PRIBINA CUP in Nitra Slovakia
April 19-April 27 2019.

One of those great pictures by ELFO this one from 2018.

Vladimir Voltin has ,as always,  invited pilots to visit one of the early European comps, during the Easter holiday. And the Nitra competition is a great concept with a max of 150 pilots , 50 in each class or 150 in total.
At this stage there are 153 entrees. So a very popular competition.
Club has 54, 15 m. 39, 20 m. 16 and open 44.
They start with the [unofficial] practice on the 13th and “for real” on the 19th till the 27th., with the prize giving and closing ceremony.  Hopefully the weather will be good as it is still early spring.
I like the rewards; “The winners of the Pribina Cup 2019 will be awarded free entry (no entry, aerotow and camping fees) to the next Pribina Cup 2020 event. The daily winners will be awarded small prizes at the briefings. The best junior pilots/crew in each class will be also awarded.”

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More Easter soaring.This time in Lake Keepit in Australia for some practice for the WWGC.
From Aussie Team Captain Terry Cubley: ” The Aussie team is running a training week at Lake Keepit starting on the 14th April, a great chance to better understand the area and develop the team relationships. Useful in case the world comps produces a weak day in January – say only 4 knots to 6000 feet. We will be ready. Other competitors are welcome to join us. 😃.Actually, Japanese pilot Akemi plans to attend.”

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—more news for ladies;
Dear Ladies, as already written, also in 2019 the Fly-Pink Cup competition is organized, I await your registration before April 30th. The dates are 24-25-26-31 May and 1-2 June. All documents are in AVF site and SoaringSpot Best regards COMPETITION DIRECTOR Giampietro

The competition is in Ferrara and all the news is on;http://www.voloavelaferrara.com/index.php…

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—Also news ,this time about the EGC and the Dutch team shared this picture with their pilots.

Both Bas and Peter are pilots to keep an eye on and very experienced.

Michael Sommer, Wolfgang Janowitsch are there to defend their title in open , 18 m and in the 2-seater class the winners were Sebastian Kawa /Christoph Matkowski.
BUT,…Sebastian is there, but flies now in 18 m. in a Diana 3 ,so a concurrent for Wolfgang in his Ventus 3T.
Lot’s of JS 3’s in this class as well.
Later more about this EGC.

Already in Mai this EGC ,so also an early spring event in Poland too.
Luckily the gliders from Australia arrived yesterday in good order in Venlo. One of the gliders in the container is  the one in which Diana Schuit will fly this EGC for Luxembourg.

   

Pictures courtesy George.

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Don’t forget the AERO in FRIEDRICHSHAFEN when you have time.
APRIL 10-13.
Lot’s to see there including the VENTUS 3 and the ARCUS ,loved by many!!!

 Hall A1 Stand A1-103 – and checkout the new, enhanced Arcus
As shared by Schempp-Hirth

AND

AND

https://youtu.be/jhm7Vzv2cO4

The JS3 Rapture was born on the 12th of December 2016, exactly ten years after the maiden flight of the JS1 Revelation.

We are extremely excited to share more about the development journey of the JS3 Rapture with you at the #AEROFriedrichshafen!

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—-As we get older we loose more and more[ soaring] friends. We were young , in the seventies, when we entered the international gliding-scene and caught up with friends from all over the world, who were sometimes 20 years older than we were.
Many from my age will remember the call sign RR. It was from Dick Reparon ,who flew many nationals and represented Holland also at WGC’s. He also was TC at many comps.
In 1970 he was a member of the team flying in Marfa in Texas in an ASW 15, then with call sign 47!
We spend many years at the same competition in Angers , the unofficial EGC.
Dick died last week , age 86 and I was very happy that I still saw him a few months ago, when I visited him , rather unexpectedly , with Chris and Baer Selen.
R.I.P. Dick, finally reunited with Jo; Jopie as he called her tenderly, who died a few years ago. [2007]LOVELY lady!!!

During the 1978 competition, the 21 Coupe d’Europe,  Dick was runner up behind Marc Schroeder from France. George was 3d in this open class.
A year in which we met, Herbert Frehner and Monsieur Bohli, Basil Obrist and his family ,the Stouffs family and our Belgium friends the Huybreckx family.

1. With Mr Bohli , yes from the compass, and his crew,2.  with Basil Obrist and Patrick Stouffs and3. Herbert Frehner.

Looking at the book it’s maybe nice to share the other winners in racing and standard class as well.

picture 1; Class course…Francois Hersen. from France 2, Walter Speychiger and 3 .Urs Baumgartner, both from Switzerland

Picture 2;  Classe Standard. …1.Eddy Huybreckx 2. Bruno Pieraerts , both from Belgium 3. Basil Obrist from Switzerland

 

And to finish ….. love this picture shared by John Welsh.

No not at home but it is the VSA Simulator at the Australian Gliding Museum, Bacchus Marsh.

Cheers Ritz

—-Back on track, but not yet totally recovered, as it takes between 3 and 6 weeks to be able to do everything again.
Very painful such a torn muscle in the lower back!!!!!!

—-Short blog as sitting too long is not good for a quick recovery. Moving is the word.
Writing goes quick, but good research takes time.

WOW-factor-picture.
Soaring at Terlet in Holland last weekend as seen by top-photographer Arjan Vrieze.

—-Last weekend the skies here in the S. E. of Holland looked great. I heard Malden had 1600 m. so a day to even fly cross country. I had to check. Of course!!
The 24th of March, 2 weeks ago , it really started in Holland with flights up to 346 km. in a Duo Discus WL by Alexander and Martin flying from Veendam. That day specially the N. was blessed with great soaring conditions and for that reason, happy pilots.
Last weekend started slowly on Friday with flights from just under 100 km.
Saturday however was the day, not too cold, sunny and great “cauliflowers” moving on the blue skies.
406 km. in an ASW 19 from Venlo in the S. by Andy and 429 by Steven [Raimond] flying from Terlet in his ASW 29 E.
33 Dutch pilots added their flights on the OLC list.
Sunday was even better, 41 pilots flew cc that day; Jelmer [Vis] flew in a St. Cirrus 481 km. from Hoogeveen. Good on him, one of our junior- squad.
Many junior’s flew on this great spring weekend in which the time changed to 1 hour later.

—-France and Germany had last weekend great weather too with flights up to 606 from Aubenasson in an ASH 31MI/21m. and 900k. from Winzeln in a Ventus 2CT/18m. Also 894 from the Hahnweide is worth mentioning. Flight in a Discus 2 A. As well as 719 in an LS 4 WL from Ludwigshafen.
1149 Flights were added that Sunday to the OLC. Looking at 2018 ; “only” 595 and also the best first spring-day!!!!
SO,…a very good last day of March 2019, a great start of the season.

—-Klaus Ohlmann saw the great soaring conditions as well . He left for Aosta where “our” men flew their height in the past and we went skiing in Pila. He plans to fly over the arch of the Alps, what he tried already before. He says it’s possible to fly 2000 kms in one day over the Alps.

Yes Italy has good spring weather too and flights before last weekend reached already 714 km. in the ARCUS M from Alzate. Last Sunday Giorgio flew in his VENTUS 3 606 km. from Thiene.

—-April 1 was a good day as well with 20 flights OVER 500 km.in Europe,  from Italy, Austria , Switzerland and Slovenia.
The Dolomite’s were booming!!
Even 631 k. in a St. Cirrus from Lesce Bled to Lienz Nikolsdorf and back, ridge soaring at it’s best.

—-As I shared with you a while ago, Terry Cubley got a very high and very deserved award; the Australia Medal AM. At the Victorian  Government House, they had this week, a nice ceremony.

Terry with his wife Vicky and their 2 daughters Tegan and Erin. I always forget from which one Vicky was pregnant when we met in Rieti in 1984 for the first time. As I wanted to give her a glass of Dutch Jenever , celebrating the friendship between Australian and Dutch glider pilotsat the Pre Worlds, practicing for the WGC 1 year later, she refused and confessed she was pregnant, so no strong booze for her.
This time there are bubbles. Good on them and not only deserved for Terry but for the entire very lovely family!!! I like Terry’s tie.
Picture shared by Terry.

—-The Dutch juniors are preparing for their JWGC in Hungary at Szeged and as they say themselves they form a dream squad.
Milan Kmetovics is the competition director for the #jwgc2019
He is , as I read, a glide instructor in Omarama as well.Nice life style!!

The “dream team” , with Sjors van Loon, current JWGC Champion Sjoerd van Engelen, Lars Groot , Jelmer Vis and laying Robin Smit, JWGC runner up in Benalla at the JWGC.
Shared by Dutch Junior Gliding Team

—–Next weekend is the AERO in Friedrichshafen ; April 10 to 13 2019.Enjoy.

Cheers Ritz hopefully more news next Wednesday.

To finish this great picture shared by Justin de Reuck

“Every now and then a unique opportunity comes along. We were out in Potchefstroom yesterday shooting an amazing stunt with the Puma Flying Lions for Smoke on Go when we and the guys from Jonker Sailplanes decided to put together something unique. 
Jonker Sailplanes have just recently celebrated their 50th JS3 Rapture glider off the production line, so JS test pilot, AP Kotze put one of their Raptures up in formation with The Flying Lions Harvards as we departed for Rand yesterday afternoon… Not an easy formo at all, but so well flown by the guys.“

Bose Aviation
Jonker Sailplanes
Creative Space Media

Due to a torn muscle in my lower back , thanks to gardening,writing is impossible, as I am in great pain.
Fysio is helping but it goes slow.

CU next week.
Sorry Ritz

—With the terrorist attack on innocent people in their mosque, New Zealand sadly found out ,that their till now relative safe country , [Christchurch had of course terrible earth quakes], lost it’s innocence as well, due to a fanatic weirdo.
50 People dead and a lot injured. TOO tragic for words. The HAKA-tribute  brought tears to many eyes.
In Utrecht , the travel hub from Holland , we had an attack as well; 3 people dead ,3 very badly injured and 2 more injured.
In a tram on their way to school, work or just having a coffee with mum. Our innocence is gone too.
Holland is part of Europe and several European countries had to deal with this  violence already earlier, whilst we “escaped”.
A Turkish weirdo born in Turkey ,but living in Holland, with a past of violence, took our Dutch innocence.
If it was a terrorist attack or a relational attack , maybe a psychopath, or a “crack-related” one, maybe even a reaction on Christchurch, [ I hope they find out in the end] , that does n’t matter for the families , their husband [49] son [29]and daughter [19] will be gone forever;  this guy ruined their lives.
Now sadly enough, it was our turn , but compliments for the police and other instances, they did a great job.

New Zealand and The Netherlands share their grief. The world shares with them.

—We were not the only ones, 2 weeks ago, with the very bad spring storm. Also Germany and Belgium SUFFERED!!!!
With this weird heavy weather, it must be , that insurances are going to raise their prices.
Only Holland had a damage bill from several millions. 2 Injured people luckily, no fatal accidents here in Holland.
It’s sometimes unbelievable to see how people crawl out of their by a tree,totally smashed car, with only a blue eye!! Great guardian angels.

—Last week I could not remember the name of the president of the jury later at the WWGC in Lake Keepit. Lilian, who flies WWGC’s for Holland straight away updated me. Thanks.
Gisela Weinreich. Of course I know her name and her input in female soaring, even met her, but a long time ago.
Lilian shared some info about her;
“She has been more often steward at WWGC’s. She is one of those champions and heroes in female gliding.
Here is a link to a documentary about the history of “women in gliding”, from the WWGC in Klix in 2005.Lot’s of history and the foundation of the WWGC. Deep respect for the ladies from the “past“.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjq9xx09fMk

 

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29 th Senior championship from Seminole Lake Gliderport.

courtesy Bozena Michalowski

The oldies, with respect, are still going strong,  at their senior championship as always at Seminole Lake Gliderport.
The contest management decided to “only” have 55 entrees for safety reasons.
Those 55 started on March 9 and continued till Friday the 15th.
What happened?
On contest day 1 Karl Striedeck showed his great soaring experience in a Duo Discus X, winning the first 1000 points,after an early start . Jim Lee in a 15m version JS 3 was runner up. Ron Ridenour in an ASW 27 was 3d.
A day with nice temperatures and a few clouds as well, but conditions seem to have been not as good as expected/hoped for.

Karl Striedeck with to the r. his brother.
Courtesy Bozena Michalowski.

Contest day 2 was for Jim, starting with a bunch of his mates, using [convergence-] cloud streets as much as possible. He straight away took over the first overall spot. Karl was 15th so moved to an overall spot 3. Not bad either!!Ron was 6th and stayed on 2.
“Today’s task is a 2 hr. area task. Weather forecasted similar to yesterday, but more moisture and encroaching clouds from a system along the gulf. Grid time was delayed and a slight change of task with the gate opening 14:20ish. Cu began to form in the airport area near launch time and bases rose to 4000+. All appear to be on course at this time.” by Kathy Lee.

1 of the pilots Pete Alexander with his “co”. I met Pete in Uvalde, [2012] where he mostly did the sniffer flight’s.
Courtesy Bozena Michalowski

“One special part of the Seniors Contest is the support that the competitors, crews, & friends give to help the next generation of pilots, particularly the junior team. Pete Alexander, chair of us team committee shared progress in preparing our Juniors for the upcoming contest in Hungary. The seniors stepped up with generous donations, back seat rides, etc. to help our 2019. it’s encouraging to see so much support for Juniors. Great job Seniors.”
US Soaring Teams

Contest day 3 , was the 2d daily win for Jim, so he was strongly on top with a relative late start at 3 PM. Karl was 3d and moved to spot 2 overall. Ron had a less good day, finished as 17th and dropped overall to spot 6.

Gary Carter and his lovely wife Christine, who I met in Uvalde as well. They were crewing for Bill Elliott that year and as I wrote for their Soaring Cafe, I met them a lot.
Courtesy Bozena Michalowksi

THEN …..NO flying,….but a CREW day!!!! Rick writes;
” At the Seniors, it is traditional to call the Rest Day the “Crew Day.”  This is because, at this event, the day is chosen by the crews, in consultation with the Competition Manager.  The CD doesn’t get a say in it.
The Crew Day is chosen well in advance, to allow the pilots and crews a full day to enjoy the Florida attractions.
This year it was a good call; we’ve had a solid overcast all day.”

Contest day 4 on March 13. After the overcast ,some cirrus stayed and made it not an easy day for some.  Lee is still on spot 1 overall, but was 8th for the day and Karl only 20thiest, but he stayed on his spot 3 as well. In between ,  Ron in his ASW 27, who is back in the top, with a relative early start at 2.04 PM and daily winner, so he returned to spot 2 overall.  Jim started 15 minutes later.

The tuggies, “you guys are the greatest. Such an incredible & efficient routine launching so many planes in such a short time!”
Courtesy Bozena Michalowski

Contest day 5; Leigh writes about the weather;
“Roughly 4000 ft. cloud bases, cu, light winds from SE.  Possible horizontal spread out, no cirrus.”
So a 2.5 hour area task was set.
The day even turned out better than expected but some kind of seabreeze interrupted some good flights.
Leigh writes about it;
“About halfway thru the course- 5-6 knot thermals.  Unfortunately for some competitors, a lake wind shadow set up approx. 15 miles west of last turn and as a result those returned home for a finish short of minimum time.”
Daily winner;Billy Kerns in an LS 8 /15 m. Ron was 2d and Lee 3d. Karl 5th, so no changes to the overall top;Jim, Ron and Karl.

with Doug Jacobs and his crew.
Courtesy Bozena Michalowski.

Contest day 6 last day!with good weather up to 5000 ft and 9 knot climbs!!!
Not a great day for Jim , finishing as number 21 for the day, but he was so far ahead he could fly defensibly.
Al Simmons in the ARCUS M won the day , the best day of the contest and with that he took over spot 3 overall from Karl.
FINAL RESULTS;
1. Jim Lee with 5.703 points.
2. Ron Ridenour with 5600 p.
3. Al Simmons with 5548 p.
4. Karl Striedeck with 5528 p.
5. Rich Owen with 5505 p. [in LS 8 /15 m.]
6. Doug Jacobs with 5477 p. [in Duo Discus X]

The older ones under my readers know of course names as Karl Striedeck and Doug Jacobs. I met them at several comps in the past. Karl was honored and here is what ,I guess looking at the style, Rick wrote about him;
“The awards ceremony opened with a special presentation. Karl Striedieck received the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Diploma, in honor of his 50+ years of accident-free flying in everything from F-86s to the Duo Discus he now flies. In his remarks after the presentation, Karl, who has flown gliders all over the world, reminded us how lucky we are to have the freedom to fly in this country without the restrictions most other glider pilots endure.”

This was the 29th version of the Seniors Contest so we are looking ahead of a great 30thiest contest next year.

Booming Weather.
All pictures Bo Michalowski

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SKYSIGHT.

News;
Today we are announcing the launch of the first revision of our User Manual.
We have a comprehensive manual in English, and a Quickstart guide available in German and English.

Manual (EN): http://static.skysight.io/Manual-v1.pdf
Quickstart (EN): http://static.skysight.io/Quickstart-v1.en.pdf
Quickstart (DE): http://static.skysight.io/Quickstart-v1.de.pdf

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UPPSALA MASTERS
UPDATE:

An important update about some changes;
“ the Official Comp starts 8th of June and ends 16th of June. 9th of June is a non-flying day.”
Why?? “our second competition day must be cancelled due to a verdict in our court of appeal some years ago, that prevents us from performing glider towing at Withsunday.”

 

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Some nice long flights last week;
March 14; In an ASH 25 Baptiste Innocent flew 1.065 km. from Fayance.
March 15; Kilometer eater Klaus Ohlman took his Stemme out the hangar from Serres for a long “ride” 1.612 km. with 166,95 km./h!!!!
730 in a Ventus 1 by Gerard Lherm from St Martin, is good too.
March 16 ;1.121 km. mostly ridge soaring by Dan Reagan in an ASH31/18m. from Grant County.
“Good day. A little of everything, wave, ridge, thermals, show showers, etc., etc. Lots of fun.”
March 19; 722 [600 FAI triangle] by 2 pilots flying an ARCUS from Alzate in Italy. And,…756 km. by 2 German pilots  flying from Bad Neustadt in an ASG 32 MI.

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And to finish;
Enough “troubles” again with the BREXIT. Love this cartoon shared by Peter Tutuarima. To be honest I do not understand some of the British people.

By Peter Tutuarima.

 

AND…..to finish once more this great sunset in South Africa.

after the roll out, from the 50thiest JS 3, owned by Katrin Senne, she made a few pictures.
So courtesy Katrin Senne
“What a happy day. Being able to join the roll out party of the 50 JS3 of Jonker Sailplanes in Potchefstroom SA today. And having the possibility to take the first pictures of my new BK glider was even better,”

Had a week in Amsterdam with my grand children. Very rewarding!!!
Worst ever storm here in this part of Holland,  with lot’s of damage, several millions!!!!
I live very much in-land, in the SE of Holland, so such a storm is very weird . People had to walk their bikes and had to be careful to not go with the wind, even with the bike in their hands. Unbelievable.
SNOW in the east of Holland and hail and thunder and lightning here, PLUS those up to 124 km. wind gusts.
March brings gales!!!!

2 Horror crashes with planes in Colombia and Ethiopia last weekend, killing nearly 200 passengers . Not good!!!! VERY SAD!!! On top of that heavy turbulence in a 777 from Turkish airlines during landing in New York with several injured passengers.

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IGC meeting in Istanbul.

As always in the first week of March the IGC plenary meeting was on;  this time in Istanbul on March 8 and 9.
A lot of reactions on one of the statements, both pro and contra.
—-they announced “We have voted to disallow tactical tracking… by making it technically difficult, and by declaring that workarounds (i.e. codebreaking etc.) are unsporting. We further voted to preserve delayed tracking for spectators.”
And;
“Afternoon session begins with a very interesting presentation about the Open Glider Network. For our competitions, we are committed to disallowing tactical glider tracking while preserving collision avoidance technology.”
A few reactions;
“Hearing from the IGC Plenary meeting in Turkey that the that tactical use of OGN is going to be banned by agreement that looking at the OGN data would be unsporting. I hope this is not true. This is not a solution.”

Interesting to see HOW they are going to do this.Glad and important they look into this matter, as there seem to be 2 “camps” ,but how they are going to implement this ……….??????? The sport should be safe , innovation is important but it should be fair and attainable for all.

Here are a few tweets.
—“From a late proposal: we have approved a modification to the Designated Start rule, adding a 5 minute option.”
—“The Lilienthal Medal is awarded to Dick Bradley.”CONGRATULATIONS DICK!!!!
— “The Pirat Gehriger Diploma is awarded to Dr. Angel Casado.” CONGRATULATIONS ANGEL!!!!
— “We have voted to experiment with a place scoring in our WGCs. Details to be developed for next year’s meeting.”
— “We have voted to experiment with a bonus for early starters. Details to be developed for next year’s meeting.”
— “We have voted to experiment with handicapping by adjustment to turn point radius, with distance credit to the center of the circle. Details to be developed for next year’s meeting.”
— “The 37th World Gliding Championships in the Club, Standard, and 15 Metre classes will be held in Australia at the end of 2022 (or early 2023).” It seems this will be Narromine. Great spot.
— “We have introduced two new trophies this year. The first “IGC Champion Pilot of the Year” trophy was awarded to Michael Sommer. The new “Göran Ax Memorial” trophy will be given for the greatest cumulative distance in the Open Class WGC, beginning in 2020.”

AND it is official!!!!All 3 2018 world records from the Perlan Project are approved by the FAI.

GPS altitudes Aug 26 Jim Payne and Morgan Sandercock 18,503 m 60,705 ft
Aug 28 Jim Payne and Miguel Iturmendi 19,449 m 63,809 ft
Sept 2 Jim Payne and Tim Gardner 22,657 m 74,334 ft

All the tweets on https://twitter.com/FAI_IGC

 

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LAKE KEEPIT…….10th WWGC info

The weather is still good in Lake Keepit. Last Sunday Attila Bertok flew in his St. Cirrus 529 km. You might remember that he did his conversion from hang-gliding to gliding with us in the past. Great to see he still flies gliders.

The CD , Chief steward and president of the jury for the 2020 WWGC, have been announced at the IGC meeting in Istanbul. Here they are.

 Steward, Contest Director and Jury Chair. Frauke, Mandy and Gisela [Weinreich].

More news; As far as I know ,Luxembourg will attend a WWGC for the very first time. Diana Schuit , a Dutch citizen but living in Luxembourg already for a few years, will represent them. She practiced already a lot down under , where she lived in the past and is ready to go for it in open class in her brand-new JS 3.
Diana flew with us in the Sportavia period as tuggie and is a well respected co pilot at Cargolux nowadays.
She is married to George , who will be her crew and TC. Both live partly in Tocumwal as well.

And talking about tuggies this is the tug master in Lake Keepit in 2020.

 They have a very significant group of highly qualified staff completely ready for the Competition and its Lead-Up. This  is Val Phillips, Val will look after Tugs and Tug Operations.
10th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships

After the early January 2020 WWGC there will be the European 11th WWGC in summer [August]  of 2021 in Husbos in the UK. Their PR started already as well.

British Gliding Association

And the next one is known now too since the IGC meeting;
“The date of the 12th Women’s World Gliding Championships in Fuentemilanos, Spain will be August 2022.”

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—-Tocumwal; 8th of March, Bi Annual Hot Rods, Market and Gliding.

  

as shared by Sportavia Tocumwal

As seen and shared by Mary Anne.

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Those who are interested in flying the Uppsala Masters in Sweden; here is the latest.

Dear Uppsala Masters competitors and Teams!
We will within days publish Local Procedures and some other relevant documents such as price list and good to know info. Final day to register your self is 31st of March. This is also final day of payment. Payment and registration after this date is possible however will cost you 750 sek extra. At this moment we have some 40 gliding ships on the list. Amongst Swedish pilots we are happy to see that our Finnish gliding friends will visit us with a big team. This year we also have visitors from Norway and Germany, and not to forget our new world champion in 18m class from Austria mr. Wolfgang Janowitsch, this time flying with his mate Andreas Lutz in an Arcus. Last but not least we are glad to see that a competitor all the way from Canada has found his way to Uppsala, very welcome Jean Yves Germain.
So, stay tuned and we will return soon with updates!
www.uppsalamasters.se

as shared by Uppsala Masters

AND,…..some additional travel news
“Dear Friends,
For those of you that will travel over water to reach the beautiful country of Sweden I would suggest to have a look at the great offer our sponsor partner Finnlines have given us.

Route: KAPELLSKÄR – NÅDENDAL and return 
Travel period: 5th June to 18th of June
Latest booking date: 30th April
Promo code: MASTERS
Discount: -50% discount on morning departures and -35% discount on evening departures (deduction from std price list)

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And to finish another GREAT soaring family, this time from France; the de Péchy family. Very successful in 2018!!!! Well done and congratulations.

From left to right;Anton de Péchy, winner of the Coupe Jacque Gomy 2018, then the very well known French TC, Eric Napoleon, then dad Philippe de Péchy , holder of a French record and National champion, and last but not least Clément de Péchy, runner up in the race for the Coupe Jacques Gomy 2018.

 

Enough news, so CU next week. By the Way the Namibia containers have arrived already ‘Home’ in good condition.

Cheers Ritz

Just a short and early blog due to circumstances. Next week more.

On March 1 the meteorological spring started with autumn temperatures , lot’s of rain and tough wind, spoiling a lot of carnival pleasure. After the 3 glorious days with up to 21 dgr.C.,[ a drop from 21 to 8!!!!] it felt as a “cold shower”, but for sure the spring temperatures will come back.

Time enough to read the on.line-version of Gliding International with ,as always lot’s of news.

