Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday October 30 2011    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 
Clouds over Holland last summer.
Pictures; Courtesy Bert Kuijper

One day to go and November starts .We just moved to wintertime this night . Time difference with Australia is 10 hours now. My brain knew I could sleep in , my body went on “automatic” so I was awake at 7 AM.
This year passed TOO quickly!!! Getting older it seems time flies faster.
But I was cheared up by a friend; Age is not how old your body is, it is how young your mind is!
I needed that.

War in Australian Aviation!! “If you want war you can have it! “[CEO. ] An unbelievable story!!
“In an asthonishing dummy spit, Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce,has grounded the Qantas domestic and international fleet , until such time as the pilots , licensed engineers  and the ground handlers,  withdraw their lawful industrial claims  and campaings”  [ source planetalking]
THAT IS something  and all planes are grounded since yesterday  !!!!! Alan Joyce is Irish and in fact, what I hear from insiders,  nobody knows why just he is the CEO. Since a few months minor hick-ups  troubled passengers . The CEO and his “employees” did not agree on several items, as wages, changes and the organisation/direction; result minor delays and irritations . They even go that far that they are going to lock out from tomorrow onwards,  ALL union-staff  which participates in the strike, till they withdraw “their extreme claim and reach an agreement”. Unreal!!!! Interesting to see what happens now as at least over 70.000 passengers will have a problem. Read it all on the by my Aussie  friends send links;

 http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/
 http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/aap/8367130/qantas-grounds-fleet-locks-out-employees

Also the Dutch news site www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl  has news about this unusual action which will cost Quantas I guess more then it can earn again.
I heard that the UNION has asked for the dismissal of the CEO, who thinks there is no other way to stop the 3 unions from pilots, engineers and ground/transport-workers, then this way. Qantas offers full refund for already bought tickets, other Airliners try to help by taking passengers on their flights. What a mess!!!

And….from friends from  Perth I received yesterday the next message with a personel view on the news:
—Big news here today. I haven’t been emailing you any news about Qantas industrial action as it has been a constant niggle in the media over the past few months, but today Qantas CEO had what we like to call a “dummy-spit” and grounded the entire fleet. After months of threatened and actual industrial action with pilots, engineers and flight crew, and a nasty reaction to his 71% pay-rise at a share holders’ meeting this week(+A$1.2 million to round out around A$5 million) , Joyce has had enough. The fleet (108 planes) is grounded and there are urgent hearings with Fair Work Australia to try and reach some resolution. The the link below gives a summary.
 
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-29/qantas-locking-out-staff/3608250?WT.svl=news0
 
The interesting twist in Perth is that CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) finished here today. The Queen managed to fly out, but up to 53 other heads of state are left with no way home (yet, anyway).—-
ouch!! Will keep you updated!And ofcourse that is the UK queen and this meeting is once in 2 years.
Latest; all planes are still grounded. NOT good! Lots of money through the drain and lots of passengers worldwide lost faith in the Australian National carrier.

I noticed the FAI is creating a more modern site for all of us, which is good. Some parts are still under construction. Checking the date for Uvalde , which I easily found now under competitions, I saw the recent  world ranking list , which is updated on October 6 2011 and here it is when you have not yet seen it;
Michael Sommer [Germany]  is still on spot 1 with Sebastian Kawa [Poland] on 2 and Zbigniew Nieradka [Poland] on 3.
On the world ranking list for juniors we see Filipe Levin [Germany]  on spot 1 , Tim Kuijpers [The Netherlands] on 2 and Tobias Welsch [Germany ] on 3.
The female list is topped by 2 German ladies ,Sue Kussbach and Susanne Schoedel and on spot 3 we find Alena Nitusilova.
www.fai.org/gliding

I also found something I did NOT know; There is a Prince Alvaro de Orleans Borbon Fund!!!  Did you know?  I did not ! On the FAI site you find the next text under awards;

—The Trustees of the Prince Alvaro de Orleans- Borbon Fund for Technical Advances in the field of Sporting Aviation (including Simulated Flying) invite nominations from any source for high-calibre candidates who may be suitable recipients of prizes from the Fund.—- 
You can download the regulations from their site and you can also nominate suitable candidates by downloading the application form from the FAI-site. 

 
Alvaro de Orleans -Borbon jr. in Rieti[picture from my archive]

For a moment I thought it was Alvaro’s own name, connected to this prize, so to be sure I checked with him and he replied in return[ thanks for that Alvaro] and …..it is not, as you can read in his answer:
— the Fund bears the name of my father; my family established the fund to honour his memory. The Fund’s main objective is to promote and recognize technological innovation in sports flying.
My father, an industrial engineer graduated at the ETH in Zürich, was instrumental, among other things, to bring to Europe the American solid rocket fuel technology in the 1950s, to a company that still today is the sole manufacturer of all the boosters of the Ariane European space launcher.
FAI most kindly has accepted to host and manage the Prize Fund. FAI also kindly informs me about the details of the Fund’s activities.—-

 While the European Leaders were trying to safe [financial]  Europe,  and after the heavy weather in Portugal and Ireland it was now  Italy,which was hit. 9 People were killed due to the violence of flooding rivers due to heavy rain. Great old towns in the Toscane have been washed and that way history is damaged or even worse, lost. Highways were closed even the one from Genua to Roma and train-traffic around Pisa was stopped.
One of the people from the World Nature Fund claims that through illegal-building the natural protection is lost and that houses have been built in risk- areas. [source; AD] Quite a lot of tourists had to be saved!
Today we heard that the NE of the USA has been hit by very early and very heavy snow! NY has 10 cm. and several states [ about 1.5 million people!] are without electricity. Also….poor haloween-celebrators!

