@ Twente  —  the CAE NLS DUTCH NATIONALS         Tuesday    May  11 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     blog 298

First of all the news from last Sunday   when the ash cloud  from Iceland, really disturbed the Hahnweide competition.  In the morning the 20 m. and club class was cancelled, due to the marchinal weather. Then the message about the total closure of the airspace . 15 m. class was cancelled in the air ,18 m. class and  open class were in the air ; pilots were already at TP1 , but the airspace was closed south of Stuttgart and no VFR flights were allowed!!!! Just after 4 PM open class pilots arrived back at Hahnweide , just before the rain started. 6 From 21 made it home. Very good! Alexander Mueller, Pierre and Arnaud de Brocqueville, Steve Jones , Marcus Gauman ,Stephan Beck and Michael Sommer . No competition day in 18 m. class!
I would have NEVER imagined that an ASH cloud , could stop a competition. Amazing!!!! Hope we do not get into the same situation here! Would Hahnweide go in the books being  the first competition “hit” by an ASH-cloud in Europe !?
Later in the day , the airfield from Munich was closed as well.
Yesterday was cancelled, rain…lots of it! Today they fly small tasks,….but they fly!
Look for the news at www.hahnweide.de

And then….WELCOME @ Twente! If the weather co-operates, this is going to be a real holiday. The NC hotel is fabulous, the bar is “inviting”, the restaurant is super, big but still cozy! We use dinner with the fire-brigade, military police and military people working here at the former air-base. Slowly the pilots arrive here, but like in the rest of Europe the weather is not too good, though I woke up with a bride sun.
But it seems that rain will follow this sunshine.
A not too good forecast for tomorrow either, but then we just have the openings briefing in the evening.
 But…after that,  the weather seems to improve. 

I stayed over the years writing for several competitions, never ever had to complain, everything was fine , even better then that, but here it really is super with a flat screen TV on the wall. In the morning I can look at the news/read weather and do not even have to jump out of bed! During the contest , I am sitting high up in the TOWER, looking over the field and already now I look forward to see the first finishes here. The field is wide and green cause of all the rain from the last days.[weeks]

 The Belgium National Championships @ St. Hubert have started on May 8 and will be flown till May 15 with 48 pilots in 3 classes. They had 2 flyable days and 2 cancelled till now. Lots of friends flying there.
Also in Denmark, [ Danish FOR- DM 2010 / open class ] where they flew till now 2 days out of 3  and Sweden [Eskilstuna International Open] competitions are in progress at the moment.  Cancelled days here as well.
 A pity after all those nice days, the weather is just sh….!!!
But …..pilots arrive here with trailers and the registration is in full swing.
More news tomorrow!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn   Sunday May 9 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     blog 297

Thursday was not too bad here, with flights up to 300 km . but  some parts of Europe  really suffered from this low pressure system  and specially the people on the coast of Cannes, were very depressed as after winter, they just had built up all their wooden summer houses and most of them have now been damaged by the waves.  Some people said that the waves have been never that high since 1959. Even one of the big tents , specially built for the Cannes Film Festival, was damaged.
 Unfortunately the ” low ” has reached us  too, but better now then next week when the Nationals start.

In Poland [Zar] the qualifying Grand Prix 2010 started on April 30 with 2 days cancelled , but the 3d day was flyable and who else then Sebastian Kawa ” received ” the 2 points. The other pilot I know , from the 13 pilots competing , is Stanislaw Wujczak.This low pressure area is huge and persistent and disturbed Poland as well. So day by day had to be cancelled. Terrible for  the organizers! Yesterday they flew one day more with only ONE pilot completing the task! Yes Sebastian, so he ended up with 4 points!!! He even had to swallow 300 penalty points [ 5 minutes–SGP rule p.8.7] !
All-other pilots outlanded between 19 and 174 km.The regatta start was at 12.15.
By the way…the Grand Prix Final will be flown at Wasserkuppe in July 2011.

