Last Saturday James Cooper from Cunderdin in Western Australia flew in the SZD 55 anFAI triangle from 800 km. extended to 894 km..which is fantastic so late in the season and proofing not only Narromine but also Cunderdin had a great season.
To be honest ,…the WHOLE Australian season was TOP.
Maybe not as strong as Namibia, but at least a few months longer.
A while ago Cunderdin also had a few fantastic flights and I wrote about it in my SoaringCafe blog.
One of the pilots I mentioned was Swain Johnson, you surely remember. Here is his comment and I share it with pleasure;
‘” Appreciate the mention, really has been an awesome season so far in Western Australia, and we would welcome all pilots from around the world to experience the amazing landscapes of Malley bushes and salt lakes in a truly unique landscape and unique part of the world at the Gliding club of Western Australia in Cunderdin. Most days in summer will get you a 500 k day. For those interested I have posted the first ever 1015 k FAI flight to be done by an Australian Pilot in Western Australia as seen through Youtube. That week I also achieved a 762 FAI flight at 135 kph / 515 k FAI at almost 151 kph all speed records and another 1007 km FAI flight to top off 4 days running. Awesome !…… Come to Australia and why not try the Western Side.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
One of our German guests at Sportavia and good friend of Dieter Dundee, was/is Ernst Ditges. He loved Australia, came back to fly a few times, took his wife Steffie with him to live and work in Queensland . Last Australia- day Ernst “turned” into a REAL Aussie by receiving his citizenship.
Ernst is the head -engineer at Swift Electronics and a highly valued team member there.
One of Ernst ” inventions ” is the dittolog and the team is excited to announce now, that ” we have partnered with Butterfly Avionics, to distribute Dittolog in Europe.
We will keep you posted about exciting new changes, which include a totally new pricing structure that will make dittolog affordable for all clubs.”
Ditto log
- is a small low cost device in your aircraft
- it transmits pilot and flight details to the web
- it interfaces with your club or businesses accounting package
- dittolog saves time
- dittolog improves efficiency
- dittolog saves money
Ideal for clubs, flight schools and charter operators dittolog brings seamless flight record integration for your accounts department, and accurate flight log details for your members
https://swiftavionics.com.au/ and
http://dittolog.com/learn-about-dittolog/what-is-ditto/
More news from Australia, as it might be ” only a fun competition” over there in Horsham, but it has already for 48 years a very serious touch.Also the people involved are professional. One of the pilots Jarek, has compiled some stats for the Horsham Week 2014 competition that finished on Saturday, 8/02/2014.
Here you are and he used the data from Soaringspot , thanks Jarek;
“ Kilometres Flown and Speeds are non-handicapped. Calculated for non-zero scores only.
Speeds calculated for finishers only.
Averages per pilot across all tasks.
– Six Competition Days
– Total Kilometres flown in all classes: 55,809.30 km
Open / 18M Class:
– Kilometres Flown: 15,365 km
– Max Distance Flown: 601.10 km
– Average Distance Flown: 374.75 km
– Max Task Speed: 166.30 km / h
– Average Task Speed: 118.91 km /h
15M/ Standard Class:
– Kilometres Flown: 24,536 km
– Max Distance Flown: 565.80 km
– Average Distance Flown: 340.77 km
– Max Task Speed: 131.00 km / h
– Average Task Speed: 99.82 km /h
Club Class:
– Kilometres Flown: 19,908.30 km
– Max Distance Flown: 421.60 km
– Average Distance Flown: 294.59 km
– Max Task Speed: 131.00 km / h
– Average Task Speed: 99.90 km /h
http://www.horshamweek.org.au/
The new gliders for the Australian Air Force Cadets are on their way at least the first one! Can’t miss it!
First ” DG” bird in the nest.
As shared by Jane and Tom Gilbert from Temora.
We have n’t had winter till now. It looks like we had a LOOOOOONG autumn, with temperatures around 8 dgr. average and lot’s of rain and already the 2d storm in 2014!
But ,…skies look good for the Dutch pilots;
At the airport of Soesterberg where they do the last jobs at the field by removing old barb wire from old fences.
clouds over Alphen as seen from my garden and in my garden some fresh flowers.
