Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday December 13 2009      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Yesterday was the official opening  of the great looking Caravan Park in Tocumwal at the airfield. Friends and people living at the Park arrived and most of them have their caravan at the by theirselves choosen spot. I know a few more guests will arrive over Christmas , so it is good to see that they are busy enough !

My friend Daan arrived a couple of days ago in Pokweni  and added a nice 1000 km flight to the total of Pokweni for this season. For sure, if the weather is good, he will fly many more . This time he flies a DG 800B /18m.
Another friend[ from Australia by the way! THANKS!],  had a look at the OLC  from October till now looking at some airfields in Africa and Australia and made some statistics. Though it is still a bit early, as lots of things can still happen and the season is still long, I will give them to you anyway to keep an eye on “overseas soaring”.

                                                    2007                     2008                         2009                  2010
Bittwerwasser                       402,589                 584,385                   481,335           238,000
Gariep Dam                           365,387                  392,946                   424,674              84,000
Pokweni                                 219,286                  276,608                   235,927             118,000
Kiripotib                                                                                                    61,005             67,000
Corowa                                   324,295                479,208                    496,302            110,000
Tocumwal                                19,013                   44,218                      48,486               17,000
The last colum shows the percentage of kilometers flown in respect to last years OLC list.[ October 2008-October 2009]

And more;

Flights OLC

> 1000km

%

Bitterwasser               344                            52                    15%
Gariep Dam                171                               0                      0%
Pokweni                      176                             24                     14%
Kiripotib                      83                              24                     29%
Corowa                       224                              0                        0%
Tocumwal                   50                               0                        0%
                                 1048                          100                        10%
According to these statistics, Gariep Dam is flying less then last year as well as Corowa , all ONLY at this stage!!!!!
Bitterwasser and Pokweni are about the same , also ONLY at this stage and Kiripotib has flown already NOW MORE then the total of last year, so they are in the “lift”! Bigger distances set and flown, with even better long distance gliders as ASH25EB have a huge influence on these statistics.
Namibie had till yesterday 100x 1000 km. flights!!!!!!!

Great to see that from the New Tempe Boemfontein -airfield  of Dick Bradley also a 1000 km task was flown by UK pilot Edward Downham in a JS 1Revelation; 1017.05 km with a speed of 134,74 km/h.
I expect a lot of this 18 m. glider built in South Africa by the Jonkers. Look for more info at; www.JonkerSailplanes.co.za

After 5 days of flying in Narromine during the Junior Nationals  the clear winner is Nathan Johnson with LS 4. Runner up is Andrew Maddock, [ he won day 1-2 and 4 in the LS 8] who flew in Finland during the JWGC and had a ball and 3d was NZ pilot Dane Dickinson in a Discus. Great effort from all.

That’s it for now. Enough fun for most of the pilots , the others are sitting at home looking at their Christmas tree and enjoying the festive season which is about to begin. Not bad either and….we can just “read” what’s happening in the soaring world far away! Thanks to OLC!
Cheers Ritz