There are a handful of serious online glider racing organisations that have built a reputation and dedicated following in the online soaring community. To create this you need vision, enthusiasm, commitment, dedication, lots of time and help from other people to make it all work. Not least of which are the pilots who now have a choice of competitions to fly in – you need to continuously challenge them, make their flying interesting and fun to keep them coming back again week after week. After this season it is certain that the Soaring Camp Team led by Marek Svozil (22) will add their name to this exclusive list of competitions which attracts the world’s greatest online glider racing pilots.

 

This has been one of the most closely contested online racing events this year with only 80 points separating the top 10 pilots, and a nail-biting finish where the top 3 are separated by only 6 points. We wish to offer our congratulations to the winners and all the pilots who flew in this competition. We thank you for your support.

 

The final individual pilot result for SC 2008 Summer season is:

 

R	Name	CN	Country	Avg Pt
1.	Lovsland PML	PML	Norway	929
2.	Laurinyecz Sandor	LS	Hungary	925
3.	Hart Jack	JH	United States	923
4.	May Marcin	MAY	Poland	919
5.	Heslegrave Tony	TH	United Kingdom	902
6.	Kiss Norbert	CN	Hungary	896
7.	Kuenne Helmut	F9	Germany	893
8.	Holland Jon	123	United Kingdom	884
9.	Svozil Marek	22	Czech Republic	867
10.	Deppe Winfried	WD	Germany	849

 

We extend our congratulations to these pilots who have demonstrated such finely tuned soaring and racing skills.
Overall individual results can be viewed on the SC website.

 

Overall team results:

 

1. NorthWind
2. Team Käsemann
3. Bladderbusters
4. Team Hungary
5. Polish Team
6. Team Asia-Pacific
7. HANG-para-GLIDING PiLoTs
8. Team Finland
9. AAA-CUTRAICO
10. Team-Woody

 

The SC team would also like to offer thanks to the large crew of people behind the scenes who provided support to keep the “show on the road”. A special word of thanks goes to Helmut Kuenne (F9) for technical support throughout the competition, and to Hank Delen (H9) for marketing, administration and story-telling. A special word of thanks to all the task setters who made a great effort to challenge us and make our flying fun and interesting:

 

22 – Marek Svozil
3P – Erik Praznovsky
JJJ – Jeroen Jennen
H9 – Hank Delen
PIT – Piotr Raczynski
TE – Tom Eagles
TH – Tony Heslegrave

 

Without the help and support of these people we could not offer this event.

 

We would like to offer our thanks to Piotr Raczinsky aka "PIT" for consultation and assistance with SC2008 and IL2 community "Asfaltoví Holubi" for server hosting.

 

Prizes and awards:

 

1st, 2nd and 3rd place

UK VFR HD scenery / medal / diploma / place in SC Hall of Fame / rank SC Master

Most active pilot

Winfried Deppe (WD) - UK VFR HD scenery
All participants with 14 or more flights

will receive the rank of SC Veteran

Top 10 pilots

will be awarded the rank of SC Champion
All pilots

will receive a diploma of participation, sent out to their email addresses as listed in their SC account page on the SC website.

 

The pilot ranking system will appear in the second version of the SC webpage, coming soon.

 

The SC team will take a short break, and be back in the near future with another season of racing. Information on this event will be posted on the Condor Forums.

 

Thanks,

Soaring Camp Team

latest news

16:08 - 06.19.08 UTC +0200

added by CN 22

 

Important!!!
If server list doesnt work, here are IP addresses.
81.27.199.58:56279 - primary
147.32.50.52:56278 - secondary
81.27.199.58:56278 - backup

as alternative forum you can use http://forum.czskcup.info

more >

 

last task comments

04:28 - 08.01.08 UTC +0200

added by CN H9

 

 

Race 23 Comments:

 

So this was the last race and we’re done for the season. I was looking forward to it since I like the West Swiss scenery a lot. JJJ is quite a creative task setter, and I was pretty keen to erase the “hangover” left from Wednesday’s Day 9 replay race – what a disaster!

 

Four of us lined up, including 1EW back from months of tortuous exams, no girlfriends, alcohol or tobacco, 3hrs of sleep a night…..ahhh, the life of a student. It was a bit of a struggle getting up initially after release, and nothing much around; 28 and I stuck with our grinding 1.5kt climb since there was just nothing else around yet. A trip to a far off Cu could get you landed out before start. Half an hour later the Cu started popping around the airport and with a few more options we all set off to test a few climbs….3-4kts was the best I could muster. Given the terrain I was sure there would be a few corker climbs in the mountains, it was just a matter of maximising those and making sure you had enough “fuel” to make the next section of promising terrain.

 

I usually have quite a stable internet connection, albeit slow. Just going through the start it bombed out so I was left to fend for myself and fly offline. With Mc at 3.5 I flew the first stretch to the vertical ridge, found a strong but very narrow climb and worked up with about 5kts average. My patience was rewarded and this gave enough height to run straight to the next climb at the base of the next large ridge, crossing some smaller ridges on the way…traps for the unwary or overly hasty. Gotta go slow to go fast sometimes! Next climb wasn’t too good at about 3.5kts in ridge lift only, but I couldn’t see around the corner and height = options, so I stuck with it for a while. Now about 1000’ under ridge top I pushed on for TP1, flying into the rising ground. As I passed the southern tip of the second large ridgeline I could see a large black mean looking Cu sitting on top of a bowl in the rocks about 2km away – I deviated a little and took a 9kt climb to cloudbase and then headed off on the last 20km to TP1 at 120kts.

 

Here near TP1 were more leeward sink traps for those finding themselves a little low. I happily sailed over the top of all of this and joined the end of the ridge facing into wind and sun, just 2km from TP1. Hunting around for a bit, and finally a 4kt climb; not the greatest, but I’d had a good run so far and was keen to keep the rhythm.

 

Now looking at the first part of the track to TP2 I wasn’t sure whether to use the East side of the ridge or hop over and use the West sunny side. The first section was almost aligned with the wind so it wouldn’t matter too much, and there were also some nice looking Cu on the West side. Further down on track the ridge curved to the East so would come into play with the southerly wind just when I would be looking at some height for the valley crossing near Bex airfield. This made my mind up so I headed off through TP1 and on my way along the East of the ridge. I could just maintain height at 100kts pulling up in the wind funnels created by the spurs on the ridge, and had a nice run to the valley. No good climb before I hit the valley, but a nice looking Cu against the foot of the other side called my name….5kt climb to cb and I was set for the distant rising ground I’d need to cross to get to TP2. Glider racing is such fun when it all goes your way!

 

My nice Cu I’d been aiming for sitting on the ridge about 20km from TP2 didn’t work, so I kept going following the shallow ridgeline veering away to the East. This gave me just enough lift to make it all the way across the higher ground, and also a nice opportunity to count some pine trees which I’d not yet spent any time doing. Another critical decision point was coming – the mountains to the East of TP2 could give some good climbs. One really good climb here could put you in position A1 to turn TP2 and make the hills again on track on the way back….BUT, it was a long way before the sun + wind would be in favour, I was a little too low for comfort and options, and if it didn’t work out the game would be over…I’d be stuck. I was a little East of track and now lower than I’d wanted to be, having just skimmed over the higher ground. I had to take a weaker climb, working a short ridge section at 3kts. I didn’t want to stay too long so I headed West around the corner to the ridge running straight into TP2. Wind angle very shallow here, but enough to maintain height at 90kts, but the last section was almost aligned with wind. Again, the same scenario as before, I wanted to use this ridgeline to come back after turning TP2 but wondered whether the East or West would be better. I would need to run for a few kilometres before it curved away from wind and the lift started working on the SE side…..need a good climb now!

 

Just past TP2 there was a really nice looking Cu, and it provided a really smooth 5kt climb to cloud base…perfect! Only one or two slower spots the whole task, and I’d had a great run. Now on the last leg, headed for home….this would be the really tricky bit. The plains didn’t interest me too much, it would be worthwhile taking a longer route and trying to milk the ridge lift. I rejoined the ridge coming into TP2, now about 300’ above it so I could enjoy the West facing thermal bubbles and the ridge as I went along. Coming into the last high ground before the Bex valley crossing near the lake there were a few Cu around – this was the most critical climb. Getting high here would allow a valley crossing and arrival high enough on the other side to contact stronger ridge. I missed my climb!!!!!! Fell into the valley in sink….mind racing now…..looking to the West it was a loooong way in the lee of the hills….going that way I’d arrive low, and it was rolling the dice a bit too much. I kept heading East to join the ridges facing wind. I got there, but below tree level and spent the next 15mins cursing in 1kt lift, trapped!

 

After such a good run, wanting to end the season on a high note, now this! %$#*&^%)(?/!

Still 70km to get home, and slowly as I worked my way up the lift increased until I had a good 4kts along the top of the ridgeline on my way again. Now at 100-120kts I just picked my way along the windy ridges, pulling up in a few strong thermals and banking fg + 600’ for any of JJJ’s tricks late on final glide. As usual, there were tricks waiting – a nice long glide in the lee of a range and some lower hills to cross. I turned my 500’ spare into speed coming over the last low hills 10km out and finished in just over 2hrs.

 

Only one mistake really, but it cost me 15mins….ouch! Nice interesting task, with a few major decision making points on the way. Let’s hope JJJ’s tasks will be a regular feature of future SC seasons.

 

See you guys next time.

 

H9

more >

© copyright 2008, Soaring Camp Team