We thought that today would be a great day so we had our pilot’s meeting an hour early with most of the gliders on the grid by 9:00 am. I declared an FAI type 750 km triangle (no leg less than 28%) with turnpoints at Klerksdorp and Reivelo. Each leg was about 255km. I launched…
Today was my 60th birthday and they presented me with a big chocolate cake at the pilot’s meeting. It went with fish & chips for supper at the end of the day. I can’t imagine a better birthday than being here with friends flying gliders in November. The day was completely blue and we declared…
The weather here changes so fast. Last night it was really windy and the morning was cold and blowing. But, by the 10 am pilots meeting it had died down and was looking like a pretty good day. We set a 410 km chevron shaped task with the first turn at Westpoint (where we clear…
Today looked promising for thermal strength but with a real risk that high winds would blow the thermals apart. I launched second in line and got off at 1.4 AGL into a great 7.7 kt thermal that took me to 10.5 K altitude. I set out on course – and that was the last good…
OK – so much for “I won’t fly until Wednesday”. Today turned out to be a really pretty good day. A new young German pilot did his first 300km (so he bought all the beer tonight) and one of the more experienced fellows did a bit over 400km. My Nimbus got done with the tail…
Every year I try to take a gliding vacation and in 2005 I visited South Africa for the first time and just fell in love with flying here. This is my 7th trip and, like earlier years, I will try to send on daily “reports” to friends back home. These daily reports really began as…
Nowadays unique is an overused and abused word – yet the Helli Lasch Challenge is a truly unique event. Since 2003 this biennial event has seen the reigning World Champions and the South African squad sharing two weeks of intense flying and moving experiences in an exclusive setting in the spirit of Helli Lasch. Before…
