Pocuinai!

The registrations were completed, the local procedures and turn point /airspace files are on line , a lot of participants have driven or flown to Lithuania,  so the show is about to begin.
120 Pilots from 29 different countries will try, in a friendly way, to be the BEST in each of the 3 classes; club, standard and 20 m/2-seater.
The official training will be between July 27 and 29, the opening ceremony will be at 5 PM on the 30thiest and the game starts on July 31 and continues till August 13. On the same day in the evening the farewell party at 9 PM and the next day the prize-giving and closing ceremony at 11 AM.
From yesterday onwards they can practice unofficially.

The weather was not yet spectacular over the last week,so time enough to work on gliders and have them in top condition. This picture was shared by team New Zealand. Young NZ pilots Alex [St. Cirrus] and Nick [Libelle] mentioned on their FB blog;
” We made it! After 3 days of driving and approximately 2500kms we arrived at Pociunai airfield in Lithuania at 3am last night.” First they traveled from NZ to London , then drove to Dusseldorf to pick up Alex’ car then continued to Pocuinai. What a trip!!!!!

Long way to go,….driving through Poland with great weather!!
As shared by Alex and Nick.

From home, with help from my “contacts” ,I will try to keep you informed the best I can.

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Swedish club , 18 m. and 2 seater class NATIONALS.

Langtora was the place where they welcomed 26 pilots to find out who would be the new SWEDISH Champion in the 3 classes.
The first 2 days, tasks were set but not flown, or cancelled , anyhow no valid days on July 15 and 16.
Day 3 was MUCH better with 351 km. for the 18m pilots, 272 for club and 320 for the 2-seaters. In each class out-landings but there were also 1000 points for Gunnar Karlson in Ventus 2cxa,  Thomas Hansen in St. Cirrus WL and Larsson /Fischer in Duo Discus XLT.
After the weather was less good, but flyable and on the last but one day,  on Thursday , good again, with 306 for 18 m. ,267 for club and and 280 for 20 m.
Great to see that good old Ake Pattersson won the day with 1000 points in the 2 seater class flying a DG 1000.With 1 day to go he was on spot 2 overall.
In 18 m.Peter Cutting in the ASG 29 won the day and in club Niklas Lofgren in the St. Cirrus. With one day to go he is 3d overall behind Norwegian pilot Thomas Hansen and Per Carlin.
The last day had a 225 km. task in 18 m.
In 18 m. this day was AGAIN for Peter so he had a great last-couple-of-days-run but that was not enough to be the Swedish National Champion. That honor was for Gunnar . 18 m. Top 3;
1. Gunnar Karlson with 4000 points,
2. Holger Eriksson [ ASH 26 e] with 3924 and
3. Boerje Gustavsson with 3779.[LAK 17 a]

 A 183 km. task was set for club and Per Carlin won the day, his 2d daily win. Most of the days he was number 1 overall , after consistent flying, also on the last day;
1. Per Carlin [LS 1f] 3961
2. Niklas Lofgren [St. Cirrus] 3763
3. Tomas Hansen from Norway[St Cirrus WL]  3732

As shared by Per Carlin in the middle with Niklas to the l. and in the checked blouse Robert.

The 2 seaters had to fly 225 as well.Haven /Sohlberg won the last day in the ARCUS and the competition.
1. Haven/Sohlberg 4266
2. Ake , good on him.[DG 1000] 4077
3. Hans Larsson [DuoDiscus XLT ] 3881

They flew 6 out of 8 days.

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Jannen Kisat !

With 3 out of 8 days the popular Jannen Kisat competition in Finland [Rayskala] was not really endowed with good weather .Juha Sorri [Discus 2] won 2 of the 3 days both with 1000 points, so with 2503 points he was the winner.

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Zomerwedstrijd.

The Summer competition at Malden Airport is an annual competition specially for them who want to gain points to participate in next years Nationals. Several National pilots fly as well , for fun as Malden is always a great place to be.Part of the Dutch Junior squad is participating too.
4 Of our juniors are flying in club class ; Jelmer, Rick ,Nick and Thijs. Robin , the junior vice world champion flew a few days as sniffer. He leaves soon for Pocuinai to fly in the 20 m. class.
The 4 “young ones” are doing a great job.
As I read in the Tulipe Bulletin [Juniors magazine] the first 3 days were weather-wise good with clouds after a low had passed . The next 2 days were hot [32.4 dgr C.] and blue,  but  those 3 days together “delivered” a total of 620 km. as tasks.
Even better the juniors occupied the first 3 daily spots on each of the days.
Day 3 had a 317 km. task and only the 3 juniors finished. 1000 points for Rick, 991 for both Thijs and Nick.
9 Out-landings in this class , some close as female pilot Doortje,  who just was 15 km. short.

THEN,…unfortunately 3 cancelled days. last hope was for flying on Saturday the last day, as it is not so nice to go home after 3 good days of flying and then 3 days ” sitting and waiting”, though with so many young pilots they always find another sport to do as you can see on the picture shared by Jan Paul.
There was hope for a day 4 on Saturday,a  small task was set 103 km. but it was in vain the day had to be cancelled.

Playing soccer or “discussing the world” ,they call it nowadays ” chillen” .
Courtesy Jan Paul

Final results in club after 3 days;1. Nick Hanenburg  [1991] 2. Rick Boerma, [1970] 3. Thijs Bastiaanse [1895] As said all 3 are juniors!!
In open class 13 pilots flew 3 out of 7 days and on the best day they got 425 km. None of the pilots finished but they tried hard. The Kuijpers family sharing an ASW 20 cj flew 365 km. for 1000 points. Not enough to pass Edo Kwant who won day 2 and was runner up on day 1.
1. Edo with 2072 points, 2. Kuijpers fam. with 1985 and 3. Jan Willem van Doorn with 1906 points.

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French Club class Nationals.

With 34 pilots , 1 from Belgium [Pieter Lievens], one from Switzerland [Davide Giovanelli] both flying HC and both juniors, a lot of young and “older” pilots participate in Buno-Bonneveaux .They started on July 23 and continue till July 30.
The weather was good , something not too normal nowadays and the pilots straight away could go for 337 km and it turned out a 1000 points day.Only 1 out-landing and a speed of 96 km./h as best time.
Even 411 km. for the Sunday…good!! Pretty long distance for a competition with St. Cirrus , several Pegases and ASW 19 and LS 4 and more types.
30 From 31 finished and the 1000 points were for glider with call sign L , a pegase.
On Monday the day was cancelled, but  yesterday a task from 218 km. was set and flown by ALL. An other Pegase won the day this time ED.

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First QSGP in the USA .

Iona County Airport in Michigan is the venue for the first USA FAI QSGP.
16 Pilots in total and 5 from them are from Canada.
FAI president Eric Moser opened the race and will be there for the week as referee.
Day 1 was straight away won by Canadian pilot Jerzy Szemplinsky, we know him from many WGC’s ; 8 points.
More next week.

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OLC flights.

Yesterday was one of those real Fuentemilanos days and all the guests, 38 were flying,  must have had a ball.The first 49 flights were nearly all from Fuente. Guy Bechtold from Luxembourg who flies there every year flew 1.229 km. in his Quintus M. [1000 km. FAI triangle] He gained a new goal he had set; a new European 1000 FAI  Record with an average speed of 137 km. [it was 120 km./h.] Well done Guy!!!
Congrats from Schempp-Hirth as well: ” Congratulations to Guy Bechtold for a phantastic European Record . The record for 1000km FAI triangle was at around 120 kph and Guy raised it to now 137 kph on his Quintus-M!”
A total of 19 over 1000km-flights among them flights in LS 9 and ASH 26. It’s being at the right time on the right place .
Also at other Spanish places , as Villacastin 2 x 1000 and Cuenca Sotos where my friends the Wiesenthals fly, flights from nearly 1000 [988 and 963 km.] km. It’s hot in Spain!!!!

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Soaring related flights!

The Solar Impulse started it’s last leg to fly around the world, in Egypt to fly to Abu Dhabi. Bertrand Picard started his trip to show the world that so much more is possible with sun energy,  on March 9 2015 also from Abu Dhabi.
With wings full of solar cells , [17.000], feeding his engines, he completed his 35.000 km. flight last Monday .
It took the 2 pilots,  each flying legs in the solo cockpit one and a half year, including reparations [ 9 months] on the plane on Hawaii after the batteries were damaged.
Great effort!!!!One of the most difficult parts of the flight was the very last one as the heat over the desert caused heavy turbulence and thermals. The pilots had for that reason to fly much higher than they hoped for and as the air is thinner there , there was less air to cool the electronics as I read. But a bit of a challenge is not bad so on the end of the trip is what Picard said in the end.

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Sad news …again!!!!
This is from the British team;
“It is with a heavy heart that we report the very sad news that Kay Draper, a dear friend and member of the British team was killed in a gliding accident on Thursday 21st July.”
RIP Kay.

MORE TRAGIC.
My good mate Tony Lentino died of cancer. He was the one who invited me in 2010/2011, to see his estate in New Zealand to check if it was a good place for soaring. It should be a spot like Tocumwal. He, and his then girl friend Emily,  showed me also around over most of the Nord- Island. It turned out an unforgettable trip with so much warmth, friendship and hospitality.
Not long after and then  happily married , with 2 little girls, he was diagnosed with cancer  … SO SAD!!!!
Got to know Tony in my Sportavia period. He was the one who gave me my soaring.eu- blog and one of his co-operators Phil had set it up !!! I hoped he would survive it, but he lost the battle…..he passed away this weekend. MUCH TOO YOUNG!!!!!!

As said TRAGIC!!!!!
RIP Tony!!!!

Happy times in 2010/11 with Tony and Emily.

CU next week.
Ritz

It’s all about France to start with. The terrible/horrible action from one lunatic to drive his truck in a crowd , to kill as many people on the National Day ,Quatorze Juilliet, in Nice is just unbelievable.How is it possible that a big truck [15m] can drive so fast and so long, over a boulevard, before they can stop it and avoid what has happened now!!!!
84 Innocent people, several children,  died ,after a happy evening with fireworks to close the important day for France ; a day for liberty, fraternity and equality. How,…where,….what?????

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French Nationals.

As shared by JC.

After Wednesday the weather improved and they could fly each day till the end.
Women;
Wednesday;189 km. and Aude Undersee is doing very well . She won the day with 90.70 km./h and was the only one in the ninety.
Thursday;219 km. and Aude is still in great form and won the day again. 3 out of 5 days a daily prize for her.
Friday;251 .Martine Lesage in the Pegase won the 1000 points for the day. Aude was 4th. Only 1 out-landing.
Saturday; LAST DAY!!!146.86 km.
Some kind of coup by Magali De Cachard [ 3476] on this last day.She won the day and moved from spot 4 to spot 2 overall so from “nothing” to SILVER. Good on her! Aude was far ahead so no worries for her GOLD.[3640] The bronze was for Amelie Audier [3419] Melanie Gadoulet moved from 2 to 4 [3390]
A huge difference in start times on this last day between 2.07 and 3.30.
6 out of 8 days.

The CHAMPION as shared by JC.

18 m;
Wednesday;282 km and Jean-Denis Barrois won the day together with Arne from Denmark.Both 721 points. Gilles Navas was 2d.
Thursday; 406 km and finally a 1000 points day. This time for Antoine Havet. Denis Guerin was runner up and Jean Denis 3d.
Friday;341 km. Danish mate Arne won the day [118.58 km./h.] and got 950 points. The French number 1 was Denis Geurin with 924 points.ALL pilots finished.
Saturday; 248 km and Jean Denis Barrois won the day and moved to SILVER.[4605] Denis Geurin remained on the GOLD spot but he had not over much. [4645 so a difference of 40 points] Good “old” Gilles is on the bronze medal spot [4571]
7 out of 8 days.

Gilles Navas as shared by JC.

open ;
Wednesday;292 km and Laurent Aboulin raced best for 774 points. 4 x JS 1 in the daily top , all ahead of the EB 29 from the THE Broquevilles at spot 5.
Thursday;406.80 km and another winner; Christophe Cousseau [JS 1 c] with the The Broquevilles HC as runners up.
Friday;405.80 km.All pilots finished so a good day! Sylvain Gerbaud [1000 points] was just ahead of the The Broquevilles.[909]
Saturday; 255.77 km.With a speed of 104 km./h the the Broquevilles won the day and Pierre and Arnaud added 782 points to their total and that was enough to call them WINNERS [they are from Belgium] of the French open class Nationals.[4151]  It’s their 2d win this year and they love their new glider the EB 29.
The new French CHAMPION is Sylvain Gerbaud [JS1 C] who won the last 2 days.[ 4080]Jean Marc Deycard [JS1 C] was silver champion and the bronze medal was for team Jean Marc Caillard. He flew with Hersen . I remember a monsieur Hersen from Angers in the 70 thies, maybe he/she is family.
6 days and 2 x a 1000 points day.

The THE BROQEUVILLES, Pierre and Arnaud.
As shared by Jutta.

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The Spanish Nationals.

The briefing as shared by Aldo.

Santa Cilia De Jaca Airport,in Spain,was the venue between July 1 and 9 for 30 pilots flying in 3 classes.

Santa Cila is according to Aldo a gorgeous airfield and area to fly in/over. [Pyrenees] So to see ,….that’s totally true.
Pictures courtesy Aldo.

Out of the 9 days they flew 7 , under reasonable good circumstances , though on each day there were out landings.
In club class, 11 pilots among them former world Champion Stefano Ghiorzo in the Silent 2 Targa.
Task 1 was a pretty marginal one [225 km] with only 2 finishers and 1000 points for Jose Antonio in the KA 6.
Task 2 [1.30 AAT] was for Stefano .
Task 3 with a 2 hour AAT was for Stefano as well.
Task 4 with 247 km. “boring”…but Stefano won , finally a 1000 points day.
Task 5 [157 km.] was for the KA 6 pilot and task 6 [2.30 AAT ] for Stefano in the Silent.
Task 7 [219,48 km] was for Stefano as well, so no doubt about the Champion in this class Stefano, [4727] but as he is Italian , he is the winner and Jose Antonio Blanco Quesada the new Spanish Club Class CHAMPION.[4586]

Stefano in his Silent Electro.
Picture shared by Alisport.

Standard/15 m; with 10 pilots.
Task 1 with 287.77 km. had only 3 finishers…still a 1000 points day for  Francisco Artega [ ASW 27 B]
Task 2 had a 2.30 AAT and Jorge Arias [Ventus b] won the 1000 points.
Task 3 a 2.30 AAT and it was a daily win for Francisco again.
Task 4,  with 334 km. was Jorge and
task 5 for Francisco. They happily seem to share the days; each one every other day!
Task 6 with 281 km however was for Francisco again . Task 7 with 332 km. as well ,….he was in the racing mood!!!!
But it was not enough to beat Jorge, who clearly was the new Spanish champion[5903] with Francisco as runner up[5762]

Open class ; with 7 days as well and 9 participants.
Task 1 and 304 km. Alvaro Orleans- Borbon [ASH 31 MI/21 m] ] won the day so 1000 points for him.Aldo Cernezzi , [ARCUS M] my colleague at Gliding International was runner up.
Task 2 was a 2.30 AAT and now it was Aldo ahead of Alvaro.
Task 3 had a 2.30 AAT again with a brand new name up front for the 1000 points; Inaki Ulibarri [ flies at La Cerdanya and is a Spanish-Catalan from Barcelona ] in a DUO DISCUS, with Alvaro as runner up  and ouch,….Aldo was one of the 2 out-landers after 314 km.
Task 4 with 354 km was a “correction on the day before” for  Aldo, he won and Inaki was runner up and Alvaro did not start, as he had home/family-obligations. But according to Aldo he could have been the Champion.
Task 5 with 233 km. was for Aldo and
task 6 with 337 km. for another new name; Ricardo Rodrigeuz Menchero [ASH 31]  and,..Aldo unfortunately was out at 314 km. Only 2 finishers that day.
Task 7;Aldo won the last day and ,….. there was a total of 5900 points for him as a VERY CLEAR WINNER of the Spanish championship.Aldo is also from Italy so the new champion is Inaki , but….with 1000 points less!!![4900]

Open class winners!!!1. Aldo , 2 Inaki and 3 Steve [Ollender].

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QSGP in the UK.
Bicester July 10-17.

With 3 days cancelled due to bad weather, they expected to have good soaring conditions from Thursday  .
Ian Macarthur was the winner of Race 1 of the UK SGP and race 2 was for German pilot Jan Omsels. 18 Pilots and 3 are from Germany.

Ian and Jan.

Race 2 winners after prize giving as shared by the organizers. Jan in the middle and the the left Andy to the right Francis.

Race 1 was a race from 135.85 km and Ian [JS1] won with a speed of 86.7 km. /h. Runner up was Derren in a Ventus 2cxa and number 3 on the podium was Ken Barker in a JS 1c.
After 3 days rest they continued with race 2 and with 245 km. and an early regatta start at 1.01 PM, the pilots could race. They did!!! Jan flew around with a speed of 124.7 km./h. in his ASG 29 ES and Andy had 123.3 km./h.[JS 1c EVO]
For a -tad –too- fast- start he got 5 pen sec. {Starting above max speed 171 km/h.}
Friday was cancelled again so Saturday and Sunday were the only possibilities to gain more points.
Saturday was cancelled so it was ALL about SUNDAY the last day.
AND ,…they flew!!!!103.75 km. was set and this time Andy was the best but even with 11 points for the last days , he could not win this GP. He had a bad first days with no points.Young Jan Omsels from Germany did.He won race 2 and was 7th on race 1 and runner up during race 3.
Jan had 21 points and  Andy 19.

To read back about  the event you can go to http://www.sgp.aero/uk2016

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Interesting OLC flights.

July 15; One of the good flights last week was from Ramy Yanetz:” Had another 1000km flight today. Flew out and return across Nevada. Bagged 3 states in one flight. Turned deep in Utah 18 miles from Delta and within easy glide from Nephi, and back to the Whites in California. Great lift under strong clouds but overcast and strong wind (25 knots) made it a bit more challenging and slower.” Can only add GREAT flight.

July 17; As I told you ,…it was only waiting for a long list of 1000 km-flights from Fuentemilanos and it already happened on July 17 and with 34 pilots in the air 6 pilots flew a 1000 and 6 a 900 plus and 9 a 800 plus task.Not only in open class gliders but also in LS 9 and DG 400/17m. and ASH 26.

July 19; it was hot in Europe yesterday with a strong high. 3x 1000 km flights in Germany.On the OLC  page all first 50 flights were GOOD even the one from 636 km in an ASW 15.
756 from Bex in Switzerland in an LS 4 must have give the junior -team-pilot David Leemann ,joy as well.

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To finish a great picture from and shared by Robin , our junior runner up in Narromine and courtesy to his dad Martin Smit. It’s a cut-out from a bigger picture .

CU next week, 30 dgr. here over the last days, pretty hot! And today maybe 38!!!!At least hotter than yesterday and we had in a shopping center in the Hague out side in a pretty dark lane 34.8 dgr. C.

In several countries the European juniors are performing very well at the moment. GREAT to see!!!
I continue with the UK and Swiss juniors flying regional or national comps in France and Switzerland.

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41st INTERNATIONAL ISSOUDUN.

As you could read in my last blog the UK juniors have settled down to gather more [International] experience in Issoudun in France, at the 41st International Issoudun.
Last Wednesday they all had to work for their points.
Open got 369 km. and 5 from 10 finished on this “ hot and sweaty day“. Daily winner was Mike Gatfield , his second victory and this time for the full 1000 points. Only half [5 from 10 ] finished.
On Thursday a 250 k., was set and NOBODY finished but some flew far enough to make it a day; 212 km. by French pilot Ludwin De Roest [ not a real French name by the way] , gave him 722 points.
Friday ;342 km.and a tough day for Mike as he just was 21 km. OUT in a paddock. A pity, as 6 from 9 finished! He dropped from 1 overall to 4.
Saturday;  Mike was straight back and won the 3 hour AAT-day.
With 7 out of 8 days the overall scores look as follows;
1. Ludovic Hirtz…4.645 [France]
2. Thierry Nortier…4.594 [France]
3. Mike Gatfield…4.585 [ UK]

In Club, the task was 303 km. and all 8 pilots finished!!!!William Blackburn in the St Cirrus got the 1000 points for his effort. All started before 2 PM.
” A lot of the locals abandoned the open task allowing Mike and Will to claim the top spots in each class.”
Club had a 250 distance as well. AND,…….. ONE FISHER in a LIBELLE!!!!! Good.
Local French pilot Jean Philippe finished and his speed was 52.68 km./h. The UK boys flew between 70 k and 157.70 km.
Friday; 304 km. was a good day for UK pilot Jake . He was, in the DG 101,  the ONLY FINISHER !!! Good on him!He climbed from 2 to 1 overall. Jean Philippe missed out on 59 km. but still was runner up.
Saturday; a 3 hour AAT for the last day. The UK boys won with 236 and 231 km in time 3.10 and 3.07.
Final scores;
1.Jake Brattle…5.120 [UK]
2. Jean Philippe Rogier…4.922 [France]
3. William Blackburn…4.319 [UK]

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Swiss Nationals in Schaenis.

On Wednesday , when I left you, the pilots in Club got 218 km. and in open 336.
18 m. 298 and the combi’s went for 243 km.
In club, the fight for the ” honors” continued between David and Davide. David [LS4] started early and was back early [2.51] and won the day with 595 points behind his name. Davide [St. Cirrus] left 19 minutes later and it took him a bit longer 3.12 but he was runner up with 551 points.
On Thursday a different scenario and another winner;Edi in the Discus. During the 2.15 AAT he flew 150 km. that’s 12 km. more than Davide and 11 than David.
On Friday with one day to go, a 2.45 AAT. It turned out to be GIRLS-DAY. The German ladies Maria [LS1f] and Lisa[Hornet WL] flew both over 100 km to make it a valid day. Not too many points but still ; 120 and 114.
Saturday was cancelled so no time anymore to catch up.

Final club class scores and Swiss champion , runner up and 3d place ;
1. David Leemann …2.806 clear champion.
2. Davide Giovanelli…2.496
3. Maria Schneider…2.063

18 m. same story, same fight for honors other names; Juerg and Rolf. Still departing together and arriving together 1000 points for 999. I guess they want to be equal number 1 in the end. Now the separation is 3 points in favor of Rolf.
On Thursday a 3.15 AAT for the pilots and this time it was Rolf with 1000 points and Juerg with 996.7 Points difference overall in favor of Rolf.
On Friday a set 352 km. on the menu and a total different story.Only Rolf and Fredy Zulliger finished. Juerg was “out” after 117 km. 1000 and 946 points for the best, Juerg had only 293 and dropped to spot 3 whilst Fredy was runner up. It turned out to be their last day as on Saturday it was cancelled.

Final 18 m. scores;
1. Rolf Friedli….5.140  clear CHAMPION
2. Fredy Zulliger…4.652
3. Juerg Haas…4.426

Open; On Wednesday the 3d daily win for Gabriel Rossier what a pity about the loss of points earlier in the comps, but rules are rules. 8 From 9 finished.
Thursday the Rossiers were 1 and 2 on a daily base and 2 and 3 overall now. Splendid racers!During the 3.30 AAT, Gabriel flew 376 km in time in 4.06 and Daniel 412 km. in time 4.32 !!!One finishing pilot flew 5 hours and 13 min over 310 km.BUT,….he made it!!!!
On Friday a 386 set task, still a difficult day,  as MarkusVon Der Krone won the day in the JS 1 with a speed of under 100 km. /h. ; 97.26 km./h.
Gabriel was 5th and Daniel out landed after 235 km. With one day to go Markus remained on spot 1 , Markus Gauman now was on spot 2 and Gabriel on 3 with Daniel on 4.
For open there was another day to put “things straight”!!!!
311 km. was set on Saturday and that’s enough to play last-day-games. Early starters between 1.40 and 1.53 PM, did well the Rossiers started at 2.30 and on the last day they had a daily score of 912 and 869 whilst Markus Gauman [Nimbus 4 M] had the full 1000. Not a lot of difference but I guess they wanted to improve. At least they tried.
Worst day for the other Markus with a 7th spot , but no worries he was far ahead of the rest.

So after 7 days in this class, not bad in by rain troubled Europe, the final scores;
1. Markus Von Der Krone …5.535 clear Swiss CHAMPION.
2. Markus Gaumann…5.146
3. Gabriel Rossier…5.004

Combi; Well known pilot Rainer Cronjaeger won the day with 647 points and moves up from 5 to 2. Not bad. Tizian [ Discus 2] still leads with 0ver 300 points. Tizian was the 2015 Junior Champion in Switzerland.
On Thursday a 3.15 AAT and Rainer won again in the ARCUS T ;237 km. in 3.10. Tizian out-landed after 62 km. He lost more than 300 points, but still leads with 12 points.
On Friday a 2.45 AAT. NO FINISHERS but a valid day and daily winner Rainer, his 3d win in a row.
NO 7 th day for them either so the final scores;
1. Rainer Cronjaeger …2.563 and Swiss Champion.
2. Tizian Steiger…2.477
3. Martin Buhlmann…2.404.

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CLUB class A
Częstochowa-Rudniki, Poland

50 Pilots flew for the CLUB class -A title in Poland and to make it difficult, there are again many ” performing”with the same name  Jakub, Lukasz,Piotr [x6] ,  but also Stanislaw, Jaroslaw and Miroslaw.
They had between July 2 and 9 ,a total of 5 valid days out of 8 ,  with 2 x a-1000 -points-day.
The last 2 days were cancelled.
In the end Jakub Barszcz won with 3.344 points. Not far behind was runner up, Lucasz Grabowski with 3.300 and on spot 3 Lucasz Kornacki with 3.238.

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French Championships for women, 18m. and open.

Great picture shared by the organizers on day 2 when the day had to be cancelled.

In La Roche-sur-Yon les Ajoncs, in France these championship started on July 9 with 78 pilots. They continue till July 16
Women;
22 of them… GOOD!!!!
Day 1 had a 2.30 AAT won by Magali de Cachard in Pegase. Aude Untersee was runner up in a Pegase as well.
Several Pegases in this class, a “real French” glider, a total of 15 !!!!! In total around 300 were built till 1988 when the production stopped.
I remember the first ones built by Centrair in 1981. The fuselage of the German ASW 20,  with a new wing. I even remember Marc Ranjon the owner of Centrair and the fact that he at that time,as agent for Schleicher built this new type;
“ Schleichers were not happy that their agent was in competition with them using their fuselage design, but the dispute was settled.”
Well you see they still happily fly and belong to the easy-to-handle-standard-club-gliders.

I missed one French pilot on the list, normally she is always there, JC [Jutta Sturm]  but only later I found out that she is recovering from a very nasty car accident in Germany in 2015. She cannot fly alone yet , but flies now with her husband in open class in an ASH 25/26 m. Good to see her flying in a 2-seater for the time being.

Girl power as seen by Juliette Charlie.[Jutta Sturm]  She flies this time not in the female class but in the open class.

Task 2 a set 115 km task.but was cancelled.
Task 3 was on Monday with a 106 km. task. Not much,  but with this weather at least a possibility to fly.And they did. Amelie Audier won the day in a St Cirrus with a speed of 86 km./h. about 20 km./h faster than the runner up in LS 4.
12 “girls” finished!
Task 4 yesterday showed a very small task; 1 hour AAT, but the day for the ladies was cancelled in the end.

18 m;
Also 22 participants in 18 m. class and 6 of them fly HC [Hors Concours] one of them Peter Eriksen  from Denmark and it was just he who won day 1; 999 points. Arne Boye Moller is an HC pilot as well. Spot 1 however was for French pilot Denis Guerin.
Task 2; 171 km. but cancelled in the end.
Task 3; had a “very small ” task as well, just over 100 km.[109] The 2 Danish pilots did well though flying HC they fly for the points and both were the best today. Arne with a start at 4.04 PM [201 points] and Erik at 6 .05 PM [ 209] !!!!!!! They were the only 2 to fly above 100 km./h.Jean -Denis Barrois was the number 1 with 99.9 km./h. [191]
Task 4 was a ONE hour AAT. 5 HEROES  finished  and a total of 6 pilots flew over 100 km. gaining between 120 and 162 points for their efforts.
Some pilots started at 4.15 PM others nearly at 6 PM!!!!
Denis Geurin had his 2d victory in the ASG 29 .Gilles Navas was runner up. They all flew over 2 hours.

Open;
Interesting class with many top pilots. Also 22 in this class and also HC pilots not competing officially, a total of 4. They are from Belgium[2] , UK  and Germany and cannot be French champion, but it is great to fly with and between the French pilots, always good at EGC’s and WGC’s and compare your own skills.
Task 1;Jean Marc Deycard won the 2.30 AAT, with  243 km in 2.35 . Eric Napoleon and his mate flew 284 km,  but needed more time [3.06]  still was runner up.

Day 1 picture shared by Juliette Charlie. [ Jutta flies with her husband in the ASH 25 and was on spot 10.
So keep an eye on the Sturm family.
and another great picture taken during flight, that’s the beauty of flying together.

Task 2 ; was cancelled.
Then on Monday no task in this class.
Task 3 was yesterday with for open class a nearly ridiculous task , but at least they could fly;ONE hour AAT and ONE pilot finished. Jean Marc Caillard [ASH30 MI with call sign RC] won the day with 186.90 km. and “received”  86 points.
Amazingly many kilometers, certainly when you look at the runner up Jean Marc Deycard [JS 1C with call sign DY] ] who flew 129 km. The rest [24] was under 100 km.
RC started at 3.47 ,whilst DY left at 6.10 PM.

——–

Interesting OLC flights!

On Wednesday July 6 Holland had great weather and several pilots used it for a nice long flight. Peter Millenaar [ASG 29E /18m] was one of them with a  750 all the way up from Malden, direction N to Friesland , then East into Germany, to past Porta Westfalica and back . Great stuff!! Spot 12 for the day WORLD WIDE!!!
July 9 was another EXCELLENT day in the USA. Top-pilots as Jim and Tom Payne and recent open class champion Keith Essex with Gavin Wills from NZ flew in teams and what do you want more with such WAVE-weather in Minden and each an ARCUS to fly in????
” A much better than expected rarity…good Minden wave in July. Mostly blue south of Minden.” was the comment from Jim on the OLC. The Payne’s flew  2.308 km.with a speed of 196.8 km./h.!!!!
Keith and Gavin, top wave pilot from Omarama, flew 1.905 km. with a speed of 196 km. /h. They flew a “yo yo in the wave and to keep it interesting they jumped around wave bars to the north.”
It’s worthwhile to have a look at their “fun- fan” -trace on the OLC on July 9.
Boulder had good soaring conditions as well with several 1000 km. flights in Ventus 2 ax /15 m. and Ventus 2CT /18m. and DG 800 b/18m.
Spain is awakening and the popular places as Fuentemilanos,[ 958 in in ASH 31/21 m]  Ocana [ 901 km in ASG 29.] and nowadays Cuenca Sotos have great flights. It’s just waiting for the 1000 km. day over there.

——–
News from the QSGP in Australia.

Hi all,

Entries for the Australian leg of the 8th Series of the Sailplane Grand Prix are now open.  The event will run at Horsham in western Victoria from 14th to 20th December 2016.

The website is at http://www.sgp.aero/australia2016.aspx?contestID=27849

This will be the first leg of the 8th series, which will conclude with a final at Vitacura in Chile late in 2017.  Assuming we have a full field at Horsham, the first two places will be selected for the final.

This event will be run in the 18m class.  No handicaps apply, although we may introduce a wing loading limit if the entry list warrants it.  Only 20 entries are allowed, and seeding via the IGC list will apply if it is necessary.

As the Contest Director for the SGP I and the organising committee would like to invite you to enter this contest.  It is a simple format, and the emphasis will be on fast racing around fixed tasks rather than endurance tasks, where the first pilot home will win.  Typical tasks will be 2.5 to 3 hours.

We do expect that several members of the Aussie team for the Worlds at Benalla will enter, and there has already been interest from overseas WGC contenders as well.
This promises to be a significant and spectacular event in this year’s gliding calendar.  Don’t miss it!
If you have any questions please contact the organizing committee at horshamsgp@glidingaustralia.org, or you can ring me at the phone number below.

———-

NO Holland did , rather amazingly, NOT qualify for the European Championship Soccer, Portugal won last Sunday  from France BUT………..
We still had a TOP SPORT WEEKEND;
the Dutch 100 m-relay ladies [with Dafne Schippers] won European GOLD,
Young [23] Anouk Vetter won unexpected with a new Dutch record [6626 points] the heptathlon
Max Verstappen drove his Formula 1 car to a 3d spot, to be later corrected to P 2
AND
Tom Dumoulin won the most important mountain stage during the Tour De France arriving on the top of the mountain in infernal rain and hail like marbles,… but with a glorious ‘winners-‘smile!!!

On top of that, as Murray fan, Andy won the Wimbledon final.

