The very first FAI-Pan American Gliding Competition
Not an easy job for Competition director Rick Sheppe. During the first 6 days of this competition, only 2 out of 6 days were flyable.
Day 1,an excellent day with 3.15 AAT’s was a 1000 points-day in both classes, handicap and 15 m. and on day 2 all pilots had to out-land and some pretty far away. Reason incoming cirrostratusclouds!
So when flying-day 3 was on , there was hope for the real Chilhowee [ in Tennessee] weather. Yes,… the comps are flown from McMinn County Airport, because the grass from Chilhowee was not yet high enough after the cold long winter, but the socializing was at Sarah’s and Jason’s airport.
That grass by the way, was specially sowed for this great event lucklily the airports are more or less neighbors.
Day 3 had in the end not such long tasks ;153.9 km. for the handicap class and 147.7 km. for 15 m. They had moved to the B task but in the end they regret that, but how can you know???
The weather this time was much better then forecasted. Tony mentioned:”It was booming. Nothing like what I forecast this morning.”
As you see Tony is not only flying, but does the meteo-job as well.
back home with 80 km./h.
Glider, van, bicycle, trailer and car ,…all close by.
What happened on flying-day 3? Cirrostratus clouds….AGAIN….they were the talk of the day!
“we expected them to stay in place to our west, but they moved over us instead, where they caused widespread pessimism at launch time. So much pessimism, in fact, that the Director decided to reduce the two Racing Tasks to the bare minimum, 150 km for both classes. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but as the day developed, it became clear that we should not have abandoned the “A” Tasks. During the launch, good looking cumulus developed under the cirrus deck, something that did not happen at all yesterday.” Rick
In the Handicap Class only 413 points for the winner Robin Clark[USA] in the KA 6A [handicap 110] and pilots who out-landed [3] did not loose too much, only 200 points for Sergio.
In the 15 m. class 411 points for the winner Robert Fletcher [USA] in the ASG 29. All pilots finished in this class.
April 13...pretty clear;
“The gastronomical forecast was much better than the meteorological, so we cancelled the Tasks today and assigned a dinner party instead.”Rick.
” Nice steady rain” , is Dan’s report for the day.
April 14….they tried hard again. Handicap class was cancelled at the grid as the window was very small. Later the 15 m. was cancelled in the air at 4 PM; just not enough room to play/fly in. What a pity!!!
This is part of what Rick said you can find the rest of his reports under NEWS at SOARINGSPOT;
” Finally, the sun made an appearance, cloud base crept upward, and we started the launch at 15.05, which gave us just enough time to complete a modest 1.5 hour AAT in the 15 Metre Class. The Handicap Class, second to launch, ran out of time, and their Task was cancelled on the grid.”
“ After flailing around at low altitude for an hour, the 15 Metre Class pilots did not seem too unhappy with the decision to give up at 1600. Cloudbase was just too low for safe racing today.”
Still waiting for flying day 4!!!!
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43 Trofeo Internazionale Citta Di Torino,
Flown over 2 weekends and this last weekend was MUCH better than the first when they had some cancelled days. Last weekend they had tasks from 217 km., 289 and a 2.30 AAT.
After day 1 Vitorio Pinni in the Duo Discus XLT , started the new weekend on the highest spot with 1000 points. Nobody had finished the task on day 1, but he nearly made it home with 10 km. on the runner up .
On day 2 he won again [734 points], but day 3 was a BAD day for him and his mate. They out-landed after 76 km. whilst others flew the full task gaining 1000 points.OUCH….that cost!!!!They dropped from 1 to 12.
The last day was won by Giancarlo Grinza, in the ARCUS M, with 282.5 km. in time 2.33.
After 4 days the best overall scores [3445] were for Giancarlo. Runner up was Sandro Montemaggi in the ASG 29E/18m. [3269] and on spot 3 Alberto Sironi also in an ARCUS.[3253]
The Italian competition- season definitely has started!!!
