NARROMINE 2-SEATER NATIONALS….continued.

Picture from above shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

“Narromine today from above courtesy of the sniffer. Thank you Jack. (Vojta Hájek)”

They continued in Narromine with the 2 seater comps on Thursday with
Day 5..with a 3.30 AAT in which Adam and Keith had a good run again; 1000 points for 412.86 km. in time 3.39. Of course we want to know again how they did it and with Adam’s blog we are always up to date.
“A late task change on the grid [ task A and B were direction N] saw us flying to the South, then West, North & home again on a 3.5hr AAT. As it turned out, we should’ve trusted SkySight [From Matthew Scutter] as the North looked much better – but certainly didn’t prior to launch!

Keith & I started straight away & quickly learnt that the CU’s weren’t giving great climbs nor glides, so an average run South really. We then deviated a long way North to follow the CU’s, which turned out to be the right thing.

Keith is sharing his happy opinions as well;
“Day 5. The waiting game. Waiting for task C due to incoming upper level clouds slowing the heating on task A and B. Task C locked and loaded. 3h30m AAT task under the clouds. Fun day ahead. Sweet Narromine.”

394 km.  for runner up Andrew and Steven for 989 points. and…3d with 399 km. Harry and Allan for 947 points.

They also got “HIGH” visitors on Valentines day. Lumpy flew his plane from Toc to Narromine with in it Ingo, Joergen and Birgitte. Lumpy and Joergen were, as you know, supposed to fly the 2-seater Nationals but a damaging” cell” ruined this possibility.This way they said hello to their mates!!

…… 2 former WGC champions!!!Ingo in Rayskala in 1976, in Hobbs in 1993 , in Benalla in 1987 and in Rieti in 1985 and Brad [Edwards] in Uvalde 1991
Picture shared by Tocumwal Soaring Centre

 

Day 6..with a 3.30 AAT;
Another task C, but also another nice long flight,  a challenging one looking at the speed from 107 km./h over 373 km. by winners Andrew, Georgo called by Adam and Steven.That ARCUS M is a bloody good glider.
The Edwards were runners up and as Brad did in Uvalde in 1991, SINGING, he and his brother Bill did now too in the evening.
Miles out landed ” went too far into top sector ran out of daylight and out landed 10km short. Tim had lots of scratching practice at the end of the flight and his first field landing.”
One more day to go.

Day 7.. with on the very last day a 2.30 AAT;
Rock & Jacobsohn from the Hunter Valley in the Duo Discus GIE won the day and that makes me think it’s the old Sportavia Duo, which was sold during the auction to members of the club from  the Hunter Valley . They were very pleased with the purchase of this Duo GIE, still the same call sign. NICE!!!!I am pleased to see they are happy with it.
They flew 278 km. in time 2.35. Adam and Keith were runners up and Akemi with her team mate Smith were 3d.
So pretty clear who are the 2019 2 seater champions;
1. Adam and Keith in the ARCUS M with 6.394 points.
2. Andrew and Steven in ARCUS M with 6.252 points.
3. Harry and Allan in ARCUS M with 6.023 points.
Then 3  Duo’s on spot 4,5 and 6 with team David Jansen/Styewart, team Akemi Ichikawa /Smith and team Edwards brothers Brad and Bill.
I do agree with Adam’s next words as I have seen at many comps that being your usually you is the best.
“20m final day run down.. My father told me as a young boy, don’t change anything just because you’re at a comp. Pretend it’s just any other day at the local club. That’s exactly what I did, slept the same, ate the same, prepared the same, chilled on the grid the same, it really felt like just another day to me.”
National Champion 😎👍🍻

and the champions and other winners in a cosy setting, with Beryll in full charge .

With from left to right  Keith , just behind him Andrew then Adam, Steven , Alland and Harry.
Narromine Gliding Club Official

 

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—— Who is trying to find something very special for the cockpit of the glider for the upcoming season,should have gone to Styrian Gliders Day  in Austria where Gagula Darko showed his DELUX fine product. It was last Saturday and a bit far for most of us but here is a picture and a link to see more.

http://www.deluxbygagula.com

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–—-Sebastian Kawa travels a lot. After he left the comps in N.Z. he moved to South Africa to fly a JS 1 for a film-shoot.
Here is the news shared by Sven;” Sebastian pre-flighting the JS1 before a film-shoot – I was privileged to fly the chase plane – what a demonstration of flying skill.”

   

As shared by Sven Olivier.

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It’s mid February end of summer in Australia  and nearly autumn , BUT they still have glorious flying weather.
The Benalla-Corowa-Tocumwal triangle had flights up to and just over 800 km. and 11.000 ft.  cloud base.
Lumpy Paterson flew in his JS 3 /18m. from Toc. 824 km [738 triangle] with a speed of 137.59 km./h.  , Bernie O’Donnell in his ASH 26 from Corowa 803 [598 triangle] and from Benalla Bob Nicholls in the Ventus 2CT/18m. 666 km.
Other great flights on this Sunday February 17, when we here in Holland had a record breaking 18 dgr. C. were from Grant in his Jantar 563 km. from Toc and Joerg in the LS 4 ;606 km. till he out-landed NW from Leeton.
Also the ARCUS M. from the Grampians Soaring Club flying from Toc. was worth mentioning, topping the OLC list with 815 [714 triangle] km.!!!!
Not to forget the very first flight in an ASG 29 [being used to ASW 15 and Pik 20] by Bernie Sizer;778 km. [608 triangle. His OLC comment;“First flight in an ASG29. Unbelievable.”
Temora; they had the  same great weather ,maybe even better as they are a bit more to the N. E. ; Brian DuRieu flew in his LS 10 a distance of 829 km. [738 triangle] and Lesly Kinsley in a St. Libelle 504 km.
I guess this must have been the driest , hottest and toughest summer ever . I have seen a few when I lived there, felt the pain from the farmers, saw the big ‘hoping’ eyes from the animals , but this summer was even more TRAGIC.
It’s a dream however for gliding. How cruel the weather can be!!??

By the way, Keith Essex is back in wave -wonder-land Omarama and flew 1.404 km. with 177 km./h. yesterday in his ASG 29!!!!Also a Romanian pilot learned a lot in a Duo Discus flying over 1.460 km. in wave up to 7291 m. MSL.

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—-Holland, Germany, France and Belgium slowly get their gliders out or their winter-sleep and either do the last job’s or flew already locally.Here is one of my favorite glider fields in Belgium; Keiheuvel.

From above and shared by Kon. Aeroclub Keiheuvel

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——And,…for those who like to fly in Sweden, here is an update on the Masters.
“Dear Uppsala Masters competitors and Teams! 
We will within days publish Local Procedures and some other relevant documents such as price list and good to know info. Final day to register your self is 31st of March. This is also final day of payment. Payment and registration after this date is possible however will cost you 750 sek extra. At this moment we have some 40 gliding ships on the list. Amongst Swedish pilots we are happy to see that our Finnish gliding friends will visit us with a big team. This year we also have visitors from Norway and Germany, and not to forget our new world champion in 18m class from Austria mr. Wolfgang Janowitsch, this time flying with his mate Andreas Lutz in an Arcus. Last but not least we are glad to see that a competitor all the way from Canada has found his way to Uppsala, very welcome Jean Yves Germain. 
So, stay tuned and we will return soon with updates!“

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—–Received the latest WSPA [ Women Soaring Pilots Association] magazine “Hangar Soaring” from editor Frauke Elber with news about Gliding, specially from and for women. This time also with some sad news as her husband for 50 years Wolf died on January 12 2019.Some might know him as well.
This is how he was remembered in her magazine.

IN MEMORIAM ;
Wolf Elber 1941-2019
Wolf and his family came to the US in February 1970 and joined the Tidewater Soaring Society in May that same year.
Wolf had a distinguished career first with NASA and later with the US Army. His professional accolades are immortalized on the Internet and in technical publications.
Few know about his contributions to soaring. He, in conjunction with Steve Sliva, wrote the first display scoring program for the 1982 Nationals in Elmira, NY. For the first time, this program made it possible to see schematically the location of pilot’s land-out places. It was a great hit with crews and the pilots who had already returned to Harris Hill.
A year later, he wrote the program for the ground start-clock that was used during the 1983 World Championships in Hobbs, NM. He also was one of the three scorers at these World Championships. He tinkered with home-calibrating variome-ters using the car manifold and home fridge. In the early eighties, he developed a thermal sniffing sensor that Helmut Reichmann in his plane and Frauke in their Ka8 test-flew. It worked, but too slowly for practical use then. It was about 20 years ahead of its time.
He was an avid supporter of Women Soaring (no wonder, it was a woman, who got him into soaring) and attended about 20 WSPA seminars together with his wife Frauke. At the seminars he was known as mister-fix-it all, especially non-functional toilets. For his efforts in this field, he was awarded the “Golden Plunger Award” (not mentioned on Google).
Over the years he owned a Ka 8, a Libelle, and an ASW 20 and was always willing to share the planes with others. For 10 years he flew in the Senior Championships at Seminole Lake Gliderport.
On January 12, 2019, three weeks before his and Frauke’s 50th wedding anniversary, he took off for his last flight.
Good Finish, Whisky Echo” 

AND,…to finish this fabulous picture shared by the WWGC team. They are very good in their PR and know how important it is to start early with news and pictures. Let them come!!!
Every time in the future when I write about the WWGC I will start with this picture.[ with permission] .

 courtesy  johnlund.com

You are up to date, it’s getting ” slow” with news now as most comps are over , but in Mai the 20 thiest FAI EGC starts already in Poland [Turbia] in open, 18 m. and 2 seater class and even earlier there will be comps as the Pribina Cup 2019 in Slovakia between April 19 and 27.
In between I “scan” the news with my eyes and scan some vintage pictures from “old” comps.

CU Ritz