Finally autumn arrived last Thursday,  that is,…as autumn belongs to be, though still not too cold , too windy or to wet. Straight away that day, heavy traffic -jam and due to the rain 450 km. with careful drivers , but also annoyed ones. The 2d heavy jam for this year!!
In midsummer,to be honest,  we had weather-wise worse days, with no” jam.”Another hick-up last Monday with 500 km.!!! Holland is [too] busy!!!

———

R.I.P.

A well known glider pilot and chief instructor from Issoudun , Pascal Lefebre crashed last week in his RV 8 together with a passenger ,not far from the airport after start. They went for a short flight to do a radio check. Mr Vincent Ah Mook-Sihn, the passenger was  a glider pilot, radio technician and helicopter pilot and only 42 years old.
Very sad. It hurt many French , both students and “mates”, as Pascal was in the “business”  already for over 20 years; a real club icon .
He was only 58 years old. As one pilot mentioned; ” Issoudun will be never be the same again“. Pascal was Issoudun.
I wish both families and their friends,  all the best!!!!

———-

The SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONALS!!!
or
The 2016 Jonker Sailplanes South African Nationals.

October 1 -8.

Just under 50 participants in 3 classes and the practice day was on October 1 with a 214 km. task for club [ 17 competitors] and 365 for 18 m. and open [20] .
Not a lot flew the task, Nathalie Luebben [Germany]  did in the ASG 32 MI and won with a speed of 130.38 km./h. followed by Arne Boye Moeller from Denmark in the JS 1 with 132.30 km./h.
No practice task for 15 m. But 11 pilots will fly in this class.
With the State Comps in Queensland these are the first comps of the overseas season.

Task 1 on Oct.2;
A day with many penalties in each class:”As Matthew said :””Start/finish heights had more than a few confused apparently! (m AGL, relative to the airfield rather than the start point, on a specified QNH)”

213 km for club pilots. 13 Pilots flew the task and AP Kotze [ Cirrus] was the best for the day with a speed of 85 km./h. After the official scores he moved to 2 due to a penalty on finish altitude and Jacco Burger in the LS 1f ,was the happy-day-1- chappie.

298 km. For the 15 m. pilots and Dolf Pretorius in the LS 8 won the day before Wayne Schmidt in the ASW 27; speed 108 km./h for 109 km./h. All 10 pilots who started  finished.

In 18m./open  363 km. was set. Matthew Scutter , “our” Aussie Junior World Champion  traveled all the way from down under to SA to fly the JS 1 during this competition.So did , but then from the UK , the other JWGC  champion Tom Arscott.
It’s good to see how friendship starts on WGC’s, this time on the JWGC in Narromine where young Tom Arscott [UK] and Young Matthew [Australia] both were on the podium on spot ONE !
Now they are “mates” fly more or less together each in an JS 1,  to learn even more from each other. We will hear more from both of them in the future. Both had 893 points on day 1.
Preliminary winners of day 1 the Goudriaan brothers with Oscar a tad faster than Laurens. Arne left 1 min. later but finished a bit later as well.
In the end the preliminary scores changed dramatically ,due to low- finish– altitude- penalty-points and the daily winner turned out to be Marcus Nouwens, Laurens stayed on 2, even with his penalty.
Oscar unfortunately dropped to 10.
Then according to soaringspot,the [today]still preliminary scores[protests??] from Task 1;
1.Uys Jonker 1000 points, 2. Laurens with 952 and 3. Arne with 951.
Several penalty points disappeared but Oscar kept his but was not 10 but 6.

Arne on take off on day 1 in one of the 14 participating JS 1’s in this competition.
Picture courtesy Arne.

Task 2 on Oct 3;
Club got 213 km, again  different TP’s though. 14 From 16 flew and finished the task.A difference of more than an hour between the start times.First starters at 12.47.
Late starter [13.57.58] Jonathan Cross in LS 1f won the day. A difference of more than an hour between the start times as you can see. Runner up  Jean du Plessis in the LS 1 d;95.50 km./h. A total of 4 warnings and 5 penalty points, mainly start- speed this time.

In 15 m. set task of 250 km.All 11 pilots flew and finished.; Best speed 126 km./h by Mark Holliday.

In 18 m./open. a 303 km.was set and flown and finished by 17 out of 19 flying- pilots . Team Natalie Leubben/Klaus Kalmbach practiced well on Oct 1,  when they  won the day, now they were 2d on competition day 2 day in the ASH 32 MI; 129 km./h. [ handicap 116] Uys got the  winning 742 points in the JS 1[ handicap 111]  and Arne was 3d in the JS 1 [handicap 119] with a speed of 132 km./h.
Only ONE penalty point that day and not the best day for the young ones, Matthew , just “survived”and Tom out-landed. [15 and 18]

An impression by Arne. Thanks for sharing!!!!

Arne;” The starting game aka The waiting game. Who will start first in the forecasted weaker conditions? Who dares start last?”

    

The briefing,….the fun,with Arne, Hadriaan ,Laurens and Sven……and an old goldmine in the middle of nowhere.
Or as Arne says it more poetic:
“An abandoned old diamond mine stares with an unblinking green eye to the blindingly azure vault above from the mottled brown crust of central South Africa”

Task 3 on Oct 4;
Club ; 344 km….was flown by nearly all only 3 out-landings. 1000 points for Wilhelm Moosehuus in the Cirrus. After 3 tasks Jean Du Plessis [Ls 1d handicap 98] leads 2247 points,  ahead of Tommie Grobler with 2214 and Wilhelm is on spot 3 with 2129 points. Everything is possible.

15 m.class ; 398 km…ALL pilots flew the 398 km. Best was Dolf Pretorius; 126 km./h in the LS 8. The first 1000 points in this class  for him.After 3 tasks he is in the lead with  200 points on Mark Holliday with 2205 and Wayne Schmidt is on spot 3 [2142].

18m/open ; 429 km… except for 2,  all pilots flew the distance. Pieter Nouwens was the best with a speed of 146.93 km./h.; 2 hours and 55 min.
Less good day for Arne ; spot 16. After 3 flying-days Uys leads [2652] with about 100 points on Pieter.[2565] on spot 3 …good old John Coutts from NZ.[2449]But,…it’s not over yet.

More next week.

————

Not long and the BIG FINAL from the 7th SGPseries  IS ON !!!!

November 5-12 in 18 m. class gliders.

By the way when you are interested ; “3 places left in the Australian SGP at Horsham with spectacular weather, flat and open farmland to race across. get your winter sun fix in December. ” more at http://www.sgp.aero/australia2016

8th series of SGP races:
Australia ; Horsham Dec 14- 20 [2016]
South Africa; Magaliesburg April 17-22 [2017]
Spain; Jaca May 7-14
Poland; Wroclaw Szymanow May 27-June 3
Italy ; Varese June 10-17
France ; Buno June 25-July 1
USA ; Hobbs July 8-15
Slovakia; Partizanske August 5-12
Slovenia ; Celje August 19-26
Chile WORLD FINAL ; Vitacura beginning of January 2018.

———

The Queensland State Comps in Jondaryan.

They started with practice on October 1 as well and fly from the Mc Caffery Airfield. Sports class had a 2.30 AAT and only 7 pilots flew the task and some aborted, but 3 finished . Mark Tingey from Tauranga in NZ won this day in the JS 1 , followed by Brian Du Rieu in the LS 10 and David Griffin in the Duo Discus. Brett Hunter also from NZ [Tauranga] is in Jondaryan  as well to practice  for the WGC in Benalla. Both Brett and Mark fly there in open class. NZ has 6 pilots ready for the Benalla WGC.

Task 1; The first REAL day had a 2.30 AAT for sports-class and only 5 from 15 finished. Best distance and time was for Scot Percival in his ASH 25. Last year he flew the Nationals in Benalla together with Ingo.[Renner] That might have helped ,as he gained 864 points for 262 km. in time 2.39.
Tom Claffey was runner up  and Andrew Georgeson and team Griffith / Schmidt in the NIMBUS 4DM finished as well. Peter Griffith ” Griffo”  for his mates is a long time friend.Sadly enough , due to poor eyesight, he does n’t fly by himself anymore, but still loves his gliding.LS 6 pilot Ivan Evans was the 5th finisher.
The difference between a finish and an out-landing was just over 200 points. Kerrie knows, as after 193 km., she was number 6 on the daily list. She still did well!!!
3 From 7 starting pilots finished in club class. During the 2.30 AAT Richard [ASW 20], Jo[ASW 19]  and Mark ASW 20b]  flew 212, 199 and 185 km.
Speed  was “low” between 83 and 71 km./h.
The difference between coming in [719]  and landing out [356] was here even bigger and this time one of our former instructors Alain Potier was the unlucky one on spot 4.

As Kerrie said;” If you’re going to outland anyway, may as well be on a sealed runway!” She landed at a heliport , just not long enough to be towed out.
As you know it is pretty wet in Australia at the moment, even in the East, but specially in the South.Heavy flooding on the lower roads in Wangaratta not far from Benalla. One of the Corowa caravan parks is flooded as well.
BUT,…spring is arriving.
Courtesy Kerrie Claffey.

Day 2; no task ,…it was raining “cat’s and dog’s”.

Task 2; 194 km. for club class only,..no task for sports class.
2 Pilots finished , 5 out-landed one of them only just missing out on 8 km.
Jo Davis [ASW 19] and Mark Dalton [ASW 20b] were the finishers. Good on them !!
As Mark said on the OLC;” Day 2 QLD state comp at DDSC. Racing task (hoorah!) of 194 kms. Quite difficult again. Climbs of 2-4 kts topping out at about 5,000 ft. Ground soggy from yesterdays rain. Blue. “

They flew again today; Sports class had for task 2,  a 3 hour AAT and club for task 3 a bit less; 2.30.

More next week.

———-

The 36th Australian Nationals for Sports and club class.

The Waikirie Gliding Club shared the next news. Maybe interesting for WGC pilots on their way to Benalla:
“WE HAVE TWO ENTRIES IN SPORT15M CLASS – if you have a 15M glider this is a prime opportunity to fly competitively with a small group of 15M gliders. Another 5 or 6 (or 20) entries would be great.

———-

Libelle.

I know a lot of friends who LOVE the LIBELLE, but unfortunately this invitation is , because of distance, more or less, only for my Aussie mates. Sorry!
“LIBELLE GATHERING REMINDER 
Libelle owners – come and celebrate this awesome classic glider at Bendigo Gliding Club in December 2016.

See the link below for details:
http://www.bendigogliding.org.au/Main/Libellegathering

Anyone who hasn’t already notified us that they wish to attend should do so, then we can plan for numbers and keep you in the loop by email.

Contact: secretary@bendigogliding.org.au

Hope to see you at Bendigo Gliding Club’s Raywood airfield for this unique event !”
When you are in the neighborhood,….?!

———-

Mount Beauty News.

The ski-season is about over in Australia and one of those ski places is Mount Beauty, but it’s also a great place to fly from . Have been there in the past when Sportavia had camps there. Long ago.
In December there will be a Women Week, here is the latest on that:
“The 2016 Women in Gliding gathering will be hosted by Mt Beauty Gliding Club at the Mt Beauty Airport from 3 rd to 11th December 2016. It is expected that 25 or more women glider pilots from all over Australia, with their gliders and crews, will attend to sample the excellent early summer soaring conditions, the great Mt Beauty Gliding Club hospitality and beautiful mountain scenery in the Kiewa Valley. ”
Andrew Evans is the president from the club as well as the editor from the Alpine Flyer.
I had to laugh when I got the mail:
—“My apologies for being 2 days late with this edition (first time late in 56 editions).
My excuse – I went camping in the torrential downpour last weekend to test my new grey nomad caravan rig. The good news is – it didn’t leak.”

Just read that Tocumwal was without power after extreme weather yesterday.

Some interesting OLC flights.

September is over,… October started …with some nice flights from the USA and Brazil.
Bahia had some great days with good results on Oct 2. Branco Stojkovic flew in the Nimbus 3 T /25.5  m. nearly 1000 km. ;951 km.Yesterday he flew 906 km [868 km FAI triangle]
Keith Essex added a new 1000 km. flight to his list. Flying from Minden in Nevada on a pretty good wave day , he called it ;” Slow, slightly unstable southerly wave.” ; 1.142 km with a speed of 151.82 km./h.

Branco shared some pictures on FB. Here you are.

       

Courtesey Branco Stojkovic flying at Bahia Gliding.

On October 3, Holland had, pretty late in the season,  great autumn weather and pilots enjoyed flights from Malden [226 km.]  and Terlet [272 km. in a DG 500/22 m]
Further on great skies in Holland yesterday as shared by Martijn Alders . Excellent soaring- day for those who had the day off. Bas Seijffert was so lucky , went to Terlet and flew 419 km. in the ASW 28. A fabulous autumn day, with great visibility and nice cloud streets and that in OCTOBER!!!

  

———

CU next week.
This month 3 visits to hospital, hope I will feel MUCH better after!!!
Cheers Ritz

On September 20 2016, the new world wide OLC list 2017 started with 80 added flights and a top spot that day, for Bahia Gliding with a 776 km. flight in an ARCUS . 2 Toppers in it,Claudio Eduardo Schmidt and Jao Widmer. And straight away it was a nice flight as the comment was;”FAI 750km Record 149km/h.”
Good on them.One day later they flew 639 km. Topper on that day was the DG 1001 M flown by Dennis Tito;1.040 km. So the first 1000 km flight in the 2017 season was a fact as well.