CU next week
Cheers Ritz

With the news from Aussie friend Bruce just too late to publish in my last blog , I continue with the last days of Nephi in Utah now.
Nice article again, also about his mates. Here is Bruce and THANK YOU Bruce;
—” What a day! The weather did blow up just as forecast, and as we expected pre-launch. However, the task-setters got it exactly right, and the turn points fit the storms like a glove. Everywhere we went there was a great line ahead of us, and when you looked back there was a door slamming shut behind you. Incredible! Parts of the day were really strong; I went so close to hitting the 17.5k limit a couple of times, cruising with 1,000 feet to spare and suddenly everything is going up like crazy. There is so much energy in the sky here, sometimes it is scary.
Today I really thought that I didn’t do much wrong. I started well, good climb straight out of the start, didn’t have to use anything weak, stayed high, got some absolutely spectacular runs, and always had a good line of lift in front of me. I even finished right on the second of our minimum time after a ballistic final glide. I did 176 kph around 430 km… and I came third!
Dick Butler and Keith Essex both did more than 182 kph!!
Dick we all know, one of gliding’s true gentlemen, but Keith is a newcomer. Let me simply say that everyone should watch out for this cool dude from Alaska. Keith has only been gliding a few years, and flying comps for one year. He is so eager to learn, and is really in the groove at present. He and his wife Deb are lovely people, and Keith has the knack for getting his JS1 really smoking. It’s a pleasure to watch. Unless the wheels come totally off the billycart, he is about to win the US Nationals.
The photos show some of the day’s action, overdevelopment beginning, what some of the sky ahead looked like on task, some virga and showers after we finished, and a sunset. Fantastic day to be a glider pilot!”—

I follow Keith from “far” ,as he added this last year some  nice long flights on the OLC .[ in June 2.774 km. speed 254.80 km./h. and 1.133 km.from Minden ]

June 29, one-but-last day: as Ron [Gleason] mentioned in the evening;
” Forecasts, models and procrastinators all lined and agreed that OD and high clouds would make for unsafe or unreliable racing conditions today.”
So the day was cancelled. A pity as it would have been really nice to see on 2 more good days how the pilots would do , specially with those close margins. So it will be ONE day now to see who is the best. Safety above all!
Ron by the way is a great guy. If this is the Ron from Uvalde, who was the scorer there , then I can tell you he is a lovely  person!!!!

June 30,…. last day of June…… last day of the comps!
What a pity They tied HARD !!!!! But the message was .”Gridded at 11:30, launched Standard Class at 12:10 and scheduled task open for 12:40.  The 15 Meters were next and after 1/3 of that class launched the CD conferred with the weatherman, task advisers and  CANCELLED the day due to rapid development and over development. “

So after 6 valid days with official scores it looks like this:
Standard class;
1. Bif Huss, when I am correct he won last year as well as a then relative new comer; 5157 points . Bif won 2 days was runner up on 2 days and the other 2 days he was 3 and 6 so great scores. Congratulations!!
2. Danny Sorensen, with 5140 points. Danny, flew consistent. Won one day and had daily scores as 2-3-4-9-5 on the other days.
The first 4 gliders were Discus 2 A or B.

15 m. class;
1. Peter Deane in ASG 29/15m. Peter won the first 2 days , then he was 16 [from 27] and 10-6 and 4.[5374]
2.David Leonard in ASW 27. David was 3 times runner up and on the other days on spot 4-17 and 6.[5369]

Open class;
Uys and AP shared the JS 1-C/21m. and HC they were the number 1 with 3 winning days and 3 days on spot 2-3 and 6. [5352]
1. Keith Essex, good on him.Same glider and specially in the end he had a great run with 2 winning days. Before he was 3 times  runner up and once on spot 9. Great soaring.[5309]
2. Good old Dick Butler in the CONCORDIA , as Bruce said, a real gentleman. That’s how I know him as well too. He flew consistent with spot 8-3-6-6-6-2. [5109]

Bruce’s “round up”;” So, it’s all done. The trophies have been awarded, the organizers and helpers have been thanked, the food has been eaten, and the drinks have been drunk, though there was very little of that here in Utah. I’ve made some great new friends, sampled some incredible gliding conditions, and learned a little more about myself. There were some moments that initially I would have preferred not to experience, but in hindsight they provided a good lesson, and in a strange way allowed all those people to get to know me more closely. Every single person here, whether they be pilots, crew or organizers, were all so friendly and supportive. They joined in the successes, and stood close in the more difficult moments.” 

Keith Essex [with his wife ]the new champion in open class and the HC winner Uys.
Pictures shared by Bruce.

——-—

The British and Dutch juniors.

The UK juniors  settled down in Issoudun last Friday for training.
They are [financially ] supported/ sponsored by Sydney Charles Aviation Insurance Brokers. Good on them.
Here is the news:
—-“The British Junior Gliding Team are delighted to announce that Sydney Charles will once again be sponsoring the Team through this season!
The sponsorship, along with the continued support of the British Gliding Association, will be going towards the Junior Squad’s development training, which kicks off in Issoudun, France, tomorrow. We’ll be bringing you updates on this over the next 10 days.
Once again a massive thank you to Sydney Charles for their continued support of the Team, building on our great success last year. Long may it continue.-–”
You surely remember the great results during the JWGC in Narromine from the UK team.

The Dutch team had great results as well in Narromine and they have a total program of sponsoring as well, you can read about it in the new Tulip Bulletin.  www.Dutchjuniors.nl
In the corner to the right you can find your own language!!!
Our top junior in Narromine , Robin Smit [runner up in standard class] flies in Pocuinai during the WGC in the end of July in the 2-seater class in an ARCUS  M with a more senior top pilot Hans Biesters.
The number 1 from Narromine JWGC will be there too and flies in the same class for Australia also in an ARCUS M. So they meet again now in Europe, in the 20 m. class; INTERESTING.

And the UK juniors added their news on FB and started well at the 41th INTERNATIONAL ISSOUDUN with 18 pilots in 2 classes;
” Congratulations to Jake Brattle winning day 1 in the club class at Issoudun, Finn Sleigh placing second in the open class and all the other strong performances by the junior development squad. The cold front cleared this morning leaving time for a (massively underset) 2hr AAT which open class romped round at 100kph. More of the same please! Mike”

No tasks on the 5th of July in Issoudun.
Yesterday a 253 km task was set for club. In this class a total of 8 pilots, ONE from France, one from Belgium the rest from the UK squad. Simon Brown won the day in the ASW 15 with a speed of 87.11 km./h.
Overall Jake Brattle is in the lead in the DG 101.

Also 253k.  in open class for the 10 pilots ;Thierry Nortier from France in an LS 6 /18m. won the day before UK pilot Mike Gatfield. After 3 flying days, Mike still leads with 20 points.

———-

Swiss Nationals .

The Swiss Nationals , in 4 classes, are flown from Schaenis and started on June 30 and continue till the 9th.
A lot of juniors in this National Competition as well and they are DOING WELL.
On the first days NO tasks were/could be set , but on July 3 they started with 2.15/2.30 AAT’s.
It’s all between Rolf Friedl and Juerg Haas in 18 m. They start and finish together and occupy spot 1 and 2 overall after 3 days.[   ]
11 Pilots in this class [10 Swiss and 1 German pilot]  and Juerg flew  in Tocumwal in the glider from Swiss Chris.
Yesterday it was even more spectacular, [if you try to do it it won’ t work] but this time they were equal on spot 1. Both 434 points.
The overall scores after 3 days are not the same but the difference is “only” 4 points.and…it ain’t not over yet!!

In  club class 7 pilots , 4 Swiss and 3…. German girls!!!! In this class it’s more or less a “fight” between David Leemann in LS 4 winning 2 days and Davide Giovanelli [ St Cirrus] as runner up,  both juniors with “a bright future”.
Yesterday however, on day 3 it was a “different story”  as Davide out-landed [89 points] and David won the 1.30 AAT [201].
Great job from German female pilot Maria Schneider [LS 1f] as runner up and as  one of the 3 finishers.
Starts after 2 PM and best distance by David ; 121 km. in 1.36.
After 3 flying days and 3/4 to go David leads and Davide follows but now with more than 250 points difference.

Davide and David ….Swiss Juniors .
Pictures from their junior site;
http://www.juniorgliding.ch/de/team/nationalteam

In open class 3 to me more well known pilots, Markus Gauman and the Rossier brothers Gabriel and Daniel and a total of 9.
Last Monday they had a 404 km. task won by Markus von der Crone in the JS1. The Rossier brothers won the first flying day but unfortunately lost massive points by infringements on Monday and both dived from 1 and 2 overall to 6 and 8 !!!
All 9 pilots finished on day 3 and Daniel in the ASH 31 MI/21m. flew clearly  further than the rest in his beautiful machine; 195 km. Gabriel , same beautiful glider,was 3d with 187 km.
Markus Von Der Krone still leads after 3 days

A combi class as well in Schaenis with 10 pilots flying between LS 4 [ handicap 104] and ARCUS T. [114]
10 Swiss pilots got on flying day 1 a 2.15 AAT and on day 2 a racing task from 315 km.
Martin Buhlmann won day 1 but on day 2 he was “only” 9th , but flying nearly 5 hours in his Discus 2 .
1000 Points for the winner , “only” 406 for him.
Chapeau for the daily number 6 flying just over 5 hours in his LS 4!!!!
4 Out-landings yesterday in this class and Mario Straub won the day.[Discus 2B]
Tizian Steiger[Discus 2] , one of the 10 Swiss Junior squad members,  leads the pact after 3 days with a 4th, 1st and 3d .

Tizian Steiger an other talented young Swiss pilot.
Picture from their junior site.

More next week.

———-

The 34th WGC for club, standard and 2 seater class in Pocuinai.

With 120 pilots from 29 countries this is going to be a huge event between JULY 31 and AUGUST 13. The official training will be on July 27-28-29.
All preparations are in full swing.
The current champions [Club class:- Eric Bernard, France,…..Standard class:- Bert Schmelzer, Belgium and….20m Multi-seat class:
–  Howard and Steve Jones, Great Britain ] will try to defend their titles but for sure , looking at the list of participants it’s not going to be easy.Looking forward to the event!!! Hope anyway that the weather will be BETTER!!!!!!!

———-

Gliding International…the July/August issue !

The July /August issue arrived from NZ in Holland and I always check straight away all stories and then read them in depth. Enough great stories.
—-I started my own column in this issue , with my concern about the many incidents and even accidents in the beginning of this 2016 season. I was even more shocked to see that it was worse than I thought!!
ONLY in May there were 22 incidents and accidents, TOO many. We lost 5 “mates”  in ONE month,…. that is much too much. I was sad to see that also girls were involved. As they write in the Magazine; May ..a poor start of the season.That’s an understatement!!!
—-As I knew Klaus Holighaus and I know Brigitte, Ralf and Tilo it was extra interesting to read the story” The Legacy of Klaus.” Martin Schempp and Wolf Hirth are mentioned as well. The history of all their legend-gliders is top reading too, certainly as my ex George owned/flew several Schempp-Hirth gliders as Cirrus , Nimbus 2, Ventus, Discus, Nimbus 3 and a brand new 4DM during the WGC in 1987 in Benalla.
—-The story about Polish top-glider pilot Adam Czeladski is touching. In 2009 he crashed with his LS 8 ” sustaining spinal injuries that rendered him a paraplegic.Less than a year after the accident he flew solo again in his brand new Discus 2CT.
Now he flies a JS1 with a Hand Control System. The full story is in the Magazine.
—-All about the AERO 2016 TRADE show in Friedrichshafen by Aldo. With p.e. news about the GP 14 from Peszke, the SWIFT from Italy, DRONES but also avionics, books and art, electric propulsion , the STEMME and more.
—-The Perlan Project costs now over 7 million….BUT the Space Glider Perlan 2 is helping Airbus with their innovations and goal to set the altitude record for of 90.000 ft[ 27.400 meters] to find out about similar conditions as on MARS.
—-63 Pages of aviation-news from all “corners”.

——-

Too much sport to follow at the moment!!! First of all,  the semi- finals and finals from soccer in France, the Tour de France, Wimbledon with exciting tennis and on top of that the European championship athletics in Amsterdam starting today in the renovated Olympic Stadium. The first big event after the Olympic Games in 1928!!!!

———

And to finish a picture from the good old times shared by Dieter ” Dundee”  Albrecht.
With Michael Giles [then] WGC pilot and long time guest, Don Escott, [instructor] Maria and Dieter Bottcher, [long time guests/friends] , Kurd Boyd [tuggy] ,Bones  [tuggy] , Lada [dad from Hana] ,Dundee [long time guest/friend] and another nice German couple who visited a few times, Wurbs-von Burlow if I remember well  and 2 I don’t remember .

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

What summer we have ???? Rain , thunderstorms, flooding…etc even here in Holland!!! Hail stones like tennis balls in the South of Holland  and trees broken like matches…unbelievable!!! Most glass houses ruined.
OVER 100 million is the expected bill for ONLY the hail damage !!!! In our region about 20 million for the rain damage, including the crops on the acres.
The huge hail balls are to be seen at Severe Weather Europe.
BUT ….one of our meteo guys forecasts a hot summer with heat waves!!!!! Let’s wait and see, there might be hope!!!
THIS,….is Holland as well this week a very nice weather phenomena. A storm-front ahead of a huge shower at the IJsselmeer, as seen and shared by Maurits Dortu, who travels end of this year to Australia for the WGC in Benalla as member of the Dutch team.

A roller cloud in Holland!!!?? Like Morning Glory in the N of Australia but now at home!!!!

In between,…. Euroglide fights the weather elements as well.
Before they started  the organizers already deleted Dahlemer Benz from the TP list due to a long rain forecast.
On Thursday some had reached Roitschjora close to Leipzig and some landed at Leszno.
Pilots arriving at the airport of  Mielec, had a warm welcome with a “sleep -over” in the hangar.
On the 24th a total of  7 had landed in Leszno in Poland on the way to TP Plock and some were on their way again from Plock up to the next TP Krosno .

Sleep over in the club house , BBQ and glider in the hangar, what do you want more?
Picture shared by Robin van Maarschalkerweerd.

Here is the map again so you can click on it and follow where they are . On the site you can follow the tracking of course as well.
www.euroglide.nl

Yesterday the first finishers arrived back at Venlo from the turbo class. Great effort from the boys in the ARCUS T with call sign EX and DX. Congratulations!!!!
Some teams however are “stuck” in Poland due to the bad weather. No worries, it’s a holiday anyhow, though all want to be back in a good time.
But also for them good news as you can see on the pictures shared by Frouwke. No rain but CU’ S.

Holiday soaring atmosphere!!! On the “GO” again.
Pictures shared by Frouwke.

———–

USA Nationals in standard, 15 m. and open class.

News for day 2 by Bruce;
“Here is the sky on the direction we are going today, on a 3 hour AAT. It stays mainly west, as the weather to the east where we went yesterday is forecast to be overdeveloping, possible small storms. I think there might be some grid-sitting today while we wait for things to heat up.“

2 Hours later;” The day has been called off. Still some high cloud cover, and the temperature has dropped about 5 degrees. Back to the house.”

During briefing he was allowed to give a safety briefing about what happened to him, as “ I think there is something to be gained from telling the story” .
He got huge support from ALL.
Here is Bruce;” I delivered the safety briefing this morning, and told my tale. I was concerned that I would struggle to keep it together, but I mostly managed to keep talking. The gliding world is full of fantastic people, and they have shown me huge support, along with all my family and friends. So many thanks to each and every one of you.
Now, today is another day.”

Bruce with an after-safety- briefing of his difficult flight.
Shared by the organizers.

