In New Zealand 30 pilots flew the Springfield 2020 Soaring Championship from Canterbury, in a class, with a “nice” name; enterprise. It seems an interesting concept.
“Old” guns as Tim Bromhead, [Ventus CT] but also young guns as Nick Oakley[Discus 2A] and Alex Mc Caw, [St Cirrus] former junior members of the NZ team, were trying their best to win this “enterprise” title.
They had 6 days to do so , but the “young ones” both had an off day with Nick on day 1 missing a TP and Alex on task 2.
Task 1….208.69 km...day 1;” According to the organizers “A challenging day with low thermals on the plains. The goal for the day was to get to a series of turn points spread across the Canterbury Plains. There was also bonus points for any pilot who could get out to sea. Three pilots achieved this, OP, JK and TF, however only one of the three gliders made it back to Springfield. Well Done Tim in OP. There were a few other landouts at various locations across the Canterbury Plains.”
Task 2 …max. 588.58 km. on day 3,with 11 TP’s after a “no-task-day.!!!
Wave up to nearly 6000 m. MSL. But the best pilots in the ASH 25 Mike Oakley [Nicks dad] / Karen Morgan, flew 344 km with a speed of 64.77 km./h! For 532 points!!!
Nick was 3d Alex 4th and Tim 11th for 191 points.

A task was set ,but another day cancelled on December 2 but Tim Bromhead did fly and with mixed feelings he wrote about the day:
“Didn’t quite make the 1000km, but still had a great, albeit terrifying at times, flight. It was some wild weather today, 70 knots wind (130km/h) to contend with at times at 16,000 feet”
He flew 403 km.
So …a good idea to cancel the day.
Task 3 on day 5 with a possibility of 718 km and 12 TP’s.
616 and 626km was flown by the ASH 25 with Mike [president of the club]and Karin and ASH 25M by team ZF.
Derek Kraak in the ASG 29 E flew 505 km and was 3d.
When you wonder where Keith Essex is,…he is one of the tuggies!

Task 4 on day 6 with 2 pilots “earning” the same amount of points; Tim in the Ventus CT [ starting at 13.49] and Alex [ start at 13.32] in the St. Cirrus;637 points for 304 km and 258 km.
An hour later the ZF , the ASH 25M started but they only flew 116 km and lost 185 points for the day.

NO task 5,…. so with 4 out of 7 day’s with thermals , wave so several challenging days, this was real N.Z. -weather.
Winners were no “news”, as they were winners already for a few days.
1. Oakley and Morgan in the ASH 25 with 2.394 points.
2. Tim Bromhead in the VENTUS 2CT with 2.084 p.
3 .Team ZF in the ASH 25 M. with 1.933 p. Tried to find out who flew the glider but could n’t.
Alex [ chief pilot at Canterbury] and Nick were 4th and 5th [1.894 and 1.837 p], IF,….
The extra bonus points “to reach the sea” invited pilots to fly distances they otherwise would not do. So a lot of individual “thinking” ,a nice creative concept.

———————————————

One of the new concepts in soaring is virtual flying. E glide. In Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, in France this virtual happening started on December 4 and continues till December 19 under the name Condor FFVP [ Federation Francaise de Vol en Planeur] e Sport Series..
It is possible to follow it on you tube. This is day 1 on December 4 with 217 km.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3gk_nfXL0I
Nearly 50 pilots are involved, so a lot of interest in “our” winter in this kind of soaring.
“The FVP is organizing for the first time a Condor 2 competition that comes as close to the real competitions as possible! 5 races and 1 training sessions are offered to you, mixing plains and mountains theft. The circuits will be drawn so that all participants can easily realize them. Objectives of the competition:
• Offer a Condor competition that comes as close as possible to the real competitions (regulations, guidance, flight conditions).
• Offer a playful and training animation.
• Promote the glider competition and eSport. All competitors are asked:
• a sympathetic attitude towards the problems that this first match might encounter;
• Apply the same security rules as theft in real gliders. Dates and opening hours of the following messages:
Friday 4 December 2020….. Friday 11 December 2020….. Friday 18 December 2020 ……. Wednesday 23 December 2020 ….. Wednesday 30 December 2020 u

Competition website: https://www.soaringspot.com/…/condor-ffvp-esport…/
View the training day: https://youtu.be/6F5rzwlzKKY
More information about the glider: https://www.ffvp.fr/

To finish,……. a few pictures from the “past” because most of you seem to really like them.
The Awards Ceremony in 2015 in Rotterdam, at the SS ROTERDAM, where I was awarded with the Pelagia Majewska Medal….. still a proud moment.

A few good flights last week on the OLC. One last Monday from Keith Essex, travelling back to the South Island where he runs a club/business at the moment with planes brought from the USA. He flew in wave 1.202 km in an ASG 29/15m. with a speed of 147 km. Going far up N. and less far S. from Omarama.
“Took a while to get into the wave. Lots of low level instability. Most of it was weak meandering wave. Wave petered out in the north. Very southerly that made the trip south very slow and require lots of jumping wave bars.”
Also the “boy’s” from the Cu Nim Gliding Club had a 1000 in their ARCUS M not as far as the week before though and mainly because they tried “An experiment, playing with Mountain Wave (not fun), and going as far north as possible (lots of fun)”.1.067 km.
A few 1000 k’s from Bitterwasser and Veronica [ since December 3 every day 2 1000 km. flights in the ARCUS M and/or ASH 31/21 m. and some in the Shark] and on Saturday also 3x a 1000 from Douglas Backhouse in JS 1 , JS 3 /18m.and Ventus 2CM/18m.So they have started too.

Nearly Christmas and “end of 2020” ,what a weird year it was. Looking ahead at 2021 already.
30 Days to go for JOEYGLIDE in Australia ,….a competition as well as coaching program for the young ones according to the COVID -19 rules!!!The borders between the States are as far as I know open at this stage. They are considering a REGATTA in Leeton [NSW].
https://www.joeyglide.juniorsoaring.org/

Last but not least and I am REALLY PLEASED to see this…….
“our” former pool is up and running again!!!!!

Cheers Ritz