December 24;

AGAIN MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL !!!

Just finished blog number 8 and to make them not to long I write a new one now! Blog 8 had pictures and all the latest on the 3 JS 3’s here in Tocumwal.

As shared by the Kingaroy Friends.

—–A Happy Christmas for us too. George just drove to Melbourne to pick up the family arriving here in Toc.at around 7 . They just boarded a flight from Ayers Rock to Melbourne. WELCOME Inge, Rodger, Indya and Dexie.
Big leg of ham in the full fridge is waiting.
A bit of a storm here, at least a very strong wind from the South.

—–Some exciting news from Narromine and Kitipotib and it’s all about girls now;
In Kiripotib Sibylle Andresen flew a few new African Women records  in the Antares 23.
On December 10 she flew a Declared 500 km. triangle with a speed of 155.7 km./h. which was 7 km./h faster than the old one. The 300 km was 11 km. faster.
On December 15 she flew a 100 km.FAI triangle with 180 km./h. which was a Continental record and 12 km. faster than the old one.

—–From Narromine 2 ladies left yesterday for a 1000 km flight and they did it. Good on them.

Another typically awesome day out of Narromine today!!! Congratulations to Jenny Ganderton and Kerrie Claffey on flights of over 1000kms each.

Picture shared by Narromine Gliding Club Official

A very happy Jenny mentioned on the OLC:
“Declared Lightning Ridge, Koorawatha, Narromine for 1000km. Took ages to get to Lightning ridge, and thought about aborting the task, but had a good run to the south until Eugowra, where it was soft, so turned there, and made an OLC 1000km by going almost to Gilgandra and back to Narromine. No Triangle though.”
No worries Jenny ,..next time. She flew it in the ASH 26;1.012 km. with a speed of  112 km./h.!!!!! She flew all the way up to Lightning Ridge, an opal town in the middle of nowhere.

And as happy, Kerry, Tom’s wife;”woo hoo – great christmas present! yes I know it’s not the holy grail FAI triangle in std class but it’s a start.” Kerry flew the ASG 29/18m.1;046 km with a speed of 114.km./h.

A bit of a dark picture by Robert[ Smits] who flies in Narromine at the moment as well. 678 km. on this special day in an LS 4.

Kerry still in the glider just before sunset and Jenny with a big smile at her site.

Akemi flew 785 in the LS 8 and Andrew Du in the ASW 28/18m  a distance of 776 km.

Robert shared this nice picture from Lightning Ridge as well.

—–Daniel Rhin shared this interesting picture;
” Watched the Space-X Falcon9 launch from my front balcony. Very beautiful.”

 

——Perlan Project!!

What a great flight again for Dennis and Morgan on December 20 from Nahuel Huapi; 2.298 km with a speed of 168.5 km./h. in the ARCUS J. Here is what they had to say;

“What can I say about a very special day in Patagonia? We planned this flight on Skysight two days before and the plan worked perfectly. We expected the first leg to be slow with a 70km gap just after the start and we expected absolutely ripping lift north of that. The plan kept us flying in the good lift without wasting any time crossing gaps.

The Skysight forecast is so precise that we did not need to look at clouds to find lift. When the clouds went one way and Skysight went another way we found it was better to follow the Skysight prediction. We literally do not need to look out the window to find lift.

What about the final glide? Over 500km from home with two hours to sunset and 70,000ft altitude required we were actually worried about coming home early. A slow spot near the finish, thanks to the 70km gap, put paid to that idea. We made our goal before last light.”

AND,…another one by Dennis and Tim[Gardner] from Chos Malal;2.520 km. in the ARCUS J. Up to 7.574 MSL on December 22.

——-Bitterwasser Lodge and Soaring Center shared the news that Ulf Merbold flew there. Ulf has been the second German in space and the only German Astronaut who did three flights to space. .
The full story on www.bitterwasser.com Enjoy!

—–Just had a Christmas drink with Dundee whilst waiting for the family. We waved to Dennis when he left with his Cessna 180 and he waved back to us. After his flight to Hong Kong he will be back here on the 28th.

Cheers and CU

Ritz

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS, dear friends !!!!

My goodness me , I felt very much “clipped” without my writing,first the older news as it was all quite exciting here over the last days, then today’s news in another blog!!!!
But …..I am back on track on December 24, just to wish you a great festivity season and share more news!!

December 23;

As always ,….Bill got me out of trouble. “I see the problem and will get it fixed.”
A huge THANK you to him!!! AND eternal gratitude!!!!
This time I was not hacked but “ The backups have used up the disk space and I need to get some of the backups deleted.  This will take a day or so.  I am working it now. It will all be back up soonest.”

You always see,…..just when the highlight of the 2017 -soaring -season here in Tocumwal occurred, with the arrival of 3 JS 3 gliders from JONKERS in South Africa here in Australia and the very first…, my blog gave up!!!!!.

BUT,…working in word now to copy and paste later.
The 3 gliders are  in Lumpy’s hangar; a nice  Christmas “ present ”  for him, one for Butch and one for Norm.
I hope they will have many great and safe flights in them.

Only looking at them makes one SMILE. They are just beautiful and it struck me how small the canopy is, high yes but not big.

Majestic wings. Sorry I missed the tip.

Joergen and Lumpy were working,[ some finishing-touch-stuff,]  on all 3  gliders to get them ready for the Nationals early January in Waikirie. Most was done already by the Jonkers factory.
Also the registration on the trailers has been done.
When they finished their jobs , I was allowed to make some pictures.

 

        

            

 

The fuselage is big enough for a tall bloke as Lumpy, who fits in nicely.

A very happy chappie!!!!

He also demonstrated the electrical extension of the  jet sustainer to bring him home if necessary.

    

Trailers are part of gliding so part of this photo session.

        

One of the 3 JS 3 trailers was in the hangar BUT, there was still a JS 1 trailer too.

Got some pictures from friends as well ;

   

Took time to photograph some pictures from the new hangars as well. Quite a few new ones and the very old one from John Williams who taught both my “kid’s”  how to fly.

        

I heard that Butch and Pam will be soon in Toc for a few day’s to collect their glider and travel to Waikirie and we still expect, Pam and Gerrit, William and Evelien and Mac and Akemie after Christmas, as well as Simon, Tony and Jo.

In the afternoon yesterday ….SNAKE ALARM.…..

At 2.30 there was a snake alert at this hangar. I was not allowed to enter it ,so I stayed in the house built to the hangar.
A big one who seems to live under the concrete of the hangar just there were you enter the door. Noticed 2 holes where they go in and out so we are going to close them. Scary stuff.
Later I heard that they live their already many many years and making noise and NOT STEP on them would do the trick???!!!

At 4.30 Jamie , “our” engineer , whose business is called Border Aviation and also a tuggie in the far past and now, was the first one to take up one of the 3 Raptures in 18 m. conversion to the AUSTRALIAN skies AND in TOCUMWAL , a well known gliding place for ages!!! LP was airborne,…it’s quite some news here in Australia. Very first JS 3 /18 m. in Australia and airborne NOW!!!.
The first 2 flew with Attie and Uys [Owners of the Jonkers business]in Benalla in 15m. conversion during the WGC.

Just before we had a nice chat with Dennis Macstead,who dropped in and  who was a young tuggie here in the late 80thies . He is the same age as our Dennis and did the towing here at Sportavia the year later when he finished high school and his flying license. Now he flies around as a captain on an A330 Airbus.
Both Dennisses flew together in one of the Blanik’s in that time.

    

Dennis here with Bruce and Bruce and George earlier in the work shop..

Dennis is Michael’s older brother, the same who flew me 2 years ago from Melbourne to Hong Kong where he lives. Also Michael was in the past a tuggie here. It ‘s great to see how all those tuggies did well. Tomorrow it seems Inge arrives here as well, another tuggie here at Sportavia.

 

Some just-funny-day-to-day-pictures from Bob the dog [from Colin].

      

Glad to be back starting the new blog now!!!

Cheers Ritz

SORRY there seem to be some problems with the pictures in my blog. Everything is OK when I write it , after publishing some pictures are grey. Working on it!!!!

December 21.
Longest day here, shortest in Europe so winter/summer arrive again in due time!! No worries!!!!!

As promised some pictures from the main entrance of the airport.

And some history of the planes.

AND

AND

AND

 

Hope you enjoy and appreciate this bit of history about this huge WW2-airfield.

—-Our family has arrived in Singapore and are living -the-life-there. So they should. They will continue to most probably Darwin and via Ayers Rock to arrive here on the 24st for their Christmas stay with us till January 4.
Today I got the message that they ARE in Darwin.

—–In between lot’s of friends enjoy still great flying in South Africa and Namibia. Some German pilots live- the-soaring- life in Chile. They flew in an ARCUS M and a Ventus 2CM/18 m. 1.221 and 1.260 km. in a yo-yo wave flight from Munivitacura.
Keith Essex flew between December 4 and 19, from Kiripotib,10 fabulous flights between 729 and 1. 256 km. All in the Arcus M.except for the last one in the magic ANTARES 23 E.
Kiripotib shared a link , via Ludwig, from some nice pictures taken from above!! Enjoy.

http://kiripotib.com/soaring/wp/de/2017/12/20/aus-der-luft/

—–Kuruman is not so often in the publicity, so I should mention straight away the fabulous flight from 2 of my Dutch mates Hans and Alfred Paul from this hidden paradise.I knew about Kuruman because my German mates fly there already for a long time.They are there this year as well.
The “boys” flew a great 1.229 km.distance in the Nimbus 4DM with a speed of 140 km./h. with one “leg” of 542 km.
3 More 1000 km.tasks from Kuruman that day on December 20.

“Day 9- what a day! Plan worked out and after our launch at 10.05 we first needed the engine for 20 min to reach 1500 AGL (as we didn’t flew yesterday we had some spare minutes:). Heading to the east it became clear it would be a proper day with 6,2m/s at 11.45 and 7 m/s at 12.30 🙂 After 250km flying to the East the cloud base dropped and the lift did as well – therefore we went to the West until it turned blue. Brilliant day of flying from Kuruman.”

—–We were not the only one’s here down under , who had a big storm.
I share the next message and the pictures.
“Yesterday things got exciting in Bitterwasser. Early in the morning we knew that there would be thunderstorms. But you never know exactly where they’re going to be. For the first time this season we had a thunderstorm reaching towards Bitterwasser.
I went to the pool in the afternoon. Enjoying the sun a bit before the gliders are coming back – that was the plan. Right at the pool one thing was different – normally you see a beautiful blue sky through the palm trees. But this time the sky was deep black. „Well, not that serious“ I thought. We have seen lots of thunderstorms passing the airfield during the last weeks. They never came close. Some minutes later I looked at the sky again. Something had changed. The color. The black sky was now painted with yellowish stripes and waves. Interesting. „Maybe I should take some photos.“ OK – let’s go. When I came to the palm alley the wind was getting stronger dramatically. The sky continued changing. I couldn’t tell what I was looking at. Yellow and brown colors in the sky. Some reflexes? Rubbish! That’s sand! The gusts roller was approaching. It was rotating. It was rising into the sky. Than it hit the palm alley.
A few landed just before the gusts arrived. Everyone was in a hurry putting them to their safe parking lots. We ran to the gliders and were helping as good as we could. Than it started to rain. The pan can become muddy when it is raining. In that case we still have one paved runway – 09 Hangar. At this moment still six gliders where flying. Good thing about thunderstorms is that you can fly around them. Around the thunderstorm the weather was still very good. So no problem at all. Right before sunset last gliders arrived in Bitterwasser and could land on our hangar runway safely. Everybody home. Time for dinner.”

