Post 1.481 on January 31 2024 already the last day of the first month of 2024,…time flies.

–—– The Australian Nationals had only one more day.And that was straight away the last day on Friday.
Overall leader with 1 day to go shared his thoughts about the week. Here is Pete;
“After 2 days off due to dismal grey and wet conditions we are up to the final day of the multiclass national gliding championships at Benalla – one to be remembered for low and weak conditions. I don’t think I’ve ever flown so many low tasks in a row – so much so that I’m getting comfortable cruising at 100 knots when below 2000 feet above the ground. I really shouldn’t be since there’s not much between that ‘comfort’ and being on the ground. Some of the time the top of climbs has been 3000 feet or less so as soon as we left a climb we are looking for the next one. Pretty tough finding any sort of rhythm but it’s the same for all of us. I’ve been lucky so far and found the climbs when I needed them – right up to the last day with a near disastrous start when I went through the start line and found absolutely nothing until I was at 900 feet, so had to take the poor offering and wasted a lot of time. Anyway, some points lost but I still retained the overall competition lead.
The final day tomorrow promises to be a reasonable soaring day with some stronger climbs but 15-20 knots of wind to contend with. We might even see 6000 feet.
It’s a bit of a sad day since after owning it 10 years it will be my last flight in my ASG29 – it’s heading off to a new owner in WA. But with my current lead of 119 points I hope to finish on a high with a competition win.”
Bruce added;”
“There’s still hope for a final day tomorrow, though it looks like it will only be south of the river, and it will be breezy.
A shame, but I don’t have any higher level contacts to change the weather.”

TASK 8 out of 11 days and 6 flyable days: January 26 AUSTRALIA DAY!!!!
Nice to know that on this special day one of the most important ladies in soaring, Beryl Hartley, in Narromine , has been awarded Narromine Citizen Of The Year. Well done and very much deserved!!!!Congratulations Beryl.
More GRAND LADIES in our sport but this time from Benalla; Vivienne Drew; she got an OAM [ medal of the Order of Australia] for her services to gliding.
Congratulations too.I have the honor to know them both.
Very last day and luckily flyable.
Overall scores with 1 day to go; 1. Pete [Temple]…4.599 p 2. Bruce [Taylor]…4.476 p. and 3. Greg [Beecroft].4.467 p.
A racing task from  370.92 km was set and flown by 12 of the 14 starters.
David [Jansen] in his ASG 32MI was the daily best and “got” the 1000 points for a speed of 123.67 km./h.
Interesting;finally the 3 open class gliders were on this last day in the top 3.
Pete was on spot 7 and Bruce on spot 6, good enough to remain on the top spots overall.
Bruce for the last time:”
We’re all done and dusted then! Today was slightly frustrating for me, but I won’t be too sad about it as I have finished in a strong second place overall. It was windy and rather low, with plenty of cumulus for a change. I chose a line that appeared to be a good solid-looking street and it seemed to start slightly right of our first upwind leg, but was swinging back on track as far ahead as I could see. But as I began running that way another street out to the left was beginning to cook up, so I pulled up and returned for a re-start.
What a smoking first leg that was! It was all straight flying except for a short 5 knot top up along the way, and I rounded the turn and immediately connected with a good climb to head cross-wind. And so it continued for more than about 2/3rds of the task, which had a lot of turn points today.”
the full story on Taylor’s Gliding Page

Overall results after 6 out of 11 days in open class;
1. Pete Temple in ASG 29 with 5,390 points.
2. Bruce Taylor in ASG 29E with 5,277 p.
3. Greg Beecroft in LS 8 with 5,242 p.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

The last words are for Pete;
“It’s been a bit hectic packing up and travelling home to post before now. I finished champion in the combined 18m and open class. My 12th national championship win – most of them at Benalla so it’s definitely a happy hunting ground for me.
Thanks to the Gliding Club of Victoria team running the competition; thanks to my fellow competitors for the safe and tough competition in the challenging weather; and of course thanks to Mandy for supporting and crewing for me. I look forward to defending the title next year in my new JS3.”

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–—–The NZ Nationals were only a tad more lucky with the weather. On January 24 and 25 they had tasks in both classes. In my last post I wrote that Brett and Keith [open] had equal 1000 points on that 3 hour AAT day and Henry and Davy [racing] got NO points for their flown 2.45 AAT.
Open class;
Task 6; 2.45 AAT.…another challenging/marginal day and only 2 pilots managed to finish, Keith and Tim [Bromhead] [both overall leaders as 1 and 2], for 280 and 272 points. Brett lost as number 4 a total of 151 points.
Starts between 14.20 and 15. 55!!!!
Task 7; 369.12 km……Keith in his ASW 27 /18E had a top-day….He was the only one flying over 100 km./h and winner of the day with 1000 points followed by Tim [Ventus CT] and Brett [JS3] AND good old Tony Van Dyk.[ASG 27/18E]
“ It was meant to be a blue day but there were clouds to the north on task marking the way but the conditions were very soft in areas and the speeds were not achieved in either class. Once again some struggled and there were land-outs on track and some  before the start. In all it was a good day.”
One more day to go…?????????
Task 8; 1 hour AAT,…you see they tried hard BUT, author David Austin mentioned;
“Another day of low cloud and rain. Unfortunately we have had to cancel the day.”
There was no task 8 so the overall scores after 4 of 9 days;
1. Keith Essex in ASW 27-18E with 2,681 points.
2. Tim Bromhead in Ventus 2CT with 2,502 p.
3. David Johnson in Discus 2CT with 2,172 p.

Racing class;
Task 6; 2.30 AAT …3 pilots from the 11 “starters” managed to finish. Georg in the Duo Discus with 189 km / 73.80 km./h. And Mark in his St Libelle [217 km/ 54.51 km./h It took him nearly 4 hours [3.58.51 km./h] to achieve this, but he hold on !!!!!David in the SZD -55-1 was the third with 170 km/51.53 km./h.
Chapeau for these 3 pilots!!!!
Task 7; 251.93 km……This time it was Nigel in the Duo Discus, winning the day . Only 5 finished so a lot of outlandings again and not all of the pilots started.
Good to see Mark [Wilson] in the Libelle “holds on!!!” He leads the racing class at the moment.
Also in this class task 7 was the last one, so the
OVERALL scores are;
1. Mark Wilson in St Libelle with 1,503 points.
2. David Moody in SZD 55-1 with 1,268 p.
3. John Robertson in Discus 2B with 1,238 p.

Congratulations to ALL.

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–—–Western Cape Regionals from January 20 -27 continued after 2 NO TASK-days and 1 flown task with 2 racing tasks on the 24th and 25th in open class.
Open;
task 4; 348.74 km…flying day 2…..Oscar was in the mood and raced to the daily victory; 156.17 km./h. The ARCUS M with Nick and John did not start the rest , 10 pilots 1HC, did. Christian Hynek from Austria used his engine after 46 km, “- tried out the handling of the jet,involuntarily today” and took the very nice picture below.
task 5; 328.05 km…..was won by HC pilot Tokkie [Pieter Carstens] in the LS 4.…speed 169.44 km./h!!!!!!
He can’t be number 1 so that honor was for Peter Farrell in a JS3 ; 175.40 km./h!!!!

According to Christian the magic was shown on this task 3; “3rd competition day in Worcester: You think you’re more ahead with an average of 166 kph, but an LS4 with an average of 169 kph shows you where the magic happens, the red line at 180 kph!” He flew around with 166.17 km./h in the JS1/18m.
Task 6; 525.87 km….great to see Sven [Olivier] in his ASW 27 on top of the daily list with 164.72 km./h. He started later than the rest.” I really enjoyed this day win in Western Cape Regionals.”
Oscar was on spot 5 [speed 148.69 km./h]
7 Started and finished.
Task 7; 2 hour AAT…with smoke due to fires at Wolseley…!!!!!! Oscar won the day with 398 km and with that distance there must be good speed too; it was 166.95 km./h!!!!
10 started and 2 were “out”.
“Last competition day in Worcester, high and fast thermal into the Karoo … it was wonderful” by Christian who was 3d for the day.

The Sports class had only 2 participants and each of them won a day.In the end Laurens [Goudriaan] in ASG 32 was runner up with 2.009 p and winner was Brad Jackson from the USA in Ventus 2CM/18 m with 2.472 points.

