Post 1.545 on September 11, 2024

Starting this week with this fabulous picture from Jonny Durand in front of the Morning Glory. WOW!!!!!
As you know the Morning Glory looks like a rolling-cloud;
“an undular bore cloud that stretches for 1,000km, in Queensland, Australia. It is typically 1,000-2,000m high and often only 100-200m above ground.”
Cross Country Magazine shared the picture on September 4.
You mostly “find” this phenomena in the are of the Gulf of Carpentaria [N.E. Australia] and the place Burketown ,hosts every season, several guests ,who want to experience this , at least once in their life.

For a short while, in the time we were involved, Sportavia [SSC] had a combination from hang-gliding and gliding at the airfield.
One of the young men belonging to the hang glider guy’s /”dudes” AND flying with us in that year, was Jonny. I believe it was a championship in Toc. organized by Tove [Heany] , also involved with her husband Grant, in that season in the SSC.
Jonny has many world records and was world champion as well. A flamboyant guy flying the Moyes Delta gliders over Tocumwal soil and around and,…the great Mr Moyes himself visited us then too that year.
Nowadays Jonny is a long-time Red Bull sponsored hang gliding pilot ,who’s been ranked #1 in the world multiple times.
It pleases me he is doing so well.
The other pilot I remember from that year is Mr. Atilla Bartok. I met him again in Lake Keepit [2019/20] and we were straight away talking Sportavia/ gliding again. He converted with us from hang gliding to gliding and still does so, owns his own glider and flies from different fields but mostly Lake Keepit.

–—–Happy pilots flying in Uvalde, back down- under ,when their spring starts;
Adam; “ Bloody awesome! An intermediate goal achieved, I just made the first page of the world ranking list – now 16th in the world
Australia has now moved into 7th position out of 39 countries & I’ll maintain #2 in the country to our resident World Champion, James Nugent.
Congratulations to Stefan Langer who is now 2nd in the world, arguably equal 1st with Sebastian Kawa on equal ranking points of 999.2!
Congratulations also to Sarah Arnold who is now 6th in the world & easily the world #1 female pilot“

Lumpy; Back in Tocumwal after his pretty successful trip to Uvalde, where he won task 6 on his very first WGC…
“So the second thing you do when you get home from a holiday is jump in the tow plane for look around” I remember how gorgeous yellow, due to the canola and green after the rain, Toc can be.
Tocumwal Soaring Centre

——Not long and the first comps will be flown again overseas.
South Africa hosts in Potchefstroom the Nationals in 4 classes between September 28 and October 5.
Several well-known pilots also from Europe will attend! More later when it’s on.
Kiripotib Soaring announced a new “face” in their team of Champions.
“We welcome Tom Arscott to our team of Champions ! Tom is the current World Champion in Standard Class and has been flying international competitions for the British Team for nearly 10 years. Along the way, he became Junior World Champion in 2015, European Champion in 2019, and a National Champion several times. He is the coach of the British team and trains the next generation of competition pilots.
We are delighted to welcome another top-level high-flyer for Flying with the Champions.”
For all their news ; https://kiripotib-soaring.com/en/segelfliegen/flying-with-the-champions/

—–Back to now!
We have had world wide ,the warmest summer since they started counting! Also here in Europe and here in the Netherlands. Not the best soaring summer, but not too many complaints!!!
And it still continues. Our first autumn day showed 30 dgr. C. Still good flying in parts of Europe.
Last Sunday , here in The Netherlands, still up to over 500 km flights in ASG 29E/18m and in an LS 4 neo, 437 km.

DDA Classic Airlines , flew last weekend for the very last time a passenger flight. Pretty sad!
“we visited Rotterdam airport for scenic flights for the very last time as DDA Classic Airlines. Blessed with glorious weather during the weekend, we provided 144 enthusiastic passengers a life-long remembered scenic flight on board our ‘Royal’ DC-3.”
It’s the only DC3 Dakota with an airworthiness certificate in The Netherlands.

