A bit later than normal….had some problems to get in the blog error 500 it was called, BUT Bill fixed it, as he did with the pictures!!!
THANKS AGAIN BILL!!!!!!

2 Days to go and we finish this weird year and start ,with high hopes, the year 2021.
Looking back….2020 started good. I was in LAKE KEEPIT at the WWGC and I believe we all had a superb time, though it was dryer than dry, for that reason no grass at the airfield so lot’s of dust and there was smoke from the surrounding fires.
It still felt all pretty good as it was very well organized.
BUT,…the message in the last week, that the home team apparently had done things, which were not allowed, kept and still keep a lot of people busy.
Such a pity that this TOP-WWGC had to end like this.
By the way it might not take that long anymore before we hear the result of the appeal,….the highest soaring-gods are {still} busy.

Straight after travelling home , we heard that a new COVID-19- virus was already in China. No worries,….we thought,……far away.
We know now! And HOW!!!!
The whole world knows.
Carnival in February, created more “cases” here in Europe , so did the winter-sport and other holidays.
And now, as in a flash, the year is already over , after we were in a “friendly, intelligent ” lockdown, as our leaders called it,
….. a tough lockdown ,
…… after staying at home and more at home
…… after not seeing many friends or family,
……. after doing not a lot ,except of course for them who take care of the elderly, the doctors , nurses ,police etc…..HUGE RESPECT FOR THEM ,…..but we all did it / still do it….no worries, the virus HAS to disappear.
The world agrees on that!!!!
Lot’s of comps were cancelled, some flown but all with “zoom” briefings, 1.5 m. , mouth masks etc. Also no worries, they could fly!
AND,…flying is NOT the most important “thing” in life.
CORONA PROOF was the word!!!
Now there is the vaccine and the hope that there is light on the horizon.
HOPE!!!!What a nice word.

The BREXIT ,finally in the end , creates a softer farewell from Europe to the UK , now a trade-deal has been reached. One, where the top on both sides, think they did well.
I read already many angry articles. Yes,…from both sides.
BUT,…everything is better than a NO DEAL!!!!
This morning the post-Brexit-trade-deal was signed by Europe and send by plane to the UK, where the UK parliament and Boris Johnson signed it too.
It’s all happening.
I read that Europe “looses”, on January 1, a population of 68 million , 243 thousand square km sea and an economy of 2200 billion euro.

Storm BELLA, raced last weekend over parts of Europe and …The coastal areas of the UK and France had the worst part of it, with damage and flooding. Worst wind in the UK at the coast up to 195 km./h. in France up to 174 km./h.
We had wind here, on the Nord Sea coast from 90 to 110 km./h. Even here, inland, it was noisy!!!
Code yellow and BFT 9 and 10 in our coastal areas.
The first winter-storm.
Norway had a land slide today with several people missing and Croatia had a 6.4 earthquake yesterday, with several people killed and injured.

VERONICA is hot this year. In Namibia they fly with real good weather -circumstances and the 2 Polish pilots,..one of them Sebastian Kawa…flew before the weekend in the ARCUS M. distances from up to 1.252 km [1.115 km FAI triangle] .They continued….
On Sunday ;they flew 1.275 km. with 149 km./h.
On Monday….1.132 km. with 137 km./h.
The TWIN SHARK flying from Veronica flew with Bernd [Dolba from the VERONICA team] and a “pupil” 1.274 km.
In the “shark” Petr and Radek flew earlier a new Czech record ; a declared 1.150 FAI triangle, I wrote about it last time, but now I see it was a new Czech record!!!

Bitterwasser, saw young Simon Briel arrive there again and straight away he flew on Christmas and Boxing-day , 1.012 and 1.131 km.in the ARCUS M.
One day later, on Sunday, it was even more fun for him; 1.318 km. with a speed of 143 km. h. He flew 4x, flew 4x a 1000-plus and off he had to go again.
As I wrote earlier, Bitterwasser has now weather cam’s , sponsored by Wilfried Grosskinsky, looking to the Nord ,East , West and the Palmalley.
Great picture last Monday.

Yesterday Sven [Olivier] flew a 1000 from Worcester.