The first commercial flight from the DREAMLINER is a fact now !  All Nippon Air flew after 3 years of extra waiting from Tokyo to Hong Kong. In the plane just a few people who paid a LOT of money to be part of this historic flight.

We here in Holland enjoy some nice sunny autumn weather  with temperatures up to 20 dgr. C., however this will chance next week; it will be colder/cooler.
The OLC Champion at this very early stage [ the new season started as you know on October 11] is….former world champion  George Lee. Runner up is the competition director from the Uvalde WGC 2012, Ken Sorenson. Good on him. Relaxing first then the “hard work”.
Stephan Soell is on spot 3 while son Aljoscha , who just flew his first solo flight last week is on spot 8!!!! What do you want more? For some maybe …….time, money and a glider???

A German family , dad,mum and 2 children flew from Germany to France in their Piper Cheyenne. It went wrong at Toulouse airport where the plane crashed during the landing. Dad and one child got killed mum and the other one badly injured! VERY sad!

Got the latest news- letter from the Perlan Project and as people might not exactly know what they are doing I copied and pasted their questions and answers to give you a good  idea!! Sorry the letters are a bit small!More news you find at their site; www.perlanproject.org  And … I saw on the site of the NZD that one of the people from Perlan , Glenn Fisher, will be at “our ” Dutch Soaring Day [NZD] ! Will try to talk with him as well.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Alphen aan den Rijn      Wednesday October 26 2011    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 picture from archive.[Bruce Cooper]

Back to the basic’s of this blog SOARING.  Rugby , was world-wide on TV ! 250 ooo people celebrated in Auckland the glorious win of the rugby players. “The excitement was a knife-edge-affair ” as my Kiwi friends called it, ….but is over now! 
Though in the future more sport, as speed skating will start and I am a big fan of that sport. So you might find soon a few sentences about that as well, when I am over-excited!! Sven Kramer is back!!!!

In Germany the team-members  for 2012 were mentioned for each class.  We all know they have always very strong teams. It is interesting to see that in some  classes ; the oldies are still going strong”. I mean with old not so much in age as in “being in the team for years and years and years”. Some with a break in between. Names; Holger Back,[ sportsoldier in 1987 in Benalla and flew first 1000 km. in Tocumwal]  Reinhard Schramme [ he was in 1991 in Uvalde] and Holger Karow. Of course Michael Sommer is part of this team as well in open class.
Also some of the juniors will participate in the BIG comps, as Patrick Puskeiler and double junior world champion Filipe Levin.
In each class 4 pilots only in open they have 5 due to the fact that Michael is World Champion and for that reason EXTRA.
Also interesting that their long- time -team- coach for all comps when possible, Uli Gmelin,  has qualified  for a team-spot in the 2 seater class.

 

Holger ‘s ;Back and Karow in 2006 and again in 2012.
As well as Michael Sommer and Reinhard Schramme.
All of them TOPPERS!!!!
pictures from my present-cd from Eskilstuna.

 

Not long and the international gliders will arrive in harbours in Africa and Australia.  Hopefully great summers will make the pilots happy,  as it is quite an effort to get gliders there and to travel to these great overseas destinations. Some stay for the whole period, travelling up to unpack and pack the container theirselves and in between for some,  there is time for some looking- around!But soaring is the main goal!
The OLC will be more busy again and with comps in those parts of the world, the site soaringspot as well.
Talking about the OLC. Mr. OLC himself, Reiner Rose,  was honored last week in Belgrad with the FAI Lilienthal Medal, during the FAI General Conference over there. So well-deserved!!!!I hope to talk to him during the Dutch Soaring Day on November 26 where he is one of the guests.

Leonardo Brigliadori, who does n’t know his name.  WGC winner in Rieti, competition director from the JWGC at Rieti in 2007 and from the WGC for unflapped gliders in 2008. Together with his son Ricky writer of the book “Competing in gliding”.
And …….since October 2008 the president of the Italian Gliding Federation [FIVV] . On October 23 2012 he resigned !
I have been a few times in Rieti , loved each of those years , but found out / noticed , certainly at top events , that there were a lot of people involved in setting the strategy. I stayed and will stay out of the Italian soaring-politics, but strongly believe things will be OK for the future!

 Leo to the right with Rainer top coach from Germany

A little while ago I spoke about Helmut Reichmann and also about the best sellers he has written. I noticed a more recent best seller from Bernard Eckey “Advanced Soaring Made Easy”,  has been translated in German now. The English version can be easily bought on line at several book providers. [about 58,91 US dollar]  
Bernard was our guest in the past at Sportavia. He has been born in Germany but is a through Aussie now and lives in the West of Australia. His book has a new 2d edition!
Talking about the West of Australia a killer-shark has killed 6 divers/swimmers in recent times. Last one is a USA diver only 32 years old. Witnesses claim they saw a white shark. Those sharks can get up to 6 m. long! Since 2000 it is allowed to kill them even when they are rare. Lot’s of tunafish thrown in the ocean has not yet helped to catch the fish. In the past it was fact that only one person a year died by a shark-attack.

Not only Dutch passengers   but from more parts of Europe,  got the fright of their lives on Monday, while waiting for a flight from Faro  in Portugal to their destination. At 5 AM,  part of the roof disappeared in heavy weather. A whirlwind lifted the roof of the Terminal and heavy rain did the rest, to shock them. Air traffic controllers stopped all incoming and out going flights till the weather improved! Specially Transavia [ Dutch passengers] and Ryan Air [ passengers from the UK] had several flights at that time. Transavia changed direction to land at Sevilla and Malaga. The terminal was one mess!!!
10 People had [minor] injuries.
Ireland had a “cloud- burst” on Tuesday and Dublin  looked like a swimming pool. In a few hours so much rain fell, as normally falls in a month. Sadly one helping police agent was hauled by the water.

