Post ….1.390.. on November 9 2022

—–Since November 2 also Veronica is active in Namibia, so a full start of the season now. AND,…as usual over the last couple of years, lot’s of well known names, CHAMPIONS, are helping out as tutor for those who want to improve their skills, in Kiripotib and Bitterwasser.
Reinhard Schramme, Wolfgang Janowitsch , Holger Back, Tassilo Bode , Pete Harvey are some of the CHAMPION-names!!
Other well-known names fly in Veronica as Petr Krejcirik who flew 747km in the Twin Shark.
What makes everybody happy there in Namibia is the mostly great soaring weather, not always to be honest…., often not in the beginning of November, indeed also now….. but above all the camaraderie ; somebody mentioned ‘” it’s incredible fun to spend time with like-minded people”.
“Again a difficult day in Namibia. A lot of low flying and then came the rain. We started the engine to fly to the better weather and started again to fly past the rain on the way back. A lot of engine hours .”

—–Jonker sailplanes shared interesting news;
“What a historic day for JONKER SAILPLANES. First self launch ever of a JS glider in Namibia! The JS2 SL took off for the first time today from Veronica and kissed the Namibian sky. What an amazing glider! 21m wingspan but it feels as light to handle and operate as a 18m wingspan glider. The rudder needs a bit more input, but the glider is still very agile, responsive, and absolutely easy to fly.
Absolutely smooth and direct operating controls. The ailerons need a 2 finger operation only. Flaps almost as light to operate as in a JS3.
We will test the new JS2 prototype selflauncher thoroughly over the next 4 weeks in Veronica and Bitterwasser.
The first JS3 RES (Electric Self Launcher) from Bernd Dolba will also be flying in Veronica for the next 3 months. So both new developed JS self launchers are 2022/2023 on stage in Namibia and will have to earn their merits in extreme weather conditions.
After the update the JS engineers had done to the SOLO engine it now runs as smooth and quiet as a Wankel engine. Absolutely vibration free!
What a privilege to fly this 21m ship for a short test flight today.” as written by Katrin Senne in the OLC News Magazine.

—–Corowa starts a new episode in it’s soaring-life. I wrote already that Keith Gately bought the soaring center from Francesco and Grietje. He is setting up a permanent gliding club.
At this stage they are host for the Mount Beauty Gliding Club, who will soon have a brand new runway.
“Introducing Soar Corowa, a new gliding enterprise – operating through the GFA affiliated Murray Valley Soaring Club – being established at Corowa Aerodrome in 2022.”
https://soarcorowa.com/
Registration for the GFA 20m Dual Seat Gliding Nationals 2023 now open!

In the summer 2022/2023 the Corowa Aerodrome will be the location of two gliding competitions, the Skyrace 2023 and the GFA 20m Dual Seat Gliding Nationals 2023 which Soar Corowa is proud to be hosting.
By the way the EB from Keith is on it’s way to Corowa;
“EB29r VH-GYH packed away and finally setting sail towards Australia. Looking at an arrival to Melbourne docks around the 10th December. With some luck I could be flying by Christmas Day. Antwerp to Australia via Spain and South Africa.“

——Staying down under with the BEVERLEY CUP. [30 October 2022 – 5 November 2022] in the West of Australia.

On the 30thiest the message was ;”No flying today due weather – better luck tomorrow, folks!”
And they , the 17 pilots, were lucky as they had straight away a few 3 hour AAT’s won by Don [Woodward] on task 2 [308 km ..speed 83 km./h] in his ASW 20 .
Task 3 ,was for Norm ,in his JS 3TJ/18m 397 km ..speed 126 km./h.
Task 4 , 400 km for Don ; speed 121 km. Norm was runner up and faster but he has a faster glider; 133 km./h.
Comment from John Welsh; “Mid afternoon cu streets forming in the West Coast Trough under high Cirrus. Norm did more than 130kph“
Task 5, continued with another 300 k. AND….again it was Don first and Norm runner up; 415 and 427 km….123 and 140 km./h.
Task 6 ,”ONLY” a 2 hour AAT, that changed but not the order; Don first and Norm runner up. About 230 for both the ASW 20 and JS 3 and about the same speed’ 109 and 107 km./h.
Task 7, LAST day! 3 hour AAT again and windy…..and Ai/Ouch Norm was “out” after 100 km and yes Don won the day. Ross McLernon was in his Jantar 2, 3d for the day and moved from 3 to 2 passing Norm .
So the final scores are;
1. Don Woodward in ASW 20 with 5.589 points.
2. Ross McLernon in Jantar 2 with 4.229 p.
3. Norm Bloch in JS 3/18m with 3.834 p.

—–The weather down under really improves. Still a lot of water and not so many places to land-out, but great skies and up to 500 km-flights. My mates Gerrit and Pam had a great flight from McCaffery Airfield in their EB 29 [ it replaced the QUINTUS] and ASH 31MI/21m.last Sunday.
My Toc mates looked at great skies and had a busy weekend.
“We’ve had a few busy days, with 4 pilots doing their BFR’s and some refresher training.
Nice big Cu’s yesterday saw flights of 400 kms done and some 8 and 10 kt climbs put smiles on our faces.”

So did my Benalla mates;

Though looking at the next picture it’s still WET

—-Good and sad news about our soaring mates. Aussie competition pilot, Allan Barnes married his Katrin , on the east coast of the north island of New Zealand ….wishing them a very happy life together…..and our long time Japanese soaring mate Yoghi Oshinomi , I only heard now, died on April 19 in 2021. He loved his soaring in Tocumwal, mostly together with Junzo-san.
R.I.P dear Yoghi-san.

——Not everybody could be at the wedding as there was a soaring contest in N.Z. as well.
The GREAT MATAMATA SOARING CENTER CONTEST 2022 is on in…of course Matamata, between November 4 and 12. Unfortunately unlucky with the weather….only on November 7 they had their first tasks, small 2 hour AAT’s and they had to be cancelled in all 3 classes.[open racing and sports]
On the practice day on November 5 they flew.
Brett Hunter [JS 3] in open class [5 participants] won the 2 hour AAT with 229 km and a speed of 111 km./h,
In racing [ 7 pilots including “good old Tony van Dyke] it was Colin Kelly in Ventus 2 B with 175 km during a 2 hour AAT ; speed 87 km./h
In sports class [4 pilots] also a 2 hour AAT with as daily winner Raeburn Kerr in a T.51 Dart 17R; 166 km …speed 60 km./h.
But as one pilot wrote;
“What to do on a Contest practice day…when you aren’t actually entered in the contest…and it’s a ridge day, and no one is interested in going to Port Jackson again (or at least I’m not interested in going to the top of the Coromandels again).One suggestion was to see if you could get to the West Coast…run along the coast (which is quite fun – see video)…AND get home again.”
https://youtu.be/OTN8J-lpQGM

Last Tuesday they had another tricky flying day but they flew. Brett won the 2.30 AAT with 179 km and a speed of 71 km./h, in the open class, that says enough , certainly when you fly a JS 3. Runner up in the DG 808 C ,Jevon McSkimming, with 167 km ,speed 61 km./h Great effort from both!!!!
Racing had a 2.15 AAT but it turned out an invalid day, but Tony still flew 63 km whilst the runner’s up flew 11 km.
No flying in sports class either, 1 pilot started but….. [2 hour AAT]
“Hows the current MSC comp going? Not great! Although well done to Brett and Jevon today for getting around a tricky task“

–——Minden Nevada; an extra long flight again by Gordon Boettger in his ARCUS M. Such a fabulous glider for so many “goals”; 1.403 km with a speed of 193.30 km./h!!!!!
“Had to wait in the morning for the wave to regenerate after a small system came through the day before. The wave I used was from a cold front coming in after landing. Watched the clouds from the ground and when it looked like it was finally working I took off and had an easy climb and went north in soft conditions. Things were forecast to get stronger as the day went on so I was careful not to fall out. Turned in fairly soft conditions north of Susanville and went south. Things got really soft and a lot of cloud cover from Bridgeport to south of Mammoth. Stayed above the clouds and nothing marked well at all so I was very careful. Picked up Sage 2 clearance and ran the Owens Valley in less than classic conditions. Northbound there was even more cloud cover but got a clearance with OAK to stay high above the clouds. Wave was not really marked by the clouds at all. Made it into Carson Valley and all was easy then.“

I remember with huge pleasure my stay in Minden. Though it was practice for the 1991 WGC , that competition was never flown in Minden but had to move to Uvalde, where I have great memories from too!!! From both comps as in 2012, I was in Uvalde too.
The next one in Uvalde is in 2024, if I will be there ..????? Most probably not.

CU next week
Cheers Ritz
Look at this…..The weather in Tocumwal today!!!!!! As shared by Bruce Wilson, 2 SRGC- tugs ready to fly /tow.
Lumpy flew in his Nimbus 4T 590 km.[500 FAI triangle] Indeed the news season starts!!!!!