When I left you on Wednesday the weather-forecast looked promising.
“The weather looks fantastic today!” BUT,…..not much later there was an outlanding at the airport of Martin, not so far from Nitra.
“Probably weather is not as fantastic as stated previous report.”
What happened on Wednesday April 20??? Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit of an “off-day” for the organizers ..weatherman…and the “poor” pilots. No finishers!
It was one of those days, the weather went it’s own way. Luckily not a lot of points to gain or loose….though Tilo might not agree with me.
Club class;
task 6; 401 km...335 km.
was a hero-act for 500 points by Slovenian pilot Mark in his ASW 20 W. He flew more than 100 km. further than the rest so he must have done a few things really RIGHT!!!!
Runner up Boris, flew 239 km for 430 points in his St Cirrus WL. Others 238 15 m. class; task 6....503 km....
Same circumstances in this class ONE pilot flies more than 100 km than the rest. This time David in his Ventus 2a; 419 km. for 600 points. The runner up also from Czech Rep flew 304 km.
20m/2-seater class; task 6.…503 km.…
Bad news for the number 1 overall, team Tilo and Jan Lucas, they were out after 58 km!!!! They dropped from 1 to 4. Better job was done by the Slovenian team in the Arcus with 345 km. for 600 points. They moved from 4 to 2 overall.
open class; task 6….555 km….
One of the pilots from the club of my Belgium friends Keiheuvel, Wim won the day!!!In his Ventus 3F/18m he flew 504 km. Simon flew 505 km in the EB 29, but got a warning…no loss of points.
Wim moved to spot 1 overall from 4 [2.984]and Matthias to 3 with Radek still in the middle.[2.978] All very close.

Thursday April 21;
A good soaring day .In the end it turned out to be the last one of the competition due to the weather. A pity as scores were really CLOSE!!!
Club class; 276 km…After his off-day Uwe [Wahlig] showed his class and won the day…his second win. Uwe was the last one to start at 13.27 ,whilst the first pilots went on track at 13.02. Not enough points to be in the top 3 but moving up from 14 to 7 is GOOD.
Michal Lesinger who was the number 1 overall during the last days , was 9th, but still had just enough points to win the comps.
Dutch LS 7 pilot Roelof was 3d for the day.
The overall scores after 5 flying days in CLUB CLASS;
1. Michal Lesinger [56] from Czech Rep. in ASW 20 with 3.186 points.
2. Roelof Corporaal [33] from The Netherlands in LS 7W with 3.179 points.
3. Mark Travner [24] from Slovenia in ASW 20 w with 3.169 points.
All scores VERY CLOSE!!!!

15 m. class; 328 km…2 Polish pilots and 3 German pilots formed the top 5!!!
Tomasz and Lucasz were fast with 127 km./h Max ,Jan and Sebastian were 10 km./h slower.
AND,…number 6 was David Mach who leaded the overall scores. Not real start games as most were “gone” in 15 minutes.
That results in the next final scores after 5 days in 15 m CLASS..
1. David Mach [27] from Czech Rep in Ventus 2A with 3.942 points.
2. Max Maslak [19 !!!] from Germany in Discus 2T with 3.866 points.
3. Jan Schulz [21] from Germany in Discus 2T with 3.623 points.

20 m class; 325 km….Team Beyer/Lauer,2 young German guy’s, won the last day with 127 km./h after a late start in their ARCUS.
After 5 days the overall scores in 20 m. CLASS look like this;
1. Rudolf & Kavalic from Slovenia in the DUO DISCUS XL with 3.951 points.
2. Sibanc & Knez from Slovenia in Arcus with 3.884 points.
3. Buhlmann & Kiessl from Germany in ARCUS with 3.645 points.

Open class; 381 km…133 km./h was the winning speed for Slovenian pilot Luka in his VENTUS 3f. Radek and Wim were on spot 9 and 10 with 135 and 127 km./h. on this last successful day.
This brought them an equal FIRST place. GOOD ON THEM!!!!!
Overall scores in OPEN CLASS after 5 days;
1. Radek Krejcirik [30] from Czech Rep. in JS 1 F /21 m. with 3.844 points.
1. Wim Akkermans [41] from Belgium in Ventus 3F with 3.844 points.
3. Matthias Sturm [47] from Germany in JS 3/18 with 3.753 points.

