With 37 dgr. C. it was the warmest Pentecost in history in Germany. But the heat did not only bring joy, as at least 6 people were killed by falling trees in the state Nord-Rhein Westfalen . Trees , surviving 2 World Wars dropped like matches under the up to 150 km.h wind.
Here in Holland we had 30 dgr. C which was more then enough and code red for the Southern part of Holland !! So thunderstorms here as well , but not as violent as in Germany, where hurricane wind was measured in some towns specially Dusseldorf  . Also France and Belgium got their bit of heavy weather.

MALDEN ….. Open Military Championships….the last day!

Great picture shared by Aukje.
They left the cable at 250 m. but did not find connection, so they “had to do it”  again.

The pilots from the Open Military Comps in Holland, flown from the beautiful  and always friendly / inviting airfield of Malden had only 5 days to show their skills. And from those 5 days, they had 3 pretty good days to do so and 2 to have fun, socialize and TALK about soaring. With 380 km. on Monday , 314 on Tuesday and 335 on Friday the open/18m.  class pilots  had enough kilometers to show their soaring-skills. The other classes , club and combi had a just a tad shorter tasks. Friday looked fabulous here with nice blue skies and 3/8 of high big CU’s, so I had high expectations.

Last day skies! Shared by Ben Hiemstra

Club left , on this last day, with fresh Dutch Champion in club class Frank,  on spot 1 with 59 points on a not Frysian pilot but still from the N.[Hoogeveen..Drenthe] ]  and on his dad Ben [ 67] and 2 other Frysian pilots. That FAC is a really fun group of lovely people ,supporting each other and all very close. For sure they would  try to have 3 Frysians on the podium on this last day. AND…that happened between the ” bond” of the Frysian pilots , Hoogeveen pilot Ide, might have felt too eager or overpowered, I don’t know, but he out-landed and sadly enough, dropped from 2 to 7. Frank and his dad , what do you want  more for such a close soaring-family ….stood on spot 1 [ 2839 points] and 2. [ 2601] And a 3d member of the Frysian club, Sander Terpstra was on a third spot[ 2558]. Congratulations!!!

All Frysians fitted on the picture on the BBQ evening at Malden courtesy Sander Terpstra

In combi the last day showed 3 DUO Discus types up front an XL, XLT and XT. They topped the overall scores as well with Tjeerd and Francis on spot 1, Evert Jan on 2 and Jeppe and Wolfert on 3. From the 5 pilots , 4 fly for KLM and 1 works for Transavia.

In open class Erik Wijers in an LS 6 C 17.5 m. topped the overall list on each of the 3 days, on the last day with less than 100 points on 2 and 3. He won the last day over 263 km.  got 1000 points and the overall-number-2 from the morning Ben from Eindhoven out-landed. So with more than 400 points on the runner up,  Erik  won the OMK.
Congratulations to all!

PREPARATIONS!!!

Some pilots and crews are already in Rayskala and participated in  the Finnish Nationals in Standard and Club class. They acclimatize and prepare for the WGC starting on June 22 with the opening ceremony the day before on June 21. Poland is only in July/ August, so there is some time but countries far away have send or are sending their gliders now. Not too much flying, due to rainy weather ,but those who participated claimed they had learned a LOT!

The S.A team has send their gliders to Poland. In the 2 South African containers are SEVEN JS1 gliders. Here is their news and their pictures. I  only hope the container is not on the highest spot on the ship as with scary, read VERY turbulent  weather,  they dump those containers in the sea first!!!
“And away they go!!! Two containers full of JS1s left Durban harbour on the MSC Rita to Bremenhaven. Final destination: Leszno Poland for the 33th World Gliding championships. This is a historic moment with 7 JS1s on the the same ship….talking about all your eggs in one basket..” 

As shared by Jonker Sailplanes.

.

QUALIFYING GRAND PRIX in SAINT SULPICE

Before start  1 PM on Tuesday. Shared by organizers

In France  in Rennes Saint Sulpice, the first training day for the  Qualifying Grand Prix was on Thursday. 5 Pilots in total from the entree list are not from France but  from Germany [3] , the UK [ 1] and Slovenia [1] .
On Thursday they started with their first practice day.
On Saturday with the first day , won by German pilot Kai Lindenberg. A short task from 103 km. exciting enough , with wave but also outlandings.
On Sunday was day 2 and pilots were send on a B task , 207 km. this time at 13.45. Christophe Abadie was the daily winner with 8 points.Only 7 finishers , Jutta among them.
Monday was a 122 km. day and Alain Mazalerat won the 10 points. Alain, a retired airline pilot,  arrived  before the Grand Prix started,  by glider from Paris !!!!!
We got to know Alain in Angers at the Huit Jours d’Angers, a long ,LONG time ago. Great to see he is still so enthusiastic for soaring.

Yesterday was a day with great clouds and a task of  255 km. and the line opened at 2.15 PM. Christophe Abadie  in his ASG 29E,  “got”  the 10 points AGAIN and the 2 German pilots Thomas and Michael [Eisele, son of the Bayreuth competition director Walter] got the 8 and 7 points.
So today at day 5 ,they start with Christophe Ruche on 1 with 10 points on number 2 the other Christophe [Abadie], from Buno and Alain and Thomas both on spot 3 with 16 points . More in my Sunday blog from SoaringCafe.

Lot’s of lovely  pictures from Jean- Pierre Henry at:  http://fb.me/6GoSxE5Zz

ARNBORG ….Danish Nationals.

AB ; Arne on final as seen by Joergen Eriksen.

The Danish Nationals were flown between May 29 and June 8 in 5 classes. They had more flying-days as cancelled days; 6 for 5!! Several over 300 km. tasks, so good days to see who would be the National Champion in each class.
In Club class one of my mates Ole Arndt won day 1, whilst , through all those years,one of my favorite pilots Henrik Breidahl unfortunately outlanded and one of the pilots I got to know when he was still very young and talented , Rasmus Orskov flying the LS 1 f , flew the 319 km. with 68 km./h.
Rasmus had a few outlandings but won the last day and a 3d spot overall in the end.
Champion was  Ulrik Soerensen in the St Libelle  with 2704 points, whilst  good old Ole was runner up with 2562 points ! 18 Pilots in this class.

Ole [to the l.] here with Joergen visiting at Uvalde.

In standard class the only pilot I knew [out of 11] from several comps was Jan Andersen . He was on spot 1 overall EVERY day. So the new Danish Champion.

In 15 m. class,2 from 11 I know from comps or visits to Sportavia [Ole by the way flew there as well] Ib Wienberg and good olg Stig Oye from long ago. Ib finished as 4th and Stig 7th. Quite some out landings in this class , costing points. On day 3 only 3 pilots finished and Ib was one of them. On day 4 Ib was 1 of 2 finishers again. But on day 5 [ a 2 hour AAT] with no finishers Ib only flew 12.4 km. good for 31 points, whilst daily winner Stig had 398 points for 160.2 km.
The new 15 m. champion is Johnny Jensen.

Ib ready to uncork the champagne bottle

In the 18 m. class 10 pilots and the ones I know are well known by all ; Arne Boye Moeller and Peter Eriksen. How did they go? Peter won day 1 but he lost some points on day 5 when Arne managed to finish. Arne won the last day over 395.2 km. and Peter was 3d. Arne was crowned as the new Danish champion in this class. He won 2 days and was on 3 days runner up, a good enough reason to be called CHAMPION.Peter finished overall on spot 3.

Arne as the new National Champion. As shared by Arne.

7 Gliders in the 2 -seater class , all a variation of a Duo Discus and 1 Taurus. Henrik Gormsen in the variation XT won the comps. For all scores ; www.soaringspot.com

LANGTORA ….Swedish Nationals

Hopefully 7 days [between June 7 and 14] of flying for the Swedish Nationals in 18 m and club class. Till today they had already 4 days ! 21 Pilots in club class and day 1 over 110 km. was won by Per Carlin ,who I remember as a good photographer at Eskilstuna during the WGC. He did not fly there for this WGC, but made some great air-shots when he flew when all were gone for the day and before start making those great pictures of the gaggles. With the crash of my last laptop I unfortunately lost all the Eskilstuna pictures.
On day 2 only 2 finishers who flew the 192 km. Day 3 over 186 km. was a prey for Per [LS1f] again and on day 4 they had a 2.30 hour AAT.
The 3d victory for Per, who flies as good as he makes pictures!!! He flew 250.6 km in time 2.46.

13 Pilots in 18 m. class and the most well known are Borje Eriksson and Ake Pettersson. Boerje won day 1 [ 119.5 km.] and 3 [254.5 km.] and was 3d on day 2 [263 km.]
Yesterday they had 248.8 km. and all 13 pilots finished!! Borje was 2d behind Tonny Olsson, who is 3d now overall after 4 days. Borje is still in the lead.
No task as yet for today! They continue till the 14th. All scores on soaringspot!

great picture ; Minden from above as seen by Pete Alexander  with to the left  Rick Walters Shared by the SSA on FB.

Next weekend the 18m. Nationals in the USA will be flown from Minden in Nevada. Can follow it a bit for you , but I depart on a 1-week-holiday with my high school friends on June 20, WITHOUT my laptop so I will miss a few crucial comps, but so be it.

