THE BENELUX comps have started!
courtesy Franz Bertrand.

From the one interesting competition we move to the next one.And there are a few at the moment.

THE BENELUX comps at ST .HUBERT.

SUNDAY May 17;a day with ZERO ” out-landers”.
SAINT HUBERT , continued last Sunday with 2 times a 300 hour AAT for the BENELUX pilots.
For 18 m. class day 2. Best pilot was from Belgium this time, Jean Luc [Colson] with 347.5 km. in time 3.17,52 flying an ARCUS.
In this class 13 from 24 are Dutch pilots.Runner up also from Belgium Sebastien Mercier in ASG29 /18m.
A bad day yesterday for Bert [Schmelzer sr.] and Alfred Paul Alfers] but day 2 was better for them, with a 4th and 6th place.Also an unfortunate day for the winner from day 1, Francois, today he was last with only 358 points. He started more than an hour later [14.54] than the first starter [13.39]

The LS 8 from Jeroen [Jennen] and in the air with Bert Schmelzer jr.
courtesy Jeroen Jennen.

For the mixed class , with 22 participants [15 from Belgium ,7 from Holland], it was day 1. Also here our Belgium mates did a great job. They occupied spot 1 till 4.Daily winner ; Daan [Spruyt] with 318.1 km. in time  3.06,18 in an LS 6.
One of the pilots in this class is the instructor who let me go solo in 1968; Dick Teuling, still very active.Another one Jeroen, both flew MANY Nationals and international comps.

  

Dick and Jeroen [Verkuijl] with his daughter.
as seen by WILLEMIJN.

MONDAY May 18;
Day 2 for the mixed class; AND,.what a day 2….task from nearly 400 km.;388.3 km.!!!!
BUT,….They had a B task in the background and ,…used that one; 320 km.
Some said in the end task A would have been possible, but there was a tough wind and it was pretty turbulent.
Former European champion Steven [Raimond] , just back from the Klix- competition “got”  the 1000 points; speed 84.4 km./h. over 320 km..
World champion Bert [Schmelzer jr.] got 6 points less. His brother unfortunately out-landed; Tijl flew 228.4 km.
7 From 22 did so. Of course Mac is not participating here as Hahnweide where he flew overlapped.
The numbers 1 -7 are within 86 points, so MORE days please!!!
As Sebastien Mercier , number 3 at the moment, mentioned in his comment on the OLC;
“Tough over Germany on the return leg, but then way easier for the last 80kms.“

  

Dennis [Huybreckx] at this stage number 3 overall, just ahead of Patrick [Stouffs]  and cousin Jeroen [Jennen] at this stage number 2 overall, just behind Daan.
As seen by Gitte.

The bigger ships had 418.9 km. for their day 3, but they also got the B task from 317.
On day 1,  4 Dutch pilots on top, on day 2 Belgium pilots , on day 3  another 5 Dutch pilots. Daily winner for a few moments, our former crew and club mate Marco {Vermeer}  in his new  JS 1;105.4 km./h. over the B task with 317 km.
He missed however out on 1000 points because he got a 46 point penalty, for his “finish altitude”, so finished in the end on spot 3 behind Maurits on 1 and Jeroen [Verkuil] on 2. Jeroen was pleased with the nice cloud streets against the wind.
On Spot 4 Francois, who gathered some finish-altitude-penalty points as well, other wise he would have had 999 points. Such a pity. But rules are rules!
All but one finished. After 3 days the ARCUS with Jean Luc tops the overall scores.

B tasks at the grid.
as seen by Willemijn.

TUESDAY May 19 ; shows 2 AAT’s from 2 hours. But,……though on the picture the weather looked nice and everybody was ready at the grid, to go for it, the weather circumstances were just not good enough.
Next Sunday more about these comps.

Yesterday’s weather, BUT from the SW a low with severe showers passed to the NE.

———-

ARNBORG,
Danish National Championships.

They started on May 14 in 5 classes !
Club, with 12 participants and on day 1 the first daily winner was Jan Walther Andersen in the ASW 20 C.
Also Rasmus Orskov was on of the 3 finishers on day 1 with a 2.30 AAT; 188.8 km. in 2.34,17.
Ole [Arndt] and Henrik [Breidhal] the other 2 I know in this class were on spot 5 and 9.
On day 2  they got a racing task from 248.3 km. AND,….again Jan was the best and …again only 4 finishers. Henrik was IN, Ole and Rasmus were OUT.
Then 4 cancelled days.

Standard class,with 10 participants, started with a 2 hour AAT and Mogens [Hoelgaard] in the Discus 2 A was the daily winner; 207.7 km. in 2.01. Only 2 pilots did not finish.

On day 2 it was AGAIN Mogens who got the highest score over 288.3 km.;800 points. Only 3 pilots finished this time.
4 Days were cancelled.

15 meter, with 14 pilots and 2 of them I know, Ib Wienberg and Stig Oye. They started on day 1, with a 2 hour AAT as well and 8 finished, Ib and Stig on spot 2 and 3.
Day 2 was with 288.3 km, for some TOO much. Ib won the day, Stig was 2d and with them only 2 more pilots finished.
4 cancelled days.

18 meter, with 11 participants and a 2 hour AAT on day 1. 7 Finished but Arne [Boye Moeller] and Peter [Eriksen] missed out ,they had enough kilometers but did not make it home.The winner Ulrik Sorensen, had 200 km. in just under 2 hours.On day 2 they were in the right groove . Arne won the day  [292.9 km racing task] and got 1000 points, Peter was 4th.
4 scrubbed days.

2-seaters/20 m.,with 7 pilots, all with pretty difficult names. One ARCUS and the rest DUO DISCUS in all variations. They started with a 2 hour AAT and 4 pilots finished.
On day 2 nobody finished;292.9 km. was TOO long.
Then 4 scrubbed days.

———–

Some good news from Scandinavia. 
Notodden in Norway had special weather on May 14, sorry I missed that with all the comps. 2 Pilots flew just under [ in ASW 20] and just over[ in Discus BT] ,  800 km.!!!!
” My longest flight ever, both in time and distance!
Somewhat tricky conditions the first hours, but got better later in the day”, was what Arne Martin had to say about it.
AND.. as always also great pictures.

 

The summit of Gaustatoppen. As you can see a hiker was active as well.
But also an other glider pilot.see below!
Courtesy Arne Martin.

———-

The 40 thiest Polish Nationals in OPEN CLASS
Stalowa Wola.[May 15-May 24 ]

Polish skies over the forest, as shared on FB.

With so many good pilots, it is always interesting to follow the Polish Nationals. A ” bunch” of top-pilots , among them Sebastian [ASG 29/18m] , Janusz Centka [ ARCUS M] ,Adam Czeladzki [JS 1 C] and Tomasz Krok [ LAK 19/18m] as well as 2 Italian pilots,  Luca Monti in the LAK 17/18m and Lorenzo Monti in the LAK 19/18m. A total of 30 pilots.
They started on May 16 with a 3 hour AAT. Best distance combined with speed was  for Krzysztof Luniesky ; 437 km. in time 3.06, 40 ,so a speed of 140 km./h. in an ASG 29/18m. 1000 points for him !
Day 2 the pilots got a 2 hour AAT won by Sebastian ;300.4 km. in time 2.01,33 so a an even faster speed of 148.3 km./h. Not a 1000 points day , but 610; too short, too fast.
Day 3 had a racing task of 607.7 km. !!
An exciting long day , won by,………Sebastian with a speed of 111.6 km/h.!He and 4 other pilots , including Janusz and Adam, managed to finish. Some just did not make it; 590 km. The Italian pilots flew 472 km.
25 Out-landings!

In between , Sebastian has time to make pictures as well, here is one he shared on FB.

287.3 km. was the task for day 4 yesterday and most of the pilots finished. Nice speed as well 124.8 km./h. for the winner in the ASH 31MI/21 m. Christoph who moved after 4 days to spot 3 overall.
Sebastian was on a daily spot 4 and still is the overall leader.

Another 47 pilots fly parallel with the open class , for the CLUB A Nationals also from Stalowa Wola. Among them quite a few female pilots as Joanna Biedermann and  Judyta Czyz.
On day 3, they had 509.4 km.
Unfortunately NO finishers in this class, meaning 47 out-landings,  but 501 km. was still VERY  GOOD! [ASW 19b]; so 1000 well deserved points.
141.9 km. was the task for day 4.

Sebastian even shared one from the out-landing-spot from Judyta.

———

The ITALIAN 20 m. class nationals
VARESE [May 16-May 24]

Day 1 , [Sunday] after one practice day the comps started with a 316 racing task;  a prey for Luciano Avanzini.
1000 points for a speed of 85.1 km./h. in the ARCUS T. Runner up was Austrian pilot Peter Hartman in the DUO DISCUS T.
A total of  11 gliders in this National Competition , 6 x ARCUS [M or T]  3 variations of DUO DISCUS ,a  DG 505 M/20 m. and a JANUS C-FG and pilots as Aldo Cernezzi, Stefano Ghiorzo, Alberto Sironi and Gianni Spreafico, many times Italian TC.
Day 2, [Monday] gave the pilots their own choices; a 2 hour AAT. They all started around 1 PM , one pilot  45 minutes later. Peter who flies a lot in Italy knows the area very well and he flew 216.7 km.  in time 2.10. As daily winner he ” got” 670 points.
Day 3, showed a 1.30 AAT, the weather is pretty poor at the moment at most places in Europe.
But they flew in Varese, just for a few points but still,…..6 from 11 finished and the daily winner was Alberto [Sirone] ; 136 km. in time 1.32,35 for 250 points.
3 Days , 3 different daily winners.

———-

More good flights over the last couple of days. Last Sunday a 737 km. [600 FAI triangle]  in Holland from Midden Zeeland in an ASH 31/21m. by Nico Koster. Another top day in Holland the so maniest.
But now we suffer from the LOW as well and it looks today also,but  then it should get better according to the meteo on the morning news.
Also the Finnish mates had a great Sunday with flights up to 650 by Markku Kuusisto.
Yesterday Lesce Bled had a good day;720 km. in a DG 300.

———-

And to finish a nice picture from the SHARK

 HpH Sailplanes UK
With text;
“Shark Jet Sleeping…. Great shot by Jacub Nanowski”

An early departure to Amsterdam, so CU hopefully on Sunday with the latest on all those comps,
Cheers Ritz

 Great pictures from Willemijn again good she is there!

Last Thursday the BENELUX comps started at St. Hubert, just when the weather was superb in Holland.
The day before nearly 800 was flown again in Holland, in an ASW 22 BLE, , Sikko even hoped for a 1000 and was ready for it , but it was not “there” and young ones as the brothers Tim and Caspar Kuijpers flew for the first time 300 km.  far away from house during their 600 km. out and return in an LS 4. Good on them!!!

The international combination of Nationals is something which stimulates soaring  between the Belgium and Dutch pilots. Both have a few very strong ones and I don’t put any money on, who is going to win in each class.
They fly in 2 classes a mixed class with standard, 15 m.  and 20 m. and a combined 18m and open class.

MAY 15 Day 1 ;
with rain and fog the day started. Then 15 m. was cancelled but there was a window for the 18m/open class so 125 km. was set.
First start at 17.06, so at the end of the day. Most were back at around 7 to 7 .30 PM,……BUT,they flew.
Francois [Jeremiasse ] from Holland in the Ventus 2cxa FES, won with the highest daily score of 376 points. Followed by Jeroen [Verkuil] in the ANTARES 18 T and Maurits [Dortu] in the 18 m. ASG 29.
All 24 in this class finished!! So a pretty good day.

    

All ready for day 1.
Courtesy Willemijn.
open class daily winner Francois

Day 2 was cancelled!

Day 3 flying day 1/2;no tasks yet , only briefing, so more on Wednesday.

———-

Hahnweide continued:

Wednesday May 13 another flying day,…. EXCEPT for the 18 m. pilots. Their class was scrubbed.
Open class 264.8 km;
It was for the 2d time that Werner Meuser could call himself daily winner.Not fast just  88 km./h. as the weather was just not faster, but in the EB 28 EDITION, he won the 997 points.He was the only one under 3 hours but just; 2.59,29.
8 From 19 did not finish.
YY did , here he is ,as shared by the organizers, in this case Kathrin, who not only has a great eye for ART , she is the artist of the colorful paintings, cards etc from pilotessa.com, but also for photography.

Bruno in his gorgeous NIMETA. A series of 9 of this finish at
http://www.wolf-hirth.de/hww15/gallery/gallery.inc.php?mghash=83486bd2027f7baa195187003fab788d&mggal=13
Courtesy Kathrin

2-seater class 172.3 km;
A very tough day for ALL in this class. NOBODY finished, best distance 159.7 km. in the ARCUS and that is pretty good as the runner up had 133 km!!!!

