Post 1.478 on January 10 2024

Whilst we were having loads of rain here for a LONG period and temperatures around 12 dgr C in the first week of January , my friends in Scandinavia are freezing.
MINUS 43.6 in the high North of Sweden ,but very cold in Norway and Finland as well, the coldest in 25 years.
Finland has minus 20 to minus 35 and later even over minus 40 too… ….
The 2d part of the week was different. Last Monday the wind here turned to the NE and we got the cold weather too, but not as bad as in Scandinavia….-8 during the day and with the windchill factor minus 15!!!!
AND,….days are getting longer…spring is around the corner!!!!
The sun is shining bright at the moment with very blue skies , but COLD!!!!!!!!!!

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The LEETON F1 SKYRACE GP
January 3 [practice]– January 12.

January 3 was a practice day and quite a few flew. No task was set , but it is always nice to check the area when you have never been there and the instruments in the glider .
The weather was not good enough to create day 1, …NO task…. so the 14 pilots in 2 classes, had to wait. No worries, they are all mates or , are becoming mates and all different ages young and “older”!!!
Their type of “pure” gliders; Standard Cirrus x 3, Standard Libelle x 6, Standard Jantar x 3 , 1 Hornet and 1 LS 1f.
They have a F 1 and a F 2 class with different tasks.
The Streifeneders [Sarah and Christian ]organised the welcome BBQ for the start of Skyrace GP….a sausage sizzle. They are one of the sponsors.
Glasflügel-Glasfaser Flugzeug Service
“We are very proud to offer the updated Winglets NG.
These new winglets have use the latest technology and included extensive research and testing, and as always, we are proud to offer the high Streifeneder quality.”
Glasflügel Winglets NG for the Standard Libelle, Club Libelle & Hornet.

After storms ,even a real dust storm ahead of a freak storm and rain, they finally could fly on January 5.
F1 class;
Task 2; 165 km and won by Scott Lennon in the Libelle followed by Dutch pilot Jasper also in Libelle. Scott; “ it was not a day to push hard!Under the clouds there were decent climbs“
He had to chase Jasper ,who was also most of the time higher, but Jasper got [387 sec.] penalty points for starting too high.
10 flew in this class.
Task 3; no flying.
rain and no tasks till
January 9 TASK 6; 111.4 km.….and Scott still knew how to fly,… he won! 88.6 km./h. so 9 points for him bringing him to a total of 16 points .
Christian was runner up and Jasper on spot 3 ; 87.9 and 77.9 km./h. Overall; 11 for Jasper and 10 for Christian, with a few days to go.

Task 7 on January 10, TODAY; 218 km....still very young Jasper from The Netherlands …21 years young…won the day. He ” got a glider Libelle [never flown it before] and a car ” and moved from Sydney to Tocumwal and then to Leeton . It was already in his planning to fly this competition with another Dutch young man, but by circumstances beyond his control this young man had to go back home again.
Jasper flew 2017.6 km with a speed of 88.7 km./h. for 10 points. Scott flew the same distance , in the same glider but was a bit slower for 6 points.
Scott still leads with ONE point; 22 for 21.

Task 2 in F 2 class was 205.7 km; Tony won the day ,but Leoni flew very well too.She got penalty points [ 89 for starting too high] so became runner up. Both fly Discus B.
Tony flew carefully as when he started the first out landing was already reported. He tiptoed over the first leg, but Leonie and he came home together.
Task 3; no flying. “Short window today. Late start might give us enough time to watch Australia win the test match.” They could see it.AND,…the Aussies won the Benaud-Quadir Trophy1. Good on them, though I do not know ANYTHING about cricket, not even after living there pretty long.
Task 4;rain…..more rain.
Task 6 on January 9; 152.2 km…..ASW 20 pilot Jack Hart won the day ahead of Tony with 100 km./h. Tony was runner up; 94 km./h.
After 2 flyable days Tony leads overall with 7 points.Jack has 4 and Leonie 3 points.
Task 7 on January 10; 283.5 km.…Jack flew around with a speed of 99.8 km./h whilst Tony flew 95.5 km./h.
So with 2 more days it’s Tony with 11 and Jack with 9 points.
Tony got a bonus point today:”The task today is a double triangle with a bonus point for being the first one back over Leeton.”

