all the best.

Unfortunately we straight away forgot the key, so our neighbor Eddy[de Koninck] helped my friend Ans, [ I started gliding with her in 1967,] to get in.

They had a nice task in each of the 4 classes;
Club had 112 km and the sport class 208 . The 2 classes with transponders, sport 235 and open 260 km.
It turned out to be a tough day in the blue with some high cirrus-firmaments and as the weather later during the day would supposed to be best to the West , the last leg was in that direction.
Finishes took place between 4 and 6.30 PM and as we sat first row, we could see them all. Except of course those from the “out-landers” and there were many.
In club only 1 glider [ from 4] finished; team Claes and Keymis in the G 103 twin II.
In the sport class 5 from 10 finished and Geert de Palmenaer was the best in the Pegase with 685 points , just ahead of Stijn Vanden Boer in the LS 8 who flew faster but lost on handicap.
In the transponder-sport-class 14 participants and 5 finished. Best was junior Nick Fremau in the LS 7 who won from pilots as Jeff [Kell] , Dennis [Huybreckx] and Tijl Schmelzer, so a great job done; 895 points.
In the open-transponder-class, it was , former European champion, vice WGC champion and many times Dutch National Champion, Ronald Termaat who won. [815 points]He was the only one with a speed above 100 . He flew the JS 1 from Marco Vermeer and Jeroen Kuijl. When I complimented Marco with his good results lately he mentioned that this is a TOP JS 1 ; it’s call sign APU.
7 From 19 finished. Dutch junior Robin, “Smitje” Smit, was runner up [ 739] and another Dutch pilot Robert Werts was 3d, [714] just ahead of WGC champion Bert jr Schmelzer, [701] who drove up all the way from Zurich in Switzerland, to participate in this for him, home-field- competition and drove back in the afternoon of Sunday again.
Johan Lemmens , his SO MANIEST time at Keiheuvel, was on spot 5 in the ” old” MS from Kees Musters.
Some impressions from the pilots:

Belgium junior Pieter Daems and Dutch junior Robin Smit and Dutch senior Robert Werts.

Marco vermeer [left] and Hans Biesters [right] both from Holland and World champion Bert jr . from Belgium.

Sunday was another day with big hope.Briefing was at 10 AM.Daily prizes ready to hand out.

The weather should be difficult with cirrus coming through first, then some cu’s and an early finish of the thermal activity around 4 PM. If it all fitted, they had a window to fly in.
They tried hard , but in vain. It did not fit.
The sniffer could not stay up, then they tried again, it was better but not good enough and the time went on ; after 2 PM they decided to cancel.
So the winners from day 1 are the total winners as well.A pity as it looked rather well at 2 PM, with some cu’s , but at 5 the first rain arrived and it turned into torrential rain, so a good decision by CD Stijn.

Marco, waiting for the first prize won by his mate Ronald, as he could not fly on Sunday … AND the CD Stijn in action.

For Ronald, who had to go home, Marco was there to fly on Sunday,so he got the prize to share.All first prizes are money prizes , sponsored by the family Emsens, so in fact you have a “free” weekend.The other 3 sponsors donate as well; TOP METEO , with a one year free connection to the weather.GLIDER PILOT SHOP with vouchers for a discount on their products and LTB Antwerpen, with nice cleaning material for the glider.

A special prize , sponsored by the Schmelzer family , the ALBERT SCHMELZER -prize, a beautiful bronze eagle for the best junior of this competition , was for the winner from the transponder sport class Nick Fremau.

Nick and Bert Schmelzer sr.

The next competition will be on August 20 and 21 in 2016. From March onward you can have a look at their site to see if you can enter, as 50 is the limit for this field. AND,…I can tell you it is great fun and as I heard more new guests thought the same.So don’t miss out! I won’t !!

The only not-so-good-news , this weekend, was that NONE of the Belgium juniors can go to Narromine, which is really sad as they have potential top 10 pilots. A REAL PITY. No money.

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last but not least; RENCONTRE ASK 13 IN the rain, at Aerodrome St. Crepin.Some special pictures as shared by them;