First of all in the beginning of this year 2015 my concern for the Adelaide people AND animals, who are so close or in the middle of this scary fire-storm. The worst in 30 years in Australia and I have seen a few very scary ones already. Hope they can stop the fire as soon as possible, but I know what hell it is.
I was touched by the words from Grant today for Mandy’ s birthday . She starts tomorrow as the CD from the Waikirie Nationals:
” Happy Birthday to our CD Mandy Temple! Wishing you the best of luck especially today with Peter defending your home in the Adelaide Hills. I’m positive your many friends in the tight knit Australian gliding community and the rest of the world have their thoughts with you today.”
We  are for sure with them .
And,..though under these circumstances everything is relative, I still hope Peter will be able to fly the Nationals, which means his home is safe again.
On January 2 he flew a great 1.121 km. flight now he battles the fires to save his home.Several houses have been burned down already and lot’s of poor animals killed.
By the way on the 3d of January  [I guess 1991] , the WW2 hangar in Tocumwal was surrounded by such a fire-storm, which we could see come  far ahead .The change of wind saved the hangar with lot’s of gliders in it, but I still smell the fire, see the poor sheep and burnt houses,when I think of it.That day I could NOT go to the cemetery [see picture below]

Mandy and Peter , here at the Tocumwal Nationals a few years

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The last day of 2014 on the OLC, was clearly for Namibia,…. occupying the first 28 flights with 20 over -1000 km.-flights. The season is not over yet!
Flights from young brothers Enrique and Filipe  Levin together ; 1.216  in the EB 29.
Flights from long time Lasham-friends together as Andy Aveling and Hugh Kindell in the ARCUS M.[1.054 km.]
Flights together from father and son as flown by Bert sr. and Tijl Schmelzer in the EB 28.[1.102 km.]
And Austrian father and son Eder, each flying an EB 28 and 29 from Pokweni.

Bert sr. here in Morocco.

HURRAY for the great designed 2 seaters!!!!!!!

AND,..after flying together with Wilfried, Alexander Spaeth flew this time  alone; a great 1000 km. FAI triangle [ 1.340 km.] and NOT in a long-ear but in the 18m. Ventus 2CM.
Not to forget one of the TOP-ladies in soaring Anja [Kohlrausch] flying the ANTARES 20.[1.138 km./998.4 km. FAI triangle!!]
Austrian pilots, father and son Josef and Sebastian ,are together in Pokweni, but flying the EB 28 [ dad and Walther Binder] and 29 [Sebastian] that day .Both over 1100 km.

The first day of 2015 was good in Australia with flights up to 880 km. by Pepe flying from Narromine.
Tocumwal had a few over 700 km. flights and the Geelong-gang, having their camp there, surely is HAPPY with their nice long flights.
Corowa pilots had , like we do in HOLLAND with half a million, but then in the SEA and lakes , a real New Years morning dive in the pool. After there was time to fly as well, with flights up to 736 km.
AND yes on this first day of 2015 ….NAMIBIA,…..was on top again, Enrique and Felipe , Alexander, the Eders and our Polish friends who are flying in Kiripotib; all thousands again.
And a great beginning for Dutch pilot Menno as well. He flew the JS 1 over 1000 km. from Douglas Backhouse.

Day 2 of the year 2015 had a bit of the WOW factor in Australia.
ONE OF THOSE DAYS I remember so well, excitement all over!
What an outstanding,  great, epic , thermal flight from 1.582 km.  by David Jansen starting in Kingaroy in Queensland and flying all the way over NSW to arrive in Victoria, passing Benalla first to add kilometers and then landing at Benalla !!!Nice speed as well; 144 km./h. WELL DONE DAVID.
One of his mates Ross [Mc Lean] was so kind to fill me in.
” David Jansen’s flight today was of truly epic proportion.  1,582 km. in just over 11 hrs  45 mins, all thermal lift, (ie: no ridge, wave). At one point in Southern NSW he achieved a climb to over 14,000ft in a thermal.

You can see his track here http://www.glideport.aero/map?p=GlidePort:50619&day=2015-01-02

Now on the OLC here http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1440367498

David launched from Kingaroy in his ASG29  this morning a little after 8 am and headed South.

At 60 km.  NW of Nyngan he had covered 815k at 162kph.

By 2:33 pm QLD time Dave was 100 km. south of Cobar, just over 1,000 k at 161kph.

He crossed over the Victorian border near Cobram East, climbing through 10,000ft.

With so much available height David overshot Benalla and turned back at Lake Eildon in the hills to the south adding another 100km, (he was still over 10,000ft when he turned back).  Still with a surplus of height, he then overshot Benalla again to the east and finally turned back at Wangaratta to final glide into Benalla.

 The OLC scored it as 1,582.3 km at 144.4 kph

This flight was no accident, I know David.  David has had this flight (and many, many others) planned for ages and each day he checks the ISO charts for the right weather pattern. When it looks right he is already prepared and launches as early as the day permits.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  Then one day it turns out like it did today and Perfect Planning Produced A Perfect Performance.

 It helps that he is also a superb soaring pilot.”

Thanks so much, Ross!!!!On this flight David  achieved;
Distance to Goal 1253km
3 Turn-point Distance 1285km
Free Distance 1309km
Free 3 Turn-point Distance 1532km
OLC Distance 1580km

 Fabulous weather all over the East , Center and South of Australia on this day 2 of 2015.

Lot’s of 1000 km. flights for my Corowa friends!!!  Even an FAI 1000 triangle by Jos, not declared as he had to change plans,  but still a great effort.
I share a picture from the Corowa site with the ” happy 1000 km. chappies” .5 Of them are Dutch , 1 from Germany, each with the deserved traditional bottle of 1000-km.-wine.

 

Eagle, Hans-Juergen, Jos, Max, Bart and Harry.

A 900 km. triangle in an LS 4 is pretty epic too.[Tobias from Benalla]He for sure seems ready for the NATIONALS in Waikirie.
Pam and Gerrit flew from Narromine down south, also a 1000 for both.
Mac flew 900 km. leaving Gawler , to fly with with some extra kilometers to the Nationals in Waikirie.
Waikirie had some guests already and,…..YES Peter Temple flew  a 1095km FAI Triangle / 1121km flight @ 124 kph.
AND ….Craig Vinall for his 1013km flight @ 114 kph  AND…..Robert Smits for achieving his diamond distance with a 533km flight @ 95 kph.

It was THAT easy as Graig mentioned in his comment;
” aborted the declared task Waikerie/Horsham/Hay/Waikerie at Swanhill. Slow blue start, cu’s at Horsham with 10knt climbs, but cu’s ran out at the river and the climb rates halved. Turned back to the good air and got going again. Had height so just flew past Waikerie until final glide came up.” 

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With a Qualifying Grand Prix in 2015 between Jan.3 and 15  with 12 pilots in 18 m. class ,…. the 53 Australian Multi Class Nationals in Waikirie in Australia with 45 pilots in 3 classes [  Jan. 5 till 16] , The Multi Class Nationals in Omarama in New Zealand [Jan 4 till 16] with 40 participants in 5 classes and ….with the 61 st NATIONALS in   Chaves  in Argentina where 62 pilots are ready in 2 classes  between January 5 and 16 [  edition 61] …4 BIG events are in progress  in the beginning of this year.
More on all these comps on Wednesday.

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The Qualifying Grand Prix flown from Worcester in 18 m. gliders , counts 5 German pilots [Uli [Schwenk] , Holger [Karow]  , Bernd,[ Hubka]  Claus [Triebel] and Klaus [Kalmbach] . Of course John [Coutts] from New Zealand flies in this GP  and 4  South African pilots ;Oscar and Laurens [Goudriaan] ,Sven [Olivier] and William [Whittaker] .
8 JS 1’s in different figuration’s [A-B-C]  are flying , 1 ASH 26 and 1 ASG 29.

Practice day 1 last Saturday started with a 415 km. task and,…a lot of wind 20 gusting to 30 kts!!! Not everybody elected to fly, some started but returned to the field.
But,…with a speed of 175.3 km./h. for Claus Triebel it turned out a very fast day!! Also Oscar  flew around with 175 km. on his ” clock” and Sven just has a smitten less . 173 km./h.

For today 2 tasks have been set an A task from 712.5 km. and a B task from 448.1 km. It looks they are going to fly the 712.5 km. Good luck to all.

tracking on www.trackmyglider.co.za

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For the 53d Nationals in Waikiri, once the WGC -place were Ingo won gold, the pilots from Queensland arrived already a bit earlier, to celebrate old/new in Waikirie. Mind you travelling from East to more WEST is a huge job  in Australia, certainly with a trailer.
Adam even flew from Kingaroy to Narromine [ 861 km.] to travel from there by car and trailer further to Waikirie.
The practice days are on now with 13 pilots in standard class , 16 in 15 m. and 16 in open /18m. class. More on that on Wednesday.

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And from Omarama the 61 st Nationals  :
—-The first Nationals in the World for 2015 starts tomorrow!!

We take a moment to remember Billy Walker and Dave Speight who will not be here after being stalwart supporters of all the previous Nationals here. Sorely missed.

Today 4th January 2015 is Practice Day for the NZ MultiClass nationals in Omarama.
The Official(old style) scoring site is to be found at
http://www.glidingcomps.42.net.nz/nat2015/

We lost quite some mates last year. Very sad that we lost our first mate in 2015 as well. 71 Years young and close to Benalla where he started. SAD, very SAD!!!!
” Locals reported seeing the glider flying low and slow before it nosedived into the paddock.” 

It was 27 years ago on Jan 3 that we lost Dennis and a week earlier also our mate Kees [Musters December 27 1987] Here is the grave from Dennis as seen by his dad on the 3d and the tree planted from a seed from a ST Kilda white gumtree in memory of both talented ,charismatic and exceptional people;the tree is 27 years old now!Dennis only reached 18.5 years and Kees only 41.

Be careful AND we are all going to make it a FINE year 2015.
Cheers Ritz