15 m. class 193.9 km;
Just to show the outlanding the day before was a “mistake” , Phil put things straight this day, winning with a speed of 81.9 km./h.
Only 5 from 11 finished and unfortunately Stefanie was not one of them.She flew 160.8 km. but still leads the overall scores.

standard class 178.3 km;
It was Mac-day in Hahnweide. He won with 62.9 km./h whilst runner up Felipe flew with 53.6 km/h. Brother Enrique finished as well and that was about it as only 4 from 19 finished and Jan [Omsels] was last, how sad he only got 22 points, and he started the comps SO well.
Himmelhochjauzend, zum Tode betrubt, a bit as from heaven into hell.
In the total scores between the brothers there is a ONE_POINT_ difference.Jan is on 6 now.

Thursday May 14 another tricky day, with hopefully a window.
18 m. Was upfront at the grid and started, but it was not meant to be. You have to stay up to start with 121 gliders.
In the end the day was cancelled for all classes.In the evening they all had a BBQ  …..and cocktails.

Friday May 15, only 2 days to go!
After the BBQ  and cocktails, it was as I heard  for some a bit late [understatement] , but no worries it rained in the morning, so a sleep in was possible.
All good and well, they come to fly, so it was waiting for a briefing at 11 and hopefully soarable weather.
Another scrubbed day, so only 1 day to go.

The field on a day the weather was good!
courtesy Michi Berger.

Saturday May 15….day 8 ….flying day 4/5;Last day!!!!!
To show on the last day how good soaring at Hahnweide can be, the weather gods presented the pilots with good soarable conditions and the organizers turned that into nice long tasks. Finally a REAL day again.

open class 420.6 km;
A bit more than 50 points between the number 1 Jim/Wille, from Sweden and the number 2 Killian from France, before they start their last day.
11 From 19 finished; Jim finished on a daily spot 6 gaining 966 points. Killian was 5th with 965 points. So NOT enough to pass Jim. Pierre and Arnaud had 964 points, good enough for a final score on spot 4, just outside the medals as Markus Frank was 3d overall and for the day.
The NIMETA flew 274.6 km.

 Wille and Jim as seen by Kathrin.

2 seater class 376.9 km;
Only 20 points between the number 1 Martin/Nils and the number 2 Wolfgang/Andreas and 30 points with number 3. ALL is possible.
Only 2 from 29 finished !!!!!The  Fröschles in the ARCUS M and Wolfgang and Andreas in the ARCUS M.Both got 1000 points.
Martin/Nils were 36 km. out.
Overall scores now; 1.Wolfgang/Andreas  with 2902 points and 2 .Martin/Nils with 2782.
The  Fröschles plus Hilmar,  were 41 points behind on spot 3.

Andreas and Wolfgang as seen by Kathrin

18 m. class 429.3 km ;
first at the grid, nice long task, they will be happy.Russell has 2062 points topping the list and the next 3 , Markus from Sweden, Mario from Germany and Andy from the UK, are in the 1900 range.In this class 6 from 38 pilots finished !!!!
Russell flew 376.2 km.  whilst  Mario  flew  the full 429.3 km and faster than any other pilot; 113.1 km./h. HE is the well deserved new HAHNWEIDE CHAMPION in 18 m. class.
Several pilots were within 25 km. from the finish line.
Reinhard Schramme, still on spot 6 on day 3, was one of the finishers , 11 km. “slower” than Mario, but he climbed up to spot 3 overall, just 4 points behind Russell who finished on spot 2.
Pretty exciting all of this!

Mario as seen by Katrhin.

15 m. class 389 km;
52 points ahead for Stefanie,[ the only woman in the class, ]will she be able to keep it like that, or maybe improve?????
4 Of 11 finished in this class and SHE was one of them on spot 4!!!
One pilot missed out on 3 km!!!!
In the end Stefanie hold her first position just ahead of Phil Jones who finished as 2d today. He missed out on 32 points.
Good on Bernd Weber who was the 3d finisher and climbed up from 5 to 3 overall.

Stefanie as seen by Kathrin

Standard class 335.7 km;
The Levines differ 1 point in favor of Enrique,when they start their last day,  then there is a “hole” from 200 points……
4 from 21 finished!!!Among them Felipe but Enrique was out after 295.7 km. Also Mac flew 296 km.
So Felipe is the WINNER in this class, ahead of Enrique. Jan came all the way back from 6 to win the bronze. He finished as 2d today and got 999 points. Revenge, good on him!

And here pictures from all WINNERS!!! Thanks Kathrin for making and sharing them.
By the way, the fastest pilot with 140.6 km./h was from Sweden Markus Ganev .
He got from Pierre the wonderful prize.

Pierre and Markus.

Felipe and Enrique Levin and Joachim Koelle in standard class.

Stefanie ,Phil and Bernd in 15 m. class.

Mario, Russell and Markus in 18 m. class.

Jim /Wille , Killian and Markus [Frank] in open class.

Last but not least a “full bunch” in the 2 seater class;

Wolfgang an Andy, Nils and Martin and  Franz Gall / Hilmar Schill / Bernhard Fröschle / Reinhard Fröschle

———-

On a sad note; Tim Mc Grath , died in Tocumwal. Tim was one of the tuggies at the Sportavia Soaring Center in the past. Quite a few of you from the earlier years, might still remember him.Tim had a heart attack and was found dead at home.
Sad, very sad. R.I.P.
On a more happy note; Caught up with the Gilberts in Amsterdam.Tom and Jane from Temora in Australia, visited as last part of their 8 weeks  European trip …Amsterdam. We had lunch, bubbly bubbles , tea and some good talks with lots of memories.Today they fly out back home down under.
Tom and Jane are agents for DG and LS and AMS in Australia , run a work shop[ nowadays I heard together, with their son in law,] do repairs, sales as the DG 1001 Club to the Australian Airforce  for their Air Force cadets , [they did the registrations as all those gliders were shipped to them] and they have/sell spares.
They had the best weather, not only here but in several countries they visited.

 

With Jane ” at Loetje” , straight at one of the canals in Amsterdam.AND…the beautiful area of the red- light- district.
Pictures courtesy Tom.

See you on Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz

HAHNWEIDE .

Last Sunday,….
As shared by the organizers.

There was no day 1 for the open and 2 seater class last Saturday, but my goodness me, did they have nice flights last Sunday on their flying-day 1.
Mind you there are a few former WGC champions between all those 121 pilots at Hahnweide, as well as JWGC champions.STRONG field, a REAL competition.
May 10;
open class; task 515.1 km;
Killian in the JS 1 won the first 1000 points, with a speed of 119.8 km./h. ,…is n’t it the first step that counts??? I know how good he is. Let’s wait and see, they only just finished day 1 and there are 6 to go.
3 from 19 did not finish.By the way Killian was the JWGC champion in Rieti in 2007.
When you see YY, you know it is Bruno, already for years and years.He was 6th this day, in his fabulous TOY the NIMETA.
The Broquevilles [Pierre and Arnaud] finished on spot 3.Pierre has , also this year, a nice surprise ;
“Broqconsult Sprl (Aviation and Business Consultancy), the person behind is Pierre de Broqueville, again sponsors a special prize for the pilot who achieves the highest average speed. The prize involves a four day stay for two persons at Golf du Chateau de Pallanne. This is located in the Gascogne in the south of France. What to do there? You can either play Golf or even better… do Gliding. Pierre, who will be there as well, has a Nimbus 4DM on site. In the proximity of the Pyrenees, for sure an attractive starting point for beautiful flights. Last year even two pilots, Kilian Walbrou and Sylvain Gerbaud, won this prize.”

2 seater class ; 401.9 km;
I forgot to mention one of the toppers in this class; Wolfgang Janowitsch in the ARCUS M. I noticed that because he and young Andreas, WON the day with a speed of 110.3 km./h.!!! Good on them.1000 points!!!
15 from 28 finished , my Dutch friends got stuck after 228.7 km.
My Belgian friends in the DUO made it and were on spot 11.
The Prat’s flew 390.4 km. just a tad too short.

18 m.;task 457.4 km;
Mario[Kiessling ] is HOT, as he won 2 days in a row.Speed 112.2 km/h. Mario still seems SUPER MARIO!!!He won the JWGC in Musbach in 1997.
Russell was 2d and Boerje 5th.,  Andy on spot 8.
29 from 38 finished !7 from them flew over 400 km.
Some lost points by penalties [start height or start speed] as well.

15 m.; task 439.9 km;
on day 1 Phil [Jones] from the UK missed out one a daily prize on 2 points;Jurg Haas flew with a speed of 90.3 km./h.,  Phil [Ventus 2cxa,]  with 89.9
On this day 2 , he won and got 1000 points.
7 From 11 finished and Jurg [ASW 27] was one of the non-finishers with 427.2 km.

standard class; 399.3 km;
The young pilots, the Levine brothers Felipe [109.6 km./h.]and Enrique [ 109.5 km./h.] and Jan Omsels were the best on day 2 each in their Discus 2a.
The day before Jan was 3d , Felipe 6th and Enrique 9th .
Overall after 2 days Felipe leads  and just behind ex-aequo Enrique and Jan.
Only 2 from 21 did not finish.
Talking about champions,  Felipe was twice JWGC champion in Finland [2009]  and Germany.[2011]
Mac is back from Japan for his European season and I will catch up with him in Australia this year.He was on spot 5 yesterday and 11 today.

MAY 11;
Monday flying day 2/3. Briefing at 11.
It was all a bit slow that day, but reason was the not-so-good-looking-weather. All went to the field with A and B tasks.
First they cancelled the standard, 15 m and 18 m class .
The open and 2 -seater class both with already one day less had to wait,maybe a small window could let them fly,  but the lift was just not strong enough to let them go.
All classes CANCELLED.

Tuesday May 12;
day 2/3. A hot day with a forecast temperature of 31 dgr. C and the possibility of thunderstorms maybe with hail.By the way ,we here in Holland, had yesterday the first SUMMER day with 25 C. at the measure points De Bilt in the middle of Holland.
Some places in the SE had up to 28 dgr.

open class  323.2 km;15 from 20 finished. 2 EB 28 ‘s one by Swedish pilot Jim [Acketoft] and good old Werner [Meuser] topped the day list with 116 and 114 km./h.
Killian lost a few points , more than 150, so did the Broquevilles.Bruno just flew back after 30 km.
Jim leads the overall scores now after 2 days, Killian is about 80 points behind. Werner climbed from 12 to 10.

2-seater class 271.7 km ;a REAL battlefield in this class!!8 From 29 finished. 10 ARCUS T or M or “just” ARCUS in the top 10.
8 Pilots flew over 200 km. Wolfgang was in, Sigi was out but only just, though 50 km. might be in this case not just.
Wolfgang and Andreas are still on top after 2 days.

18 m. class  289.5 km; 38 pilots , 26 finishers. Russell and Andy both in the JS 1 started and finished about the same time and were 1 and 3. As they later said  to Kathrin, they followed a convergence line.
Speed 139 km./h. In between at 2, Swedish pilot Markus [Ganev] in the ASG 29 with 140.6 km./h. he had 9 penalty points otherwise HE would have been the winner.
Mario nearly made it home but after 275 km. it was over and out for him on day 3.
After 2 days on spot 1 , the overall score list is now topped by Russell, followed by Markus and Mario, Andy and Boerje.

15 m. class 232.2 km;What a day for some,….in this case NO not good ! Phil Jones was out after 23 km. But 7 from 12 finished, so that cost, only 33 points for him from the 525 for the daily winner,another UK pilot Timothy Scott.
After 3 days Stefanie Muhl tops the overall list, good on her!!Bernd Weber from Schempp-Hirth is runner up.

standard class 227 km: A very tricky day with gusting wind and more than half of the pilots did not finish.In thios class 16 from 20 are Discus types in all variations.Late start at 4 PM but 3 pilots managed to fly with a speed of 117 and 119.4 km./h.
Jan, Sebastian ,Felipe and Enrique and Mac all finished between spot 4 and 9.
After 3 days the overall score is Jan, Felipe with 2 points less and Enrique.

In the evening Schempp-Hirth  invited all for chili con carne, not bad!
As I heard they could look at the building thunderstorms.

———-

ARNBORG.

Same as at Hahnweide  ;a NON flying day on Saturday,…. but Sunday showed a 3 hour AAT. Weird was that only 2 pilots seem to have flown a “few” of those kilometers. They went just over the 100 km. mark and got 1000 points [Ojvind Frank] and 942 [good old Stig Oye!]Later Jan Hald was added and for the 45.2 km. he flew he got 416 points.
It looks like the rest did not bother.If so, a very expensive day.
The  2 days after were cancelled.

———–

Koningsdorfer Wettbewerb 2015.

Koningsdorf shows a lot of good flights on the OLC through the year. They started on May 9 with a competition in 3 classes. One for pilots who just start competition flying, one for those who have “tasted it” it already and one for the experienced pilots. In this class flies Mathias Schunk [Quintus M] a real kilometer eater and Benjamin [Bachmeier]with a mate in the ARCUS T.
12 gliders  and 15 pilots.
Mathias flew nearly 1500 km. from Koningsberg in April 2012 and several over 1000 km flights.
Day 1 was cancelled, but day 2 had a 3.30 AAT in which pilots could prove their experience.
Mathias flew 364.7 km. ,but the QUINTUS M has a handicap from 123, so he was 2d this day with a speed of 97.8 km./h.The day was won by Ecki Wehnert in an 18 m. Discus 2.
Last Monday  a 271.3 km. racing task was set. Mathias won with 130 km./h.
Benjamin and Michael were 2d.[114 km./h]
Yesterday 297.4 km. was set in this class and Mathias was 2d , Benjamin 3d.
For the 2d time Ecki won the day [on handicap] .

———-

 Grand Prix news.

Dear All,

We would like to kindly invite international pilots to sign-up for FAI Sailplane Grand Prix Żar 2015 in Poland held 20-27 June. This is the last qualification for the SGP World Final in Varese. Still 6 places are available.

 

We have received entries from 14 pilots, 7 pilots from abroad (Denmark, Germany, Russia) and 7 pilots from Poland. Interestingly, two of the participating pilots from Poland (Sebastian Kawa, Zdzisław Bednarczuk) already qualified for the finals at Frydlant/Czech Republic, so pilots competing in Poland will have an opportunity to fly with the best and still have a good chance to win qualification for the finals.

More details at the SGP website http://www.sgp.aero/poland2015.aspx?contestID=6452 and in the updated bulletin:http://sgpstorage.blob.core.windows.net/sgpmedia/979985/sgp-zar-2015-bulletin-1v2-6.05.2015.pdf

Deadline for entries is 15 May.

Regards, Marcin Prusaczyk  SGP Poland

So when you are interested ,qualified and always wanted to fly a QSGP, here is a chance for you

———-

I know they flew a 1000 in Japan in the past, but the flight from last Sunday , by Takeshi Saito , in the Discus BT, was an excellent one as well; a declared 750 FAI out and return.
It ‘ not easy to fly long distances as Japan is a big island with lot’s of sea breezes, but also most airfields are on river beddings, so not the best spots to start from.Congratulations!

Also last Sunday Giorgio [Galetto… Ventus 2cxa] had a nice mothers-day present for his Marina; a 1000 km. flown from Bolzano.
To the east of Bolzano you find Lesce Bled and there they flew 823 in an LS 8 and 730 in a St Cirrus.
613 ..a 500 FAI triangle in an LS 1d from Dobenreuth [SE of the Wasserkuppe] was not bad either.
From Holland , this time the S. [Venlo],  still just under and just over 500 km. flights in a Ventus 2 cm/18m. and a DUO DISCUS!
On Monday Keith Essex had a fun day again from Minden;
When you have not read it here is what he wrote about his 1000 km. flight on the OLC.
“I was expecting a marginal thermal day with low bases and broken thermals due to high winds from the south. It was just westerly enough to produce wave. Fell apart quickly at the end of the day. Fun flight but very, very cold!!!”
Nice speed in his ASH 31/21 m.  as well;156.60 km./h.

The fact is, that Brutus, [Peter] after visiting Hahnweide continued via Lesce Bled, so I can share a picture from there.
Courtesy Peter During.

———-

That’s it for now.Have to be very early in Amsterdam, so no more latest news for today. Try to be back on SUNDAY.

Cheers Ritz

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY !!!!

Today I start AND finish with overseas news !!!! Yes I know, the summer season here has not yet really started and after some great spring days we hope for more great weather here in Europe, but WHEN you plan, you have to do it in advance so here is the exciting , interesting and pretty HOT news I got from Ludwig first .

“We are glad to announce that together with the Bitterwasser-team we can offer ‘Flying with the Champions’ at the biggest and most traditional gliding site in Namibia. Additionally to the event in Kiripotib we will offer two courses in the first two weeks of November 2015, for four pilots each.

 Gliders available will be EB 28, Arcus M and the new ASG 32 from Schleicher, we are quite excited about that!

There will be some new faces among the champions, for sure Arndt Hovestadt, Holger Back and Reinhard Schramme from Germany, Brad Edwards from Australia and Phil Jones from Great Britain. With some others, we are still negotiating.

In the meantime, our event became so popular that capacities in Kiripotib are at their limits. Therefore, we appreciate the cooperation with Bitterwasser to give even more interested glider pilots a chance to participate in this worldwide unique training event. The top quality we can offer – thanks to our champions – has made the rounds!

From now on you have the choice to book our courses in Bitterwasser as well, find more details on our homepage

http://www.rent-a-glider.com/view/p-1485/Flying-with-the-Champs/

or on the Bitterwasser-link:

http://www.bitterwasser.com/

———-

At more and more competitions, STAR photographers appear. Also at the QSGP; Jan Smekal!!!!!

Shared by the organizers on FB.

The QSGP in Czech Rep.

April 6..Flying day 4 ,take 1; On day 2 young Martin Piskacek got the honors at the prize giving for his spot 3. Unfortunately on day 3 he out-landed . The organizers shared some pictures.Beautiful BIG field.

  

After the briefing at 12, the meteo was optimistic;there would be a window!In the end it was task B for barbeque. the day was cancelled.

April 7 …Flying day 4,  take 2; Already day 6 and 2 scrubbed days. If they have the weather, we had here, I do understand that soaring is not possible.
In Holland on May 6 even 2  girls , ONLY 20 YEARS OLD, were killed by lightning. They were walking in a park and from nothing it started to rain, they rushed to a tree, there were many of them and just this tree was hit by lightning. This bad weather comes in a flash. Short  and snappy.
In the N of Germany a tornado ruined part of a small town on May 5.
Just to show you a bit of the European weather last week.
But back to soaring.
After the cold front had passed flying day 4 started with a 350 km. task!!!!
7 Pilots managed to fly this distance . Best was ,…it’s getting boring, Sebastian with 104 km./h. But he  is ” SIMPLY THE BEST.”
8 Points for him. A few just made it, getting some penalty seconds for a too low finish height.
Petr [Panek] was 2d, this is also the overall scoring list;Sebastian 32 and Petr 26.
Some spotters make great pictures as well, look at this one shared on the FB from the organizers by Mr.SALADYGA.

April 8…Flying day 5. Better weather was forecasted AND a 4th tug was added o the fleet. Briefing was at 12 and a task of 245.7 km. was set.Regatta start at 2 PM.
It turned out a real racing day, as Sebastian got his 10 points for a speed of 127.8 km./h.
The runner up with 8 points, Luka, got 8 points for his speed of 112.6 km./h.
In their comment the organizers thought of PR as well.
“ After the start over the airfield at 1500m AMSL, the pilots had to round the “beloved” turn point, Lysa Hora, below 1500m for the benefit of the spectators expected to be present on top of this mountain, the day being a national holiday as well as to be filmed by the organisation’s cameramen.”

With 42 points Sebastian is already the Frydland-QSPG -champion in Czech Rep.
Runners up are both Petr [Panek] and Luka with 28 points ,..who is going to keep that spot on the last day????
And Sebastian could help his Polish mate Zdislaw, on spot 4 with 27 points,  a bit higher up.
By the way,….Next QSGP will be in Zar [June 20-28] in Poland, home place from Sebastian, so,……He and his mate do NOT have to qualify anymore,….

One of the 4 Tugs as seen by SPOTTER Mr. Saladyga.

April 9 last day; number 6.
The briefing was set for 12 for this FINAL RACE. Tricky weather they said, but there would be a last short race,
118 km. was set ,when the sniffer found up to 1 m./s lift with a cloud base of 1200 AMSL.
At 14.50 the last regatta start from this QSGP.
ONLY 2 pilots finished Sebastian,…and,…..Zdislaw who got the 4 points, Sebastian who did n’t need points got 1.All in all Zdislaw was 2d with 32 points.So both go to the final in VARESE.

I don’t think Sebastian ever flew with a speed of 37.6 km./h. A great , never-giving-up QSGP champion with 43 points. Now on his way to win Zar, Varese,…the world.

Sebastian , with dad and daughter, seems to say “What can I say,…it ‘s really not that difficult”
As shared by the organizers .Courtesy David Dorda who made 247 great pictures on the last day.
https://www.facebook.com/david.dorda/media_set?set=a.10203046584200456.1073741827.1680885458&type=1

———-

KLIX 2015.

When I left you they were about to announce what was going to happen on Wednesday.With 4 days to go EVERYTHING was still possible.
Wednesday started with a later briefing at 11.
Overcast, without hope. Day was cancelled.

Flying day 5;sunny but still a pretty strong wind, gridding BEFORE briefing.So all had to get back in their rhythm again.
Tasks were set; AAT’s , from 3 , 3.15, 3.30 up to 4 hours mainly because of the difficult weather, [wind and showers] But faster than expected high clouds covered the field and club and 15 m. class were cancelled before the start.
A tough day for the others.
In the end it was a valid day for 18 m./open and for the 2-seaters. Unfortunately not for the Standard class pilots.
Great to see that Frouwke and her husband Ferdi [Kuijpers] won the day in the Duo Discus XL  , but they nicely took 981 points to their tent.They flew the 345 km. with a speed of 89.07 km./h. They moved to spot 4 overall.
I told you about the Belgian family , THEY,  the Kuijpers,  are a Dutch soaring family; Frouwke flies and is very much involved in gliding activities and one of our Dutch IGC delegates, Ferdi flew nationals and international competitions , Tim was junior world champion and Maaike and Caspar both fly as well.
The Dutch had in both classes a good day , as Hadriaan in his 18 m. DG 808 was 2d in 18 m./open gaining 999 points.They had a 3.30 AAT and he flew 403 km. in 3.50.[105.21 km./h]  The winner 422.8 km. in 4.02,58[104.45km./h] After 4 days Hadriaan tops the overall list.

  

Frouwke and Ferdi, daily winners, as shared on FB.AND Ferdi..with Steven and Marion

Flying day 6 started with sun, less wind but this time middle high clouds “rolled”  in.
Racing tasks between 295 and 355 were set.
A day with out landings , but also “6 m./s lift” , so some had a good ,…..some had a bad day.

294.90 km. for club class and 1000 points for Rolf [Engelhardt] in the LS 1f.
354.75 km. for standard and the Belgian boys did not disappoint me , this time they were 1 [Dennis] , 2 [Jef] ,3 [ Wim ] and 9 .[Tim]
Wim has a total of 4445 and Dennis 4408,….what will happen on the last day?????? Flying together or against each other,….I think I know.
354.75 as well for 15 m. class and the good old LS 6 did well; Dutch pilot Ronald flew around with a speed of 106,64 , whilst the runner up Tobias [Barth] 101,92 in the Mosquito.Ronald , a junior from the Delft Student Areo club, won the day!!
Not even 100 points difference between number 1 and number 2 so all is possible here. Tobias is now on spot 2 behind Sebastiaan Maas.
308.30 km. for open/18 m. and the low countries are doing well as Dutch pilot Hadriaan won the 1000 points. [speed 124.84] Overall he has 4556 points so nearly 300 points ahead of the runner up, for the last day.
316.61 km for the 2-seaters and NO this time no Dutch or Belgian pilots , but German in the DG 1000/20m
The ASG 32 MI has 4547 points and the runner up in the Duo Discus 4261. It looks easy but it still has to be flown…tomorrow.

   

Dutch daily winners Hadriaan and Ronald. Lot’s of calendars [ read daily prizes]  go to Holland.
As shared by Frouwke.

With Steven handing over a calendar to Robert.

BUT,….there was NO tomorrow! At least not for soaring in Klix. Already in the evening before they mentioned that ” maybe the champions would be already sure”.In the morning from Saturday they had rain, then for a short while a sunny window and then it would be rain/hail/thunderstorm etc, so no day to fly.

So yesterdays overall winners are still the best. A pity for those who wanted to excel on the last day and gain those points to be just a step better. BUT,….of course you can loose as well.
Here are the final results .

Club class; Rolf Engelhardt in the LS 1f with 4122 points. Runner up, Helge Liebertz , same glider , but with winglets ; 4095.
Standard class; Wim Akkermans from Belgium in the LS 8 with 4448 points just before his brother in law Dennis Huybreckx also in LS 8 with 4408 points.
15 m.; Sebastian Maas in the DG 800/15 m. with 4285 points just ahead of Tobias Berth in the Mosquito [4191] and ahead of Dutch pilot Steven Raimond who won 3 days but out-landed on day 4.[4159]
18 m./open; Hadriaan van Nes , one of our top pilots in his DG 800/18 m. with 4556 points. Runner up in an 18m. LS 6 Herbert Horbrugger with  4278 and Peer Konitzer in the Discus 2c/18 m. 4197 and with 20 points less Robert Werts from Holland in the Nimbus 3.
2 seater class ;Leucker/Anklam with 4546 points in the ASH32 MI, followed by 2 German Duo Discus’ with 4261 and 4088 points.

