Sorry a bit later today then normal, but I was on a 2 day trip, to the East of Holland.
finish over the lake in Finland
The regatta in Lake Keepit is on till March 1. Nice later in the season , with good weather for practice and lead and follow.
On their site Jacques Graells writes:
” Lake Keepit Soaring Club’s annual Regatta is a fun, friendly and informal cross country event to introduce pilots to cross country competition.
The idea is that the regatta is a mentoring event where pilot pairs are scored together around an AAT task. So we match up early cross country pilots with a seasoned pro, and they compete together as a team, either in two gliders or in a twin. Only the slowest time of the pair is scored, so it is in the interest of the more experienced pilot to coach and assist right throughout the flight.
So coaching, team flying and mentoring are all encouraged at this event. Really, this is a great opportunity to introduce budding cross country pilots to competition type AAT flying, while not getting caught up in all the formal competition hoo-hah. It will be run in a low key and relaxed way, all the while making sure people have fun. ”
Their practice day was last Saturday with a 3 hour AAT. Toppers among them Allan Barnes , Gary Speight, G Dale, Morgan Sandercock Andrew Georgeson and Jenny Ganderton fly with pilots who want to learn to be a better cross country pilot. A total of 44 pilots flew this week over the beautiful Lake Keepit area and I SHOULD share AGAIN these great pictures from a finish over the lake.
The first 2 days had a 3 hour AAT in this big mixed class [44 pilots] and were won by Morgan in the Sparrow Hawk [ 232.3 km. in 2.58] and Andrew [ 385.5 km. in 3.04] in the Ventus 2CX.
Day 3 [3 hour AAT] and 4 [2.30 AAT] were won by G. Dale in the DUO DISCUS , with a co -pilot. As G said;
” Excellent fun and IE is a really good example of an original Duo.”
Have to check if that’sour old IE.
During Joey Glide over the Lake in Lake Keepit
Still very good weather in Australia and as I last said already, Cunderdin in Western Australia, has had great weather this year and had a Super Sunday with an 833 FAI triangle in the SZD 55 by James Cooper, extended to 853 for OLC kilometers.
Beverley , same region, enjoyed the same circumstances and the weather was good till in the South as well .
The Benalla-Tocumwal area as, Corowa’s last container left last Monday, remains good as well!
With flights up to over 500 and even 663 km. in ASW 27 and ASH 26E from Tocumwal on Sunday and Monday, pilots can only be happy this late in the season, as I heard the evening definitely starts earlier.
Look at this story from Joergen who flies at Toc at the moment;
“2 days ago we used the weather to declare a 500 out/return flight toward Robinvale to the NW.
After 1 hour on the task, we had achieved 135 km, so it looked promising. The next hour the speed dropped to 105 km/h, but we still had 120 km/h average speed, and on final glide we finished with 129 km/h, 10 km/h faster than the old record.
Of our records, our 100 km FAI stands out with 178 km/h, flown around Waikerie area. We used a trough line, and managed the task without a single turn. This record also surpasses the existing Open class record, set in South Africa.
Also our 760 km FAI out of Tocumwal is very memorable. We were the first to launch, got on the task at 1000 m, and headed directly for a huge dust-lift just to the north of the field. This gave us 3,2 m/sec to 2400 meters, a very good start.
We kept the curving down to 20%. The task speed was 132 km/hr. Our finish height was 800 meters above our start altitude, so we could have done a speed of 140 or more, this time we chose to go for more distance.
This flight gave 5 new Danish records.”
They love their ARCUS, though like a few more, they had some problems in the beginning.
Next year they ” go” for the 1000 km!!!
Benalla pilot Andy Smith from the UK had over 500 km. as well in the Ventus 16.6 m. but on Monday even 720.
AND,…also the East of Australia was good with those flights from Lake Keepit.
A great picture shared by Beverley pilot John, who just had another 500 k in the pocket in his HORNET, with a final glide starting at 10.000 ft.
Not to forget always surprising New Zealand were Finnish pilot Jyry Laukkanen flew 761 in the Discus and he called it ” A somewhat exploratory flight.”
Last Saturday he flew in the Duo Discus 816 km. from Omarama going up N and down S of the airfield.
A lot of rotor cloud for a day [Monday] that was supposed to be nearly blue. Awesome cloudscapes in the end!
High winds (in the order of 90 knots at 13,000 ft!) and steadily increasing cloud cover (7/8 in the end) made even the milk run demanding. Luckily the wave was high.
Difficult wave entry with rough rotor and dancing wave.”
Talking about WAVE, they had good wave in Norway as well, according to Ulf Hustad on February 22;
“A great day for cross country flying in the mid-Norwegian mountain Waves.
Extra oxygen supply increases both the height of the flight and the safe range.
An awesome day in an awesome glider.” [LS8]
Some info, just to let you know, certainly when your glider needs this kind of maintenance.
You might be getting sick of me talking about our speed skaters but with winning 64 % of the medals in long track speed skating , we did indeed WELL!!!!!They have been welcomed as heroes by 10 .ooo people and by the prime minister and the king and queen, one day later!
4 x A clean sweep as well in one discipline , in one Olympic Game , is excellent and happened never before.
Now I will ” shut up” about it.But I feel extremely happy with it and with me a million or more other Dutchies.
That’s it, CU next week, still pretty quiet so not enough news to entertain you twice a week. Back in the CAFE however on Sunday!
Cheers Ritz