Days 4 and 5 of the Multiclass Comp have been run. They were “big” days with pilots achieving amazing speeds. On day 4, Bruce Taylor’s raw average speed was 170.9 km/hr – the fastest anyone had flown in an Australian national comp.

On day 5, Bruce went a few km/hr faster, but was behind Lars Zehnder whose raw average was 177 km/hr. More details are on Soaring Spot.

Monday 6th has been declared a rest day. It’s still hot but 50 knot winds are forecast.

Not much been reaching this blog, as club members have been busy making the multiclass competition happen. Fortunately Mandy Wilson has been updating the blog at soaringspot.com/48ozmulti/news

A couple of quotes from Mandy’s news:

“I decided to fly faster today so I cruised at 120kts and eased off a bit when I got down to 7000′.”

“I flew faster than I’ve ever flown before, and at a speed that would have been a world record a few years ago. Today I finished mid-field.”

Wednesday 6th January 2010
Results from Day 2
Open Class – Cancelled

18 meter class – Cancelled

Standard Class – Cancelled

15 meter class – Terry Cubley Adelaide SC AAT distance 318Km in a time of 3hrs:05 average speed 102.7km/h

Task Day 2.

Designated Start – Bakara – Peebinga – Overland Corner – Waikerie Finish - Task length: 166.7km/437.0km (295.3km)

The other three classes were cancelled on the grid as the temperature had not broken through early enough for us to launch. We are obligated to give all the classes a fair period of lift for the estimated time to complete the task. In the end the day did go a little longer than expected however the sea breeze effect did come through on track later in the day. A difficult day for the operations committee.

Thursday 7th January 2010
Results from Day 3
Open Class – Eric HEINONEN  Finland  ASG 29  3hrs:49 at a speed of 130.3km/h Distance 497.6km

18 meter class – Lars ZEHNDER  Darling Downs SC  Ventus 2cx 4hrs:05 at a speed of 125.4km/h Distance 512.7km

Standard Class – Michael DURRANT Geelong GC  LS 8t 3:39:26 at a speed of 121.8km/h Distance 445.6km

15 meter class – John BUCHANAN Kingaroy SC  ASG 29  3hrs:31 at a speed of 121.8km/h Distance 429.5km

Task Day 3.

Open – 18 Meter

Designated Start – Swan Reach  57.7km – Nangiloc  252.6km – Lindsay River 130.0km – Waikerie Finish  90.7km for a Total: 531.1km

Standard – 15 Meter

Swan Reach – Wentworth – Waikerie Finish Task length: 445.6km

Ok so it’s day 3 for the comp and third day 15 Meter having flow yesterday but for the majority of the fleet it is still only their second day to fly. I checked the speeds exactly the same for Standard and 15 Meter; amazing. The organisations seems to be running well, we launched the entire grid in 1hr:05

Tuesday 5th January 2010 Day 1.

Results from the practice day
Open Class – IDJ David Jansen Kingaroy SC – ASG 29E - 321.1 km average 125.7 km/hr

18 meter class – Tony Tabart Corangamite SC – GVM Ventus 2cxM – 321.1 km average 114.8 km/hr

Standard Class – Peter Temple Adelaide SC – LS 8 XGL – 291.5 km average116.6 km/hr

15 meter class – David Pietsch Canberra GC – ASW 20 GZZ – 290.4 km average 116.9 km/hr.

Task Day 1.

Open / 18 meter
Wki Wanbi 69 km Lake Culluleraine 131 km Wki 145 km (345 km)

Standard / 15 meter
Wki Wanbi 69 km Karrawinna 135 km Wki 155 (359 km)

Monday 4th January 2010 Practice day
Official briefing held in our distinctive igloo hangar come workshop; commenced just after 9am. This is our opportunity to pass on important information to the pilots and crews. Where and how to marshal, and what are the landing options. The organizing committee appears to have past the initial shake down with only a printer problem delaying the handing out of task briefing sheets. After all practice day is for the organization, launch operations and pilots. Glider gridding, launching and tug operations all worked well with the 6 tugs doing the job in about 90 minutes. We have 53 entries and the list will be updated on the web soon.
Task: Standard Class Racing Class- Triangle 299.4 km
TP1. Sandalwood – 85.1km
TP2. Lindsay River – 123.5km
Finish. Waikerie – 90.7km

Task: Open – 18M – Triangle 344.6km
TP 1. Wanbi – 69.4km
TP2. Lake Cullulleraine – 130.4km
Finish, Waikerie – 144.8km
All the pilots are back and now busy with the simple task of uploading flight information to our remote web site http://www.scoring.webadventures.com.au/ You will be able to see the scores on this site at the end of each days flying at http://soaringspot.com/48ozmulti/results/

Saturday 26th December 09
Boxing day – I finish packing the car and a couple of hours drive to Waikerie; arriving around 10:30 it is very quiet. Within a few hours the gang had arrived including many of the performance week participants. If you were in orbit you could look down and we would appear to be ants running everywhere, rigging glider, finding tie downs and setting up accommodation. The pace has increased because we have lots of preparation still to do for the Nationals. A passenger arrives, flown by David and Mike Ridge from Brisbane would like a orientation flight with Craig. I am happy to oblige on the tug end of the rope. John cooks tea and all seems to return to normal – bar conversation and meeting old friends once again.
Sunday 27th December 09
Early start around 7am with both the tug and ASK21 undergoing preparations for first launch. First launch delayed due to flat front tyre on the 21 – having ripped the valve out of the tube as it tends to do if the glider is landed and pushed onto the front wheel when flat. Seven (7) check flights with our Japanese members and they can’t wait to get in the air, pulling all their gliders out later in the day. John Ridge has been doing a lot of work on the tie down area re-fixing cables and new fittings to long lost watering points.
Monday 28th December 09
Performance week has commenced with a large contingent of (30 to 40) pilots all wanting to improve their flying, dust out the cobwebs or gain some valuable practice for the Nationals. After a briefing and morning lecture a short warm up task has been set – Wki Allawoona Renmark Woolpunda Wki (193k). Teams were allocated and lots of lead follow and pair flying occurred, this was the pattern for the rest of the week.
Tuesday 29th December 09
Enjoyed the morning lecture you can gain lots of knowledge from the information that is being shared around. Today’s task will be a 300 – WKI Swanreach Morkalla Woolpunda WKI (302k) It was a blue day but plenty of other glider to keep us company. Best lift was over the border with heights up to 7500ft and most pilots were pleased with their flying. Evening debrief included what was the best part of the flight, what did you learn and what mistakes will you not make again.
Wednesday 30th December 09
At last the day we have been waiting for. Weather predictions can be inaccurate or sometimes just plain wrong. Today the long range weather forecaster got it right. Light winds high temperatures and a possibility of rain showers in the north of the state, that means we could get CU around WKI and we did. A 500k task was set and we were in the air around 12:30. – WKI Meringur Wanbi Burra WKI (518). The first two legs were very good working a height band of between 4 and 8000ft; sometimes higher with a few climbs above 9000ft. Now on track for Burra via The Gums the clouds were dying off. A big gap across the donga on the eastern side of the river above Blanchetown caused some concern. Pushed into the un-landable territory for a while but did not finding any consistent lift and getting down to decision height, turning at Mount Mary and headed East again picking up a good climb over Cadell. I then had my sights set on Renmark but had a great run using only two climbs to reach Renmark. I had plenty of time left in the day so pushed on back into Victoria again for the second time today. Turned Lindsay River and headed home via Renmark aerodrome looking for another climb back to 7500ft. Finding some good climbs to the East of Lake Bonney I had more than enough height for a final glide home. Modified task WKI Meringur Wanbi Mt Mary Lindsay River (565k) in just over 5 hours.
Thursday 31st December 09
Task was WKI Notts Well Wunkar Woolpunda WKI (126.7) tough day, plenty of lift available to around 5 or 6000ft very rough air today and huge amounts of sink everywhere, I think today is one of those pay back days when more air is going down than up. The idea was to keep us close so that we could be home in time for a huge New Years Eve.
Friday & Saturday were Nationals comp prep days for many of the Waikerie members. Congratulations to those performance week and overseas visiting pilots that did fly, as the weather was cool and windy around 27 knots on the Saturday.
Sunday 3rd of January 10
Bernard left for Balaclava in his ASH saying after flying for 10 straight days he needed to take the glider home for a rest and a bit of a clean up. The majority of the Nationals pilots arrived and were preparing their gliders for an afternoon shake down. I was working on the 08 runway (Calthrop weeding) and missed all this fanatic activity, so was surprised when I came up over the hill to see all this activity. On request from John Hudson I then managed to get into the Callair VH-APC and did 12 tows for the comp pilots to test set up of systems in their gliders. Many were full of water and 75kts might be the standard launch speed for the next two weeks.
A word on the unofficial practice day Monday 4th to follow.

