SEE YOU

season 2002 / 2003

 

April the 10 th

The first booking for 3 weeks Duo has already been made.

April the 8th

A new two seater for Corowa.
From the next season on (November 2003) we will have a new Duo DiscusTurbo on line.
The Duo will not go back to Europe but stay in Corowa .

April the 5th

After a delay of two days, the containers arrived today just in time to unpack today.
When I arrived Friday in Grubbenvorst, Pepe and Max were already there. The containers arrived at 17.30>
First the inspection of all 4 containers. All gliders ok and no damage !! We started to unpack Gerrits container.
WE took out Max glider the EHT and the fuselage of Pepe. That was enough for the day.
Saturday morning at 9 am we started with the big job unpacking  4 containers, with 1 trailer and 20 gliders.
Everybody was there and we did a great job together. Within 4,5 hours we had all the gliders in the trailers, the containers
cleaned, closed and ready for the next trip.

Our host, Gerrit Kurstjens	Arrival of all 4 containers	Pepe and  Max , container 1
Easy unpacking	All 4 containers empty	talking about ??

March the 31 st

Today our last day in Corowa.
A beautiful day with cu's from 11 am until 5 pm..
We preserved the towplanes , cleaned the clubhouse and hangar and treated them against spiders etc.
Not easy this time to leave Corowa.
But the new season is ahead of us, a new season wit a lot af new friends.

March the 22 nd

on th 15th of March the new ASW28 18 made his first flight over the Wasserkuppe.
Today we received this pictures.

March the 21st

Corowa this morning 11.30 am.

March the 19th

No smoke today, but a northerly sandstorm.
Visibility 1000 meter, 20 kts wind, temp 28 grC

March the 16th

A beautifull day with cumulus up to 3000 meter with climbs up to 3,7 m/s.

At two we had   joy flights and after that Francesco jumped in the LS4 and flew to the Rock out and return with an
average of 105 km/h (without water).
After the flight we had a swim in the pool which is still 32 grC !!!!

March the 14th

Home again after a 2 week holiday.
We stayed with Pam and Gerrit in Toowoomba and John and Pam Buchanan in Eumuni.
Together with John and Pam we had a excellent dinner with Harm and Pam in their Italian restaurant in Noosa Heads.

Thanks all for the hospitality !! We had a great time.

March the 4th

After loading the last glider with trailer in a container Grietje and Francesco left last Saturday and drove up via the East Coast to Toowoomba.

Today we flew with Gerrit and Pam in the DiamondStar to Bundaberg, where we visited Microair Avionics.
We had a look at the production of the Microair Transponder TC 2000, which will have its JTSO approval within 2 weeks.
We also were the first to have a look at the new very small sized altitude encoder with a extreem low power consumption
(18 mA) and some other features.

 

February the 27 th

Tomorrow, we will pack the last glider in a containers. It is going back to Europe.

Some of the results of the season.

Cross Country flights made from Corowa		2002/2003	2002/2003	2001/2002	2001/2002
from	up to	#	%	#	%
0 km	300 km	113	24	62	19
300 km	500 km	138	30	113	34
500 km	750 km	139	30	123	37
750 km	900 km	46	10	22	7
900 km	1000 km	11	2.5	8	2
1000 km		9	3.5	3	1
total flights cross country		456		331
Outlandings		8	1.75	3	1
Total km cross country season		235.000		155.000

Results online competition

Take Off Gliding site	Ranking	Points	name	Glider	CN	Remarks
OLC Champion Australia
Narromine	1	4627	Petr Krejcirik	CZ 304	ET	1 X 1000 KM
Corowa	2	4457	Ruedi Herzog	Ventus cm	DS	1 X 1000 KM
Corowa	3	4417	Werner Niechciol	Centus ct	SY
Corowa	4	4400	Dieter Schneller	Nimbus 3ts	D8	1 X 1000 KM
Tocumwal	5	4379	Team Sportavia			misc pilots
Corowa	6	4273	Peter Zander	Ventus 2 ct	PZ
Corowa	7	4233	Norbert Schlafke	ASW 22 BLE	SA	2 X 1000 KM
Corowa	8	4188	Peter Klose	Nimbus 3dm	KP
Narromine	9	4135	Toma Sedlcek	unknown
Corowa	10	4041	Andreas Sieber	ASH 26E	AS
Corowa	11	3979	Manfred Kasten	ASH 26E	MK
Corowa	12	3882	Jan Umlauf	ASW 27	DB

 

                                                          

February the 23 rd

We spend the week finishing the office work and cleaning the building.
On Wednesday and Thursday Peter Presneill came over to tow, so Grietje could make   training flights with Francesco
for her Dutch instructors licence. On Saturday they trained emergency procedures during winch launches with the help of Malcolm
Andy and Ross of the Albury Corowa glidingclub.

After a few cm of rain the weather ( and visibility !!!)  is back to normal.

Today was a beautiful soaring day.

February the 16 th

The containers left today.
At 1 pm 4 trucks arrived .arrival.mpg and within 20 minutes they left again.
Jodie Reilly, the lady who is organising all the transport from Corowa to Rotterdam and Melbourne Corowa came with one of the trucks. Now she knows where it all about.

So the season ended today for  Corowa.
The news page will not be updated every day anymore, only if there is something we would like you to know.

Thanks for the enormous amount of visits on our WebPage  from all over the world.
Thanks for the remarks to critics about  our site. At the beginning of the new season we sure will have some improvements
on our WebPage.

February the 15 th

The last day of the container packing. The team of yesterday was there again and did a great job by finishing
in time.
We started early, due to the high temp. The M was her at noon. Thanks Mark for the quick delivery and help.
We finished the job at 4 pm.

Almost ready	Grietje and Francesco	Blue ready
Red ready	Green ready	Gerrit's Container ready

February the 14 th

A beautiful warm blue day with thermals up to 9000 ft.
But we (Gerrit, Pam, Eugene, Ben, Pepe, Max, Werner, Grietje and Francesco) used the day for packing.
The trailer with the 103 is in Gerrits container together with the EHT and AV.
We only are waiting for the LS8 M to finish Gerrits and the Green container.
The Green Container is almost ready Only the fuselage of the M.
Tomorrow we put in FOX 3W and SY which completes the  blue one.

But for tonight it's paella evening. Pepe is already very busy in the kitchen pepe.mpg while we are enjoying the sunset with cheese and wine.
Last time it was Pepe's  best paella sofar, and today it was excellent again !!

Sunset	Pepe the cook	Our dinner	Grietje

February the 13 th

Today we started packing the containers.
The Red one (CU, MK, AS, D8, DS and M) is ready , after we derigged the D8.
Gerrit, Pam and Ben arrived as well and tomorrow morning we start with the other containers.

February the 12 th

Dieter said this morning that this would be a holiday flight. He flew for eight and a half hours.   Max flew in from Benalla and Pepe from Tocumwal. Francesco is doing some sightseeing in Melbourne with his parents as they will leave tomorrow.

February the 11 th

Only Dieter flew today.
Tomorrow is also Dieters last flying day for this season (over 300 hrs and 24.000 km cross country) at Corowa.

February the 10 th

A smoky start again of the day.
Dieter started at 1 pm and made a very nice flight again.
Andy and Klaus are safe back in Hamburg.

On Friday Saturday and Sunday morning we are going to pack all 4 containers.
On Sunday 12.00 the containers will be picked up.

Almost the end of the season. Grietje and Francesco stay until the end of March.
The towplane FOO  and the gliders LS4 and LS6 are available until that date.
An excellent (in spite of the smoke) season sofar, with much more flights, km cross country and
hours flown than last season.
For next season we already have 12 confirmed bookings and 3 options  for the 18 places in the containers.

February the 9 th

Still smoky, but flyable today.
We had an early launch for Dieter and Werner.
Francesco had to do some officework and when he was about to fly Benalla had a retrieve close to Corowa
so Francesco went to pick up Peter Martin one of Grietjes friends from the Benalla Instructors Training.

February the 8 th

Harm was the cook yesterday evening and prepared his famous curry chicken and chilli prawns.
While he was preparing the meal and Grietje was feeding her birds (children) we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Grietje with one of her birds	ASCC Sunset

But unfortunately the day started with smoke again and it was smoky all day. So no flying.
The experts told us this kind of fires and smoke happens only once every 100 year. We also think it has been enough for the next 100 years.
Uwe left today and Dieter dropped him at Wangaratta station.
Grietje and Francesco took the opportunity to have lunch at All Saints winery with Francesco's parents.

Lunch at All Saints

February the 7 th

No smoke and a good soaring day.
Beautifull cu's and good climbs.
Grietje flew again her ASW27. 320 km and Francesco in the FOX had to work hard to keep up
with her.

February the 6 th

3 days ago we decided to put a few gliders in the container today. A smoky start of the day but at 11 am it cleared and it turned
out to be one of the best days of the season. Bad Luck.
But we managed to get the gliders in the container while Dieter was flying 870 km   and Gerrit, Pam and John left for Narromine
and landed there after a 850 km flight..
Tonight is the last evening for this season for  Uwe Thiele, Andreas Sieber   (almost 21000 km cross country this season) and
Klaus Warnke. So a special dinner for the pilots.

February the 5 th

A very nice day today with cumulus!

February the 4 th

The NE wind brought the smoke back.
In the morning we made a temptrace up to 5500 ft. From that height the visibility was nil.
Later  it became even worse, but after 5 pm it cleared again and after a short flight with the pawnee we
saw the smoke was gone again. So hopefully a new flying day tomorrow.

February the 3 rd

A reasonable flying day.
We still are in the smoke, but today the visibility started to be 50 km and ended with 10 km again.
Nevertheless, we could fly.
Gerrit, Pam and John did 540 km and the others between 180 km and 350 km.

February the 2 nd

We are still in the smoke. Uwe Andy and Klaus tried to fly but Andy and Klaus landed back at Corowa after a short flight.
Uwe flew to Tocumwal and landed.
We keep our fingers crossed for better vis.

Francesco's parents enjoying Corowa	John, Grietje Gerrit and Pam can still laugh.

February the 1 st

A smoky start of the month. After a day with excellent visibility we started the day in the smoke again.
Only John Buchanan started with his ASW 22 BB. He went to the west and flew 590 km

Francesco went to Tocumwal to pick up a repair job with Peter Corckery and took the opportunity to show his parents
the Sportavia operation at Toc. We had a coffee with Ritz .

January the 31 st

The last day of the month and a good one.
Grietje passed her paddock retrieve endorsement at Benalla. CONGRATULATIONS !!
Pam, Gerrit and John joined us again today and will stay until Monday.
Harm is also back and starts flying tomorrow.

January the 30 th

A non flying day, not because of the smoke but a normal cool change. We hope it will bring some rain in the areas with the bush
fires, so we have hopefully a normal flying situation afterwards.

We derigged the HW and and did put it in the container. Hans and Ute left after we put all the gliders in the hanger, just in
case the front would bring some stormy weather.
It was a warm job and we enjoyed the pool, afterwards.

Michael, our engeneer from Benalla came in the afternoon, to X-ray the frame of our Pawnee ( a 6 year check) and finishes some maintenance.

January the 29 th

Another smoky start of the day.
But everybody was able to take off at 12. Hans Wiesenthal arrived yesterday to pack his glider, but decided to fly this day
and finshed his Australia Year with a 640 km flight.
Andreas Nies planned to leave today , but he flew the K with Uwe and made a flioght of 775 km.
The other pilots, Dieter, Werner, Lars, KLaus, Andy and Ronald made all verey nice long flights.

January the 28 th

The day started with a thick smoke layer.
But after 1 pm the sky was clear again. due to some new bush fires.

January the 27 th

The day after the cool change. It  passed during the night and we were clear of the clouds at 10 am.
No smoke this morning so we had a normal visibility af about 150 km.
We had a late start at 1.00 pm,
The forecast for the next few days is good.

January the 26 th

Andy, Klaus, Ronald and Stefan returned from a short stay at the South coast.
Today we had a max temp of 42 grC and a perfect soaring day.
We all launched early and made some nice flights.

The visibility is still very poor due to the bushfires.

January the 25 th

Finally we had some good weather again! Though we had a late start due to smoke, some good flights. Anja did another flight in the LS 4 so she is getting used to it. KP (Uwe and Eugene) flew back to Corowa after a trip of  2500 km! They flew from Corowa to Waikerie on wednesday and on thursday to Rawsley Park which is in the Flinders Rangers. On friday back to Waikerie, today returning home to Corowa. Marek who will leave tomorrow flew his own glider  ET and Francesco also took the opportunity to fly his glider FOX.

January the 24 th

When we arrived at the airfield this morning we had a visibility of 300 meters. So Ronald and Stefan left for Melbourne
and we did put the CU in the container.

Marianne and Sape left after the morning Coffee.
Marianne worked with us for about seven weeks.Thanks a lot Marianne for the great help and the towing.

After 12 the sky cleared and we could fly again. Lars flew 3 hours in the LS8 and Anja made her first solo flights
in a single seater, the LS4 GOB..

The only one who flew cross country was Dieter. He made a diabolo of 475 km.

Eugene and Uwe are in Waikerie again and will fly back tomorrow.

January the 23 rd

No wind and and still a lot of smoke.
As far as is known, a few of the last fires in our area were set on purpose.
Uwe and Eugene are flying near the Flinders Ranges and all the other pilots are away for a few days.
Jeroen is leaving tomorrow after 3 weeks in Corowa.

Hopefully some better news tomorrow.

January the 22 nd

The bushfires are only 25 km away from Corowa.
Today we were covered by smoke again and it was impossible to fly.
Only Uwe and Eugene left with the KP. They flew away from the smoke and landed after 600 km at Waikerie.
Albury Airport was closed again so some of the domestic flight diverted to Corowa and some to Wagga Wagga.
Unfortunately, Sape's flight diverted to Wagga and Marianne had to wait until the bus arrived from Wagga.

January the 21 st

When we arrived at the airfield this morning it was smoke again and nil visibility.
Fortunately it cleared at 11.00  am, so we could fly. However we had to deal with a very
strong wind of about 30 kts.
Ronald Reith and Stefan Doernemann made their site checks and flew the DB and DS.

The bushfires are still a worry. Later in the morning there was a new one pretty close to our place.

Little pawnee and Big Brother	Corowa Intl. with the containers	Bushfires not far away

January the 20 th

A busy airfield yesterday evening and today. Not with gliders but with the Kendell and Quantas domestic flights.
Due to the bush fires Albury was closed and Corowa was a divert airfield.
The visibility was poor, very poor. All planes arrived by NDB approaches.

Corowa International	The containers in the back

Anyway it was impossible to fly today.
Stefan Doernemann and Ronald Reith arrived today and they will fly the DB and DS. 

January the 19 th

Character building  today it was! Thermals not high, not strong if there were any at all. And again, strong wind. Mark flew back to Benalla, Jeroen and Francesco flew local. Dieter flew  back from Temora.

January the 18 th

The wind  was pretty strong today. Dieter decided to check Temora airfield so he has to catch up ice cream  tomorrow! Mark Whelan (MMD, nimbus 3) from Benalla landed here after 415K because of the strong wind. His glider is safe in the hangar. Norbert flew with us for the last time this season today.

January the 17 th

Today Bernd did a sight seeing flight. He made a lot of digital pictures of the area. Rob did 540 km with a speed of 115 km/hour. Best climb was 7.8 m/s.  Uwe and Andreas flew 777 also at 115 km/hour. Their best glide was 132.6 km with 183 km/hour. They had clouds from Temora and cloudbase 4200 m. Anja & Johannes had their last flights with us today.

January the 16 th

Jasper is flying bigger tasks every day. Today he flew 410 km.  Craig (son of Eugene Blunt) used his holidays to assist here, but left us today to return to work. He has been a great help during the last  two weeks.

January the15 th   

This morning we derigged PZ to put it in the container while it was  still cool. Some pilots had another day off.  Uwe and Andreas flew to the north where it was much better than here. They didn't use thermals less than 3m/s average climb. Grietje, Liesje and Wim flew to Benalla with the Cherokee six to pick someting up and Eugene went for a short flight in the DG with Robert.

January the14 th   

Not a busy day today. At two o'clock, Andreas & Anja decided to fly the blanik. They flew about 100 km and had  fun. Other people went to the wineries. 

January the13 th   

Only the big ships  didn't bother to fly today and did fiddle with their computers.   Rob coached Jasper on a 300 out & return. Lutz flew 470K on his last day.   Marianne and Rob (sister and brother) were responsible for the cooking tonight.

January the12 th   

Yesterday evening after dinner,Jasper made a speech about his stay with the ASCC and gave Gerrit Kurstjens and Francesco both a glider model. Gerrit a nimbus4  and Francesco a asw 28.
The weather was a little bit better than yesterday but still smokey. Jasper made his first outlanding in Australia and Francesco did the first retrieve with the LGT.
Simon Brown flew to Temora where he will be joining the club class nationals. Loyd Buugey flew  from Temora back to Corowa after a few days staying there.
The restaurant is busy tonight with nearly all our pilots dining in. We are very lucky that Wim (Grietje her father) is doing the cooking!

January the11 th   

Bush fires!!!
We were just downwind of the bush fires and had a visibility between 3 and 10 kilometers.
Only the KP flew  to the west into the clear air.
For all the other pilots we had a day in the smoke. So unfortunately no flying.

This morning we had 4 new pilots to welcome.
Rob Looisen who wil fly the FOX next week and scout Jasper.
Anja and Johannes who fly the LS8 and LS6 and Klaus Warnke who is flying Manfreds glider MK.

January the 10 th   

Jasper Grannetia completed his Golden Badge with one diamond today.
Jasper, our junior champion, made a 320 km triangle today. So far a successful holiday with 20 hours and a few nice
cross country flights. With the next few good days to come maybe a 500 km ?

January the 9 th   

The first day after the cool change.
Forecast, Blue thermals up to 1600 meter. Some of the pilots decided to take another day of.
Jasper made his first cross country flight today.
The forecast for the next few days is good again.

January the 8 th   

After 7 excellent flying days in a row with over 40.000 km cross country, we had a very windy en cloudy day.
The temperature went down into the low twenties.

So a welcome restday.

January the 7 th    5,99 x 1000 km and a World Record today

The seventh good soaring day in a row !!~!! and a WORLD RECORD!!!!! for Pam Kurstjens.
We just missed out on the 6th 1000 km. Peter Zander was running out of time and flew 998.1 km

Today was the first day we had the use of 2 Pawnees, the FOO and the LGT.
Within an hour we had all gliders in the air.

Pam Kurstjens, Gerrit Kurstjens, John Buchanan, Norbert Schlafke, Peter Zander and Dieter Schneller were the first to Launch.
They all were in the air before 11. am.
Pam flew  2 female world records, John Buchanan 2 Australian Records, Spencer Robinson a Canadian Record and Tracy Wark
also a Canadian Record.

Jasper Grannetia flew his golden height !!

January the 6 th   

The forecast was very good, only  6/8 cirrus clouds covered the area for a while which delayed the T/O with about an hour.
After launching Francesco flew to Lockhart to pick up Pam PM and Gerrit VW .
Jasper, the winner of the Dutch Junior Champs,  made his site check and took the LS4 for his first flight in Australia.

January the 5 th   

Today was a real nice one.
Beautiful clouds in the north and the east and a lot of nice long flights.                               

2 x 1000 km again

Ruedi Herzog flew a 1010 km out and return.
Norbert Schlafke 1010 km

After the towing, Francesco flew the ASH 26E and did fly a new Dutch 18 m out and return record in the blue. 127 km/h.

John Buchanan flew in with his ASW22 BLE from Kingaroy (1170 km !!). Gerrit and Pam landed after 1100 km  at Lockhart airfield.
For Pam 3 female world records and for Gerrit 2 Dutch records !!!!

Marianne and Eugene left yesterday to pick up the LS8/18 ZBI at Narromine. After Thomas landed they derigged the glider
and  drove back to Corowa. They arrived after 1000 km by car  at 4 am.

Today Jasper Granatia arrived. He is the winner of the Dutch junior championship and won a soaring holiday in Corowa.

January the 4 th                                         

Peter Klose outlanded at Urana yesterday evening after 870 km. He flew back early in the morning and took a day off.
Today we had a good day with blue thermals.
Simon GSM outlanded at Rand. 1 hour later with  an aerotow retrieve, he was back at Corowa.

January the 3 rd                                           

A busy day.
We made site checks with our Canadian friends, Tracy, Spencer, Dave and Pat.
Lutz Doernemann aslo arrived. He will fly his ASW 27 "DB" after a early site check tomorrow morning.

The weather was excellent for soaring and for flying the new Pawnee form Bourke to Corowa.
We are really proud with Sonja for her excellent flight from Atherton QLD to Corowa.
On the ground Peter Presneill and Francesco were waiting every evening for her phonecall to hear how
she was going. But she did not need us and cleared the job on her own.

Our VH LGT	Sonja Back after 20 hrs flying	Happy !!!

January the 2 nd                                                

Wim and Lies (Grietjes father and sister) arrived yesterday evening in Melbourne.
Both are also glider pilots and will spent 2 weeks in Corowa.
It was a reasonable day, but only Simon Brown and Dieter flew.
Manfred went to Tocumwal to pick up his rudder with Peter Corckery. He can fly again tomorrow.

VH-LGT.
Sonja did a great job today. She did end up in Bourke and will fly to Corowa tomorrow.
We will be waiting with champagne !

January the 1 st                                                     

After a very nice new years eve, most of the pilots made the decision not to fly.
Only Dieter en Peter Klose went up in the air with beuatiful air.

Happy New Year, and a lot of nice and safe flights

December the 31 st                                                     

As expected a rainy non flying day.
But, we had an excellent Decmeber month; 40 % more hours and 40 % more cross country km's compared to last year.
A less good start for Grietje, she had a meeting with her desk and broke a toe. She will not be able to fly for 2 weeks.

Sonja left Atherton with the Pawnee and flew in the mountains via Townsville to Charters Towers. Good first leg Sonja !!

We will go into the new year all together with a nice dinner and champagne.

Grietje	Marianne and Deidre	The Men	Victor and Eugene

December the 30 th                                      

Rain !!
But sunshine in Queensland. Sonja left Atherton today with the 2nd Pawnee of the Australian Soaring Centre Corowa.
We hope she will be here by Thursday. It is a long (2000 km )  and adventurous flight.

December the 29 th                                      

The weather change is there. Today we had a notherly wind of 30 kts in the morning and a lot of cirrus clouds.
Only Peter and Jurgen did fly with the KP. They made 550 km .

December the 28 th                                      

Another good day.
Only Simon, Malcolm, Dieter and Rene/Robert flew today. The others took a day of after 2 days of 8 to 9 hours
flying.
We appreciate it very much, that Benalla made Sonja Fabig free to collect our new Pawnee.
Sonja left well prepared today for Cairns. She will fly the VH-LGT from Atherton Qld to Corowa. It is a long flight of about 20 hours
But she is very happy she can fly the hours .

December the 27 th                                      

Another excellent soaring day.
The first cu's popped up at 10.15 and Dieter was the first to launch at 10.30 and within an hour everybody was airborne..

December the 26 th                                      

Yesterday evening we had an very pleasant Chrismas dinner.
Bettina made the entree and desert, Francesco the main and Eugenes wife , Deidre did bake an excellent
Chrismas cake.
Peter Klose was out of the hospital again. He is going better en enjoyed his dinner.

Bettina	Deidre	Ruedi	Sven

Today Peter Zander left for a week holiday in Sydney and Sven ( we will miss him) left for Germany again.
A good flying day againwith a max distance of km.