Pictures shared by Bitterwasser Lodge and Flying Center.

          

No words needed we ALL know the feeling of such a moment and it remains for long in the mind and in the conversations later, even years later !!!!!!!

——Still domestic job’s here. New gutters on the hangar roof, finally the cooker hood has been installed in the kitchen. In Diana’s trailer they put a solar powered ventilator for fresh air.

        

By the way I woke up at 6 as I was COLD. Put the dona over me and slept again. First time, this visit,  I was COLD…12 dgr. at 6 AM!!!!

As said Dundee and I pruned the oleander at Dennis.

          

Everything clean around the grave and pruned .We did even clean the grave of his Dutch neighbor as you can see, who also shares now the shade of the “oleander- umbrella” as well.

        

Dennis ……a view over the cemetery …….and the grave of Rebecca, a 12 year old drowning in the Murray River when she was only 12 years old in 1887. 100 years before Dennis.

Enough. Next week when the family is here I might have less time , so what ‘s nice to know about Toc . I share these days.

Cheers Ritz

 

Wednesday December 20;

When we were cooking yesterday evenings dinner I looked outside. Easy as this wonderful machine cooks salmon asparagus and pears in ONE go. I NEED one!!!!

     

Chris Zippel baptized this tool ,” THE MONUMENT.”

This is how looking to the West looks normally.

Far in the West I could see red sand, which means a STORM. I called Jamie and George , still busy in the office, to see if this was scary. They called it a gust front, walked back to the office and that was that,…for them.
Not for me I grabbed my camera,with the idea that the front would pass by to the SW.

      

Passing to the West direction South and you see the red sand going higher and higher.

But then it came fast very fast to the hangar.

In a few seconds it was grey outside and the men got into action as the doors from the hangar had to be closed totally and 2 gliders were outside.
The IS 28 was hooked up but still moved,the Blanik which just had his annual inspection and normally lives in the hangar, only was outside for a check flight with Ingo. It seems he was not able to do the check, so the Blanik waited out side hooked on the Range Rover.
You would think that is pretty strong, but it was not, it moved, but not too bad. Wind here ,some called it a SUPER CELL, blew like hell.

Jamie and George went out after the high-point of  the storm was over, to check both gliders.
They had to sit on the wing to not get the gliders move further.

        

       

Jamie, George and later I, when George got tools to secure the gliders even better, sitting on the Wing tip.
Me sitting there with my “new ” asthma and allergies for dust and grass. I was in the middle of it, with sand between my teeth and grass flying around my head. I had later some problems, but not too bad!!!

Luckily no damage, only the wing walker from the IS 28 got a bend wheel and will be repaired by Corkey.

Some pilots rushed after the worst, from their homes to the airfield to check their gliders/belongings. Trailers had danced around but no damage, 2 other gliders out, but on the tie-down, were ok.
Neil Burns and Chinese mate Harry, came to see if we here needed help, so did Lumpy, who I had heard of and written about, but never met before.
He was straight in the good-book with me , when he said the tree from Kees and Dennis would always stay there.

In between sirens of search and rescue for all kind of help. Lot’s of trees unfortunately did not survive . I photographed a few of them at the airfield.

      

All in all an interesting evening with later a thunderstorm and a good drop of rain. This morning, between 7 and 8,  the last lightning, thunder and rain passed and it was back to normal, HUGE difference though to the last days; only 23 dgr. C. GREAT.
A good morning to go with Dundee to the cemetery to prune the oleander and rake all old leaves.

A bit too much excitement for me. The 2d bad storm in 25 Toc summers. Not as bad as the one 15 years ago on 2-2 -2002,; a down burst with huge rain and the roof of the sun room at Sportavia collapsed then and one LS 4 went flying without a pilot.
Not good,…. a 30.000 dollar damage bill was the result.
All pilots stayed then in the air on advise and had no problem, this pilot just made it home in time, but though the crew was ready AT the field to get the glider in, it was just too late.It turned up side down hooked on the car.

Later yesterday, we found out that MELBOURNE has been hit badly!!! Flooding, hail-and storm damage!!!!
And that just before Christmas,….?!
I also heard that Corowa, just 2 hours before us here, got another “rotten-cell/down burst”, but also they escaped the huge hail which moved more S.!!

Gliders have been  inspected by Colin this morning and all is fine.

Also this morning, yes a lot is happening, a big truck arrived full of gravel to uplift the taxi track from the Sportavia hangar, passed Georges hanger, to the runway.

and one of the men is scraping the grass from the platform the last picture shows the result. All those who have flown in Toc, know that huge iron cables were there to perfectly, tie down the gliders, when around 50 pilots with different Nationalities [I remember the Dutch , Italian and Finnish team] practiced here for the WGC in Benalla.
This part of the Tocumwal airfield is getting more beautiful which is good.I believe , have to check though, that Lumpy is the one behind this.

      

After my walk I photographed some nice native bush and flowers for those interested.

      

Enough for today. Next time I ‘ ll share  some pictures from the planes at the road to the main entrance of the airport, which have flown here in the past of course the LIBERATOR as most imported one as this was a LIBERATOR base, that’s why the hangars are so big.

 

Cheers Ritz

December 15;

Got a great early-birthday-lunch at the Yarrawonga Lake with a few friends. Beautiful food and with the lake- wind ,perfect to sit outside.
35 dgr.C and fluffy-clouds on a blue sky.

