The OLYMPICS have brought euphoria in Holland, we are ALL sitting on an ” orange cloud”!!!!
After 3 days, we were number 1 on the medal list in Sochi [ at this stage on 4]  and had won each day a gold medal!!! AND, on 2 days even 3 orange colored men on the podium; gold, silver and bronze. Unbelievable! So 6 male and 1 female speed-skater, did more than we ever dreamed of. AND,….it’s not over yet!
We expected more or less gold from Kramer and Wust ,but for sure not 3 orange training outfits on the podium for 500 m. speed skating, among them the twins Ronald [bronze] and Michel [gold] Mulder.
Since the beginning of the Olympics , “we”  have now 3 times a clean sweep with 3 Dutch athletes on the podium , once in 1998 and now 2 times in 2014.
Last time in Vancouver we had a total of 8 medals and we beat that already now!!!!!
Not bad for a small flatland country with 16 million people and only  40 athletes in Sochi, most of them speed skaters.
That’s progression!!!! A fantastic staff of old toppers take the young ones by the hand. And success leads to success and those successes attract more young skaters and  the many ice halls we have here in Holland will be crowded.They all want to be Sven or Irene or Michel.
That’s how it works!
Yesterday , on day 4, another historic day of success with a bronze medal for the by the male sprinters, very inspired  female speed skater, Margot  Boer who just lives around the corner[about 15 km. from here] ,  on the 500 m. and also that has n’t happened before. ” We are in a winning flow”!!!!!

  

The first clean sweep in 2014 with Jan, Sven and Jorrit and 3000 gold winner Ireen.
Pictures shared on FB by Nick and Simon 2 VERY popular singers in Holland.

 

 

Ingo and Miro cruising last Sunday at 15,000 ft in Caproni Calif A21S, VH-GUB

Is n’t it great to fly beside each other instead of behind in a GLIDER? This is soaring too!!!!
Ingo estimated they flew for just over 500 km!!!!!
He was pretty busy as last week he also made the first flight for years on our old Blanik VH GXO, which was first hidden in an hangar since 2005, then restored and inspected by good old ” master in repairs”   David Riley and now is part of the fleet of the SRGC in Tocumwal.
Wish the old work-horse many happy and safe flights and landings!
Just received some pictures from Dundee, THANKS Dieter.

  

And this is soaring as well. Found it on FB , as it was shared by Tony Condon from the USA and the long story finishes with;

“ I open the canopy, but do not get out. You want to sit a moment, to keep the magic and not break the spell. You are reluctant to leave this link with ecstasy, your heart and mind are filled with reverence and beauty. This is soaring.”

airfactsjournal.com

Last Monday, Narromine, venue of the next JWGC,  was the place to be for soaring, with perfect soaring weather so late in the season and Hungarian guest Gabor used that weather to fly in the DISCUS a great 750 FAI triangle,  extended to 919 OLC kilometers.
Frequent flyer in Narromine, already for years,   is Unterwoessen- pilot Hans Raschke and he flew in the DUO DISCUS a 600 FAI triangle extended to 783 km. His comment;
” Last flight of Australian season turned out the best day.”
It must have been a MAGIC day as other pilots called it; ” Best sky I have ever flown” .
That promises enough for next year ! I have mostly been there in November and December but we see now that even in the middle of February Narromine is good. A nice long season over there!
Heard there were super-cu’s up to 12.000 ft. and an average lift up to 6 to 8 kts.
Some pictures from my archive; Narromine from above and clouds over Narromine.

  

Only 27 flights on the OLC last Monday and 23 yesterday , mainly due to activities in the USA from Seminole Lake, where they had a ” super-day” with clouds .
But…..Europe’s season starts in about 2 month as well , with a BIG competition at Nitra in Slovenia. Between April 19 and 26 , pilots have to be fully awake from their hibernation to compete in 4 classes against each other.
They fly in club, 15 m. and 20 m. [2 seaters] and open class.
At this stage 17 different countries have entered with a total of  114 pilots. The max is 150 with 50 max in each class, plus the winners from last year.Of course they have to enter as well.
That number is nearly reached in club class, where at this stage 48 pilots have preliminary entered.

No news on Sunday here, but yes there will be news on www.soaringcafe.com

Till then and enjoy your country fellow Olympic sportsmen and women as much as we do here!!!! There are so many fantastic sports with great athletes from all over the world.
And don’t worry we are ONLY going to win in the ADLER ARENA ,the skate-hall.

Cheers Ritz
on Wednesday February 12 and have a wonderful VALENTINE-day on Friday.

They had 2 magic competition days , then 2 days off and on Wednesday a difficult day for some.
Talking about the 48th Horsham Week.
Only for standard class it was a 1000 points day, with still  3 from 9 going ” aux vaches “. The other 3 classes had less points.
Last Thursday , day 4, was a good one again with a 4 hour AAT for 3 classes and 3.30 for club. In this class the Sparrow Hawk from Morgan won the day, with 336 km. in time 3.54.
1000 Points as well in 3 classes except for open where Tony Tabart won the day with 893 points.
The very last day, day 6 was a topper again!!!
15 m. had 565.8 km. and the winner was Gary in the Discus b with a speed of 131 km./h. Gary won this class with more than 400 points ahead on the runner up.
Club class  had a 404 km. task and the 2 seater Janus 18.2 m. was the best with a speed of 131 km./h.
By winning the last day they just were the best in the overall scores but VERY marginal as Morgan and his Sparrow Hawk only lost with TWO points!!!!!
In open class they had to fly 510 km.and Graig , from Waikerie, did so in his ASG 29 with a fantastic speed of 166.3 km./h!!!! He was the overall winner, before Tony Tabart in the Ventus 2CM, [154.2 km./h.] , who still is a top -competition- pilot at age ” over 70″ !

Most soaring places say or said goodbye to their guests but in Tocumwal, where they fly till Easter,still new guests arrive. 4 Japanese pilots are using the less busy season for flying and as they are not there to fly a 1000, they have enough time  on a good day to do something ” nice”.
After the cool change, the weather-cycle has built up again and they are back  in the low 40thies .
A bit more S. in Victoria , 9 spots are in danger due to fires and tough wind. That’s the less good part!
Also Bjoern [Norway] and  Kari [Finland]are still there.
Kari flew on Friday 766 km. Not bad for the LS 6, but a keen pilot in it!
Joergen and Brigitte [Denmark arriving from Stonefield]  as well as Roger, [Australia- arriving from Corowa]  fly with  their ARCUS   from Tocumwal now.
Our Danish mates flew yesterday a 760 km.,  declared FAI, which is a New Danish distance and speed records.
And Kari flew on the same day, in the LS 6 , 744 km. whilst Swiss Chris who was over for the weekend got his ASW 27 out for 810 km.[750 FAI triangle]

  

Car and glider in Tocumwal and Joergen with some friends from Stonefield, who passed by.
Great back ground, yes our old hangar!
Pictures courtesy Birgitte and Joergen from their shared diary.

Corowa has packed 2 containers and they are already on the way home. The last container will leave in the end of February so those pilots still have a few days of soaring fun.
Pilots still there are p.e. Pepe and Peter Zander who both flew on Friday just under and just over 600 km.Hans Juergen who flew the 1000 a few weeks ago, had 765k. on his OLC list now.
Yesterday they had a great day; Peter with 727 km., Hans Juergen 845 and Pepe 851.
Great late- season- fun!!!

 

Like Tocumwal , Benalla is open for club members and guests till late in the season.Also their pilots had a great week. Bob Nicholls [UK] is THE kilometer-eater over there and he flew yesterday 713 km. and today 642 in the Ventus 2CT/18m.

 

Still good flights from the training camp in West Wyalong with flights  up to nearly 1000 km!!!
Allan Barnes and Matt Gage are practicing for their WGC this year in Europe by flying together and both sound as if they are VERY happy with the co-operation.
“  Final day team flying with Matt Gage, we set a 750 km. triangle and managed to knock off Tom’s ancient speed record! 134km/hr, and we both took the same time to get around, down to the second! Great day, a lot of remote scenery and some stonking climbs.”  was Allan’s last comment.
Yesterday Chris Becek nearly flew a 1000 k in the ASH 26 [ 938 km.] and today Paul Mander in the ASH 25 a distance of  700 km. whilst the others were driving home in different directions, after a beaut week.
Other Aussie pilots coming to Europe this year are Matthew Scutter, Adam Woolley, Ben Loxton all 3 still very young. A tad older, Tom Claffey , Andrew Georgeson and Craig Collins.

