Post; 1.432 on Wednesday July 12 2023.

WWGC in Soria-Garray…Spain!
2 July 2023 – 14 July 2023

Sunday July 9 ; Blue skies and 36 dgr. C. Real Spanish weather!

Club class; 307.08 km….task 8 on flying day 4.Daniela Wilden in her LS7 was the only one with over 100 km./h. Good on her!3x an LS7 in the top, also the one from French Louise and her German “mate” Carolin, on 2 and 3.
18 started and 1 was out. The first 9 were close and flew around with a speed from 108 to 111 km./h.

Standard class; 357.79 km….task 8 on flying day 5. This time Lizzy took the initiative by starting early at 16.06, indeed another day with late starts making the days pretty long for the girls.
The line opened at 15.24, Lizzy was the first to round the first TP and her final glide started at 3200 m.!!!!She was on a daily spot 6.
Daily winner Cornelia [Germany] started 4 minutes later, but finished at the same time so 1000 points for Cornelia. She was the 2022, so current WWGC champion.

18m. class ; 409.50 km...task 8 on flying day 5. with 120 km./h 4 girls in the top 4; 2 from Czech Rep and 2 from France. So 1000, 999, 998 and 996 points. Michaela Rendlova in the AS 33es was the best, Anne, Elena and Melanie followed.
All 12 started and finished.

In the evening was the well known and for most , lovely event; the BabaYaga -evening. The witches -night , specially for all 13 new pilots, so also for Lizzy. But those Seniors still “flying their brooms” and introducing the young ones in this ritual, love it as much.

Monday July 10; another hot blue day and the more real Spanish conditions, so longer tasks!
Launches were delayed till 2PM. By the way Spain and Italy suffer from a REAL HEATWAVE!!!!!
Open day at the airfield.
Club class; 3 hour AAT..…Some left AFTER 5PM for 300 km!!! So did French Louise; 17.08.38 and she finished at 20.32!!!!! Another long and hot day and a “SLOW” one as Louise was the fastest with 69.43 km./h! She flew 235.52 km.
Petra Piskata who won in Husbos [2022] at the last WWGC was the first “outlander” after 233 km., costing her nearly 300 points. A pity!
The last finisher arrived at 21.14.
18 started [Unfortunately for Carol upon inspection of her glider following the field landing, she has had to withdraw from the competition., by British Gliding Team ] and “only” 7 finished, a bit of a tough day for the scores as p.e the other 2 French girls did not finish. Aude , the number 1 overall at that stage, was one of them and dropped from 1 to 5, but Louise is on top now!
Here is Claudia with her comment on this task: Claudia’s Gliding Page
“Eurgh. Today was awful. We all started late, and the forecast good weather never materialised. I got low several times and lost the pack, I was so fed up that I was checking to see if there were any airfields in the area I could flop into to make it end.I eventually dug myself out of several holes, then found some of the pack, who had slowed down due to the day coming to an end. Outclimbed an LS7 and a couple of ASW20s, which cheered me up.
Decided to abandon the task with just 40km to go as there just wasn’t anything happening in the sky anymore (hardly surprising at 20:45) and the area has very few landable fields.
So I returned to the airfield. Annoying but safe.Landed at 21:02, managed to put the glider to bed just before sunset.
Shout-out to Clubbie team mate Alison, who got the climb that made the difference, got round and came 2nd! “
AND…US Soaring Teams on this day, both Sylvia and Kathy fly in this class;
“Finally in the back of the grid again! It seems the ideal time to go on task is about 4pm. NUTS! The days are crazy long. Very interesting terrain with a mix of hills/ low mountains, forest, and farm fields and pastures. The club class has a 3 hr AAT. The primary tasking is to the south each day, to another set of mountains, varying SE or SW. This would be great, but when you get to the mountains south you also run into airspace that you have to duck under, so you cannot use all your climb.”

Standard class; 3.30 AAT….and those Czech girls in their LS 8 did well AGAIN. They even managed to get 2x 1000 points , for Dana and Jana. A pity I can’t find pictures from them at this WWGC.
They flew 353 km with a speed of 88 km./h . Barbora got 999 points!
Only 8 finished. Lizzy was unfortunately NOT one of them. She had an off-day with flying only 80 km for 152 points and dropped from 1 to 9,…ouch, that hurts, but she has done better than I expected, certainly after been out of soaring for 2 years. Great to see we have a young female Dutch TOPPER again.

18 m; 3.30 AAT…12 started and finished and starts just before 4 PM helps. 377 km for the French girls Melanie and Anne and a speed of 107 km./h.
Alena [Czech REP] started 3 minutes earlier, was 5th for the day but still proud on top overall at this stage. [5,250 p] Melanie and Anne however are “closing in” on her. [5,195 and 5,122 p]

Tuesday July 11; At 7 PM…. “As a hosts, the organization and the city of Soria will make a good and typical Spanish dinner. It will be an event to laugh, enjoy, talk and get to know each other a little more deeply.”

Club class;  272.05 km…CANCELLED!!!! Some started around 4 PM, to fly 12 km and turn back home others did not start at all. Too much head wind!
In the end SCRUBBED IN THE AIR!!
After 5 out of 10 days including a rest day, with today and 2 more days to go Louise from France leads [ 4,425 p] ahead of the German girls Carolin and Daniela. [ 4,253 p and 4,238 p] All fly LS7.

