Exciting Soaring News from Some Comps

... and awesome weather in parts of Europe!

... and awesome weather in parts of Europe!

This blog is a bit long, but there is SO much news. ENJOY it!

Great weather, but also disappointing weather, comps and Nationals,…
With a HIGH over the North sea the predictions for this weekend were more than hopeful. Yesterday it proved to be true, now in the early morning the key word might be over-development. Let’s wait and see!

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Klix
Courtesy Klix site picture gallery;www.aero.de

I start with Klix;
After the very poor weather last week,  in several countries in the East of Europe,  KLIX in Germany, not too far from the border with Poland  had, one week later,after some difficult days in the beginning , 2 days of great soaring. It started already on Tuesday with tasks from 490 km. in the 18 m. class flown with a speed of 130 km./h.
Tasks from over 500 km. were set for Wednesday , even for the 15 m. class a 5.30 AAT [ min. 460 km. – max. 884km.] . The weather was earlier in the morning, not as good as expected / hoped for, so launches were postponed,  till the good Cu’s had formed and at 2 PM everybody was up in the air BUT,…with the B task.Would have loved to see another BIG day. But it ended still as a pretty big one. 

The 29 pilots in 18 m. had to fly now a 2.45 AAT and a few pilots did that ” on the dot”!Speed was up to 126 km./h.over 341 km.

The 4.30 AAT was for 12 of the 15 pilots in 15 m. class, no problem. Mac won again and seems ready for Leszno;510.2 km. with 113.6 km./h.

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Mac wins again and AGAIN!
Courtesy ; Aeroteam.de

Also the 24 standard class pilots had to go for a B task, a 3.30 AAT instead of the 508 km., but the winner still flew 403 km. with a speed of 112.52 km/h.

Clubbies , 22 of them, went for a 3 hour AAT and more and more pilots , also in this class finished at the dot. Good on them! Best distance 314,….but this time NOT at the dot but 20 minutes over-time!

The 20 m. 2-seaters started after 2.30 and the best distance combined with the 2.30 time was from a Duo Discus , just before the DG 1000 and the ARCUS, followed by the rest [8]  of the Duo Discus pilots.

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One of the Duo Discus gliders with fans.
Courtesy Picture gallery Klix.   www.aeroteam.de

 

Day 5 started late. It was, after rain and postponing,  time for a small window and standard and club class pilots were send direction N. after 3 PM with a C task in the pocket.But the ” window” was just too small or the bad weather/cold front TOO fast.
A lot of outlandings but not far away.No scores, so a zero points day, though 4 pilots in standard class managed to make it home before the thunderstorm hit Klix! That’s for sure worth mentioning!

Z rain in Klix  Z Klix

Rain in Klix as seen and shared by Dutch pilot Hadriaan.

Day 7;the HIGH with great but arctic-cold weather arrived yesterday just too late in the East of Germany, so they saw it on the map, organizers tried hard but in the end could not give them another day. Cancelled, over and out.
At 8 PM,was the prize giving and party.
Next year will be the 23d Klix Cup and they will all be back.
Winner in 18 m.after 4 flying days; Dutch pilot Jeroen Verkuijl.
In 15 m. Mac, from Japan.
In standard class Andreas Hillebrand. [3 flying-days]
In club class Lutz Seiler.
In the 2-seater class the DG 1000 won with pilots Besser/Back. Congratulations to all!

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Scandinavia had another beaut day on May 1!! They started with that exceptional HIGH.
Sweden topped the OLC list on Thursday  with a great flight by Jan Ola Nordh; 935 in a Discus BT.
ALSO on May 2,Sweden was on top with flight of 885 km. in an EB 28.

Norway shared the great conditions and flights from 784km. in an ASW 20, 691 in an LS 8 and 725 in a Discus BT must have given the pilots great joy!
One of them mentioned in his comment;” Once again a superb flight in Norwegian thermals. Integrated   5m/s, rough mountain terrain, beautiful valleys, including a touch of the coast in sea-breeze thermal at Risør. Life is gooood.”
No more words needed!!!!

HOWEVER, Rayskala ,where the Finnish team- pilots were practicing , mentioned SNOW!!!! And when Antti Lehto arrived there with the new ARCUS, he and the BIG ship were welcomed with white powder on the ground! Though he and Nikke , both flying the ARCUS in their home country at the WGC, tried it out straight away.

ZArcus Antti   Z new ARCUS

White welcome! And the first start in AM.
Pictures courtesy Finnish team.

One of the good Swedish photographers at the 2006 WGC in Eskilstuna was Per Carlin.
Also he had a great day on May 1, which was flying-day 4,  from the Flight Challenge Cup in Prievidza;
539 in the LS 1f.

The set task was 501 km. in club class and with that he was 9th in his class, with a total of 52 participants. The winner flew with a speed of 96.2 km./h.
3 Hungarian pilots bundled their power/efforts to win in a St Jantar and to be 2 and 3 that day in an LS 1f and LS 4.
25 Pilots in the mixed class had a task from 504 km. best speed 124 km./h.  by Polish pilot Zdzislaw Bednarczuk. Why do all those friendly Polish pilots, except Sebastian,  have such difficult names? Number 2-3-and 4 were Polish as well. Number 5 was Christophe Cousseou. All flew ASG 29E.
The 15 m. pilots , 27 of them and among them a few French toppers had to go for 510 km.Best speed here by Christophe Ruche [Ventus 2AX] ;116 km./h.
That’s what you call tasks! But as always you depend  on the weather !

