2016 JONKER SAILPLANES South African Nationals.
On final,…look at the height.
Courtesy Arne.
When I left you on Wednesday they were ready to fly for another day.Here are short reviews of the last days of this very interesting National Competition. They flew 6 days in a row with pretty good distances, day 7 was cancelled.For the full scores you can look back at www.soaringspot.com
Task 4 with speed tasks from 224 km….278 km….and 361 km.
Club;every day a different winner, also this day; Jean Du Plessis was the name, flying the LS 1d. Speed 102 km./h.
A total of 13 pilots started and the same 13 finished.
15 m.; 10 pilots started AND finished. Lovely day for Mr and Mrs. Schmidt as they were the daily number 1 and runner up. Wayne flew in his ASW 27 around with a speed of 124 km./h and Maneste in her ASW 20 with 113 km./h
18m/open ; another family-day as brothers Laurens and Oscar flew together to the best 2 spots; 862 for 861 points with a speed of 136.02 km./h and 135.95 km./h. Uys and Attie followed ,so really family affairs.
All 20 pilots started 18 finished.
After task 4 the preliminary difference in total scores between Uys and Laurens was 3 points!!!!!BUT,…the scores changed all the time.
Some impressions shared by Arne.
Morning jobs.
and afternoon jobs with” 80 km out and no complaints“.
and then there is the evening…..with a “braai”.
Courtesy Arne.
Task 5 with 343 km……459 km….and 505 km.!!!!!
A day with very strong wind and blowing dust.
club ; changed to 259 km. as B task and Jonathan was the daily winner with 98 km.h. in his LS 1f. 12 from 14 finished. Tommie Grobler [ASW 19 b] is on spot 1 in the overall scores, with 3685 points. Jonathan has 3617 points.
Exciting last days to go.
15 m ;338 was the B task and out of 10 pilots 9 finished. Mark was the best with a speed 0f 132 km./h. With 2 day’s to go it looks like a battle between Dolf and Mark.
18m./open ;Changed to 459 km. and 18 out of 20 flew the task and still start-or finish-altitude-problems. Also for the daily winners Pieter [Speed 141 km./h ]and Uys [137.km./h]. The first 8 pilots overall are within 300 points.
“The Line-up from today” as shared by Arne.
AND
The fish line up….
Task 6 with 386.82 km….458.53 km,…..506.4 km. for open/18m.
It turned out to be the LAST FLYING-DAY [and not an easy one], as they did not fly on Saturday…..6 days consecutive flying in all classes GREAT but pretty HEAVY on the pilots.
club ;task changed in 343.95…but,…nobody flew the task . Some came far as Jaco Burger in his LS 1f. He flew 329 km. and “got” the 1000 points. AP [Kotze] had only ONE point less . So the FINAL OFFICIAL SCORES ;
1. AP Kotze 4588
2. Jaco Burger 4583
3. Tommie Grobler 4500
A very close score and on 4 Jonathan Cross with 4490.
15m; changed in 392.47 and 3 from 11 pilots finished. Best was Dolf Pretorius who flew around with 115 km./h and received the 1000 points AND the CHAMPIONS TITLE. It was in the end not between Dolf and Mark, as Mark lost over 600 points on the last day as he was one of the out-landers,after 194 km.
Official scores:
1. Dolf in LS 8 with 4833 points.
2. Wayne in ASW 27 with 4314
3. Hanno du Toit in ASW 27 with 4126.
Mark unfortunately dropped from 2 to 4 .
18m/open ; Matthew said before start; “506km. Blue, expected to go to 15000ft… AGL! Wouldn’t be surprised if some do this in under 3hrs.”
Also a b task in this class with 458 km. and not as fast as maybe hoped for as it was close to 4 hours.
Except for 1 pilot, all flew the task and it was clear that the young JWGC Champions in the end got the “hang of the weather and circumstances” in South Africa. They were on spot 2 and 4 for the day behind Oscar who won; 1000 points and Laurens on 3.
Matthew and Tom were there on invitation from Jonker Sailplanes as present for their JWGC win, ” very generous” theboys said with a smile. They got a tour through the JS-factory as well.
A not too good day for Pieter who was only 14th for the day. And STILL a lot of penalty points influencing the scores.
So also here the final results changed ,they fought with “sharpened knives” have a look at these scores.
Official scores;
1. Laurens Goudriaan with 5526 points.
2. Oscar Goudriaan with 5065 points.[climbed up from 7 with his daily win]
3. Attie Jonker with 5061 points
4. Uys Jonker with 5050 points.
5. Arne Boye Moeller; 5001 points
6. John Coutts ; 4913 points.[dropped from spot 2]
7 . Pieter Nouwens; 4910 points
A great “bunch” of competitors.
As shared by Arne.
A pity with all those close scores that the last day had to be cancelled.
But , looking at the picture, it is pretty clear why. All prize winners together. Arne won the The Airmanship award.
Picture courtsey Arne.
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Queensland State Comps.
The 3 hour AAT last Wednesday in sports class was won by Andrew [Georgeson] in the JS 1. Brian[Du Rieu] in the LS 10 st/18 m. was a good runner up and Tom [Claffey] finished 3d in his ASG 29. 11 From 15 finished the task. Griffo unfortunately out-landed after 131 km.
The 2.30 AAT in club class showed 5 finishers and 3 out-landers. 796 points.Jo Davis [ASW 20] was the best and gained 796 points.
It was a blue and windy day.
On Thursday task 3/4 and according to Mark [Dalton] it was “Blue and low, but at least not too windy.. Challenging.”
Set task from 288 km. in sports class and Scot [Percival] was with his team mate[ ASH 25] the daily winner with a speed of 86.51 km and that says enough of the day. Kerrie [ASW 28] did a great job in finishing the day in nearly 4 hours.
And what’s even more interesting she beat her husband Tom [ASG 29] with 16 points !!!
Club class had to go for their day 4 ; A 3 hour AAT and 268 km in a SZD 55 [John Orton] was the best distance. Time was 3.25,speed 78.07 km./h.He flew 10 km./h faster than Mark .
Friday in Jondaryan and the last day, showed another 3 hour AAT in club class for day 5. As Mark mentioned on the OLC;
” 3 Hr AAT in the usual direction to the NW. Some high cloud toward the end put some in to a paddock. Otherwise, pretty good day with strong climbs of 5-7 kts up to 6,600 ft.”
and after
“Final day of QLD state comp. Hot and blue again, but climbs to 8,200 ft, which made it more bearable. Some 8 kt climbs, but mostly 3-5 kts average.”
Mark won the day ;274 km. in time 2.57.
5 from 8 finished,… Jo unfortunately was not that lucky; 200 km. for him. With 2x a daily win and a 2d and 3d place Jo topped the overall list last days, but now he drops to 2.
Mark leads the overall scores by nearly 500 points now.
So the winners of the State Comps are 1. Mark 4215,….2. Jo 3723 and 3. Richard 3432 points
18m/open got on day 4 a set task from 305 km. and it was flown by 10 from 14 starters. The ASH 25 with team Scot Percival/Potter had the best speed; 115 km./h. Tom took revenge and was runner up, Kerrie unfortunately out-landed after 227 km.
Final scores;1. Percival /Potter regained the first spot with 3564,…2.Andrew 3533,… and 3. Tom 3243 points.
The next Aussie competition is a BIG one , the Nationals in Kingaroy
Here is a message shared by Adam:
“Kingaroy Soaring Club is hosting the 55th Australian national championships from 10-21 October and it is shaping as an excellent competition. Most of Australia’s top pilots will be competing, with a fair spread of talent in each class. For our Australian team this is the first major competition of the season that will culminate in the that will be World Championships at Benalla.
Southern Queensland can produce very strong conditions at this time of year – during relatively short soaring days. There have been a couple of competitions during spring in QLD that have produced legendary conditions but recent rain may result in softer conditions this year.”
Bruce [Taylor] arrived already and will share his news on Taylor Gliding Page.
His first news;
“Here we are in Kingaroy, Queensland, for the nationals. I’m such a lucky boy… Brad Edwards has kindly made himself unavailable, and loaned me his JS1 C to fly in the Open class. Practice today and tomorrow, first comp day is Tuesday. Photos are west of Kingaroy, out towards Chinchilla, on a day that was good fun, but not always straightforward. ”
on his way to Chincilla.
Courtesy Bruce.
They have flown 2 days now one pretty miserable and one with great clouds:
Standard; tasks under 200 km and Peter Trotter won both days, though,…on day 2 with the 2 hour AAT Mac was the best but he flies HC.
15 m;174 km on day 1 won by Jim Crowhurst in the LS 8. A total of 5 pilots from 12 finished the task.
Day 2 had a 2 hour AAT and Adam [Woolley] flew 248,63 km in time 2.01 [ speed 123.18 km./h.] and was the best.All pilots finished.
18 m./ open; 142 km, was the task on day 1 and the fastest pilot was David [Jansen] with 78.78 km./h which says enough about the quality of the day.
The next day was better. The speed over the 2 hour AAT from Buch [John Buchanan] was 131.47 km./h.
Bruce mentioned on his Taylor’ s Gliding Page how day 1 was for him;
“Very difficult day . It was low, blue and inconsistent, with about half the field outlanding. I was within an inch of joining them, but snagged a saving climb just as the engine was coming out! The rest of the flight went well for me, but at that point I had turn back for some kilometres to stay over landable ground, which cost some speed. Points were OK, as the day was heavily devalued.
We’ll hope for better things today.”
AND,…..Quick as ever here is Bruce about today ,day 2.
“The weather forecast today looked to be a typical heavy easterly flow system, with a lot of moisture pouring in from the coast. This usually means low cloudbases in the Kingaroy valley, with some of the clouds not working, and as you go west it gets drier and higher. Then coming home the Kingaroy valley is usually very soft, with all the thermals washed out by the sea air. HOWEVER….. it wasn’t like that at all! The wind was around in the north, the valley stayed good all day, and our task, a very short 2 hour AAT, took us out to the west, then some way south and home again. Under the cu it was pretty nice, with a bit of blue out to the west. I had a nice run for most of the flight, but dribbled a bit in one area just before we turned for home. I felt like I lost track of where the climbs were under the clouds, and John Buchanan cruised in ahead for a deserved day win. With perfect hindsight, we could have flown for another couple of hours today, but the forecast spooked us all a bit.”
One of the other pilots mentioned in his OLC Comment:”One of the worst examples of undersetting a task I have ever seen. The day was superb from about 10am until probably 5pm and they sent us on a 2hr AAT, to the area that was actually rubbish.”
And another pilot:“Much better weather than forecast. Great big fat cu’s everywhere and 6-8 kt average climbs. 2 hr AAT only, so day devalued .”
All scores at this stage preliminary. More next week.
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ETA.
Became FB friends with Keith Gately, who I met in Australia but also in Eskilstuna where he was the team captain of the Australian team and of course I liked his page @Seventy2one and his news:
“The day finally arrived I flew my Eta. If you have flying an Eta with Uli Schwenk on your bucket list, let me know. I am sure I can sort something out for you. Wonderful 4 hour 290 klm flight with much of the flight below 2,000 agl. Just amazing what this glider in the right hands can do.”
That all happened on the 9th of October in the ETA now owned by Keith.
With Aussie mate Andy Maddocks ,German mate Uli Schwenk and Keith as “happy chappie.”
Courtesy Keith.
When I checked if I could use text and pictures the message came out of the sky!!!” Uli and I are currently flying. We both say yes!”
So in the future more news about the ETA.
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Tocumwal; specially for my readers who visited Tocumwal in the past.
Everybody who knows the “heart” of Toc , recognizes this picture with the Pavillion restaurant , bakery [with great pies] and the fish and chip shop opposite to the river. Never in my life I have seen the Murray so HIGH!!! Good there is the levy bank!!!!
Normally the market is just behind this levy bank. Hope the one meter which was still expected last weekend will not damage the street and /or levy bank.The Bureau for Metereology warned for more wind and rain in NSW.
All the best to ALL my longtime friends in Tocumwal, the place I visited over 25 times and where I lived with great pleasure for 10 years.
The situation is more serious than ever before!!!!!!
pictures shared on FB by Camping on the Mighty Murray River.
The road is “gone”.
and
Most campings are flooded! Also Bushlands and Time Out .
Pictures courtesy Bruce Wilson.
and one more
“OMG”
The “old bridge” with TOO much water under it. Never saw this.
Picture shared by Mary Anne.
And last but not least a picture from Tove Heany last sunday. So SAD!!!
Hope the Kangaroo survived this ordeal.
YES
” The kangaroo made the national news and got placed safely back in the bush! Good news for all!” from Tove.
The latest news on Sunday;”Major flooding is easing at Tocumwal, where the river peaked at 7.36 mtrs at 10.00 last night.”
I know, OF COURSE that hurricane Matthew “racing” over Haiti and killing over 1000 people is MUCH WORSE. Luckily the S East of the USA was not hit as hard as expected. Florida survived…….but still at least 4 people killed, which is 4 too many. A total of 15 people died due to Matthew on the East coast and for sure the damage will be huge.
The power of nature is beautiful/impressive, but can be SO deadly.Terrible.
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Nice OLC flights!
Though cold, it was a beaut sunny day in Holland again for soaring last Wednesday OCTOBER 5!!!! I could see it on my way to Amsterdam.
From Malden 2 great flights; 548 in a Nimbus 4 and 459 in the Duo Discus XL by dad and son Ferdie and Tim Kuijpers. A day according to the happy family with great cloud streets , great visibility, but also pretty tough wind.
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Not 3 but 4 visits in hospital this month. Busy!
Cheers Ritz