9th WORLD FINAL from FAI SGP from La Cerdanya.

As shared by the organizers.

After a rest day and 3 good race-day’s the show had to go on.?????
Race 4 was “marked” by many different penalty points from 8 to 266 seconds. Sebastian had none , was the fastest and won the day.
For the first time the  initial turn point after the start was direction West instead of East. It was all about Tilo and Sebastian, Tilo who pushed and pushed and Sebastian always higher than Tilo, who is quite experienced in this area.
From the organizers:”As the leaders came onto the control point, Sebastian kept his 100 to 200m attitude advantage, making it almost possible for Tilo to catch him as Sebastian used his energy advantage to pull further ahead.

As they reached the finish line, both pilots were only just above the minimum required altitude of 1,300m. They had to slow right down and squeeze over the line to avoid incurring any penalty points.”

With Tilo,[2]  Sebastian [1]  and Gintas.[3]

Race 5  was according to the organizers a challenging one ” Definitely windy and cold today with not such high ceiling currently, so we can notice a bit of tension among the pilots as it will be certainly bumpy in the cockpits and any mistake can make huge difference in the air as sink air areas could be powerful, as lifting air areas.”
In the end the day was a prey again for Tilo, it’s nearly the Tilo/Sebastian show. With 126.5 km./h. Tilo was the fastest with Sebastian close with 124.1 km./h.

With Tilo, Sebastian and Didier
as shared by the organizers.

Race 6 and the very last one!!!!
Who is going to win this final? Who keeps the nerves and jitters?
Looking at the scores till now it’s Tilo with 41, Sebastian with 33 and Didier with 23. The rest has NO chance. Sorry. 11 Points is the best you can get on the last day!!!
261 km. to go and Tilo was in the end, with 4  others, among them Gilles Navas, in the lead so a great position to win this 9th world final ,as they had the height and speed to come home.
Gilles came in  first as Tilo more or less stayed with Sebastian,as for him winning the race was unimportant, he wanted to win the world final and as Brian commented maybe showing how good his Ventus 3 is.
And ,…WHY NOT!? A total of 4 fly in this world final.
Sebastian reacted ;”Uuuhhhh. What a race. After tight finish second on the line. The winner today is AX Giles Navas. The rest was far behind. Congratulations Giles. Congratulation Tilo for the gold medal.”
It was waiting for penalties first  AND ouch Sebastian got a few….300 sec., for “Use of unauthorized radio frequency”  and then the scores were definite.
Gilles wins the day and get’s 11 points!![124.6 km./h]  Tilo was runner up with 8 [124.05 km./h] and Max Seis in JS 3 got 7 points.[123.9 km./h.]

GOLD MEDAL from 9th FAI SGP WORLD FINAL;
1. Tilo Holighaus in Ventus 3 T with 49 points, gold medal and WORLD CHAMPION.
2. Sebastian Kawa in JS 3 with 35 points and I read this his 31st medal!!!!!
3. Louis Bouderlique in JS 3 with 28 points.
All 3 TOPPERS!!!

THE GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE MEDALISTS.
As shared by the organizers.

——————————————

 

OMK at Terlet in Holland.

Courtesy Rens van Broekhuizen.

Such a pity. They tried hard!!! They were fully organized but,….as we know ,if the weather does n’t co-operate you can ‘t fly. From 5 day’s they flew 1 and it was a very short task as well, but they had a day!!!
combi class; 140 km. and 3 finished from 9. Enough km’s so a valid day with 378 points for winner Tim Kuijpers in ASW 20 , with this flight also the winner of the Open Military Championship.
The other 2 finishers Daan and Sylvain were automatically 2 and 3 with 368 and 322 points.

Finish Tim Kuijpers.
Courtesy Willemijn de Lange , as I told you already earlier she makes brilliant pictures.

2-seaters with 141 km. and a bit of a weird day for them. Most started at 4.30 PM. One team ,our friends Bas and Reitze choose to start at 5.30 PM. In the end they made the correct choice. They won the day and the comps with 180 points [62.69 km./h in Duo Discus XL] ] together with team Robert Jungblut, they started however at 4.52. [61.60 km./h] in Duo Discus T.
4 From 19 teams finished.

Finish Bas and Reitze
Courtesy Willemijn.

open class with 150 km.; in this class 10 from 14 finished. Best speed by Rick Boerma in Ventus 3 with 99.87 km./h. for 395 points. Rick was the winner of the comps with Menno Sappe [EB 28] and Bas Seijffert [Nimbus 4DT] as runner up and number 3.

Finish Rick Boerma in the “gorgeous” Ventus 3 T.
Courtesy Willemijn.

Club class with 104 km; Former owner from the Termiekbel and member of the successful club of Friesland , Sander Terpstra, won the day and the comps in LS 4. 2 More LS 4 ‘s followed;with Simon and Tudor. 8 From 17 finished.

Fish Sander.
Courtesy Willemijn.

A tough competition but I am sure they had fun. Maybe not when the severe storms with thunder and lightning and gusting winds up to 110 km.h. passed by.
The damage bill after 2 such storms this last week only here in Holland,  is tens of millions!!!

Caroline Douwes Termaat shared this picture and I totally agree with her words.
“Terlet, probably the most beautiful gliding place in the world ❤️”.

——————————-

Uppsala Masters in Sweden
6 June 2019 – 16 June 2019

46 Competitors in 2 classes and after 2 practice days the race to be the Uppsala Master started with a
2.30 AAT for open; First for the day was Jim Acketoft in an EB 29 DR., with 268 km. in time 2.30 and a speed of 106 km. /h. The only one over the 100 km./h mark.
Antti was runner up [ Ventus 2cxaFES] and Boerje 3d.[Ventus 3T.]
10 From 15 finished.

2 hours in racing; Finnish pilot Aku Jaakkola in a Discus 2A flew 232 km. in time 2.28. Ronny Lindell was in a Discus 2T a tad slower.
14 From 17 finished.

More next Wednesday.
To avoid TOO long blogs and to remain actual this extra Sunday-blog!

Cheers Ritz

 

 

We had last Sunday absolutely fabulous weather, the hottest EVER 2d of June. It was not only a tropical day, the first of this season with 30.1 dgr. at the official point and up to  33 elsewhere, but it also looked like a great soaring day with very high clouds. Bit windy though, but no…… not the long flights here, I expected.
In between the pilots from the Nationals left and the pilots for the Open Military Championship arrived at Terlet. The opening was on Sunday evening by General Major Theo Ten Haaf  and  61 competitors in 4 classes with their crew and some other guests listened to the opening briefing.

 

54 th OMK.
June 3-7.

Open Militaire Kampioenschappen Zweefvliegen

With adjutant Theo Janssen again as CD the comps unfortunately started with a scrubbed day  1, due to the weather.
Day 2 had tasks just under 200 for club and the other 3 classes just over, but how hard they tried it did n’t work out. Whilst the “clubbies “were up  they had to cancel all classes, as it did n’t look good. The club pilots who were airborne landed again.

Happy to go for the first flying day. But it was difficult to stay up as people at the ground could see.

    

and then they returned.

  

Open Militaire Kampioenschappen Zweefvliegen

For parts of Holland code yellow was out as warning for heavy thunderstorms, gusty wind up to 100 km./h.  and rain even hail. For this part of the country even code orange.That bad weather arrived here at 10 PM and it was wild!!!! Rain passed by horizontal with lot’s of leaves as due to drought trees drop their leaves as if it is autumn instead of spring/summer.
Huge damage bill again, but as far as I know no injured people.Lot’s of houses ,car’s and specially trees got the full load.

Day 3; the storm reached Terlet as well. Also a heavy one!!! No tasks yet and it does n’t look there will be, but there is always hope.

 

———————————–

9th WORLD FINAL of FAI SGP in La Cerdanya.

After a good practice day the pilots were ready to go for it. When I was in a car in Uvalde going together with Ralf and Tilo Holighaus to a nice party Tilo told us he loved GRAND PRIX Soaring.
It showed on day 1 , as he was the winner of the day and got himself 10 points.
Of course he flew their ” masterpiece”  the VENTUS 3T with a speed of 137.3 km./h..
Gintas Zube was runner up.
2 did not start [Gilles Navas and Jon Gatfield ] and 2 did not finish one of them Sebastian Kawa in a JS3. The other one Evgeny Zlobin from Russia flying a JS 1B. Both were close about 30 km.

FAI Sailplane Grand Prix

Race 2 had a late start. Brian the CD mentioned ” “if sun is shining we will try to make a race“. They had rain over night and the ground was very wet and in the morning there were a lot of upper clouds. The sky however looked beautiful in the afternoon and off they went into a challenging day.
They had enough sunny spots and a race was on. 188 km. was set and after an off-day Sebastian won the day so 10 points for him, after he went far N. and got a climb Didier missed and he was high enough to race ” home ” with lot’s of energy on final glide .
Didier from France had 8 , he reached 3200 m far N. and was way ahead in the beginning but in the end Sebastian “got him”!!
Polish pilot  Łukasz Wójcik had 7 points.

FAI Sailplane Grand Prix

Race 3 was 244 km. long and won by …..Tilo!!! Good on him. Runner up was Louis from France and Pete Temple from Australia was 3d.
“It seems to be a nice day here, only few high clouds in the sky, so it will not be the “best day ever” but still, after yesterday’s 188km race, everybody now understand more km does not mean more exciting race. Pilots are preparing their sailplanes to be ready on runway 25 and we expect to make first take off around 1:00pm local time (11:00am GMT]”

 

    

As shared by the organizers.

Day 4; official news
“Perfect timing! After 3 great races we have a day canceled due to expected strong thunderstoms on the race area. Pilots need also to rest as we are just in the mid-time of the championship with still some tricky weather with showers expected for the next day. If you missed the first races, glide direct to http://sgp.aero/…/9th-finals-sgp-la-cerdanya-video-playlist…and enjoy this resting day!”

So after 3 races Tilo leads with 23 points, followed by Didier with 16 and and Sebastian with 15 points.

————————————————

German pilot Lisa Scheller flew already 1000 km. flights from Bitterwasser in EB 28 and 29 , last December and January, NOW she flew her first European one in an LS 8 from Ohlstadt-Pömetsried last Monday. Just in time home before the thunderstorms.
Good on her.

 

More next week.
Short blog but you surely found out that I published one last Sunday. If not,…just continue reading. Enjoy.

 

Cheers Ritz

Dutch Nationals, to be precise the KLM Flight Academy National Championship soaring 2019.

When I left you on Wednesday morning at 10,  tasks were not yet set, but looking from my window it should be a pretty good day.
It was and what a day!!!
It’s not often that we fly over 500 km. at a national competition , though, through the 50 years,  I have been at a few comps, where they did.
And one, but that was an EGC in Rayskala , with on the first day a 1000 km, flown by many!!
You never forget those moments. So,….

Wednesday…Day 7 task 5; with blue skies and nice high white fluffy clouds!!!

Ready to go for a nice long day! Looking gooood!!!!!
Courtesy Martijn Alders.

open…541.65 km;AND,…. yes they did it,…Ronald [Termaat] was the best and with 120 km./h., he “got” the 1000 points. Runner up Rien Bastiaanse in the ASH 30 MI  and Joris Felsbourg in the same glider was 3d. All 7 pilots who started flew the 541 km!!! Good on them.

18 m…527.94 km; 13 from 15 finished in this class. Hans Biesters won the day ;1000 points. Ronald Kaay was runner up and Steven Raimond was 3d, all flew ASG 29.

combi…450.12 km; Great result for young Lizzy winning the day in the LS 8, her very first 1000 points!!!!  She started and finished together with Stephan Grunder who got 999 points. The other lady in this competition Annemiek was out after 439 km. and the 2 young “hotshots” from the Gelderse, both sons from top-national pilots,[Rien Bastiaanse and Tjeerd Reitsma]  in the Duo XL were out after 422 km. Such a pity and so “expensive”,  loosing 600 points and still so close at the goal.

club…351.97 km; “Smitje” Robin in his RS the St. Cirrus, won the day 1000 points for him. 14 Started 2 were out. Thies was 8th, lost 120 points but still leads with 300 points.

Robin as winner of the day seen by Arjan Vrieze. Another great picture!!

