JWGC ! German 18m and open class Nationals!

Today the JWGC starts. But there was thunder and lightning to be seen in the early morning, a shower made the clean gliders on the grid wet again, BUT the sun is getting more and more strong, so it looks good. Briefing at 9.30, so a bit later I will come back with the verdict/tasks for today. Also  in “THE SOARINGCAFE” I will have the latest on this JWGC.
Club class 3 hour AAT ; first launches at 12. Standard class 260.2 km. racing task.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!!!!!

Yesterday at 7 PM was the opening ceremony at the airfield.

JWGC opening showtime

Show time, guess the boys looked with interest.

JWGC flyby tuggies JWGC opening autogiro show

More show now by a gyrocopter and the the tuggies!
Pictures courtesy Rob Millenaar.

The comps will continue till August 10 with August 11 as reserve day when necessary.
84 Young boy’s and girls with a lot of experience, [over 3000 hours ]  but also with not so much , [180 hours ]and getting more in Leszno, are ready and eager to go for it!!!

JWGC gliders ready  JWGC tugs ready

JWGC EVERYBODY ready

Gliders ready…..Tugs ready……EVERYBODY ready to go for the 8th JWGC
pictures courtesy Sefan Darwaj shared via FB.

Felipe Levin won the 2009 and 2011 edition in Finland and in Germany!! Would there be another name “Levin”  on the cup???
Now it is Enrique who surely would like to have this title  in Poland in standard class  !!
Young pilots who will try to avoid that, could be Peter Millenaar from Holland, Matthew Scutter from Australia and Radek Krejcirik from Czech Rep. but also one of his own mates Alexander Späth and of course the Polish pilots. I don’t know any of them , but the Polish could do well in their own country.
Well ,….may the best win in this class.

JWGC dutch flag JWGC Peter en vlag

Peter finishing
Courtesy Rob Millenaar, great pictures.

Last times club class world champion was Dutch pilot Tim Kuijpers. He is not in Leszno,  but just flew the EGC in Ostrow. Nobody to defend the title but there are a few new Dutchies [ one Stefan who won the JWGC PRE worlds last year and became Dutch National Champion in 2012]  and Belgium pilots who could do well. The UK clubbies look “strong” , as well as the German and French team. And,..maybe Ailsa from Australia, her first JWGC but she did very well in the Nationals last year in Benalla and Boyd from the USA. Let’s wait and see. All others could be good too, but I did not read/know a lot about them.

 JWGC warning

Finishers OVER the road, so BE CAREFUL!!!!

 

They started on Sunday July 21 with a practise day. THEY,  the National German pilots from 18m. and open class . Ready to find out who will be the winner in each class with mostly top pilots ;42 in 18 m. and 28 in open.
First day in Mengen, close to the Schwäbische Alps, where I was for a very interesting EGC long time ago, straight away was a prey for Michael Sommer in the EB 29. He flew the racing task from 519.5 km. with 128.8 km./h. Runner up was Tassilo Bode [EB 29D]and young Patrick Gai settled for a very nice 3d spot.[EB28 edition]
In 18 m. this first day was for the 2 Belgium guest-pilots Yves Jeanmotte  and Jean Luc Colsson,  with 123 km/h. over 475.3 km. both in ASG 29.

The next 2 days were cancelled due to thunderstorms , wind and hail.
On Thursday , day 2 another tricky /marginal day. It did not happen for the 18 m.pilots, as not enough of them flew the distance needed to make it a valid day. Only the 2 Belgium pilots managed to fly over 100 km.
It happened however for the open class; from the 320 km written on the task sheet the best pilot that day, Ewald Bombelka in a NIMBUS 4 flew 209 k. gaining 795 points.
Alexander Müller did well as runner up and young Fred Fai was 3d, pretty good as Tassilo and Michael “only” ended that day on spot 13 and 10 , loosing about 100 points.
But still 8 days to go!

