57th Multi Class Nationals in Narromine.

as shared by Gliding Federation of Australia

On Wednesday morning Anne , who lives in Narromine, shared a message:
“ROAD CLOSURES: Council wishes to advise the travelling public that ALL UNSEALED ROADS in the Shire are CLOSED until further notice due to rain over the past 24 hours.”
That evening I saw heavy flooding of parts from Sydney on TV.
So after the wet days its better not to out-land for the pilots without an “engine”, to avoid extra problems.
But as expected the front left and the nice weather arrived!! Look at this .

 

Pawnees ready to go…..for flying day 1.
as shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

November 29, day 3 task 1: good tasks, good flights only one out-lander who returned by areo-tow retrieve. So a good first day of flying.
15 m; 313 km….Adam[Woolley] won task 1 in his Ventus 2A, only just,… as Tobias [Geiger] had about the same time though he started nearly an hour earlier also in a Ventus 2A. Speed 112.98 for 112.11km./h.
As always Adam shared his thoughts in   Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
“Day win, just. A very fortunate recovery for me today. Still, a win is a win, nice way to start the comp .”
St. class; 313 km…nearly all the same but a different winner Andrew [ Maddocks] in an LS 8 with a speed of 104,47 km./h.
5 LS 8 gliders in the top 5, with Peter [Trotter] as runner up.

Open/18 m;362.76 km. for both classes. There are at this stage 3 JS 3 gliders in Australia and they flew in this class. Butch [John Buchanan] won with a speed of 134.91 km./h.  Lumpy [Paterson] was 4th and Norm [Bloch] ,both in JS 3, was 5th.
Runner up was Tom [Claffey] in ASG 29 and Brad [Edwards] in the same glider was 3d.
George was 7th in the Discus 2 CT.
All started with in 15 minutes. Butch flew 2 hours 41 minutes. Number 19 for the day 4 hours and 36 minutes,…but he was IN!!!!

November 30 day 4 task 2; 516 and 647 km.

516 and 647 to go…..
As shared by Bryan.

last day of our meteorological winter and last day of autumn in Australia.
Winter, summer starts!!!!
AND as said after rain-front , the new cycle starts and it gets good better, best!!!Great tasks!!!
15m./ St.class;  516 km. …..They fly in one handicapped class with the same tasks but  different winners.
In 15 m. Adam wins again [126.07 km./h] and Tobias [124.47 km./h.] is runner up again.;1000 and 978 points for the toppers.
Great to see that Akemi from Japan, but spending lot’s of flying time in Australia , won in st class in her LS 8. Good on her.AND ,..a 1000 points day so those were her’s. Speed 116.97 km./h.
A pity she had to go to work later.

18m./open: 647 km….. WOW,….4 JS 3 gliders in the top 4 and then 2 JS 1’s!!!! Butch won again with a speed of 126.57 km./h. [ 5 hours and 7 minutes] ,just a tad faster than Brad [126.39 km./h.] who got 998 points.
Lumpy had a speed of 125. 43 km./h and Norm 125.27 km./h.
4 Outlandings in 18 m. and 3 more in open.
Looking at the 18m. scores it was about the same. George, who since at least 30 years had not flown long distances, was 15th. Good on him.This is his first real competition again since years. He flies the Discus 2CT with an handicap of 1030,whilst JS3 has 1085.
In his “young” years he flew several WGC’s and EGC’s and he won Australian Nationals in Leeton.

Both winning 2 day’s in a row and good mates as well. Adam and Butch.

Even Adam found it a long task:”Ho Chi Mumma! 516km fixed task, let’s roll 😎”
As shared by Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

Another good day done and dusted!!

December 1 …SUMMER….day 5 task 3!!!
Summer started with a 3 hour AAT for all classes.
15 m and standard class. Adam mentioned in his comment that it mainly all went his way, which means another daily prize.He even did very well, he flew 338k. in 2.59 and Tobias 349k. in 3.18.
In st. class Scott [Lennon] won the day with with 324 km in 3.10 . Not all were as “lucky” as Adam. Allan mentioned:
” I ran with Tobi in the V2 for most of the third leg, quite fast. Then on the second heading south, found myself alone and struggled like most others under a gloomy thick cirrus wedge. Happy to take 2kt wherever I found it. I ended up 15 minutes over time and 5th for the day at only 92kph. We’ve given up looking at the 15m scores – Adam just blitzes every day!”