That’s it you are up to date again. By the way I am going to share my blog in soaring cafe once a week. TOO much Ritz is NOT good!!!!! So there will be a weekly entry and a more detailed topic.
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday  October 23 2011    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Sorry a bit late , but I had guests! And first things first….
                                                    Congratulations, NZ friends!

With the GRAND FINAL of rugby in New Zealand my Kiwi friends told me it really LIVES in NZ. One of them wrote  2 weeks ago ;
—-You can’t believe how united our little country is over the Rugby World Cup.
I have never seen anything like it.  
House after house, car after car, all carrying the New Zealand All Black flag.  We have one up.
I am glad that the first initial sort out of teams is over.   The real sudden death play off  starts next week end.   Loose and you are out!—-

What will happen now!!!!!! The All Blacks  played the finals against France and WON!!! It was tight, I guess some people nearly got a heart- attack in the end and not only on the NZ site, on the French site as well.
I also guess ALL of NZ is drunk tonight not only from drinking but from happiness and celebrating!And….so they should!
And  Mandy from Glide Omara confirmed that 31 year old Richie, the skipper of the Kiwi team , indeed  still is a keen glider pilot and “will probably be flying again soon after the contest is over.” Good on him!!!!!Keep an eye on him he might show up on the OLC.;
Richie Mc Caw, skipper of the world title holder rugby!!!!!

A great flight last Tuesday in a Glasflügel 304cz/17.4m from Talihina . I had to google where to find it but it is a tiny little town with area of 0.8 square miles[ 2.2 square km.] in Oklahoma,  in the USA; 750 km yo-yo under nice circumstances [ speed 113 km./h] and when you have not read the comment from the pilot, I copied part of it for you;
— “It was a very relaxing flight. This might be the first 750K flight in Oklahoma. There was no need to thermal today, but had an opportunity for fly with a pair of Bald Eagles. What a treat!—

Kilometer -eater Stephan Soell  flew his LS 4 over 395 km. from Tocumwal ,  direction West past Moulamein and back. And in South  Africa Dick Bradley from Soaring Safaris in Bloemfontein is already occupied with a competition. Later more! [ www. soaring-safaris.com ]
One of the soaring-ladies I got to know in my Sportavia period is Sigrid Seel. She loved her soaring in an LS 4, swimming in the Murray River and the good food and nice friends at Sportavia.
She lives in Shanghai and runs a very special travel agency , called the Last Frontiers. This week I got the October News about a trip to the New Years Festival in Guizhou and even more special , the Guzang Festival of Miao, which is only once in 13 years . When you are interested in something special and different and like to visit remote areas,  she makes it possible for you. [ www.TheLastFrontiers.com ]

I nearly fell from my chair this morning, when I noticed that young 15 year old Aljoscha  Soell , flew his 300 km. today. A natural talent he must be. Just solo in an IS 28 and now a 300 in an LS 4. Wow! I guess dad is more then proud!!!! So he should! But I presume dad Stephan, retired airline captain for Lufthansa,  “lost ” his glider now as well to his son! Luckily Eddie and Cheryl from Sportaviation have IIE as well .
Maybe a new kilometer-eater has been born in the family. Congratulations!What a wonderful autumn holiday! On October 20 already , father and son topped the OLC list with each an LS 4 to fly in and 333 km. on the “clock”!

Wave and ridge soaring  made pilots happy at Worchester in South Africa 555 km. in a Tauris. More nice flights as well in Australia from George Lees Airfield where George himself flew his Nimbus 4 around over 526 and 625 km. and 619 today. The weather is not bad in Australia. Really hope they are going to have a better season then last year!

So a lot to do after the guests have left ,  see you on Wednesday.Cheers Ritz

 Todays pictures; courtesy Mattias Hemborg

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday October 19 2011     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Told you in my last blog about the famous solar race from Darwin to Adelaide. Unfortunately bush fires at Tennant Creek, stopped all cars for one day. On Tuesday they continued over the Stuart Highway first slowly through smoke then with speed, but…followed by clouds and their goal was in clouds as well. The Japanese University car is upfront , followed by the Dutch car.

I also mentioned the last landings on Langley Park. I heard already that it is very early in the season, very hot in the Perth area, up to 36 dgr.C. One of the [glider]-pilots attending was Owen with his LS8/18m.. He flies with the Beverley Soaring Society! His glider in the static show has 1025 hours out of 375 flights.

 

Proud owner Owen Jones with his 18m. LS 8.Picture courtesy Vanessa Johnson.
Here is a photographic display of the static show and for those interested in vintage planes, here are  a few. Thanks Vanessa!
I liked her comment; “I just took pics of the planes I thought looked nice – only a few had signs up and I am not expert enough to name them. Certainly the number of vintage planes on display suggest there are a lot of men about with very big sheds (and long-suffering wives, I suspect) ;-)”

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/22661457/1/Langley%20Park%20Fly-In?h=1a208d

The season started in Australia so I got some news from Jo. First the entries for the 31th club and sports class at Benalla. [02/13-01-2012] Good old Tim Shirley is the CD and still going strong as in the past.  Benalla Rural City and the winery Tallis wines are the headsponsors as last year.
—-A final reminder that early bird entries for the Nationals (with guaranteed places for fully paid seeded pilots and the lower entry fee) finish at the end of October.
The entry form is on the website at www.deltaone.id.au/Benalla2012
The event has proved to be popular – there are 62 entries currently, and we can take a maximum of 70.  However, we have only six in the new 20 metre 2 seater class and we need 8 to make a championship class, so if you or anyone you know has an eligible 2 seater, please encourage them to come along.—

