Post 1.422 on Wednesday May 24 2023.

Last Sunday I published an extra blog…… otherwise they really get TOO long.
{When you scroll down you find the last news on the final days of the HAHNWEIDE.}
That day only 2 classes flew in the Dutch Nationals, due to forecasted heavy local thunderstorms with huge rain, lightning and thunder, hail and gusting wind. Code yellow! A too short window to launch all classes.

Dutch Nationals at TERLET
16 May 2023 – 27 May 2023

May 21 : task 4 on day 4.
Club class; 129.06 km…..In the end it turned out to be a VALID day in this class with a winner , Wiek Schoenmakers, in his LS 3; 56.13 km./h!!!!!
4 from 9 finished. Robin was out, but Jeroen was in and overall on spot 1 now. Robin dropped to 5.
Combi class; 143.13 km.…2 from 14 finished. Good on them, but not enough to make it a valid day. Daily toppers/finishers with a speed from 49 and 48 km./h ; The Arcus T with Rien Bastiaanse and Marco Vermeer and the Duo Discus from Annemiek Koers and Sikko Vermeer [no family from Marco]
In the end there were storms , very locally, but we were lucky here…nothing happened.
Open/18m; NO TASK.

May 22; no flying. Still some thunderstorms “hanging around”!

May 23; Task 6 on competition day 5/4. Still not a real flash day, but for sure better in the afternoon.
Club; 182.59 km....with 93 km./h Jeroen in his LS3WL was the best for the day. All 9 started and 1 was out after 171 km. A pity.
combi; 199.26 km…96.86 km is pretty slow for that beautiful ARCUS, but they got the best out of the task and weather…..They?? Yes Erik and Joost. They won on every VALID day.
open/18m;258.42 km....Jelmer Vis won the day; 113.73 km./h in his Ventus 3T. Jelmer is a former junior, STILL VERY YOUNG and talented. He had a rather late start at 14.50
The for a longer time successful pilots in comps, Jeroen and Hadriaan ,were on 2 and 3 [112.30 and 109.09 km./h]
“Bugger day “for Sjoerd, after 189 km. he was out, dropping from 2 to 10 overall….Indeed “bugger”!!!
21 from 22 finished.

May 24; Task 7 on competition day 6/7 with a busy morning; Briefing at 10.15, box at 11.30 and first launches at 12.
Club; 182.16 km...
Combi; 199.03 km...
open/18 m; 232.30 km.….

More when I am back from Terlet.

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Danish Nationals 2023 at ARNBORG.
18 May 2023 – 28 May 2023

They started already last Thursday and in 5 classes they had straight away 4 tasks !!!! In wet and rainy Europe …pretty good. But a bit more N the weather is better.
A few well known pilots in the several classes.

Club class; 14 participants and the 4 tasks were between 182 km and 283 km and former club-WGC-champion in Poland [2018 Ostrow] Rasmus Orskov won 3 of them in his ASW 20F. Jan Walther Andersen won day 1 and was 2x runner up.
Standard class; with 15 pilots and on the first 4 days tasks between 176 and 372 km .
Thorsten Mauritsen won task 1 and 4 but Lasse Edslev is overall after 4 days 39 points above him.
15 m class; with 10 pilots among them Henrik Breidahl [JS 3] had 4 tasks between 176 km and 372 like standard class. Henrik won task 1 was runner up on task 2 ,1 day later number 3 and on day 4 7th.After 4 days he is 2d behind Poul Kim Larsen who won task 3 and 4.
18m class; with 16 participants among them Arne Boye Moeller, Stig Oye and Peter Eriksen..Their 4 tasks were a bit bigger; between 174.80 and 379.44 km. Arne won 3 days in a row but on task 4 he was 10th, BUT the last from 16 to finish. He still leads with 101 points after those 4 tasks.
2-seater class; 9 teams fly and their tasks were about the same as 18m. Their last day had only 2 finishers a Duo Discus and an ARCUS T . Must have been a difficult day for for all classes.

On May 22 last Monday, they had no task.
Same, same on May 23.
BUT,….

On May 24, today, they fly on a crisp cool morning with “hope”
“The last two days’ battle between fronts has moved a good distance to the east – so rumor has it that a little flying can be done today – maybe a little more.” the organizers.
Club; 2.30 AAT.….
Standard; 2.30 AAT.…
15 m; 2.30 AAT...
18m; 3 hour AAT….
2 seaters; 3 hour AAT….
More when I am back from Terlet.

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—–Got a news Flash from Jonker Sailplanes about the great results from their gliders during the Hahnweide Competition.
“The 55th international Hahnweide competition is just done and dusted. Dusted is maybe not the correct word to use as there was a lot of moisture funneled in by low-pressure systems from Italy dominating the European weather conditions.
The task setters did an amazing job with the given weather situation and squeezed out the maximum possible tasks and really challenged the pilots every day. 
This was the first big competition where the JS3 RES participated and did so with great success. Despite the very, very weak conditions experienced throughout every task it seemed that Peter Millenaar (Netherland) and his JS3 RES had no problems dealing with the problems at hand. Peter flew most of the days with 2 batteries installed (50 kg of batteries on board) but also selected to fly in the sustainer configuration (only 1 battery 25 kg), when the forecast predicted very poor climb rates.
Winning 3 of the 4 days at the end Peter secured the gold medal in front of Jürg Haas (CH) and Andrew Davis (GB). The first 6 places in 18-meter class were taken by five JS3 and one JS1 glider. “

—–Interesting tows are always SUPER to see. Like this one. I know you can “hang” more gliders behind a tug but in the past in our SPORTAVIA time with Eddie and Don, “we towed” 3 Blaniks behind the Scout. Somewhere I must have pictures too, but where????

Talking about “tows”!!! What about this one, the ETA with Keith and Uli at the Hahnweide on the 2d and for them last flying day.

Cu soon again ,not sure when ,as I will travel to Amsterdam on Friday and spend Saturday at Terlet . Sunday back home!
Cheers Ritz.

Post 1.421 on Sunday May 21 2023.

High season for comps, so I will write and publish a few more posts to make them not too long and for that reason “boring”.

55TH INTERNATIONAL HAHNWEIDE COMPETITION
13 May 2023 – 20 May 2023

I told you already that the weather was improving and yes it did. The F1 in Italy was cancelled due to heavy rain , land slides and flooding ,with already 14 casualties, TOO SAD for words.
This part of Europe was better and our soaring mates had a good day.
Good is maybe a bit over done, but they FLEW and in all 5 classes!!!!
Big tasks but not flown by all. Here is the story about Wednesday May 17:
Task 2 on competition day 5.
Standard class; Task 2 4.30 AAT..…As more and more happens during comps, team mates fly together for a better result…together we are strong… NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. But,…when something goes wrong, it can go wrong for all.
The UK pilots and the French pilots in this class fly as teams. Result ;The UK pilots were on spot 1-2 and 5 and the French 3-4 and 6.
Tom [Arscott] had another daily win , on task 1 for 86 points, now the full 1000. He flew in his LS 8 393.24 km. in time 5.02; speed 77.97 km./h. that meant “fighting”.
From 20 ,10 finished the other 10 were “out”.
Adam was one of them ,[18th] his story is on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures. He started well “Was having a cracking day too, 120kph to here.”, but had to land out .
15 m class; Task 2 4.30 AAT….Same procedure as in St Class. This time Tim [Scott] won his 2d day and team mate Derren [Francis] was on 3. To the 96 points from task1, now 1000 were added for Tim. He flew, to get them, a distance of 377 km with a speed of 82 km./h.
Christophe [Abadie } in JS 3, was runner up. From 4 to 7 it was all red white and blue; Kevin Faur in JS 3, Max Seiss in Ventus 2A, Julien Duboc in Ventus 2 and Guillaume Ottolini [he is from Angers where we spend many summers to fly the Huit Jours d’ Angers]
16 Started 10 were “in”.
18m class; Task 2…. 4.30 AAT...Jurg Haas from Switzerland who flew in the past in Tocumwal in the glider from “Swiss Chris” ,was the daily winner with 437 km. Speed 91 km./h. He started in his JS 3 relatively late at 13.32. Many flew over 5 hours.
From 30 only 13 were “in”.
open class; Task 1 , 4 hour, later reduced to 3.5 hour AAT….due to  delays in the start procedures .
Several EB’s and ETA’s in this class, so great performing gliders. Still from 12, 6 were “out”.
386 km for Dutch pilot Francois Jeremiasse in time 349, speed 101 km./h. From ALL classes he was the ONLY ONE over 100 km./h.
Keith Gately from Down Under flew in the ETA not with Uli this day, but with Joachim Schwenk :“I will discover if he laughs the same as Uli Schwenk today.” They were 5th. Enjoyed however some great ridge soaring to climb up to final glide .[about 20 km. to the finish]
Open only could grid after the 20m was, launched as they had to test how soft the runway really was.
Dosi class; Task 1…..4 hour AAT…..UK Pilot Steve Jones in the ARCUS M, flew 392 km in time 4.16; speed 91.74 km./h. Well known Austrian pilot Andreas Lutz was runner up .
6 from 12 finished; 5 from them ARCUS M or T and on 6 a DUO DISCUS XLT.

Resume from Tilo Holighaus in WeGlide:
“Very exciting first day of the Hahnweide competition.
A lot of humidity, many showers but also a lot of fun 🙂
After the take-off deep dark clouds, but they even lined up. Then again longer shaded glide paths until a really great cloud sausage built up past the Klippeneck, which partly rose with more than 3 m/s and one could cruise along underneath it. Towards the south, the base dropped sharply, but the climb was still great.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t get to the second turning sector directly – it simply rained down. But even with turbo help, it was quite a challenge to get home fully. Either showers or airspace got in the way…”

MAY 18; Competition day 6 task 3 for standard ,15 and 18 m and task 2 for open and dosi’s;
“For today, meteorologist Jupp predicts partly good thermal conditions, however, humid air will enter our competition area from the southeast in the afternoon. This is expected to lead to spreading and a significant increase in humidity, which may affect the thermals. Base altitudes of up to 2000m above sea level are expected.”
First launches at 11.30. 18 M is first at the grid. All classes have a racing task!
By the way ,in Germany it was FATHERSDAY! and they were not forgotten.
Standard class; Task 3 ;300 km…..3 LS 8 gliders in the top 3 one from Germany, France and the UK.
Daily winner German pilot Felix Herold; speed 107.80 km./h. Tom had 106.34 and young French pilot Philippe Lata 106.23km./h.
Adam was 14th but finished!!“I saw an opportunity to start early in the weaker conditions with a strong tailwind, then when the day cooked up, I’d be flying home in the stronger part of the day. Easy…I had a fabulous first leg, 153kph I think was the best I saw, epic streeting. I climbed as high as I could in the downwind turn, then pushed into wind. It was at this point that the weather transitioned from 4kts & easy, to terrible & broken. The gaggle caught me here..”
Full story , so you hear straight away from a participating pilot; on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
19 Started and 4 were out.