Off they went indeed for another day [2] on the 23d. A good day for Uys who won again in open.
Bif Huss is doing a great job in standard class and in 15 m. it is Peter Deane who flies really well till now.
In open it’s all about Uys , Keith and Dick ,being 1-2-3 for the day and overall. Of course being from South Africa Uys flies HC.
Bruce did a good job being 6th for the day.
–” Today the weather looks to be excellent, maybe the best day of the competition. We have been given a 4 hour MAT task, which means we have a sequence of assigned turn points to visit, with the aim of arriving back at home at least after the 4 hours has elapsed. If you don’t visit them all, that is fine, and if you are fast enough that you need some more distance, then you can choose your own from the turn point list, so long as you don’t fly back and forth between the same two points; you must visit another one in between. Is that clear? Really it is like a set racing task with a time component. Having never flown one of these tasks, I am very interested to see how it goes. It may be a good solution back at home for the pilots who don’t like assigned area tasks. The day is firing up as forecast at present.“

But,……

—” Today looked like it was going to be a good one, and the 4 hours assigned for out MAT sounded like a load of fun. However, we are having some trouble getting the entire fleet in the air fast enough. It is still taking two hours to launch 65 gliders, and the Open Class is always at the rear, so we struggle to get a reasonable flight completed. Today we basically all started the moment the gate opened, which was 3:30 pm local time. It was obviously not going to work having us come home at 7:30pm, so the task was shortened half an hour. That would have been OK, but some small storms/overdevelopment happened as we turned for home from the south, and it was difficult to make the last few turns. Shame, as the weather was boiling pretty nicely up until then, with some good strong climbs going well above the 17.5k limit. After my experience on Tuesday, I enjoyed staying high and surveying the Utah high desert from afar! It also meant that when the stuff hit the fan I cruised quietly home, when I probably should have had a go at one more turn. I finished 20 minutes early, which costs a heap of points too. The idea of struggling low and creeping back home on a really marginal glide didn’t excite me too much. It was a fun day.
The photos are late in the afternoon, one towards the turn that some guys managed to make, and the other, with the better-looking cu in the distance, is the view home. By the time I got back, those clouds had collapsed also. Well done to the winners – looking through those names there are no surprises. They are all the good guys.—“

On June 24 flying- day 3!!! Here is Bruce after he WON the day!!!
—“I think today was the best day yet. It was still strong and high, but there were no storms or showers to get in the way. There was a bit of wind, often around 20 knots, but that actually lined the lift up nicely, and I found it easier to get some nice long glides. As happened yesterday we began with a 4 hour task, and it was cut back to 3 while we waited for the launch to progress. We were just running out of time. In the end the day lasted long enough that we could have managed another half an hour, but after the last few days you wouldn’t have known that it was going to be possible.
The task went south then east to get home, and my track took me over the scene of my horror on Tuesday, but at the significantly more comfortable height of 16,000 feet. One of the photos shows the area where I was low. Pretty ugly isn’t it? The other shot is during my best climb of the day, with a peak over the panel of a delicious Utah sky. I managed to stay nice and high all day, got some good runs like I said earlier, and finished 322 miles at 106 mph for a day win. Very satisfying!“— Bruce.

What happened more on flying day 3?
In standard class it’s more or less  a “fight” between Bif [Huff] and Danny [Sorenson]. They circle around each other for spot 1 or 2. Today Danny won and Bif was 3d. The totals after 3 days are close; Bif with 2797 and Danny 2735. Walt Rogers ” hangs in ” with 2722 [4th today] The rest ,9 pilots, are at this stage 300 points behind.

In 15 m. 28 Pilots and also in this class 2 pilots who “fight”  each day for the honors.David[ Leonard] leads after 3 days with Peter [Deane] just behind him; 2754 for 2717.

In open Uys still leads HC with 2914 points.[JS1 c-21 ] He was 2d for the day behind Bruce. Keith Essex [JS 1 C-21 ] who was 8th for the day still leads , the championship, with 2770 but his marge is not big as David [JS 1 C-21] and Dick [CONCORDIA] follow closely; 2738 for 2736.
Still 6 days to go!!!!!

June 25;
Day cancelled due to weather at the morning pilot’s briefing. A cold front has brought north winds to the valley and cooler temperatures. While the temperatures are pleasant for ground crew, today’s forecast does not include soarable weather. Conditions should be improving tomorrow.
Still 5 days to go!!!!AND,…….as they expect good days:
“next  few days should be strong hard racing with no letting up. Fingers crossed” as shared by Bruno pilot from B 4.
He also mentioned :” Uys Jonker and the Jonker crew gave a fine demonstration and presentation tonight during dinner.  They flew the new jet around the airport with beautiful Mount Nebo in the background.  Be sure to look for pics and video of this demo on our facebook page. Uys then shared with a full house the background development of their JS1 and working to make improvements to performance in the future. The pilots really enjoyed the evening.  Catering was Mexican from our favorite caterers!!”

JS 1 flight  by Uys with jet-demonstration and ENOUGH interest in this glider.

June 26; was hot and VERY blue with late launches and for all classes racing tasks!!
As said , Walt Rogers is hanging in, and so good that with his 3d place for the day he moved to spot 1 overall in standard class!!!
Danny is 2d and Bif 3d.
In 15 m. it was not such a good day for the 2 “toppers”. Peter was 10th and David 16th. They still lead but Rick Indrebo is on their tail with only 80 points behind David.
In open it was Uys again. He shares his glider now with South African toppilot AP Kotze.
The top 4 is all JS 1 and then the CONCORDIA.

Bruce had another good day and was 3d. He is 8 overall.
Here is his daily story;
“A slightly frustrating day all around today. The weather was slow to start, and we had two pilots meetings at the front of the grid, which resulted in two changes of task, from “A” to “C” to “D”. Once again we were running out of time, and our gate did not open until 4:25pm. The final iteration was just 195 miles, east one valley, then a run down that valley to the south, over a range to the west and home again. There were just a couple of cu when we first went east, but the rest was blue. Heights were OK; it was possible to get over 17,000 feet, but once we were racing there was no point in going higher than 15-16,000, as the lift strength was dropping off. Short tasks are always difficult, as one small slip usually costs you a big percentage of time, whereas on a longer flight the mistakes even out for everybody. My flight was frustrating too, as I had my slow spot after the final turn. There was nothing going up and a group of us got low there, before we found a climb that was less than average. I finished in third place, but felt that I could have done that part of the flight better.”

June 27; Day 5…….A fabulous good strong day in Nephi, except for 1 pilot in standard class. Walt out-landed and dropped from his nice 3d place to spot 10, by gaining “only” 558 points for the day.
As they mentioned in the daily story; “A great fun day of racing around the Great Basin.  Looks like we have one landout, it will shake up the Standard Class standings, and some great speeds.”
Bruno Vessel flying the ASW 27 had the fastest long flight in his life; 125.07 km./h. over 646 km.

Open Class – Top 5 were over 100 MPH and more than 425 miles

Standard Class – top three over 90 MPH raw before the handicap.

15 Meter – Top 15 for the day were greater than 90 MPH and more than 425 miles

Lot’s of smiling faces and tired pilots.  Need to go remind them to hydrate and eat well so they can do it all over again on Tuesday.

Just over 1:30 to launch 61 gliders!  The ground crew is rocking!

June 28; forecast for today and the next 2 days; over development! The news on their site:
” 15 Meter stated at 13:05 local time for 3 hours 
Standard and Open task B for 2.5 hours.
All classes returning between 1600 and 1620 local time.  Sky is filling with cumulus, over development, high run off from far away cells and the first sounds of thunder.
Hoping for safe task and landings.”

In Standard class Bif was 1 for the day and AGAIN overall. Walt was runner up for the day and climbed again to 4 overall [great effort] and Danny was 5th and 2 overall now  only 17 points behind Bif. Exciting last days!!!!
In 15 m. same story . The 2 “toppers” Peter and David are still  “fighting”  for the honors. Peter was 4th for the day, David 7th. Result overall; 5374 and 5369.!!! Gary Ittner won the day and is 3 overall now!
Open class saw Keith as daily winner and he is the number 1 overall as well. Uys/AP are still HC in the lead. 5352 for 5309. Dick with the CONCORDIA is now on spot 2 overall. Good old Doug Jacobs had a less good day being 11th but still is after so many years , at this stage, in the top 5. Bruce is 6th with a daily 3d place.
All scores unofficial.

———–

QSGP in Austria.

The pilots , the gliders, the tuggies , part of the LOGO team, the organizers from the QSGP .
Picture courtesy Christoph Graif via FB.

Finally the good weather reached Niederöblarn in Austria and after 3 days without a task, they started with a 234 km. flight on their day 2 on June 22. Wolfgang was the best in his Ventus flying the distance with a speed of 126.44 km./h. and “collecting”  the 10 points for the day.
11 From 19 finished. Bostjan was runner up [8 p]  and Didier 3d. [7 p.]
Day 3 was straight on the next day, bigger task, better weather; 360 km. This time German pilot Simon Schroeder won the 10 points by flying around with a speed of 132.53 km./h. Number 2 and 3 were from Germany as well; Jan Frederic Mueller [8] and Mario with 7 points.He was as fast as Simon, but did not round a TP well.
Except for one they ALL finished and the non-finisher was only 13 km.out.
Day 4 had an even longer task and after the 3 non-flying , lazy days the ” boys” had to work; 403 km.
Excitement enough as Wolfgang has 17 points and Bostjan and Jan Frederic 14.A total of 13 for Mario and 11/10 for the Schroeders, Robert and Simon.
A big “cloud” of gliders arrived at the finish line after the 403 km. 8 within 4 minutes,  some a tad later.
Best speed and winner of the 10 points. Werner Amann.[127.75 km./h.]  runner up Bostjan with 127. 33 and on 3 Robert with 127.16 km./h. They all had a chance to win the day , flew alternately on different positions , but in the end Werner separated from the rest and went home with extra speed.
So how does it look before they start on the last day?
22 points for Bostjan and 19 for both Mario and Wolfgang, 18 for Robert and 15 for Simon. They are all still in the race!!!!!

The airfield as shared by the organizers.

Day 5 last day!!!!!Task; 131.88 km.
Werner won the day and with the 11 points from the last day and the 10 he scored earlier by winning a day he had a total of 21 points. NOT enough to win. Bostjan , 5th for the day, earned 5 more and wins with a total of 27, the QSGP from Austria.
Wolfgang only “got”  2 points to add to his total and that was not enough to be runner up. [21 p. as Werner]
2 Pilots share the runner up spot. Simon and Mario both from Germany and both with 22 points.

5 Days out of 8 with this terrible weather is pretty good. Nice long distances as well on 2 days 360 and 403 km.
Another “LIKE”- QSGP.
The next one is in the UK in 18 m. configuration . Between July 9 and 17. 20 Pilots have been selected, another 7 are on the reserve list. Among the UK pilots ;Andy Davis and Russell Cheetham and 3 pilots from Germany. The race will be flown from Bicester Gliding Centre.

———-

UK Nationals standard and 2-seaters.

On their 2d flying day from 7 finally a task again for all those waiting and patient pilots; 220 km. for standard, 216 for the 2 seaters and the “regionals” got 154 km.
SO sad, ….but they had to cancel the task.
The last day was a very marginal day again and it just made 2 days for St Class with a 153 km. task, but nobody finished. The best pilot reached 144.75 km which seems already a miracle but George  Metcalfe did it followed by Jez Hood with 143 km. and Howard Jones with 140.  The rest did not reach 100 km.
In the end George won with a total of 634 points what says it all.He “climbed” from 3 to 1 on this last day adding 108 points to his total.Howard moved from 5 to 2 [559] .
In the 2 seater class the day was cancelled so were the regionals. So only ONE day for them, but they all will have had good fun together, as the weather is the weather. You have to do/deal with it.
Andy won flying day 1 in the 2 seater- class and “got” 440 points for the day,  that was also the final result.

———-

Interesting OLC flights!

German pilot Thorsten Streppel flying an LS 6 WL in the USA, mentioned in his comment on June 23;
“Finally the first 1000km day at Parowan this year. Very nice convergence lines, easy to use despite some local over-development and thunderstorms.”
He flew the next day another 1000. Not bad in an LS 6 with winglets.
1.097,17 with a speed of 137.41 km./h. and [with an outlanding not far off] 1.057,16 km. with 142,13 km./h.
Mathias Schunk flew his 9th 1000 km. flight for the season on June 24, this time from Koenigsdorf  in the Quintus M. It looks he wants to win the Alpen Liga.
June 26 showed 2 1000 km-flights from Parowan on another amazing Parowan day.[ DG 800S/18m. and ASW 27]
Parowan was “glowing ” again on June 27. Ramy Yanetz flew in his ASW 27 1.207 km with a speed of 133 km./h. He commented on the OLC:”Super epic day. The hardest part was to stay below 18K with thermals averaging 10-15 knots and cloud bases well above 20K.”
And
” Averaged at least 150kmh most of the flight but traded speed for distance the last couple of hours to stretch the flight to 1200km”   9 Over 1000 km. flights in the ELY / Parowan area. Same great weather in Parowan [more to the NW]  as in Nephi  .

———-

It’s still far away but here is the latest from Tom Claffey about the comps at NARROMINE:
Hi all,

After much consulting with all concerned we finally have firm dates, just adding one more day to finish on the Sunday 19th of Feb.
Starting practice day Sunday 12th Feb, first comp day Monday 13 Feb.
This allows anyone flying Horsham week to drive up on the Sunday and still compete Monday while getting in the full days for the comp.
Comp is open to all two seaters, with the 20M two seaters up for National Championships and international team selection.

Happy Flying,

Tom

———–

After nearly 70 years and 5 months of examinations,  they diagnosed me with asthma. NEVER EVER had a problem with my lungs!!!!
Bad allergies as well, so more medicines to recover, but nobody can heal asthma unfortunately.
No worries I am going to live with it!
Cheers Ritz

Back on track after a great week with my high school friends. Was n’t the fittest person in the world, we did not have the best weather either , but we did what we wanted to do; having fun, lot’s of talking, shopping, even walking [ every day,…. but 2 times 10 km.] and biking[ once 25 km.]!!

So life goes on and last Monday was some kind of jubilee. I wrote my first soaring-eu blog from Holland exact 10 years ago. In total I have written 20 years. Starting when we were running Sportavia from 1996 onward with the Latest News.

Back to news about soaring and comps or GP’s NOW.
By the way I visited on my way to the holiday resort,  for an half hour the airport of  Malden where the Open Military Championship was busy with it’s last day.
Impressive is the only word for the new club house of the NIJAC . It looks like a glass tower , on the first floor, where you can sit outside with a drink to oversee the airport.
The old club house has been renovated and looks enjoyable and spiffy as well.

QSGP [18meter] in Austria.
June 18-25.

With 19 competitors , 7 from Austria, 1 from Switzerland  and France, 2 from Slovenia and 8 from Germany this competition is flown from Niederöblarn in beautyful Styria.
They could start straight away on Saturday with a 158 km. task, won by well known Swiss pilot Werner Danz. He got the 6 points for the day.
Christian Hynek, flying the ” SHARK” was the unlucky one for the day,  missing the start line and “getting” 5 minutes penalty.A pretty tricky day with several re-landings before the regatta start with a max start-height of 2000 m.

The more lucky ones from day 1; Werner on spot 1, Robert [Schroeder 4 points] on 2 and Klaus Kalmbach [ 3 points] on 3 and number 4 was Wolfgang [Janowitsch.. 2 points] and 5 was Mario [Kiessling.. 1 point].

Sunday, was cancelled.
Monday, was cancelled.
Tuesday, was cancelled.

———–

The Cotswold Nationals and 2016 Regionals.
June 18-26.

With 23 pilots in the standard class Nationals and 15 in the 2-seater class this is a competition flown from Aston Down in the UK. Another 10 fly the Regionals.

Unfortunately day 1 on Saturday June 18 had to be cancelled, Small tasks were set but “in vain”.
Sunday was cancelled as well, but the forecast for the rest of the week was better.
Monday was a no-go, but on Tuesday tasks were set; 206 for standard, 239 for the 2-seaters and the Regionals had to go for 164 km.
They were reduced to 153 km for standard and at least 3 pilots finished with a start just before 4 PM and finish between 6 PM and 6.38. They got 553, 527 and 526 points for their efforts.
So 3 Finishers  and 15 over 100 km. [107-to 150 km.] . Close but just not ” in ” was Ayala Truelove. She got 471 points for her 150.60 km.
16 LS 8 gliders from 23 in this class.
155 km. for the 2-seaters and also here 3 finishers; Andy Davis with the ARCUS T with a speed just under 80 km./h.[440 points]  Kim Tipple in ARCUS T also,  was runner up[434]  and Peter Hurd in the Duo Discus XT was 3d.[398] Number 4 flew 144 km in a Duo Discus T still got 353 points.
87 km. for the Regionals and at least 2 finishers.
All results preliminary.

———-

15 m, standard and Open class Nationals in Nephi Utah [USA]
June 20-30

Bruce Taylor from Australia traveled all the way up to Utah to fly the USA Nationals. Here is his first impression from his ” Taylor’s Gliding Place” . For those who cannot follow that on FB , I copy and paste it here with his permission;
—-” We have arrived at Nephi, Utah for the Open Class nationals, which begin on Sunday. After crossing into Utah amid the red and brown I was expecting, it became steadily greener towards Nephi, about 70 miles south of Salt Lake City. Tomorrow I will have my one and only practice day, and the weather looks to be OK. Early next week the weather could become extremely good… Fingers crossed! Photo is from the airfield car park. Reminds me a little of Mount Terminillo in Rieti.—“

Indeed he is right.

Practice ;
—” First day flying today, and I managed a personal best. I know for many it is not so impressive, but in 6500 hours I have never had a thermal climb to 18,000 feet. I have been (much) higher in wave, but not in thermals. The day was generally a bit difficult, and at one stage I even contemplated the embarrassment of an out-landing first day out! However we dropped some ballast and struggled out of trouble. I didn’t fly a huge distance, but did start to get a feel for how things work, and I have to say that it is different to all the other mountain sites I have visited. The trees grow quite high up the slopes, and all the greenery seems to affect how the thermals develop. I think on a good day there will be thermals everywhere, but on cooler blue days like today it is only the very hottest bare peaks that work. I was watching the only cumulus in the sky about 50 km East of Nephi, and late in the afternoon I went to explore, and found a little convergence there. Cloud base looked to be around 20,000 feet, but the limit for us is 18,000. Shame The next couple of days are going to be similar, with some wind around, but Tuesday looks like being a monster.. Can’t wait!–-” 

Official practice day on Sunday June 19;
Bruce; ” False alarm. We have two practice days, competition begins on Tuesday. Today is blue, blue, blue with a 3 hour AAT. That means we have a choice in which piece of blue we use. Most pilots are flying, as for many of us it is our first visit here.”
and
—“A bit more of the same today, except lower and slower. We were set a 3 hour AAT, north-east, south then west before coming home, probably about 380km scratch distance. The weather was pretty slow again, and we were mostly working below the ridges, with some tippy-toe flying amongst it all. Further south and out of range for our task there were some high cu’s and lenticulars, no use to us at all. The day took a long time to start, and I was afraid it might stop early. For me at least it did, and the final 100km was almost totally dead. After landing though, there were a few signs of wave on the final leg, so maybe I just flew in the wrong place.

Despite the tough conditions, I felt slightly more confident today. It’s always hard going to a new site, as flying well is so much about confidence, and today I felt like I could push along a bit more and stay out of trouble. It almost turned to worms on the last leg, but we got home somehow.
Photos are out east of Nephi. As you can see it is quite green and scenic. Not a description normally associated with great gliding, but I think this place might be different.—” 

For what it is worth Bruce won this BLUE practice day in his 18 m. ASG 29 with a 3 hour TAT[turn area task] !!!Different mountains, different tasks as in TAT etc, so good on him.
BUT,…..there are a few very GOOD pilots in his class , as in 15 m. and standard. So let’s wait and see what this upcoming week brings.

Practice day 2 on Monday June 20 was won in open class by Dick Butler , now in the CONCORDIA and not in the SUSI-1A he flew in on practice day 1. I had to go to Wikipedea to find out more about this glider and here you are ;
—” The Sisu 1A is a competition sailplane built in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Originally designed by Leonard Niemi as a homebuilt sailplane, its first flight in 1958 showed such promise that Niemi decided instead to manufacture it in series production. Niemi formed the Arlington Aircraft Company for this purpose. The Sisu 1A quickly proved itself as the most competitive American sailplane ever developed, winning the 1962, 1965, and 1967 U.S. National Soaring Championships. On July 31, 1964, a Sisu 1a piloted by Alvin H. Parker became the first sailplane ever to fly farther than 1000 km. “—-

So would Dick add 2016 as a new winning-year in this old-timer with many world records behind it’s name ??????
The answer is NO. During the comps he flies the CONCORDIA!!!!! He was 7th on day 1.
I hear from insiders that the SISU  is a pretty heavy glider but with great performance on high speed.

Bruce’s experience till now , is a good one as well ;
“Nephi looks to be a great soaring site, my first experience of the western US. Big thermals!”
Practice day 2 was good practice and Bruce finished as 5th.
” Today will be 100 degrees. At midday it is still blue, but the nice weatherman says we will have some cloud today. Heights may be above 18,000 feet. I smiled at the forecast thermal strengths… 8-10 knots, peak climb rates to 15.5!! Could be fun.”

Yesterday they started the comps and
—“ First day of organized gridding, and I have to say it wasn’t… at all…. 4 hour AAT and the weather looks pretty smokin’ hot. Hopefully more time bouncing off the height limit. If we do anything like predicted speeds we’ll need every inch of the areas they’ve set us, so will have take care of that, but there is usually something to slow us down. Photos of the grid thing, with JS waiting patiently. —”
As said Uys in the JS 1C-21m. won the first day. Keith Essex in the same glider was runner up. Bruce was 14th after an out-landing and RESPECT for his next story about day 1 !!!!!!!

—-“I’m unsure how to begin. Today I escaped having an accident by a tiny amount, and whilst I believe that it is important to tell the story, I don’t want to scare those who care about me. I am back in our house, safe and sound, but severely humbled. I care not about the fact that I out-landed, but I do care about what happened earlier in the flight. I flew down to a frighteningly low height above totally unlandable terrain, and I went within an inch of breaking a borrowed glider. The scenario contained both poor decision-making on my behalf, a lack of knowledge of the area, and some weather that simply caught me out. The attached photo was taken looking down my intended track about 20 minutes before this whole episode. The attractive cu’s overdeveloped quite rapidly, but even after this started I thought that they would still be working. I did get a long run of good air, but should have realized sooner that there were no more climbs to be found. I deviated right, which is west, to chase what I thought was the more active side of the clouds, thereby putting myself further into trouble. Long story short, I arrived at the very far right of this photo incredibly low. My only option would almost certainly have meant a broken glider, and I have never done that. Finally I climbed away, after a radio call to explain that I was in serious trouble, I continued the task for some time, then got low again, then climbed again, from where I realized that I had safe glide to a nice, paved airport. I’d had enough excitement for the day, so landed and took an aero-tow home. I now have a very much greater respect for this site, and a heightened awareness that I am not infallible.—”
This is the picture Bruce talks about.

Ready to go on day 1 with happy and exciting expectations for a great one.
More about them next week.

———–

EUROGLIDE 2016.

Started last Monday. A monster trip through Central Europe of 2400 km. All pilots LOVE IT!!!
In the past they started at Eindhoven but all gliding operations from Eindhoven Airport have ceased. Now they start from Venlo in the South of Holland and the organisation of Euroglide 2016 is a joint operation now of both clubs.
So start and finish of Euroglide 2016 will be on Venlo airfield.
Here is the news from the site:
The basis of the route is a triangle with start and finish at Venlo and two turn-points in Poland. The first turn-point is Plock, just North-East of Warszawa. Then to the South of Poland where the turn-point is either Nowy sacz or Krosno, depending on the class.

The Gliders and Self launchers have the first leg to Plock via Borkenberge and the Turbos have the first leg to Plock via Dahlemer Binz.

The total distance of the two tasks is around 2420km.
More details can be found in the Euroglide 2016 Rules, available on the rules page.
http://www.euroglide.nl/

2 Dutch teams …ready to go. Good luck to ALL.

On Monday it was raining “cat’s and dog’s”   up to 25 mm at some places, but the weather will improve!!!!
On Monday evening at 11.10 PM, Luc Weber published this picture;

It was either waiting or displacement by car. At least some German beer was available for some yesterday evening[Oerlinghausen and Flugplatz Dinslaken, Borkenberge ] so quite a few moved by car…trailer on “tow”.
Today looks good!

———-

They have already good weather in Brazil at Bahia Gliding. Look at this!
32 Dgr. C and a cloud-base of 2000 m.

———–

AND.
news from Graham Garnett from the UK.
About
LASHAM GLIDE 2016 the prequel for the EGC 2017.

—-” To all my gliding friends in the UK and abroad please read and share this post.

Lashamglide 2016 (30 July – 7th August) which consists of the 15m and Open Class Nationals also has an 18m competition.

It has now been decided that the 18m competition will be a handicapped competition with the handicaps ranging from 105 – 111 (UK handicap rules)

By the way, we have had the longest day yesterday and on the same day the astronomical summer started here with a bit of sun. On Monday it felt like autumn. BUT,.. we will have up to 30 dgr on Friday,…yes…..with thunderstorms.
The first half year Holland had more rain than ever counted for in history. Up to 500 mm. where 300 to 350 is the normal average.
Still terrible weather in Europe.
Warshaw in Poland had a severe down burst on June 17 with heavy rain and wind. Tornado’s at Serbia on Monday and heavy hail in SE Italy last Sunday. [Puglia]
[ https://www.facebook.com/severeweatherEU/]

Cheers Ritz

We are not done YET with the VERY bad weather in parts of Europe. The LOW is SLOW!!!!
Specially Germany, France , Belgium and Holland are hit by lot’s of rain, HIGH water, and for that reason earth- slides and flooding.Not for 100 years the water was so high, so EARLY in the season.
10 People  in Germany only, are killed by the flooding.
In Paris even the Louvre closed it’s doors,  as a precaution for the high water. So they could save the art on the lower stock close to the Seine,  and bring it up higher ,to safe places.They don’t really worry too much,as they have very high-standard- precautions for the museum.
France is worried about the bill and expect it to be over a milliard.

The weekend was just HOT, with up to 28 dgr. C. We even had the “hottest”  night ever , 17.1 dgr.C on the 4th.
But also , on Saturday, after FOG, …..some nice clouds and for parts of Holland great distances again up to 708 km.whilst the South . [Noord Brabant and Limburg ] still suffer under ” code orange ” with rain and heavy thunderstorms.So flights from Terlet and Soesterberg were up North and East; several over 500 km. flights as well.

Very bad and wet also in parts of Australia. Sydney was hit so was the road to the airport of Camden [NSW] ; only just just visible!!

As shared by the Narromine friends. [picture courtesy Winter Calm] .They had enough water as well, ” it was wet over the weekend“…but not as bad.

———-

The Polish 15 m. Championships.

Not the best weather either , as you can see on the picture shared by Sebastian Kawa.

No luck , with the weather  either in Poland. With 3 out of 5 days,  they continued on June 1, with a 1.30 AAT.
Points were provided to 29 pilots from 12 [lowest] to 441 points.
206 km. was the best distance but too much time was needed by Tomas Rubaj ; 2 .01 .49. The winner had 167.86 km. in 1.036.09.
Sebastian , flying the DIANA 2, was with 173.55 km. on spot 3.
On June 2 another “try” with a bit more time; 2 hours!!! A good day for the pilots  called ….LUCASZ. They finished on spot 1-2 and 4 with Sebastian on spot 3.
Mac was on spot 4. Most pilots started around 13.26.
Janusz Centka….who was on spot 1 overall after the 3 flown days , did not start anymore .
He was involved in a mid air; no injuries to pilots but lot’s of damage as I heard to the ARCUS and open jantar.

THEN ….the weather really improved on June 3!!! Elsewhere they could fly 1000 km in Poland in Leszno a set task from 365 was handed out to the pilots and off they went for a 1000 points-day and speed mainly above 100 km. h. Mac was runner up with a relative late start.
On June 4 the weather even more improved and 475 km. was set for the last day. The pilots with as first name Lucasz did well again; 1-2-and 10 nice speed with 123 km./h.
The results after ,in the end, still  6 out of 9 days were;
1. Lucasz Blaszczyk in the DIANA 2 with 3.710 points.
2. Lucasz Grabowski in the ASG 29  with 3.644 points.
3. Lucasz Wojcik in Ventus 2ax with 3.333 points .
Mac was 10th with 2.782 points.

———-

The Qualifying SGP in France. [June 4-11]

As they mentioned; ” The orange juice is in”
Good old cold , clear, delicious Dutch Heineken beer. ” Heerlijk Helder Heineken”. Shared by organizers.

One of the first of the 19 pilots arriving at Rennes ,Saint Sulpice, was  Mogens Hoelgaard from Denmark, with his crew. Also Iain Baker is “in”  as FAI referee.
More European pilots in France , as good old Patrick Stouffs competes,  as do 2 UK pilots , Gary Stingmore and Jon Gatfield, as well as Erazem Polutnik from Slovenia.
I remember Alain Mazalerat from comps in Angers and he was a bit older than I am, so he must be pretty old now, but as it looks still going strong and VERY experienced.
It’s a 15 m. conversion QSGP and they started with pretty marginal weather as well.
Day 1; June 4. Race 1; 115 km. with a “bad sky”  , several starts , returning pilots ….waiting…relaunching….low cloud base but,  also at some places some convergences. In fact no hope for a day BUT, a miracle happened and they flew! Only 4 finishers and most points [5] were for Jean Denis Barrois in the ASW 27b. Louis Bourderlique got 3 points and Alain and Patrick 2 and 1 !!!!A real challenge and a question of luck as well is what the winner said after the flight.

Day 2; June 5. Race 2; 151 km. and a tad better weather. Still only 5 finishers lot’s of penalty points and the 6 points for the day were for Louis. Christophe was runner up in about the same time ,  but he got 56 penalty sec.so 4 points for him. Most pilots, 10,  were on the wrong side of the start line 1 min before start , so if you were there for 2 sec you got 4 penalty points, if you were there for 60 sec your punishment was 120 sec and in case of Christophe it was 28, so 56 in total!!!
The weather was not so good at the field but much better to the West. Coming back was difficult again but also nice for the admirers/spectators  at the ground, as all gliders passed the field to the last TP to come back home and not that high. Some even had to use their engines.

Day 3; June 6. Race 3;Ready to go see picture above shared by the organizers.
116 km. was set and finally it turned out to be a 10-points-day. And….the 10 points were for…..Louis again. He has a total of 19 points now. 11 From 18 pilots have points now!

Day 4; June 7; Race 4 with 189 km. and the French pilots  doing a great job. New names on the first spots as Frederic Hoyeau and Freddy Barthlemy who was 3d yesterday as well.
10 Pilots finished among them Mogens Hoelgaard.
After 4 races Louis still leads the pact with 23 points.There are 19 points for Christophe Ruch and 15 for Freddy, whilst Jean Denis has 14.
When I am gone you can find it all day by day  at; http://www.sgp.aero/france2016/results-sgp/results.aspx?contestID=15485

Just before I published I got some news about yesterday and today from Iain.
Here you are;
—“We’re posting videos and photos on sgp.aero to capture what is happening, and there’s live tracking with text commentary (and the tracking can be replayed later for those who cannot watch it live or who want a fast replay). The weather has not been classic, low cloudbases but every day has been racing. 

Yesterday was really exciting, with Frédéric Hoyeau taking a lead half way around the task, flying all alone, and only Freddy Barthelemy breaking away from the main gaggle to try and stay in touch with Fred.  The rest of the pilots were 20 km behind, all challenging for third place.  With different tactical decisions on the last main leg of the task, Freddy took the lead with a 3 km advantage but less altitude – only for Fred to pass him within sight of the finish line.  Moustique (Christophe Ruch) and Christophe Abadie finished three minutes later, side-by-side and impossible to separate after 2½ hours flying. 

Today we are expecting good weather and better cloudbases, hopefully another classic exciting race.  And the ambience at Planeurs Ille et Vilaine is great, well-organised and friendly, there’s lots of support from sponsors and the local community and good coverage from regional media (a TF3 television crew were here yesterday to for a broadcast on the evening news).—“
Thanks Iain

———

OLC flights.

The beginning of June was n’t too good,  but pilots in Scandinavia had some great flights in the first week of June, whilst we could only “swim ” here.
Up to 777 km flights in a Nimbus 4 DM from Elverum in Norway,  to 563 km. in ASW 27 from Rayskala in Finland.
On June 3 Poland had the better weather with a just over 1000 km-flight in an ASG 29 from a field I never heard of; Olsztyn Dajtki.
On June 4 Riku Rissanen took his dad Markku, for a flight in the ASH 25E/26 m. and some quality time, as he said.
It turned out to be his ” first 1000 km / declared 3 turn points and the last  310 km was very nice“; 1.037 km.
They flew from Rayskala in Finland.
On June  6 still great weather in Rayskala and flights from 500 and 600 km. I remember those fantastic early June days, they are really GOOD!!!!

And look at skies above ARBOGA in Sweden shared by Jens Trabolt. As Per Carlin mentioned;” Yesterdays weather was the typical Swedish non-competition weather.”  It looks great.

———

OMK in Malden [Holland]

Picture from the terrace at Malden shared by Ben Hiemstra who flies there as well.

The open Military Championships are very popular. Malden with it’s brand new hangar and club house is even more welcoming than it already was in the past.
On June 6 the 43 pilots  started their 5 days of flying with a set racing task of 246 km. in club class.
231 Was set for open and combi got 200 km.
They tried hard, postponed the launches as they needed only a few  degrees more, they delivered B tasks but,…. In the end it was all a day of hope and no glory as they could not fly. The day was cancelled for all 3 classes.
On June 7 they tried again; Task 1;but,..it was not meant to be !!!
Today June 8 they try again to have their first day. NO task yet.
In Amsterdam we had great weather yesterday, but the code orange was still in place for Limburg and yellow for Brabant and the Southern part of Gelderland, where Malden is.

