The end of the year , is often time to reflect. I personally, quickly forget about 2016 ,as I was 11 out of 12 months not well. I really have to get used to asthma and heavy allergies, [never in 70 years had any problem !!!] but slowing down is not so much in my character. I have to do it now to just be able to live a nearly normal life with inhalers in the morning and evening to avoid more infections and to open my lungs better. I know though,… it could have been MUCH worse!!!

There were changes to my blog  as well. Soaringcafe founder Bill Elliott helped me to move soaring-eu from Instra in Australia to his server in the USA.
I did not even know ,…but INSTRA -owner Tony Lentino who also owned my domain ,….and his mate Phil Parker who set it all up for me, did more in the past years for me than I ever knew.
I wrote you that Tony died this year  age 42 on cancer, leaving 2 beautiful little girls and his young wife Emily. Though we did not see each other a lot ,I do miss him !!!
Instra is busy with changes after Tony passed away and I got a letter about how to continue. All who know me , know as well  that I am a “zero” in that world, so Bill who already installed the updates from wordpress in my blog,  is an ace in this matter and he helped me.
Instra was so kind to leave me the domain and a few other names as well and now you can read “me”  from the USA.
A huge THANK YOU to INSTRA for hosting me for over more than 10 years!!!

Thank you as well to Bill, who worked for hours to finalize the changes and it took more than a week to move all my”scribbles”  to his server.THANKS Bill.
So we continue and I guess you had no difficulties to continue reading the blog.

————

Back to “work”,

The rumor was that there might be 2 JS 3 Rapture gliders in Benalla. Here is the latest news on that;
“We are happy to confirm that both Adriaan and Uys Jonker will be flying their brand new JS3 Raptures at WGC Benalla.
Qantas will be flying the two gliders to Australia in the next few days.”
So that’s great news!!! And,..not by boat,… as that was with time not possible , but with the Aussie Airline Qantas, good on them!!!A 747-400 from Johannesburg to Sydney and then quarantine and customs and a few hours driving to Benalla close to Melbourne. A huge exercise.Had several pictures from containers and boats, but this looks different.

Pictures shared by Wilhelm Mosehuus.

Normally it happens like this and the South African pilots look in their container to see if it all is OK.

Laurens inspects and does not” tear hair from his head” so it will be ALL ok.
Pictures shared by brother Oscar.

Further on in South Africa…
Sven Olivier got himself a very nice Christmas present on December 24;
“A fun Christmas Eve flight – a declared 3TP 1000 – thanks to Martin Gruenert for tugging – a low point on the second leg (thanks for pushing to hard) but got a way – it became 3.5m/s
Smoke from fires enveloped the third turnpoint – difficult with the low airspace ceiling and spread out. A real nice christmas present.”
He declared (and flew:) 1000 km 3TP -he  lost his  LX vario on the 3rd leg and  had only 80 ltrs water due to the tug.
Sven started at Worcester , flew a more or less out and return to the East and flew the JS 1B.

Further on in Australia…..
Alfred Paul Alfers; was the first young pilot we invited in the past, to come to Tocumwal and fly with Ingo Renner during the Outback Shootout ,a competition for long distance flying. He won that summer the juniors in Holland and this was some kind of present. Now , so many years later, he flies not far from Tocumwal in Corowa and had good practice for the Benalla WGC where he represents Holland; 1.002 km. in his 18 m. ASG 29 E on December 23.
At the same day Danish pilot, Joergen Thomsen flew a friend around in his beautiful ARCUS M from Tocumwal; 728 km.[700 FAI triangle].
On Christmas day Alfred Paul organised his own Christmas present with another 1.028 km. flight!He seems ready for Benalla!!!

Arne Boye Moeller; flies the JS 1 from Brad Edwards in Benalla. He and his wife had a great trip from Armidale to Tocumwal, enjoying the beautiful landscape of Australia. At Brad’s it was talking- soaring , with Brad and his wife Kerrie, Bruce and Anita and his own wife, Anne. The real Aussie BBQ was of course the place to sit around for these stories. As you can see Brad cooks the meat but “he still flies”, talking with his hands.
And ,…… Arne gets Brad’s bucket and grease!!!! YES THE ONES from the year 1991 in which Brad became WORLD CHAMPION in Uvalde. Will this be an “omen” ???

“”Enjoying the view in Carpatee Valley”,..Enjoying the company of long time soaring mates and ..   holding the precious special bucket.
Pictures courtesy Arne.

They visited Danish mates Joergen and Brigitte, who spend their annual -soaring-summer in Toc  and parked the trailer and glider in the hangar from my ex George at Tocumwal Airport.
After,…. lot’s of fun with each other after the 700 km plus flight from Joergen and Ulrik Eilert.

With Arne,Brigitte, Ulriek and Joergen and Anne in the middle.
Picture courtesy Arne.

Sportaviation at Tocumwal, has a day off with Christmas, very consequent as in the past, Eddie as our chief pilot always wanted the day off to celebrate Christmas with his family. No worries ,…as Ingo was always available.
This year George  , who lives in winter in Tocumwal and has his hangar open and his planes ready for those guests who want to fly ad hoc and Chris Zippel , an old frequent guest and tuggie at Sportavia in the past,  who was invited by George to spend his winter in good old Toc, helped out Akemi and Mac , who flew a nearly 500k. in the LS 8 and a 742 k. in the Ventus 2.
Their comment on the OLC;”Thanks a lot Chris and George, a bit like good old days.”
Great they still could fly on Christmas-day which turned out to be a GREAT SOARING-day.

———–

Benalla!

Benalla was already “nearly ready” with most of the organisation last year when the pre -worlds were on. I was there, so I could see it. Now lot’s of international friends are visiting this nice town and big airfield. Many have arrived already and some practice from airfields in the area.
You can organize EVERYTHING, but the weather not , you just depend on it.
Whilst pilots drive from East to West through the southerly parts of Australia, in the heart of the continent, the center of Australia  with Uluru/Ayers Rock as main and most famous attraction , the weather is totally off!!!
Rain falls with bucket-loads over the red sand and the big “red stone/rock”,due to a massive storm. The ULURU National park was even closed for the day due to heavy flooding; 242 liters of rain in 24 hours says enough!!!
On FB I read that some Aussie pilots worry a bit about this weather. Tom [Claffey] mentioned on BOXINGDAY;
” The centre of Australia is interesting at the moment, hopefully Benalla escapes!”
That’s what I hope too.The weather can change very quickly down-under in a bad but also in a VERY GOOD WAY!!!
Still a few days to go……before it all happens!!!

Bruce and Anita Taylor keep as always a blog about the WGC ;Taylor’s Gliding Page. Enjoy.

———-

Wishing you a happy, successful, healthy and safe 2017.
Good luck to all my friends in Benalla. Wishing you a great and safe WGC.

A pity I can’t be there.
Ritz

QSGP at HORSHAM!!!
as ABC news mentioned;
” Elite glider pilots from Australia, NZ and the USA race over Victoria.”

Full results at sgp.aero/australia2016/results-sgp/results.aspx

“After an exciting low-level race, Day 1 of SGP Horsham is over. Australian pilots Brian DuRieu and Tim Wilson took the first two places, followed by WGC Benalla entrants Bill Gawthrop from the USA and Brett Hunter from New Zealand. 
Low thick cloud made climbs few and hard to find. Australian WGC team members Andrew Georgeson and Peter Temple pushed out well at the beginning.
Peter pulled away from the gaggle after the first turnpoint, followed by American Sean Fiddler. Both slowed down while looking for climbs from below 600ft AGL. Sean did not manage to make it home and Peter recovered height after a long period low down to finish 5th over the line, picking up one point. 
Andrew Georgeson and the rest of the fleet had to push their engine buttons and jet home.”

The first day news, as written by the always enthusiastic editor of Australian Gliding, Sean Young. Many will see him at the Benalla WGC as well. I met him at the Narromine JWGC last year. I like his style of writing!!!
Race 1 had a 197.5 km. task and the weather was not the very best, specially in the morning so to get most out of the day the regatta start was at 3.30 PM.
5 From 13 finished and Brian [DuRieu]was the best in his LS 10. Good on him. 6 points!! Unfortunately the leader of most of the race, USA pilot Sean Fidler,  had to land out about 20 km. of the field.
BUT,…on race 2 he was runner up behind Peter Temple, who won the 10 points for the day.
236 km. was set and the start was at 3.20 PM, so late again. The speed, under 100 km./h. ,says a lot about this challenging day . 10 from 14 finished.
They started as a gaggle but, Andrew [Georgeson] got low in the beginning and had to break off and go home. Normally that ends the hope of winning.
Race 3; finally a good Horsham racing day with nearly 300 km. Start at 2.45 and they all raced for the daily win. That win was for Mark Tingey with a speed of 124 km./h. The news said:”Today was a day of refinement for all of our pilots, with Day Three providing our pilots with a fantastic opportunity to take to the sky on a high speed race.”
The next day was cancelled so they started on Sunday with race 4. 178 km. was set and this time Peter Temple was the best with a speed of 118 km./h. The news said about this day :”Today’s task was set nice and close to the town, to allow our pilots the chance to explore some different areas around the aerodrome.”

Great picture as well;

As shared by the organizers.

Race 5  last but one day!!! 328 km. was set and a start at 2.20 PM.
“a hot and windy day, which provided its own unique challenges for our pilots.This morning our briefing was quite short, as it looked like it was going to be another great day of gliding.”
“Today was the first day our pilots had the opportunity to gain some real height, with some of our pilots making over 12000 feet at points within the race, and travelling over 300km/h on the downwind leg.”
It was indeed a good “one” for some . One of the USA pilots, Sean Fidler in the ASG 29 flew around with 109 km./h and won the 10 daily points bringing him to a nice 2d shared place with 24 points in total with Geoff Brown.[JS 1]  Leader at the moment was Mark Tingey in the JS 1 with 28 points.
4 Pilots did not finish and one did not start.
Race 6 was short, a short-last-day-race with 157 km . and  a strong cross wind, handled well by all pilots.
“The shorter task resulted in all of our pilots staying fairly close together, and made for fantastic viewing at the finish line.”
A “fast and furious day with all pilots pushing hard” is what the WINNER Geoff Brown mentioned.
Geoff won the 11 -last-day-points with a speed of 133 km./h. and the HORSHAM GRAND PRIX.[35 points]  Runner up in this QSGP was Mark Tingey [ who was 9th in the last race!] from NZ [29 points] and on spot 3 USA pilot Sean Fidler,[27 points]  so a mixed international TOP 3.

Happy winners of the first QSGP from the 2017 season.
Picture courtesy Gliding Australia.

–———-

JoeyGlide.

After wind , there was rain. Lot’s of rain, so no flying. My statement that Temora has great soaring weather, sounds a bit weird now, but I still believe it’s a great soaring place .
They had 4 days of ” forced ” rest,  one day more than flying, but the last day was flyable again.
177 km was set and 5 from the 9 who started finished. Joe [O’ Donnell ]was the daily winner,he won the first and the last day AND was runner up in the end with 2.162 points;
James [Nugent]was runner up for the day but overall WINNER!!!! 2.375 points. James won day 2, and on that day Joe lost nearly 250 points.
David Collins was 3d ,2d and 3 d again so a deserved bronze spot;2.050 points.
Not the usual weather in Temora; as some said ” there must be a competition there“, but still great winners!!!

As shared by JoeyGlide.

———

OLC flights are getting longer and longer….

December 17;One of the young German pilots, Matthias Arnold,  flew that day, his last flying day in Bitterwasser,  in the 18 m. Ventus 2CM 1.435 km. with a speed of 162 km./h.[1.254 FAI triangle speed 142 km./h.] Those young ones have nothing to wish anymore, or…..
Great though that “good old”  Wilfried Grosskinsky gives the opportunity for  talented young ones to fly in Bitterwasser on a 10 day-1000 km.-camp and they for sure do something with the invitation.Good on them and great from Wilfried!!!
Wilfried flew in the ASH 25 /EB 28, with another young pilot Max Mensing, 1.315 km.[ speed 165.6 km./h.]
A day with 4 over 1.400 km. flights and another 4 over 1.300 km.
December 18; 2 Sharks flew over 1000 km and my German friends in Kuruman added another nearly 1000 km. flight to their list after flying 2 already in their ARCUS M. Yesterday they added over 1000 km.
December 19;John Coutts from NZ but living in South Africa had a great flight in the JS 1 A from Douglas Backhouse in S A. He DECLARED a 1.250 and flew a total of 1.384 km with a speed of 151 km. /h. and the triangle with a speed of 137.8 km./h. GOOD on him.
And what about Jonathan Cross flying in his ASW 20 from the same place; 1.153 km. with a speed of 133 km./h.
And from Gariep Dam a 1.018 km. in a a Glasflugel 304 is not bad either!!!
South Africa was HOT!!!!

More and more pilots arrive in Namibia and S A . Great to see 6 members from the Israelian Negev Gliding Center in Kiripotib. One team in an ARCUS M with Offer Sharon, even flew their 3d  1000 for the season.

———

And last but not least for those interested in the new JS 3 Rapture

Attie Jonker gives the details on the JS3

Hi
Some interesting speculations. Here are a few facts:

On this shortest day, I wish you for the upcoming weekend , where ever in this world you are , a SPLENDID , peaceful Christmas time.
I think of all loved ones from the victims in the Berlin Christmas-market disaster and desperately hope 2017 will have no such cowardly attacks on innocent people anymore.

Merry Christmas
from Ritz

San Francisco in Argentina!

As mentioned last week, this airfield was the host for the Standard and combined open /15 m. class NATIONALS.
The first week they had 6 days .During the last week the weather had to get back to “normal”  again, but that did not really happen , so only small AAT’s   were set but most were not flown. Only 2 days this week but still in total 8 out of 12.

The LS gliders were doing well in both classes the LS 4 and LS 6 were flying to daily wins!!So were the ASW 20’s.
In Standard class a  clear winner; CHAMPION Gonzalo Riera [LS 4] with 6395 points. Runner up in LS 4 as well, Cristian Franzini with 6184 points.
On the very last flying day…2 hour AAT….French pilot Baptiste Innocent [St Jantar 2] was the daily winner and got the 600 points, not enough however to get back in the final top 3 overall. He was 4th.

In the combined open/15 m. class Damian [Goldenzweig] was the clear winner with nearly 200 points on runner up Sebastian Luengo [ 6643 for 6451] .CHAMPION Damian won 3 days , each “giving” him 1000 points . The top 3 flew ASW 20.

———-

NEW FAI 13.5 m. WORLD RECORDS!!

First we had , in the end of this year 2016, the new height-record in the Silent Electro by Tony Condon, only  for a few hours but still,…..it was a new STATE record and NOW 3 new WORLD RECORDS .
“An inspiration for other pilots” is what Stefano [Ghiorzo…..ALISPORT] hopes for . Look at this:

Last November in Namibia we’ve established 3 new FAI World Records in the 13,5 m Class while flying a SILENT 2 Electro!
We are please to forward our link for a short clip, hope you’ll enjoy it : https://youtu.be/OnpmhTAKGy4

All three are speed records over 100, 300 & 500 km FAI triangles.

Speed over a triangular course of 100 km – 140,50 km/h

Speed over a triangular course of 300 km – 119,52 km/h

Speed over a triangular course of 500 km – 112,52 km/h

Enjoy the video ,  2.03 minutes of PURE pleasure , it MAKES you looking,….. at the glider, the skies and the way it is done,…. not to forget the nice stirring music ……. congratulations guy’s !!!!!
info@alisport.com / www.alisport.com

————

JOEYGLIDE!!!
December 10-17-2016

Courtesy /credit Colin Stauss

Temora is the host for the 2016 Junior Gliding Championships in Australia. 12 Young pilots had fun together and flying was the main goal. Some start with experience , some are rather new to competition flying .
They run one class for club-gliders.
Mind you those young ones in Australia have to travel FAR to participate. Some arrived from Adelaide in the West, just under 1000 km. , some from Kingaroy and the Darling Dawns in the East of Australia, over 1.100 km. A day’s driving or more with a trailer, several from the Melbourne area [Geelong and Mount Beauty] still 6 hours driving.
The practice day on December 10 had a 2.30 AAT. During the comps , 2 seaters flew up and down for coaching as well.

Nice to see the new upcoming Aussie pilots together in Temora.
Courtesy JoeyGlide

Straight away ACTION on day 1 with a 3.30 AAT, pretty long  for a blue day, but they can do it and as said before ,…the blue in Australia can be very good!!!!
And they showed it ; Joe O’ Donnell, member of the Aussie junior team and winner of the junior nationals in only his 2d year of participating, won the day;376.48 km.  in 3.35 in an LS 3a. Another JWGC member is James Nugent,[ St. Cirrus]  who was runner up with 342 km. in 3.37.
Both boys , flying in the Narromine JWGC last year , are putting up a high standard for the rest.
10 From 12 finished. That it was a good day, was reflected by local “hero” Brian Du Rieu , LS 10/18m.] who set a 1000 with 3 TP’s , but as he mentioned in his OLC comment,” trough in blue was on schedule but the cu on the trough were broken and based initially only 7000 – 7500.”;803 km [750 FAI triangle] was a great result.

Joe;Winner of day 1.
As shared by Joeyglide.

Day 2; has a 4 hour AAT and James  managed to fly 480 km. in 4.04 , so 114 km./h!!!!Good on him!!! That St. Cirrus is a good little plane and with a good pilot it get’s far.
2 From 11 did not finish so a good day. Joe was 4th. Unfortunately he lost 250 points.
As I said before, in fact Temora is one of the soaring places maybe the one with the best weather!!!!
“Reports of strong lift to 10000′ in the task area” and ” some great climbs“.

Ready for day 2 a good one.
as shared by JoeyGlide.

Day 3; very gusty [Westerly] circumstances; day cancelled time for a pilot’s meeting.

————

More young-pilots-news !!

“The Youth Soaring Development Camp is in full swing at Omarama and they’re having a great time.” So now we are talking about the young ones in New Zealand, with as the YSDC mentioned;
“Good cross country flying, evening flying, a few landouts and a first solo“.

First solo-celebrations,…welcome in the family!!

———-

Only 1 week to go and the Qualifying Australian Grand Prix will be flown and the “circus” will settle down in Horsham with a few Aussie toppers, some preparing for the WGC  . 2 “KIWI” -pilots [Brett and Mark preparing for Benalla] and 1 USA pilot , Bill, who participates in the WGC as well .
6 JS 1 gliders have entered, 6 ASG 29’s , a Ventus 2CXT and an LS 10st.

Will get back on this event , next week.

———–

Sharing the next news.
INVITATION LETTER.

as shared by Graham Garnett.

http://www.egc2017.co.uk/

———-

Jonkers latest “toy”….The JS3 RAPTURE, formally announced now!!

  

All Pictures as published by Jonkers on FB.
www.aviationphotographer.co.za

https://www.facebook.com/jonkersailplanes/

The first flight was on December 12.
MAIDENFLIGHT by Uys [Jonker]

“Another dream come true!”
Indeed it looks GLORIOUS!!! FABULOUS picture by the way!!!!

AND
A relieved and happy Uys and Attie and staff.

 ———-

Interesting flights on the OLC.

December 12 [12-12-2016] was one of those days!!!!! When you were at the right place , at the right time,….you had an awesome time.
35 From the 126 added flights that day, were OVER 1000 km.
Veronica, [ 1.204 km. with a speed of 140km/h. in an ARCUS M] , Kiripotib [ 1.094 km. with a speed of 161 km./h in Antares 23E]  , Pokweni [1.277 km. with a speed of 145 km./h in EB 29D] and Douglas Backhouse ,all shared in 1000km.-joy.
Bitterwasser was such a place with 3 flights over 1.300 km.and all 1000 FAI triangles. One in a Ventus 2CM/18m. TOP!!!!
Speed just under and over 140 km./h.!!!
Nice to see Pepe in Bitterwasser this time!Also a 1000, his 2d for the season from Bitterwasser.
Douglas Backhouse was the place to be for Dutch pilot Hadriaan van Nes , who flew his first 1000….. Congratulations!!!!
“Unfortunately I had to turn before the most northern turningpoint due to weather in combination with a danger area…. Otherwise it would have been a declared one.” [1.113 km. speed 142.75 km./h/902 Fai triangle in JS 1BTJ]
John Coutts flew there as well in a JS1A and he flew 1.247 km.[speed 139 km./h.]
Quite a few of our former Sportavia guests fly from Kuruman Johan Pi in South Africa. Since they started half of November , they flew already 7 over 1000 km.-flights with a few [ around 10]pilots.

Corowa in Australia had it’s first 1000 km.[FAI triangle] as well, flown in an EB 29 on a 37 dgr.C day on December 13. So the first bottle of wine could be handed over by Francesco to Danish pilot Peter Sommerlade.

———-

and last but for sure not least,….

One of my friends, Frank Versteegh ,our Dutch former Red Bull Air Racer and still busy with spectacular demo’s announced his farewell to air-racing;
“1985-2017 32 years, 1450 airshows in 45 countries on 5 continents. It has been fantastic! Met so many nice and interesting people and saw stunning performances.Now its time to move on. My last unlimited airshow will be at Volkel in de Wolken at May 28 2017. The show I will fly for the 26th time.“.
Holland IS and has always been very proud on Frank, though he sometimes had to fight bureaucracy and prejudice.
He is not only a great pilot but a very interesting key-note-speaker. He will concentrate now on readings about safety and risk management. I know he does agreat job.

 

One of his great/stunning  performances at the former F1 circuit of Zandvoort in Holland.
THANKS FRANK!!!!!

———-

Cheers Ritz,
when I am back next week I AM 70!!! OUCH,………
Due to changes to the server I publish already on Tuesday evening. More about that next week.

Today I start with the link to the 23 GREAT pictures of the 7000 m.- plus- height- flight from the Schmelzers.I told you all about it recently. Dad Bert ‘s final diamond!!!!

20.11.2016 /2Y above the Alps at photos.google.com

———–

Benalla welcomes the WORLD.
Picture in front of the club house. To the left, the big building,…that’s the huge briefing-room/arena.Like in Uvalde in 1991.

http://www.wgc2017.com/news_add_here/list-of-news/what-glider-is-that.aspx

Several pilots have arrived already in Australia, as have the containers.
The time difference , flying on the other site of the world, another metric system and sometimes very blue but very strong conditions are things you have to get used to.
On the last day of this year the pilot/team registration starts as well as the technical inspection.
The official practice period is  between January 5-7 and the big game starts on January 9-21, with the opening ceremony on the 8th.at 5!!
The closing ceremony and prize giving is on the 22d at 11 AM and the evening before is the farewell party.

Bill Gawthrop from the USA choose Tocumwal for his practice period. Only 75 km. from Benalla so close enough to get used to the circumstances and as the N. will be a popular direction because of the higher temperatures,he is at the right spot.
On his first flight, he lost the navigation on his LX 9000, [better now than during the comps] so extra good practice, as he had to work out how to find the field .But,… The airfield is easy to find as the WW 2 hangars mark the field and the runways cross.Only with a low sun I always heard,… it is difficult.
As the US soaring team mentioned” US Team Open Class pilot Bill Gawthrop is currently in Tocumwal where he’s spending the week flying with 4 time world champion Ingo Renner. He is impressed with the conditions in Tocumwal.”
After he travelled to Benalla in the beginning of December,  he mentioned :“Nice to be back in Benalla where struggling is normal.”

This is an older picture by Belgium pilot, Ronald Hermans who flew for  and worked with us in the past.
Pretty big field!!! Not easy to miss.

A few more pilots showed up in Toc. as Peter and Mandy Temple, John Buchanan, Tom Claffey and Mac.The Australian World team is training with as coach….Ingo. Ingo is BUSY but he loves that!!!

Corowa is a bit more to the E. from Tocumwal and another great practice venue.As the  containers have arrived there with several WGC gliders, WGC-pilots will practice there as well.

———-

The 1.300 km. is the new 1000!!

With the much better gliders and instruments the 1000 k. still is a dream- goal, but for those who have it already the 1.300 km. is the new challenge and wow, it was flown by many last week in Namibia and from all the well known fields as Bitterwasser, Kiripotib and Pokweni. Even 1.421 with a speed of 159.82 km./h in the EB 28 by 2 pilots flying from Bitterwasser. One of the LONGEST flights ever from Bitterwasser on the OLC.
These EB-pilots,Tim Altmann and Frerk Frommholz,  flew during this flight, the always more difficult  FAI triangle as well and stayed high and flew fast;1.254.5 km. with a speed of 141.1 km./h.
Same day,[November 30]  same place; 1.384 in a Ventus 2CM /18m by Robin Foerster is GOOD!!!!!
The last day of the 2016 metereological autumn was a great one in Namibia.
So was yesterday with several 1000 km. flights during the 1000 km-camp ; 1.253 km….1.186 km….

One day earlier and now from Omarama in N.Z.,  by now wellknown USA – hot-shot-pilot Keith Essex, flew 1.316 km. with 158.9 km./h.
He says he still has a ” love-hate relationship with wave continues” , but he is doing well.[ASG 29]
And to top all of it when I was gone, Klaus Ohlmann flew on November 26, 2.068.69 km. from Zapala Neuquen in Argentina in his Stemme, on as he mentioned the first wave-day for the season.Speed;149 km./h.
A few days later on December 1 he added a 1.637 km. flight . “Slow” speed, “only” 113 km./h.
Klaus mentioned on the OLC the next about this flight:
“Great day with difficult start. Wind only 15 km/h, but wave. In the South Wind up to 130 km/h.”
On December 5 another 2000 km. plus flight with a speed of 142 km./h.
Also in Argentina , on December 1,  from a place with the beautiful name Jose de Sant Mart,Jean Marc Perrin, one of the other wave-kilometer-eaters, flew 1.437 km in a DG 808 /15 m.!!!!

———-

NSW State Comps from Narromine.
26-11-2016/3-12-2016.

In 3 classes they “fought”  for the title of NSW champion; club, open/18m and Standard/15 m.
The most intertesting day’s were the last 2 days ; task 6 and 7.
Task 6 with a 2.30 AAT in open class was more or less defining the scores in the end. Toppers as Peter Temple, Paul Mander, Tom Claffey and Brian Durieu outlanded and those who finished raised in the overall scores. So after 6 days in this class Graham Parker topped the list, not a miracle as he did so in the past as well.
Interesting was the daily win from new Sportavia-hangar-owner Mark “Lumpy” Paterson, who bought the WW2 hangar for a rumoured ONE dollar from the last SOLE owner ,[ as we had to call him], R. Cawsey.
As far as I know he is relatively new in the soaring-competition-scene; in the HpH 304 “SHARK” he flew 232 km. in 2.26!!!
Tom and Peter “only” dropped to 3 and 4 as there were not a lot of points to hand out.
5 From 11 starting pilots finished.
In club Mark Barnfield had a top-day winning and finishing as the only competitor [from 8] in this class . A 2 hour AAT was set and he flew 159 km. in the SZD 55 in 2.32. Mark nearly topped every day of the total scores , though Jenny is always close!! In the end not enough pilots flew the distance-to make-the-day!So invalid!
St. /15 m. had a 2.30 AAT and 4 from 9 finished. 3 LS 6 gliders on the top-3-daily-list. Best was Justin Smith with just over 3 hours for 238.66 km.

The last day was a “hot” one ,…hot as in great distance and everything can happen.The day went up  to 10.000 ft. but it was windy [again].Some said , it looked better than it was.
In open /18 m. the pilots got another 3.30 AAT so off they went knowing that Graham was the man to beat.
BUT,…..neither Peter Temple nor Graham or Paul Mander flew on the last day.For some this is”only”  practice for a better goal…the WGC.
Andrew [Georgeson ] in his JS1 was the only one flying over 500 km. in 3.50. He had a late start at 14.10.
Lumpy started earlier at 13.42 and finished after 448 km. in 3.25.
Tom started for what ever reason very late at 14.49 and flew 247 km. before he had to start his engine.
So it was pretty clear in the end of the day that Andrew was the new State Champion, in this class[6268]  followed on spot 2 by Lumpy, [5.927] good on him!!! and still on spot 3, as he was more than 150 points ahead, Graham.

In club it was Mark Barnfield who was the runner up on this last day and even with loosing the task-6-points , he won the title easy; 5670. Jenny [Ganderton flying the Mosquito] was runner up with 5390 points.

In St/15 m.Ben Coleman [Hunter Valley]won the day after been in the top -3 -daily -best-pilots several times; 375 km. in 3.07.  Finally a win on the last day for him in his LS 6. BUT,….Not enough for the title he was 4th.
Lake Keepit pilot Jacques Graells [LS 6] won the title with 5943 points.Just more than 300 points over his club mate Justin Smith as well in an LS 6. The LS 6-CLUB, did well.
All pilots started within 16 minutes and Ben was the first to go on track.

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63th Nationals in Argentina.
28 -11-2016/9-12-2016.

55 Pilots gathered at the San Francisco Airport to find out , over 14 days, who in 2 classes would be the National Champion.
Standard class has an international version as well but with only 1 French pilot ; Baptiste Innocent.
The weather went better and better,..so they started in St Class with a 2.30 AAT , then a 399 km set task and a 4 hour AAT. In those 4 hours a St Jantar pilot flew nearly 400 km.
In the combined class 4.30 km. was set and Damian Goldenzweig [won the day with 469 km in an ASW 20!!.He won the day before as well and on day 1 with a 3 hour AAT for this class he was 6th. So a great run over the first 3 days for Damian .
He won task 4 as well and…. on December 2 there was no flying.
In Standard Gonzal0 Riera [LS 4] was at spot 1 overal already for 3 days and he won task 4. Damian’s brother Lucas had a bit of an off-day being 15 on day 4,but remained on spot 3 overall. Looking at the international version of this class Lucas is behind French pilot Baptiste.

On Saturday December 3 they started for the 2d week of this competition!!
4 Hour and 3.30 AAT’s were set that day and the next . Then another scrubbed day.
More next week.

———-

R.I.P.
Matt Wright!!!!!
“It’s not the years of your life that count, it’s the life in your years“……is one of his last statements.
Search “Balleka” on  you tube and you see what LEGEND he is/was.[more than 14.000 followers!]
The unexpected death after a crash, on Sunday afternoon,  has shocked ALL of us!!!!
SAD!!!!!! Very sad!!!!!
More sad news,…on the SAME day another pilot died in the UK, in the Cornwall area.
CORRECTION;
Got news from one of my UK friends about the 2d fatal accident [THANKS] and sorry for the wrong name….papers are not always correct it seems:
“ The second accident in the UK on Sunday 4th was not in Cornwall but in Leicestershire, near to The Gliding Centre at Husbands Bosworth.  It is reported to have been following a mid-air collision with a light aircraft (the pilot of the light aircraft was able to land safely).”

———-

Our autumn period was one from EXTREMES!!!!
Colder than in the last nearly 20 years -minus 8/12 in the one but last night of  November and hotter at some places than ever before in history in the beginning.
The difference in temperatures was 40 dgr.!!!!!
You can call that a DIFFERENCE!!!!
Another phenomena here in Holland yesterday; “mother-of-pearl-skies.”

Cheers Ritz