—–The French National Aeroclub, the [ Fédération Française de Vol en Planeur ] shared a message from the results in 2022, from 309 [under 25] young participating pilots flying for the Coupe Jacques Gomy.
In 47 years, this number of 309 was the best /highest EVER.
In the high season the young ones do have some problems to fly for a longer time on club gliders. So they can’t go on a CC-flight.
They are encouraged / stimulated to participate for this prestigious challenge, starting on March1. It gives them a goal to fly more and longer.
15 year old Loan Cheval won with 9251 points followed by 16 year old Thibaud de Péchy with 8919 points and on 3 mademoiselle Emma Chesneau with 8457 points. Good on them !!!!!
Thibaud’s brother Clement won the prize in 2019.
Emma had a training stage with Eric Napoleon and Eric Bernard and 3 other “girls” as well.

I had to google who Jacques Gomy was; He lived between 1926 and 1967, was a glider pilot and instructor , NATIONAL CHAMPION in glider- aerobatics’ and a test pilot.
He had 6.500 hours in his logbook ,1.700 in a glider. He started when he was 14!!!
AND he did much more….
I checked with dad Philippe de Pechy as well . He added that a lot of the French team pilots from NOW, once flew this challenge. He mentioned Eric Napoleon, Laurent Aboulin and he himself did it too.
“The rules are simple.1 point per minute and the 20 longest flights are registered….+ bonus for FAI badges“
He also added that Jacques performed in a movie.
He was the pilot of the glider in the “Grand Vadrouille”, the French movie having had the best box office.
Of course with Louis de Funès. Fantastic movie!!!
I guess most of you have seen it too, if not here is a link I got from Philippe.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2l4mk

Jacques Gomy died on January 5 in 1967, together with Gerard Verette, during a flight test of the prototype of the CAP10, [ in the end the CAP10 was an extremely successful airplane.] which is an acro airplane. An unexpected and sad end of a fabulous and inspiring flying-life.

There you go, I learned a lot again. Thanks Philippe for your input.

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—–I shared earlier the final results from the OLC. This week I got the newsletter from WeGlide, so I share their stats with you too. They , Johannes, Samuel, Joshua and Moritz, are all young entrepreneurs doing a real good, no an amazing job.
magazine.weglide.org 
“This season, more than 6400 new pilots have joined the WeGlide community. You have uploaded more than 80,000 pictures of sunrises, cloud streets, thunderclouds, or your co-pilots. Together, we’ve flown more than 27 million kilometers with the power of the sun, which is more than 70 times the distance to the moon.
Thanks to you and your flights we are now the largest gliding site in the world, just incredible!”
They have certificates for all which you can download.
Their top three finishers of the WeGlide Distance Cup, who covered some really incredible distances are;
Baptiste Innocent, 6518 pt
Alexander Müller, 6324 pt and
Guy Bechtold, 6191 pt.
Their top 3 fastest pilots are ;
Juan Pablo Verdura, 599 pt,
James G Lee, 551 pt and
Baptiste Innocent, 534 pt….. 
WeGlide Speed Champions!

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–—-Next years WWGC news as shared by Kiki [Jacky Clairbaux] ;
“Next year, the 12th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championship is going to be celebrated in Soria-Garray (LEGY- SPAIN) in the first two weeks of July
The competition will be in the airfield of Soria – Garray (LEGY), from July 1st until July the 15th
The WWGC2023 will be an international celebration of women gliding in three classes – Club, Standard and 18m.
It is a good opportunity to explore the area, enjoy the friendship of the Castilian people, their ancient culture, enjoy their wonderful gastronomy and have a really good time on a friendly atmosphere of the competition.“
https://wwgc2023.org/

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—–Nice to know…..”Howard Torode (Chairman BGA Technical Committee) has been awarded the prestigious Paul Tissandier Diploma by the FAI for his outstanding leadership and contribution to glider airworthiness and the development of the proportionate regulation of sailplane airworthiness and maintenance.
Congratulations and thanks, Howard!” Gliding

——-Last weekend they had the sent-off of Tony Tabart in Tocumwal.
“the event was well attended, Tony was done proud, and we look forward to next year’s event.”
A very valuable evening with TRUE friends of TT.
That is was so well attended, was nearly a miracle due to the flooding all over parts down under, specially the Victoria and NSW area’s.

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—–Autumn in The Netherlands;

AND
a wet spring in Tocumwal

And spring is arriving in N.Z as well. John McCaw had a nice flight last weekend. He photographed Rob Kerr in his LS 4, during flight, great picture.

——And, the MIDLAND GLIDING CLUB in the UK, had an “Excellent first day of the Junior’s Winter Series, 118 launches on a sunny day with ridge lift and thermals.” It is the 11th version and never before they had so many young pilots at briefing. A fabulous turnout.
Day 1 of the Winter Series Round 1 – The Long Mynd

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—-Not only , the lucky-enough-pilots are looking forward to the new Namibian season, which their great flights, we all do. The magic of their weather is famous by now. 2 More weeks and it starts.

In between they worked HARD!!!!Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre shared the next news…..
“That was fast – PV systems in operation
Sometimes things go faster than you think in Namibia. The two recently ordered PV systems are in operation.
The panels for the lodge have a capacity of 57 kWp. This is the theoretical output. We expect to be able to generate half of our electricity needs with these panels during the peak season from November to January. The rest of the year, it should be enough for everything.
The panels are oriented in an east-west direction. In the mornings and evenings, we have the highest power consumption and the panels should provide as much power as possible then.
The panels for the village should approximately cover the power consumption for the whole season.
The investment volume was about 80.000€. We believe that it is a good investment. Good for the environment, good for our cash and good for the future. Electric, self-launching gliders are on the market and in the future, we will see them more often in Bitterwasser. The batteries of these gliders want to be charged.’

AND,…..”The first four containers with our planes arrived in Bitterwasser. We had sent four containers in advance, as we were not sure whether the ships would sail according to schedule. And as it always is, when you expect the worst, everything goes smoothly. Customs was also there and at first glance all planes seem to have survived the transport well.
All official problems are also solved. ARO, overflight permission etc. are there. So the season can start on 25.10.2022. Good flying weather has also been experienced.”

LESS GOOD NEWS from Australia, the flooding is getting worse and worse. My favorite shopping streets are in Echuca and Shepparton, ….both under water. Echuca has the highest water since 150 years.
When you want to go from Toc to Narromine, there is flooding as well. Dubbo is partly under water and Forbes as well. The road from Finley [close to Toc] to Berrigan is flooded.
Local flood guides help the people.
Mind you a lot of the transport in Australia goes by road with huge trucks and even road trains, travelling from N to S and E to W; at a lot of places that’s not possible. What cost!!!!! Terrible!!!!
This is the Murray river , around it live a huge amount of kangaroos. They have nowhere to go, and cross the winding roads full of trucks, which are able to drive. A lot have been and will be killed. So sad!!!!

CU on Wednesday.
cheers Ritz