Canterbury Gliding Club in NZ and the South Island 2018 championships from Omarama.

—- 11th of November 11-11-1918 ,this year marks the 100 years since the end of the first world war !!!!
Impressive,… even to see it on TV, on CNN, Dutch, Belgium, French and UK TV.
More than 70 “hotshot’s” were in France as there was Trump,Macron, Putin, Merkel and more. Hope they all got the feeling for NOT letting to happen the cruelty from the past again. A war in which millions died, men and horses and lots of innocent people.

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—-Big news shared by many and specially by the Canterbury Gliding Club:
“What an epic flight!
Mike Oakley has touched down safely at Springfield completing a 1,933km OLC flight!! Enjoying some jet planes at sunset after launching at 6.45am in Omarama, landing at Springfield 8 pm covering a whopping amount of the South Island!! Bravo Mike!!”
That’s indeed EPIC . Nearly 2000 km. and 13 hours and 24 minutes up in the air!!!!

Mike after the flight a real happy chappie! In the far past my daughter Inge and Lizzy Wells visited the Oakley family in NZ.

He covered the S.Island….. WOW !!!!
Pictures courtesy Canterbury Gliding Club

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Courtesy South Island Gliding Championships

In between his son Nick is flying the South Island Championships [racing and open class] and task 1 on November 11 was won by Keith [Essex from thew USA and frequent flyer in N.Z.] ,with a speed of 130 km. over 398 km. Nick was 5th in the Discus 2 and his mate Alex [Mc Caw] was 10th in a St. Cirrus.
“Hard day for the Racing class with multiple factors causing the day to be devalued.”
5 Of these gliders returned back to the field after being launched, some stayed’home’ for the day.
Winners of day 1;

Keith as happy smiling winner in open [ASG 29 /18m] and in Racing Class – Duo Discus UO with Team: Nigel Davy/ Tim Austen; 170 km. with a speed of 116 km./h.
As shared by South Island Gliding Championships

Task 2 was cancelled.”Unfortunately we can’t get a big enough window for a competition task today so the day has been cancelled.”

Task 3 on the 13th was difficult for some, as the “easterly” came in, but they flew.
Racing had 314 km. and 3 from the 10 who started finished with David Jensen in the JS B1 as daily winner gaining 1000 points.
In open a task from 401 k was set and as before Keith won the day with a speed of 122.59 km./h. for 1000 points. In this class 13 from 15 finished.
Some started early at 2 PM as did Nick, some later at 2.40 PM as did the Duo Discus being 6th for the day.
Bad/sad day for Brett Hunter loosing lot’s of points [ he got 227] in his JS 3, due to an outlanding after 273 km. dropping from 4 to 13.
Good day for Nick, he was runner up.

Ready to go for task 2.
As shared by South Island Gliding Championships

Task 4 was set but not flown in racing class. Open had 356 k, but no scores yet. Maybe cancelled as well.
You can see it on www.soaringspot.com

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—-The overseas-pilots in Africa are happy as well. Several 1000 km. flights from Namibia as Bitterwasser , Pokweni ,Kiripotib and Veronica . Even a lot 1.100 -plus -km.
Bitterwasser wrote;
“After Bernd Mangold has unloaded all the planes from the container and set them up, he allows himself a longer flight with the bitter water Nimbus. 4500 meters cloud base and updraft lines are fun.
The operation in Bitterwasser has started fully.”
Last Sunday Kuruman added 1000 and 1.000 as well.
1000 km.-News from HPH Sailplanes in the UK as well;
“Congratulations to Uli Schwenk and Steffi Keller on flying the first 1000km in a Twin Shark! And only one week into its Namibia expedition!”
The beginning of more long flights!!!
Dust devils mark the start of the thermals and here is one in Bitterwasser.
Just counted 18 over 1000 km. flights in Namibia yesterday.

with the remark;
“Dust devil in Bitterwasser shows the thermal start. It does not have to come however so violently like this dust devil. But the day was again a thousand day. In the middle of November [ 12] it really goes off without thunderstorms and showers.”

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——Europe;
AND then,..on the 12th there was Klaus Ohlmann flying from SPAIN. When he starts there must be something going on,…it was ……1.394,94 with 144.64 speed on the “clock”.
La Cerdanya , more correct the Pyrenees, was the place to be and the plane,..of course his Stemme S10.
AND,…a more than happy OLC comment;
“What a pleasure to fly with Gil. [Souviron] Hooked by waveflying like me, same spirit of exploring, but with very good knowledge of the Pyrenees. Thanks as well to Robert Prat, another expert of the Pyrenees. Application of his rules of thumb in dry waves…works great. Another big thanks to Control of Toulouse, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Montpellier and Marseille.
Great job….Last not least…Stemme… what a phantastic glider and plane….”
More W. from La Cerdanya [St Girons] was the start for a DG 800/18 m….bang 1.078 km.

These pictures shared by Gilles Navas in September when he was flying there, show the structure of the Pyrenees.

Courtesy Gilles Navas.

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——Australia.
AND higher temperatures down under too with flights up to nearly 800 km. in a Duo Discus on Saturday from Warkworth in NSW. Flying a Speed ASTIR II over 622 [500 FAI triangle] is not bad either.[Lake Keepit… motivation for the ladies, soon to fly there the Pre Worlds]
And on Sunday from Lake Keepit where Allan [Barnes] and Harry [Medlicott] flew a declared 750 FAI triangle, in the ARCUS M.A total of 868 km. reaching a height of 11.000 ft.
David [Jansen] flew that day from Kingaroy 946 km in the 18 m ASG 29 E.

“Coaching the coaches” with Ge Dale in Narromine was in full swing last week and they had good weather. Not long and the Nationals will be flown there.[November 24-December 8]