NSW STATE COMPS from NARROMINE.

Sunrise, a new morning a new day, in Narromine,
as seen by Don Woodward,GREAT PICTURE, who won already 2 day’s. Good on him.
Courtesy Don Woodward.
SO IS THIS ONE.

Courtesy both great pictures Don Woodward.

When I left you last Wednesday the scores were not yet in. In the evening a sandstorm turned all gliders in the open air, red!!! Some had to add more ropes to avoid low flying gliders. The results for the day were:
Day  4…task 3;
Club; Paul [Dickson] in an LS 3 flew 192 km. during the 2 hour AAT in time 2.04. Runner up for the day was Bernie [Sizer] in his PIK 20.
open; Don [Woodward]flew to his 2d daily win in his ASG 29; 336 km. in time 2.36 [2.30 was set]
15m; a 2.15 AAT for them and Ben [Coleman] in Discus 2B won the day with 287 km. in time 3.03. Just a tad faster than Tom [Claffey] who flew 226 km. in time 2.25 [speed difference 93.86 for 93.34]

Day 5… ; After the skies cleared, tasks were set but the weather after the sandstorm, was not yet good enough so “tomorrow is another day.”Some just went for a flight and even flew the club-AAT- task!!!
Lumpy flew the set 327 km. task for zero points, but for fun; 111 km./h..

Day 6 task 4; Another good day!!
Club; Jenny [Ganderton ] won the 3 hour AAT with 364 km. in time 3.24 in her Mosquito. Exciting last day in this class as Bernie is ONLY 6 points ahead of Jenny!!!
Here is Jenny with her OLC comment;
“A better day than yesterday – it got hot enough for the thermals to get to 7000 at the start, and there were wispy bits of cu and haze domes on the first leg. The second leg was good too – managed to follow some sort of energy line, and got my speed up to 108. I thought I would be able to get back with about 110, but fell into a big hole on the way home and got down to aerotow height. wasted a lot of time getting out of that, but managed to get the speed back to 100 by the finish. Half hour over time – this seems to work out OK with the start bonus.”
open…425,84 km; Casey [Lewis in the JS 1 was the new face at the daily podium followed by Lumpy, Don and Diana, good on her! 3 Different gliders JS 1, JS 3 ASG 29 and Discus 2CT.
After 4 day’s of flying and winning 3 of them , Don is looking to the last day pretty good ahead of Lumpy; 3.932 for 3.518.
15 m; Captain-Tom -day again. He flew the set 355.92 km. with a speed of 115 km./h to 1.075 points.5 gliders in this class 1; ASW 28/18m [Tom] and the rest Discus B or 2B.
With one day to go Tom leads with about 250 points.

Day 7 …task 5; LAST DAY!!!!
Club..315 km. for the “little” pure  gliders. And with 3 pilots pretty close in the top, everything was possible. It turned out that this was the case. A real “shuffle”!!!
On the last but one day Bernie[Sizer] was on top with Jenny and Paul following.
This last day was not so good for Bernie Sizer , but very good for Bernie Baer; including the bonus points he got 1.092 points for a speed of 104 km./ ph. Bernie B. was on spot 5 ,but moved up to spot 3 in his LS1f. Good on him and a pity for Bernie S.who lost on this last day more than 250 points which brought him from 1 to 4.
Paul in his LS 3 was 3d for the day and with the bonus included, he got 1.055 points, which brought him to spot 1 overall from 3. WOW, it was all happening in this class.
1. Paul Dickson in LS 3 with 4.592 points.
2. Jenny Ganderton in Mosquito with 4.554 points. Great practice for WWGC 2020.
3. Bernie Baer in LS 1f with 4.351
4. Bernie Sizer in PIK 20 b with 4.333.

open..365 km. Also some excitement in this class. Not for spot 1 as Don was far ahead and winning the last day with 148 km./h .helped also. Lumpy was runner up [140 km./h] and stayed at 2. No the “problem” was for spot 3. Good old David Pietsch moved from 4 to 3 gaining a 3d place for the day. So the final scores;
1. Don Woodward in ASG 29 with 4.794 p.
2. Lumpy Paterson in JS 3with 4.255 p.
3.David Pietsch in JS1 with 4.113 p.
4.Steven Adams in ASG 29 with 4.057 p.
Diana [Discus 2CT] was on spot 6 so another great practice competition for the WWGC in 2020.

15 m..339 km. A new daily winner;David Nash in a Discus B. Speed 110 km./h and 1.035 points
Overall;
1. Tom Claffey in ASW 28 /18m. with 5.088 p.
2. Ben Coleman in Discus 2B with 4.806 p.
3. Gary Stevenson in Discus 2B with 4.568 p.

Aussie comps have nearly finished now only a few to go.Next weekend Horsham , then between February 9 and 16 the 2-seatercomps [20 m]  in Narromine and somewhere in April the Lake Keepit Regatta.

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Western Cape Regionals…..continued!

I added a bit more info on the subject sport-soldiers in my last blog. They are still going strong in Worcester, BUT Laurens [ASG 32] was the one who won day 4 task 4 ,the 603 km. task.; speed 172.19 km./h.
Lukas was runner up in the ARCUS T with only ONE point less;999!!![172.09 km./h.]  Philip in his Discus 2T /18 m.  who was 5th on the 758 km. day was 3d now with a speed of 172 km./h which is pretty good in the Discus. Karin and Markus [ARCUS M] were 5th with 161 km./h.
Day 5..task 5..458 km; Another day with a bunch of pilots starting [13.32] and flying and more or less finishing together [ 16.31, 16.39 and 16.53] , at least that’s what it looks like between the 3 German teams.
Lukas with his  mate won the day with a speed of 154 km./h. Philip in the Discus with 147.46 km./h and Markus and Karin with 137 km./h. In between Sven , who with an earlier start at 13.23 finished at spot 3 with 146.80 km./h.
Laurens was 5th.
Day 6..task 6 ..510 km changed to 438 km..; A bad day for Laurens as he was “out” after 391 km.
A great day for the Discus 2T pilot Philip winning the day with a speed of 183.59 km./h.
Lucas and his mate flew in the ARCUS T around with a speed of 179.47 km./h. And Markus and Karin with 176.92 km./h. Great speed for all. FAST day.

As day 7 was cancelled the final scores after 6 great long and fast tasks were as follows;
1. Lukas Blattmann and friend  Reiff in ARCUS T with 4.779 p.
2. Philip Goralski in Discus 2T/18 m with 4.477 p.
3. Karin [Wiesenthal] and Markus [ Geisen]  in ARCUS M with 4 294  p.
4. Sven Olivier in JS 1.

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Club class NATIONALS in NZ started !.

Last Sunday the CLUB class Nationals started in New Zealand [January 28-February 9] from beautiful CENTENNIAL TAUPO, with 26 competitors in 2 classes.; Club with 11 and sports class with 15 competitors.
I expected Keith [Essex] there , but not Sebastian Kawa flying a Duo Discus.
They started last Monday with not too good weather,the meteo David Hirst had mixed feelings so had the pilots.
” decreasing winds and increasing temperatures on the positive side, but only weak thermals and convergences in the vicinity not sounding quite so good. However the task setters decided to make the most of the prevailing conditions and use the westerly winds on the Kaimais before they disappear later in the week (the winds, not the Kaimais!), so a task was set to the North and a launch began at about 1230.” by John Etches.
January 28;A tricky day.
Club …284 km; but the “best “pilot flew 22 km. SO NO DAY.
Combi class 348 km; and Sebastian straight away showed he is one of the best pilots in the world and flew in a Duo Discus 320 km. Mark Tingey in the JS 1 299 and Taupo pilots Wardell & Terry in the ARCUS 279.
The rest, 13 pilots choose not to fly or flew under 80 km. or returned to the field.
Not a valid day!!!

January 29; A GOOD day.
Club…3 hour AAT and 9 pilots started among them CD Tim [Bromhead] in the DG 300. The ASW 20 from Michael Strathern flew 280 km. in time 2.48 and that meant 1000 points.[93 km./h.]
Combi class…3 hour AAT; 322 km. for ,…yes ….Keith [Essex] in his ASG 29 in time 2.54 for 1000 points. Patrick [Driessen] in the JS 1 was runner up and Sebastian in the Duo Discus 3d.
13 Started , 3 outlanded and 2 of them had problems with the airspace.

January 30; Today.
John Etches writes about today :”Today has dawned fine and beaut, although a bit too blue to be ideal, and forecast to be the hottest day of the year; some pilots were lucky enough to have a “brolly dolly” while waiting for the launch, the rest had to sweat it out! Already some pilots are reporting great lift in blue thermals so it’s looking good for another great day.”
Club…3 hour AAT; so the club pilots had another 3 hours to find the most kilometers to fly in that time. Michael who won already, was again the best with 257 km. in time 3.05. The blue conditions indeed had an effect on the distance and speed [83 km./h] but 1000 points again for Mike.
5 From 8 finished.
Combi class…300 AAT; All other pilots in “miscellaneous ” gliders tried to deal with the blue conditions as well. Patrick [JS1] was the best with 304 km. in time 3.06 and “got”  the 1000 points. Sebastian who started in the Duo 1 minute earlier  was runner up and Keith was on spot 4, starting as the last pilot at 14.32.
8 From 13 finished.

So some struggling for some pilots. All scores preliminary at this stage.

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—Some interesting flights;
January 22, by Damian le Roux from the UK,  flying from Bloemfontein. He flew a declared 1000 km. in a pure glider, a JS 1B.
January 23, one of the last Bitterwasser flights for the season by Werner Meuser ;1.181 km. in the ARCUS. Reinhard Schramme finished his season the EB 28 with 1.244 km.
January 25, a Stemme S10 flight from Perpignan by Gil Souviron;1.057 km.
January 27, “Failed 1500 km Diploma attempt. Wave in the north very patchy and not going over about 10,000 ft. Wind too much towards the south. Very tricky getting out of the Rangitata basin on the way back from the northern turn point” OLC comment from Max Stevens who tried a log task from Omarama in his 18m Ventus 2C ; 902 km.

—Some interesting news;
On January 21 the Canberra Gliding Club shared the next news ;
“Our new DG1001S had its first day in operation at Bunyan on Sunday 20/1/19.”
Wishing it many happy and safe flights.

Bitterwasser said farewell to the gliders till next season.

The Bitterwasser season 2018/19 finally finished. At 8 in the morning last Saturday the trucks arrived to pick up the 7 containers. Arrival will be in the harbor of Rotterdam, here in Holland on February 25 for a new European season.
As shared by Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre

News from the GFA:
“The GFA Executive Officer Terry Cubley has been named a Member the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day Honours 2019.
The GFA and I am sure all members congratulate Terry for his outstanding achievements and dedication to Gliding and our sport in Australia.
For significant service to sports aviation, particularly to gliding as a competitor and administrator.”

I can only add my congratulations. Know Terry and Vicky since the pre worlds in Rieti in 1984, when Vicky was pregnant from her daughter. No jenever for her then!!!!Easy to remember.
And for those who do not know,….AUSTRALIA DAY was on JANUARY 26.
https://glidingaustralia.org

As shared by the GFA.

Congratulations as well to Dick Gower who got the same honor ” awarded an AM for services to the recreational and historical aviation sectors .”
Dick and his wife Liz, live at the Tocumwal Residential Airpark AT the Tocumwal Aerodrome. Very nice people who I met last year.
Congratulations!!!

Dick and Liz and their plane.
Courtesy  Owen Peake

That’s it for now , CU next week.
Cheers Ritz.

—Mostly you hear about big achievements first, but for ” first time ” achievements the happiness is big or even bigger.
Cheryl from SportAviation shared this news from their Japanese pilots. Great to see that the Japanese pilots still find Tocumwal. In the past there were a lot!!

Congratulations Ayumu!
🤩 100 km flight
👍11.400 ft
🤚🏻5 hour
👏Silver c completed

AND
Ayumu Celebrates👍🇯🇵
300 km out and return to Belfraden.
14.000ft
Diamond Goal
Gold C completed.

Congratulations Ayumu, flowers and the bell for you!!!

Also the more “achieved” pilots had a happy day using the heat for good flights and the cooler air high up to just breath. That’s difficult with 46 dgr.C. I know. So more news from Tocumwal.
Lumpy was a happy chappie ;
“Started off as a 1250 attempt, but the day didn’t deliver as forecast…then some high level thick Cirrus moved in from the west, great fun though. Longest Kms ever flown, longest flight time and the highest I’ve even been in a thermal…… all in all great day.” [JS 3/ 18m]
Ingo flew in his DISCUS a 1000 as well, his so maniest but I know he will be still pleased. He had thermals up to 4778 m MSL. [4715 AGL.]
Grant,  a hang glider pilot, living in Toc. flew in a St Astir 655 [500 FAI triangle]

Awesome soaring weather in the SSE of Australia. The news even mentioned that ” the world’s 15 hottest places were all in Australia.”
Narromine had a 1000 flown by Tomas [Suchanek,] who flies Adam’s glider, which of course must be still in “winning mood”. Tomas is/was also a hang glider pilot.
So is/was Attila [Bertok]who flew 781 km. in a St Cirrus.
By the way Adam’s G1 is for sale ;
“#GliderONE – 18m performance with 15m span  It’s won every comp it’s entered since Mac & I imported it to Australia, plus a 2nd at the AUS WGC. Insane performer, super reliability, zero frustrations, buy & glide!
Great fun to fly & super easy to own, whether you’re looking for weekend pleasure with your mates, 1000km+ flights or you want to win comps, this glider will do it for you.
All its options are negotiable, as they can all be used on the upgrade (V3).”
AU$115,000 – New PU refinish, A+ maintenance, basic instruments (ASI, ALT, ClearNav Vario, Radio, Oudie 2), tow out gear, box trailer; For more details, photos or other options, let me know.

Narromine Gliding Club Official shared a picture from a new soaring-mate, 16 year old Oliver going SOLO!!! Well done and congratulations!!

Narromine student Oliver.
and
last but not least about achievements, this awesome picture from December with text;

A fantastic photo from 14-year-old Oscar Mannering-Smith on his #gliding #solo flight in December against a setting winter sun.
Incredible that as a UK Junior Gliding pilot you can learn to fly before you can drive. Find out how you can get involved. Visit gliding.co.uk

As shared by British Gliding Association

AND….they start even younger. This great picture from Damian[ Goldenzweig] from Argentina shows love for soaring on an even younger age.In a few years he is a topper!!!

Picture 1; Tomas, one of the twins .As shared by Damian and published with permission.
2. More new pilots for the future in his family as they grow up at airfield’s when daddy is flying. As did my kids.
With the twins Tomas and Pedro and already in the back seat the oldest [6] Agustin.
Thank you Damian.

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NAMIBIA.

As shared by Kiripotib Soaring

—–Kiripotib has packed …..end of the season.They had a great one .
On January 22 their stats were as follows:
flown km’s….384.308,84 by 86 pilots during 534 flights. Impressive!
“We are looking forward to the season 19/20, last 3 flying days and a lot of packing every morning! Thanks for flying with us!!
The team of Kiripotib soaring”

—–Veronica ‘s  82 pilots flew 385.920,36 km. during 508 flights  [stats on Jan 17.] They are relatively seen, a new airfield, so chapeau!

—-Bitterwasser had on January 22 a total of 776 flights by 133 pilots and an amazing 599.104,56 km/s!!! They hoped for 200 ,yes TWO HUNDRED x a 1000 this season. Bizarre!!! On Saturday January 19 they announced;  200 x 1000 km were flown!!!!!!
A few even on January 21 they still had HAMMERWETTER;
“Five takeoffs, five flights over 1.000 km and three over 1.200 km. The weather is at its best at the end of January. With a maximal cloud base of 5.500 m and climb values with more than 5 m, the gliders yesterday flew from the morning until sunset. During dinner in a small round all pilots had a huge smile on their faces. Two more flight days are left.”
http://www.bitterwasser.com/

“The beautiful sight of the pan, with which the pilots are rewarded after their flights in the evening.”
As shared by http://www.bitterwasser.com/

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JoeyGlide from Waikirie.

Logo design created by Bernard Le Riche                    Gridding for task 2.
As shared by JoeyGlide

On Thursday they could fly again.
Day 5 task 2;
Club…3 hour AAT, so pilots could straight away get rid of their “lazy” feelings and FLY!!! That’s what David[Collins] did ;305 km. in time  ;3.14 in his LS 4. Rueben [Lane] a local pilot was runner up in the LS 1f.
David was the winner from the last edition and Rueben was that season on spot 3. Both good young pilots.
Sport….3 hour AAT and Joshua [Geerlings] 355 km. in the JS 1. By far the best glider in this class, where Ailsa flies now with the young ones too in another top glider; Ventus 2CXT/18 m..
David and Ruben from Club Class were 2 and 3.
“A very tough final leg in yesterday’s task claimed a few victims for both speed and the ability to get around the task. A number of great flights were had in soft conditions with honorable mentions to Josh Geerlings and David Collins for winning Sports and Club class respectively.”

David explaining HOW HE DID IT!!!  This picture is shared with the text by Tocumwal Soaring Centre

“Congratulations to David on his daily win at Joey Glide yesterday, keep up the great work mate !! Dave is flying our beautiful LS4a for this competition, hopefully the weather will get better very soon for some fun racing.”
Next season I will try to “find” David in Tocumwal.

Day 6; “The cold front has arrived on schedule, bringing with it moderate winds and light rain. Tasking late in the day in the post-frontal air mass still appears impossible due to associated high cloud and poor heating. Everything crossed for tomorrow ”
” skysight.io predicting an enormous max club class distance of 1km.”

After a lengthy (and hopeful!) hold to assess conditions, the day has unfortunately been canceled. We haven’t had much luck! See you all later for trivia night”

What can you do??? Nothing, oh yes play TRIVIA!!!

The young ones last Thursday.
As shared by JoeyGlide

Day 7 task 3; YES!!!! they had a tough last day with a good task,  to define the winners.
Club; Michael Keller in the St Cirrus had a super last day with 275 km. in time 3.30 for 833 points.
David was runner up with 245 km. in time 3.01 for 831 points.
So,…David won the JoeyGlide 2019 as well. ; 2.381 points.
6 Pilots finished on this last day.
Total scores;
Runner up 2; Michael with 2.295...3. Rueben with 2.242 points...James was on 4 and still in the 2000 points range;2.122.
With only 3 day’s the scores were pretty close.
Looking at sport class with the same pilots and some with a “better” glider , the club boy’s were ahead of Ailsa in her Ventus 2CX /18 m.who arrived for a few day’s after her great performance at the Pre WWGC [3d] and Joshua with 252 km. in time 3.03.[JS1]
Joshua was , like last season the best with 2.412 points.
David and Michael in their club class gliders were runners up.

Talking about Ailsa and the WWGC team for Australia in Lake Keepit in 2020 here are the names from the ladies selected by the GFA;
Club Class: Jenny Ganderton, Jo Davis, Kerrie Claffey
Standard Class: Cathy Conway, Clair Scutter, Lisa Trotter
18M Class: Ailsa McMillan, Jenny Thompson, Lisa Turner

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5th Club class Nationals from Chaves.

   
Action at the Chaves Airport as seen and shared by Alicia Busk de Reynoso

In the far past Mario Reynoso flew one of our Discus B at the Benalla World comps in 1987 and finished  on spot 32 from 44 over 12 day’s of flying. A real nice guy and he looks well at this picture shared when he visited the field.

Mario to the left as shared by Alicia Busk de Reynoso

And some pictures from 1987 in Benalla with a crew member and team manager Mr Dettone to the r. It’s written like that in my book , could it be may be Mr. Dentone??? Anyhow a very nice guy.
And below Mario, my then young daughter [now 46] Inge and Mario’s crew.

They continued the comps with a small task; 2 hour AAT.
Day 10 task 7; Raul Garda was the ONLY finisher!!! His ASW 20 brought him back with a speed of 59 km./h. over 167 km. in time 2.48. Some were close, after between 140 and 162 km. ,others gave up earlier between 5 and 40 km.
Not too much points gained or lost. Raul got 332 the runner up after 165 km. 325.
Day 11 task 8 LAST DAY!! with a 2.30 AAT the competition was finished and Javier [Gaude] flew 252 km in time 2.34 winning the day gaining one spot on the overall list!
Champion; Matias Lanzietti , who was 4th on the last day and just passed Maximiliano Luengo, who dropped from 1 to 2 as he was 14th. loosing nearly 200 points.
Matias won 2 day’s and and finished with 5.303 points.[LS 4]
5.286 for Maximiliano[ASW 20] and Jose [Dentone] on 3 with 5.253. So pretty close!!Lucas was 4th with 5.190 and Javier 6th.[ 5.080] In between Santiago Demodena as number 5 [5.163]
These pilots flew LS 4, Javier ASW 20.

8 out of 11 day’s and not one day with 1000 points .

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NSW STATE COMPS from Narromine;

As shared by

They started last Sunday with 24 competitors in 3 classes. The practice day on Saturday, showed 2 hour AAT’s.
And day 1 was straight away tough and long.
Club …2.45 AAT; Bernie Sizer was the best in his PIK 20B. He had some practice already during the Nationals where he flew well.;318 km. this day in time 2.50 . Bernie Baer was runner 294 km. in time 3.02 with an LS 1.
6 In this class.
18 m… 3.15 AAT;Don Woodward in his ASG 29 managed to fly 455 km. in time 3.23. for 1000 points. Jenny Tompson was runner up also in ASG 29.
10 in  this class.
15 m …3 hour AAT;Ross Whittle flew 329 km. in time 3.29 in his Discus B and runner up was Tom Claffey in ASW 28/18m.
6 In this class.
In the early evening, just after all gliders were in and tied up, a severe thunderstorm with thunder and lightning hung over Narromine.

Day 2 had to be cancelled. They set to even up to 3 hour AAT tasks, but the expected lift up to 1000 m. is good for practice and when you wish local flying, but not for a competition. Also the tough wind was a spoiler for the day.

Day 3..task 2:
club…245 AAT , 7 flew and 7 finished. Best was Jenny [Ganderton] in the Mosquito;349 km. in time 3.26 but still a speed of 101 km./h. Runner up Bernie with 284 km. Quite a difference.
18 m…230 AAT and late starts at 3 15 PM. but ,….no worries for Lumpy; he flew 348 km. was back in time 2.31 so time enough for dinner as his speed was 138 km./h. Don [Woodward] was runner up. there were 2 out-landings.

15 m…3 hour AAT and also a tough day in this class nearly nobody managed to fly within the time frame. Tom [Claffey] won in his ASW 27 with 382 km. in time 3.53 ,so 53 minutes longer than the set time, that means problems “en-route”.Still 1.100 points for the day????Well,….

Day 4 ..task 3; with 2, 2.30 and 2.15 AAT’s….. not all are in so more next week.

They try a new start or points reward system. When you look at the scores p.e. from day 1, you see rewards as Start Bonus Points, from 1.100 for the winner, interesting to hear the feedback.
As Adam explained:
“Effectively a 100pt bonus if you go through the line within 10mins of gate opening, then reducing by 2% fewer point a until 60min after the start gate opens – encouraging leaders, not followers.”
Here is the explanation as shared by the organizers.

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Western Cape Regionals in South Africa.

Also regional comps in S.A. this time from Worcester and with good- after-high- summer- weather.
They started with a practice day on the 19th [last Saturday in 2 classes open and club.
Open;
day 1..task 1..272 km; The German flag could go up in the top as the first 3 places were for German pilots flying there already for a long time. Lukas [Blattmann] who flies already since half of November from Worcester with 11x a 1000 behind his name…the best 1.332  km….won day 1, with with a speed of 150 km./h. in the ARCUS T.
By the way he flew those 1000 km-flights on 24 flying day’s.
Runners up my friends Karin and Marcus in the Arcus M;139 km./h. And Philip Goralski was 3d with a speed of 139.06 km./h in an 18m. Discus 2T. Philip also flies from Worcester since half November and has 16 x a 1000 behind his name flying on 32 of the day’s of his holiday.
Day 2..task 2..608 km; BIG day and,…only the 4 German guests, flying there already for a while and having by now a lot of local knowledge finished the task; Lukas won again with a speed of 123 km./h and flying together with Philip means he had about t,he same time.
Marcus and Karin started 13 minutes earlier and made it home too, just a bit slower.
African pilots like Sven [Olivier] and Laurens [Goudriaan] , who know the area as well, gave up straight away and got on the score board 52 and 24 km.
Day 3…task 3,  with that SUPER weather in Worchester, was expected to be long. IT WAS LONG!! 758 km.
AND,…YES it was flown …of course with all those 1000 km-fl;ights behind their names,..but a competition is still different. Fast and furious. Lukas won ..again.. with 171 km./h.!!!!
Runners up Karin and Marcus with 166  km./h and on 3 Laurens [165 km./h] and 4 Sven.[161 km./h.
Philip did not fly.
Day 4…task 4 is today;
603 km is on the menu for today, another long one!
Somewhere I read that Lukas and Philip are German Sport soldiers , so they belong very simply said,  to the young German glider pilots, selected and sponsored to get even better. Lot’s of them in the past, have reached the top, no doubt these 2 pilots have a great future too.I remember in 1987 with the Benalla WGC that after the comps, Holger Back flew his 1000 in Tocumwal as sport-soldier, having felt the pressure and fun of such a competition as crew first .
“Sports soldiers are young men and women who are salaried as members of the Bundeswehr and receive state support in the exercise of their sport. Thus, the Bundeswehr enables the young athletes a very intensive, professional training and thus a promising, usually lasting one to two years of sporting development. Gliders can also apply for the places for support. As a sports soldier, they are usually members of the sponsored team for one year.”

In Club class ,there are only 3 competitors you can see their scores on www.soaringspot.com

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—-The accident with the 2 seater from Ian Paterson and co pilot Shaun Lapworth flying from  Bloemfontein in South Africa gave me a shock to the system. The glider went through a fence, whilst landing near a farm in the beginning of January and both were hurt badly, Shaun worst. They brought him to IC.
The BGA shared a statement;
“Shaun Lapworth update.
Shaun asks that we pass on that he has had lots very welcome direct and indirect messages of support from the BGA family and wider gliding community. He reports that he is ok, out of hospital and should be back in the UK next week. He won’t be able to chew solid food for 3 months and will probably need a couple of operations over the next 6 to 9 months. But the long term prognosis is very good. He may not make it to the BGA conference, but will do his best to be there.”
Very glad to hear he is getting better. All the best Shaun!!!
Bloemfontein is THE spot for SOARING SAFARIS ….Gliding with a difference….organized by Dick Bradley and his team and lot’s of UK pilots fly there.
http://soaring-safaris.com/

—-Some interesting flights;
Though the day’s slowly are getting shorter in the overseas mecca’s and most of the gliders in Namibia are packed for the return to Europe, there are still a few good flights.
Friday; From Potchefstroom a 1000 by Czech pilot Petr Hotovy in a JS 1 B.
Saturday; From Worcester a 1000 by 2 German pilots in the ARCUS T.
Sunday;  from OMARAMA the wave mecca. Keith Essex flew 1.103 in the ASG 29.And from Kuruman in S.A. 2 x a 1000.
Monday; great weather again in Tocumwal with Andrea and Anton ,longtime guests at Sportaviation, flying in what the Danish friends call, the wooden Arcus [ Janus CT RG] a great distance of 781 km [500FAI triangle] .
AND, another even more longtime guest Stefan Soll from Germany flew in the LS 4 a distance of 757 km!!!!
And as good Grant in the St. Jantar with 619 km.
All not top notch gliders, [question is what is a top notch glider?? But you know what I mean, I like them.]  but top notch pilots. The 2 Ventus’ from Corowa flew over 800 km.
Same day and another SUPERDAY in Bitterwasser with 4 over 1000 km. flights!!!!!!! And not just names; Werner Meuser in the ARCUS M with 1.202 km.speed 150 km./h. And Holger Back in the DG 1000/20 m. with 1.050 km. ;speed .
Also Hans Joachim Beule flew in the EB 28 a 1.211 km .And… the Joschko family flew a 1000 in an ARCUS M.
My Dutch mates Max Leenders, Rob Looisen and Max Dolfin flew a 1000 from Douglas.
Also Kuruman had 2 x a 1000 .One with Gerd Kalisch who in the past flew  with us as well. And his mate Klaus Wonneberger.
And best of all; Argentina with a 1.466 km . wave flight [12.10 in the air!!!]  from Jose De San Mart by Jean -Marc Perrin in a DG 808/15 m.

Tuesday; Longest flight was from Omarama and Keith was the pilot in his ASG 29; 1.121 km.
Long flights again from Tocumwal; Good old Ingo with 932 km. in his Discus, and  Stefan with 812 in his LS 4.
All long distance flying is special, but flying them in such gliders means so much more !!!!!
From Corowa; 954 in Ventus 2 CM/18 m. by Hans-Jurgen [Lange] , 949 k. by Jos [Schrier in ASH 31/21m.]
But then it’s waiting for the evening to see the African flights and YES,….Douglas, Kuruman , Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom added a total of 8 x a 1000, Dutch pilot Max Leenders in his new JS 3 even 1.134 km. [speed 136 km./h]

That’s it for now. We had snow yesterday , not even lot’s of snow and we had delays in air traffic and train traffic, but MOST on the road; believe it or not 2300 km.of traffic jam!!!! WORST EVER IN HISTORY. I stayed home!!!
cheers Ritz

JOEYGLIDE from Waikirie.

As shared by JoeyGlide
Design by Bernard Le Riche.

Nice to see such a big bunch of young pilots.

as shared by JoeyGlide

Day 1;was cancelled or to speak in junior terms “canned”, due to poor weather but the evening was set for talking during a pilot meeting.
I am and always was impressed with the Aussie juniors. Already years ago, they organized EVERYTHING their selves, CD, tasksetter [with help] scores,… it’s all juniors. I remember Adam and Nathan as names behind the “engine” of JoeyGlide then.
I noticed this message from Oktober 21-2018, so they are bringing, what they are doing, to an even higher level now.

 “BEHIND THE SCENES: Our Queensland boys got together today for a special general meeting to amend our constitution. This will allow for us to work with the GFA to build our club and reach new heights! 
Cheers to everyone who voted via proxy, and of course, thanks Dylan!” who is “in” orange at the picture.

Day 2; 
Club class;3 hour AAT  266 km. in time 2.34 was the best result for James Nugent in his LS 3. James is already a pretty experienced junior  and won the last edition 17/18, so I expect a lot from him. He then also won the George Lee Trophy [highest handicapped speed achieved during the comps 17/18; 118.3 km./h.]
8 From 13 finished.

Sport class; 2.30 AAT…. 9 finished from 15 starters.   Fastest and furthest in a JS 1 was Joshua Geerlings, with 288 km. in time 2.21, speed of 115.27 km./h. Joshua won last year the the JOEY CUP [highest placed pilot weighted by number of gliding hours].
James was runner up.
The scores from club class pilots are also shared in sports class. Just to let you know.

The” young ones”.
as shared by JoeyGlide

Day 3;
They set [small] tasks for 2 days including today, but a total of 3 day’s has been cancelled till now so just the one day till now.
“The pilots are craving some competition now so we’re off to the lawn bowls club! ”

Day 3 briefing with 47 dgr. C.

As shared by JoeyGlide.
More next week. They continue till the 19th.

————–

5th CLUB CLASS NATIONALS in ARGENTINA.

As shared by CLUB DE PLANEADORES OTTO BALLOD

On January 7 the Argentinian club class Nationals started at Gonzales Chaves with 40 competitors.
Day 1 with a 3 hour AAT , had to be cancelled.
Day 2 had no task.
Day 3 had a 2 hour AAT and from the 39 pilots who started only 6 did not finish, one of them a “topper” Javier [Gaude] in his ASW 20. Best for the day was Felipe Girado in a SILENT, [ handicap 105] flying 173 km in time 2.05 for 635 points. One more than runner up Matias Lanzinetti in LS 4.[handicap 102.5]

Winner day 3 Felipe as shared by CLUB DE PLANEADORES OTTO BALLOD

Day 4 no task.
Day 5, with a 3.30 AAT so better weather!!! The first gliders on the daily list were ALL ASW 20. And the “unlucky” one from earlier ,Javier, won the day now. Good on him;281 km. in time 3.30 at the dot!!!797 points for the number 1.
Only 12 finished,…so maybe not such good weather… but some were very close [shower ??] among them Lucas [Goldenzweig] in LS 4 flying 257 km. but no finish still 698 points.
Felipe was “out” too.

Daily winner Javier as shared by CLUB DE PLANEADORES OTTO BALLOD

Day 6, task 5, with a 2.30 AAT had 3 LS 4 gliders in the top. Another daily winner Matias Lanzinetti. Javier was 4th and Lucas 7th. Jose Dentone had a few less good day’s but is getting there now with a 3d place.
ALL pilots finished!!!!
Day 7 task 6, with a 2 hour AAT and another new face on spot 1; Santiago Demodena in LS 4. Still no 1000 points day. Lucas was runner up, Jose 4th and Javier 7th.
Day 8 task 7 ; 3 hour AAT and still no 1000 points day but getting there;971 for Alejandro Petenazza in a St Jantar II with 279 km. in time 3.01 [92 km./h.]
Jose was 3d Lucas 4th and Javier 6th. These pilots I  know or heard of ,as they fly international comps.
Day 9 task 8 with a 2 hour AAT and 4 LS 4 gliders in the top also Jose and Lucas.
Matias [Lanzinetti] won the day  with 228 km. in 2.02 his 2d daily win.

After 6 day’s of soaring with 2 to go Javier moved from spot 35 to 9!!!Worth mentioning.
At this stage Maximiliano Luengo leads in ASW 20 [4.406 p.] , 2. Jose [4.264] 3. Mattias [4.254] 4. Lucas [4.205] so EVERYTHING is still possible!!!
Next week more.

————

—-Some great flights this week,
January 13; 1.301 km. from Serres [France] by Klaus Ohlmann in the Stemme. With brilliant wave forecast from skysight.io, meteofrance aeroweb, and flugwetter.de. Very good service from Milano and Marseille ATC.  A happy Klaus.
Good flights as well from Worcester [S.A.]by Lucas Blattmann in the Discus 2T[18m] 1.136 this time. Karin and Marcus flew also over 1000 km. so did Sven.” WORCESTER MAGIC” according to Karin.

January 14; with great flights from Tocumwal where it was 42 dgr. c. Lumpy flew an 8oo km FIA triangle in the JS 3 and Ingo in his DISCUS 863 topping the Australia/Oceania list.
Later topped by 6 Africa pilots as Wolfgang and his co Mathijs with just over 1000 km.

January 15; good, better, best, the very best!!!!1.569,48 with a speed of 169.94 km./h in a 15 m. DG 808 and then you know already that I write again about Jean Marc Perrin flying from Argentina [Jose De San Mart]
After his unique flight on the 6th of January 1.717 km. with a bit slower speed [still 132 km./h] with best height nearly in the end of his flight up to  6333 m. MSL.[5398 AGL]

Very hot in Australia and in the area I lived. Look at this :

That’s HOT. I would have loved it however.
Shared by Marion who flies from Corowa.

CU next week,
Cheers Ritz

38th Australian Club and Sports Class Nationals at Lake Keepit

As shared by US Soaring Teams  3 women from the USA practice this season.
” Top National and International pilots have already registered, it is shaping like a great event.“

Day 11..task 10 ;
Sports class 476 km.;Pete [Temple]  in his 18 m.  ASG 29 flew around with 145 km./h.; 994 points for him. No secret who won the 1000 points: Adam who flew around with 139.50 km./h., but his handicap is 1030, Pete’s 1075.
Peter[Trotter] was at spot 3 and moved up to the same spot overall, as Ailsa lost nearly 200 points on spot 10. BUT she is still on 4 , with nearly 300 points on Lisa[Turner] .
The other Pre World girls; Kath did very well on 4 , Lisa [Turner] on 6, Lisa [Trotter] on 8,Diana on 14, Akemi on 16 and Kerrie on 19 after an out-landing after 412 km..
A challenging day with lightning and thunder.

As shared by Kath who did well on this day.

The adventurous story from Simon, I read it with a big smile. It’s not all hosanna during a good competition!
“We only had to do two things. Fly our gliders from Lake Keepit, up along a nice valley, turn left and track overhead Moree, then another left turn to track home over Mt Kaputar – 470km. Admittedly that is about 5000′ high, but should not be too hard given the air was convecting to 8000′. Then the storm hit. That tends to kill convection all around it, and then the glider pilots end up in paddocks, normally far, far away. That is bad for the crew who then have to come and get you. I heard bleating noises over the wireless from the pilots ahead who were getting shot down near Mt Kaputar, so I deviated about 50km west. Then the storm came to meet me. I wandered around rain showers, slowly weaving my way back to Keepit. At one point I ran into heavy rain, which is bad, because the water drops on the wing interfere with the glide performance. But I pushed on and within 20km of finish I could see, and hear on the radio, that Keepit airstrip was being hit by storm, wind, dust, rain, hail, pestilence, plague, and probably pox. It was too dangerous to land there, so I had to make other arrangements. I think I remember telling Miss Elliott (she wore a red tartan skirt with a large kilt pin) in kindergarten that when I grew up I wanted to land a glider at Gunnedah. So I turned right for the 20 km trip. The computer in the glider said I could make it, but my Mark 1 Eyeball wasn’t so sure. I pushed on and got proper low, but that worked out OK because the strong wind was giving me a bit of ridge lift down low. I squeaked into Gunnedah airport, and the beautiful Sue was there in half hour with a smile and beer to take me home. This morning [Friday]Diana and I are going over in the Bellanca Scout tug to drag me and the glider back to Keepit, so that we can do it all again today.”

club class; one of the USA girls called the day FAST AND FURIOUS.
Where were the men??? ….. the first 5 places were for the women, with Sabrina upfront, a good “omen”  for the WWGC next year. The overseas pilots” FEEL ” Lake Keepit now. Those who are there, are blessed with the know how they have NOW, for next year.
Allan in the SZD 55 was on spot 6. Still 908 points. Not an easy day as you can read in Allan’s OLC comment;
“Day 10 of the Nationals. Stressful day at the end. Day was forecast to storm so I wanted to go fairly early but not so early that Ray could run me down on the first two legs. Ended out leading out a biggish gaggle and got away from most of them but the storm over Kaputar became pretty huge. I had a choice on the final leg- fly well right towards Pilliga and come around the long way, or try and work the energy on the leading edge of the storm. I went for the storm – there was a big red dust cloud going up and I figured that would be where the lift was. But I got flushed, almost landed at Narrabri before finding something. Got into a convergence line but fell off the end of it into horrendous sink – thought I was landing again near Boggabri but managed to find a strong climb to final glide in among the lightning. Ridiculously stressful!”

Day 12 task 11; LAST DAY!!!!!
Sports class; 3 hour AAT and as good juniors and former juniors do,..they help each other. So do the Joey’s. Adam is one of the founders of JOEY GLIDE . And this weekend JoeyGlide starts for an other edition with 29 young ones in 2 classes. GOOD !!!! Practice day yesterday on Saturday with 2.30 AAT from the airfield of Waikirie.
Today was cancelled due to poor weather, talking in junior language the day was “canned”.
Back to Keepit, Ailsa, who had lost her 3d place  and Adam left together about 10 minutes after most others, to see if combined efforts could help her back. They both flew exactly 3 hours ,…good on them…. and though Ailsa flew 5 km. more the points were close; Adam 1000 and Ailsa 930. That was 36 points MORE than Peter [Trotter]  who was the new overall number 3 the day before, with 34 points ahead. So some thrilling moments before the final overall scores would be there!!! It just worked out!!
Peter was 5th for the day so Ailsa was on spot 3 with 2 POINTS DIFFERENCE!!!!
Final scores after 12 day’s[ including 1 compulsory rest-day], so 11 tasks!!!! Not bad.
1. Adam Woolley with .10.684 p. Winning 9 of the 11 day’s!!! Chapeau!!!
2. Pete Temple with 10.255 p.
3. Ailsa McMillan with 9.350 p.
4. Peter Trotter with 9.348 p.
5. Lisa Turner with 9.034 p.
Lisa Trotter was on 6, Diana on 15 , Kerrie on 16, Kath on 17 and Akemi on 18.

Adam was happy;”Sports Class National Champion! The competition couldn’t have gone better, yet I still can’t quite believe it myself. As you know, I’ve put a lot of effort into this over the years & it’s nice to feel/see it all finally coming together.I think the biggest part of my recent success has not only come from the WGC’s recently, but from my now confidence in myself, & a true belief, but the biggest thing I think is that I’ve let go of my,    Fear of failure.”
More in his Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

the top 3 Adam, Pete and Ailsa
as shared by Lake Keepit Soaring Club

Club class; 3 hour AAT, and with 350 km. Ray [Stewart] was the best as he was back in his Discus only 3 min. late; 1000 points.Sabrina was runner up in her LS 4 with ONE point less ;999. Allan was 3d, lost around 30 points , but no worries he had more than enough to win.
Final scores after 11 day’s of flying:
1. Allan Barnes with 10.133 p. He won 3 day’s.
2. Ray Stewart with 9.875 p. and won 3 day’s as well.
3. Sabrina Vogt with 9.665 p. and won 2 day’s nearly 3 as she missed out on 1 point on the last day.
4. Jo Davis with 9.435 p.
5. Jenny Ganderton with 9.096 p.

All day’s were flyable with good tasks. It really showed what’s possible for next years WWGC. Try to be there then.

Only happy pilots and crew, the organization should be proud.
Picture shared by the ladies from team USA.

Happy champion, Allan,  runner up Ray and 3d place pilot Sabrina.
As shared by Lake Keepit Soaring Club

“Forget the Australian Sports Class Nationals, check out today’s speeds at the New Zealand Multi-Class Nationals!!”   is what Adam said last Thursday.

So let’s quickly go there for their last day’s!!

————-

NEW ZEALAND MULTI CLASS NATIONALS.

