To NOT create a TOO long blog, I publish already today on Sunday at noon.

Lot’s of news about the GRAND PRIX, which is good. The PR and maybe for that reason , the interest  is getting better and better.

Varese from above as shared on the site.

I share one of the “teasers” by Terry Cubley from Australia, so you know all the in’s and out’s as well. Of course their Tom Claffey flies in Varese.
” From 5 to 12 September 2015, twenty amongst the best gliding pilots in the world ,will battle out to win the 6th FAI World Sailplane Grand Prix Championship at Calcinate Del Pesce Airport in Varese, Italy. This exciting competition, which can be followed live online, is the finale of a series of seven qualifying races that took place during the course of the year in different places around the world.

The line-up of the competition is impressive: fresh from his victory at the 18th FAI European Gliding Championships in July, multiple FAI Sailplane Grand Prix Champion Sebastian Kawa from Poland will try to gain back the title lost to Didier Hausse from France at the 2014 Finale in Sisteron. This year he will certainly want to make sure that he doesn’t let the gold medal slip through his fingers.

Among other favourites are Giorgio Galetto from Italy, who will have the advantage of flying with detailed knowledge of the competition area, Cristof Ruch from France and Roman Mracek from the Czech Republic, while Rasmus Orskov from Denmark may create a surprise after his great second place in the Polish Qualifying FAI Sailplane Grand Prix. In total, five of the pilots who made their way to this finale are in the top 20 of the World Ranking List.

The format of the competition, which is designed to be media and spectator-friendly, will allow the general public to see most of the races just as they would in a yacht race. They will also be able to follow the race at the airfield, next to lake Varese and at the Volandia Museum on giant screens set up for the occasion. A series of animations on aviation including seaplanes, model aircraft, hot air balloons and a glider simulator are planned to provide a good insight into different air sports.

A 3D video representing the flight both graphically and accurately will be streamed directly via the web to the public sitewww.sgp.aero/final2015, thanks to an electronic tracking device fitted in the glider and which transmits its position in real time. Regular updates will also be made on the dedicated Facebook page and Twitter account. Videos will be also published on the SGP Youtube Channel.”

They started at Saturday ,after a few practice days with pretty crap weather , lot’s of wet- sight- seeing in the area and preparations, specially for Tom as he comes from far.
Here you see him with his wife Kerrie, nowadays his secretary,one of the members from his crew and faithful supporter.
” Today was scrutineering, weighing, paperwork for registration etc. we arrived at lunchtime at the hangar so waited for the crew to come back, worked well as we were able to sort out the paperwork.”

Picture courtesy Jill Spreckley and shared by Tom.

On Friday the weather improved and pilots had a real race on the last possible and compulsory practice day.
After briefing they went for a 126 km. task.Ricardo [Brigliadori] was the fastest and ONLY one with a speed over 100 km./h. he got the 8 “practice -points”.
2 Pilots with airspace violations, meaning outlanding at THAT spot,  so better now than during the race.

” Today is the last practice day at the long awaited FAI Sailplane Grand Prix Final in Varese. Giorgino has briefed the task, the pilots are rearing to go.The sun is shining.”

The competitors at Fridays briefing as shared by Jill[Spreckley]

AND.
their names and nationalities.

During the flights this week, 2 experienced pilots ,one from the UK Shaun [Lapworth] and one from France Benjamin [Neglais] , will “take you by the hand” and accompany you, looking at the tracks, departures or arrivals from the 20 pilots.So you can SEE and HEAR  everything.Interviews before and after flying belongs to their job as well and indeed a few interviews you can follow on their site. www.sgp.aero  and click on live coverage.

With the message; “Mind the wires”!

Saturday September 5 day 1; The early morning had a thunderstorm, and the weather during the day would be still under the influence from a frontal system, but maybe they could fly later in the day;that was what Giorgio [Ballaratti] had to say during briefing.He will be doing the radio on the finish line as well.
A task was set , gridding after briefing and ” compressing” at 12.30 and the first launch ,depending on the weather, at 2 PM or maybe [last opportunity] for 3 o’clock and mainly from and to airfields so easy to land when necessary and just in the close area of Varese. Distance 149.43 km.
A dry air mass is arriving in the evening and the weather will improve for the next days.
At briefing they all got an umbrella with their name on it.

An umbrella for sun and rain. Rasmus, the youngest pilot,  still fiddling around with his glider on the practice day.
As shared by the organizers.

DAY 1 unfortunately had to be cancelled . They launched but as Tom mentioned ”  the day was cancelled a while after that and we scurried for home from about 20kms away. Some practice comp finishes were done!”

Sebastian was so kind to make some pictures and shared them with us. Here you are;

Thank you Sebastian.

AND thank you to Giorgio and Tom, who by the way flies Mike Young’s ASG 29, showing us why the day was cancelled.

Sunday September 6, day 2, race 1;
A Sunday with lot’s of visitors due to “a day off”.
The pilots will start with blue conditions but going East they will find cu’s, that was what Giorgio had to say during briefing this morning.
Grid 12.30 and compressing straight away.First launch expected at 13.00.Regatta start expected at 14.00.
” CU on the grid fly carefully ” and off they went to prepare their loggers for a task of 264.8 km.!!!!

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It feels like autumn here and it looks like it. EVERYTHING is WET.Wetter than ever before. I heard September had in it’s first 4 days more rain here than normally in a whole month!!!!
In the area where I live we had 52 mm of rain , whilst the average for September is 75 !!!
Rieti still has good weather with up to 900 km. flights.
” A rare 2015 wave day – declared 611km at 157kph. Nice views of west coast and Iona” was the news from the UK by John Williams flying the ANTARES from Kinross.[648 km]
September started with only 78 flights world wide!!!Last year this was 243 on September 3 and 579 on September 7.
Porta Westfalica had a great day of ridge soaring; several nearly 500 km flights gave a lot of joy!!

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When in Australia, I will visit the Preworlds at Benalla.Tim Shirley , writes here what’s happening and how for ONLY a few, there is still place available.
“Hi all,

 Look at the entry list and I can see there are currently 51 Australian and 13 foreign entries for the Nationals and Pre-Worlds at Benalla.  Total of 64.

 We have set a limit of 80, 60 Australian and 20 foreign.

 So right now we have just over a month to go before the early entries close and in that time we can accept 9 more Aussies and 7 more from overseas before we have to start looking at seeding lists.

 So if you are considering an entry, or you know anyone who is planning to come but is not on the forum, could you please let them know?

 Website is www.ozglide.com.  I have just put up Version 2 of the Local Rules there, which includes some clarification on team flying and mobile phone use.”

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I will be also visiting the JWGC for a few days in Narromine, from December 9 till 13 , so I can attend the prize giving as well at 11 on Sunday.The official entry list was closed on August 30, but till the 30thiest of September reserve pilots can still enter.
I counted now  29 in club and 23 in standard class.
I was pleasantly surprised to see countries as Lithuania,  Czech Rep. and Hungary with quite a big delegation. So one way or another,they managed to find funds for their young ones.
Lithuania has entered 5 pilots, Czech rep. 6 and Hungary 2.
Lot’s of Standard Cirrus’ in club and a lot of LS 8 gliders in standard.
On the site I noticed a great picture from August 9, mind you their winter, with great clouds.

 “ This is Narromine today. Not bad for winter. Bring on December.”
By Brad Naylor.

