ISSOUDUN
Monday at noon;
“Line is now open for all classes. Good conditions 1200m and cumulus above Issoudun and on the flying area for today.”
Nice pictures shared on the French site, taken before start.
Courtesy Mark Pal, who has downloaded about 70 air-to-air-shots yesterday evening to be shared by all. Good on him!!! Thanks!
Monday afternoon at 5 PM, I read on the official French site:
“Pilots will be back in few minutes, sky is great, it will be fast and furious today”
That sounded MORE than good!!!
While waiting I noticed that SEI from Natasja had a problem over the last couple of days with the LX , and this was caused by failure of an GPS-antenna.
Then you see what friendship means in soaring; The German team had a look and borrowed her one of their team. That’s what soaring is all about.
How good was it?
In club class 9 girls flew in the 900 till 1000 points range, with as best team,…Germany; Chrissie and Doerte and Elena who started 2 minutes later on a good 3d spot. Speed of 83.8 km.h. for Chrissie! 3 Girls did not finish one of them only 5k out!! Ouch!
Between number 1 and 5 overall, the difference in points is only 49 points !!!!! That keeps us all eagerly waiting for MORE!!!!! Swaantje is still on spot 1 but there are Doeerte and Chrissie “nibbling on her wings” ,as well as Elena [It] and Magalie [Fr] and don’t forget Sarah who is cheered on by ALL Americans. “Nearly” the same “burden” as Scottish Andy Murray in tennis.
You can read all Sarah’s news on their site: http://ussoaringteam2013issoudun.blogspot.fr/
Frauke Elber from the USA Hangar Soaring Magazine wrote an addition to what I blogged about her, in May;
“when she came to Chilhowee, she had no glider experience whatsoever. But within
a few years she had progressed from a novice to a Diamond pilot and instructor
and now to a world class competition pilot. I have followed her progress over
all these years and I am absolutely smitten by what she has done. On the way she
has gotten almost every WSPA scholarship she has been qualified for. And as you
mentioned the Sarah Fund drive was absolutely amazing. In one year we got $11 600
for her. I can’t thank the soaring community enough for its generosity.”
I guess a lot of people who have sponsored Sarah to participate both in Chaves and Issoudun are true fans as well as all her students and pilots visiting Chilhowee.
In standard class French Celine Gantie, flew the 3 hour AAT in 2.59 min. over 278.6 km.
German- defender- of -her -title Sue, was on spot 2 with more km and more time; 319 km. in 3.19.
The Czech girls flew just over and just under 340 km. in 3.45 and were on spot 4 and 5.
The number 1 Cornelia from Germany was 7th loosing 70 points but still leads with 13 points!!!!
In 15 m. the French team members, Marilyne and Anne, flew with 102 km./h. over the 327.8 km. The overall toppers lost a few points , so Anne is after 6 days on top of the overall list. Current world champion Susanne is on her way to the top, being number 2 now. Still not over yet.
Sorry to see Teresa was not flying on day 6.
As the USA TC Francois Pin said yesterday ; “ needless to say with just 5 days to go including today, the competition is getting “serious,” if not intense already, among the top contenders. The last 4 days, all forecasted to be flyable, are going to be interesting, for sure…”
I can only totally agree!!!
Yesterday day 7, started VERY difficult for Swaantje , as she had the day before a collision with a Polish Jantar , while rolling out. VERY SAD , and even worse…..Swaantje could NOT continue the race.
What a tragic moment for her being on spot 1 . I really feel for her!!!!!I have never heard such a story in my life; being on spot 1 and out by a “stupid” ground incident.
BUT,…as said so many times the last day is the day and the champion the one for whom EVERYTHING felt in place.
Luckily the Polish Jantar pilot could continue in another glider.
Even more lucky nobody was hurt.
And for Swaantje; there is ALWAYS next time!
Swaantje in happier times!
Pictures as shared on FB.
Briefing was at 11.30. Tasks;
Club 276.5 km., standard class 291.9 km., and the 15 m. class went for a 3 hour AAT [Dist.: 267.7km/383.1km.
FINALLY a real good day for the UK club-girls , I thought already “where are they” , as I expected them to be pretty good, certainly Ayala! But they were yesterday on spot 1-2-and 3!! Good on them. Only day 3 till now showed a good UK-team- flight.
Ayala “jumped ” from spot 8 overall to spot ONE. [6548] You can call that a good jump! Still EVERYTHING is possible certainly when they fly today , a day with maybe thunderstorms.
Between 6 [Sarah 6431] and 1 is only a difference of a bit more than 100 points.
In standard class UK pilot Gill did well too with a 3d place, but the German girls Sue and Cornelia are slowly increasing their lead by winning day 7, both with 1000 points.
They are now 500 points ahead so Sue who defends her title , has to deal with her mate Cornelia over the last days who is going to be the CHAMPION, or,…am I ahead of myself now??? Let’s wait and see!
In 15 m. the WWGC champion Susanne , who was so fair to abort her flight in Uvalde when she saw the mid air and stayed over the spot to keep the radio contact going, to have help as quick as possible , won day 7. She flew 287 km in time 3.14!
Susanne is only 19 points behind Anne from France now and I am sure both will do their utmost best to win this WWGC.
I am still impressed by Orsolya. She was runner up yesterday and is on a 9th spot overall as loosing 200 points on day 6, was a bit of bad luck!
Yesterday evening there was a mutual BBQ and the very SPECIAL only in female soaring to be seen/felt ;BABAYAGA!!!!! Witches at the airport????
the beginning of the evening,……spooky!!
As shared on FB .
One also in the morning?????????
