Gliding Pictures
http://www.glidingpictures.com/

Pictures by Jeroen Kroon.

Enjoy Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn         Sunday Mai 29 2011              ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
Sorry , the Dutch NK2011 site is temporarely off line and will be back on Monday!

 Sietske, Lisette and Natasja, busy, busy at the strip.

Luggage unpacked,washing machine in full-speed-mode and a bit tired as I woke up on my normal -Terlet-Dutch-Nationals-time ;7 in the morning. The trip from Terlet took me only just over an hour, as there was not a lot of traffic that early.Time to sit down and update you all in English a bit more about the NK 2011 and MORE….

The last 2 days of the Dutch Nationals were AGAIN lashed by hard wind. Thursday they just cancelled straight away at briefing as there was no hope.
On Friday, the last day, the briefing was posponed to 12.15, as for sure the morning was n’t good either. But…Jeppe our only 31 year old brand new competition leader found with Meteo Hans a nice window to fly in in the afternoon.

 Jeppe , our competition director, KLM pilot and good glider pilot!
First start at 2.30. We could see cloudstreets to the West , where pilots had to go too and after launching they climbed quite high. Club and open were launched first and had no problem to quickly move over the startline to go on track. Combi class however struggled. In the end some tried twice, BUT , in between others came back as well. The interesting moment was there, with pilots coming back for a restart, pilots coming back with the motor knowing it was over for them, tuggies still towing up the re-starters , AND the clubclass finishing after their short just over 100 km. task.The day turned out better then expected and the window was bigger then expected.

 Rens and Jeroen. Rens keeps his Facebook going while flying.

We had 3 new Dutch Champions, Steven Raimond international well known, in the combi class,  as well as Ronald Termaat flying the JS1 in open class and young very promising pilot Patrick van Breemen Schneider who won the Nationals before, flying in club class. In fact all 3 won the NATIONALS before!!!!!

The team finished the day after the final briefing and prize giving ,  with a huge bottle of champagne to celebrate this safe and very well ran comps, by mostly young people with a mix of experienced a bit elderly ones,  doing it for the first time.
I was part of it and must say I LOVED every minute of being part of this team. It was full of talent in many ways , to the point , strict but also kind and friendly to each other and taking care of each other. The future here is safe!

 my great spot just under the roof.

Sad was that Maurits Dortu son of Willem, who flew with me in 1967 with the Student Aeroclub from Eindhoven, had to go for work to Mexico and could not defend on this last day his second place in the open class! On Facebook he commented he was sad about it as well.Even far away he kept an eye on us!

We had 2 incidents both with an outlanding and both with engine problems. Pilots were in good condition gliders a bit less but all repairable, it was only not possible to continue flying with them in the comps.
With 6 out of 10 days, missing the practise day by rain, you can call it a REAL competition, with super-weather [ some Dutch pilots flew on a day about 800 km from Holland] , but also Dutch rain and Dutch conditions. ABOSULTELY WEIRD was the strong wind for such a long time!It still blows NOW, but it should ease tonight. Tomorrow we expect 29 dgr.!!!!
Anyhow it  shows the skills of the 3 tuggies Daan, [ you know him from Tocumwal, now Corowa ] Sjoerd and Bert but also from the 50 pilots flying these comps. We just had a marvellous time, all of us!

 Steven , the one but youngest participant.

 Jelmer, specially for the German and Italian friends!!

More happened as our Belgium friends were flying their Nationals as well in the light-mountain-area of St. Hubert. More about this competition on Wednesday.

With 115 participants the famous Hahnweide competition has started with 5 classes yesterday. With a 311 km task the open class pilots started modest. A few well known pilots in this competition in each class, so I am going to keep an eye on it, as it will be wonderful soaring again over the Schwäbische Alps and the Black Forest. Tasks today; between 300 and 365 km.

From Italy I got the message that at Varese the Sailplane Qualification Grand Prix is on and starts today. Will keep an eye on them as well.