Today, Grant [Heany] flew from Tocumwal, in his St Jantar a distance of 734 km …..A 600 FAI TRIANGLE !!!!! Chapeau Grant!!!!He called it ” a nice day out”.
Grant came to Toc , years ago, as a hang-glider pilot and straight away loved gliding and was and is good in it!!!He and his Norwegian wife Tove [ a world champion hang gliding] even came to live in Tocumwal and for a short while they were managers under then sole SSC owner, Richard, who then sold the business. Argh…..

Eddie shared this picture today with the message; “Splendid day early start;”

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THE GRAND PRIX FORMULA 1.0 in LEETON has started and before it all began, there was already big news!!!
“Last night two of the founders of the GP got married, at Leeton, of course!”
Congratulations to Christian and Sarah Streifeneder.
FROM ME TOO!!!!!
Tune into http://tracking.livegliding.com/#!c=27 for live tracking!
They started on the 28th with a practice day.
Day 1 saw Jenny Thomson win in a HORNET ….”Low, blue but with less wind than the practice day, we’re off to Coolamon and Ardlethan for a total round trip of approx 178km.”

Day 2 “Today’s task is a double triangle, with the all-important bonus point for the first pilot to claim it when they round Leeton the first time. Weather looks to be unstable… a large trough line has set up shop over the top of the area, promising big climbs and potentially bigoverdevelopment.”
Winner for the day; Nick Gilbert in the CIRRUS.
They continue till January 5, so next week more news, but you can follow the tracking at the above link and here is the link to the site; https://f1gp.com.au/
You can read there more about the GP and see the results.

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Wishing you ALL a very
HAPPY, HEALTHY, SAFE and CORONA FREE 2021.
In which we can go back to NORMAL!
Hope this happens when summer starts or,….if possible earlier for smaller gatherings!
Let’s “work” on it, in doing the CORRECT things.

CU next year and…
THANKS FOR STILL READING THE BLOG since June 2006!!!
Cheers Ritz

First,….THANK you for all the birthday wishes. I felt really privileged and happy. Phone calls from Germany , Australia and South Africa ,lot’s of FB-and messenger messages , e-mails, phone calls from close by and 2 visitors, as more was due to the strict lock down, not possible.
THANK YOU!!!!!

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WELKOM, hosted with the SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONALS, the last TOP-competition in 2020.
22 Pilots in 18 m. class, among them pilots from Switzerland, Germany and Denmark.
GOOD weather, not the real booming S.A. weather, but still days with a 500 and 300 km. task and several AAT’s one from 3 hours.
For some countries mouthwatering!
And…. HUGE speed, so only 2x a 1000-points-day!
Task 1 , with a 1.30 AAT, was straight away a day to try and come home. The 81 points from the only finisher, John Coutts, made him the first overall winner. At nearly 5 PM he left and it took him nearly 2 hours to fly over 178 km.
Task 2 ,with 285.78 km. was a prey again for John in his JS 3.His speed , 146 km./h was clearly more than the day earlier, when it was 89 km./h. Oscar and Laurens [Goudriaan] were on spot 2 and 3.
Task 3, was the 520 km.-day! And,..yes it gets boring , but John won again with 125 km./h. Dolf [Pretorius] and Oscar followed.
Only 7 fished some pretty close.
John is a born KIWI but lives already for ages in South Africa. When I met him the first time he was still a junior. A very talented pilot!!!!
Task 4 , had a 2.30 AAT which was won by Oscar AND on my birthday and he and his brother and Sven made even time to congratulate me.
124 km./h was the best speed and Katrin in the ASG 32 was runner up with 118 km./h. All 21 who started, finished!
Task 5,had a 2 hour AAT but was cancelled.
Task 6 showed a 3 hour AAT and Arne Boye Moeller won the 1000 points for 436 km. in time 3.09.[speed 138 km./h]!!!!
John and Oscar were runner’s up with 971 points.
Task 7, 196 km. was set and John was in a real hurry; 157.45 km./h!!!The “slowest” with respect flew with 122 km.h. so a GOOD , FAST DAY!!!BUT,….
Only 299 points for daily winner John.
Task 8, on the last day showed 351 km. Marcus Nouwens flew around with 153.56 km./h in his JS 3 , so another FAST day with devaluating points as he “got” 714 points for his speedy performance. As he was quite a bit faster than Oscar[144 km./h for 636 points] he took over his runner-up spot overall, by 4 points. Swiss pilot Yves Gerster [JS 3 /15m.] was runner up.

The 2020 South African National 18 m. champions;
1. John Coutts with 4.379 points.
2. Marcus Nouwens with 4.192 points.
3. Oscar Goudriaan with 4.188 points.
Laurens was 4th, Arne 6th and Katrin 9th.

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More and more pilots find or have found, their way to VERONICA in Namibia. A few years ago I published an article about Veronica from Prof. Dr. Bert Schmelzer sr. who had flown there and shared his experience.
Sebastian Kawa flew together with a Polish mate, last Saturday a distance of 1,137 km. in the ARCUS M with a speed of 144 km./h.
A bit slower, BUT, 2x an FAI 1000 km-triangle was flown by the Israelian mates and father , Petr and son Radek Krejcirik from CZ.
On December 10 Radek wrote:” First accomodating flight in Veronica this year. Blue with awesome cumulus in Botswana in almost 6000mtrs.”
Since then they flew in the TWIN SHARK, 6x over 1000 km. the best 1.355,79. Great effort even during top-conditions!!!

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I am very much used to high temperatures over Christmas,..no worries I spend at least 30 Christmas periods down under,…BUT, this time I am in The Netherlands and it is 15 dgr. c.,…. PLUS…. it is!!!!UNREAL!!!!
It should be less than 5!!!!
We had the hottest ever year in this world. I guess….Something has to be done. NOW!!!!
On that note,…we, here in The Netherlands, had the shortest day [around 7 hours daylight I read] here so,…we are on the way to the longest [around 17 hours] again, which means spring and summer. Let it come!

MERRY CHRISTMAS dear friends!!!!!
No pictures sorry, a hick up in the system, BUT,….as usual Bill is looking into the “case”. Where would I be without him???

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz

——This is the picture, out of 300, who won the Dutch aviation-photo – award 2020!!!!The winner is Raymond Esveldt.
Congratulations!!!!!

—–Unexpected 1000 km.-flights are the best. Here is Lumpies story, with the message “Now that’s a bucket list item done ….”:
1.126 km. with a speed of 126 km./h in his JS 3/18m. from the Airport Cunderdin in Western Australia.
Always nice to hear a story from the “horses mouth.”
“Well that was a hoot ….
All started at 8pm last night when I got to Cunderdin, rigged LP under lights in the awesome Soarabilty Hangar (Thanks again Damien) as I knew it would be an early start in the morning. Skysight was spot on today with the WX so a launch at 10.12 went as planned. The air changed noticeably 4 times during the flight, there was a different air mass south of NGN …. still good though, only 16% circling to the first turn point. The long leg was just that, I had to change gears a few times and picked the eyes out of the sky, still over 135kph at the second turn, but the third leg was all over the show. I couldn’t read the clouds, everywhere I tried….. nothing ! Reboot the brain and started again, things happening better now, although I’m sure the day cycled during that period as well….. turned the last turn point and just milked everything going home….Highest was 9k AGL twice, spent most of the day between 5 and 8k. 1000k in WA was on the bucket list Thanks team GCWA …. 1126 kms at 126kph …. great WA day !”

Another 1000 was flown on December 12 as well, also from Western Australia but now from Southern Cross by Norm Bloch, who got his JS 3 at the same time as Lumpy. I was there , in Tocumwal, when they got their gliders…Butch “go” one too.
Norm flew an FAI triangle from 1.005 km. with a speed of 123 km./h.
Norm mentioned ” Nice day yet not booming, proves what can be done.”
So right!!!

