Rampage in Germany!Vinon-Aosta-Vinon !Minden [Nevada]!

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday March 15 2009

Did you discover that I write a midweek blog now too? If not just continue after reading this blog! Of course only when you are interested!
I have a bit more time now that I have retired, so another blog is easy enough now ….and I still like writing.

Last Wednesday I lay down in a nice hot sun …but with factor 10 on my body. Yes I know the dangers! The skies looked great for gliding and yes in the evening I saw that Soesterberg was active again with soaring in Holland. It is not active anymore as an American military “airfield”. It was closed not long ago with a solemn ceremony. This week I saw in the paper the new development-plans for the area and…I heard that gliding fits in the plans , which is great for the Amsterdam Club of Gliding.
In the past the medicals for lots of pilots have been done at Soesterberg.

Same day Vinon-Aosta-Vinon was flown by Tobias Welsch in a discus 2T; 1.117 km. A jo-jo with 5 TP’s. Great! From France to Italy over Switzerland and back home, WOW!
Nice speed with 105 km.p/h. but he was high up to 6000 m, must have been awfully cold, even with hot clothes and boots [ hopefully with electrical heating in them????] and……. with those oxygen masks you never know if the face around the mouth freezes. For sure he said WOW too, but I hope he was comfortable during those 10 hours and 34 minutes!!!!
I loved Aosta, not so much for the flying that time, the boy’s did their thing, flying in wave as high as the could gaining their 3000 and 5000 m. [ and came back with a frozen mouth!] and the girls went up high to Pila for some good skiing or sun-baking! When the boy’s were ready they flew “low” and fast over “our mountain ” , to tell us it was time for apres-ski. This was in the 70thies!
Several clubs have a [wave-] camp now in Vinon , Saint Auban , Sisteron or Serres La Batie.

Talking about Uvalde brings also back memories on Minden. In fact the 1991 WGC was supposed to be flown in Minden, ” we” all practised there. But fires in that area and the possibility for the huge planes from the fire brigade to ALWAYS be on duty while a fire was burning, stopped the glider-pilots from going there. A temporary closed airfield during a final glide was “impossible” for a WGC!
We all moved to Uvalde in Texas and had a great time there too.
By the way I was told that Soar Minden ‘s owner Tony Sabino is trying to find a silent or active business partner; look at www.soarminden.com or email to Tony at soarminden@powernet.net if you are interested. Great place, nice people, high mountains , wave , thermals , so a top location! If you always wanted to be part of the organization of a wellknown soaring place, go for it, this is your chance!

It is nice to see that the USA has a real competiton for “oldies”! Yes in Seminole Lake the seniors are having a ball flying good distances with good weather. Different gliders, different clubs, it is all happening in Seminole Lake and what great stories they will have after flying in the bar!!!That’s the good thing from soaring, you can still belong to the best long distance flyers in the world when you are 70 years old. In fact many of my friends are 70 and + and they still love it and ….in my eyes they are not OLD and do not look old!!!!!!!!! But most of them have flown nearly all their life, so they are very experienced.On the other hand some have given up because of their age or a “problem” like diabetes. It is all very subjective.

Don’t worry about the “Pound” [1.12 Euro] for the toilet in the Ryan Air planes. They now claim “it is a joke”! I don’t see the point of it, but I found it weird!!!

And then ….after writing about 70 year old pilots I receive this message from OZ. Is n’t it wonderfull!!!! I am very proud on him too!
G’DAY RITZ
THE PILOT WHO FLEW THE 1000KM FAI TRIANGLE AT NARROMINE IN A LAK17/18, WAS BILL HATFEILD VH-OBH ,IE OLD BILL HATFEILD, AS EVERYONE IN NSW AND QLD KNOWS HIM. HE IS A MEMBER OF KINGAROY SOARING CLUB AND HE JUST TURNED 70 THIS YEAR, HE COMPLETED THE TRIANGLE AFTER DROPPING IN FOR A DAY WHILE RETURNING FROM THE BENALLA NATIONALS.WE ARE VERY PROUD OF HIM.
REGARDS MICK SLY

Jondaryan has great autumn weather, flights up to 600 km. are still flown here on the east part of OZ. Several of my friends are members of the club at Jondaryan and I feel happy for them that they have such a long season. In fact you can fly all year around from this airfield.
It is very sad however that on the same East coast this terrible environmental disaster with spilling oil happened after a Chinese ship lost , in the big storm, some containers with ” dangerous goods”,[ they have not been found yet ] and 250.000 liters of oil. Lot’s of people try to help the animals covered in thick “ugly looking” oil , specially the pelicans who are living on Moreton Island.

Shocked as most of you I presume, I was with another waste-less attack on innocent people by a young “derailed” person. This time in Germany where a 17 year old young man, went back to the school where he passed his exams a  year before, went into the class rooms killing 9 ,14/15 year old students [8 girls and 1 boy] and 3 female teachers. On his way to escape to another town he killed another 3 people, is then shot by the police in his legs and commits suicide…..!!!!!
And then you think as parents, that your child is in a safe environment at school…!!!!

Well, as I love nearly ALL sports , I was very pleased with the great results from the Dutch ice-speed- skaters in Richmond {Canada}, close to Vancouver where next year the Olympics will be held. It was a late night , I looked till 2.30 AM , so as the sun is shining brightly, I go and do some more sleeping outside! Feels good, SPRING IS REALLY coming now!

Enjoy your week, see you on Wednesday. Ritz

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