47th Australian Multiclass Nationals

Final night dinner, Fri 23 Jan 09

Final night diner, Fri 23 Jan 09

Peter Gray, contest director, welcomed everyone to the final dinner and presentations for the 47th Multiclass Nationals.  He thanked all pilots and crew - "this is your competition, I especially want to thank the pilots for making this a safe competition and applaud the professional and high quality of airmanship displayed over the last 12 days.  I trust that we at Benalla have made your stay one to remember and we invite all of you to return at any time to enjoy the fantastic flying from this site.

"I have enjoyed being your contest director, even though I\'ve had to make some hard decisions through Penalty and Protest Committee Meetings, and also some out on the field.  This has been a learning curve for me; I have now learnt not to put my hand up at the wrong time!

"This comp would not have been such a success without the first class crew that have done all the hard work and supported me.  First and foremost, I wish to thank my good friend - your Operations Director - John Switala for many hours of work and phone calls over the last 3 months.  He and I were at the point of answering to such things as \'hello sweetie\' and \'goodbye honey\', much to the amazement of our wives. 

"Next I would like to thank our weatherman, Graham Garlick, for his usual top job - well done Graham for your accurate interpretations each day which assisted us in getting the best possible launching and tasking.  Please thank our task setter, Max Kirschner, who managed to get the best out of each day with challenging tasks.  And the man who efficiently and safely lined you up each day and then sent you off, our launch marshal Phil McCann (Phil is from the Bendigo Gliding Club and has given his time to assist us here at the GCV).   To keep you all in line and safe, our safety officers did a wonderful job - week one, our visiting Pom instructor, Bruce Cooper and week 2, CTO/Ops Kevin Olerhead.  Thanks also to pilot reps - Lisa Trotter, Geoff Vincent and David Jansen.

"The team that put you in the air each day in sometimes difficult conditions, thanks to our 15 tug pilots including Ziggy from the Geelong Club, Jeremy Thompson from Queensland, Sophie and Chris our midweek tug pilot, plus many of our club tug pilots - led by tugmaster Bruce Salter.  We must thank all the team that launched you in very hot dusty grueling conditions - the rope runners and wing runners - Lulu, Vivienne, Geoff, Andrew (the masked bandit), David and many others - thank you all.

"One man we couldn\'t do without, our very dedicated scorer Tim Shirley, whose competition experience over the years has been invaluable in many areas.  Tim\'s dedication to duty kept him in the air-conditioned office for the whole competition!  The ladies who took your registration, recorded take off times on the grid and took outlanding reports - let\'s hear it for the girls in the office - Rhonda Gelletly and Sue Kirschner.  Also our scrutineers, Bob Fox and Louis Preiss - thank you both for your dedication in trying conditions.  For making our delicious lunches each day - thanks to John Millott and Louise Preiss.  Leigh Hall and the team in the kitchen for preparing top quality meals - voted excellent by the pilots and crew who ate at the club each evening.  We all thank Gerry Hogan for keeping the bar stocked and for purchasing water and ice for the helpers during the launch.  Laurie McKinlay and Ron Grant did a great job in establishing the watering points in the tie down areas, thank you.  Paul, our firefighting chopper pilot, for his wonderful display of water bombing – thanks Paul.

"Jutta Goldmann and Kah Chong took some fantastic photos, thank you.   And working hard in the background putting our news_small and photos on the web and compiling our report for Soaring Australia, thanks to Jo Pocklington.

"To all those that I haven\'t mentioned who also helped in small and different ways, many thanks to you all too."

Peter Gray presented trophies:

Doc Heydon Trophy - Standard Class Champion - Peter Temple
15 Metre Champion - John Buchanan
Roger Woods Trophy -18 Metre Class Champion - Graham Parker
Dr Mervyn Hall Trophy - Open Class Champion - Paul Mander / David McManus
Best Performing State Team - South Australia - Graham Parker, Peter Temple, John Nicholls
Sir Donald Anderson Novice Award (first or second nationals) - Kris Kauffmann
Best International Pilot - Benny Orrsater (Sweden)
Fun Teams - Mafikeng Marauders - Graham Parker, Tom Claffey, Lars Zehnder

2.03pm Fri 23 Jan 09

Peter Gray announced that the day is cancelled.
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2pm Fri 23 Jan 09

Tony reports from north of the lake in the hills - "below 3,000\', haven\'t got anything yet - thermals very few and far between".
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1.53pm Fri 23 Jan 09

Tony reports 1.5 knots to 3,800\' - "there seem to be an inversion - milky air, but clear above it".
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1.45pm day 9 Fri 23 Jan 09

Temp 29 degrees on the ground.  Tony Tabart reports only getting 1.5 knots and nothing above 3,500\'; weak broken narrow thermals.
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1.15pm day 9 Fri 23 Jan 09

The day is blue - not heating up sufficiently - temperature only 28 degrees on the ground at Benalla - Tony Tabart just launched as a sniffer.  
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11am day 9 Fri 23 Jan 09

Yesterday\'s cold front brought violent torrential rain and 145 kph winds to Benalla.  There was a lot of damage on the southern side of town with trees down and rooves blown off, but gliders and trailers at the airfield were secure and undamaged. Another cold front will approach south-east Victoria later today. Cu is expected over the task area.  Max temp 35 degrees.  Max height DALR 10,000\'; ave lift 6-8 kts max 10+. Start 1100 hrs, end 1800 hrs.  Visibility will be generally good but with ar...
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noon Thu 22 Jan 09

Leaders in each class going into the final day are:   Standard   Peter Temple - Adelaide Soaring Club - LS 8 - 7636 Tom Gilbert - Temora - SZD 55 - 7065 Tobias Geiger - Gliding Club of Victoria - LS 4A - 6964 Lisa Trotter - Kingaroy - LS 8 - 6809     Explaining his move into standard class, Peter Temple said:  "I enjoyed club class, but I did a flight in Lisa Trotter\'s LS8 at Kingaroy on a no-fly day and fell in love with it".     15m   John Buchanan - Kingaroy - ASW27 - 7942 Miles Gore-Brown...
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11.15am Thu 22 Jan 09

Day cancelled.  A cold front is moving through, bringing variable winds gusting to 45 knots on the ground.  Chance of thunderstorms with rain later in the day.  Humidity is 64%.  Pilots are securing their gliders and trailers.
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6pm day 8 Wed 21 Jan 09

Greg Schmidt:  "I got more than 100 kph so it was a good day; that\'ll do me!  I\'ve had 132 kph and 120+ kph and my aim was to break 100 at this comp, so I\'ve done that."    John Nicholls:  "I found it mixed; slow on the first leg, then came good.  On the second leg, after the cu, it slowed right down so I was conservative and made sure that I got home."      Andrew Georgeson:  "A bit of a tricky day - thermals like triangles - but I blasted home, but then probably everyone else did that too."...
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