Post 1.449 on October 4 2023.

OCTOBER 1, autumn in The Netherlands.

—–The OLC season 2023 is over and the new season started straight away
YES , I check WEGLIDE as well, but maybe cause I am older, I prefer the OLC [https://www.onlinecontest.org] for my checks…in my opinion more clear, or maybe I am longer used to it. I do love the stories however from WEGLIDE [ https://weglide.org/ ].
Looking at the stats in the end of the 2023 season WORLD WIDE ;
CHAMPION OLC plus; Gordon Boettger from the USA with 10.473,21 points.
Rookie OLC Champion; Johan Luyckx from Belgium, good on him and a bit of a surprise for me.
Best flight in 2023; Gordon Boettger with 3.059,40 km in the ARCUS M from Minden.
Distance record; Gordon Boettger with that same flight.
Stats ALL flights; Nicolas Bennet from the Minden Soaring club with 61.699,23 km during 106 flights.
Stats busiest airport; Bitterwasser with 709.630,07 km during 852 flights by 114 pilots!!!!
Stats busiest club; Koenigsdorf with 395.508,78 km during 871 flights by 89 pilots.

Extra note; the margin from Bitterwasser as busiest airport is enormous. Runner up was VERONICA with 455.248,77 km during 577 flights by 89 pilots. Both are in Namibia.
Europe with Puimoisson in France was 3d ; 487.447,12 km during 1065 flights by 164 pilots and the Dutch Airfield of TERLET was 5th with 318.532,53 km during 1021 flights by 174 pilots.
Clubs; Koenigsdorf on the border of the ALPS was busy but our pilots from the Gelderse were runner up. Not bad!!! And the Amsterdam Club for Soaring was 4th. Theirs stats;
Gelderse at Terlet; 354.533,00 km. during 1055 flights by 103 pilots one of them my grand daughter.
Amsterdamse at Soesterberg; 229.906,98 km during 60 flights by 73 pilots.

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South African National Gliding Championships 2023 flown from Potchefstroom between September 29 and October 7 with 35 participants are in full swing.

On September 29 a good practice day with 301 km. in all 4 classes, club, 15m, 18m and 2 seaters.
Not a lot used the practice though in 18 m and 20 m a few went up.
Jason Adriaan is the CD and organizer.
Task 1; now they HAVE to go……...
Club; 291.59 km ……and 9 pilots started their race for the title. 5 Of them finished and the other 4 had a less good start of their comps. Early starts before 1 PM and the ASW 20 with Rene Coetzee AND the St Cirrus from Dicky Daly were the best; a joint first place with 110.83 km./h. and 99.78 km./h.
15 m; 521.03 km…….5 good pilots among them Uys Jonker and AP Kotze. ONLY 1 finisher in the ASW 27; Wayne Schmidt;113 km./h. Uys flew 479 km, close but,……
18 m; 521.03 km….14 pilots among them Katrin Senne, Sven Olivier, Attie and Phillip Jonker, Oscar Goudriaan and John Coutts. 5 Of them finished, so a good day for them. Best for Laurence Hardman who in his JS1C/18m won the day 127.29 km./h. Young Phillip did well as runner up in a JS1;126.94 km./h John was equal runner up , he and Phillip started and finished together.Sven was one of the finishers on spot 5.
2-seaters; 521.03 km....changed in a 3 hour AAT;6 in total mainly Duo Discus types. Pieter Geldenhuys /Robert Bristow in the ASG 32MI won ;speed 114.42 km./h. Well known comp pilot Stefan Langer from Germany flies a Duo Discus in this class.

Task 2;
Club; 294.87 km….And,…another day with several out-landings. 3 From 10 finished and Dicky was the best again; 86.60 km. p/h and this time he did not have to share his number 1 spot.
15 m; 416.39 km.…Wayne was the only one to finish, his 2d time; 97.24 km./h. Good on him!2 Pilots were less than 10 k out.
18 m; 416.39 km…..6 from 14 finished and my good “old” mate Oscar won the day;111.31 km./h. All pilots flew more than 350 km.
2 seaters; 416.39 km.…NOBODY finished but 4 pilots were close with less than 30 k out. In one of the Duo Discus gliders fly the winner from last years WEGLIDE Sprint Zachary Yamauchi with the winner from this year Thomas Greenhill;
“The dream of flying in South Africa to promote gliding worldwide and to support young pilots, Jonker Sailplanes invites the juniors who win the WeGlide Sprint ranking for Europe and for the rest of the world to participate in the South African Nationals.This year our winners are Kevin Faur and Thomas Greenhill! We congratulate them with this achievement and look forward to their flights. Thomas is currently in South-Africa flying the competition with former winner Zachary Yamauchi. Kevin will head over to Potch later this year, so stay tuned for more updates.” WeGlide……..Many thanks to the amazing team from Jonker Sailplanes for giving juniors this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Task 3 was cancelled!

