The Norwegian Nationals [ June 13-June 20] unfortunately missed out on the good soaring weather.
They flew in an open class with gliders between LS 6 [handicap 101.5] ASW 19 [94] and ASH 31 MI/18m.[106.5] and Nimbus 4DM [107.5]
16 Pilots , one female Rebecca Hansen.

Task 1 ;258 km…..won by LS 6 pilot Per Morten Lovsland with 87 km./h..Arne was 3d and 10 from 16 finished.
Task 3; after day 2 was cancelled now 350 k for the pilots. With 101 km./h the LS 6 won again. 12 From 16 finished on what Arne called “ a day with good conditions except for one area, where there was no lift to be found and I had to use the engine to get back. I wasn’t the only one to get in trouble there, but still annoying.”

Task 5 ….as day 4 had “no task”,…. showed a 1.45 AAT. Henning [Lassen] was the winner with 177 km. in time 1.54. Per Morten in the LS 6 was runner up with 188 km. but he needed 2 hours and 10 minutes.
10 from 16 were “in”.
There was task 6 , but the set task of 146 km. was flown but turned out invalid with as best distance 92 km. by Per Morten..
With the last small task 5, they had a total of 3 days and a champion.
1. Per Morten Lovsland in LS 6 with 2.393 points.
2. Marin Bjornebekk with Rebecca in the Duo Discus T with 2.106 p.
3 Henning Lassen in Ventus 2CM/18m. with 2.091 p.
With the win of the last day Henning moved up from 7 to 3 and passed Erlend Sorbye in the Nimbus 4DM with ONE point.
Arne Martin was 8th.

Arne Martin about the last days;
“Day 3 of Norwegian Championship had dry and difficult conditions. I was doing ok, until just before the last turnpoint, where I got very low, and lost quite a bit of time climbing back up again.
Day 4 was yesterday, and was an even more difficult day, where no one was able to complete the task.And with rain today, that is the end of the championship this year. My outlanding on day 2 cost me dearly, and I ended up in 8th place, which is my worst result ever in the Norwegian championship. But I was not helped by my glider ending up in a lake a month ago, and the most important thing is that it is flying again!Huge congratulations to Per Morten Løvsland for masterful flying, and another well deserved win of the Norwegian championship!

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The Spanish Nationals had 6 out of 7 days and were flown between June 13 and 19 from Garray.
They had 3 practice days for the 15 club pilots [plus 5 HC pilots] and for the 12 open class pilots including 1 HC pilot.
Difficult/ miserable weather here as well, definitely not the real Spanish weather ; on several days nobody finished.
Club started with task 1 ;167 km. flown by 2 pilots one in a St. Cirrus and in a Mini Nimbus.
Task 2 showed 160 km. on the task sheet flown by 12 pilots and 4 HC pilots.
Task 3 was a small AAT; 1.30.The St Cirrus from Jorge Arias Riera was the best again;151 km. in time 1.31.
Task 4; 1.30 AAT won by an ASK 21.
Task 5; cancelled.
Task 6; 1.30 AAT. ONE finisher Jorge!!! For 27 points!!!!|
Task 7 ; last day….1.30 AAT…flown and finished by 4.

Spanish Club Class Champion;
1. Jorge Arias Riera in St Cirrus with 1.250 points, that says ALL about the weather, after 6 out of 7 days.
2. Toquero & de Albert in ASK 21 with 1.151 p. Was 2 remains 2.
3. Sergi Puyol in MiniNimbus with 1.083 p. was 3 stayed there.

Open class sum up;
Task 1; set task of 324 km. and straight away 2 winners one in an LS 6 and one in a Ventus1.
8 From 13 were in.
Task 2; 310 km. but not flown by one of the pilots, best result 275 km in an HC Nimbus 4DM
Task 3; 1.30 AAT , best result 195 km. in time 1.35 in an ASW 27.
Task 4; 2 hour AAT and the winner was again Francisco Ortego in the ASW 27. He flew 194 km in time 2.02.
Task 5; cancelled.
Task 6 ; 2 hour AAT nobody in and 19 points for the winner.
Task 7; 2 hour AAT winner the ASH 25/26m. 172 km in time 2.15 for 167 points.

Spanish Open Class champion;
1. Rodriguez & Lanzieri in ASH 25 with 1.736 points.
2. Miguel Jurado Navas in Ventus with 1.558 p.
3. Carlos Gonzalez de Herrero in ASW 27 with 1.461 p.

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The postponed qualifying FAI SGP is hosted this week by the the Aeroclub Adele Orsi (acao.it) and flown from Varese with 15 pilots from 6 different countries, between June 20 and 26.
They fly in 18 m. class.
Official practice day on Saturday June 19, with some small cu’s appearing along the task in a highly covered sky.
In the end the first 2 pilots will be qualified for the finals at St. Auban France in September 2021.
One of the pilots is young Kevin Faur from France, who did so well in the French Nationals. This is his very first visit to Italy and his very first SGP. Good luck.

RACE 1; First flying day on Sunday with 125 km. …regatta start at 14.55 …..won by UK pilot Mike Young in the Ventus 3, [9 points] followed by Katrin [Senne 8] and Klaus [Kalmbach 6] both in JS 3 and both from Germany.
The weather was tricky and as rain appeared during the last 15 km. some outlanded and a few finished too low.
“Take Offs have started after 1 hour delay due to weather conditions. The sky is highly covered but anyway there are some cu‘s.”

Race 2; was more one out of “the gliding-book”.
157 km. was set with good weather circumstances and French pilot Gilles Navas won the 10 points in his ASG 29. Followed by Giorgio Galetto in his Ventus 3 FES [8 p.] and Mario Kiessling from Germany for 7 points.
The official news from day 2;
“Today’s race was a perfect Sailplane Grand Prix performance! The task was set to a limited distance, as the area providing the best thermal conditions didn’t extend to the East, further than the city of Lecco. Gilles, the winner, achieved a remarkable speed of 125 km/h. He covered the task in just 1hour 15 minutes, during which time he barely had the opportunity to watch the beautiful scenery, as any second lost to other than looking for the best and more energetic route would probably has cost him the first place for today. All the competitors were able to complete the task, mostly at speeds above 120 km/h. Real sailplane racing!”

Race 3; 195 km.
official news;
“Spot-on perfect forecasts, a tailored task and excellent pilots, that’s the recipe for a fantastic race and a lot of fun!.Most of the finishers flew faster than 118 km/h, rounding all 3 turnpoints in little more than 90 minutes. Today, 5 minutes late at finish meant Zero Points. The GP can be cruel, but the smiles on the faces of the early finishers was heartwarming..After 3 races, Gilles Navas is leading by just 4 points over twice WWGC Champion Katrin Senne, and 5 over Didier Hauss. We expect ever improving weather in the next days.“

More next week, but you can follow it on http://www.sgp.aero/italy2020.aspx

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News from Schempp-Hirth;
“We are very proud to announce that the 15m tips on Ventus-3T are now certified by EASA  These short wings rocks so fast!!! Thank all pilots who supported this development and the team here for this crazy design!!! We wish all users many more hours of fun with these “small ears” like we say in german .”

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And to finish , thanks to my brother in law Adrian, a link to a video with “weird” weather over Oklahoma. I found it scary and have no idea why somebody would fly there, but….we are all different.
www.youtube.com
Title; insane close encounter & intercept
link; https://youtu.be/1SnkxQSNj8

Talking about weird weather, we had a downburst in the middle of the Netherlands creating HUGE damage, hundreds of trees flat in one direction and beautiful houses collapsed, 11 of them are now inhabitable.
Belgium had the same problem.

CU next week…the longest day in 2021 here is already “history” ……but winter is still far away.
Next week also the FRENCH nationals for 18m and open from Buno Bonnevaux [June 20-26]
Cheers Ritz