All the sponsors AT the glider

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JOEYGLIDE 2024
7 January 2024 – 13 January 2024
Narromine

8 Under 25 pilots are trying their best in this Joeyglide, presented by SkySight.
The young ones fly in Club class ; there is 1 girl, [good] and they fly LS 4 x , A 15 x 3, Club Libelle, Discus CS with winglets and St. Cirrus.
All 8 are from a different club in Australia.
VERY GOOD to see that the young ones from a few years ago , like Adam and Matthew are supporting the new ones in a really fabulous way ….they give them back, what they got.
Practice showed a 2.30 AAT. Joshua flew 273 km / 98.69 km./h.
Task 1 on Sunday the 7th was cancelled .
“Due to weather, task today is CANCELLED! Social activities to follow. Here’s Competitor Anoushka with her Welcome Pack and JoeyGlide Shirt!
Let’s Go JoeyGlide!”

On January 8 they had an official rest-day of Joeyglide 24 Presented by Skysight it’s still raining! They are not bored as a lot of things are organized;
“We’re at the RFDS Museum in Dubbo! What a great place to visit” on Jan 7.
And “We’ve got paper plane competitions, simulator sessions, scavenger hunts and a pub dinner planned.” on the official rest day
And finally the weather co-operated ;
Task 1 ; 2:45hr AAT….. today for our first competition day. Some wet airfields and paddocks around, so plan is to get and stay high. Launch at 1pm.
Lets go!”
They flew,… the first proper flying day… and Kengo Matsumoto in an LS 4 was the first daily winner; 210.56 km /speed 80.97 km./h. AND,..such a pity Aidin missed the start and got no points. He will never do that again.
Task 2 on January 10 ; 3 hour AAT...GOOD task, but,…with the message :”Few cells of rain around”.
It was now really playing outside,… high in the sky …. for the Joeyies ; Joshua Geerlings won from Kengo both in LS 4; 260 and 245 km speed 85 and 81 km./h.
The 2 HC pilots ,more coaches than participants ,won. Hopefully still a few good days to go!!!!
3 Days to go, more next week.

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2024 SAGA State competition
South Australian Gliding Association
31 December 2023 – 6 January 2024
Waikirie

They fly with 11 in an open class, between St Libelle and ASH 31 MI21 m. on the beautiful field in South Australia where in 1974 the WGC was held.
After a practice day with a 2.30 AAT to get in the right mood they started on January fresh with
Task 1; AAT with 2.07 task duration……and the only one flying exact the 2.07 was Pete Temple in his 18 m. ASG 29. He covered in that time 282 km.So a nice speed of 132.63 km./h.
Task 2; 3 hour AAT....only pilot flying 0ver 400 km [409] was Pete and with a good speed too; 127.16 km./h.
3 did not finish.
Task 3; was not flown. NO TASK.
Task 4; 2 hour AAT…. cancelled.
Task 5; 2 hour AAT…but not flown.
Final results;
1. Pete Temple in ASG 29/18m. with 2,487 points.
2. Adam Stott in LS 4 with 2,092 p
3. Grant Hudson in ASH 31 MI/21 m. with 2,069 p.
Good to see “good old “Pietschi [David Pietsch] was on spot 4 in his JS1 /18m.with 2,057

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The South Island Gliding Championship in New Zealand.
3 January 2024 – 9 January 2024
Omarama

OPEN CLASS; with 8 well-known NZ pilots….
Task 1; 420.18 km…Not bad for day 1!!!!! Nick Oakley won the race with a speed of 122.13 km./h. in a Discus 2A. His normally biggest concurrent,…. they fly often comps together already since they were juniors, …..Alex McCaw was 3d in the Discus 2C. In between well-known “racer” Keith Essex from the USA who lives partly in NZ, in his AS33es.[134.63 km/h]
Task 2; 2 hour AAT.…Interesting day!!!! Nick started at 15.25 ….Alex ONE HOUR later, so all in all , late starts but GOOD SPEED!!!! 146.37 km./h over 337 km. for winner Nick for 1000 points.
Even 147.49 km./h for Keith for 908 points over 335.38 km.. Alex was 3d.
The most km. were flown by good old Tony van Dyk; 347.33 km [speed 138,49km./h] in his ASG 29.
Reason for the late start is just looking at the skies

