Post 1.530 on August 21 2024

Wednesday, My regular publishing day , but as you might have seen I try to publish every day. When you missed it , you just scroll down.
We just continue and concentrate on the biggest championship in our sport THE WGC.

Uvalde Texas..Garner Field, United States
18 August 2024 – 31 August 2024

August 21 flying day 3;
Arne wrapped the day in a few words;” We actually all made it back just before sunset. All so sweaty, dusty and not at little relieved. Final glide in the 25kph head wind from up north in the Texan Hills and the last 90km home was a beautiful sight with all the 18m gliders on glide in varying heights and all bent on making it home in a very intense atmosphere.“
When I had a quick look yesterday evening, to check if the scores were still the same, I noticed 650 km tasks for today. But they were changed at the grid, meaning later launches and starts AND finishes whilst the predicted “stop” of thermal-activity was at 7 PM..

18 m; 3.45 AAT…..with most starts at around 14.45 and finishes at around 19.30 ,the 18 m pilots had to fly for the set 3.45 minutes AAT. The later finish time “forced” some pilots to finish lower than they wanted or hoped for. In total 4 from the 32 starters did not finish. And among them experienced good pilots as Manu from Belgium and Lukasz from Poland, who flew 464 km. but had to use the engine to get back at the field.
Interesting!!!! 2 Pilots had the equal 1000 daily points with different start and finish times;
Simon Schröder from Germany, 506.14 km and a speed of 128.12 km./h [start at 15.42.13] and Radek, [start at 15.45] who flew there in 2012 as well and was 3d in open class then ; 485.41 km with 128.09 km/h. Most finished within 10 minutes from each other, which must have been a great sight.
Matthew was 5th , behind Stefan from Germany and Christophe from France and being an expert with weather , he created SkySight, his comment before the flight was interesting as well:
“I had a lot of questions at briefing today “why does SkySight say the task is impossible?”, and I guess after 2 hours on the grid watching the sniffer we got the answer.
The first task was… interesting, 650km in the low blue starting at 2pm, but the B task is 3:45 AAT with gate opening ~3:30pm (end of thermals expected 6:30pm). So, let’s see what happens, but I have a feeling it’s going to be the deciding day of the contest.”
As said he was 5th for the day but still a bit worried……
“We made it! We only got final glide from a bit of thermal wave on the top of the last climb. See the gaggle of 20 gliders all together for the best LD glide. I had a very solid result, having started early, turned a bit further then joined the back of the gaggle and fought my way back to the front. A couple others did so but further and will get a few points on me, but I’m pretty happy to have had an ultra-clean flight on a filthy task.”
His mate Lumpy mentioned; “;”It was 41 deg on the ground and felt like much more ..!
No Cu today which had most pilots a bit nervous as much of the task area has very little out landing options. Which brings me to the next point … all the gliders in Open and 20 mtr class have engines, either self launching or turbo’s ( piston or Jet ) All bar one glider in 18 mtr class has an engine, all the rest are Jet, piston or electric RES. I don’t recall going to a competition where 99% of the fleet had a means propulsion. Does this change the way we task set ? I know it changes the way you fly as a pilot. Sure they don’t always work …. But most of the time they do.
Speaking of which, every class today, had pilots using their engines to get home ! Thankfully not me, so a great day.”

20m multi-seat; 3.45 AAT….16 started and 10 finished, tough day for the 2-seaters with starts at around 15.35. Also in this class some low finishes but still landings at 19.40!!!
Good day for my Aussie mates Adam and Keith, winning the day; 448.44 km with 111.77 km./h.
Adam; “We had a late change of task on the grid, we calculated the gate to open at 15:30. No big deal right? Only that it was a 3.75hr AAT & that the end of thermals was predicted to be at 19:00.. Which turned out to be exactly true, because it was one very long final glide from altitude to cross the line at 19:40 & end of daylight declared for 20:00. Great to be home, that’s for sure!”
” We caught a climb at approx 2500’agl, which was 2kts & built into 3-4kts. The gaggle quickly joined us from below. The climb pettered out & we pushed into wind, got another surge, almost passed it up, but took an explorative turn, which turned into 4kts & up another 2000′ we went! This was the decisive moment, it kept us on top & in control.“
more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Good to see that USA team Sarah and Karl were runner up in their ARCUSM. They flew 2 km more and missed out on 2 km./h in time. Difference in points; 23.

And a picture shared by Pasi from the 2 seater class;

Open; 4 hour AAT....The German pilots in their EB’s changed their podium position, this time Felipe Levin was the daily winner and Michael 3d with in the middle, Peter Szabo in the JS5.
The top 5 had 2 EB’s and 3 JS5 ’s.
Only 1 from 17 was out and mind you , start-times at 3 PM and ALL finishes were after 19.00 the last at 19.24. So 24 minutes after the thermals were supposed to stop and half an hour before sunset.
Here is Rich looking back on the day:
“The Open Class on the other hand were the first class to go on task. Again, everyone left early after the gate opened. Most of the class found themselves below 600m (2,000ft AGL) in the northern section of the task area. Climbs averaged in the 2m/s (4 kt) range over most of the task area until the last 2 legs.

and in general.
It was always just one more climb and they would have all made it home. Congratulations to AXO and all the pilots who flew today. It was a very difficult day, but everyone was safe back in Uvalde at the end of the day. It was unique to have all the cars leaving the airfield in the dark after a very quick securing of all the ships.Tomorrow will be another day, and the weather should be stronger and the achieved heights higher than today. There are still many days left in these Worlds. Some of the leaders have gambled on getting a climb at the right time, and so far, it has paid off.”

Had some problems with my blog , it stayed grey,[only the blog not the laptop!!!] but I found out after an hour what was wrong. So a late Wednesday morning blog BUT A BLOG!!!!!

To finish a picture with Baldrick on it. He is a legend under the crew members and already as long as I know him ,crewing for Pete Harvey ,this time in 18 m, but in the past mostly in open class.

AND, finally 2 pictures from my album from 1991 in Uvalde where my daughter and a lot of her international friends had a splendid time.
PE with tubing! All went in a bus up to a high spot and down on tubes!!! I did it too and had arms on the inside, as strawberries .

From the opening when Miss Texas was in one of the cars and a “lot of other misses”.
Sorry I could n’t get the “misses” Straight up!!!!!

Post 1.529 on August 20 2024

Tuesday August 20 task 2; 4hr AATs for all classes today in record breaking temperatures mostly flying in ‘Blue’ conditions, though there were clouds!!!!
18 m; 4 hour AAT... Germany also has a lot of top pilots, In the past they shared a lot of news , pictures and blogs, nowadays it is pretty quiet on their side.
Not qua flying; Stefan Langer and Simon Schroeder combine their efforts and today it was their day with a spot 1 and 6.  Stefan Langer in the AS33es was the daily best and somewhere in the end he was faster than Simon. They started at 14.26 , like many other pilots, but Simon [ Ventus 3e] finished 4 minutes later and flew less kilometres ; difference…Stefan 613.83 km with 151.97 km./h and Simon, 585.96 km. with 146.49 km./h.
Very good to see that “our” Sjaak {Selen] , brother from the team coach Baer, was runner up!!; 597.46 km with 148.84 km./h!!!
My Aussie mates did well too; Lumpy [ this is his very first WGC] was on spot 3 and Matthew on an equal spot 4 with Manu [Litt, a very experienced WGC pilot] from Belgium. They all fly JS3 .
All 32 pilots started and finished.
Matthew always has great analyses here is the one from today;
“A highly unusual day today – almost every competitor was undertime on the 4hr AAT. The first turn was blue and weak, and most turned immediately towards the better conditions in later circles, even though the maximum remaining task speed was “only” 160kph. I was certain they were making a major error so extended a bit further but not too far in case everyone else had seen something huge that I hadn’t. After it became increasingly obvious we were all undertime, I set myself on cruise control and enjoyed a leisurely guided tour from the amazingly talented Pôle France Planeur team.
Incredible watching the three(!) team pilots work together so effortlessly.
My extension in the first circle placed me well in the points, though less than I might have had if I’d had more faith in my on judgement presently…Exhausted already after only two days but nearly 11 hours in the air. Ominous.” Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
Matthew shares a video as well on his site.
Lumpy; “The 18mtr task today was a 4 hr AAT with 420 kms as a min and 630kms as the max distance. The tricky bit today was navigating the blue holes which covered the first leg and as we headed south the conditions got better and better. The key today was pushing as far as you dare into the first sector as it was much softer than the rest of the task, this was to ensure you didn’t come in under time even though we maxed out the rest of the task ….” more on Tocumwal Soaring Centre
Rich Owen;“The 18 Meter Class had an Assigned Area Task that was 524km (325mi). After the start they went east to Kennedy Regional, southwest to Silverhorn Ranch, west to Lewis Ranch and to the finish. The key to this task was the first leg. There was cu on the first leg, slightly better to the south side. Unfortunately, the geometry that resulted in turning early in the first 30km radius area caused many pilots to be under time. The extra 40km (24mi) flown in the first turn area was the difference from being in the top 5 or having a less than optimum day. The top 5 pilots all made extra distance in this circle and avoided that error.”
Jonker Sailplanes; ” The JS3 Rapture is the top choice in the 18m class at the World Gliding Championships, with 21 out of 32 competitors flying this model. Jonker Sailplanes has now produced 212 JS3 Rapture gliders, where half of them are equipped with the new RES (rear electric propulsion) system as their preferred propulsion method. The dominance of JS gliders in the competition reflects their exceptional performance and popularity among top pilots.“
With this news they shared this picture [not from Uvalde]