Task 4;
Club; 262.23 km……changed in 211.45 km....4 pilots flew over 100 km./h .Best for the day Dicky….AGAIN..in his Cirrus; 104.85 km./h…. Great job as well from young, Maarten Jonker, one of the Jonker-dynasty ,he was runner up in an LS 4 ;105km./h.
15 m; 411.20 km…..changed in 318 km....and AP Kotze was the best with 131.69 km./h., ahead of Uys with 129.14 km./h
18 m; 411.20 km…..changed in 318 km…..John [Coutts] from NZ but living already for a long time in S.A. had a BIG WIN; 143.26 km./h. Runner up Laurence flew around with 136.68 km./h . Wayne was last.
2-seaters; 336.51 km....changed in 292 km...and a good day for German pilot Stefan who got the “hang” of African gliding, won with the Duo Discus;121.50 km./h.

Overall results after 3 flying days;
Club; Dicky Daly with 2.006 points,winning 2 days.
15m.; Wayne Schmidt winning 2 days with 2.565 points.
18m; Sven Olivier with 2.461 points, not winning a day but VERY consistent flying!!!
2-seaters; Yamauchi & Greenhill, the 2 young WEGLIDE SPEED winners with 2.129 points.

For today Club has 317.52 km, 15 m. 524.93 km, 18 m.524.93 km and the 2-seaters go for 447.99 km
More next week.

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The Queensland State comps started last Saturday at Kingaroy and the Sports Class Nationals will be next week also from Kingaroy….October 9-15 2023, with 28 pilots in 3 classes.

Last Saturday they started with the Queensland State Comps and as Bruce is there he can tell you all about it on his ;”Taylor’s Gliding Page
“Today was Day 1, forecast blue and about 6,000 feet, which was what we got.” and “So nice to be back in my old LS8, “WB”, after more than 20 years of separation. I remember exactly why I loved it so much.”
There are 13 pilots in club, 10 in sports class and 6 in 15 m.
It’s great practice for the Nationals 1 week later. Scores are according the SGP rules.
Bruce won day 1 in 15m., that’s good as his concurrent’s are Mac and Adam, Greg Beecroft and Lisa and Peter Trotter. Strong class.
David Jansen won sports class and Bernie Sizer in his PIK 20 club. Grant Heany[Discus A] was runner up both are from Tocumwal AND they flew together. [10 and 8 points].

Day 2 was interesting;”I thought I was in a paddock, water pouring out of the ballast tanks, field and approach chosen, various bad words in the cockpit, almost a hand on the undercarriage lever, when I found a small bump. For a couple of turns it was very gently up, then I saw some grass in the air and a couple of eagles nearby… and whoosh!! The thermal bubble hit me from below and it was soon 5 knots up. It kept getting better, and above halfway I actually saw a few turns better than 10 knots!” Taylor’s Gliding Page
The max 4 points in 15 m class were his.
Task 2 had 299 km and Bruce’s speed was 104.5 km./h ……Mac was runner up.
In club 10 points were earned by Bernie good on him. Grant was 3d.
Task; 237 km and Bernie had 92.7 km.//h.
In sport class Brad [Edwards] was the daily best for 10 points in a JS3 18m. with 116 km./h over 299 km.

Day 3;
Club; 260 km..…No not Bernie on top he was “out” a pity and 9th for the day. 8 From 13 were “in”.Todd Edwards in the LS 3 won the day with a speed of 99.6 km./h.
Sports class ; 343.7 km…..Ray Stewart got the 10 -to- win- points-for-the-day;137.4 km./h. 8 From 10 finished.
15 m; 343.7 km….Adam won the day with 137.7 km./h.
“What a fabulous day out of Kingaroy, perfectly set task & great start time set for the GP. Fortunately I have my LX9070 linked up to SkySight which allowed me to check out the SatPic before start. It showed me that after Wondai, I needed to track West to avoid the overdevelopment & showers on track. Big advantage!“
More in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Mac was runner up and Bruce got no points but wrote;
“After my rubbish start I was really surprised to meet Adam Woolley and David Jansen at the first turn, and basically flew the rest of the flight with them. From then on it was full bore, great climbs, long runs down some super streets, and a cracking final glide almost straight into wind along a highway in the sky.”
Much more on his Taylor’s Gliding Page

Day 4;
Club;239 km…..and the LS 3 with Kim Houghton won the day and the 10 points; 96.7 km./h. 9 from 11 finished. Grant had to less good days finishing on spot 8.
After 4 days Bernie leads with 27 points.
Sports class; 282.6 km....Lumpy won the day ; 128 km./h ,so 10 points for him. 7 km./h faster than Andrew Georgeson in the Nimbus 4DM.
After 4 days David Jansen leads with 31 points , together with Ray Stewart.
15 m. class; 282.6 km…won by Mac with 117.9 km./h. Runner up Adam had 106 km./h and was not happy with his day:
“Well that was one of the most uncomfortable flights of my soaring career, from start to finish I felt like I was in a washing machine, constantly getting blown around & shaken up! Super broken thermals today, happy to be home.I made a big error after I made a good start I was leading the pack for the first 75km with the general gaggle lower & 5-10km behind as they got stuck at the Bunya mountains.”
More about his “wrong mindset” on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
After 4 days Bruce is leading with 16 points but Mac is close with 15!!
More next week.

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——-One of Australia’s best, finest and most talented pilots Matthew Scutter is more or less banned from the Queensland nationals in Kingaroy,..his own club… by stupid rules of the Aussie sporting administration. Turning his back to Kingaroy, he moved to Burketown for the MORNING GLORY season!!!!
“I have been angling for an opportunity to get out here for many years, but I finally ran out of excuses and a fairly silly reason opened up to get out of Kingaroy for a bit;
After this year winning our 18m nationals with a 15m glider, the sporting administration decided to simply ban 15m gliders from entering in the future. After wasting days on the phone lobbying for sanity I believe it was overturned (no minutes published…) and instead they intend to apply a special bonus penalty if I enter 18m, but the experience of the process as a whole was enough to make me feel no longer welcome in the contest community here.
So for that and other stupid reasons I’ve blown off competitions in Australia, but the awkward thing is that my club has the nationals now… so Burketown it is!“more on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
It’s from all times this meddling by blue blazers as we called them. I know already here in The Netherlands from the 70thies.
They should sweep with a big broom through the Aussie sporting administration!!!!!!
And I hope this is only written in “anger” and Matthew will fly future comps down under. He should!!!!!!!
Luckily, he “found” and “ran” the morning glory!!!!!!He even shared it in a live-video on FB with nearly 500 followers.

And to finish this picture,…very interesting concept.

No link unfortunately to this subject, but some more info;
“The widespread use of electric sustainers has reduced the “performance anxiety” caused by the limited ability to fly in poor weather conditions or the possibility of not being able to return to the airfield. Eliminated the “performance anxiety” with electric sustainers/selflaunchers, it makes sense to design gliders to maximize the flying experience, hence the unobstructed cockpit design. All gliders till now have been designed to maximize performance given the wingspan and the intended selling price, I believe a change of paradigm will come.

I’ve submitted a scientific article for peer review in Technical Soaring (OSTIV) on April 17, 2023, which includes detailed performance calculations for 18m and 13.5m wingspans and three certification strategies (CS-22 / JAR-22). The peer review is being handled by a top glider designer of a top glider company. However, the peer review process may take some time, as it’s conducted by voluntary experts in the field. It is fair to say that the article might be rejected, but let’s keep our fingers crossed!

I can’t share specific calculation details yet, as that’s contingent on publication. However, for an 18m wingspan with flaps, the estimated maximum glide ratio ranges from a 46 to 50, depending on grade of fuselage development and optimization.

Feel free to comment on the project, share it, and provide any feedback you may have. I believe that in 20 years time, a significant portion of gliders will adopt my design philosophy. The choice ultimately depends on your personal preferences and your demands when buying a new glider. For me, if given the option to fly the UltraVision with a glide ratio of 46-50 or a high-performance glider with a 56 glide ratio on a Saturday at the local field, I would choose the UltraVision most of the times.

Full article in Gliding & Soaring

CU next Wednesday for more about the S.A. Nationals, the finish of the Queensland State comps and the start of the Australian Nationals.
Cheers Ritz