Nitra is well known as the airfield with the first big competition of the new European season. Also this year a lot of pilots entered; 103 in total, flying in 4 classes; 24 in club, 25 in 15 m, 10 in the 2-seater class and 34 in the combined open.
The weather did not cooperate too much, but they still managed to fly 5 out of 8 days. After day 1 was cancelled, the pilots had to fly the first days with a strong southerly wind and quite a few pilots went “au vache”. In club class, only 12 from 34 finished on day 1.
Day 3 was a good one with a 300K as the smallest and a 505K as the biggest task. “Only” 35 from 103 did not finish. On day 4 they used that wind to race the ridges during a 2 hour AAT and it turned out to be quite a good day. Day 5 turned out better then expected and instead of flying off quickly to avoid the predicted showers later in the day, pilots had to think and use a strategy to get the most out of the 2:30 AAT.
“Chapeau” for Roman Mracek, who won EVERY day in club class. In 15 m Sebastjan Ramcak won 4 out of 5 days and went home with the cup. The 2 seater class was dominated by Scandinavia with winner Denmark followed by 2/4 Finnish pilots! In the combined open class,Wolfgang Janowitsch showed he still is the best, winning in the 18m Ventus from real open class gliders; yes I know they had a handicap, but still!
WO with Wolfgang.
Torino in Italy had a competition in the same period, the “40th Internazionale de Citta de Torino,” and with the same marginal weather, the 24 pilots in one class [with handicap] managed to fly 5 out of the 8 days, as well. On top in the ARCUS T: Alberto Sironi/Davide Schiavotto. Davide flew 2 JWGC’s and for sure learned a lot during this competition. Alberto flies the Quintus M in Uvalde!
Chinchilla in Australia [Queensland] had the last competition of the season before winter starts “down under.” 43 Pilots in 2 classes managed to fly 6 days in club and 7 days in the mixed class. Also here pretty small AAT’s due to the weather.
In club class Mike Codling won in Hornet, winning 5 out of 6 days. More tension in the mixed class where Lisa Trotter unfortunately had one bad day and dropped from 1 to 4 overall. Winner Bruce Taylor before Brad Edwards and Tom Claffey. All 3 will be in Uvalde!
Easter Sunday was a busy one for glider pilots as 1,751 pilots had entered their flight on the OLC. They must have rushed out straight after the Easter breakfast, to be in time for really nice flights in Europe. The spring weather at some places is just good! Pretty chilly, but great spring clouds even here in Holland!
Worldwide the list was topped that day by Klaus Ohlmann flying the Stemme from Serres La Batie in France, 1,427 km, the rest of the first 50 flights, [except 2 from Vinon, good ones by the way: 999.09 km in ASH 25 and 913 in an Arcus by the German Team Captain Ulin Gemelin, who had a practise period in Vinon, with the German Team!] were from Germany and between 620 km in an LS1 and 946 in an ASG-29 !
Top flights as well AGAIN by Jim Payne and Dennis Tito. That DG 1001M fits them as a “glove!” When you can log in your flight book 5 x 1000 km. “-BIG-plus ” in wave , in a pretty short time, it means 5 long cold days of sitting [63 hours!!!!], being alert [ over 6.953 km], and not making mistakes. For Jim Payne it seems no problem, neither for Dennis Tito. On April 10th, they added flight number 5 to their impressive list of continuing great/long flights in that for sure good sitting and perfect instrumented DG 1001M. Luckily with a good engine as well as they needed it during this flight!
For the rest of the news about last week you can read more at www.soaring.eu .
C-U next week, cheers Ritz