Overall scores in open after 5 out of 7 pretty fast days:
Fast days as in…….task 1; 170 km./h . Task 4; 156 km./h. Task 5; 169 km./h. Task 6 ;164.72 km./h Task 7; 167 km./h.
1. Oscar Goudriaan in JS 3 /18m with 3,588 points.
2. Rene Lans in JS 1 Cjet/18m with 3,364 p
3. Andreas Spielmann from Switzerland in JS3 with 3,098 p.
Here they are ,all happy chappies!
As shared by streckenflug.at

OTHER NEWS:
–—–Bitterwasser shared their stats;
Bitterwasser statistics for the 2023 / 2024 season
117 satisfied pilots reported 778 beautiful flights in the OLC and flew 624 853 km (667 384 points). On average 800 km and 858 points per flight.
A total of 252 flights were longer than 1000 km. 2 of them > 1400 km, 9 > 1300 km, 39 > 1200 km, 57 > 1100 km, 145 >1000 km.
These large flights were possible from the beginning to the end of the season. Accumulations at certain times were due to the number of pilots.
Elmar Fischer flew a total of 36700 km and almost 40000 points with 55 launches and 312 hours.
The fastest flight >1000km was made by Ilka Elster-Back and Holger Back with average speed of 160.13 km/h
Simon Briel made the longest flight with 1413 km and Niels Fecker flew with Hans Ulrich Meuters the highest scoring flight with 1541 points.
(by Dirk Skura, Quelle OLC)”

As every year I add my statistics looking at the OLC on January 24 2024.
Most busy airfields;
1. Bitterwasser ; with 117 pilots during 779 flights ; 624.853,94 km.
2. Veronica ; with 84 pilots during 587 flights; 436.641,89 km.
3. Kiripotib; with 90 pilots during 627 flights; 425.968,35 km.
4. Pokweni; with 39 pilots during 410 flights; 299.432,42 km.
5. Worcester; with 32 pilots during 148 flights; 91.286,68 km.

5 Pilots REALLY flew many hours during many flights, so stats of all flights;
1. Elmar Erik Fischer ; 55 flights and 36.745,90 km.
2. Garry Coppin; 45 flights and 31.377,44 km.
3. Nicolas Bennett; 40 flights and 29.022,83 km.
4. Axel Nuss; 37 flights and 28.735,78 km.
5. Dmytry Borovyk; 38 flights and 26.945,57 km.

Speed OLC CHAMPION:
1. Juan Pablo Vertura [Argentina] ; 1.028,18 points. On 18 -11 2023 he flew 231.69 km./h !!!
2. Reinhard Schramme [Germany] ; 985.88 p. On January 5 he flew 154.48 km./h.
3. Alejandro Pettenazza [Argentina] ;972.85 p. On December 1 he flew 198.75 km./h.

—-Kiripotib said farewell to their last guests as well;
“Days at Kiripotib fly by too quickly, another season is over. Many thanks to all Kiripotib friends who made the last three months something very special again.We look forward to welcoming you back to Namibia in autumn/winter.”
They had 90 guests, making 627 flights and flying 425.968,35 km!!!
Next years bookings can be done on kiripotib-soaring.com/en/contact/

——-The latest IGC ranking list is studied by Adam and he shared it with us. He also wrote a long article on the low numbers on comps,interesting reading on ;Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

—-VERY INTERESTING flight on January 26 and the first 1000 km [wave ] flight in Europe has been flown from Romania from the airfield Targu Jiu in the mighty ARCUS M over the Făgăraş mountains
Pilots Nicolae and Iulian flew 1074 km speed 126 km./h.
“As they say in their own words: “It’s a milestone for us, long studied wave patterns come out to light… There is great potential for long flights in the Carpathians, gliding is such a beautiful sport, I can’t wait to explore and discover more“ WeGlide
On both WeGlide [https://www.weglide.org/flight/360846] and the OLC https://www.weglide.org/flight/360846 you find many pictures!!!!

——Last weekend some female Aussie pilots had a long AUSTRALIA weekend of flying in the gorgeous area of Mount Beauty.
“Day 1 of Rockettes x Victorian Soaring Association Women’s Soaring in the hills weekend. 18 flights and 10 girls got to fly yesterday. Woohoo“
Picture shared by Rockettes 

That’s it for now. The last couple of days it was cold here, but sunny and the days really are getting longer. Spring is around the corner. Slowly we can look ahead of MORE GOOD SOARING in Europe!!!!
You can already apply for the SUMMER COMPS here in The Netherlands between July 13 -19-/2024.

VERY INTERESTING; The FAI SGP at Terlet in May 2025 [ 11-17] for 18 m. gliders can only accept 20 participants. At this stage they have 34 preliminary bookings. SO THERE IS INTEREST IN this kind of soaring.

The Horsham Coaching week has started which means that Horsham Week, one of the last comps in the down under season is around the corner. Last one this season is the 2 seater NATIONAL championship at Tocumwal.[ February 17-24]
The 2024 Lake Keepit Regatta is between February 27 and March 4 .

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.480 on January 24 2024

Australian Nationals
Benalla
16 January 2024 – 26 January 2024

In my last post you could read what Bruce thinks about comps nowadays in Australia and it looks ,if world wide, comps lack participants.
If you look at Namibia …there are MANY PILOTS , ALL ENJOYING THEIR LONG DISTANCE TASKS WITHOUT SCORES. Are the goals for pilots different nowadays???Is pure pleasure more satisfying?
OR,…are WEGLIDE points or from the OLC more important, a bit of extra status when you end on top in the end of the day????
Luckily in several countries young ones are rising and shining ,so there might be still a future.
Matthew Scutter, CD from the last Joeyglide mentioned :
“I had the privilege to be the contest director for this great event – which is so important for the longevity of gliding in Australia.
More support is needed, but ahead of money & volunteers, the one thing the movement needs more than anything else is more juniors! If you have young pilots at your gliding club, be sure to let them know about JoeyGlide and the opportunities it offers!
Alongside the contest is a parallel ab-initio and coaching program ready to develop young pilots into great pilots, and there is a great track record of doing exactly that.“

As you heard/read Sebastian Kawa was not all that happy at the last WGC in Narromine . He was the “target-to-be-chased” every day!!!
I do understand Sebastian; you run out of ideas when to start and how to surprise the followers.
The IGC should really look into this matter at their next meeting, as PEV’s are for sure not enough.

Back to Benalla/Australia.
SO,…..Only “25 pilots” for 18m, open, 15m and standard class is not good.
It’s even worse,….as, when you look at 18 m. , you see 11 pilots and only David Jansen,[ASG 32MI] Phillip Ritchie in the Quintus , Ryan Driscoll in the Nimbus 3/25.5 m are added for open .
So 14 pilots in total!!!!!
I have been at Benalla at several Nationals, 1 even in which Bruce Brockhoff [ R.I.P.] got father and he still continued, with more than 50 pilots. They all wanted to be part of the nationals and,…qualifying for World comps. A bit different now!
I concentrate on open, so I have them ALL.
Task 1; 3.30 AAT.…. was flown and won by Bruce Taylor.In open by David Jansen.
No task on January 17.
Task 2 on January 18 ;3.30 AAT…..Phillip Ritchie in the Quintus started as the only 1, after 2PM. The rest around 1.30.
395.33km. was the best distance in combi with the time for a speed of 112.95 km./h.AND,….1000 points.
Pete [Temple] was the winner. Ryan [Driscoll ] in the Nimbus 3 was runner up .
David and Bruce had a less good day on spot 8 and 9 loosing more than 200 points, but,..they have only just started the comps.
Here is Bruce;”Today was very challenging. Strong post-frontal wind turned the sky into a washing machine and made it hard to figure where the climbs were, then difficult to work them when you did find one. My pattern-seeking mind was all awry and a number of times I found myself low, with no idea how I got there, and even less idea of how I might get up again!“
Much more on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Also a picture from AFTER the flight when it looked good.