In the evening they had a BBQ and I guess only smiling faces!
That same day pilots declared 1000 km. Alfred Paul tried one from Terlet but had to start his engine at 8 still 958 km. [ASG 29E/18m] And from Veendam the ASH 25E flew 928 km.
As said a TOP day!!

Thursday day 8 NO task . The day was cancelled in the morning ,but we decided to travel to Terlet anyhow, to see our daughter Inge and her family, as granddaughter Indya was supposed to have DBO lessons. The weather was supposed to clear at noon, but only when we drove home at 5,  it was perfect weather for lessons , too late.
Interesting day anyhow ,as I saw the new LS 4 from our Dutch junior team. One of the St. Cirrus gliders has been sold and the LS 4 replaced it.

Friday day 9 task 6; And yes they flew again. It looked great in the morning but the afternoon showed over-development and pilots had to struggle to come home.
open..266 km; another daily win for Ronald in his JS 1C. His speed from 99 km./h showed that it was not easy. On the long-good- day, the day before it was 120 km./h. His direct opponent Mark was out after 230 km. but he is still runner up,…though with around 500 points less.
5 From 7 finished

18 m. class 245 km; It’s all about Steven and Sikko, both very experienced and both have been in my teams so I know them a bit. And,..both are top guy’s!!! The difference was ONE point. Sikko started and just behind Steven left and both arrived at the same time.
I am very proud on the performance of Rens [van Broekhuizen] who was in my Junior team in Husbos in 2005. He was 3d and flies now a Ventus 2CT. Overall he is 5th!!!!
Only 5 from 14 finished!!

Combi class 231 km; Great to see Erik [Borgmann, who was in my team in  Borlange at the WGC and finished as runner up!!] and his mate Joost [ Also a mate of my son Dennis] flying the ARCUS T to a daily win!!
8 From 14 finished!

Club class 211 km; and Frankie [Hiemstra] won again. Bad day for the till now -every-day-overall -winner Thies ,who outlanded after 189 km. loosing around 400 points, but he was 300 ahead.
11 From 16 finished.

So with 1 day to go  the championship “looks” to go between Ronald and Mark in open, Steven and Sikko in 18 m.
3 possibilities in the combi class where  scores are pretty close; Jeroen Verkuijl, Nick Hanenburg and Joost / Erik.
In club also 3 possibilities; Thies who had such a big lead is now only 13 points ahead of Roelof Corporaal in Pegase 101A and around 60 on Patrick van Breemen Schneider.
Everything can happen!!

Saturday day 10 task 7 , WOW,  that’s pretty good for a Dutch National Competition. 7 Good flying day’s.
They were allowed to find out their own way on this last day, a hot one up to 28 dgr. C. Tomorrow 33!!!
We left via Malden for Terlet again and were part of the launches and finishes, both in many way’s spectacular.
The weather did not develop as expected ,….
open;  3 hour AAT..later 2.15. with late starts around 3 PM.  All pilots finished ,Rien in the ASH 30 MI as the first one in this class,  in front of a full terrace, with oh’s and ah’s because of the spectacular character of some finishes. Ronald was runner up and Mark last in this class so a bigger difference between the 2 in the overall scores.
Straight after the flight Ronald posed in front of the Thermiekbel surrounded by his daughter Anouk and my granddaughter Indya. It will be our Dennis 50thiest birthday on July 3 so a picture from one of his friends with the new generation felt appropriate to me.

  

Indya, Ronald the new open class CHAMPION and Anouk.

18m. 3 hour AAT; changed in 2.15; Victor Wetzinga in the ASG 29E was the daily prize winner. Sikko was 3d , Hadriaan 3d and Steven 4th .This was in a different order the final score between these pilots.Nothing changed.

combi class 3 hour AAT; changed in 2 hour; Stefan Grunder was the daily winner with 208 km. in time 2.04. Jeroen was runner up with Lizzy as 3d.

Club class 3.30 AAT;changed in 2.15. the “little ones” started and had a nice day in front of them. Interesting as well as differences were small in this class!!!Thies who won 3 days and was 1 overall after task 6 lost grip on his soaring with and outlanding on the one but last day and a last daily spot on the final day. The story is that when his wife had to go home to work again things changed for him. I don’t know if that’s true, but somewhere it went wrong as a for me unknown young man with an open smile won the Dutch title; Roelof Corporaal. Member of the FAC the club from Friesland in the N of Holland.
The joy was immense for him and his club members.

A very happy Roelof

   

Pouring beers for his mates from the FAC and a brand-new pop-up-design after his win on a white t shirt by Sander Terpsta.

So here are the final scores from this well organized [CD Ton did a great job , but admitted that great weather had nothing to do with him] ;
Open class;
1. Ronald Termaat in JS 1C with 6.268 points a real CHAMPION.
2. Mark Wering in JS 1C 5.528 p.
3. Rien Bastiaanse in ASH 31MI with 5.268.
Pretty big differences!!

18 m. class;
1. Steven Raimond in ASG 29 ES with 6.131 points and Dutch National Champion.
2. Sikko Vermeer in ASG 26 ES with a few points less 6.036 p.
3. Hadriaan van Nes in JS 1Btj with 5.639.

Combi class;
1. Jeroen Verkuijl in LS 8 with 5.789 points.
2. Nick Hanenburg in Discus 2A with 5.572 p.
3. Erik Borgmann and Joost Wolff in the ARCUS T. with 5.533.

Club class;
1. Roelof Corporaal in Pegase 101A with 5.718 points and for the first time DUTCH NATIONAL CHAMPION.
2. Thies Bruins in ASW 20 20WL with 5.535 p,.
3. Patrick van Breemen Schneider in DG 300 WL with 5.532.
So after being ahead with over 300 points Thies just[3 points],  finished as number 2. I felt sorry for him, but Roelof flew very well and was mostly runner up anyhow on the 6 day’s Thies leaded.

Not the last day for tuggies Daan and  Bertje, [Sjoerd has to leave on Monday] . As always they did a great job!!! But on Monday so tomorrow starts the OMK the Open Military Championship, so more towing bur also the winch will be active.

courtesy Willemijn de Lange

and a last picture from Arjan

No words needed.

—————————————————————-

2019 HAHNWEIDE.

Started the day on Wednesday with the message;
“While the weather doesn’t look very nice currently, our meteorologist Jupp is a bit more optimistic. However, the weather window will probably not be large enough for all 5 classes and the airfield is a bit wet… The Pilots of 2-seater and open class are allowed to rest a bit more. :-)”
First starts after 12 and day 3 from 5 in 18m. 15 m. and standard class was about to begin.
18 m…241.26 km;15 m…211.40 km;club…196.59 km;
BUT,……..They waited patiently and some showed on pictures how wet it was!!! This one is from Matthew with the message :“Hailing on the grid. 3.20pm. 200k task. Yawn.”

In the end the day was cancelled.

 

Thursday they got the weather we had here on Wednesday, hence nice long tasks at the Hahnweide.
Day 6 flying task 3;
18m. class 428.35 km; with Andy Davis flying around with 128.56 km./h. the day meant for all except for one,…coming home, though some a bit too low.999 points for Andy. On the other hand some started too high as well.
Mario Kiessling was runner up and got 7 points less. Boerje Eriksson had 982 p.. So an interesting day.
Andy flew the JS 1c and behind him were 6 Ventus 3 T’s.

15 m. 356.61 km.; and 1000 points for Ulf Ringertz from Sweden in his Ventus 2CX. All 14 finished and  UK pilot Timothy Scott was runner up.
Stefanie who won the day earlier had a difficult start :” She had to land again because of a technical problem on the glider. In the end, she crossed the start line at 2:15 p.m., about 1:45 h after the Sweden Ulf Ringertz. At this time Ulf was already on his way to the 2th turning point”

2-seaters 434.84 km.;the Germans did well with Martin Theisinger winning before Holger and Sebastian all in ARCUS M.

Open class 489.22 km. ; with a speed of 123 km./h. Felipe  Levin [EB 29R] won the day with French pilot Christophe Delort as runner up in ASH 25MI. Then again Germany with Uli Schwenk [ETA]  and France with Sylvain Gerbaud.[JS 1C/21 m.]2 From 15 were out .

St. class 336.86 km ; and AGAIN it was Matthew Scutter from Australia. He must”read” his ‘”OWN” meteo very well and takes according the correct decisions. As you know he is the founder of SkySight.
All 19 finished with speed between 94.88 km./h and 128.98 km.h. for Matthew.

Day 7 flying day 4 in all classes;
265 km. in 18m.; with Mario as winner . Speed 120 km./h. 5 Ventus 3 T gliders in the top 5!!

2 hour AAT in 15 m; and David Bauder flew 218 km. in time 2.04 with which he won the day.

2 hour AAT for the 2-seaters; the TOP 7 was all ARCUS M. Norbert Sommer won with 230 km in time 2.05.

268 km. in open class; and a NIMBUS 4T won the day with in it Max Kollmar.

2 hour AAT in St. class; 223 k. was flown by 2 German pilots Christoph Kahler and Michael Wisbacher in Discus 2B and LS 8 NEO. Matthew was 4th and not amused with the “leeches” as he called his at least 6 followers. Trying to get rid of them influenced his own soaring.

Day 8 and last day!!! AND they flew!!! AND,..it was a great day!!!
18 m..4.30 AAT; and it was Mario again who won the day with 562 km. and a speed of 124.06 km./h!!! 27 started and one was out. Boerje was runner up.

15 m. 412.89 km.and Swiss pilot Uli Messmer won the daily prize with a speed of 110.42 km./h Runner up was Steffen Schwarzer and David was 3d.All 14 finished.

2-seaters had a 4 hour AAT; It’s all between Norbert and Martin and Martin won the last day.16 started and finished.6 did not fly.

open 4 hour AAT; another JIM-DAY!!!!534 km with a speed of 128.17 km./h !! Sylvain and Felipe followed. 15 started and finished.

st. class with 402 km. and the combination weather {SkySight] and Matthew is a winning combination no wonder so many tried to hook on his tail. 1.11km./h was the winning time. Followed by 2 German and 4 UK pilots.
Matthew wrote;
“ A nice week of flying in Hahnweide with only a couple of major errors and rewarded with a good result (4,226 out of a possible 4,246 points). Daily convergence influences gave me an advantage with studious use of SkySight, and the strong streeting conditions with light winds gave me a good advantage in the Discus 2, even though we were limited to 50kg/sqm.

It was nice to do some training here as well with the British Junior Team (for which I am the team captain in Hungary this year) and after a weeks flying together I am sure they will be strong contenders. Thanks to Sophie for crewing, and Hahnweide for running a great competition as always.

2 -seaters;
1. Team Norbert Sommer in ARCUS M with 4.275 points.
2. Team Martin Theisinger in ARCUS M with 4.164 p.
3. Team Sebastian Beule in ARCUS M with 4.132.
Also in this class small margins.

open class;
1. Felipe Levin in EB 29R with 4.166 points.
2. Uli Schwenk with Aussie Keith  is their vintage ETA with 3.934 p.
3. Synvain Gerbaud [France] in JS 1C /21 m. with 3.901.

Standard class;
1. Matthew Scutter [Australia] in Discus 2AX with 4.226 points!!!!
2. Franz Poch in Discus 2T with 3.733 p.
3. Peter Carter {UK} in LS 8 with 3.522 p.

 

Another Hahnweide competition is over looking ahead already at next year.
All pictures courtesy HAHNWEIDE ORGANISATION.

———————————————————

UK Club class Nationals.

Cold and wet at Aston Down on day 2 with a new briefing at the grid.
courtesy  Cotswold Competitions 2019

With 32 participants younger and older, they started last Saturday with task 1 and only ONE pilot , Steve Barter, managed to finish the 249 km. task with a speed of 79 km./h. in a Discus CS.
“Heroes” as Ge Dale , Tim Milner, Ayala Truelove and Tom Arscott were out early, some nearly reached the goal. One of them Alison Mulder, who learned to fly gliders with us in Tocumwal, years ago. Great to see she flies in an LS 4 now and only missed out on 3 km. that first day.

No task on the Sunday.

Task 2 ..187 km. on Monday was a prey for Tim Milner, yes also he flew with us in Toc, as tuggie even for 2 seasons.
Tom Arscott was runner up and G Dale was 3d. Only 8 finished and Steve was 13th.