Elena from Italy had her glider on the scales and canopy closed with the cover over it, “against the sun”.
Standing on the scales the glider was MUCH heavier than before. Astonishment on the officials faces!!!! Unbelief!!! Then,….the reason,…..a young man was hidden in the glider. So no witch hunt necessary.
Today’s tasks; Club has a 3 hour AAT,….. Standard a racing task from 239.2 km and the 15 m. girls go for 265 km. Noticed a the European weather forecast this morning, possible thunderstorms in the evening for the SE of France.
And 4 more great pictures from Mark Pal;[double click to enlarge]
Glider YS [Celine Montorio Fr. ] and 3S [Cornelia Schach-Germ.] in the air.
Thanks Mark!!!
OSTROW
A lot of people share or tag the pictures from Ostrow, I do too as I see such a lot of really nice soaring pictures. These 2 ones are from Moje Zdjecia.
As shared on FB.
Day 3 was a prey AGAIN for Sebastian; a total of 3000 points , you can only say, ……for the best pilot ever!!! His mates started ,flew and finished with him and was it on day 2 the runner up position, for Pawel and than Lucasz ,on day 3 it was the other way around.
Who is going to break this pact?
Matthew found “the European groove” and would have been 4th if he was not an Aussie but he was pleased with 993 points and in Leszno later he will be properly scored.
Here is part of what he said in his blog:
—“Decent day today! Started with the Poles, lost them, found them, lost them, found them, found the poms, lost everyone, found the slovakian, found the poles etc etc. Key lesson of the day was; if Kawa wants to jump off a cliff, don’t follow him! A small gaggle of us chased him down to 1500ft, having passed up several good 3-4kts climbs only to grovel away in 1-2kts (while Kawa just disappeared?…). Was then very surprised to bump into the Poles again before the last turn at the same height for final glide. They say there are no old, bold pilots, but the trio of Poles pushed down hard on glide and I eased up just a bit for the sake of my trousers and they pulled away in the last 20k.–“
And later he added ; “it came down to a game of who would leave the last thermal the furthest below glide. Kawa left 1200ft below glide, I stayed just one extra turn thinking it wouldn’t be quite enough, but it turned out an excellent run home (should have left at 1600ft below!). So, first lesson of the day is don’t always trust Kawa. Second lesson is always trust Kawa! I don’t think it would have been very ‘honourable’ to have a crack at overtaking him on the glide home after having him lead all day anyway… very valuable experience though – I’m trying to adapt my flying already. He really is a magician!”
Is n’t it great to see these “MASTERCLASSES ” from Sebastian, for all young ones who are eager to learn from him!!!!???
No outlandings and a few pilots are flying not so good yet , but they might find the correct groove soon as well.
Talking about Sebastian. Loved this picture from Piotr Góżdź, shared on FB.
These are the 3 men who are making all other competitors “groan “. Not the doggy he is cute!
SO relaxed, that’s the way to win it seems.
Love the doggy!!
In club class the German pilots , Lars Hagemann and Gerrit Feige are ” the masters in their class , till now , that is! > BUT….the Czech team is as good! Roman won already 2 days and Peter was 4th today, so Gerrit , Lars and Roman are the leaders after 3 days and don’t underestimate Danish Rasmus Orskov, who I remember as a good pilot on JWGC’s. Here in Finland in 2009.
The 2 seaters; ALL pilots finished that ‘s good or maybe the task could have been longer , but that is easy said in the evening.
Wolfgang and Andreas got 1000 points again . Harri and Visa-Matti [ who changed his FAI- IT- Manager-chair in Lausanne temporarily for a seat in the ARCUS ] , from Finland climbed overall from 7 to 5 and Janusz Centka was 3d today and is on that spot overall.
Day 4 started with great pictures again. GO ON like this dear Ostrow team!
Tasks for day 4;
CLUB, 355.4 km., STANDARD class 438.1 km. and the 2-seaters went for 423.5 km.
Did the UK club-girls fly well in Issoudun Liz Sparrow did the same yesterday at the EGC in Poland being 5th with 958 points in their club class.
Winner of the day was Hungaryan pilot Zoltan Hamar, till now on 10 on day 1 ,24 on day 2 and 17 on day 3 . He flies an LS 1f. So a good day for him.
Roman was the runner up and Finnish Antti Koskiniemi had a good 3d spot.
The 2 till now, very good flying German pilots were on spot 11 both with 916 points!!!!
In standard class Sebastian LOST!!! ONE point only, he still got 999 points, would have loved to see him with the full scores in the end, “when they were planning on winning every day. “That would be an effort in his own.
Lucasz was the winner Pawel on 3, nothing changed , still 3 Polish pilots in the top.
Would Bert jr be able to have any influence on this top 3??? He is on a great 4th place.
In the 2 seater class it moves a bit up and down with some pilots having good days and bad days. Pretty consistent is Wolfgang [ARCUS M] as well as Tomas [DUO DISCUS] who won today and Janusz [ARCUS M] . They are also topping the overall list after 4 days.
Good 4th place for Wim and Dennis and also the THE Broquevilles are climbing! Hup Belgium!
Tasks for today;
Club; AAT Dist.: 178.4km/396.6km…… time????
Standard; AAT Task, 02:30:00 Dist.: 176.4km/375.1km…..
2-seater class; AAT Task, 02:30:00 Dist.: 184.3km/392.2km
Early starts due to incoming front. Estimated at 11.
Enough now.
Cheers Ritz back maybe every day now for the last days of the WWGC.
Wednesday July 10 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.soaringcafe.com www.glidinginternational.com