Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday December 21 2010 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
In Waikerie , the WGC host in 1974, pilots are flying the South Australian State Comps from last Wednesday till the 21st. There are 7 competitors in one class and the most well-known are Terry Cubley and Peter Temple! First day was an AAT in 3 hours, won by Peter in 3 hours and 6 minutes over 302 km. After 3 days Terry was leading Peter with 40 points. Today after 5 days of flying
it is over and the winner is; my good friend Terry, who flew the WGC already in 1984 in Rieti , where I met him and his wife Vicky. She and I just got friends again on Facebook.
Terry flew the 5th and last day with a speed of 131 km /ph in his “old “LS 3 over 415 km during an 3 hour AAT. Day 4 he received also 1000 points, some called that day a “cracker”!!! Good on you Terry!!!!
Peter was a good runner up.
Slowly the weather improves as well in the south of Australia were both Corowa and Tocumwal were active. The 2d ASH 31 Mi flies now in Corowa as well , owned by Dutch pilot Jos who shipped his new toy to Australia, another maiden flight ….super and 684 km! Spiffy gliders!
Corowa had flights up to 753 km.[Ventus 2 CM] , Tocumwal up to 573 km.[ASH 26e] and Benalla 527 km in an LS 4. The WEST , down under , Gawler still has super weather , with a 600 km flight in a Standard Libelle, and a nice triangle!!! Graham, yes the one who left the WGC in Szeged, flew a nice 766 km flight [ 750 FAI triangle!!] from Gawler airfield, in his ASG 29, he is and remains a TOP PILOT. Speed ;130 km/h.
In Narromine Shinzo flew 759 km in the Nimbus 3. Good practise as the Narromine Cup starts TODAYtill the 27th.
Gariep Dam pilots were having great fun with several over 700 km- FAI -triangle- flights last Wednesday.
In this short time 14 pilots made 54 flights together good for 27.117.51 km. at Gariep. It is only a question of time and the first 1000 km will be flown at the popular overseas destinations. Bitterwasser was close with a 923 km flight on Thursday, in an ASH 25 EB 28.
BUT ….indeed a question of ONE day, as 2 pilots, one our Dutch Max flew their 1000 km in Gariep and nice 1000 km. triangles on Friday.
Over the weekend the pilots just were happy, as the only more or less minus point was that it is still a bit too cold in Namibia, but for sure that will change!
Nice to see Dirk in Kiripotib [770 km yesterday in ASH 26 e] and Karin in Gariep [775 in the duo discus]. Have fun!
More and more it is clear that without the very experienced pilots aboard the A380 from Quantas , a disaster could have happened. Not only the engine exploded but parts of the engine have damaged vital parts of the plane as well , due to a hole in the fuselage and the plane was full of fuel after the start . A VERY lucky escape for the 440 passengers. Those pilots are heroes, but they will say “it is our job , we are trained to do so!!! Chapeau!
It seems Airbus is going to change 40 Rolls Royce engines not only in Australia, but also for Singapore airlines and maybe in Germany. A construction fault in the engine is the reason. Air France and Emirates have no problems.
“No worries “, the CEO of TransAsia Airways from Taiwan must have thought , as they ordered 8 new planes with Airbus for an amount of 1 milliard euro. They will fly in the future with 2 wide body’s the A330-300 and 6 of the type A 321. Since 1996 they fly Airbuses from the type A321 [x5] and A320[x2] for their domestic and regional network.
KLM-Air France had a great second financial part of the year. They turned a 147 million loss in the same period last year into a 290 million profit on a turnaround of 6.65 milliard Euro.
New is that KLM is going to give you a ” 45 minute-life- changing -experience “, as from 2014 onwards you can go in the Lynx into space for a commercial flight up to 100 km.. Price will be 70.000 E pp. The Lynx will be flown by ONE pilot and one passenger will be sitting with him/her. Next year will be the first test flight. KLM really believes in this project , which will start close to HATO airport at the Island of Curacao,…yes where I lived in the past.
They even want to build a space- park on the island for research and where you p.e can experience weightless situations.
KLM is not the only one who wants to go in space flights and the future looks like a space future. Virgin has done already some test flights and NASA supports Armadillo , who are doing 3 test- flights this year from the rocket base in New Mexico not too far from the former WGC field at Hobbs and Blue Origin, do not know much about them.
Virgins Spaceship 2 can handle 2 pilots and 6 passengers. One ticket will be Euro 148.000 and it seems that already 380 people paid a deposit on it.
The CEO of KLM predicted this week that in about 15/20 years , my flight to Australia next month from about 24 hours , will ONLY take 2 or 3 hours!!!!!! WOW!!! Hope my grand children enjoy those facilities.
See you next Wednesday, Cheers Ritz