Post 1.461 on December 5 2023

live tracking at; https://bit.ly/wgc2023-au

Launching at Narromine Go To LIVEGLIDING; https://bit.ly/wgc2023-au

official site; https://wgc2023.com.au/

Dutch Gliding Teamnetherlands-establish-early-lead-in-15m-class-at-narromine as shared by GLIDING AUSTRALIA the Aussie Gliding Magazine.
I noticed also real nice reels from December 4.
All those finishing gliders on runway 22. You can see them too on Gliding Australia

Just got an app from my daughter waiting full of excitement for the finishes on another blue day.It’s 8.30 in the morning here so I just start my day. Not a lot of finishes yet so I research first what happened during “my sleep”.
I wondered about the huge difference in start times. I was not the only one.
Here is Bruce on that day:
“Not too much to say about today. It was quite blue, and the task was long enough that we were concerned about getting home before it shut down. Greg and I decided to leave early, did that, and worked well together, touching down side-by-side. We got low down towards the first turn, and the run home from out near Nyngan was slow, but a part of me thought everybody would have a similar experience.
We were absolutely smashed by the late starters today, to the tune of 14kph. Gaggle power, not getting slow anywhere, whatever it was it cost us huge points. I didn’t imagine we’d suffer quite so brutally.”
More on Taylor’s Gliding Page

But,…..First things first…. I slowly get my comps-rhythm again.
Prize winners from day 2 , task 2.

Hugo Corbille from France in club class.

Laurence Hardman from South Africa….as happy.

And in 15 m 2 winners but here is Jan Pavlik as Jeroen had the experience already

Briefing in the morning at 10 AM with the concentrated Dutch team as seen by Anne. They do well at this stage and are very serious, so they should.

A brown snake was spotted at the field. I had a “bunch young ones” as dangerous as the big ones, but they look “sweeter” ,living under my house in Tocumwal,and I was very scared for them. Not my cat Denim he proudly walked around with one in his mouth and brought it to my doormat.

Day 3 one December 5; A very hot, sweaty and AGAIN blue day .
15 m. 3.45 AAT…… Great day for my Belgian mates. Number 1 and 2!!! Most pilots flew around 421 km some a bit more ,some less. Speed from Andre and Francois was 112 km./h . and looking at the times this was a small gaggle from 13 pilots too.
Andre moved from 20 to 8 overall after 3 days!!!!!!
Good day for Germany as well with Steffen and Henrik on 3 and 4. They all started around 14.30.
Not a good day for the Dutch and Aussies. The Dutchies started 10 minutes earlier and finished on spot 20 and 22. You can DROP from 1 to 14 overall…bizarre.
The Aussies even left earlier at 14.10 and were on a 14th and 17th daily spot.
One is not scored [yet] and 1 is out of the comps.

Not all scores are in yet. I heard already about out-landings too.
To be honest scores are FAST every day. Good on them.
First breakfast, then more news.CU you a bit later.

10.30 AM; IN THE NETHERLANDS.

15 m class; is scored now and 2 from 26 were “aux vaches” . The last 1 finished at 6 .40 PM. That was the daily winner from yesterday Jan.
Some pilots reached 10.000 ft.
Adam mentioned “I clicked over 2000hrs competition flight time today, out of my 3500hrs gliding!” Quite a mile stone good on you Adam!

Standard class; 436.56 km…..with 106 km./h Bruce won the day. An Aussie WIN!!!! 106 km./h. About the same as runner up Sjaak from The Netherlands.
Here is a happy Bruce;
“WooHoo!! Yesterday we got smashed by the gaggle, and today they waited too long and really struggled to get home. I really don’t mean to be smart, but I find the required start gate strategies such a complete pain in the butt. We knew we had to leave, so we did that, and as it happened we had a nice little group of five who started early and rolled along well together.” more on Taylor’s Gliding Page
At this stage 2 are not yet counted for and 4 were out.
Sjaak mentioned that “it was challenging and hot! The first leg went ok, then there was less lift due to wetter parts.But,…..The Aussies marked the way and we went “happily” with them” .Honest and open answer from Sjaak, who was the 2018 world champion in standard class in Poland.
According to Bruce “Mac actually had the highest speed today, but was penalised for missing his Event marker time by a small amount.”

Club class; 356.44 km……was last on the grid and Tony was the last to be launched. He belonged to the “out-landers”.
8 Are not yet counted for and somewhere in a field.
From 2, I know they are out; Roelof and Diana.
As all tuggies went home early , they had to go by trailer and car. An old fashioned “honest” retrieve, but time consuming.
18 managed to finish and the best was Tim from the UK; 95.72 km./h
Runner up Thies from The Netherlands;94.61 km./h.
Tim was the last to depart at 3 PM!!!! His team mate John did exactly the same but just finished at 7.20 PM as number 17.
Have to check with him how much of a risk this was.
Unfortunately the task was just too long as the thermals disappeared in the end.

Great day for my Belgian mates with a 1/2 in 15 m and a 4th spot with Dennis in standard class.
Great day as well for my Aussie mates Bruce and Greg on 1 and 3 with Sjaak in the middle on 2.

More updates later when I have them.
I checked in with UK pilot Tim who won the day and asked if it was a risk to depart that late. He answered straight away which was very kind of him.
“Our first PEV was a little early we were low with only a handful of competitors including Uwe and Stefan ahead. 5km down track we hit a fantastic thermal and decided to instantly hit the 10 minute PEV reset and restart again at 3pm, very tight for club class but if everything went to plan we might just squeeze it in. The great thing about this situation is your all out to catch the leaders and it really does focus your attention on keeping the pace up. Anyhow I shall be quickly screenshooting the overall results tonight it’s only taken me 50 years of practice!!!“
Thanks Tim!!!! Indeed 50 years of practice that started already at Tocumwal, where he was allowed to fly our gliders on days they were available and he was off- tuggie-duties.

My family is still on the way home from their retrieve and will be back after mid night.
20 Teams from 3 classes are on a retrieve so it will be a late night for more.
Time for me to do other things and share tomorrow what happened during the retrieves and the full scores from Club and Standard class.

Tony and Leah Condon from team USA, are back already “home” at Narromine. Tony landed at Trangie. If they could use the Mitchell Highway it is a good trip.
“Another interesting day in Austriala. Started later than ideal but almost every thermal was shared with a Wedged Tail Eagle. Never got as strong as forecast and ended up struggling around 1,000 ft and 1 knot 50 km short.
Found a great field and landed as a C130 buzzed us on roll out. Successful retrieve after swallowing about 50 gnats.“

CU tomorrow!!!!

——————————————————————

Some other news as well from Schempp-Hirth;
That beautiful ARCUS is going well not only in the air, but also on the ground. Number 400 has been built!!!!!

Post 1.460 on December 4 2023
https://wgc2023.com.au/

On https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093208068838 you can see a video from the launches of a few pilots today and Sean Young interviews the 3 daily winners from task 1.

Day 1 ……. over and out, BUT only day 1, so it’s only a beginning.
What a top day it was. The only out-landing was because of no PEV.
Before I went to bed I checked on the evening after the opening, if there were tasks as I heard it would be an early day. They were already on www.soaringspot.com and whilst all pilots flew, I slept nicely on one ear!

Yesterday I did exactly the same, waking up with a smile , as tasks today were good again on a blue day, now but as I said many times, blue can be very strong in Australia.
So NO WORRIES for blue days!!
Only disadvantage is that not everybody dares to fly alone, hence bigger or smaller gaggles leaving the field.
Forecast was for fine weather, no rain ,8000ft and blue, thermals 4kt and at 1800 m 3 kt.

