What a fabulous PR tool this picture is! Found it a FB.
Use it straight away to maybe help them! The Magalies Gliding Club operates from Orient.
” Have you ever thought of becoming a pilot? Then why not kick start your aviation aspiration with a GPL – “Glider Pilots Licence”. Magalies Gliding Club offers introductory flights to those who are interested in learning to fly and conquering the skies.“
One of the last comps for the 2013/14 season in Australia is Horsham Week in Horsham.They start in 2 days and as I heard , it always is a fun competition with a serious touch. Rolf Buelther is the CD and 25 pilots have at this stage announced their arrival . One of them Morgan Sandercock, who flew in Argentina [Chos Malal] as member of the Perlan Project Team in the DG 1001M in November last year, in the cold over the mountains, is flying now in the heat over more flat land and scrub in a Sparrow Hawk. Quite a difference! But ALL fun!
” A bit of a struggle” he mentioned in his comment,” not very high , neither consistent“. They had an AAT for practise!
The very last comps in Australia are in Goondiwindi [Queensland] in the Easter weekend in April. And then it is nearly May and the European comps are on,… as in Bruno in France where the open class pilots and the 2 seater pilots “fight” for the highest spot in each class.
The enthusiasm to welcome the new summer-season is GREAT. Here a message from Tucson Arizona.
“ First soarable day in 2014 in Tucson. I had to celebrate! What better way to finish the flight than with a double low pass and a smooth landing” .
The video from the LS 3 is on YOUTUBE and shared by Eric Redweik and lovely to look at. [LS- 3A Fine January soaring]
Not a lot of clubs nowadays have a CAPRONI . They do at the Southern Riverina Gliding Club and after some work the glider looks like new. Ingo made the test flight of the Caproni Calif A21S and of course landed it safely at Tocumwal Airport.
After 11 years in storage, Calif is back! With 20.38m wing span!!!
By the way I got a very nice farewell gift when I left Australia; a flight with Ingo in the jet-engined-Caproni!
Just to let you know; In 2011, 6 Caproni Calif gliders came together at Reinsdorf,south of Berlin.
Beautiful UB coming in from the West. On the background our former Sportavia hangar, with to the left the camping area and to the right the park and swimming pool.
On January 26 , pretty late in the season but still possible, as we can see, 4 x 1000 km. flights , one from Douglas Backhouse, a 1000- FAI triangle and 3 from Kuruman.
Max, our Dutch record chaser, was all by himself . Over the last couple of days he tried with a co, several times to improve on the 750 record he had flown already , now he had to do it alone.
Just before packing the glider in the container he did it; No worries; this time 153. 10 km. /h.
It seems that it was an exceptional good day! Perfect!
640 That day from Calcinate in Italy, by Luca De Marci in the Ventus 2AX, is good too!
On January 28 a nice late 1.o88 k FAI triangle from Stonefield by Konrad Mayerhofen , one of the 2 directors of Fly Down Under and his co pilot;
” It is the longest flight from Stonefield and if all went well it was a continental record for Oceania for a free triangle over three points.”
Not even the best weather as they launched and had straight away a 15 kts Northerly on the nose. They struggled for 2 hours, had then 2 legs in the blue, but the last one with cu’s and extended their flight to 1.148.7 km.
Great effort!
More work, this Stonefield -flight, for Pam Kurstjens- Hawkins, who took , as record officer for the Gliding Federation of Australia ,care of a lot of records this season.
There was a special mail from her as well about records and I share it with you just to let you know!
” When the Continental Records were introduced a year or so ago, someone at IGC prepared a list of minimum performances for the Oceania Region, based on the existing National Records for Australia and New Zealand.
Since then 2 records have been awarded to Allan Barnes, and several pending claims are in the system. These can be searched on the IGC website. http://www.fai.org/igc-records
In order to see what performance you have to exceed to claim a Continental Record, you have to check the list of minimums, and the records claimed since that list was created. A bit messy I am afraid, but it is the result of a two-stage process. We will update this information on the GFA website in due course.
Pam Kurstjens”
Good flights that day as well from Gawler [655 in the LS8] , Corowa [713 in Ventus 2 CM] , Tocumwal [598.99 in ASW 28] and Benalla [644 in Ventus t] and lovely to see Kari flying the LS 6 from Toc. and Richard the Ventus B2 from Benalla, flying first up to Wakool in the West , Deni and Jerilderie and over good -old-Toc. , where he flew in the past .
Australia is VERY BUSY with it’s aviation- future. A message from Schleicher’s dealer Bernard to the Aussie soaring population gives some clear views on what’s going on:
” Judging by two recent telephone calls there appears to be some misinformation in gliding circles
on the latest Australian Air Force order for new training aircraft.
The following is fact – the rest is unsubstantiated rumours:
- · The Air Force has ordered 11 (eleven) Schleicher ASK 21 Mi for basic training of cadets
- · All of these gliders are self launchers and come with trailers
- · The aircraft will be based at four different training centers throughout the country
- · Deliveries begin in August of 2014 and the contract includes shipping, registration,
aircraft inspection, delivery and operator training
To ensure that the rumour mill doesn’t spread further let me point out that a previous order for pure
sailplanes from DG was not cancelled. ”
When we talk about DG then here is news about them.
DG has send it’s first , from 6 DG 1001-CLUB training sailplanes to Australia just after Christmas and Tom Gilbert from T&J Sailplane Services will be the one to take care of the import and registration and what’s needed more and in February this first glider will be handed over to the Air Cadets from the Australian Airforce.
The second glider has been send on the container now as well [end of January] from Bremershafen to Melbourne and then on a side-loader to Temora ,where Tom lives.
The gliders will be used as basic and advanced training of the Australian Air Cadets at different spots in Australia.
The first DG 1001 Club ready for Australia, as shared by DG.
Just ” delivered” my column for the March/April issue of Gliding International and I heard it will have 72 pages!!
The biggest they have ever done. And they settle for the new and latest format for the future now.
And that is a great format !
More news next Sunday. CU then.
Cheers Ritz