NARROMINE.

2 seater nationals in 20 m. and open class !
7 days out of 7 !

Day 5;
Finally it was their turn to win a day and it will get them more and more excited for comps. Dutch Evelien and William had no clue about flying AAT’s when they started this competition in their ARCUS T, from their home-field, but they learn quickly.
The set task from 370 km. was won by them with a nice speed of 141.04 km./h. and the runner up, team David Jansen  ” only ”  had 135 km. p/h. BUT in a DUO DISCUS, whilst the Tocumwal team Joergen and Lumpy, flying an ARCUS M had 139 km./h.
So that shows that it was a good day for Evelien and William, spending more and more time in Australia at Narromine where they run their own business during the season. All 10 teams in this class finished!!
Looking at the combined class with open  Peter Sheard and Ron Sanders were just a tad better. In their Nimbus 3 DM,  they flew around with a speed of 141 .41 km./h. So close!!!!!
Bernard in his ASH 30 MI did not fly.
Storms as forecasted to the north, north-east and Cu’s in the task area.  But a great Narromine day ….A real good one.

Allan Barnes is SO good in describing a day, so I give the “word”  to him:
“Day 5 of the Narromine 2-seater Nationals. The forecast was for 14-15000ft but strangely it turned out different. We had a lot of points to catch up on Dave Jansen so we had to leave later and catch him. We hid off the upwind end of the start gate until we were sure most of the pilots had started, then raced down the first downwind leg at 100kt. A few good pullups but the 10kt thermal just before the downwind turn never eventuated. Had to turn low, by which stage the trough line coming in from the west was shading the courseline. We found 5kt which got us to the second turn, and had a fairly good run north, making distance on most of the others. I left a 7kt when it turned to 6, in order to catch another one on the next downwind leg. But we never found one, and ended up taking a weak 3-4 to get the penultimate turnpoint. Almost on final glide but not quite, the final indignity was a 2-kt climb onto final glide. Then the really really final indignity was getting good lift from then on all the way back and finishing at VNE. Faster than yesterday but not much, and we had to be much.” [OLC comment]
The difference in points when they started that day was 169 points so their hope to catch up was reality.
After today it is 243. BUT,…that still means nothing……

Joergen in the back of his ARCUS M.
Courtesy Lumpy Paterson.

Day 6;
This day was for the “Tocumwal”-team, both import- Tocumwallers, but no worries and,…they were the only team finishing!! Joergen and Lumpy flew during the 2.30 AAT 253 km.  in time 2.35 .
Matt and Ailsa flew 324 km. but did not finish.
Allan gained a few points on David ; 631 for 562. Looking at the open 2 seater class, the only winner there was of course also team Joergen/Lumpy in the ARCUS M. Peter and Ron were runner up .
Day 6 as seen by daily winner Lumpy;
“Well what a mixed bag today. The WX was overcast and looking pretty ordinary this morning, so much so that we had the pilots meeting. The sky opened up very quickly and it was suggested the trough to the north would be working well if we could get to it…. 15kts from the SW on the ground. Engine away and we where struggling to get above 3k….finally got up and looked for wave …..and low and behold we connected, managed to climb up to 7500….about 3k above cloud base….(scattered Cu) massive wind change at height..15kt SW to 35kt NW… So picked this energy line for half to the first leg, mind you once outta that it was hard work to connect to the trough line….some did, some didn’t get there …..(landed out in paddocks) The trough line was so far to the east, it was almost out of the sectors…. We managed a climb to 8100 right on the edge of the line and set out for home needing 1800 feet with a 3kt ring setting…..we did not turn all the way home, 115 kms final glide with at 50 to 1 ….sweeeeeet
Yippee…..the only glider to get home today….and thus a day win 😀😀
Very happy day in the office….” 

Day 7;
LAST DAY on Sunday and it looks like Joergen and Lumpy finally had the right groove together in this beautiful ARCUS M. They won another day!!! Not enough to climb up higher than spot 5 overall but still,….a great result.
A speed task from 345 km. was set and flown with a speed of 122.45 km.h. and the max 928 points were theirs.
Here is Lumpy about the last comp day..
“ SW wind 15kts with thermals to 6k….4 to 6kts…345km racing task. The plan was to get out front of the gaggle and stay there….and it worked. Really good first and second leg, got bogged down a bit on the third as conditions softened again out around Nyngan (this place got me durning the NSW comps as well)….. Tip toed along this leg and managed to get a reasonable climb just before the last turn which gave us final glide …. Great way to finish the comp with another win…
Thank you very much to Birgitte and Jorgen for giving me the opportunity to fly your amazing Arcus M (JT) greatly appreciated.”

