First looking back on the last days and the prize giving.

When Margie and I left for Wodonga to visit our friend on a top of a hill ,  we also dropped in on the way back at Corowa airport.It turned out that Eagle and Willem traveled to Tocumwal whilst we were there, but we did not miss each other as you can see at the pictures. We even spoke with Francesco and Wim , Grietjes dad.

  

  

Fun in the hangar and at the golf club, on my last day, in Tocumwal with Arend, Willem, Jeroen, Margie Diana and me.

A bit later more fun , now in Kelly’s pub with Jill and Kait and Margie.

Prize giving in Benalla;
130 people attended and not everybody had booked ahead,  most of the overseas pilots forgot or misunderstood, so they had to eat somewhere else or pizza’s.They ALL however attended the prize giving after dinner, no worries.
Lovely evening with lot’s of well known mates. Here you are,….. first of all the prize winners/new Aussie Champions.

Peter, Matthew and Bruce had ALL evening a smile on their faces.
Peter won 18 m. Bruce open and Matthew 15 m. class.

         

Beautiful set tables, enough prizes to make pilots happy and enough food too in and outside.

Happy couples.

        

GFA president Mandy and her husband and 18 m. CHAMPION Peter, Former GFA president Anita and her CHAMPION in open class And a happy David Jansen with his wife.

East Europe.

   

Zoltan from Hungary who was the pilot with the highest speed 160.54 km./h.and 26 year old Petr from Czech Rep. who flew in the past as tuggie with Sportaviation and now since 2 years in 737’s from Ryan Air.

The prize however was for an Australian pilot and Adam won both and found it a great privilege to win the Taylorr’s & Kauffmanns highest RAW ‘Speed Trophy’ by an Australian pilot; and the inaugural winner of the Bruce Brockhoff, Fastest Handicapped Speed Trophy!

Bruce , said a few words and Adam was clearly happy with the brand new prize; the Bruce Brockhoff-trophy.

More overseas pilots.

———–

       

The Swedish and Finnish pilots, The French and the Austrians.

Runners up!!

     

Andrew [open] Mac [15 m.] John “Butch”  18 m.
John was the most “unlucky”  person of the evening, but still could smile. He just missed out at this stage [still preliminary] to represent Australia next year in Benalla;Tom had 79.172 over 2 years with 40% counting for the first year and 60 for this year and Butch 79.021.
By the way the preliminary , but nearly sure team representing Australia next year ;
15 m. Matthew and Stephen , 18 m. Peter and Tom and open Bruce and Andrew.

The YOUNG ONES.

         

Dylan[Lampard] team- flying up to high standard with Matthew during the JWGC now crewing for him, Matthew and Ben [Loxton] and Adam.

Guests from now and the past.

         

Lesley and Norm with Tom and Brian with Italian guest Thomas and Mark and Beryl.

    

Judy, Ingo and Scott and Jane and Tom from Temora.

         

Swaantje with her female crew and Lisa and David with Tony Tabart and Jo.

By the way, the STATE SHIELD was won by NSW with the pilots Bruce Taylor, Matthew Scutter and Tom Claffey.

Last but not least; Vickey with her beautiful daughter , recently a mum, so Vickey is a grandma now; They will be very busy with the WGC next year with Terry as CD.

Mum Vickey with 2d daughter Erin

———–

It was nice to catch up with Owe from Sweden and Antti from Finland at Tullamarine before Antti and I flew with former Sportavia tuggie Michael to Hong Kong, where the weather was pretty bad, and Owe went via Thailand home. I forgot that Owe was in the organizing team in Eskilstuna, where I was as well as competition journalist.
Home now , cold here and a tiny little bit of snow!!!!Tired, but what a great time I had!!!!
In Tocumwal,  Narromine and Benalla, I caught up with many friends, what great people there are in soaring is n’t it?

Thanks to Jo, for making a happy picture from me as well. It was MY pleasure to keep you updated during my holiday in Australia.

Cheers Ritz

12.30 ;
Just arrived in Benalla to see all gliders ready at the grid for the very last day of this OZ glide , combined with the 54 th Nationals.
Dundee, my ” personal chauffeur ” as he calls himself, dropped me off at the motel and later at he field.

Tasks have been set both A and B. The wind is tough and chilly , sun shines brightly and it looks like another blue day. Missed the briefing, but here are the tasks from the last day;
Open; 450 km.
18m.;346 km. 
15 m.;374 km.
So nice tasks with possibilities to loose or to gain points.
Just heard that new tasks will go out with a B/C task???[12.45]
They don’t change them straight away on the internet and I don’t have them so we have to wait what they are going to do now.

Yesterday was , as expected a non flying day. The weather was horrible, the temperature dropped from 44 to 22 and in the night even to 18 in Tocumwal. Their was a blowing gale and we really had to keep ourselves steady when visiting the most beautiful house of a friend on the top of a high hill in Wodonga.

    

The view and the interior.

 

The day before turned out to be a “ripper” ,though the day was cancelled in the morning, it was a very fast day,… but only for 15 and 18 m.
The day for 15 m. was devalued by the speed as Adam flew 324 km. in 2.02 ,so a speed of 159 km./h in the Ventus A. For that he deserved the highest points given this day;615.He started straight away at 3.02 PM.
Tim Bromhead from NZ started last at 16.27,finishing last at 18.02. But ,…he finished!!!!!
2 Out-landings one by Lisa,  she dropped from 15 to 20, a pity.
19 Pilots flew around with a speed of 142 km./h or higher.
Here is Matthew’s story written 2 days ago covering 2 days!!
—“It’s been a tough few days at the Nationals which has kept me from my blogging, but I’m back for now!
Yesterday we had essentially a distance task set that necessitated starting as soon as possible – I started at 4000ft on a day predicted to go higher than 11000ft. I pushed as hard as possible all day, risking outlanding around the task just trying to get as far as possible before the end of the day, and was lucky to be able to actually squeak around the task. (Un?)fortunately some who started behind also managed to, but no harm to the points.
Today was a very… interesting day. We awoke to a text informing us the day was cancelled, and then at 10am, having made our rest day plans, we got another text telling us the day was… uncancelled!? So we watered gridded and launched onto a booming trough for a 2hr AAT. I made some fatal errors but was lucky the right names also had bad days so no harm in the overall standings.-–”

Today they start with the knowledge that Matthew [6203] leads before Mac [6085] and Stephen with 5963 and Norm with 5764.