Task 3 ..128 km; weird short day with nice speed as daily winner Jake Brattle won in his ASW 20 with 121.59 km./h. Nearly all finished. Jake is one of the juniors who will fly in Hungary at the JWGC  at Szeged from the 28th July 2019 to 10th August 2019. Finn Sleigh another junior was runner up.[121.03 km./h]
” Behind the showers, the weather was very nice with the task (128km) being done in just 1 hour, 1 minute and 30 seconds by the fastest pilot.”

courtesy BGA.

The organizers ;”A notable mention to Rich Hood who completed the task at 117.35kph without turning more than 90 degrees other than to round Hereford Cathedral and Tetbury. Good efforts all round.” He was 4th in an ASW 20ax.

Wednesday was cancelled.
Thursday‘s message was ;”Competition Day 6 has been scrubbed because of the weather again. The cloudbase isn’t high enough to launch the grid and there’s quite a brisk wind. At least it’s nice and warm and there’s some blue sky and sun around. There’s no planned entertainment for this evening so please enjoy the peace.”
Friday was cancelled as well. “All tasks are cancelled for today so the day is scrubbed. The cloudbase never reached more than 1,800′ above site and thermals were weak if any.”

This morning on the very last day the message was ;
“Good morning! Please do not grid. We have a briefing and prize-giving at 12:00 so it would be appreciated if as many people attended as possible.”

With 4 out of 9 day’s the weather gods were not kind to this comps.
Yesterday a small task was set from 190 km and enough flew the task to make it a valid day though nobody finished. Tim Milner won and was only 10k out.; 645 points for him which was just NOT enough to make him the champion as Tim Fletcher had only 20 less.

So the NATIONAL CLUB CLASS CHAMPION IS;
1. Tim Fletcher in St Libelle with 2.250 points.
2. Tim Milner in Ls 3 with 2.229 p.
3. John Roberts in ASW 19b with 2.048 p.

As shared by Cotswold Competitions 2019
Many more pictures to be seen there.

 

——————————————-

The WORLD FINAL of the  GRAND PRIX in LA CERDANYA [June 1-8] started yesterday with an official training day ….Flying in the Pyrenees………….they  worked hard there in the days before to set it all up.;
www.sgp.aero/finals2019

The 200 km-training day was won by Louis Bouderlique in JS 3 before Thomas Gostner in Ventus 3T.
On the first day, today, a task was set from 258 km.
There are 19 top pilots from all over the world.

More next Wednesday.

By the way this was BLOG NUMBER 1.111. Interesting number!
June 1 is Ingo’s birthday. Happy birthday Ingo!!!
His club shared the next message:”
Happy Birthday to the gentleman of our skies! With over 37000 hrs in gliders, you have and continue too inspire glider pilots from all over the world.
A true legend and great ambassador of our sport.
Happy Birthday Ingo

Tocumwal Soaring Centre

Cheers Ritz

We do have some great photographers world wide in our sport. We do have some real toppers in Holland as well; Look at these pictures from Arjan.

  

Courtesy Arjan Vrieze.

  

All finishes last Saturday and I saw them with my own eyes. Some look more “crazy” than they are,all SAFE!!!
Courtesy Arjan.

In my Sunday blog you saw more pictures and news from Saturday.
Nice temperatures on Sunday, due to a warm front, but NO SOARING WEATHER!!!
Day 4 was cancelled.

Day 5 task 4; They expected good weather, so tasks according to the expectations. Though in the afternoon it deteriorated a bit here, so it seems over there as well.

Open; 376 km…95 km./h for Mark Wering in his JS 1C ,which was 10 k faster than the same glider from Ronald with 84 km./h. So a daily winner for 1000 points and runner up with 832.
5 From 7 finished.

18m; 362 km….4 pilots finished with 88/89 km./h. Sikko won in his ASG 29ES,[982 points]  runner up was Victor Wetzinga in the same glider. Then Hadriaan and Steven who still leads overall. 9 from 14 finished.

Combi; 324 km….9 from 14 finished and Jeroen Verkuijl won again ,3 out of 4 win’s!! 70 km./h shows how difficult it was.

club; 301 km….Great 1000 points-win for Frank Hiemstra in his St. Cirrus; 69 km./h.
10 From 16 finished, 2 only 40 km. out.

So 4 good flying day’s means a VALID DUTCH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

Day 6 started her with severe rain and thunderstorms and though it is just over 100 km. , they must have had the same weather. Indeed the day was cancelled! A pub quiz kept them busy in the later afternoon.

No news yet about today but they might fly.
THEY DO, day 7 task 5…….541 km. in open,527 in 18 m., 450 k. in combi and club has to fly 351 km. Great tasks!!! Long day!!!

———————————————————————

53d EDITION of the very international HAHNWEIDE Comps.

Courtesy Hahnweidewettbewerb

Saturday the 25th was cancelled ,….so 7 day’s left for the 101 pilots.

On Sunday  it started there at the beautiful Hahnweide with task 2. They flew in 5 classes and a lot of  international visitors choose Hahnweide as their soaring goal.

In 18 m. class … 4.30 AAT; it was Andy Davis from the UK receiving the first 1000 points in JS 1C for flying 531 km. in in 4.37. Giancarlo Grinza [Italy] was runner up ,in Ventus 3F. 30 In this class and 27 finished.
Also in this class Swedish, UK, Italian ,Swiss and Slovenian participants.

15 m…. class 448 km.: 13 participants and 9 finished. Daily winner UK pilot Timothy Scott in ASG 29 /15m.  Speed 105 km./h.
Swiss, UK , Slovenian and Swedish pilots in this class.

2-seaters… 4 Hour AAT and Norbert Sommer in the ARCUS M won the day followed by Katrin Senne in the ASG 32 MI flying that day, with Arne Boye Moeller. 17 From 22 finished and among them Laurens Goudriaan from S. Africa in his nice new ASG 32 MI, Adam Woolley/Butch  for Australia, Patrick Stouffs and Arnoud de Broqueville from Belgium and John Coutts from NZ.
An off-day for topper Holger Karow who was one of the out-landers.

Open class …4.30 AAT; AND 1000 points for German pilot Felipe Levin in the EB 29 R; 513 km in time 4.31. Runner up was French pilot Sylvain Gerbaud [JS 1 C/21m] and Uli Schwenk from Germany in the ETA was on spot 3.
In St class …411km; the first 1000 points were for Aussie Matthew Scutter flying a Discus 2 ax, with a speed of 116 km./h.  From 18 in this class 15 finished. Among them pilots from France, the UK and Italy.

Day 3 on Monday with task 2; with more difficult conditions, but….. “a small window”!!!.
It turned out a tricky day with out-landings as later in the day there was over-development ,total overcast as I could see on Matthews video. He was back.

18 m. 265 km.: 20 from 29 finished, so a tough day. Good old Reinhard Schramme won the day with a speed of 94 km./h in his Ventus 3 T,which says enough about the day. Mario Kiessling, who was only 21st on day 1, was runner up now. Andy was 12th.

15 m. 2.30 AAT;  6 from 14 who started finished and the winner was Stefani Muhl .Good on her. She flew 222 km in time 2.35, so a speed of 85 km./h. for 599 points.

2-seaters 225 km.; Katrin Senne is in a good flow. She won the day with a speed of 92 km./h. Holger had a good day and was runner up with Laurens as 3d.
14 from 21 were out.
Special day for Adam and Butch here is their story after they were out / back at the field, after 55 km.

“Common call for me after we landed, who on earth did I upset to deserve this? Followed by lots of laughter, just laughter, how did we get so unlucky – read the first point!

Pre-start, I think we identified that we needed to wait for the weather to come through, plus get high enough & close enough to the start. We started when we wanted to effectively, behind the general gaggle in a good position. First climb, good, second, good, third, good, all to base. Then, glide, glide, glide, past many options, all that didn’t work.

Open class 249 km; Jim Acketoft from Sweden was the best and flew over 100 km./h in his EB 29DR.[113 km./h] for 678 points.
Also Felipe, Uli and Dirk [Kaltenmark] Sylvain and Swiss pilot Jurg Haas  and Conrad [Hartter] flew over 100 km./h.
13 From 15 finished.

St.class 2.30 AAT; was the first to be launched and because of  “currently weak thermal conditions the standard class will released 100m higher as usually (700 m AGL)”.
Matthew was back  with 244 km. in time 2.27, so 3 minutes under time,  no worries he won the day…AGAIN. 14 from 18 finished.

On Tuesday NO FLYING but some great pictures from Kathrin who is not only a good artist [painting] but a great photographer as well. More photo’s from Kathrin at
http://www.wolf-hirth.de/hww19/gallery/gallery.inc.php

Finish ..day 3…pictures

In the evening the annual and traditional ” Schempp-Hirth ” evening will take place in the hangar of the Fliegergruppe “wolf hirth”. 

No news yet about today more later in the week.
Latest; 2-seaters and open have been cancelled the other 3 classes have between 200 and 250 km.

——————————————————–

CLUB class NATIONALS in the UK .

“UK Comp Season is here!

The Club Class Nationals start today [May 25 ]at Aston Down, with some of the best pilots in the country – and indeed the world – battling it out over the next nine days.

The Junior British Team pair of Jake Brattle and Finn Sleigh will be fighting the Senior British Team pair of Tom Arscott and G Dale. We’re hoping to see some good flying from Clement Allen and Henry Inigo-Jones, this year’s Junior Team reserve pilots, whilst Danny Richmond and Alistair Emson complete the under-26 contingent, both flying their first Nationals in their Standard Cirruses. 

Keep an eye on the Live Tracking here: https://www.cotswoldcomps.co.uk/tracking/And follow along with the Start/Finish radio here:
https://www.cotswoldcomps.co.uk/stream/

More news next week, maybe even on Sunday afternoon again.

There are many more comps around this time. Scores you can find on www.soaringspot.com 

And don’t forget …9th World FAI Sailplane Grand Prix Final starts on the 2nd of June 2019 at La Cerdanya, Spain.

 

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

20th EGC in StalowaWola.

This picture shared by team UK  says , unfortunately, a lot about this EGC.

“EGC2019. Gliding competition essentials! “

May 15 day 4 no task.SCRUBBED!!!

   

Briefing… YES,…Flying..NO.
As shared by 20th European Gliding Championships StalowaWola, Poland

May 16 day 5..task 2; The message after 3 day’s of rain and a lot of mud in the camping area was…
“Welcome to the fifth day of competition! It’s possible, that the weather will allow the pilots to compete today. Pilot’s briefing will be held at 10:00, as usual. There is no team captain briefing planned for today. Have a great day!”
Task’s; AAT’s from 1.45,[2 seaters]  2 hours and 2.15 [open] .
A difficult enough day, with wet out-landing- fields for those who need to land and have no engine to bring them home.
2 Briefings , the early one for safety issues, the later one for the tasks.
It turned out a valid day for open and 18 m. class, though nobody finished!!!
In the 2 seater class only 4 pilots flew over 100 km.
In open the best pilot flew 256 km. and that was Riccardo Brigliadori in JS 1C/21 m. for 381 points. Runner up was Eric Bernard 226 km. in the same glider and 3d was Pierre de Broqueville with EB 29DR; 333 km.
In 18 m.  Sebastian was the best in these Polish circumstances;229 km.for 237 points.
The UK-“boy’s” Phil and Pete , knew how to deal with this weather as well and  had 221 and 219 km.
“8 gliders landed outside the Turbia airfield (we’ve had 7 field landings and 1 landing on another airfield). Special congratulations to Roman Mracek for his exceptional endurance today! 🏆
Also “here comes the rain again“…from the officials. I heard de- rigging was …in rain!!!

    

Riccardo after his flight with Uys Jonker.                    PR picture from Sebastian
As shared by Jonker Sailplanes                       as shared by Sebastian Kawa

And,…then I left on my holiday.Unfortunately the weather was still off. In the end the pilots had in each class 5 out of 15 day’s ,so at least a VALID EGC 2019.
In between I heard that the briefings , were used for info about the flying.
Stewards Dick and Angel got huge compliments for what they did to improve safety.
During a short presentation, they analysed every day the flights ,where there was a possibility for a collision,with Australian software
Every day pilots were confronted with what could have gone wrong, without calling names or showing call signs. A bit stressful not only for the pilots but also for the stewards, but VERY USEFUL. Good on them !!!