All in all another great and successful edition of this 20thiest anniversary- Pribina Cup. The prize giving was , due to cancellation of the last day earlier,… on Friday April 22 at 4. So everybody was home again Saturday or Sunday.
Congratulations to all.

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A long time ago I wrote about 6 Danish gliders which were stolen in 2017!!!
4 Club planes and 2 private ones.
Now on April 10 2022 they found a Duo Discus and LS 4. The other 4 seem to be found too, as sources in Lithuania state.
The mystery about the Danish gliders you can read in the Nordic Gliding Magazine from Jens Trabolt
“Mystery about stolen Danish gliders – now found in Lithuania, 3 Czech nationals allegedly presented false purchase contract to police at the Polish / Lithuanian border when they were stopped with a Duo Discus and an LS4.”
Very interesting and exciting reading, have a look. It’s hard to believe , but it happened.

https://nordicgliding-com.translate.goog/mystik-om-stjaalne-danske-svaevefly-nu-fundet-i-litauen/

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I really thought I had published this news already, as I always want to give you each site of a story,….. I know I have read it ; it might be double now in my blog ….no worries. It’s about the WWGC in Lake Keepit.
I shared the final verdict and not long after, the “girls” shared their opinion.
Here is their view/perspective of what happened
https://wwgcausteamstory.com.au/
And,…. as the next WWGC in Husbos is already soon [August 13-27 2022] , Lake Keepit is done and dusted now;
https://wwgc2022.co.uk/

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Short news;
On May 8 till the 14th 2022, the 1st Qualifying SGP of the 11th Series starts in Sweden in Boras.

LZ Design news; “Finally we published new FES website!”
Freedom to enjoy soaring…..front electric sustainer.
AERO 2022: LZ design is present with mighty Duo Discus FES in hall A7 stand 213. Looking forward to meet you!
front-electric-sustainer.com

Aéroclub d’Aire sur l’Adour is preparing for the French Nationals in standard, 15 m and 20 m class…..male and female between May 1 and 7 2022.
Quite a few strong names amongst the girls as Aude Grangeray, Anne Ducarouge , Maryline Abadie-Berard and from the UK Ayala Truelove.
Pierre the Broqueville will fly as well as Eric Napoleon and 2 from the De Pechy Family and young Kevin Faur.
CDF 2022 website
More in my next blog!

European weekend weather was good for several over 750 km. spring-flights.
Saturday ….804 in a Ventus 2CM.\/18m from Hodenhagen in Germany , Sunday 770 km from St Johan in Austria in AS 33es/18m.

Last but not least news from Finland;
“Our gliding season started a week ago but all taxi and rwys are not in
use because of the reason seen in these pics.
As you can see, today we had visiting aviators refueling and taking a
rest.”

CU next week!!!It’s May already then,….time flies!!!
Cheers Ritz

PRIBINA CUP:
On April 13 they started with the practice days. On Friday April 15 the first flying day was cancelled as was the next day !They tried hard ,but no chance to fly a task, due to wind and “no lift” ,….a lot had to return to the field after they started.
So on HAPPY EASTER, April 17, tasks were set AND flown. AND WHAT TASKS!!
Task 3;
At 12.25 the organizers shared the next message ;
“All gliders are in the air. Weather looks promising, with 3m/s lifts and cloud bases above 2000m QNH“
Club class; 361 km…Dutch pilot Roelof Corporaal just missed out on 2 points to “have” the first 1000 ;998.
In his LS7 WL he flew around with a best speed of 121 km./h.
23 Finished, 1 was out and 4 entered forbidden airspace.
15 m class; 446 km…David Mach from Czech Rep flew in his Ventus 2a around with a speed of 132 km./h. German pilot Max Maslak in a Discus 2T was runner up [123 km./h.]
All 24 finished but 3 got zero points for an airspace infringement.
20 m 2-seater class; 444 km…1000 points for Tilo and his mate Jan Lucas flying the ARCUS M. All 9 teams flew, nobody was “punished” and all finished.
open class; 501 km…146.48 km./h in the 18m JS 3 was the best daily result for Jernej Lokovsek. He was followed by some well-known names, as German pilot Matthias Sturm, Belgium pilot Wim Akkermans and Radek in A JS1/21m. so not in the brand-new AS33es, because …his dad Petr flies the new toy.
43 from 46 finished.

April 18 Task 4;
At 1.30 the message was ;”Everyone is in the air. First gliders are already on the 1st turnpoint at the north. Some snow/ rain showers in the task area but it does n’t seem like a trouble for pilots.“
Club class: 251 km.…fast day and not too many points to gain. Uwe Wahlig [LA3 WL] won the daily 571 points with a speed of 130 km./h. Quite a bit faster than the runners up from Czech Rep in ASW 20 and KKB-15E FES, who flew around with 111 km./h. Only one outlanding [from 28] , so a GOOD day!
15 m class ;335 km...Polish pilot Wiktor Lacinski was ONE minute faster than German pilot Max Maslak , so 921 and 914 points for the boys.
Czech pilot Karl Novak was 3d in the JS 3 and one of the Lucaszes , Lucasz Grabowski was 5th.
Aurelien from France, Juditha from Poland and the Czech girls Dana and Jana were on spot 18,19, 20 and 21. [3x LS8 and a Discus 2a]
25 finished only one was out.
2 seater class ;333 km…Team Aberle/Holighaus won again and added 962 points to their scores. With 115 km/h. they were 1 km./h faster than the other German ARCUS, but about 7 km./h faster than the rest.
All finished.
open class; 371 km....45 started and 44 finished and the daily best was Matthias Sturm [JS3] with 135.78 km./h speed. Runner up Hungarian pilot Zoltan Hamar was a tad slower ;131.62 km/h. Radek was 3d, he was the fastest for the day with 136.25 km./h ,[higher handicap 127.7] his dad 17th.
45 started 44 finished!

April 19 Task 5;
The early morning news at 8.45 was; “Grid is already opened, briefing is scheduled for 10 am as usual. The weather situation looks a bit complicated today, so we are closely monitoring it to see how it develops. First launch is expected at 12 loc for now. So get ready“
AND ,…it was at 12 PM!!!
AND,….at 1.01 PM all gliders were in the air. Great job!!!
Club class; 2.30 AAT…Dutch pilot Roelof won another day. He is a member of the club the Gelderse, where my granddaughter flies as well.
In his LS 7WL he flew 267 km in time in 2 .31. He was followed by 2 Czech pilots.
At this stage, with many scores still preliminary, Roelof is 3d overall with 2.157 points. Ahead of him 2 Czech pilots Michal Lesinger and Jiri Kusbach with 2.198 and 2.189 points. Tibor, who flew with us in Tocumwal is 4th with 2.140 points. So EVERYTHING can still happen.
From 28 starters 1 was out.
Uwe who won task 4 unfortunately had a bad day; 24th. He dropped from 1 to 10, but” it ain’t over yet”, he is a winner.
15 m. class; 2.30 AAT.…a fully German day with a German top 4 in Discus and LS 8. Daily winner Jan Schulz with 319 km. in time 2.29,56. good timing!!! Runner up Max Maslak also in Discus 2T with 318 km in time 2.30,08, also great timing.
On 3 Sebastian Nagel[ who I met at 1 or 2 JWGC’s ] in Discus 2A, with 317 km in time 2.30,05 and the 4th pilot in the LS 8 was Jan Kretzschmar with 314 km. in time 2.34.
After task 5 it is Max who leads with Jan as runner up; 2.665 for 2.620.
All 25 starters finished as well.
20 m-2-seaters; 2.30 AAT …. 8 teams started and finished, best for the day an HC pilot from Poland flying 318 km. in time 2.33 in an ARCUS.
Aberle /Holighaus lead the overall scores at this stage with 2.727 points. The Runners up in a Duo Discus have 2.648 points.
Open class; 2.30 AAT…Good to see that Andreas [Lutz] won the day. Like his mate Wolfgang Janowitsch he is a frequent WGC pilot. He flew in the Ventus 3/18m 339 km in time 2.29,55. Those pilots are really good in their timing, better than I remember. Matthias in his JS 3 started 9 minutes earlier flew about the same distance in time 2.27,49.
At this stage the preliminary scores look as follows; 1. Matthias with 2.642 points. ….2. Radek with 2.470 p and ….3. Zoltan from Hungary just ahead of Wim from Belgium ;2.437 for 2.426. By the way number 5 has 2 points less, so also here everything is possible.