18 m.
had a 2.30 AAT last Wednesday with that peculiar weather and the peculiar decisions. Hungarian pilots don’t mind to fly along showers and fronts and used them as well as the GREAT clouds , to the fullest so they had a great day .Zoltan won with 401 km. in time 2.28. So a speed of 160,54 km./h. Bloody good!!!
Not a 1000- points- day “only”  800!!!
His mates were on spot 5 and 6 and Czech pilot Petr knows how to deal with that weather as well, he finished on 4 just behind Boerje from Sweden.
Tom [Claffey] was on spot 2.
That means that the number 1-2-3 are still Peter, Butch and Tom ,but Petr [5984] lost a spot to Zoltan, [5949], who was still on spot 6 after task 7; so a nice East European “fight ” here.

Open was cancelled that day and the opinions about it were “mixed”.
They know the overall scores well before they start today; Bruce [5695] , Andrew [5606] ,Ian [5394] and Scott and Ingo[5200]
Bruce’s view on today;
—“Wx, streaming from the south nicely!
Inversion – hence the poor vis.
This is a completely new air mass. .. If it’s from the south, not good, if SE, then can be good…..
Going to about 7k’. Forecast 25deg max, 27 to the north. Expected to stay blue. Maybe 6-8knts, nice only for a short period. Weatherman cautions us, but advises us to be optimistic!! 
(Luckily the tugs are all fuelled up for this afternoon, he says!!)—”

1.20:More later. They have not launched yet!!

1.45; They just cancelled 15 m. and 18m. class. ONLY OPEN WILL FLY today!!!

So CONGRATULATIONS to Matthew with his 2d BIG WIN this season. After becoming junior world champion he is now National 15 m. Champion as well AND qualified to fly the WGC next year here in Benalla.
Mac did well with a runner-up-position and Stphen is the number 3, bronze for him.

In 18 m. class Peter is the new National Champion and Butch and Tom have earned the silver and bronze.

Open class has just been cancelled!!!!! So Bruce is the new National Champion, after 6 out of 12 days in this class , with Andrew and Ian as number 2 and 3!!!

Congratulations to all.

Have to move here soon as at 3 PM,  the tables will be set.130 People have to be seated in this club house room, so it is sold out and it will be very “cosy” all together here.

Just a short note from my motel room.
Got some pictures from Mr. Du, who has left Tocumwal, for a few days to fly in Narromine again. One of his mates, a very fine pilot,  left last week, the other had to go home in a hurry after being in hospital for 3 days in Shepparton, with appendicitis problems.
Andrew was supposed to write more about soaring in China, but the translator unfortunately got sick. So only a picture from the Place they fly from and a link to www.loongwing.com 
Just to let you know!

That was the diary 2015/2016. Hope you liked it.
Back to the Wednesday-blogs soon.
Will make pictures tonight from the closing-ceremony and dinner ,but can only upload them when I am back home!
Tomorrow morning I will leave Benalla and a friend will bring me straight to the Airport.

Cheers Ritz

Wednesday January 13;
Only 3 days to go and I leave Australia again. For all friends who have been visiting Tocumwal, I made a trip through the memory-lane and share those pictures with you in the next blog blog.
It’s HOT !!!!! At 1.30 it is 41.4 dgr. C already, @2 PM 42.4 and the forecast s for 44. dgr.C.

Nice but weird-formed cirrus this morning. Never saw it before, very thin and quickly disappearing again.

———–

ready to go for day 6.
As shared by Nimbus.

But first back to Benalla. When I was “crunched”  by Simon, my chiropractor, and had to rest before and after treatment, the pilots had to fly again after a day off.
That day the weather was good , but due to stormy winds, the day was also too short, maybe a short very fast task had been possible for open or 18 m.???But safety FIRST!!!
Anyhow the day off was maybe needed to for some as well.
Yesterday they had to fly again and 556 km. was set for open class. From 16 , 3 out-landed and one of them was glider VS, so it was a bad day for my French friends. They only got 40 points!!!!!
They dropped from 4 to 12, nearly a free fall. A pity , BUT it is only practice!!!
Good day for South Australian pilot Grant Hudson in his ASH 31 MI; speed 124.49 good for 1000 points and HIS FIST WIN in a NATIONAL competition.
Good day as well for Erik Nelson , from the USA , who I met in Uvalde and in Benalla;5th place with a speed of 118,84 km./h. in the Nimbus 3. Erik is already qualified to participate in the 2017 WGC. This all is great practice for him.
With only 3 days to go , maybe 2 if the promised pouring rain indeed shows up tomorrow, no changes in the top 3, still Bruce , Andrew and Ian and only a difference between Bruce and Andrew after 6 flying days of 89 points .
Exciting!!!!

With the message:” Stoked to be home and find the tie down still empty for a change.Awesome day racing today!”
By Grant.

Here is Bruce again;

Taylor’s Gliding Page

—” A day of everything! The forecast was a bit off, and it never became hot enough to go as well as they thought. So the start height limit of 9,000 feet was about 3,000 feet too high, and the first 60 or 70 km was treacherous, and there were some early outlandings. As we flew closer to the high cumulus that had been beckoning, Scott Percival and Ingo Renner flew away from us, and by the time the rest of us connected and finally climbed up into the cool air, they were just a dot on the horizon. Clever buggers! Then it was real live race for an hour or more while we romped along up to 10,000 feet. Around Coolamon and across to Leeton it started to get a little tricky, as the clouds were decaying and only some spots were working. I fell off the pack a bit here, and was a bit too low to connect with the last few clouds before we were back in the blue heading south and home. However, I have been feeling pretty confident in the blue this week, and set my mind to catching up on the trip home. I could see Ian Craigie taking a much more eastern route, and until quite late in the flight he was higher and faster than I was. On our last climb I finally got slightly ahead of him and was the first glider home, though start times and handicaps put me down in about fourth place, but with good points. It was a win today for Grant Hudson, which might be his first nationals win, so very well done, Grant.
Hard work today, but I am very pleased with my own result, and the flight was a lot of fun.–-“

In 18 m. Butch was the fastest with 120.63 km.h. Great job from young Czech pilot Petr Svoboda, flying just a tad slower.Thomas and David were on 3 and 4.
10 From 28 finished so a real tough day with a set task of 652 km.
After 6 days it’s Peter, Butch and Tom, but Petr is trying hard to reach the first 3 as well. He is on 4 now , only  28 points behind Tom!!!

In 15 m. only 9 from 32 finished,a real battlefield in this class. 575 km. was set .
Most of the top pilots were in this top 9 group. A more difficult day for pilots as Lisa, Tobias, Allan and Adam as they all flew over 517 km. So not too far OUT!!!
Overall Matthew still leads , Mac is runner up and Stephen is still on spot 3.
French pilot Eric Bernard was the daily winner with 107 km. /h. just a tad faster than Norm,  who after NOT flying comps for a while, is REALLY BACK!!!!He is overall on a nice 4th spot!!!
Late arrivals yesterday , some after 8 PM.

Not sure if there will be a day 7 today. Rain is supposed to arrive in the afternoon first there than here maybe as well. Swiss Chris shared a weather picture and that says it all. He knows the weather well here and mentioned ” No typical weather patterns since mid December. A cyclone low in central Australia for 10 days. Then no northerly winds until today.”

First there was the message for Jan 13 ; “NO TASK TODAY ….Extreme weather and wind changes make launching impossible.”
Then,……”Cold front expected this afternoon. Isolated thunderstorms, dust Storms also. Cloud increasing. Xc Skies say a short day. “Thermals to 12k. Winds 35knts from the north west.

Then…..”OZ Glide change of plan.Task maybe possible,details at briefing.”

later a 2 hour AAT was set for open, 2.30 for 18 m. who are first at the grid to be launched and 15 m. got 2 hours as well.
Also here in Toc about 100 km. more N., clouds appeared high up, but building up quickly too. It could be a short fast day!!!
THEN,……Open class was cancelled.Some very experienced open- pilots waited / still hoped .
18 m and 15 m. went for a 2 hour AAT.

Bruce shared a picture with a fun comment on FB:  ” Feels like Uvalde on a bad day, and the local pastor in Uvalde suggested that hell might be preferable!!!!” 

At this stage 2 PM wind is picking up here, clouds are growing TOO quickly  and it looks already like rain far up N.

2.30; 2 Gliders just went up here, but even under the most beautiful clouds they are not yet “rocketing ” up!!Black skies up N but closer now and more NE. Wind N N W.Temperature now; 43.6 dgr.C. Rain in the East as well, still more launching here at Tocumwal. Some pilots love flying along the “edges” of showers. In Africa or Namibia they” use” mostly those elements of weather. Clouds here just look fabulous!
To the W and S it still looks good.

Picture above from 2 PM. by George.

At 4 the temperature was 44 dgr.C. It went up to 44.9 , [thermometer is in the shade, linked up to a toy in the office] ,but I missed that whilst waiting for the 45!!!
I work here in a hangar with 39 dgr. C. so a lot of drinking.Lot’s of noise as well due to strong wind gusts.
The S does n’t look too good from here now too, the W is still perfect.

The Finnish team in Benalla,  shared a picture as well.

As you can see it is “nice warm”.

For today’s scores you have to go to www.soaringspot.com as I have to go out for dinner tonight.

———-

Tomorrow I am off to Albury for the day. Friday morning I leave for Benalla and Saturday I fly out from Tullamarine back home.
Will be writing about the last day in Benalla, though I will only be there around 12.
CU then.
Cheers Ritz

For all who have been here in Tocumwal and could not come back but still have the great memories here a few pictures I made from “our ”  lovely small town , with just over 2000 people.A farewell for me as well.

The first help ,for who needs them comes from the people from this head quarter. Nowadays the fire brigade goes first also helping out with heart attacks or accidents. They are trained to give FIRST AID .

The RSL [Returned Soldiers League] building open twice a week for their families and friend and for functions.

Part of the shops on the right site of the road coming from the airfield.

Same road bit further up.

The hotel/motel Palms on the left site.

Proof that there are PALMS at the Palms.

The Antique shop where many had a coffee or tea with Dutch apple cake or bought presents there to take home.

Says it all Mick Haynes the butcher and the book shop where everybody buy’s the paper.

Nostalgia at the Tourist Information Center. WHY……

That say’s it all…….

        

The MIGHTY MURRAY RIVER and it’s brand new ramp for boats.

The river with it’s new camping area and white beach at the Victorian site.

The out-side-area of dining at the Tattersall’s pub.

    

The practice of my chiropractor and the post office.

The little wooden church.

And to finish the painting on the “big”  supermarket.

AND
of course

Sportavia’s OLD WW2 hangar.

Cheers Ritz

———-

Monday evening;
I could see it already in the morning, overcast, bloody hot and dusty. I guessed the day was cancelled in Benalla, as the wind here at 5 was from 1 minute into the other, BAD/STRONG!!!Indeed they cancelled before launching, so the set 700 km. was not going to happen. Now in the evening you can only say ;good decision!!!!

I went to Shepparton for the day with Jill. Nice day out and we both did what was necessary.Here are some pictures from the pub and our -German- lady- friends- from- the- Sportavia -past for sure remember this pub , Hotel Australia, which was yellow in the past, grey now!!!!We had always lovely meals there and we had a great one again today!!!

    

————

Day 5 ; “ Open class is about to launch on a 600km task going around the Albury airspace and into the hills!”
As shared by the organizers.

But I look back at day 5 first. In open class Bruce was again the best and received the 1000 points for a speed of 145 km./h. over 600 km. NOT BAD!!!
Andrew did well as runner up [144.20 km./h.] and Wolfgang and Andy were on a nice 3d spot.[127 km./h.
Only one out-landing.

Bruce mentioned about the day;
—” Today we were tasked out into the mountains. I have to say I thought it was a really fun task, with plenty of variety. We had mountains, flat, cumulus, blue, great thermals, and crappy ones, all in one flight. Pre-takeoff I suggested to Eric Napoleon and Laurent Aboulin that they might need a briefing before they ventured out into our Aussie mountains, but they didn’t seem to think that was required. Eric has lived and flown in the French Alps for who knows how many years, and probably knows mountains as well as any pilot on the planet. Plus they are real mountains, not our piddling little hills.
Anyway, I couldn’t get high enough to start, so I left when it was time to go despite that small problem. Initially it was blue, but soon we were in the hills and there were some cumulus. A few of the climbs there were excellent, and although I felt I deviated perhaps too much we made good time. There was some airspace to take care with around Albury, and all too soon we were out in the flat again, and it was blue, blue, blue. I spent almost all day with Andrew Georgeson, and it was comforting to have the company when I got a bit low near our northern turn point. We swapped places all day, above, below, above again. Eventually it was a great run home for a good speed, 145kph over 600 km. Getting in the groove in the JS1 again, although I did have some issues with my glide computer today, which made me nervous as the GPS kept dropping out… rather vital for getting a score at the end of the day. More work to do in the morning.-–”
After 5 days Bruce is overall on spot 1 with 4720 points. Runner up Andrew with 4664 [both JS 1] and on spot 3 Ian also in the JS 1C with 4409. The French are on 4 with their Duo Discus. Good on them.

18 m. class;
Peter Temple was in a hurry as well,flying the set 455.80 km. with a speed of 144.70 km./h. in the ASG 29.
Well done for Czech pilot Petr Svoboda flying himself to a runner-up-place with a speed of 134.12 km./h.
Butch flew a tad slower.
Rolf out landed and that’s a pity as he dropped from 20 to 24 overall..
After 5 days we see 4753 points for Peter, followed by Butch 4466 and and Tom 4401.

15 m. class;
Great day in this class and the day was won by Norm [Bloch] ;speed 142.02 closely followed by Adam with 142.32 km./h.
14 Pilots flew around over the set 445 km.with a speed of 133 and 142 km.h.
At Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures you can see every day a video about the day.
In this class the overall scores after 5 days are as follows ;Matthew with 4.684, Mac with 4544 and Stephen with 4464.
Anne is doing well she is on spot 5!!!

Talking about the ladies in this competition ; They are “caught” in a beautiful picture , by another lady Anita!!!.

Anne, from France, Catherine from Australia, Sarah from the USA, Swaantje from Germany, Lisa from Australia and Marta from Australia.

———–

And to finish a nice air-picture from day 1 , shared by the organizers.
Cheers Ritz

Sunday January 10;
great blue skies with a few cirrus-firmaments here in Toc. in the morning, but those will burn out very quickly; it looks like another great and hot day.[predicted temperature at 5 PM is 37 dgr. C.]
Gliders are lined up and ready to go,in the East clouds already pop up.

It was really nice to be in Benalla yesterday and I look forward to my visit on Friday.
Here is the wrap up from yesterday ,….the 4th flying day.

Open class;
3 JS 1 C -gliders in the top and indeed Ian got the highest scores ;950 for a speed of 133.79 km./h..
Not far after Bruce , Andrew and Scott with Ingo followed.
All 15 pilots in this class finished. The nimbus 2 pilots had a long day flying 4.14 and 4.29 hours BUT,….they finished!!!!![89 and 84 km./h]

TODAY; 600 km. was “served for breakfast ” for the open class pilots.

18 m. Class;
3 From 28 out-landed and there was one pilot faster than Peter, who leaded when I left you yesterday on the preliminary list. It was BB, John “Butch ” Buchanan. Earlier one of the JWGC Aussie team coaches , Brian Hayhow won , very special, his FIRST NATIONAL WIN, now it was Butch. Good on both of them.
Butch flew with a speed of 115.58 km./h., Peter “did it ”  with 110.68 km./h.
ASG 29-time here !!!! The best 3 are from this type;  16 from 28 are ASG-29 gliders.
The best 4 in this class overall, are all very experienced WGC pilots; Peter, Butch, Tom and David!!!

Here is Bruce and today with a picture as well:
—“Much better day today. Even early in the morning it was heating up much faster, and generally the lift was easier to find and use, and it went higher. Nothing startling, but speeds were up over 130 kph. We went south-west down near Euroa, which was very quiet, then north to Finley. Once we got north of the Murray River it started going well, and after thinking that I had been left behind by the crowd, they all flew into my thermal mostly below me, and I started smiling again. Wolfgang Janowitsch said I should always smile, even when things are totally crappy, so I flew along with him for quite a long while, and had the pleasure of watching Wolfgang in Brad Edward’s ASH25, which he is flying with his friend Ande Lutz. There they are in the photo… What a beautiful glider it is.
I did manage to finish ahead of my pack, but was pipped at the post by Ian Craigie. Nice flight today, I really enjoyed it.—“

 

Wolfgang and Andreas.
Picture by Bruce Taylor.

Taylor’s Gliding Page

TODAY: 455.80 km.

15 m. class;
All 32 pilots finished one a bit faster than the other.
Indeed Adam had a BIG day and won in the Ventus A; 1000 points for him , for sure a happy boy; 124 km./h over the 411 km.
Greg and Lisa shared the number 2 spot whilst Norm did well again on spot 4!!

A happy smiling Adam.
Shared by Bruce Taylor.

TODAY; 445 km.

I do understand that they fly East ,….it’s getting better there all the time.

———-

Tocumwal from the air!!!

Tocumwal;
I presume the pilots at the airport will fly into that direction as well.
Here they started this morning at 27, moved to 36 and later back to 27.
3 tuggies ; one from Sportaviation , Bill for the SRGC  and the Scout from Outback Soaring flown by Bruce. Mr. Du is going to make another check-flight and flight in his ARCUS.
As far as I heard this operation will continue for another month or so. They plan to be in” full swing”  during the next season.

At the moment, pretty special,  there are 3 ARCUS gliders here at the aerodrome. One with Chinese owners, one with Danish and one , from Roger Druce , a real Aussie owner.

Roger and Neil busy to have the glider ready for a flight.

Jeroen is flying the SRGC Caproni with a guest for a bigger local flight and Judy and Dieter are on duty as CFI and duty officer for SRGC. Eddie and his tuggy keep Sportaviation going with a few flights in the afternoon in the Twin Astir , as the private pilots have gone long ago for a flight. Huge willi-willie’s like in Uvalde are popping up , meaning it is a real good but blue day.

     

Moving first from 36 to 27 and then a flight in the Calif-Caproni.
Though in the end they did not fly and Jeroen and Bruce went for a “ride”  in the good old Blanik!

Judy and Dundee and Bill and Dundee, an active busy Sunday afternoon.

In between ” visual progress”  on the Piper Apache 23; THE WINGS ARE ON.
Good on Jamie and Diana

———

Cheers Ritz,
no news tomorrow I will be gone for the day.

Saturday December 9 2016.

Just back from Benalla. The tuggies have done their job, pilots were up in the air starting from 12.45 onward , for a hopefully better day than yesterday, so we could go home again, as Dieter prefers to drive home during the day.Will be back there on Friday for the last day, taking my laptop to keep you informed.

Today we were right on time to attend the briefing and it was “cool”  to catch up with a lot of international pilots practicing in Benalla now for next year. AND..the Aussie pilots who have to qualify for the BENALLA WGC 2017 , during these 54 Nationals.
The briefing was in a majestic new hall at the field, a bit like the big university hall in Uvalde [Texas].
This however is,  the BENALLA PERFORMING ARTS AND CONVENTION CENTER.

    

Tim Shirley, the CD now, [next year it will be Terry Cubley,] welcomed the pilots ,…. a hall FULL…., with a smile and an excuse for the day from yesterday. It was a difficult day, a real struggle for some, but looking at the amount of out landings it was n’t too bad.

There were safety notes ….landing long and manage your energy….and CD notes.
One was interesting, as when we were there the police arrived and I was wondering if at the field speed would be punished, as some might have thought ,they were on a racing circuit.
It seems that the car park is under normal driving laws. That includes drinking laws , seat belts and talking on phones while driving.

The other one was about a rest day!!! They started with day 4 today and according to the rules they could still  give a rest day next Thursday, when they expect RAIN, even pouring rain.
BUT…as a good CD , Tim looks at the fatigue of pilots as well, so we have to wait and see.

With a max. temperature of 34 dgr. C,… it felt MUCH hotter,….. and an expectation of lift up to first 5000 ft, later 6/7000 and more up north 8000 ft. , NO clouds so very blue again, the pilots were send to their gliders ready at the grid at the far end.
They also got the message that for the upcoming days a weak through is developing.

BUT before leaving  the 77 pilots heard from the winning pilots from day 3, how that all happened.
First the open class was mentioned and with Sylvain Gerbaud from France [Nimbus 3T/24.5 m] as a good 3d, Matt Cage in his ASG 29 on an even better second place, it was Scott Percival/Ingo Renner who were the daily winners in the ASH 25 M!!!.
Ingo only said that he is “ballast” and that it is all Scott’s “fault”, but Scott had other ideas. He brought some kind of tribute to Ingo, who won 19 National titles and 4 world titles.
He invited Ingo to fly with him in his ASH 25 and felt privileged when Ingo said yes, though”  he finds himself TOO OLD NOW” added Scott!!!!
For Scott it is the high light of his flight career.”He still is sharp “,  he said, and it is a pleasure to fly with him.
They both got a standing OVATION !!!!
In open class 15 pilots finished.
Here’s Bruces view on yesterday;
—“What a struggle that was! A tough, blue day where you need all the heating you can get, and we had heavy patches of cirrus passing overhead all day. Thermals ranged between 1 knot and 7 knots, with (for me anyway) a high percentage closer to the bottom end of the scale. It was an AAT of 3 hours duration. I won’t go on about how I flew, but I wasn’t too happy when I got home. All the way to the finish line it was hard work, and I went way too close to outlanding as we came south over the Murray River.
Good news is that the water ballast seal has remained in place. We found a new spare one, and I glued it in, never to move again.
The weather looks to be a little better tomorrow, and then much better Sunday/Monday. Here’s hoping.”—-
Today they went on track with a C task. 369 km. I hope it will be better, Bruce!!!!!

Matt number 2 and his crew Ailsa, who performed so well at the JWGC in Narromine,when she talks about it she still “shines”.

18 m.
In this class yesterday , 2 “girls”  unfortunately out landed, the rest finished.
Peter Temple, won the day with a speed of 109 km./h. That shows it was n’t easy!
416 km. in 3.49 during the 3.30 AAT.
Peter flew mostly by himself and had no reference how good or bad his day was. Sometimes frustrated with the broken thermals, he did well and won the day!!!
Today they fly 389 km.

15 m.
28 from 31 finished in this class. Number 3 was Stephen in the LS 8, number 2 Tobias , a local top pilot, and on spot 1 it was Bryan Hayhow, one of the coaches  from the young Aussies at Narromine’s JWGC.
Bryan told the pilots that in his opinion yesterday was a day,  really suited  for hang glider pilots.He was pleased that Matthew got the gaggle going and Stephen showed him  a great cu with top lift.
Matthew might have less happy he finished on a 12 th daily spot.
Today they have a C task as well. They were the first to be launched.

Trailers lined up.
     

Bruce [Taylor] and David [Jansen ] with their wives and Ian ” NIMBUS” Newman long time …no see.

A happy Austrian pair ; former World Champion Wolfgang with his mate Andreas.
By the way I WAS WRONG!!!!!!! Wolfgang did not fly in Benalla in 1987 , he was too young!!Sorry I was so sure, but it was another Benalla competition.
No worries,…. we are still great friends!!!!

Talking about 1987, I made some pictures and it is nice to see that,  Ib Wienberg,  who arrives soon here in Tocumwal , was one of the Benalla-1987-pilots in 15 m. class. He is on the list below!So is George who flew with our son Dennis in open class.

     

On the way back home the weather in Tocumwal was a bit so-so. Skies not as blue as in Benalla, but more “milky”. Enough willy-willies however along the road at the paddocks. Pilots will pass by and I hope , Toc being about 100 km. more N. …that they reach the 8000 here.
You can follow them at ;LIVETRACK24.COM

By the way there are some interesting tugs there. One is a TRANSAVIA AIRTRUK, a real weird -looking tug ,used as AGG plane and built in Sydney, as I heard from Graham.
He advised me to google it which I did:
—“The Transavia PL-12 Airtruk is a single-engine agricultural aircraft designed and built by the Transavia Corporation in Australia. The Airtruk is a shoulder-wing strut braced sesquiplane of all-metal construction, with the cockpit mounted above a tractor engine and short pod fuselage with rear door. The engine cowling, rear fuselage and top decking are of fibreglass. It has a tricycle undercarriage, the main units of which are carried on stub wings. It has twin tail booms with two unconnected tails. Its first flight was in 22 April 1965, and was certified on 10 February 1966.—“

The other is a yellow ” modified”  Pawnee, and when it passes it does n’t sound like a Pawnee. reason; It has a V 8 car engine and it tows well.

Back to today as some have finished;
In 15 m. the pilots started for a set C- task from 411.39 km.
Adam [Woolley]  is in and seems to have done well. The preliminary scores show a speed of 124 km./h.
Matthew has 117 .07 km./h at this preliminary stage and Norm [Bloch] was just a tad faster.[117.24 km./h]

In open class the 381 km.C- task was flown with a speed of 133.79 km./h. by Ian Craigie, and with that he tops at this stage the preliminary results.

In 18 m. class it’s waiting for the first pilots to arrive from the 389 km long-set- task.There are a 3 in now at 7 PM; Peter Temple, speed 110,68 km.h.
For all scores you can go to www.soaringspot.com

——–

Interesting things happening here as well in Tocumwal.We celebrated the approval by the GFA from Outback Soaring here in Tocumwal and the new instructors; CFI Simon and level 1 Jeroen.

Diana, George, Simon and Jeroen.

Today Jamie, who worked with us as lamy in the past on tug’s, Dove and Albatross, as well as tuggy before we were here , is back and flies in and out with his nice toy.

      

AND
last but not least!!!!
Mr Du had his first SOLO FLIGHT in the ARCUS M.
3 hours and 51 minutes of pure joy so to see at his face!!!

———-

cheers Ritz

January 8;
A great “morning -tea” for  Nicole, Richard and me at Chrissies Bookshop [ sorry…no pictures, no time, too much talking!] and a very good lunch later in Barooga with my longtime friends , Margie, Lesley, Gina, Jill and Deslee. Last time this season I saw Lesley as she lives in Oaklands , not really next doors.But compared to other distances here in Australia not far away either.

    

With Gina, Jill, Deslee, Margie and Lesley.

We decided right now, to go back to this pub in 25 years………..

Today in a week I will leave Tocumwal for Benalla’s last day and party/closing ceremony/prize giving.
Booked a room and a ticket for the dinner and one of my friends will bring me to Melbourne Airport the next day.
All organized!!!!

Talking about Benalla, I will be going there tomorrow to see and hear what’s going on, now I share what I read and heard.
THEY FLY today. It’s pretty blue here,with high cirrus firmaments and lot’s of airplane-trails.
I heard they pass by later in the day,so I have a look for you!!!
Open class and 18 m. have a 3.30 AAT, 15 m. 3.00 and they should pass by here. All others are flying along this area, about 20 k more to the N. over Finley and Berrigan , Rand and Tocumwal is a border of a cylinder as well.
Later they changed it in a C task for open as Bruce mentioned;3 hour AAT.

Yesterday, 15 from 15 in open class finished and Ian won the day in his JS 1c;136 km./h. That’s about 10 km./h. faster than the Finnish team with Antti in the ARCUS M.
12 From 15 were faster than 115 km. /h.
Antti shared some news from the Masters in Rayskala. I KNOW what a great place it is, I love it!!!! On that first day of the EGC I was there as a steward and it was exceptional exciting such a 1000 on day 1 and lot’s flew it!!!!
” To all my gliding friends: when planning competitions for summer 2016 keep in mind the new international gliding competition Räyskälä Masters. Räyskälä has hosted several EGC and WGC competitions since 1976 when the WGC was held there for the first time. The competition period is 11.-18.6.2016, which is the best period for gliding and long tasks are possible if the weather is at its best. In 2005 EGC we had the 1011 km task on the first competition day. Maybe another 1000km task in next summer’s Räyskälä Masters!

TEAM AM [Lehto/Luukkanen] from Finland.

In 18 m. class, INDEED ,Tom Claffey won and except for one pilot who missed out on 100 k, all finished.Nice speed as well; 131.km./h. Peter Temple was runner up and Hungarian pilot Zoltan was 3th and Czech pilot Petr 5th. with David in between.

In 15 m. it looked yesterday , when I left you,  GOOD for Matthew and it WAS good!!! He won again, so 2 daily wins, one a bit of a lucky one as he wrote by himself. All 33 pilots finished so did Swaantje, flying 4 hours and 18 minutes after being SO ill!!!!You can only admire her.
Matthews view on day 2;
” Day 2 – one of those blue days with lots of cu. I saw a bunch of gliders up in wave prestart, and assumed they’d all started out of the wave when they disappeared – seems like they all fell out and started beneath the clouds anyway. Started pretty much as soon as I got up and just managed to catch the tail end of the main gaggle before the cumulus ran out, and worked my way up the gaggle in the blue then lead out onto final glide for first home. Looking truly blue today.”

It looks like a difficult day today for the OZGLIDE pilots. Guess scores will be later in and some out landings are already a fact.
www.soaring.eu for the latest on scores.

———-

In between a lot of action at the Tocumwal Aerodrome as well. The “Chinese”  Arcus M flew it’s maiden flight with 2 instructors and later with an instructor and Andrew “Ping” Du one of the owners. He was so enthusiastic about this flight, that he straight away shared it with “their followers”  on FB.
Schempp-Hirth is doing a great job in keeping an eye on things like this and Andrew got their congratulations for the flight over
Tocumwal and now of course , it’s waiting for the first flight in China with this VH-CHA.

As you know they are in the process of setting up a commercial center here in Tocumwal, so it’s buzzing from all kind of activities.

———–

Cheers Ritz

Tuesday January 5;

No flying yet in Benalla.BUT,…it will happen soon. The weather is weird. A too hot month of December , a too cold start of the normal hottest month of January.Look at this…..

   

This is normal and this is NOW.

The next 2 weeks will be VERY busy, [lot’s of lunches, driving around behind black Betty , dinners etc .,etc and lot’s of rest after my bones are cracked again] but after I have been in Benalla this upcoming Saturday ,where the next full week just looks good to fly, I will be back with the latest on the OZGLIDE/54th Nationals.On the last flying -day, Friday in Benalla, I will be there as well.One day later I am on my way home!!!

The gorgeous skies yesterday.

Thursday JANUARY 7;
So you wear socks , so you “sweat”  again from the high temperatures. This is AUSTRALIA , mate!!!
Yesterday the skies looked great. We were driving behind BLACK BETTY,,…I show you pictures later when I am back from lunch but after the rain, the skies looked fabulous. HOWEVER at 4 from the South some showers appeared, but then we were back home already.
The great skies meant that flying was possible in Benalla, after they had to cancel the practice day and first day , due to poor/weird weather.
We knew there would be still some rain yesterday ,but from now on they predict,…..”it will be dry”!!!

Tasks were set yesterday so a 3 hour AAT was set in open and 18 m. and the “smaller ships” had to go for 3.30 hours.
As said the rain was visible from here about 77 km. to the N. at 4, and indeed some pilots could not make it home on the first flying day.
In open class Bruce Taylor [JS 1c] was the best with 437 km. in time 3.34, so a speed of 122 km./h.
The French team in the Duo Discus, FLYING IN OPEN CLASS !!!! “lost” 2 points [998] in the Duo Discus from Narromine. 10 From 16  finished!!!
Here is Bruce’s story more to be found at Taylor’s Gliding Page . [on FB.]
—” Finally we have a competition day… It’s really not that bad, as we have only missed one day so far. It is just that the weather has been crappy for the past five days.
It started with bright sunshine and a crystal clear sky, and a water ballast seal trying to find its way out of the wing. By the time I got it back in place and filled the tanks we were almost late onto the launch grid. It is good fun waiting to launch, with all the overseas pilots wondering about how Benalla works. There is plenty of joking about; Eric Napoleon and Laurent Aboulin are flying a Duo Discus in the Open Class, which for the non-gliding folk is kind of like racing your Toyota Land Cruiser against the V-8 Supercars. But wait, between Eric and Laurent there are maybe 4 world championship gold medals, so there will not be too many mistakes made in that cockpit. Their rego is “VS”, which I thought might be Very Slow, Anita suggested Very Sexy, but at the end of the day it was actually Very Speedy!!
3 hour AAT, the first leg was fantastic, running along at cloudbase with no circling, then the thermals became difficult to work, and I found it hard to stay really high on the second leg until we were back close to the trough line. Then it was a blast again, until the sky filled in and the choice was straight on track or take a huge diversion around the west of the rain. Fortunately I took the diversion, as most of those who flew straight ahead didn’t come home. It took the shine off some high speeds, but home was a good place to be today.
I finished just 2 points ahead of Very Speedy. Better keep my mouth shut!—” 
Today they have a task from 526 km.’

David Jansen was the best in 18 m. class . He flew 394 km. with a speed of 129 km./h in the ASG 29, followed by Rolf Buelter from the Geelong Gliding Club in his LS 8/18 m.
David was more than 10 km. faster than the runner up.
Normally Rolf is here for the summer camp , his mates are here now without him and good to see he flew so well on the first day. He was one of the 18[ from 28] finishers!!!

TODAY; 466 km.

17 from 31 finished in 15 m. class.Who else than …..Matthew [Scutter]won day 1 in his Discus 2A, BUT…only after Miles [Gore Brown] missed the start-line and got penalty points for that.
Matthew  flew 420 km. in time 3.48, so a speed of 110 km./h.
Miles was 2d  with 113 km./h., Mac 3d.[105 km./h]
Fabulous to see Swaantje flying an ASW 20 in this class!!!! Chapeau!!!!
Here is his view, more to be read at Matthew Scutter’s Gliding [at FB] ;
“Day 1, Australian 15m Nationals, selection event for WGC2016 (Benalla)
Started by myself because I was worried about storms later in the day. The wind was howling through the Kilmore Gap creating a bit of a convergence which I turn on to head north, ran a long way north, then had to navigate some rain showers on the way home. Made a few errors and had to make 40km of deviation which wiped 10-15kph off my speed and lost me first for the day, but (un)fortunately first place missed the start line, so I got it after all. Sometimes you have to make your own luck, other times it’s just given to you.”
Today; 406 km.

The weather here was blue, but quickly clouds pop up every where! It looks like a good day for the pilots here and there, they started flying already early.
The day turned out good as pilots have finished their tasks already in Benalla and scores are to be found at www.soaringspot.com
Preliminary scores show nice speed as well, around 136 km./h. in open class, it looks Matthew did well again in 15 m. class with 128 km./h. but not everybody is scored yet!!!
In 18 m. it looks like a good day for Tom Claffey in his ASG 29 E, speed 131 km./h.

Benalla TODAY!!!!

———–

More diary stuff;
As said yesterday was the BLACK BETTY day.

Dundee with Black Betty.

Last year I already got an invitation by Richard Vincent, our former instructor to go with him through a beautiful area of unseen places here in this part of Australia. Loved it. As the sulky was in revision, we went with a little covered wagon , so Dundee was invited as well.

    

The sulky and the wagon.

    

Dundee feeding the horse and I am ready for a trip through unseen areas.

It was just so much fun, though I felt “like a milk shake” after nearly 3 hours. The views were amazing and I show a few pictures.

    

Amazing views from lagoons, creeks and plants
and
VERY OLD trees.

