Post 1.520 on July 27 2024

Looking back on this SUPERB FAI JWGC is a pleasure.
Surely there were some hick ups, as at every comp, but here at home, it was a pleasure to follow this Polish edition of the 13th JWGC. Looking at all those happy faces can only make you happy at home too.
To be honest I attended a few JWGC’s as either guest the first one in Holland, TC in Husbos, or competition journalist in Rieti and Finland and JWGC’s are THE BEST.
Eager young ones, fun , smiles and a lot of top talents.
Enormous pleased to see that it are not only young gentlemen but also a few young ladies participating in the world championship. TOP!!!!
Some quotes from different nationalities!;
“what an amazing competition its been!”
“Bravo à tous les pilotes pour leurs performances et leur assiduité tout au long du championnat !Merci à tous, pilotes, crew, staff, organisation, accompagnants et vous, supporters…”

2 Top talents won the title WORLD CHAMPION.
In club class our Belgian neighbour, Martijn. On the very last day he was runner up, giving him enough points to be the very best and that really pleases me. He was there with mate Robbe [27the spot from 44, good job] each a crew and a TC. Very small team also like many other teams “asking for donations” .
His early reaction; “I still can’t believe it, but I can now officially say I am a junior world championAlready many thanks to everyone who made this possible“
Another not too big team is from Finland. GREAT to see Kim on spot2…VICE WORLD CHAMPION.

In standard Max won and I more or less expected that already. Max was invited in Namibia for the 1000 km camp organized by Wilfriend Grosskinsky and flew MANY. Quite experienced and no problems with pressure.
In December 2022 I wrote already about Max;
——-This must be Max Maslak’s BEST experience with soaring in his 19 year life. Flying the Ventus 3 by himself during the Bitterwasser-1000 km-camp and together with Wilfried learning in the EB 28
“Day 7 1000km Camp Bitterwasser;
“Again one of the best days in Namibia with a 300km convergence line in the west. Early start with an adiabatic temp curve. Even if the high level of instability in the west brought about early spreads of rain, the route planning in the morning went quite well. The thunderstorms that hung over Bitterwasser in the late afternoon were limited in time, so that in the evening the airfield could be approached again without any problems.
Another important experience for Max at just 19 years old..” by Wilfried
They flew 1.214 km…speed 143 km./h.
Max flew 3x in the Ventus 3M/18 m; 1.049 km….1.158 km…and day 7 …..1.049 km.
With Wilfried; Day 1…..1.135 Max very first flight, …1.162 km….1.214 km
“7 flight days……..7400km…….is only possible in Bitterwasser…
Thank you Wilfried!!!” was his last comment.

The USA was with a small team also in Poland and a vice world title for Thomas. great job!!!
“Congratulations to Thomas Greenhill of USA, who is now the junior world vice-champion in Standard class!! Tomas flew my syndicates Discus 2a, GX – absolute beast of a glider, makes me so happy when any of my gliders perform so well” Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

When the closing ceremony was over and the FAI flag handed over to CD of the next venue , scores are official, so here are the OVERALL SCORES from this 13th JWGC.

The French did as always well with a spot 3 and 4 in Club and 6, 9 and 10 in standard. Result; 2d place in the TEAM CUP.
The Czech team did well too with a 6 and 7 spot in club and unfortunately an early pilot out of the race and in standard 9-10 and 15.
Our Dutch mates had a great time, with 1 off day,[ don’t talk about it anymore but it changed a potential top 3 spot, ]; Club, 10-15 and 26 and in standard 12-14 and 20.

Club class;
1. Martijn Eerdekens in LS 3 from Belgium with 8,863 points. WORLD CHAMPION JUNIORS 2024.
2. Kim Toppari in LS 7 neo WL from Finland with 8,772 points.
3. Alexandre Fierain in ASW 20 from France with 8,601 points.

Standard class;
1. Max Maslak in LS 8 from Germany with 8,175 points. WORLD CHAMPION JUIORS 2024.
2. Thomas Greenhill in Discus A from the USA with 8,114 points.
3. Nils Schlautmann in LS 8 from Germany with 8,007 points.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL PILOTS, for a safe and fun competition!!!

TEAM CUP;
1. Czech Republic with 868.05 points. CONGRATS!!!!!
2. France with 858.10 points.
3. Germany with 847.77 points.
4. Denmark with 839.50 points.
5. Poland with 833.88 points.

The official pictures from the prize giving will most probably appear later.
I will of course share them when I have them.

Indya just more than happily mentioned that she travels to her soaring camp in Hodkovice, Tsjechië in style.

Brings me to the last important issue,…… those top tug[gies].

So till later. I really enjoyed this JWGC.

5 PM. No pictures yet from Martn but the French shared some happy pictures from Max , Thomas and Nils and several other pilots.

The team cup prizes were received by the TC’s On the picture the French , Eric and Czech TC.

——From 7 races they only flew 3 in Saint Sulpice , the venue of the FAI SGP. We could see the wet weather already looking at the Olympics. The last 3 days including today, have been cancelled.
With 24 points Adrien Henry won in JS 1C. Runner up was with 22 points Christophe Abadie in JS 3 TJ and 3d Eric Bernard in JS 3 RES.
Danish pilot Rasmus Ørskov in JS 3 RES was 4th with 14 points.
A pity but you can’t organize the weather.

CU tomorrow hopefully with the official pictures from the winners.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.519 on July 26 2024

With 3 hour AAT’s the “young ones” finish this very interesting JWGC. They can take their own decisions, set their best departure time and fly for 3 hours to get the best daily result.
Believe me there will be “games” played.
Estimated first launch at 11.45….2.5 m…..1500….
Depending on the departure they will be back in 3 hours.
AND…they are eager to go for this last day!!!

First the briefing with prize giving. In Standard Niels and Jasper [in orange…of course] at the podium together with Henry from the UK. I believe this is Henry’s last JWGC. Jasper is only 21 so he can fly one, maybe 2 again .

Club class task;

Standard class task;

Friday July 26; day 13..flying day 10.
Club; Task 11….3 hour AAT…..For a few minutes he was the daily winner, but was passed by UK pilot George with a good win; 299.36 km.97.63 km./h. Martijn instead became runner up BUT WON THE TITLE. My goodness me CONGRATULATIONS MARTIJN.
100 points more than Kim from Finland, who did a great job too and stayed ahead of the 2 French pilots Alexandre and Nicolas.
So an LS 3 and LS 7 and ASW 20 in the top3.
Still all preliminary.

Standard ; Task 11….3 hour AAT....2 Polish pilots were the daily best, but it is difficult to follow as soaring spot is overloaded.
But what I can preliminary see is that Max won the JWGC title , Thomas from the USA is runner up and Nils is 3d. Great to see a young USA pilot as runner up.
From the German pilots I more or less expect that they win. That happens often, with a well oiled mostly very experienced team and enough good pilots. Not saying that they don’t deserve it…they do. They ARE GOOD. But nice to see a Champion from Belgium and a runner up from THE USA.

More tomorrow as internet is busy and THE OLYMPICS start, and I never missed an opening.

CU tomorrow with the final official scores and more about the pilots

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.518 on July 25 2024

After the happy pictures from the INTERNATIONAL EVENING, back to the serious stuff.
SOARING, that’s why they are all there.
A good day again…they are ALL so lucky with the weather!!!!

At briefing the winning pilots from task 9 got their prizes and here is the picture from club class.

AND the standard class;

Thursday July 25; day 12 with task 10; First launches at 11.15, with speed tasks and good weather conditions. It’s 10 dgr. colder than the earlier days, but that feels GOOD and there are cumuls as you can see on the picture;

Club class;  425.15 km….At 5.15, 24 were scored and 4 were out, also the 2 USA -boys. On the end of the day 37 finished also Robbe from Belgium as the last finisher with a speed of 85 km./h BUT he FINISHED!!!
I told you in earlier blogs about “the lower countries”. Well,….Belgium and The Netherlands [in standard] did it again. Martijn [Belgium] in his LS3 won the day; speed 109.31 km./h.
Polish Wictor in the ASW 20 was runner up and Danish pilot Jens in the MOSQUITO was 3d. I am impressed with the Danish pilots.
A bit of an off day for Alexandre ,who proudly was on an overall top 2 spot; today he had a late start, later than his mates [don’t know if something “held” him ] and he finished on a daily spot 25. Meaning with 1 day to go from 1 to 3 overall, but so less points, everything is still possible. His mate Nicolas had an even worse day with a 34th spot dropping from 1 overall to 4. Same , a bit later departure time.
At this stage with preliminary scores it’s, FINLAND with Kim, on top spot 1 overall with 1 day to go, Martijn is on spot 2 . Very small differences in points as after so many days and even more kilometres the top 3 has;
Kim, 7.937 points, Martijn 7.913 and Alexandre and Nicolas with 7.779 and 7,709 points. I hope they keep their nerves , sleep well and take the correct times tomorrow to fly off.

