Have to start , with this very DRY comment from USA TC John.
“Benalla’s dry heat can be put to other uses than keeping motorless aircraft aloft: it provides about the best clothes-drying conditions found anywhere. Homes in this area typically have a washing machine but no dryer – the latter would be a waste of money and space in a climate where the first clothes hung on a line are dry before the last ones are pinned up.”
What happened today with 2 more days to go?
Steve, the Aussie pilot involved in the mid air who had to bail out [,as had the other one , German pilot Michael [Eisele]]mentioned:
“At the Briefing this morning, Stephen O’Donnell described his experience bailing out last week.
He impressed upon all of us the need to”rehearse it in your mind,” and to anticipate the difficulty of getting out under a g-load.
He also urged us to look into the sizing of our parachutes – he said that his canopy looked “like a beach umbrella.”
The audience gave him an extended ovation.
Here is how Carol TC from SA describes it;
“At Briefing today Stephen O’Donnell, the Australian pilot who was one of the pilots involved in the mid-air a few days ago, spoke to everyone present. It was a very sobering experience to listen to him – he is obviously still understandably quite shaken by the experience, but he had some excellent advise to all the pilots. He asked them if they know what size the canopy is of their parachutes. The majority of pilots did not know the size. He said when he eventually got out of the glider, he looked up and thought the chute looked like a ‘beach umbrella’. He also said having loads of straps to undo on landing is not the best, but rather have quick release clips, as with the strong winds he was dragged along the paddock on landing which was not nice as he was unable to get rid of the chute quickly. He also said trying to get out of the cockpit was difficult and he battled to decide how best to get himself out and eventually put out one leg and then the forces helped him finally get out. He also recommended that all the pilots should rehearse in their minds how they would best deal with such a situation and to think about what they would do. He extended many thanks to all who had supported, sent wishes and of course those who had deal with everything. He was given a long applause.”
In the evening is the INTERNATIONAL PARTY so I guess everybody wants to be back in time, though the soaring is more important for the pilots than partying. On top of that most out-landings are technical anyhow!!
courtesy Swiss Chris.
The FAI FLAG IS STOLEN…sigh …again….and there were some witnesses,no it was not Baldrick but somebody dressed up as an ape!!!! I guess/hope just fun and then it will be back in time for the ceremony.
As the UK team mentioned;”They tried and they failed. The FAI flag has been knocked off. Solid effort” and “Despite threats of dangerous snakes and spiders lurking, and even threats of electrocution, it’s gone!”
NO FAI FLAG!!!
Courtesy Charlies Towing Adventures.
The weather for today;base at 5000/6000 ft….wind 5/10 kts….from N. but changing to W during the day, accompanied by a mid level cloud layer, forecast to move over the task area later in the afternoon by about 5:30 PM ….32/34 dgr.C and lift up to 2/2.5.
Day 9: task 5 for 15 m. class; 370 km.
Sebastian and young Matthew started at 2.57 and 2.58 so about the same time. AND…what’s even better,…they finished again with 3 minutes difference as there should be between the “master and the pupil”. So a good day for both with a speed of 118 and 117 km./h and this was also the case for Mac who was 3d. and started at 2.59 PM.
It looks like Matthew and Mac fly together and keep a BIG eye on Sebastian who’s right-hand Lucasz was 4th today.
This is going to be an interesting “situation” over the last 2 days.
Mac still leads overall with 4450, Sebastian has 4417 and Lucasz 4303 points.Louis has only 28 points less on spot 4!!!!
Only one out-landing today!
Here is Matthew;
“Had two back to back good days (3rd and today 2nd) after the outlanding, thanks to the weather improving. The weather has been strong enough that individuality is starting to get (slightly) rewarded, and Mak and I have been flying accordingly.
Unfortunately it’s not strong enough for the gaggles to not form at all though, and the ones that are forming are atrocious. Despite a sobering talk from Steve at briefing today, the behavior in thermals was like a pack of wild dogs fighting over a scrap of meat. I left thermals several times because of other pilots behavior. We were given forms to report such behavior (which we filled out and returned) but the usual suspects were back at it again today.
I had a GoPro facing forwards in the glider today which I expect will be interesting to review.”
Good on you Matthew!!!
Day 9 :task 6 for 18 m. class;384.5 km.
And after winning a day Wolfgang is back in winning mood and won another day . Good on him!124.4 km./h. AND the other VENTUS 3 T flown by Mario was runner up ;123.9 km./h.
Wolfgang must have “lost” his mate en route as Andy [Lutz] finished on spot 30.
Matthias [Sturm] left more than 35 minutes EARLIER than Wolfgang and finished on spot 3. He likes flying by himself and is good in it. A bit like Ingo who likes to fly by himself too even in the blue!! Good job ….COURAGE!!!……and Matthias still is 2d in the overall scores [5593] behind Killian who was 4th today .[5661]
Mike Young is on spot 3 overall with 5588 but Mario is on his tail with 5583!!!!
