Post 1.451 on Wednesday October 18 2023.….BUT published on October 16 as “old news is no news”.

2023 Club and Sportsclass NATIONALS.
Kingaroy,  9 October 2023 – 15 October 2023

I left you last Wednesday with a happy Adam and an, a bit frustrated Bruce.
Adam; “Another fabulous day in the skies, today we had a 3hr AAT over the Downs. It was set because of some uncertainty around Kingaroy. My feeling was that it was just going to be a localized shower & that I’d be able to fly through it from 9000′ should I have to.” the whole story on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
In the end “We navigated the slightly bluer conditions well before connecting up some endless streets for the final two hours – great fun!”
Bruce; “I’m definitely feeling frustrated. A few issues with the electrics in “WB” will not go away. Intermittent electronic problems are so difficult to diagnose, and I have a radio and a vario that won’t play the game.Neither one is a deal-breaker as far as performance goes, but they are very distracting.”
All about it on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Lets continue with the rest of these NATIONALS.

Task 4 on Thursday October 12….Dryer and hotter and all have to go direction N.

Club; 3 hour AAT…..Jim [Crowhurst] in his ASW 20, flew 397.53 km in time 2.57 and that was good for 1000 points;132.57 km./h. Bernie was runner up in his PIK 20B ; 1.21,73 km./h. Steve in his ASW 20B was the number 3.
All 9 started and finished.

Sports 18m; 3.30 AAT….great day for Lumpy [Paterson]who had his 2d win in a row; 559.73 km ,speed 156.82 km/h. Fast!! Ray [Stewart] was runner up with 153 km./h. All 10 started and finished.

Sports 15m; 3.30 AAT…Bruce[Taylor] was on fire!!!! He flew in an LS 8 545.70 km in time 3.37; speed 150.77 km./h Perfect! Adam was 3d and Mak 4th with Toby on 5.
Reaction from Bruce; At last I put a day together! And what a day it was. Certainly one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of flying. Greg and I managed to stay together for almost all of the flight which was helpful and good fun.”
More in Taylor’s Gliding Page

Adam; “First off the bat, congratulations to my team mates in Standard Class – your gliders will need refinishes after today – very proud & impressed by your speeds/team work, you deserve the day win, brilliant.” more in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures and he fishes with “Tomorrow looks like an 8000′ blue day, bring it on”
All 8 started and finished!
After all the gorgeous clouds, blue will be “different: But blue can be terrific good, is what Ingo always said.He flew several 1000 km km tasks in the blue!!!!

Task 5 on FRIDAY October 13!!!! “Dry westerly today with a perfect blue sky, so we launched off the cross strip 23. Launching was pushed out to 11:30 to wait for better lift while the inversion was still only at 4000ft. Only a few cus to the north in the distance. Not expecting the 140-160km/hr averages today that we have had the past 4 days!” Kingaroy Soaring Club
club; 3 hour AAT....Jim’s 3d win he is “on fire”; 1000 points in the pocket. Till now Jo was 2x a winner as well, today she was runner up together with Michael [Strathern] equal points; 347 km with 112.89 km /h. for 345 km and 109 33 km./h. So it’s all about Jim and Jo in this class. With 2 days to go their overall scores are; 4,760 and 4,497 points. 942 p.
A few penalty points this day for low finishes and 1 pilot “out”.

Sports 18m; 3 hour AAT….and Nimbus 4DM pilots Andrew and Ryan were the daily best; 417.51 km with 139.17 km./h. A tad faster than Ray in his JS 3; 138.82 km./h and those were the fastest times.
They all started but Ron seems to have had an invalid start,,,so end of the day…no points.
Ray still leads with 2 days to go but Andrew and Ryan are closing in; 4,664 for 4,595 points.

Sports 15m; 3 hour AAT....no this time they did not start together Toby and Adam. Toby left at 14.29 and Adam much later at 13.09!!! 411 km for Adam with 136.29 km./h and 397 km with 125 km./h for Toby.
Here is what happened trough Adam’s eyes:
“Some days you get lucky, truly! I was naturally trying to start with my team mates, but because I went looking for shear wave upwind of the line first, I found myself low in an area that felt like it had no climbs. My team mates were downwind, but high at the planned start time. It was one of those days when it’s best to just start when at altitude, so I was happy for my team mates to take advantage of their situation. If I were with them, I would’ve started at that time too..As it turned out, I started 20min behind them & the day has just cooked up. They fed back great information to me, like, if you’re in a solid 5kt climb Adam, stick with it. So that’s what I did, which managed to keep me high & probably catch them a little.”
More on this day in Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures Adam even had 13kts.
Bruce was runner up and teamed up with Greg;
“It was a tough day and Greg and I landed pretty content with how we handled it. It was windy and the climbs were broken and initially very difficult to find. Our task was a double triangle to the north of Kingaroy, almost twice around the same track. Shear wave pre-start gave us a nice high run out on the first leg, but I think it was this first section that we lost some speed. We wanted to stay high and that was challenging, but as the day cooked up it got better and there were some nice climbs. I think always we could feel the wind and overhead wave affecting us underneath, but we worked well together. Had it not been for Adam’s amazing run from behind we’d have been right there. Super flight Adam, you’re right on your game at present… great to watch.“
Only 6 started [the Trotters DNF] and 1 of them was out.

Task 6 on October 14; penultimate day!
club; 347.10 km..…Speedy Gonzales Jim won with 110.62 km./h. another pocket full of 1000 points. Jo was 5th loosing 200 points, BUT still in the race for the silver. So Jim is ,before the last day,firm on top in his class.

Sports 18m; 468.33 km. with a speed of 135.52 km./h ….Lumpy seems to have found the “real Kingaroy groove” now!! With a late start together with the Nimbus 4DM, they raced over the track, but Lumpy arrived 5 minutes earlier. Lumpy is now on spot 4 after a pretty bad start on day 1, when he was the only one out and lost, compared to the winner Brad, 825 points, that’s a lot to gain again.
He won however till now 3 days. Only 8 started [Adam’s dad Chris and Brad DNS] and 1 was out.

Sports 15 m; 468.33 km…..with 126.86 km./h Toby won the day.The co-operation with Adam worked again; start and finish about the same but on handicap Toby won.
Adam was runner up and Bruce 3d. Adam leads with more than 200 points on Bruce [ 5,724] , but for the last day “things” are still possible; Bruce 5.496 p, Toby 5.463 and Mac 5.450 with Greg close too with 5. 429 points.

Task 6 VERY LAST DAY!!!! Early starts…the first in club just before 12 PM.
Club; 3 hour AAT….Jim added another 1000 points to his overall scores :387 km speed 126.49 km./h.
Jo was 7th but hold her runner up spot overall. Michael was 5th for the day.

No doubt Jim is the NEW AUSTRALIAN CLUB CLASS CHAMPION!!!!
1. Jim Crowhurst in ASW 20 with 6,760 points.
2. Jo Davis in ASW 20 with 6,121 p.
3. Michael Strathern in ASW 20 with 6,027 p.

Sports 18m; 3 hour AAT….with 494 km Ray was the daily winner ; GREAT speed 162.54 km./h!!!! Good on him. He added more points to his total.
Lumpy was runner up with 155 km./h.

NO doubt Ray is the NEW AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION in 18 m class!!!!
1. Ray Stewart in JS 3 with 6,638 points. By the way…. Ray also did the weather and task setting
2. Andrew Georgeson & Ryan Driscoll in the NIMBUS 4DM with 6,497 p.
3. David Jansen in Ventus 3MP with 6,084 p. David was task setter too. I know David from when he was still a very, very young guy and “only” interested in gliding. That he became an airline pilot I think he has to thank Beryll for.

Sports 15 m;3 hour AAT....Mac won the day ,his 2d win!!! 140.65 km./h! over 437 km. AND,…he nearly had the silver , missing out on 12 points.
Adam and Bruce were equal runner up, not even starting together; 966 daily points.
Bruce mentioned;
“As the sun sets on another nationals, we can only be happy to be part of this amazing sport. We’ve had a week (two weeks including the State comps) of spectacular weather and great racing. Today was another day of 160 kph + speeds, a long convergence run out near the coast, and cloudbase away up at flight levels. In our class Mac once again just pipped us, with Adam and I tied for second place.”
Full story on Taylor’s Gliding Page
Adam; “A fantastic end, to a fantastic competition! I’m now a 9 time National Champion thanks to my amazing team mates & the organisation, who made for a great fun competition
The last day was a hoot, convergence line running up North & South! I’m really happy with how I’m flying at the moment, confident, positive & with the burning desire to achieve the ultimate goal come December.”

Adam did well and no doubt is the NEW AUSTRALIAN 15m CHAMPION!
1. Adam Woolley in Ventus 3 TS with 6,690 points.
2. Bruce Taylor in LS 8 with 6,462 p.
3. Mac Ichikawa in LS 8 with 6,450 p.

Where would they be without their very skilled tuggies????? “To get 30 gliders launched in an hour we operate four tugs (three Pawnees and Cessna150) Needing a dedicated group of tug pilots! This week we have had Neil, Rob, Alex, Nev, Paul and Darryl working hard. And thank you DDSC for loaning us your Pawnee.“

Thank you to the Kingaroy Soaring Club too for sharing news and pictures, so that we at home can follow the excitement too.
And thank you to Lisa for being a great CD.

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News from Jonker Sailplanes:
“We are extremely thankful as we mark the achievement of our 300th JS Glider and the simultaneous completion of the 200th JS3!
Our heartfelt gratitude extends to each and every customer, partner, friend, and employee of Jonker Sailplanes for their invaluable contribution in turning this dream into a reality.
Here’s to the next 300 JS gliders and beyond!”

That’s ALL about the Australian Nationals. The WGC in Narromine is the next big event….in 6 weeks time.
It looks that 4 from my family will be there. George and Diana as pilots in club class and Inge and Indya [daughter and grand daughter] as crew/TC.
I stay home …the other side of the world is now TOO FAR for me.
Not much more happening at the moment. We still had 24 dg C. last week, but now it’s really autumn…11 dgr.C. !!!!
CU ……on October 25….. Cheers Ritz.