The rain left his mark on the airfield.

As shared by Europese Kampioenschappen Zweefvliegen

For the final scores, the last flying day on Saturday was important. It was a good day with a bit longer tasks, but still with a very wet airfield and fields around.
Open got 396 km and Petr Tichy from Czech Rep. in the EB 29 R won the day with a speed of 123 km./h. meaning 1000 points for him. This was the “base’ to throw Riccardo from “the throne” he was sitting on every day till then!!!
Riccardo was 5th lost 50 points and for the final scores that meant that Petr got 28 more.

18 m. got 343 km and Wolfgang raced to the last day victory with 135 km./h. but ” only”  for 818 points. Sebastian was 12th and lost 135 points but he still had just enough points to win the EGC. Wolfgang moved from 8 to 3.

2-seaters had 353 km as their task and daily winner was Antti and Juha from Finland with a speed of 127 km./h. bringing them from 6 to 5 in the final scores. On top EVERY day team Rubaj & Matkowski from Poland in their ASG 32MI.

Final scores and FAI EGC CHAMPIONS;
Open;
1. Petr Tichy from Czech Rep in EB 29R with 3.478 points.
2. Riccardo Brigliadori from Italy in JS 1C/21m. with 3.720.
3. Markus Frank from Germany in EB 29 with 3.629.

Picture shared by Pôle France Planeur

18 m.;
1. Sebastian Kawa from Poland in Diana 3 with 3.359 points.
2. Karol Staryszak from Poland in ASG 29E with 3.327.
3. Wolfgang Janowitsch from Austria in Ventus 3T with 3.285.

Picture shared by Pôle France Planeur

2 seaters;
1. Rubaj & Matkowski from Poland in ASG 32 MI with 3.443 points.
2. Jones & Coppin from the UK in ARCUS T with 3.399.
3. Gmelin & Grote from Germany in ARCUS T with 3.357.

Picture shared by Pôle France Planeur

 

“To all our competitors, helpers and guests – we wanted to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. We’re grateful to have met you on the Turbia airfield and we hope to see you again. We wish everyone safe trips back home. Until next time!”

THANK YOU!!!!

———————————————————-

 

Dutch Nationals at Terlet.
May 23-June 1- 2019.

Was there on yesterday and here is a photo impression from the day.

I went with Baer Selen , last Saturday to Terlet, to catch up with several friends and a lot of new younger pilots.
As you can see enough enthusiastic juniors with their coach.

    

Dutch juniors preparing for Hungary’s JWGC during this national competition , the KLM FLIGHT ACADEMY NATIONALS 2019,  with Sjors van Loon in the St. Cirrus from the junior team and Robin Smit in his own St. Cirrus with call sign …RS.and Jelmer Vis in the St. Cirrus B.

Old long time friends in bigger planes as well. Specially for Art these pictures from Marion and Steven.

  

More old time friends as;

  

Sikko and Ronald

  

and 2 ladies Annemiek and Lizzy ready to go for it in ASW 27 and LS 8, flying in the combi class.

The “big brothers” yes an EB as well in Holland at the Nationals, flown by Dirk Nieuwenhout and on this day Kees van Schaik who flew with us in Tocumwal several years.

And Joost , one of my son’s mates and Eric long time friend who was runner up in Borlange at the WGC.

Last but not least some friends from “100 years” ago Bertje who is towing during the Nationals and Henry who traveled to Holland from France and who I know since the 70thies in Angers.

  

Bertje and Henry and 2  Dutch EB owners, Dirk and Ralf, who I know since they were “little” children.

More about the Dutch Nationals and some better pictures from Willemijn next Wednesday.
They flew till now 3 good day’s and in open class Ronald Termaat leads before Mark Wering both in JS 1C.
In the 18 m. it is Steven Raimond winning each day till now, with Sikko as runner up, both in ASG 29ES.
In the combi class Jeroen Verkuijl [LS 8] leads for Eric and Joost in the ARCUS T.
Club class shows that Thies Bruins in ASW 20 WL won all 3 day’s and he is with more than 200 points ahead on Robin Smit.

Thies , the current number 1 in club class, with his wife. He asked if his wife was allowed on the picture as well. OF COURSE!!!!

———————————————

OBGN
Open Belgian Gliding Nationals 2019.

I could n’t do a lot of research on this competition but I can give you some details.
They flew 4 out of 8 days in club and combi class and 5 in 18m/open. The last day yesterday had to be cancelled.
The final overall scores;
Club;
1. Bart Leysen in ASW 20F with 3.314 points.
2. Frederic de Groote in St Libelle 201 B WL with 2.994.
3. Philippe Billuart in Discus B with 2.849.

combi class;
1.Robbie Seton [The Netherlands]  in LS 8A with 3.456 points.
2. Dennis Huybreckx in LS 8 with 3.419, Belgian champion.
3. Jeroen Jennen in LS 8 with 3.392.

Dennis as champion, Jeroen [tje] as runner up .
as seen and shared by Brigitte.

Open/18m;
1. Bert Schmelzer jr. in ASG 29 with 4.215 points.
2. Tijl Schmelzer in Ventus 3 T with 3.899.
3. François Delfosse in ASG 29E with 3.594.

Bert Schmelzer sr. was 6th with 3.104 points in Ventus 2CXT.

Top 3 in open /18 m.
As seen and shared by Barbara.

More news next Wednesday!!!!Also ALL I forgot now.
CU then
Cheers Ritz

Final day’s in Prievidza!

Nice long tasks when I left you on Wednesday morning, with combi first at the grid, this time asphalt-runway and  club and 15 m. from the grass.

as shared by the organizers. The runway seems to be brand new.

Here the results  from Wednesday and and aggregate results from the comps, as it turned out to be the last day!!!
Prize giving was at 10 in the morning on the 9th.

May 8; task 4
Club;344 and it was flown by 26 of the 37 who started that morning. Daily winner German pilot Uwe Wahlig , so after 3 UK daily winners now one from Germany. And those winners became the champions of the cup and medals after 4 day’s of flying.
1. Tom Arscott with 3.594 in LS 7 WL.
2. Ge Dale with 3.587 in ASW 24 WL5
3. Uwe Wahlig with 3.422 in LS 3 WL

15m.;402 km.  and Polish pilot Jacek Flis was the best in Discus 2A. Dawid Pretorius was runner up and Lucasz Grabowski also from Poland 3d.
This gives the next overall scores after 4 flying day’s.
1. Poul Kim Larsen from Denmark in Discus 2A with 3.137 points.
2. Miloslav Cink from Czech Rep. in LS 8B with 3.035.
3. Jacek Flis from Poland with 3.028.
The other Danish pilot flying so well and topping the overall list on the first 2 day’s out-landed on 3 which cost him lost’s of points. He finished as 14th.

combi; 500 km. was flown by 20 from 25!! Best was 105 km./h by Polish pilot Tomasz Dul in ASG 29E. The ARCUS T and M were on 3 and 4.
Overall scores;
1. Andreas Kessler & Scarlat in Arcus T from Romania with 3.384.
2. Danes Grula in ASG 29E from Czech Rep with 3.303.
3. Andrzej Smielkiewicz in ASH 29E from Poland with 3.249.

That’s it about the FCC Gliding 2019. Not many day’s but finishing on a high with on the last day in each class a 1000 points day.
A few of the pilots have traveled straight away to Stalowa Wola to attend the EGC.

 

 

——————————————————

20th EGC in Stalowa Wola – at the airport Turbia in Poland
May 11-25
with the closing ceremony  on the 25th of May 2019 at 7:00 pm.

“Quite blowy but good Cu today. All Team GB gliders are rigged and will fly today on the last unofficial practice day”
As shared by British Gliding Team

On the first official training day at Turbia Airfield, tasks were set; 3.15 AAT for open and won by  open class by Pierre [de Broqueville] in EB 29DR from Belgium . Speed 130 km./h!!
In 18 m. it was French pilot Christophe Abadie who won the 3.30 AAT in JS 3 with 129km.h. on the clock and runner up was Wolfgang in Ventus 3 and Sebastian was 3d in Diana 3.
In 20 m. a 3.15 AAT won by the Finnish team with Antii in ARCUS M;125 km./h.
On practice day 2 not a lot of pilots were flying and tasks for them who flew were small, so not really interesting.
On practice day 3, it rained but who wanted to go could go and try a 2.30 AAT.
In open Alberto Sironi flew 320 km. in his Quintus,  Petr Tichy 311 in EB 29R and Russell Cheetham 307 km.  in EB 29DR.
In 18 m. the UK pilots Pete and Phil flew 349 and 335 km. in their Ventus 3 .There were 4 I guess technical out-landings, or flying back home.
In 20 m.only the UK team finished in the Arcus T with 99 km./h.

From the EPST Galery from Turbia.

AND…as said before Wolfgang and Michael defend their title.Sebastian who won the 20 m. last time flies now against Wolfgang in 18 m.class.So the title for the seaters is vacant.

As you can see the UK brings “in” some very good pilots!! And,..they are eager. The tasks on the last practice day was cancelled but they tried to fly it and DID and how!!! See above .

Steve and Gary fly as team in 20 m in an ARCUS T.
as shared by British Gliding Team

Also the Polish team is strong certainly as they fly “at home”. Never underestimate the French…Allez les blue… and the German team..es geht los…!! So looking forward how it all unfolds.

Opening.Was last Saturday at 5. AND,…./ “DO NOT LOOK AT THE SKIES……….” Best day was the opening, OR best day was during the closing ceremony…I heard it so often!!!
Here are the BENELUX countries.

Belgium With Pierre
All 3 pictures  shared by 20th European Gliding Championships StalowaWola, Poland

the Netherlands with Bas and Peter and TC Francois behind them.

Luxembourg with pilot Diana and TC and crew George.

Let the comps begin.On May 12.

AND,…off they go, take off’s at 11.10. Good luck to ALL.
20th European Gliding Championships StalowaWola, Poland

Sunday May 12; Day 1 task 1; AAT’s direction E. N. E.
Open..2.45  AAT; With 375 km. in time 2.45 at the dot, one of the Polish Lucaszes , this time Łukasz Wójcik, won the day in his JS 1C. Speed 136.12 km./h.
Behind him the big open class gliders ,the EB 29’s  with German pilot Markus Frank [134.69 km./h] Petr Tichy from Czech Rep with 133.50 km./h and Russell Cheetham from the UK with 133.34 km./h.
The first 11 pilots were within 804 and 904 points.

18m.. 3 hour AAT; They were the first to go on track at 11.15  , the line opened at 12.10 and for some  “it” was straight away high and fast!!!!
400 km. in 3 hours was the perfect result from UK pilot Phil Jones in his Ventus 3T. Only in this class 1000 points for the winner for a speed of 130.39 km/h.
The top 4 including Phil ;2. Karol Staryszak from Poland in ASG 29 E. ;130.31 km./h. for 999 points 3. Sebastian Kawa in his Diana 3 with 130.11 km./h for 996 points and 4. Pete [Harvey]  in Ventus 3 T. with 129.95 km./h for 993 points .

20m..2.45 AAT; Rubaj & Matkowski [Poland]in ASG 32 MI,  flew 348 km. in time 2.41 and won the day. Former German team coach Uli Gmelin and his wife Chrissie were runner up. Chrissie was twice WWGC Champion in 2003 and 2013. [ARCUS T] Phil  and Garry from the UK were 3d.[ARCUS T]

A nice evening to finish this glorious first day as Manufacturer JONKERS invited all teams for polish stew and beer.

MONDAY May 13; NO….Day 2 or task 2…Whilst the weather here in Holland was top[high 1040] .

As shared by George.

Tuesday May 14;No Day 3 or task 2..

EGC2019 -A grey, wet and windy Turbia = no Task today! …. Tomorrow doesn’t look great either ⚡️☔️
British Gliding Team

Wednesday May 15 today...the morning-news was …
“Welcome to the fourth day of Competition! Weather is supposed to get better any minute now, so today’s pilot briefing at 10:00 may include some plot twists. Be there or be square!”

