Before I depart for Leszno tomorrow I publish already day 4 and 5 [today], as old news is no news. More next Wednesday in the regular blog.

WEDNESDAY  July 30 2014;
I gave you the tasks already in my last blog. 2 Hour AAT’ s for all classes , direction East . First launches at 11.45!
So another de -valued day and one with concern for some, as the last launched pilots had to start when it drizzled already. Unfair,…yes but part of soaring as well. The system rotates and when you are on a bad day on the last row, it ‘s mostly not too good. The other way around with good weather works too. A bit of a lottery for sure, as this way not everybody has the same chances!
I have seen it at several comps.

Anyhow 127 pilots were launched within an hour. That’s a COOL  result!!!!!

After the opening of the start lines the field was empty only trailers and not too bad clouds on the skies.
As seen and shared by the SA team.

As in the past the team members help each other, nothing new . So when the 15 m. starts they give info to the 18 m. and open class pilots. That way, as Sebastian mentioned, the Polish pilots fly so well. I know ALL countries fly like this and when you are the sole pilot of a country there are always mates you can count on.

In between the towering clouds disappeared for cirrus , so the expectation of thunderstorms was more or less past,  but still expected after the finishes.
The 10 km. finish ring on difficult days like this , is a perfect way for safe landings after the finish. Also the finish height was raised to 400 m MSL.

15 m. ; The French started together just after 1 , but lost each other and arrived as number 4 and 32.
A new daily winner ; young Radek Krejcirik, from Czech Rep. who flew already so well in Uvalde  where he was 3d in the final scores AND he was 3d on the last JWGC as well; good on him!!! He started as one of the last in his class [13.13] and flew 261 km. in 2.12 [speed 118.4 km./h].
A good day for Matthew from Australia this time [spot 5]  , as well as for Francois [NL] who was runner up!!
A less good day  for Wolfgang [Janowitsch] finishing as number 39, loosing just over 200 points on winner Radek.
After 4 days Sebastian leads with 3066 points , followed by Mac who keeps a good eye on Sebastian and started together with him. Mac has 3023 points and Christophe , the number 3, 2983.
Phil and Leigh are not far behind and Belgium pilot Emmanuel Litt is now on spot 7  . He was on an overall 20 th spot after day 2, so he is ” in good lift” !!

Here is the story from Matthew on day 4.

–” Two challenging days with storms forecast on both and appearing on neither – we played the gaggle game on both days to varying results, yesterday I was in the wrong cycle of the gaggle for the climb onto glide and had to take a (much) weaker climb to get home in the rapidly dying weather, but today I worked hard to make sure I didn’t repeat the same mistake and came home fastest of our gaggle.

The team flying with Mak and Craig is going well, we’ve had many hundreds of kilometers glued together, and on two days now we’ve managed to keep a pair together the whole flight, but we’re still working on the elusive triple tip-to-tip finish. With the wet ground the thermals are very bubbly and it only takes a 300 ft separation for it to be 50/50 if the higher glider climbs faster or slower in the next thermal.

We had at least 3 world champions in our gaggle today, which makes for a very punishing environment – if you do something slightly sub-optimal, a short lapse in concentration, one circle longer to center, one missed cu diversion in the glide, they’ll gain precious meters above and in front of you that takes lots of focus and often just luck to earn back. It makes for a very short feedback loop and I can already feel the effects on my flying – a couple more weeks of this and I should be ready to fly a world comps. ” —

Matthew keeps a very interesting blog , it is great to follow him. I do so already for quite a while.
https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding

18 m. ; Unfortunately a pretty bad day for Jerzy from Canada . For violating the airspace he got only 50 points. A good day for Louis Bouderlique , who was the daily winner and “got” 654 points; 268.2 km in 2.08 [speed 125.6 km./h.] Runner up was Robert Schroeder from Germany  with 2 points less and UK pilot Russell finished on spot 3, together with Roman both had 4 points less than Louis.
Overall after 4 days; still the same Karol now with 3061 points, Lucasz with 3012 and Peter 3002.
Here is part of Tom’ s story of day 4;

“  Today was again mixed for the 18M team.
The day was 2 hr AAT with early finish and storms forecast.
We struggled for start height just as the gate opened after being at cloud base for an hour! As it happened we started a few minutes after the main gaggle just behind the Germans. We caught them and later Attie Jonker and gradually the day improved, speed increased until the bottom AAT turn where we just lost contact with the gaggle. After quite a struggle I was able to catch the bottom of the gaggle but the lift reduced and the higher gliders gradually pulled away. Ben was able to almost catch up by taking a different route. At about 20km to run we stopped to make sure we had the 400M finish height at the 10km finish ring, of course we over cooked it and ended up doing 120kts to get down! We ended up a long way down the list but not too badly for points. ” 

open class ;The “long-wings”  did not perform very well in the beginning. Today that changed. Uli and Michael flew their EB 29 to a 3 and 4th place behind the UK pilots in their JS 1-C, Andy and Pete.
Another long-winger, Dick [DB] was on a good 8th spot.
Not such a good day for Laurens finishing as number 16 and as said , a lottery-day unfortunately, for Ronald who had to start in rain , fighting to gain height, whilst the rest was on track already.  He finished, but was on place 30.
Overall after 4 days ; 1.Killian [3131], 2. Andy [3120], 3. Laurent [3107] Uli and Michael slowly found their way to the top [ on 7 and 8]

As was written on the official site:  The Tasksetter says, ‘According to the forecasts, we expected thunderstorms, and for this reason, I preferred being careful, to prevent landing in the rain, or in a field.’ The assumption has been implemented to the joy of the pilots.
Can only agree with that. In the end the idea that the day was too short , was changed into the idea that ” the window was perfectly chosen.” 

With day 4 this 33d WGC in Leszno is a VALID FAI WGC. But for sure there will be more days ahead. As said it is not over yet!!

  

Great pictures shared by the Aussies.

What happened more today?
—- Prof.  Loek Boermans , president of OSTIV has spoken at the briefing and the opening of their meetings  will be that night.
—- Walter Binder got honored for ALL he did for soaring during the OSTIV evening.
—- I just miss out on the International Night, which will be on Thursday night. A pity as I will only arrive on Friday evening.
—- you all heard about the Perlan Project . Today I read that the Airbus Group joins in with the Perlan Mission  2 , as a partner , to explore “ the edges of space “and soar to 90.000 feet.
“ By becoming a partner in the project, Airbus Group will provide funding to complete the construction of the glider and two years of flight in Argentina. ”
—- the International /Amical Bailleau 2014 started their  competition after 1 cancelled day. This competition is in a long history very much ” liked  by the Dutch and Belgian pilots. 63 Pilots in 3 classes fly in Bailleau.
—-The Russian Nationals in Standard Class have been flown from Baltasi and 12 participants [one HC] were flying there, though better said waiting there as they had ONE flyable day and 6 scrubbed days.
—- some of my Danish friends are flying for the Sun Air Cup from Arnborg . They fly in 5 classes and had pretty good weather with 9 days out of 11.

THURSDAY July 31 2014 already the last day of July!!!!!;

The day-4 winners first. Here they are.

As shared by the organizers.

Looking at the European weather forecast this morning, the message was 27 dgr. and local thunderstorms for Poland. BUT,…I read it was “cold” and rainy in the morning with low grey clouds laying as a blanket over the field at Leszno. A relaxed morning, they called it.

No surprise,….no task was set in the morning briefing , TC’s would meet at noon  again and the message later was , that the open class should be ready at the grid at 1. According to the TOP-German- team- meteo- man Bernd,  there could be a window after 14.30 direction West.

The 15 m. and 18 m. was scrubbed /canned/ cancelled, BUT open had to be ready at 13.45. The weather looked ” reasonable”  to bring 1 class up in the air , so a 242.3 km. racing task was set.

Open class …….”ready”  to go!
As shared by the SA team.

Stress in the German Team as Michael had to be pulled out of the first row as he had a problem with the under carriage and had to look at that first with help of many friends and what kind of friends Walter Eisele and Walter Binder,experience ALL over and in soaring since ….god knows when! They fixed it and off he went…..
8/8 of clouds, the  ”  big wings ”  between 500 and 900 m [cloud base] and a wind up to 30 km./h. Not a real good menu for a soaring day.
When they were all in the air and   the start-line was about to open at 14.37 , the day was scrubbed anyhow, so time enough to have a good look at his EB. Also lot’s of time to prepare a great International NIGHT.

Michaels’ EB  and the “bad”  skies in the back.
as shared by the German team.

And to finish this day 5 , a non flying day , BUT they TRIED HARD, is here one of those nice pictures from the organizers.

What happened more today?

—- Packed my small suitcase and I am ready for departure tomorrow.

—- We had not 150 mm of rain here in Alphen, but 180 mm. meaning 18 full buckets of water poured on a square meter.

—- the OVSE finally reached the disaster-spot from MH 17. In the end the ‘we’  lost 196 people with a Dutch passport.

—- after 3 scrubbed days , the ladies FINALLY fly from Stolln/Rhinow and got straight away racing tasks from  417 for club [ 26 pilots] and a 451 km. task in the racing class  [8 pilots] and also in standard class.[ 6 pilots]
Kathrin [Woetzel ] and Swaantje [Geyer ]both participating in club class,  did well on this day certainly Swaantje after her very recent  operation . They both departed as the last ones in their class and finished as number 6 and 7 in the scores.
All scores on ;    http://www.strepla.de/scs/Public/overview.aspx?cId=236

—- Husbos unfortunately had a mid air last Saturday during their Husbos Challenge Cup.Pictures shared on FB are impressive/spectacular/dramatic …..but  for me JUST SCARY……  I did not particular like them, also not with the knowledge that 1 pilot landed safely and the other baled out and only had minor injuries. Yes I looked at them , because  the moment  is pretty special, but I felt cold and could only be grateful that nothing happened to both pilots.
I saw and heard it happen , long time ago, but then 3 pilots were killed.

—- the young ones travel the world nowadays. Nick, from  Alex and Nick’s Gliding Adventures living in New Zealand visited Lasham and as he said: ” I got the front seat of an ASH 25 for 2 & half hours loved it.” 

Lasham weather looks nice.
As shared by Nick.

—- some of the Dutch young ones fly from Bronkow in Germany. Sander flew a nice 617 k distance in the St. Cirrus.

—– this date in history was important WHY?
The SSA shows us why:
“July 31, 1964. On this date in soaring history, Al Parker makes the first soaring flight to exceed 1,000 kilometers.

Today is the 50th anniversary of Alvin H. Parker’s remarkable 1,042 kilometer (647 mile) world record flight in 1964, the first-ever in the world to break the 1,000 kilometer mark. Flying his American-built Arlington Sisu1A sailplane, Parker soared from his hometown of Odessa, Texas, to Kimball, Nebraska. That Sisu sailplane is on permanent display in the Smithsonian Air & Space Hazy Center near Dulles Airport, Virginia. A sister ship to the record breaking Sisu currently resides with Al’s son Steve Parker in Marfa, Texas.

In the July 2014 issue of SOARING magazine, the original article by E. J. Reeves was reprinted in its entirety.“

You are up to date again with a lot of news.
Cheers Ritz CU on Wednesday with stories and pictures from Leszno and more on the Female Nationals in Germany with also 2 Dutch participants.