Post 1.482 on February 7 2024

—–Soaring in Australia is still GOOD. From different fields,…. they still fly long tasks.
Mak flew first from Temora and had a flight from 705 and 784 on January 10 and 11 and then from Narromine with flights from 764 and 856 km. on January 30 and 31. All flights in the LS 8.
Beverley had a great flight on February 2, with Norm in the JS3/15m; 775.29 km..750 FAI triangle. Top job!!!
They had a 3-day-heat wave in Beverley, so many flights on this February 2 and 681 k. in a Discus a by Allan.
Tocumwal is busy with guests from Lumpy [TSC] and Eddie, [ SSC] even very “old” mates as Jochen and Stefan, who flew already in Tocumwal in the Riley-time.They come back for years ,as does Anton from Austria. Sadly enough his wife who always came to fly with him, passed away, but for sure we all remember Andrea as a lovely lady.
Good to see Ojars , from Melbourne ,flying again in Tocumwal, also a frequent guest in our past, this time with the ASH 31/21m.

Also great see USA pilot Cathy Fosha back in Lake Keepit where she flew the WWGC in 2020.
“Special thanks to Jacques [Graells …awfully nice guy and a good pilot who will be soon flying the Keepit Regatta] for allowing me to use his LOVELY JS-1-C here at Lake Keepit. First flight in type, so I took it easy with a little jaunt around the Keepit area – day was better than forecast. Strong smooth thermals overall, thought the airmass to the north of Kaputar was noticeably different than the area over Kaputar and to the east. New to me instrumentation revealing some observations of my flying that I think I knew were a thing, but are now backed up with data. Happy to be back, and happy to be doing some less intense flying after all the contesting.” by Kathy.
I noticed Ayala from Lasham also on that list. Great to see the girls return to the spot they flew a WWGC to . 22 Entered that regatta at this stage and it will be flown between February 24 and March 2.

“Lots of aviation happening here at TSC. We have visitors from Germany, Japan, China, Czech Republic and even down town Melbourne
Many personal bests are taking place with both times and distance for our pilots. All gliders from the Turbo Duo to the Boomerang are taking to the skies.
We’ve had some good days along with some softer blue days which has been great for teaching good thermal techniques.
Families flying together, first time flyers, pilots coming back to soaring after a long break, it’s all part of the fun.” Tocumwal Soaring Centre

I always loved that time of the year. Less busy, more time for guests and things to do, as there was no time in the busy months before. Not too hot as well, just very pleasant.
Now, I am super happy to see that gliding in Tocumwal is on it’s way back to what it was. Splendid!

——Of course on this side of the world the season starts soon too. On January 27, 530 km. was already flown from Lienz -Nikolsdorf, in a HpH 304 MS Shark. The season mostly starts there with good flights.
“The Lienz-Nikolsdorf airfield is located in the middle of the sunniest and most weather-resistant region in the Alps, approx. 10 km east of the sunny city of Lienz. Because of the excellent thermals, our region is considered an insider tip among glider pilots https://www.nikolsdorf.at/de/flugplatz-lienz-nikolsdorf.html
WeGlide mentioned ;”Gerhard Keuschnig did a nice warm-up in Lienz. The airfield is a season-opener for many ambitious pilots from all over Europe. Keep your heads up, it won’t be long anymore.“
Of course theere is wave as well as is ridge soaring.
Flight to be seen on ; https://www.weglide.org/flight/361014

——By the way the wave season is on too and in the UK they fly “HIGH”.
The BGA ladder showed a declared flight on February 2 by Chris from 770 km. in the ARCUS M.
In the end they flew 680 km on February 2 and started on Lleweny Park!!!!
Chris is one of the pilots/wave hunters running the Denbigh Ridge . They had some great wave days up to 19.000 ft, several diamond and gold badges.
“This is a group designed to give a ‘heads up’ on weather to potential wave/ridge run action.”
Denbigh Gliding
His comment;
“Needed another hour to do Milfield really. Very marginal on time, so we turned back while we knew we’d get back with no issues.“https://bgaladder.net/FlightDetails/112682

–—–Horsham Week started last Saturday on February 3- till 10. This is a serious ,but “at your-leisure” competition. Already for years and years on the soaring agenda in Australia.
31 Pilots in 3 classes.

Open /18 m with 10 pilots, Club with 18 and 15m/standard with 8 pilots. GOOD!!!!
But,….when the comps started with task 1 there were 6 in open/18m, 13 in club and 7 in standard/15 m.
Open/18m;
Task 1; a 2 hour AAT….237 km./111.69 km./h was the winning combi for Craig in the AS 33es, for 649 points. Diana and Ron decided to fly together in the Nimbus 3 DM and were on spot 4.
in the end 7 pilots flew and finished
Task 2; 426.44 km….that’s more like it!!!Good task. Ryan in the Nimbus 3 T was the best ;129.31 km./h , for 1000 points. Craig was runner up and Ron and Diana on spot 3.
Only 1 from 7 did not finish.No flying on Monday.
Task 3; 359.17 km…..Good speed …125.80 km./h by Bruce in the JS3 RES/18m. After 2, 3d places, he won the day for 942 points.Not a good day for Ron and Diana, they were “out” ,…….only just 3 k,..but safety first… .It cost them 600 points!!! The other 8 were in!
Task 4; 306.66 km……good to see Ryan is on his way up. I met him once at a Benalla competition when they were REALLY young and “they” told me then, that he and Matthew [Scutter] had a bright soaring future. Matthew proofed it already and I did not hear a lot about Ryan but here he is.
He won the day with a speed of 110.49 km./h , and leads his class now .
Only 5 have been scored by now , so that means also that the scores are still very preliminary

Standard/15 m;
Task 1; 2.15 AAT….7 started and 6 finished. Best for the day Gordon in the LS6; 226 km/93.44 km./h.
Task 2; 337.51 km…..Neil a local pilot [ASW 24WL] was on spot 6 on task 1, but won task 2;106.42 km./h!
Now 6 pilots started and finished. NO flying on Monday.
Task 3;  334.05 km…..a 1000 points-day in this class with a speed of 110 km./h by Jack in the ASW 20B.
Tim, normal a scorer at Nationals/comps, flew too so 7 and all finished.
Task 4; 305.88 km…….Neil is in the right flow now and won the day wit a speed of 90.38 km./h. This day 5 started and 1 was out after 33 km. He is runner up now in the overall scores bur 200 points behind Jack.

club class; in the end they had 13 participants.
task 1; 2.30 AAT...218 km /84.56 km./h was the best daily result for Arnold in his Pegase. George [St Cirrus] was runner up in his first comps since years.
Task 2; 3.30 AAT ….I felt for the pilots in the “little gliders”! Long retrieves, when things go wrong, though the last leg was the longest, 140 km, depending how far you go in the circle,…. so no worries.
From 13 starters 11 finished.
Arnold, in his Pegase, was the best again; 333 km/95.13 km./h.
No flying on Monday.

Task 3; 3 hour AAT..…Steve in the Mosquito flew as the only pilot in this class over 100 km./h.and won the day; 320.74 km. /100.30 km./h.
Arnold was 4th. Not a good day for George he out landed and dropped from 2 overall to 6.
15 Started and 3 did not finish.
Task 4; 3 hour AAT….. another 3 hour AAT with starts between 13.54 and 14.51 and all 14 starters finished. Steve flew 285 km /91.70 km./h and with that he earned another 1000 points for his Mosquito. He leads by now overall but the difference with Arnold who won 2 days as well, is only 38 points , but still 3 days to go.

—-Ostrow is well known for good comps and excellent PR.
They host the 5th FAI 13.5 m WGC and the 13th JWGC , this year.
Of course I will follow it for you.
On FB they introduce already the several teams. Good on them.
Dates: 13/7/24 – 27/7/24.
At this stage 21 have entered in club and 14 in Standard.

Today the New Zealand CLUB CLASS NATIONALS started with a 1 hour AAT, but it looks it was not flown. More about them in my next post. The comps are flown from  Papawai and continue till February 15.

——South Africa’s Worchester and Potchefstroom had flights up to nearly and just over 500 km…[567 by Katrin Senne in JS 3] not bad either for this time of their year, in Arcus and Duo Discus.
And yesterday USA pilot Brad flew in the Ventusv 2CM/18m a distance of 837 km.from Worcester.

CU next Wednesday

Cheers Ritz