Post 1.464 on December 8 2023

GOOD morning, Good evening! It looks like another day in hot paradise.

Here is Bruce about yesterday’s “day off”;
“Today’s competition task would be cancelled, we knew that last night. We were all slightly sad, but I was told tonight that we needed to have a rest day on one of the next three days, and today seemed to be the best (or more accurately… the worst) option. It was hot, as hot as hell, but the forecast storms never eventuated here. We did some socialising, some resting, some bill-paying and shopping, and now we are waiting for the sun to come up so we can go flying again.”
Matthew from Sky Sight added:
“Having a rest day on one of the next three days is an *Australian Nationals* rule. There is no such rule in the IGC rules.“

Briefing at 10;

The winners from day 4 were presented and cheered on during briefing , ALL 3 very happy chappies;
Club class Rasmus from Denmark.

Winner in Standard class; Simon Schroeder. from Germany.

And the winner from 15m. Uys from South Africa.

Today’s soaring …..Most scores are ready now for the classes ,so I start straight away.
They got a B task, so a delay in launching from 12.30 till 13.00. same tasks but 15 minutes shorter.
Day 6 task 5;
15m; 2.45 AAT...YES, that’s what you can expect, when you combine flying from 2 aces , you get great results and that’s what I saw over the last days. They needed some practice on the first 3 day’s but now it works.
Uys and Ricky combined their efforts in their JS 3’s and won the day; 335 km with a speed of 110.58 km./h for Uys and 333.41 km with a speed of 110. 37 for Ricky.
2d day in a row with rest in between.
4 Points difference in points.
5 Pilots started at the same time , 14.51 . Phil from the UK was 3d with 110.18 km./h.
4 Ventus gliders in the top 6, with also the German pilots Steffen and Henrik and Aussie Adam, who started at 14.40.
2 out 1 and 2 not yet counted for.

Standard; 3 hour AAT...I was waiting for good results from team UK and here they are; Tom and Paul were 1 and 2, started at the same time but Tom flew 325.88 km whilst Paul flew 315.33 km.
Tom won with a speed of 106.55 km./h . They fly LS 8 so do the 2 German pilots on 3 and 4, Enrique and Simon. Simon was just under the 100 km.h range.
Weird day as some good pilots did n’t do so well.
Mac was just in ;83.88 km./h but 4 were out and 2 not yet counted for.
The Czechs , I know Pavel and Miloslav are GOOD, were out.
One of them also Bruce after 98 km., who was pretty sad;”Well, it’s just mid-afternoon here, and the field is (mostly) still out racing on what should turn out to be a reasonable day. However, my day is done. High overcast made things uncertain, and being me we left before the crowd. Greg and I became separated, and after a few very scratchy low spots… this happened…”
Ouch,……POOR BRUCE!!!!!

Club; 3.15 AAT... Jacek Flis from Poland flew 332.61 km with a speed of 99.44 km./h. and that was the best daily result; 1000 points. He moved up from 13 to 7 overall.
Scores are VERY close so a lot can still happen.
The runner up Dutch pilot Roelof flew 322.35 km but was much slower; 90.04 km./h.
between the number 1 and 10 is a difference from nearly 250 points.
From 30 1 is out at this stage and 2 are not counted for yet.

Will be back later with updates. Breakfast first.

UPDATES:
Back on track with some news written by the pilots who finished their task and still felt like writing.
15 m.…Adam ; some parts of his blog more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
“Another big day in the skies & a hot one on the ground, 42°c at its peak.“
“Tobias & I picked our overall time right, as a few things were evident. On task, heavy shadow & locally, not going to the heights we wanted. So a 15min delay ensued to start upwind, with sun on the ground ahead & as much altitude as we could muster with the big pre-start gaggles blocking the extra height that we’d all want.”
“We had a great first few climbs & were soon joined by the French. Clearly it was a good idea to have company today. Both teams took their turn in leading out, which worked nicely.“
“The French went on a bit further hoping for a low downwind climb, but it appears that they never got it & rather, the shadow of the upper level cloud caught them out.”
“Unfortunately Tobias missed one bubble.“
Kevin and Christophe [Fr] finished on spot 7 and 10.

Club by Tony;
“No photos today. Too busy flying low.“
“The forecast was for like 12 k, cu and possibly storms shutting down the day early. Instead we got mid level clouds slowing the start, blue climbs from 1500 to 5000 agl, and a lot of working trying to stay mostly into the sunshine.
The only place the sun was shining was to the north where the ground is naturally wet and where it actually rained last night. Joy.”
“The finish altitude was set high and the ring was 10km because of concern about storms. Instead the issue was that a lot of the last leg was in shadow and the day was dying anyway. We found a few weak climbs to limp over the line just at minimum. Several others finished low. There was no trouble making it to the airport.
In the end we’re exhausted and very happy with today’s result.”
Also in club class; Diana [Lux] was very pleased with her flight as well. A St.Cirrus is from another level than an ASW 20, but she finished and felt good about the flight. It was very windy and the forecast was less than the forecast.
Only problem now is that the upload from her flight creates problems. Hence no scores for her yet. BUT,…they work on it.

My Dutch mates shared, that there are a lot of problems with punctures in tail-wheel -tyres and even from wing walkers. In Tocumwal we called them “bindies” and they are a pest, also for the bicycle and even bindie-proof tyre’s don’t help then. Even in a big town as Dubbo they are sold out. Also water bottles are a problem. Those towns are not prepared for such a huge influx of people.
Certainly not when it is BLOODY HOT!!!!

Thanks Team Australia Team Captain Miles Gore-Brown for photos of last night’s Narromine World Gliding Championships mayoral reception held at Soul Food;

More High Sophisticated news;
Netherlands Embassy and Consulate General in Australia welcomed the Dutch glider pilots who participate in this 37th WGC. They had some beautiful words about our sport.
“Gliding is an exciting, beautiful, and serene sport that takes place in the sky. The modern glider is an advanced, extremely aerodynamic, engine-free aircraft that can reach heights of over 10,000 meters and travel at speeds close to 300 kph. In the spirit of sustainability, the gliders exemplify eco-friendly aviation, with no reliance on traditional engines, leaving behind a minimal carbon footprint. The World Gliding Championships provide a unique platform to appreciate the beauty of flight while promoting a commitment to sustainable practices in aviation.” Dutch Gliding Team

The best 3 in the OVERALL scores after 5 days in
15m. and VERY close
1. Sebastian Kawa from Poland in Diana 2; 4,792 p.
2. Steffen Goettler from Germany in Ventus 2ax ; 4,790 p.
3. Uys Jonker from South Africa in JS 3 ; 4.786 p.

Standard class;
1. Tom Arscott from the UK in LS8; 4,602 p.
2. Simon Schröder from Germany in LS 8 NEO; 4,442 p.
3. Sjaak Selen from The Netherlands in Discus 2a ; 4,432

Club class; very close as well.
1.  James Nugent from Australia in LS3; 4,623 p.
2.  Thies Bruins from The Netherlands in ASW 20 L; 4,621 p
3. Uwe Wahlig from Germany in LS3; 4,584 p
4. Tim Milner from the UK in LS3 ; 4,544 p.
5.  Stefan Langer from Germany in LS3; 4,536 p
6. Adrien Henry from France in ASW 20; 4,525 p.

———————————————————–

The Argentinian Nationals for 15 m and standard class with 60 pilot ‘s [there was a third SENIOR class as well] , between 27 November 2023 – 8 December 2023 , are over.
On December 7 , which turned out their last day, they had in standard class a 4 hour AAT in 15 m. [24 pilots] and they flew 5 out of 11 days.
Nicolas Verdura won 3 days in his LS 4!!! He clearly is the winner with 4.098 points
Dino Ghioni was runner up with 3.960 points.