20m multi-seat; 4 hour AAT…..More mates flying GOOD; this time Andy and Wolfgang from Austria in the ARCUS M. Lutz & Janowitsch flew 565.60 km with 137.22 km./h. They started late at 14.44 , whilst the S African team started at 14.04. The Polish team in the ASG 32 MI, was runner up AND,…my Dutch mates Erik and Mathijs, were on a good spot 3!!!!
All 16 teams started and finished!
One was launched a bit later; here is Adam:
“Yup, that’s us, on the grid after everyone had launched. Thanks to Dylan, Tim & Ron for getting us underway so fast. Everything & everyone was cool, calm & collected in the 20min turn-around.
What happened, the undercarriage door bungee let loose & we were met with a load drowning sound. Thanks also to Matty Scutter for confirming our thoughts in flight .
Back in the air, we started comfortably at our pre-determined time. We identified a weak area on the 3rd & 4th leg that we had to cross twice, so an early start was selected so we could pass here with the strongest thermals. As it turns out, seems the later start was as good as our start, but I felt our time was less risky.“
More on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

And the Finish team had troubles too; Here is Pasi;
“It get’s interesting when your LX9070 dies before the last turn area. Then you go blind back home 5 min overtime and lost the 2nd place. Oh, and we did not have working vario. We had one vario like instrument which did what we wanted. Defence win.” Pasi Pulkkinen

open class; 4 hour AAT…And,…I was waiting already for him to win a day. So many times WORLD CHAMPION ,Michael Sommer in the EB29R. Daily winner with 667.93 km with 164.53 km./h. which was 10 k more and 5km./h than runner up Francois! Our Dutch open class topper is in a good flow with a spot 3 yesterday and spot 2 today. TOP!!!!!
Felipe Levin , another German world champion was 3d. Somewhere they must have lost each other too. Both fly the EB 29R.
All 17 started and finished.
Some were lucky with 3 m lift at 6.30 PM on the last leg home, others missed it and struggled a bit, read lost speed!
A bit of a weird JS day; The first 4 finishers were EB’s. Then a JS1 CTJ /21 m on spot 5 and on spot 9, 11 and 14 the JS 5.
Rich on the open class; “Open Class had a 616km nominal Assigned Area Task. After the start they went southeast to Uno, southwest to Callaghan, northwest to Queso, northeast to Canyon Ranch and then home. The first leg was pretty good for the top pilots who started early. It seemed all the legs were straightforward for the Open Class and the final glide was a little soft for some and nice for others. One or two good climbs for the top 5 pilots made the day for them.” more on WGC Uvalde 2024

There is a very interesting interview from Paul with Keith Essex and his female co pilot Marju Rossi. Marju is born in Finland and since a few years, 13 to be precisely, she lives in N.Z. Keith is USA born, Alaska, but adopted now by NZ, though he still flies a lot in the USA mostly from Minden in Nevada, where he flies only LONG tasks, that’s why I call him the kilometre-eater.
Paul Remde

Tomorrow is another day; CU then.

Cheers Ritz

Sunrise in Uvalde.

Post 1.528 on August 19 2024

IT STARTED!!!!!!! This interesting, 38th WGC, qua pilots, setting and weather , has had it’s first day and as we all know a first day can make or break you. But,…on the other hand ,”it’s only over after the last glider is in on the last day” .
It’s easy to write after I wake up in the morning fresh and well rested. Tasks have been flown ,whilst I was a sleep, so I try when hands and neck co-operate to write a bit more than the doctor allows me, as as always “old news is no news” certainly not when important comps are on.
Here we go, looking at the 3 classes ;

38th WGC
 18 August 2024 – 31 August 2024
Uvalde – Garner Field, United States,

Sunday August 18 task 1 ;
18 m; 532.63 km…..When you start a WGC with a speed of 154.04 km./h , then you have done something good! The French ,for sure motivated and coached by the very experienced TC Eric, who was there already earlier, started with 3 pilots, at 14.52, not too early, not too late and flew themselves in the daily top 3.
Christophe Abadie was the daily winner followed by Anne Ducarouge [ 153.09 km./h ] and JDBarois.[152.60 km./h. ]All 3 fly a JS3.
Stefan Langer only lost 20 points this day in his AS 33me [152.45 km./h.] and Arne Boye Moeller was 5th with 149.74 km./h.
Only 1 pilot from 32 in this class did not finish.

20m multi-seat; 4 hour AAT…..16 teams started, so 32 pilots up in the air and  Keith Essex & Marju Rossi [New Zealand] in the ASG 32MI were the daily best; 570.71 km with 140.14 km./h. Kilometre- eater Keith, strikes straight away.
Fine result as well for good old , with respect, Karl Striedeck and his much younger team pilot Sarah Arnold. I know they have practiced a lot together, so I expect a lot from these 2 top pilots.
Except for the last 2 pilots ALL pilots flew over 130 km./h, so all pretty close on this first day. Highest points achieved 1000 lowest still 706!!

open class; 526.75 km… We were ALL looking forward to see how the “fine/petit ” JS5 would fly against the “mighty” EB. That was clear on day 1. Daily winner Sylvain Gerbaud in the EB 29R [start at 14.46] flew around with 159.63 km./h. BUT,….Oscar Goudriaan [start at 14.29] in the JS5 was runner up with 156.15 km./h. so not a big difference with the big bird with long wings.
However he had to share the points , each 959, with Dutch hope Francois Jeremiasse.
Only 1 day, but we keep an eye on this “matter”. Interesting. Both are top pilots.
From 17 only 1 pilot was “out”.

Very much news on this WGC, so I try to share a few words from a few, per day, the rest you can read in their blogs
Matthew; “Cracked the seal on WGC2024, with about 900 points for the day. I had made the perfect start into straightforward cu conditions, nearly catching the lead gaggle on the first leg, but pushed too hard to seal the deal and joined a climb they were marking too low, missing the bubble and having to take something weaker.” Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

Adam; “930pts to kick off the competition, very pleased! We set off with the Brits & French at altitude, running nice energy lines out of the gate. Funny though, I never felt at any point in the flight, that I was pushing. I never really trusted the sky today, hence the 100kt average cruise speed. The sky looked similar on the practice days, yet was happy to cruise 110kts. Anyways, seemed to work well today & kept us out of trouble.” Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

Pasi; “First Worlds contest day in the books. 4hr AAT. Had an awesome start (started last) and the first leg was booming until it wasn’t. Had avg speed to first turn 150+ kph. Didn’t take the 6 knots when I should of. Got bit low, 2nd leg had 2 choices. Take more kms to south and come back over blue hole or go norther. We took the ladder. Really didn’t catch a good climb until after 2nd turn. 4m/8kt avg to cloud base and the throttle on.” Pasi Pulkkinen is from Finland where I got to know him his blog; Gliderpasi

Rich Owen from the media team; “The gliders were ready early this morning and placed on the runway/taxiway well before they needed to be. The weighing team did a great job getting all the gliders across the scales in a timely manner.”
“The pilot’s meeting was a little more serious as the safety brief was given by Mark Huffstutler.”
“I hope everyone enjoyed watching the flights using live tracking. We have several links to watch on our platforms. You should try puretrack.io. It seems to provide the best experience.”
Much more on WGC Uvalde 2024 the late report.

“What an incredible start to the competition at the 2024 World Gliding Championships! The JS5s soared to new heights, showcasing their remarkable performance and precision in the skies. Pilots flying these state-of-the-art gliders demonstrated exceptional skill, making the first official day truly unforgettable!
From optimized speed to outstanding thermaling capabilities, the JS5 proves itself as a formidable contender. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the competition holds for these amazing aircraft!
Jonker Sailplanes

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCMENT!!!Yesterday we posted that the Dutch Team attempted to depart with the FAI flag at the opening ceremonies. The report was in error, the Dutch Team DID NOT ATTEMPT to steal the flag. A young, unidentified gentleman who was wearing an all-orange shirt was the culprit. I apologize to the Dutch Team for the error.” WGC Uvalde 2024
I could n’t imagine already who could do such a thing!!!

That’s day 1 with task 1 covered. More tomorrow;
Tasks for Monday August 19 are
Task 2 18 m; 4 hour AAT, same for the 2 seaters and open class.

Great areal pictures by Paul Remde who flew for a quick over- view from gliders at the airfield with contest manager Mark Huffstutler, in his Helicopter. Rich was in it too.
I got to know Mark during 2 comps in 1991 as TC for the Dutch team and in 2012 as editor for Soaring Cafe. He is a very loyal, friendly warm person totally involved with ALL what flies!!!
Paul did some interviews with pilots as well as I noticed on FB.WGC Uvalde 2024
You can view all the photos from the flight on Flickr using this link:
|https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBE2EY

Here are already 2;

CU tomorrow with news about task 2.

