Post 1.556 on November 27 2024 AND ……5 blogs to go.

Weird weather!!!!! We had minus 1 here on Saturday and plus 19 on Monday!!!!!Storm Bert ,the depression/low with huge wind and rain, creating disasters in the UK, Ireland and Scotland , passed by some parts of the Netherlands as well, but brought also wind from the south , hence high temperatures, the highest ever in the end of November!!!
Today we get another storm with in the evening Bft 10 gusting winds to 130 km./h in the west and N of the Netherlands. Hate storms!!!!!

—–Matthew Scutter is ALWAYS busy. Mostly with his SkySight or flying his gliders. He had another very interesting article and I share it with you.
He is still VERY young but already an example for many in our world!!!
“We’re in La Nina again, it’s going to be a bad gliding year! “
Something you frequently hear around Australian gliding clubs, and we are even taught it as a fact in basic training. Is it really true though ? We supported a study with Curio Science to find out!
Results: https://curio.science/weather
The analysis was done on every WeGlide and OLC flight ever uploaded from Australia, a dataset stretching back to 2006. It is still not over a long enough period to draw a firm conclusion, but there is some signal appearing through the noise.
As expected the relationship is a bit more complex than just ENSO (El Nino/La Nina), rather the combination of ENSO with the SAM (South Annular Mode) appears significant. There is likely some connection to the Indian Ocean Dipole too but not enough data to be certain. Omitted for now is the Madden-Julian Oscillation, much more data is needed there.
Notable is the variation across states! Queensland and South Australia appear affected by different factors to NSW and Victoria.
You can see the latest status of the various patterns and medium-term forecasts at:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/
If someone would like to digitize Australian seasonal gliding performances back to the 1960’s we could have much firmer answers! We may also run some seasonal reanalysis forecasts to provide some more data.“

—–Another huge example is Sebastian Kawa;
“Gliding champion Sebastian Kawa received the FAI Gold Air Medal at the 2024 FAI Awards Ceremony in Riyadh, becoming the first Polish recipient of the Federation’s most prestigious honour.
Kawa shared his impressions and thoughts on this remarkable milestone in his illustrious career:
“I never dreamed that one day I would be the first Pole to be awarded the FAI Gold Air Medal. Did Charles Lindbergh, crossing the ocean on wings, expect that in the future a glider competitor would receive the same award? I don’t think so, because in aviation it was a completely different era. The FAI Gold Air Medal reflects the history of aviation.“
More on FAI – World Air Sports Federation  ·
Congratulations Sebastian and WELL DESERVED!!!!

—–On November 23 the The SOUTH ISLAND GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP finished in Omarama [NZ ]
Good to see Dane [Dickinson] back from Africa in his home country. He flew the Ventus 2A and had some tough competitors to “fight” with, as Nick [Oakley], Tim [Bromhead] Tony [van Dyk] and Max [Stevens]
A total of 10 in this open[handicapped] class. Racing had 8 .
They started with a practice day on the 16th …3 hour AAT….won by Max in open and 2 hours in racing won by John Smith in LS 3a.
I concentrate on open ,but will of course look back at the racing class later.
Task 1 was 407.77 km!!!!!, was an interesting one. Dane [Ventus 2A] won with big speed; 132.14 km /h and the runner up Nick “only” flew with 108 km/h. Discus 2A]
“the Open class scores got devalued a wee bit, from 1000 to 977 points due to the new(ish) Mean Scoring rule. This is in place to try to limit the effect of an individual score that is a bit unusual compared to the other competitor’s scores for the day. A8 did an amazing speed of 132.14 km/h and that was about 20 km/h better than any one else. The mean score for the class was 795.2 points and that is just over the 200 point margin so resulted in a small, 23 point, reduction in the maximum points available for the day.”
Task 2 ; 2 hour AAT,…NO wind and blue sky, won again by Dane and as runner up again Nick.
Task 3; No task. “The weather is not quite good enough for us to set a task for the competition classes today. A lot of cloud associated with the front that is coming up the west coast, and the cloud gaps we have at the moment are forcasted to full in as the day goes on. So no competition flying today but I expect that a few individuals will have a go at flying in the wave that we have here already.”
Task 4; 2.30 AAT ….Nick won with 133 km./h he went over the start line at 16.17 to be back at 19.22!!! 412.52 km in 3.06.
The ARCUS M only started at 17.14 to be back at 20. 39!!!!!!

Task 5 ; CANCELLED.
Task 6; 2.30 AAT...Dane flew390.44 km in 3 hours and 2 minutes; speed 128.50 km./h
His biggest concurrent Nick “dared” to start ONE HOUR AND 5 MINUTES later, and was runner up; 373.40 km. with 123,43 km./h. I believe a very gutsy performance .Or a problem????
Task 7; 3 hour AAT….ultimate day and not bad ; 5 days out of 7!!!!
For this last day; “We have quite big tasks, for both classes, for the last day of the competition. The weather is meant to be not so good to the north later this afternoon and the east is not good for most of the day. Strong thermals are expected to the west and south west. The tasks are unusual in that they are going north first, in order to get there before the weather softens, and then south west. Not a lot of wind is expected so we are looking at thermals to keep everyone in the sky. Looking west and north from Omarama now we can see some wee thermal clouds on the tops so, hopefully, all is looking good.”
Nick won this time in about the same time and distance, speed 126 and 127 km./h; 704 and 689 points.
Dane won the comps with 4,173 points followed by Nick with 4,125 points. Great battle!!!!

In racing they had also 5 out of 7 days with the DUO DISCUS [ team Davey and NS] as number 1 with 4,113 points. Team GOD , also in the DUO, won the last day with the 3 hour AAT flying 319 km with 105 km./h the fastest for the day.
But the other Duo Discus won the comps . An LS3 was runner up; 3.977 points.

AND,……This will be the last competition I will write about.
The AUSTRALIAN MULTI CLASS NATIONALS in LAKE KEEPIT!!!!

With 18 participants, among them some “GOOD” ones as Adam [Woolley] ,Norm [Bloch all the way from Beverley in the west…over 10.000 miles driving, so over 1600 km.] and Lumpy [Paterson] from Tocumwal has to drive 850 km .
Allan [Barnes ]in LS8 lives close to Keepit [ we once stayed in his motel] Ayala [Truelove] is from the UK but spends part her UK winter down under and kilometer- eater Tobias [Geiger] drives all the way up from Benalla.[Ventus 2/15m]
Mind you distances to fly comps in Australia can be HUGE!!! It’s a great effort to drive down with the trailer for those big distances. We did it often too.
Just before Lumpy left Tocumwal he flew his first 1000 km for the season:
“First 1000km flight for the season! Maybe it’s a sign of the season to come.
The sky was all over the place today, launching into the blue and within an hour, I was getting rained on …. That happened five more times during the flight. It was all about the last 3 hrs of day if 1000k was possible. The sky was over developed early and then late in the day…. The day shut down out east fairly early and I was counting on the late afternoon convergence line on the west side of the trough …… and it worked !
Flying the new Ventus 3 today was fun, and having it loaded up to 600kgs was a good opportunity to stretch her legs …
1026kms at 131kph with a average L over D of 69…. Good No’s“

Practice day 1 was straight away a TOPPER!!!!! 359 km was set but,…..
Adam flew a 1.028 km. a TRIANGLE in the Ventus 3M/15m. In the end it was difficult , but he made it!!!!
SkySight mentioned and YES this is Matthew again; Is Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures going to make it? He’s 3 minutes behind schedule by our clock after 7.5 hours flying!
https://www.weglide.org/live/7C718B
“thanks to all who followed along & breathed deeply for the final hundreds of kilometres – I’m told I’m the first person to complete an FAI 1000km flight out of Lake Keepit.
The highlight was the celebratory beers hand delivered by Brad Edwards, whom told me he did 980km in an LS3 in the early eighties – incredible!!!”
Reason enough for celebrations!!!
Practice day 2 had a 3.30 AAT and Adam won but only 4 pilots flew.

They fly in 2 classes with handicap and there is a lot of noise at the moment “stirred” by Adam [ Australian Gliding Nationals, loses again today – more to follow later. Regardless of the decision, thanks in advance to the organisation for running this comp for us all] ‘; you can read it all in detail on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

18m;
Task 1; 4 hour AAT…..the 9 pilots ALL finished and best for the day was Adam in his Ventus 3T/15 m [handicap 1090] he flew 517.83 km with 128 78 km./h for 1000 points!!
Ray [Stewart] in the JS3 /18 m was runner up; 510,67 km with 122.46 km./h.
Task 2; 344.85 km…for both classes!
According to Adam [Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures]; “A fantastic task set again today! Why a great task? There is only one task, we’re all flying it together – unfortunately with different start times though. Why is it also good? Not a single complaint from Open or Standard Class pilots. What does that mean? It can be done.”
As you can see Adam has quite a lot of influence, as influencer! But luckily he is open and honest about what he writes, either if it’s good or a bit less! He even apologises openly, when he is wrong.
“Sincere apologies“.”
AND, even though he is young he has a lot of experience, hours and social skills. AND,….he knows what he wants!! Already as junior when he was involved in running Joeyglide! I was there in Kingaroy to see that and was very much impressed; only FAR in the back ground an adult , up front ONLY young ones!!!
He won task 2 as well! For starters, that makes a day too. He flew with a speed of 137.70 km./h which was quite a big faster than runner up Lumpy in his 18 m JS3; 133,26 km./h
All 9 pilots flew the task with over 100 km/h. so to see on a pretty blue day, BUT with nice fluffy clouds during the day.

18m .continued with
Task 3 a 4 hour AAT.…with a daily win for Toc-Lumpy!!!! 524.49 km with 128.32 km./h. and 1000 points in the pocket. Runner up was Norm, good on him, and Adam was 3d.
After 3 days the overall scores are; Adam on 1 with 2,668 points, Lumpy on 2 with 2,509 and Norm with 2,401 points.
More next week.

open;
Task 1; 4 hour AAT….with 491.88 km Tobias was the daily best in his Ventus 2/15m; 122.26 km./h. Runner up from 12 pilots [including 1 HC] was Allan in his LS8. 1991 WGC champion Brad [Edwards] was 3d in the ASG 32M.
Task 2; 344.85 km….124 km./h for Allan in his LS 8 and 128 for Tobias in his Ventus2/15 mfor 911 and 888 points.
Task 3; 4 hour AAT.…top day for Allan; 481.23 km with 117.87 km./h faster than Tobias with 112.87 km./h over 453.97 km.
Great weather!!!!! After 3 tasks Allan leads with 2,868 points, Tobias is runner up with 2,735 points and on spot 3 is Brad with 2,501 points.
More next week!!!!

Something different!
—–History in tennis , talking about the DAVIS CUP in Malaga in Spain and about the results from the Dutch team. A very modest team for sure not the best in the world but ” the Davis Cup ” brings them extra energy and power!!! AND,…they played the FINAL!!!!!
They won from Spain and Germany to be in the final against Italy and then you can only loose, though they were brave and did remarkably well.
After more than 20 years WESLEY KOOLHOF stops with tennis. He won 20 ATP titles in double, reached the top 1 position in doubles and deserves a good retirement.
With the final, history was written in 104 years as “we” never reached the final in the Davis Cup, but playing against Italy is playing against Sinner and he “carries the CUP on his shoulders “for the whole team. Though to be honest Mateo did a great job too!!!!!
So “we” lost, no secret, but hung in for a long time .No last game for Wesley, but a marriage soon and a new life without comps. Proud on them!!!

—–Also proud on Max!!!! For the 4th time he became WORLD CHAMPION in FORMULA 1. An easy start of the year but not so much anymore over the last weeks. A bit of nail biting, but he secured his title with 2 races to go. Proud on him too.

To finish this blog , some special pictures ,about some for me special moments!

Good old Jim [R.I.P.]planted the red oleander behind Dennis grave to “protect him” ” under an umbrella of red flowers and as a sign for his overseas friends to find him straight away, BUT,….somebody , we still don’t know who…[ It must have been people from the Shire!] cut it to the ground!!!!!
This is what’s left!!!!

To finish; VERY sorry to see that this beautiful aircraft crashed just before landing!
One of the crew died, nobody on the ground and the captain and co pilot were rescued out of the cockpit. They must be able to say what happened!!!!

Enough news, more next Wednesday!
Cheers Ritz