Starting with Chilhowee, where Sarah lately celebrated her birthday …HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH….and the Oktober Fest was in the weekend of the 16th of October, with many guests, as you can see.
Shared by John Murphy.

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World Solar Challenge !

Last year it was the team from the university of Delft winning this prestigious prize of being the first in driving a car over 3000 km. from Darwin to Adelaide ,mainly through desert areas ,on solar energy ONLY . They then, were 3 hours faster than the runner up. You surely remember that Annemiek Koers was one of the drivers. She is now the only female pilot in the Dutch team participating in the JWGC in Narromine. A girl of many talents and back in Australia soon!!! In fact this week as she travels to Melbourne to pick up Ben’s car and trailer for “her”  CIRRUS.Good on you Ben!!

Courtesy Frans Guise.

This year it was an exciting race , special for the Dutch fans, as 2 Dutch Universities were in the race for the first prize. The race took 5 days.
In the beginning,  the RED ONE ,car from the University of Twente was leading but on the last but one day the NUON SOLAR TEAM, ” NUNA 8″ from the Technical University of Delft passed by ,…and won, with ONLY less than 3 minutes over 3000 km. !!
The smallest margin EVER in history.
What about that! Good on Twente as well!!! They can be AS proud!!!
The RED ONE had a bit of a mishap in the practice period, as it collided with a kangaroo, but car/driver and kangaroo were not injured or damaged.
Nuna 8 was ONLY on spot 18 during the qualification race, so they had to work hard.
By the way it is not sure yet ,but the family car from the Technical University of Eindhoven might be a winner too. They “fight”  for honors with a Japanese car.And,….they won!!!!
The STELLA LUXE is a family car with 4 seats a car for the future . A jury was involved in this selection . The Japanese car was 5 minutes faster but the Dutch car won points on comfort , integrated innovations , but also easy-parking and boot space .
So 97,77 % for Eindhoven , 93,92 % for Japan and 83,39 for the team from Bochum in Germany.

The NUNA 8 en route.
Pictures ANP.

By the way it was the 6th victory for Delft.
A top university where they lately also “found”  a mistake in the research from Einstein.
Dr. Loek Boermans , who got the gold Lilienthal Gliding Award , this year in Rotterdam, is one of the professors at Delft.[Low speed aerodynamics]
Interesting is that one of the boys/students, Joris van den Berg,  involved with the aerodynamics from this car, lives in Alphen aan den Rijn, where I live. He was one of the 3 drivers and the one who was allowed to pass by the RED ONE on day 4; he got from the crew the ” GO “. A very important moment during the race and he loved the feeling of doing that; passing by and trying to keep the lead, which was n’t easy due to lack of sunshine in the end!!!
They also had to deal with sometimes tough wind in the open desert, temperatures up to 45 dgr. in the cockpit and not the best roads.
For that they had a female navigator, pointing out the quality of the road . This NUNA 8 only weighs 150 kg. so “she is a bit touchy”.

As shared by the AD.

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Only after I got in contact with Alexis Anastasiou ,I got to know a bit more about gliding in Greece.
For that reason it is interesting to see a group of Greece pilots from the Edessa Gliding Club at Schempp Hirth to collect their Duo Discus XLT. Good on them and I wish them many great and safe flights in it.

As shared by Schempp Hirth.

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The Airbus Perlan Mission 2.

Got the latest [October] newsletter , with the news by Dean Sigler on the first flight;
“The Perlan 2 glider made its first test flight Wednesday, September 23 at Redmond, Oregon.  Towed to 5,000 feet above Roberts Field Redmond Municipal Airport, it stayed aloft for about a half-hour, and alighted perfectly under the expert guidance of James (“Jim”) Payne, Chief Pilot for the Airbus-sponsored project.  Morgan Sandercock, Co-pilot and Project Manager, rode the back seat and took his turn flying the big craft.”

” According to post-flight chat, Jim and Morgan found things to their liking, with controls, including the huge dive brakes, working as designed and as simulations predicted.” 

Jim and Morgan.
As shared in their news letter
For all the news on  The Perlan Project www.perlanproject.org

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News from HPH UK.