—–Talking about super weather,….. look at “the heart of the continent” ,…..with other words Alice Springs. This picture was shared by Robert with the message “Nice day in Alice. And better it will be in the days to come… .“

—–More words about SUPER WEATHER, but now on the other side of the world. 4x an FAI 1000 km triangle,…not bad!!!
Bernd Dolba flew in the Super Shark 1.181 km in total and a triangle of 1.029 km. from Veronica in Namibia.
Father and son Petr and Radek Krejcirik, [CZ] both well known from WGC comps, enjoyed such a flight as well, same glider same airfield;1.123 km and an FAI triangle of 1.110 km.
“Our” Israelian soaring-mates Rafi and Avron flew and FAI 1000-triangle as well in the ARCUS M.
Already longer there is Dieter Prang and he flew one too.
Several 1000 km flights from Bitterwasser and Worcester as well last Monday.
FULL-TOP-GLIDING has started again!!!!
Yesterday great weather too, but “only” 1 x 1000 km by Rafi and Avron [1.014/962 km] and OUCH,….999 /965 km, by the Krejcireks.

——Benjamin Neglais , from Schempp-Hirth, was the one to test a brand new Discus-2c FES above the Alb Plateau for a full 1h check about glider behavior, sturdiness and all systems inside. Strong West wind was blowing so ridges were usable. Unexpected as there was no wind on ground and we even took off facing East .

After the flight he shared some data:
“Technical data of the flight shows 1.8m/s average with 17kWh output (max 23kWh) and total gain with engine without optimization above 900m with 2 phases @17kWh and one @8kWh plus one extra just for long leveling @5kWh for 10 minutes. So a gain above 1000m was possible. Great glider as always and great FES system.”

CU next week, just before Christmas, by the way today I turn 74!!!
Thank you already for he early-bird-birthday-messages.
Easy- going-covid-19-day! We got a FULL lockdown on our Dutch plates yesterday, so max 2 visitors on one day!!!
We will survive that too,…no worries.
Cheers Ritz

In New Zealand 30 pilots flew the Springfield 2020 Soaring Championship from Canterbury, in a class, with a “nice” name; enterprise. It seems an interesting concept.
“Old” guns as Tim Bromhead, [Ventus CT] but also young guns as Nick Oakley[Discus 2A] and Alex Mc Caw, [St Cirrus] former junior members of the NZ team, were trying their best to win this “enterprise” title.
They had 6 days to do so , but the “young ones” both had an off day with Nick on day 1 missing a TP and Alex on task 2.
Task 1….208.69 km...day 1;” According to the organizers “A challenging day with low thermals on the plains. The goal for the day was to get to a series of turn points spread across the Canterbury Plains. There was also bonus points for any pilot who could get out to sea. Three pilots achieved this, OP, JK and TF, however only one of the three gliders made it back to Springfield. Well Done Tim in OP. There were a few other landouts at various locations across the Canterbury Plains.”
Task 2 …max. 588.58 km. on day 3,with 11 TP’s after a “no-task-day.!!!
Wave up to nearly 6000 m. MSL. But the best pilots in the ASH 25 Mike Oakley [Nicks dad] / Karen Morgan, flew 344 km with a speed of 64.77 km./h! For 532 points!!!
Nick was 3d Alex 4th and Tim 11th for 191 points.

A task was set ,but another day cancelled on December 2 but Tim Bromhead did fly and with mixed feelings he wrote about the day:
“Didn’t quite make the 1000km, but still had a great, albeit terrifying at times, flight. It was some wild weather today, 70 knots wind (130km/h) to contend with at times at 16,000 feet”
He flew 403 km.
So …a good idea to cancel the day.
Task 3 on day 5 with a possibility of 718 km and 12 TP’s.
616 and 626km was flown by the ASH 25 with Mike [president of the club]and Karin and ASH 25M by team ZF.
Derek Kraak in the ASG 29 E flew 505 km and was 3d.
When you wonder where Keith Essex is,…he is one of the tuggies!

Task 4 on day 6 with 2 pilots “earning” the same amount of points; Tim in the Ventus CT [ starting at 13.49] and Alex [ start at 13.32] in the St. Cirrus;637 points for 304 km and 258 km.
An hour later the ZF , the ASH 25M started but they only flew 116 km and lost 185 points for the day.

