Greetings from another sunny day in Bloemfontein. This morning in fact there are some clouds, so it is not entirely blue. Briefing will only be held at 11 a.m.
An early easterly wind, has moved now to southerly 5 – 10 kts. Later it could become westerly. This could present problems for take-off if the wind were to get stronger. At 14000 ft. the wind is due to increase considerably which could affect the thermals. There is a high ridging in over the Atlantic which should bode well for the rest of the week. There is some cu expected today.The task has been set as an AAT for all the classes with first take-off due at 12 noon, with the Open/18m. Class first, followed by the Club and lastly the 15m/Standard.
Some minor repairs have been carried out to Connie Conradie’s tug ZS-KOT.
Today the temperatures are expected to reach 30° – 31°, it is also expected to remain blue, with the dew pt. this morning at 7°, but according to the reports falling to -8° this afternoon. There are however strong winds expected and all the thunderstorm activity has moved to the NE (let’s hope so!!). Dick says 50 mm. of rain fell on the farm where he landed. Conditions could be tricky with the rain that has fallen in the area, so smaller tasks have been set as follows.
Open/18m.:311.9 km. polygon 4 pts.: R7 – Zoltpan – R4 – Peilkop – finish
15m/Std:330.8 km. polygon 4 pts. R18 – Hoopstad – R4 – Peilkop – finish
Club:269.1 km. polygon 3 pts. R18 – R4 – Peilkop – finish
Fallback – All classes:AAT 3 areas minimum 125.1 km maximum 512.8 km.
Sector 1 - R3 150 km. bearing # 1 221 deg. and Bearing # 2 141 deg.
Sector 2 – R4 cylinder 30 km. radius
The Club class will be first off today, followed by the 15m/Std and last the Open class. At briefing thanks were extended to Boris for doing the scoring and to everyone for keeping the airfield clean. Let’s hope today they all have a good day’s flying.Much much later!
It has been quite an eventful day at Bloemfontein – at least for the most part the weather did as predicted, although there was some cloud at Bultfontein, for the rest of the task area it remained blue with the clouds staying to the east of track.Launching started at about 12.15 a.m. after the two snifters had been launched – Ian Baker in the ASH25 and Debbie Scholey in her Ventus 2CT. Conditions were blue and the lift was very broken, and the wind did increase during the afternoon. At the back of the grid N2 was seen with its tail in the air on the back of a bakkie as repairs were made to the tail wheel – unfortunately for Pieter Nouwens the tail wheel did not get fixed, so he has lost a day’s flying. Bruce Greeff flying #66 (Std. Cirrus) in the Club class did not stay up and decided not to take another launch.
For the rest of the pilots it was a matter of getting up and trying to get around the task. Quite early on we heard the first outlanding report – Werner Kienhofer in his Libelle had outlanded on Bultfontein airfield. As the afternoon progressed there were more outlandings, though there were some finishers as well.
In the Club class, Andrew Bester managed the best speed, followed by Martin Attwell, and then Jennifer Bradley. For the rest of the class it was either an outlanding or GNSS landing and getting back to New Tempe a/f.
In the 15m/Std. there were three pilots that landed back at the a/f – Shaun Lapworth, Dick Bradley and Oscar Goudriaan whilst the rest of the class outlanded.
The Open Class must have had a somewhat easier flight (?) as the majority of them managed to complete the task.
A major factor of the first leg for all of the competitors was the strong westerly wind which threatened to push the gliders into the airspace – we will see whether there were infringements once we see what Boris ‘spits’ out of the computer!
The Search & Rescue was then called last evening but nothing really was possible until first light this morning. Early early this morning six aircraft (the tugs and other planes) went out at first light heading northwards towards Dealesville. Thankfully they found Daniel and the glider safely just before 6 a.m. to the northeast of Dealesville.
The Search & Rescue was cancelled and Daniel has just arrived back by road. He says that he walked to 2 farms – both were locked up with no-one around. He had no cellphone reception where he landed, and although he called and also responded to the tug aircraft that went out late, they could not hear his call. So this morning as you can imagine there are a lot of very relieved and very happy people, though tired! He recounts that he used the motor and when he had sufficient height put it away as he was climbing – but when putting the motor away, the propellor got damaged, so subsequent attempts to use the motor were unsuccessful and then the need to outland.