Task 3; cancelled.No competition tasks for today. The weather will probably be ok for general flying but not good enough to get some competition tasks in.
Task 4; 3 hour AAT...and only 3 were lucky /good enough to finish. With 362.65 km with a speed of 86 km./h Keith won the day, but to see the speed it must have been a struggle. Bad day for Alex and Tony ,both were out after 60 km and “got” 39 daily points.
Nick and the ASH 25 team were the other 2 finishers.
High clouds were for both classes the annoying factor.
Task 5 3.30 AAT….message in the morning;”Could be another interesting day with some high cloud moving in and not much wind at the airfield. Grid is due to launch at 13:00 but we will see…”
Another win for Keith in his AS33es; 471 km speed 133 km./h. Nick flew just a tad less far , 454 km but was much slower; 111.86 km./h.
1 was out and 2 did not start anymore [Alex] ;reason below.
Overall Nick is still in the lead after task 5, but only with 17 points!!!!!
Task 6; 2 hour AAT…and Nick is even more strong on spot 1 overall after task 5 as he won the day; 280 km./ speed 106 km./h. gaining another 33 points on Keith.
7 Started and finished.
“For the first time that I can remember, we have a tie for second place in the Open class. This is not unusual for Racing tasks but very, very rare for AAT tasks!” Keith and Derek [Kraak also in AS33es] had the same amount of points.
“Alex McCaw in RM landed out way down south yesterday and did not get back from the retrieve until the wee hours of the morning!
We have a smaller task for each class today as high cloud has been forecasted. And looking at the sky, high cloud is what we have!” South Island Gliding Championships
Task 7; 3 hour AAT...very last day.…..it’s either Keith or Nick , but good to see, Alex is back on track as well. They were on spot 1,2 and 3.
Keith flew 449.86 km /speed 142.57 km./h.
Nick; 431.15/speed 126.39
Alex; 425.82 km/ 120.17 km./h.
“We have another day of high cloud for the final day of the competition and a couple of quite interesting tasks set that should challenge people. The scores are tight at the top of both classes so it will be interesting to see who comes out on top!”

FINAL OVERALL SCORES after 6 out of 7 days in OPEN CLASS;
1. Nick Oakley in Discus 2a with 5,045 points
2. Keith Essex in AS33es with 4,997 p.
3. Hamilton & Morgan in ASH 25 with 4,316 p.

RACING CLASS; with 7 pilots.
Task 1; 282.18 km…..Terry Jones in his LS8 was clearly the daily best; 112.76 km./h. Runner up the team from the Duo Discus with 103 km./h.
Task 2; 2 hour AAT....only 3 could really get away from the field between 15.36 and 16.26 and finish in the end. Compliments to the Duo Discus pilots finishing at 18.35. They flew 285 km with a speed of 132.09 km./h Daily winner Terry flew 296 km with a speed of 132 km./h.
The organizers wrote about the day:
“It was difficult for most people to get going but once they got up into the wave the speeds were quite high; Nick Oakley (2A) and Keith Essex (TC) both breaking 145 km/h in the Open class and Terry Jones (TK) breaking 140 km/h in the wee wing class! Unfortunately, the Racing class was devalued as a number could not get away.”
Task 3; cancelled.
Task 4; 2.30 AAT….only 2 from 7 finished but the 2 pilots in the DUO DISCUS deserve our attention!!! 213.92 km ,speed 80.74 km./h!!!!
Also LS 8 pilot Terry Jones, deserves applause; 230 km but it took him 4 hours and 22 minutes to achieve this speed. BUT….he finished!!!!!
Task 5; 3 hour AAT....ALL 7 flew the task. Daily winner AGAIN, Terry; 319.61 km , speed 104.74 km./h. Overall after task 5 Terry leads but with less than 100 points on the Duo Discus “heroes”.
Task 6 ;2 hour AAT and more then 200 km for Terry; daily winner. The only 1 with a speed over 100 km./h.
Task 7; very last day….2.30 AAT and Terry wins ; 281.39 km/speed 105.87 km./h., Except for 1 challenging day [task 4 with 2 finishers Terry was runner up behind the DUO!!!] all days!!! Chapeau!!!!

Overall results in Racing class after 6 out of 7 days;
1. Terry Jones in LS 8 with 4,424 points.
2. Davy & Team NS in DUO DISCUS with 4,252 p.
3. Kieran Cassidy in Ventus 2B with 4,025 p.

They also showed overall scores from the open unhandicapped class and there it is Keith who wins ;5,061 p. Nick is runner up ; 4,614 p.