No flying yesterday in Temora, but I am sure they fly today. It looks good here.Though at 5 PM, there was still NO task.
And,…the weather there was not still good enough yet, …so no flying.

In Chaves the last day of flying is today and as I am  busy tomorrow I give you the details to the USA site
https://ussoaringteam2017chaves.blogspot.com for all the latest and the scores are on www.soaringspot.com

Enjoy!

HPH Sailplanes shared;
“Today, Dec 15th, EASA Approved the revised FES configuration for the Shark eS so that FES equipped gliders can fly again, following modification to the agreed specification. HPH will begin test flying new Shark eS sailplanes in the next few days.”

December 16 ;
Breakfast, lunch , pre-dinner drinks AND dinner with friends. Feel a bit “stuffed” but enjoyed the good company.

Got the cherries from Swiss Chris via Dundee this morning and they were yummie!!!

December 17;
THANK YOU for the many, many birthday wishes!!!!!
I had a fabulous day with breakfast with friends at the Pavilion overlooking the Mighty Murray River, lunch with other friends at the Palm pub both out side in the shade and last but not least dinner with another friend.
Celebrated for 3 days!!
Back to normal again.

Yesterday the NSW State Comps finished with a good day after the trough with 423 km. in a 3 hour AAT by Bruce in 18 m. Nice speed of 135  km./h.
Here is his last comment for this NSW competition;
“Well, it’s all done and dusted, and I’m on the long road home. Yesterday was another weird day, with the threat of overdevelopment, and just a quick mention of higher winds aloft. I think this is what made the day so difficult, as my perception was of a pretty strong wave system above the convection. This makes the flying how I imagine it to be if you were caught inside a washing machine 😵 For me it was a day of two parts, with the run out of the start to the first turn very fast indeed, with huge areas of smooth lift and generally no circling required. Then it was as if someone turned on the washing machine, and everything going up was broken, impossible to centre and seriously elusive. All I had to do was stay in the air today, but I managed a final day win, which helped me take home a couple of trophies.
It was a fun competition with lots of challenging weather. I enjoyed the company, and having a young dude pushing hard to get past me… go for it Adam, you are on the way to great things!
Here I am in Wellington, where I found a wonderful coffee and the best muffin I have had in some time, from a bakery that failed to inspire any level of confidence when I first walked in. Life is full of surprises 😲
Thank you all for listening in, and the many kind comments.
BT.” 

Some pictures shared by Adam who, as Bruce , will fly the Nationals in Waikirie in the beginning of January as well.
With 5 out of 8 day’s Butch got the max score of 5000 points in 15 m. class….. GOOD ON HIM.!!!!
Bernie won 4 day’s and had a final score of 4.782 points in club class
Standard had Don Woodward as winner with 3.894.
18 m./open  saw Bruce as the pilot who gained the most points;4.967.

    

Nice fellows, great pilots. Butch and Adam, ..Butch won the 15 m. class and Adam was runner up in 18 m. and won the “overall speed trophy, 147kph or so over just shy of 750km – good feeling as always, my forth of this kind for memory.”

Out for dinner tonight, so off and CU tomorrow!
By the way not a sparkling day here ,but still quite some pilots in the air.
AND….over 700 km. for Chris Davison in the 21 m, JS 1, [ best Aussie OLC flight !] 433 for Anton in the LS 4  and Swiss Chris flew 410 km. in his ASW 27.

Cheers Ritz
AND …then I forgot to publish. Senior-71- year-moment!!!So better continue with today.
41 dgr. C and in a hangar it is a never ending story of jobs on Monday December 18.

Jamie worked on the Piper Apache which is nearly ready to go. Today the wiring has been done by Matt.
This Piper was shipped a few years ago from Holland to Tocumwal in big boxes. Now it’s outside, nearly flying again.

   

Jamie did the hundred hourly on the Belanca Scout; ready to go!!

Colin worked hard on the Blanik and did the annual inspection!!

In between I set up the accommodation for the family.

   

This morning I visited the chiropractor, in which I believe TOTALLY.

Today he crushed my body, neck all rib’s, hip’s and shoulders.

He mentioned already that I will be a wreck tomorrow!! Let’s wait and see.

Now I better publish before I forget again. By the way tomorrow 45 dgr. C ,…..then a change.
Still have to cut some branches of the oleander at Dennis. Thursday will be cooler with 31, so Dundee and I are doing that job then.

Cu next Cheers Ritz

The fleet Discus 2cT, Blanik and IS 28 , minus the ASW 17 and one  IS 28 out side.

 

Thursday December 14.
No sun this morning, no blue skies, but clouds and a few rain drops.
Still warm around 34 dgr. C. A good rest day after the long day’s of good soaring.
Enjoyed my tea with Nicole and Richard and their French friend. Caught up with several people in town.
Amazed to see how quickly they built the new extension of the Super market. I could not count how many are working and in between “it’s business as usual.” Registers moved from right to left and huge freezers have been installed.
Still there and now 86 years old ….Keith. He was the one who was the president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1986/1987 when we were here with 50 pilots from all Nationalities to practice for the Benalla worlds.
He organized a boat trip on the Murray, a party at somebodies house on the river and EVERYBODY enjoyed it. I remember Tapio pretty “over-refreshed”, so were a few more!
Good old times!!!

