Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday April 27 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
Easter has never been so HOT as ever before, on some places this year in Holland.The seabreeze kept temperatures lower at the beaches but a temperature of 25 dgr, was a new record!!!! Belgium even had up to 27 dgr!!! As said last time, the Benelux had the highest temperatures in Europe and…that is fantastic but pretty unusual and hopefully not only a result of this global warming.
Half a million people went for a holiday in our own country and about one million visited from other countries in the world, lots from Germany [65%] and also from Belgium and the UK. A great weekend for the catering industries and bar’s on the beach.Not so much for the fire brigade in both Belgium and Holland as kilometers of peat have gone lost with very special fauna and flora.
On April 22 the always VERY popular Pribina Cup started at Nitra ; 153 pilots, I told you already it is popular. They fly in 4 classes club, 15m ., dual seaters and open class. An interesting competition with pilots from nearly every country, already practising for the EGC in Nitra in a few months.
The first flying day for open class was a 701 km racing task, but…nobody finished. Best pilot was from Poland flying an ASG 29 over 644 km.
The 2d day had a 2 hour AAT and one pilot finished.The other 3 classes had NO flying day; cancelled or unvalid because of the too short distances flown , 25 % should fly more then 100 km.Unfortunately their weather is not too good at the moment ,they are stuck with showers and they had rain yesterday night and grey conditions in the morning, so another cancelled day, but it should get better. It looks they are going to fly today!
On Easter Sunday AT LEAST 1176 pilots went up in the air, as of course not everybody files their flight on the OLC.
On Easter Monday amongst 1948 pilots, the Finnish friends had a great day and both Räyskäla and Piikajärvi had nice first season flights. Räsyskälä ‘s first flight was on April 16.
Lovely to see that Tilo Holighaus flew such a good 750 FAI triangle in a ” borrowed ” Discus 2 A. Dutch pilots had a great day as well, with as best flight a 573 km task into Germany.
From Wiener Neustadt Ernst Schicker flew 2 days in a row a 1000 km in an ASW 20 just before Easter. Great Easter weekend for him!
Rain coming in from the East, has spoiled the pleasure for glider pilots a bit , but it is a relief for farmers . No problems for Alexander Müller who flew his first summer-season-1000 km. [ speed 117 km.h] yesterday from Lienz
The well known 33 International competition at Hockenheim has had 5 days in a row in 2 classes till now and 4 in the other 2. Several top pilots fly among keen pilots, a total of 68. Henrik Breidahl from Denmark, Jelmer Wassenaar from Holland, also pilots from Belgium , Finland and Switserland.
Jelmer , was in “my” team when I was TC during the JWGC in 2005 in Husbos, a pretty difficult competition for different reasons. He is a lovely young man and great talented pilot. In 2006 he met Valentina, daughter of Luciano Avanzini who flies the ARCUS at the moment in Nitra.A great couple!!!
Jelmer won day 1 , then 2 times 5th , 7th on day 4 and yesterday they had 429 km on their day 5 and he finished as 3d. Overall he is after 5 days on spot 3 !!!!
On the picture. Jelmer on finish and …..when he met his Valentina.
In a few hours my Australian guests arrive; Vanessa and Julian from Perth. Try to see you on Sunday, till then Ritz