December the 25 th                                       Merry Christmas

Dieter and Sven outlanded yesterday. Because it was to late we had to retrieve them today.
Grietje left early to get Sven from Narrandera and Francesco made with Dieter his first paddock retrieve.
Peter you can be proud!

Only Norbert, Dieter and Francesco flew today. All the others enjoyed a nice and warm Christmasday.
Later In the afternoon , Rene, Robert, Jurgen and Isolde arrived. Rene and Robert fly the DG and Jurgen the KP.

Tonight we have our Christmas dinner.

December the 24 th

Sven made his first flight on th LS6 today. He had to ouytland at Narrandera after 385 km.
A really good performance.
All the others had a good flight, only later in the afternoon we had to deal with an increasing wind up to 45 km/h from th SW.
So the final glide was not easy.

December the 23 rd

Fortunately, Peter Klose is back in his Motel. After a fall two days ago he spend 2 nights in Hospital with some
minor injuries.
Today we  did fly again. A strong wind in the afternoon made it not easy.
Francesco and Kait flew the Blanik and after a few almost outlandings they outlanded at Yarrawonga after 75 km.
Sven, Dieter and Bernd were the other heroes.

December the 22 nd

No flying today. The temptrace gave us 36 grC to get thermals up to 3000 ft. The Tmax forecast was 34 grC.
So it was an easy go to play golf today.
Even for the skydivers, who are having their training week for the Nationals next week had a day of not that much activity.
It is good to see, that the Nationals skydiving and a commercial soaring operation like ours work together in a way, that
both can run their operation without any restrictions.

Our new Pawnee.
We expect  our Pawnee VH ??? next friday. So from the first week of January we will be towing with the FOO and the L??.

December the 21 st

A blue day. with good lift.
Sven Zeller is back after a short break,

To night we have our family evening. This time a fish evening.
Jock had to fly to Melbourne this morning and went to the Victoria Market to buy fresh fish.
For those who don't like the fish there will be roast chicken.

December the 20 th

Nothing special today. It was a reasonable flying day, but nobody did fly.

Cynthia will leave tomorrow and is going back to The Netherlands.
She was a great help in the weeks she was here. Thanks a lot Cynthia. 

Hello Nick I am, almost home !

December the 19 th

Happy Birthday !! ( it is Francesco dad's birthday)

Rien, Ricky and Thijs left today. He was lucky , 5 excellent flying days in a row.

Marianne did her first temptrace in the morning and later in the morning her first tow with Victor in the GOB on tow.

The forecast was ok. Only the temp didn't get the max, so the cu's were to late and the pilots took another day of.
Jock left at 10.30 but didn't find good lift for a long distance flight., so he was back after 2 hours.
The Kopf brothers flew the KP and returned after a few hours. They will leave tomorrow, but we will see them again next season.
Even Dieter returned after a few hours and made contact with the pool.
Victor flew the LS4 for 4hours and 25 min.

We are about to finish the buy of our 2nd Pawnee. We hope it will be flying at Corowa within 2 weeks.

December the 18 th

Only Rien and Dieter decided to fly today. All the other pilots  took a day off after the all the good and long flying
days. They flew together in the last three days 39.000 km cross country.
We had a max temp of 40 grC again and the pool was the best place to be.

December the 17 th

Another excellent flying day.

Two  1000 km flights today !!
Peter Klose landed first with Gerald Kopf after a 1037 km triangle. 15 minutes later
Rien landed after his first 1000 km with the ASH 26E FOX.

Marianne flew with the GOB up to 14000 ft enough for her golden height. Congratulations !!
We have to check the barogram of Eugen Blunt to see if he made his 5000 meter hight.

Grietje finally found some time to fly her own 3W for about an hour.
Unfortunately Ian had to outland at Temora at 200 km to go for his 1000 km.

Cars waiting for the pilots	staff working ??	Rien after 1001 km in the FOX

December the 16 th

An excellent forecast. Max temp 38 grC local and 42 grC up North. Max climbs 6 m/s and a cloudbase of 4300.
Most of the pilots did about 800 km.
Peter Klose flew with the Discus CU 820 km. An excellent performance.!
Ruedi in the DS went up to 5000 m amsl. His coldest day in Australia so far.

December the 15 th

First launch at 11 am again, Today Andy was the first to take off.
At 12.30 everybody was in the air.
After launching Francesco and Victor left with the DG505MB. They flew a 350 km triangle.
A good cross country training for Victor.

Simon Brown completed today his FAI Golden Badge with 3 diamond with an out and return flight of 520 km with his Cirrus GSM.

Marianne finished her Australian tow endorsement at Benalla. 40 tows in three days. So from today we have Grietje, Marianne, Francesco and Werner to do the towing.

December the 14 th

A blue, but a very good soaring day.
Rien Bastiaanse arrived one day early and prepared the ASH 26E "FOX". After the site check he left in the afternoon
for a flight to get familiar with the 26. Rien flew a 370 km triangle with 100 km/h.
Sven was a little bit worried about flying in blue thermals, but he was ver happy with his completed 260 km triangle.
All the other pilots made also very nice flights between 300 and 750 km.
Tonight we have our family evening. Ricky, Cynthia, Francesco and Thijs took care of the french fries, Salat, Vegies,
Scotch Filet, Icecream and fresh fruit.

December the 13 th

A blue day again.

December the 12 th

A non flying day.
Strong SW winds and a forecast for blue thermals up to 1500 m.
We all wait for the next three days, with high pressure and higher temps.
Marianne is going to Benalla tomorrow for her Australian tow endorsement.

December the 11 th

Ales outlanded yesterday evening with the XJS at Leeton airfield. Grietje did the retrieve early in the morning.
Both landed at 10.30.
Today a blue day with a base between 1000 meter in the west and 1600 up North. A real working day for the pilots.
Brano decided to use his last day to fly with Bregitta.
The weather forecast for the nex few days is good.

December the 10 th

Yesterday we flew the FOO to Benalla for  the repalcement of the oil cooler.
Michael did a great job at the Benalla workshop and FOO was back in time to launch the gliders. Thanks Michael!.

The new high pressure system is building up. We had a start with beautiful cu's, but they disappeared as cirrus
cover came in.
But Sven Zeller flew his golden distance and 300 km diamond goal. Congratulations Sven.

Marianne went to Albury to finish the last paperwork for her Australian PPL.

December the 9 th

The troughline was still responsible for al lot high clouds. Flyable, but not a day as yesterday. Most of the pilots
decided not to fly today and have a rest.

Francesco did his paddock retrieve endorsement today. With Peter Presneill as CASA delegate and Eugene Blunt
with his Cobra they made some pretty interesting outlandings and retrieves.

December the 8 th

The temptrace was promising.  Take off at 11am, cumulus with a cloudbase of 3000 meter and good lift.
The only uncertainty was the time of the trough line to reach our area. This was unfortunately to early.
some of the pilots decided to fly back and land. However there was still good lift under the frontal clouds later the
soaring condition became perfect again. Peter Klose landed at 8 pm after a flight of 900 km.
Dieter was the last to land 20.15 after 750 km (without an electrical vario) .

Corowa tonight

December the 7th

Blue sky in the early morning. A good day? The temptrace gave us an inversion at 3000 ft which could disappear
almost at Tmax. Anyway we decided at 2 pm to fly. Peter Klose soon came back with logger problems.
Dieter flew a 300 km out and return, Ales made his frist flight on the LS6 and Sven flew the LS4 for the first time.
Marianne made her site check with Grietje. Thomas Mende flew in from Gelong and flew with Grietje 50 minutes in the Blanik.
Tonight we have our family evening. Marianne and Victor prepared spaghetti for 25 people. Great job!!

December the 6th

We had a strong wind and severe turbulence in the morning, which made us decide to have a 2nd briefing at 12.00.
On behalf of the pilots Andreas presented the Corowa staff 2 beautiful plants. Not only because it was St Nicolaas
but mainly because our guests appreciate the effort we made in the last 18 months in Corowa.
Not necessary, but highly appreciated by the Francesco and Grietje.

