Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday March 27 2011     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

The Qualifying Grand Prix  in Australia counts 9 pilots  and a few of them are regulars at WGC’s.[on the picture the great initiator behind the Grand Prix Roland Stuck] On March 20 they started and after 3 flying days both Bruce Taylor [21 points]and David Jansen [18]won days with a good runner up in Brad Edwards [17] , who won the WGC in Uvalde in Texas in 1991. Competing gliders;  One Nimbus 3 DM and 2 JS1’s and 6 ASG 29’s.

Anita, she is just a lovely lady and the  wife from Bruce mentioned, that she was happy with the comps.

“Another good day for Bruce, he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat , after a dodgy start and first leg, so he was pleased to sneak home first [on day 4].”

On day 5 Graham Parker won with a speed of 134.5 km./h. over 354 km. climbing up to 3d place with 28 points, while Bruce arrived with a speed of  134  and David with 133.9 km/h..

Anita adds;—“Quite a spectacular finish on the last day Ritz, 5 gliders all within seconds, ballast streaming, finishing from the north over the lake, just fantastic. Great opportunity to see how the JS1 compares to the ASG29, The ’29 still glides exceptionally well,but  Bruce feels the JS1 has an edge in the climb and really enhances his ability to feel the air. —

So the winner was; Bruce Taylor  with 38 points, runner up David Jansen 29 and Graham Parker 28.

For pictures from the Grand Prix  you can go to; picasweb.google com and here is a picture from Bruce and Anita and daughter Indea and from Anita , Indea and Vickey Cubley both made in Rieti.

 

Lake Keepit continues  with the State Comps with 31 pilots in 5 classes. Yesterday was the practise day!

The weather here is absolutely TOP  for early spring . Temperatures around 15 dgr, blue skies with nice fluffy clouds. But on Saturday it changed to 8 dgr. and you could really feel the difference.

Look at my front garden!!! All pink, in cherry blossom, specially made these pictures for my Japanese friends who have to endure a lot. A lot of “support-actions for Japan ”  yesterday here in Holland, but al;so all over the world. They are not forgotten, which is good to see. Very worried with them about the radiation which is 10 million times higher then allowed at Fukushima!!!! Not good, this might have an influence on the state elections in a part of Germany today , Baden Wurttemberg, where normally the CDU is big but now maybe the greens might win as they are totally against nuclear plants/energy.

     

Nice to see Rick [Sheppe]  had such a great flight in the USA  last Thursday. Rick is always very kind to share his news with me and is a longtime reader of my blog. He flew 722 km in a Silent 2. As I did not quite know how the Silent 2 looks I went to google and here is what I found;

—The Alisport Silent 2is a single seater sailplane of Italian manufacture. It is of the FAI type DU Class glider. It is sold by Alisport ready-to-fly or kit-built as pure glider or self-launching glider. The self-launching version is fitted with a single-blade propeller belt-driven by a two-stroke engine.—

Lot’s of interesting pilots on the list   for the Italian Trofeo Citta di Turino going till  April 3. This is the beginning of the long Italian soaring-summer. Flying -day 1 started with a 182 km. distance for the 31 pilots. Day 2 had 276 km, but nobody made it home , though it was a 1000 point day.See for results at www.soaringspot.com

        
Picture 1 Giorgio Galetto, here with crew Roberto, at Rieti.
Picture 2;Leonardo Brigliadori is flying with son Ricardo and
picture 3 Leonardo and Marina , who turned 50 yesterday Happy Birthday Marina  !!!!!and Giorgio.

I was shocked to see on the news the crash of a freight plane from Trans Air Congo.  Peter send me a link to a video. If you have n’t seen it you can still look at it. Once was enough for me.  It seems the plane had 2 engines on one wing , which gave up. Then it rolled over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UYg1vstCgM&feature=player_embedded
also from Peter the news about the sleeping air-traffic-controller to be found at www.avherald.com  written on March 23 and edited on March 24 and from Vanessa some news about the not-yet-strike from Quantas and an incident , with a Quantas plane. So when you are interested , here are the links.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/unions-set-to-tackle-the-flying-kangaroo/story-e6frgd0x-1226028315174
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/26/3174547.htm

First Grand Prix of the season for Formula 1  at Albert Park in Melbourne. Was there once live!!! What an atmosphere, what noise , just fantastic.
Todays race just finished and I am very pleased to see that my favourite Sebastian Vettel won. Great 2d place for Lewis Hamilton and a for me new face on spot 3 Vitaly Petrov with Renault.

And what about the the Great Boat Race 2011  at the Themes where Cambridge and Oxford, fought for the honours yesterday? It was said , expected and hoped for, that Cambridge was to be going the winner, but Oxford dominated from the start. They utterly out classed Cambridge. So a handsome victory this year for Oxford and they won the reserve race , before, as well.

Just to get things correct , as I always try to do!!! The photographs made from Bruce Cooper, not from the air but from Bruce as a person, are from Jane Lawrence. So credit to her for that picture!!!!

 The time has changed in all European countries last night with one hour from 2 AM to 3, so one hour less sleep; summer time is back. Off to Arnheim now for a meeting with the organizing team from the Nationals. CU on Wednesday! Cheers Ritz