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

Post 1.451 on Wednesday October 18 2023.….BUT published on October 16 as “old news is no news”.

2023 Club and Sportsclass NATIONALS.
Kingaroy,  9 October 2023 – 15 October 2023

I left you last Wednesday with a happy Adam and an, a bit frustrated Bruce.
Adam; “Another fabulous day in the skies, today we had a 3hr AAT over the Downs. It was set because of some uncertainty around Kingaroy. My feeling was that it was just going to be a localized shower & that I’d be able to fly through it from 9000′ should I have to.” the whole story on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
In the end “We navigated the slightly bluer conditions well before connecting up some endless streets for the final two hours – great fun!”
Bruce; “I’m definitely feeling frustrated. A few issues with the electrics in “WB” will not go away. Intermittent electronic problems are so difficult to diagnose, and I have a radio and a vario that won’t play the game.Neither one is a deal-breaker as far as performance goes, but they are very distracting.”
All about it on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Lets continue with the rest of these NATIONALS.

Task 4 on Thursday October 12….Dryer and hotter and all have to go direction N.

Club; 3 hour AAT…..Jim [Crowhurst] in his ASW 20, flew 397.53 km in time 2.57 and that was good for 1000 points;132.57 km./h. Bernie was runner up in his PIK 20B ; 1.21,73 km./h. Steve in his ASW 20B was the number 3.
All 9 started and finished.

Sports 18m; 3.30 AAT….great day for Lumpy [Paterson]who had his 2d win in a row; 559.73 km ,speed 156.82 km/h. Fast!! Ray [Stewart] was runner up with 153 km./h. All 10 started and finished.

Sports 15m; 3.30 AAT…Bruce[Taylor] was on fire!!!! He flew in an LS 8 545.70 km in time 3.37; speed 150.77 km./h Perfect! Adam was 3d and Mak 4th with Toby on 5.
Reaction from Bruce; At last I put a day together! And what a day it was. Certainly one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of flying. Greg and I managed to stay together for almost all of the flight which was helpful and good fun.”
More in Taylor’s Gliding Page

Adam; “First off the bat, congratulations to my team mates in Standard Class – your gliders will need refinishes after today – very proud & impressed by your speeds/team work, you deserve the day win, brilliant.” more in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures and he fishes with “Tomorrow looks like an 8000′ blue day, bring it on”
All 8 started and finished!
After all the gorgeous clouds, blue will be “different: But blue can be terrific good, is what Ingo always said.He flew several 1000 km km tasks in the blue!!!!

Task 5 on FRIDAY October 13!!!! “Dry westerly today with a perfect blue sky, so we launched off the cross strip 23. Launching was pushed out to 11:30 to wait for better lift while the inversion was still only at 4000ft. Only a few cus to the north in the distance. Not expecting the 140-160km/hr averages today that we have had the past 4 days!” Kingaroy Soaring Club
club; 3 hour AAT....Jim’s 3d win he is “on fire”; 1000 points in the pocket. Till now Jo was 2x a winner as well, today she was runner up together with Michael [Strathern] equal points; 347 km with 112.89 km /h. for 345 km and 109 33 km./h. So it’s all about Jim and Jo in this class. With 2 days to go their overall scores are; 4,760 and 4,497 points. 942 p.
A few penalty points this day for low finishes and 1 pilot “out”.

Sports 18m; 3 hour AAT….and Nimbus 4DM pilots Andrew and Ryan were the daily best; 417.51 km with 139.17 km./h. A tad faster than Ray in his JS 3; 138.82 km./h and those were the fastest times.
They all started but Ron seems to have had an invalid start,,,so end of the day…no points.
Ray still leads with 2 days to go but Andrew and Ryan are closing in; 4,664 for 4,595 points.

