With 2 nice sunny days last Monday and Tuesday , this SPRING is one to quickly forget.
I loved Amsterdam however last Monday,how different does the world look with blue skies, a bright sun and with all the fresh light- green leaves on the trees.
Some pilots who really had some great flights this spring, must have loved their few great days, but for sun-bakers and people liking to sit on terraces, it was a tough time certainly after the too long winter.
Overall it was much too cold, in the beginning too dry , in the end too wet, more autumn than spring.
Looking forward to the 2013 SUMMER , which started yesterday, here with 9-15 dgr and dry.
Hope we will have one!!!!!15 dgr. is 5 under the average for this time of the yaer.
By the way it was Ingo’s 75 th birthday yesterday, celebrated as I heard , with birthday cake and champagne and dinner later in the Terminus , for those who wanted to come along. Congratulations Ingo.
Know I have showed this picture before but I like the happiness on both faces!And one shared by Judy from yesterday!!! Go Ingo!
The Austrian Nationals in the end squeezed 3 days out of the 8. Last day was yesterday and the pilots in 4 classes got an 1.30 AAT and in open 15 minutes more!
A day to gain some points for some as they needed only a few, to be winners.
It turned out different as I read on their site, as the day was cancelled for 18 and open and neutralized for the rest as some pilots were dropped off in wave [outside the drop zone!] , others had huge problems to stay in the air as rain showers passed by . So the organisers took the difficult decision before opening the start lines, to be fair to ALL and neutralized the day. In the end it seemed a good decision as they said it would have been a lottery.
National champion in club class Andreas Hudler ,winner in this class Karel Mares from the Czech Rep.
In standard class Jan Jagiello and winner in this class was Miloslav Cink .
In 15 m. Heimo Demmerer was the National Champion and the winner was Dominik Jancik.
In 18 Peter Hartmann is the National Champion, also with the most points.
In open Sebastian Eder Austrian Champion and winner in his class.
The Swiss Nationals ended up with ONE day in the mixed 15 m. class, winner Manfred Hahn with 708 points in Ls 8 /15 m. and 2 in the mixed 18 m. and the open class.
In the 18 m. class Rolf Friedli won in the ASG 29/18 m. with 1179 points and in open Marcus Gaumann in the Nimbus 4M /26.4 m. with 1193 points , only 11 more than Dirk Reich in the EB 28/28 m.
The Belgium Nationals had their last day yesterday and….that day was scrubbed! With that , they had 5 cancelled and 3 flyable days!
Bert Schmelzer jr. is the Belgium CHAMPION in 15m/21 m. before his brother Tijl and in open class it was Jean Luc Colson before Olivier Brialmont.
The Grand Prix Slovakia in Prievidza had 2 out of 7 days giving Roman Mracek the 10 points. 8 For Sebastian Kawa and 7 for Lubor Kuvik. So nothing changed there , no more flying!
In the UK they managed to fly the last days again with better weather,during the Club Class Nationals and Pete Masson started day 4 with 3000 points in the pocket. He did not add another 1000 as he lost 20 points to G . Dale in his Libelle. Former tuggie Tim kept doing well and was on a shared 5th place.
Brian and Ayala both had a not too good day in their Libelles, both outlanded and lost over 500 points.
304.08 was the task on day 5 , not bad! .
38 From 40 finished and a new name on the daily top; Jon Meyer in a Libelle 201 b.But most important was how the top 3 would fly!?
Pete was on 3, G. on 13 and Tim on spot 4. So changes in the overall scores with one day to go!
Pete with 4903 points, Tim with 4638 and Jez Hood moved from 4 spot 3 and by loosing 200 points G dropped out of the top 3 and ended on spot 4 with John Meyer climbing up to a nice 5th place.[from 7]
A last day always brings extra tension, but also “all -or- nothing -games -as- only- spot- 1- is- THE- spot”. Don’t have to tell you that.
So only tonight we know the CHAMPIONS. BUT of course I will come back with an update tonight!
UPDATED with today’s news: Briefing for day 6 last day of the comps , was at 10 AM and gridding was BEFORE the briefing.
Everybody is up in the air for 510.8 km. Well yes ,……why not!!!???
Will be a long day for some but tonight we know the CHAMPION in the UK Club Class.
Stay tuned! So here we are!
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Today had another winner this time in a KA 6E, Will Ellis was the one who collected the very much deserved 1000 points for the day. And,….with a speed of 103 km./h.
WOW!!! In a KA 6E!!!!!
His handicap;81! The day before Will outlanded as one of the 4 from 41 in total.
He must have thought “bugger it” I am going to fly at my best this last day, no guts, no glory!
Scores,…all preliminary of course!
Pete was on spot 2 , Jon on 3 and G. on 5 with Tim on spot 13.
So the final results look like this;
Pete is the clear winner with 5847 points. Jez stayed on spot 2 but with the same amount of points as Jon, who did so well the last 2 days.[5557]
G ended on spot 5 [5546] and Tim dropped from 3 to 6.[5470]
A very interesting competition to follow! Congratulations to all.
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In the REGIONALS Andy Davis leads the class on day 4 after winning that day on which only 12 from 35 made it home, just before Dave Watt .
On day 5 a 327.5 km. task, long enough to see an interesting day again. Kim Tipple was the daily winner with Andy on spot 3 and Dave on 2.
VERY INTERESTING day today with 407.4 km!!!!!!!!Also the PW 5 in this class has to try and fly it!!!!
By the way,….We have GREAT soaring-weather here in Holland too today!
Robert Werts , [with Luc Stalman,] managed like last year, to fly a 1000 km.from Venlo in the S of Holland in the Nimbus 3DT. More on Wednesday!!!
