The last words about Montlucon;
John Good [USA] is , in my opinion, one of the best writers about soaring.
I met him in Uvalde in 2012 where he was the substitute CD , always in front of the podium juggling with 3 or 4 ball’s!
Later I met him at other comps and was always impressed by the words he uses to describe soaring.
These are the last sentences of his final French WGC report.
“But, given the desperately weak weather, it’s notably how much flying the best pilots in the world were able to do.  The Club class managed 9 valid (albeit mostly well-devalued) tasks; Standard and 15-Meter each had 8.  Only a few of these had weather that normal pilots would rate better than “marginally flyable”.
So I think WGC2021 must be be rated as a qualified success.  Very hard work for pilots and crews, not much fun in the air, but unquestionably a valid test of pilot skill.”

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The 18 and 20 m. Nationals flown from Lasham.

They continued on Wednesday, [task 5 on flying day 4] with still flyable but sometimes tricky weather and a 244 km. task for 18 m. was set won by Chris Starkey in ASG 29es, after an early start at 1.37 PM.
A weird day, as not all the toppers were in the top, where you expect them but, pilots I know who are really good pilots, but enjoy their soaring, not so much the competition-points.
Roy and Patrick who flew with us in Tocumwal in the past, were on spot 6 and 8.
Russell was on 24 and Andy Davis even “out”. You see what I mean….
28 from 42 finished! NOBODY flew over 100 km./h.
Task 6; 272 km….35 from 41 who started finished!!!If Lasham has such nice weather for the WWGC next year, it would be great…better of course, is good too.
By the way Liz Sparrow, who is the CD for the next WWGC, flies as well in an ASG 29e and was 26th [from 41 who started] for the day.
Phil Jones was the daily winner speed 115 km./h. for 799 points. Tough day for that reason for Roy, who was out after 267 km. not too bad you would say,…. still thinking of Montlucon… but he got 333 points!
Task 7; 253 km….scrubbed/cancelled.
Task 8; 332 km,…changed in 150 km…canceled
Task 9; 264 km….last day….weird scores at Soaringspot as it seems that nobody finished, but still flew the distance.
I will check this. And so to see it was a 1000 points-day for Mat Davis, yes son from Andy.
Anyhow there were overall scores for 18 m;
1. Phil Jones in Ventus 3TS with 4.408 points and NATIONAL CHAMPION.
2. Derren Francis in Ventus 3T with 4.383 p.
3. Leigh Wells in JS-MD 3 with 4.314 p.

In 20 m., task 5 was 255 km. and flown by 12 from 18 and this time the ASG 32 with Tim Scott in, won the day; speed 90 km./h.
Task 6; 3 hour AAT,…it’s getting serious!? Indeed and lovely to see that Phil’s brother, Steve won in this class with 299.49 km. in time 3.07; speed 95.60 km./h and 1000 points!!!!
The first in this class!!!!
A tad faster than Steve Pozerskis in Duo Discus XLT with 95. 04 km./h. Good on him!
Task 7 ; 234.59 km….was cancelled!
Task 8 ; 327.60 km…..B task…150 km…..was not meant to be…..cancelled !
Task 9; 156 km….last day. Adrian in the Duo Discus XLT won the day . He was one of the 3 finishers, as Steve was in and Jon Arnold.
Tim Scott who was runner up overall, lost a place and Gary who was nearly back won one.
Overall scores in 20 m;
1. Steve Jones in Arcus M with 4.197 points, NATIONAL CHAMPION.
2. Gary Coppin in ARCUS t with 3.945 p.
3. Tim Scott in ASG 32 with 3.932 p.

6 out of 9 days,in both classes.

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UK Junior Nationals & Cotswold Regional 2021.

In Aston Down also in the UK, the juniors are still flying. But not on Wednesday, their small task [157 km.] was cancelled .
On Thursday it was flyable again and task 6 flying day 4 showed 137 km!!!!
Tom and Henry started at 13.44 and Finn and Toby 10 minute’s later. The Junior EGC has “glued” the 4 together and now they start and finish in teams together, as they did then.
Finn and Toby won the day in their ASW 20 with 101 km./h Henry was 4th [93.70 km./h] and Tom 7th [92.45 km./h]
22 From 39 finished and they shared some pictures from quite a few nice flying young ladies!!!
“A great group of Women are currently competing at the Junior Nationals this week at Aston Down.. They have had some good weather and good days.. with only 3 more days to go until the competing comes to an end for this year.“
Have a look at Women Gliding for the pictures.

On Saturday, with one day to go and after some rest from the day before as,…task 7 was cancelled…they got 222.98 km on their plate .
BUT,…it ended in a B task from 87 km. Small window, but they flew.
7 From 34 starters, finished. 2 St Cirrus pilots , both got 125 points for a speed of 92 km./h. Finn was 3d with ONE point less.
On Sunday, last day, 200 k was set……BUT,…NOT FLOWN!!!
Out of 10 Days they flew 6 tasks, in this “stupid” summer, the overall scores are;
1. Finn Sleigh in ASW 20 with 2.290 points and JUNIOR CHAMPION.
2. Freddie Turner in ASG 29 es with 2.081 p.
3. Henry-Inigo Jones in LS 8 with 2.074.
Scores behind Finn, were all close!

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49th Polish Junior Championship/OstowGlide 2021

After task 3 and 4 were cancelled and one day with NO TASK, they could fly again on Wednesday with a GOOD day as you can see on the picture;

Standard 305 km and Club 186 km.
In Standard class nobody from the 21 who started, finished, but those young pilots did a great job!!!! Up to 286 km. they managed to fly and the winner was Michał Okoń in a St. Jantar.

In Club class another Mischa , who flew the 186 km. task AND finished in his LS1 c; 57 km./h!!!!
4 From 12 finished the last finisher Marta, flew the task with 39 km./h…huge effort.

NO task on Thursday.
AND not on Friday !!
Lots of nice young ladies flying in Poland as well.
Pictures[from August 25] at OSTRÓW GLIDE – International Gliding Competition and Aeroklub Ostrowski
One day to go with only 4 tasks in standard and 3 in club class out of 10 days but a nice day to finish so to see.

Saturday; last day!!!
Standard ;1.30 AAT…Karol Snapko in the BRAWO, won the last day; 160 km. in time 1.32.
He was also the new NATIONAL JUNIOR CHAMPION in Poland in St Class. with 1.493 points. 14 From 22 finished!
Club 1.45 AAT...Michal Felisiak in the LS 1-c won the day . He also won task 5 and with 1.442 points he is the new Club class National Junior Champion in Poland.[see picture above]
5 from 12 finished.
For all scores; www.soaringspot.com

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The E3GLIDE !!

“The E3Glide sailplane championship starts today in Varese! I’m glad to be the sporting director of the 3rd edition of such an innovative race format. Will the future of gliding come from these explorations? Live tracking on www.e3glide.onglide.com thanks to Melissa Jenkins ! As written last SATURDAY by Aldo Cernezzi.
One of the pilots flying there is Matthew Scutter:
“How to follow up 21 days of gruelling flying? Another 10 days of flying!”
“Fully refreshed, [in a thermal Spa] I continued into Bruschal, where thanks to the very generous Holger Back of DG Flugzeugbau GmbH, I have an immaculate LS8 Neo-FES to defend my title with at the e3Glide contest in Varese, north of Milan in Italy.
He won day 1 [219 km.] and as this E glide is very new to me I suggest you follow the very interesting stories from Matthew in his blog. I learn from him about E gliding too.
Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

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KEIHEUVEL CUP 2021.

As every year I visited the 2 day competition at KEIHEUVEL in Belgium………As the weather prediction was for miserable weather on Saturday and better weather on Sunday, we decided to go on Sunday.
I am sure you understand,…..there was a nice window on Saturday and no window at all, on Sunday so the prize giving at 11 was just finished when we arrived. A pity, but time to make some pictures and talk with many friends.

The open XPDR class started with 20 pilots for a 126 km. task and 14 from them finished.
Tijl [Schmelzer] in the Ventus 3 won the day with 99 km./h, which was about 13 km. faster than runner up Nick Fremau in an LS 8.
Dad Schmelzer was 3d in a Ventus 2CT/18m. [93 km./h] together with Jeroen [Jennen] who had arrived safely back from Montlucon where he flew so well with his mate/cousin Dennis.

AND at spot 3 equal with Bert sr. Jeroen

In Sport XPDR flew 6 from 13 the 106 km task. I counted 8 Dutch pilots in this class. Winner was Maurits Hebels with 72 km./h in an LS 4. He started very early at 14.18 whilst some others started at 14.53.
Out landings as well as you can see. It’s part of the 2021 summer.

Or in a nice big green field, thanks to all the rain ;

Open class winners;…..overall scores for one day.

A sad message as well , more for the elderly amongst you.
IN MOMORIAM BERT ZEGELS.
Bert Zegels died of cancer age 74!
We met him at several comps mostly during the “Huit jours d” Angers” , later called the Coupe d’Europe.
Bert was a real Keiheuvel- fan, started his soaring there at age 16 in 1963 and was straight away solo in the Rhonlerche.
5 years later in 1968 he started already with competition flying at Hahnweide and was 3d in a cheap, wooden club glider whilst the German pilots flew spiffy gliders.
This was seen by World record-holder Alfred Roehm, and as Bert had no open class glider for the next WGC, he put his SHK glider at his disposal.
His first WGC was in Poland at Leszno, where he was 10th in open class .
So young and so good; the constructor from Libelle , Eugen Haenle, noticed that too and offered him the Kestrel, after he already won the Coupe d’Europe in their Libelle.
With a Jumbo Kestrel ,he flew the WGC in Waikirie in 1974, had 2 daily wins and was runner up behind George Moffat , who won for the 2d time. Bert was ahead of Werner Grosse. who was 3d.
Bert flew 15 years on top level.
He had about 20.000 hours as airline pilot.
He was 5x Belgium Champion…..1x French champion….4x winner of the Coup d’Europe….
He also had 2 Belgium records and participated in 6 WGC’s.
He was winner of the Victor Boin Cup and got from the Belgium Royal Aeroclub the Prix Marie Monsieur-Fontaine, their highest award.
I specially remember his friendly/warm way of dealing with friends.
A TRULY gentleman , lovely guy, a quiet achiever and great pilot has left us.
R.I.P. Bert.
{Thank you to Bert Schmelzer sr. who shared the more historic info with me. Bert sr. wrote the book Soaring in Flanders …Zweefvliegen in Vlaanderen…a fascinating adventure in silence. In that book the preface was from Bert Zegels }

The meteorological summer finished today on this site of the world.
I am not sure if it WAS a summer!!!
Hope at least for a nice after-summer.
Still great flights as Michael Sommer [EB 29R] and Max Schaefer [Ventus 3 M/18m…he flew a 1000 one day earlier as well] flew on their last day of the 10 day- “camp’ over 1000 km. from Puimoisson.
AND of course I look at the FAI SGP FINAL in St Auban next week and I keep reading about E3GLIDE.
By the way, good weather in St Auban as Tilo practiced for the GP and flew in his Ventus 3 T/18m yesterday a distance of 756 km.
Cheers Ritz