Task 3; 3 hour AAT.…318 km./95.28 km./h. The speed says enough ,….another challenging day but Bruce won and was more happy with himself.
“It was a hard day, blue, low, and variable climbs, but I had a picture in my head of what was happening and I flew with much more confidence.” more on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Lumpy was runner up , Greg Beecroft 3d and it was a bit of an off-day for Pete, though he flew 312 km/89.27 km./h. he finished on spot 7.
Pete still leads overall followed a bit closer now by Bruce, Greg and Lumpy.
Task 4; was a 3 hour AAT but the day was CANCELLED.
Bruce;”Unfortunately today had to be cancelled. A big mass of high and mid-level cloud spread into the area overnight, and there was some hope that we might get a gap around midday to get away, but it just kept coming.
The next few days look hopeful, but there will be a few challenging flights coming before we finish. There has been so much rain this season and everywhere we go there is plenty of water visible on the ground. It’s a sure thing that we aren’t going to get any booming weather.”
In the East of Australia at Lake Keepit, Lasham pilot Andy Aveling flew in the Duo Discus XT, a distance of 802 km/
Task 5; 240,69 km…..a race won by Pete but a very slow “race”;87.90 km./h. Good to see Norm [Bloch] as runner up and open class pilot David was 3d.
ONLY 12 started and from them 7 finished.
Bruce was one of them on spot 4 with penalty points for a too low finish but as he wrote “I struggled back a bit behind and just a bit low to get over the finish circle. There was nothing left to get that last 150 feet of altitude, and searching further in dead air and a steady headwind was going to cost too much time, so I accepted the height penalty as a better option.”
Bruce;
“a horrible blue sky, the wind blowing, and cold, wet ground. Challenging? You bet. But the tough days are fun in their own way.” the full interesting story on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Task 6 ; cancelled.…“We really are having a run of very marginal weather.”
Task 7; 351.50 km…….Another racing task and Greg in the LS8, is slowly on his way to the overall top. Task 7 was his!!!! Speed 103.75 km./h. [handicap 1010] Norm , runner up, was the fastest in the JS3 ; 112.09 km./h.[handicap 1110]
Both are with Pete in the race for the top-spots!
Pete was on spot 7, still with 4.549 on top overall. Bruce 5th for the day, now has 4.433 points , Greg 4.427 and Norm 4.281 p.
12 Started and finished in open class.
Bruce about the day:”a few small cumulus arrived unexpectedly. By the time we started they had mostly gone. As usual the trip north as far as the river was very challenging, with a couple of 3-4 knot climbs from quite low.” the full story on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Task 8; today…. no flying Bruce mentioned in his post yesterday “Looks like we may only fly one more day on Friday… we’ll see.”
And it is only Wednesday now.
More next week.

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70-thies NATIONALS in open and club in Argentina[ continued].
 6 January 2024 – 19 January 2024

I left you on Wednesday January 17 when they, in Tres Arroyos , started in
club class;
Task 10; 3.15 AAT.…4 x an ASW 20 in the top with Martin Bossart as daily winner and Felipe Girado as runner up; 385.36 km/ 117.85 km./h. for 384.93 km/ 117.60 km./h.
All 23 started and finished!!!!
In open from 3, only 1 pilot was left over to fly; Juan Pablo Verdura; 3 hour AAT and he flew 414.58 km/ 138.19 km./h.
Task 11; 2 hour AAT,……173 km/84.14 km./h. for Matias Lanzinetti in his ASW 20. Lucio Zanassi was runner up bringing him from spot 3 to 2 for the moment.
Javier was 4th and Felipe 7th.
Task 12; racing task 280.22 km….Last day with 116.12 km./h Felipe won the day. Javier was 3d and only lost 12 daily points .But what did Lucio do?
He was 10th and lost his runner up spot with ONE POINT to Felipe!!!!!
Only 20 pilots started on this last day.

Overall scores after 9 out of 14 days;
1. Javier Gaude in DG 200 with 6,265 points.
2. Felipe Girado in ASW 20 with 6,010 p.
3. Lucio Zanassi in ASW 20 with 6,009 p. ONE POINT!!!!!!

In open class only Juan Pablo Verdura, was still flying , so no surprise he won in his Ventus 2cxM/18 m. with 6,829 points.
Congratulations to ALL.

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2023/2024 Multi Class Nationals in New Zealand
19 January 2024 – 28 January 2024

From Taupo, in a very beautiful area around Lake Taupo, an area I visited with John {Roake] [R.I.P.] and his wife Chris, the Nationals started in 2 classes with 35 pilots.
On January 19 they had a 2 hour AAT as practice but it was not flown.

Open;
Task 1; . Low cloud. Rain.” Why do these words so often go together?? “David Austin [blogger].
So no flying.
Task 2; 1 hour AAT….. from 14 only 2 finished Keith [Essex in an ASW 27/18E] and David Todd in Ventus 2CT. Keith flew 324 km/82.71 km./h and David 303 km/ 67.79 km./h. VERY challenging day with lot’s of engine starts or road retrieves!!!!
Then the news from the organizers on January 22 :”It was decided early that the day was to be cancelled due to weather. However, after this front goes through the rest of the week is looking good. We wait, and wait as soaring pilots do.”
SO,..no task 3 or 4 in both classes. BUT,……
Task 5; today……3 hour AAT….was a good one again …AND,…a 1000 points-day…. AND, for 2 pilots!!!!!Brett Hunter in his JS 3 AND Keith Essex in the ASW 27 /18E…both had 90 km./h for a flight from 274/270 km.
14 started and 8 finished.

Racing;
Task 1; they look forward to hopefully better weather tomorrow.
Task 2; 1 hour AAT....in the end 12 started and 6 finished. Daily winner,John Robertson in a Discus 2b with 230 km/ 65.88 km./h.
Task 5; today…2.45 AAT, more challenging for this class, as from the 17 pilots only 2 finished and that was not enough to make it a valid day!!!!
The Discus B and SZD 55-1 pilots, Henry Miller and David Moody, flew 200 km with a speed of just over 70 km . They started and finished,for ZERO points; worthwhile mentioning!!!!

———————————————————————

The WESTERN CAPE REGIONALS 2024 CAPE GAUNTLET
Worcester 20 January 2024 – 27 January 2024

Would the magic from Worcester be available this week?????
Yes ,……straight away I read; 40 dgr.C at the ground and 4000 m base, with the words “WorcesterMagic”.
They had a good practice day on January 20 with a racing task from 422.41 km. in open class [ 10 pilots plus 1HC pilot,..Tokkie in an LS4] and 330.76km in sports class.[2 pilots]
Open class;
Task 1 ; 433.61 km…..In this class a pilot from Switzerland, from Austria , from the UK and a combi team from the USA and N.Z. [Bennett and Coutts] in the ARCUS M.
BY FAR the FASTEST was Oscar [Goudriaan] in his JS3!!! What about 170.81 km./h. 7 pilots flew over 160 km./h and the LS 4 144.32 km./h.
I guess Austrian pilot Christian Hynek or his crew are writing for streckenflug.at
“All 10 pilots in my class flew the 400 km task without circles today (150-170 km/h average)!”
NO…Task ;on January 22 and 23….24. so the magic has stopped, most probably till after the last flying day. A pity.
Sportsclass;
Task 1; 334.50 km..only 2 participants Laurens {Goudriaan] in ASG 32 and from the USA Brad Jackson in Ventus 2CM/18m Brad won and Laurens was out after 306 km.

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—–Talking about New Zealand ; they had one of those epic flights with Norbert Scarlat & Justin Wills flying the DUO DISCUS over 1.047 km, with a speed of 103 km,./h NO not in wave but just pure thermals.
Norbert mentioned;”What a fantastic day in New Zealand. Probably the first predeclared 1000k done in NZ using only thermals and also the first one for me. It was a bit difficult in the morning, but it improved once we were past Tekapo. Amazing convergence in the north. Thank you Justin, I think this was one of our best flight we ever done.”
It took them 10 hours and 11 minutes.
You have to see for yourself how they flew by heading over to WeGlide to see the full flight…with pictures: https://www.weglide.org/flight/359625

—–Namibia ,more specific Bitterwasser, is now looking back at their season.
I was impressed to see how long it went on.
“Season finale
The season in Bitterwasser is slowly drawing to a close.
One by one, the gliders are being loaded into the containers. And still some teams fly over 1000 kilometers every day.
The results of the whole season are impressive! Over 230 flights have already exceeded the 1000 kilometer mark.
January has also allowed a lot more distance to be covered. So far, the strongest days in January have been 5.1.24 and 14.1.24 with 10 flights over 1000 kilometers each. And in the meantime, the thermals also showed their best side.
The clouds developed early, the bases were high and the temperature often rose above 35 degrees.
Well over 580,000 kilometers were flown over Namibia from Bitterwasser.
The best flying day this season was 22.12.23, when Simon Briel flew a total of 1413 kilometers, closely followed by Björn Gintzel with 1402 kilometers. Simon Briel thus covered the longest distance this season. Nils Fecker also managed an incredible distance of 1375 kilometers on this day. A total of 9 other pilots exceeded the 1000 kilometer mark.”

On January 18 still 9 Namibian 1000 km-flights!!!!!

My Lasham mates Roy and Patrick were more than happy in Bitterwasser and another 3 days in Kiripotib and shared the next message:
“Thank you to Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre and Kiripotib Soaring for 3 weeks of super flying in Namibia and especially to my partner in crime, Patrick Naegeli, for the excellent company.
14.600 km and 96 hours flying (yes double checked those numbers and it really is 152 km/hour average!}.”
—-Kiripotib had a superb time too. Lasham pilot Garry Coppin shared the next words :”Well that just about wraps up part 2 of my Namibia season. Thoroughly enjoyable time flying with friends and guests in an area made for glider pilots.
A total of 35,000km & 325hrs flown now means it is time to have a little rest
My goodness me that “sounds” like WORKING!!!!