15m class; Task 3 ;317.20 km….Another sole-flying-pilot Lars from the Netherlands won the day. Good on him. A very enthusiastic, young, eager pilot who will fly his first WGC in Narromine Down Under, end of this year. Speed 111 km./h which was quite a bit faster than 2 French top pilots, flying already WGC’s for a longer time ; Maximillian Seiss and Christophe Abadie;101 .56 km./h
16 started and 3 were out, among them UK topper, Philip Jones.
The UK and French pilots started at 12.53, Lars a bit earlier at 12.49.
Tim Scott proudly on the overall-top-1-spot lost 249 points by being 12th. A pity for him!
I decided to write to Lars to check what he did different to the others:
Here is his story;
“I expected a lot of spread-out, around 4 PM , so I decided to go early.
I hoped that the gaggle would “play their waiting-game” , so I would have a good lead and time enough before they could get me.
My first leg was SUPER, 154 km./h. and on the 2d and 3d leg, I found great lift whilst the gaggle was “fighting” for a meter. THEN I WAS GONE!!!!
2 Days ago I had to start my engine , I was too busy with the action from other pilots than with my own decisions. I was sick and tired of that. That’s why I wanted to do it all by myself to get my self-esteem back.
I wanted to know that I could still DO IT!!!And I could!!!!” INDEED HE COULD!!!!
Thanks Lars!!!
18 m class; Task 3;344.08 km….A great day for the Dutch pilots and for the JS3 pilots; 5x a JS 3 in the top 5. Best for the day Peter Millenaar with his 2d win!
30 started and 9 were “out”. One of them Tilo who got a father-day-rose before start.
Open class; Task 2; 386.32 km….I told you, A GOOD DAY FOR THE DUTCH PILOTS; Francois Jeremiasse, won the day in his EB 29R;113 km./h Dutch daily winner number 3. Real Dutch weather!!!And,…sorry for my Dutch enthusiasm.
3 Daily winners…… GOOD!!!!!!
13 Pilots started for their Task 2 but only 4 finished, among them Pierre de Broqueville on 4.
Francois was quite a bit faster than Marcus Frank and his German mate Max Kolmarr; 97 and 94 km./h.
Dosi’s; task 2 ;317.13 km…..4 From 12 finished. All Arcus types [M or T] and 2 from Germany 1 from Austria [I noticed that Andreas flies together with former WGC champion Wolfgang Janowitsch] and 1 from the UK; Matthew Cook. Best speed 99.96 km./h meaning another very challenging day!

MAY 19; Early morning news;
“Due to the humid air masses moving in from the south-east and the high degree of overcast, meteorologist Jupp sees very little chance of a competition day today. As the 2-seater and Open classes have only 2 valid scoring days so far, they remain on hold. The other 3 classes have been neutralised for today.
The 2-seater and Open Class will receive another briefing at 12 noon.
Adam started early with clening up ;”Glider X, freshly polished for my syndicate members, tidying up small things. Standard, 15m & 18m classes cancelled for the day, 20m & Open is on standby for an afternoon flight“
Open and dosi’s were in the end cancelled as well.
BUT “For tomorrow, the chances are good that there will be a nice last competition day.”

May 20; LAST DAY!!!!

To be honest, it does n’t look TOO great at this picture, to launch a big bunch of gliders. But they try hard. First on the grid is 15 m. then standard and 18m, dosi’s and open; last but not least.
First launches at 12, but……”We continue to struggle with humid air mass from the south, which will slowly move into our competition area. The west is forecast to have a lower cloud base and worse thermal conditions than the east. However, the various temps in the east for the afternoon show an increasing unstable air mass that may lead to isolated showers and thunderstorms.” from the organizers.

Standard class;
task 4 is 282.12 km….It turned out to be a good day for 6 of the 20 pilots as they finished.UK pilot Howard Jones was the -last-days-best; 91.53 km./h. Another challenging day, BUT A DAY!!!! 6 Did not start at all.
Adam was launched but did not start, his story is on  Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
A great competition for the Lasham guy’s as they were 1-2 and 3 overall.
Overall scores after 4 tasks in standard class;
1.  Paul Fritche [UK] in LS 8 with 2.603 points.
2. Howard Jones [UK] in Discus 2A with 2.593 p.
3. Tom Arscott [UK] in LS 8 with 2.579 p.

15 m.class;
task 4 is 306.56 km.…15 started and only 6 were in. The last one to finish was former JWGC pilot Christoph Nacke who won in Husbos. I saw then how happy he was after he won his title.
He was on 6 and Lars on 7 but out. Also out and on 8 Christophe Abadie, who lost his first overall spot to Max Seiss ,who was one of the finishers with young Kevin Faur..
Julien Duboc was the last daily winner and another tough race as the speed was 73.72 km./h.
Overall scores in 15 m class after 4 tasks;
1. Maximilian Seis from France in Ventus 2 with 2.358 points.
2. Derren Francis from the UK in Ventus 3T/15m with 2.346 p.
3. Kevin Faur from France in JS3/15m with 2.326 p.
4. Julien Duboc from France in Ventus 2/15 m only 2 points less than Kevin

18m class;
task 4 is 331.59 km....13 started and only 8 finished. Best for the day; PETER [Millenaar] in his JS3;95.02 km./h. Peter won 3 days!!!!!TOP!!!!
Runner up Yves Gerster from Switzerland had; 92.03 km./h .
Other “toppers” in this group of finishers were, Andy Davis, Tilo, Thomas Gostner and Stefano Ghiorzo.
The overall scores were thoroughly shuffled.
Overall scores in 18 m class after 4 tasks;
1. Peter Millenaar from The Netherlands in JS3/18m with 2.536 points. He moved up from spot 8!!
2.  Jürg Haas from Switzerland in JS 3/18 m with 2.446 p. Moved from 1 to 2.
3. Andrew Davis from the UK in JS 1C/18m. with 2.388 p.

open class;
task 3 is 336.31 km..…Only 10 started and 8 finished. Sylvain Gerbaud in the EB 28 was the daily best; speed 100 km./h!!!! 2 German pilots Max Kolmarr [Nimbus 4T] and “good old” Uli Knauss [ EB28] followed.
Francois was 4th.
Overall scores on open class after 3 tasks;
1. Francois Jeremiasse from The Netherlands in EB 29R with 2,807 points.
2. Max Kollmar from Germany in Nimbus 4T with 2,626 p.
3. Pierre De broqueville from Belgium in EB 29DR with 2,398 p.

dosi’s / 2-seaters;
task 3 is 285.73 km….with 100 km./h Norbert Sommer won the day in his ARCUS M.
Andy and Wolfgang were 10 k slower on spot 8…would/could they stay on spot 1?????
11 Teams started and 9 finished.
Overall scores after 3 tasks in the 2-seater class;
1. Andreas Lutz from Austria in Arcus M with 2,485 points.
2. Eva Senne from Germany in Arcus T with 2,381 p. She and Ben Fuglsang-Pedersen moved from 3 to 1.
2. Steffen Clement from Germany in Arcus T with 2,359 p. His team moved from 2 to 3.

The prizegiving was on Saturday evening at 8.30.
A pity from the weather but “it is what it is”.
ALWAYS A GREAT COMPETITION not only to participate, but also to follow.
A picture from ALL PARTICIPANTS organizers, pilots and crew ;

See you next year! Your webmaster Kathrin [and photographer!]

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DUTCH SOARING NATIONALS 2023
16 May 2023 – 27 May 2023

After a less and a pretty good practice day [ 400 km in open class ], the comps started on Thursday May 18 ,with good tasks in all 3 classes; Club with 9 pilots, combi class with 14 and open/18 m. with 22 participants. So the pilots had to get straight away in the correct competition rhythm.
task 1 on May 18.
Club; 261 km…Thies Bruins in ASW 20 won , not for the first time in the Dutch Nationals, the first day; 82 km./h. 9 Started and 6 were in.
Combi class; 303.59 km...former runner up at the Borlange WGC in Sweden Erik Borgmann flew together with his long time mate Joost Wolff in the ARCUS T; 80.49 km./h. Runner up Tom Conings from Belgium flew around in his LS8 with 70.43 km./h.
14 Started 9 were “in” also in The Netherlands challenging weather, whilst the skies here looked fabulous!
Open class ;355.26 km…3 Dutch toppers in the top 3. WGC pilots Jeroen Verkuijl and Hadriaan van Nes and former JWGC champion Sjoerd van Empelen.
21 Started only 2 were “out”.

Task 2 on May 19;
Club; 308.45 km…..Former JWGC pilot and runner up in Narromine behind Matthew Scutter, Robin Smit , won the day but only just; 107.45 km./h.
Jeroen van Dijk in his LS3 ;107. 48 km./h.
All 9 started and finished.
Combi class; 346.57km…..All 14 started AND finished!!!! GOOD!!! Erik and Joost had their 2 successive win. Tom from Belgium his 2 successive runner up spot.
open/18m; 369.32 km….good day for Max Leenders who moved from open to 18m[JS-MD 3J] ;speed 128.87 km./h. Just a tad faster than Sjoerd who had 128.49. Steven Huiskes had 128. 33 and Hadriaan 128. 16, very close!
21 started and finished “together at home together”.

Task 3 on May 20;already 3 out of 3 days!!!
Club; 238.22 km….they swapped places Robin and Jeroen. Speed Jeroen; 106.95 km./h and Robin 99.50 km./h!
All 9 started and finished!
Combi; 276.73 km….there is no measure on Erik and Joost. 3d time daily winner.
14 started and finished!
open/18m; 313.51 km....22 started and finished; LIKE….
Hadriaan won the day with 114.55 km./h . In the daily top 5, younger as Jelmer Vis and Sjoerd van Empelen mix very good with a bit older ,very experienced pilots as Hadriaan, Sjaak[Selen] and Steven[Raimond].

Task 4 on May 21, day 4 and task 4 BUT with code yellow in the East [Terlet] and South East [me] for heavy local thunderstorms with gusting wind and HAIL forecasted in the early evening.25 to 27 dgr. C.
Club; 129.06 km....
Combi; 143.13 km..…
open/18m; due to the short good-weather-window. NO TASK.
More on Wednesday!

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The 48th Polish Open class championship combined with the Leszno Cup, [11 May 2023 – 21 May 2023] struggled after a great start also with the weather. They could not fly for 3 days but on on
Thursday May 18 a 3.30 AAT was set; Task 4.
Won by Zdislaw Bednarczuk in a JS 3 /18m ; he flew 469 km with a good speed of 128.64 km./h. .
Karol Staryszak was runner up;449 km speed 127.91 km./h in ASG 29E/18m.
Task 5 was small but a task!!! 1.30 AAT.….BUT,…not flown.
No task yet for today so I guess it’s over in Leszno, with 4 days out of 10. If not I let you know on Wednesday.
Preliminary final score for the Leszno Cup; in 15 m. Maciej Adamski in LAK 19 with 2.011 points.
In standard B after 4 tasks out of 10; Kinga Tchorz in BRAWO with 3,276 points .
Preliminary final score for Open ;Karol Staryszak in ASG 29 E/18m with 3,630 points.

