Post 1.488 on March 20 2024
–—–It’s not often that a customer/guest is allowed to make pictures in the final-production- hangar of a glider manufacturer. For that reason it is really kind of Lumpy to share some pictures from part of this process. He is there for his new JS5. On top of that it is great PR for Jonker Sailplanes.
“On day 2 of his visit, Lumpy writes;
“Welcome to JS3 RES heaven! Lots of different colours and designs going outta the shop.
The work areas have grown significantly since my last visit, there’s now three hangars in the production line and plenty of action. The finish on these are just superb and there’s Almost one being test flown every couple of days.
Lots of flying test work going on with the JS2 as well… 18/21 mtr self launcher, working through the EASA certification process.
I had another great flight in the 5 today heading up towards Botswana for a nice 525km out and return at 145kph. I put 110 ltrs of water on for todays flight and really enjoyed the run. The handling is still awesome, still great feel of the air ….. and in the glide it was noticeably smoother and faster, this thing is a weapon !!”
On March 17 he and Oscar [Goudriaan] flew a 750 from Potchefstroom in a JS 3 and the new JS 5 with 148 km./h. AND,….Lumpies mates Bernie and Ojars flew from Tocumwal 404 and 508 km in Pik 20 B and ASH 31/21m.
Amazing weather …”nice autumn days“….still both in South Africa and down under.
——-The SENIORS are flying/have flown again from Seminole Lake and as every year they have some kind of Hawaii-shirt-day. I noticed that they did so at the F1 in Leeton Australia as well.
Courtesy Bo Michalowski
After 2 non flying days they flew on Wednesday and Thursday. 3 hour and 2 hour AAT.
Contest day 1; 3 hour AAT….. Here is Rich Owen ,who flies in the back from 98 with Pete Alexander.He is a funny writer and I LIKE his style!
“there were some nice cu but also some areas that had large blue gaps. Sticking to the cloud fields seemed to be the best answer to traverse this leg. Lift was getting stronger and cloud bases were also getting higher. It wasn’t bad when you rolled into a 6-7kt thermal for 2,000ft.“
In the end of the day there were winners;
“In third place was Karl Striedieck flying with his brother Walter with a raw speed of 65.94mph. We did not have a second-place finisher due to a tie for first place. Billy Kerns with his LS-8 flew 198 miles at a speed of 64.38mph while Pete Alexander and Rich Owen flew an ASG-32Mi 221 miles at a speed of 72.42mph. Both ships received 1,000 points for their effort.”
Contest day 2; 2 hour AAT...Due to some rain that flooded the south end of the runway, we have been forced to change the way we grid for this contest.
“Today we tried something a little different to coincide more with what the rules say about rotating the grid. We had 5 groups of short wing gliders go down at different times to stage in position. So, 6 gliders at a time would tow down into takeoff position. No specific spot was assigned but the grid is rotated each day. Everyone approved of the process and we plan to use it during this contest.”
Start of the flying-day;
“The first leg was either fast or trying. Some pilots averaged 3 knot climbs while others were happy to have 1.5 knots.“
But then…..”Cirrus completely covered the landscape and very little sun was making it to the ground. The route home plotted on See You for all the pilots looked like a bomb burst since we all took very different paths home. Many got stuck low over Winter Haven and had to dig out to avoid a landout. The pilots who started late had an even more difficult time. In the end, we only had one landout and everyone else made it back safely.“
In the end of the day…..“When all the chaos ended, we found a shake up on the score. Sam Zimmerman finished in 3rd place with Henry Retting in second place.In first place was Nico Bennet, a two-time winner of the Seniors with a raw speed of 61.60mph over 108 miles.“
Contest Day 3; 1.45 AAT.….”The first leg was either fast or slow depending on the line you took.Lift in the start circle was weak and the number of clouds were few.Soon a line formed over highway 27 which the locals all call the Florida ridge. It seems to be the fastest path to the southeast side of the state. The faster you get on it, the better you will do. The winners pretty much did exactly that.“
Final glides were all benign and the recovery back at Seminole-Lake was safe and efficient. It is amazing the level of skill and professionalism that our pilots exhibit during this highly stressful evolution.”
