—–We are really having autumn weather now. We went from 37dgr. C. 2 weeks ago …hottest day ever in autumn…to 14 in the weekend with wind and lot’s of rain.

—–The weather in Brazil was still good , also after the comps. On September 23, the pilots who stayed, flew nice long distances,
Claudio and Egon who were still there flew both in an ARCUS M, 940 km[886 FAI triangle] , topping with another great flight the OLC on last Wednesday.

—–In between they flew the Gauteng Regionals in Orient, [September 16-26], so talking about S.A. In 3 classes they had 10 days to define the winners in club, [6 pilots] 15 m. [13 pilots one of them HC] and open class. [15 pilots].
Not the very best spring-weather over there, as they only could fly on 2 days and 1 day was pretty marginal.
Task 1 with 186 km. showed no finishers in club and a max of 41 points for the winner.
Their task 2 had 165 km and 4 finishers and 434 points for the daily winner.
Task 3 on Saturday had 182 km. but was changed in NO TASK.
Winner in club; Philip Leach in Janus CM RG, leading with ONE point; 434 points after 2 days. Dave Maver was the runner up.
Philip won task 1 with no finishers but,…he flew 133 km. whilst the runner up flew 41!!!
Task 2 was won by Dave Maver in the ASW 20. Philip lost “only” 40 points; so he had 1 point left for the overall win!!!

Task 1 for 15 m. had 257 km as task but also here nobody finished. Mark Holliday flew 141 km and was clearly the best in ASW 27 for 19 points!!!!
Task 2 was a set 328 km, but only flown by 2 pilots.
Bennie Du Plessis 818 points for daily winner in ASW 20 and runner up Mike Tiffin in ASW 27 was in too for 790 points.
Task 3 was 271 km. but changed in NO TASK.
Winner in 15 m after 2 days; Bennie Du Plessies with 828 points. Runner up Mike Tiffin with 790.

In open class task 1 was 356 km and flown by 2 pilots from the 14 who started; John Coutts , as the daily best, with 309 points in the JS 3 and Nico Le Roux in JS 1 with 304 points.
Task 2 was a set task from 438 km. flown by 12 pilots. Riaan Denner , in JS 1, “got” the 1000 points!! Unfortunately he was out on day 1.
3 More pilots were between 900 and 1000 points…Jason Adriaan and Oscar and Laurens [Goudriaan]
Speed was around 105 km./h for them.
All pilots fly JS 1 or JS 3 except for 2x a Ventus CM and an ARCUS.
Mike Barenbrug is 1 of the Ventus pilots and on this day he topped the OLC with his flight!
Task 3 and the last day, had a set 348 km. task. And yes, ..also changed in NO TASK!!!
Overall results after 2 flying days; 1;Nico Le Roux 1.194 points. 2; John Coutts 1.163 p.

For sure their great South African weather will start soon,…only spring now.
Heard it will be an El Nina year ,…will that bring more rain.. in Australia and also in SA ???

——There might be now still a short Bitterwasser Season;
Here is their news!
“There is still a chance for a gliding season in Bitterwasser! Even if it can only be a short one. Namibia has opened and flights to Windhoek can be booked again. The first flights have already reached Namibia. So the traffic light is green.
After this good news, at the Bitterwasser General Assembly in mid-September the desire arose to take the opportunity and organize a small season. If the containers are dispatched at the beginning of October, the fist flights could take off in Bitterwasser at the end of November. If you want to be there and take your glider with you, please contact Executive Director Rainer Hog ( hog@bitterwasser.com).
And this is what the conditions for staying in Namibia look like now: Anyone who enters the country with a negative corona test which is not older than 72 hours can travel to Bitterwasser without quarantine. Another test is necessary after five days. If the result is negative, the country may be freely traveled
There is a new board behind the “small season” campaign. Ilka Elster-Back and Jürgen Dörrie were elected to the board of directors by the general assembly to join Rainer Hog and Ralph Bürklin. Wolf-Dietrich Bornholdt made room for them after ten years of work for gliding in Namibia, Dirk Reich had already retired before that.”