On the cover of the March/ April issue from Gliding International is a great picture from the JS 3 with the words ;” the choice of champions!!! A success story!!!”
Jonker Sailplanes started with the JS 1 in 2006. Since the maiden flight they produced 126 gliders from this type. The JS 3 was later but already this month the 50 thiest JS3 will be handed over to a happy customer.
It took them 8 years to sell 50 JS1’s and now just over 2 years to sell this JS3. That say’s enough about the interest and trust in this glider, as mind you,those gliding-toy’s are not cheap.You have to think about it first.
“Part of JS vision and mission is to release a new product or variant every three years. The JS2 SL, SelfLauncher version of the JS1 with an improved fuselage design, is now in its final stages of development and completion and first flight is scheduled for mid-2019.
From 2020 the JS2 SL will be made available to the market which will be an exciting new entry for JS into the recreational gliding market.”
For their newsletters you can go to ; https://mailchi.mp/287…/jonker-sailplanes-newsletter-1585601

And much more news as
—the dittolog…a wireless automatic flight-sheet …more in the magazine and at a www.dittolog.com
DittoLog is an invention from Ernst Ditges who flew in the past with us in Tocumwal. He moved from Germany to Australia and still happily lives there. The Business was sold to Bob Flood recently and Bob is the one who writes about it in G.I.

—-ASG 32 got the problem under control; they released an A.D.(Airworthiness Directive) for its two-seater ASG 32.

—all you need to know about flying in the 4 soaring mecca’s in Namibia.

—Gariep Dam, never really gone but more prominent back on the map again…due to many German pilots.

—LS 4, LS 3,LS 10, …all gliders from Lempke Schneider… and now the “L” is not more. Wolf Lemke died on December 1.

—Germany and Australia join forces to increase research on global warming.

62 Pages of great , informing and interesting reading.

I also looked at the pilot ranking on February 28 2019 and the first 6 pilots are between 990 and 1000 points;
6. with 990.2 Sjaak Selen from Holland
5. with 990.7 Mac Ichikawa from Japan
4. with 990.8 Felipe Levin from Germany.
3. with 996.0 Wolfgang Janowitsch from Austria.
2. with 999.6 Michael Sommer from Germany.
1. with 1000 points Sebastian Kawa from Poland.

https://www.facebook.com/glidinginternational/

 

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LAKE KEEPIT…WWGC news

9 pilots will participate for Australia.
Club Class: Jenny Ganderton, Jo Davis, Kerrie Claffey.
Standard Class: Cathy Conway,Clair Scutter, Lisa Trotter.
18M Class: Ailsa McMillan, Jenny Thompson,Lisa Turner.

As I heard lately there will be, at this stage,  no participating pilots from Holland, which would be very sad. Hope this will chance.

At this late time in the season, the weather is still glorious in Lake Keepit. The Regatta is on and they enjoy the good weather to the fullest.

“The gliders go soaring one by one, hurrah! Hurrah! – Keepit Regatta ‘19“

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Tocumwal still has great ,now- already-autumn-weather- conditions and guests.
March 2; Chris Davison, flew 848 km. [832 triangle] in his 21 m. JS 1.
Grant who I see more and more back in soaring,[he is /was? a great hang-glider pilot ] flew 677 [558 triangle] in his St. Jantar and Kari is  back in Toc from Finland and flew in the ASW 27 456 k.This was his last flight for the season and with 12 flights in the pocket [ since January 24] he travels back home.
Conditions were superb; 10.000 ft and cu’s here there and everywhere.
Bruce Kerl flew a declared 500 !!! Mind you it’s AUTUMN!!!

Bernard Eckey flew in his ASH 30 819 km. from Balaklava.
A total of 8 flights over 600 km. also from Temora, Benalla and Lake Keepit.
What about Lake Keepit?? Doing something else/different in autumn??
Allan Barnes and Harry Medlicott flew a goal flight from Lake Keepit to Horsham;1.004 km!!!

March 3; the good weathercontinued.
What about a 750 FAI triangle in a PIK 20 by Bernie Sizer with 102 km./h.!?  A total of 769 km. this late in the season…chapeau!!!!Tough to come back but he made it and said “well worth it”!!! TOP!!!!
Lumpy with 822 [766 triangle] in the JS 3 also from Toc.
Bob from Benalla in Ventus 2CT/18m  with 635 km [600 triangle]
770 in the ARCUS M with Allan and Harry from Horsham this time; a long goal flight back from Horsham to Narromine. Only less than 250 to go now!!!
“We originally planned on stopping overnight in Tocumwal, then Temora, then finally Narromine as conditions continued to improve from the hot, sweaty, weak, windy, overcast conditions at Horsham. “. BUT,….they passed by all those places to nearly do it all in one day!! Good on them.
16 over 500 km. flights down under. And,….2 over 800 that weekend from Toc. Not bad.

Of course I lived for quite a few years in Tocumwal, hence a “bit” more news than about other fields.
Last Saturday the SRGC said farewell to their life Member, Dieter “Dundee” Albrecht. He is 82 now , has some problems with a knee, but I guess that after an operation he might be back next season.
However, when  Ingo spoke at the lunch for Dundee at the Golf Club, he mentioned;
“When the club first formed, Dieter made his single seat glider , the ASW15, VH-GES, available t o the club free of charge.  For a long time this was the only single seater the club could offer to our members.
Dieter donated this glider to the club last year and would also like to donate his other assets to the club before he leaves.”

That does n’t sound like coming back. Don’t know which assets, but I hope not “his/my” house, as I have the first option on it. But for sure that’s taken care of. He will be home in Germany today, time to see/hear what’s up.

    

Dundee in his car which brought him EVERYWHERE and with his best mate Ingo; “bier um vier.”

Cu next week.
Cheers Ritz

 

It’ has been 18 dgr. C here, insane on February 25, the hottest 25th ever. We have had in the past speed- ice-skating- races and the 11 steden tocht [ ice skating in the N of Holland …Friesland,…over frozen canals between 11 towns] in February, but NEVER these high temperatures. Even the UK, often wet and chilly in this time, had record breaking temperatures of 20 dgr. and even 21 dgr.C!!!!
Yesterday we had 20 dgr. WOW!!!! Another new record….Today there should be a new record again…..
So far for global warming……??!!!
The weekend however will be wet [90% chance of rain] and “cold” [still 11 dgr.C. but 5 bft. wind, which is not good for the huge moving carnival cars]  like autumn, just when the CARNIVAL parade is on and my town FULL of party-guests.

 

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——-Well done to Billy AND Daniel AND James AND Tom AND Paul and last but not least Lisa .Good on you!!! All flights last week. It seems the future does n’t look that bad!!!

“Congratulations to Billy Thomas who flew Solo for the first time yesterday. The photo shows Mark Rushton congratulating Billy after one of the 3 flights. ”
shared by Welland Gliding Club

AND

Congratulations Daniel on your first solo flight! He enjoyed every minute of his 1.5 hour flight and Manager Ops, Steve, was happy to do the honours with the obligatory solo christening!! Welcome to the ranks….now the journey starts!!😁 shared by Gliding Club of Victoria

AND
same club ,….same procedure

And congratulations to James [from Sydney] who soloed today! Woo hoo!! And …..he knew there was no escaping; just bring it on Steve!!😁

AND

“Tom Foale being congratulated by Carol Pike after his first solo.
Great day at Shalbourne GC today.[February 24!!!!!] 53 flights, first solo by Tom Foale, Bronze theory test and Bronze flying test passed by Matt Beckett, Annual checks and P1 mutual checks completed by Nick Jelev, P1 mutual checks completed by Jeremy Knight and annual BI checks completed by Chris Bessent.
With the warm weather there were plenty of T shirts on show,
lets hope 2019 is a great year for gliding……. British Gliding Association UK Junior Gliding”
Shared by  Shalbourne Gliding

AND

“Congratulations to Paul who completed his first solo today! Paul took out our fixed price to solo deal and has been working to progress through the BGA syllabus – seen here with proud instructor Rob!”

AND

“Huge congratulations to Lisa for her first solo flight today! Lisa Baker was sent solo by Brian Gough today after several rigorous training flights ensuring she could safely deal with anything. Lisa’s flying was supported by a bursary from RAFA YOUTH which has enabled her to learn to fly a glider here at Kestrel!”

Shared by RAF GSA Kestrel

Congratulations to ALL.
AND,…a first 300 k is worth mentioning too. From Tocumwal flown by Bruce.

“First 300 km flight for Bruce today
Late start with blue thermals to 8500ft‘”
As shared by  SportAviation Tocumwal

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—-Shared by  Graham Garnett;
“Brian Spreckley reports that there will be an Overseas Championship at Issoudun in France held in conjunction with the Issoudun International contest. The task setter and local organiser will be Brian Spreckley and tasks will be DHT, AAT and AST. Gliders at any level are welcome.

Issoudun is a large grass airfield in the centre of France with a possibility of some great flatlands flying in the excellent conditions usually experienced in this region.

