MAD Gliding The Newsletter of the Marree and District Mostly-Motorless gliding Club Lots of Lennies, heaps of sheep, stratospheric cloud bases… you’d think you were in New Zealand except that there’s no funny iccents… MAD Gliding The Newsletter of the Marree and District Mostly-Motorless gliding Club Estofado! The problem with being nose heavy is that it can more disc space and bandwidth than the previous site It’s a difficult time of year. My November begins put an excessive load on your elevator and none of and to allow separate areas for tuggies, instructors and with a trade show in Amsterdam where they only your clothes fit. Right now, I can scarcely bend over the committee so that important documents and other eat Stamp Pot whose calorific value is measured in enough to sit at the keyboard and bang out this, secret mens business can be conducted through the megajoules. This show was closely followed by another the first issue of the Marree and Districts Soaring “cloud”… whatever that means. Association magazine. Why the change of title? Why in Strasbourg where they only eat Schweinenfleisch It’s regrettable that the change-over had to be the big change of location? und Sauerkraut. Ditto megajoules _ gas. Three weeks done at Christmas time, but one of the “features” of of this does your CofG no good at all. After that, it’s After coming into Marree on the LKSC Lake Eyre Google and other services of similar kidney is that they only a few short weeks to the Festival of Overeating. Safari which fills a lot of this issue, Ian Barraclough download terrabytes of data to index the internet and This festival is the main cultural event of my and Geoff Sim decided that it was a perfect place for a our club site was being absolutely hammered to the ancestors, the indigenous people of West Sussex, the gliding club. There’s already a yacht club (the nearest point that our bandwidth adequate otherwise limit traditional owners of the country from Normandy to water is 50 km away) and they’d be sure to welcome a was exceeded many times in the last month. gliding club since there’s bugger all else to do. Biarritz (though there are claims through the land and It looks like being a busy time at the club with many environments courts from various Pict, Scot, and Gaelic It’s a great location… zillions of square kilometres visitors and competitions such as the regatta turning peoples who dispute our ownership of this land). of outlanding area, off-the-scale thermals and a better up. The weather in Sydney has been moist to say the Until commercial religion pushed out the old ways, than 12,000’ cloud base, you could set world records least but looking a the weather on the club website, we celebrated the mid-winter solstice with a festival in a Horsa… if that was what you wanted to do. the forecast looks good… and in any case, you have of guilt-free excess in all possible forms. I believe this There are drawbacks… Marree is further away from to be there to fly don’t you? civilisation than most places… about 200 years at last manifests as a race memory when my daughter, who All this is a roundabout excuse of saying sorry for reckoning and is inclined to be warm in summer… but is at an age where worries CofG and wing loading any mistakes in this MAD newsletter and any problems we’re not going to let that bother us. amounts to a mental illness, said at the dinner table with the website but I’m going gliding! “I’m stuffed to the point of spewing! I’m only eating Meanwhile… the club website has undergone because I can’t stop!”… She takes after her mother. a major change. The reason for this was to give us Complaints as usual to the [email protected] Keep Soaring December - January 2012 Page 2 As I write this Bruce Taylor and Todd Clark are Presidents Message participating in the South African Championships at Dorothea MacKellar certainly got it right about Welkom. To round out the season there will be a Australia being “a land of droughts and flooding strong Club representation at the Multiclass Nationals rains”. After years of near certainty that you could to be held at Narromine in early February. visit the Club anytime and enjoy wonderfully flyable We have a busy program at the club for the next 4 weather we have had the wettest spring on record! months which provides plenty of opportunity for you How hard it is to get used to. Each morning I look to have fun while honing your soaring skills. at my iPhone weather app to see if I can spot a clear period to go flying, but the forecast remains dismal. In January, from the 13th to the 16th, our Cross Let’s hope like last year the early months of the New Country Weekend will focus on planning and Year prove to be exceptionally good. completing a 500km flight. Overlapping this will be the annual visit of the Air Force Cadets for their Cross I shouldn’t be too negative about the weather for Country Camp. So do come to the weekend and test there has still been some great flying. At the Kentucky yourself on a 500 and by flying against the young Camp in November a few of us got to experience guns. “thermal wave”, which for me was a revelation. Flying above and along a magnificent street of the Cus The Keepit Regatta, our annual blue ribbon event, was an experience that will forever remain in my mind, is on from 19th to 26th February. Ably organised by almost displacing the sadder memory of the pock- David Bull, who you should contact about participation, marking of my ute by hail at the Club just after we there remains space for a couple of further participants. returned from Kentucky! In March the Australian Gliding Team has fully And our Japanese visitors seem to think that our booked the Club for a training camp from 19th to the poor weather is really quite good for they are posting 25th. This is immediately followed by Steve Hedley’s 5 hours, flight after flight. Reports elsewhere in this “Big Bird” Grand Prix for 25m Gliders. Newsletter on the Lake Eyre Safari, the Kentucky Our March (15th to 18th) and April (13th to 16th) Camp and the November Cross Country Weekend Cross Country Weekends will focus on developing further attest that all has not been bad. planning and navigational skills. The Club had a good representation at the NSW Jacques Graells has done some superb work to Championships at Temora from 27th November with 8 develop a Club ranking system using the OLC and members racing and Ian Downes flying a tug. Building the Committee has decided to get right behind it. on members success in the Queensland Comps notable Henceforth the results of all competitions, including results were Bruce Taylor 1st in 18m and Open Class, Cross Country Weekends and the Regatta, will be Brian Du Rieu 3rd in 18 m and Nick Singer 3rd in Club based on OLC postings. Class. Keep Soaring December - January 2012 Page 3 There will be prizes at the Club’s Annual Awards racing involves a maximum of 20 aircraft starting So those of you interested in having a go… why Dinner in July for the longest, fastest and most flights together across a 1 km line and racing for roughly 2 not have a trial run in the “Big Bird” GP in March. posted on the OLC for pilots with less and more than hours around a triangular course to finishing across the Last issue the success of maintenance week was 200 hours. The rankings are already live on Soaring start, a format very similar to F1 car or dinghy races. reported. This time I can advise the completion of a Stuff (http://www.soaringstuff.net) so have a look. By using modern tracking and display systems it major refurbishment of the cockpit of the Club’s Jantar. Soon an up-to-date summary will also appear on the is hoped to popularise the sport by making it more The aircraft is now in top condition, so do fly it. Huge Club’s main home page. spectator friendly. (Or less spectator unfriendly! Ed) thanks go to John Trezise, Lee Braithwaite and Todd So if you are not posting your flights to the OLC The exciting finish in our March GP shown by the Clark who spent more than 200 hours on the job. begin now. There are no bragging rights attached to following photo, where 4 aircraft finished within 500m On behalf of all in the Club I pay tribute to the unrecorded flights. of each other, illustrates the possibilities. tremendous effort put in by Ian Downes and Luke In October we were advised by the IGC that the Pilots from anywhere can participate in any one or Kingston Murphy and the many individual members Club has been selected to stage a World Qualifying more of the Qualifying GP’s, with 2 or 3 pilots from who have laboured tirelessly during the year to make Grand Prix from 12th to 18th November 2012. Other each competition qualifying for the finals. We hope our Club such a great place to have fun. To close I wish QGPs are to be held in Romania, South Africa, Chile, to attract a number of international pilots to our GP you and all your family a most wonderful Christmas Slovakia and France in 2012/13 feeding into the World along with Australia’s best and it will be fantastic if we and a great New Year.