And then…… Ingo did not participate in his home country when in Paderborn in 1981 the Aussie team choose to not fly there ,as boycott because the South African pilots were flying there. The time of “apartheid”. That could have been another title for him, but of course now we will never know.
Here is the 1`981 news about it:
“Due to political pressures Australia will not be represented in the World Championships, but instead will seek to attend alternative international events to allow Australia to maintain its position as a leading gliding country. It is proposed to hold an international contest at Benalla in early 1984 by invitation to leading pilots from overseas and top Australian pilots.”
From Sailplane And Gliding the June /July edition 1981.
And,…that was of course AUSTRAGLIDE.
On you tube is a great ABC documentary about this competition, indeed with many overseas pilots.

At the MEMORIAL SERVICE at Tocumwal in the beautiful big WW2 hangar, attended by many from all over Australia, his soaring friends have said good bye to Ingo ,but he will never be forgotten, he is and remains a soaring-hero/legend….for ever.

As I have written already Ingo was in the beginning “sponsored” by Bill Riley. Bill had the vision of starting a gliding school at the huge WW2 aerodrome in Tocumwal. They helped each other in realizing this dream. Bill has been travelling with Ingo to a lot of his WGC’s to share his happiness. They shared that dream as well.
Tony Tabart , also an Australian WGC pilot, is one of the many who reacted on writing about Ingo for the INGO MEMORIAL in the beginning of Sportavia-time:

” In 1974, I had the good fortune to be invited by Bill Riley to join the team of Ingo Renner and Eddie Madden at Tocumwal as a gliding instructor.  During my years there, I was asked many times by students and pilots “what’s Ingo’s secret”.  As if he had some magic that he wasn’t letting on about. 

Hot days, poor gliding conditions, at about 6pm we’d call it a day and start the long journey towing up to 15 gliders back to the hangar. We’d spend time putting the aircraft away, and Ingo’s Blanik would be missing. We’d wait around, eventually he’d turn up, working that last little bit of lift. It became obvious to me that Ingo never lost the magic of flight over his long years of gliding. 

When people would compliment Ingo on his performance, he’d say “I was lucky”.  But the old adage rings true, the more you practise the luckier you get.  As well as natural aptitude, that was his secret. On those long low hot days, Ingo would be the last to land with a student.

My last flight with Ingo was in December 2017 in his beloved Caproni, just for fun in the skies around Tocumwal…...      Tony Tabart

And some words from his wife Jo.
” Ingo was a true gentle man, both on the ground and in the air, prompting the best out of all who came into contact with him.  Ingo was at the top, and he genuinely wanted others to join him there. 

Ingo was modest and generous-hearted.  If we were together in a group and people were complimenting Ingo, he would invariably respond:  But Tony Tabart was the first Australian to win a day in a World Competition (Yugoslavia, 1972  – the only pilot to complete the task).  Or:  But Tony Tabart was the first Australian to complete a thousand km triangle (January 1979). 

Ingo didn’t welcome personal adulation, but it was something that he shared…..     Jo Pocklington

As you know when I met Ingo first we visited the WGC in Rieti in 1985. In 1984 we got to know already the entire Aussie team there. We are all still good mates.
Ingo was then already World Champion , as he won the first title in 1976 in Finland at the airfield of Rayskala. He won in the EIRI PIK 20 B in Standard Class and he got the PIK as FIRST prize!! Later I met Hannu who was the designer of the PIK 20.
This PIK was “send” to Tocumwal and after it crashed one day a longtime ago, George decided to restore it again and it still flies at Toc.
Good little glider .
Hannu regularly flew with us in Tocumwal as did Jari and Kari.
In Hobbs in New Mexico in 1983, Ingo won his 2d title in open class in a Nimbus 3, whilst our Kees Musters won the title in 15 m. class. I was not there , but I heard it was hot and spectacular.
Ingo won the 3d title in Rieti in 1985 and we were there to congratulate him and Teresa.

They met in 1977 in Oerlinghausen where he was at that time and she was there for the ladies championships. He came to visit her in Sweden and she went to Toc the following winter and so it all started.
They married in Stockholm 19/10-1981 [ divorced winter 1989]
Teresa is born in Finland but moved as a child to Sweden. She always competed for Sweden.

Teresa;” Of course there are lots of sweet memories of all the things we did together, he became 3 times World Champion while we were married, I still remember the day he flew the new world record on 100 k triangle of 195 kph. It was a very hot day and the weather was booming but I was in the bed in our  ( hot) caravan with a bad cold. He came in and told me :
‘I got 195 kph, can you imagine!!!’
I was crewing him for all the Aussie Nationals and that was easy work, never any outlandings!“
At World comps his mate and super “lamy” on gliders and small aircrafts at Sportavia, Peter Menhennitt crewed as well. Peter worked in the workshop, first at Bill Riley’s , then with Don and Jeff and with us. One of the most reliable and kind men I know.

Teresa ; “Our Discus XX in Australia, we bought directly from Klaus Holighaus, when he did bring it to Australia with him, it was one of the first prototypes of the brand new Discus. We fell in love with it, emptied all our bank-accounts and kept it. 
I had a look at my old logbook and I had the first flight with it on 2/2-85 in Tocumwal. Two years later Markku Kuittinen flew it in the WGC 1987 in Benalla and became the World Champion in Std Class. A memorable detail was when Markku was preparing for the World Comps staying in Tocumwal a month before Benalla:
XX had a tailtank, a brand new detail for the gliders. If you had to dump the water when opening the watertanks, also the tailtank opened and dumped. The ‘problem’ was that if you only wanted to dump your waterballast partly for some seconds and then closed that valves again, the tailtank continued to empty. That was of course a security detail and requirement from the authorities.
However we thought that it would be more optimized to be able to  close also the tail-tank if needed, before all the water was gone. I made a small modification to the tail-tank valve so that Markku could close it if needed.
The big question was of course, what would Klaus, the constructor and the ‘father’ of the glider say? Klaus was also already in Australia, preparing for the World Comps in Benalla, he was a part of the German Team, however not as pilot that time. He came to look at the modification and checked it. To my relief he nodded, and fully approved the home made modification ‘no problems, that is a bright idea, Markku can use it’ was his comment!”

The month before Benalla 1987 was a memorable time in Toc. Lots of teams had arrived to Australia already well in time to adjust for the time different and to get used to the hot weather. A large number of teams came to Tocumwal as it was near Benalla and we had open arms for all of them.
Bruce Brockhoff that time had built a shed, a toolshop on the camping next to his caravan, it was a well visited place from the different Teams preparing their gliders, as he had a huge collection of different kind of tools in it. One of the evenings he organized a big party on the camping, he called the party for ATSOP: Aussie Tool Shop Opening Party!
That evening I saw our son Dennis drinking with Giles, not a good sign, beer and whisky; Ingo commented ‘ the young Dennis got drunk‘

Ingo’s 4th title was in Benalla in a year that George and Dennis flew in the same open class. Ingo in an ASW 22 B and George and Dennis in the Nimbus 3D, specially checked “before flying” by Klaus. Something with the “tapes” glued under the wings, was wrong.

In the beginning it was not the real Benalla- weather that year with many outlandings ….. 100 on day 1.
But in the end enough good days and final scores over 11. 000 points.
Winners was Ingo in Open, 11.021 points, Markku [Kuittinen] in standard 10.537 p. and Brian [Spreckley] in 15 m. with 10.347 p.
Brian had a great time there together with Kees [Musters] and George, often till late, but he was absolutely still focused and also very relaxed.
In open only 21 pilots, but a few very strong ones, among them 5 WORLD CHAMPIONS. First of all the defending Champion Ingo, with at that stage 3 titles. Then George Lee representing Hong Kong with also 3 titles , Goran Ax from Sweden with 2 titles ,Rolf Hossinger from Argentina and Marc Schroeder from France each with one title.
To win from ALL OF THEM is glorious. Ingo did!!! Yes he had a great glider, but in it was a great pilot.

This glorious picture from Ingo I received from Judy, who spoke as I heard about her life with Ingo in a touching way last Saturday and with that I close this blog.

R.I.P. Ingo.

Ritz

P/S
I had planned this part of Ingo’s life to be published last Sunday, 1 day after the Memorial service, but the FLU really got me badly and still has me in it’s grip.
NO CORONA and the doctor told me NO PNEUMONIA. So after 6 days , I guess I need a few more days “off”.
Post below is a short regularly one.