Alphen aan den Rijn
29-04-2007

With the Queens birthday in Holland tomorrow we have a long weekend and lots of pilots spend their time at the gliding field with absolutely great weather!
Flights up to 450 km have been flown and “apres-soaring” is nice too.
In Belgium the weather was even better! Yesterday Begium top pilot Yves Jeanmotte flew in his Ventus 2 cm/m a 920 km flight with a speed of 119 kmp/h. Great Effort!!!
Patrick Stouffs , another top pilot, had a great day flying 657 km in a duo discus T.

We had a very interesting day here, specially when you like soccer. 3 Teams were ready to win and all over Holland people had radio’s and mobiles to keep in touch with what was happening. Men who never met before, forgot to look after their children and were discussing the goals made on the 3 soccerfields.Tension and laughter as still evything was possible till the last minute!
I was in Amsterdam in a beautiful park with my grand children, and faces from men changed with the news!!! As I am from the South of Holland ,PSV is my club. They lost 11 points over the last couple of weeks, so gave it out hand, but still MADE it today with a 5-1 win, just 1 point more then Ajax Amsterdam. My happiness “in the hole of the lion” was not understood by the real Ajax fans, so I just showed it once.But…..had a great day!

Though I still do not understand the rules from cricket , even listening and looking at it when I lived for over 10 years in OZ, I am happy that Australia won a record third successive world title!
I remember in 1987 when the world glidingchampionships were in Benalla , that all our youngsters played it. The Clockies against the Pommies.The young English kids even learned the Dutch ones, how the rules were played. Some of those kids are top pilots now and one , young Leigh Wells, even WORLD CHAMPION in Sweden in 2006 in standard class.

Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn
27-04-2007

“My” webmasters in Oz have bent over the problem and what is “hacking” in the photograph and comments sector is NOT a VIRUS, but spam track backs.
Phill is migrating the blog to word -press, which is a multi-user blog with better comment/spam protection.
So now you know too.
It will not take long before it is changed!
Keep reading!

Got a nice mail this morning with great pictures from the Japanese cherry blossom trees. Hisashi send me the view from his balcony.I will check for you if the Japanese gliding season has started already.
They are VERY active but as it pretty difficult to stay up there for a long time and to make long cross country flights, some of them visit places outside of Japan [USA, Australia]. So more “chapeau” for the still many,pilots who MADE /MAKE long flights IN Japan.
Quite a lot of them fly in Australia. I had the honnour of meeting many , many Japanese pilots, being involved in Sportavia ,all very nice people.

I was invited to Japan a few years ago, welcomed like a queen and had the privelege of visiting 3 different gliding places and they are all situated at the river banks, pretty small but good. Pilots have good material and nice towplanes.Nothing wrong there! Also lots of members and nice club houses.They even flew me from one field to the other in a nice motor glider.
I know we are soaring.eu but it is nice to hear about other pilots in the world too.

That’s it for now see you soon again.Have to work. By the way , weather is superb here. 28 dgr. is predicted for today and it is ONLY April 27.
The first accidents with BBQ’s have been mentioned. Sad! Specially youngsters get into hospitals with burns. NO GOOD !
Further on the coca cola company can not handle the big demand for soft drinks and on top of that they have a problem in the factory with a new system here in Holland.So we drink something else for a while.
No worries for me as I do not drink cola.
cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn
24-04-2007

Sorry but due to the fact that virussen have “entered” my blogg I have to stop writing till it is fixed. It seems that the photo section and comments sector are full of them, so better action first to get rid of it.
Sorry about that. As soon as they have fixed it in OZ, I will be back on line.I hope they CAN fix it!

Weather here is great. Holland has the driest and warmest April ever, with the most sunshine ever. I love it!!!
The farmers here start complaining now as they have had no rain for 1 month. They should go and live for ONE year in OZ to find out what drought is!!!!
CU soon again. Keep an eye in between on Rieti and Luesse and all other places to read about top gliding.

If you want to buy a good gliding place close to Tocumwal; Corowa ‘s Australian Gliding Centre is FOR SALE.

Sorry but I was not able to place the picture from the army cadets, as promised.
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn
12-04-2007

Hope you enjoyed a happy Easter time, with not eating TOO much easter eggs!
Gliding weather was rather good here in Holland and even better in the rest of Europe.
In Germany and France pilots flew over 700 km on Easter Saturday and an even more interesting flight was made that day in the USA by a pilot flying 972 km in a KA 6 E. Wow, that IS good!

On Easter day the results were even better !What about John Williams who flew in the UK in an Antares 1243 km so early in the season!!!!
Is this the first 1000 km flight in the UK????? Can somebody tell me!!!!!Superb!!!!Congratulations JOHN!

Good friend Bruce Cooper flew nearly 800 km. Congratulations!!!!
In Germany Holger Back had a long flight and in Italy Giorgio Galetto did very well. YES gliding in Europe was HOT over Easter! And so were the temperatures!!!
In Belgium and Holland , pilots managed to fly nearly 500 km. They surely have had a GREAT Easter sunday!
Look for all results at the OLC on www2.onlinecontest.org and click on gliding! Enjoy!!!But….there are also very good flights made by pilots who do not want to be on the OLC, don’t forget that.

Back to work as combining Art and gliding is , as said before , not so easy.

Oh, not to forget; Gliding in OZ still continues but mainly from Kingaroy. Tocumwal had their annual army cadet training and they had a fantastic time , even after the changed situation. I will try to put an article from a news paper on the site later Cheers Ritz.

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn
April 1 2007

Hello everybody,
No this not an April joke! But….spring really has started now. Though we had a cold easterly, we had 16 dgr. with nice sunny conditions and blue skies. While sitting in the sun I even felt some turbulence on the ground and yesterday somebody mentioned seeing the first glider in the air; an LS 4 at the airport of Valkenburg , a military airfield not far from the coast and about 30 km. from here.

Not long and the Dutch Nationals will be flown in Stendhal in Germany, not far from Berlin. I heard that in the Luesse area , also not far from Berlin, some pilots flew already around 400 km. NOT BAD!!!
One of my friends Sikko Vermeer who flies for the Amsterdamse Gliding Club, even flew 725 km in the duo discus, in Saint Auban {France}where they have their annual camp.

More countries will have their Nationals soon and I try to keep an eye on them.

In Rieti they are very busy with the preparations for Sabina Glide ,the pre-worlds of the 30thiest FAI WGC in 2008 [July 8-15-2007] and the junior world comps [July 8-August-11-2007].After that they host the traditional competiton in August AND the Grand Prix.

The deadline to enter the Junior World Comps was yesterday March 31 2007, so I hope that all 59 preliminary entries from 16 different countries will come and fly!And if possible also some reserve pilots. The deadline for reserve pilots acceptance is on May 31.

In Germany they are in full swing for the WGC in 2008 in Luesse. First they will fly this year the preworlds:Lilienthal-Glide.As you know these comps are for 15m. 18m. and open class pilots.The Lilienthal-Glide will be also the German Nationals for open class and 15 m.
Time schedule; July 15- July 28-2007.
Look for info at www.wgc2008.de

It is rather busy , to have a job in art with lots to do and to keep in touch with the gliding world, but I will try.
The weather is OK , so I wish everybody in Europe, a safe and enjoyable new gliding season, with lots of personel-best- results and if you fly competitions a nice gold medal!
Cheers Ritz