The weather really lost the plot as I have said before. Here in the Netherlands it is 20 to 23 dgr. C….about 10 dgr. more than normal, for this time of the year. Wet…. yes also, but at this stage not as bad as down under.
In Australia it’s raining like mad. Poor farmers…again.. it’s either draught or flooding nowadays.
The Tocumwal Aviation Museum shared this news;
“80 years ago American forces occupied the Tocumwal Air Depot as a base for aircraft maintenance and repair.
We’re fortunate to have the Paul Bennet Airshows ex-U.S. Navy Grumman Avenger on loan this week and be able to give a flying nod to our local history by flying this 80 year old American warplane over the airfield where American forces were based 80 years ago.
It’s also a unique way to observe the floodwaters of the Mighty Murray River which are impacting towns downstream.”
Look at the huge amount of water everywhere around the Murray. There are houses, camping’s, horse riding trails, restaurants and a nice white beach, where I have enjoyed many moments in my life!!!!
So, not only the farmers , but everybody on more low grounds , suffers.

One of the lucky ones to have a seat /ride in this great plane ….ex-U.S. Navy Grumman Avenger ….was the owner of the WWII hangar now, Lumpy Paterson. He runs Sportavia Tocumwal .

Lumpy; “There is just something about big radial engines, and this is just about as big as they get.
TBM 3E Avenger, built in 1943 as a torpedo bomber, to operate from aircraft carriers. This is the biggest radial engine flying in Australia, producing 1700 hp !
It’s a BIG aircraft and is a little deceiving, the engine sounds like it’s only just purring and yet, we are doing 200 kts.
Sometimes the stars just line up, to fly an American built WW2 aircraft over an American built military hangar in Tocumwal, I love the aviation scene!”

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—–I wrote about the new TOST winch from NT Soaring, in the red heart of the continent Australia. It’s busy straight away!!!

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The weather in Namabia is already GOOD too, here is the news from Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre
“Good weather in Namibia. Great anticipation.
If you look now in TopMeteo for Namibia, you see now already, so end of October, very good weather. This is also confirmed by the pictures of the webcams of Bitterwasser. This increases the anticipation of those who have already booked Bitterwasser.
Unfortunately, almost everything is booked. But from 25.10.2022 to 10. 11.2022 are still small capacities free.
Bad weather in Germany, cold and dark, only bad news regarding energy and inflation? Ideal reasons to escape from that, at least for a short time.
So, for short decided:”
Call Rainer, +49 170 9143684 or mail to: Hog@bitterwasser.com

Of course that counts for ALL European pilots NOT only those from Germany.

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The Dutch club The Gelderse had autumn camp. My granddaughter unfortunately had to study. Though it was windy and wet, the temperatures were top.
Days definitely are getting shorter and the season has nearly finished.

Down under the season is about to start and Adam shared these lovely pictures flying over Kingaroy. He is back in the cockpit of an Air Japan 787, but in between and even more from December onward, he flies gliders again too. So you can read his stories in his blog.
By the way he was runner up for the Ingo Renner Cup [ a decentral cup for which you can be scored throughout the whole year] behind Toby Geiger from Benalla in 2022 season. On October 1 the new season started.
Some details about the Ingo Renner Cup. Have a look here: https://docs.weglide.org/…/nati…/ingo_renner_cup.html…

Also Norway is in full autumn colors. Instructing in Notodden , in such nice environment can only be a huge PLEASURE!!!!

And to finish this autumn blog a picture from one of the very well known soaring calendars in Germany.
“The current calendar 2022 shows us the absolutely successful end of the season in October, which we wish you also this year. And remember … end of season means, it’s time to secure the new Fotokalender Segelfliegen 2023. Thanks for the model shoot to Peer Konitzer and Massimo Metzger in the Duo Discus XLT.“
aviation-calendar.com

Some sad news before I stop;
Eddie [Madden] shared this news;
“Today I lost my close friend Andrea from Austria , due to cancer.
Andrea came to fly with me for for the last 20+ years. Good times never forgotten“
Some “guests” you never forget, also with Andrea [Wieger] and Anton [Horill], 2 very enthusiastic beautiful Tocumwal mates from Austria. Anton, the glider pilot who loved his flying in the LS 4, Andrea who learned to fly and supported Anton with her flying by being with him at the field flying when she felt so.
They flew already with us between 1996 and 2006, every 2 years and when we left they moved without hesitation to Eddie, where they flew every 2 years till a few years ago [2019] when I met them in town and had a long talk with them.
I hope Anton keeps going on with his flying at Eddie’s , as they had together so many great memories on soaring in Toc.
R.I.P dear Andrea.

CU next week
Cheers Ritz

—–The French National Aeroclub, the [ Fédération Française de Vol en Planeur ] shared a message from the results in 2022, from 309 [under 25] young participating pilots flying for the Coupe Jacques Gomy.
In 47 years, this number of 309 was the best /highest EVER.
In the high season the young ones do have some problems to fly for a longer time on club gliders. So they can’t go on a CC-flight.
They are encouraged / stimulated to participate for this prestigious challenge, starting on March1. It gives them a goal to fly more and longer.
15 year old Loan Cheval won with 9251 points followed by 16 year old Thibaud de Péchy with 8919 points and on 3 mademoiselle Emma Chesneau with 8457 points. Good on them !!!!!
Thibaud’s brother Clement won the prize in 2019.
Emma had a training stage with Eric Napoleon and Eric Bernard and 3 other “girls” as well.

I had to google who Jacques Gomy was; He lived between 1926 and 1967, was a glider pilot and instructor , NATIONAL CHAMPION in glider- aerobatics’ and a test pilot.
He had 6.500 hours in his logbook ,1.700 in a glider. He started when he was 14!!!
AND he did much more….
I checked with dad Philippe de Pechy as well . He added that a lot of the French team pilots from NOW, once flew this challenge. He mentioned Eric Napoleon, Laurent Aboulin and he himself did it too.
“The rules are simple.1 point per minute and the 20 longest flights are registered….+ bonus for FAI badges“
He also added that Jacques performed in a movie.
He was the pilot of the glider in the “Grand Vadrouille”, the French movie having had the best box office.
Of course with Louis de Funès. Fantastic movie!!!
I guess most of you have seen it too, if not here is a link I got from Philippe.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2l4mk

Jacques Gomy died on January 5 in 1967, together with Gerard Verette, during a flight test of the prototype of the CAP10, [ in the end the CAP10 was an extremely successful airplane.] which is an acro airplane. An unexpected and sad end of a fabulous and inspiring flying-life.

There you go, I learned a lot again. Thanks Philippe for your input.

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—–I shared earlier the final results from the OLC. This week I got the newsletter from WeGlide, so I share their stats with you too. They , Johannes, Samuel, Joshua and Moritz, are all young entrepreneurs doing a real good, no an amazing job.
magazine.weglide.org 
“This season, more than 6400 new pilots have joined the WeGlide community. You have uploaded more than 80,000 pictures of sunrises, cloud streets, thunderclouds, or your co-pilots. Together, we’ve flown more than 27 million kilometers with the power of the sun, which is more than 70 times the distance to the moon.
Thanks to you and your flights we are now the largest gliding site in the world, just incredible!”
They have certificates for all which you can download.
Their top three finishers of the WeGlide Distance Cup, who covered some really incredible distances are;
Baptiste Innocent, 6518 pt
Alexander Müller, 6324 pt and
Guy Bechtold, 6191 pt.
Their top 3 fastest pilots are ;
Juan Pablo Verdura, 599 pt,
James G Lee, 551 pt and
Baptiste Innocent, 534 pt….. 
WeGlide Speed Champions!

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–—-Next years WWGC news as shared by Kiki [Jacky Clairbaux] ;
“Next year, the 12th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championship is going to be celebrated in Soria-Garray (LEGY- SPAIN) in the first two weeks of July
The competition will be in the airfield of Soria – Garray (LEGY), from July 1st until July the 15th
The WWGC2023 will be an international celebration of women gliding in three classes – Club, Standard and 18m.
It is a good opportunity to explore the area, enjoy the friendship of the Castilian people, their ancient culture, enjoy their wonderful gastronomy and have a really good time on a friendly atmosphere of the competition.“
https://wwgc2023.org/

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—–Nice to know…..”Howard Torode (Chairman BGA Technical Committee) has been awarded the prestigious Paul Tissandier Diploma by the FAI for his outstanding leadership and contribution to glider airworthiness and the development of the proportionate regulation of sailplane airworthiness and maintenance.
Congratulations and thanks, Howard!” Gliding

——-Last weekend they had the sent-off of Tony Tabart in Tocumwal.
“the event was well attended, Tony was done proud, and we look forward to next year’s event.”
A very valuable evening with TRUE friends of TT.
That is was so well attended, was nearly a miracle due to the flooding all over parts down under, specially the Victoria and NSW area’s.

