—–No not a lot happening at the moment in “our” world, but skies can look already GREAT. Look at the pictures from Chilhowee in the USA , Tocumwal in Australia and Gariep Dam in South Africa.

     

                                     “Look at those streets.”                                        A birthday joy-flight with Ingo is always the best gift!!
By the Chilhowee Soaring Association in the USA.                                               shared by the SRGC in Australia.

 

Not too bad either.
As shared by Gariep Gliding in South Africa on October 25.

Did I say not a lot happening???? No not looking at comps BUT….??????
What about this?
On October 27, Oscar raced in his JS 3 from Potsch to Lesotho and back enjoying the VERY BEST convergence;” Epic convergence day. Lesotho out and return”. 549 km. with a speed of 161.4 km./h.!!!
And he was not alone up in this fabulous air. At least 4 soaring mates got up that day too.
YES,….The season is on!!!
On the same day good old Klaus [Ohlmann] flew from Serres in France a long long flight from 1.280 km. with a nice speed of 127.7 km./h. in the Stemme S10 / S10-VT.
Even Klaus , used to long flights, was happy with this one according to his OLC comment;
“What a day…slowly at the beginning, scary South of Aosta with downdraft of 12m/s. Thanks for Marseille and Milano Control. And thanks to Marcel for the good job. New ARC and the checkflight has shown, everything okay….”

On the last days of October the weather was good on both sites of the world.
Potsch with 514 km. by Uwe Thiele [DG 800/18m.] who loves his long distance flying!!Later 748 km.[600 FAI triangle] in a DG 808B/18m.
Lake Keepit with 515 by Allan Barnes in the Duo Discus. His OLC comment ;”Training task – 500km arrowhead task along the front/troughline. 13000ft base, some tricky route selection and lots of broken thermals. Best thermal peaked about 12kt”
McCaffery Field [East Australia] showed a flight by Mart Bosman who converted long ago from hanggliding to gliding [and I presume he still does both] had a great flight , 514 km. in his LS 6 ; ” Some very strong 10knots every now and then. Quite a bit of shading in the end. Still lots of fun.”
And even Europe had a great soaring weather both in the Alps [foehn] with 666 km. in DG 400 /17m. from Ambri in Switzerland and 583 in the Discus BT from Kinross in the UK.
Holland showed an exciting  100 km. flight by Sikko Vermeer,  who “braved” the weather elements flying with a headwind of 40/50 km./h., till a shower line stopped him. He reached a height of 1100 m. after the start .His last flight in the ASG 29E /18 m.for the season.
Omarama; Kilometer eater Keith Essex has settled in Omarama again and started with a 609 km. flight in his ASG 29E/18m.

 

                                       ————-

——I like the adventurous soaring-mind from Tony [Condon]. Sometimes he just goes with the flow/wind and sees where it will end. He loves his “ big downwind dashes“.
This time the adventure was more in the start;an auto tow launch to begin the day with. He flew 204 km. in a straight line:
“Past Wellington started noticing the ground was still very wet from rain 4(?) days ago. Lift suffered proportionately. Save at Ponca City made me think the day was starting over. Fields were looking dryer and I thought we were starting to get back in business.
Then I just couldn’t find a thing as I approached Pawnee. Approach was pretty cool over the lake and then ducking behind the wind shadow from the trees was a bit exciting on short final. Nice runway and super friendly people.”

“Auto towing the cirrus is a step towards autonomy to be able to start these flights from anywhere and not be tied to the glider club. It will take practice to perfect the method and today was a great first step towards that.”

Another exciting trip in his St. Cirrus.”Good to start proving out using auto tow to start. Need to work on my technique for sure, but I’m hoping to do more of this in the future.”

“With greetings from Pawnee.”

 

——On August 5 the town of Stölln [Germany] celebrated the Lilienthal festival on and around the Gollenberg,in honor of the world’s first flight pioneer .
Ever heard of Lady Agnes? I did n’t ,but before Dundee traveled to Australia he send me a brochure about the Lilienthal Center. He was impressed and took the English version with him for Ingo.
“She ” is the Iljuschin 62 flown in on this glider-airport with an ONLY 860 m. short runway. That happened on October 23 1989 and this landing got a place in the International Guiness Book of records.
Now the front of this plane is since 2012 some kind of museum;
” We are very pleased to present the first and only permanent exhibition on the civil aviation company, which once started as Deutsche Lufthansa of the GDR, in the front part of the passenger cabin. Discover old and new, as well as interesting and curiosities in our exhibition. For example, an original utility vehicle, used for board service by the flight attendants on the flights with the IL-62, and also lifejackets from those who were on board as rescue means, one of which can even be tested.”
For renovations they would be pleased with donations.
https://www.otto-lilienthal.de

—–Tocumwal’s Southern Riverina Gliding Club welcomed their member Dieter Dundee [Germany] and as you see he arrived sound and safe  last week.  He could start his duties straight away.As every year he stays there for 5 months.
Delio arrived for the weekend as well. With Ingo he prepared for a great day “out”.

         

Dieter busy with his annual job. He likes that and this is all voluntary. And Ingo and Delio.
Pictures shared by the SRGC.

—–The Dutch potential new members of the  juniors arrived at Terlet for their first meeting last weekend. Preparing in time for the new season in 2018.

As shared by the Dutch Junior Gliding Team.

–—-Australian Soaring Center Corowa has been busy for this upcoming season too. Ready to go. Alexander Schleicher (Joschka Schmeisl) spent 3 days on 3W for conformity inspection and improvements.
“Now we can apply for a normal CofA and get rid of “experimental”.” Good on them !
One day later on  the last day of October he made a check flight in their ASG 32MI.
In about a week the 2 containers arrive,… so busy again.

     

 

——Bitterwasser; All gliders have arrived in good condition. Customs checked without problems the containers, so everybody is ready for the season. Some gliders have been rigged already.

   

As shared on http://www.bitterwasser.com/

 

——News from the 35th WGC in Poland from OSTROW;
“We would like to invite all glider pilots to participate in Ostrow Glide Competition in May 2018. It’s a great opportunity to train before the 35th FAI World Gliding Championships, which will also take place at our airfield in the summer. The on-line registrations will start soon. CU in Ostrow!”

Schedule for 2018 OSTRÓW GLIDE – International Gliding Competition in club class and Polish Nationals in 15 m class:
• 24.05 – 3.06.2018

——-Another one sold; This JS 3 is from Laurens Goudriaan. Good luck in it and lot’s of pleasure!!!!

With the Jonkers message:
“A very happy Laurens Goudriaan took delivery of his new JS3 today. It must be quite a feeling to do close to 500km on your maiden flight at 150km/h! Well done Laurens.”

—–And to finish this special picture shared by the National Soaring Museum in the USA

Helmut and George who I both met in Angers. Lovely people both gentlemen!!!
“The photo that graced the cover of Soaring Magazine following George Moffat’s Open Class win in the 1970, 12th World Gliding Championship, the first held in the US.
Helmut Reichmann of Germany won the Standard class flying an LS-1, while Moffat piloted the one and only Nimbus HS-3.”

CU next week
Cheers Ritz