May 2,one day later was scrubbed. No news on day 3.

On May 4 today they set in each class a 2 hour AAT.
They continue till May 8. All scores on www.soaringspot.com

The ” high”  with very cold , but very good soaring-weather and very good visibility,  arrived this weekend with a Northerly over Holland , Belgium, part of France and the W of Germany, but also the UK and Luxembourg got a bit!
On Saturday morning at 9,  clouds had popped up already and on FB I noticed that 4  gliders at Soesterberg [Holland] were ready to “go for it”! It looked like one of those days, where there are not enough from.
They set a 1000 but one of them, Sikko just missed out on less than 2 km.; 998.96 km. in his Ventus BT /17.6 m. Alfred Paul in an LS 8 flew 958,76 km., Mark 963 in the Ventus and  Bart in a DG 300 still flew 728 km.  What an effort over flat country.
Their task; ssb-wittenberge-aachen-bergheim-aachen.
Today they try to fly back or even try more ,departing from Aachen, where they must have had a good time.

Z Sicco  Z going again

4 Gliders ready to go from Soesterberg and 1 day later Alfred Paul, Bart and Mark to depart from Aachen .Pictures courtsy Sikko

Z zweefportaal  Z Jeroen cu's

And pilot Dinant Riks from the club ZES, shared this picture with the possibilities!
courtesy; blipmaps.nl and Jeroen shared a picture on FB from the clouds.

Dinant mentioned with the picure above;
Sssstttttt,…..don’t tell this to anybody otherwise we will be with 30 on the strip”.”They were with 29 ZES pilots!
Several one/two- day- comps in Holland were blessed with this good weekend-weather and lot’s of pilots attended.

A total of 182 flights from Holland were published via the OLC yesterday!!! But more pilots were up enjoying/playing with the great clouds.

Belgium had the same  weather with flights up to 940 in a Ventus 2 CT and 790 in an LS 6, both 18 m. versions.Blogger Niel Deijgers flew his first official 500 km.in an LS 4.
Germany counted 1134 flights on this remarkable May 3 . One 705 km. in a Libelle!! Best flight in an LS 8 an 800 Km FAI [825] triangle by Jonas Gieseke.
Luxembourg pilot Guy Bechtold added a 1005 km task and France 51 flights.
Uk pilot Bob Nicholls is back from Australia were he spend a long time flying from Benalla and his first flight from HusBos was straight a 520 km task.
Ronny Lindell from Sweden added yesterday 865 km.and Finnish pilot Nikke flew in the DISCUS without water still 685 km.
The Finnish- team- spirit was built up more and they mentioned: Training day 4. Cold airmass is dynamite. Little bit of sunshine and instant 3-4 m/s thermal. Did you know that bugwipers can be used to scrape off ice from the leading edge?”
After pondering what to do , skiing or flying they decided for soaring.

Z bugwipers against ice  Z skiing or soaring

” de-icing bug wipers”  and a choice ; skiing or flying.
Pictures shared by the Finnish team.
A total of 1669 flights on the OLC world wide and during the day a few more will be added.

In between pilots gather in Sisteron in France for the 5th Sailplane Grand Prix Final 2014, from May 9 till 15.Here is the program.

Z Sisteron

As shared on FB.

Talking about France,33 pilots have started yesterday  with  the French Nationals for open and 20 m. class at Buno. The 2 seaters , 15 of them, exist out of Janus types,[4]  Duo Discus in different variations [10] and 1 ARCUS.

Z French Nationals

Life is good …..also in France:
Championnat de France c’est partit!…. They started!
520km en libre …..for open class
420km pour les biplaces…… for the 2 seaters.

 In open only 2 did not finish and in the 2 seater class a few pilots were scored till the spot they entered  where they were not allowed.
For today open class has 383 km.on the program and the 2 seaters go together for 322 km.

Pretty sad, but from the air,  rescuers have finished their search to find traces of the missing Malaysia Boeing 777. They continue under-water now, in the hope to find at least something which is related to this plane , to give a bit of comfort for those who lost their lost ones. New theories about terrorist attacks are in the news now.

Today on May 4, we remember all soldiers/resistance fighters,  who fought for our freedom, as well as ALL people who got killed in the war. Tomorrow we celebrate our freedom!!! Even after nearly 70 years it’s 2 minutes quiet at 8 tonight in and all flags are half-mast.
On May 5 flags are in the top again and it is  party-time!

To finish I share this colorful picture and the news from ” stuff Dutch people like”.
The Keukenhof is the world’s largest flower garden, with spectacular and beautiful arrangements of over 7 million flowers! It would be a shame to miss this season’s displays which are coming to an end on May 18th.” 

Z Keukenhof

Cheers Ritz and good luck Bill and Rand with the new format.
More next Wednesday in www.soaring.eu