ISSOUDUN
Launch on day 4 as seen on the German site!
Yesterday the 3d day of the WWGC was flown, with pretty long tasks after rainy days. In the past organisers said; “after rain the area is still wet, so we don’t set too long tasks”. But La Douce France is HOT and it dries quickly over there!
That was correct as the girls had a fun-day, certainly the UK pilots Ayala and Helen. Ayala won the 3.15 speed task in club class with 263.3 km. in 3.39,07 in the St. Libelle. With the 1000 points added to the scores from the first 2 days she is overall in the lead now. Helen was runner up and cumulative she is on spot 11. [in LS4]
The German girls had a pretty good day too , no first places yet, but that might come . Christine and Doerte flew 300 km. in the ST Libelles with winglets but needed 4 hours 33/34.
I was very pleased to see Elena from Italy on a nice 4th spot yesterday and 5th overall.
In standard class French Amelie won the day followed by the German girls and Gill on 5.
That’s about the order overall as well. The 2 German girls Cornelia and Sue on top with Amelie and Gill on spot 3 and 4. Enough days to go however!!!
In 15 m. it was France, Germany and Poland with the best 9 daily places. Overall 3x LA FRANCE and 2 times Germany.
Day 4 was A DAY!!!! The tasks said it all; 15 m. goes for an AAT with a min. of 4.30 and the standard and club girls have to fly a racing task from 434.5 km. and 413 km.
The weather was OK, with a cloud base of 1250 m. lift about 2 m. average and 3/8 of cu’s.
What happened?
In Club class the girls flew between 5 and 6 hours and 3 of them outlanded.
Best was the runner up from the day before, UK pilot Helen Hingley , starting FIRST in this class.
Swaantje went 7 minutes later and she finished on a 2d spot.
Sarah ended on spot 3 for the day.
In standard class also a UK lady on spot 1 for the day; Kay Draper, with 85.4 km./h. The German girls Cornelia and Sue have an overall lead of more than 200 points on Gill who is at this stage on spot 3 overall. EVERYTHING can still happen!
In 15 m. the ladies had an AAT and 4.30 was the min. time. The German girls started at 13.41 so did Orsolya from Hungary. Katrin and Stefanie flew 426 km. in 4.40. 4 Outlandings in this class.
Tasks for today;
Speed Task Club, 04:30:00
Dist.: 301.2km/502.8km
Standard class
Racing Task
Dist.: 408.0km
15 m. class
Racing Task
Dist.: 440.8km
Standard class starts, followed by 15 m. and last on the grid are the CLUB- ladies! Every day one class at least , will have an AAT. So to hear everybody still has a lot of fun , even after outlandings. Every day is a new one with new possibilities!!!
OSTROW
The EGC in Ostrow was opened last Friday in town. What I see till now is that they are very well organised over there.
4 Busses brought all pilots ,crews and TC’s to the town where they , after a short walk through the streets , arrived at the main square.
Good to see Matthew Scutter from Australia has arrived as well. Matthew is going to fly the JWGC in Leszno, but sees this EGC where hew flies HC, as great practise.
Matthew keeps a blog and you can read what happens to a young Aussie boy in Europe at all the different soaring fields , his happy moments and less happy ones.
https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding?directed_target_id=0
The town square and the Polish team. Sebastian had to read the official oath and as I read the excellent TC from Poland got the Tanski medal , the most significant award in Polish gliding. I can only say. WELLDESERVED!!!!!
Pictures shared on FB .
The Belgium and Dutch team, as shared on FB.
Yesterday they started flying and ,…there was a bit of a complaint from the pilots and crews,…the long waiting for the scales as one pilot said ; “Every glider is weighed every day (even club class). About 50 gliders ahead of me in the queue…”
Some teams hoped to be finished with weighing before briefing. The organisers postponed the briefing from 10 till 10.30 and “got the point”.
As shared by the Belgium team and Matthew; WAITING!
The first day in Ostrow had the next tasks;
330.1 in club class with 32 pilots ,
standard 383.2 with 33 participants and
the 2 seaters went for 396,5 km., they fly with 23 gliders , so x 2 pilots.