Looking at 2016 worldwide ,..the CHAMPION is not Dennis, he was 3d on the list,  but who else than his mate  Jim Payne.Both belong to the Perlan Project as you know!!
In between on 2, was Keith Essex USA National Champion and pre-eminently- long- distance- pilot , not even that long busy with this kind of soaring.
But,…… Keith was the best in the other OLC discipline ; best 2016 flight 2.674 km. flown from Minden in the JS 1 C.
The stats looking at ALL OLC flights, show Keith on top as well;56.662,04 km. during 99 flights .
The busiest 2016 airfield was Puimoisson in France and very clearly; 838.619,57 km. was flown during 2130 flights by 316 pilots.
Runner up with 573.934,86 km. was Bitterwasser where during 765 flights , 127 pilots were active.

The Dutch OLC champion is Mark Leeuwenburg with 4067,13 points and good runner up junior pilot Robin Smit.[3426,52.]
All Europe; Guy Bechtold from Luxembourg; 7192,24 points. Germany;Matthias Schunk [6460,84] France;Robert Prat [6188.05]
South Africa had a Polish pilot as champion; Adam Czeladski with 7691,45 points.
Namibia; German pilot Wilfried Grosskinsky with 7527,35 points.
All North America; Jim Payne .USA; Jim Payne 9879,56 points.  Canada; Trevor Florence 4118.05 points.
All South America; Jean Marc Perrin with 7862,32 points. Argentina; Jean Marc Perrin. Brazil;Branko Stojkovic with 5120,28 points.
All Australia; Pepe Gresa from Spain 5957,52 points. Queensland;Geoff Pratt 4325,80 points. Victoria; Max Dolfin from Holland.
All Asia;Rafi Luski from Israel [3117.90] Japan; Shigeru Ishiama[ 2423,51]

For all the different countries and or states you can go to ;http://www.onlinecontest.org/

———-

Records and friends in Holland!

Records….. no not about gliding but about the weather. Last Sunday September 26, we had up to 26 dgr. C  in the southern part of Holland. Anyhow in Holland the hottest 25th EVER.
VERY unusual!!!
Of course another record!!
Great weather to catch up with my Aussie friends Chrissie [Tuck-Riley] and Stuart. They had a fabulous trip via Greece, France and Holland and we caught up for a drink,….bubbles OF COURSE!!!….in Amsterdam, our VERY INTERNATIONAL capital. They even were impressed with the many, many different languages and how busy it was!!!
They left yesterday but will be back.
Dundee leaves today first to Brisbane, to celebrate 3 birthdays [together 180 years and the 80 years are from Dundee himself ]  then Toc for his  “hibernation”.

   

Still not fit, but happy with my very-long-time-mates!

———

Interesting OLC flights!

And,…believe it or not , the Deesite Gliding Club in Scotland, you remember from the Mountain Wave Comps a few weeks ago,  was the place to be last Sunday. German guests were on the right spot on the right time and enjoyed great wave-rides .You have to look to the traces on the OLC that day. The comment from Christof and Thomas:
“Very cool flight. Skye is not the limit. Thanks to Deeside Gliding for the early tow and the fireworks for the landing! Wind was 200°, 60 to 80 km/h. Again spectacular cloud optics, as it seems to be common in Scotland. Unfortunately difficult to read, as rotor clouds were disturbed by towering cumulus and high lenticulars were absent. Lift was at best 4 m/s in the beginning, weakening to 2.5 m/s at maximum in the afternoon, with increasing shower activitiy. Daring the jump to the Hebrides needed some mental and physical effort, but once one has set off, second thoughts aren’t really helpful. I wonder how a retrieve from Stornoway would be like.”

I wonder too. But luckily it was not necessary a total of 719  km. in the ARCUS T from Aboyne. Well done guy’s!!!
Another great flight same field ,same wave , different  track,  was flown in the Duo Discus also by 2 pilots from Germany on the same camp in Scotland;735 km.
Their comment ; Scotland is amazing !!!
And OLC topper number 1 that day  was from Aboyne as well , a flight in an ARCUS T with 794 km.by Timo and Bjoern-Christian.

Fabulous picture from the ARCUS T in the wave  from the Scottish Highlands .
As shared on FB by one of the pilots Soufian El Allouki flying in the Duo Discus T.

One day later Sebastian Kawa took an ARCUS M and flew from Kislovods in Russia [North Kaukasus]  over the  Kaukasus Area; 800 km. Height up to 7309 m MSL.

Another great picture this time shared by Sebastian.

That same day Tim Kuijpers , former junior world champion took an LS 4 out of the hangar for a nice , very -late -in -the- season-autumn flight from Malden in Holland ;366 km. [300 FAI triangle]

———

AND……don’t let them get away with it!!!

Schempp Hirth shared a message which I share as well;
“ Your help is needed:

Swedish registered Mini-Nimbus serial no. 121, registration SE-TVA, was stolen from its hangar at Älvsbyn airfield in Northern Sweden between September 5th and 18th with its Langenfeld trailer, registration CRM815.

The owner welcomes any clues. Please inform us via Facebook message – we will forward.

And to finish some pictures from “above” , shared by Swiss Chris, from my beloved Tocumwal, where after lot’s of rain the Murray has reached 6.8 m. and the flooding on the low-lands, is pretty bad but believe me in another 1 or 2 months, [depending on the weather]  it will be all dry again and there will be huge dry paddocks to land in,….. if necessary.
Look as well at this panoramic picture from Tocumwal’s Sportaviation. Eddie put a lot of effort in making the camping area green. With “help from above”  ,a  good drop of rain, it looks fabulous.

Recreational Area and Amenities.
As shared by Eddie Madden from Sportaviation.

Tocumwal Airport surrounded by acres full of  “canola” .

 

The MIGHTY MURRAY RIVER!

cheers Ritz

Specially the southern part of Holland “survived” the regional heat wave last week. The VERY FIRST EVER in Holland; a heatwave in SEPTEMBER.
So did we. Dundee picked a good time to visit Holland, before he moves to Australia again, end of this month.
On Friday we were nearly back to normal [around 20] and I guess a lot of people were happy , that the heat during day and night was over for this year even  with the pretty “lousy” summer in mind.

———

Containers for Benalla.

The Finnish container, travelling from Finland to Melbourne for the Benalla WGC.
as shared by Antii.

And another Finnish glider travels from Germany  and is half packed now
as shared by Martti.

      

The containers leaving Holland have been packed as well last weekend and will leave Holland on the 24th. Mainly for Corowa-pilots but some as Jeroen Verkuijl and Boerje Erikson have their gliders in it for the Benalla WGC.

Very experienced packing as you can see by the Australian Soaring Center Corowa here in Venlo over the weekend. They ship 3 containers to OZ this season.
Shared by Jeroen Verkuijl.

———

OLC news !

When Israel tops the OLC list , it is great to see , but shows on the other hand that the rest from the world is waiting for the 2d part of great soaring conditions. The new 2016/2017 season starts soon, but in between Rafi and Avron  flew 440 km. in the DG 505/20 m. Good on them !
Both airfields Beer Sheba Teysa and Meggido had great flights.
One flight in the ASW 24 was, if I remember well,  from Arnon who flew with us in the past in Tocumwal.
His message makes me smile:“First XC flight for autumn 2016. Checking out if I still have a passion for this sport, if I still enjoy it….apparently, I do.” 248 km.for him.
7 Flights last Saturday, from Beer Sheba and 9 from Meggido . GOOD!!!!

———-

Schiphol Airport ….100 year!!!

On September 19 in 1916 the first ever planes landed, at the at that time, small muddy military airfield,… a paddock not far from Amsterdam; 3 planes from the Airforce Division of the Royal land forces. It was a farmers-paddock ,growing from 1916 till the end of the first WW from 16 to 76 hect.
In May 1920 the KLM landed for the first time at the airfield of Schiphol and the flight from London was welcomed by the founder and first president of KLM  Dr Albert Plesman.
Nowadays KLM has 243 destinations in 103 countries per day, as I read . With 6 runways to start from and to land ,on a huge field . On it as well 500 business and a total of more than 65.000 people working there.

I live close to the Airport and next week some of my friends arrive there from Australia and others depart from there to Australia. Last year 58 million people flew to or via Schiphol. This year they expect 63 million people a record. They hope to grow to 80 million in the future.
Beautiful very modern airfield and from NOW on also…… with the title ROYAL !!!! Congratulations!!!!!

———–

AND…..this is the 2017 DUTCH JUNIOR TEAM!

Happy smiling , keen , talented and good young pilots; Jelmer, Rick, Lars,Nick, Sjors , Thijs , Robin, Matthijs and Sjoerd. The young lady does not need introduction,…. Annemiek who flew  JWGC’s already and the WWGC . Now she is also the assistant from manager Alexander for this team.

———-

The French,…..

are very proud and so they should:
The new IGC ranking list shows 4 French pilots in the top 10 and Laurent Aboulin is now the NUMBER 1!!!!!
Ahead of Sebastian and Michael.
With Louis [Bouderlique ] on 4, and Didier [Hauss] and Eric [Bernard] on 7 and 8.
TOP!!!!”
Looking at the top of the several nations,…It’s France again on spot 1 followed by Poland and Germany.
http://igcrankings.fai.org/

 ———–

THE VERSUS

As shared by Alisport with the text;
“Our tests at Alisport continue in different ways.
You can see what we did with this beautiful glider, this week-end (24-25 September) at Pavullo nel Frigano (Modena) airport, for the Italian gliding day.”
AND
the more enthusiastic text from pilotessa design.com [Kathrin his wife]
” INCREDIBLE!!!!
The FES-System on Stefano’s VERSUS (ex Diana)!
A large 120cm propeller, 27KW-motor (the strongest FES-engine ever) and extended range by bigger battery!
Everything in the mini fuselage. 

WHAT AN AMAZING WORK – WELL DONE!!!!” 

———-

And to finish a fabulous picture shared by Matthew Scutters Gliding
Uluru ‘wave’
(from https://twitter.com/blahblahellis)

Cheers Ritz

Autumn / summer in  Holland!

With up to 30 dgr. C last week and not one day but several, even NOW up to 32 !!!,it felt like summer in autumn. GOOD!!!! BUT,…maybe not….. It shows very clear the change in climate. Here, we have never had so many tropical days in September in history, though we had hot not tropical days , in 1949.
It’s record after record even the hottest night ever last night with 21.6 dgr. C. When we came from the beach yesterday the temperature on a sign along the road showed 35.9 dgr. C.
In parts of Spain France and the UK is was much colder and in the UK there was so much rain and a forecast for thunderstorms that the Champions League game between Manchester City and Borussia Dordmund yesterday evening was cancelled.

Aboyne.

In the hope the clouds would break, the organizers set a small task last Wednesday ; a 1 hour AAT . During this competition , at the Deesite Gliding Club it is not only about speed and distance ,also about height!!
–“It is intended to be a friendly yet competitive event. It is a non-rated, handicapped competition. –”
It was even so that on Monday the clouds disappeared at 6 PM and several pilots were launched to achieve a good height.
“Glider 97 made the best of the day climbing to just short of 17,000 feet for a gain of 14,868 feet.”
On Tuesday , one of the pilots flew up to 16.935 ft. gaining 13.002 and was with that the best in height-section!
Tuesday’s skies as shared on FB by the BGA.

Picture courtesy Stuart Naylor on day 1.

They did fly the small task on Wednesday and there were winners;Colin Hamilton [Ventus CT /18 m.]  who gained 184 points for the day and Tony Brown with 181 points.[DG 808 C/18m.]
The Thursday morning news was ;
” We have woken to an overcast sky with some rain about, however I can hear the copier working hard.”
A bit longer AAT was set, this time 2 hours.BUT,……it started to rain . Another briefing , shorter task, but all in vain so, in the end,  NO cross country task but later in the evening as done before,…for those who wanted,… gliders were launched for height gain.
Glider A 98 has been to 18,920 feet today, with a gain of 15,758
Friday was TOO windy,…. so better not to fly.
They flew however again on Saturday, LAST DAY, and a 2 hour AAT was set.
The sniffer announced 9 kts of wave so a good day and quick lift up to 7000 ft for the start.
Ritchie Toon [A 98] in the LS 7 won the day with 260 km. in time 2.29. 10 from 17 starters finished the task.
With a total of 1.740 points , out of 3 valid cross country days, Ritchie  won the comps as well.
6 Flyable days in total , height gaining included. Martin Phillimore ( call sign FCB) won the overall height gain in his Pegase 101 A.
Next years mountain comps will be on September 3 till 9.
Not the best year for well know pilot John Williams in his 20 m. Antares . He finished on spot 10.

———

OTT 16 !
9-11 September.

As shared by Juliette Charlie.

The Old Timers met at the Hahnweide last weekend and both belong to each other in history and in “grandeur”.
Yes in French as their is some kind of liaison between Germany and France in this old timer-meeting;
“Seit 61 Jahren pflegen wir von der Fliegergruppe Wolf Hirth e.V. eine enge Freundschaft zu unserem Partnerverein, dem Aero-Club Albert Mangeot aus Pont Saint-Vincent in Frankreich. Unseren Freunden aus Frankreich ist es nun auch zu verdanken, dass am Freitag gegen 15:20 Uhr die Patrouille de France über der Hahnweide zu sehen sein wird. Das gibt Gänsehaut!”
So ,..since 61 years there is a close friendship between both clubs, as mentioned above.Due to this friendship the PATROUILLE DE FRANCE was supposed to fly last Friday afternoon at 3.20 PM.OVER the Hahnweide.
But so many flew in with their plane [about 300 where at the field] , that it was impossible to fly for the patrouille.