Interesting news as well about gliders for sale in Australia. For those who are interested here is the link;
-As suggested by one of Aus-soaring readers, I have set up
http://www.glidersales.com.au
To list your gliders and equipment for sale at no cost till sold or
withdrawn from the market,
email me at GJS2@internode.on.net.
Small photos are welcome.
Prospective advertisers are welcome too.:-)

After 6 days of flying the Ceres regionals in Argentina finished. Lucas Goldenzweig setlled himself on a 3d place in LS 4 . ONLY AAT’s over there with 2 hours, 2.30 and on the last day 3 hours; 247 km. for the winner in 2.59 and 1000 points for Sebastian Lungo who won the last day and the title in this class in a Standard Jantar!!!

 

Great clouds in Sweden by Mattias Hemborg

The competition in Israel at Megiddo;  Arnon Jaffe , who flew in the past with us at Tocumwal had a nice 303 km. distance [AAT]  in the ASW 24. I once saw a really interesting video about soaring in Israel. Megiddo is in the heart of  the Yisrael Valley and the club has a fleet of 24 gliders , half of them privately owned. They have 2 tugs . I am sure all of them have been happy yesterday when their country fellowman Gilad Shalit returned back to home- soil, after being kept in prison for 5 years by Hamas.Gilad is the very first prisoner who comes back home alive , but…in exchange for 1027 Palestinians.

While looking at Hallo Deutschland on TV,last Monday I saw the impact of a glider after it crashed on a golf course! Was not a nice sight. People who were playing golf , saw it happen very close by and of course reacted pretty shocked. The 38 year old pilot , who was as they mentioned, very experienced, did not survive the huge impact on the golf grass. Nobody else was hurt.  The airfield he wanted to land on was just a bit further. Very sad!!!!

 

Late finishes in Sweden by Mattias Hemborg.

As life goes on,  it was good to see that German friends Stefan Soell and Aljoscha are back in Tocumwal. After the check flights , father Stefan flew his own LS 4, KYO, already for atleast 16 years maybe even 20 years stationated and on line at Tocumwal and his young son Joschi his first SOLO -flight in the IS 28. Good on him. Great to fly together as father and son, what pleasure!!!I know Stefan already from the period Joschi was only a baby and now he flies solo. I guess he is must be 14 now!Time passes! Ouch!!!Congratulations Joschi!!!

Talking about Tocumwal; It is a small world , our SOARING_WORLD!!!!! I had contact with John who lives in the USA and guess what ???? He send me the next [ I share only part of it]  mail;
—I have flown at Tocumwal with Ingo in fact in the early eighties and had a cracking good time. Ingo and I flew the Caproni on a 300k record which was really a high point in my soaring. I then flew a Kestral and several other great gliders and really enjoyed my stay and the flying.—

 

Finishes at Eskilstuna by Mattias Hemborg.

CU on Sunday. cheers Ritz { you can click on the pictures to enlarge them}

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday October 16 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com 

Back for a few moments  as ” WE ” won the world title baseball. Is n’t that special, we wrote history!!!! Never happened before that a European country won this title and here in Holland a lot of people do not even know,  we were there to fight for it in Panama. The queen already congratulated the team.
Winning twice from Cuba…..wow!

Today the 2011 Veola World  Solar Challenge started  at 8.30 for a trip from Darwin  to Adelaide [about 3000 km!] Last time I spoke with you about the bicycles on solar power, [I never read they got a new world record!]  this time the 2 famous Universities from Delft [NUON] and Twente [ 21 connevt] are involved in this solar -car- race.Here ia a link so you can follow via their tracking system where the cars are.
http://dashboard.worldsolarchallenge.org/leaderboard 
 All other news is there as well on ; www.worldsolarchallenge.org

This morning I looked for the first time in my life at a Marathon!!!! The 42 km. marathon from Amsterdam , the 36th edition, was on and passed by my daughters house , so we stood along the road to cheer on the  participants running fast,  as the first group with all Kenyans in nice green shirts , slower as the ones who practised for a year but who are not good enough for the first spot and slowest for those who just wanted to be in the event!I even saw people older then me!!!!!
A long row of colorful shirts and shoes passed by , making a special noise on the concrete with all those feet. Lot’s of different nationalities  and what a lot of runners it did n’t stop!!!!!!
Wilson Chebet from Kenya won . He won Rotterdam in the past as well. I loved looking at it even with 6 dgr. at 10 AM .But it was absolutely sunny weather a bit later in the day [13dgr.]

Vettel won  again and today the drivers prize was secured for Red Bull as well. Some of my favourite Dutch turners [Epke and Yoeri] lost after a great demonstration in the end grip and did not become world champion in Tokyo but 5th. A pity!!Japan got a new turn-hero and the All Blacks crushed the dream of the Wallabies and play the finals next Sunday against France, while Casey Stoner won his 2d world title Moto GP in Australia on Phillip Island! 

That ‘s it , all the soaring news was published yesterday already. Cu next Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Saturday morning October 15 2011    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

To remain actual I decided to publish this blog already on Saturday before my departure to Amsterdam.When something VERY special should happen I come back on Sunday evening.