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—–Autumn in The Netherlands;

AND
a wet spring in Tocumwal

And spring is arriving in N.Z as well. John McCaw had a nice flight last weekend. He photographed Rob Kerr in his LS 4, during flight, great picture.

——And, the MIDLAND GLIDING CLUB in the UK, had an “Excellent first day of the Junior’s Winter Series, 118 launches on a sunny day with ridge lift and thermals.” It is the 11th version and never before they had so many young pilots at briefing. A fabulous turnout.
Day 1 of the Winter Series Round 1 – The Long Mynd

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—-Not only , the lucky-enough-pilots are looking forward to the new Namibian season, which their great flights, we all do. The magic of their weather is famous by now. 2 More weeks and it starts.

In between they worked HARD!!!!Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre shared the next news…..
“That was fast – PV systems in operation
Sometimes things go faster than you think in Namibia. The two recently ordered PV systems are in operation.
The panels for the lodge have a capacity of 57 kWp. This is the theoretical output. We expect to be able to generate half of our electricity needs with these panels during the peak season from November to January. The rest of the year, it should be enough for everything.
The panels are oriented in an east-west direction. In the mornings and evenings, we have the highest power consumption and the panels should provide as much power as possible then.
The panels for the village should approximately cover the power consumption for the whole season.
The investment volume was about 80.000€. We believe that it is a good investment. Good for the environment, good for our cash and good for the future. Electric, self-launching gliders are on the market and in the future, we will see them more often in Bitterwasser. The batteries of these gliders want to be charged.’

AND,…..”The first four containers with our planes arrived in Bitterwasser. We had sent four containers in advance, as we were not sure whether the ships would sail according to schedule. And as it always is, when you expect the worst, everything goes smoothly. Customs was also there and at first glance all planes seem to have survived the transport well.
All official problems are also solved. ARO, overflight permission etc. are there. So the season can start on 25.10.2022. Good flying weather has also been experienced.”

LESS GOOD NEWS from Australia, the flooding is getting worse and worse. My favorite shopping streets are in Echuca and Shepparton, ….both under water. Echuca has the highest water since 150 years.
When you want to go from Toc to Narromine, there is flooding as well. Dubbo is partly under water and Forbes as well. The road from Finley [close to Toc] to Berrigan is flooded.
Local flood guides help the people.
Mind you a lot of the transport in Australia goes by road with huge trucks and even road trains, travelling from N to S and E to W; at a lot of places that’s not possible. What cost!!!!! Terrible!!!!
This is the Murray river , around it live a huge amount of kangaroos. They have nowhere to go, and cross the winding roads full of trucks, which are able to drive. A lot have been and will be killed. So sad!!!!

CU on Wednesday.
cheers Ritz

2022 South African Nationals
Potchefstroom….1 October 2022 – 8 October 2022

After 2 CANCELLED days, “we” continue now with
Day 6…task 6…flying day 4 on October 6….AND,… bugger [excusez le mot] ALL pilots out-landed!
15 m; 533.69 km…changed in 378.88 km; Wayne [Schmidt ]missed only out on 40 k. [ 335 km] but for 600 points he was the daily best! About 30 k less for Peter Farrel in his 18 m. JS 1.
Unlucky day for Danish pilot Anders Andersen, whose PEV was not “found”. Zero points!!!!
club; 318.30 km… Young German pilot Niklas [Hahn] had a top day. Yes he was “out” , but so were they all, but he flew 229 km. in his LS 1 D. [handicap 98] Great job Niklas!
Mike van Niekerk flew 252 km, in his ASW 20 [handicap 110] he was runner up.
2-seaters; 478.20 km...changed in 378.86 km; all 6 2-seaters were out . Laurens in his top glider the ASG 32 MI, flew 337 km and I presume he “motored” the last km.’s home. Riaan Denner and his mate in the ASH 25 flew 30 k less. They were runner up.
Carol Clifford wrote about today:
“Today there is some wind, but not nearly as strong – thank goodness! The Low pressure is still to the west, and there could be overdevelopment and/or congestion to the south later in the day. Temperature at 11.30 is expected to be 33 deg and the winds north-westerly and could be about 10 kts on the ground. Tasks have been set, initially in a southerly direction, and then to the better weather later in the day up to the north-west and back west and home.”

Day 7…task 7…flying-day 5 on October 7..penultimate day.
15m; 290.55 km.…from 12 pilots , 7 were in and a familiar face on spot 1; Mark in his ASW 27, with a good speed of 143 km./h. Uys, Atti, Oscar and Anders followed, as well as Rob and Sven.
3 JS 3’s/15 m, lead the overall scores with Uys, [ 3.854] ,Attie [ 3.793] and Oscar [ 3.756] on the 3 top spots for now!
5 Pilots flew with OVER 132 km./h!!!!
Mark [4] is only 5 points behind Oscar.[ 3.751]
And I know them a bit,…they all want to win, so who is going to do so????
club; 205.39 km…Only 7 started the day and 5 finished. Daily winner; Richard Glennie in ASW 20; 115 km./h. Young Zachary , the guest from the USA, was 4th.[97 km./h]
With one more day to go, it’s all about Wilhelm and Rene ;3.266, 3.247 and young Niklas is 3d with 2.671.
2-seaters; 290.55 km....6 started and ONLY one finished. Denner and Unwin,in their ASH 25…. good on them. Their speed was 118 km./h. All the other pilots must have been shut off by weather as they only flew under 100 km. far!!!
Overall scores with ONE day to go; Laurens 3.127 points, Kotze/Bonnet with 3.080 and Denner/Unwin with 3.024 p.
Carol; “After flying – it would seem a day that had very different results and fortunes for the pilots – some obviously found the lift and managed to get around the task with very creditable speeds, whilst others ended up outlanding in a field or using their motors. Five pilots outlanded today and for the others that I think did the task there were some good speeds. “

Day 8…task 8…flying day 6 on October 8; CANCELLED in all 3 classes!!! They had in each class a 2.45 AAT, but,…..
Carol on day 7; “From the ground, the day certainly looked better than it has for the last two days, so let’s hope tomorrow provides a good final day’s flying.“
Unfortunately it did n’t!!!

15 m NATIONAL CHAMPION;
1. Uys Jonker in JS3 with 3.584 points.
2. Attie Jonker in JS 3 TJ with 3.793 p.
3. Oscar Goudriaan in JS 3 TJ with 3.756 p.
NO possibility anymore for Mark to gain 5 more points on Oscar.

Club class NATIONAL CHAMPION:
1. Wilhelm Mosehuus in Mosquito with 3.266 points.
2. Rene Coetzee in ASW 20 with 3.247 p.
3. Niklas Hahn in LS 1D with 2.671 p.

2-seater NATIONAL CHAMPION:
1. Laurens Goudriaan in ASG 32MI with 3.127 points.
2. Kotze & Bonnet in Nimbus 4D with 3.080 p.
3.  Denner & Unwin in ASH 25E with 3.024 p.

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Australia’s red heart of the country , better know as Alice Springs, has a glider community with Robert Smits and his partner Jenny, a WWGC pilot, as “engines” .
They bought in the Netherlands this great TOST winch, from Glider Winch Europe, send it to Australia, where they did the finishing touch in Alice. Great toy!!!!! Great job!!!

And 2 pictures from “tugs”, from my favorite photographers.
A great picture by ARJAN, from the tug still working hard at TERLET in The Netherlands where it is still good autumn soaring weather.
What a season it was !!!!!!

Sikko flew , between showers , in his ASG 29E/18m, still 460 km with 105 km./h.
https://www.weglide.org/flight/221581
More Dutch and Belgian pilots did so, during this lovely autumn weekend/period:
Robin [Smit] in LS 4 NEO, flew without water under cloud streets to 420 km.
Wim [Akkermans] from Keiheuvel ; 510 km in Ventus 3 F.
Down under where spring is about to begin we see 400 km. flights as well. Norm [Bloch] flew from Beverley , [Western Australia] 407 FAI triangle in his LS 3 on October 7.
AND of course the tuggy pictures…..

And by New Zealand photographer Geoff Soper

The ASK 21 is a ” good working-horse”. I read that number 1000 is flying now! Between 1979 and 2022 one thousand sold. Not bad.
“still flying, training and selling well…”

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Last weekend , “our” 25 year old Max Verstappen won his 2d WORLD TITLE in the formula 1-car-racing. Great result after lots of confusion about the points.
He turned 25 just a week ahead of the race in Japan.
A very deserved winner of the races from the 22 season.
Love this picture from Max about 20 years ago.

