Senior comps in Florida from Seminole Lake Gliderport.
It all started a bit slow , with less good weather than the practice days, but they continued with task 2 on March 15 and the weather man there, Fernando Silva, seems to be good or he “knows more than the rest “, or he “reads his weather better than the rest”, as he won AGAIN. So 2000 points in his pocket.
Karl [Striedeck] showed his quality in the Duo with “maybe” Sarah in the back again; 957 points [1942 total] for day 2 with a 2 hour TAT and as best actual distance 112 miles in 2.03. All 62 pilots flew!!!
My Uvalde mates Chris and Gary Carter and senior soaring doggy “Mate” .Chris and Gary have a SUPER “house on wheels”! Can’t call that a trailer, van, or caravan, not even a mobile home.
As shared by Leigh Zimmermann.
With 2 more days to go , I checked with Rick [Sheppe] who is there and writes about this competition, about those tuggies, here is what he had to say and it remains IMPRESSIVE!!
“We have six towplanes, three from here, and three from other clubs. The expert tow pilots, combined with the 7 energetic youngsters on the line crew, have produced some very impressive launch times. 62 gliders in under one hour.
Our weather has not been outstanding, unfortunately. It finally stopped raining two days ago, but now we have cold days with weak lift and no clouds at all.
They have a short Area Task today, and several departed under 1000m AGL.
It will be a struggle!
Other than the difficult flying, this has been a delightful reunion of old friends, with parties every night in the Briefing hangar, and lots of story-telling. Collectively, we have over 2700 years of aviation experience!”
What about that!!!!
So another difficult day on Thursday March 16 ; 1.45 TAT, [turn area task] but the 61 pilots launched for the day, with a B task in the pocket. It seemed to be a good day for a glider as the SILENT 2A, as the pilot Steve Arndt “got” the daily 1000 points!!!
Weather man Fernando was 4th and Karl 2d , so in the top nothing changed AND Steve is on spot 3 overall.
LAST DAY with “back to normal spring conditions”-weather!!!!
A last day on a senior’s, is not so important as on a WGC or EGC , but still for competing pilots certainly those in the top, every competition is a competition ,with ALL what belongs to it.
Fernando won this day too , so no news there, but Steve Arndt in the Silent had a less day and finished on spot 24, not enough to keep his good 3d spot.
4 Days of flying and winning 3 of them ; 3973 points for Fernando in his ASW 27, “pretty” good! Well done.
Karl finished on spot 2 with 3868 in the Duo Discus.
New 3d place for Robin Clark in the ASG 29 with 3658 and not far behind the CD of the Uvalde WGC in 2012 Ken Sorenson with 3647. ONLY one point behind…..for 2 teams/pilots; The Arcus M and Steve both with 3646 points.
Here is Rick;” The competition is over, and we had a nice awards banquet in a local resort.”
Official as shared on the site;
“The 27th Senior Contest is now in the books. Weather presented many challenges, but yielded 4 (of 6 possible) valid contest days in a variety of conditions. We had a damage-free week (the worst casualty was a flagpole temporarily flattened by a stray pickup truck). And Seminole Lake Gliderport renewed its reputation as the best place in North America for a March soaring contest.”
AND he send a picture of the winners. Thanks Rick.
From left to right; Robin Clark (3rd), Karl
Striedieck (2nd), and Fernando Silva (champion).
Rick was so kind to send me a picture from ALL “oldies” as well. Thanks Rick.
The 2017 SENIORS.
Courtesy Rick.
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2017 USA Sailplane Grand Prix.
From MARCH 26 the second ever SGP in the USA will be flown from this airfield Seminole Lake, as well with John Godfrey (Scorer at Uvalde 2012] as CD.So one week rest ,……and interesting activities continue!!!!
This is by the way, the daily winners medal!!
As shared by the SGP.
If I remember well, I might have written that this is the very first SGP in the USA. WRONG!!!!!Sorry about that.
I checked with Rick and OF COURSE I knew/should have known ” the first USA Sailplane Grand Prix was in Ionia, Michigan last year.
The winners were Jerzy Szemplinkski, Jerzy Zieba, and Sergei Morozov.”
