...much later on Day 7 .... Carol tells of some happiness, but not for all...
Much much later 7 p.m. and the final person has been accounted for. Gintas Zube in the Nimbus 3 has reported his outlanding position. An interesting day for the pilots. The Club class had one outlander – Gunter Kruger landed at Wesselsbron a/f, so he will be disappointed that he did not make it back to Welkom. Whilst in the 18m/Open class a few pilots either outlanded or abandoned the task. For those that completed the task it was a decision on the 5th leg as to which way to go across a b...
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Sun. 18th December – 7th Contest Day. Carol tells of longer tasks.
Those of us eating at the airfield last evening enjoyed a lovely evening and could decide on the thickness and weight of the rump steak that we were going to eat. We also toasted the 34th wedding anniversary of Ian and Allison Buchanan. Ian is the very able contest director, whilst Allison’s embroidery sewing machine has been running non-stop since the commencement of the contest. To be thanked are the various sponsors so far of daily prizes – Daniel Rodic, Ronald Termaat, and Laura Wyld. Th...
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Later ...Nice day in the office, mostly - Carol relates the saga .....
Later Disappointingly but also thankfully for Douglas Bradley, he experienced release hook problems on the runway. With a bit of testing, it appeared to be working again and he was pushed back onto the runway, but when the tug was hooked up and all out, the tow rope released again – so a non-flying day. He has taken the hook out and it was found that a spring has broken. Mannie McLauchlan got airborne, made a start, but then got low and returned to the airfield. He landed and then decided th...
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Sat. 17th December – 6th Contest Day - Carol reports larger tasks
Apart from local visitors from Welkom yesterday, we have also had visits from other gliding people – Alan Lentle from Estcourt Club, Mike & Rob Atkinson from Magalies GC, as well as Marc Schroeder of France en route to fly at Gariep. So Philippe, his brother, who was flying the glider, # SM, will no longer be flying at Welkom. Being a public holiday yesterday, competitors were advised that perhaps many of the restaurants in town might be closed, so a good dinner was arranged here at the airfie...
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After flying - Day 5 16th December .. Carol says .....
Launching commenced at noon and the gate opened for the Club class after 12.30 and for the Open/18m class a little after 1 p.m. and then similarly to yesterday there was quite a long wait before any of the pilots made a start. The afternoon was a lot calmer with little wind on the ground. Just before 15.30 the first Club class was calling a finish, and then the rest of the Club class followed suit over the next 40 minutes, as some of them had started a good 30 minutes after the first starter...
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Fri. 16th December – 5th Contest Day
Carol, from Welkom, writes .... Yesterday after finishing, Uys Jonker flying # JET, the JS fitted with a jet motor, gave those of us on the ground a demonstration of the jet running as he did several fly pasts over the airfield (see Gallery). Certainly quite impressive. Today is a public holiday in South Africa, and also another bright sunny morning in Welkom today, but there is quite a stiff wind blowing from the north-east. Sven and Dick (based at Bloemfontein) had conferred re the weather...
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Day 4 - Later on – 6 pm
Carol tells the story of a day when nearly everybody got back >>> Well an interesting day for the pilots. For the Club class it seemed to be a long time after the gate was opened before they decided to start. Some reported being in wave conditions prior to the start, whilst others battled to get up to height. Whereas once the gate was opened for the 18m/Open class, some of those pilots were quite quick to get away and head off on track. Conditions were blue, so tricky with some small tight...
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Thurs. 15th December – 4th Contest Day
Carol lifts her quill and reports from Welkom>> Last evening there were huge banks of cloud and blow offs from storms, and during the afternoon the skies had looked threatening on and off with dark grey clouds rolling in, but amazingly there was little rain over Welkom during the day or last night. Feel sure there must have been some heavy rains but definitely in other areas. This morning there are blue skies with sunshine and a southerly wind and the temperature is definitely cooler, and ther...
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Wed. 14th December – 4th Contest Day - [actually a non-contest day]
Our intrepid reporter, "Cap'n Carrol" reports>> A grey morning with 8/8th conditions and there has been on and off rain prior to briefing, so a no contest day today has been announced, and a day for sorting out the problems of yesterday and cleaning of gliders that ended up in muddy fields. Today there is a front over the SW Cape and a low sitting over Welkom. Rain and possibly thunderstorms are expected this afternoon and the cloudbase is not expected to get above 7000 ft. To the west it is...
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A finisher !
Congratulations to Holger Karow who managed to complete the (18m/Open) task in pretty awful conditions. He managed to cross the finish line and landed there, 2.5km from the airfield, watched by the CD from the tower. It then took 3:30 hours or so to retrieve him and get him back to the airfield!
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