This article was first published in the Australian Gliding magazine, May 1975
Once again Horsham Week has been an outstanding success. The Wimmera Soaring Club have the honour of running the most popular competition - 53 gliders and about 80 pilots are evidence. Many of the pilots present this vear have booked accommodation and aircraft for 1976. It might be thought that with so many pilots that there would be some difficulties but the experience and dedication of the organizers resulted in an extremely happy atmosphere throughout the contest. This does not mean that the spirit of competition was not strong, it was. Everyone from the Nimbus to the Longwing had a reasonable chance of winning. The use of four classes and Latimore Handicapping made it a reasonable proposition to fly any glider competitively.
This year saw the introduction of a Women's Contest. This created a good deal of interest in the Victorian press for the gliding movement. We also had a lot of fun, especially when several of the girls did so very well, culminating in Marian Schneider winning her third Sports Class Trophy, in three months. We are planning another Women's Comp. next year, it has also been suggested that we introduce a mixed doubles - that we are at the beginning of a time when we will have quite a few women competition pilots. Sue Martin is representing Australia in the International Feminine Contest this June. Next time we'll have two reps. and competition for these places may be quite keen.
For many people Horsham has become an annual pilgrimage. Among the regulars was Biil Sherrwill who spent a whole week towing the gliders into the sky and depositing them in thermals, he says he enjoy, it and has developed a real expertise in towing. Merv Gill in his Spruce Goose who usually makes Club Class a really good competition was out of luck this year - his canopy left the aircraft at the turnpoint and Merv was forced to land, apparently the glide angle of the Gooie without the canopy isn't too good, also he wanted his canopy, which had landed in a ploughed paddock which made it easier to find the bits to repair.
The competition was well contested in all classes, Club Class with l0 aircraft being the smallest. There were sixteen Libelles and nine ES60/60b which almost provided a one class competition.
In Open Class John Buchanan from Geelong Club flew consistently well to achieve three firsts and two seconds to win from Mike Giles/David Wilson VMFG in the Nimbus. The conditions were not particularly strong and only on the first day did Tony Tabart exceed 100 kph - Tony then left to fly around Australia (in a Powered Aircraft).
Paul Briggs (VMFG) came to Horsham to win and succeed on each of his three contest days, to win the Horsham Week Handicap prize of a portable cassette player. Rick Foster from Bordertown flew consistently to second place although he never won a day.
Sports Class was won by Marian Schnieder in the Sunrasia Boomerang, with Bob Ancell (Tailem Bend) in second place. Club Class brought victory to the hosts when the Horsham Blanik flew consistently to defeat the two K7's.
STATISTICS
GLIDERS
3 NIMBUS 2
2 JANTAR (19m)
2 KESTREL (19m)
1 KESTREL (17m)
2 OPEN CIRRUS (18m)
2 H 301R
3 H201
11 H201ts
2 STD CIRRUS
1 LS 1F
1 SALTO
1 BS4
1 SHl
1 ES 60/608
1 FOKA 5
1 KA6
2 ES59
2 ES57
1 ES 528
2 ASKT
1 L.13
1 EP1
1 ES52
TUGS
DHC-1
PA-18
P4.24
AUSTER JIB
MAX. NO OF SAILPLANES ON FIELD - 53
AVERAGE DAILY LAUNCH - 4I
AVERAGE DAILY RETURN - 24* = 59%
AVERAGE DAILY TASK - 160 KM - LONGEST 401 KM.
DISTANCE FLOWN, 38,OOOK + * = TWICE AROUND AUSTRALIA
HOURS FLOWN, 725 PLUS
AVERAGE RETRIEVE 43KM; SHORTEST - 1K; LONGEST 105KM
AVERAGE DAILY CONSUMPTION - 250 PINTS ICED COFFEE
*CIVV PENALTIES APPLIED FOR POOR PHOTO TECHNIQUE RESULTING IN LESSER DISTANCE BEING SCORED.