Tim Kuijpers and Felip Levin ; winners in Musbach.

Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday August 21 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Both pictures ; courtesy Katja Soikkeli

What a great moment, specially for Tim, to be “crowned “as winner from the club class at the JWGC in Musbach. For Felip it was the 2d time , so he was a bit used to it.
Tim did not win one day, he was good but not even VERY good he thought himself in the beginning [ spot 12- then 7 and 6 climbing every day up to 3 were he stayed till the last but one day!!] and pretty amazed in the end he ended at the number one spot , gaining enough points to beat the German boys, but he was always very determined to do his utmost best to get as high as possible on the scores-list. Great attitude!!!
Flying against the top 3 top-pilots in his class from Germany was an extra stimulant; they ended behind him on 2-3 and 4 after 7 days of soaring under pretty marginal circumstances.
On the last but one day he passed them all, mainly because the German team was not one at that moment, with Sebastian winning the day [329 points]and climbing from 5 to 4 overall, while Alexander and Tobias only gained 190 and 193 points, being 26 and 27. That surely was not according to their coaches plan! Tim who was 3d at that moment in the overall scores was 6th with 301 points and …passed Alexander and Tomas. ” Sweet revenge ” I read several times in the Dutch shoutbox, as the German soccer team always beats us in the last moment and you know the Dutch are soccer fans even at an airfield.Very kind of the young Germans to belong to the first to congratulate Tim. Good on them! Of course they did well too, but Tim did extremely well.

These pictures are from my archive when the Dutch soccer players were busy with their EGC and we were in Eskilstuna during the WGC .

Champion and number 2 and 3 in club class

We continue were I was; And as they did not fly on the last day the final very close scores in club class were as follows;
1. Tim Kuijpers from Holland in the st. cirrus      4536 points
2. Alexander Späth from Germany in st.cirrus    4508 points
3. Tomas Welsch from Germany in st. cirrus       4504 points

Tim and his dad Ferdi, who flew WGC and EGC himself in the past. Mum Frouwke is a TC for years for the Dutch team,as well as steward for the FAI and sister Maaike is a glider pilot as well as brother Caspar. A REAL Dutch soaring family!!!And….not to forget “uncle ” Ger, brother from Frouwke, who was the succesful TC in Musbach.
picture;courtesy Katja Soikkeli

2 Other Dutch pilots, Steven and Rik, flying for the first time in such big event were both on spot 6, very good on them!!!! So our soaring-future looks pretty bright , is n’t it!? But a lot of very experienced people have been “helping” our young ones through the years, one of them Tim’s mum Frouwke. Chapeau for all of them!!!!

Not to forget there was a standard class as well. Also this class suffered from the bad weather and the very difficult / marginal circumstances , not expected before when all happily left their country. It was a real challenge in both classes, but as we all know the weather is not in our hands. Let’s call it character -building.
Felip Levin from Germany started on spot 1 overall and was still there on day 6 the last day, never losing the spot , so a well deserved winner and with a big marge!!!
1. Felip Levin from Germany in discus 2A      3832 points
2. Lucasz Grabowski from Poland in LS 8       3325 points
3. Jon Erik Lygren from Norway in LS 8         3341 points

A nice mix of countries not 3 from Germany or France or the UK or another country on the first spots, as you see so often.
Picture from the prize giving.

Happy standard class winners!

Uvalde finished their Uvalde Glide. As said Mac won in the Diana 2 with 7140 points out of 8 days in 15 m. class. He was lees then 100 points ahead of USA pilot John Seaborn in a Ventus
2 bx.
In 18 m. it was Bruce Taylor winning in the ASG 29 with 7394 points. He was more then 600 points ahead of runner up Gary Ittner from the USA.
Looking forward to the 2012 WGC in Uvalde.

One of the Red Arrows, flying a demo at Bournemouth yesterday, did not show up after they finished their show. From the 9 planes only 8 landed at Bornemouth airport. It seems the 9th plane crashed in a field . No news at this stage about the pilot. The Red Arrows is the famous British- formation- team with spectacular shows. I saw a few myself. Hope the pilot was able to save himself. No he did not I just heard on the news. Sad!!!

Something totally different , but it is nearly September now and Gliding International starts a new email service on September 1.
“Our world wide network of correspondents search daily for news related to gliding. Our new service will email you the hottest gliding intelligence every Friday. Not more then 10 lines per news item will make for easy reading from this instant email form “.
If you are interested contact; subs@glidinginternational.com
It will cost you 80 cents US a week, or the equivalent in local currencies and is only available for Gliding International Magazine subscribers. [ www.glidinginternational.com ]

And…to finish some pictures taken by Tim’s Sister Maaike and her boyfriend Gijs.