National Air 2013 at Romorantin: After 6 cancelled days and a lot of patience by all, the pilots FINALLY could fly on the 27th and 29th ….that is,…only on the 27th for Club class.
Denis Geurin and Eric Soubrier , both flying a St Cirrus, bundled their efforts with success and “got” the 1000 and 999 points for a distance of 321 km. during a 3.30 AAT in 3.28!!! Very experienced pilots. So Denis won the comps with one day of flying and 1000 points.
Good to see a Dutch pilot , Jeroen van Dijk, flying his Mosquito to a 3d place with 993 points in 3.33.
Only one day of flying, but being 3d means a deserved CUP, even 2.
Picture courtesy AC van der Vlist , as shared on FB by Ton Staassen.
901 Points in 15m./.21 m. were for Frederic Hoyeau in the Discus flying with 108 km./h over the set 282 km. and the 1.30 AAT was won by Amelie Audier, in her Discus 2 A.
Winner after 2 days Frederic with 1290 points.
In open class the 2 days were both for Gerard Lherm flying the EB 28. Total amount of points;1726!!!!
It says enough about the weather! But,…good winners!And a 3d place for a Dutchie!
By the way the Dutch Military Comps will be flown next week .
As time is running out for the wave season in the USA , Jim and Dennis “tried ” the 29th, knowing there was much more NW wind then hoped for but ,…they still managed to fly 1.587 km. from Minden in Nevada.
One day earlier Janusz Centka had a good day in the ARCUS M. flying from Ouazarzate [Morocco] 1.182 km.
June started good for the Ouazarzate pilots with 2 nearly 1.300 km flights.
Last time I wrote about great conditions in Norway. Because the flight was so high I presumed it was flown in wave. It was NOT, as I heard from Arne Martin, the pilot, good on him….. like the interaction, as you know;
—“I was the pilot who flew at Hokksund. It was not wave, just regular thermals
that went quite high (over 3000 m in some places). This was by far my longest
flight, so cool that it’s noticed and mentioned here, thanks.—“
Thanks for the info, Arne Martin!”And,…. he had some extra info about the Norwegian Nationals
class) this week and….. I was allowed to use some very nice pictures!
—“Yes, it’s the Norwegian open class nationals this week (really just one handicapped class].Longest flight yesterday, and also day winner, Jo Inge Bjørø, with his 16 year old son Sondre, after finishing the task climbed up again and flew a couple of hundred km more! Apparently they thought the task was too short “—
434 km one part Nationals, one part fun-flying in the Duo Discus!
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=3007058
Arne Martin’s Discus bT ready for his longest flight till now!And…Norway from above with the airfield of Fyresdale.
A great picture of the Lake Bandak. AND…Rjuka, Valley, looks like you have to stay high there, pretty remote area.
On the question of one of the admirers of the picture, about landing possibilities the answer was :
“From this height (or even 1000 meters less) I can easily reach Notodden airport. There are some fields along the way there too, if I can’t reach all the way.
And there are a few possibilities down in the the valley below too, although they are not good fields, so would only use those if I can’t reach any of the better fields.—
And for those who want to fly there once, I add the comment of Ragnar Stenerson, just to completely inform you :
“Several huge, good fields where the Rjukan valley ends up in Tinnsjø – very few (if any) usable fields along the west/east side of Tinnsjø towards Notodden.
I outlanded there a few years ago; 6-700m available, no obstructions, easy acces by car/trailer. Can recommend a daytrip by car covering Telemark/Buskerud, inspecting different landing areas.”
Last Friday I visited with Inge, George and Diana the Captains Dinner at Terlet. The manager from the club house at Terlet, starting in 1984 till ????, was cooking for those who were interested and a lovely bunch of old friends visited, nearly a reunion. More about this in soaringcafe later today.
Young Australian pilot Matthew Scutter travelled to Europe to learn, see , fly AND participate in the JWGC in Leszno! He keeps a blog and when you are interested you can follow what happens to him on
https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding?fref=ts
It looks life is good for him, but he found quickly out about the 2013 European spring:
-“Rained all day yesterday and all day last night. The airfield appears to be underwater, but they assure me it will drain quickly.Turns out the hangar leaks quite badly, so I ended up making some makeshift rain covers for the glider at midn…ight and then precariously balancing buckets all over the wings to stop the dripping water. Accuweather says it’ll be a hot and dry summer, looking forward to it!! —“
Here the Midnight makeshift rain covers, as shared by Matthew on FB.
AND…………
Nice way to be introduced to soaring in Poland, is n’t it?
Picture from Matthews blog.
And to finish a link to the pictures Bert Schmelzer jr. took on his 1.011 km. declared Out and Return. A great story goes with the pictures. You have to see and read this.
https://picasaweb.google.com/
DeclaredOutAndRet
Here are a few already:
Rene Schneebeli as pictured by Bert and direction Arlberg pass.
Rene and the HOCH König were they “had ” 3 m./sec.
The National Dutch Female Soaring- day is this year not one day, but a whole weekend , THIS weekend and on one of the Northerly islands Ameland. With 40 to 60 km./h wind from the NW it was yesterday no flying weather but time for lot’s of fun also walking along the beach.
As shared by the girls on FB.
Cu on Wednesday and then NO news from Friday to Friday as I am on my annual holiday with my High School-friends, this time with 5 , so one less as Lily is married for 45 years and spends her time with family in Italy.
A bit unfortunate that the EGC and some other comps are in this period. Sorry, but we will pick them up or analyse them later!!!!
Cheers Ritz
On Sunday June 2 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.soaringcafe.com www.glidinginternational.com