Part 6. Greetings from Narromine,where they are ALL very ” welcoming”.

2015-12-09 10.33.54

Wednesday 7. PM;

After a very good and easy drive between 9 Am and 4 PM I arrived here in Narromine with Dundee who introduces him self here as; Ritzy’s private chauffeur, so what do you want more!!!Can’t say anything else then that he did a great job driving!!!!
From West Wyalong till Narromine the skies looked brilliant,so we thought that it would be definitely a flying day. It was. The pilots just finished when we arrived at the AERODROME.

I have never been at a cat 1 competition where registration was so perfect, fast and friendly. Then we went to register Dundee’s car for a spot at the caravan site ; no worries either fixed in 1 minute; find yourself a nice spot under a tree.

Then it was a feast of recognition, so many familiar faces.Just heart warming. Narromine has changed so much that I had problems to find where everything is.
Tony [Condon team USA ] is my neighbor and the first I met here.

18.45; Dinner now. SALMON from the BBQ together with Butch and Brian [Hayhow] the coaches behind the till now pretty successful Aussie team and Shaun, the editor of the Aussie Gliding Magazine,who is very helpful and showed me around where to be and to go!!!He is in the same motel and I can drive up and down to the airfield with him, awfully nice.

19.30; Lovely salmon meal under supervision of Arney and Beryll. A beautiful thunderstorm passed by and I will leave soon with Shaun to the motel. Though I am tired I will try to write a bit more over there, when internet works. CU then,

As said….. minute by minute, but the most important part are the pilots and the scores and it is REALLY exciting!!!!!!Only 3 more days to go!!!!!

So I try to do that later. Stand by.

8 PM;Settled in,  in the motel, we stayed here 30 years ago as well and NOTHING has changed, very dated but so close to the field and very nice people, got a connection to internet and here we go.
Mind you this is not a regular blog but more or less a diary which is more personal and has gliding and more!!!
First things first; Just caught up with Swaantje. She looks fragile ,but also strong-[minded] . What an amazing lady she is!!!!!

The most important “other” things; the scores from today:
A short task today in St. class, as the weather was a bit unpredictable, with expected thunderstorms. By the way these showers hang around now with thunder and lightning and look at the skies.
“First launch 12.30 pm Club first, 2.30 hour AAT for Club, 2 hour for Standard. There is an approaching trough and a high chance of storms.” was the news shared by Australian Gliding. And,…
“Launching on time for A task finish circle increased to 10 km 1000′ maximum height limit.” 

2015-12-09 10.33.38   2015-12-09 11.21.37

12342450_10207139742165519_7946379710115298249_n

This picture was shared by Liisa from Finland.

Not so much points to gain not so much to loose , but the top- pilots from this JWGC ,did a top- job today as well.
Daily winner is Matthew with 283 km. in time 2.04 ,32 and 630 points.
Dutch hope Robin, was runner up and moved to spot 3 overall with his daily 603 points. He is  only 6 points behind Sebastian overall now. [6.038 and 6.032] Matthew has quite a good lead , with 6.403 points, but as we know,…. it is only over on the last day after the last pilot has finished or is accounted for.

In club class a 2.30 AAT was set and some pilots who had troubles in the beginning of the competition had a good day today.In this class the number 4 overall, won the day!!!Phillip from Germany flew his ASW 19b over 282 km. in time 2.30 AT THE DOT!!!!!800 Points for him AND a FIRST place overall!!!!
Over the last couple of days Phillip moved from 6 to 4 to 1 overall.
French pilot Lucas had a good day as runner up and young Petri from Finland was all smiles, when I met him and his mum and dad ,with a 4th daily  place.
Getting our badge, we heard at the registration office, that Dutch pilot Nick had out landed,ouch,….but then….. maybe not,…some confusion but he was over the finish line in the finish ring and landed after that in a paddock close by. He was retrieved by one of he tugs. No worries a nice 3d place for him.He moved from 10 to 8 overall.

I am not a chauvinist, but I am pleased to see my Dutch friends doing so well. Mind you they get the advise of a TC , Ger, who brought home already 2 WORLD CHAMPIONS , Tim [Kuijpers] and Peter [Millenaar] and one of these world champions Tim, is here as well as coach.
And,…this weather is SO different to Dutch weather, but that counts of course for all European pilots!!!

What a huge load of experience these young ones all take home!!!

Well,flying day 7 is over,  off to bed now, early morning and briefing at 10!!!!

CU tomorrow.Ritz
By the way the 6 “boys”  in Dubai are having great fun as well as you can see on the picture shared by Giorgio!

12359966_1211690028847586_5836452411551862308_n

Part 5 from the Toc. library.AND,…I uploaded some pictures , just scroll down, thanks.

Sitting here with a European team in the library. It’s raining out side and we had a good drop last night as well. Heard some thundery noise as well.It’s good after all the heat from the last days, it feels refreshing!
It looks like a non flying day here today, but you never know!!!!
I have seen worse circumstances in the morning and such a day turned out much better at noon.

2015-12-08 00.50.09   2015-12-08 00.53.44

With  Brigitte and Joergen from Denmark and Dieter Dundee from Germany we have an international table in the Tocumwal library.

JWGC.

12294860_560473467449148_6024331539857715455_n

Grid as seen and shared by the Australian team

In Narromine the great weather continued though they had to “use”  a C task yesterday in club class and a B in St class. It turned out to be a real AUSSIE day in St class.
In this class , the very good team players, Dylan Lampard and Matthew were the number 1 and 2 flying in a 4.30 AAT , in just over 5 hours but with 541 km. for Dylan and 527 for Matthew ,who was a bit faster so he got the 999 points, Dylan the full 1000.Well deserved!!!!
12 From 26 out landed  but flew just over and just under 500 km. and a few got penalty points for a not -too-good- finish- altitude.
After  6 days,  the overall scores are looking good for Aussie Matthew with 5.773 points, 5.510 for German pilot Sebastian Nagel and Alex Mc Caw from New Zealand is on spot 3 with 5.492. Only a few points less for “our” Robin Smit with 5.429 points.
Polish pilots Mateusz and Jakub follow with 5. 426 and 5.4 18.
Pretty exciting who will be 3d , though also in the top EVERYTHING can change.

In club the ASW 19 b from Robin Biesterweg from Germany, was the best with a speed of 96.99 km./h. over the set 360.51 km.
2 From 32 out-landed and 4 got a warning/penalty for their finish altitude.
The UK is doing a great job in this class.
In club class after 6 days the overall scores look like this; UK on 1 and 2 with Tom Arscott with 5.787 points  and 5.735 for Sam Roddie, both in St. Cirrus. Then 2 German pilots Robin and Philipp and then Jan from Poland.

10403684_938353396202293_4383269806463235299_n

The gaggle!!!!! Who is in the middle??????
As shared by many.

They have a RESTDAY today!!!!
Here is what number 1-at-this-stage-Matthew said about the day;
—“What. A. Day. The task was a pretty interesting 4.5hr(!) AAT, sending us deep into the trough with lots of associated high cloud late in the day, with a strong headwind to get back to Narromine. The Poles started first with teammate Dylan marking them, while I went with the bigger gaggle shortly after and desperately tried to catch them – unfortunately my gaggle didn’t play along and wasn’t interested in pushing hard, or taking the route the Poles did… the gaggle does as the gaggle does! Dylan fortunately(!) lost the Poles halfway around, and thought it was about time to head home and joined up with our gaggle. We were lucky with the cirrus and had some sunshine to push into the headwind going home, and *just* managed to scrape in over the finish from a 60km, dry, best LD glide in. Dylan did a great job and finished in first place for the day, myself a point behind. Half the class is scattered over the countryside (some just inside the finish ring), so international night was a bit quiet…
Totally exhausted after 7 hours in the cockpit two days running, so looking forward to the rest day tomorrow.” —-

Tomorrow I travel to Narromine to see it all with my own eyes!!!!!You can follow me from there!

 DUBAI.

12301721_10205556274362457_8137794747802092970_n

Sebastian is o good in sharing stories and pictures so we know a bit more about what’s going on about our sport gliding during the FAI AIRGAMES in Dubai.
—“Today for the first time on the Dubai sky a glider appeared. They flew several minutes in front of the towering hotels and apartments in a hill lift. Then they had to leave to desert due to strong cross wind at strip pointing to the sea.” —
Great pictures as well.

12347603_10205556274322456_7114640238483544815_n

WOW factor pictures, never see before, with Klaus Ohlmann in the glider!!!!
as shared by Sebastian.

Off to a nice lunch with former owner and wife from Bill Riley, Val.

Cu from Narromine tomorrow.

Cheers Ritz

Part 4. Milky skies over Tocumwal and a RECORD day yesterday in Narromine..

Tocumwal has a grey milky-over -cast-sky at the moment. [2 PM] The sun tried to win, but lost, though it is still hot.
Adelaide had 29 dgr. C  last night , the warmest in 100 years.
Just caught up with Akemi and Mac. Always nice to talk with them and we knew each other for more than 25 years we just found out, when Mac was still a university student.

2015-12-07 03.49.50

Mac and Akemi in ” David’s hangar”.

Though there are a lot of pilots , it is not so busy due to the weather.
The SRGC had a problem with their tug yesterday and they hope it will be solved today. They shared the Sportaviation Skyfox, but that can not take a very heavy glider in the air. Also ,……the heat keeps pilots in air conditioned rooms.

11 Flights yesterday from Tocumwal, with guest Jack Hart from the Beaufort Gliding Club in his ARCUS on spot 1 with 854 km. Ingo flew 714 in his XX and Terry 683 k. Great to see that Anton Horill is here again flying the LS 4 to 652 km. on his very first flight this year.Andrea his wife is here as well but I have not seen them.

Corowa had 10 pilots out with a top distance of 945 in the ARCUS.
In South Africa our long time guest in the past, Hans Wiesenthal flew a 1000 with Marcus.Good on them.

From Chapelco , an interesting wave flight from 1.393,75 by German pilot, Wolfgang Goering.

———-

JWGC.

It was a long but fast day yesterday in Narromine and 11 from “the young ones” in St. class, flew with a speed of over 150 km. /h. over the set 611 km. For some certainly something NEW!!!!
ALL 26 pilots finished, the “slowest” still with 131 km./h.

A 4.30 AAT is set for today!!!!With a possibility to fly between 370 and 770 km.

Here is what the UK team had to say:
“Wow. I’m not entirely sure what just happened. 610km in the Standard Class in under 4 hours. 150kph+. I didn’t know LS8s could go that fast!

Mike and I led the gaggle through the line as we thought we might run out of day. We did the first 200km in incredible cu in 1hr20! Turning round there was a decision to be made and we went back over the high ground for a bit of a deviation but some monster cumulus and pulled back a bit of time. We even had another stubble fire thrown into the mix to keep us happy.

Eventually we caught up the club class leaders and made short work smashing through their gaggle to lead the masses home.

What a crazy day.–-”

In Club class the 450 km. were flown yesterday by all 33 pilots and fast as well for those little birds; 127 km.h. polish pilot Marek was the best in this class and the German team did well with 3 pilots in the top 4.

Today they go for 508 km.

Matthew mentioned about the day on which he just is on the SPOT 1 overall;
Holding tight, but only just. Today was getting much closer to my preferred weather, so I played the obligatory start games until late in the afternoon then lead the gaggle around most of the task, never quite able to make the break away. The Poles and Lithuanians who started behind and finished with me pipped me for the day win, but I still made points on a number of big names!
I think this might be my fastest task speed ever, and on a proper length of task too.”

