3 PM. On the tracking system it looks like the first have started so with a delay of 15 minutes some must be on track now.
You can follow the gliders at home as well: Livetrack24
As I heard trackers will be in several gliders in both classes today.
The crews and TC’s are sitting at the field in front of the club house or in the shade at the club house.

    

Some teams use a tent , some a tree.

3.15 PM; back later with the start times.
3.45 PM; ALL club class gliders have left for their 3 hour AAT. Early start by Dutch pilot Annemiek at 2.35 and 3 minutes later by the 2 Czech pilots. Last to leave were the Hungarian pilots at 2.55. The German team, with among them the overall number 1,3 and 4, left ONE minute earlier.
The difference between the numbers 1 and 8 is only 276 points!!!!

In St. Class they all left between 1.49  very early starts for the Polish pilots, with  the Swiss boys at 2.04 PM. and the last ones at 2.49 so an HOUR DIFFERENCE!!! Those pilots who late started were from Germany, Poland, New Zealand and the UK.
Overall number 1 Matthew left 1 minute after number 2 Robin.
The difference in points between the number 1 and 5 is 443 points.
Between the number 2 and 5 only 163 points!!!
Interesting , VERY INTERESTING!!!!
Now we have to wait!!!!!!

5 PM: We don’t hear much ,but we see the club class gliders on the tracking system in sector 2 and already out of it.
They fly at a height of between 600 and 1700 m.
Skies are VERY blue , not ONE cloud. It’s a bit of cool breeze, very nice.The sun is HOT , just hot and will be at it hottest at 5.
we wait and wait,…you know how it feels certainly on the last day.

The organization works VERY hard to get the closing-ceremony- evening ready.What a job !!!

5.10 PM; The finish- line -team just walks out of the door. “About 15 minutes ” I hear them say.
The first club class pilot could be back at 5.35 .
Don’t know how fast the St pilots are flying. Not long and we know the new JWGC champions!!!!

5.30 PM; still no news other then that TC’s working here this afternoon, have disappeared now, to their radio’s or team spots.
Club class is flying to sector 3 . James {Nugent} looks to do well with 239.2 km. at this stage and a speed of 99.9 km./h.
Nothing from St. Class, sorry……

5.45 PM; the first St class glider and Club class glider have announced their arrival; JB started at 2.19 and C2,Italian pilot Giacome in Club class. Heard F1 as well.
Keep an eye now on the scores. I will do too, it’s difficult to follow and they are very QUICK here with the scores.
More pilots are coming now!!!!!

5.55 PM. 8 ARE IN ! A little pause!!
Glider A  is loud and clear and his gear is down and locked good on him.Coming now.
XOW 5 miles.

6 PM;A1 is in MATTHEW,…he  is the NEW WORLD CHAMPION …That’s what they cry out loud over the radio!!!!
He did a great job and worked to this moment over the last couple of years.It’s all preliminary, so the official scores will follow soon. Many coming in , sorry I go out and look at them now.

6.10 PM; Sitting out side I tell Dundee that it looks preliminary that Matthew is the new WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPION.
A gentle man turns his head and says:” Is that true?? I am his dad”
So I congratulated him and he will send me pictures from his way to this title and a story.
He told me already that Matthew flew his first junior nationals in December 2010 with only 50 km. During the comps on the 3d day he flew his first 5 hours.
The only nav he had was a colibri logger giving him heading and the map.
Matthew started on the 19th of November with his gliding so he achieved a lot in a very  short time.

Yes he is a great talent and to be honest I EXPECTED HIM TO WIN HERE !!!!!!!
Today he flew together with Ailsa.

A very proud daddy with a friend.

 6.30 PM;With Robin at this stage on a preliminary 4th daily spot, he must be the runner up SILVER …..GOOD ON HIM!!!!!!
The team is not yet here.
Will look at the final preliminary scores from club class later.
It looks at this stage that UK pilot Tom Arscott won this class ahead of Philipp with around 23 points.
And the UK has on the last day a number 3 on the podium as well;Sam Roddie.
All preliminary at this stage.

Silver-medal junior CHAMPION ; Robin Smit

Here checking his mail and with crew uncle Robbie.

I leave tomorrow early maybe some more news tonight ,maybe not. It is pretty intensive to write here, but it was an absolute pleasure!!!!!!!
Special THANKS to Beryl Arnie and Sean.
Cheers Ritz

This great picture is shared by the organizers.

12.00 PM;

There will be a group photo at the grid at 12.15.

For those who are not on FB here is the day yesterday, as seen by Matt, one of the finishing pilots. Those UK pilots really have a fun-way of writing with such a lot of humor and self -mockery. Enjoy!

—” The crazy comp just got crazier. What a strange day! With an approaching front we had some more overset tasks bringing us back into the 30kt headwind. With the Club Class struggling to soar the organisation made the odd decision to give us a C task in exactly the same area as the B task but just 6km shorter. We already had a short window to complete it and this cut our time down by another 15 minutes while we rebriefed.

Anyway, we scrabbled around a bit off tow until the temperature picked up and we climbed up to 7000ft. Suddenly I found myself in a silky smooth climb and realised we were in shear wave. This took us up to 10000ft before the start and meant myself and a couple of Poles could glide out and round the first turn to sprint onto the downwind leg.

LAST FLYING DAY !!!!!!! Number 10 out of 12!!!! GOOD !!!!!! Updated during the day !!!

9 AM. Blue skies a pretty warm sun and a very nice cool breeze, as far as cool is cool here.
Good morning!!!!!
Hope it is a good morning for all as some I guess will be worn out after a late retrieve.
I hear some are retrieved NOW as I write. Arnie is already doing 3 !!!!!
Stories about the retrieves later, as everybody is very busy except for those who cam back home yesterday.
The BBQ party still had some people when I left the field yesterday evening and I am sure even more when I was in bed sound a sleep.

What a day yesterday!!!!!!
Going on track 10 minutes later then the very first pilots did in St class, resulted in a finish about 2 hours later for those who made it home.
A great day for the Polish pilots and UK pilots. Mateusz ,Jacek both 932 points and Matt with 930 flew with a speed of 138 km./h.over the 392 km.
The other 5 finishers ended all on spot 4 with 860 daily points.
The rest unfortunately was OUT but some pretty close; between 334 km. and what a pity for the young Danish pilot Simon just 5 k out, but still good in the points with 848 .
The overall scores on the last day look like this at THIS stage with the last day about to begin;
Aussie Matthew with 8.172 points, runner up Dutch Robin with 7.892 and German Sebastian with 7.750.
AND,…it’s only OVER when everybody has finished on this day and is accounted for.

In club class only USA pilot Boyd finished and got and most truly deserved the 1000 points.The runner up Simon [SM] from Germany just missed out on 5 km. but still got  955 points.
Boyd moved from 9 to 5 overall  and there are still possibilities for a few in this class as some might go for the ALL OR NOTHING.

   

   

Boyd explaining with hands and feet HOW he did it, looking with Tony and Adam with some kind of disbelieve at what just happened, congratulations from TC John and a special happy-chappie-dance by Boyd and Matt.
Got these pictures from Patrick from TEAM USA. Thanks Patrick.

Off to briefing now MORE later.

10.30 PM.
Briefing is over, tasks have been delivered and though some looked tired , they seem all ready for the last day of this outstanding JWGC.
I was pleased to be part of the best day, last Thursday and the worst one, yesterday.
I’ll take you trough the briefing:
—first of all there was a raffle with names  from the pilots in a hat . One would win an OUDI IGC system from over 1000 dollar  a t- shirt and cap. A loud YES, a visibly  and” hearable ” very happy Jakub from Poland nearly danced up front to get his prize.
AL SIM  from GO SOARING was the sponsor. They are also the dealers for NAVITER here in Australia. They sponsor junior gliding already for a long long time, which is appreciated by ALL. Also by me!!!

Picture from Jakub and Al  shared on FB by the organizers.

—the honorable mention was ALL pilots who finished yesterday.
—the daily winners were cheered on ,specially Boyd who got a long applause.
—the best height of the day yesterday was ;over 13.000 ft by LG/the biggest lift by SO 7.4 kts.
—the Safety Minute by Lisa was used by saying THANK YOU for the VERY high standard of flying by the young ones. She had seen worse at other comps. She reminded the pilots to drink enough and to maintain this level today.A day on which some might be more tired than other days.
—Jenny with the weather, mentioned that the cold front had moved to the NW and that it was pouring rain in Queensland.
Very blue conditions today with a light Southerly, expected climbs from 6-8 kts. , so a a pretty predictable day.
—TASKS; St class—-366.40 km, fixed task.
Club; ——3 hour AAT, B task 2.30 AAT, when launching should start later.
— first expected launch at 12.30 and gridding between 9.30 and 11.30.

 

It was not too bad with late retrieves yesterday,those who had to drive to the last TP from club class about 170 km to and 170 km. back were back before 11 PM. It was a good road and pilot Petri from Finland landed his glider just at the gate so at 10.30 they were finished with the job.
Several aero-tow-retrieves were still done this morning.
The Czech team has 6 pilots , 6 trailers and 2 crew members, so the logistic yesterday was extra, but it all worked out well. “luckily” 2 out landed very early and not too far about 45 k out, so it was clear they were picked up straight away. While waiting for news from the others they rigged the gliders and later with help of friends they managed to take care of the rest.
Luckily Radek and Martin belonged to the 12 finishers in St. Class. Good on them!!!!

   

Petri landed close to the gate but had some “friends” who were interested in him.
They look well on the pictures though Petri was a bit scared, the cows only curious.
retrieve pictures shared by the Sucksdorff-family.

 11.30 AM; before flying team USA had their team briefing.

As shared by Patrick from team USA.

More later in a new part of this Aussie diary.Lot’s of “kids” here as it is a rather late start.

——–

And with
3 finishers in St Class around 4.38 PM
and
a few….. 2 hours later
AND
at 5.45 PM first club class glider in AND the only one!!!!
USA pilot Boyd Willat.

3 PM; I had a look at the back of this club house and the front is about here , the wind is tough as you can see on the pictures.
the French definitely did start but are still not on the list. No worries it will be fine.

Looking South with the flags “rattling”

    

Looking over the club house to the East and looking North

3.30 PM; Well known faces arrived; Bruce Taylor , all the way on his motor bike, driving 5 hours through the wind and telling us there is dust everywhere and Lisa Trotter who arrived here by car.Lovely to see both.

In between the pilots are still going. Club class has the trackers and we can see a gaggle flying together and a few individualists.They are between 2000 and 3700 m. except for the last starter Karel Novak, who is at 249 m. ????at this stage.
Found out, when it stayed like that , that he must have out landed and that’s just confirmed after 45 km.!!
2 Czech pilots are “aux vaches” at this stage.
What will this weather do???

4 PM update;it seems 2 Swiss pilots have out landed as well,a total of 4 now, but not yet confirmed.
Some club class  pilots fly up to their last TP Quambone with one long leg of 144 km. to go to finish.We can see some lenties up North as well, but the “blue”  is nearly gone!!!The wind at the ground does n’t feel so strong anymore 10/11 kts gusting to 17.

Mark Rowe has arrived as well and I just found out HE built the hangar I visited this morning ,hosting the Dutch pilots , there you are.

USA pilot Boyd Willat seems “on the go”  leading the club-pact but still 90 km. to “home” at 2267 .

16.38; Glider M 9, very English voice , Matt Davis,  is finishing now. So STANDARD CLASS is FINISHING !!With him Y has arrived as well!!!And I is in too.
Both started at 1.50 PM.
Gliders come in nice high and still  water dumping.Wind is 10 to 15 kts on the ground and the pilots can nicely land in the wind, no severe cross wind or so at this stage.
Club class still working hard to make it home!!!

4.45 PM;At this stage serious- cirrus- overcast is “racing” over the field here, BUT, connoisseurs say there is still some activity under it. Pilots have been high , so high, more pilots must be able to come home.Energy planning, …not only for the finish and circuit but today also for a good final glide!!!
And indeed the 2 Swiss pilots out-landed in St. class, after 45 km.this is an estimated distance.

5 PM;the Czech pilots are already back from the retrieve and rigging the gliders at this moment.
Not a lot happening with incoming gliders, one has called for the weather.

5.15 PM; NO club class in yet , 3 St class gliders finished 2 Polish pilots Mateusz and Jacek with UK pilot Matt all were the FIRST starters. All those who started 10 minutes later are already half an hour LATE.

5.30 PM;NOTHING happened!!!! Still only 3 st class-gliders back.BUT,…it seems some club class gliders will arrive soon. The French and Danish TC’s were active!!! We ‘ll see.
According to the tracking Boyd Willat is only 37 km. out. Coach John walks back and forth.
Another st .class glider just landed long , so 4 in and 2 tuggies departed for a retrieve.

    

Beryl helping with the out landings and John waiting for the guests, it might be a long night!!!

5.45 PM; ZR, with Boyd Willat announced his arrival.Good on him. CLUB CLASS in as WELL. He landed here at 5.50. GOOD ON HIM!!!!
Several trailers are hooked on.
The 4th St class glider turns out to be PT; Thilo Scheffler from Germany, BUT,…he came back on a retrieve he flew 374 km. so JUST did not make it.
What a battlefield today.

6 PM; Arnie just went out for a retrieve by plane. Still cars hooked on trailers,…. ready to go.The French team with TC Benjamin are still at the field waiting, it might still happen for them.It’s getting more and more dark here.
7 Definite out-landings at this stage in St class and 8 in Club class.

6.30 PM; Just as we thought NOBODY would make it back anymore, there is on the radio L 9 [ st class ]who arrives and UK pilot Mike Gatfield is HOME.Good on him.Though he has not landed here yet.
Adam ,the CD mentions that a gaggle is coming and some sheer-wave turned up under the overcast.

6.45 PM;You would not believe this , we are surrounded by “shit” and through it , 8 gliders nicely behind each other came in. Some high and still with water!!! Some lower but IN. Most looked like LS 8 gliders, but you can find it soon on www.soaringspot.com
What a huge difference in time! First landing at 4.38 and now 2 hours later a second group arrives.
What a weird day and so different to yesterday.
2 Pilots are “hanging ” over the field after their aero-tow -retrieve, it looks they enjoy after such a long day the sheer wave.

Boyd got an applause and I just made a picture of the happy boy, but dinner first.Though……
Here are the pictures before dinner!!!!

A real happy chappie!!!!!

With Beryl and Tony looking at the result.

7.15 PM;

All pilots are accounted for Dutch pilot Robin was with the late finishers.
And here are the 2 HAPPY CHAPPIES , Matt and Mike, from the UK plus crew.

Too much adrenaline now, slowing down with a glass of white wine. Need that.
CU later or tomorrow  with more pictures and stories!!!!

———-

12.30 PM;

Club class just was allowed to left on track  at 12. 38 with their A task ;390.97 km.. Some are high very high,in a gaggle,  but Cirrus-firmaments are coming in,  the wind has picked up and 3 gliders returned to the field as they missed the connection.
Two are returning now as I write, also  for a relight.
I hear that the clubbies have problems to reach the start line due to the strong wind.

The St class got a new task;task C 391 km 

Several relights at the moment. St. class is up as well waiting for the line to open.
Skies over Narromine aerodrome are full of Cirrus now, the wind at this stage at the ground is still OK.
One tug stays at the field for relights if necessary.

Just arrived back at the field after visiting the Dutch couple  Evelien and William,who live here partly and built a house and a hangar in the new aviation development  about 8 years ago.They  have been so terribly kind to “offer space in their hangar ” for the Dutch juniors.Great gesture!!!!!
Lovely people as well, living the dream here in beautiful Narromine far away from the cold in Holland. I am a tiny little bit jealous!!!

 A Tribute to them ,to their life style and their generosity to the Dutch team.

   

Evelien and I and THE ULTIMATE spot to see the airfield!!!

Have to share with you the funny comment from Matt from TEAM UK from yesterday;
—“Another fun day out in the Standard Class. 630km at 140kph. Unfortunately some rude people went and did it at 158kph so we got a bit stuffed…

With 20knot winds and 12k cloudbase we tried to stay high, as on previous days we have been punished by getting low. Looking at the traces the faster guys went lower and got better climbs. Annoying but there you go. Weather this good is completely new to us so it’s not that surprising that we’re a bit off the pace.”—-

1.30 PM;St class line will open at 1.33 PM.
Just heard that Club Class pilots fight against a 61 km./h. wind at 1700 m.
“MISSION IMPOSSIBLE” is what a concerned daddy told me.

And here a picture from Katja, from Finland, as shared by her. Guess  you have not seen her before like this.

With the message:”  Wallaby liked the taste of my hand cream.”

While waiting, I got a message from Rick Sheppe who is in Dubai.
Here is our Dubai News: http://crosscountry.aero/wag
All of our news, photos, videos are there.
thanks Rick!!!

2.15 PM. Some concerned TC’s and parents today. Club has reached according to the tracking system TP 1 and their “lift” goes up and down.
Pilots have been send N., to avoid the cold front coming in from the W. Looking North there are good looking clouds and high, so they should be OK. BUT,…..the first trailer just drove out!

2.30 PM;The cold front is coming and as it looks that it will be quicker than expected.
In St. class the pilots departed between 1.53 PM and 2.18 PM.
In club class the pilots started between 1.05 PM and 1.45 PM. The last pilot starting was Karel Novak from Czech Rep.
At this stage the 2 French pilots show up on the start line time list as DNS, not started.
Will keep an eye on that.
More trailers are going on track, but the tracking system shows pilots are higher and higher.

More later in another blog.

9 AM;
“With two more competition days to come and good weather, the final results remain up for grabs;“is what Sean wrote in his daily blog on http://www.jwgc2015.com/
SO TRUE!!!!!!