NO task 5,…. so with 4 out of 7 day’s with thermals , wave so several challenging days, this was real N.Z. -weather.
Winners were no “news”, as they were winners already for a few days.
1. Oakley and Morgan in the ASH 25 with 2.394 points.
2. Tim Bromhead in the VENTUS 2CT with 2.084 p.
3 .Team ZF in the ASH 25 M. with 1.933 p. Tried to find out who flew the glider but could n’t.
Alex [ chief pilot at Canterbury] and Nick were 4th and 5th [1.894 and 1.837 p], IF,….
The extra bonus points “to reach the sea” invited pilots to fly distances they otherwise would not do. So a lot of individual “thinking” ,a nice creative concept.

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One of the new concepts in soaring is virtual flying. E glide. In Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, in France this virtual happening started on December 4 and continues till December 19 under the name Condor FFVP [ Federation Francaise de Vol en Planeur] e Sport Series..
It is possible to follow it on you tube. This is day 1 on December 4 with 217 km.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3gk_nfXL0I
Nearly 50 pilots are involved, so a lot of interest in “our” winter in this kind of soaring.
“The FVP is organizing for the first time a Condor 2 competition that comes as close to the real competitions as possible! 5 races and 1 training sessions are offered to you, mixing plains and mountains theft. The circuits will be drawn so that all participants can easily realize them. Objectives of the competition:
• Offer a Condor competition that comes as close as possible to the real competitions (regulations, guidance, flight conditions).
• Offer a playful and training animation.
• Promote the glider competition and eSport. All competitors are asked:
• a sympathetic attitude towards the problems that this first match might encounter;
• Apply the same security rules as theft in real gliders. Dates and opening hours of the following messages:
Friday 4 December 2020….. Friday 11 December 2020….. Friday 18 December 2020 ……. Wednesday 23 December 2020 ….. Wednesday 30 December 2020 u

Competition website: https://www.soaringspot.com/…/condor-ffvp-esport…/
View the training day: https://youtu.be/6F5rzwlzKKY
More information about the glider: https://www.ffvp.fr/

To finish,……. a few pictures from the “past” because most of you seem to really like them.
The Awards Ceremony in 2015 in Rotterdam, at the SS ROTERDAM, where I was awarded with the Pelagia Majewska Medal….. still a proud moment.

A few good flights last week on the OLC. One last Monday from Keith Essex, travelling back to the South Island where he runs a club/business at the moment with planes brought from the USA. He flew in wave 1.202 km in an ASG 29/15m. with a speed of 147 km. Going far up N. and less far S. from Omarama.
“Took a while to get into the wave. Lots of low level instability. Most of it was weak meandering wave. Wave petered out in the north. Very southerly that made the trip south very slow and require lots of jumping wave bars.”
Also the “boy’s” from the Cu Nim Gliding Club had a 1000 in their ARCUS M not as far as the week before though and mainly because they tried “An experiment, playing with Mountain Wave (not fun), and going as far north as possible (lots of fun)”.1.067 km.
A few 1000 k’s from Bitterwasser and Veronica [ since December 3 every day 2 1000 km. flights in the ARCUS M and/or ASH 31/21 m. and some in the Shark] and on Saturday also 3x a 1000 from Douglas Backhouse in JS 1 , JS 3 /18m.and Ventus 2CM/18m.So they have started too.

Nearly Christmas and “end of 2020” ,what a weird year it was. Looking ahead at 2021 already.
30 Days to go for JOEYGLIDE in Australia ,….a competition as well as coaching program for the young ones according to the COVID -19 rules!!!The borders between the States are as far as I know open at this stage. They are considering a REGATTA in Leeton [NSW].
https://www.joeyglide.juniorsoaring.org/

Last but not least and I am REALLY PLEASED to see this…….
“our” former pool is up and running again!!!!!

Cheers Ritz

” I was playing with the convergences ” Was his comment AND …”SkySight forecast was spot on”. YES, Matthew and his SkySight- team are doing such a great job!!!!
BUT,……Peter Temple flew from Gawler , close to Adelaide, on Friday November 27, a magic distance from 1.312.7 km. with a nice speed of 136 km./h!
TOP JOB!!!!!Of course he is a great pilot , flies WGC’s etc, BUT such a distance must be another dream come true for him!!!WELL deserved!!!!
Congratulations Pete and what a superb beginning of the down-under-season!!!
And….. on that day only 3 pilots added their flight from Gawler on the OLC, the rest I guess had to work!!!; Alex Wallis in the St. Libelle with 753 km….great job as well….must be a happy chappie too and Geoff Wood in a Pilatus B4 with 353 km.