Have a good week CU next Wednesday!
Cheers Ritz

The 2022 South African NATIONALS .
Potchefstroom, 1 October 2022 – 8 October 2022

As said before this National Championship is flown in 3 classes; 15m, club and 2-seaters.
On the last day of September they had their practice day with a 2 hour AAT with 215 km as best distance by Sven [Olivier] in his ASW 27B.
I hope all scores are correct now as they had some problems.
October 1 …day 1…task 1 ;
15 m…..416 km; straight away Oscar [Goudriaan] ” left his calling card” in his 15 m JS 3 TJ; speed 112 km./h. Attie and Uys followed both equal as runner up ; speed 110 km./h.
11 pilots in this class among them 3 HC pilots.
9 Pilots were in.
Club….269.63 km; started also with 8 pilots and 2 HC pilots. Best speed by Philip Jonker in the LS 4 but he flies HC. Wilhelm Moosehuus in the Mosquito, was for that reason the daily number 1; 100 km,./h. Only one other pilot flew over 100 km./h and that was Rene Coetsee as runner up.
2-Seaters……436.41 km; 5 in this class and only ONE team flew the task; Kotze & Bonnet in the Duo Discus with 117 km./h. There are 3 Duo Discus’ in this class.
Laurens [Goudriaan] was runner up. In his ASG 32 MI he flew 417 km. but did not finish.
Other types ASH 25 E ,Nimbus 4 DM.
After day 1 the message was; “The weather for the days ahead is looking better and better!”

October 2…day 2…task 2;
15 m……413.75 km; Oscar won again; nice speed… 142.05 km./h Mark Holliday in the ASW 27 was runner up ; speed 136 km./h.
Club….299.99 km; 10 pilots flew the task AND finished it. Best was Wilhelm with 118.65 km./h
2-seaters….413.75 km; 4 pilots flew the task and daily winner was the Duo Discus again; speed 122.39 km./h

October 3….day 3…task 3;
The Potch- news from the South African Gliding Team ;”
Mon. 3rd October
10.30 in the morning and already it is already quite hot. There is a hiccup with the scoring and handicaps which is being sorted hopefully, so only when that has been resolved, will the daily beers be awarded to yesterday’s winners of the day.
The weather already expects it to be 12 000 – 13 000 ft by 11 a.m., with a high pressure over Potch and another to the west, there is a low pressure to the SW which might have some influence on the weather later in the day. Pilots were urged to be on the final stages of their flight by 4 p.m. latest.
15m. class have 428,5 km.; the Club class 301,1 km. and the 2-seater class 390.6 km.
First launch is expected to once again be at 11.30 a.m.”

15m….428.51 km; 6 IN and 6 OUT. Wayne Schmidt remembered very well that being back by 4 at the latest would be the solution for the day, so he went early at 12.37, still flew till 4.25 PM, and won the day. Speed ; 112.60 km./h. Uys and Attie started at 13. 12 being runner up and 3d and Oscar started at 1 PM and was 6th. The last one to finish.
So in the end it did not REALLY matter what time you started but more keeping out of trouble.
Out meant between 379km and 148 km.
Club….301 km; from 11 pilots 7 finished. Best speed was by Rene; 91 km./h in the ASW 20. On handicap not enough to win the day. Mike Tiffin in the DG 200 won; 89 km./h.
Wilhelm was 4th.
2-sweaters….390.56 km; 5 started and 3 finished, best was Laurens with 115 km./h.
“SA Nationals Day 3 Day 3 was a little more challenging than Day 2 but a good challenge is always fun ” by Akavlieg – Potch Gliding

More about day 3 by Jonker Sailplanes
“Have a look at todays flight of Zach Yamauchi (United States of America | California) at the South African Club Class Nationals held in Potchefstroom this week. Zach is one of the WeGlide JS Challenge winners and he had his first outlanding experience in South Africa today.
“South Africa has been amazing so far! Today was contest day 3. Everyone I have met has been incredibly kind and welcoming, the equipment, facilities, and contest organizers are top notch, and above all the soaring conditions have been very enjoyable. I love it here!” he says.
https://www.weglide.org/embedded/flight/221100?baro=true

October 4…day 4…task 4; CANCELLED FOR ALL CLASSES.
15m…3.30 AAT;
Club…358 km;
2-seaters…3.30 AAT;

October 5 TODAY shows 3 hour AAT’s in ALL classes. Then 3 more days to go, I follow them for you.

News from Jonker Sailplanes
Niklas Hahn from Germany (Niedersachsen) is the second lucky winner of the WeGlide Jonker Sailplanes Challenge and has following to tell:
“In Potchefstroom it is really awesome!! This adventure is really pushing me out of my comfort zone. It’s a new glider and the first time flying in heights where I need oxygen. The landscape is completely different from what I am used to in Germany and I have not fully found out what works and what doesn’t. On the first practice day I landed after an hour, because I did not find another thermal in the middle of the day. But with each day I fly it gets better. We are having fun and laughing a lot with the other glider pilots and telling stories at the Braai in the evening. The atmosphere is really welcoming.”
It should be emphasized that the JSChallenge is an international competition. Every junior worldwide has the opportunity to assert themselves. However, we all were pleased to nominate internationally in the first year!“
Niklas flies and LS1D.

I really like these programs/challenges.
In “our” Sportavia time in the nineties, we did the same.
We invited young talents to fly with Ingo in a 2 seater during a competition called Outback Shootout.
We had young ones from Finland Pekka, Belgium Tijl and Alfred Paul from the Netherlands. Of course they were also allowed to fly single seat gliders by their selves.
A room and food and of course friendly people around them, were included.
When I met these guys they still talk about it.

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I shared in my last blog, great pictures from the MORNING GLORY.
It looks like a great year for this phenomena.
More and more pilots are trying their luck.
When it’s there it is “heaven on earth” I heard.
One of the Aussie team ladies, Kerrie Claffey went there and also Terry Delore from N.Z.
In his Delore Soaring he shares his experience.
“Terry and Jeff are on a morning glory pursuit like the pic below, after power flying from Melbourne, south Aussie to the far North.
Like a good adventure they’ve encountered a few hiccups but seem to be currently airborne on the glory. Can follow their TrackMe tracker and will await a report.”
https://gliding.net.nz/tracking

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News from Temora, NE of Tocumwal
and weather wise maybe one of the best soaring spots in Australia.
They are renovating their runways so it will be even better in the future. On top of that, there is a GREAT museum full of exciting planes.
“The photos show the progress with RWY 18/36 line marking underway. We expect to have the reconstructed runway back in use 7 Oct according to the NOTAM. Despite the wet we are still getting some soaring in and really haven’t stopped flying all winter and into early spring.”

News from Tocumwal;
Staying for a moment in Australia but now “in ” Tocumwal, as there are a few changes over there.
….the Calif a-21S, better known as the CAPRONI, in which Ingo made many flights and hours has been sold to a new owner in Benalla. So it goes about 70 k S.

And more news from my beloved Tocumwal this time from Tocumwal Soaring;
“A massive milestone for us today with our final audit completed, which now allows us to not only hire gliders, but also train glider pilots.”
We took delivery of our second training glider today, which will assist us with ab initio training and is available for week long sessions, seven days a week.
It’s been a huge effort to get most of our gliders ready and airworthy for today. We could not have done it without the support of many in the gliding community.
We’d really like to thank everyone who has assisted us to get to this point, it’s greatly appreciated ( too many to list but you know who you are )
Thank you ! Team TSC,“
AND
“Our new Duo X had its first flight in Australia on this mild spring afternoon.
20 mtrs of awesomeness, these gliders are an absolute delight to fly.“

Starting this TSC-business now officially, the SRGC ,the club from Ingo , had to leave the old WWII hangar. For a few days the club members were lost/devastated, till George from Outback Soaring reached them his hand and hangar. So they have a “new” house too. They are now neighbors and grateful.
By the way, Georges Blanik , XO ,went to the Tocumwal Soaring Center ,as a training plane. My grand children Indya and Dexter, straight away said:” What about us, opa “? But George owns an IS 28 as well. So they will be OK.

A lot of things are happening in good old Toc.
“With the inclusion of the C-150 , our sturdy friend and workhorse ROZ now relocated to our new home, that concludes our involvement with TSC.
A new chapter commences and we look forward to continuing the great work Ingo did to make the club
successful.
His name will live on whilst SRGC continues. And continue it will.” Bruce Wilson.

And news from the Tocumwal Aviation Museum
“This week in history, 78 years ago:
There was a disastrous fire in one of Tocumwal’s giant timber hangars (Hangar 2) which destroyed the building and three B-24 Liberators which were undergoing maintenance inside the hangar. Crews attempted to save one of the B-24 aircraft by dragging it outside but by this stage it was alight and burnt to the ground on the tarmac adjacent to the hangar.
The fire was determined to have been started by sparks from electrical wiring igniting fuel vapors while one of the aircraft was undergoing checks. It was rumored that sabotage was involved, this rumor was never proven during the court of inquiry into the incident.”

News from Namibia; Kiripotib.
“Ready for take off on 1st November. We are looking forward to 83 great gliding days in Namibia. Have a look at our impressions
No reservation yet? Some remaining slots are still available“
www.kiripotib-soaring.com/en

And to finish this WOW-factor-pictures shared by Gilles Navas.

CU next Wednesday

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.384 on September 28 2022.

When the OLC starts season 2023, we/I follow them and look back at how good it was and even now, how good it still is.
On September 21, when the astronomical autumn starts on this site of the world, The Netherlands still had a flight from 500[minus3] km in a Duo Discus XLT from Malden.
Dad Ferdi and son Caspar Kuijpers, set a task, flew up to the N then E. into Germany and back.
They mentioned that after a week of rain here, the earth was still dry , which created beautiful thermals, specially for this time of the year.
In Germany a pilot even flew 625 km in a Discus 2c/18m.
Several over 400 km. flights, not bad for nearly the end of September.
Last Sunday, September 25 , it was still nice, as you can see on the picture below.

On this picture at Terlet , Dad Rein and son Lars are flying together from Terlet to Venlo in the south of Holland then into Belgium to Keiheuvel and via Woendsrecht back home to Terlet; 360 km.
Not easy with some rain and overdevelopment, but on the other hand great visibility.
https://www.weglide.org/flight/220471
And from Gilze, also in Holland Robin and Kyra flew 399 km in the Duo Discus XLT.
Flight 10 from 177 on the OLC 2023 !!!. https://www.onlinecontest.org/
Whilst from Stadtlohn, not far from the Dutch border a 522 km. flight was still possible in a Ventus 2ct/18m.
Yesterday a few interesting flights in wave from 993 by Gil Souviron in Stemme S10 from Perpignan, 1000 by Klaus Ohlmann in Antares from Serre and another 1000 k from Grenoble in an ASH 31 /21 m. by Thomas Pudhod. https://www.onlinecontest.org/ on September 27.

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Last season was TOP. Hot, pretty dry , lot’s of thermals and good visibility ….all ingredients for a lovely season, which will be not easy to forget.
Looking at the statistics world wide in 2022 ;
—-The best OLC-plus flights were in the USA and all 3 flown from Minden in Nevada.
Jim Payne flew in the NIXUS 2.581 km., Keith Essex 1.906 km in a DUO DISCUS!!!! and Uwe Kleintempel 2.027 km in Ventus 2cm/18m.
—-The longest flight , the distance record, was by Jim Payne in the ARCUS M; 2.907 km. Also flown from Minden.
2 German pilots Klaus Ohlmann and Thomas Horz , flew from Zapala in Argentina, distances from over 2.800 km in the STEMME S10.
—-Who flew the most km’s??
Nicolas Bennett and Keith Essex, both members from the Minden Soaring Club; 58.996,91 km during 97 flights and 57.151,31 km. during 59 flights.
—-Which airfield was the busiest? NO, not Bitterwasser this time but
1. Puimoisson in France; 619.844,63 km. during 1326 flights by 218 pilots. Good on them!!!
2. Bitterwasser in Namibia; 550.815,16 km. during 713 flights by 112 pilots.
Our Dutch airfield Terlet was on spot 4 with 374.669,55 k. during 1193 flights by 198 pilots.
—-Which club was the busiest;
The Gelderse flying at Terlet in the Netherlands; 420.893,24 km. during 1201 flights by 108 pilots. Several of them by my grand daughter!!!
The Minden Soaring Club was runner up with 347.796,50 km. during 585 flights by 30 pilots.

The Dutch OLC champion is Tim Kuijpers ,yes son from Ferdi and brother from Caspar, with 5666,78 points.
The Belgian OLC champion is Francois Delfosse with 5248,82 points.
The German champion is Alexander Mueller with 7257,01 points.
The French Champion; Baptiste Innocent with 7662,89 points.
The Australian champion is Toby Geiger with 6523,59 points.
The South American champion; Juan Pablo Verdura with 6708,67 points.
The African champion; Alexander Mueller with 7884,31 points.

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Not long and the South African Nationals are on the schedule.
They start on October 1 at Potchefstroom with 29 competitors in 3 classes and continue till October 8.
I will follow them for you.

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Frauke Elber from the Women Pilots Association shared the next news;
“The 2022 WSPA seminar is history. Flying wise it was the best seminar ever. 24 pilots from as far away as Germany and Alaska and 12 Staff and Instructors participated.
Hopefully we will have the next WSPA seminar in Germany.” in Uebersberg,Pfullingen from July 3 till 7 2023.
This was the 43d seminar where they had workshops , shared meals and lectures and had a general membership business meeting .[voting and state of WSP]

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In February, Magazine.Weglide.org announced the start of the JSChallenge. Two juniors get the opportunity to experience an adventure in South Africa. Now the winners are nominated.
“It should be emphasized that the JSChallenge is an international competition. Every junior worldwide has the opportunity to assert themselves and get the support they deserve. However, we all were pleased to nominate internationally in the first year!”
One is USA junior Zach Yamouchi ,who never flew outside Nevada and California, so he will be in for a nice surprise. The other one German junior, Niklas Hahn.
“The competition is starting in less than two weeks. A big thank you to Jonkers Sailplanes for making this adventure possible. We will report about them afterward, stay tuned!
Keep an eye on it, great challenges for the 2 juniors.”

Also in this MAGAZINE, ….WECOACH.….the stories from 2 German juniors Eric and Gerrit ;about their memorable experiences in Puimoisson.

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News for my Aussie mates;
Not long ago TT, Tony Tabart passed away and some of his mates are organizing a farewell for him in Tocumwal, where he was in his younger years one of the instructors from Bill Riley, the founder of Sportavia. This is what I got;
“One of the soaring greats, the much loved Tony Tabart  from Victoria in Australia has left us and is on his eternal final glide after 86 years on earth. Tony was a modest man, but a few of his friends have decided that his passing cannot go unpunctuated by the chance for a few friends to get together and salute Tony with a few drinks, and to tell a few stories of skill and daring.

To that end, on Saturday 15 October 2022 there will be that chance for friends of Tony Tabart to catch up at George Schuit’s yellow hangar at 145 Burmah Road (the home of Outback Soaring and the Southern Riverina Gliding Club), Tocumwal from 4:00 pm until exhaustion sets in.

It will be a night to celebrate the life of a good guy, tell a few stories, and to hear from those who were touched by the fun, generous, and talented legend of soaring that Tony was.

There is plenty of tie down space for those flying in.
Some food and drink will be provided. Those with specific needs should bring their own.

If anybody has photos of Tony that they would like to be shown on the screen on the night, please forward them to me and we will put together a slideshow.

Please contact me as soon as possible, or at least before 30 September, on 0418 897 256 or sholding@hotmail.com to advise attendance so that we can organise the catering.

If any of you know people who might like to attend, please provide this information to them.
With best wishes,
Simon Holding”

Note; Reaction from Tony’s wife Jo:
“Tony Tabart was adamant, no hangar party.  No funeral.  No fuss please.“
If – if – Tony were to want a huge party, then he would choose the WW II hangar at Tocumwal, where he instructed for so many years.  Or Horsham, where he flew Horsham Week for decades, from inception.  “
Jo Pocklington

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Western Australia NEWS about the MORNING GLORY;
“Rob Hanbury (GCWA) and Grant Rookes (BSS) finally meet the Morning Glory. It is quite a sight “
AND,…they experienced the MORNING GLORY . I have never seen such great pictures from those “rolling clouds” So I share both of them. Courtesy Grant Rookes.

Some last VERY EARLY NEWS;
The Dutch 2023 Nationals will be flown from Terlet from Thursday May 18 till 27. Host is the Gelderse.
May 16 and 17 are practice days. Somewhere in January 2023 you can apply as participant.

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

Wednesday September 21 2022,in the evening, after a lovely 2-day-shopping-event with my daughter Inge and grand daughter Indya…….blog 1383…..

E4GLIDE
Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, France
11 September 2022 – 17 September 2022

After 4 practice days in St Auban, the 12 pilots were ready to give their gliders with electric batteries a go over several races, to define a winner with ZERO points!!!
Note that the scoring is time based, with the leader on 0, and everyone else some number of minutes behind them.”
Here is what the organizers write about it and more below, a great informative article from Matthew who flies this competition.;
“The Eglide format is for electric gliders that are permitted to use up to 2kWh of power in an otherwise unpowered Grand Prix gliding race. The engine power produced by an electric battery of 2kWh is approximately 3,500ft of climb over the distance of the racing task. This is the fourth championship to apply these rules.
Pilots are now becoming used to the opportunities provided by this use of engine power during a glider race. At the last Eglide event, the competitors began to develop new strategies. It will be fascinating to see how racing tactics and the glider technology has developed since the last event.”
So pilots from 6 European countries , even from Australia , were ready for this GP-style competition.
Day 1 on September 11; 160 km....Regatta start at 15.10 and former junior World champion Matthew Scutter was the first daily winner. His power consumption was 2326Wh ,his speed 104 km,/h , his glider and LS 8 e Neo/18m.[handicap 113]
Runner up was Giorgio Galetto from Italy with a consumption of 1956Kh, speed of 107 km in his Ventus 3F /18m.[handicap 122]

September 12; 259 km...Regatta start, rather late at 14.30. Tilo Holighaus [Germany] flew in his Discus 2c FES around with a speed of 99.80 km./h and ” used “1810 Wh.[handicap 113]
On September 13,they had a task and it was flown but everybody outlanded…..no valid day! Giorgio still managed to fly 150 km. 2 Other pilots , Luka and Matthew, flew over 100 km. as well.
On September 14…no flying….showers and storms.
On September 15 ,task 4, a 249 km. task was set AND flown by all except one. So a good day, specially for daily winner Jernej Lokovsek from Slovenia in his Duo Discus XL FES!!!!! They used 2926 Wh and flew with a speed of 96.10 km./h [handicap 113]
The start was at 2 PM.
Runner up was Giorgio again and Matthew was 3d.
Not winning, but being very consistent makes Giorgio at this stage the overall best!

On September 16 the penultimate day , task 6 was set with 219 km…..AND Matthew won the day with a speed of 88.21 km./h.in his LS 8. Tilo . in his Discus 2c FES , was a tad slower; 88.03 km./h. Both have the same handicap.
Matthew “used” 2068 Wh and Tilo 1670 Wh.
Benjamin Neglais was 3d and Giorgio 4th. Overall Giorgio still leads.
The start was at 15.20, so a late one again to have at least a window to fly in and 2 were out.
Matthew wrote a long story about the day and started with “Very interesting day today, the beginnings of the Mistral coming through with much stronger winds 20-30kts through most of the task.“
More on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
On September 17 , on the very last day the pilots got a 185 km task, but there was serious doubt if it could be flown because of the mistral.
NO WORRIES, they flew and Luka was the daily winner using 1144 Wh. his speed in the 18m Ventus 3 F was 120.88 km./h the fastest of the day!
3 Km/h faster than Giorgio in the same glider. One did not start, one was out.
The overall winner was and remained Giorgio [Galetto] followed by Matthew and Benjamin.
An interesting competition, I am going to learn more about it.
“And… that’s a wrap on E4Glide. Unfortunately miracles were not forthcoming and I was unable to recover from a major error earlier in the week, so second place it is.
Congratulations to Giorgio, who I am not upset to come second to as his map of St. Auban is ten years older than me!
Flying these mountains was much more technical than Varese last year and even though I arrived very early to practice I underestimated how hard it would be.” by Matthew and more from him on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

I liked Matthew ‘s explanation of this type of soaring, specially because I don not know much about it , so I share it with all of you who have the same “problem” as I have.
Matthew;
“This week I’m racing at E4Glide at St. Auban, the only electric glider race. For those not familiar with the concept, every competitor gets an allocation of energy proportional to their weight which they can use during the task, typically enough to climb perhaps 1000m/3000ft in total.
The naïve use of the energy is usually to save it for when you make a mistake, while better pilots tend to use it to avoid getting into trouble in the first place.
In the mountainous sites it can really make the experience a lot more comfortable because some of the dodgiest parts of mountain soaring, like turning in broken lift below the tops or ridge soaring too slow in light wind can be entirely avoided with strategic usage.
Even if you really mess up you usually have energy leftover to get to an airfield rather than a tiny field in the valley.
Note that the scoring is time based, with the leader on 0, and everyone else some number of minutes behind them.”
More on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

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The Brazilian Nationals
Luis Eduardo Magalhaes, Brazil
10 September 2022 – 17 September 2022

Last Saturday morning I noticed a message from Henrique Navarro who was really enthusiastic about his flight during the Brazilian National and I thought…”Ouch I nearly forgot to write about this competition”.
His message; “Brazilian Nationals, Task 5. Today I did the fastest speed ever recorded in Brazil by a glider: 180 KPH, in a 500 km task.”
Wow and indeed I was enthusiastic straight away too.

They started on the 11th in 2 classes open an racing and they had 7 good days!
Task 1 was on September 11 with a 4.59 AAT for the 4 participating pilots . Well known pilots as Claudio Schmidt in ARCUS M who won the day with 801 km.
Runner up Henrique another well known name flew 806 km with s speed of 161 km./h but his handicap is 123 for 118.
Another well known name Egon Rehn was 3d with 793 km and a speed of 149.82 km./h
What distances and what speed during a National Competition.
The other 6 days had between 400 and 500 km tasks and speed from 156 km./h, 162 km./h, 171 km./h, 152 km./h ,180 km./h, 126 km.h and 163 km./h!!!!!WOW!!!!
Henrique won 4 days .Claudio 2 and Egon 1 day.
Best speed; 180 km./h
Overall scores for OPEN CLASS:
1. Henrique Navarro in Nimbus 4T with 6.324 points.
2. Claudio Schmidt in ARCUS M with 6.191 p.
3. Gustavo Shigueno in Ventus 2cxa/18 m with 5.969 p
4. Egon Rehn in ARCUS M with 3.849 p. He did not fly on the last 2 days.

“We can be heroes, just for one day…
Brazilian champion for the 9th time, flying with great pilots and friends.
Sooooooooooo happy!“Henrique.

In racing class 7 pilots were flying to try to become the National Champion in gliders as Jantar, St Libelle Discus and DG 1000 and tasks around 300 km.
Luis Carlos Affonso in a Jantar 3 won day 1, 3,5 and 6 and the NATIONAL title.[6.428 points]
Runner up was André Goldenstein in Jantar 2 with 6.289 p and on 3 was Luis Valenca in Discus-2cT 15m with 6.601 p.

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Some short news;

News from Jonker Sailplanes
“Our main service partner M&D Flugzeugbau proudly presents the first test flight of the LS4 D-KENO with their TJ 42 JET engine installed. Keno Markwald was delighted with the first impressions. Have a look.”
https://md-flugzeugbau.de/neuigkeiten/

News from the USA by Tony;
“Happy Day! 1938 Minimoa is the star of the meet this year and I got a chance to fly it this afternoon. Took off at 4:30 and stayed up 1:34, made a climb to 7400 MSL.
Glider flies pretty good for it’s age. Not much happens when you make control movements. Takes a lot of deflection to get a soft response. Mostly use rudder then however much aileron it takes to coordinate. Thermals at 35 mph. No issues banking up to 60 degrees but it seems to climb best about 40.
Cruise at 40 mph, approach at 45. Taking off and landing into the 20 mph wind was fun.
Thanks Jerry Wenger and Tom Evolo for the opportunity!!!!”
https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/gliding/flightinfo.html…

I checked with him how many types of gliders he has flown by now , his answer; “36 now by my count“. Not bad!!!

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And to finish a great picture of the new king to wish him all the best in these difficult times, as we in Europe also depend on him .Hope he will be serving as well as his mum or maybe better[climate] for the UK and the Common Wealth.

CU next week
cheers Ritz

WEDNESDAY….SEPTEMBER 14 2022

VINON!!!!!
4 September 2022 – 10 September 2022

They continued in Vinon with race 4 with 211 km to soar.
In a short time , 12 pilots were “out” [ between 17 and 48 km] and 8 still flying! Not GOOD and GOOD!!!
Didier ,Tilo and Gilles however, managed to fly 137 km. Great effort , BUT,…unfortunately not enough to make it a valid day!
So in the end …..NO race 4!
On Thursday race 4 is on ;334 km. and new chances.
Later changed in 193.80 km.
“It took a while before the start as some cirrus clouds were crossing Vinon area around 1pm and last for almost 2 hours there. CD Régis had to switch to the backup task.”
A German winner this time……Tony Kittler in the Ventus 3T .
Here is the official news as I got it;
“Fantastic race today in Vinon with nearly 200kms taking our competitors from Gréoux to Serre Ponçon’s dam, then Orpierre, and back to Vinon.
On the first branch, two very different routes were chosen by two different groups : one close to the branch and another one more to the east. In the end, the first one paid off.
The second branch was rather low in altitude for most with some as low as 1100m in Saint Genis !
Maximilian turned first in Orpierre and opted for the Corne de Lure while Toni headed more west.
In the end Toni arrived couple of minutes before Maximilian followed by Tilo.“

After 4 races and 2 to go there are 2 pilots with 20 points JD Barrois and Mike Young. Max has 18 points.

Friday penultimate race 5; 317 km. with 121 km/h won by Mike Young who slowly’ rises’ to the top. With the 10 points he has a total of 30 points now, 8 more than Adrian, Max and JD, who are on 22.
Last race 6; 154 km....a day on which 4 pilots were “out”. One of them JD, so no points for him. Erik won and got 11 points ,one extra for the last day. Uys was runner up.
Not a good day either for Mike, he was 12th and did not get any daily points.
So a bit of nail baiting there for him.
BUT,…he won….only ONE point difference with Erik. 30 for 29!!!
Max was 3d with 27.
Both Mike and Erik live in the mountains in France. Mike is from the UK and Erik Dutch.
AND,…Both Erik and Mike go to the PAVULLO final race next year! Well done!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!

This is a flash back from 1987!!!!
Mike and our son Dennis at the WGC in Benalla.

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ABOYNE!!!!
4 September 2022 – 10 September 2022

On Wednesday , day 4, they could finally set a CC flight too; a 1.30 AAT between 66 and 143.8 km.
“Good old ” John Williams won the day with a speed of 72 km./h over 108 km.in an 18m/LS 8.
9 were out and 5 did not fly.
A lot …23….tried to have the best height gain.
Mike Stephens gained 8429 [lowest point 2394, highest 10.823] , John Williams 7015 and Jordan Richards 6709 ft.
Thursday; day 5 was damp again!!! So no CC-da,y but launching to achieve height was possible till 6 PM.
Friday; “Out of respect for Her Majesty and the Royal Family we have decided to cancel normal and UKMSC flying today. There will still be a weather briefing in the clubhouse which will also be accessible by Zoom.
We will make a decision about Saturday flying later today.“
VERY UNDERSTANDABLE!!!!
They did not fly anymore; John Williams won the CC competition with 484 points just ahead of Jordan Richards with 478 points.

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Club Class Nationals in the USA.
Moriarty
August 30- September 8

When I started writing about the Club Nationals ,Gary was mostly in the lead, meaning, he won the first 3 days, but later he lost a few days to other pilots.
On September 6 day 7 of the nationals the daily winner had again another face; after Sylvia, Gary [he won day 5 ] and Mike this time Michael Marshall in the ASW 20, was the daily winner. Tony and Gary were both on spot 8 with 509 points.
On contest day 5, Gary was still 330 points ahead, now only 160 with 2 days to go.
Club Class Day 7. as shared by Tony.
BEFORE……”Club Class National’s Contest Day 7 is looking to be a blue day. Grid time is noon mountain, racing task. First launch planned for 12:52pm mountain. Potential task A start gate open time of 14:15 mountain.”
AFTER…..”It was going really great until the wheels fell off the bus at Ortiz. Fun run with UN. At least it was fun for me. Major suffer fest just staying airborne, getting back to the higher ground, and finally found a good climb and a good line to bump home on.”
It was a very good day , blue with convergence lines and in the afternoon a base of 14.000 ft.
Task ; 224 km.

Club class Nationals; day 8 with ONE day to go…the penultimate day.
They had a 3.30 AAT.
“Today on the grid we were entertained by a weather balloon floating by at 101,000 feet.”
AND,….”Great fun running up past Angle Fire and back. Mostly good climbs. A lot of good streeting. A bit of redemption after the trouble I had up here the last time. Got a good climb over Ortiz Mine too which was nice considering how it treated me yesterday.” by Tony.
He flew 475 km in his Cirrus with a speed of 101.54 km./h.
https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/gliding/flightinfo.html…
Michael won another day and Tony was runner up!!!! Gary was 4th and his biggest concurrent Tom, 3d.
[Gary 4715 for 4557 points]
Sylvia was on spot 16. She is now on spot 8 overall [3994 p]

AND,…then it was over! They tried hard ;
“Last day at Moriarty. Cirrus from Hurrican Kay overhead but breaks. Short grid squat then sniffers got above 10K. Fleet launched. Task was a four area turn to the north and east with 2hrs min time, B & C back to 1:45 and 1:30. D Task was a really fun looking double lap of the valley to Zorro and Wagon Wheel for 155ish km.
Task was cancelled and contest declared over at 2:20 PM.
Several of us got up and had a really fun time flying the D Task. 10 knot climb to 16,000 feet will be a fond memory of this contest at Moriarty,” by Tony on the OLC comment.

So after 8 days of flying, the overall scores are as follows;
1. Gary Ittner in Discus 2a with 4715 points.
2. Tom Holloran in LS 8/15 m. with 4557 p.
3. Christopher Gough in Ventus cb/15m with 4387 p.
Tony was 5th with 4302 p. Sylvia on spot 8 with 3994 p and Kathy 15th with 3728 p.

Thank you to Tony to share his view on the flights in Moriarty and to his wife Leah for the pictures .

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STEMME GRAND PRIX 2022
6 September 2022 – 9 September 2022

A short competition of only 4 days, but they were “merging Stemme HORIZONS & our GP in St. Auban.
Anyone interested in a Stemme, maybe not yet a (Stemme) pilot, will have the chance to fly with an experienced pilot and get an introduction.
For pilots we’re hosting a competition with challenging flight tasks. The goal is to have fun, learn something and to spend time with the Stemme crew.“
On Wednesday ,task 2 with a 200 km , the 7 pilots had a difficult day with only 3 finishers. Reginald Watson won with 71 km./h. All 3 Belgian pilots were “out” after 149 km.
On Thursday, task 3 with 216 km…..won by UK pilot Reginald …69 km./h. His 2d win.
3 Finished 1 was “out” and 1 did not fly.
On Friday …task 3; cancelled.
So 3 days of flying with Reginald as winner with 8 points. Congratulations!!!

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Something about the weather; This summer in 2022 was the hottest EVER in Europe!!!!!
The European institute for research ,Copernicus, concluded this, after looking at satellite information. The temperature was 0.4 dgr C, higher than the heat record from last year.
We here in the SE of The Netherlands felt it as well and it is still 25 dgr. C after a well needed good drop of rain.
Today lot’s of rain and in the weekend it will be 15 dgr. C.

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Found a fabulous real soaring- picture as PR for young new glider pilots in the UK.

To finish this blog; This picture shared by KIKI.

Last Thursday Queen Elisabeth passed away. I cry easily, but thought , this is still far from my bed. The announcement on the BBC was made and tears just dropped down.
Elisabeth was queen of the UK and the Common Wealth, head of the Angelical Church and the armed forces and mother, grand mother and great grand mother…..granny.
She was a good friend of our royal family and loved by nearly ALL on earth, as she was for 70 years a tower of strength for her country and the people in the Common Wealth.
An other “icon” has gone.
She tried to comfort the world after 9/11,with the words “Grieve is the price you pay for love“.
So true!!!!!
R.I.P. MADAME.

Cheers Ritz ………CU next week, NOT in the morning but EVENING of WEDNESDAY.

The Formula 1 , car race, in The Netherlands was ONE BIG PARTY. 3 Day’s in a row and on Every day 105.000 ecstatic people in orange!!!!A pleasure to look at. Gives a proud feeling.
They all arrived by train or on the bike!!!! So a green feeling as well.
The fact that Max won was the cherry on he Dutch- GP -weekend- cake.
It’s unbelievable, how they got the logistics right in a small town ,Zandvoort ,with 17. 000 inhabitants.
They did!!!!!

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FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX in VINON.
September 4-10

The 11th series of FAI GP’s settled this weekend in Vinon, and for mountain specialists this is party time.
When I looked at the entries, I thought,……OH,…. only TOPPERS!!!
20 Pilots entered from 7 different countries. Not bad!!!
Among them 3 ladies Ayala Truelove in JS 3 from the UK , Aude Grangeray in JS 1 [ 2x WWGC champion] and Katrin Senne from Germany [2x WWGC Champion] also in JS 3. Both just flew the Hus Bos WWGC.

3 Pilots, Jon Gatfield, Ayala and Mike Young, represent the UK
Belgium and the Netherlands each have one pilot; Dennis Huybreckx and Erik Borgmann. Both live in France.
From South Africa Uys Jonker and from Lithuania Gintas Zube. From Switzerland Yves Gerster.
7 Pilots from France; Didier Hauss, JD Barrois, Louis Bouderlique and Aude , Max Seiss and Gilles Navas and Adrien Henry.
5 Pilots from Germany; Michael Streit, Christoph Limpert, Tilo Holighaus, Katrin and Toni Kittler.

Last Saturday was the last practice day; 150 km…..won by JD Barrois.
And on Sunday the races started.
Race 1; flown on a good soarable day , 30 dgr. C and clouds. Task 320 km. Start time 13.50.
Uys Jonker on his JS3 “UJ” was the winner of day 1 .He flew the task in 2:34 with average speed 124kph. He did a lot of training in St Auban with the French team, that shows now!
Runner up was Erik Borgmann on JS3, +14 seconds and Jean-Denis Barrois on AS33, +33 seconds. Didier Hauss is 4th with +4:59 on his JS1 and Mike Young 5th with +8:33 on his Ventus-3.

Race 2; 260 km….“due to stormy conditions forecasted, organisation had to design a bit shorter race going first to North-West (again in the Die area, Drôme Valley), then to North-West close to the “Parcours” before heading “home” to Vinon.”
and,…Mike Young was the best. They all started at 2 PM and he flew around with a speed of 115.8 km./h. That was 3 km./h faster than Adrian Henry in his JS 3.
Race 3; 193 km; The 3rd race of the qualifying #SGP of Vinon has started with a very fun 2 laps track. “Due to unpredictable stormy conditions (forecast was even telling “stay home, no distance possible today”), race designer chose the safe way to keep all competitors away from the highest mountains to avoid the “sorrry guys, locally too much energy” effect well known in South Alps.“
So they HAD a day , did the task twice and the 10 daily points were for Yves …speed 112.9 km./h and 8 points for Gilles…speed 112.8 km./h In fact 8 pilots arrived with 112.6/5/4/3/2/1 km./h!!!!
“Because task was rather short with its 193 kms all participants arrived almost at the same time.
Due to rather conditions and possible thunderstorms, Régis [Kuntz CD] decided on small branches to stay local of well known airfields : Saint Auban and Puimoisson.” by the organizers.

Still 4 days to go. Race 4 today [ 211 km.] and race 5,6 and 7. In my next blog.
After 3 race days the scores are; 19 points for JD Barrois,[AS 33] 17 for Uys [JS 3] 15 for Gilles Navas[ ASG 29] and 14 for Mike Young in Ventus 3T.

You remember the Jonker- brothers helping out at the WGC??????
This time Tilo from Schempp-Hirth helped out at the FAI SGP;
“Gliding Manufacturers helping each other continues! This time the CEO Tilo Holighaus from Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau is returning the favor! He helps Uys Jonker to fix a belly landed JS3 at the FAI Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in Vinon – France. This is what our gliding community is all about! Helping each other and enjoying our beautiful sport.”
I could n’t agree more!!!!

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UK Mountain Soaring Championship in Aboyne
September 4-10

27 Pilots try out distances and height in the UK mecca for wave flying!
This is their 25th edition.
“cross-country and height gain competitions” will be on al week.
As always the Deeside Gliding club is the host for all guests, with a nice BBQ last Saturday evening.
Day 1 message was ;”Our first briefing was at 09:00 this morning and the 25th UK Mountain Soaring Championship is open.  Its currently raining cats and dogs, and has been raining all night.”
A new briefing was held and a 1.30 AAT was set and the sun even came out!
In the end the CC flying was scrubbed, but the height gain was on.
Best “gain” was 3.078 ft.
Unfortunately the weather was not friendly and day 2 was scrubbed , but 2 “heroes” gained 515 ft..
After a night of rain they wait to see what happens today, no cross country till now but 2 days with height gain.

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Till September 8 the CLUB CLASS NATIONALS in the USA are flown from Moriarty [NM]
I know more or less, 4 from the 24 pilots flying there; Tony Condon, who I met in Uvalde in 2012 and Kathy Forsha and Sylvia Grandstaff , who I met at the WWGC in Lake Keepit.
Kathy flies a Discus B, Sylvia an ASW 24b and Tony a St. Cirrus.
And Gary Ittner, one of the long-time-USA-WGC pilots ,who I met in Uvalde 2012 as well. Gary flies a Discus 2A.
Tony shares his comment on the OLC
Club Class Nationals Day 1. Crazy Day. Landed at Patterson Ranch. Very friendly folks there.
Won by Gary, the only finisher for the day with Sylvia as runner up.

Club Class Nationals Day 2. No storms to dodge. Some streets. Worked the wind line. Only one low point that got my blood pressure up. All in all a good day.
Gary won for the 3d time and Tony was runner up . Sylvia 10th.

Club Class Nationals Day 3. A “Classic” Day (in quotes). I remember reading in the textbook that staying upwind and in the sunshine is probably a better plan… Won by Gary. Sylvia was 4th and Tony 12th.
Club Class National Contest Day 4 Task B is open at 12:47pm. Winner is 6T! Congratulations Sylvia!
1.45 AAT as thunderstorms were predicted in the afternoon. They used the “small window” very good.
Gary was 4th. Tony 11th.

Club class National Contest day 5; Gary won another day and leads with more than 300 points. The A task from 350 km was changed in 311 as the weather was pretty tricky. Only 4 finished the task.
Tony mentioned; “Another crazy day. Once I was ready to start it was pretty late, needed to do decent speed. Became apparent on first leg that wasn’t going to happen. Struggled at first on the mountains then had a good run. Stayed out of the ABQ Class C where the cloudstreet went. Another long glide across the Valley of Nothing. Didn’t land at Patterson Ranch this time but I watched two others. Found a weak climb, couldn’t get high enough to improve my position so came back to Moriarty. No where to land on task past Patterson ranch.“
Club Class National Contest day 6; A pretty good day with ” a very fun run across the valley. Awesome cloudstreet on middle leg’.
An “odd-day” for Gary who was “only” 20thiest. BUT,..he still leads with 200 points. Mike Westbrook won the day. He is 4th overall.
Club Class Nationals Contest day 7; a racing task with blue skies but good lift as well.
“It was going really great until the wheels fell off the bus at Ortiz. Fun run with UN. At least it was fun for me. Major suffer fest just staying airborne, getting back to the higher ground, and finally found a good climb and a good line to bump home on“. Tony.
Gary was 8th.
Overall scores till now: Gary Ittner with 3.762 points, 2. Tom Holloran in LS 8 with 3.601 p and Christopher Gough with 3.474 p.[ 15m Ventus B]

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The STEMME GRAND PRIX in St Auban
 6 September 2022 – 9 September 2022

With 4 STEMME S12 and 1 STEMME 10, they started yesterday a grand prix in St Auban only for Stemme’s. There are not that many, but 5 pilots are trying out this GP….3 from Belgium, 1 from South Africa and from France.
Yesterday race 1 was good for 253 km and though it was SLOW, it must have been a good feeling for Pierre [de Brouqueville] to win this first race. It started at 2.05 PM and only 4 started.
No task yet for today.

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Checking quickly the OLC;
Last Thursday pilots still flew over 600 km in The Netherlands, with the much shorter days a real good effort.
The French and German pilots enjoyed even flights from over 800 km. So did the USA pilots flying in the wave from Minden, Boulder and Ely.
Last Monday Keith Essex flew 1.142.91 km in an ASG 32 MI, from Salida Harriet, never heard of the place but it is SE of Boulder.
Yesterday that whole area had good weather again with up to 1.100 km flights.[Salida Harriet] and 1.069 km from Minden.

That’s it for now.
CU next Wednesday

Cheers Ritz

Welcome back to the regular Wednesday morning blogs.

It is still so hot here, that I forgot that tomorrow the meteorological autumn starts already .
Yes, AND spring for my many friends down under.
I noticed because I saw on FB , last Friday, the packing and departure from containers to Kiripotib.
It’s that time of the year already.

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And the first competition in South Africa is already announced;

We’re excited for the Gliding Nationals 2022
*Entry Form for the SA Nats 15m, Club and Two Seater.*
Where: Potchefstroom Airfield
When: Practice Day 30 September 2022, Comp Days 1-8 October.”

“See you all there!”

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The Rencontre ASK 13 in St Crepin is not only a competition between teams flying the ASK 13, but their pictures are absolutely fabulous. I follow them already for a long time.
Pilots from club’s with an ASK 13 meet, talk and fly. On day 5 St. Crepin was in front of St Remy and Suisse. They flew 200 km. with a speed of 84.4 km./h!!!!
overall result;
1. St Remy with 4945 points.
2. St Crepin with 4879 p.
2. Suisse with 4879
There are 25 teams.
Here is a picture from August 26

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Indeed on Sunday morning I found some pictures from the prize-giving on my laptop and though it is rather late now, the girls will be, for ever famous, not only on the prize giving day. Being a WORLD CHAMPION in 2022 is FOR EVER!!!!!
I love the picture from Petra with her gorgeous little baby. In Lake Keepit [ [2019/2020] she had a little one still in the pram and Petra’s mum was taking care of her.
Now this looks like a new little long-haired beauty in her mums arms.
What better trophy to have!!??

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A few more comps finished, one of them the Junior National Championship in the UK. These comps were held in Keevil,[ United Kingdom] between August 20 and 28 and hosted by the Bannerdown Gliding Club
Out of 9 days they had 6 valid days, so enough to find out who the best UK junior would be.
They had short tasks,[87 km] longer ones,[ 251 km.] late starts [4 PM] and JWGC CHAMPION, Finn Sleigh , who won 4 days.
Like during the JWGC ,he teamed up with Toby Freeland, who was runner up.
1. Finn Sleigh in ASW 20 with 3.464 points.
2. Toby Freeland in ASW 20 with 3.267 p.
3. Alistair Emson in St Cirrus with 3.201 p.
4. Henry Indigo-Jones in St Cirrus with 3.053 p.
36 Pilots competed and another 12 2-seaters with experienced pilots to “help” out with coaching.

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From happiness to sadness!
TT, Tony Tabart passed away. Another gliding icon lost in Australia, in the world. Another MATE gone!!!AND,…one of my longtime mates and a good friend.

Some words from Tonies family, good friends and soaring mates;
“20 years ago I sat at a bar in Tocumwal and got talking to a man who had forearms like Popeye. As we addressed a couple of pints of wine, I had no idea I was talking to an Australian gliding legend. He was a man with whom I was to become a friend.”
AND
“Tony Tabart made it to 86 years of age. He was fiercely competitive, generous, fun, smart, mischievous, and a fine friend. Old mate, you will be missed.” by Simon

“Tony enjoyed a great innings over his 86 years; an adventurous, interesting and fulfilling life, and wonderful friends.” Jo.

“Mr Tabart has enjoyed considerable success in the sport. He represented Australia at home and overseas, in France, Sweden, Italy, Austria and former Yugoslavia. He was the first Australian to win a day in an international competition, in Yugoslavia in 1972. He was also the oldest winner of the Australian Open Gliding Championship in 2004, has been Australian Open champion four times and set several gliding records – including being the second person in the world and first Australian to complete a 1000-kilometre triangle.” Horsham Gliding, Tony loved to fly there, and since 1966 till recent he flew all Horsham weeks.

“He was steadfast in his love and support. Always tolerant, always available, always interested.
Through thick and thin, Tony and Jo have been a part of my life, Indea Moffitt’s life and then to his great grand children.
I can’t really express this loss… and my heart is with Jo, and Julie, for their loss is deep.” daughter in law Anita.

“I remember Tony Tabart doing a high speed water dump run in his Nimbus 2 as Gough Whitlam opened the Waikerie World Gliding Championships in January 1974. A wonderful pilot with a wonderful gliding record still competing at Horsham not many years ago too. We are sadly losing some of the very best.” Neil.

“Sad news for Australian Gliding with the passing of Tony Tabart at the age of 86.
Tony spent a lot of time as one of the very best glider pilots in Australia, representing his country at the highest level many times. Tony was very generous with his time as an elite cross country coach. It’s also worth noting that Tony was the last surviving member of the Australian team chosen for the 1974 World Championship held at Waikerie in South Australia, a landmark event in Australian Gliding.” Gliding Australia

I got to know Tony in the early eighties. We met the Aussie team in Rieti in 1984 at the Pre Worlds and Tony was one of them, a tall slim sheep farmer from Australia. When we talked he was not just a farmer, but he had thousands of sheep. We were impressed. An Aussie we only knew from “books and films”
Then we had already the feeling to once visit Australia and in retrospect, that visit to Rieti in 84 , changed our lives TOTALLY.
We moved to Australia and spend at least 30 Dutch winters in the Tocumwal sun , as I have written many times. We even lived there for just over 10 years and ran the SSC .
Tony and Jo stayed our friends all over the years till NOW. So did Bruce by the way and Griffo, all from the same ’84-holiday.
Over the last years I could see that Tony , every year I met him again became a bit older , but still full of spirit and we shared lots of long soaring stories, good wines and food.
His passing is rather unexpected, but with 86 and a double pneumonia , you know it might go wrong.
It did, but I am sure Tony was more than HAPPY with his life, he had ” his low’s, but also a lot of high’s.”
I will ALWAYS remember the SUPER FINE and SPECIAL times with him and with Jo.
I wish her and Tonies sister Julie all the best.

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To finish the final results from the World Gliding Aerobatic Championship 2022 in Issoudun

On August 28 the weather here was still good for soaring, so good, that one of our pilots Sikko flew a 500 in the ST Libelle from Soesterberg. He started, went straight up with 1.5 m/s to 900 m, had wind on the tail, cloud streets and flew till his battery was empty; 612 km[ 534 FAI triangle]
What do you want more that late in the season. Huge fun!!!
The German squad flies in Puimoisson and Michael Sommer is one of the coaches. A few 900 k’s in the EB, also not bad in this time of the year!

Last day of a fabulous SUMMER/August……
CU next Wednesday,
cheers Ritz

Liz get’s the last word about the last flying day:
“Hugs all round on the final day of racing here at the Women’s World Champs! The day started off with low developing cu’s but gradually the cloud base raised high enough to make cross country flying feasible. With tight points in all three classes, everything was to play for today. The first sector everyone managed to go deep into but the second sector caught a lot of pilots out. The tops of the cu’s began spreading and the lift turned off, half the field landed out, but those who made it back had really big gains on the leaderboard. AeroSPARX finished the night out right with an amazing aerobatic, pyrotechnic display here at the Gliding Centre.“

Of course the French were very happy with their 1-2 in 18 m. class with Anne and Melanie. So they should!!!As said yesterday , it is Anne’s 3d title as WORLD CHAMPION!!!
With the great French results they were runner up in the TEAM CUP!!!!!!

After 2 weeks of ” variable weather and challenging racing“…
The team CUP was for Germany with 922.74 points. They had 3 ladies on the podium.
Runner up was France with 919.11 with 2 ladies at the podium
Third Czech Rep with 918.85, with 3 ladies at the podium.
THE UK was 4th with 783.71 AND Claudia at the podium and the 5th spot was for Italy with 761.25 points.

The last finishes!!!!

AND NOW I would have loved to share the pictures of the CHAMPIONS and WINNERS in each class. Like every other comp I write about. BUT…. NO!!!!!
I waited all day, no pictures about the prize giving, no stream to follow it at home, as in Tabor or Szeged.
Maybe a a bit of a missed chance , from the organization, for the people looking at home at a laptop screen with for 20 hours the same news on the day of the prize giving!!
Finally in the evening Lilian from the Dutch Gliding Team shared 2 pictures; TOP!!!!! THANKS Lilian!
The prize giving was under a sky full of cu’s and a nice warm temperature, so no winter jackets necessary anymore..

First the TEAM CUP winners with a smiling , clapping and laughing Mandy to the right. The German girls in the middle, The French girls to the l. and the girls from Czech Rep to the r.

I used over the last 2 weeks a lot of pictures and special THANKS go to the WWGC photographer Georgia and the FAI photographer Markus.
Other friends, who co-operated to make this blog successful,….. a HUGE THANK you!!!!!

That was that, all done and dusted….now…pfff….
A lot have to “race” to the harbor, to get their timeslot on a boat ,bringing them back to the mainland.
Another nice competition where life-long-friendships have been made again.
Soaring/gliding is such a nice sport!!!!!

CU Wednesday

Cheers Ritz

AND,…look at these skies in Tocumwal Australia, this morning in “not-yet-spring-time” and so nice green!!!!!