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.527 on August 18 2024

When my guest had left, I hoped for pictures from the prizegiving in Tabor.
AND,…yes there were enough! To be honest their social media were TOP.
Also the winning teams were ON.
So THANK YOU ONCE more this time to Tomas Rendla for sharing the EGC album!!!!!!

Here are the 3 teams who were the best during this EGC and received the team Cup.;
1. Poland with their , for a long time, TOP TC with 900.85 points.
2. Czech Rep with 877.61 points.
3. Germany with 875.49 points.
Finland, The Netherlands and The United Kingdom were on 4 ,5 and 6.

The European Champion in 15 meter and his 2-3-toppers :
1. Lukasz Grabowski from Poland in SZD-56-2 Diana 2 with 8,728 points.
2. Pawel Wojciechowski from Poland in Diana 2 fes with 8,526 points.
3. Karel Novak from Czech Rep in Ventus 2ax with 8.508 points.

The STANDARD class champion and number 2 and 3;
1. Robin Sittmann from Germany in Discus 2a with 8,586 points.
2. Jan Pavlik from Czech Rep in LS8b with 8,571 points.
3. Miloslav Cink from Czech Rep in LS8b with 8,541 points.

The CLUB CLASS CHAMPION and top 2 and 3;
1.  Jacek Flis from Poland in LS3WL with 9,763 points.
2. Tomas Suchanek from Czech Rep in ASW 20 with 9,531 points.
3. Gvidas Sabeckis from Lithuania in ASW 20a with 9,458 points.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW champions, TO THE NUMBERS 2 AND 3 and THE NUMBERS 4 TO 10 WHO GOT A VERY WELL DESERVED DIPLOMA!!!!!
AND to all pilots who safely flew over 11 days in sometimes demanding/ challenging weather circumstances ,[ changing from good to bad or the other way around] and 8 days in a row in the last week!!!

Off to Uvalde now, where I was in 1991 and 2012 but NOT this year. Too old!!!!

So keep following the next big competition the 38th WGC in Uvalde Texas, where they had 6 good practice days, so when I am a sleep they start flying. More soon.

Got already a few pictures in my box and many video’s , but I can’t place the video’s. Here is the picture however from the Dutch team , TEXAS STYLE.

Team France with a lot of TOPPERS and Eric Napoleon to the r.

Team Italy

Team UK;

My Aussie mates with their guest family;

Briefing number 1 of this WGC in the great air-conditioned sport-hall. I normally sat on the balcony.

Here is Rich {Owen}, who’s writing style I really like and I might often copy and paste him. He belongs to the media team;
“Early Report
Opening Ceremony Day
The parade is now complete. The opening ceremonies are done, and the FAI flag has been raised over Uvalde Texas. To the credit of the Dutch Team, they almost stole the FAI flag in record time. As the FAI representative was helping us move chairs (thank you very much for the help), one of the Dutch team members grabbed the flag off a chair. This action was only 3 minutes after the flag was raised during the ceremonies. Unfortunately, he was caught, and the flag was secured.
Tonight, is the kickoff party at La Paloma, which looks like a ranch. Western wear, boots and a mechanical bull will be available for the pilot’s enjoyment. This afternoon at lunch I have heard many Captains briefing their pilots the fate that will meet them if they ride the bull.
Tonight, I will give you a weather update and the high points of the party. Until then, have a great day off.
Cheers,

Rich Owen
Media Team

The competition starts today;
Tasks;
18 m; 532.63 km…..
2 seaters; 4 hour AAT…..
open class; 526.75 km…..

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.526 on August 19 2024

TABOR 22d FAI EGC
3 August 2024 – 17 August 2024

The last days in Tabor must have been not only exciting , but also tiring.
In “my” time ,6 consecutively days of flying , was the norm, nowadays it can even be 8 , as in Tabor and that in the heat.

Anyhow they flew on Wednesday, as I mentioned, but you did not get the results of that day.| So we continue;
Wednesday August 14 task 9 out of 11;
15 m; 2.45 AAT….3 International pilots in the top 3 and all of them have won comps already. Uwe Wahlig in the Ventus 3 T, was the daily winner with 351.87 km in 2.52 so a speed of 122.26 km./h. That was 7 km./h faster than Lucasz [Grabowski] from Poland and Rasmus from Denmark.
27 participants and 2 HC pilots flew the task and 7 were “out”.
Our Dutch mate, Stephan who was proudly on spot 1 overall for many days, went to spot 2 behind Lucasz Stephan was unfortunately on spot 15 for the day.
After so many days still incorrect PEV’s.
Standard; 2.30 AAT....and French pilot Julien Duboc was the daily best with 279 km and a speed of 111.40 km./h. Just a tad faster than the German pilots Robin and Simon with 110 km./h.
32 and 1 HC pilot started and 4 did not finish.
Robin passed Jan overall due to his runner up spot , though Jan was on good daily spot 5 , the difference is very small; 6.024 for 6.007!!!!
Even more incorrect PEV’s in this class.
club; 3 hour AAT…7 were “out” in this class but they all flew between 230 and 279 km. A pity. The daily best were the Slovakian pilots in their ASW 20; 98 km/ h over 314 km. Josef Kozar and David Darnady.
The overall top 3 stayed as it was over the last days with 2 more tasks to go.

Michaela ‘s words on this day;
“Our Competition Day 9 was full of surprises for the competitors. All the classes flew an AAT task with standard class having 2:30, 15m class 2:45, and club class flying 3 hours. The day started with blue thermals with ceilings at 1000m AGL after release, but during the launches the conditions improved gradually and some of the pilots got so lucky, that they managed to find a wave and climbed over 2700 m AMSL. Fortunately, for the ones who did not find the wave there was a pre-start altitude limit of 1800 m AMSL to decrease the possible effect of this luck.
During the task most of the pilots headed south, and found a convergence line along the Šumava mountains, but getting back was the key to success as many pilots arrived before the minimum time, and had to use very weak climbs to just touch the last areas and arrive home safely.
It was a tough day, so we hope today [ Thursday] will be more rewarding for the less unfortunate ones yesterday, and we already look forward to your success on another racing task.“
Let’s look at that Thursday straight away;

Thursday August 15 task 10 out of 12 and 7th consecutively day….penultimate day!

15 m; 375.61 km….a 1000 points day, so much to win or loose. Marius Pluscauskas from Lithuania was the daily winner and the 1000 points went into his “pocket”. Polish pilot Lucasz G and Pawel were on 2 and 3 whilst Uwe and Rasmus hold on.
27 started and 5 were “out”.
Lucasz leads overall with 1 day to go, and Uwe past our Stephan to spot 2.
I read about Uwe, that he was lucky to fly along a huge shower “giving” him a line of uplift along the sector line. An average of 180 km./h over the last half hour, not bad!!! [courtesy Sander Terpstra Dutch TC]
But 6 pilots [ Lucasz, Uwe, Stephan, Pawel, Karel and Marius] still have chances as the overall scores are between 7.504 and 7.5800 except for Lucasz who leads now with nearly 150 points. I think Uwe thinks; “I can do that” and Lucasz and Pawel think so too. Exciting last day.

standard; 403.38 km…..Robin Sittmann from Germany won the day and the 1000 points and after task 7 he moved slowly more and more to the top overall. After task 7 from 9 to 6, from 6 to 3 and to 2 and on the last but one day to the TOP.
“Disaster “struck for Norbert who proudly leaded the overall top for many days, but today on task 10 he did not finish! He was out after 216 km loosing nearly 700 points and dropping from 1 to 10. I can’t remember an EGC or WGC or JWGC or WWGC , with such big differences in scores.
All in all 10 did not finish. Also our hope Robin ,who was out after 364 km. and Frank after 185 km.
Robin leads with “only” 18 points on 3 strong Czech pilots, Jan, Miloslav and Lukas and believe me they will do their utmost best to win this EGC. Robin may expect help from his mate Simon, now on spot 5.

Club;  407.64 km….Roelof Corporaal [The Netherlands] gained the 1000 points and I can only be happy with that as I know him as an excellent pilot.; 97.14 km./h. in his LS7WL. This EGC started badly for him as on task 1 he only flew 61 km for 114 points , due to changed weather conditions.
Today he started very EARLY , [ 12.57] long time ahead of the gaggles, [ mainly at 13.30!!!] , could fly his own race and won the day. LIKE!!!!
The last days the 3 pilots on top in the overall scores hold their places, with a daily spot 11 for Tomas, [ 915 points] 13 for Jacek [911] and 18 for Gvidas. [879]
39 started and 6 were out.

Why some pilots got into had trouble is explained by Michaela;
“our pilots successfully completed another racing task, that was up to 407 km long. The weather improved compared to the previous days, so sniffer was not even necessary, and all the pilots took off into a sky full of cumuli. In 15m class and in club class it proved to be beneficial to leave in an earlier interval, and use the full day, as the weather turned into blue at several sections of the task, and the pilots had to deviate a lot. In standard class, majority of the pilots started the task after 14:10 and even though as a group they flew fast, they had to optimise with 0.5 m thermals on the final glide.”

Friday, August 16 task 11 out of 13!!!!!!LAST DAY!!!!

Michaela starts the day optimistic;
“the weather is promising for another exciting task, so we do hope our pilots stay safe even on the last competition day, and simply enjoy their final flight at the EGC.”
So do I.

