Back on track again and one of the first things after reading my mails was to check and read myself into JOEYGLIDE.
It was good to have just one week WITHOUT laptop, no news ,no gliding, just having fun and spending quality-time with my grand kids.
On the JOEYGLIDE site I found :
” Pilots awaiting launch for the last day of competition.
Congratulations to yesterday’s day winners, Nick “Nuk” Oakley (NZ) in 15m and Ignas Bitinaitis (Lithuania) in Club class.
Today’s tasks are quite short, with a late start and an early finish, making it difficult for competitors who are hoping to pull ahead on the last day. A 2.5 hr AAT for 15m and 2 hr AAT for Club, both in a tight circuit around the airfield in the hope of getting everyone home for the presentation dinner tonight.”
That meant they had 6 days of good to very good soaring but also with a bit of a scary day for some . Look at this!
My opinion, but I am “old” and not a real glider pilot; you should be better not in the air at such time, but running into a thunderstorm is not always avoidable,on the other hand ALL pilots know to fly around it ,when possible as far as you can, or to wait when possible, when it hangs over a TP or just to fly back . Quite an experience for such young “kids” certainly from Europe who are not used to this kind of storms, popping up at places as in Africa and Australia.
Picture shared by several enthusiastic followers; Danish pilot Frederik Noddelund in the ASW 28.
The picture surely has the WOW-factor!
Let me take you quickly through those days.
CLUB CLASS:
Day 1 was cancelled but then the pilots had to fly for 4 consecutive days ; a 2.30 AAT , a set 360 km. ,a 4 hour AAT and a 2.30 one.
Specially the 4 hour AAT was interesting and Queensland pilot, Ben flew 507.2 km. in in 3.59.47 so a great speed over such a distance in and ASW 20 from 126.8 km./h. Not bad!
Day 5 a 3 hour AAT was a prey for Lithuanian pilot Ignas who flew in the LS 1 f 337 km. in time 3.03.
With one day to go , yesterday, the O’ Donnells from Queensland were up front in the overall scores with 3794, for Joseph, 3756 for Luke and Eric Stauss who flew JWGC already in Europe was only 30 points behind Luke.Don’t forget Eric out-landed on day 1, loosing 700 points, that ‘s not the best of starts !
As said the last day only had a small 2 hour-task, so what could happen????
Ignas got the hang of Aussie soaring and won the last day too.He finished on a nice 6th spot overall, after he out-landed on the the first day as well, loosing quite some points as the winner James had 857 points , “poor” Ignas only 124.
A pilot to keep an eye on next year!!!
The O’ Donnells went for the “win” for Joseph, so Luke started first at 14.16 and Joseph followed at 14.22 . Knowing the experience from Eric they played on safe for the title.
Josph won ,…Eric got the runner-up-spot….and Luke was 3d.
In 15 m. class it was Matthew Scutter and Matthew Scutter.[Discus 2a] He of course is used to JWGC’s already but still you have to do it every competition.He won day 1,2,3 and 4, was runner up on day 5 and ” lost” 60 points , but he put that straight, straight away by winning day 6 again.Of course he was far ahead on the rest with 5519 points. Good on young lady Ailsa [LS 8] who deserved the runner-up-spot 5161 points. Frederik, yes the one from the blitz-picture , was 3d.
Our KIWI friends out-landed on day 4 ,[ a day several pilots got caught by a thunderstorm] and that cost !Nick won day 5 but it was just not enough to be on the podium.
The European pilots for sure must have learned a lot AND, that’s why they were there! All experience in the bag for next years JWGC.
As shared by the NZ team.
The overall results.
In the 15m class:
1st place: Matthew Scutter
2nd place: Ailsa McMillan
3rd place: Frederik Noddelund
In the Club class:
1st place: Joseph O’Donnell
2nd place: Eric Stauss
3rd place: Luke O’Donnell
The Joey Cup (highest placed pilot weighted by number of gliding hours): Andrew Grandja
Southern Cross Gliding Club Trophy (highest placed pilot at their first JoeyGlide): Ryan Griffin
The George Lee Trophy (highest handicapped speed achieved during the competition): Matthew Scutter, 137.4 km/h
Schempp-Hirth Trophy (voted by the competitors as the pilot showing the greatest airmanship and citizenship): James Nugent
The Catherine Conway Cup (highest placed female pilot): Ailsa McMillan
The Junior Tasman Trophy: Sam Schoneveld (AUS)
The State of Origin Plate: NSW
The JSR Soaring Trophy (highest placed Queensland Junior): Joseph O’Donnell
Australian Air Force Cadets Trophy: Mitch Turner
Congratulations to all of the trophy winners.
Narromine seems ready for the JWGC in 2015.About 120 people attended the farewell dinner, so it must have been a great night!
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Pre JWGC /Joey Glide in Australia over and Africa started yesterday with their Nationals flown from WELKOM.
38 Pilots , 7 in Club, 9 in 15 m. and 22 in 18 m. An international national competition with German, Dutch , Danish, Polish, Slovenian and UK pilots. AND,…of course ” some ” top South African pilots.
In the land of the JS 1, an amount of 16 JS1’s perform, in different configuration, both Jonker brothers fly the new JS1 b EVO.
The weather on the way to Welkom, looks as you can see on the picture, shared by the Soaring Society of South Africa perfect.Cloud streets enough , a pity this car could not fly.
Talking about the evo,…2 of my Dutch friends own a JS 1evo now as well. Marco was as a club member of the EAC, often our crew in the past and is a colleague from my daughter now, Jeroen is an airline pilot as well and flew many WGC’s. They look extremely happy with their new toy!!! So they should.
Marco flew the JS from Potchef to Welkom, Jeroen flies the comps, starting today with ” only” 2 hour AAT’s.
A happy Marco and Jeroen and their beautiful glider.[APU]
and
Uys,[flies the Nationals ] Marco,[who is sad to go home , but will be back] , Ronald [who flies the Nationals ] and Arne, also flying the Nationals.
Clearly before the comps, they look like “trouble”!
As shared by Arne
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The New South Wales Gliding Championships are hold in Temora a bit more NE of Tocumwal and for sure a place with good weather conditions.26 Pilots in 3 classes sort out this upcoming week, who is the best.Young and “old” are flying, so a nice mix.
Former junior Nathan won the first 1000 points today. An AAT of 3.30 was set and he flew 340 km. in the Cirrus with a speed of 97 km./h.
Globe trotter and soaring fan[atic] from the first hour, Mac from Japan won in 15 m. class, a set 406 km. task with a speed of 118.5 km. in his LS 8.
And in open/18 m. Brian du Rieu was the best on this first day flying his 18m. LS 10 with a speed of 126.4 km./h. over a set task from 396 km.
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It’s high season in Africa, so pilots enjoy what they are coming for , good conditions and the 1000 km.- rain continued , also when I was not home.Specially Namibia “does what it should do” now after a slow start.
Kuruman is in the great weather-pattern as well, so it looks.
That’s it for now making up for not writing last Wednesday.
Back next Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz
On December 14 2014
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