—–The Queensland State Comps will be flown between September 26 and October 2. Practice was on Friday September 25. They are flown from Jondaryan at the Darling Downs Soaring Club.
On livegliding.com you can follow all the action! They have a GP scoring system.
Adam Woolley and David Jansen lead after 2 tasks, [ 285 km. and 410 km] with 10 points in the sports class. Speed from task 2….147 [Adam] and 137 km./h.
Adam mentioned in his Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
“Awesome day, awesome flight, first past the post at 148kph !! Nailed the start, height, speed & line of energy out. First climb of 7kts took me to base, then it was run at 110kts all dayI linked up the energy lines well today & stopped in 6kts to top up only when I had to. Was always looking for 8-10kts though! Picked up over 3000 ‘on glide, typically slow in the areas of lift & 100kts otherwise all the way in. Great fun!“
Task 3 was 325 km. and yes…Adam was with a speed of 136 km./h again the daily winner. He got the 6 points. Lisa 4 and David 3.
Lisa Turner in her ASW 27 was runner up with a speed of 133 km./h and David in the LS 8 3d with 126 km./h.
2 More pilots in this class Jenny Thompson [ASG 29/18m] with a speed of 129 km./h for 2 points and Mike Codling in ASW 27 got 1 point for 108 km./h.
Adam…..From a young boy organizing already with other young chaps JoeyGlide , from tuggie also for a short time with us in Tocumwal, from an eager competition pilot flying comps all over the world, he is a very accomplished pilot now. His mum and dad [ a good pilot himself] have stimulated him through the years.
16 Points in total for him now.14 for David.
Adams daily comment;
“Another cracking day, very pleased with how I’m flying atm. I feel like I have my go-get-em attitude back, no fear of failure & willingness to learn. Special points for the day…Maximizing the glide out of the gate through the over development & generally poorer conditions, saw me able to core the first booming climb soonest (albeit from lower down).I was attacked by an eagle in my final glide climb of 8kts, so I rolled out 1800′ below glide on a 6.7kt MC (my average climb rate for the day) & tried to hold 110kts all the way in & pick it up. 80% of it worked as I’d hoped, so I feel that my final glides are getting faster (ie, steady & constant speed all the way in) now, with confidence – happy!”
AND…..”Easily a 1000km day out of DDSC yesterday I think.”

Day 5 and task 4 showed a shorter task from 169 km and Adam won again,….this time with 118 km./h. His 3d win in a row.
His daily news at Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
David as runner up flew around with 100 km./h.
Total scores at this stage; Adam 21 …David 16..Lisa Turner 10.

14 pilots in club and after 2 tasks [237 km. and 309 km] it ‘s Jo Davis leading [18] ahead of Peter Brunton, [17] both in ASW 27, each winning a day.
Task 3 was 294 km and won by Jo, flying 114 km./h which was quite a bit faster than the runner up, Peter who had a speed of 108 km./h .On top of that he got a 30 s. penalty for a too fast max speed at start[ 6 knots x5]
So 12 points for Jo and 10 for Peter.
Overall Jo has now 31 points after 3 tasks and Peter 28.
No scores or task for today.[yet]
Swiss Chris shared a picture from the weather during task 2….GOOD!!!!!!

—–Looked at the first debate between Trump and Biden…at 3 in the morning,….BUT only 3 minutes…shouting and accusing each other is not my cup-of-tea!!!!! And that for a president from the USA and maybe the upcoming president. Later I heard that I missed NOTHING!!!

—–Bill has worked hard and the blog is working fine again.
THANKS again to Bill, who had to spend some time on it.
So with less doubt than the last couple of weeks I can say…CU next week
Cheers Ritz

The comps in Brazil, to select the new National Champion 2020 in 3 classes ,continued…….so I continue too. And what fabulous soaring weather they had!!!! Have a look…..SUPERB!!!!
Even the pilots used superlatives for what happened.
They even topped the world- wide -OLC on several days and that during a competition.
7 out of 7 days for 15 m., open and 6 for Club.
Club;
task 4…4 hour AAT!!!!Another pffff…..Won by Andre with 302 km. in time 3.55.
Task 5..set task of 306 km; Won by Andre with 82 km./h.
Task 6…set task from 321 km; YES…won by Andre in his PW 5.Speed 72 km./h. over the set 321 km!!!NOT bad!!!
Task 7…252 km...but no valid flight by one of the pilots.1Pilot started and flew 15 km.
Great results and magic weather for the 4 pilots in this class.
6 out of 7 flying-day’s
Final scores ;
1.Andre Goldenstein in PW 5 AND CHAMPION with 4538 points.
2.Antonio Marinho Jr in KW 1 with 1.871 p.
3.Cassiano Corazza in PW 5 with 1.091 p.

15 m;
task 4…4.30 hour AAT !!!! BIG day for them as well. Luis Affonso flew in his St. Jantar a distance of 481 km. in time 4.39.
task 5…set task of 426 km; a “new” face in the top this time Fabio Pimenta in a Discus B, as Luis was “only” 11th, loosing nearly 300 points. But now worries he could “have” it.
task 6…504 km; and again Fabio won the day ..speed 127.58 km./h. 3 Pilots were out.
task 7…418 km; LAST DAY…
speed 132 km by the winner in a St. Jantar. Luis was 3d.
No real fight, for spot 1, but GREAT SOARING in unbelievable weather.
Final scores after 7 days of magic soaring;
1.Luis Affonso in St. Jantar AND CHAMPION with 6.411 points.
2.Ricardo Raupp in St. Jantar with 6.254 p.
3.Ben-Hur Silveira in Duo Discus XL with 6.019 p.
Some flew their first 500 FAI triangle and 3000 m. height!!!
” realmente é fantástico!!!”

open;
task 4….641 km !!!There are 7 pilots in this class but it’s ALL between 3 of them, pretty well-known too.
Winner today….Henrique Navarro in his Nimbus 4T with 137 km./h. Runner up Claudio Schmidt with 131 ,74 km./h in ARCUS and Egon Rehn in QUINTUS M was on spot 3 with 132 km./h.
task 5…653 km.;140 km./h for Henrique, 132 km.h for Claudio and 136 for Egon.
task 6…526.26 AAT; flown by Henrique with a speed of 153.82 km./h over 836.89 km.
“Today I flew the longest task ever flown in a Brazilian gliding championship – 837 km at 154 kph.”
Good on him.
Claudio was runner up with 806 km in time 531, so a nice speed from 146 km./h. Egon was 4th with 148.72 km./h over 822 km!!
task 7…531 km; LAST DAY…..
Enrique flew around with 173.49 km./h!!!!!!
“…and today I flew the fastest task ever flown in Brazil: 174 kph in a 500km FAI triangle…5 day wins out of 7.
Claudio with 162.69 km/h and Egon with 166.36 km./h.
Henrique had to travel 1800 km. to attend the nationals!!!!
Fabulous speed, weather AND pilots!!!!!!
Final scores;
1. Claudio Schmidt in ARCUS M, and Champion with 6.878 points.
2. Henrique Navarro in Nimbus 4T with 6.786 p.
3. Egon Rehn in QUINTUS M with 6.426 p.
Except for day 1 Caudio was number- 1- overall ,every day. Great job!!!!

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On September 9 the French championships for 2021 have been defined after all the COVID influences and changes from this year. Hopefully they can be flown at the next dates;
—General category and Women’s category Standard + 15 m + Biplace 20 m: at Bailleau from May 30 to June 5
—General category Class 18 m and Free Class: in Buno-Bonnevaux from 20 to 26 June
—General category Club class: in Lille from 11 to 17 July
—Category Junior Club Class and Standard + Class 15 m + Biplace 20 m: in Fontenay-le-Graaf from 25 to 31 July
Pre-registrations are open and will last until January 31, 2021

https://www.ffvp.fr/agenda-des-competitions
https://bit.ly/CDF2021_Preinscription

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This new season Lake Keepit is the host of many pilots who fly a GRAND PRIX type of competition there. The first has been and was won by Mac Ichikawa .There will be four rounds, the next one is on the first weekend in October, then January and over Easter.
The best 4 pilots at the first GP, were very close ; Mac Ichikawa had 29 points ,Jay Anderson 28, Bruce Taylor 26 and Brad Edwards 25.

Talking about Lake Keepit….. that fantastic WWGC comes straight up in my mind.
SUCH A PITY it finished the way it did.
A lot of people ask me if I have heard already about the appeal from the WWGC.
I kept you very much involved over all the different situations, already when I was in Lake Keepit and later, but nowadays it’s very quiet…no news.
It can’t be TOO difficult.
Here is a mail, I received, from somebody who was there and who is waiting as well. I share it with you, as I don’t know much about appeals and the way they should be handled.
“The last WWGC in Lake Keepit ended 8 month ago in January 2020.Three months later two appeals were lodged against the outcome by two very large gliding nations. Since then there has been complete silence; what on earth is going on? Appeals need to be transparent and handled in a timely fashion and not in secrecy. It is completely unacceptable for the appeals board not to give regular updates to the gliding community about its processes, meeting calendar and persons heard in relation to the WWGC scandal. Not doing so creates suspicion. Is a back room quiet deal being pursued? Who is talking to the appeals board? Why don’t we hear anything? “
Well, that person is clearly not happy!!!

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Talking about Australia,…the Queensland State Comps are about to begin. Here is the news;
“The competition starts on Sat 26th Sept and runs to Friday 2nd October.
Sports and Club classes. Practice day Fri 25th.
Format is GP and using the F1.0 trackers.
Watch live on livegliding.com
21 Entrants incl 3 Hors de Concours (2 x Duo and 1 x DG1001Club in Club Class).
Sport Class looks very competitive and the tasks may reflect that. (But don’t tell the competitors!).
Bob Flood
CD

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Good , no great news from Tocumwal. Finally they start to build the MUSEUM for ALL memorabilia from WW2 . They have been moved several times p.e. to the briefing room at the SSC,[Sportavia Soaring Center] the Bowling Club , the tourist office and now they will be finally home where they belong in their OWN MUSEUM.
In our time we had busloads of people coming to see the hangar , the small exposition in the briefing room and they were with “open mouth” listening to the fabulous stories from Bob Brown and to see in the vitrines all what has been collected over the years. Uniforms on dress ‘dummies’ were very old but kept in good order.
We even had people who brought AND gave pictures and memorabilia to show in the exposition!!!
We had people who had lived in Tocumwal in that WW2 time,…they had unbelievable stories.
Now history will be shared for ALL who have interest.
I remember an evening where there were still a few “oldies” attending. The ” Andrew Sisters” local “girls” did a real good job and the Glenn Miller music had a fantastic acoustic . It was a night to never forget.
For those who have visited SSC in the past and now visit Sportavia Tocumwal,…and wonder where it is,…..the museum is just around the corner when you can go in a straight line to the WW2 hangar and to Sportavia.

And to finish this blog ….Congratulations to HpH sailplanes on the successful maiden flight of Twin Shark No.4.

Still struggling with my blog!!! VERY FRUSTRATING!!!
” Poor ” Bill is still helping out!!!
THANK YOU Bill !!!!!!!!!
I nearly gave up writing, but I continue for a little while. One day there is not enough “connection anymore with the soaring world” and then it is really time to stop. That time might not be too far away.
Just to let you know already.

CU hopefully next week.
Cheers Ritz

Working via another system is NOT easy, at least for me, but it seems to work which is good.

News from the FAI on September 9;
“Gliding pilot Mélanie Gadoulet from France has been awarded the IGC Champion Pilot of the Year 2019 earlier this year Mélanie was selected from the Champions in all classes of the qualifying competitions of the 2019 season. “

Congratulations Melanie!

And a great picture by Pierre [de Broqueville] who flew in the Pyrenees.

so CU next week
Ritz

UK Mountain Soaring Championship 2020 from Aboyne;
The news on Thursday was “There is no cross country task today, launches are available for the height gain until 18:00 this evening”.
And they gained height;” R1 is leading the height gain with 45,942 ft, followed by 8Q with 39,974 and FCB in third with 37,543”
So who are they?
R 1 is team Naylor and Tait in the Duo Discus, 8Q is Graham Paul in a JS 1 and FCB is Martin Philimore in a Pegase101 A.
On Friday a CC task ; 2 hour AAT…..But scrubbed because of the gusty conditions.
At 5 PM the evening wave started and so did the tuggies to bring those who wanted to be “HIGH” up in the air. They had three late launches with 8Q getting to 17,150 feet, XX to 16,744 and R1 landed out.
Saturday was supposed to be the last day but “we are going to scrub today due to the wind strength”.
At 12 they had a prize giving for both CC flying and height.
“Prize giving is over. Congratulations to Robert Tait and Stuart Naylor in R1 for winning the 23rd UKMSC. The Height Gain was won Graham Paul in 8Q. We must give a special mention to Team DGC flying the Perkoz who scored the most points this week but were flying hors concours.”
By the way I checked for you; Indeed 2 pilots with the same name John Williams and as often ,one get’s the nick name….BIG JOHN flies Z7 the ANTARES and is based in Portmoak. He was 3d in the comps. John flying the LS 8 was 5th.

Brasil had the 62d Championships Region Mid West, flown in one class from Luis between September 5 and 11, which was good practice for the Nationals straight after.

14 Pilots in gliders between Libelle/St Jantar and Nimbus 4/ASW 22BLE.
2 day’s with 4 hour AAT’s , 1 with 4.30 and 2 with 3.30 AAT’s , meaning 5 days of great soaring weather and only day 1 had to be cancelled/ no task. Distances on the 4 hour days up to 552 km in the ASW 22 BLE and a speed of 137,98 km./h.. All days were 1000 points day and in the end Claudio Schmidt in the ARCUS was the winner with 4.903 points. He won 3 days. Followed by Henrique Navarro in the Nimbus 4T with 4.883 p. At spot 3 Egon Rehn in the ASW 22BLE with 4.571 p.

Straight after the BRASILIAN NATIONALS [September 12-19 ] were flown in 3 classes; Club,[4] racing [15] and open, [7] with on Saturday the 12th a practice day for the 26 pilots!
On Sunday “the real thing started”.
Club;
Task 1; 3 hour AAT…The Libelle did not compete so only 2 PW 5’s and a KW 1 in this class.
Task 2; 3.30 AAT…pfff …many k’s for the little ones!!!! Andre Goldenstein in the PW 5 flew 307 km,in time 4.16 ..great effort!!! In fact he is the only one in this class who flew well.
Task 3; 3.30 AAT… Andre “got”the 1000 points, for 285 km. Speed 81 km. /h not bad for the PW 5.

15 m;
Task 1 ;3.30 AAT….1000 points…431 km…speed 123.39 km./h in a DG 1001 M flown by Renato Stefanuto..3 out.
Task 2; 3.30 AAT…445 km. in this class in time 3.46 in a St Jantar by Luis Affonso for 1000 points. 5 From 14 finished.
Task 3; 3.30 AAT… 2 St. Jantars with 385/388 km. in time 3.32/3.34 and a Duo with 419 km. in 3.33.

Open;
Task 1; 4 hour AAT….1000 points for 597 km…speed 149 km./h…in Nimbus 4T flown by Henrique Navarro. All 7 finished , 6 flew over 500 km.
Task 2; 5 hour AAT….5 from 7 flew over 600 km!!! Claudio Schmidt in the ARCUS M flew 673 km. in time 5.03 , so a nice speed of 133 km./h.[703 OLC km’s] Runner up was Henrique. He and Egon Rehn [ at spot 3] in the QUINTUS topped the world wide OLC last Monday.
Task 3; 439 km……All 7 pilots flew the task. Best on handicap [118] was Claudio with a speed of 149 km. /h. Egon had 154 km./h in the Quintus.[ Handicap 124]

Varese continued on Friday with the last 2 / 3days of the Coppa Citta di Varese…./ Trofeo Walter Vergani. A 2 hour AAT was set. Alberto [Sironi] in the ARCUS was the best with 194km , but only 4 [Stefano Ghiorzo, Ugo Pavese and Austrian pilot Thomas Hynek ] flew over 100 km, so a zero- points –day! Another small task for the last day; 2.10 AAT. Alberto won again , this time for 603 points. 16 from 19 flew the task. They added on Sunday the reserve day to make it 3 valid days and to define the winner of the Coppa AND the 15 m. NATIONAL CHAMPION.
A 2.20 AAT was set. 153 km. was the best result and won by….Alberto and only 7 flew the task. So winner of the Coppa …. Alberto Sironi in the ARCUS T with after 3 valid days 1.264 points. Only one other pilot flew over the 1000 points line; Luca Castelli in the JS 1 EVO with 1.167 p.
NATIONAL CHAMPION in 15 m. after 3 valid tasks is Alfio Lavazza in an LS 8 with 844 points. Runner up was Ugo Pavesi [ASG 29] with 818 points and Stefano Ghiorzo was 3d in the DIANA 2. [816 p].

Severe problems with my blog!!
Bill has been busy for a week to recover the log-in on google- chrome but it still shows problems…I can’t get in!!!
So I found out that it works now via internet explorer but I am not used to this system, so it took me 3 hours to publish this whilst the text was ready in word.
Left the rest of the pictures out .
Try to publish now…hopefully it all works perfect next time again.
A GREAT THANK YOU to Bill!!!!

CU hopefully next week
Cheers Ritz

September started with around 700 km. flights in the beginning of autumn in Europe [France, Spain and Germany] , and ….not too bad…600 k. in the UK from Lasham in the ARCUS T….and 456 km. Down Under, by our former partner in Tocumwal Grant ,who flew his St. Jantar from Kingaroy on the first spring day.
The last comps in Europe are in progress now as well.

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Coppa Citta Di Varese.
4 September 2020 – 13 September 2020
 Sat 5, Sun 6, Mon 7; then Fri 11, Sat 12 September 2020
13 is a reserve day.

After the CIM and Coppa Citta di Rietie, the pilots fly now in Varese where 20 pilots “fight” to win the CUP from Varese at the airfield of Calcinate del Pesche; “Adele and Giorgio Orsi airport of Varese “. I remember both of them.
The 15m. Nationals are part of this last competition in 2020.
The CD is the same as in Rietie…Aldo Cernezzi.
Day 1 …no task… but day 2 had a small task number 1; 2.45 AAT.
Nobody flew more than 100 km…67 km. was the best …and lots had air space violations.So NO points.
task 2; 2.20 AAT…and now they could fly a few more kilometres.
205 for Alberto [Sironi] as the best for the day, in the ARCUS T; speed 87 km./h, which says enough of the day.
No flying on Monday..cancelled.
Then they start again next Friday.
I will keep you informed.

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—-News from Alexander Schleicher;
“First flight of the AS 34 Me – Schleicher’s first electric self-starter in the airAS 34 Me – Schleicher’s first electric self-launcher has flown https://www.alexander-schleicher.de/

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—News from E2 glide;
” Congratulations! Matthew Scutter won E2Glide competition with Diana-2! September 2020, Germany. “
With 5 out of 8 day’s at the airfield of Großrückerswalde, Matthew won 3 days and was runner up on 2!!!
Number 2 was Florian Heilmann in the SILENT and at 3 Luka Žnidaršič in a Ventus 3.
Matthew mentioned ;” E2Glide turned out to be a great event – we had very marginal weather, as you would expect for September in Germany and perhaps 2/8 days were flyable by normal standards. With the whole fleet having electric engines, we were able to launch and even start in marginally soarable conditions and still manage tasks on 6/8 days. “

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Another competition which is always nice to follow is the UK Mountain Soaring Championship 2020 from Aboyne in Scotland organized by the Deeside Gliding Club.
“Things will be a little different this year, no welcome BBQ on Saturday evening, morning briefings will be held over Zoom and all all pilots, crews and the organizing team are split into 5 separate bubbles.”
“But some things will never change, we will still have both the cross-country and height gain competitions running all week, with all the task and scores published on Soaring Spot“

They started on September 6 with a “nice” 3 hour AAT, with 20 pilots and 2 HC pilots/teams.
Tasks 1 was for as far as I know one of the best in this discipline..John Williams with 254 km in the 18m. LS 8. Though there are 2 John Williams in this comps , the other one flies the ANTARES 20,….that’s always difficult when you are not there!
10 were out and the runner up Dave Latimer, had 237 km in the Ventus CT/17.5 m.
Task 2 after a non flying CC-day [ pilots could fly or practice height that day ] had a 2.30 AAT won by the Duo Discus, with 394 km. mind you , the runner up in Discus 2 CT had 256 km. 12 Pilots were out.
You can follow the days action at https://glideandseek.com/?viewport=57.02399,-3.54577,10
A 2 hour task is set for today.

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GLIDING INTERNATIONAL SEPTEMBER 2020.
It’s getting easier and easier to read the G.I, just perfect NOW!!! It reads so much easier when the lay out is superb, and that is what it is now.
More or less an e-reader.
Compliments to the G.I. team in New Zealand.
What’s in it???
—-An impressive story about “Sailors of the sky” 24 pages of stories , pictures and graphics.
It’s a reprint of a 1967 article about gliding, just the time I started soaring.
“Finding the story and buying the rights to use it from National Geographic was not a complex affair, but nevertheless gave us all at Gliding International a real sense of purpose.” John Roake the editor.
—-nice stories about Klaus Holighaus an Ingo Renner who turned 80 in June.
—-has gliding anything to learn from passenger aircraft manufacturers?
—–an update…..a sad day for gliding in New Zealand with Omarama closed….
—–Lot’s of news…p.e. the 2020 FAI General Conference edition 114,…will be like most briefings at comps nowadays electronically.
—– the August accident report did n’t make me happy….7 deaths recorded.
and INTERNATIONAL Aviation news for glider pilots and “things with wings”

CU next week
Cheers Ritz

We are in September now and the meteorological SUMMER is over here!!! Winter of course down under/southern atmosphere.
Normally I write about containers travelling to Australia and even more to South Africa and Namibia, but as it looks now, such things will NOT happen.
Most travelling is on hold, lot’s of airline pilots are waiting to start again,..that is when they have not lost their job…and borders not only from countries, but also from states are CLOSED.
Comps have been rescheduled and some just disappeared from the agenda.
We NEVER anticipated a year ago, how bad this covid-19 was and is for our way of living.
And it ain’t over yet!!!
We just have to make the best out of it.
Let’s focus for the moment, on local soaring, our good health and remain careful.

