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But be that as it may, Holland had no record of real FAI Gliding Championships in its own country. That changed this year. In July the 1st World Junior Gliding Championships have been held at Terlet, in the geographical middle of Holland. Seven days of contest and four days of practice for 68 gliders have resulted in more than 150.000 cross-country kilometres.
The not-that-very-easy tasks set during the World Championships were flown by all pilots without a scratch! Good, skilled, wise and mature flying is worth a compliment to all pilots! Three safety measures had been installed: the Multiple startpoint system, the Free Speed Task (a Dutch version of the Cat's Cradle) and a safety panel, that judged unsafe situations. The multiple startpoint system worked, although two pilots chose the wrong startpoint and scored 0 points unfortunately. The Free Speed Tasks was looked at suspiciously by the pilots but proved not to be that bad at all. On the contrary - interesting flights have been made, the best pilots won. The Safety panel discussed some reckless flying but nothing serious. Still a good, open and mature way to discuss safety.
The training week started with heavy thunderstorms on the first day but became sunny from that moment on. Tor Johannessen, president of FAI/IGC declared this 1st World Championship opened. A wonderful show of powered and especially mainly unpowered aircraft took place just after his words. The FAI flag was raised while an ESG from 1928 and a Minimoa from 1936 flew by. Gerrit Kurstjens demonstrated his Nimbus 4 with just as much impact on the crowd as the two F16's at the end of the show. DAY 1 - July 11th 1999
STD CLUB 1. Pekka Uoti FIN 87 kph 1. Jeroen Verkuyl NED 78 kph 2. Kristian Roine FIN 87 kph 2. Sander 't Hart NED 79 kph 3. David Allison GRB 86 kph 3. Thorsten Mauritsen DEN 77 kph DAY 2 - July 12th 1999
STD CLUB 1. Mario Kiessling GER 99 kph 1. Tobias Meyer GER 83 kph 2. Olivier Darroze FRA 98 kph 2. Thorsten Mauritsen DEN 81 kph 3. Gunther Stahl GER 94 kph 3. Mette Pedersen DEN 80 kph DAY 3 - July 14th 1999 A front had passed. Cold, unstable and very windy weather changed the scene of the last days completely. Wind was almost at limits: 20 - 25 kts. Waiting for the wind to calm down a bit shrunk the tasks from 300 km to 200 km for both classes. A polygon over the Dutch rivers Maas, Rhine and IJssel wasn't easy at all.
STD CLUB 1. Jay Rebbeck GRB 43 kph 1. Mindaugas Zaliukas LIT 63 kph 2. Jaroslav Tomana CZE 180 km 2. Christophe Leuenberger SUI 60 kph 3. Maros Divok SLK 177 km 3. Jeroen Verkuyl NED 58 kph DAY 4 - July 17th 1999 Still windy weather. But nice Cumulus, at least at the beginning of the day. In the last part of the afternoon the sky turned grey. No chance for any sunray. The 216 km and 306 km tasks were not designed for grey sky, so nobody came back. The Fins came close though. They only had to cross the river, which really wasn't possible anymore. Tobias Meyer, Germany, again won the day. STD CLUB 1. Kristian Roine FIN 292 km 1. Tobias Meyer GER 193 km 2. Thomas Nielsen DEN 292 km 2. Panu Mertamo FIN 190 km 3. Francois Jeremiasse NED 291 km 3. Ralf Kretschmer GER 189 km DAY 5 - July 18th 1999
STD CLUB 1. Olivier Darroze FRA 91kph/284 km 1. Tobias Meyer GER 81kph/244 km 2. Stephane Aboulin FRA 91kph/284 km 2. Sander 't Hart NED 80kph/243 km 3. Gunther Stahl GER 98kph/244 km 3. Owain Walters GRB 78kph/281 km DAY 6 - July 23rd 1999
All pilots stayed up. The start gates opened and the sun peeked through right at that moment. The pilots managed to complete the 160 km task in a careful but effective manner. The two Dutch favourites crawled too low over a forest on the second leg and had to land on a glider field in that forest. They tumbled from their number 1 and 2 ranking. Kiessling showed once again supremacy. STD CLUB 1. Mario Kiessling GER 72 kph 1. Owain Walters GBR 62 kph 2. Jay Rebbeck GBR 67 kph 2. Christophe Leuenberger SUI 58 kph 3. David Allison GBR 64 kph 3. Tobias Meyer GER 57 kph DAY 7 - July 24th 1999
The weather is good. A task of 350 km is shortened because of the late start of thermals. 250 km is left and should be enough. Who dares to accelerate to the gold medal?
Gunther Stahl and Robert Scheiffarth are World Champions!
TOTAL SCORE 1st FAI World Junior Gliding Championships '99 STD 1. Gunther Stahl GER Discus 2 4924 pts 2. David Allison GBR LS-8 4762 pts 3. Pekka Uoti FIN LS-8 4690 pts CLUB 1. Robert Scheiffarth GER ASW-19 4199 pts 2. Owain Walters GBR LS-4 4178 pts 3. Sander 't Hart NED ASW-19 4125 pts
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OTHER ARTICLES OF ASI DECEMBER 1999 ISSUE
| News In Brief | Letters To The Editor | World Records | | 43rd Annual Gordon Bennett Cup | | 1999 Motegi Hot Air Balloon International Championship | | 1st World Junior Gliding Championship'99 | | Sun 'n Fun'99 | | My Only Older Brother' Sailplane | 
More articles on Gliding
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Glider pilots from the Netherlands have participated in World Championships for many years. And not unsuccessful, that may be said. Pilots like Kees Musters and Baer Selen have put the Netherlands in the FAI-history book.
Safety had been the leading issue in this event. Youngsters in gliding championships are prejudged as being immature and inexperienced but that proved not to be the case in the Tulip Tournament.
Inexperienced? Average flying-hours in the logbook showed near a 1000!
Terlet had 68 pilots from 20 Nations. And as skilled pilots represented America, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, indeed it was a real World Championship.
Pilots varied from 19 to 25 years of age. Promising flying showed Luke Rebbeck from the United Kingdom, the youngest pilot.
A beautiful blue sky with cumulus from noon made the polygon 400 km task for Standard class and 300 km for Club class look small at first. The sky looked better than the thermals proved to be. Now and then daring glides had to be made. Sky high favourite Mario Kiessling from Germany didn't survive such a long glide and landed out. Nearly all pilots made it around the track. The winners did a marvellous job!
Thunderstorms were predicted around 5 p.m. With windgusts in those storms up to 60 kph the pilots had to be brought in well in time. Safety first. A small task was planned of only 155 km for both classes. Only 2 of 68 pilots landed out. A beautiful spectacle of 66 gliders finishing in a bit more then 30 minutes was a joy for glider lovers. The last pilot landed when just 15 minutes later a huge cumulonimbus past Terlet. Super pilot Mario Kiessling won convincingly.
Mindaugas Zaliukas, from Lithuania, is a surprise to the audience. This unknown pilot flies fast with his Jantar. In Clubclass 15 pilots came back at Terlet.
Jay Rebbeck, Luke's big brother, made the most beautiful performance in Standard Class. No one could fight against the wind in almost no upwind. Jay (always smiling and in a good mood) held himself up at 400 meters, drifted away to Germany, still managed to stay up, crawled south a bit, west a bit and came back in the evening - the only one to complete the task. He is the hero of the championship!
Beautiful weather! Still the organisers had to take grey skies into account, just as the last day.
Free Speed Task: 2,5 hours and 3 hours.
Fly as many kilometres as you can, as fast as you can!
The Germans flew very fast but had not read the rules too good because distance is rewarded points as well. The French won because they flew half an hour longer and thus collecting more distance points. Still almost all pilots came back at Terlet. Almost 300 kilometres with an average well over 90 kph.
Grey skies at first. But the clouds should break any minute now. And yes indeed they did.
The gliders were launched in grey skies, leaving all the press that was invited left behind desperate. They had just been explained that sun is needed for thermals.
The last and decisive day. The top ten pilots in both classes can become the first new junior World Champion. Points are so close, it only differ a few minutes or a few kilometres.
One pilot dares: Jay Rebbeck. He tries to get rid of the Germans. At a square angle, he leaves the main group of gliders. Jay tries to find the winning thermal on his own. That doesn't happen he looses his silver position.
Nobody gets back. Once again grey skies filter the sun and weaken the last thermals too much. The German pilots fly themselves to the front and win convincingly in both classes.