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The Rayskala CUP 2023 [ 13 May 2023 – 19 May 2023] was after 3 pretty good days also hit by less weather; result 3 non flying days. But on the penultimate day they got a 4th flying day [out of 7] a racing task from 298 km and for open 375.75 km.
8 pilots flew for the Cup and 4 finished. Daily winner Mikko Ylihärsilä in LS 7.[74.83 km./h]
In open Tourula Kankare in Ventus F was the best.[91.87 km./h]
And YES they had a final day yesterday; Task 5 [out of 8] 3 hour AAT’s for both classes to define the “winners”.
Sara Salonen in LS 4 won the day and Mikko Ylihärsilä the CUP in this class; 4,787 points
Open; Tourula Kankare was the daily winner in Ventus 3F as well as the champion in open class; 4,526 points.

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From Frauke Elber from the USA I got the sad news that her friend for over 50 years died on May 18.
“America’s highest decorated woman gliderpilot, Bertha Ryan, passed away this morning. She was two weeks shy of 96 years old. By a strange coincident we ended up in the same retirement community. Bertha was the first American who got the Majewska medal and the first woman who was awarded the Paul Schweizer Lifetime Service Award (beside  many other awards). She was a member of the Soaring Hall of Fame.“
Paul Remde added;
“Martha was an brilliant engineer. Some of her accomplishments related to lifting body aircraft are documented in the book, “Soaring Beyond the Clouds”. She was a very impressive person.”
https://www.cumulus-soaring.com/

More posts whenever I have time, as it is VERY BUSY in the air!!!!
Cheers Ritz.
P/S Hope to be next Saturday at Terlet to be part of the last day of the Dutch Nationals,

Post 1.420 on Mai 17-2023

48th POLISH OPEN CLASS NATIONALS/LESZNO CUP!

With 30 pilots battling for the CUP and 25 for the Open class, they started on Mai 11 with NO TASK, but the next day they flew;

racing TASK 1; 301 for 15 m and 306 km. for Standard class B and 423.96 for OPEN.
So pretty good tasks to start with.
15 m;
Task 1…..301 km.… 7 starters and 5 finishers [straight after start they were penalized] and the daily best flew in a LAK 19T ;Maciej Adamski. GOOD speed; 132.79 km. a whopping 25 km/h faster than the runner up.
TASK 2, had racing tasks as well now with 311.26 km. weird day, it looks they had to wait for passing showers or better lift. One pilot started at 2, another one at 3 PM. Anyhow,…nobody finished, but Pawel Frackowiak in Lak 17B fes. flew 277 km and 2 others reached 270 km, the rest “only” between 13 and 62 km. Maciej flew 62 km.
This time 6 starters as 1 did not fly.
Task 3 had a 2 hour AAT and 7 started and ONLY ONE PILOT , MACIEJ, finished after 255 km with a slow speed BUT he was BACK: 66 km./h.
NO flying on Mai 15 and 16, but it looks they will fly today.
After 3 tasks Maciej leads the overall scores with 1.118 points.

Standard B; On task 1, 306 km..…Artur Łończuk flew around in his BRAWO, with 116 km./h.
22 started and 18 were in. Lot’s got a warning.
Task 2 ;311.26 km….had only 7 finishers and less punished pilots. Over 311 km Grzegorz Głąb was the best ; 115 km./h.
That was 17 km./h faster than the runner up.
Task 3; with a 2.15 AAT had 3 finishers from 21 . Best performance by Grzegorz Głąb; 277 km in time 2.47. Speed 99.50 km./h. The runner up had 77.77 km./h.
NO TASK 4 or 5..
Niestety już drugi dzień z…….no task today
After 3 flying days Kinga Tchorz in the BRAWO leads overall; 2.276 points.

In open class also 3 flying days till now;
Task 1 with 424 km ….was won by Karol Staryszak in ASG 29 E; 132 km./h.
Task 2; 413 km …..was won by another well known pilot Lukasz Wojcik; 121 km./h. Karol was 5th now and from 25 ONLY 6 were in.
Task 3; 2.15 AAT.….Tomasz Dul won the day in a JS3;294 km. speed 110 km./h. Only 3 flew over 100 km./h, meaning a tough day and from 25, 9 pilots were out.
Task 4 on day 6; today they have a grid order so it looks they will fly after 2 non flying days.
After 3 flying days the best overall score is for Karol Staryszak with 2.640 points.

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HAHNWEIDE 2023……. 55th International Competition
Mai 13-20 2023

This well-known competition at the FAMOUS HAHNWEIDE is visited by pilots from 16 countries, so a REAL INTERNATIONAL event.
99 In total; 21 in Standard class, 17 in 15 m, 32 in 18 m, 13 in open and 16 teams in the double seater class “dosies” in German. All ARCUS M or T and 2 Duo Discus types XL and XLT.
With the worst rain in the last 10 year in spring, not only here but also in the us surrounding countries it is WET, real wet.
Reason for the organizers to cancel the practice days as they could not mow the wet grass. It will be pretty marshy!
“the intense rainfalls of the last weeks are causing us big problems. Currently we cannot mow the area where the trailers are to be parked. In the deep, wet ground of the runway we are currently unable to perform aerotows. Therefore we have to cancel the training days.“

NO flying the days after, as the field remained wet and they still had more rain.
On Sunday morning the news was;
“After it has rained until the morning hours, I would like to spare you the sad sight of the current weather situation.”
“Due to weather situation, today has been cancelled for all classes. Sport director Rainer Rauch sees no chance for a fair competition day.”
BUT, a few bit’s of sun gave vintage planes a chance to shine. The spectators could marvel two real old-timer rarities in the sky. 

The vintage planes “belong” to the museum AT the airfield.
For more  “Fliegenden Museeum Hahnweide“

On Saturday the weather in Spain was good. Dutch pilot Walter Frijters flew a 1000 in a QUINTUS M from Beas De Segura ;117 km./h. 1 Day later he flew 875 km.
So no bad weather everywhere in Europe. Though Italy is TOUGH, with flooding’s in the Nord.
Sweden was good as well; 829 in a Discus 2 by Jan-Ola Nordh.
On Sunday the weather here in comparison with Hahnweide ,was pretty good , with 500 km flights, so hopefully that weather would move to Kirchheim Teck.
It did!!!!!

Monday Mai 15 the pilots got there TASK 1.
2.30 AAT’s to start with. Launches started at 12 AM.
“2-seaters and Open class will have another rest day today.”
It turned out a task between rain showers.

All pilots were airborne just before 3.
BUT,…..NOBODY finished, yes some flew further than others .
In St. class ,20 started among them the top from the French ladies but ,…. UK pilot Tom [Arscott] was the best in his LS 8 with 138 km. for 86 points. Runner up his UK mate Howard [Jones], in a Discus 2A, they are used to this ” typical English weather.”[79 points]
Adam is flying in this class as well [spot 9] and a long update on this day is on;
Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
In 15 m. class ,15 started, and the best daily result was 152 km for another UK pilot Tim Scott [ASG 29] for 96 points. And a total of 86 points for Dutch pilot Lars [Groot] with 136 km.[ASG 29]
In 18 m. class 30 pilots started among them a few “toppers” but, there was another Dutch winner ….like the UK pilots “we”,…..our Dutch pilots….. are used to rain; Tim [Millenaar] in his JS 3 with 186 km. for 52 points. Quite a bit further than Tilo [Holighaus] ;155 km. for 43 points flying his own Ventus 3 T.

And after 1 day of soaring the organizers mentioned on Tuesday;
‘Due to a very slow moving cold front overhead, which is responsible for the humid and unstable air mass in our competition area, meteorologist Jupp does not see sufficient conditions for a flyable day.”
But they had a nice Schempp-Hirth- evening with the ANNUAL home-cooked Chili Concarne at 7. Tilo, his family and the Schempp-Hirth- employees gave a hand,[ “served”] , to make it a SUPER event.
A vegetarian Chili was available as well.

It’s Wednesday now, the better weather is definitely on it’s way, I hope for them in time.
No tasks yet, briefing is at 10.
“A wonderful sunny good morning to you!”
“Currently, three classes are lined up on runway 31. The two-seater class will be added after the briefing. Only the pilots of the open class can continue to have a quiet breakfast.“
Still 3 days to go!
More next week.
LATEST; 4.30 AAT’s for standard, 15 and 18 m [first to be launched] AND a 4 hour AAT for the 13 open class pilots [they have a task!!!!]and the 12 teams in a 2-seaters.
That looks more like it!!!!!!!!!!!

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RAYSKALA OPEN 2023
13 May 2023 – 19 May 2023

Luckily the Finish organization had better weather and could start straight away.
The mixed class started with task 1 a 335 km race won by Kim Toppari in an LS 7; speed 119 km./h. Another LS 7 [Mikko Ylihärsilä] was runner up; 118 km./h.
8 In this class and 7 finished!
Task 2 a 3 hour AAT….and both Kim and Mikko were on spot 1 for the day. They started together but Tim flew 286 km in 3.03 [94 km./h. ]and Mikko 297 km in time 3.11 [93 km./h]
Both were “rewarded” with 1000 points.
Task 3 another 3 hour AAT and 6 starters went on track. The best were ,,yes,..Kim [373 km speed 120 km./h] for 1000 points and Mikko [329 km , speed 104 km./h.

Open has 6 pilots.
task 1 on May 13 ;422.85 km.…showed HUGE speed by Hannu Halonen in the VENTUS 3T; 143 km./h!!!!All pilots were in and the “slowest” speed was 118.85 km./h for Marty Sucksdorff in the DUO DISCUS XL. His son Petri was in the AS 33es/18 m 3d.
Task 2; 3 hour AAT, this time Martti Koivula [JS1C] was the best with 388 km in time 3.05; speed 125 km./h. All 7 started and finished.
Task 3; 3 hour AAT…417.88 km for young Petri Sucksdorff in his AS 33es; 136.56 km./h!!!AND, 955 points. Day-winner Martti was winner again after a late start and a penalty for ground speed; 443 km speed 144.38 km./h.

NO FLYING YESTERDAY!
For today; nothing right now.

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Tomorrow the DUTCH NATIONALS start at TERLET with 45 participants in 3 classes; Mai 16-27. The weather seems to improve which is what they need. It looks they can fly straight away.
Will keep you informed.
I even try to go there.

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.419 on Wednesday Mai 10-2023

48th Polish Open Class Gliding Championship
11 May 2023 – 21 May 2023

From Leszno 31 pilots start tomorrow the open class championship /LesznoCup 2023.
Polish pilots belong to the top of the world, so it is always interesting to see how they fly.
A mix from “old toppers” with respect and new “guns” are ready to go for it.
Kawa…I did not see him on the list.
One UK pilot in AS 33es;Rory Ellis .
Will keep you informed.

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SLOVENIAN NATIONALS
6 May 2023 – 14 May 2023

From the , what I heard beautiful airfield of Murska Sobota ,[I have never been there, but I do believe that] the Slovenian Nationals have started on Mai 6 in 2 classes; Club [16 pilots] and Open.[17]

They could start straight away with task 1 ;a 2 hour AAT in both classes.
ALL pilots started AND finished,…so a pleasant day.
Task 2 was more difficult with in Club only 6 finishers and in open 9.
Then a NO_ TASK_DAY.
Yesterday 2 more 2 hour AAT’s.
In Club only 1 pilot flew over 100 km./h in a Mini LAK fes.
In open Boris Zorz clearly won in JS 3 with 117.39 km./h. over 245 km. Runner up also in JS 3 226 km with 110.21 km./h.
The only names I know from this competition are Boštjan Pristavec [EB 28] and Boris Žorž [JS3 jet] in open class and nobody from Club.
Today might be difficult; 2x a 1.30 AAT.

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The weather still is pretty unreliable, but at some places they have a great-soaring-day in between !!!!
Fayence in France is such a place. Baptiste Innocent flew a 1000 last Saturday in the ASH 31 and at the same day, Belgium pilot Dennis Huybreckx flew also from Fayence, in the Ventus 3T 935 km. [700 FAI triangle]
Also on Saturday a nearly 900 km in Finland [Selanpaa] in a Ventus B/16.6 m and 726 k. in LS 7 from Rayskala. They were busy at Rayskala with at least 14 flights on the OLC.
One day earlier on Friday , Sweden had top conditions in which Jan-Ola Nordh flew a 1000 from Lidkoping in a DISCUS 2.
At Lasham they had “Some brief spring sunshine yesterday on the golden fields [ full of yellow canola] With a brand new glider on the airfield too! The JS3 Rapture certainly is striking in its design.

On Mai 8 MINDEN was top again ; 2.066 km. by kilometer-eater Gordon Boettger in the ARCUS M.
His comment; “Fun flight with Brad. Conditions were not feeling like a 2000 km flight at all but just kept plugging away.” With great pictures from snowy mountains and Lake Tahoe, towns like Reno, full of light with their arrival in the dark…….to be seen at
https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=9374990#map=
Though they flew fast,…175 km./h, they needed 11 hours and 46 minutes.
The wave went up to 7289 m lift MSL [5530 AGL]
YESTERDAY, Moriarty was good for wave flights; Keith Essex had travelled from New Zealand to the USA again and flew already a 1000 from Minden and now from Moriarty. Both in ASG 32MI.
Daniel Mockler was the other pilot with a 1000 but in JS 1.

Looking at pictures from the Lake, straight always memories on our 1990 trip to Minden in Nevada pop up. The Pre Worlds were there, but ended due to circumstances, 1 year later in Uvalde Texas.
With the Albatross, an amphibian, we landed with a few glider -“addicts” at the Lake. UNFORGETTABLE. For nostalgic reasons once more the picture from the picnic at the wings of the Albatross “in” the Lake Tahoe.

NOT too much news after my Sunday blog so,…now I have time and space for a schedule of upcoming BIG FAI events in CAT 1;
June 6-17 2023; Postponed 4th FAI Pan-American Gliding Championship in Hutchinson In Kansas USA
July 1-15 2023 ; 12th WWGC in Garray in Spain
July 29-August 12; 21th FAI EGC in Leszno in Poland
July 30-August 12; 6th FAI JUNIOR EGC in Arnborg in Denmark
August 26-September 2; 11th FAI World Sailplane Grand Prix in Pavullo in Italy
December 2-16; 37th FAI WGC in Narromine Australia

And a few CAT 2 comps;
June 4-13 202; US NATIONALS from Cordele [GA]
June 24-July 4 2023 ; Austrian Multi class Nationals from Mariazell

For more comps you can look at
https://www.fai.org/sport/gliding?upcoming=1&f%5B0%5D=fai_event_year%3A2023&display=list

CU next week with MORE!!!!!
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.418 on Mai 7 2023.

KLIX
28 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

The weather in Europe is pretty unreliable at the moment, so organizers suffer a bit with their comps.
Also Klix . And,…their pilots; one day they win the other they are out, but THAT ‘S SOARING too.
That happened as well to Jacek [Flis] from Poland in Club class. He won task 3 on flying-day 1 , was out on task 4 and on task 6, after a cancelled day, [only their class] he won again ; a set 364.18 km. task , speed 107.35 km./h.
Then another cancelled day and on Mai 5 they had a small task 8, flying day 4 from 171 km.
Another Polish pilot did well; Tomasz[ Krok] in a St Jantar; speed 105.23 km./h. He was just ahead of 2 Italian pilots.
They did not know that this was their last flying day. So after 9 days they had 4 competition days.
Result from only 4 days; meaning some scores are pretty close.
S0 the final overall scores for CLUB CLASS.
1. Rawecki Szymon from Poland in SZD 55 with 2.829 points.
2. Tomasz Krok from Poland in St Jantar with 2.778 p
3. Nicola Fergnani from Italy in a DISCUS with 2.671 p.
Followed by 3 other Italian pilots ;Alessandro Bassalti ,2.667….Elena Fergnani, 2.660 both in a Discus and Giacomo Dallolio,2.652points in ASW 20.

In Standard Class they have one more day as they flew their task 7 on Mai 4 ; 178.90 km.
Pawel Wojciechowski from Poland won the day in his LS8 with 105.77 km./h . 2 Dutch pilots followed. Jeroen [Verkuijl] is his JS 3/15 m. with 110.49 km./h and Sjaak [Selen] in his Discus 2a; 98.19 km./h
Just a tad faster than Sabrina [Vogt] ;98.10 km./h also in Discus 2a.
18 Started and 1 was out
On Mai 5 racing task 8, from 202.06 was set. AND,…pretty weird the same top 3!!! Pawel, [90.46 km./h ]Jeroen [91.46 km./h] and Sjaak [83.85 km./h]
They had 5 days out of 9;
1. Pawel Wojciechowski from Poland in LS8T with 3.403 points. He won 2 days.
2. Sjaak Selen from The Netherlands with 3.267 p. and won 1 day.
3. Jeroen Verkuijl from The Netherlands in JS 3 /15m with 3.245 p. won 1 day.

2-seaters; On Mai 4 they started their task 7 [flying day 4] with 199.35 km and the Back family in the DG 1000/20m.were the best; speed 99.10 km./h for 498 points.
24 started and only 1 was out.
On Mai 5 a 2.15 AAT was set and flown by 22 of the 23 starters. The Duo Discus XLT from Dutch team Van Nes & De Boer won the day; 116.25 km./h.
Also 5 days from 9 in this class;
Final results very close again;
1. Huttel & Franke from Germany in ARCUS T with 2.652 points.
2. Dinger & Zoller from Germany in DG 1000 with 2.646 p.
3. Gliese & Chlan from Germany in DUO DISCUS T with 2.600 p.

open/18m. class; Their Mai 4 showed a small task [7] as well; 189 25 km. and Christoph [Matkowski] was the fastest in his AS 33es, with 90.38 km./h the only one OVER 90 km./h. Steven [Raimond] was runner up
29 Started and only 2 were out.
Mai 5 showed a 2.45 AAT; The ASH 25 from Helge Liebertz was the fastest with 113.39 km./h. over 327 km .Not fast enough as on handicap the Discus 2C from Steven Staudte was faster over 297 km.
Steven on spot 1 overall was “only” 14th and JUST lost his 2d spot; 3 points.
1. Andreas Kuhl from Germany in JS 3/18m with 3.210 points.
2. Steven Raimond from The Netherlands in ASG 29E with 3.207 p.
3. Helge Liebertz from Germany in ASH 25/25m. from Germany with 3.184 p.

As said Mai 5 was the last day as the forecast for Mai 6 was not good. They straight away held a prize giving party that day after flying at 8 PM and they look forward to the next KLIX 2024 ; edition 30!!!

Compilated pictures by Frouwke who had a good time ; she mentioned as well that it was cozy, with cold nights with frost but also 20 dgr. C plus, Hexenbrennen ,challenging weather,a big bunch of nice Dutch pilots [indeed atmosphere helps] and she has 5 more flights in her logbook.
The Dutch did well with 2x silver and 1x bronze!!!

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GAUTENG REGIONALS from ORIENT
29 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

On Mai 3 and 4 they did not fly. Small tasks were set but not flown.
So on Mai 5 the penultimate day a 2.30 AAT was set in both classes.
Task 5 on flying day 3 UNFORTUNATELY was NOT FLOWN.
In open it was all about Laurence [Hardman] and Oscar [Goudriaans] the JS 1 against the JS 3 TJ.
In sports class they start task 5 with a total of ONLY 948 points for John [Coutts] in the Libelle 301, 863 for Mark [Holliday] in the ASW 27 and 814 points for Dicky [Daly jr] in the Cirrus.
But, with no flying, no changed results.
So after 2 out of 8 days the winner in sports class was John , before Mark and Dicky.
In open Laurence , 1.612 points , before Oscar with 1.576 p.

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CCV City of Varese Cup from Calcinate Del Pesce
30 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

https://youtu.be/dgiRYo3tLRk

Their weather improved after 2 non flying days. I concentrate on the COPPA flights as the open class flies for that as well and fill you in on the open class final scores on the last day.
Mai 3 was [after the 3 hour AAT the day before], a day with a 366 km. racing task. Alberto[ Sironi] won in the ARCUS T with vlogger Andrea [Venturini ] in the back. Speed 109.38 km./h.
A bad day for Stefano [Ghiorzo], who was out due to an airspace violation. ZERO points.
Mai 4 a 2.20 AAT [task3] was won by Peter Hartmann in the JS 1c/18m….;101 km./h.
Stefano in VENTUS 3T/18m ;243.km with 97.28 km./h. was runner up. Jon [Garfield] was out.
Mai 5; 260.53 km…..with a speed of 98 km./h Peter won again, just ahead of fellow Austrian Christian Hynek in the EB 29 DR. Alberto was 3d.
Mai 6; 2.20 AAT. Peter won and was the only one over 100 km./h. over 233 km. This time fellow Austrian Jan Jagiello was runner up.
In the end they had 5 days in a row out of 7.
The best 3 for the COPPA were;
1. Mauro Brunazzo in AS 33es with 3.869 points.
2.  Sironi & Venturini in ARCUS T with 3.661 p.
3. Christian Hynek in EB 29 DR with 3.618 p.

Best 3 for the OPEN CLASS NATIONALS;
1. Mauro Brunazzo with 3.388 points.
2. Sironi & Venturini with 3.156 p
3. Ugo Pavesi in ASG 29E with 2.864 p.
Congratulations!!!
The video from the Varese City Cup is from Well known Andrea Venturini[ Gliding].

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In the Netherlands 51 pilots flew the Gelderse One Day Competition. The weather in the morning was pretty good in the afternoon they had showers some really heavy.

The task for the 4 classes and the results;
Club 138 km. ….won by Robin Smit in LS 4Neo. 12 From 13 Finished.
Combi class; 161.57 km…..As said showers were expected and for some it was at the last TP. From 8 pilots in this class ONLY ONE finished!
2-Seaters; 163.25 km...NOBODY could return home. but the most kilometers ,81.85, were flown by van Doorn & Kamphuis from the Gelderse in a DUO DISCUS XLT. So all 11 teams were caught by the showers between 50 and 80 km.
18 m/open; 193.14 km….the “long wings” from the Nimbus 4D and 2 top pilots Marco [Vermeer] and Bas [Seijffert] were the only fishers. They managed to fly around the shower on the last TP and were IN. Speed 71.42 km./h. Even with a Nimbus you need to fight for the points.