Sports 15m; 3 hour AAT....no this time they did not start together Toby and Adam. Toby left at 14.29 and Adam much later at 13.09!!! 411 km for Adam with 136.29 km./h and 397 km with 125 km./h for Toby.
Here is what happened trough Adam’s eyes:
“Some days you get lucky, truly! I was naturally trying to start with my team mates, but because I went looking for shear wave upwind of the line first, I found myself low in an area that felt like it had no climbs. My team mates were downwind, but high at the planned start time. It was one of those days when it’s best to just start when at altitude, so I was happy for my team mates to take advantage of their situation. If I were with them, I would’ve started at that time too..As it turned out, I started 20min behind them & the day has just cooked up. They fed back great information to me, like, if you’re in a solid 5kt climb Adam, stick with it. So that’s what I did, which managed to keep me high & probably catch them a little.”
More on this day in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures Adam even had 13kts.
Bruce was runner up and teamed up with Greg;
“It was a tough day and Greg and I landed pretty content with how we handled it. It was windy and the climbs were broken and initially very difficult to find. Our task was a double triangle to the north of Kingaroy, almost twice around the same track. Shear wave pre-start gave us a nice high run out on the first leg, but I think it was this first section that we lost some speed. We wanted to stay high and that was challenging, but as the day cooked up it got better and there were some nice climbs. I think always we could feel the wind and overhead wave affecting us underneath, but we worked well together. Had it not been for Adam’s amazing run from behind we’d have been right there. Super flight Adam, you’re right on your game at present… great to watch.“
Only 6 started [the Trotters DNF] and 1 of them was out.

Task 6 on October 14; penultimate day!
club; 347.10 km..…Speedy Gonzales Jim won with 110.62 km./h. another pocket full of 1000 points. Jo was 5th loosing 200 points, BUT still in the race for the silver. So Jim is ,before the last day,firm on top in his class.

Sports 18m; 468.33 km. with a speed of 135.52 km./h ….Lumpy seems to have found the “real Kingaroy groove” now!! With a late start together with the Nimbus 4DM, they raced over the track, but Lumpy arrived 5 minutes earlier. Lumpy is now on spot 4 after a pretty bad start on day 1, when he was the only one out and lost, compared to the winner Brad, 825 points, that’s a lot to gain again.
He won however till now 3 days. Only 8 started [Adam’s dad Chris and Brad DNS] and 1 was out.

Sports 15 m; 468.33 km…..with 126.86 km./h Toby won the day.The co-operation with Adam worked again; start and finish about the same but on handicap Toby won.
Adam was runner up and Bruce 3d. Adam leads with more than 200 points on Bruce [ 5,724] , but for the last day “things” are still possible; Bruce 5.496 p, Toby 5.463 and Mac 5.450 with Greg close too with 5. 429 points.

Task 6 VERY LAST DAY!!!! Early starts…the first in club just before 12 PM.
Club; 3 hour AAT….Jim added another 1000 points to his overall scores :387 km speed 126.49 km./h.
Jo was 7th but hold her runner up spot overall. Michael was 5th for the day.

No doubt Jim is the NEW AUSTRALIAN CLUB CLASS CHAMPION!!!!
1. Jim Crowhurst in ASW 20 with 6,760 points.
2. Jo Davis in ASW 20 with 6,121 p.
3. Michael Strathern in ASW 20 with 6,027 p.

Sports 18m; 3 hour AAT….with 494 km Ray was the daily winner ; GREAT speed 162.54 km./h!!!! Good on him. He added more points to his total.
Lumpy was runner up with 155 km./h.

NO doubt Ray is the NEW AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION in 18 m class!!!!
1. Ray Stewart in JS 3 with 6,638 points. By the way…. Ray also did the weather and task setting
2. Andrew Georgeson & Ryan Driscoll in the NIMBUS 4DM with 6,497 p.
3. David Jansen in Ventus 3MP with 6,084 p. David was task setter too. I know David from when he was still a very, very young guy and “only” interested in gliding. That he became an airline pilot I think he has to thank Beryll for.

Sports 15 m;3 hour AAT....Mac won the day ,his 2d win!!! 140.65 km./h! over 437 km. AND,…he nearly had the silver , missing out on 12 points.
Adam and Bruce were equal runner up, not even starting together; 966 daily points.
Bruce mentioned;
“As the sun sets on another nationals, we can only be happy to be part of this amazing sport. We’ve had a week (two weeks including the State comps) of spectacular weather and great racing. Today was another day of 160 kph + speeds, a long convergence run out near the coast, and cloudbase away up at flight levels. In our class Mac once again just pipped us, with Adam and I tied for second place.”
Full story on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Adam; “A fantastic end, to a fantastic competition! I’m now a 9 time National Champion thanks to my amazing team mates & the organisation, who made for a great fun competition
The last day was a hoot, convergence line running up North & South! I’m really happy with how I’m flying at the moment, confident, positive & with the burning desire to achieve the ultimate goal come December.”

Adam did well and no doubt is the NEW AUSTRALIAN 15m CHAMPION!
1. Adam Woolley in Ventus 3 TS with 6,690 points.
2. Bruce Taylor in LS 8 with 6,462 p.
3. Mac Ichikawa in LS 8 with 6,450 p.

Where would they be without their very skilled tuggies????? “To get 30 gliders launched in an hour we operate four tugs (three Pawnees and Cessna150) Needing a dedicated group of tug pilots! This week we have had Neil, Rob, Alex, Nev, Paul and Darryl working hard. And thank you DDSC for loaning us your Pawnee.“

Thank you to the Kingaroy Soaring Club too for sharing news and pictures, so that we at home can follow the excitement too.
And thank you to Lisa for being a great CD.

—————————————————————

News from Jonker Sailplanes:
“We are extremely thankful as we mark the achievement of our 300th JS Glider and the simultaneous completion of the 200th JS3!
Our heartfelt gratitude extends to each and every customer, partner, friend, and employee of Jonker Sailplanes for their invaluable contribution in turning this dream into a reality.
Here’s to the next 300 JS gliders and beyond!”

That’s ALL about the Australian Nationals. The WGC in Narromine is the next big event….in 6 weeks time.
It looks that 4 from my family will be there. George and Diana as pilots in club class and Inge and Indya [daughter and grand daughter] as crew/TC.
I stay home …the other side of the world is now TOO FAR for me.
Not much more happening at the moment. We still had 24 dg C. last week, but now it’s really autumn…11 dgr.C. !!!!
CU ……on October 25….. Cheers Ritz.

Post 1.450 on Wednesday 11 2023

South African National Gliding Championship 2023
29 September 2023 – 7 October 2023

My last post was about 3 flying days and 4 tasks, one not flown.
Task 5 on flying day 4 on October 4;
Club; 317.52 km…..Dicky Daly won his 3d day; GOOD!!! 110.83 km./h.
15 m. ; 524.93 km….Uys -day today . He won, finally a clear head after all the work;144.23 km./h
18 m. ; 524.93 km…….Fast day..Laurence Hardmann flew around with 152,50 km./h.
2 seaters; 447.99 km..…As said, Yamauchi & Greenhill, the young ones, finally got the hang of the SA weather and indeed they won another day; 148,52 km./h!!!!!

Task 6 on flying day 5.
Club; 364.79 km…..and Richard Glennie in his ASW 20 was the daily best; 106.46 km./h and the only one over 100 km. Dicky was 3d.
15 m;  594.36 km….another Uys-day; 134.33 km./h. Only 3 left in this class, as AP Kotze did not fly.
18 m;  594.36 km…..Riaan Denner in the JS3 had a good day; 149.09 km./h and Uys’ brother Attie was runner up; 148.85 km./h. whilst Phillip [ a young Jonker] was 4th
2-seaters; 510.29 km and Pieter Nouwens &Mark Nouwens in their Duo Discus were daily best; 127.22 km,./h.

Task 7 penultimate day of this National Championship.
“The final day of the SA Nationals and an early start this morning. Gliders are asked to be gridded before the 10 a.m. briefing for a possible 11 a.m. first launch. There is quite a strong wind blowing and according to the pedestrian forecast they expect temperature of 35 degrees today, getting cloudy over the next few days and then possible thunderstorms later on next week, but by then the Nationals will be ‘done & dusted’.“
South African Nationals
Club; 349.50 km…..Dave Maver in his ASW 20 was the best; 126.11 km./h! Dicky was runner up and Maarten on 4 .With that we have the top 3 overall , with one day to go!
15 m; 579.29 km….. 2 from 3 flew the task and Wayne won.128.38 km./h Runner up was Mark and Uys was out.
18 m; 579.29 km…With an early start [12.39] young Phillip [JS1] won the day 146 km./h…..with ONE point difference with Oscar,[JS3/18m] who started at 13.21; .
2-seaters; 543.35 km….AND …the young ones in the Nimbus 4DM , Zach and Thomas, did it again; WIN; 146.77 km./h.

