THE BENELUX comps have started!
courtesy Franz Bertrand.

From the one interesting competition we move to the next one.And there are a few at the moment.

THE BENELUX comps at ST .HUBERT.

SUNDAY May 17;a day with ZERO ” out-landers”.
SAINT HUBERT , continued last Sunday with 2 times a 300 hour AAT for the BENELUX pilots.
For 18 m. class day 2. Best pilot was from Belgium this time, Jean Luc [Colson] with 347.5 km. in time 3.17,52 flying an ARCUS.
In this class 13 from 24 are Dutch pilots.Runner up also from Belgium Sebastien Mercier in ASG29 /18m.
A bad day yesterday for Bert [Schmelzer sr.] and Alfred Paul Alfers] but day 2 was better for them, with a 4th and 6th place.Also an unfortunate day for the winner from day 1, Francois, today he was last with only 358 points. He started more than an hour later [14.54] than the first starter [13.39]

The LS 8 from Jeroen [Jennen] and in the air with Bert Schmelzer jr.
courtesy Jeroen Jennen.

For the mixed class , with 22 participants [15 from Belgium ,7 from Holland], it was day 1. Also here our Belgium mates did a great job. They occupied spot 1 till 4.Daily winner ; Daan [Spruyt] with 318.1 km. in time  3.06,18 in an LS 6.
One of the pilots in this class is the instructor who let me go solo in 1968; Dick Teuling, still very active.Another one Jeroen, both flew MANY Nationals and international comps.

  

Dick and Jeroen [Verkuijl] with his daughter.
as seen by WILLEMIJN.

MONDAY May 18;
Day 2 for the mixed class; AND,.what a day 2….task from nearly 400 km.;388.3 km.!!!!
BUT,….They had a B task in the background and ,…used that one; 320 km.
Some said in the end task A would have been possible, but there was a tough wind and it was pretty turbulent.
Former European champion Steven [Raimond] , just back from the Klix- competition “got”  the 1000 points; speed 84.4 km./h. over 320 km..
World champion Bert [Schmelzer jr.] got 6 points less. His brother unfortunately out-landed; Tijl flew 228.4 km.
7 From 22 did so. Of course Mac is not participating here as Hahnweide where he flew overlapped.
The numbers 1 -7 are within 86 points, so MORE days please!!!
As Sebastien Mercier , number 3 at the moment, mentioned in his comment on the OLC;
“Tough over Germany on the return leg, but then way easier for the last 80kms.“

  

Dennis [Huybreckx] at this stage number 3 overall, just ahead of Patrick [Stouffs]  and cousin Jeroen [Jennen] at this stage number 2 overall, just behind Daan.
As seen by Gitte.

The bigger ships had 418.9 km. for their day 3, but they also got the B task from 317.
On day 1,  4 Dutch pilots on top, on day 2 Belgium pilots , on day 3  another 5 Dutch pilots. Daily winner for a few moments, our former crew and club mate Marco {Vermeer}  in his new  JS 1;105.4 km./h. over the B task with 317 km.
He missed however out on 1000 points because he got a 46 point penalty, for his “finish altitude”, so finished in the end on spot 3 behind Maurits on 1 and Jeroen [Verkuil] on 2. Jeroen was pleased with the nice cloud streets against the wind.
On Spot 4 Francois, who gathered some finish-altitude-penalty points as well, other wise he would have had 999 points. Such a pity. But rules are rules!
All but one finished. After 3 days the ARCUS with Jean Luc tops the overall scores.

B tasks at the grid.
as seen by Willemijn.

TUESDAY May 19 ; shows 2 AAT’s from 2 hours. But,……though on the picture the weather looked nice and everybody was ready at the grid, to go for it, the weather circumstances were just not good enough.
Next Sunday more about these comps.

Yesterday’s weather, BUT from the SW a low with severe showers passed to the NE.

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ARNBORG,
Danish National Championships.

They started on May 14 in 5 classes !
Club, with 12 participants and on day 1 the first daily winner was Jan Walther Andersen in the ASW 20 C.
Also Rasmus Orskov was on of the 3 finishers on day 1 with a 2.30 AAT; 188.8 km. in 2.34,17.
Ole [Arndt] and Henrik [Breidhal] the other 2 I know in this class were on spot 5 and 9.
On day 2  they got a racing task from 248.3 km. AND,….again Jan was the best and …again only 4 finishers. Henrik was IN, Ole and Rasmus were OUT.
Then 4 cancelled days.

Standard class,with 10 participants, started with a 2 hour AAT and Mogens [Hoelgaard] in the Discus 2 A was the daily winner; 207.7 km. in 2.01. Only 2 pilots did not finish.

On day 2 it was AGAIN Mogens who got the highest score over 288.3 km.;800 points. Only 3 pilots finished this time.
4 Days were cancelled.

15 meter, with 14 pilots and 2 of them I know, Ib Wienberg and Stig Oye. They started on day 1, with a 2 hour AAT as well and 8 finished, Ib and Stig on spot 2 and 3.
Day 2 was with 288.3 km, for some TOO much. Ib won the day, Stig was 2d and with them only 2 more pilots finished.
4 cancelled days.