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THE FLIGHT CHALLENGE CUP GLIDING 2015
Prievidza Slovakia
As shared by the organizers in their gallery.
When the Pribina Cup was over several of the participants , [some left already earlier,] moved their glider to Prievidza. A total of 125 pilots started in 3 classes [mixed, 15 m and club class] on April 12 continuing till April 23.
The mixed class , with 29 participants, had a 2.25 AAT on day 1. Top pilots as Sebastian Kawa, straight away started well.3 Polish pilots in the top 3 , Sebastian in the ASG 29 on 2.
On day 2 Sebastian won with 251.7 km. in time 2.01 over a a set 1.45 AAT, which was a nice speed of 124.3 km./h.
A day with quite some wind during the launches.
On day 3 , yesterday, they got a 2.30 AAT. Sebastian managed to fly 309 km. with a speed of 122.1 km./h. and with that he won the day.After 3 days he tops the overall scores.
As shared on the official site.
Club class, with 55 participants among them Roman Mracek who took his glider 2 days before the end from Nitra to Prievidza. He flew the St Cirrus on day 1 to a 15th spot during a 2 hour AAT. Daily winner was Zoltan Hamar from Hungary in the LS 1f.
On day 2 this huge bunch of pilots had to fly another AAT, 1.45 this time. Young Jakub Pulawski was the day-winner in his BRAWO;181.3 km. with a speed of 97.5 km./h.
Day 3 had a 1.45 AAT and it looks like Roman and Ondrej [Dvorak] flew together, as they started and finished together each in their St Cirrus, ….though there was a difference in points;550 and 541.
Both pilots are on a 2d and 3d overall spot after 3 days with Lumir [Motyka] in the LS 1f on spot 1 at this stage.
As shared by the organizers and more on their site;
http://www.fccgliding.sk/
15 m. class,with 41 participants started with a 2.45 AAT and Nitra pilot Samuel Pollak won the day in his LS8 tc. French pilot Christophe Cousseau won day 2 in his Discus 2A; 199 km. with a speed of 109.5 km./h. during a 1.45 AAT.
AND,…he won day 3 yesterday as well; 282.3 km. in 2.34, so a speed of 109.4 km./h.
BUT,..he is not leading the class after 3 days, as Polish pilot Lucasz [Grabowski] is just 33 points ahead of him. Lucasz flying the DIANA, was yesterday just 10 daily points behind Christophe.
It’s not over yet!!!
As shared by the organizers in their gallery.
Tasks today; club class 2.30 hour AAT, mixed class goes for 3 hours and 15 m. as well.
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Austria had some great weather last week, with booming conditions in the Alps. From Lienz [Nikolsdorf] the first 1000 was flown and several up to 824 km. flights.
Yesterday a Nimbus 4DM added another 715 km.
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Got the last FINAL results from the Pribina Cup from the organizers.
Here you are, as said already, different than on soaringspot in 15 m. and 20 m.;
Club class:
| 1. | Michal Lešinger | Czech Republic | LL |
| 2. | Boris Žorž | Slovenia | IPF |
| 3. | Ivan Novák | Czech Republic | DI |
15m class:
| 1. | Martin Tronnier | Germany | 77 |
| 2. | Miloslav Cink | Czech Republic | EU |
| 3. | Patrick Puskeiler | Germany | ALB |
20m 2-seat class:
| 1. | Wolfgang Janowitsch / Josef Kammerhofer | Austria | TWO |
| 2. | Michael Sickert / Michael Roche | Germany | YA |
| 3. | Katharina von Podewils / Joachim Schwenk | Germany | WA |
Open class:
| 1. | Matthias Sturm | Germany | M7 |
| 2. | Helge Liebertz | Germany | 3F |
| 3. | Kai Glatter | Germany | YE |
Good to see that MILVUS was one of the sponsors.
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That’s it for today.
Cu next wednesday
Ritz