In open/18 m. same task but more kilometers; Tom [Claffey] won the day 373 km in 3.02.
3 From 26 outlanded. After winning 2 day’s, Butch nearly lost 200 points after being 7th for the day.
After 3 tasks the scores are pretty close; Tom is on 1. with 2.826 p. ….Lumpy on 2. with 2.709p…and Butch on 3. with 2.703 p.

December 2 day 6 and an official rest day. On a day we here in Holland, had up to 15 dgr. C, the hottest ever 2d of December in history.It’s WINTER!!!!
So not the very best weather, in Narromine, dust and up to 60 km./h. wind, so after some long flights over the last 3 day’s a rest day was called.

As shared by Tom and Kerry [Claffey]

   
Dust storm as seen by William and Tom as winner as seen by Tom and Kerry.

First of course the prize giving and as Tom in his ASG 29 was the winner he had to come up front :
“Quote of the day from the Open/18 winner in a 29 (ahead of the JS3 Mafia) …. “I’m wearing my JS hat given to me by Jonkers – all I can say about JS is ‘they make nice hats’“.

A rest day during the Aussie Nationals means a PILOTS MEETING. As pilots live all far away from each other , sometimes more than 3000 km., this is the best chance to talk about all important things in gliding.
I have been at several, very interesting though,… sometimes in the far past some pilots went on and on , on an item, and then you could hear some grumble from the rest.
This day a very important item;

as shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

December 3,day 6, task 4;
15m/St.class; 2.30 AAT
Challenging day  even for Adam ,…but no worries he won again. All those hours he flew in Australia and wherever he could overseas, over the last couple of years, did” bring grist to his mill.” Good on him!!!
268 km. in time 2.35, whilst runner up and well known “kilometer-eater” and also WGC participant , Allan [Barnes] flew 250 km. in time 2.34.
In standard Allan was the best in his LS 8. Claire [Scutter] Matthew’s sister was runner up ,good on her.
This is what Adam had to say about the day:
“Blowing a gale, 15-20kts all day. Tough going, certainly a day you wanted to stay reasonably high. My game plan was to take anything above 3kts, amazingly with the supreme feel of the V2a, I was able to keep taking 5-6’s all the way to the end of the 3rd leg.
Luckily at the downwind leg I was at my lowest, but couldn’t for the life of me get the climb I needed to come home on. Something was on my mind & I tensed up, couldn’t feel the climbs & really had to push myself to trust my feel of where to go next. I lost time here, but managed to bring it home, phew.
Another day win :)”
Bad day for Bryan,…he was out.
open /18 m.; 2.30 AAT.
Another win for Tom; 283 km. in 2.39. Lumpy was runner up with 308 km. but he needed a bit more time;2.53.
Both lead the way in these classes, with Butch on their heels.
Bad day for George, as he had to out land after 146 km.

“Dry as a bone ” the land in Australia a bad drought this year!!
Picture courtesy George.

There is a nice story with this Cessna from Arny. Long ago about 28 years I guess ,there was a group of “daring” Aussie pilots trying to fly from South[ Adelaide] to North [Darwin] over a” lot of nothing!!”.
Of course they needed a tug and tuggie and crews. NO SELF LAUNCHERS at that stage.
One of the pilots was Giles [Michael] a friend of ours. He had an all female crew, not weird knowing him and he wanted to add our then young daughter Inge to his team.
Of course we were a bit  reluctant, but we knew Inge and we knew a few other friends ,who would keep an eye on her.
It was one of those unforgettable trips with camel’s and parachute jumping, BBQ’s and visiting places ,we only heard off. She loved it!!!!
The way back was easy Inge. After all the trips in the car she was allowed in the back seat with Arny in the Cessna. There you go,…. fun for Inge in the far past and now a good retrieve for dad George.Still the same “good old” Cessna.

December 4 ,day 7, task 5;
2.30 AAT for the small ships and there is no measure on Adam, he won for the 5th time;297 km. in time 2.34!!!Allan was runner up with Andrew [Maddocks] as number 3.
In standard it was Allan who flies very well in his LS 8. Between all those LS 8 gliders in the top[7]  there is also an LS 4 from Robert Smits from Alice Springs.[spot 6]
Adam;”Playing around straight after briefing, a 2.5hr AAT was set in the blue, with a little less wind, but not by much. Another day win, but kept honest by Barnes & a great flights.”
Of course Adam is leading at this stage in 15 m. with 300 points on Tobias and 590 on Andrew.
In standard Andrew leads ,with with Allan and Peter [Trotter]also still in the race.

3 hour AAT for the big ships and I heard it was pretty clear that an early start was the way to go. Indeed the early starters did better than the late ones.
Dave [Shorter ]started straight at 14.06 in his JS 1 and was a new face on the podium; 363 km. in 3.01 ,speed 120 km./h.Norm [Bloch] in his JS 3 was runner up and George, who out landed the day before was 3d in the Discus.
Later starters as Lumpy at 14.49 lost a few points.[250]
Tom and Butch are leading now with Geoff Brown in the JS 1C on 3 , with just 40 points more than Lumpy on 4.

December 5,day 8 ,task 6; TODAY; VERY FAST DAY!!!!! A REAL NARROMINE-DAY!!!
15 m./St.class; Set task from 339 km. and NO not Adam today, as Tobias in his Ventus 2A was faster; 143.20 km./h. He shared the 866 points with Scott Lennon from Temora, who flew 140 km./h but on handicap his LS 8 was equal in points. All 17 pilots flew over 100 km./h.
Scott was the winner from St. class.

18m./open; set task from 384 km. and another new face at the podium, though results are very preliminary. Norm[Bloch] flying comps already as long as I was in Oz, won the day with a speed of 158,96 km./h!!!! Pretty fast!!!!
Tom had 155 km./h and Brad 150 km./h.
All 25 pilots flew between 114 km./h and the 158.96 km./h.

Still 2 day’s to go. More in my next blog.

 

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–—Tocumwal Sportaviation;
Long time friend and to me,  well- known- kilometer -eater Stefan [Soll] added another great flight to his long list of flights from Tocumwal on November 29 in his LS 4 KYO ; 767 km. and nearly 750 triangle; 732!!!
Well done Stefan.
On the last day of November good old Chris Davison flew a 838 km. flight in his 21 m. JS  1CTJ from Toc. .

Stefan and “his ” KYO.”
As shared by  SportAviation Tocumwal

 

Not only Tocumwal had a great day after all the rain. About 70 km. more to the EAST,  Corowa had an excellent day as well with a 1000 km. flight for Danish pilots Stener [Leander Nielsen] and Hans Christian [Hoeck]; 1.007 km in the ASG 32 MI. Well done guy’s!!One day later they flew a declared 750!!!
The first 1000 km. for Corowa and it might well be the first 1000 in Australia for the season.
On that great day ,997 for German guest Hans-Juergen [Lange] and 939 for Austrian guest Hans Peter [Ueblacker]as well.

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—-Some good flights:
——Worcester [ South Africa] was the place to be last Wednesday; 3 x a 1000 k. one even 1.128 km. On November 17 there were 3 over 1000 km.flights as well.
And yesterday they added a great ridge-soaring-flight from 1.132 km. by Stefan Langer, in a Discus 2T/18 m. His flight is at youtube.com.[High speed ridge flying in South Africa /Pure Flying EP 7.]
—–Kiripotib; news from Boerje [Eriksson] “Last start in Namibia this year with lovely Quintus today and a new Swedish record 500 km out and return with 171 km/h.”
—–Pokweni; December 1….2 EB 29’s from Josef [Eder ] and Alexander [Mueller] flew just over 1.200 km. on a day they did not had to avoid showers.speed 135/137 km.h.
—–Bitterwasser on December 4…OLC Speed League cut by Andreas Hillebrand and Jens Böske from 201.16 km/h over 150 minutes in an ASG32 MI.

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AND,…last but not least, my blogs are easy reading, BUT, when you are interested in the real gliding you should go to http://aboutgliding.com/
ABOUT GLIDING is a blog that wants to push the knowledge and innovation of gliding forward.

“A wide range of themes is in focus: Technological innovation, analyzing extraordinary performances, state of the art practical strategies to fly faster and further, improvements to gliding mathematics and theory, rectifying common misconceptions, proposing and monitoring competition rule changes, searching for record-breaking opportunities, and discovering unexplored territories on earth and beyond. Safety & Accident prevention will be major and recurring topics.

Upcoming articles vary from Cheating in gliding competitions, over Hybrid-electrical tow planes, AI Glider Pilots, an Error in MacCready theory, Analysis of an IFR glider flight, the Potential of Crateus, to Promising methods in reducing gaggles and leaching.

In short: every story about gliding that is innovative, interesting, and if possible helpful.”
A great initiative and behind those very good stories is the well known Belgium pilot Tijl Schmelzer.

CU next week with news about the 65 th Argentinian Nationals from San Francisco, flown between 3 December  2018 – 14 December 2018.

Cheers Ritz