In the night from Saturday to Sunday we moved one hour  back in time  and most countries in Europe did so, even Russia. They experimented with an ongoing summer time , but after 3 years the people complained about the lack of light , so they are in the normal pattern as well now.
The difference with at least the Southern part of Australia, is 10 hours again,  so I have to keep that in mind, when I skype with my friends in Tocumwal.
Still pretty nice weather here, 18 dgr. C. , so nothing to complain.

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Gliders, in containers, have arrived or nearly arrive at their destinations in South Africa and Australia.So it ‘s unpacking again and a new season starts.

The containers from Kiripotib have arrived already on October 24 as they start their season straight away.
The first week of FLYING WITH THE CHAMPIONS is from November 1 till 7 , the 2d week from November 8-14 2014.
And …it is great to hear that they are sold out both weeks.
They had a bit of a slow start but filled up all places! Good on them!! And ” them” , when you might not know,  are Ludwig Starkl and Wolfgang Janowitsch, both from Austria.
Do you still  remember their idea to found this company? Here you are;

” Most of us find the time to fly some 50 to 100 hours a year. Presuming an average airborne time of 3 hours for one take off, this makes about 20 to 35 flying days.
Some private owners of a glider spend several hundred thousand Euros for these few days. Money earned by hard work, reduced by tax and saved for years and years.

An example: An Arcus M costs almost a quarter million Euros, so if you save 1000 Euros a month, it will last 20 years to be able to buy one. That’s long! Besides that you have to spend time and money for annual inspections, maintenance, costs for insurance, maybe a place in a hangar… If I use the 12.000 Euros already in the first year, it enables me to use one of the best gliders around for at least one and a half month. Even with half the money – 6.000 Euros – I can spend three weeks of soaring with the best equipment.

Do you want to wait 20 years for it?

• We want to give you the chance to fly the best gliders, even if you are not prepared to pay the price of a small house for it.
• We want to give you modern double-seaters to exchange your knowledge and your experience.
• We want to share the enthusiasm for thrilling soaring sites like Namibia.”

They had a very successful start of ” FLYING WITH THE CHAMPIONS”  last year , supported by fantastic weather as they flew 14 days out of 14 days .
Here is Ludwig about this year:
”  Our biggest problem in this time was to find Champions with free time in the first two weeks of November, but finally we made it and this year we will have for one week

Holger Karow, Germany

Markus Frank, Germany

Andy Lutz, Austria

Uli Schwenk, Germany

Steve Jones, England

Pete Harvey, England

and for two weeks

Janusz Centka, Poland

Olivier Darroze , France

Stefano Ghiorzo, Italy

Wolfgang Janowitsch, Austria

 ” All of them World or European Champions with a lot of experience trying to give their knowledge to our trainees, from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Ireland. We hope the weather will be as good as last year, when we could fly 14 of 14 days.

As gliders we have again 4 Arcus M, 1 Arcus E, 1 ASH 25Mi and 1 ASH25EB28.
The first participants will arrive on Thursday, starting unpacking and rigging the eight gliders we need from Saturday on.
As forecasted 33 deg, it will be the first challenge for all of us.

Starting on Friday Ludwig  will write on their homepage a daily report about  their flying and whats happening.

So please keep an eye on what’s going on there in Namibia, it means THE OVERSEAS SEASON HAS STARTED!!!!
Here is the link http://www.rent-a-glider.com/view/p-1408/Flying-with-the-Champions-2014/

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Gariep Gliding in South Africa  has a full container as well,  as you can see on this picture they shared on their site.

On the DAL KAROO from Bremerhafen nach Port Elisabeth.
www.gariep-segelflug.com 

Pokweni‘s 2 containers have arrived in October  in Walvisbai with the ” Yellowstone” , so they are ready to go for it.
Bitterwasser ‘s containers have arrived as well in Walvisbai and they are for sure going to have a BIG season again. Look at the amount of containers.

As shared on their site.
www.bitterwasser.com

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In Australia the season has started already for the locals , the gliders will arrive with 4 containers in Corowa, on November 6 and their first flying day will be on November 14.

Corowa with the containers in the past and great looking skies as shared on their site.
http://www.australian-soaring-corowa.com/

Great to see Stephan and his son Niklas back in Tocumwal at Eddie’s Sportaviation. We know Stephan already from before we owned it [December 1996] Their first flight this season was in the Twin Astir; 155 km.

By the way half of the blocks of land AT the airfield of Tocumwal have been sold already.

AND… the Wings Night  from the Southern Riverina Gliding Club at Tocumwal will be on November 1 in the hangar with a presentation of WINGS and AWARDS, some nice food and good friends.

And more news from Australia this time specially for the young ones;

” Hi All,

 It’s less than five weeks to go until JoeyGlide 2014 – aka the Junior Preworlds, to be held at Narromine from 5 to 13 December. We now have 30+ entries in the competition from all over Australia and overseas, as well as another 16 taking part in the coaching week making it the biggest JoeyGlide in years (if not ever?). A reminder that the $100 early bird discount on entry fees ends at the end of this week, so if you or a junior you know are thinking about joining us then jump on to our website and get your entry form (and payment) in. If you would like to come, but you’re having difficulties getting there for any reason, please get in touch and we’ll do our best to help you join us.

 We are also pleased to announce AvPlan EFB as the major sponsor for this years event. Sponsorship has been provided courtesy of Simon Hackett, one of the owners of the company and a long time supporter of JoeyGlide, and host of this list. Check out AvPlan’s website at www.avplan-efb.com for more information.

 More information on JoeyGlide is available on our website – http://joeyglide.juniorsoaring.com.au. If anyone has any more questions or wants any more information on JoeyGlide, then please get in touch.

 Regards

Adam Webb  Contest Director   JoeyGlide 2014″

And flying in the mountains close to Melbourne is possible too. You can see all the news on the Mount Beauty- website http://www.mtbeautygliding.com/ and also  read the latest news letter , the October issue ” Alpine Flyer”   by Andrew Evans.

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When the overseas-season really starts there is more than enough to write. This is an “in-between”  part of the season with not a lot of soaring, but I still found some nice flights, as the one from Minden in Nevada , where on October 23 Keith Essex flew with a speed of 145.22 km./h. over 1.505,42 km. in wave on a not even strong day, as he mentioned. He flew the ASH 31/21 m.
Keith had 4 great flights. One on October 14 [1.308, 93 with 151,65 km./h.] and 15 [ 1.110,44 with 173,75 km./h.]  and now on October 23 and 24.[1.176,06 km with 118,17 km./h.].
Only 25 registered flights on the OLC that day but the 5 wave and ridge-pilots had fun even with tough conditions and flew between 581 km. and 1.505,42.
Also the French wave was active with 4191 m. MSL [2856 m.  AGL] flying from St Martin de Londres and the Italian wave from Aosta went up to 7379 m . MSL [6441 m. AGL] .

—-

The strike from the French pilots from Air France has NOT been good for the KLM/Air France combination.Today the employees will hear how many will loose their jobs. Rumors are about 7500!! Hope not only in Holland !!!!
That’s it for now. CU next week with more news . Cheers Ritz

It’s definitely autumn NOW in Holland, rain wind [Bft 10 at the coast about 40 km. from here and gusts to 100 km.p/h. !] and 12 dgr. C.!!!!
But,……Last Saturday we had a new warm-record on October 18; 23 dgr. official and 24.4 in the South of Holland.It has never been so warm here in history. The last record was from 1921 when it was 22.9 dgr. C.
Very special to have had such a great and long summer after that horrible long winter last year, we still remember.

—

The last 2 days in Goondiwindi [ they had 9 in total!] were as hoped for; nice-soaring- conditions and pretty long distances with good speed.
Goondiwindi , with a population under 6000, is not so long known, as a good soaring spot, it even turns out an excellent spot as we saw already last year and again this year.
It’s on the way from Dubbo [close to Narromine ] to Brisbane [ about 358 km.SW from Brisbane] .Gliding Queensland was this years proud host of the Sport Class and Club Class Nationals there.

The name Goondiwindi derives from an Aboriginal word ,meaning “the resting place of the birds”.Just to let you know!

Goondiwindi aerodrome and weather. As shared by Mike

On Thursday a set task in the sports class with 417 km. and all toppers did their utmost best with one day to go.
David [Jansen] won the 999 points with a speed of 139 km./h. Tom, David and Butch stayed on the first places overall and with one day to go the differences were still possible for some extra  excitement; 7333, 7276 and 7144.

