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2nd of January 2010 - GCV Christmas Comp Results
The GCV Christmas Comp had 5 days of Hot competition in all 33,600kms were flown. Prizes were presented to: Nick Woods Overall Winner 4928 points Closely followed by Laurie McKinlay 4893 points Bob Fox achieved the fastest speed during the comp of 122.18kph Graham Garlick achieved the furthest distance of 789.45 Kilometres Laurie is pictured receiving his prize.
1st of July 2009 - Australian Junior Gliding Team blog
Watch the progress and the fun http://finland09.ausglidingteam.com/
10th of December 2008 - See the Juniors now - live tracking
Click on the following URL to see the Juniors right now. http://track.glidingmaps.com/event/2/current/display
13th of January 2008 - Victorian State Championships
Contest day 6 task - 2 hour AAT 158km/313km - Rennie (20km) Tocumwal a/d (20km) Dookie (20km). Launch was delayed until 2pm; it was a very tough day - weak and thermals were not going high. There was wave at the start up to 8,500' but after that, conditions were mainly weak with low climbs to about 4,000'. It was a mixed day with some pilots reporting the odd 6,000'. There were 5 outlandings. Frustrated with always coming last, Phil Henderson employed a secret weapon in the Duo Discus - world champion pilot, Michael Sommer. Phil reported that "Michael was invaluable ballast, which is why I managed a second for the day"! (Actually, Phil had declared a lay day.) Day 6 winners were David Wilson (84.9kph), Bruce Cowan (75.4kph) Allan Barnes 76.1kph). For day results go to: http://www.glidingclub.org.au/competition/state2008/results/ Overall placings for the competition (day scores averaged): Open class 1 Tony Tabart 929.0 points 2 David Wilson 888.6 3 Bob Fox 871.1 4 Max Kirschner 633.3 5 Phil Henderson Standard class 1 Allan Barnes 947.6 2 Toby Geiger 932.8 3 Peter Gray 791.6 4 Simon Brown 566.6 5 Gary Allbutt 541.2 6 Louise O'Grady 283.9 15 metre class 1 Bruce Cowan 886.6 2 Graham Garlick 881.0 3 Tim Wilson 757.6 4 John Switala 713.2 5 Gary Stevenson 687.9 6 Laurie McKinlay 642.9 7 Geoff Vincent It was Phil Henderson's first comp as director and he thanked all the pilots for being professional and cooperative in difficult hot conditions. Phil acknowledged the vast experience of the whole team, without whom it wouldn't have been such a smooth and safe operation - tuggies, weatherman, task setters, safety officer, marshals and the scorer, Deniz Ture. He thanked John Switala and the Gliding Club of Victoria and everybody associated for the excellent facilities and assistance. Phil said that he "could never have even considered taking on the job without the enormous benefit of Colin Turner's mentoring during previous competitions at Benalla". (photo by Bob Powell, words Jo Pocklington)
12th of January 2008 - Victorian State Championships
Contest day 6 - morning briefing The contest is very close in Standard Class with Allan Barnes on 4753.3 points and Toby Geiger on 4659.4 points; Peter Gray is third on 4122.8 points. Graham Garlick is leading 15 metre class with 4453.2 points, Bruce Cowan has 4291.5 points and Tim Wilson has 3992.1 points. Tony Tabart is leading Open class with 4840.1 points, David Wilson is second on 4394.0 points. Third position is up for grabs! Phil Henderson - "it's painfully obvious that I'm coming last, but today I have a special weapon in the Duo Discus, so look out - eat our dust!" David Wilson - morning weather briefing - the trough line which went through last night is now in NSW. Today's forecast is dependent on how much rain there was yesterday and last night - in the areas where it was heavy, it won't go high, but areas that missed out on the rain will be better. Not much cloud is affecting us in Vic. Alto-cu and alto-stratus cloud around here will thin out during the day. Later in the day in the south west they are talking about redeveloping alto-stratus, which won't affect us. There is a light southerly at the moment, but at about midday this will go around to the north-west;12 knots on the surface increasing with height to 40 knots at 14,000'. Under those conditions there is a possibility of thermal wave, which will be a bit hard to find in the blue. The temp is rather critical as to whether we get cumulous or not. The areas where it's been raining will stay cooler. There may only be 4,000' thermals in the wet areas. Max height is a bit over 6,000' at 5pm. Forecast is for some thunderstorms in the north and east. It looks like the trough line is going to hang around and give us good soaring at Temora next week. Contest day 6 task - 2 hour AAT 158km/313km - Rennie (20km) Tocumwal a/d (20km) Dookie (20km). (photo of Toby Geiger and words by Jo Pocklington)
11th of January 2008 - Victorian State Championships
Midday - day cancelled - increasing cloud blocked out the sun's heat which caused a fall in temperature. The Melbourne temp trace showed 45 knot winds at 2,000' resulting in little chance of completing any task. Tomorrow (Sat)looks promising. Contest day 6 - morning briefing - day 5 winners (handicapped speeds): Open - David Wilson ASG 29 -137.7kph "Before the start I got right up to cloud base, as did a lot of other people I thought it was rather hairy scooting around those wisps of cloud amongst other gliders, so thought it a good idea to start early. I also thought that it would over-develop. Didn't have a good run going north; just 7 knots at the north end of the Warbys. When I Got into the Yarrawonga circle, I went fairly close to Corowa and decided to turn - there was a good looking cloud street in the westerly direction. Got under those clouds, found 7 knots and started turning. Moved to another glider above me and found 11.5 knots - thank you, whoever that was! Got to cloud base and just flew along, going to the extreme western edge of every cloud and found consistent 11 knot climbs. Had to go to the north edge of the Deniliquin circle as I was ahead of time. Had a similar sort of run coming home; it got soft before the river, but once I crossed the river into Vic got 8 knots and got to 10,000' in drier air. Had a fairly fast run home." 15m - John Switala, Ventus 1 - 127.4kph "Off tow I was struggling at 2.5 knots. Then I saw Toby 200m away and went over, but that was worse than what I left. We both headed off in different directions after 2 turns. I was thermalling and struggling, then I noticed that everyone was above me. I then found 7 knots. The north wind was drifting us all and it drifted us over the start line at 7,000'. Got an 8/9 knotter in the first leg. I thought I was slow and came in a bit ahead of time, but I did it!" Standard - Allan Barnes LS1f - 131.9kph "The start was as John said - a bit tricky. I managed to find something reasonable at 3 knots which got me to cloud base as the start opened. Like David, I was keen to get going as there were a lot of gliders about in poor visibility. I was heading to the east of the first box; got just in and saw some amazing clouds going to the second box, so went right in. I had a reasonable run but wasn't feeling that I was getting the best - certainly not 11 knots. I turned in the second box with the WinPilot telling me I'd be 25 mins over; on the way back it got to 8 mins over and I was only half way back, so I diverted into the Shepparton area to use more time." David Wilson - morning weather briefing - today is a total fire ban in Vic and southern NSW. A trough line to the west is going to come over us and by 6/7pm the wind will go to the south-west. Ahead of the wind change, there is a significant band of rather moist upper air with thunder storms embedded. Somewhere around the course there will be the odd thunderstorm; a higher probability over the mountains, but we're not going there. Ahead are fairly strong north-westerly winds. The winds will gust to 20 knots on the ground, increasing with height to 30 knots at 5/7,000'. Locally around Benalla / Shepparton the lift might die quite early. Typically in these north-westerly conditions, there's not very much nocturnal inversion - need a high temp to get things moving; 35 degrees will give 4,000'. The weather bureau is forecasting that thunderstorm bases will be at 10,000'. One of the difficulties of forecasting today is the cloud, and how much sun will get through. It is possible that we may have a good day tomorrow. Contest day 6 task - 2 hour AAT 147km/336km - Berrigan (30km) Corowa (30km). (photo of Bob Fox and words by Jo Pocklington)
10th of January 2008 - Victorian State Championships
Contest day 5 - morning briefing - day 4 winners (handicapped speeds) Open Class - David Wilson ASG 29 - 130.6kph "I was full of water yesterday and I think that was a factor compared with the day before when I flew with partial water. I had a very good run north - started at 6,000' and was at 6,000' at the north end of the Warbys; ran into a 7 knot climb which took me to 8,500'. Then it was a matter of flying from cloud to cloud in very good conditions. Going out to the west the clouds still looked good, but it was hard to find the thermals under them. It was a matter of pushing on and staying in the best lift without losing height. I had no way of calculating the best time to finish because my PDA had failed. I kept fairly well north and got to the last cloud that was there, and found a weak thermal and climbed up. It said on the Cambridge that I was 4,000' below final glide so I decided to dolphin along. Suddenly at Yarrawonga I gained about 2,000' and had final glide. Got in 8 minutes over time." 15 m - Garham Garlick ASW 20 - 123.2kph "I'm not sure that I sure should be here alone - Bruce Cowan should be here with me. We both did 123.8 (raw speeds). I went a little further and a little longer, so it was very close. Bruce was beaten by a wingtip because of the glider's handicap. I had a good run on the first leg. I went to the west of The Rock and averaged 150.8kph. Pushing on further north, the cloud collapsed and I lost a bit of time there. I got low from Urana and was operating between 2,500' and 4,000' but someone ploughing a paddock got me 5.5 knots." Standard - Allan Barnes LS1f 125.6 kph "I had a fairly good start that helped my flight a lot. I got up as high as I could under good cus and drifted back to the start, so I started at cloud base. Had a good run to the Warbys then found a flat patch and got down to 1,600' so was starting to feel nervous. Then I hit 10 knots which got me back to cloud base. Had a good run towards The Rock; turned 20km before and had a fairly mixed run on the second leg. The clouds weren't working that well, as David said. Some of the best climbs I got were in the blue. The clouds themselves weren't good indicators. I was planning originally to just touch the second area but this would have got me in 10 mins early, so I just carried on towards Tocumwal. I turned 10km inside the area and headed home, still not having got a climb. I hit 8knots near Yarrawonga and came in at about 130kph, so that was a nice fast finish." There were no outlandings on contest day 4. David Wilson - morning weather - it is a total fire ban day in Victoria but not in NSW. The main feature is that there is a high in the Tasman so there is northerly airstream over us. The trough line has disappeared but the air coming in from the north is considerably more humid than we had before - probably not too different from what we experienced yesterday under the clouds. We will certainly have clouds today. There will be the odd thunderstorm over the mountains. There will be north-westerlies in the area that we are flying. It will be a late start; we'll get to 3,000' at around noon but it will stay at that for some time, until about 2pm. The forecast is for even stronger winds tomorrow. There is a low developing just to the north, bringing thunderstorms and interesting weather. It will reach 38 degrees in Benalla today. A 3 hour AAT was set for contest day 5 - 172km / 530km - Yarrawonga (40km), Deniliquin (60km) Shepparton (30km). (photo by Deniz Ture, contest scorer; words by Jo Pocklington)
9th of January 2008 - Victorian State Championships
Contest day 4 - morning briefing Traces from the day 3 winners were put up on the one screen and each pilot spoke about his flight yesterday: Tony Tabart (Ventus 2cxM) "I expected to find something at the Warbys but there was nothing; I decided to turn and went straight down the valley over Wangaratta; apparently, it was a much better run west of the valley along the Warbys. There were very good glides in the King Valley ridges into cloud and running across towards Mt Buller; I then had a straight glide to Euroa, trying to find lift. I was 200' at Violet Town and finally climbed away at 1 knot and got home." Graham Garlick (ASW 20) "I did pretty much the same as Tony - a straight glide out. Tony was above both me and Toby at the first turn. Toby and I flew west of the valley and Toby was about a thousand foot above me. I followed the ground at 60 knots and it took a while to get a climb. The best climb I got was 5.5; my average was 3.8. I got a couple of good glides where I lost a couple of thousand feet at 50kph. In the Euroa circle I went for the highway and picked up a final thermal at about a thousand feet and came home. We were all outclassed by Toby yesterday." Toby Geiger (LS4) "I spoke to Phil Henderson before the launch about a plan - go as deep as possible into the second box and just touch Euroa; we were expecting cooler air from the south-west. The hills were working before the start so my plan was to go into them as much as possible. We all turned at Peechelba, back into the Warbys, where I got a very good climb and then a couple more - generally 6/7 knots. Just at Glenrowan there are some hills that worked like a treat - it worked to follow the ridges. I'd planned to take a climb at Mt Samaria which works really well usually, but there was no cloud there. I dumped my water, took a couple of knots and got home. The trick was to go into the mountains where there was some lift." Contest day 4 morning weather briefing by David Wilson: Today is going to be much better than yesterday. A north-easterly stream is developing which is good for gliding a Benalla. The air where we are going is probably a little bit moister than where we are. Wind expected is variable 15 knots at all levels except surface which is estimated 8 knots. The bureau predicts 38 degrees for here, but I calculate 35.7 for Benalla; it will be hotter further north. Rain is expected for Sat so we may not get a day. Task for comp day 4 - 3 hour AAT 293km / 592km - The Rock (45km), Jerilderie (45km). Phil Henderson, contest director, expressed his concern that the circles around the turnpoints today are 1.1 km greater than his average speed yesterday. (photo by Deniz Ture, contest scorer; words by Jo Pocklington)
8th of January 2008 - Victorian State Championships
Competition day 3 - conditions turned out to be better than forecast, and the morning forecast was for conditions a little better than yesterday. An AAT of 2.5 hours was set covering 72km / 448km - Peechelba East (35km), Cheshunt (35km), Euroa (35km). There were 2 outlandings. Contest day 3 winners (handicapped speeds): Open - Tony Tabart 103.5kph Standard - Toby Geiger 108.6kph 15m - Graham Garlick 103.6kph (photo of Peter Gray in HNZ taken by Dave Holbrook; words Jo Pocklington)
7th of January 2008 - Victorian State Championships
Contest day 3 David Wilson, morning weather briefing - the trough is to the east but the prediction is that it may return later in the day. Basically, southerly winds for the day, curling around so that this area will have lighter winds, but with cool air continuing to be injected at low levels. Max temp expected is 34 degrees if no further cool air comes in, but it probably won't get that hot here. With this morning's air, the maximum height expected is 4,000'. The cool air will slow down any rate of improvement. On the basis of the weather forecast, a task was not set for day 3. The prospect for the next 3 days looks quite promising - north westerlies are expected, which bring the best soaring in this area. (photo of Simon Brown landing by Dave Holbrook, words by Jo Pocklington)