Time changed all over Europe;we moved the hands from the clocks 1 hour forward! It was already nice light and sunny early in the morning , but still a bit early dark, now our evenings are longer too. With 20 dgr. [it has never been so warm in Holland in this time of the year ] we enjoy it to the fullest. And…the HIGH will keep its influence over us the next week as well!!
Looking at soaring here; over 200km-flights were possible yesterday. Visibility , though, was pretty poor!
Good conditions for Robert in Norway on his wave camp.
Friday morning he mentioned; “Sunny morning with no wind and pleasantly warm here at Vågå/Frya. Maybe we do not need to freeze at altitude today? Perhaps a nice day on theairfield with a barbecue for lunch? The day before he was full of a great soaring-wave-day; Highest altitude on Thursday ; FL 210. And…on the last day , yesterday they had wave up to 7100 m and lentic skies all over Southern Norway. Great pictures again. Thanks Robert for sharing them.
Pictures courtesy Robert Danewid.
More wave in wave- paradise Minden close to the Lake Tahoe. On Thursday 3 pilots in Sparrow Hawk, DG 400/17m. and ASW 27 flew 849, [119 km./h] 771 [140 km./h] and 780 km.[ 152.km/h.]
Even more paradises as Rosamond where ” good old ” Jim Payne flew in the DG1001M a distance in blue circumstances , but with good wave, however building up slowly with a rare southerly flow;1.264 km. Heard that other paradises as Aosta in Italy and all wave center in France [ ” good young” Alexander Späth flew in a Dicus 2T from Puimoisson , nearly 750 km. even enjoying the impressive snow on the mountains!] are busy enough.
But nice thermal flights this week as well, one from the meteo man from the WGC in Wiener Neustadt Hermann Trimmel; 521 km. in the 17m. Ventus CT.
“Reading” the weather always is important as glider pilot!
Talking about height!!! The Perlan Projectis still busy with a goal that has never been reached before; to soar higher then any fixed-wing manned aircraft has done. At the last SSA Conference in Reno , Rand from the SoaringCafe had an interview with Greg Cole, founder and chief designer of windward performance. You can find it one the next link; http://soaringcafe.com/2012/03/ssa-2012-the-perlan-project-an-interview-with-greg-cole/
I told you in the past about the tracking system “invented” by some young glider pilots here in Holland. I saw their enthusiasm during the Nationals, as we were sitting in the same room. This week they published their new website and with pleasure I announce it as well. www.glidertracking.com
In the future they are integrating the live -tracking-page [ live.glidertracking.com ] on this new site. The system is based on ADS-B and spot-signal. News on the site will be soon in English as well. Keep an eye on it!
Really nice to see that in a family, father and 2 sons, enjoy a soaring-holiday and go solo in the same week!!! This happened at Sportaviation in Tocumwal, where the Daniels family went solo, first dad on Monday then the 2 sons on Thursday. A great family-event!Look for the nice pictures at www.sportaviation.com.au
Not only the sportsoldiers in Germany have a “good soaring-life” look at this news I got from Jo . Should deliver new champions as well!!!
Enjoy your new week, to start and finish some of our “great tuggies” in action, this time in Eskilstuna pictures courtesy Roger Karlsson. Grrrr….tropical rain spoils the Formula 1 GP in Malaysia.
cheers Ritz
The astronomic spring has started here as well yesterday at 6.14 AM. And…it is clearly spring. Nice VERY nice weather, bit cold in the morning and high up , but sunny with temperatures up to 20 in the rest of this week .
But what’s more and even better, great looking cloud streets on Monday. I saw them here and in Amsterdam and in the evening on TV at the meteo -news. The radar showed fantastic cloud streets also over the UK [519 km for Dave Masson from Lasham in 18m. LS 6] ] and the meteo-man kindly informed the Dutch viewers about this phenomena.
Of course you look straight away in the late evening if the weather was really that good and….some lucky pilots who had time to fly went up and one of them Peter Millenaar, who just finished his training at the CAE [Sponsor of the Dutch Nationals]and is a “real” pilot now , had time and flew 514 km. [ in Discus 2A] over flat-as-a-pancake Holland/ Germany, without water as he still had his water tanks at home. With this flight he topped the OLC list on Monday.
Great start of the season though it was not a real easy flight he says;”It started difficult as I had to find out where the lift was, so I dropped to 220 m. ” , but….quickly he found 2m./s and off he went and with the 35km/h. wind in the back, he raced over Holland to Germany, taking all kind of “streets ” with fantastic view on top of it. The same streets did not always “work” on the way back , but he made it home to Hoogeveen with lots of OLC kilometers. Peter was already once our National champion [2009 in combi class] at age 20 , flew at the JWGC in Rayskala and…… this was his first flight for the season.
Courtesy ;Peter Millenaar.
“3 Diamonds in One flight”, the overly happy reaction from USA pilot Richard Roelke. He tried this for years and NOW the moment was there; 566 km. and 3000 and 5000 m.
Flying his 17.4 m. Glasflügel 304 cz from Gorham , he thinks this is the first time, it happens in New England and as he says maybe also the first East of the Mississippi. Starting with ridge-soaring…. the rest of the flight was wave and exactly on the places it should be!! What do you want more!? Well done!!!
Great wave-conditions in Norway as well.But a bit too much ground wind “taking the ASK 21 from the club for a ” low ride”. A pity as there was damage . According to Robert who flies every year from Freya, conditions have been good with great looking lenties up to 4000 m. as you can see on the pictures close to his hotel in Vaga and from the air. http://robbangliding.blogspot.com/
Pictures courtesy; Robert Danewid
The track for the EUROGLIDE is now defenite and here you are and…if you want to see on the map how big this task is go to www.euroglide.nl and click on 2012:
—“Starting in Eindhoven to the south east, to the Wustweiler airfield in the Saarland. Then heading east, crossing the Rhein and passing Nurnberg to enter the Czech republik in the south. Maintain heading east along the Czech-Austrian border into Slowakia, to the second turnpoint Ruzomberok. After that to the north, into Poland and back into Germany to the airfield Pasewalk Franzfelde, north of Berlin. The European footbal championships in Poland will not be a problem. From there to the south west, back to the Netherlands, to the glider field Malden. This task totals to 2350 km.—“
And the link is public now for the 2014 WGC in Finland at Räyskäla. www.wgc2014.fi
Already this year in June [3-10] the traditional local gliding competition Jannen Kisat will take place , the 30thiest anniversary and the Finnish 18 m. comps with Riku Rissanen as CD. In the summer from 2013 the Pre Worlds will be held.
For the full schedule you can go to the site.
Our young and talented pilot Tim Kuijpers , busy now in Oxford with a training to be an airline pilot and nearly ready to go to the USA for his flight training is as I saw on FB the number 1 on the World Junior ranking list, before the German pilots Alexander Späth and Sebastian Nägel. Tim won the last JWGC in Musbach and was runner up during an EGC behind Rene de Dreu , who is the Alexander Schleicher representative for Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg and…..TC for the Dutch team in Uvalde this summer.
Rene [left] and Tim after the 2011 Dutch Nationals.
Not so much news this week, so till Sunday, cheers Ritz
Just looked at the farewell ceremony from the 17 victims from Lommel [Belgium] , involved in that tragic bus accident in Switserland. Together we are strong , was the motto from the kids when they were still enjoying theirselves during an unforgettable ski-holiday.Only from that little town Lommel, 17 were killed. Impressive, emotional and unforgettable!
On Friday the difference in temperature in Holland was more then 10 dgr.!!! And…Holland is small as a stamp.
In the South they enjoyed OVER 20 dgr. 20.7 to be precise and we here in the mid West had about 16 and up N only 7.6 and no sun.
The KNMI, [Dutch meteo] has new computers now to predict weather even better and faster then in the past.
After a few less good days in the beginning of this week, good conditions in Puimoisson again , where the German squad including their trainers are enjoying a mountain stage. Former sport soldier [2009], pilot at junior Worlds [club class and runner up in Musbach] and just an active glider pilot enjoying his soaring to the fullest, is Alexander Späth. Over the last couple of days he topped the European OLC list flying his 18 m. Discus 2T every time over 500 km. Good on him!
Enough sad news this week.The “bus” keeps the world and certainly Belgium and even more Lommel [just over our border ] busy and me as well. 28 People on their way home with great stories about their ski-holiday—22 children dead under them 6 young Dutch kids and 6 grown ups and 24 injured . Lommel is going to sadly miss 17 inhabitants !!! A whole class nearly wiped out.
Too much to comprehend.
Leuven lost 7 children , the school teacher and a lady helping out during the holiday.
Belgium military transport planes [Hercules] brought back the families , children and the coffins.
Talking about Hercules ! One with 5 crew aboard from Norway which disappeared last Thursday from the radar, somewhere North of Sweden, has been found yesterday, on a glacier in a mountain area [2100 m.] . All 5 crew members died . They were involved in a European NATO exercise, together with 16.000 military men/women , from army/navy/air force, from 15 different countries, practising in arctic circumstances.
Even the search is difficult due to snow heavy wind and possibilty of avalanches. This part of exercise , they surely would have not wished. SAD!
The farewell drink at Papendrecht close to Arnhem was great. Specially because it was confirmed that the Dutch Magazine Thermiek will continue in another format. So the last Thermiek by Frits, will be on the mat soon and after nearly 50 years, it would be too sad for words as ONLY digital soaring news would be available.
Very nice, to catch up with several people I had not seen for ages, but as normal with a farewell of a 65 year old, lot’s of grey people!!!
Missed the Formula 1 race in Melbourne on TV, but a lot to come now the season has started.
Off to my guests, and to finish pictures from a serie I showed you already some from by Per Carlin.[Eskilstuna Sweden 2006]
cheers Ritz
A bit of good weather and good circumstances and off he goes…..Giorgio Galetto flew last Sunday 723 km. in his Ventus 2CXA/18m. from Bolzano on his 2d flight for the season.
Will the Alps be as good as last season?????
A 239 k. “to get in the mood/groove” on Saturday and his 2012 season starts very promising.
A great wave flight also from Minden in Nevada, where a Sparrow Hawk flew nearly 900 km. with a nice speed of 134 km./h.
Still good soaring from Stonefield as well.
Bob Henderson the President of the IGC for years, has said after the plenary in Potchefstroom that he is going to give the leading job to well know pilot Eric Moser , “Herbie” , at-least for us in the past, when I met him first in 1984 or so.
Bob’s reasons for doing this are; I have significant responsibilities at the FAI in my capacity as an Executive Board member. These include portfolios for Anti-Doping, the Sports Marketing Agency (FAI Commercial entity), the Sports Strategy, Sponsorship and the Statutes Working Group.
I am also very conscious that the IGC is very well served by a large number of competent, dedicated and experienced people, especially in the Bureau.
Eric and I have therefore agreed (and we have the support of the Bureau and the Plenum) that I stand aside from the position of IGC President, at least until the FAI General Conference in Turkey in October, and that Eric, as 1st VP becomes acting IGC president on the grounds that I am not fully able to discharge my reponsabilities as IGC president at the moment .
This will make the way the IGC does business easier as I feel that I need to focus on the EB responsibilities. I also feel that this is the area where I have the maximum opportunity to have a positive influence and impact on the health of the FAI as a whole and the future development of the organisation.
I am confident that the IGC remains in good hands with strong leadership under Eric and the other members of the Bureau.
This move means that I remain a part of the Bureau but that Eric takes over the day-to-day management after we complete a hand-over in the next few days once we have finalised the Plenary meeting business.So far the news from our longtime and very good and amiable President Bob, written on March 7 2012.
Latest; What a tragic accident in Switzerland where 28 people from Belgium were killed in a bus accident in a tunnel ; no other cars were involved. 22 from 28 were , children on their way home from a ski-holiday with their sports class.
Also 24 badly to very badly injured. In the bus also 9 children from Holland, according to the news of a Belgium official [head of the firebrigade] from Lommel!
2 Schools were involved , one from Leuven and one from Lommel which is close to the Dutch border were I lived for 20 years; about 10 minutes driving! Also very close to the Keiheuvel- airfield All children were between 11 and 13!! Both bus drivers did not survive, as well as some teachers . Just so sad,..a real disaster!!! I feel for the parents and families and all the school mates from both schools.
It is REALLY spring now in The Netherlands. Spring starts here when the first egg of a peewit has been found and that happened yesterday!!! In Friesland! A traditional ceremony goes with finding it! So we can relax now as spring is here!
Temperatures will be good as well up to 16 dgr. C. next week!And the sun is shining brightly now!
Slowly the soaring action has started and the first over 500 km. flights have been flown in Europe. Wave and ridge-soaring surely made French pilot Robert Pratt happy and he should with a nice 841 km flight in the ARCUS M from St. Gaudens.
Also a nice flight from the Hahnweide in the Nimbus 4 from young German topper Patrick Puskeiler. He was a sportsoldier in 2009.
Could not find any Dutch flights on the OLC, but I know they made some starts at several clubs. Belgium had already some flights as well. One from Bert who worked for us in the past in Australia . He flew his Standard Libelle in the end of February over 123 km. using the first “streets” .
Slowly the soaring season has come to an end in Australia ,but still great soaring in the East and West. While NSW suffers from the worst flooding,[ Corowa and Tocumwal are surrounded by flooding as well, ] Queensland ,in the East, had some great flights yesterday in blue conditions with 543 km. in an LS 8 from Warwick as the best. Great flights from Jondaryan down to Warwick or from Warwick up to Jondaryan.
In the West the weather is good as well. “The best day in 5 years “, one pilot mentioned! What about a 500 FAI triangle in an LS 3 from Beverley, [ about 130 km. East of Perth] this late in the season, it is autumn over there!? And a 500 FAI triangle by 2 St. Jantars?? And…572 in a PIK 20 also 500k FAI Triangle.
And 614 in total but also a 500 km. FAI triangle in a St.Cirrus ????? Good on them!!!
BEVERLEY in W.A. courtesy; SoaringCafe issue 2011-March 8
And here is the reason WHY it is so good!!! News from Vanessa! Thanks! Record breaking heat wave for Perth. —” Hope your weather is warming up – I wish ours would cool down!
Perth looks set to break a record this weekend – an eighth heat wave (3 consecutive days of 35 degrees or more) this summer season – even though it’s not summer anymore! Yesterday was 38, today 40 (it is still 38 degrees while I am typing this at 5.15pm), forecast 40 for Sunday and 37 Monday.—“
So we might look forward to more nice long flights this Sunday or tomorrow!
Professionnel Team Captain and trainer /coach, Uli Gmelin from Germany, has since last weekend, settled down with his Sportsoldiers in Puimoisson in France for the annual practise and team building-time. Nice to read the gratitude from the pilots he flies with in the ARCUS T. The mountain-area is of course fantastic with thermals, wave and ridge soaring. The pilots share practise in a double seater , with flying single seaters as ASW 24 , Discus or LS 8. They stay till March 31!!!
For 2012 there are 6 new Sportsoldiers and one of them is Max Lecker who keeps their website about what they are doing [ www.sportsoldaten.de ] and Felix Bauer made this brilliant picture. Got permission to publish it from Max and Felix. THANKS to Benjamin as well for his intervention!
Courtesy; Felix Bauer. Worth to klick on and enlarge!
Other top pilots as Tassilo Bode , Reinhard Schramme and Bernd Weber [Schempp-Hirth] fly the ARCUS, at Saint Auban [ a bit more to the NW of Puimoisson] with in the back also pilots who want to practise mountain flying and wave. Also here pilots who fly single seaters with enthusiastic comments as: “Hold on…from -12 m/s to + 11 m/s in 2 seconds!!!!!! WOW!
Those Germans are doing a sterling job in training. Lot’s of flights from Puimoisson and St. Auban on the OLC.
Some of our Dutch pilots soon move to France as well.
Talking about mountains here is some news from the Mount Beauty Gliding Club in Victoria Australia. Also over-there lives the OLC. In their latest newsletter on the the subject ” internet ” they write about the best airfield on the OLC in 2012 and though they were happy with their 8th place Australia-only and 12th World wide, they ascertain that they are still far behind the Geelong Gliding Club I wrote you about, a few blogs ago.
For Easter they organize a Fly Inn and members from Victoria but also from South Australia and NSW have announced their arrival. For more CLUB-news , also about the Alpine Flyer their monthly newsbulletin…….www.mtbeauty.com/gliding
Next week I get a splendid picture from wave over Mount Beauty.
The Mount Beauty area.
To finish something totally different and you might find me a bit chauvinistic, but it is more pride! From 2500 different pieces of cheese “our” Dutch cheese was the BEST in the WORLD. I did not even know a Cheese WC existed , but it does and was this year in Wisconsin in the USA. Love cheese , so I am going to buy “the best one”, straight away.
Cu most probably on Sunday. Have a very busy week ahead with also on Saturday a farewell drink with the editor of the Thermiek, the Dutch Gliding Magazine. He retires after doing a great job. The Dutch Gliding Association offers him a reception and I was invited too.
The Magazine exists now for 48 years and I hope it continues. Will keep you informed.
MARCH 11…..One year Fukushima ! One year ago that terrible earth quake…. and that deadly tsunami ….and a nuclear disaster, we not know now , what happens to the people, like the fire brigade, in a few years. My thoughts are with my Japanese friends.
Was so busy over the last days , that I just forgot that it is Wednesday today.
Ouch… nearly forgot you all …sorry that never happened before. So a short blog today with some nice pictures.
Nice to see that Dirk [Schleunsen-Germany] bought himself an ASH 31 MI 21 m. and seems to be very happy with it, after he flew it for the very first time in this early March weather from yesterday.
Dirk was one of those guests at Sportavia you never forget.I was a bit shocked when he had the incident in Africa , was it already 2 seasons ago???, but and that’s Dirk as well , he promised in his comment to avoid “signs” in the future. Please do!!!!
Talking about guests you not easy forget, I must think of Marc [ Sluszney-Belgium] as well. Not long ago I opened my paper and recognised his face straight away. Headline above his smiling face with 2 pistols in his hand;
“The guy who can do everything and dares to do everything”, and “from Davis Cup tennis-player to extreme adventurer”.
Some of his escapades; number 8 at the World championships fence, water skiing on bare feet, air border, swimming with white sharks [ he made the documentary “Sharkwise” and won a prize with it] and he swum over the channel from France to the UK .
Walking 100 km. in the Belgium Death-expedition, he does n’t call extreme. [source AD]
He was a good glider pilot as well, but I guess he did this only for a short time ,…not enough challenge/adrenaline ????
Nice fellow, in fact ALL our guests in the past were nice, male or female.
Talking about female guests , Tracie [Wark-Canada] for sure was one who ” created ” a nice/positive atmosphere for herself and other guests and she was a keen and good pilot. Just received not long ago, a mail from her after I found her again. Kees and I travelled half a year ago to Germany to visit the Wiesenthals on Doris 50thiest and we both wondered how she would be. Well she is FINE! Still airline pilot and instructor.
Of course I keep ALL details for myself, as privacy is a BIG good.
Enough nice flights already from Europe this early in the season. Several wave flights and Gerard [Lherm] had a nice one again from St Martin de Londres in France. This time in EB 28.[476 km.]
No flights over 500 km. but pilots are getting there. Everywhere in Europe the well known places showed already “some action”. And… a flight in ASW 20 from 438 km. West from Musbach , where the JWGC was last year, [Black Forest-area] is just good.
As well as the one from Beverley in Australia where they do not struggle with flooding from overfull rivers, in a Hornet from 445 km [ 400 FAI triangle ]
I feel sorry for all my Aussie friends, who have problems with the flooding, at some places it is REALLY bad!Keep up the spirit!
The pictures are again from my Eskilstuna cd, this time from Fritz Schweikart . To enlarge…just click on them. Enjoy !!
Cheers Ritz
Winter is over here and summer down under! We had a “mild” winter according to the meteo, even with temperatures from minus 23! The average temperature in Holland for winter normally seems to be 3.4 , it seems we had 4.1. Also; this last winter was sunny and wet here , 269 mm and normally it is 208.
Predictions for summer here, are for “wild” weather, with storms and high temperatures in July and August , by one meteo station. Even tornado’s are predicted as a possibility !! Looking at those evil ones in the USA from last week I really hope it will not be like that . What a disaster!!!!Some places , like Marysville in Indiana, have just “gone by the wind”, they totally disappeared!!!With up to 200 km./h. wind , atleast 40 people have been killed! TRAGIC!
Back to the predictions; An other meteo station here however, calls all long-time- predictions “Nonsense”! So….
Let’s wait and see, as from reliable meteo -people I know , how difficult it is to predict weather longer then a week.
Compared to the Mid West of the USA we should not complain.
And …what about the thousands of people who flee for the power of the water around Sydney and other areas in NSW , were rivers grow cause of heavy rain. Even the Canberra area has a problem and on the Corowa site I see ; status…flooded! Have to check with my Tocumwal friends how they are. The Murray river is a mighty river not only in the positive way, as I have seen flooded areas in the past there as well. But that’s normally around October. Absolutely weird weather.
The IGC plenary is over and in Potchefstroom all delegates worked hard to make the life from glider- pilots easier by setting rules, giving opinions , having discussions and announcing where new WGC ‘s or EGC’s will be held .Some delegates had a nice flight before as I noticed [Terry- Australia, Frouwke-The Netherlands] and were in good maybe even better mood to listen.
Here is the news I got from my USA friend Rick, compact and to the point for you readers and I am more then grateful , as I could n’t do it better !!!! Thanks Rick, CU in Uvalde!
By the way the next agenda will be published on January 17 2013 and the next plenary will be in Lausanne on March 1-2 in 2013.
Summary of voting results:
7th WWGC (2015) – Arnborg, Denmark
8th JWGC (2015) – Narromine, Australia
18th EGC in 18m, 20m2seat, Open (2015) – Ocseny, Hungary
18th EGC in Standard, Club, 15m (2015) – Rieti, Italy
Bid for 1st WGC in 13.5m class (2015) withdrawn, due to unavailability of open airspace in the task area.
Class definition:
20 meter multiseat class: handicapping allowed in Continental Gliding Championships;
No handicapping allowed in World Gliding Championships beginning 2016.
New rules (effective October 2012):
Club class reference weight will be taken from a list of constant values. Handicaps to be adjusted for overweight, but not underweight.
GPS altitude, not pressure altitude, will be used for altitude record flights above 15000 meters.
For Silver and Gold claims, Pilot ID and Glider ID in the Flight Recorder need not match official statement of Observer.
GPS altitude may be used for Silver and Gold claims.
World Class entry limits raised from 2 to 3 entries per country in 2012 WGC.
Proposals to be considered again in 2013:
Establish Team Medals in WGC and CGC.
Unification of three separate safety programs.
Class structure, merged class competitions, handicaps for gliders other than Club Class.
Free distance claimed must be at least 110% of declared distance claimed, if both are claimed on the same flight.
Ranking list rules established for 20m multiplace entries.
2012 FAI Awards:
Pirat Gehriger Diploma awarded to Andrea Tomasi (Italy)
Pelagia Majewska Medal awarded to Gill Van den Broeck (Belgium)
Lilienthal Medal awarded to Giorgio Galletto (Italy)
———————————————————————
Giorgio after he won the Grand Prix.
Congratulations to Narromine for being the host of the 2015 JWGC.Big job …YES, but they can do it!!! No worries!!! It is a long time ago that a competition on this level went to Australia, I know it is far for the European and USA pilots but I know already now they will love it. They surely will have the same happy feelings as Fabian and Benjamin who at young age had the opportunity to fly in Stonefield last year. And a 1000 k. before or after the comps or while practising in the pre worlds the year before , it is all possible. Only point is that the weather should be normal as always and NOT like last year!
Narromine as it should be.
For sure the strong team of young Aussie glider pilots , flying together in Joeyglide, as they call their comps ,will help where necessary.
Congratulations also to the other places having their WWGC or EGC’s. Great to see “my” Rieti is under them as well. Also congratulations to Gill, Andrea and Giorgio, more then deserved for all 3 as I know them and have seen how dedicated they are to our sport.
That the Sierra Wave season is open now was very clearly “showed” by Jim Payne flying the DG 1001M. with for sure a happy co-pilot Dennis Tito in the back seat; 1.805, 40 with a speed of 167.87 km/h. on the clock!!!WOW!!!! As Jim said in his comment; ” the wave was generated by a strong frontal system thatwas moving South…each trip North was halted by the front. Winds were generally stronger then optimum…saw 82 knots at 20 k feet on the computer later in the day.” Rosamond Skypark was the place he started from. So…in the top of the OLC list of best flight for 2012, we see now 2 DG gliders! Good on them !
From Australia I got the next mail from Rolf, member from the Geelong Gliding Club at Bacchus March. He commented on my last blog where I mentioned the first 2 clubs on the OLC list worldwide….both from Australia by the way.
I totally agree with him that his club had a “sterling” season and want to state again that you should see ALL what’s on the OLC and my opinion or analyses on it, in the correct perspective. World wide Geelong was 7th , Australia- only… a great 4th!
—” The Geelong Gliding Club will never be able to challenge the top 3 OLC placed clubs in Australia but is doing a sterling job to place 4th. That should be seen against the background of serious handicaps compared to other Australian clubs. Operating from Bacchus Marsh we are restricted to 4,500 feet max altitude (4,000 ft AGL) by the Tullamarine controlled airspace above the airfield. To reach higher airspace 20 km away we have to fly over rising ground, leaving only 3,500 feet AGL to play with. On good cross country days the seabreeze penetrates to the site and beyond around mid afternoon. The club still managed to collect more than 61,000 OLC points, albeit not only flown from Bacchus Marsh, which demonstrates our participation in comps not only around Australia. One of our current members, Michael Durant is to represent Australia in standard class in Argentina.—“
Thanks Rolf for your input and …. looking at flights, you can’t compare flights flown in wave, with declared FAI flights or with just “flying with the clouds” flights on the OLC, but it gives us a great way of keeping contact with each other and to learn from those flights, or to just share the feeling of happiness with such a pilot doing so well.
Pilots with a lot of money, time and a top glider will be higher on a- best -flight- list as a friend who has the opportunity to fly one week in a soaring mecca. Perspective, it is all perspective!
And a soaring mecca with 80 guests and lot’s of staff will be different [ higher on the airfield-list] then a 2-person-small-scale-club with 25 guests. Looking with percentage as measure, they might be as good.
So please look at all my analyses of these flights , of airfields , clubs and the rest in the correct perpective as well. THANKS!!!
Talking about the OLC , not a lot happening but what a nice ridge flight from the Schweitzer [ handicap 0.63!!] from Blairstown. Nearly 400 km.
Looking at the Uvalde list of teams, I was very pleased to see that my Aussie friends have entered now.
I was amazed to see Willem Langelaan who was born in Holland, but lives already for a long time in Canada as team captain for the Swiss team!
The South African team is interesting as well with 4 pilots, Oscar and Lourens Goudriaan and Atty and Uys Jonker [ from 6 ] who are brothers and with Carol as very experienced TC.
24 Team-entries with 108 pilots at this stage….and a few ladies amongst them…and several female TC’s !!!
Last update from “our ” Prince Friso. He has been flown in an ambulance-plane from Innsbruck to London , where he is close to his wife and his 2 daughters, who are living around the corner of the hospital, known as one of the best private hospitals in the world. Also not too far for mum Beatrix to travel up and down to see her son. She starts her job tomorrow again, after spending the long weekend in London.
The class dilemma, I told you already that I was going to give you some news, as I read it in the Gliding International from March/April. GI has consulted some experts and asked them to “shine their light over the situation at this stage”.
It is something which keeps me busy as well.
Gliding International has published a discussion paper for the IGC plenary next week written by Marcus Graeber [ IGC Vice President and IGC delegate for Columbia] and I find it refreshing as we need to review the future of competition- soaring and more!
Some points I found in this 8 pages counting analysis supported by statistics; What kind of gliders should we race?????
Too many classes????
Too less pilots????
Too many redundant sailplanes????
Don’t start the duo/20 meter and 13.5 m class???!!!! The supporting view from John Cochrane, who wrote ” a brilliant article that marks a major change insoaring,” is clear and convincing.
More to read in the Gliding International from March/April and I hope that in 2013 at the next plenary the goal from Marcus “to initiate the probably long and arduous process of developing a longterm sustainable design and competition class structure for gliding.” will be ready to vote for.
And there is more in the latest G.I.: Winglets are big business,—- complacency in the cockpit,—- devotion to flying wings, —–Friedel Weber who stops at DG as he turned 65, his words, and Holger Back will be a new partner in the DG Flugzeugbau-business—the SSA Convention in Reno,—-Let’s try to explain the terrible European and USA weather,—and last but not least the statistics by John Roake himself about WORLD MEMBERSHIP, WORLD FATALITY and WORLD CLUB AND SAILPLANES. You will be amazed!!!
Great pictures by Maria Szemplinska and lot’s of news about instruments and much more ; 64 pages of pleasure.
Enjoy and when you do not have a subscription yet, think about it, you are invited to go to www.glidinginternational.com for a 1 or 2 year one.
The IGC Plenary is this upcoming weekend [March 2 and 3] in Potchefstroom in South Africa. It will be another important meeting for the future of soaring. On the FAI site you can find all the news and the agenda. I will get, as said before , news straight from Potchefstroom by Rick Sheppe[USA]. Next Sunday you can expect the news.Looking forward to that.
Looking at the OLC list of best pilot over all flights in the 2011/2012 season,it is one of my friends Hans Wiesenthal who was the best with 29.000,09 points, before his mate, Klaus Engelhardt with 28.480,69.
The Gliding Club of Victoria was world wide the best/most active club with over 213.000 points and the runner up , the Beverley Soaring Society, “only ” had a bit more then 100.000 points . Good on Benalla , place from the 1987 WGC but also on Beverley,not so well known and both in Australia.
I went with a friend to Schiphol yesterday. At the beginning of the lane of departures we were stopped by a big bunch [ about 20] of military policeman/women. Several white tents as well. We were picked!!! Car was searched thoroughly, we had to hold our arms up for visitation and with a smile we gave them the opportunity to do their job. On our question WHY?, they said they were checking for weapons!!!!! Me and …weapons… Had they found some, I asked , sure they did not, but….they said they were amazed to find so many in just half a day!!!!!
Unbelievable that people visit Schiphol with weapons in their car, luggage or bags. Certainly NOT the place to take them to. Anyhow….Good job!
Note; In The Netherlands it is FORBIDDEN to carry a weapon at all time.
2 Interesting links from Jo from Australia[ Thanks again Jo!] with news about the Gliding competition for the 2012 Wenlock Olympian games and the DG March 2012 news letter.
Nice pictures on this news letter from the staff wishing all pilots a beautiful Flight Season, with amongst others , Friedel Weber, Holger Back and Jelmer Wassenaar. In 2005 Jelmer still was a junior in “my” team at the JWGC and a student at the University of Delft , now he is sitting proudly behind the table with the DG staff/top. Have a look and..as you can see I found in my archive pictures from Holger and Jelmer as well [WGC 2006]
A nice picture from Friedel is in the latest G.I. with the story; “Friedel Weber hangs up his parachute and says good bye to his working life at DGFlugzeugbau“.
It could have been such a great weekend!
Blue skies, great cumulus clouds , sunny conditions, temperatures up to 11 dgr. C. But…….
Last Friday at 12, ONE week after the avalanche hit our prince Friso, the team of doctors from the Innsbruck hospital, gave a presse- conference with updates. [1.2 million people were looking!] It was NOT good! The prince [43] was not 20 but 25 minutes covered by snow and even worse his heart stopped due to lack of oxygen and it took 50 minutes to reanimate him. Maybe too long as the doctor mentioned!
On Thursday they finally could do an MRI scan and it seems that there is massive damage to the brain. They do not know if he will be ever conscious again and it might take months or even years. The royal family has decided to find a hospital specialised in coma-patients, for him where they can help him as much as possible.A shock for all of us hoping and believing in miracles. A disaster for the Queen , Mabel, their 2 young daughters [5 and 6] and the rest of the family.We can only wish them ALL the best.
Prince Friso, in better times.
During the SSA convention in Reno, one of the sessions was about how to get more young people interested in our great sport. With the slogan, ” Let’s go gliding”, Bill Daniels , chairman of the SSA Growth and Development Committee, introduced some ideas to let our soaringsport grow. www.LetsGoSoaring.org
When they would really be active, they should renew this site any week/month. The last article was from August 17 2011, that’s a bit of a pity. But the reminder during the last SSA conference in Reno was good. For all that news you can go to www.soaringcafe.com [ SSA strategy and tactics for growth “let’s go gliding” on February 8 or you can use the searcher in the right corner.]
One of the very active clubs in Holland is the FAC, which stands for Frysian Aeroclub, yes Friesland the province where our 11 cities-race was supposed to be! Talking about “growth in our soaring sport” they are doing a great job , their way!
On Facebook I read their activities for March:join in….
March 12 they visit a schoolyard , WITH a glider, to promote soaring, also as a step-up to get into the aviation world. Members who are already a pilot or know all about it, talk with the young ones.
March 17 they move to a “square of knowledge” where students from vocational training meet and listen and they will promote gliding on their open days and those of the Stenden University.
Also on March 17 10 new -to-be- pilots will get some theory from an instructor and enjoy ,[ hopefully the weather is good, ] their first day as AIC at the field.
Not a bad way of promoting our sport, is n’t it?
Some interesting flights from Blairstown in the USA last week. 800 km. flying the Appalachian ridges, without athermal, as the pilot Robert Templin claims in his comment. One leg brought him about 300 km out and that all in an LS3. Some even called it an exceptional ridge day with a SE wind! Great flights also in Schweitzers [493 and 435 km] and LS 4. [772 km.] and Discus [747 km] .So it must have been exceptional!!!
Transponders! Some news via Jo from Australia with an article from the Washington Examiner about the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] taking a [baby] step to improve glider safety:
Wed, 2012-02-22 17:00
Four years after the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that a national transponder code be set up specifically for gliders, the Federal Aviation Administration has finally gotten around to doing it. Effective March 7, gliders not in direct contact with an air traffic control facility will be encouraged — though not required — to use the transponder code 1202 instead of codes currently used by other small aircraft operating under visual flight rules. The VFRs effectively mean gliders are invisible to commercial airliner crews in the vicinity, since most of the lighter-than-air vehicles do not now carry transponders at all and are extremely difficult for the naked eye to spot.
Curiously, the FAA admits that its action followed from the need for a specific transponder code for gliders, which “operate under some flight and maneuvering limitations,” and was the result of “an accident, many incidents, and [the afore-mentioned] NTSB recommendation.” The accident was a 2006 collision involving a corporate Hawker jet and a private recreational glider operating near the busy Reno/Tahoe International Airport.
At the time, NTSB investigators stressed the need for a margin of safety beyond VFR, noting: “The concept of see-and-avoid is limited in preventing midair collisions due to the high speed of the aircraft involved.” However, despite the fact that nine people have died in glider-aircraft collisions over the past two decades, and that the NTSB recommended in 2008 that all gliders be required to carry transponders that enable other pilots to “see” them in the sky, the FAA has still not made it compulsory.
The latest official notice from Elizabeth Ray, vice president of the FAA’s Mission Support Services, Air Traffic Organization, sent to all air traffic control facilities in the United States, explained the reason for the code change: “[Gliders] may go from essentially stationary targets while climbing and thermaling to moving targets very quickly. They can be expected to make radical changes in flight direction to find lift and cannot hold altitude in a response to an air traffic control request.” That same reasoning could also be cited to support the NTSB’s common-sense recommendation that gliders be able to “squawk” their current position to other pilots on a continuous basis.
Although prohibited from flying in Class A airspace around major cities, there are many other areas in which gliders still share the sky with heavy, passenger-laden aircraft, including commercial jetliners. Last year, the FAA ordered a publicly funded airport in Southern California to reinstate 40 gliders it had evicted because of legitimate safety concerns — or risk losing its federal grants. And, since the FAA’s new 1202 code can only be used by gliders that already carry the equipment needed to broadcast it, the latest policy change is just a baby step in the right direction.–“
Still some nice soaring in Australia .From Narromine Czech pilot Roman Mracek, flew a nice 500 km. triangle . Luckily in the end of the season Narromine finally has the pleasure of better soaring weather , so they deserve. By the way the beginning of the season was pretty good there as well.
More to the West of S.A., it was Peter Temple, the fresh National Standard Class Champion, who flew from Gawler 611 km. in his LS 8, while a flight from 533 km. in a Mosquito was not bad either. AND what about 891 km. by junior pilot Matthew Scutter in the LS 4!!!! What a talent!!!You can fly, or you can’t!!!
When he would have started earlier it could have been much more as he claims that half an hour before he launched clouds were already at 10.000 ft.
Benjamin and Fabian will look with interest, as they flew that far up N. several times from Stonefield!
Mind you it is nearly March! But as said before you can make in Australia, nice flights up to Easter.
Back to the East, the Keepit Regatta is on at Lake Keepit from February 19 till 25. Love Lake Keepit, great place for soaring.
Experienced pilots lead inexperienced pilots to help them with their X country soaring; follow and lead is the system. Also great for pilots who want to improve their skills in competition flying.
25 Pilots and 3 days out of 6.
Not so far from Lake Keepit and they might even meet in the air , are 50 hangglider pilots flying for the NSW State titles in fixed wings. Still remember some of them when they flew with us in Tocumwal. After 5 days of flying Conrad Loten from NZ and Aussie topper Jonny Durand , both flying Moyes Litespeed, are on spot 1 and 2. Pretty marginal circumstances but still 5 days. Best day had 98 km. the worst day, 9.6 km.
Talking last week about Uvalde. In open class it is not only pressure for the Concordia also the Schempp-Hirth glider in combination with Lange Aviation [wings, designed by Dutch Professor Loek Boermans] ] , Quintus , has to be ready in time. I noticed at the Uvalde list of entries, that at this stage, 2 Italian and 2 French pilots fly the Quintus during this 32d WGC. 6 Wings of this self launcher were finished in October , last year and at Schemmp Hirth they later built the bending outside wings and put the Maughmer winglets on . Only in April 2011 “we” saw the Quintus, a 23 m. span self launcher, for the first time at the Aero in Friedrichshafen, where it was a real eye -catcher. Just before Christmas on December 23 2011, it had it ‘s test flight and now they work hard to get it ready for the WGC.
Looking forward to see that glider as well in Uvalde. Just received the Gliding International and there I quickly read that atleast 10 Quintes will participate !!! Enough stress!!!
Also Francois Jeremiasse, a Dutch competitor in open class at Uvalde will fly the Quintus. He flies the first built one of the series with number 2. Francois is the dealer for Schempp Hirth in Holland.
Rest of the very interesting news from the last GI in my next blog!!SO much to read have to do that first!
Quintus M and Antares 23E. Courtesy Francois.
Also just heard from Francois , who was delevering the first ARCUS for a Dutch pilot, when he called me, that 2 Antares 23 E gliders will fly under the clouds of Texas. What a great open class this year with all those fancy gliders.
So much elegance in the air!
Steven Raimond will fly in Uvalde in 15 m. class! Will there be an ETA in open class?