A VERY HAPPY Uys Jonker and…he should be very happy; he flew from Potchefstroom,  his first 1000 km. Out and Return , the first 1000 km for a JS 1 glider in South Africa and the first 1000 km. for the 2012 South Africa Season, in fact for the total 2012 -overseas -season.
What better statement can you make as owner and manufacturer of  Jonker  Sailplanes  and for soaring in South Africa ?????!!!!!!!! Nice speed as well. 131 km./h!! Well done Uys and so early in the season.

 

Pictures courtesy Iain Baker from Jonker Sailplanes.

Something totally different to start with but also very happy sportsmen; Did you know “WE” could play baseball?? I did know,  but NOT on the HIGH level they are on now; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP- final!!! They won from the current titleholder the USA, won from South Korea the current Olympic winners and …from Cuba..25 times world champion!!!!! Never before a European team was in the final, what about that. The “orange” men did it; it would be nice if they could win now as well. But they have to beat Cuba again then and I guess the Cubans are warned now!
Did you know why “we” all show up in orange , if it is with World comps speed skating, swimming, or soccer even hockey??? Our royal family is from the : House of ORANGE”.

This years OLC symposium  is on October 22 in Poppenhausen/Wasserkuppe and starts at 13.00  when Helge Zembold from Segelfliegen Magazin has the first half hour to speak about press and good media contacts , then half an hour about WEATHER by Bernd Fischer from Wetter-jetzt. At 2 the Bitterwasser Cup with John Williams , then Hannes Linke and Klaus Ohlmann about the Barron Hilton Challenge  2011, to continue after a break at 15.30 with the 2011 OLC flight of the year with Tomaz Suchanek and at 4 the OLC Junior Challenge. Just to let you know the OLC, every year “donates” their OLC-discus to one junior to fly it that year;  on October 22 they announce the next “user”.
 At 4.30 the German winners of the OLC to finish last but not least with Rainer Rose who won with the OLC team the Lilienthal medal during the last IGC plenary.
I quote their site to even make more advertisement for that special day;
—“In diesem Jahr könnt Ihr Euch auf einen Treff der Superlative freuen. Erwarten dürft ihr geballte Informationen, spannende Vorträge, wertvolle Tipps und natürlich die Ehrung der Bundesliga-Sieger, der Deutschen Meister (OLC) und des Weltmeisters (OLC). Ausnahme-Segelflieger wie Tomaz Suchanek (Tschechien), John Williams (Schottland) und Klaus Ohlmann werden dabei sein. Sportliche Leistungen und herausragende Streckenflüge stehen im Mittelpunkt. Last but not Least wird die Verleihung der FAI Lilienthal-Medal an Reiner Rose und das OLC-Team gefeiert (bei Freibier & Brezn).
Jeder ist herzlich eingeladen, nach Poppenhausen zu kommen.—”
So everybody is welcome on a packed day with special guests and distance flying will be in the centre of interest.[Source OLC Magazine]
Where would we be ….without the OLC ?????

The German Soaring Day  on October 29 is in Darmstadt. On Facebook I read that Segelfliegen the Magazine will be there as well, so enough to read later also in the international version on their site, though to read it all you have to buy it but that is very easy, as you might have found out already!
 The Dutch Soaring day will be on November 26 and I try to be there!

Family of some of my Australian friends are living in Port Moresby on Papua New Guinea. In heavy weather a twin-prop-plane , Dash 8, with 32 people on board crashed killing 28 of them. Under them a mother  her  3 daughters and a grandchild going back home after Thanksgiving-day-celebrations!!!
 The pilots from Australia , captain Bill Spencer [64] and New Zealand , co pilot Campbell Wagstsaff, survived as well as one passenger from China [in his 50thies] and a steward. The captain has bad injuries on his leg , the co-pilot is “shaken up”!!!!!
Papua New Guinea has a pretty bad reputation on aviation- safety .
Investigators from the Australian Air Transport Safety Bureau have arrived in Port Moresby to help the PNG bureau.

Got some news from Greece!
“This summer a nice TV ad for Essilor was filmed in Kopais, Greece featuring BP. I believe can be used to attract more advertisers and sponsors to our sport.”

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtYgoG490Po

And…guess what . I saw this one on TV here as well. Really nice!!! Have a look!!!!Thanks Alexis!

From Perth in Australia I got the next news;
” Langley Park is a huge stretch of grass at the foot of Perth’s city “skyscrapers”, which has variously been an airport and a racecourse, and now is just Parkland. I’m not sure why this is the last time aircraft will be allowed to land there – it is where the Red Bull race flew from. The forecast is excellent for the weekend – meant to be 35 degrees on Sunday.”
What’s happening ???!!! The Sport Aircraft Association of Australia is holding a fly-in of sport aircraft at Langley Park on Saturday & Sunday this weekend. Reason; ….this is the LAST time , aircraft will be allowed to land on Langley park, Perth original airfield and one of the places  pilots were trained in WW 2.

Link to poster attached http://www.saaa.com/pdfs/Langley_Advertising.pdf

Enough updates! Sunny weather, but…we had the first night-frost. Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday October 12 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

When talking about overseas-soaring I should not forget to mention New Zealand  as well. It is not only Omarama , of course the biggest and most well known place [WGC in 1995 with NZ top-pilot Ray Lynskey winning in open class, Markku Kuittinen in standard class and Eric Napoleon in 15 m.. Ray , sadly enough died MUCH TOO YOUNG at age 54 in 2009 ] , for mountain soaring on the South Island  , but also the Nord Island has several places to fly from when over there for a holiday.

 

To the world famous place Omarama you go and fly to enjoy the mountains and the huge wave-systems and many pilots have been introduced to wave flying there. [ www.glideomarama.com ]
In the past we had several guests who flew with us in Tocumwal over flat land and travelled after to NZ for some good mountain flying and trout or fly-fishing.
As said in my report last year when I visited the Nord Island, it is overwhelming beautiful!!!!! To prove it some pictures made during my trip.