They are in the final stages of their strategy to support volume production of both Single-seat and Two-seat sailplanes. The move into the all-new factory will begin shortly. This has been built on the site of the old factory, whilst HPH have de-camped into a new Interim facility immediately nextdoor for most of 2015. With this final move, HPH will have one of the most (if not the most) modern glider manufacturing facilities. They shared a picture as well to show you what’s happening!!

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What happened more this week?
Holland had a splendid autumn day on October 25 with THERMAL ACTIVITY and unbelievable flights up to over 300 km. SO late in the season.
ONLY happy pilots!!!!
Sikko , who flew 315 km. from Soesterberg direction Germany and back shared some impressions from his flight. Interesting was that several pilots mentioned “help” to find thermals by….. buzzards.
It seems this week will be a great autumn week, after TOO low temperatures, they are up to 7 dg. too high now; 20!!!!![average should be 13 dgr. C.]

As shared by Sikko.

And cause this weather is so special some pictures from Peter Millenaar as well flying above Utrecht, more or less the heart of Holland.
He flew 267 km.

As shared by Peter.

Interesting to see that the new BAHIA Gliding Resort in Brazil from Guilherme Purnhagen, topped the October OLC list 9 times!!!!
On October 24 it was Narromine where practicing JWGC junior Simon, from Germany topped the day in his LS 8 flying 507 km. In the close future many youngsters will arrive there and FLY, being eager , astonished and HAPPY.
Good runner up was Tocumwal with Terry Ryan flying the first of many long distance flights from his field;522 in the ASH 26E.
Father/son combination Stefan and Niklas Soll could fly every day in the Twin Astir RG, from the TOC Aerodrome, where Stefan is a frequent visitor even longer than I am. And that’s LONG!!!He even had my daughter Inge as tuggy.
As Eddie , owner from SPORTAVIATION mentioned; “ First cumulus at 10:30 to 4500 ft.”
Great to see that hang glider topper Attila Bertok,who converted years ago , in a few flights with our instructors at Sportavia to glider pilot,  flew his St Cirrus to 458 km. from Lake Keepit. Another top-of-the-OLC-list-pilot, this time on the 25th!!!
And,…what about yesterday from ST Gaudens in France; Carl Audissou flies just 1000 km. in a DG 600/18m. with a nice speed of 124 km./h. Great wave day , mainly over 5000 m. MSL.

First 500 for the season,…many to follow!!
As shared by Eddie.

———-
Mac [Makoto] reports from Narromine.

Mac, is already in Narromine and as long as he is there,  he is so kind to give me all kind of info , “on the road” to this JWGC.

“Simon from German team is only competitor there yet. Climb rates have been quite good already, sometimes up to 8 kts which is quite good for October.”

He also mentions that his partner Akemi has been flying LS8 and is training for records.
He went yesterday to Corowa to pick up the ASG29e and tries to fly it back to Narromine in a day or two.

Good old Beryl [ Hartley, ] is a VERY BUSY LADY and heavily involved in the JWGC and as Mac said:” she is burning night candles, getting ready for JWGC. I heard there will be 50 people on the ground supporting the event! I think it will be very exciting.” 

SO DO I. This is the first contribution from a very busy Mac about the preparations for the JWGC. THANKS a lot Mac!!!!

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As you might have noticed I used over the last years more and more pictures. I find that good photographers with their GREAT pictures can be such an addition to my stories.
Of course I always check if I can use them and except for once , but that was turned back later, I have NEVER been disappointed.
Here is a link to Geoff Soper’s NEW photography FB site, for those who are on FB and 3 fabulous pictures .
Geoff lives in New Zealand.
” Welcome to my new page where I will be showcasing my photography (and Canvas prints) rather than my personal FB page. Initially I will be posting up some airshow images in albums then my favourite images. Rolled canvas prints (frame your own) plus photographic prints (Matt art prints, glossy or satin) available as well as Canvas prints. Plus whole wall prints made up of wallpaper rolls.Thank you all for the support of my photography.” since September 23.
Geoff Soper Photography

A WOW FACTOR picture from Geoff;
“From little Ben Omarama. Lake Ohau in the background.”

Jerry O’Neill Springfield Ridge

This is ,in retrospect, a sad picture as the pilot Bill Walker died last year in Namibia,   after a crash with his mate David Speight. I see it as a tribute a great memory on a pilot who was some kind of icon in New Zealand. So was David by the way.