 

I noticed on the entry list from Finland in the 2 seater class Heinz Weisenbuhler and Karin Schloesser. Good on them! They will fly the ARCUS.
Enough ARCUS gliders in this class also T and M, but also an ASG 32MI flown by the Austrian pilots. Interesting!
Finnish pilots Anti Lehto and Nikke Luukkanen,  who practised in Bitterwasser this season fly an ARCUS M.

http://www.wgc2014.fi/entries-2014-by-country

 

Karin ,Heinz and Hannah in Uvalde.

The French are already very busy promoting their GrandPrix and their PR is good. They keep coming with news and pictures and that keeps the attention as happens to the Finnish WGC .Good on both of them!
Here a great picture I found on FB and shared by the organizers of one of their TP’s . Ever seen such a great spot as TURNPOINT?

 

The Mont-Saint-Michel is in the turn-point database of the Grand Prix France 2014

LOVED the opening of the Olympic Games , certainly the ballet and though I have my own opinion about Russian Human Rights , for me that’s on the back ground now.
Our prime minister promised to talk with Putin and with human-right- groups among them the homo’s, which he did already. Hope it works but I am a bit skeptic.
And all that money!!! And the ” holy ground ” of the first people who lived and were killed there? Must say the Olympics have given us a better view on things we did know, but also we did not know in detail.

SPORT IS NOW FIRST ! And the Dutch are not only born on the bike,  but also on skates! Speed skating is in our blood and when we don’t do it ourselves,  we support  our heroes in orange !And how!!!!
Holland was more than happy, with the ” clean sweep”  we made in the first discipline in the great looking  skating hall.With a 1-2-3  and today at he ” place of honor”  3 Dutch flags and gold, silver and bronze  for the men of the 5000 m. , we can be very proud!
We even topped for a few hours the medal list and as a very small winter-sport- contingent , we should be very proud on that.

Due to the fact that it is the quiet in- between-time for soaring, I will write only on Wednesday for soaring.eu and on Sunday for Soaring Cafe. Just to let you know!

Cheers Ritz
on Sunday February 9 2014.

Horsham week, an annual notion.

When you fly during a competition in February, a few over 500 km. tasks in gliders as PIK 20, St Cirrus and  St Jantar , you can call the weather GOOD!
That’s what happened in Horsham during their special WEEK on day 2 with a 4 hour AAT in 15 m. class.
The Gawler, Stonefield,  Horsham area ‘ s,  all situated a bit in the W. still enjoy super summer conditions in February. Stunning good conditions up to 15.000 ft.

” Forecast blue, but trough made it to the east and provided the moisture, so we had cu’s to 15k with 10kts averages. great day.” was the comment from Craig Vinall flying an 18 m.ASG 29 in open class during these comps; 601 km. in just a few seconds under 4 hours , so a SPEED of 150 km./h.!!!
The 3.30 AAT for the clubbies was won on day 2 by a TWIN ASTIR flying with a speed of 110.5 km.h over 386.8 km.
Runner up was another 2 seater the JANUS 18.2 m.flying 421.6 km. and the  Sparrow Hawk from Morgan was on spot 3!
By the way Morgan won day 1; a 3 hour AAT .

But after 2 days with great weather and soaring ,they stopped for 2 days and continued today [the comps go till February 8] with 280 km. for 15 m and not all are scored but it looks like a difficult day.Some called it hot and low!
For todays scores you can look later at www.soaringspot.com

Not in the competition but ” just”  a nice flight from Gawler on February 2; Matthew [ Scutter] with 910 km.[811 FAI] One day earlier 792 km. busy, busy in the weekend!
” Long and slender glide from FL140 through a tiny gap in the rain yesterday. Fortunately very buoyant air all the way in.” 

   

As shared by Matthew.

Also the S. East had great conditions on the ” free”  Sunday and Brian Du Rieu flew from Narromine 987 km. in the LS 8.
When you drive from Toc. to Narromine you pass West Wyalong and yes the pilots having a camp/” outing”  over there  had some good soaring there as well. You don’t hear about WW,  too much so here an extra mention; 3 over 750 [2 over 800 km] flights, direction W.  by their guests from Bathurst and Benalla.
Also Allan Barnes [normally flying from Mc Caffrey Field in Queensland]  flew from WW and mentioned:
” First pair-flying flight with Matt. [ normally flying at Benalla in Victoria] 750km O/R to Boundary Bend. Great day.”

One of the active  former Aussie  JWGC pilots, flying in the 2009 JWGC  and 2 times National Junior champion is Nathan Johnson.He flew on Sunday , S. from WW,  from Temora in his  St Cirrus WL, 736 km !!!
Like Nathan , Grant is a member of the Wagga Wagga gliding club and he took his old Slingsby T-59d-Kestrel out for a “ride” from Temora; 805 km!!!
You can call that good weather INDEED!!!

Francesco from Corowa took the opportunity to fly their glider 3W for the last time through the Aussie skies as it is sold to a new European owner.
“ I have never been so high in Australia and it was my longest final glide ever. (152 km)” is what he said.
Is n’t that a real worthy farewell to a good glider.[ASH 31/18m.]
They put a picture on FB and on that you can see all the places I mention in my blog today as Wagga Wagga, Temora and the road via West Wyalong via Forbes ,Parkes  and Dubbo to Narromine.
Did that many times to be at the Narromine Nationals or just to visit friends over there!
Great satellite-picture Grietje! Thanks!

 

By clicking on the picture it will enlarge and yo can see a busy area for pilots from different areas around it.
Courtesy Grietje Bruinsma-Wansink

Bitterwasser , no doubt was the overseas place to be this season. Look at this,….. as published on their site:
719.348,46 flown Kilometer, and this, you will find nowhere in this world
236 flights over a minimum 1.000 KILOMETER
113 flights over 900 Kilometer
137 flights over 800 Kilometer
112 flights over 700 Kilometer
174 flights over 500 Kilometer
151 flights up to 500 Kilometer
10 Palm-flights and planting of palm tree
world record flights, national records flights and continental records

 Congratulations to the Bitterwasser- team,  a huge team,  but so to see all very devoted to their different jobs. Guess with these statistics next year will be even more busy!

copy from a great picture on the Bitterwasser site

http://www.bitterwasser.com

I am a HUGE fan of sport and the Olympic Games will have my full attention.

Belle Brockhoff , the 21 year old daughter of one of my friends, will compete in the fast-paced sport of snowboard cross at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Belle is the daughter from Bruce who in the past was a great Aussie glider pilot and  the winner of many Aussie Nationals and other comps and still a great mate!
I am going to check of course all snow board issues on TV, as some Dutch snowboarders will be her concurrent.
May the best win!
And a MUST for all Dutch people is looking at speed skating. That’s where our GLORY should be in Sochi.

To finish a link to a fantastic sportsman , hang glider pilot Johny Durand who  flew on January 18 2 world records on ONE day.
Here are the records:
Sub-class :O-1 (HG with a rigid primary structure / controlled by weight
shift)
Category: General
Type of record : Speed over an out-and-return course of 300 km
Course/location : Nullabor National Park (Australia) Performance : 71.28
km/h Pilot : Jonny Durand (Australia) Hang Glider : Litespeed RX 3.5 / Moyes
Delta Gliders Date :28.01.2014 Current record : 56.59 km/h (12.02.1998 –
Rohan Holtkamp, Australia)

Sub-class :O-1 (HG with a rigid primary structure / controlled by weight
shift)
Category: General
Type of record : Speed over an out-and-return course of 100 km
Course/location : Nullabor National Park (Australia) Performance : 90.41 km/h
Pilot : Jonny Durand (Australia) Hang Glider : Litespeed RX 3.5 / Moyes
Delta Gliders operated by Date :28.01.2014 Current record : 75.73 km/h
(09.01.1998 – Tomas Suchanek, Czech Rep.)

And don’t forget to look at the impressive link about Jonnies flights with great pictures and a flamboyant story.

http://www.redbull.com/au/en/adventure/stories/1331631648107/jonny-durand-boomerang-one-day-two-world-records

Cheers Ritz
On Wednesday February 5 2014.

Bitterwasser area as seen by Hugh Kindell.

The Namibia season was over on the 23d of January in Bitterwasser and also the 3 containers from Kiripotib  have left  and their gliders are on the way back to Europe.
It’s quiet in Namibia again and  all 3 resorts had a good season. I told you already about the excellent  Bitterwasser-season, now I looked at the stats from Pokweni and Kiripotib according to the OLC, as well.

Kiripotib was very busy in the beginning of November when the CHAMPIONS were flying there for 2 weeks. The organizers,  Ludwig and Wolfgang and all their guests,   were blessed with great weather so early in the season .
Pilots could fly several over 1000 km. flights  and other long flights , “students”  learned a lot and the Champions enjoyed sharing their soaring knowledge. And as the experiment/dream  worked from both sides  they continue in 2014.
In the end of their season, Kiripotib had a 2d spot on the airfields stats from the OLC with 84 pilots , making 521 flights and 372.090, 21 km.
Last year, 2013,  they had  47 pilots , making 370 flights and a total of 288.887, 36 , so this year was a great success, also for them.
The preparations for the 2014/15 season have started straight away and you can find the info on;
http://www.dolba.de/kiripotib_flying/index.html
For flying with the Champions;
http://www.rent-a-glider.com

Pokweni closed up in the middle of January and 3 containers were ready to sail back on a ship to Europe. This year they were number 3 on the list.
In 2013 they were on spot 5 with 52 pilots , making 458 flights and 341.672,91 kilometers .
This year they had 47 pilots, making 414 flights and 317,266, 23, which is a bit less  than the year before.
They had a couple of days just before Christmas , with a lot of rain but straight after,  some perfect days with in 3 days 19 x a 1000 k. and 3 even over 1.300 km!
To fly next season at Pokweni Soaring you can go to; http://www.pokweni.de/

The Molopo River, the border between SA and Botswana
Courtesy Max Leenders.

South Africa has been very active as well this season.At several places a lot of guests had happy times, flew comps or records or just enjoyed the skies of this beautiful part of the world.
Still have n’ t had time to go there but one day I will and combine that with a visit to the Namibia’s resorts.
What happened;
Gariep Dam was 4th on the OLC list, with 44 pilots , making 495 flights and a total of 297.655, 85.
Compared with 2013 the year  was a bit better , as they then had 42 pilots,  394 flights and 234.908,79 kilometers.
Since 2012 the airfield of Gariep Dam is , after 10 years, exclusively owned and operated by by Gariep Dam Aviation.  [Mr. Gunter von Versbach.]
So 2013/14 was in fact their second year and they did well.
http://www.gariepdamaviation.com

Douglas Back House was on spot 6 this year, with 46 guests , making 333 flights and 211.819, 48.
Not bad either, as they more or less ” belonged”  to Gariep Dam in the past, but started last year their flying from Douglas.
Max Leenders and his mates made some great flights and arrived home with 7 claims on Dutch open class records from Douglas and  as the organizers are not very ” busy”  on line with news, I checked yesterday on a 50 thiest birthday-party with one of the pilots who flew there.
He said that the Douglas area is VERY good for flying. This year they could fly and use the storms whilst others at other fields had to stay on the ground, or could not fly home as storms would n’t allow for that.
In 2012 Martin Lessle has moved his operations from Gariep Dam to Douglas.
(his business is still called GariepGliding / gariepgliding.com)

New Tempe Bloemfontein, very much loved by the UK pilots and ran by Dick Bradley and his team among them daughter Jennifer, had 36 guests who made 258 flights and 123.682,40 kilometers.

Some friends who flew at Tocumwal and later at Gariep Dam in the past , moved to another spot ; Kuruman Johan Pi. With a small group of people, who know each other well, they [ 13 pilots] made 76 flights  and 63.839,04 kilometers.

The list of the OLC will change of course when the European season starts.
When you are interested in MORE , I refer to the current OLC list .
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/airfieldRanking.html

 

Still great weather in the Benalla/Corowa/ Tocumwal area, with on Thursday a light wind , high temperatures in the low 40thies, lot’s of blue skies in the beginning, but a bit more up N. great cu’s up to 12.000 ft. and cloud streets up to 150 km long,  direction NW and the expectation of  over-development and showers in the evening to the S.!
Yarrawonga, not far from the 3 airfields had at 20.30 on Thursday evening, still 33.4 dgr. So the expectation for long flights was high even with sunset at 20.29 edt.
Remark on the hot weather from one of my young friends , Kait, in Australia;
”  Getting rather over the temperature updates. We grew up with the heat and it hasn’t changed. Living in the Riverina (and yes sometimes Melbourne) and complaining about heat is like whinging about sand at the beach or cold at the snow.”
Tocumwal .[NSW] ;
Kilometer -eater Stephan has flown in his LS 4 now  in 9 days, starting on January 20 ,1 x a 400 plus, 4 x a 500 plus [up to 592] and on the last 3 days 3 x over 600 km.!!![ up to 671]
Great to see Bjoern from Norway back in Toc. and Danish Joergen [and Brigitte] have moved from Stonefield to Tocumwal as well and Joergen started with a flight from 634 km.
Kari in the LS 6 WL,   flew a 600 k.

Corowa; [Victoria] Swedish guest Markus flew a very nice 750 FAI triangle in the ASG 29E/18m.
Roger Druce and his Brasilian mate Eduardo flew in the ARCUS M 780 km.; they loved the day but it was a a pity it started a bit late.
Pilots are busy with their last flights for the season, as the container will be packed soon and some gliders have been packed already.
They had some nice flights on Friday as well; Aussie pilot Terry Bellair flew in his DG 400/17 m nearly 800 km.[793] , no worries for him as he can bring his glider home himself.
Mac arrived back in Australia from Japan and flew from Corowa in his LS 8 straight away a nice 911 km.
Pepe  flew 844 km. in his ASH 31.

Benalla; [Victoria] Junior pilot Ailsa flew in the LS 8 a distance from 566 km.On Friday it was even 41 dgr. C and young Ailsa flew from Benalla now 816 km. [660 FAI triangle]
This year she also flew from Narromine a new record on December 16 over 500 km. record;129.29 km./h. .
The claim has been received and is awaiting finalization.

From the 46 flights on the OLC, 32 were from this area on the last day of JANUARY!
Reason to specially focus on it!

The 3 Czech pilots flying in Narromine [NSW]  each flew over 500 km.on Thursday.
AND in January a record-amount of solo pilots was counted at Mount Beauty.; 5 in one month. Congratulations!

And what about the flight from the ASK 21 with JWGC participant  Eric,  who flew with a  “60kg bag of gravel strapped in the back seat” ;  560 km.!!!!!Eric flew from Balaklava NW of Stonefield. In 2013 he was one of the Aussie junior pilots in standard class flying the ASW 28 from Leszno .

Some other news;  about a STEMME, flying over the Himalay a tn Jan. 23, capturing the first of many images that an international science team hopes will save lives.Here is the link when you are interested to this news on AOPA.

http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2014/January/28/himalaya-glider.aspx?CMP=ADV:1

 

Remember you can still enter for the 33d WGC in Finland for club,standard and 20 m. multi-seat-class till February 28!!!!
” Detailed schedule, pricing and other related information can be found in the Bulletin 1 published in the documents section. Please follow us also on Facebook www.facebook.com/wgc2014 and Twitter twitter.com/WGC2014.”
http://www.wgc2014.fi/

Finnish gliding Nationals 2014 will be arranged at Räyskälä 1st – 7th June (no reserve days) in club and racing class.
Competition is open for international competitors.
Registration opens 1st February.
More info at competition website www.rayskala.fi/sm2014

And to rent accomodation or gliders, tools or car’s, here is a link;
http://www.wgc2014.fi/for-rent

As I have been there a few times I can tell you it’s an awesome airfield, LOVED it there, the weather can be fantastic and the people are very, very kind. There is a camping area in the forest with clean toilets and showers,  also a nice motel with roomy rooms and of course several sauna’s with the lake behind it , with real cold water I nearly ” died” after jumping in the first time in 88. A small restaurant with good food is a place to go to in the morning , for lunch[crews] or dinner. The outside terrace in the front, with nice wooden tables is the place-to-be before and after flying as well as the lake for a fresh swim.
Sometimes there can be lot’s of mosquito’s but in fact only in 88 we had problems with them all the other years NOT.

 

  

1988 on the camping. We stayed at the camping too, just along the tennis court!
Pictures courtesy Kai.

Not a lot more news as it is getting quiet in our soaring world,  till spring and summer hopefully spoil all pilots with fantastic weather.
More news later in SOARINGCAFE. About the drought and the devastating impact it has on people, land and animals with a contribution from our soaring-mate Bruce Taylor.

Cheers Ritz
On Sunday February 2 2014.