As shared by Pilotessadesign.com [Great picture Kathrin]
With her words:”Merci Alain ODOLANT, merci Pierre FAGES! Bon vol!!!!”

AND

VINTAGE GLIDERS AS WELL.

      

 As shared by Juliette Charlie.

And the first “glider” as shared by pilotessadesign.com with the words
“Bleriot XI (1918)”

During this weekend not only the “old timers” , but the world, got the very sad news , that Air- Race- pilot Hannes Arch [49 ]died after  the helicopter he flew crashed in the mountains.
He did so many “dangerous-looking” -things during many Red Bull-races and dies on a slope of a mountain after bringing provision to a mountain hut, on a good-weather-day in an helicopter !!!??? Weird,..tragic….sad….
In 2008 he was world champion in the Red Bull Race and a year later 2d during the World Championship. A real hero!
It took quite a while for SAR, to reach the very remote spot .Unfortunately the owner of  the hut [62] flew with him , and was brought to hospital badly injured , but seems to be out of danger now.

R.I.P. Hannes.

———-

Alexander Schleicher !

Last week I had some pictures from Schempp-Hirth, this time it’s Schleicher with great pictures of their latest toy.
ASG 32 El – Photos during a test flight this morning..
[September 8]

      

———

OLC flights and other short news.

This picture shared by Henrique says it all, no more words needed but this flight on September 11 from Bebedouro in a Nimbus 4T, kept 3 Brazilian records in open class  for 500 km , 300 and 100 km. Here is the OLC comment [spot 32] from Henrique:
” 3 National speed records – open class: FAI triangles of 500 km, 300 km and 100 km at 161km/h.
Fastest speed ever recorded in a glider in Brazil.
In memory of late Wolfi Gabler who used to hold the open class FAI triangle speed record of 100km at 151km/h – flying a 15-meter Discus…“

Congratulations !!

One day earlier Keith Essex , flew in the ARCUS M a 1.108 km. from a for him new place Choteau, the Gateway to the Rocky Mountain Front,  with as he mentioned ;
” Tricky unstable wave day in a new place. Weather changed very rapidly. Seems like half the flight was in weak broken rotor. The other half was in great wave.”

Never heard about flying in Cyprus but on FB I found a link [Glider Forever] , just to let you know;
Scheibe SF-25 Falke, 5B-CIZ
RAF Crusaders Gliding Club
Kingsfield, Dhekelia, Larnaca
cyprusgliding.com

The 2017 Dutch Nationals will be flown between May 24 and June 2. After 2 years of “sharing” the comps with our Belgian friends,once in St Hubert and once at Terlet,  evaluation showed that both should go their own way again , so Terlet will be the spot to be.

———-

Last but not least a summery of  the soaring news in the latest
Gliding International.

—“A revelation indeed”, about the history of Jonker sailplanes and it’s 10 year anniversary. Great story.
—” The Wasserkuppe Meeting” how to tackle the future with Germany’s major sailplane manufacturers…..
— THE NEW VENTUS 3 by Aldo Cernezzi. 9 Pages including great pictures…..
— Importing a used sailplane from Europe, tips and advices…..
— FES is changing soaring as we know it,….
And much more newsy news , a total of 63 pages with on the cover a picture of the Perlan Project hero Jim Payne and his glider. They are in Argentina awaiting the wave season for their huge potential flight.

CU
Cheers Ritz

Not a lot happening this time of the year. THOUGH ….containers will be packed .
AND,…..more than ever before!!!! They will leave from Europe,Africa,  the USA and NZ ,  because of the WGC in Benalla .
A lot of pilots however swap or rent a glider in Australia, so no hassle for them of shipping, only the hassle to know another glider and the instruments.
We did that many times in the far past.
At this stage,  containers are packed for travelling from Europe to Namibia, South Africa, [ where the first big competition ,….the SA Nationals start on October 1-8 in Potchefstroom with 38 competitors in 3 classes] and to Australia, where as said,   the WGC will be flown . For lovers from mountain soaring,….the wave soaring at the OMARAMA Paradise will be busy again but they have gliders available.
The down- under-competition- season starts  in the East also on October 1-8, with the Queensland State Comps flown from Jondaryan with 24 competitors in 2 classes.

———-

WGC in Benalla.
January 8-21 2017

Love all the pre-news from Benalla written on their official site;
http://www.wgc2017.com/news_add_here/list-of-news/benalla-entries-now-in.aspx

—” As the official entry deadlines approaches, WGC 2017 Benalla has received 114 entries from 29 Countries. There are 35 entrants in Open Class, 43 in 18m Class and 36 in 15m Class. Over the next few days, the competing pilots’ details will be entered on the left hand side of this page.Some exciting gliders are on their way to Benalla that have not previously been seen in Australia. ”

You can see the rest of the story and pictures from p.e. the CONCORDIA, the VENTUS 3 and DIANA 2, on their site.
By the way the official deadline for entrees was August 31, so the numbers are clear now.

A great video as well from Bruce Taylor who thinks that the pilot with the best skills in low blue challenging weather will belong to the top 3 in Benalla. Bruce flies in open class and as all Aussies fly a lot in the blue , that might be an advantage for them. It’s Bruce’s 13th WGC and he flies for 33 years.Have a look at FB .
Mind you the  blue conditions are mostly VERY good in Australia. Ingo flew a 1000 in the blue, but then Ingo is Ingo.

Good practice is possible as well in Horsham.
“The Australian Grand Prix – first qualifier of Series 8, will be held at Horsham, approx 300km west of Benalla, from 14-20 December in 18m class. Good practice for the world comps. Book via the web page .
http://www.sgp.aero/australia2016.aspx

or

http://www.sgp.aero/australia2016/news_add_here/sgp-news/1-event-intro.aspx

12 pilots, among them 2 from NZ and one from Germany and Japan [Mac] .Among the Aussies David Jansen, Terry Cubley, Pete Temple and young ones as Adam Woolley and Andrew Maddocks.
“ The area is beautiful and  has very few airspace restrictions  and for that reason ,it is possible to set tasks in almost any direction from the airfield.

The countryside is mostly open large scale farmland, with some areas of natural vegetation  In the unlikely event they are needed, out-landing options abound.  The Grampians to the south is a range of low mountains which rise to about 3000 ft. When weather permits task setters will make use of this feature.”

I guess most teams have already decided where to fly and practice before the WGC starts, but when something would go wrong this is an opportunity as well for a few as there are 12 already.

———-

OLC news!

Though this summer was for sure not the best ever, we still did see some marvelous soaring days. Unfortunately not enough!
With autumn now, even flights from up to 876 km. in Spain from Fuente in an ASH 31/21m.[800 km. FAI triangle!]
The mountains in France attract a lot of pilots, as always this time of the year. Courses or [team-] training periods are visited well by pilots from other countries.
The [young] German team flies from both Serres and Puimoisson . Some great flights from Puimoisson with 850 km. in an LS 8.
Vinon is busy this time of the year as well.

As shared by Francois Hersen on FB.

Serres had 2 x a 1000 km. flight with well known pilots;
First of all Klaus Ohlmann , in the Stemme S10, who started as you can see on the trace on September 5 , with ridge soaring but flew further on in wave.Still 1.034 km.
” Bad idea to start with ridge soaring. Anyway, the day was not the one…too much humidity. But finally with 7,5 octas a nice flight.”
Young Benjamin Bachmeier flew with Vincent Heckert in the Duo Discus about the same distance ; 1.029 km.
The ” mistral-day “was “not long enough” so to make the 1000 they flew to Vinon and landed there [south from Serres] to be picked up not much after they landed. Good organization, fast crew!

Picture by Vincent Heckert.

Also Brazil had a good soaring period with flights up to just over 800 from Luis Ed Magalhaes and over 700 from Bahia. Even 578  km. in a St. Jantar, and even better…..a diamond 500 km..
All Brazilian flights were FAI triangles!!!

———-

Aboyne UK Mountain Comps!

As shared by Keith Lorenz.

At this time the annual mountain competition in Scotland is flown from Aboyne with 20 competitors in one class.

Not the best weather but they still fly till the weekend and the weather should be better.
Till now they flew 2 days after there was no task on day 1.
Day 2 looked better with a 2 hour AAT , but no flying.
Day 3 had a 391 km. task and was flown by 12 from the 18 pilots who started.
More next week!

———-

At the Hahnweide!

Three new Ventus, a Minimoa and a SHK all on one photo taken yesterday on Hahnweide airfield.
As shared by Schempp-Hirth.

AND

” Three gliders, two generations.
Ventus-2ax plus serial number two and three of the new Ventus. Thanks for photos to Christoph Wannenmacher, who took them while flying the new Ventus prototype.”

As shared by Schempp-Hirth.

———–

And to finish a nice picture -story from Arne Martin flying over beautiful Norway. He always makes great pictures and tells you about his flight.

In a wave by Blefjell (view towards Tinnsjø).
Unfortunately the clouds closed in so I had to descend again just as I was getting good lift.

    

1. Low in Uvdal. Difficult when low here, and I eventually I had to run the engine a little to get back in the wave.
2.Back up in the wave
3.After a difficult day, there was a cloud street with good lift appearing just as I got back to Hokksund.

———-

Still not the fittest person in the world.
Sorry……just for the time being , short blogs!!
Cheers Ritz

Another not too long blog as the arm and finger are still not well.

Grand Prix in Germany.

     

The Qualifying Grand Prix in Musbach in Germany between August 6 and 13 [ in 18 m.] was an event visited by several top pilots. Let me call them by name, what about the German pilots Matthias Sturm, Holger Karow and  Mario Kiessling all WGC participants and or champions.
From South Africa Laurens Goudriaan,….. no introduction necessary. From the Czech Rep.,  young and “a bit older” Petr Svoboda and  Roman Mracek. From France Phillipe de Pechy and Freddy Barthelemy and from Holland Willem Dortu and a few other pilots a total of 19.
A short review.

They practiced on the 6th with a 288 km. task and a regatta start at 2.32 PM. and,…as always it’s better , when you get them, to have your penalties on such a day to avoid them during the races. 13 Pilots started and 11 got penalty seconds,mainly for a too low finish or a too high start altitude. Not all pilots started on this practice day  and from the starters,  1 nearly finished [after 279 km] and 2 missed out on just over 100 km.
2 x a  JS 1 on top with Laurens and Holger

RACE 1; 334.62 km. so a good long race and an early start for all at 1.20 PM. Matthias in his ASG 29 was the fastest 115.3 km./h.; 10 points for him.
RACE 2; 255 .2 km and a start at 1.05 PM. and with a speed of 122 km./h Matthias was the fastest again,so 20 points in 2 days for him. 17 Pilots finished.
RACE 3; 144 km. and a start at 4 PM. Different circumstances so slower times. 107 km./h was the best by Holger in his JS 1. Matthias was runner up and 15 finished.
RACE 4; 275.13 km. and an early start at 1.05 PM.and again Holger as first and Matthias as runner up, but both with 116 km./h.
10 Pilots over 100 km. /h. and 18 pilots finished , one got a disqualification for the day ; reason…… crossing start line in opposite direction within 2 minutes after opening of the line.
RACE 5; 281.71 km. and “ today we will do the “Tour de Stuttgart”, a flight around the TMA Stuttgart, to show the pilots another scenery, they have not seen so far.”  Holger is in the mood and won the day again, much faster than the rest ; 121 km./h. This time Mario  in the brand new VENTUS 3, was runner up with 113.7 km./h and Matthias was 4th.
The next day was cancelled.
RACE 6 ; 271.74 km. and an early start again on the last day at 1.02 PM .It was pretty clear that Matthias with 42 points or Holger with 44 points would be the winner if everything on the last day would go according to expectation for them. In the end not so much for Holger who won as only pilot 3 days, but now he was 5th for the day[ 5 points] . Matthias was runner up [8 points ] and the 11 -last-day-points were for Mario, so a real German “affair” with a difference of ONE point between the 2 best pilots of this race.

GERMAN QUALIFYING GRAND PRIX winners;
1. Matthias Sturm             50 points
2. Holger Karow                49 points
3. Mario Kiessling             39 points

 Mario and Matthias will be competing together in Benalla in Australia in the 18 m. class at the next  WGC.

All the qualifying races are over now and  the next race,  the SGP WORLD FINAL , will be in Potchefstroom. It will be flown between November 5 and 12.
Already approved entrees at this early stage; Sebastian Kawa from Poland, 3 German pilots Robert Schroeder, Holger Karow and Matthias Sturm, Mike Young from the UK and from France Freddy Barthelemy.
On the 7th FAI SGP final reserve list I read the next news:
“This year, the pilot reserve list is sure to be a determining factor on who will get to participate in the 7th FAI SGP World Final at Potchefstroom.

With the Chile SGP producing only one qualified pilot, the highest-ranked pilot on the list is effectively guaranteed a place. Should there be any pilot among the already-qualified who is unable to attend, this will open up even more places for participants in the national SGPs who have placed third.”
You can see this list on http://www.sgp.aero/finals2016/news_add_here/sgp-news/7th-sgp-final-pilot-reserve-list.aspx

” Welcome to another exciting Sailplane Grand Prix event. Potchefstroom Gliding Club is looking forward to be the hosts to competitors and spectators for this wonderful event.”

POTCH.
As shared on the SGP site.

———

Tibenham, United Kingdom.
Norfolk Gliding Club is proud to be hosting the 18m National Championship in 2016 and the 2016 Junior Championships.

The 18 m. Nationals in the UK , parallel with the Junior Nationals were held in Tibenham between August 20 and 28 and specially the many juniors, with there ” less performing ”  gliders,  had to deal with miserable hot weather and for that reason cancelled days. A real pity as 42 pilots ,or teams[ flying a 2 seater as Duo Discus,  Arcus M or Grob Twin 3] , were on the participants list and in the end had ONE valid day.
On one day they got a 261 km. task ,so there was HOPE, but the day for them had to be scrubbed.

The weather was either ” low cloud followed by fog followed by rain“, or ” racing tasks in the blue. Today is almost the same as yesterday with a strong low inversion and high temperatures forecast. The big question is whether the temperature will get high enough.” It did not, the trigger temperature was not reached! The juniors flew and tried hard but best result was 43 km. from the set 83 km.

The 18 m. had more luck with their better gliders. The 26 pilots had their first task on the 2d flying-day; 183.80 km. and the total of 554 points were for  Frank Davies in the ASG 29E . He won the day ahead of Andy [Davis] in the JS 1EVO and Pete [Harvey[ in the JS 1C.
Task 2 with 191 km. was scrubbed but on Tuesday they could fly again.
Task 3,….A pretty marginal day but 4 pilots could finish, another 14 flew between 100 and 143 km. from the set 152 km.
Task 4,…with 214 km. just did not have the correct soaring weather, too hot and too strong low inversion. They flew but only 96 km. for the best daily pilot Pete, so not a valid day.
NO task on Thursday.
Task 5 was set with 366 km. and also the juniors got a task they went for 207 km.
So officially;” Racing Tasks for both classes, early morning cumulus over the airfield forecast to blue out through the day, 207 for the juniors and 366 for the 18Ms.”
That sounds good!!!
AND,…it was good a 1000 points-day for both classes. Finally points for the juniors and St Cirrus pilot Daniel Smallbone was the best and got them.
Different  faces in 18 m. with Rory Ellis as winner and Tim Jenkison as runner up. The more familiar faces as from Russell Cheetham, Andy Davis  and Pete Harvey we could find on spot 3 ,4 and 6.

With 2 days to go the total score is VERY interesting;1000 points for junior Daniel as they only could fly one day till now and 990 for Tom Arscott [ St Cirrus] and 940 for Jake Brattle.[DG 100]

In 18 m. it was very close after 3 valid days;
Brian Birlison with 1918 points
Andy Davis with 1916 points and  Russell Cheetham  with 1822.
Stephen Ell with 1812 and Gary Stingmore with 1806. All close together.
Unfortunately NO task last Saturday. I could see on the meteo- map severe thunderstorms passing over the middle of the UK. We had them here in Holland later as well.

Last day on Sunday August 28! But,…..NO TASK !!!!
So the winners were as above.
18 m; Brian, Andy and Russell.
Juniors; Daniel,Tom and Jake.

———

The Perlan Project.

Got their latest- news- blog with all what has happened since September 23 2015.
The carbon-fibre glider, built with a pressurized cabin, is , as we know, about to make history ; Goal 27.000 m. height-flight , which would be a world record but due to all  scientific instruments for climate, aerospace and stratospheric research on board , it is also a boost for the climate research to get to know more about climate changes.
This month they start with a series of flight to about 17.000/18.000 m.in Argentina using mountain waves. Big sponsor is AIRBUS.

If you want to read the full blog you can go to
http://www.perlanproject.org/  You can sign up there for the mailing list .
Interesting blogs. Have a look.

——–

Containers for Australia.

Both couples are from Holland, both very much interested in soaring and both living nowadays in Australia.One couple in Corowa, for already 10 years,  the other one pretty recently in Narromine. Both are hardworking couples and lovely people.

That Australian Soaring Center Corowa ;[ Grietje and Francesco] brings gliders in containers to Melbourne  already for a long time and we  know , they are doing a great job.
Their schedule for 3 containers, red white and blue,  is ready and was shared on FB; perfect as all the rest they do;
www.australian-soaring-corowa.com

From Hilversum to Narromine and back, there is a possibility now too. Evelien and William Stalenburg living in Narromine AT the airport and owners of the big new spiffy looking hangar there , do have some spots available for the upcoming season. They have a special sea container with adjustments for the gliders. You can look at  www.outbackgliding.com or ask what ever you need to know on info@outbackgliding.com

——–

We had for our feeling the lousiest summer ever, rain, rain, rain  but,…surprise surprise, the over- 30 -dgr. -C -days last week, got us back in the top 10 of the hottest summers ever.Spot 9!!! With only 22 nice-weather-days instead of the normal average of 32,  it shows that the feeling… lousy… is in place.We had severe rain, severe hail and cool temperatures but also a short heatwave with up to 35 dgr. C.According to those who know about it; the warmer climate depends not only on the global warm effect but also on the strong El Nino from this year.
So with the meteorological autumn starting here tomorrow and spring for my Aussie mates, a new cycle starts again with for us winter on the horizon and for my mates down under summer, with , a for glider pilots,  hopefully exciting and good WGC in Benalla.

Talking about the WGC in Benalla , there is a possibility to practice in Tocumwal. About 70 km. more to the North , so closer to the hot weather.
OUTBACK SOARING at the Tocumwal Aerodrome has a tow plane ,a Bellanca Scout ready for you,  a tie down area for your glider and water points to fill them. WIFI available as well.
Gate 5  …..info@outbacksoaring.com.au 

———

The in 2008 built hangar for the WGC in Rieti was the gathering place for all families who  lost their loved ones in the earthquakes. From there they could take the bodies home for private funerals. SO SAD!!!!!!!
There was a joint decision of the Aero Club and Central Aero Club Rieti to ” suspend all activities related to flight, putting the two club facilities available to operators and family who came to retrieve the bodies.”

R.I.P.

 CU next week.

www.aeroclub-keiheuvel.be

A short blog , to not over-activate my left arm.

My annual trip with my high school friend Ans to Belgium to attend the Keiheuvel Cup flown by 34 pilots this weekend was as every yea, just wonderful. Lot’s of mates , unfortunately only 1 instead of 2 days flying , but fabulous food at The Kei , run by Chrisje and Rudy [some will remember him from the Sportavia time !] and lovely conversations with so many you only see once a year.

As every year “our ” caravan was placed on the best spot on the border of the airfield by Eddy [Huybreckx…Thanks Eddy]] so with chairs , table and i-pad and my camera I could keep track of what happened.

 

4 Classes club , sport, sport with transponder and open with transponder.
Saturday did n’t start too good, but the forecast on all weather-stations was for a flyable day. Task setter Robbie [Seton ….my 2005 HUSBOS junior and now married and father of 2 ] said during briefing;
” A window between 12 and 5 PM with a cloud base from 1700 m. /1900 m. …..lift with 1.5 m./s …..but a pretty tough wind.”  So we waited and indeed the dark shower-clouds disappeared,  a bit of sunshine appeared and even more and  this time nice clouds and blue skies and ready to go pilots .
Among them some toppers as former world champion Bert Schmelzer jr.  Keiheuvel has quite some good pilots and a lot are part of flying families. Young Dennis Huybreckx had to work on Saturday but attended after work. He was the number 4 in Pocuinai  this month. A few young ones have a bright future, as Jeroen Jennen and Pieter Daems and more.
An impression.

  

Improving weather and after the sniffer did not find enough lift and the cloud base still was at 800 m. they postponed and at 1.15 PM the 4 tuggies were in front of the gliders and the show could start.
By the way the sniffer was Pieter Daems in his new glider a Discus 2 T. He flew the competition as well.

    

The briefing was busy with young and old and as you can see well prepared. On pic 3 you see Wim Akkermans with his daughter Emma and Bert Schmelzer jr. He arrived in the night, driving up from Switzerland where he lives and works.

  

The airfield of Keiheuvel with in the back the restaurant THE KEI and a “black visitor”  more upfront. And all gliders are waiting for the good lift.

Nearly ready to go!! Just a bit of waiting,…no worries.

       

With in the middle Bert jr in his MILVUS flying outfit with Pieter’s dad Jeff Daems.

   

Surprise surprise,……not one but two grandsons from Mark,future new twin-glider pilots.

And

The tasksetter celebrated  his birthday, while ” working”,  so hip hip hurray for Robbie and beautiful birthday cake was served at the field by his wife. Why not!!? I can tell you it tasted WELL.

   

The happy birthday boy and the birthday cake.

Still waiting,…..

    

Ken Evens , just back from the Bailleau competition where he flew with great pleasure , flew the KEIHEUVEL CUP as well.
Whilst waiting he explained on request from some other pilots,  how he flies his Discus 2 T. In between the weather really improved and glider pilots were ready to go now!

    

Tijl, Tim, Robin and Bert jr.ready to go. All young top pilots,  3 from Keiheuvel and Robin [Smit] from Gilze in Holland where there was no flying last weekend so he choose for Keiheuvel.

and
Nearly ready to go.

  

Jef [Kell] with his wife Gitte and Niel [Deijgers] in his beautiful Libelle.

And I love the next picture with Wim [Akkermans] and his son Louis. Same smile,…. no doubt father and son.

Some 2 seaters;

   

From Belgium with Wim and his team pilot and the Dutch ASH 25 with Dirk Nieuwenhout and his team mate.

More- ready -to- go- pilots.

  

Emiel de Wachter with his wife Godelieve and Patrick Govers in the KA 6 CR.

AND to give you the complete picture the “tower” and the camping.

           

The day turned out different than expected or hoped for. The clouds looked great on the ground but were not too good at places in the air. Several trailers rolled out the gate to the paddock to pick up the glider and pilot.  The first finishing pilots mentioned a very tough day with lot’s of turbulence , low conditions and heavy wind.
Not too many pilots for the BBQ as only 7 pilots finished. As we knew already that Sunday would be wet, wetter, wettest, we knew after the briefing at 12 that the daily winners were also the winners from the KEIHEUVEL CUP.

In club class 70.58 km; 3 pilots and all 3 flew under 60 km. so all 3  were called as winners. Bottles of wine and an envelop with money ,sponsored by the EMSENS family,  who do this already for years and years, were handed over!
In the sport class 167.70 km;  4 pilots and 2 of them finished, good on them. Winner was Emiel de Wachter in his LS 8 with 70.41 km/h. Runner up Geert De Palmenaer in the Ventus 17.6 m. with 71.86 km.h.

Emiel waiting to be called as winner.

In the Sport transponder class 170. 49 km; 13 pilots and 2 finishers. Tijl Schmelzer flew with 94.47 km./h. around in his Discus 2 ax and won the day , ahead of Daniel Kleinsma in the LS 4.[67.19 km./h.] Good job!

Tijl just before the prize giving.

In the open transponder class 185.26 km.; 13 pilots and 3 finishers . Bert Schmelzer showed his great gliding ability and flew around with 96.40 km./h. and won the bottle and money. Daan Spruyt did well in his ASW 27 and flew with a speed of 88.39 km./h. and Tom Van Den Eynde did a real good job in his LS  flying with a speed of 65.71 km./h.
8 flew between 135 km. and 178 km.

The last prize was the beautiful bronze statue for the best junior in this competition and it was between Dutch pilot Robin and Belgium pilot Pieter. The last won and received the prize called after Albert Schmelzer, granddad of Tijl and Bert jr., who died in 2002 and was one of the “engines” for flying at the Keiheuvel.

  

Pieter….Not knowing yet but I did ……..and with the great bronze bird with many great now well known winners on it.
This year an other one. Congratulations Pieter.

CU next year with an other special on the KEIHEUVEL CUP.
Thank you to all friends for their always warm welcome.
Hopefully next week with the normal blog.
Cheers Ritz

Some extra info;

Icao code : EBKH
GPS : 51″10’51,1″N – 05″13’14,7″E
Freq. : 119.200 Mhz
Elevation : 131ft / 40m
Runway : 07 / 25 (Grass 690mx18m)
PPR : before visit contact on +3214812521
Activities : Motoraircrafts, Motorgliders, Gliders (towing and winching)
Remarks : due glider winch-launches do not cross the field below 2000ft

Koninklijke Aeroclub Keiheuvel
17e ESC.L.Vliegwezenlaan 8
2490 Balen
Belgium

POCUINAI ! It can be like this as well.

As shared by team UK.

I left you on Wednesday morning with a much too long blog, so this will be hopefully shorter but still with ALL the relevant news.
After only ONE really acceptable day in total till now , the pilots wish and hope for a few good day’s  to finish this  a tad disappointing WGC.

August 10; Day was cancelled. The meteo info was ;
” Today cloudy with a few showers. High 18C. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.”

Enough time to prepare for the INTERNATIONAL EVENING. As always a GREAT event!!!!

    

The Belgium team,  the Danish team and the Dutch team.
as shared by the teams.

The Czech team.

    

The New Zealand team ,Aussie team and French team.
As shared by the teams.

Thursday August 11; pretty cool out side,16/18 dgr. C , blue with clouds  and hope for 1800 m. base
Alarming messages in the early morning though,  from some of my mates….
“scrubbing the day for a stolen flag. Pociunai should never get an international competition again. absolute disgrace”
And
” No scrubbing.. They postponed the briefing for one hour”
And
“they only fly when the FAI flag is back”
And
” Now they just called a tc meeting threatening with calling the police. Either this organisation are jokers or a joke.”
And
“So there is currently a standoff in briefing. The director has said no briefing or flying until the flag is returned. The Belgians are furious. Lots of shouting. 10% of competitors have walked out. Slow hand clapping. Stay tuned“.
And
“Well, this is getting interesting. No briefing until FAI flag is returned. Briefing is turning into a riot.”
And
“Still a stand off and the police have been called… this is fabulous.”
And
” After a lovely enjoyable evening last night & a bit of a comedy act this morning, the boys are raring to go.”
And
“It would seem that sanity has prevailed and we now have some tasks .”
And
“Yes, Tasks have been received! the flag not yet, but the competition director gives time until the closing ceremony to return it. Weather looks ok for today. First launches are planned at 1pm. To be continued..”