 

——-SOME INTERESTING FLIGHTS;

February 20 ;Allan [Barnes]tried a 1000 km. out and return from Lake Keepit in his LS 8. It looked like a chance, but,…unfortunately “it was not there”. Still some great conditions and convergences to fly this late in their season; 886 km.!!!!
February 21;Orient had a good day with 844 in a Ventus 2CM/18m. And 518 in an ASW 20/ 16.6.
Narromine was still good with 753 in an ASH 31/21 m.
February 22; USA pilot Kelvyn Flavall, flew just over 1000 k in blue conditions during a not always easy flight from Omarama, dropping from 4993 MSL [4447 AGL]  to 1641[ 467 AGL] in his ASG 29E/18m.!!!!He called it “a complete mystery“.
That same day Keith [Essex] flew 1.802 km. with a speed of 153 km./h in his ASG 29, on what somebody called a weak and slow day!!???
Keith mentioned in his OLC comment;”It wasn’t the usual wave flight where you could sleep through most of the flight. Tricky, blue at times and unstable with discontinuous lines. Wave system fell apart in the north and the south stayed relatively good. It was cold, was worried about frozen water ballast so tried to stay relatively low. That caused some excitement and a few slow downs.”
Romanian pilot Norbert -Alin Scarlat was in the Duo Discus learning MORE every day;1.605 km. AND Max [Stevens] also flew over 1000 wave kilometers.
February 24; Sven Olivier flies in the JS 1 B a distance of 866 km. He topped the OLC list that day and his comment was :”Late season flight – rain on the first leg 🙂 but dried out on the return leg – blue in the north – convergence at the airfield – Worcester Magic.”
February 25; Good to see Michael Godoj flying from Worcester in South Africa, In the past he flew with us. Now he had a great flight in a DG 500 M/22 m. of 561 km. and topped the OLC list.
February 26…today;still over 600 km. flights in “good”  gliders as ASG 29 /18m. and ASG 32 MI from Benalla and Corowa and over 300 in LS 4 from Tocumwal.

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——Some interesting news;
from the BGA about Aussie former JWGC Champion Mathew Scutter ; “Matthew is founder of SkySight, which enables glider pilots of all disciplines to get accurate, long range weather forecasts, and will be sharing ‘Advances in soaring meteorology’ as a guest speaker.”
Matthew will be joining  this year’s BGA Sporting Conference!
Lake Keepit Regatta;  a fun, friendly and informal regatta, with entries restricted to 30 gliders,…started on February 23 and continues till March 2. First day’s were cancelled, day 2 and 3 had Allan Barnes in Duo Discus and Leo Davis in LS 8 as winners. Both day’s 3 hour AAT and 316 and 349 km. as best for 1000 points.
Scores on www.soaringspot.com.
WAGA STATE COMPS; start today [till March 7] with 21 pilots in one class .Flown from Cunderdin with a few toppers as Norm Bloch, Don Woodward and Greg Beecroft .

 

And to finish the EB over the Kalahari, shared by many over the last week, so I do too, as it is a great picture.

Fabulous picture.
Courtesy John Sullivan.

Cheers Ritz CU next week looks like blog 1100!!!!

NARROMINE 2-SEATER NATIONALS….continued.

Picture from above shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

“Narromine today from above courtesy of the sniffer. Thank you Jack. (Vojta Hájek)”

They continued in Narromine with the 2 seater comps on Thursday with
Day 5..with a 3.30 AAT in which Adam and Keith had a good run again; 1000 points for 412.86 km. in time 3.39. Of course we want to know again how they did it and with Adam’s blog we are always up to date.
“A late task change on the grid [ task A and B were direction N] saw us flying to the South, then West, North & home again on a 3.5hr AAT. As it turned out, we should’ve trusted SkySight [From Matthew Scutter] as the North looked much better – but certainly didn’t prior to launch!

Keith & I started straight away & quickly learnt that the CU’s weren’t giving great climbs nor glides, so an average run South really. We then deviated a long way North to follow the CU’s, which turned out to be the right thing.

Keith is sharing his happy opinions as well;
“Day 5. The waiting game. Waiting for task C due to incoming upper level clouds slowing the heating on task A and B. Task C locked and loaded. 3h30m AAT task under the clouds. Fun day ahead. Sweet Narromine.”

394 km.  for runner up Andrew and Steven for 989 points. and…3d with 399 km. Harry and Allan for 947 points.

They also got “HIGH” visitors on Valentines day. Lumpy flew his plane from Toc to Narromine with in it Ingo, Joergen and Birgitte. Lumpy and Joergen were, as you know, supposed to fly the 2-seater Nationals but a damaging” cell” ruined this possibility.This way they said hello to their mates!!

…… 2 former WGC champions!!!Ingo in Rayskala in 1976, in Hobbs in 1993 , in Benalla in 1987 and in Rieti in 1985 and Brad [Edwards] in Uvalde 1991
Picture shared by Tocumwal Soaring Centre

 

Day 6..with a 3.30 AAT;
Another task C, but also another nice long flight,  a challenging one looking at the speed from 107 km./h over 373 km. by winners Andrew, Georgo called by Adam and Steven.That ARCUS M is a bloody good glider.
The Edwards were runners up and as Brad did in Uvalde in 1991, SINGING, he and his brother Bill did now too in the evening.
Miles out landed ” went too far into top sector ran out of daylight and out landed 10km short. Tim had lots of scratching practice at the end of the flight and his first field landing.”
One more day to go.

Day 7.. with on the very last day a 2.30 AAT;
Rock & Jacobsohn from the Hunter Valley in the Duo Discus GIE won the day and that makes me think it’s the old Sportavia Duo, which was sold during the auction to members of the club from  the Hunter Valley . They were very pleased with the purchase of this Duo GIE, still the same call sign. NICE!!!!I am pleased to see they are happy with it.
They flew 278 km. in time 2.35. Adam and Keith were runners up and Akemi with her team mate Smith were 3d.
So pretty clear who are the 2019 2 seater champions;
1. Adam and Keith in the ARCUS M with 6.394 points.
2. Andrew and Steven in ARCUS M with 6.252 points.
3. Harry and Allan in ARCUS M with 6.023 points.
Then 3  Duo’s on spot 4,5 and 6 with team David Jansen/Styewart, team Akemi Ichikawa /Smith and team Edwards brothers Brad and Bill.
I do agree with Adam’s next words as I have seen at many comps that being your usually you is the best.
“20m final day run down.. My father told me as a young boy, don’t change anything just because you’re at a comp. Pretend it’s just any other day at the local club. That’s exactly what I did, slept the same, ate the same, prepared the same, chilled on the grid the same, it really felt like just another day to me.”
National Champion 😎👍🍻

and the champions and other winners in a cosy setting, with Beryll in full charge .

With from left to right  Keith , just behind him Andrew then Adam, Steven , Alland and Harry.
Narromine Gliding Club Official

 

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—— Who is trying to find something very special for the cockpit of the glider for the upcoming season,should have gone to Styrian Gliders Day  in Austria where Gagula Darko showed his DELUX fine product. It was last Saturday and a bit far for most of us but here is a picture and a link to see more.

http://www.deluxbygagula.com

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–—-Sebastian Kawa travels a lot. After he left the comps in N.Z. he moved to South Africa to fly a JS 1 for a film-shoot.
Here is the news shared by Sven;” Sebastian pre-flighting the JS1 before a film-shoot – I was privileged to fly the chase plane – what a demonstration of flying skill.”

   

As shared by Sven Olivier.

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It’s mid February end of summer in Australia  and nearly autumn , BUT they still have glorious flying weather.
The Benalla-Corowa-Tocumwal triangle had flights up to and just over 800 km. and 11.000 ft.  cloud base.
Lumpy Paterson flew in his JS 3 /18m. from Toc. 824 km [738 triangle] with a speed of 137.59 km./h.  , Bernie O’Donnell in his ASH 26 from Corowa 803 [598 triangle] and from Benalla Bob Nicholls in the Ventus 2CT/18m. 666 km.
Other great flights on this Sunday February 17, when we here in Holland had a record breaking 18 dgr. C. were from Grant in his Jantar 563 km. from Toc and Joerg in the LS 4 ;606 km. till he out-landed NW from Leeton.
Also the ARCUS M. from the Grampians Soaring Club flying from Toc. was worth mentioning, topping the OLC list with 815 [714 triangle] km.!!!!
Not to forget the very first flight in an ASG 29 [being used to ASW 15 and Pik 20] by Bernie Sizer;778 km. [608 triangle. His OLC comment;“First flight in an ASG29. Unbelievable.”
Temora; they had the  same great weather ,maybe even better as they are a bit more to the N. E. ; Brian DuRieu flew in his LS 10 a distance of 829 km. [738 triangle] and Lesly Kinsley in a St. Libelle 504 km.
I guess this must have been the driest , hottest and toughest summer ever . I have seen a few when I lived there, felt the pain from the farmers, saw the big ‘hoping’ eyes from the animals , but this summer was even more TRAGIC.
It’s a dream however for gliding. How cruel the weather can be!!??

By the way, Keith Essex is back in wave -wonder-land Omarama and flew 1.404 km. with 177 km./h. yesterday in his ASG 29!!!!Also a Romanian pilot learned a lot in a Duo Discus flying over 1.460 km. in wave up to 7291 m. MSL.

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—-Holland, Germany, France and Belgium slowly get their gliders out or their winter-sleep and either do the last job’s or flew already locally.Here is one of my favorite glider fields in Belgium; Keiheuvel.

From above and shared by Kon. Aeroclub Keiheuvel

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——And,…for those who like to fly in Sweden, here is an update on the Masters.
“Dear Uppsala Masters competitors and Teams! 
We will within days publish Local Procedures and some other relevant documents such as price list and good to know info. Final day to register your self is 31st of March. This is also final day of payment. Payment and registration after this date is possible however will cost you 750 sek extra. At this moment we have some 40 gliding ships on the list. Amongst Swedish pilots we are happy to see that our Finnish gliding friends will visit us with a big team. This year we also have visitors from Norway and Germany, and not to forget our new world champion in 18m class from Austria mr. Wolfgang Janowitsch, this time flying with his mate Andreas Lutz in an Arcus. Last but not least we are glad to see that a competitor all the way from Canada has found his way to Uppsala, very welcome Jean Yves Germain. 
So, stay tuned and we will return soon with updates!“

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—–Received the latest WSPA [ Women Soaring Pilots Association] magazine “Hangar Soaring” from editor Frauke Elber with news about Gliding, specially from and for women. This time also with some sad news as her husband for 50 years Wolf died on January 12 2019.Some might know him as well.
This is how he was remembered in her magazine.

IN MEMORIAM ;
Wolf Elber 1941-2019
Wolf and his family came to the US in February 1970 and joined the Tidewater Soaring Society in May that same year.
Wolf had a distinguished career first with NASA and later with the US Army. His professional accolades are immortalized on the Internet and in technical publications.
Few know about his contributions to soaring. He, in conjunction with Steve Sliva, wrote the first display scoring program for the 1982 Nationals in Elmira, NY. For the first time, this program made it possible to see schematically the location of pilot’s land-out places. It was a great hit with crews and the pilots who had already returned to Harris Hill.
A year later, he wrote the program for the ground start-clock that was used during the 1983 World Championships in Hobbs, NM. He also was one of the three scorers at these World Championships. He tinkered with home-calibrating variome-ters using the car manifold and home fridge. In the early eighties, he developed a thermal sniffing sensor that Helmut Reichmann in his plane and Frauke in their Ka8 test-flew. It worked, but too slowly for practical use then. It was about 20 years ahead of its time.
He was an avid supporter of Women Soaring (no wonder, it was a woman, who got him into soaring) and attended about 20 WSPA seminars together with his wife Frauke. At the seminars he was known as mister-fix-it all, especially non-functional toilets. For his efforts in this field, he was awarded the “Golden Plunger Award” (not mentioned on Google).
Over the years he owned a Ka 8, a Libelle, and an ASW 20 and was always willing to share the planes with others. For 10 years he flew in the Senior Championships at Seminole Lake Gliderport.
On January 12, 2019, three weeks before his and Frauke’s 50th wedding anniversary, he took off for his last flight.
Good Finish, Whisky Echo” 

AND,…to finish this fabulous picture shared by the WWGC team. They are very good in their PR and know how important it is to start early with news and pictures. Let them come!!!
Every time in the future when I write about the WWGC I will start with this picture.[ with permission] .

 courtesy  johnlund.com

You are up to date, it’s getting ” slow” with news now as most comps are over , but in Mai the 20 thiest FAI EGC starts already in Poland [Turbia] in open, 18 m. and 2 seater class and even earlier there will be comps as the Pribina Cup 2019 in Slovakia between April 19 and 27.
In between I “scan” the news with my eyes and scan some vintage pictures from “old” comps.

CU Ritz

New Zealand Club Class National Gliding Championship 2019.

 

    

“As you can see Dave the weather man was completely sure which way to go yesterday at launch.”
Yesterday was last Wednesday. Courtesy Matamata Soaring Centre

After the rest- day everybody was eager to go for the last couple of day’s. The weather was not flash but good enough to fly again on Thursday February 7;
Day 11 ..task 10;
Club..2.30 AAT; AND,….only 1 pilot from 9 finished!!! Tim [Bromhead] in his DG 300.He flew 182 km. with a speed of 55 km./h, so a hard working and character building-day , but well deserved 545 points for him.
Tom still leads with 6.116 points, then Mike with 5.673 and Steve with 5.505 points.
Less excitement here as in the other class, but you never know. INDEED!!!!!
Combi..2.30 AAT; and huge differences in start times. Some left at 1.35 PM others like Keith at 2.39 so an hour difference in looking at the weather in different way’s.
4 Finished, but not Sebastian ,he was the first to be “out” after 226 km. Daily winner Patrick [Driessen] in his JS 1; 308 km. in time 3.51.
Also in , Keith and the Taupo ARCUS and,…an LS  6 C with 206 km in time 3.19. Good on David Moody !!!
Sebastian still leads with 6.309 points with Keith on 2 with 6.257 and Patrick on 3 with 5.344.
Interesting to see what will happen, as it is between these 3 pilots, who will be on spot 1 in the end.

 

Courtesy Sebastian who had time to make this great picture as well. Not far from Roturua where I was as well and looked in amazing at the boiling mud.

Day 12 ..task 11;
Club..3 hour AAT; Tim seems to be in a winning flow,…he won again already his 4th win; 289 km./in time 3.08. Steve and Mike “hang in ” on spot 2 and 3 .
6 Finishers and 4 out. Nothing changed in the top 3.
Combi..3 hour AAT; The toppers all started at the same time, but not finished at the same time. Difference in speed between number 1 and 5 was 114.05 for 91.50 km./h..
The first speed was from Sebastian, the last one from Patrick, which meant in points a loss of 250 p. on Sebastian who won the day with 346 km. Patrick had 314 km. In between Keith as runner up with 344 km.
Keith mentioned in his OLC comment :”A variety of conditions today. Areas of overcast to the north and east with good Cu in the west. Very scenic in the west looking out over the pacific. To be safe I did a detour into the sun to get on final glide.”
Nothing changed in the top 3.

Day 13..task 12; In fact they had  9 out of 13 valid day’s. So PERFECT.
What was more perfect was the influence Sebastian seems to have had on the spirit of pilots during the week.
“It has been such an inspiration to so many of us gliding kiwis to have the world champion here flying with us and giving his time so generously and graciously to help those of us still struggling to learn the mysteries of the skies and how to use them. So thank you, Sebastian, you have made a huge difference to our little part of the gliding world.  Combine that with a flying visit from world record holder Terry Delore, and we have certainly been given plenty to aspire to over the last two weeks!” as said /written by Hugh de Lautour .
What happened on their last day :”tough going in places, but again showed how the experienced pilot can fly the energy lines and make the most of what is there.”

Club..3.30 AAT; So a nice long task to even more separate the boy’s from the men.
2 Pilots flew just over 100 km./h. GOOD!!! Daily winner Mike and Mark in the Libelle. Mike flew 353 km in time 3.29 and Mark even 399 km.in 3.58 but with a “little” punishment for airspace.
Tim who had 389 km. had a red sign behind his name as well. AND nearly lost 600 points on this last day, 4 too much!!!
Tim who was 600 points ahead on the last but one day, just lost his first spot overall.
It’s only over after the last finish.
Overall scores after 9 valid [day 1 had great distances but all for zero points] and good day’s !!!
1. Michael “Mike” Strathern in ASW 20 with 7.535 points.
2. Tim Bromhead in DG 300 with 7.531 p.
3. Steve Wallace in Mosquito with 7.440 p.
Mark Wilson in the Libelle stayed on spot 4 with 6.920 p.

Combined class..3.30 AAT; And also in this class the “airspace-disaster” struck.
Patrick won the day with 439 km. in time 3.31 so a nice speed of 124 km./h. for 984 points. Sebastian was runner up with a few kilometers AND minutes more.But Keith only got 500 points for the airspace infringement, whilst he flew 439 km. with a speed of 125 km./h. He will scratch himself behind the ear, though he stayed on spot  2.
Overall scores;
1. Sebastian Kawa in Duo Discus with 8. 254 points.
2. Keith Essex in ASG 29 with 7.720 p.
3. Patrick Driessen in JS 1 with 7.251 p. Just to let you know; Patrick did not fly task 8.

    

As shared by Sebastian.

 

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53th HORSHAM WEEK.

Continued with better weather again and for that reason longer tasks on February 7.
TASK 6:
15 m./standard..3.45 AAT; Another win for Rolf [Buelter] who flew in his LS 8 305 km. in time 3.42. Tim [Shirley] was a good runner up, though “he found it a tough day in the office” .
open..4 hour AAT and John [Orton] in his ASG 29 won the day with 369 km.in time 4.04. Only 4 from 8 finished.
club..3.30 AAT; Only 4 from 12 finished and the daily winner was Craig [Collings]  in his ASW 20 from the Mount Beauty Gliding club;341 km. in time 3.51.

TASK 7;
15 m./standard..204 km; Tim won the day and Rolf was 4th. Gary 7th. A bit of a difficult day for some but not too many points to be lost or gained. With 1 day to go the overall scores look like this;
Gary [Stevenson in Discus 2 ] still on 1, with Bruce [Cowan in  Ventus 1] now on 2 and Rolf on 3.
Open… 239 km; With 129 km./h Craig Vinall raced over the circuit in his ASG 29E. John and Mike on his “tail.” So nothing changed in the top 3 with 1 day to go. On 1. John, 2 . Mike and 3. Craig .Diana is on 4 good on her.
Club…204 km;Steve [Jinks] From the Beaufort Gliding Club in the St Cirrus won the day. Craig was runner up and Ailsa’s dad Alf McMillan was 3d in the LS 4.
Excitement enough in this class for the last day as the overall scores are close between Craig and Jaroslaw, just over 50 points.

TASK 8 last day!!! NO task!!!
A pity so the scores stay as they were.
15 m./st.class;
1. Gary Stevenson in Discus 2 3.520 p.
2. Bruce Cowan in Ventus 1 with 3.364 p,.
3. Rolf Buelter in LS 8T  with 3. 335. p.

open;
1. John Orton in ASG 29/18 m. with 4.181 p.
2. Michael “Mike” Durant in Jantar 1 with 3.906 p.
3. Craig Vinall in ASG 29E/18 m. with 3.866.

Club;
1. Craig Collings in ASW 20 with 3.772 p.
2. Jaroslaw Mosiejewski in PIK 20 B with 3.717 p.
3. Steve Jinks in St Cirrus with 3.317 p.

 

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2019 AUSTRALIAN 20m. TWO-SEAT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.

The grid.
As shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

They started on Sunday and go till February 16.
13 Teams in gliders as ARCUS M, Duo Discus and DG 1001-club. Among them long time friends as father Brad Edwards and his son  , Miles Gore Brown and a mate, Harry Meddlicott and Allan Barnes, Andrew Georgeson and Steven McMahon and I noticed Czech topper Tomas Rendla on the list and young Adam Woolley with Keith Gateley. Keith arrived last Thursday in Narromine with the glider.

“Short flight to Narromine. Arrived.” by Keith flying from Bathurst  normally a 900 km.drive.
Picture courtesy Keith.

It was good to see that good old Harry with Allan ,[ strong team !] won the day;1000 points for them for a speed of 93 km./h over 308 km.
Their reaction ;”Day 1 of the 20m Nationals. Tried to start late, about 14:40, on a 300km low blue day. Managed to catch up with everybody and get home first. A few low points, including the last glide before final glide. Very happy with a first place.”
Runners up….Andrew and Steven and Adam and Keith.
7 From 13 finished!!
Not there but they hoped to be there; Jeorgen and Lumpy from Tocumwal. A super-cell ,not fore-casted ,ruined the canopy of the glider on February 3 at the airfield of Tocumwal.

.

   

SO SAD!!!
Pictures by Birgitte AND her story

“Now Jørgen is ready for a road trip to a work shop in Waikerie, South Australia

3th February the forecast was “sunny and light wind” but – early in the evening a supercell passed by the airfield and all the security straps under the front fuselage cover were ripped. The extreme wind tore the canopy off the glider at it landed 100 m away

The gust was so strong that an old bus was moved 30 meters and turned 90 degrees. This bus has been parked on the hard stand for 20 years

Luckily Julie and the trailer were secured and they didn’t move. A group of trailers on the hard stand broke loose the wire at the anchor point

This week Jørgen and Lumpy should fly the Australian 2-seat championship in Narromine, so it’s bad luck.”

They call their ARCUS Julie, just to let you know. AND,…that bus ,[everybody who has been at Sportavia in the past has sit at this bus]is nearly unmovable… very heavy.So that was indeed a SUPER CELL!!!

Day 2; with 407 km.

With Tomas and ,so to see, his daughter, with Adam and Keith, Steven and Andrew and more.
As shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

I guess it was just waiting to see Adam and Keith winning a day. They did straight away on day 2 and got the 1000 points for a speed of 128 km./h. Here is Adam;
“This two seat flying is a lot of fun, Keith & I are getting along great. So much quality info coming from the back, it’s making my life a lot easier.

Straight off tow we high tailed it towards TP1, a good decision as we had clear air, stayed high, relaxed & watched the fleet start. We started at 14:25, which was just inside our late start planned time.

Andrew Du, in the China -ARCUS, had on both day’s “problems” with the height after the engine shutdown. On day 1 he got a warning on 2 the sign was red behind his name.Only 164 points for Andrew and his mate, a pity.

 

Team China with Andrew and Team KDX with Miles Gore Brown and Tim Hood.
 Narromine Gliding Club Official

Day 3... with 557 km;
A good day with GREAT speed from Adam and Keith .Their co-operation is working magic. Speed of 147.58 km./h .
That was quite a bit faster than the runner’s up in the Duo Discus from Stewart and Jansen with 133.70 km./h.Father and son Edwards with 130.81 km./h did very well too.
A clear explanation from Adam in his Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
“Dusty day, but good fun, naturally. 558km racing task under 13,000′ CU. Keith & I held our nerve at the start, we noticed that the CU was getting closer, so we focused on a slow climb to maximize our start height at the latest possible time.
1st climb was 10kts & so was our final glide climb. Stayed out of trouble all day, despite the 30kt winds, thankfully the climbs were 6kts plus all day & smooth!
The visibility was about 20km at the Southern turn, this caused some concern, so we topped up in some slower climbs to stay high. Worked a treat I think. Day win, happy day’s.”

        

Adam and Keith …happy chappies!
As shared by Adam.

 

Keith who enjoyed an other first place as well, added his comment and is learning a lot!
“The dust was being blown off the paddocks and taken to 12,000 feet by the thermals. Great learning day for me, keep on moving when the thermal strength drops . Make a good plan and stick to it.”

The dust raised high as you can see on this picture from Keith.

Day 4 with a smaller task;2.30 AAT.
Andrew /Steven-day with a speed of 109 km./h. so to see a tough day …blue with a forecast to 5000 ft.with a max of 817 points. Good day for the Rendla’s as well as runner’s up.Adam and Keith were 3d.
Reactions on flying day 4;
Allan and Harry…”set off quite late, about 15:10, with Georgo, not quite as high as we had been earlier. I think we were the last to leave. Had a fair run south, but turned early in the first area at the top of a good climb. Georgo continued so we were on our own. We had planned to use the NW as far as possible, but a few good climbs meant we had to max it out completely. A weaker run on the 3rd leg meant we no longer had any chance of coming in under time, and the final glide was a touch on the fast side but OK.”
Keith shared this picture after an other good day.

.

—————

—Good to see the UK sends 4 ladies to the 2020 WWGC in Lake Keepit.

Liz in 18m; Ayala in Standard; Claudia and Mel in Club Class and Team Captain Justin. Good luck to all.
As shared by British Gliding Team

——–AND,…the first meeting from the Dutch Junior Team preparing for JWGC in Hungary

As they mention themselves” this is a pretty good team!!!”
And,..believing in your self is VERY important as we heard from Adam earlier.
Picture shared by Alexander Venema.

 

—————–

………. in Corowa they finished packing the containers and had a last check today and the estimated time of arrival in Rotterdam will be on the 6th of April to be sent then on trucks to Venlo, where they arrive on the 9th. They unpack on the 10th and then the European soaring season can start .
On their last flying-day , last Monday, they still flew over 600 km.
Best flight that day , on the world OLC, was from Tocumwal in an LS 4 with 593 km by German guest Joerg Nothmann .Today Joerg flew in the same LS 4 639 km. Good on him!!!
Not the best distance today on the Australian OLC as local Corowa pilot Bernie O’Donnell flew 783 km. … a declared 750!!…in his ASH 26 E.Well done, as it is pretty late in the season already.
By the way, good old Kari Lappalainen is back in Toc as well.

CU next week, this Sunday it will be 15 dgr. C. I sniff spring!!!
Cheers Ritz

HAPPY VALENTINE TOMORROW.

 

New Zealand Club Class Nationals 2019 from Taupo.

As shared by the organizers.