The last flight at Sunday August 25th ended with this tribute by the local fire brigade, and after the engines were stopped, a loud applause was heard.
It was a moving moment…
I feel it a bit too ,as George and several other , mostly Transavia pilots I knew, were for a long time in the 70thies, founding members of the Dutch Dakota Association. [not the DDA classic airlines]

Shorter, ..yes we can.
That’s it for now.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.544 on September 4, 2024 .A very special day , as my grand daughter Indya turns 21!!!!!!

Looking back on all the CAT 1 comps this summer, I have the feeling, looking at the huge amount of followers from several bloggers on internet, that our sport is still much alive and to keep it like that , I try to continue writing.
Reading other blogs , I learned; “Ritz ,….don’t make your posts TOO long”.
So shorter blogs ,but hopefully still enough interesting news.

——Keiheuvel; Due to all the CAT 1 comps in Tabor, Ostrow and Uvalde you might have missed my annual Keiheuvel-diary. You just have to scroll down, pretty far ,[as I wrote a lot,] to find it.
Keiheuvel is special and created over the years top pilots, as Bert Schmelzer jr, world champion in 2014 in Rayskala and this year Martijn Eerdekens [JWGC] and many pilots flying EGC’s and WGC’s.
A top soaring climate!!!!
Already in the past, when we got to know the Schmelzer and Huybreckx families as well as on international comps “the Stouffs” and later the “de Broquevilles” and still now!!!

You might remember the picture from Leon a new 13 year old future talent. Years ago I met Jeroen [Jennen] like this and he then proudly said , he wanted to fly big comps. He must have been 8 and ran around with cables and knew all the rules of the airfield. Jeroen did and does fly big comps ,earlier the JWGC and recently he was at the EGC winning 2 days.
Here is Leon again , now with JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPION Martijn Eerdekens. Did he get some tips?
I wanted to have a few words with Martijn, but he was not flying for the Keiheuvel CUP, as his uncle flew.

As I went home early I could not mention the extra winners that day. So here you are ,thanks to Bert sr.
Lars won in 1 class and flew this year also the JWGC, in Ostrow and there he won task 5 and was on spot 10 overall. A real talent and yes his dad flew comps too.

——Some after-UVALDE-fun!
Gliderpasi ; [Finland]….. reflected on his Uvalde WGC . You can read it in his blog ; ,;
Here are a few quotes also about “loving” our sport.
“Lot’s of old and new friends. What an awesome community we have and what an awesome community Uvalde has.“
“I am the most comfortable in the open class and having the destiny on my own hands. Though beating Felipe, Michael would of needed a miracle“
“Spending 80 hours on Texas skies, racing against the top pilots is unique and very heart warming.”

Jd Barrois ; France ….”End of 3 fantastic weeks gliding in Texas , my childhood dream ! 5th WGC with up and down but with fantastic team. Unforgettable memories.”

Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures; Australia….
In the end the 20 m. class was for most of the readers the most exciting class. Adam was so knid to share some stats , after about some 75 hours of flying. I share them with you;
1. We achieved 98.6% of the winners score
2. We achieved 93.4% of all available points
3. Karl & Sarah achieved 10461/11 = 951pts per task flown3a. Keith & I achieved 10329/11 = 939pts per task flown
Note: Added 845pts to both the results above to level it out to, 1000pts per winners score day.
4. We were 132 points in deficit at the end, typically each turn is worth 5 points, which equals 26.4 extra turns (too many) during the whole championships, or approx 10.6min slower over all; or one minute slower each flight (41.2hrs on task)!
5. 135.31kph was the average completed winning speed of all the day winners combined.
6. 131.16kph was our average completed task speed.
I like the “freakin ” cool under these words. It was freaking cool!!!!!

——-Because it is so fabulous once more the first moments/emotions after they , Sarah and Karl, knew they won the 20 m.

—–What happened more?
They just packed the containers in Uvalde for a home bound trip, NOW they pack the containers 3 of them with gliders for Kiripotib . Wolfgang must have straight flown from Uvalde to the spot where the containers were “packed” as he was there too helping out. With all his experience it makes the job looking easy, but it is hard work.
The Namibian season there starts around November 1 .

That’s it for now.
CU next Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.543 on September 1 2024 .

Start of the metrological autumn with tropical temperatures here in the South of The Netherlands; 31 dgr. C . My mates down-under have looked forward to their spring which started too.

First more about and from Sarah, who is overly happy as more USA mates.
“For years I’ve dreamed of becoming the first woman to earn gold in the unrestricted World Gliding Championships, and superstitiously refused to say it aloud, afraid that perhaps it was just too big of a goal.
Along the way I’ve learned how to earn points in glider racing, and a LOT of ways to lose them. I’ve learned that it takes a special set of circumstances to win and not all factors are in anyone’s control. I’ve felt the thrills of victory and agonies of defeat. I’ve learned that in glider racing there are more hard lessons to learn than easy ones. I’ve been buoyed by countless kindnesses and felt the pressure at the top, being hunted by the best in the world.
These experiences of mine have come over but a fourth of the time that Karl has been on his own quest. It seemed like such a fairy tale to wish for us to win, for Karl to get his gold, and finally have USA world champions from a contest hosted inside the United States.
When we took the lead early on we both fought hard to keep thoughts of a potential win out of our heads, and just took one day at a time. We couldn’t believe it would happen until we crossed the finish ring yesterday afternoon. Thank you to all who have worked tirelessly over many years to give us this opportunity. Words aren’t enough, my heart is full.”
Sarah Arnold and some pictures shared by Sarah.

The editor of the magazine [hangar soaring] of the WSPA [Women Soaring Pilots Association ]Frauke Elber , AND writer of the book book ” The tall man in the dark suit”, wrote as a comment in my blog ;“what a race in the 20m class. For me as a spectator on the computer it was a real nail biter” https://womensoaring.org/

Indeed , also for me this was the first time I was MORE interested in the 20 m than in open [my normal favourite because George always flew open class and so I got to know a lot of those pilots] or 18 m.
Of course it was special. Americans winning in the USA, ” over home soil”, a female pilot and an elderly [WITH HUGE RESPECT] gentleman, best ingredients to follow this class extra. I read that Karl is even 87 and not 86.
Also, because the differences in points were not big in this class, everything could happen on the last day.
Result; late night for me to see with my own eyes at 1.30 in the morning who were the sinners.

Some nice pictures shared by the Dutch team from 20 m- pilots congratulating each other.

And the winners of the open class

And the 18 m winners;

And last but not least the 20 m winners.

And one from Adam who on the last day went from 2 to 4; “I went & wished every 20m team on the grid, great decisions, climbs & energy lines before take off on the last day – seems they took my well wishes positively.“

In between some pilots and crews really worked hard and before having a CORONA , no not the bacteria but the well deserved beer, packed the container and finished it; doors closed and off to Holland again.

A last salute to the USA team, with TC Pete Alexandre, holding proudly the Stars and Stripes with Karl and Sarah. My friends Gary and Christine Cartner [involved in several important jobs during this WGC] are to the right.

“Well, the party’s over and “well done” by all, competitors, crews, tug pilots, organizers, ALL volunteers, businesses, and of course, the incredible folks who live in and around Uvalde! Team USA has made us so proud. Be sure to scroll through the posts and remarks. I’m sure we can all look forward to more thoughts and insights as our team (and others) make their safe way home and beyond. Thanks to them for the memories! USA Proud!” US Soaring Teams

And the last words are for John Good. I wrote, like him , sometimes sitting at the same table, [ as in Lake Keepit] at several comps and we both were TC at several comps as well. I value him/his writing high.

“We have two World Champions! At the 38th World Gliding Championship, Karl and Sarah today prevailed in the 20-Meter Multiseat class. They are the first US champions in an “unrestricted entry” World Gliding Championship since Doug Jacob’s 1985 victory in Rieti, Italy (37 years ago). Sarah is the first woman from any country ever to win at this level. Karl, at 87, is far and away the oldest-ever soaring world champion.
(As I read these words I’ve written, I’m thinking: “Did this really happen? Can these improbable-sounding statements actually be true? Well, yes, it did. Yes, they are.)
The flight they flew today to secure the championship was exactly what they needed. Over 10 days, their consistent flying had built a useful, but certainly not insurmountable lead. Their assignment on the 11th and last was to make another steady flight, aiming not to win the day but to reduce risk and achieve a total score that their rivals could not overtake. Weather was forecast to be good, but with a meaningful chance of vertical overdevelopment producing rain and even thunderstorms, said to be possible anywhere in the task area.
They started in the middle of the pack, with a number of good teams ahead to help mark the right route choices. They consistently found good climbs, stayed high and always out of trouble, preferring to stay with a few others rather than break away, seeking a few more points. On their way home from the final turn area, they took a thermal climb that probably wasn’t essential, but which bought “insurance” against possible bad air ahead, at the cost of delaying their finish by perhaps a minute. The result was 4th place for the day and a score of 922 points, which guaranteed the victory. As they crossed the finish ring, not all eyes were dry.
In 18-Meter class, the Germans dominated, Stefan Langer taking the gold medal by more than 200 points. Sean Fidler finished 10th (top-10 is the sign of an outstanding effort). Sean Murphy was 27th – he had to find a glider on short notice and struggled to adapt to it and its unfamiliar instrumentation.
In Open Class, the formidable German pair of Felipe Levin and Michael Sommer were at the top, hundreds of points ahead of the rest. Jim Lee managed a very commendable 6th; Keith Baugh, flying his first WGC in a “short-winger” (21 meters) was 12th.
Overall, the US Team performance was the best in a very long time. Full credit to Team Captain Pete Alexander, who has uncommon skills and just the right touch in a job that at times must feel like herding cats. US Team crews worked harder, longer and in tougher conditions than at essentially any other contest site (typically on the job around dawn and often not done until past sunset) and were consistently up to the challenge.
The WGC2024 closing ceremony [Has been of course] will take place tomorrow morning at 9:00 – the Star-Spangled Banner will be heard for the first time in 37 years. This is my final report.
John Good

Back to the regular blogs now on Wednesday.
It was ,as said pretty intensive to write every day about the JWGC in Ostrow, the EGC in Tabor and the WGC in Uvalde, so my hands and neck need “some tender and care”, but the off- season starts now till South Africa and Namibia “wake up” , as well as Australia and we are going to keep an eye on them.

Cheers Ritz.

Post 1.542 on August 31 2024

CLOSING CEREMONY and Prizegiving;
Rich; “Medals will be given out for the top 3 competitors and certificates will go to a predetermined number of pilots in each class. There will also be two trophies that will be presented during the awards ceremony. One is the Goran Ax Memorial Trophy which is awarded to the pilot who achieves the highest accumulated marking distance in the Open Class during the entire World Gliding Championship. Also, the Robert-Kronfeld – Challenge Cup will be presented to the pilot flying the World Gliding Championship in the Open, 18m or 20m classes that have flown the longest marking distance flight during the Championship regardless of the type of task.”

The containers have to be packed again asap and sent to the harbor .Busy job, the less nice one I remember. Some started VERY early.

The South African Gliding Team started already straight after the comps :”And that’s a wrap! We’re furiously packing containers today and tomorrow, then closing ceremony at 9am.”

Found in my files this great picture from Sarah, here without Karl. Now world champion in the 20 m class WITH Karl in Uvalde and WWGC champion in Lake Keepit in 2020. Karl was never world champion but he was runner up in Chateauroux in 1978 . Now at age 86 WORLD-CHAMPION.

And another nice picture now from 18 m class pilot Stefan shared by his proud club members from Segelfluggruppe Donauwörth-Monheim with the message; WE ARE WORLD CHAMPION.

The prizes have been handed over, the flag is presented for the next WGC to Tabor I believe in 2026 and I wait till the official pictures from the winners will be shared. Here is already one shared by Pasi;

That was FUN!! This 38th WGC in Uvalde.
Though it was very intensive, it was a pleasure to write from home and THANK you for all the news I was allowed to quote.

When I have the pictures I share them in the next blog CU then.
Cheers Ritz