———-

The German team for open class and 18 m. looks as follows;
Open class: Michael Sommer, Stephan Beck, Tassilo Bode and Holger Karow.
18m-class: Mario Kießling, Matthias Sturm, Michael Streit and Sebastian Huhmann

Cu next Wednesday

Cheers Ritz

An early blog [as I go for a short break] on the very first day of September. A warm but also very WET month here and more thunder and lightning, WITH damage than I can remember in any other year.
We even go from 31 in the SE yesterday to 18 dgr. today!!!But summer was not too bad, in fact pretty good.For sure weird!!!

VARESE;

The Grand Prix final in Varese in Italy should be great fun again.They start on September 5 and continue in their 18 m. gliders till September 12.
19 Pilots have qualified for this event and 1, Giorgio Galetto , got the wild card for the pilot from the home country.

Aussie Tom Claffey prepared in France for a couple of days , but the weather was n’t too good,… as it was in Varese. He managed however in the weekend to fly from Sisteron to Varese. Easier job for his wife Kerry who flew the WWGC in Arnborg [also in pretty marginal weather] , as she had to drive the now “lighter” trailer through the mountains.
She mentioned it was “an epic trip” from Sisteron to Varese.

Tom and Kerry enjoying life before the GP starts.
As shared by them.

Luckily the weather improved and Sebastian, who is there  too with already 3 GP-wins under his belt ,  had a nice “ride” to the Mont Blanc not in the car but his glider, as you can see on the picture he shared,a bit further than they will fly this upcoming week.
As he said;” A warm up, easy task for fun. Weather was much better so it was possible to go where you have no turn points for GPX. “

For all the news about the pilots and pictures;
http://www.sgp.aero/final2015/news_add_here/sgp-news/competitors-for-6th-fai-sailplane-grand-prix-world-final.aspx

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The latest GLIDING INTERNATIONAL, arrived again and I was straight away touched by the very personal story from the editor John Roake [my ” boss “] writing about the loss of his friend Bill Walker who died in Namibia about 8 months ago. Bill and his mate /colleague, both from New Zealand , crashed with the EB 28 , both very experienced pilots.
A ” special Minden Experience” by Elke [Fuglsang-Petersen] , brought me back at that soaring field where we practiced for the WGC , later “given” to Uvalde in 1991.Jim [Payne], who lives in the Minden area nowadays,  invited her for a flight in the new Perlan ARCUS M, over this area.
Elke also visited the WSPA [Women Soaring Pilots Association] Seminar 2015 in Minden and shares her thoughts about that.
Aldo [Cernezzi] shines his light over the ” SUNSEEKERDUO ” …flying with solar cells on the wings; the future?
Joseph King mentions that ” the Perlan project” is closer to lift off .
Robert Downe, tell you all about “how to improve your contest flying”.
And more stories and lot’s of short world aviation news.

————

Talking about the WSPA, who celebtated it’s 30thiest birthday [ it was founded in June 1986 in Tucson Arizona ] ; the August Hangar Soaring is posted on www.womensoaring.org

The next WSPA seminar will be in Varese, Italy from June 27-July 1,2016.They hope that many of the European women will join them. Also the locale for the 207 seminar ,date pending, has been announced: Chilhowee Gliderport (Sarah Arnolds gliderport).

———–

Talking about Minden /Tahoe and talking about Jim,….. then you know a long flight has happened again; on the 29th of August Jim flew on a good wave day in the ARCUS M a flight from 1.328 km. [500 FAI triangle in it ] with a speed of 134 km./h.
Keith Essex in another ARCUS M flew about the same distance , a bit  less, but he had some problems  with a broken cable at start and other stuff in the glider did not function as normal. Luckily nothing to really worry about.
Looking at the longer flights this week, Rieti had some really good ones!!!

———–

The meteorological autumn started yesterday in this part of the world and  spring down-under and how can you better share and show that , then with beautiful pictures.

Gorgeous purple heather as seen by Joke [Termaat] at the Veluwe.

Spring tulips as shared by Leslie [Daniels] in Australia’s ; Araluen Botanic Park

and from Narromine, the venue of the 2015 JWGC  you can see the yellow canola in full flower already.

Lovely last Sunday of winter flight taken by local member Kah Chong flying VH-WVS one of the clubs Duo Discus.

———-

Busy week so more pictures than text.Last I showed you some WET pictures from the RENCONTRE ASK 13 in St Crepin. Also there the weather improved and now I can share some, by them shared pictures in the sun and ,…from flying gliders!!

DEFENITELY THE WOW-FACTOR.

CU next Week.
Cheers Ritz ……off for a few days.

Looking back shortly on the UK and German Nationals and as every year I made a picture-diary from my visit to Keiheuvel.

Lasham.

They squeezed out another day on Friday,[ number 5] , during the 18 m. Nationals in the UK last week.
254 km. was set but nobody managed to finish.
The best pilot flew 213 km. Andy 207 and Pete 202 km.
Saturday the final day , was cancelled.
Pete [Harvey] was on the first overall spot during the whole competition and won in his JS 1 ; well deserved 3.898 points .
Andy was 2d with 3464 points also in JS 1 but this time a JS 1-c and on a third spot Steve Jones with 3576 points.
The Parallel-Regional comps were scrubbed the last 2 days, so they had 4 days.

————

Stendal.

To make it a valid German 18 m and open class National Competition, they added the extra available day and then it worked out well.
Pffff….IT WAS A VALID NATIONAL COMPETITION WITH CHAMPIONS.
And I am really happy for the organizers and pilots.I read that unless the weather the atmosphere remained TOP. So it should!!!

In 18 m. class it was Mario Kiessling in the ASG 29 ,who is the new champion ;2620 points, I guess the lowest he ever had to become a champion.
Runner up was Matthias Sturm with 2619 points also in an ASG 29 .
Michael Streit was the number 3 pilot with 2518 points and on spot 4 Swedish pilot Markus Ganev with 2431 points.

2015 NATIONAL 18 m. classs CHAMPION.
MARIO KIESSLING
As shared on their site.

Open class was won by Michael Sommer with 2954 points in the EB 29.
Runner up was Stephan Beck in the ASW 22 BLE with 2842 points.
On spot 3 Stefan Langer in the NIMBUS 4 with 2776 points.
GREAT to see Bruno Gantenbrink on spot 4. He is been in competition soaring ” for ages” and got 2747 points.

2015 NATIONAL OPEN CLASS CHAMPION
MICHAEL SOMMER.
As shared on their site.

A bit “tough”  for all , to see that pilots last Sunday flew up to 588 km. again, at least the comps pilots had 3 fast days as well!

———-

THE KEIHEUVEL DIARY.

This year the friendly competition— with a very serious touch— ,was a bit later than normal and you could see that. Most pilots were back from other comps and pleased they could go to THE KEIHEUVEL as well. Instead of 23 they had 48 participants now.GOOD!!!!
The atmosphere was as always unique- pleasant. Maybe because I have been there so many times that it feels like coming home.
Great to see many young pilots as well, a great mix.
I was late there at Saturday, so I was pleased that Joeri shared a picture from the start. We just noticed the last 4 launches  in the car and arriving at the field the last incoming tuggy.

Junior pilot Robin Smit, behind the tug on Saturday.
As shared by Joeri Cools.

The Huybreckx family always takes care that we have  a ”  roof over our heads ” and this time we had granddad’s camper -van. Very posh!Only sad note was that granddad is not so fit. We wish him all the best.

Unfortunately we straight away forgot the key, so our neighbor Eddy[de Koninck]   helped my friend Ans, [ I started gliding with her in 1967,]  to get in.

