Another excellent Horsham Week Competition, the 59th in an unbroken series, was held from Saturday 1 February to Saturday 8 February 2025.
Ryan Driscoll landing in his Nimbus 3T.
By Michael Durrant
The Victorian State Championships 2025 were held in conjunction with the Horsham Week Competition, with State champions declared in 15M, Open/18M and Club Classes.
The Horsham Week Competition was preceded by the Horsham Coaching Week during the last week of January. The coaching week is scheduled by the VSA Coaching team as a lead-in event for pilots planning to fly their first competition at Horsham Week, and to develop cross country flying in general.
As some visiting pilots from New Zealand and NSW found, Horsham has ideal terrain for cross country flying and competitions with huge flat paddocks across the tasking area. This provides very safe conditions especially for those new to cross country or competition flying.
Mark Hunt in his JS3 RES in 18m Class.
Horsham Flying Club members were again fantastic hosts for both events, providing accommodation, briefings, catering and operational support. These events are only possible because of the dedicated support and volunteer effort provided by HFC, with the same small group of members committing their time every year to make these events happen. Those who attended were hugely grateful for this support.
A complicating factor this year was sourcing tugs, due the Pawnee airworthiness issues impacting the Ararat and Horsham tugs. Fortunately, our Tug Master, Peter Kingston, was able to work with the Geelong and Melbourne clubs, and with South Gippsland to make their Pawnees available for both events. George and Diana Schuit also helped by providing their Scout for both launching and paddock retrieves.
As always, it is the volunteers and the support of the Victorian clubs that makes it possible to run these events.
Jaroslaw Mosiejewski came 3rd in his PIK 20B in Club Class.
Horsham Coaching Week
Tim Shirley from GCV led the team organizing the coaching week, while Michael Durrant led three coaches supporting 17 pilots to develop their cross country soaring skills.
Unfortunately, the coaching week was severely impacted by the fires in the Grampians and Little Desert and had only two flying days.
At one stage, evacuation orders were in place for Pimpinio, which is only 10km north of the airfield, and we were starting to contemplate evacuation. A pyro-cumulus loomed over the airfield with ash fall and showers combining to cover the gliders in soot.
This storm subsequently caused dry lightning strikes in the Grampians and yet more fires. It all felt quite apocalyptic for a few days. Fortunately, the anticipated change in wind direction meant that we did not need to evacuate. However, instead, the fire burned in a northerly direction to threaten Dimboola.
Club Class winners Jaroslaw Mosiejewsk, Michael Strathern, Terry Cubley.
Local Community Impact
The fires in the Little Desert and Grampians have been devastating for the local community, requiring a huge effort to contain the conflagrations and limit property damage. The fires were only contained on the outskirts of Dimboola, just saving this lovely town and the Victoria Hotel, a favourite destination for thirsty pilots. Sadly, the Little Desert was almost completely burnt out, and recurring fires over the past year have burnt almost 90% of the Grampians. Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected.
For a few days, Horsham Airport was the base for fire fighting. Fire bombers, fire spotters and infra-red scanning aircraft operated continuously with a movement every 10-15 minutes.
Chris Thorpe and Noel Vagg in their DG500.
Despite the fires and intensive firefighting operations, one pilot was able to attain his GPC, achieving the required outlanding checks, theory and demonstrated cross country flights during the week.
On the two days we could fly tasks, several two seat and single seat coaching flights were completed with subsequent de-briefing and discussions.
Most pilots were planning to stay and fly in the Horsham Week Competition, so we continued to run the theory sessions and undertake some local flying where possible. However, we decided to close the coaching week one day early, to give everyone a break before the start of the competition.
Overall, it was as successful an event as could be achieved given the challenging conditions, and we look forward to a better year in 2026!
Horsham Week Competition
Thankfully, the fires and associated suppression activities settled down for the competition. The smoke from the bush fires mainly stayed away to the west and south of Horsham enabling tasking to the north and east.
The Horsham Week Competition started on Saturday 1 February with 26 entries at briefing. This included strong competition from the women pilots. Leonie Furze, Diana Schuit and Anoushka De Chelard kept the men honest in Club Class. It was great to see such strong female representation this year with women achieving several podium finishes and day wins.
Ash from the Grampians fire covered the airfield and gliders.
We hope to see more female competitors and more younger entrants in the future to ensure we keep the Horsham Week tradition alive for many years to come.
The Horsham Week Competition is run by the pilots, for the pilots, with participants agreeing to take on the key roles of Competition Director, Scorer, Task Setter, Weather, Briefing Coordination, Treasurer and Safety Officer on a rotating basis every few years, ensuring that the competition is sustainable for the long term.
Craig Dilks was CD this year and ran a great competition, ably supported by a strong team pictured here who ran another safe, fun and fair competition.