Pictures courtesy Kai Monkkonen.
And a funny story to finish with received by Peter when you had not read it ;http://avherald.com/ :
Ducks enhance their navigation skills
By Simon Hradecky, created Friday, Feb 24th 2012 18:47Z, last updated Friday, Feb 24th 2012 18:57Z
A United Boeing 737-800, registration N37290 performing flight UA-1571 from Fort Lauderdale,FL to Chicago O’Hare,IL (USA), was on final approach to O’Hare’s runway 27L when the crew reported a flock of ducks was tracking localizer 27L outbound at 1200 feet MSL and added they were doing a dandy job on it too. Tower warned the next arrival about the ducks heading their way. All ducks and aircraft landed safely at their destinations.
Your- up- to- date. Spring is nearly there, the first 2 cycle-races have already started in Belgium this weekend.CU next Wednesday, cheers Ritz
Uvalde is still a few months away, but it is always nice to look ahead. You might miss on the preliminary list Australia, but don’t worry they will be there. They are still not 100 % sure who’s going. I heard that there is a change in the compilation of the team. Butch [John Buchanan] pulled out and is replaced in open class with Tom Claffey. He will fly in that class with Gerrit Kurstjens, who “transformed” from a clockie into an Aussie!In 1991 Gerrit was pilot in “my” Dutch team in Uvalde.
In 15 m. class the Trotters will fly to win and in 18 m. 2 potential winners; Bruce Taylor and Dave Jansen.
Nice to see a husband and wife in a competition competing against each other in one class . Would that be the first time in WGC history???
I never heard about it earlier. Cool! Don’t know if Jill Spreckley flew a WGC together with Brian, pretty sur not, but she certainly flew WWGC’s and even won there.Same with Pam and Gerrit Kurstjens., yes Nationals ,yes WGC and WWGC but no WGC together.
Maybe… Adele Orsi and her husband from Italy???? I remember “Mr. Orsi ” flying in open class and I know Adele flew as well but I doubt if they flew in one class together.
Lisa Trotter is also the first female pilot from Australia flying in her own right. My good friend Janet [Hider-Smith] who sadly died a few years ago of cancer , was flying the WGC in New Zealand, as an invited guest. [Thanks Tom for reminding me]
Husband and wife , Peter and Lisa Trotter will “fight” for the best places at Uvalde’s WGC in 15m. class.
picture courtesy Anita Taylor
At this stage, 101 pilots from 23 different countries have entered and wow there are some well known names on this preliminary list!!! It will be a great competition as there are , as usual, in each class a few potential WINNERS.
Deadline as I read on the official site from Uvalde for entrees and fees is April 4.
One of the French participants Killian Walbrou.He will fly in JS1 in 18 m.!!! Another potential winner and a very nice young man!
No news about our Prince Friso.When no news is good news that would be OK, but it somehow does n’t feel good . He has to remain for a week in coma, the situation is stable but still life-threatening.I guess we will know more in my Sunday-blog.
Mum Beatrix, wife Mabel and brothers Willem Alexander and Constantijn and even one of the 2 daughters from Friso and Mabel visited. As well as “his skiing- mate” , who after being in shock visited yesterday. It is now said that he dug the prince out with his bare hands.
Carefully pilots “hop” in their gliders, also in Germany and not only in areas with mountains but also in more flat land enjoying the first nice cumeli. A good flight from Bruchsal ,263 km. in a DG808C. /18m.
In Belgium pilot Daan Spruyt flew 351 km. in an 18m. LS 6
But it is still cold, though this weekend temperatures are going up to 12 dgr.PLUS!!!! Yes it is going to be defenitely better, even nice clouds!!!
Still strike in Frankfurt, they added 2 more days to their strike. The ground-traffic controllers , about 200, organizing the traffic on the ground, are on strike for more money. Not good….more delays…..more cancellations.!
Friend Tibor is already very busy with Fatraglide at Martin Airport. The comps will be in May [ 5-13] there is prize money 3000 Euro and as they say ” the winner takes it all”.
Combi class will be flown as usual but…..CLUB CLASS MASTERS is a new concept which is replacing Club class known from previous years.
WHY!!?? —-“Until 1978 there were only 2 world gliding champions every two year. Now we have 6 classes at WGC, 3 classes in women gliding championships and 2 in juniors, which is fine but can you name the winners from last year? Probably not. Who is the best pilot?
Only way how to find out is to get back to the roots and let them compete together. One class, similar gliders, one winner, no tears. That´s what we call „Glider racing as it should be“. Interested?—-” Rules? –only racing tasks (no AAT – because we are not in math competition)
–Turn points FAI sectors (because if you fly 300km we should not cheat it 1km on every TP)
–club class with handicap max. 1,06 (it´s old club class we all remember – without retired standard/15m gliders because handicap can´t make it fair all the time) For more news go to ; www.fatraglide.sk/2012
On the entry list I noticed several pilots who have been overseas at Corowa, this winter.
The Fatraglide boys on a picture from last year!
Tibor, Brano and a friend in the middle.
Still nice flights from Tocumwal and Benalla, after some showers the good weather arrived back and today pilots flew 500 km in Nimbus 3/25.5 m. and 453 km. from Kari in LS 6 from Toc.
And….don’t forget to listen to the interview from Rand Baldwin [soaringcafe] with Dick Butler busy with a race against the clock to have his Concordia ready for the Uvalde WGC.
There is a picture [in an old Flugrevue] in this article, from Dick’s ASW17, the one he flew at Paderborn and that glider is NOW owned by [my ex] George and “lives” in Tocumwal .
You can go to www.soaringcafe.com for the interview; —-“He talks about the status of the project and a few of the many remaining items that have to be tackled before Concordia debuts on the world stage in July”—-
