With 2 regional comps, one in Lake Keepit Australia and one in New Zealand in Omarama , where the South Island Regional Gliding Championships are flown, we are going to the end of 2013. About 40 days and we “hit” 2014.
Last Sunday both comps started.
In Omarama they fly in open/18m. and 15m/standard class and club.
14 pilots in the first combined class , open/18m. amongst them Aussie Graham Parker flying the ASH 25 and on spot 7 after day 1 and  winning day 2 ;1000 points , even with a handicap of 114!
In the other class 2 young pilots we know from last years Australian National Junior Championships also  in Lake Keepit , Alex and Nick.They keep a blog and you can read their “adventures” on :
https://www.facebook.com/NzJoeyGlideTeam?directed_target_id=0
Nick won day 1, Alex was so unlucky to outland. In this class are 11 competitors.
In club only 5 and nobody I know.
For scores and more news you can go to;
http://www.glidingcomps.42.net.nz/sireg2013/day_results.php?class=opn&day=20/11/2013

 

as shared by Jill Mc Caw mum from Alex and editor of SoaringNZ.

In Australia , Adam wrote his blog and you can read what happened , looking through his eyes, at Lake Keepit on the first couple of days as he had to go back to work [as an airline pilot in PG];
” Couldn’t get any more time off work that wouldn’t jeopardise the CC Nats, Squad Week & the WGC next year”
https://www.facebook.com/W3Racing?hc_location=stream

Day 1 was won by Bruce, [JS1B/21m.] who thought he was slow during the 3 hour AAT, but he flew 387 km. in 3.23 and gained the 1000 points in open class , whilst runner up Jenny [ ASH 26E] flew 317 in 2.53. 7 Pilots in this class.
In 18 m. class , with 7 participants , it was David Jansen who won the 3 hour AAT in his ASG 29 E, with 342 km. in 2.39.
In 15 m. class an AAT from 2.30 and local pilot Jacques Graells won in the LS 6A.
In club Allan Barnes [LS1f] was the best flying 270 km. during an AAT of 2.30, flying 270 km. in 2.30 on the dot! In this class 12 pilots. Adam was 2d in his Cirrus 75.
In the 2-seater class 2.30 AAT won by Derek Ruddock in the DG 1000, 285 km in 2.48.
Day 2 was “scrubbed” due to the weather.
Day 3, bigger tasks but not for everybody easy.

With Adams message:
“Much better day today, 250-340km set. They’re playing it easy here today, because the weather looks BIIIG for Thurs – 750km big, not sure .”

Bruce one of the task setters on day 3, wrote:
” Today was forecast to start slowly, and end early. Indeed it did start slowly, but the early finish was not the problem. We set a task north to Bingara, then NW to Moree, which on a good day can be a wonderful flight. The slow start meant a careful glide into the hills, while things warmed up and strengthened. The real problem was out to the NW, as it was completely blue there and the wind seemed …much stronger. Most of the big wings came home with some hard work, but the smaller classes and clubbies had a real struggle, and there were about a dozen out landings. That means I will have to endure some jeering in briefing tomorrow. That’s OK, the weather tomorrow looks to be very much better, so I will simply send them far, far away where the grizzles can’t be heard! I think David Jansen had a good flight today. I was slightly slow on the home leg.”

Bruce won the day [ 362 km] and I felt sorry for Jenny who was 2d the day before and now just outlanded a bit over 30 km. from the goal.
In Club 256 km and Alan and Adam were the best. Adam went after, for a retrieve arrived back home at 2.40 AM without the glider;
“Couldn’t find it, or the access gate in the paddock during the night.”
In 18m. David won the day with 128 km./h. and runner up was Tom [Claffey] with 114 km./h. over 372 km.
In 15 m. nobody finished but the best performance was 197 km. from the set 308k.
Good old Harry [Medlicott] won the day in the ARCUS slow but steady with 79 km./h. over 254 km.

Day 4; today nearly 500 km in open class and won for the 3d time in a row by Bruce
In 18 m. also nearly 500 k. this day won by Tom and David “lost” only 10 points. After 3 days he is on top in the overall scores, with more than 200 points.
In club Allan is “the mini-Bruce” ,[ as in glider he has an LS 1-f]  also 3 wins in a row and more than 600 points ahead on the rest!

All scores you can find on; www.soaringspot.com, pretty interesting look at the club class today!!!

Hope to see a lot of friends on Friday at the Conference from the ZES , but I am still not sure if I can go there, due to personal reasons .
En passant I heard that dad Bert Schmelzer sr. gets concurrence from son Bert, as in writing books.
Bert sr. wrote a fantastic book about the history of gliding in Flanders , published in December 2009 and now in December , there will be a new book from Bert jr ;

“One year of gliding “

…. never stop exploring….

with the best 348 pictures from the more than 30.000 , with commentaries,  as we are used from him,  to combine it all. Looking forward to see the book, with 288 pages and  articles from Arndt Hovestadt and Daniel Rossier AND an interview with Tilo {Holighaus} with
” his vision on the future of gliding and the process of building high-tech gliders .”
As Bert said: “I really enjoyed making “One year of gliding” and, honestly, I am a little proud of the end result. I hope you like it!”

Bert jr. here enjoying a flight over the SAHARA.

You find  a preview, all the news and how to order the book [ from November 17 onwards ] on ;
www.bertschmelzer.com

By the way Bert jr’s FAI 1000 km flight “from Zurich to Vienna ” and back  this year  in the DISCUS 2B on May 18, is just recognised by the FAI . In that flight he set en passant, 3 new European records in 15 m. class. Busy as he is at the moment, he still found time to explain all of us a bit more, which is VERY MUCH appreciated.
You can read this in my Sunday Soaring café blog   www.soaringcafe.com , but here is already a small part. This flight will be also described in the new book.
…THANKS BERT:
“I prepared myself for this specific flight on May 18 for 3 years! I had to learn to judge the meteo-situations, analysed IGC files for days and nights to get to know for me known , but even more un-known areas to fly over in all kinds of weather, optimise de waypoint and task database and,…I had to fly as much as possible, in all kind of weather situations  .”

Above the Dachstein Area.
1 of the pictures from this 1000 km. flight.

On top of that Bert has a busy job as architect in Zürich, but you will hear later, that just moving to Switzerland from Belgium had a great influence on his soaring ambitions and achievements.

Yesterday was a good day in my old area around Tocumwal. Luckily the Corowa gliders arrived and they have started their season too.
Jos from Holland has 3 flights now in his ASH 31/21 m. from Corowa  one over 500 and 2 over 700 km., so a great start of the season. Pepe enjoyed even an over 800 km. flight.
From Tocumwal Terry Ryan , a real kilometre -eater flew in his ASH 26 757 km [ 741 FAI triangle] and Ingo in his Discus 683 [ 623 FAI km.]

I liked the next story, what about you? It’s all about Human Factors!

http://www.mentalpilote.com/why-are-gliders-pilots-more-intelligent/

Hope to see a few of you for a few hours in Eindhoven , if not I will be back on Sunday both in my European blog  and “in the soaringcafe”

Cheers Ritz
On Wednesday November 20 2013, nearly winter time, we have 5 dgr. now and MAYBE the first snow tonight.

