A soaring success

By Andrew Stackpool

GPCAPT Geoff Brown gets ready to glide at the championships.

GROUP Captain Geoff Brown finished fifth in his class in the 43rd Australian Multi-Class National Gliding Championships, but he had a hand in the success of another ADF member.

Craftsman David McManus, who had practised throughout the year in GPCAPT Brown’s glider, won the Sir Donald Anderson Trophy for the highest placed pilot in his first national competition.

CFN McManus finished second in the 15m racing class, the same class in which GPCAPT Brown competed.

GPCAPT Brown, OC of the Airborne Early Warning Control System Program Office, flew his ASW20B 15M-class racing glider which has a 15m wingspan and a flapped wing (rather than the standard straight wing).

Fifty-six competitors from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Italy and Japan took part in the titles. The results contribute towards the selection of pilots for the next World Championships to be held in Sweden in July 2006.

GPCAPT Brown said flying conditions were quite good for the competition, held in October.

“We had three days of cumulous clouds and the rest were blue skies, which isn’t as good for finding thermals,” he said.

“However, we still were getting thermal climbs of between 700 and 1000 feet per minute. We flew triangular courses out of Dalby and most were 400km to 600km distance events with speeds up to 140km/h.”

Pilots received points based on their average speed for each day of the competition, with the fastest receiving 1000 points. Competitors flew 10 competition days and two practice days – about 45 hours and 4500km in the air for each of them.

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