Talking about Minden, Jim Payne flew another 1000 from there on Monday. The day before Konigsdorf was the place to be as 4 pilots flew a 1000 over there in Arcus , Quintus [2] and ASG 29 . It was the 5th 1000 for Mathias Schunk since April 24. Good on him!
Also a great race from Bolzano by Giorgio Galetto, in his Ventus 2cxa; 1.051,39 km.
And,…919 km. from Insbruck in an LS1f is GOOOOD!!!!
Also the Ouarzazate visitors have good 1000 km. weather . Since May 30 they flew 20 x a 1000 plus from there.

Some interesting planes arrived in Holland, certainly for “spotters”.  One arrived last week in Maastricht with a big red mouth on it; no doubt…. the Rolling Stones,  who performed last weekend at Pinkpop.
And the 787 DREAMLINER , arrived from Seattle  with the name ARKE on it.  They own the first Dutch 787 and to show how happy they were with it , they flew low over some airfields in Holland as Eindhoven and Rotterdam as well as over the 4 head quarters from TUI [ARKE is part of them]  to show it for those on the ground as well. They bought the plane mainly for their trips to Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba and can take 307 guests with them.

You are up to date, cu next week.

Cheers Ritz

  
Finland from above.
courtesy Eric Stauss

The last preparations in Finland for the WGC for ” small”  ships are in progress . They test all what’s necessary for a smooth show during their Nationals in standard and club class and pilots practice from the field to see how the area looks.

Day 1 was straight away a difficult one. In club class NOBODY flew the 3 hour AAT  though 12 pilots tried hard. They all found a landing spot somewhere else and the best pilot flew 216 km. Tim, from the UK flew 184 km. and “our”  Dutch glider NL1 with USA pilot Garret 130 km.

An American pilot in a Dutch glider in a nice big green paddock  in Finland!!!
Picture by Adam.

It is not easy to find good landing spots in Finland with all those beautiful trees and lakes and that’s why the organizers always put a lot of effort in showing on the map WHERE you can land.So they all practiced straight away.

As Adam from Australia mentioned in his blog;
” Day 1 weather didn’t match the forecast ! Maximum height I saw was 2700 agl. Early on some good streets and 5 knot climbs, but then we headed west and the cloud base dropped and the lift decreased.

This was right in the area that was totally unlandable. Always had a glide to somewhere, but only just. ” 
More news at  Adam Woolleys gliding adventures.
www.facebook.com/W3Racing?fref=ts

Another very nice blog with great pictures from Aussie pilot Eric and his crew  ;http://staussglidingwgc14.blogspot.com.au/

20 Pilots in 15 m. class and INDEED Mac had traveled straight away to Rayskala and flew on this day 1 a distance of 223 km during a 3.30 AAT. He was 7th.
Nice to see father Martti [ASG 29] and son Petri [ LS 6 ] competing both in this class.
Nobody finished but the day 2 forecast was GOOD!!! The weather can change very quickly in Finland. We had once 4 days of rain and after only perfect weather.

Day 2 as seen by the crew from Eric, with the remark:
” Nice skies but also a band of alto cirrus coming in which is definitely getting closer”

Day 2 looked much better and had a 3 hour AAT for 15 m. and 261.7 km. for club.
But it turned out different as a warm front was moving faster than expected.

” After watching club class sent to an almost inevitable out landing as the warm front was moving in faster that expected, the rest of us were re-tasked with a 3 hour AAT”

2 Pilots finished in club class,  one flew 153,4 km. and the best of the rest flew ” only” 88km. and less.

“ A new airmass moved in, was quite windy – just couldn’t get high again after falling low. ” was Adams comment, after his first REAL out landing.[The day before he landed at Forssa  Airport ]

And a warm welcome from the farmer and his wife!
Courtesy Adam

In 15 m. Juha Sorri flew 292.5 km in 3.03,32. The area they flew in had much better weather hence only one out landing …..by Mac  He unfortunately outlanded after 96.5 km. He was the only one!!
Young Petri did not start [exams] and I don’t know what happened with Martti Koivula as he was not scored  , I know though , as he flew with us in Australia in the past, that he is a very good pilot!

Yesterday was scrubbed! And they got MORE GOOD info on out landing fields from one of the Finnish competitors.

For today the Aussie team is not very enthusiastic:
” Day 3 take 2. We have either a 2.5 or 2 hour AAT for racing class. Forecast is either for a storm, many storms or the whole country covered in storms. In all cases, Rayskala will have storms !1st launch in an hour for club class. “

  MALDEN

As shared by Aukje who flies the comps at the moment.

The open military comps in Holland started on Monday from Malden with 42 pilots in 3 classes . A 310 km. task was set for club, 331,4 km. for combi and 379 for open class.
Except for 1, all 14 pilots in club FINISHED!!!Good on them!
In combi class Jeppe and Wolfert won in the DUO DISCUS XL  from 17 other pilots.
Jeppe was 4 years ago the CD during the Nationals , so before Natasja, as he did it only one year.
Great to see Stephanie and her husband Patrick as competitors flying the DG 1000/20 m. . Stephanie worked for us in Tocumwal years ago.
In open class 2 outlandings and an LS 6/17.5 m. won on handicap on a Nimbus 3DT.

No flying in Finland but another day yesterday in Malden.
263 km. in club class and the new Dutch Champion won the day. His dad was on spot 4. Frank left early and dad more than half an hour later.All  pilots finished. GOOD!!!

Dad Ben as seen by Frans Guise.

By the way 5 from the 15 in this class are members from the Frysian Aero Club, be assured they will have a great time/holiday.
AND,..they fly well too, occupying after 2 days spot 1-3-4-5.
3 Outlandings in the combi class and reserve-tuggy from the Nationals,  Evert Jan won the day over 303 km.
And Ben Zwaga from Eindhoven won the open class -day over 314 km. in the Ventus 2CT/18m.

No tasks set as yet for today! It’s raining here but Malden is about 125 km. to the SE.

On the Schleicher Site  you can find wonderful pictures about the new ASG 32Mi.

http://www.alexander-schleicher.de/

As they wrote on their site:
“ Under optimal summer conditions Schleicher’s new 20m two-seater passed the first tests with flying colors.
Designer Michael Greiner and CEO Peter Kremer made the first flight.
This glider contains a lot of technical innovations.
After the landing it was clear: the ASG 32 Mi fulfills the high expectations in all points. ” 

The above pictures from Australia Mount Beauty pilot Ian Cohn are not that old. He visited Schleicher and got a nice tour there and was even allowed to make pictures from the ASG 32. Now the glider made it’s maiden flight. Congratulations to all working on this new model .

The first launch and first landing.
AND
in full flight.

Pictures courtesy Schleicher site via Rene.

Got some nice pictures from the HAHNWEIDE comps and some extra news from my friends who have been there. As always appreciated!!!
All had a real good time . Other than on WGC’s or EGC’ s there was less stress and a lot of time to socialize, certainly on rainy days. They compared gliders and changed news.

Line up ,having fun, the Schmelzers and Joost and Max.
As shared by Bert sr.

On the last day they luckily had a big task, [to the satisfaction of all pilots],  to finish this competition and to find out who were the really winners.
It’s always nice to hear the inside stories. In the 18 m. class the race was on to to drive Bert jr. from the throne he was sitting on , on this last day. Toppers as Werner Meuser [champion at EGC and WGC ] and Reinhard Schramme [winner from an ECG and as we all know kilometer-eater in Bitterwasser last year] and Bernd Weber [from Schempp-Hirth and flying with us in Australia in the past] , they all had the intention to be the number 1 and…. that was still possible. But as you could read in my last blog they were not successful and Bert maintained his top position.

Young Bert surrounded by toppers as Werner and Reinhard.
As shared by Bert sr.

And to finish for those who could not log in or don’t want to log in on SoaringCafe, here is when you have not seen it yet, the EXTRA blog below , about the Dutch Nationals.
Talking about the Nationals; Natasja who was 3 years the CD and a very good and relaxed one ,wrote on the site a nice thank you to ALL pilots , crews and the members from her team.
It looks like the Dutch Nationals will be different , in the future, maybe even with our Belgium friends and once in Belgium [St Hubert?] and once in Holland [Terlet?]
Anyhow now she is preparing for the Womens in Germany, as preparation for the WWGC  next year in Denmark. Last time she participated for the first time in France , but unfortunately got sick.

I have seen many CD’s here at the Nationals , all good to very good,but never such a relaxed one as Natasja and her easygoing but correct way was shared by pilots, crews and team members. Good on her!
As she said :
” It was a competition with VERY good weather and very bad, too much rain.
11 Pilots declared a 500 km. during these comps and the biggest task ever in Dutch National Soaring-competition, was set 701 km. and …..524 and 604 were not bad either.
Till the last day the contest was exciting.”
A competition with gutsy tasks , a bit ” out of the box” ,  but all were flyable except for day 1 when everybody was “out”.

Enough reading-stuff so time ” to go” .

Cheers Ritz

From quite a few friends I heard that they have difficulties to log in at soaringcafe.
You only have to log in with a password …..and it’s free and ….. VERY easy.
Please let me know when you have problems and I will send your reaction to Bill, or you can reach him straight away.

