Post 1.393 on November 30 2022

—–When you have to make an out landing at this stage in the wet parts of Australia you have to be prepared that this can be difficult. A landing in a crop might be pretty safe as long as the canola is not too high .
Such a landing happened around Tocumwal and Joergen was so kind to share some pictures from Bernie ‘s outlanding.

And when you wonder who is Joergen, here you are;

—–It ‘s nice to see that USA pilot Kathy Fosha is back in Lake Keepit. She must have good memories on flying from that field during the Aussie- Keepit- 10th-WWGC in January 2020.
Her first flight back down under was in a Discus ; 447 km.
Last Monday she flew in a Discus A 361 km.
“Day was better than expected. Was a bit pessimistic and grumpy on the ground, and pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a great day. Good fun!“

–—–Also great to see that my friend Daan [Pare] flies in Kiripotib with his son Thijs ; a father-son-week in the ARCUS M. One day Daan “leads”, the other day Thijs, who I know since he was a toddler.
On Friday Thijs was “the leading man” ; “Plan A was to go around the Windhoek TMA, however some showers in the north made us chance our minds. So we conjured plan B which was to go south, where we joined the giant motorway that ran into Botswana. Great day!“1.063 km with 140 km./h!
Last Friday , indeed, they had in Namibia “one of those days” again.
With 26 x a 1000 km,; one 1.169 km [1000 FAI triangle !!!!] by Eric Schneider in an Ventus 3 M /18m. with 150 km./h.! He is one of those young ones who “get” a glider from the junior sponsor for Bitterwasser Wilfried Grosskinsky. Eric felt “over the moon”, grateful, but was a bit annoyed with himself that he/it started half an hour late. So the flight could have been even better!!!
During his very first flight in Bitterwasser, with Klaus [Reinhold] in the Arcus, they flew with great lift and lines, 1.145 km….so great practice.
Those young Germans say it more enthusiastic; Toller tag, Geil, Hammer steigen and tolle Linien.
Longest flight that November -day -25, was 1.240 km. in the mighty EB 28 from Bitterwasser.

—–They started last Friday on November 26 in Bitterwasser with Wilfried’s 1000 km. camp for young pilots.
Wilfried himself took young Max Maslak for a ride in the EB 28;
“A very good day with the usual first hour in the blue, but then under lines to SS….! For Max, the first flight in Africa was full of excitement….! All in all, a very good team performance, with Max getting along excellently with the big plane!“
Tobias Pachowsky another young talent, flew the Ventus 3 on this day 1 and was as enthusiastic as all others flying solo or “with” during the camp.
He mentioned it was a pity that the final approach thermal didn’t want to come. But at least they flew the 1000 k.
“What a day today. Was really incredibly fun. Especially with Eric together in the team. At the beginning it was really tough up to the clouds. After that, going north, things went very well in the team. The leg to the southeast was the absolute top hammer. Lift everywhere. Maybe we flew a little too far to the southeast. On the way back, the line deteriorated properly and we had a headwind. In the end it wasn’t quite enough for the 1000 fai.
Still a great day and the Ventus is an absolute machine. Thanks for this opportunity!!!”
Wilfried and Tobias had another good flight yesterday in the EB 28, together with Max , now in the Ventus 3;
“Day 4 1000km Camp Bitterwasser.
A weather situation with high instability, overdevelopment and thunderstorms in the evening.
The right routing and timing was the prerequisite for the success of the day!
Another new experience for Tobias and Max, which can only be mastered in a team flight.
Definitely exciting up to the last minute, with a common frequency providing great help and security for everyone!” 1.215 km [ 995 FAI] with 150 km./h. and 1.159 km. with 143 km./h.
Those young ones must have the best time in their lives, whilst en passant, learning more than ever before.

——Veronica is getting more and more a host for all International pilots. I noticed pilots from Germany, Israel [6!!!! all from the Negev Gliding Center] ] Poland, Czech Rep. and the UK.
Kiripotib shared great news;
“Gabriela Beláková and Antónia Sulírová set a Slovak record today (not yet confirmed). The 750 km FAI triangle was never flown before by a female Slovak team. Congrats ladies!”
125 km./h in the ARCUS M.

———South Africa’s MAGIC WORCESTER, had the same great weather last Friday; 1.154 km by Mathias Schunk together with our -long-time-ago-in-Tocumwal-kilometer-eater Uwe [Thiele] ;143 km./h.
On Saturday they went up again and had an even longer flight, what do you expect else from 2 kilometer-eaters in One ARCUS M;1.302 km. with a speed of 145 km./h.
One of our other frequent-Toc-flyers is in Worcester too; Michael Godoj.
2 Over 700 km flights till now.
This OLC is such a fabulous way of “following” old mates.

–——–The weather down under is in spring mood. When you can fly 507 km. in a St. JANTAR [SZD 48-1] from Beverley in the West, that’s just good by Ross McLernon!!!! 95 km./h.
What I remember from the past is that the weather in the early season was good in the East moving through the time/seasons via the South to the West.
Last Saturday Norm [Bloch] flew already a 730 km in his JS 3/18m with 130 km./h. so a
great start of the Western season.
Also Tocumwal on the Murray river had a good day and frequent-Toc- flyer Ken from Japan, tried out his beautiful “toy” again after the covid -years.

—–Staying down under, with lovely news about Beryl from the FAI AWARDS
“Beryl Hartley, has been awarded the prestigious FAI PAUL TISSANDIER DIPLOMA, named in honor of Paul Tissandier, Secretary General of FAI from 1919 to 1945. This diploma is awarded to those who have served the cause of aviation in general and sporting aviation in particular.”
And I have personally seen and heard how she served gliding…in an unbelievable way.
NOTHING WAS TOO MUCH FOR HER!!!!
MORE THAN DESERVED!!!
Congratulations Beryl.
Also the Integrated Training Panel has won the FAI award for Group Diplomas of Honor.
“Gliding Australia is proud to announce that its training programme steering group has won this award.
This award recognizes the team’s hard work in developing a common pathway for training pilots in core skills as well as soaring and cross country through standardising materials and adopting modernised training techniques.”
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

——one of the kilometer eaters flying in Argentina Juan Pablo Verdura flew last week, for the first time far South from his departure spot Zapala, passing many other departure points to fly a total of 1.844 km [131 km./h] in the Ventus 2CM/18m.
The South indeed was good, as another kilometer-eater Swiss pilot Jean Marc Perrin started from Jose De Saint Mart, where Juan Pablo turned. Jean Marc flew in his DG 808/15 m 1.484 km. [130 km./h] !!!

——-One of the colleagues of both my ex George and my daughter Inge, Harold ,wrote a book about his time in the cockpit, flying for Transavia.
It could be a nice Sinterklaas or Christmas present for Dutch reading friends.
With exotic destinations, inside stories and exciting news from the cockpit.
Now no cost to send it and only 22 Euro as” end-of-the-year-present”.
If you order from Australia there might be cost for sending??!!

–—–And to finish this fabulous picture from Kurstjens Farming Australia / Beefwood Farms,
The pictures has nothing to do with gliding but with gliding pilots.
My friends Pam and Gerrit have created an awesome business in Australia. CHAPEAU!!!!!
With help from hardworking, very motivated people from different parts of the world their business is huge!
In between they fly their gliders [EB 29 R and ASH 31/21m] from Mccaffrey Field [Queensland] as well.
And once in a while when they are back in Holland , they visit me. Belgium beer, TRAPPIST with grenadine for all 3 of us in bar Jo d’un Urste! Early spring 2022.

CU next Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz

Post 1.392 on November 21 2022.

NAMIBIA:
With 5x a 1000 km (1x FAI), 3x 1.100 km und 1x 1.200 km on November 15 , it turned out to be one of those good/better days in Bitterwasser.
‘The season has now really taken off. With almost 50 guests Bitterwasser is very well visited already at the beginning.
The participants of “Flying with the Youngsters” already got their money’s worth on the second day and were all able to record flights over 1000 km. “

Veronica had that same day, the same perfect gliding weather with distances from 1.282,00 km. [911,19
FAI] …1.151,50 [1000 FAI] in the Eta,….1.129,37 [827,42 FAI] ,….1.050,63 [773,26 FAI] ,….1.102,89 [693,72 FAI] ….1.035,14 [721,46 FAI],….and 3x more 1000 k.

Great -Total-Namibia- Day, as Pokweni and Kiripotib showed 1000 km flights as well!!!
Many happy guests, champions and “students”.
There will be for sure MORE great flights over the Namibia season you can see them on the OLC or WeGlide. I will follow the very special ones, but I congratulate EVERYBODY with their 1000, that magic “number” already for years in soaring.

One of those SPECIAL flights is the one from Bruno[Gantenbrink] on November 17.
Jonker Sailplanes used it to praise him quite rightly;
“Yesterday “the legend” Bruno Gantenbrink flew again the fasted speed in the category “bigger 1000 km” 1041 km from Veronica (Namibia) with a speed of 148 km/h in the JS2 Revenant 21m new self launcher from Jonker Sailplanes.”
Great effort, certainly when you know he is not the youngest anymore. Seeing him at many comps in the past , he must be now in his early eighties.

And one of the guests from Soaring Safaris in Bloemfontein shared;
“Soaring safaris South Africa, wow. Get up. Look out of the window, do breakfast, arrive at the field. The team have the covers off and the glider washed, go to briefing, put fuel, oxygen and task into the glider, the team tow it to the grid. Get in and fly. Love it”.
Soaring Safaris

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Info ; For the 2023 EUROPEAN season.

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Info for this overseas season;
Long, long ago in the early eighties, when we visited Tocumwal for the first time as guests from Bill Riley at the SSC [ Sportavia Soaring Center] , we got flyers like below with promotion for flying over there. Ingo as instructor, was, with respect, the main attraction. But the airfield, the WW2 hangar, the people in town and the staff from Sportavia made us so happy, that we came back every year , bringing more and more people.
As you know we took over half of the business …50 %…. in 1994, together with Jeff and Margie.
From guests to owners was a huge step. In 1997,as …on that sad day on January 5, Jeff our partner unexpectedly died in a midair, we had to do it by our selves [ full owners] with of course help of most of the staff who was there already for a long time.
At that stage , it really was and even became more, a famous soaring paradise for pilots from all over the world, till November 2006 ,……when the then sole owner Richard, auctioned it all in one go.
There are still people who think we sold it by auction, we would have NEVER done so.
Mid 2005 Richard , who slowly became a partner , took over and after a year it was not what he wanted/hoped for and organized the auction, whilst he promised me to never ever do so. [ I was already scared /worried he could do so!!!]
We had lived for more than 10 years at the camping area with many others and were just ordered to leave!!!!!!Of course we lived in a beautiful house as well, but the caravan always stayed a favorite spot AT the field!!!!
Close to the white gum-tree in honor to Kees Musters [R.I.P. December 27 in 1987 and Dennis,[January 3 1988] planted on the funeral day of Dennis on January 10 1988.
I left Australia , back to The Netherlands.
Whilst writing , I still feel sad!!!!
But,….I still have contact with a lot of happy guests/mates and had unforgettable and lovely years in Tocumwal….. that stays FOREVER…even when we lost everything!!!!!
So I hope this flyer works as well for Sharon and Lumpy , the owners nowadays, who really have put a lot of effort in building it all up again.

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OLC news; OLC – onlinecontest.org
A vision has become reality – OLC-Live has started.
The innovation to bring logger data and the internet together and thereby generate a worldwide daily updated ranking was the basis for the development of the OLC more than 20 years ago. Already at that time, the dream was born to be able to present the sport of gliding not only daily updated, but also live. It was not only about a pure presentation of the current positions. Rather, the live presentation should be integrated directly into the current daily ranking.
This vision has now become reality.
Read more: https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/segelfl…/cmsnews.html…

The young WeGlide entrepreneurs started already with a new way of sharing flights and are doing a great job.

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News from FAI Sailplane Grand Prix
“The FAI Sailplane Grand Prix is currently engaged in the 11th series of national contests with the succesful completion of 7 qualifying national contests in Europe . The next contests will be held in Australia and South Africa during January 2023. The final of the 11th series will be held at Pavullo in Italy at the end of August 2023.
The FAI/SGP management team are pleased to announce the schedule for the 12th FAI/SGP series of contests.
The national contests for the 12th series will take place during 2024 and the 12th final will take place in 2025.
Bid documents and conditions for organising a national event will be published in December 2022 on sgp.aero “

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News from FAI – World Air Sports Federation;
“German pilot Conny Schaich crowned IGC Champion Pilot of the Year 2022 after glittering competition results .
Conny is the current world champion in the Standard Class, winner of the 2022 FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships at Husbands Bosworth, United Kingdom, where she achieved the highest percentage in comparison to the maximal possible points over all the other current gliding world champions. This result shows her dominance over the world’s best female glider pilots in her class.
Full story on https://bit.ly/3tKp4zm
Congratulations Conny….so welll done!!!!!

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Out of the blue we had another weather record this year 2022.
After a hot summer, many the hottest- ever- October- days up to 20 dgr. C, we got an unexpected northerly stream bringing us snow, icy temperatures up to minus 10 last weekend.
The coldest -ever-November-temperature in the Netherlands.
No not as much snow as in New York, but snow and the first die-hards went speed skating on natural ice already on 1cm thick ice, by sprinkling water over a running track.
We Dutch have been born on bikes and skates!!!!

Lot’s of snow in The Pyrenees as well as you can see on this picture shared by our former guest long time ago, Olivier.

Clearly the winter sport holidays can start.
F1 is over, with Max as glorious winner and a farewell to great driver Seb.
But world-soccer starts now . I am interested in seeing the scores, but due to ALL what happened in Qatar, not so much in the matches.
Though I was proud on the Iranian soccer- heroes to NOT sing the National hymn.
I also still believe that sport is and must be sport and politic is politic.
But nowadays everything seems controversial.

CU next week
Cheers Ritz

When I looked for the results at soaringspot for the last days of the Matamata contest, I only noticed a wind map,….so to see,….not good,….. so no flying. The message with the pictures was;
“Might be an interesting tasking day tomorrow with 30-40 knot winds at 4000 feet… wave anybody?!”

That was for Thursday November 10. However , only 1 day earlier John McCaw flew a great flight from Springfield into the main divide ; 11.000ft cloud-base and wonderful views.

They did not fly anymore in Matamata, but for what it is worth,…..a “few” points were given.
Brett had 248, Jevon 215 and Michael 48……

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The Aussie season just started and sadly enough the first accident was mentioned by Gliding Australia:
“Wed 9 November 2022, at about 2:50 pm QLD time, an Astir CS sailplane piloted by a Sunshine Coast Gliding Club pilot and an RAAus Kappa KP-2U Sova aircraft were involved in a mid-air collision, just South of Gympie aerodrome. The glider and aircraft crashed into a nearby paddock. Emergency Services attended the accident site.
Both the glider pilot [ 80] and the powered aircraft pilot [77] died in this tragic accident. The pilot was an experienced member, who loved soaring flight.”
“We are determined to understand the safety implications of this tragic accident, as our focus is on preventing recurrence.“
R.I.P.

Just to remind you BE CAREFUL!!!!!

Another mid-air was this weekend in Dallas at an Airshow from 2 historic military planes, 6 casualties….tragic!!!
The planes, a B17 Flying Fortress Bomber and a P-63 King Cobra fighter plane went up in fire after the collision.
My thoughts are with the family and friends from the pilots.

