Pre-European Gliding Championships, 1995, Räyskälä, Finland

Final Report

The Pre-European Championships in Gliding, flown with the 30. Finnish Nationals in gliding at Rayskala, were finished today under the cloudy skies. The last possible competition day was not used as the weather, having indignated during the whole two-week contest stayed on its chosen course to the end. A large area of rainy and cloudy weather pushed its way to Finland from the Baltic area and gave no possibilities whatsoever to the gliders to remain airborne should they have been towed.

We managed to get together eight competition days in the difficult and variable weather conditions that prevailed during the past two weeks. This amount is not bad at all. As these were actually two games mixed in one the scores were calculated according to two lists of partakers. A great help -or a necessity- in this was the SFT 5.25, a scoring system by the Swedish Jan-Åke Peterson, a competition pilot himself also. Our visitors, being among the best pilots in the world, gave their hosts a good feel of the level of the current top of the world gliding. In the international classes, which have been posted here during the past two weeks, the winners were foreigners, but the Finns enhanced their flying as the competition went by.

Herbert Weiss, 3Y, Germany, flew with a very steady touch. This was rewarded with the number one position in the standard class, which is valued also in his fatherland. After all, he beated among the others also the former World and European Champion, Leonardo Brigliadori from Italy. Asko Pankka, A2, Finland, having lead the spurt of the Finns climbed to very close to the top, to the third position in the tough international class. Pankka has belonged to the elite of the Finnish gliding for years already and after a couple of modest seasons he again proved that his skills are still there. This Finnish Championship is his third. Antti Taimioja, AT and Juha Sorri, IU, flew through the games in a steady manner. Taimioja passed Sorri during the last day and scored the second position in the nationals.

In the nationals the gap after the triplet A2, AT, IU was larger. It was pleasing to find the young pilots Hans Ahllund, W7, from Vaasa and Pertti Hatara, DS, from Kouvola from the fourth and fifth positions.

In the racing class the struggle for the victory was in the end fought between the Frenchman, Frederic Hoyeau and the Finn, Martti Koivula, whose spurt in the end was almost enough. Ending up in the second position in the international class is well done from him. Koivula's career as a competition pilot made a good change in the last year's Europeans in Rieti, Italy where he won a day and was the best Finn in the final totals. The second position (3rd in the Pre-Europeans) was taken by Jari Julin. This is notable, because he had a severe accident in the last years nationals landing out into a power line and burning himself badly. His returning to the Finnish team is good because he has always done well in international competitions.

The European Championships in Gliding 1996 will be flown at Rayskala (604433N 0240705E) next summer between 01.-15.06.1996.

Tapio Savolainen
Competition Director

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