WWGC 2022 !!
Got a mail from the UK with happy news about the fundraising for the 2 Ukraine pilots, yes they now can participate in the Husbos WWGC. GREAT news!!!!
“The fundraising for the Ukrainian pilots achieved its goal which is fantastic.“
AND a bit more about what’s going to happen and how you can “find” them.
“It’s 3 months to go and the Women’s World Gliding Championship preparations are racing ahead… Gliding would be nothing without our amazing and supportive international community. Glider pilots from all around the world helped raise funds to allow two Ukrainian pilots to compete, once again thank you all! The organizing team has members from all over the UK working hard to make WWGC2022 a special event, and we have volunteers from as far afield as New Zealand coming along to help out at the championships!  Director Liz Sparrow said ‘It’s great that we have women – and men – from so many gliding nations keen to be part of WWGC2022′.

The Championship starts with a Parade and Opening Ceremony in Market Harborough and Lutterworth town centres on Saturday 13 August.  Around 50 of the world’s top female pilots will be racing each day around courses up to 500km long at speeds up to 130kph depending on weather conditions.  You can follow the racing online throughout the competition at wwgc2022.co.uk. 

On Saturday 20/Sunday 21 August we’re inviting everyone to the exciting programme of events running alongside the Championship – come and see the action! With lots of activity for all ages, it’s a great family event. There will be gliders from all over the world racing and competing and the day includes watching the gliders launch, hangar visits,  live aircraft tracking screen,  children’s area and activities, glider simulator, full size aircraft, craft stalls, music, food stands.  The Sustainable Aviation Show area includes aircraft, cars, machines and stands, and there is an exhibition on Women in Aviation – find out about famous women in history and meet some current aviation pioneers!
Website: wwgc2022.co.uk
Facebook/wwgc2022 
Twitter and Instagram:   @wwgc2022

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I owned you one more day on the USA 18 m. Nationals!!!
The last day was a good one,… but blue, not everybody’s favorite weather.
“considering the wind, the forest, the swamp, the angles, and the awards dinner, we settled on a 317 km star-shaped task that took the fleet over familiar territory.” was the final verdict at the briefing.
Off they went ,with Sean Murphy to chase, if they wanted the first prize.
That was an extra stimulant for the other Sean , Fidler, who raced as fast as possible and won the day and the title, with only 16 points difference!!!
With a speed of 106 km. he was the only one flying under 3 hours!!!
Sean M. was 10th for the day.
So the USA Nationals are won by
1. Sean Fidler in ASG 29 with 4139 points.
2. Sean Murphy in JS 3 with 4123 points.
3. Robin Clark in ASG 29 with 4000 points.

Huge thank you to Rick, who kept me informed about what was happening!!!!

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OPEN BELGIAN GLIDING NATIONALS 2022

the Open Belgian Gliding Nationals 2022 continued on Wednesday, when I left you , with another 3 hour AAT in both classes.
Task 5;
In CLUB, 293 km in time 3.08 was the best result and it was flown by Robin Selfslagh in an LS1f. Runner up was Thomas De Bruyn in LS 4 with 292 km in the same time .
14 started and 14 finished…good!
In the Combi class Nick Fremau won with 327 km in time 3.07 [speed 104 km./h in his LS 8.
The day earlier he was one of the “out-landers”, so a good revenge.
No flying on Thursday as a heavy line of thunderstorms passed from France over Belgium and our country.
A new storm line arrived on Friday even worse. I have never see such violence of wind here in Europe.

This news I got as well from Bert sr., always nice to hear inside stories;
“Saint Hubert, Friday May, 20^th
Michel Pihard (ex-General) is a dynamic organizer and the president of the annual OBNG (Open Belgian National Championships This morning I could make this snapshot after Michel made a weather-flight with his wife Emilie. Unfortunately, no contest day in St.Hubert, because of heavy thunderstorms with hail and wind-gusts up to 100 km/h are expected. But tomorrow we will definitely fly, unfortunately our last competition day over the beautiful landscape above the Ardennes, in the middle between the French Champagne and the Eifel mountains.
Bert Schmelzer Sr.

So tomorrow was Saturday…indeed the last day and,…yes,… they flew, with pretty good weather circumstances.
Club class; 305 km.…Michel van den Borne “got” the 1000 points for a speed of 83 km./h in his Discus B. He was not one day in the daily top 5 , but had a great last day. He had a late start ,[40 minutes after the first who went on track, ] together with Bart Leysen, who was runner up.
Thomas de Bruyn , the overall leader over most of the days was “only” on spot 10 loosing 350 points on the last day BUT,…..he had 3 points left to remain the number 1…pfffff!!!!!
Overall results after 5 days;
1. Thomas De Bruyn in LS4 with 4.254 points and Belgian CHAMPION.
2. Jelle Vandebeeck in ASW 24 with 4.251 points.
3. Peter Bertels in St Libelle with 3.898 points.

