Alphen aan den Rijn     Friday August 5 2011     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 nice looking clouds [archive]

Day 3 in Pociunai  was a long one and normally that divides the “men from the boys”.
Was very pleased to see that Henrik won the day in 15 m. class. climbing up overall now to spot 6. Amongst the first 5 are 3 French pilots. Strong pact!!!
In 18 m. class Arne Boye flew the anger of the violation earlier, out of his system with a great first place and a speed of 121 km./h over 473.8 km. in the JS 1.Compliments to the Danish pilots they are doing pretty well in this EGC. Still 3 ASG 29’s in the overall top then the Ventus from Wolfgang and then  3 JS1’s.
Our Dutch pilots had a good day with a 3d and 5th day place.
Very good to see Kim Tipple on spot 1 in open class. All the bad luck he had,[ a not good working Flarm and a leaking dump valve]  must have motivated him. Speed of 123 km/h in the Nimbus 4T. And….the 2 former toppers are still toppers now. Bruno and Janusz are on spot 1 and 2 overall. But a few more days to go . The battle is not yet over!!!!!

On day 4 strong and long tasks  again . ALL classes flew over 500 km!!!15 m. 501, 18. 521 and open 528. The “high”  was there now , the country dried out, so more possibilities!!!
So much better this good weather, you just really  see what pilots can do. A pity still for Nitra that such weather was not allowed to them by the weather gods!
In 15. m class another of my favourites Gyorgy, was 2d behind Tomasz from Poland, with a speed of 122.3 km/h.!! “Poor” Henrik who won yesterday lost a few points ,  by being 22d . 3 Diana’s in the top 5 at this stage!!!!.
In 18 m. even better speed! 131 km./h for day-winner Karol from Poland in ASG 29. The UK boys did well being 2 and 3. Wolfgang lost 180 points,. ouch!Here 2 pilots from Poland , 2 from the UK and 2 from Holland in the daily top 6!
In open class that German pilot Frank Marcus, who I never met , not even heard of till now, is doing a great job in his EB! Though 132 km./h for him , is not even that much more/better as the ASG 29 from the Polish winner in 18 m. A very STRONG top 7 in open class with at this stage ONE point difference between the number 1 and 2 [ Frank] .

 In the middle Gyorgy and Janusz[archive]

Day 5 , TODAY,had even bigger tasks and an early start at 11.00, but posponed to 11.30; 15 m. has to fly 632 km., 659 for 18m , and 684 for open class. There was a B task as well. But when you expect [temp trace] a cloud base 0f 2000 m and dry air with good lift it should be all possible, so task A it was.
By the way we had lovely cauliflower-look-alike-cumulus-clouds over Alphen at noon, when looking at them they were still growing.And…all afternoon as well.
I had to smile when I read on the official site; ” Due to good weather we need more airspace and updated zones in distant areas”. What a luxury problem, is n’t it!? So new files have been added on internet to study tonight!
Fantastic that the pilots made it back so quickly. In 15 m. the French pilots flew with 130 km./h!!! They must have felt at home, with this weather!
What a SUPER day! What about 18m and open??? They had a great day as well. Very pleased to see that in the preliminary results Russell Cheetham leads the day.[134 km./h]  Good on him. Those 2 pilots from Poland however have a strong pact together, anxious to see what happens in the 2d week.
In open class Pete Harvey won the day [130km/h] with Steve Jones as good runner up. Great day for the UK pilots finishing it with a surely lovely party tonight with my Dutch friends.
Maybe a not too late night would be good as the grid opens tomorrow at 8 again.

 Pete Harvey [r] and Ronald Termaat[l] Andy in the middle in Eskilstuna[picture my archive]

The CIM pilots  did not all have a flying day yesterday .Standard class had a 2.30 AAT with best distance by Vitorio Pinni with 306 km.in 2.53h. Out of 21 pilots 9 outlanded!
15m and the 2 seaters flew an AAT in 2.30 as well.
Today all 5 classes [ no club class this year] flew and an AAT for all of them from 3 hours except for 15 m. they had 2.30 .

In between  they flew yesterday 439 km. from Jondaryan on the East of Australia. It is MID winter over there. They had cloudstreets and lift up till 5 PM.
In Spain, NE from Ocana at Cuenca Sotos,  Guy from Luxembourg flew 1.014 km. with a 700 km triangle in it! Good on him!Lots of good flights from Fuente as well and from Rayskala.

Forgot to tell those who are interested,  that the August news letter from the Perlan Project is out. Interesting news about “How will Perlan pilots survive at 90.000 ft.” I ‘ll give you the link as I got it from Morgan, so you can read it  yourself. Enjoy!

http://www.perlanproject.com/pdfs/Perlan2011_7.pdf

Off to Keiheuvel tomorrow morning early, where they are going to fly the 5th edition of the Keiheuvel Cup, so see you on Monday again.Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday August 3 2011     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

The glorious winner from the Grand Prix 2011 at Wasserkuppe; Giorgio Galetto. I received the picture from Marina yesterday. She is rushing to be in Musbach in time to do her FAI duties, starting this weekend. Busy lady! THANKS!!!! In between Giorgio won day 1 during the CIM in Rieti.

Finally the perfect weather arrived for holiday makers  at the beach. Maybe just in time to “save” the people running clubs at the beach.
Yesterday 28 , today 26, what do you want more!?NO RAIN, as it rains AGAIN!!!
Last Sunday I really enjoyed sitting on the boat and cruising the canals of Amsterdam, with my family and friends. Even Australian mate Kait was with us. A bit chilly still that day, but we had heaps of fun.

 picture by Kait from her BB.

I kept myself out of politics about our National Gliding Center Terlet. The main group of users, about 400,[ all together in  a corporation]  went broke last June due to “quarrels” and ” debts” , but the good news is that Terlet CONTINUES, which really pleases me! Love Terlet!!!

Day 1 in Pociunai was cancelled. So nothing new this season, just another scrubbed day. Though Day 2was much better and AAT’s from 2hours 30, were flown,  some had to outland again.BUT…quite a lot finished! Still not a 1000- points-day , but they will get there! Local showers and a not too high cloud base
were the ingredients for that.
872 points in open class  for the winner Killian from France, what an ace he is! And such a nice young man! Helicopter pilot by profession and when I spoke with him last , he served in Afghanistan.
Expensive points for those who outlanded, 4 in in this class! Feel sorry for Pete [N1]  as I know how good he is!!
Was impressed with Bruno [YY] he still can fly!!!! His Nimeta [ 30.5 m. span!!!!] gave him 258 km and a 2d place for day 1.Good on him.
In 18 m.the number 3 on the world list from FAI, behind Michael Sommer and Sebastian Kawa, Polish pilot  Zbigniew Nieradka, won the day [949 points] before Peter from Denmark.14 Pilots in this class were so unlucky to go ” au vaches ” under them Ricardo from Italy.4 ASG 29’s in the top.
In 15 m. class 12 outlandings and also one of my  favourites Gyorgy did not finish!!! The French have a strong pact to try to win. Denis was 2d and  Louis 3d and he defends his EGC title.

Day 2;  The meteo forecast was good as I noticed on the official site, with a great looking sounding and 1/8 to 3/8 of cumulus!
379 km for 15 m class, 402 for 18 m and 425 for open. Finally some real soaring conditions with nice tasks!The 15 m. class flew with the trackers.
In 45 minutes all gliders were airborne, good from those 15 Wilgas.
Pilots had straight after their start 2m/sec. And…finally 1000 points for the winners, it should be like that!!!As they flew around the Kaunas TMA pilots really had to be careful to not go wrong. Some did it in the end. Arne Boye Möller [Denmark] was winner of the day,  but …..violated the TMA and got an outlanding on the place of violation. So did 3 other pilots in his  18 m. class , 1 in open and 1 in 15 m. class.
The day was good but not real good, due to less good circumstances up N.But nevertheless with what we are used to in summer till now, a good day.
Great to see that the top- pilots who outlanded on day 1 were in the top now.Pete Harvey in open at spot 2 and Ricardo Brigliadori in 18 m. at spot 3 .They straight away showed that that outlanding was a misser.

Today , day 3, looks good again, sunny but cool morning conditions and flights in to Poland.
15m-452 km.to the NW, direction Baltic close to the Russian border;18m.-473 km. and open 501 km. both into Poland.Interesting to see the open class with in the overall scores 5 pilots between 1753 and 1722 points.
In 18m. class Peter Eriksen [1934 points]  from Denmark is on spot1 overall but behind him are the Polish pilots [1927 and 1906 points] and they fly over home country.
In 15 m. also small differences between the number 1 and 5; 1855 and 1845 points!!!!
A nice long distance as today shows who will be best.

Uvalde is preparing for their Pre World Championship 2011 .They will be held from August 6-14! Won’t be there but will inform you with news I receive and read!

The CIM in Rieti has started yesterday  with 71 participants in 6 classes!! 412 km. on day 1 for open class. So a nice Rieti day!Italian pilot Vittorio Pinni got the 1000 points in standard class. 3 Swiss pilots are on his heels.
In 18 m. Giorgio Galetto wast not too tired from winning the GP and travelling from Germany back to Rieti, he straight away won day 1. 1000 points in his pocket!
In open class the Austrian pilots Josef and Sebastian Eder were the best with close behind Alexander Müller.
Some pictures from my archive from Rieti WGC in 2008 .Wave, town and airfield.

 

And….George found on you tube the most wonderful “Bird” a smart bird; a lightweight airplane [ 450 grams] modeled on a seagull which flies by flapping its wings. AMAZING!!!! Here you can see it yourself! Enjoy!!!

www.flixxy.com/airplane-flies-like-a-bird.htm

Some analyses from the EGC and CIM on Friday!
No news on Sunday as I will be for the weekend at Keiheuvel, another favourite airfield just over the Dutch border in Belgium.Have n’t been there for a while so looking forward to catch up with friends. Jeroen, son of the owners of the restaurant Chrisje and Rudy, will be not there , he is in Musbach, flying the JWGC for Belgium, but all who got back from Nitra will be I hope!! Will tell you all about it on Monday, CU then, cheers Ritz