On Wednesday August 26, Adam [Woolley] showed the season down under is on the verge of beginning; 487 [300 FAI triangle] from Kingaroy in his Ventus 2ax /15m.
Not long he will fly his new toy, a Ventus 3.
“ What an awesome Winters day in Queensland & a terrific way to open the bank up since my last glide (Mid-Feb).; 305km at 132kph!! Then OLC flying to end the day under huge clouds, fires and smooth air – great fun! “

David Jansen flew ,…also from Kingaroy…the next day 726 km [541 FAI triangle] in an LS 8, with a very easy-going comment;” Gotta love Queensland in winter.. “
Adam and his dad had a great flight that day too.
Adam;” Wicked winters day, 500 declared FAI triangle at 135kph – Dad beat me off the stick at 140kph! I missed a climb that I rejected and Dad took at the end of the day, that was all the difference way. Old bull, young bull hey!?”
AND;” Sensational winters day, 513km FAI at 136kph! 5.1kt average, 17% thermalling, 37km glides at 73:1 at 180kph cruise speed!First glide out of the start: 100km at 85:1 at 180kph, into 6.6kts for 3500′! Beautiful CU for most of the task, heights, climbs, speeds, all predicted perfectly by SkySight, many happy smiles at the bar tonight .”
Indeed very “happy chappies” over there in the East of Australia where the new season normally starts.
Here clearly days are getting shorter. BUT,…..still over 700 k-flights in Europe [Germany, France],as well in the beginning of autumn.

NEWSY NEWS:

—Slowly we can look back at the 2020 season on the OLC. Not a bad season, when we look at the damage done by COVID in other sectors.
I guess not a lot will change,till the end of this OLC season, so I slowly start with the stats from the best flights.
Both were flown in a STEMME.
Both in December [-13] from Zapala Neuquen in Argentina, with huge speed ; 196 km./h.
One by Klaus Ohlman …2.816,95 km….and one by Thomas Horz…2.805,58 km.
Wave up to 8045 MSL.
At spot 3 Jean Marc Perrin in a 15m. DG 808 on December 12…..2.228,12 km. with a speed of 163 km./h also from Argentina, but this time from the airfield of Jose De San Mart  .
So to see, the first long flight not flown in wave ,was from Pokweni by Alexander Mueller in his EB 29 with 1.400 km…speed 151 km./h. on November 27.

—- News from Jonker Sailplanes;
JS2 Revenant – STEP by STEP – Our chief design engineer did not want to give any performance away with the JS2 fuselage. In fact, he designed the fuselage with even less drag than the JS1C fuselage. Obviously, this raised some concerns to our marketing team if we would be able to fit our better built customers. As soon as the seat pan, seat back and instrument console were installed we lined up our test models… The awesome models were sadly not selected by looks but for size. Being fit and in shape was not one of the criteria. In fact, we tried all sizes. Our favorite model Oscar Goudriaan fitted easily, and it seems if a 140 kg “real man” also manages to find his position. “I am confident that a 115 kg pilot exceeding 2m will enjoy a comfortable ride!” Attie says.

—-Outlanding with the tug!!! as shared by Arne Martin Guettler:
“ Glider pilots can outland anything. Here the tow plane had to make an outlanding, after an engine failure at 400ft during a glider tow. The field was about 250m long, but recently harvested. The glider made it back to the airfield.”
In the end it was a cracked cylinder.

—More outlandings.,..3 out of 5 flying days for Benjamin [and Claire] who wrote a funny but very interesting blog about the Pre world ‘s in France…
https://claireandbenjamin.wixsite.com/aero/post/kawa-beats-me-again-and-story-about-oulanding

—-Yesterday the TOUR DE FRANCE left Sisteron, passed Serres and the cyclists spend the night in Gap.
All places we know from soaring too.
One of the Dutch glider pilots Willem, made a few pictures whilst looking at the TV. You can clearly see the several helicopters used to cover the tour caravan.
I saw it on TV in Holland/The Netherlands as well.

And to finish a great picture shared by  Mamz’ailes SoFi in her L’album de Mamz’ailes SoFi She just celebrated her birthday.

CU next week,
Cheers Ritz