Post 1.484 on February 21 2024

2024 / 20 m and 2-Seater Australian Nationals.
17 February 2024 – 21 February 2024
TOCUMWAL

It’s great to see another competition in good old Tocumwal. 9 Teams have entered and they fly in gliders as Duo Discus x 4, ARCUS M x 3, ASG 32 MI x 2 .
In the end they only flew in 20 m.
Duo Discus IE is back “on his old nest”.It was sold to the pilots of the Hunter Valley Club for a very nice price during the auction, when sole owner Richard Cawsey, to our sadness and frustration, sold EVERYTHING which was “holy” for all of us at Sportavia!!!!!
After 20 years I am STILL ANGRY and SAD!!!!
The Duo however, still has IE as registration and I hope it does well…good luck!!!A real good glider it was and the Hunter Valley pilots seem to treat it well….it found a good home.

Last Friday some practiced already and it was a “good-500k- day”. Only 5 days earlier on the 12th Sportavia Tocumwal -owner, Lumpy flew in his JS 3/18m a 947 k. [ 832 FAI Triangle] hopefully this weather stays for the comps.
More practice on Saturday but more official now;
“It’s time for the 20m/2-seat Nationals and the fun group have descended on Tocumwal for the week.Today we had a practice day, 335km up to the North-East towards the back side of the trough line which has been wandering back and forth for a few days now.” Much more in Taylor’s Gliding Page
Speed by Bruce/Brad and Adam/Keith; 121 km./h.
Time for a nice BBQ offered by Jane and Tom Gilbert from Temora [ Gliderstuff.com] time to socialize and to be ready for day 1.

Task 1; 3 hour AAT....A nice day ,but difficult, ” due to the upper level clouds cooling the heating and the strong wind down low at the end of the day.”
Best speed was 101.56 km./h by Adam and Keith flying a distance of 307.57 km.They were the daily winners. Alan and Greg were runner up; 263 km/ 87.69 km./h also in ARCUS M.
They all started between 14.05 and 14.43 with in the end the A task.
Bruce said about the day :”Phew! Today had a couple of parts… Brad was in charge of the ship and the first 80% of the flight went really well, and the last 20% was a fairly desperate attempt to defy gravity and stay afloat.” Taylor’s Gliding Page
“ Another day that fortunately went our way. Before launch we were thinking, start as soon as the gate opened, but when launch was delayed & we stayed on task A, it was definitely go asap! Unfortunately, even thermalling in light sink near the time of opening to stay high while we waited for another climb, didn’t help. We ended up low, downwind of the line & the gate open”..but then they were more lucky ..you can read it on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures He also shared 5 tactic-points for the day.
7 From 9 finished.

Task 2; 389.75 km…..ALL 9 teams started AND Finished…….GOOD Tocumwal-end-of-season-day!!!! Daily winners Alan and Greg; 133.40 km./h. Just ahead of Brad and Bruce 133.01 and David with 133.35.
These 3 teams , as 3 other teams, started at 14.19 like a regatta start and raced back “home” as quick as possible.
Adam and Keith were 5th.
Tough days for the Duo Discus [handicap 975];great gliders but on a good day, against an ARCUS M [Handicap 1055] or ASH 31[handicap 1065] it’s more or less a “wasted effort”, BUT still GREAT FUN to be part of the 20 m NATIONALS.
“Funny day today. It was my turn up the front and we began with a rush. We had a longish glide out from the start (unbeknownst to us almost everyone left at the same time) down over the river towards Benalla. I pushed on a bit and our first climb was solid, but I left it early as the first cumulus were just ahead, and the next climb was huge! It was bumping on 9 knots for a few turns and really got us up and running.”
More on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Task 3; 455.13 km…..another good racing day and on this 3d task again another winner; David Jansen/Steve Evans 135.44 km./h.starting as the first team, which in the end was the right decision. With this fast weather the performance of the ASG32 gliders is clearly “better” than the ARCUS… it should be like that looking at all “figures”.For the DUO DISCUS it is even more difficult, but they hung in, though the Hunter Valley-boys were “out” after 285 km.
Bruce and Brad in their ASG 32MI were runner up; 128.75 km./h. so showing good speed by David!!!
Bruce writes :”Today’s forecast and sky promised more than it delivered. I think a lot of us were expecting about 135kph and (with no scores available just yet) I hear that David Jansen and Steve Evans were the only ones to get anywhere near that. Many a cloud and line of clouds looked like magic, but much of it was a little disappointing. There was a trough line and plenty of mid- and high-level cloud approaching, and the shadow seemed to take the edge off the climbs, especially later in the flight. David and Steve left quite early and likely had a much brighter sky to play with… well done guys, good call.”
More on Taylor’s Gliding Page and here is already 1 of the pictures.

Swiss Chris ,in his ASWC 27, flew 505 [430 FAI] from Toc as well on this 20thiest Februar……nearly autumn over there and spring here. After all the rain I “long” for spring and summer.
Task 4;3 hour AAT….today they flew good distances again, but all scores are still very preliminary. All 9 started AND finished and nearly all started at the same time around 14.15. Allan started last at 14.48, not good unfortunately, they were last and lost nearly 300 points. It might have had a reason.
411 km was the best distance and with 127.53 km./h. this was the winning combination and 1000 points for the B1 and B2 , Brad and Bruce.Adam and Keith in the ARCUS hold on and were runner up.
They still lead the overall scores with 3.766 points for 3.647 points for David and Steve.
Adam just mentioned;
“Another great day in the skies over Tocumwal, though we are super grateful to even have a XC Speed – we got down to 900′ & climbed away in a 3.6kts (a good climb for the time). However, It was the first time I can remember, that I actually slowed down mid task to let second place go by.”
And,...”Fun day & we will keep the overall lead for another day.“
More in his Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Bruce just mentioned;
“Today began with a whimper, and finished with a whoosh! The entire crowd were topped out in one thermal right behind the start line, and despite it being a bit before our planned start time the position and height were too good to miss. Off we went!“
And,“Out onto the plains the cumulus were just beginning, but they were very wavy looking and short-lived. We had a cracking climb amongst the crowd, then for the rest of the flight used generally 6-7 knots or better. The flight finished with 100km of beautiful streeting as we bounced up above final glide and extended our last turnpoint close to the limit. Such a hoot, and what a way to finish the flight.”
More on Taylor’s Gliding Page

The 24th is the last day….NOT the 21st as is written on soaringspot.

Other news;
—–The Beverley Regatta had 24 entries.
Host; the Beverley Soaring Society,  located 130 km east of Perth Western Australia.
As you know there is something serious ,but also a lot of pleasure and sharing knowledge in such a regatta.
They started straight away on day 1 ,February 11,….they continued till the 16th…. with task 1 a good 3 hour AAT. In the end of day 1 “only” 14 pilots had flown and 1 was out. Chris in a JS1/18m. was the best with 412.53 km./126.48 km./h.
Task 2 had a 2.30 AAT and it was flown by 11 pilots and from those 11, 6 finished.Greg and Norm flying each a DG 1000 S/20 m. had their own competition with a rather late start but a different distance. Greg flew 214.84 km./ 78.93 km./h whilst Norm flew 187.10/74,84 km./h. Of course both had a “student” onboard.
Task 3; 2.30 AAT.…284 km was flown by Chris in a JS1. He was the only one with a speed of over 100 km./h. 11 started and 1 was “out”.
Task 4; 3 hour AAT….and won by Greg with Steve as “pupil” in the DG 1000 S/20m; 320.45 km/98.31 km./h.
12 started and 1 was “out”. 1 Day to go and the whole West of Australia suffers from 38 dgr. C or more.
By the way; here we had on February 15 18 dgr. C that is a “whopping’ 10 dgr more than the average for that day and the “hottest” ever!!!!.
Task 5; NO task on the last day, so winners/grinners are
1. Chris Runeckles in JS 1 with 3,321 points
2. Ross McLernon in SZD-48 Jantar Std. 2 with 3,167 p.

–—-AFTER the Club class Nationals in Waipukurau in N.Z. they continued on the 17th [practice] with the N.Z. Central Districts Gliding Championship 2024 in 3 classes, open [8], sports [5] and racing class.[8] They finish on the 24th.
Now they fly the New Zealand Central Districts gliding champion ship till the 24th and till now they had 3 , 2 or 2.30 AAT’s in all 3 classes [racing, open sports] after 2 out of 4 flying days.

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R.I.P. NAVALNY!!!!!!R.I.P.
“Listen, I have something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up . If they decide to kill me ,it means that we are incredibly strong.”
Alexei Navalny

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Ritz,

will be back on SUNDAY, for the latest on the 2 seater championship in Tocumwal and the NZ Districts Gliding Championship in Waipukurau.