Extensive evaluation and statistics of overseas season!

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday February 3 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Today an extensive evaluation of the overseas season , with still some surprising results. I know that NOT ALL pilots  put their flights on, so it is based ONLY on the OLC. All the news and statistics are made by my Aussie correspondent and I am grateful for his input in soaring.eu.    
THANK YOU! Here we go, stick to your chair  and see if you agree on the comments of the evaluation !

Following is an overview of how some of the well known centres performed compared to earlier years. Thanks to the OLC we can now get these insights. Please keep in mind that the flights included in these lists are made by just over 550 pilots, ie about 0.5% of the worlds glider pilots!

                            2007           2008            2009            2010            %

Bitterwasser        402.589      584.385        481.335       479.926        0%
Pokweni             219.286      276.608        235.927        272.318      15%
Kiripotib                       0                0          61.005       140.340     130%
Gariep Dam        365.387      329.946        424.674        217.476     -49%

MuniVitacura               44       63.613        137.171        146.027        6%
Chapelco              29.476        18.885         13.231          
54.299     310%
Lago Nahuel           7.871                 0          5.922           21.827    269%
El Calafate              1.007                 0                 0            2.479

Corowa              324.295        479.208       496.302         469.111     -5%
Narromine          117.828          94.392         80.140         139.487     74%
Benalla                 34.950         33.450         265.486        137.499    -48%
Tocumwal            19.013         44.218          48.486          49.965      
  3%

TOTALS:      1.523.753      1.989.713      2.251.688     2.132.764   -5%

Gariep had a terrible cross country season due to mediocre weather.  Still, because the site is further to the south, and thus has longer days, it must be rated as the location with the best chances of flying 1,500+ km flights over relatively flat country, ie without wave.Namibia had quite a good season and visitor numbers increase as accomodation becomes available, most of the increase took place in Kiripotib. The rainy season started early this year in Namibia so, in the end, the season was quite short, but still again in kilometers flown, if you just want to fly a 1,000 km flight this might be your best bet.

Australia is a well known winter destination for overseas pilots. Corowa has had a similar sort of season as last year, Narromine quite a bit better. Australia has good, safe, cross country possibilities but is not ideal for ultra long distances. There may be possibilities for longer flights in the area around Alice Springs but there is no infrastructure there. Maybe in future…

South America is starting to come into the picture these days. The most active club being Vitacura in the outskirts of Santiago, Chili. Much further to the south is Chapelco, becoming quite famous now because of the very long flights of Klaus Ohlman. One flight this season he flew from El Calafate, another 1,200 km to the south. The days are much longer there and because the flights- length seems to be only limited by daylight, there must be possibilities for other pilots then Klaus , who did this in 2003 already , to “crack” the 3,000 km barrier easier than from Chapelco . Another location, Lago Nahuel in the Bariloche, about 200 km south of Chapelco seems to have good cards to grow significant in activity level. Now this is an interesting area for more than one reason. Not only is it a plush wintersport area with royalty and the rich and famous visiting frequently but it is claimed, by the journalist  Abel Basti, that Adolf Hiltler, having escaped from Germany before the end of the war by submarine, lived in this area until his death in 1960. Now how about that for a story…..!

But back to the statistics of the season. In the following table the order is by the longest flight of the season. It is obvious that, if you want to go for the real big ones, South America is the place. Oxygen and warm cloth are a must because the flying could be done at altitudes up to 10,000 meters. Brrrrr….It is interesting to see that 75% of all flights of 1,000 km and longer are flown in Namibia and South Africa. Klaus Ohlman and his mates in South America fly 10% of all flights exceeding 1,000 km, leaving the remaining 15% for Australia.
 

                         flights          >1000km.        Av.Km.       Max       pilots

Chapelco              51                  26               1065          2831           6
El Calafate              1                    1               2479          2479           1
Lago Nahuel         31                    5                 704          1673           5
Bitterwasser        678                107                 708          1412        106
Kiripotib             177                  48                 793          1401          30
Pokweni             374                  67                 728          1376          52
Gariep Dam        402                  15                 541          1270          66
Corowa              822                  36                 571          1253          75
Narromine          338                    6                 413          1209          78
Tocumwal          124                    1                 403          1029          26
Muni Vitacura     427                    2                 342          1019          50
Benalla               380                    0                 362                             6

Totals;              3805                314              561                           556

So far the analyst! And THANKS again! The statistics for the best airfield  were this year for  Corowa, with Lubor as the Australian OLC champion .  They flew 471.078.11 km with 75 pilots over 825 flights. Congratulations !!
Not difficult to guess that Klaus Ohlman  is the worldwide winner from the 2009/2010 OLC season , while the best pilot flying FAI tasks is Alexander Mueller.
The statistics show that the pilots of the Gliding Club of Victoria flew the most kilometers;147.434.49 with 50 pilots and 405 flights. Welldone!!!
As I do admire pilots who fly set FAI tasks here are some of the winners;
All Australia; Pepe Gresa [ES] before Tomas Suchanek [CZ] and Berry Fennis [NL].
All Africa; Alexander Mueller [DE] before Bert de Wijs [NL] and Bernd Dolba [DE].
Congratulations! So ….in the end maybe NOT everybody was happy with this season, but most of them were!

And then this…Only between December 16 and January 15 17.000 people in Holland have visited the first aid in hospitals after falling due to slipperiness. 16 % of them had to stay in hospital and the cost are 38 million EURO. And…this week now is the worst!!!! Bad , white and long winter!
“Welcome back ” in cold Europe dear overseas pilots!!!!

That’s it for today see you on Sunday! Comments are still welcome!
cheers Ritz

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