Still sand and smoke in parts of Australia.
BUT,…I decided after I got the “thumps up” from the neurologist and cardiologist, that I will travel down- under, to be able to catch up with all my friends and to write AT the spot for one more time, about the Tocumwal Nationals, as this is the spot ..where home was for over 10 years!!!
My daughter found me a real good deal last Monday evening…we booked….a ticket and a visa,…BUT,….there was one “problem” ….. I had to leave on December 2 …so upcoming Monday and leaving Australia on January 21…so after 7 weeks.
No worries for me, after more than 30 times up and down to Oz , I know what to take with me.
So the next news on Wednesday might already be from Tocumwal, when I am fit enough after 30 hours of travelling
So as usual I will do the Australian Diary, which also includes writing from the field when the Australian Nationals are in progress.
Still have to ask permission from Lumpy to hang around at his premises, but he is a nice guy ..I do not expect any problems there.
Looking so much forward to see all my friends in Tocumwal and at the Tocumwal Airport. Certainly after the last 5 months!!!

The weather is already good for flying in good old Tocumwal . Chris [Davison] and Lumpy[Paterson ] flew both 750 k . triangles in JS 1 /21 m. and JS 3 /18 m. from Toc. 2 day’s ago.
From Benalla our former long time guest Richard Kalin flew a very nice 655 km out and return, all the way past Leeton, so NE. And that on a very blue day as he mentioned;” A superb blue thermal day. “
The Corowa containers were this year a bit unlucky and have not yet arrived. Last obstacle is customs and quarantine in the harbor.

In between Robin is “working” hard in Omarama and flew in the Discus his 2d 1000 km. On request of his Dutch mates, NOT only in nice wave but also following a convergence -line. He has for sure the time of his life there.

My Finish mates Antti and Juha are flying from Kiripotib and have some great flights in the ARCUS M under their belt during their first week; shortest 731 km, longest 1.039.83.
Finally again a REAL good day in Namibia yesterday, with 10 over 1000 km. flights and lot’s of other good and long flights.
Antti and Juha flew their 2d one.
One over 1000 km flight from Zapala Neuquen in Argentina as well; in wave by Juan Pablo Verdura in Ventus 2CM/18 m.

Worcester’s MAGIC is working and Markus flew another 1000 and according to him this was a memorable flight. Looking at the track he is totally right.
Here is his comment so you can see it for your self:
” This was an incredible flight across the Atlantic Ocean at “false Bay” and then to the north up to Claver.
Please see the video at TopMeteo:
https://blog.topmeteo.eu/wpstream/incredible-film-footage-of-soaring-across-the-atlantic/

St. Gaudens and Omarama were on the highest spots last Friday on the OLC with superb flights.
St. Gaudens had a wave-flight in an ARCUS by Robert Pratt from 1.307 km. with a nice speed of 162 km./h!!!
“ SW Waves very wet conditions west Pyrénées , excellent to Mediterranean side “.
Omarama had also ,of course , a wave flight from over 1.300 km…. 1.308, 6 to be precise..with enormous speed…209 km./h!!!!
In an ASG 29 by Keith Essex, who was a bit laconic about it in his comment :
” Back and forth in the wave, blah, blah, blah. Had a plan for a triangle. Was waiting on the weather to improve and ATC to give clearance but neither happened. Southern portion was meandering and tricky but fun. It was so turbulent on decent that my sustainer got thrown half way up and didn’t notice until I was on the ground .“
I can imagine when you are somewhere for a longer time, the “back and forth” might be boring .

Not a long blog today, as you can imagine that I am pretty busy at the moment.
So CU from Tocumwal next week
Cheers Ritz

Omarama:
John Roake called Omarama, in his Gliding International already, the mecca of wave- soaring, and …they have a great early season with many long and high flights! Speed up to 180 km./h. over a 497 km. flight by Keith Essex [Nov.13] and distances, as said in my last blog, from 1.839 km.by Justin and Norbert.[Nov 8].
With guests from the USA, Romania ,Germany, The Netherlands and Austria they are more and more international as well. Good on them.
I was asked to be TC for the Omarama WGC 1995, but refused cause I had never really been in wave/mountain areas , so could n’t tell my pilots anything how to fly there or how to deal with the weather. In the end the pilots went first to a mountain course in France [forgot if it was Vinon or St Auban, think the last one] and Dick Reparon , who died last year , was their TC.
By the way, the winners that year were Ray Lynskey in open class flying a Nimbus 4 {RIP 2009}, Markku Kuittinen in standard flying a Ventus 2{RIP 2012} and Eric Napoleon in 15m. flying the Discus A, all Schempp-Hirth gliders.Eric still is the TC for many French teams, male and female and a real good one!!!!
Both Ray and Markku were lovely guy’s…. I met them at several comps.
Ray was the first to complete a 2000 km. wave-flight in 15 hours and Markku managed to be a WGC champion TWICE.

