9 AM:
Today is another day, the sun is shining and though it’s 13 dgr. at the moment,it will be up to 30 again.[according to the weather on my phone] No wonder I hear so many car’s pass by so early with pilots and or crews, to prepare their gliders under cool conditions.

No preparations for Diana. George ordered over night a 1, to put above the MM .NOT ALLOWED according to safety officer Gregg. One M had “to go” . As this JS 3 is brand new and the MM is carefully frased in the tail, Diana was therefore forced out of the competition, as she does n’t want to ruin the first glider she ever bought. A pity ,as she traveled from Luxembourg to Tocumwal to fly here , at the airfield, where she lived for a while as well. Her glider was shipped specially for this competition and the WWGC in Lake Keepit.
I leave it here……..

Talking about LAKE KEEPIT; Mandy will be here in the afternoon to discuss details. Yesterday I had already a conversation with Casey about accommodation. They handle quick.
We will leave here on the 27th of December.
More later….

Briefing at 10; it will be for sure shorter as Lumpy intervened in a correct way to stop discussions which should be spoken about after briefing.

11.AM;

Back from briefing.
The CD had some items and I must say he brings them in a gay way.
—scoring has to be done by class,otherwise it’s too complicated. So 4x for each class even with Ron as the only one in open.
—whether you fly or not the grid will rotate every day.
—Adam suggested to start fun teams again as they usually do. 5 Pilots , preferable from 1 class to keep it simple. Names were suggested as CHAMPIONS, or SECONDS which gave some laughter.
—Allan has 5 books from Ge Dale. They are 60 dollar and good reading.

Safety briefing, this time by David Pietsch.
About flying HIGH. Next week the temperatures will go up to over 40 again and the pilots can/will fly HIGH…..you need oxygen then.
A healthy person needs 90 % of oxygen in his blood at 10.000 ft. . I heard.
He had everybody’s attention , also about hypoxia, even when most pilots know it all.
He was very pleased that ALL pilots here, had oxygen and EDS in their glider.

Weather;
Jenny had about the same news as yesterday. Same wind SW 10-20 kts, but it will pick up to quite strong later in the day, blue and a chance of high clouds.
Temperatures up to 31.5 according to SKYSIGHT ans 27.7 to XCS skies.

Just to let you know:
Eddie shared some news from the forecast by John’s Weather Channel – JWC
 DANGEROUS DECEMBER POSSIBLY RECORD BREAKING HEATWAVE TO IMPACT ALL STATES NEXT WEEK WITH WIDESPREAD 40c+ TEMPERATURES WITH SOME PARTS REACHING THE MID TO HIGH 40’S!!

Tasks;
A task; 18 m./open…. 270 km…. B task; 2.15 AAT…
A task; st/15 m…214 km ……B task; 1.45 AAT…

There is a 10 minute delay if you look at the tracking .

Congratulated James Nugent with his win at JoeyGlide.

More later;
1.45;
At 12.30 we saw some willy-willies! Good sign.
A sniffer went up at 1PM and a bit later also GMM.
He reported 2.500 ft.
At 13.35 he mentioned the ceiling was at 3.300 MSL.
At 13.40 they started with the launches.

2 PM;
For those who are not on FB some pictures from yesterday by Tocumwal Soaring Centre

2.30 PM; 2.45;
Gate for 18 m. and open class opens at 14.45
Gate for 15m./standard class opens at 15.10.

All tuggies back now. All gliders airborne within an hour.Good job!!!
They went on track with the A task in the “pocket”.

Tracking-tv is in the briefing room…. the huge TV will be for entertainment.
Have to check that.
In between Judy is very busy with the set up for tonight. Glenda brought in some food already for the smorgasbord.
There will be at least 49 guests!!!
The pilots however struggle against the wind.