In Belgium they had a competition at Weelde. Also a 1-day-competition. 10 Pilots tried to fly the set 63.50 km task and 2 succeeded. Starts around 4PM; With 43.14 km./h team Kortleven & Vierstraete in a DG 500/20 m. won . Runner up Raeymaekers & Lauwers sharing an ASW 19. [39.57 km./h]
This is one of a row of comps at different Belgian airfields. Next one at Keiheuvel in August.

—–AND,….when you want to learn more about that impressive flight, from the Alps to Corsica and Sardinia, a declared triangle over more than 1400 km over the Ligurian Sea by Baptiste and Thomas you can read an interview by Joshua Rieger with Baptiste on ;
https://magazine.weglide.org/soaring-ligurian-sea-baptiste-innocent/?fbclid=IwAR2cvCyTDVCGjT3lLBCTTkS1A34Nf5gJmm29RXkMp1OknO6pXqtRZyclauk
https://magazine.weglide.org/soaring-ligurian-sea…/

I spend ALL Saturday looking at the coronation. What a lot of history, great music , colorful military parade and many happy guests.
I found this picture from the The Gliding Bible

CU again on Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz

Post ;1.417 on Mai 3 2023
Last Sunday it was FINALLY SPRING here. Sunny, great clouds and no coat….18 dgr.C!!!! Full of enthusiasm I wanted to look at the flights on the OLC and WeGlide, BUT……a fatal accident at Terlet tempered the joy.
Terlet is the home of the Gelderse, but also host of different other clubs. One of the members of those clubs, a 57 year old lady died after hitting the trees on the S. of the field. SO SAD!!!!!!They had a spring camp at Terlet.
PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!!!! PLEASE REMAIN CAREFUL !!!!

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KLIX….Germany
 28 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

After 2 non-flying days , Sunday finally was the day to start this competition.
Task 3 on flying day 1. A pretty challenging day, blue with a base of 1100 -1500 m. max.
Club class; with 27 pilots from Germany, Italy , The Netherlands , Poland and Hungary got a 227 km. racing task. Among them Frouwke Kuijpers, Elena Fergnani and Lilian De Bruijn.
Daily winner Jacek Flis from Poland in LS 3WL; 91.78 km./ h was the best speed.
A total of 6 Polish glider pilots in this class; They were on spot 1-2-3-4-5 and 26, due to an airspace- outlanding. They all started at the same time.
26 Started 24 were in. The last to finish was Frouwke, BUT she was IN!!!!. Good on her!!!!
Standard class; with 19 pilots from Italy, Germany, Denmark, Poland, The Netherlands and France. Among them Sabrina Vogt and Michelle Fergnani. Their task; 329 km.
1000 points for daily winner Poulkim Larsen from Denmark in an LS 8T.
19 Started , 16 finished.
Double-seaters; 25 teams, mainly from Germany and 2 from The Netherlands; Task; 234.60 km.
Hillebrand & Meyer in the ARCUS M were the daily best; 106.68 km./h.
Only the BACK family was out, from the 25 who started!!
18 m. class; 405 km……34 participants, a few fly as team in Nimbus 2 D or ASH 25.
Daily winner; Helge Liebertz for 1000 points. Norbert Kalish [ somewhere I think he flew in the past with us in Tocumwal] was runner up in the ASH 25 and Dutch pilot Steven Raimond was 3d in his ASG 29.

Task 4 on flying day 2; a tad less good weather and flights over Poland. For those back it was party time.
Club; 193.20 km.…Nicola and Elena, brother and sister, started together. Elena is as you know the World Champion from Lake Keepit. Both fly a Discus. Nicola was just a tad faster with 69.15 km./h for 67.29 km./h. Runner up was that great little Libelle flown by members of the Kronitzer family.
From 26 starters only 13 were in. One of the out-landers was Jacek who won the day before!
Note; I was wrong in sharing the news that Elena is the current WWGC champion. She won in Lake Keepit. The current WWGC champion is of course Petra Piskata from the Cezch Rep ,who won in HusBos.
Last week Petra flew and trained very well with the Czech ladies team, at the FCC in Prievidza were she was 8th overall from 21.
SORRY ABOUT THAT.
Standard; 239.87 km.…Good day for the Dutch pilots with Jeroen [Verkuijl in JS 3] as winner [ 69.74 km./h] and former World Champion Sjaak [Selen] as number 3[ 65.39 km./h in Discus 2A] . In between Lorenzo [Monti] from Italy. [64.96 km./h in LAK 19]
19 Started 9 were in.
2-Seaters; 206.74 km.…Even slower was the speed in this class. The DG 1000 from Dinger & Zoller flew around with 57.73 km./h.
24 Started and only 3 were in. With the DG also a Duo Discus XLT and an ARCUS T.
18m/open; 194.82 km....With 88km/h Norbert won in his Nimbus 4D the day. For sure he would not have taken out his glider out of the hangar on such a day at home.
31 Started and 26 were in. One Danish pilot started too early and “got” ZERO points. Pfff….

No task 5 yesterday on Mai 2, due to the weather. Neutralized.

Mai 3; today! No news yet.

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Gauteng Regionals from ORIENT.
29 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

They started on Sunday as well with 2 classes, sports-class [ 11 pilots ] and open .[7]
Task 1 in sports class was 234.39 km and won by John [Coutts] in a Libelle 301;117 km./h.
John won task 2, a 2 hour AAT as well [ 182 km with 88.86 km./h] and for today he and his mates have a 2.45 AAT at the menu.
Task 1 in open 299.49 km. was won by Laurence Hardman with 123 km./h. Oscar was runner up; 122 km./h. Oscar however, won day 2 ,with a 2.30 AAT flying 307.69 km with 111.36 km./h.
For today a 3 hour AAT has to be flown.

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COPPA CITA DE VARESE [CCV] / Italian OPEN CLASS NATIONALS.
Calcinate Del Pesce
30 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

No flying on the first days but a bigger task on Mai 2. Not good in Klix, but good in Calcinate.
15 Pilots in all kind of gliders between the EB 29DR and LS 6 fly for the COPPA or title. [Walter Vergani Trophy]
From the UK Jon Gatfield participates [AS 33es/18m] and from Austria 3 pilots with Peter Hartmann.[JS1C/18m]
Well known Italian pilots; Alberto Sironi,[ARCUS T] Margherita Aquaderni [ Ventus 3F/18m] and Stefano Ghiorzo. [Ventus 3T./18m]
Task 1 on May 2; 506.97 km…..later changed in 3 hour AAT.…
Daily coppa winner; Luca Castelli in JS1B EVO; 332.67 km with 90.44 km./h. showing it was a difficult day!
From 14 starters only 5 finished.
Daily open winner; Luca and only 3 finished in this class. 10 started .
More on SUNDAY.

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TEUGE_2-DAYS-COMPETITION 2023.[The Netherlands]

The Dutch juniors started their competition season with a 2-day-competition at Teuge. AND …they did well. Niels van Nieuwland in his LS 8 was the best over the 2 days with a spot 2 on both days.
Task 1 had 323.59 km and was won by Halmar Lakeman. On task 2 he was 6th in his LAK 17/18m. over 179.88 km.
The other juniors Noud [Kaay] and Tim [Kremers] flew the Duo Discus to a first spot on day 2.
The AG is one of the 2 “junior-glider’s ” and Lucas [Vink] flew it last Sunday for the first time .
A total of 11 pilots participated.
It’s REALLY nice to see that several of them are children from long time mates!!!!
By the way Maurits [Hebels] had all those great flights in Varese , I wrote about a few weeks ago. Even a 1000 in an ARCUS T.

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Yesterday ,not far from where I live , just over the border in Belgium at KEIHEUVEL, pilots had a very good soaring day with 760 km [500 FAI triangle] for Wim Akkermans in his Ventus 3 F/18m. and 691 km for Ward Geysemans in DG 400/17m.
On April 30 Tijl [Schmelzer[ flew from Keiheuvel 693 km in his Ventus 3 T/18m
Terlet and Soesterberg had up to over 600 km as well yesterday. Lizzy flew from Soesterberg a 300 FAI triangle , in her LS3A, as practice for the WWGC in Spain soon. Her very first WWGC.

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And to finish,… this spectacular picture with Kenshi and Matthew . I guess with a Go Pro on the wing. Aussie Matthew [Scutter] is in Japan and flew there with Kenshi Tagami [as far as I remember Kenshi flew with us in Toc.] over Mount Fuji.
I only drove past ” the mountain” when I was in Japan. BUT,….I saw all the fabulous cherry blossom.

More on Sunday with the final results on Klix, Gauteng and Calcinate.

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.416 on SATURDAY April 29 2023.

FCC GLIDING 2023

Only 2 days to go, when I left you and these prizes above, were for the winners.
Here you are with the last 2 days.
April 26, a very cold, challenging and technical day.
Club; 271.68 km....with a very late start [ 13.49], in his SZD 55, Polish pilot Wojciech Kubiak won the day. A difficult day as the speed even for club was [s]low;79.65 km./h.
2 Romanian pilots even started later at 14.11. One of them Tudor was 3d , his mate Alin, 12th.
Ferenc in his LS 4 was runner up and with 1 day to go ,he is in the running for the highest spot.
18 started and 13 finished!
15 m; 315.04 km.…All” the fiddling around”by Adam to get his new shared toy in the best condition, bear fruit. HE WON THE DAY!!!!! Only 2 pilots flew over 100 km. /h and that was Adam and Sebastian. Sebastian moved through the week, slowly up to the best overall spot.
After task 5 he was on spot 1 overall and on the penultimate day again. Effective flying.
Adam; “Never have I been so cold in all my life, -2 to -5°c for 5hrs today – this was my motivation to get home fast I think: Day Winner ” full story on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
For the last day he got ski-leggings from his Polish mate, Lucasz .
28 Started and 16 finished!!! The Czech girls did well; spot 4 [Barbora] and 6[ Jana and Dana].
combi; 334.46 km....The first 6 daily places were for Poland and the Czech Rep. Marek Sawczuk in his ASG 29 won ; 118.43 km./h!!
34 started and 29 finished. Radek and Petr were on 3 and 4.

April 27; VERY LAST DAY!!!! 3 hour AAT’s for all 3 classes.
“temperature around 6° this morning was frozen water in the hoses to fill the water ballast! ???? Sailing is, in short, a typical summer sport! “the organizers.
A 1000 points-day!
Club; 318.70 km and a speed of 106.23 km./h was the best result and that was for FERENC! He was sure now of winning this FCC 2023! Good on him.
Alin was runner up; 312 km speed 103.36 km./h.
18 started and 1 was out.
15 m; French pilot Aurelien won the first day and the last day!!!!! He flew 351 km ; speed 116 km./h.
The French did well on this last day with a 4th and 5th spot by Max and Julien.
All 31 started and only 1 was out; Romanian pilot Norbert, who flew so well in this FCC.
He won task 4, 5 and 6. He topped the overall, scores on 3 days after task 6,7 and 8.
In the end he finished on spot 20. Such a pity!!!!!
Combi; Karol Staryszak won the day; 395 km with 131 km./h!!!Czech pilot David was runner up and sure after this flight of a top spot.
33 started and 1 was out!!.

So the final scores of this FCC 2023, after 7 out of 12 days.
Club class;
1. Ferenc Tamás From Hungary, in LS 3 WL with 5.876 points. Congratulations Ferenc.
2. Stanislaw Wujczak from Poland in Mini Nimbus B with 5.706 p.
3. Alin Simion from Romania in LS 4 WL with 5.680 p.

15 m class;
1. Sebastian Kawa from Poland in DIANA 2 with 5.749 points. Congrats Sebastian.
2. Maximilian SEIS from France in DISCUS 2A with 5.662 p.
3. Barbora Moravcova from Czech Rep in LS 8 with 5.602 p.
Great practice from the Czech-Ladies- team for the Spanish WWGC in 60 days.
Barbora won, Jana was 6th and Dana 9th.
In Club Petra was 8th.
They seem READY!!!!!.

Combi class;
1. David Mach from Czech Rep in JS 1 with 5.781 points. Congratulations David.
2. Karol Staryszak from Poland in ASG 29 with 5.736 p.
3. Andre Weidlich from Germany in Ventus 3M with 5.708 p.

Unfortunately NO PICTURES were shared from the prize giving, at least I could not find them. In the end I found 1 from the 15m class!!!

And later one from Club class

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KLIX …Germany
28 April 2023 – 6 May 2023

The 29th edition has , as always, lot’s of international guests again and is flown in 4 classes, with in total 107 pilots. A very well loved -early-in-the-season-competition like in Nitra and Prievidza.
Till now they had 2 practice days, 1 with no results and 1 with with up to 366 km in 18 m. won by Helge Liebertz this year flying a 26 m. ASH 25 .
Yesterday was the first TASK. NO TASK!

21 st Fatraglide from Martin in Slovakia starts today.
And in ORIENT in South Africa the 2023 Gauteng Regionals start today as well.
More on Wednesday!

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.415 on Wednesday April 26 2023.

FCC GLIDING 2023…..Prievidza, SLOVAKIA
16 April 2023 – 27 April 2023

It’s pretty cold here with that ENE wind. Sun yes , but no SPRING!!!!
Same in Slovakia, though they have rain, even worse.
Their daily message ;”OK… Today’s task for all classes is cancelled. So there is no point in doing a briefing either. For sure, you can spend this time more pleasantly ????”
So the Wednesday was cancelled , still 1 day of flying , but there is hope for 8 more days!!!
Last day and prize giving on April 27.
No worries for Adam, he spends his time and thoughts filled with gliding so a bit of fiddling around with the instruments fills a day!

Adam “fiddling” with his instruments.
Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

2 Days with no task BUT,…..Then the better weather finally arrives. Organizers and pilots will be so HAPPY.
FCC- competition- life starts again at

Day 5 on April 20, flying day 2…..AND a 1000 -points-day!!!!
Club; 3 hour AAT.….won by Hungaryan pilot Attila in his ASW 20; 291 km.
19 started and 18 finished.
15 m; 3 hour AAT….2 Romanian pilots ,Norbert and Ionut, on top with Sebastian as 3d. Adam was 7th.
All 31 started and only one was out.
combi; 3 hour AAT…..Czech pilot David [Mach] was the daily winner in his JS1. Romanian pilot Andreas [Kessler] was runner up in the “mighty” ASH 32 MI.
37 started and 7 were out.

Day 6 on April 21 , flying day 3…..another good day with even longer AAT’s. ”  we had all gliders in the air in one hour and 5 minutes. …”
Club; 3.30....Ferenc Tamás in the LS 3 with winglets was the best; 373 km in time 3.32; 105.58 km./h. 3 More pilots flew over 100 km./h.
15 m; 3.15… Norbert [Scarlat] in the Discus 2A was just ahead of Sebastian . Note; Sebastian’s DIANA 2 FES has a high handicap; 117.5 for 112.6 for the Discus.
combi 3.15….AND….there is David again; 433 km in time 3.15; speed 132.98 km./h. for 1000 points. Father/son combination Radek [JS 1 TJ] and Petr [AS33es] from Czech Rep were 3d and 5th.

Day 7, on April 22 flying day 4 and racing tasks to go for with nice weather;

Club; 339.15 km.…a racing task in his Mini Nimbus with 127.58 km./h. is GOOD!!!! Yes it looks like Stan [Stanislaw Wujczak] is still as good as he was when we were both at the same comps. WELL DONE….but only 863 points.
20 Started and only one was out.
15m; 417.39 km...Norbert was even faster in his Discus 2A; 134.10 km./h and in this class for 1000 points. 3d Successive win for Norbert!!!!
3 Discus types in the top with the French Julien and Max on 2 and 3.
All 31 started , 2 were out.
Adam on his flight; “
Lukasz & I were at TP3, 10km & 1000′ above Barca, in our little groove. Earlier Barca [ Barbora Moravcova flying an LS 8 and member of the Czech women team ] & the CZ Women’s team got to within 300′ of us at TP2. So I really felt for her, we just took a different street to TP3.Then the magic happened for her! While Lucasz & I ran a direct line with good CU, Barca decided that the sun on the opposite side of the valley & with wind blowing up it was the better choice. Her calm thinking rewarded her with a 5m/s climb, then straight line cruising until she was 2000′ above us in the 2nd last climb area – outstanding!” more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
combi; 447.02 km....good better best….for Radek in his AS 33es; he won the day with 151.59 km./h. for 980 points, with a late start at 13.14, the last to go on track, to be precise. Dad Petr was 19th. He started much earlier as Radek at 12.50.
39 started 2 were out , 2 by an airspace-infringement.

Sunday April 23; “Tomorrow looks like a cracker, bring it on” is what Adam said in his blog on Saturday.
Looking at the tasks they expect indeed a lot!!!!!
But also the message ;”Good morning. We expect the weather interval to end a little earlier today. Therefore, the first start is scheduled for 10:45“
club; 436.45 km…..Good old Stan [ Stanislaw Wujczak] and his Mini Nimbus seem unbeatable. Yes he won again!!!! Only 2 pilots just over 100 km./h and he was one of them. Ferenc the other one.
20 started and 14 were IN!!
Looking back in my books I found some 1993 WGC info; Stan was then a member of the Polish team in Borlange where I was TC from the Dutch team. Stan was then 43 years old, had 3200 hours and was an airline pilot. He flew the ASW 22B and won day 9 and 11 and was 5th overall after 11 days. His Polish mate Janusz Centka won that WGC in open class.
15m; 511.23 km…..2x a DUO DISCUS in the top; speed 111/112 km./h. 23 From 32 finished.
Ionut dropped from 4 overall after 5 tasks to 22 by entering forbidden airspace. You MOSTLY don’t do that on purpose, in a few cases it can happen, ……. but it hurts!!!!
Adam was out after 481 km but still positive; “Let’s talk about the positives first, I had a sensational flight in all reality, while I am disappointed that I’m in a field, I’m actually very happy how I flew today.”
More in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
combi; 558.26 km…..Andre Weidlich won day 1 and won again now; 135 km./h in his Ventus 3 M.
30 from 39 finished.

NO FLYING ON MONDAY…..but they had news about a 1000-points-day. I am NOT good with points so here you are you have to figure it out by yourself.
“Investigation of 1 000 point possibility.
Dear competitors,
According of new regulation for alternating scoring- SEE ALTERNATIVE SCORING 2023, chapter – racing task – 8.4.1.,b
Competitors score:
specially formula: S = Sp x min(1, 200/(Spo-Spm)).
Than,
Check out FCC Gliding2023 Soaring Spot.
Look at Spm Value.
MUST to be minimum 800.
F, and Fcr must to be value 1 as well. Than 1000 points is possible for winner.”

They had a small task in club class on Tuesday , yesterday, but it was not flown, to save the very wet airfield. Both other classes were cancelled.

TODAY; the penultimate day;
club class; 271.68 km…..
15 m; 315.04 km..…
combi; 334.46 km...
More about the last 2 days on Saturday.
Also about KLIX, they just started in the rain.

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——-It’s always great to see how young people from the Australian Airforce Cadets doing a military gliding training in their holiday , start to love soaring and go solo. We had those young boys and girls in the far past [2004] as well at Sportavia. And we tried to be always SPECIAL for them, so they would never forget their week and their first solo with us. Mostly Eddie and Don trained them within a week.
As you can see they were grateful and send us this nice memory award. It’ s in my study now.
I will never forget them either!

Nowadays they still teach young ones how to glide
The picture below is from the Gliding Training School AAFC shows the proud young man and his instructor. https://www.airforcecadets.gov.au/what-we-do/training/aviation-experiences/gliding

And one day earlier Patrick and Claire went solo as well. A good day for the Bathurst cadets and their instructors.

Tom and Jane Gilbert from Temora, were till now the agents for DG and LS in Australia. After 20 years of delivering gliders ,also the DG 1000 for the air cadets, they stop and hand over to Scott Lennon, who will work from Temora too.

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Last weekend we had nice sunny mornings but wet afternoons here in the Netherlands. NO WORRIES for the pilots flying from Terlet they had fun till it was over.

Yesterday was such an awesome day again for the pilots with this time.1.485 km flown over land and WATER ….not just water but the Ligurian sea…..by Baptiste Innocent from Fayence. A long , long sit; 14 hours and 26 minutes!!!! He flew the 21 m span ASH 31 and it was an FAI TRIANGLE from 1.407 km as well. A great pilot and a great glider make the difference!!!! Amazing!

Some more great flights on April 25 ;
From Lasham in the UK; Andy Aveling and Garry Coppin flew 861 km. and Pete Harvey 754.9 km. THE FIRST 750 for the UK season and a triangle too!!!!! They “pushed” each other to their best performance for the day;
“10 days of rain, then polar air from south coast to Scotland. Cheshire gap was washed out by the sea air and very soft around Mind until Gloucester. Great day trying to stay in front of Garry and Andy in their Arcus.”
From Calcinate Dutch pilots Maurits and Joep flew 1.047 km.
From Aosta, Swiss pilot Yves Gerster flew 1.031 km .

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Eddie Madden was for years the CFI for Sportavia in Tocumwal. When it was sold on an auction Eddie started his own business on the South of the airfield with the old hangar from George Piszkors [R.I.P] and a new build hangar. With his wife Cheryll, a lovely lady [R.I.P] he built a new business ,”SPORTAVIATION” and the most wonderful camping area full of native plants and trees. It’s another end of an era of soaring and later more power-flying at Toc. BUT,…it’s for sale and hopeful new young people will take over and make it BIG again.

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And to finish this lovely spring picture from Germany by top photographer Tobias Barth who creates those beautiful calendars and” since 2015 my focus lies on the air-to-air photography of sailplanes .”

Post 1.414 on Wednesday April 19, the day my daughter Inge celebrates her jubilee of 25 years flying for TRANSAVIA.
CONGRATULATIONS dear Inge!!!