Task 8; FINAL DAY!!!! Exciting day as well….great speed and a different champion than I expected.
Club; 276.14 km….
15m; 404.34 km…only 2 left in this class as Uys flew his JS 3/18 m. HC. Mark and Wayne both flew the task; 143 and 140 km./h.
18m; 404.34 km…and Oscar proofed once more what a good pilot he is. With a speed of 182.57 km./h, he raced over the track. Attie and Riaan did about the same with start and landing and were only seconds , behind. Interesting to see if that could change the overall scores, AND YES it did Phillip was slower [still 159.66 km./h. ] and lost his first spot to Oscar.
Oscar mentioned that the day was very much underestimated,…that sounds about right… but last day and “braai” in the evening..reasons enough to set a short task,BUT…..”But could have shattered the 500km world record. Half the task was under 11k’ airspace, as the predictions was that this was the best area. Base was estimated at 20k amsl”
A STERLING day!!!!
As Oscar said:”Epic race. Best weather I have flown in for a long time. Actual speed around 400km was 182kmh”
2-seaters; 404.34 km….with 163 km./h the “young ones” in the Nimbus 4DM won again. That was 20 k faster than runner up Stefan in the Duo, but then there is off course the difference in glider!!!

Several over 500 km flights and great speed ,so a good South African Championship. And 7 out of 8 days. GOOD!!!! And good, better ,best,..a safe competition!
Overall results;
CLUB class ;
1. Dicky Daly in St Cirrus with 5,609 points.
2. Dave Maver in ASW 20 with 5,236 p.
3. Maarten Jonker in LS4 with 5,137 p.

15 m class;
1. Wayne Schmidt in ASW 27 with 6,191 points.
2. Mark Holliday in ASW 27 B with 5,816 p.
3. Uys Jonker in JS 3/15 m. with 4,536 p.

18m class;
1. Oscar Goudriaan in JS 3/18 m with 5,907 points.
2. Phillip Jonker in JS 1 with 5,853 p.
3. Attie Jonker in JS 3/18 m with 5,755 p.

2-seaters;
1. Zach Yamauchi & Thomas Greenhill in NIMBUS 4DM with 5,854 points.
2. Nouwens & Nouwens in Duo Discus T with 5,665 p.
3. Pieter Geldenhuys in ASG 32MI with 5,354 p.

15/18 m ;
1. Oscar Goudriaan with 5,888 p.
2. Phillip Jonker with 5,855.p.
3. Attie Jonker with 5,741 p.

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Queensland State Comps are a good preparation for Nationals straight after .

In a short period Kingaroy is the host for these state comps till October 7 and the Nationals from October 9 to 15. So in full swing at the moment. See below!
They had a few days to go here is the rest of their week. It’s a Grand Prix type of competition, with a regatta start, quite a few penalties every day and …..
Day 5; REST DAY!!!!!

Day 6;
Club; 245 km.….regatta starts at 12.30 and best speed , just over 100 k /ph. Of course by Bernie [Sizer] in his PIK 20D.
Sports class; 272.8 km....and good old Dave Jansen is really doing well. When he was VERY young he flew ALWAYS. I guess he might be retired now as airline pilot so time enough again.132.08 km./h.
15 m; 272.8 km….won by Bruce 129.6 km./h and Adam was sick so decided to go back to the field.
“Funny old day, I think I might’ve been suffering from a mild dose of dehydration today, a first for me. The upside, I realised it early & called it a day before it got any worse” Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Bruce;” We had a short task today. The weather looked to be blue with the best conditions out to the east, and there aren’t so may turn points possible out that way. It turned out that it was better than forecast and there were strong climbs and increasing cumulus through the afternoon.” more about the day on Taylor’s Gliding Page

Day 7; VERY LAST DAY!!
Club; 273 km…..and a new face at the podium Mark Dalton who flew in his ASW 20 to spot 1 and 10 points. He fished on 6 overall.
Overall scores in CLUB after 6 flying days;
1. Bernie Sizer, in PIK 20 D, with 38 points….winning 3 days.
2. Kim Houghton in LS 3 with 33 points winning 1 day.
3. Todd Edwards in LS 3 with 32 points also winning 1 day.

