—-Soaring continues and HOW…..27 Flights over 1000 km from Namibia last Wednesday!
AND,….5 over 1.200 km. 3 of them in an EB 28 or 29 , one in the ARCUS M and one in the Twin Shark! So NO doubt,…good soaringweather!
Nic[olas] [Bennet] from the USA mentioned in his comment;
“Fantastic N-S line between the rain showers and blue. Another line developed further west later but wasn’t as strong. It started out really weak (blue as usual) but got better quickly.”
He flew 1.048 km. in the Ventus 3.
The last couple of days were more 500- plus- or -minus -days in Africa.
Saturday it was an LS 4 with Mart Bosman, former guest of Sportavia and another hang glider pilot who converted to soaring, who flew from Bond Springs a distance of 613 km. and topped the OLC that day. Bond Springs is N of the “heart of the continent” Alice Springs.
An area with a lot of “nothing” and lots of hills and mountains, [ between 209 and 1.531 m.] have a look at his trace.
Yesterday however was another TOP-DAY in Namibia with a flight from 1.302km by Alexander Mueller in his EB 29 from Pokweni.
Another 4 flights over 1.200 km!!!!AND,…another 19 over 1000 km. flights!!!
I liked the 953 km flight in an PIK 20 e.
—-It’s interesting to read this news from Bitterwasser, so I share it with you.
I met Simon, when I remember well in Uvalde, when he was still very young and the family had a dinner in the same restaurant, as we had.
Bruno won in 1989 when I was there too. I met him and his wife Inge and a few children in Rieti and Uvalde and during other comps
“World champions meeting in Bitterwasser at the end of November, two world gliding champions chose Bitterwasser as the starting point for their big flights: Bruno Gantenbrink with his NimEta “YY” and Simon Schröder with the Ventus 3M “4i” sponsored from Wilfried Großkinsky.
Simon Schröder is currently twice the title holder. In 2019 he won the Junior World Championship in the standard class in Szeged, Hungary, and this year the general World Championship in the standard class in Montlucon, France. The great success of Bruno Gantenbrink is a little further back. He won the title in 1989 in Wiener Neustadt in the racing class. Before that, he was twice vice world champion.For Simon Schröder it is the third visit of the Nambian gliding center. In 2016, he completed the dream distance in Wilfried Großkinsky’s 1000 km training camp and then flew it in Germany from Bad Wörishofen. And this time on November 29th it was almost 1250 kilometers at 143 kph. Bruno Gantenbrink collected a good 100 glider flying hours over Namibia this season and several 1000 k distances.“
Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre
–—The Stemme S12 had a big day again on December 3 with a 1.105 k flight from Gil Souviron and Baptiste Innocent; a dream coming true!!
“One flight I had in mind for three years: Do an FAI triangle over Pyrenees and Massif Central
With my friend Baptiste Innocent, we succeed today for a 1000 km FAI triangle.
Not easy as day was very short and limitation at FL120 for a period North of Mont Aigual.”
—–The Gliding Club of Victoria uses the Grand Prix style format [modified version of the Skyrace event] for their State Comps in Benalla.
“Day 1, turned out to be much better than expected and a happy white flock had a good first day’s task! 30 competitors and one of our largest group of participants for a number of years. The SkyRace format is being used and it’s definitely race time! Fly high, fly fast, fly safe.“
“Gliders were launched but many of the “great white flock” returned defeated by Thor who slammed the anvil on the thermals. Rain cells surrounded YBLA and the CD cancelled Open and 15 metre but left Clubbies up there. Clubbies had other ideas and cancelled themselves!!”
Gliding Club of Victoria
They race from December 5 to 11 and had a practice day on the 4th.
The rules;
Fixed tasks with variable sector sizes based on glider handicaps.
10km start line with a set start time for each class
Every glider scores points every day
1 point for starting
1 point for completing the task
1 point for each glider beaten (outlandings scored by distance flown)
1 bonus point for winning the day
All of course COVID proof.
Till now they had one day;
Club; Grant Heany in a St Jantar leads with 15 points. ….15 participants.
15 m./standard; Matt Gage in Discus CS with 9 points…….7 Participants.
Open/18 m.; Joris Vainius in an 18 m. ASG 29 with 9 points …..7 Participants.
They flew today and Bernie Seizer won in club and after 2 days he is runner up in his PIK 20, [24 points] behind Jack Hart in his Mosquito.[25 points]same as Grant.
In 15 m/standard it was Mike Durrant who won the day. Both Matt and Mike have 16 points.
In open/18m. John Orton won in the ASG 29. He leads with 14 points equal with Joris.
More next week.
—–FAI Sailplane Grand Prix shared the next links to participate in one of their GP’s.
“Registrations for all the qualifying events are open! You did not register yet?!!! Don’t worry, there is an easy fix, just visit: “http://crosscountry.aero/c/sgp/comp/identify?e=51
Note: SGP selection rules apply, have a look there:
https://n.sgp.aero/about-sgp-racing/sporting-regulations
Here is the picture again to make it easy;
And to finish this fabulous picture shared by Ludwig[ Starkl] from Kiripotib.
yesterday was rain day, the owner of the farm is happy, we enjoyed the rainbow
thanks to Franziska Zumbrunnen for this great shot.”
Kiripotib Soaring
Next week more about the 68th Nationals in Argentina which started on December 6 [till December 17] with a practice day.
3 Classes and 53 competitors for 3 titles!!!
day 1 had 3,3.30 and 4 hour AAT’s but no scores.
Day 2 had 2, 2.30 and 3 hour AAT’s, flown by most of the pilots
Cheers Ritz