Starting with Chilhowee, where Sarah lately celebrated her birthday …HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH….and the Oktober Fest was in the weekend of the 16th of October, with many guests, as you can see.
Shared by John Murphy.
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World Solar Challenge !
Last year it was the team from the university of Delft winning this prestigious prize of being the first in driving a car over 3000 km. from Darwin to Adelaide ,mainly through desert areas ,on solar energy ONLY . They then, were 3 hours faster than the runner up. You surely remember that Annemiek Koers was one of the drivers. She is now the only female pilot in the Dutch team participating in the JWGC in Narromine. A girl of many talents and back in Australia soon!!! In fact this week as she travels to Melbourne to pick up Ben’s car and trailer for “her” CIRRUS.Good on you Ben!!
Courtesy Frans Guise.
This year it was an exciting race , special for the Dutch fans, as 2 Dutch Universities were in the race for the first prize. The race took 5 days.
In the beginning, the RED ONE ,car from the University of Twente was leading but on the last but one day the NUON SOLAR TEAM, ” NUNA 8″ from the Technical University of Delft passed by ,…and won, with ONLY less than 3 minutes over 3000 km. !!
The smallest margin EVER in history.
What about that! Good on Twente as well!!! They can be AS proud!!!
The RED ONE had a bit of a mishap in the practice period, as it collided with a kangaroo, but car/driver and kangaroo were not injured or damaged.
Nuna 8 was ONLY on spot 18 during the qualification race, so they had to work hard.
By the way it is not sure yet ,but the family car from the Technical University of Eindhoven might be a winner too. They “fight” for honors with a Japanese car.And,….they won!!!!
The STELLA LUXE is a family car with 4 seats a car for the future . A jury was involved in this selection . The Japanese car was 5 minutes faster but the Dutch car won points on comfort , integrated innovations , but also easy-parking and boot space .
So 97,77 % for Eindhoven , 93,92 % for Japan and 83,39 for the team from Bochum in Germany.
The NUNA 8 en route.
Pictures ANP.
By the way it was the 6th victory for Delft.
A top university where they lately also “found” a mistake in the research from Einstein.
Dr. Loek Boermans , who got the gold Lilienthal Gliding Award , this year in Rotterdam, is one of the professors at Delft.[Low speed aerodynamics]
Interesting is that one of the boys/students, Joris van den Berg, involved with the aerodynamics from this car, lives in Alphen aan den Rijn, where I live. He was one of the 3 drivers and the one who was allowed to pass by the RED ONE on day 4; he got from the crew the ” GO “. A very important moment during the race and he loved the feeling of doing that; passing by and trying to keep the lead, which was n’t easy due to lack of sunshine in the end!!!
They also had to deal with sometimes tough wind in the open desert, temperatures up to 45 dgr. in the cockpit and not the best roads.
For that they had a female navigator, pointing out the quality of the road . This NUNA 8 only weighs 150 kg. so “she is a bit touchy”.
As shared by the AD.
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Only after I got in contact with Alexis Anastasiou ,I got to know a bit more about gliding in Greece.
For that reason it is interesting to see a group of Greece pilots from the Edessa Gliding Club at Schempp Hirth to collect their Duo Discus XLT. Good on them and I wish them many great and safe flights in it.
As shared by Schempp Hirth.
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The Airbus Perlan Mission 2.
Got the latest [October] newsletter , with the news by Dean Sigler on the first flight;
“The Perlan 2 glider made its first test flight Wednesday, September 23 at Redmond, Oregon. Towed to 5,000 feet above Roberts Field Redmond Municipal Airport, it stayed aloft for about a half-hour, and alighted perfectly under the expert guidance of James (“Jim”) Payne, Chief Pilot for the Airbus-sponsored project. Morgan Sandercock, Co-pilot and Project Manager, rode the back seat and took his turn flying the big craft.”
” According to post-flight chat, Jim and Morgan found things to their liking, with controls, including the huge dive brakes, working as designed and as simulations predicted.”
Jim and Morgan.
As shared in their news letter
For all the news on The Perlan Project www.perlanproject.org
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News from HPH UK.
They are in the final stages of their strategy to support volume production of both Single-seat and Two-seat sailplanes. The move into the all-new factory will begin shortly. This has been built on the site of the old factory, whilst HPH have de-camped into a new Interim facility immediately nextdoor for most of 2015. With this final move, HPH will have one of the most (if not the most) modern glider manufacturing facilities. They shared a picture as well to show you what’s happening!!
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What happened more this week?
Holland had a splendid autumn day on October 25 with THERMAL ACTIVITY and unbelievable flights up to over 300 km. SO late in the season.
ONLY happy pilots!!!!
Sikko , who flew 315 km. from Soesterberg direction Germany and back shared some impressions from his flight. Interesting was that several pilots mentioned “help” to find thermals by….. buzzards.
It seems this week will be a great autumn week, after TOO low temperatures, they are up to 7 dg. too high now; 20!!!!![average should be 13 dgr. C.]
As shared by Sikko.
And cause this weather is so special some pictures from Peter Millenaar as well flying above Utrecht, more or less the heart of Holland.
He flew 267 km.
As shared by Peter.
Interesting to see that the new BAHIA Gliding Resort in Brazil from Guilherme Purnhagen, topped the October OLC list 9 times!!!!
On October 24 it was Narromine where practicing JWGC junior Simon, from Germany topped the day in his LS 8 flying 507 km. In the close future many youngsters will arrive there and FLY, being eager , astonished and HAPPY.
Good runner up was Tocumwal with Terry Ryan flying the first of many long distance flights from his field;522 in the ASH 26E.
Father/son combination Stefan and Niklas Soll could fly every day in the Twin Astir RG, from the TOC Aerodrome, where Stefan is a frequent visitor even longer than I am. And that’s LONG!!!He even had my daughter Inge as tuggy.
As Eddie , owner from SPORTAVIATION mentioned; “ First cumulus at 10:30 to 4500 ft.”
Great to see that hang glider topper Attila Bertok,who converted years ago , in a few flights with our instructors at Sportavia to glider pilot, flew his St Cirrus to 458 km. from Lake Keepit. Another top-of-the-OLC-list-pilot, this time on the 25th!!!
And,…what about yesterday from ST Gaudens in France; Carl Audissou flies just 1000 km. in a DG 600/18m. with a nice speed of 124 km./h. Great wave day , mainly over 5000 m. MSL.
First 500 for the season,…many to follow!!
As shared by Eddie.
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Mac [Makoto] reports from Narromine.
Mac, is already in Narromine and as long as he is there, he is so kind to give me all kind of info , “on the road” to this JWGC.
“Simon from German team is only competitor there yet. Climb rates have been quite good already, sometimes up to 8 kts which is quite good for October.”
He also mentions that his partner Akemi has been flying LS8 and is training for records.
He went yesterday to Corowa to pick up the ASG29e and tries to fly it back to Narromine in a day or two.
Good old Beryl [ Hartley, ] is a VERY BUSY LADY and heavily involved in the JWGC and as Mac said:” she is burning night candles, getting ready for JWGC. I heard there will be 50 people on the ground supporting the event! I think it will be very exciting.”
SO DO I. This is the first contribution from a very busy Mac about the preparations for the JWGC. THANKS a lot Mac!!!!
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As you might have noticed I used over the last years more and more pictures. I find that good photographers with their GREAT pictures can be such an addition to my stories.
Of course I always check if I can use them and except for once , but that was turned back later, I have NEVER been disappointed.
Here is a link to Geoff Soper’s NEW photography FB site, for those who are on FB and 3 fabulous pictures .
Geoff lives in New Zealand.
” Welcome to my new page where I will be showcasing my photography (and Canvas prints) rather than my personal FB page. Initially I will be posting up some airshow images in albums then my favourite images. Rolled canvas prints (frame your own) plus photographic prints (Matt art prints, glossy or satin) available as well as Canvas prints. Plus whole wall prints made up of wallpaper rolls.Thank you all for the support of my photography.” since September 23.
Geoff Soper Photography
A WOW FACTOR picture from Geoff;
“From little Ben Omarama. Lake Ohau in the background.”
Jerry O’Neill Springfield Ridge
This is ,in retrospect, a sad picture as the pilot Bill Walker died last year in Namibia, after a crash with his mate David Speight. I see it as a tribute a great memory on a pilot who was some kind of icon in New Zealand. So was David by the way.
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To finish the promised pictures ,….and these are very last ones,……from FRANS GUISE about the AWARD festivity at Terlet.
The 2 EGC toppers with a 2d and 3d place;Jacques and Jeroen
AND
The 2 FAI AWARD winners 2015, dr Loek Boermans who shines and Ritz.Sorry looking a bit tired!
AND
“my” gold [WGC Uvalde 1991] and bronze [Rieti EGC] winners Baer [r]and Ronald [as said ” my silver ” [WGC Borlange] winner Erik Borgmann could n’t be there] and our GREAT presents. Now,…it’s back to normal!!!!BUT,…I am still honored and proud!!!!
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We are back to Winter Time. About 70 countries changed like we did here.
Last Sunday morning at 3 the clock was put back to 2 AM. Difference with Australia is now 10 instead of 8 hours.
CU next week