Post 1.452 on Wednesday October 25 2023.

Now it’s rather “silent” with comp’s , I can look at some other interesting -soaring- related -news.

—–621 VGS Historic Flight posted this news and pictures.
“A fantastic autumnal day on Saturday with both our two-seaters out at the launch point. Amazing what you can achieve with only 4 people (and a trusty younger helper!). The Sedbergh soared to cloud base and the MK3 went ridge soaring.”
This was on Saturday October 14.

——Also old but totally different, news from Classic Aero Machining Service ;

——AND because it is SO NICE and colorful, ONE MORE:
Classic Aircraft Photography shared this picture

——the die-hard fans from Ingo [Renner], know he and Judy owned a kookaburra and a Discus with call sign XX. In the Kookaburra they flew together on their wedding day and in the Discus Ingo flew many 1000 km. flights and several records.
Who is interested in World Comps and has already looked at who is coming to Narromine and who flies what glider, [as I do] has seen already that there is a Discus A with XX on the tail!
INDEED it is Ingo’s glider and it will be flown by Diana from Luxembourg. Her husband George flies also in Club class in a St. Cirrus.
Petra Piskata from the Czech Rep.flies also in club and she was in Tocumwal in 2019 to pick up an LS1f she had rented . Tim Milner our former tuggie at the Sportavia Soaring Center will be participating as well for the UK.
Tomas Suchanek [Czech Rep] who visited us at Sportavia in the far past will fly as well ,so is Rasmus Orskov[ Denmark].
His mum Birgitte has spend and her husband Joergen still spends a lot of time in Tocumwal.
He has just arrived.

Uwe Wahlig from Germany is the defending champion in club class!!!!
The Netherlands sends 2 pilots Thies Bruins[ ASW 20] who flew Dutch Nationals WGC’s and EGC’s was runner up several times and is hoping/running for gold now!
Roelof Corporaal [LS7] owns several Dutch records; 750 FAI triangle.
So 2 GOOD Dutch pilots in club class!!!!!

——-At Terlet the autumn -soaring- camp from the Gelderse is on and my granddaughter Indya was there as well. At least they had a few nice days. Enough to finish her gliding license.

In total there were even 5; 4 of them “young ladies”!!!!! Good new group of future solo, maybe even comp-pilots. Ties, Willemijn, Femke, Lise en Indya….. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! After their theoretical exams they had a good enough day on October 17 for the flight/practical exams….so 5 glider -pilot-licenses in the pocket. Nearly end of the season and the Gelderse autumn camp is always a great closure of the season , for both young and old[er].
The weather unfortunately did n’t co-operate so good.

—–From November 5 10 AM, pilots can register for the 2024 EUROGLIDE-happening. The biennial gliding race over more than 2500 kilometres through several European countries.
MANY will be anxious waiting if they can participate. There is normally a rush to get in.

“Dear Euroglide friends, the organisation committee of the Euroglide has come to life again! As a first step we have fixed a date for the Euroglide challenge in 2024.
The period for the Euroglide 2024 will be from Monday, June 24th to and including Friday, July 5th (assuming there are no major military exercises in that period)
We ordered some excellent weather for the 12 flying days and finalize the event with the prize giving ceremony on Friday evening July 5th.”
What is Euroglide like?
“Contrary to a standard gliding competition, when each day a task is flown from the same airfield, Euroglide has only one task of approximately 2500 km:”Depart from Venlo airfield, round the turnpoints and return to Venlo as soon as possible, but at latest on the last competition day.“

–——–KIRIPOTIB is ready for the new season so are the CHAMPIONS from the “FLYING WITH THE CHAMPIONS ” .7 Day ‘s learning from the best, what do you want more.
First week is between November 1 and 7 2023. The gliders have arrived

—-–The FRENCH CHAMPIONSHIPS in 2024;
Beynes en catégorie Générale – classes Libre et 18m……. MAI 26-JUNE 1 2024
Vinon-sur-Verdon en catégories Générale et Féminine – classes Standard+15m+Biplace 20m..JULY 7-13 2024
Fontenay-le-Comte en catégorie Junior – classes Club+Standard+15m+Biplace 20m…AUGUST 4-10 2024
Moret en catégorie Générale – classe Club AUGUST 18-23 2024

www.ffvp.fr/agenda-des-competitions

——Maddog Composites shared this picture. I like those hard working sympathetic boys!

——-Matthew Scutter’s Gliding shared an impressive flight :
https://www.weglide.org/flight/343516
“When WeGlide added segments a couple of years ago, they asked me to suggest some for Australia. Idly clicking around I came up with some popular ones and also some silly ones, like the length of K’gari/Fraser Island (20k out to sea).”
“Today I finally got there! Everything went right down to the wire, a marginal jump to the island, barely high enough clouds not really working to safely strip hop, a collapsing convergence and finally a mega-jump back to the mainland, with the sea breeze eating up the climbs ahead just before I could catch them.“
Fraser Island is called the most beautiful Island in Australia. It’s the biggest sand-island in the world ; 123 km. long.

—–And to finish this fabulous colored picture from an autumn landscape in Scotland.

AND autumn in the Netherlands.

You are up to date again ,
Cu next week.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.451 on Wednesday October 18 2023.….BUT published on October 16 as “old news is no news”.