So I decided to copy and paste the last blog to give everybody the possibility to read Rene’s exclusive story on the historic 701 km. task the longest ever in Dutch National Gliding Competition . Another important issue is the great photo gallery I got from Frans Guise, so here we go, not exactly the same but a lot of copy and paste-work to make EVERYBODY happy, also those who refuse log in’s!
SERVICE is n’t it???? Could n’t get all pictures on the correct spot but at least you can see them and by clicking on them enlarge them to see the full quality!!
When you have read it already, Wednesday there will be a new blog on soaring.eu!

A very special edition, this 2014 CAE Dutch National Championship.

• exclusive story from historic 701 km. during a Dutch National championship by pilot Rene de Dreu
• the birth from a gorgeous  baby girl
• a marriage proposal
• scores totally mixed up by tricky weather/out-landings on the last day
• from spot 7 up to spot 3 in open class, …never give up is the motto
• met USA pilot Garret Willat at Terlet
• caught up with Dennis [ and his girlfriend ]and Eddie Huybreckx from  Belgium.
• 28 pilots finished after 4/5 days with a REAL championship and Dutch National champions in 3 classes
• one day later AFTER the comps 700 km flights in Holland [and over 800 even in Belgium!]

That ALL happened at Terlet ,…here is the full story as promised, with fabulous pictures from Frans Guise!!! When you click on them you see them in FULL GLORY!!! Enjoy!

To start with, the story from Rene also as promised. He flew last Sunday in the ASG 29/18 m.a 701 km. task, finished with only 2 other gliders in this class [from 10]  , both open class gliders and won that day. Never before in history a 701 km. was set, during a Dutch -National-Gliding- Contest .

Here is his story which was in Dutch so , I translated it for you;

” A couple of days before, it looked already that Sunday [May 25] would be a real good day.The organizers were talking about a big task and they set one, in each class; 525 in club class, 605 in combi class and 701 in open class.The line up on the grid was in this order as well.

The weather developed as expected , the only worry was a layer of Cirrus , moving slowly into the task area.This development made me careful in planning the time-schedule for the day and was reason for me to start early, straight after the line opened.

That was at 12.10 and I departed with the first group together with Jelmer Wassenaar and Mischa Konings. The first 140 km.-long-leg did n’t look like well developed and lift was not very good, so I doubted if the task was possible at all.We only had  an average of low in the 90 km./h. , BUT after we passed the SAUERLAND  the speed increased and I could race ahead of my fellow pilots.

After about 400 km.,course was steered for Holland again , BUT the already in the morning expected Cirrus was visible.The speed dropped again, BUT under the high level cloud cover, there was still good lift. Due to the fact that we had to return to a way-point in Germany again, we had to pass this cloud cover 3 times on the way to Terlet. In the end there were still small cu’s giving enough lift.

After a nice long final glide in quiet air , I returned at Terlet , as the first in my class .Cause I flew most of the task by myself [500 from 700 km.!] I had no idea how good or bad I was, but ,…it was a daily win! A nice long task full of challenges!” 

Picture via Rene.

THANK you Rene!!!!!Also for the  picture belonging to his story.

Rene flew with an LX 9070. He used that brand new GPS system for the first time a few weeks ago at St Hubert.

” The LX 9070 is a navigation and vario system with extremely bright color 7″ WGA display readable in all sunlight conditions with backlight automatically adapted using photo-sensor running on Linux operating system. The LX 9070 has preloaded world terrain maps, airports and airspace databases, high level IGC-approval and integrated Flarm collision avoidance system.”
{Glider Pilot Shop}

Rene during his flight On Saturday one day after the comps. Great weather as usual!!!
http://gliderpilotshop.com

Rene is also since 2011 the representative for Alexander Schleicher in the BENELUX!
Next week I ”ll have a look at the new ASG 32 Mi in my blog, I heard the pictures are on the site; www.alexander-Schleicher.de 

 After that day unfortunately 3 days were cancelled. Friday was the last day and to have a valid championship 4 days were needed!They HAD to fly! I arrived on Thursday, but the expected /hoped for window arrived too late; at 6 PM. Another scrubbed day!
BUT,….a good day to ” trick” our long time open class EGC and WGC pilot Peter Batenburg.” Something was wrong with his glider he should go there and look at it himself. ” So he went,… a bit worried! He removed the canopy cover to find in the cockpit,  his girl friend Judith in a nice black dress , smiling at him and asking him if he wanted to marry her!!!! He said yes and both really were shining!

A present at briefing and receiving congrats also in the camping area by Patrick.
courtesy Frans.

As at many comps it ALL happened on this last day, nothing was sure in the morning. Relatively long tasks were set  direction East [Germany] into an area still looking very over- developed. BUT they had faith in the pilots!In the end they were right.

CLUB CLASS.

Hinse in the Libelle as seen by Frans.

They left early, the club pilots, around 1 PM. for a 341.6 km. flight, with in the morning Frank Hiemstra on spot 1.At 5 the message was there; out landing Frank! About an hour later young, 19 year old ,talented Robin Smit finished in the St. Cirrus . He flew his first Nationals and climbed from spot 4 to 2 . Runner up !!! Pretty good!Only one more pilot finished in this class.

Robin before flight and finishing. Courtesy Frans Guise.

Hinse Osinga was still 2d in the morning but out landed pretty far away , arriving back just in time for the prize giving, dinner plate in front of him on the table!!He ” dropped ” unfortunately to spot 4.

Hinze to the r.

Frank landed not too far out! HE KEPT HIS FIRST PLACE!!! Congratulations to him for his first National Champion title!He won 2 days and was runner up and third on a day, so pretty consistent.

Frank before start and at the PODIUM on spot 1.

Number 3 was Steven Huiskes, who flew the WGC in Uvalde!

Courtesy Frans!

COMBI CLASS

2 Pilots finished in this class on the last day.Daily winner was Steven Raimond! But he had 2 less good days so this time he was NOT on the podium.We all know how good he is though.He will ” shine”  again in Leszno!

Steven .

Francois Jeremiasse normally flying in open class flew the Ventus 2 and finished as well. In the morning he was on spot 3 in the evening he was on the highest spot in his class; Dutch National Champion.

Before and finishing!Congratulations!!! courtesy Frans Guise.

In the morning on 1 in the evening on 3 is the other site of the medal. That happened to Bas Seiffert. He landed about 200 km. out and just arrived back for the prize ceremony at 10.15 PM. Bas will fly in Finland.

Bas before his last flight during this competition and a REAL -BAS- FINISH  the day before! As seen by Frans.

In between these 2 so on spot 2 in the overall scores, was the ” lucky groom to be ” Peter with his mate Paul, flying the ARCUS.  They occupied that spot during the whole comps.

Peter and Paul and the WINNERS.Francois with his son on spot 1 and National Champion! As seen by Frans.

OPEN CLASS

He flew that magic 701 km. , Rene de Dreu, but it was not enough to make him Dutch Champion in open Class. Mark Wering , living in London and a member at Lasham as well, flew a real open class glider 4T,  a Nimbus 4T,  owned by Peter Batenburg [by the way this glider is FOR SALE] and was the new National Champion.He was on 1 overall every day except for day 1.

Mark who flies also at Lasham too is the new NATIONAL DUTCH CHAMPION . Congratulations! Pictures by Frans.

Rene flew an 18 m. glider and did extremely well.He was 2d overall during each of the 4 days. The “weirdest”  result was by Hans Biesters, he climbed from spot 7 to spot 3 so ON the podium. Never give up is the motto, it’s only over after the last day.

Rene finishing and Mark with his proud crew [sons] and Rene and Hans Biesters who climbed from 7 to 3!!! Congratulations!

It was a VERY interesting championship, now it is waiting for what’s going to happen in the future. Are we going to combine this championship with our Belgium mates?? We have to wait and see.

Nice was that I met USA pilot Garret Willat at Terlet, who came to collect NL1, the  Dutch glider [Cirrus] flown by Robin during this comps and with his 2d place the glider had a perfect rehearsal for Garret to fly to the same spot in Finland.
Garret did a lot for our Dutch team at Uvalde and they help him now in return! That’s the way!!!

Belgium pilot, Dennis Huybreckx who flew a competition from Weelde in Belgium landed on on his 400 km. task direction Germany at Terlet. Dad Eddie was quick there to collect him  with Dennis girlfriend to give a hand as well. To finish 2 more pictures from FRANS. It is great to work with him!!! Thanks Frans!

The ASH 30 MI and 2 finishing gliders.

HAHNWEIDE!

Their last day was yesterday with a pretty long task to see who is the best, after only 3 days of flying!!! It was wet,WET, WET over there! 420 km. Was set for standard class and only 2 out-landed . The daily winner Joachim, flew with a speed of 107 km./h. and finished as number 3 overall. Helmut Koelle won this class .

In 15 m. class the “fight”  was between Japanese pilot Mac and Austrian pilot Wolfgang.On the last day Wolfgang went 20 minutes later over the start line, but Mac managed to come back in a better time;4.hours and 31 .56  for  4.36.22. Mac was the winner from this Hahnweide comps 2014, with Wolfgang as runner up.[52 points difference.]