15m; 3.15 AAT....Danish pilot Filip Bojanowski in the AS33es won the last day;131 km./h. over 455 km!!!! Lukas and Pawel followed which says enough of the final scores. No worries they are excellent pilots.
Uwe lost 107 points and Rasmus 130.
All pilots started and 3 were out.

FINAL RESULTS in 15 m. after 11 out of 13 days;
1. Lukasz Grabowski Poland in SZD-56-2 Diana 2 with 8,728 points. CONGRATULATIONS Lukas!!!!European CHAMPION!!!!!
2. Pawel Wojciechowski Poland in Diana 2 fes with 8,526 points and vice European champion.
3. Karel Novak Czech Rep in Ventus2ax with 8,508 points.
Moving from 2 to 4 was the result for Uwe Wahlig,[Germany] who had an equal 4th spot with  Marius Pluscauskas from Lithuania.
Also worthwhile mentioning is the 6th result from “our” Dutch pilot Stephan who leaded the overall scores for several days.

Standard; 3 hour AAT…The 2 pilots who had to take some less good results during this EGC, as Jeroen from Belgium and Norbert from Romania, showed what the can on this last day; number 1 and 2!!!!!!Jeroen Jennen won the day in his Discus 2T ; speed 126.77 km./h. over 382 km. Norbert Scarlat in Discus 2A ;125.29 km./h.[376 km]
Another “weird” result for Aude who won a day and now was on 31 , one but last. Very inconsistent weather. Robin was 19th but hold on to the title with 15 points.

Final results in standard class after 11 out of 13 days;
1.  Robin Sittmann Germany in Discus 2a with 8,586 points. EUROPEAN CHAMPION!!!!Good on you.
2. Jan Pavlik Czech Rep in LS8 b with 8,571 points.
3. Miloslav Cink Czech Rep in LS 8b with 8,541 points
4. Lukas Kriz Czech Repin LS8a with 8,533 points all very close so worth mentioning.
Also for junior Henry from the UK who was 5th with 8,486 points.

Club; 3.30 AAT… the “poor little ones” get al lot of kilometres to fly. Also today; Hugo Corbille won with a nice speed of 111 km./h over 398 km!!! In his LS7 neo.
From 40, 2 did not start anymore and 2 were “out”.
The top 3 did not change Jacek and Tomas kept a eye on each other and did that so well that they were equal on a 3d daily spot.

Overall scores after 11 out of 13 days;
1. Jacek Flis Poland in LS3WL with 9,763 points. EUROPEAN CHAMPION!!! Great job Jacek!
2. Tomas Suchanek Czech Rep in ASW 20 with 9,531 points.
3.  Gvidas Sabeckis Lithuania in ASW 20 a with 9,458 points.
JUNIOR Kim from Finland was on spot 4 with 9,354 points. Good on him!!!

For the last time junior pilot, great, observative writer for the comps and good photographer; Michaela Rendlová
“In the meantime, let’s say an enormous thank you to the organisation team here in Tábor. Huge thanks to all the young, always helpful, and cheerful, staff members, who took care of all grid procedures each day. Thanks to the tow pilots, who stayed very concentrated and caring throughout the whole competition. Thanks to the local club members, who organised all the background operations and enabled the competition to run smoothly and seamlessly. A big thanks goes also to the FAI representatives, who were always around to keep an eye on everything and provide a helping hand in any troubles. Consequently, a tremendous job was also done by the ones often unseen, like the deputy director and starter Tomas Rendla, the brilliant scorer Hynek Chovan, and the funniest meteorologist on planet Jan Horák. Thanks guys for your never-ending effort. And the biggest thanks goes to the competition director, Matej Rendla, for his professional, yet attentive and helpful attitude, and for all his time devoted to the championship during the past three weeks, but also much longer before.”

I was n’t there, but I know how tough an stressful an organisation can be , so indeed THANK you also on behalf of the “followers” and readers at home.
———————————————————————————

38th FAI WGC
Uvalde Garner Field in Texas
18 August 2024 – 31 August 2024

Wish I was there.
1991;
–Thinking of the Purple Sage , where we went for line dancing, after some practice first in front of our motel 6.
–seeing Baer’s happy face ,and that from his wife Chris[ R.I.P] when he was for the 2d time world champion and I congratulated him as “his “TC on the side of the road,
–listening to the music from Brad Edwards in front of the Hilton [hotel in the middle of the night,] who was world champion that year too,
–the final party in the Huffstutler mansion with huge garden and with all the guests it still seemed small, –the air conditioned-auditorium where the briefing was every day and where we heard for the first time about loggers [little black boxes with all info, so no barograph or camera anymore]
–Still thinking of young Anssi [Finland] who got killed in an air- collision , a whole life in front of him and it stopped there at the WGC he had dreamed of.

2012;
–writing for the boys Rand and Bill from soaring café, getting to know the USA team really well, as I was somewhere their guest due to Bill who flew in this WGC,
–Mark Huffstutler who invited me kindly in his office to avoid the heat under the tent, BUT,….. only for an hour as others thought I should not be there, [that still hurts] ,
–the Italian party in a beautiful house ,where I went with Tilo and his brother Ralf, who I, after more than 10 years did not recognise,[by the way he did not recognise me too,] but we quickly found out who we were and had a FUN NIGHT
–The party for only pilots and TC’s who were involved in the 1991 WGC. Quite a few, interested to see how many there are now for the 3d time.
–The sing-along evening organised by team Australia with a sterling performance by Ed Kilbourne.,

Great to see more and more news on the internet from several bloggers about the WGC in Uvalde.
It will not be difficult to keep you informed in ” my way”.
When you want to read more about the home team here are the links
Racing Page #usgliderracing
US Teams Page #ussoaringteams
WGC Uvalde Page #USTeamUvalde2024

Get guests for the weekend so quickly this last blog. Mind you scores might still not be official but it is 9 Pm, so…..maybe they are now!

Pictures from the prize giving, I hope and more from Uvalde on Monday.
The osteopath really helped me, 2 days ago, but I should not over -do things. Maybe I am doing that already…..

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.525 on August 14 2024

WGAC,….mmm…what was that again??
And when I looked at it better, it was easy….
I did know “we” were pretty good in it, but GOLD…..
Yes we ,[ I am still in Olympic Games-mood ] ,The Dutch, I mean, have a new WORLD CHAMPION.
His name ; Lars Hofman and he flew in the recent “World Advanced Glider Aerobatic Championships“.

What did he achieve?
1. Flight 1 [known] gold
2. Flight 2 [unknown] 4th
3. Flight 3 [Free] silver
4. Flight 4 [unknown] gold
5. Flight 5 [unknown] gold
6. Flight 6 [unknown] gold
UNKNOWNS combined; gold
Individual result GOLD medals and CUP!!!!

Also the Dutch team was number 1; GOLD

Oschatz [Germany] was the place to be between July 31 and August 10!! They hosted the 26th FAI World Glider Aerobatic Championship and the 14th FAI World Advanced glider Aerobatic Championship.
Lars flew a MDM-1 Fox and there were 34 pilots in this class including 6 ladies. WOW!!!!!!
I don’t know anything about this sport, only that it looks a bit “scary” ,but also fantastic. I do know however Marianne and Sape Miedema, who are heavily involved with this sport and in The Netherlands important “engines” behind it.
So congratulations to all of them.

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The 22d EGC in Tabor.
3 August 2024 – 17 August 2024

We continue where I stayed.
Sunday August 11; task 6 from 8.
15 m;  341.45 km….27 started and 3 did not finish and those 3 were already very good in the earlier days; Rasmus from Denmark dropped from 14 to 19 , Ricky from Italy from 7 to 15 and Vladimir from Slovakia 12 to 20 !! Ouch,….That’s not funny!!!!
Dutch pilot Stephan Grunder, won the day; 109.32 km./h . He is flying really good!!!! Though he was not the daily very best. HC pilot Henrique from Brasil was a tiny tad faster; 109.37 km./h., but to give Stephan the 1000 points Enrique got 1001!!!
Standard; 325.41 km…and 1000 points for Henry [Inigo-Jones] from the UK. The JWGC brought him to Tabor in a “good flow” ! Luca from Italy was in on spot 26. All after him did not finish! His mate Lorenzo did not fly. So 6 were” out.” Among them my Belgian mate Jeroen after 257 km. Another OUCH, he dropped from 2 to 19….. bummer!!!!!
Club; 314.18 km…..  Kim Toppari, the other JWGC topper brought also his “guts” from Ostrow to Tabor and won the day; 94 03 km./h. His mate Tapio was 3d. Great to see how good Gyorgy from Hungary still performs. He was on spot 5.
39 started and 34 finished.
Michaela’s view on “things” on task 6.
“we are all grateful to our weatherman again ,as his predictions bring optimism into our otherwise negative forecasts from other models. All the classes flew over 300 km racing tasks with blue or 1/8 cumuli conditions, sometimes with cloud bases up to 1600 m AGL and 3 m/s thermals.
Nevertheless, each class had a very different experience of the day. The 15m class flew to the SE and then NE. The standard class had the task first towards NE of Tábor and then SE, and finally club class flew all the way to the borders of Czechia and Austria then up north and home.“