The CHAMPIONS finished their jobs in Kiripotib and they and all their trainees went home with a smile and lots of new impressions, as I heard.
“Finally ten trainees participated and flew fourteen days. They all learned a lot, so we think our idea was a great success. Now we have to learn from this experience for the things to come. ” were the last words from the organisers on their site.

 

The last landing of FLYING WITH THE CHAMPIONS!
Courtesy;www.rent-a-glider.com

Looking back on the last days;
On Wednesday the forecast was GOOD, but turned out much BETTER then GOOD. ALL TRAINEES flew their first 1000 km., all 6 teams had an excellent day with as biggest distance 1181 km. and best speed 151 km./h. and a ground speed sometimes of up to 300 km./h. What do you want more!?
Ludwig in his Antares 23E showed again the potential of this glider. With 166,56 km./h. over 1029,72 km.,  he flow the best speed of the day.
“Remarkable is the speed on OLC speed, where the fastest 2.5 hours are counted, here he made 195.28 km./h. , 488 km in that time, not so bad. “As written on their site!

I am not a chauvinist but proud on my country,  as well as on my 2d country. For that reason I was pleased to see Marten on top of the OLC list on November 13. With Holger in the back he showed what he had learned in Kiripotib.

On the last day the weather showed his less sunny site, a day you normally would leave your glider in the hangar, BUT again no worries for the “students”. As the organisers said; ” We followed the target that our trainees had to show what they learned, so they had to fly on their own with their champion only as a passenger.”
So they did! With a grand prix task and despite the weather 6 finishers.
As said a great concept, with pilots who have not enough words or superlatives to express what they experienced! That’s what it is all about in soaring,  is n’t it?
Here is a link to one of them , an Austrian pilot; Gerold Auerbach

http://www.namib13.blogspot.co.at/

When you are full of excitement as a glider pilot after a flight in a for you un-known area, something special must have happened. And that’s what I read in the blog from Ian from Mount Beauty, back home now down under, from his trip to Europe [ where we met] and Chile.
In Chile he had the chance to fly in a Duo Discus with Rodrigo and his host took the best out of the day AND flight for his Aussie guest. Here are some impressions I was allowed to share with you.
THANKS for that Ian.

—“Well. Today is the day. Rodrigo Lavanderos, Operations Manager of the Club de Planeadores de Vitacura, called to say that he had found a pilot to take me on a flight into the Andes – himself.”

Vitacura from above

—” We released at around 4,100 ft close to the western ridge of Cerro Manquehue and  after scraping the ridge for a while gradually gained height in ridge lift.”

On tow

—“We made our way north using mainly 2 to 4 kt ridge lift with the occasional thermal  sometimes averaging over 9kt and occasionally using “S” turns to gain altitude before  proceeding along the next part of the ridge. Passing through 10,000 ft it was time to put  on our oxygen masks. Our maximum height was about 15,000 ft. above some  wispy cumulus cloud.”

—“About 50 min into the flight we encountered quite a reasonable  thermal. Rodrigo thought that we  needed proof so that we  could exercise bragging  rights. So he took this  picture of his instrument  panel with his phone.  The picture shows an  average climb rate of 4.9 m/s or about 1,000 ft per  min. The OLC GPS record shows a peak climb rate in this thermal of 5.5 m/s—“

The partly frozen Lake Cuadrada

—” Maximum northerly point was 134 km north of Vitacura, and about 25km east of  Chincolco airport at a mountain called Y Griega (Greek Y) a bit north of Laguna  Cuadrada (the square lake, still partially frozen over] ). We then turned south at about 1 hour 55 min into the flight  at around 13,700 ft.
It was an easy glide back to Vitacura, averaging around 145 kph and landing there just  after 17:05 after a fantastic three hour flight.”

Ian [to the r. ] with Rodrigo

This weekend the NSW State Comps  started at Lake Keepit, always a good comp to follow:

Here is what Bruce {Taylor}  wrote about the practise day;
“Finally, back in the saddle again. I am at Lake Keepit for the NSW State Gliding Championships, starting tomorrow for one week. Practice day today, with a huge storm passing through early afternoon. Most elected not to fly, but I managed to sneak away just before the chaos. I escaped to the north, all the while thinking that it may well be a one-way trip. It ended up with a super flight to Moree and WeeWaa, climbs to 12,500 feet at 11knots near Moree, then a 115 km glide home behind the storm. Sure beats feeding the sheep!”

Adam { Woolley} was on his way to Keepit as well and when he has time he will update us on his site:https://www.facebook.com/W3Racing?hc_location=stream
“Had to pull over to take this panoramic, wall to wall of goodness!!
CU’s at 9000′ at least.”

On day 1 today and 1 day later than the picture, they had a change of task at the grid. The weather ” looks ok on the surface, though some of the locals here are talking that it may storm later on? In the distance you can see high cirrus of the trough, let’s see what today brings – hope we fly!”
NO results yet!

Courtesy Adam.

Just read; “Really interesting day for the beginning of the competition. Initially we set a task to the NW, but on the grid that area was covered by high overcast, so I pushed for a task to the SW and West. There were storms about, but not so violent as yesterday, and the task was challenging in places – great fun in others. Don’t know any scores yet, and won’t make any predictions, except that I think I was a bit slow. Enjoyed the flight.” by Bruce Taylor.

I wrote in my last blog, about the next 2014 Grand Prix ‘s and the final is in Italy , Varese in 2015. Marina , being Italian ,shared a document from Brian about Varese and I share it with you as it is about feedback.

—-“Class for 6th SGP final in Varese 2015

The bid for the Sailplane Grand Prix final to be held in Varese in 2015 was for the contest to be held in the 18m class, in previous finals the contest has been held in the 15m class.
After considerable discussion within the IGC bureau and with the contest organisers it has been… decided by the SGP management group to accept the bid for the contest to take place in the 18m class, with the condition that the change from 15m to 18m class is agreed at the IGC plenum meeting on the 7th of March 2013.
Changing the class for the SGP final may have an affect beyond the Sailplane Grand Prix events and we welcome any feedback or comments from any pilots who have a view on the most appropriate class for the SGP events.
Please address you views by e-mail to brian@sgp.aero
Brian Spreckley SGP management group—-

Talking about the Grand Prix the website from France for their 2014 Grand Prix is on line now;
http://www.sgp.aero/france2014

CU you next Wednesday. Cheers Ritz
On Sunday November 17 2013.

NOVEMBER 9 was the day for more dune-ridge-soaring in Holland cause the wind was favourite to do so.They started at 8, as the wind was forecasted to slown down after 1 PM.5 Different planes were participating and they flew 12 flights. Great pictures, here is one of them !!!

 

Pictures courtesy;https://www.facebook.com/philippe.hendriks.3/media_set?set=a.615741705150131.1073741829.100001429212984&type=1

To see the flights you can use the next link;

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/daily.html?df&sp=2014&rt=olc&st=olc&c=NL&sc

The CHAMPIONS continued soaring in Kiripotib with week 2 and on day 2 they flew a few 1000 k’s again. Organiser Ludwig got the best out of his new ANTARES E [23 m. and 850 kg.] and flew around with 165 km./h on the “clock” in weather with a base of 5600 m. and up to 8 m. lift!! Swiss “student “Hans, [with Janusz]  flew with a speed 143 km./h. Not bad .

 

Ludwig,  here still in the factory from Lange in his new toy.

Yesterday was good again, after a slow start of the day, pilots had lift between 3 and 5 m. up to 5600, with still over 900 k.

  

Ready to go. Pictures courtesy;
www.rent-a-glider.com

Also Bitterwasser added a -number-4-1000k-day, to their list.
Max Leenders started at Twee Rivieren in SA, {never heard from}  ;964 km. in his own glider the NIMBUS 4DM and 778, the only flights from there on the OLC, at least at this stage.
Pokweni had flights up to just over 800 km. whilst Danish  Brigitte and Jörgen flew for the first time in their ARCUS together from Stonefield , DOWN UNDER and loved the glider and each other.

Stonefield is not too far from Gawler and that was the place where Matthew Scutter had a great flight which he shared with us;
“—Finally flying the Discus 2 at home! Strange day. Abnormal to have such strong weather in a strong southerly with a max temp of 20c. Most of the day was below zero because of the low maximum temp and high cloudbase. Some nice convergences around, sometimes way out over the water. Feeling a bit robbed as it could have easily been an OLC 1000k+ flight, but due to much yakking on the radio too much on the first two legs, combined with old (and cold!) batteries I ended up like Voyager 2, every time my logger reported low voltage I’d pick an instrument to switch off (radio, FLARM display, spare logger, 303 nav, PDA, vario!!!). I finally ran out of instruments to turn off and still only had 8.3v on the battery so I jumped off the convergence and just made it home to catch the landing on the trace before the logger died.Still can’t complaint!—“

Convergence was clearly forecast (although I didn’t look at this before I flew…)

I mentioned in the past the Waikirie Nationals for club and sports class. This competition will be held between January 2 and 11 in 2014.This week the GFA added the next announcement:
“Due to a low number of entries the Sports Committee has decided to make the Sports Class at Waikerie a ballasted competition. So if you were thinking of entering but didn’t want to fly dry now you can enter and fly wet.”
Click here to enter;

http://clubandsportsnationals2014waikerie.blogspot.com.au/p/entry-form.html

Talking about Waikirie, last week , Graham Parker, flew in the ARCUS M already 700 km. The more or less normal pattern when we lived in Australia was, that spring started with good weather in the East in Queensland and then slowly the weather improved more to the South East, South and West.
But the weather is different now, everywhere! Poor people in the Philippines!

The IGC has announced the 6th series of FAI GRAND PRIX for sailplanes for 2014 and ’15.
They will be held in :
—France in Rennes, just received the message from Philippe de Pechy ;”Welcome to the Grand Prix France 2014!The registration will start soon.”
https://www.facebook.com/sgpfrance2014?notif_t=fbpage_fan_invite
—Italy in Varese,
—Spain in La Cerdanya,
—South Africa in Worcester, [18 m.] and happy pilots “Worcester (January 2015) is one of the venues” shared by Sven Olivier.
—Chile in Santiago de Chile,
—Poland in Zar,[ where Sebastian Kawa did the greater part of his basic glider training. He still calls it the best place for take-offs and landings] and
—Australia in Lake Keepit, where we can expect great finishes over the lake.
More info at ; www.sgp.aero

And to finish the mention of a soaring-symposium in Holland “Dreams of flight, Flight of dreams”on November 22 in Eindhoven at the Technical University , the last event of 50 years ZES and on November 23 in Lelystad in the Aviodrome a congress about PASSION FOR FLYING , the yearly event organised by Glider Pilot Shop.

 

Junior World Champion Peter Millenaar will attend both with his business MILLENAIR and shared this picture on FB!

You are up to date,  so till next Sunday,
cheers Ritz
On Wednesday November 13 2013.

Day 6 in Kiripotib was another 1000 km. -day for the CHAMPIONS! The trainees from Andy, Janusz and Holger flew them.
They changed pilots to “use” also the experience and soaring-knowhow, from the other top pilots. Great concept!

Andy explaining to his “student”.
Courtesy; www.rent-a-glider.com

On day 7 the weather was so-so, no worries ! With what they learned, the students made the best out of it. A regatta start over the field was set [max. 3000m. MSL] and a flat triangle from 430 km. direction North East, in the blue!
Ludwig could stop organizing for a day and jumped in his BRANDNEW ANTARES and won as they mentioned the day with 136 km./h.
The new team for week 2 had arrived in between and all news about that in my next week blogs. The new guests are from Holland [2] from Brazil, Germany , Austria and Switzerland. Unfortunately CHAMPION Stefano Ghiorzo was ill, so Ludwig replaced him.

Namibia pilots and “trainees”

Namibia, in general, was booming again over the last couple of days, with good spring soaring weather and also in  Bitterwasser the- first- 1000 -of- the- season was flown, whilst Pokweni had flights up to just over 900 k. As you know they had their first 1000 of the 2013 season on November 4.
The 819k [721 k FAI] in a not-open-class-glider [ Ventus 2CM/18m.] from Bitterwasser was good as well.

I am still “glowing” from pleasure; what fabulous flights on November 5 by Uys , John and Oscar from Potchefstroom. Uys and John flew the “normal” JS 1 and Oscar the 21 m. version! They flew to the South , passing places as Bloemfontein and Gariep Dam on their way to a fast and long flight from over 1200 km .with huge speed over and just under  160 km./h..

Oscar on an “old ” picture from my archive!

 Of course I checked with him if this was pretty normal.
“It is unusual, but with climate change I think the seasons are also upset. We normally have good weather in the central interior in November, although the days are still slightly too short. The longest day is only on 21^st December, so the sun already sets at 18h35 now. What made this day special, was the large area of relatively good weather, as well as the lack of thundershower activity. But I have to say that there are more of these days available for flights like this, we just miss them sometimes.”
AND
“What makes flying from Potchefstroom nice, is that we are a couple of pilots with similar capabilities, so we can get together easier to attempt these flights. The previous 1000km I flew together with Pieter Nouwens, was actually a very average day, and I would have abandoned the task if I was on my own.  ”

It could have been even faster,  as Oscar mentioned as well.
“On this flight I was not in a big hurry, and wasted a couple of minutes, especially
late on the first and second leg when we changed the task and I was looking for
new turnpoints to make the task longer. This distracts from the pilot’s
concentration and performance, I think. I also think what also makes a
difference is the performance of the new generation open class.”

Oscar has written a small account for a local aviation internet forum and I copied and pasted that for you with his permission for www.soaringcafe.com today.

By the way on November 9 Uys , this time with brother Attie and with John , did it again. As the proud club AKAVLIEG POTCH Gliding announced on FB:
“Potchefstroom one and two (and three if John uploads his flight) on OLC distance, and 123 on OLC speed.”
Distances just over 1000 [ 750 FAI triangles] , speed 135 km./h.
Oscar flew another 865 km task

Also at Gariep Dam and Douglas Backhouse  guests arrived for the season and the first flights have been added on the OLC. Max Leenders [ Nimbus 4DM]  from Holland flies from Gariep, as well as Uwe Thiele,[DG 808 c/18m. and from Germany];  both kilometre-eaters!

Down under the gliders have arrived in Melbourne,  so the COROWA- season can start soon as well! Planning; on November 16.
Last Friday George Lee showed he still “can do it”!!! He flew from his own airfield, carrying  his name,  796 km. [646 km. Fai triangle] with a speed of 125 km./h. in his Nimbus 4DM.
And also Gerrit Kurstjens had a great flight with 870 km.[ 688 FAI triangle]  in his Quintus. And Chad Nowak enjoyed a great flight in his ASW 20; 776 [772 FAI]  both members from the Darling Downs Soaring Club and flying from Mc Cafferey Field, called after Dennis Mc Caffery a great Aussie mate .
The HORNET flew with Michael Codling, 683 km. He set a 750 but unfortunately the first 2 hours were too slow, still great achievement.

In the USA ,Michael Higgins had a pretty difficult flight , but still enjoyed it from Mid Atlantic Soaring in the Discus b with 805 km.
He had a
–tough and slow start.
–no wave at Fairfield
— heavy snow showers to north.
–got stuck early at Harpers Ferry for an hour or more.
–scattered and unpredictable wave
But then there is the big BUT; “after climbing out of that hole, all went well — strong thermals, high bases, and good ridge.  — but it proved useful to the far SW.”

When you missed the absolute fabulous flight on September 29 2013 by OLC CHAMPION 2013, Jim Payne, with Mitch Polinsky in the back, you should read the story  and look at the magic pictures,[I published one below!]  written by and taken by Mitch on the next link;
http://soaringcafe.com/2013/10/a-magical-wave-flight/

Courtesy; Mitch.

In a way Mitch was a trainee as well. He learned from Jim not only how to fly but also to “go for it”.

Quite a few Aussie pilots flew this week, the SPEED_WEEK in West Wyalong. For Tocumwal pilots West Wyalong was the 500 km. out and return.
On day 4 Grant Johnson flew his KESTREL [ I presume this is “our” old one , later owned by  Richard Vincent, but I am not sure!] over a 382 km. FAI triangle [total distance 407 k.] with a nice speed , certainly for a KESTREL of  101.79 km./h.
On the non flying day with temperatures up to 37 dgr. overcast and storms , Ingo was one of the speakers. Narromine still further to the NE had up to 40 dgr.

Ingo. As shared by Anne .
picture courtesy Stuart Fergusson!

That’s about it for today. Will enjoy some time with my weekend-guests again and my Sunday-Soaring-Cafe-blog, will be published soon as well, with a nice resume of that excellent flight by Oscar.

Cheers Ritz
On Sunday November 10, one day before the CARNAVAL -season starts ;11.11.2013

 

 

The WARBIRDS – event at Temora airport,  was a huge success! Temora , a little town,  with a population of 4000 , hosted about 15.000 guests and that is something. It all looked great and inviting on the pictures, shared by Tom and Jane. Wished I was there too !
I share a few more with you;

  

The military Warbirds were there as well.
Below the F 18 Hornet and in formation.

 

 

And the Catalina and Caribou.
AND
last but not least the Super Constellation in full glory

  

South Africa and Namibia are getting more active as well.
As you know the CHAMPIONS fly and practise in Kiripotib and Janusz and his trainee had a good day on Sunday with 650 km.[ 591 km.FAI triangle] with a good speed of 115 km./h. Also Holger and his “student had such a nice distance. [both in ARCUS M and E]

 
Janusz and Holger ready for their flight with the trainees.
Courtesy www.rent-a-glider.com news.

Not far away is Pokweni where Axel Nuss and his co pilot in the Nimbus 3D flew 756 km. [ 631 k.FAI triangle] and Bitterwasser started as well with a nice 500 k in the ASH 25 , whilst John Coutts flew from Potchef also over 500 km.
It’s all happening again and it will be for sure a great overseas season.
Also the USA had a good Sunday for [ridge] soaring; 687 k in an LS 4 from Blairstown and in Australia 723 was flown from Mc Caffery Field in an ASG 29/18m.

 On Monday all 4 CHAMPION- teams set/ declared a 1000 k. That magic 1000!!!! Direction was Botswana where they expected CLOUDS , finally,  and a base of 5000 m. At 11 AM they were launched and at that time they had already 3.5 m. lift!
AND,….YES,[1147]  YES, [1111] YES ,[ 1072] YES, [ 1071 k] …they did it!!
Of course the CHAMPIONS have their 1000 k. , but the trainees might be over the moon with such speed and distance. That’s what it’s all about!
What a great day for Ludwig and Wolfgang , the organizers from this event. AND what about SPEED!!!! 140 km./h. on the clock! Next step the 1000 FAI triangle! This time it was nearly 900 km. FAI triangle.

Day 5 in Kiripotib, looked promising as the weather forecast was perfect, but….the skies did n’t look like what was forecasted; cumulus congestus already in the early morning. No worries, for the CHAMPIONS and their “students”. And  as said , from difficult circumstances you learn more and you get a lot of satisfaction from it. The pretty heavy weather still allowed for flights between 500 and 874 km. and useful exciting and “why-they-are-there-for-moments” for the students.

Also the Pokweni Nimbus 3D flew over 1000 k. and Bitterwasser ” tuned up” to over 800K., whilst Gariep Dam guests flew up to over 600 km.
AND yesterday Potchef was HOT!!!
When Uys Jonker says in his comment “great flight”, it must have been an awesome flight and a booming day;”1.241,07 km { 1.126,09 FAI triangle} with 160 km./h. was the result.
Also Oscar [Goudriaan] and John {Coutts}  loved the day and all flew over 1000 km. FAI triangle. Oscar flew a total of 1.263 km with 161 km./h. and John 1.240 with 162 km./h. On the OLC you can see the amazing flights!
Those are the days!!!!

I am sure you noticed , like I did, the great flights from MITCH Polinsky in June, July and August from this year.
Slowly his USA records are validated and here is all the news from this in 2013 so successful pilot, I wanted to know.
” I’ve waited this long to send it to you because I thought by now that I would have received official confirmation of my soaring records, but only the first one is truly official (the other seven have been approved by the Soaring Society of America record keeper and sent to the National Aeronautic Association in Washington, D.C. for final approval). “

In any case, here’s his  report:
“In a six week period from the end of June until the middle of August I had
great fun and success flying my ASH 31Mi/21M in the Great Basin of Nevada
and Utah. 
During that period I broke eight U.S. National  soaring records in
the single-seat motorglider category, including  one of them twice.”

Here’s a summary of the record flights
(month/day/year):
6/29/13: Free triangle distance: 1157.2 km
7/2/13:  Triangle speed 1000 km: 133.77 km/h [surpassed on 7-18-13]
7/18/13: Distance up to 3 TPs: 1070.3 km
7/18/13: Triangle distance: 1070.3 km
7/18/13: Triangle speed 1000 km: 139.01 km/h
7/20/13: Triangle speed 750 km: 150.66 km/h
8/6/13:  Triangle speed 500 km: 156.63 km/h
8/6/13:  Triangle speed 300 km: 156.63 km/h
8/14/13: Out-and-return speed 500 km: 155.91 km/

“All of these flights were done from Ely, NV except for the last one, which was done from Parowan, UT.
Part of the inspiration for these flights was the remarkable speeds achieved by John Bally in his EB28 at Ely during the first part of June, several times exceeding 160 km/h for 1,000 km OLC flights (plus a notable 173 km/h for a 910 km flight). 
It was shortly after flying in the back seat of John’s EB28 that I started succeeding in my record attempts!”
What a perfect way to be inspired!!! Thanks for sharing, Mitch!

