Qualifying Grand Prix in Chile.
The weather in Chile was so-so! They tried hard, set tasks but on several days they did n’t fly further than 76 from the 284 km.
” Gliders being rescued by a tow plane in Los Andes. It wasn’t possible for the pilots to return to Vitacura by themselves since there wasn’t enough energy to stay aloft. We are hoping to have a better day today and be able to complete the task” for Friday.
Retrieves after out-landings.
As shared by the organizers.
In the end they had 4 valid days out of 8 and ,…..it ALL happened/ read the scores were settled, on the last day. As so often.
When they started for the last-but-one-day, Gintas had 13 points, Carlos 12 and Thomas 10.
The regatta start was at 5 PM. for 145 km. 4 Pilots finished and a fast flight it was, for sure for Carlos; 161 km./h. [5 points ] Thomas was one of the finishers as well and received 3 points for his speed of 148 km./h.
Overall scores; 17 for Carlos, and 13 for both Gintas and Thomas.
Task 5 was set for the last day, weather-wise the best one and pilots had to fly a longer distance this time; 364 km.
Gintas who flew so well at several days must have thought “I am going to do this again” .AND,…he did!! He flew over the 364 km. with a speed of 131 km./h just a 0.02 tad faster than Carlos who was runner up for the day. Thomas finished about 45 minutes later so the scores were upside down again.
On the last day Gintas got the extra point , 11 points ,Carlos got 8, Thomas 5.
Not too much difficulties to see that Carlos is the Chile Qualifying Grand Prix CHAMPION with 25 points.
Great result for Gintas with 24 points, the extra point just did not help him and Thomas gathered enough points the days before , to be safe with 18 points on spot 3!!!
A bit of a pity about the weather, but what you can do. Anyhow an interesting and exciting race again, with Carlos and Gintas “ready” to go to South Africa for the WORLD FINAL in Potchefstroom in the beginning of November 2016.[5-12].
BUT,….as there were less than 10 participants ,….ONLY ONE pilot from the CHILE GP is allowed to go. So Carlos can order a ticket.
As they mentioned in their final report
“Despite the effect of El Nino on the normally excellent weather in Chile it was still possible to compete on 4 race days although the conditions and therefore the speeds were well below par for the region.”
And
“ The weather was much worse than one would usually expect in Chile with warm and moist air bring lower cloudbase and poor visibility than normal. A slight improvement on the last race day allowed a race of 364km to be completed at a very creditable 131kph.”
The next qualifying GP is in Spain in April.
———–
PAROWAN
Last week I got a mail from my Gliding International colleague Elke. She has been flying in Parowan ,Utah twice and LOVED it.
“ It’s soaring in Paradise! I’d always go back there, if only I had a glider in the States.“
In June 2016 they have an ASA Camp over there between June 14 and 26. All info you can find in the link below.
As they say; “an absolutely amazing experience both for the flying and the fun on the ground!”
Just have a look at this beautiful brochure, you might be interested and there is still time enough to consider or to even plan a visit to the CAMP at PAROWAN.
In the past I noticed some really great flights from the airfield over there and wrote about them.Interesting place!!!
Parowan Soaring Camp – Auxiliary-powered Sailplane Association
When I checked last week ,the first link was working, when I published it dis n’t anymore. I added a 2d link,to be sure you can see and read it. Sorry about that.
———
NEWS from SCHEMPP-HIRTH.
And last Friday there was Schempp -Hirth-news;
“The new Ventus has made its maiden flight! After Christoph Wannenmacher now Tilo Holighaus is on his way to test fly it.”
A proud Tilo on the wing.SO HE SHOULD , very proud he can be!!!
Great shot from the brand-new-Ventus on tow!!
And from Tilo IN the glider.
AND
in full flight;
All pictures shared by Schempp Hirth.
CONGRATULATIONS with another great glider.
AND
one by Frans Guise, top photographer from Holland.
———-
Western Cape Regionals finished.
After the rain they flew 5 days in a row!The last day had a set task from 250 km. and the overall scores on that day were; Laurens with 3924, 3899 for Dawid and Sven had 3234.
In open Dawid Pretorius was the fastest on the last day, with 152 km./h. in an 18m. version LS 8; 449 points.
Laurens in the JS 1, had about the same speed but he got 50 penalty points!!!
So it was pretty clear then, that Dawid won the Regionals with 4348 and Laurens was runner up.
In Club Stefan van den Berg in the Mosquito, won the first and last day and one in the middle, but he out-landed on one day as well. After 6 days he was runner up just 36 points behind the winner, Kevin Mitchell flying a 17 m. DG 400.
Only 2x a 1000 points day in both classes.
———-
New Zealand; Multi class 2016 CHAMPIONSHIPS.
After 7 days they tried hard to fly task 3 with a 2,30 AAT in open class, BUT, only 4 pilots finished with a speed of 87 km./h. So another battle-day.
In racing class 3 from 10 managed to fly home for between 1 and 45 points.
Task 4 was flown last Saturday and a 3 hour AAT was set and flown by 6 from 8 in open and 10 from 13 in racing.
In racing it is good to see old Tony van Dyk topping the overall scores after 4 tasks.[1855]
Task 5 was a 2.30 hour AAT on the last day of January and a prey for David Hirst in the Ventus;248 km. in time 2.36.
He called it an ” Awesome run!”
In racing Patrick Driessen was the best during their 2.15 AAT; 262 km. in time 2.53 but he flew 62 km. more than the Duo Discus as runner up.
5 Days to go, long competition!!
Task 6 was cancelled task 7 was nice on paper, a set 310 km. but the “best” pilot for that day flew 216 km. Still 1000 points for Keith Essex in the ASG 29Es.
283 was set in Racing and 233 was flown by Yves Gerster in the Libelle ;1000 points.
Today another set task from 376 km. in open with ONE finisher, Keith, who needed over -5-hours to fly home. The next “best ” pilot flew 370 in the JS 1, then 175 km.
In racing 2 pilots managed to finish the 332 km. task!!!They needed 4 and nearly 5 hours but were home.Yves in the Libelle, just landed out, but still is number 1 overall with 2 days to go.
———-
Corowa.
With all the pilots normally flying there and now even more because of the PRE Worlds, the hangar in COROWA is still FULL. Good to see. They shared some great pictures and when you had not seen them, here they are.
A fabulous big, brand- new hangar ,with only top-class-gliders.
As shared by http://www.australian-soaring-corowa.com/
———
Tocumwal.
Chinese SRGC -member Yunhai, by his friends called Yankie Hotel, has left Tocumwal after 3 months. His logbook had 250 hours MORE than before arrival. Great job YH.
Later the friends found out that his English name is Harry!!!! So well done Harry!!
By the way after lot’s of rain the weather is still pretty poor at the moment, Harry was on the right place at the right time!
Harry, here with Christmas as my dinner partner and with Ingo who presented him before departure with a diploma as “international pilot logging the most hours this season.”
Last picture by Birgitte and Joergen.
Joergen and Birgitte spend their summer season in Tocumwal.
“ they have donated two Becker VHF Transceivers to the club. Jorgen, in his usual resourceful way, acquired them as a result of the change to the European VHF channel spacing.
Also, one of our former members, Michael Wall has donated an Oxygen bottle to the club. This kind gift will find a place in one of our club gliders for the use of those pilots who go chasing the wave.
Great gesture by the guests.
Talking about Birgitte, I only found out this year that Rasmus Orskov, who I got to know at several junior comps and I estimate HIGH as a pilot, is her son!!! Rasmus flew the final of the Grand Prix last year in Varese, after he qualified earlier in Zar in Poland for this event.
Even bigger news and I was only allowed to share it after Birgitte had done so; Rasmus is becoming a daddy this summer!!! Congratulations to Rasmus and his partner.
As the proud to-be- grand-ma said;” The baby will be the 4 th. generation glider pilot in the family, if he/she choose this sport.”
Rasmus in Varese.
as shared by the Danish Gliding Association.
And Andrew Peng Du has left Tocumwal [and Narromine, where he flew as well] ,with the message:
“See You Our Arcus in Beijing, See You in Loong Wing (GanSu.GaoTai) International Gliding Center.”
Andrew with his “Chinese ” ARCUS here in the hangar from Outback Soaring in Tocumwal.
———
And then,….when you think it ‘s all over in South Africa as well, Martin Lessle flies from Douglas a 1000 [997 Fai Triangle!] in the Duo Discus T, on the last day of January 2016. ” A good end to the season.” he commented. It was!!!
———-
And to finish the link to a nice article about the UK champion in Narromine.
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_1-2-2016-17-13-42
————
Only 50 flights on February 1 so it ‘s clearly slowing down. On January 22 only 14,… very low for the end of January!! We just have to wait again for and exciting new summer on this site of the world.
That ‘s it. CU next week, with the latest news.
Cheers Ritz