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Latest news
June 4, 2006
Fabulous beginning of the Comps.
12.45 What a great start of this 29th World Championship. The weather looked fantastic and in 1 hour and 20 min.all 116 gliders were up in the air.12 Tugs did a great and fast job , one had to pull out. We had 4 gliders with problems while starting ,so that slowed down the launches a bit .
The first launch was at 11.00 sharp. Glider SA ,with pilot Dmitry Timoshenko, had the honnour of being launched first in these comps.It was a great vieuw too see 116 gliders lined up over the at least 400 m. wide field at 05. No mud anymore ,everything is in perfect condition.
Glider WO in 18 m. class and...with current World Champion Wolfgang Janowitch ,was the first to be pushed off the grid ,but luckily his problem was minor as he could be pushed back quickly and start. Also Argentinian pilot Javier Gaude was pushed off and back quickly. Stress for the "poor pilots" and their crews or....extra stimulance to go for it???
More stress for female pilot Alena Netusilova , though she did not show any stress at all, calmy she waited and looked how several people helped to replace in a very short time ,the under carriage of her glider and lots of guests around helped lifting the glider from the box it was placed on.
Unfortunately they were about 1 minute late to push Alena in front of open class ,so she had to wait till they had launched.
More problems as, open class glider TC stopped in the middle of the grid , because its engine gave up! Another former world champion ,as Goran Ax flies this glider.With the help of several people, who rushed to help out, it worked in the end ,but probably not good enough ,as Goran was launched by aerotow at 12.30.
Skies looked stunning up N. where pilots had to go. The organization on the grid was superb. Signs for crew were placed where to park their cars and everybody did that quickly ,as Robert said during briefing, he would not start launching when there was a car on the grid. Everybody understood!
No problems at all with the weighing on the way to the grid ,according to Art.
Quickly go to town now and then I will be back with updates! Waiting time now!!!
15.05 FIRST pilot to arrive back at the airfield and the first finish from this competition was Swedish pilot Ake Petterson,flying in 18 m. class, who arrived at 15.00. Great effort!!! He was the first to start today at 11.57!!He flew with a speed of 119.8 km.ph.
In St Class the first arrival was from glider SI, Vladimir Foltin from Slovakia ,who had an early start too and did his AAT task arriving here at 15.15.
2 More gliders MP with Mariusz Pozniak and glider LOT with Piotr Jarysz ,both from Poland arrived just a few minutes later.
15.45 The spread in start times was not too astonishing. Most left between 15 minutes to half an hour from each other.
In 15 m. class the first start was 12.32 the last at 13.04.
In 18 m. class the first start was at 11.56 , Ake Pretterson and the last at 13.05.
In St.class first at 12.45 and last at 14.05
In Open class first on 13.01 last on 13.27.
Start times you can find easy and quickly on the page "results".
It is interesting to find out ,if the early starters made the right decision today!
16.00 The Meet and Greet is up and running thanks to KG. Great job KG!!
The first " greet" was from Argentinia. Please use it readers!!!!Have contact /interaction with us and your friends over here !!!
More and more pilots arrive in the hangar here to download their flight recorder or memory stick and I asked Jelmer from Holland and Gherard from France how their day/flight was and they both seem happy! Gilles [1L], Janusz [BB], Martin ,daddy from Leigh[LS] ,Eduard[IE] they are all in here, which means back!!
16.15 Just had a sort talk with Ake Petterson.
Why are you so fast I asked with a grin. He answered straight away with a grin too." I started straight away as there was no reason to wait. The conditions were just strong. But when I flew to the 2d turn point I got a bit nervous. I saw some spread out and rain at the 2d turn point and thought for one minute ,that I might have made the wrong decision. But when I arrived at the turn point the rain had moved away and I felt just 2 drops. From there onwards it was easy! " So far Ake!
But there were even faster pilots in 18 m. class. Wolfgang Janowitsch flew with a speed of 123 km over the 371 km task and he started 1 hour later then Ake??!! So not really a point in starting early or later in this class. ????
17.15 Rafi Luski from Israel is back here and thought there were difficult moments on track.But he did fly well! What about Argentinian pilot Damian Goldenzweig!?He flew in st. class 314.4 km with a speed of 122 km /h.And what about John Coutts from NZ in 15 m. class,he was the fastest with a speed of 124.3 km. /h. Great speed in each class and we still wait for open class. They have arrived and are still arriving ,but there was a short time a problem with down loading here. Anyhow German pilot Michael Sommer seems to have flown very fast with 127.7 km/h.
Look for scores at the result page!!!! For "the evening shift " please tune in later tonight for a "roundup " about the day!
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