Combi class; 380 km. ...2 pilots flew over 100 km./h. The daily winner Emmanuel Litt [ 103.05 km./h] and Francois Delfosse[ 101.71 km./h] both in JS 3 jet. Koen van der Putten was 3d and this meant, no changes in the top.
1. Koen Vander Putten in the Ventus 2CT with 3.986 points ; CHAMPION.
2. Francois Delfosse in JS3 with 3.965 points
3. Andre-Emmanuel Litt in JS 3 with 3.961 points

Looking at 15m/st class, who participated in the combi -class here are their scores thanks to Bert sr.
1. Nick Fremau in LS 8 with 3.814 points.
2. Thomas Leduc in Ventus 2cxa with 3.681 points.
3. Daan Spruyt in Ventus 2AX with 2.740 points.

The ” Willy Grandjean Challenge” , presented at this OBGN, is a speed trophy for the fastest flight in Belgium within a year. Since the early sixties they present this prize at the annual OBGN.
In 2021 Bert Schmelzer jr. was the winner of this prestigious prize. As he was already at the Hahnweide , his dad received it for him.

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Polish CLUB CLASS Nationals

May 18; task 4 ….2 hour AAT….
Jakub -day!!!! Jakub Barszcz [Brawo] won a day for the 2d time and Jakub Kaczorowski [St Jantar] was 3 for the day.
Bit of an off-day for Jacek ,who finished on spot 16, he is now 2 [from spot 1] overall behind Jakub B.
38 started and 32 finished…the 6 who were “out” did so in the first 50 k.
May 19; NO TASK…maybe they got the last bit of that storm line too.
May 20; task 5…2 hour AAT.... and LAST day as on the 21th there was no task.
38 started and only 2 were out. Jakub, Jacek and Mikolaj, the top3 overall from the last days did not make mistakes and kept their positions, Jakub was runner up, Jacek number 8 and Mikolaj on spot 11, from 38.
So after 5 tasks the overall scores were[
1.Jakub Barszcz in Brawo with 4.010 points and Polish Club CHAMPION.
2.Jacek Flis in LS 3 with 3.890 points.
3. Mikołaj Zdun in LS3 with 3.788 points.

Polish SGP. They finished on May 21 after 7 days of flying. The last race was won by Tilo,[Ventus 3T] the races 4-5 and 6 by Lucasz. [JS1c] Clear he had a lot of points; 40!!!!!
The runner up Marek [ASG 29] had 26 points, whilst Tilo had 24 points.
www.sgp.aero
“Congratulations to Lukasz Grabowski from Poland for winning the SGP of Żar, Marek Sawczuk and Tilo Holighaus complete the podium.
Lukasz will join for the SGP Final, Stefan Langer and Klaus Kalmbach , qualified during Sweden SGP, and Sebastian Kawa , the current SGP World Champion.”

On May 29 the Lithuanian FAI SGP starts. They fly till June 4 from Paluknys.

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HAHNWEIDE.
21 May 2022 – 28 May 2022

The 54th HAHNWEIDE- competition started last Saturday with 105 pilots in 5 classes. Pilots from ALL parts of Europe, 13 different countries, nearly make this a European championship.
Standard class has 20 entries, among them many young toppers from the UK and Belgium.
2-seaters show 20 teams , so 40 pilots, among them toppers as Steve Jones [ARCUS M] and Martin Theisinger [ARCUS M]
Open class with 17 pilots , as Bruno Gantenbrink and Uli Schwenk in ETA, Sylvain Gerbaud in EB 29R [France] , Pierre de Broqueville [Belgium] and Jim Acketoft in EB 29DR, [Sweden]
15 m class shows 17 participants with Werner Amann in AS 33es, [Austria] Kevin Faur [France] in Ventus 2A,
18 m. class 37 pilots as Wolfgang Janowitch [Austria] in Ventus 3T, Pete Harvey [UK] in Ventus 3T, Bert Schmelzer jr[ Belgium] in Ventus 3T.
Lot’s of CHAMPIONS in all kinds!!!!

