Not long ……and the 2013 season is over. The metrological autumn will start this Sunday here and spring down under!
Looking at Holland this summer was not TOO bad. According to “weather-on-line”, spring was cold, June still not as it should be , BUT summer was good with an average of 17.5 dgr. C , about 0.5 more than normal and will go in the books belonging to the warmest summers since 1903.
We had 630 hours of sun [ 36 average less,  is normal] and it was pretty dry [ 160 mm. of rain and normal is 209 mm.]

At the moment the weather here is still perfect. Yesterday several flights were flown over 600 km here in Holland ; one in the DUO with dad Ferdi and son Casper Kuijpers in it. They found the weather MARVELLOUS in their comment.
Rieti still has over 700 km. flights and from the EAST of Australia kilometer-eater Alan Barnes flew already 577 km in the 18 m. LS 8.

The last competitions have been held and quite late in the season there were still a few. Some end-of-the-season-parties are announced already , this one from Rayskala and posted by Katja.

Great very- early-spring conditions already down-under in Kingaroy and sometimes you see a glimpse of autumn here in Holland.

Early spring as seen and shared by Adam from Kingaroy.

Foggy early morning conditions  as seen by Jeroen in Holland [Malden] .

And early toadstool as seen and shared by Max in Holland.

Better go quickly to some of those comps.

LÜSSE.

I guess you can call a day with an average speed of 130 km. /h. during  a National Competition , in the Discus 2 ax, a pretty GOOD one. Patrick Puskeiler flew that speed over 322 km. on the last day in Lüsse!
The day before was not bad either ; a 3 hour AAT with best distance [336,9] and speed [109,43km./h] for Markus Schieber. As said before the day-winners were every day different.

In club class  Wolli had a great 3 hour AAT being 2d on day  6 , flying 283,6 km in the HPH 304 C in 301 and on day 7 , the last day, the LS 1f was the best over 279 km.

With 7 out of 10 days ,the new German Champion in Standard class was Jan Omsels [ 5658] who had that great flight on day 5 gaining nearly 200 points on the rest, that WAS another “weird ” last day!!!!
Runner up was Mario Kiessling “SUPER MARIO ” [5636 ] both in Discus and on spot 3 a Dutch young and talented pilot Alfred Paul Alfers in LS 8![5452]

Champions and winners in standard class and club class.
As shared by the official site!

In Club class it was Thomas Melde [ 5111] before Kai Glatter [ 5084] both in St. Libelle and on spot 3 Helmut Kölle [ 4978] also in a St. Libelle.
As Swaantje mentioned; ” We had some interesting weather. Only 1 pilot out of 8 defended his place in the National Team. The other 7 are complete newcomers!”
Interesting, very interesting!!!Swaantje finished on spot 38.

A St Libelle as seen last week at Keiheuvel airport!

BICESTER; UK  18 m. Nationals

They had 4 days ,…..then only cancelled/scrubbed/canned days!
So the UK National champion in 18 m.class is Russell Cheetham in JS 1.
A pity that the pilots could not show more of their soaring, as the first 6 pilots are within 200 points, the first 11 within 300. But ,…that’s soaring!!!!
As Graham mentioned on FB; “So the Nationals are all done for 2013, now the voting begins for the World’s next year.
Who will it be..?”

UK  18 m. National Champion Russell Cheetham.
He was runner up a bit earlier in open class as well.
Picture shared on the Jonkers FB site.

And to finish some stats from Jonker Sailplanes;
” Interesting statistics: JS1 won every National Competition in Europe in which it entered this year. The French 18m, The Polish open class, the Dutch Open Class, The UK 18m and the UK Open Class (top three places). Next on the list are the Nationals in the southern hemisphere.”

 NYMPSFIELD; The UK JUNIOR NATIONALS

Team members Matt Davis, [St Cirrus] Sam Roddie [ ASW 24/15m. ] and Luke Dale [St Cirrus] were locking out the podium at the UK Junior National Championships after four flying days.
Matt was nearly 200 points ahead on Sam, who still felt the “hot breath in the neck ” from Luke,  as the difference was only 36 points. The rest was too far away to be on the podium.
Friday was cancelled , so in the end they had 4 days of soaring and 4 days of “forced rest!

La Roche sur Yon; The FRENCH JUNIOR Nationals .

With 36 competitors and 6 days of soaring the French top juniors from the JWGC showed they are indeed the best. On the last but one day,   the world champion Valentin Grit, was only 4 points ahead of the runner up during the JWGC, Benjamin Vades.
Do you remember the difference in points from the final scores during the JWGC between Valentin and Benjamin ????? No here you are; 22!!!!
Valentin  won the last day by starting earlier than Benjamin at 14.26 . Over the 2.30 AAT he had a speed of 62 km. over 161.8 km. in the HORNET in time 2.36.
Benjamin left at 15.01, flew more kilometres [226 ] but the speed from his Cirrus was 60 km./h. over 226 km. but he used 3 hours and 45 minutes!
Only 7 from 35 finished! Some flew over 4 hours.
Longest task of these Nationals was 261 km.
Parallel with these comps the standard and 15 m. Nationals have been flown with 28 participants. They had  6  days and also here well known names in the top; Frederic Hoyeau [Discus 2a] and Denis Geurin [ Ventus 2] .Also Richard Montigny did well in the Discus 1, gaining just 51 points less than Denis.

 Lisie Katy; The Polish Junior Nationals.

Also in Poland a JWGC pilot tops the list; Mateusz Siodloczek, who was on spot 5 in the final scores then, just before the 2 Dutch pilots in standard  class, is now on top again , with other competitors, but also with a very small difference in points as another Mateusz is on his heels; just 60 points difference!
On the last day “the other Mateusz”  won , but it was not enough to win the title; 14 points difference!
Judyta and Jakub ,both also flying the JWGC followed on spot 5 and 4 in the final scores.
After 5 out of 9 days in this class and only 4 in club class , it was a competition with small tasks. But the last day turned out the best; 204.7 km. in club and 308 in standard class and except for 2 , ALL finished in standard class![ to be totally correct; on day 1 they also had a bigger task;  316Km.]
In club class  Wojchiek Majewski won the comps and title in the JUNIOR! On the last day he was 3d and except for 2 all pilots finished on this last day.

CZESTOCHOWA.

Difficult NATIONAL competition in Poland. Here is what Jonkers Sailplanes had to say about day 4:

–“The 4th day of the Nationals in Poland was a strange day. A very short period of thermal activity allowed 9 pilots to fly the tasks. For most of the others it was not even possible to get away from the airfield. Lukasz, flying the JS1, was one of the unlucky pilots and he lost his 1st place overall. Today he revenged himself by winning the day and moving up into second place overall again. Well done!–“

Young Aussie pilot, Ben Loxton, who crewed in Leszno for Matthew Scutter keeps as I mentioned a blog about his flying in Europe also from this competition . So for all “in’s and out’s “, you can go to ;

https://www.facebook.com/bensflyingadventures/posts/149292351945759