JWGC…….NARROMINE.

As you can see,….. the Dutch Young Ones arrived in Narromine! And what temperatures !!!???
With a departure in 40 dgr. C from Corowa and an arrival with the same high temperature they tried to stay nice high and cool, during their ferry.
And as you can see as well [picture below] , they had no problems to get there, though it started ,…late but en route to the N. the weather improved and base climbed to 3900 m.Closer to Narromine it turned blue, but no worries to get there .

2 Dutch colleagues of my daughter, William and Evelien , run a small business in summer time in Narromine  called Outback Soaring, and the 4 gliders will have a great place  staying in their hangar.
They both have a brand new ARCUS and it seems after 2 flights they are”  in love with it”.
YES , the Dutch are very well organized and with a private house where the team lives together, they will have on the ground EVERYTHING ready for good results.
They started straight away with flights up to over 800 km. from Narromine to the South.
With already 5 tuggies available,  it all goes smooth.
886 for Robin in LS 8 and Ronald flew 814 km. same glider.

Both pictures shared by the Dutch Junior Team.

Many of the young Polish ones straight away flew 500 km. tasks. The German team has arrived as well.
Hope the weather continues to be so good during the comps.

So did TEAM NEW ZEALAND,
They shared this picture.

On Thursday a nice reaction of the UK team who have arrived down under as well.

“We’ve arrived in Sydney! The team has split up into various little factions to go and pick up cars and gliders from all over the country, and we’ll reconvene at Narromine in the next day or so. Oh, and if you were wondering what the weather is like…”

Their container was late, but ”  we rounded up some local gliders to fly and set ourselves a modest 210 km task out to the North and South to familiarize ourselves with the area and conditions. With Sam in an ASW 19, Tom in a Libelle and Mike in Discus we launched after lunch into 7 kt climbs to 6000 ft. With cloud base rising to 8000 ft and climbs peaking at 10 knots we romped around our small task before deciding to do it all over again, with conditions turning blue later in the day. The forecast tomorrow is looking even better, so we’re hoping to get some bigger flights in.”
AND,………the UK pilots FINALLY get their container TOMORROW at 8 AM!!! Stress!!!!!

Above pictures shared by team UK.

The young Czech pilots are still very impressed with the clouds in Narromine and made a lot of cloud-pictures.And from their flag! Interesting,…no clouds that day, so time to put the flag up, though dry thermals can be VERY good/strong in Australia.

As shared by the Czech team.

The USA team is on it’s way and here are the pilots. Aussie pilot Adam Woolley helped them to get a CIRRUS each.Good on ADAM.

Daniel Sazhin, JP Stewart en Boyd Willat, yes younger brother from Garret.

Narromine THE SPOT TO BE and socialize for the under 25 pilots from the world!!!!!
Shared by JWGC.

The first unofficial  practice has started  with 300 and 400 km tasks .

Courtesy Narromine Gliding Club Official.

For all the news pictures and a way to find FB and blogs etc from the young pilots from all over the world,you can go to the official site at;
http://www.jwgc2015.com/

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LAKE KEEPIT NATIONALS.

2 Days to go ;Thursday and Friday;
So here we go again , but first the 2 days earlier through the eyes of Bruce;
—“Sorry, it has been a long time since I wrote. Lots of interesting stuff has happened.
We had a big storm day, which resulted in a mass out-landing.
The task setter wasn’t so popular that day I also landed out, despite having an engine and managed to do some damage to my undercarriage when I hit a small rock in the paddock.
I thought it might be the end of the competition, but a rest day was called the following day, and we managed to get the repairs done to keep flying. The weather has always been challenging, with a very moist air mass, giving difficult thermals, lower cloud base and sometimes a lot of spread out. So far I have managed to stay consistent, which I am very pleased about.
Today was an interesting day, as we tasked around the Piliga scrub, which is a huge area of unlandable forest out to the West of Lake Keepit. It was a 500 km trip, and the first leg was so slow, low and blue that I was quite sure that we would never be coming home in daylight. However, it improved for the second leg, then on the third leg we flew through some spectacular conditions, with huge climbs up to nearly 12,000 feet. Then the final leg home was starting to overdevelop, so we experienced the full weather spectrum in one flight. It was a fun race, won by Allan Barnes.
Two days to go, which look like they will be very hot and blue.” —–

This is the Piliga scrub and the “poor” PIK 20.
Pilot Paul had no injuries at all , so a very VERY, lucky man, and was picked up, better said winched up  by  a helicopter.

   

A sad picture and a happy one.
Shared on FB by several friends.

Thursday;
Club class;
task 10 and flying day 8 with morning temperatures of 34 dgr. C. and an airspace max of 10,000′ . First launches postponed till noon.
A 2.30 AAT was set and it was the 2d day in a row with a win for team LS3/Terry;274 km. in time 2.34. With one day to go Terry tops the overall scores with 6298 points. Above him, but flying HC is Eric Stauss, very ready for the Narromine JWGC with 6.505 points!!!Below him Joe O’ Donnell also flying HC with 6.067 points.

Standard Class;
task 9 and soaring day 8 with a 3 hour AAT won by Bruce.309 km. in time 2.59. Lisa was runner up and Allan number 3. I presume Matthew has left Lake Keepit to go to Narromine. He was n’t scored anymore, but showed he was ready for the JWGC.
With one day to go Bruce tops the overall scores and Allan is runner up and Lisa is on spot 3.

Sports Class;
Task 9 and flying day number 8 with a 3.30 AAT and the Nimbus 3 DM from Steve Hedley won from the ASG 29 from Mike with a difference from 54 km in distance and 3 km./h. speed.
No worries for Mike with one day to go he has 6620 points whilst runner up Butch has 6184. 12 From 18 finished. David [Jansen] was unfortunately one from the out-landers after 311 km.

Bruce’s view on Thursday’s flying:
—“A very strange day of gliding today. The forecast was for one of our Aussie “blue” days, stinking hot with no clouds, and not a lot of fun for competition racing. We set off from 6,500 feet, which seemed better than expected. First climb, 4-5 knots to 5,000, second climb the same, third climb, 10 knots to 11,500 feet!! This was followed by a l-o-n-g glide down to 1,000 feet AGL. Craziness Finally I found a little climb, and at this stage I decided it was time to head for home, as the conditions meant that the struggle back into wind would take quite some time. It all went well, gently, gently working my way back to Mt Kaputar, which I climbed step by step, and slowly found a path back to the final turn area, and a very conservative run home. Speed was back to 102kph, from nearly 130kph when I had turned for home. However, it was enough for a day win. There were about a dozen outlandings, and everyone had a similar tale to mine. Very unusual weather indeed!-—

Friday; LAST COMPETITION DAY.
Club Class;day 9 out of 12, with a 3.15 hour AAT and some good enough weather to make differences to the final scores.
A day also with some [9]air space violations in this class.Before it seemed already that there was some confusion about
A day also with a well known Aussie name on the top; Jenny Ganderton , who won this last day in the Mosquito.
TERRY CUBLEY was daily the runner up. He flew 403 km. with a speed of 120.15 km./h. in his LS 3 which , as I said before, ” fits him as a glove!” With 7294 points he is the NEW NATIONAL CLUB CLASS CHAMPION!! Well done Terry!
BUT…to be honest he was beaten with nearly 100 points  by junior Eric Stauss, who flew HC , which means as much as “not competing officially” .[7389]
Junior Joe , also flying an LS 3, but  HC ,  proved he is in good condition to fly now to Narromine. With 6944 he was the number 2 .
The “real”  number 2 was Peter Trotter, always to be found in the top, [6634] and on 3 very good, Kris Kauffman .[ASW 20 b /6575]

Standard Class;day 9 with a 3.30 AAT. Another prey for Bruce , so he tops the overall scores in this class, both Terry and he belong to the “oldies” nowadays but still going strong. With 483,91 km. with a speed of 135.92 km./h. he was once again daily winner, but also once again, the new NATIONAL STANDARD CLASS CHAMPION. [8179 points]
Runner up was Allan with 7577 points and on spot 3 with 6964 points Lisa. Good on her!!!
Junior Dylan got points for a 3d place, junior Matthew did not fly anymore during the last days.
A great day for WWGC pilot Kerry Claffey, who started rather late but managed to finish on a 3d daily spot!
Only one airspace infringement in this class.
And to be honest again…..I guess Matthew could/would have won!!!!

Sports class; day 9 with a 3 hour AAT. On the last day the 1000 points were for Butch flying 425,48 km. in 2.46, meaning a speed of 141.83 km./h.Nice, fast  last day. Mike was so far ahead, so he remained the best from this competition, but as a UK pilot he can “only”   be THE WINNER!!!! Congratulations with a great performance between many Aussie topppilots! [7595 points].
The NEW NATIONAL SPORTS CLASS CHAMPION is John ” Butch” Buchanan. Runner up  was Brad Edwards with 6858 points and Rolf Buelter did a great job in being 3d [6801].
7 Airspace infringements here.[Tamworth and Williamtown]

So also in this class “oldies”  in/on the top, but for how long?
It looks,the Junior Australian Gliding Team will be ” cleaning up ” [Junior language] the seniors at the club and standard nationals in the future.And that’s how it goes in life and ,…it should go like that!!
Anyhow the young ones,  did a fabulous job all of them, a pity they could not all stay till the end, scores would have been different.
A JWGC is more important, it HAS to happen THERE!!!

The last words about the Lake Keepit Nationals are for Bruce;
–“All done and dusted. The last day was a beauty, and it is always nice to end on a good note. We had climbs to 13,500 feet, and flew with winning speeds between 130 and 156 kph. After a fortnight of difficult thermals, storms and outlandings, it was a fun way to close the competition.
Some of the old-timers scooped the pool, with John Buchanan winning the Australian Sports class title, (with visitor Mike Young from the UK taking the line honours), Terry Cubley winning the Club Class, and my little ASW24 having a win in the Standard Class. All in all it has been a successful competition, with many pilots reaffirming their preference for Lake Keepit as a soaring destination. The club is going from strength to strength, and provides a wonderful variety of terrain and conditions.”—

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Some great OLC flights.

It started already last Wednesday and the weather was good at several places.
Argentina; Chos Malal, where German pilot Wolfgang Goering had another interesting flight; 1.448 km. with a speed of 134.18 km./h. in the QUINTUS. As he mentioned in his comment;” What a day! Wind and weather conditions were changing constantly, as were the lines of rotors.” More on the OLC.
On Friday he had an other superb and even faster flight; 1.177,90 with a speed of 185.24 km./h. Still a bit tired from the other 11 hour flight, he started late but had a ball!! It is his 7th time in Argentina , but conditions like this he had never before,
South Africa; just over 1000 km. from Kuruman Pi by Gert Kalisch.
Some of my Dutch friends moved from Gariep to Douglas and doing the ferry the weather was so good that Rob, added many kilometers to the flight to have a 1000 km.in the Dutch Nimbus 4DM.
New Zealand, with a  1000 km wave flight last Monday for USA pilot Keith Essex in the ASG 29 /18 m.; 1.021 km. with a speed of 152,49 km./h. on a not even good day as he had to abandon his flight due to early deteriorating conditions and as he mentioned in his comment :” Instability and moisture slowly wiped out the wave. The last 200k were brutal with nasty rotor and 65kt winds but no wave.” 
YESTERDAY great flights have a look at the OLC;
USA….Minden Tahoe; Jim Payne with 2.016.20 km with a speed of 211. 59 km./h. on an “awesome Minden-day”, as he mentioned. up to 7535 MSL flown in the Perlan ARCUS M.
South Africa….Gariep Dam; several 1000 km. in gliders as DUO DISCUS and Ventus 2CM/18 m.
Namibia…Kiripotib, Pokweni and Bitterwasser with several just-over-1000 km. flights, some declared some challenging, but all satisfying. Another one in the pocket.

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By the way on December 1, the WORLD AIR GAMES in DUBAI start as well.

For the new gliding event 6 pilots have been invited; Thilo Holighaus, Giorgio Galetto, Werner Amann, Rene Vidal, Roman Mracek and last but certainly not least Sebastian Kawa.
Here are the rules freshly copied for you from their site as  the “Glider Match Race”  will be presented for the first time at the FAI World Air Games in Dubai and for more you can look at the sites;
—-” In Glider Match Racing, a pair of gliders will fly simultaneously over a predefined course of roughly 25 kilometres, and whichever pilot completes the course first, without exceeding a specified speed limit, is the winner of the match.  The winner will be the pilot who can follow the course more accurately, control the glider more precisely, make more precise turns, and control the speed more effectively, all with the goal of being first across the finish line.

After a qualifying round in which all the pilots will be paired against each other once, the winners will face each other in a single-elimination finals round.  The winner of the gliding event will be declared Winner of the FAI Gliding Match Racing Event and be awarded the Gold Medal.  The pilots placing respectively second and third will be awarded the Silver and the Bronze medals.”—

http://crosscountry.aero/wag
and
https://twitter.com/WAGDubaiGliding

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That’s it. Having a bad cold, grrrrr…..!!!!!
CU from Australia whenever there is something important to mention, so not only on Wednesday but every time when something interesting comes up.
It will be my Aussie diary,but Narromine’s last 4 days will be as always at the spot and minute by minute, as much aspossible.

Cheers Ritz