Task 1 ; on May 21,…….luckily not a 1000 points day!
18 m; 297 km....36 started and only 6 finished, so straight away a “shift”. The winner was Wolfgang Janowitsch from Austria [82.77 km./h] in his Ventus 3T and that speed shows how difficult the day was. In the same glider, Bert Schmelzer jr. [Belgium] was runner up [80,67 km./h]
Only 4 in ,so the number 3 was German pilot Christian Maex in AS 33es and number 4 Thomas Ingerfurth also from Germany in Ventus 2CT.
Russell Cheetham [UK] was only 15 k out and his UK mate Andy Davis both in JS 3, was about 36 k out.
Standard; 218 km….best speed, 83 km./h was by French pilot Valentin Leleu-Lambour. From 20 also here a lot of “out-landers”; 6 from 20.
Not a good start for team UK, they started later than the rest and all 5 pilots were out.
15 m; 245 km....Here the UK did well with Timothy Scott as winner in his ASG 29, followed by 3 French pilots among them young Kevin Faur. From 16 there were 8 IN.
Good to see that one of our former guests at Sportavia, Jan Umlauf, ”the kilometer-eater” was in. Werner Amann was the first who was out.
Open; 336 km....Pierre and his cousin Arnaud de Broqueville were IN ,as the best, of course in their EB 29DR. You needed real long wings to come home ,as also the ETA from Uli [Schwenk] and Aussie mate Matthew [Scutter] was back.
The only 2 from the 15 who started.
Best speed 79 km./h. Challenging!!!!
2 seaters; 264 km….NOBODY, from 14, finished!!!One pilot was really close; Norbert Sommer in his ARCUS M;253 km. The runner up Steve Jones from the UK in the same glider, flew 214 km.
10x an ARCUS M or T, 2x an ASG 32 M or MI and 2x a Duo Discus XLT or T.

Task 2; was , due to the weather, a short window, so only for 2 classes;18m and open, the rest had a day off to relax after the out landings.
18m; 203 km….
open; 219 km...
at 4 PM there was this message on the official site;
“Unfortunately, it was not possible to fly a competition task today due to the warm air.”
On Monday no flying either. Storms and thunderstorms went over my house in their direction.
On Tuesday,….same recipe….BUT, a window to fly for 18m. class and the 2-seaters. 232 km….and late starts around 3.30 PM.
A good day for Pete [Harvey] in 18 m. who, with a speed of 107 km won the day in his Ventus 3T. A very challenging day, as from 37 “only” 24 were IN. But again NOT too many points to gain or win. Pete got 580 whilst his mates Andy [Davis] Phil [Jones] and Derren [Francis] had around 50 less on spot 8 to 10.
246 km...for the 2 seaters and starts around 4 PM. From 14 , 5 were in and Martin Theisinger won in the ARCUS M with a speed of 104 km./h.

More on this exciting top event next week.

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On the OLC some interesting flights as well last week.
On the day I left you, so on Wednesday, Simon Schroeder flew a 1.103 km flight in the VENTUS 3 m. from Woerishofen.
Alessandro Busca [18m. Ventus 2cx] flew one from Aosta in Italy last Saturday. A good weekend weather-wise as many flights were flown between 500 and 996 km that day.
Sunday…1161 pilots had fun,…..and 2 had a 1000 as well from the famous Wasserkuppe in an ASH 26 AND from Braunschweig in an ARCUS T. Several flights between 800 and 988 km.
Monday the “booming” weather had reached Finland too, making several pilots very happy, with flights up to over 800 km..
Unfortunately Sweden’s Eskilstuna International Open did not get a tiny little part of it. On May 21-22 and 23 they did not fly.
Last Monday they had small tasks [under 200 km.] yesterday another small task , but they flew.

There are many comps at the moment, as the Eskilstuna International Open 2022 from Ekeby in Sweden, 20thiest Fatra Glide from Martin in Slovakia, [both continue till May 28] and from Chipman, Canada, the 2022 Canadian National Soaring Competition [23 May 2022 – 3 June 2022] more,……it’s that time of the year, too many to follow for me but no worries, for scores and sometimes pictures or a story you can find them all on
www.soaringspot.com

Today also the Dutch Nationals start with 51 competitors and will be flown from Terlet. nkzweefvliegen.nl
More next week.
Cheers Ritz….though I have to reflex on Uvalde 1991 and 2012 ,when I was there. Lovely town , great people [except for one] and fabulous comps .
Yesterday 19 school children between 7 and 10 and 2 teachers, were killed by an 18 year old lunatic . Poor parents and grand parents, poor family and friends, not too think of the children who survived and have to live with this. I hope the USA stops it’s “easy” weapon sales!!!!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!
Too sad for words!!!!
In 2024 Uvalde is host of the next WGC.