Time passes by and not a lot stays the same.
I can’t remember Tocumwal airport WITHOUT the red, white and black colored bus to find some high needed shade, at the strip at the “soaring-department”.
Also on the sides blackboard’s, to make drawings from patterns from circuit’s for those who needed it. Sportavia had , through the times, many ab initio pilots, who wanted to learn how to fly a glider within a week, and that mostly was a success.
So many of the Sportavia guests have been sitting there. At home having great chairs to sit on, here at the field comfortable enough for everybody, “rich and poor.”.
It’s gone now. Eddie drove it behind his Ute to Christie’s museum around the corner of the airfield direction Cobram, for a well deserved rest after many years of “hard work”.
“After 50 years the bus is on the way to its new home.
At Christie’s Museum“
I looked for pictures in my books and here you are the bus in December 1986.

Whilst looking I found lovely pictures from former guests, I have n’t seen for a long time and,…..who became friends.

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During my visit in New Zealand , I had of course a look at gliding places. From Tauranga, where I stayed with John and Chris [picture see above], we drove from the highest point to the lowest point on the NORD Island.
Not far above the Taupo Lake is the airfield of Matamata.
On October 16 they had a great spring day there, a fantastic early season day.;
“A bit of a record…6 gliders make it to Port Jackson…and back…well I think everyone got home in time for tea and scones. Helped by a useful cloud streety-covergencey-ridgey sort of cloud setup at the critical point where you move from the front ridge to behind Coromandel township.
Also, we had a couple of 500kms plus flights as well.[ Tim Bromhead in the Ventus 17.5 m …503 km. and DP Jensen in a JS1 B….525 km] Not bad for a mid-Oct day.
A total of 21 launches…so long flights, training flights and trial flights…what more could you ask for???“
Matamata Soaring Centre

MORE great soaring, now from the UK where on OCTBER 28!!!!!, a DECLARED 750 from which 680 was flown in an ARCUS by Chris Gill….he just fell short .
” So close yet so far. Great day out. Almost 800KM OLC.“
“an amazing day and lots learnt, flying over Wales, England, Scotland and views of Ireland.”
Sonny Rising, a JUNIOR and co pilot during this epic flight , had the day of his life, not only learned a lot, but shared this picture from the wave they found en route as well;

https://bgaladder.net/FlightDetails/105960

Even more great autumn soaring, now from France, St Gaudens, where Pierre De Broqueville flew in his EB 29DR, over the beautiful Pyrenees in wave up to over 5000 m MSL; 704 km.
And another flight from 1.105 km with an average speed of 131 km./h, good wave nearly up to 6000 m MSL at places, BUT…the co pilot had “frozen” feet!!!!
“again a nice day but with some tricky points due to wind not stable in direction.” comment from Pierre.

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Something TOTALLY different;
Climate defense activists are active at the moment, in the whole wide world, throwing soup or mashed potatoes to very special and expensive paintings….ALL cultural heritage!!!!!
Here in The Netherlands as well; The famous “Girl with the pearl” was the object of their anger and on an other occasion ,a guy glued himself on a table where he was invited in a talk show, to talk about climate change. He had good arguments but , started to talk nonsense, so everybody had to laugh and the whole point he was going to make was LOST. A pity!!!
With 25 dgr. C here last Sunday it is clear that the weather is changing and I guess the whole world sees and feels it AND wants change, but the way those activists are disturbing culture, is beyond me and MANY more. I understand and support their case , but not the way they are doing it.

By the way …..We changed from summer time into winter time last weekend, so we had an extra hour sleep.
Wintertime with still 24.6 dgr. C is weird!!! But no complaints from my side.
Daily records for October 28 and 29 were broken as the hottest days ever here.
More European countries expire the same records.
Time difference with my mates down under in NSW and Victoria is now 10 hours and they have still rain but spring is around the corner.
Though,…on November 1 , MELBOURNE CUP DAY, it was the coldest day for 70 years in Victoria.
In the USA they have at some places snow already .One of our soaring mates Colin shared this picture.

