Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday February 12 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
The “field” at Tocumwal .Courtesy Anita Taylor.
The good news first! Had contact with both Pam and Gerrit and after a few moments of concern, Gerrit is back to normal and will have NO problems! Good on him.
More good news as I booked my ticket [ a present from a friend— THANKS !!!!!] for Uvalde and I will arrive on the 28th of July with BA.
Bad news as well, the 11 cities tour/race/marathon has been cancelled but there is still a bit of hope for the millions here who are disappointed. Not everywhere 15 cm thick ice! But enough certainly on the N.part of the tour to enjoy skating this weekend.They expect atleast a million people on the skates! 75 Safe tours have been written out all over Holland. Today they expect temperatures above 0.
Here is a link by friend Jens Bouma who flew over the Frysian area and took some great shots from above. THANKS Jens!! Jens was the one who made those TOP videos to start the Dutch comps with and you surely can still find them on You Tube.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jensbouma.nl%2Fdownloads%2Fwinter&h=4AQELqixI
Several comps finished this week [end].The multi class Australian Nationals which moved from Narromine to Tocumwal, the multiclass Nationals in Matamata in New Zealand and the Horsham week in Horsham, which means a great season is over and we can start soon with the new 2012 season in Europe soon. Looking forward to it!
I left you on Wednesday with the latest Tocumwal news. Bruce had a good day , here are his words.
—” My flight went really well today. The start came with a group of us topping out directly over the start point, just about at the time I wanted to leave. I wondered whether anyone would go, and figured that they would all come along if I did… and sure enough, they did! It went well, with a couple of good climbs in the blue before we had a short period of fun under some cus as we headed down towards Lake Mokoan near Benalla. But it was soon to stop, and as we tracked north it was all blue. I thought the pack might overtake me, but I managed to keep finding good climbs. As I travelled further north the glides started to get difficult and sinky(!), but still I didn’t see anyone else. Turning for home there were some stubble fires within reach, and the last one was a ripper. I arrived low and was greeted with plenty of bouncing and thumping, almost IFR, and the vario singing nicely! It took me up to final glide and a fast run home. Fantastic day for me.
Tonight a group of us went out to a beautiful cafe over the river near Cobram for dinner. It is right beside the Murray River, sunset, full moon, lovely food and good friends… sad that Anita was not there to join in though.—“
On Thursday with one day to go , more news from Bruce: “The trough line is within reach today, and the nice task setters have given us the chance to use it. We have a 3 hr AAT (only 3 hours?) that has circles that will give us the choice of a line under the lovely, fat cus we can see building to the east. STD and 15 m have a 3.5 hr AAT in a similar area.–“
The trough line seen by Bruce.
And…he had a great day again , ” sitting in his office”. Bruce flew 469 km with a speed of 156.4 km./h.!!!!!
459 km for Terry in the 15 m class 3.30 AAT with a speed of 129 km/h. and he is back on the overall-scores-top as “poor” Lisa had to go “au vache “after 172 km. A pity , she was /is so good!!
In 15 m. an other good friend Miles won the day with 449 km and a speed of 128 km/h.
Due to the fact that Gerrit and Pam had “other things on their head, ” Chad and good friend Griffo moved to spot 1 in an open class glider .[nimbus 4DM.]
Griffo the left. and Miles to the left.
What was there more to say??? Enough here is Bruce again;
—“What a day! There was indeed a super trough line, but it was not all as straightforward as it might have been. The whole system was complicated by some big storms further east, which were sending some outflow into the trough and creating an additional convergence effect. There were parts of the flight that were like our convergence that I see a lot of at home, some of it was overdeveloped and sogg…y, and some was just good old fashioned strong cumulus weather. Picking a good line required some experimentation, a bit of experience, and probably a touch of good fortune! It was an interesting day for all, with a few sad outlandings, and some high speeds. The task setting was perfect… there, I said it out aloud! Well done guys.
Tomorrow was suggested to be unlikely to be a flying day, but a quick check of the weather tonight shows that it might be another good day. We’ll see!—“ That would be Friday and ..it was good!
But Thursday was a very good day as well for the non-competition -pilots. Some called it a ripper- day, for Tocumwal and surroundings and Kari flew in the LS 6 , far up North to Lake Cargelligo; 621 km. From Benalla a flight in the Ventus CT/ 17.6 m ;752km. by Irish pilot John Mc William.
He just did not make it home but I loved his comment , “ towed the Ventus in at 7.30 with a 1950s Harry Ferguson tractor – a fine product from a fellow Irishman, the first man to fly in Ireland, in 1909 – and in a plane he designed and built himself.—”
There you go another interesting outlanding , otherwise we would not have known this and very close as Violet Town is only a few kilometers from Benalla. I like that!