Monday August 12; task 7 from 9.
Michaela; ” the pilots are already on task with completely blue conditions and high temperatures, so let’s hope they at least get high enough to cool down a little bit “
A blue day, but a strong blue day means…. “no worries”.
15m; 219.04 km…..And Ricky [ Brigliadori] showed that his “out-day” was just a “mistake” as he won the day; 91.57 km./h ,after a late start at 15.31,47. In his JS3 jet with call sign LEO after his dad Leonardo; a real nice guy and friend in the past ,as was his mother. Both passed away just TOO young.
27 started and 6 did not finish. Unfortunately a less good day for “our” Stephan; spot 14 but still 13 points ahead overall on runner up Karel from Czech Rep. These 2 pilots are in the 5000 points-range now together with Lucasz [Grabowski this time] from Poland …… never under -estimate him.
The Luxembourg instruments seem in a better state; George was on 6 now.
Standard;  210.15 km….31 still in the race and 29 finished. Daily winner; Norbert Scarlat from Romania; 93 km./h. In his Discus 2A he leads the overall scores with quite some marge; 5.502 for 5.320 and 5.298 for the 2 Czech pilots Jan and Lukas. Though, we have seen pilots loose over 600 points on 1 day.
Daily runner up our Dutch Frank ; good on him ;92 km./h.
Club; 203.66 km… good to see former and maybe still, hang glider pilot Tomas Suchanek win the day with 86.60 km./h. On an overall spot 2 now.
Runners up ….the UK boys, James and Toby and even with the loss of some points, due to an incorrect PEV procedure, they were on 2 and 3.
39 started and 4 were “out” also 2 good French pilots, Nicolas and Hugo,[dropping from 2 to 9] after a late start.
From  Michaela Rendlová ;”Yesterday, the second week of our championship started with yet another racing task. Horác is keeping us optimistic and all the classes flew over 200 kilometers in completely blue conditions. Luckily, their time up there was not a complete survival game in the extreme heat as some were fortunate enough to climb up to 1300 m AGL. “

Tuesday August 13; task 8 out of 10. Something about SAFETY. I hear that this is high on the list of the organizers, but some think it stays with words only, they don’t see action!!!
Now they have promised, that who violates the rules gets penalty points. It’s already week 2 ,maybe those points should have been given EARLIER!!!!! Please stay safe!!!!
It’s hot , so concentration suffers a bit as well.
Hot here too 35 dgr.C!!!!!!
15 m; 2.45 AAT….and the Danish pilots had a good day again, it’s going up and down with several good pilots. Filip and Rasmus were on 1 and 3 with great speed ; 142 km./h and136.59 km./h with in the middle Hungarian pilot Tamas.[136.67 km./h. On task 6 our Danish mates were on spot 17 and “out”. Now they are “going up” again. From 9 to 5 and from 19 to 17. Good on them. By the way, Filip flew 400 km!!!!!!
Standard; 2.30 AAT….32 started and finished and great to see that 1 of the top French girls won the day in her Discus 2A; Aude Untersee; 142.85 km./h. She is a real good “little” pilot. Never won a WWGC, till now, but was often in the top.
Robin from Germany was runner up; 141.28 and our Belgian mate Jeroen was 3d.140 km./h Also he had an off day on task 6 with an out landing, but does n’t give up.
club; 3 hour AAT….Jacek Flis from Poland had his 3 daily win and flies pretty consistent. No secret he leads the pact with over 250 points. Today; 378 km with 125.53 km./h!!!!! He is the only one in the 7000-points- overall-marge.
All pilots started AND finished. GOOD!!!!

So after another few days of soaring and with only 3 days to go there is still a lot possible.
Here are the overall scores from today after 8 out of 10 days.
15 m; 1. Stephan Grunder from the Netherlands with 5,985 points, 2. Karel Novak from Czech Rep. with 5,917 points ,3. Lukasz Grabowski from Poland with 5,877 points.
Standard; 1. Norbert Scarlat from Romania with 6,222 points, 2. Jan Pavlik from Czech Rep. with 6,024 points ,3. Robin Sittmannfrom Germany with 6,007 points.
Club; 1. Jacek Flis from Poland with 7,079 points, 2. Tomas Suchanek from Czech Rep. with 6,751 points, 3. Gvidas Sabeckis from Lithuania with 6,665 points.

Michaela on task 8;”Thank you the WGC organisers in Uvalde for sending us here a taster of your weather. Even though the weather did not seem so at the start of the day, when the sniffer team had spent almost 2 hours searching for the first thermals in blue (and had to use the engine twice), the weather Gods have suddenly switched the thermals on in Tábor too, and at 12:45 first cumuli started appearing and so did the starts start too.”

In the evening the always successful INTERNATIONAL NIGHT was on the menu.
This is ALSO the EGC and the International night for Danish Rasmus!!! Love it. When I met him first at a JWGC long time ago, I told his mum that I expected a lot from him as pilot. Then he was still young not married and no children. Time flies. In 2018 he was world champion in club class at the Ostrow WG

Wednesday August 14 task 9 out of 11 and the 6th successive day for the pilots.
After a night with international food AND drinks, [ for crews only!!!] the pilots have to go for task 9
15 m; 2.45 AAT
Standard ;2.30 AAT
club; 3 hour AAT so same as the day before, but other directions.

—————————————————————————–

UVALDE TEXAS 2024
14 August 2024 – 30 August 2024

Looking ahead;
The last gliders have arrived in Uvalde and that is about time. The Aussies really had to wait LONG to rig their own glider, but some were fortunate enough to fly on gliders from USA mates.
Lumpy, from Tocumwal, owner nowadays of our WWII hangar, has rigged his own LP now at the Uvalde Airfield.
He keeps a blog; Tocumwal Soaring Centre and he mentioned about the delay:
“my glider has arrived and she is ready to fly tomorrow for the first time in the USA
This was the result of a mad dash to Houston this morning after I finally got a long awaited email.
It was getting rather tight, but thankfully it all came together…. I say that easy, however there was a lot of people assisting to make this happen both back in Australia and here in the states. I had a very kind offer of a glider if mine didn’t make it and the gentleman also offered to deliver it with a car and crew if needed …. Honestly thank you Gary Osoba” more in his blog.

Unofficial training is fabulous; On August 12 German pilots Stefan Langer and Simon Schroeder flew 165 km./h over 418 km. I remember Simon as a young kid with his parents eating in the same restaurant, in Uvalde as we did. His dad flew the Worlds then.

Today the official training starts and there is an official TC briefing.
The opening is on Saturday and as every year it will be BIG!!!!!!Mostly those flash, typical American huge cars are involved.
There are 66 pilots in 3 classes.; 33 in 18 m, 16 teams in multi-seat and 17 in open.

Adam started writing already in his Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
“What a fabulous day, I’d say, a classic Uvalde day, finally I feel like I’ve experienced one, yet I’m sure they get even better than today!
We spent most of the day at 100-110kts, bouncing between 4-6000′, taking 6-8kt climbs! The varios in the glider are good, I can manage with them, but still require a little fine tuning to really have myself dialled in with them.
We finished with 149kph for memory, another smoking fast final glide from a long way out & a long way below.“

You never have to worry about the weather in Uvalde , though in 1991 and 2012 we had some big storms. In 1991 even during the finishes. Team UK shared this picture with the great looking skies, 2 days ago.

–—-In between more than 14 over 1000 km flights have been flown in France and Germany last Monday. 1By a Belgian mate [Fayence] and 3 by Dutch friends not bad!!![Puimoisson]
1.246 km. by a German pilot was the best from Fayence in a Ventus 3M/18m. .
Hot weather at the moment in parts of Europe!
AND,….WeGlide about Monday!!!!
“Epic Gliding Day in the French Alps!
Yesterday was nothing short of legendary for our gliding friends in southern France. With perfect weather and breathtaking conditions, we witnessed a record-breaking day that will go down in history!
19 flights over 1000 km were flown—the most ever in a single day since WeGlide started tracking. The cloud base was above 4000 meters, and pilots were absolutely tearing it up, with tons of 2-hour sprints averaging in the 140s kph.
What a stellar day! Congrats to all the pilots who made it possible. Here’s to a happy and soaring gliding holiday!”
I can only AGREE!!!!!!

I guess more news on Monday.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.524 on August 11 2024

22 nd EGC in Tabor.
3 August 2024 – 17 August 2024

Could n’t help myself! Extra blog on Sunday.

When I left you last Wednesday, the weather was again the most difficult part of the day. Thunderstorms were forecasted for later in the day ,so starting early could have been the solution, but the weather early was not strong.
Michaela wrote;
“Our third Competition Day is over with a shared 3h AAT task for all classes. Our weatherman was very successful in his forecast and so no significant storms influenced the task, and the approaching cold front turned the originally blue day into a pretty unstable gliding weather with thermals up to 4 m/s and best pilots flying up to 370 km.“
What did the pilots do with their day?
Wednesday August 7 , day 4 task 3;
15 m; 3 hour AAT….the first 5 in this class were all from the Eastern countries. Vladimir Foltin [Slovenia] in the JS 3 jet won the day with 363 km with 118.82 km./h. Followed by Karel from Czechia , Tamas from Hungary and Lucasz and Pawel from Poland. Forgot to tell you that in this class Takeshi Maruyama is also an HC pilot. His name is enough to tell you he is from Japan.
He was 1 of the 5 out -landers who started early [between 14.04 and 14.12] ,whilst Vladimir held his nerves and went over the start line at 14.29.

standard; 3 hour AAT… 6x a Discus type in the top 5 and also here the Eastern countries were the best , but not as overpowering as in 15 m; Maciej Kowalski from Poland in Discus 2A won the day with 368 km and 118.16 km./h. His mate Lukasz, one of the many Lucaszes in Poland [ this time Blaszczyk] followed, before Norbert from Romania.
33 started and 31 finished.