 

January 31; 2 day’s out of 3 till now! Good days as well,… even the invalid first day!!!
“Big news today is that Terry Delore is planning to attempt a flight tomorrow from Omarama to Taupo! Apparently conditions are looking good for a crossing of Cook Strait, so there’s lots of eager anticipation here as well as lots of crossed fingers. Go Terry!”Written by: Taupo Gliding Club TGC .
So what’s happening??
Club…3 hour AAT; Very challenging for some. Among them the winner from the 2 earlier days Mike [Strathern] He was “out” in his ASW 20. A pity. He was nearly used to 1000 points, now got only 511.
Good day for Tim [Bromhead] in his DG 300, who flew 243 km in time 2.59!!!
Steve [Wallace] in the Mosquito was runner up with 187 km. so quite a few less in time 2.50.
Combi..3 hour AAT; Maybe it was just waiting for Sebastian [Kawa] to win a day, as that day would come. It was there already on flying-day 3. Sebastian flies with other interested pilots in the rear seat and no secret, these spots sold out straight away.
294 km. in time 3.08 in the DUO DISCUS.
Patrick [Driessen] flew around 50 km. less and was runner up. 3 Outlandings 1 of them the ARCUS.
Keith who was 3d in, mentioned in his OLC comment;“Tough, funky, weak day. Got stuck for a half hour right before I turned for home. Good to be back.”

February 1; Cancelled.
Early morning news by TGC ;” Visibility about 5km in misty drizzle. ”

1210. Update on the good news and the bad news; Terry Delore has made it across Cook Strait. Yay – good news!  Bad news is it’s still overcast and barely flyable in Taupo. Contest director says “Hurry up and Wait”. Will do.

1310. We hurried – we waited – the day is cancelled. Terry is abeam Masterton at 14000ft, so if the weather clears we may see him here yet.

1448. The (ASH 25) Eagle has landed! Terry and his co-pilot John Ahearn have landed at Centennial Park to a well-deserved round of applause. What an inspiration.”
End good all good, nobody worried about the cancellation.AND,…Terry and his mate specially flew to Taupo, to listen what Sebastian had to say.

“Terry Delore and Ian Finlayson arrive to hear Sebastian Kawa talk in Taupo. Terry flew from Christchurch in his ASH 25 climbing at 19 kts! Into the wave to straight line it to Taupo.”
Courtesy TGC.

February 2; Cancelled.”It is 8/8ths overcast and not forecast to improve sufficiently for a task.”

February 3; The Taupo Gliding Club mentions for the day :”The day holds more promise than yesterday, so a task has been set and a launch has been programmed for 1300.  It was hoped to get a racing task in today, but after reviewing the weather models the task-setters have decided today is not the day for that, so another AAT task it is. ”
So,….
Club..3 hour AAT; Mike won another day a 1000 points-day[ 291 km. in time 3.23] ! Mark Wilson in the Libelle did well as runner up with 275 km. in time 3.13.988 points for him and the ‘Little” Libelle. Tim was 3d, still 1 overall at this stage.
Combi 3 hour AAT; Patrick won the day with 360 km. in time 3.16 and Sebastian was runner up and HE, is already a few days on spot 1  overall !!! BUT,..it ‘s only over on February 9.

February 4;TPG news;”The task setters again looked at a racing task, but there is a possibility of overdeveloping so again it’s an AAT, but Hey! – we’re having fun and enjoying a few days of good weather in a row.”
Club..3.30 AAT; so time enough to fly a few kilometers and they did; Tim flew 331 km. in time in 3.33 in his DG 300, enough 3’s. Steve was runner up and Mike on 3.Mark 4 .
So it looks it’s all going to happen for 1 of these 4 pilots. BUT,…still a week to go and a lot can happen. Overall scores after week 1;Tim..4.635. 2. Mike..4.295 and 3. Steve..with 4.257. Mark is also in the 400 range with 4.051!!
Combi..3.30 AAT; Sebastian feels more and more at home in N.Z. and managed to fly 455.71 km. in a DUO DISCUS  with a speed of 122 km./h. TOP!!!!
Keith had 416 km. with 111 km./h. The other DUO DISCUS just started 1 minute later to spot 3 for the day;98.64 km./h. Patrick was 3d as well both had 733 points.
Overall scores after 1 week;1. Sebastian..4.841. 2. Patrick ..4.511 3. Keith ..4.474.

February 5; 2.30 AAT’s for both classes.
Club; 237 km. was flown by Mike in time 2.40 and that meant another 1000 points!!!Tim lost a few points as runner up but is steady going on 1 in the overall scores.
Combi; 259 km. in 2.30 at the dot for Keith ,winning the 1000 points, after a rather late start. [14.03]
Sebastian started at 13.40, raced around over 325 km. in a bit more time [3.08] but was still runner up with 991 points. Speed 103.27 for 103.80!!!

February 6; Well deserved resting day with BBQ in the evening.
Last day’s in next blog.

 

HORSHAM WEEK.

With 33 participants, the always relaxed-with-a-serious-touch- Horsham -week, started last Saturday in 3 classes. Not the toppers who are always winning, so possibilities for all.
15 m/standard;
Task 1..2.45 AAT; And “mr . SCORES”, Tim Shirley won the day in his ,with 272 km in time 2.46 in his ASW 28. 8 pilots in this class. One “out” by use of engine.
Task 2..2.30 AAT; Not “out” by engine this time; Rolf Buelter won the day in his LS 8T with 374 km in time 2.26,…so I quickly looked at the speed, as this was fast. Indeed it was 149.94 km./h!!!
All flew over 100 km./h. and Tim did not start, guess he was busy with scores again.
Task 4..254 km; after a rest-day due to the weather, they could fly again. Rolf, a member of the Geelong Gliding club, spending their Christmas often flying in Tocumwal at Eddy’s, won the day in his LS 8T. Not a fast day as speed from finishers was between 87 and 62 km./h. Last one in LS 6 , but… Gordon was IN!!!!
Tim mentioned;”50km mostly between 3000 and 4500ft. Not easy. Happy just to have completed the task.”

open;
Task 1…3 hour AAT; 9 in this class and Pete Buskens in a JS 1 won the day, 343 km in time 2.58; so 114 km./h. Best distance was 405 km. but in time 3.55 by local pilot Arnold Niewand..
Task  2..2.45 AAT; 464 km. in time 2.43 !!! VERY fast!!! 168.84 km./h. WOW. They must have had fun. John Orton won the day in an ASG 29 /18 m. Runner up in ASG 29E/18 m. was Craig Vinall with a speed of 159 km./h, Quite a difference.
Diana has a real good practice period for the 2020 WWGC, with 3 comps this season. She flew around with 139 km./h in her Discus CT/18m and was 5th.
Task 4..234 km; He started as last of the 10 pilots and won the day again ;John  in his ASG 29/18m.  Though the expectations for the day were not so high, it turned out a pretty good day. Rolf mentioned that it was a difficult, low, slow,  blue day.
Runner up was Michael Durant in his Jantar 1 and Diana was 3d.

club;
Task 1.. 2.30 AAT for the 13 pilots and Jaroslaw Mosiejewski won the day in his PIK 20B; 255 km. in time 2.32. Jaroslaw flew with the Geelong Club in Tocumwal this season and had some great flights. One flight even 959 on Dec. 27!!!
Task 2.. 3 hour AAT; 375 km. for Craig Collings in his ASW 20 in time 2.53 with a nice speed of 125 km./h.
Task 4..172 km; Daily win again for Jaroslaw with Craig as runner up. 4 Out-landings.

No flying today …..and what happens the rest of the week , you can read next week.

 

—– Women in aviation;
In Holland women started on January 25 2019 a Foundation for Dutch women in aviation. It’s for all kind’s of aviation of course including gliding,  as support for what they are doing.
The International link is with the Federation of European women pilots.There are already 13 European countries part of this Federation.[FEWP]

—-And to finish,…it’s COLD!!!! Not only here but at a lot of places.I guess the MIDWEST in the USA has the worst circumstances with up to minus 40 , …with the windchill factor up to minus 60!!!…the coldest EVER and already 21 people died,from cold and by accidents on the road!!! I read somewhere that the difference in temperature between Australia where it was extremely hot , up to 49 in the Adelaide area, and the USA was over 80 dgr. C.
People in Australia really suffer either from the many heat-waves creating one of the worst drought’s or flooding in the NE, where Townsville is under water!!
Even N.Z. was hot, with up to 32 dgr. C.!!!That’s not normal either.
Lasham in the UK, shared these wonderful winter-season-pictures !!

   

Photos by Matt and Jordan.
As shared by Lasham Gliding Society

CU next week it’s nearly March again and spring starts. Last Sunday we really had a nice but very cold day [around 0-2 here] with 6/8 of cu’s. When I looked at the news in the evening the weatherman shared great radar pictures from cloud streets. A few pilots even dared to fly local and loved the visibility.
CU Ritz

P/S. Sorry I am a bit late. Just heard I lost a wonderful Aussie friend Lynn , proud mother of Isabeau and James. Too young to leave us all. R.I.P. my dear Lynn. [Piskorz]

R.I.P Lynn.
As shared by Isabeau.