When I visited N.Z. a few years ago, I was only at the N. Island, which was absolutely beautiful. So…never have been in Omarama or at Mount Cook, my daughter Inge, however was there, together with Lizzy [Wells] . They even landed on the Mount Cook heli landing spot .

Last Sunday young Dutch Robin Smit, working at the moment at Omarama, flew his very first 1000 km!!!! Good on you Robin.
He is still learning, coming from a flat-as-a-pancake-country, but reflects on it in a way we can expect more 1000 km. flights from him this season;
“Wohooo my first 1000km, Another day in paradise!
Should have launched earlier and straight to Omarama Saddle instead of trying to get in to the wave near Twizel..
Lost 1.5hours with this, ones connected with the wave it was possible to do some good runs only it was not perfect sometimes really needed to stay in a good hotspot for good clime rates, and also the big amount of clouds made it really hard sometimes. “

They also hosted the South Island Championships at Omarama, between 9 November 2019 – 16 November 2019 .
They had 4 out of 7 day’s in a mixed open class and some great speed at day’s.10 Pilots among them Keith Essex, Nick Oakley , Derek Kraak and Max Stevens .

Best day’s at the Southern Island comps were task 4 and 6 around and over 500 km.
Task 4 was won by young Nick with 487 km. and a speed of 219.84 km./h!!!!
Task 6 , a 511 km. distance , was won by Keith with 214 km./h.!!!
Last Saturday the final day was cancelled so we knew the winners;
1. Keith with 3.894 points in ASG 29E.
2. Nick with 3.501 p.in Discus2.
3. McCormack & Jackson with 3.211 p. in DUO DISCUS!!! On task 4 they were runner up, behind Nick and flew 465 km. with a speed of 208 km./h Good old Duo Discus!!!

This year both the South Island Regional Gliding Championships and the Club Class National Gliding Championships were running concurrently at Omarama .
Also in club class 4 out of 7 day’s
Task 1 only saw 2 finishers; Norbert in his St Astir III and Gavin Wrighley in an LS 4; 1000 points and 904.
On the last day Norbert won 250 points MORE than the runner up by flying around with a speed of 182 km./h over 460 km.!!!Runner up Philip Plane in a Hornet flew 391 km with a speed of 152 km./h.
National winner and National champion;
1. Norbert Scarlat with 3.453 p. winner.
2. Gavin Wrighley with 2.803 p. champion.

Sanpetru; another wave topper!!!
Learned about this airfield only last week and I promised to keep an eye on them.
Last Wednesday the top 3 flights on the OLC were from this airfield in Romania. All 3 over 1000 km…..2 in the 2 seater SZD 54-2 Perkoz 20m WL and one flight by Alex Pop in a Discus 2A.
AND,..the very first 1000 km. flights in Romania.

As they mentioned in their comment;
“The first 3 flights over 1000 km performed in Romania. 
Super effort from all involved, super teamwork on the ground and in flight, management, pilots, super ATC service mechanics. ”
Congratulations!!
7250 MSL and 6756 AGL was the best height during their yo-yo flight on this top wave day!! Not bad!!!