2023 Club and Sportsclass NATIONALS.
Kingaroy,  9 October 2023 – 15 October 2023

I left you last Wednesday with a happy Adam and an, a bit frustrated Bruce.
Adam; “Another fabulous day in the skies, today we had a 3hr AAT over the Downs. It was set because of some uncertainty around Kingaroy. My feeling was that it was just going to be a localized shower & that I’d be able to fly through it from 9000′ should I have to.” the whole story on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
In the end “We navigated the slightly bluer conditions well before connecting up some endless streets for the final two hours – great fun!”
Bruce; “I’m definitely feeling frustrated. A few issues with the electrics in “WB” will not go away. Intermittent electronic problems are so difficult to diagnose, and I have a radio and a vario that won’t play the game.Neither one is a deal-breaker as far as performance goes, but they are very distracting.”
All about it on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Lets continue with the rest of these NATIONALS.

Task 4 on Thursday October 12….Dryer and hotter and all have to go direction N.

Club; 3 hour AAT…..Jim [Crowhurst] in his ASW 20, flew 397.53 km in time 2.57 and that was good for 1000 points;132.57 km./h. Bernie was runner up in his PIK 20B ; 1.21,73 km./h. Steve in his ASW 20B was the number 3.
All 9 started and finished.

Sports 18m; 3.30 AAT….great day for Lumpy [Paterson]who had his 2d win in a row; 559.73 km ,speed 156.82 km/h. Fast!! Ray [Stewart] was runner up with 153 km./h. All 10 started and finished.

Sports 15m; 3.30 AAT…Bruce[Taylor] was on fire!!!! He flew in an LS 8 545.70 km in time 3.37; speed 150.77 km./h Perfect! Adam was 3d and Mak 4th with Toby on 5.
Reaction from Bruce; At last I put a day together! And what a day it was. Certainly one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of flying. Greg and I managed to stay together for almost all of the flight which was helpful and good fun.”
More in Taylor’s Gliding Page

Adam; “First off the bat, congratulations to my team mates in Standard Class – your gliders will need refinishes after today – very proud & impressed by your speeds/team work, you deserve the day win, brilliant.” more in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures and he fishes with “Tomorrow looks like an 8000′ blue day, bring it on”
All 8 started and finished!
After all the gorgeous clouds, blue will be “different: But blue can be terrific good, is what Ingo always said.He flew several 1000 km km tasks in the blue!!!!

Task 5 on FRIDAY October 13!!!! “Dry westerly today with a perfect blue sky, so we launched off the cross strip 23. Launching was pushed out to 11:30 to wait for better lift while the inversion was still only at 4000ft. Only a few cus to the north in the distance. Not expecting the 140-160km/hr averages today that we have had the past 4 days!” Kingaroy Soaring Club
club; 3 hour AAT....Jim’s 3d win he is “on fire”; 1000 points in the pocket. Till now Jo was 2x a winner as well, today she was runner up together with Michael [Strathern] equal points; 347 km with 112.89 km /h. for 345 km and 109 33 km./h. So it’s all about Jim and Jo in this class. With 2 days to go their overall scores are; 4,760 and 4,497 points. 942 p.
A few penalty points this day for low finishes and 1 pilot “out”.

Sports 18m; 3 hour AAT….and Nimbus 4DM pilots Andrew and Ryan were the daily best; 417.51 km with 139.17 km./h. A tad faster than Ray in his JS 3; 138.82 km./h and those were the fastest times.
They all started but Ron seems to have had an invalid start,,,so end of the day…no points.
Ray still leads with 2 days to go but Andrew and Ryan are closing in; 4,664 for 4,595 points.

Sports 15m; 3 hour AAT....no this time they did not start together Toby and Adam. Toby left at 14.29 and Adam much later at 13.09!!! 411 km for Adam with 136.29 km./h and 397 km with 125 km./h for Toby.
Here is what happened trough Adam’s eyes:
“Some days you get lucky, truly! I was naturally trying to start with my team mates, but because I went looking for shear wave upwind of the line first, I found myself low in an area that felt like it had no climbs. My team mates were downwind, but high at the planned start time. It was one of those days when it’s best to just start when at altitude, so I was happy for my team mates to take advantage of their situation. If I were with them, I would’ve started at that time too..As it turned out, I started 20min behind them & the day has just cooked up. They fed back great information to me, like, if you’re in a solid 5kt climb Adam, stick with it. So that’s what I did, which managed to keep me high & probably catch them a little.”
More on this day in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures Adam even had 13kts.
Bruce was runner up and teamed up with Greg;
“It was a tough day and Greg and I landed pretty content with how we handled it. It was windy and the climbs were broken and initially very difficult to find. Our task was a double triangle to the north of Kingaroy, almost twice around the same track. Shear wave pre-start gave us a nice high run out on the first leg, but I think it was this first section that we lost some speed. We wanted to stay high and that was challenging, but as the day cooked up it got better and there were some nice climbs. I think always we could feel the wind and overhead wave affecting us underneath, but we worked well together. Had it not been for Adam’s amazing run from behind we’d have been right there. Super flight Adam, you’re right on your game at present… great to watch.“
Only 6 started [the Trotters DNF] and 1 of them was out.

Task 6 on October 14; penultimate day!
club; 347.10 km..…Speedy Gonzales Jim won with 110.62 km./h. another pocket full of 1000 points. Jo was 5th loosing 200 points, BUT still in the race for the silver. So Jim is ,before the last day,firm on top in his class.

Sports 18m; 468.33 km. with a speed of 135.52 km./h ….Lumpy seems to have found the “real Kingaroy groove” now!! With a late start together with the Nimbus 4DM, they raced over the track, but Lumpy arrived 5 minutes earlier. Lumpy is now on spot 4 after a pretty bad start on day 1, when he was the only one out and lost, compared to the winner Brad, 825 points, that’s a lot to gain again.
He won however till now 3 days. Only 8 started [Adam’s dad Chris and Brad DNS] and 1 was out.

Sports 15 m; 468.33 km…..with 126.86 km./h Toby won the day.The co-operation with Adam worked again; start and finish about the same but on handicap Toby won.
Adam was runner up and Bruce 3d. Adam leads with more than 200 points on Bruce [ 5,724] , but for the last day “things” are still possible; Bruce 5.496 p, Toby 5.463 and Mac 5.450 with Greg close too with 5. 429 points.

Task 6 VERY LAST DAY!!!! Early starts…the first in club just before 12 PM.
Club; 3 hour AAT….Jim added another 1000 points to his overall scores :387 km speed 126.49 km./h.
Jo was 7th but hold her runner up spot overall. Michael was 5th for the day.

No doubt Jim is the NEW AUSTRALIAN CLUB CLASS CHAMPION!!!!
1. Jim Crowhurst in ASW 20 with 6,760 points.
2. Jo Davis in ASW 20 with 6,121 p.
3. Michael Strathern in ASW 20 with 6,027 p.

Sports 18m; 3 hour AAT….with 494 km Ray was the daily winner ; GREAT speed 162.54 km./h!!!! Good on him. He added more points to his total.
Lumpy was runner up with 155 km./h.

NO doubt Ray is the NEW AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION in 18 m class!!!!
1. Ray Stewart in JS 3 with 6,638 points. By the way…. Ray also did the weather and task setting
2. Andrew Georgeson & Ryan Driscoll in the NIMBUS 4DM with 6,497 p.
3. David Jansen in Ventus 3MP with 6,084 p. David was task setter too. I know David from when he was still a very, very young guy and “only” interested in gliding. That he became an airline pilot I think he has to thank Beryll for.

Sports 15 m;3 hour AAT....Mac won the day ,his 2d win!!! 140.65 km./h! over 437 km. AND,…he nearly had the silver , missing out on 12 points.
Adam and Bruce were equal runner up, not even starting together; 966 daily points.
Bruce mentioned;
“As the sun sets on another nationals, we can only be happy to be part of this amazing sport. We’ve had a week (two weeks including the State comps) of spectacular weather and great racing. Today was another day of 160 kph + speeds, a long convergence run out near the coast, and cloudbase away up at flight levels. In our class Mac once again just pipped us, with Adam and I tied for second place.”
Full story on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Adam; “A fantastic end, to a fantastic competition! I’m now a 9 time National Champion thanks to my amazing team mates & the organisation, who made for a great fun competition
The last day was a hoot, convergence line running up North & South! I’m really happy with how I’m flying at the moment, confident, positive & with the burning desire to achieve the ultimate goal come December.”

Adam did well and no doubt is the NEW AUSTRALIAN 15m CHAMPION!
1. Adam Woolley in Ventus 3 TS with 6,690 points.
2. Bruce Taylor in LS 8 with 6,462 p.
3. Mac Ichikawa in LS 8 with 6,450 p.

Where would they be without their very skilled tuggies????? “To get 30 gliders launched in an hour we operate four tugs (three Pawnees and Cessna150) Needing a dedicated group of tug pilots! This week we have had Neil, Rob, Alex, Nev, Paul and Darryl working hard. And thank you DDSC for loaning us your Pawnee.“

Thank you to the Kingaroy Soaring Club too for sharing news and pictures, so that we at home can follow the excitement too.
And thank you to Lisa for being a great CD.

—————————————————————

News from Jonker Sailplanes:
“We are extremely thankful as we mark the achievement of our 300th JS Glider and the simultaneous completion of the 200th JS3!
Our heartfelt gratitude extends to each and every customer, partner, friend, and employee of Jonker Sailplanes for their invaluable contribution in turning this dream into a reality.
Here’s to the next 300 JS gliders and beyond!”

That’s ALL about the Australian Nationals. The WGC in Narromine is the next big event….in 6 weeks time.
It looks that 4 from my family will be there. George and Diana as pilots in club class and Inge and Indya [daughter and grand daughter] as crew/TC.
I stay home …the other side of the world is now TOO FAR for me.
Not much more happening at the moment. We still had 24 dg C. last week, but now it’s really autumn…11 dgr.C. !!!!
CU ……on October 25….. Cheers Ritz.

Post 1.450 on Wednesday 11 2023

South African National Gliding Championship 2023
29 September 2023 – 7 October 2023

My last post was about 3 flying days and 4 tasks, one not flown.
Task 5 on flying day 4 on October 4;
Club; 317.52 km…..Dicky Daly won his 3d day; GOOD!!! 110.83 km./h.
15 m. ; 524.93 km….Uys -day today . He won, finally a clear head after all the work;144.23 km./h
18 m. ; 524.93 km…….Fast day..Laurence Hardmann flew around with 152,50 km./h.
2 seaters; 447.99 km..…As said, Yamauchi & Greenhill, the young ones, finally got the hang of the SA weather and indeed they won another day; 148,52 km./h!!!!!

Task 6 on flying day 5.
Club; 364.79 km…..and Richard Glennie in his ASW 20 was the daily best; 106.46 km./h and the only one over 100 km. Dicky was 3d.
15 m;  594.36 km….another Uys-day; 134.33 km./h. Only 3 left in this class, as AP Kotze did not fly.
18 m;  594.36 km…..Riaan Denner in the JS3 had a good day; 149.09 km./h and Uys’ brother Attie was runner up; 148.85 km./h. whilst Phillip [ a young Jonker] was 4th
2-seaters; 510.29 km and Pieter Nouwens &Mark Nouwens in their Duo Discus were daily best; 127.22 km,./h.

Task 7 penultimate day of this National Championship.
“The final day of the SA Nationals and an early start this morning. Gliders are asked to be gridded before the 10 a.m. briefing for a possible 11 a.m. first launch. There is quite a strong wind blowing and according to the pedestrian forecast they expect temperature of 35 degrees today, getting cloudy over the next few days and then possible thunderstorms later on next week, but by then the Nationals will be ‘done & dusted’.“
South African Nationals
Club; 349.50 km…..Dave Maver in his ASW 20 was the best; 126.11 km./h! Dicky was runner up and Maarten on 4 .With that we have the top 3 overall , with one day to go!
15 m; 579.29 km….. 2 from 3 flew the task and Wayne won.128.38 km./h Runner up was Mark and Uys was out.
18 m; 579.29 km…With an early start [12.39] young Phillip [JS1] won the day 146 km./h…..with ONE point difference with Oscar,[JS3/18m] who started at 13.21; .
2-seaters; 543.35 km….AND …the young ones in the Nimbus 4DM , Zach and Thomas, did it again; WIN; 146.77 km./h.

Task 8; FINAL DAY!!!! Exciting day as well….great speed and a different champion than I expected.
Club; 276.14 km….
15m; 404.34 km…only 2 left in this class as Uys flew his JS 3/18 m. HC. Mark and Wayne both flew the task; 143 and 140 km./h.
18m; 404.34 km…and Oscar proofed once more what a good pilot he is. With a speed of 182.57 km./h, he raced over the track. Attie and Riaan did about the same with start and landing and were only seconds , behind. Interesting to see if that could change the overall scores, AND YES it did Phillip was slower [still 159.66 km./h. ] and lost his first spot to Oscar.
Oscar mentioned that the day was very much underestimated,…that sounds about right… but last day and “braai” in the evening..reasons enough to set a short task,BUT…..”But could have shattered the 500km world record. Half the task was under 11k’ airspace, as the predictions was that this was the best area. Base was estimated at 20k amsl”
A STERLING day!!!!
As Oscar said:”Epic race. Best weather I have flown in for a long time. Actual speed around 400km was 182kmh”
2-seaters; 404.34 km….with 163 km./h the “young ones” in the Nimbus 4DM won again. That was 20 k faster than runner up Stefan in the Duo, but then there is off course the difference in glider!!!

Several over 500 km flights and great speed ,so a good South African Championship. And 7 out of 8 days. GOOD!!!! And good, better ,best,..a safe competition!
Overall results;
CLUB class ;
1. Dicky Daly in St Cirrus with 5,609 points.
2. Dave Maver in ASW 20 with 5,236 p.
3. Maarten Jonker in LS4 with 5,137 p.

15 m class;
1. Wayne Schmidt in ASW 27 with 6,191 points.
2. Mark Holliday in ASW 27 B with 5,816 p.
3. Uys Jonker in JS 3/15 m. with 4,536 p.

18m class;
1. Oscar Goudriaan in JS 3/18 m with 5,907 points.
2. Phillip Jonker in JS 1 with 5,853 p.
3. Attie Jonker in JS 3/18 m with 5,755 p.

2-seaters;
1. Zach Yamauchi & Thomas Greenhill in NIMBUS 4DM with 5,854 points.
2. Nouwens & Nouwens in Duo Discus T with 5,665 p.
3. Pieter Geldenhuys in ASG 32MI with 5,354 p.

15/18 m ;
1. Oscar Goudriaan with 5,888 p.
2. Phillip Jonker with 5,855.p.
3. Attie Jonker with 5,741 p.

——————————————————

Queensland State Comps are a good preparation for Nationals straight after .

In a short period Kingaroy is the host for these state comps till October 7 and the Nationals from October 9 to 15. So in full swing at the moment. See below!
They had a few days to go here is the rest of their week. It’s a Grand Prix type of competition, with a regatta start, quite a few penalties every day and …..
Day 5; REST DAY!!!!!

Day 6;
Club; 245 km.….regatta starts at 12.30 and best speed , just over 100 k /ph. Of course by Bernie [Sizer] in his PIK 20D.
Sports class; 272.8 km....and good old Dave Jansen is really doing well. When he was VERY young he flew ALWAYS. I guess he might be retired now as airline pilot so time enough again.132.08 km./h.
15 m; 272.8 km….won by Bruce 129.6 km./h and Adam was sick so decided to go back to the field.
“Funny old day, I think I might’ve been suffering from a mild dose of dehydration today, a first for me. The upside, I realised it early & called it a day before it got any worse” Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Bruce;” We had a short task today. The weather looked to be blue with the best conditions out to the east, and there aren’t so may turn points possible out that way. It turned out that it was better than forecast and there were strong climbs and increasing cumulus through the afternoon.” more about the day on Taylor’s Gliding Page

Day 7; VERY LAST DAY!!
Club; 273 km…..and a new face at the podium Mark Dalton who flew in his ASW 20 to spot 1 and 10 points. He fished on 6 overall.
Overall scores in CLUB after 6 flying days;
1. Bernie Sizer, in PIK 20 D, with 38 points….winning 3 days.
2. Kim Houghton in LS 3 with 33 points winning 1 day.
3. Todd Edwards in LS 3 with 32 points also winning 1 day.

Sports class; 339 km. Brad Edwards in his JS 3 won the last day , his 2d win.
Overall scores in Sports class;
1. David Jansen in Ventus 3/18m with 46 points winning 2 days.
2. Ray Stewart in JS3 /18 m with 45 points winning 1 day.
3. Andrew Georgeson in Nimbus 4 DM with 39 points.

15 m; 339 km. Greg Beecroft won the day and Adam was runner up Bruce was 5th but no harm to his overall scores.
Here is Bruce;”Some days are diamonds, and for me today wasn’t one of them. We all have days when the pattern we see in our head doesn’t quite match the pattern of the weather we are flying in, and that is part of the fascination of this game. I’ve had a fantastic week and have been so pleased with my results so far. I’m back in my favourite glider from the past 40 years and having a ball.”
About his last day more on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Overall scores in 15m;
1. Bruce Taylor in LS 8 with 25 points winning 3 days.
2. Mak Ichikawa in LS 8 with 22 points winning 1 day.
3. Greg Beecroft in LS 8 with 20 points winning the last day.

Great practice for the Australian Nationals. They can have a 1 day of rest and are used to Kingaroy,… so high expectations!

————————————————————–

2023 Club and Sports class Nationals from KINGAROY.
9 October 2023 – 15 October 2023

9 pilots in club class, 8 in sports 18m and 11 in sports open, and a few strong competitors in each class.
Practice day on Saturday with nice tasks [Club 252 km. Sports open 301 km and Sports 15 m with 260 km] to get in the “groove”, a groove for Adam together with Benalla pilot Tobias Geiger. Adam and Toby practice team flying!
“Tobias & I enjoyed a really positive day over the skies of Kingaroy, where we practiced our team flying for the upcoming WGC” in the beginning of December in Narromine. More news about their team flying on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Some pilots are already in Australia for this BIG event. So is George who flies in club class for Luxembourg, so does his wife Diana.
George arrived in Tocumwal last week and had the best weather last Sunday.

Task 1 on October 9; great, fast, first day.
Club; 347.02 km……8 started in this class ,5 of them in an ASW 20 , 1 in a PIK 20B and 2 in a Discus. And,…NO it was not one of the state-comps- pilots, but Jo Davis, who could have been the WWGC champion ,when there was no controversy about the scores. She is a good pilot!!!!
Speed 127.57 km./h just a tiny bit faster than Michael Strathern also in ASW 20 with 127.47 km./h!

Sports open; 427.87 km…and straight away the 1991 WGC Champion from Uvalde Brad Edwards won the day in his JS 3/18m. Speed 154.65 km./h!!!! Just a tad slower with 154.43 km./h was Ray Stewart, runner up during the earlier state comps.
10 started and only 1 was out.

Sports 15m; 409.25 km…. The Trotters took it easy during the state comps ,but now they were in full action. Peter was 1 with 142.39 km./h and Lisa 2 with 140.89 km./h Both fly an LS 8.
From the state-comp-pilots, Toby and Adam flew together as announced and were on 3 and 4 [145 and 146 km./h!!] ,Mak on 5 and Bruce on 6.
All 8 in this class started and the “slowest” with respect was Mike with still 130 km./h!!!
That says enough about this perfect first day.

Task 2 on October 10; another good day with nic tasks.
Club; 369.50 km…pffff, in his ASW 20 Jim [Crowhurst] reached a speed of 134.35 km./h …. not 1000 points but 900. Not bad either. Runner up with about the same speed Steve [McMahon] in ASW 20B, with 133.71 km./h

Sports 18m; 444.65 km….Brad was runner up and Ray won. Both really good pilots , Brad “a bit older’ maybe experienced [??] as Ray. Speed 159.37 km./h and 154.21 km./h. Both ” flew their JS3 on fire.”
10 started and 9 were in .Ron in his NIMBUS 4DM was out after 85 km. I heard he had already some problems with his glider during the State comps.

Sports 15 m;  444.65 km…good to see our Japanese mate Mak win the day in his LS 8; 145 km./h!!!! AND,…1000 points. Good on him. Bruce was 2km./h slower for 976 points.
Bruce had a lot to say about the day here is part of it:
“Nice big day today for Day 2. Over 9,000 feet at best and peak climb rates of more than 12 knots. That’s 1200 feet per minute, or in gliding terms we are gaining about 400 feet for every circle we do. Nice!
But also “It is huge fun, a day like today, fast cruising, big pull-ups into strong lift that is smooth and powerful… We love it! But it is busy. You have to concentrate all the time because the edge between good and bad air can be sharp and a wrong move can suddenly have you lose height on your competitors.”
Taylor’s Gliding Page
Adam and Toby started together again but the difference between a Ventus 3TS [146.68 km./h ] and a Ventus 2ax [138.58 km./h] is clear. EVEN with the 1% advantage as declared by the GFA’s handicap committee. They are happy together ,so all GOOD.
Mak leads now with 14 points on Peter [Trotter] who was 4th for the day.

