The 52d Nationals in Australia are over and with 10 out of 11 days it was a great competition. The highest speed was flown on the last day by the CHAMPION in 18m./open class; Tom Claffey; 158.9 km./h. over 339.2 km.in an ASG 29!
Enough great speed in that class , as on several day ‘s speed reached just under or over 140 km./h.
The first REAL long wings were on spot 12 [ from 20] , where the Nimbus 3D finished, flown by 2 ” pretty experienced oldies” and long-time- good -mates from me, Ron Sanders and Peter Sheard [UK].
When you would not be that high as Arne was, you could land on one of the private strips. There are a lot in Australia.
Danish pilot Arne Bóye Möller did well during his first Australia- experience. Between day 1 and 8 he was even the topper from the overall scores. With a couple of over 500 km. days, he adapted quickly to Aussie circumstances. He won 2 days and was also runner up on 2 days.
On an AAT day, the last but one, the organisers “found” a soarable window, but for him this window was not totally flyable and he out landed on a nice big paddock, no worries, close to a farm , not unimportant either !! Though he flew the biggest distance ,339.8 km. [the winner flew 299 k.] he did not finish and that cost him the title. By the way he was ONLY 14 km. out!!!!
Arne after flying the YAK , indeed Aussie people are really nice and friendly.
As Arne mentioned: Kingaroy, the kindest people and very nice weather“.
But as you know Tom is a real good pilot as well and so is Butch [ John Buchanan] the runner up, who is in top-soaring at least since 1980 and still flies a lot, but not so many comps anymore.
A good podium in this class. Congratulations!
A great paddock to land in , better than the unlandable area on the picture above .
Arne’s comment on that picture: “Shrubs, hillocks, small gorges and inhospitable terrain as far as the eye can see.”
The 15m. class had quite a few potential winners! Mac from Japan did well and won 3 days,[ the last day with a speed of 146.3 km./h over 268.6 km.] Peter Trotter won 2, his wife Lisa 1 and Pete Temple also 1.Matthew Scutter [ Discus 2] won 3 days in a row and topped the overall scores from day 5 till the end.
So he can call himself for a year now the Aussie National CHAMPION before Mac and Peter.
Till now I knew Matthew mostly from his long distance flights over 1000km. in his LS 4.He surely learned a lot during his European trip last summer and flying the JWGC.
Matthew with the prizes as shared by proud dad Michael, after arriving home.
The Standard class was dominated by ONE person; Greg Beecroft , in his LS 8. He won with a marge of 755 points!!!!He won 6 from the 10 days and mind you this class had 400/500 km. tasks as well. Best speed in this class was on day 4 when Matt Gage [ the runner up during this competition] won with 132.4 km./h. over 319.5 km.
Greg is from W. A. [ Perth] and I can tell you that’s a lot of driving up and down to the East where Kingaroy is.
Great effort!!!
Competitions like this are very morish. Congratulations to ALL!!!
For all other news and more about the Aussie Nationals you can read at; www.soaring.eu Enjoy your week,
cheers Ritz.