Sports class; 339 km. Brad Edwards in his JS 3 won the last day , his 2d win.
Overall scores in Sports class;
1. David Jansen in Ventus 3/18m with 46 points winning 2 days.
2. Ray Stewart in JS3 /18 m with 45 points winning 1 day.
3. Andrew Georgeson in Nimbus 4 DM with 39 points.

15 m; 339 km. Greg Beecroft won the day and Adam was runner up Bruce was 5th but no harm to his overall scores.
Here is Bruce;”Some days are diamonds, and for me today wasn’t one of them. We all have days when the pattern we see in our head doesn’t quite match the pattern of the weather we are flying in, and that is part of the fascination of this game. I’ve had a fantastic week and have been so pleased with my results so far. I’m back in my favourite glider from the past 40 years and having a ball.”
About his last day more on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Overall scores in 15m;
1. Bruce Taylor in LS 8 with 25 points winning 3 days.
2. Mak Ichikawa in LS 8 with 22 points winning 1 day.
3. Greg Beecroft in LS 8 with 20 points winning the last day.

Great practice for the Australian Nationals. They can have a 1 day of rest and are used to Kingaroy,… so high expectations!

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2023 Club and Sports class Nationals from KINGAROY.
9 October 2023 – 15 October 2023

9 pilots in club class, 8 in sports 18m and 11 in sports open, and a few strong competitors in each class.
Practice day on Saturday with nice tasks [Club 252 km. Sports open 301 km and Sports 15 m with 260 km] to get in the “groove”, a groove for Adam together with Benalla pilot Tobias Geiger. Adam and Toby practice team flying!
“Tobias & I enjoyed a really positive day over the skies of Kingaroy, where we practiced our team flying for the upcoming WGC” in the beginning of December in Narromine. More news about their team flying on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Some pilots are already in Australia for this BIG event. So is George who flies in club class for Luxembourg, so does his wife Diana.
George arrived in Tocumwal last week and had the best weather last Sunday.

Task 1 on October 9; great, fast, first day.
Club; 347.02 km……8 started in this class ,5 of them in an ASW 20 , 1 in a PIK 20B and 2 in a Discus. And,…NO it was not one of the state-comps- pilots, but Jo Davis, who could have been the WWGC champion ,when there was no controversy about the scores. She is a good pilot!!!!
Speed 127.57 km./h just a tiny bit faster than Michael Strathern also in ASW 20 with 127.47 km./h!

Sports open; 427.87 km…and straight away the 1991 WGC Champion from Uvalde Brad Edwards won the day in his JS 3/18m. Speed 154.65 km./h!!!! Just a tad slower with 154.43 km./h was Ray Stewart, runner up during the earlier state comps.
10 started and only 1 was out.

Sports 15m; 409.25 km…. The Trotters took it easy during the state comps ,but now they were in full action. Peter was 1 with 142.39 km./h and Lisa 2 with 140.89 km./h Both fly an LS 8.
From the state-comp-pilots, Toby and Adam flew together as announced and were on 3 and 4 [145 and 146 km./h!!] ,Mak on 5 and Bruce on 6.
All 8 in this class started and the “slowest” with respect was Mike with still 130 km./h!!!
That says enough about this perfect first day.

Task 2 on October 10; another good day with nic tasks.
Club; 369.50 km…pffff, in his ASW 20 Jim [Crowhurst] reached a speed of 134.35 km./h …. not 1000 points but 900. Not bad either. Runner up with about the same speed Steve [McMahon] in ASW 20B, with 133.71 km./h

Sports 18m; 444.65 km….Brad was runner up and Ray won. Both really good pilots , Brad “a bit older’ maybe experienced [??] as Ray. Speed 159.37 km./h and 154.21 km./h. Both ” flew their JS3 on fire.”
10 started and 9 were in .Ron in his NIMBUS 4DM was out after 85 km. I heard he had already some problems with his glider during the State comps.