 

 

At this stage the beautiful coast of Tauranga , where I had the privilege of staying with John and Chris Roake, is threatened by oil from a ship stuck on a riff. They work very hard , but weather circumstances stopped the rescuers from emptying the oil from the ship. It seems worse then expected. Now they think that not 30 ton but between 130 and 300 ton from the 1700, have gone in the water just close to that beautiful mountain  Maunganui , with the great beaches.

 
Mount Maunganui from close by and from a distance.

 

The beautiful clean white , beaches at Tauranga,  on the foot of  Mount Maunganui.

 The first flights from NZ are to be found on the OLC; 298 km from Paraparaumu,[ is n’t that a great Maori name?]  on the SW North Island , 50 km. N of Wellington.
In NZ at this stage the semi- finals  will be played who will be this years World-RUGBY -winner. I “love” both the Wallabies and the All Blacks so , may the best win!!!!They play on Sunday , BIG match and the French and the team from Wales on Saturday.
 When looking at the Omarama  site , I noticed that the captain/skipper of the All Blacks , Richie Mc Caw, is a soaring-pilot as well.Good on him and a nice picture!

On the 11 th of October the OLC started their 2012 season  and the very first flight from 2012 was for Ian Cohn flying at Mount Beauty in Victoria in Australia;136 km. in an ASK 21!! In the far past we had in the Mount Beauty area our spring camp with Sportavia . Flying over the mountain in a Blanik with Bill Harvey still is a great memory. Also the trip behind the tug back to Toc. was unforgettable.
Having said that the OLC champions for this year;
Overall champion Klaus Ohlmann…who else?
Statistics best flight;Gordon Boettger–2254 km. from Minden Tahoe in a Kestrel 17
Statistics all flights; Alfredo Giretti –62.365,90 km. in 108 flights
Most kilometers flown from an airfield; Bitterwasser–595.653.65 km./827 flights/127 pilots
And…the AFZ-club from Unterwössen  had the most flights;797 flown by 73 pilots and 266.614,86 km.
Congratulations to all winners!!!!! But also to ALL pilots who put their flight on the OLC as it is great to follow what you are doing and even compare that and of course it is nice to see where all friends are.

Strike in the aviation-world caused some problems in Germany.On Monday first the ground personnel was on strike so people arrived but suitcases did not. Now the traffic controllers are ready to strike today and that could cause a great mess in Germany. They threatened to do so twice in the past but NEVER did it! Are they going to do it today?

The Regionals in Argentina at Ceres  have had 2 days now. They fly in 3 classes with 46 participants in total. After 2 days Lucas Goldenzweig is 4th in an LS4. Look for the results at ; 
www.soaringspot.com  
Also at Bebedouro , Brasil, they are still active .The first day of the Nationals , the Campeonato Brasileiro de Vöo a Vela, has been flown on Oktober 10. Pepe , one of the participants, flies it in an ASH 25 E; 264 km. on day 1.

It happened again!!!!!  The Russian bomber-pilots visited us…..again!!! Not that they , 2 Bear T95 bombers, were invited, neither did they announce their arrival, they just flew over Holland, I guess looking if everything is the same as a few months ago and to check if the Nato partners are alert enough.Of course they were!!!!…..they were accompanied by a Dutch F 16 and English fighters and when they left Holland up North the Danish air-force took over,  when they moved over to Germany.

Last but not least! Just got some news from Rick in the USA which is really nice to share with you all. It’s about soaring with the Mount Washington Soaring Association  during their Wave Camp over the white mountains of New Hampshire. His friend flew this flight in a Glasflügel 304CZ/17.4m.[the best flight worldwide on the last day of the 2011 OLC season]
Here is story and have a look at the site as well;

On October 10, my friend Rick Roelke achieved a goal that he has been
seeking for at least 10 years, a triple diamond flight (all three
diamond badge legs in one flight).  As far as we know this has never
been done in the Eastern USA.
It was also the best OLC flight for that day.
He did this at the annual wave camp sponsored by the Mount Washington
Soaring Association:  http://www.mtwashingtonsoaring.org

It was a big day for wave soaring at Mount Washington.  Another pilot,
Jim David, reached 29000 feet that day.
Thanks Rick!

CU on Sunday afternoon,  will be in Amsterdam for the weekend, but my guest takes care of  the house !!!
Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday October 9 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 

Pictures in todays blog courtesy Kai Monkkonen[archive]

Even if it has nothing to do with soaring I still have to say a few words about Steve Jobs! Everybody did already and some know much more about him and his world , but one way or another I felt sad when I heard he died , though we all knew this was going to happen. He just must have heard that the latest toy,  the 64 GB iPhone 4S , was presented the day before, to the public.
I look with different eyes now to those kids in the train swiping their fingers over their phone!!! I am glad I can “handle ” my ACER, but do realize people got hooked to APPLE and to this great visionair who indeed as everybody says, changed our world.
Even my grandchildren [5 and 8]  “use” their mums iPad.
RIP Steve Jobs!

Nothing to do with soaring either but…with speed. Just looked at the Formula 1 to see Jenson Button win , but even more to see Vettel winning a back-to-back-world title  already now in Japan. Phenomenal!!!!! No secret I am a fan, but he is just good!!! I liked his answer, when the team congratulated him just after he drove the car over the finish line with his 2d title; “I would have preferred to win today as well”. But he decided with the team to drive safe today.
A class act and a class Formula 1 this year!!!!!