18 meter, with 11 participants and a 2 hour AAT on day 1. 7 Finished but Arne [Boye Moeller] and Peter [Eriksen] missed out ,they had enough kilometers but did not make it home.The winner Ulrik Sorensen, had 200 km. in just under 2 hours.On day 2 they were in the right groove . Arne won the day  [292.9 km racing task] and got 1000 points, Peter was 4th.
4 scrubbed days.

2-seaters/20 m.,with 7 pilots, all with pretty difficult names. One ARCUS and the rest DUO DISCUS in all variations. They started with a 2 hour AAT and 4 pilots finished.
On day 2 nobody finished;292.9 km. was TOO long.
Then 4 scrubbed days.

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Some good news from Scandinavia. 
Notodden in Norway had special weather on May 14, sorry I missed that with all the comps. 2 Pilots flew just under [ in ASW 20] and just over[ in Discus BT] ,  800 km.!!!!
” My longest flight ever, both in time and distance!
Somewhat tricky conditions the first hours, but got better later in the day”, was what Arne Martin had to say about it.
AND.. as always also great pictures.

 

The summit of Gaustatoppen. As you can see a hiker was active as well.
But also an other glider pilot.see below!
Courtesy Arne Martin.

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The 40 thiest Polish Nationals in OPEN CLASS
Stalowa Wola.[May 15-May 24 ]

Polish skies over the forest, as shared on FB.

With so many good pilots, it is always interesting to follow the Polish Nationals. A ” bunch” of top-pilots , among them Sebastian [ASG 29/18m] , Janusz Centka [ ARCUS M] ,Adam Czeladzki [JS 1 C] and Tomasz Krok [ LAK 19/18m] as well as 2 Italian pilots,  Luca Monti in the LAK 17/18m and Lorenzo Monti in the LAK 19/18m. A total of 30 pilots.
They started on May 16 with a 3 hour AAT. Best distance combined with speed was  for Krzysztof Luniesky ; 437 km. in time 3.06, 40 ,so a speed of 140 km./h. in an ASG 29/18m. 1000 points for him !
Day 2 the pilots got a 2 hour AAT won by Sebastian ;300.4 km. in time 2.01,33 so a an even faster speed of 148.3 km./h. Not a 1000 points day , but 610; too short, too fast.
Day 3 had a racing task of 607.7 km. !!
An exciting long day , won by,………Sebastian with a speed of 111.6 km/h.!He and 4 other pilots , including Janusz and Adam, managed to finish. Some just did not make it; 590 km. The Italian pilots flew 472 km.
25 Out-landings!

In between , Sebastian has time to make pictures as well, here is one he shared on FB.

287.3 km. was the task for day 4 yesterday and most of the pilots finished. Nice speed as well 124.8 km./h. for the winner in the ASH 31MI/21 m. Christoph who moved after 4 days to spot 3 overall.
Sebastian was on a daily spot 4 and still is the overall leader.

Another 47 pilots fly parallel with the open class , for the CLUB A Nationals also from Stalowa Wola. Among them quite a few female pilots as Joanna Biedermann and  Judyta Czyz.
On day 3, they had 509.4 km.
Unfortunately NO finishers in this class, meaning 47 out-landings,  but 501 km. was still VERY  GOOD! [ASW 19b]; so 1000 well deserved points.
141.9 km. was the task for day 4.

Sebastian even shared one from the out-landing-spot from Judyta.

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The ITALIAN 20 m. class nationals
VARESE [May 16-May 24]

Day 1 , [Sunday] after one practice day the comps started with a 316 racing task;  a prey for Luciano Avanzini.
1000 points for a speed of 85.1 km./h. in the ARCUS T. Runner up was Austrian pilot Peter Hartman in the DUO DISCUS T.
A total of  11 gliders in this National Competition , 6 x ARCUS [M or T]  3 variations of DUO DISCUS ,a  DG 505 M/20 m. and a JANUS C-FG and pilots as Aldo Cernezzi, Stefano Ghiorzo, Alberto Sironi and Gianni Spreafico, many times Italian TC.
Day 2, [Monday] gave the pilots their own choices; a 2 hour AAT. They all started around 1 PM , one pilot  45 minutes later. Peter who flies a lot in Italy knows the area very well and he flew 216.7 km.  in time 2.10. As daily winner he ” got” 670 points.
Day 3, showed a 1.30 AAT, the weather is pretty poor at the moment at most places in Europe.
But they flew in Varese, just for a few points but still,…..6 from 11 finished and the daily winner was Alberto [Sirone] ; 136 km. in time 1.32,35 for 250 points.
3 Days , 3 different daily winners.

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More good flights over the last couple of days. Last Sunday a 737 km. [600 FAI triangle]  in Holland from Midden Zeeland in an ASH 31/21m. by Nico Koster. Another top day in Holland the so maniest.
But now we suffer from the LOW as well and it looks today also,but  then it should get better according to the meteo on the morning news.
Also the Finnish mates had a great Sunday with flights up to 650 by Markku Kuusisto.
Yesterday Lesce Bled had a good day;720 km. in a DG 300.

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And to finish a nice picture from the SHARK

 HpH Sailplanes UK
With text;
“Shark Jet Sleeping…. Great shot by Jacub Nanowski”

An early departure to Amsterdam, so CU hopefully on Sunday with the latest on all those comps,
Cheers Ritz