NICE comps !!!!!! And ….they were happy as well; all Huybreckx grand- children, as said before , the NEW generation. Partying and prize giving in the evening for all at 8.

———-

The Polish 15 m. Nationals.
Rudniki-Częstochowa

These Nationals were between May 2 and 10 and count 13 participants. Parallel were some regional comps from this field.Quite a strong “fight” in the top as 4 competitors were close to each other on the last day.
Thomasz Krok in the LAK 19 had after 4 days 3879 points. Lucasz Blaszczyk flying a DISCUS 2A, had 3745 points and just behind, Leszek Staryszak in the LAK 19T, had 5 points less.

They got a 1.45 AAT on day 5 and 500 points were ready for the daily winner. Leszek was 3d, Thomasz 5th and Lucasz 9th and though there were not a lot of points to earn , the number 1 held his spot ,Lucasz and Leszek swapped places.
Thomas Rubaj in the DUO DISCUS won 2 days, but finished on spot 4 overall.

———-

LX Cup 2015 in Hungary
Szatymaz May 2-10

43 Participants in one big mixed class, between EB 28 and LS 3 . Only 4 days of flying and they were all won by Bostjan Pristavec in his EB 28.[handicap 126]
No rain, but tricky conditions in Hungary like in many European countries.
Gyorgi Gulyas flew as well, but could not make this time the difference. He finished on spot 12 overall in a Janus C FG.
Laszlo Halasz in the JS 1 won the last day and moved to spot 2 in the total scores.
They had not one 1000 point-day, but a great atmosphere as I read and that’s important too.
Bostjan was ” only” 4th on the last day but no worries, he was the new winner of the LX CUP.[3061 points]

———-

FATRAGLIDE 2015
Martin Airfield Slovakia

26 Participants in 2 classes. After a few cancelled days they started with a BANG, as on the first flying day, 508 km was set in combi and flown by one pilot Lubor Kuvik;1000 points. 7 Pilots flew between 196 and 423 km.
Club had 350 and also in this class ONE finisher in an ASW 15 B. 1000 points for Zsolt Siket and 16 pilots flew between 4.2 and 269 km.
The next day they had 2.30 AAT’s in both classes and most pilots flew the task.

Yesterday was flying day 3 and the last one.
” In between warm and cold fronts we will try to make one small task. This evening is party and prize giving ceremony.”
Last year,  after the comps one competitor , who was part as a competitor of Fatraglide for 15 years, died in a car accident. Tragic!
” At to days briefing we paid tribute to late Roman Kříž – our friend who died last year after fatraglide competition in car accident. Roman family very generously donated money for all todays competitors for towing fees. We as well agreed to prepare Roman Kříž trophy for next years to keep his legacy among our gliding community. We would like to thank Roman’s family very much, we appreciate that a lot.”

So on donated towing fees the pilots went with mixed feelings, I guess, but determined to honor their mate, for 1.45 AAT’s. It was not meant to be for all, yes they were launched but over development spoiled the day and most club class had to land again.One pilot, Szolt,  fought HARD for zero points.He was the winner anyhow.[1856 points after 2 days]
In the mixed/combi class ONE pilot flew 149.2 km. in  just over 2 hours and got 172 points, Lubor did not finish , he was forced to use his engine on final glide,  due to rain, but flew 131.7 km.[130 points] It turned out a valid day for them! Lubor  was the overall winner![1929 points after 3 days]
At least there was the famous goulash in the evening. Not bad.

The weather on the last day, as shared by the organizers.

———-

THE 49th HAHNWEIDE 2015

A Dutch arrival at the Hahnweide; Jeppe [de Boer], Rob [Looisen] and Francis [van Haaff] All 3 KLM pilots, flying the Duo Discus XT. They fly in the 2 seater class  class with 28 other teams.

Registration was on Friday between 4 and 8 PM and they just started yesterday with day 1.
5 Classes 121 gliders;
Standard class with 22, among them toppers as the Levin brothers , Sebastian Naegel, Mac Ichikawa from Japan , Eduard Inaebnit and a friend from Italy, Manuele Molinari.
15 m. with 12, and among them Phil Jones and Bernd Weber.
18m. with 38  among them TOPPERS as Andy Davis, Reinhard Schramme, Russell Cheetham, Mario Kiessling  Werner Amann and Boerje Eriksson.
open with 20 , toppers here as well as Killian Walbrou , Werner Meuser ,Sylvain Gerbaud, the THE Broquevilles and Bruno Gantenbrink in the Nimeta and as said
29 in the 2-seater-class with Sigi Baumgartl, Holger Karow together with Uli Schwenk, Robert and Helene Pratt and my Dutch friends.

Day 1; Windy , but afternoon flying was possible. That is,…NOT for the open class and the 2 seaters.
At 14.30 launching started for 3 classes;st. class with 172 km., 15 m. with 187 km. and 18 m. with 203 km.
You can find pictures of the 3 best in each class on the site.
More next Wednesday and in between Katrin , who is a female-top-glider-pilot-herself, keeps you informed with all the latest at ;
http://wettbewerb.wolf-hirth.de/

   

Nice clouds on day 1 for the classes who could fly, but as you can see a tough wind with pretty strong gusts.
As shared by the organizers.

TODAY; Big distances, great weather. 515 for open class, who is up front at the grid. 401.9 for the 2 seaters, 457 for 18 m. class,439.9 km. for 15 m. ,399.3 for standard class.

———–

The FOR-DM 2015 in Denmark started with a cancelled day , yesterday but there are still a few days to come , I guess , with better weather, as Denmark and Holland are not that far away.45 Pilots in one mixed class,[from St Libelle to ARCUS T]  with Peter Eriksen , Arne Boye Muller, Henrik Breidhal, Rasmus Orskov and some more to me well known names as, Ole Arndt and Ib Wienberg. More on Wednesday.

———–

In the latest GLIDING INTERNATIONAL you find news about the new VENTUS III [Schempp-Hirth press release] , about how to soar the Himalayas, about the GLOW… the birth of a new era , an evaluation by Aldo from the STEMME S6, but also about drone-rules , solution to battery storage and the story from the Solar Implse and much more as the May-June issue counts 64 pages.Enjoy!

———-

And LAST BUT NOT LEAST:
For those who are interested to have some Australian practice before going to the the JWGC this Club and Sports National Championship  might be a great opportunity.

Place – LAKE KEEPIT SOARING CLUB

Date – Monday 9th to Friday 20th of November 2015 at Lake Keepit Soaring Club.

Entry fee – $400 per aircraft, plus $50 per additional pilot, less $50 discount if paid before August 1st.

Entries – Maximum 60 entrants will be accepted with maximum 40 in one class. Up to the cutoff date of 31st July, entries will allocated to paid applicants on the basis of IGC ranking of the pilots. Up to the cutoff date 5 places will be reserved for International pilots, allocated by pilot ranking. After the cutoff date, any places not filled by the above process will be filled in the order that valid entry applications are received and paid for.

 http://www.keepitsoaring.com/LKSC/index.php/club-sports-nats-2015/nats-entry-form

Of course in 2017 the WGC is in Benalla  between January 8 and 21 and some news from the OSTIV;
” The OSTIV president, Rolf Radespiel has advised that the OSTIV board has agreed to hold their next congress alongside the Benalla world comps. Benalla has excellent facilities to host such an event.”

———–

Enough! Cu on Wednesday again and,..next Thursday the OPEN BENELUX comps start at St. Hubert.So more Belgian and Dutch soaring-power!
Cheers Ritz

As shared on FB
http://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2015/05/04/13-iconic-dutch-liberation-photos/

MAY 4-5-6 2015 .

We celebrated our freedom yesterday [MAY 5 1945 so 70 years] with Celebration-day with lot’s of music festivals and unfortunately not the best weather.A pretty wild thunderstorm moved from the SW to the NE . It arrived in a flash [was announced on TV] and for a few minutes it was really spooky, also here.A lot of events were cancelled , but straight after the 15 minutes of heavy rain and storm gusts up to 90 km. it was over and the sun started to shine but a wind with 7 bft. stayed.
It was very inspiring to see several 90 year old Canadians who fought here during the war in a parade, mostly sitting in vintage military vehicles and a lot of Canadian students, who came here to be part of history and to keep that history  for the future.
Also the Canadian premier Stephen Harper was in Holland at several festivities on both May 4 and 5.

Last Monday we thought of all those who lost their lives during that TERRIBLE WW2 or fought for our freedom  70 years ago, but also later during peace missions overseas, as in Irak ,Bosnia or Afghanistan.
At the National Monument on the DAM in Amsterdam, more than 20.000 people gathered and at 8 they were ALL silent for 2 minutes, as all who could do so , in the rest of Holland. Pretty impressive!!!!
Today life continues. It’s I guess special, for most of us who have been born just after  WW2. It means we know freedom and how many do NOT.Just something to EXTRA think of on days like these.
It’s also 70 years ago that Anne Frank died in Bergen Belsen, she is still a symbol for all what should have NEVER happened.
Young and old, WORLDWIDE,  have read her diary [ translated in 70 languages!!!] and about 1.2 million people still visit every year the ” ACHTERHUIS”  in Amsterdam.

———-

Looking at our sport. May  started PERFECT; May 1 was a good one,….and a day off for many in Europe .
Just under 850 in an ARCUS and in an LS 8 from Grosses Moor in Germany,[ one day later 1000 km.!!! in an ARCUS T] ]  over 500, AGAIN from places in Holland and nearly 600 from Locktow in a St Cirrus.
On May 2 Terlet, the Dutch National Gliding Center and “home” for the Gelderse , hosted the Gelderse one-day-competition and 33 decided to go and fly there as the weather was “pretty ”  good.
240 km. was set for the 10 club class participants , 13 pilots in the combi class got 340.6 km. and 508.2 km. for the 10 open class pilots.

Great pictures [74] by Willemijn de Lange.
Shared by ZWEEFPORTAAL on FB
 https://www.facebook.com/Zweefportaal

In club, Frank Hiemstra was the fastest with 95 km./h. in the St Cirrus. Runner up in an ASK 21 from the Gelderse; Thys Bastiaanse and Robin Smit . Robin will travel in the end of this year to Narromine .
In the combi/mixed class , former junior world champion Tim Kuijpers with Wout Sliedrecht in the DG 505/20 m. showed that despite the lack of soaring-time due to his his career as an airline pilot , Tim still belongs to the best;99.9 km./h.
In open class 5 from 10 finished the 508 km. task. Maurits Dortu in his ASG 29 flew with a speed of 115.6 km./h and the runner up Max Leenders / Jan Willem van Doorn, with 105.1 km./h. in the Nimbus 4DM.

Happy chappies ,Thys and Robin.
As shared on FB by them.

THE WINNERS;

  

Mourits in open class and Tim and Wout in the combi class !

And Frank in club class.
All fabulous pictures from Willemijn de Lange![With her permission]

Beautiful sunset, after another TOP event at one of the most fabulous places in Holland; TERLET.
Her site ” , under construction ” at the moment;
www.willemijndelange.nl

Other pilots enjoyed, no LOVED another Dutch TOP day!!!May 2 a day to remember.In fact you don’t have to go anymore to Africa or Australia to fly your 1000!!!You can do it here in Holland!!!!
Not that it is a fait accompli, as in Africa or Australia, but you CAN!!!

On May 2 , our young new ASG 29 e/18m. owners , Alfred Paul and Mark, tried their gliders out again and,…they flew 1.071 km. They needed the engine to come home on the last kilometers , but who cares. They knew that already on track ,as they could see the high clouds coming in from the SW and these would cut them off from any more good thermal activity in the end.
It’s not often that pilots fly a 1000 from Holland, so it even was on TV in the evening!!!
By the way these were the first 1000 km. flights from Soesterberg. In the beginning and at 400 km. OUT, they had a speed of 145 km./h. but they finished with 118 km./h.
AND,…Sikko [Ventus bt/17.6 m] flew ,also from Soesterberg, a 800 declared FAI triangle!!!!! WHATADAY!!!!

More great flights and sorry when I am so enthusiast but it is pretty special all those nice long flights;
632 in a ST Cirrus by one of our junior pilots, Nick Hanenburg,  participating in the JWGC in Narromine this year as well. His longest flight till now!!Good on him!!!
706 in a Duo Discus the very first over 700 km. flight from Veendam, 620 in a PIK 20 b etc…etc.

———-

Gauteng Regionals from Orient in South Africa.

