Back for a moment to 1987!!!!
The history,…. out of my mind,…. all documents I kept, ….many pictures with stories so I could recall better and…. the complimentary first issue from GOOD FINISH from Eric “Herbie” Moser.
What was my role in 1987? More or less assistant of TC Giep. George and I visited Tocumwal already from 1984 onwards, so I knew a bit about the people and the Aussie habits.
I organized the shipping,[Ned Loyd] organized facilities to sleep and eat in Tocumwal in the practice period, organized the team clothing [Mc Gregor] and helped crewing were necessary.
Our proud Dutch team ;
Baer Selen, Kees Musters, [RIP] Gerrit Kurstjens,Daan Pare and George Schuit with co pilot Dennis Schuit. [RIP] [not on this picture]
The TEAM in Mc Gregor clothing. George, TC Giep, Gerrit, Daan, Kees and Baer.
Kees and Baer and we lived at that time in Alphen aan den Rijn. For that reason; great coverage in the papers.
AND
the Camping area in Tocumwal where we were ALL together.
Baer, Gerrit, crew from Daan.. Piet [ RIP]and Daan.
Pictures scanned by my grandson Dexter.
AND
the big event for about 50 overseas guests in Tocumwal;
THE TOOLSHED OPENING PARTY
at Bruce Brockhoff’s caravan just before we all left for Benalla.
Bruce will be at the prize giving this year.
With Polish pilot Stan Witek[RIP] Robin Riley, Ad Schuit brother and crew from George and Dennis in front of the caravan we bought later from Bruce.
With Finnish TC Tapio Savolainen [RIP] His teams always were best dressed!!!! ” Both a bit “drunk” in front of the tool-shed.
The first 2 days of flying in Benalla 1987.
On day 1 on January 19 1987, the forecast was for a good day with tasks fitting this forecast, between 437 and 556 km. Mind you gliders were long not as good as they are now, same story for the instruments and there were NO mobile phones!!
The wind however, was stronger than expected. Some stayed for an hour over the field waiting -in-hope for the conditions to improve and a few managed to catch wave up to 10.000 ft. the max allowed height.The first leg was a struggle and many outlanded. A bad start for some very good pilots at this WGC.
BUT…… 4 pilots managed to finish, all in open class. Ingo, [999 points], Ray [Lynskey 983….RIP], Marc [Schroeder 962] and Gabriel [Chenevoy 949…RIP]
A new WGC record was set; 104 outlandings.
In 15 m. class Doug Jacobs was the winner for the 1000 points , with Gilles Navas from France as runner up [975] and in Standard class Leonardo Brigliadori [RIP] before Mike Opitz and Reinhard Schramme.[1000…995…994…and 992 for Andy Pybus from Australia]
By the way;… Ricardo Brigliadori, Leo’s son flies the WGC now!!!
On January 20 1987 , everybody,[ except a few] , was TIRED!!!
Here a fragment from Eric Mozers Magazine GOOD FINISH written after the comps, Eric flew in 15 m. class in a VENTUS A;
” Some very tired pilots and crews arrived at the briefing hall on Monday morning.The first days tasks had been flown over sparsely populated terrain and many pilots learned the joys of the outback while looking for the elusive telephone.
David Innes of Guernsey landed his Nimbus 3 near Swan Hill late in the afternoon.
After 5 hours of walking, he finally found a house at 1.30 AM and woke the occupants.The startled farmer turned into a gracious host and allowed him to call his crew.
After an all-night retrieve and drive to Benalla, he arrived just minutes prior to the 10 AM briefing”
So day 2 had short tasks up N.[ 250 and 260 km.] Again,..the weather was less than forecasted, the wind picked up again , thermals were difficult to find and to center.
In open class Ray Gimmey, George Lee and Bruno Gantenbrink were the toppers.
In 15 m. class Henri Stouffs [Belgium RIP] ..yes father of Patrick,…and Ake Paterson [Sweden] shared the honors;2 [999 ]and 1 [1000] ,…whilst Dutch pilot Daan Pare was 3d.[987]
In Standard class UK pilot Chris Garton won the day, just ahead of Andy who flies this WGC as well and Andy Pybus from Australia.
A picture from a picture with Henri Stouffs and Hannes Linke.
Another excerpt from Eric’s GOOD FINISH.
“The pilot with the worst luck on day 2 was Stanislaw Zientek from Poland.The entire Polish team was competing in Benalla on a shoestring.The team had not enough cars to retrieve all their pilots on day 1 so Zientek, who landed near Bendigo, was forced to stay overnight in a country pub. His crew reached him and the DG 300 at 11 AM quickly de-rigged the glider and hit the road for the 2 hour drive back to Benalla.
Though he missed already the briefing he still hoped he could fly on day 2. Half way back disaster struck. A tire blew causing the car and trailer to begin swerving.
The trailer jack-knifed and the car rolled 3 times and came to rest on it’s roof in the middle of the road.
Zientek and his crew miraculous escaped injury and crawled from the car. The car was totally destroyed but the glider had not been damaged. Unfortunately the brave Zientek was not able to fly on day 2.”
So ZERO points for him, but he did not gave up and his overall score after 11 days for him , was 27 from 44. Good on him !!!
More news, scores, facts and interesting stories in my next blog.
Back to 2017!!!
On January 5 till 7 the official training started with tasks and scores, everybody will be able to check how it works. As I said before the weather can be TOP in Benalla but a bit more N, to the outback it mostly is better. Some flew over 600 km.on the last unofficial practice day. The weather to the N.West was best.
So when you have a flight up N, you still have to go back in the evening when you have passed the Victorian and NSW border over good land-able areas , but the lift might be less or gone.
Also again,…the “BLUE” can be better/stronger than cu’s!!
What happened on the first official practice day ? Well,….the German , UK and Dutch teams were “on the GO” and how!!!! The weather was not as good as the day before with possible thunderstorms in the end of the day, but quite good distances were flown and HUGE speed.
In open class the official practice day showed a 2.30 AAT and the German pilots Michael and Tassilo in their “big machines” [EB 29 R] had a great day. Look at the speed;163.70 and 162.27 km./h. over 425 and 408 km.
The UK pilots had a top day too.Russell settled in , in his JS1 C, between the German pilots with a speed of 163.22 km./h. And Andy was on spot 4 with 159.12 km./h.
WOW!!!Not bad practice .
In 18 m. also a 2.30 AAT and again the German team was ready to go for it. Mario and Matthias flew 404 and 395 km with a speed of 162 and 159 km./h. !!!!! French pilot Killian Walbrou was number 3 .
A 3 hour AAT for 15 m. and my Dutch friends did so WELL!!!!On spot 1 and 3; Ronald and Alfred Paul, good on you guy’s. Speed 136 and 135 km./h. Number 2 was Sebastian who started more than 15 minutes later than Ronald;135.16 km./h.
It’s only practice I know, but such a day motivates!!!
The 2 Aussie pilots in this class, out-landed after 143 km.No worries ! Only practice….
“2 x JS3 Rapture and 1 x ASW27 in the cruise today.” shared by NZ 15 m. pilot Steve Wallace.
Sunset in Benalla after a very FAST practice day 1.
As shared by Catherine Conway.
Cu next with more pictures and stories!!
Cheers Ritz with help from Dexter, who managed to scan some pictures. I might be able to do it myself now!!!.
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