Task 2;
15 m. class; 437.47 km….The first thing I noticed was the big difference in start times. Adam and Toby started at 13.35 ,whilst Erik and Jeroen left at 14.11.
The late starters did well, as Jeroen won day 2 as well, but he had to share this win with Czech pilot Jan [Pavlik]; both “got” 1000 points. All 3 in JS 3,with Erik as runner up with 997 points.
Speed for all 3 ; 112 km./h.
Sebastian and Lucasz had an equal 4th place starting and finishing at the same time in their DIANA 2 for 966 points.
26 flew and finished.
And indeed a huge group in 15 m. left, stayed in the gaggle and came back to finish more or less as a gaggle too. I counted 21 gliders in 4 minutes with the finish times!!!!!!

Standard class; 436.13 km….Again the Aussies Bruce and Greg started early; 13.04 whilst the winners from South Africa started at 13.42. So congrats to Laurence [Hardmann] and young Phillip [Jonker] both in LS 8 for their successful day!1000 and 998 points for them.Tom was 3d and “lost” 30 points on the winner,..no big deal!
Even later was the start from Sarah [13.43] and sad to say as I know how good she is, she was last for the day and the only one who flew under 100 km./h.
Last over the start line was Czech pilot Pavel at 13.50. so nearly an hour difference . They must have had another expectation of the weather.
All 21 started and finished. I LIKE that. I know that even when ONE pilot is IN, the task setter was right, but I prefer many finishes .

Club class; 395.35 km….More big differences in start times between 12.56 and 13.54 so nearly an hour.No worries however for Hugo Corbille from France who flew with 108.86 km./h in his LS 7 over the track.
Tomas Suchanek was runner up and UK pilot Tim 3d.
I know Tim since more than 30 years, when he as a young keen pilot was a tuggy in Tocumwal together with my daughter Inge. Both are airline pilots now!

Tony had some problems at the start;“Team DK had some instrumentation gremlins this morning and had to push off. Thanks to Tony Condon and Peter von Tresckow ‘s quick thinking we were able to launch at the end of our class.“
Tony was 21st for the day.
All 30 pilots started and finished!!!!!!
The French are absolutely WELL-DRESSED for the hot sun. Though long sleeves and gloves would be good too.

Talking about club class ; The club class gliders flying for “fun” in Tocumwal had super weather on December 3 with over 600 km in an LS 4, Stephan Soell, with 696 km , Steve Trone in a mini nimbus with 649 km, and Grant in the DISCUS with 627 km.
Australia’s weather is great at the moment for soaring.

I am going to find out what the reason could have been for the start time differences.
Will update later with more fresh news, from family and or friends. They all have dinner now ,I will have breakfast.

So I checked. One of the answers was: the biggest differences were in standard and club , on initiative from the pilots their-selves. In 15 m they waited LONG with a start….but then they left as 1 big gaggle. Only The USA and Australia made their own plans and sadly they suffered.
Here is Adam;”A big day in the blue! Tobias & I flew a really great flight together, we typically had nice rhythm all flight & from what we were told via onlookers via the OGN, we were pulling away from the gaggle who started 30min behind us. Unfortunately though, we got unlucky at the Warren TP (which is known as the wettest place on the planet in gliding terms). We slowed down amply because we knew the area was coming at us, but still, all we could get was two low 3kt saves.
This is the only place I believe that the gaggle won over us today, because if we jagged two 5kt climbs as we did previously, then it would’ve been a different story I think.” More on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Sebastian was less enthusiastic about the gaggle , here is the translation from what Sebastian said by Andrea Florence  from GLIDING & SOARING he belongs to team Italy;
“What a competition!
Completely clear of clouds!
Flarms are a must.
Eventmarker from pre-school…5 minutes and then what?
The last one en route wins.
Ricardo Brigliadori leaded the gaggle perfectly.
In the area above the swamps [2d TP] he was in trouble and the winners who did n’t even stick their nose out, in front of the others. Including myself.
But unfortunately there is only one way for such terms” so far Sebastian.
Ricky was 13th for the day.

Team USA ‘s Tony who had problems at the start;
“Nice easy morning today. First out to the grid after briefing, loaded up the task and shut everything down to save power. Got ready for launch to start and the S100 wouldn’t boot. SBOX ERROR CONTACT SERVICE. Nothing in the manual or the Internet. Try every combo of resetting cables, SD cards in/out, batteries etc. no vario no GPS no primary logger and the launch is starting. Push off to the side.
Peter von Tresckow hypothesizes that maybe the Terminator on a db9 plug is the problem. Grabs his mini screwdriver and removes it. The instrument fires up! No clue why but DONT TURN IT OFF . Back in line launch last only one volley behind where we would’ve been.
Flight was good until it wasn’t. Another low point grovelling in the third quarter. Then it was good again.”

Team Belgium shared great colorful pictures

As said before….50 VOLUNTEERS:
Here are the most important so you know too;
Competition Director Mike Durrant
Deputy Competition Director Beryl Hartley assisted by Jacob Bloom, Ross McLean, and Sean Young.
Operations Director Jenny Thompson
Tug Master Bill Bartlett
Leader of the marshalling and launch teams Kerrie Claffey 
Task Setter David Jansen
Chief Scorer  Neil Campbell 
Safety Officer Rolf Buelter
Meteorologist Ed Marel 
Daily Weighing Jack Hart
Competition Office Kathy Bell

—————————————————————–

I missed out on a picture from Team Italy with my friend Ricky and to r. of him Luca Urbani who I met at several comps I visited in Italy

I also missed out on a nice picture of team Japan. Mac did so well on day 1 that I have to share it now.

And another nice picture with Inge. They both know each other already for a long, long time.

AND……Finally “I found team USA in the hangar” ;
With TC Pete Alexander in the yellow shirt, Tony to his left and Sarah, easy to recognize. She is the WWGC champion from Lake Keepit .

And among the many guests also Pam[Kurstjens Hawkins] here with steward Brian.

Post 1.459 on December 3 2023.
https://wgc2023.com.au/

https://link.glideandseek.com/wgc2023

There we go with the 37th WGC, this time the FLYING!!!!
Day 1 on December 3;The forecast was for a more blue day, but the pilots enjoyed great good working cu’s as well during their long tasks. My home country and 2d home country performed WELL!!!!
That makes a Sunday morning EXTRA nice.
Here we go.
Task 1 ….15m; 558.83 km….Jeroen Verkuijl [JS3] loved his flight,” I enjoyed every minute “, he said in an after-flight-video with Joyce…. “we could catch others and stay with them“.
“We did not loose points,” which is good added Erik,[JS3] who was 3d for the day.
In between the 2 Dutchies was Adam and he must be super happy too with Toby on 4. Great start of the comps for them.
The 2 Aussies both in Ventus 3 and 2 ,started at 12.32, the Dutch 10 minutes later, that explains “the catching up”.
Speed from Jeroen 128.88 km./h and from Adam 128.78 loosing only 2 points!!!
Erik and Toby were equal 3d with 128.50 km/h.
All 27 pilots started and finished, TOP!!!! The first 24 all got over 900 points.
Here is Adam:”A fantastic way to start the world’s, almost a perfect score with 998pts – congrats to Jeroen on the day win!
While I was in front/lead for most of the day, Tobias made the decision that won us the day. While we agreed upon an early start at briefing time, due to lessening CU throughout the day, then as we were to progress North, the climb strengths were predicted to weaken behind us. It was Tobias firmness to start quickly once we were in the air that made the difference today much more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

Task 1….standard; 501.06 km….My 2d home country did well again with Greg Beecroft [LS8] as daily winner with a speed of 128.91 km./h. Japanese-Aussie- Mac [Ichikawa] was runner up;127.54 km./h.
Dutch pilot Sjaak [Selen] was 3d in a DISCUS 2A; 124.22 km./h
All 21 flew and finished.

Task 1…. club;  437.41 km….4 LS 3 gliders and 1 ASW 20 in the top 5 flown by German top- pilots Stefan [Langer] and Uwe [Wahlig]. Both Stefan and Uwe flew with a speed of 117.42 km./h.
James [Nugent] was 3d with 115.45 km./h and 2 top Danish pilots , Michael [Mix] and Rasmus [Orskov] were on spot 4 and 5 with 115.69 and 115. 28 km./h.
30 started and 1 was out after 95 km.