Later the wind became a little bit more calm. Dieter flew his Nimbus 3 ct and Grietje made 3   site checks with Sven, Alex and Bernd.
Carsten made a checkflight with the LS6 after it got his annual inspection......

December the 5th

What a day. Not and Australian summerday, but a European winter day.
We had a very active coldfront passing with a lot of rain and very strong winds. So no flying today but a good day
to finish a lot of things for everybody. So everybody is ready for tomorrow.

Almost everybody is in for dinner tonight. And  Saturday we have our family evening again. This time spaghetti made
by Marianne and Victor.
Victor arrived as a guest and is now one of our staff members. Victor will stay until mid February and we are sure he
will be a great help for staff and guests.
So the December staff will be: Grietje, Marianne, Cynthia, Victor and Francesco.

Carsten,Grietje, Manfred and Jan	Manfred, Grietje and Jan Umlauf

December the 4th

Today we rigged the last glider, the D8 (nimbus 3ct) of Dieter Schneller.
Sven als arrived from germany and he will stay until the end of December. Peter Klose is also back
from Tocumwal, where he participated the competition.
Only Brano and Dieter did fly today. Te wind was very strong and we had a lot of turbulence. Therfore we decided
to make the site checks with Marianne, Bernd and Sven tomorrow morning.
 

December the 3rd

Marianne arrived yesterday in Albury and was flown to Corowa by Grietje with the cherokee6 .
We collected all the paperwork to get her Australian PPL, which is already in the mail to CASA.
When arriving at the airfield she met her instructor Peter Presneill, who is doing her tow endorsement next week
at Benalla.

We had a cool change today with thunderstorms and rain. So, no flying today.
Marianne, Grietje and Cynthia used the day for cleaning the clubhouse and the Pawnee and Francesco the officework.

For tomorrow we expect good conditions again, which will improve in the next few days.

December the 2nd

The question today was when does the front reach our area. The answer, to early !!
The forecast was a very good soaring day. By 11.30 we had all the gliders in the air. By that time we had thermals
of 3 m./s or more and a cloudbase of almost 2000 meter. Unfortunately the front was to early and so Jan and Casten
decided to land early. Under the frontal clouds there was still good flying conditions up to 3000 meter.
Norbert mad the longest flight of 720 km and Peter Zander with his Ventus almost 700 km.

December the 1 st

Ruud and Emmy left yesterday . Today is the last day of the Venlo family. Frits, Fer and Edith are leaving tomorrow.
It was really nice to have them all in Corowa.
This morning Nienke joined Francesco in the Pawnee for the temp trace,.
As standard, Jan and Casten left as first today and made the longest distance again. It is good to see glider pilots
enjoying their holiday in Corowa that much.

Casten Bauer flying the ASW27 3W	Jan Umlauf flying the ASW 27 DB	Nienke and Francesco before take-off

 

November the 30 th  2002

First launch( Jan Umlauf) 10.15) The start of the day was excellent, later on the day the thermals were difficult to find
and to center. But we made some nice flights.
Only Brano outlanded with his 304 CZ in a nice sand paddock.   Grietje , Victor and Eugene are retrieving the glider by
trailer.
A second silver badge for one of my club members in the Netherlands. Victor Alewijnse flew 60 km out and had to fight his way back into the strong wind of 35 km/h. Good job Victor, congratulations !!
Jan Umlauf also had a struggle to fly back into the strong wind, but he was happy to make his downwind call.

We ended the day with a very nice family evening. Harm was the cook and made us an excellent meal. Prawns as an entree
and a curry chicken as a main. Applause for the cook !!!!!!

Harm the Cook	Nienke and the Venlo family	Grietje, Brano and Andy

November the 29 th  2002

The possibility of thunderstorms and the long flights of yesterday was a reason for most pilots to leave the glider in the hangar.
Only Jan Umlauf and Casten Bauer decided to fly. Both made a nice flight of a little bit less as 500 km.
They landed just before a huge storm.
Due to this storm one of the Tocumwal gliders decided to land  here and was towed back to Toc by Francesco.
Grietje did here endorsement on the Cherokee Six and flew the owner back to Avondale and together with Cynthia back
to Corowa.

November the 28 th  2002

An early start today.
Jan Umlauf was the first to take off at 11:20 and at 12:30 we had all the gliders  in the air.
Norbert mad his site check and left with his ASW22 BLE for a local flight .
Mac left for Narromine with his LS8 18 m.
Fred Jansen of the Gliding Club Den Helder completed his silver badge today by making a flight of 5 hours and 20 min.
All pilots made very nice flights.

Fred after completing his Silver FAI badge

November the 27 th  2002

Yesterday, Casten Bauer arrived and he will fly the 3W for the next 2 weeks. Today   also Mac and Norbert Schlafke
arrived in Corowa.
Harm is also back. Unfortunately his DG800 was not ready and he has to drive back to Camden tomorrow to pick
up his glider. Harm will stay unitil Christmas.
I went to Wangaretta to pick up my daughter Cynthia. She will be here until mid December to give us a hand.

Norbert enjoying his jetlag	Cynthia	Apres flying

Finally we had a good flying day after 3 days off.

November the 26 th  2002

The farmers are happy, we are not.
The weather system is moving slowly to the East. We had a little bit of hope to fly in the afternoon, but we only
got rain and at this very moment  (6.00 pm) the sky is blue and a new high is approaching , so tomorrow will  be
a new good flying day.
In the morning we rigged the Manfred Kasten's ASH 26 E MK, and Rudi Herzog's Ventus CM DS.
Next week we will empty the containers and rig the ASW 22BLE of Norbert Schlafke and Dieter Schneller'd Nimbus 3T.

Almost all the gliders are in

 

November the 25 th  2002

Unfortunately another non flying day.
We used the day for some maintenance on the gliders.
At 10 am Tony Timmermans and his wife Judie from New Zealand came to have a look at our site.
Tony started his flying career in Venlo when he still lived in The Netherlands. He flew together with Baer Seelen Sr.
the father of the 2 times world champion Baer Seelen Jr.
In 1949 he left for New Zealand, flew a few world comps and is still a very active competition pilot.
In Corowa Tony met Frits, who is nowadays one of the members of Venlo.

Tony, Judie and Frits	Tony  and Judie

November the 24 th  2002

We have to deal with a new troughline connecting to a Low in the Bite.
Forecast for today some showers.
We cancelled the day this morning and after our morning tea, some of the pilots are going to do some
sight seeing and others were working and playing in the internet office.

Peter Zander, Jan Umlauf and Andreas Sieber

November the 23 rd  2002

Yesterday evening we had our family evening again.
Francesco made the entree, Edith and Frits the salad, Andrea the fresh fruit and Francesco the BBQ.
Pepe brought some Christmas sweets from Spain. delicious!!.
Peter Zander outlanded yesterday after 700 km. Unfortunately  the tug from Temora was us, so we had to retrieve
him this morning. Francesco left after the temp trace  at 07.30  for Temora.
Andy, Werner, Andreas and Brano (jetlag) decided to take a day of.
Pepe flew to Narromine to fly the Narromine Cup. After a 420 m out and return with the FOX, Francesco had to retrieve
the DG which outlanded at Tocumwal.

November the 22 nd  2002

We had an early start. First launch was at 11.15.
Brano and his girlfriend Bregitta arrived and Brano flew after his site check the ET.
Fred Jansen made his first cross country flight and did a 110 km out and return. Silver distance !!!!
Ruud Kool flew the CU.

Fred and  Francesco before the temp trace flight

 

November the 21 st  2002

After two non flying days a good start of the new cycle. At 10.30 am the first cu's were already popping up over Corowa.
At 11.30 we had thermals of 3,5 meter and a cloudbase of 1000 m.
It turned out to be a good soaring day and everybody had a good day.
Victor started for his first flight in the LS4 and flew for the first time in his live more as 5 hours , congratulations!!!!!!!