The first flight was made as well here on Sunday;152 km. and 2.5 hours of soaring by Robin Smit flown from Gilze Rijen and it could have been even longer but the other members wanted to pack up .
Good on him!
They told him he was ” mad” , when he rigged his Cirrus, but certainly for February 16 he had an excellent day.
After the cool chance again super weather for the time of the year in the South of Australia . Yesterday Benalla had flights up to over 700 nearly 800 km in ASG 29 .100 km. flown by a Finnish [Eric Heinonen] and UK guest.[ Nick Woods]
A 100 -km -no-turns- final -glide was possible.
In the last weeks of soaring in Corowa before packing the last container Pepe flew 836 km.in his ASH 31 and from Tocumwal Finnish guest Kari flew in the LS 6WL a distance of 688 km.
At the moment there is a mountain-coaching course /camp at Mount Beauty and also their guests enjoyed the nice weather with flights up to 400 km..
Laura Sullivan with some of the participants on the Mt Beauty Club alpine flying course this week.
as shared on FB.
2 Comps just finished in New Zealand one in Drury with 20 competitors and 4 days of flying 2 less good and 2 with 3 hour 30 AAT’s . Winner Patrick Driessen in the Ventus 17.6 who was just 50 points better then Lindsey Stevens.[ASW 27]
The other one at Waipukurau , the Central Districts with 13 participants, 2 days and 1 less good and 1 good one with a 3 hour AAT.
Graham White from Hawkes Bay [which I visited in the past] flew 332 km. in 3.25 in the LS 8 . Graham was 2d on day 1 so winner of this competition , just over 100 points ahead of Trev Terry from Taupo [visited Taupo as well] in the Duo Discus T.
When you are not interested in speed skating you can skip the rest of the blog.
Loosing with 0.0003 sec. on a 1500 m track!!!!! A night mare not only for our speed-skater Koen Verweij, but also for all his fans. The Polish skater was 0.0003 sec faster so he won, no worries, but it hurt!
A lot of Dutch people are still sitting with orange cheek, on an orange cloud.Over 4 million looked at Verweij’ s race but one day later the fans were ready again for the 1500 m of the ladies!
What a day!!! I am not a chauvinist but a real enthusiast and seeing 3 speed skaters again on the podium and also number 4 was in orange you can only say CHAPEAU!!!
That NEVER happened before. The Dutch are writing history and our CUMULUS CLOUD, is getting bigger and bigger and higher and higher and is even noticed by lot’s of other countries and what ‘s lovely is , that they all admire the speed skaters and are not jealous or so. That’s the spirit and I can assure you this will be only once this hegemony as others will be back in 4 years.
We knew we are good in speed skating, but it looks like we are a class ahead of the rest at the moment. That should change again otherwise it will be boring for ” non-orangers” .
In the evening on Sunday, we were on spot 2 on the medal list. Unheard of!
Jorien Termors who won in a new Olympic record, is in fact a short track racer. The Dutch officials were not so pleased with a girl skating in both disciplines. On Friday she” lost” the 1500 m in shorttrack and was only 4th. What would she do on the 1500 m on the long[400 m.]track?? Easy she WON!!!! And took over the Vancouver-title from Irene Wust.
As shared by Bart van Stratum.
Yesterday another clean sweep with a 1-2-3 on the 10 km. Not so good was that Russian and Norwegian speed skaters retired, did not even try.
It’s weird but “we” were all a bit sad with the line up of the medals!! Yes I know we had an orange podium again and Jorrit Bergsma had a fabulous race and deserved gold but after Vancouver where he should have won, but missed out in finishing in the wrong lane, we ALL wished the joy of gold for Sven Kramer. But as in gliding and any other sport it has to be YOUR day, all has to fall in place for you and that did n’t happen, as Sven got after 15 rounds a soar back.
Today Ted Ligety ski hero and Bode Miller both USA and Felix Neureuther who had an accident with his car on the way to the airfield of Munich to fly to Sochi and Marcel Hirscher half Dutch with a Dutch mum from Austria.I better go to look at the 2d race of the giant slalom.
And,…sorry but we might do well in the 5000 m for ladies as well this afternoon. Great race between Irene Wust and Martina Sablikova.
Let’s wait and see. Enjoy your week and back on Sunday in the Soaring Cafe.,
Cheers Ritz
on Wednesday February 19 2014