Here is a quote from what he wrote about the Dutch pilots and there is much more on the mentioned site;
—“Robin Smit and Ronald Deerenberg from the Netherlands are the Standard Class joint winners of Day 9 with a lightning speed of 158kph over the point to point task distance of 631.46km. The two team members displayed incredible focus and discipline to muscle leader Matthew Scutter into third place on a classic Narromine day.” —

Ronald was very happy with the speed;”158 km/h over a 630km FAI-triangle”
Several people asked me :” how are those Dutch boys doing that?”
I don’t know , but I know they are both TALENTS!!!!!
They have impressed many yesterday with that glorious flight.

With very blue skies, a nice temperature in the early morning and young pilots ready to go it will be an interesting day again.
Gliders are moved to the grid at this moment and then we will find out during briefing, what’s happening today.

Yesterday evening the last gliders came in before sunset which is at 8.31 PM. 2 Juniors were picked up by a tug and flew in at 8.13 and 8.18 PM .Pepe arrived as well at 8.15 PM. He flew 899 km.

So the best pilots yesterday were;
St .class; Equal Robin and Ronald with 1000 points, Matthew with 999 points .
Club; French pilot Lucas,who had 2 great last days with 1000 points and USA pilot Daniel at 2 with Polish pilot Jan on 3.

More later.

10.30;Briefing is over.
The boys got their prizes. This was , as I heard from Beryl, the fastest- but- one -ever Standard class task in Australian history.Best speed ever was by Michael Sommer during the Gulgong Nationals ;159 km./h.
According to people who studied it ,the Dutch boys made their faster speed maybe better said” THE DIFFERENCE”,  on final glide with they seem to have flown with more than 200 km. on the clock.
But according to others they found the best lift , at the best time, as well.What ever,….they did a fabulous job!!!!!!

Matthew, Ronald and Robin, 3 HUGE talents!!!!

    

The boys waiting for their prizes and CD Adam saying nice things about them.

The best height was mentioned from yesterday; 12.892 ft.by W1
The longest final glide was 125.32 km.

The SAFETY MINUTE was short as Lisa found that pilots were flying safely.She reminded them again on being fatigue so on the end of the comps and on energy management for both the finish and the circuit planning.

The weather; STRONG winds today;270/15 g20 at the surface coming from the W. From the hangar we could see the cold front coming already. There will be a change of wind as well at around 5 PM.Temperature 34 dgr.C.
The official report:

—“After an honest racing day under Cus yesterday we have a complex day today. There is a front approaching with Cirrus, strong winds (20kts at 2000′, 30kts at 7000′ and 45kts at 10000′)
An early finish is also predicted. They have set racing tasks for both classes to the North. 391km for Club Class and at the front and 482km for Standard. Temperatures are forecast to drop after 2.30pm. So it will be a difficult day for all.—”

For tomorrow the last day they fore cast blue conditions with a Southerly tendency.

Tasks today;
St. class; set task from 482.44 km
Club class; 390.97 km.
First launch expected at 11.30 !!!

Some apologies as I spelled names wrong and made a few mistakes.
First of all Sean[not Shaun], Young is indeed the editor of the Gliding Australia AND the daily bulletin/news writer. A good one I might say!!!
Another John [Styles] is head of the media team.
Katja , very experienced by now, is in charge of the social media updates on FB and is the web master.
Thanks Katja!!!!
All the news is shared in the very best way and ENOUGH news as well. GREAT!!!!!!!

Some pictures from the room here;

Ole with his Danish team.

   

Jill from New Zealand, here as mother of pilot Alex and as editor of SOARING NEW ZEALAND.
AND
Angus Stewart technical IT expert with Hans [Raschke from Germany]  just behind him

BBQ evening tonight.Bring your own BYO

More in part number 10 later.

As I said this morning, my blog is just a private addition for my readers to the news from here , shared by Shaun and Katja on http://www.jwgc2015.com/
Katja is the webmaster AND the editor for the FB news on the official site.Shaun is the editor from  Gliding Australia and the head of the media here at this competition.

Before the juniors went up ,about 15 minutes earlier, 2 self launchers found their way to the skies. A 1000 for them maybe???

2 PM;the base is over 3000 m.now and close to 4000 m. and some of the club class pilots are close to the first TP. The thermals are SO strong that we, here  at the ground, have to keep the umbrella, the laptops and magazines, otherwise they would follow the gliders. Today’s legs are pretty long and it would n’t be too good if the wind would change too much and they would have it straight “on the nose.”

Looking at the tracking system the St Class flies around with 140 km.at the moment.

4 PM;The wind has eased, so might have the thermals here, but the “young ones ” are still very high I just heard. About to fly to the last TP in St class with 200 km. to go and some still at 3000 m.. You know of course that you can follow them via the tracking system.

The self launchers this morning were Pepe and an ARCUS. The ARCUS just landed back here, Pepe is still flying.

   

Look at the skies.

Some lift , I heard was as strong as 7.2 m./s. Unbelievable. 170 to 180km./h  on the clock with a St. Cirrus sounds like magic. It is according to a few I spoke too,  the best day till now!!!

They expect them back between 5.30 and 6 let’s wait and see.
Great to catch up again with the deputy CD John [Good] from the last WGC in Uvalde.He is the USA TC now here in Narromine. I recognized the face  and not till we were introduced again, I knew who he was. He sometimes juggled with 3 or 4 balls before the briefing started. A great way of relaxing.

With Tony [USA] myself, Dundee [Germany] John [USA] and Robbie [uncle and crew from 21 year old Robin]  from Holland.

Adam [Woolley] who has done a lot for several teams as in finding, car’s gliders and /or trailers was picked up from Dubbo by Garret [Willat] this afternoon.He was involved as one of the first organizers of JOEY GLIDE , the Aussie junior competition. I was very much impressed , a long time ago with junior pilots organizing their own competition under supervision of some who did it many times before.
Great concept.

Not long anymore and they will be back. Stay tuned!!!! Some blue “holes”  but still great looking skies. Anxious to hear the stories.

Just heard that some in St Class are 97 km. out and on final glide!!!!!!!!

By the way the first pilots to start in the club class started at 13.02 PM. the last at 13.31.
In St class ; between 13.12 and 13.37!!!

Petri with Liisa and Martti.

5.15 PM;
WELL……Aussie pilots Erik Stauss and young 17 year old  James Nugent in club class are back home . They were early starters at 13.05. James flies Terry Cubley’s LS 3, which after so many years nearly flies by itself.
So this glider and a young ACE are a very fine combination.

Annemiek just arrived she started at 13.02.So did Petri fom Finland.

5.30 PM; First st. class glider in as well, still dumping water. It looks like A 1, Matthew is back. He flew with a speed of 150 km./h. He started at 13.15, so one of the early starters in this class.

The 2 classes come in now more or less together.

“ZR good start” the video from Ingo flying the St Cirrus in Waikirie ,this glider ZR flies here and is in as well. ZR was on line with us for many years at Sportavia in Tocumwal.

For all scores you can go to www.soaringspot.com 

Those 2 Dutch boys in S.t class did a fabulous job today. 158 km./h ….. both Robin and Ronald got 1000 points for the day and I presume nobody will equal that.
In club class French pilot Lucas flew his LS 4 with a speed of 126 km./h. and to a preliminary 1000 points.

Happy Dutch pilots with friends!!!

Robin and Ronald today’s  1000 point-boys!!!

   

Tim, Robin and Andrew.

Sorry I just heard that I called Simone from Italy  a while ago, a girl. He definitely is a boy I heard so SORRY Simone.

Dinner tonight;

   

Salads prepared by the girls and BBQ by Arney.

CU  tomorrow!
Cheers Ritz

12.00 AM;
All morning news has disappeared, though it was saved and published!!!! Weird, very weird.
Some people have read it straight after I published it, but whilst checking their lap top, they showed me, it was gone there as well.
SORRY ABOUT THAT, will sort it out!!!
I just checked and the only “thing” what might have happened could be a technical failure!
Luckily the pictures are in this system ,so the story will be different but at least you can read what’s going on on the 8th day of the JWGC.

They are in the process of launching with 8 tow planes. The first launch was delayed with 10 minutes and was at 11.40.
Club class is up front for a 501 km. task and St class behind it for a nice long 613 km. distance.

Adam in front of the pilots.

   

Nick and Annemiek from Holland during briefing
and
Max Stevens from New Zealand as president of the jury and Rob Moore as chief steward.

I went to briefing at 10 and Adam Webb the CD welcomed all with a good morning and “You asked for clouds , you got them”, about yesterday.

The daily winners and numbers 2 and 3 in each class were asked to come up front to be cheered on and each could pick a prize from the table.

The SAFETY MINUTE by Lisa Turner , well known pilot in Australia, was mainly about ” managing the energy” and about some ground loops which were seen by the organizers.

The weather was done by another lady also well known here in Australia, Jenny Thomson.
She said that it would be a nice day with cu’s and Westerly winds. The trough is still hanging around and moving up and down a bit , it might even come back.Closer to the through it will be moist.
The day might finish with some spread out.
Temperature will  be 36 dgr. C.