Mac must have been on his way to the next comps again. WGC in Finland first and later WGC in Poland.
Courtesy organizers.

In 18 m. class young Bert Schmelzer had a real good soaring event being on spot 1 overall EVERY day. A TOP podium with Bert as said on 1, Werner [Meuser] on 2 and Reinhard [Schramme ] on 3. 113 points difference between Bert and Werner and only 6 points between Werner and Reinhard, both old hands in our sport. On the last day they flew 537.6 km.a good distance to show what you can !!!

As shared by the organizers..

Open class had a lot of toppers.The last day with 527 km. was a prey for the Belgium pilots de Broqueville [ speed 131 km./h.] with the French racers Kilian and Sylvain on their tail. Kilian won this event in the JS 1C with Holger Karow [ANTARES 23 T] as runner up and Sylvan Gerbaud QUINTUSM] on spot 3!
Alexander Mueller left the bad weather and comps and flew yesterday a great triangle from Bayreuth; 1.114.9 km extended to 1.235.55 km .
It’s weird weather this year with top days and soup-days in areas not even that far from each other in Europe.

As shared by the organizers.

2 seaters had 3 days as well and a 457.6 km. task on their last day.The Stouff brothers had a bad 2d day with an outlanding in their ARCUS T ,but they were 2d on the last day. Good on them!I told you already not to underestimate Sigi Baumgartl , not the youngest anymore but still going strong. He was runner up overall behind another ARCUS T.Only 48 points difference!

LASHAM

Lasham had rain as well and not even a good day when we had it here, as Saturday one day AFTER the comps, Holland had a top-day again with over 700 km. tasks from Holland and over 800 km. from Belgium. Our Nationals just ended one day too early, looking at the weather.
The UK nationals Open class had their 2d day on Saturday with only 2 finishers Andy and Pete, both gaining 102 points flying 200 km.with a speed of 57 km./h. No more words needed!
They had a much better and last day 3 yesterday [ 453.2 km] and day 2 in standard class.[366.3 km] AND I can tell you they will be ready for it after waiting and waiting !!!
Winners are after 2 days of flying; Jez Hood in standard [1993 points flying LS 8 ] and Andy Davis in open after 3 days.[Flying JS 1c 2102 points]  I presume they need also 4 days to call their selves CHAMPION.

MORE than enough reading stuff and pictures so CU on Wednesday in this blog.

Cheers Ritz

   THE CAE DUTCH NATIONALS at TERLET [The Netherlands] 

Spectacular finishes at Terlet in front of the club house/restaurant , as seen and shared by Liesbeth and Arjan Vrieze

Last Sunday  was one of those exceptional soaring-days in Europe ,but especially in Holland.
194 Pilots added their flights to the OLC here and world wide 2658.
8 Participating glider pilots declared their 500 km.!!! Well done and congratulations !!!!!

Setting a 500, 600 and 700 km. during a National Competition  is a big responsibility , but it also shows GUTS. Luckily Natasja and her team members are very experienced,  so is meteo-topper Hans.
Will ask them tomorrow if they felt ” jitters”  as well?!
Still remember the first day at the Europeans  in Rayskala, where I was as steward, and one of  the first to say YES to a 1000 on the first day!
Only later when they are all flying you HOPE they can make it, I even was a bit nervous [I felt those jitters]….  so was Silva the CD. But when the first pilots in open class finished, the burden disappeared and all felt extremely happy and proud.
This set 700 km. was flown by 3, but between daily spot 10 and 4 ,the pilots still flew 610 to 692.4  km.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A great effort by ALL.

Ready to go as seen by tuggie Bert.

The 701 km. , in Holland, set for open/18 m. was a once-in-your-life-time-thrill for pilots crews and organizers.
The first in history as far as I know so history has been written.
Lines were open for club at 11.36, for the combi’s at 11.53 and open/18 m. could go on 12.14.
The experience learned that pilots don’t play cat and mouse when they have to fly such a big distance.They just go on track!

As seen and shared by tuggie Bert.

At 3 PM, here in Alphen just in a very short time, the sun and azure blue sky was covered ” by 50 shades of grey”!!
The temperature dropped , I could feel it, the wind picked up , it felt like some kind of sea breeze and a ” halo”  appeared around the sun. NOT GOOD!

More people noticed the HALO as did Jeroen[Jennen] from Belgium who flew 648 km. in his LS 4 all the way up to Hoogeveen in the N. of Holland.

But still high clouds here and a bird “soaring”  high. Not too much to worry I hoped!
I looked at the site; 2 out-landings by combi- class pilots!
They use a live-scoring-system at Terlet ,so you can see straight away who has out-landed or finished. GREAT system!

Finishers E2 and EC and as you can see the blue of the sky is NOT blue there anymore either!
Shared by  NK organizers.

In the end in each class pilots finished,with only 2 outlandings in club and combi class, proving the task setters right!!!

18m. / OPEN CLASS

Rene,  our former European Champion made it home in open /18m. class.
He flew the 701 km. in just under 7 hours. HEROIC!!!!
And in an ASG 29 /18m. not a real open class glider! Good on him! He showed once more how good he is!!!
The real open class gliders,  Nimbus 4T  and the NIMBUS 4DM,  finished as well.
For the rest,the less good weather came too early,  the day was too short/  or the wings too short or the task too long!
7 From 10 went ” aux vaches” .

71 With Jelmer [Wassenaar] just did not make it.[692.4 km]  I looked via FB at his co-ordinates ;
Latitude ; 52.02460
Longitude ; 6.08926
Not too far from Arnhem, ONLY 10 K. OUT!
He flew  for over 8 hours and knowing Jelmer  ” there was nothing more”.
Hans Biesters [692.2 km.] had the same experience.

Don’t forget that the effort from the Club class pilots was as big.
525 km. For such a small ship during a competition is pretty tough, certainly when you know that not all pilots have the same experience.
One of the new ones is Robin Smit. His dad , Martin, our club member at the EAC in the past and when he was young  our crew at Nationals on Terlet , now flies already for years for KLM and is a great photographer.Have a look at;
SIERRAMIKE.SMUGMUG.COM
Son Robin loves his soaring and finished on a great 5th place. Not long ago he flew his first 500 k.

Robin on his 3d day at his first  Nationals.
Courtesy Frans Guise.

Frank Hiemstra is more experienced and he showed that by coming in first.His 2d  daily win!!!
He is a member of a REAL Dutch soaring family from Friesland and part of a real Frysian soaring culture!
His dad Ben and sister Ilse fly as well. Dad is the web master from the Nationals and the founder of the Dutch soaring site, www.zweefportaal.nl
Annemiek ,the only female pilot this year,  finished at nearly 8 PM. She flew for 8 hours and 14 min. Chapeau!
AND….she finished!!!
Only 2 outlandings in this class and both guy’s did well , still flying 484 and 328 km. in their St Cirrus and St. Libelle.

Finishes after the LONG day!!!
Courtesy Reint Veldkamp.

COMBI_CLASS

The Combi pilots started around 12 and after 2 less good days, Steven showed his class by winning the day.
Top job also by Bas Seiffert, not giving up and flying for 8 hours and 8 minutes , to finish as the last pilot in his class.
He flew the last  430 km. without water and his bug wipers were not yet repaired as well.
For sure that job will be done before he travels to Finland.
Also Bas is a member of a real Dutch soaring-family!
His wife and 2 children were there to support him so was his brother and dad, who flew already  before, I ever had heard the word soaring.
Only 2 outlandings !

WHAT-A-DAY!!!
At 8.46 all 28 pilots were counted for and a  total of 10 outlandings on a day with such tasks is a pretty good record! One non-flying pilot and that for a good reason; Jeroen  Verkuijl ,now father of a new lady-pilot-to-be in the future, had other things on his mind.

HEROES they are!!!
As shared by the organizers.

Day 5. Briefing at 10.30 and gridding postponed. A bit of a sleep- in might have been necessary for some.
The weather changed and rain and thunderstorms were predicted.
A rest day was welcome.The day was cancelled!

Flight Deck,  who run their business from Terlet, shared this picture . No more words needed!

Day 6 was pretty wet as well, so will be today ,…..3 days of rest,…..but tomorrow and Friday , the last day , will be good again. Let’s wait and see, how good!!!

So after 4 flying days and 4 cancelled  days the overall top positions are for Frank Hiemstra in club class [St Cirrus]  and runner up is Hinse with a difference of  73 points.
Bas Seiffert is on top  in the combi class [LS 8] , with 83 points on the ARCUS from Peter Batenburg and Paul Schepers.
Mark Wering [normally flying at Lasham where at the same time the UK Nationals in open class are flown!] leads  in the Nimbus 4T. Runner up with only 33 points difference is Rene.
EVERYTHING IS STILL POSSIBLE!!!!! As long as they can fly!!!

I’ll travel up to catch up with a lot of friends and to listen to all stories. On Sunday, I share it with all of you in 2 blogs, one on www.soaring.eu and one on www.soaringcafe.com .
The impressions from Rene, who flew his ASG 29/18m.  over 701 km. just under 7 hours, will be published in SOARINGCAFE that Sunday!!!!His comment after the flight,” it was not easy”!!

Something to look out for, CU then

cheers Ritz

First day ,…ready to go!
Picture shared by the NK organizers

On Thursday,the first flying day at Terlet from the CAE Dutch Nationals , the pilots started with small but interesting flights in 3 classes.
Practice , on the day before was impossible due to the weather.

Tasks were set from 147.3 km. for the 10 club class pilots , among them 2 Belgium pilots Rik and Stijn van den Boer flying the St. Cirrus and St.Libelle.
Also Annemiek , yes from the NUON-solar- car- race in Australia is a participant during this competition. She flies the St. Cirrus. A total of 6 St. Cirrus gliders, 2 Libelles and 2 Discusses.

In the combi class 8 pilots among them European champion and WGC pilot at many occasions, Steven [Raymond], as well as Bas Seiffert[WGC’s] and well known Dutch open class glider pilots at several WGC’s.
One , Francois [Jeremiasse]  flies this time a Ventus 2 and the other, Peter Batenburg flies the ARCUS.
They had 189.8 km. as recipe for day 1.

Dick Teuling flies in open class in the Ventus 2CT/18m..
Familair face?
Yes he was my instructor in 1967 and he is on my FB picture letting me solo!
As shared on FB by the organizers.

In open class 11 pilots, had to fly 217 km. Also in this class a few WGC pilots and former JWGC pilots as Jelmer Wassenaar and Rene de Dreu former European champion.
As you can see a pretty strong ” field” and then still 10 pilots fly later in the WGC’s and have no time now, or fly somewhere else,  though from those 10 , 5 participate; Francois, Steven, Jeroen , Jelmer and Bas.

My 3 mates Daan,[Pare] , Bertje [Kuijper] and Sjoerd [Talsma] are the tuggies again,… as always flying the Piper Pawnees.
Picture courtesy organizers and Reint Veltkamp.

Day 1 straight away was a difficult one. In Club nobody finished but Annemiek managed to fly the longest distance; 68.7 km. whilst the runner up flew 23.8 km. !!!
In the combi class no finishers either , best pilot was Francois with 104.3 km. followed by Steven with 97.8 km.Good on them!
In open class, no finishers, no points, no day!
For all classes we can forget day 1 , but at least they TRIED!!!!

Outlanding from and photographed by  Philippe Hendriks.
AND
tomorrow is another day.

Fantastic sunset
courtesy ; Hinze Osinga

Day 2, another difficult day with the forecast for showers in the morning but better circumstances in the afternoon so the first launches were set for  1.30 PM. later postponed .
Tasks; 125 for Club and combi and 155 for open were set.
At 3 PM we had here in Alphen around 3 4/8 of CU’s, at 4 2/8 and at 6 it was azure blue, no clouds.
And indeed the nice weather was at Terlet as well.
Late starts though ; club at 15:48,  open class at 16:08,and combi-class at 16:24 and they went for the  A-task.
It WAS possible and a great window to fly in had arrived.

Later in the day great looking skies.
As shared by the NK organizers

BUT,…not for all. Some got into trouble , but points were not too expensive. The winner Bas [LS 8] , who flies in Rayskala  later, won in combi class [334 points]  , but Steven [ASW 27]  who flies in Poland lost 170 points on him and was one but last.
In club young Frank Hiemstra [St Cirrus ] won and worked hard to get 373 points.
In open class Max [Leenders]  normally ” used”  to his Nimbus 4DM , won the day in the Ventus 2CT/18m. [388 points]
Jelmer [LS 10/18m.] and Jeroen [ Ventus 2CXA] both preparing for Leszno were on spot 3 and 7.
In club and open class the pilots being patient [ departure at 4.26 and 4.33] and going as last on track won the day.
Only one out-landing !And lot’s of nice finishes! As seen by  Reint Veldkamp.

Day 3 yesterday: The morning was grey here, and  as I heard also over there. A small front was passing by and then,…..later,…soaring could/would/should be possible!
Tasks were set and pretty tough tasks, with in the back of the head an always awesome and very busy BBQ for that night;
Club-klasse 167 km. – start-line opened at 1.37 PM.
Combi-klasse 233 km. – line open  at 1.52
Open-klasse 298 km.- line opened at 2.02

Around 4.30, club class pilots finished and the fastest pilot was Hinze in the Libelle on the picture above; 76.3 km.
Annemiek landed in a paddock, just 20 km. short of Terlet.
In combi class Bas had his 2d win in a row and looks ready for Finland.[speed 93.3 km.] Bad day for Steven , who seems less ready for Poland, though a bad rehearsal………anyhow he outlanded.
In Open class Mark in the Nimbus 4 T won.
The BBQ could start, BUT a late night was not advisable as the message arrived on all phones; Tomorrow May 25, grid open at 7 and closed at 9 , briefing at 9.30.

By the way the weather turned good here as well around 5 PM. [ 4 sun-time] with  great and HIGH cu’s , whilst ,as the morning-forecast said,  thunderstorms in the N. [Groningen]arrived at 2 PM. And all of this  happened on Saturday  in our small country!!!

Day 4 today; an early morning, for the crew members , for some after a late night .At 9 [8 sun-time] we had here blue skies no wind and very sunny conditions.
What would it be about 100 km. to the S.E ????

Webcam on this morning,…blue as well!
Shared by the organizers.

A SPLENDID day anyhow, for Jeroen after 2 days on a 6th spot, but clearly somewhere else with his mind, as he announced this morning the arrival of his first born child a beautiful little girl. So the comps are over for him but I am sure he is not unhappy with that, as much as he loves his soaring!

But more splendid news, I don’t think any time in Dutch history a 700 km. task has been set on a National competition!!!!!
525 km. for club class with 6 TP’s 
605 for the combi pilots  with 7 TP’s and 
701.4 for open class with 7 TP’s

ABER HALLO!!!!!!Looking forward to see how this turns out today, but clouds popped up here already early , disappeared as quickly however and to the WEST huge Cu’s with dark overcast, but that’s HERE as said 100 km more to the NW.
All pilots have been send direction East into Germany.
For those interested and living in the USA or Australia,  the task is on www.soaringspot.com 
Wish I was there today!!!!!!

On May 21 the organizers from the German Women Nationals mentioned that other pilots were welcome in 3 classes club standard and 15 m. So all women with the correct documents could  participate in this strong National competition in the oldest airfield in the world [ as they claim] in Stoelln /Rhinow.  Don’t wait too long there is a dead line!
http://www.dsmf2014.de/

More news today at www.soaringcafe.com also about the Hahnweide competition, they had day 1, the JENA CUP [ they struggle with the weather] the Polish Nationals in Standard class [ they had day 6] and the UK Nationals in 15 m. and open class which started yesterday.

Cheers Ritz
at May 25 2014

First ,…the still unexpected news that WUBBO OCKELS, our first astronaut [ Challenger in 1985] , our pilot, glider pilot, professor at the University of Delft and scientist  and fighter for a good environment, passed away last Sunday morning. We knew he had cancer[ kidney-] but he fought against it and for a couple of years we all hoped he was OK, but unfortunately for Wubbo this nasty disease returned.
Only last year, Wubbo was in Adelaide to welcome the Dutch car, who won the solar race, as he was one of the engines behind this project. Then he was already very ill and knew that was his last big trip.
Wubbo fought for a better world. His last action was an interview with a journalist from the AD paper , one day before he died and a letter to this paper to make clear once more ” to STOP  destroying our planet earth, our nature and ourselves” !!!
Wubbo …..a very inspiring man. RIP.

Wubbo in an ASW 19 in 1993, doing an experiment on flying on height.
Picture courtesy; FB site www.zweefportaal.nl

Summer has started early . We have 28 dgr. C. Not bad! But pretty tough thunderstorms as well.
Over 1500 pilots added their flights on the OLC last Sunday. Another 1000 km. flight for Jim and Dennis, but also great flights in Europe.892 [ 600 FAI triangle] in a Discus 2 T/18m.
A 1.030 km flight in a 20 m.  DG 500 from Bad Regaz in Switzerland on Monday was perfect.
Omarama in New Zealand; Jyri Laukkanen from Finland flew yesterday a great wave flight in a Discus with winglets. He called it ” straightforward wave ” ; 640 km..
And Bayreuth had 2 x 1000 yesterday in open class gliders and an LS 3 flew 843 km. from Antersberg North of the Alps using the N. site of these mountains.

The Belgium Nationals [15 m.] have been flown in St. Hubert and after 4 cancelled days they finally FLEW!
Still difficult as nobody flew the set task from 299 km. but some came close , really close; Jef Kell in the Discus 2T flew 297 km!!! Others had 295 km. so it turned out still a 1000 points-day!
Flying day 2 had a smaller task again; 137.4 km. This task was flown by 11 of the 14 pilots and won by Daan Spruyt in the LS 6.
Daan won the next day as well, a 2.30 AAT and he seems ready for his adventure in the Polish WGC where he flies a Nimbus 4 DM.
That he is ready shows the first spot on the last day where he was the ONLY FINISHER in his LS 6; after flying the set 311 km.
It ” cost”  him 5 hours and 6 minutes and 28 seconds but then he was HOME!!!!
No secret he was the new Belgium National Champion , 272 points ahead of runner up Emmanuel Litt in the 15m. Ventus 2B.[3000 points]
The number 3-4-and 5 were close; 2927 points, 2920 and 2904.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I759ERCvRoM shows a nice view on this competition.
A production by flashbackx.be

The Dutch Nationals in all classes will be next and start tomorrow .
Today is an official training day and tonight at 8 there will be  an opening briefing.
The weather just turned less good, grrr…
Only 29 participants at this stage , so not too many this year.
Biggest class is club with 12 pilots among them 2 from Belgium.
More in my next blog and I will be at Terlet on the last day!