PRIBINA CUP.…NITRA
7 April 2023 – 15 April 2023

I left you last Wednesday with good tasks for all 4 classes and the organization was happy with their decision and mentioned at 1 PM ;
“All gliders are in the air. The sky is blue with many Cu clouds. Weather conditions are improving. Thermals are getting stronger and the cloud base is raising.” What do you want more????
So hopefully a good /strong day for the pilots with confirmed first launches at 11.30.

Day 6 task 3, flying day 2; What happened???Still a marginal day with ONLY 3 pilots flying over 100 km./h. That says enough and……… they flew in 18m/open.
Club class; 252.08 km…… 5 German pilots in the top 5 ,one of them the German coach Wolli Beyer in a Discus. [5th] Also one of the girls; Eva Senne in an LS 4 [runner up]
Daily winner in LS1f with winglets; Etienne Dollhausen 75.95 km./h and 1000 points!!!
from 21 starting, 5 were out.
15m;  324.20 km….with 88 km./h Czech pilot Jan Pavlik was the daily winner from the 25 who started the day. 11 Pilots were OUT.
An expensive day for Robbie who won day 1 but was punished now for entering forbidden airspace.
Open/18 m; 360.16 km….As said the only 3 pilots flying over 100 km./h were in this class.
Matthias Sturm flew around with 107 km./h in his JS 3TJ, team Dierscke/Schwenk in the ETA with 105 km./h and Simon Briel in the EB 28 edition 28.3m with 103 km./h . So you needed long wings or a fancy glider to get over 100 km./h.
From the 32 starting pilots ,5 were out.
20 m; 320.02 km…..also 1000 points in this class for daily winners Sibanc/Knez in the ARCUS T; speed 86 km./h. The TWINSHARK from German team Dawert & Novatscheck was runner up .Interesting to see that they went as the last in this class on track, at 13.33. The first start was just under an hour earlier.
From 13 starters , 5 were out!

The daily summery of the organizers; “ First cumulus clouds appeared quite early so launching procedure was confirmed to 11.30. It looked optimistic at the beginning however the clouds started to disappear from the southern part. Low cloud bases were a big challenge for the pilots. Northern part of the tasks was much pleasant for flying, some pilots were upset that their task did not reach to Martinske hole, where it looked amazing. It was not an easy day, but luckily many pilots made it home so we have another valid contest day.”

Day 7; RAIN….no flying.

Day 8; Great “Soaring-skies” here in the Netherlands, hopefully in Nitra too.
BUT,….NO it was NOT!!!!
Their early morning news was sad:
“Due to the unpleasant weather forecast we have come to the decision to end the competition. We are very grateful you started the flying season with Pribina cup and we hope to see you next year. Good luck on your flying days, stay safe and enjoy gliding. The FAREWELL PARTY starts at 4 pm. PRICEGIVING ceremony is scheduled for 5 pm.“

So after only 2 days luck is a factor as well in the scores. In my opinion scores do not really represent the capability of the pilots. But still,…..well done to the winners.
So when you want to see the scores please look at; www.soaringspot.com
57 great ELFO pictures to be seen at
Photos » Day7 2023-04-13
Still a lot of smiling faces. THE WEATHER!!!!!! Yes we all know! Next year Easter is a bit later!

The FCC [Flight Challenge Cup ] 2023 in Prievidza is waiting now ; 16 to 27 April 2023 with 32 pilots in 15 m class, 28 in club class, 41 in the combi class .[ 18 m ,open and 20 m]

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The FCC Cup Gliding 2023
16.04. – 27.04.2023 
Prievidza – Slovakia

With 100 participating pilots this FCC is always a busy competition. Aussie blogger, Adam flew after a few weeks working for the Airline Company he flies for in Japan, to Europe to be part of it.
In Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures you can follow him at this competition.
‘Just met my new toy, a syndicate of three with two other great lads “
He flies a Discus with call sign GX. ND,…he started well.

Task 1 on Sunday April 16;
A BIT OF A DIFFICULT DAY ACCORDING TO THE ORGANIZERS, BUT THEY SOLVED ALL PROBLEMS;
“The first day of competition is always tough. Today we were unpleasantly surprised by the grass part of the track, which was wetter and more soft than we expected. Some of the heavier planes from the 15m class didn’t want to get off the ground and had to restart. This of course caused multiple aborted launches as we had to wait for the runway to clear. Thanks to the turbo “Čmelák” and also the turbo dynamic we got all the competitors safely in the air at the end.“
Club class; 2.15 AAT…..19 pilots started in this class ,9 were punished and 3 out.
Winners of course too; Alin Simion from Rumania in his LS 4 A with winglets; 233 km with 95.70 km./h. Runner up was Hungarian pilot Frenc Tamas in an LS 3 /15m with winglets; 236 km with 96.19 km./h.
Good old Stan Wujczak, he flew already in “my” time was 3d in a Mini Nimbus B.
One pilot had “no valid start”.
15 m; 2 hour AAT….. Aurelien Doriat from Poitiers was the best! In the LS 8 he flew 242 km with a speed of 114.83 km./h. Aurelien was in 2019 ,3d at the French National junior comps.
Maros Divok [Slovakia] was runner up and….in a DUO DISCUS XT; speed 113.43 km./h 3d Was Adam [Australia] in his new Discus 2A; 242 km with 113.40 km/h …… pfffff close!!!!!
Max Seiss was 4th, Kevin Faur 7th, Milos Cink 8th and Sebastian Kawa 10th.
All 31 started, one had an invalid start[ 100 m above start altitude] and 4 were out.
Adam;” What an awesome little day, though the start & finish was pretty sketchie! Very pleased to have achieved my goals today, felt really great” and “Big shout out to Lukasz Blaszczyk who team flew with me today, our combined strategy at the start really helped get the result.” “Unfortunately for Lukasz, he missed a climb that I managed to get behind him, a communication barrier saw him decide to not come back.”
Much more in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Combi class; 2 hour AAT….German pilot Andre Weidlich was the best in his Ventus 3 M; 252 km with 118 .84 km./h.
Czech pilot Ivan Novak was runner up; 237 km with 118.37 km./h and another Czech pilot Petr Krejcirik , dad from Radek was 3d in the JS 3 TJ 249 km with 118.63 km./h. So all 3 nearly as fast for 517,515 and 510 points. Radek was 27th in an AS 33es; 260 km but no finish.

Task 2 on April 17; WEIRD DAY!!!! No more news by the organizers. So NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS.
“Gridding has been suspended, there has been a bomb threat on the airfield As I drove out, all gliders have been left where they were at the time of the notice, on the runway, in the ballast area, etc – airfield now deserted, very strange! Awaiting more info from the Police now..” by Adam.
Club class; 2.30 AAT…...CANCELLED
15 m; NO TASK
Combi class; 2.30 AAT…..CANCELLED.
Later news from Adam; “Bomb threat now cleared at the Prievidza airfield: Super interesting experience, gliders literally left in the spot, & moment in time that the owners learnt of the threat. Covers half taken off, gliders half rigged, cobra trailer lids left up, etc – felt like I was in a popular series on Netflix which portray history events..!”

Day 3, April 18… with new hope! But,…only for 15 m pilots.
The organizers; “IN the morning we were almost 100% convinced that we would not fly today. But in the end we managed to find a short interval in the weather forecast models which should allow a competition for at least one class. We chose to go with the 15m class because there are significantly fewer competitors than the combi class“
So 15 m got a task; 1.30 AAT, but the first launch time was rescheduled to 13.30 as the “window did not open earlier”.
Adam was optimistic though ;”15m class only to grid today, 1.5hr AAT. I’m at 460kg again today, I think the optimum window is between 1330 & 1400. If we’re fortunate, we can fly on the convergence on three legs”
Unfortunately the day was cancelled. They tried HARD!!!!
AND,…there is MORE hope for Wednesday!!!

Day 4; today…..Short news yet.” Good morning. The weather is keeping us in check so far. Although it doesn’t seem like it, several models show that there is still a chance for a short discipline. We have no choice but to wait for actual data.“
More next week .
Only 1 flying-day till now but weather, as you know , can change in a flash, so I hope that happens now.

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—–Juniors!
Some news about the planning of the UK juniors;
“Last weekend the Junior Development Squad travelled to Lasham for the first training camp of 2023. 10 squad members were joined by a few pilots from the Women’s team to take advantage of the favourable forecast. Coach Jake Brattle led the weekend with daily briefings and post-flight analysis sessions in the evenings, showing the juniors where they could improve their flights.
Everyone enjoyed 3 days of racing, giving a small taste of what’s to come this year.
The squad will travel next to Issoudun, France as part of the annual overseas coaching week. They will then fly the 46e International Issoudun, where the coaching can be put into practice in a competition setting. Plenty to look forward to!”

——-Top flights, photos and reports – Peter Millenaar in a very nice interview OLC – onlinecontest.org
Dutch pilot Peter is a top pilot, 4x Dutch champion and Junior World Champion [Leszno 2013] and great photographer. He is introduced in their magazine.
I shared already some news and pictures from St Auban a few weeks ago.
Have a look at https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/segelfl…/cmsnews.html…

–—-Last Friday was a top day here in The Netherlands, but also in other countries in Europe. The sky looked fabulous and I was eager to see how many flights we had here. We had 53!!!And,…ALL over Holland from N to S from W to E..
Best flight was in the ARCUS M from Soesterberg;708 km.
8 Flights over 600 km. and lots of pictures with happy messages.
Germany had 133 pilots up and best result; 861 km. in ASH 31/21 m.
Best flight for the day was in Romania with great wave up to nearly 7000 m. MSL in an ARCUS M., from the airport of Ghimbav Brasov. 1.127 km. and 164 km./h.

One of the Dutch juniors , Maurits Hebels, flew from Calcinate in Italy and managed to fly 859 km in an LS4 with call sign AG, one of the Dutch gliders specially for the juniors. Good on him. Last Monday he flew in ARCUS T another 762 km with Joep Heesakkers. Yesterday; 853 km.
Quite a few Dutch pilots over there in Calcinate. 26 Flights from there last Monday, with Italian, Swiss , UK and Dutch pilots.
Another former junior, Davide Giovanelli flew in a DISCUS 2, 1.205,67 km , last Sunday from Locarno in Switzerland. Great effort. Wave up to 5661 MSL.
Best flight last week in Calcinate on April 18; Jon Gatfield with an Alpine 1000 km flight;1.024.52 km …speed 113 .83km./h ….https://weglide.org/flight/246863

2 VERY long and impressive flights again in the USA and both with “huge ” speed.
Gordon Boettger flew in an ARCUS J…… 2.099 km with 191.37 km./h., together with Bruce Campbell, sitting with him for nearly 11 hours in the “cold”.
James Lee flew in the JS 1 a distance of 1. 829,83 km with 162 km./h.
MINDEN was the place to be!!!!
Gordon; “Takeoff a little late but wasn’t expecting it to be that great early in the morning.“
And” The clouds were simply amazing today. I feel really lucky to experience this. What a RIPPER!!!”
More on; https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/gliding/flightinfo.html… with many great pictures , here is one of them.

Kiripotib Soaring announced their fleet for “our” winter…..
Gliders; The glider fleet for the upcoming season has been finalized: We are pleased to announce 5 Ventus3M and 9 AcrusM for charter – on top: two of them will be ArcusM20 book now:
https://bit.ly/3KOID1G

Enough news again, more about the FCC next week.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.413 on April 12 2023.
Hope you had a wonderful, Happy Easter period!!!
We had fog in the morning of Easter Saturday ,then it was dry and sunny and over the weekend up to 17 dgr. C…….. FINALLY. Though to be honest,..it was less good here than forecasted. Hope the rest of the countries around us will have improving weather as well. For sure after next Monday it will be between 17 and 20 dgr.C.

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Italian 18 m NATIONALS / 50thiest Trophy of Torino.
 31 March 2023 – 10 April 2023

After 4 days of rest, [they only fly 3 days in the 2 weekends] they continued in Torino-Aeritalia, their 18 m comps which is included in the Torino Trofeo, with together 18 pilots.
Aldo [Cernezzi] is the very experienced CD !
With a midweek-rest, the pilots gathered again for the 18 m Nationals included in the 50thiest Trophy in Torino.
Friday had a 1.45 AAT, but the day was cancelled in the end. One more or less extra rest day. So also there the weather was not good YET!!!
Easter-Saturday the weather improved dramatically and a racing task from 337 km. was set.
Nice to see that Andrea Florence, who flew on Saturday with Alberto in the back of the ARCUS T , reached 10.000 followers on his enthusiastic posts, in which he shares his passion for soaring. Congratulations Andrea.
Task 4; 337 km..…in 18 m. class. 13 pilots started all between 2.06PM and 2.19. They all arrived between 5.05 and 5.30 PM. All flew over 100 km./h and the daily winner Stefano in his Ventus 3 T, was the fastest with 117 km./h . That was 1 km/h faster than Andrea Ferrero in the AS 33es.
Looking at the not-18m-pilots, Alberto in the ARCUS T was the best; 3d from 18 in total.
Task 5; 220 AAT…. Very last day……Vittorio Squarciafico in his ASG 29 won the day with 224 km and a speed of 95.85 km./u. Alberto Pozzi was a tiny bit slower and missed out on 2 points to win the day; 95.66 km./h.
The winners in 18 m.
1. Stefano Ghiorzo in VENTUS 3T with 3,155 points and ITALIAN 18m. CHAMPION.
2. Giancarlo Grinza in Ventus 3FES with 3,085 p.
3. Andrea Ferrero in AS 33e with 3,074 p.
4. Alberto Pozzi in JS 1 with 3,052 p….pretty close…..

the “fight” for the Torino CUP was as follows;
1. Stefano Ghiorzo with 3,274 points.
2. Alberto Pozzi with 3,238 p.
3. Giancarlo Grinza with 3,214 p.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL pilots flying this early in the season competition.

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PRIBINA CUP NITRA. [Slovakia]
April 7-April 15 2023

With 102 pilots in 4 different classes, this is the biggest -International- early-in-the-season-competition , from the year.; The Pribina Cup edition 21.
26 pilots in Club class, 27 in 15 m, 14 teams in the 2-seater class [20 m] and 35 in open class/18 m. .
Specially the open/18 m. class shows some top pilots.
I hope ELFO is there to make his fabulous pictures!!!
On April 7 Good Friday, no task was set for the 4 classes.
On Easter Saturday the message board showed early news; “Good morning everyone!- No grid for today- Briefing at 10AM”
The weather did not want to co-operate;” We woke up to the over casted morning and the weather stayed pretty much the same for whole day with some light rain showers. In the airport we had a relaxed atmosphere and after the morning briefing most of pilots went to explore Nitra city or some other tourist attractions in the area. We hope you all enjoyed some free time. Weather forecast is getting more promising for next competition days and all of us are having fingers crossed to have a first competition day in the following couple of days.”
Patience at an airport, we all know about it…no worries!!!
Easter Sunday the expectations were high, so a 2d briefing was set for 12 PM.
Indeed Tasks WERE SET;
Day 3 task 1; in the 4 classes Club, 15m., open and 2-seaters a 2 hour AAT was set. With first launches at 1PM. BUT,……”
“Unfortunately, the weather conditions did not allow us to race today. Therefore today is cancelled for all classes.”

New hope for day 4 with task 2 flying day 1.
In Club 205.52 km. was set. 20 Pilots started in this class from several countries.
10 finished and 10 were out! Daily winner ; Jelle from Belgium, in an ASW 24 WL,…..good on him.
In 15 m. 267.10 km…..Best for the day and flying an LS 8; Robbie[Seton] from the Netherlands but flying a lot at Keiheuvel in Belgium.
23 Pilots started and ONLY 3 finished!!!!Robbies speed was 66.77 km./h. Runner up Marin [Jurovic] in the VENTUS CT was a tad faster, but just finished a tad to low.[67.46 km./h] Hana [Ventus 2ax] and Jana Treslova [LS 8] were on spot 6 and 9.
in open/18 m. 301 km…...32 started and only 3 finished without a penalty. 2 finished but ended on 9 and 11 after penalty points.
Proud on Dennis [Huybreckx] who won the day for Belgium in his VENTUS 3 ; 75.25 km./h. Runner up was Nicolas Bernhard [Ventus 3] from France ;73.78 km./h.
Marius Pluscauskas was the fastest in his ASG 29E; 89.38 km./h, but,…a too low finish.
Some pilots REALLY were close ;297 km. Such a pity, 7 just started and were already out after less than 50 k.
in 20 m 261.03 km…..4 from 13 finished!! Daily winners team Schwan/Hudler from Austria in an ARCUS T. The number 4 finisher was after 2 more Arcus types a German DUO DISCUS X70.55 km./h. ; !!!
The “LOW” countries Belgium and The Netherlands did well….with Jelle, Robbie and Dennis as first-day-winners.
Daily summery from day 4 by the organizers;
“THE FOURTH DAY!
Finally we had a nice sunny morning so every pilot was excited to race today. We settled a grid on runway 33, with first expected launch at 11:30. The weather prediction looked quite promising and therefore we declared a racing task for all classes in a range of 205 – 301 KM. First launch was postponed to 12:15 and 90 sailplanes went to compete in the air. By pilots references it was a challenging day with different weather conditions on every turnpoint. In every class we had pilots who finished their tasks so a big congratulations from our side to them. Tomorrow there is a occluded front coming to our direction and we have only small chance to fly but we will see in the morning.”

No task yesterday,…too much wind. Easter is early in the year and that shows!

tasks today; Task 3 ,flying day 2. …….more next week.
club; 252.08 km
15m; 324.20 km
open;360.16 km
20m;320.02 km
a racing day,…good!!!!!

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ARNBORG EASTER CUP.
 6 April 2023 – 10 April 2023

More EASTER SOARING this time in Denmark from Svæveflyvecenter Arnborg!!!
A Multi class competition with 16 participating pilots flying between LS1f[handicap 100] and ASH 31.MI /21 m.[ handicap 121]
Task 1 ; 2 hour AAT……was straight on the first day with Filip Bojanowski in the Duo Discus XLT as daily winner; 209 km with a speed of 104 km./h. They started at 13.41 and finished at 15.42.
The other Discus, a T, flown by team Asger/Miles flew further,[217 km] started nearly an hour later [14.30] and finished an hour later [16.41] ; speed 99.62 km./h.
Task 2 ; racing task from 132 km……the Duo Discus T did well again …THEY WON the day with 90 km./h , nearly 10 k faster than runner up Lasse in an LS 8.[82 km./h.]
Only 14 starters and from them 4 were out.
Task 3; 128.70 km.…pretty marginal day with speed around 70 km./h which says enough. Late start between 3.30 and 4 PM , not all started and from those 10 who did, 3 were out.
Task 4;121 km…..12 pilots choose to fly on this last pretty tricky day, 7 were out and 5 finished.
Michael Mix in the LS3a won the day; speed 88 km./h.
Mathias Valentin ,who topped the overall list ,in his LS 8 was out after 78 km and was in the end on spot 3!
Filip in the Duo Discus XLT, was 3d on the last day and moved up to SPOT ONE and…..WINNER of the CUP.
Lasse Edslev had a less good day as well, he was 3d overall but moved on this last day to spot 5by being , after an out-landing after 78 km..
All final scores pretty close;
1. Filip in Duo Discus XLT with 1.378 points.
2. Team Asger/Miles in Duo Discus T with 1.371 p.
3. Mathias Valentin in LS 8 with 1.348 p.
Their last comment;
“Rigtig god stemning og måske bliver Arnborg Påskecup også en ting næste år.”
I presume the translation means “the atmosphere was really great and till next year.”

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Last Wednesday , after that beautiful Monday April 3, [ 5x a 1000 plus] full of cloud street over parts of Europe, 2 pilots still managed to fly a 1000 from Grabenstetten in Germany in an 18 m ASG 29 E and from Grenoble in France in an ASH 31/21 m.
A DUO-DISCUS even flow 866 km [ 738 FAI triangle]!!!!! They reached 1744 AGL / 2106 MSL and started from Weinheim in Germany.
One day later on April 6, still good thermals but also wave over the Alps up to nearly 4000 m MSL ; 2 wave flights over several European countries, both in a Nimbus 3/4 DM and just over 1000 km. starting at Lienz Nikolsdorf in Austria . Also from Trieben in Austria a 1000 in an ASH 31 /21 m.
From Germany several “nearly” 1000 km flights.[3 over 900 km in Ventus 3 M and 1 in EB 29]
The EASTER-weekend was good for many. See below!

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VINTAGE flying!
From Lasham ,this Easter weekend a recently restored 1942 Schweizer TG3a by Gary Pullen, became airborne, behind a tug…..the first flight ever of the type in the UK .
Gary flew the TG3a for 25 minutes .”the glider needs two hands to bank, which makes some sense given the Waco glider that the pilots were due to fly after training on the TG-3.
The glider will now undertake a flight test program at the hands of Richard Moyse before becoming a part of the GHC flying fleet” [Gliding Heritage Center]

The UK started with the nice weather, on Good Friday and the rest of Europe was still waiting for their clear CU skies , to remove the overcast from West to East. Look at this;

What an Easter weekend we are having! Nearly 300 glider launches across the past two days and several thousand kilometres flown by the cross country pilots from the grid pictured on the runway here by Roy P.
Whilst the forecast is slightly trickier on Easter Sunday, we expect yet another busy flying day!

The weather here in The Netherlands over Easter was not as sunny as expected, though some areas enjoyed SUN.
Easter Saturday showed only 2 flights , but Easter Sunday had 53 pilots who were willing to fly; The ARCUS M from Soesterberg flew 602 km [ 500 FAI triangle]. Germany still had some cloud streets, so most Soesterberg pilots flew direction East into Germany.
SO…..PRETTY GOOD EASTER SUNDAY!

Enough news more next Wednesday, specially about the prestigious PRIBINA CUP.

Cheers Ritz