DUTCH NATIONALS AT TERLET with 6 out of 12 day’s;
On Wednesday it was raining in the morning, BUT still enough to do at briefing as one of the Dutch Juniors , Jelmer Vis, received his prize for being the best in the Ventus 2A in the combi class,  the day before. Good on him.

Jelmer tells the “rest” how he did it!!! With CD Ton to the left.
They are a real nice bunch of young enthusiastic and eager pilots, as you can see.
The Dutch gliding future!!!

As shared by Dutch Junior Gliding Team.

pict 1; Happy young Chappies, Lars Groot and …..pict 2.;2 sons Thijs and Hidde of 2 dad’s Rien and Tjeerd….. both Rien and Tjeerd  fly the nationals already for years and,…also this year;
Juniors Thijs Bastiaanse and Hidde Reitsma, the new generation,  “like father like son”!!!!!
last picture as seen  by Mira van Aalst.

Unfortunately  Wednesday was cancelled. Most stayed for the day as , they knew the quality of a good BBQ in the evening. So only 2 day’s to go but it’s already more than some other years.

Thursday they carefully tried to squeeze a day out. Tasks were set ,but …in the end,  they had to scrub the day.

Task 10 on Friday LAST DAY;

as shared by the organizers.

Glorious ,but also “dangerous “looking skies, so short tasks to have atleast  another day and be back before the expected thunderstorms would arrive.
We had a nasty one here yesterday evening with loud thunder, no rain , but fire brigades racing out after the first BIG BANG.
18 m…189 km.;
Difficult day in the office and some “motored” home. Those without an engine had to go for it and the best still were the best , though Jelmer’s day was not too flash with a 5th place and a speed of 66,65 km./h BUT he was back!!!Sikko, Hans [Biesters] and Steven formed the last daily top 3. So the DUTCH CHAMPION is STEVEN RAIMOND, with 4.392 points . He won 4 day’s !! Silver was ready for Sikko ,who won the last 2 day’s[!!]; 4.204 and for the bronze with 3.585 points , the 5th place was no problem for Jelmer [Wassenaar].

With Steven, Sikko and Jelmer . I had all 3 as TC in my team at different comps .
As shared by the organizers.

open…185 km.;
7 from 10 finished and Ronald [ Termaat ] showed his class and won the last daily prize, his 2d this week.
Peter Millenaar is the new Dutch champion in open class. [4.416 p.] Peter was 4th on the last day but  he won 3 days and was runner up on 2 day’s.Maybe he likes the Quintus better now than the Ventus 3. We have to wait and see ,but I guess NOT!!!!
On spot 2 Ronald with 4.184 and on spot 3 Mark Wering with 3.844 points.

With Peter, Ronald and Mark.
As shared by the organizers.

combi…166 km.;
The young ones/ juniors  did well and the son’s from the father’s won the day in the Duo Discus XL! They moved from 4 to 3 so bronze for the boy’s Thijs and Hidde. [3.442]
The other junior, Lars, unfortunately was out after 72 km. and lost his 3d place overall, to drop to 4. [3.425]
Who was runner up?My former junior in the 2005 WWGC in Husbos, Robbie Seton, who had a great start by winning task 2 and 3 and by being runner up on task 7. [3.940]
And,…then the new DUTCH CHAMPION in the COMBI class!!! TEAM PETER BATENBURG/Bouma in the ARCUS T. [4.041]

With team Batenburg/Bouma on spot 1, my former junior Robbie to the left and the new upcoming juniors on the right.

The prize-giving- ceremony to honor the champions was at 8 and after,..yes PARTY TIME.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL !!!!

Rookies of the year; Thijs Bastiaanse and Diana Schuit.

By the way the comps ended on Friday. On Saturday they flew from Soesterberg [Aeroclub from Amsterdam] 593 km in LS 3 and 710 in ASW 22 BLE
To finish the NK,  2 great pictures from Mira van Aalst; Ronald with his finish in XT on the last day which he won.

———–

——OBGN [ Open Belgian Gliding Nationals ] from St Hubert in Belgium.
With only 2 day’s in club and combi and 3 in 18m./open, they desperately need MORE days to make it a valid competition in 2 classes.
And,..no luck on Wednesday, cancelled.
On Thursday I noticed NO GRIDDING, so another “lost” day. Such a pity!!!
BUT,……
On Friday it was UP IN THE AIR again and HOW!!!?:??
combi…434,54; Cousins Dennis and Jeroen “tackled” the big task together each in an LS 8, starting, flying and finishing together,…both 1000 points. After 3 day’s of flying there is a difference of TWO points between the cousins!
club…308,54; 2 LS 4 gliders in the top and only 3 from 8 finishing but 1000 points for Benoit  and 991 for Bernard. The 3d finisher in the LS 1d flew 5 hours and 39 minutes [speed 54,57 km./h.] 2 Pilots flew over 100 km.
18 m./open …501,89 km !!! With a early start, Pierre left in the “mighty EB 29” AND he was back first too. A great race , as the 500 km. was done by him with a speed of 110.29 km. /h.
Bert jr and Tijl were runners up with 96,59 km./h and 92,40 so quite a difference.1000 Well deserved points for Pierre.
Only 4 finishers in this class and Wim lost his 1st place overall by out-landing after 485 km.
With hopefully 2 flyable days to go the overall scores after 4 day’s in this class ;1. Bert jr ..3.032. 2. Pierre ..3.003 and 3. Wim with 2.845. 4. Tijl has exactly 100 points less.

Great picture from “Wild-looking boy’s” Piere and Arnaud, ready for Pribam !!!! 🇧🇪
As shared by Pierre.

Saturday; turned out to be the last day as Sunday had to be cancelled. They needed 4 day’s for a valid competition and they succeeded ,…only just……in 2 classes.
What happened on the last flying day 4 and 3 hour AAT’s, so  a GOOD day again !!!
combi…4 hour AAT;
With nearly 400 km. Daan Spruyt won the 1000 points in his ASW 27 in time 4.04,55!!! With 20 km. less, but in 4.02, the Keiheuvel mates finished ….first Jeroen ..then Dennis and Jef. Critical for the title was that Jeroen had 2 more points on the last day AND,….with the 2 points he had already ,Jeroen  is the new BELGIAN CHAMPION  in this class;3.814 points and Dennis had as runner up 3.810. Jeff followed on 3 with 3,750.
Jeroen;”The past week we flew the Belgian Nationals in Saint-Hubert, as usual together in team with Dennis. We’ve been crowned as Belgian Champions after four days of flying, the weather wasn’t always a friend but after all we can be satisfied! ”

With Jeroen in the middle, Dennis to the right and Jef to the left ,with his son Leon, a future champion!!!
Picture shared by Gitte.

club…3 hour AAT:
Pieter Lievens flew 257 km. in time 3.21 and won the last 1000 points of this OBGN in the St Cirrus. He moved from bronze to silver! [2.692]Champion in club class is Benoit Evrard in the LS 4.[30. 88] He won 2 day’s and on one day he was runner up. On the last day 3d.

Pieter Lievens as vice champion in the Belgian combi class.
as shared by Pieter.

18m./open…4 hour AAT;
1000 points for Francois Delfosse in the ASG 29 for 455,87 km.in time 412.51. He was followed by Tijl and Bert ,Wim and Pierre. What does that do for the the overall scores?
Bert Schmelzer jr. is the new CHAMPION flying the new VENTUS 3.[4,006]  The last day’s he took over , the overall lead from Wim. Wim had an outlanding the day before, when the toppers finished. But he could hold the 3d place!![3.817] Silver  for Pierre and Arnaud de Broqueville with 3.945. Tijl was 4th.

Belgian champion in 18m./open Bert jr.

———-

——FAI SGP in Usman in Russia;

As shared by the organizers.

Not the best weather there either.Only 3 races  till Friday and 4 cancelled days,so ALL hope was for Friday and Saturday the last 2 days.
BUT……Friday was cancelled too, so only Saturday to go!!!
AND,….this last race , number 3, changed the total situation.131 km was set with a regatta start at 13.45.
Petr finished on spot 8 only gaining 2 points. Not enough to keep the lead he had for 2 day’s. He finished on spot 3 overall with 11 points.
Evgeny Zlobin got the 11 points for the last day [1 point bonus] and won the SGP with 16 points.
Vladimir Radovski is the runner up with 12 points gaining 8 points on the last day.
Only 3 races were flown.
And the next FAI SGP started already last Sunday in

—–Boras  FAI SGP …Sweden;
They started with 9 pilots , one from the UK , 2 from Germany , one from Norway and the rest from Sweden on Mai 27 [going till June 2]
Race 1; A short yo-yo task with challenging weather. Stefan mentioned ONE  “good thermal” from 1.4.
3 of the 4 “strangers” straight away topped the scores after a very tricky day. Jon Gatfield [ASG 29ES] from the UK got the 4 points the German pilots Stefan Langer[Discus 2CT]  and Christoph Limpert [ASG 29ES] the 2 and ONE point.

Jon, Stefan and Christoph race 1 winners.
As shared by the organizers.

Race 2; 172 km. but the weather did not co-operate. Scrubbed.
Race 3; 123 km. was set AND flown by all but some got penalties. David Gustavsson in the LAK 17 “got” the 8 points and Boerje [Eriksson] as runner up 6.
Today big task; 344.72 km.
more next week.
Looking at neighbor country Norway,…they had several over 700 km. flights yesterday.

Day 2 winners; David, Boerje and Stefan.
As shared by the organizers.

————-

——OSTROW GLIDE 2018….practice before the 35TH WGC for small ships which is from July 7 till  July- 21 -2018
The Swedish and French pilots arrived already early, as always VERY serious about practice before a WGC..
Parallel with this Ostrow Glide for club class the Polish 15 m. Nationals….May 24-June 3 2018
Practice is in progress and not too bad weather;

As shared by Per Carlin from Team Sweden.

Unfortunately the”nice” weather moved away and there was no task 1 on day 1.
But then it turned in to good and better.
Club; has 41 participants and 8 ‘Foreigners” from Sweden, France and Germany.
Practice for the WGC was this day[task 1 2 hour AAT]  best done by Tomasz Rubaj; 250 km in 2.20. Only 27 from 40 finished so a tough beginning.
task 2 was 335 km and again Polish winners,Marek Sawczuk [120 km./h.] and Jakub Barszcz [115 km./h] in ASW 20 f and SZD 55 ,.Per Carlin [LS 1f] from Sweden was on 3.
Task 3  with 317 km. was also in this class tough, BUT had one finisher;Tomasz Rubaj !!!! What a hero!!!!
He needed 5 hours to come home but he DID!!!!1000 well deserved points for him.So lot’s of out-landings and the Swedish team shared some pictures.
task 4 yesterday; a big one….3.30 AAT and very ready for the WGC is Tomasz who won for the 3d time;250 km. in time 2.20.A total of 27 from 40 finished.
After 4 day’s Tomasz leads with nearly 200 points. [www.soaringspot.com]

As shared by Per from team Sweden

15 m. Nationals; 25 participants,Sebastian Kawa was on the list but did not fly his GP 15 SE.
7- Not- Polish- pilots in this class.
So task 1 on the 25th was a 2.45 AAT. Polish pilot Lukasz Błaszczyk [won the first day with 334 km in 2.46. [Discus 2A]
Task 2 was a 406.89 km. race and we all know already that Polish pilots are good and at WGC’s have a very good TC, so this practice shows another top pilot from Poland on spot 1 with 127 km./h.;I call them the Lukaszes as there are several, but winner from race 2 was Lukasz Grabowski.[Diana 2]  Like the day before , nearly all finished!!
Task 3 was another story ; 411.17 was set and NOBODY finished!! But still 1000 points for Leszek Staryszak who “nearly ” was home with 336 km.
Task 4 a 3 hour AAT was set for the pilots from the Polish 15m. Nationals. Lukasz Grabowski won the day with 297 km in time 3.09. Good to see French top-pilot and TC, Eric Napoleon on spot 3 for the day. 20 from the 24 who started,  finished.
After 4 day’s Lucasz B leads with 39 points over Lucasz G.

————

——Last but not least this great picture shared by Matthew Scutter’s Gliding on April 29. The picture is made on April 28 at 21.21 in Planeurs d’Ille-et-Vilaine

Fabulous shot.