What a fabulous PR tool this picture is! Found it a FB.
Use it straight away to maybe help them! The Magalies Gliding Club operates from Orient.
” Have you ever thought of becoming a pilot? Then why not kick start your aviation aspiration with a GPL – “Glider Pilots Licence”. Magalies Gliding Club offers introductory flights to those who are interested in learning to fly and conquering the skies.“

 

One of the last comps for the 2013/14 season in Australia is Horsham Week in Horsham.They start in 2 days and as I heard , it always is a fun competition with a serious touch. Rolf Buelther is the CD and 25 pilots have at this stage announced their arrival . One of them Morgan Sandercock, who flew in Argentina [Chos Malal] as member of the Perlan Project Team in the DG 1001M in November last year,  in the cold over the mountains, is flying now in the heat over more flat land and scrub in a Sparrow Hawk. Quite a difference! But ALL fun!
” A bit of a struggle” he mentioned in his comment,” not very high , neither consistent“. They had an AAT for practise!

The very last comps in Australia are in Goondiwindi [Queensland]  in the Easter weekend in April. And then it is nearly May and the European comps are on,… as in Bruno in France where the open class pilots and the 2 seater pilots “fight”  for the highest spot in each class.

The enthusiasm to welcome the new summer-season is GREAT. Here a message from Tucson Arizona.
“ First soarable day in 2014 in Tucson. I had to celebrate! What better way to finish the flight than with a double low pass and a smooth landing” .
The video from the LS 3 is on YOUTUBE and shared by Eric Redweik and lovely to look at. [LS- 3A Fine January soaring]

 

Not a lot of clubs nowadays have a CAPRONI . They do at the Southern Riverina Gliding Club and after some work the glider looks like new. Ingo made the  test flight of the Caproni Calif A21S and of course landed it safely at Tocumwal Airport.
After 11 years in storage, Calif is back! With 20.38m wing span!!!
By the way I got a very nice  farewell gift when I left Australia; a flight with Ingo in the jet-engined-Caproni!

Just to let you know; In 2011,  6 Caproni Calif gliders came together at Reinsdorf,south of Berlin.

  

Beautiful UB coming in from the West. On the background our former Sportavia  hangar, with to the left the camping area and to the right the park and swimming pool.

On January 26 , pretty late in the season but  still possible, as we can see, 4 x 1000 km. flights , one from Douglas Backhouse,   a 1000- FAI triangle and 3 from Kuruman.
Max, our Dutch record chaser, was all by himself . Over the last couple of days he tried with a co, several times to improve on the 750 record he had flown already ,  now he had to do it alone.
Just before packing the glider in the container he did it;  No worries; this time 153. 10 km. /h.
It seems that it was an exceptional good day! Perfect!

640 That day from Calcinate in Italy, by Luca De Marci in the Ventus 2AX,  is good too!

On January 28 a nice late 1.o88 k FAI triangle from Stonefield by Konrad Mayerhofen , one of the 2 directors of Fly Down Under and his co pilot;
” It is the longest flight from Stonefield and if all went well it was a continental record for Oceania for a free triangle over three points.”
Not even the best weather as they launched and had straight away a 15 kts Northerly on the nose. They struggled for 2 hours, had then 2 legs in the blue, but the last one with cu’s and extended their flight to 1.148.7 km.
Great effort!

More work, this Stonefield -flight,  for Pam Kurstjens- Hawkins, who took , as record officer for the Gliding Federation of Australia ,care of a lot of records this season.
There was a special mail from her as well about records and I share it with you just to let you know!

” When the Continental Records were introduced a year or so ago, someone at IGC prepared a list of minimum performances for the Oceania Region, based on the existing National Records for Australia and New Zealand.

Since then 2 records have been awarded to Allan Barnes, and several pending claims are in the system. These can be searched on the IGC website. http://www.fai.org/igc-records 

In order to see what performance you have to exceed to claim a Continental Record, you have to check the list of minimums, and the records claimed since that list was created. A bit messy I am afraid, but it is the result of a two-stage process. We will update this information on the GFA website in due course.

Pam Kurstjens”

Good flights that day as well from Gawler [655 in the LS8] ,  Corowa [713 in Ventus 2 CM]   , Tocumwal [598.99 in ASW 28] and Benalla [644 in Ventus t] and lovely to see Kari flying the LS 6 from Toc. and Richard the Ventus B2 from Benalla, flying first up to Wakool in the West  , Deni and Jerilderie and  over good -old-Toc. , where he flew in the past .

Australia is VERY BUSY with it’s aviation- future. A message from Schleicher’s dealer Bernard to the Aussie soaring population gives some clear views on what’s going on:

” Judging by two recent telephone calls there appears to be some misinformation in gliding circles 
on the latest Australian Air Force order for new training aircraft.

The following is fact – the rest is unsubstantiated rumours:

 

• ·         The Air Force has ordered 11 (eleven) Schleicher ASK 21 Mi for basic training of cadets
• ·         All of these gliders are self launchers and come with trailers
• ·         The aircraft will be based at four different training centers throughout the country
• ·         Deliveries begin in August of 2014 and the contract includes shipping, registration, 
  aircraft inspection, delivery and operator training

 

To ensure that the rumour mill doesn’t spread further let me point out that a previous order for pure 
sailplanes from DG was not cancelled. ”

When we talk about DG then here is news about them.
DG has send it’s first , from 6 DG 1001-CLUB training sailplanes to Australia just after Christmas and Tom Gilbert from T&J Sailplane Services  will be the one to take care of the import and registration and what’s needed more and in February this first glider will be handed over to the Air Cadets from the Australian Airforce.
The second glider has been send on the container now as well [end of January] from Bremershafen to Melbourne and then on a side-loader to Temora ,where Tom lives.
The gliders will be used as basic and advanced training of the Australian Air Cadets at different spots in  Australia.

 

 
The first DG 1001 Club ready for Australia,  as shared by  DG.

Just ” delivered”  my column for the March/April issue of Gliding International and I heard it will have 72 pages!!
The biggest they have ever done. And they settle for the new and latest  format for the future now.
And that is a great format !

More news next Sunday. CU then.
Cheers Ritz

 HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY 
to my Aussie friends.

Some ” HIGH”  news from my Greek friends . This week, on January 21 they broke an altitude-world record in a VERY SPECIAL way from Kopaida in Greece in the Pipistrel Sinus;

” Two days ago we made an interesting flight and we actually broke (paperwork and ratification pending) the 7.143 m. FAI RAL2T (2-seater microlight with thermal engine) world record.
The interesting (and gliding related) part is that we did it with the engine off for the last and critical part of the climb flying in mountain wave!
So, we actually broke a record for aircraft with engines with the engine off!”

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=3465695

Welldone guy’s!And ….THANKS.

   

Courtesy 4 pictures; Alexis and Petros.

   

 

With the WGC in Rayskala this year , I am pleased to see several pictures from their glorious past on FB. Great PR tools!
Love the pictures from Kai ,as you all know!  Here is the one from Rayskala [ sorry still don’t know where the umlaut is] from above. Lakes, trees AND the field and an old one from the restaurant at the field.It brings back fond memories.

   

courtesy Kai Monkonen.

 Not only for the juniors but also for ALL interested here is some news from the Aussie juniors.
And with the 2015 JWGC in Narromine,  ” around the corner” , please have a look and co-operate, I did too;

” The Australian Junior Gliding Club has decided to vastly improve our online presence. We wish to create an online source of information on all aspects of gliding, targeted at juniors (i.e. under 26 years old) but also relevant to the general population.

This short survey was created to discover what information the greater community thought should be displayed and where it should be displayed.

If you could fill it out and pass this link on to anyone you think would be interested (not just pilots), that’d be great!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BZ96PXJ

 

They continued there chase on records, from Douglas Backhouse, the Dutch pilot Max and his mate Edo. When a 750 after 2 hours of flying, was impossible  due to thunderstorms, they declared and flew in the Nimbus 4 DM another new Dutch record this time over 100 km. O&R  with 182 km./h.The finish was a bit special as in retrospect the thunderstorm was pretty close , Max mentioned. Here is another great picture , shared by Max.
By the way they set  7 new Dutch records in open class, a great ” harvest”. Yesterday they  flew 821 km. Edo is ready to go home, Max is ready to pack his belongings among them his precious NIMBUS 4DM.

   

A shower close by and a smiling,soaring,ready-to-go- home Edo.
Thanks for the great pictures guy’s!

 

 

Tocumwal  topped with a flight from Stephan  in the LS 4 over 505 km. the world-wide OLC list on January 23. After the heat they had a cool change and the cycle has to built up again.
It shows what a determined pilot Stephan is , already for years,he really loves long distance soaring in the glider[KYO]  he has in Tocumwal already for years and years.
It also shows  that there are less good days now world wide  and shorter and that a lot of over-seas pilots are back home!

