All our gliders are now safely down. Results on Soaring Spot.

Russell Cheetham secured the Bronze medal in the 18 meter class at the 2011 European Championships in Pociunai, Lithuania on the last day of the championships. A closely fought battle with a very strong Polish team right up to the last race left Russell in 3rd and the two Poles first and second. As part of a strong trio from Great Brittan, Russell the raining European Champion finished just a few points behind the Silver medal position. Also from Team GB, Ed Johnson finished 5th and Gary Stingemore 7th both securing their positions on the last day of the competition.

Well from the outside it might not look like a sparkling triumph but from a team perspective there were many positives to take from this event. The 15 meter boys were always going to be up against it in probably the most competitive field seen for years. Both Chris and Nick (last minute reserve for the injured Tim Scott) having had absolutely no team flying practice, it was always going to be an uphill struggle. However, both had some outstanding individual flights and on may occasion lead or mixed it with the o'so dominant French team.

At Pociunai everyone is a winner.

The pilots and team captain get medals and certificates at the farewell party. Nothing for the crew, except beer.

Well it would be Day 10 for the 18's and 15's but only day 9 for the Opens so they have been launched first. Start gate is open for the Opens and we are just waiting for them to start. The other two classes are on the ground waiting to launch.

Interesting day in the end, only the 18s flew. They just about got away on a minimum distance AAT before we had a big storm on the airfield. Watching the tracking and listening to the radio made for an interesting afternoon as we were all wishing Russell to beat Peter Erikson by 11 points to give him third. We had not noticed that the two Poles were having a bad day and that there was a slim chance Russell might even get into second.

After the second briefing of the day, the first launch started at 13:30 with just the 18m class being launched. Several re lights later, they did eventually get away. Just as well really as we are now experiencing the mother of all thunderstorms on the airfiled with 20m/s gusts and hail of 10 to 15mm in diameter! Let's hope the 18's manage to miss the storm and make it round the 2 hour AAT. Both the Opens and 15's are runing for cover as there launch was scrubed.

We have a warm sector air mass and a slim chance of a task today. We have had the 10:00am briefing and have been asked to grid. Tasks will be available from 11:30, first launch is expected not before 13:00 local. The enthusiasm is underwhelming!

It is now persistantly raining so we are scrubbed for the day

Quite an exciting day today with a showery finish to the day. The 18's launched first and most rattled around the AAT and got home just before the heavens opened and drenched the airfield. Meanwhile the 15's and Opens were still battling round. Chris Starkey in 900 called 20K at 2,900 and just made it back to the airfield but Nick was not so lucky, landing out 35k from home. In the Opens a mixed bag, Pete firing up on the second leg and Kim only 10k out from the line. Steve, however, managed to sneak in through the rain to get home whilst many of the others above him in the table did not.