Temora;
A scorcher yesterday, so I was anxious to see the results!!
Club; the 4 hour AAT was NOT won by Bernie but by local “hero” Tom Gilbert in the DG 100. Good on him;421 km. in time 3.58.
Bernie did well however with 442.90 km. in time 4.08 in his PIK 20.
standard; Don [Woodward] from Benalla flew during the 4.30 AAT a distance of 597 km. at the dot!!! The Trotters were runners up.
15 m; a 4.30 AAT as well with as winner ….who else than Butch; 606.45 km. in time 4.35. 4 Days and 4000 points!!!!!!
18 m; No not Bruce this time during the 5 hour AAT, but Adam who flies the ASG 29 from Butch[whilst Butch flies his Ventus] and a great 742 km. was the best distance for the day!!!Flown in 5.03. Bruce was runner up  with 730 km. in in 5.04.
Open; same 2 toppers!

Bruce wrote again:”What an interesting day! The trough line was almost over the top of us today, and the forecast was for strong lift to 13,000 feet. Originally there was supposed to be strong winds, then a revised forecast said much lighter, and the reality was somewhere in between. Initially we had to wait for the temperature to rise enough to get things going, when the lift popped through from about 6k to 10k. Then the first leg had some areas that were going well, and some that hadn’t started, so it was a delicate balance to keep traveling quickly. After that it was a challenge to figure out where the lift was under the cloud, and how to manage the overdevelopment. We had some very strong climbs, big sink, and fast glides. What a day!
Adam Woolley managed a day win – Great flight Adam, in challenging conditions. Look out! He might be on a roll.”

Courtesy Bruce.

Great results and after 4 day’s luckily a front passed by so today NO flying!! But for sure it is not over yet!!They continue till the 16th. And the temperatures will go up again till over 40 in the beginning of next week!

Other great flights;
A 1000 for Matthew Scutter flying from Gawler in the Discus 2.
As said the weather here was good. Joergen and Brigitte flew in their Arcus from Tocumwal up to the NW passing Mildura  and back ,an out and return from 964 km. Good on them!!!
Anton from Austria flew over 600 km. in the LS 4 and Terry in the Janus CT  RG a distance of nearly 600 km.!!!!
AND congratulations……“Gold c and one Diamond in one Flight for Kenda” !!!!!
Corowa owner Francesco flew a 750 triangle and flew 807 in total in his ASG 32MI, whilst longtime guest there, Jos from the Netherlands flew 846 km in the ASH 31/21m.
Benalla had a nice flight in an SZD 55;618 km.[500 FAI triangle]

Tomorrow I will have no time to write, most probably on Saturday neither, so just a short story today with the latest to keep you informed.

CU on my b

Wednesday…..December 13;

—–A bloody hot day forecasted up to 40 dgr. C. So I am not doing a lot. Tonight a movie ” Fly Away”  in the golf club with dinner there first. Dundee comes along!!!

—–TEMORA;
Day 3  yesterday ,was a good one and looking back at it, it showed in club class that Bernie is unstoppable. He flew 444 km. with a speed of 108 km./h.3 Days in a row he wins and is on 3000 points. The runner up has nearly 500 points less.
For st.class the 511 km. was flown best by the Trotters [ both LS 8] with a speed of 130 km./h.
Same distance for 15 m with….you expected it already BUTCH on spot 1. Also for him 3 days and 3000 points. His speed 131 km./hy. [Ventus]
18 m. ….sorry it’s getting boring but Bruce won and also for him 3000 points in 3 days. Great speed over 584 km.;140.26 km.h.
Lumpy, here from Toc is a great runner up!!!
Open  same score but Terry in his Ventus 2cxT on spot 3 there with 132 km./h.

Bruce’s Gliding Tale;
“Even better today, though still not totally straightforward. I was the very first to launch, and it was slightly frantic getting everything ready in time. The task was originally 670km, but that was reduced to 580km, which was a shame as the day was long enough to do the bigger task. Straight off tow I climbed strongly to more than 8,000 feet. It was around two hours before I started the task, although this was not entirely planned! There was a change of airmass during the waiting period, and it dried out and the wind swung around to the south. All the cumulus receded, and the climbs vanished, so once again my planned start time came and went with me grovelling about down in the weeds. Finally I got high enough to go, but the first part of the flight was challenging in this difficult air, and it was a long haul out to the north east to the cumulus before I got up and running. I was happy with how I managed the flight, with no low points or lost time. The air was not so friendly today, with strong climbs but poor glides in between, so it was difficult to stay up nice and high for very long, and I found I had to take a lot of climbs to keep up in the best height band. We got over 10,000 feet up north, and the forecast looks to be better again for tomorrow. 750km maybe?
Photo is of a nice fat cu waiting to be used. 😎”

As shared by Bruce.

 

For today , day 4, huge tasks!!!As said it’s hot here too and all pilots have been launched for I presume nice long distances. Pretty blue here but you “see”  the heat and also some high cirrus.
Temora has the next news  written  by Bob;
“Another bright sunny day, hot before the expected change tomorrow. Big day predicted with big tasks to the north west. 
Big wings get 5 hour AAT that might even fit a 750 if the weather really supported it.
Standard / 15 get a 4:30 AAT and Clubbies inside them on 4:00.
First gliders in the air at 11:45, and last gate expected open at about 13:15”

Keep an eye on the B[enalla]-C[orowa] -T[ocumwal]- triangle as well tonight, I expect LONG flights. www.soaringspot.com

Narromine had them yesterday. Gerrit nearly flew 1000 km. in his Quintus with a speed of 125 km./h.

 

—–Worcester had according to some who know most probably the longest flight ever.
As Sven mentioned;“I believe this is the biggest distance yet out of Worcester!!!”
A ridge-running-double- yo-yo- out and return from 1. 237 km. with a speed of 152.9 km./h. in an ARCUS T by 2 German pilots.

Walking through the HEAT is nearly impossible. So I shot a few pictures in the hangar and from the extension on the hangar. Home now,…. TOO HOT!!!