On May 1 Fatra glide started at Martin Airfield in Slovakia. In 2 classes, mixed and club 55 competitors fight for the honors. Unfortunately Slovakia had that bad weather/ low pressure system ,  as well so after one flying day , with an AAT set for 2 hours 15,  in both classes [ not a 1000 points day!]  , a few were cancelled. After lots of rain the field was too wet to fly but there was hope for Friday and Saturday ,  that the comps could continue,  but hope was there on Friday, briefing as well…then postponing…then cancelling….but….on Saturday everybody was smiling and the pilots finally could go up. Small AAT in 2 hours ! And….a very difficult one!!!!!
In both classes only 2 in mixed and 3 in club arrived back home.
So with today they will have 3 days of flying, which would make the comps valid! That is , when they can fly on this reserve day…I read it is difficult again.
Tibor is doing a great job in promoting this competition flown over the,  still snowy mountains -Tatra and Frata-,  in the North of Slovakia and of course this is good practise again for the WGC 2010  in Prievidza only 40 km away. During the comps the 15 m. Slovak Nationals have been ” flown “, as well. “Bloody rain”!
Several pilots have flown already in this area before, so we saw Roman, Dane , Lubor and more back this week. Look for results on www.soaringspot.com and inside news at www.fatraglide.sk, and when you want to know if they really flew today!
A few weeks ago I mentioned already that Fatraglide celebrates the 10th anniversary. Congratulations !!!! Sorry that the weather has not contributed to a big celebration!!!!

Weird but our neighbours in Germany seem to have had no troubles with the weather. Kilometer eater Jan Umlauf , several years a nice and welcome guest at Sportavia and last year again at Sportaviation, had  on May 6 a nice flight from his home-field Boberg in Discus 2; 748 km.  I was even more impressed with a flight in an LS 1 and Hornet:
 a 500 km FAI triangle around Berlin!!!! The pilots flew from Eggersdorf which is NE of Lüsse, where the WGC has been flown. They claim that it was very blue [ 30 %] with a height of “only ” 1300 m. and that by flying together they made it! Chapeau!!! Klasse!!!I know that flying around Berlin,  has been done many times before , but still…..Super!
Our Finnish friends have good times as well, with flights up to over 600 km.! And also Norway was “blessed “with some nice early-season- soaring-weather! But I can [not] imagine how cold it will be to fly there now!

The famous and well-known competition at Hahnweide  started yesterday. Opening- briefing  for this 44th edition, was at 8 PM on Friday. Saturday started with fog, but during the morning the fog disappeared and gliders were put on the grid and could fly, with the first launch announced for 12 o’clock. The competition goes till May 15.
In standard class 20 pilots will compete, in 15 m. 14 pilots, in 18m. 30 and in open class 21 with another 24 in the double seater class. A lot of very wellknown and very good pilots , as former and current world champions from Germany [Michael Sommer, Holger Karow ] but also from Europe [ Russell Cheetham, Steve Jones ] are in Kirchheim unter Teck. In fact too many to write down so , when you are interested I give you the link and you can keep an eye on it on  www.hahnweide.de
Even Alexander Mueller, you remember from the so many 1000 km flights in his ASW22BLE , flies in open class!!
So what happened on day 1; A racing task was set for all classes with distances between 200 and 300 km. At-least they COULD FLY!!!!!But….not everybody flew the task. Several pilots landed back “home”  aborting the task, but…..others  made it back over the finish line! Good on them!
Winner in standard class yesterday; K8 in 2 hours and 40 minutes. 12 Pilots made it home from 20!
In 15m. class; Martin [1] and Georg Theissinger [2] From 13 pilots 8 made it home!
In 18 m. class; Eberhard Scott in 2 hours 37. From 30 24 made it home.
In Open class; UK pilot Steve Jones in 2 hours 35. From 20 18 came back home.
In 20 m. two seaters; WY in 2 hours 14. In this class 11 from 24 finished.

The latest issue of Gliding International is out now, with many different and interesting items. I even read about the younger brother of the sheik of the United Arab Emirates , who got killed in a crash ,[ not confirmed a Stemme] while the Spanish pilot survived and was taken to hospital. I tried to find out more about it, as you might remember, but I knew more then some friends I asked.
They found the debris after 2 days due to very bad weather.
More items as; European GPS system—how to evaluate which sailplane to buy—Computer assisted meteorology—the ASH 31—A gliding International Research Project….European Mayhem ESA gone berserk …”ESA and commercial interests join forces to kill off sporting aviation !!!!!—more microlight Sailplanes made—and more….. when you are interested and you do not have it already, you can  order this good and easy reading magazine at  www.glidinginternational.com
 Not cause I write in it, but I just like to read all the stories. As the cover says; we are the best on what we do!!!.
By the way the Dutch Gliding Magazine Thermiek  will be out soon , but you can read it in PDF , in total at www.zweefportaal.nl  and click on Thermiek, that is , if you can read Dutch!

What happened more this week;
–Julio Poch has been extradited by Spain to Argentina last Thursday. I shared the news with you in the past, about this, in Holland living Transavia pilot who was arrested on his last flight before retirement. After 9 hours of  “talking” with an Argentinian magistrate
 Julio sticks to his decision that he is innocent.
–The final report of a Dutch research committee , not to accuse but just to learn from what went wrong, about the Turkish Airline crash last year, has been presented  and the main conclusion, different then the one from the interim report was , that if the pilots would have reacted adequate the crash had not happened. They claim that the pilots had 3 times a warning to get out of trouble , but did not use them. Why??? Nobody knows! Of course the defect instrument was mentioned as well. Weird is that on the 2 days before 2 different crews said they had the same problem with the altimeter in this 737, but ” solved it ” and as it did not re-appear on the way back , they did not mention it. 8 People got killed under them the 3 pilots.
–Eyjafjallajökull is annoying the flying world again, with delays with flights to the N of the USA and yesterday also the North of Spain was closed for airline- traffic. It seems Portugal got their share of ash as well.
–The Giro d’Italia, now we talk cycling has started yesterday in Amsterdam. Yes Amsterdam in Holland. The circus stays for 3 days to continue then from Italy.
–Today is the Grand Prix from Spain…formula 1, busy , busy….

Enjoy mother-day, off to Twente tomorrow, “see you there “, and join in at  www.nkzweefvliegen.nl  , there is also a link on the home page to  www.soaring.eu  and when I can make it I try to write EVERY day!!!!
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday May 5 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com      blog 296

Today we, the Dutch people , celebrate their 65 years of freedom . On May 5 1945 papers were signed which stopped WW II . The day before , so yesterday May 4  we remembered all people who have died in the several wars where we were involved. EVERY year wreaths are laid at the National Monument on the DAM Squire in Amsterdam.
Yesterday was a bit hectic , different then normal, as a “lunatic ” known by police , disturbed the 2 minutes silence by shouting/praying out loud!!! People got scared and panicked , iron fences fell over and 63 people had minor injuries up to broken bones and twisted ankles. The disaster last year on our National day , queens birthday on April 30, is still in all our minds , then , we had another lunatic driving with huge speed trough fences and killing 8 including himself. The noise of the fallen iron fences, created heavy emotions again. The Queen and entourage were quickly brought away but came back , proud and strong to finish the solemnity. 20.000 People visited at the Square and 4 million looked at TV.

The TEAM is ready for the Dutch Nationals called CAE NLS NK. This upcoming weekend everything will be installed and prepared for the comps. We will arrive in a “happy Twente”, as the soccer players from FC Twente became National Champion, for the 2d time in their history, which means playing in the Champions League, which means ….money!!! Must say their party-after was huge and about 70.000 people joined in , and NO hooligans or ringleaders disturbed the festivities which is great. So …we are going to have fun,only the weather has to co-operate. Today is dry but cold 13 dgr. but the weekend shows rain again!!!
for pictures and results; look at www.nkzweefvliegen.nl
As promised I will keep you updated in English as well on this site. The comps start on Wednesday May 13 and go till May 23.

And now…. also my Scandinavian friends are enjoying some nice spring weather.  Eskilstuna , where a few years ago the WGC was flown  reported a nice flight with good circumstances and I noticed that Robert, who was the WGC director in Eskilstuna, enjoyed himself as well in his ASW 28 e/18m.
Norway and Denmark were also in the air , not to forget that Rayskala was active last Sunday too. They started around half of April with their first good flights , one by top pilot Antti Lehto who flew 543 km on April 14 in a Ventus 2 C /18m..
Antti had another super day last Monday with over 600 km. All perfect practise for the WGC, where he flies in 18 m class in Hungary. Flying in an ASW 20 from Rayskala and also making over 600 km. is not bad either, even when it is a polygon with 5 points all not too far from Rayskala!!!!!! Well done!

More sport……I had a busy weekend looking at TV ! This time snooker!!! Since I saw , many years ago a very young Steven Hendry , playing snooker, I was “into snooker”! For the first time in history an Australian player won the game in the famous Crucible Theatre  in Sheffield in the UK. 28 Year old Neil Robertson, kept his act together and created history by winning the world championship, for sure making snooker more popular now down under!!
He defeated 2006 World champion Graeme Dott; 18-13. It was a late night/early morning!

Problems with the “bloody ” volcano from Iceland again, as some airfields in North Ireland and Scotland have been closed due to the turning wind from direction  North. More problems in Europe as cold , rain and snow created chaos in the N. of Spain and the S of France. The Pyrenees even had warnings for  avalanches,  which is “weird” in this time of the year. And talking about problems…Greece got as you know in trouble with their Euro due to the crisis , they are more or less bankrupt. Now Europe will support them, with milliards,  but of course they have to “save” , read contribute, as well. Nobody is happy with that as they think THEY did NOT create the financial chaos!! So National strikes ” paralyse ” the country and most flying traffic has been cancelled due to the strike of p.e the air traffic controllers!

“We ” did some soaring as well after last Sunday. Even with all the bad weather in several parts of Europe! Yesterday our runner up during the last EGC , junior pilot  Tim Kuijpers, had a fantastic practice flight to “shine ” later in the upcoming Nationals. He normally flies in club class,  but “has ” a DG 800S/18 m. for the comps. This practise flight gave him spot one on the OLC; 710 km. all flown within Holland!!!! He loved , as he calls it the “miracle-world  of 18 m. flying ” and “liked” the cloud street where he really could speed up.
And maybe even more important….he made some mistakes and learned from them. At his young age he has done a great job already , in flying the JWGC and being 2d at the EGC and I predict him a great future in soaring. As part of a soaring family[5 pilots including mum and dad ] he has ALL the support he needs and…he has the guts and capacities to be one.
Holland did well on the list yesterday with several good flights, out of 20.
I did not even come outside, too cold and too windy!!!
The great weather came with the wind from the North where Rayskala had that super day [ over 600 km. ] on Monday and also Lasham did not bad [over 400 km.] and Dunstable with 742 km yesterday; A nice big flight in an ASH 25/EB28 with top pilot Robin May in the back.
My Australian friends flying on the East coast enjoyed really nice winter- weather with flights up to 562 km.

Enough…though our minister of  Traffic is proposing a more efficient European airspace, so that not 27 countries have to meet first to make decisions as over the “Ash cloud”, which takes too long. It means that all those countries have to give a part of their responsability/freedom away and some countries are not happy with the fact that lots of traffic controllers might be sacked. Will be continued…

One more time next Sunday from Alphen and then from good old Twente. CU then.

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday May 2 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

What a fantastic performance from UK pilot Gerard Dale!!!! He started early on  that last day and won  the FCC 2010 CUP. Congratulations!!!! I was sure Sebastian would keep his act together on the last day but one way or another he did not and he was  14th  and ended as runner up. Not bad either! Good on Roman who was pushing all the way from the beginning on, to win that cup as well.
Hope the WGC will be as good as this “cup-fight”, I really got into it!!!
The organisation made their statistics and you know I am a fan of statistics , so here they are as far as you have not seen them;
Cub class flew 126.368 km in 1850 hours.
Mixed class flew 153.956 km in 2100 hours.
Congratulations to Roman , even more for Gerard and also for Sebastian, as he is and remains a “TOPPER “.
After 9 days of mostly good soaring, Gerard won with nealy 600 points ahead of the runner up. That is super, even very super!!
Less then 20 points in club class,  between runner up Jan Louda and the very good flying Boris Zorz who ended up 3d. and even won a few days. Great competition and they are absolutely ready for the big one ; the WGC 2010!

Something different  and …a pity as Japan Airlines ,because of their economy measures, is going to give up their daily flight to and from  Amsterdam Schiphol Airport after 44 years. I spend quite some time, walking and shopping,  in the neighbourhood of the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam and enjoyed seeing the different crews over there. Some pilots I knew  visited , called me and we enjoyed dinner together . Schiphol hopes that another company will keep the “line” Tokyo – Amsterdam vv open. So do I , but I will miss all those friendly Japanse people.
Good luck and all the best to my Japanese friends!!!!

In the well known soaring place Alice Springs ,  where Hans Werner Grosse in the glory-years flew world record after world record, a hot air balloon from NASA crashed. The balloon was supposed to go up to 40 km height to do research for radiation in the atmosphere. One of the cables broke and moved the “basket “as big as a house and  full of very expensive instruments against a fench and a car and crashed. Weather circumstances were good as they said, but fall wind and gusts always make it difficult to rise a big hot air balloon. They are going to try again somewhere in May. Hope they can replace such expensive instruments that soon!!!!
By the way, you know Hans Werner flies “his “Eta now, and I heard he has 1500 hours in it already. Not bad as he is not the youngest anymore!!!

After 3 weeks of mainly dry weather  with very sunny even hot conditions,  [28 dgr. C. last Thursday] we are back to normal Dutch conditions with rain and 15 dgr. Even hail and thunderstorms were fore casted for this weekend. But yesterday afternoon was rather nice!!
That stops for a few days the nice early soaring here in Holland. Hope and it looks like, we are going to have better weather again for next week the beginning of the CAE NLS Dutch Nationals.
The middle part of Europe still enjoys great weather , mainly , wave or ridge conditions, but thermals as well. Some great flights in Germany yesterday. And in the afternoon, between showers my Belgian friends Bert jr. and Bert made interesting flights in a discus 2 A [402 km] from Keiheuvel and the Libelle [ 413 km] from Diest. The nice weather here started just too late.

In Switzerland the 2010 regionals are flown in Birrfeld.  Nice to see that Jürg Haas who flew a few months in Tocumwal on the ASW 27 from Chris Hostettler, [a ” permanent ” pilot at Sportaviation ], is on spot 3 after 2 days of flying, with only 6 points on the runner up and  21 on number 1.
42 Competitors fly in 4 classes , but I have not noticed too many big names in these regionals.

In Florida our hang glider friends are having their competition ; the 2010 Fly Tech Race. Good to see Jonny Durand from Australia  at this stage after 5 days of flying on spot ONE!!! He is still flying the Moyes Light Speed.
Davis Straub , the well known editor of the famous hang-glider -online -magazine, OZ REPORT,  is on spot  32 from 43 participants, from 6 different parts of the world, as Italy, the UK , Russia , Brasil and Colombia and Australia. All the rest is from the USA.

Great to see my friends in Canada enjoy some good soaring  , so early in their season as well. A Duo Discus made a nice flight from the wellknown airfield of Invermere in the Canadian Rocky Mountains ;580 km with 109 km/h.  

A Dutch journalist [33] must have been pretty sick in the mind. He committed suicide! Yes…and ??? He needed help from an innocent pilot. It seems he hired a Piper Cherokee , killed the pilot with a knive which was found in the plane, took the key out , the engine stopped and they crashed. How bizar !!!A letter to his family and the blood on the knive, seems to proof the suicide. This all happened in Argentinia.[ Bariloche]. Poor pilot! The journalist himself had a licence to fly but was refused to hire a plane, so he chartered one ………with a pilot.
 Sometimes I wonder in what world we live.

Have a good week,

cheers Ritz