” The airfield gets a bit of extra water! ” [ at 6.34 PM]
Photo Neil Alison 

Open:
On task 8 last Wednesday there were no scores,as I had to leave early,  so here is what happened.
“We have very strong Westerly wave for today and AAT‘s.”
Max Stevens [ Ventus 2C ], new face at the podium , NOT in competition soaring, won the day and he really did; 144.91 km./h over 495 km. He started at 17.22.
Keith was the first to start at 16.24 but out-landed.
The runner up , Derek Kraak [ASG 29e] had 91.67 km./h over 376 km. He landed at 20.21!!!
Weird day and late !!

On task 9 , 3 hour AAT…”a miracle” happened!!!! During a competition a speed of 206 km./h. over 620 km. is stunning even in wave. That’s less than 3 hours!!!!!Who else than Keith, can make such a flight.
His comment on the OLC; “Ripping wave task. Had to go to the back of all the cylinders and still landed back a little early.”When he calls the day, with all his wave experience a ripper, it WAS a ripper!!!!
The organizers wrote on FB;”Keith Essex smoked around a handicap distance of 620.2 km at an average of 206.7 km/h! His non-handicap distance was just over 600 km and speed was 202 km/h. That is a very high average speed for such a long distance.”
But ….he was not the only fast one, the others were fast too.
The 2 Duo Discus’  flew around with 186 km./h. WOW!!!! Not baaaadddd!!!!

Task 10; with the message :”We are now up to Task D – which I am just trying to print out now!”
374 km set task and Keith left half an hour after most and won the day with 135 km./h.
2 Did not finish and 2 did not fly.

Omarama WAVE…forming.
Gliding NZ National Multi-Class Championships – Omarama

Racing class;
Task 8; 3 hour AAT and not Nick who was 3d , not Vaughan who was runner up, but Terry Jones in an LS 8 was the day-winner so also here a new face at the top. So about 1000 points ahead in the end seems not possible for Nick , but no worries, it ‘s good as it is!!! More than good!!!

Task 9 , also good old Tony van Dyke knows how to fly in wave; In his LS 8 he flew around over 527 km. with a speed of 173 km./h. !!!! And that was 10 km./h. faster  than the runner up Vaughan with 165 km./h. in an LS 6 !!!.
And what about 124.48 km./h in the Libelle??? Crazy!!

Task 10; The launch has finally started with Task D for both classes as the Easterly has pushed in faster than first thought.
5 competitors left in this class and Nick won the day;121 km./h over 324 km. Tony was runner up.

There was no day 11, no LAST DAY!!!
“Drop zones would be a problem today. The weather is taskable but getting everyone away from the normal drop zones close to Omarama is predicted to be difficult. The only reliable way would be very long tows to Magic Mountain. In the end, given that it is the last day and we have had a lot of good flying, the task for today has been cancelled.”

So here are the final results after a good 9 out of 11 day’s;
Open;
1. Keith Essex in ASG 29 with 8.166 points
2. Scarlat & McCormack in DUO DISCUS W with 6.045 p.
3. Derek Kraak in ASG 29 E with 5.928 p. Unhandicapped Derek would have been runner up.

Racing; 
1. Nick Oakley in Discus 2 with 8.132 points, so still a huge margin.
2. Vaughan Ruddick in LS 6 with 7.264 p.
3. Tony van Dyk in LS 8 with 6.462 p.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL.

As shared by Gliding NZ National Multi-Class Championships – Omarama

————

—Morgan Sandercocks great flight in the ARCUS M [ 2.321 km.] last Wednesday got a reaction from his country man Matthew in Australia. Matthew is from Sky Sight and this is his picture and reaction;

Looks like a perfect match!
Morgan Sandercock‘s 2300km flight yesterday, overlaid on the SkySight forecast using the new SkySight IGC Upload function.

On the OLC Morgan said in his comment:
“Thank you Dennis for letting me use your glider. And crew. And towplane.

This day appeared to have a low probability of working when we looked at the forecast. The lift bands didn’t seem to be linked up properly and there was a lot of cloud on the forecast. The links between the lift bands were not a problem at all. We were able to maintain a high average speed despite jumping gaps every 50km. We never got low. The clouds were very concerning. For eleven hours we were looking at a wall of cloud coming over the Andes from Chile that threatened to engulf us at any moment. The big stacked lenticulars behind us were also threatening. Several times we had to maneuver around clouds. 

Thank you also to Brad, my copilot, who did half of the flying and to Mendoza Air Traffic Control who monitored us on the radio for the entire flight.”

—————

—More great flights;
January 9; 1.221 km. from Serres in France by Klaus [Ohlmann] in the Stemme S10.
Worcester still had 1000 km’s too,  one in an 18 m. Discus 2T.
January 10; South Africa was “HOT” and the place to be that day was Worcester. Super flights ; 1. 332 km. in a DISCUS 2T/18m. and in the ARCUS T. They planned the flight together and must have enjoyed it very much. The longest flights EVER from Worcester. The German pilots Lucas Blattmann in the Discus and Philip Goralski  and Juergen Zuhlke  had 148 and 150 speed on the “clock”.
5  from Gariep  one of them by Stephan Bosch  in an ASH 26E; 1.122 km.  and a few over 900k.
January 11; Peter Raphael flew in Toc in the past and loved his ventage gliders.
I noticed that he flew 100 km. in a Hall, Cherokee II, during the Vintage Gliding Rally 2019 from Bordertown.
January 12; 3 declared FAI 750 flights from Tocumwal [nearly 800 OLC km’s] . Tougher than forecast though the first leg was fun! For Richard Traill the very first declared 750 task and for Lumpy and Butch , who arrived from Queensland to try records in Toc ,the so maniest.[one ASG 29 E /18m. and 2 JS 3’s]
They topped the OLC list world wide that day.

—As I said already, the Bitterwasser-season is after a fabulous year, nearly over with only in  Bitterwasser 189 over 1000 km. flights , that’s not counting Kiripotik, Pokweni or Veronica, all in Namibia as well.
Here is now their news;
“The season in Bitterwasser is nearly over. 2 weeks are left for the guests to fly. So far 189 x 1.000 km could be recorded in Bitterwasser. A cold front in the south of Namibia only enables flights under 1.000 km in the last days. The temperatures stay relatively low and due to the lack of air humidity no clouds develop. Also the base is lower on these days. Nevertheless the pilots are flying. For sightseeing or in the hope that the well-known “Bitterwasser weather” will develop better than predicted. We are looking forward for the forecast for the beginning of next week and of course for the 2nd pool party!”

www.bitterwasser.com

More next Wednesday about JoeyGlide, and the Club Class Nationals from Chaves in Argentina.

Cheers Ritz,……it’s fun all those comps!!!

You surely have seen that I published an extra blog last Sunday. It was getting too long, saving became difficult for me and for all of you it’s maybe TOO much reading.
So when you missed it, no worries it is just under this one, so you best start on the first one.
The very nice comps from Leeton are over. I like the F1.0 GP concept! As said I hope they continue and even more participants will be at the next one.

A few more pictures , all shared by the organizers, from Leeton.

The special “ugly ducky ” tow plane. I saw it at several comps the last one in Benalla. Great little machine!

Lot’s of young ones helping out at the strip, impressive!!! They are the Aussie future.

Fabulous hardworking volunteers! What a way to grow up!!!

I told you about Ben and his plan for the last day to stick to Lumpy. Here is the proof.

As shared by Formula 1.0

Number 3 Andrew……….
Lumpy[ 2]  has fun when Ben[1.]  get’s the bottle and handshake from Ingo.
Ingo is the CFI from the SRGC located  in Lumpy’s WW 2 hangar [our old one], which I hope is safer now, after it was neglected when Richard left. Heard Lumpy is “working “on the roof!!!Nice detail. About 50 years ago, when Bill ran Sportavia, Ingo was one of the few, working and checking on the beams and steel in the roof every season. Ingo has a long history in Tocumwal.
Formula 1.0

That was LEETON, now we continue with the Pre-Worlds/ Club and sports class Nationals in Lake Keepit.

————-

THE LAKE KEEPIT NATIONALS and WWGC PRE-WORLDS.

As shared by Women in Gliding Australia

pictures  from last week even a “roo”  came to visit.
As shared by Women in Gliding Australia

After 7 day’s , some pretty long and intensive, the pilots had a rest day and started then with

Day 9 task 8; “Blue Sky outside,  a tiny bit of high cloud, very hot already.“[Peter]
After the rest day, which a lot spend in the pool, everybody was motivated again for the last couple of day’s.
Nice tasks over 400 km. What happened?
Sports 464 km. ; Both Adam and Pete [Temple] were in a hurry;speed 142. 94 [VENTUS 2] and 148 km.[18m.ASG 29], and got the 1000 and 985 points.
Good day for the PRE-WWGC girls as well.On 3. Lisa Turner, 4. Ailsa, 7.Lisa Trotter, 8. Cath, 14. Kerrie, 15. Akemi, 18. Diana.  Only Simon, who has not flown comps for years, out landed after 50 km.
Adam;”What fun today was, really enjoyed the close in race/justle with Peter Temple & Lisa Turner! Day winner, just. No pics today, so here’s one of ‘Skippy’ who came in for a drink because it’s been so hot”.
The full story on  Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

Club 415 km;
Ray Stewart flew around with a speed of 113.57 km./h. and was by far the fastest;1000 points.
Runner up Sarah had a speed of 102 km./h in ” her ” St. Cirrus. All 11 in this class finished .
Jenny was on spot 4, Sabrina on 5, Ayala on 6, Sylvia on 8 and Jo and Kathryn both on 11, with equal points;716.

With CD Mandy in the middle…a happy “bunch” of Lake Keepit pilots.
As shared by Lake Keepit Soaring Club

Day 10 task 9;  Today started with high cloud , a delayed start, and a change of task. We launched them all,  and there were no re-lites.   [Peter]
sports class; 3.30 AAT so another pretty long day. As I have to leave early in the morning not all scores are in, so it looks like Adam is on top again with 1000 points over 510 km. and a great speed of 140 km./h. He and Pete Temple had a late start about half an hour after the first starters.[14.23]
Diana had an early start at 14.00 and was preliminary on spot 5. News on the last 2 day’s on Sunday.

club class; 3 hour AAT; Sarah was preliminary the best with 323 km. in time 3.04; speed 104 km./h in the St Cirrus. Jo was runner up, then Sabrina,and Ayala, great day out for the girls. 3 Girls still have to be scored now.
www.soaringspot.com

——————-

NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL MULTI CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS.

“Day 5. The Grid slowly fulls up at the East end of the airfield. ”
Photo Neil Alison 

On January 7 ,after a cancelled day ,they continued in both classes, open and racing.
Open;
day 6..task 5..AAT between 261/521 km..
Keith was very eager to go for it . He must love his soaring, flying here there and everywhere but home base is Minden in Nevada in the USA. He won the 1000 points for 498 km. with a speed of 131 km./h.
Day 7 task 6…Not Keith, not Derek but a Duo Discus W,with Davy & Wallace was the daily winner; 117 km./h. over 363 km. Keith flew 384 km with a spped of 115.73 km./h.

Racing;
Day 6 ..task 5…AAT between 261 and 521 km.[388,98 km] and here the same face at the podium Nick [Oakley] 1000 points for 410 km. with a speed of 110 km./h.
Vaughan Ruddick in the LS 6 was runner up and it’s all between him and Nick over the last day’s , though…you never know.
After 5 races Nick has 4.614 points and Vaughan 3.714 and the number 3 Tony van Dyk 3. 353. Huge differences!!!!
Day 7  task 6...a set task from 345 km. Winner; Nick!!!He is really in a winning mood. Vaughan and Tony followed.
917 points ahead Nick is now!! He is going to make it 1000.

Day 8; “A wave day today and we have one Assigned Area Task for both classes. We have only a very light westerly at the moment at the airfield and the launch has been delayed until 13:30.” No scores yet!
Latest news….. on Sunday.

Finish  by Photo Neil Alison and share by Gliding NZ National Multi-Class Championships – Omarama

—————–

Africa; slowly, but very slowly,  showers are going to” destroy” new hopes. It’s that time of the year and Africa had already fabulous weather. End of January the season is over, but with a good November and December and a really good start of January everybody will be more than happy.
On January 6 still 8x a 1000 plus from Namibia.Speed around 130 km./h.
Flying from Bitterwasser over the borders of Botswana has made the boundary bigger ,as well as the fun and distances. And what distances. I have never been in Africa so it is a bit difficult to write about it.
I know my Lasham-soaring-mates are over the moon with nearly every day a 1000 km.plus flight. Patrick, Roy and Hugh flew a few years with us in Tocumwal, hoping for that “bloody” 1000, as far as I remember they did not fly it with us, yes long distances but not that special 1000 km badge/diploma.
But I know they had fun.
Roy, now flew 4x a 1000 plus 2 in the ARCUS M and 2 in the Ventus 3. And another 2 flights over 750.

Antii from Finland flew from 8 day’s in Kiripotib, 4 x a 1000 and 4 x a flight over 800 km.All in the ARCUSM. That glider is a real fast hardworking-“horse”

Yesterday South Africa added more 1000 km.flights to it’s total from Worcester and Douglas.

———–

—New impressive distances;
January 6; WOW……Jose De San Mart (AR) Swiss pilot Jean Marc Perrin flew in a DG 808 /15m. a task of 1.717,9 km with 132 km./h. !!!!!It took him 13 hours, what a long sit!!!! There was great wave even up to 6654 MSL.
January 8; MORE WOW…..as Morgan [Sandercock] and Brad Jackson in the back, flew 2.337 km. with a speed of 217 km./h!!!!!! From Chos Malal in Argentina in the ARCUS J. They flew the most used track with wave up to over 7514 MSL.[4799 AGL]

————

—-News from FAI Sailplane Grand Prix
FAI Sailplane Grand Prix 10th series.
The venues and dates for the 10th series of National FAI Sailplane Grand prix events has been finalized. There are three completely new locations included in this 10th series offering some new and interesting possibilities for exciting sailplane racing. read more:- http://www.sgp.aero/sgp-main-news
The 10th series will commence after the final of the 9th series at La Cerdanya in Spain during June
2019 [June 1-8] . http://www.sgp.aero/finals2019

The first will be in Livno in Bosnia between July 27 and August 3.
This is the only event in 2019 . It is not only a new venue for SGP racing but the first time for any International gliding event in Bosnia Herzegovina. The club at Livno offers an opportunity to fly in this beautiful region between Split and Sarajevo. The soaring area is known locally as “little Namibia” reflecting the excellent soaring conditions. The club web site shows some of the possibilities for flying from Livno http://aeroklublivno.org/

The other GP races will be in
Potchefstroom in South Africa between January 4 and 11 in 2020 in 18 m.
Viticura in Cile between January 18 and 25 in 2020 in 15 m.
Rion de Landes in France between May 2 and 9 in 2020 in 18m.
Denbigh in the UK between May 18 and 24 in 2020 in 15m.
Cerdanya in Spain between May 31 and June 6 in 2020 in 15 m.
Boras in Sweden between  June 7 and 13 in 2020 in 18 m.
Varese in Italy between June 20 and 27 in 2020 in 18 m..

For more information about the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix series please contact director@sgp.aero
More on http://www.sgp.aero/sgp-main-news/announcing-the-10th-fai-sailplane-grand-prix-series.aspx

And the  Sailplane Grand Prix South Africa mentioned :
“We already have the first two entries for the South African Qualifying Grand Prix. 
A maximum of 20 pilots may enter, 15 from South Africa, and 5 entries are reserved for International guests.”

—————–

—News from About Gliding

“Could the mass of the gliders in a thermal influence the climb rate?
It’s probably something you already experienced on very poor days: a large gaggle enters your weak climb. Subsequently, the climb rates drops to zero. That’s of course partly caused by the wider turns, and by the added nervosity that results in inefficient maneuvers.

CU next Sunday with the latest on the Nationals in NZ and Australia.Then it’s back to normal again.

Cheers Ritz

Just to let you know: To avoid TOO long blogs , I publish already today on Sunday. Next Wednesday the next one again.

LEETON  f 1.0 Grand Prix.…the final day’s!!!

as shared by f1gp.com.au

Day 5 task 3… 158 km.;
Group A started at 14.48 ,last to be launched and all went on track, one did not finish,he only flew 5 km. so must have had a problem.Ben [Loxton] won the 10 points in the St. Cirrus; 109 km./h.
Group B started at 14.26 and Finn [Sleigh] in the St. Cirrus from the UK, is back in the running after the first off-day. Speed 97 km./h.and 7 points for him.
Group C started early at 14.03 and Nick Gilbert won the day. He is one of the engines behind this type of flying. Speed 96 km./h.in DG 100 and 7 points for him.

Day 6 task 4 …264 km;
Group A started at 14.30 and Lumpy [Paterson] one of the 3 Tocumwal pilots over there , raced to his first win in this competition. As you know he just flew from Toc. a 1000 triangle with 150 km. “on the clock”; now 125 km./h.and 10 points. By the way the local paper in Toc mentioned;” The record was not broken but smashed!!!” And “Tocumwal glider breaks nine year speed mark.”
Andrew [Maddocks] was runner up in the Hornet.
Group B started at 13.44 and Ruben Lane in the LS 1f had a great day and won the max 7 points for the day.Finn was runner up and climbing on the overall ladder.Finn is one of the UK-Juniors preparing for the next JWGC.
Group C started at 14.06 and Heath L’Estrange was the best in his St Libelle. Claire [Scutter] was 3d and Tony [Condon] 5th. Christian  Streifeneder in the St Libelle was 6th.

Christian ready to go.    and      PR enough at Leeton.
As shared by f1gp.com.au

Overall results after 4 tasks;1. Ben Loxton with 33 points , 2. Lumpy Paterson has 30 both in St CIRRUS and on 3 Philip Ritchie in the HORNET.[ 27 points]
Finn is on 7 now and Tony on 10.

42 dgr. C, ….good morning from Leeton….the heat is TERRIBLE and fire danger HUGE at many places.
As shared by Tony.

Day 7 , task 5; 306.8 km. Another day of GOOD FUN RACING and the best day ,quite a few there ,had EVER SEEN!!!
Group A started at 14.32. and Ben raced around with 137 km./h. in a DRY St. Cirrus…10 points!!The best day he ever flew on.Lumpy was runner up and got a bonus point so 7 plus 1 is 8 for him.
Group B started at 13.48 and in this group, Eric [Stauss] was the best. He flies a St. Libelle. Tod [Sandercock] was runner up and Tony at spot 3 got the bonus-point. Tod is  from Innovact Consulting, inventor of the SkyMate tracking system which is used in the F1GP.
“F1GP is the worlds first gliding competition to include real time verification with this tracking system.”
Group C started at 14.10 and Steve Jinks in a St Cirrus got the max 7 points PLUS 1 bonus point.
The GFA mentioned about this day:
“Classic Cu day, big speeds, must be the 18m FAI comps? Check out the speeds in the dry club class gliders at the Formula 1.0 GP today. The winner did an astounding 137kph in a Cirrus with second and third only a fraction slower. For comparison, up the road in Lake Keepit, the winner in a ballasted Ventus 2 did the same speed. Who said old gliders can’t go fast?!”

On the right Ben with a huge smile ,137 km./h in a St Cirrus and to the L. Richard Trail who flew a 1000 from Leeton in and ASG 29. Well deserved beers!!!
Courtesy Formula 1.0

6 Jantars flying from Leeton.
As shared by Formula 1.0

Day 8 was cancelled.
The cool- change came through in Leeton:
“Unfortunately due unfavorable weather here in Leeton, Day 8 of flying has been cancelled. We had a cool change come in overnight, where the current temperature is only 25°C (77°F) compared to 44°C (111°F) yesterday!”
I am sure they were happy with the drop of temperature , so no flying today.

Day 9 task 6 209 km. …last day;
Group A; start at 14.51 with blue conditions .
Ben already announced what he was going to do on the last day!!! Just stay with Lumpy. He did!!!With 91 km.h. he won the day and the extra last-day-point; 11.  Lumpy was runner up ;8 points.
Tony moved up to the A group with which he was pleased.
Group B; start at 14.00 and best was Scott Lennon in the St Libelle .
Group C; start at 14.24. David Meredith was the best for 7 points.

So the final scores after 6 tasks; 1. Ben Loxton with 54 points, 2. Lumpy Paterson with 47 and Andrew Maddocks with 31. CONGRATULATIONS to ALL.
Ingo came from Tocumwal to present the winners with the prizes.

Leaving Leeton with another great picture by the organizers, one of them Adam Webb, who was the CD in Narromine at the JWGC!!! In all way’s they did  a great job as far as I can see from home!!TOP!!!And glad to see that my USA soaring-mates Tony and Leah REALLY enjoyed their selves.

Leeton from above and as they called it :”God has arrived to see the finish and to present his trophy to the champion”
Ingo in the middle.

Great PR by TV and papers, good for soaring!!! The 10.000 dollars from the State government was well spend.
Great to follow from home as well. Job well done over there. Hope this comp will GROW!!!!

The up to 44 dgr.C sustaining “Heroes”.

————-

LAKE KEEPIT Australian Nationals club and combi/PRE WWGC.

Day 3 on January 2;task 3 4 hour AAT’s ;
Sports class; And the winner was,….Adam [Woolley] , ..1000 points again.. , with 541 km. in time 4.12 so a speed of 128 km./h.
Young Ailsa [Mc Millan] is really doing well in the JS 1 , she started an hour earlier flew around with the same speed and got 921 points.;
Adam’s story[part of it];
“As always, good to be home. 4hrs is a long time to keep the focus up on such a day. Day winner, the planning paid off, sort of…I decided to forfeit a launch today as first launch was at 11am & I had planned a 1330-1400 start. So I spent a solid extra hour on the ground staying as cool as I could in the 34° heat. I think this played a part in the win today as I didn’t spend as long pre-start low, hot & in the blue.

Goal for the flight, fly MC, so slower than I normally do. This helped me feel the air better & with less risk. I started at 1400 well behind the pack, so it was really tough to know what climbs I should be taking. In the end I had a great run in the blue. Transitioned nicely to the CU, ran it deep while the going was good, then for home. The last 1.5hrs was soft, a little nervous, but managed to bring it home easily in the end.”
The other girls finished at 5. Lisa [Turner] ,8. Lisa [Trotter], 12. Kerrie, 14. Diana,15 Cath, It looks like Akemi did not fly.

Club class; Another day-win for Allan [Barnes] 448 km. in time 4.18 for 1000 points.
The girls had a tougher day at spot 4. Sabrina,5. Jenny,6. Jo, 7. Sarah, 8. Sylvia,9 .Ayala and 11.Kathryn.

Day 4 on January 3, always a difficult day for us ; OUR Dennis RIP 3-7-1969….3-1-1988.
Good day however for the pilots.454 km in the combi class.
No measure on Adam he flies as the best and more and more thinks about his flying and uses what he has learned at the so many comps he flew already in his still young life.
Speed 149.22 km./h Not bad for a competition.
About his thinking;”I decided that the day was developing different to forecast & that it should be a reliable one, so pushed my start time back to 1400. This was a safe move, but think Matthew Atkinson got it the most right with 15min later. I picked that the CU’s weren’t developed properly for the first 100km, so backed off the cruise speed & tried to maximise my first glide. It worked, 5kts from a moderate height. 2nd glide the same, then it was go time!

   
A huge paddock with the glider, so easy to find for the next day’s aerotow retrieve.
Sarah;” There’s nothing that takes the sting off a landout more than an exciting retrieve. We left the glider tied down and returned in the morning with 180 driver Ian Downes for an easy tow out and an 8 minute flight home.”

The Pre-world girls are doing a great job!
The organizers;”The female contingent of the Nationals. A top class bunch of athletes.”
I can only agree.

Day 7 task 7 and then,….a rest day!
“Blue Sky outside,  a tiny bit of high cloud, very hot already. Tasks are set, runway 32 and first launch at midday.“by Peter.
Sportsclass ..3 hour AAT;
Adam learned a lot from the day before. Preparation is SO important;
“I did an hour of pre-flight planning today, it definitely paid off (SS had it right today), as I was able to break the legs down & think at least 2hrs ahead of myself, as well as have confidence in my AAT TP’s.”
The full story in  Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Adam flew 446 km. in time 3.01;  speed 147 km./h
Runner up was Terry Cubley , not anymore in his LS 3, but in his new 18m. Ventus 2CXT; speed 152 km.h.
2 Out-landings and Robert was not flying.
Before the day off , the scores look as follows;
1. Adam with 6.684, the off -day did not “hurt” him.
2. Pete Temple with 6.469
3. Ailsa Mc Millam …., good on her …5.973 points.

Club class 3 hour AAT;
The girls are on the move to the top. Look at this; At the daily spot 1 Jo, 2. Sabrina and 3. Sarah. GOOD!!!!
A 1000 points day and Jo flew 406 km. in time 3.11 so a speed of 127 km./h.
All 11 pilots finished.
Overall scores before the rest day after 7 day’s of good soaring;
1. Allan Barnes with 6.445 still a comfortable lead.
2. Ray Stewart with 6.144
3. Sabrina Vogt from Germany with 5.908 points.

Followers are happy with the Lake Keepit PR:
“good show you’re putting on, lovely organisation, very relaxed & good fun. 10/10 👍”

Lake Keepit . The lake is, as I heard from Kerrie, just a river, but when it is full it is a beautiful big lake and very impressive to see pilots finish over it!!! I was impressed ,like I was in Rayskala with also  great finishes over the lake.

As shared by Adam :
“Lake Keepit, which is now called just Keepit I think – it’s officially empty I believe, very sad. I’m calling this place Lake Cumulus though, we’ve seen some amazing days here this comp 🙂
The airfield is on the left near the lakes edge, usually a spectacular approach to land..

—————

New Zealand National Multi class Gliding Championships.

View out the window on day 2.
As shared by Gliding NZ National Multi-Class Championships – Omarama

They started on January 2 and continue till January 12 with in open class 10 participants including Keith Essex back from Namibia to fly these Nationals and 7 in the racing class with young Nick Oakley and “old” Tony van Dyk.
Great distances on the first 2 day’s.
Open ;
day 1 task 1; AAT between 496 and 580 km.[538] and the team flying the CW, an ASG 29 ES flew 529 km with a speed of 169.39 km./h. WOW!!!!
Keith flew 549 in his ASG 29with a speed of 162 km./h.
Task 2; was even longer an AAT between 553 and 644[ 602] and this time Keith was the best with 606 km. and a speed of 155 km./h.
Runners  up in the ASH 25 were 6km./h slower over their 584 km.
Bad luck for team CW, they must have done something wrong as they only got 50 points for their 613 km.
Task 3 with a set 431 km. ; showed only ONE finisher; Keith !!! His speed of 103 km./h showed it was a difficult day.From the other 8 pilots some came close so it was still 1000 points for Keith. Others landed out FAR away so scores were only available the next day. LONG RETRIEVES for 2 of them!!!!!
Task 4; with an AAT between 487 and 553 km. The organizers wrote;
“We have a Task A (a “fuzzy” turnpoint Assigned Area Task (AAT) with a 1 hour minimum time) and a Task B (a proper AAT with a 3 hour minimum) for both classes. Looks like it will be a blue(ish) wave day, well, blue for the start of it anyway. We could get very strong winds both on the ground and up high.”
A good-speed-day again and Derek Kraak won the day with 166.75 km./h. on the clock. Everybody started around 2 PM, not Derek he left at 4.20 PM, clearly having the better weather. Don’t know if he just waited and knew there was better weather coming, or if he maybe had a problem before start.
Keith was runner up with 143 km./h.

Racing class;
Day 1 task 1; Nick in a Discus 2 won the AAT  [446/519 km] with a speed of 165,91 km./h for a “small” Discus great speed.Tony was 3d in his LS 8
Day 2 was also in this class bigger[491/574 km] ; 521 km. in time 3.45 so a speed of 128 km./h and,…again Nick was the best.
2 Outlandings pretty close to the field after 483 and 439 km. A pity.
Day 3 ;only ONE finisher here as well. Young Nick Oakley and the “older” Tony was runner up with 298 km.
Day 4; 2 finishers  Vaughan Ruddick in an LS 6 and Nick and 3 outlanders. Also in this class a 1000 points day.
By the way Nick is at this stage 800 minus 1 point ahead overall .

Day 5 was cancelled, more next Wednesday.

—-KIRIPOTIB shared this picture and news and …..

Team Wolfgang and Ludwig are hot again: 300 km triangle speed.
What speed will they fly home? Fingers crossed!
Both in the ANTARES 23 and Wolfgang flew 160 km./h and Ludwig 178 km./h. On January 5 Ludwig flew in the Antares 189.1 km./h. over 804 km.
as shared by Kiripotib Soaring

—-22 x 1000 km on January 2 in Africa, even a 1.300 twice in EB 29’s, from Pokweni and Veronica  all the pilots are having GREAT fun.

—–10 x a 1000 from Australia on January 4; Even 1.236 from Tocumwal in an ARCUS M flown by Mac and Joergen. Tocumwal had 2 [ Chris Davison flew 1.031 km] ], whilst Ingo flew 990 in his Discus and Grant [Heany] a 700 FAI triangle in a St. Jantar!!!!
Mac , who’s 2 week holiday finished with this flight, mentioned in his OLC comment;”New Free Triangle Distance Oceanian Continental Record 1.116km. Took off with 1250km distance declaration but wx did not start as advertised. Had to switch brain very quickly and went for free triangle distance record attempt. We just managed to fit 1116km in weather and airspace. We had altitude to glide to east of Corowa for 1250km OLC but just turned back to land at Tocumwal. (Sadly we had to sacrifice OLC speed today, to fit 1250. But the leg Barlanard to home was very fast, sometimes 300kph GS at FL150:) Last light in Toc was 21:07.”
He filed the next record to Jenny.

Free Triangle Distance 1116km

Glider Arcus M
VH-VBJ
Date: Jan 4, 2019
Location: Tocumwal, Australia
Pilot: Makoto Ichikawa/Jorgen Thomsen

Benalla had 3x a 1000 and Corowa 2x. 1 From Leeton and 2 from Temora.
SUPER day windy and VERY HOT up to 44 dgr.C!!!!

To finish the blog these pictures from the New Years sandstorm from Narromine;

“The fast approaching dust storm had all hand’s on deck to help put away the gliders. No damage done.”

“This is the dust storm that approached Narromine and caused havoc in Dubbo on Old Year’s Eve”
as shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

Cheers Ritz CU on Wednesday.

January 2- 2019 !!!!  the first day’s of the NEW YEAR are over and it feels like nothing changed!!! Had a quiet start …the environment however was loud VERY loud and full of light,…. ready to take the year on!!!!

What a fabulous few soaring-day’s in the South of Australia . The best ever day I hear from some!!!
Even in Australia temperature-records can get “smashed”.It happened this week.
My goodness me, it brought back good memories of exciting day’s of waiting, celebrations and,…the bell and flowers in the evening, for special achievements!!!We had a few of those ripper-day’s as well in the past and many other normal good day’s.
For those who were there no explanation needed.
The fact that there is a REAL heatwave, is not good for everybody, so hopefully the ones with lung problems /chest infections get safely through the  49 dgr. C in the Perth area,…that is hot!!!

That 27th of December will go in the books in Australia as a ripper day. Adam mentioned ;”Seems the whole sky is going UP in Australia at the moment!” He will participate in the Australian Club & Sports Class Nationals (pre-wwgc as well] next week in Keepit.
Achievements here there and everywhere.
From Benalla ,Ailsa, who is flying the pre-worlds later in Lake Keepit a superb new Australian record!!!!
“Late start out of Benalla, so decided to take a go at the 100k speed triangle.
Preliminary look has it at 205.06kph”
Over 200 km./h WOW,WOW,WOW, in a JS 1CTJ. Congratulations Ailsa!!!
Also from Benalla; Toby Geiger in a Ventus 2a…… 750 FAI @ 162kph..!!! Congratulations Tobias.
Tocumwal had a few [4.] good 1000 km triangles one of them from Lumpy which might be a new Aussie record as well; 150 km.ph over 1000 km. triangle!!!!

To get back to Mac….2 Great 1000 km.-flights from Tocumwal!!!He got the highest score in history on Australian OLC. 1389 points. And for the one on the 25th another 1178!!!
He filed for a new continental record;

————-

Formula 1.0 from Leeton;

ready to go from Brobenah Airfield
Courtesy;fgp.com.au

Also the early Leeton pilots had fabulous circumstances, The unofficial practice showed flights from up to 803 km. in a St. Cirrus by Stephen Jinks. And Tony in his Tocumwal DG 100 flew 665 km.
His OLC comment on December 27;
“Amazing day. Did a lap around the task area and then a run to the opposite side and back at the end. 15,200 max. four thermals that averaged over 10 kts. Big shadow over middle of task area at the end to keep things interesting. Very fun flight.”
There are 36 competitors and I noticed 1 young man from Holland who worked for us at Sportavia in the past; Tommy Kalsbeek flying a St. Libelle.
German pilot/engineer Christian Streifeneder flies as well in a St. Libelle , he was involved in the Concordia as was Prof. Loek Boermans.

TV WIN NEWS was even at the airfield…..The heatwave is something most of us want to avoid, but it’s been welcomed by the gliders preparing for the Formula 1 Gliding Grand Prix in Leeton…… talking to several pilots . Good PR.
More good PR ;”the 2018 Formula 1.0 Gliding Grand Prix will be supported by the NSW Government’s 2018 Incubator Event Fund. The funding will help us make F1.0 even bigger and better than 2017, allowing more people to experience both the world class gliding conditions, and great hospitality that Leeton has to offer.
Good on them !!!!

As shared by f1gp.com.au

Practice was official on December 28 and Tony mentioned ;”Messed up the start royally but had a really good run. Super dusty. not quite as hot as yesterday, had to make a glide to get to the clouds but when we got there it was oh so good again. saw 14 kts again.”

Tony and his wife Leah as his crew!
Picture courtesy  f1gp.com.au

Day 1; With a regatta start  at 12.48 for the first 12 pilots [group A] and a distance of 240 km. The best was  Philip Ritchie in a HORNET with 114 km./h. Tony was 5th, Claire 7th.
The next 12 pilots [group B] started at 13.15 with Mike Maddocks [one of the 2 Maddog’s brother Andrew flew in group A, from Maddog Composites ]as winner with 109 km./h in a St Cirrus. Lumpy was runner up!
The 3d group [C] with 11 pilots started at 13.42 and here was 1 outlanding[  by UK pilot Finn Sleigh]  . The day was won by Todd Sandercock in a Hornet.

A learning moment for several, as there were many penalty points , mostly for starting above max height.
Overall scores after day 1
3 Pilots with 10 points Mike, Philip and Todd.
https://tracking.f1gp.com.au

Day 2 had a 129 km. task but due to poor weather the day was cancelled.
With the message of cancellation they shared another great picture

“Unfortunately, due to poor weather conditions here at Leeton, day two of the competition has been cancelled.”

Day 3...After the very good weather the not so good weather arrived, …..there must be a competition….Sand storm and rain.
Tony;” No flying today in Leeton, gust front and rain this morning. Clear skies and hot temps the rest of the contest.”

Day 4 task 2 with 329 km; and a bonus point available  for the  first in each group to Leeton (turnpoint 3)
Group A started at 14.51 and were the last to be launched for the day.
Good race again from Philip in the Hornet;109.06 km./h. Todd in the other Hornet was 10th so no points for him today. Tommy out-landed after 234 km. A pity. Ben Loxton was runner up and was the first at TP3 in this group , so 1 extra point for him.
Group B started at 14.03 and Alex Wallis won the day in the St Cirrus with 104 km./h. Young UK pilot Finn who had a bad first day was runner up; good on him. 1 Out in this group. Only 6 from 12 got points.
Group C started at 14.27 and Andrew Maddocks in the Hornet “got” the highest amount of points;8 including the bonus point! Tony was 4th and 2 were out.

Day 5 task 3 with 158 km.;
Looks like Ben won in the A group, Finn [good on him] in the B group and Nick [Gilbert] in the C group more in the next blog.

—————

LAKE KEEPIT ;

lot’s to do in Australia at this time of the season.
The WWGC  PREWORLDS and the Australian Nationals for Standard and combi class.
Contest director Mandy Temple [former TC for Australia]wants it to be a great competition and with her experience she will see to it , it happens!!
The USA girls arrived with a few hick-up’s, mainly due to the heat, but good old John Good [former TC for the USA and deputy director and task setter of the Uvalde 2012 WGC] is with them. Another very organized/experienced guy  and he really writes good reports!!!!

practice -day 1 on December 30, —–wind from the North at about 12 or 14 knots,  currently sky-clear and very blue, expected maximum temperature 37,   runway 32, first launch 12:30——was good with a 3.30 AAT for club class [ with 11 participants] and Sarah from the USA, showed her experience by winning the day with 417 km. in a St Cirrus in time 3.43 so a speed of 112 km./h. Not sure if she was REALLY happy with it ;”Whoops… It’s considered bad luck to win the practice day.”
Jenny[Ganderton] did well too. She is a local “girl” and a good pilot;408 km. in time 3.23 so a speed of 116 km./h in the Mosquito.
Ayala from the UK was 4th and German Sabrina did not fly yet.
Sports class [21 in this class] had a 3.30 AAT as well and Adam [yes Woolley, he is there as well] . In the Ventus 2 he flew 479 km. in time 3.17 so a nice speed of 136.93 km.
Terry [Cubley] in the Ventus CXT/18m. flew 488 km. in time 3.27 so a speed of 139.55 km./h.

Adam shared this text and message;
“photo from today, great streeting, great climb, occasionally intimidating terrain with educated guess work ahead for paddock/selection.”

Day 1, task 1 on December 31;Wind virtually calm,  currently 31 degrees expecting maximum 38 or maybe 39, sky-clear-blue… visibility excellent!!!
Combi…469 k. was set and 2 Aussie toppers were in the lead Peter [Temple] in ASG 29/18m. and Adam [Woolley] in Ventus 2;932 and 917 points and the best girl,….as this is their pre-worlds…. was young Ailsa on 3 in the JS 1, with 888 points.
Look at the SPEED; 165.84…157.62 and 161.73.
Cath was on 4, Lisa Trotter on 6, Lisa Turner on 10,Diana on 18, Kerrie on 19 and Akemi on 20.
More about the day ,”The cool bit first, 160km final glide at 200kph starting from 8500′!” in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures 

Club…394 km. and day 1 was a prey for Bernie Sizer, who more or less started competition flying a few years ago, in Dieter Dundee’s ASW 15 from Tocumwal. Now he flies his own PIK 20 B and does well;1000 points for him.
Nice speed too 131.28 km./h. A tad better than Allan Barnes in the SZD 55 with 998 points.
What about the girls?? Kathryn [USA] on 4, Sarah [USA] on 5, Jo on 7, Sabrina [Germany] on 8, Ayala [UK] on 8, Sylvia [USA] on 10 and Jenny on 11.

Day 2 task 2 on January 1;Briefing is completed, it was quite cloudy earlier but it’s now looking ok.  Racing tasks today. Outside now it’s  very hot and warming rapidly, a light breeze from the NorthEast. Runway 32 and first launch at 12:0 midday.
Combi…404 km. This time Adam won after a nice but late start  :
“Day winner, just! As it turned out I played a higher risk card today with a late start, got away with it, but little to no big reward. I started in shear wave with Ailsa McMillan, but 50min after the gate opened & probably 30min past the optimum. Thankfully the result was good..!

The main issue for the day was that it was hot, humid, with poor visibility & spread out. I played the game well with knowing that I shouldn’t be so selective today due to the humidity, but right from start I couldn’t find even a 1/2 decent climb. The whole day i couldn’t figure out what the sky was doing, so just kept pressing on looking for better..

Club…339 km.Allan won the day in his SZD 55; speed 133 km./h. The overseas European girls are getting the hang of this down under flying. Ayala did well as runner up in her St Libelle, with a speed of 108 km./h. and Sabrina was 3d with 112 km./h in the LS 4.
The other girls; 6. Jenny,…7. Sarah,..8. Jo,..10 .Kathryn and 11 .Sylvia. Also these 2 USA girls will get the feeling for Lake Keepit. It’s all about next years WWGC.

Some official news from this day;
“All was proceeding normally yesterday until 5:22pm,  23 of the Racing Fleet had returned and then, quite suddenly, at 5:22pm the wind shifted from 220/06 to 09015/20 gusting to 25.  As this change arrived so did WL and with good skills and attention to detail the landing was excellent. At this same moment we had on long final NSO, YL and OG, they all arrived safely (good careful flying),  but,  still out on task was QV,CX,MM and LS,  needing to fly home thru this terrible wind.     They all made it back safely,   some mighty fine flying.  At around sunset the storm cells arrived, a short burst of heavy rain and then a couple of hours of lightning etc.

This morning we launched at 11:30am into an open sky with only a few cumulus clouds scattered here and there. It’s now 3:45pm and most of the Racers are about half way round the course,  (outside it’s a very hot 38degrees)

So 4 hour AAT’s in both classes, not all pilots in. More in my next blog. Looks like Allan and Adam are winning the day.

————

—Some good flights;
Last day of the year 2018 was good in Africa with 13 flights over 1000 km. Some of my Lasham friends are in Bitterwasser for their annual “soaring-kick” and straight away on their day 1 , they flew 1000 and 758, but this was after a late start. The “kick” was there as well as Andy mentioned :
“A bit tight at the end.. but that just made it more exciting than usual. ”
My Dutch mates flew a 1000 too from Douglas with an exciting finish after a de-tour due to CB’s and a landing in heavy rain.
My Finnish friend Antti flew on the last day the ARCUS by himself also a 1000 and he mentioned;
“Solo,…. was fired as a new year eve’s firework!”
The new year 2019 started good in Corowa ,where Austrian Hans Peter Ueblacker flew nearly a 1000; 928 km in the Ventus 2CM/18m.
Other good Aussie places; 858 From Benalla, 854 from Temora and 868 from Leeton.
BUT,…looking in the evening there were another 15 x1000 k’s in Africa.2 Of them from the Lasham boy’s. Roy and Chris flew one too, so did Patrick in the Ventus 3M.

