South Africa with a “MONSTER-DAY” and Australia started their 2015/16 comps with great flights!

Party time!

The Sport committee from the Royal Dutch Gliding Association was so kind to invite glider pilots, friends and family for an informal drink at Terlet last Monday from 6 o’clock onward ,to celebrate our FAI AWARDS. Both Loek and I were ” cheered on ” as well as Jeroen Verkuijl and Jacques Selen ,who both flew so well during the last EGC in Ocseny in Hungary and Rieti in Italy .[spot 3 and 2!!!]
For those who are interested,…below in the extra blog is a picture-story impression, enjoy!

————

Potchefstroom.

On Wednesday [October 7] the pilots  got 3.30 hour AAT’s in both 18m./open and club class.
562 km. was the best distance in  time 3.34,  flown by Oscar in 18 m./open and when you fly so many kilometers you go FAST !!!!157.2 km./h.
377.2 km. was the distance in CLUB class by Wilhelm Mosehuus in the CIRRUS with a speed of 107.8 km./h.

Thursday ;was called a MONSTERDAY!!!!!!A 1.15 task was set for both classes as more was just impossible and they WENT for it, using all weather elements available!!!
Why??????Have a look at this!

zzzzzzzscores

WOW,….don’t know what more to say. Mind you Jonathan Cross flies a Cirrus as well.
WHAT FABULOUS DAY for those club class pilots!!!
As Oscar mentioned ;” Thunderstorms all around. Only task we could squeeze in.” He called the pilots for this day, RIDERS of the STORM and according to him ” possibly the most fun I have EVER had“.
Mind you Oscar flew everywhere in the world!!!
When I checked with him he was still “glowing”, ”  an exceptional day,extraordinary,… we never thought it would turn out in such a great day”.

They were launched to”  the sound of thunder.” Isolated showers/storms , over-development it was all there so with that hanging around they choose, in fact they had no other choice,  for that short task. What an unbelievable energy creates such weather.

Jonathan flew in time 1.26 , a distance of 146 km.[Cirrus] and Oscar in the same time a distance of 293 km.[JS 1]
Brother Laurens flew around with 191.95 km./h over 278 km. The ” slowest”  pilot flew around with 152.70 km./h.!!!!
It was for sure not about “the points”.Oscar got on this “devaluated day ” 376 points

zzzzOscar

Riders of the storm[s].
As shared by Oscar

After 5 days of flying , Jonathan Cross won the club class with 4010 points, runner up was Wilhelm Moosehuus with 3984 and just a tad less ,3941 for LS 1 pilot Jaco Burger.
In 18 m./open it was Oscar before brother Laurens;4121 for 3911 and then the Jonkers.

————

Kingaroy.

15m./st class day 4;
Adam [Woolley] , like David [Jansen] , straight away forgot about the out-landing and flew without any hesitation to another daily win in st./15 m.
268 km. with a speed of 113 km. in the “small” Ventus A is just good, as runner up Ross Mac Clean flew 10 km./h. slower.Overall number 1 flew around with 98.73 km./h in the ASW 20 a.

18 m./open day 4 ;
289 was set for the pilots in this class and slowly David is climbing up; spot 3 overall now , 2 on a daily base. Tom still leads.

Task 5 was cancelled in all classes due to heavy wind.
Task 6 was cancelled in all classes.

LAST DAY; Task 7 on day 5 ;
With 309. 83 the st/15 m. pilots had to see how they could stay at their spot or get higher, preferable not loosing.
Adam started ONE minute after Mac and finished 3 minutes earlier, so another daily win. Peter was in between them and kept his runner up-place behind Mac who won with  more than 200 points.
Here is what Adam had to say about the last day:
—“That’s a wrap, managed to win the final day of the 2015 QLD State Gliding Champs to finish 5th – a real shame about the outlanding day, as it would’ve been great to see how the game would’ve been played to the end.
Started mid-pack yesterday, a few minutes behind Mac & Pete Trotter. The sky, CU’s, but they didn’t give me confidence, it stated that way all day, lots of shear, & when organised, had no feel to them.
I cruised with the people I was with for half the flight, until I decided I could go it alone. Once the switch happened, I edged slowly away. A different race for me, as I wasn’t really in the race for the top dog spot.” —

18m./open had 401.72 km. David[ Jansen] flew with 122 km. on the clock to the 3 daily victory and managed to climb from the last but one spot on day 1 ,after an out-landing, to spot 2 behind Tom after 5 flyable days;3872 for 3784 points.

club 272 km. and local pilot Joseph O’ Donnel won the last day …he was 10 km. faster than the runner up.
Joseph won the comps in his LS 3; 3865 points for him and overall runner up LS 4 pilot John Trezise had 3545   points; he is from the Hunter Valley.

