The AS 33 wins three competitions in a row!
After the victory in Austria, the AS 33 also shows its class in Poland and Finland.
After the AS 33 flew the first 1000 km flight and the first 1000 km triangle with Christian Mäx and won the first competition in the 15 m variant with Guido Achleitner, it remains on the road of success.
We could celebrate two victories at the weekend. In Poland there was a thriller lasting 8 days, which was decided on the last day. In Finland, Petri Sucksdorff let the AS 33 off the leash and was able to regain the lead shortly before the end.
From June 3 - 13 the National Open Class Championship took place in Poland.
Das Grid in Polen
Here the AS 33 was represented in the 18 m version with pilot Sebastian Huhmann. Who watched the championship could see that there was a very hard fight for the first place. In the end place, 1 and 2 were only 7 points apart. Sebastian Huhmann managed to hold his place in the end with the AS 33 Es “2U” and won in front of Lukasz Wojcik in the ASG 29. 3rd place went to Jan Umlauf the team partner of Sebastian in his JS3. So the two Germans from HAC Boberg were together on the podium.
Their plan was to first gain experience on the new glider.
Sebastian had only 3 flights on the AS 33 Es to this point. Since, as long as the weather cooperates, you fly a lot in a competition, it is the perfect environment to get to know his glider in all situations. And the plan worked out because in 10 days about 40 hours could be flown.
But since all championships in Germany have been canceled so far in 2021, the team chose the national Polish Open Class Championship. A field of participants, which was filled with world and European championship podium visitors.
The "2U" awaits its next flight.
Sebastian has flown more than 50 competitions in the last 25 years, but after a 2-year break from competitions, you have to find your rhythm again, even with this experience. The intuition for the quick decisions has to come back. Of course, it helps a lot to have a glider that you don’t have to concentrate so hard on. Since the team of 33 and JS3 had their first championship experience in Poland, the goals were not set too high for the beginning.
Sebastian describes the first day as symptomatic of this:
“After the second last turn point at the airfield, it was actually supposed to go about 70 km west again. It was clear that there would be pure distance scoring. When we then left the glide angle area of the airfield again, we decided to return to the airfield at an altitude of about 900 meters with hopeless optics to the front … and gave away about 60 points. We didn’t care about the ranking at the beginning, we wanted to gain experience.”
From day to day he got along with the AS 33 better and better and flew from day 3 always with 600 kg takeoff weight, which is a 60 wing loading. On the 5th day, the two were able to get back into the rhythm. Equal on points on the 1st place with 146km average speed on the 2:15 h long AAT. This put them 4km ahead of the next placed finisher.
On the 6th scoring day, they were able to find themselves directly back in 1st and 2nd place for the day. 128 km/h over the 3h AAT. This also meant the jump to 2nd and 4th place in the overall standings.
With the team placements 3&6 as well as 3&4 on the next two days the two pushed themselves on overall ranking place 1 and 3. Only vice world champion and former European champion Lukasz Wojcik in an ASG 29 could still put himself between the team on the 2nd place.
Sebastian Huhmann landing in the AS 33 Es
His conclusion on AS 33 reads as follows:
“I would describe the flight characteristics as similar to those of the ASG 29. The stiffer wing gives a slightly better indication of thermals. Even with the 60 kg wing loading and the new airfoil, climbing is easily possible with other aircraft of lighter wing loading. However, the 33 shows its strengths in gliding. During the 8 days of competition, I was not once overtaken by another glider on the final glide. Also otherwise the glider gave the feeling to have the situation almost always “under control”. It was almost always possible to react in decisive competition situations.
Also worth mentioning are the changes already described by Christian Mäx, which make the complete ground handling much easier. This is an advantage in a competition that should not be underestimated.
I would also like to thank the Polish people very much for their hospitality! We received a very warm welcome. The competition was perfectly organized by a young and motivated team.”
Congratulations from the whole team to Sebastian, Jan and of course Lukasz! A great performance!
You can find the score here:
Soaring Spot :: 46in Polish Gliding Championship in Open Class
The final podium in poland
Onnittelut voitosta to finland!
At the same time, the Räyskälä Masters took place in Finland. After 6 days of competition, 29 year old Petri Sucksdorff was able to hold his position at the top and win the race. Before the competition he had 1000 hours of gliding, 370 of them on the ASG29 and he was very enthusiastic about the AS 33, on which he had only 5 starts and a total of 20 hours before the competition.
Directly on the first day of the championship, however, he managed to win the day with 123.30 km/h over the 600 km task. After that, he managed to be on the podium on each of the 6 days of the competition.
On days 2 and 3 he achieved good third places with 111 and 116 km/h average speeds. Day 4 was then defined by distance scoring. None of the 15 pilots was able to finish the 507 km task. Petri, however, managed the largest distance with 433 km on this day. After the index was taken off, he was then assured of second place for the day. On day 5, Petri was able to let the 33 off the leash once again and took the day’s victory with 111 km/h and a 4 km/h lead. This propelled him back to the top of the overall standings. Day 6 was the last one in Finland. Here he reached with 117 km/h the 2nd place of the day and maintained his position at the top of the field.
His feedback after 6 scoring days in the AS 33 Es:
“The flying feels great and easy. I am very impressed with how the glider behaves in thermals and how well it handles the high wing loading. I heard that the other participants, on some days, had problems with turbulent thermals. However, I had no problems with tight turns and thermals with the 33. Overall, you get the feeling that no compromises have to be made to fly with higher wing loading. Actually rather the opposite, because I flew with 600 kg every day.”
Congratulations from the whole team to Finland!
Petri Sucksdorff in der AS 33 - Foto von Katja Soikkeli
Link to the score: