Post 1.483 on February 14 2024 …….VALENTINES DAY.…… HAPPY VALENTINE!!!!

CLUB CLASS NATIONALS N.Z.
Papawai 7 February 2024 – 15 February 2024

Papawai; “Join us at Papawai to celebrate over 60 years of contest flying in New Zealand with the 2023/24 Club Class Nationals.
Perfectly located in central NZ, Papawai offers a superb gliding location with fantastic club facilities including plenty of camping spaces and local accommodation options.”
Host is the Wellington Wairarapa Gliding Club.
In the Easter-weekend of March 28 Wairarapa the much-loved Wairarapa Balloon Festival will return as well, with a five-day festival of flying.
Club Class Nationals;
Practice day on February 7 and then..
Task 1; 2 hour AAT....the “little Libelles’ did well.Mark [Wilson] and Dane [Dickinson] flew 132 and 121 km. with a speed of 65.98 and 60.84 km./h. for 575 and 530 points.
Dane flew in Rieti during the JWGC in 2007, where I met him. I only now found out, that Kathy Fosha flew there as well. Both in Standard class in an LS8. Our gliding world is “small”.
Task 2 ; 2.30 AAT…not flown.|
Task 3; 1 hour AAT.…..CANCELLED with the message;”It was a no flying day on Saturday at Papawai due to wave, so Terry flew 400km.”
Task 4; 2 hour AAT.…not flown…
Task 5; 2.30:00 AAT… and YES, they could fly and all 8 competitors were EAGER to go. Dane in the Libelle flew 200 km with a speed of 80.15 km./h good enough to be the daily winner. He was 12 km./h faster than the runner up Alain in the LS4.[68.12 km./h over 171 km]
2 Did not finish.
Task 6; 2.15 AAT….and YES they flew again and YES it was Dane again who won. Such a pity I can’t find my memory sticks with all pictures from Rieti 2007 and 2008, otherwise I could show you a young Dane.
Both Libelles are good in this weather as Mark, who flies the other one was runner up.
With 1.940 points for Dane overall after 3 out of 6 days , and 1.649 for Mark it’s rather clear what’s going to happen but you only know for sure when the last glider from the comps has finished.
Task 7; 1 hour AAT... short tasks but they fly , that means some fly, as at this still preliminary stage, 5 started and 4 finished. Those 4 started and fished together and both Libelles were upfront. This time Mark won with 95.79 km/78.46 km./h. for 349 points. Dane was runner up; 84.28 km./77.38 km./h. for 344 points.
The comps are between February 7 and 15. Tomorrow might be their last day when the 15th is included, if not,it could be today as well .
Will be back on that with an update.
UPDATE:
Indeed they flew on the 15th and Dane won the 1;30 AAT with 123 km./h. Task 8 was a fact and Dane won 3 days.
So after 5 out of 8 ,sometimes marginal days, the Kiwi’s had a NEW CLUB CLASS NATIONAL CHAMPION.
1. Dane Dickinson in Standard Libelle 201B with 2,984 points.
2. Mark Wilson in St Libelle with 2,651 points.
3. James Austin in Discus B with 2,448 p.

Karen Morgan shared this picture with interesting clouds, from the last day;

Parallel with these comps they fly in an open class with 8 pilots in gliders as AS 33es, LS8, Ventus 3M and CT , ARCUS and ASG 29.
Till now they flew 3 out of 6 days and the Ventus 3M with Jason is in the lead overall.It looks like they did not fly today.
They had a task 8; a 1 hour AAT and nobody bothered to fly the task, ONLY Terry in an LS 8 who flew 188 km /150 km. looks like a real wave day. Terry got 550 points for his flight and with that he was the winner.
Final result after 4 out of 8 days.
1. Terry R. Jones in LS8/18 m. with 2,306 p.
2. Jason Shields in Ventus 3 M. 2,019 p.

–—–HORSHAM WEEK: continued….

Club;
Task 5; 274.63 km…..best speed was 84.55 km./h. in an LS3 WL but David [Nugent[ was NOT the daily winner. George[Schuit] won the day in the St. Cirrus with 79.93 km./h.
A pity from the out-landing in front of the finish line on task 3, costing him more than 600 points. He was high enough for final glide but got ONLY sink 6-7 m per sec .
14 started 11 finished.
Task 6; 2 hour AAT....Steven in the St Libelle was one on the daily podium 172.70 km/86.11 km./h. ahead of George with 178.95/ 82.11 km./h.
12 started and 1 was “out”.
Task 7; last day …CANCELLED.
“Our final briefing for Horsham Week 2024. Unfortunately the conditions today are not strong, so the day has been canceled“
No way anymore to gain or loose points so ,
the final scores after 6 out of 8 days, are now;
1. Steve Jinks in the Mosquito with 5.012 points. Clear winner.
2. Jaroslaw Mosiejewski in PIK 20 b with 4,768 p.

Standard class;
Task 5; 287.16 km… Neil [ASW 24WL], who won 2 days, outlanded,….loosing more than 500 points [a pity, not good] and Jack won another day his 2d too ; 89.17 km./h.
Gordon [Trollip] in the LS6 won task 1 and flew consistent so overall he is on spot 2 with 2 days to go.
7 started and 5 finished.
Task 6; 231.06 km….Jack and Neil-day again; 93.68 km./h for 89.34 km./h. Jack leads with one day to go with 5.457 points for 4.878 from Gordon and 4.695 from Neil.
Task 7; cancelled.
The overall scores after 6 out of 8 days are;
1. Jack Hart in ASW 20b with 5,457 p. Very clear winner.
2. Gordon Trollip in LS6 with 4.878 p.

18m/open;
Task 5;  397.88 km…..Daily win for Geelong pilot Hamis [Nazari] in LS6c; 97 km./h. Ryan Nimbus[ 3T] had another good day, runner up and his overall- lead grows day by day. [4.416] Craig [AS33es] was runner up and “holds on”. [4.111]
Great job from Hamis, flying between top gliders in the good but old LS 6 is daring, but SO GOOD!!!!
5 started and 3 finished.
Task 6; 245.09 km….All 9 started and 7 finished and no news Ryan won 110.14 km./h. With 1 more day to go Ryan has 5.106 points overall and Craig 4.722 p.
Task 7; cancelled.
Overall scores after 6 out of 8 days after a very pleasant competition as I heard;
1. Ryan Driscoll in Nimbus 3T with 5.106 points, no doubt a clear winner.
2. Craig Vinall in AS 33es /18m with 4.722 points.

At the final dinner and closing ceremony James Nugent, the brand-new Narromine- WORLD CHAMPION, shared his experiences.

Other news;
–—I often refer to stories from pilots or other people AT the spot.
Also Bruce [Taylor] is one of them. In his Taylor’s Gliding Page you can read why he changed to another glider. The ASH31Mi from Pam is in his hangar now. AND,..he will fly it in Tocumwal at the 2-seater Nationals.

——One of my daughter’s colleagues starts her retirement today. Yesterday was her last flight with family .As usual drinks later with her colleagues, more family and friends.
She wanted to be a hair dresser, but flew as an F 16 fighter pilot, then went into Boeing’s at Transavia [100 % daughter of KLM] where she flew till yesterday as captain and still young she is going to be a truck driver now.
What a great life!!!!

—-The Gelderse- one- day -competition one of the nicest in Holland they say, is on April 27 [28 when 27 is not possible] Just to let you know.
https://www.zweefvlieg.net/gnl/inschrijving/

—–On February 9 Worcester had a 1000 k -day!!!Even a 2x 1000 k day. A real nice ridge-soaring day for Swiss guest Rudy and local pilot Sven;1.112 and 1.033 km.speed 136.44 and 129.62 ,both in JS1.
Sven shared a beautiful video on youtube.com [ 9 february 20241033 km] and mentioned ;”A major portion of the flight was thermal flying – the first leg to the east had the wind parallel to the ridges, and after turning Klawer I ventured to Graaffwater in the west – lured by the clouds and the promise of thermals 🙂 All in all a great day.“
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s30Oj3PFCc

–—–Romania had his 2d wave-flight in the Eastern Carpathian; 1.121 km/ 129.15 km./h. One of the pilots , Nicolae Balan nailed it in the comments:
“So, now we have to wait for March to fly the next 1000k or is it allowed to have one more in Feb?”
In WeGlide is the story about the 1000 k’s in Romania.
https://magazine.weglide.org/gliding-in-romania/

——-Denbigh Ridge/Wave Hunters  ; “Day 3 of the UKJG winter series gave us some ridge soaring!After a slack low cloud morning, the sun shined and the wind blew, allowing the juniors to have a great time!A few sore heads were spotted this morning after we hosted The Wee Bag Band! Another fantastic night had by all.”

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Cheers Ritz looking ahead at the 2-SEATER NATIONALS in TOCUMWAL starting on the 17th.
and to finish,… this beautiful picture I found on the net, shared by DG Aviation GmbH in 2014 so 10 years ago and it remains gorgeous.