Adam’s dad Chris ,a very fine man and good pilot, had safety concerns and Adam writes about it;
“10/10 today to the organisation for listening to my fathers safety concerns about the use of the 500m radius control point, just 15km from the finish line. At first the topic was pushed aside, but then after an insistence to be heard, the organisation took the time to review it, then adjusted it after consideration. I’m super proud of Dad & very pleased that the organisation took the safety first option & were willing to change their minds, superb” Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

Task 3 on October 11; Today ….and the time difference with here is 8 hours, in about 2 weeks 10, so the scores are preliminary. “Fab” day again with 3 hour AAT’s in each class and good speed .
Club; 3 hour AAT…...with 383.63 km Jo had another daily win on a 1000-points-day; 123.88 km./h. All 9 “clubbies” flew over 300 km. and finished

Sports 18m; 3 hour AAT...he started around 10 minutes later as the rest , flew 480 km with a speed of 153.29 km./h …Lumpy Paterson [from Tocumwal] in his JS3 /18m; that was about 6 k/h faster than the rest. Kerrie did not fly so 9 starters.

Sports 15 m; the team-flying from Adam and Toby bear fruit as the 1000 points were for Adam and 954 for Toby; 465.37 km with a speed of 152.76 km./h and 443.43 km with 147.84 km./h.
All 8 started and finished and the “slowest” speed again with respect was 128.63 km./h!!
No news yet from Adam on this great performance , but even better news ….HE IS IN LOVE…..BE HAPPY TOGETHER!!!!

After 3 glorious flying days and halfway the overall scores are in
CLUB; 1. Jim Crowhurst with 2. 761 points and 2. Jo Davis with 2.706 p.
Sports 18m; 1. Ray Stewart with 2.750 p and 2. Brad Edwards with 2.701 p.
Sports 15 m; 1. Mak Ichikawa with 2.822 p and 2. Adam Woolley with 2.820!!!!

More next Wednesday.

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Matthew went to find out by himself what the MORNING GLORY is and when his own SKYSIGHT said “perfect weather to do so”, he indeed “found” it after travelling 2500 km to Burketown; https://www.weglide.org/flight/340246
305 km @ 195 km/h…..Diana 2…”Could probably do a world record 100km triangle on this.”
Cloud top up to 1200m, base all the way to the fog.

Due to internet problems he wrote yesterday a bit more on this flight
“The “Morning Glory” cloud is an extremely rare cloud formation, a ripple in the atmosphere trapped between two air layers that only forms with any regularity in a single location – Far North Queensland. More than a 2000km from a major city, few ever get to view it and even fewer get to experience flight along it.This was my first flight on a Morning Glory. Sorry it took so long to upload – the internet in Burketown was mobile-only and even that went offline!”
There is a 25 minute video via Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

To finish…..more clouds…… another fab picture…

With all these wave meccas London Club Lasham Gliding Society wrote;
“Lasham are back at Deeside Gliding Club in Scotland for the next 3 weeks running our autumn expeditions. We’ve got four gliders up there currently. So far on the first week nearly everyone has enjoyed several mountain wave flights. Some to altitudes of nearly 20,000ft with the good conditions lasting most of the week!“

AND,…what about 109 years of gliding experience and still going strong. My Belgium mates Bert Schmelzer sr and Eddy Huybreckx. TOPPERS!!!!

And news from Henrique Navarro in Brasil;
“The Brazilian Gliding Federation has just approved my National speed record on a 750km FAI triangle @152kph with the Ventus 3 15 meters. I was short of beating the World record by less than 4kph.”

CU next week. Hope a week with less stress and fewer [better no ] deaths around the brutal invasions from Russia in Ukraine and the barbaric terror group of Hamas in Israel,…in what world do we live!?
Sad,…. Ritz

Post 1.449 on October 4 2023.

OCTOBER 1, autumn in The Netherlands.

—–The OLC season 2023 is over and the new season started straight away
YES , I check WEGLIDE as well, but maybe cause I am older, I prefer the OLC [https://www.onlinecontest.org] for my checks…in my opinion more clear, or maybe I am longer used to it. I do love the stories however from WEGLIDE [ https://weglide.org/ ].
Looking at the stats in the end of the 2023 season WORLD WIDE ;
CHAMPION OLC plus; Gordon Boettger from the USA with 10.473,21 points.
Rookie OLC Champion; Johan Luyckx from Belgium, good on him and a bit of a surprise for me.
Best flight in 2023; Gordon Boettger with 3.059,40 km in the ARCUS M from Minden.
Distance record; Gordon Boettger with that same flight.
Stats ALL flights; Nicolas Bennet from the Minden Soaring club with 61.699,23 km during 106 flights.
Stats busiest airport; Bitterwasser with 709.630,07 km during 852 flights by 114 pilots!!!!
Stats busiest club; Koenigsdorf with 395.508,78 km during 871 flights by 89 pilots.

Extra note; the margin from Bitterwasser as busiest airport is enormous. Runner up was VERONICA with 455.248,77 km during 577 flights by 89 pilots. Both are in Namibia.
Europe with Puimoisson in France was 3d ; 487.447,12 km during 1065 flights by 164 pilots and the Dutch Airfield of TERLET was 5th with 318.532,53 km during 1021 flights by 174 pilots.
Clubs; Koenigsdorf on the border of the ALPS was busy but our pilots from the Gelderse were runner up. Not bad!!! And the Amsterdam Club for Soaring was 4th. Theirs stats;
Gelderse at Terlet; 354.533,00 km. during 1055 flights by 103 pilots one of them my grand daughter.
Amsterdamse at Soesterberg; 229.906,98 km during 60 flights by 73 pilots.

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South African National Gliding Championships 2023 flown from Potchefstroom between September 29 and October 7 with 35 participants are in full swing.