After the nearly 3 hour-ride, the horse got a shower and a few carrot’s and was brought back to it’s mate Clyde.

    

A very special day.

AND,..it did not finish then.After we had bubbles at Dundees and good cheese with Margie and Jeroen, another good Tocumwal-day finished with home- made- pea- soup!!

————-

Lunch today at the Pavillion, was with Tugger’s [Anthony, who has been a tuggy with us several years] parents who drove up from Deniliquin to see us.Lovely people.
I spoke with Anthony as well ,he just arrived home after a flight ,[ he flies as a captain with Jet Star,]  starting his day at 3 AM this morning.

     

George with Faye and Ken.

———

And to finish this Aussie-news from Channel 9:

A NSW farmer will lead a convoy of 120 trucks travelling 1860km north to deliver more than 150 trailers full of hay to drought-stricken farmers in Queensland. 
The hay is expected to assist more than 200 drought-affected properties.
A record 86 percent of Queensland is currently stricken by drought

Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/01/04/09/10/nsw-farmer-organises-convoy-of-120-trucks-to-deliver-donated-hay-to-drought-stricken-queensland#w7E4gvPFRfW2eyvD.99

There are still lot’s of GOOD people!!!!

Cheers Ritz

Friday morning;
As you might have seen I added some more pictures in the earlier blog as I found they belong to 2015.
The party pictures will be on tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, as I am too busy today.

Have a nice weekend.

Cheers Ritz

Beautiful Tocumwal with “just”  one of the creeks along the walking track I follow to town.

Sunday morning;January 3.
Slowly I will go back to my-more- normal-blog-style and be less personal.
This was the AUSTRALIAN diary and I loved writing it but with the Benalla comps it is easy to get back in the normal -blog-groove.

Before I do so I wish to remember our son and brother Dennis, who lost his life here close by , in a freak accident with the tug VH-ADP, today 28 years ago.
R.I.P.
NEVER FORGOTTEN!!!!

First of all,….THANK YOU for all the good wishes for the year 2016!!!
The last day of 2015 and the first one in 2016 were hot with up to 39 dgr. C. Very humid as well.
Then the change came and Benalla might be not having the weather they have hoped for, at least for the next couple of days.They start tomorrow with an official practice day .
Ingo is flying with Scot Percival in the ASH 25. The 4- times world champion calls himself ” just ballast”.
He drives up and down from Toc. to Benalla as it is “just” 77 km.
After flying in Benalla, he was at the SRGC part on the last day of the year and I promised you some pictures here they are.

   

Annie Wilson and I ready to go to the party….with bubbles. And….the ladies ready with some entree nibbles.

    

Joergen from Denmark with Annie and Dieter and members from the Geelong Gliding Club . And guests at Tocumwal with SRGC members Dieter Dundee and YH.

Dieter from Geelong who started his soaring in 1987/88 here in Tocumwal at Sportavia and now back here as a member of the Geelong ,Gliding Club, [he has been flying more here in the past] together with Mr. Ballast …Ingo Renner himself.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, 2015 was globally seen the hottest year on record.
Australia was hot , but has been hotter before they claim, in 2013.
Due to the influence of EL NINO,the first half of 2016 will be have “above average temperatures” as well.
In some states as SA and NSW where we are, they had the hottest December in more than 100 years.
On January 6 they are going to release the official 2016 weather fore cast for Australia , for what it is worth.
They expect EL NINO to end in autumn 2016, when the temperatures and rainfall will go back to normal.

Globally seen , you notice the impact on TV or in the paper,with devastating flooding in parts of the USA and UK, a more luxury problem with lack of snow in the lower ski resorts in Europe , with all the results for holiday makers and ski-resort-staff and no -income and with scorcher -days here in Australia.
NOW it is over here, we had a GOOD drop of rain  yesterday and fabulous clouds before the storm arrived. Severe weather-warnings for places as Wangaratta and Yarrawonga.

   

I happened to be at the cemetery when I noticed fast growing cauliflower-clouds and storms to the E. and  S.

The last day of the OLC was topped by a [former] SRGC member Bernie Seizer in his PIK 20 flying 814 km. [750 FAI triangle] from Ararat.
“First 750Km flight.
With thick cirrus and weak lift in many places, this was a difficult flight. Made some big deviations to get around large areas of shadow and  had to fly many km’s into the sea air at Keith and  then back to lift. I didn’t think I was going to make it… had planned to land back at Horsham but managed a good climb just after dumping the water.”
Congratulations Bernie.

The 2d day of 2016, was a glorious one for former Tocumwal visitors Karin and Marcus; a fabulous 1.370 km. [1.102 km. FAI triangle] with a good speed of 144 km./h. in their ARCUS M flying from Kuruman. Congratulations!!
Not bad from dad Hans either, 1.245 km. in the DG 800 /18 m. flying some kind of yo-yo with legs from 390 and 323 km….from N to S of Kuruman.
And more congratulations for pilots flying in South Africa;
“Declared 800km FAI Triangle @ 149km/h new Dutch National Open Class record.” was the message from Dutch record-chaser, Max Leenders and Dirk Nieuwenhout flying from Douglas Backhouse in the Minbus 4 DM.

My Belgium friends , the Schmelzer’s are flying from Kiripotib, and had a “hard-labor-day” yesterday;757 km.
And some of my LASHAM friends have arrived in Bitterwasser for some good soaring.
Young Davide from Italy has started his soaring in BIWA as well.

The 2d 2016-day here , yesterday, looked not impressive, but turned out rather impressive before the storm arrived.It even was HOT , with an unexpected 38 dgr.at 5 PM.
This is what Swiss Chris [flying with Sportaviation] had to say:” What a day after the weak start.
One climb after tow , the rest flying straight along the trough line ,but unfortunately did not have the final height to close the circuit to the takeoff point (triangle would have been 340km)”.He flew 555.5 km.

“Rain and hail coming out of these.”

   

“Some water in the wings would have made it less bumpy and faster”   AND, ” What else do you want.”

170km/h and still 4.6m/s lift at 9400ft

Today, it  started to rain [2 PM] only a shower,no worries…. several pilots went “up”.

Cheers Ritz.