2021 South African Nationals for 15m.,2-seaters and club class.
2 October 2021 – 9 October 2021

Before the Potchefstroom comps, several pilots practiced already to get in the mood for the 2021 Nationals for 15m, 2-seaters and club class.
With 5 flights over 500 km and speed up to 146 km./h. on September 26, it looked like great weather over there.
A total of 42 pilots including the number 2 sitting in the back of a 2-seater, were lined up to decide the winner in each class.
There are 4 classes; 15m,[15] ….club ,[4] ….2-seater [7x 2….Dutch pilot Ronald Termaat flies with Maarten Jonker in the Nimbus 4 D] and Stemme.[3×2] A
A flight from 169 km. was set for all on the practice day ,but only one pilot sent his flight in ,so quickly over to the first REAL day.
Task 1 in 15 m. was 401 km.…. 15 Pilots competed in the end and the best was….John Coutts.[15m. JS 3] And with a speed of 124 km./h he was quite a bit faster than runner up Anders Andersen [JS3 TJ] from Denmark, with 118 km./h.
4 were out…..maybe because they started early at 13.17 whilst all others started around 13.32.
Task 2; 414 km.... All the top S.A. pilots did well. John won again, [ he is a born Kiwi] with 138 km./h for 994 points, but Attie ,Uys and Laurence [Goudriaan ] were just a tad slower ;137,136 and 129 km./h.
11 Started plus 4 HC pilots.
Task 3; 312 km….it’s getting boring, no no NOT for John of course, but he won again and with such speed that there were no 1000 but “only” 680 points for the winner; 142 km./h.!!
The close followers flew with 138 km./h.
Sven [Olivier] did well in his ASW 27 [handicap 95] as number 3 behind Uys.
All 14 who started were in.
No task yet….next week the rest .

In club a 214.67 km. task was set and Dicky Daly sr. and jr. started together and finished nearly at the same time. Flying a St Cirrus with a handicap of 99 gave jr. more points than the LS 6B from sr.[111] ;710 and 566. By the way the Janus 18.2 m. in this class has 2 pilots as well.
Task 2;248 km…. was a prey again for Dicky jr. Wilhelm [Moosehuus] did well in his Mosquito [handicap 107] with a runner up spot . A pity he did not fly on day 1.
Task 3;192 km….Indeed a pity as he won task 3; 117.72 km./h, which was just a tad faster than the ASW 20 [handicap 110] from Renee Coetzee ;117.82 km./h.

For the 2 seaters/Stemme you can look at www. soaringspot.com
After 3 tasks it is the Nimbus 4DM [Martin Scharff / Robert Bristow ]which leads with 2.447 points for the Nimbus 4D.[2.185 with Maarten Jonker and Ronald Termaat from the Netherlands]
The Stemme S10/S10VT leads that class. The 2 Stemme S12 are pretty far behind.

—–On September 29 the British Gliding Association announced the next news;
“The votes to select the 18m and Open Class Teams to represent Britain at the 37^th World Gliding Championships at Matkopuszta in Hungary in 2022 have now been completed“
As the UK always is represented by strong teams , here are their names.
Open; 1. Phil Jones…2. Derren Francis…3. Andy Davis…4. Pete Harvey…5. Leigh Wells…6. Russell Cheetham.
18m; 1. Andy Davis…2. Russell Cheetham…3. Pete Harvey…4. Steve Jones…5. Tim Jenkinson…6. Ian MacArthur

—–On October 16 the OLC final will take place in Poppenhausen.[Germany]
“The trip to the Rhön is not only worthwhile for the winners and laureates. Two promotional gliders are waiting to be awarded, and several invitations to Namibia to the Bitterwasser gliding center are being handed out by Bitterwasser AG and to Wilfried Großkinsky’s 1000 k training camp.”
Also innovations will be presented and explained at the OLC finale.
There is also news about , “The AS 33, with which Sebastian Kawa has just won the World Grand Prix, the electric self-starter AS 34 and with a span of 20 meters the self-starter AS 35.”
NORDIC GLIDING has flown the new electric AS 34 Me. This is what they think. Test article + video
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fnordicgliding.com%2Ftest-as-34-me-man-tager-vad-man-haver%2F&sandbox=1

——It’s also the end of the OLC season 2021. Looking forward to more flights in 2022. I look at WeGlide too, but I am still ” learning.”
Looking at WeGlide, my Aussie mates are using it too. Here is the news from Jenny Thompson;
“The WeGlide-hosted national decentralized gliding competition commenced on 1 October.  
Sorry for the poor pilots at home, and gliders languishing in hangars due to lockdowns, but I’m sure we’ll all be flying again soon.
The rankings for the Ingo Renner Cup can be found here.  
The rules here
The rankings for the National Club League will be found here once the developers have finalized this.
The WeGlide docs can be found here“
If you haven’t signed up yet, it’s easy.  Go to WeGlide.org 
Tobias Welsch is this year’s winner of the WeGlide Free competition.He was so in 2020 as well.
Bernd Dolba was runner up and the 3d spot was for Frerk Frommholz.
They share an interview with Tobias on
magazin.weglide.org/tobias-welsch-distance-hunting

—–Looking at the OLC.….This weekend some great wave flights in Switzerland. Rainer [Chronjaeger] flew from Hausen am Albis on Sunday, a distance of 1.271 km.in his ASH 31 MI/18m. A duration of 11 hours and 39 minutes!!!!!!!
Felix [Schneebelie] flew in his 18m. Ventus 3 T 1.14o km.
From Austria also a 1.027 km flight by Sven [Kolb] in the 20m ANTARES.
I read the “foehn” was blowing as well.

——Looking at wave …what about this ?????
“Surf season and the Fall Cowley Camp in Alberta, Canada” by Patrick McMahon

—–Luckily for those who were still there, after the cancelled State comps, the Kingaroy weather improved on October 2 with flights up to 394 km in the ARCUS by David Jansen.
Woolley tried out his new Ventus 3T again: 365 km.
“I tested a few other things, a new pilot relief system (which I hated); proved that a better vent knocked off 2 minutes of water dump time; finally, that my cockpit has on average negative 0.05psi pressure relative to the boom statics.”

As I told you ,I was for a week on a high school holiday. This last week one of my mates became rather unexpectedly a widow and one became for the first time grand ma! Life and death so close.

That’s it for now.
For Sunday I have ,for ONE time only, a really nice story from a pilot in 1940, landing 2 planes at once.

Cu next week.
Cheers Ritz