Finally good weather in most parts of Europe , even here with 25 dgr. and very sunny conditions.
SO,…. gliders ready , pilots ready, weather ready, crew standby and TUGGIES ready.
Tow planes ready, weather ready , gliders ready.
As shared on FB.
It turned out to be a tough and for some a disappointing day 1 as there were quite a few outlandings.
Not for Sebastian as he straight away won the day in standard class where he defends his title. It seems he and Christophe Cousseau are having the same ” friendly rivalry” as in Vinon. It was not long ago that Sebastian won and Christophe was the runner up in the 18 m. EGC.
In club class young Aussie Matthew , who flies HC, had not a good day as he comments, but he is very fair about it:
–“Not such a great start 🙁 Outlanded 340/380k around.
Started a bit late thinking conditions would improve and 100kph would be achievable, but I think the new airmass moved in sooner than expected and everything turned to worms at the last turn. The loose gaggle I was running with (HAL, YA, YB, 12F) seem to be scattered across the country side on the last leg too.
Kawa’s book talks about gliding being quite unique in that you can’t just do a time trial and a few laps to see if you’re in form or not, and while flight analysis is useful, without something to compare it to it’s rather meaningless. The best way to improve your form is to fly (high level) competitions, and that’s what I’m trying to do here. Today it felt like I was picking the right routes, taking the right climbs, but whenever things got a bit low and the thermals narrow and choppy, I couldn’t get the D2 full of water to climb like some of the other pilots seem to get theirs to. Climbing away from 1000ft with the Hungarian, from going around tip to tip he somehow pulled 4kts and I was working 1.5kts. More practice needed!
7 Outlandings in this class. For all results you can go of course to www.soaringspot.com
In the 2 seater class 4 outlandings and 4 toppers on the first 4 places ; Former world champion Wolfgand Janowitsch and Andreas Lutz in the ARCUS M deserved/got the 1000 points. Multiple WGC contestant Tomas Rendla was on spot 2 with Ludek Kluger in the Duo Discus . Dutch pilot Wim Akkermans with his future brother-in-law Dennis Huybreckx from Belgium both flying for Belgium, on spot 3 in the ARCUS M and former world champion Janusz Centka was on spot 4 with Lucasz Grabowski.
Fantastic pictures on FB from Narcyz Przybylski , I share 3 with you . Tuggies at their best!!
Courtesy and thanks to Narcyz.
Tasks for today:
Club class; AAT 04:00:00 Dist.: 216.7km/495.5km
Standard class ; AAT Task, 04:00:00 Dist.: 289.0km/546.4km
2-seater class; AAT Task, 04:00:00 Dist.: 293.4km/568.0km
Later they changed the tasks for standard and 20 m to 3.45.
Last but not least compliments [again] to Maria Szemplinska. The outstanding picture on the centre-spread of the latest Gliding International, from Heinz and Karin Weissenbühler-Schlösser is just so human , romantic and awesome beautiful , as well as the view on the Uvalde strip with the text; Our estimate 12.69 million US dollar, worth of glass, who said we are an inexpensive sport???? I did n’t!!! But it is SOOO much fun!!!!
Enough interesting news for everybody as well;
—the competitive 2 seater market
—The Twinshark
—New motorglider the CROSSOVER
—Latest in instruments by Paul Remde
—Greece,….Glidings hidden paradise
—AERO 2013 in Friedrichshafen
and the evaluation of the Schemmp Hirth ARCUS by Aldo Cernezzi, who flew 250 hours in 2 ARCUS types. As you know the number 100 has been sold already!! In the EGC in Ostrow 10 from 23 two-seaters are Arcus types.
63 Pages full of news. www.glidinginternational.com
In my blog today for Soaring café, I [re] introduce you to Manfred Radius the best ever aerobatic glider pilot, still active but not rushing from one show to the other anymore.
See you soon again depending on how much news there is about the WWGC and EGC.
Cheers Ritz