QSGP at HORSHAM!!!
as ABC news mentioned;
” Elite glider pilots from Australia, NZ and the USA race over Victoria.”
Full results at sgp.aero/australia2016/results-sgp/results.aspx
“After an exciting low-level race, Day 1 of SGP Horsham is over. Australian pilots Brian DuRieu and Tim Wilson took the first two places, followed by WGC Benalla entrants Bill Gawthrop from the USA and Brett Hunter from New Zealand.
Low thick cloud made climbs few and hard to find. Australian WGC team members Andrew Georgeson and Peter Temple pushed out well at the beginning.
Peter pulled away from the gaggle after the first turnpoint, followed by American Sean Fiddler. Both slowed down while looking for climbs from below 600ft AGL. Sean did not manage to make it home and Peter recovered height after a long period low down to finish 5th over the line, picking up one point.
Andrew Georgeson and the rest of the fleet had to push their engine buttons and jet home.”
The first day news, as written by the always enthusiastic editor of Australian Gliding, Sean Young. Many will see him at the Benalla WGC as well. I met him at the Narromine JWGC last year. I like his style of writing!!!
Race 1 had a 197.5 km. task and the weather was not the very best, specially in the morning so to get most out of the day the regatta start was at 3.30 PM.
5 From 13 finished and Brian [DuRieu]was the best in his LS 10. Good on him. 6 points!! Unfortunately the leader of most of the race, USA pilot Sean Fidler, had to land out about 20 km. of the field.
BUT,…on race 2 he was runner up behind Peter Temple, who won the 10 points for the day.
236 km. was set and the start was at 3.20 PM, so late again. The speed, under 100 km./h. ,says a lot about this challenging day . 10 from 14 finished.
They started as a gaggle but, Andrew [Georgeson] got low in the beginning and had to break off and go home. Normally that ends the hope of winning.
Race 3; finally a good Horsham racing day with nearly 300 km. Start at 2.45 and they all raced for the daily win. That win was for Mark Tingey with a speed of 124 km./h. The news said:”Today was a day of refinement for all of our pilots, with Day Three providing our pilots with a fantastic opportunity to take to the sky on a high speed race.”
The next day was cancelled so they started on Sunday with race 4. 178 km. was set and this time Peter Temple was the best with a speed of 118 km./h. The news said about this day :”Today’s task was set nice and close to the town, to allow our pilots the chance to explore some different areas around the aerodrome.”
Great picture as well;
As shared by the organizers.
Race 5 last but one day!!! 328 km. was set and a start at 2.20 PM.
“a hot and windy day, which provided its own unique challenges for our pilots.This morning our briefing was quite short, as it looked like it was going to be another great day of gliding.”
“Today was the first day our pilots had the opportunity to gain some real height, with some of our pilots making over 12000 feet at points within the race, and travelling over 300km/h on the downwind leg.”
It was indeed a good “one” for some . One of the USA pilots, Sean Fidler in the ASG 29 flew around with 109 km./h and won the 10 daily points bringing him to a nice 2d shared place with 24 points in total with Geoff Brown.[JS 1] Leader at the moment was Mark Tingey in the JS 1 with 28 points.
4 Pilots did not finish and one did not start.
Race 6 was short, a short-last-day-race with 157 km . and a strong cross wind, handled well by all pilots.
“The shorter task resulted in all of our pilots staying fairly close together, and made for fantastic viewing at the finish line.”
A “fast and furious day with all pilots pushing hard” is what the WINNER Geoff Brown mentioned.
Geoff won the 11 -last-day-points with a speed of 133 km./h. and the HORSHAM GRAND PRIX.[35 points] Runner up in this QSGP was Mark Tingey [ who was 9th in the last race!] from NZ [29 points] and on spot 3 USA pilot Sean Fidler,[27 points] so a mixed international TOP 3.
Happy winners of the first QSGP from the 2017 season.
Picture courtesy Gliding Australia.
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JoeyGlide.
After wind , there was rain. Lot’s of rain, so no flying. My statement that Temora has great soaring weather, sounds a bit weird now, but I still believe it’s a great soaring place .
They had 4 days of ” forced ” rest, one day more than flying, but the last day was flyable again.
177 km was set and 5 from the 9 who started finished. Joe [O’ Donnell ]was the daily winner,he won the first and the last day AND was runner up in the end with 2.162 points;
James [Nugent]was runner up for the day but overall WINNER!!!! 2.375 points. James won day 2, and on that day Joe lost nearly 250 points.
David Collins was 3d ,2d and 3 d again so a deserved bronze spot;2.050 points.
Not the usual weather in Temora; as some said ” there must be a competition there“, but still great winners!!!
As shared by JoeyGlide.
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OLC flights are getting longer and longer….
December 17;One of the young German pilots, Matthias Arnold, flew that day, his last flying day in Bitterwasser, in the 18 m. Ventus 2CM 1.435 km. with a speed of 162 km./h.[1.254 FAI triangle speed 142 km./h.] Those young ones have nothing to wish anymore, or…..
Great though that “good old” Wilfried Grosskinsky gives the opportunity for talented young ones to fly in Bitterwasser on a 10 day-1000 km.-camp and they for sure do something with the invitation.Good on them and great from Wilfried!!!
Wilfried flew in the ASH 25 /EB 28, with another young pilot Max Mensing, 1.315 km.[ speed 165.6 km./h.]
A day with 4 over 1.400 km. flights and another 4 over 1.300 km.
December 18; 2 Sharks flew over 1000 km and my German friends in Kuruman added another nearly 1000 km. flight to their list after flying 2 already in their ARCUS M. Yesterday they added over 1000 km.
December 19;John Coutts from NZ but living in South Africa had a great flight in the JS 1 A from Douglas Backhouse in S A. He DECLARED a 1.250 and flew a total of 1.384 km with a speed of 151 km. /h. and the triangle with a speed of 137.8 km./h. GOOD on him.
And what about Jonathan Cross flying in his ASW 20 from the same place; 1.153 km. with a speed of 133 km./h.
And from Gariep Dam a 1.018 km. in a a Glasflugel 304 is not bad either!!!
South Africa was HOT!!!!
More and more pilots arrive in Namibia and S A . Great to see 6 members from the Israelian Negev Gliding Center in Kiripotib. One team in an ARCUS M with Offer Sharon, even flew their 3d 1000 for the season.
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And last but not least for those interested in the new JS 3 Rapture
Attie Jonker gives the details on the JS3
Hi
Some interesting speculations. Here are a few facts:
The JS3 wing is in essence the same as that of the JS1 Evo except for the inner 1m were the transition to fuselage starts. The evo wingtip was designed for the JS3 but was used on the JS1 as the JS3 fuse was not yet ready 3 years ago. The evo wingtip proved to be very good in terms of performance and handling improvement. That served to confirm the new wingtip airfoil and 3rd generation winglet design methodology.
The fuselage is the result of a huge basic research effort. We took 2 year to learn how to design a modern glider fuselage. The fuselage was just about ready when we discovered a fundamental problem inherent to most high wing configurations that will offset any gains due to the high wing. We then had to redesign the fuse to remove that problem. That took about 2 years. We use CFD analysis exclusively for this development work. Bossie (Johan Bosman) spent 3 years (PhD) to properly calibrate the software for our flow regime. A lot of effort went into the wing fuse junction. This is still a very difficult area to design properly.
The moulds for the wings was started in Feb 2016 and completed in June 2016. (we used the mould-plug-mould route to composite moulds). The detail design on the JS3 was started in March 2016 and was basically completed in beginning of NOV2016. The total design effort(not building of anything, just design) took approx 25000 man hours( 16 engineers)
The fuselage mould was started on 4 Aug 2016. We stated building the fuse in Oct 2016 and the wings in Nov 2016. An integrated design approach was used where everything was designed simultaneously, ie airframe, moulds, tooling and manufacturing method. So when the design was completed, so was most of moulds, tooling and jigging. The prototype were therefore really built as close to as is possible to a production aircraft. We tried to use as many JS1 parts as possible but most systems and parts are completely new.
The first prototype has accumulated 20 h over the week since the test flight and the envelope is opened to full wing loading (60 kg/sqm) and 270 kph. The stall speed matches the calculated value perfectly. The handling is really good, JS1++.
The performance.. well we are satisfied.
Regards
Attie Jonker
The rumor is that 2 or 3 will fly in the Benalla WGC, so let’s wait and see.
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On this shortest day, I wish you for the upcoming weekend , where ever in this world you are , a SPLENDID , peaceful Christmas time.
I think of all loved ones from the victims in the Berlin Christmas-market disaster and desperately hope 2017 will have no such cowardly attacks on innocent people anymore.
Merry Christmas
from Ritz