They had a nice task in each of the 4 classes;
Club had 112 km and the sport class 208 . The 2 classes with transponders, sport 235  and open 260 km.
It turned out to be a tough day in the blue with some high cirrus-firmaments and as the weather later during the day would supposed to be best to the West , the last leg was in that direction.
Finishes took place between 4 and 6.30 PM and as we sat first row, we could see them all. Except of course those from the “out-landers” and there were many.
In club only 1 glider [ from 4]  finished; team Claes and Keymis in the G 103 twin II.
In the sport class 5 from 10 finished and Geert de Palmenaer was the best in the Pegase with 685 points , just ahead of Stijn Vanden Boer in the LS 8 who flew faster but lost on handicap.
In the transponder-sport-class 14 participants and 5 finished. Best was junior Nick Fremau in the LS 7 who won from pilots as Jeff [Kell] , Dennis [Huybreckx] and Tijl Schmelzer, so a great job done; 895 points.
In the open-transponder-class, it was , former European champion, vice WGC champion and many times Dutch National Champion, Ronald Termaat who won. [815 points]He was the only one with a speed above 100 . He flew the JS 1 from Marco Vermeer and Jeroen Kuijl. When I complimented Marco with his good results lately he mentioned that this is a TOP JS 1 ; it’s call sign APU.
7 From 19 finished. Dutch junior Robin,  “Smitje” Smit, was runner up [ 739] and another Dutch pilot Robert Werts was 3d, [714] just ahead of WGC champion Bert jr Schmelzer, [701] who drove up all the way from Zurich in Switzerland, to participate in this for him,  home-field- competition and drove back in the afternoon of Sunday again.
Johan Lemmens , his SO MANIEST  time at Keiheuvel, was on spot 5 in the ” old”  MS from Kees Musters.
Some impressions from the pilots:

Belgium junior Pieter Daems and Dutch junior Robin Smit and Dutch senior Robert Werts.

Marco vermeer [left] and Hans Biesters [right] both from Holland and  World champion Bert jr . from Belgium.

Sunday was another day with big hope.Briefing was at 10 AM.Daily prizes ready to hand out.

The weather should be difficult with cirrus coming through first, then some cu’s and an early finish of the thermal activity around 4 PM. If it all fitted, they had a window to fly in.
They tried hard , but in vain. It did not fit.
The sniffer could not stay up, then they tried again, it was better but not good enough and  the time went on ; after 2 PM they decided to cancel.
So the winners from day 1 are the total winners as well.A pity as it looked rather well at 2 PM, with some cu’s , but at 5 the first rain arrived and it turned into torrential rain, so a good decision by CD Stijn.

Marco, waiting for the first prize won by his mate Ronald, as he could not fly on Sunday … AND the CD Stijn in action.

For Ronald, who had to go home, Marco was there to fly on Sunday,so he got the prize to share.All first prizes are money prizes , sponsored by the family Emsens, so in fact you have a “free”  weekend.The other 3 sponsors donate as well; TOP METEO , with a one year free connection to the weather.GLIDER PILOT SHOP with vouchers for a discount on their products and LTB Antwerpen, with nice cleaning material for the glider.

A special prize , sponsored by the Schmelzer family , the ALBERT SCHMELZER -prize,  a beautiful bronze eagle for the best junior of this competition , was for the winner from the transponder sport class Nick Fremau.

Nick and Bert Schmelzer sr.

The next competition will be on August 20 and 21 in 2016. From March onward you can have a look at their site to see if you can enter,  as 50 is the limit for this field. AND,…I can tell you it is great fun and as I heard more new guests thought the same.So don’t miss out! I won’t !!

The only not-so-good-news , this weekend, was that NONE of the Belgium juniors can go to Narromine, which is really sad as they have potential top 10 pilots. A REAL PITY. No money.

——-

last but not least; RENCONTRE ASK 13 IN the rain, at Aerodrome St. Crepin.Some special pictures as shared by them;

Cheers Ritz
CU next Wednesday.

A short blog in between my trip to Amsterdam and Keiheuvel with interesting news about the VERSVS and great pictures from SAIL from one of my friends ,yes from the ZES, Theo.
By the way JULY is the warmest month ever worldwide, according to NOAA an organisation involved with meteorology and oceanology; 16.61 dgr. C.!!! Also Europe was “hot”  with heat waves and temperatures up to and over 40 dgr. Lot’s of rain as well.

The 13.5 m. VERSVS.

When I heard about the Diana 2 VERSVS,  I was highly interested. After the first WGC in Pocuinai with excellent weather and great soaring, this glider proved itself by winning with big marge.
There was the Silent 2 Electro, already a great project and from this same company ALISPORT , there was as we know now, also a co-operation with Stefano.
Of course I knew Stefano is a great pilot and former world champion, but even a great pilot needs a good glider to perform.
In fact it is even more of a pity now that the GP 14 VELO could not fly with Sebastian, due to the fact that  it was not ready.
If we were doubting this 13.5 m. class, there is enough to look forward for the future.
So here is the latest by Stefano about this winning “little ship”.

Here below I send you some further details about my glider. Please note that:

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Lasham.

Sorry to tell you but day 4 and 5 were cancelled and yesterday no task was set. Hopefully today they can continue.
After the 3 flown good -distance- days [3 and 3.30 AAT and 411 km.] Pete Harvey [ 2812] leads the pact from 35 in this 18 m. class with Andy Davis as runner up [2593]

———–

Stendal
AND….THEY FLEW!

As shared by the organizers.

Yesterday the weather finally was good enough and a 2 hour AAT was won by Mario Kiessling in the ASG 29E, flying 256 km with a nice speed of 121 km./h.
278.8 km was set for open class and after all the waiting the “big ones” were going for it. Bruno [Gantenbrink ] in the Nimetax won the day with his big- wings -glider; 109 km./h.
He tops after 2 pretty marginal days the overall list as well with 1058 points followed by Michael [Sommer] in the EB 29 with 1035 points and Norbert Kalisch [ASW 22 BLE] with 1003, all others are under the 1000 points-marge.
TODAY’s task is more like it ; 505.6 km. for open and 521 for 18 m.
THAT IS SOARING again from Stendal and ALL will forget about the bad weather.
Estimated first launches at 11.30.

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Told you about the promotion from gliding during the introduction week of the Technical University Eindhoven. They did a great job; 22 very enthusiastic first -year-students AND 8 became a member straight away , 3 are pondering, so between 8 and 11 new glider pilots for the future!!! Well done.

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And the promised pictures from Theo. Love them all.
SAIL 2015 
in AMSTERDAM.

CU on Wednesday with all the latest and my visit to KEIHEUVEL.
Last I saw; 49 from 50 available places in this 2-day-competition .
So a FULL HOUSE!!!!
Cheers Ritz

The 18 m. and open class in Stendal had a tough day last Sunday. Yes they flew and yes some pilots got points and whilst waiting longer it WAS a day in both classes!!!!
18 m. was won by Michael Streit ,..he got 166 points 1 point more than Claus Triebel. Best speed today; 65 km./h over 145 km.Both fly ASG 29E.
In Open class Norbert Kalisch was the best in his ASW 22 BLE. He flew 183 km with a speed of 70 km./h and “got 260 points. 20 More than Michael Sommer .
Monday unfortunately had to be cancelled again.How terribly unlucky can you be with such weather.Feel for the organizers , pilots and crews. BUT,…..It looks the weather will improve and the overall scores are low, so EVERYTHING is possible!!!

By the way we had here in Holland,  the lowest EVER August 18  with 15.2 dgr, C. and at some places 100 ml. of rain.More than normally in one month!!!As said the weather is the weather , nothing has changed.

Tuesday; cancelled.

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The 18 m. Nationals at Lasham in the UK  [ August 15-23] started last Saturday with 34 participants and another 29 [2 HC] in the regional’ s, flown parallel with this competition.
Day 1 had a 3 hour AAT won by Pete Harvey in the JS 1. He flew 12 km. more than the runner up and in a time  to be happy with ; 3.01. Frank Davies was runner up, Philippe de Pechy from France on spot 3.

Day 2 with a 3.30 AAT, was for Afandi Darlington; 401 km. with 113 km./h. with Steve Jones as runner up.Quite some toppers missed out on some points. Andy Davis was on spot 15, Russell Cheetham on 20, Mike Young on 22 and my Lasham/Tocumwal friends Roy and Patrick on spot 25 and 26. The other Toc/Lasham friends are David flying the Duo Discus T in the regionals [amber] and Hugh, but I could not find him on the entrance list, but for sure he will be there!!! MMMmmmm, ….I might be wrong.

David in the Duo Discus T ,flying in the REGIONALS AMBER and after 3 days on spot 5.
As shared by his wife Sandra.

Hugh on a boat ?????
As shared yesterday by Graham Coules.

It’s nearly unbelievable but on Monday , day 3, they flew 417 km. from Lasham.We are all sitting in the rain, THEY FLY!!!And…from 34 pilots  31 flew the task plus 1 HC. Only 3 out -landings.
Who said it’s always raining in the UK??????? When I was there a couple of years ago, I even got sun burnt!!
Andy [JS1-C] won; 112.71 km./h. He climbed from 6 to 2 overall behind Pete.

A picture from Lasham.As found on their site.

Tuesday;and off they went again for a 237.9 km. task.HOWEVER,….this time the weather did not co-operate. The start was postponed from 12 to 12.30 and later, the task changed in B task and then they had to cancel the day.

 Most probably you know already, that  Lasham Gliding Society have been awarded the 2017 Flapped European Championships. ” A great boost for UK gliding.” they say.It IS!!

————

Kathrin and Eberhard Woetzel , her dad, with the wooden sculpture , created for every WGC or EGC which takes place in Pocuinai!!!!What a great idea and a permanent memory!!!
So next year another will be added for the WGC over there for standard, club and 2 seaters. They can start already.

Just read that the Diana 2 VERSUS is NOT from the DIANA factory but it’s ” done ” by Stefano [Ghiorzo ] himself and the team from Alisport.
 So,…. Stefano modified his own  Diana 2 to a Versus ; his own project and the practical site was done by ALISPORT an Italian firm where Stefano is nowadays the managing director .
And ….ALISPORT means …: ”  SILENT 2 ELECTRO, with its nose-mounted electric propulsion system constructed specifically for the Silent, is the most modern and environmentally conscious design capable of satisfying the needs of ever increasing sailplane performance. ” The number 3-4-6-7-8-9 during this first 13.5 m. WGC.
What a small world!!!!www.alisport.com
Did not know that, so I checked with Kathrin ,who gave me already some info, but more  about this by Stefano himself. SO STAY TUNED!!!!!

 Stefano in his Versus as shared by Kathrin.

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JWGC in Narromine:
Dutch team;Already DURING her participation in Arnborg junior pilot Annemiek, who WON 2 days, heard that she is selected for the JWGC in Australia as well. During the “road to Narromine ” , 2 pilots decided with pain in their heart that their graduation- study at the Delft University [Steven] and the pilot training for KLM [Stefan] HAD to be more important, so Annemiek fills in for Stefan, for whom she was in first case crewing in Narromine , and for Steven it will be Robin Smit, who showed his talent already a few times over the last years!
Together with Nick Hanenburg and Ronald Deerenberg they will start in Corowa , where the 2 St Cirrussen [AU and AG owned by a foundation to support young pilots ;Stichting Zweefvliegevenementen Nederland] and 2  LS 8’s arrive with the COROWA TRANSPORT. Young and former JWGC CHAMPION Tim Kuijpers will assist as coach and Ger Kwant ,[by the way his uncle]  who brought home already 2 JWGC CHAMPIONS, will be the TC.

Team UK; goes with 4 pilots as well, 2 in standard 2 in club. One of them Andy Davis’, [who is the TC, ]  son Matt, who participates in a JWGC for the 3d time. Twice before  he flew in club class.
The other pilot in this class is Mike Gatfield, who flies a JWGC for the first time.
Club class pilots are Sam Roddie , who competes for the 2 time and Tom Arscot , for whom it is the first JWGC as well.

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A REAL ADVENTUROUS FLIGHT AND NOT WITHOUT RISK!!!!

Through my writing I get to know many very interesting people.
Also last week; Got some news by a now 77 year old pilot, Peter Asam, who checked if  I might be interested in a story and he gave me the link, WITH the message/advise; don’t do this!!!!!
So I wrote him back to get some more details about a flight in FOEHN/wave over a top from 9100 m.

The pilot was Peter himself flying his 3d diamond in the end of the 70thies.
Over the top of this mountain , the ZUG SPITZE, 3 airline-tracks cross, so a fiat/validation to fly there was then and now NOT possible.Those years however the air traffic was not as busy as now , so he took the risk to fly with his glider, LS 1f,  a glass- fiber plane invisible for radar, around Christmas,over and around the top.
First they flattened the snow from the piste/launch area, by driving up and down with cars and then a brave tuggie took him up during a very turbulent “ride”.
Peter is still top fit, but does not fly anymore!!Thanks Peter….for sharing your pretty daring flight with us.
Here is the story with pictures.AND,…he is busy with another project …and you will hear about that later as well.
Interesting guy.

In the foehn/ wave, which comes from the South, he flies direction West .He turns here to fly/surf back in the wave. On the right site of the picture below, the top from the ALPSPITZE.

 Flying in wave from West to East .In the middle ” das ZUGSPITZPLATT” up to 8000 m MSL.
Of course with oxygen.

To avoid the fact to NOT see the ” ground” anymore through incoming clouds , it was time to quickly go down.

Here you can see the incoming clouds/front with the  “bad” weather.

Going down….. the beautiful view on the “Walchensee” and the river ISAR.

Mask off at 4500 MSL , as you can see a bit of a provisional army- mask. He had an emergency-one on his parachute as well. Peter was an experienced parachutist, one of the reasons he “dared’ to start this adventure.

Home sweet home, end good all good!!AND a 3d diamond in the pocket!

THANKS for this picture -story Peter.
You can find the FULL story on FB now too and all pictures in ;

Föhnflug über der Zugspitze…9100 m. where you find as well a story about the Speed Canard and the Bolkov Bo 209:

http://online.flipbuilder.com/Asam/rxxd/#p=11

During the introduction week of the new university year the ZES promotes her sport .Heard already that there is a lot of interest also by the ladies. GOOD.

——-

Cu next Wednesday with news from the VERSUS [maybe already on Friday]and pictures from my annual trip to the airfield of KEIHEUVEL in Belgium this upcoming weekend, where over 45 pilots have entered. 4 Places to go,…then all available places are gone.
Some juniors will be flying too,so I can check what their situation is on “the road to Narromine”.Will be great fun again!!!
Talking about Narromine I just booked my accommodation arriving on Wednesday the 9th and departing on Sunday the 13th of December after the prize giving.
AND,…just noticed Geoff Pratt flew already 538 [500 FAI Triangle] from Mareeba in his PIK 20 E.. GOOD ON HIM. The season down-under starts already.
Off to Amsterdam , where SAIL starts today with about 600 ships among them some ” TALL SHIPS ” from everywhere in the world.

Cheers Ritz

Pocuinai, after-fun!
What a nice competition it was over there in Poncuinai.
And what a great and memorable last flying-day , won by Francois with Tony as runner up. T
Due to this achievement, team USA took home the bronze for TEAM CUP as well. Behind Italy [876 points]and France [ 783] they were the number 3 with 766 points!!!
Again congratulations to CHAMPION Stefano, VICE CHAMPION Vladas and “still a bit unexpected” on a  3 place… Francois!!

 Vladas , Stefano and Francois proud on the podium
Courtesy Kathrin[Pilotessa Design-com]
And Stefano’s glider the Diana versvs.

AND
team Italy
with Alberto , [Luciano Avancini ]  and Stefano winners of the TEAM CUP.

and the prize ceremony for the TEAM CUP with the recipients representing  Italy, France and the USA.

team USA ,Leah and Tony, thanks for the updates!!!

Happy chappies!

AND Tony and Francois, last day-winners.

Sorry I do not have much info or pictures about VICE CHAMPION Vladas so I publish this one again.

THAT WAS ALL ABOUT POCUINAI;
THE FIRST 13.5 m WGC.

———–

Stendal, hoping for good weather.

As they say; Good morning Stendal, good morning world”.
Shared by the WM organizers this morning early, and at 11, so there is hope.

They bravely continue with trying-hard!! A new day, new hope and today not in vain.
At briefing small tasks were handed out , 2 hour AAT in 18 m. class and 2.30 in open; an estimated first launch at 11.30.

AND……… they have started, open class first then 18 m.Start lines opened at 13.17 and 14.02!!!!!
If all goes well and they started straight away, they will be back in 2 hours.
Most after a few kilometers already,though one open class pilot flew already 130 km.
For news and scores you can look at http://dsm2015.lsvst.de/
My next news on Wednesday.

———–

To keep the blogs going with interesting news sometimes really  time.  To figure it all out is a big job with many pages open on my laptop, but I am VERY pleased with the great PR by some sites and mainly by team members or people over there.
The news by stewards this season was interesting.  I did n’t want to do that job anymore because it is expected that as a steward you are totally neutral and as you know I am pretty out going, so I like to talk with anybody and I like to say what I think.
SO THANK YOU TO ALL for your PR. I only delivered that news to a bigger audience, within my own stories as an extra appendix.
Just to let you know!

————

After all the happy news I finish again , UNFORTUNATELY, with sad news. The mountains bring joy and happiness BUT…..it looks for this year too much  sadness.Tragic news again, as we lost 2 mates yesterday. This time in the Mont Blanc- area, the Italian site of it, during good weather .A Swiss [65] and New Zealand pilot [66] , both very experienced, lost their lives when their brand new ARCUS M crashed. Bizarre, all ingredients for a SUPER day and it ends so TRAGIC.

CU on Wednesday again.
Cheers Ritz

The competition season is nearly over. Days are getting shorter here, longer down under. We had a fabulous season I think, the weather did not always co-operate but, …this is Europe mate….Some comps struggled more than others. Pocuinai had so to see, the best weather.So that’s good for the next WGC over there.
Still a few interesting comps in August as the French Juniors from Tours and in the UK, [August 15-22] the 18 m. Nationals from Lasham combined with the regional’s.[August 15-23]  Lasham is promoting their field for a WGC, and a PR talk was held in Rieti during the EGC, good idea, great field and you can NEVER predict the weather.
And in September the FINAL GRAND PRIX from Varese.

Pocuinai;
The first 13.5 m. WGC is over with CLEAR winners. Still a pity that Sebastian could not fly. That would have stirred the scores maybe as well.
Leah,  crew and wife from Tony Condon keeps us updated.
”  first launches 12:30pm. The area task opened at 12:57 pm. ”
And before I know Tony is back : ” Home sweet home. Total blue. Good climbs. 83 kph.”
What happened?
With an early start at 13.55,  Stefano took it all in his own hands. He started raced , flew 260 km. and was 3d ,…he is the very deserved WORLD CHAMPION.Morgan and Alberto, left with him , Vladislav as expected,  about 15 minutes later.
With 10.879 Stefano showed his ability as TOP pilot.
Vladislav with 10.487 is a worthy vice World champion.
Then,…about spot 3…….WINNER TODAY,…Francois PIN,[ who started at 14.06, ]from the USA, 1000 points, less kilometers [254] than Stefano but a better time 83 for 81 km./h.
With this day he moved to spot 3 overall. Good on him!!!8954 points.
Morgan was 4th.Great day for Tony as well, who ” practiced pair/team flying ” with Francois. He was runner up today.
” Team USA 1st and 2nd for the day and Francois appears to move up to a Podium spot! 3rd Place! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO” by Tony!
The winners from today again on the pictures I showed already as tribute to 3R, Rick Walters!!!!!!

A quick first reaction from Tony;“It was a tough day in the blue. We got a good start at 2 PM and had a pretty rough first leg. The whole flight I felt OK but not great about how our speed was. Climbs were pretty good but we weren’t pushing very hard between. Maybe that was the secret…

We won the day! 1st and 2nd. What a great way to end the contest. AND, Francois moved up into 3rd place for a podium finish. Fantastic!! We are pretty excited of course.
Not sure about the Team Cup. Will let you know when we know. Lots of excitement here. Farewell party tonight, and we gotta get the gliders all cleaned up and packed up for the drive tomorrow. More later!!” 

Francois

AND the new WORLD CHAMPION in 13.5 m.
Stefano Ghiorzo
As shared by his wife Kathrin, who flew a HORNET in the parallel pre -worlds these weeks.

Stendal;

After they cancelled the 18 m. class , the open class start was postponed to 3PM, then 4 PM. The short 2.30 AAT, should be still possible.In the end it turned out to be day 5 which was cancelled, ..but still 7 days to go, so EVERYTHING is possible.Only a bit of a nuisance now.

Rieti;
Pictures from the Champions and TEAMCUP Prizes ; 1. France, 2. Czech Rep. and 3. the UK.

15 m.

1. Didier Hauss France          7188
2. Peter Hartmann Austria    7112
3. Christophe Ruch France  7086

Standard Class;

1. Lucasz Blaszczyk   7408
2. Sjaak Selen                 7293
3. Dmitriy Timoshenko 7071

Club Class;

1. Ondrej Dvorak      7341
2. Jan Louda        7302
3. Josef Kozar      7256

AND the Champion and runner up both from Czech Rep.

AND the FRENCH team
as shared by Pole France Planeur,
with Eric [Napoleon TC] to the right and the CHAMPION Didier in the middle and Christophe 2 more to the left.

This it IT!!! Rieti 2015 is over now.Czech Rep is next.

Maybe more tonight!
Cheers Ritz

13.5 m. WGC in Pocuinai

Lithuania.

As shared by the SSA. Picture courtesy Eric frere.
“ How Lithuanians do grid time!”