In 15 m. 2 young men are flying in these Nationals. I met them at WGC’s in the past, real nice fellows and I still have some FB contact with, Damian and Lucas Goldenzweig. I follow their flying for years on internet.
They have had 5 days and yesterday they had a 3.30 AAT with Felipe Girado and Martin Bossart both on spot 1 for 1000 points whilst Alejandro Hernandez missed out on ONE point.
Lucas finished on spot 5 overall and Damian on spot 14 from 32.
He and his brother were both out on task 6 ,and whilst they both started at 15.35 on task 4, Lucas was 3d for the day and Damian was out….that cost!
Task 1 had a 3 hour AAT flown by both but Damian finished on spot 16 and Lucas on 20.
Mostly ASW 20’s in this class and at this stage the leader is Manuel Darrain with 3.538 points. That’s only 8 more than Sebastian Luengo. Excitement and possibilities enough on the last day!
The last day was flown a tad better by Manuel. Difference in points; 994 for 991
So the new 15 m. champion is; Manuel with 4,532p
Runner up; Sebastian with 4,521. Both fly ASW 20.

Nowadays the Goldenzweig-children are going to the airfield as well. AND,…they keep their selves busy on non flying days!!!

Post 1.463 on December 7 2023

Good morning dear readers here AND good evening dear readers down under.
We wake up with 0 dgr. C, fog and slippery roads and here in The Netherlands a morning traffic jam from 800 km. . In Australia it is HOT!!!
But for the afternoon the forecast was for rain and thunder storms.

Yesterday I got the message that today would be a rest day, so I slept in this morning. After 3 good practice days and 4 top competition days, a wise decision.

Enough to do in and around Narromine and after so many busy days some domestic things have to be done too. I noticed already trips to the pool and the huge TELESCOPE in Parkes, also called the the “DISH” and Leah was so kind to take a picture from the sign out side.
I passed it many times , but there was never time to visit it. It’s on the road from Narromine to Tocumwal. Nearly 400 km driving by car.
From Narromine to Parkes is about 100 km.

Gliding Australia shared this message which is very true!

After 4 good flying days it is young James from Australia who leads the overall scores.[3.856 p]
The margins are very small as Stefan from Germany only misses out on 10 points at this stage. Only 8 points behind Stefan is our Dutch pilot Thies and 8 points behind him is French pilot Hugo.

In standard class Mac leads the class after 4 days, with 3.714 points, followed by “our” Sjaak, with 3.651 points and Aussie Greg is on 3. UK pilot Tom misses only out on 23 points on Greg.

In 15 m class it is Sebastian who leads after 4 days with 3.821 points followed by German pilot Steffen 3.808 p and Uys from S.A. with 3.786 p with close behind him German pilot Henrik with 3.782 points.
Never underestimate the German team…they are so well organized and have good pilots.

Looking forward to the rest of the comps.
Off for breakfast, maybe back later to surf the web and share what the pilots have done.

CU later.

12 at noon.
Checking the sites I noticed that everybody seems to be happy. Some keep today, their media updated with news they could not share when they were busy, others as some crews flew around over Narromine with Aussie pilots as Bernie.
More went for a swim and others fiddled around their gliders/instruments.

WGC2023 Day 4 as seen by British Gliding Team
“A very interesting day of weather, with climbs up to 13,000ft under blue and cumulus with some rain on final glide to keep things interesting!
Tomorrow has been declared a rest day due to a chance of rain in the afternoon, exactly like today. Can’t blame them as the terrible forecast of 12,000ft 6kt+ climbs and a 500km PFD before the sprinkling of rain would be enough to dissuade even the most hardy of pilots.“
I love their sense of humor!!!! Every year again.

I shared pictures and text from Leah and Tony from team USA….. here is a picture from them so you know also who they are.
I met Tony in 2012 in Uvalde, but I never met Leah, but looking at the pictures she is an “open book?
Lovely people.

Jerolamo Radman from team France takes great pictures. Here is one from pilot Kevin and crew .The lady, her names seems to be Monique, I met in Lake Keepit.

He made a series of 3 pictures from my daughter Inge as well. Great pictures!

CU tomorrow again, after fog there is sunshine now ,time to go outside and stretch my legs.

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.462 on December 6 2023

About yesterday and last night;
After a day with out- landings another day ,now even one with wave. The weather spoils the pilots.
Adventures for the crews on retrieve, in fact you should have done that once during a competition. It’s part of the fun!
The crews on retrieve had good and bad news. They loved” the skies full of stars” [COLDPLAY] , as there is around big paddocks not a lot of light from towns and no pollution.So very clear skies, I always loved them.
Less news was that one of the crews hit a kangaroo but all was more or less OK. ..a dent in the bumper of the car.
My family “found” flooding en route, so had a detour of 60 km!!!
But they found the glider as well. A farmer[in red] helped them .
I heard they were all happy with the explanation about the route and maps, they got from the organizers. GOOD!!!

About the daily winners from yesterday racing day 3;

About today;
December 6 task 4 on day 4;
15 m; 544.51 km…..best speed by Sebastian, but he had a “fight with his PEV” and lost points; His speed was 149.25 km./h!!
The winner from SA, Uys flew around with 147.55/h. The same as Ricky [Italy] , both started and finished about the same time.
26 now in this class and 2 were out .
All preliminary of course.
Adam; “Another good day in the skies over Narromine, though I did feel we left about 10 min too early. Why? At the time of starting, I didn’t feel that the thermals had enough definition in them & they lacked feel. We also were about 6km in front of the line, a bit too far to judge for the perfect start while using the PEV system. Having said that, there are those who started later & had a miserable time, & those that had a winning time! So who really knows. For me, it put a lot of pressure on the first climb, which only came after many failed tries. Finally we cracked the first 7kt climb & we were off for the rest of the day“
‘ much more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

standard class; 422.21 km….Also in this class new faces at the podium. Simon Schroeder from Germany was the best in his LS 8, 128.40 km./h , followed by Philip Jonker …it stays in the family….with 126.05 km./h.
Mac was 3d and leads the overall scores after 4 days. Good on him.
All 22 started and 2 were out.
Bruce; “This is a tough game, this WGC thing. Today was meant to be huge, and quite simply, it wasn’t. The weather window was meant to be short, but lift was forecast to go to 12-13,000 feet during that period. The problem was that our task took us south outside the cumulus field, and by the time we dribbled around in the blue at much lower altitudes and finally turned under the cu, they were dying and starting to produce virga.” much more on Taylor’s Gliding Page with pictures about cu’s which were n’t cu’s, but also with this beautiful lenticularis !

club class;  3:30 AAT….won by RASMUS.[Denmark] 122.15 km./h over 436.44 km ! Followed by “our” Dutch Thies ;119.28 km./h.
Quite a lot of low finishes in this class.
All 30 started and 3 were out.
After 4 days young Aussie James Nugent is on 1 overall .
Jens Trabolt , the Executive Editor of NORDIC GLIDING & AVIATION MAGAZINE , mentioned :
“Flot, flot! (Det er virkelig syret at følge et VM på den anden side af jorden her fra DK – man åbner computeren om morgenen med nyheden om, at der er blevet fløjet konkurrencer i nattens løb. Godt, at du kunne holde dig vågen Rasmus Ørskov)”
Which means as much as; A WGC on the other site of the world is weird. You open in the morning your laptop to see that your mates have flown. Jens was happy and was joking: “Good you did’nt fall a sleep Rasmus.”

Some random news;
—-The PEV is sometimes a bit of a struggle for some. Bruce said already that Mac was faster than he on day 3 . Mac missed the window out by ONE SECOND,…very expensive!!!!
Today Sebastian had some problems.
—-Thies managed to climb up 2800 m.in one thermal.
—–“ Oauh congrats great Belgium day Gogo bravo.” Belgian reaction on day 3!
—-Jonker Sailplanes; “Breaking news from Narromine (Australia) – Uys Jonker won the day in the 15m class with his JS3 Rapture JET! The WGC has hit full throttle after an exhilarating day 4, and today’s 544km task with splendid thermal conditions and a high cloud base saw Uys seizing the moment.
Opting for an early start to evade the gaggles from prior days, Uys and his team mates AP Kotze and Riccardo Brigliadori (Italy) made a bold move that paid off immensely. Holding his ground, he clinched the first position, leaving the 26 other participants trailing behind. Bravo, Uys, now securing the impressive overall 3rd place!”