Sports 15 m;  444.65 km…good to see our Japanese mate Mak win the day in his LS 8; 145 km./h!!!! AND,…1000 points. Good on him. Bruce was 2km./h slower for 976 points.
Bruce had a lot to say about the day here is part of it:
“Nice big day today for Day 2. Over 9,000 feet at best and peak climb rates of more than 12 knots. That’s 1200 feet per minute, or in gliding terms we are gaining about 400 feet for every circle we do. Nice!
But also “It is huge fun, a day like today, fast cruising, big pull-ups into strong lift that is smooth and powerful… We love it! But it is busy. You have to concentrate all the time because the edge between good and bad air can be sharp and a wrong move can suddenly have you lose height on your competitors.”
Taylor’s Gliding Page
Adam and Toby started together again but the difference between a Ventus 3TS [146.68 km./h ] and a Ventus 2ax [138.58 km./h] is clear. EVEN with the 1% advantage as declared by the GFA’s handicap committee. They are happy together ,so all GOOD.
Mak leads now with 14 points on Peter [Trotter] who was 4th for the day.

Adam’s dad Chris ,a very fine man and good pilot, had safety concerns and Adam writes about it;
“10/10 today to the organisation for listening to my fathers safety concerns about the use of the 500m radius control point, just 15km from the finish line. At first the topic was pushed aside, but then after an insistence to be heard, the organisation took the time to review it, then adjusted it after consideration. I’m super proud of Dad & very pleased that the organisation took the safety first option & were willing to change their minds, superb” Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

Task 3 on October 11; Today ….and the time difference with here is 8 hours, in about 2 weeks 10, so the scores are preliminary. “Fab” day again with 3 hour AAT’s in each class and good speed .
Club; 3 hour AAT…...with 383.63 km Jo had another daily win on a 1000-points-day; 123.88 km./h. All 9 “clubbies” flew over 300 km. and finished

Sports 18m; 3 hour AAT...he started around 10 minutes later as the rest , flew 480 km with a speed of 153.29 km./h …Lumpy Paterson [from Tocumwal] in his JS3 /18m; that was about 6 k/h faster than the rest. Kerrie did not fly so 9 starters.

Sports 15 m; the team-flying from Adam and Toby bear fruit as the 1000 points were for Adam and 954 for Toby; 465.37 km with a speed of 152.76 km./h and 443.43 km with 147.84 km./h.
All 8 started and finished and the “slowest” speed again with respect was 128.63 km./h!!
No news yet from Adam on this great performance , but even better news ….HE IS IN LOVE…..BE HAPPY TOGETHER!!!!

After 3 glorious flying days and halfway the overall scores are in
CLUB; 1. Jim Crowhurst with 2. 761 points and 2. Jo Davis with 2.706 p.
Sports 18m; 1. Ray Stewart with 2.750 p and 2. Brad Edwards with 2.701 p.
Sports 15 m; 1. Mak Ichikawa with 2.822 p and 2. Adam Woolley with 2.820!!!!

More next Wednesday.

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Matthew went to find out by himself what the MORNING GLORY is and when his own SKYSIGHT said “perfect weather to do so”, he indeed “found” it after travelling 2500 km to Burketown; https://www.weglide.org/flight/340246
305 km @ 195 km/h…..Diana 2…”Could probably do a world record 100km triangle on this.”
Cloud top up to 1200m, base all the way to the fog.

Due to internet problems he wrote yesterday a bit more on this flight
“The “Morning Glory” cloud is an extremely rare cloud formation, a ripple in the atmosphere trapped between two air layers that only forms with any regularity in a single location – Far North Queensland. More than a 2000km from a major city, few ever get to view it and even fewer get to experience flight along it.This was my first flight on a Morning Glory. Sorry it took so long to upload – the internet in Burketown was mobile-only and even that went offline!”
There is a 25 minute video via Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

To finish…..more clouds…… another fab picture…

With all these wave meccas London Club Lasham Gliding Society wrote;
“Lasham are back at Deeside Gliding Club in Scotland for the next 3 weeks running our autumn expeditions. We’ve got four gliders up there currently. So far on the first week nearly everyone has enjoyed several mountain wave flights. Some to altitudes of nearly 20,000ft with the good conditions lasting most of the week!“

AND,…what about 109 years of gliding experience and still going strong. My Belgium mates Bert Schmelzer sr and Eddy Huybreckx. TOPPERS!!!!