————–

Gliding International started their new year with the January/February issue;
—–Brazil as new soaring potential and also there  on their asking, Matthew Scutter of Skysight began covering the region and provided us with useful meteorological information.
Thermals, Wave, Ridge, Convergences it’s all there and for the family…beaches to die for!!
—–After Germany and France the Czech Rep is the largest manufacturer from sport aircraft and sailplanes!!!They started in Mai the MONGOLIAN project, yes indeed with Mongolia. Several pages with interesting reading. An interconnection with  technologies from Czechia for/with Mongolia and among others even the former manufacturers from the good old Blanik are involved, now called LET Kunovice, as well as  Transcon’s modular airports and airport systems and ultralight aircraft from Shark Aero .
—–Brexit and Gliding...A nightmare…..What happens on the 29th of March at 11 PM when the UK leaves the EU.
GI wonders, what can of worms the UK is creating for itself. Lot’s of “technical” but important reading.
—–Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, fly First-Ever aircraft with no moving parts!!! Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an “ionic wind”—a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard the plane, and that generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight.
—–What will our climate look in 2050?? Will  the change contribute to advances in cross country and record setting speeds?In fact we see already now the changes. Important reading.
—–Myles Hynde adds that the year 2014 till 2018 was the hottest ever on record. It’s happening NOW!!!!
—–Lot’s of aviation news …12 pages…for glider pilots and “things with wings” news in 3 sentences/twitter style.

62 Pages of up- to- date- reading.
Subscription on the G.I or virtual G.I. via ;   office@glidinginternational.com
I loved writing for them, but it was just too much work for me, but I still like to read the magazine with news which is of interest.

CU next Wednesday back to normal after all festivities!! With more from Keepit and Leeton and the NZ National multi class comps from Omarama, with a great first day; speed 169 km./h.over 529 km.in ASG 29 ES.
Cheers Ritz

Holland at it’s best. [Ravenstein]
CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM HOLLAND
Courtesy ;Jan de Luij

Hope you had lovely Christmas days. It remains a special part of the year.
I even went to church and though I not often go, it felt as a “raised catholic” ,very good.
The church was full of light and Christmas trees , the choir was singing exceptional good in Latin and Dutch and church was …..full. All grey heads like me , a few kids only.
Just before mass started I felt a buzz from my mobile.
I had a quick look as I knew that Akemi and Mac were trying a 1000 km. flight from Tocumwal.
Christmas team George and Bruce helped them up in the air on Christmas-day.
At 7 in the morning I got already the message in Holland  that Akemi was still flying at 5PM Aussie time, had 300 km. to go with a cloud base of 3.300 m.So a 1000 must be possible.He had not heard from Mac then .
So the buzz -message before mass said; Akemi flew her first 1.040.80 km. in an 18m/LS 10 and Mac flew 1.118 km in a 15m. LS 8!!!To be precise he flew CR free 3tp distance 1095km (olc 1118km)”
I wondered if it maybe was the first ever Japanese female 1000 ,but it was n’t.
“No Reiko Morinaka has flown in wave her 1000km in Argentina. But  Akemi is first  Japanese lady  in thermal”
Good on her!!! Congratulations Akemi, who is very ready for the Leeton WWGC pre worlds.
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS AT CHRISTMAS DAY. AND,…those messages I got in church. HAHA. No better HO,HO,HO.

Good old Bruce with 2 Japanese toppers Akemi and Mac.
As shared by Bruce.

No WHITE CHRISTMAS here as it was 10 dgr. C plus .
We even had the “warmest but one” year. Only 2014 was warmer, can’t even remember; 11.4 as annual average and 11.7 in 2014.
Remarkable ; in the 30thies the average temperature was 8.9 ,so that proves that things are chancing.
Now it’s looking ahead at 2019. What will it bring us?
Will the weather be so good as last year ,at least for soaring? And so devastating for other parts of the world???
The climate change is and remains a huge problem.Climate tops are till now , not very successful  as hard as they try and tried in France and Poland.
Hope they find solutions to improve the world for the future of our grand children.
My Christmas thoughts!!!

By the way on the 21th we had the shortest day and INDEED it was a very short day as after 9 AM it was still dark and it rained like hell and at 4.30 it was dark again. I know not Lapland but still….
Good thing; days are getting longer again and it’s just waiting for spring and summer to come back .No worries!!
Summer it is at the moment in parts of Australia . Narromine had already temperatures in the low 40thies, Tocumwal has them this week up to 45!!! Sydney-people are all at the beach only comfortable place with temperatures in the mid to high 40thies!!!!! They are used to the heat, but this is pretty tough, specially because it is not one day but at least a week.
With flights up to 939 km from Tocumwal by Mac and Joergen in the ARCUS M last Saturday and 963 k.  by Hans Juergen Lange in the 18m. Ventus 2CM.
And of course the fabulous flights by our Japanese friends.
Yesterday had a few nearly 1000 km.flights from Narromine and Corowa and good old Ingo flew in his Discus from Toc.758 km.[745 FAI triangle].
Bob Nicholls flew from Benalla in his Ventus 2CT/18m. 815 km.

AND TODAY..….the message ; 16.500 ft cloud base and BIG 1000 km.flights from Tocumwal.…..
And yes a 1.030 FAI- triangle [ 1.063 km. speed 125.87 km./h.] by John Dyson in the 21 m. JS 1 and a 1.015 FAI-triangle [ 1.030 km.] from Lumpy Paterson in the JS 3,with a speed of 148.95 km./h. Good on them, GREAT job.
After paperwork this might be a new Aussie record I read, so extra GOOD and I keep an eye on it!!!!
Comment from Lumpy on the OLC ; “YOU RIPPER!!!!”
Also Corowa had a 1000 with 142 km./h. by Dutch pilot Jos Schrier in the ASH 31 /21m..
When there are more such great flights I add them later today.
And then good “old” Brian Du Rieu adds his flight from Temora!!! In his LS 10/18m.  he flew 1.129 km.[881 FAI triangle]Great effort!!!!
Brian’s comment:”Started with a declared 1100km FAI triangle but the first leg was blue (vs forecast cu) with deteriorating conditions heading North, so I turned short towards the cloud. Much nicer under the cu on the direct route to Ivanhoe and a nice tailwind for the 342km home.”

AND then LAST BUT NOT LEAST…I knew Mac was trying again. He did: a 1.026 FAI TRIANGLE [1.193 km in total]  and Chris Davison also an FAI TRIANGLE 1.045 km in his JS 1/21 m. Nice guy, longtime guests [his wife always came along too]  with us in the past.
Mac topped the Ocean OLC list TWICE now!!!!

959 from Toc is worth mentioning too in a PIK 20B. Jaroslaw Mosiejewski ,one of the annual Geelong guests flew it.
WHATADAY in Toc. All Geelong guests had great flights. At Eddie’s ,where most stay in the caravan park it’s “buzzing” this time of the year. 5x Toc in the top 6 today!!! Pretty special.
I still know the feeling, when we had 11 x a 1000 on a very good day.
You have to forgive my Toc .-enthusiasm , but part of my heart stayed in Tocumwal after living there for so many years!!!

Also VERY special!!!! One of the young ones , allowed to fly the Ventus 3 in Bitterwasser, Simon Briel flew 1.308 km. with a speed of 165.50 km./h. Keep that name in mind!!!!
On BOXING day Africa was top again with 27 x a 1000 -plus!!!!

———

—–It’s still far away , in January 2020, but….. the WWGC PRE WORLDS are soon, time to look at some of the participants. Specially cause I hope to be there in 2020 at the 10th FAI WWGC.
This is about Sarah , who flies next week with her USA mates in the pre worIds.
I met Sarah from the USA as tuggie at the WGC in Uvalde 2012. Lovely lady. I met her and Jason again at the WGC in Benalla and yesterday I found more about her as shared by team USA.

“Sarah Kelly Arnold was raised on a farm in British Columbia, where, as a 13-year-old, she learned to fly in a single seat Quicksilver ultralight. She was instantly hooked, and thus began a lifelong passion for aviation.
In 2004, Sarah became the owner-operator of Chilhowee Gliderport in Benton, TN where she eventually met and married her husband Jason. Together they’ve worked to improve the airport, train a new generation of pilots, and host soaring camps, seminars, and contests. Sarah organized the 1st FAI Pan American Gliding Championships in 2015, and serves as treasurer on the US Team Committee. In 2017 she was inducted into the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame
Sarah’s first competition was the 2006 Perry Regionals with Charlie Spratt as CD. Five years later she won the Sports Class Nationals and earned a position on the US Soaring team in Club Class. She was the first woman to represent the United States at a WGC event in Argentina 2013.
Sarah maintains a take-no-prisoners attitude which propelled her to two FAI podiums at the Women’s World Gliding Championships in France (bronze) and the Czech Republic (silver). This season, she and Karl Striedieck were the 20 Meter Multi-place National Champions. She went on to another podium finish, placing 2nd in the 15 Meter Nationals at Uvalde, 2018.

Sarah one of the WWGC participants in Lake Keepit and soon at the pre worlds.

More about Lake Keepit’s Pre Worlds in the next blogs.
They are also the 38th AUSTRALIAN CLUB AND SPORTS CLASS NATIONALS.
Diana is flying there as well. So is Ailsa, Akemi, Lisa Turner and Lisa Trotter, Kath and Kerri, Sabrina[Germany] and Ayala [UK]Sylvia and Katryn and Jo ,Jenny and Sarah.
By the way , the USA girls arrived safely and Kerrie shared some pictures;

Looking still fresh and “new”. Lot’s of luggage and as Kerrie mentioned “Four American glider pilots, their luggage, parachutes, tools, etc squeezing into the Soarer – only 4 bags on the roof racks – job done! If anyone finds any stray bags enroute Sydney – Keepit, please deliver Keepit“

—————-

——-More friends from the USA are guests in Australia at the moment.

Look at this picture shared by Tony Condon from the USA.

Nice picture from Tony and Ingo with the text;
“Today we met our glider for the contest, A DG-100, EG. Got the oudie installed, found the trailer, passed my check flight with Ingo in the club Lark, and made an hour and a half flight in the glider. Good day.”
Comment after flight;”Checkout flight in the DG-100. Good lift in the blue. Pushed out to the edge of glide back to Toc. Nice glider.”

I know Tony since Uvalde 2012 ,where I met him and many others also Sarah. Tony is going to fly the Formula 0.1 GP in Leeton.
Not long ago I told you that Leeton was the place where my ex George won the Nationals a long time ago. I was in Leeton only for a very short time ,as I had to go home again and Ralf [Holighaus] was so kind to drive me to Tullamarine. He and his dad Klaus [R.I.P.] had visited us first in Tocumwal.
The Formula 0.1 contest starts on the 29th of December 2018, and concludes on the 6th of January 2019, with a warm-up day on the 28th of December.
It’s a competition centered around the club class handicap of 0.1,which means that pilots can buy a competitive sailplane for less than $10,000 to participate. Hence the rent of a DG 100 from SportaviaTocumwal.
More in my next blogs.

————

—–Matthew Scutter and his dad flew in Kiripotib. AND,…they loved it!!!! Matthew is involved in SKYSIGHT; “Weather forecasts for most regions where there are glider pilots.”
https://skysight.io/

“Great experience flying this year at Kiripotib Soaring. Every single day of our trip was 1000km weather, we managed five out of an attempted six (blew the final glide on the last one).

Our expectations for Namibia was that it’d be a ramshackle tin sheds miles from dusty airstrips with occasionally booming weather, but Kiripotib Soaring is an oasis in the desert that feels like it has been transplanted from a resort on a Greek island. With the gliders parked 50m from the pool, bar and rooms, everything is taken care of and all we had to worry about on any given day was landing before last light.
The weather was phenomenally consistent, the only limitation on your speed is maintaining safe landing options which takes some care as you try and do longer and longer flights. Botswana brings home the meaning of “tiger country”.

————-

–—-News from Schempp-Hirth AND,….it all sounds good!!!!!
#ventus #selflaunch #ventus3M yesterday we had a weather window and Bernd Mangold performed test flight of the Ventus-3M number two. New ILEC management system (updated from experience on V-3M number one) for easiness in the air, new stop propeller finger for easy retraction of the propeller, integrates « garage » bugwipers and plenty of power for high loaded high altitude high temperatures conditions. The test pilot is happy! We will focus on these details and new things in next news so please stay tuned.”

——Frank Hiemstra, one of our top pilots created a poll in Holland for Zwevers , with the question;
” IF it will be necessary to bring back the WGC to 3 classes, which class would you prefer”
The results were interesting.
1. club class 97 voters
2. open class 89
3. 18 m class 72
4. 20 m. class 54
5. Standard class 43
6. 15 m. class 7
7. electric sustainer E class 4

————-

And to finish this very special picture shared by the British Gliding Association with the text:
“Now here’s something you don’t see every day.
A unique Lasham Gliding Society photo with jet operations fitting in complete harmony with gliding.”

When it’s possible and safe,…why not!? BUT,…now my grand children are going to fly ,…I think twice….

CU next year!!! Have a HAPPY, SAFE and HEALTHY one!!!!
Cheers Ritz

CHEERS.

Picture is a few years old [ made at Terlet] but still OK to start the new year.

—–You can get used to it !!!
Even when they say that it’s not the real Namibian weather, though I think the last couple of days were too good to listen to such a statement,  we do have to look more and more at Namibia as THE PLACE TO BE for 1000 km.-plus flights, You can fly them at many more places, but not nearly every day.
It’s also nice to see that more and more pilots choose good double -seaters to fly those long distances!!! AND,…As Namibia is the place to be for REAL long distance flying and doing it together/ sharing the fun , is nicer than alone, you can start counting 2 seaters on the OLC nowadays,  where they were not even on this list in the past.
So many 2 seaters and so many SUPER flights.
Look at the OLC on last Wednesday;29 over 1000 kilometer-flights most in a 2-seater.
And on December 17 you saw 21 ARCUS M, VERY POPULAR,  and 1 ARCUS T up in the air on page 1 from the OLC. On top of that there were some  EB versions and  the ASG 32 MI and a 20 m. DG 1000.Also the Nimbus 4DM flies happily around.
There are friends , like Hans and Alfred Paul from Holland flying the Nimbus 4DM over 1.103 km.with 125 km./h on the clock from Douglas.
Father and son from Australia , Michael and Matthew fly with “verve” The ARCUS M from Kiripotib with 1.021 km and 145 km./h. They did as the wrote, some “sightseeing in Botswana”.What do you want more???
And on an 1.100 flight Matthew mentioned:”This place makes gliding very very easy… 1100k at 155kph after a (relatively) late launch.”And his dad added;“7 hours, 1107km, 155kph, fl170, rain froze on wings when we flew through rain.”
Michael shared these pictures from it’s not all hosanna!