On September 29 a good practice day with 301 km. in all 4 classes, club, 15m, 18m and 2 seaters.
Not a lot used the practice though in 18 m and 20 m a few went up.
Jason Adriaan is the CD and organizer.
Task 1; now they HAVE to go……...
Club; 291.59 km ……and 9 pilots started their race for the title. 5 Of them finished and the other 4 had a less good start of their comps. Early starts before 1 PM and the ASW 20 with Rene Coetzee AND the St Cirrus from Dicky Daly were the best; a joint first place with 110.83 km./h. and 99.78 km./h.
15 m; 521.03 km…….5 good pilots among them Uys Jonker and AP Kotze. ONLY 1 finisher in the ASW 27; Wayne Schmidt;113 km./h. Uys flew 479 km, close but,……
18 m; 521.03 km….14 pilots among them Katrin Senne, Sven Olivier, Attie and Phillip Jonker, Oscar Goudriaan and John Coutts. 5 Of them finished, so a good day for them. Best for Laurence Hardman who in his JS1C/18m won the day 127.29 km./h. Young Phillip did well as runner up in a JS1;126.94 km./h John was equal runner up , he and Phillip started and finished together.Sven was one of the finishers on spot 5.
2-seaters; 521.03 km....changed in a 3 hour AAT;6 in total mainly Duo Discus types. Pieter Geldenhuys /Robert Bristow in the ASG 32MI won ;speed 114.42 km./h. Well known comp pilot Stefan Langer from Germany flies a Duo Discus in this class.

Task 2;
Club; 294.87 km….And,…another day with several out-landings. 3 From 10 finished and Dicky was the best again; 86.60 km. p/h and this time he did not have to share his number 1 spot.
15 m; 416.39 km.…Wayne was the only one to finish, his 2d time; 97.24 km./h. Good on him!2 Pilots were less than 10 k out.
18 m; 416.39 km…..6 from 14 finished and my good “old” mate Oscar won the day;111.31 km./h. All pilots flew more than 350 km.
2 seaters; 416.39 km.…NOBODY finished but 4 pilots were close with less than 30 k out. In one of the Duo Discus gliders fly the winner from last years WEGLIDE Sprint Zachary Yamauchi with the winner from this year Thomas Greenhill;
“The dream of flying in South Africa to promote gliding worldwide and to support young pilots, Jonker Sailplanes invites the juniors who win the WeGlide Sprint ranking for Europe and for the rest of the world to participate in the South African Nationals.This year our winners are Kevin Faur and Thomas Greenhill! We congratulate them with this achievement and look forward to their flights. Thomas is currently in South-Africa flying the competition with former winner Zachary Yamauchi. Kevin will head over to Potch later this year, so stay tuned for more updates.” WeGlide……..Many thanks to the amazing team from Jonker Sailplanes for giving juniors this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Task 3 was cancelled!

Task 4;
Club; 262.23 km……changed in 211.45 km....4 pilots flew over 100 km./h .Best for the day Dicky….AGAIN..in his Cirrus; 104.85 km./h…. Great job as well from young, Maarten Jonker, one of the Jonker-dynasty ,he was runner up in an LS 4 ;105km./h.
15 m; 411.20 km…..changed in 318 km....and AP Kotze was the best with 131.69 km./h., ahead of Uys with 129.14 km./h
18 m; 411.20 km…..changed in 318 km…..John [Coutts] from NZ but living already for a long time in S.A. had a BIG WIN; 143.26 km./h. Runner up Laurence flew around with 136.68 km./h . Wayne was last.
2-seaters; 336.51 km....changed in 292 km...and a good day for German pilot Stefan who got the “hang” of African gliding, won with the Duo Discus;121.50 km./h.

Overall results after 3 flying days;
Club; Dicky Daly with 2.006 points,winning 2 days.
15m.; Wayne Schmidt winning 2 days with 2.565 points.
18m; Sven Olivier with 2.461 points, not winning a day but VERY consistent flying!!!
2-seaters; Yamauchi & Greenhill, the 2 young WEGLIDE SPEED winners with 2.129 points.

For today Club has 317.52 km, 15 m. 524.93 km, 18 m.524.93 km and the 2-seaters go for 447.99 km
More next week.

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The Queensland State comps started last Saturday at Kingaroy and the Sports Class Nationals will be next week also from Kingaroy….October 9-15 2023, with 28 pilots in 3 classes.

Last Saturday they started with the Queensland State Comps and as Bruce is there he can tell you all about it on his ;”Taylor’s Gliding Page
“Today was Day 1, forecast blue and about 6,000 feet, which was what we got.” and “So nice to be back in my old LS8, “WB”, after more than 20 years of separation. I remember exactly why I loved it so much.”
There are 13 pilots in club, 10 in sports class and 6 in 15 m.
It’s great practice for the Nationals 1 week later. Scores are according the SGP rules.
Bruce won day 1 in 15m., that’s good as his concurrent’s are Mac and Adam, Greg Beecroft and Lisa and Peter Trotter. Strong class.
David Jansen won sports class and Bernie Sizer in his PIK 20 club. Grant Heany[Discus A] was runner up both are from Tocumwal AND they flew together. [10 and 8 points].

Day 2 was interesting;”I thought I was in a paddock, water pouring out of the ballast tanks, field and approach chosen, various bad words in the cockpit, almost a hand on the undercarriage lever, when I found a small bump. For a couple of turns it was very gently up, then I saw some grass in the air and a couple of eagles nearby… and whoosh!! The thermal bubble hit me from below and it was soon 5 knots up. It kept getting better, and above halfway I actually saw a few turns better than 10 knots!” Taylor’s Gliding Page
The max 4 points in 15 m class were his.
Task 2 had 299 km and Bruce’s speed was 104.5 km./h ……Mac was runner up.
In club 10 points were earned by Bernie good on him. Grant was 3d.
Task; 237 km and Bernie had 92.7 km.//h.
In sport class Brad [Edwards] was the daily best for 10 points in a JS3 18m. with 116 km./h over 299 km.