Wolfgang is on spot 8 now with 5509 points….you never know…., but it will be hard to be the champion as the other pilots are top too.
All pilots finished today except for our Chinese friend who landed after 160 km.
Day 9: task 7 for open class;499.51 km.=500 km!!
Hungarian pilot Peter Szabo flew himself in his JS 1C to a daily victory!!! Nice speed as well 120.68. Just a fraction slower …Tassilo with 120.60 and just 1 more fraction Stefan Beck 120.54 and 3 more pilots arrived at the about the same time;Andy, Sebastian [Eder] and Gyorgy another Hungarian pilot.
A lot of finishes in this class around 5.40 PM, great for spectators.
Disappointment for Jan Andersen from Denmark and Aussie Andrew;they did not finish.
The UK pilots top the overall scores with 2 days to go and they started earlier than the German pilots, so they do their “own thing”.
4 out landings today and 2 pilots in this class do not fly anymore.
All scores for today still preliminary.
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THE OSTIV.
Another good week for all OSTIV participants and interesting news about the Perlan Project by Aussie Morgan Sandercock who moved to the USA to be better involved in this project. I heard that also the event with the TOP manufacturers was a good one.
Here is some of the news shared on the organizers site;
“The congress is always held alongside the competition, and many of the presentations attracted pilots, as well as those in Benalla specifically for OSTIV.
“Ostiv is the worldwide scientific and technical research organisation for sailplanes, and we try to promote technical progress of sailplanes,”
“We give advice to sport organisations like FAI and the International Gliding Commission to get many things right in the sport.”
Subjects covered by the 43 presentations included flutter in ageing sailplanes, monitoring physiology such as oxygen saturation levels in pilots, FES development, mountain wave research and a report from the Perlan Project’s year in Argentina.”
The rest you can find at ;www.ostiv.org
The TOP manufacturers and DR. Loek Boermans.
30 years ago OSTIV was active as well in Benalla.
The OSTIV in 1987 as shared by Anni Kehn . Her mum Elke, did all the administration for OSTIV that year.
OLC.
The most interesting flight on the OLC yesterday was from German pilot Philipp Butz, not in Australia where Gerrit flew from Narromine 774 km. in the Quintus, not from Namibia or South Africa,where father Hans and daughter Karin flew 831 km. task[750 FAI triangle] from Kuruman Pi, in their ARCUS,…. but in the middle of winter in Germany from the airfield of Offenburg not far from the Black Forest; 741 km.in an 18 m. ASG 29.
Extraordinary good conditions in the SW part of Germany,[ between Karsruhe and Freiburg, ] was the comment from the pilot.
The only thing I know is that it is extremely cold here.
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More later!!!!
Continuing story DAY 9 IN 1987!!!
Day 9 in 1987 was a pretty good one with tasks from 621.9 km. in open, 536.1 in 15 m. and 521.2 km. for standard class.
BUT,…. not a good day for George and Dennis in open class, who just missed out on 300 m and out-landed at the other site of the airfield. 285 points on a 1000 points-day, that hurts!
On day 9 blue thermals again;I quote;
“With the prevailing blue thermal conditions, pilots were still finding that the fastest routes around the course meant finding the largest gaggle and staying with them until the opportunity came to make a break.
This type of flying was both dangerous and very unsatisfying , but the point penalty one faced if he attempted to fly alone and was not succesful [ as Leonardo did the day before!!!]was enormous!!”
SO ,…after 30 years NOTHING changed which should make us THINK!!!!!!
With Daan [18 m. mate] , Adrian, brother from George, Inge,[daughter and sister] Giep,[ TC] Hans, [TM] George and Dennis.[pilots]
Open class;Marc Schroeder won the 1000 points with a speed of 112 km./h. Ingo as runner up lost 26 points on him but he still was in the lead overall.[his speed 111.5 km./h] Bruno was 3d.[111.3 km./h.
Standard class; a nice long-over-500-km-task, and the French pilots Aboulin and Delylle “mastered” the gaggles best and won the day; 1000 and 997 points. New overall leader was Marco Kuittinen and the French slowly could nearly ” sniff ” him as he “only had 827 points for the day.
15 m. class;Great day for Danish pilot IB Wienberg. HE WON.
Now in 2017, Ib is TC for the Danish team. The 2 UK pilots Dave and Brian followed with 986 and 979 points, so Ib did something REALLY good that day!
Ib in action 2 years ago in Tocumwal at Sportaviation. He opens a champagne bottle with a sword!!!
More tomorrow!!
Cheers Ritz still the 1987 day AND task 10,11 and 12 to go!