Also on Sunday; The New York Marathon ……   60.000  runners, amongst them quite a few Dutch, had to run over 42 km. One of the participating ladies was a young Dutch female glider pilot Maaike, who also was my TC assistant in Husbos  during the JWGC. She finished within 4 hours,  an amazingly great performance . The winner, a top athlete from Kenia ran the course in 2.25,7.

The Melbourne Cup stopped the NATION again yesterday. Fiorente won the race, but not everybody was proud this time , as one of the favourites , Verema, had to be put down after injuring itself during the race. NOT good!!
Poor  5 million dollar horse, he only lived 5 years.

That’s it for now.
Cheers Ritz
On Wednesday November 6 one day before my lovely daughter Inge turns 41!

The organisers from EUROGLIDE 2014 have published the track and this year it will be a distance of 2438 km. to be flown in the period June 23 and July 5. Here is the route  and you can keep an eye on it on;
http://www.euroglide.nl/news.php

“Starting from Eindhoven (EHEH) to Dahlemer Binz (EDKV) in Germany.

Then to the South West to Poitiers (LFBI) in France.

From there to the East, just North of the Massif Central, to Roanne (LFLO).

The following leg to Klatovy (LKKT)in the Czech Republic passes through four countries, France, Switserland, Germany and the Czech Republic.

The finish is in Malden, the Netherlands.

The total distance is 2438 km (clock-wise 2475 km). ”

A lot of pilots and crews are very pleased now, no HAPPY is a better word, as this race is more than popular!!!!Registrations just started from November 1 onwards and you can find all details on the site!
One reaction on FB;
“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH……..………………!!!!!!”

Junior World Champion Peter Millenaar is very busy with his own business MillenAir. Not long and he will be co pilot as well for Ryan Air. And, I believe Tim Kuijpers the JWGC Champion from Musbach is going to fly there as well. Young airline pilots they are now and as we all know a glider pilot mostly is a good airline pilot.
When you were just trying to find a good radio here is one of Peter’s  offers:

“Special offer this winter: Dittel KRT2 8.33kHz radio for only € 1099 instead of € 1142! Are you an aeroclub or group, ordering multiple radios? Contact us for a special offer and information.”
http://www.millenair.nl/shop/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&path=100&product_id=179

My Temora Friends Jane and Tom Gilbert will have a busy weekend:
“” Preparing for the big airshow on Saturday. Warbirds Down Under. 13000 visitors expected. Poor little Temora will be busting at the seams.”

Airbirds at Temora.
Courtesy Jane and Tom.

AND

this great “toy” a CARIBOU, the “war horse of the skies” and a retired part of the Royal Australian Air Force,  arrived in Temora , as well as a P 51 , P 40, Catalina , Black Hawk and more….

A Canadian built military plane, sometimes still used for bush flights.
AND
Last but not least
 

 

NOSE ART!!!! Great or not?
As shared by Tom and Jane with their permission.

He flew last Wednesday,  756 km.[735 FAI triangle] in the West of Australia [ from Cunderdin] and that means very early in the season great weather in a big area; James Cooper in an SZD 55. Good on him! The best flight in the 2014 OLC-season world wide till now!
More good flights; On November 1 Geoff Pratt, in the PIK 20 with 614.89 km.[ 599.3 FAI triangle] from Mareeba and Tomas Suchanek from the wave camp in KRNOV 527 km.  in an ASW 15!!!!
And on November 2 Jenny Ganderton set a 750, had to turn short , but still managed to fly  640,63 [631 FIA triangle]in her ASH 26 from West Wyalong. A 551 [ 402 k.   ] in a Hornet from Warwick is not bad either.
From Potchefstroom  in S.A. a great flight on November 2 as well; 761 km.[ 648 FAI triangle ] with a good speed of 133 km./h. by Uys Jonker in his JS 1.
AND,…you might have noticed the flights on the OLC , from November 1 onwards, from FLYING WITH THE CHAMPIONS in Kiripotib. More about that in my Soaring Café blog.

 In my last blog I wrote about the nice ridge-flight from Max Gödde in the LS 4, [Porta Westfalica] even topping the OLC list that day. The reaction on his flight from the OLC was a bit weird and nearly “intimidating”.
I translated the reaction which created a huge amount of other comments. Don’t have to tell you why.
“Hallo Max,
unfortunately you did not add a SMILEY with your name.
That is a real pity!
Even better; The OLC team was pleased with your nice flight,  but when your participation on the OLC contest would have been  accompanied by spending a dime, p.e. 9 EURO for the season, we would have rewarded that also with a SMILEY.”
I stay out of this,  but can only add that the OLC has been one of the better things happening in our soaring-lives. Let’s call it a “mishap”. Nobody is perfect.

Good news for pilots who are planning to fly [ maybe the Nationals] in Omarama:
This just came in from the President of Gliding New Zealand regarding airspace restriction removal. Great news from those flying North of Omarama.
” Yesterday it was formally released by CAA that the Mt Cook airspace change to class C controlled above FL 245 has been reversed and for the present time will remain uncontrolled . Probably till someone else wants to challenge it!  It’s been hard work but the outcome was worth it…  So go forth and use it to whatever height you feel like!”

More and more of my friends are buying or have bought the ARCUS!
Jorgen and Brigitte [Denmark] keep a blog about how they handled the first steps of this glider shipped to Australia. In Bacchus March they worked hard on the glider and trailer and oxygen was put in for the HIGH flights. Then it is travelling up to Stonefield for the first past of the soaring holiday. You will find them on the OLC. The last part will be in Tocumwal.

 

Trailers from Jorgen /Brigitte and Roger.
courtesy; The blog from J and B.

For more news, I will be back on Wednesday and today in Soaring Café.
Cheers Ritz
On Sunday November 3 2013, the day my last guest will leave , but new ones have announced their arrivals.

A vicious, fast South Westerly , the worst in 23 years, raced over Holland and damaged a lot on Monday.; balance at this stage 95 million Euro! And this will increase!
We woke up that morning with a CODE RED warning.
Still it cost the life of  2 people, one female 21 year old German tourist  killed by a falling tree in the heart of Amsterdam, just before noon, when the gusty wind up to 141 km./h. was on it’s worst, very sad.
And one more in the East where a young 22 year old male got a branch of a tree on his head driving his bike.
A lot of injured people [ at least 25] as well.
Trains , several planes [ about 50 departing-flights were cancelled but Schiphol could keep open 2 runways]  and boats stopped at noon and trucks were blown from the highway’s up North. Groningen and Amsterdam , both badly hit, advised people to stay inside.
At 13.40 it slowed down, FINALLY, I do not live too far from the coast and it was BAD here!
Worse even on  the Wadden Isles up North, with Bft.12  ;  151km./h.  [Vlieland] and 152 km. [Lauwersoog] , was measured and that NEVER happened in autumn in Dutch history. Around 3,  the wind slowed down there as well. Pffft….

Churchilllaan in Amsterdam , where the most beautiful old and huge tree collapsed blocking 2 important streets.

 

The canals in Amsterdam where we took a lot of our friends.
Courtesy;  Robbie Hiel via Telegraaf

The UK was  hit first with heavy rain and storm in the early morning .Then the storm raced along the coast of France, Belgium and Holland, [specialy the West and NW of Holland]  and also the top of Germany . After that Scandinavia , with Denmark first, knew that autumn had arrived. Several people died as a result of this nasty storm in France , Germany, the UK and Denmark
I tried to make pictures from the normally friendly calm canal in front of my house. The water was “flying” over the “waves ” even with white/foam tops, never saw that before since I live here, even not in 2007 when we had Bft. 11 here as well. Interesting!
But ……I was blown backwards, as the wind over the big open polder, was very strong .

Elke Fuglsang [OLC  and SoaringCafe] and Helge Zembold [Segelfliegen Magazine] have translated the book “Sky full of heat” from Sebastian Kawa, in German. They even created a special FB-site for fans  and,….you can even ask whatever you always wanted to know already from Sebastian on that site and he will answer you .

http://de.skyfullofheat.de/

An interesting wave camp in Czech Rep at KRNOV airfield.
www.wavecamp.cz
On the OLC I noticed some nice flights by Radek Krejcirik in his Discus 2; 813 km. and one day later 777 km. The camp , also visited by some German pilots ,started on the 19th and they nearly flew every day, with on some days good height and golden badges, but also long distance flights as Radek did.
This is an annual event at Krnov and on their site you can find the news from 2009, 10 -11 -and 12 as well.
You surely remember that young Radek finished on spot 3 overall in the Uvalde WGC with 10.526 points.

Some Dutch and Belgium pilots travelled over the border to Germany to enjoy RIDGE soaring. No ridge soaring in our flat as a pancake country, only a bit of dune soaring in October, so Porta Westfalica was the place to be/ to go to.
Here is the story from Alfred Paul,[ via FB]  one of the Dutch pilots;
“What a day, sharing gliding passion with good friends! Wake up 03.15 and departure from Soesterberg airport (Netherlands) at 04.30. Arrival at Porta airfield at 07.45 with already over 20 gliders ready for departure (luckily the towing row was nearly empty). Take of 09.05 and great conditions from the start. Wind SW with 65-95km/h around 500m. Great wave up to 2500m with wind speeds of 125kmh! Last two hours were difficult with several strong shower lines. After holding for 45 minutes at the Ith, I started the return with the last 30km through the rain! What an experience and day! Porta thanks for the hospitality”

Ready to go and racing the ridges from Porta.
Courtesy Bart Renckens.

My Belgium friends shared a link to their pictures and videos from Porta by Niel Deijgers , just have a look, great stuff.

https://plus.google.com/photos/114418656592856885872/albums/5939520368834868305?banner=pwa
And his blog update;
http://nieldeijgers.blogspot.be/

Yesterday a lot of  German pilots enjoyed those ridges and flew up to 506 km. [LS4] Also Rinteln gave ridge-pleasure and Reinhard Schramme flew 516 km.[Ventus 2cxa /18m]

Good to see the early-season enthusiasm in NZ already. Nice flights up to 515 km from Paraparaumi, Springfield,  Maramata and last but certainly not least Omarama.

The Alpine Flyer October 2013 ,from the Mount Beauty Gliding club is out and to be read at;
www.mtbeauty.com/mt-beauty-gliding-club

AND

From the Perlan Project I got the link to their latest news on October 28 2013;
http://old.perlanproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/The-Perlan-Project-Newsletter-May-June-2013-1.pdf

Last but not least;
Always love the Omarama picture/advertisement in Gliding International. The November-December issue just dropped on my door mat.
Interesting subjects as ;
—-gliding for the disabled …..”SOARABILITY” [ www.soarability.com ]
—-gliding in Moroco with a nice interview from Markus Geisen, [ who flew in the far past with us in Tocumwal together with the Wiesenthal family] with Bernd Dolba, who not only flies in Kiripotib, but also from Ouarzate. Nice to see Markus is the German Correspondent for Gliding International.
—-why placed the air forces of Australia the USA and Indonesia  orders for 20 DG 1001 gliders? by Aldo Cernezzi.
—–the soaring opportunity of a life time…….flying a glider over the highest mountains in the world, including the very first ever  flight over the Mount Everest . An expedition with Sebastian Kawa, who invites other adventurous glider pilots to join him in November and December 2013.More about this Himalayan gliding project in GI.
As always fantastic pictures from Maria, this time her double spread picture is from Baude Litt turning final at Perry this year.
And much more news . I liked the story from Robert Downe about the “Flying Coffin”. www.glidinginternational.com

Just back from Amsterdam, so a bit later than normal. A miracle that all trains were driving again after the storm, COMPLIMENTS to the NS,  but you could see quite a lot of damage and still a lot of delay but luckily not on my track.

Cheers Ritz
on Wednesday October 30 2013!

Back from a lovely autumn-break in the beautiful South of Holland [Brabant]

  

Of course after arriving home I straight away checked, what had happened in Kingaroy, as I found it an interesting competition and was eager to see who had won.
Thank you to Mandy and the GFA site for keeping us informed over the 10 out of 11 days, with some long days with nice long tasks just over 500 km.

On the one-and-only-non- flying-day!
After some rain it was cold even in Australia. With Ben and Adam and Matthew and more.
courtesy Arne Boye Moller.
“The warmth of the stove was a welcome treat after getting soaked in the rain. Nothing in the Australia Travel Brochure had prepared me for cold and wet in this country – but there it is”

I left you on Wednesday so here is the winner and champion from Standard Class and the last 3 days in this class;
WINNER and with such a marge [755 points] that you can call him the TRUE CHAMPION; Greg Beecroft from Western Australia in his LS 8 with 8783 points.
Runner up Matt Gage from Victoria with 8028 points also in LS 8. The last days they had to fly in soarable windows with a 2.30 AAT on day 8 and 9 and a 269 km. task on day 10 ,the last day and won by ……Greg with a speed of 128 km./h.!

courtesy Arne, with his text:
“Band of pilots enjoying the companionship on the walk back from landing to their vehicles after a long day in the cockpit. Refreshments, long tales and easy banter awaits in the bar”

Very pleased to see that Matthew [Scutter]  won the very strong 15 m. class and is 15 m. CHAMPION from Australia. He had to work for it, it was not so easy as for Greg in his class, but he did well, very well. Mac Ichikawa, [winning the last day 269 km. with a speed of 146. 3 km./h.] Pete Temple [ winning day 8 2.30 AAT] and Peter Trotter [ winning day 8 a 2.30 AAT] were in the race as well and they are all WGC pilots.
Matthew fought himself after 5 days to spot 1 overall and stayed there till day 10. Now he is not a real kilometre-eater, but also a great and still young NATIONAL CHAMPION. Like that!
Matthew [Discus 2] had 8084 points , Mac [ LS 8] 7943 and Peter Trotter [ LS 8] 7925 whilst Pete Temple had 7824 and finished on spot 5 behind Don Woodward.[ASW 20 C]