Their fabulous new hangar was unpacked in the morning as the sun carefully  showed it’s face….but unfortunately…..no flying day.
Picture shared by the organizers.

———-

Lasham Regionals.

Aussie mate Adam Woolley traveled from Australia, or maybe Japan where he nowadays works as an airline pilot,  to the UK for a week of flying in the next [19th] 2017-EGC- area.
—-” Well, nothing changed from Day one – Sunday to Sunday were all cancelled day due to weather. Naturally the locals all said this is very out of the ordinary, many never seen it like this before.

Sunday saw the best opportunity to fly since the previous Sunday with climbs expected to 3000′, then quickly turning to showers. B task of 117km fixed was declared at 14:30 & at 15:00, the day was cancelled – the sniffer never getting above 2000′ in the blue conditions. Apparently we needed just one more degree..

———

Italian Nationals.

51 Pilots gathered for the Italian Nationals at Ferrara flown in one class with handicaps.But, it’s getting boring , the weather did not co operate. They mainly fly in the weekends and in the weekend of the 2d, 3d 4th and 5th [too many gliders to start from the runway behind each other,]  the field was too wet. only ONE day was flown.
On June 4 a 1.45 AAT was set and flown by 42 of the 51 pilots who had entered.
From the 42 a group of 29 finished. Ricardo Brigliadori did best under the circumstances and flew 139 km in the St Cirrus in 1.50.
Runner up was Thomas Gostner in the Ventus 2a with 160 km in 1.59.
The second part starts again on Friday the 10th.[news and scores on www.soaringspot.com]

Too much water on the grid . Shared by the organizers.

———-

No blog next week, it’s that time of the year again that I have a week-out  with my high-school friends. Cu on the 22d of June.
My health is better,… not good enough yet …..so more investigations.
By the way I knew the JSF was going to show itself to the Dutch people yesterday. It did!!! I had no clue they would fly over Amsterdam AND…. I saw them twice.
Wow what a great way of pair-flying for those 2 pilots at about 400 m. high  over Amsterdam and what a NOISE and they seem so big!!!! Loved it.

Cheers Ritz

Today…..June 1 ;meteorological summer starts.

Not that we can see it here. Temperature[ around 20 dgr C]  is rather OK but there is more thunderstorm activity and rain than normal for this time of the year. More countries in Europe suffer; France had lightning on a playground injuring at least 10 kids and on a soccer field in Germany ,35 people were injured by lightning, among them at least 30 kids  between 9 and 11 years old,
You ask why did they not seek hiding straight away?
As I noticed here,… the weather arrived without warning what so ever, just at a flash. No dark skies, no rain, just BENG and we were looking at each other ” is that a thunderstorm ?????”Very weird!!!
My Aussie friends would love the rain which fell in the German state Baden-Wurttemberg ; at places 70 liter per square meter within an hour!!!!!So streets looked like a tsunami was passing by. At least 4 people were killed.
Braunsbach is flooded and for that reason DAMAGED.
Only in Holland the damage is OVER 10 MILLION Euro.By the way the Dutch spring was about normal looking at rain , but we had more sun hours than normal.

Down under winter started!

———–

METEO news!!!

Got some interesting news about meteo from Alexis. Here it is ;

“We have launched a beta version of the Alps forecasting service for glider pilots:

 http://www.meteorologica.gr/alps/

The model runs at the very high resolution of 2km which has been tested in Greece and is good enough for all local phenomena and the combined effects of convective ridge and wave lift. We provide the following parameters for the next day:

1. Cloud cover
2. Cloud ceiling (thecloud base height relative to the ground)
3. The maximum vertical velocity
4. The precipitation
5. The wind at 10m AGL, 3km MSL and 4km MSL
6. The long wave radiation (indicative of the height of cloud tops)

Also, under the KML tab you can find a KML timeline for viewing in Google Earth for planning. It is important to use the range in the time slider to look at each one chart. Alternatively, you can select a chart under Places/Temporary Places at the sidebar.

I have attached a sample map of the strongest updrafts on 3D terrain.

Looking forward to comments by pilots flying in the Alps.”

———–

DUTCH OBGC.

They continued with tasks on Wednesday and hoped for a day,….it was in vain , BUT Thursday should be better. Some pictures from Willemijn from the cold and wet days. Great picture from the airfield Terlet at THE gorgeous VELUWE.

      1. Dennis [Huybreckx ]and Jef  [Kell] ………2 Hans [Biesters]  and Jeroen [Verkuijl].     3. Jeroen [Koolen] en Max Leenders.

Only club class started on Tuesday but the only thing the pilots could do was return to the field.

More impressions in Willemijn’s daily pictures; ENJOY!!!

1. “Welcome sun” with Erik and Robin.    2. Ronald with his mates in relaxed mood. 3. Our Belgian friend Nick ready to go.

More ready to go

Annemiek in the middle surrounded by Jef and Tim from Belgium.

I found out that the rules are different this time, because of the co-operation with the Belgium pilots.
THEY DO NOT NEED 4, BUT ONLY 3 Days. So a last day would have been great but not necessary for a valid championship. I should not have worried.

Thursday ;After 2/3 days and 6/5 cancelled days and only Friday to go, there should be MERCY for the organizers and pilots.
There was !!!!FINALLY NICE WEATHER!!!!!!
Club;…. 252 km. Tim [Kuijpers] won the 1000 points with a very late start at 2.27, whilst the early birds left already at 1.09 PM.He raced over the circuit with a speed of 80.59 km./h.,  about 10 km./h faster than the runner up Frank [ Hiemstra 71.19 km./h.]  ,who started exactly ONE hour earlier. After 3 days Tim leads with 2010 points ahead of Frank with 1911.
Combi;309 km….Belgium again “on the top” in this class. Today Wim [Akkermans] won in the LS 8 in about the same time as Dennis Huybreckx and the same glider; 1000 points for 999. Dutch pilot David [Muller] finished on spot 3 for the day.
After 3 days Dennis tops the overall list with 2598 points and Wim has 2544 points. So it will be a -last- day -decision between Dennis and his brother-in-law.
18 m.;304 km…..day 4, also in this class the French speaking Belgium pilots found their way over Dutch soil. Olivier[ Sevrin] and Jean-Luc [Colson]  flew their ASG 29’s to spot 1 and 2; 1000 and 994 points.
Peter [Millenaar] tops the list but Jean Luc “raced”  from 5 to spot 2 overall.
Between the number 10 Sikko with 1962 points to the topper at the moment is not THAT much difference.
open;354 km….3d day as well for open . A good day for the big-wing-ship the ASW 22 BLE from Jeroen [ Oostendorp]; 1000 points during  his first participation on a National Championship, good on him!! He started relative late at 2.31 PM, but so did Mark [Wering] at 2.45 last one,  in the ANTARES 23 T and he finished as 10th with 525 points.
Between spot 6 [1902 points] up to spot 1 [2279] there are still possibilities. Jeroen[ Verkuijl] has 2223 points and Ronald [Termaat]  2201.
A day with good distances but the speed , nobody reached 100 km./h. shows it was NOT easy.

So we can only hope that it will be a flying day on Friday. It is a valid competition anyhow that’s good but some more flying would be really good.

“Powerfood”  for pilots and crew.
Courtesy Maarten Brouwer.

Friday; last day. 2 Hour AAT’s in all classes were set. WAIT AND SEE!!!! First launches at 12 ,as there is a possibility for local thunderstorms in the [later] afternoon  from the SW.
The day had to be cancelled.
So with 3/4 out of 11 days there were “poor” but REAL championships.

Dutch National Champion in club class Tim Kuijpers  with Dutch National Champion in 18 m Peter Millenaar. Both are Ryan Air pilots.  AND… interest enough for the 18 m. Champion. AND …his nice finish.
Picture 1 shared by Frauke , proud mum of Tim and picture 2 and 3 by Peter’s dad Rob as proud, so they should be.

So here we go with the names and the final scores CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL;
Club; 1. Tim Kuijpers 2040 points…….2. Frank Hiemstra 1911 points ….3.Jeroen van Dijk 1663
Combi; 1. Dennis Huybreckx 2598…..2. Wim Akkermans 2544….3. Tim Huybreckx 2170.
18 m; 1. Peter Millenaar 2254….2. Jean -Luc Colson 2188……3.Dennis Schouten 2132
open;1. Jeroen Oostendorp 2279…..2. Jeroen Verkuijl  2223…….3. Ronald Termaat 2201

And all the gold, silver and bronze winners on one picture
shared by Frauke Kuijpers.

———-

Norwegian Grand Prix CHAMPIONSHIP. [Norwegian Nationals]

“A couple of hundred meters before finish, fighting at over 200 km/h with Arnulf right to the line.”
As shared by Arne Martin Guetller.

Beautiful Norway had it’s Voss Grand Prix [Norwegian Nationals in GP configuration ] between May 22 and 28.
—” Voss Grand Prix had this year been extended to a week and gotten championship status. This would be the first time a Norwegian championship would be crowned at a Grand Prix contest, and also the first time in Western Norway for a championship.—”

On May 24 the 14 pilots could  fly and with a 206 km. task ,  11 from 14 pilots managed to fly over 100 km./h.  Best speed was 114 km./h and it gave Jo Inge Bjoro 10 points. Arne Martin had 7.

Above Hardangerfjord by Arne Martin. How beautiful is Norway !!??

May 25 ; 199 km. was set for flying day 2 and it was another penalty/warning festival with 10 from 14 pilots ” in the prizes” . Start height, start speed etc. The daily winner , flying in an LS 6, had NO penalties and got the 10 points for a speed of 100 km./h. over the 199 km. Per Morten Lovsland tops the overall list now too after 2 days; 18 points.

May 26; nearly 300 km. in Norway as well as task for Thursday. Arne Martin was runner up and moved with 8 points to spot 2 overall; On top still the LS 6 pilot Per Morten with 25 [he got 7 today].

Another great/ fabulous picture by Arne Martin.

May 27; Here is Arne Martin’s story for the day;
” Awesome flight today at Norwegian championship / Voss Grand Prix! Like yesterday we flew to Lærdal, but then headed north west to Fjærland, right next to Jostedalsbreen!
Like yesterday, I seem to do better on longer tasks, with more mountains. Crossed the finish line first today, although with some penalty seconds Per Morten will most likely get first place. And also overall we will be first and second.”
That was correct, Per Morten got 8 and Arne Martin 6 points, due to a penalty for a too fast start speed.

May 28; Last day  was cancelled, ” since extreme rainfall and possible flooding had been forecast.” 

Looking back Arne Martin wrote;” We had some great weather. The practice day was cancelled, and instead the next day was declared a practice day. After that we had great conditions for the next four competition days, before the final day was cancelled due to heavy rainfall.” 

Thanks Arne Martin.

———–

The Polish 15 m. Nationals.

From Leszno 32 competitors are going to look between May 27 and June 5 , who is the best in 15 m. class in Poland. Mac [Ichikawa] is flying there as well.Among them toppers as Sebastian [Kawa],  Janusz [Centka] , Lucasz [Grabowski], Lucasz [Blaszczyk] , Lucasz [Wojcik] , Adam [Czeladski] , Tomas [Krok] and Tomas [Rubaj].
On flying day 1 they had a 2.15 AAT and 12 from 33 finished. Several penalty points as well. Good old Janusz Centka did well in the ARCUS on spot 2 with Tomas Rubaj straight behind him. Tomas flew 268 km. in his ARCUS but needed more time 3.01 [Janusz had 2. 37 in over 240 km.]
The next 3 days were cancelled/no task,  or invalid due to too short distances. A pity!

——–

The latest on KIRIPOTIB and Rent-a-glider/ FLYING WITH THE CHAMPIONS by Ludwig Starkl.

Dear glider pilots and guests,

 thank you to everyone who visited Kiripotib in the last years and enjoying the beautiful landscape and lifestyle in Namibia. As some of you noticed already, there will be changes in Kiripotib next season. Bernd Dolba is leaving the second biggest gliding center in Namibia after 8 years time and he is looking for new ventures.

Accordingly Claudia and Hans von Hase were looking for new partners to run the gliding operation in the future. Thus we are proud to announce that Kiripotib will continue – visual as Kiripotib 2.0.

Who is Who?

KIRIPOTIB SOARING,  so the name of the new team, is a cooperation between three  professional gliding companies from Europe for more holiday, more service and more fun for all pilots, their families and friends.

The Kiripotib Guest Farm with Claudia and Hans von Hase (Namibia). They are in charge of your comfortable stay in Kiripotib and with their lovely Kiripotib Collection they represent the sport of gliding in Namibia and offer plenty of local tradition and adventures while on the ground.

Rent-A-Glider with Ludwig Starkl and Wolfgang Janowitsch (Austria). These two gentlemen knowing Namibia like the back of their hands and are in charge of one of the best rental glider fleets on the planet and it’s safe transport to Namibia and back to Europe. Also gliders of clients will be shipped to Kiripotib by them professionally. On top of that they organize the top level coaching “Flying with the Champions” in Kiripotib and Bitterwasser.

streckenflug.at with Christian, Regina and Mia Hynek (Austria/Namibia). This young family is in charge of the technical support of gliders, booking, IT, the soaring facilities and also manage daily matters. Their well known gliding shop is also available for all Pilots in Namibia.

The Mountain Soaring Enterprise with Markus Lewandowski and Aurel Hallbrucker from Innsbruck/ Austria.

These two fellas are professional chief flying instructors (CFI) certified by the SSN. They are in charge of the daily gliding operation and safety in and around Kiripotib. They are available for check flights, check outs, coachings and rides for pilots and guests.

A big fleet of gliders are available next season, there will be 5 Arcus M an Arcus E, Nimbus 4DM, ASH 25, Antares 23E,  two Shark and a DG 800 available. For all who want to fly world records, Alisport will send a Silent E, one of the new 13,5 Meter class gliders with us. Be the first to be in the record list.

The new web page KIRIPOTIB.COM/SOARING is online since some days. There you find all information, programs prices and details concerning Kiripotib Soaring. Stay tuned!

If you are planning a gliding holiday in Kiripotib in the upcoming season, please be so kind and send us your preferred dates and gliders as soon as possible. We are limited in space. Or you have any question, send us an e-mail to soaring@kiripotib.com

Regards Ludwig

———

We called him Mr. Aosta.
Jan van Genne died on May 28.
R.I.P Jan.

———

That’s it for now on Tuesday evening.  Off to hospital tomorrow early for a day of medical examinations.
Cu next week
Cheers Ritz

———

Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in Italy.

The Qualifying Grand- Prix in Varese continued and it was more a penalty-festival than a Grand Prix.
18 Pilots did fly last Wednesday and 8 of them  got a penalty from airspace violations,   too low finishes, too high start altitudes , too high start speed and again…… missing the finish-line. How can pilots still miss the finish line,…. it must be hidden!!!
Still some good points for the winners. Peter [Hartmann] had no penalties so he won the day and the 10 points and his lead is growing to 34 points.
In the end the task was 131,75 km. and the regatta start at 2 PM.” a great , short, sweet race” according to Russell [Cheetham] and  2.5 m. was his best lift . Russell was runner up but had to detour [too much] in the end , had not a good energy line , so others could “get” him. Only 3 flew with a speed of 109 km./h. ; Peter, Russell and Luciano who was 3d for the day.

They declared Thursday May 19 as a rest day.

They shared a picture with a great view on the Monte Rosa. Fabulous picture………… And the first launches on Friday.

RACE 5 on Friday, with one to go on Saturday, had a 323 km. task and after the rest-day,  the pilots were eager to go for 2 more days. Peter is ahead with 34 points followed by Mike with 25 and Luciano with 21. When you are now on the 2 days, a daily- winner , you receive 21 points, so maybe there are still possibilities…..though Peter is very good in those mountains!!!!
Launches at 1, regatta start at 2.30 .
Mike won the mainly-blue-thermal-day and got closer to Peter as he got “only” 4 points for the day whilst Mike got 10. Luciano did well too and was runner up with 8 points and Giorgio was in the top 3 as well with 7 points.
Mike was in the beginning about 10 km. behind , but by being alone he climbed better and caught up  again. Giorgio had a very careful final glide to be sure he would NOT have any penalties this time.
So for the last day it will be exciting as both Peter and Mike are experienced but sometimes , how do I say that carefully… “tempt fate” , as I noticed in the past.
So when the last day starts it is Peter with 38 points, Mike with 35 and Luciano with 29, whilst Giorgio is back after missing the finish-line on the second day ,[ costing him 5 minutes ] and entering a forbidden area with a[virtual  out-landing at the point of entry at 78 km. ] to 25.

Nice finish shared by the organizers.

 RACE 6 last day with 279 km.! “Ultimo giorno di gara!”

Bostjan Pristavic won in his JS 1 this special last day with 11 points. As Peter was runner up in nearly the same time , he got the 8 points and that was enough to be the VARESE QSGP CHAMPION [46] . He found most tasks pretty difficult,  the last one as well; “ sometimes you have to be patient to get a nice climb or to have good altitude to pass the mountains”.
He found flying with his colleagues in a GP,” more a circus than a real valued competition.”
Interesting quote! I mentioned it already , this time it was more “a penalty-festival”.
Mike had a total of 41 and won 2 days as did Peter.  Luciano [33] , remained ONE point ahead of Giorgio.[32]

And to finish the compliments from Mike to Varese;”“If it’s one thing as a glider pilot you should do before you die, that’s to come and fly in Varese. It’s just wonderful!!”

The next Grand Prix starts in 9 days in Rennes Saint-Sulpice in France.Will keep an eye on it!!

As shared by the organizers.

AND

Where would they be without the tuggies.
as shared by the organizers!!!

———

The BENELUX comps in Holland.

3 Great pictures again from Willemijn. You can expect more !![ASH 30MI]

The CAE OBGC [Open Benelux Championships] started Wednesday with difficult weather. The day before ,when they practiced ,they had a small window with some great practice flights , on day 1 they only had a small window as well.
Day 1;
Tasks were set for all classes. The pilots tried hard . Most of them unfortunately did not reach the important 100 km. marge , so ONLY in 1 class  day 1 was valid; 18 m.
In 18 m. both Sikko Vermeer and Peter Millenaar finished and flew the set 144.56 km. in their ASG 29 E. Time was unimportant [ 56 and 51 km./h. ] but coming home was more important. So a “good” day for them , still only with 139 and 132 points . A total of 4 from 17 pilots flew over 100 km. so a valid day.
Hadriaan van Nes [JS1 B] and Dennis Schouten [ASH 26 e] had 120 and 109 points,  they out-landed close by after 135 km. and 122.
In open class Ronald Termaat showed once more how good he is. He was the only finisher for the day and flew the 148.90 km. in I guess one of the slowest times in his life; 44.08 km./h. He received 62 points for his effort.
Mark Wering just arrived on the first day with his  brand new Antares 23 T and was runner up with 81 km. and 31 points.
But in the end after all files were in , Ronald was the ONLY pilot who flew over 100 km. so,… NO valid day… no 62 points, but no worries for him. Great effort ANYHOW!!!

Mark,…just in time to fly the OBGC in the ANTARES 23 T. Marion best crew in the world and Steven, who won many Nationals and was European Champion.Last 2 pic’s specially for Art.
By the way , both pilots fly the WGC in Benalla 2017 Mark in open , Steven in 18 m. class.
Pictures by Willemijn.

Day 2; Should be better than yesterday,  it looks different here though,it RAINS,  but I am about 125 km. more up NW.
They know what they are doing over there,in the East of Holland.
Box time at 12. Tasks; club and the combined Standard, 15 m and 20 m….3 hour AAT, Open and 18 m. 2.30 . Club and combi upfront and 18 m. and open behind.
Tuggies Sjoerd, Bertje , Zweef [Evert] and Daan are ready. So is the marshal!!!! Sjoerd, Daan and Bert are about my age , but still going strong , very experienced and loving their towing-job. All 3 are retired KLM captains. Zweef is , as you can see, much younger and still flies KLM.

Pictures courtesy Willemijn.

It was waiting and waiting, delay to 1.30 PM and 2 PM. I had hope here for all of them there,  as at 1 the sun carefully tried to show it’s face from behind the clouds. But after 10 minutes it disappeared again and it became grey!!!!8/8 of “soup” . But as said,…I am far away from the action, AND,……at 6 the skies cleared here.

At 2.30 the window was already there and they started with a B task in the pocket .Quite a lot of pilots finished . Anyway in each class it was a valid day, with pilots in open class starting after 4 PM.
Club; 2.30 AAT….A bad day for Annemiek. After 30 km. she was “aux vaches” and last for the day. Tim Kuijpers won in the LS 4, with a relative late start at 3.46 [one hour after Annemiek] ; 188 km. in 2.37.
Combi: 2.30 AAT…..From the 10 pilots in this class, 5 are from Belgium and they are mainly from ONE family so they help each other whenever possible and they always do that well. Both Dennis and Tim [they worked and flew with us in Tocumwal!] are from the well known Huybreckx soaring-family.
Dennis is a son from Eddy and Tim from Mark Huybreckx. Wim [Akkermans] married Dennis sister Sofie and Jeff[Kell] married Tims sister Gitte. Can you still follow me? Not belonging to the family but a great mate is Rik van den Boer. He had not such a good day , he out-landed. Unfortunately one of the Dutch toppers in this class ,Bas Seiffert, out-landed as well after 89 km.
Dennis won with 227 km. in 2.53.

Winners ; Steven, Dennis, Ronald and Tim.
Pictures shared by the organizers.

18m.; 3 of 17 did not finish the 2 hour AAT , 2 of them got the distance where they entered the Deelen CTR below 450 m..
Day 1’s winner Sikko , with a relative early start, flew 64 km. and got 96 points. What a pity.
Steven Raimond won the day in the ASG 29 ES and flew 201 km. during in 2.03. Rene de Dreu in his new ASG 29 E was runner up with about the same distance and time.Good to see that Hannah is there. Rene and Hannah met in Uvalde [Texas] in 2012.
Open; NO points on day 1 for Ronald,…. this time 715. He flew in the JS 1C, during the 2 hour AAT 216 km.in 2.17,  the ONLY one over 200 km. Runner up Jeroen Oostendorp in the ASW 22 BLE flew 181 km. in 2 hours AT the dot and got 668 points.10 From 11 finished.
More day 2 pictures by Willemijn.

Onno[Blankenzee] to the l. with Sikko who drinks a coke before flight. It did not help unfortunately for a win.For Frank []Hiemstra] there is for sure a career as soccer player and Brutus came to visit.

Finishes as well.

Jeroen Verkuijl in the JS 1C.

Friday was cancelled.

Saturday, day 2/3. I wanted to visit that day , but unfortunately my health did not allow so.
Tasks were set; Club 207 km. …Combi 256 km……18 m. 301 km. and open 333 km.
In the end B tasks were handed out.
Club; 158.66 km. …AND..the enthusiastic soccer player on the picture above , won the day; Frank Hiemstra in the ST Cirrus [handicap 99.6] Tim Kuijpers was runner up.One Belgium pilot in this class flying the lovely St Libelle, but he had not the best day and was 1  of 5 out-landers.
Combi;  200.65 km….The 5 Belgium pilots combined their efforts again and with result. This time  Rik was the best. He moved from the last spot on day 1 to spot 1 on day 2. Good on him
2 Tim, …3 Wim…4 Dennis….6 Jeff. Bas [Seiffert] was in between, on 5.
18 m.; 246 was set and flown by ALL. Sikko, who won day 1, out-landed on flying day 2 , won day 3 again. Sikko has been in” my team”  several times at WGC and EGC and I know how good he is!!!! He showed it again. Younger pilot Peter [Millenaar] was runner up . In this class 4 pilots from Belgium and 1 from Germany.
Open;251 m. for the long wings and Jeroen Verkuijl won the day in the JS 1C [above on the picture] Ronald who won day 1  was now 5th. Jeroen started 1 hour LATER [3.07] than the runner up [2.07] and the first departing pilot was Ronald at 1.59. So in hindsight a later start was better.

Todays pictures by WILLEMIJN;

1. With Joost Wolff flying in the ARCUS T with Erik Borgmann who was runner up in Borlange WGC and Max Bloch, several years the CD from the Dutch Nationals.
2. Jeff Kell, husband from Gitte Huybreckx.
3. Wim Akkermans and Sofietje Huybreckx.

NO TASK on Sunday !!So place enough for a picture of  the well known Dutch Hiemstra family from Friesland with dad Ben, OUR Dutch webmaster [from Zweefportaal] , young topper Frank and daughter/sister and glider pilot Ilse.

AND

The Dutch Termaat family very well known in Holland,  in fact world wide .
Great family picture shared by Caroline ; daughters Anouk and  Elin, Caroline and Ronald [son from Joke and Karel Termaat] and of course THE DOGGY.

Monday; With 700 km. of morning-traffic -jam due to heavy rain, I knew already that Monday would not be flyable as well. Would they be able to squeeze another day in? That was the question.Doubtful,…but there is always HOPE.

Tuesday; Tasks were set, a small window ,  so , to make it a valid competition they have to try every possible day.
Race tasks ; Club 125 km,…combi 100 km,…. 18 m. 166,….open 184 km.
In the end B tasks were used; about the same but in  AAT’s.
Sadly enough the weather-gods did NOT co-operate and the day had to be cancelled.

Wednesday; TODAY.Briefing at 11 and GRIDDING till 1 PM. I HOPE SO MUCH they can fly!!!!
You will read it next week.
More possibilities to fly; the weather will improve , a bit more sun, less rain and an occasional thunderstorm are predicted for Thursday and Friday.

———–

Lancaster in the USA.

“Bermuda High is located in the “Flat Creek” area of Lancaster County” and that’s the place where the USA 18 m. Nationals were flown between May 11 and 20 and the CD was Eric ” Herbie” Moser. One evening Ed Kilbourne performed. I should have been there !!!!
25 Pilots participated and quite a lot I know , so interesting to follow.

Ed Kilbourne. AND….when we met in Uvalde in 2012.
Picture 1 courtesy Leigh Zimmerman.

Day 1 , with a 3 hour turn-area-task was won by  Canadian pilot Jerzy [Szemplinksy]  in the ASG 29. Al Tyler was runner up.Sarah [Arnold] was 3d in the Ventus 2ax in a tie with Dave Springford.[Canada]  Only 11 finished, the others were cut off by thunderstorms, as Rick [Sheppe] wrote.
Day 2 was cancelled.
Day 2 was difficult again .As Rick wrote; “Cloudbases were low all day.  Everyone worked hard to stay in the air and to make progress.  It took at least three hours for the finishers to make it around, and the completion ratio was about 50%.  There were only two field landings, and the other non-finishers came home under power or by aerotow.”
Winner  on day 2; Bill Gawthrop in a JS 1 B. The next 9 places were occupied by ASG 29 pilots. Sarah unfortunately had a less good day , was on spot 21 and dropped to 11 overall.
day 3; Rick mentioned ;” the  forecast was very promising , 4kts, 6k top of lift, and SW wind of 15-20 mph at altitude with streeting likely. ”  But the 2 days before they had slightly over-enthusiastic forecasts  so “the assigned task was brilliantly called by CD Eric Mozer and his advisors Al Tyler and Jerzy Szemplinski.  That said, it was certainly challenging and several pilots appeared to press a little too hard on final leg and received penalties for low finishes.”
Scores; Dennis [Linnekin] ,the TC from the USA team at several WGC’s, was the best!!Good on him. Lovely guy!

Day 3 weather.
Courtesy Leigh Zimmerman.

Day 4 ;a Turn Area Task that started out with two very small (3 mile) circles was set.  The third circle was large, so the pilots would have some running room.  The nominal distance was 192 miles, and the minimum time was 3.5 hours.
Jerzy won the day and it is really interesting to see that the 18 m. top overall at this stage exists out of 4 Canadian pilots!!!!
Day 5; Expected was ,  weak lift, few Cu, and thin, scattered high level clouds. Also southerly winds at launch time, so for the second time in this contest they had to grid  at the upwind end of the runway and waited for the wind to come around.
That took a while to happen , so the task was downgraded to 2 hours and the first launch at 3 PM.
Some had wave “enroute” , some just raced around the track.
As Sarah did, she had a  great day ,as she WON and climbed from spot 13 to 8 overall!!!!!

Day 5 winner Sarah. And the task she won.
Courtesy Leigh Zimmerman and Rick Sheppe.

Day 6; was a rest day so a new day 6 was set but in vain. The weather was NOT good and the forecast for Friday was not good either , so Jerzy was in the end the winner of the 18 m. Nationals.Good on him and congratulations to him and Maria.
As Rick said it so beautifully; ” The sun peeked out at 13.45, but it was evident by 14.00 that we were done for the day, and for the contest.”
Wish my English was as good as his!!!!

Jerzy, the new USA 18 m. Champion.
The apron is a gift from the host BHSC to all competitors.
Courtesy Leigh Zimmerman.

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227 days to go !!!!
Last week I gave you the link to the Benalla 2017WGC.
More news; New Zealand is sending six pilots, two in each class, to this WGC 2017 Benalla. Team Captain Julian Elder said, “It’s great to be bringing a full team to Benalla for the Worlds – a first for NZ in a long time”  NZ is a “neighbor” from Australia so nicely close by.
Other pilots flying are; 15 m. Alan Belworthy and Steve Wallace, 18 m. John and Tim Bromhead, open class Brett Hunter and Mark Tingey.

John Coutts.
as shared by  the Benalla organizers.

AND

The Dutch will be sending six pilots to compete at Benalla as well. Alfred -Paul Alfers and Ronald Termaat will fly in 15 m. class. Alfred flew in the past with us at Sportavia. He won as best junior in that time the Dutch junior comps and we gave him the opportunity to practice during the OUTBACK soaring comps to fly with Ingo on one day and practice what he learned in a single seater on another day. So he has been in the Benalla area already but a long time ago. At the moment he flies in Vinon.
For me it’s rather new that Ronald flies in 15 m. Interesting!

Alfred Paul and Ronald.
Pictures shared by Sean Young ;Webmaster, Editor Gliding Australia,Media Relations .
I met him last year a VERY COMPETENT and good soaring-journalist.

In 18 m. it is Steven Raimond, who used to always fly in 15 m. class in his ASW27, but now owns an 18 m. ASG 29 ES and Maurits Dortu. In open Jeroen Verkuijl and Mark Wering.

The Austrian team has 1 pilot in 15 m. Werner Amann, in 18 m. it is Wolfgang [Janowitsch] and Andy [Lutz] not flying together in a 2-seater  but each in an 18 m. one. In open Ludwig [Starkl] and Sebastian Eder, yes son from….Josef Eder.
Look for all the news about Benalla 2017 at www.wgc2017.com  or at http://www.gfa.org.au/ or at FB.

Wolfgang and Andy this year on Jan. 15.

———-

A few interesting OLC flights  last week!

On May 20 another pretty-long-task in the Perlan Project DG 1001 M from Inyokern in the USA ; 1.367,55 km. The flight took 11 hours and 27 minutes. Luckily, ladies can take during a long flight , their own “toilet” as in a pee -system or the good old pampers. I presume Cindy Brickner,as co-pilot on this flight with Dennis Tito,  did so as well.
One day earlier they had about the same flight in a DG 1000/20 m.  , a tad shorter with 1.340 km. and a departure from Minden Tahoe.Speed 143 km.h. so “only a sit” of 9 hours and 21 minutes.
May 21; showed some great flights  in Austria ; from Micheldorf  824km. [683 FAI ] in a Duo Discus [Eduard Supersperger] and  797 km. in an ASH 26 E.
From Italy [Bolzano] a good 716 in an LS 6 , from Germany [Koenigsdorf] in an LS 1 F 634 km. so the ALPS were pretty active though the weather was as I read on some days not as good as forecasted.
Plasy in the Czech Rep had a good flight in a Mosquito; 613 km. {600 Fai Triangle}
1683 flights were added that Saturday.
May 22; nearly winter down under but Allan Barnes still manged to fly 401 km. in his LS 1f from Lake Keepit , the next venue of the WWGC, where lot’s of kangaroos at the field welcomed him. ” Roos on the strip made the landing interesting – at least 100 of them bounding around.” I remember that. He practiced a 3 hour AAT. Good on him!!
406 From Nagano in Japan is worth while mentioning too even it was flown in a Ventus Ventus 2CT/18m. Wave and thermals up to 3892 m.
Europe , THE ALPS, had spectacular soaring conditions  again,  specially around Koenigsdorf in the far South of Germany [Bayern] . Wave, thermals, foehn, ridge soaring  it was all there  in the Alps from W to E and back…
It gave another LONG flight for Matthias Schunk in the Quintus M. 1. 271 km. his 8th over 1000 km. flight in May. Also the first 1000 km. flights for young German pilots flying in an Arcus T [Vincent]  and M[Florian]  , even first over 5 hour flights, that is,…sitting in the back for that time but still![total time 10.26 ]!!!!!
And,.. Benjamin [Bachmeier] managed to fly 830 km. in the LS 1f !!
AND,…..there is Eduard again, not in a Duo Discus this time but in a KA 6E flying an epic 786 km.in foehn [Austria Micheldorf] ! ” Back to the roots” he mentioned in his comment. Good on him !
Bert Schmelzer jr flew a declared 870 km. task from Hausen Am Albis in Switzerland.
From Lesce Bled,  in the NW of Slovenia, Boris [Zors] flew a 748 km. flight direction WNW, in the St. Cirrus.

Benjamin even had time to make a picture and share it with us. He only started at 1 PM after some technical problems but his goal to check in Switzerland some Hang- flight- routes was a success.

———-

THE JSF [Joint Strike Fighter] F 35, arrived from the USA for it’s first flight to Europe , to be exact to Friesland to the Airbase of Leeuwarden. An historic moment. Holland ordered 37 of this type. The 2 which arrived here last Monday evening are going to do test-flights over a couple of weeks .

———

And to finish a great picture by Matt Michael from the USA ” Sky voyaging with Cory, Chad, and Tony[Condon.]”
“We had fantastic soaring weather for all 6 contest days and the practice day. That is quite rare for spring in Minnesota. We were very fortunate.” Paul Remde.

Tony  flying in his Cherokee II glider in the U.S. Region 7 Soaring Contest in Albert Lea, Minnesota.
On the 18th Tony wrote; “Smoking day in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. Should be about 45 mph for the Cherokee and Woodstock on 3.5 hr task.”

———

In my last blog I wrote about a donation instead of flowers for Swaantje. I added  more and full info now in the blog below. Swaantje has been cremated and her ashes will be spread over Australia, so she will be back there for ever.

Cheers Ritz

Danish Nationals .

They had a very nice long task last Wednesday and what-a-day!!!!
Task 7;
10 From 11 in Club class flew the 325 km.-task and the Libelle 201B, with Thorsten Mauritsen won the day ; 102 km./h. [handicap 98]
Jan Andersen was runner up in the ASW 20 and Rasmus [Orskov] was 4th.
ALL 9 pilots in St Class flew the 398 km. task and Mogens Hoelgaard was with 132 .83 km./h in the Discus 2B the best for the day. Just as 2 other pilots who flew 132 km./h as well.
All 13 pilots in 15 m. class flew the 398.52 km task!!! Stig Oye was the daily best , he was that many times in the past as well, with 130.28 km./h.
Only JUST,….. as the runner up lost ONE point with 130.22 km./h.
The 3.30 AAT in 18 m. class was not for Arne, but for Peter Eriksen with 467 .45 km. in time 3.14 so a speed of 133,56 km./h.
Arne was on spot 4 with 444 km in time 3.18.
Arne still leads with 200 points. All pilots finished !!
In the 2 seater class they had the same AAT . Best distance here was 428 km in time 3.27.All 11 teams finished.

Arne with mate Michael Rasmussen, well dressed for the [sunny] occasion.

Task 8; was shorter.
Club had a best speed of 90 km./h. by Jan . It was good enough for all pilots in this class to finish.
St Class; 99.97 km./h. for Mogens who was the best in this class overa 2.15 AAT.All 9 pilots finished!By the way , Mogens is one of the pilots flying at the French QSGP. As I read in their introduction Mogens was Danish Champion in 2004, 2006, 2011 and 2012 and runner up in 2014 and 2015. After 8 tasks he was preliminary 1 for 2016 .
15 m. ;one pilot flies over 100 km./h. over 216 km. and wins the day;Knud Moeller Andersen. 11 From 12 finished!!One did not start.
18 m. ;AGAIN Arne and Peter are the best in this class and clearly; 117 and 114 km./h over 217 km. Number 3 had a speed of 109 km./h
2 seaters; a 2.15 AAT and the best distance was 239 km. All 11 teams finished.

On May 9 Arne made some great pictures and shared them . Here are a few.

Gaggling over Venø Fjord enroute to the north. Absolute fabulous view for glider pilots and for all of us. As Arne mentioned :
” And exciting! Fjord and bay crossings always adds that little bit extra.  After the first 200km or so scraping around in the strong wind the weather finally changed gear and measly 1-2m/s thermals suddenly was replaced with 2-3,5m/s thermals.” 

Task 9; is the 9th successive day. BUT,… though tasks were set , the day had to be cancelled.I guess nobody had a problem with that. Arne clearly had another opinion ;”Cancelled days sucks but it has it’s perks.”
The next day had NO FLYING/task.

As shared by Arne on May 14.

Task 9 again and LAST DAY; All pilots well rested , so the last day was THE day.
AND WHAT DAY….club had to go for 404 km., standard for a 4.30 AAT, 15 m. for 451, 18 m. for a 4.30 AAT and the 2-seaters for 451 km.
Club; the 1000 points were for the future young new daddy Rasmus [Orskov] in the LS 1f. All 10 starting pilots finished. Rasmus flew the 404 km with a speed of 96.13 km./h. Jan [Andersen] was runner up and stayed with that result on spot 1 overall and is the DANISH CLUB CLASS CHAMPION with 6620 points. Rasmus stayed on spot 2 [ 6567] and so did Nicolai Larsen on spot 3 [6147] in an ASW 19B. Henrik [Breidahl] in the LS 4 was on spot 4 with 5808 points.
For a long time I am a fan from both Jan [ who I met when he was still young and unmarried and flying in open class] and Rasmus [ who I met at several JWGC’s ], as well as Henrik, [who I know from several WGC’s]. They know I am fan.

Standard class ;Mogens Hoelgaard is THE man and the new DANISH STANDARD CLASS CHAMPION with 5995. He won 6 of the 9 days including the last one. In his Discus 2A he flew 467 km. during the 4.30 AAT in time 4.31!!!![103.23 km./h.] All 8 starting pilots finished and the overall top did change as Frederik [Noddelund] in the LS 8 came in as runner up and passed with that the daily number 3 Thomas [Laugesen] who lost just over 100 points on the last day. Frederik had 5782 points and Thomas 5683.

15 m. class; 2 out-landings in this class and the new DANISH 15 m. CHAMPION is Johhny Reichstein Jensen with 6287 points . He won in the ASW 27b the last day and passed the overall topper from the 3 days before, Jan Hald [Ventus 2CT] . Jan was runner up on the last day . He was overall runner up now with 6272 points and the difference is small, only 15 points.
Stig [Oye] still is GOOOOOD!!!!! He finished on spot 3.
In the beginning it was Jan Schmelz Pedersen who topped the overall list. On day 7 he dropped from 1 overall to spot 5 by loosing 224 points.That day he started 36 minutes later than the first starter.

18 m. ;Excitement there as well, though …..it was nearly impossible to win from Arne, but Peter did his utmost best.He won the 4.30 AAT with 485 km in time 4.28,45. Arne was on this last day “only” 5th and lost 143 points, no worries as he was more than 300 points ahead of Peter. So my friend Arne Boye Moeller is the NEW DANISH CHAMPION IN 18 m. with 6598 points , Erik is runner up with 6496.And as you see he did his best as the difference in the end only was 102 points.
It was not even sure if Arne could fly the Nationals as he is working full time on a project in Finland . He just managed to fly home the evening before. So with less practice.
Arne  also broke the Danish Nationals record with his 152 km./h flight. ” Record being in the sense of the fastest flight on any given day in the nationals. ” Congratulations Arne.

2 seater class; Tom [Joergensen] and Henning [Nielsen ] have been on the overall spot ONE, every day.[ Duo Discus handicap 101]  On the last day they kept this place and are the DANISH 2-SEATER CLASS CHAMPIONS; 6645 points, clearly winners as the runners up, my friend Ole Arndt and his brother Joergen had 6040 .[DG 1000-T]
They moved on the last day from 3 to 2.
Ole flew several years with us in Tocumwal and he still flies now with Eddie at Sportaviation. I met his brother also in Tocumwal and I caught up with both of them when they visited me in Uvalde in Texas, when they traveled through the USA.
Ole was involved with the Danish JWGC juniors in Narromine last year when I met him again.
The last daily winners Henrik [Bill] and Johnny [Andresen] moved from 4 to 3.[ Duo Discus T]
Over the last couple of days Filip [Bojanowski] and Sonny[Jakobsen] occupied the 2d place overall. Unfortunately they lost on the last day 208 points and dropped to spot 4.[5985 in Duo Discus T]

What great weather, what good pilots over there in Denmark. A pleasure to follow from home this competition.All pictures from the prize winners are shared by the Danish Soaring Association.[Dansk Svæveflyver Union.]

———-

Swaantje!

As you know , not long ago Swaantje had to give up her battle against cancer. Here is an extraordinary tribute to her by one of her mates Kathrin  [ Pilotessadesign.com] and I share it with you;

—-“During the last 22 years Swaantje and I have been participated in about 25 competitions together. We went to Australia for the Barossa-glide (pre-worlds). She motivated me to participate with the old Nimbus 3 of my dad at the international competition in Issoudun / France, while she flew her ASH25. Swaantje was my team mate in several German Nationals and few World Championships. Gliding was here motivation for life. Only two weeks before she passed away she has cancelled the German Nationals. I Know it was here biggest wish to fly that competition and she was fighting so hard!

Until few days before I was ready to cancel the Nationals as well. But than I realized: I HAVE to go. I HAVE to fly, even without any training. Of course I’m not prepared at all and I’m still not able to clear my mind. But this time the result is NOT important. This time there is no NEED to win. The ONLY important thing is to FLY.

The glider is the same Standard Cirrus I flew in 97 during my first EGC at Prievidza, together with VS. I only removed my old competition number...

So, tomorrow I’ll try my best, because this time I FLY FOR YOU SWAANTJE.

I am sure , Swaantje sits with a huge smile on her pink cloud. On Saturday the 25th of May, they will remember her in a service. They ask to not bring flowers or so,  but if you wish you could give a donation for the Dr. Angelika Machinek Foundation . They support women in soaring and Swaantje has been in the past supported like that too.She would have appreciated your gift.
IBAN: DE12 6115 0020 0100 5133 56
Here is the FULL info;
Information for bank transfers:
Account:
AMF
IBAN: DE12611500200100513356
BIC: ESSLDE66XXX
Address:
Kreissparkasse Esslingen-Nuertingen
Bahnhofstr. 8
73728 Esslingen, Germany

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Italian 18 m. Nationals and QSGP at Varese/Calcinate.[May 15-21]

20 Pilots were ready at May 15 [continuing to 21]  for the combined 18 m. Nationals and the QSGP. On the practice days there were no really set tasks due to the weather, but on one day they could look around a bit. Of course the opening had good food and drinks and the welcome-opening -briefing, good “ears” and chairs.

[1] Sophisticated opening- briefing, [2] Aldo during the first-day-briefing,[3]  nice food, [4] the organizers with Aldo Cernezzi and Margot  Acquaderni, who last year the Pelagia Majewska Medal.

Sunday May 15 ; day 1. 382 km. was set so the weather had improved dramatically in the good way. The Aeroclub Adele Orsi Acao was ready for well known pilots as Giorgio Galetto, Stefano Ghiorzo, Mike Young, Russell Cheetham ,Peter Hartmann, Luciano Avanzino, Thomas Gostner , Bostjan Pristavic and Alberto Sironi.
6 Different nationalities, 8 x an ASG 29 in 2 variations, also 8 x a Ventus in 6 variations and gliders as LS 8, JS1 in 2 variations and LAK 17.
Day 1’s task!

As shared by the organizers. A nice way to see their flying areas. Sondrio was the place Ingo took his guests to.

Good weather, good pilots, experienced organizers ……So ” only  ” a day of flying was waiting.
Giorgio Galetto flew himself to the first 10 points. Bostjan was runner up with 8 and  Peter [Hartmann] from Austria got the 7 points ,he is a frequent flyer in Italy. Uk pilots;  Russell had 6 and Mike 5.
Penalty points as well up to 5 minutes for missing the finish line or for violating the airspace, which means …out-landing at the entry point.

Day 2;

Ready on day 2 for a 398 km. task. Weather is looking good but the first start was postponed to 1 PM.
Picture shared by the organizers.

After the start the pilots raced over the set task. BUT,…several made “mistakes” and got up to 300 sec. There you go for a tough race to find out that you rounded a TP incorrect  or even worse you missed the finish line!!
There was a winner as well and on day 2 this was Peter Hartmann. He has after 2 days 16 points . Giorgio has 12.

Day 3 ; 320 k. was set for this day. And again,….lots of points lost by penalties for a too high start, too low finish not crossing the finish line or entering for bidden zones.All these pilots are experienced , I wonder why this happens!!??
Anyhow there was a winner , this time Mike Young from the UK, but he more or less lives and flies in Grenoble in France. He loves racing over the mountains, but sometimes when I follow him on tracking he nearly gives me a heart attack. So Mike collects 10 points, Peter 8 and 8 as well for Luciano Avanzini. Looking at the overall scores; Peter 24, Mike 19 and Giorgio 18.

As shared by the organizers.

Day 4 ; For TODAY,……180 km. is set.

———–

OLC ;Interesting flights.

May 12; Great weather in Finland, good to see. Several flights even up to 814 km. A total of 29 added flights in Finland only. Rayskala, Nummela and Kymi, Immola …all were busy.
May 14; time for the UK to fly in great weather and Lasham pilots enjoyed it to the fullest; Garry [Coppin] and Andy [Aveling] flew in the ARCUS T, a nice distance up N.W.  from Lasham…732 km. [600 FAI triangle]. Roy [Pentecost] flew in the ASG 29 620 k. [ 592 FAI triangle] . Also from several other UK-fields some great flights.
Canada had a “happy chappie”  as well; ” The 500 km was my goal for the last 3 years. Finally it happened, and was a lot of work and fun. The Kestrel 19 is a fabulous glider.” 527 km. /513 FAI triangle.
Good May soaring in the USA as well; ” Unusual conditions with high clouds.” Flown from El Tiro in an LS 3; 475 km.
May 15; Another great ridge-day, with snow showers though, but also very strong thermals and still good for a 1.109 km. distance flight in a Discus b M, from Greater Cumberland in the USA. The very first 1000 km for Karsten Peztold all the way from Germany.
Mathias Schunk added his 6th 1000-plus flight all flown in May !!! This time from Bolzano but as always in his Quintus.
May 17 ; A pretty good day in Austria, Italy and France,  with a flight up to over 1000 km from Noetsch in Austria in a 18 m. Ventus 2C.

———–

BENELUX CAE Nationals.[May 17 -May 27] OBGC 2016

All set and ready to go.
Picture shared by Marion.

After days with fabulous soaring weather in Holland, we had a “dip”  during Pentecost,[coldest day in 80 years] but on the first day of the BENELUX comps the weather started to improve again. Our Belgium mates had arrived , the Thermiekbel [restaurant] was ready, so were the organizers and the popular meteo -guy from TV shared his look on the weather for the upcoming week with all viewers on SBS 6 and the team and some pilots around him.
On May 17 an official- practice-task on a rather good day certainly going up N. from Terlet. Tasks between 160 and 200 km. and several pilots finished. Also Annemiek Koers in het St. Cirrus with call sign AU, yes the glider AND “girl”  from the Narromine JWGC.
Another junior Rick Boerma started in his LS 4 at 14.33 [57  km./h.] and Annemiek about ONE hour later. [63 km./h.] BUT,…both finished and were 1 and 2 so good practice!!

As always GREAT pictures by Willemijn.

So today they start and tasks were set and I wish all my Dutch and Belgium friends a great and safe competition ;
Club 113.23 km.,…..st,15 and 20 m combined 140 km. and 18 m.144 km whilst open gets 148.90 km.

——

The Provisional Entry for the Benalla WGC  is now online https://tinyurl.com/jjz5tzn

AND

entries are now open and the website is live for Club & Sports Class Nationals, proudly hosted by the Waikerie Gliding Club from 11th – 19th November 2016. Send your entries in, follow the link to the entry form and payment details found on the web site. Updates will be ongoing so check the Blog and Facebook sites for the latest information.
http://clubandsportswaikerie2016.blogspot.com.au/

And talking about Australia;The arrival of the world’s biggest plane/jet  at Perth Airport last week didn’t disappoint.
Wow so many wheels! And what a plane!! The Antonov AN-225 , flew in from Ukraine, arrived at Perth,  with a 2 hour delay due to extensive air-traffic congestion at Kuala Lumpur and continued yesterday to Germany.
20.000 people hurried to the Perth airport to see this impressive ship. Though some were disappointed in the waiting time, they forgot that straight away when they saw the “monster”.

As shared by Duncan Watkinson.

——-

What about “our”  Max????
First ever Dutch Formula 1 winner and with 18 the youngest Formula 1 winner ever in history!!!!!
LIKE!!!!!!!I am a huge fan!!!

Cheers Ritz
Nearly sick for 4 months now. Was in hospital yesterday  to check my lungs. Result next week.