Standard class; 503.52 km…at 5.30, 8 pilots had finished with a nice speed of around 121 km./h. But as many days before ,all pilots finished!!! Great task setting and top pilots!!!
“Our” Dutch pilots did extremely well. Niels [what…. IF,….. but if does n’ t exist] and Jasper won the day; 123 km./h for 1000 and 990 points. They started in ” the middle”.
Henry was 3d. A bit of an off-day for Michaela; spot 23 And last today and the only one under 100 km./h . Something must have gone wrong for her.
With 1 day to go the scores are not so close as in club.
The differences tomorrow will be
1. Max with 7.451, 2. Thomas 7.337 and Nils 7.825 and his team mate Jan with 7252 points.
Phillip and Henry are now on 5 and 6 and Jasper moved into the top 10.
The team CUP with ONE DAY TO GO!!!!;
1. Czech Rep with 870.41 points.
2. Germany with 869.22 p.
3. France with 865.74 p
4. Denmark with 846.42 p
5. Netherlands with 843.81 p.

Tomorrow will be the last day, what a great competition those young ones have shown us.
Fly safe tomorrow!!!
As always; scores are preliminary.

————————————————

FAI SGP in Saint Sulpice

Task: 133.91km… but it was cancelled. “Weather conditions prevented the race from being launched.“

Last day tomorrow. Will be exciting. I am ready, they young ones are, so we support them totally.
Go go….
Cheers Ritz
To finish; todays standard class runner up Jasper ,with his crew Indya.

Post 1.517 on July 25 2024……. later post 1.518, with the news from today!!!

Looking at the official pictures from the International Evening, I just got so happy. What a great new bunch of future glider pilots with their crews. Amazing!
A very happy night so to see.

The organizers wrote;
“Yesterday, after the task completion, it took place an international evening The competitors and their teams presented their national specialties It was also a time for integration and rest after a lot of competition and time spent in the air “

I share some pictures for when you missed them.
First of all the Japanese “influence “from 1 pilot and his mum.
He was 3d on that day, so highly motivated to be happy.
In our time at Sportavia in Tocumwal, we had a lot of Japanese guests, all lovely people. I was even invited to visit them to see some airfield over there.
I still are in contact with a lot of them.

More international camaraderie on the next pictures with the Dutch girls and German, Polish, Czech, Japanese and more Polish young ones. A great set of happy pictures AND memories by Martn Levitzky.
Just FUN!!!!

Post 1.516 on July 24 2024

Of course the INTERNATIONAL EVENING, was with young ones,” party time/fun , “specially because they could sleep in the next morning,
BUT,…then they have to be “fresh and new ” again to consolidate, or to win , but better not to loose points.
Their first week was unbelievable. Some flew for the first time over 500 km, others had never had such good speed in their till now short career.
I guess this comp till now is everything they dreamed of , even when they are not on spot 1 or had an out-landing. Sometimes the experience is BIGGER than the RESULT.

Yesterday I mentioned a 3d spot for a Japanese pilot Kengo and I was really pleased with that. When I visited a few soaring places in Japan ,I found out that it’s not easy to fly cross country there.
A bit later I was even more pleased ,when I noticed that Dutch Tim was as well on spot 3. They departed on different times, flew a different amount of kilometres and had a different speed, but both got 952 points!!!!

Hope they ALL [ pilots, crews, organizers, tuggies and helpers] have a pleasant official rest day and share here some pictures from M Levitzky and the drone.

And from the so important tugs.

FAI Sailplane Grand Prix in France shared the next news;
“Today’s weather has many surprises: pure thermals are expected!The pilots will tackle a 221.47 km race. 1st take off at 12:45 UTC.…”
The points from race 1 are now clear; In the end Adrian Henry had not 9 but 10- points, which makes his total now 20, which means 2 winning-days!!!
10 started and Yves Gerster from Switzerland was runner up. 3 Were out.

Updated;
Today; 221.47 km….with a late start at 15.20 the pilots raced over the track with as best 115 k./h. Christophe Abadie won the day for 10 points. Rasmus Ørskov was runner up and  Sébastien Dubreuil 3d.

—- INTERESTING: Last Monday the worldwide temperature record was broken for the 2d consecutive day with an average of 17.5 dgr C. On Sunday it was 17.09.
” Copernicus ” does look at these temperature averages since 1940.
When they do, they look at the N. [winter now] and S. combined.

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.515 on July 23 2024

13th FAI JWGC in OSTROW.

And one more because they are SO BEAUTIFUL. Look for all these top-finish- pictures on the FB side from Aeroklub Ostrowski on 19.07.2024.

