Purjelennon SM 2021

THE RAYSKALA MASTERS were blessed with great soaring conditions, so the pilots had the time of their lives. “We” continue as they continued too.
June 9; after a cancelled day….a bit of rest for the pilots was not bad either… a better one, with good tasks again. BUT,….

Task 5; good distances till a thunderstorm “on track” spoiled the fun. A lot flew back to Rayskala.
Open; 507.47 km…it looks like good soaring weather for a Duo Discus. NOBODY finished the task but they flew 418 km. and with their handicap they beat the AS 33es with young Petri with 15 daily points.
13 From 15 flew over 400 km.
Racing; 456.19 km…the best 7 for the day flew all over 350 km. NOBODY finished. Scores for them between 600 and 573 points.
Club; 417.88 km…..5 over 300 km and no finishers.330 was the best distance

June 10; 4.30 AAT’S for all classes

Task 6;
Open; 4.30 AAT...Petri’s [Dad Martti’s] AS 33 is “fitting ” him like a glove and he flies the stars from the sky. He won with 500 km. in time 4.30 at the dot. He knows already how to plan that too. He was the only one with 500 km. and all 15 pilots finished,…a good day.
racing: 4.30 AAT..Kristian [Roine] flew 485 km. in time 4.30 at the dot , which was about 20 km. further than runner up Aku. 2 Were out.
Club; 4.30 AAT…..Tapio Turula….the name Tapio reminds me ALWAYS of Finnish TC Tapio, [Savolainen R.I.P.] who was flamboyant and so good,…..flew 441 km. All were in.

Task 7;Last flying day!
Open….504 km…a great distance to show what you can. Of course Petri who is on spot 1 overall, should be NOT nervous on this last day and keep an eye on the number 2 at this stage Tapio . That’s what he did. He started 3 minutes later than the Ventus 3 T and arrived 6 minutes later with 119. 81 for 116.97km./h as speed.
7 From 15 were in and 8 “punished” by hitting just a bit of restricted airspace.
Final scores from this very successful edition of the Masters in Rayskala.
Open;
1. Petri Sucksdorf in AS 33 es with 5.030 points.
2. Hanu Halonen in Ventus 3T with 4.877 p.
3. Mikko Nurminen in Ventus 2/18 m. with 4.357 p.

Racing class; 485 km. and Harri was 7 km./h faster than Kristian, so the overall scores changed on this last day. Harri moved to 1.
1. Harri Hirvola in Ventus 2a with 5.314 points.
2. Kristian Roine in LS 8 st with 5.269 p.
3. Aku Jaakkola in Discus 2A with 5.153 p.

Club; 460 km. nearly through the whole competition the overall scores were lead by Tapio followed by Sakari and Kim. That did not change on the last day;
1. Tapio Tourula in LS 7 with 5.546 points…great lead!!!!
2. Sakari Pyorre in LS 7 with 5.013 p.
3. Kim Toppari in LS 7 with 4.833 p.

Nice comps to follow.
As said I met Aku when he was still a junior.
“Great week at #rayskalamasters. Six days of long tasks with variable weather and nice speeds. Another podium finnish at nationals. Farewell run with my #discus2a. AlfaJuliet served me well for years. Now it is time for some 18m fun in #Ventus3!”
I wish all of them a great MIDSUMMERNIGHT!!!!

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US National 15m & Open class Championship in Minden, NV.

I was in Minden in 1990 at the Pre-Worlds,[ WGC later held in Uvalde Texas] and what I remember most was the heat, the little golf-cars driving around with oxygen and the huge Fire Bombers operating from the field when necessary, reason later to move the WGC from Minden to Uvalde.
AND,…of course the flight with the ALBATROSS and the landing at LAKE Tahoe with a picnic on the wings. Will never forget that.

Back to 2021;
Open class;
Task 1….3.30 AAT; Keith Essex flew in his JS 3, 563 km. with huge speed ; 157 km./h.
Jim Payne in the Nixus flew 536 km. but slower; 140 km./h.
13 In this class, one out.
Task 2….3.15 AAT; Jim Lee flew 588 km. with even bigger speed;174 km./h.
12 From 13 flew over 150 km./h the last one in an ASW 29 148 km./h.
Task 3…..4 hour AAT and it gets better and better…Dan Mockler in the JS 1/21 m. flew 792 km. with a speed of 151 km./h.
2 were out after flying 686 and 677 km.
Task 4…3 hour AAT; Dan won another day now with 477 km. in time 2.58 [speed 159 km./h.]
Good to see Dennis Linnekin as runner up in his ASG 29. Dennis was the USA Team Captain in Uvalde in 2012. Nice fellow!
Task 5…3 hour AAT and Jim was daily winner again;462 km. in time 3.30.
9 From 10 were in and 4 did not fly.
Task 6….492 km; Only 9 started and 2 were out, one of them Peter Alexander. He is a lovely fellow , maybe not the very -best-every-day-winning- pilot, but somebody who never gives up and his presence makes a competition “better/nicer”. He flew the new AS 33-es.
Dan won ,492 km. with 141.78 km./h.
Not too difficult to figure out the Champion in open class after 6 out of 11 days;
1. Dan Mockler in JS 1/21 m. with 5.727 points.
2. Jim Lee in JS 1/21 m. 5.702 p.
3. John Cochrane in ASH 31 /21 m. with 5 526 p.

