Renowned British coach G Dale will be in Victoria for 2 weeks coaching during the weeks of 18-22nd and 25-29 November. He will spend the first of these weeks at Benalla and quite likely both weeks.
The current proposal is that we would aim the first of these weeks at a more advanced group, and the second week (wherever it is held) at a less experienced group – really, the “Going For Gold” group.
Register interest with Tim Shirley at tshirley@internode.on.net.
This innovative cross-country theory course will be over two days at Benalla on June 22nd and 23rd. It will involve cross-country flying in the simulator to demonstrate the strategies and techniques of cross-country flight, off- season in a low cost environment. It is not designed to prepare pilots for competitive flying.
Flying in wave is not a common experience at Benalla yet we have a magnificent wave playground nearby and wave occurs much more frequently than you think. This course aims to build your knowledge so you:
Stay tuned for details. Expressions of interest to jgwyther@bigpond.net.au.
“House wave” at Lake Glenmaggie, Gippsland looking WNW. The wind is Westerly flowing left to right over mountains to 4,000; Generally good for 10-15,000′ within 10km. The lenticular in the far distance at left is from the Mt Donna Buang-Mt Torbreck range and is over the Upper Yarra Dam and is probably good for 25,000′.
Winter is a great time to build your theory and knowledge so you fly better, further, faster with more confidence and enjoyment. Courses this year include:
Follow the links for more information and to register interest.
What? A discussion on the weather at Benalla including:
Who? Graham Garlick and any others prepared to join in.
When? Saturday 18th May from 1000 hours, leaving time to fly Sunday in K21, or take the special in the IS28 and, of course, you can fly the simulator any time – now with instruments in both cockpits so dial up a thermal anytime.
Where?GCV clubhouse, State Gliding Centre, Benalla
Cost? Free but a modest fee for a modest lunch.
How? If interested,contact Graham at birdmanoz@bigpond.com
By Tom Spiesser
For the second year in a row GCV has now won the Australasian OLC League competition, by a wider margin, in a more competitive field.
The OLC League is a club-based competition where gliding clubs in Australia and New Zealand compete with each other on 19 weekends from October to February. For each club the OLC League scores the 3 fastest flights (one only per pilot) over Saturday and Sunday and the speed is taken from the fastest 2.5 hours of a flight. On any weekend the wining club scores 12 points, the runner-up 11 and so on. Should more than 12 clubs participate, No. 12 onward will receive 1 point each.
The theoretical maximum number of points available, should a club win all 19 weekends, would be 212, but this outcome is highly unlikely because the competition is tough and because during the course of a season there are non-flyable weekends around the country at different times.
This year GCV won the competition with 155 points over Beverley Soaring Society in Western Australia with 129 points. Last year GCV only scored 144 points, again winning over Beverley who scored 134 points last year. The weather around the country no doubt plays a role in the outcome, nevertheless, this year’s win, with a bigger margin, is an outstanding result for GCV. The OLC League has become more competitive; last year some 33 clubs participated, scoring a total of 1476 points, this year 41 clubs participated and the aggregate number of points increased to 1586. The OLC League is clearly becoming more popular and the awareness within clubs is growing. At GCV we have successfully increased this awareness before the season started, however, we realized early in the season that the OLC League has the most stringent logger requirements so that a number of pilots who were keen to contribute realized that they did not have the right equipment.
A significant contribution to this result has once again been made by our UK members who have been bringing a container with gliders to Benalla for many years. They do miss the first few weekends of the competition, but then they fly almost daily for more than 3 months, including on weekends.
Elsewhere on the OLC Benalla as a gliding site and GCV as a club have once again distinguished themselves. Bearing in mind that our season is not quite finished yet, GCV is once again the gliding club in the Southern Hemisphere where the longest cross country distance was flown this season (175,000 km). At this stage 2nd spot goes to our friends in Santiago in Chile (132,000 km) with whom we have a special connection now that they have a copy of our homebuilt GCV flight simulator, which is also being put to good use.
As a gliding site, Benalla has for the first time become Australia’s most active cross country site with 275,000 km to date, overtaking the commercial operation up the road at Corowa. While soaring conditions were not as good as in the previous season, Benalla came very close to last year’s total of 300,000 km whereas in Corowa at 200,000 km only half of last year’s distance was recorded, which mirrors the reduced number of gliders which were shipped to Corowa this season.
Internationally, in the Southern Hemisphere, Benalla ranks 4th behind the three Namibian sites whose relatively short seasons have already finished. We are only lagging 3rd placed Kiripotib by around 14,000 km, which means that 3rd spot is still within our sights.
| At the World Gliding Championships in Argentina, GCV member Tobi Geiger finished in second place! This is a great result and the Club is extremely proud of Tobi’s achievement. Congratulations Tobi – well done! | Saturday 16th February Celebration Party For Tobi GCV Clubhouse Bookings to gliding@benalla.net.au or call 03 5762 1058 |
The World Competition was held from January 7 to 19 at Gonzales Chaves Airport, south of Buenos Aires on the east coast of South America.
Ninety pilots from 24 countries competed in 3 classes – Club Class, World Class and Standard Class. Australia was represented by 3 pilots: Tobi, Craig Collins from the Mt Beauty Gliding Club and Allan Barnes from the Queensland Darling Downs. Tobi and Craig flew in Club Class against 39 other competitors. Craig finished in ninth place. Allan Barnes competed in World Class and finished in sixth place. All 3 Aussies in the first 10! It was an outstanding result for Australia in very difficult flying conditions and a highly competitive contest with top pilots from around the world.
Tobi is an extremely good glider pilot and often provides an example to other club members of the excellent flights that can be made from Benalla.
The attached photo shows Tobi on the podium under the Australian flag. The gentleman in the middle holding the trophy is the Club Class Champion Santiago Berca representing Argentina. The gentleman on the left is Roman Mracek from the Czech Republic who came third. The host country Argentina did particularly well with 2 Champions with the second being Sebastian Riera in World Class. The photo is from the World Comps website at: www.wgc2012.com.ar. Detailed competition results can be found at: www.soaringspot.com/wgc2012/results
Robert Dorning
GCV President
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Over the past year, members have been working on developing and building our new simulator. Read more here.
Watch this space for more details of simulator packages.
Please contact the GCV office to expresss your interest in trying it out, learning more, etc.
The 51st Multiclass Nationals will be held at Benalla over 7-18 January 2013. Come along and see all the action, latest aircraft and instruments and some exciting flying. Rub shoulders with the cream of Australia’s’ pilots.
Do some flying too so you can see what the champions can achieve on a day when you reckon you’ve done a PB. Special attention will be paid to ensuring Club flying continues unabated during this period.
See their website for more details.
Glyn’s aerobatics at Khancoban November 2009.
(This is an example of a YouTube video embedded into a news item)