Kingaroy …Australian Nationals….the end!!!!

Wednesday’s story from Bruce to start with, as it is always interesting.
“Lots of stories to tell today. The weather was really interesting, with a high wave start from 11,500 feet. There was some strong shear wave, and the photos show some of the panel and a view of the Kingaroy location from about 10,500 feet. I was lucky to be at the top, and it was beautiful looking down through about 30 gliders to the ground. Our first leg was a very long glide to the north, and when we arrived under the clouds they were useless. Lift was very weak and broken, and it was not until half an hour later that things improved. The northern part of our task then became excellent, with good climbs to about 7,000 feet, usually at 6 knots or more. Then as we came south again it was slightly difficult to find the best climbs and to stay high. I was sure the wave was still going over the top of convection, so I worked hard at finding the influence of the wave by flying just upwind of the lines of cumulus, and it worked a treat! This air was good enough to get onto a final glide home from a couple of thousand feet low. Once again the big wings were beaten by the 18m pilots, and John Buchanan in particular, but it was a fun flight and interesting weather.
Washing the glider I was joined by George Lee for a nice chat about gliding, world comps, and the many great friendships we have made whilst doing this. What a gentleman George is, and what a wonderful sport we enjoy. Then when heading back to the clubhouse for dinner there was this super sunset.
All in all not a bad days work.”

As shared by Bruce.

Thursday flying day 9; 2.30 AAT’s for standard and 15 m and 2 hour AAT’s for the rest, with storms fore-casted .
Standard; Another great win , the 5th, for Allan [ Barnes]. It looks if he is on his way to be the Aussie Champion but it’s only over after the last pilot has arrived on the last day. Like Butch in 18 m. Allan is “in the right groove”.
298.45 km. in 2.34. Good on him. Mac [HC] was runner up. Peter [Trotter] number 2 for the Aussie-score-day.
Allan is so kind to always share his views on the day in his OLC comment;
“Day 9 of KRY Nationals. A day that was forecast to storm early and become unsoarable after 3pm. Task was a 2.5hr AAT to the north then to the Downs in the SW. I came off tow straight into sink and eventually found a half knot to work for a long time in the widespread shade. Eventually got to cloudbase well after the gate had opened, so started pretty much straight away as there was shadow everywhere and heaps of vertical development. I ran NE towards the east edge of the first area, and it went well for a time – I found Mac Ichikawa but our line was soon spoiled by a large dead area. I deviated north, and got fairly low before finding a good climb near Windera lake. Decided to go as far as possible north, as the Downs was meant to be much worse. Found a good street, and turned just a couple of km before the circle edge. Had a fairly good run south, apart from being heavily rained on instead of finding the planned-for 10kt. Got a little low over the scrub and had to backtrack towards landable fields, but found a 6kt save just in time. Ran south again and turned in the second circle at 10min delta T, with 160kph required speed to finish. Pulled it back to 4 minutes over, and ran in at almost VNE in the end under a buoyant street.”
15 m; Adam mentioned that he loves  the challenge and race,even with only a 2 points lead. So will he keep his calm and not loose it???? It’s the first time in the ‘grown-up-world’ he leads a championship, reason enough to get “cold feet”.
BUT,….He did keep it at least for day 9 and won !!!339.85 in 2.44. Stephen was runner up but lost 56 points, so Adam’s lead is a bit bigger now 91 points.

Adam who shared this picture with the text:
“A pleasure doing business with you Aaron, you’ve completed your first contract – my glider is now extremely clean & ready for tomorrow’s racing. AU$10 well spent.”

18 m.; a short task so what time to start? With storms up coming you would think early. That’s what David did at 12 , but Chris, Adam’s dad started an hour later. Local knowledge????
Anyhow David won the day with 266.58 km. in 2.11. Butch started at 12.30 and lost 27 points . No worries!Chris was on spot 7.
During the last 7 out of 9 days the overall scores have been the same. Butch, David and Tom , nothing changed today. Butch leads with nearly 200 points , but between David and Tom there are less than 60 points.Exciting!
open/combi ; Bruce won the open class day with 276.56 km. in 2.07 !!!
Here is Bruce;
“Today was a tricky day, with very moist, unstable air. During briefing there was a shower on the roof, but we were reassured by Adam Woolley (the weather lad) that it would indeed turn into an “awesome day”. Maybe it didn’t reach awesome status, but it was interesting and a lot of fun. Already during launch, areas were overdeveloping and turning to rain, leaving some large dead spots. Starting was difficult, as everything within range of the start line had died, and a number of pilots had a real struggle to get away. Then through the afternoon things recycled, and parts of the task area were really good, with solid climbs to 7,000 feet or more. However it was always challenging, and the carefully set 2 hour AAT was right on the money. It must have been a long wings day, as the JS1 helped me around the task at a good speed, and I really managed to stay out of trouble the whole way. In a few places I used 2 or 3 knots to stay up high, but mostly I was looking for 5 knots, and even found one much stronger than that.” 

As shared by Adam,pilot and the meteo guy;
Raining at Kingaroy now, looks like we got the task about right & predicted the weather fairly closely due to www.skysight.io

Friday LAST DAY;
So much to hope for,so much to gain,  so much to loose,…. what will bring this last day. Tasks were about the same as the day before so a bit of practice was in the system. 2 and 2.30 AAT’s.
Standard; Allan won the last day as well good on him,[ daily win number 6 in the pocket !!!!!!]; 250 km. in  2.04 same as Mac.
Here is his own story from the OLC and thanks Allan for your detailed reports!!!
— “Final day. Our task was a 2 hour AAT, similar to yesterday but with a TP at Kumbia to keep everyone away from the scrub. I had a problem-laden start, realizing at weighing that all my tail ballast had emptied, and discovering the valve was broken. I decided to dump half my wing water, and fill the tail halfway and plug it. That way I could still have he benefit of some ballast and be able to comfortably land with it on board if necessary. My task today was to ensure that Greg and Peter did not do anything much better than me – so I was going to follow Greg but saw Mac, who is ahead of me but not in the running for the trophy. He latched on to me and followed me through the start, and never let go. I was losing on glide but gaining on climb. We turned short of a big fire that was too far north, then had a good run back via Kumbia, and hit the Bunyas with about 30km needed to avoid coming home early. Fortunately there was a line of cu just outside the Oakey airspace, and we ran it down until we got pinched by the airspace then ran home coming in 4 min over. Good day, good enough to be champion!!!”

As shared by the 34 th WGC.

So Mac is the winner with 7686 points well done MAC, great practice for Benalla.
The AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION is ALLAN BARNES.He got the trophy for 7516 points.Congratulations Allan!!!!!
On spot 2 is Peter Trotter and Greg Beecroft was as well on the podium!!
By the way Kerrie was 3d on the last day so good on her!!
The official final scores in standard class;
Winner MAC flying HC        7686
1. Allan Barnes        7516
2. Peter Trotter       7344
3. Greg Beecroft      7269

15 m.; a “bloody good feeling”  was one of the reactions of the new AUSSIE 15 m NATIONAL CHAMPION Adam Woolley.
He first had to fly though, on that last day, but no worries, he was runner up behind Jim, who flew 250 km. with a speed of 124 km./h.. Adam “did”  236 km. in 1.58.
—” Well it’s official, I’m now the Australian 15m national gliding champion! It’s taken a lot of sweat over the years to achieve this life long dream, it feels as good as I dreamt it to be!
It’s not just for us, the champion names that live on the trophy, I must thank all those who have supported me through the years, those who have breathed deep when I got low, helped me get from A-B, leant me gliders, picked me out of a paddock, heard my sob & success day stories, coached me, shared laughs & shared days soaring with me!
You all know who you are, so thanks for being apart of my first senior Nationals win & hopefully one day a world title.”

Official 15 m. results;
1. Adam Woolley             7500
2. Jim Crowhurst           7333
3. Stephen O’ Donnell   7245

A REAL happy chappie.
As shared by Adam.

18 m. ;Geoff Brown was the last-day-winner with 322 km in 2.30 at the dot!!! The toppers did not loose too much or did not take too big risks so the overall scores stayed the same. Butch flew extremely well a deserved NATIONAL CHAMPION.
He did so already when I met him in Rieti 1984 and during the WGC there in ’85 he flew our glider and used our car.After more than 30 years he is still TOP!!!
Official 18 m. scores;
1. John Buchanan        7704
2. David Jansen           7575
3. Tom Claffey              7517

open /combi; For open class only as in big wings, Benalla 2016 WGC pilot for Australia ,Andrew won the day in the JS 1C .
Bruce for the last time from  the Kingaroy nationals.
—“All done and dusted. The last day turned out to be not totally straightforward, with a slowish start and poor visibility, which hampered our decision on how best to use the AAT we were given. Andrew Georgeson made the best of it, and I got caught flying into an area that wasn’t so wonderful. I have been feeling like I haven’t really flown my best this competition, but in hindsight I have managed to be consistent, and did win the three days which really suited the JS1. I slipped back one place yesterday to finish in fourth. As per the whole fortnight, John Buchanan outflew us convincingly. Congratulations to him for a great effort.
The photo is the sky today, the first really non-flyable day for the past two weeks. That says much for the Kingaroy site. We have had a variety of weather, and some tough, weak days, but could actually have flown 12 days straight. Thanks to all the organizers, super comp!” Thanks BRUCE!!!!!
The combi/open class was a bit complicated in scores. But looking at the combined scores,… the top 3 from 18 m, was also the top 3 in the combined class, so GOOD ON THEM!!!
Looking at open class gliders only, Bruce was the best followed by Andrew. Both represent Australia in Benalla,… so good luck guy’s.

No more pictures found so that’s all about the Aussie Nationals!!!!

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Benalla here they come!

2 Trailers in one container , one the EB 29 with new wings, with Ludwig,??? Stefano , Wolfgang and Gagula
As they mentioned “loading of the Diana (with FES-system) trailer was very easy.”
Picture courtesy Goeran Karllson.

Courtesy Boerje.

The Dutch containers, with HUGE help of Grietje and Francesco from Soaring-Center-Corowa, left already in September

     

Pictures shared by WK Gliding.

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And…talking about containers….
ready for the season

Safe arrival from all containers at Bitterwasser.

As shared by Bitterwasser Lodge and Flying Center.

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The Victorian Soaring Association.

The VSA Presidents Award recognizes the significant contribution Eddie Madden has made to gliding over many years through his SportAviation business.

“Any aviation business is challenging and none more so than recreational aviation. Eddie has shown great perseverance in maintaining SportAviation as a viable operation which has introduced many people to gliding and thereby assisted membership growth in the VSA and GFA. Eddie’s operation has also assisted visiting pilots to fly at Tocumwal and contributed to Tocumwal’s ongoing reputation as a premier cross country site.

The VSA Committee also recognize the support Eddie has given the VSA by attending and contributing to our Club Presidents meetings every year.”

Good on you Eddie, congratulations !!!!!

Picture shared by Marsha from the VSA

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Talking about awards…..

I got one too. At Terlet some pilots who have a gliders pilot licence for 50 years got flowers and little golden pin’s with a brilliant.
Robin Smit got  a Dutch bronze award for being such a great young pilot, Dr. Luuk Boermans for EVERYTHING he has done for soaring, too much to mention and for my contribution to soaring the Dutch Gliding Federation handed out a sterling  GOLDEN pin to me as well.
Love gold!!!!!
THANKS!!!!!!!Also a big thank you to the KNVvl for organizing such a nice day!!!
A  picture impression.

     

Around 130 people cheered on the 10 pilots who got their pin for 50 years “glider pilot’s licence”.
AND
For Robin, Loek and Me.

      

Robin [to the left] waiting for his award, Loek WITH his award and Jan “decorating me.”

     

With longtime friends Theo, Jan and  Mark-Peter , Reitze and Brutus and my daughter Inge with Bas.

        

Pictures courtesy George.

My family. Maike [sister in law], Inge [daughter] Saf [sister in law] my ” little”  brother Piet.

And
both Inge and I got the chance to virtual fly in the Discus 2 C with FES. Thanks Sander!!!

AND
the Thermiekbel one day later still gorgeous weather.

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News from the British Gliding Team!

We’re delighted to announce our British Junior Gliding Team for the 2017 season:

Tom Arscott
Mike Gatfield
Jake Brattle
Finn Sleigh

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The 7th SGP WORLD FINAL!!!
POTCHEFSTROOM.
Starting soon.
November 5 and 12 !!!!
More next week.

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Cheers Ritz
Happy AUTUMN

OR SPRING??????