Fall has started,…. for the lucky ones…time to leave the colder countries, ,…maybe,…very maybe,..I belong to the lucky ones too!!

—–Autumn started here in Holland and it started with late- summer- weather,..just beautiful. We deserved that after the much too early autumn- days earlier in summer.

Autumn in Holland.

—–I heard already the first messages of travelling to South Africa, Namibia or Australia . October 23, Dieter Dundee leaves for Tocumwal and will spend his winter over there.
He is 81 now and still going strong. Here is how I remember his arrival.
—I never forget his arrival many years ago. The bus had arrived at 7 PM at the fore- shore in the center of town and he had no clue where to go to. A nice fellow from Toc brought him to the airfield,about 5 km. ..big bag-pack nearly as high as he is himself. It was after -office-time , but we never had a problem with that and Brutus and I were still working.
He entered with a big smile saying, “I am Dieter from Germany and I speak no English”. Both Brutus and I are fluent with German, so we welcomed him in his native language. Bigger smile.
We asked him what he would like from us? He had no booking, neither for a room or a glider.
He wanted to stay  for certainly 3 months ,maybe longer. I looked a bit pale. We were fully booked for rooms in summer, so no way we could accommodate him. ” You have not booked???” …”No” he said . “Ingo always said in Oerlinghausen, that if I wanted to come and see him in Australia, I should come and here I am”
Brutus [Peter] a quick thinker said to me “room 6 is empty it is used for storage maybe we can make a nice room for him there.”
We brought him to the dinner room where some more German people welcomed him too.
Next day the room was ready freshly cleaned, a good bed, a small table and a chair. For more there was no room.

Every year he returned. In between he was called Tocumwal Dundee and over the years his English improved as well. For a few years he stayed in room 6 cheeky calling it room sex.

When our beautiful caravan-houses were on sale we offered them first to long time guests. Dieter and Swiss Chriss were the lucky ones and they straight away said yes and bought them . They still live in those caravans with a balcony, a nice snug and dining area, as well as a kitchen. A shower room and a big double-bedroom and a smaller one with 4 bunk beds.

No need to say that his life after his first visit changed dramatically, seeing so much more from the world and getting to know SO many people from so many different countries. He still loves it!!!!
Dieter here with the soaring icon “mister”  Ingo Renner, who invited him ,as he did with many others , to visit Tocumwal.

A few years ago at Toc.

 

—–Potchefstroom is a place I mainly know from the JS-gliders and brothers Uys and Atiie, the Nationals , AKAFLIEG and from Oscar and Laurens flying there. So talking about South Africa, their  news is ” about brand new accommodation at the airfield. Good news.”

Airfield apartments almost finished.”
as shared by AKA -flieg Potch Gliding.

—–Sad news!! Jeremy Thompson,  [62] Darling Downs Chief flying instructor,– very well known and liked/loved by all– , has died whilst flying/ instructing. His wife Jenny saw it all happen. Ready to land,….. the glider nose-dived and crashed. Sadly enough the student, only 60 years old died as well.
My thoughts are with Jenny, Elisabeth and Sarah, who is the Darling Downs Club president since last week. They are a real soaring family.
R.I.P. Jeremy.
And of course with the family of the new student;just TRAGIC !

—–Just a reminder; The World Gliding Championships for Club, Standard and 15 m. classes are to be held at Ostrow Wielkopolski, Poland in July 2018, and  20 m. Multi-Seat, 18 m. and Open Classes are to be held at Pribram, Czech Republic in August 2018.

—–OLC 2017; On September 25 the OLC 2017 finished with one flight by Geoff Pratt from Burketown the place to see …and fly with the ” rolling-wave-cloud” ,called “MORNING GLORY”.
Worldwide stats from 2017;
The 2017 OLC Champion is Klaus Ohlmann with 12.612,28 points over the 6 best flights.
Statistics from the best flight; Klaus Ohlmann with 2.407,40 km. flown in Argentina from Zapala Neuquen in a STEMME.
Distance record since 2011; Jim Payne…2.907,47 !!!Flown from Minden in 2015 on April 5 in an ARCUS M.
Stats from all flights in 2017; Keith Essex [USA] with a total of 69.747,54 km. during 107 flights.
Stats airfield; Puimoisson with 889.491,90 km. during 2.188 flights by 353 pilots.
Stats clubs; OUR DUTCH club ,de GELDERSE, and not for the first time….flying from Terlet they covered 306.886,77 km. during 1026 flights by 100 pilots.
Congratulations to ALL.

The 2018 OLC started

 

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