Day 8 winner in open class Erik Borgmann flying the QUINTUS with speed 146.3 km./h. over the 205 km. task. Brilliant! That was the fastest speed in open class.[pic.2]
courtesy Dutch team as shared on FB.
The in the end nearly nail biting EGC in Vinon is over and I take you through the last days.
I left you with the message that Wednesday could be difficult, weather-wise in Vinon. The briefing was postponed and already early in the morning the day was cancelled for open class.
A bit later for 18 m. as well.
The 15 m. had to grid as the expectation was for a “maybe-window” later on the day ! So a 2 hour AAT was set. And.. whilst the people on the ground had to strengthen the ropes of their tents cause of the tough ground-wind, the 15m. pilots were launched at 15.35! Most did not even expect it.
Base over the field was around 1600 m. and it was VERY bumpy, but there was also some nice lift , AND ….light wave up to 2000 m. for most pilots , but not for some as one of the Belgium pilots landed back, he could not get away.
Day 8 in 15 m.ended with another daily win for Christophe[Ruch]; 210.6 km. in 1.59,59 how about that!!!! COOL!!! 600 points in the pocket!
His French mates JD and Louis were on spot 4 and 5 , loosing 5 and 6 points on him!!!!
In between on spot 2 and 3, Swiss pilot Fridolin Hauser [ Ventus 2A] and German pilot Steffen Schwarzer.[ASW27]
After 8 days Christophe could if he wished, take a day off , as he was already more than 1000 points ahead of the number 4 UK pilot Phil Jones. Louis, however was only 24 points behind him, so still a strong concurrent/mate! JD is 500 points behind Christophe.
Would on the last day each of the 2 fly for himself?? I guess so, both want to be EUROPEAN CHAMPION and trying to be both on spot 1 by leaving a fraction later for Christophe would be a too big risk to loose the title and nearly a nearly impossible action, it only once happened as far as I know, by sheer luck . So what happened on the last 2 days!!??
The next day was after a full night of rain, cancelled for 15 m. [ so no points to gain for the 3 French Musketeers, ] and open class. Only the 18 m. flew and got an AAT speed task of 1.45 for their day 8, after 2 cancelled days.
French pilot Christophe won the day starting more than an hour earlier [14.10] than his mate Didier.[15.31] ??That cost Didier, as he finished on spot 8 and lost his overall first place to ,…who else, Sebastian.
So on the last day it’s between France and Poland, for the decision who will be European Champion. Only 61 points difference, so,…………..everything was possible!!!!!!
Day 9, a good last day for all pilots of this interesting-to-follow-even-from-home-competition. What would happen in 15 m. class? Would it be Christophe or Louis going home with the cup? At least it stays in France!
What in 18 m. , where Sebastian was ready to keep his lead, but 2 French were ready to do whatever needed to be done to keep this EGC cup away from him?
And in open class no worries about Michael but , though I strongly believe in the “team-flying” from the French, {in my opinion they are doing this at the moment best, though Christophe and Didier proofed me wrong on the last day!!!!!!!} the Germans do know about it too, so would Killian keep his 2d place, can Ronald end in the top 3?
The weather co-operated [2200 m. local, nice clouds also in the mountains!] and tasks on this last flying day were set to make the final scores definitive!
15 m; 347 km. launched first
18m ; 406 km.
open; 371km. launched last
At 13.37 all gliders were up in the air and the tactic-games could start. The weather remained good so I expected good speed.
AND,…it was a good day. Different still than I expected certainly in 15 m. class as not Christophe won, but Louis went home with the gold.
They started exactly at the same time but in the end Louis was 4 minutes faster and won the EGC title with 23 points on his mate , who won SIX days. Louis won 2.
JD was on spot 3 . Henrik was 2d on the last day and finished overall on spot 5 behind Phil Jones.
The champion and the winners in 15 m,
courtesy FB site team France.
In 18 m. it took a long time before we knew who would be the winner as Didier was not scored, ,…..he OUTLANDED!!! He started together with Christophe Cousseau only had to stay together as Christophe won the day, but something must have gone wrong, A pity for Didier!
So, Sebastian won the EUROPEAN title before Christophe who climbed from 3 to spot 2 and Roman Mracek ended with the bronze!!! Good on Sebastian, I don’t know how he does it every time, even not after reading his book.
Didier dropped from 2 to 5, with Uli who did well, on 6!
What a nail-biting day!!!!!
The Champion and the winners in 18 m.
As shared on FB
In open class Peter Hartmann won the 9th day with a speed of 130km./h. and a later start, about half an hour later than the rest.[15.08] Pretty special that both Peter and Louis won each in their class this last day. Straight away it came to me that they had that scary mid air collision in Uvalde, where they both came out unharmed, one bringing the glider home , one bailing out.
European Champion was Michael Sommer started earlier than normal [14,37] with his mate Marcus Frank . The Dutch, specially Ronald, tried to overtake them in a chance to get that spot 3 overall for the JS 1. Together with his mate Erik, they started 13 minutes later and settled for a 2 and 3 day prize. Ronald missed out on 72 points .
French pilot Killian was 2d and Marcus 3d.
The Champion and winners and numbers 6 to 10 in open class
As shared on the German site.
With 5 scrubbed days and 9 days of flying we could see and follow [ good tracking system] a splendid competition, with sadly to say another black edge. I don’t want to be a nuisance but only in the last month we lost 4 soaring mates! 2 In Germany , [ In May, 1 pilot from 52 and a bit later a pilot from 35] in Holland [during a competition] and one in France [competition] and even maybe more I did not hear of,…. not good!
What went wrong with Didier I read this morning written in a resume of this last day in Vinon by the lovely father of Sebastian, who I met in Uvalde.
Be aware it is the way Thomasz sees it .
