by Robert Dorning

The fortnight of record temperatures that ended in the Victorian bushfire tragedies produced very good soaring conditions at Benalla and a large number of great flights. Distances of flights are given below with most flight information being from the "Online Contest" available at: http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/

• Bob Nicholls (Ventus 2cT): 1035 km, 928 km, 923 km, 868 km, 868 km, 812 km, 644 km, 629 km
• Michael Sommer (Nimbus 3T): 1028 km, 1010 km
• Graham Garlick (ASW 20): 977 km, 972 km
• Jonathan Walker (Discus bT): 911 km
• Steven Turner (ASG 29): 893 km
• Nick Woods (ASG 29): 860 km, 799 km, 712 km, 654 km
• Craig Blunt (ASW 17): 828 km
• Stu Smith (Ventus 17.6 m): 810 km
• Peter Hokkanen (Nimbus 3): 798 km, 716 km, 633 km
• Charles Day (Kestrel 17 m): 780 km, 700 km, 670 km
• Lars Bjoernevik (Ventus 2c): 780 km
• Ben Loxton (Ventus): 751 km, 702 km
• Max Kirschner (Ventus 2cT): 739 km
• Brendan English (Std Cirrus): 684 km
• Chris Gough (LS7): 652 km
• Robert Dorning (LS6): 636 km
• Mary Neighbour (Ventus 2cT): 623 km

Congratulations to the pilots for the great flights they made. They must be very proud. Apologies to any pilots who have been missed. The flights were made by pilots from many parts of the world. The most prolific pilots were our members from the UK, but excellent flights were made by Lars Bjoernevik from Norway and Chris Gough from Canada (one of our mid-week tug pilots).

Apart from the obvious great flights I would like to recognise two notable flights - the 623 km flight by Mary Neighbour and the 684 km flight by Brendan English in his Standard Cirrus. Also Lars Bjoernevik set a new Norwegian 750 km triangle speed record of 133 km/hr.

It's still not the end of the soaring season, although the days are getting shorter. There will still be the opportunity for good flights in coming weeks.