Standard class; 314.75 km….One of the Swiss girls did not start so 15 left in this class and another “crazy” day. 3 Girls from France, Germany and Czech Rep had the same speed ; 105 km./h. for 933,932 and 931 points. Jana was out , so was Lizzy and Joanna.
9 finished after starts around 4PM.
With 7 out of 10 days, and 3 days to go the overall scores are international; 1. Barbora [Czech Rep] with 6,133 p. 2. Sabrina [Germany] with 6,059 p and 3. Aude from France with 5,910 p.

18m; 346.83 km…Also in this class “one missing” Hana did not start again. Her Czech mates did well with a daily 1 and 2 spot for Michaela and Alena.
11 left over and 7 finished.
With 3 days to go including today [no tasks yet] the overall scores are ; 1. Alena [C.R] with 6,151 p. 2. Melanie [Fr] 5,968 p and 3. Anne [Fr] 5,888 p.
All 3 fly a JS 3.

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46th International Issoudun
7 July 2023 – 15 July 2023

After 2 pretty good days, both won by Matthew, last Sunday had rain,….so NO FLYING.
Looking back at those days, Diana from Luxembourg , was 10th but did not fly on the 2d day; a short -circuit in the vario- system ruined the day,… no working instruments.
Then a day with NO TASK so flying continued on
July 10;
Multi-class; Task 3….307.67 km, with 92 km./h Daniel Vincent-Genod in an AS 33 won the day, Interesting to see the performances from this new glider. Matthew was runner up also with 92 km./h He started 20 minutes later than Daniel.
20 started and 16 finished. Good to see young South African pilot Philip Jonker [son from Uys] on a 3d spot!

Club class; Task 3 …..238.68 km….Ben Hughes and Tim Milner had about the same speed 82 and 80 km./h.
16 started and 11 finished.

July 11; NO TASK
So only 3 tasks till now in also HOT France with showers.
On www.soaringspot.com you find the scores and 3 links to their gallery.
July 7 https://photos.app.goo.gl/iDyMGXixMSpr7SiC9
July 8 https://photos.app.goo.gl/nggNtTkJpC86V64t8
July 10 https://photos.app.goo.gl/3VjxZ7hhnvr95AtL6

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UK 18m and 20m.multi class NATIONALS.
 Husbands Bosworth
 1 July 2023 – 16 July 2023

Another very interesting competition, flown from HusBos, a great area for flying. As often when a competition starts the first day had rain and dark skies. But on day 2 they could fly ;
July 9;
18m; 245.61 km and 38 pilots started and for 19 it was a good day. They finished. Ian Macarthur in the JS1b was the best with a good speed of 121.81 km./h . Followed by Russell Cheetham in the JS 3 with 118.81 km./h and by Pete Harvey in the Ventus 3T; 109.69 km./h

20m multi class; 210.99 km and a German team won task1; Martin Theisinger in an ARCUS M, with just over 100 km.h.
9 started and only 4 finished among them Matt Cook, Steve Jones and Mike Young. All in an ARCUS type.
The other participating gliders are Duo Discus-types 3x and DG 1000 T.

On July 10 tasks were set, but also cancelled/scrubbed.
On July 11; same same. I noticed at the European weather station that they have showers. Those showers slowly move away,…to us here in The Netherlands. We don’t mind a bit of rain in this heat. 33 dgrC.
Hopefully better weather the next days. I’ll let you know on Sunday.

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News from Romain Fhal ; Aerobatic coach/instructeur bij Romain Fhal Aerobatics

“Very happy to be first to present the EXTRA330SX. Thank you very much to Walter Extra and Extra Aircraft for this opportunity to fly this beauty at the German national open of aerobatic. this championships have been a real success with 33 pilots 12 nationalities and 102 flights done in 3 days.

Congratulations to my students that took the first five places and the progress of the other students and pilots at this championships. Thanks a lot to the organisers of the this great event to make it possible.”

!!!!!A MEA CULPA /SORRY to Jim [James] Lee.!!!!!
I wrote about his excellent flight from July 2; 1.360,71 km.
I was so involved in those long FAI triangles that I called Jim’s very special GOAL flight, an FAI- triangle!!!!
STUPID!!!!!
So,…. NO it was not a triangle but a GOAL FLIGHT. Even more special!!!!
Here is Jim’s comment I received;
“Hi Ritz,
A correction.  You reported my 1360k flight (along with Keith Essex triangle flight) as a triangle.  It was a straight out flight from Minden NV to Moriarty, NM.  It is the second time that I have flown the longest straight out thermal flight in the world.  Cheers, Jim“

I asked him how he got back, as it is “pretty far from home”.
AND,..I got an answer, which I share with you.
Logistics are important with such a long flight.
“July 2 was the flight.  I had already asked Keith Essex the day before, if I could use his hangar if I made it to Moriarty, and of course he said yes. 
On the evening of July 3 my friend Mark Mocho drove me to the Albuquerque airport.  On July 4 I flew the airlines to Reno, Nevada, where my wife Kathy picked me up and drove us 40 minutes back to Minden.  She already had me packed up with clothes, a cooler of drinks and food, and a bed made in the back of our car.  We hitched up the trailer and I began driving immediately.  I drove 6 hours that night.  The next morning I was up at dawn, and drove 12 hours to arrive in Moriarty.  The next day (July 6) was a nice flying day so I flew 1C to my old stomping grounds in Taos, New Mexico, and back to Moriarty.  Mark helped me derig and I hit the road for home.  After another 18 hours of driving I was back home in Minden on July 7.
So to answer your question, it took 4 days and 36 hours of driving to do the self-retrieve.  I always do it this way (7 straight-out flights) because I can’t bring myself to ask someone to do all of that driving for me.
(20+) Facebook
Cheers,
Jim

CU next Sunday again with the latest on the comps!!
Cheers Ritz