5 PM;
Car’s are going to the field .A few gliders are over Corowa.
UKP just landed long at Eddie’s hangar , but he is not part of the comps.
They might be there soon. If you follow the tracking you will see it.
5.30 PM;
the first gliders announced their 10 k and just landed here.Among them GLQ,N1, BB, UKG,F1 and in between more.
One announced he was marginal .
Preferred landings at runway 18 right [grass]landing long.
6.30 PM:
Still pilots landing! No scores yet.Looks there will be big differences in time.
You find it all on www.soaringspot.com later.

Mike Borgelt arrived so vario’s will be built in soon.

Off to the SRGC evening which starts at 7.

Some found it a fun day others absolutely not. Many saw the farmers harvest closer by than they wanted. More tomorrow.

Interesting observation today; sometimes I thought I was at the F1 racing track at Albert Park in Melbourne.
Cu tomorrow!!!

LATEST NEWS:
Just before briefing Mandy, who is the CD in Lake Keepit at the WWGC, asked me if I wanted to be the editor at the comps. I said YES.
More details later.
IMPORTANT!!!
They have had smoke, but they fly every day ,so the WWGC DEFENITELY will be at LAKE KEEPIT!!!

8.30 AM;
Did you have a look at the speed from the practice day yesterday!? “Smoking” GOOD!!!!
In 18 m. /open Adam flew around with 162 km./h.in the ASG 29 …in the blue…and in the same type, Peter [Temple] flew 155.65 km./h over the set 330.93 km.
From the 24 who were scored for speed, the “slowest” flight was still 123,57 km./h!!! As said pilots found the day “ridiculous good”!!!With lift up to 10 kts and height of about 10 k.
TOP DAY!!!!
Good day for Claire [Scutter] as well in Standard class ;134 ,27 km./h over 271,74 km.In this class only LS 8 gliders.
In 15 m. Tobias Geiger flew in his Ventus 2A and with great speed he raced over the 271 km ;141,70 km./h.

Today will be day 1 from the 58th Multi Class Australian Nationals, the 5th here in Tocumwal. No smoke today, a temperature according to my phone [yes I learned]up to 35 dgr.C. and a “stiff” wind!!
I woke up last night from the rough wind arriving with the “change”.
At briefing we will here what happens today. Try to be there today at 10.

Diana is another 2 hours late due to a delay. She arrives now at 12 in Shepparton. Quite an ordeal for her this trip till now and it might be not over yet as there are problems here as well; 2 gliders HERE, with as call sign MM. Normally that’s resolved very easily, but it ‘s to be seen if that ‘s happening here. Let’s wait and see.
There seems to be another MM in Australia too, as you can see on the picture shared by Schempp-Hirth today. It’s a popular call sign. “We” have it already since the 70 thies. MM are the first letters of my baptized names Maria Martina.Michel Mercier in France has the call-sign, so has Manuele Molinari in Italy.

Back after the briefing.

11 AM;
A pretty long briefing with lot’s of things ,which had to be discussed.
—Even with the smoke it turned out to be real good day yesterday!No prizes on a practice day, so that went smooth and fast. Compliments though for Claire and Adam.
—Some domestic items;
On Saturday there will be a spit roast in the Aero club and on Wednesday a Smorgasbord organized by the SRGC. More details later.
Today WIN TV will be at the field.
—PEV creates some problems and as long as those are not resolved the scorers will not score with this system.
A few pilots already opted to “let it go”.
I just copied it all for you , it might not be used! No worries!!! Deleted it all for now.
—tug master had to explain the speed of towing. It should be between 70 and 75, but some struggled all the way with 65.They look into it at the tug briefing straight after the briefing.
—very good safety briefing on fatigue and collision-avoidance- responsibility by Geoff Brown , ex-chief of the Royal Australian Air Force .
—announce your arrival at 10 miles out!!

Jenny did the weather and it will be weak and windy, so not as good as yesterday. Blue, a SW wind with 10 to 20 kts and average lift up to 5 kts.

