The Andes OPEN 2014 , organised by the Club de Planeadores de Vita Curas, started on January 6 in Santiago in Chile, with 14 competitors among them toppers as Rene Vidal and Carlos Rocca Vidal, but also overseas guests as Thomas Gostner from Italy , Juergen Wenzel from Germany and Phil Sturley from the UK.
With 7 out of 8 days the team mentioned on the last day:
” Well, our championship is almost done. With smoky days, massive Los Andes outlanding due to the closing of Vitacura and a “Los Andes Task” this has been a different championship. What has remained the same is the friendship among pilots specially with our visitors. Also the marvellous sightseeing during races over Los Andes mountains. And needless to say… the 140+ speeds… we love high speeds..”
Speed up to 148 km. for daily winner Carlos in a competition , this time on a set task of 374.5 km. , is good!
In the end the winner was; Carlos who won 5 days , the other days were a prey for Rene, who was the runner up. Thomas was on spot 3 and Juergen on spot 4, all flying a Ventus in different configurations, whilst Phil finished at spot 9. [ASH 26E]
More friends have arrived in Tocumwal and Ken from Japan is one of them. I love his vintage gliders and I share one picture of one of them; The Olympia Meise. It will be 40 plus this week, so maybe great flights or too stable to have them, that’s always possible too.
” Poor” tennis players at Melbournes tennis courts, they struggle with the heat as well.
Great picture from both the Olympia and Ken.
Courtesy Dieter.
It was not only HOT in the B [enalla]-C[orowa] -T[ocumwal] – area but also a bit up NW; Gawler had 44 dgr. C. and with that some good flights were set/declared by 3 pilots.
The ingredients for the day; a trough , but also thunderstorms….. and as Peter Temple said in his comment on the OLC, when he had to finish his 1000, in bad weather ” Final glide from 14500 feet helped.”
Peter had to abandon his declared task, but still flew a GOOD 1000, far up north over scrub and back.
As I heard they had had a big storm with lightning and fires and they had trouble flying around it.
The other 2 pilots abandoned their declared task as well.
3 Successive over 1.100 km. flights in Bitterwasser, for Wilfried and Luc [ASDH 25EB 28] and 2 x 1000, in a row for Antti and young Nikke in the ARCUS. Great to see how very experienced pilots take younger pilots under their wings to share knowledge and happiness in soaring.
It’s mid January, which means the air can be already more humid and rain/thunderstorms can pop up as quickly as good cu’ s.
But whatever happens Bitterwasser had a great season , a pity for some who just arrived on less good days but that’s soaring too as we all know!
2 Successive 1000 km flights as shared by Antti.
The 60 thiest Nationals in Argentina are on in standard class with 36 participants among them Damian and Lucas Goldenzweig, Gustavo Saurin and Fernando Repicky. They started on January 6 continuing till January 17.
Day 1 and 2 had 3 hour AAT’s , day 3 a set task from 282.8 km.and day 4 a set task from 194 km. which was won by Damian with a speed of 115.9 km./h. and Lucas was on spot 2. [ 113.8 km./h.]
Till then each day had another winner!
Also day 5 had another winner ;Lucas and Damian were in the top 5 as well.
After 5 days the first 10 were all between 4082 and 4397 points overall.
Beverley ; WA State comps
I left you with day 3 news from Beverley,a day Norm [Bloch] won and lead the pack after those 3 days .Day 4 and 5 were good ones with a 3 hour AAT .
Also in Beverley 45 dgr. C.
Interesting day’s as well as I could read :
” Very convective day! Challenging final glide. Had to detour around lightening and hit 24 knts of downdraft.” [Paul Oakly]
After 5 days it will be all between 2 LS 8 pilot, s Norm and Greg Beecroft with a difference of 67 points as the rest is already more than 500 points behind!
FAIL, was the word Max and Marc used last week when trying a 900 km. O&R in the Nimbus 4DM. But last Sunday [ January 12] they added a new Dutch open class record over the 900 km. to their list;144.20 km.h
They flew over lot’s of unlandable areas over 450 km. out of Douglas to the TP which was Kgalagadi Tansfrontier Park and back, had some showers but with them they could increase the speed even more and to finish the day in style they added ” a few kilometers” ;1.100 km and…. back just before sunset so a full day of joy . Happy chappies no doubt about that, they really have fun together chasing records!!!! They flew yesterday a record over a 700 km. O&R with 148 km./h.and on the 11th of January over a 300 km. O&R with 160 km./h.