Today’s weather as shared by the organizers.

——————————————————-

French Nationals in Standard class, 15 m. and 2 seaters flying in ONE class.
from Buno Bonnevaux May 5-May 11.

After 3 practice day’s, with as I expect not the best weather, as there were no points and only small tasks, they started with 40 pilots in one class with of course handicaps according to the FAI rules.
Task 1 on May 5; 2.30 AAT .
Adrien Henry won the day and so to see pilots had a real tough time. Adrien  flew in his ASG 29 a distance of 202 km in time 2.58, so a speed of 68 km./h. in his ASG 29 [handicap 114]
Only 6 finished and only 8 flew over 100 km. Winner of the day gets 109 points.

Courtesy Laurent BOISSARD
shared by AAVE – Association Aéronautique du Val d’Essonne

Task 2 on May 6 was straight away MUCH better;498.40 km. was set.
25 Finished. Still not “huge” speed as winner of the day Louis Bourderlique [JS 3] was with 107 km./h the only one over 100 km./h. But no worries he “got” 1000 points, that helps.
2 UK pilots and not just pilots , Jez Hood [LS 8] and Howard Jones  [Discus 2 A] did well HC, with 919 and 917 points. Benjamin Neglais [Discus 2A] was runner up with 918 points. Adrien was 6th.

Photo: Laurent BOISSARD
shared by AAVE – Association Aéronautique du Val d’Essonne

Task 3 on May 7; 211 km. was Adrien -day again. But only for 623 points. Louis was runner up and the Swedish French Duo Discus team was HC 2d and Jez HC 3d. 8 Points difference overall, between Adrian [1.] and Louis.[2.]
Task 4 on May 8; 132 km. but day was scrubbed.
No flying on May 9 but on May 10 tasks were set again.

No flying on May 9, you see why…
As shared by AAVE – Association Aéronautique du Val d’Essonne

Task 5 on May 10; 1.30 AAT, a day to either loose or gain points with a short task and most probably still a bit “sad” weather. It’s mainly between Adrien and Louis ,as they are close and on the 2 top-spots; 1.637 and 1.628.
The next 3 spots are HC pilots they get points, but can’t win a French title; Swedish French team in Duo and UK pilots Jez and Howard. As the French comps have mostly strong contenders it’s good to find out where you are with your performance.
What happened?
Adrien had so to see no nerves. He won the day ,slow but steady with 82 km./h. Louis was 7th and lost about 60 points on Adrien.
So the lead is a bit bigger now and the HC pilots remain at their spots.
Those who can “read” the weather well, did know already that there would not be a task 6 on May11.
So the scores from the last day were important. Adrien got only 486 points for his win, but more than enough to enlarge his scores.
In the end the aggregate scores were;
1. Adrien with 2.123 points and French National CHAMPION
2. Louis with 2.050
3. Christian Mallick with 1.834 .He flew an ASG 29E.
In between 2 and 3,  as said Jez,[1.888] ,  duo discus team France/Sweden [1.877]  and Howard.[1.861] .

The CHAMPION ,runner up and number 3 in France.
AAVE – Association Aéronautique du Val d’Essonne

 

———————————————-

Last Saturday some great flights from Holland. Steven Raimond flew 781 km. in his ASG 29E from Terlet; He mentioned that it was a glorious day on which he crossed for the first time the river ELBE in Germany and had a great run under a cloud street.
698 in the St Cirrus, by Dutch top talent Robin Smit [Gilze Rijen] is GREAT and he topped the Dutch list.He used the same cloud street .
Both flew to the NE over the border in to Germany.
AND,…very worth mentioning too… a trip to Denmark from Veendam in Holland, maybe even the very first ever!!!
In a Duo Discus WL.; 634 km.
Martin Hamberg and Erik Klijnstra; a real daring exploit, have a look at their OLC trace.

 

Gelderse -one -day -competition with 50 participants.
Courtesy Ben Hiemstra.

One day later, one of the bigger comps flown in Holland, was a fact. The Club, “The Gelderse”  organized at Terlet their ANNUAL-ONE-DAY-COMPETITION, with 14 participants in Club among them Robin, 17 in the combi class and 19 in open class. Among them Ronald Termaat and Jeroen Verkuijl. What great weather they had, though here I noticed some over development and later smaller tasks were set.
Tasks;
club; 186 km. Jelmer Vis in St. Cirrus B won the day and 10 from 14 finished.
combi; 210 km.. instead of 300 km. and won by Nick Hanenberg in Discus 2A. 14 From 17 finished.
open;329 km. changed in 248 km 13 from 19 finished . Jeroen Verkuijl in JS 1 c, was the winner with a speed of 115 km./h. Ronald Termaat was runner up flying a JS 1C/21 m.

Beautiful Terlet
By Beautiful Willemijn.

For a competition you have to “take care of”  all kinds of pilots , hence not too big tasks.
The Sunday was however so good that Steven declared a 1000, also from Terlet, but the beginning was not top, 150 m. on the first leg , so he had to change plan but still flew 873 km[664 triangle]
In Venlo, in the S of Holland Luc declared a 750 and flew it in a VENTUS 3M.

More great flights on Sunday looking international;
1.856 km. in the Stemme by Klaus and Gil Souviron from Serres. Very happy chappies!!
” What a day with highs and lows between the French Alps,Massif Central and the Spanish Pyrenees. Great thanks to all ATCs. And thanks for all the knowledge from my friend Gil with a lot of details about the beautiful Pyrenees.
Not to forget the Stemme which allows all these fantastic gliding adventures.”
6 More 1000 km. flights that day from Minden [1] and Germany.
Over 800 km. flights in Belgium.

AND,…what about YESTERDAY…. a DECLARED 1000 from Holland by Steven Raimond. Very SPECIAL!!!!
It was his first declared 1000 and he flew in his ASG 29E/18m.  up to 450 from Terlet , Goldberg in Germany, a kind of out and return. The last few kilometers , back in Holland, passing Terlet to Deil and back were character building, but he did it!!!
Great flight also by Jens Bouma and Ayold Zwaga; 762 [739 triangle!!] in DUO DISCUS!!!! They topped the Dutch list yesterday.
648 in an LS 6 was not bad either!!!
8 x1000km flights from Germany as well , 1 from Luxembourg and a great flight from Rayskala;750 FAI triangle in LS 8 T by Kristian Roine.

——————————————————

And not long anymore….
#FSGP2019 #SPAIN #LACERDANYA
“A bit more than 3 weeks to go for the next Final held in Spain, in the Pyrenean mountains. Stay tuned!”

———————————————————-

Unfortunately I did not realize that,whilst moving our ANNUAL-HIGH- SCHOOL- FRIENDS- HOLIDAY, 2 weeks earlier , I would miss most of the EGC, so I can only look back at it.
Sorry about that.
So the next blog is on Wednesday May 29. When I am not too tired ,I look back at the EGC on Sunday the 26th.

Cheers Ritz and enjoy ALL comps.

For those who are not very technical and have not seen it yet,  here is the forecast for StanolaWola till the last day.

As seen and shared by George.
It is an expectation,…it might change!!! I hope for ALL involved!!!

It has been terrible weather in most parts of Europe till now. Lot’s of rain, wind some hail and about 4 cm of snow here on Mai 4 in the S of Holland. I am longing after a real spring!!!
Several comps suffered from this weather as you can read in my blog , such a pity as  just spring weather  can be so strong and wonderful. We had a few real good day’s already a few weeks ago, but now,………
BUT,….more but’s,….Denmark and parts of Germany and the UK had real cold , clear, polar air and for that reason some real nice flights, as Andy Aveling, who flew from Lasham 842 km. in his ASG 29E/18m.
From Denmark Arne Boye Moeler in the JS 3 ” Another fine cool day – 710km in fresh air and snow” and also from Denmark a new open class Danish record over 3 TP’s; 849 km. by Preben Hove in Nimbus 4DM.
Another Nimbus 4DM flew 708 km. from Grosse Hoehe in Germany.
And also Keith Essex flying from Minden in Nevada complained about the cold;” Very cold today!” He flew 1.018 km. with a speed of 142.8 km./h.

Sunday May 5 ,was another good-cold-day, with a very interesting flight [1.026 km]from Jean-Marie Clement and Matthew Scutter; Here is Matthew’s OLC comment;
“Possibly the first French Alps -> Pyrenees out and return?
All done with clearances, navigating the wave with SkySight.”
Looks great at the map….and a high flight as well. Good wave.
SKYSIGHT; “Checkout the 3D wave mode on SkySight! We think it really helps develop an understanding of how the wave develops with altitude, as well as where it is going high.”
A 1000 k , nearly a triangle, was flown from Locktow in Germany by Bernd Goretzki in an 18 m Ventus 2CM.
And more a yo-yo from 1.176 km. was flown in France from St. Girons in a DG 800/18m.
And after all the marginal weather and non-flying-day’s in Klix , the weather improved after the comps [as usual/often ] and 756k.  [683 Triangle] was flown in an LS 8. Pfffff……..
Several 1000 km. flights from Germany, yesterday as well.!!!!!

Looking at the weather in the EAST of Europe it’s getting much better now, both in Priviedza and Stalowa Wola where the unofficial practice started yesterday for those who are there already for the EGC.

————————————————

PRIEVIDZA….FCC GLIDING 2019.

Courtesy Maciej Gębacz – Heimdall Fotografia

On May 1 the day of LABOUR, the pilots had to work as well.
Tasks were set and start for CLUB was at 11.50 so it was a GO after a few days of “forced” rest.
And they went for it,….special the UK pilots both young Tom Arscott and well known Ge Dale were the 2 best, after a relatively early start at 12.28. During their 2.30 AAT they flew 269 and 262 km. in LS 7 WK and ASW 24 A WL.
38 in this class and 33 finished!!
Also in 15 m. class a 2.30 AAT and this time 2 Danish pilots were the best from 38 in this class. Both in Discus 2A . both with the same start time at 14.01 and just 4 minutes difference in arrival time; so 807 and 803 points for 271 and 277 km.
In the combi class Petr Krejcirik , who had practiced already 3 days in Nitra , was the best in his JS1; 307 km. in 2.33 was good for 823 points A pity his son in 15 m. out-landed after 261 km.

 

   

Maciej Gębacz – Heimdall Fotografia

On May 2 the tasks were a tad longer but they had some problems with some club class gliders who could not stay up after they were launched as the weather deteriorated for a short while.
” They had to circle in a low altitude near the airport. This created an obstacle for the aerotows and the starts were interrupted for a while. But now, at 11:55 we continue.”
Club ..245 AAT; 252 km. was flown by Tim Milner [LS3/15m.] our long-time-ago-Aussie-tuggie. Good on him, as he won the day. Runner up was UK mate Tom. 26 from 38 finished. Though they are country fellows they had their own start times. Tim started at 12.18 and Tom at 13.24 !!
15 m..256 km.:the 2 Danish pilots were best again was it first Filip Bojanowski and then Poul Kim Larsen both in the DISCUS 2A , now it was the other way around; speed 93.96 and 93.95 so both got 718 points and both won the day.31 from 37 finished!!
On task 1 Aldo from Italy was out , this time it was Luca. I know they are good pilots.
combi..297 km.; a good day for the Polish pilots Adam Czeladzki and Tomasz Dul in JS 1 CTJ/18m and ASG 29 E flying around with a speed of 108 and 106 km./h. 17 From 25 finished.

 

    

Maciej Gębacz – Heimdall Fotografia

On May 3 no flying.
On May 4 no flying , “OK. No grid, no briefing. You have a day off … ”  but still 4 day’s to go with hopefully better weather.
On May 5 no flying ,” Just a brief look from the window and it is clear we won”t fly anywhere today. Everything outside is grey and “un-tasty”

May 6…a windy day, too windy for club class so they were allowed to have a bit more rest.
Starts for 15 m. and combi  [1.45 tasks ]were postponed to 12.30….13.00…13.30…14.00. You can’t say they did not try but unfortunately the day had to be cancelled.
No flying.

