Post 1.456 on November 22 2023.

37th WGC at Narromine ; December 2-16 in 2023.
This is where it is all going to happen.

ALL KIND OF NEWS ABOUT THE 37TH WGC IN NARROMINE;

I heard and read that there are nearly as much helpers/volunteers as pilots, around 50, so things should not go wrong during this 37th WGC.
On top of that Narromine is very experienced host, looking at comps.
I told you that several pilots/friends are visiting Tocumwal, ahead of the WGC in Narromine .
From Denmark of course Joergen Thomsen who prepares the ASW 20 for Rasmus Orskov, son of Joergen’s partner Birgitte. Joergen spends each summer…already for a few years… in Tocumwal .
From The Netherlands, it is Erik and Joyce Borgmann, their first visit, looking around in town and of course visiting the koala’s , the cemetery [THANKS Joyce for the pictures!!!!] and having good dinners p.e. in The TERMINUS, ….a wonderful old pub at the railway station.
George Schuit , who also spends already for ages his summers in Tocumwal,[since 1984?] and lived there for over 12 years, could speak some Dutch again.
As I wrote already George and his wife Diana both fly in Club Class in Narromine, representing Luxembourg, where they both live and where Diana is a 747 co pilot for Cargo Lux.
From SA, Uys Jonker,no introduction needed, visiting the old WWII hangar and the owners Lumpy and Sharon.
Eddie Madden :”At school today learning about servicing Jonker sailplanes EV power self launching systems.”
In the old Sportavia briefing room ,where Eddie used to “do” the weather, Uys gave an RES course. One day later it was ALL ABOUT THE NEW JS 5.

As Lumpy from Tocumwal Soaring Centre mentioned;
“We are used to International visitors coming to be with us.
Uys Jonker is here talking about the JS3 RES and the associated systems with owning and maintaining this awesome glider. Uys and the team are here for 4 days before heading up to the worlds in Narromine.
It’s great that Jonkers, along with GFA are able to provide this kind of opportunity to their customers and users of the new generation electric gliders flying in Australia.”
On top of that Lumpy flew over 700 km last Sunday in his JS3.

Also on British TV ,they show all about gliding with the UK team.
So good PR till now.
You can see it on Bognor Regis Gliding Club

Pilots are already there or on their way. Here are the Polish pilots Sebastian Kawa and Lukasz Grabowski ready to go with their very good and very experienced TC in the middle.
Sebastian and Lukasz fly the DIANA 2 in 15 m. class.

Yesterday on November 21 , young German pilot Henrik Bieler flew in the Ventus 3T/15 m. a 759 km, so pretty good weather in Narromine at the moment. Henrik is the current German national champion in 15m .
The Australian Bureau of meteorology however shows different circumstances, for the practice period.

Team USA is slowly arriving. 2 Of the team are already there, pilot Tim Taylor [15 m] and crew member Ron Gleason, who checked the scruteneering-process, with some funny remarks.
“During high level soaring contests, we are at the World Championships in Narromine NSW AUS, every piece of equipment is checked to insure it is within manufactures specifications and all proper paperwork is in order.
Wednesday 22/11/23 we got Tim’s glider through ‘scrutineering’, the glider contest version of going to the proctologist.“
Unofficial practice was on the menu too.

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Lake Keepit hosted the NSW State comps 2023/2024, between November 11 and 18. I wrote also about them in my earlier posts.

They had 7 out of 7 days in OPEN CLASS, with good soaring! Tasks between 2.30 AAT and 3.30 AAT and set tasks from around 300 km. Scores, even with 7 days of flying, were pretty close.
They had an interesting mix of conditions , Cu’s, blue , thermals and wave.
Winners;
1. Justin Smith in ARCUS M with 5.432 points. He won on the last day; 130 km./h over a set 280 km.
2. Richard Frawley in JS 3/18m with 5.325 p. lost nearly 200 points on the last day.
3. Steven Evans in ASG 29/18 m with 5.148 p.

CLUB CLASS had 7 days as well with good tasks their set tasks were around 200 km.
There was ONE CLEAR WINNER; Michael Strathern in his ASW 20 winning 5 days and being runner up on 2 days! The nearly perfect score.
“Well that’s all folks from Lake Keepit.
The Kiwi/Pom is the Australian NSW sports/club class champion!Today I decided to push a bit harder and see what the ASW20 can do and we did 114.5kph over 240 Km and won the day (and devalued it going too fast!)” as said by Michael.
Kiwi / Pom says it all; Michael will fly for New Zealand in his ASW 20 in Club Class.
Club class winners;
1. Michael Strathern in ASW 20 with 5.614 points. VERY READY for the 37th WGC representing NZ!!!!!
2. Cameron Turnbridge in St Cirrus with 3.883 p.
3. John Trezise in ASW 24 with 3.844 p.

Some interesting news and flights;
——-Last Saturday, it was one of those days again in Namibia with another 8x 1000 km flights , just have a look at WeGlide.org or Soaringspot.com.
The best flight that day however was for Argentina. We carefully follow the very hot weather in South America, over here, but it creates also good soaring conditions and with their wave…….
Brazil had yesterday 44.8 dgr. C.
Juan Pablo Vertura flew in his 18m Ventus 2CM, on November 18, with a speed of 231.69 km./h from Zapala Neuquen over 1.634.04 km!!!!
Wave over the Andes up to 7710 MSL. GOOD day!!!!
Yesterday he did it again same glider same area another long flight; 1.607 km with a speed of 197.06 km./h.
Not to forget that he “did” a 1.704.61 km flight with a speed of 199 km./h on November 15!!!!!
Frederico Buscema did about the same , not in a Ventus but in a Nimbus 3DM.
The Andes is ON.
Another TOP FLIGHT was from France; 1.235 km in an ASH 31/21m. by Baptiste Innocent from St Auban.

——-Greetings from Worcester in South Africa, what a great picture!
Look for more on https://www.weglide.org/flight/348561

That ‘s it for today. During the WGC, I try to publish more often when necessary.
Cheers Ritz