—-Yesterday (Contest Day #3) proved a challenge. Multiple team USA gliders landed out. Multiple retrieval methods were utilized: trailer, tug aka tow plane and motor. DK and FY were in a great paddock though a bit remote to access. Lots of wildlife spotted yesterday including wallabies, kangaroos and wedge tail eagles known locally as wedgies”US Soaring Teams
—–some of the crews arrived only this morning at the airfield. Long day and night and again long tasks for today.
—–The German team-blogger mentioned that the team yesterday got the best out of the day with no outlandings. She mentioned too that” an outlanding down under is another piece of cake than at home.”
German pilot Simon won today. The other pilots are doing well too. In 15 m Steffen and Henrik finished on spot 3 and 4. In club Uwe was 9th and Stefan 5th. Stefan is on 2 overall after 4 days!
This shows on the scores of the TEAM UP after 4 days.
Germany leads with 922.92 p, followed by Australia with 921.33 and The Netherlands with 908.65. Then Belgium with 898.92 p. and Poland with 881.88 points.
MANY MORE DAYS TO COME!!!!

Picture as seen by Indya, the rest unfortunately is TOO big over 3 MB per picture and my blog does n’t accept that. Have to check how to do that first. Sorry.

Post 1.461 on December 5 2023

live tracking at; https://bit.ly/wgc2023-au

Launching at Narromine Go To LIVEGLIDING; https://bit.ly/wgc2023-au

official site; https://wgc2023.com.au/

Dutch Gliding Teamnetherlands-establish-early-lead-in-15m-class-at-narromine as shared by GLIDING AUSTRALIA the Aussie Gliding Magazine.
I noticed also real nice reels from December 4.
All those finishing gliders on runway 22. You can see them too on Gliding Australia

Just got an app from my daughter waiting full of excitement for the finishes on another blue day.It’s 8.30 in the morning here so I just start my day. Not a lot of finishes yet so I research first what happened during “my sleep”.
I wondered about the huge difference in start times. I was not the only one.
Here is Bruce on that day:
“Not too much to say about today. It was quite blue, and the task was long enough that we were concerned about getting home before it shut down. Greg and I decided to leave early, did that, and worked well together, touching down side-by-side. We got low down towards the first turn, and the run home from out near Nyngan was slow, but a part of me thought everybody would have a similar experience.
We were absolutely smashed by the late starters today, to the tune of 14kph. Gaggle power, not getting slow anywhere, whatever it was it cost us huge points. I didn’t imagine we’d suffer quite so brutally.”
More on Taylor’s Gliding Page

But,…..First things first…. I slowly get my comps-rhythm again.
Prize winners from day 2 , task 2.

Hugo Corbille from France in club class.

Laurence Hardman from South Africa….as happy.

And in 15 m 2 winners but here is Jan Pavlik as Jeroen had the experience already

Briefing in the morning at 10 AM with the concentrated Dutch team as seen by Anne. They do well at this stage and are very serious, so they should.

A brown snake was spotted at the field. I had a “bunch young ones” as dangerous as the big ones, but they look “sweeter” ,living under my house in Tocumwal,and I was very scared for them. Not my cat Denim he proudly walked around with one in his mouth and brought it to my doormat.

Day 3 one December 5; A very hot, sweaty and AGAIN blue day .
15 m. 3.45 AAT…… Great day for my Belgian mates. Number 1 and 2!!! Most pilots flew around 421 km some a bit more ,some less. Speed from Andre and Francois was 112 km./h . and looking at the times this was a small gaggle from 13 pilots too.
Andre moved from 20 to 8 overall after 3 days!!!!!!
Good day for Germany as well with Steffen and Henrik on 3 and 4. They all started around 14.30.
Not a good day for the Dutch and Aussies. The Dutchies started 10 minutes earlier and finished on spot 20 and 22. You can DROP from 1 to 14 overall…bizarre.
The Aussies even left earlier at 14.10 and were on a 14th and 17th daily spot.
One is not scored [yet] and 1 is out of the comps.

Not all scores are in yet. I heard already about out-landings too.
To be honest scores are FAST every day. Good on them.
First breakfast, then more news.CU you a bit later.

10.30 AM; IN THE NETHERLANDS.

15 m class; is scored now and 2 from 26 were “aux vaches” . The last 1 finished at 6 .40 PM. That was the daily winner from yesterday Jan.
Some pilots reached 10.000 ft.
Adam mentioned “I clicked over 2000hrs competition flight time today, out of my 3500hrs gliding!” Quite a mile stone good on you Adam!

Standard class; 436.56 km…..with 106 km./h Bruce won the day. An Aussie WIN!!!! 106 km./h. About the same as runner up Sjaak from The Netherlands.
Here is a happy Bruce;
“WooHoo!! Yesterday we got smashed by the gaggle, and today they waited too long and really struggled to get home. I really don’t mean to be smart, but I find the required start gate strategies such a complete pain in the butt. We knew we had to leave, so we did that, and as it happened we had a nice little group of five who started early and rolled along well together.” more on Taylor’s Gliding Page
At this stage 2 are not yet counted for and 4 were out.
Sjaak mentioned that “it was challenging and hot! The first leg went ok, then there was less lift due to wetter parts.But,…..The Aussies marked the way and we went “happily” with them” .Honest and open answer from Sjaak, who was the 2018 world champion in standard class in Poland.
According to Bruce “Mac actually had the highest speed today, but was penalised for missing his Event marker time by a small amount.”

Club class; 356.44 km……was last on the grid and Tony was the last to be launched. He belonged to the “out-landers”.
8 Are not yet counted for and somewhere in a field.
From 2, I know they are out; Roelof and Diana.
As all tuggies went home early , they had to go by trailer and car. An old fashioned “honest” retrieve, but time consuming.
18 managed to finish and the best was Tim from the UK; 95.72 km./h
Runner up Thies from The Netherlands;94.61 km./h.
Tim was the last to depart at 3 PM!!!! His team mate John did exactly the same but just finished at 7.20 PM as number 17.
Have to check with him how much of a risk this was.
Unfortunately the task was just too long as the thermals disappeared in the end.

Great day for my Belgian mates with a 1/2 in 15 m and a 4th spot with Dennis in standard class.
Great day as well for my Aussie mates Bruce and Greg on 1 and 3 with Sjaak in the middle on 2.

More updates later when I have them.
I checked in with UK pilot Tim who won the day and asked if it was a risk to depart that late. He answered straight away which was very kind of him.
“Our first PEV was a little early we were low with only a handful of competitors including Uwe and Stefan ahead. 5km down track we hit a fantastic thermal and decided to instantly hit the 10 minute PEV reset and restart again at 3pm, very tight for club class but if everything went to plan we might just squeeze it in. The great thing about this situation is your all out to catch the leaders and it really does focus your attention on keeping the pace up. Anyhow I shall be quickly screenshooting the overall results tonight it’s only taken me 50 years of practice!!!“
Thanks Tim!!!! Indeed 50 years of practice that started already at Tocumwal, where he was allowed to fly our gliders on days they were available and he was off- tuggie-duties.

My family is still on the way home from their retrieve and will be back after mid night.
20 Teams from 3 classes are on a retrieve so it will be a late night for more.
Time for me to do other things and share tomorrow what happened during the retrieves and the full scores from Club and Standard class.

Tony and Leah Condon from team USA, are back already “home” at Narromine. Tony landed at Trangie. If they could use the Mitchell Highway it is a good trip.
“Another interesting day in Austriala. Started later than ideal but almost every thermal was shared with a Wedged Tail Eagle. Never got as strong as forecast and ended up struggling around 1,000 ft and 1 knot 50 km short.
Found a great field and landed as a C130 buzzed us on roll out. Successful retrieve after swallowing about 50 gnats.“

CU tomorrow!!!!

——————————————————————

Some other news as well from Schempp-Hirth;
That beautiful ARCUS is going well not only in the air, but also on the ground. Number 400 has been built!!!!!

Post 1.460 on December 4 2023
https://wgc2023.com.au/

On https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093208068838 you can see a video from the launches of a few pilots today and Sean Young interviews the 3 daily winners from task 1.

Day 1 ……. over and out, BUT only day 1, so it’s only a beginning.
What a top day it was. The only out-landing was because of no PEV.
Before I went to bed I checked on the evening after the opening, if there were tasks as I heard it would be an early day. They were already on www.soaringspot.com and whilst all pilots flew, I slept nicely on one ear!

Yesterday I did exactly the same, waking up with a smile , as tasks today were good again on a blue day, now but as I said many times, blue can be very strong in Australia.
So NO WORRIES for blue days!!
Only disadvantage is that not everybody dares to fly alone, hence bigger or smaller gaggles leaving the field.
Forecast was for fine weather, no rain ,8000ft and blue, thermals 4kt and at 1800 m 3 kt.

Task 2;
15 m. class; 437.47 km….The first thing I noticed was the big difference in start times. Adam and Toby started at 13.35 ,whilst Erik and Jeroen left at 14.11.
The late starters did well, as Jeroen won day 2 as well, but he had to share this win with Czech pilot Jan [Pavlik]; both “got” 1000 points. All 3 in JS 3,with Erik as runner up with 997 points.
Speed for all 3 ; 112 km./h.
Sebastian and Lucasz had an equal 4th place starting and finishing at the same time in their DIANA 2 for 966 points.
26 flew and finished.
And indeed a huge group in 15 m. left, stayed in the gaggle and came back to finish more or less as a gaggle too. I counted 21 gliders in 4 minutes with the finish times!!!!!!

Standard class; 436.13 km….Again the Aussies Bruce and Greg started early; 13.04 whilst the winners from South Africa started at 13.42. So congrats to Laurence [Hardmann] and young Phillip [Jonker] both in LS 8 for their successful day!1000 and 998 points for them.Tom was 3d and “lost” 30 points on the winner,..no big deal!
Even later was the start from Sarah [13.43] and sad to say as I know how good she is, she was last for the day and the only one who flew under 100 km./h.
Last over the start line was Czech pilot Pavel at 13.50. so nearly an hour difference . They must have had another expectation of the weather.
All 21 started and finished. I LIKE that. I know that even when ONE pilot is IN, the task setter was right, but I prefer many finishes .

Club class; 395.35 km….More big differences in start times between 12.56 and 13.54 so nearly an hour.No worries however for Hugo Corbille from France who flew with 108.86 km./h in his LS 7 over the track.
Tomas Suchanek was runner up and UK pilot Tim 3d.
I know Tim since more than 30 years, when he as a young keen pilot was a tuggy in Tocumwal together with my daughter Inge. Both are airline pilots now!

Tony had some problems at the start;“Team DK had some instrumentation gremlins this morning and had to push off. Thanks to Tony Condon and Peter von Tresckow ‘s quick thinking we were able to launch at the end of our class.“
Tony was 21st for the day.
All 30 pilots started and finished!!!!!!
The French are absolutely WELL-DRESSED for the hot sun. Though long sleeves and gloves would be good too.

Talking about club class ; The club class gliders flying for “fun” in Tocumwal had super weather on December 3 with over 600 km in an LS 4, Stephan Soell, with 696 km , Steve Trone in a mini nimbus with 649 km, and Grant in the DISCUS with 627 km.
Australia’s weather is great at the moment for soaring.

I am going to find out what the reason could have been for the start time differences.
Will update later with more fresh news, from family and or friends. They all have dinner now ,I will have breakfast.

So I checked. One of the answers was: the biggest differences were in standard and club , on initiative from the pilots their-selves. In 15 m they waited LONG with a start….but then they left as 1 big gaggle. Only The USA and Australia made their own plans and sadly they suffered.
Here is Adam;”A big day in the blue! Tobias & I flew a really great flight together, we typically had nice rhythm all flight & from what we were told via onlookers via the OGN, we were pulling away from the gaggle who started 30min behind us. Unfortunately though, we got unlucky at the Warren TP (which is known as the wettest place on the planet in gliding terms). We slowed down amply because we knew the area was coming at us, but still, all we could get was two low 3kt saves.
This is the only place I believe that the gaggle won over us today, because if we jagged two 5kt climbs as we did previously, then it would’ve been a different story I think.” More on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Sebastian was less enthusiastic about the gaggle , here is the translation from what Sebastian said by Andrea Florence  from GLIDING & SOARING he belongs to team Italy;
“What a competition!
Completely clear of clouds!
Flarms are a must.
Eventmarker from pre-school…5 minutes and then what?
The last one en route wins.
Ricardo Brigliadori leaded the gaggle perfectly.
In the area above the swamps [2d TP] he was in trouble and the winners who did n’t even stick their nose out, in front of the others. Including myself.
But unfortunately there is only one way for such terms” so far Sebastian.
Ricky was 13th for the day.

Team USA ‘s Tony who had problems at the start;
“Nice easy morning today. First out to the grid after briefing, loaded up the task and shut everything down to save power. Got ready for launch to start and the S100 wouldn’t boot. SBOX ERROR CONTACT SERVICE. Nothing in the manual or the Internet. Try every combo of resetting cables, SD cards in/out, batteries etc. no vario no GPS no primary logger and the launch is starting. Push off to the side.
Peter von Tresckow hypothesizes that maybe the Terminator on a db9 plug is the problem. Grabs his mini screwdriver and removes it. The instrument fires up! No clue why but DONT TURN IT OFF . Back in line launch last only one volley behind where we would’ve been.
Flight was good until it wasn’t. Another low point grovelling in the third quarter. Then it was good again.”

Team Belgium shared great colorful pictures

As said before….50 VOLUNTEERS:
Here are the most important so you know too;
Competition Director Mike Durrant
Deputy Competition Director Beryl Hartley assisted by Jacob Bloom, Ross McLean, and Sean Young.
Operations Director Jenny Thompson
Tug Master Bill Bartlett
Leader of the marshalling and launch teams Kerrie Claffey 
Task Setter David Jansen
Chief Scorer  Neil Campbell 
Safety Officer Rolf Buelter
Meteorologist Ed Marel 
Daily Weighing Jack Hart
Competition Office Kathy Bell

—————————————————————–

I missed out on a picture from Team Italy with my friend Ricky and to r. of him Luca Urbani who I met at several comps I visited in Italy

I also missed out on a nice picture of team Japan. Mac did so well on day 1 that I have to share it now.

And another nice picture with Inge. They both know each other already for a long, long time.

AND……Finally “I found team USA in the hangar” ;
With TC Pete Alexander in the yellow shirt, Tony to his left and Sarah, easy to recognize. She is the WWGC champion from Lake Keepit .

And among the many guests also Pam[Kurstjens Hawkins] here with steward Brian.

