Task 1 of the Argentinian National club class competition on January 10, flown from Santa Rosa, was won by a Janus E. [Handicap 101.4]
From the 41 participating club class gliders this team was the best over the set task from 314 km.;106 km./h.
Only 17 finished.
Task 2 was a 2 hour AAT, but not flown and on the 3d day NO TASK was set.
There was a task 4 , but ONLY ONE pilot flew the task a 2 hour AAT; 149 km. in time 2.03. Not a lot of points were won, neither lost.
Task 5 was another 2 hour AAT and won by Jose Dentone, but quite a few flew around 136 km. with a speed of 68 km./h, so a tough marginal day with hard work for 390 points!!!
With such marginal day’s the scores after 3 flyable days and 5 tasks is close. Between number 1 overall Jose and number 12 are 200 points.
BUT,…another week to go!!!
NO task 6, but task 7 was on Sunday, so more or less the start of a new week with another 2 hour AAT.
The winners of task 1 in the Janus A, Darrain & Barrientos, must be good as they won again. It can’t be only the handicap. But again not a lot of points to win or loose.
The difference between the winners ,who flew 209 km in time 2.05,51 , gaining 639 points and the number 20, is 100 points.
Jose was on spot 18 and lost his overall spot 1 to the Janus pilots.
Task 8 ; 2 hour AAT...and 10 ASW 20’s were in the top 10.
40 Pilots started and 1 was out. The brave Janus-pilots were on spot 31.
237 k. was the best distance in time 1.59 for Felipe Girado [ASW 20] who straight away tops the overall scores, climbing up from spot 4.
No flying yesterday.

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The WAGA State comps in the West from Australia, flown from Cunderdin, had 4 out of 4 days, when I left you last week.
Task 5 on January 12 was a 2.30 AAT and the JS gliders did well again. Joshua in the JS 1 flew around with a speed of 120 km./h over 395 km.
Lumpy in the JS 3 flew 354 km with a speed of 109 km./h.
Only 8 from 21 finished!
Task 6 on January 14 was a 3 hour AAT and it was a 1000 points-day!!!! Joshua in the JS 1 lost 400 points by being 14th for the day.
Norm however won the 1000 points for 418 km. in time 3.09 [speed 133 km./h That was quite a lot better than the ASH 25 and Lumpies JS 3; 124 km./h.
Task 7 the last one showed a 300 km. AAT and was won by Norm with Lumpy as runner up.
From the 16 who started on this last day, 14 finished.
Norm flew 396 km with a speed of 118 km./h and Lumpy 396 km with a speed of 116 km./h.
Overall scores;
1. Norm Bloch in JS 3 with 6.638 points.
2. team Arnold Geerlings in ASH 25 with 6.410 p.
3. Lumpy Paterson in JS 3 with 5.672. He did not start too well with a 15th spot on day 1 , but moved up to spot 3 on the last day. Great mentality/spirit.

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NAMIBIA is still “HOT“
On January 12 , pilots flew 11x a 1000 km-plus and 2 from Kiripotib.
3 Of those Bitterwasser 1000 k’s were FAI triangles all in an ARCUS M.
Guy from Luxembourg flew with Bernd 1.149 km and shared this picture from “a lot-of-nothing”.

In Kiripotib one -1000 k. -flight was from my Dutch mates in the ARCUS M ; 1.132 km “Mark what a great flight we had, maybe the nicest one this holiday ! Heading towards the dinner, let’s see if we can already plan for the next trip end of year .” by a very enthusiastic Alfred Paul.
The other one was from Finish top pilot Hannu Halonen in the JS 3 , who was a bit surprised that it was a 1000.“Surprisingly I could make over 1000 after challenges here and there. Glider worked great!”
The boy’s flew a total of 5x 1000 km. flights out of 11 days non-stop-flying and they loved every minute , except when they were in the neighborhood of a storm….”Around 1/2 hour before sunset and close to Kiripotib we had a 3m climb before a thunderstorm / shower – but as we flew along it the air became so turbulent / violent that we decided to land immediately. Again a wonderful flight !! Thanks all for the kind help, friendliness and cooperation ! Two more days to come 🙂
Another 1.137 km flight.

At this stage [January 16] the gliders have been packed and will be soon on the way home.
“A wonderful flying season with unforgettable moments at Kiripotib has come to an end. The gliders are packed and waiting to be transported to Europe. We are looking forward to open the containers again at the end of October and start a new season. Hope to see you again soon. Have nice flights and stay healthy!”
The statistics of the best 5 fields for the beginning of this season ….4 from Namibia and Bitterwasser is still “flying.”;
1. Bitterwasser with 543.176,69 km. flown by 111 pilots during 704 flights!!!!
2. Pokweni with 271.587,23 km. flown by 36 [!!] pilots during 356 flights.
3. Veronica with 259.202,54 km. flown by 47 pilots during 340 flights.
4. Kiripotib with 263.043,58 km. flown by 64 pilots during 377 flights.
5. Worcester [S.A] with 124.558,11 flown by 42 pilots during 221 flights.

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Between all those SUPER flights in SUPER gliders there was another SUPER flight, but now from the “red Heart of the Continent“, Alice Springs , but for flying , Bond Springs in Australia ,where the N[orthern] T[erritory] club from Robert Smits and Jenny Ganderton, who run the business there, had a top flight from 589 km. in an ASK 21 MI. Lovely hardworking people, they are real soaring-lovers.
In the past Hans Werner Grosse flew many records from there. He was a legend of distance flying and had about 50 world records behind his name. One of those impressive flights was on January 8 1988; he flew from Alice a world speed record; Speed over a triangular course of 300 km in an ASH 25…170.90 km./h.
When trying his records he called us in Tocumwal, to check the weather there. Always very well prepared!!!
He died in February 2021.

Jenny did most of the flying in the ASK 21 MI, and she had to deal with up to 30 kts. headwinds. AND,….they flew the task as a set FAI triangle[565 k.] as well. Jenny was one of the 9 Aussie ladies flying the WWGC in Lake Keepit.
As they said; “Too much wind really but not bad for a two-seat training glider!” AND,…that ‘s flying over a-lot-of-nothing-as well.
They are since January 11 “ operating again for full, with the new self launching glider. Everyone is loving it!
Aaaaaand……… the new Tost Winch is on it’s way! Loaded in Rotterdam a day ago, she’s currently in the English Channel. Woohoo!”
As a Dutchie I am very proud they will use the TOST winch over there!!!

When I checked with Robert I got some more news which might interest you too;
“The ASK-21Mi has the engine built in from the Schleicher factory. The Airforce here bought a whole series of them around 2014 for the Air Cadets now they are all auctioned off. This is one of those. Yes I guess we are the only professional commercial gliding school in Australia, operating all year round too. It’s going really well.
Re Hans Werner Grosse we’re thinking of organizing a Hans Werner Grosse memorial competition – motor gliders only, but everything welcome from Scheibe motorfalkes to self launching Arcusses. Probably happening next year some time, and in Alice Springs of course!”

What a great idea!!!!

More SUPER flights this week,…what about 1.320 km in a Duo Discus FES!? Bernard Dobre flew with Luka Snidarsic this magic set wave flight in Slovenia along the coast line. Average speed 150 km./h. Not bad either!!!!
The only word in the comment I understood was “magistrali”.
“This down the Adriatic coast and even down to Bosnia. They declared 1000km task, but this ended up to be too short for this wave conditions. This is longest flight of any FES glider so far! (DUO DISCUS FES)” by GLIDING & SOARING

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The State comps from NSW flown from Narromine between January 15 and 22 are flown in 3 classes; open, [11 pilots], 18m [11 pilots ] and club [10 pilots]
Bruce [Taylor] is flying in 18 m in his ASG 29 and had to use over the first 2 days “petrol”.
He apologized already before flying ;”It’s been a very long time since my last competition, so anything might happen!”
You can read his stories “hot from the spot” with all in’s and out’s AND pictures in Taylor’s Gliding Page
By the way,…no action yesterday or today.
“ Sadly the last two days have been unflyable due to the rain.Tomorrow is meant to be clear and very windy, but apparently it was meant to be clearing here this afternoon, so who knows what will be going on in the morning”
Part of Bruce’s Page.

Staying in Australia, this week JOEYGLIDE Regatta 2022 is in progress too with 7 young pilots. They fly from Benalla between January 16 and 22 with SkySight [soaring weather] as their sponsor. Good on them. Matthew has been a junior in the past as well and even won the JWGC in Narromine.
As young people do , they present their selves and their gliding in inspiring video’s with music. GREAT JOB!!!
JoeyGlide 22 Presented by SKYSIGH
JoeyGlide 2022 – Day 1 Recap
Scores on www.soaringspot.com
Check out soarscore.com for live tracking!
By the way, the most well known from the boy’s is James Nugent and he won already 2 days in his LS 3.

And to finish this lovely picture from John McCaw flying with his son Alex [ Discus 2C] over Lake Constance and the Blue Lake. Great weekend-out in/over impressive New Zealand !!!!

CU next week
Cheers Ritz