2016: Horsham Week - Waikerie Gliding News

This article was first published on the Waikerie Gliding Club website.

The 50^th Horsham week started early for the team Waikerie. John Ridge crew extraordinaire, who without his efforts it would not happen. Peter Paine LS7 VH-XJB; Bill Mudge Discus VH-GHP; Greg Jackson LS4 VH-XOK. A significant milestone is worth mentioning, Haidyn Dunn flying his ASW28 VH-GZV is attending the 50^th Horsham week having competed as a young lad at the first official Horsham Week event.

Thursday 4^th Feb we all arrived at Waikerie mid to late morning and had the three gliders de-rigged by mid afternoon with final checks to see what we had forgotten. Kangaroo meatballs on pasta and a cardboard box Pizza was consumed with 2 bottles of 2011 Sangiovese. The grapes were handpicked from One Tree Hill Adelaide Hills.

Friday Morning saw a 7:15 departure and a 5 hour 30 minutes drive to Horsham. We started putting the gliders together around 1:30 local time and had it done in about 2 hours. Heading for our accommodation we consumed a Beer whilst unpacking. Traditional dinners are prepared by individual members of the team, tonight we had JR’s Lasagna with a 2011 Parish Hill Vermentino and a couple of 2008 Trevena Sangiovese. One of the wines was light in style with the juice removed and fermented the next day(minimal skin contact). The second bottle was the same grapes and vintage but had a normal maturation cycle.

Saturday morning we were all up early to get out and finish setting up our gliders and attend a 10am briefing. The weather predictions looked good. A conservative day was set for all three classes which was really appreciated as a gentile start to the week. Tasks and results can be found at http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/horsham-week-2016-horsham-gld-2016/results

15 metre/Standard are tasked to fly together and an AAT of 2:30 gave Greg & Peter averages of around 100kph. Bill in Club class (no water 96kph). Haidyn won the first day at the 50^th Horsham week in the Open 18M class at a creditable 114kph flying over 300k.

We needed meat to lift our averages so fillet steak was consumed with a 2012 Lone Road Margaret River Mr SSB Semillon Sauvignon Blanc and 2009 Wirra Wirra Sparrow’s Lodge Mourvedre.

Sunday as predicted was going to be the best day of the week. Weather reports predicted no cloud; by launch the area to the South and West (on track) were popping clouds. Climbs to over 8000ft were possible before the start, we had 439k racing task to complete. The Q were working and climbs to 10000ft in 8 to 10 knots were around. 122kph for Greg and 114kph for Peter. Bill 103kph; Haidyn 126kph; all really good speeds but kept us around the middle of the field on points. We had dinner guests Anne and Mike Ridge from QLD flying his Pik 20 in the comp. The evening started with a 2004 Abbey Rock Coonawarra Old School House Riesling. The simple beef stew (Casserole) went down like a treat with a comparison of two Cabernet Sauvignons one younger, 2012 from Coonawarra Riddoch and a medal winning 2009 Barwang Hilltops Cabernet Sauvignon from Griffith area of NSW.

Monday after prepping the gliders, briefing set a task that they doubted was possible and did the usual thing for a cancelled day. Waikerie being responsible for Marshalling from 11:30, we marshal, the organisation sounds positive, wait around, rely on someone who launches early (sniffer) to tell you the inversion has not broken, wait around some more, change to task B, wait around some more, to hear the announcement the day has been cancelled, dump water, get car and park glider in tie down (about 6 hours of your day).

Tonight’s dinner is being prepared by Peter, Special Chicken Drumsticks, Bock Choy and a few other things. Started off with a comparison of two Chardonnay wines from the Adelaide Hills. 2009 Nova Vita made at Revenier by Peter Leske and a bottle of 2012 The Lane. Both great producers of cool climate quality Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills. Desert was fresh figs and icecream with a 2001 Jeanneret Chardonnay from the Clare Valley, very much like a sticky after 15 years; lets ask the question does Chardonnay age? Tuesday flying RASP looks about the same as Monday.

The 50^th Horsham week started early for team Waikerie. John Ridge crew extraordinaire, who without his efforts it would not happen. Peter Paine LS7 VH-XJB; Bill Mudge Discus VH-GHP; Greg Jackson LS4 VH-XOK.

A significant milestone is worth mentioning, Haidyn Dunn flew to Horsham from Waikerie in his ASW28 VH-GZV on Monday 1^st Feb and is attending the 50^th Horsham week having competed as a young lad at the first official Horsham Week event.

We needed meat to lift our averages so fillet steak was consumed with a 2012 Lone Road Margaret River Mr SSB Semillon Sauvignon Blanc and 2009 Wirra Wirra Sparrow’s Lodge Mourvedre.

Monday after prepping the gliders, briefing set a task that they thought was not possible and did the usual thing for a cancelled day. Waikerie being responsible for Marshalling from 11:30am. We marshal all the gliders, the organisation sounds positive, wait around, rely on someone who launches early (sniffer) to tell you the inversion has not broken, wait around some more, change to task B, wait around some more, to hear the announcement the day has been cancelled, dump water, get car and park glider in tie down (about 6 hours of your day). Back at the house have a swim, do your washing, read a book and relax.

Tonight’s dinner is being prepared by Peter, Special Chicken Drumsticks, Bock Choy and a few other things. Started off with a comparison of two Chardonnay wines from the Adelaide Hills. 2009 Nova Vita made at Revenier by Peter Leske and a bottle of 2012 The Lane both great producers of cool climate quality Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills. Desert was fresh figs and icecream with a 2001 Jeanneret Chardonnay from the Clare Valley, very much like a sticky after 15 years age without the sweetness; lets ask the question does Chardonnay age?

Tuesday 9/2/16 RASP weather looks about the same as Monday.

Tuesday 9/2/16 declared a no contest day – The weather is too perfect to break the inversion – we went for a walk in the Grampians. Lazed around and drank some beer & wine.

Day 3 again

After 2 cancelled days the organisers were keen to get us in the air. The days condition were challenging and that showed in the pilots faces at the end of the day (drawn & quartered). 5 gliders outlanding and speeds were low. All classes had 3hr and 3.5hr for Open AAT tasks to St Arnaud, Ararat, Mynyip. Many pilots reported low points on the Ararat leg and only toughed the circle.

The Waikerie boys invited Steve Jinks Gordon Trollip John Orton now all Victorians and Michael Ridge from Qld for a Steak BBQ and a selection of Lagrein red wine to sample. It was a great meal and a very enjoyable night as these guys have all become friendly rivals after coming up to Waikerie for Orange week and other major competitions over the years. Lights out midnight. Thursday will bring similar conditions as the last few days; perfect weather actually just not the best for gliding.

It’s Friday 12/02/16. Well a lot can happen in two days. Yesterday Thursday 11/02/16 the standard 15M class were sent on a 300k racing task; Launch was delay and then we hear on the radio all the other classes had their tasks changed to task B. Bumma

Many pilots hung around waiting for conditions to improve; leaving late does not improve your chances of getting home – so Seven outlandings yesterday including one of the Waikerie boys. Greg landed 38km north of Horsham A/F in a nice paddock at 6:45pm; greeted by the owner’s family and driven back out to the glider by the farmers 10 year old son. Back at our accommodation by 9pm John Ridge cooked up his Pork and marmalade with Pears speciality and a couple of bottles of overseas red wines. Tempranillo from Rioja Spain and a Malbec from Argentina.

It really was a straight forward day racing, inconsistent lift not going much above 4000ft and the task conditions on the first leg were very soft however thing did improve on the second leg with at least one climb to just over 5000ft.

Back to Friday; the weather reports were difficult to work out as each of the programs were either pessimistic or conservative.We had a little breeze when rigging and prepping the glider and the day felt like it would be flyable. At briefing we were not prepared for the Max Head “Max Task” (all the other task setters must have gone home or given up) after much head scratching and unfavourable comments from the pilots who were not convinced this was a traditional AAT, we set our own task into a wedge 300km radius. In the end it really was an out and return, which traditional AAT tasks avoid. Reports of pilots flying out to Ouyen and Kerang return in three hours and some reasonably good speeds.

Saturday 13/02/2016 a very significant day as this was the last day of the 50^th consecutive Horsham Week. The organiser did their best to get us in the air but we had a few drops of rain in the morning followed by high cloud streaming in from the west to keep temps down. Task was set with a final decision to be made at a second briefing at midday. Temp only 26 and we need 33 to get to 3000ft. Heart break for John Orton for losing the comp by 6 points.

Team Waikerie have enjoyed the week we have flew 5 days with two of those day going to 9000ft ++.. other day were very challenging but that’s gliding. Some weeks are full of unbelievable flying and others are weeks of scraping amongst the weeds. We can only control the fun not the weather and look forward to next year’s Horsham Week if they can find a CD and a group to organise it (any volunteers).

Almost forgot diner was the best Pizza in Horsham from Bonny & Clydes. Again we had guests Mike & Anne. Wines commenced with a Primitivo followed by a Wolf Blass Grey Label Cabernet Shiraz and a 2000 Elterton Riesling with desert.

We have been having a taste off of Australia’s best Vanilla Slice last night we tried the second place but previously Aust best 1^st placed specially driven in from Birchip a 200k round trip and tonight we tried Horsham’s Aust best Vanilla Slice but they do not identify which year they won the prize. Birchip won unanimously better pastry and a creamier filling. Don’t tell my family.

All the three singles are back at Waikerie rigged and ready to go. Suggest members get active and arrange some flying before the soaring season finishes. If you look on the OLC; Waikerie one of the premium cross country sites in Australia currently ranks in 41^st place in the world. Seventeen (17) Australian clubs are in front of us, with the Gliding Club of Victoria on top of the club OLC ranking. Our stats are 13 pilots have put in 73 Flights for a total 23,436 points. Most of these flights would have come from Orange Week, Performance week, Nationals and Horsham. All flights count so even if you do a small cross country around the airfield claim the flight. That is one of the reasons Geelong rank 12^th and only 6 other Australian club are ahead of them. “Come on Team Waikerie”

This year at Horsham we flew 5 competition days. The three club gliders accrued 4881 OLC points. Claimed 4753 kilometres flown and clocked up just under 60 hours utilisation for the club. On a normal flying day the gliders are lucky if they clock up 2 to 3 hours each. There are benefits to taking gliders away and I would encourage other Waikerie members to consider applying to take a glider away to a local or interstate regatta, mini comp.

I would like to thank the committee for approving my application to take the glider to the 50^th Horsham week. It was a great week as usual; Weather conditions ranged from very good to very tricky and proved very hard for the forecasters to predict exactly what flying conditions would be experienced each day. Several ups and downs were experienced and overcome by the pilots. A personal best speed of 122kph in the LS4 followed by an outlanding 38k North of the aerodrome on day 4. My last outlanding at Horsham was in 1977 in an Arrow VH-GPL.

At the presentation the organisers presented the winner Jack Hart 15M Class and John Orton Standard Class winner as there was more than enough gliders in each class to warrant their own competition. Gary Stevens flying a 16.5 metre Discus came second and Peter Paine Third.

As mentioned at the start of my Horsham week blogs Haidyn Dunn also flew his 28 in Open/18M class with a very creditable 2^nd place. Maybe Haidyn when next around the Waikerie bar can tell us how he did it.