Competition director at Terlet is Natasja.
This will be her last competition as director. After being involved for 5 years in the organization and  running the show for 3 years as”  boss ” , she thinks  it’s  time to do other things.
She did a great job!!!!!

Wrote last week about the glider Russia AC-4C and it’s pilot Tony Burton. I placed him in California but quickly changed that in Canada when Art told me. Sorry about that.
But that mistake gave me interesting info about this pilot.

The International Gliding Commission has awarded the prestigious Pirat Gehriger Diploma to Tony Burton for his many contributions to gliding in Canada and at the international level. In particular:
• Member of the Sporting Code Committee since 1998 and key contributor to a major overhaul of the Sporting Code in 1999. 
• 22 Canadian records 
• 25 years Executive Director of the Alberta Soaring Council 
• 29 years editor of Free Flight, one of the few gliding magazines with a wide international readership 
• Many other contributions

 He is retiring this year after writing our national soaring magazine and he will  be hard to replace.
His wife, Ursula Wiese, was also a glider pilot and wrote a great historical summary of the mountain wave flying available in the lee of the Rockies.:
STALKING THE MOUNTAIN WAVE   –  written and compiled by U. Wiese  ISBN 0-9682005-0-8, 7″ x 10″ soft cover, 220 pp with index, 44 photos, 21 illustrations and tables.

Thanks for that Art.I know now ,…so do lot’s of others.

Have written a lot over the last days; and…I am  having a guest, we are renovating my front garden after we got after 7 years a nice new lane in front of the house , so busy enough.
Cheers Ritz

The Sisteron Area.
courtesy Aussie team

The Grand Prix Final at the moment  is more exciting than ever before, at least that’s what I think. All those social media involved, make us part of the show.
All live- news on www.sgp.aero and great videos on their FB site  [www.facebook.com/FAIWSGP2014]  and,…during the day or in the evening on www.soaringcafe.com , as we ” are passing the word out”  as they wished us to do.
Great pictures and videos as well, have a look.

ENJOY!!!!!!

What happened more in our world then in Sisteron .

We here in Holland had some kind of autumn period but luckily it seems over again with temperatures up to 22 dgr. on Sunday. The Dutch Nationals start on May 22 so it is important that we keep the good soaring weather. Will come back on the Nationals next week.

The Canadian Rockies were working and give flights up to over 700 km. in a Ventus 2 CT from Invermere.
Both Invermere and Chipman had good flights, the last one with a 692 [ 672 FAI triangle] in an ASW 15.
Ocana in Spain had earlier some good conditions as well.

A special glider topped the OLC day on May 12 flying from Black Diamond from Alberta  Canada. The comment from pilot Tony Burton was :
“ first 500 triangle in the Russia. Great run south on the first leg down the Porcupine Hills. Mostly blue coming home into wind but the 2500m agl thermal tops helped a lot.”
I have seen many gliders but never heard of a RUSSIA AC-4C!! If you have n’t either I googled it and here is what I found.

—-about a C model.
—-Is the retractable gear model with increased performance. It is an excellent solo glider for students transitioning from nose wheel two -seaters like the ASK-21. Features include automatic control connections on all surfaces, a wide range of pilot weights and heights, adjustable rudder pedals, excellent visibility, and crisp handling. Performance enhancements include an optional retractable main gear, faired tail wheel, wing root fairings, and the same wing finish that has brought praise from flight testers.—

And a bit more info about the AC-4 polar…..
The data of flight polar was extracted thanks to the series of test flights of the AC-4C, onboard № 045, executed by Chad Moore (USA).

According to recommendation proposed by Dick Johnson, on the glider AC-4C had been established fairings in a place of fastening of a wing and fuselage. Such type of fairings are established practically on all gliders of the “AC” series.

Chad Moore published results of the tests in article:
“Performance Testing of the Russia AC-4c Retractable”, printed in the American magazine “Soaring”, September, 2002.

Found this news on http://www.aviastroitel.com/en

AC-C model

Something totally different.
I had the pleasure of catching up with the grand daughter of the founder of one , maybe even THE FIRST  International gliding center in the world Sportavia Soaring Center; Bill Riley. Pilots from Europe were invited about 45 years ago, to come and fly in their winter to enjoy the great and sunny weather and great soaring conditions in Australia on a former military WW 2-airfield.
An airfield  were from 1942 the RAAF took over and stayed there for 18 years.
As my good friend Bob Brown writes in his essay over the airfield;
” All types of aircraft came in,…battered planes from combat zones for urgent repair, new planes ferried in from overseas to be serviced , modified , armed and made fully operational”.

My daughter Inge to the left and Rosi to the right,

54 Of the BIG LIBERATORS were stationed there , but in 1960 it was quiet again in Tocumwal.
And more then sad, the LIBERATORS and about 700 other planes were chopped and melted down in ingots of aluminium, necessary after the war to make pots and pans and parts for the new HOLDEN car.
You can read the full essay written by Bob  on ;
http://tocumwal.weebly.com/1/post/2011/03/a-brief-history-of-tocumwal-aerodrome.htm

Bill Riley decided  , about 45 years ago, to start a gliding school there. Ingo Renner , who had moved from Germany to Australia in 1967 was his chief instructor , living part of the year in Tocumwal and part in Oerlinghausen, having the best of the 2 soaring worlds.
Bill supported Ingo in his ambition to fly comps and helped him and often accompanied him on WGC events. As you know Ingo won 4 of them.

Bill now is in his nineties , just moved to a hostel for elderly people and the beautiful WW 2 hangar , 100 x 50 m.  and a real historic building, is nearly falling apart which is more than SAD!!!
As Bob wrote:” With an absent and non-occupying owner the level of maintenance will inevitable decline putting the war time structure at serious risk.”

So you see what a lunch with Bill’s granddaughter Rosi has done to me, getting back all those memories.

Rosi and Inge

More memories as Inge flew in the LANCE from Rosi’s uncle David, about 20 years ago the at that stage 5 year old Rosi and her mum sister and brother and 2 friends, from Tocumwal to Byron Bay on the East Coast and after a week back again. A big event for a just 20 year old pilot. But they all had great fun and both still remember those good times.
The bond between our 2 families is strong since we met in the early eighties.

Nowadays the South area of Tocumwal airport is the host for more overseas guests as Eddie and Cheryl run Sportaviation there . For more info; www.sportaviation.com.au
Ingo is still in Tocumwal as well as chief pilot of the SRGC, a big club with also overseas members.

The Sportaviation hangars seen from above and converting  to an LS 4 for the 2 guests from Thailand,who are there at the moment!!
Courtesy Eddie Madden

Enough memories now. CU you mainly every day in the SOARINGCAFE for news on the GRAND PRIX FINAL and next Wednesday again in this blog.
cheers Ritz on Wednesday May 14 the day Dundee arrives here. He was and is a frequent Tocumwal-visitor after Ingo told him in Oerlinghausen to visit him in Australia. Unannounced he arrived.It was a hell of a job to find him a room for 3 months in high season , but we did and he still spends 6 months in Tocumwal.

m”
f aircraft came in – battered planes from combat zones for urgent repair, new planes ferried in from overseas to be serviced, modified, armed and made fully operational.

HAPPY MOTHER-DAY.

Good morning, a Sunday blog today on soaring.EU. As you might have found out I write a daily blog from Alphen with the help of the social media, tracking and video systems in Sisteron, about the final of the SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX. Enjoy that at: www.soaringcafe.com

EU, it was a late night/early morning with the European Song Contest Final in Denmark. As Holland was in the race for a place in the top  , according to the bet -stations, I looked with 180 million other people to the show, won in the end by Austria with a Drag Queen, the ”  lady with the beard” ,who got a lot of emotion- votes, as she/he  made a statement for FREEDOM in Europe for ALL. I was pleased with that , though I find that a Eurovision festival is not really the place to make statements other then GOOD music. The Queen could sing as well, but I don’t know what would have  happened without the ” sentiments”.
Our Dutch Ilse and Waylon , as the Common Linnets, got the 2 d place, the best for Holland since 1975 when “we” won. Good on them, GREAT song!
Ilse and Waylon do not come home empty- handed today, they won the prize for best act and best song as seen through the eyes of the complete press. That says something too.

As shared by Ilse on FB
“Whoooot!!! We already won two Marcel Bezencon Awards for best song and best artistic performance! “

Back to soaring as a lot happened last week.

 SCANDINAVIA

Flying over beautiful Norway.
Courtsey Arne Martin.

Scandinavia was blessed with awesome weather in the beginning of May and I wrote already a bit about it. A reaction on that blog from Norwegian pilot  Arne Martin, gives all of us more inside- information  . That’s, as you know the inter-action, I love:
” I saw you mentioned my flight in Norway in your latest blog entry:
http://soaring.eu/

But that was just the start, the last week has seen some exceptionally good conditions here, and my personal record of 548 km that Sunday lasted only a few days as on Thursday my new record became 725 km.

