Sarah Allen is the new Australian Junior National Gliding Champion - a female for the first time.

Eric, by far the youngest competitor, received the Joey Cup (best points score weighted by flying hours) and the Southern Cross Trophy (highest placed newcomer to an Australian National Gliding Competition) .

After Day 2 of the comp Eric was 11th and Colin 12th. Today both boys made it home, Colin probably having done better than Eric. Will it be enough to get in front? The logger traces are with the scorer now and we'll find out the result tomorrow.

Well, the seabreeze got the better of me again! My freudian slip during the morning briefing when I organised crew for the "inevitable" rather than the "unthinkable" outlanding was to be a bad omen: Instead of an orderly final glide and landing at the airfield as originally planned, BXC had to be retrieved from a paddock again.

The forecast had looked promising for the last few days and with south-easterlies expected, the boys and I had planned on an exploratory flight around Owen, Kapunda, then possibly Stonefield and/or Blanchetown - depending on conditions - and back. It was supposed to help Eric and Colin become familiar with the airspace around Gawler and also the eastern part of the JoeyGlide tasking area that they normally don't fly over much. With a relatively low inversion expected it was also meant to increase their confidence when flying low in the relatively reliable and organised thermals under such conditions.

However, the subsidence proved much worse than expected and the temp trace showed a virtually impenetrable inversion at around 3000 to 3500ft in the morning. We decided to change the task to Owen, Brinkworth and return with a possible extension from Owen to Kapunda if conditions proved better than expected. With only a small crowd attending and Tim Lacey taking up the offer to come along I opted to take BXC instead of the Mini - also to give Eric the psychological advantage in the knowledge that he didn't have the lower performance glider. I don't know why Tim still volunteers to fly with any of the Stauss' as he tends to end up in - let's just say slightly unusal situations with us.

Tim and I launched first and got established in weak, narrow but reasonably reliable lift as expected that topped out a little over 2000ft. By the time Eric joined us the top was more like 2500ft. With Colin still trying to get organised in front of the hangar and an early sea breeze threatening to shut the Balaklava area down we cautiously set off. Thermal spacings were very close and there was a little streeting which suited us well. Every thermal we took went a little higher and there were some strong bubbles in them. With the narrow working band our progress was nonetheless fairly slow. About halfway between Balaklava and Owen Tim and I fell into a bit of a hole and took a while to dig ourselves out. Eric who was trailing us at the time had found a better climb further back - too far for us to reach - and took the lead. He turned Owen and headed north. We followed and found a good climb that put us back into the lead position while Eric grovelled around in a weaker but much needed thermal near Halbury. Until then we'd hardly seen the altimeter at more than 3000ft but we pressed on. With a slight tailwind our progress was better and we regularly got climbs to 3500ft. As we had lost Eric out of sight and his radio transmissions had become unreadable we wondered whether he had outlanded. We were to learn later that he chickened out in that last thermal that we saw him in as soon as he had final glide back to the field.

Tim found us a few nice climbs to 4500ft and we turned Brinkworth confident that we'd get home without too much trouble - one climb a bit further south to get to final glide. Dust from a header alerted us to the fact that the seabreeze was doing it's evil work down there and we angled across to the foothills to try and get that last climb there. Every bit of lift we managed to stumble upon from then on had the unmistakable signature of 'maritime displacement air' stamped on it. At Kybunga we were at paddock height but were saved by a bubble that lasted a bit longer than the others that we'd tried in our desperate struggle to stay airborne. The drift was very noticable and crawling into wind again we ended up over the same paddock at out original height only to be saved by yet another longer lasting bubble. We must have played the game for nearly half an hour until an extra long lasting bubble gave us enough to push on in frantic search for at least a similar specimen of the same kind. At Redpath Corner, the S-bend in the road from Halbury to Blyth, it looked like the same game might start again. All the while there were good paddocks around us and we had plenty of time to check them out. It was 3pm, normally the hottest part of the day and only the hope that the seabreeze would reset itself kept me going. NOW would have been a good time for my wish to come true - but the next bubble burst when we weren't even half way around. Tim made the downwind call to let me concentrate on the checks and landing. We pulled right up to the gate onto the main road, opposite the farm house... Nonetheless - ~110km in the bag when the wannabee champion quit less than halfway around the task! ;-) Oh and by the way: I don't understand the ribbings I keep getting for outlanding - this my first in over a season... Go pick on Colin. In one season he has collected only two less than I have in my whole life so far... Or Grant - when was the last time he landed on a proper runway... ;-) And besides: I need to stay in current practice to show you lot how it's done... ;-)

Thanks to retrieve crew Leigh Bunting and my boys, John Bradbury who lent them his 4WD to tow the big '21 trailer, and Bevan Spencer with Tom Yeatman who helped derig on their way home to Clare, as well as the committee crowd back at the field, the glider was rigged and back in the hangar not 2 hours after we had landed.

The committee meeting after the day's flying produced a few more dates for the Events Calendar again.

Well the last 2 weeks have put on some fantastic soaring weather right across the country. On the 10^th November the weather looked good for some long flights in great conditions. Ulrich grabbed the Mini Nimbus and Eric grabbed the Hornet to make an attempt at his Gold C. I had a few things to do on the Pik to finish off the 30 yearly / Form 2 and Peter Goodale was finishing off a job on his LS-3.

Ulrich and Eric launched early in the day, Peter launched a little later and I didn’t get in the air until about 14:30 to do the evaluation flight on the Pik. I was just south of Blyth when I met up with Eric who had called up BGC base enquiring about how much longr he needed to achieve his 5 hour…he’d already been to Orroroo and back at around the 100km/h mark and needed to kill nearly 2 hours flying locally to achieve his 5 hours which he achieved along with gold height although I understand his turn around Orroroo was a little out of sector denying him the Gold C… it is only early in the season so there is plenty of time left yet!

Meanwhile Ulrich had fulfilled one of his long term goals of turning at the Wilpena Chalet for a flight of nearly 600km with heights up to 12000’. Peter Goodale did a short hop down the Yorke Peninsula to Pine Point which is just south of Ardrossan where he didn’t find great conditions so headed back north to Orroroo for a lazy 455km flight.

I had a good run north under a booming sky to reach Orroroo at about 17:00. I’d had to pull airbrakes a couple of times in the glide to keep out of the 8500’ and 9500’ airspace and I was still nowhere near cloud base! Anyway the seabreeze which had come in and retreated and come in again and retreated again finally came in with a vengeance. I followed a street out from about Caltowie that headed down towards Redhill. Well, I got stuck in no man’s land avoiding the airspace… I lost contact with the clouds and found myself in dead air and had a very smooth glide from 8000 feet without getting a bubble all the way to Snowtown where I landed behind the roadhouse. Thanks to Wal, Colin and dad who came and got me out of the paddock at short notice… I hadn’t organised a crew which is a big no no… lesson learnt! Hopefully that’s my outlanding out of the way for the season! It wasn’t a bad evaluation flight though!

The weather forecast for Saturday looked promising and consequently there were several cross country flights planned. Conditions turned out trickier than expected but nonetheless we have a few more cross-country km's in the club statistics. Practicing for the Junior Nationals, Eric Stauss in GHT team-flew with Jeff Watson and Ulrich Stauss in BXC. Despite the high wind they managed an out-and-return to Crystal Brook. Unfortunately, Eric narrowly missed out on his 5hrs for the Silver C as the thermals packed up a little too early. Better luck next time...

The event was concluded by dinner at the Woolshed Restaurant where we celebrated not only another safe and funfilled flying event but also Justine Shuck's 16^th birthday.

A big Thank You to everybody who contributed to the successful undertaking and also to the Rawnsley and Wilpena pilots for tolerating us on their turf.

The recent AGM has resulted in a new committee. Congratulations and thank you to all new and continuing incumbents for being prepared to put in the extra effort to help run our club.

After a sausage sizzle we had our AGM. There are no changes to the president, sectretary and treasurer positions but with several retirements from the committee Peter Oldfield and Wal Mayger stepped up to the plate. Thank you to all. There is still one vacancy to be filled. Please consider contributing your share to running YOUR club.

After flying Bernard gave us a lecture on flying in the Flinders Ranges in preparation for the camp there next month (for more information see our Events Calendar). The emphasis was on safety but we also got tips and tricks on using the conditions there for soaring flights.

The GFA Safety Seminar on Sunday was well attended by glider pilots from around the state. Our mainenance hangar hasn't looked this tidy in a long time and served as the venue. Many thanks to the crew on Saturday who cleaned out, set up the chairs, whitboard, projector, PA system, coffee urn etc and turned the shed into a conference centre! Kevin Olerhead's presentation was very interesting and pertinent as usual. There were many lessons learnt that will help to improve our safety record.

