Spring is in the air  and …..nature is about 14 days ahead of what we in fact should have here now. The weekend, with up to 18 dgr. C. , was so inviting to go outdoors ,   that we nearly all did here in Holland, eating ice-cream, walking along the beach or sitting on one of the so many terraces or in our own garden.
Also a lot of pilots went to the field, all over Europe for their first flight of the year.
Look at the airport of Malden. Frouwke shared some pictures from the activities there .Not yet cross country weather ,but to be in the air after winter is already an awesome moment for many and on Sunday it was already “thermisch”.
BUT…yesterday Dutch pilots COULD fly cross country with some Cirrus, but also working cloud streets; 306 km. in a DG 800/18 m. from Lemelerveld in the East of Holland. It really has started now!

   

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It will be a very interesting , active and busy season for the juniors with the JWGC end of this year in Naromine and maybe the future looks even brighter for young Australian pilots with the high quality gliders they nowadays use .
I told you in the past about the programs in Australia for Air Force Cadets and now they received most of their new self-launching gliders.

As shared on FB by the Royal Australian Air Force, here at the AVALON air show.

“The new gliders are a great initiative which will help expose Air Force cadets to aviation training and flying skills.”
“The Air Force Cadets will receive 22 new gliders to be used throughout Australia, including 11 ASK-21 Mi self-launching gliders and 11 DG 1001 Club soaring gliders.”
” The Australian Air Force Cadets is a youth development program, supported by Air Force. There is a strong emphasis on gliding and aeronautical skills. I am delighted that Air Force can provide these new gliders to support AAFC flying activities,” AIRMSHL Brown said.
“Over 66 gliding scholarships are awarded to our young cadets throughout Australia each year.” 

Currently seven of the ASK-21 Mi self-launching gliders have been delivered to cadet units in Stonefield, South Australia, Bathurst, NSW, and Warwick in Queensland, with four more to be delivered in mid-2015 to units in to Point Cook in Victoria and Charters Towers in Queensland.
Eight DG 1001 Club gliders are also already being flown by cadet units in Bathurst, Warwick, Narrogin in Western Australia and Stonefield SA.

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New Zealand topped several days the OLC  and the flight from Hans Peter Ueblacker from 743 km. in the 18 m. Discus 2 from Omarama, was a good one.
Pilots in Lake Keepit were very busy with their Lake Keepit Regatta flying every day.Even “rippers of a day” with wave, but also days with only 3 finishers!!!
28 Pilots started on the 28th in a mixed class with several 2 and 3 hour AAT’s. A combination of ARCUS and PW 5 and all in between.
With a total of 7 days the winner was Jacques Graells flying an LS 6, followed by the ARCUS [Harry Medlicott] and DUO DISCUS [Morgan Sandercock]. Jacques got in the ” right groove” , winning the last 3 days !! Good on him!

France topped the OLC list last Sunday, with a great wave-flight by topper Robert Prat in the ARCUS: 1.102,42 km. with a speed of 126 km./h. from St. Gaudens.

Yesterday the Seminole Lake– friends in the US had a good day of soaring, their season started as well with 500 km. by former CD of the Uvalde 2012 WGC Ken Sorenson in his Ventus 2ax /15 m.
And in Australia they fly with quite a lot pilots , club members as well as guests, from Mount Beauty the MOUNTAIN FLYING WEEK!

Also Norway [Freya] is active and had some great wave. Arne Martin mentioned :
”  I had my first thermal of the year, and it was a nice 800 m climb, averaging more then 3 m/s during the best part!”

Still a lot of snow on the mountains.
Courtesy Arne Martin Guettler.

As said it’s all happening!

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I remember one year in Rieti 2 busy days, when SAR tried to find an Austrian pilot.Days I prefer to forget!
Last week it happened in France {Saint Auban }, but with a more happy end, they found the pilot alive ; As it is important to fly with FLARM here is the news I found on the OLC;
“ We are pleased that the pilot of ASW27 F-CLCC who took off in St Auban on March 3 and was missing in the evening was found alive after helicopters could not fly due to bad weather during the night. And we are a little bit proud that – once again – FLARM was the source for the position where nearby, the aircraft was found. Read about the process at www.flarm.com/support/SAR_Text.pdf, don’t forget to register your unit at www.flarmnet.org, and always allow tracking even despite privacy concerns.” 

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AND,….I copied and pasted as well for you the latest on the
FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX RACES,
so you are all up to date!

7th FAI Sailplane Grand Prix series announced

At the annual meeting of the International Gliding Commission in Lausanne the venues for the 7th series of the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix were announced. The 7th series will start in Chile in January 2016 with nine qualifying events and culminating with the world final in South Africa in October 2016.

There will be a qualifying SGP event in USA for the first time in the SGP, this will take place at Ionia in Michigan and we look forward to welcoming the US pilots into the competition series.

There are many new developments in the SGP organisation which we hope will engage a wider audience in these exciting competitions.

News of the events the pilots and the options to follow the racing will be regularly issued via the Sailplane Grand Prix event portal www.sgp.aero.

FAI sailplane Grand Prix 7th series event calendar

Country	Dates	Venue	Class
Chile	23 to 30 January2016	Vitacura	15m
Spain	17 to 24 April 2016	Cerdanya	15m
Russia	01 to 08 May 2016	Usman	Mono
Italy	14 to 21 May 2016	Varese	18m
France	04 to 11 June 2016	Rennes	15m
Austria	18 to 25 June 2016	Niederöblarn	15/18?
UK	02 to 09 July 2016	Bicester	18m
USA	24 to 31 July 2016	Ionia	15m
Germany	13 to 20 August 2016	Musbach	18m
8th FAI Sailplane Grand Prix World Final
South Africa	5 to 12 November 2016	Potchefstroom	18m

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Last but not least, the Gliding International, issue March/April 2015, with a fabulous picture on the cover and an ” AAAH-moment” looking at the picture of the center spread with  1000 km.clouds in Tocumwal.
Not only great pictures also great stories as :
—tracking developments  …..a ” world” radar for sailplanes by Aldo
—the Mysteries of the AKAFLIEGS  [designing, building and flying new gliders]  by Elke
—David [Jansen] looks back on his longest flight
—a glider [Antares] used / tested as observant of crime [ transferring live images via microwave data link] .
—ADS-B a broadcast surveillance system with air to ground and air to air applications, a story  by Myles.
—and much more news as the first ever Pan American Gliding Championships. Glider pilots from North and South America gather at Sarah’s airfield at Chilhowee between April 6-17 in a handicapped 15 m. class .
http://pagc.chilhowee.com/ 
Also about  the first 13.5 m. championships, flown from Ponciunai starting at August 1-August 15 2015.:

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March 8 it was :
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN DAY

To finish this great colorful picture from an all female crew with the message :
“ On this International Women Day….Air India operates it’s first ever long haul All women crew flight B787…Delhi to Melbourne.“

As shared by Nevedita Bhassin -Institute for women of aviation worldwide.

Cu you next week
Cheers Ritz