And news from Henrique Navarro in Brasil;
“The Brazilian Gliding Federation has just approved my National speed record on a 750km FAI triangle @152kph with the Ventus 3 15 meters. I was short of beating the World record by less than 4kph.”

CU next week. Hope a week with less stress and fewer [better no ] deaths around the brutal invasions from Russia in Ukraine and the barbaric terror group of Hamas in Israel,…in what world do we live!?
Sad,…. Ritz

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

Post 1.448 on Wednesday September27 2023.

5th Edition of the Experimental E5 GLIDE
Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, France
17 September 2023 – 23 September 2023

Matthew on day 1;
“A very difficult first day at E5Glide.
Recapping for those playing along at home, EGlide is a competition held at the end or after the soaring season, where you are allowed to use a small amount of electric power (enough to climb ~600m) in order to finish tasks in conditions that are often otherwise unsoarable.
Today was only 160km but with not enough wind for the ridges to really work and not enough sun for the thermals to pop. I managed to marginally ridge soar the second leg on a ~200m tall ‘ridge’, actually the edge of a small plateau which gave me a bit of a jump on most, but Tilo pulled not one but two brilliant climbs out of the murk to get a large lead on us all.” Matthew Scutter’s Gliding Worse conditions tomorrow and indeed
Day 2 was cancelled.
And here is Matthew again on;“Day 2(3?) of EGlide was likely the best conditions of the event, but we had a challenging first 100km in the flats to the south taking 0.5m/s climbs to 900m AGL. Finally we staggered past Puimoisson and into the mountains where it improved but was broken with light winds and still damp surfaces.
There was a massive 3m/s climb on the Blayeul mountain to a lone cloud with a base 500m above the surrounding area, which I used on the leg going north, then south, then west, each time timing my arrival to just above the peaks. This turned out to be the key to the day, and those who went direct had much weaker climbs. We all had trouble on the final leg but I had just enough reserve to scrape in for a solid 1st.”
Matthew Scutter’s Gliding also for more news on this comps.
Task 4 was cancelled but “Despite capricious weather and the cancellation of the 4 event,2 FES still flew that afternoon!”

Till now it was 1 day flying 1 day “free”, so on September 21
Task 5 was set on comps day 3…..123.54 km....
Slovenian team Lukas Znidarsic and Nina Lokovšek in the good old Duo Discus XL FES, won the day with Tilo as runner up and Matthew on spot 3. All started at 4PM.
“The top 3 pilots are only 21 seconds apart! After 3 races and hundreds of kilometers under tricky weather conditions! EGlide competitions are really the best to conclude the season with fun, fast and entertaining races even with marginal weather.
A very exciting rice. Perfect Task for FES.
It was a FEStival!”CNVV Saint-Auban
And Matthew said about the day:
“No thermals today, only wave pre-start and then a bit of engine to connect to the ridges – except the ridges were not really working and everything got a bit squeaky! Some very very low ridge-declining and a bit of rotor got me home with only a few penalties.” Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

Task 6 comps day 4 with 247.19 km . …and the by far youngest pilot, 19 years old, won the day. He made the best strategic choices at start, remained up front and won the day. Congratulations to TheNapoleon [that name for sure sounds familiar] o flying an 18m. Discus 2C FES…..Good on him.
Theo started at age 13 and has already 3000 hours!!!This is his first experience with E gliders and he really likes it.
They started at 2.40 PM and Theo was 10 km./h faster than Matthew in his 15m LS 8 e.
Matthew;”Yesterday was a strong thermal day and we had our longest task of the event. I was able to capitalize on an efficient first leg and get a jump on Tilo and Luka who struggled a bit behind me. Theo exploited a moment’s indecision to get five minutes ahead of me part way around which I wasn’t able to reel back, but still leaves me going into the last day 11 minutes ahead of Tilo and Luka.
Moderate ridge task today, 220km. A very challenging long leg into the wind is going to cause problems. Hoping to keep my energy for this bit.”

Task 7 on flying day 5 with 219.20 km…..VERY last day and very last possibilities to win this 5th edition! Matthew leads with 11.07 on Luka and 11.42 min. on Tilo. The “rest” is a bit far back.
Well,…Tilo won and Matthew and Theo were close, whilst Luka was 4th.
“On the last day itself Luka and Tilo flew completely different tracks making them impossible to cover, so I was forced to pick my own route and miraculously the three of us ended up on final glide together anyway, just seconds apart.” Matthew….and more about the comps on Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
So the final scores remain the same;
1. Matthew Scutter in LS 8e 15m [handicap 109] 0
2. Tilo Holighaus in Discus 2c FES 18m [handicap 114] -11.17
3.  Luka Žnidaršič in Duo Discus XL FES [handicap113] -12.74

Matthew really is a multi talent!!!!!! When he was very young I got to know him and friends said “keep an eye on him”, which I did. He is multi talented with soaring, has his own business SKYSIGHT where he is the CEO, so knows all about weather and was invited to help out with the last flights in Argentina with the Perlan Project. He travels the world with his Diana 2 and flies lot’s of comps.
In France at the WGC the Diana was on spot 1-2 and 3.

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——-Glider Forever reflected on the beginning of the season Down Under:
“Season is on in Australia and what a start it is. Recently David Jansen & Kevin White head of for a flight in the ASG 32 Mi and landed back to Kingaroy with 4 national records in their hands, awesome performance”
850km @ 120km/h …….this was on September 12.
AND
“Ray Stewart commented under his 700k flight one day before: “Hopefully this is the start of what promises to be a great season.” Fingers crossed our Australian friends, we wish every Pilot a great start into the season 23/24“.

On September 21 an OUT and RETURN was on the menu and David flew another record; 500km out and return at 145kph, with Kevin.
Great start of the Down Under season.
My friend Gerrit flew in his new EB 29 a distance of 613.29 km.last Saturday from McCaffery Airfield .
Lumpy Paterson from Tocumwal was in Kingaroy and flew TODAY, 665 km in his JS 3.

Europe has still good autumn flights as well Austria had also on September 21 an 827 km flight from Wiener Neustadt in an 18m Ventus 2CM….wave and ridge.
Also in the Netherlands…..Look at Terlet on Sunday September 24,” after-summer” conditions in the end of the season. 200km CC was still possible ,whilst last Sunday in Germany over 500k-CC was flown.
on the other hand several final-of-the -season-BBQ’s and parties are on at the moment.

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Jonker Sailplanes had some very interesting news;
“First up, check out the feature in Engineering News that highlights our groundbreaking projects – the @jonker_sailplanes JS5 glider and the near-vibrationless engine.”
https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/…/two-aerospace…
AND
the @csirsouthafrica article, delving deeper into our journey of innovation and the support we provide to young talent in the aerospace sector.
https://www.csir.co.za/development-youth-ontrack-technologies-aisi-supported-projects

As said after summer in The Netherlands. Up to 25 dgr. C Weird weather.

——Last but not least a very inspiring story written by Matthias Arnold for WeGlide about Eva Senne, daughter from WWGC champion Katrin Senne; A succesful newcomer.
Eva has 800 hours and 40 were flown in 2023 and between Eva’s first 500km and her first 1000km flight, there is not even a year.!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!

https://magazine.weglide.org/eva-senne-successful…/
https://magazine.weglide.org/eva-senne-successful-newcomer-in-gliding/

That’s all for now. Comps on this side of the world are more or less over. Africa, NZ and Australia start soon.
The OLC has changed to 2024 [next week more about the stats] and the first ’24- flights worldwide were on September 26 from Australia; 300k in an ASH 31/21m from Benalla and 20 in an ASK 21 MI from Mount Beauty.
By the way, the Dutch Nationals will be flown between Mai 9 and 18 in 2024.

Cheers Ritz