I am still trying to find my way in “soaring.eu land”.But don’t worry things are happening behind the scenes.
Not long and the World Club Class and World class will be flown in Vinon [ France.]
I will not attend, but surely somebody will do the daily bulletins.
Marina Galetto, will be there for her second steward job and I wish her well. She did already a great job on her first one in Eskilstuna, as I could see that with my own eyes.German pilot, Peter Ryder will be her boss this time.
Pilots have started in Vinon with the practise and temperatures seem to be really hot, up to 36 and 38 dgr. You can follow the news on Enjoy! Though it is a bit complicated at this stage to find it all and not very organized, but I am sure they will do better when it really starts.Anyhow I wish all pilots and the organization, good luck and safe flying.There is no [ at least not yet] competitor list, but if you look at the results from the first practise day, you can see who is who and which pilots are flying in both classes!

Good friend and top pilot Daan Pare spends part of his summer in the USA after flying the Euro glide in Europe and Amstel Glide [in Holland.]
After retiring as a KLM captain , he enjoys life now flying gliders on different airfields in the world. He has also spend a lot of time with us in Australia at Sportavia in our summer time, where he flew several 1000 km flights, even 2 in a row.Last year he flew a double seater in Gariep Dam and flew 5 or 6 1000 km. flights from there.
Now he is in ELY [NV] and though the weather is not as spectuculair as last year he is not complaining.On July 8 he flew 705 km with a speed of 120.5 nkm /h.
On July 10 however, 4 pilots flew over 1000 km from Ely and Daan was one of them ;1062 km.this time with a speed of 122 km/h.
Look for flights and more info on the International Online Competition 2006.
In April he did ridge flying in Pensylvania where the weather was n’t that good either but from Moriarty [NM] he flew 2 very nice flights; 2 from 1125 km. BUT, with a speed of 153 km/h. That is just fantastic! Enjoy the rest of your stay Daan!

Still have n’t heard what is going to happen with Sportavia in Tocumwal[ Australia.] One of the most visited gliding fields in the world ! The place were I ran “the show” to gether with George and our great team of very experienced instructors and other staff, for 10 years. One of them is the one and only 5 times World champion in gliding Ingo Renner, who after his retirement as instructor in Oerlinghausen [Germany] finally can spend all his time in Tocumwal, but…..will they still fly there???
Will Don and Eddie, the CFI, be back ??? Unfortunately I do not know. We can only wait fore the answer of the sole owner since 2 years, Richard Cawsey and even I hope , though I will be not involved anymore, that they will continue from this fantastic airfield, with its WW2 hangar where you can easily fit about 60 rigged gliders. Where you can sleep in a motel at the airfield and have your dinner and drinks in the Bomberbar and Grill.It would be terrible sad , if this most friendly aiport closes for gliding!!!!It should NOT happen !!!!

Spain has, as a lot of other countries in Europe, very good gliding weather too. This year is certainly NOT a bad year for gliding!!! Several over 1000 km. flights with speed over 110 km//h. have been flown in Fuentemilanos this weekend. A small airfield compared to many others, but with great weather and lots of summer guests, sometimes up to over 100. I had the honnour of staying there too and loved it. Very experienced people running the show and fast launches with enough tugs and lots of self launchers lined up for quick departures.

It is also great to see how many junior pilots are flying SO well from different places.Where you are, if you have great weather or not so good , enjoy your flying to the fullest, but SAFE. Ritz

Holiday is over and we start again with some action on the gliding news.In between you might have found the 3 pictures in the “gallery”.
First picture is the LOOOONG long wing span from the ETA, a glider which has cost already about 1.3 million Euro. This picture is made in Eskilstuna, where Giorgio Ballarati became 2d during the World Championships Gliding in this open class glider.
Second picture is a total vieuw of the last day of the gliders from the very last MULTI CLASS World Champion ships in Eskilstuna. An historic picture, don’t you think!?From now on we have to visit 2 places to check on the results ;as said already, the open, 15 and 18 m. class pilots will fly in Lusse in Germany and the pilots from the World, club and standard class in Rietie in Italy both in 2008.
Third picture is from the young female Swiss pilot who “touched” the ground with one wing, made some kind of “airloop” and landed , after that, safely on the airport.I think the photographer Joost Mol, from the Netherlands made an absolutey fabulous “shot “.

The next trip I am going to make is to Belgium where at the “most friendly” airport The Keiheuvel [Balen, close to Mol] , an 8 day competition will be flown which I will attend as editor.
It is the 22d International “8 day competition” , the 18th BENELUX competition, also the Junior selection for Belgium and it will also give us a winner for Belgium in Club Class.What do you want more!!!???

In between the 4th Club class competition and the 5th World class [PW 5] on world level will be flown in Vinon sur Verdon from July 15 till July 29-2006.
The 8th European Glider Aerobatic Championship will be flown in Rybnik in Poland from July 18-29-2006.

The weather in Europe is GOOD! Not only for gliding but also for sunbaking etc. With temperatures here in Holland over 30 dgr. we are rather spoiled.On the OLC you can see that in most of the countries distances up to 800 km. have been flown.When I look outside , I see great blue skies and wellformed high white clouds. Surely lots of pilots are happily flying around.
Just heard that an amfibian plane has crashed close to Hamburg and killed 4 from 6.Having been a part -owner of an Albatross, it hurts to see and hear about accidents like this.

I work hard to get some correspondents lined up all over the world. But….when you have something interesting to say from where you fly in the world, please be my guest;write to and I will see if we can publish it.Also if you have something interesting to offer or to sell, let me know and we will add it to the stories.

As you can expect there is not a lot to write for me about gliding, when I am ” housesitting ” somewhere 30 km. South of Amsterdam, where I only see airliners pass by high above me, so as planned, we continue with weekly stories and we go daily when we are “onsite” or when something interesting appears. That’s it for now, enjoy the rest of your weekend and see you next time. Cheers Ritz