Seven out of 10 days: that’s exellent for a competition in Holland. The Dutch glider pilots had some difficult last days, with pretty bad thunderstorms just in the area around Terlet and even to the east of the Thermiekbel on Wednesday—as you can see on the fantastic picture from Oedske Osinga—and on Thursday when the pilots had to battle a tough wind. The club class suffered more than the others and the scores were mixed up.
The last day, however, was a good one with 3:30 AAT’s and 3 hours for open class. Blue thermals, very warm on the ground, so nice cool high up for the pilots. Only in open class there was a last minute change in the overall scores as Jelmer Wassenaar, in 2005 still a junior in my team, won the last day and climbed from spot 6 to 3 . Good on him!
At 9.30 PM the new Dutch Champions Stefan Telkamp in club, Steven Raimond in the combined and Ronald Termaat in the open class got their wonderful trophies and were cheered on.
In Ocana, the UK overseas was more a “party” for the French than for the UK pilots. At least five [including reserves] are practicing for the Uvalde WGC as they will perform there as well. Killian Walbrou , flying the JS1, had to withdraw, which is a pity.
Louis Bouderlique topped the overall list after seven days , followed by three other French pilots. Their team/pair flying or just helping each other is top of the bill. They will get far in Uvalde as they have practiced now in several comps together.
The Swiss Nationals in three classes with 42 competitors from Birrfeld had unfortunately more cancelled days then flying days. Last Thursday it finally looked good so pretty big tasks were set for flying (day 3), but in standard class nobody finished the 417 km task. In the mixed 18 m class it was better; 6 of 18 finished after 456 km—under them the two pilots who will compete at the WGC in July/August.
Werner Danz and Rolf Friedli are also the only two competitors from Switzerland this year. I miss a few well known names in open class for Uvalde. In open class five of 12 finished their task of 465 km with three NIMBUS 4DM on top.
In the end they had three days in standard class and six cancelled days and the other classes had one more soaring day so one less cancelled.
That’s it for now look for more news and pictures at www.soaring.eu .
Cheers Ritz