“Also, we have dropped the word “Qualifying” from the names of these events. They are now called the National Grand Prix. The next one is the “2017 USA Sailplane Grand Prix.“
Good to know!!!More next week.And,…with only 4 days to go there is still only 1 approved entree; Tom Kelley a retired airline pilot flying an ASG 29.
At this stage 12 pilots; 1 from the UK, 2 from Canada and the rest is from the USA.
The official practice day is already this upcoming Saturday and then it is 7 days of hopefully great flying.
You can find in between all the news on www.sgp.aero or wait till I have done all research for you.
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South Australian State Championships at Gawler.
Ready for the launches on day 3,
As shared by the Adelaide Soaring Club.
Between March 11 and 19 this Regatta was not blessed with good weather. There were some pilots elsewhere in the South of Australia [Victoria and NSW] ,flying up to 400 km. The participating pilots however, had a reasonable practice day with a 3 hour AAT, on the 10th and then unfortunately , only 3 out of 9 days.
This is a “serious -fun” competition with lay-days and coaching in 2 seaters, so very difficult to call winners but on the 3 days they flew they had a 2.15, 2 hour and on the last day a 3.30 AAT.
On this finally good day the 1000 points were for Paul Clift who flew his LS 3 over 353 km in time 3.38.
On March 8 , Matthew Scutter had a ” Cracking day out of Gawler exploring two convergences” . Such a pity this weather was not “on” during the Regatta.
By the way Matthew started his world tour visiting interesting [soaring-] places and has arrived already in cold London.
Another young Aussie pilot Adam, arrived in Scandinavia.
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SHARK E s [FES] !
And on FB I found last Friday the next news
“Shark eS (FES)… Born Today… Bound for Granden Lodge soon…”
at www.letistepodhorany.cz
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NARROMINE 2018 and the announcement of more comps !
Looking VERY FAR AHEAD!!!!BUT…good to know….
“TWO SEAT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AT NARROMINE AGAIN IN 2018!!
YES it’s TRUE! The Narromine Gliding Club is delighted to have been chosen for the 6th consecutive year to host the Two Seat National Gliding Competition in 2018.
The competition dates are yet to be finalized but most likely the competition will be run at the same time of year in late February 2018
The Competition will again be run in two classes, 2 SEAT OPEN CLASS and 20m 2 SEAT CLASS. Same Rules, same Tasks, same Starts, separate scores and winners and both classes will receive day prizes and winners trophies.“
The Club and Sports Class Nationals will be at Goondiwindi later this year – dates to be confirmed shortly.
The Multiclass are at Waikerie in January 2018.
https://www.facebook.com/Waikerie-Gliding-Club-574559756031298/?fref=ts
Dates for the following season should be known soon.
Lake Keepit will host a Nationals which will double as the Pre-Worlds for the Women’s World Gliding Championship the following year.
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And news from France Bailleau 2017 –
Website is online …Hello ! From the 1nd to 11th of August, this summer, will be held the 43rd Bailleau International Gliding Contest, a classic flat-land gliding contest.
And like every year for 20 years now, Bailleau International will be accompanied by the now famous “Amical” Contest, one of the best ways for a pilot to take his first steps in competition …
The website http://2017.planeur-bailleau.org has just opened, you will find there all useful information and the online registration form.
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To finish this great picture by Bones one of our former tuggies.
He flew in his Sportavia period not only the Scouts, but also the Albatross and moved on to flying Mallards [ Paspaley pearls] for 12 years up in the North of Australia, the -Territory-.
He now moves on to flying freight from Hong Kong with Air Hongkong.
He will meet Cameron there, also one of the Sportavia tuggies in the past.
Cam is now the chief pilot for the Airbus Fleet Freighters.
“The Pleasures of fly boating”
The Albatross at the Tocumwal Airfield. All nostalgia!!
As shared by George.
and
The Mallard as shared by Bones.
Cheers Ritz
Sadly enough,…The first incidents in soaring have happened already in this early spring. 2 German pilots in their early 50thies crashed in their 2 seater with engine, after they departed Sisteron in France and are badly injured.
PLEASE FLY SAFE!!!!!
Blog 981 will be special.
On March 29 1967, I saw a glider for the first time in my life. How this day inspired me you can read next week.