Club; 3 hour AAT….the LS7 is popular in this class and our Finish mates Tapio Tourula, daily winner and Mikko Ylihärsilä who was runner up, did well!!!! 325 km and a speed of 106.62 km./h.
39 started and 38 finished. Start times between 13.46 [team UK] and 14.56. [Roelof from the Netherlands’] Roelof finished on spot 28 with 269 km and 89.73 km/h in LS7WL. As I read he was tormented by hail and 2 hours later at the finish again , so twice hit by one and the same system!!!!!

Thursday August 8 was a rest day!!!!!
Short note about the overall scores after 3 tasks;
15m; 1. Riccardo Brigliadori [Italy] in JS3jet, 2. Karel Novak [Czechia] in Ventus 2ax, 3. Owen McCormack [UK] in Ventus 2a.
Standard; 1. Norbert Scarlat [Romenia] in Discus a, 2. Henry Inigo-Jones [UK] in LS 8 [yes the junior who flew in Ostrow lately to spot 6 ] 3. Jan-Ola Nordh [Sweden] in Discus 2t.
Club; 1. Hugo Corbille [France] in LS7 neo, 2. Jacek Flis [ Poland] in LS3 WL, 3. Tomas Suchanek [Czechia] in ASW 20.

Friday August 9 day 6 task 4;
15m; 417.74 km…….changed in a B task from 335.57 km….after a very foggy morning. When only 5 from 27 finish , you cannot say anything else, than that it was a difficult day. Not so much for Dutch pilot Stephan Grunder in his Ventus 2 ,as he won the day with a speed of 82.56 km./h. That says enough too about the day. His Dutch mate Sikko finished too, as well as 2 Polish pilots [Lucasz and Pawel] and 1 Hungarian.[Tamas] Patience was the key-word.
9 Pilots nearly were back home/just out after around 330 km. Only loosing around 100 points.

Standard; 400.83 km…..also a B task for them 335.66 km.... BUT,……..Only 3 from 33 managed to finish.2 From Slovakia and 1 from Czech Rep.  Maros Divok in LS 8 won with 68.92 km./h. The other 2 were equally on spot 2 with both 669 points.
So a rather busy day for the crews, though 16 were close by with around and over 300 km.
It’s great to see that a UK junior, Henry and a former Belgian junior Jeroen are on 2 and 3 overall at this stage.

Club; 391.61 km….4 from 49 FINISHED and that is not much!!! Finishing pilots were from Poland and Germany and each team flew together.
Mikolaj Zdun [LS3 WL] AND Marcus Dawert [DG 300WL] were equal on spot 1with 723 points the other 2 , Uwe [ LS4WL] and Jacek [LS3WL] had 721 and 719 points.
Michaela’s words on this day;
“the competitors were given a very optimistic racing task .The day started with a heavy fog that lasted until half past eight, therefore, everyone was gridding IFR. 
The biggest skills test appeared at the very end of the task, when the cloud cover coming from west came sooner than expected and weakened the conditions on the final 50 km home. The lucky and patient ones were able to find some weak lift and with headwind reached Tábor“

Saturday August 10, day 7 , task 5;

15 m.; 333.77 km…with 133 and 132 km./h the Lithuanian pilots , Marius Pluscauskas and Vladas flew to daily success!!!! They started early at 13.07 The 2 Danish pilots Filip and Rasmus started half an hour later and flew only a bit slower; 127 and 125 km./h.
Except for 1, all pilots flew over 100 km./h.
26 started from 27 as George from Luxembourg was forced to take a day off , to work on the huge problems with his instruments.

Standard; 340.29 km….3 Czech pilots in 3 LS 8 gliders had a good day. Lukas Kriz , who won day 1 already now won again, with 122 km./h and his mates Jan and Miloslav were a tad slower ;121 and 120 km/h. Our Belgian mate Jeroen holds on with a nice spot 4. He and 2 Polish pilots , Lucasz and Maciej, started 1 minute earlier.
33 started and 2 were out.

Club; 340.74 km…..a mix from different nations in this top 5; Daily winner; Jacek Flis from Poland, followed by UK pilot James, then Gyorgy from Hungary [ I know him already from the WGC in Sweden in Eskilstuna in 2006 ] Toby from the UK and Uffe from Denmark.
39 started and 31 finished, they were hit by overcast.
As Michaela mentioned; “The weather turned out even bit better than expected; high ceilings, good strong thermals, and especially some nice cloud streets. We hope that everyone enjoyed the racing tasks.“

Tasks today ……races in each class;
15 m; 341.45 km
standard; 325.41 km
club; 314.18 km

More on Wednesday.

——————————————————————————-

CIM in RIETI in ITALY
28 July 2024 – 8 August 2024

I owe you the last 2 days of this always TOP competition.
Wednesday August 7 last- but- one- day with task 9.
Mixed class; 3 hour AAT….won by team  Flewett for 1000 points; 465 km with 146.89 km./h. in the ARCUS M. Team Sironi holds on with 975 points.
Open; 2.50 AAT….Lucio Bordin in his JS3 was in a real hurry!!!!453.66 km with a speed of 157.16 km./h!!!!
Dane was runner up .
23 started and 21 finished. Bernard, the Austrian on 1 overall , was on spot 9 behind Alvaro.

Thursday August 8; very last day! Task 10.
Mixed class; race from 414.09 km…. 1000 points for Spanish pilot Francisco Ortega in his ASW 27B….speed 135.10 km./h. Even team Flewett in the ARCUS m was “slower”; 134.66 km./h.
Team Sironi in the Arcus T as well; 133.51 km./h. But it was all very close and then you know that the overall toppers from the day before are still the toppers and with that the WINNERS;
1. Team Flewett in Arcus M from the UK with 9,255 points , so VERY CLEAR WINNERS. Congratulations!!
2. Team Alberto Sironi & Consolini in ARCUS T from Italy with 8,869 points.
3. Team Prodorutti & Montemaggi in the ARCUS M20 from Italy with 8,592 points.
4. Werner Danz from Switzerland in ANTARES 18T with 8,409 points as the first single seater.
Francisco passed with his good last day, Austrian pilot Thomas; 5 and 6 with 8.198 and 8.149 points.

Open class; race from 433.43 km… and kilometre-eater Matthias Sturm won the day in the JS3 with 160.13 km./h. Even faster was the runner up in the mighty EB 29R Markus; 164.82 km./h.
Dane in the Ventus -2cxa FES 18m was a bit slower; 149.51 km./h but sill very fast.
The top 3, did not change but Matthias passed Dane; 4 and 5 and good 6th place for Katrin between all these strong male pilots!!!!!
1. Markus Frank in EB 29R from Germany with 8,419 points.
2. Bernhard Leitner in AS33es from Austria with 8.312 points.
3.  Steffen Schwarzer in JS 3 from Germany with 8,225 points.
Giorgio was on spot 7 and Alvaro on 9.

One of the pilots mentioned in streckenflug.at
“Rieti, again a day where you fly an average of 145km/h despite a “bad decision”, but only end up in the middle of the field because of this decision, the winner has an average of over 160km/h … I feel soooooooo slow!”
INDEED THAT IS RIETI,” fast and “furious” , but you ALWAYS have to be careful!
Great Place for pilots and their crews.

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On August 14 till August 31 in 2024 the WGC for the big birds will be flown from Uvalde in Texas. Most of my friends have arrived already and several are keeping a blog ,so we will be totally informed with in’s and out’s . Paul Remde will do interviews with pilots and sailplane manufacturers and that will be good too. I met him in 2012.
He is from Cumulus Soaring Inc, sells books and all other soaring related stuff;
“I plan to bring Bowlus Maxi Gap Seal Tape, LXNAV flight recorders, variometers, FlarmLink, and PowerMouse+ FCC units, Naviter Oudie N IGC units, ICOM handheld radios, Bioenno batteries, PowerFLARM Fusion, esa-systems probes, tie-down kits, SoaringXX wing stands and WingWalkers, Becker and Air Avionics panel-mount radios, ACD-57 digital altimeters, and many other items. “
From August 14 in the evening he is there.
Paul shared this picture from 2012 when Dick Butler flew his CONCORDIA

I wonder if there will be people in Uvalde who have been there in 1991, 2012 and now.
I remember we had a lovely evening with the guests from 1991, when we were there in 2012.
Beryl Hartley and I both attended then.
A lot of pilots are looking forward to “see” the JS 5 and of course it’s performance.

The official training starts today [August 14] the opening ceremony is on the 17th , and the 2 openings I attended were pretty spectacular , they fly between August 18 and 30 , then there is on August 30 in the evening the farewell party and the prize giving during the closing ceremony is on August 31.