On Friday day 5 and flying day 2 in 18m. and 3 in open class a 3 hour AAT was set with the expectation of local summer -thunderstorms later in the day!
Bernd Gauger flying the QUINTUS in open class, started as the last pilot at 12.26, but won the day with 324 km. in 3.04. Patrick Puskeiler [ Nimbus 4M] flew 342 km. but needed more time [3.22]
In 18 m. the task was changed in 2.30 and from the 6 gliders in the daily top 5 were ASG 29  with one VENTUS 2CX from Werner Meuser in the middle.

 Tocumwal 009

Werner , here at sunny Tocumwal in January.

 YESTERDAY ,  299.7 km for open and 292.2 km for 18 m. I noticed HIGH temperatures in the Bayern area, also Mengen is HOT, with the expectation of 38 dgr. C.
Holger Karow flew with 114 km./h. over the track winning the day in the Quintus M. Between the first 10 in this class in the overall scores is only a difference from a bit more than 200 points.
A bad day for Alexander Müller as he had to outland.
As I read on the German site , Holger found the starttime important :
“The departure was important. I went straight away. Even flew from the opening of the line , straight over the line .It was also important not to get low. In the end however there was about 3 m./s lift “.
In 18 m. the speed was even faster.; 124 km./h was flown by Robert Schroder over 292.2 km. who climbed to 4th place just behind Werner and the 2 Belgium pilots.
He said about the day:
“It was a typically hot-air-day. You had to be at the right spot on the right time. I was lucky.”

The thunderstorms we had yesterday and last night pass by this morning over the competition-area. So flying in  open class is scrubbed for today and the 18 m. pilots are rigging and grid time is at 13.35 . Task ; A 252.6 km. Task B; 2.15 AAT [ 196,7 – 316,5 km.] No flying yet  , but at 2.30 the day was cancelled also for 18 m. Tomorrow is another day!
The Bayern have a heat wave as well ;up to 40 dgr. that’s pretty hot but above all pretty special! They all keep an eye on the temperature today to see  if the all-time-record , 40,2 will be broken.

The famous KLIPPENECK SOARING COMPETION started  yesterday as well with 4 classes. Lots of mostly German pilots in the air this weekend. With 12 pilots in open class, 22 in the 2- seater- class, 22 in 18 m. 12 in 15 m. and 10 pilots in standard class it is a busy competition, with a total of 78 pilots. International as well as one Dutch team in the 2 seater class, some Belgium and quite a lot of Swiss pilots participate.
They started with 291 km for the st. and 15 m. class up to 320 for 18m. and open. ,the 2 seaters with 257. 9 km.
In each of the classes outlandings but also 1000 points for some winners.

With the EGC I missed out on checking  the 15m. Nationals in good old Husbos [Husbands Bosworth] in the UK. They had 7 days out of 7. What about that?! With tasks up to 330 km. it was a feast of every-day-soaring, instead of sitting and waiting in the English rain. Same great weather there as we had here.
Champion was Dave Watt , still going strong, good on him, in his Ventus 2a with 52 points on runner up Mathew Cook also in a Ventus 2a.

We had number -39- of -heat- waves in Holland since they started counting in 1901. It was “bloody hot” but I don’t mind too much. Last Friday we got the first rain here. In the S of Holland they had severe thunderstorms already over a couple of days causing quite a lot of damage as flooding, and fallen trees on cars and houses. They go together the heat and the storms also here in Holland, no doubt about that.
This is yesterday! Luckily no damage here in Alphen, only good rain, perfect for the garden, but again a lot of damage by flooding and storm. In Belgium it was SO bad that they needed a bulldozer to get rid of  the hailstones!!!Also France was hit badly , certainly the Bordeaux area.

 Weer by Martin  Weer by Oedske

Holland, yesterday, as shared by Marco and Oedske.

And for all the fun, not censured and hilarious stories and pictures from the JWGC you can go to a great blog loved by young AND old from Ben and Ali, who started this fun-blog in 2005 when we had an unforgettable but pretty difficult JWGC in Husbos;
Our aim is to give unbiased news of what is going on as the competition unfolds, from the competitive flying from all teams, to the bar antics in the evening.”

http://balipresentslesznojwgc2013.blogspot.nl/

CU next Wednesday! Cheers Ritz
On Sunday July 28 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com