Beer for Victor after 5 hrs 40 min	Fred, Grietje and Victor

Ruud and Emmy Kool from the Netherlands arraive and Ruud made his check flight with Grietje.
From tomorrow Ruud will fly the 3W.
Hans Wiesenthal left for Temora and will fly to Narromine tomorrow for tthe Narromine Cup.
After doing the towing Francesco left at 15.00 with the FIOX for a 350 km triangle and got back within 3 hours with an
average of 125 km/h.

November the 18th  2002

After an excellent start of our restaurant an excellent gliding day !!
The temp was very promising and we had an early start today.
Peter Zander prepared his glider for tomorrow. Fred and Victor made their site checks.
Fred also made his first flight on the LS4  and got to 3760 meter only 80 meters short for his
golden height.
Francesco and Victor flew together in the Blanik and flew up to 3900 meter with max  6 m/s thermal.
Frits and Fer enjoyed their first flight with the DG and were happy with 470 km

November the 17th  2002

The temp trace was very promising. However the troughline did approach to fast.
Only Jan Umlauf took off to get familiar with his ASW 27. He flew  285 km and was very enthusiastic after his
first flight on the 27.

Fred Jansen and Victor Alewijnse arrived yesterday evening in Melbourne and today Francesco drove them from Wangaretta
to Corowa.Fred and Victor enjoyed their first Australia day !!
Fer Bergmans and Frits Urselman with his  wife arrived today in Corowa after a few days Melbourne. Fer and Frits will fly the DG
in the next 2 weeks. In the afternoon they both made their Site Check.
Peter Zander also arrived.

Before we have our first meal in the restaurant Andy took a dive in the pool. This on a special request of Anja.

November the 16th  2002

The paella was excellent !!! As Pepe confessed, his best sofar!.

The Chef Pepe	The Result, TOP !!!!!!!!!!

Simon Brown came back and flew his Cirrus to The Rock and back.
Grietje flew the LS4 after his form2 inspection. The LX 5000 is working perfect. After the checkflight
she flew out and return to The Rock.
Jan Umlauf arrived later in the morning. Jan wil fly  Bernd Doernemann's   ASW 27 "DB"
After a few hours sleep Jan was back at 19.00 and made his site check with our new instructor Grietje.

From tomorrow on,  our restaurant wil be open for our clubmembers.

November the 15th  2002

A busy day. Grietje installed the internet computer  for our customers. The fencing is finally finished
Our builder Wayne Wilson finished his job and the pool people left also. The building and landscaping are ready !
From today we can concentrate for 100 % on the flying activities.

Hans Wiesenthal was flying again today. He made a beautiful flight of 530 km.
Peter Klose left for Tocumwal to fly a competition in the next two weeks. Success!!
The other pilots did not fly.

Tonight, Pepe is the cook and for dinner ? Paella of  course.

November the 14th  2002

Hans Wiesenthal is more or less recovered from his illness. He flew again today.
Andrea made hir first flight of the season. She was towed by Grietje, so ladies in charge !
Andreas flew back from Lake Keepit. Everybody home again !!

November the 13th  2002

Sorry this news is a little bit late.
Hans was ill, Pepe decided not to fly, Andy and Peter were still in Lake Keepit.
So a non flying day.
Grietje and I went to Albury to get e new computer for the internet room. When we came back we were just
in time to go to the concert of the Murray Conservatorium of Albury. Together with Werner and Andrea, we enjoyed
2,5 hour of beautiful performances.
Peter Klose flew back from Lake Keepit  using the engine in the bad weather areas.

November the 12th  2002

Werner made the temp trace this morning and is now endorsed on the CuSonde.
The temp of today promised a high base when we were passing the 36 grC.
Pepe used most of the day preparing his Nimbus and left with Hans Wiesenthal at 4 pm.
They wanted to fly into the direction of the troughline. But the temperature did not get high enough, so they stayed around.
Good climbs and a height of 2500 meter AGL.

November the 11th  2002

Peter Klose and Andy left at 01 PM. They made it to Narromine and will fly to Lake Keepit tomorrow and then back
to Corowa.
Werner made his first flight with the SY today and flew 320 km out and return.

November the 10th  2002

The temp trace was not very promising and a trough line was over our area, so all  pilots decided to wait
for the afternoon weather, but at 2 pm we all decided not to fly.
Andy and Peter Klose are preparing their gliders to make a little trip of 3 days to Lake Keepit and back.

November the 9th  2002

The family evening yesterday was very sociable one. It was the last evening for Mario and Hedwig, because they left
for The Netherlands today.
Francesco flew his new ASH 26E for the first time today. a 400 km out and return was the result. In the mean time
Grietje tried for the first time the pool and the spa.

November the 8th  2002

The forecast, northerly winds with high temperatures was promising. The temp trace was a little bit disappointing.
We had to wait until we reached 30 grC.
Hans and Peter went cross country and Simon and Mario did fly local. Peter flew up to Lake Cargeligo and had a cloudbase of 3500 meter with cumulus.

Tonight we have our first family evening.
Andy is cooking the meat
Francesco made the mashed potatoes
Ute made the salad
Andrea prepared the garlic bread.

November the 7th  2002

Andreas surprised us this morning with 2 beautiful trees.
After we made the decision where to put them, Andy made two big holes and did plant both trees himself !!
Thanks Andy !!

Andy and Simon	Andy busy with the 2nd tree	Hedwig	Grietje

Francesco installed the LX5000 in the LS4 and made some changes on the instruments of the FOX, while Grietje
did a lot of office work.
Hedwig van Bree  enjoyed the pool (29 grC). while Mario was flying the 3W.

November the 6th  2002

The weather  was more or less the same as yesterday. Blue thermals up to 1800 meters.
Peter Klose left at 13.00 and the last pilot at 14.05. Mario who made his first flight on the ASW27 yesterday
flew with Andreas and Simon to The Rock, but  had to outland 80 km from Corowa in Pleasant Hils.
For tomorrow the forcast is Notherly winds with temperatures above 30 grC.

November the 5th  2002

After a very tiring Monday, we had a very nice first day of the season.
Everybody used the (cold) morning for loading computers and preparing their gliders.
Hans Wiesental arrived yesterday and we rigged his DG 800B this morning. Hans made his first flight 
of the season later in the afternoon.(160 km out and return)
Mario van Bree made his check flight and flew the ASW 27 3W for about 2,5 hours and flew local (30 km out)
Peter Klose and Andreas Sieber made their first cross country flights of the season.
Our Aussi pilot, Simon Brown is also back and flew his Cirrus "GSM".

From today we will start again with the daily results.

November the 4 th  2002

Today, Ray Vasalo, the quarantine officer came to check the gliders. After 3 hours of inspection he released all gliders.
We rigged the DG, SY, AS, 3W, FOX and KP the LS8 M of Mac, was already in the hanger.
Martijn Kooyman of the Dutch gliding club "Twenthe"  visited us with 2 friends. After a check flight, Martijn flew with his both
friend and left for Sydney.
Mario van Bree and his daughter Hedwig arrived in the afternoon. They will stay until the end of the week.

Fuselages waiting for inspection	The Quarantine officer	Finally all gliders released

November the 1st  2002

The Blue, Red and Green container arrived today.
After a quick inspection we can tell all the owners all the gliders arrived again without any scratch or damage.

Blue, red and Green arrived	on their spot for the summer	Grietje finishes the paperwork

UPS delivered the LX5000 today , so we can finish tomorrow the LS4 with new waterbags and LX5000.
Monday will be the first official flying day of this season.
Peter Klose arrived today, Mario van Bree, his daughter, Andreas Sieber and Simon Brown will be here on Monday.

Today the water in the Pool was tested an found 100 % OK, which is not to difficult with an automatic chemistry system.

October the 31st  2002

Today, Grietje finished her tow endorsement and made her first solo tow in the MCF with Francesco in the Glider .
Malcolm Ferguson, Eugene Blunt, Russ Jacob, Askolb Kislewsky and Chris Mayhew helped us out by flying the gliders.
Thanks !
Peter Presneill also validated Werners (SY) towing permit and made a check flight with Chris Mayhew.

Grietje about to fly solo	Roling	Francesco on tow

Chris Mayhew and Christine stayed for 2 days .
Unfortunately Chris (103) has to work in Trinidad the whole summer, so he will not be able to do any soaring this season.

October the 30th  2002

Today Grietje proceeded with her tow endorsement. Tomorrow she will make the last duals with Peter Presneill
and after tomorrow she will be a Corowa tow pilot.
Yesterday our CuSonde arrived and we took the opportunity to make a test trace this morning.

The new LX 5000 for the LS4 arrived and will replace the old Westerboer.

The containers will be here tomorrow in the afternoon and the inspection will be on Friday. So all in time.

October the 28 th  2002

The containers arrived last Friday in Melbourne.
As soon as the customs and quarantine have done their job, they will head of for Corowa.
We expect to have them here on Wednesday. But it will be on the news page as soon as they are here.

Werner and Andrea arrived on Sunday. They were the first of our last year customers to have a look in the
new clubhouse.

Grietje will start tomorrow her tow endorsement with Peter Presneill from the Gliding Club of Victoria.
Peter will bring the Pawnee MCF from Benalla and Benalla will use our Pawnee FOO this week.
We really appreciate the co-operation with the GCV very much.

October the 26 th  2002

Benalla today:

Last Monday, six glider pilots started their level 1 instructors course at Benalla.
Grietje (Maggie for the week), Vivian Drew, Mike Kornhauser, Colin Collum, Peter Martin and Phil Henderson
were trained by the instructors Bob Gray, Doug Robinson and Ken Boland.
It was a heavy week with long days. Morning lectures by the instructors and briefings by the students in the class
room and weather permitting they did as much flying as possible with the instructors and with each other.
Spins, modified circuits rope breaks; everything possible has been trained.
Today Peter Gray and Vern Rosenfeldt joined the group  with Bob Gray to do the final assessment with the students.
The week training must have been a good one, because all the students got trough and left with their level 1 instructors rating.

Francesco (tow endorsement) and Grietje (Instructors rating and next week her tow endorsement) spend the week with the
Gliding Club of Victoria. It was a great week. We did meet a lot of new gliding friends in Australia in a nice atmosphere.
We like to thank the GCV for the hospitality and all the support.

Grietje's assessment  with Bob	The new level 1instr of the Murray Valley SC	The team

October the 24 th  2002

Yesterday, we only made 1 flight due to the gusting wind (15 up to 35 kts) and a lot of showers.
Today, the weather was excellent. The student / instructors were flying all day and got some lectures at the strip.
Tomorrow will be the last training day and on Saturday they have to do their exam flights.
Francesco finished with Pete the tow endorsement and made his first solo tow in the MCF.
It was good to have an instructor like Pete. It was a really learning experience. Thanks Pete!

Lecture by Doug	Pete my instructor	Last dual before solo !

October the 22nd  2002

Day 2 at Benalla:

Grietje (Maggie) finished her second day of the instructors course. She is doing quite well.
They have morning lectures and afternoon training in the Blanik and IS 28. Instructors are playing the student and the students are flying together and instruct each other.
So far it is a good course.

Francesco finished his second day doing the towing in the Pawnee VH MCF of the Gliding Club of Victoria.
Pete Presneill is doing the tug training and I assure you, it is great to be trained by Pete.
After 20 tows with all kind of emergencies I start to understand a little bit of the live of a tug pilot.

Corowa:

In the mean time, the last things in Corowa are about to be finished.
The containers are due to arrive on Friday in Melbourne and will be in Corowa somewhere early next week.

October the 20th  2002

Today we had the 2nd flight to Narromine (485 km).
Frans Caers left at 1 pm and landed 3,5 hours later at Narromine. Frans is going to travel around trough Queensland and
wil be back in Corowa with Christmas to spend the last 3 weeks of his stay in Australia with our club.

Grietje and Francesco left for a week training with the Gliding Club of Victoria at Benalla.
Grietje is atttending the instructors course and after next week-end she will do her tow endorsement and Francesco is doing the towing during the instructors course.

Our builder Wayne will use this week to finish the last details in our clubhouse, so when the containers arrive we are ready for the season.

October the 19th  2002

Today we had the last day of the Airworthiness Course.
A lot of nice people, a very nice atmosphere, excellent lectures and good practice sessions were the ingredients for
this very successful course.
We enjoyed it very much to host the course this year.
Frank and Leesa Amico's cooked excellent lunches and meals in our new kitchen and BBQ area. Top Quality !!
Eugene did ( next to his job as one of the course organisers) a lot of cleaning etc Thanks a lot Eugene !!

Download this Photo (1,3 mb)  Airworthiness Course.jpg

Pam Kurstjens made the first flight of the season with the Nimbus 4t PM and left early for Narromine .
Daily Results

October the 18th  2002

Last night, Gerrits container arrived at Corowa Airfield. After a quick inspection inside we found all the gliders in
a good health.
Unfortunately we had to wait until late in the afternoon for the quarantine officer, so it was to late far PAM to start for
her  flight back to Queensland.
Next week Friday the other three container will arrive.

October the 16th  2002

Yesterday evening we had an excellent fish meal. The restaurant is running better every day. Frank and Leesa are doing
a great job preparing the lunches and diner.
The turf is almost in, but were can't finish it until Monday after we have got another 200 m2 extra.

Wayne finished the concrete path from the parking to the office. Like children we (Grietje and Francesco)
wrote our competition numbers and date in the concrete.

October the 15th  2002

Day 3. Form2 inspections and tost maintenance.
After he morning lectures, everybody went back into the hangar to disassemble and assemble the Tost hooks and
to proceed with their inspections and necessary maintenance.
At 11 am the 2 truckloads with the turf arrived.
Today we did put in 550 m2 turf and finish the other 350 m2  tomorrow.

Grietje's Tost hook	Arrival of the turf and Ray finished the sprinklers.	The turf waiting

October the 14th  2002

Day 2. Practice, inspections and repairs.

October the 13th  2002

Yesterday we moved all the equipment from our house into the office.
The phone and fax are reconnected by Telstra .

Today we have our first operating day from our new building.
At 09.00 sharp, Eugene Blunt opened the 2002 Airworthiness Course of the VSA.
7 days of lectures in the morning, practice in the afternoon and debriefing after diner.

Frank Amcico served his first lunches and tonight we will have the first dinner served in our new club_restaurant.

Eugene Blunt	Diner	Frank and Leesa

October the 10th,  2002

An excellent soaring day !!! , but we used the day for moving the office from the old terminal building into our new building.
Wayne finished the pre-landscaping and Ray made a start with installing the sprinklers.
Tomorrow, Telstra will reconnect the phone,  fax and internet line. And from Saturday, Grietje and I will be working from
our new office. Which  is a little bit more comfortable as last year !

October the 8th,  2002

It took some effort to get the last details organised, but

Tomorrow the floor cover will be done and the solar heating will be installed
On Thursday they deliver the restaurant  furniture, bar fridge and dishwasher.
On Thursday, Friday and Saturday they will put iin the sprinklers
On Monday and Tuesday the turf, form the Wagga turffarm.
and on Wednesday H2O Pools will finish the pool which completes all the work for this season.

Yesterday Jock  Davis "VY" CEO of Davis Sanders Homes Pty Ltd and a member of the Australian Soaring Centre Corowa
paid us a visit and was really impressed. And he gave us an unexpected present;
Davis Sanders Homes will donate all the turf ( 900 m2 ). Thanks a lot Jock. !!

October the 5 th,  2002

After a few good thunderstorms last night,we had cumulus all over the area today.
The Corowa Albury Gliding club was active and made some nice long flights, while other members
were busy with the form 2 inspection of the Blanik.
We checked the Pawnee and flew the tug for about an hour.
Yesterday, we bought  all the crockery, cutlery , glasses and other restaurant stuff. Frank from the restaurant had a look at his kitchen
and restaurant in our clubhouse and was amazed, Pff what a beauty !!
Next Sunday, Frank will serve the first meals in our restaurant, the club bar will be open, Gerrits container will arrive
and Grietje and I will start working in our  new office.
During the airworthiness course, which will be attended by Grietje, the LS 4  (GOB) will be upgraded with new waterbags and
the latest LX 5000 vario/navigation/logger system.
The LS6 (JS) will get a new Cambridge nav/logger. So all our gliders have loggers this year.

October the 4 th,  2002

We had a good trip back to Corowa and a very good jet-lag until now.
When we arrived on Wednesday, Harm was already at the airfield.
We,  a proud lady and two boys, had a quick look at our beautiful clubhouse.

The clubhouse is ready, but we had a lot of work to do the last 2 days, in order to get the final details organised.

Due to the very very dry winter, which is not good for the Australian farmers, we have to wait until next Friday to get
the lawn (turf) in. By that time the fencing and the sprinkler are ready as well.
Next Tuesday we move in to our new office and start working from there. We only have to wait until Friday 11th for
Telstra to reconnect the phone and fax line and to install the separate internet line in our I-office.
all the (restaurant) briefing room furniture will be delivered on Tuesday as well, so everything is ready in time for the
Airworthiness training which is due to start next Saturday.

September the 29th,  2002

No news until Wednesday.
I am going to shut down my computer in a minute and start packing.
Our plane leaves tomorrow morning.
On Wednesday as soon as we arrive in Corowa, I will give an update with pictures of our new clubhouse.

In the mean time, the containers left Rotterdam on schedule.

September the 27th,  2002

On our downloadpage we added the WinPilot maps of Queensland and South Australia.

September the 21st,  2002

The Red and Green container are also packed.
It was nice to see Pepe, Ruedi, Andi, Manfred, Uwe again and to welcome Bernd, Norbert and a friend of Dieter.
The challenge for today was packing 2 containers. We started at 10 am and closed the container doors
at 7.30 pm, with AS, MK, D8, DS, CU, AV, SA, KP and DB on their spot.
Marianne and Sape came to Grubbenvorst to give a hand. They did a great job. Thanks!!
Together with the other pilots we worked  all day and finished the job before sunset.
The green container with a ASW27 and 3 open Class gliders ,of which 2 Nimbus 3/4D two-seater, was a puzzle but with
the help of Pepe, Uwe and Bernd we finally managed to get them in.
Fortunately the weather forecast was wrong. No rain during the day, however it started raining at 09.00 pm.
The containers will leave on Monday and the ETA in Corowa is about the last week of October.

September the 20th,  2002

The Blue container is ready. ET, FOX, DG, 3W, SY and PZ did fit in perfect. We also started to pack the
RED container. CU is in. Later in the afternoon Ruedi, Manfred an Pepe arrived so we start packing  early
tomorrow mooring.
Werner, Andrea, Marek, Peter were a great help.Thanks !!!!
Until tomorrow with some photo's.

September the 18th,  2002

We added on our downloadpage the WinPilot colour map of Victoria.

September the 17th,  2002

First flight of the FOX.
Francesco made the 1st flight with the ASH 26E today. Top !!!!

September the 16th,  2002

Together with a few members of the Soaring Club "Den Helder" ,NL we visited Alexander Schleicher.
We had an excellent tour and were the first to have a close look at the new wings of the ASW 28/18 which
are still in the forms.
But we also did pick up the ASCC ASH 26E "FOX" it is a beauty. Reg D-KMFF

 

September the 12th,  2002

Marianne:

              Marianne with student                                                     Marianne

Marianne Looisen, instructor and tow- pilot, will reinforce the Corowa team in December and January !.
Marianne is a Dutch glider- and powered plane pilot and working at the Dutch National Gliding Centre TERLET.
We are very happy, Marianne agreed, to help us out in the high season.  Together with Grietje it seems the
women have taken over. Fortunately I will be the CFI for the season, so enough to survive.
Her spouse Sape, who is one of the pilots of the Dutch aerobatics team, will join her in the 2nd half of January.
So we also have work for the IS28.

September the 5th,  2002

We are very proud that we can receive our 2003 - 2003 customers in our new clubhouse.
Wayne the builder, did send me some late pictures .Everything is ready and now we are waiting for
the turf  (lawn) to be put in.
But the most important fact is that everything is ready in time to host the Airworthiness course in the 2nd week of October.

September the 2nd,  2002

Last year we used a very good thermometer to make the daily temp trace and a wet bulb thermometer for the dewpoint line.
The result was a good and most of the times a reliable forecast.

However, we were not complete happy with the results and decided to buy a new and  very sophisticated system in order to
get  a good  forecast of trigger temp, period of thermal activity, cloudbase, thermal strenght etc.

The Cu sonde, is a data logger with a 2 second sampling   time. The sonde provides accurate high-resolution temperature and humidity profiles. All the data are used for a direct input in a Atmospheric Stability Analysis Program for the daily briefing.   The sonde is certified by the FAA

September the 1st,  2002

Thanks Marcel. The new webpage looks very good,
The news has been split up per season and the daily results per season and per month.

The turningpoint files have been revised end checked and now  available for download.
The SeeYou file also contains a few tasks.

Yesterday, Hans Wiesental. Frans Caers, Max Kirschner and Francesco, packed Gerrits container. VW, PM, HW, II, M and CHT will leave on Monday. ETA Corowa 2nd week of October.

August  the 26th,  2002

We will release the new webpage by the end of the week. We only have to reorganise the files and JPEG's.

Next Saturday  Gerrit's container  will be packed. The ETA at Corowa is the 2nd of October.
On Friday and Saturday the 21st and 22nd of September we will pack the other 3 containers. All the owners will be informed
by separate mail.

In Corowa, everything is on schedule. The Clubhouse and pool are completed. Due to the very dry winter we did lose
a very few days on which work wasn't possible. We are looking foreward to go back and start work.

When I told Jerry Plaszowieki, of WINPilot, about our new soaring activities in Corowa, he was very helpful making maps
of our flying area ( S 31.00.000 - S 37.00.000 and E 142.00.000 - E 150.00.000) . In about a few weeks the maps will be available on his website http://www.winpilot.com  . Thank you Jerry.

 

August  the 10th,  2002

Marcel Koevoet, our webmaster is very busy upgrading our webpage.
Today we had a meeting to discuss all the changes and details.
We hope it will be released by the end of next week and we are sure it will be a huge improvement.

August  the 9th,  2002

We have a winner of the free gliding holiday with our soaring centre in Corowa !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The National Junior Championship winner of 2002 is JASPER GRANNETIA of the Aeroclub Salland.
He flew the club Pegase SP.  Congratulations !
It was a very close championship until the last day. The competitors had to wait until the pricegiving
to know  the winner.
Jasper will visit Corowa in January. One of the scouts who is going to help Jasper is Gerrit Kurstjens.

August the 8th,  2002

The packing date for the containers is approaching rapidly.
In order to fit in 2 open class gliders in the containers properly, we had to make some changes in the system.
It took us a whole day puzzling and welding, but all three containers are now ready to go down under again.

July the 23th,  2002

We have got some new pictures of the progress of our clubhouse. Wayne connected
the stormwater to the open drain of the airfield. The concrete around the building is also finished.
The cabinetmaker is very busy constructing the bench in the office, bar and kitchen.
Monday paid Alexander Schleicher a visit to have a look at the new ASSC ASH 26E "FOX".
The glider is ready in the 1st week of September and will disappear straight away in the container
to sail to Corowa and make the first flight.

 

 

July the 16th,  2002

A unique possibility for young pilots to fly in Corowa Australia !!!!!

The Australian Soaring Centre in co-operation with the Dutch glider pilot Gerrit Kurstjens decided
to give the opportunity to young Dutch glider pilots to fly down under.
Every year the Venlose Soaring Club organises a competition for junior pilots (up to 25 Years of age).
During this competition scouts will fly every day with the competitors and every evening a debriefing by
the scout completes the task.
The 2 winners can fly for 2 weeks in superb conditions at Corowa.