Matthew also shared this LAST NEWS!!!! And yes it happened before in 1990 when one year later the WGC was moved from Minden [Nevada] to Uvalde [Texas], I was involved in that one as TC and in Sweden from in 2006 when the WGC moved from Uppsala to Eskilstuna [I was the champion-editor there] BUT NEVER about a month BEFORE the WGC!!!!!

————-

Global warming;The normal average temperature in this time in the year is for Holland around 19 dgr. C.
The last day’s we had over 30 dgr. C, so tropical temperatures in Mai and,…. still spring.
With up to 54 mm of rain on one day, severe storms , code orange for wind and hail, land slides and flooded cellars and houses, the climate change is very feel-able and visible here.
They say,….we have to get used to it!!!!
Cheers Ritz

—-The Danish Nationals from Arnborg;

Picture courtesy Luise Bruen and shared by the organizers.

No flights on Wednesday. ……In Rayskala in Finland however, they flew over 700 km.in an LS 8T.
BUT, Thursday was another day and for sure NOT an easy one. Several classes had no finishers and those who finished did an amazing job not so much in points but still!!!
Task 8;
Standard… 193 km.; ONLY ONE finisher in this class ;Poul Kim Larsen in the Discus 2A. He leads already for 3 days the total’s and today a few more points.
The other 8 did their best but must have been stopped by the weather as they all flew between 162 and 184 km.
Club…154 km; NO finishers but also here 9 pilots flying over 100 km. Best 2 Ulrik Sørensen and Jan Andersen.331 and 320 daily points.
15 m…193 km; FOUR finishers !!!Among them Stig Øye and also here a few close by as 186 and 181 km.
18 m…2 hour AAT; TWO finishers Svend Andersen and Arne Boye-Moller with 227 km in time 2.08 and 181 km. in 2 hours AT THE DOT!!!!
The other 7 were over 100 and 3 of them over 200 km.
2-seaters…2 hour AAT; NO finishers but some good flights, one over 200 km.

Friday; No task 9..cancelled.

Saturday; Flying day again,one but last day!!!
Task 10;
Standard…280 km.flown by ALL 9 pilots!! Best was Uffe in the LS 8. Speed 112 km./h.
Club…3 hour AAT; AND,…it looks like Jan is good in AAT’s he won the day with 318.95 km. with av speed of 106,32 km,.h. 1000 points!!!Rasmus did well too as runner up.
All 13 finished!!!
15 m…2.30 AAT; Johnny Jensen and Stig flew both 261 km.in time 2.27 and 2.29 a difference in points from ONE. 800 and 799 .

Sunday; LAST DAY!!!!BIG tasks to finish the Danish Nationals!!!The Scandinavian countries had a few SUPER days. In Rayskala [Finland] flights from 892 km. Lidkoping [Sweden] with 685 km. Norway[Notodden]  with 485 and Arnborg in Denmark with 383 tasks in a competition.
Good comps they had weather-wise in Denmark!!!
Task 11;
Standard..383 km.
Poul Kim has 5.192 points and Filip 4.960. Everything is still possible!!! What happened on this last day?
Poul Kim got the 1000 points and no worries he won the Danish Nationals in this class;113.85 was his speed on this last day.His overall score was 6.192 points AND he won 3 day’s.
Filip was 3d and lost just under 150 points, But with 5.817 he stayed on spot 2.
Jan Brandt Jørgensen was runner up and moved from 4 to 3!!!![5.706] Good on him.
Club …356 km.;
Sviatoslav Roublev,Steen Elgaard and Rasmus are close and are OVER the 4000 points border. Jan won again, his 5th win !!! but his off-day keeps him from the top.
Steen was runner up and stayed on spot 2 [5.275]and Sviatlos was 3d and stayed on spot 1[ 5.593] . Overall Danish champion.[5.593]
15m …383 km.
The “final-fight” will be between Johnny [ASW 27 B] and Stig [Ventus 2ct] .Johnny is at 4.931 points and Stig overall on 4.923. Will “experience help Stig???
I don’t know but HE won the last day [speed 120,56 km./h. .and the title. He must have many already!!![5.923]
Johnny was 3d and and moved from 1 to 2.
18m/open…123 .61 km./h. was the speed over the set 444 km. and Arne flew that fast, so a deserved Danish champion and not for the first time either.[5.850]
Peter  and Henrik followed and that’s how it was for most of the last week. Henrik and Peter swapped places but the end is for Peter on spot 2  with 5.432 points and Henrik had 5.310 p.
2 seaters…384 km; The “fight” was between team Larsen/Pedersen and Hoelgaard & Andersen; BUT ….Jørgensen & Nielsen won the last day and moved from 5 to 4, where they were anyhow during most of the week;
CHAMPION in the DUO DISCUS T with 5.598 Larsen and Pedersen. Runner up in the Arcus T team Hoelgaard [5.581]

Nice competition with 8 out of 11 days !!!!

—–The Dutch Nationals from Terlet;

Picture courtesy Martin Smit.

Indeed after the great day here, with over 700 km flown in a Duo Discus, the weather -window was not big enough to fly task 1 on day 1.
The organization with Ton as CD, stands with several people who have done it already fore years, as Rik, Robin, Ronald and Maarten. Of course the 3 tuggies are the same as every year; Sjoerd, Daan and Bertje.
Last Wednesday ;cancelled not a flash day and quite a lot of wind.
Thursday was better still windy but tasks were set and flown.Only one “out” so a good day with task 2.
18 m. had 222 km. to fly and good old Steven Raimond [725 p] was the best followed by good old Sikko [606] and by Diana [469]on 3 good on her!!!
open had 258 km .and former junior world champion [2013] Peter Millenaar won in the Quintus. As far as I know his Ventus 3 is not yet ready,so the Quintus was a good replacement so to see.Marco Vermeer in the JS 1 was runner up.
Combi had 214 km. and Robbie Seton one of the juniors in my HUSBOS- JWGC team won the day in an LS 8a.

Friday another good day with task 3;
18 m. 321 km; again Steven and Sikko as the best. Unfortunately Diana had a bit of an off-day. She had some instrument problems started late and had to use her engine.
open 343 km and QUINTUS time again!!!With 111 km./h Peter won 1000 points !!Ronald Termaat was 3d.
combi 307 km and Robbie was in a hurry again and get’s his 2d daily winners prize. Also good…1000 points!!

Saturday cancelled !!

Sunday; After a non-flying-day ….extra motivated pilots and a nice Pentecost day in several parts of Europe , with for
18 m. class …422 km.;the same 3 top-pilots were the the top again; Steven won and added another 1000 points to his scores.Sikko and Jelmer were runner up.
Open …438 km; time to see Ronald [Termaat] in the top ,so he did. He won in the JS 1 the day with a speed of 107.22 km./h. The Quintus with Peter was runner up and Mark [Wering] who flies normally at Lasham was 3d in the JS 1 C.
Combi….364 km;Not a ‘flash’ day for Robbie he was on spot 7 for the day. Daily winner team Peter Batenburg /Bouma’ in the Arcus.

Monday; another good day and I was there with my family. Great fun to see everybody. As always a “feast of recognition”. We were early to see the starts. They had to be postponed however,  as the pretty tough wind was too cross for gliders and tugs.
No worries with the around 75 km. smaller B task ,they all went on their way and we walked around and had drinks and bites with a lot of friends, whilst the “boy’s” and Diana , as only “girl” were flying.
The rest of the weeks the weather seems to hold ,with in the weekend when they all have gone home [last day Friday]   temperatures of 30 dgr. C.
18 m…244 km; Same 3 with AGAIN Steven as daily winner. He walked to the Thermiekbel with a big smile and told us ; “Yes I won again, it seems all so easy , I really enjoy it ”
103.95 km./h was his speed the only one over 100.
open….245 km; Top spot for Mark, also with a big smile!!111,84 km./h was his daily-winning-speed  and nearly all finished.[one out]
combi….228,89 km;AND,…the ARCUS T with Peter and I guess Jens [Bouma] was the best again with 98,83 km./h.
Stunning finishes when I was there, here a few pictures from Arjan Vrieze top photographer.

Great finish by Peter in the Quintus.

Finish with Bas Seijffert.

AND 4 times daily winner till now ,Steven Rainmond

And after these fabulous pictures from ARJAN, some personal snapshots from the day; The one from Steven and Marion is SPECIALLY for Art, with their best regards.

picture 1 Steven and Marion… picture 2 field briefing to change grid.. picture 3 Diana and George with Inge and Smitje…picture 4 drinks with Max and Frida and Casper,..they drove me home in the evening. THANKS.

Tuesday; as said the weather holds but with thunderstorm-possibilities in the evening in the SE. By the way we had here, where I live in the SE, a big thunderstorm on Monday too, I could see in my garden.
18 m…200 km; task 7 and ALL finished. Small task but FAST; 119.64 km./h for Sikko who won the day. Runners up Jelmer and Hans [Biesters] . Where was Steven? On 5 this day.
open…204 km; QUINTUS-time again and Peter was in a hurry with 129 km./h for “only” 433 points.!!The next 5 places were for the JS 1C. Jaap [Horsten} was runner up with 123 km./h.
combi…176 km; Jelmer Vis one of the juniors won the day. He started last. My former junior Robbie , now father of 2, was runner up;116 and 108 km./h.

So how are the scores after 5 out of 9 day’s, with , hopefully, 3 good day’s to go;
18 m; 1.Steven..3.888 p. 2. Sikko..3.590 p. 3. Jelmer..3.160 p.
18 m./open; 1. Peter..3.896 p.2. Ronald..3.613 p. 3. Team EB 29..3.374

More next week.

—-The Belgian Nationals from St Hubert;

And indeed they started on the 19th with  great tasks!! St Hubert is closer to the French border than the Dutch , clearly obvious as in Holland at the NK the day was cancelled.
Not in Belgium where they flew in 3 classes with 30 pilots.
Saturday;
combi-class…376 km; The Keiheuvel-clan did well occupying the first 4 places and they were the only 4 finishing in this class. They all started early;Jef [Kell..1000 p.], Jeroen [Jennen] and  Dennis [Huybreckx]  with 999 p.and Pieter [Daems] with 996.
Club class..298 km;AND,..another Keiheuvel pilot won the day;Pieter[ Lievens ] even with a finish-height-penalty.
3 From 8 finished.
18m/open class…482 km; NO finishers but they were close!!! Again Keiheuvel pilots as Bert [Schmelzer jr in Ventus 3T] with 473 km. so pretty close and Wim [Akkermans] in ASG 29 with 451 km. AND 474 km for Pierre [de Broqueville] en the EB 29.

As shared by the CNVV. [Centre National de Vol A Voile]

Sunday;
18m./open..a 2 hour AAT;
The 2 hour AAT was won by Tijl Schmelzer. He had not the best first day, but a glorious Sunday with 248 km and a nice speed of 120 km./h. All 11 pilots finished and brother Bert was 5th.
No tasks for the other classes.

2 X , Bert jr in Ventus 3T and V 8 with Bruno Pieraerts in the Arcus T on tow.
as shared by the CNVV.

Monday;
combi…2.45 AAT; AND… it was a good day for Jef flying his 270 km-task in the LS 8 with a speed of 97.34 km./h. Jef is the husband from Gitte Huybreckx. Both have 2 adorable kids.
club…2 hour AAT; 151.92 km was the best distance for Benoit Evrard in time 2.06.
18 m/open…2.45 AAT; No Schmelzer today but Wim [Akkermans]  husband of Sofie Huybreckx[ with also 2 adorable kid’s] ; 315 km. in time 2.50.Bert was runner up and Pierre on spot 3 and Tijl on 5.

Tuesday; No tasks. Till now 2 day’s in the combi class, 2 in club and 3 in 18m./open,  But another nice picture;

The mighty EB 29 on tow.
As shared by the organizers.

—-FAI SGP in Russia from USMAN.
17 Pilots flew on the first day [ of 8]  , last Saturday, a 137 km race and for most of them this was too much! Only 6 finished and the best was Petr [Krejcirik] ;79.8 km./h. He and Erazem Polutnik are the only not-Russian-pilots.
They all fly in St. Jantars.

Petr as the first race winner. 7 Points.