With Matthew to the left and Adam to the right.
Text and picture from Arne:
“The courageous and intrepid explorer team get caught out in heavy rain in the….right, rain forest”

 

Would Arne from Denmark be the winner in Australia?
No it did not happen in this combined open/18m. class. He was on 7 days the over all leader,  but in the end during the  AAT’s,  he lost points and the Aussie mates passed him. CHAMPION is Tom Claffey, [8566 points] who started on day 1 with this top position and finished with it as well.
Butch [John Buchanan ] won the 2.30 AAT from day 8, Arne was on spot 10.On day 9 with a 2.15 AAT, Arne was so unlucky to out land, but you have to have that experience in Australia as well when you fly there, such nice big paddocks [sorry Arne, that experience would have been better during practise ] but it cost him nearly 400 points and he dropped from 1 overall to 3.
On the last day they flew over 339 km. and look at the speed: 159 km. /h!!!! for Tom . Some pilots started at 11.32 the winner from the day Tom started at  12.45!!
Good “old” Butch, who already flew our glider in the 1985 Worlds in Rieti, was the runner up with 8430 points and Arne was on spot 3 with 8253 points.

 
Text from Arne;
“Nice big solid field with stubble. Lots of peanuts to be found among the roots.”
AND
“The Young family who welcomed me”

Congratulations to ALL pilots , specially the CHAMPIONS! As said a great competition even following it from home!
To finish some words from Mandy:
“The Queensland drought produced excellent soaring conditions and I think every pilot spent more time in the cockpit than driving to the event, which is not always the case. The competition featured 10 days of fast flying with conditions ranging from low and blue to wave and fast Cu days. The tasks were well set to make the best use of the conditions and to challenge the pilots. Scores came out very quickly, and the fleet was launched in 75 mins with efficient use of only 4 tugs.
The competition ran very smoothly thanks to Neil’s planning and delegation and I didn’t hear a single complaint. Thank you Kingaroy”
What do you want more!?

Arne has a lot of pictures on his FB site about his Aussie experience; Here is the link he allowed me to use to show you those pictures as well to those who have not seen them yet;
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202302586750374&set=a.10202286228661432.1073741836.1362547645&type=3&theater

What happened more?
Good old Ingo flew in his Discus 681 km. last Friday from Tocumwal and topped the OLC list that day. I liked the ” Ingo jokes”  during briefing in Kingaroy , he  surely appreciates them as well and not participating in comps anymore ,he is “still a bit there” on Nationals,  he nearly always won.
“Ingo Renner can rig a Blanik in 5 minutes”.
“Ingo Renner doesn’t fly Standard Class, he flies Awesome Class”
“Ingo Renner did a form 2 on a K6, it is called a Quintus.”
Ingo is still very much involved with gliding in Tocumwal and is the CFI from the Southern Riverina Gliding Club.

Last night we changed from 3 AM into 2 AM , so wintertime is back with huge showers and a rough wind changing into a real autumn-storm tomorrow. [bft.10 on the coastal areas]. Not looking forward to that, as you know I do not like too much wind!

Cu on Wednesday, a bit later in the day,
Cheers Ritz
On Sunday October 27 2013. For more news today,  you can also read www.soaringcafe.com

This early hot spring-weather creates great circumstances for pilots, but unfortunately also disaster for others in Australia!!
It’s weird to write about this great weather for soaring with a good competition as a result , when  more than 1000 km. South,  fires are” roaring like hell and destroying houses and nature including ANIMALS” .
Seeing Australia as my second home country,  it hurts to see what happens around the town of Sydney and those gorgeous Blue Mountains.
I feel for ALL!
For those who have no clue where these fires are,  here is a link I got from an Aussie friend and it still does n’t look good ,though there was a bit of rain, but today will be around 35 and a tough wind,  so extremely dangerous and people got the message to better “leave the area “;

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_content.cfm?cat_id=683

Looking back at week 1 in word and picture!

 

“315km racing task. Gone for a short sharp task today & save energy for a 500-600km task tomorrow”

“We only have 4 tugs, one is U/S and one has gone back home to DDSC for the weekend“.

“All home safe. Great interest in how A1 managed to blitz the field and come home so fast. It seems to be something like Stay high, Fly fast and don’t turn.That is he didn’t turn for 70+km on the first leg.” about day 5 winner , junior pilot Matthew Scutter.

” Yesterday Ben Loxton had a 7.1kt average climb”

” Blue sky this morning with Cus forecast for later. Briefing is early today at 9am to allow for an earlier launch. Rumours are of a 600km task to the South (usually South is blocked by airspace but it  is not active on weekends) we shall see.”

“All gone. 50 gliders launched with 4 tugs in 90 mins.”

These are all sentences I picked up from the GFA- FB-site to show you the atmosphere of week 1 in Kingaroy, with pictures presented by the GFA. It says more than stories, is n’t it? It also shows how smooth the launching is, how good the meteo and how involved all pilots are.

On Monday they continued:
ALL pilots had just over 500 km. With  NNE winds 10kts  and 28C at Kingaroy, NO high cloud in the task area,  that task should be possible.
25C was needed for launch height (4500′ QNH) 28C will give 8000′ also not too bad and  “Getting better in coming days.” even better, though pretty tiring.
Early starts from just over 11 onwards and indeed most pilots finished.
Matthew Scutter who is “HOT” won again! Speed over 502 km. was 129.3 km./h. Matthew spend his Aussie winter in our European summer and flew the JWGC  in that time, so enough experience over the last months for him and it SHOWS. Good on him.
CHAPEAU in this class for Steve McMahon ,who finished after 5.50PM in his Mosquito, 86 km./h. ,but he WAS HOME!!! Great effort!

Matthew with Sebastian Kawa during his check flight in Poland.
Courtesy Matthew.

136.5 km.h over 509 km. in 18m./open was n’t bad either. Ian Graigie in the JS 1 JET was runner up , just before young Ben Loxton who is really showing what talent he is/has. Daily winner;….with 136. 8 km./h was Arne from Denmark. Good on him!

 

Arne and Steve Wallace in Kingaroy.

In St class the 5th place was for NZ pilot Alan Belworthy , flying a DISCUS, member from the Tauranga Gliding Club. Visited the club when I visited NZ  in 2010, loved Tauranga and still love the view on Mount Mounganui.

Mount Mounganui in NZ.

She is on the bottom of the scores , but I am sure she loves every minute of her time in Kingaroy; Annemiek from Holland. She uses nearly 4 hours, where others only use 2.24 but,  who cares she sees more!
Where others have 125 km./h. in her class,  she has 71.8.  BUT…. she flew and finished over 405, 316 and 319.
On day 6 she managed to fly 462 km. from the set 505. On day 7 she only missed out on about 20 k. A pity!
She even was on spot 3 on the WORLD WIDE OLC list on October 19!And I am sure she learned a lot!

First time flying in Australia is pretty impressive.

On Tuesday, another day in soaring-competition-paradise, blue though, with 438 k in 18m/open class and remarkable,  about ONE hour difference in start times. David Jansen started 50 minutes later then the early birds, BUT , won the day! Another 1000 points in HIS pocket! From the last spot [ 20] in the combined 18m/open on day 1, he is on spot 8 overall now!
Arne is still in the lead, but Tom is “pushing”.

A very concentrated Tom.
Courtesy; GFA site

In St. class day 7 was a prey for Greg again. He leads the overall scores with more than 400 points.
376 km. for the 15 m. pilots and this is for sure not Lisa’s competition. She outlanded and lost more points on her concurrent ‘s. A pity as I know she is good, but that’s soaring, as we all know. One good thing; Her husband Peter won the day . Matthew lost 200 points on Peter, so not a flash day for him either.
Who will receive the prizes as national champion,  on Friday evening during the presentation dinner? Only 3 days to go, exciting!!!!

A very tragic accident in Belgium with a Pilatus PC 6 Turbo Porter, killed  all 10 para-jumpers and the pilot! Amongst them one young lady from 21 , who went up for the first time, as a birthday present. Some tried to save themselves by jumping,  as parachutes were found open, but they were still too low. Very sad! RIP!!!

AND…I share with you the next link…from the Soaring Society of South Africa as seen on FB, with the latest news. Not all of you are on FB so here you are;
http://sssa.org.za/index.php/soaring-magazine/archives

Cheers Ritz
On Wednesday October 23 2013, very early in the morning, as I am off to the S. of Holland,  so no time to see what happened today in Kingaroy. You will be able to read that on Sunday or look at www.soaringspot for the preliminary scores. The day Dieter Dundee has arrived in Tocumwal.

 

11 Days of soaring are planned and supposed to give us a new Aussie champion in each class during the Multi Class Nationals in Kingaroy and they expected and hoped for good weather for each day. Till now that worked out well, except for Friday!!!

 
All pictures from Kingaroy are courtesy Arne Boye-Möller
” using” his good mates car [Bruce] and glider[Brad]

Thursday was a new day with new chances for all.
398 in Standard class was set and Greg Beecroft won the day with a speed of 96.2 km./h. Greg is in top form winning all 3 days and of course topping the overall scores!
Dutch solar racer Annemiek had a bad start on day 1, [0 points]  recovered from that straight away on day 2 finishing in the St. Cirrus after flying 425 km. .  As I read;
 “There were no outlandings even the dry Cirrus made it around.”
On day 3 , a blue day,  Annemieks/Adams W3 ,  experienced a real paddock outlanding as well.
In 15 m. Mac won day 2 and 3 [280 km] and you can see he knows the weather and area as he flies a LOT in Australia , mostly in Narromine, but he follows sometimes the weather, that’s why I met him last year again in Tocumwal, where he flew in the far past every year. Even organised competitions in Tocumwal for other Japanese pilots. Mac is after 3 days 2d behind Pete Temple in the overall scores.

 

Mac here with one of his mates in Tocumwal in January.

In 18m./open Arne won the day. As a Danish guest and not familiar with this area, he flew the 371 km with a speed of 122 km./h. AND after 3 days he is on top of the “pack”.Good on him!

 

The airfield and the beautiful colours from Australia.

No flying on Friday!
On a non flying day in Australia during the Nationals , they always address important items in soaring during a special pilots meeting . David Pietsch already “ages” in soaring and with a military back ground,  spoke about;
” Vigilance and Airmanship. He made the point that Safety and Risk Management should be given priority over Results.
For this to work we need an open culture to address any issues that occur or are noted.”
Something we all can/should listen and live to!!!

It was not all hurray yesterday on flying day 4. The incoming sea-breeze , announced at briefing, spoiled for some the end of the day.
Weather;
26C forecast today slightly warmer in the task area.
Wind is SE 8-10kts.
21C will give 3000′ max temp will give 5500′ AGL
Cus throughout the task area climbs should be 3-4kts average.
Overnight storms did not deposit much rain in the task area.

The winners;
In St. class Greg had his 4th win of the day , he seems unbeatable but still a few days to go! 315 km. with a speed of 125 km./h in the LS 8 is just good!
It was Matthew Scutters day in 15 m. class finishing with a speed of 138.5 km./h over 315 km. in his DISCUS 2. Not bad either! “Poor” Lisa lost some points by being slower. Sea breeze?? So did Craig Collings, a pity he did so well, now he dropped from 5 to 10 overall, but as said, it’s not over yet.
In 18m./open it was David Jansen who “raced” home with 141.6 km./h over 407 km. His second win after a bad start and ready to go up and climbing the scoring list. On spot 11 now and Arne and Tom still in the lead.

TODAY; 400 km in 18m./open and preliminary it looks like David won again.
In 15 m. 398 km and here it looks like a “replay” as well,  as Matthew is on top at the moment but all scores are not there yet.
In St. class ….no not Greg winning today it looks he will be 4th.
All scores later in the day at www.soaringspot.com

Not so far from Kingaroy to the South extreme fires have ruined already about 100 houses in the outskirts of Sydney. On TV I saw that a layer of black smoke hung over the Opera House, but the wind turned and it cleared that area again.
Due to high temperatures and a strong wind these fires started early in the season. NOT good!
As Anne from Narromine [ about 5 hours driving up North from Sydney] mentioned;”There’s even smoke out here from the dreadful fires. Our thoughts go with all those people who have suffered losses and to the brave personnel who put up such an effort to contain the fires.”

This picture by Ebony Langdon and shared by my Aussie friends,  shows 2 dehydrated , scared koalas, but these 2 are SAFE! Unfortunately you cannot say this from all animals living in those areas.
Those fires are so NASTY!!!!

 

The competition on FB about the most likes for a picture , a great idea by Antoine Latulippe, is over and won by Andrew Maddocks [Australia]. Indeed a great picture. For more pictures and prize winners, you can look at FB under Glider Forever.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/276794012352083/638754746156006/?notif_t=group_activity

 

Finish over the lake from LakeKeepit.

And YES it’s that time of the year again ….flying from Castricum in Holland along the coast line!!!!On the first day 7 glider pilots put their flights on the OLC. Have a look and here is a link to some pictures from this year as shared by zweefportaal.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/daily.html?df=2013-10-17&sp=2014&rt=olc&st=olc&c=NL&sc

As you can see they kept flying over a distance of even 136 km. in an SZD 51, but also great flights in an LS 6. The weather could have been better, they had some showers as well, but all in all this first day of coastal -ridge-soaring was for all a dream come true.

https://www.facebook.com/philippe.hendriks.3/posts/602212829836352

Here some pictures from last year I showed you already but they remain “COOL”!!!

 
Courtesy Lars Boom.

Another hot item in soaring in Holland is EUROGLIDE 2014 . I will be flown end of June , beginning of July. The first news is on the site now and I am sure that in the first week of registration the race was booked out, with a waiting- list for  those who missed out . It’s very popular in Holland, Belgium and Germany.
http://www.euroglide.nl/news.php
A SPECIAL EVENT!!! The 12th edition will be over more than 2000 km. again.

Back on Wednesday, cheers Ritz
On Sunday October 20 2013, one day after Sarah’s birthday Happy Birthday Sarah.