16 Teams fly in the 2-seater class, 17 in Open , among them Oscar Goudriaan in the brand new JS5 and 33 in 18 m. My goodness me ,..they nearly, can ALL win!
Many champions and world champions sometime multiple WGC champions, so exciting to follow.

It can be REALLY hot in Uvalde. My shoes one day, were stuck in the melted tar from the runway.
For me ,1991 was special, as Baer Selen won and I had the honour as TC, of helping him to feel so GOOD, that he only had to fly AND WIN.
This year he is back as TC/coach from the Dutch team.

South African Gliding Team:”The adventure is beginning as our team slowly assembles here in Uvalde, Texas, under the blazing 40°C (104°F) sun. We’re pulling our gliders out of our containers and putting them together, piece by piece, in preparation for the challenges ahead. The rest of our team will be arriving tomorrow, and we’re all excited to get into the cumulus filled skies!We’re 7 hours behind South Africa (UTC -5), so we are slowly getting over the jet lag as we gear up to represent our country on the world stage.”
Of course their HOT ITEM is the 5!!!!!! Yes the Jonker JS 5.
Adam had a look at it and took a picture;
“I’ve just seen the JS5 for the first time, what a magnificent looking glider it is. My first words were wow, followed by, I can’t believe how small it looks!For sure JS will sell many of these, seems very manageable on the ground & I can easily see it’ll be a joy to fly in the skies! Still can’t believe it’s 24m though!”

—–-Great to see that 2 European records from German pilot Benjamin Bachmaier [ in my time a junior at JWGC’s and blogger] have been ratified;
15 m; Distance using up to 3 TP’s….1.275.7 km from Koenigsdorf in a Ventus 2BX on March 30 2024.
15m; FREE distance using up to 3TP’s …1.295.3 km from Koenigsdorf in a Ventus 2BX on March 30 2024
Both records were before in hands of Mathias Schunk.
Congratulations Benjamin.

——–Of course, as a “sport freak” I looked at different TV stations in French, German, English and Dutch /Flemish to the Olympic Games!!!!
Our small country achieved 34 medals from which 15 were gold , 7 silver and 12 bronze and with that we reached a never ever before spot on the medal list ;spot 6!!!!!!!!!
3x GOLD for cyclist Harrie Lavreysen , very special.
And what about Femke Bol and Sifan Hassan ,…..by now you ALL know their names.
Our sport culture is GOOD, VERY GOOD, now I hope that the new government keeps investing in sport!!!!!

CU on Wednesday
cheers Ritz

Post 1.523 on August 7 2024

The opening-party was on Friday evening after a compulsory- safety briefing .
The opening ceremony in Tabor, what I hear and see , a beautiful town, on Saturday at 4.

They fly in Tabor with 103 pilots in 3 classes.
Club has 40 participants, standard 34 and 15 m has 29.
As said, the opening ceremony was in the good looking town of Tabor and “the citizens of Tábor could view the parade of all the 25 nations competing at the EGC, alongside several interviews and speeches of important figures explaining soaring as a sport, and wishing our competitors all the best. Additionally, we had a surprise at the end of the ceremony; a lowpass of two fighter jets Gripen JAS39 to celebrate the official start of our championship.”

The French team;

The Dutch team;

Team Belgium;

The German team;

The Italian team;

the Polish team;

Team UK;

More pictures from the teams on https://photos.google.com/share/

After 2 practice days the “reality” of this EGC started on Sunday August 4;
BUT,... the early morning message was;
“Good morning, competition day cancelled. No briefing. Enjoy your day. If you want trip suggestions, just come to us.”
AND,
“The weather looks promising for the next few days.” There is HOPE!!!!

So on Monday August 5, flying day 2 , task 1 was set in the 3 classes;
15 m; 2.30 AAT...changed in 2 hours.…The weather was difficult certainly in the beginning. The pilots racing upfront got caught by less good circumstances, [dead air] , which were not forecasted and their day was over. HARD!!!!
“Our” Sikko was “out” after 66 km , whilst his team mate Stephan was runner up behind daily winner Filip Bojanowski from Denmark.[89.67 km./h] Filip started late, 16.22, waiting for the better weather to come, the early birds started at 15.22, so an hour difference and the last one at 17.23, Rasmus from Denmark. He finished; yes he did, with 77 km./h.
” Today we had a “weather lottery” that luckily ended up with us winning.
All the classes flew 2 hour AAT, that was shortened from 2:30 AAT due to much worse weather than expected by all the forecasts. The club class fortunately got on task before a mid-level cloud cover patch weakened the weather around the airfield. However, the standard class and 15m class had a very complicated pre-start situation with the necessity to stay airborne until around 16:00, when majority of the competitors were finally able to get on task with a promising window ahead of them.” words by Michaela Michaela Rendlová on the official site [ https://www.egc2024.cz/ ]
Michaela just recently flew the JWGC in Ostrow and is not only good looking or can fly well, she informs us now too in Tabor. GOOD ON HER!!!
By the way there are several young pilots from that JWGC performing now at the EGC. GOOD!!!!
Standard; 2.30 AAT….2 hour AAT.…same weather pattern for them and 33 started [ among them 2 HC pilots as they are from Argentina Carlos Lucci and Brasil Henrique Navarro] and 29 finished. Starts between 15.27 [ Italian team] and 16.53 and the daily winner Norbert Scarlat [Romania]left at 15.58. 12 Pilots flew over 90 km./h nobody reached 100 km./h.
Club; 2.30 AAT....40 started and 30 finished. They really had problems with the weather. Some flew upfront ,but were stopped by the weather and out after around 60 km. Starts between 14.16 and 16.12 ; Swiss pilots Simon in LS4 a and Yves in ASW 24 and they finished as well; 68 km./h. over 142 km. and 67 km./h. over 146 km. Polish pilot Jacek Flis won the day; 210 km and 81 km/h.

Incorrect or no PEV at all, were for several pilots , “killers” on task 1.

Tuesday August 6 ; day 3 flying day 2; with longer tasks and hopefully less risky weather.
It was better; “Today we had our first racing day at the EGC with very different conditions to yesterday. As our meteorologist Horác said “we turned off the clouds today, but unfortunately, most of them…”. The competitors encountered patches of high cumulus and then sections of blue thermal on their task with the 15m class flying 405 km, Standard class 389 km, and Club class 369 km.” Michaela Rendlová
Task 2;
15 m; 405.37 km….Lukasz Grabowski [ Diana 2 ]was the daily winner. Together with his Polish mate Pawel [Diana 2 FES] , he started at 13.31 and they finished at 16.58; 117 and 116 km./h. for 1000 and 996 points. Ricky [Italy] in the JS3jet, was 3d.
All 27 started, 2 were out.
Standard ;  389.36 km….Great day for my Belgian and Dutch mates; on 1 and 3. Jeroen Jennen in the Discus 2T won with 114.75 km./h and Robin [Smit] in LS8 was 3d;113 km./h Rumanian pilot Norbert Scarlat was in between and just a tad faster than Robin.
All 33 started and only 1 was “out” after 340 km
club; 369.91 km….with 104 km./h French pilot Hugo Corbille was the daily best. Good “old” Tomas Suchanek was runner up.
39 from 40 started and 1 was out, but close by ;321 km.

Today; 3 hour AAT’s in each class.

———————————————————————–

C[oppa]I[nternationale] del M[diterranio] in RIETI
28 July 2024 – 8 August 2024

One of my favourite comps in Italy …AND I attended them a few times. Always nice weather, lovely organizers and pilots , great atmosphere and strong flying.
41 competitors in 2 classes fly for the prizes and after 1 practice day they straight away had good tasks .
5 consecutive days in both classes and the first non flying day was on Saturday with “miserable” weather; no task no briefing so sleeping in.
How did it look after 5 days in each class;
Mixed class ;
with 15 pilots among them pilots from Austria, The UK, Switzerland and Spain flying in gliders as ARCUS M and T, Antares but also ASW 27 , Ventus or JS 1.
Flights up to 480 km and 2 pilots , better said teams are ahead of most; team Alberto Sironi in ARCUS T and Lasham pilot Flewett in ARCUS M. After 5 tasks they are ahead of Alberto ; 4.725 for 4.667 points.
After 5 days they had a NO TASK-day and then another few pretty good days.
A 2.15 AAT, a race from 402.69 km and 453.87 and it was team Flewett winning each day.
Team Sironi holds on but in points the Flewett team from Lasham got more and more.
After task 8 7,329 for 6,984.

Open class;
with 24 pilots from Germany, Austria, Switzerland N.Z. [Dane Dickinson] and Spain . A few I know from those and other comps as Bruno , Alvaro and Giorgio .They are still doing pretty well.
After 5 days the top 3 is; Bernhard Leitner from Austria in AS 33es[ 4,470] , Markus Frank in EB 29R [4,427], Katrin Senne in JS 3 RES [4,284]. Dane is on 5, Alvaro on 6 and Giorgi on 7.
But still a few days to go.
Also for them a NO TASK -DAY but then they had to go for it too; 2 hour AAT, to start with again and then a 2.45 AAT and a race from  471.38 km last Tuesday, which was won by Dane.
Markus and Bernard swapped places , but scores after task 8 were still close; 6.788 for 6.717 points.