Gliding Australia mentioned some words from CD Adam Webb;
  ‘Today was a classic day. We had some great climbs to 14,000 ft. There were some very long glides with people reporting  over 100 km without turning. With speeds of over 150 kph in Standard and 130 kph in Club Class achieved, it is about as good as we could have expected from them. The conditions tomorrow are looking as good if not better.” 

———

Not so much news today as I have to go quickly to a birthday party at 15.30.

Cheers Ritz

Bloody HOT Sunday!!!40 dgr.!!!!

It’s hot, bloody hot!!!! Even the birds have hided. We thought that the morning should be OK to do some renovations on Dennis’ grave, but it was HOT. Dundee and I however managed to fix the job and when I can upload my pictures I will share them.
Whilst working a young family came to see us and she mentioned that she was a young child when she met Dennis. She knew him due to the fact that her mother worked at Sportavia in 1987/88.

2015-12-07 02.51.27   2015-12-07 02.51.01

2015-12-01 05.18.59   2015-12-07 02.51.42

The red oleander looks like an umbrella over the grave.

The only thing you can do is drink!!!!!!It’s 43 dgc C in Mildura.

Ingo started around 12 in his XX [Discus] and though there is a lot of Cirrus the skies to the West look glorious with nice high clouds.

Yesterday Hannu cooked a fantastic Scotch Filet for himself and for me at the Sportaviation Camping BBQ. What a luxurious spot that is. I told you already before how special that camping is and it is pretty full already. All familiar faces but also new ones! GOOD!

2015-12-05 10.02.14 2015-12-05 10.01.47

2015-12-05 10.08.34

With Hannu and Dundee.

JWGC in Narromine!

The late starters on Flying-day 5, yesterday, in St. class, were the Polish pilots and one way or another this was not a bad decision. With a 3 hour AAT , they left at 14.47, whilst the first pilots from Holland, went on track at 14.07 and 14.10.
Jakub flew 395 km. in 3.08.BUT,….Dutch pilot Robin with the early start, flew 394 km.. Both flew LS 8.
So…… late or early it did not really matter on this day.

A bad day for the German team, Sebastian and Simon, they were last in the class but still with over 800 points.

Today the young ones fly 611 km. and that might separate “the boys from the men”. An interesting day but no scores yet . I expect them to land after 6 PM.
You can see them at www.soaringspot.com

In Club class another Polish talent; Jan Jawornik who flew his St Jantar 3 over 385 km. in 3. 39 nearly at the dot of the 3.30 ; 1000 points were for him.
UK pilot Tom flew himself to a 2d spot in the St. Cirrus and USA pilot Boyd Willat occupied a great 3d spot in the same glider.

Today they got 450 km. to fly.

———

DUBAI.

In Dubai the 6 pilots fly the qualifying rounds at the scores are at; http://www.crosscountry.aero/c/mr/results

The 6 pilots fly in Schempp-Hirth gliders; DISCUS 2C/18 m. and Shempp Hirth has also brought an ARCUS M. there for film crews journalists etc.

1. Sebastian with 4 points.
2. Werner with 3
3. Tilo with 2
4. Roman with 1
5. Rene with 1
6. Giorgio with 0.

———-

Benedikt , flying the 1000 km. Camp at Bitterwasser, has flown yesterday on day 7 and on the 5 days he flew he ticked the 1000 km. mark And all pretty far over the 1000. Very good and what a great adventure for this young man. Flying in a sponsored Ventus 2CM/18m
8 Flights over 1.200 km. yesterday ….GOOD!!!!

———

That’s it for now , more tomorrow, it might rain here!!!!! But the rest of the week will be in the low thirties!!!

Cheers Ritz

Part 3, with Dubai news, Narromine news and Toc. news.

Dubai .
THE FAI WORLD AIR GAMES 2016.

12274195_10205542157329540_3837079350680720448_n

Desert gliding. 3rd Dec 2015
As shared by Sebastian.

In Dubai the first start of the brand new race between 2 gliders was a fact and Sebastian [Kawa] was so kind to share a picture.
The tow planes were later than expected/hoped for .
He even shared some news about the day and I share it for all no-FB-readers:
—-“ I tell you the story about altitude limit at the finish line. The organising team and Roland are focused on safety and rules. The rules clearly say we should finish at 30m. But… Gliders came with completely new instruments, correctly installed but with no setup, no turnpoint files, nothing. Nobody flew it before. Luckily we had time yesterday to check it. We flew and we found out that in both computers altimeter is somehow connected to speed and total energy probe. That’s something new, new relativity theory. After some investigation today and manipulating in instrument panels the conclusion was that it is the software. Nobody has a replacement, so now we may legally do the low passes in front of the safety officer because pilot does not have altimeter connected to official logger. The altitude limit is gone. That’s cool! And all pilots are happy.
Tomorrow tow planes should be earlier and we have a chance to fly whole round. Yesterday and today they were to busy at Palm Drop Zone with aerobatic gliders. One of the gliders fell off the runway and it stopped them for a while. Our races were very short, only 7 minutes but we couldn’t do more than 4 today.” —-

12313962_10205542159489594_8255949926230674969_n

First launch as shared by Sebastian.

The first 2 pilots in this  first parallel race in World Airgames Dubai , were Werner Aman and Giorgio Galetto.
You can follow races at YouTube live stream WAG gliding live _( red)

Latest update; “We are in the Qualifying Round of the Gliding Event at the World Air Games.  In this Round, each pilot flies head-to-head against every other pilot to determine the ranking for the Final Round, scheduled to begin on Monday, 07 December.

———-

JWGC in Narromine.

They had day 3 yesterday in Narromine and I am looking forward to travel up there this upcoming Wednesday.
Well,….Andy Davis’ son Matt had a fabulous day in standard class.With 358 km in time 3.10 he was the daily winner and deserved the 1000 points. A blue day so not too easy!
Aussie “hope”  Matthew Scutter was runner up with 3 km. less.
Matthew shared his experiences in his blog;Matthew Scutters Gliding
—-“Day 1(pt 2) and Day 2 of JWGC – Day 1 was a disaster with a very low point on the first leg which killed our speed, but at least we got around! Poor Nick Oakley [New Zealand]had some terrible luck with a conservative final glide turning to worms 10k short.
Day 2 was very overset, with our class on the back of the grid. We all went around as a big gaggle and I just tried to play the game all day. At one point I missed a climb, the gaggle picked up behind me, so I found myself pushing on alone at 5.30pm with not many thermals around, but I saw a paddock fire starting, which I picked up quite low and got 12kts to above the inversion which put me back on top of the gaggle. Some local knowledge helped me ease into a final glide a little earlier than most for a good finish.—-“

In Club class we “saw”   the youngest ever daily winner in a JWGC ; Aussie James Nugent  only SEVENTEEN years old flying an LS 3. Good on him.
Runner up was Dutch pilot Nick in the St .Cirrus, followed by Aussie pilot Joe. So a great day for the Aussies!!!!
Not a bad day either for the Dutch with a 2d and 5th place in this class.

James-Nugent

17 year old James Nugent.
James is a natural. He just flies so soft and sweet, in the air his glider just seems to walk away from you.”
According to Butch [John Buchanan]  ,  Head Coach Australian Team.

For today the “young ones ” fly a 3.30 AAT in Club Class and a 3 hour AAT in standard.

———–

Some pilots stayed up here yesterday till late in the evening. It was a rather nice days with clouds popping up at noon , but still late starts.
Ingo flew his Discus XX and flew 536 km. whilst Hannu did 375 in the LS 6/17.5 m.and John [Dyson] 441 in his JS 1.
Today later starts at 2 PM with a pretty overcast sky but “BLOODY ”  hot here. There are some guest pilots here as well ,they stay for a week , have a camp here and enjoy the Tocumwal skies.
More guests will arrive today. Heard that old friends as Tim and Laurel, Nicole and Richard and Wayne arrive today as well. It’s getting busy now both at the commercial center Sportaviation as at the SRGClub.
This morning we visited the monthly market and people as far as Wagga [about 300 km] travel up to Toc. to browse around at this market. GREAT fun!!!!

In Bitterwasser the distances were a “bit” bigger. They are over the 1.300 km. now with 1.320 [1000 km. FAI triangle] in a Ventus 2CM/18 m.by young German pilot Benedikt Schmidt, busy with a 1000 km. camp over there. Speed 150 km./h.He flew himself to a PALM.  Well deserved!AND,…already 4 x a 1000 km. plus flight!!
This camp is sponsored by Wilfried Grosskinsky and the first 2  pilots are Benedikt and Fabian [Peitz].

———–

CU in a hurry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 2 !!! December 4. South Africa and Namibia are “booming”.

 

We do have a lovely sky here today with nice clouds and a temperature of 30 dgr. and quite some pilots flying!!! Yesterday the last pilot landed after 7.

————

Finally time to look at the OLC . Since I left on November 29, it “rained”  thousands in South Africa and Namibia and with the better gliders you hope to see ONE day not “just” a 1000 but 1500 km.!!!!!
They are working on it.
One of the more impressive flights was a declared 1250 FAI triangle,  by Josef Eder from Austria in the EB 29, with 145 km./h. on the last day of November from Pokweni.

Winter/summer started with a nice 1.508 km [1.122 km. FAI triangle ] by Thomas Suchanek in an 18 m. Ventus 2 CM, from Gariep Dam. He mentioned in his comment that it was not at all easy; ” Hard flight with crossing of rain-shower lines. On final I had to go under airway and just barely made it home.” [143 km./h.]

December 2 showed an amount of 36 over 1000km-flights.Another very interesting flight this time from Pokweni in and ARCUS M. ” Just a ” fun-flight” pilot Stephan Ripp mentioned, but I guess a REAL fun flight;1.310,8 km.[700 FAI triangle]  !!!!!
A fast day as well for Wilfried Grosskinsky, who flew around in the ASH 25 EB 28 with a speed of 152 km. /h. over 1.282 km.

Yesterday on December 3 Polish pilot Adam Czeladzki flew in a Duo Discus XLT a flight from 1.226,8 km. from Gariep Dam, with a speed of 141 km./h [1.124 km. FAI triangle]

————

JWGC in Narromine.
http://www.jwgc2015.com/

They started today with flying-day 3 at the JWGC.
3 Hour AAT’s were set on a day that ” the trough has moved out of the area and “we are under the influence of the High pressure with north easterly to south easterly winds.  It will be blue in the task area with some cu possible to the north and northwest. Heights are expected to be from 7500 in the east to perhaps 9000 to the North West.”
All pilots in St. class started between 14.13 and 14.40 and in club class between 14.05 ,[the Dutch were the first to go on track] and 14.21.
More about day 3 tomorrow.

I was pleased to see the girls are doing well. Ailsa from Australia , flying normally close to Melbourne from Benalla , flew herself  over the last 2 days twice to a 7th spot in St. class.[26 pilots]
3 Girls in club class one from Italy flying herself to a 2d and 20thiest place ,Hana from the Czech Rep. to a 19th and 18th spot and from Holland Annemiek with a 17th and 27th spot.[33 pilots]

Yesterday was a good day for the German team. Simon Briel showed that a long time practice in the area helps!!! He is on a 3d place overall now! The German team is after 2 days the leader in the TEAM CUP just ahead of Poland and the UK.
Winners yesterday in club class were from Germany [1 and 2] and in Standard class from

————–

Slowly getting used to the time, the heat, the flies and the dust.
Dundee is there to pick me up for a drink with Hannu at Sportaviation. So off I go!!!!
Cu tomorrow!
Cheers Ritz

Ritzy’s diary; PART 1 on December 3.

