This concept , a 7 day-package, from/created by Ludwig Starkl and Wolfgang Janowitsch from Austria , to fly from Kiripotib and Bitterwasser with a champion you can learn from, works very good and already for a few years now.
Early November was n’t always the best time, but this year it was superb, specially in Kiripotib. And champions like Wolfgang enjoy it to the fullest as well.
What about a flight from him with Swiss trainee Valentin Maeder; 1.035 km. with a speed of 189 km./h. The “poor” trainee had no time to look around!!!Haha.
The first leg had a speed of 140 km./h with 8 thermals ,then,…..900 km. without turning. Amazing!!!!!
The ARCUS M is such a great glider for these flights!!!!
Junior Christian Lampert , from Germany, has the time of his life, flying with toppers as Alexander Mueller[ 3 x] and Olivier Darroze [4 x ] ;2 nearly 1000 k’s and 1 x a 1000 and 3 over 1.100 k with as best speed 178 km./h.
A short flight on the last day!
They learn how to deal with weird weather as well ” On yesterdays final glide, some of our pilots could fly over a sandstorm, there they had up to three meters laminar lift. It was just amazing. “
Christian shared his experience and I share it with you:
“And again an incredible day for me. On my third flight during this camp, I reached not only the magical mark of 1000km , I even topped it with more than 1.100 km. Perfect how my trainer Alexander Müller guided me to this distance, to fly with such a champ is the best way to improve.
In the late afternoon, a wonderful convergence build up. Next to a showers line we followed it without circling, unbelievable climb values you just push away and make speed and km.
During the final approach there was another highlight, which I had never seen before. In the evening, the sea breeze reached the area of Kiripotib and we had 3 to 4 meters lift in straight flight at 19:00, only sunset stopped our flight. The absolute madness.
I am very excited what the next flying days still have to offer and look forward to it. From today on I will fly with Olivier Darroze, the “mister speed” under the champs.“
Most 1000 km. flights in the first week of November from Kiripotib, [19] a few from Veronica [11]and Bitterwasser.[4]
Also Pokweni started the season now with some good just-under 1000 km. flights.
Not a bad season- start till now !!!!
Though it looks at this stage that the second week is less good.
Flights up to 900 km. are as good to learn from.[927 from Veronica last Monday!]
Of course Kiripotib is proud so they should. Here is their news from today;
“Kiripotib is first.
With yesterdays flights, our pilots reached the first place in the worldwide overall scoring on OLC, congratulations to all of them. Not only the participants of Flying with the Champions, helped to reach it, also many individual pilots flying from Kiripotib where part of this success.
In the next weeks we are sure Bitterwasser will come to the first place again, too many pilots flying there. But at the moment its a nice feeling to be up there.”
At this stage 62.069.32 km. flown by 20 pilots in 85 flights. Great average!!!
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New Zealand‘s top wave resort OMARAMA;
Has a great season-opening with awesome flights.
On November 8 Keith Essex flew over 1.117 km. with a speed of 140 km./h. on as he called it a “weak low stress wave day“.
Though the rest of the comment showed maybe a bit of stress;” Took a while to dig myself out using a rough convergence where two valleys meet at a 90 degree angle with 30kts blowing from each direction .”
A fabulous flight as well by good old Justin Wills;
Terry Delore shared this message and picture on November 8;
“ Outstanding 1.850 km flight by Justin Wills and Norbert today landing shortly before dark .”
Romanian pilot Norbert , really has the time of his life:
1.839 km. with a speed of 153 km./h. AND THAT IN A DUO DISCUS!!!!!
This time a “sit” of 12 hours and 1 minute!! Great stamina from Justin!!!!!
3 Day’s earlier Norbert flew 1.312 km. a sit of 10 hours and 54 minutes.
The smoke from the fires in Australia had influence on the flights from Saturday from Omarama. The cloud-base dropped rapidly.
1500 k and 1000 k attempts were “killed”.
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Some interesting news from last week;
The Netherlands;
A bit of scare, when the message on TV said something “serious” was happening at Schiphol Airport last Wednesday; a “suspicious” situation.
Next message was in extra news; A hijack !!!!????
In the end it turned out that the captain from Air Europe on a flight to Madrid, showed his trainee, how the alarm system/code for hijacking worked .He did it TOO well.
The captain apologized to his passengers for the delay .
It showed however that Schiphol reacts very adequate.
UK :
British Gliding Association and Top Meteo;
“Yesterday, [on November 5] Bernd Goretzki flew almost 600km at 232 kph Olc speed! It must be one of the fastest flights in thermal.
Congratulation to him and Reinhard Schramme, that its is really impressive.
We are waiting to have more insides about their flight but according to their OLC comments, all that matters is a good flight plan (the convergence was where it was expected) and a lot of fun!”
The flight had an OLC- scoring -distance of 852 km. and a speed of 192.7 km./h. and was flown from Bitterwasser.
Loved the comment from Reinhard; ” Also granddads can have fun“. So it is, he is damn right!!!
Narromine;
Like Africa parts of Australia suffer from red dust, thanks to sand storms. Here a picture from Narromine.
And,…”they come rolling in“…!!!!
Even worse!!!! After the dry hot years in which lot’s of people suffered,…NOW they suffer again both in NSW and Queensland, where more than 125 fires ,[75 in NSW and 50 in Queensland] are terrifying the states.
Horrible fires burning down houses, killing people and lot’s of animals.
Several people are not accounted for and several injured!!!!
Poor koala’s are sitting in the top of the trees, as normally this is safe for them ,as fires creep over the ground. These fires however are high!!!
Another disaster!!!!
And,…it takes a lot of time for the gum trees to grow again, meaning less food or no food for the koala’s still a life.
Also kangaroos and iguana’s suffer, as well as birds ,spiders, snakes and possums and more….not only fauna also flora.
The WORST thing is ,…that it is only early spring. What about when summer is on , the “normal” time for fires!!!
shared by David WrightAustralian Native Animals
I feel for my Aussie mates!!!!1200 Men fire brigade are working day and night ,but the storms ignite the fires and all is out of control.
Even Sydney is in danger now, I heard on Sunday morning.
Anni who lives close to Port Maquirie shared these pictures and story;
AND
close ,about 6 k from the fire front, is her house
Here is what she said about a short time frame of 48 hours from Friday to Saturday:
“ The last 48 hours have been interesting to say the least. I’m still trying to process what I experienced as so much of our idyllic backyard of Port Macquarie, Mid North Coast and State was under siege from unprecedented wild and destructive firestorms that have utterly and completely ravaged the place.
It’s abundantly clear to me that we are in a climate crisis. It was simply surreal watching smoke billowing from all directions near school, keeping children safe and calm whilst ash and debris were raining down relentlessly. The acrid stench of smoke clogging our lungs and the eerie stillness quite ‘terrifying’, as one of my young students put it. We wrote stories to allay our fears, not only about ourselves, but our community and more importantly, all the animals trapped and caught in the fire zones. There were tears. 😢🐨 🦜 If I ever imagine what the end of the world may look like, Friday November 8, 2019 will remain etched in my memory.
Thankful to the tireless work of our firies – in the sky and on the ground, and all volunteers enduring such horrific conditions. Heroes, all of them. Thank you
She marked herself as safe now.
Worcester;
The Worcester Magic straight away started too when the real kilometer-eaters from overseas, had arrived. Marcus and Philip flew on their first flight for the season 1.152 km.
Germany;
Celebrations on Saturday November 9 when the 30thiest anniversary of the fall from the wall in Berlin was remembered.
I remember that day too. Could not believe what I saw and sat with tears in my eyes in front of the TV. Some of my friends “raced” to Berlin to celebrate this wonderful and historic moment. They wanted to be part of it!!
I have been several times after that moment in both parts of Berlin.
I was amazed to see p.e in Potsdam, how they had renovated very old dilapidated buildings into something “spiffy”.
But after 30 years you can’t really say that all is “thick as thieves” in united Germany.
November 9 1989 was a day which influenced many lives.
OLC;
Between all that African-power , last Sunday, there were 2 interesting flights , on page 1 from the OLC, from Europe. In Romania they have more good pilots, as I see now I keep an eye on Norbert as well.
They even have fields I never heard from; So the 2 wave- flights in an SZD 54-2 Perkoz 20m W and Discus 2A from over 700 km. from Sanpetru got my attention. Wave till over 6000 m. MSL,…not bad!!!!
Learned something again,…never too old to learn.
EUROGLIDE 2010;
The date for this event is now set.
Here is all the news, as many are interested in this event.
Briefing ….June 21 2020.
Flying from June 22 – July 3 at 5 PM.
Prize giving at July 3 at 9 PM.
The global track will be announced on December 1 at 10 AM.
Registration starts on December 15 at 10 AM.
I know many hearts are going to tick faster now!!!!
That’s it for now. Off to the hospital. Tomorrow as well. Results on the 21.
Cheers Ritz