” 162.621 km. more then the 103 pilots flew together in the 2012/13 season.

Fantastic to read that 2 times Female World Champion Susanne Schoedel is the new Secretary General of the FAI. Great choice, great lady.
And,..as I read the first lady doing this job. She starts on March 1.Good on her!
You surely remember her unselfish behavior during the WGC in Uvalde ,where she was one of the 3 female participants.
When 2 pilots collided and escaped with no and minor injury, one by flying back home to Uvalde , the other by leaving the plane on his parachute, she aborted her flight to stay over the spot to give the helicopter from Mark an indication where the pilot was.
She was cheered on in next days briefing.
Just on the last day of the year she set several FEMININE WORLD-records in Bitterwasser; yes she is a fantastic pilot and a nice young lady.
For more news about her and the job you can go to;
http://www.fai.org/news/38044-fai-names-susanne-schoedel-as-new-secretary-general

As pilot during the WGC in Uvalde.

During the Uvalde briefing with Andreea and her team mates Holger and Tassilo.

This week, on January 21 they broke an altitude–world- record in a VERY SPECIAL way from Kopaida in Greece in the Pipistrel Sinus, Alexis and Petros;

” Two days ago we made an interesting flight and we actually broke (paperwork and ratification pending) the 7.143 m. FAI RAL2T (2-seater microlight with thermal engine) world record.
The interesting (and gliding related) part is that we did it with the engine off for the last and critical part of the climb flying in mountain wave!
So, we actually broke a record for aircraft with engines with the engine off!”

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=3465695

Very interesting!

The gliders are packed on January 23 in Bitterwasser and what a lot of kilometers these gliders have flown; 710.940,27 flown by 134 pilots during 913 flights!!!!
That is 162.621 km. more then the 103 pilots flew together in the 2012/13 season.
They had an absolute fantastic season, with impressive flights,excellent weather and with that some strong thunderstorms including the occasional scary weather phenomena as micro burst.
A safe season as they claim for the pilots, with only some damage on gliders.

Micro burst; I have seen 2 of them in Tocumwal over the 20 years I visited [ 2 or 3 months during the season] and lived there and was very much impressed by the power. Not nice, not nice at all!! And the pilot who thought he just landed in time, landed TOO late as the glider had to be brought in the hangar and the wind lifted it up whilst being hooked on the car, as if it was a toy.
Some pilots do not understand the different circumstances from weather at their host airfield, they can be totally different than at home.
But I know that the CFI of all soaring facilities , large or small are very clear with their local rules in case of such a phenomena happening. Dust storms are an example as well.
I saw pilots race in front of them, land as close as possible to the hangar and we just could close the doors in time.
Adrenaline with the pilot and you know and have seen it before,….THE story of the day, on the bar with mouth , hands and feet.
Adrenaline with us and a drink as well; ALL went well, pfff…..!

Also fires and their smoke can be a problem when you have to return to your field, but the CFI will then direct you to a safe place if necessary.Don and Jeff did that in 1991 when the fires were around the Sportavia field and pilots were told to hang around if possible , if not to land at Finley-airport, about 20 km N .They were picked up with the tug after the fires turned direction.
In that year we still were overseas guests.

Fires create nice clouds with good lift. Got some pictures from Joergen who flies at Stonefield from fires in Victoria last week.Fires and clouds even a pyro cumulus