WOW !!!!!!What about this??? I never knew this could happen in Holland and when I got a message/question from France  from Juliette , if I had seen it , I could only say ” NO, are you sure it was in Holland “?
MORNING GLORY over our Northerly Provence Friesland on February 26 2016. And yesterday again !!!!!
Picture Photo: Annemiek de Boers via Reiner van den Berg / Severe Weather in Belgium
By the way the North of Holland [Friesland, Groningen and the Wadden Islands] had the pleasure last weekend of seeing the Northern Lights as well.

———-
Lake Keepit !

The NSW State Comps are over and what great comps they were!!!
On Thursday they continued with day 5, with a 3.30 AAT in club and 15 m. whilst open and 18 m. went for 3 hours.
So still good weather. Though it was a tricky day with thunderstorms and large shadows over the TP’s 1 and 2, according to Paul [Dickson from the Hunter Valley] in his LS 3, who won another day with 368 km; “Didn’t go far enough into these TP’s so maxed out the last one & came in 5 min under.” .

Good to see local hero Jenny [Ganderton ] is flying so well in her Mosquito. With the WWGC in Lake Keepit in 2019 this is already great practice for her. She won 2 days and finished overall as runner up!!

Brad [Edwards] arrived in Lake Keepit,….. he is a very busy guy but loves his soaring, so when possible he flies …..and he straight away  won 1000 points for his first flight . His JS 1 flew 422 km. in time 3.03.59.
Tom was runner up with 419 km. in time 3.12. Of course you remember Brad was world champion in Uvalde in 1991.

Flying day 6 was last Friday on the 4th of March, another good day with great clouds and light winds, but again TP’s with over-development and rain .
In club the 4th “win”  for Paul, who has a real good lead overall. He flew 454 km in his LS 3 during a 4 hour AAT with a speed of 112.62 km./h.
Unfortunately for Jenny, she lost 300 points on Paul.
In 18 m./open it was Tom again , this time he flew over the set 520 km with a speed of 142.57 km./h.
The 2 HC pilots Bruce and Andrew[who did not fly the day before at some comps in Australia they  “work” with lay-days, meaning you can skip one day] ] followed and on spot 2 was Brad with 134 km./h.

Last flying day!March 5 yes the beginning of autumn,…and what week they had in Lake Keepit!
On the last day Paul was more than 200 points ahead on Jenny in club class , so more or less a “won race” for him, but,…nothing is assured till after the last scores are in .
The 3 hour AAT could spoil it,….. but no it did n’t. 5th Win in a row for Paul so clearly the NSW State champion with 6698 points. Runner up Jenny with 6518 points. Good on her!!!

In 15 m. a 3.30 AAT kept the 7 pilots in this class busy enough. Mick Webster achieved his 4th win in a row and with that he was the new 15 m. NSW State Champion; 6485 points.Good to see Kerry Claffey [ASW 28] on spot 3 with 5992 points.

In 18 m./open class Tom leads Bruce on the last but one day, with more than 200 points, but as Bruce flies HC it is Matthew Atkinson in the Ventus 2cxa/18 m.who is runner up with 600 points less, so no worries here either for Tom who won till now 4 days!!!!

AND Tom won the last day as well; 480 km. during a 3.30 AAT and a total of 6763 points . Matthew lost 275 points on the last day but it did not harm him too much,  he remained runner up with 5859 points. In between Bruce had ,as HC pilot, 6475 points.
So Tom is the well deserved 2016 NSW State CHAMPION .

Flying an ASG 29 /18 m. , Schleicher of course shared Tom’s happiness and this picture.

More news from Australia.

Not competing in Keepit, but having a day-time-to-fly from not- that- far- away Kingaroy, David Jansen showed a great autumn flight with 783 km. [500 FAI triangle[] in his ASG 29 e/18m.

I heard that Tocumwal this week enjoys a full week of 39 and 40 dgr. !!!!!It remains hot down under. My non- flying- friends over there are “sick of the heat”.
Great weather to fly though and several did on Monday with flights over 500 km. as 528 [ DG 600/17 m.] , 576 [JS 1] and 643 km. [600 FAI triangle in ASH 26] and as always Ingo , flying his Discus, landed last for the day, with 734 km.  , [700 FAI triangle] under his belt. And yesterday another top-of-the-OLC-list -spot with 678 km.[600FAI traingle]
Don’t forget the days are getting shorter and shorter over there! Great job also for Terry in his ASH 26 with this time 704 km.

As Francesco from Corowa said;” it’s autumn and every day is a bonus.”
Now the season is over he can finally fly by himself and he took the ASG 32 MI yesterday for “a ride” ;512 km.
His OLC-comment ; “Not as good as I expected. The first 2 hours the thermals did not break trough the strong inversion. It was hot in the cockpit.To the west it was perfect with climbs up to 5.5 m/s. but I lost too much speed in the first 2 hrs.”
The WEST was “used” by Terry [ASH 26] flying from Tocumwal;704 km.[664 FAI triangle]
Also for fun- flights there was time in the weekend.
Swiss Chris flew on the 5th in his ASW 27  586 km. And from Benalla German pilot Fabian Gaida flew in a Speed Astir 562 km.

And,…This year ,….. and  I was there at that moment,……., tuggy Bruce got back into gliding and solo in a Blanik and this weekend he tested his skills with Ingo in the IS 28 and later SOLO again.

Tuggy Bruce with Ingo smiling as always at an airfield. He never ever is bored  he told me this year, even not after so many years of flying.
Picture shared by SRGC.

———-

Not only Australia enjoys great early autumn weather also South Africa showed just over and under 500 km. flights from Orient.One pilot Hanno Du Toit even flew his first 500 km. Good on him !!!!
Cloud base was 4000 m. not bad !!!

———

News from Mount Beauty from the ALPINE FLYER:
” The Alpine Coaching and Regatta Week from 21st to 27th February was an enormous success this year, thanks to the excellent organisation by VSA President Ian Grant and his team of helpers. Of course the excellent soaring conditions most days also helped”.
Several pilots I know, visited there. Always a good week.

———–

News for ” lovers of the St Libelle” .
—–” Yes, it is true! A Libelle Gathering will be held in Australia in late 2016 at the Bendigo Gliding Club, in central Victoria.See the link below for details.

http://www.bendigogliding.org.au/Main/libellegathering

Spread the word, it will be awesome ! If you can let any of your Libelle members and friends know it would be much appreciated.”—-

———-

Benalla 1984.

AustraGlide ’84 was a ABC documentary on very high level, featuring Ingo [Renner], Kees [Musters], George [Schuit] , Eric ” Herbie”  Moser , Peter [Griffiths] and others. Have seen it so many times, still love it!!

austraglide 84

—” This is an ABC documentary about the 1984 gliding competition in Benalla, Australia. It was the largest gathering of gliders in Australia ever, and a precursor to the world championships in 1987.”

When the link does n’t work you can find it on youtube.com  AustraGlide 84. Enjoy, it’s worth while looking at. It’s really the past with interesting weather forecast, camera’s for the TP’s and pilots as Ingo, who still are icons.
Also featuring Erik Moser, Kees Musters and George Schuit.
With Benalla 2017 around the corner it’s nostalgia on a high level.

Talking about this  I got info about the landing and start of the Albatross on Lake Boga in 1998, featuring Peter ” Griffo” Griffiths and George Schuit. Great video as well. Enjoy!!!

———–

Girl POWER!!!!!

Introducing Kathrin’s new sales manager in a special way!
Picture from Mai 2013,  shared now by Pilotessa Design-com

Dear friends, it’s a big honor for me to introduce my new INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGER: Mss Peggy Walentin!

Peggy is in the aviation business since 1994. Shortly after she became a pilot, obtained the aerobatic license and got the flight instructor licence for power planes! But she is not only a pilot.

From 1999 to 2015 Peggy Walentin has flown more than 600 displays as a wing-walker! She was the only one in Germany. The Boeing Stearman of “Peggy’s Wingwalkers Team” with the beautiful design of Mirco Pecorari is her own.

———–

And when I am sharing video links here is another one from my friends Karin [Wiesenthal] and Markus [Geisen] about their 1370 km. flight from Kuruman in South Africa on January 2 and shared by Schempp Hirth.
Dad Hans flew that day in his DG 800/18 m.  a great 1.246 km. flight.

https://www.facebook.com/schempphirth/videos/943090759092408/?fref=nf

———–

In the March/April issue of Gliding International I read a lot of news again.
The Magazine opened with a few pages on the
—–SHARK. About the 304 S [Shark], the 304 TS [Twin Shark] , 304 C [WASP] and the 304 CZ a single seat flapped 15 m. glider.
—–The official accident report involving the the New Zealanders in Namibia in 2014 is very informative and finishes with safety recommendations.
—-Ramy Yanetz explored in 2015 the Western USA [400 hours of flying in one year !] and Elke Fuglsang-Petersen writes about it with great pictures from Ramy.
—-IGC Global membership Survey.
—-About the wave -heaven  Argentina, by Aussie glider pilot dr Rick Agnew.
And much more as,….lot’s of World Aviation news for glider pilots and 18 quick three-liners;  one of them with interesting results on the question did your gliding in 2015 increase, decrease or stay the same compared to 2014?

———-

And to finish an interesting picture shared by Boerje and a lesson -in-life for those who are going to fly in Scandinavia.

With the message : ” Gliding in North part of Sweden. Learn how to canoeing“.

———-

 Not long ,….March 25 till April 2 ….and we will follow the at this stage 95 pilots in Nitra “fighting ” for the Pribina Cup in 4 classes and MAYBE 5 ;when there are enough participants in the 13.5 m class there will be 5.
The season is about to begin.

Cheers Ritz

When I was sick in bed , the delegates of the IGC had a busy 2 days….on the 26th and 27th…. in Luxembourg, where the 2016 IGC PLENARY brought a lot of them [from 34 countries]  to the Sofitel Luxembourg Europe Hotel.
How they can manage an agenda with SO many items in 2 days is a miracle to me, but with the very experienced Erik Moser as their leading guide and each group GOOD in their own business-department , it works out every year and then there is still time for fun as well.

At work ,….and after work there is fun, with a dinner in a brewery, a city trip and nice “talks”.

Pictures shared by “our”  Dutch delegate Frouwke.

This year the Pelagia Majewska Medal went to Italian pilot  Margot Acquaderni from Italy.
The Pirat Gehriger Diploma to Roland Stuck and the Lilienthal Gliding Medal to Rainer Wienzek.
All so very much deserved!!! Congratulations !!!!!

From 2019 the 13.5 m. class will be open to motor gliders ONLY!!! The 2019 one will be in Italy.[Pavullo]
The 2019 JWGC will be in Hungary [Szeged ], the 2019 WWGC goes to Lake Keepit in Australia and the 2019 EGC for small ships is awarded to Slovakia [Prievidza] and the big ships go to Poland [Stalowa Wola].
The Pan America Gliding Championships 2017 will be in Argentina; Santa Rosa de Conlara .

The 20 m class gliders are allowed a maximum take off mass of 800 kilo instead of 750 , effective immediately and a ” race horse” start-option[ regatta start like in GP]  in contests,  will be effective in the future but not yet in Benalla.

Next plenary will be in Hungary on March 3-4.
Thank you so much to Rick for the info and “twitter-feed” .

———-

The last weekend of the month of February and with that the end of the  overseas-2015/16  summer, was a good one.
Down under the weather is still perfect for soaring and flights from 875 by Allan Barnes in the LS 8 from Lake Keepit , the 2019 WWGC venue, are still possible. He flew 736 yesterday on March 1 the first day of the meteorological autumn down under.
The New South Wales State Comps were moved from early in the season to late  and started on the 27th also from Lake Keepit with 41 competitors in 4 classes and WHAT competitors.They continue till March 5.

Once again that great picture; finish over Lake Keepit.
I believe it was from Alex from NZ, correct me when I am wrong.

Yesterday they had a 3.30 AAT in Club class on day 3 and with 409 km. [time 3.34] Paul Dickson  the LS 3 won the day just ahead of Jenny [Ganderton] in the Mosquito with 392 km in time 3.27.
Some pilots called it a “cracker-day” others “another brilliant day with a too short task”!!
Open /18 m. had a set 418 km. flown by 8 from the 9 pilots with a best speed of 150.92 km./h by Tom Claffey. [ASG 29 /18m]
Bruce Taylor had a bit of an” off-day ” with 131 km./h.
Tom won every day ; day 1… 462 km.with 141 km./h.——Day 2….420 km with 146 km./h.  and then —–day 3.
Today , another ” pretty good day”  by some called a booming -day, with a 4 hour AAT in 18 m. and open and,….it was NOT Tom but Bruce and also Andrew, both flying HC who won the day;633 km for Bruce [speed 142.82 km./h] and 602 km [speed 139,70 km./h ] for Andrew.
The “regular”  pilots as Tom flew 571 km.
Club had a 3 hour AAT with Paul winning his second day in a row with the comment ;
” Another fantastic day with 10+ kt thermals”  ;364 km. with 119 km./h. and in 15 m. Mick Webster in the SZD 55 won the 3.30 AAT;408 km with 114 km./h.

Benalla 759 km in a 16.6 m Ventus with a UK pilot , Tocumwal with 623 in the ASW 27 with Swiss Chris and yesterday with 610 by Terry,  but also Temora with 756 k. in the St Cirrus with Nathan and Grant flew in his LS 3a 655km. and there were several flights up to 839 km. from Pipers Field.
What an awesome AFTER-SUMMER!!!!!

AS,….on March 1 the meteorological spring/autumn started!!!
The first flights in Holland have been flown last Saturday , still in “our ”  winter and already over 100 km.[129 in DG 800/18m.] In Germany they even flew over 200 km. And at the Keiheuvel in Belgium some very -first- flights- for- the- season as well !!!

Looking at the combined Dutch and Belgian Nationals, the BeNeLux comps between May 18 and 27; 45 pilots at this stage in 5 classes!!!!!! GOOD!!
Still more to come and ,….by the way the local rules/procedures are on the net now !!
http://www.nkzweefvliegen.nl/obgc2016

———-

As she said : “Tocumwal! Those were the good old days! Please give my best regards to everyone in the gliderport.”
That was Kaoru,from Japan,  she flew with us in the past  and I remember she got a baby and then finished travelling to Australia. The baby is now a young man from 18 years old. Time flies.
She found me on FB, LIKE!
Via FB I also got in contact again with Dirk, a young German guy who flew years ago with us ; with Christophe and Daniel with Antje.
He and his wife Steffi got a baby too, now 16 year old Saskia and she is a beauty. Dirk still flies and has in his hangar an ASH 25 MI and ASH 31 MI.
Somewhere soon I will visit them…. nice to be their friend AGAIN now.

———-

Still sick, terrible cough, full lungs and just miserable. Hopefully next week back to normal.

Cheers Ritz

Narromine.
2-Seater Nationals.

I left you last Wednesday on a day the scores were not yet all there. It turned out to be a bad day for team Rock/Jacobsohn as they only got 38 points for 23 km. That meant they dropped from their comfortable spot 2 overall to spot 10 after task 3.

Task 4 was a prey for Allan and his mate,in the Duo Discus T,  so was task 5 !!!! 2 Times…. 1000 points the first 1000 points of the comps and over long tasks; 3 hour AAT with 332 km and a speed just over 100 km.h. as the only ones and a set 501 km with a speed of 124 km./h.
As Allan mentioned in his OLC comment;
—“Day 5 of 2-seater Nationals. Great day, first with cu. The models were predicting only scraps and that is what we got. Everyone played start games as usual and we started at 2:04 on a 500km race. Good climbs all the way round, and it was a real struggle to keep up with the Arcus. We almost managed but they beat us across the line and by 1km/hr.—”
Peter and Brian in the ARCUS were on handicap runner up, but still proud on spot 1 overall with at this over 300 points on runners up Allan and his mate.Mark Rowe is on a third place now in the Duo Discus, I guess this one is the one the French team flew in Benalla during the Pre worlds.

With Mark in the middle and behind him Terry; waiting for the clouds to pop up and a distance to fly from 500 km.!
As shared by the organizers.

Task 6 one but last day!
A SERIOUS task again !!! And that so late in the season !!! Can’t say anything else then, that  Narromine had a TOP SEASON !!!!
563 km. for the 2 seaters ……and all participating pilots on this day FINISHED ABOVE 112 km./h.!!!
So all high -lights!!!
Daily winners Peter and Brian in the ARCUS with 147.64 km./h !!!!
The other top 3 pilots did not make mistakes either; Allan was 2d and Mark 3d.
So nothing changed in the top, and I guess it will not on the last day, but between the number 2 and 3 is a difference of 180 points, so …..lets wait and see.
Allan’s comment about task 6:
—-“560km task for the penultimate day of the 2-seater Nationals. A Classic Narromine day. Start was over 9000ft, racing at 100-110kt, only stopping for 7 or better. Best climb of the day was 10kt bottom to top, got me to final glide (just).—”
Melbourne Gliding Club member,  pilot Murray Stimson’s  [Duo Discus XLT] comment ;
—“Fantastic day. Started as soon as the gate opened and had Cu all the way. Saw 11 kn average from 7-12kft.—“

Pilots ready for 563 km. ..tick, tuggy ready to launch them….tick….
As shared by the organizers.