When all the dust had settled.…
“Only 53 points separate the top 6 competitors, and the podium is up for grabs. In overall standings, Joerg Stieber from the SOSA club in Canada is in 6th place with Nelson Howe is in 5th place. In 4th is Doug Jacobs with his 21-meter ASH-31Mi. In 3rd place is P7, Gary Ittner, only 43 points out of first. The closer race is between Jim Lee/Joe Bostik in 2nd and Henry Retting in first. Only 12 points separate these excellent pilots.” as written by Rich Owen.
AND……:“Now watching our older pilots leave their ships after flying 3-4 hours leaves something to be desired. It sometimes takes two tries to get out. Seems like they also like to try and figure out how to email their flight log to the scorer before getting out of the ship.”
Courtesy picture; Evelyn Tovar
Friday was the last day ;
Contest day 4; 3 hour AAT.…Start was open at 13.44.
Part of the daily story from Rich; “The start time was a little critical since high cirrus on the west side of the task area was expected mid-day.
On the first leg, it was straightforward. There weren’t any cloud streets to speak of but climbs of 2.5kts to 4,000ft were common.
The lakes and late day sun angles reduced the density of the cloud field in this area, and everyone had to be careful. Good news was the clouds heading home looked great and final glides were fairly easy.
Good old Doug Jacobs won the day.
On the banquet all important people got a THANK YOU, CD John [Good] scorer Rick [Sheppe] also the ground crew, the volunteers and the meteo Fernando [Silva] .
“Our tow pilots received a standing ovation for their work to get all the pilots in the air safely and with smiles on their face.“
As every year THANK YOU TO BO for sharing her fabulous pictures with all of us.
Here are 2 more, cause they say so much without words;
THANK YOU BO AND RICH!!!!!!!!
—–Last week I wrote about Matthew visiting The Netherlands because of EuroGlide in mid summer.[end of July beginning of August].
This week there is more news about his SkySight.
“Big news! We are integrating ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) weather data into the starting point for our model, greatly enhancing the quality and depth of our data sources.
ECMWF is the world’s leading global weather model, more than ten years ahead of the popular GFS model. The enormous volumes of their data and high cost have previously made it inaccessible to the gliding world, and we are proudly the first to use it.
However, by itself, ECMWF is still not detailed enough, which is why we use it as a starting point for our ultra-high detail model.
What does it mean for you? Better forecast data, now delivered faster and more often represents the biggest year-on-year forecast improvement!” SkySight
AND…..MORE……Paraglider and Hangglider pilots
– we haven’t forgotten about you! 
For the last six months we have been working on “Launch Points” – an easy way to see at a glance if the launch is working. MUCH more on SkySight
——-The Kiripotib containers with their many gliders have arrived in Europe nicely in time for the new season.
“Many hands make light work
. Gliders have landed safely in Austria. Their owners have been eagerly awaiting to start the upcoming glider season.We wish you a great flying season and look forward to welcoming you back to Kiripotib! “
Dates for the coming season have already been finalized: https://tinyurl.com/258kz56a
—-The AmstelGlide 2024 is for all who are interested and current on June 8 and 9 flown from the beautiful airport of Soesterberg in The Netherlands.
www.amstelglide.nl
——To let you know already now; The 15th JWGC will be in Lake Keepit in Australia in 2028.
Bruce [Taylor] mentioned already : “And what great news to have the juniors back at Keepit. Super racing site!”
——To finish a special picture from June 2006.
As shared by Gliding on March 8.
Some call it “MADNESS” ,” more good luck than management“, “Irresponsible“, “recipe for disaster” .
I leave it up to you….nice picture though.
Cheers Ritz
P/S 1. It was interesting to see NO flights on the OLC yesterday morning at 11AM, when flying had stopped on the other side of the world. That does n’t happen often. I know it was raining cat’s and dogs in Tocumwal. Hope it stops in time …presume it will….for the Australian F1 car races.
P/S 2…..This blog was published on Tuesday evening 8PM. Due to “work in progress” on the electricity system in the area where I live there will be NO electricity in the morning. EVERYTHING has to be removed from the electricity points, to have no damage on TV’s, radio’s ,laptops, routers phones etc. For 6 hours no working-fridge either.
Better earlier, than later, specially for my Aussie readers.