October 1 2014….. only 3 months to go and 2015 starts. Time flies ……TOO fast.
By the way we had a warm month of September with not much rain and lots of sunshine. Different to France where in the area of Montpellier thousands had to be evacuated for the water after HEAVY rainfall. They mentioned 300 liter per square meter ,in 36 hours , that had not happened since 1957. Also Spain had a water-problem.
It was interesting to look at the 2014 -OLC- Plus- list from several parts of the world.
Looking at Australia the CHAMPION was James Cooper from Western Australia , but with a very small marge, as young Matthew Scutter from South Australia, was JUST behind him. Look at this; 6428,65 and 6412,31. On a nice 3d spot Terry Ryan from Tocumwal.[NSW]
Recent picture from Tocumwal Airport as seen by Eddie and Matthew seen here in Benalla [2013].
New Zealand had an international pilot on top as Finnish pilot Jyri Laukkanen topped their list, flying from Omarama.
Africa, looking at all Africa ,had a German guest as Champion; Reinhard Schramme and Guy Bechtold from Luxembourg was runner up.
The USA, looking at all North America had of course Jim as champion, followed by Mitch Polinsky with all his wonderful flights.
All South America was a prey for Jim as well, with Jean Marc Perrin from France as runner up.
Asia is either Japan or Israel and Japan won with pilot Shigeru Ishiyama from Nagano and as runner up Rafi Luski from the Negev Gliding Center.
Europe has several VERY enthusiastic OLC -die- hard -fans.
Looking at all flights from Europe Alexander Mueller was the best, before Michael Sommer and Guy Bechtold.
I looked at a few soaring-minded-countries for you as well.
Germany ….Alexander and Michael.
Italy…..Allesandro Busca before Giorgio Galetto.
Spain….Guy again followed by Jose Sancho.
the UK…..David Masson and Robin May.
Holland….Mark Leeuwenburgh, Nico Koster and Alfred Paul Alfers.
Belgium….Wim Akkermans, Herman Peeraer and Dennis Huybreckx.
Poland…Pawel Krakowski.
Czech Rep…..Tomas Suchanek.
Switzerland…Rainer Crohnjager.
Austria…..Johannes Hausman.
For the other countries you just have to go to the OLC site.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/champion.html?sp=2014&rt=olc&st=olc&c=C0&sc=
Mentioned the winners from the world wide OLC PLUS last week, have to add the speed OLC info from 2014 as well.
Here you go!
CHAMPION….Jim Payne
FIELD…..Bitterwasser
CLUB…..The Gliding Club of Victoria
Now you are totally up to date!
Looking ahead now at the 2015 season!
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AND…….That starts soon in Africa and Australia.
Containers are on their way. 4 Travel to Corowa in Australia .
For all the news about Corowa; http://www.australian-soaring-corowa.com/
I don’t know how many to Kiripotib , but I was impressed with the gliders; 6 x an Arcus M, 1x an Arcus E, 1 x an ASH 25 MI and 1 ASHE 25 EB 28. Also an Antares 23 and 1 x 304 MS Shark and last but not least 1 Ventus 2CXM.
I guess flying with the CHAMPIONS will; be a great success again.
At some periods you still can charter a glider ;http://www.dolba.de/kiripotib_flying/index.html
Also Gariep Gliding has packed containers for the 2014/ 2015 season and are ready for a new season.
http://www.gariep-segelflug.com/
Bitterwasser has some glider-availability as well have a look at their site when you are interested. www.bitterwasser.com/en/glidercharter.html
Pokweni waits for containers as well and also they have some charter-possibilities for gliders as p.e. an ASH 25 MI.
http://www.pokweni.de/
Several places in Australia as Narromine, Benalla, Lake Keepit, Waikirie, Kingaroy , Jondaryan and last but not least Tocumwal are ready and fly already.
Also Potchefstroom , where the North West Regionals will be flown between October 4 and 10 [next week] with a lot of top pilots and a forecast for pretty good weather , will be very busy this season.
Also the Soaring Safaris from Bloemfontein will be popular.
And what about Brazil , with a 948 km. flight —750 Fai triangle— last Friday by Egon Rehn in the Quintus M from LEM and from Bahia Gliding a 930 km.—860 FAI triangle—- by Branco Stojkovic , a personal best,in the Nimbus 3T/25 m. last Sunday [bahiagliding@gmail.com]
Argentina and New Zealand, will be busy again soon too, so for everybody , there is something.
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One of the first new season comps is flown from Kingaroy from September 27 and will continue till October 3 . 25 Pilots compete in 3 classes during this Queensland State Gliding Competition .
Day 1 and 2 had a 303 km. racing task and a 3 hour AAT in standard /15 m. class and Peter Trotter won both !Day 1 with a speed of 129.9 km./h. day 2 with 112 km./h over 352.6 km.
18 m. Class had the same task and Ivan Teese [ASG 29 E] won day 1 with a speed of 141.7 km./h. Tom Claffey [ASG 29] was runner up with 138 km./h.
The 3 hour AAT was won by Bill Hatfield in a LAK 17/18, with 384.8 km. in 3.10,54.
Open class mixed as well with 18 m. ; Day 1 was clearly won by Ivan, day 2 by the DUO DISCUS X from Kingaroy flown by Stephen O Donnell; 358.9 km.
Tom Claffey; won a day in Leszno this year.
Day 3 had another AAT , different weather and different winners. Kerrie Claffey… yes indeed wife from…won in St/15 m. class in her ASW 28. Peter was 2d. They more or less all started on the same time, 2 out-landed 4 finished and Kerrie was the fastest with 98.1 km./h. Peter had 95.1 km./h.
In 18 m. husband Tom won the day flying 317 km. over a 2.30 AAT; speed 121.1 km./h. No out-landings in this class.
In [the combined] open class Tom was the winner as well.
On day 4; winning the day before, tasted good for Kerrie, so she did it again. Not on a 1000 points-day but still 666, winning the 2 hour AAT with 243.2 km in time 2.09,50.After 4 days she is 20 points behind Mark Dalton who flies the ASW 20 B .
BUT..this is all preliminary as Peter Trotter has not yet delivered his file from today.
In 18 m. husband Tom won as well, so a double party again.
Tom flew 327.9 km in 2.37,5 over a 2.30 AAT.
With that result he won the open class-day as well, with the Kingaroy-Duo Discus X on spot 2.
2 Days to go in Kingaroy and then already again the next event in Queensland; The 34st Cub and Sports Class Nationals in Goondiwindi between October 6 and 17. More about that next week.
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The Dutch Nationals and the Belgium Nationals are combining their efforts and will be flying TOGETHER as the BENELUX CHAMPIONSHIP . Place to be; St Hubert in Belgium, between May 14 and 25 in 2015. They can fly over Belgium and Luxembourg and use the Ardennes as “lift -tool”.
Sounds good! Try to be there as well for a few days.
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And to finish a great picture from a fantastic painting by artist and enthusiastic glider pilot, Ralph Keller, who flew a lot with us in the past at Sportavia and still does so now at Sportaviation, just not as often anymore as when he was younger. My old crashed laptop had, as screen saver, another painting from Ralph ; a glider and tug over Tocumwal.
This painting is shared by the Bendigo Gliding Club with the next text:
“The way it used to be, the elegance of a bygone era. The great glider WIEN over Germany’s Rhoen mountains in 1929. The aircraft was flown by one of the pioneers of soaring flight, the famous Austrian pilot Robert Kronfeld. Picture by BGC Artist in Residence, Ralph Keller.”
Cheers Ritz
On October 1 2014.