Post 1.406 on Wednesday MARCH 1 2023….the beginning of the meteorological spring here and autumn on the other side of the world. The snowdrops and daffodils in my garden start to flower and that is 40 days TOO EARLY.
We still have however, minus 4/5 in the night, but great , though cold sunny conditions during the day.
Even a bit of wet SNOW!!!!! Majorca,[Spain] one of those places lot’s of people go to to miss out on winter conditions, had more snow than ever before. AND,…they are not used to it, certainly not up to half a meter.

Also for soaring, as that freezing cold air creates, as we know, great soaring circumstances. Last Sunday they flew already here in the Netherlands,….. VERY early in the season.
417 km for Bart and Vincent in the ARCUS M from Soesterberg topping the All Europe list just ahead of my Lasham mates Roy and Andy [379 km.] and Sikko in the ASG 29 E 332 km. TOP!!!!!! [333km]
5 Pilots started from Soesterberg.
“What a day! Only time I was cold was during riging/deriging!” by Bart and Vincent on WEGLIDE.
“Incredible skies for the UK in February” by Roy and Andy.
Andy flew already 1 day earlier with Kim 526 km in the ARCUS also from Lasham. And yesterday another 418 km. CC.
Also my Belgium mates just over the border started their season from Keiheuvel with 353 km in an ARCUS T.
WHAT A SEASON START!!!!!

——————————————————————

Dual Seat Nationals at COROWA!!!!!
19 February 2023 – 25 February 2023

With only a few days to go , the 2-seat Nationals continued on Thursday.
Adam wrote; “The sun has set on another day, congratulations to Brad & Bruce on a great flight & one that has 95% likely won them back to back, 20m Nationals!”
Another win for the long-time-WGC-pilots :
Task 5; 370 km…..
From the 9 teams , 3 were out, so not an easy day. The ASK 21 MI started early 13.39 but was out after 233 km. Gutsy way of flying a competition in the ASK, but for sure great fun. You” participate “, you don’t fly to win.
B[rad] and B[ruce] started at 14.52 as most of the other pilots. And they had a great run and were faster in their “mighty machine” as all others; 116 km./h whilst the runner up in the DG 1001 had 93 km./h.
“The rest of the fleet finally spread out in desperation to find a climb, which just never really came. Hats off to Lumpy who was able to push out in front after he caught us back up, to find us a climb from low down. Unfortunately for Lumpy, he pushed on again at a medium threat height looking for better, only to miss out on his found climb of 6kts to 6000′ not long after.” Adam and as always you can hear the full story on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures. He shares nowadays a vlog with his post-flight-analyses and a blog.
Lumpy and Joergen were 4th for the day.
Allan and Harry were only 10 k out!! 7th for the day.
Bruce; “ my pilot remains a wizard!”
And….”But the chauffeur wound the pace up a little, finding a few solid climbs to allow us to pull away, then crossing the Murray River just east of Tocumwal he magically hooked a great climb to the best height of the day.”
Taylor’s Gliding Page for much more!

B[rad] 1 and B[ruce] 2 having fun at the briefing, with Lumpy and Joergen to the l behind them.
20m Dual Seat Nationals 2023

Task 6; 321 km.... another racing task.
They started at the same time, the FIG with Keith and Adam and the ZBE with B&B. And,…NO they did not finish together. The FIG won the day with a speed of 116.77 km./h and the ZBE with 107 km; 900 points and 747 p. “A fun blue day out,” a bloody fantastic blue day “according to Adam, who then did not yet know they won the day.
Good weather forecast again, basically cu’s on the first leg , then blue. But as said before blue down under is not the same blue as here. You find strong thermals in “their” blue.
Runner up David and Leslie and 3d Allan and Harry
The ASK 21 is hanging in, brave flying, but out after 127 km.
Bruce flew and here is a small part of his story;
“Phew, tough day today for us… for me. We travelled up north, westwards and then back south for about 320 km. The day began well with a strong climb off tow, and soon after that some little cumulus started to form out on our track. The thermals were easy to work and we seemed to have no trouble staying up, and after a bit of a wait we started at about 1445, which was right in the middle of our selected start window. As it happened we were right with Adam and Keith, our closest competitors on the scoresheet. Under normal (serious) circumstances it would have been prudent to sit with them for the whole flight and completely protect our substantial lead, but that isn’t me at all.”
Task 7; the very last day!!!! Still a “few” points difference between the 2 best ,B&B and Adam and Keith; 4.304 and 4.136.
What will bring this last day ……. a 3 hour AAT.
A win for David and Lesley!!! They started early and went on track straight away, still not too high 4/5000 ft. but they made it. Good on them….378 km in time in 3.20 in the ARCUS T for 1000 points. Speed 113 km./h.
111 km./h for Brad and Bruce so my good “old” mates win the comps.
As Bruce mentioned;” I think we did enough for an overall win. Super flight by Brad, zero risk and plenty fast enough. He has flown so well this last week, not really very current but all the old skills remain, and the weather suited his style. He is a master in changeable, difficult conditions, and that’s what we flew in all week.”
Much more in his Taylor’s Gliding Page
And Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures…”A disaster of a last day, it was like we flew in totally different conditions on a totally different task than anyone else!”
They were 4th for the day [846 points]

The Australian National 2-seat CHAMPIONS after 7 days and 7 tasks from Corowa;
1. Brad Edwards & Bruce Taylor in ASG 32 with 5,232 points.
2. Keith Gateley & Adam Woolley in ARCUS M with 4,982 p.
3. David Jansen & Lesley Scott in ARCUS T with 4,589 p.
Congratulations to ALL.