———-

News from the Qualifying Grand Prix in 15 m.  in France in 2016 [June 4-11] ;
“Maximilian Seis, the reigning Grand Prix World Champion, will fly again the Grand Prix France, just for fun! He’s already selected for the next world final. Max will be discounted from the results of the Grand Prix France for qualification purposes. 3 tickets to Potchefstroom are available!
The first pilots are already on the list, among them ” good old Patrick Stouffs”.

http://sgp.aero/france2016
The new web site is open now!

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Talking about websites; OMARAMA has a new one. Have a look at the spectacular ,colorful , active new site;
http://www.glideomarama.com

And straight away excitement , read this!
—“Yesterday Edwin Nieman from Dunedin flew with Gavin. It took over an hour to climb into the SW wave. But once at 13,000ft they tiptoed north to Aoraki/Mount Cook. The summit ridge was working well and gorgeous. Coming home they climbed to 21,000ft in front of developing lenticulars that topped out well over 30,000 feet, Edwin’s first glider flight – 3.2 hours!”—

zzzzOmarama  zzzzOmarama 2

13,000ft, 40km south of Mount Cook —and–Climbing through 20,000 ft 20 kms south of Mount Cook. Still lots of wave above.
” Trial Flights dont get much better than this!”
With Edwin Nieman, very Dutch name by the way!!!He looks VERY pleased!!!

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2015-10-11 15.39.50

In our SPORTAVIA time we trained army students/cadets. Those times were REALLY great fun,  as the young ones were out going , friendly and keen to learn.I remember our chef in the kitchen had to cook extra portions as they COULD EAT!!!All day out side ,some tension helps the appetite , but also early nights and breakfast.
One of my FB friends John Welsh from Perth in Australia, spend last week time to train a whole new bunch of pilots;
” Another mission accomplished! 8/8 students solo over the week, sent 3 solo myself – 52 sorties over 5 days, feeling a wee bit weary! Great youngsters to teach!”

zzzzTraining1   zzzztraining2

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Weather phenomena’ s !!!!

Ian Mc Phee from Australia shared this great picture with text from this superb cloud at Yamba:
On the new weather satellite this roll Cloud extended 200 to 300 km to sea at about 45 deg to coast. As it moved up the coast you could see winds from NE 15kph to 40 or 50kph S.”

zzzzzRoll cloud

Silva , “my CD”  at the EGC from Finland in 2005 ,[he used to call me “my steward” !] shared a great picture from the Northern Lights

zzzzzNoorder licht bySilva

AND
Jill shared a picture from her country with the message :” New Zealand from space – aren’t we pretty?

zzzzNZ

 Courtesy;The Edge Afternoons with Guy ,Sharon and Clint.
AND
from the S of Australia shared by Tammy, wife of our former tuggy Glenn.

zzzzzThunderstorm

” Lovely contrasting rainbow after this afternoons fierce storm.” [Last Saturday]

AND
Driving back from Tocumwal last Sunday Swiss Chriss had an encounter with this one in Kialla [Victoria] 

zzzzzzSwiss chris

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Slowly we are getting closer to the next JWGC in Narromine and activities around this big event are happening already NOW!!!!!
Here the JWGC- launch in Sydney, where most of the young pilots will arrive.

zzzzzNarromine JWGC

Champion Matthew Scuttter with member Paul Matthews, NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayers MP and Narromine Shire Mayor Bill McAnally at the launch of the JWGC Martin Place Sydney Friday 9 October.
Courtesy John Styles.

zzzzJWGC

JWGC-PR in Sydney.
As shared by the Gliding Federation of Australia

Our Dutch team starts at Corowa, unpacking the containers and getting used to the time difference and flying down under. Francesco, together with Grietje owners of the Australian Soaring Center in Corowa , shared a nice picture to our young ones to wet their appetite.
With the message ;” In the afternoon the cloud base went up to 2500 m. AGL.”

zzzzzCorowa op 13 oct

———-

This was post 850.We had great autumn weather last week and in the weekend , full of sunshine and that brought many to the airport for a nice flight in the late season.It was COLD though.Today 8 but with the wind chill factor 3 dgr. C. 15 dgr is normal for the time of the year. MAYBE wet snow in the Southern part of Holland.

AND
We are OUT of the soccer Europeans comps in France next year. Last year , after the World Championship, “we ” were number 2 on the FIFA ranking list , now yesterday evening,  we went under and sorry to say….deserved. A huge disappointment for soccer minded Holland , as we were participating since 1984. Heard that a turn around from 40 to 50 million will be lost, when you look economical to it.BUT….our Belgian mates are going and even more important , they wrote history and are NOW the number ONE on the FIFA ranking list!!!!!!! Good on them. As quite a lot of their players have played here in Holland or still do, I just follow Belgium now. No worries!!!
CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

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