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November 10 was a real Namibia -day! Not yet the BIG one but big enough for those who are interested in 1000 km-flights. VERONICA had 4 and Bitterwasser 1 .
All speed around 138 km./h.
Veronica with good old Bruno [Gantenbrink] in a JS 2 SL 21m.topped the list.
https://www.onlinecontest.org/…/gliding/flightinfo.html…
https://www.weglide.org/flight/224514

Further on flights in an ETA, JS 3/18m and HPH 304 MS Shark 18m.
Stefan and Bernd Goretzki flew the Bitterwasser-ARCUS over 1.000 km.
10 over 800km flights as well.
On November 11 same story 4 from Veronica ….one in a JS 3 from 1.111 km with a speed of 141 km./h [800 FAI triangle] by Bernd…..and 1 from Bitterwasser. It was the first JS3 RES electric self launch in Veronica Namibia.
November 15 looked more like a TOP day with many 1000 km-flights and 2x a 1.200 ; 1.288 by Bernd Dolba in the JS 3 /18m from Veronica and 1.209 by team Guy Bechtold in the ARCUS from Bitterwasser.
South Africa is heating up as well; from Worcester Sven Olivier flew in his JS 1 B 980 km [ FAI 583 km] the longest distance for the new season till now and,…it just begins.

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I often share news from Adam Woolley, as he flies and I do not .He has a nice way of writing.
For that reason I was very pleased that after all the covid-19 problems and many airlines had to temperately stop some of their action , he is totally back into it. Meaning money and a possibility for new gliders in the future.
“Good news, today I passed my check to line on the B787 with Air Japan. A great feeling to have life finally back on track after a tough (yet still enjoyable) few years! Thanks to all my course mates & colleagues who I enjoyed the journey with, we’ve all overall had a great time.
Bring on the gliding comps, investing for my future & continuing to save for an EB29RX “
Congratulations Adam, well-done!!

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In my last blog I wrote about the ARCUS M flight from Gordon Boettger. I got a comment on the picture of the ARCUS M from my Danish mate Ole; “The Minden Arcus is really an Arcus J. It is the only jet-powered Arcus in the World.”
So I checked his next message, that I would be able to see it on a picture in Gordon’s comment on October 22.
AND,…yes indeed, I know Ole knows his facts, he was correct.
THANKS Ole!!!! Here is the picture.

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A WOW flight in wave, incredible soaring conditions, last Saturday in a LAK 17 A T/18m. from Postojna in Slovenia, South from Lesce Bled, all the way to Livno in Bosnia Herzegovina; 1.536 km with 163 km./h.!!!!High wave up to 6629 MSL, and very constant. Pilot; Bernard Dobre!157 km./h
A Czech pilot , Milos Pajr was there as well and flew in the HPH 304 MS Shark 18m, 1.407 km. [speed 157 km./h]
Boris Zors,a more well-known name and local hero, was there too and flew in his JS 3 a distance of 1.070 km.
Great day! 5 Pilots enjoyed it!!!!
Full flight of the LAK to be seen on
https://www.weglide.org/flight/224809

MORE WOW-flights!!!! This time from Argentina, another top day with 1.600 km. flight’s!!!!
On November 14, Juan Pablo Verdura flew in his Ventus 2CM/18m a magic flight from 1.600 km with a speed of 185 km./h!!!Up to 7834 MSL wave and again pretty consistent.
“DIA BOMBASTIC!!!” Those words say enough!!! A rotor and lenticular-party.

34 km. less in an ARCUS M is fabulous too. Both flights from Zapala Neuquen.
At the moment, the annual CNVVM wave camp (Centrol Nacional de Vuelo a Vela en Montana) is held in Zapala.

AND,….it was not over yet with the top-wave. Yesterday Jean Marc Perrin, one of the kilometer-eaters from Switzerland, flying often in Argentina, this time from Jose De San Mart, flew 1.608 km in a DG 808/15m!!!! Speed 167 km!!!
His first flight again since 28-01-2020 .
And WHAT-A- FLIGHT!!!!

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The SKY RACE in Corowa has been cancelled due to the weather circumstances.
“The Skyrace GP organising committee has made the difficult decision of cancelling this year’s event due to the risk of having a poorly attended and potentially unsafe competition due to the weather situation and it’s affect on our tasking area.“
They will be back next year BIGGER and BETTER!!!!!
This morning I heard that due to opening of the Hume Dam, even more flooding has occurred. At this stage you can’t drive from Toc. to Cobram [school, big supermarket, hospital etc] neither by main or cause road.
Eddie just flew over the bends;”Water is finally starting to flow over the road at the start of the Bends Tocumwal”

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Back to the past for a moment;
As a farewell- present for 10 years Sportavia- involvement, I got a flight with Ingo in the Caproni in November of the 2006 season!
My family was there at that stage too. 2 Days ago I got these pictures from Rodger, husband of my daughter Inge. Joris , family friend of Inge and Rodger was there as well and took these pictures.

And to finish this nice areal shot from

CU next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz

Post ….1.390.. on November 9 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So did my Benalla mates;

Though looking at the next picture it’s still WET

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time passes by and not a lot stays the same.
I can’t remember Tocumwal airport WITHOUT the red, white and black colored bus to find some high needed shade, at the strip at the “soaring-department”.
Also on the sides blackboard’s, to make drawings from patterns from circuit’s for those who needed it. Sportavia had , through the times, many ab initio pilots, who wanted to learn how to fly a glider within a week, and that mostly was a success.
So many of the Sportavia guests have been sitting there. At home having great chairs to sit on, here at the field comfortable enough for everybody, “rich and poor.”.
It’s gone now. Eddie drove it behind his Ute to Christie’s museum around the corner of the airfield direction Cobram, for a well deserved rest after many years of “hard work”.
“After 50 years the bus is on the way to its new home.
At Christie’s Museum“
I looked for pictures in my books and here you are the bus in December 1986.

Whilst looking I found lovely pictures from former guests, I have n’t seen for a long time and,…..who became friends.

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During my visit in New Zealand , I had of course a look at gliding places. From Tauranga, where I stayed with John and Chris [picture see above], we drove from the highest point to the lowest point on the NORD Island.
Not far above the Taupo Lake is the airfield of Matamata.
On October 16 they had a great spring day there, a fantastic early season day.;
“A bit of a record…6 gliders make it to Port Jackson…and back…well I think everyone got home in time for tea and scones. Helped by a useful cloud streety-covergencey-ridgey sort of cloud setup at the critical point where you move from the front ridge to behind Coromandel township.
Also, we had a couple of 500kms plus flights as well.[ Tim Bromhead in the Ventus 17.5 m …503 km. and DP Jensen in a JS1 B….525 km] Not bad for a mid-Oct day.
A total of 21 launches…so long flights, training flights and trial flights…what more could you ask for???“
Matamata Soaring Centre

MORE great soaring, now from the UK where on OCTBER 28!!!!!, a DECLARED 750 from which 680 was flown in an ARCUS by Chris Gill….he just fell short .
” So close yet so far. Great day out. Almost 800KM OLC.“
“an amazing day and lots learnt, flying over Wales, England, Scotland and views of Ireland.”
Sonny Rising, a JUNIOR and co pilot during this epic flight , had the day of his life, not only learned a lot, but shared this picture from the wave they found en route as well;

https://bgaladder.net/FlightDetails/105960

Even more great autumn soaring, now from France, St Gaudens, where Pierre De Broqueville flew in his EB 29DR, over the beautiful Pyrenees in wave up to over 5000 m MSL; 704 km.
And another flight from 1.105 km with an average speed of 131 km./h, good wave nearly up to 6000 m MSL at places, BUT…the co pilot had “frozen” feet!!!!
“again a nice day but with some tricky points due to wind not stable in direction.” comment from Pierre.

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Something TOTALLY different;
Climate defense activists are active at the moment, in the whole wide world, throwing soup or mashed potatoes to very special and expensive paintings….ALL cultural heritage!!!!!
Here in The Netherlands as well; The famous “Girl with the pearl” was the object of their anger and on an other occasion ,a guy glued himself on a table where he was invited in a talk show, to talk about climate change. He had good arguments but , started to talk nonsense, so everybody had to laugh and the whole point he was going to make was LOST. A pity!!!
With 25 dgr. C here last Sunday it is clear that the weather is changing and I guess the whole world sees and feels it AND wants change, but the way those activists are disturbing culture, is beyond me and MANY more. I understand and support their case , but not the way they are doing it.

By the way …..We changed from summer time into winter time last weekend, so we had an extra hour sleep.
Wintertime with still 24.6 dgr. C is weird!!! But no complaints from my side.
Daily records for October 28 and 29 were broken as the hottest days ever here.
More European countries expire the same records.
Time difference with my mates down under in NSW and Victoria is now 10 hours and they have still rain but spring is around the corner.
Though,…on November 1 , MELBOURNE CUP DAY, it was the coldest day for 70 years in Victoria.
In the USA they have at some places snow already .One of our soaring mates Colin shared this picture.

.

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Looking ahead at 2023 and the French announced their pilots for the next 2023 BIG championships;
12ème WWGC (club, standard and 18m) – Soria-Garray, Spain, from July 1 to 15 2023
Club class; Aude Grangeray / Alizée Petit / Louise Rodriguez
Standard class; Maryline Abadie-Berard / Anaïs Gaubert / Aude Untersee
18 m. class; Anne Ducarouge / Mélanie Gadoulet / Astrid Galaret
replace pilots if necessary; Chloé Dalle-Palle / Estelle Tarbouriech
TEAM CAPTAIN; Éric Napoléon

6th JEGC (club and standard) – Arnborg, Danmark from July 30 to August 12 2023
Club class; Alexandre Fierain / Matthieu Henin / Lucas Oyaux
Standard class; Kevin Faur / Timoté Gard / Philippe Lata
TEAM CAPTAIN; Éric Bernard

21st EGC (18m, 20m and open ) – Leszno, Poland from July to August 13 2023
18m class; Anne Ducarouge / Yacine Vigourel
2 seater class [20m] ; Philippe de Péchy / François-Xavier Poisson
open class; Mélanie Gadoulet / Sylvain Gerbaud

37st WGC (15 m, standard, club) – Narromine, Australie from December 2 till 16 02 2023
15 m. class; Christophe Abadie / Adrien Henry
Standard class; Julien Duboc / Maximilian Seis
Club class; Louis Bouderlique / Hugo Corbille
replace pilots if necessary; Kevin Faur / Sylvain Gerbaud
TEAM CAPTAIN…. Éric Napoléon
I just heard yesterday that the PRE-WORLDS at Narromine have been moved from November 2022 to the end of March 2023, due to the heavy flooding, also in their region.
http://narromineglidingclub.com.au
Also the NARROMINE CUP WEEK is POSTPONED TO 4 – 11 MARCH 2023.
“The Narromine Gliding Club Committee has just taken the difficult but necessary decision to postpone Narromine Cup Week to the 4th to 11th March 2023.
This is due to the unprecedented amount of rain in NSW which has closed roads and flooded surrounding paddocks making soaring difficult and outlandings and retrieves all but impossible and possibly dangerous.
The Narromine Gliding Club wishes to extend an apology to all of you for the disruption to your, leave, travel and accommodation plans but in order to ensure everyone’s safety and enjoyment it was considered a necessary decision.
We hope you will be understanding and agree with the decision. The Narromine Gliding Club extends a warm invitation to all to come for Cup Week in March 2023 and hopes to see you there.”

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Last week I shared news about the N.T. [in the heart of Australia,] winch this time closer by; the winch from the Gelderse here at Terlet. A fabulous looking toy. No NOT NEW,as in new, but a totally overhauled and updated BUSIO. Definitely looking NEW, spiffy and big !!!!

Huge toy for 6 ropes!
Courtesy Arjan

Also….The end of 2 weeks- autumn -camp at Terlet. Enough young people and another young lady , Marin, went solo! Top!!! My granddaughter could due to study, only visit last weekend, when she had her winch duty. Anxious to find out if she could deal with the BUSIO. But,…….No she operated the “old” winch.

AND,…this is a great picture from the Friese aeroclub in the N of the Netherlands, also on their last regular soaring-day, for the season.

To finish another exceptional flight shared on October 26 but now by a bird, by Great BIG Nature
“Exciting news: A New World Record Godwit Flight!!
A juvenile godwit just 5 months old (tagged in Alaska) touched down in Ansons Bay in northeast Tasmania. This godwit (number 234684) departed from Alaska on October 13, 2022 and certainly looks to have flown non-stop to Tasmania. This will not be the first one to make this flight as godwits are frequent visitors to Tasmania, but it’s the first time a tagged bird has flown between Alaska and Tasmania. In the process it flew a minimum of 13,560 km in 11 days 1 hour. The previous long distance record of 13,050 km set by the adult male 4BBRW in 2021 is blown out of the water by this young upstart.
Connect with Nature!“

CU next Wednesday……… probably with more news from Namibia where the season started yesterday on November1.
HOWEVER,…….they started already in Bitterwasser on October 29 and the first flights was straight away 887 km. in an Arcus with Reinhard Schramme!!!
Reinhard flew the seasons first 1000 yesterday as well.
Kiripotib and Pokweni are ACTIVE too.

Cheers Ritz

NO secret that I am a fan from Max. Last Sunday in Mexico he was for the 14th time WINNER from a race in this season. NOBODY DID THIS BEFORE.
He equalized Vettel and Schumacher sr. already but now in Mexico he passed them.
A MASTER CLASS in racing!!!!!!

The weather really lost the plot as I have said before. Here in the Netherlands it is 20 to 23 dgr. C….about 10 dgr. more than normal, for this time of the year. Wet…. yes also, but at this stage not as bad as down under.
In Australia it’s raining like mad. Poor farmers…again.. it’s either draught or flooding nowadays.
The Tocumwal Aviation Museum shared this news;
“80 years ago American forces occupied the Tocumwal Air Depot as a base for aircraft maintenance and repair.
We’re fortunate to have the Paul Bennet Airshows ex-U.S. Navy Grumman Avenger on loan this week and be able to give a flying nod to our local history by flying this 80 year old American warplane over the airfield where American forces were based 80 years ago.
It’s also a unique way to observe the floodwaters of the Mighty Murray River which are impacting towns downstream.”
Look at the huge amount of water everywhere around the Murray. There are houses, camping’s, horse riding trails, restaurants and a nice white beach, where I have enjoyed many moments in my life!!!!
So, not only the farmers , but everybody on more low grounds , suffers.

One of the lucky ones to have a seat /ride in this great plane ….ex-U.S. Navy Grumman Avenger ….was the owner of the WWII hangar now, Lumpy Paterson. He runs Sportavia Tocumwal .

Lumpy; “There is just something about big radial engines, and this is just about as big as they get.
TBM 3E Avenger, built in 1943 as a torpedo bomber, to operate from aircraft carriers. This is the biggest radial engine flying in Australia, producing 1700 hp !
It’s a BIG aircraft and is a little deceiving, the engine sounds like it’s only just purring and yet, we are doing 200 kts.
Sometimes the stars just line up, to fly an American built WW2 aircraft over an American built military hangar in Tocumwal, I love the aviation scene!”

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—–I wrote about the new TOST winch from NT Soaring, in the red heart of the continent Australia. It’s busy straight away!!!

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The weather in Namabia is already GOOD too, here is the news from Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre
“Good weather in Namibia. Great anticipation.
If you look now in TopMeteo for Namibia, you see now already, so end of October, very good weather. This is also confirmed by the pictures of the webcams of Bitterwasser. This increases the anticipation of those who have already booked Bitterwasser.
Unfortunately, almost everything is booked. But from 25.10.2022 to 10. 11.2022 are still small capacities free.
Bad weather in Germany, cold and dark, only bad news regarding energy and inflation? Ideal reasons to escape from that, at least for a short time.
So, for short decided:”
Call Rainer, +49 170 9143684 or mail to: Hog@bitterwasser.com

Of course that counts for ALL European pilots NOT only those from Germany.

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The Dutch club The Gelderse had autumn camp. My granddaughter unfortunately had to study. Though it was windy and wet, the temperatures were top.
Days definitely are getting shorter and the season has nearly finished.

Down under the season is about to start and Adam shared these lovely pictures flying over Kingaroy. He is back in the cockpit of an Air Japan 787, but in between and even more from December onward, he flies gliders again too. So you can read his stories in his blog.
By the way he was runner up for the Ingo Renner Cup [ a decentral cup for which you can be scored throughout the whole year] behind Toby Geiger from Benalla in 2022 season. On October 1 the new season started.
Some details about the Ingo Renner Cup. Have a look here: https://docs.weglide.org/…/nati…/ingo_renner_cup.html…

Also Norway is in full autumn colors. Instructing in Notodden , in such nice environment can only be a huge PLEASURE!!!!

And to finish this autumn blog a picture from one of the very well known soaring calendars in Germany.
“The current calendar 2022 shows us the absolutely successful end of the season in October, which we wish you also this year. And remember … end of season means, it’s time to secure the new Fotokalender Segelfliegen 2023. Thanks for the model shoot to Peer Konitzer and Massimo Metzger in the Duo Discus XLT.“
aviation-calendar.com

Some sad news before I stop;
Eddie [Madden] shared this news;
“Today I lost my close friend Andrea from Austria , due to cancer.
Andrea came to fly with me for for the last 20+ years. Good times never forgotten“
Some “guests” you never forget, also with Andrea [Wieger] and Anton [Horill], 2 very enthusiastic beautiful Tocumwal mates from Austria. Anton, the glider pilot who loved his flying in the LS 4, Andrea who learned to fly and supported Anton with her flying by being with him at the field flying when she felt so.
They flew already with us between 1996 and 2006, every 2 years and when we left they moved without hesitation to Eddie, where they flew every 2 years till a few years ago [2019] when I met them in town and had a long talk with them.
I hope Anton keeps going on with his flying at Eddie’s , as they had together so many great memories on soaring in Toc.
R.I.P dear Andrea.

CU next week
Cheers Ritz

—–The French National Aeroclub, the [ Fédération Française de Vol en Planeur ] shared a message from the results in 2022, from 309 [under 25] young participating pilots flying for the Coupe Jacques Gomy.
In 47 years, this number of 309 was the best /highest EVER.
In the high season the young ones do have some problems to fly for a longer time on club gliders. So they can’t go on a CC-flight.
They are encouraged / stimulated to participate for this prestigious challenge, starting on March1. It gives them a goal to fly more and longer.
15 year old Loan Cheval won with 9251 points followed by 16 year old Thibaud de Péchy with 8919 points and on 3 mademoiselle Emma Chesneau with 8457 points. Good on them !!!!!
Thibaud’s brother Clement won the prize in 2019.
Emma had a training stage with Eric Napoleon and Eric Bernard and 3 other “girls” as well.

I had to google who Jacques Gomy was; He lived between 1926 and 1967, was a glider pilot and instructor , NATIONAL CHAMPION in glider- aerobatics’ and a test pilot.
He had 6.500 hours in his logbook ,1.700 in a glider. He started when he was 14!!!
AND he did much more….
I checked with dad Philippe de Pechy as well . He added that a lot of the French team pilots from NOW, once flew this challenge. He mentioned Eric Napoleon, Laurent Aboulin and he himself did it too.
“The rules are simple.1 point per minute and the 20 longest flights are registered….+ bonus for FAI badges“
He also added that Jacques performed in a movie.
He was the pilot of the glider in the “Grand Vadrouille”, the French movie having had the best box office.
Of course with Louis de Funès. Fantastic movie!!!
I guess most of you have seen it too, if not here is a link I got from Philippe.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2l4mk

Jacques Gomy died on January 5 in 1967, together with Gerard Verette, during a flight test of the prototype of the CAP10, [ in the end the CAP10 was an extremely successful airplane.] which is an acro airplane. An unexpected and sad end of a fabulous and inspiring flying-life.

There you go, I learned a lot again. Thanks Philippe for your input.

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—–I shared earlier the final results from the OLC. This week I got the newsletter from WeGlide, so I share their stats with you too. They , Johannes, Samuel, Joshua and Moritz, are all young entrepreneurs doing a real good, no an amazing job.
magazine.weglide.org 
“This season, more than 6400 new pilots have joined the WeGlide community. You have uploaded more than 80,000 pictures of sunrises, cloud streets, thunderclouds, or your co-pilots. Together, we’ve flown more than 27 million kilometers with the power of the sun, which is more than 70 times the distance to the moon.
Thanks to you and your flights we are now the largest gliding site in the world, just incredible!”
They have certificates for all which you can download.
Their top three finishers of the WeGlide Distance Cup, who covered some really incredible distances are;
Baptiste Innocent, 6518 pt
Alexander Müller, 6324 pt and
Guy Bechtold, 6191 pt.
Their top 3 fastest pilots are ;
Juan Pablo Verdura, 599 pt,
James G Lee, 551 pt and
Baptiste Innocent, 534 pt….. 
WeGlide Speed Champions!

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–—-Next years WWGC news as shared by Kiki [Jacky Clairbaux] ;
“Next year, the 12th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championship is going to be celebrated in Soria-Garray (LEGY- SPAIN) in the first two weeks of July
The competition will be in the airfield of Soria – Garray (LEGY), from July 1st until July the 15th
The WWGC2023 will be an international celebration of women gliding in three classes – Club, Standard and 18m.
It is a good opportunity to explore the area, enjoy the friendship of the Castilian people, their ancient culture, enjoy their wonderful gastronomy and have a really good time on a friendly atmosphere of the competition.“
https://wwgc2023.org/

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—–Nice to know…..”Howard Torode (Chairman BGA Technical Committee) has been awarded the prestigious Paul Tissandier Diploma by the FAI for his outstanding leadership and contribution to glider airworthiness and the development of the proportionate regulation of sailplane airworthiness and maintenance.
Congratulations and thanks, Howard!” Gliding

——-Last weekend they had the sent-off of Tony Tabart in Tocumwal.
“the event was well attended, Tony was done proud, and we look forward to next year’s event.”
A very valuable evening with TRUE friends of TT.
That is was so well attended, was nearly a miracle due to the flooding all over parts down under, specially the Victoria and NSW area’s.

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—–Autumn in The Netherlands;

AND
a wet spring in Tocumwal

And spring is arriving in N.Z as well. John McCaw had a nice flight last weekend. He photographed Rob Kerr in his LS 4, during flight, great picture.

——And, the MIDLAND GLIDING CLUB in the UK, had an “Excellent first day of the Junior’s Winter Series, 118 launches on a sunny day with ridge lift and thermals.” It is the 11th version and never before they had so many young pilots at briefing. A fabulous turnout.
Day 1 of the Winter Series Round 1 – The Long Mynd

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—-Not only , the lucky-enough-pilots are looking forward to the new Namibian season, which their great flights, we all do. The magic of their weather is famous by now. 2 More weeks and it starts.

In between they worked HARD!!!!Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre shared the next news…..
“That was fast – PV systems in operation
Sometimes things go faster than you think in Namibia. The two recently ordered PV systems are in operation.
The panels for the lodge have a capacity of 57 kWp. This is the theoretical output. We expect to be able to generate half of our electricity needs with these panels during the peak season from November to January. The rest of the year, it should be enough for everything.
The panels are oriented in an east-west direction. In the mornings and evenings, we have the highest power consumption and the panels should provide as much power as possible then.
The panels for the village should approximately cover the power consumption for the whole season.
The investment volume was about 80.000€. We believe that it is a good investment. Good for the environment, good for our cash and good for the future. Electric, self-launching gliders are on the market and in the future, we will see them more often in Bitterwasser. The batteries of these gliders want to be charged.’

AND,…..”The first four containers with our planes arrived in Bitterwasser. We had sent four containers in advance, as we were not sure whether the ships would sail according to schedule. And as it always is, when you expect the worst, everything goes smoothly. Customs was also there and at first glance all planes seem to have survived the transport well.
All official problems are also solved. ARO, overflight permission etc. are there. So the season can start on 25.10.2022. Good flying weather has also been experienced.”

LESS GOOD NEWS from Australia, the flooding is getting worse and worse. My favorite shopping streets are in Echuca and Shepparton, ….both under water. Echuca has the highest water since 150 years.
When you want to go from Toc to Narromine, there is flooding as well. Dubbo is partly under water and Forbes as well. The road from Finley [close to Toc] to Berrigan is flooded.
Local flood guides help the people.
Mind you a lot of the transport in Australia goes by road with huge trucks and even road trains, travelling from N to S and E to W; at a lot of places that’s not possible. What cost!!!!! Terrible!!!!
This is the Murray river , around it live a huge amount of kangaroos. They have nowhere to go, and cross the winding roads full of trucks, which are able to drive. A lot have been and will be killed. So sad!!!!

CU on Wednesday.
cheers Ritz

2022 South African Nationals
Potchefstroom….1 October 2022 – 8 October 2022

After 2 CANCELLED days, “we” continue now with
Day 6…task 6…flying day 4 on October 6….AND,… bugger [excusez le mot] ALL pilots out-landed!
15 m; 533.69 km…changed in 378.88 km; Wayne [Schmidt ]missed only out on 40 k. [ 335 km] but for 600 points he was the daily best! About 30 k less for Peter Farrel in his 18 m. JS 1.
Unlucky day for Danish pilot Anders Andersen, whose PEV was not “found”. Zero points!!!!
club; 318.30 km… Young German pilot Niklas [Hahn] had a top day. Yes he was “out” , but so were they all, but he flew 229 km. in his LS 1 D. [handicap 98] Great job Niklas!
Mike van Niekerk flew 252 km, in his ASW 20 [handicap 110] he was runner up.
2-seaters; 478.20 km...changed in 378.86 km; all 6 2-seaters were out . Laurens in his top glider the ASG 32 MI, flew 337 km and I presume he “motored” the last km.’s home. Riaan Denner and his mate in the ASH 25 flew 30 k less. They were runner up.
Carol Clifford wrote about today:
“Today there is some wind, but not nearly as strong – thank goodness! The Low pressure is still to the west, and there could be overdevelopment and/or congestion to the south later in the day. Temperature at 11.30 is expected to be 33 deg and the winds north-westerly and could be about 10 kts on the ground. Tasks have been set, initially in a southerly direction, and then to the better weather later in the day up to the north-west and back west and home.”

Day 7…task 7…flying-day 5 on October 7..penultimate day.
15m; 290.55 km.…from 12 pilots , 7 were in and a familiar face on spot 1; Mark in his ASW 27, with a good speed of 143 km./h. Uys, Atti, Oscar and Anders followed, as well as Rob and Sven.
3 JS 3’s/15 m, lead the overall scores with Uys, [ 3.854] ,Attie [ 3.793] and Oscar [ 3.756] on the 3 top spots for now!
5 Pilots flew with OVER 132 km./h!!!!
Mark [4] is only 5 points behind Oscar.[ 3.751]
And I know them a bit,…they all want to win, so who is going to do so????
club; 205.39 km…Only 7 started the day and 5 finished. Daily winner; Richard Glennie in ASW 20; 115 km./h. Young Zachary , the guest from the USA, was 4th.[97 km./h]
With one more day to go, it’s all about Wilhelm and Rene ;3.266, 3.247 and young Niklas is 3d with 2.671.
2-seaters; 290.55 km....6 started and ONLY one finished. Denner and Unwin,in their ASH 25…. good on them. Their speed was 118 km./h. All the other pilots must have been shut off by weather as they only flew under 100 km. far!!!
Overall scores with ONE day to go; Laurens 3.127 points, Kotze/Bonnet with 3.080 and Denner/Unwin with 3.024 p.
Carol; “After flying – it would seem a day that had very different results and fortunes for the pilots – some obviously found the lift and managed to get around the task with very creditable speeds, whilst others ended up outlanding in a field or using their motors. Five pilots outlanded today and for the others that I think did the task there were some good speeds. “

Day 8…task 8…flying day 6 on October 8; CANCELLED in all 3 classes!!! They had in each class a 2.45 AAT, but,…..
Carol on day 7; “From the ground, the day certainly looked better than it has for the last two days, so let’s hope tomorrow provides a good final day’s flying.“
Unfortunately it did n’t!!!

15 m NATIONAL CHAMPION;
1. Uys Jonker in JS3 with 3.584 points.
2. Attie Jonker in JS 3 TJ with 3.793 p.
3. Oscar Goudriaan in JS 3 TJ with 3.756 p.
NO possibility anymore for Mark to gain 5 more points on Oscar.

Club class NATIONAL CHAMPION:
1. Wilhelm Mosehuus in Mosquito with 3.266 points.
2. Rene Coetzee in ASW 20 with 3.247 p.
3. Niklas Hahn in LS 1D with 2.671 p.

2-seater NATIONAL CHAMPION:
1. Laurens Goudriaan in ASG 32MI with 3.127 points.
2. Kotze & Bonnet in Nimbus 4D with 3.080 p.
3.  Denner & Unwin in ASH 25E with 3.024 p.

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Australia’s red heart of the country , better know as Alice Springs, has a glider community with Robert Smits and his partner Jenny, a WWGC pilot, as “engines” .
They bought in the Netherlands this great TOST winch, from Glider Winch Europe, send it to Australia, where they did the finishing touch in Alice. Great toy!!!!! Great job!!!

And 2 pictures from “tugs”, from my favorite photographers.
A great picture by ARJAN, from the tug still working hard at TERLET in The Netherlands where it is still good autumn soaring weather.
What a season it was !!!!!!

Sikko flew , between showers , in his ASG 29E/18m, still 460 km with 105 km./h.
https://www.weglide.org/flight/221581
More Dutch and Belgian pilots did so, during this lovely autumn weekend/period:
Robin [Smit] in LS 4 NEO, flew without water under cloud streets to 420 km.
Wim [Akkermans] from Keiheuvel ; 510 km in Ventus 3 F.
Down under where spring is about to begin we see 400 km. flights as well. Norm [Bloch] flew from Beverley , [Western Australia] 407 FAI triangle in his LS 3 on October 7.
AND of course the tuggy pictures…..

And by New Zealand photographer Geoff Soper

The ASK 21 is a ” good working-horse”. I read that number 1000 is flying now! Between 1979 and 2022 one thousand sold. Not bad.
“still flying, training and selling well…”

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Last weekend , “our” 25 year old Max Verstappen won his 2d WORLD TITLE in the formula 1-car-racing. Great result after lots of confusion about the points.
He turned 25 just a week ahead of the race in Japan.
A very deserved winner of the races from the 22 season.
Love this picture from Max about 20 years ago.

Have a good week CU next Wednesday!
Cheers Ritz

The 2022 South African NATIONALS .
Potchefstroom, 1 October 2022 – 8 October 2022

As said before this National Championship is flown in 3 classes; 15m, club and 2-seaters.
On the last day of September they had their practice day with a 2 hour AAT with 215 km as best distance by Sven [Olivier] in his ASW 27B.
I hope all scores are correct now as they had some problems.
October 1 …day 1…task 1 ;
15 m…..416 km; straight away Oscar [Goudriaan] ” left his calling card” in his 15 m JS 3 TJ; speed 112 km./h. Attie and Uys followed both equal as runner up ; speed 110 km./h.
11 pilots in this class among them 3 HC pilots.
9 Pilots were in.
Club….269.63 km; started also with 8 pilots and 2 HC pilots. Best speed by Philip Jonker in the LS 4 but he flies HC. Wilhelm Moosehuus in the Mosquito, was for that reason the daily number 1; 100 km,./h. Only one other pilot flew over 100 km./h and that was Rene Coetsee as runner up.
2-Seaters……436.41 km; 5 in this class and only ONE team flew the task; Kotze & Bonnet in the Duo Discus with 117 km./h. There are 3 Duo Discus’ in this class.
Laurens [Goudriaan] was runner up. In his ASG 32 MI he flew 417 km. but did not finish.
Other types ASH 25 E ,Nimbus 4 DM.
After day 1 the message was; “The weather for the days ahead is looking better and better!”

October 2…day 2…task 2;
15 m……413.75 km; Oscar won again; nice speed… 142.05 km./h Mark Holliday in the ASW 27 was runner up ; speed 136 km./h.
Club….299.99 km; 10 pilots flew the task AND finished it. Best was Wilhelm with 118.65 km./h
2-seaters….413.75 km; 4 pilots flew the task and daily winner was the Duo Discus again; speed 122.39 km./h

October 3….day 3…task 3;
The Potch- news from the South African Gliding Team ;”
Mon. 3rd October
10.30 in the morning and already it is already quite hot. There is a hiccup with the scoring and handicaps which is being sorted hopefully, so only when that has been resolved, will the daily beers be awarded to yesterday’s winners of the day.
The weather already expects it to be 12 000 – 13 000 ft by 11 a.m., with a high pressure over Potch and another to the west, there is a low pressure to the SW which might have some influence on the weather later in the day. Pilots were urged to be on the final stages of their flight by 4 p.m. latest.
15m. class have 428,5 km.; the Club class 301,1 km. and the 2-seater class 390.6 km.
First launch is expected to once again be at 11.30 a.m.”

15m….428.51 km; 6 IN and 6 OUT. Wayne Schmidt remembered very well that being back by 4 at the latest would be the solution for the day, so he went early at 12.37, still flew till 4.25 PM, and won the day. Speed ; 112.60 km./h. Uys and Attie started at 13. 12 being runner up and 3d and Oscar started at 1 PM and was 6th. The last one to finish.
So in the end it did not REALLY matter what time you started but more keeping out of trouble.
Out meant between 379km and 148 km.
Club….301 km; from 11 pilots 7 finished. Best speed was by Rene; 91 km./h in the ASW 20. On handicap not enough to win the day. Mike Tiffin in the DG 200 won; 89 km./h.
Wilhelm was 4th.
2-sweaters….390.56 km; 5 started and 3 finished, best was Laurens with 115 km./h.
“SA Nationals Day 3 Day 3 was a little more challenging than Day 2 but a good challenge is always fun ” by Akavlieg – Potch Gliding

More about day 3 by Jonker Sailplanes
“Have a look at todays flight of Zach Yamauchi (United States of America | California) at the South African Club Class Nationals held in Potchefstroom this week. Zach is one of the WeGlide JS Challenge winners and he had his first outlanding experience in South Africa today.
“South Africa has been amazing so far! Today was contest day 3. Everyone I have met has been incredibly kind and welcoming, the equipment, facilities, and contest organizers are top notch, and above all the soaring conditions have been very enjoyable. I love it here!” he says.
https://www.weglide.org/embedded/flight/221100?baro=true

October 4…day 4…task 4; CANCELLED FOR ALL CLASSES.
15m…3.30 AAT;
Club…358 km;
2-seaters…3.30 AAT;

October 5 TODAY shows 3 hour AAT’s in ALL classes. Then 3 more days to go, I follow them for you.

News from Jonker Sailplanes
Niklas Hahn from Germany (Niedersachsen) is the second lucky winner of the WeGlide Jonker Sailplanes Challenge and has following to tell:
“In Potchefstroom it is really awesome!! This adventure is really pushing me out of my comfort zone. It’s a new glider and the first time flying in heights where I need oxygen. The landscape is completely different from what I am used to in Germany and I have not fully found out what works and what doesn’t. On the first practice day I landed after an hour, because I did not find another thermal in the middle of the day. But with each day I fly it gets better. We are having fun and laughing a lot with the other glider pilots and telling stories at the Braai in the evening. The atmosphere is really welcoming.”
It should be emphasized that the JSChallenge is an international competition. Every junior worldwide has the opportunity to assert themselves. However, we all were pleased to nominate internationally in the first year!“
Niklas flies and LS1D.

I really like these programs/challenges.
In “our” Sportavia time in the nineties, we did the same.
We invited young talents to fly with Ingo in a 2 seater during a competition called Outback Shootout.
We had young ones from Finland Pekka, Belgium Tijl and Alfred Paul from the Netherlands. Of course they were also allowed to fly single seat gliders by their selves.
A room and food and of course friendly people around them, were included.
When I met these guys they still talk about it.

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I shared in my last blog, great pictures from the MORNING GLORY.
It looks like a great year for this phenomena.
More and more pilots are trying their luck.
When it’s there it is “heaven on earth” I heard.
One of the Aussie team ladies, Kerrie Claffey went there and also Terry Delore from N.Z.
In his Delore Soaring he shares his experience.
“Terry and Jeff are on a morning glory pursuit like the pic below, after power flying from Melbourne, south Aussie to the far North.
Like a good adventure they’ve encountered a few hiccups but seem to be currently airborne on the glory. Can follow their TrackMe tracker and will await a report.”
https://gliding.net.nz/tracking

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News from Temora, NE of Tocumwal
and weather wise maybe one of the best soaring spots in Australia.
They are renovating their runways so it will be even better in the future. On top of that, there is a GREAT museum full of exciting planes.
“The photos show the progress with RWY 18/36 line marking underway. We expect to have the reconstructed runway back in use 7 Oct according to the NOTAM. Despite the wet we are still getting some soaring in and really haven’t stopped flying all winter and into early spring.”

News from Tocumwal;
Staying for a moment in Australia but now “in ” Tocumwal, as there are a few changes over there.
….the Calif a-21S, better known as the CAPRONI, in which Ingo made many flights and hours has been sold to a new owner in Benalla. So it goes about 70 k S.

And more news from my beloved Tocumwal this time from Tocumwal Soaring;
“A massive milestone for us today with our final audit completed, which now allows us to not only hire gliders, but also train glider pilots.”
We took delivery of our second training glider today, which will assist us with ab initio training and is available for week long sessions, seven days a week.
It’s been a huge effort to get most of our gliders ready and airworthy for today. We could not have done it without the support of many in the gliding community.
We’d really like to thank everyone who has assisted us to get to this point, it’s greatly appreciated ( too many to list but you know who you are )
Thank you ! Team TSC,“
AND
“Our new Duo X had its first flight in Australia on this mild spring afternoon.
20 mtrs of awesomeness, these gliders are an absolute delight to fly.“

Starting this TSC-business now officially, the SRGC ,the club from Ingo , had to leave the old WWII hangar. For a few days the club members were lost/devastated, till George from Outback Soaring reached them his hand and hangar. So they have a “new” house too. They are now neighbors and grateful.
By the way, Georges Blanik , XO ,went to the Tocumwal Soaring Center ,as a training plane. My grand children Indya and Dexter, straight away said:” What about us, opa “? But George owns an IS 28 as well. So they will be OK.

A lot of things are happening in good old Toc.
“With the inclusion of the C-150 , our sturdy friend and workhorse ROZ now relocated to our new home, that concludes our involvement with TSC.
A new chapter commences and we look forward to continuing the great work Ingo did to make the club
successful.
His name will live on whilst SRGC continues. And continue it will.” Bruce Wilson.

And news from the Tocumwal Aviation Museum
“This week in history, 78 years ago:
There was a disastrous fire in one of Tocumwal’s giant timber hangars (Hangar 2) which destroyed the building and three B-24 Liberators which were undergoing maintenance inside the hangar. Crews attempted to save one of the B-24 aircraft by dragging it outside but by this stage it was alight and burnt to the ground on the tarmac adjacent to the hangar.
The fire was determined to have been started by sparks from electrical wiring igniting fuel vapors while one of the aircraft was undergoing checks. It was rumored that sabotage was involved, this rumor was never proven during the court of inquiry into the incident.”

News from Namibia; Kiripotib.
“Ready for take off on 1st November. We are looking forward to 83 great gliding days in Namibia. Have a look at our impressions
No reservation yet? Some remaining slots are still available“
www.kiripotib-soaring.com/en

And to finish this WOW-factor-pictures shared by Gilles Navas.

CU next Wednesday

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.384 on September 28 2022.

When the OLC starts season 2023, we/I follow them and look back at how good it was and even now, how good it still is.
On September 21, when the astronomical autumn starts on this site of the world, The Netherlands still had a flight from 500[minus3] km in a Duo Discus XLT from Malden.
Dad Ferdi and son Caspar Kuijpers, set a task, flew up to the N then E. into Germany and back.
They mentioned that after a week of rain here, the earth was still dry , which created beautiful thermals, specially for this time of the year.
In Germany a pilot even flew 625 km in a Discus 2c/18m.
Several over 400 km. flights, not bad for nearly the end of September.
Last Sunday, September 25 , it was still nice, as you can see on the picture below.

On this picture at Terlet , Dad Rein and son Lars are flying together from Terlet to Venlo in the south of Holland then into Belgium to Keiheuvel and via Woendsrecht back home to Terlet; 360 km.
Not easy with some rain and overdevelopment, but on the other hand great visibility.
https://www.weglide.org/flight/220471
And from Gilze, also in Holland Robin and Kyra flew 399 km in the Duo Discus XLT.
Flight 10 from 177 on the OLC 2023 !!!. https://www.onlinecontest.org/
Whilst from Stadtlohn, not far from the Dutch border a 522 km. flight was still possible in a Ventus 2ct/18m.
Yesterday a few interesting flights in wave from 993 by Gil Souviron in Stemme S10 from Perpignan, 1000 by Klaus Ohlmann in Antares from Serre and another 1000 k from Grenoble in an ASH 31 /21 m. by Thomas Pudhod. https://www.onlinecontest.org/ on September 27.

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Last season was TOP. Hot, pretty dry , lot’s of thermals and good visibility ….all ingredients for a lovely season, which will be not easy to forget.
Looking at the statistics world wide in 2022 ;
—-The best OLC-plus flights were in the USA and all 3 flown from Minden in Nevada.
Jim Payne flew in the NIXUS 2.581 km., Keith Essex 1.906 km in a DUO DISCUS!!!! and Uwe Kleintempel 2.027 km in Ventus 2cm/18m.
—-The longest flight , the distance record, was by Jim Payne in the ARCUS M; 2.907 km. Also flown from Minden.
2 German pilots Klaus Ohlmann and Thomas Horz , flew from Zapala in Argentina, distances from over 2.800 km in the STEMME S10.
—-Who flew the most km’s??
Nicolas Bennett and Keith Essex, both members from the Minden Soaring Club; 58.996,91 km during 97 flights and 57.151,31 km. during 59 flights.
—-Which airfield was the busiest? NO, not Bitterwasser this time but
1. Puimoisson in France; 619.844,63 km. during 1326 flights by 218 pilots. Good on them!!!
2. Bitterwasser in Namibia; 550.815,16 km. during 713 flights by 112 pilots.
Our Dutch airfield Terlet was on spot 4 with 374.669,55 k. during 1193 flights by 198 pilots.
—-Which club was the busiest;
The Gelderse flying at Terlet in the Netherlands; 420.893,24 km. during 1201 flights by 108 pilots. Several of them by my grand daughter!!!
The Minden Soaring Club was runner up with 347.796,50 km. during 585 flights by 30 pilots.

The Dutch OLC champion is Tim Kuijpers ,yes son from Ferdi and brother from Caspar, with 5666,78 points.
The Belgian OLC champion is Francois Delfosse with 5248,82 points.
The German champion is Alexander Mueller with 7257,01 points.
The French Champion; Baptiste Innocent with 7662,89 points.
The Australian champion is Toby Geiger with 6523,59 points.
The South American champion; Juan Pablo Verdura with 6708,67 points.
The African champion; Alexander Mueller with 7884,31 points.

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Not long and the South African Nationals are on the schedule.
They start on October 1 at Potchefstroom with 29 competitors in 3 classes and continue till October 8.
I will follow them for you.

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Frauke Elber from the Women Pilots Association shared the next news;
“The 2022 WSPA seminar is history. Flying wise it was the best seminar ever. 24 pilots from as far away as Germany and Alaska and 12 Staff and Instructors participated.
Hopefully we will have the next WSPA seminar in Germany.” in Uebersberg,Pfullingen from July 3 till 7 2023.
This was the 43d seminar where they had workshops , shared meals and lectures and had a general membership business meeting .[voting and state of WSP]

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In February, Magazine.Weglide.org announced the start of the JSChallenge. Two juniors get the opportunity to experience an adventure in South Africa. Now the winners are nominated.
“It should be emphasized that the JSChallenge is an international competition. Every junior worldwide has the opportunity to assert themselves and get the support they deserve. However, we all were pleased to nominate internationally in the first year!”
One is USA junior Zach Yamouchi ,who never flew outside Nevada and California, so he will be in for a nice surprise. The other one German junior, Niklas Hahn.
“The competition is starting in less than two weeks. A big thank you to Jonkers Sailplanes for making this adventure possible. We will report about them afterward, stay tuned!
Keep an eye on it, great challenges for the 2 juniors.”

Also in this MAGAZINE, ….WECOACH.….the stories from 2 German juniors Eric and Gerrit ;about their memorable experiences in Puimoisson.

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News for my Aussie mates;
Not long ago TT, Tony Tabart passed away and some of his mates are organizing a farewell for him in Tocumwal, where he was in his younger years one of the instructors from Bill Riley, the founder of Sportavia. This is what I got;
“One of the soaring greats, the much loved Tony Tabart  from Victoria in Australia has left us and is on his eternal final glide after 86 years on earth. Tony was a modest man, but a few of his friends have decided that his passing cannot go unpunctuated by the chance for a few friends to get together and salute Tony with a few drinks, and to tell a few stories of skill and daring.

To that end, on Saturday 15 October 2022 there will be that chance for friends of Tony Tabart to catch up at George Schuit’s yellow hangar at 145 Burmah Road (the home of Outback Soaring and the Southern Riverina Gliding Club), Tocumwal from 4:00 pm until exhaustion sets in.

It will be a night to celebrate the life of a good guy, tell a few stories, and to hear from those who were touched by the fun, generous, and talented legend of soaring that Tony was.

There is plenty of tie down space for those flying in.
Some food and drink will be provided. Those with specific needs should bring their own.

If anybody has photos of Tony that they would like to be shown on the screen on the night, please forward them to me and we will put together a slideshow.

Please contact me as soon as possible, or at least before 30 September, on 0418 897 256 or sholding@hotmail.com to advise attendance so that we can organise the catering.

If any of you know people who might like to attend, please provide this information to them.
With best wishes,
Simon Holding”

Note; Reaction from Tony’s wife Jo:
“Tony Tabart was adamant, no hangar party.  No funeral.  No fuss please.“
If – if – Tony were to want a huge party, then he would choose the WW II hangar at Tocumwal, where he instructed for so many years.  Or Horsham, where he flew Horsham Week for decades, from inception.  “
Jo Pocklington

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Western Australia NEWS about the MORNING GLORY;
“Rob Hanbury (GCWA) and Grant Rookes (BSS) finally meet the Morning Glory. It is quite a sight “
AND,…they experienced the MORNING GLORY . I have never seen such great pictures from those “rolling clouds” So I share both of them. Courtesy Grant Rookes.

Some last VERY EARLY NEWS;
The Dutch 2023 Nationals will be flown from Terlet from Thursday May 18 till 27. Host is the Gelderse.
May 16 and 17 are practice days. Somewhere in January 2023 you can apply as participant.

That’s it for now.
CU next Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz