Looking back at 3 comps in Europe and the last one for the season in Australia!

The AZ Cup in Zbraslavice in the Czech. Rep. suffered on several days, from unstable/unflyable weather as did the Pribina Cup in Nitra in Slovakia as well as Fatraglide14. BUT they still managed to fly, though the weather was hopeless!
The 3 comps in the East of Europe, were attended by 223 competitors in total and with cancelled days you all have to keep them happy. But it seems to have not been a problem and all knew ,as real pilots , that you can’t change the weather!!
It’s pretty tough then that in Germany [ Burg Feuerstein]  pilots flew in the same period up to over 900 km.  It’s ALL Europe but the weather-differences were big.
Even here in ” small’ Holland. Severe thunderstorms, lightning hitting the railway and a yacht injuring 4, hail like Easter-eggs  and flooding in the NE,… whilst the sun was shining in the middle and S, with temperatures up to  24 dgr. which is about 10 dgr. above the normal average.

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The weather in Nitra on the opening-day!
Courtesey Elfo

The AZ pilots started on Saturday and on Wednesday they had their unfortunately last day. A good one for Alena Netusilova in the mixed class, as she won the 1000 points over a 3 hour AAT in the 18m. ASG 29.
Great practice for her participation at the WGC in Leszno where she flies in 15 m.
She also won the day before, was third on day 1 so she won the AZ Cup, on her home-field, with a total of 2996 points, which was 93 points more than runner up Petr Tichy who occupied the first overall spot the 2 days before.. Good on her a pity for Petr!!!

Andreea Alena

Alena in Uvalde in 2012.
Courtesey Andreea.

More women flew in Zbraslavice. Got a few nice pictures from young Linda Vasatova flying the ASW 19b and Anna Hajkova in the St. Cirrus. Nice ” young blood” for the Czech Rep. !
Out of 53 pilots in club class, Linda was on spot 27 and Anna at 11. So good results for both of them!
In this class 4 days of flying, with a 310 km. set task on day 1 and a 3 hour AAT on day 4.

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Nitra started on Saturday as well and they had only on Wednesday their 2d flyable day.Finally a bit better with set tasks between 180 km. and 256 km.in 4 classes.
Thursday was back to 2 hour AAT’s in each class but they FLEW!!!! The 2 hour AAT’s were not only because of the weather-window,  but also because of the busy airspace.
Chapeau for fitting both in and making a soaring-day. A pretty good one as well, as pilots were back in a flash.Polish pilot Karol Stariszak flew in open class [ASG 29/18m.] his 2 hour AAT in 2.08 and flew 265 km; speed 123.4 km./h.
Our former tuggy and airline pilot now, Tim Milner , won the day in club class in the St Cirrus; 202 km. with a speed of 93.4 km.h.
Friday was officially cancelled during briefing.
So Saturday to go!BUT….no flying possible.

Out of 8 competition days they flew 3 valid days. Tough on the pilots but also on the organizers!! Next year can only be better! They moved the party and closing ceremony to 5PM, eat goulash and drunk beer together, the best alternative when you can’t fly.

Loved already last year the pictures from Elfo, which you can find on ;www.pribinacup.sk under photos.
I picked my choice out of too many GREAT ones!;

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Struggling with the weather as well; Fatraglide. A nice competition with quite some Danish pilots who seem to love it there.It ‘s all in the same area so unfortunately the same air masses.
A handicapped and a club class here in Partizanske in Slovakia and a total of 31 competitors.
Last day of flying was on Friday with an extra day if necessary yesterday.It rained…..so no soaring and they had to deal with 3 days out of 7.As they called it;”  Hopeless weather , 8/8 of all kind of clouds and rain”.
BUT,…also there good goulash and beer already on Friday evening as there was no point for waiting.

The weather for the last [Easter] competition for the season in Australia flown from Goondiwindie was better. They started on Saturday as well , with 52 pilots and finished now .A cancelled day, several 2 hour AAT’s , even 1.30 BUT also 3 hours. They flew a total of 6 days.
Day 4 was won by Adam Woolley [club class] who flew his last comps to practice for the WGC in Finland. So, good practice, but as he said in his blog Gliding Adventures ” I give myself permission to loose, this competition, as I want to try take calculated risks without judgement in order to gain more experience. Having said that, I’ll still try & fly the same way I always do.” 

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Adam after his win on day 4.

The 3 hour AAT worked for most pilots but for some it was SLOW; 5 hours for some says enough.Not for Adam as he had a successive win after chasing cloud streets ; 293 km. in 3 hours AT the dot! That’s good practice too!!!!
Dad Chris was 4th in the sports class [2.30 AAT] , where Butch[John Buchanan, well known WGC pilot for years!!] won again in his ASG 29/18m. and the final “fight”  for the first prize was between him and Ian Craigie in the JS 1.
After 6 days Ian won with 46 points ahead on John.
For all results you can go to; www.soaringspot.com

Also news from the RIDGE pilots. They had a great day again. Ridge, wave and thermals it all helped Brian Collins in his PIK 20b , to fly 1.649 km. from Ridge Soaring.He needed a retrieve in the end as he did not make it home, but another great and long  flight for him last Wednesday.
The first flight of the season from Marian Nowak [ Canada] was one to remember too; 959 in an SZD 55 from Ridge Soaring.
One day earlier Jim and Dennis added a long flight flying the Sierra- wave again, to their long list of long flights; 1.570 km. with a speed of 159 km./h. AND,…they added another one this time 1.613,67 last Friday. ONE complaint, …too many clouds if not ,..the day would have perfect/epic as Jim called it. You can read their comment on the OLC.

On Thursday a 1000 in 2 parts of the world; in the USA from Minden with BIG speed 190.11 km./h. in the ARCUS and one from Koenigsdorf in another Schemmp-Hirth ship this time the Quintus. Both mountain-areas created a lot of fun again!
The 2 LS 3 flights , from just under and just above 800 km. one in the USA [ridge] , one from Germany over the Alps [wave]are also ” pretty ”  good!

And to finish. It was ANZAC day last Friday.Let’s not forget all those brave men and women!!!

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“Lest we forget”.
Courtesy Sandy Griffin via FB.

See you back in May, with news from the just-started-Klix-comps and the Flight Challenge Cup flown in Prievidza! Can only hope they have better weather, but it does n’t look too promising. Let’s wait and see.
Cheers Ritz