Last day winners Lumpy and Joergen with Beryl.
As shared by Lumpy.

Team David Jansen [Duo Discus] was only 5th on this last day , but there was room to fly defensive,…. though ….that’s not how I know David.
Anyhow team David and Lesley, are the new CHAMPIONS in the 2 seater 20 m. class and open!!!!6169 points.

The Jansen family; David, Lesley and Rebecca. AND,…June, David’s mum is there as well.
They were in Uvalde in 2012 as well,….. indeed a real family affair!!!

Allan was runner up on the last day  and  decided to defend his 2d place , which was necessary [ 3 points !!!!] and did that, they even got a bit closer to David; 6056 points AND…..he defended his 2d place as the difference was 34 points now with team Stewart  [6022]

David Holmes and Allan Barnes.
Both pictures courtesy Sharon Dennis and  shared by the Australian 2 -seater comps.

Looking at open,  team David and Lesley had 6038 points and team Ron and Peter 5983.
As Allan said;”Great comp – 7/7 days flying, good competitive spirit and a very challenging and entertaining mix of weather.“

Some impressions as shared by the Comps organizers;

With Ailsa [ here without Matt] …. Good old Bob Ward , HI BOB,….Catherine talking to Ron [Sanders] with Bob’s son Andrew listening.

Catherine selflaunching the  Stemme S10…….Task setter “Rowy”, John Rowe …HI JOHN…..the all important briefing.

———–

CHRISTCHURCH !
as seen by top photographer Geoff Soper, who lives in Christchurch.

TRAGIC, devastating, what can I say more…..

Talking about the weather phenomena last week, this week Christchurch was in “the sad picture”. Not because of an earthquake …yes they are more or less well known for them…but because of dangerous all overwhelming fires!! Geoff Soper , top photographer , shared a few with us and seeing that ,your heart breaks for the people living there. Quite some of our soaring mates  live there  or in the surrounding.

One of the fire-brigade- helicopter- pilots ,crashed and died, whilst helping out.He was a veteran pilot , as I read an hero in the past and…. NOW again. Too sad for words.

Heroes they are!!!!!! And what skills…..
What great coverage of these fires by Geoff, sad only is the occasion !!! Lot’s of native forest has been destroyed.
“Decades of conservation work has gone up in smoke as the Port Hills fire rages across some of the region’s last remnants of native forest.
While the fate of several important reserves remains hidden beneath smoke and beyond cordons, some reserve land has been confirmed destroyed.
The fire spread across the hills at a rapid pace, finding plenty of ammunition in the highly flammable gorse, broom and pine forests threaded across the hills.” source ENVIRONMENT.

Last Saturday ,the fires were not out , there was a bit of rain but not yet enough.On Monday they were still busy.

———–

NEWS FROM ITALY !

2 Competitions one in Santa Cilia and one in Rieti; this new  initiative ,called the N42 Gliding Cup ,is launched by Luis Ferrera and Aldo Cernezzi.
Currently Aldo is the Competition Director in Rieti for a full month between July and August and happy to help organize a new competition in early September as well.
Gliding races/ competitions on the parallel 42°N.

The final rankings of the N42 Gliding Cup are the combined results of the two competitions in the same year.
“We love both these places and we wish to invite you to a new experience. And also, we want to provide the opportunity to extend your racing season for a couple more weeks.”

When you are interested,….by the way both fields have a very nice swimming-pool for the family.

Coppa Città di Rieti, 14 – 20 August 2017

http://www.aeroclubrieti.it/w/
http://www.aeroclubrieti.it/w/?page_id=2030
http://www.soaringspot.com/…/coppa-citta-di-rieti-rieti-20…/

The grid in Rieti. Have been there many times!!!!

Copa Ciudad de Jaca, 3 – 9 September 2017

https://m.facebook.com/Fly-Pyr-Santa-Cilia-366824703500341/
http://www.fly-pyr.es/contentwk/en/

The grid in Santa Cilia de Jaca in the Pyrenees.
Pictures courtesy Aldo.

————

Interesting OLC flights.

