When they said that there would be a “snow-winter-wonderland” on Friday morning, we looked as well at the weather forecast, as at the calendar…April 1,….mmm…..joke or….
But looking at that weather forecast, it could happen and ……yes it happened.
After the month of March broke “heat” record after record,…not sure if we should be happy with that….it was cold and WHITE on Friday morning April 1.
What happened in March here, was interesting looking at the climate change.
The average of sun was 244 hours instead of 146!!!
The average amount of rain was 8.8 mm , normally 56!!!!! The old record was from 1929 with 9.5 mm.
So the warmest driest month of March with historical low humidity.
The 20 dgr. C however the weekend before felt just SO GOOD!!!!

April started COLD with some die-hards skating on natural-ice [ thin layer of water over track] on April 2. This NEVER happened before.
BUT,…the cold , artic air brought good conditions for soaring to the Netherlands as well. AND, great visibility even with the showers.
What about the “boy’s from Soesterberg from the club from Amsterdam, Hans, Sikko and Mark? They flew last Saturday direction East, far into Germany.
3x an ASG 29 and flights from over 750 km!!!! They topped the OLC that day.
NO WAVE here, but as Dinant said after his first xc for the season; ” Beautiful crisp arctic air, dodging snow showers and never ending convergence.”
Mark mentioned: “Fantastic spring weather! Super unstable air and the forecast was spot on. Cloud base up to 2000 m where it was minus 10.8 dgr. C. We turned Luenenburg, 370 km OUT, and the last 300 km we flew home through snow showers“.
The Belgian, German and also Danish pilots enjoyed the same cold air, result; 588 km in a St. Libelle in early April from Hammer Flyveplad.
On Sunday same good air with 803 km. in a Duo Discus in Germany and 637 in ASW 15 and 758 in ASG 29 in Belgium .

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Adam was very pleased last week after the Australian League came to an end and he shared it with us in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
“The Schempp-Hirth Ventus 3T wins the Australian Speed OLC at the 12th hour! Norm Bloch came in a very close second in his JS3, Tobias Geiger third in his V2ax Very proud of this result, as it was a goal of mine this summer. What makes it better, was that WA had one of its best summers on record, where as the East Coast had one of the worst on record “
The summer season is over now down under, so it’s waiting for the next one, end of this year. I hope to feel that sun there then as well.
WeGlide reacted as well;
“The Australian National League has come to an end last weekend. 30 clubs participated in a close race for the title. Here are the winners:
Beverley Soaring Society, 286pt
Gliding Club of Victoria, 282pt
Temora Gliding Club, 238pt
Amazingly, there wasn’t a single round where no flights were uploaded. Congratulations to the Australian pilots/clubs. ALL gave their best each weekend to achieve fast sprint results It was a big help for pilots based in the northern hemisphere to come through the winter!“
For the full result;
https://www.weglide.org/league/AU?type=total&round=24&season=2022

To stay in Australia; When we were guests at Sportavia in the beginning of our visits down under, some 35 years ago, Michele Lappin was a tuggie and helped out in the office. Her 2 children Cloe and Ben hung around at the airfield, day and night and even slept in the bar on the sofa. Daddy Gerard was a very talented pilot as well, more specialized in crop-dusting.
She even flew with the kids in the tugs, carefully strapped in, when they could barely walk.
Michele worked later for us as well ,but passed away a few years ago.
I worried about those kids, but look at Ben now,…I should not have worried at all;

“The air ambulance is a critical service for regional residents and they’re a regular visitor to Tocumwal.
Another regular visitor is former Tocumwal local Ben Lappin who is now flying for the air ambulance service.
Ben is also a Specialist Capability Officer with the Air Force’s Number 100 Squadron and he’ll be back next weekend displaying the P-51 Mustang at the Tocumwal Airshow.”
The show will be next weekend and Tocumwal will be buzzing.
“The Tocumwal Airshow returns on 10th of April 2022 and will once again showcase the significant aviation heritage of Tocumwal and commemorate the Centenary of Air Force.”

News from the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix:
“The Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix of Sweden will start in 5 weeks!
17 pilots are already registered.
Do you want to compete with us?
Don’t wait and take your chance to qualify to the World Final! https://sweden22.sgp.aero/pilots/entries
There are 20 places available and 17 pilots from 4 different countries have entered at this stage ,among them Stefan Langer from Germany, Petr Krejcirik from Czech Rep , Jon Gatfield from the UK and Boerje Eriksson from Sweden.
“Sailplane Grand Prix Series 11 Set to Start in May!
Ten Qualifying SGPs will be held leading up to the final at Pavullo in August 2023.
During the spring and summer 2022, seven Grand Prix will take place starting with Borås, Sweden in May and culminating at Vinon in the French Alps in September.”
Shared by FAI Sailplane Grand Prix
SGP.AERO

News from Kiripotib;
“Our gliders are back from summer holiday in Namibia. Thanks to our strong team we were able to unload all 14 gliders in only five hours. Thanks a lot for your effort.”

And to finish 4 SUPERB pictures from NZ top photographer Geoff Soper who shared pictures from the RNZAF 85th anniversary, Heritage flight over Christchurch.

Thanks again for sharing Geoff!!!!!

CU next week, a pity I miss the Airshow in Toc., but on the other hand I feel a bit better !!!
Cheers Ritz, flu NEARLY over!!!
The Toc line up for Sunday “After months of planning we’re excited to have finalized the flying program for the 2022 Tocumwal Airshow“
Tocumwal Airshow

I hope they add GLIDERS to the list as well. Sportavia/Tocumwal has been for years one of the soaring mecca’s of the world.