Day 3;
Club; 260 km..…No not Bernie on top he was “out” a pity and 9th for the day. 8 From 13 were “in”.Todd Edwards in the LS 3 won the day with a speed of 99.6 km./h.
Sports class ; 343.7 km…..Ray Stewart got the 10 -to- win- points-for-the-day;137.4 km./h. 8 From 10 finished.
15 m; 343.7 km….Adam won the day with 137.7 km./h.
“What a fabulous day out of Kingaroy, perfectly set task & great start time set for the GP. Fortunately I have my LX9070 linked up to SkySight which allowed me to check out the SatPic before start. It showed me that after Wondai, I needed to track West to avoid the overdevelopment & showers on track. Big advantage!“
More in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Mac was runner up and Bruce got no points but wrote;
“After my rubbish start I was really surprised to meet Adam Woolley and David Jansen at the first turn, and basically flew the rest of the flight with them. From then on it was full bore, great climbs, long runs down some super streets, and a cracking final glide almost straight into wind along a highway in the sky.”
Much more on his Taylor’s Gliding Page

Day 4;
Club;239 km…..and the LS 3 with Kim Houghton won the day and the 10 points; 96.7 km./h. 9 from 11 finished. Grant had to less good days finishing on spot 8.
After 4 days Bernie leads with 27 points.
Sports class; 282.6 km....Lumpy won the day ; 128 km./h ,so 10 points for him. 7 km./h faster than Andrew Georgeson in the Nimbus 4DM.
After 4 days David Jansen leads with 31 points , together with Ray Stewart.
15 m. class; 282.6 km…won by Mac with 117.9 km./h. Runner up Adam had 106 km./h and was not happy with his day:
“Well that was one of the most uncomfortable flights of my soaring career, from start to finish I felt like I was in a washing machine, constantly getting blown around & shaken up! Super broken thermals today, happy to be home.I made a big error after I made a good start I was leading the pack for the first 75km with the general gaggle lower & 5-10km behind as they got stuck at the Bunya mountains.”
More about his “wrong mindset” on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
After 4 days Bruce is leading with 16 points but Mac is close with 15!!
More next week.

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——-One of Australia’s best, finest and most talented pilots Matthew Scutter is more or less banned from the Queensland nationals in Kingaroy,..his own club… by stupid rules of the Aussie sporting administration. Turning his back to Kingaroy, he moved to Burketown for the MORNING GLORY season!!!!
“I have been angling for an opportunity to get out here for many years, but I finally ran out of excuses and a fairly silly reason opened up to get out of Kingaroy for a bit;
After this year winning our 18m nationals with a 15m glider, the sporting administration decided to simply ban 15m gliders from entering in the future. After wasting days on the phone lobbying for sanity I believe it was overturned (no minutes published…) and instead they intend to apply a special bonus penalty if I enter 18m, but the experience of the process as a whole was enough to make me feel no longer welcome in the contest community here.
So for that and other stupid reasons I’ve blown off competitions in Australia, but the awkward thing is that my club has the nationals now… so Burketown it is!“more on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
It’s from all times this meddling by blue blazers as we called them. I know already here in The Netherlands from the 70thies.
They should sweep with a big broom through the Aussie sporting administration!!!!!!
And I hope this is only written in “anger” and Matthew will fly future comps down under. He should!!!!!!!
Luckily, he “found” and “ran” the morning glory!!!!!!He even shared it in a live-video on FB with nearly 500 followers.

And to finish this picture,…very interesting concept.

No link unfortunately to this subject, but some more info;
“The widespread use of electric sustainers has reduced the “performance anxiety” caused by the limited ability to fly in poor weather conditions or the possibility of not being able to return to the airfield. Eliminated the “performance anxiety” with electric sustainers/selflaunchers, it makes sense to design gliders to maximize the flying experience, hence the unobstructed cockpit design. All gliders till now have been designed to maximize performance given the wingspan and the intended selling price, I believe a change of paradigm will come.

I’ve submitted a scientific article for peer review in Technical Soaring (OSTIV) on April 17, 2023, which includes detailed performance calculations for 18m and 13.5m wingspans and three certification strategies (CS-22 / JAR-22). The peer review is being handled by a top glider designer of a top glider company. However, the peer review process may take some time, as it’s conducted by voluntary experts in the field. It is fair to say that the article might be rejected, but let’s keep our fingers crossed!

I can’t share specific calculation details yet, as that’s contingent on publication. However, for an 18m wingspan with flaps, the estimated maximum glide ratio ranges from a 46 to 50, depending on grade of fuselage development and optimization.

Feel free to comment on the project, share it, and provide any feedback you may have. I believe that in 20 years time, a significant portion of gliders will adopt my design philosophy. The choice ultimately depends on your personal preferences and your demands when buying a new glider. For me, if given the option to fly the UltraVision with a glide ratio of 46-50 or a high-performance glider with a 56 glide ratio on a Saturday at the local field, I would choose the UltraVision most of the times.

Full article in Gliding & Soaring

CU next Wednesday for more about the S.A. Nationals, the finish of the Queensland State comps and the start of the Australian Nationals.
Cheers Ritz