First,….THANK you for all the birthday wishes. I felt really privileged and happy. Phone calls from Germany , Australia and South Africa ,lot’s of FB-and messenger messages , e-mails, phone calls from close by and 2 visitors, as more was due to the strict lock down, not possible.
THANK YOU!!!!!

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WELKOM, hosted with the SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONALS, the last TOP-competition in 2020.
22 Pilots in 18 m. class, among them pilots from Switzerland, Germany and Denmark.
GOOD weather, not the real booming S.A. weather, but still days with a 500 and 300 km. task and several AAT’s one from 3 hours.
For some countries mouthwatering!
And…. HUGE speed, so only 2x a 1000-points-day!
Task 1 , with a 1.30 AAT, was straight away a day to try and come home. The 81 points from the only finisher, John Coutts, made him the first overall winner. At nearly 5 PM he left and it took him nearly 2 hours to fly over 178 km.
Task 2 ,with 285.78 km. was a prey again for John in his JS 3.His speed , 146 km./h was clearly more than the day earlier, when it was 89 km./h. Oscar and Laurens [Goudriaan] were on spot 2 and 3.
Task 3, was the 520 km.-day! And,..yes it gets boring , but John won again with 125 km./h. Dolf [Pretorius] and Oscar followed.
Only 7 fished some pretty close.
John is a born KIWI but lives already for ages in South Africa. When I met him the first time he was still a junior. A very talented pilot!!!!
Task 4 , had a 2.30 AAT which was won by Oscar AND on my birthday and he and his brother and Sven made even time to congratulate me.
124 km./h was the best speed and Katrin in the ASG 32 was runner up with 118 km./h. All 21 who started, finished!
Task 5,had a 2 hour AAT but was cancelled.
Task 6 showed a 3 hour AAT and Arne Boye Moeller won the 1000 points for 436 km. in time 3.09.[speed 138 km./h]!!!!
John and Oscar were runner’s up with 971 points.
Task 7, 196 km. was set and John was in a real hurry; 157.45 km./h!!!The “slowest” with respect flew with 122 km.h. so a GOOD , FAST DAY!!!BUT,….
Only 299 points for daily winner John.
Task 8, on the last day showed 351 km. Marcus Nouwens flew around with 153.56 km./h in his JS 3 , so another FAST day with devaluating points as he “got” 714 points for his speedy performance. As he was quite a bit faster than Oscar[144 km./h for 636 points] he took over his runner-up spot overall, by 4 points. Swiss pilot Yves Gerster [JS 3 /15m.] was runner up.

The 2020 South African National 18 m. champions;
1. John Coutts with 4.379 points.
2. Marcus Nouwens with 4.192 points.
3. Oscar Goudriaan with 4.188 points.
Laurens was 4th, Arne 6th and Katrin 9th.

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More and more pilots find or have found, their way to VERONICA in Namibia. A few years ago I published an article about Veronica from Prof. Dr. Bert Schmelzer sr. who had flown there and shared his experience.
Sebastian Kawa flew together with a Polish mate, last Saturday a distance of 1,137 km. in the ARCUS M with a speed of 144 km./h.
A bit slower, BUT, 2x an FAI 1000 km-triangle was flown by the Israelian mates and father , Petr and son Radek Krejcirik from CZ.
On December 10 Radek wrote:” First accomodating flight in Veronica this year. Blue with awesome cumulus in Botswana in almost 6000mtrs.”
Since then they flew in the TWIN SHARK, 6x over 1000 km. the best 1.355,79. Great effort even during top-conditions!!!

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I am very much used to high temperatures over Christmas,..no worries I spend at least 30 Christmas periods down under,…BUT, this time I am in The Netherlands and it is 15 dgr. c.,…. PLUS…. it is!!!!UNREAL!!!!
It should be less than 5!!!!
We had the hottest ever year in this world. I guess….Something has to be done. NOW!!!!
On that note,…we, here in The Netherlands, had the shortest day [around 7 hours daylight I read] here so,…we are on the way to the longest [around 17 hours] again, which means spring and summer. Let it come!

MERRY CHRISTMAS dear friends!!!!!
No pictures sorry, a hick up in the system, BUT,….as usual Bill is looking into the “case”. Where would I be without him???

CU next week.
Cheers Ritz