 

  

Old friends visiting Tocumwal as Pepe and his Brasilian mate Eduardo Pontes. Ingo and Eduardo  had not seen each other for 28 years.
And active as always Dundee hooking on gliders.
Pictures shared by the SRGC and more pictures on their FB site.

Only 38 flights were added on that January 23, mostly from Australia, but also a few from Europe.
The mountains are active as Gerard Lherm showed with his flight in the Nimbus 4D,  from St Martin de Londres in France; 602 km. .
Yesterday he flew in the 15 m. Ventus B 708 km.
Also a flight from La Cerdanya in the Spanish mountains in the Duo Discus with 200 km. shows European activities mostly in wave.
And the first flight in the new ARCUS T over Vinon by Erik Borgmann was special too; 252 km but tough wind at altitude; 160 km./h.
308 km. from Calcinate in Italy in the ARCUS M from Aldo Cernezzi flying with Luca De Marchi shows activities there as well. They even had lift up to 4 m./s. Not bad!
And specially to achieve your height-gain as first 3000 and 5000 Aosta is active.

Bitterwasser has packed it’s containers on the 23d and for them the season is over! The containers leave tomorrow for their trip home to Germany.
They had a fabulous season with very strong weather but with that also some very strong thunderstorms  and even worse …phenomena as micro bursts . Luckily all went well for all pilots, not for all gliders, as you really have to be inside in time, with that kind of weather!
They are very open on their site about this and I appreciate that as former owner of a soaring-business as only then pilots can learn from it.
With 134 guests adding their flights on the OLC , they made 913 flights and an amazing amount of kilometers;
710.940, 28. This is 162.621  km. more as last year, when they had 103 guests. So they still grow in numbers! Good on them!!!

South Africa;
Gariep Dam is still active and flights were up to over 800 km. from there in the 25.5 m span Nimbus 3 T from Klaus Engelhardt.
UK pilots always love New Tempe Bloemfontein as their overseas destination and they are still flying at the moment, though they struggle with showers.
Kuruman had still 1000 km. flights yesterday , lovely to see how much Hans and his family and friends love the new ARCUS M. Pilots also enjoy nice flights from Worcester and Potchefsroom.
It’s weekend so a bit more busy.

To finish some more pictures from the fires close to Bacchus March in Victoria Australia last week, as shared by Joergen.

  

Fires on January 17.
Courtesy Brigitte/Joergen in their ARCUS.

That’s it! Cu next Wednesday!More news in Sunday’s SOARING CAFE.
Cheers Ritz
on Sunday January 25 2014

It’s the week of the long distances!
Looking back at the 1.300 km. race , I received the next message:
“Chris Woolley’s amazing 1250 Km flight from Kingaroy to Tocumwal via Dirranbandi on Friday 17/1/14 has resulted in a 1250 Km badge claim, 1 Continental Record claim, and several Australian National Record claims in 18m and Open Class.

 

Chris in Tocumwal in front of Eddies  hangar.
Courtesy picture; http://sportaviationtocumwal.blogspot.nl/

AND,…a very nice comment from Harry Medlicott  one of  Australia’s  grand old men in soaring via Jo.
”  Hi All,

My heartiest congratulations to Chris Woolley for his magnificent flight from Kingaroy to Tocumwal. He very much improved on the record I had held for 14 years and Ingo Renner who had held it for about the previous 20 years.

Records are made to be broken and it is very pleasing to see mine broken by Chris, who all regard as not only a good pilot but a very decent person

Harry Medlicott

Harry must be “far”  in his 70thiest now but still flies, nowadays in his ARCUS M , with his lovely wife Wendy.
Not bad either as he flew recently, a new Aussie 2-seater speed record from 140.67 km./h over 300 km.  in Corowa on January 16 !!!
Good on them and I can assure you they belong to the nicest couples in Australian Soaring!

Talking about Ingo….Not so long ago I told you about the  president of the Riverina Gliding Club in Tocumwal.He and his mates  are all from former Yugoslavia.
Look at how they “use”  PR tools.
Sunday 19/1/2014 they wrote;

” SRGC was visited by Montenegrian National TV presenter Mrs Dragana Mrkic. She had wonderful flight with our CFI Ingo Renner.”

Still very active ” our ”  Ingo!
Picture shared by the club.

Talking about 1.300 km. It nearly happened again this time a TRIANGLE and just not 1.300 but 1.256 [FAI triangle 1.207 km] by John Coutts from Douglas Backhound. Speed 138 km./h.
Another record for the Dutch boys Max now  flying  with Edo also from Douglas in Max Nimbus 4DM;
” Declared 1000km Out & Return @ 145 kmh. New Dutch Open Class Record!”
They extended the flight to 1.252 km.
It’s the week of the OVER 1.200 km. flights!

Great picture shared by Max during the 1000 km. O&R.

Yesterday they did not fly! Reason???
Have a look at the shared picture by Max.
The shower started out of the blue within 1 hour Max mentioned. Great picture!

Edo in front of the Nimbus 4DM and ” A CLOUD”!!!!

Brigitte and Joergen from Denmark enjoy good soaring from Stonefield but had a bad experience with the fires as well, which luckily turned out not too bad. You are on a nice, joyful soaring holiday and then fires come close and scare the hell out of you.
I know that feeling so good from when the Tocumwal airport was nearly hit by the fires and we feared for the old WW2 hangar with lot’s of gliders in it and no time to get them out, only the glider from Bruce Brockhoff who worked like hell , sweat on the face, it was about 45 dgr. and when he was ready to leave he could go nowhere as the streets around the hangar were surrounded by fire.
Then the wind turned and only the east side of the airfield was damaged. Tragic enough anyhow, as lot’s of animals got killed. Those fires close by are HORRIBLE!!!!

Here is the story from Joergen about their soaring holiday and I share it with their permission:

” Birgitte and I are enjoying the Australian summer and our nice new Arcus.

We have set a couple of new Danish records, dual seater 20 m. A 100 FAI speed triangle with a speed of 177,7 km/h, and a 300 FAI triangle with a speed of 145 km/h.
The 100 task speed also surpass the open class record.

The evening January 17, we got a message from the emergency unit, that the house position at Konrads address was in danger of wild fire during the night, so we should prepare evacuation. Our Australian neighbors packed and escaped.
We packed our car with our belongings, and watched the development. 
Luckily the wind did not turn to the south, so at 1 am we could go to rest, as the fire also started dying. Sadly a few homes were lost.

During the day we flew a short flight of 400  as a gust storm was predicted in the afternoon. We flew from one bush fire to the other, I have attached a few pictures from Renmark and further south of “Pyro cumulus” from the fires.”

  

  

 

After Stonefield they travel to Tocumwal to finish their Aussie holiday.

 

A good day for Kuruman yesterday where some of my friends spend their overseas time . A few 1000 km. tasks were flown.

To finish the blog some memories on that great EGC in Finland from Rayskala in 2005, where on day 1 a 1000 km. task was set by CD Silva, and……was flown by more than half the open class pilots.

On the picture Silva is in the middle [ with Katja behind him] and to his right is one person, Jorma, who ‘ s finger is out of line; that was the “boss’  at that time from Rayskala and as far as I remember the deputy CD then. To the right the president of the jury Peter and to the left the chief steward Dick and I was to the right of him as steward.

Maybe you don’t believe it ,….the the other picture is a glider on tow. Some pilots [I remember from the UK] straight away pulled up the wheel. Some , I was one of them, found that risky.
Great pictures from one of my favorite photographers Kai and placed in Rayskala -EFRY.

 

   

 

 With the Aussie hat tuggy Kari and behind him [l] Visa Matti.
And,…no not a wheels-up- landing from a glider, but a launch.
By clicking on the picture it will be enlarged.

That’s it , great to see Stephan back in Toc. as well as Jochen!

Cheers Ritz
On Wednesday January 22 2014

Up to 47 dgr. in Australia!!!! Fainting tennis players and helpers/ ball boys/girls in Melbourne a the tennis court,huge  fires in the Perth area, NOT good and sad to hear again 1 person was killed in those terrible fires.
I hated them when I lived in Tocumwal ;we had a few bad ones too.
But the change arrived on Friday!
On the other hand great flights in other hot areas nearly ALL over Australia !!!

Sorry have to mention Tocumwal again as Adam’s dad choose to fly there A DECLARED 1.250 k.from Kingaroy to Tocumwal,   a goal-flight and he made it! Finally he can see where his son in the past flew as a tuggy for Sportavia, only for a short time though, to make hours, as he was invited to come and fly up North and for him of course that was more important then, as he was trying to find a job.

Such a flight  in the Ventus 2 CM, that’s all the way from the East coast North of  Brisbane,  to about 280 km. north of Melbourne in the South.
As Adam said: ” It was, 1250km downwind dash via one TP. He over flew Tocumwal at 6000′ & continued on to Victoria, before turning around for Tocumwal!”  A great total of  1.299,52,…I call that 1.300 km!!!!!
13 minutes before last light he landed and flew the race , with a speed of 120 km./h.!

Adam helps you with this picture of the bearings.

More from a PROUD son over his dad!
Congratulations Dad, what an achievement!

Dad now has every badge from ‘A certificate’ to ‘1250km’, surely a first for
a platinum badge!?

Got no idea, but would Dad be the first Australian national pilot to
complete a declared 1250km flight in Australia?

Also good weather in Tocumwal and hot with 46.5 dgr. at 5 on Thursday…. 2 more 1000 km flights on Thursday and Friday from Terry in the ASH 26, the second one an FAI 1000 km.triangle! Far to the West and North, past Hillston and back home, good on him.
And on the Sportaviation site good news for their Japanese guests;
” Congratulations to Hiroshi,  who completed his Gold Distance and Diamond Goal  with a 300 km flight and Nobu  who completed his Gold height -Fantastic effort!!”

 

The Grong Grong Boys , such lovely men!
Courtesy Sportaviation website, where you find more pictures.

http://sportaviationtocumwal.blogspot.nl/

And Bob [Nicholls from the UK] flew another 1.100 from Benalla.
From Gawler Matthew set a declared 1. 250 as well, but over 3 TP’s,  hoping to use the cold air coming in with the ” change”   but, …the chance was too late. No worries he still flew over 1.000 km.
From Corowa I was pleased to see Chris[ and Linda from Monaco] flying there again as always during this time of the year and he flew 935 km. in the ASH 31/21m.
Lovely to see good old Roger in Corowa flying his ARCUS M with a Brasilian mate. He started too late otherwise a 1000 would have been possible he mentioned.
Still only ONE 1000 km. from Corowa this season , which I find a bit of a pity , as they have the same good weather and much better gliders as most pilots fly their own gliders there or rent GOOD/COMPETITIVE  ones!!
BUT,…there can be just 1 day and 10 or more pilots fly one.No worries ,..yet!
From Narromine another 1000 today by Czech guest Jan in the Ventus 2 CM.

 

Soaring day 6 from the  WA State Comps at Beverley was according to John ” a tuggies delight” .
” Westerly breeze strengthened during the day deteriorating soaring conditions. I pulled four retrieves out of paddocks in one hour ten minutes flight time in PA25 BMF.”
Pilots had a 2.30 AAT and conditions were tough with indeed a lot of outlandings.
Greg Beecroft won the day and Greg just put in a claim for two records set on 14/12/13 with a 1011.7 Km FAI Triangle at 120.74 Kph in his LS8/15m.

Standard class Australian National Records:
Speed Triangular 1000Km G.Beecroft 14/12/2013 LS8/15m 120.74 kph

15m class Australian National Records:
Speed Triangular 1000Km G.Beecroft 14/12/2013 LS8/15m 120.74 kph

After 6 days Greg just beat Norm in the overall scores with 6 points!!! You see State Comps can be fun and full of  excitement as well.
BUT…it was not over yet,……Day 7 and 8 had under 3 hour AAT’s and both days were a prey for Greg, so no secret who won the State Comps at Beverley; Greg [ 7241] , who really has a fantastic season, with Norm as a good runner up![7042]
A great 3d place for Daryl Mc Kay in a St Cirrus.
As John mentioned in his last comment:
” WA State Comps done and dusted! Hot Cross Bun won again with Captain Bloch in 2nd place. I did 20 hours and 104 launches in PA25 BMF, I don’t want to see the inside of a Pawnee for a while thanks!”

 

The Victorian State Comps are flown from Bacchus March and one of my mates TT, Tony Tabart, flies in the 2 seater class in his Ventus 2 CM. Strange !!!!????

But,…. Before I could check WHY he was in 20 m. class I got the next message;
” very very very hot!  Open class is classified 2 seater because there is a 2 seater competing.” So not too difficult!
5 Pilots in this class ;TT, flying his Ventus, then a Nimbus 2, a JS1 and a 15 m. Ventus b and,…a TWIN ASTIR!

Day 1 was cancelled . On Tuesday they had a 2 hour AAT and on Wednesday a 3.30 AAT, but TT was the best for the day and flew ” only” 190 km.It looks like the day was over-set!
Also problems with  JS 1  pilot Peter who missed Friday due to instrument problems and Tony had a problem with the undercarriage [collapsed at launch] . He still tried to fly the task, after repairs but, it was too late the weather- change had arrived.So all a bit difficult but nothing really important is at stake , just a nice state competition. On top of that they suffer from lot’s of smoke as well.
On the last day they set a task but it was COOL, after the terrible heat the cold change was welcome, but it was n’t good for the comps.The day was cancelled , so TT won over 4 days the double class!

 

9 Days during the 60 thiest NATIONALS [standard class]  in Argentina and here it was Lucas Goldenzweig , flying the standard Jantar, who was presented with the trophy.Lucas won 3 days and was on 4 days in the daily top 5.
Cristian Franzini was overall the best during the first 6 days but against the end of the comps he lost some 100 points a day and on day 8 even 250 and that costs. He finished on spot 6 in his LS 4.
For all scores you can go to www.soaringspot.com

Bitterwasser added more perfect flights even for them a bit late in the season. My Lasham friends have the time of their life . Roy flew another 1000 km in the 20 m Antares, Patrick as well but in the Ventus 2CM and Andy flew in the EB 28 already 4.
For Roy it was his furthest flight EVER; a declared 1.024 k ., extended to 1.112 km!!!
Can’t count anymore how many 1000 k’s Reinhard {Schramme} flew!But atleast it is clear in one look that he , after the ” wave -flyers” Jim and Jean Marc tops the OLC CHAMPION list at this stage.

 

Last but not least the reparation/repair of a DISCUS B by Maddock Composites, as you know the family Maddocks is a real soaring family and I met them at several junior comps on all levels, where Nick and Andrew were flying, everywhere in the world. Here is what they do in pictures as shared by them.

  

Nick and Andrew , when I met them at Benalla and the freshly painted cockpit controls from the Discus B.

  

Final undercoat on fuse and following the inner skin cracks.

  

foam and outer skin removed and ready for inner skin repair and inner skin and foam molded and ready for repair

 

 

Talking about weather and the heatwave in Australia, we here in Holland have a difference 0f 26 dgr. looking back at last year same period!! Bizarre! It’s warm now , cold then!

Cheers Ritz, off to be host of 2 guests for a few weeks and my grand kids are here as well since Friday.
on Sunday January 19 2014

The Andes OPEN 2014 , organised by the Club de  Planeadores de Vita Curas, started on January 6 in Santiago in  Chile, with 14 competitors among them toppers as Rene Vidal and Carlos Rocca Vidal,   but also overseas guests as Thomas Gostner from Italy , Juergen Wenzel from Germany and Phil Sturley from the UK.

With 7 out of 8 days the team mentioned on the last day:
” Well, our championship is almost done. With smoky days, massive Los Andes outlanding due to the closing of Vitacura and a “Los Andes Task” this has been a different championship. What has remained the same is the friendship among pilots specially with our visitors. Also the marvellous sightseeing during races over Los Andes mountains. And needless to say… the 140+ speeds… we love high speeds..”
Speed up to 148 km. for daily winner Carlos in a competition , this time on a set task of 374.5 km. , is good!
In the end the winner was; Carlos who won 5 days , the other days were a prey for Rene,  who was the runner up. Thomas was on spot 3 and Juergen on spot 4, all flying a Ventus in different configurations,  whilst Phil finished at spot 9. [ASH 26E]

 

More friends have arrived in Tocumwal and Ken from Japan is one of them.  I love his vintage gliders and I share one picture of one of them; The Olympia Meise. It will be 40 plus this week, so maybe great flights or too stable to have them, that’s always possible too.
” Poor”  tennis players at Melbournes tennis courts, they struggle with the heat as well.

Great picture from both the Olympia and Ken.
Courtesy Dieter.

 

It was not only HOT in the B [enalla]-C[orowa] -T[ocumwal] – area but also a bit up NW; Gawler had 44 dgr. C. and with that some good flights were set/declared by 3 pilots.
The ingredients for the day;  a trough , but also thunderstorms…..  and as Peter Temple said in his comment on the OLC, when he had to finish his 1000, in bad weather ” Final glide from 14500 feet helped.”
Peter had to abandon his declared task, but still flew a GOOD 1000, far up north over scrub and back.
As I heard they had had a big storm with lightning and fires and they had trouble flying around it.
The other 2 pilots abandoned their declared task as well.

 

3 Successive over 1.100 km. flights in Bitterwasser, for Wilfried and Luc  [ASDH 25EB 28] and 2 x 1000, in a row for Antti and young Nikke in the ARCUS. Great to see how very experienced pilots take younger pilots under their wings to share knowledge and happiness in soaring.
It’s mid January, which means the air can be already more humid and rain/thunderstorms can pop up as quickly as good cu’ s.
But whatever happens Bitterwasser had a great season , a pity for some who just arrived on less good days but that’s soaring too as we all know!

  

2 Successive 1000 km flights as shared by Antti.

 

The 60 thiest Nationals in Argentina are on in standard class with 36 participants among them Damian and Lucas Goldenzweig, Gustavo Saurin and Fernando Repicky. They started on January 6 continuing till January 17.
Day 1 and 2 had 3 hour AAT’s , day 3 a set task from 282.8 km.and day 4 a set task from 194 km. which was won by Damian with a speed of 115.9 km./h. and Lucas was on spot 2. [ 113.8 km./h.]
Till then each day had another winner!
Also day 5 had another winner ;Lucas and Damian were in the top 5 as well.
After 5 days the  first 10 were all between 4082 and 4397 points overall.

 

Beverley ; WA State comps
I left you with day 3 news from Beverley,a day Norm [Bloch] won and lead the pack after those 3 days .Day 4 and 5 were good ones with a 3 hour AAT .
Also in Beverley 45 dgr. C.
Interesting day’s  as well as I could read :
” Very convective day! Challenging final glide. Had to detour around lightening and hit 24 knts of downdraft.” [Paul Oakly]
After 5 days it will be all between 2 LS 8 pilot, s Norm and Greg Beecroft with a difference of  67 points as the rest is already more than 500 points behind!

 

FAIL, was the word Max and Marc used last week when trying a 900 km. O&R in the Nimbus 4DM. But last Sunday [ January 12] they added a new  Dutch open class record over the 900 km. to their list;144.20 km.h
They flew over lot’s of unlandable areas over 450 km. out of Douglas to the TP which was  Kgalagadi Tansfrontier Park and back, had some showers but with them they could increase the speed even more and to finish the day in style they added ” a few kilometers” ;1.100 km and…. back just before sunset so a full day of joy . Happy chappies no doubt about that, they really have fun together chasing records!!!! They flew yesterday a record  over a 700 km. O&R with 148 km./h.and on the 11th of January over a 300 km. O&R with 160 km./h.
Congratulations!Here some pictures from Marc during the  900 km.record-flight.

  

  

Great pictures from a great flight as shared by Marc.

 

When I wrote about records last Sunday in my SoaringCafe blog, I forgot to give you the link to the most recent claims.
A WORLD record is extra special and that happened on the last day of 2013 in Bitterwasser by Susanne Schoedel; a speed record in the feminine class over a free triangle [ 132.49 km.h. ] and world records over free triangle distance [1.110 km.] and triangle distance [1.107 km] !
Recent record claims are now on the GFA site and the 1000 Lisa flew in Tocumwal on December 20, was VERY, special too and flown , as she said, on not even the best day!Record as in  Oceanian, world,  feminine and general categories!! 23!!!!

Of course the GFA was more than pleased;
‘”GFA congratulates Lisa Trotter on achieving 23 Australian General and Feminine Records from her flight on 20/12/2013.
Claims have been submitted to FAI for 1 World Record and 7 Continental Records.” 
Here is the full list as received via Jo and it must have been a hell of a job for Lisa and the official, all that paperwork;

Standard Class Australian National Records (4 records)

Free Three Turn Point Distance                   L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,036.01 km

Free Triangle Distance                                   L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,027.66 km

Three turn point distance                             L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

Triangle Distance                                            L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

>>

Australian Feminine Records

Standard Class  (5 records)

Free Three Turn Point Distance                   L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,036.01 km

Free Triangle Distance                                   L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,027.66 km

Three turn point distance                             L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

Triangle Distance                                            L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

Speed Triangular 1000KM                             L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               102.73 kph

 

Australian Feminine Records

15m Class  (5 records)

Free Three Turn Point Distance                   L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,036.01 km

Free Triangle Distance                                   L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,027.66 km

Three turn point distance                             L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

Triangle Distance                                            L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

Speed Triangular 1000KM                             L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               102.73 kph

>>

Australian Feminine Records

18m Class (5 records)

Free Three Turn Point Distance                   L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,036.01 km

Free Triangle Distance                                   L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,027.66 km

Three turn point distance                             L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

Triangle Distance                                            L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

Speed Triangular 1000KM                             L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               102.73 kph

>>

Australian Feminine Records

Open Class  (4 records)

Free Triangle Distance                                   L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,027.66 km

Three turn point distance                             L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

Triangle Distance                                            L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               1,026.78 km

Speed Triangular 1000KM                             L Trotter              20-12-2013                        LS8/15m               102.73 kph
As you surely remember both Lisa and Susanne flew the WGC in Uvalde in 2012.
Got a link to a local Australian paper  [Gympie Times] about the Tocumwal flight from Lisa as well:

“  Another experience not to be forgotten is the world record glider flight of 1027km by local pilot Lisa Trotter.The historic ten hour flight in December 2013 saw Mrs Trotter break a total of 31 world, national and continental records.

Introduced to the sport at a young age, the record setting pilot has conquered some of gilding’s toughest achievements.

“My father was an airline pilot and took me on a week long gliding holiday when I was growing up,” Mrs Trotter said.

“Funnily enough he wasn’t very interested in gliding after that week but I was hooked.”

“I had wanted to attempt the triangular distance record for some time and it was an incredible feeling of achievement when I knew I had completed it.

“I had done quite a bit of preparation so it was great to know all the hard work had paid off.”

And not to forget Anja [Kohlrausch]  who flew a few  as well from Bitterwasser.
And what about Jan Ritsma from Holland flying on January 3 192.7 km./h/ over 100 km. in the general class. He flew the record from Gariep Dam in a Ventus 2CT.[Category; D 15 …15 m. gliders]

Have a look at the great list of recent claims  at http://www.fai.org/igc-records

And to finish the story about Waikirie from CHAMPION Matthew Scutter as read in his blog and maybe you can help him to find a good glider for Leszno.

Matthew as shared by proud dad Michael,
with his third national championship trophy this season!

“ It’s been a great two week’s flying from Waikerie in the Club and Sports Class Nationals against some stiff competition and covering the whole weather spectrum.
We started off grovelling in the blue building up to a pair of 12,000ft cu days and finished on a very blue, very low day!
My key focus for this competition was minimizing competitive risk, trying to identify situations where it’s ok to take ‘big picture’ risks (starting early/late, breaking away from gaggles, choosing different tracks), and also judging when it’s safer to fall back and bleed a few points in order to stay out of trouble.
This is my last competition of the season so I’m now turning my full attention to WGC2014 in Leszno!
I am still evaluating my options with regards to gliders – if you know someone in Europe who has a Ventus 2(a,b,x), ASG29-15 or ASW27 they might consider lending out, please write to me!
The photo is riding the gust front off the storms down the guts of the trough on Day 6.”

As shared by Matthew.

Cheers Ritz, off to the Hague for the day.
On January 15 2014

Champions, YES we have them!!!. First of all of course from the Multi Class Nationals in  New Zealand .

”  the final day is over! 3 outlandings and some landbacks but all pilots home. Final presentation has been completed – a great competition had by all. “

Here the final results and CHAMPIONS in each of the 5 classes.

Mixed class;

1.	Steve Wallace	Aviation Sports Club	5310
2.	Tony van Dyk	Gliding Hutt Valley	4958
3.	Nigel McPhee	Auckland Gliding Club	4638

15 m. class;

1.	Steve Wallace	Aviation Sports Club	4979
2.	Tony van Dyk	Gliding Hutt Valley	4714
3.	Nigel McPhee	Auckland Gliding Club	4476

18 m. class;

1.	Brett Hunter	Tauranga Gliding Club	4964
2.	Terry & Co	Taupo Gliding Club	4778
3.	Gray / Dennison	Piako Gliding Club	4747

and open class;

1.Brett Hunter    Tauranga Gliding Club      53772.
2. Trevor Terry  Taupo Gliding Club            45223.
3. Bob Gray           Piako Gliding Club               4473

 

The 33d Nationals in Club and Sports class in Waikirie got their 5th , 6th , 7th and 8th day and I mentioned already the expectation for GOOD weather.

Day 5;
In the mixed class ,a 3.30 AAT and Matthew flew 444 km, but “used”  4 hours,  half an hour too much,  Butch  flew 433 in 3.37, whilst Peter Temple flew 429 in the ASG 29 [15 m.version] in time 3.41.
In club class the 4 hours were spend well by Don Woodward in the 15 m. ASW20 flying 389 km. in 3 hour 58.
The LS 4 from Tobias and the LS 3 from Terry , both WGC pilots in the past and maybe future, followed.

Day 6
a BIG ONE, as the mixed class got a 4.30 AAT and yes the well known kilometer eaters did their best; Matthew won the day with 640,5 km. with 142 km./h. whilst Allan and Graig from Mount Beauty followed with 611 km. with 135.8 km./h.!!!
After day 6 Matthew topped the overall list for the first time during this competition, but only with 80 points over Allan, who occupied the top spot for 4 days.

In club class Tobias Geiger [LS 4]  was on the top-overall-spot for 5 days, only missed out on day 1 when he was 2d. On day 6 he was 2d behind good old Terry in his LS 3, who added 1000 points to his total , making him runner up. Terry flew 494.2 km. with a speed of 123 km./h.Not bad for the old LS 3, but both pilot and glider know their way between Gawler and Waikirie.

  

Tugs and tuggies ready for the last couple of days.
Courtesy Robert Smits.

Day 7,
had another 4 hour AAT ,in both classes,…. yes the weather turned really good as predicted and….
in case there would be thunderstorms during the finish time, the organizers changed  the local rules for the day, to make the finish circle 10km .
In Sports class BB, John ” Butch”  Buchanan flew 667.5 km. with a speed of 158.8 km./h. in his 18 m. ASG 29. BUT,…he was not the winner of the day.Matthew got the 1000 points in his Discus 2 flying 631 km with a speed of 155.2 km./h. FAST DAY!!!!
” Matt left a bit later to try to maximize the effects of the convergences over the hills.”
In club class Adam, in the standard cirrus,  finally got what he hoped for ; 1000 points!!!He flew in 4.02,36 a distance of  521 km.[ speed 129 km./h.]

Interesting to see that Brian DuRieu was in the overall scores every day [except for day 1 when he was on spot 7 ] , on spot 6, very consistent flying in his LS 10.

Day 8 ;
“ All gone for the last time into a milky blue sky. HDL [ Tobias] currently leading the class was one of the last to launch. VN is not re-launching.
The last gate will open around 15.15.
The organizing team here have done a fantastic job with good humour and endless patience.
The task setting has been achieved in very difficult weather conditions with gust fronts, troughs and sea breezes to contend with.” as published  on  the GFA FB site.

So after a couple of fantastic days back to less good circumstances on the LAST day.
What would it bring?
First of all a C task for both classes; 300 for Sports and 250 for Club, later changed in a D task for club pilots [2 hour AAT]  in mostly blue conditions and a steady 15 kt.wind , so they all stayed more or less together, which , you would expect, should not change the results very much.
But,… Peter Temple just missed out on 5 km. to finish, missing out on 200 points on local ” hero” Craig Vinall who won the day in sports class.
6 From 16 finished on this last day.

In club no worries for Tobias , no stress either as he won the day. But for a few others ” something”  did not work on this last days , so indeed changes in the top, as p.e Adam lost nearly 170 points on Tobias and Terry 139 points.

The final results in the mixed class ;
1. Matthew Scutter in the Discus 2 with 6642 points and the new 2014 Aussie  champion.
2. Allan Barnes in the 15m. LS 8 with 6461 points
3. John Buchanan in the ASG 29/18 m.with 6276 points
4. Peter Temple in the 15m LS 8 with 6237 points
5. Brian Du Rieu who moved from 6 to 5 in his LS 10 with 5666 points.

The final results in club class;
1. Tobias Geiger in his LS 4 with 6813 points and the  new 2014 Aussie Champion
2. Terry Cubley in LS 3 with 6598 points
3. Don Woodward in the 15m. ASW 20 with 6294 points
4. Stephen O ‘Donnell in the LS 3 with 6103 points
5. Eric Stauss in the St Cirrus with 6072 points
6. Adam Woolley in the St Cirrus, the oldest glider on the grid, with 6013 points.
Swaantje was on spot 12.
Next year the National multi -class- Nationals will be flown in January in Waikirie as well .

After the comps it’s a long drive home, but as you see you meet friends on the road.
Courtesy Adam.

Bitterwasser; One of the Dutch pilots Luc Stalman, flies in Bitterwasser and flew 3 x1000 km. flights with Wilfried Grosskinsky in the ASH 25 EB 28.And yes,….???
The interesting point was that Wilfriend mentioned on January 8 ,that  never a 1000 was  flown  on such a COLD day in Namibia!
The trigger temperature was 21 and the max for the day 28!
CU’s  started already at 10.45, and good-working clouds.According to the boys it was an interesting day with a strong N Westerly and cloud streets till the border of SA. In the evening the clouds dried out and the last part had to be flown in ” the blue”.
Yesterday was according to most pilots another ” HAMMERTAG”
Quite a lot of friends are at the moment in Bitterwasser and even on a ” cold”  day , as last Wednesday, they flew between 760 and 900-plus km.
On the Hammerday  Andy with Lasham mate Hugh [EB 28] flew a 1000 and for Hugh,  at age 76 this was his very first!!!!!
There were 2 more FIRST 1000 k’s in Nimbus 4DM and ARCUS m.

Andy and Hugh after the 1000 k
Courtesy Hugh.

Lovely to see that Hans and Ronald topped the OLC list on Thursday flying in the ” family-ARCUS”  over 814 km. from Kuruman.

 FINALLY the weather turned really good again on Friday,  in the Benalla/Corowa/Tocumwal area with clouds popping up early and staying for the day except for some more Northerly TP’s, where it was blue!
With 826 km. [725 FAI triangle] in the ASH 26 Terry Ryan had a good day from Toc., and Michael who flew with us in the past already, is back on the old nest and straight away flew 781 km in his DG 600.
Back on the old nest is also very true for Klaus [Brand] ready for some nice soaring and also for the Danish boys Ib and Ole and their mates, ready for more Danish records.
Not to forget our Japanese mates , THE GRONG GRONG boys as we called them.In the past they tried their first 50 k. to Jerilderie,  300 to  Grong Grong  and 500 k;  Hiro and Takeshi, Hiroshi and Nobu!  We had flowers for them and they shared sake with us.
And as far as I heard Mac will follow soon as well. He already  travelled from Africa [Bitterwasser]  to Australia [Stonefield ,where he flew on Friday in the 22 m. DG 500  767 km.]

The 17 m. Kestrel flew from Benalla,with Charles Day in the cockpit 760 km. [740FAI trainagle] and Corowa , [very nice to see Kees back in Australia,] waited long and I waited with them, but finally had ….their first 1000 km. flight with Hans Juergen Lange ;1.018,54 in the Ventus 2 CM.
Also Saturday was a ” beaut” day with distances in this B-C-T- area up to 870 km. by Bob from Benalla.

Beverley;  ” Day One of the WAGA State Comps went ok, the fleet of 27 launched by the three Beverley Pawnees in just over an hour, 3 relights. Only one outlanding, 73 km out, aeroretrieve straightforward, GPS makes it almost too easy!” as written by John Welsh.
And,..
” Small milestone – all 3 tugs and tug pilots belong to Beverley Soaring Society at Day 2 WA State Comps. 28 competitors lauched in one hour.”
And,…
” Day 3 of the WA state comps, reached 42 C on the ground, early finishers reported FL130+, 3hour task, should be some fast times! 46 C forecast for tomorrow.”

Worcester; the Western Cape Regionals were flown there and finished with 3 out of 6 days.
The first soarable day had a set task of 436 km and was finished by 2 from the 11 participating pilots, each gaining just over 500 points.
Day 2 was won by Laurens [Goudriaan] who only had 27 points on day 1 , but could add 399 on this day.
Day 3 was a prey for Gary Whitecross and as he was with Sven Olivier a finisher on day 1 , he won the comps, with Sven as runner up and Laurens on spot 3.

Enough news for today. More in SOARINGCAFE later.

Cheers Ritz
on Sunday January 12 2014.