AERO in Friedrichshafen! Prievidza 11 Days Out of 13! Japan Had Some Good Flights!

Aero Ludwig, Tilo and Ralf  Aero Flying with the ..

 Ralf [THANKS!!!] and Tilo Holighaus with Ludwig Starkl.
And some guests in the Flying-with-the-Champions  Corner from Schempp-Hirth
and…

Aero Quintus

The Beautiful Quintus M; Courtesy Schempp-Hirth FB site

“Flying with the Champions” Ludwig Starkl and Tilo Holighaus from Schemmp-Hirth combined efforts and friendship at the AERO in Friedrichshafen. Yesterday was the last day of the AERO and soon I hope to hear how it was.

In www.soaring.eu you can find pictures of other gliders at the AERO as well. I was invited for Austrian food and wine but couldn’t make it!
The LATEST news from Flying with the Champions is…
” There are now only two places free; we are sure we will fill them up in the next weeks .
The big attraction in the gliders hall was of course the Quintus, but in second place we found our wild boar bacon and our meat slicer!!”

More to come.

Wolfgang at Aero

Wolfgang at the Aero with the wildbore bacon (on a great looking slicer) I missed out on.

After a very well organised WGC in Prievidza, this time the 6th FCC 2013 was flown, with 11 out of 13 days;  a “feast” to follow even “just” on the Internet.

What about Sebastian?  Third on the last day in the mixed class, but with his experience and the knowledge he describes in his book “Sky Full of Heat,” he adds another win to his long list of victories. He won day 11 with 137 kph on the clock and the CUP!!

Polish “mate” Zbigniew (LS 8) did the same in the 15 m class but ONLY just!!! ONE point was the difference with French JD Barrois (ASW 27) who combined his effort with his mate Christophe ( Ventus 2AX) to be in spots 2 and 3.

I am sure the French, starting 11 minutes earlier, did their “combined” utmost best to be better than Zbigniew. It helped for the day but not for the final victory—ONLY ONE POINT was missing !!!! And that after 11 days of soaring!!!!!

In club class the last day was won by Swedish pilot Gunnar Axelsson in the Cirrus 75. His mate Per Carlin, the one from the nice pictures in my soaring.eu blog, was 2nd. Overall Gunnar ended in spot 2 with only 20 points less than winner Ferenc from Hungary and 46 ahead of number 3 from The Czech Republic, Karel. For lots of pictures of the prize giving, you can go to the gallery and click on 13th day at www.fccgliding.sk .

Yesterday was another good wave day for Kakuda of Japan!
He tried before, on March 13  on a gorgeous spring day, but not a typical wave day, to fly a 750 km task. He flew 370 km. and … on March 23rdm Takeshi Saito flew 522 km, but he really would like to fly that 750 IN Japan. It didn’t work out yesterday either, when he flew 701 km in the Discus BT,  but when you know how the circumstances are in Japan a 700K   is pretty good, also/even in wave! It will happen!!!!

I told you before that quite a few soaring fields are on the border of rivers in Japan—pretty windy and close to water and not much lift.
More nice flights this year in Japan as, on April 19th, Shige Ishiyama flew 715K from Nagano in the Ventus 2CT and on March 16th Yasuo Bamba, flew a DG 505 /20 m a nice 550 km. It is not often we look at Japan as a soaring nation, so I thought I ‘ll do it today, especially for my Japanese friends!

The Pre-WGC in Leszno started yesterday with 47 competitors in 15 and 18 m and open class. Day 1 had a 3 hour AAT but was cancelled in the end.

Lots of comps at the moment. A big one, meaning lots of competitors, is the one in Klix in Germany, the 21st International Gliding Cup. They started on Friday with a pretty marginal day weatherwise, but enough finishers to make it a day in each of the five classes. Yesterday was full of overcast and rain and today looks like rain as well. For tomorrow there is hope!

We here in Holland, but also the pilots flying from Diest and Keiheuvel in the N. of Belgium, were blessed with cool, dry, sunny and cloudy weather conditions again yesterday. Sometimes overcast but also a convergence line going from Antwerp to Amsterdam and several pilots used the line to fly over 600 km even to the N of Holland. As you know the only lift is thermal lift in our flat country.

I hope the weather will stay like that during the Dutch Nationals, starting on May 8 with a practise day and the opening briefing. The last day and party are on the 17th of May. 54 Competitors is GREAT!

With more news about comps I will see you again next Sunday.

Cheers,

Ritz

For all other European and world wide soaring news you can go to www.soaring.eu