Post 1.459 on December 3 2023.
https://wgc2023.com.au/

https://link.glideandseek.com/wgc2023

There we go with the 37th WGC, this time the FLYING!!!!
Day 1 on December 3;The forecast was for a more blue day, but the pilots enjoyed great good working cu’s as well during their long tasks. My home country and 2d home country performed WELL!!!!
That makes a Sunday morning EXTRA nice.
Here we go.
Task 1 ….15m; 558.83 km….Jeroen Verkuijl [JS3] loved his flight,” I enjoyed every minute “, he said in an after-flight-video with Joyce…. “we could catch others and stay with them“.
“We did not loose points,” which is good added Erik,[JS3] who was 3d for the day.
In between the 2 Dutchies was Adam and he must be super happy too with Toby on 4. Great start of the comps for them.
The 2 Aussies both in Ventus 3 and 2 ,started at 12.32, the Dutch 10 minutes later, that explains “the catching up”.
Speed from Jeroen 128.88 km./h and from Adam 128.78 loosing only 2 points!!!
Erik and Toby were equal 3d with 128.50 km/h.
All 27 pilots started and finished, TOP!!!! The first 24 all got over 900 points.
Here is Adam:”A fantastic way to start the world’s, almost a perfect score with 998pts – congrats to Jeroen on the day win!
While I was in front/lead for most of the day, Tobias made the decision that won us the day. While we agreed upon an early start at briefing time, due to lessening CU throughout the day, then as we were to progress North, the climb strengths were predicted to weaken behind us. It was Tobias firmness to start quickly once we were in the air that made the difference today much more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

Task 1….standard; 501.06 km….My 2d home country did well again with Greg Beecroft [LS8] as daily winner with a speed of 128.91 km./h. Japanese-Aussie- Mac [Ichikawa] was runner up;127.54 km./h.
Dutch pilot Sjaak [Selen] was 3d in a DISCUS 2A; 124.22 km./h
All 21 flew and finished.

Task 1…. club;  437.41 km….4 LS 3 gliders and 1 ASW 20 in the top 5 flown by German top- pilots Stefan [Langer] and Uwe [Wahlig]. Both Stefan and Uwe flew with a speed of 117.42 km./h.
James [Nugent] was 3d with 115.45 km./h and 2 top Danish pilots , Michael [Mix] and Rasmus [Orskov] were on spot 4 and 5 with 115.69 and 115. 28 km./h.
30 started and 1 was out after 95 km.

The start of this 37th WGC is there and it is a VERY good one. Lot’s of happy pilots tonight down under. More to come.
All scores preliminary.

More pictures from the opening;

Team UK;

When necessary I will update during the day.
Team UK; “A solid first day for the team!”
Lot’s of pictures shared on the official website are courtesy Jarek Mosiejewski .

And AT ALL TIMES IMPORTANT ;

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.458 on December 2 2023.
https://wgc2023.com.au/

Got already a lot of news so let’s start quickly with “from day- to -day-news” A day earlier as well, but TOO LONG blogs are not good and old news is no news.
I might even try daily news but that’s difficult with the 10 hour time difference. I’ll see.
Just keep reading.

Wednesday November 29;
Got the booster jab, felt a bit dizzy but ready to “rumble” again.
First an introduction to my friends from the lower countries in Europe, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
GOOD LUCK to all of them!
Dutch Gliding Team

Their was no official flying due to the heavy rain over night, BUT the weather is changing!!!
Here is Bruce;“Another day on the ground, sorting out some remaining jobs on our gliders.
And outside? The sun shone, the cumulus popped and looked gorgeous, but the wind blew, all day. Last night there were some big falls of rain, mostly from the west around to the south, so that area will be slow for the next couple of weeks.Tomorrow we will all go flying. I can’t wait to get in the air again. It feels good to be ready to rock ‘n’ roll!” Taylor’s Gliding Page

Thursday November 30;
are they ready to rock and roll????
“A tricky day out for all today, with top cover moving into the task area earlier than predicted.” according to our UK mates.
3 hour AAT’s were set for all 3 classes and Ricky won in 15 m [JS3] in a glorious way. His dad Leo[nardo] flew in Benalla in 87 and with us before that comp.
Ricky flew with a speed of 119.64 km./h over 378.60 km.
The runner up, Sebastian, [Diana 2] in comparison flew with a speed of 112.76 km./h over 347.80 km
25 started and 2 were out.
Adam was 4th; “An interesting day in the skies, at times it felt like I was in a washing machine. The conditions saw CU to 6000′, with averages from 3-7kts, though with a 22kt westerly wind! This saw me not being able to follow my own advice of trying to stay in the top half of convection & topping up in the 4kt’ers, but spending my day in a forever downward direction, bouncing off the ground & up to 4000′ most of the time as I got too greedy.” more in his Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
In Standard class it was Lithuania with Joris Vainius in his ASW 28, who won the day just ahead of the Polish pilots , Lucasz and Tomasz who started a minute earlier.
20 started and 7 were out. A few mistakes as well, better now than in 3 days.
In Club class 21 pilots started, 5 were out but 9 did not start at all on the official practice day. Still ONLY practice, no worries. Some might have not brought their logger in.
Czech pilots Tomas and Jan were the best with a speed of 311 and 304 km/h over 311 and 304 km.

December 1;
Start of the meteorological winter on this side of the world ,with indeed icy conditions here…..up to minus 10…. and snow in the N. of our country and down under it ‘s SUMMER again.
Got a lovely picture from Anne [Aus Soaring] with Inge, Indya and Gerrit.
Noticed many more great pictures on the official WGC FB site, have a look and ENJOY!!!!
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093208068838

15 m; 341.51 km....after AAT’s now practice with a set task.Best for the day was Lithuanian pilot Linas Miezlaiskis in ASG 29; 138.47 km./h with Dutch pilot Erik[JS3] as runner up ;134.44.
24 from 28 started and 4 “practiced” an out landing.
Adam was one of them.
“Today after I released from tow, it was immediately obvious that I had an undercarriage door problem, fortunately my team mate was right there to confirm it.” more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Standard class; 346.56 km.…and the 2 Polish pilots Tomasz and Lucasz did well with a speed of 122 km./h. Still “only” practice ; some penalties to learn from and some out landings 4, to learn from.
Club class; 255.67 km; I expect a lot from German pilot Uwe Wahlig in his LS 3. He straight away won the day with 122.84 km./h and is of course the current [2021] WORLD CHAMPION.
29 from 30 started and 1 was out.

PR is going well also for the locals.

December 2 OPENING and the best weather ever. I could nearly say “as usual”.
I was ready for a live stream of the opening at 8 AM my time, but nothing on the official site.

The Italian Gliding Team as seen by Andrea [Venturini] with behind them team Luxembourg, shared by Vola aVela.

The French team with Eric and his pilots and crews .

Team Luxembourg with George,Diana ,Inge and Indya.

Team Denmark;

Team Belgium;

More pictures from the opening tomorrow.
Leaves me for today, to update you with the names of the officials:
Rick Sheppe from the USA will be the Jury President and the other Jurors (both remote)
are Bob Henderson (NZL) and Peter Szabo (HUN). 

The Stewards are Brian Spreckley (UK), and John Godfrey (USA).

——————————————————————

There is other news as well!
—–Wilfried Grosskinsky flew 300 x a more than 1000 km and that must be a record! In the EB 28 he took a junior Gerrit Neugebauer ;
“Gerrit is one of the lucky youngsters, who won the Bitterwasser Cup this year. The price is sponsored by Wilfried Grosskinsky and the Bitterwasser Lodge. Thank you so much for giving juniors such an incredible opportunity in gliding!“
I can only agree with that.

CU tomorrow with more news about day 1 of the 37th WGC and more pictures also from the opening!
Now my grandson Dexter is visiting for the weekend.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.457 on November 29 2023.
https://wgc2023.com.au/

Only a few days to go and the first OFFICIAL flying day on December 3 will be a fact!!!
They fly till December 15[included] with a FAREWELL dinner in the evening and on my birthday December 16 the prize giving will be at 11 AM.