Flying day 8 out of 10….on Tuesday July 23
Looking back first again;
Team USA mentioned after the scrubbed day;
“Today 7/22 ended with a “scrub” because of bad weather, tho an effort was made for short tasks. These young people have made tremendous efforts with many hours of competition.”
Pictures from the daily winners from task 7 should be of course published, here they are .
First standard class;

JWGC day 10, flying day 8 and task 9; “An interesting forecast for the day, good weather, similar task area. Feeling rested after yesterday’s scrub.” is what the Brits mentioned.
Also the Dutch call it an “interesting task with interesting weather”.
Let’s wait and see what happens.
11.15 would be the estimated time for the first launches.
TONIGHT is the INTERNATIONAL EVENING, so a busy day for the crews to make sure there country is well presented with original food and drinks.
When the rest- day will be still tomorrow, a good choice to do it tonight.

Club class; task 9…3 hour AAT...Gate opened at 12.04. Good day for Alexandre from France, with 312.18 and 108. km./h, he was the best and the only one over 100 km./h. GOOD!!!
He moves up to spot 2 overall behind his mate Nicolas [7.075 and 6.968 p] Both fly an ASW 20.
kim from Finland moved to spot 3 and Martijn from Belgium is on spot 4.
Between the top 4 in this class a lot is still possible. A LOT!!!!!
Danish pilot Jens in a MOSQUITO, was runner up with 313.23 / 98.60 km./h.
Good to see a Japanese pilot in the daily top 3!!!Kengo Matsumoto in an ASW 20 was 3d!!!!!294.37 km and 98.12 km./h. VERY GOOD!!!!
3 are not yet scored and 3 are out of the race.

Standard class; task 9…3 hour AAT.…At 5 PM ALL pilots in this class had finished!!! Good day!!!
The start line opened at 12.26 and the ceiling was 1900 m, so a pretty good day.
Best was Jakub Kaczorowski from Poland, his 2d win, he also won task 1. He flew 346.24 km./ 109.90 km./h. His Polish mate Maciej was 3d, they flew together in an LS8 and Discus 2A.
Danish pilot Lasse has a good end-sprint; he was runner up with 339 km/ 108,87 km./h. He was already 4th on task 7.
German Max did well with a 4th place and a late start. Somewhere, along the “road” he lost his mates [ Jan and Nils /spot 13 and 22] and that is visible in the overall scores.
Max leads now the standard class with 6.483 points. USA pilot Thomas is runner up at this stage; GOOD ON HIM!!![6.374] Nils and Jan follow on 3 and 4.[6.318 and 6.286]
All scores PRELIMINARY.

————————————————–

—— Saint Sulpice des Landes, France,    18 July 2024 – 27 July 2024
After the short, but exciting late start on Sunday with race 1, the next day was cancelled, but the INTERNATIONAL EVENING was set and pictures show lovely food and drinks. Very good looking cheeses and home made pies. Dancing and a disc jockey it was all available and not to forget ; baguettes.
Race 1 Highlight available on YouTube
https://youtu.be/1ms9f9qf-ug?feature=shared

race 2 is for today at the menu with 267.39 km;
The organizers shared; “Yesterday’s rain is now a distant memory, and the weather looks fantastic. Vive la Bretagne!
The competitors will tackle a 270 km course, with the first take-off scheduled for 1 PM CEST.”
At this stage 3 pilots are out among them Rasmus, a pity!!!
5 are not yet scored, but Adrian Henry in JS 1C, got for now 9 points, as “the best”.
More tomorrow.

—-And to finish the day ,a picture from Dutch Pilot Wout in the LS 4 AG. This is one of the gliders specially reserved, for young Dutch top juniors . He visibly enjoyed the flight, even after he was unlucky on task 3, when 23 pilots from 42, out -landed and he was one of them.

——After a fatal 2- seater crash 2 weeks ago, 2 more pilots got in trouble in the mountains, Haute-Alps, of France but they can tell us what happened and were LUCKY!!!!.
“A glider made an emergency landing on Monday, July 22 at the end of the day in the municipality of Crots (Hautes-Alpes).
The aircraft landed in the quarry, between the Boscodon torrent and the Italian beach. Both occupants are unharmed. About twenty firefighters and gendarmes were mobilised“.
Just to learn from!!!!!!!

CU tomorrow, hopefully they share pictures from the INTERNATIONAL EVENING.

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.514 on July 22 2024

July 22 task 8 out of 9 at the FAI JWGC at Ostrow.

Life continues; a new week, possible 4 days to go, a short task today and a day off tomorrow and this JWGC is over again. Time flies when you have fun and I guess most young ones had FUN with each other, with the flights and even dealing with disappointments.