Congratulations!Here some pictures from Marc during the 900 km.record-flight.
Great pictures from a great flight as shared by Marc.
When I wrote about records last Sunday in my SoaringCafe blog, I forgot to give you the link to the most recent claims.
A WORLD record is extra special and that happened on the last day of 2013 in Bitterwasser by Susanne Schoedel; a speed record in the feminine class over a free triangle [ 132.49 km.h. ] and world records over free triangle distance [1.110 km.] and triangle distance [1.107 km] !
Recent record claims are now on the GFA site and the 1000 Lisa flew in Tocumwal on December 20, was VERY, special too and flown , as she said, on not even the best day!Record as in Oceanian, world, feminine and general categories!! 23!!!!
Of course the GFA was more than pleased;
‘”GFA congratulates Lisa Trotter on achieving 23 Australian General and Feminine Records from her flight on 20/12/2013.
Claims have been submitted to FAI for 1 World Record and 7 Continental Records.”
Here is the full list as received via Jo and it must have been a hell of a job for Lisa and the official, all that paperwork;
Standard Class Australian National Records (4 records)
Free Three Turn Point Distance L Trotter 20-12-2013
Free Triangle Distance
Three turn point distance
Triangle Distance
>>
Australian Feminine Records
Standard Class (5 records)
Free Three Turn Point Distance L Trotter 20-12-2013
Free Triangle Distance
Three turn point distance
Triangle Distance
Speed Triangular 1000KM
Australian Feminine Records
15m Class (5 records)
Free Three Turn Point Distance L Trotter 20-12-2013
Free Triangle Distance
Three turn point distance
Triangle Distance
Speed Triangular 1000KM
>>
Australian Feminine Records
18m Class (5 records)
Free Three Turn Point Distance L Trotter 20-12-2013
Free Triangle Distance
Three turn point distance
Triangle Distance
Speed Triangular 1000KM
>>
Australian Feminine Records
Open Class (4 records)
Free Triangle Distance
Three turn point distance
Triangle Distance
Speed Triangular 1000KM
As you surely remember both Lisa and Susanne flew the WGC in Uvalde in 2012.
Got a link to a local Australian paper [Gympie Times] about the Tocumwal flight from Lisa as well:
“ Another experience not to be forgotten is the world record glider flight of 1027km by local pilot Lisa Trotter.The historic ten hour flight in December 2013 saw Mrs Trotter break a total of 31 world, national and continental records.
Introduced to the sport at a young age, the record setting pilot has conquered some of gilding’s toughest achievements.
“My father was an airline pilot and took me on a week long gliding holiday when I was growing up,” Mrs Trotter said.
“Funnily enough he wasn’t very interested in gliding after that week but I was hooked.”
“I had wanted to attempt the triangular distance record for some time and it was an incredible feeling of achievement when I knew I had completed it.
“I had done quite a bit of preparation so it was great to know all the hard work had paid off.”
And not to forget Anja [Kohlrausch] who flew a few as well from Bitterwasser.
And what about Jan Ritsma from Holland flying on January 3 192.7 km./h/ over 100 km. in the general class. He flew the record from Gariep Dam in a Ventus 2CT.[Category; D 15 …15 m. gliders]
Have a look at the great list of recent claims at http://www.fai.org/igc-records
And to finish the story about Waikirie from CHAMPION Matthew Scutter as read in his blog and maybe you can help him to find a good glider for Leszno.
Matthew as shared by proud dad Michael,
with his third national championship trophy this season!
“ It’s been a great two week’s flying from Waikerie in the Club and Sports Class Nationals against some stiff competition and covering the whole weather spectrum.
We started off grovelling in the blue building up to a pair of 12,000ft cu days and finished on a very blue, very low day!
My key focus for this competition was minimizing competitive risk, trying to identify situations where it’s ok to take ‘big picture’ risks (starting early/late, breaking away from gaggles, choosing different tracks), and also judging when it’s safer to fall back and bleed a few points in order to stay out of trouble.
This is my last competition of the season so I’m now turning my full attention to WGC2014 in Leszno!
I am still evaluating my options with regards to gliders – if you know someone in Europe who has a Ventus 2(a,b,x), ASG29-15 or ASW27 they might consider lending out, please write to me!
The photo is riding the gust front off the storms down the guts of the trough on Day 6.”
As shared by Matthew.
Cheers Ritz, off to the Hague for the day.
On January 15 2014