QUALIFYING GRAND PRIX ; WORCESTER in S.A.
On their site they could proudly announce;
Day 1 of this SGP Qualifier was the longest task (712.5 km) and fastest speed yet (167.3 kph) for a Sailplane Grand Prix
WOW, that’s something. Guess Uli has ” scratched ” his head after the flight, as for sure he had no time to so during the flight!!!!
Yes Uli [Schwenk ] flew with a speed of 167.3 km. over those 712 km. and got the 10 points for the day. Laurens was as fast but got the 8 points and Holger just a tad slower 167. 2 km./h. the 7 points for the day.
The regatta start was at 13.03 and off they went for a long but fast race.A cracker of a day they called it, so it was!!
A fabulous video with Holger is at ; http://sgp.aero/southafrica2015.aspx
Day 2 unfortunately was cancelled due to STRONG winds!!
After a day of winery-visits they all were ready for soaring-day 2.
454 km. was set to the SE mountains and the weather was calm. The speed turned out to be good again; just under 160 km./h. for Claus, and Laurens and a tad slower for Uli.
OUCH,…then the message that Laurens had missed the startline,as did Bernd Hubka.That hurts after such a battle!
Klaus out-landed, so the points are for Claus [8] Uli [6] and John [5] .
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53d Multi Class Nationals ; Waikirie Australia.
The LS 8’s put their stamp on the first official practice day. In standard class the 5 first places were for the LS 8 and then 2 for the LS 4.
In open /18 m. it was former world champion Brad Edwards [ 348 km. with a speed of 166 km./h.] who showed his interest in the title and in 15 m. the ” young ones” seem ready for a title as Matthew and Adam topped the list.
Not everybody choose to fly.
About this day Adam wrote on his site Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
—--“What a ballistic, crazy day – 315 km.at 150 kph, 6 kt climbs to 7,000′, with cruise speeds between 105-120 kts!
The new start procedure in my opinion worked well, log a point below a specific height after gate open – then climb as high as you like before start.
Drifted with a CU until I was behind the line, saw Master Scutter’s go through the line & thought – now is as good a time as any. Mainly straight lining all day, under regular CU.
I lost a 1000′ on Scutter after crossing the boarder, then proceeded to do my own thing. 40km down the road, I had picked it up again & we were again neck & neck.
Could’ve picked up more time should I had more confidence in the sky & the glider/computer (first final glide at weight in over 12 months).
A great days practice”.—–
And one more day of practice before it all begins! AAT tasks were set 3.30 for the smaller ships, 4 hours for the big ones.
A busy day for crews ,pilots and incoming pilots.
” Matthew flew over to the Convergence on the York peninsular with Ben Loxton and Allan Barnes.
Marta flew a 500km triangle and probably set 2 Polish Records.
Pam Kurstjens flew in from Tocumwal.
Gerrit arrived as well.”
A few out-landings but others are back with tales of 10.000′ Cus and 10kt climbs and a few showers.
Only 1 finisher, in St Class; Andrew Maddocks flying 510 km. in time 3.54.
2 Finishers in 15 m. Terry Cubley in his LS 3 and Craig Collings in his ASW 27 and it looks NOBODY finished in open class.
The comps can start now, enough practice, from now it will be for real.
One of them was Adam, but he still flew 428 km..
” showers were everywhere & needed to just keep moving. Met up with Lisa Trotter & Tobias Geiger along the way too which gave nice confidence while we were overflying total tiger country.”
Courtesy Adam via FB.
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Ostler Vineyards Multi Class Nationals Gliding at Omarama [N.Z.]
Where would we be without them!!!???
As shared by the organizers.
Whilst they were practicing in Waikirie they started already in Omarama with the first competition of the year 2015 in 4 classes.On Monday was their first day and an interesting day; a speed task between 201.2km/553.3km (372.0km)in 15 m. and the young ones were good here too. Not long before Nick [Oakley] and Alex [McCaw] practiced for the JWGC end of this year in Narromine, now they flew their nationals and were on spot 1 [Nick..449.6 km. with a speed of 169.7 km./h.] ] and 3.
With good “old” Tony van Dijk in the middle.
” Good to See Young Mr Oakley winning. Sorta matched his Dad winning the Open Class.” was one of the comments.
Indeed in the combined 18m/open class dad Michael [Oakley] won as well in his ASH 25 [460.5 km. with a speed of 184.2 km./h.]
Very fast day for the Oakley’s.
In 20 m. Ge Dale with Tom Klassen in the Duo Discus topped the scores on day 1.[417.6 km. with a speed of 167.1 km./h.]
As the organizers mentioned on their site; ” Would point out that the Soaring Spot list of Pilots has pilots duplicated to reflect the convoluted Class structure……There are not 40 Pilots competing…..more like 27.” Just to let you know too.
Day 2 had a young winner again in 15 m.. This time not Nick but Alex ….ALL other pilots in his class were launched, returned to the field, had a relight but,….. no more starts in this class.
With a speed of 98 km./h. he was the only starter and finisher over the set 446 km.and,…that for ZERO points.But it shows quality and character.
In open class Nick’s dad Michael, had his 2d win in a row in the ASH 25. After 2 days he leads with 2000 points.
Keith and Gavin Wills [520 km. with 114.3 km./h.] in the ARCUS flew in their 20 m. class to the daily top with Tom and Ge as runners up in the DUO Discus.[ 545.9 km. with 109.6 km./h.]
All scores preliminary.For all scores from S.A., Waikirie, Omarama and Chaves, you can go to www.soaringspot.com
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Nationals at Chaves in Argentina.
Otto Ballod , Gonzales Chaves.
As shared on their site.
They started with 2 hout AAT’s on their day 1, but the wind was too strong to send the 65 pilots up in the air. Today they try again.They fly in 2 classes; club/standard and 15 m./open.
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AND,..just before I leave for Amsterdam the next news from Tijl Schmelzer and dad Bert sr.:
” We just broke the 200 kph barrier! A world first in thermal conditions and African record on the 100 km fair triangle!”
An African continental and Belgium record!! 106.1 km. with a speed of 215.4 km./h. !!!!!
Flown from Kiripotib.
” This flight was one of our goals for this trip, and took about 20 hours of flight preparation and pc modeling.
It wasn’t completely perfect (in theory 225 kph should be possible), but it is close enough.”
206.4 km./h.
Courtesy Schmelzers.
By the way,…a lot of my friends had great fun with a 1000 yesterday, quite a few of them flew with us at Sportavia in the past.Proud on that!
Wolfgang in the ARCUS M from Kiripotib .
Alfred Paul and Mark in the Nimbus 4DM from Kuruman on a day with clouds.
Bart and Max in the ARCUS M from Corowa.
Max and Rob in the ARCUS T from Douglas.
Roland and Hans in the ARCUS M from Kuruman.
Not all friends reached that magic 1000 but some were very close as Roy with 945.8 km. in the ANTARES 20m…. ” Could not achieve the planned 1000 km task due to thick cirrus over southern half of task area so a multi-pass along the convergence line.”
And Patrick with 907 in the Ventus 2 CM.Both from Bitterwasser.
Eagle with 859 in the ASH 31 MI/21 m. from Corowa.
AND,…last but not least; Declared 700km FAI @ 149.63kmh. New Dutch Open Class record!Flown by Max and Edo from Douglas in the Nimbus 4DM.
The ” Mangaan mine” as shared by Max and Edo. It was 40 dgr. on the ground!
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And great news from Argentina :” Finally, a taste of “Onda Grande” in the afternoon.”
2.017 km. with a speed of 145 km./h. was flown last Monday by Jim and his son Jason Payne. In the ARCUS M. Great effort!
More very long up and down-flights from Nahuel Huapi as Dennis Tito flew 1.356 km. in the DG 1001 and from Chapelco German pilot Wolfgang Goeringh flew 1.594 km.in the Quintus M.
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With the arrival of the first Gliding International from this year I had a few hours of good reading.63 Pages, fabulous pictures and stories as;
—45 guinea pigs test pilots joined me in Nephi[UTAH USA] to help verify that the site really was as special as I was hoping [Bruno Vassel] In 2014 65 gliders were allowed. A new soaring event format….Read the full story by Elke Fuglsang-Petersen in GI.
—Aldo Cernezzi, discussed with Jens Bothe the EB 28 [Edition] Jens flew 1000 hours in the EB 28 edition and can speak from the heart and out of experience.The conclusions are so that the Binders will SMILE!!
—German aeronautical engineer Werner Kuffner, is seeking investment support for the WK series; high performance powered sailplanes, an interesting story to read.
—Gliding in Ireland by Kevin Houlihan
—NASA takes up gliding and many more interesting stories and newsy news from our soaring /aviation world.
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That’s it for now more news on the comps maybe this upcoming Sunday or otherwise on the regular Wednesday.
The full story by David Jansen is shared by NAVITER at
http://www.naviter.com/…/david-jansen-flies-1580-km-in-aus…/
Cheers Ritz