R.I.P. Geogeo ! Polish FAI Q.G.P …no days yet! Wet German Nationals in Zwickau !

Back on track after a lovely sunny holiday at the beach with my 5 high-school friends, just on the border of Holland and Belgium.

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The FAI Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in Poland started last Saturday at Zar, with a difficult 130.61 km. day.
9 Pilots , 1 from Denmark [Rasmus Orskov] and Germany [Rolf Gerzmann] , 5 from Poland , among them Sebastian and 2 from the Czech Rep.[Petr Krejcirik and Petr Panek] , try to qualify for Varese.
When you have read the book from Sebastian, SKY FULL OF HEAT, you know all about ZAR
Day 1 had as best result 84 km. by Rasmus, not enough to make it a day.
Day 2, had another small task, just over 100 km., they tried HARD, BUT……
—” No flying today. First briefing took place at 10:00, second at 13:15. During the second meeting some rain appeared. Next briefing was scheduled at 15:00. Then the task was cancelled.” —

No flying on day 2 .
As shared by the SGP site.

On day 3 138 km. was set, many tried hard again, but it was n’t meant to be, so no valid day.
No task set yet for today!

Sebastian had time to upload some pictures. Here one of his out-landings as shared by him on FB.

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The German Nationals flown from Zwickau, this time for club-pilots and 2-seaters, started on June 15 with a practice day and are still in progress till the 27th.
Not the best weather there either, though day 1 was a 1000 points day for the 43 club class pilots.
321 km. was set and only one pilot out-landed just:292 km.Several toppers in this class as former Junior World champion Cristophe Nacke.
The 2 seater pilots flew on this good day as well, got points but the day was “neutralisiert” ! According to the rules everyone had to be weighed before and that had not happened. After the protest….. ZERO points in this class a pity!

day 2 had a pretty long task for the clubbies; 404.9 km. and Stefan Delfs in the St. Libelle , who won day 1, could add another 988 points to his overall scores for winning this day as well.
423 km for the 2 seaters was flown by 31 from the 32 pilots; 325 km.
Casten Freier in the ARCUS T won the day.

Then 4 cancelled days in club class and 3 for the 2-seaters, but,..they flew last Sunday again, their 2d day.This 2 hour AAT was won by Serena Triebel in the ASG 32 MI. Runner up was Angelika Mayr in the ARCUS M, so the ladies are doing well.
Well known team captain from the German teams, Uli Gmelin was 3d in an ARCUS M.
A total of 23 ARCUS- types in this competition with 32 participants [ by 2] .

No action due to the weather.
As shared on their site;
http://dm2015.acz.de/bilder-2/#gallery/2763/601

So 2 days out of 6 in week one. AND week started not too good either, but what can you do, just keep the spirit up. Monday rain, yesterday thunderstorms and wind so both days were cancelled.
BUT,..with 4 days to go there is hope, as the weather seems to improve. Summer started like it was autumn, but the meteo promised a few summer days again, here so most probably for Germany as well.

Today they FLY!!!! Tasks are “in the make” and briefing is at 12. At 1 PM, they have to be ready at the grid for launching.

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Talking about 2-seaters ,…what a great addition these nowadays TOP- gliders are for soaring. The ARCUS is till now the best 2 seater and the ASG 32 MI is going to prove that it is good as well.
Nowadays many club members “take” a glider for a week of flying and between 1300 and 2000- plus km will be flown with a crew in the car following. From Holland they go to Germany or France as I noticed.Great fun and a more social aspect of soaring as in the evening with some BBQ food and a good beer or wine,they all still “fly” and talk gliding.

No Competition,…just flying for fun.All members from the EAC, since YEARS!!!
Jos, who specially flew over from Canada, Gerrit, Chris and Marc.
Courtesy Marc v.d. Putte [Putje]

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First day of Norwegian championship was on June 22 flown from Elverum Starmoen in the Sports class.
” As usual bad forecast, but we’ll fly anyway.” is what Arne Martin said. And as he mentioned about this day 1 :” Well that was an awful start, a completely unnecessary outlanding.”
So a not too happy chappie.
No more flying after.

The Nationals in Norway are in progress.
Courtese Arne Martin Guettler.

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Last Sunday we had the longest day and summer started. Not that it WAS summer. Rain and 17 dgr. BUT the rain was necessary!!!
If I was a pessimist I would say now; ” Winter is around the corner, days are getting shorter”. But summer is still to come yet.
I remember how much fun we had at the several Midsummer night festivities in Sweden and Finland during the several comps I attended over there.
For that reason I was pleased to see some pictures from Finland shared by Katja. It brings all feelings back.

Mid summer night with the bonfires.
Courtsey Katja Soikkeli

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Last weekend, at Saturday, the AMSTELGLIDE should have been at Soesterberg. It’s a one-day-competition in 3 classes, BUT, though the weather on my way back home from Cadzand was not too bad ,[they were flying at Woensdrecht] I could see already that the Soesterberg weather this time was not so good. 46 Pilots had entered but it was unfortunetely not meant to be.

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Whilst on holiday I got the next message;

Dear all,

After a long and difficult illness, my mother passed away this morning at the age of 84. She was a Belgian National Gliding Champion, a feat I have never been able to achieve, a Pelagia Majewska Medal recipient and she has always been a big inspiration for me; not only in this sport but in life in general.

Baude

Exactly as on the picture below I remember her. Big smile ,very outgoing, always a word ready and when we were at comps she mostly flew with Gill [VandenBroeck] in a 2-seater . Both were pioneers in female soaring and put it on the map.
As you can see Geogeo received the Pelagia Majewska medal as well. I feel very humble, but mostly proud to be on a list with her.
Will get mine in September and will, at receiving, think of Georgette.

St Hubert, where , not long ago the BENELUX comps were flown, was in 1983 host of the European Championships for women. Gill was CD and Geogeo flew herself to a 3d spot. Geogeo flew also several records and was Belgian National Gliding Champion.
R.I.P.

R.I.P Geogeo.
Picture courtesy Baude.

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The application period for the RANGA Scholarship for the coming year will close on the 3rd July in AUSTRALIA.
I love this way of supporting young and talented glider pilots, several countries here in Europe support their young ones, in several ways here is what’s all about down under;

—” The Royal Australian Navy Gliding Association (RANGA) has established a scholarship valued at up to $1500 annually to be awarded to a person who can demonstrate a strong commitment to aviation but who is not yet at solo standard in any form of flying.

The money is a grant to assist in training in gliding, and will be paid to the club which provides that training.

The rules for the scholarship, and the process for applications, can be found on the GFA Website in the GFA Awards section.

The scholarship runs from 24th July 2015 to 23rd July 2016. Applications can be made until 3rd July 2015. Navigate to the GFA Awards documents in the Administration area of Docs/Forms on the GFA Website.

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Before I left , 2 soaring friends were so kind to drive up and down for 250 km. to help me with my buxus.VERY GRATEFUL!!! Thanks Max and Dillen.