Sunday, with race 2 they  had 137 km. on the SGP-menu. In the end the day was scrubbed so was
Monday.
Tuesday is flying again with sunny conditions. Race 2 had 116 km. and only 4 pilots finished 2 Russian , one Czech and another Russian pilot. 5 Points for the winner.
With 4 races to go Petr leads with 9 points. Evgeny Zlobin has 5 and Vladimir Radovskiy 4 points.

—–WWGC;
As said before the next WWGC will be in Lake Keepit in Australia. The next one is definite now too; Husbos in the UK. I knew they had a bid,. NOW they won it!!!
“The announcement means that in August 2021 around 100 of the world’s top female pilots will race each other over two weeks from The Gliding Centre at Husbands Bosworth, Leicestershire, to decide the Women’s World Champion.”

—–Last but not least!!!

“Despite challenging conditions, the first 20m Nationals wrapped up today with an official contest! ”
1st Place: Team KS; Karl Striedieck and Sarah Arnold
2nd Place: Team PP; Noah Reitter and Jake Barnes
3rd Place: Team QQ; JP Stewart and Piet Barber.
CONGRAT’S to ALL !!!

CU next week with more news
Cheers Ritz

——-HAHNWEIDE continued!

Hahnweide last Wednesday as seen by Philippe de Pechy.

On Wednesday the weather was sunny and pretty good again, in the end it turned out extremely good and high. So 4 more day’s to go !
Daily weather; “Finally clouds! The weather forecast looks great. We are expecting cloud bases up to 2800m in the afternoon. But we also have some spread outs during the day.”
Task 5 was set a 3.30 AAT for ALL classes !!!;
15 m.;1000 points for Howard Jones; 407,96 km. in time 3.29,43 in the Discus 2A!!!speed 116.56 km./
18 m; 478 km for Russell Cheetham in the JS 3 in time 3.35, so a nice speed of 133,13 km./h. At this stage 3 UK pilots in the overall top 3.Steve,[3.927]  Russell [3.926] and Phil [3.920]  !!!!!!!!!.
open; FAST speed by winner Markus Frank in his EB 29;141.99 km./h over 434,81 km ., that was remarkable faster than the runner Eric Bernard JS1c evo 21M]who flew around with 127.56. km./h. over 399.07 km.
2-seater;Great job from Katrin Senne;440.39 km in time 329.22. speed 125.83 km.h.

The number 1 overall on day 2 and 3 in the 2-seaterclass is the one involved in the midair. Glad all 3 survived!! One way or another parachutes are more and more important!!!!!

Katrin  in the 2-seater after her win  and Marcus in open after his win.

As shared by the organizers.

Thursday was a well-deserved day-off. RESTDAY !!!The weather was “crap”  for flying anyhow, though some flew local ,just for fun .
Also good for all kind of visit’s as the MERCEDES BENZ museum and the SCHEMPP-HIRTH business.

On Friday the tactical games were on again,..at least that’s what they hoped for. AAT’s were set and they waited….But in vain …a pity. The day was cancelled.

So Saturday turned out to be the last day:
“We are expecting good weather conditions with cloudbase up to 2400m. In some areas of south west local showers and thunderstorms possible in the late afternoon.”
15 m;3.30 AAT;
383 km. was flown in time 3.30 at the dot. Good on you Maximilian Schaefer.
They did not start together did not finish together , but both had 1000 points; good on you Howard Jones [372 km in time 3.26] !!
Maximilian moved from a shared 3d place to a ” shared” runner up spot !!!So did Howard both had 4.936 points!!!
WHO WON ????? Robin Sittmann, who won day 2 and 4. Congratulations!!!
Tim Scott dropped from 2 to 4 and he still was 5th for the day.[4.910 ]

The HAHNWEIDE 15 m. WINNERS !!!

18 m; 3.30 AAT;
NEVER underestimate Russell, the reigning world champion in open class !! He flew on the last day the most kilometers 445 ,but he ran a bit out of time;3.46,50. But in the NEW JS  3,  he still gained 955 daily points , so he stayed on spot 1 overall with 4.882 points. GOOD !!!
The French pilots Denis Geurin [4.815] and Jean Denis Barrois [4.793] followed on spot 2 and 3. both in JS 1.
The  New VENTUS 3 with Boerje [4.779] , Steve [4.775]  and Phil Jones did well too. [4.754]

The HAHNWEIDE 2018 WINNERS.

open;3.30 AAT;
The last day was an ETA- day. Uli won with 440.90 km in time 3.38. Not enough points to win the Hahnweide but spot 6 is just GOOD!!!
Except for day 1 when Pierre and Arnaud topped the overall list, Marcus Frank [EB 29] topped the next days,  as well as the last one; so the winner with 4.995 points. Well done!!!
Also in this class he was surrounded by 2 French pilots Eric Bernard [4.718] and Phillippe de Pechy [4.716 !!] both in the JS1c evo 21M.

THE HAHNWEIDE OPEN CLASS TOPPERS.

dosi; 3 hour AAT;
Former WGC Champion Holger Karow won the last day[ 366 km.in time 3.03 ] in the ARCUS M. A day earlier he and his team mate were 2d behind Martin Theisinger overall and  now they moved to spot ONE.[5.110]
Martin lost nearly 200 points by being 14th so “dropped ” from 1 to 3 .[ 4.921] As Belgium pilot Yves Jeanmotte [ASG 32MI] was runner up on the last day he moved from a shared 6th place to spot 2. Good on him!!![4.950]
On a very good 4th place team KATRIN SENNE.

A happy bunch of 2018-WINNERS.

Next year for sure will be exciting again.Always great fun that HAHNWEIDE competition, also to follow from home.
By the way all pictures from the CHAMPIONS credit HAHNWEIDE ORGANISATION.

——-Bailleau NATIONALS;
The French Nationals for 15 m. standard and 2 seaters in ONE handicapped class continued.
Task 4 out of 4 was set on Wednesday ;276 km. It turned out a tough day with many air-space infringements and a total of 3 [LS 8, Ventus 2AX and ASW 27 ] of 49 finished. Winner was Adrien Henry .
Alexandre Boillot was the runner up and leads overall now after 4 day’s.
Some must have seen the airfield but could not reach it; they flew 272 km.
Thursday ;345 km. 45 from 48 pilots finished!!! Good day!!! Winner;Christope Ruch in the Ventus 2ax. He flew around with a speed of 120.44 km./h. Runner up Frederic Hoyau had a speed of 116.90 km./h.
Friday; 280,61 km. and this time not Adrien but Julien Henry was the best in the LS 8;81.03 km./h. AND,..the 2d day with 1000 points so good business for Julien who moved up overall from 36 to 28 .
As there was no task on Saturday,…. the last day was not flown anymore so the Friday final scores overall remained as the scores for the CHAMPIONS.
He won NOT one day but was always somewhere in the daily top;Meric.
So a consistent winner; 1. Meric Morel in the ASW 27 4.373 points….2. Christophe Ruch 4.218  [Ventus 2ax] and 2 pilots on spot 3 .Alexandre Boillot [Ventus 2ax 4.212] and Louis Bouderlique [Discus 2a] .
Only 5 points less for Freddy Barthelemy [ASW 27]

–—–Danish Nationals;
53 Competitors in 5 classes are flying in a period between May 10 and 19 from Arnborg to be the DANISH CHAMPION in each of those classes.
No flying on the 10th but then 5 day’s in a row and good, better, the best weather!!!!.
Here a review about those first 5 days.
standard; 9 pilots in this class started with a 267 km. task [2] and 8 flew it. Then 2 smaller tasks[3 and  4]  and several out-landings.
On Monday the new week started with
Task 5; 347 km.and flown by 6 out of 9. Best speed 98 km./h in LS 8. AND,…a 1000 points-day.
Task 6 ;304 km….A tough day in the office in this class. Only 4 finished with a speed between 80 and 90 km./h. Best was Filip Bojanowski .[Discus 2A]
In this class after 5 day’s the overall scores are; Poul Kim Larsen in Discus 2 with  3.755 points and runner up Filip Bojanowski in Discus 2A with 3.657 p.

club;13 pilots among them Jan Andersen in ASW 20 WL [I am used to see him in open class] and Rasmus Ørskov.[Discus]  A 248 km set task[2]  was their first day, followed by 2 smaller tasks both won by Jan.
Task 5; 274 km. All pilots finished but 3 went into a forbidden area and got virtual stuck on 34 km. Unfortunately Jan was one of them so a lot of points lost.
Winner; Rasmus, a young father now , but  still time to fly well; 98 km./h. Rasmus , by the way, is the son from Brigitte who spends with Joergen [Thomsen] half a year in Tocumwal.  I met Rasmus already years ago at JWGC’s and found him then,…a TALENT.
Task 6 ; 255 km. ALL pilots flew the task and yes,yes, Jan was the best;89 km./h. A pity from task 4.
Overall results after 5 flying day’s ; Sviatoslav Roublev in Discus [3.362] and Rasmus as runner up with 3.228 p.

15 m; 11 pilots among them Stig Øye.[Ventus 2ct] 267 km was set for them and ALL pilots flew the task. Also here 2 less good days with small tasks and Stig won task 4. EVERYBODY out-landed ,but his skills brought him to spot 1 for the day, with 126 km. flown from the 141 km. set.
task 5; 347 km.A day with 1000 points and they were for Stig. Good on him.Speed 97 km./h .6 From 11 finished.
task 6; 258 km.Yes Yes again !!! Stig won another day with a speed of 99 km./h. Only one out-landing 30 k. out. A pity!
Overall scores after 5 day’s; Johnny Jensen in ASW 27 b;4.651 points and Stig as runner up with 3.440 p.

18 m.; 9 in this class among them Arne [ Boye Moeller] Peter [Eriksen]and Henrik [Breidahl] The first flying day with 263 km. was won by Arne , followed by Henrik. 5 Finished the rest out-landed also Peter. No worries,…he won the next day [task 3] whilst Henrik was the only one “out”. AND Peter was runner up behind Arne on the next day.[task4]
Task 5 ; 302 km. A new name on the daily top; Svend Andersen in the ASG 29e. 113.64 km./h just a tad faster than Peter [113,31] and Arne [109.70 ]and Henrik.[109.05]
task 6; 304 km. A 1000 points-day in this class and those points were for Morten Hugo Bennick in the Ventus 2ct; 98 km./h. Henrik was runner up.
After 5 day’s it looks like this ;Arne 3.558 p. and Henrik 3.181 p. and 3.144 for Peter.

2-seaters;11 participants flying 1 DG 1000 T and the rest Duo Discus or Arcus M or T. The first 3 flying day’s [task 2/3 and 4] had each a different winner. A duo Discus T, then an ARCUS M and Duo Discus XLT.
Task 5; 302 km.Only one team flew over 100 km./h; Hoelgaard and Andersen [ARCUS T] . All 11 teams finished!!!
Task 6; 258 km. and in ONLY this class they managed to fly just over 100 km./h. GOOD  from team Hoeck & Nielsen. ARCUS T.
The overall scores after 5 day’s; Hoelgaard & Andersen with 3.457 points and not too far behind the Duo Discus T from Larsen & Pedersen with 3.437 !!!! Only 20 points!!!
Still 3 day’s to go and 4 when they include the 19th.

The last day’s you can, if you wish, follow them on ; http://www.livetrack24.com

—–Eskilstuna MASTERS;

Eskilstuna ready to go on Wednesday.
Picture courtesy Per Carlin, daily winner.

Small tasks for the 3 classes on Wednesday and a tough day for quite a few [13] who did not manage to finish.
Daily winners as well; Owe Engström ,in openracing in the ASH 25 EB, Magnus Hyllander in racing and Per Carlin [ LS 1f] was the best in club class.
Unfortunately the last 3 day’s had to be cancelled!!
Winners after 3 days of flying in racing open; 1. Gunnar Karlsson in Ventus 2cxa 1.666 points and runner up from Norway Erlend Sørbye with 1.622 in Nimbus 4DM.
In racing; 1. Ronny Lindell 1.346 points[Discus 2T] followed by Richard Swanström and Jan-Ola Nordh with 1.318 and 1.316 points !!!
In Club Per Carlin won 2 of the 3 day’s and is the winner in Club Class.[1.685] follwed by 4 German pilots , 2 of them pretty close ;1.526 and 1.516

——–SORIA;

   
Kiki [Jacky Clairbaux] had a first guest to welcome in Soria in Spain;Ricky Brigliadori from Italy.
as shared by Kiki.