Argentina; More WAVE news!!!
Zapala Neuquen in Argentina had a Stemme-day with 4 pilots in 2 Stemmes flying 2.107, km and 2.040 km. Nice speed last Friday as well 160 and 163 km./h.
Stemme means,…Klaus Ohlmann is flying and indeed he did the first flight and the 2d was by 2 other German pilots, Thomas Horz and Dieter Memmert.
The 18m Ventus 2CM flight was super too; 1.508 km.by Juan Pablo Ventura.
“ One of those great wave days in Argentina. “

Germany;
Stendal is preparing for the 2020 WGC. When you want to know more just out of interest or because you participate the INVITATION Bulletin is out now!!!
And also news from Schempp-Hirth;
”  Ventus-3M has just been EASA certified? Just saying… Congratulation to all the Schemppp-Hirth team, engineers at first, and all people around the world involved for this achievement! “

Bitterwasser;
Most pilots have heard the name Winfried Grosskinsky, he is already so long in our world.
Last year he was awarded , with a special palm tree, for his support to young pilots, WELL DESERVED.
” Wilfried Großkinsky invites several juniors to Bitterwasser every year for his 1000 km training camp. With him in the EB28 they get to know the country and later have the opportunity to fly with the new Ventus 3 from Wilfried for the 1000 km diploma. You can really earn the invitations with top rankings at German and Junior Championships and in the Online Contest. “

By the way, the weather for the CHAMPIONS in week 2 was less good!No 1000 km-flights, but ” less is sometimes good too”, though for some , the 1000-magic lacks.For sure the real Namibia weather will come.
Luckily already yesterday the day in Namibia was better again, with a 1000 from Kiripotib, Bitterwasser and Veronica.
S.A. ‘s Worcester had already a few earlier this week.

Australia;
At Kingaroy the Juniors start their Aussie Nationals on December 1 till December 7 and yesterday they shared this picture and message;
” 10 Days until JoeyGlide! Time to start assembling your outlanding kits (looking at you QLDers) and reading those local rules! More info on the JoeyGlide website. “

First from Benalla the Victorian State Comps will be flown between November 24 and 30.
Then from Tocumwal the 2020 Australian Nationals!!! Between December 10 and 21.

More news next week.
Cheers Ritz

This concept , a 7 day-package, from/created by Ludwig Starkl and Wolfgang Janowitsch from Austria , to fly from Kiripotib and Bitterwasser with a champion you can learn from, works very good and already for a few years now.
Early November was n’t always the best time, but this year it was superb, specially in Kiripotib. And champions like Wolfgang enjoy it to the fullest as well.
What about a flight from him with Swiss trainee Valentin Maeder; 1.035 km. with a speed of 189 km./h. The “poor” trainee had no time to look around!!!Haha.
The first leg had a speed of 140 km./h with 8 thermals ,then,…..900 km. without turning. Amazing!!!!!
The ARCUS M is such a great glider for these flights!!!!

Junior Christian Lampert , from Germany, has the time of his life, flying with toppers as Alexander Mueller[ 3 x] and Olivier Darroze [4 x ] ;2 nearly 1000 k’s and 1 x a 1000 and 3 over 1.100 k with as best speed 178 km./h.
A short flight on the last day!
They learn how to deal with weird weather as well ” On yesterdays final glide, some of our pilots could fly over a sandstorm, there they had up to three meters laminar lift. It was just amazing. “
Christian shared his experience and I share it with you:
“And again an incredible day for me. On my third flight during this camp, I reached not only the magical mark of 1000km , I even topped it with more than 1.100 km. Perfect how my trainer Alexander Müller guided me to this distance, to fly with such a champ is the best way to improve.
In the late afternoon, a wonderful convergence build up. Next to a showers line we followed it without circling, unbelievable climb values you just push away and make speed and km.
During the final approach there was another highlight, which I had never seen before. In the evening, the sea breeze reached the area of Kiripotib and we had 3 to 4 meters lift in straight flight at 19:00, only sunset stopped our flight. The absolute madness.
I am very excited what the next flying days still have to offer and look forward to it. From today on I will fly with Olivier Darroze, the “mister speed” under the champs.“

Most 1000 km. flights in the first week of November from Kiripotib, [19] a few from Veronica [11]and Bitterwasser.[4]
Also Pokweni started the season now with some good just-under 1000 km. flights.
Not a bad season- start till now !!!!
Though it looks at this stage that the second week is less good.
Flights up to 900 km. are as good to learn from.[927 from Veronica last Monday!]
Of course Kiripotib is proud so they should. Here is their news from today;
“Kiripotib is first.
With yesterdays flights, our pilots reached the first place in the worldwide overall scoring on OLC, congratulations to all of them. Not only the participants of Flying with the Champions, helped to reach it, also many individual pilots flying from Kiripotib where part of this success.
In the next weeks we are sure Bitterwasser will come to the first place again, too many pilots flying there. But at the moment its a nice feeling to be up there.”
At this stage 62.069.32 km. flown by 20 pilots in 85 flights. Great average!!!

