BENALLA day 4 on Thursday January 12!
At 6.30 this morning, early start Chris! One flag missing,….?????
Courtesy Swiss Chris.
The day started with interesting news from the TC meeting, every day half an hour prior to the pilots meeting.
Here is Carol TC from the South African team and very experienced due to many different WGC’s.
“A team managers’ meeting prior to the briefing this morning dealt with a variety of issues, which included the use of the tracker units, flarm traces, a new fly-tool on-line safety system and if carrying more than two flight recorders the need to register them. There have been some technical problems with some of the tracker units, which are being rectified, but it is the pilots’ responsibility to ensure they are charged every night. The fly-tool safety system is a new on-line programme that can be used to register issues that could be safety related, beneficial to competition organisations, improve safety, and it is aimed to be a data source to assist in the future.
Unfortunately the request to extend the time delay for the trackers when an AAT task is set from 10 minutes to possibly 20 or 30 minutes was not approved. This was a real problem for our pilots on the first day when it was obvious that other teams could see exactly what track our pilots had taken and relayed this information to their own pilots who started later.
Although yesterday’s briefing inferred today would not be so good, it is in fact likely to be a reasonable day with lift up to 5 000 – 6 000 ft. Again south westerly light winds and blue conditions are expected. Thermal strength might not be as strong with 3 – 4 kts. average.
With an expected 1 p.m. take off, tasks are 15m. class 336.9 km. (B 256.3 km), 18m. class 318.3 km. (B 283.5 km), and Open class 288.6 km. (B 259.8 km).”
AND then the response of the VICE PRESIDENT of the IGC another lady this time Marina, who ,as I always say with a big smile “sleeps with annex a” under her pillow;
“The delay of the display CANNOT be 10 minutes, the LP says that it shall be at least 15: 4.1.1.c Carriage of GNSS data transmitters for public displays
The organizers will require competing sailplanes to carry GNSS data transmitters to enable the public display of GNSS flight records during competition flights. Such display will not begin before the start line is opened and the actual positions of the sailplanes shall be displayed with a time delay of at least 15 minutes. This delay may be reduced to zero prior the finish.”
Further on it seems that ” they dropped the “mandatory steering point” at the end of the tasks which forced pilots to fly the final leg straight into the setting sun. This was a real safety problem.”
The sun can be very low inn Australia and totally blinds you, good idea.
Today’s weather shared by Taylor’s Gliding Page.
They flew;task 2 for 15 and 18 m. task 3 for open !
15 started first then 18 m and open. Gliders up in 120 minutes. A- task was valid.
15 m.;336 km…all pilots finished !!! Best were the Jonker Brothers from South Africa in their brand new JS 3 with a relative late start. Uys got the 1000 points Attie 994. All 37 pilots finished! Great result for the Jonker brothers as their gliders are BRAND brand new!!!
Team UK shared the next good news;”
“ 15m class day 2…..
A much better day for Ed and I.
The forecast seemed very optimistic with blue thermals to 4000ft and 3 knot climbs and a sizeable 340km task.
An early start was planned as we were not sure if the task was achievable. The 1st leg ended up being hot and very low, big gaggles and in the words of Howard Jones it was “like a knife fight in a telephone box”.
Half way down the second leg a stubble fire saved the day and launched Ed and I into the front gaggle.
Along with the French we broke away and pushed hard to make the final climb 6kts to 6500ft over the cow farm getting onto glide!
A good day out for all of the team!”
15 winners from yesterday
Mac to the r, Sebastian in the middle and Louis to the l.
18 m.; 318 km…. 33 from 42 finished, miserable day for John Coutts and Giorgio with a 34th and 35th place after an “outlanding”.
Here is Bruce;
“Another blue day, and we decided to leave on our own. Actually we had a nice day, stayed high and never worked any rubbish, and arrived home first. However, the pack who left about 50 minutes behind us clearly had a very fine time, and beat us by a handy margin. Not to worry, we enjoyed ourselves and didn’t have to dodge any fiberglass, unlike the rest of the crowd. Word is that there was a collision in the 18 m class, with both gliders landing safely. I hate gaggles with a passion!”
So do I and I am only at the ground!!!!
18 m.Winners from yesterday.
Killian [1] to the r. Dave in the middle [2] and Arne to the left.
open; 288.6 km…good day for the South Africans,…Oscar won with 134.7 km./h. !!! Good on him. Laurens was 7th this time. Great day too for the UK team with Russell as runner up and Andy on spot 4 behind Sebastian Eder.
All scores preliminary. Hungarian pilot Gyorgy Gulyas did not fly, a pity as he is always good! Don’t know why? And the rest , 34 pilots, finished!!
open class winners from yesterday
Michael to the r. Ricardo in the middle and Tassilo to the l.
All 3 pictures courtesy TEAM UK.
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AND ,…some more nostalgia,…..back to 1987 with some more pilots from
TEAM ARGENTINA.
Mario [Reynoso] flew in standard class in our glider MM and his crew and with Benalla- hat Mr. Dettone the TC.
AND
TEAM FINLAND.
Open class pilot Raimo Nurminen with his crew.
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The Andes Cup day 5.
This time a 3.30 AAT. It was flown by NOBODY !!!! But,….of course there were better pilots than others and no surprise Carlos was the best with 334.88 km. . Runner up was Arturo Diez with 323.40 flying a NIMBUS 4 M and Rene was on spot 3 with 304 km.
In between Jeppe enjoyed a day off , ” with culture” in Argentina and shared some nice pictures.
the view in the Parque Nacional on the famous Lake Nahuel Huapi
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Have to rush to Amsterdam now. More tomorrow.
Cu Ritz