AT her first ever attempt at competing, Hamilton’s Anoushka de Chelard has come third at the JoeyGlide 2024 Australian Junior Nationals Gliding championships in Narromine, NSW, last week.
Proud parents Heinz and Carla de Chelard were thrilled with their daughter’s progress through the gliding syllabus having only just been gliding for two years.
The 17-yer-old Monivae College student came away with a swag of trophies at the event.
Other trophies were for being the top placed female pilot, the Southern Cross Gliding club award for the highest placed pilot at their first Australian junior gliding championship, the Nick Gilbert award for third place, and the Joey Cup for the highest placed pilot weighted by the number of gliding hours.
Mr de Chelard said the competition was tough.
“The people she was up against had a lot more gliding hours than she does,” Mr de Chelard said.
“There’s two types of racing ... well there is a number of different types of racing, but the first few days were the assigned area task where you have to get the greatest number of kilometres done in the shortest period of time.
“There’s a 30-kilometre circle around each of the turn points and you can choose to push further into those circles depending on how you think the weather is going to develop and what the conditions ahead are like. If you go to the opposite side of each circle, you’re maximising the distance, and if you can do that within the allotted three-hour period then you’ve got the highest average speed.
“But the conditions can change and on (Anoushka’s) first day – all she wanted to do was get home because she had never flown more than a couple of hundred kilometres at that stage. So, she touched the outside of each circle and then came straight home. From that point onwards she was just pushing further into the circles.
“The last day was a racing task, to move from fourth to third she was 24 points behind, and all she had to do was chase down the pilot who was third and she did that beautifully.
“She took out second place that day and then third place overall for the competition.
“I was her ground crew.
“She’s now ground crew for someone who is competing in the senior nationals in Benalla.”
Mr de Chelard said it was destiny that his daughter chose to take up gliding following a request to glide on her 15th birthday which got her hooked.
“It’s a disease,” Mrs de Chelard said.
Mr de Chelard said his grandmother was one of the first female gliding instructors in Germany before the Second World War.
“My cousin in Germany was also a glider pilot,” he said.
“I flew gliders at Alice Springs about 26-7 years ago and I had spoken about it and then Anoushka said … ‘can I try it’ … for her 15th birthday.
“She got into it, and I got back into it.
“I became an instructor so I could make sure that she was safe basically - so I knew exactly what she was being taught.
“Then we bought the glider … and we towed it up there (NSW) for her to compete.”
Going into Year 12 this year Anoushka was ecstatic to start the year on a high note.
“I was just going into the comp expecting to have a good time, I wasn’t intending to come anywhere near the top so to come third – that’s a very pleasant surprise.
“I had to get the hours up that were required to compete – my intention was to go in with a really open mind hoping to learn from other people and I certainly have learnt a lot.
“All the other competitors are similar ages from 16–26 and we all have very similar interests, so it’s been a really safe and friendly environment for my first competition.”
“The other competitors came from all over Australia and there was one international competitor from Japan.
“I just wanted to learn from all these people and enjoy myself.
“I found it was a massive boost to my confidence and it pushed me outside my comfort zone and flying on days I wouldn’t normally – but I have proven to myself that I can do it – it’s a great start to the year and a very positive first competition experience.”
After graduating Year 12, Anoushka hopes to study aerospace engineering or mechatronics engineering or something along the lines of particle physics.
“Definitely something science or engineering based,” Anoushka said.
She also intends on competing at the junior gliding world championships in 2027 at Lake Keepit in NSW.
“That is a future aspiration for me now that I’ve had a taste for competition,” Anoushka said.