Task, Weather and Winners
Tasks were flown on five of the possible eight days, with adverse weather and smoke from the fires in the Grampians and the Little Desert challenging the competition. Tasking was influenced by the smoke and the need to avoid ongoing fire suppression operations.
The first two days were under CU with heights of 8,000 to 11,000ft and strong climbs making for fast and enjoyable tasks for all classes.
Day 1 Speed tasks were set to the northwest of 293km for Open/18M with Ryan Driscoll winning at a speed of 137 kph. Jack Hart won 15M/Std Class at 125 kph. Club was won by Steve Jinks at 110 kph.
Day 2 Pilots flew an AAT of around 400km to the north and then west, returning over the Little Desert where we saw nothing but ash and cinders. Storms over the airfield led to several pilots in Club Class landing out, rather than completing their return to the airfield. Ryan again won Open/18M at 126 kph. 15M/Standard was also won by Jack Hart at 120 kph. Diana Schuit won Club Class in her Cirrus at 96 kph.
Day 3 The day was cancelled on the grid after the required Task B call, and the sniffer flailing around at low level.
Day 4 Conditions brought another CU day with heights to 10,000ft, with an AAT to the north and east. Ryan won Open/18M Class with a task distance over 400km at 139 kph. Jack Hart won Std/15M at 109 kph, and Club Class was won by Steve Jinks, also at 109 kph.
Andrzej Wroblewski in his LS6.
Day 5 Open/18M Class pilots were set a speed task of 344km to the northeast in smoky conditions with poor visibility, requiring some caution on track. There was CU to the north and east of the task, returning home with smoke or haze domes at the top of the inversion giving fast speeds and good flying. Ryan again took 1st in 18M/Open Class with a speed of 128 kph. Std/15M was won by Jack Hart at 111 kph. Club Class winner was Michael Strathern at 100 kph, with Leonie Furze in 2nd place.
Day 6 The final day featured a speed task of 252km for 18M/Open with Ryan completing a clean sweep, winning the day at 111 kph. Neil Campbell won in Std/15M Class at 88 kph, spoiling Jack’s clean sweep! Club Class was won by Steve Jinks at 84 kph, with Diana Schuit taking 2nd place.
Overall Places
After a clean sweep, winning every day, the winner in Open/18M was Ryan Driscoll in his Nimbus 3t. Michael Durrant came 2nd in his LS8ST-18M, and Chris Thorpe/Noel Vagg came 3rd in their DG500M.
Ryan was awarded the VSA Open Class trophy.
After winning every day except the final day, the winner in Std/15M was Jack Hart in his ASW20B. Neil Campbell finished 2nd in his ASW24 and Tim Shirley came third in his ASW28.
Jack Hart was awarded the VSA 15M trophy.
The winner in Club Class was Michael Strathern in his ASW20. Terry Cubley was 2nd in his Mosquito and Jarek Mosiejewski took 3rd in his PIK20B.
Michael Strathern was awarded the VSA Club Class trophy.
In Closing
Horsham Week 2025 was another safe, fun and challenging competition with pilots attending from NSW and Victoria as well as New Zealand.
It was pleasing to see three female pilots (Leonie, Anoushka and Diana) all competing strongly in Club class. It was also great to see some new faces and some younger pilots competing this year.
We look forward to again offering the Coaching Week and Horsham Week as the key pathway for new cross country and entry level competition pilots in Victoria and encourage everyone to plan to be at Horsham Week starting the first Saturday of February 7th Feb, to be preceded by the coaching week starting 31st January.
Next year it would be great to have more two seat gliders entered in both the coaching week and Horsham Week 2026, to develop the next generation of cross-country pilots, and develop new competition pilots.
This is a fantastic competition with a great social aspect, as well as being a wonderful development opportunity for both newer and more experienced pilots. This is an unmissable experience, and the proof is in the number of pilots – including myself – who return every year!
Open Class winners, Mike Durant, Ryan Driscoll and Thorpe/Vagg
Horsham Week
1 - 8 February 2025
ClubClass
1 Michael Strathern Nelson Lakes GC ASW20 4,359
2 Terry Cubley GCV Mosquito 4,109
3 Jaroslaw Mosiejewski Geelong GC PIK 20B 3,927
15m - standard class
1 Jack Hart Bendigo GC ASW20B 4,428
2 Neil Campbell GCV / Horsham ASW 24 3,704
3 Tim Shirley GCV ASW28 3,419
Open - 18m
1 Ryan Driscoll GCV Nimbus 3T 25.5m 4,213
2 Michael Durrant Bendigo GC LS 8T 18m 3,574
3 Thorpe & Vagg DG-500M 3,010
Full results at soaringspot.com tinyurl.com/horshmaweek
