4 gliders..500 m. finishline…and 250 km./ h…..that = a QSGP!!!

After flights with 170 km./h. it was a bit of a disillusion to see that after 3 “golden” days the weather changed in Potchefstroom . Thunderstorms and rain made an abrupt end on a Qualifying Grand Prix with top pilots and till then top-weather, the best combination for a strong GP.
The stories on their Facebook site read like an exciting novel and every evening after coming home I put on soaringspot to see the results and when there were no results I checked the FB site to catch up with the latest. What can you do? NOTHING!

I admire the great soaring skills from all participating pilots , but specially those of  the 3 toppers; Andy Davis from the UK and Oscar and Laurens Goudriaan.
It is not easy to fly with 250 km./h. to and over the finish line , only 500 m. wide with at least 4 gliders!!!! That you loose 10 points, by winning with ONE second, but are 13 m. out of the finish line is tough. As you know that happened to Oscar. And what better consolation can you get after such a thing happening to you, even when the picture is from years ago????

From Potchefstroom ” we travel straight away to Lake Keepit in Australia” ,  where the next QSGP will be held this upcoming week.
The first 2 practice days, today and yesterday, had not yet the top weather and some pilots had to get used to penalty points due to  exceeding the start speed limit, but it is all going to happen in Lake Keepit next week.
Here is the latest from Bruce Taylor the tasksetter;
—“We’re about to get the GP qualifier underway tomorrow here at Keepit. Two practice days have gone past… Yesterday most of us finished in a paddock or burned some hydrocarbons to get home. Today was much better with plenty of sunshine, cumulus and climbs of 7-8 knots to 7500 feet. Tom Claffey got home first, but tomorrow is another day. I have the job of setting the tasks, and at this stage I can only say the weather is looking good, especially for the next few days. BT.–”
What do you want more!!!

More and more friends arrived at their overseas destination and I hope it will be a fantastic and safe season for all of them!!!

When I saw the ASH 31 yesterday at an open day from the PILOT SHOP in combination with Alexander Schleicher BENELUX, here in Holland close to Utrecht, I was wondering how Pepe and Hans would do this upcoming season. At least they started well in their ASH 31’s with Hans topping the OLC list yesterday with a flight from 891 km.[815 FAI triangle] from Kuruman in SA and Pepe with a practise -day from Corowa;347 km.
The open day was very interesting not only for social contacts  and sale talks about instruments and gliders as well as batteries, but also because of the guest speakers; Tijl and Bert Schmelzer from Belgium and Andrej Koller from Naviter/SeeYou, from Slovenia.
Bert jr. spoke about the family trip to Morocco, after giving their 2 places away to other Belgium pilots for Uvalde. I heard from Bert but did not know that , that Uvalde is on the same 30 dgr. as Ouazarzate .
He said that a VERY GOOD preparation is half of the result! They flew as I mentioned in the past several new Belgium and SA records.
According to Bert the average length of country flights is about 750 in Namibia , but in Ouazarzate it is over 1000 km. BUT,….it is not a place to go to for fun, it is hot, dusty and HARD work!!! But….they would go again!

 

Bert during his lecture and with Daan Pare and me.

Brother Tijl spoke about his 1000 km. flight from Belgium the very first. Also here was preparation , specially about weather, the key word and Tijl “invented” flying long distance with the use of power plants  “Cloud Making Machines” over Germany.A lot of interest was showed by guests asking to know more about this. On the FB site from Tijl you can read his theory.

Andrej who I saw last in Uvalde spoke about his friendship as student with Erazem and how they started their business in 1996; Erazem as the designer and Andrej as the sales/promoting man. A great combination, where would we be without SeeYou,  power for nearly ALL competition results to be seen also on www.soaringspot.com !
Andrej had HOT news about SeeYou Mobile. He shows us how it works!!!! Great stuff!
The SeeYou app is out for Android and it is only waiting for approval from APPLE to find it on your iPhones and iPads. For all the BRANDNEW news you can go straight away to  www.naviter.com


Andrej and Erazem together in Uvalde, @ “my” table!

Here is a photo impression from the open day with some faces you still might know as from Baer Selen, 2 times world champion in Chateuaroux and Uvalde 1991. Enjoy!
And…for all other news you can read at www.soaring.eu

Cheers Ritz

 
Bart Berendsen one of “my “juniors in 2005 and Bert de Wijs, great x-country pilot and Bert jr.

 
Andrej in front of the new oudie and with  Dutch wizz-kid Jip.

 

Tijl in action and a present for Robert Werts who flew [ with co-pilot Bart Geurts] the first 1000 km. FAI triangle from Holland this year.