Latest news at the KEEPIT WWGC ..19 ! UPDATED !!!

9 AM:
No internet this morning!!!!So I am late!!!!
BUT,…I had time to download the pictures from yesterday evening.
With 3 day’s to go ..HOPEFULLY.. but as said there MIGHT be rain. Still have to see that, as there was no good rain here for years.
Yesterday the Aussie girls did well again with Jo and Ailsa winning their class .
The BABAJAGA was a great success . No way they could run around a fire ,but the DID run around a sprinkler.

Witches can be good looking too. This is Kathy Fosha from the USA.


More pictures later.
In club it was as said Jo Davis ..again..for only 900 points. She was too fast for the distance. Speed was glorious…129, 56 in an ASW 20 at a WWGC.
Here is the better explanation shared by
10th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships:
Ever wonder why certain days are devalued?
Max Kirschner explains: “There are several devaluing factors, in this case the Winners time is 2:45, to get 1000 points the winners time needs to be over 3:00. It can also be devalued by the number of competitors that do less than Y where Y is 100 km. And the number of speed points compared to distance points can change depending on the number who finish the task. All designed to stop a ‘lucky’ day having a disproportionate effect on the overall results.


Amelie and Elena followed with Chrissie , Claudia ,Celine , Sabrina and Klara all in the 800 points-range.
In standard the girls starting half an hour later , were the daily winners with Sarah at the top, [speed 137 km./h!!] followed by Ayala, Aude G and Aude U.
In 18 m. there were 6 girls with 156/155/154 as speed !!!! Ailsa for 1000 points and the 2 French girls Anne and Melanie with Liz and Jana for 996,994,993 ,985,968 points. Starting with 100 points for the rest of the girls.

Today is day 10 and 18 m. is upfront followed by club and standard.
Briefing at 9.30!!!
Tasks for today:
18 m;4 hour AAT.
standard ;3.30 AAT.
club; 3.45 AAT.

10 AM:
Briefing is over!!!!
Good morning welcome to day 10!!!
2 Sponsors today…GWCA [Global weather climate analytics they offer meteorological expertise to weather sensitive industries through innovation and application of value add products and risk matrices.
GWCA developed and maintains its own forecast systems,ranging from now-casting to seasonal scales.
T Soaring XX.

Winners from yesterday:

The podium with a duck waiting for the rain to come. RAIN is the word here at the moment RAIN!!! Even the topic of the day.
With Amelie on 2 ,Jo on 1 and Elena on 3. With MAYBE 3 day’s to go the overall scores at this stage are :
1.Jo with 7.160 p.
2. Celine 7.098 p.
3. Chrissie 7.030 p.
With Ayala on 2 Sarah in the middle on 1 and Aude [G] at 3.
Overall scores at this stage;
1. Sarah with 7.128 p.
2. Aude G. with 6.932 p.
3. Ayala with 6.829 p.
With Ailsa happily in the middle, surrounded by the French girls, Anne on 2 and Melanie on 3.Total scores for the moment with 2/3 day’s to go
1. Melanie with 7.171
2. Anne with 7.155
3. Liz with 6.984.

Brief messages;
—Do not bring a BBQ…ha ha,…only meat and salad for tomorrow night. Drinks will be available.
—An extra THANK YOU to Jacques involved these weeks with the trackers. A HUGE, AMAZING job from the morning till the evening!!!
His picture is in another blog “down under”.
Yesterday he managed also to fly here 715 km. [671 k FAI triangle] in his JS 1C. Good on him.

Safety by Anita;
–They are grateful that the TC’s and pilots use now the “flight tool” to report in and effective way issues from importance for safe flying.
–Give room to a “leader-pilot” when you follow her!!!!
Steward Frouwke added that maybe today or tomorrow MIGHT be the last day.
Of course we wish lot’s of rain for this dry-as-a-bone- country but,..when it could start on Friday evening it would be even better. If not,..no worries!
We had great weather, can’t be selfish!!!
BUT,….she added that during the last day’s the pilots, who still have chances MIGHT fly in a more aggressive way. SO KEEP IT SAFE!!!!!


Weather by Dave;
More or less the same day, but a bit weaker, as it will have a slower start.
For that reason first launches at 12.30.
Thermals up to 7000/8000 ft.
Light SSE wind.
smoke haze..similar as yesterday ,but they fly in another direction today.

Tasks by Bruce;
Airspace no real issue today.
Flights to the SW.
“Chance of seeing each other”
Tasks pretty similar, as that’s the best area to fly in.