AND,…they were still flying long tasks, ….On January 19 still a flight from 1.335.63[ 1.022.17 km FAI] in the ARCUS M and the mighty EB 28 flew 1.373.78 km.with Reinhard Schramme in it.
Reinhard is since October 25 in Bitterwasser and only had a “holiday” from soaring in December, to be back again on January 4 and since then he had 15 flights and 10 over 1000 km.
This flight on January 19 was his best for the season and late in their season too.
And who said that the “good” season is “only between half of November till max. half of January???
Still big showers already, but they can fly around them.
On January 21; still 4 over 1000 km flights one even 1.266 km, again by Reinhard /Bernd Goretzki and in an ASH 31 a declared 1000 triangle by Frank Fuchs.
From Veronica in the TWIN SHARK a DECLARED flight from 1.042 km/ FAI 10008,14 km. by Czech pilot Jan Kantor .

—–For my Aussie mates;
Flying a 2-seater is getting more and more popular. When you look at Namibia, where the pilots fly together with a former or current champion , to learn from them , or at comps where younger pilots take elderly pilots to still enjoy competition flying, or “just” husband and wife or mates ,for a lovely trip.
Australian Two Seat Nationals
This year the open two seat has been changed to “The Sports two seat Nationals”
So you can enter with everything from a Nimbus 4dm to ASK21Mi, so this can be a lot of fun …. Also, a great coaching opportunity !
The 20 mtr Two Seat Nationals is still the same format as before and the Handicaps have been reviewed for the Duo’s and DG’S…. so round up some mates and come along.
We have kept the entry fee to a minimum to encourage more entries.
The entries will be open very soon via the Tocumwal Soaring Webpage, if you have any questions, contact us on info@tocumwalsoaring.com

AND,…more announcements ,this time already for the next season down under;
“Information for next SkyRace GP
The SkyRace GP will again be held at Leeton, NSW
Dates :
27th December 2024 to 5th of January 2025
The 27th and 28th will be practice days, with the first official competition day held on the 29th of December allowing for an 8 day event.
Classes :
F1 Class – will remain the same
F2 Class – will allow entrants from LS-4 to Duo Discus & everything in between.
For a full list of eligible gliders for both classes, please check out the Glider Eligibility section on this page https://skyrace.com.au/entry-form/

CU next week,
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.479 on January 17 2024

Sky race GRAND PRIX 2024
January 3 January 12 2024 at Leeton.

I left you when they had 2 more days to go. And after the rain and the good weather they continued with day 8 on flying day 4.
Formula 1 class;
Task 8; 221.2 km…..good day for Kevin or Sarah sharing the St. Jantar 2; speed 111 km./h. Quite a bit faster than runner up Scott with 106 km./h.
Jasper was on spot 4 behind Nick , with 103.1 km./h. One more day to go
Task 9; 178.2 km…..Final day ….and launch is complete!!!!
The F1 Start Gate opened at 14:25 with a maximum height of 5500 feet and speed below 90 knots.
And a nice win for Nick with 101.7 km./h the only one over 100 km./h.
From 9 days 5 were flown with Scott winning 2 days and on the other days , each day another daily winner. Nice.
Jasper, who is a member of the Dutch junior squad ,flew, after he helped out at Narromine, a 600 km flight from Tocumwal in the Cirrus , to travel on to Leeton.
His last day in Leeton, was super exciting. Scott and he flew a 40 km. final glide together tip on tip , but Scott just moved his fuselage a tad earlier over the finish line.
First soaring hours for Jasper in Australia and he loved it. Specially this GP-kind-of-competition in gliders of the 70 -ties , still flying over 100 km./h. “Relative short tasks, during the best part of the day create a good mix between soaring and fun on the ground.” [ Jasper.]

Final results in FORMULA 1 class;
1. Scott Lennon in St Libelle with 37 points.
2. Jasper Jansen in St Libelle with 33 p.
3. Nick Gilbert in St Cirrus with 21 p.

Formula 2 class;
Task 8; 259.8 km….. Jack in his ASW 20 was clearly faster than the rest; 107.2 km./h. Spot 3 was for Tony with 98.8 km./h One day to go between the 2 of them….
Tony;”The towing was a challenge today and the lift around the airport was tough. I had to get a relight and the gate opened right as I was landing. So I ended up starting the task low and 35 minutes after the gate opened.
It was an awesome soaring day with high bases and strong climbs. I had three 8 knotters. I had good speed, but with grand prix scoring, gave up 3 points. I’m now 1 point behind with tomorrow being the last day.“

Task 9; 238.1 km….…The F2 Start Gate opened at 14:45 with a maximum height of 6500 and speed below 90 knots.
It was close on that last day but Jack won with 119.7 km./h . Jack won 4 from the 5 days!!!
Tony flew around with 116.5 km./h and won 1 day.
He mentioned;”I learned today that there is an extra bonus point for winning the final day on top of the normal bonus point for a day win, which means that no matter what might have happened yesterday, today was a must win.
Either way I knew I had to win the day today to win the contest. I had an amazing flight and went absolutely flat out landing completely exhausted after only 2 hours on task. And lost by 2 SECONDS! It was an incredible finish but I was on the receiving end so congrats to my Aussie crew and guardian angel Jack Hart who even though he landed out the first day came back to win the contest.“

Overall scores in Formula 2 class;
1. Jack Hart in ASW 20 with 22 points
2. Tony Condon in Discus B with 18 p.
3. Steve Jinks in Mosquito with 10 p.

Great see that ,with such a low budget ,but good competition, our “old” gliders can perform on high level. Pure gliders…it still remains a “dream” from the past.
AND….This comp is all about fun and we had it in spades![Steve Jinks]
” that’s a wrap!!!”[organizers]

Where would they be without Charlie ,[see picture] who combines fun and seriousness and who says THANK you to all who helped to make this competition possible and to my surprise even me
“Thank you also to Ritz de Luij who gave the best overall commentary. Sadly, she wasn’t in Leeton, but did a fantastic job of collating everything she found from her many sources.” Very kind of him.
AND more important….THANK YOU to Nick Gilbert and Charlie I’Anson. None of this would happen without them. They make it look easy and relaxed, but a lot of work goes into making Skyrace happen all year and at the comp.”

Congratulations to ALL.

—————————————————————-¹
JoeyGlide 2024
Narromine…… 7 January 2024 – 13 January 2024

Picture shared by Narrogin Gliding Club in Western Australia.
Courtesy Joshua Geerlings.

The young ones at Narromine had rain, storms around, sunshine and great cu’s all in one week time.
We saw already on task 1, [2.30 AAT] that they had to fly with lot’s of water on the ground, had to avoid the storms , found good lift but then…… were back at new problems with incoming storms rolling through the task area.
Not too easy for the 6 under 25 year old pilots, but “great lessons in soaring life”.
Task 1 [2.30 AAT] was won by Kengo in an LS 4.
Task 2 [ 3 hour AAT] won by Joshua in the LS 4. All 6 flew the task as did their coaches Ryan in Nimbus 3 [25.5 m] and Jayden in Kestrel 17.
Now with 3 days to go we continue where we left them.
Task 3; 3.15 AAT….Joshua Geerlings [LS4b] won the day with 321.37 km speed 90.91 km./h. Dress up day in Hawaii clothes,.…. a fun thing for the youngsters.
AAT to the South and flown by all but Kengo in his LS 4, who won task 1. Only ONE out,…HC pilot Ryan in the Nimbus 3.
Here is Joshua; “well another very interesting day!! my plan was to start late once again, but once I was in the sky I could see that the clouds were already overdeveloping. So decided to start 45 minutes earlier than anticipated on the eastern side of the start line, so I could once again run the ridges into the first turn point which worked well again. Coming into the first turn the over-development was thick and lots of shade on the ground, I decided to turn early and stay in the sunlight and rather go deeper into the second turn which worked out well. The second leg was slightly softer and I decided to stick with the weaker climbs and not get into trouble today. I had to go right to the edge of the second circle in order to get my timing right. On the final leg I managed to find 3 good climbs that got me to final glide. As I approached Narromine it became abundantly clear that I should have started 5 minutes earlier, as a huge thunderstorm was just about to hit the airfield! I decided to stick my nose down and race for the runway hoping to get there before I hit the storm. I turned onto finals doing just over 100kts, looking at all the dust being picked up! I kept to 100kts to try and land long so the glider behind me had room, then I hit the storm which had such a vicious down draft that I hit the canopy, and couple seconds later was in ground affect 20 metres short of the runway doing 50kts this is why I always keep heaps of speed when landing into a storm. All in all very happy with the day and glad I decided to start early.”
Pfffff, glad I am not his mum…..I hate downdrafts, they are a really HEAVY /SCARY/POWERFUL weather phenomena.
Picture below , Josh in the storm, shared by Narrogin Gliding Club

Task 4; 3 hour AAT, with one more day to go….
Joshua, firmly supported by his club members from the Narrogin Gliding Club won another day. He flew 291.46 km/ speed 982,63 km./h.
All 11 started and finished!
Task 5 ;  309.26 km…a racing task to define the winners , though Joshua is a class apart. He won again. Except for task 1 he won the rest of the days. Anoushka de Chelard , [good to see a young female pilot as well]was runner up and moved up to spot 3 overall. Good on her.
After 5 out of 7 days the winners are;
1. Joshua Geerlings in LS 4b with 4,779 points.
2. Jason Tang in Discus CS with winglets 3,667 p.
3. Anoushka de Chelard in St. Cirrus with 3,349 p.