Trackers will be available for all pilots [about 10 cables short at the moment but they will arrive today]
Tow ropes are at the field.Grid closes at 12.30.
Runway in use today is 18.First launch is expected to be at 1 PM.

There are A,B and C tasks . C task =326 km. for open and 266 for st and 15m.
After the sniffer has sniffed, they decide.
18 m./open; 423 km….
St. /15 m; 352 km….
You are up to date now CU later.

12.45;
The last glider from the tie-down area, had 15 minutes to be in time. It’s rather far to 18. He made it easy.

At 12.30 6 tugs went out. AND,…surprise surprise the last one around the corner was the “ugly duckie ” from Charlie . Not here for one day!?
Yesterday they launched all pilots in 55 minutes!!
At 12.45 the self-launcher went for some good sniffing.
It depends on him, if they go at 1 PM.
Stand by!!

1.10 PM;
The sniffer had 6 kts at 6000 ft.
Not long after the decision was made; TASK C.
At this stage all pilots sign for the new task in front of the grid.

2.PM;
The day has been cancelled. Car’s are coming back. Not yet gliders to be seen.

Hear and see the tug’s now, they return home.
Tomorrow is another day.
CU then.

Tonight dinner at Gina’s!
Cheers Ritz
Try to make some more pictures this afternoon.

Some German/Austrian friends flying at Corowa arrived here , as they knew we were here. Like in the past I showed them proudly around. It all looks so good again after the disaster by the last owner . Lumpy and Sharon have done a superb job.
We sat under the veranda from great smelling wisteria and had a cuppa with Joergen, who in the past flew in Corowa as well.

We then walked to the beautiful white gum tree. This one is very special. It was planted on January 10 in 1988 on the day of Dennis funeral.
Janet Hider- Smith [ you might remember her as a great Aussie female pilot and editor at several comps]took a seed from this tree in St Kilda park and put it in a pot. Bruce Brockhoff brought it to Tocumwal and we planted it in front of our caravan, to be there with us for ever, not knowing that years later we were kicked off by the last owner.
It was in memory of Kees Musters, our best friend who was WGC champion in Hobbs New Mexico . He died after a fatal hang glider accident in France , just one week before Dennis had his accident at Finley with the Scout VH_ADP on January 3 1988.
I told the story a few years ago to Lumpy and he said he would take care of it. That gave me comfort.

Off for dinner now CU tomorrow!

They fly today!!!!!

8.30:
When I woke up I could smell it already…..You are not going to believe this. SMOKE EVERYWHERE.We have an Northerly today and I guess it’s the smoke from Sydney and or Canberra. It’s not too bad, though you smell it very badly.
In 15 minutes the opening starts and at 9.30 is the first briefing.
It smells horrible outside; my coughing started straight away.

Yesterday evening I visited the old WW2 hangar. It’s weird to see other people in the office, but I can only say it all looks PERFECT. Lumpy and Sharon did a great job. As did a lot of the members from the SRGC, they were running up and down to have it all perfect.
The garden is beautiful, the sun-room clean and sunny, the old dining room is a cosy family room now with sofa’s and comfortable chairs and a huge TV to follow the tracking.
“Our” old sun chairs ,once donated by the Snow family, are back under the veranda in front of the bar and the wisteria is cut nicely and in full flower.
The BBQ area is ready to go for the first BBQ donated by the SRGC on Wednesday evening.
Pictures later.

10 AM;
It’s a fact!!!!! I am old!!!
When I asked Ailsa how she could cope in the briefing room with, no table to put the map on ,she said with a laugh:” Common Ritz this is the 20thiest century, we use our phones”!!!!! And there I stood gobsmacked.
Before the briefing there was a special moment with 2 Aboriginal ladies who gave some kind of blessing and welcome to the guests. Sharon is for a small part aboriginal.
2 People from the Shire added their welcome, one of them Ross Bodey who was involved with Sportavia for a few years.

Briefing is busy now but I did not fit in anymore, did n’t want to take a place from a pilot, so time to write and to share pictures.

A nice but noisy plane , the “airtruck”, which I saw already in Benalla,just arrived and “made” it through the smoke.
That’s good.

Other news; Diana finally got her visa and will travel home to Toc soon now. She might be here already tomorrow.
She was stuck in Singapore, misses the first day’s now ,but will fly during the Nationals. Good practice for the WWGC, as she had only 1 start on it before the JS 3 went in the container.
After the 1 month delay of the container, the glider is not yet ready either, but nearly now.
George withdrew as his glider is not yet ready either. Instruments which were supposed to be here 2 weeks ago just arrived and will arrive this week.

Will find out now what’s happening and then you are up to date.
Tasks have been set and it was funny the more elderly pilots use the sun-room to put their maps on the tables. I am not the only “old” one here.

Tasks for the official practice day:
18m. …330.91 km.…;29 pilots at the list at this stage and 1 in open Ron Sanders in his Nimbus 3D.
This class has the PEV today…. the Pilot Event Marker. Start procedure in use; 10 minutes wait/10 minutes start open.

standard class …271 km...; 12 on the list at this stage.Among them Ayala from Lasham in the UK.

15 m….271 km…;6 in this class at the moment.

Great picture from Don Woodward, who is not only a very talented glider pilot but also and awesome photographer.

More later!!!

12 PM.
Gliders are brought to the strip at 36.
18 m/open is upfront, standard /15 m. behind.
This airfield has an elevation of 370 ft.
First launch expected at 12.
Min. finish height is 300 ft AGL.
Landing at runway 27.
NO COMPETITION finishes today.

Just spoke with Charlie from the airtruck. He is here for only one day, and it was not too bad with the smoke. He even expects that it might get better when the inversion burns out. I will be 39 today.

Tuggies are going to 36. The practice day starts now.
Do I have time to do other things.

With a 15 minute delay they are on their way. And…guess what, the smoke is slowly disappearing and you can see direction East again. GOOD!!!
Bit of panic from my site, but when people spend such a lot of money to host the Nationals, it would be cruel if it was spoiled by smoke!!!
I know that happens.

2.30 PM;
Tuggies are ready they just pass by. Did my shopping and I can tell you,…it’s bloody hot !!!
In between Eddie shares news on this competition as well. Everybody in Toc is pleased the Nationals are here.

3.30;
Colin and George work hard to get Diana’s glider ready,as you can see.The wind is slightly changing to the S. and the smoke is gone. Hurray!!!!

4.15;
In between 4 gliders have landed long here at the field.

6.PM;
From one of the pilots I heard it was a ridiculous good day.Smoke was only here and in the East. With the wind change the smoke disappeared. GOOD!!!!
It seems speed of 160 km./h has been flown. The pilot I spoke to had 140 on the clock.
No results yet but they surely will come soon.

CU tomorrow a busy and not really good day here.
For results you can go to www.soaringspot.com

11.30:
It’s Sunday and the day started early with very noisy pilots on several radio’s. Radio discipline!!?? Never heard of..haha.
George forgot to put the radio out so ,this was my alarm clock this morning.
Found out later that this is the Sunday morning group of pilots having “brekkie” [breakfast] together in Deni[liquin] .Now I understand the noise! No worries.
I only found out later, that Bruce also belonged to that mob.

A lot of pilots finished the NSW-comps in Temora and they are on their way here. ZZ just drove trough the gate.
I was a bit sad from Kerries message. As you know she lost her husband recently due to a heart attack.
” Well I was hoping to get rid of some of these trophies at the NSW comps but I seem to have ended up with one extra (none of them mine of course!). Sadly there was no std class so Tom Claffey remains std class champion and speed winner for another year (and forever!) “

A lot of the flying girls and except for ROBERT, as I do not see him on the list, the winners from this competition.
” NSW comps presentation dinner … at the Temora Bowling Club
– Don Woodward won Open/18m class
– Robert Smits won Club class
– Dave Pietsch won best speed @ 117kph “

Robert from Alice Springs was very pleased “stoked” as he calls it himself with his win in an LS 4.
Don might likely win here as well.

The girls even “starred” in the Local Paper; The Temora Independent.

It will be 33 dgr. C today, for tomorrow it will be over 40 and it might or might not a booming day. Let’s hope for BOOMING!!!!

Going out for lunch now at Margies, CU later.

5 PM;
Whilst I am writing I hear pilots come in over the radio, from their flight Had a lovely afternoon , no sorry not at the field, though I saw gliders leave the area at great height. Lovely but “bloody hot day!!!!”
Visited my friend Margie and her hubbie Bracey for lunch and caught up for a few minutes also with brother Tim. Tim is one of the tuggies here.
Margie read my blog and on my note of the low finishing glider with the beat-up, she wanted to react in a comment, but it did not work out;
Here is her reaction anyhow:
“ I hope the glider pilots doing low and fast beat ups in the circuit area think to look up before pulling up. ” Keep that in mind ,please!!!
As she, I straight away thought of Jeff her husband, Kirsten and the Swiss pilot who after an excellent flight was so happy that he pulled up straight in the bottom of the Blanik fuselage with Jeff and 25 year old Kirsten.
We had just started as owners with Jeff as our “teacher/mentor/colleague” , tragic enough that was only for a short time.
We then have forbidden our guests/customers, to do low passes and pull ups. We lost some then, who found that ridiculous. So be it!!
This one 2 days ago was the first I have seen here in Toc. ,in 23 years.
In Holland , as finish of a competition-day they try to beat each other in who is the lowest and fastest. I can show you.

After that a visit to Eddie who has been so ill, that many thought he was not going to make it.
He did and is on the mend now still fragile, but alive and “a bit kicking”.
Eddie is involved with gliding at the Tocumwal airfield since 1975. For a few years he had another job, but still flew at Tocumwal in the weekends.
I thought this was the 2d National competition here, but it is the 5th already.
The very first Nationals were flown in Toc. and the very first winner/ CHAMPION was Otto Brand. I have known Otto and his friend Neil for many years.
The 2d competition was in 1975, when Bill had founded his Sportavia and was the CD. He did not like the job I heard.
The 3d one with Eddie as CD, was under the “wings” of Jeff and Don, so after the accident of Dennis , as Bill gave up his involvement with Sportavia then.
The 4th was when the weather in Narromine was so bad that they had to go somewhere else and that was Tocumwal. I remember that one , with lot’s of guests sitting in and at the pool.
And the 5th one is here at this stage. There is a pool beside the pool now too, as the old one could not really get repaired.
I noticed the palm trees are in good nick again and it seems Sharon has a golden hand for gardening.
Tomorrow I share some pictures.

At 9.30 tomorrow, there will be a mandatory briefing and official practice day. Then on Tuesday…… It’s ALL HAPPENING.

Here are some links:
https://tocumwalsoaring.com/

to follow the gliders… www.gtracklive.com

for scores in the evening and tasks during the morning;
www.soaringspot.com

FB news on Sportavia Tocumwal and Tocumwal Residential Airpark

https://edge1025.com.au/events/australian-national-gliding-multi-class-championship/

CU maybe later.Off for dinner.

Nice warm, but not the great looking sky we hope for today to practice. BUT,…they are flying. Can hear the tuggies doing their jobs.
Met Tim Wilson today, with his Dutch lady friend Ellen. Nice couple. Still young , which is the reason I never met them before.They are rigging FA at the moment to put it on the hard court.

Adam and his dad are on their way to Tocumwal and had a short, but necessary stop over.