One day later Pete wrote on his Pete Temple Gliding
“1312 km yesterday – and this is how. Cloud base 15000 ft in a convergence running from Port Augusta to Horsham (although I wasn’t game to stray far into Victoria). This was the view coming home.”

That same day Canada had superb weather too. Look at this news from the Cu Nim Gliding Club :
“Incredible performance by Chester and Patrick in a Schempp-Hirth Arcus M today. Can you believe an average sped of 212km/h over 971km in the Chinook wave? Dig into the flight and find a 156km leg with an average speed above 300km/h!6th best flight in the world, and possibly another new Canadian record. Congrats fellas! https://skylines.aero/flights/127769

Of course Schempp-Hirth reacted as well;
“Looking for another flight spot? Canada seems to be one for the bucket list! And the season for wave is definitely open. On 27th of November, Chester Fitchett and Patrick McMahon, in a Schempp-Hirth Arcus-M, flew an average speed of 212km/h over 971km in the Chinook wave (near Calgary)!!!Flight data analysis with SeeYou shows a 156km leg over 300kph ground speed!!! https://seeyou.cloud/flight/public/6fB8pgaCOieuc_CD216xYF…
Congratulations to the pilots and to the club of Cu Nim (Black Diamond Airport) for another great adventure in the sky!
https://www.cunim.orgAnd another time thanks a lot to ATC for allowing pilots to perform such flights! It seems to become a good habit

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When I left you, there were no scores, but of course we have them now.
Day 5 had the 3 hour AAT and 8 from the 22 still flying from Narrogin, flew over 300 km. One pilot, in fact 2 in one glider the DG 1000/20 m. was/were ” out”.
1000 points for Greg [Beecroft] , in his 18m. LS 8 for a speed of 108 km./h over 339 km. Not a real fancy day, I guess looking at the speed.
Lumpy [Paterson]had 924 , Don[Woodward] 880 and Norm [Bloch]had 842 points.

Some info; Narrogin is in Western Australia about 192 km. SE of Perth.
This is how the field looks!

The next day was a no-flying-day , due to wind and conditions!
So they flew again on Friday with another 3 hour AAT on their schedule.
Task 6 on day 7; A FAST day and many kilometers were flown. Look at this;
Norm in the JS 3/18m. won the day with 451.72 km. and a speed of 141.21 km./h!!!
Runner up was Lumpy same glider , even more kilometers…454.31…but more time was needed so speed was 137.36 km./h.
Don did a great job in his ASG 29/18m. …he flew 457.38 km. with a speed of 130.57 km./h.
This is what Lumpy had to say about the day;
“The task was set into the Cu area for today, which was interesting as not far to the north of us it was blue and to the south it was over developed and soft. There was a convergence line forming to the south as seen in the photos, I only managed to use it for around 50km as it was too far south to be of benefit for the run home but assisted getting to the second turn point. The first two legs went very well for me and was doing over 150kph as I turned but got bogged down on the run home sadly, all in all a pretty good day though. Great to see Greg is human after all, first time out of the top three all week, he flies consistently well.”
Greg was 5th.

Task 7 on day 8 the final day!!A 2.47 AAT was set and 10 pilots flew over 350 km. Quite some differences in speed as the daily winner Don, had 358.74 km with a speed of 128.34 km./h. missing out on 4 points to be as number 3 at the podium.
That spot was for Lumpy, he hold on, BUT…he lost 197 points by being 5th for the day with 359 km. with a speed of 115,65 km./h!!!!
Runners up for the day were Norm and Greg.
“It was a blue day with a mix thermal arrangement, some climbs were 6 kts and other only 3… mostly going to around 5k agl. I started pretty much at the front and spent most of the day finding thermals for others and not really making the break away from the group, until 30k from the last turn. There was some really strong sink streets today and it was difficult to work out which way to move out of them ( well for me anyway )found myself low a few too many times for my liking.” as told by Lumpy. Who won the 3d prize AND the prize for the ” the fastest 300 for the comps.” 152 km./h!!!!