The news for today Wednesday April 20 is;
“Good morning! 
Hope You sleep well and You are ready for the next competition day. Runway in use 33, online briefing at 10 am. Sun is shining so get some vitamin D before the flight.”
You can expect they fly today and next week you will read it all. When you want to keep an eye on it yourself you can use; https://www.pribinacup.sk/2022/

I was shocked to read that top-soaring-journalist Gerd Marzinzik died on April 12,due to a fatal accident in the mountains [Tirol]. Together with him a young co-pilot…. so terribly tragic! Only 17 I read.
What a loss!!!!
I met Gerd , mainly in the past, at several WGC’s and he flew with us in Tocumwal. He was a professional writer about soaring and I read the “Aerokurier” only because of his gliding stories.
Lately I did not see him anymore, but I read most he wrote. Nowadays he was part of the Bitterwasser team and they were ,like anybody who knew him very sad!!!
They wrote;
“For 3 years, Gerhard enriched the Bitterwasser team as a highly valued permanent member. Numerous exciting reports and photo contributions were written by him and informed the international gliding community online about the current events at the Bitterwasser Lodge.
Gerhard was a quiet, fine person with a mischievous sense of humor. His flying expertise was appreciated and recognized by all.
He died in the pursuit of his great passion, gliding. Our deepest sympathy goes to his relatives and loved ones as well as to the relatives of his co-pilot. Gerhard leaves a big gap.
We will miss him.”
I will miss him too!!A lovely very down-to-earth-guy.
R.I.P. Gerd.
R.I.P. young co pilot as well, I better not think of one of my soaring grandchildren.

Gerd contributed to the OLC as well;
“It is with great sadness to announce the death of our long-term team member Gerhard Marzinzik”
“We greatly appreciated not only his comprehensive experience in competitive gliding, but also his unparalleled ability to communicate and write about our sport in an entertaining, exciting yet highly professional way. With no doubt, Gerhard’s contribution laid the foundation for the global success of the OLC“
“His name will always be inseparably associated with the OLC.”
as shared by Stefan Harries for the entire OLC-Team

On April 14 there was another accident with a private DG 800,” over mountainous terrain at an elevation of about 3,500 meters on the Lys glacier, Monte Rosa, Italy.
The sole pilot onboard was fatally injured. This is the third glider crash in Italy so far in April.”
Not good, please be careful!!!!!!!

And then just also over Easter, the TRAGIC news of Silva’s death. Unbelievable! He , Juha “Silva” Silvennoinen, was my “boss” in Rayskala , where I wrote and was steward during the EGC, with Dick Bradley as the chief steward. Silva dared to set a 1000 on the first flying day for open class and we supported him.
I was there during the JWGC where I met him again and his wife and daughter Maria, such a nice and big family. They have to continue without him and I feel deeply for them.
He was so dedicated to soaring , a top CD and a good pilot. A great family man, had military discipline and loved Finish folklore, wearing special cloth for an occasion as opening or closure of an event. He loved nature.
Don’t know what happened during the last flight of his life,…but he crashed and left us all.
R.I.P Silva.

With all this sadness, it’s good to look to a happier item as well,…. young ones who love their soaring too and try to achieve goals. As young Dan who flies at the Cotswold’s in the UK.
Congratulations Dan with your silver C.

News from WeGlide;
On https://magazine.weglide.org/taking-the-next-step/ you can read all about their new plans .They are now launching a subscription model.
“Our main focus is and always will be to improve the free version and to build features available to all pilots.”