Hope the weather over the next 2 weeks ,will be “the REAL TOCUMWAL weather” I know from the past.
Was a bit “shocked” to see Matthew’s news from November 29.
“ Relentless dust storms are hammering Australia at the moment, terrible for the local farmers but spectacular soaring if you happen to be in the right place at the right time… photo from November 29 this year, near Broken Hill “(https://www.abc.net.au/…/dust-storms-happening-wit…/11768306)

Off to see Eddie now so CU later for an update.
Had not yet time to visit Eddie.

3 PM:
Talking and talking Dutch with Ellen.
Ailsa arrived with ” her” JS 1 and flew in from Benalla, mostly at around 3000 ft.
Now she left again in the Bonanza from Tim, back to Benalla to pick up her car and trailer.
In between Andrew [ Maddocks ] arrived and he fitted on the picture as well.

4.30 PM;
Who remembers this special cup in the middle at the table?

The cup a bit bigger;

In between they have flown a “bit” further from here, in Kingaroy the junior nationals ; JOEYGLIDE.
It looks after 7 days, on which they flew 6 tasks, a great win for James Nugent in the LS 3. To be honest I expected him to win!! But Michael really did well!!!!
He had 5.087 points, runner up Michael Keller had 4.713 in a Mosquito.
They flew between December 1 and 7… today. James won 3 day’s and Michael as well including the last one , when James was runner up.
Michael was unlucky with an out landing on day 1 and lost more than 200 points. But won the 4 hour AAT with 499 km. in time 4.11,on task 5.

By the way when I had time, Eddie was busy. Another day!!

Last update for now. Day was not too flash to fly as Bernie said in his OLC comment; ” Tough day at the office, weak & low most of the way around. “
Still a nice 300 km triangle in his PIK 20.
Norm and Lumpy flew in their fancy machines [ 18 m. JS 3] just over 370, a triangle as well. So pretty good practice!
Good to see that William flew his ARCUS M from Corowa to Narromine, so it’s home again. Wife Evelien followed with the car, of course FULL of gear.They were about home at the same time!

7.30 PM;
To finish a real glider pilots car full of stuff .

Not such a good day , still some jet lag.
CU tomorrow Ritz

11. AM;
It’s Friday today and still windy, but temperatures are going up to 28 dgr. C. More and more trailers on the N. side of the field and quite a few gliders already at the tie-down-area, where in 1986, about 50 gliders from many different Nationalities were parked , as those pilots practiced here for the 1987 WGC.
I still fondly remember the ATOP and pilots and crew who were here then straight away know what I mean about that.
The Australian Toolshed Opening Party, with pilots as Leonardo Brigliadori, Tapio Savoilinen, our Dennis and Kees Musters, all not with us anymore.
Everybody was over-refreshed, also our son Dennis, who I saw like this for the very first time.
Bruce Brockhoff opened the tool shed behind his caravan [which we bought later from him, including the shed…very fancy]
Bruce prepared for a whole day, a pig on the spit and stuffed it with the nicest ingredients.
I spoke with Bruce , he tries to be here as well, one of these day’s.
We had a brilliant evening at the caravan-park from Sportavia ,when Bill Riley was still in charge and his son David together with Peter Menhennitt and Peter Corckery were full on busy in the work shop.
Spoke to Corckey yesterday and his kids, maybe 4 at that stage, are grown up and 2 have children….time flies!!!!He and Mary are grand parents!!!O ff for lunch. Update later.

8 PM.
Have n’t been at the field today, but when I came back from lunch…including the first bubbles… at the lake in Yarrawonga, I noticed that more and more gliders are at the tarmac. It’s nearly ALL happening here, like in the past, busy and buzzing.
One glider finished low and fast with a beat-up , when we arrived.
Found some pictures on the internet from the tarmac and the trailer park.

Only small tasks today . Norm was the only one flying yesterday and with the tough wind and the marginal circumstances he still managed to fly his glider a JS 3/18m. over 228 km.
Still very tired but slept well last night.
Dinner now, so if the brain is working again, you can expect more news tomorrow. CU then.

Here we go , not the normal blog, but a more private story about this trip from nearly 2 months.
Will write it as a diary, so publish and add when necessary with news day by day. So you will find often “UPDATED”.

Thursday December 5 2019…day 2.
Yes,…..sorry, I have to apologize, but that was being too enthusiastic, to promise to write straight away after arrival in Tocumwal.
Tuesday 24 hours of flying. Wednesday , December 4, however was the day I arrived “home”.
The flight with Ethiad was “uneventful”, meaning all went well.
If there was something to mention , it was the fact that over the Indian Ocean, we all sat for hours with our safety belts on, very bumpy.
Looking out of the window I saw lot’s of lenti’s.

Arrived in time in Melbourne,at 5.15 AM; grey and fresh, 11 dgr. C.Was prepared to stand in row for customs, for a long time, like all those years before ,but one way or another they got the message that this was not the kindest welcome, for overseas guests, so the new self -custom-checks for Aussies and Kiwis’s worked more than efficient.
Within 10 minutes I was ready … the people from customs had a good day as well…, the Skybus was waiting , so before I knew I was at Southern Cross Station in Spencer street.

Train to Seymour,still grey and cloudy, bus to Shepparton where the sun was shining, I was picked up by George.
On the way to Toc. he asked me how tired I was, if I could maybe come with him to Corowa as the containers had arrived and he had to help to unpack.
So off to Corowa ,where the full team of guests under supervision of Grietje and Francesco unpacked the 10 gliders, rigged them and with the experience from all and for that reason the efficiency ,the job was done within 4 hours including lunch time.
An oiled machine.
From Corowa to Toc the weather was just good for soaring.

In the evening, after a clean up, we had dinner in the Palms with our former co-owners Glenda and Ross.They were there already and invited us at their table, so “old” stories ,lot’s of laughing, a great beginning of my holiday.

This morning George and Bruce left for Corowa in the Belanca Scout to bring Diana’s brand new JS 3 to Toc. First time George will fly it.
Very windy today so not so nice as yesterday and the day before. It will be 29 dgr. C today , great temperature for me, to get in the rhythm. Humidity of 67 %.

After the briefing Bruce flew the Scout home and George the JS 3.He passed the Scout in the beginning.

Norm, good to see him, went for a flight in his JS 3, just for checking and to be ready for scrutenering.

More tomorrow as the brain is there, that was proved” by neurology, but it’s not yet really working.

Cheers Ritz

Last Wednesday the African weather was really on!!! Full throttle for many pilots and there are a lot at the moment over there;
What about 42 over 1000 km-flights only on the 27th!!! That sounds more like it!!!The first 33 spots on the OLC were over 1000 km. flights .
Bitterwasser had 14 and,…a great one from Luxembourg pilot Guy Bechtold who flew a 1.162 km triangle!!!!On a total of 1.220 km.
Pokweni had 6 and has Alexander Mueller in his EB 29, who raced around;
1.083 triangle and a total of 1.400 km!!!!!Speed …159 km./h.
Sebastian Eder in the EB 29R flew from there 1.376 km. [ 1.081 triangle] with a speed of 156 km./h.
Kiripotib had 9 and Juha and Antti flew this time 1.211 km. and this one was a 1.020 triangle!
Bloemfontein had 2 great ones by UK pilots Mark [Clark] and Edward [Downham] and both flew the 1000 triangle. Edward flew the distance in an ASW 27 and hopes for a new UK 1000 km. record. Hope it for him as well.
And Mark flew in the JS 1 his very first 1000 km. Great feeling for him!!!
Douglas Backhouse had 5 over 1000 flights and 3/4 of them were by Dutch pilots. Max [Dolfin] flew 1.111 km. in the Arcus M, Tjeerd [Reitsma] 1.114 in JS 1 and Lodewijk and Hans in the Nimbus 4DM a distance of 1.073 km. They flew a declared 800 km. with a speed of 131 km./h. and flew the rest as OLC km’s.
They called it a SUPERDAY.
Kuruman had that day 2 pilots flying and both flew the 1000 in ASH 31/21m. and ASG 32 MI.
Veronica had 7 over 1000 km. flights.
WHATADAY!!!!! Even Namibia was in hurrah- mood!

And,…no worries, the next day was about the same;another over 40 x 1000 km. flight’s, BUT,…only 3 triangles one by one of the Polish” Lucaszes” this time Grabowski together with a mate; 1.007 km.[total 1.190 km.] from Gariep Dam.
One by Jake from Bloemfontein; Great flight from “hotshot” Jake [Brattle] from the UK in a JS 1.
He is the current junior world champion and he flew a 1000 km. triangle with 150 km./h. His very first one!!!
Well done!”been there,…done that!!”
“ First 1000km flight and I think a new British Open Record – what an epic glider (thank you Tim).
Thanks to SkySight for convincing me the task was on!
Thanks to Soaring Safaris for letting me take the day off! “
Guess he “works ” at Bloemfontein, nice job. Another junior who spreads his wings as Robin in N.Z. We did that in the past as well.
And one by a French pilot in the JS 3 also from New Tempe Bloemfontein.
Another 25 on the 29th. Indeed the season is ON!!!!!
This weather will continue for hopefully a few more weeks.

And an interesting flight also on the 29th, in Argentina, where Klaus [Ohlmann] took his Stemme for a “ride” over 1.822 km. First “on steam”, to wave and then racing is on.
” The plan was different, but wave did’nt work at all in the south. A lot of convective activity with clouds and rainshowers everywhere. But a Stemme goes, where it works.
We found finally wave in Esquel and then it works really very well especially between Zapala and Chos Malal .”

——————————————————————

JOEYGLIDE

Started from Kingaroy with 12 young pilots. December 1 was their first day, not a real flash one, but flyable for 5 from the pilots. The 2 hour AAT was won by James Nugent, who has flown a few already. Good pilot!!!
He flew 238 km. in time 22.3
Miserable day for young Ryan Driscoll in his LS 3; he had no valid start.
JoeyGlide in progress now ,till December 7.

AND,…….”The GFA has provided us with trackers again this year! Track the pilots on the task today using the link below!”
http://track.gtracklive.com/track.html?dayID=397

——————————————————————

When you see this picture you know we are talking WWGC’s.
The containers from Czech Rep and the UK have arrived in Lake Keepit. The WWGC starts there on December 31 2019 and runs till January 18 2020.
When this one is over the next one will be in the UK;
Here is their news:
” Calling all women of other nations hoping to fly in WWGC2021 at HusBos – the 2020 HusBos Challenge Cup International from 18 – 26 July is a great pre-Worlds practice opportunity. A number of places are reserved for overseas entries but the entry list is filling up fast! For more detail and link to enter click: https://wwgc2021.co.uk/

————————————————————

Those calender’s are really impressive!!!
+++Really impressive+++
The new picture for the 1st Advent invites you to dream. Time for the contemplative hours to let the old season pass in review and to dream of new deeds in the coming year.
Now in the Gliding Calendar – Fotokalender Segelfliegen.
Have you ordered your new copy yet? If not, click here to go to the homepage: www.fotokalender-segelfliegen.de

————————————————————————–

Latest news for EUROGLIDE fans;
The track from 2500 km. has to be flown in 13 day’s.
Start June 22 2020 at Venlo, till July 4 final day plus prize giving.
 http://euroglide.nl/eg2020/eg2020route912.jpg

———————————————————————

Today Sunday it was raining in Tocumwal, but the weather seems fine when I arrive on Wednesday.
All organized, suitcase packed, health not TOO bad, so off we go tomorrow.
Cu on the other side of the world with the
AUSTRALIAN DIARY.

Cheers Ritz