I missed one on February 13 .A flight from an airfield I never heard from but not too far from Tocumwal…Weird! It is South from Swan Hill,… know that area and West from Corowa…. know that area even better. All in the game ,…Yando Airfield Boor is the name!!
Marlies Eicher flew in an Archaeopteryx, ….never heard from either,…some kind of goal flight without destination ,… guess flying with the wind as far as possible,…distance 586 km. in 9 hours and 19 minutes  68 km./h. BUT all under 2000 m!!!!!
The highest point was 1.714 MSL and 1.577 AGL.
Looking at GOOGLE;

The Ruppert Archaeopteryx (English: ancient wing) is a Swiss high-wing, pod-and-boom, single-seat, microlift glider that was designed by Roger Ruppert and is produced by Ruppert Composite GmbH.
The aircraft is named for the feathered Archaeopteryx dinosaur.
No idea if this was the glider but here is the picture from the standard version [from 2011]  I found on Google .

http://www.ruppert-composite.ch/

Never to old to learn something new. Very interesting!

On February 18 Benalla had a super -late- summer- day with flights up to 845 km. [ 800 FAI triangle]  in an LS 4 by WGC meteo-man Toby Geiger!
It seems there was an “excellent cold SW airstream with good cu’s” , so all good flights were flown direction West.
The Kestrel flew 577 km !!! 8 Flights between 500 and 845 km !!! Not bad!!!! Still wish they would have had more of this weather during the WGC, but what can you do.

—————

That’s it for now.
CU Ritz

Post 975 , with what happened in our world last week!!!

Whilst we had over the weekend,  between 4 and 8 cm. snow [winter] …AND … TODAY up to 15/16 dgr. C. [spring] ……..my friends in Australia suffered.
“welcome to hell on earth” [BSCH with one of the quotes about the weather]

With temperatures up to 45 dgr. C the “poor people down under ” had to deal with another heatwave. They just had one broken by a dust storm and rain ,… now they have a new one.
As one of the weather channel’s [JWC] mentioned:
“Large parts of SA, NSW, North western Victoria and will move into southern inland QLD on Sunday will be impacted by these extreme 45c+ temps including regions near Sydney on Saturday which may include the suburbs.”

As shared by Tammy, who used to live in Tocumwal and Mary Anne who lives in Tocumwal.

That does not only mean HOT, but also huge risk of bush fires and heat stress factors to people and animals.Some of my Toc friends struggled already with the heat last week, now this week they struggled again.
“Nice cool high up ” ,for Toc. glider pilot Terry , who flew in his ASH 26 an FAI triangle of 691 km and a total distance of 717 km. on Friday!!!!!
And Ingo , as you know not the youngest anymore but still going strong, did a test flight in the ASW 17, [yes the former glider from Dick Butler] , same day, same temperature ,…43 dgr C !!!!!…

The ASW 17.

“It is 43 degrees in Tocumwal today & the ground staff has the course looking schmicko for the 2 Person Ambrose Championship this weekend! Well done boys, your hard work is appreciated!” by  #golfonthemurray #visitthemurray #golfcourse
And even with the heat the nowadays combined golf & bowls-club, is looking spiffy. As you can see on pictures shared by the Tocumwal Residential Airpark. Been there a lot!!!

With their message:”Can’t beat these greens, and the cool river too. How lucky are we to be here during a heatwave?“

In between the west of Australia suffered from heavy floods due to torrential rain  and in Perth in the Swan Valley,  entire grape crops have been wiped out. It is not only bad in Australia, as the NE of the US suffered from heavy snow storms last Thursday hitting New York and surroundings and St Louis was hit by a tornado ruining houses over a line of 3 km. wide. And after a lot of rain , parts from California had to be evacuated due to an overfull dam ready to break….. 200.000 people were on the move.
The weather really has lost the plot and when “we” did that,’ we” better should do something against it ,…when it is still possible.

———-

Talking about Australia ,……

Here is the Benalla report by Champions director Terry Cubley.

Terry,…As shared on the WGC site.

—“ In many ways, the Benalla World Gliding Championships were a big success. We had great support from GFA members with over 70 volunteers spending three weeks to ensure we could put on a good show. Another 30 spent two to five days helping out with a myriad of jobs.

Our focus was to ensure everything we did contributed to the pilots being better able to compete fairly without too many hassles. We all learned that 90% of the pilots were nice people just wanting to have a good time and enjoy some fast competition. A few others were a little tense and, therefore, more prone to complain or react. Our team quickly learned to keep smiling and to work with the pilots, which worked well.

The advice to “keep smiling” and sound positive also applied to how we worked with the weather. It was a terrible weather system that we had to contend with. The task area was still green from a very wet spring, we were constantly subjected to high cloud streaming over from WA, and temperatures were quite low. Not great gliding weather at all.

We had three really good days over the three weeks. Two of those days, occurring in the practice period, saw typical high speeds under cumulus, and the one good day during the competition featured good heights, although blue, with open class completing 750km and the other classes near 700km.

Most days had the same structure – thermals starting to 3,000ft between 12 and 1pm, with maximum heights expected from 4,000 to 6,000ft. The weather models showed thermals weakening from 6.30pm, although the pilots were regularly coming home at 7.30pm.

Race tactics are quite important if you want to win this event. The scoring system rewards people who don’t make mistakes, and does not reward people who try things differently. As a result, pilots were not prepared to start early and risk getting rolled by the gaggle. On many days, the large gaggle waited until long after it made sense to leave and, as a consequence, the gaggle progressed en masse around the course.

Pilots were complaining about the risks in the gaggle, but they all still waited for it and would not go alone. We had two mid air collisions. Two 18m gliders ‘touched’ (which means ‘crashed’) on day 2, but both were able to return to an airfield and both flew the next day. The other crash was more dramatic, causing both pilots to parachute. The injuries sustained appeared to result mainly from landing in the parachute with strong winds on the ground.

The task setting was very well done by Weather Lady Jenny Thompson and Task Setter Tobi Geiger. The weather was hard to predict, in particular at what time it would start and finish, but we had to set increasingly larger tasks to try to reduce gaggles before the start. A 30-minute delay in launching could make a task less likely to be achieved, so we had a fine balance between launching into low altitude or changing to task B. On one day, we had to invent Task C, sending a car carrying the new task sheets in a mad rush down the runway in time to meet the delayed launch time.

Tobi’s plan was to try and keep the three classes separated by setting tasks into different areas, so we often had one class heading west towards Bendigo, another class heading NW towards Hay, and the third class northeast towards Temora. Sometimes, a short leg along the edge of the hills at the start was needed for one class to give a separation in time, when they would then head north. This worked well and the separation was achieved on all days. The weather was not good enough to go into the hills to the south except during the practice period and even then, many competitors were reluctant to venture in due to the limited outlanding options available from the heights being achieved.

The last day was a good example of the comp. Launching was delayed for 15m class and heights achieved were under 3,000ft AGL. Gliders were dropping water and milling around in low gaggles. By the time we came to launch 18m class, the gliders were just getting to 3,000ft, and as we had a different launch area we continued to launch 18m class, who also milled around at 3,000ft in low gaggles. Heights slowly improved and the 15m class moved away towards their start line, allowing enough space to launch Open class, who then milled around in low gaggles at 3,500ft, slowly climbing to 4,000ft.  It takes 80 minutes to launch the fleet, but we managed to get them into the air in time to make their tasks achievable. It was all a bit low but a good opportunity to race for the final placings.

The tasks were difficult throughout the competition, but the pilots were better. At this level, small errors make a big difference and after seven or eight days of racing, a few pilots had slipped down the ranking due to outlandings or some slow speeds. But there were some familiar faces near to the top.

In Open class, Andy Davis and Michael Sommer, who fought out a close battle in Poland two years ago, were both again in the top three, with Michael in third place only 30 points behind Russel Cheetham in first, with Andy between. On the last day, Michael and his team mate Tassilo Bode started a few minutes after Russell and Andy. As we watched the tracking, they remained close to each other all the way around. It came down to getting a climb on the Warby hills 40km from home – who could get onto glide the fastest. They were all below glide, with half a knot climb rate. Tassilo headed off on final glide to see if he could pick up the height by gliding and therefore give Michael some advice. He didn’t, and had to fire up his engine 5km short. Russell achieved glide first and flew home to become world champion. Michael got home only a few seconds later, but not enough to bridge the 30 point gap.

Michael and Andy silver and bronze in open class.
As shared on the WGC site.

In 18m class, Killian Walbrou (France) was 70 points ahead of a group of two Germans and two British pilots. Killian was the first pilot home just before 6pm and was the new world champion, just ahead of Mario Kiessling and Mike Young.

Killian , French [military] helicopter captain. Lovely guy , had an interview with him in Rayskala.
Here trying out a 15 m. JS 3 RAPTURE, but flying during the comps in an 18 m. JS 1.
10 Years after he became JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPION in Rieti [ 2007,… I was there] he is senior World champion.
Very well deserved! Though I know Mike and Mario are toppers as well.
Picture shared by Pole France Planeur.

15m class was also quite dramatic, with Mak Ichikawa in the lead going into the last day, 33 points ahead of Sebastian Kawa and his Polish team mate Lukasz Grabowski. Mak and Matthew Scutter flew together, starting a little earlier than the Polish pilots, and were managing to say ahead quite well until the last turnpoint area. Mak and Matthew went much further into the turnpoint area, probably expecting some good air on the way home, but it was getting late with an expected finish time of around 7pm. Sebastian won the day at 81kph, but meanwhile Mak had got low on the Warbies coming home and arrived 40 minutes late at an average speed of 71kph. Sebastian was once again world champion with Mak Ichikawa in Silver medal position and Lukasz with the Bronze.

Picture courtesy Maria Szemplinsky.

So the weather wasn’t easy on the pilots or the organizers, but the pilots still had a very tough battle and the skills of the champions really showed through. Open Class had nine tasks, 18m Class had eight tasks and 15m Class had seven tasks. These tasks, with the three practice days, provided enough flying to make it a very viable outcome.” 

Nothing more to say,…clear and pretty straight forward as expected from Terry.
The first days of February showed flights from between 150 and 612 km. from Benalla. Mind you this is LATE summer.
[ http://wgc2017.com/news_add_here/list-of-news/wgc-benalla-from-the-cd.aspx ] At this site you can re-read all the official news from the WGC in Benalla.

———-

DG Flugzeugbau GmbH !

Announced great news on February 8 2017!!!

–“ Today we assembled our new LS1-f neo the first time. With it’s new neo winglets, the wing-fuselage transition and a new paint shop this beauty could also be a new aircraft!
The upcoming weekend, we plan to conduct the first flights for certification. We are curious about how the modifications will influence flight characteristics!

This LS1-f neo will soon be a racing with a young talented pilot as a sponsorship.

Matamata !
January 27-February 4 2017.

The Matamara soaring center,as shared on their site.

The airfield of Matamata , homefield of the PIAKO Gliding Club,  was the host for the club class Nationals in New Zealand with 10 competitors in 2 classes and reasonable weather with 7 days out of 9 .
I even think we passed this field when I drove around with John and Chris Roake [GLIDING INTERNATIONAL] in 2010/2011.

6 Pilots in club class,  each in a different type of glider as PW 6, Discus B, St Libelle, DG 100, LS 4 and DG 300.
And the same 6 pilots , with 4 other pilots/gliders in the open version; as Duo Discus, LAK 12 , Puchacz [SZD 50]  and  JS 1 .
With several AAT’s between 2 hours and 2.45 and set tasks from 244 km. pilots had up and downs, some real up and downs loosing days and winning days , as Tim Bromhead, just back from the WGC in Benalla. He flew an ASG 29 there and finished on spot 34 from 43.
Tim , flying the DG 300 and a member of the local Piako Glidingclub, was “out ” on task 1 and got 296 points of the 1000 available on a 2 hour AAT-day.Not good. The PW 6 pilot gained the 492 points as winner.
BUT,…Tim won task 2 [2.45 AAT] ,…1000 points in the pocket.
Task 3 was his as well [2.30 AAT] ; as there were only 5 finishers he got the 900 points available for the day.
Task 4 gave him a 3d spot as the St. Libelle was runner up and Bob Gray in the DG 100 won and task 5 with a set 244 km. was “out” again, and only 3 pilots finished; Bob in the DG 100, Bill Mace in the LAK 12 and Mark Wilson in the Libelle.
Tim was on spot 5 with 186 points from the 833 available for the day.
As I said up’s and down’s.
Another 2 hour AAT was set as task 6 but had to be cancelled.
They tried again last Friday with task 7, another 2 hour AAT and yes it was flown. AND,..it was a fast day ; in pure club the Libelle who won showed a speed of 120.65 km./h. over 241 km. AND,..the runner up in the DG 100 had 120.27 km./h. over 240 km.. !!
I checked for “maybe wave” but no, no wave.
Looking at the open version;  speed was 135.97 for Mark in the Libelle.
Saturday was the last day and task 8 was set ; 2.15 AAT and local, Bob Gray had his 3d win.

So the DG 100 with Bob was the clear NATIONAL CHAMPION in club class. He flew very consistent, won 3 days and had NO out-landings.
Look at the points; 5.730, whilst runner up Tim with his up’s [ 2 daily win’s] and downs [ 2 “out’s”] had 4.836 points.
Mark in the St .Libelle was on a good 3d place [4.650.]
The open version scores were a bit different; Bob won, runner up was the LAK with Bill and Tim was 3d.
Finally “summer”  in N.Z. with 30 dgr. C.

OMARAMA.

Omarama pilots from glider ZR and QQ enjoying /”playing in the wave after ridge soaring Mount Cook.”
Got the pictures from Glide Omarama on my FB site, courtesy Milan sawyer.
AND

“Trial flight(s) in a southerly wave – lee of the Hawkduns, with Dan (ZR).
Lake Benmore, and Pukaki in the distance.”

Talking about N.Z. is talking about wave and….WAVE  …… showed up at NZ ‘s top- mountain– mecca- Omarama. They had that Friday great [but a bit complicated] weather too. “A day of Awesome Clouds!” was part of the comment from Finish pilot, Jyri [Laukkanen], who flew in nice wave a distance of 722 km. in an LS 3 a.
A…”sky full of lennies” , was what Aussie Graham [Parker] said after his flight in the ASH 25. [612 km.]
Both Jyri and Graham are frequent flyers in Omarama.
AND,….last Saturday another great flight 771 km. in the LS 3 a , flown by Peter Mc Kenzie. A day with SW- wave according to Graham and ” a lot of cloud about.”
Like Australia they have a great after-summer-time.

As shared on the Omarama site.

———-

Paraparumu Airport, New Zealand.

YES,…  I was at the North Island and we passed by Wellington about 50 km. from Paraparumu, but we did not visit this airfield, so like many aboriginal names in Australia sound intriguing, so do the Maori names;
Paraparumu means “scraps from an earth oven” in Maori: “parapara” means “dirt” or “scraps” and “umu” means “oven”. It is commonly abbreviated to “Para-Param”, particularly by longer-term residents of European ethnicity, and simply “Pram” by local youth.”[ Wikipedia]
The NZ Central Districts Gliding Championships 2017 started on February 5 , as I read on soaringspot, with a cancelled day.
The next day a task was set, only a ONE hour AAT,  but the 24 participants got the message , according to top USA pilot Keith Essex; “Day cancelled after launch. Increasing moisture through the day. Great cloudscapes.”
He must have thought , now I am here anyhow, I do a “bit of flying” and he flew 735 km. in the ASG 29/18m.!!!!!!!WOW!!!!!
On a cancelled day, bit embarrassing??
Keith flies already since the end of October in N.Z. first in Omarama on the South Island and very successful with 3 over 1000 km. flights, one with a speed of just under 180 km./h.  and then from Papawai, this 735 km. task, not too far from Wellington.
Other pilots flying this competition are Tim Bromhead yes from….and good old Tony van Dyk,

Whilst writing all this, I got totally confused. Tried to find out if Papawai was the same airfield as Paraparumu…???
Did some research,… found both names ….and some facts,…. but not where the comps exactly were.
So I contacted Jill [Mc Caw] who knows everything about NZ and even more about soaring in N.Z. and she wrote me back and the answer is clear; NO GLIDERS fly anymore from Paraparumu !!!
Here is what Jill wrote,…thanks Jill:
“ The Wellington Gliding Club used to fly from Paraparumu which is on the west coast just north of Wellington. Due to increased commercial use of that airfield they were forced to move. About two years ago they joined forces with Gliding Wairarapa based on an airstrip in Papawai, a small place near Greytown in the Wairarapa. The airstrip is now the Greytown Soaring Centre, and both clubs operate independently off it while cooperating to run youth camps, and this, their first competition. Greytown is in the Wairarapa, separated from the Wellington region by Rimutaka Range, and a steep, windy road. The weather conditions can be very different “over the hill”. It is a little further to go for Wellington people, but conditions are better and bunkrooms are being built.“

Well after all this research I am still waiting for task 1…..the nice weather disappeared for a few days. No task today.Next week more.

———–

Talking about N.Z…..

The new Gliding International for March /April from editor John Roake is nearly out and I still have not given you details from the first issue of this year January/February.
It’s a bit more complicated now,as all overseas readers got a code to read the magazine digital. Of course that’s the future and I read it ,…but found it more difficult to skim through digital pages instead of paper pages. In the end I “got it”  and in fact ….it is easy!!!!
Here you are:
—–quite a few pages for Sebasian Kawa’s adventure in the Coucasus Mountains. His expedition to Russia covers 14 pages with great pictures and interesting stories but also tip’s what’s allowed and not allowed in Russia p.e about pilot’s license validation.
——Paul Remde shows on his page the latest soaring product news. P.e, news about the latest colibri x GPS flight recorder and the LX NAV NANO 4 GPSflight recorder and more.[paul@remde.us]
——Aldo [Cernezzi] evaluates and comes with an explanation for poor handling on tow.
—– the ARCUS J as in JET; The ARCUS M airframe from Schempp-Hirth get’s a PBS-TJ-100 engine installed by Desert Aerospace of New Mexico….. More in the magazine!
—–the history of ” Wings & Wheels “.
—–Gliding’s best kept secret the JS 3 RAPTURE. We had already the opportunity to see how good this 15 m. class glider is as it showed it’s great performance in Benalla. Both gliders were flown by the Jonker brothers Uys and Attie.
—–all about a world map in 3D.
—–lot’s of world aviation  news for glider pilots.
And much more.
So if you wish you can read it digital now as well , in fact it is easy and clear.

https://www.glidinginternational.com/account/issue

https://www.facebook.com/glidinginternational/

———

Some more airfield ‘s..

And a few pictures from other airfields in New Zealand. I took them in the 2010/2011 year. I had the unique opportunity to see SO much from the fabulous North Island as my friends Tony [RIP] and Emily and John and Chris showed me the beauty from the N to the S of this N. Island .

and

AND my friends Tony and Emily and John and Chris who showed me the beauty from this N. Island.

———–

Last but not least…
LOVE this picture

shared by Hans and with his permission.

This young man belongs to my long-time-friends and after 27 years of flying for KLM, he had a nice FAREWELL-flight to ST Maarten with his favorite crew. You would not believe he is a pensioner now [56] , would you?
More gliding time for him now????
No, not yet,…for a couple of years he shares another company.

cheers Ritz

Interaction !
ANOTHER , ….this time Finnish …..FAMILY -AFFAIR!

When I wrote in one of my blogs about our “FAMILY AFFAIR ” in Benalla in 1987, I got a lovely reaction from Riku Rissanen.
I have been a few times in Rayskala and I am proud to got to know quite a lot of people there.
Here is the Rissanen family as shared by Riku, who wrote so enthusiastic about his family , that I asked him if I could share a few news items and here you are.

“Me [4 months old] and Markku ,my father in 1979 at the Finnish Nationals in the  “2 seater”  ASW-19 OH-592 “

His grandfather Pauli started in 1947, his grandmother Pirkko flew in 1965 , his own  father Markku started in 1966 and his uncle Sami in 1983. Riku himself had his basic course in 1994, when  he turned 15.
He was in the junior team 2000 and 2002.

Dad was best mates with Tapio Savolainen, the TOP-Finnish -TC I wrote about in my blog .They met in the 60thies  after Tapio started gliding in 1968.
The strings between the soaring families was strong, as Tapio was the godfather from Riku.
Last year they had an awesome flight, dad and son;
“When I flew the 1037km with my dad Markku last year, we both said after the landing that it was so sad that Tapsa didn´t see this.”

Well ,so out of the blue from one of the blog readers with a comment, such a nice story about family-soaring.
As you know,  I know a lot of soaring families and they intrigue me.
Thanks Riku. AND,…he has children as well, the oldest is 13 ,so who knows the soaring-history continues.

Riku [to the r.]  in 2002   with a very well known soaring-face/crew  at several comps,  Mikko.
“Normally” at comps,  Mikko is dressed in Riku’s outfit
” For the last days briefing, we changed clothes with my crew Mikko.”
And about that competition.
“Nordic Junior competitions 2002 at Kronobergshed Sweden with NO contest days..ONLY RAIN”.

————

Bitterwasser.
HAD A FABULOUS SEASON.

Here is the last news from this season and the first for the upcoming season from the Bitterwasser site:
“The Bitterwasser season 2016/2017 is finished.
After getting the ok from the customs ladies, the containers with the gliders left Bitterwasser.
A fantastic, successful and accident-free season is over.
230 flights with more than 1000km.
780 flights with a total of 625 thousand km shows the high quality of the season.
At January 19 , the Namibian weather showed again his best side, with 1400km.;Reinhard Schramme made one of the biggest flights of the season.

From tomorrow on the preparations for the coming season 2017/2018 will start.
Those who wants to fulfill their dream of flying in Bitterwasser can make a booking under booking@bitterwasser.com. “

The 4 Namibian airfields did well on the OLC list looking at the stats of airfields after their season, with a 1st [Bitterwasser] , 2d [Pokweni] ,3d [Kiripotib]  and 5th place [newcomer Veronica]
On spot 4 was Gariep Dam in South Africa.
Bitterwasser;118 pilots flew during 781 flights a total distance of  625.356,35 km.
Pokweni; 58 pilots flew during 448 flights a total distance of 344.633,04 km.
Kiripotib; 78 pilots flew during 395 flights a total distance of 275.423,88 km.
Gariep Dam; 64 pilots flew during 437 flights a total distance of 240.538,71 km.
Veronica; 45 pilots flew during 231 flights a total distance of 184.608,56 km.

.————-

Interesting OLC flights last week!

It’ s a great after-season in Australia !!!
Temora one of the great spots in Australia to fly from had some friends/guests using the very nice weather for some exciting and great flights. Arne from Denmark moved there after the WGC and flew on January 27  with dad and son Woolley and Butch and Ben Loxton and some Temora “locals” as Brian, Nathan and Graeme .
Brian nearly flew a 1000 in his 18 m. LS 10;  955 km. [750 FAI triangle! ]
Nathan in his LS 3 a 865 km [667 FAI triangle]
Ben in his St Cirrus flew 721 [600 FAI triangle]
Arne flew a 750 FAI triangle and Adam 725 km. One day later they all had such a good day again and Adam flew then 850 and Arne 875 km.
Adam tried out his new 15 m. Ventus 2ax and loves it “Fantastic day running up and down the trough line with my mates.“

All places in Australia were pretty good this late in the season and good old Richard was back  in Benalla after the comps, for his annual soaring holiday and enjoyed 524 km up N. with “ Wind nw/5-10 kts. Mainly Cu except later on to the west.”
Kilometer-eater Stefan flew his LS 4 from Tocumwal over 603 km !! Corowa had several over 700 km. flights .
Have to repeat it; BENALLA REALLY HAS BEEN VERY UNLUCKY WITH THE WEATHER!!!!
After all the stress from organizing a good WGC , competition director Terry relaxed win the sky with a 500 k in his LS 3 from Benalla. Maybe his last as I just read he bought himself a new toy and he is now the proud owner of a Ventus2cxt.

It can always be BETTER, I mean with the weather!!!! Bathurst was according to Matthew Scutter, the place to be on January 29. Pipers Field hosts the Bathurst Soaring Club , one of the largest gliding clubs in NSW, only 2.30 driving from Sydney.
Matthew flew from there 1.018.05 km. in his Discus 2 A with a nice speed of 115 km./h.. Good on him, after a pretty frustrating WGC, he deserves such a great flight to feel again how nice soaring is!!! Well done!!!
On the OLC he commented :“Today was the approximately 1 day a year Bathurst was the best place to be. First thermals, the last thermals and a marginal seabreeze convergence let me just squeak out a tonne.”
In his 2017 WGC recap he mentioned;
“I’m now going to take a break from high-level competition and do some more distance, adventure and generally ‘fun’ flying for a while. I hope to come back to a different landscape, hopefully with some different rules that make for safer, more enjoyable racing.”
Right he is!!!!The full recap was on FB at Matthew Scutter’s Gliding.
And Matthew has made some firm decisions:
“It’s finally happening. Just booked Adelaide->London on March 17, to build a campervan, then travel Europe.”
Always welcome!
Also Tocumwal had a great day with a 700 FAI triangle in an ASH 26 E [ Terry Ryan.]

Not long and the doors from the hangars in Europe will be opened again. I noticed already the announcement of opening- parties to see each other again and to just talk SOARING after winter , till they can all go UP again.
AND…the temperatures here in Holland will rise to 12 -plus in the weekend.

————

AND as you can see Corowa has started preparations to send all incoming gliders “out” again, destination Holland.

Beautiful Corowa, it will be less busy in the pool over the next months.Looking at the skies,…great day for packing!!
AND
the message from Francesco and Grietje:
“Everyone, really everyone helped packing today! The weather has not been that good this season but it did not kill the “Corowa family” spirit!!!!”
THAT’S THE SPIRIT!!!

———-

And to finish this perfect picture from Wolf Herold, shared by
Soaring News by Paul Remde of Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

“Waterbomber – here comes the force…. Antares 23”

CU next time
Cheers Ritz