Unofficial practice time, scruteneering time, time to hug each other ‘hello here, hello there’ ,time for the official TC meeting [yesterday] and TODAY on November 29, time for the start of the 2d official practice period…the first one was was not flown…here is Bruce:
“Today the organisation decided on a no-fly day, as the forecast was for storms arriving from mid-afternoon onwards. Of course so far the sky has looked lovely, so the Europeans must think we are crazy here!”
They had however a mandatory safety briefing which was according to Adam “calm, friendly & well presented”.
Adam; “As the saying goes in Australia, unless it’s 6kts to 8000′, we don’t open the hangar doors
For Team UK ,7000 ft was good enough “Tom and Paul (Standard Class) were keen to do some more shakedown flights and were glad they did! Good climbs up to 7,000 feet made for a very enjoyable day.”
Also the Dutch pilots had a great day.
Here is Roelof: “When at home “only” 2000 m AGl is forecasted, specially in the N of The Netherlands.[Roelof is from Friesland]we fly why not now. Luckily I got a tow and had a beautiful flight under convergence lines. Perfect.” He enjoyed it to the fullest.
Wait till the real Narromine weather is there, he will be over the moon!!!!
By the way today was not flown either.
Only on November 27 they had a good practice-day with a 3 hour AAT for 15 m, won by Sebastian, also a 3 hour AAT for standard won by the the UK pilots Tom and Paul in their LS 8 and club got a 3 hout AAT as well ,won by French pilot Adrien Henry.

Most teams have arrived so have the gliders .It’s always a worry if they get through customs without problems and then trough quarantine. As far as I know , indeed, all containers have arrived so the big harbor strike had no influence. pfff….
The UK mentioned;”the gliders have arrived in Australia after a long sea journey; the shipping container was packed on 16 Aug and picked up on 21 Aug. We very much look forward to seeing it, and its contents, again on 24 Nov in Narromine as the training week commences.” British Gliding Team

More guests for Tocumwal; USA team Tony Condon and his wife Leah, arrived there to pick up glider DK [Discus] from Lumpies Tocumwal Soaring Center and familiarize in it. “Spent the day getting to know DK and had a nice flight late in the afternoon.” One day later they left for Narromine and Tony flew there as well.

Adam traveled from Japan via Germany to pick up a “part” of his glider. Weird hand-luggage they must have thought on his way.
As always lot’s of last-minute-things-to-do!

Last week I mentioned the arrival from the first 2 USA members TT pilot Tim and his crew Ron.
Here a short part of the first flight:
“After Tim Taylor glider passed technical inspection it looked like there was a chance for him to fly before the storms shut things down.
Storms came up from the south, the winds above 6,000 MSL were still from the NW, and covered the airport with heavy down pours, lightning and thunder. Tim stayed 30-40 km around the airport in sunny soarable conditions until he saw a clear path to the Narromine. Again ‘it was great until it was not’.
He got to the airport and landed by the outside perimeter in the grass. I brought the trailer to him and we derigged. We estimate at least 25 to 40 mm of rain came down during the time we got the glider in the trailer. Yes Gore Tex fabric is a wonderful thing
Good to get the flying experience, more local area familiarization and getting the outlanding on the airport out of the way” by Ron on US Soaring Teams

The weather was poor, so lot’s of nonflying activities on the first days of last week.
No worries for Stefan Langer from Germany, he spend his preparation time in New Zealand with Terry Delore.
” Canterbury Gliding Club had a great time hosting Stefan Langer, 2023 World Sailplane GP Champion and Gliding social media extraordinaire. We all look forward to your next visit with us.
Best wishes for the upcoming World Championships in Australia.
– Terry & CGC President Derek Kraak“
And,
“We have had some EPIC soaring lately!!
The clubs chat feed has been flooded with spectacular flights during our XCountry week.”
Badge flights were achieved , glider type conversions ,they welcomed North Island pilots, hosted a world GP champion Stefan Langer and they welcomed a brand new Sailplane to the Springfield Aerodrome. Enough enthusiasm over there.
Nick Oakley mentioned:
“One of the best thermal days I’ve had from Springfield …thermals to 11,500ft best climb went 16kts for 3 turn”

A full house on the last unofficial practice day, 80 % of the pilots was there , got a task and flew it between storms.

South African Gliding Team wished their “boys” well;
“Good luck to our boys Down Under. AP Kotze and Uys Jonker are flying JS3’s in the 15 m World Gliding Championships in Narromine in Australia, and Phillip Jonker and Laurence Hardman are both flying LS8’s in the Standard class.
Gooi mielies manne, and ring home some metal“
Such a lovely language!!!!

Today November 29 2d official practice day; no flying.…after a lot of rain overnight task setting was difficult because of the wet outlanding fields. Today there is a lot of wind to dry it all out and a weather change is on it’s way too.
Pfff just in time!!!!

That’s all about NARROMINE with their 37th WGC…for now.
More in the weekend. As said I try to write a bit more ,when I have news enough.

---

——-Also in South Africa in Bloemfontein, a container arrived on the 23d of November and “boss” Dick Bradley is keeping an eye on things.
https://www.soaring-safaris.com/

——When I left you last Wednesday some pilots had a very satisfying day flying a 1000-plus from Veronica, Bitterwasser, Kiripotib and Worcester, but also 2 flights from France 1 from Perpignan in a Stemme 12 ; Gil Souviron / Henri Castanet with 1.470,85 km and a speed of 154 km./h.
The Pyrenees were working well and they flew over a huge area in Spain.
There is a long comment on this flight, interesting, have a look.
https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=9705698#map=
The other flight was from Grenoble Versoud, 1.515,78 with a speed of 159 km./h. in an ASH 31/21m. Thomas Puthod was the pilot.
On Sunday the Namibian weather was TOP again with several 1000 km flights .
And on Monday they had 26 flights over 1000 km……13 from Bitterwasser.
Guy Bechtold from Luxembourg a REAL, kilometer eater flew 2 days ;November 25; 1.262 and November 27; 1.265 km[ 152.9 km./h] …long,long sit…….. nearly 19 hours during these 2 flights.

——SkySight …..Did you follow the amazing flight of Yves Gerster from Swiss Sailplane GmbH this month, the first ever crossing to Corsia with an 18m glider?
Yves was kind enough to report to us how he did it!
When you click on Skysight you can read the full story. VERY interesting!!!!!

More next week, by the way we had the first official early morning frost this week. No better way to show gorgeous Holland than with this picture from the “ZAANSTREEK” ,de Zaanse Schans.
Though “gorgeous” ,….we had a landslide in the elections last week with as winner ultra right. Not good, but we are a democratic country, it seems an unhappy country too, with a winning ultra right populist Geert Wilders.

CU on Sunday.
cheers Ritz, we also had the first snow and 980.000 kilo salt was spread over the Dutch roads.
In Eastern Europe, Germany included, that does n’t help anymore they are totally covered by tons of snow….incidents, accidents and casualties!
Off to get my corona -booster-jab.

Post 1.456 on November 22 2023.

37th WGC at Narromine ; December 2-16 in 2023.
This is where it is all going to happen.

ALL KIND OF NEWS ABOUT THE 37TH WGC IN NARROMINE;

I heard and read that there are nearly as much helpers/volunteers as pilots, around 50, so things should not go wrong during this 37th WGC.
On top of that Narromine is very experienced host, looking at comps.
I told you that several pilots/friends are visiting Tocumwal, ahead of the WGC in Narromine .
From Denmark of course Joergen Thomsen who prepares the ASW 20 for Rasmus Orskov, son of Joergen’s partner Birgitte. Joergen spends each summer…already for a few years… in Tocumwal .
From The Netherlands, it is Erik and Joyce Borgmann, their first visit, looking around in town and of course visiting the koala’s , the cemetery [THANKS Joyce for the pictures!!!!] and having good dinners p.e. in The TERMINUS, ….a wonderful old pub at the railway station.
George Schuit , who also spends already for ages his summers in Tocumwal,[since 1984?] and lived there for over 12 years, could speak some Dutch again.
As I wrote already George and his wife Diana both fly in Club Class in Narromine, representing Luxembourg, where they both live and where Diana is a 747 co pilot for Cargo Lux.
From SA, Uys Jonker,no introduction needed, visiting the old WWII hangar and the owners Lumpy and Sharon.
Eddie Madden :”At school today learning about servicing Jonker sailplanes EV power self launching systems.”
In the old Sportavia briefing room ,where Eddie used to “do” the weather, Uys gave an RES course. One day later it was ALL ABOUT THE NEW JS 5.

As Lumpy from Tocumwal Soaring Centre mentioned;
“We are used to International visitors coming to be with us.
Uys Jonker is here talking about the JS3 RES and the associated systems with owning and maintaining this awesome glider. Uys and the team are here for 4 days before heading up to the worlds in Narromine.
It’s great that Jonkers, along with GFA are able to provide this kind of opportunity to their customers and users of the new generation electric gliders flying in Australia.”
On top of that Lumpy flew over 700 km last Sunday in his JS3.

Also on British TV ,they show all about gliding with the UK team.
So good PR till now.
You can see it on Bognor Regis Gliding Club

Pilots are already there or on their way. Here are the Polish pilots Sebastian Kawa and Lukasz Grabowski ready to go with their very good and very experienced TC in the middle.
Sebastian and Lukasz fly the DIANA 2 in 15 m. class.

Yesterday on November 21 , young German pilot Henrik Bieler flew in the Ventus 3T/15 m. a 759 km, so pretty good weather in Narromine at the moment. Henrik is the current German national champion in 15m .
The Australian Bureau of meteorology however shows different circumstances, for the practice period.

Team USA is slowly arriving. 2 Of the team are already there, pilot Tim Taylor [15 m] and crew member Ron Gleason, who checked the scruteneering-process, with some funny remarks.
“During high level soaring contests, we are at the World Championships in Narromine NSW AUS, every piece of equipment is checked to insure it is within manufactures specifications and all proper paperwork is in order.
Wednesday 22/11/23 we got Tim’s glider through ‘scrutineering’, the glider contest version of going to the proctologist.“
Unofficial practice was on the menu too.

———————————————————–

Lake Keepit hosted the NSW State comps 2023/2024, between November 11 and 18. I wrote also about them in my earlier posts.

They had 7 out of 7 days in OPEN CLASS, with good soaring! Tasks between 2.30 AAT and 3.30 AAT and set tasks from around 300 km. Scores, even with 7 days of flying, were pretty close.
They had an interesting mix of conditions , Cu’s, blue , thermals and wave.
Winners;
1. Justin Smith in ARCUS M with 5.432 points. He won on the last day; 130 km./h over a set 280 km.
2. Richard Frawley in JS 3/18m with 5.325 p. lost nearly 200 points on the last day.
3. Steven Evans in ASG 29/18 m with 5.148 p.

CLUB CLASS had 7 days as well with good tasks their set tasks were around 200 km.
There was ONE CLEAR WINNER; Michael Strathern in his ASW 20 winning 5 days and being runner up on 2 days! The nearly perfect score.
“Well that’s all folks from Lake Keepit.
The Kiwi/Pom is the Australian NSW sports/club class champion!Today I decided to push a bit harder and see what the ASW20 can do and we did 114.5kph over 240 Km and won the day (and devalued it going too fast!)” as said by Michael.
Kiwi / Pom says it all; Michael will fly for New Zealand in his ASW 20 in Club Class.
Club class winners;
1. Michael Strathern in ASW 20 with 5.614 points. VERY READY for the 37th WGC representing NZ!!!!!
2. Cameron Turnbridge in St Cirrus with 3.883 p.
3. John Trezise in ASW 24 with 3.844 p.

Some interesting news and flights;
——-Last Saturday, it was one of those days again in Namibia with another 8x 1000 km flights , just have a look at WeGlide.org or Soaringspot.com.
The best flight that day however was for Argentina. We carefully follow the very hot weather in South America, over here, but it creates also good soaring conditions and with their wave…….
Brazil had yesterday 44.8 dgr. C.
Juan Pablo Vertura flew in his 18m Ventus 2CM, on November 18, with a speed of 231.69 km./h from Zapala Neuquen over 1.634.04 km!!!!
Wave over the Andes up to 7710 MSL. GOOD day!!!!
Yesterday he did it again same glider same area another long flight; 1.607 km with a speed of 197.06 km./h.
Not to forget that he “did” a 1.704.61 km flight with a speed of 199 km./h on November 15!!!!!
Frederico Buscema did about the same , not in a Ventus but in a Nimbus 3DM.
The Andes is ON.
Another TOP FLIGHT was from France; 1.235 km in an ASH 31/21m. by Baptiste Innocent from St Auban.

——-Greetings from Worcester in South Africa, what a great picture!
Look for more on https://www.weglide.org/flight/348561

That ‘s it for today. During the WGC, I try to publish more often when necessary.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.455 on November 15 2023

The WGC site for all the news; https://wgc2023.com.au

Narromine slowly “fills” with overseas pilots!!! On November 28 till December 1 with the opening on December 2 and the first day of flying till December 16.
A total of 79 pilots will enjoy the hospitality of Narromine to the fullest, I am sure of that, as I always enjoyed it too.
Of course their crews and TC’s will experience the same. Lot’s of die-hard Aussies will spend a day or 2 to be part of this “show” as well. Also locals, friends and family will gather. That’s what world championships are “made/meant ” for.
I hope that due to the cyber attack on the Australian harbors there will be no problems with the containers. I hope they have ALL arrived already and are cleared.
ABC had the next news;
“—Goods coming in and out of Australia are at a stand still because a major port operator DP World has shut down land operations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle.
—The federal government is helping respond to the incident.
—The National Cyber Security Coordinator; the situation could take days to resolve, which the ABC understands could lead to significant freight delays.”
GOOD TO KNOW!!!!!The problems seem to be solved, but 30.000 containers are waiting now to be dealt with.

AND,…..Here is the CONTEST DIRECTOR – Mike Durrant important person for the comps.
Welcome to WGC Narromine 2023!

On behalf of the Australian gliding community, it’s my pleasure to welcome all competitors, spectators, and organisers who will be participating in the 37th FAI World Gliding Championships in Narromine in November/December 2023.

It’s not often that Australia has the opportunity to host the Worlds, so we’re very excited to be running the event this year, and I feel hugely privileged to have been appointed to the role of Competition Director. We expect around 80 pilots from around the world to travel to Narromine and compete in what we expect will be sensational weather conditions, so it should be an absolutely spectacular event!

Of course, running an event of this nature is a huge team effort. We have a team of over 50 volunteers from across Australia (and the Czech Republic!) covering all aspects of the competition, from administration and events through to scrutineering, tasking, and flight operations. There isn’t room here for me to name and thank everyone who has been and will be contributing their time and expertise to the competition, but it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge Deputy Competition Director Beryl Hartley. Beryl was absolutely key to bringing the event to Australia, and she is continuing to do an extraordinary amount of work on the ground to ensure we host a successful competition.

We’re pulling out all stops to make this a great event – our catch cry for the competition is “Safe, Fair and Fun”. We hope that the Australian gliding community will support the event either by coming along to Narromine, or by following the competition on Soaring Spot or LiveGliding.“

And a tip from Adam;
“HOT TIP: try to always fly a MC3.0kt final glide into any Australian field, we have some gnarly sink in Australia & if you set off on your MC0.5kt like in EU, you’ll probably find yourself coming up short. We have big lift in Australia, but also the other side of the coin too, for long periods of times...”
When you have never been in Australia don’t expect to fly every day a 1000, so have a good look at the weather first to don’t land out on day 1 like in Benalla in ’87. The wind was much stronger than originally forecasted.
Back to Benalla for a moment:
104 from 108 pilots OUT. Open class [with 21 pilots] had a 556,4 km with 4TP’s, 15 m [ 43 pilots] same but with 444,8 km and standard [ 44 pilots] a triangle of 437.8 km.
Open class pilots / heroes Ingo Renner,[1000 points] Ray Lynsky from NZ [ 983 p] ,Marc Schroeder and Gabriel Chenevoy from France [ 962.949 p.] managed to finish, winning at least over 200 points more than the rest that day as Dutch pilot Gerrit Kurstjens on a great spot 5 got 786 points for 514,6 km..
Some crews arrived late in the night some the next morning, and in the past I wrote already that one of the cars AND trailer were “out” due to huge damage. “Our ” trailer; Sorry the trailer is for no good” was the remark at 7 AM after they knocked on our door.
It was a real hectic day!!!!
Erik ” Herbie” Moser wrote in his magazine “Good finish” about this day 1;
“A new world record was set with 104 landouts…. . Could this be a sign of things to come?“

Talking about the USA;
“Team USA is heading to the WGC in Narromine NSW, Australia shortly. Representing the US in the Standard Class are Sarah Arnold and Tom Holloran; 15 M Class, Rick Indrebo and Tim Taylor and the Club Class, Mike Westbrook and Tony Condon. Pete Alexander, Team Captain, will be posting tasks, conditions and photos and John Good, daily reports. Find current information here on our FB site, Instagram, and of course” https://www.ssa.org/us-teams/

Back to Narromine again; I know that a few overseas pilots/crews are going to visit our former venue Sportavia as well, ahead of the event to collect a glider, a trailer or just a visit now they are in Australia.
Some are former friends of “our” Dennis and visit his grave in Toc.
After having lived there for over 10 years PLUS at least an extra 10 summers,” I keep going” for Tocumwal !!!!
Good to see that Lumpy and his team have cleaned the hangar and put their own stamp now on the building.
www.tocumwalsoaring.com
To find the TSC [in the past SSC] easy, here you are;

——News from Benalla;
“The 2023/24 National Gliding Championships, Open, 18m, 15m and Standard classes will be hosted by the Gliding Club of Victoria at the Benalla Airport from 16 – 26 of January 2024.
GCV will be operating full time throughout December and January. Launching and weather briefing will be available daily for those pilots who wish to arrive earlier.”

–—–News from the UK;
“On Saturday 24th of February 2024, the BGA Sporting Conference is returning to the Holywell Park Conference Centre at Loughborough University followed by our Annual Awards Dinner at Burleigh Court Hotel at Loughborough University!
It’s going to be another great day, and for those who are staying on for the awards dinner, a fun evening too! We look forward to welcoming you, whether alone or with a group of like-minded friends!
As ever, the Sporting Conference is FREE to attend!”

—–FAI Sailplane Grand Prix has announced the new calendar;
And here we go for series 12 of the SGP! We will welcome you during these qualifying national events:

– Spain, Santa Cilia early May 2024

– Norway, Starmoen mid May 2024

– Germany, Aalen end of May 2024

– Italy, Varese mid June 2024

– Slovenia, Lesce early July 2024

– France, St-Sulpice mid July 2024

– Australia, Gawler early January 2025

– Netherlands, Terlet mid May 2025

– USA, Estrella date to be announced (will be Spring 2025)

World Final:

– France, St-Auban end of August 2025

“Welcome to the first Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in The Netherlands to be held from 11-17 May 2025 at airfield Terlet.
The Dutch feel pretty good about their involvement in this 12th series, so they should;
“For an event such as the SGP you need to have a club that understands the value of it, a club with competitions and cross-country soaring in their DNA.
This is why the SGP is in good hands with the Gelderse Zweefvliegclub .
On top of that they make already a lot of “noise”, read good PR ,about this upcoming event in Mai 2024.

——Since the beginning of November ALL 4 Namibia venues are active; Bitterwasser, Pokweni, Kiripotib and Veronica.

November 10 the first Namibian TOP day; 18 over 1000 km flights, 2 over 1.100 km. Indeed,…..When the weather is there and the pilots, good gliders and “champions”,…… that’s what happens. GOOD!!!
2x a 1000 FAI TRIANGLE!! From Kiripotob Austrian pilots Wolfgang / Gunter Steuer in the ARCUS M ; 1.115, 63/1.015,64 FAI TRIANGLE and from the UK David Pilkington with Tilo from Germany also in ARCUS M.; 1.081,94 / 1.027,74.
November 11 [beginning of carnival here] was another top- Namibia- day! 10 over 1000 km flights and 1 from Worcester in South Africa; Sven [Olivier] in his JS 1.
The season is “on steam” now!!!
Wolfgang even flew his 2d 1000; 1.116.99/1004 FAI TRIANGLE!!!!

——Henrique Navarro mentioned;
“Sunday I beat 3 Brazilian Records in the 15 meters class: (i) FAI triangle distance; (ii) FAI free triangle distance; and (iii) 3 TP distance.
Total flight was 803 km at 120kph and the glider was the super Ventus 3TS “N1”.“
So another good day for him.Congratulations.

——In between comps were/are in progress again.
The one in NZ from Taupo, the Central Plateau Contest November 2023, just finished with a good number of days not all of them good; 5 out of 8 in open and in racing class, though the last day was flown by 1 pilot in open .
With 7 pilots in open and 6 in racing they started on November 5 with their first day , then 3 days “no flying” and 4 consecutive days with 2.30 and 2x 3 hour AAT’s and a 2 hour AAT in open.
Winner in open with 3.694 points was David Jensen in a JS1, winning 3 days.
Winner in racing was Geoffrey Thompson in LS 6A with 1.096 points.

—–The 2023/2024 State Gliding Comps at Lake Keepit [November 11-18] started with 2 reasonable practice days and on November 12 the 19 pilots in open got a 2.30 AAT. Some pilots I know from long ago and of course from the WWGC in 2019.
Open;
task 1 2.30 AAT 2 of the pilots I know in this class had an airspace violation, which is not a good start.
Daily winner; Greg [Kolb] in his 18m Ventus 2CX flew around with 96 km./h over 242.53 km. for 880 points.
A day with no clouds ,but bright and with lift.
November 13 had task 2 another 2.30 AAT won by Richard Frawley in an 18m JS3. 293 km in time 2.30 so a nice speed of 116,78 km./h.
Nick {Singer} in his JS1 was runner up. Nick is one of the Keepit instructors and a good chef …for friends….in the clubhouse when necessary. I loved his meals.
About the same conditions but weak lift.”the weather is similar to yesterday, they are expecting that conditions will be such that climbing will be difficult and average best heights won’t be very high.
November 14 task 3; 318.89 km won again by Greg. Speed 114.69 km./h.
6 from 20 were out.
November 15 task 4; 3.30 AAT...393 km in an ARCUS M by Justin Smith was the best result; speed 112.32. AND,…the first 1000 -points- day!!!!
Our former colleague in Sportavia , so long ago ,Mathias was runner up in his JS 3… good on him. Brad [Edwards] was 3d and Greg was 6th
More next week.

Club class;
task 1 ; with 8 pilots plus 1 HC had a 2.30 AAT won by Michael Strathern in an ASW 20….84 km./h over 221 km.
Task 2; 2.30 AAT and won again by Michael….249.66 km. in time 2.38; speed 94.51 km./h.
task 3; 268.26 km set racing task. With 93.33 km/h Michael was the best, so already 3 consecutive day daily winner.
Task 4; 3.30 AAT…NO new news…Michael was the best ; 378.67 km in time 3.36 so a speed of 104.89 km./h.
Good to see the St. Libelle flew a nice distance too,[ 225 km speed 64.39 km./h] as well as a St. Cirrus [ 217.93 km speed 62.27 km./h] and Grob 103sl.[ 300.58 km ,speed 84.60 km./h]
2 were out.
More next week.

That’s about it. Not long and there will be more news fro my site on the WGC as I have many family members [4] and enough friends to inform me.
So keep reading,stay tuned.

Cheers Ritz