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So I decided to copy and paste the last blog to give everybody the possibility to read Rene’s exclusive story on the historic 701 km. task the longest ever in Dutch National Gliding Competition . Another important issue is the great photo gallery I got from Frans Guise, so here we go, not exactly the same but a lot of copy and paste-work to make EVERYBODY happy, also those who refuse log in’s!
SERVICE is n’t it???? Could n’t get all pictures on the correct spot but at least you can see them and by clicking on them enlarge them to see the full quality!!
When you have read it already, Wednesday there will be a new blog on soaring.eu!
A very special edition, this 2014 CAE Dutch National Championship.
- exclusive story from historic 701 km. during a Dutch National championship by pilot Rene de Dreu
- the birth from a gorgeous baby girl
- a marriage proposal
- scores totally mixed up by tricky weather/out-landings on the last day
- from spot 7 up to spot 3 in open class, …never give up is the motto
- met USA pilot Garret Willat at Terlet
- caught up with Dennis [ and his girlfriend ]and Eddie Huybreckx from Belgium.
- 28 pilots finished after 4/5 days with a REAL championship and Dutch National champions in 3 classes
- one day later AFTER the comps 700 km flights in Holland [and over 800 even in Belgium!]
That ALL happened at Terlet ,…here is the full story as promised, with fabulous pictures from Frans Guise!!! When you click on them you see them in FULL GLORY!!! Enjoy!
To start with, the story from Rene also as promised. He flew last Sunday in the ASG 29/18 m.a 701 km. task, finished with only 2 other gliders in this class [from 10] , both open class gliders and won that day. Never before in history a 701 km. was set, during a Dutch -National-Gliding- Contest .
Here is his story which was in Dutch so , I translated it for you;
” A couple of days before, it looked already that Sunday [May 25] would be a real good day.The organizers were talking about a big task and they set one, in each class; 525 in club class, 605 in combi class and 701 in open class.The line up on the grid was in this order as well.
The weather developed as expected , the only worry was a layer of Cirrus , moving slowly into the task area.This development made me careful in planning the time-schedule for the day and was reason for me to start early, straight after the line opened.
That was at 12.10 and I departed with the first group together with Jelmer Wassenaar and Mischa Konings. The first 140 km.-long-leg did n’t look like well developed and lift was not very good, so I doubted if the task was possible at all.We only had an average of low in the 90 km./h. , BUT after we passed the SAUERLAND the speed increased and I could race ahead of my fellow pilots.
After about 400 km.,course was steered for Holland again , BUT the already in the morning expected Cirrus was visible.The speed dropped again, BUT under the high level cloud cover, there was still good lift. Due to the fact that we had to return to a way-point in Germany again, we had to pass this cloud cover 3 times on the way to Terlet. In the end there were still small cu’s giving enough lift.
After a nice long final glide in quiet air , I returned at Terlet , as the first in my class .Cause I flew most of the task by myself [500 from 700 km.!] I had no idea how good or bad I was, but ,…it was a daily win! A nice long task full of challenges!”
Picture via Rene.
THANK you Rene!!!!!Also for the picture belonging to his story.
Rene flew with an LX 9070. He used that brand new GPS system for the first time a few weeks ago at St Hubert.
” The LX 9070 is a navigation and vario system with extremely bright color 7″ WGA display readable in all sunlight conditions with backlight automatically adapted using photo-sensor running on Linux operating system. The LX 9070 has preloaded world terrain maps, airports and airspace databases, high level IGC-approval and integrated Flarm collision avoidance system.”
{Glider Pilot Shop}
Rene during his flight On Saturday one day after the comps. Great weather as usual!!!
http://gliderpilotshop.com
Rene is also since 2011 the representative for Alexander Schleicher in the BENELUX!
Next week I ”ll have a look at the new ASG 32 Mi in my blog, I heard the pictures are on the site; www.alexander-Schleicher.de
After that day unfortunately 3 days were cancelled. Friday was the last day and to have a valid championship 4 days were needed!They HAD to fly! I arrived on Thursday, but the expected /hoped for window arrived too late; at 6 PM. Another scrubbed day!
BUT,….a good day to ” trick” our long time open class EGC and WGC pilot Peter Batenburg.” Something was wrong with his glider he should go there and look at it himself. ” So he went,… a bit worried! He removed the canopy cover to find in the cockpit, his girl friend Judith in a nice black dress , smiling at him and asking him if he wanted to marry her!!!! He said yes and both really were shining!
A present at briefing and receiving congrats also in the camping area by Patrick.
courtesy Frans.
As at many comps it ALL happened on this last day, nothing was sure in the morning. Relatively long tasks were set direction East [Germany] into an area still looking very over- developed. BUT they had faith in the pilots!In the end they were right.
CLUB CLASS.
Hinse in the Libelle as seen by Frans.
They left early, the club pilots, around 1 PM. for a 341.6 km. flight, with in the morning Frank Hiemstra on spot 1.At 5 the message was there; out landing Frank! About an hour later young, 19 year old ,talented Robin Smit finished in the St. Cirrus . He flew his first Nationals and climbed from spot 4 to 2 . Runner up !!! Pretty good!Only one more pilot finished in this class.
Robin before flight and finishing. Courtesy Frans Guise.
Hinse Osinga was still 2d in the morning but out landed pretty far away , arriving back just in time for the prize giving, dinner plate in front of him on the table!!He ” dropped ” unfortunately to spot 4.
Hinze to the r.
Frank landed not too far out! HE KEPT HIS FIRST PLACE!!! Congratulations to him for his first National Champion title!He won 2 days and was runner up and third on a day, so pretty consistent.
Frank before start and at the PODIUM on spot 1.
Number 3 was Steven Huiskes, who flew the WGC in Uvalde!
Courtesy Frans!
COMBI CLASS
2 Pilots finished in this class on the last day.Daily winner was Steven Raimond! But he had 2 less good days so this time he was NOT on the podium.We all know how good he is though.He will ” shine” again in Leszno!
Steven .
Francois Jeremiasse normally flying in open class flew the Ventus 2 and finished as well. In the morning he was on spot 3 in the evening he was on the highest spot in his class; Dutch National Champion.
Before and finishing!Congratulations!!! courtesy Frans Guise.
In the morning on 1 in the evening on 3 is the other site of the medal. That happened to Bas Seiffert. He landed about 200 km. out and just arrived back for the prize ceremony at 10.15 PM. Bas will fly in Finland.
Bas before his last flight during this competition and a REAL -BAS- FINISH the day before! As seen by Frans.
In between these 2 so on spot 2 in the overall scores, was the ” lucky groom to be ” Peter with his mate Paul, flying the ARCUS. They occupied that spot during the whole comps.
Peter and Paul and the WINNERS.Francois with his son on spot 1 and National Champion! As seen by Frans.
OPEN CLASS
He flew that magic 701 km. , Rene de Dreu, but it was not enough to make him Dutch Champion in open Class. Mark Wering , living in London and a member at Lasham as well, flew a real open class glider 4T, a Nimbus 4T, owned by Peter Batenburg [by the way this glider is FOR SALE] and was the new National Champion.He was on 1 overall every day except for day 1.
Mark who flies also at Lasham too is the new NATIONAL DUTCH CHAMPION . Congratulations! Pictures by Frans.
Rene flew an 18 m. glider and did extremely well.He was 2d overall during each of the 4 days. The “weirdest” result was by Hans Biesters, he climbed from spot 7 to spot 3 so ON the podium. Never give up is the motto, it’s only over after the last day.
Rene finishing and Mark with his proud crew [sons] and Rene and Hans Biesters who climbed from 7 to 3!!! Congratulations!
It was a VERY interesting championship, now it is waiting for what’s going to happen in the future. Are we going to combine this championship with our Belgium mates?? We have to wait and see.
Nice was that I met USA pilot Garret Willat at Terlet, who came to collect NL1, the Dutch glider [Cirrus] flown by Robin during this comps and with his 2d place the glider had a perfect rehearsal for Garret to fly to the same spot in Finland.
Garret did a lot for our Dutch team at Uvalde and they help him now in return! That’s the way!!!
Belgium pilot, Dennis Huybreckx who flew a competition from Weelde in Belgium landed on on his 400 km. task direction Germany at Terlet. Dad Eddie was quick there to collect him with Dennis girlfriend to give a hand as well. To finish 2 more pictures from FRANS. It is great to work with him!!! Thanks Frans!
The ASH 30 MI and 2 finishing gliders.
HAHNWEIDE!
Their last day was yesterday with a pretty long task to see who is the best, after only 3 days of flying!!! It was wet,WET, WET over there! 420 km. Was set for standard class and only 2 out-landed . The daily winner Joachim, flew with a speed of 107 km./h. and finished as number 3 overall. Helmut Koelle won this class .
In 15 m. class the “fight” was between Japanese pilot Mac and Austrian pilot Wolfgang.On the last day Wolfgang went 20 minutes later over the start line, but Mac managed to come back in a better time;4.hours and 31 .56 for 4.36.22. Mac was the winner from this Hahnweide comps 2014, with Wolfgang as runner up.[52 points difference.]
Mac must have been on his way to the next comps again. WGC in Finland first and later WGC in Poland.
Courtesy organizers.
In 18 m. class young Bert Schmelzer had a real good soaring event being on spot 1 overall EVERY day. A TOP podium with Bert as said on 1, Werner [Meuser] on 2 and Reinhard [Schramme ] on 3. 113 points difference between Bert and Werner and only 6 points between Werner and Reinhard, both old hands in our sport. On the last day they flew 537.6 km.a good distance to show what you can !!!
As shared by the organizers..
Open class had a lot of toppers.The last day with 527 km. was a prey for the Belgium pilots de Broqueville [ speed 131 km./h.] with the French racers Kilian and Sylvain on their tail. Kilian won this event in the JS 1C with Holger Karow [ANTARES 23 T] as runner up and Sylvan Gerbaud QUINTUSM] on spot 3!
Alexander Mueller left the bad weather and comps and flew yesterday a great triangle from Bayreuth; 1.114.9 km extended to 1.235.55 km .
It’s weird weather this year with top days and soup-days in areas not even that far from each other in Europe.
As shared by the organizers.
2 seaters had 3 days as well and a 457.6 km. task on their last day.The Stouff brothers had a bad 2d day with an outlanding in their ARCUS T ,but they were 2d on the last day. Good on them!I told you already not to underestimate Sigi Baumgartl , not the youngest anymore but still going strong. He was runner up overall behind another ARCUS T.Only 48 points difference!
LASHAM
Lasham had rain as well and not even a good day when we had it here, as Saturday one day AFTER the comps, Holland had a top-day again with over 700 km. tasks from Holland and over 800 km. from Belgium. Our Nationals just ended one day too early, looking at the weather.
The UK nationals Open class had their 2d day on Saturday with only 2 finishers Andy and Pete, both gaining 102 points flying 200 km.with a speed of 57 km./h. No more words needed!
They had a much better and last day 3 yesterday [ 453.2 km] and day 2 in standard class.[366.3 km] AND I can tell you they will be ready for it after waiting and waiting !!!
Winners are after 2 days of flying; Jez Hood in standard [1993 points flying LS 8 ] and Andy Davis in open after 3 days.[Flying JS 1c 2102 points] I presume they need also 4 days to call their selves CHAMPION.
MORE than enough reading stuff and pictures so CU on Wednesday in this blog.
Cheers Ritz