SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONALS at WELKOM
Picture courtesy Arne, via FB.
After rain and hail, there is sunshine!
The practice day fell in the ” SA water” ,but the rest from the week was supposed to be good , according to one of our Dutch top-pilots, Ronald who flew with Annemiek and Maurits to SA to fly these nationals with 32 other pilots. WELKOM at WELKOM!
Pictures as shared by Maurits on FB. Thanks for sharing!
On Thursday the organizers set tasks in each of the 3 classes;
a 3 hour AAT for club,
259.5 km. for the 15 m. pilots
and 339 km. for open and 18 m. participants.
From 17 gliders in open/18 m. there are 13 from JONKER SAILPLANES in 3 configurations.
For Annemiek it means after Australia, another great part of the world to fly over. What SUPER experiences for her after driving as a car-pilot, the solar race in a winning team in Australia as well. Guess 2013 is HER year!
Annemiek in Australia and ” hidden” in the CIRRUS in Africa with Ronald as BIG help!
Pictures as shared via FB the last one by Arne.
Annemiek straight away showed she had practiced and won day 1 and 2 in the Club class and the 2 other Dutch pilots did not bad either; 2 and 3 in open/18 m. on day 1.
Good to see Pieter Nouwens, won day 1 in that class and was faster than the rest of the toppers with 137 km./h. over 340 km. Maurits and Ronald had 131 km./h. on their ” clocks”!
In 15 m. the Schmidt family had a good day …Wayne won and Maneste his wife was the runner up. Good on them.
Day 3 was a prey for John Coutts , from New Zealand, but living already for a longer time in Africa. The Goudriaans were runner’s up and the speed in this class was excellent; 161 km./h for John in a ” standard ” JS 1and 166 km./h. for the ” brothers” in their fancy c-types with 21 m. span, over 525.5 km. distance.
In 15 m. Mr. Schmidt flew his ASW 20 over 409 km. with a speed of 121 km./h. winning day 3 whilst Mrs. Schmidt settled in the SPEED ASTIR 2, for the day on spot 6.
In club class over 292 km. Annemiek lost 70 points by being 3d. Edvard Kristo [ St. Jantar] from Croatia won the day. Interesting to see, that the runner up, Konrad Stark in the ASW 15, started more than an hour later!
Today the club flies 310 km., 15 m. goes for 445 and the open/18.m pilots for 554 km.
Ronald was correct, the weather improved!!!
JOEY GLIDE from NARROMINE in Australia!
It’s nice to read that young ones see/compare each other like we all do, as less good, good and a topper.Nick and Alex from New Zealand flew one day, the last legs with Matthew and mentioned; ” It was interesting to see how the really good guys fly.”
Matthew won the 3d day over 328 km. as well, with ” the Kiwi-friends ” Alex as runner up and Nick on spot 6.
They all continued with another 300 k day[just!] , 33 up to 35 dgr. on the ground and as I ” taste” from far good humored young ones!No Matthew on spot 1 that day [4] but still runner up!
His JWGC mate Eric [ASW 28] won the day with 127 km./h. whilst he had 121 km./h.
“ Last day joey glide.
4hr AAT Max distance 680km.
Expecting a big day with CU’s to at least 1000ft and a chance of storms.
Finally a good strong day with clouds!
A few guys have headed off on 1000km flights” as mentioned by Alex and Nick in their Gliding Adventures.
They had 5 days of good soaring and on the last day , the young ones had to go for a 4 hour AAT. Eric won again with 488 km. in time 3.59.
Aussie JUNIOR CHAMPION 2013/2014 is Matthew Scutter, good on him, congratulations!!!
Kiwi- Alex was runner up, excellent and the other 2 Australian participants from the last JWGC in Poland , Eric and Ailsa, were on spot 3 and 4 whilst the other Kiwi-mate Nick was on 5.
Matthew’s sister Claire did well in her LS 4 finishing on spot 14 overall,compliments, whilst the well known Maddock brothers were on spot 8 and 9.
The Maddocks brothers and Matthew in January of this year at the Multi Class Nationals in Benalla.
On the OLC , Bitterwasser topped with several 1000 km. flights the list as usual. After some wet days , on which Narromine, Gariep Dam , Chos Malal and Pokweni, took over the OLC -spot 1, the great BITTERWASSER weather is back for the guests and with that, the top places.As last Friday , when the EB flew over 1.281 km.[1036 FAI triangle]
Great to see Alberto {Sironi} flying from Bitterwasser as well; His enthusiastic comment:
GRANDE AFRICA!
3 italian record
distance FAI declared task: 1014 km
speed 1000 km FAI: 134,07 km/h
free distance FAI: 1.015,6
Good on him!
My friends flying from Kuruman had a great day too with 1000 km. distances!
On December 14[yesterday] indeed some pilots indeed flew a 1000 from Narromine but also from Western Australia, where Norm Block , who flew many Nationals in the past, raced his ASW 24 over an FAI 1000- triangle with 116 km./h. Great effort!
The Narromine- thousands were from 2 Czech guests, one even mentioned it was his first 1000. Congratulations.
Busy busy, guests, upcoming birthday etc., so see you next Wednesday with more news!
Cheers Ritz
On Sunday December 15, the day Nelson Mandela was buried. A great, charismatic and inspiring man, left this world.RIP!