Aidin Curtis did a great job as CD as PR entertainer and on top of that he flew the tasks!!!Great job!!!
Congrats to all young ones!

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——-Between January 6 and 13 2024 there are 3 different National Comps in Chile from Municipal de Vitacura and I concentrate on Cordillera with 12 pilots.
They had long tasks and fast, great soaring weather .
They started with a practice day on January 6 and
Task 1 on January 7 was a 3.30 AAT. Daily winner CARLOS ROCCA  in Ventus 2cxa /15 m.; 469.88 km/speed 134.25 km./h.
From 11 6 finished.
Task 2; 3.15 AAT….with 534.79 km /speed 159.73 km./h and exceptional good day specially for Carlos as he won again. All 12 started AND finished!!!
Task 3; 3.30 AAT…and it looks like the ” Carlos Rocca comps” …. 559.44 km./speed 144.24 km./h. and daily winner. 12 Started and 7 finished.
Task 4; racing task from 360.03 km....Different pilots on top with this kind of task BUT still Carlos as number 1. Not the fastest Jean Pierre Ohaco flew in his JS 3 TJ/18 m. with a speed of 154.76 km./h. but Carlos has a handicap from 115 against 122, so winner of the day for 733 points with 151.08 km./h..
11 Starters and 1 out.
Task 5; 3 hour AAT…..The ARCUS M won the 1000- last-day-points 132.81 km./h. Carlos was runner up had about the same distance 398 for 396 but got a penalty for a too high departure.
No worries for the final scores though.
Task 6; 2.30 AAT….Rocca -day again.324,86 km /speed 120.38 km./h. winning on handicap. The ARCUS M was further by 3km and faster by 3km./h.
Overall scores after 6 out of 7 days;
Here they are and exactly the same as EVERY day;
1. CARLOS ROCCA in Ventus 2cxa/15 m. with 5,459 points
2. ANDRES ERRAZURIZ in ARCUS M with 5,100 p.
3. HANS WEINER in Ventus 2c /15 m with 4,206 p.

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—— The 70thiest Nationals in Argentina from Tres Arroyos, were between 6 January 2024 – 19 January 2024. They fly in open [ 3 pilots, Sergio Reinaudo in LAK 17b/18 m] and Juan Pablo Verdura in Ventus 2cxm/18 m] and later also Frederico Buscema[Nimbus 3DM.]
Club class has 24 pilots ,….and had they had less good conditions as the pilots in Chile. The only names I know are; Javier Gaude, Martin Bossart and Felipe Gerado and Juan Pablo Verdura.
I concentrate on club.
After 2 days of practice they started on January 8 with NO TASK , same on January 9.
Task 3 flying day 1, on January 10 was a 2 hour AAT. Carlitos Iucci flew 217.44 km/105.80 km./h and this was the best combination for 622 points.
All 24 started and 22 finished.
Task 4; 3 hour AAT.…with 312.44 km/99.90 km./h. Felipe was the daily winner for 1000 points.Martin was runner up and Javier on spot 3. All started and finished.
Task 5; 2 hour AAT....CANCELLED
Task 6; 1.45 AAT…..short and late start,after 3PM and several penalty points for too high starts. But also a winner; Dino Germán Ghioni in the LS 3 without penalty points, and a speed of 97.93 km./h over 177.46 km.
23 started and 1 was out.
Task 7; 3 hour AAT....283.76 km /speed 94.59km /h was the winning combination in an ASW 20 by Carlitos Iucci.
23 started and 1 was out.
Task 8; 2 hour AAT....and Javier was the daily best ; 198.32 km /speed 96.17 km./h.
23 started an 1 was out.
Task 9; 2.15 AAT....259.81 km/ speed 109.55 km/h was the winning combi for 749 points.
23 started and 18 were IN.
With 2 days to go Javier in his DG 200 clearly leads with 4.189 points followed by Bruno Andres Quinteros in an LS4 with 3,947, followed closely by Dino Germán Ghioni in LS3 with 3.933 p.
More next week.

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In between the Nationals started in Benalla.
16 January 2024 – 26 January 2024

With only 25 pilots in open, 18m, 15 m, and standard class flown because of the numbers in 2 classes
NOT MANY.
Bruce Taylor reacts on that below.
Their first day on January 16 was straight away a good, but challenging one.
18m;
Task 1; 3.30 AAT....
11 pilots in this class and Bruce Taylor was the first daily winner , with 393.45 km/112.42 km.h. followed by Pete Temple both flying ASG 29.[383.93/108.54 km./h

Open; a mix from gliders including a Mini Nimbus, the ASG 29’s and LS3’s, but also ASG 32MI, Quintus, Nimbus 3/25.5 m and
task 1; 3.30 AAT….won by David Jansen in the ASG 32 MI. [Handicap 1065] Followed by Bruce and Pete in their ASG 29. [handicap 1100]
David started late nearly half an hour [14.08] later as Bruce[13,45] and flew 404.59 km/109.53 km./h.
More next week.

Bruce wrote a long story about the comps in Australia ,..very interesting….
I share it in total for those who can’t find it:
“Hi everyone. After the worlds in Narromine I thought I’d just sneak down to our multiclass nationals in Benalla and stay quietly under the radar. No blog, no fuss, just relax a bit and try to get some of my mojo back. I can’t deny that Narromine was personally disappointing, despite the fact that as a team we were very successful. I desperately wanted to be flying again, but just on my own easy terms. Then a few listeners suggested that they were missing my stories… Strangely, here we are after a practice day and Day 1, and I’m back on the keyboard.

I’m concerned about the state of play at our bigger competitions, exactly because of that… they aren’t BIG anymore. We have a total of 14 gliders here in four classes, with the 18m class being the only one that can achieve a stand alone class. There is one Standard class entry, one 15m class, and three Open class gliders. My home club at Lake Keepit gets more than twice that number at one of our GP weekends! People obviously want something else from their gliding, or maybe just from their leisure time.

And then there is the fact that this competition is a final selection in the 18m and Open classes for the next WGC in Uvalde, Texas, which is a super site that typically we Aussies love and do well at. Probably our best two or three pilots are missing from the entry list, so it feels a bit off-beat. And there is the weather… Benalla and the surrounding countryside is as green as I have ever seen it, and there is water lying all over the place. Serious flooding was making the news just west of here less than two weeks ago. We have cumulus, and it’s low. The Benalla artist has finally run out of blue paint…

I drove down under the obligatory booming sky, as per the photo, and managed to get all the formalities completed on Sunday afternoon, in time for the practice day on Monday. The second photo shows the sky after landing. Climbs were on the soft side, and bases mostly at 5,000 feet. I actually love this sort of flying as I see a lot of it at home, and in SE Queensland in the winter. It’s more gentle, and patience is the key. I had a good day, got slightly slow in one spot but finished at 113kph with no low points. I’m great at practice days and pre-worlds… notice that?

Day 1 yesterday, 3.5 hour AAT in what looked to be similar conditions, and we sat on the grid and watched the radar showing rain at our North-West turn near Deniliquin. It was going to clear in time, but a few of us stretched our first sector up past Albury as far as we possibly could to avoid the N-W, and that proved wise. Climbs were harder to find and work than the day before, I think due to some wave influence over the top, and indeed the cloudbase and strength came down as we headed west. Fortunately once we did the Southbound leg then turned back towards the East to come home it improved again.

I managed the highest speed at 113kph but was just pipped by David Jansen in the Open class on handicap. Distance was about 400km. I was happy, as it was a challenging day and it wouldn’t have been too difficult to make a mess of it.
Today has been cancelled due to the arrival of some weather around midday, then tomorrow looks tricky. After that we should fly most days as far as we can see. Sorry, this has almost become a novel, so I’ll stop now.“
Picture and story on Taylor’s Gliding Page

SO,…NO TASK 2 today.
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BIG NEWS from Schempp-Hirth and looking at the “older” gliders this looks like new perspectives.
“Big news! We now offer the option for retrofitting many popular glider types!
To integrate our modern gliders to already produced gliders, we offer the up to date features to gliders even if produced more than 50 years ago. With that, we commit even more to sustainability at Schempp-Hirth and ensure a future for our beloved gliders.

– For all “original” Arcus, we now offer the possibility to retrofit to “Arcus20” new aerodynamic features with winglets and stabilizer.

– Perfect for clubs and long-awaited: the upgrade from your Discus-2c to a Discus-2cFES!

– Another FES-retrofit is possible for every Ventus-2cxa! A few of them are already flying with lots of happy faces inside!

– Upgrade from a Venus-3 Sport Edition to a Ventus-E with the new electro engine and experience flexibility with a self-launcher!

– Not only the production of Duo Discus FES are starting at the end of 2024, also the option for retrofit a FES-engine into your Duo Discus with carbon fibre wings!

For more details and to know who to contact visit our homepage on:
https://www.schempp-hirth.com/en/company/latest-updates/latest-updates-details/retrofit-optionen-fuer-ausgewaehlte-typen-jetzt-verfuegbar?

—–-Bitterwasser still has extreme great soaring weather till nearly the end of their season. Last Monday , already January 15 , Israeli-an pilot Anton Minskey from the Negev Gliding Center, flew 1. 311.24 km [FAI 942.77 km] with a speed of 143,76 km./h.
Bernd Goretski wit Guy Bechtold flew an FAI 1000 and a total of 1.268.31 km.
Still 20x a more than 1000 km, that day, also from Pokweni, Kiripotib and Veronica……. they have a great Namibian season.

More next week Cheers Ritz

1. ↩︎

Post 1.478 on January 10 2024

Whilst we were having loads of rain here for a LONG period and temperatures around 12 dgr C in the first week of January , my friends in Scandinavia are freezing.
MINUS 43.6 in the high North of Sweden ,but very cold in Norway and Finland as well, the coldest in 25 years.
Finland has minus 20 to minus 35 and later even over minus 40 too… ….
The 2d part of the week was different. Last Monday the wind here turned to the NE and we got the cold weather too, but not as bad as in Scandinavia….-8 during the day and with the windchill factor minus 15!!!!
AND,….days are getting longer…spring is around the corner!!!!
The sun is shining bright at the moment with very blue skies , but COLD!!!!!!!!!!

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The LEETON F1 SKYRACE GP
January 3 [practice]– January 12.

January 3 was a practice day and quite a few flew. No task was set , but it is always nice to check the area when you have never been there and the instruments in the glider .
The weather was not good enough to create day 1, …NO task…. so the 14 pilots in 2 classes, had to wait. No worries, they are all mates or , are becoming mates and all different ages young and “older”!!!
Their type of “pure” gliders; Standard Cirrus x 3, Standard Libelle x 6, Standard Jantar x 3 , 1 Hornet and 1 LS 1f.
They have a F 1 and a F 2 class with different tasks.
The Streifeneders [Sarah and Christian ]organised the welcome BBQ for the start of Skyrace GP….a sausage sizzle. They are one of the sponsors.
Glasflügel-Glasfaser Flugzeug Service
“We are very proud to offer the updated Winglets NG.
These new winglets have use the latest technology and included extensive research and testing, and as always, we are proud to offer the high Streifeneder quality.”
Glasflügel Winglets NG for the Standard Libelle, Club Libelle & Hornet.

After storms ,even a real dust storm ahead of a freak storm and rain, they finally could fly on January 5.
F1 class;
Task 2; 165 km and won by Scott Lennon in the Libelle followed by Dutch pilot Jasper also in Libelle. Scott; “ it was not a day to push hard!Under the clouds there were decent climbs“
He had to chase Jasper ,who was also most of the time higher, but Jasper got [387 sec.] penalty points for starting too high.
10 flew in this class.
Task 3; no flying.
rain and no tasks till
January 9 TASK 6; 111.4 km.….and Scott still knew how to fly,… he won! 88.6 km./h. so 9 points for him bringing him to a total of 16 points .
Christian was runner up and Jasper on spot 3 ; 87.9 and 77.9 km./h. Overall; 11 for Jasper and 10 for Christian, with a few days to go.

Task 7 on January 10, TODAY; 218 km....still very young Jasper from The Netherlands …21 years young…won the day. He ” got a glider Libelle [never flown it before] and a car ” and moved from Sydney to Tocumwal and then to Leeton . It was already in his planning to fly this competition with another Dutch young man, but by circumstances beyond his control this young man had to go back home again.
Jasper flew 2017.6 km with a speed of 88.7 km./h. for 10 points. Scott flew the same distance , in the same glider but was a bit slower for 6 points.
Scott still leads with ONE point; 22 for 21.

Task 2 in F 2 class was 205.7 km; Tony won the day ,but Leoni flew very well too.She got penalty points [ 89 for starting too high] so became runner up. Both fly Discus B.
Tony flew carefully as when he started the first out landing was already reported. He tiptoed over the first leg, but Leonie and he came home together.
Task 3; no flying. “Short window today. Late start might give us enough time to watch Australia win the test match.” They could see it.AND,…the Aussies won the Benaud-Quadir Trophy1. Good on them, though I do not know ANYTHING about cricket, not even after living there pretty long.
Task 4;rain…..more rain.
Task 6 on January 9; 152.2 km…..ASW 20 pilot Jack Hart won the day ahead of Tony with 100 km./h. Tony was runner up; 94 km./h.
After 2 flyable days Tony leads overall with 7 points.Jack has 4 and Leonie 3 points.
Task 7 on January 10; 283.5 km.…Jack flew around with a speed of 99.8 km./h whilst Tony flew 95.5 km./h.
So with 2 more days it’s Tony with 11 and Jack with 9 points.
Tony got a bonus point today:”The task today is a double triangle with a bonus point for being the first one back over Leeton.”

All the sponsors AT the glider

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JOEYGLIDE 2024
7 January 2024 – 13 January 2024
Narromine

8 Under 25 pilots are trying their best in this Joeyglide, presented by SkySight.
The young ones fly in Club class ; there is 1 girl, [good] and they fly LS 4 x , A 15 x 3, Club Libelle, Discus CS with winglets and St. Cirrus.
All 8 are from a different club in Australia.
VERY GOOD to see that the young ones from a few years ago , like Adam and Matthew are supporting the new ones in a really fabulous way ….they give them back, what they got.
Practice showed a 2.30 AAT. Joshua flew 273 km / 98.69 km./h.
Task 1 on Sunday the 7th was cancelled .
“Due to weather, task today is CANCELLED! Social activities to follow. Here’s Competitor Anoushka with her Welcome Pack and JoeyGlide Shirt!
Let’s Go JoeyGlide!”

On January 8 they had an official rest-day of Joeyglide 24 Presented by Skysight it’s still raining! They are not bored as a lot of things are organized;
“We’re at the RFDS Museum in Dubbo! What a great place to visit” on Jan 7.
And “We’ve got paper plane competitions, simulator sessions, scavenger hunts and a pub dinner planned.” on the official rest day
And finally the weather co-operated ;
Task 1 ; 2:45hr AAT….. today for our first competition day. Some wet airfields and paddocks around, so plan is to get and stay high. Launch at 1pm.
Lets go!”
They flew,… the first proper flying day… and Kengo Matsumoto in an LS 4 was the first daily winner; 210.56 km /speed 80.97 km./h. AND,..such a pity Aidin missed the start and got no points. He will never do that again.
Task 2 on January 10 ; 3 hour AAT...GOOD task, but,…with the message :”Few cells of rain around”.
It was now really playing outside,… high in the sky …. for the Joeyies ; Joshua Geerlings won from Kengo both in LS 4; 260 and 245 km speed 85 and 81 km./h.
The 2 HC pilots ,more coaches than participants ,won. Hopefully still a few good days to go!!!!
3 Days to go, more next week.

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2024 SAGA State competition
South Australian Gliding Association
31 December 2023 – 6 January 2024
Waikirie

They fly with 11 in an open class, between St Libelle and ASH 31 MI21 m. on the beautiful field in South Australia where in 1974 the WGC was held.
After a practice day with a 2.30 AAT to get in the right mood they started on January fresh with
Task 1; AAT with 2.07 task duration……and the only one flying exact the 2.07 was Pete Temple in his 18 m. ASG 29. He covered in that time 282 km.So a nice speed of 132.63 km./h.
Task 2; 3 hour AAT....only pilot flying 0ver 400 km [409] was Pete and with a good speed too; 127.16 km./h.
3 did not finish.
Task 3; was not flown. NO TASK.
Task 4; 2 hour AAT…. cancelled.
Task 5; 2 hour AAT…but not flown.
Final results;
1. Pete Temple in ASG 29/18m. with 2,487 points.
2. Adam Stott in LS 4 with 2,092 p
3. Grant Hudson in ASH 31 MI/21 m. with 2,069 p.
Good to see “good old “Pietschi [David Pietsch] was on spot 4 in his JS1 /18m.with 2,057

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The South Island Gliding Championship in New Zealand.
3 January 2024 – 9 January 2024
Omarama

OPEN CLASS; with 8 well-known NZ pilots….
Task 1; 420.18 km…Not bad for day 1!!!!! Nick Oakley won the race with a speed of 122.13 km./h. in a Discus 2A. His normally biggest concurrent,…. they fly often comps together already since they were juniors, …..Alex McCaw was 3d in the Discus 2C. In between well-known “racer” Keith Essex from the USA who lives partly in NZ, in his AS33es.[134.63 km/h]
Task 2; 2 hour AAT.…Interesting day!!!! Nick started at 15.25 ….Alex ONE HOUR later, so all in all , late starts but GOOD SPEED!!!! 146.37 km./h over 337 km. for winner Nick for 1000 points.
Even 147.49 km./h for Keith for 908 points over 335.38 km.. Alex was 3d.
The most km. were flown by good old Tony van Dyk; 347.33 km [speed 138,49km./h] in his ASG 29.
Reason for the late start is just looking at the skies

Task 3; cancelled.No competition tasks for today. The weather will probably be ok for general flying but not good enough to get some competition tasks in.
Task 4; 3 hour AAT...and only 3 were lucky /good enough to finish. With 362.65 km with a speed of 86 km./h Keith won the day, but to see the speed it must have been a struggle. Bad day for Alex and Tony ,both were out after 60 km and “got” 39 daily points.
Nick and the ASH 25 team were the other 2 finishers.
High clouds were for both classes the annoying factor.
Task 5 3.30 AAT….message in the morning;”Could be another interesting day with some high cloud moving in and not much wind at the airfield. Grid is due to launch at 13:00 but we will see…”
Another win for Keith in his AS33es; 471 km speed 133 km./h. Nick flew just a tad less far , 454 km but was much slower; 111.86 km./h.
1 was out and 2 did not start anymore [Alex] ;reason below.
Overall Nick is still in the lead after task 5, but only with 17 points!!!!!
Task 6; 2 hour AAT…and Nick is even more strong on spot 1 overall after task 5 as he won the day; 280 km./ speed 106 km./h. gaining another 33 points on Keith.
7 Started and finished.
“For the first time that I can remember, we have a tie for second place in the Open class. This is not unusual for Racing tasks but very, very rare for AAT tasks!” Keith and Derek [Kraak also in AS33es] had the same amount of points.
“Alex McCaw in RM landed out way down south yesterday and did not get back from the retrieve until the wee hours of the morning!
We have a smaller task for each class today as high cloud has been forecasted. And looking at the sky, high cloud is what we have!” South Island Gliding Championships
Task 7; 3 hour AAT...very last day.…..it’s either Keith or Nick , but good to see, Alex is back on track as well. They were on spot 1,2 and 3.
Keith flew 449.86 km /speed 142.57 km./h.
Nick; 431.15/speed 126.39
Alex; 425.82 km/ 120.17 km./h.
“We have another day of high cloud for the final day of the competition and a couple of quite interesting tasks set that should challenge people. The scores are tight at the top of both classes so it will be interesting to see who comes out on top!”

FINAL OVERALL SCORES after 6 out of 7 days in OPEN CLASS;
1. Nick Oakley in Discus 2a with 5,045 points
2. Keith Essex in AS33es with 4,997 p.
3. Hamilton & Morgan in ASH 25 with 4,316 p.

RACING CLASS; with 7 pilots.
Task 1; 282.18 km…..Terry Jones in his LS8 was clearly the daily best; 112.76 km./h. Runner up the team from the Duo Discus with 103 km./h.
Task 2; 2 hour AAT....only 3 could really get away from the field between 15.36 and 16.26 and finish in the end. Compliments to the Duo Discus pilots finishing at 18.35. They flew 285 km with a speed of 132.09 km./h Daily winner Terry flew 296 km with a speed of 132 km./h.
The organizers wrote about the day:
“It was difficult for most people to get going but once they got up into the wave the speeds were quite high; Nick Oakley (2A) and Keith Essex (TC) both breaking 145 km/h in the Open class and Terry Jones (TK) breaking 140 km/h in the wee wing class! Unfortunately, the Racing class was devalued as a number could not get away.”
Task 3; cancelled.
Task 4; 2.30 AAT….only 2 from 7 finished but the 2 pilots in the DUO DISCUS deserve our attention!!! 213.92 km ,speed 80.74 km./h!!!!
Also LS 8 pilot Terry Jones, deserves applause; 230 km but it took him 4 hours and 22 minutes to achieve this speed. BUT….he finished!!!!!
Task 5; 3 hour AAT....ALL 7 flew the task. Daily winner AGAIN, Terry; 319.61 km , speed 104.74 km./h. Overall after task 5 Terry leads but with less than 100 points on the Duo Discus “heroes”.
Task 6 ;2 hour AAT and more then 200 km for Terry; daily winner. The only 1 with a speed over 100 km./h.
Task 7; very last day….2.30 AAT and Terry wins ; 281.39 km/speed 105.87 km./h., Except for 1 challenging day [task 4 with 2 finishers Terry was runner up behind the DUO!!!] all days!!! Chapeau!!!!

Overall results in Racing class after 6 out of 7 days;
1. Terry Jones in LS 8 with 4,424 points.
2. Davy & Team NS in DUO DISCUS with 4,252 p.
3. Kieran Cassidy in Ventus 2B with 4,025 p.

They also showed overall scores from the open unhandicapped class and there it is Keith who wins ;5,061 p. Nick is runner up ; 4,614 p.

————————————————–

–——KIRIPOTIB; When you put Alexander Mueller in a glider you know you can expect many kilometers. When he flies an EB 29D even more.
His first flight on December 21 was straight away 1.236,80 km with a speed of 139 km from Kiripotib.
On January 4 [ in between he flew 3 more 1.200 km tasks] he flew 1.217 km /FAI TRIANGLE of 1.122 km. This time he was the “co” behind Christian Daenzer.
On January 5 they had another long top flight; 1.332, 42 km. FAI triangle 1. 11,88 . Speed 152,73 km./h!
Alexander flew this time.
One of my friends Harold is for the third time in Namibia after flying in Pokweni once and now for the 2d time in Kiripotib….. AND in his own glider VV;
“8 m per sec and at 4.5 km.” [last Monday]
“Glider pilot’s paradise “
He enjoys EVERY minute also the fabulous sunsets.

Harold has written a book as well about his 43 year flying as airline pilot for Transavia [ 30 years] and later Arkefly/TUIfly. [10 years] The book is in Dutch and can be ordered at ; harold@soaring-eagle.nl

——- TOCUMWAL; Bas , after 36 years back in Tocumwal, fitted only in the Cirrus,[ he is pretty tall,]but after he knew the glider better, he flew nearly 2 and a day later nearly 300 km. The tug bringing him up in the skies is one of the Belanca Scouts his mate Dennis was flying in 87/88, when he was still alive.
VH SFO is owned by George now.
Bas is a senior instructor at the Gelderse in The Netherlands.
In between he is back home.

Tocumwal Soaring Center seems to bring gliding in Tocumwal back to a higher level again. Good to see. Enough PR and enough guests that really pleases me.
“It was back to the 70’s day today ! Ironically with our youngest pilots in the oldest gliders. 19 year old Peter got to experience his first wooden glider flying our Boomerang, with our Czech tuggie Michal 23, flying our Blanik. We are unable to recall the last time we’ve seen a Boomerang and Blanik in the same thermal !
We are proud of our fleet here at TSC. Pilots can fly the hot ships, but also take a trip down memory lane with our older gliders, or even make new memories!
To us, it’s all about the experience.”
They are one of the sponsors from the F1 Skyrace as well.

——-Bitterwasser;
“2024 turns up the heat!
The new year starts and the thermals take off again! High liability ensures good thermals, which provide pilots with many exciting experiences.
On 4.1.23, a line of thunderstorms developed early in the west, forcing pilots to find their way between the over-developments. Thanks to the continuous weather updates from the flight office via radio and WhatsApp, the flights could be planned ahead.
The weather was more stable in the east, with triangles extending to over 1000 kilometers in this direction.
For the second day in a row, a large sandstorm moved from the west towards Bitterwasser in the afternoon. This storm, which could be used as a convergence, made it possible to fly in special conditions until sunset and to land at sunset.
Already 19 flights in January exceeded 1000 kilometers! It can go on like this in the last month of the season!”
On January 5 my Lasham mates had an aborted first take -off after engine problems but….at 11.50 they launched again and managed to fly 1.118.37 km. after leaving Bitterwasser at 12.03!!!! Speed 152 km./h.
Roy was the pilot in command this time.
One day later another 1000, so nothing exciting new anymore but the weather is going slowly in autumn mood there with thunderstorms and rain. Maybe only a good week to go.
“Scrappy and poor locally until after noon then improving. Potentially tricky return to BItterwasser so very conservative final glide,until we could see the local weather. Luckily thunderstorms to NE & SE of airfield but not problem landing at sunset.“

On January 8 still 4 over 1000 km flights from Bitterwasser and 1 from Veronica and Pokweni

More and more pilots fly declared over 1000 -plus km. triangles!! TOP- gliders and TOP- pilots .
Every day too many 1000 km flights , so just have a look at weglide or the online contest;
https://weglide.org/ or https://www.onlinecontest.org/

–——Worcester in S.A; Jan and Caroline Rothhardt from Germany flew a nice 1.100 flight in the ARCUS and Sven Olivier in his JS 1B a 1.138.06 km!! Both an Out and Return on Saturday Januaru 6.
Also Worcester started the year GOOD!!!!
Douglas Backhouse has also several 1000 km. flights….. AFRICA is BOOMING.
Czech pilot Ondrej Dupal has flown 2 already .

More on the 61 st Chile Nationals and the 70 st Argentinian Nationals in open and club class next week.

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.477 on January 3 2024

WELCOME IN THE YEAR 2024!!!! Already post number 1.477…

—–My family really had an INTERNATIONAL change to the New Year.
3 were in Windhoek in Africa [Namibia] ,1 on a yacht in the harbor of Sydney looking at the fireworks on the bridge in front of the Opera house ,1 in Tocumwal, 1 in Zhengzhou and I was in The Netherlands!!!
2024 is a leap year , so one more day in February.
Let’s get started……

–—We finished 2023 with a lot of rain and the start of 2024 was about the same…a lot of rain.
65.000 people here in the Netherlands were BRAVE and ran into the ice cold Nord Sea or a lake in their neighborhood, an annual tradition!
The first gliding flight world wide in the new year 2024 was for French pilot Hugo, who just flew the WGC in Narromine and then left for NZ to give instructions.

——WeGlide is doing more than “sharing flights/tasks ” from pilots on their net. Their magazine with all kind of stories is more than interesting.
They are really the next-generation gliding platform.
Here is their info about Schempp-Hirth:
“Insights about the new Ventus E, FES retrofits for DuoDiscus and Discus, and a possible increase in the Wingspan of the Ventus. Have fun reading!”
https://magazine.weglide.org/schempp-hirth-ventus-e…/

Through the years “we” bought Schempp-Hirth gliders and we got to know all of them pretty well.
On top of that Klaus and Ralf stayed with us at Tocumwal before they left for the Nationals in Leeton a long time ago…… early nineties. We really had good times. Ralf was even so kind to drive me to Tullamarine before travelling to Leeton….an extra 650 km!!!!

AND

The new generation Ventus 3

—–On December 30 a very special flight from NZ. As you know, New Zealand is an island , long and not wide, with sea influence to the r and l. A Nord part and a South part with the mountains.
Norbert Scarlat and “good old” Justin Wills gathered their strengths and flew an out and return from 1.962 km.in a DUO DISCUS X.
“There is always something fascinating about gliding. You look at the forecast for days before the flight, you plan everything and you never know how good the day will be until you try. Probably one of the most difficult wave days I have ever had in New Zealand, wave was weak, almost no clouds and manage to collect all the downdraft. Thank Annie for the tow and everyone for helping on the ground. Thanks ATC and Justin for the flight, very close to complete the task.” by Norbert.
What a way to close the year 2023 for them!!!!
More about this excellent flight on https://www.weglide.org/flight/356080?

——On January 1 a 1000 km FAI TRIANGLE from my friends Roy and Patrick in Bitterwasser. I am thrilled to see that. Not that it their first 1000 ,but because they are such nice guy’s. In the past they were regular guests at our SSC in Tocumwal together with David and Hugh [R.I.P.] They tried hard but never flew their 1000 in Australia, the weather was better before or after their stay….Murphy????
This time Roy flew the 1000 km FAI triangle and yesterday Patrick.Good on them!!!

January started great in Namibia with SO MANY 1000 km flights that I stopped counting. SO,……a lot….
They have a great season.
Young German pilot Nils [Fecker] flew his 5th flight over 1.100 km all in the magic ARCUS M;
December 20…..1.302,99 km
December 22…..1.375,11 km
December 27…..1.180,69 km
January 1 …………1.203,75 km
January 2……………1.233, 06 and an FAI triangle from 1.098 km.
You have to be young for that, though I know a few more “aged” [of course with respect] pilots who can do this too.I am sure he will never ever forget this time in Africa.
The same counts for Simon [Briel] in Bitterwasser since December 18. All his flights in the mighty EB 28 are between 1.119 and 1.413 km and 6 with FAI km.
A total till now from 106 hours in this EB 28 and 12 LONG flights.
AMAZING!!!!!
At 15.51 during his flight yesterday from 1.1251 km, he was at 956 km with a speed of 148 km./h and at 17.26 at 1.203 km speed 213 km./h.

The Palmallee in Bitterwasser continues to grow! The last tree in 2023 was planted by Bjoern
Shortly before the year 2023 came to an end, the Palmallee grew by another palm tree.
Björn Gintzel from the Dahlemer Binz airfield flew a registered triangle of 1.003 kilometers on the 25 th of December.
A successful end to the year for Björn and, of course, for Bitterwasser!

—–The Perlan Project looked back on the highlights from 2023 and one of them definitely was the world’s first automated aerotowing connections from Magpie Aviation.
Last spring this was another “first” for the Perlan Project team. This is how it works;
“Perlan Pilot Tim Gardner towed Chief Perlan Project pilot Jim Payne up in a glider. On the end of the tow rope was a Magpie receptacle Active Hook, the device responsible for autonomously connecting the two aircraft in the sky. On the nose of the glider was a probe. Jim released from tow separating from the receptacle. Then Jim chased the end of the tow rope to slide the glider nose probe into the sensor receptacle. It was the first ever in-flight hook up with a glider. They were 8 of 8 for positive re-connections after which Tim could tow Jim higher to do it again.”

–—–As I shared with you earlier, the current WWGC champion [2023 in Garray] Barbora [Czechia] stayed after her volunteer job in Narromine at this years WGC, in Narromine. She flies Adam’s glider the Ventus 3 T G1 and had last week several good flights in it, over 700 km..
Even a declared 777 km out and return with a speed of 111km./h. on December 27 https://weglide.org/flight/354812
On 26 a 775 km with 116 km./h. Good on her!!!
Tomas [Suchanek[ also still in Narromine after flying the WGC, flew on December 27 in the ASW 20 a distance of 897 km. also an out and return , which means that with an outlanding at the furthest point, he would have been out 379 km!!!!
Only a few km up NE wild storms passed by killing 9 people. Hailstones were as big as tennis balls. Unreal, but I know it is real as I had that once whilst visiting Brisbane. Wild weather in parts of Australia and the coldest Christmas time ever with 16 dgr. C. In high summer…..

——-“2023 Gliding Wrapped – probably my biggest and most exciting year of soaring. Happy New Year and here’s to a great 2024. I am taking a bit of time away from gliding but perhaps we’ll meet again later in the year!” by Matthew Scutter’s Gliding…you can read it all when you use the link. Very interesting and GOOD year for him.

—-The place were I live is surrounded by great nature with hundreds of walking and bike tracks . As we have never had so much rain, I believe this December was the wettest and nearly warmest ever, many of those tracks are flooded. Insane!!!!!
WORLDWIDE this was the HOTTEST year. Not good!

——The SKYRACE Grand Prix in Leeton starts today, with 14 pilots one of them WGC pilot from the USA Tony Condon, not his first time flying this GP, though I did not see him on the list of entries.
But he is there and had the first launch on the first practice day without a task.

Also a young pilot from The Netherlands Jasper, participates in a St Libelle. He stayed in Tocumwal for a few days with our family. He is the son from Edgar and Edgar was a friend from our Dennis.
Their last news;
“We have had a huge storm come through and we are a little shaken…. Tonight’s free welcome sausage sizzle will now be tomorrow night (Wednesday).”Skyrace GP
more in the next blog.

——January 3,….. even today, always emotionally.

The gorgeous red oleander was cut down 2 years ago, by what the Shire thinks, vandals.
I don’t think so, the cut is very clean!
No clue WHY!!!!!!!!
Eddie noticed whilst flying over, that the grave looked different, so he went to have a look and found this;

Today, Bas ,the friend from Dennis, who was with him in that 87/88 summer-season, visits after 36 years AGAIN.
And drinking a beer at the spot is “popular” ,he has to drink for many of the mates ,..
Such a heart warming thought!

R.I.P DEAR DENNIS!!!!!

Ritz