Not a lot happening in our soaring world at this stage. A state competition in Brasil shows many flights on the OLC and though he is already sure to be the champion , Alfredo Giretti , still flies as much as possible from Rieti Airport in his ASH 31 /21m. Last Thursday even a nice 648 km. along the mountains up to past Foligno and back ,continuing to far SE of Rieti and back.
Pepe who flies in Brasil at the moment is a good runner up in the race for “all flights”  from this OLC-year ;493 km. for him in the state comps in Brasil.

It is pretty tough to go from 27 dgr. C to 12 .That’s what happens here now in Holland. The UK was even worse they moved last weekend  from 30 dgr. C. to snow in the Scottish Highlands on Tuesday; so from bathers into ski-boots.
Shops here moved from sunglasses into Christmas decorations!!!
On the other hand a member of the Scottish Gliding Center flew, 3 days ago,  from Kinross a nice 592 km. flight in a Discus, as the mountains , at some places, gave him lift up to 5000 m. 
Switzerland had a lot of snow yesterday and roads to and over the  passes [10 of them] of the Alps were closed. Only the Gotthard tunnel was open and of course a long traffic jam was the result.
In Munich, the temperature dropped within 12 hours with 15 dgr.[from 23 to 7]!!!!
As said many times; the weather is the weather!!!
No snow-problems it seems for the French mountains as yesterday a French pilot managed to use the wave lift from the Alps starting at Vinon for a nearly 1000 km flight in an ASH 25; a yoyo from 926 km. with an FAI 500 triangle in it!

Our former tuggie [ only for a short time as he found a job up North in the middle of our high season!!!!!] Adam Woolley keeps a blog about his soaring and that from the juniors in Australia. The next [ 8th] Australian Junior comps are in Jondaryan from December 10-17.He is already practising, as last Friday he flew 300 km. in the standard cirrus from that airfield!
www.joeyglide.com and for his blog; www.adamwoolley.blogspot.com
Adam , a commercial pilot now, flew at  junior world comps  and still loves competition soaring.
His dad Chris flew today from Kingaroy[N. from Jondaryan] a nice 528 set FAI triangle in his Ventus 2CM/18m. Yes it is starting up this nice Australian weather. And for the connaisseurs it is clear,  but for others it is good to know that the season starts best at the East ,[Jondaryan, Kingaroy, Dalby]  then moves more South to Narromine, Corowa , Benalla and Tocumwal to move further to the  West to Gawler ,Adelaide,  Waikerie, etc. This is not a written law but often it works like this.

To finish today’s blog some more pictures from Kai. Back on Wednesday enjoy the beginning of this new week.
 

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday October 5 2011    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 A very relaxed Bruce in the middle.

To start with , a picture from Aussie top-pilot Bruce Taylor  at Warwick. Got the permission too late to add it to the last blog , but this is a more recent one  for you. After winning the pre- worlds in Uvalde with more then 600 points ahead on the runner up and now scoring 4000 points in 4 days, he deserves to have a special spot. Being relaxed seems to be the secret and of course he has a great glider flying the JS1.
As relaxed was Brad Edwards in 1991 when he won the WGC in Uvalde while playing when possible his guitar and singing a long with friends. Same as Tim Kuijpers who just won the JWGC.
So dear competion-pilots/friends ……FLY  RELAXED!!!!!

My friend Jo send me some Aussie news  and it is nice to see that Narromine hosts the 50thiest Nationals in January 2012. Great to see Chris Stevens is still so active and yes I know he is a great organizer. He also was a regular in the past with us at Tocumwal. I visited a few Nationals in Narromine and I was always happy to be there. How could it be different with hosts as Beryl and Arney Hartley?!
Here is all the news on behalf of Ross McLean;

 Hello everyone

Don’t forget Narromine Cup week is coming up in the last week of November. Come up and fly with all your friends, try for a personal best, be it Silver C, Gold C, 500K, 750k or maybe that elusive 1000k you are after.  We are always looking for willing helpers to take some of the load off Beryl, Arnie, Chris, Kenny Mc and David. So don’t be bashful about offering to help.

If you are thinking about attending please let Beryl know at arnie.hartley@gmail.com

 The 50^thMultiClass Nationals are coming to Narromine in January 2012. Work has already commenced in earnest and the Contest Director is our own Chris Stephens who does such an outstanding job running Narromine Cup week.  Chris is also looking for willing helpers.  This is quite an historic event for Narromine Gliding Club as the very first Nationals were held at Narromine 50 years ago and we would all like it to be a great event.  The competition website is well established and can be accessed from the “MultiClass Nationals” button on any page of the NGC website or you can go there directly via the following link:

http://www.narromineglidingclub.com.au/Narromine50/MultiClass2012.html

If you intend to enter but have not yet done so, please go the site and click on the “ENTRY FORM” button, download the entry form and send the completed form back to Beryl with your entry fee. Banking details are on the form.
ROSS
The FIRST and the 50thiest one in Narromine; good on them!!!!!
By the way , the new 2 seater class and club and sports-class fly in January [2-13 2012] from Benalla. Then you are totally updated concerning comps down under.

In my last blog I had a nice picture from Rene de Dreu en Tim Kuijpers, former European champion and current Junior world champion.
Now I heard that Rene is the contact address for Alexander Schleicher BENELUX. Good on him. Congratulations Rene and good luck!!!!
For Holland he is taking over from Francesco Bruinsma, who as you know is busy enough with his wife Grietje to run soaring – Corowa and from October 1, Rene also started the agency for Belgium and  Luxembourg.
With the great ASG 29 and the latest ASH 31 and ASH 30[ flapped 2- seater]  the future looks bright for Schleicher!!! And…the ASW 27 and 28 are still popular as well as is the ASH 26 and not to forget the club-trainer ASK 21. For ALL the news look at;  www.alexander-schleicher.nl

On October 2 both Tocumwal and Benalla were to be seen again at the OLC . Between all the longer flights in the USA and some in Argentina , Judy Renner flew in her discus 317 km. and one day later , on a public holiday for some states, good old George Lee from his own airfield a nice FAI triangle in his Nimbus 4DM with a speed of 113 km./h. And..Francesco opened the Corowa season with the first flight of the season in the ASH 31 MI/18m.

 

Hidden behind trees and [too] high grass our former WW2 hangar in Tocumwal. Closed now! But luckily on the South  site of the field operates Sportaviation and the SRGC.

On October 4 the 2d day of the regional comps from the airfield of  Bebedouro in Brasil. Pepe flies over there in the ASH 25. A few well known Brazilians as Joao Widmer, as well. He is flying the Standard Jantar.

Not much more to say so see you on Sunday. cheers Ritz

 Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday October 2 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

And yes ……. they are on line NOW. Here is the message and by all means have a look;

Dear friends,
I’m happy to announce that the first issue of segelfliegen’s  “international edition” is now online! For those of you who haven’t read our German magazine before, you find some brief information below.
At the moment, it is only available three times per year at this stage, but if there is enough interest, there’s a good chance of having a 2-months-frequency of publication.
Please give it a go and please send this information on to anyone who you think may be interested. To find out how it works just check
www.segelfliegen-magazin.de.

“segelfliegen – Das Magazin” was founded in 2003 and is said to be Germany’s most popular gliding magazine. For all international readers, an “international edition” has now been published, using modern digital distribution methods.
It is available for PC, Mac, iPad and Android-based tablet-PCs.
“segelfliegen – international edition” appears starting the 1st of October 2011.
“segelfliegen” contains information about gliding both for beginners and experts. The articles give detailed descriptions of the things glider pilots want to know, practically oriented, written by gliding experts and experienced glider pilots.
“segelfliegen” portrays the fascination of the silent sport in a uniqueway and provides great support to gliding clubs with its detailed articles.
“segelfliegen” international edition covers all important aspects of gliding:
– background information on recent events
– specialized articles about technology and science
– test reports on gliders and gliding equipment
– reports on international competitions
– coverage of the finest gliding areas around the world
– interviews with famous glider pilots
– practical advice for students, instructors and clubs
– news and information from IGC and OSTIV
More information can be found on www.segelfliegen-magazin.de  from
October onwards; this is also the only way to access the online-magazine.

Thanks everyone,  Helge

If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would NOT have believed it. September 29 and 29. dgr.C.  on a pole, in the shade,  in front of the shopping center!!!!!! Finally summer, we must have deserved it. Not only here but Germany, Belgium, France , Central Europe , they all enjoy the blue skies , awesome temperatures and nearly no wind; a strong HIGH is covering us all. People walk around with smiles from ear to ear. Interesting/ nice  to see how sun makes people HAPPY.!!!!
Perfect weather also for my Australian guest who arrived that day,for the next couple of weeks.
The visibility here is pretty poor and clouds were nowhere to be seen on Thursday neither Friday or yesterday, so the pilots here were less enthusiastic but more then happy with the sun; no  OLC flights over the last couple of days here in Holland.
Yesterday we had the warmest day-ever-measured in Holland in/on October 1 with 26 dgr.More to the S and E it was at some places  27 again.
Even the UK has a new record, yesterday it was 29.9 dgr. the warmest day EVER. Also Belgium shares in the records .

 Summer in Holland; finally!

In Australia the Warwick State comps finished yesterday. After 2 non-flying-days, with rain , they continued on Friday. The “break” did not disturb the soaring mind of Bruce, so his 4th -1000- points- day was written down in the books; 365 km. was the task for 18m/open class, with 107 km /h. for him and in this class several outlandings. So not a real easy day.
The last day was cancelled so Bruce won with the max score of 4000 points out of 4 days in 18m and 18m/open combined!!!!!!!

 

WGC in Rieti[archive]with Bruce, Anita Indea and Vickey Cubley.

Going through these pictures I found a nice one from Art [Grant from Canada] as well. On Facebook I saw he had hurt himself “playing volley ball with the boys”.
“Not the best day. I tore my Achilles tendon this morning playing volley ball with the senior boys. Time to listen to my head instead of my heart.”
Who does not know ART? Either you find him at the weigh stations on several WGC’s or behind the microphone talking you through the virtual flights of competitors with his nice heavy voice. Get well better soon Art!!

    

Art in Rieti as “the voice”. [archive]

Having installed Picasa, it is easier to find pictures so another nice one;
The European champion and the Junior World Champion together at the Dutch Nationals in May.

 Former EGC champion Rene and current JWGC champion Tim.

And then this; 2 Kids enjoy the pleasure of a FERRIS WHEEL on the beach about 250 km. N of Sydney. Then a plane is “enjoying” the wheel as well. Not planned but the single engine pilot hung in the wheel with a mate. Of course they first freed the 2 kids [9 and 13] and later the pilot and his passenger. It was in fact the best moment to ” hit” , if you can talk about a best moment in such a case , as due to a big shower all kids except 2 had left the wheel. Just before it was FULL!!!
Nobody was hurt but it remains weird/ bizarre . The pilot  started from a close-by airfield and said he never saw the wheel.
Here is the link I got from Vanessa in Australia;
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-01/plane-crashes-into-nsw-ferris-wheel/3204912

That’s it for now. See you again on Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz