Yesterday was the OPENING of the 7th FAI WWGC in Issoudun in France!
Tasks day 1 have been set!
Jacques Aboulin , after flying the T6 for practise the day before.
In the WGC in Benalla in 1987 Jacques was 3d in standard class flying a DISCUS and 1 of the 4 pilots in this class gathering more than 10.000 points over 12 days of flying.
He also is Laurent ‘s dad….YES ….the WGC Champion in open class in Uvalde flying the QUINTUS.
Pictures shared on FB after practise on Friday.
It was drizzle all morning on Saturday but later in the day the sun showed up carefully for the
openings ceremony, with all ladies walking behind the flag of their nation after a 3 hour AIRSHOW with all kind of mostly French designed planes. Not only the pilots and crews were impressed also the between 5000 and 10.000 people from the area.
The French Royal Air Force “stole” the show with a high standard and Stef, in the SZD 49 closed the show as the French said “brilliantly.” True as I could see it on a short video.
As Kerrie Claffey from Australia said
–“The day gradually cleared & a/c arrived for the airshow – a Harvard, Stampe, Fouga Magister (v-tail jet), Patrouille Cartouche Dore (3 a/c formation team), ASK21 & SZD59 (impressive aero’s!) – plus a few model a/c – Super Cub & helos – unfortunately the ASH flown by Aboulin didn’t arrive – then the opening ceremony, 52 pilots from 15 countries lead by the smallest team from Aus, followed by the largest teams from Czech (9), France (9) & Germany (11) & finished by the next smallest team from US. All starts tomorrow – local wisdom is next 2 weeks’ll be good!–“
Natasja from Holland with her TC Hans, crew , Ronald and Jan and coach Lia who flew years ago the Europeans in Issoudun.
The ladies from the UK and Kerrie with her crew /TC /husband Tom from Australia.
Pictures courtesy Swaantje.
Enough visitors for the AIRSHOW!
We had , by the way, our own demo here in Alphen as , like last year planes flew over to The Hague where the VETERANS were honoured and King Alexander saluted all of them.
Not the best pictures SORRY but a nice flight over the house from helicopters, F 16’s , Hawker Hunters, DC 10 etc.
BACK to the WWGC;
Today the game starts and the weather looks OK, as I heard a nice blue sky NO RAIN!!!
Tasks 269 km. for club class, Standard class 311 and 15 m. 337.7 km Good luck girls.
You can follow it all by the tracking system at;
www.livetrack24.com
Nice weather on Wednesday, called as well “a smoking day” on FB, but several outlandings too.
What happened during practise?
An unofficial practise day was on Wednesday, with a task of 358 km. in club class and Lithuanian Edita flying a Jantar was the best just 3 points ahead of UK pilot Claudy.
6 Choose not to fly or were still busy with other important things as scrutineering and 6 outlanded!
Standard class had 380 km. and Russia practised well with Nina flying in the LS 8 with a speed of 104 km./h followed by the German girls , Sue and Cornelia.
2 Outlanded 6 choose not to fly.
In 15 m. only 5 girls flew the 387 km. and 2 of them outlanded. Good practise from Alena and her mate Lenka, both flying the ASG 29 , both from the Czech Rep.and winning the day.[107 km/h.]
Alena here in Uvalde!
Last Thursday there was a compulsory practise day for all women flying in Issoudun.
At 1.30 PM as shared on FB after the last take off.
A day with a careful meteo forecast but it turned out nice , with 15 from 20 finishing in Club class over a speed task with 2 hours ,1 out -landing and 4 did not start.
Good practise for Sarah as she was 2d.
In standard class a 2.30 speed task with French pilot Amelie flying 222 km. and best of the day.8 Finished 5 out -landings amongst them Natasja but she was in “good company” as the 3 German ladies practised “going au vache “as well. One Russian lady did not fly.
In 15 m. class , 2.15 speed task with by some airspace violations,[ heard the airspace gave already lot’s of discussion ] and 2 Czech ladies in the top.
That was it about practise, as the next day it drizzled and the day was cancelled.
Even more than drizzle!
Picture as shared by Frouwke.
The official scores from day 1 in Hobbs were different than the preliminary ones and not Dick Butler, who started about 15 min. later than the rest, but Ron Tabery in the ASW 22BLE won the day in open class, with 358 miles in 4.24. YES MILES!!!! Out of habit I wrote km.,but the USA uses of course statute miles instead of kilometres. Thanks Tony!!!!
So back to Ron’s flight; 358 miles is x 1.609= 576 km.
9 From 12 finished and in 15 m. only 12 from 27!!!! One of my friends had and unlucky outlanding, which damaged his glider but he was fine.
And reading Andreea’s blog [ http://wordsaboutsoaring.com and on www.ssa.org ] ] , Ron had an interesting day at the least;
—” SS , Ron had quite an adventure flying in a flooded canopy, as his water valve separated and the water travelled towards the fuselage and into the canopy, but he still made the best flight of the day in Open, so congratulations – repairs were done until late at night to replace the valve.—“
Briefing and line up under the hot sun.
Pictures courtesy Andreea.
Day 2 was blue , had 8 kts. wind gusting to 18 and about 36 dgr. C. and another 4 hour TAT, [Turn Area task…. regular task with turn points, minimum distance and minimum time] they do know there as well MAT’s. [Modified Assigned Task…allows the pilots to add extra turn points of their choice to their flight after they complete the assigned task, it only has a minimum time.] Thanks Andreea!
Pilots called it “an incredible day, with great soaring and lots of fun” BUT “ to the North the weather failed again”.
Looking at the scores ;
Dick Butler won in the Concordia with 385 miles in 3.57. Ron Tabery was 2d , starting 13 min. later and flying 363 miles in 3.52.
In 15 m. class it was David Mockler [365 miles in time 3.52] before Dennis Linnekin [TC in Uvalde from the USA team ] and Ken Sorenson [CD from the Uvalde comps] was 6th for the day.
Line up at the strip and “helping hands” by one of the kids from one of the pilots . Mostly having their holidays at airfields they know what to do, as they also did in Uvalde during the WGC.
Day 3 was a hot day again, as usual in Hobbs.
—“Today ‘s weather predicts good to excellent soaring, some cu’s, average lift 7.8 kts, light winds and 102 F. The tasks are all TAT. —” 4 HOURS!!!!
What happened on day 3? Dick and Ron started 1 minute later than Rick in the ARCUS. Dick flew in the CONCORDIA 361 miles in 4.05, whilst Ron in the ASW22 BLE flew 348 in 4.02 which is in points, 20 less. Rick finished at 3.54 and was 8th for the day after 303 miles.
In 15 m. it was Rick Indrebo who was the daily winner with 344 miles in time 4. 04.
Day 4 as summed by Andreea;
—“At the pilots meeting we had an interesting weather prediction – morning t-storms, 8 kts winds, partly sunny, scattered clouds of all kinds , 99 F and chances of T-storms throughout the afternoon in different locations of the contest area, but plenty of lift – so the CD and his advisers did not have an easy day in figuring out the tasks so that the pilots are both challenged and not exposed to bad weather or risks due to that.—”
A 3 hour MAT was set for both classes. And Ron “raced” over the task from 337 miles, [= 542 km] with a speed of 99.95 mph.= 160km/h.
That IS impressive!!! With 11 TP’s , [this is kind of a POST task pilots flew in Uvalde in 1991 as well] , he finished at 3.22.29.
Dick, flew even more miles , starting at 2 PM, 11 minutes earlier then his mate Ron, he flew 345,91 miles [556 km.] rounded 11 TP’s and had a speed of 96,48 mph.[= 155 km/h] and was runner up.
Cumulative points after 4 days; Dick 3910 and Ron 3902!!!!!
In 15 m. Mark Keene won with 296.26 miles [ 477 km.] in 3. 09 and 9 TP’s.
As Adreea mentioned;”The weather was better than expected and all pilots came home happy. I think the CD called a good task allowing them to go where they choose after the first turn point, this way everybody could make their pick as clouds and stay away from any possible T-storms. It was another nice day in Hobbs, with only one land out, close and safe.”
Day 5 was yesterday cancelled.And you can see why on the picture from Andreea at 11 AM.
—“Do not be tricked, this is not a sunset at the airport, it is the way the grid looked around 11 am after the pilots meeting. As we headed for the meeting it all looked normal, we had our weather brief (which was not great, but we were still hoping to fly), congratulated the winners from yesterday and went outside to get ready.
Rather than heading for brunch, we headed for the airport to secure the glider, as gusts of dust were blowing everywhere. This continued as we decided to put it in the trailer and in the end the CD decided to cancel the day, as the winds and dust continued.—”
A big thank you to Andreea who goes home, but Karin [Weissenbühler] will take over her job for the SSA!
I mentioned TONY [Condon] earlier! He just mentioned :”Greetings from Genua Colorado;316 mile -508 km….diamond distance!!!! Good on him. The flight was upwind and up-hill and in a Standard Cirrus and he started at Sunflower.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/
Here is the comment of a HAPPY pilot.
—“Kansas Kowbell Klassic 2013. Wow what a day. One of the earliest starting days I recall in recent history. Nice looking cu 30 minutes before I launched. Thanks to Jerry in K7 for saving me at the first low point. Let’s see…after that I mostly tried to stay between the blue and the OD, then had to turn north to stay east of a big shadow from some thunderstorms in Colorado. After that the whole flight was mostly just trying to stay in the sunshine and get as far away from Sunflower as possible. Was hoping to get enough to make Limon but was a few thousand feet short. Master chase crew Leah was only 40 miles behind me anyway and we were on the way home before sunset. Should be good for Diamond Distance. Happy Day!—“
Some of my soaring-friends are in Ocana in Spain at the moment enjoying good weather and flights up to over and just under 800 km. Good weather in Europe??????? We nearly forgot what that is!!!!
ELY was “hot/booming “again with some good over 1000 km. flights [ 1.244, 22 with a speed of 138.45 km./h yesterday in an ASH 31] and what got my attention as well was the LS 6 WL flight from Parowan;1.005 km . with 123 km./h. Pilot Thorsten Streppel mentioned he declared a 1000 jo-jo, but had to abort about 75 km. before the last TO due to OD, but what a great flight!
In Holland they flew a ONE-DAY-COMPETITION yesterday at Soesterberg the -place- to-be for the Amsterdam Gliding Club; Amstelglide grand Prix 2013.
With 15 pilots in the combi class, 11 in club class and 11 as well in 18 m. always a great comps, with not the very best weather, but improving during the day and tasks for the combi pilots of 235.9 km., 158.2 for the club and 260.7 for the 18 m. contestants.
As shared on FB by Herbert van Zomeren “Briefing”and Adrie Batenburg “rigging”.
Indeed the weather improved and it turned out to be a nice afternoon. In the combi class 9 pilots finished after the Regatta start at 2.16 PM.2 Duo Discus XLT in the top with 9 and 8 points.
In the club class only 4 finished so not a lot of points to win there; 4 for the winner Nick Hanenburg in the LS1f.
In 18 m. it was the Nimbus 4 M, Frank van Empelen, winning after starting 8 minutes later than the rest. [handicap 105]
Ostrow is ready for their EGC starting on July 5 and going till July 21. They shared a nice picture on FB so I share it with you. Pilots and crews are arriving, a very interesting “bunch” who for sure are going to give us great joy.92 Pilots in 3 classes and a few VERY good ones! 35 in club , 34 in standard and 24 [x 2 pilots,] in the 2 seater class.
Great to see as well some well-known names participating in the 20 m 2-seater class this year.
What a great effort from the Schempp Hirth business . They delivered on June 20 their 100ths ARCUS to the MBB SG of Augsburg. Well done Schempp Hirth and congratulations and many safe flights in this beautiful glider to the Augsburg glider pilots.
Great to see how good Birgitte looks.
Picture as shared on FB by SEGELFLIEGEN das MAGAZINE.
Take care all the best and CU on Wednesday.
cheers Ritz
On Sunday June 30 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.soaringcafe.com www.glidinginternational.com