Final results after 7 out of 8 day’s of great soaring in the West from Australia;
1. Greg Beecroft in the 15 m. LS 8 with 6.173 points.
2. Norm Bloch in the JS 3/18 m with 6.118 p.
3. Lumpy Paterson in the JS 3/18 m. with 5.912 p.
4. Don Woodward in ASG 29/18m with 5.908 p.
Close scores, hard fighting for the honors!!!
The pilots from Beverley Soaring Society won the team trophy.

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News from the future Nationals in Australia;
“This year has been a difficult year to plan, and both the October Multiclass at Kingaroy and the December Club/Sports Class Nationals at Tocumwal had to be called off. The two events have now been merged into a single Nationals for Club, Std, 15m, 18m and Open class. This event will be held from the 13-20 March 2021, either at DDSC [Darling Downs Soaring Club ]or Dalby depending on numbers. The decision to hold such a late Nationals was made to maximize the time available for travel around Australia to return to normal, and to give pilots from all over the country as much time as possible to regain currency. The late timing also meant that the only practical location was Queensland, where the weather is still excellent during March. COVID is impossible to predict, and politicians are even less so, but to be clear: if signed-up pilots from any state are prevented by regulation from traveling to the Nationals, or cannot return home without supervised quarantine, then the contest may still take place, but will not be counted as a Nationals and won’t be used for international team selection points.

A signed-up pilot is any pilot who has registered to attend and has paid their deposit.” Alan Barnes

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News from Bittwerwasser;

“Small but nice…A small group of about 20 guests are currently enjoying their stay in Bitterwasser. Everything is a bit smaller and more familiar than in the years before. Yesterday was the first good flying day. With Cumuli early over Bitterwasser the day started promising. In the afternoon showers and thunderstorms made the flight exciting after all. With 1043 km on the speedometer Tobi Welsch and Tore Graben finally arrived home again with the Bitterwasser Arcus RL. Dirk Reich and Frerk Frommholz flew a proud 955 km. The rest of the troop preferred to land a little earlier and flew distances around 700 km.”
The first 1000 k. has been flown as well.
And on the last day of November 3 x a 1000 and 1 from Worcester and 2 from Veronica. Summer has started , winter here!

The construction of the new TOCUMWAL MUSEUM is going fast and steady and the exterior is now beginning to take shape.

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And to finish a picture from TOBIAS BARTH, who won the 2020 ZIELFOTO AWARD.I do understand why he won. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
“Photographer of the Gliding Calendar – Fotokalender Segelfliegen prevails!!!!Our photographer Tobias wins the finish photo award, announced by photographer Stephan Wiesner in cooperation with Gearflix. The quality of his work prevailed against about 4000 pictures from Northern Germany on the topics “landscape”, “sea” and “city“.

CU next week. With news from the Springfield Soaring Championship in New Zealand from November 29 till December 5.
By the way some parts of Australia suffer from an early -spring-heat-wave with 40 dgr. C plus. We had minus 6.5 here in the night from Sunday to Monday!!!!
Here a picture shared by my friend Brad:

“December 1st and summer has arrived! 41 degrees and a few little cells at Nyngan today but it’s nothing new for our experienced pilots.
With extensive time operating in places such as the Kimberley, Central Aus and Far North QLD, our pilots make sure your flight is safe and comfortable even in the hottest locations.”
Edwards Aviation
“Edwards Aviation is a premium air charter service offering corporate and private flights in a fleet of fast, luxurious aircraft. We offer quick, comfortable and efficient travel solutions to the highest standards of safety and service.”

Keith Gately mentioned this morning from Lake Keepit:
“New record 500k out and return in 20m 2 seat class. 141.8 klm. Nice one Adam Woolley 2 flights 2 records. Not a bad couple of days gliding. Another verification to be confirmed.”
The day before they flew a new record together a 300 km. out and return ;139.9 km./h from Bathurst.
And another THANK YOU:” Thanks Matthew Scutter for SkySight and it’s wickedly accurate plotting of the convergence.”

Cheers Ritz