August 15 ;
Aussie team; ”  Day 12 – last day. We have a 3 hour AAT. The forecast is for blue conditions, and today I believe it.”
A 3 hour AAT to finish indeed is a good final for these great first 13.5 m. comps. What weather they have had and such good flying.
Yesterday Stefano consolidated his first spot by starting and staying with his biggest concurrent Vladas. They were 2 and 3 for the day.
Daily winner was French pilot Antoine Havet, on his way to the podium,  as Morgan in his first BIG competition was only on spot 10 loosing some valuable points and his 3d overall spot to Antoine.
So if nothing goes wrong , spot 1 and 2 are occupied but today will be interesting for the spot 3. Will it be Antoine, now with 8146 points, or maybe Morgan with 8032 who might play all or nothing, or maybe the 3d pilot “fighting” for this spot Alberto Sironi with 8017. As a very experienced pilot I expect  the “all or nothing-attitude” more from him.And let’s not forget an other experienced pilot who “smell chances ” ; Francois Pin.
Let’s wait and see.Tonight we know!!!

Yesterday was forecasted as a blue day. It turned out a GREAT day with the one but  longest task till now.;347 km.
The organizers write today:
” A useful part of every weather briefing is a thermal forecast for the afternoon, based on an actual sounding from a station upwind of the home airfield. Today the wind was from the east, and we learned that there are no radiosonde stations east of here. Something to do with politics. Instead, metorologist Viktorija based her cloudbase forecast on a sounding from Latvia, to our north, and her forecast was “no clouds all day.”
It turned out that the air to our east was not as dry as the air in Latvia. As Tony and Leah Condon brought JEN to the grid one of them took a photo through the windshield of the crew vehicle. By the time launching began, we had 3 octas in all directions.”

Blue………….???????
as shared by the organizers.

———-

EGC in Rieti

Italy

It’s over and out, great flying, difficult flying and no flying,…it was all there in Rieti.

—” A difficult start for the last competition day: climbs of 0.5 m/s at the start, but going to Celano, thermals were up to 5.8 m/s and in that area there was some rain, it was also raining over L’Aquila. Wind was from south, south/east but very weak: 16/18 km/h. Cumulus base was 2500m at the beginning of the task and after up to 3000m. Somewhere along the mountains there was a beautiful line of cumulus. The top speeds for the day for club class was 108 Kmh, standard class 125 Kmh and 147 Kmh for 15m class. Now all the gliders are in their trailers and at 8.00pm we will have the farewell party at airport restaurant.”—-As shared by the organizers,

That was it ….in Rieti. As always great!!! Only a  pity that several gliders were damaged.
What happened on the last day?
club class; 2.30 AAT,
2 Italian daily winners who started early and again young Davide won a day. A pity from the days he out -landed. Luca Urbani was runner up.
6 Times a St Cirrus in the daily top.
What does this all mean for the overall score??
Ondrej was today on spot 5 and Jan [Louda] his mate on 4. They started late together to see what was possible on this last day. Chasing the rest and passing them,…. it worked more or less.;they did not win the day but consolidated and climbed up.
Ondrej Dvorak  is the new CLUB CLASS EGC CHAMPION.[7341]  Good on him. Winning task 8 a few days ago, on August 12,  together with Jan, brought him from 8 to spot 2 overall. Only Josef Kozar from Slovakia was in his way, but on the last day he was on spot 11, so the runner up is JAN LOUDA.[7302]
Josef is on spot 3.[7256]
UK pilot Ge Dale who was on top for quite a few days finished on spot 4, having a few relatively “poor” last days.

standard class;2 hour AAT.
Lucasz had to defend his first place overall and he did,…but only just 236 km in 2.08. He was on this last day on spot 18 !!! But he was far enough ahead to be THE NEW EUROPEAN CHAMPION in Standard class.[7408]
Runner up ” our ” Sjaak Selen, a very consistent pilot.On this last day he started 13 minutes ahead of Lucasz  and flew 251 km. in 2.03.A total of 7293 points.
On spot 3 at the podium;Russian pilot Dmitriy Timoshenko, with 7071 points. He slowly made his way from 8 to 3 over the last days. Well done by Dmitriy.

Sjaak as vice European Champion.Proud on him.
As shared by EK Zweefvliegen and the podium by Frouwke.

15 m. class; 1.30 AAT.
I thought NOTHING could go wrong for Peter Hartmann. But on the last days it did n’t go as well as before. Yesterday he was one of the out -landers today he was on spot 11 , loosing points again. Unfortunately for him too many as he is now runner up with 7112 points.
THE NEW EUROPEAN CHAMPION IN THIS CLASS IS DIDIER HAUSS.[7188] After day 7 he was still on spot 9 overall, but he raced to the top eating every day a bit of the points from Peter who topped the overall list for 6 days.
The French had a strong team together occupying spot 1 ,3 and 4.The number 3 is Christophe Ruch.
The last day was won by Jaroslav Tomana with a speed of 147 km./h.

Good bye Rieti by TEAM UK.

———-

Looking back at Arnborg!

It’s a tough job to win a prize.
Sabrina with the club class trophy and for her and the other champions ,…a trip to the USA, as I heard from Frouwke who was steward during these comps.
Picture courtesy Frouwke.

It was not always easy for the girls.Certainly in the beginning, the weather did not co-operate. Already during practice it was impossible to do good training- flights. They still managed to fly 9 out of 13 days, some pretty marginal.
But all went well. We have great CHAMPIONS , fantastic runner up’s and good third- place-holders.
What is AS is important is the friendship created over the days. I hear and read above all sadness that it is over. SO IT WAS GOOD!!!!
I was pleasantly surprised by the flying of the Dutch girls. Natasja [ spot 8 from 10] had only flown 1 WWGC , for the others , Annemiek [spot 9]  and Lilian [11]  and Doortje,[12]  it was the debut. All 3 flew in club class with 17 participants.Dutch female gliding is up and running.
Annemiek,  as said still a junior, won 2 days , was 2 times 3d and 3 times at the bottom of the list. So a bit more consistency and she will win in the future; her talent still has to be developed over the future years.
Elena is such a rough diamond as well and for sure more young girls, but I don’t know them all.
I sometimes felt for the Aussie girls Kerrie and Jo, flying in total different circumstances as down-under, on days they would not even think to go the airfield home.
Jo mentioned; “  It’s always a bit sad to end a comp. Especially one as special as this one!
Lots learnt and new friends made. While the flying was supremely difficult I wouldn’t have missed a moment.”

Kerrie, who is full of humor,  mentioned;
“ Denmark is a wonderful country – green countryside, neat farmhouses and fields, extremely friendly & hospitable people –
we’re determined to come back and visit again – but next time in summer!” 
She was grateful to many also ” to the  to all the Danes who offered help, encouragement, support and a shoulder to cry on  – esp the two pilots at Christianshede (gliding club) who individually came up to apologize for the Danish weather!”
Jo shared the pictures from the prize winners, who are all on their way home now again with awesome memories on a very friendly easy going competition. Compliments to all !!!!
Specially for Swaantje who after battling her cancer, was in full swing again during this WWGC. She was 14th , but who cares, she PARTICIPATED!!! Good on her.She is on the left ,first row on this picture with ALL the German team members , who were so successful!! As  shared by Frouwke.

The Club Class Champions: Sabrina ,Chrissie and Edita.

The 15 m. class winners; Anne, Marilyne and Katrin.

The Standard class winners; Aude, Dana and Jana.

———-

Bailleau

NO FLYING on the last day in Bailleau so nothing changed in the scores.
—” Frank Hiemstra is “Le Champion Grande Vitesse de Bailleau 2015″.—”
Best of 37 ,so a good result!!! Congratulations to Frank .Runner up was another Dutch pilot Robbie Seton, also one of my former juniors. He just missed out on 4 points!!!Well done Robbie!
In the friendly class 2 Dutch pilots on top Stefan Knoop and Thomas van Heeswijk in the Duo Discus and Michael de Wert in the Discus.
In the long flights class the winners are from home; Bailleau pilots Henry and Negri in the ARCUS T.[750 kg.]

As shared by Ben Hiemstra……Robbie, Frank and Jan.

Already for years and years a VERY PLEASANT competition!!!!

——–

18m and open class in Stendal

NO FLYING for 4 days.

NOW WE KNOW WHY!
By the way we had yesterday, 43.000 lightnings here as well.
As shared by the organizers.

BUT they try today ; Racing tasks were set, BUT the thunderstorms started again. 18 m. in the back of the field was cancelled at 12.30.
Open has to try;2.30 AAT. But first they secure the gliders till after the storm.
More tonight or tomorrow.

———-

Slowly a very careful beginning of the season in Australia with 300 km. flights from Warwick and Kingaroy.
AND a great ridge soaring day in the EAST from AUSTRIA. From Wiener Neustadt they flew  yesterday, 1.150 km. in a DUO DISCUS.And here we are looking ahead at autumn.

More tonight or tomorrow depending on the news!

Cheers Ritz

WWGC in ARNBORG

DENMARK.
Last day cancelled:
“The last day here has been cancelled. Ironically a warm airmass is the culprit.”
Aussie team.

It happens!!! One day you are the glorious winner, the other day you land out. Yes it happens and not only for Annemiek who raced yesterday, all alone to a win from everybody in her class with half an hour.
She writes; ” from hero to zero,”  as welcome from Uys also in Denmark, so to share that is a good self reflection as well.
Don’t forget Annemiek is a JUNIOR!!! She is still a student at the Technical University of Delft. Last year she was one of the racers, driving the solar car from Darwin to Adelaide and her team WON.
She flew already in Australia and in South Africa so with her young years she is already a bit experienced. In my eyes a rough diamond ready to be polished to GLOW.

Club class; 2.30 AAT, with a blue day and up to 1200 m cloud base it might have been better to not fly alone but to stay with the group. Annemiek decided not to stay in a gaggle but fly home on her own initiative, as yesterday.  This time unfortunately it did not help her , as everything what “helped” yesterday did not help today and as she adds,”   just STUPID!”
The others did quite well.
Elena from Italy [186 km in 2 .50] ,had her bad day  yesterday and was on top today, she went from zero to hero! Chrissie from Germany, who knows what it is to be a women-world- champion was runner up.
AND,…it looks like today might not a day so the scores from today might be the WWGC champion scores.If so; Sabrina will be the new SOARING-QUEEN , and Chrissie the runner up and Lithuanian Edita the number 3.

Standard class; 2.30 AAT.A good day for the girls from thew Eastern countries; Dana, Jana, both  from the Czech Rep , Joanna from Poland and Hana from The Czech rep , formed the toppers.
SO,…when there is no flying today Aude from France will win with 10 points on Dana and 29 on Jana.Sue will be 4th.

15 m. class; With Marilyne and Anne winning the day, their route to fame and glory was clear. Anne was so far ahead that she will be the new queen of World soaring. Marilyne as runner up and Katrin as number 3.

A lot of gliders landed at the same time , so as the German blogger mentioned;”  Within 5 minutes it looks white here”.
TODAY LAST DAY!!!!BUT,…will there be a last day. NO GRID Before briefing!!!!
WHEN they fly a lot is possible with these scores in club and standard, up and unfortunately also down the list.
NO FLYING DAY, so the QUEENS are the QUEENS, the runner up’s, the runner up’s and the good third , the good third!! A pity it is as it is.

Was this one of the last finishes yesterday??
Shared by Team Germany.

———

13.5 m. WGC in POCUINAI

Lithuania.

Lithuania local Vladas has started his race to win this WGC just a bit too late. He won again, did so 5 times,  but before he was in the right groove , after the out landing on day 1, Stefano was already “gone”.
Today Stefano was only on spot 6 , but with a lead of 400 points you don’t have to take risks. He is TOO experienced to do so.
Morgan was last today ….” first- big- competition- Jitters ??????”  … but he is still on spot 3 , though Alberto from Italy, nice fellow, is now just 65 points behind him….. And Francois not too far behind him. 2 Days to go.

Vladas in his Mini Lak ,as shared by the organizers.

Here is team USA :

—” We had a great day flying together!    The cloud base was very low at launch time so we spent over 2 hrs waiting for bases to rise and to start the task. We started with the French and Russians.
The first leg had some great cloud lines and we were even with the French at the first turnpoint.
Leg two to the north featured a decent blue hole and we working into the wind. We found some great lift lines though. We rigged and the French zagged and they beat us to turnpoint two.

The run south was not as well defined as we came back across the blue. We caught up to Luka and just beat the French into the turnpoint although they were higher and we were pretty much even.

The day was starting to get soft so they zigged and we zagged again. God I love this sport. We caught a good climb which got us to final glide altitude and made it home about 3 minutes ahead of them.

Turns out we  nailed the timing on the day and placed 2nd and 3rd!! The standings in the middle of the pack have compressed significantly and François is well poised for getting on the podium.

Two more days!—–”

What a great gesture from Tony and Francois:
” The 13.5m team USA pilots Tony Condon and Francois Pin would like to dedicate their 2nd and 3rd place finishes yesterday along with their flights today to to Rick Walters 3R.—”
A great mate who ,as I wrote to you, died after a bike accident.

A great tribute to 3R..Rick Walters.

One but last day in Pocuinai; Flying day 11 !!!!! Value for money!!!
Task;347 km. more later. They claim for a blue day, but on a picture you could see already nice clouds!!

Latest news PLUS picture,  about the GP 14 VELO which should have flown during this competition by Sebastian Kawa, from GP GLIDERS,  as shared on FB by the SSA;
—“Despite our best efforts it just wasn’t in the cards for us this time. It’s those little details that seem to grab your attention the most. Although GP 14 VELO won’t make it to Pociunai this week, we have had quite a year, designing a new glider from the ground up, aiming to lead in design, technology, construction and performance. Again we want to thank our team and all of our loyal supporters, whose number is constantly growing. Best of luck to our competitors in Lithuania also, may the best take the win! Hopefully this is not the last WGC in 13,5 m class and it’s in our hands to promote it as well as we can. We have great faith in its potential. This is just the beginning for us, we are building the sail planes with precision and quality so that each GP Glider will be flying for many years to come. Right now we will take short vacation, regroup and come back fresh and stronger. Our GP 14 VELO will have its first flight in coming weeks and later on intense test program is planned, stay tuned for more news.—” 

———-

EGC in RIETI

Italy.

These pictures from the Libelle say enough about  the weather.

but this is what the organizers said:
” Today there were thunderstorms in the northern part of the task areas, many gliders had a lot of rain and about 25 outlandings. the task. Some pilots could avoid the rain and finish their tasks with 115 km/h.
The south area was very fast with strong thermals, 4 m / s, and the cumulus base was up to 3200m over the mountains but lower in the valleys.”

This is what steward Terry had to say:
—“Weather was for more humidity which would make the day end a little early but hopefully no storms. Well “1 out of 2 aint bad”. It was humid so the day ended early, greatly assisted by the storms. 26 outlandings at last count. 2, maybe 4, gliders damaged. One young Swiss pilot landed in Val Denira (death valley) and hurt his back so they had the ambulance and fire truck sent out to help him. Seems he is OK but a little sore. A lot of tired faces this evening. Still trailers arriving after a late evening in paddocks. We are hoping that tomorrow may be better??—” 

And some words from pilot Ian from team UK;
—“Another hard Rieti day – didn’t climb off Terminillo and had to have a relight, so started late. Was a truly humming run for me and was having so much fun – climbs peaking 8-9kts to 10,000ft and I got up to the last turn as G was coming out. Gliders were climbing in front of the large shower, but by the time I got there just rain and sink. Was stuck in the valley with a cu-nim to the south and rain to the north and ended up taking the safe airfield option with a lot of other gliders. Timing was unlucky, the sky redeveloped about 40 mins later.”—

The UK club class pilots Ge and Ian.

Standard class ; 323 km.
With a 2d daily place , Sjaak looks , with one day to go , to consolidate his 2d spot overall. Winner was Russian pilot Dmitriy , well known for years, flying different classes. He moved up from 4 to 3 overall, whilst Polish Lucasz is still firm on top!!
Only 9 from 21 finished.

Dmitri daily winner.
As shared by the organizers.

15 m. class ;366 km.
A daily win for JELMER!!! Good on him.11 From 24 finished in this class . Peter [Hartmann] out-landed after 314 km. so did Leigh [Wells] and Louis [Bouderlique] , about 6 trapped in the same area.
Peter still leads with 37 points on Didier who moved from 4 to 2 , as one of the finishers.
Luca [De Marchi] moves up from 5 to 3 , he was “in” as well.Louis is now on 5 and Giorgio Galetto on 6.

Jelmer Wassenaar [Holland] , in the past he was one of my juniors, now he is married ,has a beautiful little child and a great job as development engineer with DG Flugzeugbau and is/was involved in the Volocopter-project.

   LAST DAY TODAY and it looks they are flying. Grid orders are out, tasks not yet,only for club; 3 hour AAT.

———–

Bailleau in France.

No flying yesterday but TODAY tasks have been set.LAST DAY, too much excitement !!!
Friendly pilots;1.30 AAT..Holland/Eindhoven leads with a Duo Discus and Discus , they should be OK.
Long distance pilots ; 2.15 AAT very small marge in this class overall.
Speedy pilots ; 1.45 AAT. VERY close scores!!!!

———-
Open and 18 m. Nationals in Stendal

Germany.

No flying yet.3 days have been cancelled. Today they try again.First estimated launch at 13.30.
More later.

———-

You are up to date with all the latest on the BIG comps. CU tomorrow.
Cheers Riz

WWGC in ARNBORG.

Annemiek as seen by Frans Guise.

AND the winner in club class was ; ANNEMIEK. Her 2d daily win. With an early start, cause the meteo mentioned an early end of the day, she left before the rest. She lined up for the start line,…. it felt good and….. off she went for the set 300 km.
She flew alone and passed the girls on their way to the most Northerly TP, when she was on her way to the next one already. After finishing she was the only pilot back at the field and could see some finishes from the other 2 classes.
All in all she was about half an hour faster than the rest, gaining 1000 points, where the runner up Sarah,  “got” 869. Well done!!!!!Annemiek  moved from 10 to 7 overall.
A less good day for Elena; an outlanding after 288 km. she dropped from 3 to 8.A pity!

Standard class;The German girls did well with 4 pilots among the first 5, with on spot 3 French Aude who tops the overall list.[4366]  BUT,…3 times world champion Sue  and current world champion, is on her heels only 63 points is the overall difference.
3 Outlandings.

15 m. class ;5 from 9 finished with German Katrin , a former world champion as well, as the best, JUST ahead of French Marilyne who got 3 points less.
When Anne from France keeps up her performance she cannot loose this WWGC. With 300 points she leads but ….we have seen “weird” things happening on the last 2 days, so let’s wait and see.

TODAY;2.5 AAT’s in all classes on what it looks a blue day. Tomorrow last day and farewell party in the evening and the prize giving on Saturday morning.

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13.5 m. WGC in POCUINAI.

Day 9; A good day for local hereo Vladas,…he won !!Nobody managed to stay around the 2 hour from this AAT, he came close with 237 km in 2.35 . Some, like Morgan  had 2.22 but less kilometers, 184.
A “horrible”  day for the French team as they both “out-landed” , Frederic after 48 km and Antoine after 128.
Stefano flew solid and was on a daily spot 2 with 213 km in 2.21.
USA pilots Tony and Francois were on spot 5 and 6.
Morgan had an interesting day and comment;
–“Yesterday I got 872 points for an outlanding. Today the winner got less points for coming home. Just a result of the ever-lurking “day devaluation” rule. I made a lot of points against my main competition for 3rd and fell further behind 2nd place.
I shared a thermal with a big flock of storks. Maybe 50-100 of them. I flew completely around the flock several times before they decided to move on.”–

Day 10. by the Aussie team;
“Woke up to an overcast sky with pilots doubting we are going to fly. Briefed for a 310km task for 13.5m. Mixed class has a trip round the Kaunas airspace.
Ready on the grid for a 12:00 launch with a rapidly improving sky.”

As shared by Morgan.

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EGC in RIETI.

After 3 days of thunderstorms , sight seeing , beer drinking and talking they had to fly again yesterday.
So back to the rhythm and to work.A 3 hour task was set for ALL CLASSES on August 12.
Club class;
13 from 20 finished and some toppers were “out” as Roman , Ge, Davide and Gilles.
The Czech pilots did well, occupying spot 1 and 2 for the day.

—” Today was not an easy day! In the area south of the tasks there were medium climbing values: up to 2 m/s, but in the north there were dry thermals and very weak climbs. Wind was still from north/east. Many pilots waited about an hour before starting. For the club class the start line opened at 1.35pm but many gliders started their task around 2.30pm and some 15m pilots started after 3pm. Probably it wasn’t a good choice as 17 gliders landed out and the last glider landed on the airfield at 8.00pm.—” as shared by the organizers.

Standard class; 6 out landings and also here some good pilots as Jay, Christophe, Vittorio and John Coutts.This moved him from spot 0verall to spot 4 .French pilot Lucas won and overall 1 pilot now from Poland Lucasz was runner up. The Swiss did well with a 3d and 4th place, which brings Stefan Leutenegger to a 3d spot overall behind Sjaak Selen.

15 m. class ; 3 hour AAT. 14 from 24 finished and it was a FRENCH day with Louis, Christophe and Didier on top all flying over 300 km .Peter Hartmann was on spot 6 and leads the pact overall, where the 3 French pilots try to chase him on the last days.

Today THANK YOU TO THE TUGGIES!!!!

August 13 today news from team UK:
—Briefing done, racing tasks for all three classes with a B task briefed if the weather doesn’t shape up as hoped.
Club class 260k
Standard class 323k
15m class 366k
All tasks are in the same area and in the same direction, South east, north west them south to the finish.
First launch 12.30--” Postponed to 12.45.

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German Nationals in open and 18 m. class in Stendal.

2 hour AAT s today. That should be possible!

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Bailleau, speed and long flight classes.

Another Dutch win in speed class for young Frank Hiemstra in his St Cirrus. AND,..he is back on the top ONE spot overall.Only 17 from 35 finished and a few of the overall toppers belonged to the out-landers. Yes this is soaring.
So 2 Dutch pilots Frank and Robbie top the overall list with just FOUR points between them. I know both, very FAIR but  they want to win!!! Looking forward to today and tomorrow .
13 from 20 in the “long flights ” finished!

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More competition news tomorrow and on Saturday

Cheers Ritz