Task 7 last day!!!
A 4 hour AAT was set !!!!! So a new long day for the pilots. Allan was in the mood and”got”  another 1000 points over 526 km. their third win. [speed 130.38 km./h.] .
But Peter and Brian [556 km. and speed 130.12 km./h] and Mark [490 km.] did not give in and were 2d and 3d.
So with those results the new CHAMPIONS were known; Peter and Brian in the ARCUS.[6290 points]
Allan and his mate had 5989 and Mark and his mate 5689.

Peter Temple and Brian Rau.
As shared by the organizers.

Another great competition from Narromine.
I heard they were asked to bid for the WWGC ,but I also heard that would be a bit too much.So Lake Keepit , another great spot on a fabulous lake, will send in a bid now.

Narromine is at this moment number 3 on the OLC looking at the airfields with Bitterwasser and Kiripotib ahead of them.
766 Flights and 105 pilots and at this stage a total of over 325. 000 km. NOT BAD!!!!

———-

The Soaring Convention 2016 in the USA is HUGE and was on from February 18-20, so last weekend. Of course the SSA [Soaring Society of America] makes their presence felt.
—-“Soaring! Your sport for the 21st Century. Check it out at the SSA Convention, Greenville, SC. February 18th-20th.—“

One of the gliders on display;
“Gorgeous, polished aluminum Schweizer 1-26E SN 605”
Picture and text by Marita.J. Rea [Vintage and classic sailplanes].

Tony had ,as I read, an excellent talk about his WGC 13.5 m.in Pociunai, where he flew with Francois Pin.[3d spot]
As shared by Alibert.

Not only a display,also lectures as by Pete Alexander about “Dissecting the sky;Discovering energy lines”, or Tony Condon about the “13.5 m. WGC; New gliders, electric power and team flying” and Dick Butler about building and flying the CONCORDIA ” Lessons learned” etc.,  but also social events;
—“Amazing atmosphere during the banquet and awards ceremony. Many great pilots and members being recognized for everything they do for the soaring community.”—
One of my friends Erik “Herbie for me,” Moser , received an award ; The Warren Eaton Trophy, the highest award of the SSA.

Herbie with the award and young Garret Willat talking about flying faster and farther.
For ALL the news about this convention last weekend

ssaconvention.org 

———–

The European Season looks promising. A splendid sky here on Friday!!!A few great skies already in February!!!
So Peter, from MillenAir is ready as well and he has maps for you for the new season;

—“MillenAir Glider Supplies is having a pre-order discount of 10% for all 2016 Air Million VFR charts scale 1:1.000.000. The big benefit of these charts is that you only need 1 chart to cover all of Germany / France or the complete Alps. As a result, the costs for a complete coverage are much lower. No more changing of charts in-flight… All on 1 map!
Normal price 19,80 EUR, PRE-ORDER PRICE 17,95 EURO. Valid until 15 March 2016. Deliveries mid-April.

Have a look at the website for the complete coverage:
http://www.millenair.nl/shop/pilot-supplies/vfr-charts

———

Last Saturday was a 1000 km-day in New Zealand. USA pilot Keith Essex, well known from long distance flights from Minden in Nevada, was the one who did it; 1.040,52 km. with  142 km./h. in an ASG 29 E. flying to the N and S of Omarama in not even the best wave due to ”  lots of moisture coming from the south and west. ” But still a good enough day for just over 1000 km.

Spanish pilot Igor [Discus 2 /18m.] mentioned :
—“Just an amazing flight! More than 600k! More than 150 Kph! More than 8000m! Delighted!!! I could have done more repeating the well proven line, but always try to explore and do something different…” —-

And UK pilot Daniel flying the Twin Astir over 535 km. said:—‘”Wave marked by rotor-cumulus and lenticular cloud. A couple of times we had to change wave bars to avoid showers.”—-
Not bad either!!!!!…Finnish pilot Jyri Laukkanen…….speed 177 km./h. over 761 km. in the Ventus 2.

So a VERY HAPPY DAY IN NEW ZEALAND!!!For all news www.onlinecontest.org on February 20.

A good day as well for Kari another Finnish pilot who topped the OLC list last Friday with a 550 km. flight[ 500 FAI triangle]  in the good old LS 6 in Australia from Tocumwal.

And what about a St Cirrus flight from Temora so late in the season from…807 km. [642 FAI triangle]

The weather is still HOT. Also in Darwin, were it is not only hot but also very humid!!! They had the hottest February since the 1950’s.

Already blog 900. I started on June 20, 2006, so nearly 10 years soaring.eu as well.
I should celebrate on that day. Will put the bubbles already in the fridge!!!
Before,… I  wrote several years the daily news at Sportavia.
And,….Before that I wrote articles for the Dutch magazine THERMIEK, about comps I visited or attended as TC.
A nice fulfilling way to spend days, certainly now I get older.
I hope to continue for a few more years.

My “office” .

———-

The season is coming!!!

Enthusiastic friends took pictures of the very early beginning of the season in Europe.

A picture from Holland by Natasja

and one from Giorgio in Italy; A post frontal day in February.[the 11th]

The same enthusiasm from France by Philippe; CUMULUS , so beautiful they make you/him already nervous!!!!!

———-

Africa is more or less  “out of the running” as their season is over but for sure they will have nice “hick-up’s” ,..now it is Temora , Benalla, Corowa and Tocumwal topping the OLC list. Brian flew the flights from Temora , 803 km.  on the 8th and 813 on the 10th, a 750 FAI triangle in his 18 m. LS 10.
Terry flew 557 in his ASH 26 E and 641 in the Janus CT . I saw the great clouds on a picture and I was pleased to see a nice after-summer-period for all pilots in the Benalla- Corowa-Tocumwal triangle.
By the way, Jos from Holland, passed Terry [Janus-flight] with a 745 km. flight in his ASH31/21 m. from Corowa.
The last flights for the season in Corowa as the containers will be packed now for the return to Europe.
They enjoyed on the 12th flights from up to 857 km. and Benalla even 875 km. in an ASG 29E/18m..
Temora’s 12th of February, showed a 754 km. flight by Nathan Johnson in his St. Cirrus.
Very nice weather in that area at the moment and pretty late in the season, but as said before you can fly in this region till Easter.
Words as “splendid day” , “great day “, “excellent day ”  passed by.

AND THEN,…..there is out of the blue Bloemfontein with a 1000 km. flight flown by Anders Andersen from Denmark last Friday in the JS 1 and an FAI 1000 Triangle as well!!!! And fast too; 154 km./h.
What about the season is over in Africa…..????? In South Africa they still fly.
619 From Worcester in a Twin Astir is worthwhile mentioning too; 125 km./h.
So 2 days in a row for the top position on the OLC last Friday and Saturday.

In between  the ASG 32 MI arrived in South Africa and a happy Oscar and Laurens [Goudriaan] , could unpack a new toy.
I was anxious to find out what glider Oscar would fly now in comps, so I asked.
This GRAND glider was ordered by Klaas their dad, but sadly he died before he could see it in Africa.
The boys/sons/brothers decided to bring the glider anyhow to South Africa and decided also to share it with young upcoming pilots and already more experienced pilots for  advanced training in honor of their father. What a GREAT MEMORY to keep Klaas “alive” and a FABULOUS idea.
For that reason the call sign is KG !!!!!!
So Oscar remains flying in open class in the JS 1 and he and Laurens, enjoy flying with their family and upcoming friends in this beautiful new 2-seater. I guess we can expect long, fast flights!!!Good luck for ALL in this new toy!!!

As shared by Oscar.

Straight away they compared the JS 1 with the brand new ASG 32 MI , Oscar flew the JS 1 , Laurens  the 32 and commented:
“Compared the ASG 32 against the JS 1-21m yesterday. Very impressed with the 32’s performance. We flew a fast 350km @ 155km/h average. Both at max weight.”

Yesterday Brits topped the OLC list, and to be honest I had never heard from BRITS in South Africa, South of Orient. 2 Nice flights from 500 [ASW 20] and 400 km.

———–

The Grong Grong -boys were back in Tocumwal.

It’s great to see a team of Japanese pilots in Tocumwal again. 4 Pilots this week, a few of them belonged to the early Grong Grong boys [flying with us in the past] trying to fly a 300 k to Grong Grong every day,[ when possible of course] , till they had it.
They always arrived after the peak-season, to have the airfield and the skies,  more or less for their selves.
Now they do it easily and practice on their speed . Good on them!!
One pilot mentioned :
“FIRST 300 DECLARED
Team Japan
Now an official member of the world famous GRONG GRONG BOYS!”
LIKE !!!!!!!!!

———-

50- thiest-Horsham week.

Flying task 7  was stressless. As everybody in the South of Australia they had a good day.
In open /18 m. the 3.00 AAT , produced 419 km. with a speed of 111 km./h.
Mark Paterson from the Southern Riverina Gliding Club[Tocumwal] is so far ahead that he has to out land straight away and the others have to finish, to loose this Horsham week; 520 points ahead.
He won 2 days and was runner up on 3 day’s in his HPH 304S Shark.
In 15 m. the 3 hour AAT showed 367 km. in an SZD 55; 34 km. further than the runner up in a DG 400, meaning 97 points difference for the day.
Only 6 points difference in the overall scores .
In club the longest day with a 3.30 AAT and well done for Philip Ritchie from the Adelaide Soaring Club in his Mosquito; 397.20 km. meaning he earned 117 points more than the runner up in PIK 20 b.
Only 14 points difference in the overall scores between Philip and Bernie [Sizer] .

For the last day a small AAT-task was set, but had to be cancelled.
So winners from this Horsham week;
Mark Paterson in open/18 m……Jack Hart with only 4 points in 15 m on John Orton……and in club Philip Ritchie with 14 points on Bernie.

This was the 50 thiest version of Horsham Week and one of my friends Tony Tabart participated in ALL of them. From 1966 till now!!!
Also Haidyn Dunn flew all 50 versions!!
Congratulations to Horsham!!! And also to Tony and Haidyn.
Here is a link to a story in the papers.

http://www.theweeklyadvertiser.com.au/2016/02/10/stalwarts-still-gliding-at-
50th-horsham-week-gliding-competition/

———–

Narromine 2 -seat NATIONALS.

Clouds popping up in Narromine.
As shared by the Narromine Gliding Club.

The 2-seat Nationals have started at Narromine with 13 couples in mostly Duo Discus, [9 of them in different versions ]and 2 times ARCUS M and 2x a DG 1000 S. This airfield is very busy this year and oh boy, had they most of the time good weather!!!?????
For some it might be too hot , this 40 dgr. C at 6 PM in February, but earlier it gave the best weather and still does.

Briefing on one of the practice days as shared by Gliding Club Narromine,…with upfront…Beryl busy as always!!!

Also the official practice-day was a good one as Allan Barnes, for this competition flying a Duo Discus T, described;
” The day started out blue and we climbed to 7000ft pre-start, then had a very long glide into the first sector without any action. I found a nice 6kt climb in the blue and then turned west for the far cu. Eventually reached them and was rewarded with good netto but no real climbs for quite a while. Then we had some great climbs, and maxed out the second circle at about 13000ft. There was some virga on track so I deviated a fair way left of track and topped up in about 4kt to 13000ft again to make the glide home safe. Great Narromine day!”
A 3 hour AAT was set ; 413 km.for him and his mate [129 km./h ]and 404 for Terry [Cubley] and a mate.[130 km./h.]

One of the couples is a REAL couple, husband and wife Harry and Wendy Medlicott, already in their 70thies but still going strong.
This year they flew as usual a while at Corowa and achieved more goals;
—” GFA has ratified the following Australian Record flown by Harry and Wendy Medlicott in their Arcus M on 18/1/16 from Corowa:
20m 2-seater class
Free Distance via up to 3 TPs
Distance awarded: 948.5 Km.—“

The first competition- day was on Monday the 15th [and the last day will be Sunday the 21st]  with a 2.30 AAT.
With a start after 3 PM and only 2 finishers it was a tough day.
As the organizers said:
“Monster day Sunday and Monday a struggle contrary to prediction. Task B but a strong inversion kept all to 2500-4000 with a few hot spots up to 6400 but never in the right place at the right time. ”
The 2 finishers were the Adelaide team [Peter Temple/ Brian Rau] in the Arcus M and the Duo Discus team from the Hunter Valley;781 points and 771.

The weather on the picture shared by the organizers on day 1 explains more. And waiting,…. waiting, …..as shared by Mark Rowe.

Day 2 is a GO as well !!! Pretty blue day at the looks. Task ; 2.30 AAT
Mark commented that it was a great day:
“What a difference a day makes, 7kt averages could be seen with happy smiles after the day.”
“ Tops around 7000 with many climbs av 6-7kts. However strong winds at the tops made first leg slower.”
All 12 teams were up in the air, best speed 121,15 km./h over 315 km. by Peter and Brian which was 10 k faster than the runner up Allan and his mate. Only one out landing after 229 km.

Day 3; today “blue 6-7,000ft and 4-6kts. Launch at 1 pm so watch it on live track 24.”
Peter and Brian won AGAIN; 881 preliminary points  !!! Good on them.
This time Terry Cubley and his mate were runner up.
The task was a 2.30 AAT and the ARCUS-winning- team flew 294 km. with a speed of 92 km./h another nearly 10k faster than Terry.
10 From 12 finished.
Most pilots started around 3, Allan and his mate at 3.42 PM. They flew 182 km., finished but lost around 400 points.
Allan’s comment on the OLC;” Tough day in the office. Had to restart after a dreadful run out took me down to 600ft. Struggled to get height again for the restart then did the whole task on our lonesome.”
Character building flight!

———-

Metereologica.

2 Pictures from Alexis and his story with it about the forecast and development of the weather and to see how accurate this forecast is!!!!!.

As shared by Alexis with the text:
“A nice climb in the second wave bar to 6,250m. The gaps were closing and the battery was misbehaving so we had to descend before we would need to use the attitude indicator or the engine to return from a hole further away.
The amazing cloud in the photos is the first bar of Mount Parnassus exactly where the best climb was forecasted. The cloud grew in a matter of minutes.”

———

The German FAI National Team has gathered at the good old Wasserkuppe and not only had fun but shared and got information as well.I met in the past 11 of them.

As shared by Segelflug-Hoch-Zwei.[Fabian Peitz]

———-

And to finish some wisdom I found on FB;

———-

CU next Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz on my way to blog 1000.

With a flight from just over 1000 km. from Serres la Baties in France last Thursday in the Stemme [S10/S10-VT] , a “happy- sounding”  Klaus Ohlmann , mentioned that the wave-season is about to start;” Very nice wave day..A little bit weak at the beginning, but with the incoming front it started to be much better. Anyway, the new season is in Approach.”
Up to 6000 m. MSL.

Gerard Lherm added a great flight from St Martin de Londres in the Nimbus 4DM, over 4000 m. MSL and 708 km.. We are going to keep an eye on it!
According to Benjamin, who flew with his mate , Vincent, the Alps had an unexpected great FOEHN-day too last Sunday. Departing from Koenigsdorf  in an ARCUS T,they flew direction WSW; 957 km.!!!!![over 4000 m. MSL]
They shared a nice picture as well on the OLC.

Looking at wave paradise New Zealand, Ge shared some nice pictures with the message:
“A convergence day for us. The first photo shows cold air coming down the hill, the cumulus in the distance are fine but the first part of the convergence is blown out…we had to go a couple miles left to find the new edge, well out of shot.
The second shot shows a great system well marked by dust…we bashed up and down for a while, exploring.
A bit rough in the circuit.…”

No wave ,….but also a great flight from Temora in Australia last Monday ,when “we here in Holland,were all going with the wind” !!! [up to 112 km. /h. ]
Brian Du Rieu flew in his LS 10/18m.  a nice 802 km flight ,…750 FAI triangle…. and topped the OLC-list with it.
A bit more to the S. , Tocumwal had several long flights in the ARCUS [808 km. 500 FAI triangle] and 765 km [749.5 FIA triangle] in an ASH 26 e.
Kari, from Finland flew 536 in the LS 6 and the 4 Japanese guests [ Hello Mr. Ogura-san] forgot all about the earlier rain and flew just under or over 300 km. !!!![ 226km….297….319….336 km] in LS 4 or PIK 20.
Good on them. SAKE!!!!!
Temperatures up to 36 dgr. lovely for early February.
Yesterday Toc. topped the OLC list with a 557 km. flight from Terry in his ASH 26E.
From Corowa Pepe had one of the last flights for the season in his ASH 31/21 m.;754 km.
Great to see that my former Tocumwal-friends Reinhard and Chris [and Lind]a are happily flying there.
Benalla had 669 km in the Ventus 2 CT /18m. and 627 in an LS 8. Yesterday; 624 in an ASG 29/18 m.

———-

During comps it is nowadays normal to see a JS  glider  . Not that long ago,….. this was not so normal. In a very short time Attie and Uys Jonker and their team have produced 100 JS  gliders in different versions and nowadays they just belong to the “soaring-scene”. And I only heard HAPPY customers.
Sven was so kind to share some pictures from the JS-100th festivity .

———–

The last competition for the Aussie- season is normally in Horsham , so it is this year.
Quite some pilots again at this friendly airport for this friendly competition.
In the week before there was a training week, and some even flew their Silver C.Well done!
The comps are between February 6 and 13.
18 Pilots in club, 13 in 15 m. [one HC] and 7 in open /18 m.
They flew 2 days on the 6th and 7th  , then 2  cancelled days.
Flying day 2 was a nice one with a set task of 428 km. in open class won by Peter Buskens in the JS 1 with 147 km./h..
In 15 m. 439 km. was set and won by Andy Smith [Ventus] from the Mount Beauty Gliding Club with 142 km./h.
Club had a 3 hour AAT won by Steve Jinks in the St. Cirrus; 365 km. with a speed of 118 km./h.

Today a 3.30 AAT for open/18 m….3 hours for 15 m. and for club as well.
Results at www.soaringspot.com

———-

When I arrived home from Australia I found a mail from Alexis in Greece, to be part of  his[ open ]group of friends on FB, interested in  “the weather” .
“We provide the most accurate weather forecasting and a wealth of information on weather, weather events and climate change.
The name “Meteorologica” was inspired by the first forecasting system and meteorology textbook by the Greek philosopher Aristotle.“

“ A taste of our forecasting system applied to Namibia.
The high desert of Namibia is one the best locations in the world for long glider flights using thermal updrafts. Each year numerous such flights are achieved.
Modern gliders are equipped with flight computers that log parameters such as the actual wind and the net (of the glider movement) vertical velocity of the air. In that sense each glider is an airborne laboratory taking measurements during flights as long as 1,350 km with intervals as little as 1 sec.
Those flight logs allow us to calibrate the accuracy of our forecasting system with enormous amounts of actual data. The accuracy in the prediction of updraft strengths is closely correlated to the prediction of rain and thunderstorms.
Of course, it is also very useful to glider pilots!
The charts are: maximum updraft velocity, wind at 3,000m and the actual satellite photo on 2016.01.05.” 

As I know Alexis I decided to send him a mail to find out more about it and if we can ONLY read it on FB or maybe somewhere els on internet.
I got a long answer , but I share it anyhow with you as it is interesting, though at this stage it is more for Greece.

“Thank you for your interest!

First of all let me introduce to the scientist behind this forecasting system. His name is Angelos Lampiris and he is a very young and extremely talented meteorologist. He has built a supercomputer in his uncle’s basement and has developed this system by himself.

Angelos is now running and developing the models for the www sites below, finishing a revolutionary paper on how gravity waves affect the development of tornadoes and at the same time getting the system and the applications to a whole new level. Also, we are getting ready to launch the system for glider flights in the Alps and of course in Greece this spring.

For now you can only read the group on FB but there are two links with the forecasts for Greece where the system is already fully operational and providing early warnings for extreme events.

One site is for general forecasts and has two components. The first component is for simple forecasts with a very intuitive user interface http://www.antimeteo.gr/ and the other one is with charts for more sophisticated users http://www.antimeteo.gr/xartes.html . The charts also include output from the global model under the tab “Παγκόσμιο (mpas)”.

The other link is for gliding forecasts in Greece  http://www.troposphera.gr/html/open.html.

As you can see all kinds of updrafts are included on the same chart. It does not matter if there are thermals, ridge, convergence or wave. The combined effects are there (and fully confirmed by our flights). The “secret” of the model is that is fully based on Computational Fluid Dynamics so that the whole atmosphere and all parameters are simulated.

We are working on getting funding and growing this. With the climate change unusual weather and extreme events will be getting more and more common with significant impact to everybody. According to the World Economic Forum it is one of the biggest challenges mankind is facing.  We will do our best to make those forecasts as accurate and as available as possible. I have attached a teaser brochure for you.

The story behind this is amazing. Exactly one year ago I saw on Facebook  (which I was then using very lightly) a wind forecast chart which had the usual pattern of the mountain wave (i.e. increasing and decreasing wind speeds every 10km). I found that Angelos had prepared this forecast and I asked him if he could produce a chart with the vertical movement of the air at 5,000m. I also sent him some info about gliders and mountain waves. I told him that I would contact him again when the forecast was promising. This was the case on 2015.04.17. Angelos was doing his military service in a remote island but he managed to send me a chart of the updrafts within a few minutes. The next day I flew the longest ever flight in Greece in completely blue wave but with Angelos’ map on my kneeboard!

As they say the rest is history.”

Thanks Alexis, and I am going to follow it closely. The predicted storms on FB , for this weekend, were spot on!!!

AND

Look at this the mountain-wave forecast for TODAY in Greece.

———–

Registration for the Open Benelux Gliding Championships 2016 at Terlet is now open!
Please check  www.nkzweefvliegen.nl/obgc2016 for cost information and the registration form.

” Do not wait and sign up! We hope to have 5 full classes.”
May 17 -May 27!!!
At this early stage already 28 participants; 7 in 18m, 5 in the 2-seater class, 5 in club, 7 in open and 4 in 15 m.
When I looked again,…33 participants!!!!

———-

The NZ Multi Class Nationals finished on the 4th with a non flying day. Over 14 days, they had 7 valid days in both classes open and racing.
Champions; the combination Hunter / Jensen flying the JS 1 with 4839 points in open class and Yves Gerster in the LIBELLE in racing class with 4391 points.
On day 7 Yves “got”  1000 points for an out landing after 233 km from the set 283 km.The runner up that day had 100 km. less and “received”  533 points.That makes a difference!!!

Well done to all pilots and congratulations to the winners !!!!

———-

I was asked to like the FB group of Fabian Peitz. He and his mate, Dennis keep us updated on the way to the European Championship 2017. When your German is good you can read it at their site;Segelflug-Hoch-Zwei.

This website is still under construction, but soon [I hope] it will work; Well,….. It SHOULD BE ONLINE NOW!!!!!Have a look or try later, as I could not read it yet!
http://www.segelflug-hoch-zwei.de/

 ———

And to finish a nice picture from Joergen and Dieter “Dundee” , ready for a flight S. from Tocumwal, to the Aussie mountains in the magic ARCUS. Dundee was even allowed to fly the “ship”  by himself.
Maybe I should have accepted Joergen’s invitation to me to fly the ARCUS as well.

Joergen and Dieter as shared by Joergen, with the message
“Dieter ready for a flight in the Arcus. We did a nice sightseeing flight via Benalla to the hills further south, and back to Tocumwal.”

———-

There is an interesting interview from Reiner Rose from the OLC with Tilo and Bernd from Schempp-Hirth about the new VENTUS.
Have a look at the OLC site.   As Tilo said;
” Medium primary goal is the World Championships early 2017 in Australia, where we want to be measured with a good number of new aircraft for us.” 

That’s it you are up to date, more next week.
Cheers Ritz

Qualifying Grand Prix in Chile.

The weather in Chile was so-so! They tried hard, set tasks but on several days they did n’t fly further than 76 from the 284 km.
” Gliders being rescued by a tow plane in Los Andes. It wasn’t possible for the pilots to return to Vitacura by themselves since there wasn’t enough energy to stay aloft. We are hoping to have a better day today and be able to complete the task” for Friday.

Retrieves after out-landings.
As shared by the organizers.

In the end they  had 4 valid days out of 8 and ,…..it ALL happened/ read the scores were settled,  on the last day. As so often.
When they started for the last-but-one-day, Gintas had 13 points, Carlos 12 and Thomas 10.
The  regatta start was at 5 PM. for 145 km. 4 Pilots finished and a fast flight it was, for sure for Carlos; 161 km./h. [5 points ] Thomas was one of the finishers as well and received 3 points for his speed of 148 km./h.
Overall scores; 17 for Carlos, and 13 for both Gintas and Thomas.

Task 5 was set for the last day, weather-wise  the best one and pilots had to fly a longer distance this time; 364 km.
Gintas who flew so well at several days must have thought “I am going to do this again” .AND,…he did!! He flew over the 364 km. with a speed of 131 km./h just a 0.02 tad faster than Carlos who was runner up for the day. Thomas finished about 45 minutes later so the scores were upside down again.
On the last day Gintas got the extra point , 11 points ,Carlos got 8, Thomas 5.
Not too much difficulties to see that Carlos is the Chile Qualifying Grand Prix CHAMPION with 25 points.
Great result for Gintas with 24 points, the extra point just did not help him and Thomas gathered enough points the days before , to be safe with 18 points on spot 3!!!

A bit of a pity about the weather, but what you can do. Anyhow an interesting and exciting race again, with Carlos and Gintas “ready”  to go to South Africa for the WORLD FINAL in Potchefstroom in the beginning of November 2016.[5-12].
BUT,….as there were less than 10 participants ,….ONLY ONE pilot from the CHILE GP is allowed to go. So Carlos can order a ticket.

As they mentioned in their final report
“Despite the effect of El Nino on the normally excellent weather in Chile it was still possible to compete on 4 race days although the conditions and therefore the speeds were well below par for the region.” 
And
“ The weather was much worse than one would usually expect in Chile with warm and moist air bring lower cloudbase and poor visibility than normal. A slight improvement on the last race day allowed a race of 364km to be completed at a very creditable 131kph.” 

The next qualifying GP is in Spain in April.

———–

PAROWAN

Last week I got a mail from my Gliding International colleague Elke. She has been flying in Parowan ,Utah twice and LOVED it.
“ It’s soaring in Paradise! I’d always go back there, if only I had a glider in the States.“

In June 2016 they have an ASA Camp  over there between June 14 and 26. All info you can find in the link below.
As they say; “an absolutely amazing experience both for the flying and the fun on the ground!”
Just have a look at this beautiful brochure, you might be interested and there is still time enough to consider or to even plan a visit to the CAMP at PAROWAN.
In the past I noticed some really great flights from the airfield over there and wrote about them.Interesting place!!!

Gliders Over Parowan

Parowan Soaring Camp – Auxiliary-powered Sailplane Association

When I checked last week ,the first link was working, when I published it dis n’t anymore. I added a 2d link,to be sure you can see and read it. Sorry about that.

———

NEWS from SCHEMPP-HIRTH.

And last Friday there was Schempp -Hirth-news;
“The new Ventus has made its maiden flight! After Christoph Wannenmacher now Tilo Holighaus is on his way to test fly it.”

A proud Tilo on the wing.SO HE SHOULD , very proud he can be!!!

Great shot from the brand-new-Ventus on tow!!

And from Tilo IN the glider.
AND
in full flight;

All pictures shared by Schempp Hirth.
CONGRATULATIONS with another great glider.
AND
one by Frans Guise, top photographer from Holland.

———-

Western Cape Regionals finished.

After the rain they flew 5 days in a row!The last day had a set task from 250 km. and the overall scores on that day were; Laurens with 3924, 3899 for Dawid and Sven had 3234.
In open Dawid Pretorius was the fastest on the last day, with 152 km./h. in an 18m. version LS 8; 449 points.
Laurens in the JS 1, had about the same speed but he got 50 penalty points!!!
So it was pretty clear then, that Dawid won the Regionals with 4348 and Laurens was runner up.

In Club Stefan van den Berg in the Mosquito, won the first and last day and one in the middle, but he out-landed on one day as well. After  6 days he was runner up just 36 points behind the winner, Kevin Mitchell flying a 17 m. DG 400.

Only 2x a 1000 points day in both classes.

———-

New Zealand; Multi class 2016 CHAMPIONSHIPS.

After 7 days they tried hard to fly task 3 with a 2,30 AAT in open class, BUT, only 4 pilots finished with a speed of 87 km./h. So another battle-day.
In racing class 3 from 10 managed to fly home for between 1 and 45 points.
Task 4 was flown last Saturday and a 3 hour AAT was set and flown by 6 from 8 in open and 10 from 13 in racing.
In racing it is good to see old Tony van Dyk topping the overall scores after 4 tasks.[1855]

Task 5 was a 2.30 hour AAT on the last day of January and a prey for David Hirst in the Ventus;248 km. in time 2.36.
He called it an ” Awesome run!”
In racing Patrick Driessen was the best during their 2.15 AAT; 262 km. in time 2.53 but he flew 62 km. more than the Duo Discus as runner up.
5 Days to go, long competition!!

Task 6 was cancelled task 7  was nice on paper, a set 310 km. but the “best” pilot for that day flew 216 km. Still 1000 points for Keith Essex in the ASG 29Es.
283 was set in Racing and 233 was flown by Yves Gerster in the Libelle ;1000 points.

Today another set task from 376 km. in open with ONE finisher, Keith, who needed over -5-hours to fly home. The next “best ” pilot flew 370 in the JS 1, then 175 km.
In racing 2 pilots managed to finish the 332 km. task!!!They needed 4 and nearly 5 hours but were home.Yves in the Libelle, just landed out, but still is number 1 overall with 2 days to go.

———-

Corowa.

With all the pilots normally flying there and now even more because of the PRE Worlds, the hangar in COROWA is still FULL. Good to see. They shared some great pictures and when you had not seen them, here they are.

A fabulous big, brand- new hangar ,with only top-class-gliders.
As shared by http://www.australian-soaring-corowa.com/

———

Tocumwal.

Chinese SRGC -member Yunhai, by his friends called Yankie Hotel, has left Tocumwal after 3 months. His logbook had 250 hours MORE than before arrival. Great job YH.
Later the friends found out that his English name is Harry!!!! So well done Harry!!
By the way after lot’s of rain the weather is still pretty poor at the moment, Harry was on the right place at the right time!

Harry, here with Christmas as my dinner partner and with Ingo who presented him before departure with a diploma as “international pilot logging the most hours this season.”
Last picture by Birgitte and Joergen.

Joergen and Birgitte spend their summer season in Tocumwal.
“ they have donated two Becker VHF Transceivers to the club. Jorgen, in his usual resourceful way, acquired them as a result of the change to the European VHF channel spacing.
Also, one of our former members, Michael Wall has donated an Oxygen bottle to the club. This kind gift will find a place in one of our club gliders for the use of those pilots who go chasing the wave.
Great gesture by the guests.

Talking about Birgitte, I only found out this year that Rasmus Orskov, who I got to know at several junior comps and I estimate HIGH as a pilot,  is her son!!! Rasmus flew the final of the Grand Prix last year in Varese, after he qualified earlier in Zar in Poland for this event.
Even bigger news and I was only allowed to share it after Birgitte had done so; Rasmus is becoming a daddy this summer!!! Congratulations to Rasmus and his partner.
As the proud to-be- grand-ma said;” The baby will be the 4 th. generation glider pilot in the family, if he/she choose this sport.”

Rasmus in Varese.
as shared by the Danish Gliding Association.

And Andrew Peng Du has left Tocumwal [and Narromine, where he flew as well] ,with the message:
“See You Our Arcus in Beijing, See You in Loong Wing (GanSu.GaoTai) International Gliding Center.” 

Andrew with his “Chinese ” ARCUS here in the hangar from Outback Soaring in Tocumwal.

———

And then,….when you think it ‘s all over in South Africa as well, Martin Lessle flies from Douglas  a 1000 [997 Fai Triangle!] in the Duo Discus T, on the last day of January 2016. ” A good end to the season.” he commented. It was!!!

———-

And to finish the link to a nice article about the UK champion in Narromine.
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_1-2-2016-17-13-42

————

Only 50 flights on February 1 so it ‘s clearly slowing down. On January 22 only 14,… very low for the end of January!! We just have to wait again for and exciting new summer on this site of the world.
That ‘s it. CU next week, with the latest news.
Cheers Ritz

Within a week we went here from extreme to extreme as well. Talking about the weather; from minus 6 and scraping the ice-flowers from the car-windows, we are now in spring with 14 dgr.C. even 17 on the pole at the station ,here. Does feel SO much better!!!
It was , as we heard the next day, the warmest EVER 25th of January.

———-

The “young ones”.

Matthew [Here after he won the JWGC in Narromine] and Adam,[after the Pre Worlds in Benalla]  full of laughter and fun,both learned a lot at comps as Joey glide , during JWGC’s and this year at the PRE worlds in Benalla.

There is something special with junior comps, where ever in the world, if they are in National set-up or JWGC set up; They are JUST NICE!!!
Uncomplicated, fair and with a strong to pretty strong new generation of pilots.
In Australia they flew JOEYGLIDE last week. As I told you before JOEY stands for a young kangaroo.
Not too many new young ones here in West Wyalong for the 12th get-together, but with Matthew and Adam they have good examples from how far they can get.

Text says it all;” Meet JoeyGlide 2016 Tug Lord Schooner.”

After a cancelled day they continued with flying day 3 and a 2 hour AAT was set, but,…in the end it turned still too big. Nobody finished but Rueben , winning already 2 days, flew 103 km. ; no points unfortunately for the effort, as he was the only one over 100 km. ,and one of the only 2 finishers,  but it looks a new “star”  on the Aussie firmament is born.
So still only 2 valid days out of 5 .But that changed last Saturday on the last but one day, when a 319 set task was given to get them back in the rhythm for the last days.Flying day 3 , WITH points, was a fact
Rueben [from Victoria] flew around with a speed of 88.99 in the Mosquito and won another day.He is 220 points ahead on the runner up from Queensland Chris Jesse in a Glasfluegel 304 C.
The last day was HIS as well, so a well deserved winner; Rueben Lane;he flew himself in the 3000 points marge, good on him; 3.089 points.
On the last day Chris lost a spot by loosing 200 points for the day. David Collins in the LS 3 was the runner up now but with some points less; 2.762.
Keep these names in mind!!!

———–
OLC-news and Western Cape Regionals 2016 at Worcester.

Also on the OLC you could see that the flights are getting less. NO , no, it is certainly not over yet, but in Africa the rain season has more or less started with 8 non-flying-days in a row in Bitterwasser and in the Southern part of Australia they had after the many great days a few off- days by rain as well.
Till the end of January the days there are just long enough to set a 1000 km. on a good day!
By the way after a few non-flying-days, South Africa started again yesterday with flights up to 710 from Gariep Dam and from New Tempe Bloemfontein with nearly 600 km.
Also Worcester was active , they fly the Western Cape Regionals 2016 between Jan. 23 and 30 there and Sven flew 518 in the JS 1 B.
That day the task was 501 km and Dawid Pretorius flying an LS 8, flew the set task with a speed of 177 km./h. Not bad ??!!
Laurens as runner up, was even faster with 179 km./h. On the 24th Laurens flew on the first flyable day around over 319 km. with 191.42 km./h on the ” clock”.
In club class an LS 3 flew the 406-km- set task with a speed of just under 140 km./h.

Only 10 flights on the OLC on January 22, that says it all!!

Last Sunday ,the rain was over in the Benalla-Corowa-Tocumwal- triangle and flights up to 833 by my Dutch friend Max flying from Corowa were flown on Monday, chasing the clouds.He topped the list that day.
On Tuesday, AUSTRALIADAY, Terry flew 768 km in the ASH 26 topping the list that day for Tocumwal and good old Jochen DECLARED and flew a 300 to the Rock and back in the LS 4. Good on him!!Kilometer-eater and frequent flyer at Toc . Stephan flew from Toc 612 in the LS 4 .
Max had another good one; this time 752 topping the OLC list worldwide AGAIN.
Benalla had flights up to 550 km.

From Temora Grant Johnson  flew 664 km. in his LS 3a.

Narromine has had an extremely good year and as you can see on the picture shared last Sunday,…it’s STILL GOOD.

———-

Qualifying Grand Prix in Chile.

As shared by the Organizers with the message:“Gliders on the ground and in the air!”
As you can see the runway is parallel to the highway, never saw that before, guess they clearly see the difference from above.

The very first Grand Prix in 2016 is flown from Vitacura  in Chile , where they were ready to welcome all pilots participating in the race, on the practice day on Jan 22.
11 Pilots in total, 8 from Chile.  Some just practiced already during the Andes Open Chile 2016, where Carlos Rocca and Rene Vidal, were ” top of the bill” a week earlier.
When I met Thomas Gostner in Benalla , I heard he was flying straight back after the Pre worlds to Italy,  to then go straight to Chile to fly the Qualifying Grand Prix. You love your soaring or you don’t!!!
Other “overseas”  pilots are Zube Gintas from Lithuania and Juergen Wenzel from Germany,.
On the practice day Thomas was 3d behind Carlos and Rene.I have never been in Chile but they describe  the race area as  a ” spectacular region of the Andes to the east of Santiago and extending to the North and South.”

It all was suppose to happen for real last Saturday.
But due to bad weather, the first day had to be cancelled.
So Sunday turned out to be flying-day 1 and the weather was OK, as you can see.

The rain disappeared in the afternoon , the day before it was wet and not only from dumping the water!!!

” Pushing to the limits in European weather “, was what Gintas had to say after the flight.They only could start after 3 PM as rain was ruling in the morning, so the regatta start was at 4.15 PM.
Gintas did well, he lead the pact to only see in the end that Carlos passed him to get the 6 points. He was happy with 4, I guess ,as he did a real good job. Thomas was third, with 3 points.
Juergen got 2 and Rene 1.
5 Pilots finished the difficult task which was NOT flown  ” inside the Cordillera de Los Andes because of the bad weather.”

Nothing to add to the latest; “ Day 3 in Chile cancelled: Because of the atmosphere’s high stability and clouds, it wasn’t possible to fly today.
We expect to have a better day tomorrow.”

They flew and a 217 km. task was set and WON by Gintas , who seems to be in his element over there in Chile. When I see on TV how 5 m. high waves “attack”  people, streets and houses at the coast, they managed to fly at Vitacura.
9 Points for Gintas and 7 for Thomas.
As they mentioned on FB:
“  Day 4 Race 2 was a success! After a day with bad flying conditions, 8 pilots competed in this fun task along the Cordillera de Los Andes, finishing on first place Gintas Zube from Lithuania, on second place Thomas Gostner from Italy and on third place Carlos Rocca, a local pilot.”

Rene Vidal behind Carlos Rocca.
As shared by the organizers.

———-

2016 MULTI CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS in NZ .

From Taupo , beautiful Taupo, the NZ-Nationals started in 2 classes with 21 participants ,on January 24 with a practice day  to continue till February 5.

Unfortunately the first 2 day’s had to be cancelled but then each class had a small task; 3 hours for open and 2.30 for racing class.
The winner in open just flew over 100 km./h. so it was n’t a fast day , BUT A DAY with 1000 points.
In the combined racing class the speed from the winner flying a DISCUS, was just over 92 km./h.
The “lesser”  gliders had it tough 6 from 12 out landed.

The next day was a no- valid -day. A task in open was set from 330 km. but the best pilot flew 188 km. which was amazing when you look at the runner up with 90 km.
In combi class 307 km. was set AND nearly flown by Patrick Driessen; 300,92 !!!!!No valid day either as the “rest” flew “only” up to 83 km.

———-

That’s it, you are up to date again, more next week.
Cheers Ritz

The juniors in Australia , had straight after the Nationals their “joey glide” flown from West Wyalong and day 2 was underway yesterday with  pilots reporting cloud base over 11,000′ before the start,” so it should be quick again today” .
One day earlier , flying day 1 was already fast with speed up to 127 km./h.over 270 km.flown by Rueben Lane from Victoria in a Mosquito.
Day 1 on the 17th had NO TASK, for the 8 relative unknown pilots at this stage. But this is how most toppers started!!!
today a 2 hour AAT was set but in the end the day was cancelled!

————-

The ANDES OPEN 2016 from from Vitacura in Chile had good days and the “Vidal’ s” were always in the top 3. No miracle they were the number 1 and 2 from 19 participants after 7 days .Carlos had 6293 points and Rene 5889.
Several 3.30 AAT ‘s , one with speed up to 150 km./h over 545 km. by Carlos.
Task 3 , also a 3.30 AAT, had only ONE FINISHER, flying over 4 hours to reach a speed of 77 km./h. That’s a battle, but a good one over 325 km!!

———–

Flying in the overseas season continued , also when I had less time to cover it and NO DOUBT Africa had a great one. On the 14th the last over-1000-km-flights were added to the OLC from Africa, they had a couple of days with rain.
Bitterwasser writes on their site;” Now we do have the middle of january, raintime. However, if you ask a pilot, they would say that this weather has nothing to do with humidity or so. Blue thermal, which starts often late. Humidity is under 10%. For the next days it looks more promising. For now, we do have 190 flights over 1000km! We will break the 200 flights soon!”
Bitterwasser, Kiripotib, Pokweni in Namibia, but also in South Africa places as Douglas, Gariepdam ,Bloemfontein  and Kuruman had excellent flights. Nobody I guess complained about the weather.

————

All the places I have been to over the last 7 weeks whilst being in Australia, had great weather yesterday. It’s a nice hot long summer in Australia and for sure the weather gods have been extra good this year for Narromine.
Attila flew in his St Cirrus yesterday a 891 km. [750 FAI triangle] flight from Narromine.With that flight he TOPPED the OLC -day.
Benalla had a 1000 km, I guess the first from this season, just after the comps had finished with 2 non flying days, but what can you do.
Young Petr who flew the Pre worlds in Benalla, moved back to Tocumwal ,where he was a tuggie with Eddie’ s Sportaviation in the past and he flew with Terry in the Janus CT 943 km.[900 Fai Triangle] This glider is called by Ib and his mates from Denmark, the “wooden ARCUS ”  .
And kilometer-eater Terry Bellair, flew from Corowa 824 km. [ 750 Fai triangle]
One day earlier on the 18th, Corowa had a 1000 as well with Max from Holland flying it and that was the first for the season for him and Corowa.
A lot of pilots bringing their gliders from Europe to Corowa , have to spend at least one month in  Corowa to fly , so it is extra busy there at the moment, as several OZGLIDE pilots did so too this year.
In the beginning of February they start packing gliders again and several pilots help out then.

———–

Just  a short blog today. Still suffering from jet lag . Next days I will be in Amsterdam catching up with my family!
Cheers Ritz CU next Wednesday.

First looking back on the last days and the prize giving.

When Margie and I left for Wodonga to visit our friend on a top of a hill ,  we also dropped in on the way back at Corowa airport.It turned out that Eagle and Willem traveled to Tocumwal whilst we were there, but we did not miss each other as you can see at the pictures. We even spoke with Francesco and Wim , Grietjes dad.

Fun in the hangar and at the golf club, on my last day, in Tocumwal with Arend, Willem, Jeroen, Margie Diana and me.

A bit later more fun , now in Kelly’s pub with Jill and Kait and Margie.

Prize giving in Benalla;
130 people attended and not everybody had booked ahead,  most of the overseas pilots forgot or misunderstood, so they had to eat somewhere else or pizza’s.They ALL however attended the prize giving after dinner, no worries.
Lovely evening with lot’s of well known mates. Here you are,….. first of all the prize winners/new Aussie Champions.

Peter, Matthew and Bruce had ALL evening a smile on their faces.
Peter won 18 m. Bruce open and Matthew 15 m. class.

Beautiful set tables, enough prizes to make pilots happy and enough food too in and outside.

Happy couples.

GFA president Mandy and her husband and 18 m. CHAMPION Peter, Former GFA president Anita and her CHAMPION in open class And a happy David Jansen with his wife.

East Europe.

Zoltan from Hungary who was the pilot with the highest speed 160.54 km./h.and 26 year old Petr from Czech Rep. who flew in the past as tuggie with Sportaviation and now since 2 years in 737’s from Ryan Air.

The prize however was for an Australian pilot and Adam won both and found it a great privilege to win the Taylorr’s & Kauffmanns highest RAW ‘Speed Trophy’ by an Australian pilot; and the inaugural winner of the Bruce Brockhoff, Fastest Handicapped Speed Trophy!

Bruce , said a few words and Adam was clearly happy with the brand new prize; the Bruce Brockhoff-trophy.

More overseas pilots.

———–

The Swedish and Finnish pilots, The French and the Austrians.

Runners up!!

Andrew [open] Mac [15 m.] John “Butch”  18 m.
John was the most “unlucky”  person of the evening, but still could smile. He just missed out at this stage [still preliminary] to represent Australia next year in Benalla;Tom had 79.172 over 2 years with 40% counting for the first year and 60 for this year and Butch 79.021.
By the way the preliminary , but nearly sure team representing Australia next year ;
15 m. Matthew and Stephen , 18 m. Peter and Tom and open Bruce and Andrew.

The YOUNG ONES.

Dylan[Lampard] team- flying up to high standard with Matthew during the JWGC now crewing for him, Matthew and Ben [Loxton] and Adam.

Guests from now and the past.

Lesley and Norm with Tom and Brian with Italian guest Thomas and Mark and Beryl.

Judy, Ingo and Scott and Jane and Tom from Temora.

Swaantje with her female crew and Lisa and David with Tony Tabart and Jo.

By the way, the STATE SHIELD was won by NSW with the pilots Bruce Taylor, Matthew Scutter and Tom Claffey.

Last but not least; Vickey with her beautiful daughter , recently a mum, so Vickey is a grandma now; They will be very busy with the WGC next year with Terry as CD.

Mum Vickey with 2d daughter Erin

———–

It was nice to catch up with Owe from Sweden and Antti from Finland at Tullamarine before Antti and I flew with former Sportavia tuggie Michael to Hong Kong, where the weather was pretty bad, and Owe went via Thailand home. I forgot that Owe was in the organizing team in Eskilstuna, where I was as well as competition journalist.
Home now , cold here and a tiny little bit of snow!!!!Tired, but what a great time I had!!!!
In Tocumwal,  Narromine and Benalla, I caught up with many friends, what great people there are in soaring is n’t it?

Thanks to Jo, for making a happy picture from me as well. It was MY pleasure to keep you updated during my holiday in Australia.

Cheers Ritz

12.30 ;
Just arrived in Benalla to see all gliders ready at the grid for the very last day of this OZ glide , combined with the 54 th Nationals.
Dundee, my ” personal chauffeur ” as he calls himself, dropped me off at the motel and later at he field.

Tasks have been set both A and B. The wind is tough and chilly , sun shines brightly and it looks like another blue day. Missed the briefing, but here are the tasks from the last day;
Open; 450 km.
18m.;346 km. 
15 m.;374 km.
So nice tasks with possibilities to loose or to gain points.
Just heard that new tasks will go out with a B/C task???[12.45]
They don’t change them straight away on the internet and I don’t have them so we have to wait what they are going to do now.

Yesterday was , as expected a non flying day. The weather was horrible, the temperature dropped from 44 to 22 and in the night even to 18 in Tocumwal. Their was a blowing gale and we really had to keep ourselves steady when visiting the most beautiful house of a friend on the top of a high hill in Wodonga.

The view and the interior.

The day before turned out to be a “ripper” ,though the day was cancelled in the morning, it was a very fast day,… but only for 15 and 18 m.
The day for 15 m. was devalued by the speed as Adam flew 324 km. in 2.02 ,so a speed of 159 km./h in the Ventus A. For that he deserved the highest points given this day;615.He started straight away at 3.02 PM.
Tim Bromhead from NZ started last at 16.27,finishing last at 18.02. But ,…he finished!!!!!
2 Out-landings one by Lisa,  she dropped from 15 to 20, a pity.
19 Pilots flew around with a speed of 142 km./h or higher.
Here is Matthew’s story written 2 days ago covering 2 days!!
—“It’s been a tough few days at the Nationals which has kept me from my blogging, but I’m back for now!
Yesterday we had essentially a distance task set that necessitated starting as soon as possible – I started at 4000ft on a day predicted to go higher than 11000ft. I pushed as hard as possible all day, risking outlanding around the task just trying to get as far as possible before the end of the day, and was lucky to be able to actually squeak around the task. (Un?)fortunately some who started behind also managed to, but no harm to the points.
Today was a very… interesting day. We awoke to a text informing us the day was cancelled, and then at 10am, having made our rest day plans, we got another text telling us the day was… uncancelled!? So we watered gridded and launched onto a booming trough for a 2hr AAT. I made some fatal errors but was lucky the right names also had bad days so no harm in the overall standings.-–”

Today they start with the knowledge that Matthew [6203] leads before Mac [6085] and Stephen with 5963 and Norm with 5764.

18 m.
had a 2.30 AAT last Wednesday with that peculiar weather and the peculiar decisions. Hungarian pilots don’t mind to fly along showers and fronts and used them as well as the GREAT clouds , to the fullest so they had a great day .Zoltan won with 401 km. in time 2.28. So a speed of 160,54 km./h. Bloody good!!!
Not a 1000- points- day “only”  800!!!
His mates were on spot 5 and 6 and Czech pilot Petr knows how to deal with that weather as well, he finished on 4 just behind Boerje from Sweden.
Tom [Claffey] was on spot 2.
That means that the number 1-2-3 are still Peter, Butch and Tom ,but Petr [5984] lost a spot to Zoltan, [5949], who was still on spot 6 after task 7; so a nice East European “fight ” here.

Open was cancelled that day and the opinions about it were “mixed”.
They know the overall scores well before they start today; Bruce [5695] , Andrew [5606] ,Ian [5394] and Scott and Ingo[5200]
Bruce’s view on today;
—“Wx, streaming from the south nicely!
Inversion – hence the poor vis.
This is a completely new air mass. .. If it’s from the south, not good, if SE, then can be good…..
Going to about 7k’. Forecast 25deg max, 27 to the north. Expected to stay blue. Maybe 6-8knts, nice only for a short period. Weatherman cautions us, but advises us to be optimistic!! 
(Luckily the tugs are all fuelled up for this afternoon, he says!!)—”

1.20:More later. They have not launched yet!!

1.45; They just cancelled 15 m. and 18m. class. ONLY OPEN WILL FLY today!!!

So CONGRATULATIONS to Matthew with his 2d BIG WIN this season. After becoming junior world champion he is now National 15 m. Champion as well AND qualified to fly the WGC next year here in Benalla.
Mac did well with a runner-up-position and Stphen is the number 3, bronze for him.

In 18 m. class Peter is the new National Champion and Butch and Tom have earned the silver and bronze.

Open class has just been cancelled!!!!! So Bruce is the new National Champion, after 6 out of 12 days in this class , with Andrew and Ian as number 2 and 3!!!

Congratulations to all.

Have to move here soon as at 3 PM,  the tables will be set.130 People have to be seated in this club house room, so it is sold out and it will be very “cosy” all together here.

Just a short note from my motel room.
Got some pictures from Mr. Du, who has left Tocumwal, for a few days to fly in Narromine again. One of his mates, a very fine pilot,  left last week, the other had to go home in a hurry after being in hospital for 3 days in Shepparton, with appendicitis problems.
Andrew was supposed to write more about soaring in China, but the translator unfortunately got sick. So only a picture from the Place they fly from and a link to www.loongwing.com 
Just to let you know!

    

That was the diary 2015/2016. Hope you liked it.
Back to the Wednesday-blogs soon.
Will make pictures tonight from the closing-ceremony and dinner ,but can only upload them when I am back home!
Tomorrow morning I will leave Benalla and a friend will bring me straight to the Airport.

Cheers Ritz