News from the European Gliding Union.
They had their annual conference, which was to be in Oslo, on February 26, but in the end was virtual due to COVID.
The EGU has 21 full members and represent 80.000 glider pilots.
Their new president is Arild Solbakken from Norway.
After 10 years Patrick Naegeli announced his well deserved resignment and he is now appointed as Honorary President.
“Patrick Naegeli had announced his resignment from his position as EGU President by the end of the EGU General Meeting 2022. He retired from the Executive Board after having served for 10 years as president.“
You can find ALL their info on
https://glidingunion.eu/

Friedrichshafen Germany; The worldwide leading platform for General Aviation is coming back live! 500 exhibitors, 50 conferences, new trends and contacts – be part of it!
April 27 -April 30 2022.

We had the most beautiful weather over Easter and I hope that you had the same great time ,as I had.
Glider pilots had fun as well. Specially Easter Saturday was a top-day in the Alps.
780 pilots added their flight on the OLC and the most impressive flight was in a NIMBUS 3 ; 1.365 km. with a speed of 132 km./h. flown by Joachim Hirt and Tobias Breithaupt. They flew from Lienz Nikolsdorf. So did Tobias Welsch and Steffen Goettler in the Arcus M with 1.286 km .Also Jan Omsels in a Discus flew from there 922 km and in the EB 29 Alexander Mueller flew 1.119 km.
And one more over 1000 km flight in a Nimbus 4 DM with in it Yves Klett and co pilot Marius Jaeger and for him it was the very first 1000.
Bert Schmelzer jr started at Alzate Brianza in Italy and flew in his Ventus t/18m. a distance of 1.128 km.
Wave went up to 3.835 MSL but the ridge-soaring -knob was on as well.
Down under , in their autumn period, they enjoyed great Easter- Saturday- weather as well with flights from 400 km by Robert and Jenny in the ASK 21 !!!,from the Heart of the Continent , Mac with 534 in his LS 8 and Adam with the same distance in the Ventus 3 both flights from Temora.

Easter Sunday and Monday had top flights as well, so …..many happy pilots…..AND in the end as I heard later, unfortunately many very sad ones as well. Sorry , but I can’t get used to loosing mates due to gliding. And it happens TOO OFTEN!!!!! As said PLEASE BE CAREFUL.

Cheers Ritz, till next week. With so much sadness it ‘s difficult to write!

Last weekend several European countries enjoyed cold, but lovely soaring weather. The Netherlands was one of those countries. Looking at the sky both on Saturday and Sunday my soaring-heart went “boom- boom”!!!!
Swiss pilot Davide, who likes long distance flying, flew 1.320 km. in a Discus 2!!!!!Wave up to 5930m MSL,[his highest point] but also ridge-soaring , over Switzerland, France and Italy, created the good result during an 11 hour and 44 minute flight! And indeed a Nord-foehn was blazing over the mountain tops.
On that Saturday 4x a 1000 k was flown. One in an ASH 26E. The Swiss had their SGT camp[Training] in Valbrembo in Italy, with these very good circumstances.
On Sunday some Dutch pilots flew up to 876 km [ASG 29] and 815 in Duo Discus .
Nearly 1000 pilots loved their flying for a goal or as important for joy and fun and shared that with us via OLC or WeGlide.

In the UK , most probably, the first declared 750 for 2022 was flown by Pete Harvey in the Ventus 3 on April 9.From Lasham Andy Aveling and Garry Coppin flew 696 in the Arcus M and Roy [Pentecost] flew 641 in his ASG 29E.
The Lasham Gliding Society added;
“Another busy weekend at Lasham is complete with close to 250 launches and flights of 750km+ at speeds of well over 100kph average! Our gliders flew cross country as far west as Plymouth and as far east as Dover! Sometimes enjoying some glides over the water and climbs to over 6000ft.Plenty of training and introductory flights during the weekend too! We train new student pilots all year round. “
Visit www.lashamgliding.com for more details.