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New Zealand‘s top wave resort OMARAMA;
Has a great season-opening with awesome flights.
On November 8 Keith Essex flew over 1.117 km. with a speed of 140 km./h. on as he called it a “weak low stress wave day“.
Though the rest of the comment showed maybe a bit of stress;” Took a while to dig myself out using a rough convergence where two valleys meet at a 90 degree angle with 30kts blowing from each direction .”
A fabulous flight as well by good old Justin Wills;
Terry Delore shared this message and picture on November 8;
“ Outstanding 1.850 km flight by Justin Wills and Norbert today landing shortly before dark .”
Romanian pilot Norbert , really has the time of his life:
1.839 km. with a speed of 153 km./h. AND THAT IN A DUO DISCUS!!!!!
This time a “sit” of 12 hours and 1 minute!! Great stamina from Justin!!!!!
3 Day’s earlier Norbert flew 1.312 km. a sit of 10 hours and 54 minutes.

The smoke from the fires in Australia had influence on the flights from Saturday from Omarama. The cloud-base dropped rapidly.
1500 k and 1000 k attempts were “killed”.

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Some interesting news from last week;
The Netherlands;
A bit of scare, when the message on TV said something “serious” was happening at Schiphol Airport last Wednesday; a “suspicious” situation.
Next message was in extra news; A hijack !!!!????
In the end it turned out that the captain from Air Europe on a flight to Madrid, showed his trainee, how the alarm system/code for hijacking worked .He did it TOO well.
The captain apologized to his passengers for the delay .
It showed however that Schiphol reacts very adequate.

UK :
British Gliding Association and Top Meteo;
“Yesterday, [on November 5] Bernd Goretzki flew almost 600km at 232 kph Olc speed! It must be one of the fastest flights in thermal. 
Congratulation to him and Reinhard Schramme, that its is really impressive.
We are waiting to have more insides about their flight but according to their OLC comments, all that matters is a good flight plan (the convergence was where it was expected) and a lot of fun!”
The flight had an OLC- scoring -distance of 852 km. and a speed of 192.7 km./h. and was flown from Bitterwasser.
Loved the comment from Reinhard; ” Also granddads can have fun“. So it is, he is damn right!!!

Narromine;
Like Africa parts of Australia suffer from red dust, thanks to sand storms. Here a picture from Narromine.
And,…”they come rolling in“…!!!!

Even worse!!!! After the dry hot years in which lot’s of people suffered,…NOW they suffer again both in NSW and Queensland, where more than 125 fires ,[75 in NSW and 50 in Queensland] are terrifying the states.
Horrible fires burning down houses, killing people and lot’s of animals.
Several people are not accounted for and several injured!!!!
Poor koala’s are sitting in the top of the trees, as normally this is safe for them ,as fires creep over the ground. These fires however are high!!!
Another disaster!!!!
And,…it takes a lot of time for the gum trees to grow again, meaning less food or no food for the koala’s still a life.
Also kangaroos and iguana’s suffer, as well as birds ,spiders, snakes and possums and more….not only fauna also flora.
The WORST thing is ,…that it is only early spring. What about when summer is on , the “normal” time for fires!!!

I feel for my Aussie mates!!!!1200 Men fire brigade are working day and night ,but the storms ignite the fires and all is out of control.
Even Sydney is in danger now, I heard on Sunday morning.

Anni who lives close to Port Maquirie shared these pictures and story;

She marked herself as safe now.

Worcester;
The Worcester Magic straight away started too when the real kilometer-eaters from overseas, had arrived. Marcus and Philip flew on their first flight for the season 1.152 km.

Germany;
Celebrations on Saturday November 9 when the 30thiest anniversary of the fall from the wall in Berlin was remembered.
I remember that day too. Could not believe what I saw and sat with tears in my eyes in front of the TV. Some of my friends “raced” to Berlin to celebrate this wonderful and historic moment. They wanted to be part of it!!
I have been several times after that moment in both parts of Berlin.
I was amazed to see p.e in Potsdam, how they had renovated very old dilapidated buildings into something “spiffy”.
But after 30 years you can’t really say that all is “thick as thieves” in united Germany.
November 9 1989 was a day which influenced many lives.

OLC;
Between all that African-power , last Sunday, there were 2 interesting flights , on page 1 from the OLC, from Europe. In Romania they have more good pilots, as I see now I keep an eye on Norbert as well.
They even have fields I never heard from; So the 2 wave- flights in an SZD 54-2 Perkoz 20m W and Discus 2A from over 700 km. from Sanpetru got my attention. Wave till over 6000 m. MSL,…not bad!!!!
Learned something again,…never too old to learn.

EUROGLIDE 2010;
The date for this event is now set.
Here is all the news, as many are interested in this event.
Briefing ….June 21 2020.
Flying from June 22 – July 3 at 5 PM.
Prize giving at July 3 at 9 PM.
The global track will be announced on December 1 at 10 AM.
Registration starts on December 15 at 10 AM.
I know many hearts are going to tick faster now!!!!

That’s it for now. Off to the hospital. Tomorrow as well. Results on the 21.
Cheers Ritz

As I wrote already in my last blog, containers have arrived in Namibia.Just in time!!!
Kiripotib straight away was in full action as you can read on their news:
“It was a busy day.
Yesterday morning 8:00 our three containers, with together 14 gliders arrived, after a long trip, just in time, in Kiripotib. They wherent even on the ground, as we started already to unload them. Lots of boxes, ground handling equipment and many many other things had to be unloaded. But first of all, how are the gliders? Everything was ok, no damage. After unloading and inspection, we started to rig one after the other. At the end of the day 5 gliders where ready to fly. A really busy day for all of us, my watch showed me 23.500 steps, 18km done.”

They started also straight away with flying.
Day 1 from Flying with the Champions and 6 champions are flying from here with their trainees;
On November 2 , 4 flights in an ARCUS M and one in a Ventus 3M. All over 650 km. Best by junior Christian Lampert and Alexander Mueller;958 with a speed of 130 km./h. /906 FAI triangle!!!!!
What a great experience for Christian!!!!!
Day 2 was booming ; 1.129 km in ARCUS M….and 2 more 1000 km. flights.
On November 4, day 3; 2 x an over 1 .200 km. flight and another 5x a 1000 plus ,…one of them from Christian and Alexander; 1.149 km.
Yesterday another 5 over 1000 km.-plus flights and many more long flights just under the magic number.

Also action from Bitterwasser.
“Pre-briefing 1000 km camp
Some junior pilots were looking forward to the upcoming trip to Bitterwasser, the others brought with them beautiful experiences from the gliding center. They met on invitation of Wilfried Großkinsky in Cologne to prepare for flying in southern Africa. The participants of the last camp reported on their experiences.

Bitterwasser’s day 1 started with 10 good flights, 1 even over 1000 km. by Reinhard Schramme and Bernd Goretzki; 1.021 km.[882 FAItriangle] speed 130 km./h.
On Sunday; 1.150 in EB 28 , 1.067 km. FAI triangle, speed 146 km./h.!!!
And same pilots , same glider on Monday;1.150 km. AND,..the only FAI triangle that day as on Sunday.
Yesterday ;several just under 1000 km.-flights.

VERONICA..started with 2 great flights as well; 930 by Bernd Dolba /Juergen Depil and Michael Koester flew in a HPH 304S Shark 852 km.
On Monday also 3 x a 1000, one in the ETA by 2 German toppers in the past and still now; Bruno and Uli.
Yesterday; 2 more 1000’s.

And also in SOUTH AFRICA the Cape Gliding Club has really started with 14 flights up too 733 k. in a DG 80 B/18m.last Saturday.
Last Monday 2x a 1000 from Bloemfontein;UK pilot Shaun and SA topper Mannie.

N.Z had great weather last week. Young Dutch ” season-helper/crew” at Omarama, Robin, made already a few nice but not so long flights, last Sunday however he flew in the Discus 916 km. in wave and blue even warm circumstances!!! Good on him. And,…a seriously fast one for our junior pilot; 158 km./h.
Keith Essex , back in Omarama flew 1.025 in the ASG 29. As he commented he wanted ”  to stay low and run the ridges but the sky sucked me up. Blue weak wave and unusually warm for this time of year. “
Yesterday another TOP day with a TOP performance from 1.312 km. with a speed of 120 km./h. up to 6701 m. MSL/5435 AGL.
Romanian guest Scarlat Norbert-Alin flew this great distance in a DUO DISCUS!!!!!
A “sit” of 10 hours and 54 minutes.
Part of his is comment;” Not the best wave day and it was weaker than expected, but Skysight suggested it will be an arch above South Island and we wanted to see how good is.
Couldn’t reach the first TP because of the front coming in. “

Unfortunately the Taupo Central Plateau Soaring competition on the Nord Island , between November 3 and 10 ,has less good weather .
The 10 pilots in racing and 7 in open class had only cancelled day’s till now.

So a great early start of the overseas season!!!!!
From now on all these places will be “hot” as in news and weather. Too much to keep an eye on and maybe a bit boring to describe all those 1000 -plus- k’s , but still amazing for those who fly all those huge distances.
You can check all flights on the OLC.
I’ll pick the most interesting for you.

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All kind of interesting news from:
Skysight……. SkySight
“We’ve now integrated with SoaringSpot to pull today’s tasks automatically into SkySight! 🎉
Simply select your competition and class from the new dropdown on the left. How neat is that??? 😎
Thanks to Naviter SeeYou for making it possible ♥️’
Too easy, will be for sure used frequently!!
AND …more exciting news a few day’s later;
“Today we’d like to announce our most exciting development yet – our partnership with the Deutscher Wetterdienst (German National Meteorological Agency) to develop the next generation of the Toptherm/pcmet software package, utilizing their innovative ICON mode

We have loaded all of the ICON data into SkySight so now our European users can choose between the models as you prefer, and we will be developing new visualizations for this data to make Toptherm/pcmet users feel at home within the SkySight interface, while presenting the same data with more detail and clarity.
And more on FB or their site; SkySight.io

The Netherlands;
Thanks for all kind reactions on the 3- women- in- gliding- story.
After it was published, I got a lovely picture from Jos, a member of the EAC -Eindhoven in the past , where one of Indya’s instructors Marco, who by the way has his birthday on the same day as Indya, went solo.

Lake Keepit;

The Australian female squad is practicing for the WWGC at the venue with help of male top pilots , who share their knowledge with them.
Adam is one of them. He always valued all help he got in the past when he was young, very highly and wants to do something back now.
So team training for him is on with Lisa Trotter, but also with Lisa Turner, Jo Davis, Jenny Thompson . Claire Scutter got coaching as well.
“PAYING IT FORWARD: In 2005 I was fortunate enough to represent AUS @ the JWGC. I was supported by the whole country, a big mover and shaker was Paul Mander who rallied together with Paul Matthews and Miles Gore-Brown to match any donation made at a competition we were all at, dollar-for-dollar up to $1000 for memory. This helped greatly and I’ll forever remember it & be grateful.
I along with John Buchanan, decided to pay it forward (but up to $500 each) towards fellow Kingaroy Soaring Club members, Lisa Turner and Trotter – who put together a raffle on the last night of the AUS Club & Sports Class Nationals.
Go get them ladies (& the rest of the Aussie team), we’re proud to help & support!“
You can read it all in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

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And to finish….the latest GLIDING INTERNATIONAL from the year 2019 has been published.
I read it all digital and share some interesting news with you;
—-It starts with some sad news, but we need to read it to avoid hopefully accidents in the future; in 2019 there were 43 fatalities!!!!!!NOT GOOD!!!!!!!
“It was NEVER my intention to write an article on gliding fatalities. This one wrote itself.”by Joseph King. Got goosebumps from each of the 96 incidents and accidents , some with pictures, he evaluates.
—-The lesson to be learned from Sebastian Kawa, [I wrote about it already in my blog] is here more into depth with a final comment from Sebastian.
—-pictures from the most wonderful clouds in N. Z.
—–Australian pilots are mourning the death of Harry Schneider.
—–the Brexit and what it means for flying…
—-lot’s of International aviation news for glider pilots [10 pages]
—-and of course “things with wings”
And much more news as; Has carbon fiber a successor? … Buying an older glider for personal use ?…..Tesla and batteries…..etc.

And to finish this stunning picture ….

That’s it for now. Cu next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz