Courtesy Bo and shared by Soaring Society of America
I am always looking forward to pictures from Bo Michalowski. She knows how to translate soaring with her pictures, into a the feeling you are part of the fun. That’s what I try with words.
Gliders at the ground, in the air at finishes, but also the people who “make” the comps the pilots and their crews/family.
Certainly with only elderly pilots, with respect, the atmosphere is different , more cozy.
Some pictures.
Courtesy Bo shared by Soaring Society of America
All pictures by Bo and shared by Soaring Society of America
Only later I found out that the cancelled day on March 16 was due to an unfortunate incident during launch. It looked like a good soaring day :
“Cloud bases were expected to be just under 6,000ft with lift being strong and consistent.”
The official version “As the launch proceeded, Tom Johnson in his Mini Nimbus had an incident during the launch. Tom was air lifted to the Osceola Regional Medical Center where he has undergone two surgeries to repair a number of injuries. Tom’s wife is with him at the hospital and we all pray for his speedy recovery and return to his glider family.
All launches after the incident were terminated and the contest day was cancelled.”
I pray for him as well and hope as we all do for a speedy recovery and return next year for Tom.
March 17…Contest day 4; a 2 hour TAT. The ARCUS with Nick did well and was runner up. They are on spot 1 overall now. Jake was 18th and dropped from 1 to spot 5. He had a “bad” day already on task 3, where he was 22d and only still had 22 points overall on The ARCUS pilots.
Only 2 days to go!!!!
March 18…No contest day. “rest day and cold front passage.“
March 19…Contest day 6 …last day; 1.30 TAT, short task, ….but a task!!!, …with an hour delay before the first launch. A much more “cool” and also mostly blue day, with 2-3 knots up to 1500/1700 and a NNW with 12/15 kts decreasing to 10.
Jake was back in action and 3 on the daily spot on this last day. Before him, on spot 1 another ARCUS with team Simmons. At spot 2 the DUO DISCUS from Karl and Sarah, moving up to spot 27 overall. Nick and his mate in the ARCUS were on spot 4. A real good glider that ARCUS…a WINNER. Not bad either that Duo Discus .
The final scores ;
1. team Bennet&Krolikowski in ARCUS M with 4820 points.
2. Team Simmons&Simmons in ARCUS M. with 4797 p.
3. Jake Alspaugh in ASW 27 with 4727.
Where are we without tuggies and helpers?????? Nowhere….So here they are…
And to finish this part of the USA Senior Comps another 2 “STRONG” action pictures from Bo.
Great first prize…look at it!!
Courtesy Bo shared by Soaring Society of America
Terrible floods in the S .EAST of Australia, specially the beautiful town of Port Macquarie. Friends saw how their furniture and fridge “floot ” out of their house. Even a house,… yes a total house passed by in the flooding areas. Sydney got warnings as well.
An intense weather system delivers this record- breaking flooding also in Hastings.
It’s a tough country, either too dry or too wet and with thousands of mice, the farmers in NSW have another burden.
The water, after torrential downpours and wind raised the rivers and a few days later, also lot’s of people from Sydney had to be evacuated.
The worst flooding in 60 years I heard.
Heavy and sad floods in the East, still happy soaring in the West where from Beverley still over 400 km flights have been flown. 543 even by Norm on Sunday in the JS 3.
Our astronomical spring started last weekend with minus 6 in the night , but sunny conditions during the day.
Last Friday was a great looking day here with fabulous cauliflower-clouds on purple blue skies. I noticed good CC flights already from Terlet by Steven Raimond [388 km in ASG 29e…out and return far SE to Dahlemer Binz. ] and Soesterberg from Mark Leeuwenburgh [368 km in ASG 29 e/18m. ] who flew up N. direction Groningen.
Last Monday good ridge soaring; lots of “low-racing over the mountain-tops…once 190 m AGL “with a wave moment up to 5594 m. MSL” as well, from Noetsch [Austria] where Johannes Hausmann flew in his DG 600/18 m a distance of 1000 km.
The weekend had “special” weather for Klaus Ohlmann, who started from Serres and 2 French “kilometer eaters with name” Gil Souviron and Baptiste Innocent, starting from Perpignan, flying the Stemme S10 and S12; 1.707 km. [147 km./h] and 1.753 km.[150 km./h]
Comment from Klaus “What a pity… phone made no wakeup call due to empty battery. So I lost 1 hour of flight time. But nevertheless, it was a great day and connection from Alps via central massif to the Pyrenees worked, even if it was a little bit tricky. Thanks for all the nice work from ATC.
Without their help the successful flight would not have been possible.”
The OLC wrote extra about the flights;
“Twice over 1700 kilometers…A lot can be done with a Stemme S10, especially if your name is Klaus Ohlmann. On Sunday (March 21), Klaus started at Serres, on the edge of the Maritime Alps. Directed to the Pyrenees, which once again produced magnificent waves in the north wind. At the edge of the Alps, south of the Glandasse, he climbed to over 4000 meters, high enough for a glide into the waves on the west side of the Rhone Valley in the Massif Central. These waves took him into the Pyrenees waves. When he landed in Ampuriabrava in Spain in theevening 1707 kilometers (147 kph) were on the clock.With his flight, Klaus Ohlmann was ahead of Gil Souviron with a Stemme S12, who had already been successful on the previous Sunday from Perpignan with 1500 kilometers in the Pyrenees wave. On this Sunday the French pilot had Baptiste Innocent from Fayence with him. (http://onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html…)
As shared by OLC – onlinecontest.org
Interesting news shared by Matthew, no not about weather this time but about …
“It’s official – the ASW20B/C have entered IGC club class, at 1.06 (0.05 higher than ASW20A).https://www.fai.org/sites/default/files/sc3ah_2021.pdf
AND,….when CORONA is finally over end of the year and next year….we ALL hope for it….here are some dates for the comps down under.
“The Multiclass Nationals will be held at Kingaroy Soaring Club from Monday 4 October to Monday 11 October 2021, immediately after the QLD State Comps which runs there from Sunday 26 September to Saturday 2nd October. Sunday 3 October will be an extra practice day for anyone who wants a launch. See kingaroysoaring.com.au for registration details.
The Club and Sports Class Nationals will be held at Tocumwal from 12-18 December 2021.
And I “stay” for a moment in Australia…..I told you earlier about the morning glory, here is a great picture. Found it on FB. Several of my mates have “done” this already.
courtesy Greg McDonald.
That’s it for today. Looking ahead for a nice spring-week. Next week might be 20 dgr. C again….like!!!
CU next Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz