End of Season

End of season

The lasts contests in Europe is coming to an end. In Rieti (where they did not fly the last four days, but enjoyed superlative speeds in the first five days) Thomas Gostner took the 18m class, whilst Herbert Weiss won the standard class (with Edoardo Tarchini and Corrada Costa hot on his heels). Herbert and Mario Kiessling will be back for the worlds next year, and one must certainly rate them together with the Italian duo.

In Leszno they are still flying the Polish Nationals late in the season. The weather must have been putrid (I could not follow the commentary in Polish) but Sebastiaan Kawa, fresh from his club class victory in the EGC, is in second place in the Diana, just behind Thomas Krok, also in a Diana.

In three weeks time we will start the South African season with the Gauteng Regionals. The grip of winter is still with us, but the long range forecast shows a drier and warmer than average period ahead, always good for contests.

Finally, a picture of a rainbow over Signal Hill, Cape Town, taken from my car on my way to work!

Sven

CIM 2007

Rieti is up and running again, hosting the COPPA INTERNAZIONALE DEL MEDITERRANEO "CIM" from 15 to 24 August. Whilst they have been setting 118km tasks in Issoudun, sometimes only barely making the 1/3 1ookm cut-off, Day 1 in Rieti was a scorcher!!!

The first six places in the standard class, yesterday, Day 1 looked like this, with the winner at 138,3km/h over 394km. The German team is clearly gearing up for next year.

1. AK Mario KIEBLING Germania Discus 2ax 138,3km/h 394,3km 940
2. 3Y Herbert WEISS Germania Discus 2b 136,5km/h 394,3km 919
3. ET Edoardo TARCHINI Novi Ligure Discus 2a 130,5km/h 394,3km 844
4. 5 Corrado COSTA ACAO Discus 2a 129,4km/h 394,3km 832
5. AJ Alvaro DE ORLEANS BORBON Toledo ASW 28 128,1km/h 394,3km 815
6. SM Sandro MONTEMAGGI Mugello Discus 2a 125,9km/h 394,3km 788

I could live with that ;-)

Sven

Hard as nails

Yesterday in Issoudun

Hard as nails, that is the only way in which to describe the contests scene in Europe.

Pociunai

Take the results from Pociunai where the EGC Standard, Club, 20m and PW5 contest was held. In the club class, perhaps as was to expected, was Sebastian Kawa in first place (he is after all ranked first in the world, and has occupied that position for quite a while now). Second was Roman Mracek (ranked 53rd) and third was Tomas Suchanek (ranked 52). In the standard class, however, the first three places were occupied by Frederick Hoyeau (83), Olivier Darroze (9th) and Peter Szabo (87), and my friend Mariusz Poszniak in fourth place (ranked 40th), whilts pilots like Reinhard Schramme 7th, ranked (56th), Thomas Gostner 12th, ranked (59th).

Issoudun at the halfway stage

Midway through the EGC 15, 18 and open classes at Issoudun (with only 4 of 8 days being flown) the situation is even more competitive.

In the 15m class Leigh Wells (ranked 5th) is leading, building on his first class win in the standard class in Sweden. Second is Manfred Hahn (385th) and third is Jean-Luc Colson (219th). Languishing in 6th place is Janusz Centka (2nd), in 10th is Giorgio Galetto (19th) and 16th is Steven Raimond (18th) and Erwin Sommer (155th) is all the way down in 29th spot.

In the 18 m class Ronald Termaat (64th) is leading, with my next door neighbour from Sweden Hadriaan van Nes (95th) in second place (he must be very happy with his LS10) and Werner Aman is in 3rd place. World champion Phil JOnes (8th) is only in seven place and ex-world champ Wolfgang Janowitsch (7th) is in 5th place with Ricardo Brigliadori (33rd) wedged between them.Mak (23rd) flying HC, is only 9th (compared to his performance at Lusse). Peter Hartman (58th) fresh from his win in the standard class pre-worlds in Rieti is in 9th place and Peter Krejcirik (21st) is in 14th place.

In the open class Peter Harvey (10th) is leading Uli Schwenk (34th) and Laurent Aboulin (48th), with for instance Steve Jones (41st) in 11th place and Antti Lehto (197) in 16th place.

Europe is a really tough place to fly contests in.Let us see what the next few days in Issoudun brings, and meanwhile the CIM is getting underway in Rieti (oh, i wish).
regards

Sven

Introspective

Outside it is raining, and at Issoudun they are sitting on the deck, Rieti has just finished (with the last day being cancelled, in Pociunai they look about ready to launch - at nearly 16h00 local, and on task 3, or something like that). One may become a bit morose and introspective, but i don't know that it does one any good. Below a picture i have just received from Oscar (that well known member of the Goudriaan clan, and supreme pilot, i should add).

I don't believe it to be a true reflection of the real position

Sven

Number 1

If ever you doubted the IGC ranking lists which reflects Sebastiaan Kawa as the world's number one pilot, you only have to look at today's results in Pociunai - to be found at http://www.pociunai.lt/index.php?cid=2805, to understand why!!
(the rankings are at http://www.fai.org/gliding/rankings/)

Sven

Winter wonders

The title says it all, whilst they are having contests in the Northern hemisphere, or at least on some of the days (see the results at Pociunai, Lasham and Rieti over the last few days. Day 1 at Issoudun was already a non-starter) we forge ahead in the southern hemisphere (despite the dire weather and fronts that have pestered us). The title, however, is all that you are getting in this post. To read the actual article you will have to go to http://cgcdiary.blogspot.com/ where all is to be revealed in much more eloquent phrase (together with appropriate photographs). For the results see also http://capegauntlet.blogspot.com/ (where i am sure the results for Saturday are soon to appear - in the meanwhile you can catch up on the past season's results and the reports)
Sven

Back at the Ranch

... meanwhile back at the Ranch we are in the grips of a real winter (unlike the few preceding seasons) (I wonder what this will entail for our summer?)

Here are some photo's

Pociunai

Weather, or lack of it, is driving the EGC in Pociunai, and the task set there for today (the same for all classes) is not repeated here, because these comments (coming from one of the team reports) say it all

"Auf Grund der unveränderten Wettersituation ist auch dieser Versuch für einen ersten Wertungstag gescheitert. Schön langsam wirds mühsam.Morgen soll endgültig das versprochene Hoch zu uns kommen. Und damit wir auf keinen Fall schuld sind, wenn morgen das Wetter nicht mitspielt, werden wir heute am Abend alles brav essen, was wir beim Deutsch - Schweizer Teamabend aufgetischt bekommen."

Perhaps better weather will be dished up tomorrow. Rieti also had a tougher day today (but tomorrow will be yet another hum-dinger

Sven