The efforts and involvement of so many people, including Search & Rescue, that went more than the extra mile has to be very gratefully appreciated and is made all the more satisfactory that Daniel is alive and well. He said he managed to sleep in the cockpit. He is in good spirits.
WELL DONE AND MANY MANY THANKS TO EVERYONE.
We woke to a cloudy sky, but this is gradually clearing and grid positions have been given, though briefing is only to be held at noon. There are a lot of tired people!
So more anon when we know what is planned after noon.
Today we celebrate our tug pilot - John Attwell’s 60th birthday – a very happy birthday, John. Unfortunately the Rallye that he was supposed to bring to the Nationals was ‘out of time’, so he brought Magalies tug, EGI. This tug had a new motor fitted recently and has not been performing as well as it should – it took forever to reach altitude with a glider on tow, so John had hoped to take EGI back to Johannesburg yesterday, but the weather did not allow. So he is spending part of his birthday returning today (he left shortly after 9 a.m.), and will return in a day or so with Arnold’s Rallye.
Many thanks are extended to Steve Thomas who is the ‘man behind the scenes’ adding these reports onto the SSSA website – Steve is sitting in Wales, UK and suffering the cold wintery weather, although he was in Bloemfontein before Christmas, so he can well envisage what is going on here.Also many thanks are extended to the efforts of Maneste Fouche and the company for whom she works – JOHNSON CONTROLS – who arranged and sponsored T-shirts for all of the pilots. A group photograph will be held in due course.More heavy rains yesterday afternoon turned parts of the airfield into a pond and more mud-spattered gliders to be cleaned today.This morning clouds are forming, but they are straggly and quite low. The wind is also still blowing, but thankfully not as nearly as strongly as yesterday morning.Dick reported at briefing that the forecast was a matter of ‘gut-feel’ and interpreting the data from the experts. There is a line of storms NW/SE and there is the potential for overdevelopment, but it is still quite dry to the SW where there has been little or no rain. To the north of Kimberley there is more moisture. Initially the winds will be 10 kts. NWesterly, but later in the afternoon they should move westerly. The high pressure is more to the east.So the tasks have again been set to the SW, and as Phil Jeffery dryly observed, “do we get the same tasks until we get them right” – so yes, the tasks are the same as yesterday. Again it will be the same order for launching with Open/18m. Class, followed by Club and then 15m./Std. It is hoped to start launching between 12 & 12.30.Open/18m.:385.9 km. polygon with 3 pts. Start Bloem – R22 – Fauresmith – Dealesville –finishStd/15m:301.6km. polygon with 2 pts. Start Bloem – R15 – Dealesville - finishClub:260.3 km. polygon with 2 pts. Start Bloem – Brulfontein – Hill 5305 – Dealesville - finish There is also a Fallback task for All Classes:AAT 176.3 km. polygon with 2 pts. Start Bloem – Petrusburg – Dealesville – finish with the first sector being Petrusburg 150 km. length bearing # 1 64 deg. & bearing # 2 14 deg. and the second sector being Dealesville with a cylinder of 30 km. radiusWell an interesting day with more storms developing out to the west, so that part of the task area became impossible for the gliders to reach the turn-points. Once all the gliders were airborne and the starts announced, the sky still did not look particularly encouraging.
The majority of the Open class, which was the first class to be launched, obviously had the advantage ahead of the weather. By the time the Club class set off on track the sky was getting quite dark on track and it was not too long before some of the pilots were calling for the conditions back at the airfield – they were abandoning the flight as to continue would surely mean a definite out-landing. By the time they landed a heavy shower at the field was imminent. For the 15m. class it was also a case of either out-landing or doing a GNSS outlanding and coming back. It would seem that none of the Club or 15m. class pilots were able to finish the task.
The results at this stage would appear that five Open class pilots managed to complete the flight – Laurens Goudriaan, Mannie McLauchlan, Attie Jonker, Quintin Maine, and Canadian visiting pilot Willem Langelaan. Very well done to them.
There have been a good number of trailers leaving to fetch their pilots, who are for the main part scattered along the road towards Dealesville.
Results will no doubt only be forthcoming once all the loggers have been handed in. So for now – its off to the bar for a drink – cheers!
Yesterday was the official practice day and saw quite a few of the pilots taking flights, others relaxing and the remainder of the pilots arriving.
Some interesting sights were observed - one glider was rigged, but then had to be manoeuvre’d considerably to get out and escape from all of the small trees that had now surrounded the rigged glider. A certain pilot from the Cape was seen pushing a lawn mower to cut all the grass under the shade cloth hangars. Merlin, the dog, was hoping to be the first to capture a meerkat’s tale – the CD having promised free beers to anyone bringing in a meerkat’s tale. For the uninitiated, meerkats are burrowing creatures not too unlike a squirrel in appearance, but their burrows can be huge and cause serious damage to any glider falling down the holes. On a daily basis these holes are filled in, but overnight they will have been burrowed out again. So yesterday Merlin, a Pointer, was down those holes with vengeance only his rear end visible determined in trying to catch his first meerkat.
Conditions were good although there were more storms dotted around the Free State (FS) than on the previous day. Unfortunately for Adriaan Hepburn he outlanded at Dealesville, but was given great support and help from the local Police who used their 4 x 4 vehicle to get the glider and trailer out of the field.
We have a total field of 36 pilots – 16 in the Open/18m class, 9 in the 15m/Standard class, and 11 in the Club class.
The Pilots’ Briefing was held at 6 p.m. which dealt with the various aspects such as appointing the committee, details of the latest airspace, operational matters, as well as the ‘hot potato’ issue of handicaps. After the meeting we had very tasty snacks and enjoyed a bit of rain and watching the sky light up with the lightning from the various storm cells.This morning there is still quite a lot of cloud off to the west, which is slow in clearing so briefing has been delayed until 11 a.m. Weighing of the gliders en route to the grid was a lengthy process as each glider was weighed.Merlin has already been meerkat hunting and the pilots have however received tasks as follow:- A Polygon with 2 points Soutpan 150 km. bearing 190 and bearing 130 & Westpoint 50 km. bearing 127 & bearing 67
First launch has still to be decided upon and we are not sure whether all classes will be launched or not.
All for now - off to the runway.
Carol
Later:
A task for all classes was set. A Polygon with 2 pointsSoutpan 150 km. bearing 190 and bearing 130Westpoint 50 km. bearing 127 & bearing 67First launch was at approx. 12.15 with the Std/15m going off first. Randy Cullen from the Cape was sent off as the snifter into a sky that was gradually getting darker, raining in places and there was also lightning. Randy managed to stay up for approx. 20 minutes before deciding to land. The dark clouds and weather moved off to the east, but more was building. However it was decided to launch the Standard & 15m. class followed by the Club class.Halfway through the launching of the Club class, it was decided that the sky was not clearing and that the weather was re-cycling and it was going to build up again and that it was not sensible to send off 36 gliders into the darkening sky.So sadly the first day has been cancelled. Quite a few of the pilots stayed up for a long flight, the last to land being Dick Bradley at approx. 5 p.m. As I write at 5.20 p.m. the heavens have finally opened and the big roof is leaking!! Till tomorrow.Another scorcher in Bloemfontein today. As it is still a \'free for all\', some of the British pilots opted to try for 750 km. flights, whilst others opted for Vryburg and return, and others pottered closer to home. It was a good day, though there was some overdevelopment visible out towards Kimberley and southward from there.
Bobby did a 300 km. in quite a good speed and was back on the ground by
3 p.m.
Pilots are beginning to arrive - both by road and by air. Dieter Haage flew from Orient in his 2-seater and Chris Kuschke is coming with the car & trailer - Chris will be flying with him in CA. Laurens flew KG (ASH25) in from Hennenman. Pieter Nouwens arrived as did the Kienhofers as well as Dolf Pretorius who had come from Gariep where he has just flown several long flights - 700/800 km. as well as an 1000 km.
Members of the Bloem Club were busy with mowing grass - so slowly things are coming together. Tomorrow is scheduled as a practice day - wonder how many will be there to practice! Then the Pilots\' meeting is scheduled in the evening.
For now, Carol