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–——KIRIPOTIB; When you put Alexander Mueller in a glider you know you can expect many kilometers. When he flies an EB 29D even more.
His first flight on December 21 was straight away 1.236,80 km with a speed of 139 km from Kiripotib.
On January 4 [ in between he flew 3 more 1.200 km tasks] he flew 1.217 km /FAI TRIANGLE of 1.122 km. This time he was the “co” behind Christian Daenzer.
On January 5 they had another long top flight; 1.332, 42 km. FAI triangle 1. 11,88 . Speed 152,73 km./h!
Alexander flew this time.
One of my friends Harold is for the third time in Namibia after flying in Pokweni once and now for the 2d time in Kiripotib….. AND in his own glider VV;
“8 m per sec and at 4.5 km.” [last Monday]
“Glider pilot’s paradise “
He enjoys EVERY minute also the fabulous sunsets.

Harold has written a book as well about his 43 year flying as airline pilot for Transavia [ 30 years] and later Arkefly/TUIfly. [10 years] The book is in Dutch and can be ordered at ; harold@soaring-eagle.nl

——- TOCUMWAL; Bas , after 36 years back in Tocumwal, fitted only in the Cirrus,[ he is pretty tall,]but after he knew the glider better, he flew nearly 2 and a day later nearly 300 km. The tug bringing him up in the skies is one of the Belanca Scouts his mate Dennis was flying in 87/88, when he was still alive.
VH SFO is owned by George now.
Bas is a senior instructor at the Gelderse in The Netherlands.
In between he is back home.

Tocumwal Soaring Center seems to bring gliding in Tocumwal back to a higher level again. Good to see. Enough PR and enough guests that really pleases me.
“It was back to the 70’s day today ! Ironically with our youngest pilots in the oldest gliders. 19 year old Peter got to experience his first wooden glider flying our Boomerang, with our Czech tuggie Michal 23, flying our Blanik. We are unable to recall the last time we’ve seen a Boomerang and Blanik in the same thermal !
We are proud of our fleet here at TSC. Pilots can fly the hot ships, but also take a trip down memory lane with our older gliders, or even make new memories!
To us, it’s all about the experience.”
They are one of the sponsors from the F1 Skyrace as well.

——-Bitterwasser;
“2024 turns up the heat!
The new year starts and the thermals take off again! High liability ensures good thermals, which provide pilots with many exciting experiences.
On 4.1.23, a line of thunderstorms developed early in the west, forcing pilots to find their way between the over-developments. Thanks to the continuous weather updates from the flight office via radio and WhatsApp, the flights could be planned ahead.
The weather was more stable in the east, with triangles extending to over 1000 kilometers in this direction.
For the second day in a row, a large sandstorm moved from the west towards Bitterwasser in the afternoon. This storm, which could be used as a convergence, made it possible to fly in special conditions until sunset and to land at sunset.
Already 19 flights in January exceeded 1000 kilometers! It can go on like this in the last month of the season!”
On January 5 my Lasham mates had an aborted first take -off after engine problems but….at 11.50 they launched again and managed to fly 1.118.37 km. after leaving Bitterwasser at 12.03!!!! Speed 152 km./h.
Roy was the pilot in command this time.
One day later another 1000, so nothing exciting new anymore but the weather is going slowly in autumn mood there with thunderstorms and rain. Maybe only a good week to go.
“Scrappy and poor locally until after noon then improving. Potentially tricky return to BItterwasser so very conservative final glide,until we could see the local weather. Luckily thunderstorms to NE & SE of airfield but not problem landing at sunset.“

On January 8 still 4 over 1000 km flights from Bitterwasser and 1 from Veronica and Pokweni

More and more pilots fly declared over 1000 -plus km. triangles!! TOP- gliders and TOP- pilots .
Every day too many 1000 km flights , so just have a look at weglide or the online contest;
https://weglide.org/ or https://www.onlinecontest.org/

–——Worcester in S.A; Jan and Caroline Rothhardt from Germany flew a nice 1.100 flight in the ARCUS and Sven Olivier in his JS 1B a 1.138.06 km!! Both an Out and Return on Saturday Januaru 6.
Also Worcester started the year GOOD!!!!
Douglas Backhouse has also several 1000 km. flights….. AFRICA is BOOMING.
Czech pilot Ondrej Dupal has flown 2 already .

More on the 61 st Chile Nationals and the 70 st Argentinian Nationals in open and club class next week.

Cheers Ritz