Matthew in his  Matthew Scutter’s Gliding

“I catch a lot of flak for flying OLC and not declared tasks – personally I find deciding where to fly while inflight infinitely more fun, but each to their own.

But today, I saw an interesting forecast on SkySight, a convergence to the south east, convergence to the south west, so I declared a 1000K FAI around it and had a go.

It actually worked out even better than expected as there was a gust front along the last leg. The last 10k was a bit interesting having to glide directly into the dust and then rain and heavy sink, but we still arrived a thousand metres high.

Danish mates ,as well as many German and a few French and Austrian mates, they all enjoy their long distances in comfortable gliders.
Of course some prefer to fly alone certainly when  they have a good EB 29 and then top the OLC list as Alexander [Meuller] with 1.190 km. with 137 km./h. A great kilometer-eater flying from Pokweni.
If that was not enough Alexander flew on Thursday 1.312.89 km. with a speed of 169,98 km./h. Even with all those flights in the pocket this still must gave him a boost !!!
And one day later on the 14th another exceptional day, which was called by Bitterwasser a normal Bitterwasser-day [have a look at their site why http://www.bitterwasser.com ] with 3 OVER 1.300 km. flights from Bitterwasser, Pokweni and Veronica!!!! Speed up to 168 km./h .[by Alexander]
Keith  [Essex] added another 1.356 km. in the EB 29 D.
With all these TOP GLIDERS and the top weather, the 1.300 is nearly “the new normal”.

Good to see Gerd Marzinzik, who I know from the past, is still flying; a 1000 in an ASH 26E from Bitterwasser. Good on him !!!

No miracle the boy’s from Flying with the Champions/Rent a glider ordered 2 new Arcus M. gliders for their operation.
They sell their oldest gliders as the Antares 23 E, [D-KULS], the Arcus E,[D-KWKU ]and the Arcus M[D-KOWL] . If you are interested in, you can let them know, and they will send you an offer. Rent a Glider

By the way ,…the 1000 k remains magic for many, as I found out AND of course IT IS, certainly the first one!!!!I still get excited because from the past I can still feel the tension and the waiting specially those last kilometers were nail biting.Though gliders and instruments and weather forecast were then much less than now.That’s a fact.

On the 17th Keith [Essex] flew in the EB 29 D his 2d OVER-1.300 km.-flight with a speed of 153 km./h. ;a triangle from 1.200 from Bitterwasser. With a late start as he commented on the OLC;
“Almost didn’t fly, overcast until 10:45. Thermals triggered as soon as the sun hit the ground. Thermals were broken and the clouds were very dishonest. From 6pm the ground was in total shade. Despite the challenges it was another good day in Namibia.”

Also the Scutter’s flew that day and added their 5th over 1000 km. flight to the logbook. So to read ,dad Michael ,is very impressed with his son’s soaring. Nice!! Of course he is good, he was the Narromine Junior World Champion.

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——-South America;
The 65 th Argentinian Nationals went on on paper as flying over the last day’s was not possible anymore . Looking at pictures with muddy boots from kids it must have rained!!!
From 12 day’s they flew 7 in the combined 15 m/open and Damien Goldenzweig [18m.Ventus 2 CM] won the title with 5.533 points. Runner up Santiago Berca with 5.490 in the same glider.
Jose Dentone did well as number 3 in a Ventus B /15 m.[5.433]
Only 6 out of 12 day’s in the combined standard class and here it was Lucas Goldenzweig who won the title. [4.878]  He won in the LS 4 and the next 3 gliders on the overall scores were LS 4 as well.

The Goldenzweig brothers , Damian and Lucas, both on spot 1 and few little ones ready to take over in the future.
as shared by Damian.

———–

——The 2018 Victorian State Comps at Benalla had mixed weather, good but they suffered also from rain .  In Tocumwal I heard even 50 to 60 mm on a day with only 18 dgr. C. and that’s only 70 km. N of Benalla.
There were two class groups – Un-Ballasted from which the Club Class championship will be determined and Ballasted, from which the FAI class championships will be determined.
4 Day’s out of 7 for the “ballasted”  gliders [10]  ,with 421k. as the longest task and 2x a 3 hour AAT with 417 as best result by Lumpy Paterson in his JS 3 ; nice speed too 138.87 km./h. But on handicap that made him 5th for the day.
After 4 day’s the winner was Bruce Cowan with 3.511 points in a Ventus B/15 m..
In the “unballasted” class Craig Collins from Mount Beauty was the star winning/shining every day in his ASW 20 .He won after 4 day’s with 3700 points!!! Good on him.
Straight after the comps the weather was booming again!!

By the way the next multi class Nationals will be in Tocumwal. Love that. We always wanted to have the Nationals there but it was our peak-time with everybody in full action and all gliders booked. We just lacked time and space in high season.
Look at this ;”Tocumwal has been selected to host the 2019 Australia Multi-class Gliding Championships.This will see around 60 pilots gathering to compete from the 9th to the 21st December .“
Lumpy Paterson is the great “engine” behind this. He bought and runs “our” old WW2 hangar now and he really puts an effort in the place now after a few years of mismanagement by the sole last owner, who took over after us .The hangar was nearly lost.

————

Dear friends, through my blogging I keep going, which means it keeps me fit, it gives me a boost!!!
Though the flu last week was a an unexpected nuisance and still is.
72 now still going pretty strong.
THANKS for the many good wishes for my birthday on FB, personal mail and phone.
Good friends even called me from Namibia!!! AND,….NONE of my Aussie girl-friends forgot me!!!!

Thanks for reading with [still] so many; I do not write for nothing.
Time to say THANK YOU and to wish you during this upcoming festive season, the very best Christmas time with your family and friends.

MERRY CHRISTMAS…ZALIG KERSTFEEST…FROHE WEIHNACHTEN….FELIZ NAVIDAD….JOYEUX  NOEL…GOD JUL….HYVAA JOULUA…BUON NATALE….Merīkurisumasu….

CU 1 day later on December 27,
Love Ritz

Continued;…The 57 th Narromine Multi class Nationals … 2 day’s to go!!!!

Preparations for the last but one day.
As shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

With 2 day’s to go everybody, who was still in the race to win, was in “alert mode”.
AND,….pretty big tasks on the last but one day, which is good.
December 6, day 10, task 7;
15 m./st.; 454 km.
A frequent Aussie WGC pilot Peter [Trotter] was the one at the podium today just ahead of Adam. Both with the same speed 131 km./h., but Peter’s LS 8 has a better handicap. As Adam calls it ” beaten off the stick.”
So 1000 and 955 points.
Peter and his wife Lisa both fly on high level and are lovely people. Lisa by the way was 4th for the day in 15 m. but runner up in her St. Class.
I have not yet seen the pilots-list for Lake Keepit, but I am sure Lisa will be on it.
With 6 x an LS 8 in the 15 m. top ten ,they did well!!!
The top 3 with 1 day to go in 15 m.; 1. Adam 6. 282…2. Tobias 6.014….3. Andrew Maddocks 5.465.
The top 3 with 1 day to go in St. class; 1. Andrew 5.848… 2. Peter 5.823…3.Allan 5.727.

18m/open; 550 km.
Another daily win for Norm and nice speed again; 137 km./h. Tom was runner up and still on spot 1 overall in his ASG 29. Geoff Brown in his JS 1 [18m] is doing a great job and was third and also on spot 3 overall with one day to go.
With one day to go the overall results are as follows;
open;1. Tom 6.343…2. Norm 6.039…. 3.Geoff 5.970.
18m; 1. Tom 6.342…2. Norm 6.044…3 Geoff 5.971.

December 7 day 11 task 8; FINAL  DAY from a very good competition.
15m./st; 3 hour AAT.
343 km. for Tobias and he deserved another  “win” , [3d] speed 114 km./h. 5 Points less for Allen and 11 for “Woolley-pup”.
No secret who was winning in this 15 m. class;
1. Adam Woolley with 7.268 points.
2. Tobias Geiger with 7.011 points.
3. Peter Trotter with 6.362 points.
In standard class a “bad day for Andrew. He was number 1 overall, did not fly too bad with a 6th daily prize, but lost more than 200 points. And with points SO close,[ see above], that cost him the title.He dropped from 1 to 3. A pity.
1. Peter Trotter with 6.743 p.
2. Allan Barnes with 6.727 p.
3. Andrew Maddocks with 6.634 p.
Lisa and Claire did very well on a 5th and 6th spot. Also Kerrie on spot 14 did well and Jenny on spot 12. Catherine on spot 22 and Akemie won a day before she had to return to work. GOOD girls….Let the WWGC begin…..

Well done to all!!!!

18m./open; 3 hour AAT.
Geoff was in the end in a really good flow, he really got the “hang” of flying in Narromine. He usually flies from Canberra. He won the last day and flew 373 km. in time 3.03.57. Good day for Scott in his ASH 25; a runner up spot with Norm as number 3 for the day.
Open class final results;
1. Tom Claffey with 7.224 p.
2. Norm Bloch with 7.007 p.
3. Geoff Brown with 6.970 p.
18 m. class top was the same.

Packing-up- time  after great comps. And for some …..LONG ,long very long trips home.
As shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

Some straight away traveled to Benalla for the Victorian State comps [December 9-15] and luckily the first day was cancelled so pilots as Lumpy and Terry , who fly in the ballasted class [10] could straight away fly the set 421 km and the 3 hour AAT a day later,both won by Lumpy in the JS 3.
In the unballasted class[8]  a 329 was set and a 3.30 AAT yesterday and Craig Collins in the ASW 20 won both day’s.

————–

65th Argentinian Nationals.

On the other site of the world the 65th Argentinian Nationals started in 2 classes on December 3 continuing till December 14. San Francisco was the place to be. 51 Pilots flew in a combined  Standard class and combined  15m./open.
The first 4 day’s showed 3 flyable days in st and 4 in 15m./open.
The 3 hour AAT task in both classes was interesting.
2 Silent 2’s  won that day with 309 km. followed by 4 LS 4’s one flown by Lucas Goldenzweig.
In the other class the 15 m- Ventus B flown by Jose Dentone was the best on handicap with 353 km in time 3.05 whilst Damian Goldenzweig in the Ventus 2CM/18m. was equal in time but he flew 378 km with a speed of 122 km./h.
After 3 day’s Lucas leads in St. class and Jose in 15m./open with 45 points on Damian.

The next 4 day’s had in both classes a cancelled day. In 15 m/open AAT’s around 2 hours and 1 from 3 hours; 286 km in time 3.03 for Sebastián Riera. Damian was 7th that day and Jose 16th both loosing some points.
After 8 day’s and 7 task’s another overall update; 1. Damian…4,574 points, 2. Santiago Berca [ both in Ventus 2CM/18m.]with 40 points less.
In st class after 8 day’s and 6 tasks’;1. Lucas with 3,896 points and 2. Cristian Franzini [ both in LS 4] with 55 points less.

Day was cancelled.

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Some great flights last week;
—–December 6; Peter Temple is not flying the Nationals in Narromine , but I do have to mention him as he flew from Gawler a 1000 k in his ASG 29 in mostly blue conditions!!!Good on him.
He topped the OLC that day before 1000 km.-flights from Kiripotib, Douglas and Veronica , they have already so many!!!
Same day great weather in Tocumwal and Corowa as well, with 806 in the ARCUS M by Joergen from Denmark and 838 by Chris Davison in the 21 m JS 1CTJ.
Terry Ryan, usually flying from Tocumwal, flies nowadays from Corowa and flew 760 in his ASH 26E.
—-December 8; Dutch pilots are having a great time with several 1000 km flights from Douglas. Hadriaan flew 2, even one 1.100 km.with 135 km./h. in the JS 1 BTJ.
And Rob and Max  had 4 m climb at 6.20 PM. in the Nimbus 4DM.

———–

——That we had a fabulous summer here in Holland, is pretty clear after all the records we broke, but it also interesting to see that more pilots went out flying!!For the first time in history Dutch pilots, 651,  flew in Holland over 1 million kilometers in one season!!!Steven Raimond is our 2018 champion .

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And to finish a great picture from Namibia. There they have a great season, but the “connoisseurs” think it was till now not a real classic Namibian weather.

Text;“Arcus over the Kalahari circling in the updraft. The usable thermal often starts at 11.00 local time and ends at sunset. The Kalahari extends on both sides of the southern tropic from the South African province North Cape through Namibia and Botswana over an area of more than one million square kilometres. What a feast to fly here.”

Talking about Namibia ,of course Bitterwasser is the name belonging to it for years. They shared this news:
“Wilfried Großkinsky was awarded a special honor in Bitterwasser. After a speech by Rainer Hog, an honorary palm tree was planted in the allee. Not only the 137 flown flights over 1000 kilometers were the reason for the honour. The special engagement in the promotion of young pilots was the main reason for the award. Every year Wilfried invites 3 young pilots to the 1000 km camp. Director Rainer Hog emphasized, that some of the sponsored and trained pilots come back to Bitterwasser and carry on the Bitterwasser idea.”
That special honor is MORE THAN DESERVED.

One of the 3 lucky young pilots is from Holland Luc Stalman [ due to his age his last season] .Luc normally  flies at Venlo. Nice young fellow, who was allowed this season to fly the brand new Ventus 3M.

     
as shared by Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre

The new VENTUS 3 M.
Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre

Got the flu,even with my anti-flu-injection,  so not too much to read, hopefully next time more.
Off to the doctor now.
Cheers Ritz