POCUINAI !
Great picture of the airfield of Pocuinai as shared by the Czech team.
With 111 pilots in 3 classes , 40 in standard, 49 in club and 22 teams in 20 m. class, the pilots started with their official training on July 27. BUT,…the weather was still not flash.
I remember clearly that ,a couple of years ago, during the IGC meeting in Holland, Lithuania and Australia “got ” their WGC’s. That’s where I met Vitautas the CD from this competition, as well as his wife . Nice people !They were smiling from ear to ear.Now it’s their turn to lead a good competition!
CD Vitautas
A few of the pilots [14] tried to fly the set 277 km. task in standard class, but nobody finished. My Aussie mates Adam and Butch flew 137 km. in their LS 8 and were the daily winners.28 Choose not to fly the task.
In club 9 pilots flew the set task from 238 km.further on 13 out-landings and the rest choose not to fly.
In 20 m. a task from 285 km. flown by 6 teams with 3 out-landings. A lot choose NOT to fly!
On the 28 th;”Lightning and torrential rain for breakfast… Should be a good day for getting all the non flying jobs sorted.”
And Baldrick mentioned on July 29; ” All we need now is some weather to go flying. There is a small chance that we may fly this afternoon. We have a task but a very small one though. Currently it’s warm and overcast.”
Still practice-time , …but for those from far away it would be good to have at least some practice!!!
No flying, but enough to do and talk about. Here the Belgium team. Hilde and her boys and girls including her sons Tijl and current world champion Bert Schmelzer jr.
My Belgium mates. GOOD LUCK!!!!
As shared by the team .
I liked the stories from the NZ boys Nick and Alex, called ” Brolly Dollie”which you can read on FB.
Here is part 2;”
“Brolly Dolly” Update 2
Practice day 1. 220k, trianglish! First landout, nearly in Poland. The usual ultimate trailer maintenance test whilst Alex happily eating, swimming and socializing with the village locals!
PS .. for those wondering .. the “Brolly Dollys” are the second most important team members, after the pilots … when hot and waiting to launch they hold the umbrella’s!!!
PPS French team have taken the honours of first comp “lake landing“
The first out-landing with an interesting trailer to retrieve the glider.
As shared by NZ Junior Gliding Team
On Saturday , extra training-day, they could only practice a bit in the early afternoon,to be precise till 3PM, as at 5 PM the opening-ceremony started.Some team’s shared their pictures , so the weather is still not flash, but getting better.
Opening at the main square, as shared by the teams.
Middle picture is Finland with Katja famous soaring-webmaster and is shared by Kristian Roine.
The German team as shared on their site and the Czech and South African team and below the Dutch team.
The UK…………………….Poland…………………………………and many more as shared by Adam.
To read his blogs you can go to ;www.facebook.com/W3Racing here is one of them.
Adam flies this WGC as a self funded pilot in Jay Rebbeck’s LS 8. I was at the closing ceremony in Benalla, when the final choice for Pocuinai was announced and both Butch and Adam were NOT in the team. Butch was very disappointed as it was only 0.030 he missed out on to be in[ if I remember well] .Now they both fly
” Huge thanks to John Buchanan, who made all this possible for me in the first place, my team mates who supported Johns request to have me here with him & finally the support of the team selection committee ,who allowed me to come as a self funded pilot.”
He also wrote he was ready to go and all pumped up!!!!
“Pumped up” as well…….Wilga-Tugs ready for the comps!!! Dynamic’s as well.
As shared by the Dutch team.
Sunday July 31 Task 1; The “show” started, for some maybe with not enough practice to check the area and/or the instruments, but that’s how it is.
Baldrick mentioned in the morning;” Today is the first day of the WGC here in Lithuania. We had the opening ceremony down town yesterday and we got drenched not once but twice….. Today however, the day has started nice and sunny but there is cloud coming in from the west so we shall see..”
2.5 hour AAT’s were set for each class in difficult skies , overcast, showers but a bit of sunshine as well.First start delayed till 12.15….12.30 then club was launched, then all of them. Before 2 PM. they were all airborne.
Restarts, out-landings not far after they started, [that hurts on day 1] mainly in standard and 20 m. class ,but the weather improved during the day. Though for some the first day was a disaster and some hopes will be blown away.
After landing Finnish pilot Kristian shared this picture,so indeed the weather was better later in the day!!!
Club; German pilot Robert Schroeder did an excellent job and was the ONLY one flying over 100 km./h. over the 276.51 km. he fitted in , in 2.40,44.From 36 pilots 26 finished. According to the scoring-system 3 pilots did not start one of them Sebastian Kawa .
Standard;great start for Poland and Australia. Here we are with the Jakubs and Lucaszses again . Daily winner was Jakub Barszcz with 2.15,56 km. in time 2.35,25. Allan Barnes ,Australian kilometer eater, was on spot 2 and Lucasz Grabowski on 3. From 49 pilots 46 finished!!!!!
Bad day for Alex the NZ junior. In the Brolly Dolly story above he had the fun part , now Nick finished on spot 36, Alex had to carry his glider out of the paddock. He shared what he had to do with a few!!!
20 m;12 from the 22 teams that started finished. 17 x an ARCUS M or T in this class. Daily winner team ET with 254 km. in 2.35,10.
Australian juniors Matthew [Junior world champion ]and Dylan [team ARC] just did not make it. They took NO risk and out-landed 20 km. out ,instead of using the engine on a low height.Very wise decision!!!
For all scores you can go to; www.soaringspot.com
Day 2 was cancelled due to rain but the forecast for the new day 2 was hopeful. Specially for those who out-landed a good day to re-set and focus again. But also for the other pilots as a lot really struggled.
Some went to the LAK factory to see the new developments .
Tuesday August 1 Task 2;
My Belgian friends had this news early in the morning;“Conditions look much better today! First tows will start at 12 o’ clock”. As you can see on their picture they were right, but still pilots had to make out-landings.
Standard class; Except for one pilot, all pilots finished the set task from 364.67 km. With only ONE point difference French pilot Louis Bouderlique won the day. German Pilot Robert had another good day this time 999 points.
Sebastian flew as well and “collected” 902 points on spot 9.
Club class; a great Italian day with Ricardo[Brigliadori] and Davide [Schiavotto]as daily winners over 315.60 km.both flying St. Cirrus. Lithuanian pilot Vitautas Racimavicius , a very nice young guy I met in Finland was on spot 3 in his St. Jantar, just ONE point ahead of Polish pilot Lucasz Grabowski.
Tom Arscott, from the UK team on a daily spot 41 ,said on FB:
“Mixed day today in the club class. We all started reasonably late and had a good run towards the first turn, catching up several earlier starters. Unexpected rain at the first turn, over the massive unlandable forest, cost the late starters a bit of time, but we cut through the gaggles nonetheless. Will and G went on to have a very solid flight scoring some good points today. Unfortunately I missed a climb, dropped off the bottom and ended up stuck on my own, low, over the forest for what felt like an eternity, before eventually getting going again some 40km behind. With the day dying, there were some very long smooth glides, but I somehow got back which is some consolation at least. Hopefully things will come together a bit better in the next few days. ”
20 m. class; After day 1 there was “a lot of noise” and upset teams, about self launching 20 m. gliders using their engines to fly in the direction of the soarable weather in one long glide to the south, “completely disregarding the mandatory release zone as defined in the rules”.
Task 2 had changed release points, closer to each other ,max 1 km. apart, so more or less in the same weather zone. I guess the stewards and jury have bend their heads over this, anyhow an extra TM meeting was called to sort things out.
They flew again for task 2 and 363 km. was set. The Polish ASG 32 MI , team MD, received the 1000 points . 20 From 22 finished! One of the out-landers was Antti and his mate Nikke from Finland in their ARCUS.
More next week.
So you can see that practice is not only necessary for the pilots , but also for the organizers. It’s better to find out eventual problems as release points or problems with landings, [I read it was some kind of “wild west” during the landing] , on the practice days but then if the weather doe n’t co-operate?????????!!!!!!!!!
For today the organizers message was;”Attention everyone! Grid starts at 9:00 and briefing is at 11:00 in main hangar.Grid opens 09:00, closes 12:45 ” and the grid order has changed.
Lot’s of rain over night but the forecast says;
Showers early, then partly cloudy for the afternoon. High 22C. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
As I read the meteo guy is unreadable, the lady OK , so reading is always good.
Tasks as well; Task A for all classes a 2.30 AAT. Task B for all classes a 2 hour AAT in the same area.
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USA…QSGP!
Ionia Michigan.
Wings and Wheels, North America’s premier soaring supplies retailer, signs on to support the 2016 Sailplane Grand Prix USA as an official event sponsor.
Last Wednesday when I left you, they started with race 3 [118 km.] and the 2d win for Jerzy Szemplinksky from Canada was a fact.
On Thursday 103 km. [race 4] was set and,….yes Jerzy won again!!!After 4 races he has already 33 points. Good on him.Already 12 points ahead of the runner up with the same first name, Jerzy Zieba.
Several out-landings as well. Here some pictures from Jerzy’s wife Maria, a fabulous and famous photographer;the retrieve of Krzysztof Wiercioch [2W]
On Friday with race 5 there was rain , also on Saturday, so with ONE day to go it looks like Jerzy will win but, when they fly, there are still 5/6 pilots for the runner-up-spot.
Daily prizes, already 3 first-ones for Jerzy.
There was no day 7 ,so in the end no “fight” for the runner up spot as it was for Jerzy Zieba with 21 points.
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The French Club Class Nationals!
All competitors as shared by AAVE [Association Aeronautique du Val d’ Essonne.
They continued on Wednesday with a 2.15 AAT, won by Eric Soubrier in his LS 4;218 km. in time 2.23.756 points.
On Thursday with a 1.45 AAT, Eric showed he “dominates” this kind of soaring and for 141 km. in time 1.54 he received this time 267 points. Eric flies an LS 4 in this competition.He is after 5 flying days number 1 overall with 2 days to go.[3683]
On Friday….no task.
LAST day at Saturday so time to score and not to loose!!!
A task from 271 km. was set, so long enough to play start games for those who wanted.
No games necessary for Eric he won another day and clearly was the new FRENCH CLUB CLASS CHAMPION .[4683]
Young Thibault Alasnier [Pegase] just missed out on 2 daily points but climbed up to spot 2 overall. Meric Morel [Pegase]from the same club as Thibault, lost some points on the last day by being 10th but still finished the comps on a 3d place.
Benjamin Neglais, modern comps director reading from his phone, with the champion Eric and young runner up Thibault and Meric.
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LASHAM GLIDE!!!
It is now so far, that this soaring-happening started as well. As they say; “ the best possible practice for the 2017 European Gliding Championships.”
On March 22 they wrote;
“At the deadline for entries prioritized according to IGC ranking we have received 70 entries for LashamGlide: 31 in the 15 metre class, 13 in the 18 metre class and 24 in the Open Class. We are pleased to confirm acceptance of entry for all Overseas pilots who applied for entry before the deadline.”
Last Saturday 67 pilots started flying ; 22 pilots in open class, 15 in 18 m. and 29 in standard class. Among them Wolfgang Janowitsch and Andy Lutz from Austria, Didier Hauss , Sylvain Gerbaud and Denis Guerin from France, Marcus Gaumann from Switzerland ,Stephan Beck Michael Streit and Michael Eisele from Germany and lot’s of UK pilots including some Lasham mates.
Day 1 ;task 15m ;238 km. and 214 km, for 18 m…..open 173.69/259,…..but later there was the message:
“15M Nationals launched on task B 243km
18M and Open re briefing to task C as the weather took a little longer than expected to get here.”
open; Russell Cheetham won the day in the JS 1C. 20 from 22 finished so only 2 out-landings.
18 m. ;got 214 km. and Wolfgang Janowitsch [Ventus 2cxT] was the best.
15 m.; left in the end for 238 km. Denis Geurin [ASG 29] and good old Didier Hauss [Ventus 2cxa]were the best followed by the German pilots Michael Eisele [Ventus 2ax]and Thomas Wettemann [Ventus 2a] .Nick Tillet [ASW 27b] was the first UK pilot on spot 5.
Day 2; with big tasks.
open;439 km. 18 Pilots from 22 flew the task and Russell was the best.
18 m; 402 km.10 Pilots from 14 flew the task and Wolfgang was on spot 1 with Mike [Young] on his heels. Difference ONE point!!!
15 m: 4 hour AAT. 26 from 28 flew the task great result for all classes. UK winners Gary Stingmore [ASG 29 E] and Nick Tillett [ASW 27 B]were the best with 1000 and 939 points.
“Looking good!” Indeed!!!
Picture shared by the British Gliding Team on day 2.
Task 3 was set but not flown. Day 4, yesterday, had no task.
For today there is a grid order already , so hopefully time to fly again.
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Schempp-Hirth.
Nice news and great pictures about vintage gliders from Schempp-Hirth on FB and I share it with you;”
Friday evening, Schempp-Hirth CEO Tilo Holighaus made the first flight on the SHK owned by the Flying Museum Hahnweide (FMH) after it had been registered again.
On the pictures, you can see the SHK next to FMH’s Gö-1 ‘Wolf’, built in 1937. A lot of history in one photograph: The Gö1 ‘Wolf’ was Schempp-Hirth’s first glider built in serial production, while the SHK was the late Klaus Holighaus’ first own construction for Schempp-Hirth.”
Tilo and the old-timer’s as shared by Schempp-Hirth.
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CU cheers Ritz