The start of this 37th WGC is there and it is a VERY good one. Lot’s of happy pilots tonight down under. More to come.
All scores preliminary.

More pictures from the opening;

Team UK;

When necessary I will update during the day.
Team UK; “A solid first day for the team!”
Lot’s of pictures shared on the official website are courtesy Jarek Mosiejewski .

And AT ALL TIMES IMPORTANT ;

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.458 on December 2 2023.
https://wgc2023.com.au/

Got already a lot of news so let’s start quickly with “from day- to -day-news” A day earlier as well, but TOO LONG blogs are not good and old news is no news.
I might even try daily news but that’s difficult with the 10 hour time difference. I’ll see.
Just keep reading.

Wednesday November 29;
Got the booster jab, felt a bit dizzy but ready to “rumble” again.
First an introduction to my friends from the lower countries in Europe, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
GOOD LUCK to all of them!
Dutch Gliding Team

Their was no official flying due to the heavy rain over night, BUT the weather is changing!!!
Here is Bruce;“Another day on the ground, sorting out some remaining jobs on our gliders.
And outside? The sun shone, the cumulus popped and looked gorgeous, but the wind blew, all day. Last night there were some big falls of rain, mostly from the west around to the south, so that area will be slow for the next couple of weeks.Tomorrow we will all go flying. I can’t wait to get in the air again. It feels good to be ready to rock ‘n’ roll!” Taylor’s Gliding Page

Thursday November 30;
are they ready to rock and roll????
“A tricky day out for all today, with top cover moving into the task area earlier than predicted.” according to our UK mates.
3 hour AAT’s were set for all 3 classes and Ricky won in 15 m [JS3] in a glorious way. His dad Leo[nardo] flew in Benalla in 87 and with us before that comp.
Ricky flew with a speed of 119.64 km./h over 378.60 km.
The runner up, Sebastian, [Diana 2] in comparison flew with a speed of 112.76 km./h over 347.80 km
25 started and 2 were out.
Adam was 4th; “An interesting day in the skies, at times it felt like I was in a washing machine. The conditions saw CU to 6000′, with averages from 3-7kts, though with a 22kt westerly wind! This saw me not being able to follow my own advice of trying to stay in the top half of convection & topping up in the 4kt’ers, but spending my day in a forever downward direction, bouncing off the ground & up to 4000′ most of the time as I got too greedy.” more in his Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
In Standard class it was Lithuania with Joris Vainius in his ASW 28, who won the day just ahead of the Polish pilots , Lucasz and Tomasz who started a minute earlier.
20 started and 7 were out. A few mistakes as well, better now than in 3 days.
In Club class 21 pilots started, 5 were out but 9 did not start at all on the official practice day. Still ONLY practice, no worries. Some might have not brought their logger in.
Czech pilots Tomas and Jan were the best with a speed of 311 and 304 km/h over 311 and 304 km.

December 1;
Start of the meteorological winter on this side of the world ,with indeed icy conditions here…..up to minus 10…. and snow in the N. of our country and down under it ‘s SUMMER again.
Got a lovely picture from Anne [Aus Soaring] with Inge, Indya and Gerrit.
Noticed many more great pictures on the official WGC FB site, have a look and ENJOY!!!!
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093208068838

15 m; 341.51 km....after AAT’s now practice with a set task.Best for the day was Lithuanian pilot Linas Miezlaiskis in ASG 29; 138.47 km./h with Dutch pilot Erik[JS3] as runner up ;134.44.
24 from 28 started and 4 “practiced” an out landing.
Adam was one of them.
“Today after I released from tow, it was immediately obvious that I had an undercarriage door problem, fortunately my team mate was right there to confirm it.” more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Standard class; 346.56 km.…and the 2 Polish pilots Tomasz and Lucasz did well with a speed of 122 km./h. Still “only” practice ; some penalties to learn from and some out landings 4, to learn from.
Club class; 255.67 km; I expect a lot from German pilot Uwe Wahlig in his LS 3. He straight away won the day with 122.84 km./h and is of course the current [2021] WORLD CHAMPION.
29 from 30 started and 1 was out.

PR is going well also for the locals.

December 2 OPENING and the best weather ever. I could nearly say “as usual”.
I was ready for a live stream of the opening at 8 AM my time, but nothing on the official site.

The Italian Gliding Team as seen by Andrea [Venturini] with behind them team Luxembourg, shared by Vola aVela.

The French team with Eric and his pilots and crews .

Team Luxembourg with George,Diana ,Inge and Indya.

Team Denmark;

Team Belgium;

More pictures from the opening tomorrow.
Leaves me for today, to update you with the names of the officials:
Rick Sheppe from the USA will be the Jury President and the other Jurors (both remote)
are Bob Henderson (NZL) and Peter Szabo (HUN). 

The Stewards are Brian Spreckley (UK), and John Godfrey (USA).

——————————————————————

There is other news as well!
—–Wilfried Grosskinsky flew 300 x a more than 1000 km and that must be a record! In the EB 28 he took a junior Gerrit Neugebauer ;
“Gerrit is one of the lucky youngsters, who won the Bitterwasser Cup this year. The price is sponsored by Wilfried Grosskinsky and the Bitterwasser Lodge. Thank you so much for giving juniors such an incredible opportunity in gliding!“
I can only agree with that.

CU tomorrow with more news about day 1 of the 37th WGC and more pictures also from the opening!
Now my grandson Dexter is visiting for the weekend.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.457 on November 29 2023.
https://wgc2023.com.au/

Only a few days to go and the first OFFICIAL flying day on December 3 will be a fact!!!
They fly till December 15[included] with a FAREWELL dinner in the evening and on my birthday December 16 the prize giving will be at 11 AM.

Unofficial practice time, scruteneering time, time to hug each other ‘hello here, hello there’ ,time for the official TC meeting [yesterday] and TODAY on November 29, time for the start of the 2d official practice period…the first one was was not flown…here is Bruce:
“Today the organisation decided on a no-fly day, as the forecast was for storms arriving from mid-afternoon onwards. Of course so far the sky has looked lovely, so the Europeans must think we are crazy here!”
They had however a mandatory safety briefing which was according to Adam “calm, friendly & well presented”.
Adam; “As the saying goes in Australia, unless it’s 6kts to 8000′, we don’t open the hangar doors
For Team UK ,7000 ft was good enough “Tom and Paul (Standard Class) were keen to do some more shakedown flights and were glad they did! Good climbs up to 7,000 feet made for a very enjoyable day.”
Also the Dutch pilots had a great day.
Here is Roelof: “When at home “only” 2000 m AGl is forecasted, specially in the N of The Netherlands.[Roelof is from Friesland]we fly why not now. Luckily I got a tow and had a beautiful flight under convergence lines. Perfect.” He enjoyed it to the fullest.
Wait till the real Narromine weather is there, he will be over the moon!!!!
By the way today was not flown either.
Only on November 27 they had a good practice-day with a 3 hour AAT for 15 m, won by Sebastian, also a 3 hour AAT for standard won by the the UK pilots Tom and Paul in their LS 8 and club got a 3 hout AAT as well ,won by French pilot Adrien Henry.

Most teams have arrived so have the gliders .It’s always a worry if they get through customs without problems and then trough quarantine. As far as I know , indeed, all containers have arrived so the big harbor strike had no influence. pfff….
The UK mentioned;”the gliders have arrived in Australia after a long sea journey; the shipping container was packed on 16 Aug and picked up on 21 Aug. We very much look forward to seeing it, and its contents, again on 24 Nov in Narromine as the training week commences.” British Gliding Team

More guests for Tocumwal; USA team Tony Condon and his wife Leah, arrived there to pick up glider DK [Discus] from Lumpies Tocumwal Soaring Center and familiarize in it. “Spent the day getting to know DK and had a nice flight late in the afternoon.” One day later they left for Narromine and Tony flew there as well.

