As I wrote already in my last blog, containers have arrived in Namibia.Just in time!!!
Kiripotib straight away was in full action as you can read on their news:
“It was a busy day.
Yesterday morning 8:00 our three containers, with together 14 gliders arrived, after a long trip, just in time, in Kiripotib. They wherent even on the ground, as we started already to unload them. Lots of boxes, ground handling equipment and many many other things had to be unloaded. But first of all, how are the gliders? Everything was ok, no damage. After unloading and inspection, we started to rig one after the other. At the end of the day 5 gliders where ready to fly. A really busy day for all of us, my watch showed me 23.500 steps, 18km done.”

They started also straight away with flying.
Day 1 from Flying with the Champions and 6 champions are flying from here with their trainees;
On November 2 , 4 flights in an ARCUS M and one in a Ventus 3M. All over 650 km. Best by junior Christian Lampert and Alexander Mueller;958 with a speed of 130 km./h. /906 FAI triangle!!!!!
What a great experience for Christian!!!!!
Day 2 was booming ; 1.129 km in ARCUS M….and 2 more 1000 km. flights.
On November 4, day 3; 2 x an over 1 .200 km. flight and another 5x a 1000 plus ,…one of them from Christian and Alexander; 1.149 km.
Yesterday another 5 over 1000 km.-plus flights and many more long flights just under the magic number.

Also action from Bitterwasser.
“Pre-briefing 1000 km camp
Some junior pilots were looking forward to the upcoming trip to Bitterwasser, the others brought with them beautiful experiences from the gliding center. They met on invitation of Wilfried Großkinsky in Cologne to prepare for flying in southern Africa. The participants of the last camp reported on their experiences.

Bitterwasser’s day 1 started with 10 good flights, 1 even over 1000 km. by Reinhard Schramme and Bernd Goretzki; 1.021 km.[882 FAItriangle] speed 130 km./h.
On Sunday; 1.150 in EB 28 , 1.067 km. FAI triangle, speed 146 km./h.!!!
And same pilots , same glider on Monday;1.150 km. AND,..the only FAI triangle that day as on Sunday.
Yesterday ;several just under 1000 km.-flights.

VERONICA..started with 2 great flights as well; 930 by Bernd Dolba /Juergen Depil and Michael Koester flew in a HPH 304S Shark 852 km.
On Monday also 3 x a 1000, one in the ETA by 2 German toppers in the past and still now; Bruno and Uli.
Yesterday; 2 more 1000’s.

And also in SOUTH AFRICA the Cape Gliding Club has really started with 14 flights up too 733 k. in a DG 80 B/18m.last Saturday.
Last Monday 2x a 1000 from Bloemfontein;UK pilot Shaun and SA topper Mannie.

N.Z had great weather last week. Young Dutch ” season-helper/crew” at Omarama, Robin, made already a few nice but not so long flights, last Sunday however he flew in the Discus 916 km. in wave and blue even warm circumstances!!! Good on him. And,…a seriously fast one for our junior pilot; 158 km./h.
Keith Essex , back in Omarama flew 1.025 in the ASG 29. As he commented he wanted ”  to stay low and run the ridges but the sky sucked me up. Blue weak wave and unusually warm for this time of year. “
Yesterday another TOP day with a TOP performance from 1.312 km. with a speed of 120 km./h. up to 6701 m. MSL/5435 AGL.
Romanian guest Scarlat Norbert-Alin flew this great distance in a DUO DISCUS!!!!!
A “sit” of 10 hours and 54 minutes.
Part of his is comment;” Not the best wave day and it was weaker than expected, but Skysight suggested it will be an arch above South Island and we wanted to see how good is.
Couldn’t reach the first TP because of the front coming in. “

Unfortunately the Taupo Central Plateau Soaring competition on the Nord Island , between November 3 and 10 ,has less good weather .
The 10 pilots in racing and 7 in open class had only cancelled day’s till now.

So a great early start of the overseas season!!!!!
From now on all these places will be “hot” as in news and weather. Too much to keep an eye on and maybe a bit boring to describe all those 1000 -plus- k’s , but still amazing for those who fly all those huge distances.
You can check all flights on the OLC.
I’ll pick the most interesting for you.

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All kind of interesting news from:
Skysight……. SkySight
“We’ve now integrated with SoaringSpot to pull today’s tasks automatically into SkySight! 🎉
Simply select your competition and class from the new dropdown on the left. How neat is that??? 😎
Thanks to Naviter SeeYou for making it possible ♥️’
Too easy, will be for sure used frequently!!
AND …more exciting news a few day’s later;
“Today we’d like to announce our most exciting development yet – our partnership with the Deutscher Wetterdienst (German National Meteorological Agency) to develop the next generation of the Toptherm/pcmet software package, utilizing their innovative ICON mode

We have loaded all of the ICON data into SkySight so now our European users can choose between the models as you prefer, and we will be developing new visualizations for this data to make Toptherm/pcmet users feel at home within the SkySight interface, while presenting the same data with more detail and clarity.
And more on FB or their site; SkySight.io

The Netherlands;
Thanks for all kind reactions on the 3- women- in- gliding- story.
After it was published, I got a lovely picture from Jos, a member of the EAC -Eindhoven in the past , where one of Indya’s instructors Marco, who by the way has his birthday on the same day as Indya, went solo.

Lake Keepit;

The Australian female squad is practicing for the WWGC at the venue with help of male top pilots , who share their knowledge with them.
Adam is one of them. He always valued all help he got in the past when he was young, very highly and wants to do something back now.
So team training for him is on with Lisa Trotter, but also with Lisa Turner, Jo Davis, Jenny Thompson . Claire Scutter got coaching as well.
“PAYING IT FORWARD: In 2005 I was fortunate enough to represent AUS @ the JWGC. I was supported by the whole country, a big mover and shaker was Paul Mander who rallied together with Paul Matthews and Miles Gore-Brown to match any donation made at a competition we were all at, dollar-for-dollar up to $1000 for memory. This helped greatly and I’ll forever remember it & be grateful.
I along with John Buchanan, decided to pay it forward (but up to $500 each) towards fellow Kingaroy Soaring Club members, Lisa Turner and Trotter – who put together a raffle on the last night of the AUS Club & Sports Class Nationals.
Go get them ladies (& the rest of the Aussie team), we’re proud to help & support!“
You can read it all in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

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And to finish….the latest GLIDING INTERNATIONAL from the year 2019 has been published.
I read it all digital and share some interesting news with you;
—-It starts with some sad news, but we need to read it to avoid hopefully accidents in the future; in 2019 there were 43 fatalities!!!!!!NOT GOOD!!!!!!!
“It was NEVER my intention to write an article on gliding fatalities. This one wrote itself.”by Joseph King. Got goosebumps from each of the 96 incidents and accidents , some with pictures, he evaluates.
—-The lesson to be learned from Sebastian Kawa, [I wrote about it already in my blog] is here more into depth with a final comment from Sebastian.
—-pictures from the most wonderful clouds in N. Z.
—–Australian pilots are mourning the death of Harry Schneider.
—–the Brexit and what it means for flying…
—-lot’s of International aviation news for glider pilots [10 pages]
—-and of course “things with wings”
And much more news as; Has carbon fiber a successor? … Buying an older glider for personal use ?…..Tesla and batteries…..etc.

And to finish this stunning picture ….

That’s it for now. Cu next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz