The WARBIRDS – event at Temora airport, was a huge success! Temora , a little town, with a population of 4000 , hosted about 15.000 guests and that is something. It all looked great and inviting on the pictures, shared by Tom and Jane. Wished I was there too !
I share a few more with you;
The military Warbirds were there as well.
Below the F 18 Hornet and in formation.
And the Catalina and Caribou.
AND
last but not least the Super Constellation in full glory
South Africa and Namibia are getting more active as well.
As you know the CHAMPIONS fly and practise in Kiripotib and Janusz and his trainee had a good day on Sunday with 650 km.[ 591 km.FAI triangle] with a good speed of 115 km./h. Also Holger and his “student had such a nice distance. [both in ARCUS M and E]
Janusz and Holger ready for their flight with the trainees.
Courtesy www.rent-a-glider.com news.
Not far away is Pokweni where Axel Nuss and his co pilot in the Nimbus 3D flew 756 km. [ 631 k.FAI triangle] and Bitterwasser started as well with a nice 500 k in the ASH 25 , whilst John Coutts flew from Potchef also over 500 km.
It’s all happening again and it will be for sure a great overseas season.
Also the USA had a good Sunday for [ridge] soaring; 687 k in an LS 4 from Blairstown and in Australia 723 was flown from Mc Caffery Field in an ASG 29/18m.
On Monday all 4 CHAMPION- teams set/ declared a 1000 k. That magic 1000!!!! Direction was Botswana where they expected CLOUDS , finally, and a base of 5000 m. At 11 AM they were launched and at that time they had already 3.5 m. lift!
AND,….YES,[1147] YES, [1111] YES ,[ 1072] YES, [ 1071 k] …they did it!!
Of course the CHAMPIONS have their 1000 k. , but the trainees might be over the moon with such speed and distance. That’s what it’s all about!
What a great day for Ludwig and Wolfgang , the organizers from this event. AND what about SPEED!!!! 140 km./h. on the clock! Next step the 1000 FAI triangle! This time it was nearly 900 km. FAI triangle.
Day 5 in Kiripotib, looked promising as the weather forecast was perfect, but….the skies did n’t look like what was forecasted; cumulus congestus already in the early morning. No worries, for the CHAMPIONS and their “students”. And as said , from difficult circumstances you learn more and you get a lot of satisfaction from it. The pretty heavy weather still allowed for flights between 500 and 874 km. and useful exciting and “why-they-are-there-for-moments” for the students.
Also the Pokweni Nimbus 3D flew over 1000 k. and Bitterwasser ” tuned up” to over 800K., whilst Gariep Dam guests flew up to over 600 km.
AND yesterday Potchef was HOT!!!
When Uys Jonker says in his comment “great flight”, it must have been an awesome flight and a booming day;”1.241,07 km { 1.126,09 FAI triangle} with 160 km./h. was the result.
Also Oscar [Goudriaan] and John {Coutts} loved the day and all flew over 1000 km. FAI triangle. Oscar flew a total of 1.263 km with 161 km./h. and John 1.240 with 162 km./h. On the OLC you can see the amazing flights!
Those are the days!!!!
I am sure you noticed , like I did, the great flights from MITCH Polinsky in June, July and August from this year.
Slowly his USA records are validated and here is all the news from this in 2013 so successful pilot, I wanted to know.
” I’ve waited this long to send it to you because I thought by now that I would have received official confirmation of my soaring records, but only the first one is truly official (the other seven have been approved by the Soaring Society of America record keeper and sent to the National Aeronautic Association in Washington, D.C. for final approval). “
In any case, here’s his report:
“In a six week period from the end of June until the middle of August I had
great fun and success flying my ASH 31Mi/21M in the Great Basin of Nevada
and Utah.
During that period I broke eight U.S. National soaring records in
the single-seat motorglider category, including one of them twice.”
Here’s a summary of the record flights
(month/day/year):
6/29/13: Free triangle distance: 1157.2 km
7/2/13: Triangle speed 1000 km: 133.77 km/h [surpassed on 7-18-13]
7/18/13: Distance up to 3 TPs: 1070.3 km
7/18/13: Triangle distance: 1070.3 km
7/18/13: Triangle speed 1000 km: 139.01 km/h
7/20/13: Triangle speed 750 km: 150.66 km/h
8/6/13: Triangle speed 500 km: 156.63 km/h
8/6/13: Triangle speed 300 km: 156.63 km/h
8/14/13: Out-and-return speed 500 km: 155.91 km/
“All of these flights were done from Ely, NV except for the last one, which was done from Parowan, UT.
Part of the inspiration for these flights was the remarkable speeds achieved by John Bally in his EB28 at Ely during the first part of June, several times exceeding 160 km/h for 1,000 km OLC flights (plus a notable 173 km/h for a 910 km flight).
It was shortly after flying in the back seat of John’s EB28 that I started succeeding in my record attempts!”
What a perfect way to be inspired!!! Thanks for sharing, Mitch!
Also on Sunday; The New York Marathon …… 60.000 runners, amongst them quite a few Dutch, had to run over 42 km. One of the participating ladies was a young Dutch female glider pilot Maaike, who also was my TC assistant in Husbos during the JWGC. She finished within 4 hours, an amazingly great performance . The winner, a top athlete from Kenia ran the course in 2.25,7.
The Melbourne Cup stopped the NATION again yesterday. Fiorente won the race, but not everybody was proud this time , as one of the favourites , Verema, had to be put down after injuring itself during the race. NOT good!!
Poor 5 million dollar horse, he only lived 5 years.
That’s it for now.
Cheers Ritz
On Wednesday November 6 one day before my lovely daughter Inge turns 41!