To avoid TOO LONG BLOGS , I will write a few more about the WGC, when there is enough news,and,… as long as my hands and fingers allow me. And I have enough time.
Will share some nostalgic anecdotes and news from our 1987 WGC in Benalla as well.
Benalla part 1 is published on January 1.
HAPPY 2017!!!!
New Years Eve party at the club house in Hawaii – style.
The UK table and the Aussie table.
Shared by TEAM UK.
BENALLA part 2.
January 1 2017 !!!!! One day to go before the unofficial practice starts, without scores but with some set tasks. The weather improved though still an average looking sky, and pilots could fly when they wanted on day 1 of the year 2017. Dutch pilot Jeroen, flying in open class, shared this picture.
And Bruce on his Gliding Page mentioned;
“Today had two distinct parts. First we were out on the flat with a lot of cirrus passing overhead. We set a task quite a way to the north, but changed that when we realized how poor the conditions were ahead. Then we turned south into the hills, where the air was quite moist. It is unusual for Benalla to have low-based cu with a north-west wind, but this season, who knows what is normal?”
AND
the 15 m. Diana 2 with Polish pilot Lucasz in the air. Beautiful “toy”.
Picture shared by Sebastian who flies the same good looking glider!
AND
Between all those beautiful gliders, as last year, the “ugly duck” has arrived again. Yes a real tug/towplane.
Last year I showed you how it flew over, here you see at the ground.
Courtesy Sebastian.
Such a big competition with so many guests , creates a new dimension for the organizers,[ as there is at the airport, a temporarily town in the town ] as well as for the Benalla people.
Here is the story from Paul Weeden ,member of team USA.
“I find myself in total awe of the emergency treatment I received yesterday here at the Benella gliding club. I was having an infected tooth added to my stay here, and I had approached the ladies at the comp office for some help deciding where I should go to have it looked at..(this week has been a national holiday, and it runs through next tuesday) I swear, every club member that walked up to the office desk had something to do with my outcome.. to cut to the chase, I arrived at the emergency room at the local hospital accompanied with a medical staff of a doctor and a dentist, that simply walked me through the whole process, would not let me drive, to the hospital or to the down town drug store.. all the while being wonderfully supportive and strictly professional..total cost for me at this point is $4.00 (Aus) for the required antibiotics. I cannot say thanks enough to everyone involved.”
To finish January 1 some extra pictures from MIDWINTER SOARING in Holland on December 30, from the new combined club now called VEAC.
Pictures courtesy Arjan van Dijk.
By the way,January 1 2017 started on the OLC with one 1000 km. flight from Douglas Backhouse and a landing at Gariep Dam.
January 2; Local hero, ” kilometer-eater ” , member of the Victorian Gliding Club and toppilot [WGC level]Tobias Geiger explained the task setting in Benalla on line [also on Youtube.com ] and the first briefing was in the “theater” / briefingroom. Every day you can watch the task-setting by him on :
http://www.wgc2017.com/news_add_here/list-of-news/task-setting-with-tobi-geiger.aspx
Most pilots choose not to fly , this day, as there was a strong South Easterly. The weather , however, will improve to a much higher and the more usual standard. Bit ,..always be aware of the Gilmore Gap, it has an influence on the weather.
Benalla from the air on January 2. Many gliders” home”.
courtesy Charlies Towing Adventures [on FB] YES the one from the Ugly Duckie.
NOT
Michael Summer who flew in the EB 29R 456 km.
January 3; for me personally always a very sad day.It’s 29 years ago [ January 3 1988] that our son and brother from Inge, died with his tug [Belanca ScoutVH-ADP] between Tocumwal and Jerilderie, [Finley] places you, competition-pilots all fly over during the comps. That was ONE year after he flew with his dad George the 1987 WGC in Benalla in the proto type of a NIMBUS 3D.
RIP Dennis. By the way he is buried in Tocumwal.
One of his club mates and friends, Ronald Termaat, from the past flies 30 years after Dennis and George as well in Benalla.
He is about to begin his so-maniest-WGC.
AND,..as there was only ONE week , between the death of our best mate Kees Musters[ he died on December 27 in 1987] I will remember him now too. RIP Kees.
Kees flew in 1987 as well and became 4th. In the beginning of the comps he had a bad day 3 and lost nearly 300 points. But during the comps he was superb and flew himself to a nice 4th overall spot , behind Brian Spreckley, Holger Back and Doug Jacobs all flying LS 6 [Kees flew a Ventus A] . The first 3 pilots [ from a total of 43] had after 12 days more than 10.000 points; [10.341…10.254 and 10.007… Kees had 9996].
The Italian pilots Giorgio Galetto and Stefano Ghiorzo , now after 30 years AGAIN flying in Benalla, flew as well in this 15 m. class and their final results were 28 and 16. Eric “Herbie” Moser was 15th. that year.
The organizers news for the day:”The weather is better than yesterday with good thermal conditions forecast up to 7,000ft in the plains and up to over 8,000ft in the mountains to the south of Benalla, the Victorian Alps.Today is an unofficial practice day, so task setter Tobi Geiger suggested some tasks that pilots might like to fly. Perhaps as a signal of what competition tasks may involve, the main suggestion from Tobi was that they fly a task into the mountains to gain familiarity with the terrain, conditions and outlanding options in the high country.”
Last day of the unofficial training. Good they went to the mountains, not so good on a not too good[ read high] day. There were complaints from pilots about the unlandable areas there ; a bit of a shock for some and an item as I heard, for the first official team captain- briefing on the 4th.
Back to Benalla 2017 on January 4 2017. A GREAT training day with fabulous clouds and happy pilots.
As Bruce mentioned on his PAGE;” Nice cu at about 8,000 feet, climbs of up to 8 knots, but mostly 6-7 knots. Not all the clouds worked, but enough to stay high. I did 141 kph around a 350 km task that was mostly to the west, then finished high enough that I could climb away and spend some time down in the hills before I landed.”
But he started with another story , in his eyes more important:” I was going to tell everybody what a fun day today was, but the most exciting thing that happened was the BBQ catching fire! I guess it was kind of my fault really, as I had started to cook some lamb, and there were a few small flames to begin with. We turned off the gas, but the fire took hold in the drip tray, and the whole lot went up! Georgo fixed it with a fire extinguisher, which made an impressive mess of everything.”
Ailsa and Lisa still see the fun.
Both pictures shared by Taylors Gliding Page .
So nice clouds on the not official practice day.As seen by Chris Hostettler.
To finish some impressive flights on the OLC this year:
January 2; Thomas Horz flew with Klaus Ohlmann in Argentina [[Zapala Neuquen] ;1.212 km. BUT look at the speed ;217.9 km./h. The other German pilots training/flying there all flew over 1000 km and speed between 210 and 216 km./h.
January 3; some of those German pilots fly there already since November . Yesterday the Antares 23 E with Johannes Koenig, flew 1.968 km. with a speed of 224.58. It looks they are having fun there!!
The weather as shared by the organizers.
CU one of the next days for more news about Benalla and a walk -trough- the -1987- memory- lane.
Cheers Ritz