———————————————————-

The SSA CONVENTION in RENO in the USA was in full swing between February 23 and 25. It’s every 2 years. Enough interesting and inspiring speakers also women, as Leah Condon about crewing ….”What your Crew Wants to Know”……and WWGC pilot Kathy Fosha who spoke at the WSAP breakfast .
Subjects as the amazing MINIMOA restoration, the SSA membership meeting featured report on committee reorganization and growth/retention effort and not to forget the annual OSTIV meetings and dinner.
At the OSTIV also a young Dutch glider pilot , Simon van de Eijkel, speaking on Building the next generation platform for WEGLIDE.
Simon was so lucky to fly on Sunday from Minden in Nevada with Gordon Boettger in the ARCUS M; 709 km and an awesome speed of 215 km./h!!!

In total they had over 50 excellent speakers & presentations on soaring. A convention floor full of gliders , equipment and so much more with over 40 exhibitors.
Presentations on the last day also by Uys Jonker about Jonker Sailplanes [ Design, development and performance of the JS 2Revenant 18m/21m and JS5 Rey 24 m glider.] and Tilo Holighaus about Schempp-Hirth.[ The Philosophy behind Schempp-Hirth] Each speaker gets 45 minutes and there is a tied schedule.

Met Tony for the first time in 2012 in Uvalde Texas, when he flew in to be part of this exiting WGC. Later we were having a drink with Dundee in Narromine.

Also the BGA Conference was held on February 25. HpH Sailplanes UK will be there with the TWIN SHARK.
By the way they were in Reno too.
“Belated congratulations to Lasham member Graham Garnett on being awarded a diploma for services to gliding at the British Gliding Association conference over the weekend.
Graham has been involved in the organisation of competitions and grid launches at Lasham for over 30 years and has also spent the last 10 years as the British Gliding Team manager.”
Lasham Gliding Society
WELLDESERVED, Graham.

——————————————————————

from; FAI – World Air Sports Federation just to let you know…..

The Gliding competition season looks promising this year!

5th FAI Pan-American Gliding Championship – Hutchinson, USA (6-17 Jun)

12th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championship – Garray, ESP (1-15 Jul)

21st FAI European Gliding Championships – Leszno, POL (29 Jul-12 Aug)

6th FAI Junior European Gliding Championships – Arnborg, DEN (30 Jul-12 Aug)

37th FAI World Gliding Championships – Narromine, AUS (2-16 Dec)
https://bit.ly/3xGIZBc
WWGC 2023
Lotnisko Leszno
Narromine Gliding Club Official

In the weekend of August 19 and 20 the annual KEIHEUVEL competition will be flown. I try always to be there. To enter
https://www.lvzc.be/index.php/inschrijven

————————————————————————-

News from Lumpy Paterson from Tocumwal Soaring Centre
Lumpy;”Pretty exciting day ….
Bit like 5 years ago when the first Aussie JS3’s arrived in Australia, only today it’s the first RES JS3’s into Australia.
The RES is a self launching electric JS3-18mtr glider and they look awesome, and looking forward to seeing them flying ( real soon )
5 Years ago I was there and was allowed to make pictures from the 3 JS 3 gliders from Butch, Norm and Lumpy. I published them in my blog with a short story.
NOW ,..I am not there but I can share it anyhow , as news travels so fast and easy, in fact I don’t have to go anywhere anymore.
Though , to be honest, the feeling from being present is totally different. AT LOCATION, gives you the real feeling!!!!

Kiripotib Soaring shared their news for 2023 and I am more than pleased to see that what Ludwig and Wolfgang started ,continues in their style; GREAT CONCEPT.
November 2023: Nine top pilots, one chance! World and European champions share their expertise in cross-country flying with enthusiastic glider pilots. Take your flying skills to the next level! Seven days in a dual-seater with various champions – increase your speed, refine your technique and master your equipment. Join us! The best of the best are looking forward to an amazing time with you.
This is what awaits you:
https://youtu.be/64AyW9p_9iE

—————————————————————–

I got several reactions on the death of my good mate Bruce who died on February 13 of a heart attack. Even one of his University friends wrote to me after googling the name “Ritz, he often heard from Bruce in his gliding time“.
A Memorial Service on March 10 in Melbourne is arranged by his wife Kristine.
Some memories on Bruce.

CU next week.
Ritz, still sad…….