Here I am!! Sitting in “David’s” yellow hangar, where they put solar systems on the roof at the moment, so it is a bit noisy.
Can’t have it better than this; a “fast” line and I can work here every day when necessary.So no waiting for place available at the library ,nothing wrong with that by the way,but this is SO easy.
This hangar is a smaller new one , new like 20 years old and been occupied all those years by Riley Aeronautics .David Riley has retired and George Schuit bought the hangar from him.To the right of me is “our” old WW 2 hangar; NUMBER ONE!!!
It feels like coming “home”again.

2015-12-03 06.16.25

 Putting solar panels on the roof.

2015-12-03 06.13.09  2015-12-03 06.14.49

The office and the hangar.

My trip from Holland was easy. Mind you, I had a 2 week flu and felt just right on the day I left.
On the way from Hong Kong to Melbourne we had a female Dutch captain and when I was allowed in the cockpit after the flight she turned out to be a former colleague from my ex George and my daughter Inge.
This world is so small.

The worst part of the trip was the waiting in a LONG queue.We landed at 10.35 and I was through customs at 12.15 midnight.
Kait was so kind to wait for me and at 2 we saw our bed at her house at a great spot in South Yarra behind the botanical gardens, at 2 AM.

Early morning again on December 1, for a train and bus trip to Cobram , very convenient. Dundee was there to welcome me and by car we went straight to TOCUMWAL.
Had a quick look at the airfield, catching up with Bruce , from the SRGC and Sheryll from Sportaviation. Eddie was busy with a few customers. George ,in his hangar ,gave me my Aussie mobile and then off to my second “home” at Margies. That REALLY feels like coming home!!!!
Crashed in the bed and fell a sleep at 5.30 PM.

Yesterday December 2 was my first full day here. In the morning my friend Jill showed up with her dog and invited me straight away for a lunch in Yarrawonga with 2 other friends.Lunch number 1 from many to come!!!
Today it is time to “work” again.

Blue skies here , sunny and temperatures here at the moment about 28 dgr. C., going up to 40 dgr. this upcoming weekend.
Sportaviation and the Southern Riverina Gliding Club have their gliders out to fly. Hannu from Finland is flying JJ,  the 17.5 m. LS c.
This glider is here at the field already for many years and the 3 Finnish boys flew already with us in the past.
I caught up with Joergen today and with Eddie , Ingo and tuggie Bill Harvey, 77 now and still going strong!!!!!
He had a nice article in the paper today.

Very anxious to see how the ” young ones”  would do in Narromine! THE JWGC has started on December 1 and today they have to go for a long flight;Standard 478.9 km. and Club 347.83 km. on a day the the clouds started later than expected.
Day 1 was cancelled due to “adverse weather ” , they tried hard, started,…. but that was about all for the day and on day 2 they flew ” under challenging circumstances” , a 3 hour AAT in both classes.

In Standard class the Polish and German pilots did well. Already in the practice period the pilots from East Europe showed they were in a “winning mood and going for it.”
For some a difficult day with an out-landing and only under 100 points! One thing was sure in retrospect; early starters had a better day and did not have to cope with the “bloody” wind later in the day.
Though one of the early starters, the very first one in fact in this class was, out after 35 km….. that hurts!!

In club class also 4 out-landings, a winner from Hungary Daniel Arday and a great runner up spot for Italian pilot , Simone Selvini.You surely have read and followed it all on the official site. http://www.jwgc2015.com/ or at the different country sites.
In club class they all started within 15 minutes in standard,starting last within 36 minutes.

The Opening Ceremony for the World Air Games will take place today on 3 December 2015 at the Skydive Marina.
The Gliding Event will begin tomorrow, on 4 December at the Skydive Desert Campus.

That’s it for now!!!

Cheers Ritz