Looking back ;
Team USA has a TC ,Peter Deane, who shares a lot of news so here is a bit, the rest you find on US Soaring Teams
“Today’s weather was a relief to all – no high cloud cover, high temperatures, low wind and a cooking thermal and cumulus forecast. The task was a 4.5hr turn area task for both classes. All our pilots made it around with our club class pilots having their fastest day so far in the 100 to 100kph range which was good for 700 to 870 points. Thomas in Standard consolidated his contest some more with 913 points and a move up into 3rd overall after the leader ( a German pilot) had an unfortunate airspace violation and got landed out for the day.“
Of course he meant a “Dutch” pilot, many make that “mistake”. No worries.
Team Belgium; “Yesterday was a super day. We have never experienced this weather before! We thought we had flown well, but apparently not well enough. Today was initially scheduled as the rest day. They should have kept this idea because we suspect the day will be cancelled. The rainshowers are supposed to arrive around 11:30 am. “For now” the rest day is now on Wednesday. We had to get up early again today but the cancelled day will be welcome relieve.
Side note: Today they gave us an AAT of 1h15, with a minimum distance of 121km. So that means we already had to fly at least 96km/h“
British Gliding Team; “A solid day for our pilots, with Oli flying his fastest ever flight so far.” on task 7 with 123 km./h.

Monday; July 22 day 9, task 8.
Club class; 1.15 AAT…..A low passes by and rain is expected. day CANCELLED

Standard class ; 1.15 AAT…..Cancelled.

I guess nobody will be too sad about that, after a few days of superb weather and long interesting flights/days.
Hope they all have a good rest.

————————————————–

——French FAI SGP has a” no task-day” today!
Luckily yesterday turned out rather nice after a late start.
“It was a short but thrilling race that culminated in a fierce duel. Adrien Henry and Christophe Abadie battled neck-and-neck in the final kilometers, with Adrien ultimately maintaining his lead to finish three seconds ahead. Jean-Pierre Bellec, who had been well-positioned throughout the race, secured third place, finishing less than a minute behind them.”

Having a rest too.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.513 on July 21 2024

13th FAI JWGC at Ostrów Wielkopolski Michałków, Poland, in progress and continuing till July 26.

Looking back first; here is 1 of the pilots, this time Martijn from Belgium;
“Small update from the past 2 days. Yesterday we had a 5-hour AAT that both pilots flew well around! Again more than 500km was flown.
Also today there was given another 500km racing task which both pilots flew well around, although it was often not that easy with the cirrus clouds.
Probably tomorrow we will fly a 500km for a 4th time as the forecast is looking nice again.
Also the rest day has already been postponed to Tuesday, so who knows what it will be on Monday.”

The French [Pôle France Planeur ] looked back with mixed feelings. They found the races “long” maybe even too long ,as the lift died later in the day and the cirrus was thicker than expected. Their club class pilots however did well with a podium spot for Alexandre [1] and Nicolas [3] Good on them.

The British Gliding Team looked back on a great day too, specially in standard with Henry at the podium on the highest spot and George W in club, on spot 2.
“George Downing (LD) is no longer able to fly JWGC due to a combination of licensing and time for a repair on the glider. He is still in camp providing invaluable support with tracking alongside the TC.”
“A team result well earned!
Smiles all round, as everyone is glad to have made it back to the airfield. A few outlandings, with everyone safe and accounted for”

The Dutch juniors had a bit of an off day in club , with Tim and Lars back after 6 hours and 30 minutes on spot 31 and 33 and Wout JUST made it over/in the finish ring/circle but had to swallow some penalty points and was the last finisher. [spot 34.] They started, were not happy, flew back and started again …good choice…They flew well, even SUPER, 3 m lift,100/120 km./h average , but they lost ALL on the last bit of the task with that incoming cirrus ,when the air was dead. They choose for the safe decision when they reached the forest, left the gaggle ,but the gaggle found 2 m and they struggled.
Another split second decision!
Overall scores in Club after 6 tasks;
1. Nicolas Caudrelier [France] with 5.183 points.
2. Kim Toppari [Finland] with 5,106 points.
3. Martijn Eerdekens [Belgium] with 5,077 points.
4. Alexandre Fierain [France] with 5,027 points.
Everything is still possible.

Jasper in the LS 8 did very well with a 6th daily spot and 964 points, Niels and Noud ended on spot 11 and 13, but still with 931 and 889 daily points.[ Dutch Junior Gliding Team]
Overall scores after task 6 in standard class;
1. Nils Schlautmann [ Germany] with 4,725 points.
2. Niels van Nieuwland [ The Netherlands] with 4,683 points.
3. Max Maslak [Germany] with 4,672 points.
4. Thomas Greenhill [USA] with 4,623 points.
After such long distances scores are very close.

In club the 42 “left-over” pilots flew and 34 finished whilst 8 went “aux vaches” Also the 2 young American pilots , but only after 477 and 416 km.
In standard, 14 pilots finished and 9 did not…..BUT, they all flew over 500 km. Chapeau!!!

Yesterdays winners;

The standard daily winner Henry from the UK

Today’s news;

Task 7 on day 8 on July 21. Launches expected to start at 11.15 with good weather conditions, with a ceiling/cloud base at 1900 m..
Club class; 4.30 AAT….[348.53 km  /  740.98 km  (543.13 km)]… There was around 20 minutes time difference, between the starts of the pilots. Scorers do a great job as at 6PM scores were already in from 32 pilots and number 33 was “out”, after 231 km.
12.23 was the first start time , with Dutch pilot Lars, who flew 510 km / 112,60 km./h. at this stage good for a 5th place.
Florian Kraja from Germany in LS7WL has at this stage the 1000 points with 425 km/113.74 km./h. He started at 12.42
At 6.30 PM; 37 are scored, 2 are out and 3 not yet scored.
Overall scores are so close; Nicolas 6,156, Kim 6,023 and Martijn 6,003 points.

Standard class; 4.30 AAT….[378.28 km  /  766.42 km  (569.85 km)] All scores, except for 1, [glider LOT from Poland] IN/ on the scoring board. TOP!!!
Best distance was 582 km, but Lithuanian Titas used a bit too much time to be the daily winner[4.37]
For that reason 578 km/ 4.31 ,so speed of 127,62 was the best result at this stage from  Lukáš Kříž from Czech Rep..
2 Danish pilots, Jacob and Lasse were on spot 3 and 4, good on them.
Speed difference between number 1 and 22; 127.62 and 114.48. GOOD!!!!
Overall scores after 7 tasks [preliminary] ; Niels van Nieuwland/ 5,631 points, Nils Schlautmann/5,595 and  Max Maslak/5,539. Thomas Greenhill/5,532 points.

Of course all scores are preliminary.
When you can’t wait till tomorrow or want to see scores with your own eyes yo can go to; www.soaringspot.com that is when they are not overloaded with viewers.

Indeed PRELIMINARY!!!! My goodness me, I was downstairs ,but decided to have one more look at the scores. I see that Niels ONLY got 52 points because he violated airspace.
I am totally flabbergasted. Not because he is Dutch, but I would be for every pilot, who gets this awful news. Maybe there is still a “miracle”.
That means that he drops from 2 overall to 18!!!
That is very , very tough, but if it was a violation , that’ s what happens.
I am in writing about comps more than 40 years, but I can’t remember such a “drop”.
I still hope it is NOT TRUE.
Overall scores after 7 tasks now; Nils 5.601, Max 5.601,5, Thomas 5.536

————————————————————————

—-The French FAI SGP in Saint Sulpice [France] is one of the last opportunities in Europe to qualify for the final. “Expect fierce competition!” is what they say. Indeed with 4 former world champions it can be “HOT”.
The next ones from this series 12, are in 2025 in Australia,[Gawler Januar 5-11] the USA [ Seminole March 22-28] AND The Netherlands in Mai [ Terlet Mai 11-17] and in Poland.[Nowy Targ May24 -31] and the WORLD FINAL in France in St Auban ; August 24-30 2025.
The weather has not been too flash during the practice days let’s hope it improves from now on.
“ The forecast indicates favourable conditions for racing by mid-afternoon.” Todays forecast.
Follow the live race on https://www.youtube.com/live/ecQDRSVDWs0?si=nzKimmb7SUw7j2tf

Sunday; July 21…Race 1 158.28 km….the 16 pilots started at 17.40!!!!! LATE, but they have a race, I hope.
Congratulations to Adrien Henry for wining the 1st race!
Congratulations to Christophe Abadie and Jean-Pierre Bellec who complete the podium!

—–Over the last few days several 1000 km-flights have been flown here in Europe. I mentioned already in an earlier post ,where even “the young ones” thought it was a 1000 k-day.
Yesterday my Keiheuvel mates Bert jr and Dennis flew from Hausen Am Albis [Switzerland] and from Fayence, one in their Ventus 3T.

Enough news again, time for me to rest.
CU tomorrow with maybe 1 more day for the young ones ,as the prediction that Tuesday is a rest day , will be correct. Then they continue till July 26 Friday.

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.512 on July 20 2024

A great picture to start this post with shared by British Gliding Team

Looking back on Friday July 19 Task 5;
That pilots fly SO many kilometres during a competition is pretty special, specially in those “little machines”. A day on which easy 1000 km could have been flown I heard and some pilots did. At least 5 , from Spain [Fuentemilanos with 1.200km] and France but from Poland too.
Great 1000 km-day! From Leszno in Poland not too far from Ostrow, 1.016 km!!!!! The young ones even passed by Leszno.
For some the best distances ever! What an experience for the young ones.!!!!!
Dutch pilot Lars won in club. In a video he said that they started together, the 3 Dutchies, but Lars decided on the first leg after 50 k. to fly a bit more South, where as he experienced, could fly faster , turn more S. and that was a good decision!!!! Fantastic weather ….he could fly on 2d leg and 3d leg mostly just straight on, not bad!!!! “1000 km weather, bizar!” he mentioned too….in an LS4 NEO WL.
His longest task ever till now. 568.32 km with a speed of 108 km./h that DESERVES 1000 points!!!!

The French pilots were very happy with Victor who was 3d in standard with 637 km. The best distance in this class was 653 km for Czech pilot Lukas. And S.A pilot Phillip was runner up !!!
Missing out on 5 points; 124.83 km./h for 124. 50, very close!
And of course the USA team was HAPPY / EXCITED with their number 1 pilot Thomas.
“Preliminary results for 2024 JWGC task 5 Standard Class appears to show a day winner for the US Team“
AND,..indeed Thomas won!

This is the last bit of a long report written by Thomas:
“With all the scores in now and my official speed at 124.83 km/h over 641 km, I earned 1st place for the day on behalf of the US team. It’s a real privilege to have what felt like one of my best flights ever, and for that sentiment to be reflected by the numbers on the score sheet against the best pilots in the world. It also feels really special to have Peter Deane, who taught me how to fly cross-country nearly a decade ago, here to witness my best performance as team captain.”
More on US Soaring Teams

Today is another booming day! I guess the pilots slowly get tired after 4 long tasks, 1 challenging and 3 over 500 k-days. It will be difficult to set a rest day when the weather is so good. Look at the weather for today!!!
But no they are not sick and tired of the long distances. Here is team UK;
“

Tasks for today;

July 20; task 6 on flying day 7.
As it is 3.30 now it will take a while before the pilots will be back. So I am going to do other things and will be back later to update this post with the latest news,

UPDATE;
6.30 PM
Club class; 506.29 km…..Around 5 PM the pilots arrived back . At 6.30 PM, 25 finished 4 were out and 15 not yet scored. Among them the 3 Dutch pilots.
At this stage the French did well with a 1 and 3 for Alexandre and Nicolas. UK pilot George in the middle.
All started around 12, the Dutch pilots at 12.29, too late????
At 7.15 , 30 pilots had finished.5 were out and 5 not yet scored.

Standard class; 604.00 km…..At 6. 30 PM I noticed 6 out-landings after 500 k. A shower, stopping the hard working young ones?????? we have to wait for their stories.
In any case, around 7 the first finishers were on the score board. They all finished close to 7 PM.
6 are scored at this moment , 3 LS 8 gliders and 3 Discus 2a.
11 not scored yet.
UK Henry has won the day. Good on him. Max and Jan from Germany followed.
14 finished and and 9 were out, All are counted for!

All scores preliminary.

US Soaring Teams shared their recaps again and if you missed them, here they are;
Recaps of several past days from Poland, and the US Junior Team courtesy of the SSA site.
https://www.ssa.org/team-usa-report-jwgc-contest-3-5/

——————————————————————-

FAI SGP IN FRANCE/ Series 12.
Saint Sulpice des Landes 18 July 2024 – 27 July 2024

After 2 unofficial practice days with more or less NO flying, today Saturday was an official day and looking at the task they don’t have the weather the young ones have in Poland. Only 100 km but they get in the mood then.
16 pilots fly for 2 places in the finals next year, for of them are foreigners; Steffen Trapp from Germany, Rasmus Orskov from Denmark, Yves Gerster from Switzerland and Christoph Matkowski from Poland, who is missing out on the magic Polish weather at this moment.
Not a good day, so hopefully better weather for race 1.

That ‘s it for today. Exciting day with some chances. Will come back on them tomorrow!!!!
Ritz

Post 1.511 on July 19 2024

13th JWGC 2024
Ostrów July 13-26

Looking at the above pictures those young pilots have a lot of fun .
Thumbs up, waving and that at the end of a long flight, stamina enough , but …then indeed, they are all under 26 and in the prime of their lives.
Sometimes the difference between finishing or landing out, is only one flash moment “, missing a bubble made it difficult to reconnect, resulting in a landout.” That’s what I read yesterday, looking back at what the teams have done.
Martijn indeed won task 4 on day 5, in club ….. 6 did not finish and 2 are out of the race. A PITY!!!!!
In standard it was Nils, just ahead of his mates Max and Jan.
I can tell you these 3 “ARE STRONG TOGETHER”.
I told you about the “lower countries ” here in Europe, Belgium and The Netherlands and it is awfully interesting to see that each of those countries have at this stage a NUMBER ONE OVERALL. Martijn and Niels.

Yesterdays winners;

With all those “hacking lunatics” I am even more careful to open news on the JWGC, but I can trust my reliable sources for extra news.
Today a world wide IT- outage disturbed the whole world and airlines, hospitals ,banks and lots of other business struggled to deal with it and still struggle. It seems it was not a crime ,but a mistake during an update from software. That should NOT HAPPEN.
My daughter had to fly to Tenerife but her flight was postponed for hours, but at least, at 4 PM they could leave.

Back to today!!!!The organizers had already early in the morning, good news:
“Our Pilots are already flying their tasks. Today as yesterday , we managed an early start. Today’s tasks are quick 5h AATs” Well,…I like the word quick, let’s wait and see. Looking at the picture , they could be totally correct. I heard that clouds popped up already at 9AM.
The estimated time of arrival should be around 17.00.

Friday; July 19, sunny, dry, enough clouds a sky full, so ingredients enough to make it a TOP DAY !!!!
IT WAS!!!!!
Club class; day 6.
Task 5; 5 hour AAT.…From the “around-12-o’clock-starters” a few have finished already just after 17. 00 and they flew around with an average of 105 km./h over around 545 km.
With the fabulous clouds and maybe longish day, some might start at the best part of what they think will be on the day. Meaning we might have to wait today.
It was NOT a long wait!!!!
At 5.30 5 pilots finished.
At 6; 28 pilots with 568 km /106 km./h!!!!
The Dutch pilots , with a few others even started before 12 PM.
36 are scored now and at this stage Dutch Lars is on top; 568 km./108 km./h in LS4.

Update at 8.30 PM;
Today’s club class top 5 is very international.
1. Lars from The Netherlands, 2, Florian from Germany, 3. Tomasz from Poland, 4. Nicolas from France and Kim from Finland. 2 Pilots are out of the race and 2 with very difficult names, are not yet scored; Ghazi Satriando Humaid Junior in LS1fNEO WL, from Poland and Austėja Urbanavičiūtė in LS3a from Lithuania.
23 pilots flew over 100 km./h. Good on them and it seems the next days will have good weather too.

Standard class; day 6.
Task 5; 5 hour AAT.….at 17.15 the first pilot finished; Lucas from France after an early start at 12.12, flying 574 km/ 114 km./h. in the end he finished on spot 18.
At 6PM, we saw distances of 641 km/ 124.83 km./h.
4 are not yet scored I will be back to check on them later.
It looks NOW that USA pilot Thomas Greenhill [Discus 2A] has the best papers to win the day with 641 km/ 124.83 km./h.
Unfortunately “our” Dutch Niels had not his best day [18] and dropped from 1 to 4 overall, but it ain’t over yet!!!!

Update;
WONDERFUL, ALL pilots finished and ALL above 100 km./h. TOP young-pilots.
Thomas won the day, but all scores are still preliminary!
Czech pilot Lukas flew 653 km ./121.50 km./h. , but needed 22 minutes too much. He still moved from 2 to 1 overall.

After task 5 the Czech Rep team leads the scores from the TEAM CUP,with 905.69 points.
Spot 2; is for Germany; 862.23
Spot 3 ; for France; 859.90
Spot 4; The Netherlands 854.50
Spot 5; Poland 821.77

So , you are up to date again Enjoy reading.

—-Team USA reports are good reading. Here are the reports from the first 2 days.
https://www.ssa.org/team-usa-report-jwgc-contest-day-1-2/

——Talking about juniors; this is Adam A FORMER AUSSIE JUNIOR and most of you know him because he is a good young glider pilot and he keeps a very popular blog; Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
This is his news this morning:
“The day has finally come, on the 16th July, I achieved the dream, heavy jet captain for one of the world’s majors & national airline, All Nippon Airways / Air Japan.”
I know Adam, since he was that junior, flying comps and even organising the Junior Nationals in Australia with some young mates.
For a short while he was our tuggie in Tocumwal at the SSC, but he really was focused on his final goal ; being an airline pilot. He went for that, so when he got a better offer to make more hours, he left us.
Good luck Adam and I wish you many dream flights !

——-For those loving to fly comps in South Africa, here is your chance.

2 Unofficial practice days have been flown at the FAI SGP 2024 in France tomorrow starts the official practice and on Sunday they fly RACE !

Cheers Ritz