OLC 2012 season is over!

It’s that time of the year again, the OLC season 2012 is nearly over ……and….as you know, I like to use  news from the OLC, as I love to see , like many others, how glider pilots all over the world perform. It is so easy to see what happened in 2012 and the 2013 season starts this upcoming week.
Last year the last flight from 2011 was added on October 10.
So if you do’nt have time to find out what exactly happened, I did some research for you and wrote it down, but when the season is REALLY over you might check if the points from pilots pretty close to each other have changed .

Looking at the OLC champion[ worldwide]  from 2012 it is pretty clear that USA pilot  Jim Payne is the winner. [ 9077.20 points out of 6 top flights]All flights in the DG1001M.
Swiss pilot Jean Marc Perrin is a great runner up with 8847.90 points,[he flew the DG808/15 m.!!! in Argentina last january]]  while on spot 3 German pilot Reinhard Schramme has 7613.10 points.[best flights in Bitterwasser last December/ January in the ARCUS]  A total of 9 pilots stayed in that 7000 point-range!

Looking at the OLC speed list Jim Payne [1147.54] tops this one worldwide  as well with as runner up at this stage German pilot Jürgen Wenzel  [ 942.78] and  2 other USA pilots Bill Hill with 941.90 and Robert Spielman [USA] with 940.50 points. As they still can fly this weekend this might be a tough race for the extra points.

Best OLC- flight was from Jim Payne in the DG 1001M  with 2.212. km. and a speed of  161.93 gaining 2.029, 16 points.
Best OLC flights were flown by Spanish pilot Pepe Gresa ; 91 flights and 54.776,39 km. gaining 52.750,83 points.
Looking at the stats from the airfields Puimoisson tops the list with a total of 290 pilots flying 1643 times and an amazing amount of kilometers; 631.617,14.
Looking at the stats from the Clubs, I am  really very  pleased to see that the Dutch Gliding Club , the Gelderse Zweefvlieg club from Terlet , where both my “kids” flew in the past is the clear winner, before runner up , again from Holland the Amsterdamse Club voor Zweefvliegen where a lot of my friends fly from Soesterberg;
Gelderse; 271.847,65
Amsterdamse; 266.822,70.
So even when the weather is good this weekend , the difference in points is very clear.
Good 3d place for Albuquerque Soaring with 233.417, 38.


To the left Marion, she is the president of the Gelderse Soaring Club at Terlet.

Looking at Australia;
the OLC champion is Lubor Kuvik [SK] who flew from Corowa, while the OLC speed champion is young Aussie Matthew Scutter. But not a lot of points between him and Norm Bloch;761.61 and 761.52. Will they fly this weekend?
The best flight was made by Harry Wondergem also flying from Corowa , the best flights by Pepe[Corowa]  and the best field was Corowa before Benalla and Tocumwal.
The best club was the Gliding Club of Victoria.
Best Aussies;Geoff Pratt from Darling Downs in Queensland and Terry Ryan from Tocumwal on spot 7 and 8.

Looking at the USA;
Jim Payne, without doubt, as OLC winner, OLC-speed winner and also with the best flight , but not the best flights that OLC title goes to Randall Acree from the Tucson Soaring Club.
Best airfield clearly Moriarty before Garner Field , place from the 32d WGC and before Minden Tahoe, place from the Pre Worlds in 1990.
Best club; Albuquerque Soaring.
South America; Jean Marc Perrin as OLC champion and Jürgen Wenzel as speed OLC champion.
Best flight by Jean Marc Perrin from France.
Best flights Henrique Navarro.
Best airfield Munivitacura Pis. AND…their club was the best as well.

Looking at Africa;
Reinhard Schramme is the OLC champion and the OLC-speed champion as well. Not the best flight as that was flown by another German pilot Alexander Müller visiting Africa.
Best flights by another German pilot Hans Wiesenthal.
Best airport Bitterwasser before Pokweni and Gariep Dam.
Best club the Magalies Gliding Club from South Africa.

Looking at New Sealand;OLC champion Peter Mc Kenzie, he is also the speed-OLC-champion and he had the best flight! Philip Plane  passed him with “best flights”!
Omarama was the best airfield and the club was also from Omarama [glide Omarama]

Last but not least EUROPE;
OLC champion German pilot Klaus Ohlmann , speed-OLC champion is German pilot Ernst August Kessler.
Best flight by German Gerhard Heidebrecht in a Discus 2T/18m.;1.746, 32 km. and 1.607,59 points!!!
Best flights  by Italian pilot Alfredo Giretti, 36.671.39 points , he still added 444 points last week ,  while the next French pilot has 28.857,80 .
Best airfield is in France  Puimoisson before airfields as Serres La Batie , Vinon, Sisteron and St Auban and then Fuentemilanos in Spain, Hahnweide in Germany and Terlet in Holland.
Best club the Gelderse from Holland.

There you are, the rest you can easily find yourself at www.onlinecontest.org .
For all the other news from last week you can read, when you are interested  at www.soaring.eu

And to finish a lovely video from Uvalde put on Facebook by Sebastian Kawa here is the link;

www.youtube.com  Pocztowka z Uvalde.

cheers Ritz