The committee started their meeting straight after debriefing, had dinner halfway through and finished earlier than usual with a number of issues sorted out.

Evidence for the good progress in the workshop was the Mini Nimbus being rigged at the end of the day after its "Form 2" and aileron repair. With only a few minor things to go it should be back in the air soon. Many thanks Leigh, Hilly, and all the helpers! Wal and Jeff also deserve a special mention for their work around the club.

After the debriefing, Bernard Eckey gave a very informative talk on the "Mental Aspects of Gliding". Despite gliding being largely a mental sport, it is surprising how much effort people expend on training the physical skills in comparison to brushing up on the theory. It was very clear to those who attended that learning and practising the mental skills required should play a much larger part in becoming a proper glider pilot. When was the last time I have attended a theory lesson, studied a book on gliding, read an article on the various aspects of our sport?

Later in the afternoon the committee was also quite productive. Notably we will be participating in the Defence Airshow 2007 at Edinburgh RAAF base and the date for the Annual Dinner is now also in the Events Calendar.

Sunday the only student was John Hahesy and Merv Lindner (as usual) had the longest flight with 37minutes in weak lift.

The committee meeting that followed moved the Flinders Ranges Camp up a few days and set the dates for a few more events. Check the Events Calendar. During dinner after the meeting, John Hudson gave a talk on the exemptions that gliding has from CASA, driving home the point that any rule violations could result in losing these privileges.

As if this was not enough, the instructors had their meeting later in the evening as well. A series of dinner topics to be presented at the club as well as another opportunity for members to gain their Radio Endorsements were planned and will appear in the Events Calendar shortly.

Sunday was similar with blue thermals to around 4500ft.

The day's operations were followed by a committee meeting, dinner and then an instructors meeting. As a result there are a few more dates in the Club Events Calendar.

The day turned out to be one of the best soaring days this season and Roger Cox used it to fly his 300km in the Mini Nimbus. Bernard Eckey and Graham Parker went to Lyndhurst and back in the ASH-25. Cliff Pinhorn, with Ulrich Stauss in the back seat of the ASK-21, had his first cross-country flight in a glider and got to see his home town, Spalding, from the air. Andrew Horton and Colin Stauss then took the '21 around Lochiel, Crystal Brook, Caltowie and back. Locally, duty instructor John Hudson took a number of students on extended soaring flights and much of the syllabus was covered.

The last two weekends were quite busy with good flying weather and several cross-country flights, including outlandings. On Saturday, 03/02/2007, Grant Hudson and Ulrich Stauss set off on a 500km task to Hawker and back. Grant made it to Hawker but ended up waiting for his retrieve crew in the Carrieton pub. Ulrich turned back a few kms north-east of Wilmington and detoured via Peterborough and Burra where the conditions were much better and made it back to Balaklava with 420km for the cross-country statistics.
On Saturday, 10/02/2007, Grant Hudson and Colin Stauss went on a task to Kapunda, Farrell Flat and back. This time is was the Stauss family's turn for a retrieve from Clare. Grant made it back in good time. Bernard Eckey and Eric Stauss headed to Waikerie but decided to turn back at Robertstown. With 5 students at the field BXC was flat out for instructing and short local soaring flights.

Congratulations to Colin Stauss on the title photo of the February issue of Soaring Australia.

A small damper was the damage to ZGG's rudder, incurred during an unfortunate mishap when towing the glider to the launch point. Spare parts are underway and the '21 should be back in the air within the next two weeks or so. As a result of the incident we are looking at some modifications to the tow-out gear to prevent this from happening again.

Saturday, despite a howling westerly and rain squalls coming through at regular intervals, had a surprise in store for the hardcore addicts who braved the elements and flew anyway: WAVE! The atmospheric phenomenon allowed flights to 5000ft and above the convective clouds straight off the winch. An unforgettable experience! Andrew Horton and Colin Stauss captured it on camera and the results are in our Photo Album.

The committee meeting after the usual dinner in the evening resulted in another Dawn Patrol being organised soon. The Events Calendar has been updated accordingly. More events are being planned for the year so check the calendar regularly.

Last year's news and changes have now been archived but are still available via the links below.

Several club members are now at Waikerie for the Coaching Week with both twin seaters, the Mini Nimbus, and the winch along. The weather seems to be shaping up with some good flights already achieved.