In total out of 5 flights in just over a week 4 of those were over 500 km.
Considering that I had only once before made a flight of over 500 km, that says something! And I wasn’t the only one, OLC will reveal there were a lot of long flights in Norway, particular from Notodden.

Picture report from my flights:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152372648735605&type=1&l=2b76d5e40d

[Please have a look at this link as those pictures are absolutely beautiful and interesting  stories are going with it , ENJOY  !!!!]

And also Sweden had exceptionally good conditions. Wilhelm Wendt and Jim Acketoft did the longest flight ever in Sweden in their EB28. 
According to the rules for the Swedish cross country contest that flight was 1200 km!
Meanwhile Jan-Ola Nordh in his Discus 2 did no less than 2 flights of more than 1000 km these days!
Arne Martin Güettler and a BIG thank you to him.

As he added; In total I flew more than 30 hours and over 2200 km over the four days, by far the most and longest I’ve flown in such a short time-span!

Tracks of area we covered in the four days.
Red is first day, purple second, brown third and blue last day.

PRIEVIDZA

The Flight Challenge Cup in Prievidza was blessed with good weather too. 2 Days with over-500-km.- tasks. Out of 12 days they had one rest-day, 3 cancelled days and on all other days  they flew .
The 116 pilots finished the comps with a 3 hour AAT in each of the 3 classes on Thursday.
Good to see Lubor win the last day in the mixed class [ 320.3 km. in time 3.03] and he finished on spot 5 overall after 8 days. 3 Polish pilots and 1 French pilot were in front of him. They all flew ASG 29!
3 Different gliders in the top in club class; an ASW 15b, a St. Cirrus and a St.Jantar 2. 2 Czech pilots and 1 Hungarian in the top 3.
In 15 m. French pilot Christophe Ruche lost 250 points on the last day and with that the runner-up place overall. He dropped to spot 4. 2 Lithuanian pilots[ Discus 2A and LS 6]  were in the top with 1 Polish pilot.[Discus 2A]

All results are on www.soaringspot.com

BUNO

Venue of the French Nationals in open and 20 m. class.

The French Nationals have continued again after 3 cancelled days,with flying day 4 ,with 223 km. for the double-seaters and 326 km. for open class.
5 From 15 missed out on finishing in the 20 m. and 9 from 18 in open class went in real or virtual ” aux vaches” .

The great pictures are courtesy to Alain Bachellier and there are many more have a look at;
THANKS to CHRISTOPHE for the link to
https://plus.google.com/photos/+AlainBachellier/albums/6009310093058176817

Last day was yesterday, but it had to be cancelled. Still enough days to have Champions in both classes.
In open class Peter Eriksen from Denmark was the winner [3232 points]  , but the French champion was Eric Bernard in the ASG 29, [ 3186] before Louis Bouderlique. [3128]
Jutta finished on spot 9.
In the 2-seater class , 3 Duo Discusses in the top with Eric Soubrier as the new Champion.[3135 points]

The Champion, runner up and number 3 , with Peter as the best 2d to the r. AND the 20 m. CHAMPIONS.

All other scores at ;http://www.soaringspot.com/buno2014/results/

Aosta, the place we visited in the past to go skiing [me, from Pila] and soaring [height gain for the men] had a good day on Friday. Pilots in ASW 24 and LS 8 flew over the edges of the the French and Italian Alps,  distances of 925 km. and 711.
Topping the OLC that day ,was again the DG 1001 M, from Jim and Dennis , with a wave flight from 1.015 km. with the nice speed of 155 km./h.
Also a pretty good day in Israel where pilots from Beer Sheba Teyma, flew distances from 331 km in the DG 500 /20m. with Rafi in it and 258 in a PIK 20. Yesterday Rafi even flew 458 km. in the Speed Astir.
AND…403 km. from Nagano in Japan is worthwhile to mention too.Flown in wave up to 5464m. MSL.[4376 m. AGL]
Nice to see that Shinzo who runs his own flying school in Narromine,-Soar Narromine-  is flying the ARCUS T  in Itakura in the Australian winter.
Talking about the Aussie winter , have a look at the weather today ; Picture shared by Eddie, owner of Sportaviation in Tocumwal.

Morning wave over the first cu .

And to finish ; This great picture shared by ” Stuff Dutch people like” and I know that more than only Dutch people will like it.
Was the visit  from Obama good for the Rijksmuseum, the visit of the wife from the Chinese president , during that Nuclear top was super PR for the Keukenhof. Did they have last year around 30.000 Chinese visitors, now they had 2 weeks ago already 31.000 .So there will be quite a few more, when they close at May 18.

Holland on it’s best.
Courtesy ; stuff Dutch people like.

Cheers Ritz on Sunday May 11 2014. CU later on www.soaringcafe.com

After that glorious Saturday-weather, Sunday was a bit different here in Holland. The sky was not as blue as blue should be, but a kind of milky-blue .Still great and high clouds however and a much nicer temperature. As I read  some of the pilots had to really work hard to get back home . But still several flights over 500 km..One , a VERY FIRST 500 by Robin Smit in the LS 8.He is a happy chappie, so he should!

Around 2348 flights were added to the OLC. Eight  of them  European 1000 km. flights 6 from Germany and 2 from Austria  and one from Sweden. And 4 from Minden in the USA. Alexander Mueller flew a 1000  FAI triangle [1.155 km] from Bayreuth in the EB 29. Michael Sommer flew one from Oberhinkofen and Josef Eder flew from Schaerding and flew over  German top soaring places as Klippeneck and Hahnweide and via the WGC town Bayreuth.The Ventus 2 from Eduard Supersberger flew the other Austrian 1000. from Lienz.
Swedish pilot Jan-Ola Nordh flew one in a Discus 2T and we can congratulate him as it is the first 1000 km in Sweden in 15 m. class!!!
Another superb day in Europe , with flights in an LS 1 d from 712 km. and 748 in an ASW 19. Not bad for the beginning of May, but as you know  spring can be awesome!

1237 km. From Minden that day in an ASW 27 was very  special too , but SUPERB was the word for Mitch Polinsky’s wave flight from Minden on May 4 as well. He topped the OLC list on Sunday with only his 3d wave flight;he flew 1.516.6 km. He still is grateful for the flights he made in the back of the gliders with Jim Payne and Gordon Boettger where he learned to fly in wave. GREAT teachers!!!! Mitch flew in his ASH 31 MI/18m.

Mitch here after a flight in July.

Talking about Gordon: On the same day we ALL got by several social media, the message to keep an eye on the flight of Gordon. What a great idea!
He wanted to share  a” distance record attempt along with Hugh Bennett in the Duo Discus sailplane.  Our intention is to be towed up by a towplane shortly before sunrise around 0530 PDT from the Minden Tahoe airport NV (KMEV), release and head in the direction of Rapid City, SD (KRAP), landing near sunset after flying over 850 miles.  If we can go beyond that, we obviously will.  As most know, we will be making this attempt in an unmotorized sailplane utilizing mountain wave updrafts to stay aloft.  The weather is favorable for this intended direction but weaker forecast winds might make slow going. If the flight is aborted due to technicalities or unfavorable weather, Walt Rogers will post on his twitter account (below).  We intend to climb up to 28,000 feet before proceeding east.  As most know, there’s no way to tell how far we end up going.  It will depend on what the weather allows.  It will be cold as the cockpit is unheated and unpressurized.  There are too many factors involved to tell how far we end up, which also makes it quite fun to watch from the sidelines on the ground.  Our call sign for the flight will be N55LK. 

A bit of a tougher day for the French Nationals in Buno. The 2 seater -pilots got a 322 km. task and 9 from 15 finished. Among the 15 are 2 couples flying HC as they are not French.
In open class 4 from 18 are HC. Great day for Jutta Storm in the ASH 25 /26m.,  as she won the task over 383 km. with a speed of 82 km,/h. meaning it was a real tough day!
Day 3 was a real tough day with a 2.15 AAT and only 3 pilots finished . Not too much points to loose or to win.
In open class same task and same amount of finishers. In nearly 3 hours the runner up flew in his ASW 22 BL a distance of 193.6 km. That says it all.
Yesterday was cancelled!

SISTERON IS READY FOR FINAL of  THE 2014 SAILPLANE  GRAND PRIX 

The French Pegase as PR tool

The preparations , now also for the pilots , for the SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX FINAL in Sisteron are in full swing.
Arne Boye Moeller was so kind to drive from Denmark to France to bring his glider AB for Bruce to fly.
As we did in the past they swapped gliders. Arne flew Bruces glider in Australia, Bruce flies his glider in Europe.
Great and friendly deals they are, love [d]  them.

Bruce in the glider from Arne-Boye in France.
Courtesy aeroclub from Sisteron.

AND

First impressive flights by Bruce over the mountains.

3 Aussie- mates  in this GRAND PRIX; Bruce Taylor, Tom Claffey and Graham Parker and specially Tom is excellent in sharing his pictures. Here a few from his practice time.