That’s it for today. Enough to do! All pictures today are from Joop Evertse. Thanks Joop!
Cheers Ritz

 

Terlet    Saturday May 28 2011       ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Great absolutely great comps here in Holland. 3 winners; Ronald Termaat with JS1, Patrick van Breemen-Schneider with LS1f and Steven Raimond with ASW27. More tomorrow when I am back home
Cheers Ritz

  Steven, Raimond and Patrick.

 

 

 

 

Great last day. Pilots were still launching when some from the club class arrived back. VERY interesting day with pilots high in the overall scores outlanding. With one of the JS 1 pilots keeping an eye on things from Mexico where he had to be for business. A weird day but great as a last day. Some pilots came down twice started again and do fly in better weather now. Look at the results onn the scores from the dutch site www.nkzweefvliegen.nl at scoring carrousel or on www.soaringspot.com  

Busy busy more tomorrow. Great pictures as well on the Dutch site!!!! Cheers Ritz

Terlet       Thursday     May 26 2011      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 Rob Looisen and a collegue

We did not fly today! The wind was up to 25 knots gusting to 30 and more. It really was TOUGH. We even had problems walking in town today. A pity as we have had only 5 days and one to go and it does n’t look TOO good. They hope for a window to fly in and if that happens, they go.

Got a lot of info and pictures from Ian Baker from JS1 Revelation and I come back on that when I am back home. Also some news from the Shark, the HPH.

Have lot’s of great pictures and you can see them under; media, pictures from Ritz. The video’s made by Jens are top and surely you like them as well. Also under media and ….video’s have an international “language”.

On soaringspot you surely saw the results and they are very interesting!We do have great pilots and a the future looks bright with 2 young daily winners yesterday; one in club , the youngest from the 49 and one in open class the second youngest.Both are flying in the JWGC in Musbach.

 

Great to hear the Australian language on the roof of the building where I work at Terlet. It was Ron Sanders passing by. He will be soon retired and is going to spend lot’s of time again on soaring, he told me.

  Ron Sanders

Also Valentine Avanzine arrived yesterday to cheer on her partner Jelmer Wassenaar and great to see Brutus who is crewing for Rob Looisen and Tjeerd flying the duo discus.See picture above.

  Peter During[Brutus]

The number 1 at this stage in combi class is Steven Raimond, former European Champion and on the picture you see him with his partner Marion, his crew for 21 years!!!!

 Marion and Steven

Terlet   May 24 2011         ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Another day with lot’s of wind and not favourable for towing. Let’s see! In the scoring carroussel  at  www.nkzweefvliegen.nl you can find the results from yesterday as well as on www.soaringspot.com .

On the Dutch site you find great video’s and great pictures. Sorry it is in Dutch but I try to inform you all as well.

Some nice pictures;

   

All classes have been launched! 20 to 25 knots of wind and 30 dgr. cross. Tough job for the tuggies, but they are briiliant.

All classes have an AAT from 3.45 and 3.15 for combi who was launched last. Weather is SUPER!!!! Look for results on these AAT’s on www.nkzweefvliegen.nl at scoring carrousel Or at www.soaringspot.com  Look at the NK site for videos and pictures Thanks

Terlet    may 23 2011     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Sorry I neglected this site a bit. Doing live updates all day is pretty tiring and costs a lot of time. We only have had 2 competition soaring days so far . Good days however.
The first one had some problems with cirrus , but under that cirrus pilots still got up. Unfortunately outlandings as well but that is part of our sport.
Day 2 had only 3 outlandings. Nice blue skies and also nice blue thermals. A bit more wind then expected so we saw interesting  straight-in  landings from most pilots .
Today is day 3 and we still need 2 days to make it a competition ;4 days is the limit. But the forecast is good so it SURELY will be a valid Dutch National Championship.

We get a lot of disposure in papers and on TV. May I recommend you to look at our site www.nkzweefvliegen.nl  as the videos are just so good. We start every other day with a video from the comps  made by Jens. Also the TV SBS 6 station has been here twice to talk and make shots from the ground and air from this comps. You find them in the middle of the home page.

Some impressions in pictures: By Hans Spekkers, our meteo guy!

 

 

And some pictures from our Tuggie Sjoerd.

 

 

Hopefully more later!

16.00; The wind is terrible here today. Pilots are on their way for 327  km , 391 and 410 km. Skies look great but  it turns out to be a tough day.Some have outlanded at paddocks a few have started their engine and come back home to Terlet. But quite a lot are still flying at 16.20. It will be difficult as cirrus is coming in and the tough wind gusting up to 25 knots is stil roaring. Let’s wait and see.

Only 2 open class gliders Nimbus 4T and Nimbus 4 M arrived home. All the rest was out or came back with the engine!That’s it for today.

Terlet                    May 20 2011                      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

It is very hectic here. FIRST soaring day! Finally. Pilots are eager to go . Weather looks good. First day I walk around without boots with sheep- skin- inlays.

Had a nice interview with a few very nice  “nerds” involved in a new system of livetracking. You can follow them on;
live.glidertracking.com
Later more about them.

Also some words with the 2 agents from Jonker Sailplanes here in Holland. About that also more later. Here is a picture already. 5 Gliders arrived in Holland last week, just in time for 2 pilots to fly in them during these Nationals.

 

 

To finish; some news from Vanessa in Australia; THANKS!!!!!

A couple of stories from the past few days:
 
An Australian and International Pilots Association representative says “Qantas ranks its pilots on the amount of fuel they carry and use”, and suggest this subtle pressure to minimize fuel loads led to the diversion of two long haul jets last week as they did not have enough fuel to reach their destinations. Qantas says this statement is a tactic to gain leverage in the current pilot pay dispute.
See the story at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/20/3222209.htm
 
Also, no surprise that “Australian safety investigators have blamed Rolls-Royce for an engine explosion on a Qantas Airbus A380 in November last year”. The plane in question is still in Singapore awaiting more than $100 million worth of repairs. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/19/3221465.htm
 
And finally, the Australian Air Force has grounded its fleet of PC-9s (as used by the Roulettes) after a crash in Victoria. Both pilots ejected and are in a satisfactory condition in hospital. Engine failure is suggested to be the cause of the crash http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/19/3220865.htm

Terlet    18 May 2011       ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

This means that yesterday was cancelled. Today nice tasks of 320 km for open class, 299 for combi class and club class has to fly 259 km.
But….it still is not TOO good weather. It started great but , overdevellopment straight arrived after the sunny conditions. And what can you do? Maybe change to task B.

Every day the pilots find on their table some nice little presents donated by sponsors., as water bottles and earphones!

Pilots are still on the strip. At 14.15 the box was opened for the B task and as estimated first launch is set; 14.30. We live in hope. The wind is a bit blowing and moves the clouds quickly, nice bleu “holes ” disappear for that reason. We only need half -a-grade to start!!!

follow the pilots on live.glidertracking.com

Our neighbours, courtesy Hans Spekkers meteo at Terlet!

Terlet        May 17 2011       ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

The weather is not brilliant but they try to let pilots fly today. Yesterday the practise day was cancelled. The opening briefing was at 8 PM. Guests , pilots and crew made the briefing hangar full.
Tasks for today are ; club class; 122 km. combi class 145 km and open  has an  AAT with 2 hours [129/172 km]

At 12.44 a few bleu holes  are visible! Tracking systems are in club class . Today 5 of time and there is another tracking system as well; ADSB  more info to be found on www.glidertracking.com

Estimated first start at 13.30. It is 12.49 now. More news later about this day 1.

Yesterday we had great PR as the top meteo from TV was our guest and a team of 7 was busy around him for 3.5 MINUTES TV.

Here are some pictures.

And the famous meteo guy Piet Paulusma;

More news later!