The Gauteng Regionals continued from Orient and when I left you they started their 4th day last Wednesday.
Tasks were 1.30 AAT’s, just to see what was possible.
In 15 m. 3 ASW 27’s arrived at the same time with Wayne[Schmidt] just a tad faster;137.7 km./h. for 137.5 and 137.3. They started at 2.o2 , raced together and finished about the same time.
Day 5 showed a small task as well;182.5 km.Wayne….yes won again. When he would not have had 20 penalty points on day 1, he would have won EVERY day, till now.
Day 6 was for Mark Holiday, Wayne was 2d and 149 points were his. Some did not fly, some out-landed and 3 flew the 145.4 set km.
After 6 days a clear regional champion. Wayne Schmidt.[2344]

In open class day 4 had a 2 hour AAT. Distances around 300, just over and under, were flown. Winner of the day Martin [Lessle] in his 17.6 m Ventus CM. Best speed of the day 140.7 km./h. by Pieter Nouwens in the JS 1.
Day 5 ;250.3 km. AND Martin did it again!!!!A pity he out-landed on day 1.
Day 6 ;145.4 km….do you know what happens when you fly 145.4 km with a speed of 144.7 km.h.?????
You get 202 points!!!!!
That happened to Oscar! Of course he was the new regional champion!!![3653]

———

Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in the Czech Rep.

I liked their welcome words written by Miroslav [Valek] :
” We live for gliding and gliding is part of our life. It is not a cliché, it is just like that. We wish to all competitors to spent relaxed and enjoyable time in Frydlant, in the beautiful corner of the Czech Republic and at one of the nicest airfield of this region. Man must come and see it to be able to understand what we are talking about. Man must come and fly over the Beskydy mountains to feel the beauty we are enjoying every flight.

Come and glide.”

BIG organization before it all starts at Frydland. Building up by the volunteers , checking out the radio by Mr. Grand Prix himself, Roland,..it’s all part of this event.

Not a lot of pilots flew during the practice day’s but the set 154 km. on Wednesday, was flown by 3 and Thursday’s 216 km.- task as well.The rain spoiled Friday as a practice day. But the scrutineering that day, was in full swing , so was the preparation for the opening at 6 PM and the rock concert after.

  

The LAK 17 bfes.
Pictures shared by the organizers.

In the evening  All pilots ” raised in rang”.Why,….how???????
” Yesterday we had a great opening ceremony. All the pilots became citizen of the Wallachian Kingdom. After having one shot of slivovic they got a brand new passport with all possible visas. After that we had a nice party under the big tent.”

Sebastian and Petr [Krejcirik] during the ceremony ,as well as Roland;Shall I or shall I not!
I had to smile to see their faces!

Good luck and save flying for ALL QGPS participants.
Pictures shared by the organizers.

Day 1;After rain over night and a foggy morning the 13 pilots [4 from Poland , 1 from Slovenia, the rest from Czech Rep] went to briefing at 10 and knew already that there would be a task for them.
There were even 2, one from 223. km [A task]  and one from 114,… depending on the weather.
A second briefing started at 1  and as the forecast was for a  rapid improving cloud base  AND  good thermal activity in the afternoon, they went for task A.
But,they could not start straight away, as it all went a bit slower than hoped for, so it turned out to be task B;114 km.
At 4 PM however the regatta start !!!! And 2 Polish pilots got the 10 and 8 points for the day. 10 for Zdislaw and 8 for Sebastian.Both flew with a speed of 92.3 and 92.2 km./h. Petr Panek was on spot 3.

Day 2; 212 km.

Day- 2-start from Lysa hora.
As shared by the organizers.

The start was at 12.20 with sunny conditions but with the remark that later in the day high cloud cover was to be expected.After what they called “an excellent race”  ,it was Sebastian who got the 10 points. For some it was a difficult day as they finished more than an hour behind Sebastian. 10 Made it back home!
Martin Piskacek,a young Czech pilot was 3d and so to read he is very talented!!!
As they said in their daily report; ”  Racing in these conditions requires a lot of intelligent decision making from the pilots and there is no doubt that experience is a significant advantage.”

 Great picture from the finish by one of the participants as seen by

www.jansmekal.cz

and the daily winners.

With Sebastian in the middle, Martin to the right and Luka to the left.

Day 3 ;was  a difficult decision! After the rain they hoped for,  and expected a small window, maybe even with wave. To be sure, they had a new briefing at 12.
” Meteoman Johnny Horac is optimistic. The first launch is expected at 14:00. Task distance is 119 km. The task has two turning points Policna and Cesky Tesin.”
They were airborne, but it was not meant to be. Rain arrived most had to land back and the day was cancelled.

Roland in action as CD.
As shared by the organizers.

The new Day 3; started with the message from the organizers ” 2nd briefing at 12:00. Sniffer landed shortly after he had been released. He reported only one lift but very turbulent. The wind is strong.”
In the end they squeezed out a rather nice day with the start at 14.10 and with 7 finishers within the minute and as winner Petr [ Krejcirik with 9 points  runner up Petr, [ Panek with 7 ] and Sebastian with 6 points.
8 Pilots finished.

———–

Italian club class Nationals .

Day 2 last  Saturday had a 252 km. set task, but none of the pilots manged to fly it. Some did better than the others as the best distance was 206.9 km. in a H301. The pilots on spot 1 to 3 overall last weekend ,Stefano, Alberto and Davide had a less good day, though Davide managed to fly 136 km.whilst Stefano and Alberto both in the Silent Targa flew 107 and 56 km. That changed the overall scores quite a bit, and as the last day Sunday was cancelled it was an invalid championship with 2 days and with winners no champions; Stefano just hold his first spot, [1189] Davide [1133]moved to 2 and Alberto to 4.[1077] On spot 3 Ugo Pavesi[1113].

————

KLIX 2015 with 127 gliders in 5 classes.

On day 1 ;4 out landings and all others finished.Racing tasks up to 320 km. were set.My Belgian friends Tim Huybreckx] , Jef [ Kell, maried to Gitte Huybreckx] , Wim[Akkermans, married to Sofie Huybreckx]  and Dennis [Huybreckx]  so one big flying family flew together to spot 7-8-9 and 12 in St class.
2 Dutch pilots topped day 1 in 15 m. Steven who already won Klix once and Ronald [Deerenberg in LS 6]
A Danish pilot topped the open class in a Discus 2C / 18m.

Gitte and Jef as shared by the organizers in their gallery
http://aeroteam.de/index.php?whl=20010300&lg=de

  

cousins Dennis and Tim

 Wim and Sofie AND uncle Marc [Huybreckx, father from Tim and Gitte] [via FB]
I do know the Huybreckx family as well as the Schmelzer family already for more than 40 years, both LOVELY families.

Day 2 ;was another good day with a base between 1200 and 1600 m MSL. Over 500 km. for the racing class and 2 seaters. It was good for some just a bit too long for others . 11 Out landings mostly because the air in Poland was n’t too good.
The 2 seater class was won by an ASH 32 MI with a speed of 111.49 km./h. over 515.3 km.
In racing class they had 511.4 km and AGAIN Steven [ASW 27] was the best, it was however a bit TOO much for the LS 6 .Ronald out landed after 424 km. Not bad!!
481 km. for st. class and “the family ” did pretty well though Tim out landed after 365 km from the set 481.7 km.Wim and Dennis landed on spot 1 as a family TOGETHER, both 1000 points. Jeff was at spot 7.

Steven as daily winner 3 x in a row.

Day 3 ;hot air was arriving but hope for a small window for 15 m, standard and club .18 m. and 2 seater pilots had the day off.It worked out well it was already day 4 for these classes.
800 points for the winner in the Club class, Joshua [Arntz]  flying a Hornet.[2.30 AAT]
1000 points for German pilot Peter [Pollack] in the Discus in St class. Dennis and Wim on 4 and 5, Tim on 9 and Jeff on 19.[3 hour AAT]
No “brakes” on Steven, he won day 3 and was the only one flying in this class over 100 km./h. over 321 km during a 3 hour AAT.

Day 4;started with nice CU’s and the 17 tuggies had the 127 gliders high up in the air ,in 90 minutes. Pretty good!!! All went for task A …..17 did not finish.
It was a Belgium day in St. Class!!! AGAIN 2 of them got 1000 points ;Wim and Dennis and to keep it in the family spot 3 and 4 were for Tim and Jef. After 4 days Wim and Dennis top the overall scores with more than 100 points.
Helge Liebertz won the day in club class in the LS 1f with winglets and tops the overall scores now, but it is not over yet as Joshua and Rolf [Engelhardt]  are close behind him with less than 45 points.
For Steven in 15 m. it was a bad day after the 3 daily wins. He flew the best distance 328 km. during the 3.30 AAT, but did not finish and that does n’t help with points; only 471 on a 1000 points-day.He dropped to spot 3 with about 150 points behind the number 1.

The Belgium future looks BRIGHT as a new generation of Huybreckx pilots is already at the comps now.

 

Anna and Leon from Gitte and Jeff with uncle Tim

  

The twins from Tim with grand dad Marc.And the daughter from Sofie and Wim here with Jef.
Can you still follow me???
By the way Jeroen [Jennen] belongs to the family as well as son from Chrisje Huybreckx and Rudy Jennen.Jeroen will be in Narromine for the JWGC.
As shared on FB and because they are kids,…with permission.

Day 5;started with rain and was after briefing cancelled.

————

On May 4 Finland was blessed with top-weather; 712 from Hyvinkaa [DG 808 b/18 m]  and 660 km. for Martti during his first flight of the season in his ASG 29 from good old Rayskala.[121 km./h.]
Also Japan had some very good soaring days with flights up to 440 km.
From La Cerdanya in Spain Klaus Ohlmann flew up and down the Pyrenees direction West in the Stemme; 1.390 km.

———-

It’ already May again. Time flies!
April 2015 was here in Holland on spot 5 with sun-hours; 240 and 178 is about normal.
It was however, NOT warm,an average of 8.9 dgr,C. and 9.2 would be normal.
CU back next Sunday, so much news [Frataglide,Hahnweide, last days at Klix , last days from the QSGP] otherwise blogs get TOO long.

Cheers Ritz

Great picture of ORANGE AMSTERDAM, courtesy Theo Hagenberg.

My goodness me, what a lovely KINGS-day we had last Monday. New Style ,…as we have a king now instead of queen Beatrix, , but it was all perfect .Even the weather, —-predicted was cold and rain, —-helped as it was sunny all day with fabulous clouds , but indeed pretty COLD.For those celebrating till mid night in the East of Holland it was extra cold; the ground temperature was MINUS 9 there. April has it’s own ideas about weather.
The glider pilots had a fab day too. A day off,  for starters, but those cloud streets and clouds!!!??? Only the wind was a bit of a spoilsport.
In the evening I looked straight at the OLC .
My friends Ake from Sweden and Dave from the UK “spoiled ” the Dutch OLC party a bit with a spot 1 for Ake   [652 km.in his Ventus2/350 FAI triangle] and a spot 10 for Dave. [496 in his LS 6 with winglets/428 FAI triangle]
The rest of the top 19 was for Dutch pilots ;31 from the 48 page-one-flights were Dutch.Pretty UNIQUE!!!!!!

Great gliding weather in the UK, as shared by Peter Millenaar, at work!
Peter flies a 737-800 for Ryan Air and is based in Karlsruhe Baden Baden, but,..moves soon [June1] closer to Holland Niederrhein Weeze. Better for him as soaring is close by there [NIJAC] and he runs his own business in Holland ; Millen Air Glider Supplies  (www.MillenAir.eu)

AND YES,..Holland did well!!!!2 x a 700 by 2 mates who just bought their-selves an ASG 29e / 18m. and try it out now to the fullest; Mark [Leeuwenburgh] and Alfred Paul[Alfers] .By the way, 10 days earlier they both flew  888 km. on the other perfect day in Holland.
Bart[Berendesen] one of “my” former juniors tried out his new DG 300;570 and getting to know each other better in Corowa last winter, Bart [Renckens] and Max [Dolphin] flew the ARCUS M again together ;678 km.
A lot of flights from Soesterberg.
One day later , so yesterday,another good day in some parts with a max of 591 in an ASG 29 , from the South West of Holland flying far into Belgium. Of course some people had to work again.
In the UK, Roy Pentecost was lucky as he had a day off and flew 622 km. in his ASG 29.Both Lasham and Dunstable [756 km. in the ASH 25 EB 28 by Robin May]  showed long distance flights .

From Belgium , St Hubert, where in May the BENELUX comps will be flown, a nice 746 km. flight in the ASG 29/18 m.
From France [Serres] Klaus [Ohlmann] had, as he called it an  “ higly interesting flight between wave, ridge and thermal soaring.”
1.182,39 km. was the distance ,750 FAI triangle in the Stemme.

Ridge Soaring,in the USA,  still has great ridge soaring , but thermals were broken and the LAK FES 17/21m. made quite some kilometers over the last couple of days; one over 1000 and 2 over 700.

Also the Scandinavian countries had some “proper”  weather over the last couple of days. Rayskala [ Finland] with 669 in the ARCUS,Sweden with the good flight from Ake and Norway with 516 in an ASW 20 and Arne Martin [Guettler] mentioned about his 466 km. flight in the Discus bt;
“My first proper cross country flight of the year. There were some great conditions with awesome cloud streets in places, making this a high speed run eventually.
What a day, and after the initial difficulty it was the fastest flying I’ve ever done in thermal conditions! Should have carried water ballast to go even faster.[127 km./h.]
Flight track: www.skylines.aero/flights/45355/

Arne Martin always makes great pictures and here are 2. The rest with the story you can find on;
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?

“Flying along the north side of lake Seljord I was able to maintain height, but not climb.”
Courtesy Arne Martin.

Passing by TT above Seljord.
Courtesy Arne Martin

———–

In Orient in South Africa the Gauteng Regionals started on April 26 continuing till May 2, with 23 participants in 2 classes, 15 m and open.
In 15 m. a 216 racing task was set , but the racing was so fast that not a lot of points were earned; 345  points for Richard Glennie in the ASW 20 with a speed of 139.4 km./h. Even faster was the runner up Wayne Schmidt in the ASW 27; 155.4 km./h.
Day 2 for them was a bit further 374 km.and Wayne was in a hurry again; 160 km./h. Richard was 2d and only 5 from 11 finished.
Day 3 , yesterday had 213.9 km as task and the glorious winner with a speed of 161 km./h on the clock was Wayne.
Day 4 today;336.2 km.

Open class;on day 1 they had 404.7 km and by now half KIWI half South African, John [Coutts] won the 840 points with a speed of 161.3 km./h. in the JS1. Runner up Oscar [Goudriaan] was even faster in his JS 1 ;167.1 km./h.
Day 2…. Martin [Lessle], who was 1 of the 3 “out-landers”  on day 1, took revenge and won in his Ventus CM/17.6m. with Oscar and John behind him. ALL 3 about 177 km./h.!!!!! Thermals up to 6.7 m./sec
Day 3 ;459.7 km.And,….John did it again!!!Speed this time 167.1 km. Four Pilots flew their selves in the 800 points-range and 900 points was the top for John.
Day 4 today;355.9 km.

———–

The Club class Nationals in Italy have started with a 312 racing- task, in Alzate Brianza on April 24. Stefano Ghiorzo “got” the first 1000 points just ahead of Alberto Sironi , both flying the SILENT 2 TARGA. Unfortunately a bad first day for Nicola Vergnani; only 26 points for him.His sister Elena is not flying this year I noticed.
Davide [Schiavotto] was 3d and Ricardo [Brigliadori] 9th.They normally fly only in the weekends , so I guess this year as well, as nothing has happened after. More in my next blog.

———-

On May 2 there is a one-day- competition at Terlet here in Holland and the weather is looking good.
Fatraglide starts on May 1 with 27 competitors in 2 classes.
Also on May 2 the Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix 18 m. [ Frydlant ] starts in the Czech Rep. with 16 pilots and several names we saw during the last comps in the East of Europe. Will look at all of them next Wednesday.

 ———–

The Women Pilots Association has invited also via the social media [FB] women to visit Minden for their seminar.

 The organization of our upcoming Seminar at Minden to be held from June 15-19 2015 is in full swing! In addition to world-class soaring conditions which you should not miss, WSPA Seminar Organizers are also planning a lot of interesting events in addition to flying. If you wish to read more about the Seminar and about Minden, please visit our website http://www.womensoaring.org/?p=seminar.
And if you would like to register: http://www.womensoaring.org/index.php?p=seminarform

We are looking forward to seeing you at Minden!

That’s it for today CU next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz

As shared on their gallery at www.fccgliding.sk

THE FCC 2015 is over now and…it was a great one!!! 

Wednesday evening April 22;
Of course I was looking forward to the scores of the Prievidza Flight Challenge Cup from that day .
They had to postpone the start from 10 to 10.45 but no worries all could still go for the A task,…the looooong one for mixed class 614 km.
At 11.24 their start line was open.
I was in Finland when they set a 1000 on the first competition day at the Europeans and such long tasks create special vibes/jitters, by all on the ground and in the air.

A WOW_FACTOR_PICTURE  shared by the Czech Rep Gliding Team.

What happened?
On such a forecasted good day you know that not everybody will finish, but you expect and hope that at least half of the pilots can do so.
The mixed class had to start and had the longest task[614.5 km.] ; 7 from 28 finished!
Winner was Pavol Cerny [Ventus 2cxt] with a relative late start at 11.56.He flew around with a speed just over 100 km [102.7 km./h] the only one doing so.
3 Polish pilots among them Sebastian finished as well with 87 km./h.
Son Radek was IN, dad Petr Krejcirik was OUT, but….only 13 km..
With one day to go Sebastian was 1000 points ahead of the runner up Pavol and Radek moved to spot 3.Not necessary for him to fly but for sure he will, that’s Sebastian.

In club class a 500 was set  and for a pilot who never flew one ,…a good/nice goal. But ….that did not happen as they ALL out-landed. Some came close , very close, 493 from 501!!!! Good on Czech pilot Petr Panek who did so.
37 Pilots flew over 400 km.
Per and Erik , 2 from the Swedish pilots-on-a-mission, lost more than 150 points and Gunnar even over 500.
With one day to go  they are on 3-9 and 13 now.
Roman is exactly 400 points ahead of Pawel Wojciechovski from Poland and Per is on spot 3 with about 600 points less than Roman.

In 15 m. class it all went more or less as hoped for and 17 from 40 managed to finish the 549 km. ,among them Christophe, so he is still on top of the 15m.-pact with more than 300 points on Lucasz.
Best speed was 106.2 km,./h .
Christophe was 3d and Lucasz in the Diana 2 was the last  finisher on spot 17.
Another 11 pilots managed to fly over 500 km.

  one of the finishers on Wednesday as shared by www.fccgliding.sk

April 23 LAST DAY of this exciting “fight” for the Flight Challenge Cup 2015 and what weather they had!!!
With 11 out of 12 days in the mixed and club class and 10 in 15 m. class , they started with a 320 km. 253 km and 301.8 km racing task for their last “duty”, on a beautiful sunny morning.

The first launch was postponed with 15 minutes and and for the last time the tuggies brought the participants up in the air at 11.15 AM , for ,…maybe some ” cat and mouse games” ,…but mostly for a good last flight/race of the comps.
At 1.15 PM all gates were open.

Mixed class; With the one but best speed of the comps , 132.7 km./h. [ he flew 134.5 km./h on day 5] Sebastian finished his 2015-FCC on spot 1 for the day AND….. no surprise ….from the comps; 8951 points.
Pavol [ 7761]  nearly lost 200 points on this last day but managed to keep distance [ a bit less than 200 points ] to the number 3 pilot young Radek.[ 7524] On 4 it was Lubor Kuvik . Radek’s dad finished on spot 9.

Little “Sebastiana” is ready to follow daddies tracks. She knows already how to keep the cup.
But ,….then of course she has seen it SO many times.
As shared by the organizers in their gallery.

Club class; a few surprises in this class. Roman finished on spot 4 for the day, but had enough points to keep the champions-spot number 1.[8503] Good on him!
Pawel stabilized his runner-up-spot by winning the last day, so he finished as number 2 [8060]
Only number 3 Per from Sweden who with his mates did so well for a few days, did n’t do so over the last days and Per lost his 3d place to Ondrej who had 7816 points in total. Per finished  on number 5.
Good to see Stanislav on 4!!!
Polish pilot Jakub, in the BRAWO, still on spot 3 overall after 6 days, finished as number 7.

As shared by the organizers in their gallery.

15 m. class ;2 Czech pilots flying an LS 8 were the daily best; 123  and 118 km./h. They started about an hour LATER [ 14.14] than pilots as Christophe.[13.17]  But Christophe lost only 100 points on this last day by being 9th.
So he is the deserved champion with a total of 8330 points.
Lucasz remained on spot 2 [7918] but lost on this last day about 200 points by finishing on spot 20.
Pavel remained on 3 [7877] and Gintautas unfortunately dropped from 4 to 6.
Czech pilot Martin Piskacek climbed on this last day from 6 to 4 .[7637]

As shared by the organizers in their gallery

———-

The AZ Cup 2015.

Tomas [Suchanek] had his 3d daily win on Wednesday- flying day 6- and he did not even finish to get that prize. Nobody finished but Tomas was the best with 195.2 km. from the set 246.5.
In 15 m. they flew day 4 . No finishers either but also in this class they were close.187.7 from the set 205,1 km.

The next day [April 23] was cancelled .

With 6 days for the “mixed”  pilots and 4 for the club class, it was already a valid competition but of course they wanted to add more days.
They did; Day 7 , a 2 hour AAT, was won by Alena with 240 km. in 2 hours at the dot,… so both Tomas and Alena had 3 daily “wins” in the mixed class . It ALL had to happen on the last day as  Tomas had more overall points; 5062 for 4837.
In club they had their day 5 and Jan was 3d.

AND,..DAY 8/6, the last one yesterday had in each class a 2 hour AAT again. But it was not meant to be. The day was cancelled. Prize giving was at 6 yesterday.
Champion in the mixed class; Tomas Suchanek, with Alenea Netusilova as runner up after 7 days of flying.
Champion in the club class; Lan Louda 3917 and runner up with 3897 Rostislav Friq, winner on day 4, both flying ASW 19!!
Another lady did well in this class. Hana Treslova [St Cirrus] ,she finished on spot 3.[3830]

———-

In between not only competition pilots have fun flying, others… not so much interested in comps, have fun as well.One of Germans young top-pilots Patrick Puskeiler enjoyed flying from Kings Land in Romania. He calls it paradise there and flew 909 km last Wednesday.
On Thursday a good flight in an ASW 24 from Aosta;772 km.
Also good to see a 670 km. flight from good old Rayskala yesterday in the ARCUS.
And worth while mentioning too; From Nagano in Japan a flight from 651.9 km. in the Ventus 2c/18m.And I am not sure if Kensi is the Kensi I know, but he flew from Itakura 413 km. in the DG 400/17 m..

1.333,98 km …..1.008 FAI TRIANGLE  in the DUCK HAWK!!!! This happened all last Friday.
“Outstanding Spring ridge day at Blairstown! The Duckhawk is simply an unbelievable machine with a full load of water. Was running the ridge often in excess of 120 knots. The transitions were mostly on the money and pretty efficient, which worked out nicely. The ridge got quite soft at the first turnpoint at Harrisonburg… got lucky that I dug out of that one. The second turnpoint up on the plateau was tricky too… couldn’t find a good approach to it. But really fun day. Thanks Jim for towing, Phil for the weather forecast and Bill for giving me the opportunity to fly this fantastic glider!” as said by Daniel Sazhin in his OLC comment.
More good flights on this top -ridge-day; 6 x a 1000 plus in a Duck Hawk, LS 3, LS 8, [Baudouin Litt and his comment on the OLC…Left Perry yesterday morning for this one! Long exhausting 12:30 drive, but had a good night in the cold. What a shock these temperatures difference! Not what I expected for the day, with soft wave and blue to the south. My optimization was far from perfect, but gave me the occasion to revisit a lot of places. Still a very good day and worth the trip ] , Discus 2, Glasfluegel 3 and a LAK 17 fes/21 m. [ Comment on the OLC;  Incredible day at the ridge, simply said: a STRONG day, third flight in my new Lak 17B fes 21m, we can say it was a real shake down for the ship! Could not resist to stop some times in thermals averaging 800 to 1000′ averager]  AND 726 in a Schweitzer!!!!
As you know you don’t need expensive gliders to race the ridges, all these are fancy enough. You need , as you can see, the desire/intention to use such a day to the fullest.

Nearly no flights from Australia last week. NSW , certainly the Hunter Valley-area, is sadly enough hit by terrible storms , and heavy flooding. Several glider pilots live in that area I wish them and ALL OTHERS all the best.

———–

TRAGIC, very tragic , the news from Nepal and the countries on it’s border.The huge earthquake has hit Kathmandu and it’s surrounding, on a very populated area and I am afraid the death toll will rise day by day. Also mountain hikers and climbers [at least already 27] busy with their sport, are hit as the earth quake triggered avalanches on the Mount Everest and areas around it.

———–

On a better note…some asked me to publish when I will be in Tocumwal again. Just got a present; a ticket to Melbourne leaving on November 29 2015 and flying back again on January 16 2016. So I can spend a nice holiday in my beloved Tocumwal AND visit Narromine [JWGC] and Benalla [PRE WORLDS] as well for a few days.
CU there!

  

Anzac Day  Parade in Tocumwal on April 25.
One of Australia’s most important national occasions. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.
I always got tears when I looked at the parade.
as shared by the Tocumwal Foreshore Market.

———-

That’s it for this Sunday
Cheers Ritz

 

As shared by the organizers.

THE FLIGHT CHALLENGE CUP
Prievidza

April 19;
He is not only busy with flying. He makes great pictures from out of the cockpit and on the ground they make lovely pictures from him and his family.
In between he wins another day.
YES,….Day 7 is HIS!!!! Oh, yes a name,…you guessed it already SEBASTIAN.
With 358.4 km. in time 3.07, [speed 114.9 km./h.]he added another win to his pal-mares in Prievidza in the mixed class. He looks SO relaxed.

As shared by Sebastian on FB, with the message ” Balast wodny zakazany” Ballast water is forbidden!

The club class pilots had a 1000 points day and only 4 from 55 out-landed after flying the 3 hour AAT. Andrej Dvorak after day 4 still on a proud runner-up-spot-overall, had a not such a  good day 7; just 38 points!!!!
Jan [Boruvka] and Roman were the best with 312 km. in time 3.08 and 3.12.

In 15 m. class , after a cancelled day they got a 3 hour AAT as well and it’s getting boring, but in this class RULES Christophe.Till now he only missed 2 daily wins but day 6 was for him again with 354 km.and 111.5 km./h.

Martin Marhevka in the LS 1 f.
As shared by the organizers.

April 20;
In all 3 classes 3 hour AAT’s. All gliders had to fly WITHOUT WATER, it seems thanks to the local authorithies.
” Strong NW wind is predicted for today, air-mass is active which means good thermal conditions.”
Day 8; was  different ,a tough, very tough for some ,day also for Sebastian .He was on a daily spot 7 and lost about 250 points. That did n’t make a lot of difference to his total, he was still 800 points ahead.
Slovak pilot Pavol Cerny won the day ;343 km. and nobody was with this wind, faster than 100 km. p/h.
In club class it was difficult as well.Another Polish pilot was on spot 1 Pawel in the St Jantar 2.
In 15 m. class it was Czech pilot Pavel in the LS 8 who won the day with Gintautas as runner up.
Quite a few out landings and those who finished were glad to be home.

April 21;
2.30 AAT in the mixed class, 251 km. for club and 314 for 15 m class.
A day on which ALL gliders had to fly without water again and a day out of the normal pattern, as they flew from the opposite grid. So not 22 but 04.
Day 9;A and B tasks were set.Variant A = racing task, variant B = AAT.
Club class – 251 km, 15m class – 314 km, Mixed class – 328 km.
It turned out TASK A.
AND… also without water ,Sebastian could win day 9.
In the club class the SWEDISH pilots are on a mission. They are on spot 3-4 and 5 overall and Roman tops the list after 9 days.
In 15 m. I read in the comments that it was definitely not Christophes day, ” I made a bad decision” .NOT too bad as he still finished on spot 8 and he is still on top overall, with 200 points, but Lucasz Grabowski , the runner up overall at this stage, was 2d .
They were sent to bed with the message ;briefing at 8.45 and then you know enough and mixed first on the grid, with 15 m and club behind!!!!

APRIL 22 TODAY!!!!
Day 10; tasks have been set and for a competition they are BIG AND can be flown with water again.
614.5 for the mixed class, 549 for 15 m. and 501 for club!!!
First launch expected at 10.

More next Sunday.

———-

The AZ CUP
Zbraslavice in Czech Republic.

Racing tasks…..that  was the last on this competition I shared with you on Sunday morning!
BUT what racing tasks they had on that Sunday April 19; 509 km. for the Mixed class and the CLUBBIES had to go for 404. Well,….when they had the weather we had on Saturday , that should have  all been very possible.
And for most it was only 5 from 30 in the mixed class did not fly the full task [3 of them still flew over 390 km.] and in club class  42 from 56 finished.
Jan [Louda] who started as one of the last for the 404 km. flew in his ASW 19 b the best time; 85 km./h.
In the mixed class Petr Tichy , a local pilot, was the winner on handicap in his 15 m. Discus 2A. Runner up was Tomas Suchanek with just over 100 km./h. Tomas Rendla in the ARCUS M was on 3 ;just under 100 km./h.

On Monday their last week started with a 2.45 AAT in the mixed class [day 4] and a 3 hour AAT for club [day 3].Alena had another win and 5 from their home club were in the top 5.
24 from 29 finished.
Club class started  the new week, with Jan Louda as winner of the day. 25 from 44 finished and 12 pilots choose NOT TO FLY.

Day 5 ;2 hour AAT, won by Tomas and Elena was 3d.  Both Elena and Tomas have 2 daily wins now.

Day 4;2 hour AAT,which turned out an invalid day as not enough pilots flew over  100 km. Jan Louda did with 121 , one pilot was even better with 151 km!!! Sad for them,  it turned out an invalid day.

———-

In my last blog I could just add the 1000 Declared FAI triangle from young Bert Schmelzer. Here a bit more with his impressive pictures. He started in Germany from Blaubeuren.
CONGRATULATIONS!
“Thank you all for the congratulations !
Getting up at 3:30 and 10+ hours of flying made it a long day, but crossing the finish line at sunset gave a rewarding feeling after 1.000 km.”
All pictures PLUS story at; https://picasaweb.google.com/101367179377196465151/180420151000KmFAITriangleDeclared

With his text;
“ The clouds already start to line up in beautiful streets.
After crossing the startline I reach the first turnpoint -Reiselfingen- with an average speed of 135 kph,
thanks to a strong tailwind.“

With his text;
” At 17:30 the Discus 2cT and I could go around the last turnpoint – Falkenstein-
and head for the last 210km towards the finish line.
Clouds still looked good and a tail wind of 15kph would certainly help me.”

———-

ANOTHER INTERESTING 1000 km. this time in GREECE!

One of my Greek friends flew in his ASW 22 BLE, a 1000 km. flight in Greece last Saturday and that does n’t happen every day, in fact it is the 2d in history!!!!
Alexis flew 1.032.7 km. I totally missed it as I could only find it on the Greece OLC, which is weird as it should be on both;worldwide and Greece..
But why did I miss it; The flight was on the world wide OLC, but,only on spot 82 on the daily OLC list and…I did not scroll that low.
” The flight is in the worldwide list but amazingly enough ranked 82 because of the long triangles flown in Germany that day.” Alexis.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/daily.html?df=2015-04-18&sp=2015&rt=olc&st=olc&c=C0&sc=#p:2;

“ It is only the second 1000 km flight in Greece. The first one was 1010 km and flown by the cross country pioneer Dinos Avgerinos exactly 10 years ago today in wave with too much humidity and a little cloud flying”
Alexis was so kind to add the story of the first 1000 km. and you can read it here.

http://www.crosscountry.aero/content/blogs/9/42

He continues; “Greece in addition to the very nice climate has a terrain which provides thermal, convergence, ridge and wave lift. It is interesting that I have flown 800 km in thermal/convergence lift, 950 km mainly in ridge lift and now 1,033 km in wave. I believe that with everything right, a wave flight of 12 hours at 140 km/h might be feasible yielding more than 1,600 km OLC! Also, the 1,000 km and 1,250 km diplomas seem now very feasible.”

THANK YOU AND CONGRATULATIONS ALEXIS!
Here is another link to his flight ;
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/daily.html?st=olc&rt=olc&df=&sp=2015&c=GR&sc=

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For all those who are interested to visit Benalla during the Multi Class Nationals/Pre-Worlds in January [4-16] 2016, here is some news;
“ The competition website for the next Multiclass Nationals and Pre-Worlds is now up and running at www.ozglide.com

This site contains initial details of the event, entry forms, and useful information and links.  It is of course far from complete but it will grow quickly. and if you are planning to attend please bookmark the site.

Please also pass the link on to anyone in Australia or overseas who you think may be interested.”

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There were no pictures of the champions in each of the 2 classes from the Pan American Gliding Championships , when I published my blog last Sunday, but here they are;

With a proud Jerzy in the middle with Erik Nelson as runner up and Sean Fiddler on 3.

and a proud Phil in the middle , with Robin [2]  and Sergio [3] .
Happy organizers Rick as CD and Sarah as co-owner and the “engine behind the ideas about this very first competition ” with the flag .
Both pictures from Maria and shared by the organizers

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That’s it, Sorry for the lay out. Will check if Bill can help me there. It looks perfect in my blog but when I publish , it goes wrong.

CU next SUNDAY with the latest on ALL the news, specially the 2 comps.
Cheers Ritz

April 15 ; I love the daily blog from Rick, which you can find under news at soaringspot.com.
His English is SO much better than mine. It’s just a pleasure to read it and, as Wednesday’s story was short I share it with you. It “shouts out ” how powerless a CD is ,when the weather does n’t co-operate.And that’s what happens in the USA at the moment with the PAN AMERICAN comps.
“ We accept many uncertainties in weather forecasting, but the question of whether the front has passed is usually settled by the morning Briefing.  Not so in our case today.

The so-called stationary front passed over us at least twice today, leaving many in doubt about what was going on, and some of us in doubt about the definitions of the terms “stationary” and “front.”

There was general agreement that the rain was slightly less intense on the dry side.

The tasks were cancelled at Briefing. ”

April 16 by Rick;”Cancelled again! This leaves us with only two days to achieve a 4th valid competition day, which will allow us to declare the Champions. We remain optimistic that we can do this.

AND THEY DID!!!
Here is the final story from Rick:
“As you know, we had some very bad luck with the weather at the 1st FAI Pan American Gliding Championships, the first Continental Championships ever held in the USA.

After 12 days of trying, we had only 3 valid contest days in both classes (15 Metre Class and the “Handicap Class,” which is the Club Class with a few Standard Class gliders added).  We needed another day in both Classes to
declare Champions.

With the approval of our Chief Steward Renato Tsukamoto (BRA) and the IGC Bureau, we extended our competition into the Reserve Day.  The day promised to have good conditions, subject to unpredictable over development and storms.

With the excellent forecasting of Tony Condon and Task setting by John Good, we were able to able to keep the gliders in the area of the sky that stayed free of storms for most of the day.

In the end, however, rain cut off the the final leg for both classes, and only 5 gliders in the 15 Metre Class made it home, with Erik Nelson (USA) leading the way.

It quickly became clear the that 15 Metre Class would have a validChampionship, with the minimum 4 days.  This was very good news for Sarah Arnold, who had put so much time and effort into creating this new Championship.

Nobody in the Handicap Class made it home, so we began the waiting game to see if enough of them had made the minimum distance for the day to be valid in that class.  Because it was raining, we set up the podium indoors and prepared for the closing ceremony.

The first pilot to walk in the door was Tony Condon  (USA), who turned out to be the winner of the day.  We gave him a well-deserved ovation.  The last was Sergio Bassi (BRA), who was a bit muddy as he and the Brazilian Team Captain, Valeria Caselato, accepted our applause.  A few minutes later our Scorer John Godfrey announced that the Handicap Class results were also valid!

Our Jury President Bruno Ramseyer (IRL), made it official, and the 1st PAGC went into the history books with big smiles from all who participated.  Thank you Bruno!

The Champions in the 15 Metre Class were Jerzy Szemplinski (CAN), and Phil Gaisford (USA) in the Handicap Class.  The Team Cup went to Canada.

The FAI flag was presented to the two South American Team Captains with the expectation that one of them would organise the next PAGC in 2017.” 

There you are in the end REAL CHAMPIONS not “just winners”.
CONGRATULATIONS  TO ALL!!!!!
Both champions were on spot 1 overall every day, so deserved titles!

412 FABULOUS pictures from Maria are at ;http://pagc.ggc.aero/

Jury president Bruno and the pilots.
Courtesy Rick.

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THE FLIGHT CHALLENGE CUP

Not such weather-problems for the over 100 pilots in Prievidza in Slovakia. Though after the nice weather , one day was cancelled and then it was COLD.
So they only missed one day till now. I continue with their races with happy pilots.

As you can see , a waving happy pilot!
Courtesy organizers at http://www.fccgliding.sk/

Handicap/mixed class;
Day 4; 3 hour AAT
Chapeau for Sebastian [Kawa] ; a head trick. He can’t make 3 goals in a row , but for sure win 3 days in a row and even more.He flew 348 km. during the 3 hour AAT, so a nice speed of 114 km./h.That was 6 km. faster than the runner up and 18 km. more in distance.In the overall scores he is already 600 points ahead of the runner up.
You can fly or you can’t!!!
Great to see Lubor [Kuvik] doing so well.He is on spot 4 at this stage.

Day 5;racing task from 357.3 km., later changed in a 2 hour AAT
AND,…WHY not trying,…to win every day!!!! Sebastian won AGAIN, he is a class apart. The day turned out not too bad as he flew 297.4 km!!!!, in 2.12.Nice speed of 134 km./h.He won 5 days in a row now.

Day 6; no tasks due to unstable wet weather.

A new day 6 was created with a 3 hour AAT.
A tough day with only 9 finishers among them also father and son Petr and Radek Krejcirik.
BUT,….the winner was , who else ….Sebastian. He flew the 288 km. in 3 hours and 42 minutes and was with a speed of 77.5 km./h. the best!!!6 Daily wins in a row now!