In Corowa they are nearly ready to pack the last gliders in the containers and they had more problems with showers around them, though they kept it dry and sunny, look at their great February -10 -pictures at http://www.australian-soaring-corowa.com/news.html
The trough line seen over Tocumwal Airport by Dundee.
THE VERY LAST DAY of the Nationals another great day.Not Bruce winning the day in 18m. but Tom Claffey . He flew his glider over 568 km. in a 3.30 AAT , so he travelled around with big speed; 148 km./h.
2d was Andrew [ 509 km and 144 km./h] and Bruce 3d.[ 495 km. 141 km./h] But he could not loose anymore and is the WINNER with 6811 points with Tom, as runner up [6410] , Lars was 3d and Andrew 4th.
No changes in scores in 15 m class so THE WINNER is Terry with Craig and young Matthew on spot 2 and 3. Matthew won the 3 hour AAT on the last day .It is good to have several new upcoming young pilots for Australia!!!Joey glide is a great “instute”.
Good old Miles must have loved the troughline and the AAT’s as he won the last 2 days! He ended up 4th and no changes here either as Peter [Temple] and Peter [Trotter] are on top and Mac on place 3.
A nice farewell and presentation- dinner was the finish of a great competition, organised in 2 days but with the co-operation of SO MANY!!! Proud on my mates overthere [Dundee who helped the gliders in the air] and my friends from Narromine [ p.e. Hans Raschke, Arney Hartley and more], who came to Toc to help out. Glad it all worked out so well. Congratulations to ALL!!! Heard another good friend Bruce Brockhoff was invited to the party as well to speech for all guests. Nice!!! I will share his life with you in my next blog! VERY interesting.Why was he NOT competing in his own country during the Benalla WGC in 1987 , while he was the best 15 m. pilot at that time ??????
The last words are for Bruce Taylor, who not only made me happy, but I guess all who love soaring , with his inside-stories. THANK YOU BRUCE and CU in Uvalde!!!
—“Another day, another competition completed. We were set a 3.5 hr AAT west to Deniliquin, then a long leg to the north. I found the weather difficult for the first part of the flight, and much easier after that. Initially it was hard to find good climbs and I seemed to be doing an exemplary job of finding all the sink. As I crossed a blue stretch on the way north there was a huge increase in wind …speed, almost like the jet stream was touching down there. Right in the middle of that I found my best climb, which I did not really understand. Further north there was quite a lot of overdevelopment, and with my points lead I was reluctant to be too adventurous, so I turned for home as soon as my computer suggested I should. Of course from then onwards I could only find incredibly good climbs, and all the sink vanished. Soon it became obvious that I was going to be home early. I used all of our last area but was still arriving too soon, so lost some speed for that. Tom Claffey was in top spot today.
The presentation went well, Chris Stephens did a great job as MC, and I have some trophies to take home! It has been a good competition for me – almost everything went to plan. Thank you so much to all those listening and watching, and for all the kind words. The next real competition I fly will be the worlds in Texas in August. See you all then.—”
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Received this picture from Dundee. Appropriate now after the comps!
Great flight for Kari as well in the LS 6 on Friday ; All the way up to Hillston in the N.;792 km. Though…he was n’t satisfied too much with his flight in any case he did not call it great.
Kari ready to go. Courtesy Dundee.
The Matamata comps in NZ finished last Wednesday after 7 days of flying in both classes. Due to the fact that the points from day 4 were re- scored we had to wait for the final results but here they are. As I read , those air space penalties from day 4, have been successfully protested. In the end they looked more to the literal interpretation of the rules rather then the intent of the rules as applied by the contest director.” The virtual outlanding scores given at the point of the airspace violation will be rescored to 25 penalty – points. ”
When that was done, this was the result;
Winner in standard class Lyndsay Stephens with 5903 points in ASW 27.
Winner in the combined open class and also winner of the last day; Patrick Driessen with 6388 in Ventus CT.
Winner in open class Brett Hunter who just flew his first comps in a JS 1.
Tony Van Dyke won the standard class for all results look at www.soaringspot.com
Hosham week had good weather with 41 participants in 4 classes. My friends the Tabart’s did well. Father Tony and son Tracey both flew and shared TT….and won in open class .Look for all results at www.soaringspot.com
To finish this blog some great Dutch pictures with snow and ice. Got the link from Meteo-Hans who is our top meteorologist.
http://gigapica.geenstijl.nl/2012/01/winter_in_the_netherlands_thro_1.html
Off to Amsterdam. No news on Wednesday. Will be gone for a few days. Back on Thursday. Cheers Ritz