The CD send them all off with the message that those who wanted to fly the diamond 500 task, they could do so and they should declare the task first and after passing the start line fly OVER the airfield.
And with the words “It looks like a proper Narromine CU day today.”

I had some news from Dubai as well;

The winner from the MATCH was Sebastian Kawa, runner up was Werner Amann and the bronze was for Tilo Holighaus.
The Discus gliders were shipped by St Auban to this event.

Pictures shared by Giorgio Galetto.

———

More after the pilots are back or when there are updates.

1 PM; The wind picked up very strongly. For a moment we thought that it was a thermal, but it stayed and got even stronger. One glider came back and landed at the ” bicherman” in front of us at 12.37. Don’t know who it was.
All other gliders are high up , it should be a good day.
They mention 3.5 m. lift up to nearly 3000 m. AGL. The base will even get higher.

Back with part 8 later. I keep them short now!

Wednesday 7. PM;

After a very good and easy drive between 9 Am and 4 PM I arrived here in Narromine with Dundee who introduces him self here as; Ritzy’s private chauffeur, so what do you want more!!!Can’t say anything else then that he did a great job driving!!!!
From West Wyalong till Narromine the skies looked brilliant,so we thought that it would be definitely a flying day. It was. The pilots just finished when we arrived at the AERODROME.

I have never been at a cat 1 competition where registration was so perfect, fast and friendly. Then we went to register Dundee’s car for a spot at the caravan site ; no worries either fixed in 1 minute; find yourself a nice spot under a tree.

Then it was a feast of recognition, so many familiar faces.Just heart warming. Narromine has changed so much that I had problems to find where everything is.
Tony [Condon team USA ] is my neighbor and the first I met here.

18.45; Dinner now. SALMON from the BBQ together with Butch and Brian [Hayhow] the coaches behind the till now pretty successful Aussie team and Shaun, the editor of the Aussie Gliding Magazine,who is very helpful and showed me around where to be and to go!!!He is in the same motel and I can drive up and down to the airfield with him, awfully nice.

19.30; Lovely salmon meal under supervision of Arney and Beryll. A beautiful thunderstorm passed by and I will leave soon with Shaun to the motel. Though I am tired I will try to write a bit more over there, when internet works. CU then,

As said….. minute by minute, but the most important part are the pilots and the scores and it is REALLY exciting!!!!!!Only 3 more days to go!!!!!

So I try to do that later. Stand by.

8 PM;Settled in,  in the motel, we stayed here 30 years ago as well and NOTHING has changed, very dated but so close to the field and very nice people, got a connection to internet and here we go.
Mind you this is not a regular blog but more or less a diary which is more personal and has gliding and more!!!
First things first; Just caught up with Swaantje. She looks fragile ,but also strong-[minded] . What an amazing lady she is!!!!!

The most important “other” things; the scores from today:
A short task today in St. class, as the weather was a bit unpredictable, with expected thunderstorms. By the way these showers hang around now with thunder and lightning and look at the skies.
“First launch 12.30 pm Club first, 2.30 hour AAT for Club, 2 hour for Standard. There is an approaching trough and a high chance of storms.” was the news shared by Australian Gliding. And,…
“Launching on time for A task finish circle increased to 10 km 1000′ maximum height limit.” 

   

This picture was shared by Liisa from Finland.

Not so much points to gain not so much to loose , but the top- pilots from this JWGC ,did a top- job today as well.
Daily winner is Matthew with 283 km. in time 2.04 ,32 and 630 points.
Dutch hope Robin, was runner up and moved to spot 3 overall with his daily 603 points. He is  only 6 points behind Sebastian overall now. [6.038 and 6.032] Matthew has quite a good lead , with 6.403 points, but as we know,…. it is only over on the last day after the last pilot has finished or is accounted for.

In club class a 2.30 AAT was set and some pilots who had troubles in the beginning of the competition had a good day today.In this class the number 4 overall, won the day!!!Phillip from Germany flew his ASW 19b over 282 km. in time 2.30 AT THE DOT!!!!!800 Points for him AND a FIRST place overall!!!!
Over the last couple of days Phillip moved from 6 to 4 to 1 overall.
French pilot Lucas had a good day as runner up and young Petri from Finland was all smiles, when I met him and his mum and dad ,with a 4th daily  place.
Getting our badge, we heard at the registration office, that Dutch pilot Nick had out landed,ouch,….but then….. maybe not,…some confusion but he was over the finish line in the finish ring and landed after that in a paddock close by. He was retrieved by one of he tugs. No worries a nice 3d place for him.He moved from 10 to 8 overall.