        

Lot’s of MM in this hangar; The Piper Apache, the trailer and the glider.
Colin works on the yearly inspection of the BLANIK.

AND the extension of the hangar with a huge comfortable cool house and view on a pond.

        

CU soon. Tomorrow coffee/tea with Nicole, Friday lunch with some friends, Saturday birthday with breakfast at the Paviljon, lunch with friends from Melbourne and dinner in the evening with other friends.
Cheers Ritz

It’s Monday morning now December 11;

—–Was 2 days/nights in a row in bed for 12 hours, so that should help me to get over the jet lag a bit quicker than normal. Just left Holland in time, as it snowed there and even a few centimeters up to 24 I heard, at places.
This morning I woke up early as I got an app from the Dutch railway to tell me that trains would have a winter-schedule. So I turned around and slept on !!

Holland as seen by Joke Termaat.

Some pictures first.
1. Great clouds on the way “home’ from my train on Saturday.
2. Beer with the “guy’s”/ glider pilots George, Scott and Colin.
3. Nice sunset yesterday here in Toc.[picture by George]
4. And with Ingo, both not on our best on this picture from Bruce.
5. Jamie in the office.
6. Georges hangar,… in the past David’s hangar.

       

    

Just said hello to Milan Petcovic who is flying his DG 101 ELAN today.

And made some more pictures ,specially for Brutus from the BB area at Sportavia, the Kees-Dennis tree and the South site of the WW2 hangar. It feels still weird and SAD that we owned that for over 10 years and now we are neighbors ?????!!!!!

          

 

—–In between Temora ,about 2.5 hour from here to the NE, had it’s first day from the NSW State comps, and it was quite a good one. Not for all , as Bruce wrote in his tale:
“What a strange day it was. It began with the age-old mistake of leaving the drain plugs out when I was filling my ASG 29 with water, which results in a cockpit full of water! Wet parachute, wet sheepskin liner, wet everything! You can see the results in the photo 🙄 So we have to pull the wings off to put the plugs back in, then tape it all up and start again. Launch happens into another blue sky, noticeably stronger than yesterday, but no higher and still full of challenges. I climbed easily enough, the crowd left at about 1350, and I decided to wait another 10 minutes… but I fell down and could not, for the life of me, find a bloody thermal to get up again to start! Eventually I left at 1422, feeling very lonely. Great run to the first turn, but missed a climb going in, and I could see we had some distance to do over irrigation and the river. Sure enough, I was down in the weeds, turned back a couple of km to fall onto a little ridge to survive, and successfully knocked about 10kph off my speed. The rest of the flight went OK, finally catching some gliders on the way home, the first ones I had seen all day. Closer to home the day switched off a bit, and I was fortunate to make it back reasonably well.
Surprised to see after all of that that I had a good result. It tried hard to turn to rubbish a few times today, but I escaped the jaws of defeat by a whisker.’

The more lucky ones did well looking at the results on www.soaringspot.com
Bernie Sizer won the club class [3.30 AAT] with 320 km. in time 3.29 in his PIK 20B. Not so long ago Bernie hired the ES [ASW 15] from Dundee, now he owns this glider and performs really well in it. So well deserved 1000 points.
In Standard the 6 pilots had a 3.15 AAT which was won by Scott Lennon [LS 8] from Temora;358 km. in 3.35.
John/Butch won the 15 m. class [3.15 AAT] flying 383 km in 3.24 in Ventus 2.
18 m; 336.57 km. were flown fast by,…..Bruce who after the mishap still won the day in his ASG 29; 121 km./h. He really went for it as Adam who was runner up “only”  had a speed of 112 km./h. Tocumwal-Lumpy Paterson was 3d.
Open class;Bruce won in the combined class as well, but best was Guido Dalla Rosa Prati in the Nimbus 3DM.
Not a good day for my mate Paul as he outlanded in his ASH 25 after 344 km.

Day 2 , is a real good one with for club a 4 hour AAT….Standard /15 m. 474.60 km….. 18 m/open 514.24 km.
Bernie is in the winning mood as day 2 was his too. 423 km. in in 354…good!!
Local pilot Tom Gilbert was runner up in the G 100 with 882 points.
Standard pilot Don Woodward in the ASW 24e, had his 1000 points and the Trotter’s followed.
The 15m. 1000 points were for Butch, so he is in winning mood as well.
In this class, 18 m. Bruce also won again nearly 10 km. slower than his mate Adam.
open; same first 2.
Bruce mentioned about the day “Much better day today. The forecast improved with a rise in the maximum temperature, and at the best we saw climbs of 9 knots to about 8,500 feet. ”

—–At the Pan American Championships flown at Chaves, the pilots continued whilst I was traveling to Melbourne.
They have had till now ONE real good day with 404 in 15 m and 360 in standard. Some days had a 2 hour AAT and lot’s of out landings ,…..on other day’s they cancelled.
They continue till the 15th.
After 6 days it will be between Martin Bossart with 2689 points and Damian with 2646 in 15 m. class and in standard class scores are close so EVERYTHING/ANYTHING  is possible!!!
They flew again on the 11th and Martin and Damian were the 2 best, so no changes in the top as Martin had 2 points more than Damian over this 2.30 AAT
Standard had the same task and the scores showed 4 finishers and 8 “out-landers”.As the number 1 and 2 out-landed, the overal scores are lead by the winner of the day; Claudio Schmidt from Brasil.
And here is team USA again, they are good with their PR.

12/10 Captain’s blog on a “no fly day”: Asado

The word simply means “roast.” But there is so much more to the Argentine tradition of Asado than can be contained in a one-word translation.

