Merry Christmas as shared by Arne from Welkom.
What a great soaring time it is with nice high temperatures and fabulous soaring.
It’s hard work for the pilots, as every day nearly is a good one.
They need a holiday later to ” recover”. But the soaring-adrenaline will keep them going.
Just 10 seconds after he touched down from his longest flight EVER , I could give ” Thumps up” for Matthew then not knowing what he did.I was writing my blog and it popped up.
And then ,….a bit later there is the message on FB and I share it with you:
“https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=3441817
“Earliest start I’ve ever seen at Gawler. Had an 1150km declared but solid walls of rain over unlandable terrain prevented me rounding both the northern and southern turnpoints so I improvised a little .
Beautiful streets heading north, but pretty disjointed the rest of the flight. A few convergences on the outflow of rainshowers made crossing some fairly ordinary patches much nicer.
Other pilots still flying an hour and a half later, so I think this confirms my theory that a Standard Class 1500km flight is possible from Gawler. Regrettably I’m moving to Sydney early next year.”
Luckily Narromine is not too far from Sydney and GOOD ON YOU MATTHEW….still from Gawler this time…..;
1250 in a Discus 2 A with 142 km./h!!! It was his 2d 1000 for the season.
All my Toc -mates are having a ball.On the ground it is a bit hot, but the guests fly long distances as on Friday when Terry flew in his ASH 26 E 826 km [787 km. FAI km.]
Finnish mate, Hannu who flies the ” old” LS 6 , already stationed in Toc as long as I know and flown as well by Jari and Kari, had a topflight with 656 km. as his best till now.
Kari send me these pictures from ” above” 2 years ago when the Nationals were in Toc.
And last Friday Lisa who flew as 1 of the 3 girls the WGC in Uvalde, flew from Tocumwal in her LS 8 a great 1000 km. on not even, as she called it, a good day. But ,…she did it.Good on her!
Tocumwal from above by Kari.
WELKOM.
The pilots in WELKOM finished their soaring holiday/” work -in-the-office ” ,as some call it and the CHAMPIONS are known!!
After day 6 was cancelled they ” squeezed” another day 6 out on the next day, with in all classes a 2 hour AAT. Not everybody is good in that some love the ” just- racing- as -fast- as -possible- mentality”.
The day turned out much better then thought and forecasted and a speed on such a day of 155 km. /h. by Danish pilot Anders Andersen over the set max 310 km. was just GOOD!!!
As Ronald mentioned; ” Start was not so promising. After the rain , it was much better and we averaged fast enough to fly ALL distance within 2 hours.After crossing a big blue hole I climbed over 1600 m. with average 5!!!!!”
Soaring in beautiful South Africa as shared by Arne.
And,..the cancelled day 6.
With picture 4 from this picture- blog Arne mentioned:
” Heading the 250km straight back from around Stella at 17.000′ in shorts and sandals was a little bit cold but heck! It was worth every second!
What a way to celebrate the 110th year anniversary of the Wright Brother’s first flight!”
They got a day 7 as well with 2.30 AAT tasks this time and again pretty good weather. The toppers stayed on the safe site with their points, though it was a VERY expensive day for John and Pieter.
In open/18m. Oscar made it a fast day with 139 km./h. over 356 km. for that reason not winning 1000 but ” only” 826 points.Due to the lost points by Pieter and John, Ronald Termaat ” jumped up ” from an overall spot 7 after day 6 to a nice 3d position after day 7.That day he was 4th and only lost 39 points on daily winner Oscar
Good to see Maneste won the day in 15 m. class in the Speed Astir 2 and another lady Annemiek was 2d in the club class, so enough girl-power that day.
Friday was a difficult day 8, another” squeezer”.
2.30 AAT’s were set and Annemiek still has a small lead so it was waiting what the last day would bring her, at least she finished 3 others did n’t.
A different daily winner in 15 m. not Wayne , who was runner up, but Rene Coetzee won in the ASW 20a. With one day to go Wayne was 300 points ahead on Rene.
In 18/open John Coutts was the best with 370 km. in 2.29;147.2 km./h.
And the last day number 9 had another set of 2 hour AAT’s for each class, on which you could loose or win depending on the circumstances.For some more was lost than won.Always that terrible last day, but it is part of the comps!
Oscar lost his first place [ after 5 days proud occupying it, ]to Uys the new CHAMPION in 18 m. /Open.
Oscar , who lost more than 200 points on day 9’s winner,Klaus Kalmbach from Germany in Nimbus 3 24.5m., is the runner up missing out on 11 points on Uys.
Ronald had a good bronze spot!
The Jonkers team, with Uys upfront and Attie and Johan
No secret Wayne is in 15 m. the CHAMPION.With more than 300 points on Rene he is a clear winner. Well known pilot Sven [Olivier] is third.
In club class more hurray’s for Dutch pilots; Annemiek JUST did not win, but being runner is GREAT STUFF!
Champion is Edvard [SLO] but as he is not from South Africa , I presume he is the winner and the CHAMPION will be Jean Du Plessis. Correct me when I am wrong.
Ronald and Annemiek.
Courtesy VLIEGEN IN HOLLAND via FB
[ https://www.facebook.com/VliegenInNederland
Compliments and congratulations to the winners in each class.
In between ALL guests in Namibia and other places in South Africa enjoy the weather to the fullest.
Only on the 19th;2 x over 1.300k. from Bitterwasser plus 2x a 1000 , 4x 1000 from Kiripotib, 3x from Pokweni, 3 x 1000 km. flights from Gariep Dam.
Earlier my friends in Kuruman had 1000 km. flights, it does n’t stop and….it should NOT stop, not yet. Summer just started yesterday,…grrr…. winter here , but it is with 10 dgr. NOT too bad!
And from Argentina another great flight by Jim and Dennis;1.606 km. with 112 km/h but there is sometimes somebody bigger; look at the OLC for yesterdays 1.900 flight in 15 m. version DG 808 from Chile by Jean Marc Perrin!!!!!!!This well known Swiss pilot flew with a speed 151 km./h.
AND, also worth mentioning a flight from Lake Keepit in the St. Cirrus by hang glider pilot Attila Bertok; 739 km [586 km. FAI]. Got to know Attila in Tocumwal I guess in 2004, when he learned to fly gliders with us. Those hang glider pilots learn it in 4 or 5 lessons. Nice fellow! And…as you see now he still enjoys soaring too.
And not too forget the flight from 2 Dutch juniors and an ” old” junior and current JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPION, Peter Millenaar, flying 620 km. ridge/wave over the Porta Westfalica area in Germany, rather late in the season but still working good, with his remark on OLC ;
” What a great day! Wave up to FL100. It should have been possible to go even higher.”
15 Pilots added from Porta their flights on the OLC. Busy enough weekend for Dutch, Belgian { Bert Van Eyken with 500 km in the St . Libelle} and German pilots.
And last but not least a link I received to a video about PR for FLIGHT DECK BUSINESS AND SERVICES.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Wishing you a MERRY CHRISTMAS , where ever you are in this world.Will be back with an update on Christmas day.
Cu then. Cheers Ritz
On Sunday December 22, celebrating MY Christmas with the family tomorrow.