SORIA; New Gliding Center in Spain, here is the latest!!!
As you, I was interested when Kiki [Jacky Clerbaux] mentioned a new adventure in Spain.
So I checked for you and got answers.
When you want to know more you can reach Kiki at jackclairbsoria@gmail.com

I know Kiki pretty well and met him again in Uvalde in 2012 and heard he had some health issues but ,”I’m happy to inform you that my health is stable.”

—–Well there you are, lot’s of news !!!On top of that , the Belgian[ May 19-27] and Dutch Nationals [May 16-25]will start soon. Only 31 participants in Holland., but a few toppers included; 10 in 18 m, 11 in combi and 10 in open.
They start today whilst yesterday was a HAMMERDAY with over 700 km. in a Duo Discus XLT [without water!]from Hilversum[Best flight in Europe yesterday!!!]and a total of 61 flights …18 over 500 km !!! Good day for Holland!!!
Even a 300 triangle mainly over Holland in a KA 6e. WOW!!!
The next 2 day’s pretty crappy with lot’s of wind and some local showers/thunderstorms, “There must be a competition start” BUT,…. Pentecost will be good again, so no worries!!
Only 30 in Belgium as well including some toppers too;  8 in Standard , 11 in combi and 11 in 18m./open.
Will try to keep an eye on both of them.

And to finish ,again the link from the great pictures from Bert jr. [1.500 km. flight] when you missed it in my last blog.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/0PTlpkxkN2IvqDbB2

With the NEW European Security law, it will be nearly impossible to share pictures with people on it with you.
I will more and more ask to publish a picture and till now that really worked SUPER, but I can’t ask ALL people on pictures if they allow me to publish.
See how this in the “real” world is going to work.Still have a week.

Cheers Ritz

as shared by the organizers.

——-Klix;
I left you last Wednesday  with 3 flying day’s in Klix,… but it was not over yet. Unfortunately though, nothing happened till Friday.
As there were only 2 day ‘s left, they carefully prepared tasks for Friday….. a blue day……
All AAT’s were set and Stephan Grunder from Holland in the LS 8 had his 2d win in this competition.He flew the 2.30 AAT in 2.36 and 202 km.
With one day to go he leads with 100 points in standard class.
In 18 m. the same task and another Dutch pilot winning the daily prize; Steven Raimond;223 km. Steven had an off-day in the beginning. A pity.
Helge in the ASH 25 leads overall just ahead of Dutch pilot Bas.[3060 for 3054 …VERY close!!]
A great win for Sigi and Brigitte in the 2-seaters. A 2 hour AAT for them and they flew 156 km. in time 2.07!!
In club a 300 hour AAT and on spot 1 a St Libelle, then a ST Cirrus and an LS 1-0 cd. Best time and distance;193.8 km. in 2.56.Jan and Sabrina are still in the lead!!
Day 4 was a fact.

LAST DAY[5] in KLIX. And a good one, though BLEU, but as I read “higher than the day before”!
Standard; 3 hour AAT, with 223 km. Mogens from Denmark had another winning day and it brought him to spot 3 overall. Stephan from Holland was 8th for the day but won the KLIX COMPS!!!Well done Stephan !!!
18 m.;4 hour AAT, and 1000 points were for Ingo Trentelj in an ASH 31 MI/21 m. with 309 km and a speed of 77.25 km./h showing it was NOT easy.  By the way the ONLY 1000 points, in this competition.!!!!
16 From 28 finished and the KLIX- winner after 4 day’s is BAS SEIJFFERT from Holland in the JS 1, [3.963] followed also in JS 1 his Dutch mate Jeroen Verkuijl. [3.940 ] Unfortunately Helge who was the leader, out-landed.
Dosi’s; 2.30 AAT, 3 ARCUS variations in the top 3. A Topglider!!!!
Club; 3.30 AAT, flying together did not work on the last day for Jan and Sabrina. Starting ,..no worries but after 117 km. Sabrina was OUT and lost points. With a speed of 53 km./h Jan hung in and won the KLIX comps.[3.252 points] In the end only 43 points more than the runner up.

A pity from the weather but ..no worries another nice KLIX competition, where pilots love to go to…AND.. still 5 day’s.

18 m. winners  and  standard class winners .
Pictures shared by Frauke Kuijpers who participated as well and finished on 26 in St class in the ASW 20 WL.

——FATRAGLIDE:
8/9 flying day’s out of 10 in Martin.
Combi-class had 9 day’s and the 14 pilots in this class had several 3 hout AAT’s but also day’s with only 2 finishers. 2 Day’s with 1000 points.On the last day, Monday, they set a 117.59 km. task and it was flown by the local Duo Discus with a speed of 135.29 km./h .Not bad.
Viliam Kubovcik won this class in the Ventus 2cxt/18m. with 4.486 points.
Juniors had their own class and 7 day’s for them;Ivan Bajana won this class with 6 participants….2.537 points.
8 Day’s for club class and Tibor Noga was a class apart. He won 6 day’s!!!!
On the last day he was the only finishing pilot. 0ver 117 km. he flew around with a speed of 128,86 km./h in his ASW 19 B….. for 69 points!!! The runner up had 28 points for 63 km. Only 3 from 17 “bothered” to fly the last day in this class.

——-Calcinate Del Pesce;
The18 m. and open Italian Nationals and the “fight”  for the Coppa Citta di Varese , had 2 day’s and then a weather break but continued on Friday with a small task, but unfortunately no flying….cancelled.
On Saturday and Sunday however, 2.30 AAT’s were set and the pilots for the CUP, had” difficult times” as Peter [Hartmann ANTARES 23] won EVERY day!! Good on him. No secret he won  the CUP with 3.001 points. Good runner up was Alberto [Sironi] 2.716 points in his Quintus M.
Also important the scores from the 18 m and open class Nationals .
Alberto [Sironi] flew in open class with his Quintus M, he won 3 day’s and on one day he was runner up. Pretty clear he is the new Italian OPEN CLASS champion.
In 18 m. Ugo Pavesi won the last 2 day’s and was once 4th and runner up. Ugo in the ASG 29/18 m. won the 18 m. NATIONALS with 2.904 points.

——Hahnweide:
The annual competition at Hahnweide , the 52th edition, is always popular by pilots from all different countries and from different caliber. With beginners ,but also several former WGC and EGC champions. So a good mix and a nice bunch of INTERNATIONAL people.
They , the 120 pilots ,started in 4 classes, on May 5 and continue till Mai 12.

first briefing on Mai 5.
As shared by the organizers.

The tuggies tried to get all 120 pilots airborne in 1.5 hour!!! They did!! Later even in a shorter time.

In the 2-seater class 32 teams and except for 3 ASG 32 MI,  ALL gliders in this class are from Schempp-Hirth.
day 1 with 260 km. was won by Laurent Aboulin in the ARCUS T.
271 for 15 m. and UK pilot Nigel Mallender won in his LS 8. 24 In this class.
300 km for the 18 m. pilots [ 42 in this class !!]  and Swedish pilot Gunar Axelsson flew the distance with a speed of 135.54 ;  only 688 points for the winner.
322 for open and Pierre and Arnaud [Belgium…EB29DR] were the best with 141,95 on the speed -clock!The French pilots Sylvain Gerbaud [JS1c evo 21M] and Philippe de Péchy [ same glider] followed just a tiny tad slower all 3 in the 141 km./h range. 16 Entered in this class.
Must have been a great finish!!!

Day 2, bigger tasks but  less good weather , with less strong thermals than day 1 and a base of 1800 m. but also less wind.
“After a Delay the tow planes are just starting their engines . Tilo as sniffer pilot informs us about blue thermals up to 1600m.”
306 for the 2 seaters; and the ARCUS T from Christoph Heidemeyer flew with a speed of 119 km./h. for 828 points.
326 for 15 m;110 km./h in the DISCUS 2A from German pilot Robin Sittman. 8 UK pilots in this class and Derren Francis was runner up.
336 for 18 m ;2 VENTUS 3 in the daily top with Mario[Kiessling] and Steve [Jones] 9 UK pilots in this class and an off day for Adam [Woolley] from Australia who out-landed.
368 for open;all 16 open class pilots finished and Markus Frank was the fastest with a speed of 132 km./h. 3 Top French pilots in this class.

“Nearly all planes are back at the airfield, we only have one outlanding of GM. Because of the blue thermals flying in groups was preferred, so even at the landing nearly all planes came in simultaneously.”organizers.

As shared by the organizers.

Day 3; Sunny , blue and hot.
2-seaters; 360,69 km. AND,……FINISHERS!!!!!! 18 from 32 finished whilst in the other classes no finishers were to be seen. Great job from Belgium pilot Yves [Jeanmotte] in the ASG 32MI. Het got the 1000 points for a speed of 101,23 km./h That say’s enough, it was hard work in the office!!!
18 m; 437 km. It seems the problem was in the end and many “motored” home. Quite a few flew over  350 km.
600 Points for Reinhard [Schramme] and Sebastian Huhmann in the Ventus 3 and ASG 29.Russell was 3d with ONE point less.
In open Pierre and Arnaud had 600 points as well. They flew 433 from the 513 set km.
15 m; 352 km; UK pilot Tim Scott, flew 299 km and also for him 600 points. Nils Schlautmann had 600 points as well.

“Today only 16 pilots from the 2-seater class could finish the task. Everybody of 15m, 18m and Open class landed out ore used the engine.”was the message on the site.

Day 4 yesterday; about the same weather.
“Depending on the thermal conditions on the “Schwaebische Alb” we may have first arrivals of 15m class very early, starting from 4.45. p.m.” So MORE finishers today!!!
18 m… 446 km; Hanu [Halonen…Ventus 3 T] from Finland was very much motivated. The day before he got zero points for an airspace violation, yesterday …he won the 1000 points; 121,59 km./h.!! Denis Geurin was runner up . 33 Finished and it was not a good day for Werner Amann or Anti Letho,..they both out-landed.
After 4 flying day’s , Denis [JS 1C] leads and Phil [Jones] in the Ventus 3 is runner up and at this stage on spot 3 Jean Denis Barois [JS 1b]
open….479 km; 2 German, 2 French and 1Belgian pilot in the top 5. Uli in the ETA won with a speed of 116,69 km./h. 1000 points for him and Keith. Markus Frank in the EB 29 and Eric Bernard and Philippe de Péchy, both in JS1c evo 21M and Pierre and Arnaud completed the 5.
15 m…348 km; 4 day’s and 2 times a UK pilot and 2 times Robin Sitmann on top!!Robin leads after 4 day’s but is only 41 points ahead of Aussie Owen McCormack who flies till now very consistent!!!
dosi…388 km; Dutch success as Joost and mate Erik [Borgmann] won the day!! Andy [Austria]  was runner up with Wolfgang. Jim [Acketoft] from Sweden who unfortunately was one of the 3 “out-landers” on day 1 was number 3 .
The first 5 spots in this class till now are close, very close;Martin Theisinger in ARCUS M with 3.196 points, Laurent Aboulin [ARCUS T] with 3.165,Anton Sibanc in ARCUS M 3.147 ,Joost Wolff with ARCUS T 3.143 and Holger Karow [ARCUS M] with 3.126.

Less good news from yesterday ;
“On the fourth day of the HWW18 an accident occurred near the Lochenstein south of Balingen. At 5.20 p.m. there has been a mid-air between double and single-seater. All three pilots were able to leave the aircraft with the rescue parachute. Afterwards, they were taken to a hospital for observation as a precaution, but they were able to leave already in the early evening.
The competition management decided to let the participants finish their tasks despite the accident to avoid a possible risk due to the expected high approach frequence after the race cancellation.”
Competition Management.

Uli Schwenk with Aussie Keith Gately, in the impressive ETA. You can fly with one of both in this majestic glider. [both run Seventy2one]
As shared on the site.

——Eskilstuna;
The Eskilstuna Open in 3 classes started last Saturday with 38 participants. Eskilstuna is not a huge field but a very nice one. I was the editor during the WGC over there with Robert Danewid as CD.Had a great time!!
Till now only 2 flyable day’s in racing open and racing class and 1 in club class.[7 pilots]
More next week.