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Interesting to read that Simon Schroeder, who I saw in Uvalde in Texas in a restaurant with his family, when he was a teenager, now 10 years later, won the WORLD SOARING CUP. Good on him!!!
At that time his dad Robert flew the WGC.
As Gerd Marzinzik wrote on the OLC news ;”He got the cup for his outstanding performance at the 2021 Standard Class Gliding World Championships in Montluçon, France. He got the most achievable points there in 2021 at world championships. The year before the today 25-year-old won the Junior World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, in the Standard Class.”
Talking about the WGC this year in Hungary; I heard, it has moved due to the war in the Ukraine, to Szeged again. The other place was too close to a military NATO base, which is needed now!!!

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Busy enough at the Tocumwal Airshow…great weather fabulous planes and demo’s and lot’s of enthusiastic people.

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Yesterday evening young Radek Krejcirik had nice news on FB.
“Good evening, let me welcome to this group AS33 sn 33033 CN 12. Yesterday 11.04. pickup at the factory. Evening CAA check in Prague (to be honest impressive work done by the officers). Today first flight at the LKCM in Czechia. Lets go for PribinaCup beginning at the end of this week. Thank AS for wonderful work, everything works smooth!”
Good luck in your new glider.
When I remember the many new gliders we had and when they were just ready before an important competition , it always gave smaller or bigger problems with wires or instruments. I hope that does not happen to him.

Vladimir Foltin , the The Sporting Director from the Pribina Cup, [ April 15-April 23 2022] always flown in the Easter weekend, that is ,when there is NO CORONA, wrote in his welcome post:
“Dear pilots,
We would like to inform you about the decisions to continue with preparation of the competition. However, there is another tragedy happening in the neighboring country, that could not be anticipated before. We monitor the developments closely and we will inform of any noteworthy aspects that may affect the preparations for the event.”
Today on the 13th the practice is starting and 117 pilots will be ready to go for it. .
There are 33 pilots in CLUB class, 25 in 15 m. class, 11 in the 20m multi seat class and in open 48 , including Radek.
Last time winners and due to Covid that was in 2019, were Simon Briel and Enrique Levin [Germany] in the Duo Discus, Mark Travner from Slovenia in Club in a DG 300, Tomasz Hornik from Poland in Discus 2a in 15 m. and Sebastian Kawa from Poland in the Diana 3FES in open class .

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When you are in the neighborhood don’t forget the best and leading show for general aviation in Friedrichshafen in Germany between April 27- 30 in 2022.

CU next week with more news and results from the Pribina Cup the first BIG European competition of the season.
By the way the Dutch Open Military Championship will be flown from Malden between June 13 and 17.From Friday April 15 the registration is open.
Cheers Ritz

When they said that there would be a “snow-winter-wonderland” on Friday morning, we looked as well at the weather forecast, as at the calendar…April 1,….mmm…..joke or….
But looking at that weather forecast, it could happen and ……yes it happened.
After the month of March broke “heat” record after record,…not sure if we should be happy with that….it was cold and WHITE on Friday morning April 1.
What happened in March here, was interesting looking at the climate change.
The average of sun was 244 hours instead of 146!!!
The average amount of rain was 8.8 mm , normally 56!!!!! The old record was from 1929 with 9.5 mm.
So the warmest driest month of March with historical low humidity.
The 20 dgr. C however the weekend before felt just SO GOOD!!!!

April started COLD with some die-hards skating on natural-ice [ thin layer of water over track] on April 2. This NEVER happened before.
BUT,…the cold , artic air brought good conditions for soaring to the Netherlands as well. AND, great visibility even with the showers.
What about the “boy’s from Soesterberg from the club from Amsterdam, Hans, Sikko and Mark? They flew last Saturday direction East, far into Germany.
3x an ASG 29 and flights from over 750 km!!!! They topped the OLC that day.
NO WAVE here, but as Dinant said after his first xc for the season; ” Beautiful crisp arctic air, dodging snow showers and never ending convergence.”
Mark mentioned: “Fantastic spring weather! Super unstable air and the forecast was spot on. Cloud base up to 2000 m where it was minus 10.8 dgr. C. We turned Luenenburg, 370 km OUT, and the last 300 km we flew home through snow showers“.
The Belgian, German and also Danish pilots enjoyed the same cold air, result; 588 km in a St. Libelle in early April from Hammer Flyveplad.
On Sunday same good air with 803 km. in a Duo Discus in Germany and 637 in ASW 15 and 758 in ASG 29 in Belgium .

