We thought spring was around the corner ,when we had just over 14.5 dgr. C., a few weeks ago. My garden thought so too, but King Winter has arrived [again] with this week up to minus 10 !!! I know,….. “nothing”  for my Scandinavian mates and even for my USA friends who have been hit hard by “the king ” this winter, but still,…..
Also the people from the Mediterranean area, so the South of Europe, as Spain and Portugal, are cold and  have SNOW!!! Very unusual.
The good side; ice-skating is on at least for one week!!! We here, are not only born on a bike, but also on [speed-] skates!!! There is a hurrah mood at the moment.

—–When I was down under ,I missed a few interesting and as they called it “groundbreaking mountain wave flights“. Flown from Kopaida Air base, by Legend Klaus Ohlmann and Greek co-pilot Alexis Anastasiou in the Stemme.

Klaus and Alexis.

SO , here you are, better late then never!!!! With some great pictures;
“Two groundbreaking mountain wave flights with the legend, Klaus Ohlmann.
The first one was 1083km OLC / 1052km Free 3TP up to the northern border of Greece and crossing the gulf of Corinth to Argos.
The second was to the southernmost point of the Balkan Peninsula and second southernmost point of Europe, Cape Tainaron. Many thanks to the ATCs who made this possible.”
You find the flights on :
https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-…/gliding/flightinfo.html…
https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-…/gliding/flightinfo.html…

               

Greece and wave flying at their best !
Pictures as shared by Alexis.

So when I asked Alexis, if he could add some personal touch with this great flight he wrote :
“Yes, that all my records were broken and I was very happy for this!
And the day of the long flight was by no means exceptional.
Also, that Klaus is not only an amazing pilot but also an amazing person.
There is great potential for very long flights in Greece and I have a lot of “work” to do.”
So we will hear more from Alexis and soaring in Greece in the future.Looking forward to that !!!

 

——-EUROGLIDE 2018 !!! The 14th edition !!!
Some hearts are banging loud , now EUROGLIDE 2018 is nearly “on” .
Never heard of EUROGLIDE???
In short as written on their site;” Contrary to a standard gliding competition, when each day a task is flown from the same airfield, Euroglide has only one task of approximately 2000 km:”Depart from Venlo airfield,[in the S of Holland]  round the turnpoints and return to Venlo as soon as possible, but at latest on the last competition day.”

Each day, after landing (out) the teams have to find a suitable airfield for the next day and arrange take-off facilities themselves. To a certain extend, it is allowed to travel towards a turningpoint with the glider in the trailer.”

The registration is closed now and 81 teams have announced their participation.Some teams exist out of 4/6 pilots so a “huge bunch” of happy chappies!!! Many are longing for 2 years for the next edition, after they were part of it  .
Pilots are from the UK, Germany, France, Belgium ,Poland ,Slovenia , Swiss and Holland.

www.euroglide.nl

 

——The NZ Nationals in Matamata [27-01/10-02] continued and after the first week with 5 out of 9 days and one week to go , the DUO Discus in the racing class with 10 pilots was better than good, winning 4 day’s one even as sole finishers; their total after week one is 3.652 points and looking at the runner up with 2.581 they are 1000 points ahead.No reason for team Thompson and McIver to forget about week 2 ,…but they could ; at least they want, take it easy and fly on safe.
In open class the first 5 pilots ,after one week, were between a total score of 4.555 and 3.926, so a lot can still happen here.
After the first week those 5 first are Pat Driessen, Keith Essex, Steve Wallace, Tim Bromhead and Tony van Dyk, more or less as expected.On task 5 the last day of week 1 , Pat lost over 300 points and Keith won the 1000. The day was lower and tougher than expected, but no worries for Pat , his lead was substantial.
Unfortunately Aussie Matthew Scutter [Discus 2] outlanded on day 1 loosing 905 points in his first NZ comps and then it is a bit difficult to motivate again, but he got the feeling for NZ soaring, which is of course  different to Aussie soaring,[though flying on the S island with all the mountains would have been REALLY different]  and slowly he found his way up.From spot 14 [from 16] to 10, 7 and spot 9 after the week, as he lost some points again on task 5; 1000 for Keith  and 160 for Matthew .He even was runner up one day.
Here is what Matthew wrote in his Matthew Scutter’s Gliding blog about day 1.
“Day 1 of NZ North Island Nats… needed a relight, got sent to the back of the grid but conditions deteriorated with the sea breeze coming in and some cu nims shading big patches of the first leg. Took 1kt to an altitude I thought would let me make the jump across a tongue of sea air and shadow but just short of the other side the landing options ahead looked terrible and if I missed the climb I’d be landing in a postage stamp on rolling hills. Deviated to a couple of wisps in the sea air but less than minimim sink. Paddocks were all terrible and the airfield database airfields either didn’t exist or I couldn’t find them. I did find an unmarked agstrip nestled on top of a hill made for an easy outlanding. Wheelbrake appears to be U/S so tonight will be busy too.”

AND that he learned every day is written as follows; “Low and slow, but not low enough to see the hobbits. First time racing on a ridge, two laps for 340k with almost no turns. This is what I came to Matamata for!”
That day [task 4] he was runner up!!!

What happened more with from today on only 2 days to go?
The new week on Monday started good with task 6 for Pat who won and Keith [from the USA] as runner up. Not so good for Tony as he outlanded.  Matthew did not start ,maybe more job’s on the glider.
Also a few outlanders in racing class .
Yesterday showed over 300 km. flights  and Matthew was runner up loosing ONE point to Steve.
The DUO-team lost 10 points but who cares; now 5.398 for 4.273 points.
Today; task 8 with a 2.15 AAT in racing class and only 8 started now in this class with 5 finishers one of them ,on spot, 4 team Thompson&McIver. They were the first to go on track.
In open same task different winner; Keith was the best again for the day. One outlanding and Pat was runner up. Matthew was 4th. He seems to have problems with this glider as now his battery was dead and he could not make any radio calls whilst landing.
More next week!

With these words Matthew shared his “learning curve” to cope with the weather in NZ;
“Weird easterly wave at Matamata today. 35kts on the ridge, 2kts at 5000ft.”

As shared by Matthew in Matthew Scutter’s Gliding.

 

——–Horsham was very busy with the Australian FAI SGP  , then with Horsham coaching week 2018 and now with the annual and very popular Horsham Week; February 3-10.
30 Competitors in 3 classes and in open straight away a 300 km and 490 km. Not super-doper- hotshots at this competition, but pilots who love competition soaring and some still learning to get more practice to be a future “hotshot”.
Great weather as expected this time of the year in the W of Australia with AAT’s from 4 hours and pilots flying 605 km. with a speed of 146.70 km./h. in a JS 1 in open class.
Another good day yesterday , 37 dgr. C. with a 3.30 AAT for club class won by Bernie Sizer in his PIK 20. He goes like a rocket in his own new glider!!! 403 km. in time 3.42.
In open/18 m. Scott [Percival]  arrived for the last few days, with his ASH 25 /26 m. and straight away won the day; 325 km. with a speed of 136 km./h.
Horsham TODAY had 3 ,3.30 and 4 hour AAT’s so a long day and no scores yet. But some flights were over 500 km.
To be found at www.soaringspot.com

 

——-Looking at the OLC, some great recent flights from Australia in the after-season time.
Last Monday 830 km. from Tocumwal by Chris Davison in his JS 1cTJ. The B-C-T triangle did well as from Benalla over 700 [ASG 29/18 m] was flown and from Corowa 834 km in the ASH 31/21 m.
A day earlier Milan Petcovic flew in his DG 100 519 km. from Toc. and on February 3 Tobias Geiger flew in his LS 4 a distance of 970 km [840 FAI triangle] from Benalla.
Also Narromine had great flights by Tomas Suchanek; all around 800 km.
On February 2 Stefan Soell topped the list with an LS 4 flight from 741 km. WITHOUT water!!
Great Aussie weather also yesterday when Eddie from Sportaviation wrote;
“All gliders off and racing with the best set of weather for the season cloud base 10,000+ nil wind .”
Mind you day’s are REALLY getting shorter there as they are slowly getting longer here as well.
Today; Tomas Suchanek flew from Narromine 822 [ 800 km. FAI TRIANGLE], Bendigo much more to the W. showed a good flight from Terry Bellair in the DG 400/17 m. 760 km. Benalla same distance by Bob Nicholls.[Ventus 2C/18 m.]
Showing from W to E ,…..Australia is still good!!!

——-The Bitterwasser containers have left on February 5 ,….the Namibia season is definitely over …..and it was a superb season!!!The gliders arrive in the Rotterdam harbor around February 25.

You are up to date,…… Struggling with my internet connections,  but they check all lines this afternoon.
Cheers Ritz