Today day 7 with another 3 hour AAT. More about that next Wednesday.

Picture from their gallery from April 18.

Club class;
day 4; 2.30 AAT.
234 km for both Roman and Ondrej,GOOD! This time not Ondrej Dvorak but Ondrej Bordowski, all flying St Cirrus.
Nice to see “good old” Stanislav Wujczak from Poland on spot 4 for the day in his St. Jantar3. Roman and the 2 Ondrej’s top the overall scores after 4 days, but more to come.

Day 5; racing task from 313.5 km., changed in 3 hour AAT.
Swedish pilots , yes they are in Prievidza as well. AND,..Gunnar [Axelsson] won day 5 in the St Cirrus with 290.6 km. in 2.59,34. AT THE DOT!!!!!
About the same for Roman, only missing out on 4 points! Per Carlin also from Sweden and a good photographer, as I remember from Eskilstuna, was on spot 4 and his mate Erik Ottosson on 6. Of course they flew together starting at 13.59 helping each other to the TOP. A good Swedish day.

day 6; cancelled but a new day 6 was created , with a 3 hour AAT.
Great to see that Stanislav won the day in the St Jantar; 223.5 km. in 2.36,27. He climbed up from 12 to 7 in the overall scores! The 3 Swedish pilots finished as well, so did Roman, but he got a few penalty points for being less than 0.50 km. from the boundary of the turn.50 points is quite a bit on a 566- daily -points- day.
23 Pilots from 54 finished.

Picture from their Gallery from April 18.

Day 7 today; 3 hour AAT.

15 m. class;
day 4;3 hour AAT
Another head trick in this class; 3 days in a row for Christophe, in the DISCUS 2a.
Chapeau! As French pilot he understands! 315.9 km. in 3.01,44, so a speed of 104.3 km./h.Not so far ahead overall, but still nearly 100 points . Lucasz from Poland , Pavel from Czech Rep and 3 Lithuanian pilots among them Gintas [Zube] and Piotr from Poland are also in the race to win.

day 5;racing task from 358.6 km. changed to a 2.45 AAT.
Several pilots got penalty points by flying above  the absolute set altitude limit.One of them Christophe, but even by not doing so , he would not have won the day, but would have been 2d. Now he was on spot 8.
Daily winner; Piotr Jarysz from Poland in the LS 6, 333.2 km.in time 2.47,52, so a speed of 119.1 km./h. After 5 days Piotr is on spot 4 overall behind the Discus 2a [2x] and Diana.

Day 6; cancelled, but also here a new day 6 with a 3 hour AAT.
Also for the 15 m. pilots a difficult day with only 6 from 38 finishing. Christophe was the last to do so.About 30 did not make the 100 km.
3 Lithuanian pilots formed the daily top 3, flying up to 250 km.!
” The conditions were difficult – a strong north wind about 11 m / s, rain and snow, low clouds.” as they mentioned on their site.

Day 7 today; a 3 hour AAT.

Nice picture from April 16 as shared on their Site
http://www.fccgliding.sk/

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THE AZ CUP
Zbraslavice in Czech Republic.

Another 100 pilots among them Thomas Suchanek and Jan Louda, fly in a mixed and club class their competition also in the EAST of EUROPE; this time Zbraslavice in Czech Republic.
They got on day 1 , last Thursday 382.7 km. in the mixed class and 301.2 km. in club.
In the mixed class 4 from 31 flew the task. Alena [Netusilova in ASG 29e/18m.] won the 905 daily points. Good on her!!!She was 6 km./h. faster than Tomas [Suchanek in Ventus c /17.6 m.].
In club class 26 from 5 finished and Jan [Louda] in the ASW 19b, was on spot 2 behind the St. Cirrus from Zdenek [Boruvka] .

Day 2 , yesterday, had a 2.30 AAT  in the mixed class and it turned out to be this time a prey for Tomas;253 km. in 2.40,49. Alena was on spot 5.
Club class had a non-flying-day.

It looks they will have racing tasks in both classes for today. More on Wednesday.

———–

The skies were beautiful yesterday here in Holland, so when I came back from a trip to Amersfoort I checked the OLC. BUT,….it was not only good in Holland parts of Europe had a booming day .I counted 13 x a 1000 km. , nearly 1000 in a Discus 2 and 816 in an ASW 19 and what about 764 in a St Cirrus and 736 in an LS1 d.
Holland did well too with 135 flights on the OLC and 2 over 880 km. flights; 2 friends Mark and Alfred-Paul, bought an ASG 29 e and try it out, what a success!
They set a 750, but when the cloud streets were SO impressive they followed them and enjoyed the racing; 112 km./h.

Sikko, also from Soesterberg flew 763 km. [600 km. FAI triangle] , had to use the engine close by to get home, but loved his flight. He flew first up N. then into Germany and back to Holland over Terlet.
Yesterday was THE day here, today is “nothing” at least not yet!!!

From Keiheuvel in Belgium  760 km flights by Dennis [Huybreckx] and Jeroen [Jennen] in LS 8.

By the way Eddie from Sportaviation at Tocumwal Airport mentioned; The ADS-B is now working at Tocumwal F-YTOC1
” Being grounded today because of weather, I installed the FlightRadar24 ADS-B receiver on the hangar roof.
Now we will get radar tracking to ground level.”

CU next Wednesday.
cheers Ritz

The very first FAI-Pan American Gliding Competition

Not an easy job for Competition director Rick Sheppe. During the first 6 days of this competition,  only 2 out of 6 days were flyable.
Day 1,an excellent day with 3.15 AAT’s was a 1000 points-day in both classes, handicap and 15 m. and on day 2 all pilots had to out-land and some pretty far away. Reason incoming cirrostratusclouds!

So when flying-day 3 was on , there was hope for the real Chilhowee [ in Tennessee] weather. Yes,… the comps are flown from McMinn County Airport, because the grass from Chilhowee was not yet high enough after the cold long winter, but the socializing was at Sarah’s and Jason’s airport.
That grass by the way, was specially sowed for this great event lucklily the airports are more or less neighbors.

Day 3 had in the end not such long tasks ;153.9 km. for the handicap class and 147.7 km. for 15 m. They had moved to the B task but in the end they regret that, but how can you know???
The weather this time was much better then forecasted. Tony mentioned:”It was booming. Nothing like what I forecast this morning.”
As you see Tony is not only flying, but does the meteo-job as well.

back home with 80 km./h.
Glider, van, bicycle, trailer and car ,…all close by.

What happened on flying-day 3? Cirrostratus clouds….AGAIN….they were the talk of the day!
“we expected them to stay in place to our west, but they moved over us instead, where they caused widespread pessimism at launch time.  So much pessimism, in fact, that the Director decided to reduce the two Racing Tasks to the bare minimum, 150 km for both classes.  This seemed like a good idea at the time, but as the day developed, it became clear that we should not have abandoned the “A” Tasks.  During the launch, good looking cumulus developed under the cirrus deck, something that did not happen at all yesterday.” Rick

In the Handicap Class only 413 points for the winner Robin Clark[USA]  in the KA 6A [handicap 110] and pilots who out-landed [3] did not loose too much, only 200 points for Sergio.
In the 15 m. class 411 points for the winner Robert Fletcher [USA] in the ASG 29. All pilots finished in this class.

April 13...pretty clear;
“The gastronomical forecast was much better than the meteorological, so we cancelled the Tasks today and assigned a dinner party instead.”Rick.
” Nice steady rain” , is Dan’s report for the day.

April 14….they tried hard again. Handicap class was cancelled at the grid as the window was very small. Later the 15 m. was cancelled in the air at 4 PM; just not enough room to play/fly in. What a pity!!!
This is part of what Rick said you can find the rest of his reports under NEWS at SOARINGSPOT;
” Finally, the sun made an appearance, cloud base crept upward, and we started the launch at 15.05, which gave us just enough time to complete a modest 1.5 hour AAT in the 15 Metre Class.  The Handicap Class, second to launch, ran out of time, and their Task was cancelled on the grid.”
“ After flailing around at low altitude for an hour, the 15 Metre Class pilots did not seem too unhappy with the decision to give up at 1600.  Cloudbase was just too low for safe racing today.”
Still waiting for flying day 4!!!!

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43 Trofeo Internazionale Citta Di Torino,

Flown over 2 weekends and this last weekend was MUCH better than the first when they had some cancelled days. Last weekend they had tasks from 217 km., 289 and a 2.30 AAT.
After day 1 Vitorio Pinni in the Duo Discus XLT , started the new weekend on the highest spot with 1000 points. Nobody had finished the task on day 1, but he nearly made it home with 10 km. on the runner up .
On day 2 he won again [734 points], but day 3 was a BAD day for him and his mate. They out-landed after 76 km. whilst others flew the full task gaining 1000 points.OUCH….that cost!!!!They dropped from 1 to 12.
The last day was won by Giancarlo Grinza, in the ARCUS M, with 282.5 km. in time 2.33.
After 4 days the best overall scores [3445] were for Giancarlo. Runner up was Sandro Montemaggi in the ASG 29E/18m. [3269] and on spot 3 Alberto Sironi also in an ARCUS.[3253]
The Italian competition- season definitely has started!!!

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THE FLIGHT CHALLENGE CUP GLIDING 2015
Prievidza   Slovakia

As shared by the organizers in their gallery.

When the Pribina Cup was over several of the participants , [some left already earlier,] moved their glider to Prievidza. A total of 125 pilots started in 3 classes [mixed, 15 m and club class] on April 12 continuing till April 23.
The mixed class , with 29 participants, had a 2.25 AAT on day 1. Top pilots as Sebastian Kawa, straight away started well.3 Polish pilots in the top 3 , Sebastian in the ASG 29 on 2.
On day 2 Sebastian won with 251.7 km. in time 2.01 over a a set 1.45 AAT, which was a nice speed of 124.3 km./h.
A day with quite some wind during the launches.
On day 3 , yesterday, they got a 2.30 AAT. Sebastian managed to fly 309 km. with a speed of 122.1 km./h. and with that he won the day.After 3 days he tops the overall scores.

As shared on the official site.

Club class, with 55 participants among them Roman Mracek who took his glider 2 days before the end from Nitra to Prievidza. He flew the St Cirrus on day 1 to a 15th spot during a 2 hour AAT. Daily winner was Zoltan Hamar from Hungary in the LS 1f.
On day 2 this huge bunch of pilots had to fly another AAT, 1.45 this time. Young Jakub Pulawski was the day-winner in his BRAWO;181.3 km. with a speed of  97.5 km./h.
Day 3 had a 1.45 AAT and it looks like Roman and  Ondrej [Dvorak] flew together, as they started and finished together each in their St Cirrus, ….though there was a difference in points;550 and 541.
Both pilots are on a 2d and 3d overall spot after 3 days with Lumir [Motyka] in the LS 1f on spot 1 at this stage.

As shared by the organizers and more on their site;
http://www.fccgliding.sk/

15 m. class,with 41 participants started with a 2.45 AAT and Nitra pilot Samuel Pollak won the day in his LS8 tc. French pilot Christophe Cousseau won day 2 in his Discus 2A; 199 km. with a speed of 109.5 km./h. during a 1.45 AAT.
AND,…he won day 3 yesterday as well; 282.3 km. in 2.34, so a speed of  109.4 km./h.
BUT,..he is not  leading the class after 3 days, as Polish pilot Lucasz [Grabowski] is just 33 points ahead of him. Lucasz flying the DIANA, was yesterday just 10 daily points behind Christophe.
It’s not over yet!!!

As shared by the organizers in their gallery.

Tasks today; club class 2.30 hour AAT, mixed class goes for 3 hours and 15 m. as well.

———-

Austria had some great weather last week, with booming conditions in the Alps. From Lienz [Nikolsdorf]  the first 1000 was flown and several up to 824 km. flights.
Yesterday a Nimbus 4DM added another 715 km.

———-

Got the last FINAL results from the Pribina Cup from the organizers.
Here you are, as said already, different than on soaringspot in 15 m. and 20 m.;

Club class:

1.	Michal Lešinger	Czech Republic	LL
2.	Boris Žorž	Slovenia	IPF
3.	Ivan Novák	Czech Republic	DI

 

15m class:

1.	Martin Tronnier	Germany	77
2.	Miloslav Cink	Czech Republic	EU
3.	Patrick Puskeiler	Germany	ALB

 

20m 2-seat class:

1.	Wolfgang Janowitsch / Josef Kammerhofer	Austria	TWO
2.	Michael Sickert / Michael Roche	Germany	YA
3.	Katharina von Podewils / Joachim Schwenk	Germany	WA

 

Open class:

1.	Matthias Sturm	Germany	M7
2.	Helge Liebertz	Germany	3F
3.	Kai Glatter	Germany	YE

Good to see that MILVUS was one of the sponsors.

———-

That’s it for today.
Cu next wednesday
Ritz