Adam traveled from Japan via Germany to pick up a “part” of his glider. Weird hand-luggage they must have thought on his way.
As always lot’s of last-minute-things-to-do!

Last week I mentioned the arrival from the first 2 USA members TT pilot Tim and his crew Ron.
Here a short part of the first flight:
“After Tim Taylor glider passed technical inspection it looked like there was a chance for him to fly before the storms shut things down.
Storms came up from the south, the winds above 6,000 MSL were still from the NW, and covered the airport with heavy down pours, lightning and thunder. Tim stayed 30-40 km around the airport in sunny soarable conditions until he saw a clear path to the Narromine. Again ‘it was great until it was not’.
He got to the airport and landed by the outside perimeter in the grass. I brought the trailer to him and we derigged. We estimate at least 25 to 40 mm of rain came down during the time we got the glider in the trailer. Yes Gore Tex fabric is a wonderful thing
Good to get the flying experience, more local area familiarization and getting the outlanding on the airport out of the way” by Ron on US Soaring Teams

The weather was poor, so lot’s of nonflying activities on the first days of last week.
No worries for Stefan Langer from Germany, he spend his preparation time in New Zealand with Terry Delore.
” Canterbury Gliding Club had a great time hosting Stefan Langer, 2023 World Sailplane GP Champion and Gliding social media extraordinaire. We all look forward to your next visit with us.
Best wishes for the upcoming World Championships in Australia.
– Terry & CGC President Derek Kraak“
And,
“We have had some EPIC soaring lately!!
The clubs chat feed has been flooded with spectacular flights during our XCountry week.”
Badge flights were achieved , glider type conversions ,they welcomed North Island pilots, hosted a world GP champion Stefan Langer and they welcomed a brand new Sailplane to the Springfield Aerodrome. Enough enthusiasm over there.
Nick Oakley mentioned:
“One of the best thermal days I’ve had from Springfield …thermals to 11,500ft best climb went 16kts for 3 turn”

A full house on the last unofficial practice day, 80 % of the pilots was there , got a task and flew it between storms.

South African Gliding Team wished their “boys” well;
“Good luck to our boys Down Under. AP Kotze and Uys Jonker are flying JS3’s in the 15 m World Gliding Championships in Narromine in Australia, and Phillip Jonker and Laurence Hardman are both flying LS8’s in the Standard class.
Gooi mielies manne, and ring home some metal“
Such a lovely language!!!!

Today November 29 2d official practice day; no flying.…after a lot of rain overnight task setting was difficult because of the wet outlanding fields. Today there is a lot of wind to dry it all out and a weather change is on it’s way too.
Pfff just in time!!!!

That’s all about NARROMINE with their 37th WGC…for now.
More in the weekend. As said I try to write a bit more ,when I have news enough.

---

——-Also in South Africa in Bloemfontein, a container arrived on the 23d of November and “boss” Dick Bradley is keeping an eye on things.
https://www.soaring-safaris.com/

——When I left you last Wednesday some pilots had a very satisfying day flying a 1000-plus from Veronica, Bitterwasser, Kiripotib and Worcester, but also 2 flights from France 1 from Perpignan in a Stemme 12 ; Gil Souviron / Henri Castanet with 1.470,85 km and a speed of 154 km./h.
The Pyrenees were working well and they flew over a huge area in Spain.
There is a long comment on this flight, interesting, have a look.
https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=9705698#map=
The other flight was from Grenoble Versoud, 1.515,78 with a speed of 159 km./h. in an ASH 31/21m. Thomas Puthod was the pilot.
On Sunday the Namibian weather was TOP again with several 1000 km flights .
And on Monday they had 26 flights over 1000 km……13 from Bitterwasser.
Guy Bechtold from Luxembourg a REAL, kilometer eater flew 2 days ;November 25; 1.262 and November 27; 1.265 km[ 152.9 km./h] …long,long sit…….. nearly 19 hours during these 2 flights.

——SkySight …..Did you follow the amazing flight of Yves Gerster from Swiss Sailplane GmbH this month, the first ever crossing to Corsia with an 18m glider?
Yves was kind enough to report to us how he did it!
When you click on Skysight you can read the full story. VERY interesting!!!!!

More next week, by the way we had the first official early morning frost this week. No better way to show gorgeous Holland than with this picture from the “ZAANSTREEK” ,de Zaanse Schans.
Though “gorgeous” ,….we had a landslide in the elections last week with as winner ultra right. Not good, but we are a democratic country, it seems an unhappy country too, with a winning ultra right populist Geert Wilders.

CU on Sunday.
cheers Ritz, we also had the first snow and 980.000 kilo salt was spread over the Dutch roads.
In Eastern Europe, Germany included, that does n’t help anymore they are totally covered by tons of snow….incidents, accidents and casualties!
Off to get my corona -booster-jab.

Post 1.456 on November 22 2023.

37th WGC at Narromine ; December 2-16 in 2023.
This is where it is all going to happen.

ALL KIND OF NEWS ABOUT THE 37TH WGC IN NARROMINE;

I heard and read that there are nearly as much helpers/volunteers as pilots, around 50, so things should not go wrong during this 37th WGC.
On top of that Narromine is very experienced host, looking at comps.
I told you that several pilots/friends are visiting Tocumwal, ahead of the WGC in Narromine .
From Denmark of course Joergen Thomsen who prepares the ASW 20 for Rasmus Orskov, son of Joergen’s partner Birgitte. Joergen spends each summer…already for a few years… in Tocumwal .
From The Netherlands, it is Erik and Joyce Borgmann, their first visit, looking around in town and of course visiting the koala’s , the cemetery [THANKS Joyce for the pictures!!!!] and having good dinners p.e. in The TERMINUS, ….a wonderful old pub at the railway station.
George Schuit , who also spends already for ages his summers in Tocumwal,[since 1984?] and lived there for over 12 years, could speak some Dutch again.
As I wrote already George and his wife Diana both fly in Club Class in Narromine, representing Luxembourg, where they both live and where Diana is a 747 co pilot for Cargo Lux.
From SA, Uys Jonker,no introduction needed, visiting the old WWII hangar and the owners Lumpy and Sharon.
Eddie Madden :”At school today learning about servicing Jonker sailplanes EV power self launching systems.”
In the old Sportavia briefing room ,where Eddie used to “do” the weather, Uys gave an RES course. One day later it was ALL ABOUT THE NEW JS 5.

As Lumpy from Tocumwal Soaring Centre mentioned;
“We are used to International visitors coming to be with us.
Uys Jonker is here talking about the JS3 RES and the associated systems with owning and maintaining this awesome glider. Uys and the team are here for 4 days before heading up to the worlds in Narromine.
It’s great that Jonkers, along with GFA are able to provide this kind of opportunity to their customers and users of the new generation electric gliders flying in Australia.”
On top of that Lumpy flew over 700 km last Sunday in his JS3.

Also on British TV ,they show all about gliding with the UK team.
So good PR till now.
You can see it on Bognor Regis Gliding Club

Pilots are already there or on their way. Here are the Polish pilots Sebastian Kawa and Lukasz Grabowski ready to go with their very good and very experienced TC in the middle.
Sebastian and Lukasz fly the DIANA 2 in 15 m. class.

Yesterday on November 21 , young German pilot Henrik Bieler flew in the Ventus 3T/15 m. a 759 km, so pretty good weather in Narromine at the moment. Henrik is the current German national champion in 15m .
The Australian Bureau of meteorology however shows different circumstances, for the practice period.

Team USA is slowly arriving. 2 Of the team are already there, pilot Tim Taylor [15 m] and crew member Ron Gleason, who checked the scruteneering-process, with some funny remarks.
“During high level soaring contests, we are at the World Championships in Narromine NSW AUS, every piece of equipment is checked to insure it is within manufactures specifications and all proper paperwork is in order.
Wednesday 22/11/23 we got Tim’s glider through ‘scrutineering’, the glider contest version of going to the proctologist.“
Unofficial practice was on the menu too.

———————————————————–

Lake Keepit hosted the NSW State comps 2023/2024, between November 11 and 18. I wrote also about them in my earlier posts.

They had 7 out of 7 days in OPEN CLASS, with good soaring! Tasks between 2.30 AAT and 3.30 AAT and set tasks from around 300 km. Scores, even with 7 days of flying, were pretty close.
They had an interesting mix of conditions , Cu’s, blue , thermals and wave.
Winners;
1. Justin Smith in ARCUS M with 5.432 points. He won on the last day; 130 km./h over a set 280 km.
2. Richard Frawley in JS 3/18m with 5.325 p. lost nearly 200 points on the last day.
3. Steven Evans in ASG 29/18 m with 5.148 p.

CLUB CLASS had 7 days as well with good tasks their set tasks were around 200 km.
There was ONE CLEAR WINNER; Michael Strathern in his ASW 20 winning 5 days and being runner up on 2 days! The nearly perfect score.
“Well that’s all folks from Lake Keepit.
The Kiwi/Pom is the Australian NSW sports/club class champion!Today I decided to push a bit harder and see what the ASW20 can do and we did 114.5kph over 240 Km and won the day (and devalued it going too fast!)” as said by Michael.
Kiwi / Pom says it all; Michael will fly for New Zealand in his ASW 20 in Club Class.
Club class winners;
1. Michael Strathern in ASW 20 with 5.614 points. VERY READY for the 37th WGC representing NZ!!!!!
2. Cameron Turnbridge in St Cirrus with 3.883 p.
3. John Trezise in ASW 24 with 3.844 p.

Some interesting news and flights;
——-Last Saturday, it was one of those days again in Namibia with another 8x 1000 km flights , just have a look at WeGlide.org or Soaringspot.com.
The best flight that day however was for Argentina. We carefully follow the very hot weather in South America, over here, but it creates also good soaring conditions and with their wave…….
Brazil had yesterday 44.8 dgr. C.
Juan Pablo Vertura flew in his 18m Ventus 2CM, on November 18, with a speed of 231.69 km./h from Zapala Neuquen over 1.634.04 km!!!!
Wave over the Andes up to 7710 MSL. GOOD day!!!!
Yesterday he did it again same glider same area another long flight; 1.607 km with a speed of 197.06 km./h.
Not to forget that he “did” a 1.704.61 km flight with a speed of 199 km./h on November 15!!!!!
Frederico Buscema did about the same , not in a Ventus but in a Nimbus 3DM.
The Andes is ON.
Another TOP FLIGHT was from France; 1.235 km in an ASH 31/21m. by Baptiste Innocent from St Auban.

——-Greetings from Worcester in South Africa, what a great picture!
Look for more on https://www.weglide.org/flight/348561

That ‘s it for today. During the WGC, I try to publish more often when necessary.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.455 on November 15 2023

The WGC site for all the news; https://wgc2023.com.au

Narromine slowly “fills” with overseas pilots!!! On November 28 till December 1 with the opening on December 2 and the first day of flying till December 16.
A total of 79 pilots will enjoy the hospitality of Narromine to the fullest, I am sure of that, as I always enjoyed it too.
Of course their crews and TC’s will experience the same. Lot’s of die-hard Aussies will spend a day or 2 to be part of this “show” as well. Also locals, friends and family will gather. That’s what world championships are “made/meant ” for.
I hope that due to the cyber attack on the Australian harbors there will be no problems with the containers. I hope they have ALL arrived already and are cleared.
ABC had the next news;
“—Goods coming in and out of Australia are at a stand still because a major port operator DP World has shut down land operations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle.
—The federal government is helping respond to the incident.
—The National Cyber Security Coordinator; the situation could take days to resolve, which the ABC understands could lead to significant freight delays.”
GOOD TO KNOW!!!!!The problems seem to be solved, but 30.000 containers are waiting now to be dealt with.

AND,…..Here is the CONTEST DIRECTOR – Mike Durrant important person for the comps.
Welcome to WGC Narromine 2023!

On behalf of the Australian gliding community, it’s my pleasure to welcome all competitors, spectators, and organisers who will be participating in the 37th FAI World Gliding Championships in Narromine in November/December 2023.

It’s not often that Australia has the opportunity to host the Worlds, so we’re very excited to be running the event this year, and I feel hugely privileged to have been appointed to the role of Competition Director. We expect around 80 pilots from around the world to travel to Narromine and compete in what we expect will be sensational weather conditions, so it should be an absolutely spectacular event!

Of course, running an event of this nature is a huge team effort. We have a team of over 50 volunteers from across Australia (and the Czech Republic!) covering all aspects of the competition, from administration and events through to scrutineering, tasking, and flight operations. There isn’t room here for me to name and thank everyone who has been and will be contributing their time and expertise to the competition, but it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge Deputy Competition Director Beryl Hartley. Beryl was absolutely key to bringing the event to Australia, and she is continuing to do an extraordinary amount of work on the ground to ensure we host a successful competition.

We’re pulling out all stops to make this a great event – our catch cry for the competition is “Safe, Fair and Fun”. We hope that the Australian gliding community will support the event either by coming along to Narromine, or by following the competition on Soaring Spot or LiveGliding.“

And a tip from Adam;
“HOT TIP: try to always fly a MC3.0kt final glide into any Australian field, we have some gnarly sink in Australia & if you set off on your MC0.5kt like in EU, you’ll probably find yourself coming up short. We have big lift in Australia, but also the other side of the coin too, for long periods of times...”
When you have never been in Australia don’t expect to fly every day a 1000, so have a good look at the weather first to don’t land out on day 1 like in Benalla in ’87. The wind was much stronger than originally forecasted.
Back to Benalla for a moment:
104 from 108 pilots OUT. Open class [with 21 pilots] had a 556,4 km with 4TP’s, 15 m [ 43 pilots] same but with 444,8 km and standard [ 44 pilots] a triangle of 437.8 km.
Open class pilots / heroes Ingo Renner,[1000 points] Ray Lynsky from NZ [ 983 p] ,Marc Schroeder and Gabriel Chenevoy from France [ 962.949 p.] managed to finish, winning at least over 200 points more than the rest that day as Dutch pilot Gerrit Kurstjens on a great spot 5 got 786 points for 514,6 km..
Some crews arrived late in the night some the next morning, and in the past I wrote already that one of the cars AND trailer were “out” due to huge damage. “Our ” trailer; Sorry the trailer is for no good” was the remark at 7 AM after they knocked on our door.
It was a real hectic day!!!!
Erik ” Herbie” Moser wrote in his magazine “Good finish” about this day 1;
“A new world record was set with 104 landouts…. . Could this be a sign of things to come?“

Talking about the USA;
“Team USA is heading to the WGC in Narromine NSW, Australia shortly. Representing the US in the Standard Class are Sarah Arnold and Tom Holloran; 15 M Class, Rick Indrebo and Tim Taylor and the Club Class, Mike Westbrook and Tony Condon. Pete Alexander, Team Captain, will be posting tasks, conditions and photos and John Good, daily reports. Find current information here on our FB site, Instagram, and of course” https://www.ssa.org/us-teams/

Back to Narromine again; I know that a few overseas pilots/crews are going to visit our former venue Sportavia as well, ahead of the event to collect a glider, a trailer or just a visit now they are in Australia.
Some are former friends of “our” Dennis and visit his grave in Toc.
After having lived there for over 10 years PLUS at least an extra 10 summers,” I keep going” for Tocumwal !!!!
Good to see that Lumpy and his team have cleaned the hangar and put their own stamp now on the building.
www.tocumwalsoaring.com
To find the TSC [in the past SSC] easy, here you are;

——News from Benalla;
“The 2023/24 National Gliding Championships, Open, 18m, 15m and Standard classes will be hosted by the Gliding Club of Victoria at the Benalla Airport from 16 – 26 of January 2024.
GCV will be operating full time throughout December and January. Launching and weather briefing will be available daily for those pilots who wish to arrive earlier.”

–—–News from the UK;
“On Saturday 24th of February 2024, the BGA Sporting Conference is returning to the Holywell Park Conference Centre at Loughborough University followed by our Annual Awards Dinner at Burleigh Court Hotel at Loughborough University!
It’s going to be another great day, and for those who are staying on for the awards dinner, a fun evening too! We look forward to welcoming you, whether alone or with a group of like-minded friends!
As ever, the Sporting Conference is FREE to attend!”

—–FAI Sailplane Grand Prix has announced the new calendar;
And here we go for series 12 of the SGP! We will welcome you during these qualifying national events:

– Spain, Santa Cilia early May 2024

– Norway, Starmoen mid May 2024

– Germany, Aalen end of May 2024

– Italy, Varese mid June 2024

– Slovenia, Lesce early July 2024

– France, St-Sulpice mid July 2024

– Australia, Gawler early January 2025

– Netherlands, Terlet mid May 2025

– USA, Estrella date to be announced (will be Spring 2025)

World Final:

– France, St-Auban end of August 2025

“Welcome to the first Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix in The Netherlands to be held from 11-17 May 2025 at airfield Terlet.
The Dutch feel pretty good about their involvement in this 12th series, so they should;
“For an event such as the SGP you need to have a club that understands the value of it, a club with competitions and cross-country soaring in their DNA.
This is why the SGP is in good hands with the Gelderse Zweefvliegclub .
On top of that they make already a lot of “noise”, read good PR ,about this upcoming event in Mai 2024.

——Since the beginning of November ALL 4 Namibia venues are active; Bitterwasser, Pokweni, Kiripotib and Veronica.

November 10 the first Namibian TOP day; 18 over 1000 km flights, 2 over 1.100 km. Indeed,…..When the weather is there and the pilots, good gliders and “champions”,…… that’s what happens. GOOD!!!
2x a 1000 FAI TRIANGLE!! From Kiripotob Austrian pilots Wolfgang / Gunter Steuer in the ARCUS M ; 1.115, 63/1.015,64 FAI TRIANGLE and from the UK David Pilkington with Tilo from Germany also in ARCUS M.; 1.081,94 / 1.027,74.
November 11 [beginning of carnival here] was another top- Namibia- day! 10 over 1000 km flights and 1 from Worcester in South Africa; Sven [Olivier] in his JS 1.
The season is “on steam” now!!!
Wolfgang even flew his 2d 1000; 1.116.99/1004 FAI TRIANGLE!!!!

——Henrique Navarro mentioned;
“Sunday I beat 3 Brazilian Records in the 15 meters class: (i) FAI triangle distance; (ii) FAI free triangle distance; and (iii) 3 TP distance.
Total flight was 803 km at 120kph and the glider was the super Ventus 3TS “N1”.“
So another good day for him.Congratulations.

——In between comps were/are in progress again.
The one in NZ from Taupo, the Central Plateau Contest November 2023, just finished with a good number of days not all of them good; 5 out of 8 in open and in racing class, though the last day was flown by 1 pilot in open .
With 7 pilots in open and 6 in racing they started on November 5 with their first day , then 3 days “no flying” and 4 consecutive days with 2.30 and 2x 3 hour AAT’s and a 2 hour AAT in open.
Winner in open with 3.694 points was David Jensen in a JS1, winning 3 days.
Winner in racing was Geoffrey Thompson in LS 6A with 1.096 points.

—–The 2023/2024 State Gliding Comps at Lake Keepit [November 11-18] started with 2 reasonable practice days and on November 12 the 19 pilots in open got a 2.30 AAT. Some pilots I know from long ago and of course from the WWGC in 2019.
Open;
task 1 2.30 AAT 2 of the pilots I know in this class had an airspace violation, which is not a good start.
Daily winner; Greg [Kolb] in his 18m Ventus 2CX flew around with 96 km./h over 242.53 km. for 880 points.
A day with no clouds ,but bright and with lift.
November 13 had task 2 another 2.30 AAT won by Richard Frawley in an 18m JS3. 293 km in time 2.30 so a nice speed of 116,78 km./h.
Nick {Singer} in his JS1 was runner up. Nick is one of the Keepit instructors and a good chef …for friends….in the clubhouse when necessary. I loved his meals.
About the same conditions but weak lift.”the weather is similar to yesterday, they are expecting that conditions will be such that climbing will be difficult and average best heights won’t be very high.
November 14 task 3; 318.89 km won again by Greg. Speed 114.69 km./h.
6 from 20 were out.
November 15 task 4; 3.30 AAT...393 km in an ARCUS M by Justin Smith was the best result; speed 112.32. AND,…the first 1000 -points- day!!!!
Our former colleague in Sportavia , so long ago ,Mathias was runner up in his JS 3… good on him. Brad [Edwards] was 3d and Greg was 6th
More next week.

Club class;
task 1 ; with 8 pilots plus 1 HC had a 2.30 AAT won by Michael Strathern in an ASW 20….84 km./h over 221 km.
Task 2; 2.30 AAT and won again by Michael….249.66 km. in time 2.38; speed 94.51 km./h.
task 3; 268.26 km set racing task. With 93.33 km/h Michael was the best, so already 3 consecutive day daily winner.
Task 4; 3.30 AAT…NO new news…Michael was the best ; 378.67 km in time 3.36 so a speed of 104.89 km./h.
Good to see the St. Libelle flew a nice distance too,[ 225 km speed 64.39 km./h] as well as a St. Cirrus [ 217.93 km speed 62.27 km./h] and Grob 103sl.[ 300.58 km ,speed 84.60 km./h]
2 were out.
More next week.

That’s about it. Not long and there will be more news fro my site on the WGC as I have many family members [4] and enough friends to inform me.
So keep reading,stay tuned.

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.454 on November 8 2023.
Last Thursday we really had a big storm Ciaran,[say Kieran] , our 2d autumn storm and the heaviest power of this storm was not even here, but over the coasts from France, the UK and Belgium, with huge damage , flooding and at least 7 persons passed away.
France had Bft 12 and that is hurricane-power. Here we had gusts up to 120 km/h , more than enough for me.
Also Italy, Spain and Germany were hit, with also there casualties.
Due to the wet and warm weather, the trees are still full of leaves, heavy and then such a storm “attacks”….hence most people died due to falling trees.

————————————————————————–

And to Narromine again!!!
On the last day of October all entrees were in and it looks like 21 pilots in standard class, 31 in club and 27 in 15 m class have entered. Quite a few when you look at the distance to get there , the cost and if you want to fly your own glider, the shipment.

The 15 m class has a lot of entrees and the 2 Aussies flying over home country are Toby Geiger and Adam Woolley, both with great possibilities, though Toby mostly flies from Benalla and Adam from Kingaroy. For sure Adam will write his blog too, so we are all sitting front-row with him and Bruce.
The French have a strong team with Christophe Abadie and young Kevin Faur.
Don’t underestimate the Dutch…..2 very experienced pilots on WGC level. Jeroen Verkuijl and Erik Borgmann. Erik’s wife Joyce, does the PR for the Dutch.
Italy has Ricky Brigliadori and the UK Derren Francis and Phil Jones, all 3 TOPPERS.
Lucasz Grabowski and Sebastian Kawa from Poland are “aces” and together, maybe even unbeatable.
South Africa has with Uys Jonker and AP Kotze also soaring quality.
We just have to wait till December 3 for the first competition day ,after the opening of the event on December 2.

Talking about violent weather…Storms can pop up in Narromine as well. I was once there when a huge storm hit, even one of the organisation was hurt .We had one in Tocumwal too in the past a real down burst with damage….the roof from the sun-room collapsed due to the water on it.
Adam has an extra warning and picture for you;
“HOT TIP for those coming to the World Gliding Championship 2023 : We get huge storms in Australia, so be sure to ensure your glider AND trailer are tied down properly overnight. Ie, if you haven’t packed appropriate tie downs, then think about it. Naturally, you could also buy supplies from Narromine Hardware, or in Dubbo, Mitre10 or Bunnings when you get here“

—–Great news from Jonker and DG;
“We are thrilled to announce the recent establishment of JSDG GmbH, dedicated to ensuring the future production of the DG-1000 series! In a strategic partnership between DG Aviation and Jonker Sailplanes, we are leveraging shared resources and creating cost-effective production opportunities.
As the DG-facilities in Bruchsal are ideally suited for sailplane maintenance and production, the DG-1000 series will continue to be produced here in the future.“

And more JONKER- news, it was yesterday but maybe when the weather was not good you can look at it.The weather was “good” but due to approaching thunderstorm the new glider went up at 16.00.

And this morning the news was;
“Absolutely delighted to share the exciting news! Our JS5’s maiden flight was a success, the pilots who had the honor to test it are truly impressed with its exceptional handling.”

—–Got the WeGlide Magazine number 14 from November 2 full of newsy news. You can read it all on their site.
https://magazine.weglide.org/

—-–Great news from Schempp-Hirth as well;
“That was the German Gliding Day 2023 in Freudenstadt!
The 80th Gliding Day was a total success! Many interesting conversations, a nice atmosphere and of course, the Ventus E as a highlight!
We’re very proud to present this new arrival and we are looking forward to introduce this glider further to you in the next posts.
In addition, many more news were presented: our new online shop to ease the process of spare-part ordering, retrofitting of the Arcus, exciting research problems and our merchandise.”
More on; https://www.schempp-hirth.com/unternehmen/neuigkeiten/detail/ventus-e-concept-unveiled

——–Dutch news; The Dutch have presented a bid to the FAI sailplane GP, to organize the very first ‘Dutch Sailplane Grand Prix’ , between Mai 10 and 17 2025 at Terlet!!!! The organizers got the message that their bid has been selected.
Great news!!!!!!
The very first JWGC was also at Terlet in 1999, the Tulipe Tournament.
Looking forward to it. 20 Pilots can enter and they fly for max 7 day’s as the die hard fans from GP’s already know.
For news about GP’s in general; https://sgp.aero
It looks that the Nationals also around that time have to be moved to a later date , but that has to be officially announced.

–——Bitterwasser; will have over the next months LOTS of 1000km-news!!!!
Here is very early-in-the-season-news! From last Friday.
“Three in one go!
The first three 1000s flown in one day. Despite a rather poor forecast at the morning briefing, the day turned out to be a real spectacle.
All three teams reported a surprisingly good flying day. After initially weak thermals and constant sinking, updrafts and clouds appeared as if at the push of a button.
Holger Back and Ilka Eslter-Back covered the longest distance with 1123 kilometers and made it to just before the South African border.
Armin Behrendt and Thomas Wolf won the day in Africa with a distance of 1118 kilometers.Daniel and Reinhard Schramme also flew a long way with a distance of 1048 km. The pilots reported an average speed of almost 200 km/h for up to 2 hours.
In the evening, a convergence appeared directly above the airfield, allowing the pilots to enjoy a beautiful sunset.“
And 2 more on Saturday.
At this stage there are 4 female pilots as well; Andrea Abt, Margherita Acquaderni, Petra Lauer-Zimmermann en Ilka Elster-Back.
On November 5 they were on the OLC list on spot 2,[Illka with Holger [Back] 4,[Andrea by herself in Ventus 3M] 5 Margherita by herself also in Ventus 3M] and 7 [Petra with Tassilo[Bode]. Not bad!!!!

Also Veronica had 1000 km flights ,2 on Friday and 1 on Saturday.
You can see all those flight on the OLC or Weglide.

——-Australia is heating up as well. Several over 500 km flights in the wellknown areas of Benalla, Tocumwal and Corowa.

——-Gordon Boettger and Bruce Campbell flew from Minden-Tahoe in the ARCUS J 3.143,77 km!!!!!!
Speed 186.42 km /h.That was last Sunday .
WeGlide writes about the flight;
“WOW – 3143km, a new total distance record Gordon Boettger & Bruce Campbell pushed the boundaries again Another unbelievable flight with quite interesting facts:
—Working wave system for almost two days
–11 out of 18,5 hours flying in darkness with NVG’s
–To maximize the legs, wasting 170 km (flying up north) in the morning“
They were up in the air for 18 hours and 30 minutes. Pffff……
“Actually, they planned to do a downwind or 3-leg flight. Obviously, there is still a lot to come.”

–—–Last Sunday evening a lot of people in the Netherlands, could see colorful skies due to the “Noorderlicht ” a phenomena better known international as Aurora Boreales and it was not green but mainly red here. I missed out it was dark here but many people took pictures.
One of my soaring-mates mentioned:
“Flyweek ending with a very rare and beautiful red aurora borealis this evening between the north of France and Holland. Rare because a ‘noorderlicht’ is mostly not seen at these latitudes and rare because of it’s apparent color: a red color instead of greenish.”

New Zealand also had a wonderful night as one of my mates from Christchurch shared.
So world wide joy.

————The world aerobatics championships were just flown in the USA and Romain Fhal, well known world champion himself , was there coaching a group of his students in the advanced category.A total of 8 medals for his group. Well done!!!

–—–Some sad news to finish this blog, specially for guests-in-the-past, from Sportavia [SSC]
The wife of founder Bill Riley died last week, age 93.5.
Valerie , Val for friends , was always on Bill’s side. Working at Sportavia, or accompanying him when they traveled to every WGC where Ingo flew.
Both Bill and Val organised the funeral from our Dennis ,creating a life-long bond between our families.
She was buried today, surrounded by her family and best friends .
R.I.P. Val.

You are up to date, so till next Wednesday with news about the CENTRAL PLATEAU CONTEST November 2023 flown from gorgeous Taupo in NZ! I loved driving around Lake Taupo with John and Chris Roake in 2010.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.453 on Wednesday November 1 2023.

–—–Last week I ” talked ” with you about club class ,this time about standard!
Who is going to represent his/her country in Narromine??
Quite a few I know , or I have met at comps.
Of course, our Dutch entree Sjaak Selen [yes brother from Baer] in his Discus 2A.
Sjaak was already WGC champion in 2018 in Poland / Ostrow ,where Rasmus was champion in Club class and Sebastian Kawa in 15 m. All 3 fly now in Narromine again.
from Japan, but spending a lot of time down under, Mac [Makoto] Ichikawa, who flew years with us in Tocumwal ,where we helped him with gliders and accommodation, when he organized the RECARO CUP for Japanese pilots with us.
Bruce [Taylor] of course and I hope he has time to keep his blog as well.
My young Belgium mate Dennis [Huybreckx] who flies the LS 8 .
Sarah Arnold from the USA ,who I got to know better at several comps specially in Uvalde 2012, where she was a tuggie. Of course Sarah won the 2020 Lake Keepit WWGC in standard class.
The current worlds champion who defends his title, is Simon Schroeder from Germany and I expect a lot from the Polish ,French ,Czech and UK pilots.
Next time the 15m. representatives.

—-On November 4 the German Gliding Day is 80 years “old/young“. The day will be celebrated in Freudenstadt im Schwarzwald and the WEGLIDE team is there as well.
They announced already ;”A total of 33 exhibitors will be on site and exciting presentations are expected.” 
AND,….“Another highlight will be the Ventus E, the prototype of which will be exhibited in the foyer. We are excited to see what the concept will look like.”
https://www.schempp-hirth.com/ or Schempp-Hirth
What’s all happening you find here?
Glider Day program

News about he new generation of Diana gliders ; the DIANA 4.