15 m. class; more familiar faces in this class.
Task 1…315 AAT for 15 pilots in this class. 3 Were out.
Gary Ittner won in ASG 29;494 km. in time 3.38 [speed 136 km./h.]
Task 2….3 hour AAT ;and Rick Indebro raced with big speed over 558 km. in time 3.09.48 meaning a speed of 176.52 km./h!!!!
Task 3….4.15 AAT and a prey for Rick again; 775 km with a speed of 176.86 km./h That ‘ s flying in Minden!!!
Task 4…3 hour AAT; 509 km. for Gary[149.52 km./h] and runner up was Francois Pin in the ASW 27FES.[471 km. in time 3.09…speed 149.38 km./h]
Only 9 were “in”.
Task 5…. 3 hour AAT; 412 km. for Gary in time 3.10… speed 130 km./h]
Task 6….492.17 km; A new face at the podium Peter D Eane in JS 3/15m.. A consistent pilot flying himself every day in the top 5 .
Only 9 flew the task.
15 m USA Champion;
1.Rick Indebro with 2.996 points.
2. Peter D Eane with 5.817 p.
3. Gary Ittner with 5.769 p.

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In the past I wrote about the Sport soldiers in Germany. From these young guys/girls a lot made it to TOP- soaring.
My eye felt on this picture;

These young students all from the Military University of Air and Airspace in Munich learned, not only from lectures and theory lessons but also “moving” in 3D in a 2-seater and flew the/a glider to solo.
Great initiative.

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A DECLARED FAI-1000 from Hausen am Albis in a Discus 2CT by Bert Schmelzer jr;
“FAI triangle 1000 KM declared :-))))I’ve been planning this flight for years and finally could give it a try: Muri – Bellelay – Rocher de la Balme – Krummgampenturm – Muri and at the same time Tour de Suisse (and a bit of France): Swiss Mittelland – Jura moutain range – Chartreuse/Vercors – Wallis – Ticino – Engadin – Graubünden – Swiss Mittelland.
Not the easiest day: Blue start in the Jura. Only the western part around Genève was ok. Vercors beautiful as always, but tough to find the good climbs. The forecasted high cloudbase in the Wallis and Engadin never appeared. Lots of high clouds and overdevelopment during the last 400km due to the strong northerly flow. In the end the Discus and I managed to get back home thanks to some nice ridges, rotors, weak waves and late sunset.
In the end the triangle wasn’t properly closed, not due to lack of altitude, but due to lack of daylight (sunset+30 min was 5 minutes early https://weglide.org/flight/73318

This season is really a 1000-km-season!!! The weather is so good after a dip that everybody loves soaring long distances. Also in the USA.
Hot here, we are up to 33 dgr. C. BUT,…it’s SUMMER!!!!
Saturday; 2 x a 1000 in Switzerland.
Sunday; in the USA, Austria, France and Germany[2] and up to 800 k in The Netherlands.[ASG 29]
Monday; 2x a 1000 from Grants-Milan with Keith [Essex] in the ASG 32 MI and Moriarty .. by Ramy [Yanetz] who started his summer soaring trip there. This time he flew in his ASG 29 his fastest 1000 with a great speed of 171 km./h.
Yesterday; not wave but GOOD thermal activity in the Alps;929 km. from Koenigsdorf by Mathias Schunk in the Quintus M.
A huge amount of over -500 km.- flights last week.

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You surely remember the “water-landing” from Arne Martin’s glider , in the beginning of Mai, whilst he was up in a 2-seater. I spent quite some time on it.
Here is the latest as written by Arne Martin[ Guettler]:
“Finally came the day, when PS could back in the air after it’s water landing on May 1! Thanks to a lot of help from Lars Rune Bjørnevik the last week we managed to get PS ready at the last moment, on the first day of the Norwegian Gliding Championship.
Needless to say; I’m not well prepared this year, and among other things I had no time to test the water ballast system, so had to fly dry on this first day. But it was wonderful to get PS back in the air, and I took it mostly as a practice day, and did manage to complete the task in a respectable 3rd place!
The instruments and other electronic devices were still pretty good.
“Only radio died. All other electronics survived without damage (power was turned off before landing), the mechanical instruments were repaired. Luckily it was fresh water There was a little bit of physical damage: a wheel door and transponder antenna broke off, the canopy air scoop was broken too. But mostly the damage was very light. Most of the work to get it flying again was doing all the inspections and everything had to be re-lubricated.”
Great to read.

More about the Norwegian Nationals next week. They have pretty good weather and till now 2 days with tasks from 258 and 350 km.

“Less than 7 days before Varese Grand-Prix! For the pilots, it is the last chance to win a place for the 10th SGP World Final next September! Follow the GP of Italy here;”
http://www.sgp.aero/italy2020.aspx?contestID=22995
Will follow that SGP too.

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz