Last blog from Dutch soil in 2017 !!

—–Winter has started and we could feel it here in Holland with minus 2 in the night and 4 dgr. C during the day. Time to long for hotter spots.
Down under they started their meteorological summer and what a pleasure I can go there tomorrow. My joints and “bones” will be overly- happy. They get stiff in the “cold” climate. I hear my Scandinavian mates laugh loud about this ,as minus 2 is still rather warm for them.
The last day of spring showed a max of 700 km. down under and from Bitterwasser,Wolfgang, still there , flew 1.242.87 km. [1000 triangle] in the ARCUS M with a speed of 146 km./h. . A day with 40 x 1000 km-plus in Namibia and South Africa.
I counted 25 from Bitterwasser only!!!
From Douglas, Laurens flew a new SA record over 600 km out and return with a speed of 169.48 km./h. that is 36 km.faster than the old one, which was 133 km./h.! One climb up to 5.113 m. MSL [4.004 AGL] and another one up to 4.988.
Great flight in his JS 3 TJ!!

The first day of summer was relatively seen good down under, with still 525 km. BUT,… in an LS 6 from Warkworth and 762 [750 triangle] from W Australia Cunderdin . I know there was rain in the ” B-C-T-triangle” in the Southern part of Australia.
AND even worse snow in Tasmania and that does n’t happen often in early summer.
Namibia and South Africa showed flights up to just over 900 km. on this first day of the meteorological summer.

Today it is just good again in the B-C-T- triangle, with an LS 4 flight by long-long time guest at Toc. Anton from Austria from 536 km.[500 km.FAI triangle] and flights over 500 up to 600 from Benalla and Corowa.
Anton topped the 6 December OLC list for Australia. Good on him. but,..a few minutes later Chris Davison, also flying from Toc. also a long time visitor, flew a 750 TRIANGLE [TOTAL 775 km.] in the JS 1C.
Great to see all those old friends again in the weekend!!!

—–Lot’s of female pilots in Narromine. It’s WOMEN COACHING WEEK. Even after a lot of rain, up to 35 mm. in ONE hour last Sunday, it’s good soaring over there with 3.5 AAT yesterday. Jenny T and Jenny G, Louise, Ailsa, Lisa, Catherine, Jo, Akemi , they are all there, flying single seaters. Matt Cage , Butch and Terry Cubley belong to the coaching team in their gliders. Special guest GE DALE, who flies, the Duo Discus, this time with Louise. Today with Jenny G. and the weather there was still a bit grey and low but improving.

—–1.200 km. was not enough for Alexander last week, so he flew in his majestic EB 29 1.318 km. from Pokweni with a nice speed of 151 km./h. Another FAI triangle. Good on him !!!
Just a bit faster but just not an FAI triangle [985km.] for young Simon Schroeder from Germany who flew in a Ventus 2CM/18m from Bitterwasser;157.8 km./h. over 1.239 km.!!!
A total of 6 x over 1.200 km. that day!!

And yesterday was such a Bitterwasser-HAMMER-day again with another 1.347,12 km [1000 FAI triangle] with a speed of 149 km./h. in an ARCUS M.
By the way Bitterwasser had over 100 x a 1000 km.-plus in November, so in 4 weeks.
Looking at the OLC for this season Bitterwasser had till now 85 pilots making 415 flights , which means 329.447,84 km. PFFFFFfffffffff…..

“F L Y !
Kalahari desert has so many different shapes and colors. Come to Bitterwasser and see for yourself“

As shared by Bitterwasser Lodge and Flying Center.By the way “Bitterwasser has reached its peak. The lodge is fully booked.”

And this one by Hubi [Hubertus Huvermann ,great young guy/photographer and “artist” ,who I met in Finland]
I thought Australia had a lot of red nothing but look at this THE KALAHARI DESERT from above.

As shared by Hubi

–——the 2d PAN AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS:
started last Monday on December 4 and continue till December 15 with first an official training between November 30 – December 2 They will be held in Argentina at Gonzales Chaves. The USA participates with Rick Sheppe as TC;
In 15m Class (only ASW 20 sailplanes):Phil Gaisford,Robin Clark,Juan Mandelbaum,Fernando Silva
Standard Class (only Jantar sailplanes):Ryszard Krolikowski,Al Simmons
The contest website is: http://www.pgc2017.org/index.html

31 Pilots in total from Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Germany , Spain , Uruguay ,Canada and the USA.
Scores on www.soaringspot .com
Last Friday was the first practice day and looking at the skies a not too bad one, with 2 and 2.30 AAT’s.

As shared by the Canadian Soaring Team.

After there was some drizzle, and more rain, so the practice day’s were over without too much practice. Sunday evening was the opening ceremony and “Monday morning it gets real.”

As shared by Rick.

US soaring teams shares a blog and this is what they wrote about the opening;
“The Opening Ceremony was held on time “this afternoon at 7 PM,” in the words of the Director of the Championships. It was quite chilly, so instead of marching with our flags around the town square, it was decided that we would march into the town sports center from just outside the front door. It was much warmer indoors.

After welcoming speeches by the mayor, the president of the Otto Ballod Club, and the president of the Argentine Gliding Federation, the Championships were officially declared open by Angel Casado of FAI. After that we were entertained by the local dance troupe.”

Angel, from Spain, is the president of the jury.

Here is part of Rick’s report from the first day;
“Captain’s report 1st Competition Day”Enthusiasm was high at breakfast this morning, the first sunny morning in several days. In fact, it was sunny all day long, and those of us stuck on the ground at Chaves thought the weatherman got it wrong when he predicted 3/8 cumulus in the task area. But it turned out he was right on the money, as the pilots reported good cloud streets on the first leg of the 2.5 hour Assigned Area Tasks (the two classes got essentially the same Task).”

And both classes were gridded together so not too difficult to find each other after the start.
In 15 m. class ALL 16 pilots fly an ASW 20 and day 1 was for Damian [Goldenzweig] ;280 km. in 2.34.
Alvaro who flies HC was 9th.
In standard class only Standard Jantar’s and Gonzalo [Riera] won the day ;250 km. in time 2.33.
All 31 pilots finished.

On Contest Day 2 Rick wrote:
“This morning at Briefing, our meteorologist told us that the conditions would be good to very good, and then he corrected himself and said “very very good.” The only hazard was the possibility of cirrus encroaching from the northwest. In fact, that didn’t happen, and the conditions were indeed very very good.”
He was right, it turned out a good day with 404 km. for 15 m. and the number 2 from day 1 was now the best; Martin Bossart with a speed of 110 km./h. Alvaro was runner up and Damian 3.
In standard class 360.94 km. was set and Frederico Buscema won with a speed of 106.07 km./h.
A total of 2 out-landings.

——Do you remember I wrote about Julio Poch a colleague from my daughter. On his last flight before retirement the Argentinian-Dutch captain was arrested in Spain and spend 8 years in detention on remand in an Argentinian prison. Reason; he might have thrown people against the Vileda system out of planes…alive.
This week proof that he did so was not found and he is free!!!He always stated he was innocent!!!
When he indeed has NOT done it ,8 years in prison for something you not did is a disaster. Only he knows what happened in the past.
Pleased he is free now and can return to Holland. BUT,….one day later they announced,he can stay in Holland TILL it starts again.The public prosecutor was not happy and they want to see him back……..Merry Christmas. … poor Julio and family….

AND…to finish this 2017 blog from Holland a fabulous picture from Geoff from NZ.