2 More days to go.

—————————————————————————

—-The 55th Klippeneck competition had out of 8 days 3 flyable competition days in each of the 5 classes. Not many so a lot of waiting, talking about gliders instruments etc and sight seeing.

Winners in the 2-seater class; Dinger & Borowski in Janus C with 1.071 points.
Winner in 15 m.; Philipp Söll in Discus 2T[ wonder if he is Stefans son. Stefan flew with us in Tocumwal for many years , still flies there by the way and he had 2 sons then maybe 2 and 4]with 931 points.
Winner in 18 m; Steven Raimond in AS33es /18m with 1.368 points.
Winner in club; Adrian Tschui in LS4 with 953 points
Winner in open; Schwenk & Schwenk in ETA with 1.074 points.

———————————————————————-

US Soaring Teams news about the 38th WGC in Uvalde;
” The competition will be heating up literally and figuratively this month in Uvalde, Texas as the United States is ready to host the World Gliding Championships once again. The 38th FAI event will include the Open Class, 18 Meter Class, and 20 Meter Multiseat Class.
Team Uvalde is prepared to welcome 82 competitors, 66 entries, from 23 countries. Official practice begins on August 14 and the Opening Ceremony on August 17. Competition flying begins on August 18 through August 30, with the Closing Ceremony on August 31.“

The current champions are;
Open class; Felipe Levin. Oscar Goudriaan and Radek Krejcirik.
20m multi seat; Ivan Novak/ Petr Krejcirik, Jakub Barszcz / Lukasz Kornacki and Steve Jones / Garry Coppin
18m; Christophe Abadie, Ricky Brigliadori and Davide Schiavotto.
Not all of them will be there to defend their title, as p.e, Ricky flies the EGC now in Tabor.

————————————————————

IN MEMORIAM; TERRY SNOW.
Specially for the readers who have been in the nineties in Tocumwal.
One of the most interesting glider pilots at Tocumwal and we had a LOT, was for sure Terry. He brought his son’s Tom and Stephen , his brother George and son and lot’s of friends to fly at the SSC ,as often as they could.
His landings were not always beautiful and UF, [“Uncle Fred”] the LS3, suffered sometimes, but no worries he loved his flying.
From gliding he went to fly power planes, as that was easier and faster, than driving from Canberra to Tocumwal.
It could even faster; he bought a Citation Jet and with one of our tuggies Anthony, he flew it around. And as an helicopter seemed nice too, he got one and landed at our airfield.
My first flight in an helicopter was with them.
No flying, was not really in his blood, but he really liked it . The atmosphere he found with us to relax after his very demanding job, at that stage property developer, pleased him and us.
Due to gliding he got more and more interest in aviation , purchased Canberra Airport and created the most beautiful new airfield down under.

Here is an in memoriam from his family;
“His legacy is the bold projects he undertook, including the developments at Canberra Airport and Airport Business Parks, Constitution Place, Denman Prospect and Willinga Park, on the South Coast. His unwavering dedication to building outstanding developments reflects a commitment to excellence and quality that will resonate for generations to come.
The grandson of Civic’s first general store owner, Terry was a business leader with his innovative spirit and relentless pursuit of excellence. He transformed the Canberra Airport precinct into a world-class aviation hub after it was purchased from the Federal Government in 1998. He was a true entrepreneur: when he had an idea, he pursued it doggedly, taking risks and pushing the boundaries of architectural design.
Terry was more than a successful businessman; he mentored numerous people in their businesses and pursuit of their dreams. Terry’s generosity touched the lives of many, and he lived by his own words “if you see someone struggling you give them a helping hand”.
Beyond his everyday generosity, his profound dedication to philanthropy began initially in the Canberra region when, in his mid-40s with his brother George, he created The Snow Foundation in 1991. Over the past 15 years, his generosity extended across Australia as he grew The Snow Foundation and, more recently, established Snow Medical, driven by a deep sense of social responsibility.
In his 60s, he purchased land at Bawley Point on the South Coast, but instead of retiring, he feverishly built an incredible world-renowned property, Willinga Park, with remarkable equestrian facilities.
Terry’s life was so much more than a property developer and philanthropist. He was a family man and a man who sought adventures and immense challenges. He packed an enormous amount into his 80 years. He was an avid fisherman and bushwalker and loved camping with his family.  He was an aeroplane and helicopter pilot, and he took up cycling in his 40s and rode across Australia. He also sailed around Australia. Later in life, he immersed himself in country life, taking up horse riding at 65 years old.
“I’m feeling heartbroken, Terry was such a wonderful, loving husband, father and grandfather. He was an incredible man with such a passion for life. I’m so proud of him and his contributions to community.” said Ginette Snow.
Terry leaves a legacy of kindness, philanthropy, and business excellence. His spirit will continue to inspire us all, and his contributions will be felt for many years to come. He was a deeply loved husband to Ginette, father to Scarlett Gaffey, Tom Snow, Georgina Byron, and Stephen Byron, grandfather to 14 grandchildren and brother to Michael and George. He will be truly missed by his family.
With heartfelt gratitude, Ginette, Scarlett, Tom, Georgina and Stephen
https://www.canberraairport.com.au

R.I.P dear friend.

Due to some “minor” health issues, I am forced to only publish on the regular Wednesday and write less[ mm…if that is possible!!!]
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.522 on July 31 2024 last day already from the month of JULY.

Yes a short story only today.
My teeth and I are good friends and they are in good condition. Every half year I go to my dentist, to check them and all is always good.
I have a trauma left from when I was younger and 2 dental surgeons tried to remove a wisdom tooth. When I went home my face was BLUE ,due to the fact that things did n’t work out their way and they pinched my cheek HARD with their big fingers.
My tooth had grown in my cheek. Had to be cut out.
Indeed it was a huge job. The pain killers [ glifanan] I got nearly “killed” me. They are forbidden now!
A total bad experience.
10 years later another wisdom tooth had to go. I told my own dentist that I did not go to surgery . Never again.
So he friendly said he would do it. No worries.
He knew that my teeth are settled strong in my jawbone.
After more than an hour he was worn out, so was I. Blood everywhere on him and on me. Moving my head/jaw up and down from left to right , damaged all cartilage between my jaws.
Result; the assistant of the dentist had to call off all appointments for the rest of the day and I went home even more disillusioned about dentist and wisdom teeth.
For me it was even worse as I can only keep my mouth open for a few minutes nowadays and have to support my jaws.
A year later pieces of that tooth showed up in my mouth , whilst eating my Christmas dinner in Newark Delaware with my kids and parents in law.

Last Sunday I had lunch with my 18 year old grand son Dexter. He had a sandwich I had a delicious soup with lovely soft mince meat in it.
Till the moment a very smell piece of bone in the meat, hit my tooth and split it in 2. I got it out but felt straight away that part of the tooth was loose. I got the smallest but sharpest piece of bone out of the middle of my tooth with my fingers , but total damage had been done.
Monday I was at a dentist. He looked said it was the worst spot to split a tooth in 2 and said the tooth was lost.
So straight away I had to decide what to do with it. As I had already anaesthesia I took his advice to pull it out as the front was already out when he only touched it and the back was so loose it would be out in a minute. Indeed it was out quickly.

And here I am with a “big hole” in my mouth , eating 5 panadol during the day and 3 stitches keeping the “flesh” together. I lost quite some blood [I have thin blood by nature] so feel a bit off and have to lay down.

I am sure I will be fresh and new in the Weekend, if so I start writing about the EGC in Tabor when possible.
For now I leave you again for a rest. Same Ritz bit dizzy and with ONE wisdom tooth less.

Post 1.521 on July 28 2024

My last blog about the JWGC.
Have n’t heard stories from the young ones their selves yet, but looking at the pictures, seeing the reels and videos, it was an happy unforgettable time for them.
Thank you for the Aeroklub Ostrowski for sharing so many pictures and specially Martn Levitzky for his awesome pictures!!!!!!!

It was ALL about winning gold, silver or bronze in each class;

I own you also the pictures from the last -day-winners here you are all thanks to Martn;
Club class daily winners;

Standard class last -day-winners;

And then to the new CHAMPIONS of the 2024 JWGC in OSTROW POLAND.
The organizers really put on a great show every day. THANK YOU to the organizers for sharing a lot ,so people at home, family friends grandma and pa and all interested glider pilots could be in their way PART of it.

Club class CHAMPIONS;

AND an extra picture from Martijn who still had difficulties to realize he really WON. Lovely.

The standard class WORLD champion ,vice world champion and number 3;

I showed you the best 10 with their certificates already from standard here are the winners from club class and some of the officials as Marina the president of the jury.

The Team cup , I shared already a picture from the Czech and French TC but there were 3 the best so here they are together,

The flag from the FAI was ” not lost” and could be handed over from Poland to Germany for the next JWGC. Hope it will be the same enjoyable happening.

THANKS for reading, back to the normal weekly posts on Wednesday. ….Yes even with the EGC in Tabor. It’s good you don’t know how much time , research and effort goes in writing the blogs.
Still love it, but more than 2 weeks writing and sitting behind my laptop “creates” a stiff neck and fingers.
Age???? Yes….

Cheers Ritz