December 24;
AGAIN MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL !!!
Just finished blog number 8 and to make them not to long I write a new one now! Blog 8 had pictures and all the latest on the 3 JS 3’s here in Tocumwal.
As shared by the Kingaroy Friends.
—–A Happy Christmas for us too. George just drove to Melbourne to pick up the family arriving here in Toc.at around 7 . They just boarded a flight from Ayers Rock to Melbourne. WELCOME Inge, Rodger, Indya and Dexie.
Big leg of ham in the full fridge is waiting.
A bit of a storm here, at least a very strong wind from the South.
—–Some exciting news from Narromine and Kitipotib and it’s all about girls now;
In Kiripotib Sibylle Andresen flew a few new African Women records in the Antares 23.
On December 10 she flew a Declared 500 km. triangle with a speed of 155.7 km./h. which was 7 km./h faster than the old one. The 300 km was 11 km. faster.
On December 15 she flew a 100 km.FAI triangle with 180 km./h. which was a Continental record and 12 km. faster than the old one.
—–From Narromine 2 ladies left yesterday for a 1000 km flight and they did it. Good on them.
Another typically awesome day out of Narromine today!!! Congratulations to Jenny Ganderton and Kerrie Claffey on flights of over 1000kms each.
Picture shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official
A very happy Jenny mentioned on the OLC:
“Declared Lightning Ridge, Koorawatha, Narromine for 1000km. Took ages to get to Lightning ridge, and thought about aborting the task, but had a good run to the south until Eugowra, where it was soft, so turned there, and made an OLC 1000km by going almost to Gilgandra and back to Narromine. No Triangle though.”
No worries Jenny ,..next time. She flew it in the ASH 26;1.012 km. with a speed of 112 km./h.!!!!! She flew all the way up to Lightning Ridge, an opal town in the middle of nowhere.
And as happy, Kerry, Tom’s wife;”woo hoo – great christmas present! yes I know it’s not the holy grail FAI triangle in std class but it’s a start.” Kerry flew the ASG 29/18m.1;046 km with a speed of 114.km./h.
A bit of a dark picture by Robert[ Smits] who flies in Narromine at the moment as well. 678 km. on this special day in an LS 4.
Kerry still in the glider just before sunset and Jenny with a big smile at her site.
Akemi flew 785 in the LS 8 and Andrew Du in the ASW 28/18m a distance of 776 km.
Robert shared this nice picture from Lightning Ridge as well.
—–Daniel Rhin shared this interesting picture;
” Watched the Space-X Falcon9 launch from my front balcony. Very beautiful.”
——Perlan Project!!
What a great flight again for Dennis and Morgan on December 20 from Nahuel Huapi; 2.298 km with a speed of 168.5 km./h. in the ARCUS J. Here is what they had to say;
“What can I say about a very special day in Patagonia? We planned this flight on Skysight two days before and the plan worked perfectly. We expected the first leg to be slow with a 70km gap just after the start and we expected absolutely ripping lift north of that. The plan kept us flying in the good lift without wasting any time crossing gaps.
The Skysight forecast is so precise that we did not need to look at clouds to find lift. When the clouds went one way and Skysight went another way we found it was better to follow the Skysight prediction. We literally do not need to look out the window to find lift.
What about the final glide? Over 500km from home with two hours to sunset and 70,000ft altitude required we were actually worried about coming home early. A slow spot near the finish, thanks to the 70km gap, put paid to that idea. We made our goal before last light.”
AND,…another one by Dennis and Tim[Gardner] from Chos Malal;2.520 km. in the ARCUS J. Up to 7.574 MSL on December 22.
——-Bitterwasser Lodge and Soaring Center shared the news that Ulf Merbold flew there. Ulf has been the second German in space and the only German Astronaut who did three flights to space. .
The full story on www.bitterwasser.com Enjoy!
—–Just had a Christmas drink with Dundee whilst waiting for the family. We waved to Dennis when he left with his Cessna 180 and he waved back to us. After his flight to Hong Kong he will be back here on the 28th.
Cheers and CU
Ritz