The organization seems very angry, but , as they could have known, it has happened before, nearly  some kind of tradition nowadays, and is always back before the final day, to be hanging proudly on the pole during the closing ceremony. Not that I am in favor of doing such things , and it is a bit “outdated”, but,…….boy’s are boy’s.
After the ceremony this year, the flag will be given to Terry Cubley from Australia, now steward at Pocuinai,  to be proudly hanging then in Benalla at their WGC .

Hot topic for the day…missing FAI flag!!
As shared by the UK team.

WOW WOW WOW , and this is a TOP FAI event, a WGC -spot chosen years ago after a good bid,  with jurors , stewards and intelligent pilots!This day is  turning into a bit of a joke !!!Such a pity!!!
Maybe the bad weather and  the sometimes “weird decisions” to fly on un-flyable days, has made some of the guests a bit “naughty” . Where is the HUMOR????? Of course the flag should be and will be back in TIME.

Anyhow tasks were set and I hope the emotions were less, when they could fly and crews could be active again.
Back to soaring!!!!
All A tasks with 3 hour AAT’s. Start lines opened at 1.47 for club  and 2.09 for standard and the first news was good lift with 2 m./s. and a base already at 1400 m. Lovely news after all the “troubles”.

As shared by the Belgium team with the message:”enough drama for today. let’s fly!

After the pretty miserable morning it turned out a real good day and everybody was happy again. Though,……..”Unbelievable. the one day we get to race and they under set the assigned area. Maxed out all sectors, hammered the field, and they get an extra 6 minutes to finish the task…. genius.”
Pilots had problems to fill the time, but after a day with No finishers, they now had a day with nearly [except for 2] all finishers.

Standard class; 3 hour AAT…..The Czech pilots Miloslav and Pavel raced over 386.63 km. in 3.02 gaining 1000 and 997 points.The German pilots Felipe and Robert did well with 991 and 990 points and with 2 days to go the overall score is for the French team pilots Louis and Guillaume but the Germans are closing in.
Club class; 3 hour AAT …and Lithuanian pilot Linas in his St Jantar got himself 1000 points for 297.89 km. in time 2.59. German pilot Jan Rothhardt ,over the last couple of days on spot 1 overall, was on a daily 3d spot.
20 m.class: 3 hour AAT….and the current WGC champions the Jones brothers won the 1000 points together with the by now number ones overall,  the French team Duboc/Aboulin. Though they still have the same amount of points as the Italian team Ghiorzo/ Mangano; both 5068. The Jones brothers are on spot 3 with 4920……Exciting last days for them, everything is possible as long as they can fly!!!!

As steward Terry mentioned in the evening;
“Never a dull moment in Lithuania.

International night last night was great, lots of very potent clear liquid in little cups and some great food. A lovely night talking to lots of people.

We were rudely awoken for a 9am team captains meeting – big issue was the loss of the FAI flag. A standoff between the CD and the teams with delays and threats to flying for the day. The worst briefing I have seen with stamping of feet and yelling and abusive comments. We managed to calm it all down and the final briefing was harmonious with some task sheets issued.

August 12, one but last day! With the REAL Pocuinai weather, finally.

    

As shared by Team Belgium [pic 1] and the UK with the message;
“On the grid – ready for the day. If only the sky had looked like this every morning....”
I guess this is the “normal “summer-weather the organization expected and certainly hoped for. Pretty tough on them , it turned out different.
What can you do?

Good [racing]  tasks were set  on a nice crystal clear, sunny blue morning with cu’s slowly building up;just under and well over 400 km. GOOD!!!!!A very important day as the forecast for the last day says 40 % chance of rain.
Standard class; 460.02 km…..and today it was the other way around. 1. Pavel 2. Miloslav with a speed of 107 and 105 km./h. We have n’t heard much of Sebastian but today he was 3d. 29 From 40 finished.
How does it look overall after today with ONE day to go:
1.still Louis Bouderlique from France with 5961 points.Not a too good day loosing 107 points on a daily spot 8, but still no worries.
2. Felipe Levine from Germany with 5894 points. He climbed up from 3 as French pilot Guillaume had a less good day finishing on spot 11.
3. Guillaume Girard with 5870. So EVERYTHING and ANYTHING is still possible.Certainly when you flew the comps after landing in the lake in the first week on an official training day. But with help”of your friends”  he could continue the WGC [and win bronze!]For Belgium pilots Dennis [5644] and Bert jr. [5587] , as well as German pilot Robert [5609] the gap might be too big, but you never know. They will go for it .

Louis Bouderlique / Guillaume Girard !
As shared on Pole France Planeur.

Club class; 395.78 km…..starting at 1500 m. was not an every-day-happening, so the pilots enjoyed to leave on a “high” ;1500 m. and pilots from 3 East European countries used the great clouds for the first 3 daily spots. Zsolt from Hungary, Linas from Lithuania and from Russia it was , Anton. At spot 4 Henrik from Denmark.
With one day to go it looks as follows;
1.Jan Rothhard from Germany with 5696 points
2. Eric Bernard the current WGC club class champion from France 5658, who was before already a few days on spot 1 overall.
3.Ricardo Brigliadori , his father would have been so proud!!!! But still one day to go. 5479 and that’s a difference of only 4 points with Henrik Breidhal from Denmark. And Italian pilot Davide [5454]  and French pilot Antoine [5447] and last but not least Sabrina from Germany[5412] might be still in the race as well.

Jan after an out landing with a lot of “new Mates”.
As shared on their site.

20 m.class: 461.09 km…..the French and UK pilots fight for the honors and with ONE point difference the French team arrived in front of the UK brothers and it was a pretty miserable day for Stefano and his Italian mate as they lost nearly 150 points today.
With one more day the differences are ;
1.The French team Duboc/Aboulin with 6068 points.
2.The Italian team still on 2 but now with 5925 points
3.The Jones brothers from the UK with 5919.
You see how CLOSE this all is.Let there be another day!!!

      

Selfie from Kathrin with husband Stefano and Mr. Mangano…… And the French team Julien [Juju]Duboc and Laurent [Lolo]Aboulin.
As shared by Pilotessa Design-com before the start…….. As shared by Pole France Planeur

August 13 LAST DAY!!! The early- morning-sun is shining, but it seems not for long.Briefing at 11 and no grid before!!!!! That does n’t sound too good. My prayer for let there be another day might be not heard by the weather gods.
Meteo;”Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. Turning warmer. High 18C. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 km/h. Chance of rain 40%.”
Standard class; cancelled
Club class; cancelled
20 m.class: cancelled

So no last day , it’s over and OUT, no possibility to win or loose points,…..I think for some there is a feeling of,” it’s over, its good no out-landings anymore , no long trips through Poland to find a glider, it’s good, it’s over now”.
The many out-landings have cost a lot of energy both on pilots and crews. Also disappointment and some kind of disbelieve on tasks set on days gliders normally stay in a hangar ,…BUT  this is a WGC. But…. Maybe,…not at any cost!!!
It’s all about camaraderie as well ,  for sure  more new  friendships, more talks in great atmosphere and you learn from up’s and downs.
Some one- rule- opinions as shared by the pilots
” It’s been a fun if a little challenging couple of weeks- every comp is a learning exercise.”
” We had great days and hard days, but most of all, we had fun!”

    

The very successful French team during their private team meeting, and briefing with TC Eric Napoleon and the full team.
as shared by Pole France Planeur.

The French team [above]  did extremely well with 4 from 9 medals around their necks.
Team Germany ,…compliments….with one gold and one silver
Team Italy with a silver and bronze medal,…chapeau!!!
One medal left , bronze and that one is for the Jones brothers from the UK,…good on them. Last WGC’s champions ,….now still in great form on spot 3 with only 6 points from the silver.
Also Eric did well last WGC champion,… now number 2 and Bert Schmelzer jr, was WGC champion and now on spot 6.
Steady going pilots all of them.

WE HAVE CHAMPIONS from this 34st FAI WGC ;
Standard class; 
GOLD; Louis Bouderlique from France with 5961 points.
SILVER; Felipe Levine from Germany with 5894 points.
BRONZE; Guillaume Girard from France with 5870 points.

Club class ;
GOLD;Jan Rothhard from Germany with 5696 points.
SILVER ;Eric Bernard from France with 5658 points.
BRONZE ;Ricardo Brigliadori from Italy with 5479 points.

20 meter class;
GOLD ; The French team Duboc/Aboulin with 6068 points.
SILVER ; The Italian team Ghiorzo/Mangano  with 5925 points
BRONZE ; The Jones brothers from the UK with 5919.

As shared by Kathrin
Pilotessa Design-com

Party time was from 8 PM onwards yesterday evening after packing most of the gear.Some countries left early to show they were not happy with this WGC. That should not happen, as everybody tries it’s best.

August 14…..TODAY…..Prize giving at 12 AM. Teams were asked to be there at 11 AM. And,….a great sky!!!!! As at many more events I visited!!!!! Always the same. A pity.
And,…..the FAI flag was hanging again!

Team CUP won by France with team manager Eric Napoleon, how many WGC’s would he have attended as pilot and as coach???

  

Shared by the Dutch team and by Katja from Finland.Look at the SKY!!

To finish this WGC  soaring.eu-blogs, a great picture shared by Mitch Hudson from team USA. FABULOUS picture. He was amazed himself , that his i- phone picture turned out so well.

———

CIM in Rieti !

The Terminilo and hangars, as far as I remember for helicopters. The old hangar to the r. was the briefing-room in the past for big comps.

No bad weather in Rieti anymore. After they flew in the first week, 3 out of 6 days, they flew in the last week every day.

On Wednesday, several AAT’s between 3.15 and 2.40 hour.There are no bounds for Michael Sommer it seems, as he won in open class every day till now.
August 10;
club; 3 hour AAT for the club class pilots and Nicola and his sister Elena started and finished together over 267 km. in the LS 1f  in time 2.58 and received 991 and 982 points.  Michelle did not fly.
mixed;2.15 AAT and Luca de Marchi flew 331 km in time 2.13 and “received” 691 points. VERY fast day as his speed was 147.21 km./h. This day was cancelled in the end , as not all gliders [ heavy non self 2-seater-launchers] could start from the N site of the field, so that would be unfair.It’s very unusual that the wind comes from the in their eyes wrong site. The runway is shorter then with trees on the end, as far as I remember. In all the years I was there it happened only once or twice.
And,..as this is a National Championship for 15 m class their scores counted for the total; so 700 points for Luca in this class. But Thomas is still on top.
18 m; AAT from 3.15 and Lasham pilot Jon Gatfield raced with big speed over the mountains and valleys to arrive back at Rieti at  5.52 PM. He flew in 3.12 a distance of 425.95 km. Pretty good!!!! Speed 131.06 km./h.so 1000 points for him.
Giorgio got 923 points as runner up for 407 km in time 3.05.
open:2 hour AAT and NO,….not Michael this time as winner but German long-distance- pilot Alexander Mueller. He flew with huge speed….152.58 km./h over 316.69 km in time 2.04. Alberto [Sironi] an Italian Speedy Gonzales was runner up with a speed of 152.06. Michael was 3d with a speed of 149.19.

August 11; VERY LAST DAY!!! And this was waiting…….

club; 288.68 km…and Austrian pilot Rudolf Schneider in the PIK 20E won the day; speed 110.78 km./h.
The WINNERS of the cup  were brother Nicola  and sister Elena Fergnani both with 5723 points. How they do that after 7 days of flying  must be a miracle. They flew together yes, but had daily different scores.Good on them, such a nice family.

mixed;2.30 AAT….and Gintas was the best again; 800 points and the speed was 137.29 km./h.. For the Nationals it was also an AGAIN as Luca won ;800 points this time and a speed of 123.85 km./h.
After 6 days in this class and 2 daily wins  Gintas wins the CIM. 5318 points.
In this class seven Italian 15 m pilots were fighting for the national title.
National 15 m. Champion is Thomas Gostner[5860] The silver was for Luca de Marchi with 5675 and the bronze for Lucas Marchesini but with more than 600 points less;5051.

A happy smiling Thomas as Italian 15 m. CHAMPION.

18 m; 2.15 AAT… Aldo [Pigni]  and Giorgio flew around with a speed of 137 and 133 km./h and gained 722 and 693 points.
So who wins this class?
Pino Dal Grande with 5925 points. He did not win a day, but flew very consistent. Sandro Montemaggi was the leader in the beginning but after 2 outlandings he lost too much points.
Then there are 3 Austrian pilots , Bernard Leitner [5796], Heimo Demmerer [5755] and good old Reinhard Haggenmueller [5712]  they love the CIM and on spot 5 Giorgio Galetto.
open:335.96 km…Michael was the best again; 141.50 km./h. and leads with more than 300 points. So Michael Sommer  is the clear WINNER. [5944]
He was followed by Tassilo[5622] and Austrian pilot Sebastian Eder.[5215]

The CIM is always one big event full of mates!!! Congratulations to all.

Pictures by Clara and shared by CD Aldo.

———-

F5B Worldchampionship in Lugo.
[Italy]

From my Japanese friend Ken I got news about model-flying. He represents Japan in the Electric Model Airplane World Championships.
Ken flew in gliders with us in Australia in the past , later more and more in his own vintage planes; the T-21 Sedbergh and Olympia.

   

As ” vintage “glider pilot and model -airplane-pilot.

“Hi Everyone
Again I’m in model airplane world championship. This time at Lugo Italy.
We will be competing against 20 other national teams. It’s a small village near Bologna but we still managed to find a Japanese restaurant.”

8 Days [between August 12 and 20] of exciting flying with electric model aeroplanes. Model-flying is done by many glider pilots prior to gliding.

Kenichi Ueyam, Ken for his friends, to the left with his mates.
As shared by Shun Myiashita .

Ready to go for it!!

    

As shared by Ken.

My Japanese is non-existing, but a lot of news is in that language of course!
“残念なことが起こりました、宮下選手のお父さんの容態がわるくなり急遽帰国せざるをえなくなりました。幸い桜庭君への選手交代が認められたのでチームとしては大丈夫です。宮下さんが無事にお父さんと会えることを祈ります。”
There you are ,…only readable for my Japanese readers and those who studied the language. No worries I get news in English as well.
Maybe not the best copy and paste job, as I think , after reading the very poor English translation, that it is about a sick father from one of the participants , Shun Myashita, who has to hurry home now. Hope he is in time!!All the best.

    

A bit different than at a soaring competition.AND,..with “doping”.
As shared by the Japanese team.

———

News from Schempp-Hirth.

On August 8 they published the next news;
” A bit more than a week ago, we have successfully test flown the new Ventus’ prototype now equipped with the Turbo sustainer engine – and we are very happy with the results.

Easy to operate, reliable and with the experience of many hundred systems already in the field, this Ventus’ Sport Edition engine option will be the perfect addition to avoid landing out. For those in search of an electric sustainer engine, the FES system will soon follow.”

  

AND

PILOTS ON SCHEMPP-HIRTH GLIDERS WIN 8 OUT OF 9 MEDALS AT WGC IN LITHUANIA.

———-

Due to the fact that I am using my left arm in a wrong way whilst writing, I must on doctors advise quit writing for at least a week or 2. The tendon in my underarm is damaged and causes problems for my left pink  which is more or less paralyzed.
To avoid an operation,…. I will be a good girl.
Sorry about that. Health wise this is for sure NOT my year.
The weekend of the 19th I will attend a competition in Belgium and catch up with my friends over there also those who will be back from Lithuania. Asap I will share the weekend with you of course with pictures as every year.

cheers Ritz

POCUINAI , venue of the 34st FAI WGC.

With Dutch pilots Frank and Robin ready for day 3.
As shared by the Dutch Team.

Wednesday August 3 with task 3.
In the end the B task was set on Wednesday, so another flying day.
Standard class; Task 3 was a prey for German pilot Felipe Levin. The 666 points were his.He started together with Robert [Schroeder] who won already day 1 and was runner up on day 2. Somewhere “on the road” something must have gone wrong as Felipe was the best [176 km. in 2.09] ] and Robert finished on spot 26 together with Sebastian. Robert flew the most km. 182,57, but must have had problems to come home , digging himself out??, survive??? as it took him nearly 30 minutes more .He dropped from 1 to 3 overall and Louis [Bourderlique] is now the number 1 overall after 3 tasks.
36 From 39 finished!
Club class; Tom Arscott [St Cirrus] from the UK had a pretty bad day on Tuesday,  but promised to do better. So he did. Together with Ge Dale [Std. Libelle 201 Bwl]   they occupied spot 2 and 1. They flew 157 km. in 2.01.
Polish pilots Jakub [SZD-48-3M1 Brawo]  and Lucasz  [ ASW 19 B] flew 173/174 km. but needed 15 minutes more.
From 48 a total of 45 finished. One of the out-landers was Alex from NZ .He was so ready to go for this WGC together with his mate Nick , but he got only 54 points for the day and it was his 3d out-landing. He surely dreamed in a different way of this WGC . Over the last years I kept an eye on them , young and enthusiastic and both real good pilots. BUT,…it is not over yet!!!!
They say it very positive in their daily wrap-up:” Alex landed in a paddock near the first turn point and expanded his cultural experience by making some more new Lithuanian friends. Nick got around at a reasonable pace and managed a place in the top 20.” From Australia I received another update about all this from Ulrich dad of Eric [Australian team junior]:
 “I have a bit of background info on how the team NZ Brolly Dolly Updates came about:
Alex (“Bobo”) and later Nick (“Nuk”) have been coming to the Aussie Junior Nationals (JoeyGlide) for quite a few years. From the start they have been teasing my daughter Jess every year that she should be their Brolly Dolly which she vehemently refused. As you know she has been very actively involved in organizing competitions over the years, often as Beryl’s left and later right hand and most recently at the Junior Worlds in Narromine.
Through various circumstances (and much begging from the boys) she has now ended up as their Team Captain (an Aussie  with German heritage mind you) and as such couldn’t really be their Brolly Dolly (although I’m sure that if necessary she’ll see to it that HER pilots get shade). The Brolly Dolly duty in the NZ team has been officially passed on to the very attractive crew chief Ross who is writing the BD updates.”
So now you are totally updated!!! And yes I met Jess in Narromine a real nice out-going girl.
20 m class; Argentina  on TOP!!!! Something different today. Team ARG ,flying an ARCUS M with 192  km. in time 2.14.From 22 pilots 19 finished the The Broquevilles only just [dropping from 6 to 10 overall]  but the Triebels not.
A great day for my Dutch mates Hans and JWGC-runner-up-junior Robin on spot 2!!

Thursday August 4, with NO task 4. The day was cancelled. NO rain, BUT also no possibility to fly.

Friday August 5, task 4.
Standard class; 315 km. was the set task and already quickly they could see that it would be going to be a difficult day with lot’s of alto cumulus, still some cu’s under it though.
But what a FABULOUS day for my young Belgium friend who I know since he was born; Dennis Huybreckx!!! He was the only finisher!!!!! He got the 1000 daily points and “catapulted”  himself from spot 13 overall to spot 4!!!!! WOW that’s something!!! The runner up from Germany Felipe got 762 points. So 38 out-landings.
Close overall ranking after task 4; 1. Louis from France ,3.105, 2. Robert from Germany, 3.055, 3. Girard from France 3.029 and on spot 4 Dennis from Belgium with 3.015 !!!

  Here Dennis,during the Dutch Nationals.
Courtesy Willemijn de Lange.

club class;269 km.  and in this class more pilots flew the task. Best was South African pilot Nico Le Roux in a St Jantar 3. The 947 points were his. Great to see Henrik Breidahl from Denmark on spot 2. German pilot Jan Rothhard was on 3.
23 From 48 finished.
20 m. class;338 km. and a “big bone to chew” for most of the pilots.18 Pilots in this class flew with trackers.Only 3 from 22 finished and not the least, as it was team 54 from the UK, the Jones brothers , defending their WGC title on spot 1 , as runner up team GT2 from Italy with Stefano Ghiorzo [former WGC champion in Szeged 2010] and the French pilots from team FP with Lourent Aboulin.[former world champion Uvalde 2012]

One week over and here is steward Terry Cubley from Australia, later this year CD in Benalla, where he lives now too since nearly one year.

STEWARD IN LITHUANIA
Well, we have been in Lithuania for over a week now at the Pocunai world gliding championships. A big event with 111 gliders.

Vicki and I were sick from the moment we arrived with cold/flu. I am fairly well over it now but Vicki has a day or two to go yet.

A lovely place, very green, a lot like Finland with trees and fields, but not as many lakes. That didn’t stop the French pilot on the only practice day who managed to land in a lake in the middle of a forest. No damage, but it took two days to dry it out and clean it. There was only the one practice day so the organisation was fairly un-prepared by the time the competition started last Sunday.

The opening ceremony was very nice, in the central square in town. Quite a small square so the 111 pilots and their crew really filled the place up. There were some folk dancers (looked like an old fashioned barn dance) and some great singers, a lovely display all round. The speeches weren’t too long, and they got shorter as the thunderstorm which had been looking on, finally moved into the square and we had heavy rain.

Day 1 was tricky with cycling weather. We spent the next non flying day sorting out all of the complaints about the launching. A number of the 20m class motor gliders were naughty, flying directly to the better looking climbs rather than following the required launch pattern. By the time we gave some warning and some penalties and managed a number of complaints everyone was clear on what the right procedure should be.

Two days later we had day 2 which was the most consistent day for the competition. Fixed tasks of 320-360km and quite reasonable speeds. Heights were quite low with typically 1500-4000 feet so nothing too flash.

Day three was really tricky. High cloud with overcast stable conditions and lower heights. Somehow CD Vytas managed to arrange a task of 2:00 hours for each class. Cloud base was mainly around 2500-3500 feet ,so a close look at the ground for the pilots. It ended up being a very successful day. Most of the fields still have long crops but still no damage in the outlandings.

We had another day off with rain and overcast conditions. Vicki and I drove into the old city of Vilnius. Hard work finding the centre of the city because no signs in English and my Lithuanian is quite poor (non existent). We all had a great time in a beautiful place. The drive home was even worse. We were lost in the city during peak hour but eventually appeared back on the main road.

Today was another tricky day. It was hot (28 degrees) and sunny so great hopes. It promised to be a blue day but we had a lot of cu on the standard and club class tasks. All three classes went in different directions. 20m drew the short straw and went NE between the airspace into more blue and lower thermals. Club class went to the south with good cu and Standard class went more west with good cu and then approaching high cloud. Only 4 20m managed to come home without starting the engine. Only one standard class achieved speed points, and half of club class ended up in paddocks.

The special mention today goes to the Hungarian pilot who crashed his glider into the roof of a house. No injuries to him or the owner, but it looks a real mess. There are some good photos somewhere but I can’t find them.
Tomorrow doesn’t look that good but we will see.” 

“Only harm to [ the nice] house and glider”
As shared by Henrique  who out-landed about 20 m. from  the Hungaryan pilot who ” landed” his LS 1f, on the roof.
Henrique [JM] landed/ rolled out “far” in the field  so emergency crews could be close by to help out.
He has a story to tell when he flies back home.

August 6  was cancelled. What can you do on non-flying-days!? Enough…..
Here is some news from Aussie girl Jess, TC from team NZ  but also crew and in charge of more jobs as washing, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, updating the many Kiwi fans and much more .
She mentioned” the Worlds are all good fun! There are so many people here to meet and chat with during the day or night.”
And
“ The weather here is crazy. Nothing like Australia. We have only flown 4 out of 7 days now because the weather has been so bad. There’s really no way of predicting it either, one day is gorgeous summer and great for flying and then the next is like it’s the middle of winter and freezing. On these days we have been having little team sight seeing expeditions. The first day off we went to the second largest city in Lithuania called Kaunas. It’s 40mins away from where we are staying. We spent most of our time looking at an old atomic bomb bunker. It was crazy! They had old relics there from the cold war, including old KGB spy equipment – fancy a camera for your buttonhole?
The second scrubbed day we visited the old town of Trakai. In the middle ages it was the capital of Lithuania… and it certainly has the castle to prove it! The castle is situated on an island in the middle of a lake. Now it is a tourist hotspot though and around the lake there are lots of little market stalls and touristy shops. “

August 7   NO…task 5.
On Sunday the focus was on flying again. After a rest,  or working on the gliders, or a sight seeing trip , pretty good tasks to continue. All 3 classes got a 3 hour AAT. As there would be a concert in the hangar that night, maybe a reason for pilots who love to ” hurry home ” to be there.
Picture courtesy Antti Lehto.

 

THOUGH, first a big shower passed by , then the base did not want to go up,  first start 12, then 12.15 , then 12.45, then they expected and waited for the  shorter B task from 1.5 hour.  Difficult , difficult.This picture was shared by Per Carlin from Sweden before start.
Then they  start ,….with the A task in the pocket….and with strong cross wind ????? And 40 km/h. wind. The meteo is SURE; the weather will be better!!!Off they go,…………At least club class.
It turned out difficult as they sometimes had to wait for the cross wind to ease down, whilst some pilots returned to the field not able to stay up. And then you still have 3 hours to fly…….

No words needed.
BUT….. they started for the A task with a strong 45 dgr.  cross wind!!!!
??? Such a big field?????

In the end with club already in the air the day was cancelled. Some club class pilots even had out landed, the rest had to come back.Too much showers!!!
Here is the story from steward Terry:
“Cold and wet Steward in Lithuania:

Well it gets colder and wetter in Lithuania. They have 4 contest days so far (over 2 weeks) and I am hoping they get to fly a few more times before next weekend – but not so sure. Typically the cloudbase is 2500-4000 feet, long crops in the field and occasional rain. Definitely a warm clothes day today, only about 15 degrees.

Despite an awful forecast they set a task today and actually launched club class. 2500foot cloud base, rain, 20-25 knot winds. The launching was quite exciting – 90 degree cross wind, gliders ground looping, tugs on converging course on the ground run, lots of relights. I was quite nervous and at one stage stopped the launch. Club class was launched and they opened the start gate with rain clouds apparently blocking the track. About half a dozen gliders outlanded near to the start point. They reduced Standard and 20m class task to 1.5 hours (club were flying 3 hours). The rain became a little more ominous and so they cancelled the day before launching the other two classes and even called the club class gliders back – task cancelled. A good call.

