—–One day before Adam flew his declared FAI 1000 km. flight in Queensland, there were at other places, also in Queensland, hailstones up to 16 cm!!!!?
That is BIG and….. a new record. People had to race for safety ,as the stones really “hit the head”.
Stones straight away went though car windows and roofs of houses.
I once had such a severe thunderstorm when I was in Queensland [Brisbane] and I never forget that. No power, so no electricity [….result I was under a shower in a house with friends I visited for the first time …] That day the wind turned over several smaller airplanes at Brisbane Airport. A weird face as the ropes were still on the wings , but the concrete and the little poles were out.

I had to dig deep in my photo books , but I found the 2 pictures from 1989.

Yesterday a twister hit Brisbane and now a Qantas- airliner was damaged.

—–As you know Matthew [Scutter] is the SKYSIGHT -man, so he knows EVERYTHING about weather. For that reason it is interesting to read his comment on his flight, flown on the 1000 k day;
Matthew flew 958 km in his 15 m Diana FES and this is what he experienced.
When you are interested, have a look at his blogs as well;
Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
“Two days of first thermal to last light flying from Kingaroy – I’d had my eye on yesterday from a few days out as a possible 1000km day with FL140 cumulus over most of south-east QLD, but the forecast deteriorated to just below what I thought I could manage in 15m.I did see an extremely interesting series of convergence lines predicted out to the east though, so I set an extremely speculative double out-and-return along them, but a couple of showers formed well west of the expected line making it impassable on the way north early in the day. I went for a float down to NSW following some loose streeting and enjoying the mega- thermals, and I had two back-to-back 12kt climbs over the forests and a miraculous run south, so I thought an OLC 1000km might be on.
I almost scraped myself into Kingaroy on a slender and slow glide along the outflows, but I was expecting to be landing right at last light with a thunderstorm on or directly adjacent to the airfield, and visibility in the outflow was very poor to really tell. I was concerned I’d arrive too late to deviate to Wondai or elsewhere if Kingaroy was in the heavy rain, so I decided to start the engine early to buy myself 10 minutes of extra light and options.Painful irony that Wool set a relatively conservative task out in the thermals and ended up on the convergence, and I went solely for the convergence and ended up hundreds of kilometres south in the cumulus!Kingaroy is certainly a diverse and challenging site, and I’m enjoying the change of scenery and the different weather phenomena it offers – weather-wise it’s kind of the logical continuation of going from Gawler to Bathurst.“
https://www.weglide.org/flight/110042

–—-We knew the UK team already for the Hungarian WGC [July 23 -August 6in 2022] here are the names from the French team.
Eric Napoleon is the TC and there are 2 pilots lined up as reserve;Anne Ducarouge and Sylvain Gerbaud.
in 18 m….Christophe Abadie and Melanie Gadoulet.
2 seaters….Louis Bouderlique and Ulysse Merlin
open….Philippe de Pechy and Max Seis

For the WWGC in Husbos, the next French ladies have been selected;
Club class….Aude Grangeray , Alizee Petit and Louise Rodrigues
St Class…Astrid Galaret , Anaiis Gabert and Aude Untersee.
18 m….Melanie Gadoulet and Anne Ducarouge.
Eric is here the TC as well.

News from Schempp-Hirth;
“After Austria, France organized one special event in St-Auban national center for electro light aircrafts where Duo Discus FES prototype and Discus-2c FES were displayed. And we are just back from Voghera, Italy, where it was such a pleasure to meet friends there! Thanks to Giorgio Galetto, Roberto Vainoni and the Italian National Association for the help and warm welcoming. Next Gliding days? Switzerland with the LTB Peter Neukom, on 13th of November in SFK Birrfeld. Then USA SSA Convention with Yankee Composite (Garret Willat and friends) will be held from 24th to 26th of February in Reno, Nevada. And Aero Convention in Friedrichshafen from 27th to 30th of April.”

—–October is nearly over, so is the soaring-season in The Netherlands. Autumn camp, from the Gelderse, their-end-of-the-season- party and then,….. it is waiting for the 2022 season. My granddaughter Indya enjoyed it to the fullest.
I am going to visit her today at Terlet and when possible,I will make some pictures myself too. Will publish them later in the blog.
2 Photo impressions. The Gelderse has not only good pilots but also great photographers.

And then of course Arjan, …..he is not only a fabulous photographer but also a very kind instructor at the Gelderse Club at Terlet.
Here are his last pictures for the season. Thanks Arjan for sharing.

AND,…because they are so good here one from a fabulous vintage plane.

——Down under they prepare for the new season. Corona was terrible in NSW and Victoria.
“Great news!! Narromine gliding club is back in full time operation from 1 November 2021
We have a full time Level3 instructor/silver coach available for training and a full time tug pilot permanently on site all operating as normal.
Bookings via the “contact us” page on the NGC website.
We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back to Narromine for a great soaring season ahead.

NARROMINE CUP WEEK is scheduled for the last full week in November as normal, (Sunday 21 November through Saturday 27 November)”

Sadly and unfortunately, we are nearly back to local lock downs. Though 87 % is vaccinated the nearly 2 million ,who can’t or won’t ,create huge problems. All hospital and IC places are now used by non vaccinated people and there seems not to be much room for more. Sad is that people who are waiting for an operation …cancer, heart…have to wait longer now.
What a terrible weird world we live in.
Cu next week.
Cheers Ritz