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To finish the promised pictures ,….and these are very last ones,……from FRANS GUISE about the AWARD festivity at Terlet.

The 2 EGC toppers with a 2d and 3d place;Jacques and Jeroen

AND

The 2 FAI AWARD winners 2015, dr Loek Boermans who shines  and Ritz.Sorry looking a bit tired!

AND

“my” gold [WGC Uvalde 1991] and bronze [Rieti EGC] winners Baer [r]and Ronald [as said ” my silver ” [WGC Borlange] winner Erik Borgmann could n’t be there] and our GREAT presents. Now,…it’s back to normal!!!!BUT,…I am still honored and proud!!!!

———–

We are back to Winter Time. About 70 countries changed like we did here.
Last Sunday morning at 3 the clock was put back to 2 AM. Difference with Australia is now 10 instead of 8 hours.

CU next week

Always something happening in our world,…but this is the more quiet period. Time to get my visa for Australia , the winter clothes out of the cupboard and the summer clothes in , though,…part of it went straight in the suitcase for Tocumwal.
Also windows 10 was installed by my grandson Dexter, but later un-installed as I had no idea, what to do,or where to go.Back to 8 and that suits me!!!

We got indeed snow, on the coldest EVER October 14, wet snow ….but SNOW in the South of Holland, last Wednesday. VERY early in the season.Time to go down under soon!!
Germany had at places 5 to 15 cm. with traffic jams and accidents and incidents, as most of the car drivers were still on summer tires.
Here in Holland they all raced to the garage to change to their winter-tires .

Snow in France as well as shared by Les 100 Ciels.

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News about records!

FAI has ratified the following Class D (Gliders) European record :
Claim number : 17624
Sub-class :DO (Open Class Gliders)
Category: General
Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 1 000 km
Course/location : Buno Bonnevaux – Neufchateau – vallon en Sully – Alençon – Buno Bonnevaux (France)
Performance : 119,55 km/h
Pilot : Alain Mazalerat (France)
Glider : ASG 29 18m / Schleicher
Date :30.07.2015
Previous record : no record set yet

Congratulations to Alain.

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Nostalgia.

Courtesy Ronald Hermans.

14th of October 1960

On this day in Air Force history: 19601014 14/10/1960 Tocumwal base closed

   

More nostalgia.

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NZD 2015.

On the 7th of November I will visit the National Dutch Gliding day at Terlet. The organisation is by; de Gelderse Aero Club in co-operation with the airfield of Terlet, with the Thermiekbel [you know the restaurant we had the last AWARD party]  the SERVICE CENTER TERLET  and the GLIDER PILOT SHOP.
An interesting program has been prepared by Maurits Dortu and Rene de Dreu from the GLIDER PILOT SHOP.
How do you plan a 1000 from Holland? The 3 pilots , Mark, Alfred Paul and Sikko, who flew a 1000 from Holland will talk about their flight.
Shaun Lapworth will be there to talk about the FAI GRAND PRIX final in Varese.
Several sessions;
Uys Jonker, from Jonker Sailplanes,  will talk about EASA glider certification, Andrej Koller , from NAVITER, about meteo in systems/instruments on board and Airspace Avoid is interesting as well by Marcel Knol. These are the 3 sessions I will visit.
They are not the only ones,…on their site you can see who is also there for a presentation .
A nice line-up from gliders/static display [ASG 29 Es, ASG 32 E, JS 1 c-21 m, ANTARES 23 E, ANTARES 18 T and the DG 1001 CLUB] and a market with instruments is of course available as well.
Which ones you can find on the site :  http://www.nzd2015.nl/

You can go to this site as well when you want to enter.Mind you ,…it could be very busy, so don’t wait too long!!!!

———-

Whilst we had rain , wet snow and temperatures about 7 dgr TOO low for the season Narromine had early spring time at it’s best. Look at the pictures they shared.

With the messages :
Narromine from 10,000ft [pic 1], Easy final glide home from the west [pic 2] ,Trangie at 8,500ft.

For local updates leading into ‪#‎jwgc15‬ please like and share their public page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Narromine-Gliding-Club-Official/453975718105857

Young German pilot Simon Briel was the first to arrive at Narromine 43 days before it ALL happens and did already a familiarization flight in the Stemme.

———-

Also Tocumwal, place I will be visiting in December and 2 weeks in January shared some pictures from great early spring times as well.As said before I will spend a few days in Narromine and Benalla as well.
GOOD!!!!!
Swiss Chris shared the pictures.

Bij http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=230330499.
ASW-27 check flight after airworthiness check:
Cloudbase 2000 msl… 480km ….105km/h….. 18% circling,….. average glide ration 66 !!!

Great flights last week from Bahia Gliding Paradise [Brazil] by Egon Otto Rehn in the Quintus M.; 932 km. and 876 km.
From another field but also in Brazil [Formosa Aerodrome flying for the Panzer Cup on October 17 an  “ultime good day”] , Egon Otto Rehn flew 739 in the ARCUS M.
412 from Bebedouro, again in Brazil as daily best on October in the ASH 30[412 km].

Also at other places in Australia they were active ; Lake Keepit beautiful soaring place on a lake ; Justin Smith flew 667 km. [500 FAI triangle]  in an LS 6/17.5 m. and topped the world wide OLC list on October 16.
Allan Barnes flew one day later in his LS 1f also from Lake Keepit 600 km .
In Lake Keepit the women gathered together for  their ” WOMEN IN GLIDING WEEK”.

Uys flew from Potchefstroom in South Africa 490 as daily best on October 18 .

Talking about the OLC ….this is the new “one-year-owner-of -the-OLC-DISCUS” .Every year a new young German pilot who flew himself in the top 10 of the Junior Challenge, can be selected to fly this 2CT.
This year it is Matthias Arnold, good luck and safe flights Matthias !!!

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That’ s it, till next week.
Cheers Ritz

Party time!

The Sport committee from the Royal Dutch Gliding Association was so kind to invite glider pilots, friends and family for an informal drink at Terlet last Monday from 6 o’clock onward ,to celebrate our FAI AWARDS. Both Loek and I were ” cheered on ” as well as Jeroen Verkuijl and Jacques Selen ,who both flew so well during the last EGC in Ocseny in Hungary and Rieti in Italy .[spot 3 and 2!!!]
For those who are interested,…below in the extra blog is a picture-story impression, enjoy!

————

Potchefstroom.

On Wednesday [October 7] the pilots  got 3.30 hour AAT’s in both 18m./open and club class.
562 km. was the best distance in  time 3.34,  flown by Oscar in 18 m./open and when you fly so many kilometers you go FAST !!!!157.2 km./h.
377.2 km. was the distance in CLUB class by Wilhelm Mosehuus in the CIRRUS with a speed of 107.8 km./h.

Thursday ;was called a MONSTERDAY!!!!!!A 1.15 task was set for both classes as more was just impossible and they WENT for it, using all weather elements available!!!
Why??????Have a look at this!

WOW,….don’t know what more to say. Mind you Jonathan Cross flies a Cirrus as well.
WHAT FABULOUS DAY for those club class pilots!!!
As Oscar mentioned ;” Thunderstorms all around. Only task we could squeeze in.” He called the pilots for this day, RIDERS of the STORM and according to him ” possibly the most fun I have EVER had“.
Mind you Oscar flew everywhere in the world!!!
When I checked with him he was still “glowing”, ”  an exceptional day,extraordinary,… we never thought it would turn out in such a great day”.

They were launched to”  the sound of thunder.” Isolated showers/storms , over-development it was all there so with that hanging around they choose, in fact they had no other choice,  for that short task. What an unbelievable energy creates such weather.

Jonathan flew in time 1.26 , a distance of 146 km.[Cirrus] and Oscar in the same time a distance of 293 km.[JS 1]
Brother Laurens flew around with 191.95 km./h over 278 km. The ” slowest”  pilot flew around with 152.70 km./h.!!!!
It was for sure not about “the points”.Oscar got on this “devaluated day ” 376 points

Riders of the storm[s].
As shared by Oscar

After 5 days of flying , Jonathan Cross won the club class with 4010 points, runner up was Wilhelm Moosehuus with 3984 and just a tad less ,3941 for LS 1 pilot Jaco Burger.
In 18 m./open it was Oscar before brother Laurens;4121 for 3911 and then the Jonkers.

————

Kingaroy.

15m./st class day 4;
Adam [Woolley] , like David [Jansen] , straight away forgot about the out-landing and flew without any hesitation to another daily win in st./15 m.
268 km. with a speed of 113 km. in the “small” Ventus A is just good, as runner up Ross Mac Clean flew 10 km./h. slower.Overall number 1 flew around with 98.73 km./h in the ASW 20 a.

18 m./open day 4 ;
289 was set for the pilots in this class and slowly David is climbing up; spot 3 overall now , 2 on a daily base. Tom still leads.

Task 5 was cancelled in all classes due to heavy wind.
Task 6 was cancelled in all classes.

LAST DAY; Task 7 on day 5 ;
With 309. 83 the st/15 m. pilots had to see how they could stay at their spot or get higher, preferable not loosing.
Adam started ONE minute after Mac and finished 3 minutes earlier, so another daily win. Peter was in between them and kept his runner up-place behind Mac who won with  more than 200 points.
Here is what Adam had to say about the last day:
—“That’s a wrap, managed to win the final day of the 2015 QLD State Gliding Champs to finish 5th – a real shame about the outlanding day, as it would’ve been great to see how the game would’ve been played to the end.
Started mid-pack yesterday, a few minutes behind Mac & Pete Trotter. The sky, CU’s, but they didn’t give me confidence, it stated that way all day, lots of shear, & when organised, had no feel to them.
I cruised with the people I was with for half the flight, until I decided I could go it alone. Once the switch happened, I edged slowly away. A different race for me, as I wasn’t really in the race for the top dog spot.” —

18m./open had 401.72 km. David[ Jansen] flew with 122 km. on the clock to the 3 daily victory and managed to climb from the last but one spot on day 1 ,after an out-landing, to spot 2 behind Tom after 5 flyable days;3872 for 3784 points.

club 272 km. and local pilot Joseph O’ Donnel won the last day …he was 10 km. faster than the runner up.
Joseph won the comps in his LS 3; 3865 points for him and overall runner up LS 4 pilot John Trezise had 3545   points; he is from the Hunter Valley.

———-

News from the Qualifying Grand Prix in 15 m.  in France in 2016 [June 4-11] ;
“Maximilian Seis, the reigning Grand Prix World Champion, will fly again the Grand Prix France, just for fun! He’s already selected for the next world final. Max will be discounted from the results of the Grand Prix France for qualification purposes. 3 tickets to Potchefstroom are available!”
The first pilots are already on the list, among them ” good old Patrick Stouffs”.

http://sgp.aero/france2016
The new web site is open now!

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Talking about websites; OMARAMA has a new one. Have a look at the spectacular ,colorful , active new site;
http://www.glideomarama.com

And straight away excitement , read this!
—“Yesterday Edwin Nieman from Dunedin flew with Gavin. It took over an hour to climb into the SW wave. But once at 13,000ft they tiptoed north to Aoraki/Mount Cook. The summit ridge was working well and gorgeous. Coming home they climbed to 21,000ft in front of developing lenticulars that topped out well over 30,000 feet, Edwin’s first glider flight – 3.2 hours!”—

13,000ft, 40km south of Mount Cook —and–Climbing through 20,000 ft 20 kms south of Mount Cook. Still lots of wave above.
” Trial Flights dont get much better than this!”
With Edwin Nieman, very Dutch name by the way!!!He looks VERY pleased!!!

———–

In our SPORTAVIA time we trained army students/cadets. Those times were REALLY great fun,  as the young ones were out going , friendly and keen to learn.I remember our chef in the kitchen had to cook extra portions as they COULD EAT!!!All day out side ,some tension helps the appetite , but also early nights and breakfast.
One of my FB friends John Welsh from Perth in Australia, spend last week time to train a whole new bunch of pilots;
” Another mission accomplished! 8/8 students solo over the week, sent 3 solo myself – 52 sorties over 5 days, feeling a wee bit weary! Great youngsters to teach!”

———-

Weather phenomena’ s !!!!

Ian Mc Phee from Australia shared this great picture with text from this superb cloud at Yamba:
” On the new weather satellite this roll Cloud extended 200 to 300 km to sea at about 45 deg to coast. As it moved up the coast you could see winds from NE 15kph to 40 or 50kph S.”

Silva , “my CD”  at the EGC from Finland in 2005 ,[he used to call me “my steward” !] shared a great picture from the Northern Lights

AND
Jill shared a picture from her country with the message :” New Zealand from space – aren’t we pretty?

 Courtesy;The Edge Afternoons with Guy ,Sharon and Clint.
AND
from the S of Australia shared by Tammy, wife of our former tuggy Glenn.

” Lovely contrasting rainbow after this afternoons fierce storm.” [Last Saturday]

AND
Driving back from Tocumwal last Sunday Swiss Chriss had an encounter with this one in Kialla [Victoria] 

———–

Slowly we are getting closer to the next JWGC in Narromine and activities around this big event are happening already NOW!!!!!
Here the JWGC- launch in Sydney, where most of the young pilots will arrive.

Champion Matthew Scuttter with member Paul Matthews, NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayers MP and Narromine Shire Mayor Bill McAnally at the launch of the JWGC Martin Place Sydney Friday 9 October.
Courtesy John Styles.

JWGC-PR in Sydney.
As shared by the Gliding Federation of Australia

Our Dutch team starts at Corowa, unpacking the containers and getting used to the time difference and flying down under. Francesco, together with Grietje owners of the Australian Soaring Center in Corowa , shared a nice picture to our young ones to wet their appetite.
With the message ;” In the afternoon the cloud base went up to 2500 m. AGL.”

———-

This was post 850.We had great autumn weather last week and in the weekend , full of sunshine and that brought many to the airport for a nice flight in the late season.It was COLD though.Today 8 but with the wind chill factor 3 dgr. C. 15 dgr is normal for the time of the year. MAYBE wet snow in the Southern part of Holland.

AND
We are OUT of the soccer Europeans comps in France next year. Last year , after the World Championship, “we ” were number 2 on the FIFA ranking list , now yesterday evening,  we went under and sorry to say….deserved. A huge disappointment for soccer minded Holland , as we were participating since 1984. Heard that a turn around from 40 to 50 million will be lost, when you look economical to it.BUT….our Belgian mates are going and even more important , they wrote history and are NOW the number ONE on the FIFA ranking list!!!!!!! Good on them. As quite a lot of their players have played here in Holland or still do, I just follow Belgium now. No worries!!!
CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

It was a lovely evening.
Venue; the bar in THE THERMIEKBEL at TERLET.
Thank you to the Sport department of the KNVvL ,with Frouwke as the “engine” behind it all.
The staff served delicious tomato soup and hot dogs for the people coming in straight from work and all kind of nibbles and bites were available during the drinks.Great effort.
Thank you to all people, young and old visiting us, on a Monday at 6 PM, not the easiest time!!

First of all I want to share with you pictures from my TC time;  “my”  GOLD medal winner during the WGC in Uvalde in 1991; Baer Selen.

“my ” bronze medal winner in Rieti during the EGC; Ronald Termaat.

Silver medal winner during the WGC in Borlange Erik Borgmann could not be there and what’s worse I do not have a picture from him in my file.Sorry about that.

————

Guests…. very young, young and old.

The lovely Caroline and the adorable Elin.

Of course dr. Loek Boerman, who got the FAI LILIENTHAL GLIDING MEDAL. Here with WWGC pilot  and partner from Jacques Selen;Lilian de Bruijn , who won a day in Arnborg in Denmark. And Jeroen and his wife . Jeroen won the 3d prize during the last EGC in Ocseny in Hungary.

Jacques who won the silver medal in the Rieti-EGC  in Italy here with Lilian. Frouwke the organizer/engine  from this event with my daughter Inge.

Young guests as Tim Kuijpers [former JWGC champion] and Rene de Dreu [former European champion] Frank Hiemstra and Bart Berendsen both National Champions and JWGC , EGC and WGC participants when I am correct and Dillen and Meinte great crew-member and help at Nationals and crew and TC in Rieti. Peter Millenaar former youngest National Champion and JWGC champion in Leszno in 2013.

A bit older guests but still very active;

The Millenaars and Hans Disma.

and an overview of guests.

More friends and family.

My daughter Inge with Ferdie Kuijpers.

Lily de Rooy [Highschool friend, I know her from when we were 4[we lived in the same neighbourhood and went to the same schools]  and Chris, Gretha Musters [Kees wife and longtime friend]  en Ans Moonen[Highschool friend, since my highschool -time]

Diana en Ans and my youngest brother Piet with his wife Servatia. My other 2 brothers were in Spain and France.

Before we left we all 4 got a great screen print.

A last word to say thank you to Frouwke and the guests,

ANOTHER GREAT EVENT.
More professional pictures to come from top photographer Frans.

–IN MEMORIAM —

The loss of ” padre-familias ” Maurice Huybreckx [1928] was maybe expected after his short illness, but it still HURTS!!! What an outstanding person he was!!!!
Through ALL the years our family always welcomed us WARM ,when we arrived at KEIHEUVEL.
I have told you several times, how Maurice always had a place to sleep for us,[a small caravan a bigger one a Wohnmobil,]  when Ans and I went to the field in Belgium.With a big smile he waited for us, a better welcome at an airfield, was impossible. Though to be honest the children AND grand children, are brought up in the same spirit as mum and dad/grand pa and grand ma.
Till mum got less mobile, she was there always with Maurice.This is a huge loss for her.
I know the Huybreckx family for 40 years, have gone with them through sad [they lost a son Gert, like we did our Dennis] and happy times. Shared precious moments with their children Chrisje , Eddy and Mark, later with their grand children ,  Gitte and Tim, Sofie and Dennis [named after our Dennis] and Jeroen and his sister who is not into gliders but horses and now we ALL treasure the grand-grand children.All these little ones adored bonpa and bonma, so did we!!!!!
The KEIHEUVEL will be still a great place to go to, but it will be different,….Maurice will be sadly missed!!!!
RIP Maurice and ALL the best for the family.

———-

As shared on their site .
Pictures ;Manfred Muench.

Great and hopefully effective news from Schleicher to improve the visibility in the air!!!
” Currently, the ASG 32 is the only series-built sailplane which can be painted completely in various colors. This provides for the possibility of applying large areas of color on fuselage, tail and wings. Now, the first color ASG 32 Mi had it’s maiden flight.”
http://www.alexander-schleicher.de/die-erste-bunte-asg-32-mi-fliegt/

———-

On October 1 the new sporting code was effective. Here in short what is “up” now.

Dear Friends,
The Sporting Code Committee has created a one page summary intended to highlight the changes concerning Badges that are effective from 1^st October 2015 in the Sporting Code Section 3 (Gliding) together with Annex C’s interpretation.

It is not intended to be a word-by-word comparison, rather an overview how the changes affects pilots, analysts and Approvals for FRs & PRs.

This summary is available on the FAI/IGC website :  http://www.fai.org/downloads/igc/BadgeRules2015

In the Sporting Code itself, with the deletion of the requirement for turn points to be a minimum of 10 km apart, it came to the committee’s attention that the need to declare each turn point for a task, even if it was to be revisited, could now be misinterpreted. Therefore, a new para SC3-1.4.3 has been added to the text.

1.4.3   Multiple use of way points        A TURN POINT can have the same coordinates as the START or FINISH POINT, and if a TURN POINT is to be used twice it must be listed twice in the task declaration.

Ross Macintyre

Chairman IGC SC3 Committee.

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Bahia gliding was in the OLC list with some great flights from Jeroen Verkuijl in the Nimbus 3T /25.5 m. Now flown by Branco Stojkovic with a 650 task and with  impressive pictures  by Robinson Rosa.
On final glide they caught up with a good fire. And my friend Art [Grant] commented; ” Pyro-cu! A prairie favorite.“

and this one made by Branco during his flight in a KW 1.

On Friday 806 km. was flown by Branco, as practice for a 1000 km. flight, but that flight on Sunday was just a tad too short; 982 km. [735 FAI triangle]. I believe he was most sorry for missing out on a 1000 km.-CIGAR!!!!!
Guilherme  “Gugui” Purnhagen is working hard to make the combination Bahia airfield -Brazil weather ,…a TOP WORLD SPOT.

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October has started.Over 500 km. already down under [Geoff Pratt ] and in South Africa by Sven [524 km.] and Oscar [588 km.] By the way on October 4 he flew 400 km. with a speed of 154 km./h. Total flight; 440 km. with 120 km./h.
Our September month was in general too cold and too wet. The normal average of rain here, is 78 mm. now it was 110 mm, according to weather.online.
Normally we have in September 10 days with temperatures of 20 dgr. or more , this year only 2!!!
But the last couple of days were nice and they still were in the beginning of October.

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QUEENSLAND STATE COMPS AT KINGAROY.

The Queensland comps are in progress in Kingaroy with 29 participants in 3 classes. Kingaroy is in  the East of Australia where the 2016- competition -season starts ,[ same day by the way as in Potchefstroom in South Africa] and  they have had 4 days till now .
Mak from Japan arrived back in Australia ,where he spends nearly all down -under-summer.
Adam , who just finished his 767 type rating in Japan and will start his line training from Narita soon, was a happy chappie: “Last to leave, first home. 1st time I’ve ever done that – great feeling!”
Both fly in st./15 m. class . Day 1 was cancelled.
So a new day 1 on October 4, with 234 km. won by Peter Trotter in his ASW 20 A. 6 From 11 finished the task  among them Mac and Adam.
The next day had better weather , a task from 317 km. and 1 out-landing with an LS 3.
After 2 days of flying Mak ,[1449] Adam [1423] and Peter [1253] top the overall list.

Flying day 3 had 287 km. for the pilots.A tough day, not for Peter who won again 1000 points , not so much for Mak either, he lost “only” 67 points on Peter,…. but for Adam, as he was “aux vaches” after 178 km.Last daily spot, ….364 points,…that hurts.
So the overall scores changed a bit; Mak still leads [2382] ,Peter is runner up and Adam dropped to spot 6.
Today they had 286 km.

Adam in Kingaroy as shared by him. And Mac “famous in Australia”, you must love news about soaring;
” Saved by a peanut field;glider makes a last-minute landing after bad weather”.
shared by Adam.

In 18m. /open class 248 km. was set for the 12 pilots on their day 1.Greg Colb won before Butch [John Buchanan] and Tom [Claffey] A bad day for David Jansen and Andrew Georgeson as they both just missed out on finishing.
BUT…. on day 2 David set this straight with 1000 points for a 422 km. task racing with 133 km./h over the track. Tom was just a tad slower!
After 2 days Tom leads the pact[1570]  before Greg [1557] and David climbed from 10 to 7.[1267]

Flying day 3 had 302 km. and once David has had his “off-day”  he “FLIES”!!!! He won the day again now with a speed of 111 km./h. Only 6 in this class seem to have finished and it was an expensive day for  Greg and Butch.I thought for Tom as well, though he was not scored in the daily points they added points to the overall scores were he is on spot 1.[2419]

More news, they had 289 km. today  and final scores next Wednesday.

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The SPRING GAMES
NORTH WEST REGIONALS at Potchefstroom.

Picture shared by AKAFLIEG -Potch Gliding.
Courtesy ;Zayne Wouda

Both overseas continents start in the beginning of October with the first comps and with Kingaroy down under , Potchefstroom was the place to be this week in South Africa.[3-10/10-10 2015]
It’s a bit difficult to follow as they can’t cope with the new Soaringspot system, but created their own with pictures on their FB.
They started after 1 practice day with day 1 on Sunday; 410 km.
In 18 m. class, the 13 pilots got last Monday, on day 2,  a 550 task won by Uys and Attie with a speed of 130 km./h.Oscar and Laurens followed with Danish pilot Anders Anderson with 129 km./h.
After 2 days Oscar leads [1853] for Uys [1757] and Laurens [1748] and Attie.[1693] Anders has a total of 1628 points.

Yesterday  a 3 hour AAT was  set in 18m/open for day 3.
Pieter Nouwens won the day with 148 km./h.over 440 km !!! ahead of Laurens and Oscar.
Oscar still leads with about 100 points on brother Laurens.[2746 for 2655] followed by Uys , Attie and Anders.

There were some complaints about the weather forecast ” interesting weather. Topmeteo has been wrong for 4 days in a row now.” 

More news and final scores next Wednesday.

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And to finish; The 109th Annual meeting of the FAI in Rotterdam, turned out to be a great success. Compliments to the KNVvL , who organised the congress at an unforgettable  venue; the SS Rotterdam.
201 Participants from 46 different countries visited, among them a big delegation from Dubai [ United Arab Emirates] , where they organize the next  FAI World AIR GAMES 2015.

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CU next Wednesday
cheers Ritz