” I was playing with the convergences ” Was his comment AND …”SkySight forecast was spot on”. YES, Matthew and his SkySight- team are doing such a great job!!!!
BUT,……Peter Temple flew from Gawler , close to Adelaide, on Friday November 27, a magic distance from 1.312.7 km. with a nice speed of 136 km./h!
TOP JOB!!!!!Of course he is a great pilot , flies WGC’s etc, BUT such a distance must be another dream come true for him!!!WELL deserved!!!!
Congratulations Pete and what a superb beginning of the down-under-season!!!
And….. on that day only 3 pilots added their flight from Gawler on the OLC, the rest I guess had to work!!!; Alex Wallis in the St. Libelle with 753 km….great job as well….must be a happy chappie too and Geoff Wood in a Pilatus B4 with 353 km.

One day later Pete wrote on his Pete Temple Gliding
“1312 km yesterday – and this is how. Cloud base 15000 ft in a convergence running from Port Augusta to Horsham (although I wasn’t game to stray far into Victoria). This was the view coming home.”

That same day Canada had superb weather too. Look at this news from the Cu Nim Gliding Club :
“Incredible performance by Chester and Patrick in a Schempp-Hirth Arcus M today. Can you believe an average sped of 212km/h over 971km in the Chinook wave? Dig into the flight and find a 156km leg with an average speed above 300km/h!6th best flight in the world, and possibly another new Canadian record. Congrats fellas! https://skylines.aero/flights/127769

Of course Schempp-Hirth reacted as well;
“Looking for another flight spot? Canada seems to be one for the bucket list! And the season for wave is definitely open. On 27th of November, Chester Fitchett and Patrick McMahon, in a Schempp-Hirth Arcus-M, flew an average speed of 212km/h over 971km in the Chinook wave (near Calgary)!!!Flight data analysis with SeeYou shows a 156km leg over 300kph ground speed!!! https://seeyou.cloud/flight/public/6fB8pgaCOieuc_CD216xYF…
Congratulations to the pilots and to the club of Cu Nim (Black Diamond Airport) for another great adventure in the sky!
https://www.cunim.orgAnd another time thanks a lot to ATC for allowing pilots to perform such flights! It seems to become a good habit

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When I left you, there were no scores, but of course we have them now.
Day 5 had the 3 hour AAT and 8 from the 22 still flying from Narrogin, flew over 300 km. One pilot, in fact 2 in one glider the DG 1000/20 m. was/were ” out”.
1000 points for Greg [Beecroft] , in his 18m. LS 8 for a speed of 108 km./h over 339 km. Not a real fancy day, I guess looking at the speed.
Lumpy [Paterson]had 924 , Don[Woodward] 880 and Norm [Bloch]had 842 points.

Some info; Narrogin is in Western Australia about 192 km. SE of Perth.
This is how the field looks!

The next day was a no-flying-day , due to wind and conditions!
So they flew again on Friday with another 3 hour AAT on their schedule.
Task 6 on day 7; A FAST day and many kilometers were flown. Look at this;
Norm in the JS 3/18m. won the day with 451.72 km. and a speed of 141.21 km./h!!!
Runner up was Lumpy same glider , even more kilometers…454.31…but more time was needed so speed was 137.36 km./h.
Don did a great job in his ASG 29/18m. …he flew 457.38 km. with a speed of 130.57 km./h.
This is what Lumpy had to say about the day;
“The task was set into the Cu area for today, which was interesting as not far to the north of us it was blue and to the south it was over developed and soft. There was a convergence line forming to the south as seen in the photos, I only managed to use it for around 50km as it was too far south to be of benefit for the run home but assisted getting to the second turn point. The first two legs went very well for me and was doing over 150kph as I turned but got bogged down on the run home sadly, all in all a pretty good day though. Great to see Greg is human after all, first time out of the top three all week, he flies consistently well.”
Greg was 5th.

Task 7 on day 8 the final day!!A 2.47 AAT was set and 10 pilots flew over 350 km. Quite some differences in speed as the daily winner Don, had 358.74 km with a speed of 128.34 km./h. missing out on 4 points to be as number 3 at the podium.
That spot was for Lumpy, he hold on, BUT…he lost 197 points by being 5th for the day with 359 km. with a speed of 115,65 km./h!!!!
Runners up for the day were Norm and Greg.
“It was a blue day with a mix thermal arrangement, some climbs were 6 kts and other only 3… mostly going to around 5k agl. I started pretty much at the front and spent most of the day finding thermals for others and not really making the break away from the group, until 30k from the last turn. There was some really strong sink streets today and it was difficult to work out which way to move out of them ( well for me anyway )found myself low a few too many times for my liking.” as told by Lumpy. Who won the 3d prize AND the prize for the ” the fastest 300 for the comps.” 152 km./h!!!!

Final results after 7 out of 8 day’s of great soaring in the West from Australia;
1. Greg Beecroft in the 15 m. LS 8 with 6.173 points.
2. Norm Bloch in the JS 3/18 m with 6.118 p.
3. Lumpy Paterson in the JS 3/18 m. with 5.912 p.
4. Don Woodward in ASG 29/18m with 5.908 p.
Close scores, hard fighting for the honors!!!
The pilots from Beverley Soaring Society won the team trophy.

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News from the future Nationals in Australia;
“This year has been a difficult year to plan, and both the October Multiclass at Kingaroy and the December Club/Sports Class Nationals at Tocumwal had to be called off. The two events have now been merged into a single Nationals for Club, Std, 15m, 18m and Open class. This event will be held from the 13-20 March 2021, either at DDSC [Darling Downs Soaring Club ]or Dalby depending on numbers. The decision to hold such a late Nationals was made to maximize the time available for travel around Australia to return to normal, and to give pilots from all over the country as much time as possible to regain currency. The late timing also meant that the only practical location was Queensland, where the weather is still excellent during March. COVID is impossible to predict, and politicians are even less so, but to be clear: if signed-up pilots from any state are prevented by regulation from traveling to the Nationals, or cannot return home without supervised quarantine, then the contest may still take place, but will not be counted as a Nationals and won’t be used for international team selection points.

A signed-up pilot is any pilot who has registered to attend and has paid their deposit.” Alan Barnes

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News from Bittwerwasser;

“Small but nice…A small group of about 20 guests are currently enjoying their stay in Bitterwasser. Everything is a bit smaller and more familiar than in the years before. Yesterday was the first good flying day. With Cumuli early over Bitterwasser the day started promising. In the afternoon showers and thunderstorms made the flight exciting after all. With 1043 km on the speedometer Tobi Welsch and Tore Graben finally arrived home again with the Bitterwasser Arcus RL. Dirk Reich and Frerk Frommholz flew a proud 955 km. The rest of the troop preferred to land a little earlier and flew distances around 700 km.”
The first 1000 k. has been flown as well.
And on the last day of November 3 x a 1000 and 1 from Worcester and 2 from Veronica. Summer has started , winter here!

The construction of the new TOCUMWAL MUSEUM is going fast and steady and the exterior is now beginning to take shape.

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And to finish a picture from TOBIAS BARTH, who won the 2020 ZIELFOTO AWARD.I do understand why he won. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
“Photographer of the Gliding Calendar – Fotokalender Segelfliegen prevails!!!!Our photographer Tobias wins the finish photo award, announced by photographer Stephan Wiesner in cooperation with Gearflix. The quality of his work prevailed against about 4000 pictures from Northern Germany on the topics “landscape”, “sea” and “city“.

CU next week. With news from the Springfield Soaring Championship in New Zealand from November 29 till December 5.
By the way some parts of Australia suffer from an early -spring-heat-wave with 40 dgr. C plus. We had minus 6.5 here in the night from Sunday to Monday!!!!
Here a picture shared by my friend Brad:

“December 1st and summer has arrived! 41 degrees and a few little cells at Nyngan today but it’s nothing new for our experienced pilots.
With extensive time operating in places such as the Kimberley, Central Aus and Far North QLD, our pilots make sure your flight is safe and comfortable even in the hottest locations.”
Edwards Aviation
“Edwards Aviation is a premium air charter service offering corporate and private flights in a fleet of fast, luxurious aircraft. We offer quick, comfortable and efficient travel solutions to the highest standards of safety and service.”

Keith Gately mentioned this morning from Lake Keepit:
“New record 500k out and return in 20m 2 seat class. 141.8 klm. Nice one Adam Woolley 2 flights 2 records. Not a bad couple of days gliding. Another verification to be confirmed.”
The day before they flew a new record together a 300 km. out and return ;139.9 km./h from Bathurst.
And another THANK YOU:” Thanks Matthew Scutter for SkySight and it’s wickedly accurate plotting of the convergence.”

Cheers Ritz