——The French Nationals for standard, 15 m and 2 seaters in Bailleau;
With 3 days till now the nationals in Bailleau had in one handicapped class tasks from between 2 and 300km. On day 1 [2 hour AAT] nobody finished so nearly 50 were “out”.
Day 2 was a bit better and 5 managed to finish with Christophe [Ruch] as the best.[Ventus 2AX] The speed say’s enough ;69.9 km./h
Yesterday was better with a set 334 km. task and it was flown by all 48 participants. Winner for the day;Frederic Hoyeau.
After 3 day’s the overall scores are very close so next week we look back on what happened!

——–Terlet;
The venue of the Dutch Nationals from Mai 16 till Mai 25.
Last Wednesday after publishing, I traveled to Terlet for some business and I was impressed with the THERMIEKBEL, the restaurant at the airport. Sander who runs the business is doing a great job and ready for the season and the Nationals.
About 120 people were at the field/strips from 6 different clubs, but as the weather was good for soaring, only visitors at the restaurant or terrace.The rest was at the strip or in the air!!
And they mostly flew up to nearly 600 km.!!!
One day later ,..again a TOP-DAY with nearly 700 km. from Soesterberg and over 600 from Terlet.
756 km. from de Voorst in a DG 400 on Thursday, has to be mentioned too.
Hope there is some weather left for the Nationals.

  
Not every gliding centre has such a fabulous terrace!!!

And,…where do you see such a table?

Some pictures as Sander did some art-jobs on the normally “boring” tables.

On Mai 5 the Gelderse at Terlet was the host for the Gelderse -One- Day- Competition and many friends entered.55 Gliders in 4 classes and many more pilots as quite a few teams flew in 2 seaters.
The 2-seaters had to go for 192 km. the combi for 173 , club for 165 km and open for 238 km.
It was a very blue day an inversion at 900 m. and very weak thermals and a pretty late start , as I read.
Looking at the 2 seaters; NOBODY from the 11 teams finished. Best was a distance of 170 km. by team Venema .
The 173 km. set for the combi-pilots was to “big” as well and also here no finishers but Simon in the Discus 2 flew 105 km.
Club had 4 finishers !!!Good on them.!!! With a speed between 55 and 61 km./h. they had a tough but satisfying  day. Frank [Hiemstra..St Cirrus…handicap 99] from the Friese Aeroclub won the 411 points, whilst Jelmer [Wassenaar] from DG was runner up in the LS 1 f-neo, a tad faster but a less good handicap from 101.[ 407 p.] junior Sjors van Loon was the number 3 also in St Cirrus and as there were only 4 finishers we mention the number 4 as well; team Konings/Sliedrecht in the DG 505/20 m.
In open no finishers either; Tjeerd Reitsma flew in the LS 8 134,61 from the 238 set kilometers. 6 From 15 flew over 100 km.

An impression by WILLEMIJN de LANGE. TOP serie.

Tuggies, self launchers and the men from the bully to bring the cables for the winch.AND Frank the winner and one from the 4 finishers.
AND

FANS!!!!!

——–What about….Belgium; They  had the same great weather and Jeroen Jennen declared 850 km and flew 905 km. in an LS 8 .Good on you Jeroen!!!!
“In the air before 10 AM and back home on the ground at 8 PM and 10 hours of PURE pleasure “Jeroen mentioned in his comment.
Same day same place, KEIHEUVEL, [one of my favorites] a 1000 km, flown by Tijl Schmelzer. The Schmelzer-boy’s both had an exciting week. Tijl , “First 1000k with our V3. What a day.” He motored from and too Keiheuvel and flew in the brand new VENTUS 3, over Holland and Germany to have another 1000 km. in the pocket. Last week his brother, Bert jr. flew 1500 km. from Hausen am Albis in Switzerland.
Great pictures, 37 ,  from the 1.500 km.flight from  Bert jr. at; PHOTOS.GOOGLE.COM [29-04-2018/1.531 km]

Or https://photos.app.goo.gl/0PTlpkxkN2IvqDbB2

—-The Polish Sailplane Grand Prix;
finished last Sunday with”6 flyable” day’s . When you look at the scores the first thing you see is DNF , DNC and DNS.
The first day was pretty normal, day 2 had a lot of out-landers and race 3 was pretty normal again, though on each of the day’s thunderstorms bothered the pilots. The rest of the day’s were a struggle or cancelled[ 2 races].
Adam Czeladzki in the JS 1 was the only one flying 5 races !!!!!
The overall winner Gintas won 3 day’s/races and that’s all he flew 24 points. Lucasz Wójcik flew 4 races and had in the end 22 points. As said Adam had 5 day’s and gathered 18 points.

Enough,….you are up to date.
CU next week.
Ritz

——Gauteng;
The comps finished and they squeezed out 4 day’s in 15 m and 5 in open class. Best distance on the last flying day; 281 km in open and 253 in 15 m.
Wayne Schmidt [ASW 27] won 3 from 4 day’s, so a deserved winner with 2.051 points.
In open the JS 3 gliders flown by Oscar and Anders, won 2 day’s.The JS 1 , 3 day’s. In the end the experience from Oscar [2.631]  made him win the title of this regional competition. Anders was runner up.[2.272]
Good flying from Dolf Pretorius, [JS 1/21 m.] who won 2 day’s [task 3 and 5] but on task 4 he was OUT and Oscar was IN. Dolf finished on spot 4.

—–KLIX 2018;
The 26th edition of this popular competition started on April 27 and they fly till Mai 5 in 4 classes; standard, 18 m.,  2 seaters and club.
In 18 m. 3 Dutch pilots in the top 5 after 2 day’s; Jeroen [Verkuijl 1]  Hans [ Biesters 2]and Bas [ Seijffert4] A total of 28 in this class.
In standard; Stephan Grunder ,yes from Holland on spot 1 after 2 day’s. 29 In this class.
2 seaters;after 2 day’s a Duo Discus on top followed by 3 ARCUS M gliders.[20 teams]
Club; 19 pilots in this class and after 2 day’s Jan [Rothard] in the LS 1-0,c,d on spot 1 and Sabrina Vogt in the St Libelle, as runner up.
Task 3 was cancelled for all classes. Even the meteo-sniffer had to use his engine to stay up.
Task 4 cancelled for 3 classes and Standard got a 3 hour AAT as task.The wind from 60 km./h was too strong for the tuggies so in the end ,all classes were cancelled.

For task 5 it turned out ,a rather good day. B tasks for all and in the end some reached 1600 m .
A 2.30 AAT was set yesterday  for Standard and Mogens Hoelgaard from Denmark won the daily prize in his Discus 2; 227 km. in time 2.41.
Steven Raimond from Holland won in 18 m. class in his ASG 29. A 2.15 AAT with for him 255 km in time 2.21.
In club the 1.30 AAT was flown best AGAIN by Jan and Sabrina starting, flying and finishing together in time 1.42/3 over 136 km .
The “DoSi’s” doppelsitzer=2 seater, with a 2 hour AAT saw 2 ARCUS M gliders on top with 188 and 184 km. in time 1.58 and 1.56.Good to see Sigi Baumgartl still active, flying an ARCUS T LL and gaining a 5th place this day.

As shared by the organizers.

More next week.

—-Varese; COPPA CITY DE VARESE and Nationals open and 18 m.

As shared by Aero Club Adele Orsi Acao

It’s cold and rainy in Europe at the moment …. NOT funny and comps suffer as much as people. So also in Varese where from Calcinate Del Pesce,[ Italy ] the Italian Nationals for 18 and open class will be flown between  April 28 and Mai 6.
On top of that they “fight” for in a combined class for the COPPA. Host is the Aero Club Adele Orsi Acao .

The first flying day had a small task from 1.30  and only Peter Hartmann in the Antares 23 T managed to finish. Unfortunately for ZERO points as nobody passed the 100 km. line.
Peter flew 150 km. in time 1.37!!! BUT,…an invalid day.
On Monday they set a bit longer task [2] ; 2.30.And,..no worries for Peter he won again;with a speed of 129 km./h. he flew 332 km. Only one out-landing.16 Pilots in this combined-handicapped-class for the CUP.
Looking at the Nationals;
In 18 m. Sandro Montemaggi flew in 2.29 a distance of  295.65 km in his ASG 29 and was the daily winner. One out-landing and 10 pilots in this class.
Open; Alberto [Sironi] flew 312,63 km. in time 2.36 in his Quintus M and had a speed of 120 km./h. One from 14 did not finish.
Yesterday ;
228 km. was set for ALL pilots and flying day 2 was a fact.
The Coppa -pilots noticed that Peter had his 2d valid win.
In open the daily prize was for team Luciano Avanzini in the ASG 32MI. Alberto was runner up.
In 18 m. the daily prize was for Corrado Costa. Margherita Acquaderni in the 18 m. VENTUS 3 was runner up.

As shared by Aero Club Adele Orsi Acao

The next 2 day’s do not look well so in the next blog hopefully the last 3 day’s.

—–The Alps;
THEY  were GOOD. Wave enough to please pilots and we are happy with their great flights. We could swim in streets as in one day/night we had as much rain as normal in the whole month of April!!!!
But look at this ;1.531 km. from Haussen am Albis in Switzerland by top pilot Bert Schmelzer jr. in the Discus 2T/18m.
He declared 1.250 flew it !!! and added some more kilometers!!! Brilliant!!! “What a day ” he wrote.
Great wave so to see and a speed of 112 km./h. A total of 17 over 1000 km-flights .A Sunday, so a lot of pilots had fun and over 800 added their flight to the OLC. The first 50 flights were ALL over 500 km.!!! Indeed WHAT A DAY.
Werner Amann flew in his ASG 29 from Hohenems Dornbir in Austria 1.372,6 km. with a speed of 131,6 km/h!!!!

2 Of those 1000 km. were 2 ridge-soaring-flights in the USA; one in a LAK 17B/21 m. and one in an ASG 29.

Talking about Ridge Soaring. Last Monday was the day to do so as 6 pilots cruised over the mountains all with flights over 1000 km.
From Mifflin County, they had the joy of good wave as well. Ridge Soaring from Ridge Soaring was SUPER!!!!They do so in ASW 27, ASW 20, DG 800/18 m. and more have a look at the OLC [ https://www.onlinecontest.org]

—–Down under;
It’s Mai and the conditions in several parts of Australia are still good ; Mart ,one of the hang-glider pilots who converted with us in the past to gliding, had a great day flying from Mc Caffery airfield in the East of Australia. In his LS 6 he flew 410 km [365 FAI triangle] with good conditions.
Here is his OLC comment.
“The day started of very weak with slow climbs to 5200ft. First turn point was Bunyan Towers. Looked impossible, slowly it got better and I was able to round the turn point. I slowly dribbled towards the second turn point when I ran into 3m thermal to 6500ft. After that I just got better and better with numerous 5m thermals and the highest I got was 8000ft. This at the end of April! super day. The only downside is that the days just don’t last long enough in autumn and at 17:30 it is dark.”

——The Polish Sailplane Grand Prix at Kielce.
is in full swing and started on April 27 with a practice day going to Mai 5.
10 Polish pilots and one from Lithuania .
Race 1,2 and 3 have been flown and on each of those day’s Gintas Zube [Lithuania  ASG 29] was the best, so 24 points for him.
Race 2 was “marked by thunderstorms. This resulted in hosting a very short task, spanning only 108 km. The day started as a typical stormy day with poor conditions at first – hot and clear. As soon as the cumulus clouds appeared, the conditions significantly improved for an hour. The contestants reached the finishing line minutes before the storm. Gintas Zube won again. Today his direct comptetitors on the finish line were Adam and Lukasz.”
See full results at http://www.sgp.aero/poland2018/results-sgp/results
Race 4 , yesterday, was not for Gintas as he got some penalty seconds  for starting above max speed 222 km/h. [ Penalty 260 sec] and starting above maximum start altitude 1811 m -[ Penalty 12 sec] BUT,…he still leads with 24 points followed by Lukasz Wojcik with 18 and Adam Czeladzki with 14 points.

More next week.

3 Daily win’s, congratulations.
As shared by the organizers.

That’s it for today. Next week also more news from FatraGlide from Martin in Slovakia, they had already 4 flyable day’s!!!
Cheers Ritz

As shared by the organizers.

—–Last 2 day’s in Prievidza [Slovakia] ;
CLUB CLASS; 226 km.
The last- but- one- day brought UK Tim back to the overall-top. He had his “off-day” earlier, Uwe had one this day. He still fought to come home and was the last of the 15 from  46 starting pilots, to  finish. So still 742 points for him, but he dropped to a 2d overall spot .Tim was 3d, Adam 5th and Sven 14th.
Overall scores with ONE day to go
Tim;4.862 points. 2; Uwe only 17 points   less 4.845, so EVERYTHING is possible 3;Jacek with 4.786. Still in the race as well Czech pilot David with 4.753.
LAST DAY; 3 hour AAT’s for all classes.
Uwe started at 13.25 and Tim, Adam and Sven ,8 minutes later. Jacek was 3d for the day and as Uwe was 8th he passed Uwe to take over spot 2. Tim was 5th, Adam 10th and Sven 16th with David on 9.
Final scores
1. Tim Milner [UK] St Cirrus ……………………………5.808 points
2. Jacek Flis [Poland] SZD-48 Jantar std. 2 …..5.743 points.
3. Uwe Wahlig [Germany] LS-3 WL/15 m………5,737 points difference only 6 points!!!!

The happy top 5, with big smiles!
As shared by the organizers.

15 m Class;264 km.
One but last day; 6 from 31 finished and 2 of them were LADIES Jana won in her LS 8 and Dana was on spot 4. A Czech day with 4 in the daily lead.
Overall with one day to go  the top is ; 1. Mateusz Siodloczek from Poland 4.096,2. Miloslav Cink from Czech Rep. 4,081 and 3 Pavel Louzecky also from Czech Rep with 4,058 points.
The last day was won by  Radek Krejcirik good on him;361 km. in 3.01 ! He moved from 8 to 5.
Pavel moved over the last 3 days from 7 to 3 and now 2. Mateusz who was on spot 1 lost 207 points on this last day  and with points-so-close you can’t afford that ; he finished as 3d.
Final scores
1. Miloslav Cink [Czech Rep] LS 8-b…………………..4.950 points
2. Pavel Louzecky [Czech Rep] LS 8 a…………………4.923 points
3. Mateusz Siodloczek [Poland] Discus 2A………..4.889 points
WOW!!!!! All so very CLOSE, they really had a “fight” for the best place.

Only happy smiles as well in this class.
As shared by the organizers.

combi class; 307 km.
one but last day;3 from 25 finished !!Danes Grula who is flying very well over the last day’s , Sebastian and Gintas Zube. Nearly all other pilots flew over 200 km.
Sebastian leads the overall score with 201 points over his Polish mate Piotr and Czech pilot Danes.
Sebastian won also the last day!! 377 km. for him much better than the runner up so a class apart. He won 6 day’s!!!!! Fabulous!!!His mate Piotr was 3d.
Final scores.
1. Sebastian Kawa [Poland] JS1-CTJ 18 EVO…………6.200 points
2.  Piotr Jarysz [Poland] ASG 29……………………………….5.928 points
3. Danes Grula [Czech Rep] ASG 29 E /18 m………….5.765 points
As always beer and goulash after the prize-giving finished this yearly event.

The combie winners with well known Petr Krejcirik on 4.
As shared by the organizers.

—–Wave in Minden;

Picture courtesy Jeppe

As promised some more news from wave paradise MINDEN in NEVADA. Close to beautiful Lake Tahoe and not far from Truckee and Ily both gliding fields as well.
On the 15th a new long flight was added from Minden in the ARCUS M by Dennis and Morgan;1.798 km. with a speed of 157 km./h.
Minden is the place where the 1991 WGC was supposed to be , but the firebrigade with their huge planes had to be able to fly out at any time, and that’s  not convenient during finishes from fast gliders so it was moved to Uvalde a great place as well.
In spring and autumn ultimate wave conditions and in summer great thermals. Ridge flying is possible as well as “following” convergence-lines.
VERY IMPORTANT; When you go there as a foreigner and you want to fly solo, you have to have a FAA verification certificate and it might be about 60 day’s before you have that !!! It might,…. as I heard sometimes it’s quicker.
All the business from the past are not there anymore but it seems that a very nice couple Laurie …”GLIDERGIRL”…and Silvio are so kind that pilots as Jeppe are over -enthusiast, which is GOOD.
The tuggie seems great fun and good,not unimportant either,… so a place to go too.
Here are some pictures to show you who is who and what was happening in the week Jeppe [KLM pilot] was there.

  
Still the golf car’s as I remember them and some REAL characters; Tuggie Gabe and meteoman Dan Gudgel.

Oxygen and SoaringNV hangar.

  
Tuggy in action and Jeppe with local cross country hero Kempton Izuno

Silver Schweizer 1-26 one of the most popular club class gliders in the USA and
SoaringNV owner Laurie, Silvio and Cloud Appreciation Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney having a laugh.

And to finish WAVE

Wave paradise Minden in Nevada USA.
All pictures courtesy Jeppe!Thanks!!

Talking about Minden,…Our own holiday there was great fun. Some great flying by my team, Sikko, Daan, George Rob and Gerrit. Bertje flew there as well a bit earlier.We went on a day off to Carson City, to Reno and to Lake Tahoe.
AMERIGLIDE was in July 1990 ; here some pictures from long ago!!!

Sikko and Bert in the golf car and Robert Bert and I on one of the American car’s.

Hannes Linke and Bernald Smith the orgaznizers and George Moffat with Susan.

The sparewheel cover from Eric ‘Herbie” Moser and Klaus and Brigitte.[to the left]

George as video-amateur and [ Paula from Brazil] , checking if he is doing things right.
The REAL American car’s . George took the green one, a CONTINENTAL, with suicide doors, HOME !!!

A day off so a flight with the ALBATROS. George was allowed to fly with owner Joe Lodato, cause it was his birthday. After the landing on the Lake TAHOE we had a pick-nick on the wings. What a day !!!!Later George bought the “bloody” amphibian and after a while he flew it to Tocumwal, where it still is with one wing off.

Finishes in 1990 in Minden.

The Dutch team …. Great clouds and a smiling Mary and Christianne holding the wing.

AND

The WINNERS in 1990.

With Eric Moser, Andy Davis, Justin Wills, Klaus Holighaus [RIP] Rick Walters [RIP] Daan Pare and one person I can’t remember.

——–Corowa containers arrived in Holland;
No words needed, as always,…. all in good order.

 all gliders safely back home.
Pictures courtesy George.

—–Gauteng Regional Gliding Championship ;

Very blue skies for day 1.
As shared by the Soaring Society of South Africa.

With 5 pilots in 15 m and 8 in open this regional competition started with 197 km in 15 m. flown by 4 and 275 km. in open with 3 finishers; Oscar won in the JS 3 ;846 points. The other JS 3 was runner up with Anders Andersen .
Task 2 was cancelled for 15 m. and open got a tiny little task from 182 km. A tough day even with the small distance. Only 2 from 11 finished. Anders and Dolf Pistorius managed to come home in a JS 3 and a JS 1 /21 m. Oscar was “out” after 161 km. loosing a bit more than 100 points on Anders.
More days to go.

——-News from KIKI, [Jacky Clairbaux ]
long time no news from him!!!!” I will be soon back in gliding for new adventures in Spain !!! Come to fly with us in Soria ! You will enjoy it for sure !!!”

Soria Gliding Center

“My dear friends of gliding, I beg you to share this information and considering you are the welcome on this airfield. I will be there in collaboration with them. I will tell you more soon.”

Kiki at the MESSE in Friedrichshafen.

OLC news;
We had up to 30 dgr. C about 15 higher than normal. Spoiled!!! Now it’s back to the normal 14 !!!! Brrr….cold!!
The weekend by the way, was great for soaring;
On Friday the USA had some top-ridge-soaring from Ridge Soaring where Dan had a FANTASTIC day in his 18 m./ ASG 29 cruising over the tops with a speed of 169.85 km./h over 1.204,81 km !!!!!
On Saturday the Alps were ON , over a great area but not yet a 1000 km. That happened on Sunday when Matthias flew 1.096,50 in the Quintus from Koenigsdorf ,Gerhard 1.000 in an Ventus 2 CM and Bernd Weber flew  over 1000 in the Ventus 3 from Laichingen. Several over 800 and 900 km. races as well. In an ASH 26 E 2 good flights from Unterwoessen [910] and Koenigsdorf [850 km.] well done !!!
Last Friday 2 Dutch kilometer-eaters Alfred Paul and Mark flew from Soesterberg, far south deep in to Belgium passing even St Hubert [where the Belgium Nationals will be flown soon] into Germany ; just a few km’s short of 700 km !!!!!
“The convergence really was there. Straight after start up to 1800 m  and off we went. In the Eiffel we had 2700 m.”
They stayed in welcoming-Marpingen as they try to do a little safari.
Monday 2 juniors from Holland, Sjors and Lizzy flew 615 km. in the Duo Discus XLT from Soesterberg direction East far in to Germany!!! Chapeau, as they went easy with the wind, but it was tough back against the wind. 15 Dutch pilots had time to fly that day and 8 flew over 400 km. Good Dutch day’s!!
Yesterday the Hahnweide was “HOT” and 2 ARCUS types T and M flew over 1000 km !!!
By the way last Saturday gave 2141 pilots, who added their flights on the OLC, huge fun.The season is really “on” now.

Cheers Ritz

——FCC Gliding in Prievidza;

As shared by the organizers.

A lot of pilots and ,indeed their crews as well, remember fondly the WGC in Prievidza in Slovakia.
So this years FCC ….Flight Challence Cup….competition is attended again by several of those guests and/or new ones hearing about that WGC.
In club class Adam Woolley from Australia and Sven Olivier from South Africa are participating at the moment.
Adam mentioned in his blog ….the next news about day 2 and as he is there who else can better share what’s happening.

Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures     
Enjoying the learning curve,

The day was expected to be blue, which mainly it was. A 2.5hr AAT was set into the mountains today, thankfully with valleys to fall off either side too. Sebastian Kawa kindly sat next to us in briefing, then helped us task plan – was really nice of him, thanks mate!

We launched into the blue sky, 48 club class gliders all scratching around, avoiding each other & the hills in the gusty & weak climbs. Right at the moment the inversion broke, the next two classes were sent. The pre start gaggle was separated into 2 cores effectively, 110 gliders all very close – Cirruses to open class birds. I made my start at I think the optimum time, but sure was exciting flying head on to 50 gliders for a few minutes as they were fighting for their own position. Thankfully every one was well behaved mostly & all ended well.

When I left you they wanted to start with race 3 , but that Tuesday was cancelled.
Set tasks on Wednesday then….213 km. for club, 224 for 15 m. and the “combies” went for 260 km.
AND,….in CLUB Adam was runner up for the day!So his learning curve nearly reached the TOP for that day.
Uwe from Germany just was a tad faster in his LS 3 WL/15 m..Looking at points…3 more than Adam;86,69 km./h for 81,66 km./h. Handicap difference; 104.4 for 98.6.
29 From 47 finished.
In 15 m. was it great to see that one of the juniors from a few years ago, Miloslav Cink [Czech Rep] won the day in an LS 8b.
19 From 33 finished, indeed it showed that it was a tough day.
In the combi-class it was waiting for the name Sebastian on top, but he is a human being as well and this time he was “OUT” after 209 km.
10 from 23 only finished and the daily best was German pilot Andre Weidlich flying an ARCUS.

Picture shared by Adam

Adam’s comment on race 3;”
A grid squat occurred for 1:10 today, the thick high Cirrus affected the launch time. Luckily though the air was rather unstable & it was easy to climb away, mostly. I did struggle to get to altitude pre-start though, leaving below base at my cut off time.

I jagged a good first climb, this naturally started the feel for the day. Some ridge running then a cracking climb to base at the downwind turn, saw me catch up my team mates here, Sven & Tim. We’ve been having a great timeworking together & pushing each other along, thanks guys!

Race 4 was last Thursday ; they set 310 for club , 328 for 15 m. class and the “combies” had to go for 368 km.
A GOOD day and even the organizers were euphoric:
“We have not yet processed records from all loggers, but it is already clear that today’s race was exceptional! An average speed of more than 110km / h in the club class, more than 135km / h in 15m and over 140 in the combi! Excellent! According to the competitors’ words, also the track was hit exactly to the right place, as all the cumulus clouds has been only along the track, but nowhere else! Even that sometimes works!”
Nearly all in CLUB finished [only 3 out]  and it shows that a bit of practice before ,helps as Uwe won again. He was already good in Nitra [Czech Rep] but even better in Prievidza. So 899 points for him.
Being 29th , Adam had a bit of an off-day.
His comment;“It wasn’t my day, disorientated with the first track – took the wrong line town the hills, plus questions over the airspace, stayed safe & came to the first turn from the wrong direction. From there I had my bearings & started to catch the pack up, but the damage was done.
Exciting flight, got around as per the goal, but will loose plenty points today sadly. Slowly learning the area, onwards & upwards.”
After 4 flying day’s it’s Uwe, Tim and Darius on the best overall scores.
In 15 m; young Radek Krejcirik won the day with a speed of 135.29 km./h. Good on him. After 4 day’s it was Polish pilot Przemysław Bartczakon top [ 2.982], with Romanian pilot Norbert Alin Scarlat as runner up [2.933] and then 4 Czech pilots Radek, [2.982] Miloslav [2.923] and Pavel [2.914] and as you can see the differences were SMALL.
In the combi class it was back to normal for Sebastian , he won with a speed of 140 km./h.!!
After 4 day’s 2 Polish glider pilots in the top 3 ;Piotr Jarysz on 1 and Sebastian back from 6 to 3. In the middle Czech pilot Petr Krejcirik.

As shared by Adam.

This morning I noticed looking at the weather map on my TV, some “wild”  weather in the East of Europe and it turned out not a flying day on Friday the 13th. Maybe better for those who believe in “black cat’s”.But after,……..

Very nice picture by Adam :”Gliders Gliders, everywhere!”

Task 5 was BIG in all classes!!!
Club had 500, and Uwe and Adam were on top for 1000 and 989 points; speed just over and just under 100 km./h. 29 from 47 finished , some were close very close ;494 from 500 km.
Here is Adam;”A 500km fixed task was set, 11am launch & a 1700-1730 shut down predicted. That meant one thing, get cracking! I was in the first wave off tow, sat in zero for a while, then edged my way up the mountain. I noticed that there was a rather large convergence line running up the 1st leg, so went to explore it early & found myself marking the spot for every one else to join in.
Tim, Sven & I were amongt the first starters. It didn’t bother us as it gave us clean skies. The first climb 8kts & we were off! Exciting scenery all day, mountain lines, totally unlandable terrain, terrain that looked landable in POL – but that was my due to the size of the fields. Tim, two LS3’s & I were leaders all day, which eventually rewarded me with a 2nd place with 987pts! it was a shame that Sven wasn’t with us, missed out little gaggle of three.”

505 in 15 m. but this day was cancelled due to a midair collision.”Fortunately two parachutes were observed.We would later learn that the Lithuanian pilot ,  exited the glider very low – and was probably saved by the high trees which caught his opening parachute and arrested his impact. “Also the Polish pilot was OK.
Combi had 512 and Sebastian added more points to his total;1000. Roman [Mracek] had 989.

Task 6 was cancelled for the combi- class by the judges, before start due to incoming bad weather.”Many Gliders had to return to the airport due to bad weather conditions. Estimates about 30 planes and more are coming. We are waiting for the Commission to decide whether to continue in the today’s task.”
Club did not have a valid day though they flew, but no 25 % of the pilots finished as most did not start.
Adam got no points but lot’s of CREDIT for him.
Sven wrote; “Adam lead the gaggle around the task and 6 guys managaged to complete it – in my view the feat of the contest. 
We wait to see if it turns out to be a contest day (25% of the pilots must pass 100km – and thus far only 8 did). more than 20 pilots did not even manage to get through the start gate. ”
15 m; was cancelled later as well also here some heroes who started, flew the task and finished but not enough.
Only 2 of the 6 starters finished and flew 183 km. in 3 hours; Rumanian pilot Alex Pop and Lucasz Grabowski from Poland. No points but GLORY!!!

Task 7 yesterday; Not the best weather in the morning but improving.In EASTERN countries they are used to fly whenever possible, so 2 hour AAT’s were set.
“First sun just showed up. As long as the weather develops, as predicted by our meteorologist, around 1PM there should be active thermals. Starts are scheduled at 13:00 LT.”
Club‘s story today by Sven all the way from South Africa in the East of Europe:
“Day 7 – 47 competitors in the club class – strong winds from the north and conditions drying out. We needed 12 pilots over 100km for a valid contest day. After the start it was only at Zobor – the famous ridge at Nitra that I saw gliders. After drifting a bit too deep into the sector I set of for Prievidza. – At the centre of the third sector I was down too low to make it onto the windward side of the next ridge and after various desperate attempts I put UY down in an immense field (there is a whole story on getting the trailer in and out of the field – Petr Panek and his father came to fetch me – MANY THANKS – 12 pilots made 100km and I placed 11th, move up two places on the overall standings. ”
7 From 45 finished …..with between 138 and 170 km. ……and indeed JUST 25 % flew over 100 km. .so a valid day and some “shuffles” in the overall scores. [www.soaringspot.com] Though the top 3 is STILL the top 3; Uwe Tim and Jacek.
15 m;26 started and 9 finished with up to 193 km.
Combi; Sebastian won the day. Romanian pilot Andreas did well as runner up and moved to spot 3 overall behind Sebastian and Piotr.

Today they have set tasks;club 226,15 m. 264 and combi 307km.
“From the morning there is almost a clear sky above Prievidza, and it probably will stay the whole day. According to the forecast, there will be no, or very little cumulus clouds today, so it will be more difficult for the competitors to find the optimal track. The first start is scheduled to 11:30”

——–News from   DG Flugzeugbau GmbH

“During the last months, we’ve been asked quite frequently if the new “neo” winglets will be available for LS4 gliders. Based on very good results with neo-winglets, which DG developed during the past 2 years, we can expect a perceptible increase in performance for the LS4 as well. The LS8 shows an increase in both, handling and performance.

So now we offer this kind of development and ask LS4 owners to place an option. Only a few options are left to kick-off this exciting project.

——-News from Bailleau:
“Hello ! From July 31st to August 10th this summer, will be held the 44th Bailleau International Gliding Contest, a classic flat-land gliding contest.

And like every year for 21 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 …

The website http://2018.planeur-bailleau.org is now open, you will find there all useful information and the online registration form …”

—–News from Shempp-Hirth;
The new 15 m. Ventus 3 has been tested as I read;”Congratulations Schempp-Hirth on the first flights of the new Ventus 3 15m! Looks wonderful, I hear the three test pilots on day one are very pleased & are yet again, impressed with its handling – love it :…by Adam.

Photo taken by Derren Francis of his 1 production set.

And,..the first edition of the new MAGAZINE MINIMOA, has been published, a magazine for all pilots and Schempp-Hirth fan’s.
Had a look,…. love the lay-out and great stories and pictures.
“This magazine will be regularly published and will provide news, interesting articles and of course lots of pictures.We wish you a lot of fun reading and are looking forward to your feedback.”

I like both Tilo and Ralf, know them for ages and as George always flew SH gliders, we ordered a few with them and in the past visited regularly. Ralf visited us with Klaus in Tocumwal. Glad to see he is since a couple of years part of Schempp–Hirth and he is the editor for the new magazine whilst french Benjamin Neglais does the lay-out and pictures. Benjamin fits very well in the SH family. Great cooperation !!!!
As far as I know one of my friends Hans, still has a MINIMOA.
SCHEMPP-HIRTH.COM

And the cover of the April issue the first of I hope , many more.
As shared by Schemmp-Hirth.

—-Interesting OLC news;
Allan Barnes flew on Friday the 13th still  571 km. in his LS 1f.
Very active Foehn in the Alps.
Switzerland ; with a great result for top pilot Rainer Crohnjaeger; 1.260 km. with a speed of 105,59 km./h !!!! Hausen am Albis was the place to be. He flew the ASH 31 MI/21m. After rain and clouds there was wave .
But the whole area was superb.
What about David Richter-Trummer in an H301, a club class glider!!!Niederoblarn [Austria] was for him the place to be; 1.134 km. with a speed of 95,52 km.h. He “cruised” over the mountains at under 4000 m. and found good thermals as well.
A few day’s earlier on Tuesday Keith Essex flew from more or less in  his Minden [ USA], another great flight in the JS 1 C. This time 1,254.5 km. with a speed of 153,6 km./h.
I liked his OLC-comment;
“As forecast….crappy unstable wave with ugly clouds. Laminar flow was very high, anytime you got lower than 13 to 14 thousand you had to work hard to get back into the wave. Lots of snow showers to skirt around too. A character building day.”

Talking about Minden,…they had a WAVE CAMP and one of my Dutch soaring friends Jeppe is there as well. He shared some news and great pictures.
He mentioned the great atmosphere created by Laurie and Silvio, who started  …SoaringNV.com… about 9 years ago; It seems the other 2 businesses from my time do not exist anymore.
Of course they are super hosts on wave day’s , but also on less day’s they organize readings about p.e. Perlan or invite Gavin Pretor-Pinney, the founder of the Cloud appreciation society to drop in to share his experiences.

Perlan 2 and Dr. Johnson and Jim Payne talking about how to protect against the cold and possible hypothermia.

Love Minden had a great time there in 1990 ,  NEVER forget the flight in the Albatross -amphibian from Joe Lodato and the landing on the Lake Tahoe with some friends at the Pre Worlds [later they were moved to Uvalde]
Jeppe shared a picture from the Lake as well and I HAVE to share it.

On Monday morning all pilots from the camp were up early , as it was supposed to be a super-wave day or a  “diamond lennie-day” with 5000 m. ]16.400]height gain.
It was 5 brand new DIAMONDS.
“Back on the ground. Got upto 9000′ on tow and then into the wave near Kingsbury Grade in the leeside of Job’s Peak. Upto 17500′ all the way and then northbound in the wave ‘highway’ to Carson City and south of Reno. 
Some planes upto FL280 since the wave window is open.”

Picture 1 ;early morning at Soaring.NV
2. Lennie and shadow overhead the airport. The white hangar on the the left is the initial point (IP) for righthand downwind when RWY30 is in use.

Next week more news and pictures from the WAVE PARADISE in Minden Nevada.THANKS Jeppe !!!

—-And to finish news from Japan:
Kenshi tried his 1000 km over Japan last week. He prepared well and was up early as you can see. I checked with him if it all worked out well, but ” I tried 1000K task with WAVE. But dose not success. I expect next chance.”
No worries he will do it another day!!!

 As shared by Kenshi Tagami

CU next week,by the way ,good soaring in Holland as well. Steven Raimond flew yesterday 445 km. and the day before 515 !!

A bit long this blog but nice pictures.Cheers Ritz

——The Pribina Cup:

Courtesy ELFO.

is in fact the first MAJOR competition for the beginning of the new European soaring season.
A busy season with 2 major Cat 1 comps;
Ostrow, Wielkopolski,  is host for the 35th-WGC-club, standard and 15 m. pilots between 7–21 July 2018.
Pribam, in the Czech Rep, hosts the “big Ones” between 27 July – 11 August 2018. Also the 35th WGC. [open,18m. and 20 m. multi seat]

What happened after last Wednesday in Nitra?
Unfortunately not too much. Reason; the weather.
Only 2 day’s so winners with not too many points;
club;twice a 2d place for Michal Lesinger [Czech Rep] so pretty consistent flying in his ASW 19 and the NUMBER 1;1.380 points. Runner up with one win and an 11th place ,Uwe Wahlig from Germany 1.363. Followed by  other German pilots with 1.351 and 1.325 points.
16 from 33 finished on day 1 .
15 m ;Jan Knischewski from Germany one 1 day with 1000 points and was 4th on the 2d day. Result; a 2d place in his LS 8 . [1.681] Just a tad better , so number 1, Polish pilot Tomasz Hornik in the Diana with 1.715. He won day 2 and was 3d on day 1.
7 From 25 finished on day 1 and Jan was the only one in the whole comps with 1000 points!!!
20 m. duo-seat; Team Wolfgang [Janowitsch] and young Thomas Leitgeb  were the only finishers  [from 12 teams] on day 1 and they were 3d on the 2.30 AAT. so with 1.648 points ….. the winners.
Open ; Great job from the Polish pilots being 1 and 2 overall after 2 days;
4 from 18 finished on day 1 Lucasz and Piotr belonged to them. On day 2 they were winner and runner up; Lucasz 1.598 and Piotr 1.591 points.

Open and 15 m. Cup winners.

Club and 20 m. Cup winners
All pictures shared by the organizers.

Next year Easter will be later so hopefully better weather.

Always very grateful for ALL those hardworking “helpers”.
Courtesy ELFO.

Courtesy ELFO.

—–Italy;
continued with their first competition of the year 2018 in Torino. They added one more day to the 2 they had already so it was a valid race for the trophy,  with 3 out of 10 days.
Winner; Alberto Sironi in the QUINTUS. Just 15 points ahead of Vittorio Squarciafico in the 15 m LS 8.
A total of 11 pilots in one handicapped class.

——-PRIEVIDZA;
In Slovenia they started FCC Gliding 2018 just ONE week later and the weather is much better. 3 Classes Cub, 15 m and combi-class.
45 Pilots in club and UK pilot Tim Milner [ St Cirrus]won day 1 a 2.30 AAT. Tim worked for us as tuggie in the past , so did as you know Adam and he flies in Prividza as well in club with a St Cirrus. Adam was 11th .
27 Finished. Some pilots moved straight away from Nitra to Prievidza to enter this comps. Uwe Wahlig is one of them. He flies an LS 3 with winglets /15 m.
33 Pilots in 15 m. and Vladas Motuza from Poncuniai,  was the best in this class in a Discus 2A. 19 Finished on this first day.
24 Pilots in the combi class including Sebastian Kawa and then you know it will be difficult to win. He straight set the standard with winning day 1. 4 Outlanded in this class on day 1.

Day 2 yesterday was won by Uwe in club class. His “practice” in Nitra shows effect. Tim was 9th only loosing 46 points and Adam was 10th for the day.In this class flies a South African pilot as well; Sven Olivier in a St Cirrus , he was 5th for the day.
In 15 m. day 2 [2.30 AAT] was a prey for a Polish pilot with a great but difficult name flying an LS 8; Przemysław Bartczak. Quite a few “girls”  in this class as Dana, Jana and Joanna.
Combi-class,…questions…. ?????….NO ….Sebastian won in the JS1-CTJ 18 EVO.

More next week.

——GFA;
The Gliding Federation of Australia shared some record news and as I wrote a bit  about some of these records here is the official news;
This following Australian records for the 2017-18 season have been verified. Congratulations to the following:
Kerrie Claffey, Allan Barnes, Harry Medlicott, and Ian Van Schalkwyk. Mac Ichikawa also set two Japanese records in Australia.

——–And to finish this great picture from Maria Szemplinska, [yes Jerzy’s wife] also one of my favorite photographers. A last picture about the FAI SGP in Orlando.

FAI Sailplane Grand Prix USA 2018 – Orlando, FL Great photo of Seminole-Lake Gliderport and FAI Sailplane Grand Prix USA 2018 – Orlando, FL with the beautiful Florida palm trees and the beautiful 18m sailplanes!

And …because they are so beautiful, …. trees and gliders …one more , from another top photographer Bozena Michalowski who visited Orlando.

Shared by the organizers.

Looking at those great palm trees,….we had last Sunday the hottest day ever with 22.3 at the meteo- station and up to 24 in my region.
Publish one day earlier.

Cu Next week.
Cheers Ritz

—–FAI SGP ORLANDO USA;

FAI Sailplane Grand Pix USA  CAKE.
As shared by the organizers,

Race 3; with 324 km. was a prey for Canadian pilot Sergei who won the 10 points.Again 6 pilots finishing in about the same time. Must be exciting to see for the spectators.

Race 4;161 km. and Robin Clark in the ASG 29 flew ahead of another “3 pilot-bunch” and had a speed of 106 km./h. whilst the next 3 had 104 km./h.
Another day cancelled and then…….

“Streets fully formed at 11am”
As shared by the Organizers.

Race 5 ; very last day and also the day of the prize giving at 7 PM. So the final race for the first prize was between the Canadian pilots Sergei and Jerzy.
242 km. was set and you see the weather “above”; the speed was 117 km./h. and the day was again ….3d time….for Sergei.
And in the end there was still quite a difference between the 2; 42 and 31 points. With 29 points local “hero”  Sean was 3d.

The Prizes,
As shared by the organizers.

The ORLANDO FAI-SGP- TOPPERS !!!!!

As shared by the organizers
Picture courtesy Bozena Michalowski
Next SGP is at KIELCE in POLAND [April 27-Mai 6]

——–Pribina Cup 2018;

Picture by ELFO, every year I look forward to his fabulous pictures.

Started on March 30 [Till April 7] with 91 competitors in 4 classes ; Club , 15 m., 2-seaters and open.
Place to be as every year, …Slovakia; the Nitra Airport.
The max amount of participants is 50 in each class.
Last April they mentioned that the PRIBINA CUP IS NOW AVAILABLE ON GOOGLE PLAY.
“If you own a device running Android and you do not want miss anything from the competition download our new Pribina Cup App.”

With an early Easter time, you only can hope that the weather co-operates. The beginning showed a lot of rain but after 3 day’s the weather turned better .
On Monday the competition-news was ; “The weather conditions are suitable for gliding today, the sky is clear, cumulus clouds with cloud bases of 2000m are expected with rises 2-3m/s. Wind is strong now, increasing with the altitude, but should slow down during the afternoon. Thermal activity should be dying out around 5pm.
Therefore RACING TASKS for all classes with range from 250km for club class to 330 for open class.
First launch is planned for 11:30 so be ready. And do not forget: fly safely, watch out and enjoy the race!”

Where would we be without them ??
By ELFO.

So task 1 was a fact ,but not for all as there were quite some out-landings.
Club; 16 from 33 finished and German pilot Uwe Wahlig won in the LS 3….826 points.
15 m; 7 from 25 finished and 1000 points here for German pilot Jan Knischewski in the LS 8.
2-seaters; Only Wolfgang finished and the other 11 teams were out. 820 points for the ARCUS E.
Open; 4 from 18 finished and Bostjan …EB 28,…got the 987 daily points.

AND,…till now that’s what happened. A pity ,but a bunch of great people together, will have a good time anyhow, though they are there for gliding.
Still a couple of day’s to go and the weather should  improve.
Not today as the early morning news was; “Current weather situation: Strong gusty wind is blowing from south. There is a quite thick layer of cirrus clouds above us”
After briefing; “Warm air is still flowing to our area and it is not instable enough. Therefore there are no tasks for all classes. Free flying is possible from 12pm.”

Sofie from Belgium;…no worries just another competition.
By ELFO.

——-46 th Trophy from the City Torino;

As shared by the organizers.

They started on March 30 as well with 10 competitors in one [handicapped] class.
First flight at April 1 ,..NO …..no April-1-joke !!!
Task for the pilots; 358 km. 7 finished and on handicap the LS 8/15 m. won from the ARCUS T whilst Alberto in the Quintus was 3d for the day.
April 2 had a 2.15 AAT won by Alberto [261 km. in time 2.20] and ALL pilots finished.
Next Friday they continue with the comps with after 2 days , Alberto as leader of the overall scores [1.647] before Vittorio in the LS 8 [[1.590] and team Grinza in the ARCUS T[1.582].

——–Interesting!!!! Our Easter weather was COLDER than our Christmas weather!!!!!WEIRD !!!!
But this weekend we have REAL spring with 20 dgr. C. I am going to truly enjoy that.

And to finish this great picture from April 1;

L’album de Mamz’ailes SoFi
© sophie mahieu

Cu next week.

Whilst our astronomical spring started here on March 20, my friends Down Under in the Perth area, had to wait and see if the  severe tropical storm MARCUS, an early autumn storm growing to cat. 5,would pass by or hit the coast line. [expected wind 285 km./h.]
There was hope MARCUS would stay well away from the West Australian mainland. It did !
“Our” time changed into summertime, so we had one hour less.
Down Under they move this upcoming weekend.

——OLC 2018;
have to get used to the new system/layout. Not very conveniently arranged in my opinion, but for sure better readable.
In the past you could see straight on ONE side all first 50 flights now you have to scroll.
Maybe I just have to get used to it.
The OLC shared this news the rest is on their site;
“As of now OLC will be available in a new format, perfectly laid out for smart phones or tablet computers. At first sight you will find our service has been completely new designed. The content, of course, did not change … OLC will continue the way it has always been working. Our virtual platform is still functional with its tried-and-tested system.

March 24 was a great day here. Blue skies , nice clouds and not TOO cold.
15 Eager pilots in Holland, saw the same great skies as I did and moved to the airfield.
419 km. for Sikko in the ASG 29E/18m.,not bad for a first flight in the beginning of the season. Former vice champion of the JWGC in Narromine Robin flew 325 in his Cirrus, not bad either.

——-Seminole;
The “oldies ” have left Orlando-Florida in the USA and the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix racers have arrived at the Seminole Lake Glider Port. Last Saturday on March 24 they started their 2 practice day’s to be followed by 7 races.12 Pilots entered and 2 of them are from Canada.
Sean Fidler is the event manager and he also flies his ASG 29 during the races. Busy bee!!!
As always there is live-comment and you can follow them in real time.

As shared by the organizers.

http://www.sgp.aero/usa2018/results-sgp/results.aspx?contestID=31090

The practice day’s were interesting.On the first one not everybody bothered to fly and those who did learnt from it as a few had penalty points they won’t make anymore.
Day 2 was interesting as only 4 finished and those who did n’t flew between 34 and 171 km. from the set 207. Local CD Sean won the day.

Race 1;cancelled due to frontal weather. They waited and hoped,…in vain.

Race 2; 214.8 km. … Cloud base around 4000 MSL…..and start at 13.30 …… Bill Gawthrop in the JS 1C got the very first 10 points, though the first 4 pilots each had a speed of 128 km./h. within 24 seconds . And 3 of them 127 km./h. So a big bunch flying and finishing together on this first race. But flying 127.2 km. only gives you 4 points.

1st: Bill Gawthrop (F8)  2nd: Sergei Morozov (M6)  3rd: Rich Owen (ZO)
As shared by the organizers.

Debrief -time!!
As shared by the organizers.

More next week.

www.sgp.aero

——–Tocumwal;
For ALL who have been at Sportavia in the past,….the bus still exists!!!!! Many have been sitting there, lot’s of talks and great moments after special flights . The tie-down area from the past ,were many WGC participants for the 1987 Benalla had their gliders during practice, looks brilliant again. Have a look as Sportavia shared a picture.

“The hardstand has been graded and some hard work completed by some dedicated people who have made the hangar and the grounds looking very tidy. Even the bus is a stand out iconic sight to welcome glider pilots.”

———Diana -2 New Generation;DIANA 3

As shared by Boleslaw Kawik.

We have the new JS 3 , the new Ventus 3 and for the next WGC there will be also the next Diana 3.
It will be an exciting WGC !!!
I remember from Tocumwal that the glider looks beautiful but a bit fragile to the tail and sometimes had problems with the start and landing,..breaking out.
I just looked at a video from the first landing of the Diana 3 and it looked great.No worries!!!

With test pilot  and WGC pilot Petr Krejcirik on the right …thumps up.
as shared by Diana -2 New Generation

with Petr in the Diana 3 for a test flight.
As shared by Diana-2 New Generation

Talking about the JS 3 and Ventus 3 ,…a very classic picture, Uys [Jonker] visits Ralf and Tilo [Holighaus] in Kircheim Unter Teck.

As shared by Jonker Sailplanes.

——–USA-Wave;
Flying mostly between 6000 and 7.340 m. you can really race. And,…that’s what Dennis Tito and Tim Gardner did last Friday ,in the ARCUS J,flying from Inyokern in the USA;GREAT speed 243.9 km./h. [distance 722 km.] WOW !!!!

European wave;
lot’s of OVER 500 km. flights on March 26 from Sisteron,[602 km in DG 400/17 m.] Puimoisson, [805 in ARCUS M] Lienz Nikolsdorf [903 km.  in EB 29 ] and Serres La Batie [572k  in Ventus 2 CM/18 m.]

—–And to finish…..INGO ;

Still going Strong; Picture shared by Sportavia
I totally agree with their next words:
“Congratulations to Australia master of the skies and true gentleman Ingo Renner. During this Australian summer, Ingo clocked over 37.000k hours in gliders. I’m sure a good number of them shared with many pilots from around the world. Ingo continues to be a wonderful ambassador and inspiration our sport.…”

Not much happening, hence,..not much news. CU next week.

Cheers Ritz