The Pentecote- weekend was weatherwise not too good here. Only Sunday was OK and that only for a few hours ! The “poor” pilots flying a long weekend in Belgium, this time for the Kiewit Cup, had 2 cancelled days but the one in the middle was reasonable.
41 Competitors in 3 classes and in club the 5 pilots had to fly 96.1 km. 3 Of them finished.
In the sports class 8 pilots and 7 finished amongst them longtime friends as Eddy de Coninck [ Pegase 627 points] and Emiel de Wachter [LS 8 588]
In the sport class X, several soaring-friends, I counted 11 from 25! It was good to see that sons are “beating “dad’s , meaning, the young ones in Belgium are doing well!
The winner of the Cup in Club class Neil Deijgers.
Young Belgium blogger Niel Deijgers won the day in the Libelle [601 points] followed by Dennis Huybreckx [ Discus] who was with 563 points just ahead of dad Eddy.[ 551–LS 8]
Cousin Jeroen [Jennen—547 p. LS 7 ] was on spot 4 and Tijl Schmelzer was on 6 [ 519 in Discus 2A] , dad Bert sr. on 11 [441 in Ventus 2CT/18m]. A total of 18 finished flying 159 km..
And,…Bert Schmelzer jr. won the lottery [as he calls it] , flying during his first flight in the Alps [ he lives in Zurich-Switzerland] straight away a declared 1000 km. OUT and RETURN , as mentioned in my last blog.
A lot of these pilots will fly in St Hubert during the Belgium Nationals next week.
The Uppsala Masters continued and were also struggling with the weather as Baldrick , who crews for Antti told us on FB;
—“Finally we have just started on an 1.30 AAT having fell back from a 3.30 task at the start of the day. Its nice and sunny but even the snifter had to take 4 launches before he could stay airborne.—“
Great picture from Peder Lindbom as shared on FB.
What did day 2 bring them?
It brought victory and 587 points for Ronny Lindell [195 km. in 1.36] in the Discus 2T and 530 points for Göran Ax in the ASH 31 MI,[199 km. in 1.30 on the dot!] his 2d win in a row!
All pilots finished!
Börje Erikksson , who did a lot of PR for the Masters and runs the show at the moment. Walking around in sommer clothes is IMPOSSIBLE at the moment in Holland! Picture as shared by Magnus Schön on FB.
Day 3 was cancelled………. WHY???? OF COURSE,…..BAD weather!
From Eskilstuna I remember some very good photographers. I noticed a few are flying the MASTERS, as Fritz Schweikart and Tonny Olsson .
Tony Olsson and ……….Fritz Schweikart; pictures from the 2006 WGC dvd.
Glider FC , a JS 1 21 m was flown by Killian Wallbrou in the St Aubain area and Sven Olivier was so kind to share some pictures on FB .Brilliant pictures!
As shared by Sven Olivier. Published by; Page officielle de l’Equipe de France de Planeur et lieu de partage privilégié avec les supporters des bleus. Retrouvez les infos des équipes sur http://
Talking about France, the Grand Prix in France [Rennes Saint-Sulpice] started on May 18 with 15 pilots amongst them Jutta Sturm and Didier Hauss , who won day 1 and many other well known pilots from France, the UK, Germany , Italy and Slovenia.
Good to see that SEE YOU [ NAVITER.com] co-owner Erazem was not working on new ideas , but flying !
Task length on day 1 was; 200 km. with 4 finishers! Didier had the most; 5!
Unfortunately the days after, it was grey and wet[, where not???] , and pilots looked at pictures , as p.e. shown by Tilo from the GP in Chile and Laurent Aboulin with a slide show from Uvalde.
As shared on their site; Laurent talking about Uvalde. Pilots listening in “winter-“clothes.
There is a link to a 2.20 [time] video by Philippe de Pechy introducing all pilots on www.vimeo.com called FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX FRANCE 2013 teaser. Enjoy!
It seems they expect good weather TODAY ;
message on the site;
—“Good morning. We expect an interesting competition day. Gridding runway 27. Briefing at 10:30.—“
And more news from France; In the far past ,when we visited a few years in a row the airport of Angers to fly the HUIT JOURS d’ANGERS , we had lovely parties with some of the pilots, I remember Bernard Belay, from ROMORANTIN.
Never forget the onion soup full of onions, [of course] BUT even fuller of white wine. They added a few bottles, but the pan was BIG!!!!
Some “lost” a few hours after that night. I love soupe , but did n’t eat too much of it , still could not stop laughing!
At this stage there is a competition at Romorantin, the military base for soaring pilots in France. A few Dutch pilots fly as well and of course Gerard Lherm, who we met in those years in the 70thies as well, but as far as I remember he was not part of “drinking” the onion soupe.
Around 47 pilots from different countries in Europe are participating amongst them Amelie Audier, Gill Spreckley and Celine Gantie. 9 In open, 21 in Club class and 18 in 15m/21m.
Day 1 on Monday May 20 was cancelled. I guess I don’t have to tell you this spring except for a few great days was louzy with too much rain in the end , too dry in the beginning and TOO cold!!! Let the SUMMER begin, only 10 days to go!!!!
A nice picture from a finish on the one and only good day during the Dutch Nationals. There were not that many finishes but this one from Peter Millenaar is good one.
Peter Millenaar, finish at Terlet Courtesy Boris Broere.
To finish my deepest sympathy for all people killed by the tornado in Oklahoma.I HATE wind and don’t even want to imagine how scared those kids were at school and those people who could n’t go anywhere. Very sad!
Cheers Ritz on Wednesday May 22 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.soaringcafe.com www.glidinginternational.com