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Looking ahead at 2023 and the French announced their pilots for the next 2023 BIG championships;
12ème WWGC (club, standard and 18m) – Soria-Garray, Spain, from July 1 to 15 2023
Club class; Aude Grangeray / Alizée Petit / Louise Rodriguez
Standard class; Maryline Abadie-Berard / Anaïs Gaubert / Aude Untersee
18 m. class; Anne Ducarouge / Mélanie Gadoulet / Astrid Galaret
replace pilots if necessary; Chloé Dalle-Palle / Estelle Tarbouriech
TEAM CAPTAIN; Éric Napoléon

6th JEGC (club and standard) – Arnborg, Danmark from July 30 to August 12 2023
Club class; Alexandre Fierain / Matthieu Henin / Lucas Oyaux
Standard class; Kevin Faur / Timoté Gard / Philippe Lata
TEAM CAPTAIN; Éric Bernard

21st EGC (18m, 20m and open ) – Leszno, Poland from July to August 13 2023
18m class; Anne Ducarouge / Yacine Vigourel
2 seater class [20m] ; Philippe de Péchy / François-Xavier Poisson
open class; Mélanie Gadoulet / Sylvain Gerbaud

37st WGC (15 m, standard, club) – Narromine, Australie from December 2 till 16 02 2023
15 m. class; Christophe Abadie / Adrien Henry
Standard class; Julien Duboc / Maximilian Seis
Club class; Louis Bouderlique / Hugo Corbille
replace pilots if necessary; Kevin Faur / Sylvain Gerbaud
TEAM CAPTAIN…. Éric Napoléon
I just heard yesterday that the PRE-WORLDS at Narromine have been moved from November 2022 to the end of March 2023, due to the heavy flooding, also in their region.
http://narromineglidingclub.com.au
Also the NARROMINE CUP WEEK is POSTPONED TO 4 – 11 MARCH 2023.
“The Narromine Gliding Club Committee has just taken the difficult but necessary decision to postpone Narromine Cup Week to the 4th to 11th March 2023.
This is due to the unprecedented amount of rain in NSW which has closed roads and flooded surrounding paddocks making soaring difficult and outlandings and retrieves all but impossible and possibly dangerous.
The Narromine Gliding Club wishes to extend an apology to all of you for the disruption to your, leave, travel and accommodation plans but in order to ensure everyone’s safety and enjoyment it was considered a necessary decision.
We hope you will be understanding and agree with the decision. The Narromine Gliding Club extends a warm invitation to all to come for Cup Week in March 2023 and hopes to see you there.”

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Last week I shared news about the N.T. [in the heart of Australia,] winch this time closer by; the winch from the Gelderse here at Terlet. A fabulous looking toy. No NOT NEW,as in new, but a totally overhauled and updated BUSIO. Definitely looking NEW, spiffy and big !!!!

Huge toy for 6 ropes!
Courtesy Arjan

Also….The end of 2 weeks- autumn -camp at Terlet. Enough young people and another young lady , Marin, went solo! Top!!! My granddaughter could due to study, only visit last weekend, when she had her winch duty. Anxious to find out if she could deal with the BUSIO. But,…….No she operated the “old” winch.

AND,…this is a great picture from the Friese aeroclub in the N of the Netherlands, also on their last regular soaring-day, for the season.

To finish another exceptional flight shared on October 26 but now by a bird, by Great BIG Nature
“Exciting news: A New World Record Godwit Flight!!
A juvenile godwit just 5 months old (tagged in Alaska) touched down in Ansons Bay in northeast Tasmania. This godwit (number 234684) departed from Alaska on October 13, 2022 and certainly looks to have flown non-stop to Tasmania. This will not be the first one to make this flight as godwits are frequent visitors to Tasmania, but it’s the first time a tagged bird has flown between Alaska and Tasmania. In the process it flew a minimum of 13,560 km in 11 days 1 hour. The previous long distance record of 13,050 km set by the adult male 4BBRW in 2021 is blown out of the water by this young upstart.
Connect with Nature!“

CU next Wednesday……… probably with more news from Namibia where the season started yesterday on November1.
HOWEVER,…….they started already in Bitterwasser on October 29 and the first flights was straight away 887 km. in an Arcus with Reinhard Schramme!!!
Reinhard flew the seasons first 1000 yesterday as well.
Kiripotib and Pokweni are ACTIVE too.

Cheers Ritz

NO secret that I am a fan from Max. Last Sunday in Mexico he was for the 14th time WINNER from a race in this season. NOBODY DID THIS BEFORE.
He equalized Vettel and Schumacher sr. already but now in Mexico he passed them.
A MASTER CLASS in racing!!!!!!