It’ has been 18 dgr. C here, insane on February 25, the hottest 25th ever. We have had in the past speed- ice-skating- races and the 11 steden tocht [ ice skating in the N of Holland …Friesland,…over frozen canals between 11 towns] in February, but NEVER these high temperatures. Even the UK, often wet and chilly in this time, had record breaking temperatures of 20 dgr. and even 21 dgr.C!!!!
Yesterday we had 20 dgr. WOW!!!! Another new record….Today there should be a new record again…..
So far for global warming……??!!!
The weekend however will be wet [90% chance of rain] and “cold” [still 11 dgr.C. but 5 bft. wind, which is not good for the huge moving carnival cars]  like autumn, just when the CARNIVAL parade is on and my town FULL of party-guests.

 

——————

——-Well done to Billy AND Daniel AND James AND Tom AND Paul and last but not least Lisa .Good on you!!! All flights last week. It seems the future does n’t look that bad!!!

“Congratulations to Billy Thomas who flew Solo for the first time yesterday. The photo shows Mark Rushton congratulating Billy after one of the 3 flights. ”
shared by Welland Gliding Club

AND

Congratulations Daniel on your first solo flight! He enjoyed every minute of his 1.5 hour flight and Manager Ops, Steve, was happy to do the honours with the obligatory solo christening!! Welcome to the ranks….now the journey starts!!😁 shared by Gliding Club of Victoria

AND
same club ,….same procedure

And congratulations to James [from Sydney] who soloed today! Woo hoo!! And …..he knew there was no escaping; just bring it on Steve!!😁

AND

“Tom Foale being congratulated by Carol Pike after his first solo.
Great day at Shalbourne GC today.[February 24!!!!!] 53 flights, first solo by Tom Foale, Bronze theory test and Bronze flying test passed by Matt Beckett, Annual checks and P1 mutual checks completed by Nick Jelev, P1 mutual checks completed by Jeremy Knight and annual BI checks completed by Chris Bessent.
With the warm weather there were plenty of T shirts on show,
lets hope 2019 is a great year for gliding……. British Gliding Association UK Junior Gliding”
Shared by  Shalbourne Gliding

AND

“Congratulations to Paul who completed his first solo today! Paul took out our fixed price to solo deal and has been working to progress through the BGA syllabus – seen here with proud instructor Rob!”

AND

“Huge congratulations to Lisa for her first solo flight today! Lisa Baker was sent solo by Brian Gough today after several rigorous training flights ensuring she could safely deal with anything. Lisa’s flying was supported by a bursary from RAFA YOUTH which has enabled her to learn to fly a glider here at Kestrel!”

Shared by RAF GSA Kestrel

Congratulations to ALL.
AND,…a first 300 k is worth mentioning too. From Tocumwal flown by Bruce.

“First 300 km flight for Bruce today
Late start with blue thermals to 8500ft‘”
As shared by  SportAviation Tocumwal

—————-

 

—-Shared by  Graham Garnett;
“Brian Spreckley reports that there will be an Overseas Championship at Issoudun in France held in conjunction with the Issoudun International contest. The task setter and local organiser will be Brian Spreckley and tasks will be DHT, AAT and AST. Gliders at any level are welcome.

Issoudun is a large grass airfield in the centre of France with a possibility of some great flatlands flying in the excellent conditions usually experienced in this region.

 

——-SOME INTERESTING FLIGHTS;

February 20 ;Allan [Barnes]tried a 1000 km. out and return from Lake Keepit in his LS 8. It looked like a chance, but,…unfortunately “it was not there”. Still some great conditions and convergences to fly this late in their season; 886 km.!!!!
February 21;Orient had a good day with 844 in a Ventus 2CM/18m. And 518 in an ASW 20/ 16.6.
Narromine was still good with 753 in an ASH 31/21 m.
February 22; USA pilot Kelvyn Flavall, flew just over 1000 k in blue conditions during a not always easy flight from Omarama, dropping from 4993 MSL [4447 AGL]  to 1641[ 467 AGL] in his ASG 29E/18m.!!!!He called it “a complete mystery“.
That same day Keith [Essex] flew 1.802 km. with a speed of 153 km./h in his ASG 29, on what somebody called a weak and slow day!!???
Keith mentioned in his OLC comment;”It wasn’t the usual wave flight where you could sleep through most of the flight. Tricky, blue at times and unstable with discontinuous lines. Wave system fell apart in the north and the south stayed relatively good. It was cold, was worried about frozen water ballast so tried to stay relatively low. That caused some excitement and a few slow downs.”
Romanian pilot Norbert -Alin Scarlat was in the Duo Discus learning MORE every day;1.605 km. AND Max [Stevens] also flew over 1000 wave kilometers.
February 24; Sven Olivier flies in the JS 1 B a distance of 866 km. He topped the OLC list that day and his comment was :”Late season flight – rain on the first leg 🙂 but dried out on the return leg – blue in the north – convergence at the airfield – Worcester Magic.”
February 25; Good to see Michael Godoj flying from Worcester in South Africa, In the past he flew with us. Now he had a great flight in a DG 500 M/22 m. of 561 km. and topped the OLC list.
February 26…today;still over 600 km. flights in “good”  gliders as ASG 29 /18m. and ASG 32 MI from Benalla and Corowa and over 300 in LS 4 from Tocumwal.

————–

——Some interesting news;
from the BGA about Aussie former JWGC Champion Mathew Scutter ; “Matthew is founder of SkySight, which enables glider pilots of all disciplines to get accurate, long range weather forecasts, and will be sharing ‘Advances in soaring meteorology’ as a guest speaker.”
Matthew will be joining  this year’s BGA Sporting Conference!
Lake Keepit Regatta;  a fun, friendly and informal regatta, with entries restricted to 30 gliders,…started on February 23 and continues till March 2. First day’s were cancelled, day 2 and 3 had Allan Barnes in Duo Discus and Leo Davis in LS 8 as winners. Both day’s 3 hour AAT and 316 and 349 km. as best for 1000 points.
Scores on www.soaringspot.com.
WAGA STATE COMPS; start today [till March 7] with 21 pilots in one class .Flown from Cunderdin with a few toppers as Norm Bloch, Don Woodward and Greg Beecroft .

 

And to finish the EB over the Kalahari, shared by many over the last week, so I do too, as it is a great picture.

Fabulous picture.
Courtesy John Sullivan.

Cheers Ritz CU next week looks like blog 1100!!!!