A proper asado consists of cuts of beef or sausage flame-roasted on an iron rack, arranged vertically at just the right distance from an open fire. The racks are stuck into the ground and tilted at a slight angle so that the meat is cooked uniformly. When the chef determines that the cooking is complete, the racks are quickly stripped and the meat is handed, still sizzling, through a window into a hangar full of hungry glider pilots.

—– The first 38 pilots on the OLC flew a 1000-PLUS last Sunday !!! Even over 1.300 km.
Veronica showed ARCUS pilots flying 1.315 km !! Alexander flew from Pokweni 1.369 km. in the EB 29 and Wilfried[ Grosskinsky],
1.363 km in the EB 28 [1000 triangle] from Bitterwasser.
It’s a great season over there.

Tuesday December 12;

Another hot day,… blue skies at 12.30…. and launches are in progress over my head here. At 13.00 it was 29 dgr. C and the “real feel” was 33.
At 4 we had 32 and a “real feel” of 35. I felt it, whilst cleaning ,sweat poured from my face!!!
Yesterday evening I caught up  on the road, with Andrea and Anton, long time friends from Tocumwal and flying with Eddie at Sportaviation. They really looked well and are having fun!

Between all those African 1000 km.-flights it was good to see a wave-one from Omarama, this time in a Discus 2B by a very enthusiastic German Pilot. The first again after Keith [Essex] flew one on November 9.

Now people found out our reason to be here, they send us the most lovely words on FB and Bas from Holland who was with Dennis in 1988 shared a great picture with Alain Potiers who was an instructor at Sportavia that season ,Bas and our Dennis.

Thanks Bas.

Today club at Temora has a 4 hour AAT, standard and 15 m…..511 km, 18 m./open 584 km. so another hot and good day.

Results etc tomorrow.

CU Ritz

Hello dear diary-fans.
Here we go messages from Down Under.

Leaving Holland….Schiphol Airport.
picture courtesy Indya.

——-Arrival on Saturday December 9 in the early morning.
“Here I am sitting in a SUBWAY on Spencerstreet in Melbourne ,as anything a bit more fancy, is still closed at 7 AM.

Had an easy trip from more than 6.30 hours from Amsterdam to Abu Dhabi and a bit over 13 hours to Melbourne. On the ticket was written 16 hours and I had no clue how I was going to survive that, but I did ……as the “only” 13 hours -plus announced by the captain , made me straight away happy.

Also the dream liner with enough good space to sit and breeze was nice. So different to the earlier AIRBUS, where you could not eat with fork and knife otherwise the neighbor had a blue eye. And bending over ,to grab your bag, nearly choked you.

Time flies when you have fun, so over the 2 flights I looked at the 8 episodes of the BRANDNEW series of Victoria  part 2. So 8 hours of pure pleasure.
We had some delay after we arrived. The lady sitting behind me ,in her late thirties, came back from the toilet and fainted on my side.She looked dead!!! Panic, stewardesses running around and tried to get her “back” with waving paper over her till one of them came rushing with a green oxigyne bottle. After 10 minutes the lady moved her eyes and hands again but was still laler than pale.

Could not reach from here anybody at home, but my mobile was smart enough to straight away show me the correct Australian time.

Went with the red double deck SKYBUS to Spencerstreet Station [Southern Cross] . The bus can take 90 passengers and their luggage,…BUT….at 6 in the morning I was the ONLY one.
Waiting  for the 9.12 VLINE train. All in all it kept me busy from home to home about 28 hours.”

Sunday afternoon;
During my first night ,I slept like a rose from 7.30 PM till 7.30 AM.
After dinner and the first bubbles the evening before in Barooga, Sunday was a day to clean and design the interior of the room for Inge, Rodger, Indya and Dexie.
First of course some shopping . Good to see that the town has changed and looks good.
Colin dropped in, so did Scott Percival who flies the Nationals in Waikirie. He brought a few beers which was lovely. Ingo and Bruce dropped in as well after soaring and towing.
Gliders left around 2 PM. I noticed some nice clouds then, but now at 3 it is blue!
Just a nice day.

Some other news!
—–interesting to see that Keith [Essex] a Minden pilot, moved from Omarama, where he had some great wave flights, to Kiripotib to taste the sunny site of soaring.
You expect long flights from Keith ,so between December 4 and 9 ,he had 1 rest-day and  he flew 4x 1000- plus and 1x a 1.255,86 km. when he got the Namibian soaring weather in the “fingers”.Several 1000 triangles.
He flies an ARCUS M.
—–The B-C-T triangle had good weather with beautiful clouds and flights between 416 km. and 720.
—–NSW State Championships are this year in Temora a great area for soaring and more to the NE of us here in Toc. Luckily it’s drying out at the moment, and that goes VERY quick  here,  as they also had a lot of rain.
Day 1 is now ;
5 classes and 59 pilots. 10 In club, 7 in standard, 9 in 15 m. class, 14 in 18 m. and 19 in open.
Bob McCormack wrote;Good Blue day by Temora standards.  Expecting 6000ft with light northerly winds.
Task s to North East – North West.
– Open / 18 – 360 km racing task,
– Standard / 15 – 3:15 AAT,
– Club – 3:30 AAT
Bruce keeps his blog again and you find it on;

Taylor’s Gliding Page

More news next time. No pictures yet.
Cheers Ritz

—–Winter has started and we could feel it here in Holland with minus 2 in the night and 4 dgr. C during the day. Time to long for hotter spots.
Down under they started their meteorological summer and what a pleasure I can go there tomorrow. My joints and “bones” will be overly- happy. They get stiff in the “cold” climate. I hear my Scandinavian mates laugh loud about this ,as minus 2 is still rather warm for them.
The last day of spring showed a max of 700 km. down under and from Bitterwasser,Wolfgang, still there , flew 1.242.87 km. [1000 triangle] in the ARCUS M with a speed of 146 km./h. . A day with 40 x 1000 km-plus in Namibia and South Africa.
I counted 25 from Bitterwasser only!!!
From Douglas, Laurens flew a new SA record over 600 km out and return with a speed of 169.48 km./h. that is 36 km.faster than the old one, which was 133 km./h.! One climb up to 5.113 m. MSL [4.004 AGL] and another one up to 4.988.
Great flight in his JS 3 TJ!!

The first day of summer was relatively seen  good down under, with still 525 km.  BUT,… in an LS 6 from Warkworth and 762 [750 triangle] from W Australia Cunderdin . I know there was rain in the ” B-C-T-triangle” in the Southern part of Australia.
AND even worse snow in Tasmania and that does n’t happen often in early summer.
Namibia and South Africa showed flights up to just over 900 km. on this first day of the meteorological summer.

Today it is just good again in the B-C-T- triangle, with an LS 4 flight by long-long time guest at Toc. Anton from Austria from 536 km.[500 km.FAI triangle] and flights over 500 up to 600 from Benalla and Corowa.
Anton topped the 6 December OLC list for Australia. Good on him. but,..a few minutes later Chris Davison, also flying from Toc. also a long time visitor, flew a  750 TRIANGLE [TOTAL 775 km.] in the JS 1C.
Great to see all those old friends again in the weekend!!!

—–Lot’s of female pilots in Narromine. It’s WOMEN COACHING WEEK. Even after a lot of rain, up to 35 mm. in ONE hour last Sunday,  it’s good soaring over there with 3.5 AAT  yesterday. Jenny T and Jenny G, Louise, Ailsa, Lisa, Catherine, Jo,  Akemi , they are all there, flying single seaters. Matt Cage , Butch and Terry Cubley belong to the coaching team in their gliders. Special guest GE DALE, who flies, the Duo Discus, this time with Louise. Today with Jenny G. and the weather there was still a bit grey and low but improving.

—–1.200 km. was not enough for Alexander last week, so he flew in his majestic EB 29 1.318 km. from Pokweni with a nice speed of 151 km./h. Another FAI triangle. Good on him !!!
Just a bit faster but just not  an FAI triangle [985km.]  for young Simon Schroeder from Germany who flew in a Ventus 2CM/18m from Bitterwasser;157.8 km./h. over 1.239 km.!!!
A total of 6 x over 1.200 km. that day!!

And yesterday was such a Bitterwasser-HAMMER-day again with another 1.347,12 km [1000 FAI triangle] with a speed of 149 km./h. in an ARCUS M.
By the way Bitterwasser had over 100 x a 1000 km.-plus in November, so in 4 weeks.
Looking at the OLC for this season Bitterwasser had till now 85 pilots making 415 flights , which means 329.447,84 km. PFFFFFfffffffff…..

“F L Y !
Kalahari desert has so many different shapes and colors. Come to Bitterwasser and see for yourself“

As shared by Bitterwasser Lodge and Flying Center.By the way “Bitterwasser has reached its peak. The lodge is fully booked.”

And this one by Hubi [Hubertus Huvermann ,great young guy/photographer and “artist” ,who I met in Finland]
I thought Australia had a lot of red nothing but look at this THE KALAHARI DESERT from above.

As shared by Hubi

–——the 2d PAN AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS:
started last Monday on December 4 and continue till December 15 with first an official training between November 30 – December 2 They  will be held in Argentina at Gonzales Chaves. The USA participates with Rick Sheppe as TC;
In 15m Class (only ASW 20 sailplanes):Phil Gaisford,Robin Clark,Juan Mandelbaum,Fernando Silva
Standard Class (only Jantar sailplanes):Ryszard Krolikowski,Al Simmons
The contest website is: http://www.pgc2017.org/index.html

31 Pilots in total from Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Germany , Spain , Uruguay ,Canada and the USA.
Scores on www.soaringspot .com
Last Friday was the first practice day and looking at the skies a not too bad one, with 2 and 2.30 AAT’s.

As shared by the Canadian Soaring Team.

After there was some drizzle, and more rain, so the practice day’s were over without too much practice. Sunday evening was the opening ceremony and  “Monday morning it gets real.”

As shared by Rick.

US soaring teams shares a blog and this is what they wrote about the opening;
“The Opening Ceremony was held on time “this afternoon at 7 PM,” in the words of the Director of the Championships. It was quite chilly, so instead of marching with our flags around the town square, it was decided that we would march into the town sports center from just outside the front door. It was much warmer indoors.

——Do you remember I wrote about Julio Poch a colleague from my daughter. On his last flight before retirement the Argentinian-Dutch captain was arrested in Spain and spend 8 years in detention on remand in an Argentinian prison. Reason; he might have  thrown people against the Vileda system out of planes…alive.
This week proof that he did so was not found and he is free!!!He always stated he was innocent!!!
When he indeed has NOT done it ,8 years in prison for something you not did is a disaster. Only he knows what happened in the past.
Pleased he is free now and can return to Holland. BUT,….one day later they announced,he can stay in Holland TILL it starts again.The public prosecutor was not happy and they want to see him back……..Merry Christmas. … poor Julio and family….

AND…to finish this 2017 blog from Holland a fabulous picture from Geoff from NZ.

CU from Australia.
Try to write EVERY Wednesday, but when interesting things happen it might be more.
Depending on internet and time available.

Cheers Ritz

Here some pictures from Melbourne/Toc from a few years ago[2013].

     

Spencerstreet Station…….     Red oleander in full bloom……….The MIGHTY MURRAY RIVER, the border of Victoria and NSW.