Post 1476 on December 27 2023.

—–Hope you had lovely Christmas days , fine company, good food and nice drinks. Now it’s soon 2024. In between, we have had the shortest day here [ December 21….summer around soon!!! HOPEFULLY] and my friends down under their longest.

–—-Not everybody traveled back home straight away after Narromine. Some went sight seeing in other beautiful places down under as Canberra, some went to the beach in Sydney or the test cricket in Melbourne and….I read that French pilot Hugo Corbille arrived in New Zealand and will be there for the next 3 week’s as the weekday summer instructor from the Auckland Gliding Club .

—--Really enjoying the South African Gliding Nationals at Welkom. Great flying the new JS5, but also great energy from the local gliding club, great atmosphere and good friends.” was the message from Oscar. Their Nationals have been flown between December 16 and December 22. I was pretty busy in that time so I better quickly look back at their NATIONALS for OPEN and SPORTS CLASSES.
They started on the 16th with 6 pilots in open and only 2 in the sports class. Not many, such a pity but with the new JS 5 as hot TOPIC, certainly when it was flown by Oscar .
They flew 6 out of 7 days, had good tasks in open with 333.40 km. 395.07 km, a 2x 2.30 AAT , 2 x a 3 hour AAT and it was either Dawid Pretorius [ JS-1 C Jet 18m] or Oscar Goudriaan on spot 1 or 2 in open.
Task 7 on flying day 6, with a 2.30 AAT ,was important for the final scores between Dawid and Oscar, but missing out on nearly 200 points on task 6, was “Killing” for Oscar.
With 4.226 and 3.992 they started their last flight for this National championship, a 2 hour AAT , neither won nor Dawid or Oscar; it was Mike Tiffin in the JS 3, who won the last day for 398 points.
All in all Dawid was EVERY day on spot 1 in the overall scores.
Pretty clear Dawid won the NATIONALS; 4.599 points, and 4.356 points for Oscar.
Oscar won the prize for the fastest speed award; 159.44 km./h on task 2 the 395.07 race.

—-Skyrace GP is in 1 week at Leeton Airport in Australia, a race for gliders as they always say:
“The SkyRaceGP is a gliding race held annually in Leeton, NSW. Unlike conventional gliding competitions, our event has been designed to be accessible to those who enjoy racing, but like to spend time with their families. We have also designed the event so anyone can win regardless of budget.”
“One thing we love about the F1GP/SkyRace concept is the number of gliders that had been sitting in trailers around the country that have returned to the air.“
In October they shared the next message;
“We are very proud to announce that the major sponsor for this year’s SkyRace GP is GliderStuff.com.au
Tom and Jane Gilbert are the brains behind GliderStuff, using their 50 years of experience in serving the Australian Gliding community.
That’s right – 50 years!”
Jane and Tom are/were the dealers for DG in Australia but I believe they have retired now.
More about the RACE when it is on….it starts on January 3 2024.

Looking forward to these comps

—-Bitterwasser, had whilst I was busy with the WGC an endless amount of 1000 km flights. December is mostly their ABSOLUTE top time for soaring.
Last week a few were added with also 3 FAI triangle -1000-km.-flights. Interesting to see how those young enthusiastic German pilots, some on invitation , fly a 1000 if they do it every day;
Simon Briel flew in the EB 28 , 1.288 km [1.009 FAI triangle] last Thursday .
Nils Fecker flew in the ARCUS with Luxembourg pilot Guy , 1.278 km [ 1.005 FAI triangle]
No wonder they have 5 pilots in the top 9 from the last WGC in Narromine.
They learn from CHAMPIONS and fly the best gliders. Good on them!!!
Both Nils and Simon, participated in the 5th Junior European Gliding Championship in Pocuinai in Ukraine in 2021 and Simon won in standard class and Nils was 3d in club class. Finn Sleigh from the UK won that class.
Last Friday, December 22, they had another top day in Namibia and specially for Bitterwasser.
The first 26 places on the OLC were “for Namibia”.
Best flights were from Bitterwasser; Nils plus Hans Ulrich in the ARCUS with 1.375.11 /FAI 1.131.65, speed 152.10 km./h.
Simon with 1.143.00 km./ FAI 1.413.61 km in the EB 28 speed 155.61 km./h. Longest flight for the season till now .
Also in an 18m. Ventus 3M Bjoern Gintzel flew 1.402,62 km with a speed of 153.55 km./h.
When the weather is ON, the flights are ON.
Have a look at Simon’s flights since his arrival on December 18. He has till now 8 over 1.100 flights all in the mighty EB 28 the best till now; 1. 413 km.
https://www.onlinecontest.org/

——The very first of a series of new Airbusses for TRANSAVIA, has arrived in Amsterdam. As you know my daughter flies with them as airline captain. She works for Transavia already for more than 25 years.
Over the years they went from Caravelle, to Boeing 737 and now AIRBUS. These are  bigger planes BUT,..with reduced noise production.

–—–Talking about new planes. IMPORTANT NEWS!!!!
“We are excited to introduce our new aerial firefighting business unit, Aquarius Aerial Firefighting! This new chapter in Cargolux’s history is a diversification of activities for the all-cargo carrier. This unit aims to provide assistance in the fight against devastating wildfires that threaten natural resources and human lives, and significantly contribute to global CO2 emissions worldwide. The two first aircraft of the Aquarius fleet, Air Tractor AT-802F Fire Bosses, were delivered to Luxembourg today. We will tell you more about this great project soon, so stay tuned!”

——–I read that Sebastian is 17 times WORLD CHAMPION now!! What about that. Of course times have changed. In the far past there was one world-level-competition then 2 in 2 classes, nowadays 6 classes on 2 events. Some pilots fly in the smaller ship- and later also in the big- ship- comps. A wing tip can make the difference from 15 to 18 m. on a glider….read change class.
And when you have time and money, you can do them both.

—–Adam shared this message and beautiful picture on December 24;
“I just got sent this beautiful picture of G1, taken by Klara in the Duo-Discus! Barca (the current standard class WWGC & my good friend) is currently flying #GliderONE out of Narromine & into the new year
It always brings me joy to lend it out, pay it forward for all of my years as a junior. Barca is now the 5th Czech friend to fly G1 (V2a or V3TS)“
The current Standard class champion with full name is, Barbora Moravcova.

——-Sailplane Grand Prix NL shared; “Website is live, registration for the Dutch Sailplane Grand Prix is open! Welcome to the Netherlands in May 2025!“
After the announcement they had straight away 19 pilots on their list. 5 Only allowed from abroad and 2 pilots from Belgium, Jeroen[Jennen] and Dennis [Huybreckx] have entered already and 2 from Germany Jan [Omsels] and Steffen [Gottler.]
So 1 to go as 20 are allowed.
Let’s see how it works out.

All the best and I wish you all a
HAPPY,HEALTHY and SAFE 2024.

Till next year…….on January 3 2024….
Ritz