August 8 task 5,…. let’s try again. AND,…yes after a few de-motivated/angry pilots shared their opinions about the “poor”  WGC organization on the day before, they straightened their backs and prepared for new set tasks into Poland.For sure better conditions looking at the skies on the picture shared by the Belgium team ……and no rain[yet] and nice tasks.
“A mix of clouds and sun. High 24C. Winds SW at 15 to 25 km/h.” was the news on the official site.
The first start was moved from 12 PM to 1 Pm. , pilots got instead of A a B task and the wind was ” BLOWING”.Start-lines opened at 1.42 PM, 2.05 PM [St.] and 2.15 PM. The weather improved during the day, but they had to deal with blue areas as well and “dead air” in the end. Some pilots  entered wave above the field at the start time. A tough day as a lot landed in Poland.

Standard class ; A;344 km. but,….B task was flown from 302 km. and surprise surprise flown by 23 pilots . Best result for the Belgium pilot Oliver Sevrin who started with the current WGC champion Bert Schmelzer. Oliver got a penalty for a wrong circuit but still was on one. The French team  Guillaume and Louis were on sport 2 and 3.
The French are on spot 1 and 2 overall as Guillaume is runner up now behind Louis.Behind the 2 German boys and then the 2 Belgium pilots.

Daily win for Olivier Congratulations!!!
As shared by the Belgium team.

 

club class; A;311 km. but  B task with 256 km.was on and 3 FINISHERS…..Dutch pilot Frank Hiemsta, Austrian pilot Peter Hartmann in his Libelle and Danish pilot Henrik Breidhal in the LS 4. Henrik jumped from 5 to spot 3 overall!!!!! Peter from 12 to 8 !!!!! Frank was the best , but his finish was too low so he got penalty points and instead of being number 1 for the day he was 5, but,…he moved up from 21 to 13!!! What a day!!!
Some were only 4 km. out!!!!It means that 45 had to out-land!!!!
20 m. class;A;366 km. but B task was 309 km. and they were last on the grid!.  12 pilots finished!! Including the overall number 1 Stefano Ghiorzo in the ARCUS M. So 10 “aux vaches” better said ” in on engine” .Daily winners team FP from France.

As said the skies were DEAD in the end of the day and lot’s could not make it home. Polish police even check’s pilots after landing on booze!!!?? This picture shared by the UK team shows Tom after landing.

Several landings shared by several pilots.

    

Courtesy Per Carlin.    Courtesy Kristian Roine.   Courtesy British gliding team

Not a lot of gliders back; shared by Team Belgium

August 9 task 6.
Another lottery-day???? 25 % of the pilots has to fly over the 100 km.
Standard had to go for a 2 hour AAT. Not weather my Aussie mates are used to , but they won the day with 131 km. BUT NOT finishing. Nobody did, but a total of 6 from 40 flew over 100 km!!!For fighting in this miserable weather they got 77 points!!! They seem to have a valid day according to soaringspot this morning, but I doubt that.I am SURE it’s invalid; 6 from 40 says enough.
Club was ready to go for the same task, but only ONE pilot Henrik , flew over 100 km. so a not valid day!!!
20 m. pilots had to go for 2 hours as well. NO finishers, but 6 from 22 , flew over 100 km and for them ,the Lindell’s from Sweden, waited for ALL their efforts the great amount of 68 points!!!! but,…..No valid day is what I see on soaringspot. I doubt that too!!To my knowledge they have a VALID day!!!

More about that next Sunday this is still all preliminary. And they seem to have not only problems with the weather , of course that’s not their fault, but also with the scores. It’s only a few points ,but comps have been won with ONE point difference so all points count.
On the other hand setting tasks with this weather forecast,…….

The UK team shared this picture with the message:”Launching into a classic looking sky… 2hr AAT all classes. Wish us luck!”

Well, I believe this is not really fun anymore!! Sorry!
Hope the fun returns tonight with the INTERNATIONAL PARTY. Should be fun indeed!
Last news about the WGC on SUNDAY!!!

———

LASHAM GLIDE !

With the message” With the best day of the comp so far, here”s the view from the tower” a picture from Saturday August 6.Shared by Lashamglide

2 Days of flying, then 2 days not,  but day 5 gave good soaring weather again.

Open class; Task 3.Shaun Lapworth , well known for his comments on the SGP series won the 325 km with a speed of 104,92 km.h. in open class in his JS 1C; 1000 points for him.
Russell with a very late start lost about 200 points and dropped from 1 overall to 5 after this task 4.
18 m. class; From 14 only 5 finished the 2.30 AAT,  among them number 1 Wolfgang and Andy , so 2 Austrians , 2 Germans [Michael and Sebastian] and Mike Young. These 5 pilots are in the lead overall with quite some margin.
15 m.;4 did not fly in this class and from the 25  “left-overs”, only 5 finished. Gary [Stingmore] won the day with a speed of 77.14 km./h over 262.41 km.
A very bad day for the French pilots , both Didier and Denis . Didier started VERY late at 15.44 and flew 92 km. Denis only 11.85 km. with a start at 15.03 whilst daily winner Gary started at 13.58.Denis dropped from 1 to 13. Ouch that hurts!!!!

Day 6; they fly from Lasham,….. so task 4 is a fact!!!
Open class;2.30 AAT. A UK day as the first 3 were from there; Ken, Richard and Pete and all 3 flew JS 1c. On spot 4 the Swedish team Acketoft in the ASH 25 EB 28. Sylvain Gerbaud moved to 2 overall and Pete [Harvey]  is now 1.
18 m. class;203.26 km. set task.A good Austrian day again with Wolfgang and Andy on the best spots; one point difference in favor of Andy.
15 m. class; 164.36 km set task.SO VERY pleased to see that Patrick [Naegelie] won the day in his ASG 29 e. One of his mates Roy unfortunately out-landed. Both flew with us in Australia in the far past. Overall the Germans are “close” in scores Thomas 2883 after 4 days and Michael 2881. Few days to go though. On spot 3 Irish pilot Paul Crab [2841] and never to underestimate Leigh [Wells] on spot 5 with 2699 points.

    

Impressions from Lasham shared by the organizers.

Day 7 task 5. And,…another BIG ONE!!!!
open;  Ken Barker had his 2d daily win in a row in the JS1 c with a speed of 102 km./h. over 437.19 km. Only 1 out-landing;20 k short.
18 m: 399 km and the 2d daily win for Mike Young. Good on him!!! The 2 German pilots Sebastian and Michael are going strong as well as runner up. Behind Wolfgang and Mike they are on spot 3 and 4 overall.
15 m: a 3.30 AAT for this class. I told you ,…don’t underestimate Leigh. Today he was number 1 together with Tim Scott, both 1000 points. 402 km. was flown by Leigh in time 4.05 .
Excitement enough as with 2 day ‘s to go the overall scores look like this; 1 and 2 the 2 German pilots Thomas and Michael with TWO points difference[3752/3750]  and 3 and 4 Leigh and Tim with 15.[3715/3700]

Day 8 task 6. And…..another GOOD one.
Open; 471 km. Richard Browne, who started as last pilot  [1 PM] from the 21 flying pilots and r” rolled them up ” all of them. With a speed of 107 km./h over 483.40 km. he raced over the circuit to receive 1000 points with arrival.With one day to go the overall scores are; 1. Pete Harvey [UK] with 4.722 points. 2. Sylvain Gerbaud [FRance]  with 4.654 and on 3, team Acketoft from Sweden;4.650!!!
18 m; 3.30 AAT. The German pilots Michael Streit and Sebastian Huhmann are in a great flow and won the day.999/1000 p. With one day to go they are on an overall spot behind Wolfgang; [5423, 5217 and 5198]
20 m; 399 km; Chris Starkey was a new face on the daily podium though he flies already for a long time, so for sure not a new face in soaring. 1000 points for him,… good to see. Also good with 50 points less good old Dave Watt.
VERY close overall scores now with ONE day to go;Thomas Wettemann  ,[4675] Michael Eisele [4673] and Leigh Wells 4643 !!!! EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE so hopefully they fly.

Day 9 task 7. Last day AND,…they fly!!! So with 7 out of 9 days, [ one cancelled , one without a task]  a great event there at Lasham. Certainly when the weather in Europe has been pretty poor for soaring this season.
open;a 2.30 AAT to finish these comps. Winner was Ken Barker ,..again already 3 x. A pity he out-landed during task 4 and task 2, as he was also one day runner up and on spot 3.Overall he finished on spot 10. Ken flew 280 km. in time 2.49.
Winner in the JS 1C is Pete and not for the first time. Congratulations!!!A clear win with 5389 points. Runner up was Russell who moved from spot 4 to 2 as he had a good last race. [5355] An even better race was from Dan Pitman with a daily spot 2, bringing him in the overall scores to spot 3 from 5.[5302]
18 m; 227 km. was set for the pilots and Andy Lutz in the brand new Ventus 3 was the last-daily- best. Only 6 from 13 finished. Wolfgang won LashamGlide with 6374 points.Well done. Sebastian stayed on spot 2 [6177] but don’t know what happened to Michael Streit; he did not fly and dropped from 3 to 5. Mike Young was on spot 3.
15 m; 17 pilots flew the 249 km.- task. Though the German boys and Leigh did not have their best day they still remained in the lead.So 1. Thomas Wettemann[5385] 2. Michael Eisele [5382] 3. Leigh Wells [5313]

    

LASHAMGLIDE winners Pete, Thomas and Wolfgang surrounded by Andy and his wife.

Great comps there in the UK with 7 out of 9 days!!!!!! Hope they have the same weather or better next year during the EGC. The facilities are superb , as you can see on the picture shared by LashamGlide FB.
And,…who said ” it’s always raining in the UK,???….and the UK has no  “soaring-competition- weather” ???!!!!

———

CIM 2016 at Rieti.

Great field there at Rieti.
Picture shared by Clara Bartolino

In Rieti , the annual top competition CIM [Coppa Internazionale del Mediterranio] is in progress.[August 1-August 12]  and a lot of pilots again, 65,  even with WGC and LASHAMGLIDE in the same period. 4 Classes and in the first week 3 out of 6 days were flown.
In club , 3 from the awfully nice family Fergnani, Nicola, Elena and Michele. After 3 tasks they are on spot 2-3 and 4 overall out of 7.
In the mixed class 22 pilots and after 3 tasks Gintas Zube is on spot 1 less than 100 points ahead of Thomas Gostner.
In 18 m. class also 18 pilots and on top after 3 flights Sandro Montemaggi.in the ASG 29 E. He is 41 points ahead of Italian pilot Pino Dal Garde and followed by 3 Austrian pilots among them Heimo Demmerer who I met there several times when I attended the CIM. Giorgio [Galetto] won 2 days but on the first soarable day he out-landed.
Open; 4 TOP pilots from Germany. Michael Sommer, [EB 29R] Tassilo Bode [EB 29],  Bruno Gantenbrink in the ETA and kilometer-eater Alexander Mueller.Till now Michael won EVERY day, task 3 with an average speed of 140 km./h..

    

An impression as shared by Clara.

Sunday August 7; tasks were set AAT’s in each class. Weather as in most parts of Europe,…. windy with possible showers.
In the end the day was cancelled.

Monday; August 8.
Club; Fergnani-day!!! On spot 1 Elena, on 2 Nicola and on 3 Michelle. Good on them. 249 km. was flown with a speed of just under and above 100 km./h.
Mixed ; 375 km.Nobody finished in this class but Vittorio Pinni flew with his mate in the Duo Discus XLT a distance of 302 km.
18 m. ; 387 km and Giorgio Galetto, who knows the area VERY well, got the 1000 points for an excellent flight with 116 km./h. Next pilot “only ” flew 110 km./h.
open; 464 km;and,the day was again for Michael a class apart!!! Tassilo was runner up.

Tuesday August 9;
Club; 295 km and only 2 finishers but still 1000 points for  Franco Poletti.
Mixed;377 km and 1000 points for Gintas 3 points more than Luca [de Marchi] 11 from 20 finished.
18 m;316 km,. and Alberto [Testa[] was the winner.15 from 20 finished.
open: 445 km. and ,…it’s getting boring again but Michael and Tassilo were the best with 1000 and 998 points, starting together and finishing together.He won each single day!!!! 5 in a row!!!!!

Today club has a 3 hour AAT, mixed has a 2.40 AAT, 18 m. a 3.15 AAT and open 2.45 AAT.

These are also the Italian 15 m. Nationals . NOT handicapped the overall scores are at this stage, with 2 days to go and 5 flown ;
1.Thomas Gostner 4551
2.Luca de Marchi 4175
3.Luca Urbani 3928

———-

The Olympic Games in Brazil.

After a lot of positive and less positive news over the last years, the GAMES have started with a great opening in ECO STYLE. Good on them. We as Dutch people hope for 25 medals or more. Let’s wait and see.Only 1 gold and 1 bronze at the moment,……..

———

AND…..news from Australia.

TWO SEAT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AT NARROMINE IN FEBRUARY 2017

 YES it’s on again! The Narromine Gliding Club is delighted to have been chosen for the 5th consecutive year to host the Two Seat National Gliding Competition in 2017.

The competition runs from Sunday 12th February 2017 to Sunday 19th February 2017 inclusive.

Practice day is Sunday 12th February and the first Competition day is Monday 13th February 2017.

Subject to sufficient entries the Competition will be run in two classes,

2 SEAT OPEN CLASS and

20m 2 SEAT CLASS.

Same Rules, same Tasks, same Starts, separate scores and winners.

 REGISTER YOUR ENTRY NOW. To complete the ONLINE ENTRY FORM just CLICK HERE

 Cheers Ritz , sorry this blog is VERY long , but so much to say.
CU back on SUNDAY.

POCUINAI !

Great picture of the airfield of Pocuinai as shared by the Czech team.

With 111 pilots in 3 classes , 40 in standard, 49 in club and 22 teams in 20 m. class, the pilots started with their official training on July 27. BUT,…the weather was still not flash.
I remember clearly that ,a couple of years ago,  during the IGC meeting in Holland,  Lithuania and Australia “got ” their WGC’s. That’s where I met Vitautas the CD from this competition, as well as his wife . Nice people !They were smiling from ear to ear.Now it’s their turn to lead a good competition!

CD Vitautas

A few of the pilots [14] tried to fly the set 277 km. task in standard class, but nobody finished. My Aussie mates Adam and Butch flew 137 km. in their LS 8 and were the daily winners.28 Choose not to fly the task.
In club  9  pilots flew the set task from 238 km.further on  13 out-landings and the rest choose not to fly.
In 20 m. a task from 285 km. flown by 6 teams  with 3 out-landings. A lot choose NOT to fly!
On the 28 th;”Lightning and torrential rain for breakfast… Should be a good day for getting all the non flying jobs sorted.”
And Baldrick mentioned on July 29; ”  All we need now is some weather to go flying. There is a small chance that we may fly this afternoon. We have a task but a very small one though. Currently it’s warm and overcast.”
Still practice-time , …but for those from far away it would be good to have at least some practice!!!
No flying, but enough to do and talk about. Here the Belgium team. Hilde  and her boys and girls including her sons Tijl and current world champion Bert Schmelzer jr.

My Belgium mates. GOOD LUCK!!!!
As shared by the team .

I liked the stories from the NZ boys Nick and Alex, called ” Brolly Dollie”which you can read on FB.
Here is part 2;”
“Brolly Dolly” Update 2
Practice day 1. 220k, trianglish! First landout, nearly in Poland. The usual ultimate trailer maintenance test whilst Alex happily eating, swimming and socializing with the village locals!
PS .. for those wondering .. the “Brolly Dollys” are the second most important team members, after the pilots …  when hot and waiting to launch they hold the umbrella’s!!!
PPS French team have taken the honours of first comp “lake landing“

   

The first out-landing with an interesting trailer to retrieve the glider.
As shared by NZ Junior Gliding Team

On Saturday , extra training-day, they could only practice a bit in the early afternoon,to be precise till 3PM,   as at 5 PM the opening-ceremony  started.Some team’s shared their pictures , so the weather is still not flash, but getting better.

   Opening at the main square, as shared by the teams.

Middle picture is Finland with Katja famous soaring-webmaster and is shared by Kristian Roine.

    

    

The German team as shared on their site and the Czech and South African team and below the Dutch team.

    

The UK…………………….Poland…………………………………and many more as shared by Adam.

To read his blogs you can go to   ;www.facebook.com/W3Racing  here is one of them.

Adam flies this WGC as a self funded pilot in Jay Rebbeck’s LS 8. I was at the closing ceremony in Benalla, when  the final choice for Pocuinai was announced and both Butch and Adam were NOT in the team. Butch was very disappointed as it was only  0.030 he missed out on to be in[ if I remember well] .Now they both fly
” Huge thanks to John Buchanan,  who made all this possible for me in the first place, my team mates who supported Johns request to have me here with him & finally the support of the team selection committee ,who allowed me to come as a self funded pilot.”
He also wrote he was ready to go and all pumped up!!!!

 

“Pumped up”  as well…….Wilga-Tugs ready for the comps!!!  Dynamic’s as well.
As shared by the Dutch team.

Sunday July 31 Task 1; The “show”  started, for some maybe with not enough practice to check the area and/or the instruments, but that’s how it is.
Baldrick mentioned in the morning;” Today is the first day of the WGC here in Lithuania. We had the opening ceremony down town yesterday and we got drenched not once but twice….. Today however, the day has started nice and sunny but there is cloud coming in from the west so we shall see..”

2.5 hour AAT’s were set for each class in difficult skies , overcast,  showers but a bit of sunshine as well.First start delayed till 12.15….12.30 then club was launched, then all of them. Before 2 PM. they were all airborne.
Restarts, out-landings not far after they started, [that hurts on day 1] mainly in standard and 20 m. class ,but the weather improved during the day. Though for some the first day was a disaster and some hopes will be blown away.
After landing Finnish pilot Kristian shared this picture,so indeed the weather was better later in the day!!!

Club; German pilot Robert Schroeder did an excellent job  and was the ONLY one flying over 100 km./h. over the 276.51 km. he fitted in , in 2.40,44.From 36 pilots 26 finished. According to the scoring-system 3 pilots did not start one of them Sebastian Kawa .
Standard;great start for Poland and Australia. Here we are with the Jakubs and Lucaszses again  . Daily winner was Jakub Barszcz with 2.15,56 km. in time 2.35,25. Allan Barnes ,Australian kilometer eater, was on spot 2 and Lucasz Grabowski on 3. From 49 pilots 46 finished!!!!!
Bad day for Alex the NZ junior. In the Brolly Dolly story above he had the fun part , now Nick finished on spot 36, Alex had to carry his glider out of the paddock. He shared what he had to do with a few!!!

20 m;12 from the 22 teams that started finished. 17 x an ARCUS  M or T in this class. Daily winner  team ET with 254 km. in 2.35,10.
Australian juniors Matthew [Junior world champion ]and Dylan [team ARC] just did not make it. They took NO risk and out-landed 20 km. out ,instead of using the engine on a low height.Very wise decision!!!
For all scores you can go to; www.soaringspot.com

Day 2 was cancelled due to rain but the forecast for the new day 2 was hopeful. Specially for those who out-landed a good day to re-set and focus again. But also for the other pilots as a lot really struggled.
Some went to the LAK factory to see the new developments .

Tuesday August 1 Task 2;

My Belgian friends had this news early in the morning;“Conditions look much better today! First tows will start at 12 o’ clock”. As you can see on their picture they were right, but still pilots had to make out-landings.

Standard class; Except for one pilot, all pilots finished the set task from 364.67 km. With only ONE point difference French pilot Louis Bouderlique won the day. German Pilot Robert had another good day this time 999 points.
Sebastian flew as well and “collected” 902 points on spot 9.
Club class; a great Italian day with Ricardo[Brigliadori] and Davide [Schiavotto]as daily winners over 315.60 km.both flying St. Cirrus. Lithuanian pilot Vitautas Racimavicius , a very nice young guy I met in Finland was on spot 3 in his St. Jantar, just ONE point ahead of Polish pilot Lucasz Grabowski.
Tom Arscott,   from the UK team on a daily spot 41 ,said on FB:
“Mixed day today in the club class. We all started reasonably late and had a good run towards the first turn, catching up several earlier starters. Unexpected rain at the first turn, over the massive unlandable forest, cost the late starters a bit of time, but we cut through the gaggles nonetheless. Will and G went on to have a very solid flight scoring some good points today. Unfortunately I missed a climb, dropped off the bottom and ended up stuck on my own, low, over the forest for what felt like an eternity, before eventually getting going again some 40km behind. With the day dying, there were some very long smooth glides, but I somehow got back which is some consolation at least. Hopefully things will come together a bit better in the next few days. ”
20 m. class; After day 1 there was “a lot of noise” and upset teams, about self launching 20 m. gliders using their engines to fly  in the direction of the soarable weather in one long glide to the south, “completely disregarding the mandatory release zone as defined in the rules”.
Task 2 had changed release points, closer to each other ,max 1 km. apart, so more or less in the same weather zone. I guess the stewards and jury have bend their heads over this, anyhow an extra TM meeting was called to sort things out.
They flew again for task 2 and  363 km. was set. The Polish ASG 32 MI , team MD, received the 1000 points . 20 From 22 finished! One of the out-landers was Antti and his mate Nikke from Finland in their ARCUS.
More next week.
So you can see that practice is not only necessary for the pilots , but also for the organizers. It’s better to find out eventual problems as release points or problems with landings, [I read it was some kind of “wild west” during the landing] , on the practice days but then if the weather doe n’t  co-operate?????????!!!!!!!!!

For today the organizers message was;”Attention everyone! Grid starts at 9:00 and briefing is at 11:00 in main hangar.Grid opens 09:00, closes 12:45 ” and the grid order has changed.
Lot’s of rain over night but the forecast says;
Showers early, then partly cloudy for the afternoon. High 22C. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
As I read the meteo guy is unreadable,  the lady OK , so reading is always good.
Tasks as well; Task A for all classes a 2.30 AAT. Task B for all classes a 2 hour AAT in the same area.

———

USA…QSGP!
Ionia Michigan.

Wings and Wheels, North America’s premier soaring supplies retailer, signs on to support the 2016 Sailplane Grand Prix USA as an official event sponsor.

Last Wednesday when I left you, they started with race 3 [118 km.] and the 2d win for Jerzy Szemplinksky from Canada was a fact.
On Thursday 103 km. [race 4] was set and,….yes Jerzy won again!!!After 4 races he has already 33 points. Good on him.Already 12 points ahead of the runner up with the same first name, Jerzy Zieba.

Several out-landings as well. Here some pictures from Jerzy’s wife Maria, a fabulous and famous  photographer;the retrieve of Krzysztof Wiercioch [2W]

    

On Friday with race 5 there was rain , also on Saturday, so with ONE day to go it looks like Jerzy will win but,  when they fly,  there are still 5/6 pilots for the runner-up-spot.

Daily prizes, already 3 first-ones for Jerzy.

There was no day 7 ,so in the end no “fight”  for the runner up spot as it was for Jerzy Zieba with 21 points.

———-

The French Club Class Nationals!

All competitors as shared by AAVE [Association Aeronautique du Val d’ Essonne.

They continued on Wednesday with a 2.15 AAT, won by Eric Soubrier in his LS 4;218 km. in time 2.23.756 points.
On Thursday with a 1.45 AAT, Eric showed he “dominates” this kind of soaring and for 141 km. in time 1.54 he received this time 267 points. Eric flies an LS 4 in this competition.He is after 5 flying days number 1 overall with 2 days to go.[3683]
On Friday….no task.
LAST day at Saturday so time to score and not to loose!!!
A task from 271 km. was set, so long enough to play start games for those who wanted.
No games necessary for Eric he won another day and clearly was the new FRENCH CLUB CLASS CHAMPION .[4683]
Young Thibault Alasnier [Pegase] just missed out on 2 daily points but climbed up to spot 2 overall. Meric Morel [Pegase]from the same club as Thibault,  lost some points on the last day by being 10th but still finished the comps on a 3d place.

Benjamin Neglais, modern comps director reading from his phone,  with the champion Eric and young runner up Thibault and Meric.

———-

LASHAM GLIDE!!!

It is now so far,  that this soaring-happening started as well. As they say; “ the best possible practice for the 2017 European Gliding Championships.” 
On March 22 they wrote;
“At the deadline for entries prioritized according to IGC ranking we have received 70 entries for LashamGlide: 31 in the 15 metre class, 13 in the 18 metre class and 24 in the Open Class. We are pleased to confirm acceptance of entry for all Overseas pilots who applied for entry before the deadline.”
Last Saturday 67 pilots started flying ; 22 pilots in open class, 15 in 18 m. and 29 in standard class. Among them Wolfgang Janowitsch and Andy Lutz from Austria, Didier Hauss , Sylvain Gerbaud and Denis Guerin from France, Marcus Gaumann from Switzerland ,Stephan Beck Michael Streit and Michael Eisele from Germany and lot’s of UK pilots including some Lasham mates.
Day 1 ;task 15m ;238 km. and 214 km, for 18 m…..open 173.69/259,…..but later there was the message:
“15M Nationals launched on task B 243km
18M and Open re briefing to task C as the weather took a little longer than expected to get here.”
open; Russell Cheetham won the day in the JS 1C. 20 from 22 finished so only 2 out-landings.
18 m. ;got 214 km. and Wolfgang Janowitsch [Ventus 2cxT] was the best.
15 m.; left in the end for 238 km. Denis Geurin [ASG 29] and good old Didier Hauss [Ventus 2cxa]were the best followed by the German pilots Michael Eisele [Ventus 2ax]and Thomas Wettemann [Ventus 2a] .Nick Tillet [ASW 27b] was the first UK pilot on spot 5.

Day 2; with big tasks.
open;439 km. 18 Pilots from 22 flew the task and Russell was the best.
18 m; 402 km.10 Pilots from 14 flew the task and Wolfgang was on spot 1 with Mike [Young] on his heels. Difference ONE point!!!
15 m: 4 hour AAT. 26 from 28 flew the task great result for all classes. UK winners Gary Stingmore [ASG 29 E] and Nick Tillett [ASW 27 B]were the best with 1000 and 939 points.

“Looking good!” Indeed!!!
Picture shared by the British Gliding Team on day 2.

Task 3 was set but not flown. Day 4, yesterday,  had no task.
For today there is a grid order already , so hopefully time to fly again.

———

Schempp-Hirth.

Nice news and great pictures about vintage gliders  from Schempp-Hirth on FB and I share it with you;”

Friday evening, Schempp-Hirth CEO Tilo Holighaus made the first flight on the SHK owned by the Flying Museum Hahnweide (FMH) after it had been registered again.

On the pictures, you can see the SHK next to FMH’s Gö-1 ‘Wolf’, built in 1937. A lot of history in one photograph: The Gö1 ‘Wolf’ was Schempp-Hirth’s first glider built in serial production, while the SHK was the late Klaus Holighaus’ first own construction for Schempp-Hirth.”

   

Tilo and the old-timer’s as shared by Schempp-Hirth.

———
CU cheers Ritz