12.30 ;
Just arrived in Benalla to see all gliders ready at the grid for the very last day of this OZ glide , combined with the 54 th Nationals.
Dundee, my ” personal chauffeur ” as he calls himself, dropped me off at the motel and later at he field.
Tasks have been set both A and B. The wind is tough and chilly , sun shines brightly and it looks like another blue day. Missed the briefing, but here are the tasks from the last day;
Open; 450 km.
18m.;346 km.
15 m.;374 km.
So nice tasks with possibilities to loose or to gain points.
Just heard that new tasks will go out with a B/C task???[12.45]
They don’t change them straight away on the internet and I don’t have them so we have to wait what they are going to do now.
Yesterday was , as expected a non flying day. The weather was horrible, the temperature dropped from 44 to 22 and in the night even to 18 in Tocumwal. Their was a blowing gale and we really had to keep ourselves steady when visiting the most beautiful house of a friend on the top of a high hill in Wodonga.
The view and the interior.
The day before turned out to be a “ripper” ,though the day was cancelled in the morning, it was a very fast day,… but only for 15 and 18 m.
The day for 15 m. was devalued by the speed as Adam flew 324 km. in 2.02 ,so a speed of 159 km./h in the Ventus A. For that he deserved the highest points given this day;615.He started straight away at 3.02 PM.
Tim Bromhead from NZ started last at 16.27,finishing last at 18.02. But ,…he finished!!!!!
2 Out-landings one by Lisa, she dropped from 15 to 20, a pity.
19 Pilots flew around with a speed of 142 km./h or higher.
Here is Matthew’s story written 2 days ago covering 2 days!!
—“It’s been a tough few days at the Nationals which has kept me from my blogging, but I’m back for now!
Yesterday we had essentially a distance task set that necessitated starting as soon as possible – I started at 4000ft on a day predicted to go higher than 11000ft. I pushed as hard as possible all day, risking outlanding around the task just trying to get as far as possible before the end of the day, and was lucky to be able to actually squeak around the task. (Un?)fortunately some who started behind also managed to, but no harm to the points.
Today was a very… interesting day. We awoke to a text informing us the day was cancelled, and then at 10am, having made our rest day plans, we got another text telling us the day was… uncancelled!? So we watered gridded and launched onto a booming trough for a 2hr AAT. I made some fatal errors but was lucky the right names also had bad days so no harm in the overall standings.-–”
Today they start with the knowledge that Matthew [6203] leads before Mac [6085] and Stephen with 5963 and Norm with 5764.
18 m.
had a 2.30 AAT last Wednesday with that peculiar weather and the peculiar decisions. Hungarian pilots don’t mind to fly along showers and fronts and used them as well as the GREAT clouds , to the fullest so they had a great day .Zoltan won with 401 km. in time 2.28. So a speed of 160,54 km./h. Bloody good!!!
Not a 1000- points- day “only” 800!!!
His mates were on spot 5 and 6 and Czech pilot Petr knows how to deal with that weather as well, he finished on 4 just behind Boerje from Sweden.
Tom [Claffey] was on spot 2.
That means that the number 1-2-3 are still Peter, Butch and Tom ,but Petr [5984] lost a spot to Zoltan, [5949], who was still on spot 6 after task 7; so a nice East European “fight ” here.
Open was cancelled that day and the opinions about it were “mixed”.
They know the overall scores well before they start today; Bruce [5695] , Andrew [5606] ,Ian [5394] and Scott and Ingo[5200]
Bruce’s view on today;
—“Wx, streaming from the south nicely!
Inversion – hence the poor vis.
This is a completely new air mass. .. If it’s from the south, not good, if SE, then can be good…..
Going to about 7k’. Forecast 25deg max, 27 to the north. Expected to stay blue. Maybe 6-8knts, nice only for a short period. Weatherman cautions us, but advises us to be optimistic!!
(Luckily the tugs are all fuelled up for this afternoon, he says!!)—”
1.20:More later. They have not launched yet!!
1.45; They just cancelled 15 m. and 18m. class. ONLY OPEN WILL FLY today!!!
So CONGRATULATIONS to Matthew with his 2d BIG WIN this season. After becoming junior world champion he is now National 15 m. Champion as well AND qualified to fly the WGC next year here in Benalla.
Mac did well with a runner-up-position and Stphen is the number 3, bronze for him.
In 18 m. class Peter is the new National Champion and Butch and Tom have earned the silver and bronze.
Open class has just been cancelled!!!!! So Bruce is the new National Champion, after 6 out of 12 days in this class , with Andrew and Ian as number 2 and 3!!!
Congratulations to all.
Have to move here soon as at 3 PM, the tables will be set.130 People have to be seated in this club house room, so it is sold out and it will be very “cosy” all together here.
Just a short note from my motel room.
Got some pictures from Mr. Du, who has left Tocumwal, for a few days to fly in Narromine again. One of his mates, a very fine pilot, left last week, the other had to go home in a hurry after being in hospital for 3 days in Shepparton, with appendicitis problems.
Andrew was supposed to write more about soaring in China, but the translator unfortunately got sick. So only a picture from the Place they fly from and a link to www.loongwing.com
Just to let you know!
That was the diary 2015/2016. Hope you liked it.
Back to the Wednesday-blogs soon.
Will make pictures tonight from the closing-ceremony and dinner ,but can only upload them when I am back home!
Tomorrow morning I will leave Benalla and a friend will bring me straight to the Airport.
Cheers Ritz