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Adam was very pleased last week after the Australian League came to an end and he shared it with us in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
“The Schempp-Hirth Ventus 3T wins the Australian Speed OLC at the 12th hour! Norm Bloch came in a very close second in his JS3, Tobias Geiger third in his V2ax Very proud of this result, as it was a goal of mine this summer. What makes it better, was that WA had one of its best summers on record, where as the East Coast had one of the worst on record “
The summer season is over now down under, so it’s waiting for the next one, end of this year. I hope to feel that sun there then as well.
WeGlide reacted as well;
“The Australian National League has come to an end last weekend. 30 clubs participated in a close race for the title. Here are the winners:
Beverley Soaring Society, 286pt
Gliding Club of Victoria, 282pt
Temora Gliding Club, 238pt
Amazingly, there wasn’t a single round where no flights were uploaded. Congratulations to the Australian pilots/clubs. ALL gave their best each weekend to achieve fast sprint results It was a big help for pilots based in the northern hemisphere to come through the winter!“
For the full result;
https://www.weglide.org/league/AU?type=total&round=24&season=2022

To stay in Australia; When we were guests at Sportavia in the beginning of our visits down under, some 35 years ago, Michele Lappin was a tuggie and helped out in the office. Her 2 children Cloe and Ben hung around at the airfield, day and night and even slept in the bar on the sofa. Daddy Gerard was a very talented pilot as well, more specialized in crop-dusting.
She even flew with the kids in the tugs, carefully strapped in, when they could barely walk.
Michele worked later for us as well ,but passed away a few years ago.
I worried about those kids, but look at Ben now,…I should not have worried at all;

“The air ambulance is a critical service for regional residents and they’re a regular visitor to Tocumwal.
Another regular visitor is former Tocumwal local Ben Lappin who is now flying for the air ambulance service.
Ben is also a Specialist Capability Officer with the Air Force’s Number 100 Squadron and he’ll be back next weekend displaying the P-51 Mustang at the Tocumwal Airshow.”
The show will be next weekend and Tocumwal will be buzzing.
“The Tocumwal Airshow returns on 10th of April 2022 and will once again showcase the significant aviation heritage of Tocumwal and commemorate the Centenary of Air Force.”

News from the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix:
“The Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix of Sweden will start in 5 weeks!
17 pilots are already registered.
Do you want to compete with us?
Don’t wait and take your chance to qualify to the World Final! https://sweden22.sgp.aero/pilots/entries
There are 20 places available and 17 pilots from 4 different countries have entered at this stage ,among them Stefan Langer from Germany, Petr Krejcirik from Czech Rep , Jon Gatfield from the UK and Boerje Eriksson from Sweden.
“Sailplane Grand Prix Series 11 Set to Start in May!
Ten Qualifying SGPs will be held leading up to the final at Pavullo in August 2023.
During the spring and summer 2022, seven Grand Prix will take place starting with Borås, Sweden in May and culminating at Vinon in the French Alps in September.”
Shared by FAI Sailplane Grand Prix
SGP.AERO

News from Kiripotib;
“Our gliders are back from summer holiday in Namibia. Thanks to our strong team we were able to unload all 14 gliders in only five hours. Thanks a lot for your effort.”

And to finish 4 SUPERB pictures from NZ top photographer Geoff Soper who shared pictures from the RNZAF 85th anniversary, Heritage flight over Christchurch.

Thanks again for sharing Geoff!!!!!

CU next week, a pity I miss the Airshow in Toc., but on the other hand I feel a bit better !!!
Cheers Ritz, flu NEARLY over!!!
The Toc line up for Sunday “After months of planning we’re excited to have finalized the flying program for the 2022 Tocumwal Airshow“
Tocumwal Airshow

I hope they add GLIDERS to the list as well. Sportavia/Tocumwal has been for years one of the soaring mecca’s of the world.