—–You can get used to it !!!
Even when they say that it’s not the real Namibian weather, though I think the last couple of days were too good to listen to such a statement,  we do have to look more and more at Namibia as THE PLACE TO BE for 1000 km.-plus flights, You can fly them at many more places, but not nearly every day.
It’s also nice to see that more and more pilots choose good double -seaters to fly those long distances!!! AND,…As Namibia is the place to be for REAL long distance flying and doing it together/ sharing the fun , is nicer than alone, you can start counting 2 seaters on the OLC nowadays,  where they were not even on this list in the past.
So many 2 seaters and so many SUPER flights.
Look at the OLC on last Wednesday;29 over 1000 kilometer-flights most in a 2-seater.
And on December 17 you saw 21 ARCUS M, VERY POPULAR,  and 1 ARCUS T up in the air on page 1 from the OLC. On top of that there were some  EB versions and  the ASG 32 MI and a 20 m. DG 1000.Also the Nimbus 4DM flies happily around.
There are friends , like Hans and Alfred Paul from Holland flying the Nimbus 4DM over 1.103 km.with 125 km./h on the clock from Douglas.
Father and son from Australia , Michael and Matthew fly with “verve” The ARCUS M from Kiripotib with 1.021 km and 145 km./h. They did as the wrote, some “sightseeing in Botswana”.What do you want more???
And on an 1.100 flight Matthew mentioned:”This place makes gliding very very easy… 1100k at 155kph after a (relatively) late launch.”And his dad added;“7 hours, 1107km, 155kph, fl170, rain froze on wings when we flew through rain.”
Michael shared these pictures from it’s not all hosanna!

    

Matthew in his  Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

“I catch a lot of flak for flying OLC and not declared tasks – personally I find deciding where to fly while inflight infinitely more fun, but each to their own.

But today, I saw an interesting forecast on SkySight, a convergence to the south east, convergence to the south west, so I declared a 1000K FAI around it and had a go.

It actually worked out even better than expected as there was a gust front along the last leg. The last 10k was a bit interesting having to glide directly into the dust and then rain and heavy sink, but we still arrived a thousand metres high.

Danish mates ,as well as many German and a few French and Austrian mates, they all enjoy their long distances in comfortable gliders.
Of course some prefer to fly alone certainly when  they have a good EB 29 and then top the OLC list as Alexander [Meuller] with 1.190 km. with 137 km./h. A great kilometer-eater flying from Pokweni.
If that was not enough Alexander flew on Thursday 1.312.89 km. with a speed of 169,98 km./h. Even with all those flights in the pocket this still must gave him a boost !!!
And one day later on the 14th another exceptional day, which was called by Bitterwasser a normal Bitterwasser-day [have a look at their site why http://www.bitterwasser.com ] with 3 OVER 1.300 km. flights from Bitterwasser, Pokweni and Veronica!!!! Speed up to 168 km./h .[by Alexander]
Keith  [Essex] added another 1.356 km. in the EB 29 D.
With all these TOP GLIDERS and the top weather, the 1.300 is nearly “the new normal”.

Good to see Gerd Marzinzik, who I know from the past, is still flying; a 1000 in an ASH 26E from Bitterwasser. Good on him !!!

No miracle the boy’s from Flying with the Champions/Rent a glider ordered 2 new Arcus M. gliders for their operation.
They sell their oldest gliders as the Antares 23 E, [D-KULS], the Arcus E,[D-KWKU ]and the Arcus M[D-KOWL] . If you are interested in, you can let them know, and they will send you an offer. Rent a Glider

By the way ,…the 1000 k remains magic for many, as I found out AND of course IT IS, certainly the first one!!!!I still get excited because from the past I can still feel the tension and the waiting specially those last kilometers were nail biting.Though gliders and instruments and weather forecast were then much less than now.That’s a fact.

On the 17th Keith [Essex] flew in the EB 29 D his 2d OVER-1.300 km.-flight with a speed of 153 km./h. ;a triangle from 1.200 from Bitterwasser. With a late start as he commented on the OLC;
“Almost didn’t fly, overcast until 10:45. Thermals triggered as soon as the sun hit the ground. Thermals were broken and the clouds were very dishonest. From 6pm the ground was in total shade. Despite the challenges it was another good day in Namibia.”

Also the Scutter’s flew that day and added their 5th over 1000 km. flight to the logbook. So to read ,dad Michael ,is very impressed with his son’s soaring. Nice!! Of course he is good, he was the Narromine Junior World Champion.

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——-South America;
The 65 th Argentinian Nationals went on on paper as flying over the last day’s was not possible anymore . Looking at pictures with muddy boots from kids it must have rained!!!
From 12 day’s they flew 7 in the combined 15 m/open and Damien Goldenzweig [18m.Ventus 2 CM] won the title with 5.533 points. Runner up Santiago Berca with 5.490 in the same glider.
Jose Dentone did well as number 3 in a Ventus B /15 m.[5.433]
Only 6 out of 12 day’s in the combined standard class and here it was Lucas Goldenzweig who won the title. [4.878]  He won in the LS 4 and the next 3 gliders on the overall scores were LS 4 as well.

 

The Goldenzweig brothers , Damian and Lucas, both on spot 1 and few little ones ready to take over in the future.
as shared by Damian.

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——The 2018 Victorian State Comps at Benalla had mixed weather, good but they suffered also from rain .  In Tocumwal I heard even 50 to 60 mm on a day with only 18 dgr. C. and that’s only 70 km. N of Benalla.
There were two class groups – Un-Ballasted from which the Club Class championship will be determined and Ballasted, from which the FAI class championships will be determined.
4 Day’s out of 7 for the “ballasted”  gliders [10]  ,with 421k. as the longest task and 2x a 3 hour AAT with 417 as best result by Lumpy Paterson in his JS 3 ; nice speed too 138.87 km./h. But on handicap that made him 5th for the day.
After 4 day’s the winner was Bruce Cowan with 3.511 points in a Ventus B/15 m..
In the “unballasted” class Craig Collins from Mount Beauty was the star winning/shining every day in his ASW 20 .He won after 4 day’s with 3700 points!!! Good on him.
Straight after the comps the weather was booming again!!

By the way the next multi class Nationals will be in Tocumwal. Love that. We always wanted to have the Nationals there but it was our peak-time with everybody in full action and all gliders booked. We just lacked time and space in high season.
Look at this ;”Tocumwal has been selected to host the 2019 Australia Multi-class Gliding Championships.This will see around 60 pilots gathering to compete from the 9th to the 21st December .“
Lumpy Paterson is the great “engine” behind this. He bought and runs “our” old WW2 hangar now and he really puts an effort in the place now after a few years of mismanagement by the sole last owner, who took over after us .The hangar was nearly lost.

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Dear friends, through my blogging I keep going, which means it keeps me fit, it gives me a boost!!!
Though the flu last week was a an unexpected nuisance and still is.
72 now still going pretty strong.
THANKS for the many good wishes for my birthday on FB, personal mail and phone.
Good friends even called me from Namibia!!! AND,….NONE of my Aussie girl-friends forgot me!!!!

Thanks for reading with [still] so many; I do not write for nothing.
Time to say THANK YOU and to wish you during this upcoming festive season, the very best Christmas time with your family and friends.

MERRY CHRISTMAS…ZALIG KERSTFEEST…FROHE WEIHNACHTEN….FELIZ NAVIDAD….JOYEUX  NOEL…GOD JUL….HYVAA JOULUA…BUON NATALE….Merīkurisumasu….

CU 1 day later on December 27,
Love Ritz