It’s shared many times already but I share it too.
Here you are and THANKS THOMASZ;
–“To bylo velmi dramatycke.” (“It was really dramatic”)
Yesterday was something of an emotional rollercoster but life has more suspense and surprises than Alfred Hitchcock could ever hope to come up with. The plan was simple. Sebastian was to keep his ambitions on a very short leash and leave at the best time. We have calculated that for the 407 km… task this time would come between 14:30 and 14:45 accepting giving up 3 to 4 minutes to the rivals. We came to an agreement with our southern neighbours to fight together to hold our places in the table. It turned out that the white-red-blue HQ had exactly the same judgement of the weather situation and tactical goals. The weather was great with visibility typical for Polar circle so the usual pre start dance did not take place. The French run away and were caught by the first mountain range. Didier and Sebastian were uncontested so they could do a lap of honour but it does not work like this with the alphas. In the Morgon region clouds spilled out and suppressed the lift. Everyone had a different way of dealing with the situation. They spread out over Durace valley by Gap and Sisteron. For the next two sections the weather was capricious ut over Morgon Sebastian caught up with a group marked by Cousseau’s tracker. Dider did not have one on this day. Turning point was set at behind the lake deeper in the valley. It is common knowledge that in such a pipe one can meet only devil playing with winds so everyone after the turn made a random escape. The Cousseau group went north with the wind to look for support on the slopes of Ecrines. Sebastian decided to go back straight to Morgon, which some minutes before offered excellent lift. There is a reason local pilots show respect to this place. Although the western slope was exposed to the Sun and perpendicular to the wind it welcomed Sebastian with sink instead of lift. The reason was quite simple. It was here where the convergence area was starting and clouds kept on forming all day which prevented the rocks from warming up and only from time to time the stone giant was giving salutary breaths.
The boy was having a hard time for a long time by the rocks to no avail and when it started to get really nasty as the stone rubble at the foot of the mountain was getting dangerously close he decided to fly towards the river valley by Gap. Literally a few minutes after his departure the slopes began to work and saved from great trouble Jarek Tomana. Sebastian made a save, little rocks at Durance did not fail him but he no longer could count on the bottle of wine for winning the day.
It also seemed that his golden medal was growing more and more pale. We were surprised though not to see Didier Hauss at the finish line. Would he have landed at another part of this huge airfield and stashed the glider in one of the hangars? It turned out that the pressure had its effect. When the initial group fell apart Sebastian kept his emotions in line and saved on height. He could not be persuaded by a Czech colleague to jump to usually excellent Pic de Bure and he laboriously worked through not to impressive thermals under weak clouds. Didier pushed on forward as the conditions seemed excellent and… he had to pay a visit Ohlmann at his airfield. This news did not really make us happy as the day was drawing to its close and we still havent heard from Mirek. He did not answer the radio, his cell phone was silent, he had no tracker, SPOT was not on. The organisers shared our fears and started to get the rescue team ready. Nice. Would it be a deja vu from a few days before? When we joined the rescue activites right before the sunset Mirek’s engine roared over the airfield. Sebastian saved his first place.
PS
You cheered Riabczansky in Argentina. This time all eastern Europe teams kept their fingers crossed for Sebastian. Rascvietali yabloni i grushy, poplyli tumany nad ryekoy…Pazdravlayu !
Tomasz Kawa
What a lovely family, both Thomasz and Sebastian, very much dedicated to each other…CHAPEAU!!!!!
picture as shared on FB.
In a few days , from the 25th of June till the 4th of July, [Practise days on June 23 and 24] the USA Nationals for 15 m. [ 30 participants] and open class [ 15 participants] start in Hobbs New Mexico and one of my colleague-bloggers Andreea , ” Miss Daisy ” is going to cover these Nationals for Soaringcafe and she is also the designated blogger and photographer for the SSA.
Andreea!
Soaring Society of America Volunteer Development Committee
www.wordsaboutsoaring.com
I keep in “my way ” an eye on it too, for soaring.eu , and Andreea , who is not only a “fresh” new writer, but a good photographer as well will do the “live stream”.
She told me she has a better new lens for her camera now, so you can expect great pictures too on all the sites she writes for or contributes to.
The less good news I got on Thursday was;
“Today we have a storm coming in and strong winds and the rest of the week, but we all hope for better weather soon.” I hope that with them.
Pictures from the Concordia in Uvalde.
With the WWGC about to begin in France, the EGC in Ostrow and the JWGC in Leszno both in Poland , we have busy times ahead! Everybody is preparing for these comps also Issoudun, where they built a brand new reception desk, classroom and flight simulator !This will be all ready for the WWGC starting with a flight show on the 29th day of the opening as well.
The closer it comes the more sad I am that I can’t be there, but such is life! [ Neck and back are OK, but not yet good enough for more action than sitting in a chair , laying on a bed, some walking and shopping]
EGC logo
as shared on their site.
Some of my Finnish friends have started the open Finnish Club and 18 m. Nationals in Teisko . This competition started yesterday with small 1.30 AAT’s and continues till the 30thiest of June. They had to cancel day 1 but tasks for today are in “the make” .
And,…the Arcus M has received type certification by EASA. Congratulations to Tilo and his family and their staff.
To finish I would like to strongly recommend to you the story of a pilot who survived a bad crash in the mountains to be read on www.soaringcafe.com
“The end of the road for TA-part 2 , the crash report” by Frank Paynter.
—“I had miraculously survived the crash with very minor injuries, but I still might not survive the mountain.”–
Will keep you informed over the next weeks, maybe even on more days than normal, as old news is no news!
By the way it rains cat’s and dogs here and the 35 dgr. from last week turned into 16. 2 Nice 2-day-comps have been cancelled this weekend.
Cheers Ritz