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Aero Club of the Czech Republic was entrusted by International Gliding Commission of FAI to organize the 10th International European Club Class Gliding Championships 1998. The Championships were held in Jihlava airfield with a great deal of help from members of the local aero club.
After the deadline for registration we had registrations of 13 teams with 53 pilots from 14 National Aero Clubs. 
The Championships were inaugurated by FAI representative and President of the International Jury, Mr Fred W Weinholtz from Germany on Saturday, 27th June 1998. The opening ceremony was short with participation by Mr Petr Moos, Minister of Transport of the Czech Government, Mr Frantisek Dostal, Mayor of Jihlava and Mr. Jiri Kobrle, President of the Aero Club of the Czech Republic.
The main goal of organizers was to have a valid and fair competition. That was why the first competition task was started immediately after the opening ceremony. At 13.15 local time pilot Tobias Geiger from Germany made the first competition take off to triangle 204,5 km. With 10 tow planes we had all the 53 gliders in the air within 52 minutes and I could open the departure marker at 14.27 o'clock. At 18:18:23 the first glider (contest No. H1 - Frank Hahn from Germany) returned and within the next 34 minutes the next 9 gliders arrived. The remaining 43 pilots landed outside Jihlava airfield, unfortunately one of them, pilot Jesper Engstrom from Sweden, damaged his glider during outlanding at a distance of 32,6 km distance from Jihlava and he was not able to continue in the competition. Winner of the task No 1 was Frank Hahn from Germany, with task speed 55,14 km/h. He received 468 points. Next day, Sunday, 28th June 1998, was declared second competition task, but due to pessimistic metreological forecast we had to cancel the task even before the first take off. Really competition task No. 2, Polygon 317,7 km was flown on Monday, 29th June 1998. 37 pilots reached the goal - Jihlava airfield. Winner of this task was Michael Seischab from Germany, with task speed 76,66 km/h receiving 1000 points. After two tasks the lead pilot was Tomas Suchanek from Czech Republic with 1451 points. Competition task No. 3 was declared on Teuseday, 30th June 1998 - Polygon 247,0 km. 10 pilots reached the goal - Jihlava airfield. Winner of this task was Axel Reich from Germany, with task speed 77,19 km/h with 1000 points. After three tasks the lead pilot was Frank Hahn from Germany with 2305 points. Unfortunately, during the landing in the field pilot Arkadiusz Downar damaged his glider without any possibility to continue in the competition. 
Next day, on Wednesday 1st July 1998, meteorological conditions were on the border for gliding, but competition meteorologist, Mr Jan Horak gave the optimistic possibilities to fly. After long discussions was declared Competition task No. 4. - Polygon 200,0 km. After opening the departure marker it was clear that today there will not be any finishers, but it seemed, that somebody would be able to fly more than 100 km and the Championships will be valid. With great pleasure I can state that the winner of this task, Milos Dedera from Czech Republic achieved the distance of 141,9 km and received 395 points. After four task the lead pilot was Frank Hahn from Germany with 2606 points. Unfortunaely, during outlanding Jan Kromka from Slovakia dammaged his glider and without the possibility of any repairs his glider must be in future be marked DNF (did not fly).
On Friday, 3rd July 1998 during the birefing two variants of competiton tasks were declared, because meteorological situation was not clear. With every minute better weather was declared the longer variant, Polygon 219,2 km. After opening the departure marker we saw nice gliding conditions and possibility of high speeds. Winner of this task, Tomas Suchanek from Czech republic, with task speed 96,33 received 710 points. After five tasks the lead pilot was Frank Hahn with 3187 points. Forecast for next days was bad, but we hoped for a minimum of two tasks during last week of the Championships. Everyday we called the Great Gliding God for better weather, but without good result. On Friday, 10th July 1998, last competition day according to rules, we try to fly task 156,3 km, but before the first take-off we had to cancel the task due to meteorological conditions. Although, we could not fly during the last week of the Championships, the Championships were declaraed by International Jury as valid. On Saturday, 11th July 1998 we welcomed during the Closing Ceremony Mr Helmut Kiffmeyer, Chairman of Club Class Sub-commission of FAI IGC as the Chief Guest. The results of the two events are as under: International European Club Class Team Cup
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| OTHER ARTICLES OF ASI AUGUST'98 ISSUE | News In Brief | Letters To The Editor | World Records | | Overture For Airplane & Orchestra | | British Pilot Breaks Aviation Record | | 2nd World Conference On Women And Sport | | 10th International European Club Class Gliding Championship 1998 | | Portrait Of A Woman |  More articles on Gliding
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