Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday May 27 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
pictures courtesy Oedske.
I liked this years comps flown from Terlet. Good weather, good pilots and some tension specially in club class with nearly every day a different winner.
With 7 out of 10 days, we can for sure NOT complain.
Winners in 2 classes were to expect as they are just so good for years already , but still they can make a mistake. They did n’t , so Ronald Termaat and Steven Raimond, both in the past European Champion, are well deserved champions!
The prize for the “silver and bronze ” was in that light more interesting in the combi and open class .
The club class is a “fish-breeding-pond” for talented young Dutch pilots, only 2 from 9 are “a bit older” [have to be careful here!] They all performed well .
Yesterday there was a big crowd on sunny Terlet for the last soaringday and the finishes just in front of the restaurant were as always impressive. With AAT’s from 3.30 in club and combi and 3 hours in open class. The pilots had a long way in front of them, but better in the air then on the ground were you needed factor 30 and you still got sun-burnt.
I liked the daily win from Jelmer Wassenaar, in 2005 still a junior in Husbos this year winner of the last day in the openclass with the LS 10 [320 km in 3 hour 7] and of the “bronze medal”. The best 3 -for-the-day were also the best 3 overall. Ronald , Hadriaan and Jelmer.
The only flying-lady Irene van der Zwan [Ventus 2 c] was 13 from 20 and that’s just good!
After the hard work some [of the organization] have a rest under the Tug-wing.
Courtesy Oedske.
In a way it was a pity that we could not see the full potential of the Quintus. Water ballast is a decisive part of competition soaring, so we have to wait to see the full potential of this great looking glider with, what I heard very easy handling, in Uvalde as all watertanks will be built in over the next weeks.
In that light it is SUPER to see the Concordia has flown !! Look for all the news at the next link with pictures.
http://soaringcafe.com/2012/05/news-flash-dick-butler-makes-first-flight-in-concordia/
In the combi class Steven Raimond is the champion and he was 5th on the last day. 2 New young talented pilots Peter Millenaar [Discus 2] and Alfred Paul Alfers [LS8] are 2 and 3. Alfred Paul had a bit of a difficult last- but- one- day being 12th. Instead of winning , as he leaded the pact , he lost time when he heard his mates behind him had a good 2 m. lift . Too far ahead already he could not/did not want to fly back and lost over 100 points on a devalued day, so it could have been worse.
The club class was interesting as said before!3 Pilots outlanded on the last day , 2 did not fly for different reasons and Stefan Telkamp won the last day and day 3. With a total of 3875 points he still is clearly the winner with 400 points more then runner up Hinse Osinga. Nice was that except for one day , all others had a different winner.
CONGRATULATIONS to the National Champions and to the organization for a safe competition.
From Ocana the UK overseas had a ” cracking day” [as the “Pommies” so nicely call it,] with tasks up to 455 km. last Thursday during a 3.30 AAT with great weather circumstances but with quite some penalty points for flying too high before finish, [8000 2 min. before start] and some airspace violations really costing; up to 663 points. 2 Pilots ended up with 0 points through that.Louis Bouderlique won the day.
A 3 hour AAT on Friday was again for French pilot Louis Bouderlique with 366 km. in 3.02.
On the last day [yesterday] Ricardo Brigliadori from Italy was the best .
After 7 days Louis was the winner in the 15 m. ASG 29 before 3 of his country mates.
The Swiss Solar Impulse, a plane flying only on sunenergy, so NO DROP OF FUEL!!, flew from Payerne in the W. from Switzerland to Madrid in Spain and hopes to continue it’s flight to Morocco to Rabat ;2500 km. The Solar Impulse is a single-seater with a span of 64 m. and exists mostly out of sun panels.
Picture from internet.
On the WGC site I found the next recent news:
—The WGC Management has a special announcement for all pilots and team captains. Through the diligent work of WGC Management member Mark Huffstutler, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has notified us that they will issue a Blanket Special Flight Authorization for foreign gliders for our event. This is great news for all teams who will be flying foreign registered gliders without an ICAO compliant Certificate of Airworthiness”.—”
You can go if necessary to the WGC site to download the PDF document.
The Swiss Nationalsin 3 classes with 42 competitors from Birrfeld had more cancelled days then flying days. Last Thursday finally it looked good so pretty big tasks were set for flying- day 3, but in standard class nobody finished the 417 km. task.
In the mixed 18 m. class it was better; 6 from 18 finished after 456 km. under them the 2 pilots who will compete at the WGC in July/August. Werner Danz and Rolf Friedli are also the only 2 competitors from Switzerland this year. I miss a few well known names in open class for Uvalde.
In open class 5 from 12 finished their task of 465 km. with 3 NIMBUS 4DM on top.
In the end they had 3 days in standard class and 6 cancelled days and the other classes had one more flying-day more. Look for all results at www.soaringspot.com
Off to the beach now with the kids!
Cheers Ritz and enjoy you long weekend!