As on the last day [Friday] a 4 hour AAT was set in the blue to finish these comps with 9 days!
Peter Trotter who had not won a day, set that straight on this day 9; 487.2 km. with a speed of 118.8 km./h. in his LS 8 gave him the 1000 points.
In the end the new CHAMPION  in Sports class was Tom Claffey with 8295 points followed by David Jansen with 100 points less.
Butch lost his 3d place to Andrew who had a few more points on this last day which gave a final result of ; 8082 and 8076.( Days of good soaring in Sports Class. Good to see young Andrew Maddocks on spot 7

In club class day 8 was again a prey for Benalla pilot Don [Woodward] Their set task was 401.2 km. and great efforts by Allan [Barnes] and young Matthew [Scutter] for flying fast on this day in their LS 1 f and Discus b.
Don flew with a speed of 123.7 km. /h. whilst Allan and Matthew followed with 116/117 km./h.
Bruce lost 140 points by being as fast,117 km./h but he has a higher handicap.
This is the view on the day by Allan;
” Day 8 of the CCN. Racing task just over 400km. Underset – everyone waited around at about 8500ft for an hour before starting. I was thinking about 100km/hr in the blue, but there were wispy cu and some very good climbs. Took the first turn into wind nice and low, but had an average trip across to the second, then hooked up with a good gaggle on the third leg and found a couple of great climbs. Overcooked the final glide and ended up coming in at 120kt for a task speed of 116.2. Very nice day.” 

Day 9 showed a 3.30 AAT with breakfast in the morning. Terry Cubley  [I can visualize him in his LS 3 without hesitation as I have seen him in his glider often]  had not won a day either and to do it he had to fly best on the last day. So he did!
With 422.1 km. and a speed of 116.9 km./h [yes in his ” old”  LS 3] he “got” the 1000 points before heading home again to the Adelaide area , thousands of kilometers to the West. But they could travel in convoy as a few participated from that area.
Adam Woolley [Cirrus 75] had a good day as runner up and the ” old ” Libelle with Steven, was on spot 3 with 367.6 km. and a speed of 102 km./h.!!!!
CLUB CLASS CHAMPION; Jim Crowhurst with 8177 points. Runner up with 8027 was Bruce Taylor and on spot 3 Terry Cubley. The young ones Adam and Matthew finished on good spots 7 and 6. Allan moved up even higher again and finished on spot 8 and Lisa  moved up to 13.

Very kind of former junior pilot Adam to mention some of the awards with congratulations:
” To Dylan Lampard for taking out the GFA Club & Sports Class nationals – best place novice trophy. Many great names have won this trophy in the past & gone onto big things, well done mate”
” Matthew Scutter takes out the M.Bradly junior trophy, this is the 3rd time for memory that it’s been awarded since 2005. It’s awarded to the highest places junior, above 15th position – so not just a participation award.”

 

On these pictures The Trotters and Maddocks during the prize giving 2 years ago in Benalla.

Nice comps over there in Goondiwindi. keep the name in mind!

—

What happened more? A sand storm in South Africa on October 16! A weather-phenomena all glider pilots are interested in.
Great pictures , but for some more difficult circumstances.  I share a few shared by others as a reaction on this storm.
I remember them from Australia . Daan Pare flew in front of one and raced home to be back in the hangar just in time. More of my mates have flown over or along such a sand storm. A bit N of Tocumwal, Oaklands,  where you find big potato farms , they usually “disturbed” soaring as well. Most of you might still remember.

Pictures shared by ” I love Free State” ,Mako Masoto, Shaum Mohammed and Winnie Mafeo.

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More comps in Australia;Here is the latest. Just to keep you informed!!!
” Waikerie Gliding Club with the generous support from the GFA, SAGA, Banrock Station Winery and Coopers Brewery are hosting the 53rd Australian Multi Class National Championships from the 5th to the 16th January 2015.

The competition website http://multiclasswaikerie2015.blogspot.com.au is up and running and will continue to be populated over the coming weeks in the run up to the event.

We have managed to pull together a very experienced, professional team tomanage the competition who together with the enthusiastic members and friends of WGC should make this an event to remember.

I can nearly assure you all of at least a couple of big Waikerie days and we’ll do our best to minimize the amount of “classic” South Australian blue days thrown at us 😉

On behalf of the members of the Waikerie Gliding Club and the competition management team I look forward to welcoming you too Waikerie MCN’s 2015.”
Waikerie had a good day early-spring-day yesterday with 500 km. flown by Grant Hudson, who send the invitation for the multi Class Nationals. CD there is Mandy Temple, known by most of you as TC from the Aussie team, crew for husband Peter ,[who is the task setter at Waikirie ] and more other jobs!!

—-

And even more , this time the NSW State Gliding Comps flown from Temora one of those REALLY good soaring-spots as well.Here is the news I got:
“The competition will cater for Standard, 15m, 18m, Open, and Club Class with classes combined for tasking based on entry numbers received.

The championships run from Saturday 13th December – Saturday 20th December 2014 with the first Saturday allocated as a practice day.”

—

Flying over the slopes of Porta Westfalica was “on”  last weekend  and some Dutch pilots drove to Germany ,  to enjoy this type of soaring over the slopes, using the uplift. One group with Martin, who flew with us in the past in Australia as one of them as well as Hinse and Jasper. Philippe [Hendriks] is as far as I can see one of the most enthusiastic pilots for this kind of flying, looking at the pictures he shared now and in the past.

  

  

As shared by Philippe.

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What happened worldwide as seen on the OLC?
Orient, in South Africa NE of Potchefstroom, had a great 500 km. [ 338.3 FAI triangle] day of soaring in an ASW 20 on October 20.
On the same day 710 k.[686.5 km. FAI triangle]  was flown in an ASH 31/21 m. in Brazil, from LEM.
Not an easy day as you can see in his comment;
” Good day to start with but over development and lots of CB’s and many rain curtains. I had to abort my final glide ! Landed with rain all over the place!”
One day earlier the RIDGES were overly- friendly to Devin Bargainnier , starting at Ridge Soaring to mainly the SW and back; 1. 106,1 km. with a nice speed of 134.74 km./h. in a Ventus 2.
” Doing” 981.59 km.  in a Janus c FG is not bad either! Very good! Ridge soaring must be such fun! And you can do it in any glider.

—-

That’s it for now . CU next week when the overseas season is about to begin. WINGS NIGHT IN TOCUMWAL by the SRGC is on November 1, opening the new season.Their Annual General Meeting is on November 22, with 14 points on the Agenda.

Cheers Ritz

Both Australia and South Africa were blessed last week with fabulous early-spring-conditions. GOOD!!!
Heard from my friends in Munich that they still had 24 dgr. C. on October 7, pretty weird but lovely autumn conditions over there.
Saint Gaudens , in the SW of France , situated at an altitude of 405 m. overlooking the valley of Garonne and facing the Pyrenees, had a great nearly 1000 km. wave-flight last Wednesday. Robert Prat flew the Arcus M. ” solo” over 943.6 km.
He said in his comment that is was not so easy;  “ Not easy, wind shear, half task in blue waves.” Nice flight so in autumn, you might remember Robert flew a 1000 on April 1 in early spring.
One day later they flew the first European 2014/15 OLC -1000 in Switzerland from Hausen Am Albis direction East; Rainer Crohnjaeger in his ASH 31 MI/18m. was the one.[1.061 km]
From Brazil Egon Rehn had a good nearly 750 FAI triangle. First flight in the new ARCUS M!! 766 km. [739 FAI]
On the contrary in Genua in the N. of Italy they have flooding [even killing one person, ] due to heavy rain.
Finland had the first snow.
Last Sunday I was outside again [after being ill]and enjoying the beautiful day .It looked like EVERYBODY in Alphen was on the bike or walking. 19 dgr. C. on October 12. The upcoming weekend might have 24 dgr. for Holland after a few days of rain.
The Formula 1 in Sochi even had 29 dgr. C.
And last but not least Tocumwal “enjoyed” a great Saturday.
As Eddie and Cheryl mentioned;” Great start to summer, with the temperature 30.5 c …..3 degrees over forecast resulting with the thermals going to 13,000 ft .”  BUT,… in the night it is around ZERO, freezing cold, that’s spring too.

—

Mike Codling called it ” a cracker of the day.”  After day 2 was cancelled at Goondiwindi ,the new day 2 showed fabulous weather.Look at this.

Great skies!As shared by Mike.

The South African-“born”- JS 1 fom Ian Craigie, must have felt ,that these were the same circumstances as in it’s country , so his glider won the day with BIG speed; 156.2 km./h. over  the set 408 km. Next best was 150.2 km./h by Andrew Georgeson in the Ventus 2 CX.
Too fast so no 1000 points but ” only” 847.

368 km. was flown that day in Club Class by the St. Libelle and it’s pilot Stephen Cesco all the way from the other site of Australia from Adelaide; 1000 points for him. We normally do not realize how FAR pilots have to travel to compete in an Australian National Competition. Some travel for 2/3/4 days.
Bruce Taylor in the ASW 20 b was runner up with 420.5 km. over a 3.15 AAT , in time 3.26.

Flying day 3 was a fast one again with this time David Jansen [ASG 29E] as daily winner;465.3 km. with a speed of 139.6 km./h. and finally a 1000 points-day for these fast racers.
Interesting top places after 3 days; Andrew on spot 1 with 2633 points, David with 2630 and Tom with 2623. So close!!! But still a week to go.
In club 411.8 km. was set and with 121.3 km./h. Jim Crowhurst won in the ASW 20. Bruce was a tad slower and runner up.After 3 days of soaring 3 ASW 20 -gliders topped the overall scores.

On Saturday [flying-day-4] a 3.45 AAT was set for sports class and another “old” topper won the day; Butch [John Buchanan] flying 538. 2 km. with a speed of 140.8 km./h. By the way Butch is the junior performance coach and busy enough with the JWGC in 2015 in Narromine.
Quite a difference in start times, between 12.01 and 13.02.
In club class Bruce won “easy” ; 413.6 km. in a set 3.15 AAT with a speed of 124.2 km./h. gaining 1000 points . A better day as well for the “younger” toppers as Adam and Matthew being 4th and 5th for the day.
A just ” rotten ” day for kilometer-eater Allan who flew 367.7 km. but did not finish. Only 347 points for him and dropping from 7 to 17 overall, but,…it is not over yet!!!!

Sunday,…WOW,….what about 3 pilots flying with “about”  the same speed; 156.4-3-2 km./h. during a 3 hour AAT.
That happened on day 5. Tom , I should call him Speedy Gonzales, won with 475.6 km., [1000 p. ASG 29] then it was David with 469.7 km.[997 p. ASG 29 E] ] and Ian with 468.9 km.[962 p JS 1] ] On spot 3 Butch followed with 959 p.[ASG 29 ]

A 3.30 AAT for club class with Bruce winning the day again with 475.5 km. and a great speed of 134.6 km./h. in the ASW 20. Terry in his LS 3 still goes strong and was on spot 3 behind Jim. The young[er] ones as Matthew and Adam were on spot 4 and 10. Under ” full steam” they approach the overall top and are on spot 4 and 5 now!!!
Allan had a much better day with a 5th place, as well as Lisa who finished for the day as number 7.

Day 6 was on yesterday . Another day with good speed in both classes;142.9 km./h. over 434.6 km [3 hour AAT] by Andrew in the Ventus 2 cx and 115 km./h. by Jim in his ASW 20.[ 3.15 AAT–390.8 km.]
But not an easy day as Philip mentioned;
“ A low save, good to be home, very tough day in the office.”
With 3 days to go the scores looked VERY interesting.In sports class the difference is at that stage 16 points between Tom and David!
In club class even less , only 14 points between Jim and Bruce.
After his very unlucky day 4 where he was the only ” out-lander” and ended as last on spot 25, Allan climbed overall from 17 to 10 with 3 days to go.Good on him !

 !

Mike with as comment on day 6;
” Cool, blue and windy at the nationals. I’m on the front of the grid for a 3:15 task. Should be fun.” 

Day 7  today was according to Allan in his comment on the OLC, a day with ; “a fixed task for a change, 350km. Another strong wind day, lots of cu but a lower base. I started just after the gate opened, trying to get a jump on everyone else. Had what I thought was a good run to the first turn, with a slightly slow patch just before it. Turned a little high, then had a good run with Bruce down the second leg to Warialda. The third leg was a bit of a struggle, with every climb not quite good enough to get me onto final glide. My final top up was right at the final turn point, only 10km from the finish line. Got in easily then but it cost me a couple of turns.” 

Winners on day 7 [preliminary] Ian in the JS 1 with a speed of 129.3 km./h. over 437.6 km. and Don Woodward from Benalla in the ASW 20 c with 111.1 km./h over  347.7 km.
No changes in both classes in the overall scores.

Friday will be the last day of this 34th national Championship with in the evening the presentation dinner/closing ceremony. About the last 2 days more in my blog next week.

—

Potchefstroom continued as well with their regionals and another good and fast day 4 with this time not Pieter but Markus Nouwens winning the day with a speed of 143.5 km./h. over 549.2 km.

Uys Jonker went back to his “roots” the Cirrus for one day , as I read on FB and flew HC in club class on day 4 ,his first participation-day. He straight away was on a daily spot 2.
Third win for AP in his Cirrus; 412 km. with a speed of 108.2 km./h. Not bad for the ” old ” Cirrus, big distance good speed.

Day 5 had not such booming weather but still a speed of  142.2 km. /h. over 315.9 km. in 18 m. class. Uys moved back to his from Leszno returned JS 1 and was the last to finish, whilst behind him the pilots went ” au vache”.  The first 7 other pilots all had a speed between 126.9 km./h. and the 142.2 km./h.
In club class 194 km. was set and won by Jaco in the LS 1f.

Happy pilots again, their toys are back home.
As shared on FB.

Friday was cancelled ,so  one day to go. And a”  difficult”  one, looking at the task ; a set 1.15 AAT for the small ships and 2 hours for the bigger ones.
In the end setting a task was no deal for the weather-gods , so the comps finished,with 2 non-flying- days, but  still in good mood. Great speed  and good tasks were  flown.
Club class;  AP won in the Cirrus,[ 4109]  followed by Tommie in the ASW 20[ 3924]  and on spot 3 Jaco flying the LS1f.[ 3863]
Sports class;  Pieter,[4414]  Attie [4375] both JS 1 and Oscar, [4350] and…Laurens had 30 points less than Oscar.[both ASH 25]
The season has definitely started in South Africa! AND,…..I am 100 % sure that the pilots flying in Leszno were over the moon when their gliders returned safely home again.
Full scores on www.soaringspot.com 

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You are up to date.
Unfortunately the checked spot on my eyelid was not good, but isolated and without metastasis,so surgery will follow soon in November.
Nothing to worry about….they say.
Cheers Ritz

Our summer is over and till this weekend we had up to temperatures in the low 20-thies, very special for October.No complaints about the summer, though August was MUCH TOO wet!
Even Norway and Sweden had up to 17/18 dgr.  Slowly however autumn shows now,not only it’s great colors but also some rain, more falling leaves and specially this year LOTS of spiders.
The early- morning – “art” looks fabulous.
We even had our first autumn storm yesterday and I noticed between the cars, slowly passing by in the street in front of my house, a light garden-table as well. Was pretty rough for a few minutes during that thunderstorm.

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It’s good to see more comps again on soaringspot .
First I will look back at the last 2 days of the State Comps flown from Kingaroy.

2.30 AAT’s on the one but last day, won by Peter Trotter with with 302 km. with a speed of 120.9 km./h. and Tom Claffey with 323.4 km. and a speed of 129.3 km./h.
And then there was the last day including dinner after all the fun that week.
292.8 km. was set in st./15 m. and 373.1 in 18m./open class.

It was Kerrie Claffey who won this last day , just ahead of Greg Schmidt the CD from the Nationals in Goondiwindi next week.
Peter Trotter flew for only 4 days, winning 3 of them and being runner up on one. After 6 days,he finished for that reason on spot 4.
Local pilot Mark Dalton won the state comps with Kerrie as a good runner up.
Tom won again in both 18 m. and open with a speed of 141.3 km./h.
No doubt that he is the winner of these state comps in both classes after 6 days of flying and more than ready for the Nationals in Goondiwindi, this week in the sports class.Between the 24 participants in this class ,he will have some good/strong concurrents there .24 Competitors as well in club class.

—

In Potchefstroom another Regional Competition [NW] this time in South Africa,  they started last Sunday with a practice day, and what a practice day!!! Not everybody flew , but they might have regret that later, as winner Pieter Nouwens flew with a speed of 150 km./h. over the 316 km.
And,… it looks Pieter is in ” hot/fast”  soaring-mood as he won day 1 and ….day 2……and…day 3!!!
Day 1 with a speed of 143.4km./h. over 334.7 km—— Day 2 with 149 km./h. over 467.4 km.—–Day 3 with 142.3 km./h. over 459.4 km.

Pieter flies the JS 1 -C /21 m. and both Oscar and Laurens an ASH 25.I guess because their gliders are not yet back from Leszno.
The 5 toppers started all around the same time on day 2. They flew for 467 km. and Pieter arrived back 1 minute earlier than the rest who finished within seconds from each other.
Same ingredients on day 3 , only difference now was that the difference in speed was smaller; 142.3, 142.0 and 141.8 and 141.4. Close finishes. Must have been exciting!

237 km and  333 for club class with an AP [Kotze] on a mission. Winning day day 2 in his Cirrus and being runner up on day 1.
On day 3 AP was the best again flying the 338.4 km. [3 hour AAT] with a speed of 102.4 km./h.

Akavlieg Potch Gliding shared about 195 pictures and I share a few with you. Was difficult to make a choice! But you can find them on their FB site.

” Hi Oscar”
As shared by Akavlieg Potch Gliding

 

Also the first NATIONALS from this season and they are flown at Goondiwindi in Australia not that far South-West from Brisbane;
the 34th Australian Club and Sports Class Nationals.
BIG speed as well on the practice day in Goondiwindi. David Jansen flew the 2.30 AAT around with 152 km. /h.  over 379.9 km.
” There is always someone better!”

But on day 1 , when the real “thing”  happened,  Tom Claffey was the best with 127 km./h. over 359 km. over the 2.30 AAT.

In Club class a lot of top- pilots but they were not straight in the top on day 1.Don Woodward [ASW 20 c] from Benalla won the day with a 2 hour AAT. Pilots as Terry [Cubley] ,Tobias [Geiger] ,Adam [Woolley] , Bruce [ Taylor] , Allan [Barnes] and Matthew [Scutter] lost a few points. Lisa [Trotter] unfortunately out-landed and lost 300 points on this day 1.
No flying today! Scrubbed.

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ARCUS M number ONE HUNDRED is a fact. Tilo and Biggo delivered the number 100 to Mr. Lodes. Congratulations to the new owner and to the 2 faces and the full hardworking team from Schempp-Hirth.

As shared by Schempp-Hirth.

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And…..GREAT news for my friend Jelmer and all the people at DG Flugzeugbau; After the USA and Australia they “conquer”  Brazil!!!!Congratulations.Look at the news below,shared by one of the DG dealers from Australia Jane and Tom Gilbert.
http://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/

—“ New Air Force Contract for DG Flugzeugbau

DG Flugzeugbau recently won the tender process for 10 training sailplanes.
The request was published by the BACE, the Brazilian Aeronautical Commission in Europe, during the first quarter of 2014. Analysing all requirements and composing a tender took several weeks, but finally DG Flugzeugbau was able to deliver the winning bid to BACE and therefore received the contract to supply 10 DG-1001Club training sailplanes to the Brazilian Air Force Academy in Pirassununga, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Established in 1960 the Academy is the largest Air Force Academy in Latin America today, covering an area of more than 250.000 m². An average of 1.200 cadets are trained in these facilities each year.

More next time.
Cheers Ritz
on Wednesday October 8 2014.
Already sick for nearly a week,…grrrr…..

 

 

October 1 2014….. only 3 months to go and 2015 starts. Time flies ……TOO fast.
By the way we had a warm month of  September with not much rain and lots of sunshine. Different to France where in the area of Montpellier thousands had to be evacuated for the water after HEAVY rainfall. They mentioned  300 liter per square meter ,in 36 hours , that had not happened since 1957. Also Spain had a water-problem.

It was interesting to look at the 2014 -OLC- Plus- list from several parts of the world.
Looking at Australia the CHAMPION was James Cooper from Western Australia , but with a very small marge, as young Matthew Scutter from South Australia, was JUST behind him. Look at this; 6428,65 and 6412,31. On a nice 3d spot Terry Ryan from Tocumwal.[NSW]

 

  

Recent picture from Tocumwal Airport as seen by Eddie and Matthew seen here in Benalla [2013].

New Zealand had an international pilot on top as Finnish pilot Jyri Laukkanen topped their list, flying from Omarama.

Africa, looking at all Africa ,had a German guest as Champion; Reinhard Schramme and Guy Bechtold from Luxembourg was runner up.

The USA, looking at all North America had of course Jim as champion, followed by Mitch Polinsky with all his wonderful flights.

All South America was a prey for Jim as well, with Jean Marc Perrin from France as runner up.

Asia is either Japan or Israel and Japan won with pilot Shigeru Ishiyama from Nagano and as runner up Rafi Luski from the Negev Gliding Center.

Europe has several VERY enthusiastic OLC -die- hard -fans.
Looking at all flights from Europe Alexander Mueller was the best, before Michael Sommer and Guy Bechtold.
I looked at a few soaring-minded-countries for you as well.
Germany ….Alexander and Michael.
Italy…..Allesandro Busca before Giorgio Galetto.
Spain….Guy again followed by Jose Sancho.
the UK…..David Masson and Robin May.
Holland….Mark Leeuwenburgh, Nico Koster and Alfred Paul Alfers.
Belgium….Wim Akkermans, Herman Peeraer and Dennis Huybreckx.
Poland…Pawel Krakowski.
Czech Rep…..Tomas Suchanek.
Switzerland…Rainer Crohnjager.
Austria…..Johannes Hausman.
For the other countries you just have to go to the OLC site.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/champion.html?sp=2014&rt=olc&st=olc&c=C0&sc=

Mentioned the winners from the world wide OLC PLUS last week, have to add the speed OLC info from 2014 as well.
Here you go!
CHAMPION….Jim Payne
FIELD…..Bitterwasser
CLUB…..The Gliding Club of Victoria
Now you are totally up to date!

Looking ahead now at the 2015 season!

—

AND…….That starts soon in Africa and Australia.
Containers are on their way. 4 Travel to Corowa in Australia .
For all the news about Corowa;  http://www.australian-soaring-corowa.com/

I don’t know how many to Kiripotib , but I was impressed with the gliders; 6 x an Arcus M, 1x an Arcus E, 1 x an ASH 25 MI and 1 ASHE 25 EB 28. Also an Antares 23 and 1 x 304 MS Shark and last but not least 1 Ventus 2CXM.
I guess flying with the CHAMPIONS will; be a great success again.
At some periods you still can charter a glider ;http://www.dolba.de/kiripotib_flying/index.html

Also  Gariep Gliding has packed containers for the 2014/ 2015 season and are ready for a new season.
http://www.gariep-segelflug.com/

Bitterwasser has some glider-availability as well have a look at their site when you are interested. www.bitterwasser.com/en/glidercharter.html

Pokweni waits for containers as well and also they have some charter-possibilities for gliders as p.e. an ASH 25 MI.
http://www.pokweni.de/

Several places in Australia as Narromine, Benalla, Lake Keepit, Waikirie, Kingaroy , Jondaryan and last but not least Tocumwal are ready and fly already.
Also Potchefstroom , where the North West Regionals will be flown between October 4 and 10 [next week] with a lot of top pilots and a forecast for pretty good weather , will be very busy this season.
Also the Soaring Safaris from Bloemfontein will be popular.
And what about Brazil , with a 948 km. flight —750 Fai triangle— last Friday by Egon Rehn in the Quintus M from LEM and from Bahia Gliding a 930 km.—860 FAI triangle—-  by Branco Stojkovic , a personal best,in the Nimbus 3T/25 m.  last Sunday [bahiagliding@gmail.com]
Argentina  and New Zealand, will be busy again soon too, so for everybody , there is something.

—-

One of the first new season comps is flown from Kingaroy from September 27 and will continue till October 3 . 25 Pilots compete in 3 classes during this Queensland State Gliding Competition .
Day 1 and 2 had a 303 km. racing task  and a 3 hour AAT in standard /15 m. class and Peter Trotter won both !Day 1 with a speed of 129.9 km./h. day 2 with 112 km./h over 352.6 km.
18 m. Class had the same task and Ivan Teese [ASG 29 E] won day 1 with a speed of 141.7 km./h.  Tom Claffey [ASG 29] was runner up with 138 km./h.
The 3 hour AAT was won by Bill Hatfield in a LAK 17/18, with 384.8 km. in 3.10,54.
Open class  mixed as well with 18 m. ; Day 1 was clearly won by Ivan, day 2 by the DUO DISCUS X from Kingaroy flown by Stephen O Donnell;  358.9 km.

Tom Claffey; won a day in Leszno this year.

Day 3 had another AAT , different weather and  different winners. Kerrie Claffey… yes indeed wife from…won in St/15 m.  class in her ASW 28. Peter was 2d. They more or less all started on the same time, 2 out-landed 4 finished and Kerrie was the fastest with 98.1 km./h. Peter had 95.1  km./h.
In 18 m. husband Tom won the day flying 317 km. over a 2.30 AAT; speed 121.1 km./h. No out-landings in this class.
In [the combined] open class Tom was the winner as well.

On day 4;  winning the day before,  tasted good for Kerrie,  so she did it again. Not on a 1000 points-day but still 666, winning the 2 hour AAT with 243.2 km in time 2.09,50.After 4 days she is 20 points behind Mark Dalton who flies the  ASW 20 B .
BUT..this is all preliminary as Peter Trotter has not yet delivered his file from today.
In 18 m. husband Tom won as well, so a double party  again.
Tom flew 327.9 km in 2.37,5 over a 2.30 AAT.
With that result he won the open class-day as well, with the Kingaroy-Duo Discus X on spot 2.

2 Days to go in Kingaroy and then already again the next event in Queensland; The 34st Cub and Sports Class Nationals in Goondiwindi between October 6 and 17. More about that next week.

—

The Dutch Nationals and the Belgium Nationals are combining their efforts and will be flying TOGETHER as the BENELUX CHAMPIONSHIP . Place to be; St Hubert in Belgium, between May 14 and 25 in 2015. They can fly over Belgium and Luxembourg and use the Ardennes as “lift -tool”.
Sounds good! Try to be there as well for a few days.

—

And to finish a great picture from a fantastic painting by artist and enthusiastic glider pilot, Ralph Keller, who flew a lot with us in the past at Sportavia  and still does so now at Sportaviation, just not as often anymore as when he was younger. My old crashed laptop had, as screen saver, another painting from Ralph ; a glider and tug over Tocumwal.
This painting is shared by the Bendigo Gliding Club with the next text:
“The way it used to be, the elegance of a bygone era. The great glider WIEN over Germany’s Rhoen mountains in 1929. The aircraft was flown by one of the pioneers of soaring flight, the famous Austrian pilot Robert Kronfeld. Picture by BGC Artist in Residence, Ralph Keller.”

Cheers Ritz
On October 1 2014.