I am not a chauvinist, but I am pleased to see my Dutch friends doing so well. Mind you they get the advise of a TC , Ger, who brought home already 2 WORLD CHAMPIONS , Tim [Kuijpers] and Peter [Millenaar] and one of these world champions Tim, is here as well as coach.
And,…this weather is SO different to Dutch weather, but that counts of course for all European pilots!!!

What a huge load of experience these young ones all take home!!!

Well,flying day 7 is over,  off to bed now, early morning and briefing at 10!!!!

CU tomorrow.Ritz
By the way the 6 “boys”  in Dubai are having great fun as well as you can see on the picture shared by Giorgio!

Sitting here with a European team in the library. It’s raining out side and we had a good drop last night as well. Heard some thundery noise as well.It’s good after all the heat from the last days, it feels refreshing!
It looks like a non flying day here today, but you never know!!!!
I have seen worse circumstances in the morning and such a day turned out much better at noon.

   

With  Brigitte and Joergen from Denmark and Dieter Dundee from Germany we have an international table in the Tocumwal library.

JWGC.

Grid as seen and shared by the Australian team

In Narromine the great weather continued though they had to “use”  a C task yesterday in club class and a B in St class. It turned out to be a real AUSSIE day in St class.
In this class , the very good team players, Dylan Lampard and Matthew were the number 1 and 2 flying in a 4.30 AAT , in just over 5 hours but with 541 km. for Dylan and 527 for Matthew ,who was a bit faster so he got the 999 points, Dylan the full 1000.Well deserved!!!!
12 From 26 out landed  but flew just over and just under 500 km. and a few got penalty points for a not -too-good- finish- altitude.
After  6 days,  the overall scores are looking good for Aussie Matthew with 5.773 points, 5.510 for German pilot Sebastian Nagel and Alex Mc Caw from New Zealand is on spot 3 with 5.492. Only a few points less for “our” Robin Smit with 5.429 points.
Polish pilots Mateusz and Jakub follow with 5. 426 and 5.4 18.
Pretty exciting who will be 3d , though also in the top EVERYTHING can change.

In club the ASW 19 b from Robin Biesterweg from Germany, was the best with a speed of 96.99 km./h. over the set 360.51 km.
2 From 32 out-landed and 4 got a warning/penalty for their finish altitude.
The UK is doing a great job in this class.
In club class after 6 days the overall scores look like this; UK on 1 and 2 with Tom Arscott with 5.787 points  and 5.735 for Sam Roddie, both in St. Cirrus. Then 2 German pilots Robin and Philipp and then Jan from Poland.

The gaggle!!!!! Who is in the middle??????
As shared by many.

They have a RESTDAY today!!!!
Here is what number 1-at-this-stage-Matthew said about the day;
—“What. A. Day. The task was a pretty interesting 4.5hr(!) AAT, sending us deep into the trough with lots of associated high cloud late in the day, with a strong headwind to get back to Narromine. The Poles started first with teammate Dylan marking them, while I went with the bigger gaggle shortly after and desperately tried to catch them – unfortunately my gaggle didn’t play along and wasn’t interested in pushing hard, or taking the route the Poles did… the gaggle does as the gaggle does! Dylan fortunately(!) lost the Poles halfway around, and thought it was about time to head home and joined up with our gaggle. We were lucky with the cirrus and had some sunshine to push into the headwind going home, and *just* managed to scrape in over the finish from a 60km, dry, best LD glide in. Dylan did a great job and finished in first place for the day, myself a point behind. Half the class is scattered over the countryside (some just inside the finish ring), so international night was a bit quiet…
Totally exhausted after 7 hours in the cockpit two days running, so looking forward to the rest day tomorrow.” —-

Tomorrow I travel to Narromine to see it all with my own eyes!!!!!You can follow me from there!

 DUBAI.

Sebastian is o good in sharing stories and pictures so we know a bit more about what’s going on about our sport gliding during the FAI AIRGAMES in Dubai.
—“Today for the first time on the Dubai sky a glider appeared. They flew several minutes in front of the towering hotels and apartments in a hill lift. Then they had to leave to desert due to strong cross wind at strip pointing to the sea.” —
Great pictures as well.

WOW factor pictures, never see before, with Klaus Ohlmann in the glider!!!!
as shared by Sebastian.

Off to a nice lunch with former owner and wife from Bill Riley, Val.

Cu from Narromine tomorrow.

Cheers Ritz