2021 USA NATIONAL 18 m. CHAMPIONSHIP at Nephi.

The 608 km. set race from last Tuesday was flown by 26 from the 29 pilots still flying. A “fast and furious” race by Andy Blackburn who “drove” his JS 3 over the track with a speed of 171 km./h!!!
With one day to go it was Sean Fidler and Rick Indebro [both in ASG 29, Rick in the 15m version] on top overall ,with Andy Blackburn on spot 3 after his fast race.
But task 7 on July 7 was even faster!!!! John Seaborn [ then at spot 5] flew his JS 3 over 568 km. with a speed of 190 km./h. [he won the trophy for the fastest contest flight ]
28 from 29 flew the task.
Andy was 3d and Sean 4th , whilst Rick had unfortunately an off-day on spot 26.
Task 8 was a difficult one for Sean, he was 18th whilst John was 6 for the day. Gary Ittner won the last day with 495 km and a speed of 157 km./h. Rick was 5th but finished on spot 6 overall, after his “off-day”.
On the SSA site the story about the last day by one of the competing pilots, Clemens Ceipek, flying a Ventus 2CX /18m, here are some parts[ full story on :FB under ZWEVERS,a gliding community.
“We were given an Assigned Area Task (AAT).The task required us to cross the mountains and valleys back and forth. There were a lot of decisions to make and a number of traps to avoid. Thermal conditions were very strong, and cloud bases were well above the legal maximum of 17,500 ft, but there was much more wind to contend with than in the past few days. We saw west-south westerly winds of close to 30 kts today in some parts of the task area.

The start was once again a problem. This time it was the changing wind on the ground.
I was among the early starters launching at 13:21 and had no problem climbing up to 16,000 feet right off tow. Then the wind picked up and the launch had to be paused. Then the wind direction changed and the remaining gliders had to be moved to the other end of the runway.
But the delay was substantial nonetheless. The start gate eventually opened at 15:33. I had already been in the air by more than two hours and had flown well over 200 km by that time. But now the race was on and the task distance was another 432-718 km, to be flown in no less than three hours.

It was 18:30. I had another 150 km to go to the finish and was in need of at least two more climbs.”

I was still about 2500 feet low on Final Glide at MC 4 and the clouds ahead were quickly disappearing.
Gradually I made it above Final Glide Altitude and just felt my way towards the finish, increasing my speed as the glide ratio improved.”

These were amazing Championships with blazingly fast flight. On six of the eight contest days the winner’s speed exceeded 100 mph.

So the final results are;
1.Sean Fidler in ASG 29 with 7.455 points.
2. John Seaborn in JS 3 with 7.375 p.
3. Andy Blackburn in JS 3 with 6.452 p.

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The 2021 Swedish Nationals at Feringe

The 3 classes did not fly on Wednesday, but on Thursday there was action again. The news was not too good when I read “Massutelandning och motordragning”
I thought it would mean mass outlanding and use of engines.
Not a bad guess…“There has been massive landing in the club class and several in the 18m have reported technical landings. A rainy weather swept over Feringe as competitors headed home.“
BUT,…there were finishers as well in all 3 classes.

Club; 1.45 AAT Norwegian pilot Kato was one of the 3 finishers, in fact the daily best with 162 km. in time 2.18….that was fighting for the points .
18 m.; 1.45 AAT…Only 3 finishers in this class as well.
Hannes in the ASH 26E, Peter in the ASG 29/18m and Ulf in the Ventus 2 CXT/18m.
2 seaters; 1.45 AAT….Only the Lindell’s were “IN” with a low finish ,..but IN. 411 points for them..
In fact this was the last day as there was NO task on July 9 in all 3 classes, so the final scores after 5 out of 7 days are;
Overall scores for Club;
1. Kato Kvitne from Norway in ASW 20 with 2.866 points.
2. Martin Ekdahl in LS 4 with 2.702 p.
3. Lars Jauring in PIK 20d with 2.500 p.

Overall scores for 18m;
1. Börje Gustavsson in JS 3 with 2.666 points.
2. Börje Eriksson in VENTUS 3 with 2.644 p.
3. Peter Johansson in ASG 29/18m. with 2.624 p.

Overall scores for 20 m; 2 seaters;
1. Lindell & Lindell in Duo Discus XLT with 2.525 points.
2. Acketoft & Wendt in Duo Discus T with 2.507 p.
3. Jobs & Ganev in ARCUS M with 2.414 p.

Difficult days , small tasks ,close scores in the top, but for sure still fun by ALL.

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The 45th International Issoudun 2021
4 July 2021 – 13 July 2021

53 competitors in 2 classes …Club and Multi class.
CLUB CLASS;
no flying on day 1 the 4th of July!
106 km was set for Flying day 1 and 13 from 16 flew the task. German pilot Uwe Wahlig flew 69 km./h in his LS 3 [handicap 104.9] and Aurelien Doariat from France in a Pegase, [handicap 101.5] 67 km….they were the best…for 260 points.
Flying day 3 showed another racing task now from 203,59 km. Uwe was the best again with 75 km./h. From other comps I know he is an excellent pilot.
Wolli Beyer, coach from the German team was 4th and Elena who won the WWGC in Lake Keepit was 6th.
No task on day 3 and 4.
Another small task…125 km. was set on July 10,….BUT…cancelled.
Flying day 4;251 km,…only a bit better weather arrived, the bad one moved up N. but slow.
Fergnani-day as Elena won and brother Nicola was runner up, both in Discus. They started and finished together; 69 km./h.. Uwe was 4th and only 5 were IN.
No task on the 12th and the 13th.

Overall scores after 4 from 10 days in CLUB CLASS;
1. Uwe Wahlig from Germany in LS 3 with 2.170 points.
2. Nicola Fergnani from Italy in Discus with 1.983 p.
3. Elena Vergnani from Italy in Discus with 1.857 p.

Multi class;
No flying on day 1 and a small task on flying day 1 a 2 hour AAT.
16 from 32 only finished. Best was “Juliette Charlie” , Jutta Sturm ,in her JS 1 /21m.; 163 km in time 2.05.Good on her! Only 336 points however for he winner.
Flying day 2 had a bit longer task with 279 km. and Jutta did well again. Runner up behind that top talent Kevin Faur.[Ventus 2A] Kevin “got” 1000 points , Jutta 968.
25 from 33 were “in”.
No task on the 7th, but a 2 hour AAT on the 3d day. A marginal day for some… as JC. She was 29th , BUT IN. On the other hand she drooped from 1 to 9 overall.
Her husband Christophe in the ASH 25 choose the better track and was 7th for the day.
Flying day 4; another 2 hour AAT 194 km. was flown by Daniel in an LS 8 in time 2.04 and 212 km. in time 2.08 by Francois, a member of the Aeroclub Universitaire de Louvain in a JS 3/18m.
Jutta was 5th and Kevin 14th. He had a bad start, hoped for 2.or 2.5 lift , but got only 0.3. and was straight away 20 km. behind the rest. He chased them and still did not loose too many points. Overall still on spot 1.
Flying day 5; 311 km….only 3 pilots finished the task. Francois won the day with a speed of 74 km./h in the JS 3, which says enough about the circumstances.
Kevin was 3d with 57 km./h. Most flew between 500 and 800 m.
No task on the 12th and 13th.

Overall scores after 5 days in multi class;
1. Kevin Faur [France] in JS 3/18m. with 3.036 points.
2. Valentin Leleu-Lambour [France] in LS 8/15m. with 2.962 p.
3. Ludovic Hirtz [France] in Duo Discus XLT with 2.913 p.

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the 5th FAI Junior European Gliding Championship.
Pociūnai, Lithuania
7 July 2021 – 23 July 2021

46 competitors in 2 classes are “fighting” for the 2 titles in club and standard class
The 3 practice days were used well.
Nuutti Luukkonen from Finland really trained well in standard, flying as the only one the 2.30 AAT task with 209 km. in time 2.31!!! He used all 3 days. Good on him!!
I have been at a few junior WGC’s and it was GREAT fun.

The Dutch Junior Team has arrived in Lithuania for the JEGC.

The comps started at July 11…GOOD LUCK TO ALL;
Club;
July 11...task 1…1.30 AAT…cancelled, but the forecast for the next days was good..
July 12; Task 2….2.30 AAT.…after postponing about 8 times they started with this EGC for juniors. All those who started today, were still full of dreams, after today some dreams might have gone. Such is life.
The gate opened at…14.42.
The best distance was 239 km. in time 2.33 by Romanian pilot Tudor Ionut in a St. Jantar and the runner up was flying together with him, in the same glider and was from the same country.
From 27,4 were “out”. Not too many points lost on day 1, as the difference between 1 and 20 is 825 and 601.
July 13; task 3 ……cancelled.
Scrubbed as the English say it so nicely;
“A short 1.5 hour AAT was set, but due to storms building in the task area the day was cancelled after a few hours waiting and hoping on the grid.“

Standard;
July 11…task 1 …1.30 AAT…cancelled.
July 12; …task 2…2.30 AAT…gate open at 14.58. Hot day. The 2 Pommies and the 2 German juniors did well . 3 Of them flew over 100 km./h.
Best was the result from Henry Inigo-Jones in LS 8; 264 km in time 2.37. Followed by his mate Thomas Pavis,[ Discus 2A] …they flew together.
The German boys flew together too, Simon Briel in a Discus 2A and Phillip Lauer in LS 8neo, both already pretty well known.
9 From 16 were in. One of our Dutch pilots , Nick Faber, was out and had a difficult retrieve, the empty trailer got stuck on a little hill, the cable to pull the glider out broke and the clutch from the car nearly gave up BUT it all ended well and they arrived “home” safe with a new experience.
July 13; Task 3….cancelled.

Today; 2 hour AAT’s in both classes. First start postponed to 1PM, still a bit of rain…..

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The Summer competition at Malden started on July 11 and the weather for the whole week was not really hopeful, variable they called it,…. but windows might appear.
2 classes club with 5x an LS 4, an LS 3 , 2x a St Cirrus , a Discus DG 505, Mosquito and Pegase and an open class with all kind of gliders between ASW 24e to Nimbus 4T.
Club class;
For the 12 pilots in this class a racing task 1 from 127 km. was set,..but that was already too much. 60 km. was the best result,..so not a valid day.
Task 2 ;182 km.…only 20 km. out for Jeroen van Dijk. He flew 169 km in his LS 3. Great effort .

Combined open class;
Task 1 ; cancelled.
Task 2 ; 228 km.…on the first flying day, for the 11 pilots in this class, with a nice good looking sky in the morning , but less weather for the afternoon….overdevelopment and local showers.
None of the pilots finished. Very experienced competition pilot Hans Biesters won the day ,he reached 188 km.
Due to worsening weather , 2 pilots could not depart.
Task 3 cancelled but better weather might arrive on Friday. Bit late as they continue till July 17, but you never know!!!!

SO much rain in The Netherlands,…unbelievable. Specially the state Limburg, in the S has torrential rain . In a couple of days over 100 mm of rain causing severe flooding. Also the East and SE [ where I live] are WET VERY WET, but not as bad as Limburg.
For today and tomorrow they expect another 150 mm !!!!!
Rain at a lot of places so I guess….No flying today at Malden.

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And to finish this great picture

CU next week and MAYBE next Sunday, when the weather is good enough for the juniors to fly in the Ukraine and there is more news.