May 7..FLYING AGAIN!!!!!
SO glad for the pilots and organizers. Let’s hope for a few real good final day’s.
Some extra official news from the organizers about tracking which you still can use the last couple of days;
“We are also testing the best version of tracking I’ve ever seen. It was programmed and designed by Miss Melissa Jenkins. Thank you!”

http://fcc.onglide.com/current-day.xml

After opening this link, you need to click on the competition class that interests you.”

Ready to go on May 7 …flying day 3 from 10 till now!!
Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

Club; 306 km…With 3 British pilots on top there will be enough pilots wishing to change that.Club pilots  were the first allowed to go on track at 11.45. All waited till around 1 PM.It turned out to be a difficult day for some also those in the top.Not for Ge , who won the day in his ASW 24 with winglets, in the same time as the other UK topper Tom , both flying together ,starting late at 13.14., but not a real good day for Tim as he out-landed after 239 km. .He started at 13.04. He lost about 500 points,ggrrrr…!
Adam from Australia had a good day and was 4th behind Boris Zors in St. Cirrus.
10 from 39 finished!!!

15 m; 336 km.. both 15m. and combi were launched from parallel strips, so starts open about the same time at 13.03 .A mix of “countries in the top 3. Zoltan Hamar from Hungary won the day with a speed of 95 km./h in his Ventus 2XA.
Marius Pluscauskas from Lithuania was runner up in Ventus 2AX and there are a few South African pilots as well in Prievidza and Dawid Pretorius was 3d in LS 8.
18 From 38 finished.

combi; 405 km..start open at 13.00. Only 87 km./h for the winner but a 1000 points-day for him ; Slovakian Lukas Benedikt in Ventus 3. Tomasz Dul [ASG 29] from Poland was runner up and from Romania it was  the ARCUS team who was 3d.
13 From 27 finished.

May 8 and only ONE more day to go on the 9th.
Today tasks have been set already  Club 344 km. 15 m. 402 km. and  Combi 500 km.
Great tasks for the last couple of days.

 

—————————————————-

KLIX.

Also KLIX had a flying day on MAY 1 but only in 2 classes. Club and 18 m. were cancelled ,but for St and 2- seaters there was hope.
BUT,…..after 12 PM the day was cancelled for all classes as there just was no window!!!
May 2; was sunny but windy, so tasks were handed out at the grid and the estimated time of launching was at 13.00 .Not an easy day as 6 from 31 finished in 18 m. class with a speed between 71 and 78 km./h that says enough. Christoph Matkowski from Poland won the day. Then 3 German pilots and Steven from Holland.
Their task was 173 km.
In Standard class only 2 finishers over the 162 km task; Matthias Greiner from Germany and Thies Bruins from Holland both in ASW 20, seems to be a great glider in these circumstances.
4 Finishers in the 2 seater class 3 teams 1from Germany and 1 from Holland.164 km. was set.
Speed  between 54 and 70 km./h.
Club had 109 km. and ALL pilots except 1 finished!!! Start times between 13.11 and 13.52.

May 3 ; It was a COLD day, freezing cold. But they flew and had valid scores in all classes.

  

Welcome to SPRING in Europe
as shared by the KLIX TEAM.

In 18 m. Steven won the day with a 182 k. racing task and a speed of 110 km./h in his ASG 29. He had 1 point more than Rainer Cronjaeger and Andres Kuehl both on spot 2 in ASH 31 MI /21 m and JS 3 /18m.
22 From 30 finished.
St Class; had with 245 km. the longest task and also a winner and 2 runner up’s.All 3 from Germany and flying LS 8 and Discus 2 AT. 21 From 28 finished.
2- seater class; with 2 Dutch teams in the top 3. Frauke and Ferdi in the Duo Discus XL behind winners of the day Habertag .Jurk. At spot 3 the boys from Friesland , the top from Holland, Jens and Sander.
Except for 1 they all finished their task from 197 km..
Club; 168 km. was set and flown by 14 from 17.

The last day ,May 4, it rained again ,as it did here with snow and hail!!!!!
So only 4 out of 9 day’s in club and 18m and 3 in the other 2 classes, but winners who had to fight for it.
Here they are and they are all pretty close;
18 m. after 4 days;
1. Christoph Matkowski from Poland in ASH 31 MI with 1.351 points.
2. Rainer Cronjaeger from Switzerland also in ASH 31 MI with 1.345.
3. Steven Raimond from Holland in ASG 29 with 1.337. During the comps I had to tell him that one of our friends had died. I asked him to win for her, and he was close!!! Good on you Steven.

St. Class after 3 day’s;
1. Peter Pollack from Germany in in Discus 2AT with 1.595.
2. Andreas Hillebrand from Germany in LS 8 with 1.576.
3. Carsten Bueddig from Germany in Discus 2AT with 1.528.
Sjaak Selen who lost his sister in law during these comps on May 3, was 5th with 1.513. ONE point behind number 4.

2-seater-class after 3 day’s;
1. Ferdi and Frauke Kuipers from Holland in Duo Discus XL with 1.348.
2. Team Hagemann/Auen from Germany in Arcus with 5 points less 1.343. “Where did we loose those points“?????
3. Team Habertag /Jurk from Germany in Duo Discis XLT with 1.305.

Frauke warmly dressed in the back seat.
As shared by Frauke.

Club class after 4 day’s;
1. Lukas Brune from Germany in St Cirrus with 1.154 .
2. Casper Fossing from Denmark in LS 1f with 1.079.
3. Sabrina Vogt in LS 4 from Germany with 1.065.

 

———————————————–

GAUTENG REGIONALS 2019 from ORIENT….continued.

Courtesy Robert Atkinson . GREAT PICTURES!!!!!
As shared by Soaring Society of South Africa

On May 1 an other short task in club class [145 km.] and 1 from 7 finished; Arjan Schaap. He got 328 points for this result.
In 15 m. also 1 finisher from 6 [4 flew] over 145 km. this time Hannu Du Toit. Only 109 poinbts for his brave effort.
In open class 189 k was set and Anders Anderson and John Coutts were the best. 7 From the 9 who started finished as well.
Speed from the finishers between 63 and 89 km./h.

Oscar in his beautiful JS 3 winner of May 2.
Courtesy Robert Atkinson.

May 2  still small tasks;
Club..131 km; not a valid day.
15 m..131 km; 194 points for Wayne Schmidt who managed to fly the distance in his ASW 27 with a speed of 61 km./h.
open..166 km; and also here the speed says it all; Oscar won the day with 89 km./h on the clock.

May 3; no flying.

May 4 ;LAST DAY!!!
Club.. 127 km; 1 finisher for 109 points. Arjan Schaap won the comps with 981 points. No more to say…
15 m. .165 km.;Wayne won again and was overall winner with 1.597 points.
open.. 183 km.;Also here another win for Oscar [133 km./h.] and runner up,in JS 3 as well , Anders.
A total of 2.484 points for Oscar as winner of these regionals in this class. John Coutts was runner up with 2.149 points and Mannie Mclauchlan in the ASG 29 was 3d with 2.122 p.

Oscar get’s another cup.
As shared by Oscar.

Not a lot of long flights on good days but good winners in each class;
Here another great picture by Robert to finish this Regional Competition.

 

———————————————–

 2019 Italian Club Class Nationals.

Aeroporto di Alzate Brianza. on April 22 a week before the comps.
Courtesy Stefano Balzan

The Italian club class Nationals were flown from Alzate Brianza in the N of Italy with 13 pilots.
April 29…. 211km; daily winner Simone Selvini in St Cirrus ..speed 87 km.
April 30….259 km; Peter Hartmann won in a St. Libelle ..speed 90 km./h
May 1….3 hour AAT ; improvement of the weather and a 1000 points -day. Davide Giovanelli was the winner in St. Cirrus.He flew 377 km. in time 3.38 …speed 103 km./h.
May 2…1.45 AAT; A DG 300 as best glider for the day with Ugo Pavesi.
May 3…no flying.
May 4???????
May 5 last day; no flying.
“Italian” CLUB class champion/winner is Jan Jagiello, who was 2 on 2 day’s runner up and flew consistent in his St Libelle with 2.973. After 4 day’s of flying.[out of 7]
2. Davide Giovanelli in St Cirrus with 2.942, only 31 points less.
3.Peter Hartmann in St.Libelle with 2.937 so missing out on 5 points to be runner up.

As far as I know Jan is a young Austrian pilot and Peter, an a ” tad older ” Austrian. Davide is from Switzerland.
So according to the rules I know, they are winners and Ugo Pavesi on spot 4 will be Italian champion.He had 13 points less than number 3. Ugo flew a DG 300.
Correct me when I am wrong. Thanks.

————————————————-

Some great pictures from Serres, where Matthew [Scutter] works on updates for his SKYSIGHT.
Great job in all ways.

  

  

Looking good there around Serres.
Courtesy Matthew.

—————————————–

The GLIDING INTERNATIONAL new ON-LINE issue viewer.

The new Mai/June 2019 issue is on line for those interested. Because of an error [525] I could not read it for you to give you some details. Will try later again.

———————————–

Last but for sure not least.

I told you about the wrong corner we are in. On May 3 Christianne de Swart died. She was still the fittest good looking person in the beginning of January this year and she died on MAY 3. UNBELIEVABLE. Bloody cancer!!! International pilots know her as the partner from 2 times WGC champion Baer Selen. She always crewed for him and as TC and friend I had quite a lot to do with them for many, many years.
Only 61 years old.
She was a very outspoken, full of live, sportive ,charismatic and lovely lady. 4 Soaring friends including me said farewell to her on April 22. We had , under the circumstances, a great couple of hours  and at that time ,Chris was still part of it.
She will be sadly missed by many and we all will support Baer in this difficult time.

 

Chris after the briefing in 1991 ,when she crewed for Baer and he became for the 2d time WGC champion.

R.I.P. dear Chris!!!!

11 WGC’s she was on his site. And what great job she did!!!!
Courtesy Baer

 

 

Cheers Ritz

Some great flights!!!

On Wednesday April 24 a great flight from a few of the German Juniors flying from Königsdorf  ;
“ Last week, German Junior pilots Nikolai Wolf and Johannes Beyer finished phenomenal flights of more than 1000km each on their first rides of the new DAeC Ventus-3 supplied to promote young talented pilots! Congratulations!” Message from Schempp-Hirth.
https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-…/gliding/flightinfo.html…

https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-…/gliding/flightinfo.html…

A total of 11 over-1000km-flights that day, with Yves Gerster flying 2 days in a row a 1.082 and a 1.222 km. in a DG 400 /17 m.Place; Courtelary in Switzerland.
Juergen Wernzel even flew that day 1.408 km. from Hilzingen in Germany in an ARCUS M and Gerhard Heidebracht 1.319 km. in a Ventus 2CM/18m. from Koenigsdorf.
Johannes Beyer must have had the day’s of his life flying Ventus 3 as a young lad and flying with Mathias Schunk a distance of 1.222 km. in the ARCUS T. Not bad!!!!

TOP junior…Johannes Beyer. As shared by Schempp-Hirth.

On Thursday the 25th of April, the windy weather created booming conditions in the mountains and 9 over 1000 km. flights were flown, some even over 1.500!!!! A real  foehn-day  with wave and thermals.
Klaus Ohlmann in the Stemme flew from Serres in France; 1.511,64 km.
Guido Achleitner from Sankt Johan in Austria in ASG 32 MI ;1.513,79 km.
Mathias Schunk from Koenigsdorf in Germany in Quintus M;1.654,32 km.
Also the H301 Libelle flight was spectacular. From Niederoeblarn in Austria David Richter-Trummer flew 1.020 km.!!!! Even with 100 km./h. headwind, the little glider stood ground. Amazing!!!
Also Mollis Mil in Switzerland had a few 1000km.’s.

Last Sunday was another good mountain day and from France and Italy pilots “hooked” on in the wave and flew over 1000 km.
Gilles Navas added another long flight to his list with 1.059 km. from Vinon in his ASG 29E/18m.
1.110 was flown by 2 French toppers from St Auban; Francois Hersen and Baptiste Innocent in ASH 30.
The day before they flew also a long flight;1.211,50 km.
From Italy, Calcinate,  it was team Andreas Ferrero and Marco Stefanon in an ARCUS, who flew 1.085 km.
The St. Cirrus flight from from 922 km. by young Swiss pilot Davide Giovanelli, from Alzate Brianza in Italy is worth mentioning as well.
Matthew Scutter mentioned from the French Alps;”Nice first wave XC flight in the French Alps with Jean-Marie Clement, testing SkySight!”

Many comps at the moment and the weather is not co-operating there. Rain, more rain and rain again. AND,…that after the several glorious day’s!!! A pity but it is as it is with the weather.

——————————————————–

 

PRIBINA CUP at NITRA in Slovakia finished.

Great picture by ELFO on flying-day 3.

After 3 non flying day’s and 3 flying days the scores were all pretty close except for open class, but all was still possible.
On Thursday ,  the weather improved and there was a cheerful message:
“Good morning. Finally we are going to race again.”
Day 7 task 5 flying day 4;
Club; had to fly 156 km. and this was best done by 2 German ASW 20 pilots , Felix and Wolli ,the current team coach of the German team, with even a speed of 106 km./h after a later start than the others;14.03. Some , 2 Pegase pilots, even made it later at 15.13. They were 11th for the day.
35 From the 39 who started finished.
15 m.; had 203 km to fly and German pilots Karsten and Philipp in Discus 2B and LS 8 were the daily best with 111/112 km./h. Then…4 Polish pilots.
26 From the 33 who started finished. A pity,…Tibor ,who flew in the past with us in Tocumwal belonged to the out-landers.
20 m.;197 km and 6 from 6 in the top belong to Germany. A real German day there in Nitra. Briel/levin won another day in the Duo Discus X and are proud number 2 in the overall scores behind the ARCUS from Buhlmann & Schlautmann.
open; 224 km and 4 from the best 5 were from Poland with as the best…Sebastian, who started pretty early in his class at 13.57.

Day 8 task 6 was set, but flying day 5 was flown….but only in 20 m. class.
Club;2 hour AAT but the day was cancelled.
15m; 2 hour AAT and Lucasz flew up to 94 km. others from 50 to 78 , but not enough to make it a valid day.
20 m.; 2 hour AAT and flown and completed  by 7 from the 13 teams. Good on them!! Best by Goralski & Tilo Holighaus in the ARCUS. An important win as it brought them in the overall top 3.
open; 2 hour AAT but the task was cancelled.
In the evening, with 1 day to go, the farewell party that started at 8 pm in hangar. There was  live music, free bean goulash and beer.

Day 9 was ,due to bad weather, cancelled.
A pity but that’s how it is.
Prize-giving was earlier at 12 PM.

Prize giving in Nitra.
As shared by ELFO.

So the champions after 3 /4 day’s of flying are;
club
HC. Miroslaw Izydorczak from Poland in ASW 20;3.322.
1. Mark Travner from Slovenia [3.210] winner from the CUP and
2. Aleš Kovač  both from Aeroclub Celje and both in a DG 300.[3.194]
3.  Tobias Pachowsky from Germany in LS 4 [3.158]

 

The proud Club Class Champions.
Courtesy ELFO.

15 m.
1. Tomasz Hornik from Poland in Discus 2A [3.272] Winner from the CUP.
2. Radek Krejčiřík from Czech Rep in Vantus 2A .[3.199]
3. Lukasz Grabowski from Poland in DIANA 2 [ 2.984]

The best 3 as seen by ELFO.

20 m.
1. Simon Briel & Enrique Levin from Germany in DUO DISCUS X [2.997] Winners from the CUP.
2. Weidlich & Moeller from Germany in ARCUS [ 2.905]
3. Goralski & Holighaus from Germany in ARCUS  [2.872]

The German top  as seen by ELFO

open;
1. Sebastian Kawa from Poland in Diana 3 FES [3.406]
2. Karol Staryszak from Poland in ASG 29 [3.403] Only 3 points difference with Sebastian . On the last flying day Sebastian won the day and got 13 points more than Karol. The difference that day was 10.
3. Petr Krejčiřík from Czech Rep in JS1 C EVO [2.573] Good to see father and son at the podium!!!

The cup winner and the rest of the top 3.
As see by ELFO.

Congratulations to all pilots, crew and organizers.
And as every year great pictures by ELFO!!!!

——————————————————–

Klix 2019 ..27th International Gliding Cup.
April 26-Mai 4.

With 35 pilots at this stage in 18m., 21 in club class , 22 teams in 20 m. and 34 in St. Class ,another huge competition.
Day 1 on Friday, was straight away difficult with the weather. Only open and club started, 20 m. was cancelled and St Class was cancelled in the air.
259 k. was set for open/18m. and unfortunately nobody finished, BUT it turned out to be a valid day and Ingo Trentelj nearly flew the task in his ASH 31MI/21m.;257 km for 296 points.
187 km. was set for club and 4 managed to fly over 100 km. not enough to make it a valid day.

Day 2 was cancelled.

Day 3 was cancelled.

Day 4 was cancelled all due to rain all day.

Day 5; After all the rain, they hoped for a window to fly in on Tuesday  and small racing tasks were set, with hope for 4 more good days. In the end the day turned out better than expected and with the LATE starts it was quite exciting to see if pilots dared to play start games.
Club;143 km,…..and a St. Jantar, St. Cirrus and St. Libelle in the top 3.Polish pilot Benedykt Jasik in the Jantar won the day.Only 1 out from 19 and starts between 14.11 and 14.36.
2 seaters; 229 A task and 146 km. as B task….. It was the A task they had to fly and good old Sigi Baumgartl won this day in the ARCUS with a speed of 120 km. /h. They started at 13.56 and all were on track with 8 minutes.19 From 22 finished.
St. Class; 250 [A] or 146 km. [B] ……they were the first to go on track. Raphael Twardowski in an LS 8 won the 250 A task even with 10 penalty points.
28 From 31 finished so reasonable conditions in this class with starts between 13.25 and 13.48.
18m./open; 180 km……..at 16.42 !!!! their line opened and most straight away went on track.!!! The winner of the day flew for 400 points and it was Andreas Kuhl in JS 3 before Rainer Chrohnjaeger [Switzerland] in ASH 31 MI/21 m.
22 from 31 finished!!

————————————————————-

Prievidza in Slovakia started.
April 28-May 9 2019.

With 100 competitors this is another big competition in Slovakia, flown in 3 classes; club, 15m and combi.
Day 1 was on Sunday and a task from 262 km. was set for 15 m. but unfortunately also there the weather was not good enough to fly.CANCELLED.
” Weather for ducks ” as the Aussies say.
More next week.

—————————————————

 

Region 5 contest in the USA.

Some famous winners in open class with Karl Striedeck and Sarah on 3 , winner Dick Butler still going strong and  Jerzy Szemplinski from Canada as runner up.
They had 4 out of 6 day’s ,…all blue!!

————————————————–

Gauteng Regionals 2019 from Orient.

Line up for day 1 .
as seen by AntionetandMark Howse and shared by Soaring Society of South Africa

They started last Sunday in 3 classes with short tasks in club 113 km. and 4 competitors,  15 m. with 144 km and 6 participants and open with 204 km.
10 Pilots in open and 2 pilots did not finish. Best speed was by John Coutts ,123 km.h. in the JS 1.
Oscar was runner up in JS 3 but 10 km./h slower.

No great weather there either as day 2 had short tasks as well and day 3 was cancelled.

More next week.

———————————————-

I am in the “corner where I am hit hard”. A lot of lovely people are leaving this world.
This time it is Cheryl from Sportaviation in Tocumwal. Eddie ‘s wife and support in life and the business.
” were like two peas in a pod” Eddie mentioned.
A great lady and a real peoples person. I am going to miss her.
Her funeral is on Mai 3  at the Tocumwal Lawn Cemetery, that’s where a lot of my friends are nowadays even our son Dennis. I will be busy bringing flowers next season.
R.I.P. lovely lady!!!

Cheryl and Eddie a great and lovely couple.
As shared by Eddie

CU next week, in which another young friend may die. She is given up by the doctors.
Ritz

26 dgr.C over Easter,..nobody complaining,here in Holland.
67 Pilots here,  took their glider for a ride on EASTER Sunday, but it was a blue day, nicer with those high temperatures was a drink in the club house overlooking the field.
Other parts of Europe were better as you can read below.
Busy enough with soaring as well.Great conditions , as expected, this season for the

PRIBINA CUP IN NITRA.[SLOVAKIA]

Before start day 2 by ELFO.

They fly in 4 classes;
Club with 44 participants,
TASK 1 with  301 km. Best pilot in a Pegase C101A1,  Pawel Glowacki from Poland with a speed of 80.81 km./h.
Runner up was Miroslaw Izydorczak in an ASW 20 also from Poland [83.29 km./h]and to make the top 3 complete, ALSO from Poland Konrad Partyka in SZD-48-3 Brawo.[79.71 km./h]
22 Finishers so half out.
Reason…. It was not an easy day as it did not turn out exactly as expected and hoped for , with wind and the promised CU’s did not show up, but still cloud bases up to 2300 m.and blue thermals. AND…..Valid in all classes.
TASK 2 with 317 km. was flown in better conditions and the first final glides were announced around 4.20.
Their line opened at 12.39.
3 German Pilots started together at 13.18 and had a perfect day. Uwe ,Markus and Florian were the best 3 for the day in LS 3, and 2 St. Jantars. Speed 105 and 100 km./h.
34 from the 40 who started finished.
TASK 3 with 274 km. with only one pilot who flew over 100 km./h.; 48 year old Polish pilot Miroslaw Izydorczak in ASW 20, who got the 882 points for the best result. Then 3 German pilots in LS 4 with 796/7 points. Also “out-landers” 10 this time, among them Markus who had such a good day , the day before.
TASK 4 with 177 km.with the message “Today the weather in the mountains area does not look as good as yesterday, therefore we will fly to the south directions mostly.”
”  we decided to interrupt the towing and due to the cloud layer, making the thermals from too weak to none, the tasks were finally cancelled for all of the classes. ”
So task 4 was cancelled.
The day after was , due to rain, cancelled as well.

 

15 m. with 37 participants,
TASK 1 with 342.59 km. and 4 strong ladies for Czech Rep. in this class. They did not win as the 1000 points were again for Poland with Tomasz Hornik in a Discus 2a /15m. with 96.22 km./h .
BUT the girls were on spot 2 [Jana Vepřeková in LS 8 ] and 6 Dana Nováková in LS 8,  on 7 with Jana Trešlová in Discus 2 and on spot 8 Hana Trešlová in LS 8.
Only 14 finishers.
TASK 2 with 368 km. they were the first to start at 12.23. Not a German but a Czechia- day in this class with Petr’s son Radek Krejčiřík as daily winner in the Ventus 2A with a nice speed of 116.88 km./h. Quite a bit more than the runners up Jan Pavlik and Dana Nováková both in LS 8 and both with 105 km./h on the clock.
34 Finished!!
TASK 3 with 274 km.and again 3 Polish pilots in the daily top. Tomasz again, but now with Jedrzej Sklodowski in an LS 6 A and one of the well known Lucaszes, this time Lucasz Grabowski. Radek was 4th.
29 From 36 finished!!!
TASK 4 with 236 km. was cancelled.
April 23 was cancelled.

 

Amazing cu’s as seen and shared by Jeppe.

 

DOUBLE SEATERS with 13 teams,
TASK 1 with 344.49 km. and nobody finished but 2 German toppers Briel/Levin fles in their DUO DISCUS X a distance of 290 km. The Dutch team Corporaal was runner up also in Duo Discus.[254 km.] Number 3 was a Duo Discus too, from Poland.
TASK 2 363 km. At 12.35 the line opened for them and this day was an ARCUS-day and a German day as the 4 best were from Germany and flew ARCUS. They went on track at 12.50 and 13.09.
With 109 km./h the winner was slower than the 15 m. class.
TASK 3 with 330 km. with 5 German teams in the top and the Duo Discus X with 2 young toppers Simon Briel only 22 years old flying with  Enrique Levin , was on handicap 1 above the Arcus.
ALL 13 teams finished!!!!
TASK 4 with 234 km. was scrubbed.
No Flying on April 23.

 

Picture courtesy Jeppe de Boer who flies in the 20 m. class.

 

OPEN CLASS with 35 pilots.
TASK 1 with 369 km. and also in this Class Polish success as Karol Staryszak [ASG 29/18m] was the first daily winner for the 1000 points with 113 km./h. Runner up in Diana 3 FES , Sebastian Kawa, with 111 km./h.
22 Finishers and many penalty points in this class.
TASK 2 with 386 km. and pilots could go straight away over the line which opened just after 1 PM.[13.04] But they did n’t. Wolfgang left at 13.28 and Sebastian at 13.30.
The 4 Austrians started about the same time and Sebastian started and finished with his Polish mate Karol Staryszak in ASG 29/18m. They were the best for the day. Wolfgang was 4th behind the EB 28/28.3m. from Pristavec & Avsenek. His mates Heimo [Demmerer] ,Andreas Sandhöfner and Andreas Lutz were 6.7 and 9.
31 Finishers a few out due to altitude infringements.
TASK 3 with 362 km. and 132.53 km./h for Karol with Petr [Czech Rep] in JS 1 /18m.EVO just a tad slower 132.06 km./h a difference of 9 points in the day scores.Sebastian was 3d with 129.80 km./h.
Only 3 from 36 out.
TASK 4 with 261 km. was scrubbed.
No flying due to rain on April 23.

 

The mountain area as see by Jeppe.

TODAY; no grid, no briefing , no flying, but there is hope !!!
Total scores after 3 flying-day’s out of 6.
Club;
1. Tobias Pachowsky  Germany in LS 4 with 2.870.
2. Hauke Schmoranzer Germany in LS 4 with 2.861.
3. Gerrit Feige Germany in LS 4 with 2.861.

15 m.;
1.  Tomasz Hornik Poland in Discus 2A with 2.760.
2.  Radek Krejcirik Czech Rep in Ventus 2A with 2.717.
3. Jan Pavlik Czech Rep. in LS 8A with 2.597.

20m.;
1. Buhlmann & Schlautmann Germany in Arcus with 2.288.
2. Briel & Levin Germany in Duo Discus X with 2.229.
3. Weidlich & Moeller Germany in Arcus with 2.184.

open;
1. Karol Staryszak Poland in ASG 29 with 2.879.
2. Sebastian Kawa Poland in Diana 3 FES with 2.869.
3. Petr Krejčiřík Czech Rep. in JS 1 C EVO with 2.573.

Top in all classes is pretty close except in open class. Just a few day’s to go, as the prize-giving is on the 27th at 8 PM.

—————————————————–

 

—–On GOOD Friday the 19th it was great soaring weather in the Alps and 4 x a 1000 k was flown in Nimbus 4DM, EB 29 , Nimbus 3DM and an 18 m. DG 808 C. All flights were from Lienz in Austria.
Last Saturday was a top-soaring-day in Italy. Alberto Sironi declared and flew a 1000 FAI triangle from Calcinate in his Quintus and flew it with a speed of 106 km./h.
His very happy comment;”1000 km FAI triangle declared Task….3 Italian record open class.”
Good on him.Congratulations Alberto.
From Thiene 3x just over or under 900 km.
On Easter Monday an “Interesting low-windspeed-wave-day (10-15kph in 4500m).”, by Bert Schmelzer jr, from Hausen am Albis . He flew 1.020 km. in an ASG 29/18m. and topped the OLC list that day. Another interesting flight was from Aigen Mil in Austria, to be honest never heard about the field, but 685 was flown in a St.Libelle.
Yesterday another 1000 k from Switzerland , this time Yves Gerster in a DG 400/17m. [1.082 km.]

—————————————————————-

 

10th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships

Over the Easter weekend a lot of pilots visited the Mini Easter Grand-Prix in Lake Keepit, as you know the venue for the 2020 WWGC.
The weather was perfect as you can see and the atmosphere as well.

      

Busy enough!!!

—————————————————

 

And only a few more days  and… the EGC starts on Mai 11.

20th FAI European Gliding Championships
(Open,18m and 20m Multi-Seat Class)
11th – 25th May 2019
Stalowa Wola (Poland)

Organizer:
Aeroklub Stalowowolski, ul. Lotników 15, 37-415 Zaleszany
Email:office@egc2019.pl
Tel :+48600335850

And to finish …the BAHIA PARADISE under construction.

As shared by Guilherme Purnhagen

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

—-First things first!!!! WHAT A DISASTER!!!!! The poor Notre Dame …gone up in flames. I could cry and was frustrated that nobody could do something because it was so high.Helicopters with bambi-buckets might have been the solution!!! But you have to have them close by.
No words can describe the loss of culture and history. SO TERRIBLY, TERRIBLY SAD!!!!!!
HEARTBREAKING!!!!
As I write they have already over 850 million Euro, VERY good in such a short time. If it is realistic I don’t know, but Macron wants tho have the renovations/rebuilding, ready in 5 years, when the Olympic Games are in Paris.

——————————–

— Parts of Europe including Belgium and Holland had fantastic super-early-spring-polar-conditions , specially in the weekend starting with Friday ; Belgium from Geraardsbergen with 767 k [695 FAI] in an ASW 27 by Daan Spruyt.
2 Long distance flying friends from Holland, Mark and Alfred Paul flew in their ASG 29 E’s [18m] 769 k from Soesterberg.
They planned to fly to NORMANDIE, which they did and turned 20 k. before Rouen.
At 8 in the evening the engine was started for the last 35 k home.
Great flight and not easy but as I read with top co-operation from the French and Belgium air-traffic- controllers.
21 Dutch pilots noticed this good weather and flew that Friday.

In the night from Friday to Saturday we had minus 4 here!!! All roofs turned white with frost. Luckily I had my pot plants inside.
The weather however on Saturday was booming again. From Keiheuvel in Belgium , just over the border here, Tijl [Schmelzer] flew nearly 1000 km!!904 to be precise and he flew the new VENTUS 3E.
Daan flew another long flight this time 767 in his ASW 27. How cold he must have been!!
Woollies, lot’s of woollies only help and thermo socks.
COLD was the most read comment and yes the snow flocks they saw I saw here too.
Neil [Deijgers] took his St. Libelle out for a flight from 519 km.
Many over 500 k’s that day from Holland and France and even the UK where Roy and Andy flew the the ARCUS T from Lasham over  538 k.;”Nice Polar air in a typical Spring day.”was their comment.
Our Dutch junior Robin Smit flew in his St. Cirrus 582 km. and have a look at the OLC ; an out and return to France with a snowy final. His flight went to the beach in France…and back. He loved it…a dream came true.

There was that day, the very famous flower parade in Holland in the Bollenstreek [in the neighborhood of Haarlem] and even with the cold 800.000 people visited. For the first time in the 72 year history of this famous parade, the cars had to be inside during the night as otherwise the flowers would freeze and turn black. Who had a big stable or hall, opened on request the doors to help the organizers.

Sunday felt a bit better/read less cold and with the knowledge of a forecast for 25 dgr. on the Easter Sunday we all stood this cold, as we knew it would be MUCH better.
Down under from Benalla Tobias [Geiger] still flew nearly 500 k.[497] in the Ventus 2AX /15m.
Europe still had great circumstances but not as good as the day’s before though in Holland flights up to 582 in an LS 8 by one of the juniors and 520 from Tim Kuijpers former JWGC champion in an ASW 20 are worth mentioning.
Still 75 flights that day from Holland only at the OLC.

Yesterday the weather was TOP in the Alps and from Koeningsdorf , Unterwoessen and Lienz pilots flew between 730 and 938 km.

 

—————————————————

 

Unfortunately no great soaring conditions in Torino. They started there on April 5 with the 47th City of Torino Throphy 2019.
14 Flying participants some with a “great” name in soaring.
The weather only contributed with 2 AAT’s from 2 and 1.30 hour in the beginning from the comps and the last day on Saturday had a 1.30 AAT, but it was not flyable , 23 k was the best try, so a final party was there for the social moments and the prize giving.
Only 938 points for the winners Peter Hartmann and a mate [Marino] in the ARCUS T.
Aldo [Cernezzi] in the DG 600M was runner up with 908.
On Monday however, Riciardo [Brigliadori] flew 786 [600 FAI triangle] from Alzate, in his 21 m. JS1CTJ.
It looks the Pribina Cup will have much better weather, that is when they have the weather we expect. Their unofficial practice started on Saturday.

With Peter /Marino in the middle and Aldo to the right and Ciancarlo Grinza to the left.
As shared by Aldo.

 

——————————————–

—One of the former Narromine and Tocumwal Blaniks left after many years to Alice Springs , BUT, for a lease period in the off-season-time ONLY.
Hope they have many safe flights in it. In spring it will be back in Toc.

Safe travelling. LOOOONNNGGG long way.

More news about the good old Blanik at the Friedrichshafen Aero Messe. It seems the A L-13 life extension station may come to USA. As you know many have been grounded over the last years and for a load of money you could make them flyable again , but again for a short period. Hope this works as an extension of 6000 hours sounds OK to me.

as shared by Soaring Society of America

And ….talking about the USA…
Minden Nevada ,was on April 9, the place to unload 4 JS 3 gliders for USA buyers.
Many happy chappies!!!!

as shared by Jonker Sailplanes

———————————————

 

News from SoaringNZ
“Issue 56 is live on ISSUU. Subscribers, check your email for your link to see it for free. Everyone else, follow the link and check it out.
Enjoy.”
issuu.com

——————————————–

 

—News from France;
Hello ! From July 30th to August 9th this summer, will be held the 45th Bailleau International Gliding Contest, a classic flat-land gliding contest.

And like every year for 22 years now, Bailleau International will be accompanied by the now famous “Amical” Contest, one of the best ways for a pilot to take his first steps in competition …

This year, the new Competition team wishes to improve the admission conditions in the 3 classes of the competition by limiting excessive performance gaps between gliders. We therefore remind you the following principles :

• Speed Race : This class is optimal for Standard, 15 meter, 18 meer and 20 meter twins
• Long Flights : This class is optimal for 18m and Open class gliders with a minimum handicap of 117
• Amical : This class is optimal for Club class gliders and twin gliders with a crew of which at least one pilot has never participated in an IGC approved competition

The website http://2019.planeur-bailleau.org is now open, you will find there all useful information and the online registration form …

 

—————————————-

—News from Tocumwal;
Attention race fans,
The entry list for the 2019/2020 Australian Multi Class Nations is now open.
Head to out web page to register or to see who will be racing this December.
www.tocumwalsoaring.com
Info and details will be updated regularly !  Tocumwal Soaring Centre

 

——————————————–

—Some sad news as well this time from the BGA.
April 15 2019.
“We regret to report the very sad news that Mike Bird has passed away. Following a long period of poor health, Mike died peacefully at his home with family present.
As a major figure in British Gliding, a record-holder of distance flights, a frequent entrant to both National and regional comps, a friend to many, and as the perceptive and highly amusing author of the unique Platypus Papers, Mike Bird will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with friends and family.”

A long, long time ago I met Mike as well and loved his Platypus Papers.
R.I.P. Mike.

 

—-News from the WWGC;

As shared by  10th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships

Our new website is now live
https://wwgc2019.com/

 

————————————-

 

And to finish the maiden flight from this huge “monster”!!! With a span of 117 m. this jumbojet  flew successfully around with 305 k speed on the “clock” over the USA Mojave desert.
This plane has been designed to launch rockets from 10 k high, instead of from the ground, to make the trip from a satellite cheaper.
Paul Allen , one of the co-founders of Microsoft with Bill Gates and as rich, is a key-person in this project of strato launch systems.
A good man as I see ;” He gave more than $2 billion to causes such as education, wildlife and environmental conservation, the arts, healthcare, community services, and more.”
He unfortunately passed away before the plane flew.I heard later Thanks Nick.

As shared by Stratolaunch
With the text;
“Today, for the first time in history, the Stratolaunch aircraft took flight ✈ Thank you to our partners at Scaled Composites, LLC for their hard work. Learn more about this important milestone here: https://bit.ly/2VIv49d

 

CU, cheers Ritz,
Just to let you know: TODAY April 17 is the day Kees Musters would have turned 73.
HAPPY EASTER DAY’S. Enjoy.

Spring and soaring. Great picture for Easter.
Courtesy Sophie Mahieu
14 avril 2019 : G-DJAC DUO DISCUS at Sisteron
© Sophie Mahieu
L’album de Mamz’ailes SoFi