The Italy Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix took place in Varese from 14 to 21 June with 18 the competitors from 6 countries : Argentina, Austria, Chech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovenia.
The opening ceremony was held in the wonderful location of Villa Recalcati , headquarter of the Province of Varese, where thecompetitors enjoyed a nice party at the end of the official briefing.
After a beginning with difficult weather conditions, the meteo has turned to be very good, I would say exceptional for the month of June , and pilots were able to fly even quite long tasks and always at very high speed average.
This kind of competition involves the public and it is very easy to understand who the winner is even if penalties are applied. These may be a (bad) surprise for the pilots that have to respect height and speed of the crossing of the starting and finish line.
Unluckily the Argentinean pilot Gustavo Saurin had health problems and could not fly.
From the very beginning Peter Hartmann , the winner, has shown his wonderful form, leading together with Werner Amann. The Italian Riccardo Brigliadori has had a very consistent competition performance that allowed him to finish in the second position, leading the Italian title for 18m class.
The Slovenian Znidarsic had some good days and was third but in the last day lost his position to the Czech Roman Mracek, who was able to improve the position he lost in the 4th day.
On the whole the pilots were very satisfied with the flying and fun of the competition, some of the Italians were a bit disappointed, but probably they suffered a lack of confidence with GP formula. For sure those who did not qualify for the final, will try with other competitions just to come back and fly in our wonderful area.
The staff was composed not only by people from the club but also from students coming from the schools around that enjoyed very much this great new experience.
Not only the pilots, but also the crews have enjoyed the stay both for the facilities of the club with a nice swimming pool and good food and for the restaurants and beautiful places to visit in the region. For example the wonderful aeronautical museum of Volandia, as suggested in the brochures and information given to them at registration, by the Agency of tourism of Varese www.vareselandoftourism.com
The winner of the final held in Sisteron, Didier Hauss, also came to fly from Varese, to gain experience of the area in preparation for next year’s final which will be held in September.
We had a great time with our competition, looking forward to host the final in the year of EXPO and this thank to the great support of the local authorities that always help us even with contribution. This is the case of the Province that allowd us to upgrade all the facilities in order to host the competition.
See you next year in Varese!
[lg_folder folder=”/FAI Grand Prix/”]
