2022 South African Nationals
Potchefstroom….1 October 2022 – 8 October 2022

After 2 CANCELLED days, “we” continue now with
Day 6…task 6…flying day 4 on October 6….AND,… bugger [excusez le mot] ALL pilots out-landed!
15 m; 533.69 km…changed in 378.88 km; Wayne [Schmidt ]missed only out on 40 k. [ 335 km] but for 600 points he was the daily best! About 30 k less for Peter Farrel in his 18 m. JS 1.
Unlucky day for Danish pilot Anders Andersen, whose PEV was not “found”. Zero points!!!!
club; 318.30 km… Young German pilot Niklas [Hahn] had a top day. Yes he was “out” , but so were they all, but he flew 229 km. in his LS 1 D. [handicap 98] Great job Niklas!
Mike van Niekerk flew 252 km, in his ASW 20 [handicap 110] he was runner up.
2-seaters; 478.20 km...changed in 378.86 km; all 6 2-seaters were out . Laurens in his top glider the ASG 32 MI, flew 337 km and I presume he “motored” the last km.’s home. Riaan Denner and his mate in the ASH 25 flew 30 k less. They were runner up.
Carol Clifford wrote about today:
“Today there is some wind, but not nearly as strong – thank goodness! The Low pressure is still to the west, and there could be overdevelopment and/or congestion to the south later in the day. Temperature at 11.30 is expected to be 33 deg and the winds north-westerly and could be about 10 kts on the ground. Tasks have been set, initially in a southerly direction, and then to the better weather later in the day up to the north-west and back west and home.”

Day 7…task 7…flying-day 5 on October 7..penultimate day.
15m; 290.55 km.…from 12 pilots , 7 were in and a familiar face on spot 1; Mark in his ASW 27, with a good speed of 143 km./h. Uys, Atti, Oscar and Anders followed, as well as Rob and Sven.
3 JS 3’s/15 m, lead the overall scores with Uys, [ 3.854] ,Attie [ 3.793] and Oscar [ 3.756] on the 3 top spots for now!
5 Pilots flew with OVER 132 km./h!!!!
Mark [4] is only 5 points behind Oscar.[ 3.751]
And I know them a bit,…they all want to win, so who is going to do so????
club; 205.39 km…Only 7 started the day and 5 finished. Daily winner; Richard Glennie in ASW 20; 115 km./h. Young Zachary , the guest from the USA, was 4th.[97 km./h]
With one more day to go, it’s all about Wilhelm and Rene ;3.266, 3.247 and young Niklas is 3d with 2.671.
2-seaters; 290.55 km....6 started and ONLY one finished. Denner and Unwin,in their ASH 25…. good on them. Their speed was 118 km./h. All the other pilots must have been shut off by weather as they only flew under 100 km. far!!!
Overall scores with ONE day to go; Laurens 3.127 points, Kotze/Bonnet with 3.080 and Denner/Unwin with 3.024 p.
Carol; “After flying – it would seem a day that had very different results and fortunes for the pilots – some obviously found the lift and managed to get around the task with very creditable speeds, whilst others ended up outlanding in a field or using their motors. Five pilots outlanded today and for the others that I think did the task there were some good speeds. “

Day 8…task 8…flying day 6 on October 8; CANCELLED in all 3 classes!!! They had in each class a 2.45 AAT, but,…..
Carol on day 7; “From the ground, the day certainly looked better than it has for the last two days, so let’s hope tomorrow provides a good final day’s flying.“
Unfortunately it did n’t!!!

15 m NATIONAL CHAMPION;
1. Uys Jonker in JS3 with 3.584 points.
2. Attie Jonker in JS 3 TJ with 3.793 p.
3. Oscar Goudriaan in JS 3 TJ with 3.756 p.
NO possibility anymore for Mark to gain 5 more points on Oscar.

Club class NATIONAL CHAMPION:
1. Wilhelm Mosehuus in Mosquito with 3.266 points.
2. Rene Coetzee in ASW 20 with 3.247 p.
3. Niklas Hahn in LS 1D with 2.671 p.

2-seater NATIONAL CHAMPION:
1. Laurens Goudriaan in ASG 32MI with 3.127 points.
2. Kotze & Bonnet in Nimbus 4D with 3.080 p.
3.  Denner & Unwin in ASH 25E with 3.024 p.

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Australia’s red heart of the country , better know as Alice Springs, has a glider community with Robert Smits and his partner Jenny, a WWGC pilot, as “engines” .
They bought in the Netherlands this great TOST winch, from Glider Winch Europe, send it to Australia, where they did the finishing touch in Alice. Great toy!!!!! Great job!!!

And 2 pictures from “tugs”, from my favorite photographers.
A great picture by ARJAN, from the tug still working hard at TERLET in The Netherlands where it is still good autumn soaring weather.
What a season it was !!!!!!

Sikko flew , between showers , in his ASG 29E/18m, still 460 km with 105 km./h.
https://www.weglide.org/flight/221581
More Dutch and Belgian pilots did so, during this lovely autumn weekend/period:
Robin [Smit] in LS 4 NEO, flew without water under cloud streets to 420 km.
Wim [Akkermans] from Keiheuvel ; 510 km in Ventus 3 F.
Down under where spring is about to begin we see 400 km. flights as well. Norm [Bloch] flew from Beverley , [Western Australia] 407 FAI triangle in his LS 3 on October 7.
AND of course the tuggy pictures…..

And by New Zealand photographer Geoff Soper

The ASK 21 is a ” good working-horse”. I read that number 1000 is flying now! Between 1979 and 2022 one thousand sold. Not bad.
“still flying, training and selling well…”

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Last weekend , “our” 25 year old Max Verstappen won his 2d WORLD TITLE in the formula 1-car-racing. Great result after lots of confusion about the points.
He turned 25 just a week ahead of the race in Japan.
A very deserved winner of the races from the 22 season.
Love this picture from Max about 20 years ago.

Have a good week CU next Wednesday!
Cheers Ritz