—--Not long ago the Austrian Glider day was in Oblarm. Successful day with a book presentation from Simon Lemmerer, about gliding in the Alps, about thermals there and foehn and more;
THE ART OF GLIDING.
A great Christmas present!!!!
Simon was very pleased with the day on which at least 5 Baron Hilton Cup pilots attended.
https://www.viento.aero/the-art-of-gliding

——-The LS4 JET!!!! Who does n’t know the LS 4??? The single seat glider manufactured by Rolladen-Schneider Flugzeugbau GmbH between 1980 and 2003. At least 3 [at this stage] will fly in club class in Narromine .
Both my grandchildren fly or flew it.
NOW they have an LS4 with a jet engine! Have a look!
https://www.ftnonline.co.uk/2023/10/22/first-time-flying-a-jet-powered-ls4-glider-at-200kph/

–—-The first flights from Bitterwasser were on October 25 and 26 by Reinhard Schramme in the ARCUS M; 973 km. and 898 km. So a great start of the season, certainly now it is still very early. Many will follow!!!
“Quote Reinhard Schramme: “I still have goose bumps“.
He had never seen such great weather at the beginning of the season.
“After initial blue thermals, clouds appeared after 1 hour in the north until shortly before Rehoboth. Promising thermals!
With an average of 200 km/h at times, the two managed a grandiose 973 km in the end.”

——-Worcester with it’s magic ,had a great first flight as well on October 23 when Swiss pilot Rudi Hiltbrunner flew 913 km in an 18m. DG 800B. Lot’s of guests like Worcester, so also there will be many more good flights in the upcoming months.

——FABULOUS flight from Yves Gerster who will participate for Switzerland in Narromine in 15 m class.
On October 27 he started in Aosta in Italy and flew to Corsica, yes the ISLE of Corsica; 1.030 km. in an 18m DG 800
“Dreams do come true…With a bit more daylight and some liters of fuel, a return to Aosta would have been possible, although I never thought that this would be an option.”
https://www.weglide.org/flight/344669 for all the details and picture!!!
or on https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=9694902#map=

—- I often think of Tocumwal , the great life style the very hard work and specially our many, many guests/friends. Petri and his parents Martti and Liisa from Finland were a few I still have contact with. Not often kids accompanied their parents. But,….As a little boy Petri arrived , found a young UK mate to “play” with [ indeed we had 2 very young ones that season] and now I got the message, he has his technical Master of science from Lappeenranta university. I am getting old!!!!
Congratulations Petri.
Petri is a top glider pilot too, flying world comps and is a tuggy as well.

We had the WETTEST EVER October; 205 mm. Indeed it was and is VERY WET!!!!

I will be NOT in Narromine ; Travelling that far after I have done it for more than 30 times, is a bit too much for me at the moment, but I try to keep in touch with all there to inform you my way.
No worries!!!!

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.452 on Wednesday October 25 2023.

Now it’s rather “silent” with comp’s , I can look at some other interesting -soaring- related -news.

—–621 VGS Historic Flight posted this news and pictures.
“A fantastic autumnal day on Saturday with both our two-seaters out at the launch point. Amazing what you can achieve with only 4 people (and a trusty younger helper!). The Sedbergh soared to cloud base and the MK3 went ridge soaring.”
This was on Saturday October 14.

——Also old but totally different, news from Classic Aero Machining Service ;

——AND because it is SO NICE and colorful, ONE MORE:
Classic Aircraft Photography shared this picture

——the die-hard fans from Ingo [Renner], know he and Judy owned a kookaburra and a Discus with call sign XX. In the Kookaburra they flew together on their wedding day and in the Discus Ingo flew many 1000 km. flights and several records.
Who is interested in World Comps and has already looked at who is coming to Narromine and who flies what glider, [as I do] has seen already that there is a Discus A with XX on the tail!
INDEED it is Ingo’s glider and it will be flown by Diana from Luxembourg. Her husband George flies also in Club class in a St. Cirrus.
Petra Piskata from the Czech Rep.flies also in club and she was in Tocumwal in 2019 to pick up an LS1f she had rented . Tim Milner our former tuggie at the Sportavia Soaring Center will be participating as well for the UK.
Tomas Suchanek [Czech Rep] who visited us at Sportavia in the far past will fly as well ,so is Rasmus Orskov[ Denmark].
His mum Birgitte has spend and her husband Joergen still spends a lot of time in Tocumwal.
He has just arrived.

Uwe Wahlig from Germany is the defending champion in club class!!!!
The Netherlands sends 2 pilots Thies Bruins[ ASW 20] who flew Dutch Nationals WGC’s and EGC’s was runner up several times and is hoping/running for gold now!
Roelof Corporaal [LS7] owns several Dutch records; 750 FAI triangle.
So 2 GOOD Dutch pilots in club class!!!!!

——-At Terlet the autumn -soaring- camp from the Gelderse is on and my granddaughter Indya was there as well. At least they had a few nice days. Enough to finish her gliding license.

In total there were even 5; 4 of them “young ladies”!!!!! Good new group of future solo, maybe even comp-pilots. Ties, Willemijn, Femke, Lise en Indya….. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! After their theoretical exams they had a good enough day on October 17 for the flight/practical exams….so 5 glider -pilot-licenses in the pocket. Nearly end of the season and the Gelderse autumn camp is always a great closure of the season , for both young and old[er].
The weather unfortunately did n’t co-operate so good.

—–From November 5 10 AM, pilots can register for the 2024 EUROGLIDE-happening. The biennial gliding race over more than 2500 kilometres through several European countries.
MANY will be anxious waiting if they can participate. There is normally a rush to get in.

“Dear Euroglide friends, the organisation committee of the Euroglide has come to life again! As a first step we have fixed a date for the Euroglide challenge in 2024.
The period for the Euroglide 2024 will be from Monday, June 24th to and including Friday, July 5th (assuming there are no major military exercises in that period)
We ordered some excellent weather for the 12 flying days and finalize the event with the prize giving ceremony on Friday evening July 5th.”
What is Euroglide like?
“Contrary to a standard gliding competition, when each day a task is flown from the same airfield, Euroglide has only one task of approximately 2500 km:”Depart from Venlo airfield, round the turnpoints and return to Venlo as soon as possible, but at latest on the last competition day.“

–——–KIRIPOTIB is ready for the new season so are the CHAMPIONS from the “FLYING WITH THE CHAMPIONS ” .7 Day ‘s learning from the best, what do you want more.
First week is between November 1 and 7 2023. The gliders have arrived

—-–The FRENCH CHAMPIONSHIPS in 2024;
Beynes en catégorie Générale – classes Libre et 18m……. MAI 26-JUNE 1 2024
Vinon-sur-Verdon en catégories Générale et Féminine – classes Standard+15m+Biplace 20m..JULY 7-13 2024
Fontenay-le-Comte en catégorie Junior – classes Club+Standard+15m+Biplace 20m…AUGUST 4-10 2024
Moret en catégorie Générale – classe Club AUGUST 18-23 2024

www.ffvp.fr/agenda-des-competitions

——Maddog Composites shared this picture. I like those hard working sympathetic boys!

——-Matthew Scutter’s Gliding shared an impressive flight :
https://www.weglide.org/flight/343516
“When WeGlide added segments a couple of years ago, they asked me to suggest some for Australia. Idly clicking around I came up with some popular ones and also some silly ones, like the length of K’gari/Fraser Island (20k out to sea).”
“Today I finally got there! Everything went right down to the wire, a marginal jump to the island, barely high enough clouds not really working to safely strip hop, a collapsing convergence and finally a mega-jump back to the mainland, with the sea breeze eating up the climbs ahead just before I could catch them.“
Fraser Island is called the most beautiful Island in Australia. It’s the biggest sand-island in the world ; 123 km. long.

—–And to finish this fabulous colored picture from an autumn landscape in Scotland.

AND autumn in the Netherlands.

You are up to date again ,
Cu next week.
Cheers Ritz