YESTERDAY EVENING’s BABA JAGA:
Juror Gisela has been very busy planning this event and Lindy was busy renting hats etc.racing up and down to Gunnedah and Tamworth.
It was not for nothing, as all had a great evening after dinner in Sport and Rec.
10 new Witches were supposed to be new members from this exclusive Society of the Flying Broomstick.
Only 8 were there as Poland called off.
Here is a picture story;

All witches and witches- to -be followed Gisela and Liz to the place of the ceremony.
All were well prepared as was Lisa in full “glory”.
Ulrike from Germany very much in control.
Liz and Claudia ready to go for it.
Sarah, after a great day of flying.
The Aussie witches who are already a “member”. Jenny, Lisa T, Lisa Turner and Jo…..Jenny Ganderton became a new member, so was Kathy.
Team USA Sarah is a member , Sylvia and Kathy became members now.
Cornelia from Germany.
The place to be.
The new witches get lipstick on after they have sworn to be good . Every new witch has a god mother and in her language you have to do the oath.Hilarious as a Czech girl like Barbora had to speak Aussie “slang” words said by Ailsa.
Flying around on the broom stick; novice Diana with god mother Margot.Kathy [Conway] is “flying” too. Her godmother was Katrin.
Dual flights on the broom stick.
Ready with the lipstick; Ingrid from Germany
Thank you Gisela for organizing a memorable night.

11.15 AM;
still waiting for more than an hour now.
This is how TC John from the USA looked at the event:
” Tonight’s big event was the “Babajaga” ceremony, where all WWGC pilots are made members of an international society of witches.  Tradition dictates that an existing member (i.e. one who has been inducted at a previous WWGC event) act as “godmother” to a pilot flying in her first WWGC.  An oath is administered (in the godmother’s native language), a drink is consumed, lipstick is applied to the novice who then kisses a registry book, and the godmother and inductee together ride a broom around a fire.  In view of the total fire ban that now applies in much of Australia, a sprinkler was made to do duty instead, which seemed oddly apt.  Ten new witches were made tonight, to the approval of all. (Men are allowed at this ceremony, provided they stay quiet and out of the way.)  Afterwards, a some of the witches – and a few others – ended up in the nearby pool.
For more news about the day and the USA girls you can read the rest of his blog at
https://ussoaringteams.org/john-goods-report-day-11

12.PM;
Everybody looked at the skies this morning. All kind of weather info passed by. Norwegian model’s, alert model’s , local weather by Christian and many more.
For now I think we might have a good day again.
Tuggies are going to 32 for launching in 15 minutes.
Skies are a bit “weird” with high clouds covering the blue skies but also cu’s!!!

12.30 PM;
Don’t want to be too dramatic about it, but as more people think, this might be the last flying day of this WWGC. Rain and over development are forecasted for Thursday and Friday the last day.
We will wait and see. For some of the girls the “pressure” is on.
For now the tuggies are going to launch 18 m. first ,for their 4 hour AAT and with Greg’s “full power, full power “, it is 1 B [Katrin] who is behind the tug now.
Followed by PT [Stefanie] and the rest.

12.47 PM;
All 18 m. launched now. OG as the last one with Ailsa.
Club class in progress now. AJ the first to be launched.

1.15 PM:
Club class all up in the air now……
Standard in progress now. ET just passes by with Aude Grangeray followed by team mate Aude Untersee in JPA. Such a pity ,she “got” zero points on day 1, otherwise she might have been in the top 3/5.
1.35 PM:
P1 , LOT , EU and FX , W 8, as the last ones behind the tug’s.
Will they be the last ones at this WWGC ??????

Line 18 m opens at 13.10.
Line club opens at 13.40.
Line standard opens at 14.05.

2.30 PM;
Most pilots are on track.
When 18 m. goes over the line straight away they can be back after 4 hours at 5.10 PM.
Same with club…who leaves straight away can be back at 5.25.
For standard it will be 2.05 plus 3.30 so 5.30.
But,…I know ….NOT all left straight away.

4 PM:No internet for a short while.
Still clouds under the more grey than blue skies here at the field. Gliders in 18 m are between 7 and 8000 ft and most are at the 2d TP.
To my surprise Diana [MM] just walked in!!!
She had a headache already , which got worse with the smoke on track and decided to fly back home.
Courageous decision. We had already one pilot fainting during this competition, but she recovered very quickly.
57 is on her way to the 3d TP having flown nearly 300 km. already.
Standard is on their way to the 3d TP as well. Some fly E. some fly W. from track.Their 3d TP has a 35 km cylinder.Going pretty slow!
There seem to be showers as well in the mountains
Club is doing well. They are racing to the 5th TP having had already the most km’s behind them. When at the 5t TP they have 100 km. to go.
Some are at 10.000 ft!!!
They clearly seem to have the better weather .
“First spotter” Jo, seems to have started late and is in the back of the race at the moment, finding less good weather conditions. She is just in the sector from TP 3 now, as the last of the pilots. Does n’t mean anything yet!!!
Kathy Fosha leads the pact at the moment and is nearly in the 5th TP [cylinder 30 km.]

5 PM;
The first 18 m pilot, Margot, has reached the 4th TP Tura [cylinder40 km] Speed 116 km./h.
Speed of the French girls is the best at the moment;137 km. /h. Also Katrin and Ailsa have good speed at this time; 136 km./h and 131 km./h.
Have my radio on!!!!
Standard still has a few k’s to go. They are half way to the 4th TP ,where the weather should be better as, club is flying there as well going to the most N. borders of the cylinder. After using the cylinder” to the fullest” they only have 60 k to go ‘home’.Jo [Davis] is in the circle as well, she had good run to it so to see.

Better late than never …the tasks,..just realized I did not put them on. Sorry!!!
” end-of-competition-fatigue”??????

18 m….standard and club class!!!
18 M. a few are in the top circle, The rest SW of it.
standard;still between the 2 big circles
Club; some are leaving the last big circle.

The tracking shows “weird” situations for some of the top pilots. I just wait and see.
Does n’t take long anymore.

5.30 PM;
For sure not the same weather as yesterday at 5 …not as ” SHINING or BOOMING” !!!!
First radio call from 10 km by AJ.
Wind is calm …runway 14…long landing.
Go outside for you to see who is also coming in.

5.37 PM;
The first club class gliders are back;AJ…40…
And P…[18 m]
Only the scores will say what they exactly did.

6 PM;
B1…CQL…57…XJY…J1….KW…MF…

6.20 PM;
From all classes gliders came in, in between the kangaroos were chased, it all went without problems. Nice landings as well.
Wind is 070 dgr. 6 kts.
KW…J7…CQO…SW…1B…FM…FQ…P1…ET…UKE…JO…WH…LOT…JPA…IIC…W8….XM…51…ZE…PO…K7…EU…FX…T1…
WH still had time to say that she copied, that the “kangaroos were in their corner again.”

6.45 PM;
Sarah landed at 6.30. A few more landed but the blog was so much read that I could not get in it anymore.”Had to write in word .”
ZF is still out ,but she is still fighting and still at 6000 ft. in the last circle!!!! She just announced her arrival.Good on her.
There seems to be outlandings as well. 4 or 5.
In the end at 6.30 the wind changed to the NE, so they had to land with wind in the back and cross wind as well, but the girls did a great job. WELL DONE!!!

One tuggy /pawnee leaves to the N……on a retrieve…yes .

They are at www.soaringspot.com

I looked already;There are some upsets today!!!
In 18 m. Liz dropped a spot and Katrin went to 3. Katrin won the day ,preliminary and has 1000 points.
The French girls did well with a 2d and 3d place.Still on top with Melanie at 1 overall at this stage,[ 8.135 p] Anne as runner up with 8.122 p.
Katrin now 7.829 points, moving from 5 to 3!!!!

In Standard class; not enough scores in now to say something about it.
More scores now: It looks preliminary that the 2 Aude’s won the day with Sarah at 6. But she still has enough points to be honest …less than 30 points …on the runner up Aude.
The number 3 and 4 are not yet scored or missed a TP , so Anna drops from 4 to 15 . All according to the preliminary scores.
Claire moved from 9 to 4!!!! Great job!!!

Club class; Jo [Davis] indeed had a later start but “fought ” herself to a 6th daily place at this stage so is still number 1 overall. Elena won the day….1000 points!!!! Good on her.
Jenny Ganderton is runner up today and the 2 Polish girls are 3 and 4.
Jo is number 1 with 7.913 p. Elena is runner up with 7.859 points.At 3 Chrissie with 77.16 points. Celine dropped from 2 to 4.
Looking more serious at this all with unofficial scores tomorrow!!

WHAT A DAY!!!!






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