It may seem things have been quiet, but it’s quiet only on this news page. Everyone at Waikerie has been busy flying and preparing for more flying.

Coaching Week has finished. Wednesday was a big day with great gliding weather – I was told “everyone did a 300 or 500 km flight”. Then there was the band on New Year’s Eve, apparently pretty good. Some of the stories from that week should make it to this blog.

The Coaching Week participants have been leaving while the competitors for the Multiclass are arriving. I’m impressed by the 5 visiting tugs lined up out the front, not to mention some of the shiny fibreglass…

Today was “unofficial practice day” – about 25 comp pilots took a launch, some flying a 200 km task. Tomorrow is “official practice day”. The comp starts the day after.

During December a cross country coaching week was held at Waikerie. The weather did not co-operate, as usual, but some good flying was had regardless.

Saturday dawned with a cool southerly, and low cumulus, with a base of 4200ft. Peter Robinson and Craig Vinall set a 203km task, WGC – Bakara – Pata – Overland Corner – WGC.

Peter Paine (LS7), Nigel Zimmermann (Discus) and myself (LS4) set off about the same time. We worked lift under scrappy Cu to 3600 for the first half hour on track to Bakara, at which point the sky blued out. I fell a bit behind the others, but arrived at Bakara at around the same time, setting the pattern for my day!

We set off towards Pata into the blue. 10km East of Bakara I found the best thermal of the day so far, reaching 4800ft at 4-5kt average. Peter Paine joined me and thanked me for the thermal!

There were very strong and narrow cores embedded in the patches of lift, which proved difficult to centre, one had to time entry perfectly and  bank very steeply to stay in the best lift. I was cruising with Pete Paine and Nigel most of the way but somewhere along the line Pete found a better thermal and slipped away.

Turning Pata it was decision time, should I cut through the Loxton irrigation area, or divert around it to cross the river further west? After attempting the direct route, sink ensured I was soon back over the paddocks to the east of Moorook and climbing.

I spotted Nigel in the Discus low but circling near the Overland Corner turnpoint, and pointed the LS4 at his thermal. Arriving about 300ft above him I was surprised to find only broken weak lift, so I clipped the turnpoint sector and headed off towards Waikerie. Nige later told me he was drifting with the weak lift into the turnpoint.

A couple of kilometers further on a patch of stronger lift was encountered. After a couple of minutes I spotted Nigel thermalling a couple of kilometers away, and above me – damn how did he manage that! Once final glide was achieved, I set off to return to Waikerie, arriving about 3 minutes behind Nigel.

All in all it was we all agreed a great fun flight, working together at times and separately at others, to get around on a marginal day.

Peter Paine managed 78 km/h, Nigel about 72 and myself 70.8. The difference was just one good thermal that Painey found and Nigel and I missed. (where was the radio call Pete eh?)

Dave L

Our newest trainee tug pilot
On Sunday 13th December at Waikerie our newest trainee tug pilot was seen familiarising himself with the cockpit of the tug, all strapped in and ready to go, only one problem he cannot reach the starter switch, or the pedals and a few other minor things….
He was Hamish Robinson aged 2 and half.

1st flight in a glider
Zoe Robinson aged 4 and half had her first flight in a glider on Sunday and she loved it! Zoe is already asking when she can learn.
15min flight to 1600ft with 2 turns in a thermal. Zoe only wanted me to turn so that she could see the ground.

Peter Robinson

The 31st of October looked pretty promising, with a trough bringing good Cu conditions to Waikerie.

Of course, as usual the Cu were everywhere but near the airfield, which was in a blue hole about 10km radius.

As the day looked to be a good one I loaded the LS4 with 4 tubs of water (About 90l). For some time I have been trying to improve my XC speed to above 100kmh, by flying 100km triangles, WGC-Maggea-Kingston Bridge-WGC. Last year my last 2 attempts were 99.3 then 99.67 – just a bit annoying!

On this day I released at 2500 over the bend in the river North West of the airfield, finding and then losing the lift in the blue. There were some Cu to the west so I headed over, and to my annoyance every time I got under a cloud and started to climb the thermal petered out after a couple of thousand feet, the Cu disappearing too. At this stage I dumped about 20 L of water, and things improved immediately. I guess the glider was just a little too heavy to circle in the best part of the lift.

Eventually I got a good climb to around about 9000ft. Now 10km East when I looked back towards WGC I was amazed to see a Cu forming just north of the club, offering the chance to climb just outside the start
sector. Even better a street had now aligned itself almost directly between WGC and Maggea. A good climb to the North took me back to 9000, and I flew thru the start sector at 8700 and120KT.

Half way to Maggea, at Holder I saw Robbo circling to my right, but the climb rate did not feel too good, so I pressed on. About 2 km further on track I hit a ripper climb and spent 3 minutes in 4kt back to 9000ft. I then continued to Maggea, turned for Kingston and then hit the big one, 5.8kt for another 3 minutes put me on final glide, only 30km into the flight. From there it was simply a case of cheering along the LS4 at 85-105 kt for 23 minutes. The last 20 Km was under a dark overdevelopment which gave no lift at all, lucky I had climbed to 1300 above final glide in that last thermal!

I finished at about 500ft, 120kt dumping water over the pad, followed by a normal circuit and landing.

Flight stats were;  100km in 43 minutes with 16% climbing and 84% straight. Speed was 142.88 kmh. Average climb 5.1kt!

My best flight from an all round perspective so far, and great fun!

I will buy a $30 bottle of Red of your choice for the first better this in a Standard class club glider this season!

Dave L

On Friday 23rd October, John Ridge towed the AS K21 trailer to Waikerie to allow the glider to be fitted. No work was possible that weekend, with a large influx of visitors for “Everything Aeronautical”. Twenty six aircraft flew in – many just for the day and 50 stayed on for dinner on Saturday evening.

Last weekend, (31st October) was a normal flying weekend. Gliding conditions were reasonable, but it took a long time to warm up – so a late start. Pete Siddal flew the Tug, Bradley McKay had 3 flights in the ’21, Dion Baker had his annual check-flight, while other Club pilots explored the lift in climbs to around 10,000 Ft. Towards the end of the day, Pete Siddal swapped saddles and flew the ‘21 and Greg Jackson flew the Tug – thanks Greg. While the flying continued, Aiden and Nigel Baker took the opportunity to use a mechanical “lift” to fix the problems with the hangar doors – both the eastern and western ends. It’s now a dream to open/close the doors – a huge thankyou to Aiden and Nigel, well done.

After dinner on Saturday evening, Peter Robinson presented an informative session on Low Level Finishes, which particularly focussed on the high workload which is created when this is undertaken.

On Sunday 1 November, a small band of members gathered to “fit” the AS K21 into the trailer. The ‘21 was derigged and the wings “fitted”, allowing the wing dollies to be tested and measurements taken for the permanent installation of the fittings before the fuselage was “fitted”. It is necessary to complete all of the fitting which involves welding before the skin is attached. The “skin” will be white colour bond sheet, fixed to the trailer with 3M “very high bond tape” (effectively a double sided tape. A big thankyou to John Ridge, Peter Paine, Art Hohmann, Craig Vinall and Nigel Baker who persisted for several hours to complete the job. The trailer was then towed back to John Ridge’s place – where the build will be completed.

Another great effort on the weekend by Craig Vinall, who mowed the 02/20 strip and most of the 08/26 strip. Great effort.

John Hudson