Back from a lovely week with my grand-kids. We had reasonable weather but I could see that at least on 2 days , glider-pilots must have had great fun. [I noticed up to 700 km!!!] Fabulous skies over our house in the East of Holland. I showed my grand-kids how good the skies were for gliding and whilst looking up a glider past by at great height. What about that!?

  

Climbing and under water scooters, all great fun!!

Got the promised picture from Max , who attended with about 300 people the memorial of Rick.THANKS Max.

As shared by Max , a friend of the Walters family.

———–

Ocseny
the 18th
EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP.

Of course you followed the first week, so I will start with this week and the overall scores from day 9 when they start with the 7th task in each class.
In 18 m. Andy, Roman and Sebastian , 3 top pilots on the 3 top-spots and a total 9 pilots in the 4000 points-range.
In 20 m. my longtime good friends from Japan Mac and Akemi, both flying with us years and years ago and already practicing THEN competition- flying during the by Mac with us organized RECARO CUP, are on top!!!!!
Yes HC as they are not European, but a top -job.They fly the ASG 32 MI,followed by Jakub and Christoph in the same glider and Wolfgang and Andreas in an ARCUS M.a total of 5 pilots in the 4000 points range at this stage.
In open class 2 Polish pilots top the ranking, Lucasz and Adam and on spot 3 a great and pleasant surprise Jeroen from Holland.  9 Pilots were at this stage in the 4000 point-range.

Jeroen in black and white.|
Courtesy Martin Smit.

July 21 2015, a hot day with 31 dgr. at 8AM. BUT,…it seems finally a normal day with normal visibility. A heat-wave is not always pleasant during comps, often it is too stable. Finally a day with an early start at 12.
Trigger temp lower than the day before;at 31 degrees gives 1500 m. Max temp of 35 gives 2500 meters.

First launch at 12.
As shared by the organizers.

18 m. class ;
441.18 km. to fly. It turned out a nice FAST day [136 km./h.] with 2 German pilots winning the day ;Sebastian [Huhmann] 1000 points and Claus Triebel 999.
Andy was on spot 3. ” Fantastic day out. This is what we came for including one 8 knot climb over the scrubby forest to the East.”
Sebastian [Kawa ] was 4th. “Lowest”  score in this class 694, so a good day!

Sebastian with his daily prize.
As shared by the German team.

20 m. class;
401.83 km. to fly.
1000 points for the Czech team, Petr and Ludek and for my Finnish friends Harry and Visa-Matti.Good on them!!!! Speed 117 km./h. On spot 3, Erazem [ yes from NAVITER /Soaringspot] with his mate Sebastian [Ramsak] from Slovenia.With a 7th day-spot Mac and Akemi keep their position overall.

OPEN class ;
435.81 km. to fly.
WOW, what speed for Tassilo during a competition;145.22 km./h. A great day for the German team.But also for the French with Sylvain and Killian on spot 2 and 3 and the UK team Pete and Iain on 4 and 5 and ” our ”  Jeroen , who won day 2, and who had a “just-in-day”  the day before yesterday, on spot 6 !!!

July 22 2015,   today, with impressive tasks again; 558.51  for 18 m.,504 for the 2-seaters and 509 for the open class.Looking at the web cams it is still VERY blue over there.
First start is supposed to be a 11.30.

2 More exciting days to come, looking forward to them. When possible I “see” you every day with the latest on this 18th EGC.

Some EGC impressions shared by the Dutch Team, who are , by the way ,doing pretty well. Jeroen on spot 3 in open and Francois on 11, Harry and Steven on spot 12 in the 2-seater-class.

  

In the middle;Francois and Pete pondering about……….and father Harry and son Steven ready to go.

———–

RENNES in FRANCE 
Club Class Nationals

Not the very best weather in France for soaring . Day 1 had a task of 150 km and the daily winner , who was one of the 4 finishers ,got 79 points.
Then,…3 scrubbed days.
Today they fly again;254 km is the task for the 20 pilots [one Belgian junior-pilot among them]
They continue till the 25th.Let’s hope for great weather.

———-

What happened when I was gone in our world looking at the OLC.On the 20thiest Spain was  the place to be for long-distance-flights.
From Fuentemilanos Guy Bechtold flew,  1.3 01 km. [1000 FAI triangle!!] One of my Belgian friends Ken flew a 1000 as well;” Started with an assigned 750 but changed to a free 1000. Difficult to circumnavigate the thunderstorms during the last 300km. Fun flight with Kris Van Dam. First 1000K for him .”
From another field Cuenca Sotos,another friend  , this time German , Hans flew his so maniest 1000.
But also Luesse had a 1000 that day and several other great flights.
Yesterday Guy a well known kilometer -eater, who loves CC- flying flew another 1.303 km.in his Quintus. A DG 400 /17 m.-pilot from Germany flew a 1000 as well.

  

Ken and Chris over the Fuente area and with the vultures over the vulture-valley.
Courtesy Ken.

———–

The WWGC in ARNBORG in Denmark is about to begin.[August 1-15]  Not the best weather at this stage.I will keep you informed.
And to finish ………news from the 13.5 m. WORLDS, about to begin as well .

Yesterday Sebastian wrote :
—” This is incredible. One week ago Peszke sent us pictures from production of the GP 14 . It was still early phase. Wings were formed, but fuselage was still constructed. I had some thoughts, that the glider may not be ready for the beginning of WGC in Lithuania. But in the factory They have been working heavily, and today it seems, we will have not one, but TWO GP 14 Velo for this competition !!! Even more, they will have two different fuselages: slim and wide. Amazing.
Good job Peszke Team!” —

  

As shared by Sebastian on FB.

AND

The 13.5m Worlds are about to start in Pociunai, on the 1st of August.
The American SparrowHawk R is the first to arrive at the airfield, with
its Australian pilot.

The 13.5m LAK is being prepared for a Lithuanian pilot. The first test
flight is expected to occur on Friday this week. See photo of the new
wings in the paint booth. The winglets are fixed on this prototype but
they are expected to be removable for the production version.

Rumour has it that the first GP14 Velo from Poland will have its first
test flight on the 29th of July, only a few days before the start of
competition. This is expected to be Sebastian Kawa’s glider.

  – Morgan Sandercock

As you know Morgan is heavily involved in the PERLAN PROJECT and is an Aussie glider pilot.