Picture 1; Running the “par cour”
Picture 2; This is AB, Bruce, over Digne.
Picture 3; Having fun at Pic de Bure with Bruce, Graham and John Coutts, on a good day but too blue to go North all the way to Mt Blanc.
Courtesy ; text and pictures Tom Claffey.
and this is TOM.

The Gauteng Regionals in S.A. finished with not too many days;  a total of 4 out of 8 in 18 m. class , but don’t forget it is autumn over there.
Day 4 in 18 m. class however, showed a high-summer-speed of 156.5 km.h. over 288 km. by Oscar Goudriaan , [JS 1 C in 21 m. configuration]. He won in his class, after being the best on the last 3 days. Good on him!For the scores also from club and 15 m. class you can go to; www.soaringspot.com

Oscar winning 3 days in a row.
Picture as shared  Jonker Sailplanes.

The 13,5 m. Italian Nationals in Alzate Brianza had 5 days and Ricardo Brigliadori won 3 of them and the TITLE.
Parallel with these comps the Club class flew and had 4 days. Davide won with 300 points ahead of the runner up. So a good champion and a very nice young man.

Prievidza continued with their competition, blessed with a few REAL good over 500 km. days. After 2 cancelled days , good for a nice rest of the pilots, they continued again on Monday , day 5, with;
537 . 7 km. in the mixed class, 504 km.  in club class and the 15 m. pilots  had to go for 544 km.

19 from 28 finished in the mixed class. Best speed 107 km. in an ASG 29.
32 from 52 in club class managed to do so. Chapeau! A long day as some flew over 7 hours.
15 from 36 arrived home in 15 m. class.

Tuesday in Prievidza; a 376 task was set and flown by nearly all pilots in the mixed class, same as the 333 km. for the club class.A few out-landings in 15 m.They went for 379 km.
Today tasks of ;1.45 AAT’s in each class.

Antti Lehto, has arrived last week with his brand new ARCUS in Rayskala when there was snow on the ground. His first real cross country flight was a REAL good one. Last winter he practiced in Bitterwasser and he found the weather circumstances yesterday in Finland a bit alike ,only the temperature was totally different. BUT a great flight 1000 km!!!! Good !!!

That’s all about the news for today on May 7 2014. More news in my soaringcafe blog on Sunday at www.soaringcafe.com
Cheers Ritz

Our  “old”  family club, the Gelderse, had their one-day-competition on Saturday with 14 pilots in an open/mixed class and 8 in club class. The weather, which was to ” cry for”  in the East of Europe, was  a tiny bit better  here. They flew , but only  the better -performance-gliders  gained points. The Nimbus 4DM won the 181 km. with  7 other finishing gliders in open class and in club the best distance was 66 km. from the set 130.
Another nice day for a bit of flying, ” tasting”  the field and catching up with friends, beer  and talks, but no goulash this time.

The WINNERS in open class; Paul Wijsman and Rien Bastiaanse as seen and shared by Ricky Bastiaanse.

Klix, had in  18 m. class 2 Dutch winners on day 1; Jeroen Verkuijl [Ventus 2cxaj] and Hadriaan van Nes,[DG800/18m]  both got the 711 points.
They all had to fly in changing circumstances from good lift to flying on a “zero”  but quite a few made it home;24 from 29!Distance; 223 km.
In 15 m. class Mac from Japan practiced for the WGC and was 5th from 15 on day 1, with 3 out landings.
In standard class 151 km and 2 winners  , one Dutch [ the younger brother of Baer Selen] and one German, both got 338 points.
In club class 22 pilots had to fly 108.2 km. and 18 did so.
In the 2 seater class 12 participants mostly flying all kind of varieties of the Duo Discus and one DG 1000 and an ARCUS and the last one won day 1, over 210.9 km.

Day 2 was flown only in 18 m and club class. Jeroen won again . Both classes had to fly around showers.
On day 3 small AAT’s in each of the 4 classes, but after postponing and postponing organizers cancelled the day.
Day 4 had a window for 2 classes again , so the 2-seaters and 15 m. class pilots went up to check this window. It turned out not too bad. Mac won the 1.30 AAT and one of the Duo Discusses won from the ARCUS. All starts after 3 PM.

Day 5; Finally a GOOD one, with an over- 2000 m. base and racing tasks between 388 and 491 km. with for each a  TP in Poland. Good for those practicing for the WGC in Leszno.
Cu’s all over , so lot’s of finishers and good results, so deserved after the pretty marginal days earlier.
In 18m. Polish pilot Thomasz Dul won the day with a speed of 129,16 km./h. over 490.9 km. in the ASG 29 . With 1963 points he leads the 18-m. pact at this moment.
In 15 m. another good day for Mac , winning with a speed of 126.61 km.h over 403.9 km. in the Ventus 2. At this stage Mac leads in his class.
In standard class Jacques Selen was runner up . Winner was Andreas Hillebrand with a speed of 118.86 against 118, 56. Pfffft…..A real ” fight”  here between those 2 pilots as the difference in overall points is TWO, in favor of Andreas.
In club class 2 winners, one from Holland Menno Beesten [ Hornet with winglets] and also 1000 points for  German pilot Peer Sitzmann.[Sta Jantar] They flew with 105.10 km./h. over a distance of 387.7 km.
The 2 seaters had a big task as well; 408 km and this time the pilots in the DG 1000 were the best  AND they top with ONE point the overall list till today.
More good weather is forecast so let’s wait and see what happens on the next couple of days, including today.

Yesterday in the same area Stefan Goretzki flew in the St. Cirrus from Locktow via Poland and Klix a nice 650 [500 FAItriangle] and Bernd Goretzki in the 18m Ventus starting at the same point ; 928.6 km [800 Fai triangle] So REALLY good weather .

By the way there are a lot of great pictures in the gallery of the site of this 22d Klix-Cup;
http://aeroteam.de/

The reginonals in the USA [R5N] are over and won by Dick Butler in open class in his CONCORDIA, Fernando Silva in 15 m, Jerzy Szemplinsky in 18 m. and and Sarah Arnold in sports class.

The SSA shared 2 fantastic pictures from Baude Litt from Dick’s Concordia- on -air!

In between they had time to raise funds for the teams going to Finland and Poland.
CD for these regionals at Perry International Airport, was Richard Maleady who is nowadays the president of the SSA .
Just to let you know!  Garret Willat  and Sean Franke fly for the USA, in club class, Bob Fletcher and Phillip Gaisford in standard class and Heinz and Karin in the ARCUS in the 20 m. class. So they travel to Rayskala.
To Leszno travels a team from 6 pilots with as TC Dennis Linneken. Dick Butler and Ron Tabery in open, Peter Alexander and Gary Ittner in 18 m. and Mark Keene and Dave Mockler in 15 m.

Dick, Jerzy, Fernando and Sarah, great winners.
Pictures shared by the SSA.

In Italy the 13.5 m gliders were on the grid in Alzate Brianza, combined with the club class for the Italian titles. 25 Competitors and a lot of good ones going for the titles.
All Silent 2 gliders in this competion, except for 2 PW 5’s. The Silents did well. Ricardo Brigliadori won day 1 and 2 , with toppers as Alberto Sironi, Stefano Ghiorzo, Luigi Bertoncini following him. Also UK pilot Ayala Truelove and USA pilot Francois Pin are in the race.
In Club class on the 2d day ,[ a 3 hour AAT]  , the 1000 points were for former junior Davide flying a Cirrus.
3 Flying days in the 13.5 m class till now and today is cancelled. Ricardo leads after those 3 days  with just over 100 points on Stefano.
Only 2 in club class where Davide leads after those 2 days.

Luckily Francois was so kind to share some pictures from his flight.
Courtesy Francois Pin via FB.

Last Sunday ,places in Finland , Norway and Japan , belonged to the good soaring-spots.With tasks just under and above 500, they had better weather than some [other] European countries. Norway even had a flight over 600 km. in the Nimbus 4Dm. And Arne Martin Guettler mentioned that the 548 km.  he flew,  was the longest ever in his life [discus 2bt] ;” Awesome conditions, although the area with good conditions was somewhat limited.” 

In my last blog on www.soaringcafe.com  I wrote about an interesting flight from Marian Novak [Canada] ;900 km in an ZSD55.
The comment was :”Actually it is a glider that he designed and built himself. He calls it an “Egret”  Because the OLC has no entry for a one-of homebuilt, he logs it as a SZD55 as that appears to be close to its performance.”
For sure interesting to know.

Talking about SoaringCafe, when you visit me in the cafe on Sunday it will be different, even better and there will me more interaction. Looking forward to the new set up. I have been asked over the last months to give my input which I did as did other contributors.
Bill and Rand , the co-founders,  mention in their latest blog yesterday,that they will  launch the new site on Thursday;
” The Café is a unique place that brings us all together to share our passion for flying. And although we come from different countries, speak different languages, work in all types of jobs and have diverse life experiences, we are a community. And we like to talk about and share our flying experiences. That’s why we made the changes to the website. So everyone has a chance to both share their stories and enjoy the experiences of others”
I can fully agree on this, have a look on www.soaringcafe.com

That’s it , you are up to date so see you next week. It’s already the last day of April, time flies and the 2 WGC’s will be there in a flash. Still pondering the possibilities of visiting both for a few days.

Cheers Ritz