9 AM on Saturday;

Just received the compact information about yesterdays plenum from Rick. I love the way he can say a lot of things in just a few words. Where I need 10, he just only uses 2!!!
So here you go again,…”fresh from the press!”:

—“Good morning, Ritz!

We counted ourselves and found 35 countries represented (counting 4proxies).  Not a bad turnout.
On the first day of the meeting we received the annual reports from the  various Committees and Working Groups, and made one important decision.

We heard about the workings of the FAI office during the past year, and  we listened to reports  regarding the two recently completed World  Championships (six Champions) and  the 2012 OLC season (29.5 million kilometers flown).

There were presentations of bids for the 2016 World Championships by  Australia, UK, and  Lithuania.  The bid from Austria was withdrawn,  unfortunately, due to lack of  permission from the military to use the  airfield at
Wiener-Neustadt.

The big news is that we elected Eric Mozer to be our  President for the  next two years. Not a big surprise, but it was nice to make it official  after Eric’s very effective leadership during the past year  as Acting  President.

On Saturday, all the voting on bids, proposals, and awards will take  place.  It will be a busy day!

-Rick—”
More news from Rick later. He knows already how much I appreciate his input every year!!!!
THANKS RICK!!!!!

We, “the ladies”  are off early today ; Departure at 9.45 to visit the beautiful town of Arnhem. Same group today  as yesterday,  but Frouwke introduced me to a new lady from Luxembourg who arrived last night and she will be part of our international- shopping -tour through Arnhem as well.
We will be back in time, as at 6.30 sharp, the bus is leaving from Papendal to the airfield of Malden for a nice evening out as farewell to so many “old” and new friends.

CU later!

5 PM;
I only heard good things about the new president of the IGC. He did so well , that they voted for Eric again and he seems to run a meeting so efficient, that they finished at 3.30 already!!!!!
The- board -only , than had a meeting , but the 2013 PLENARY was over. With a smile from ear to ear Vitautas came out of the room. He got 2 WGC’s !!!
Benalla got the WGC and Terry could n’t hide a smile as well, though he mentioned it was all “close”  [ it turned out 17 for Benalla and 16 for Lasham!!!] but maybe the smile was because he was choosen as VICE PRESIDENT!!!!!!Good on you Terry!

All the rest will be in Rick’s news and I noticed on his list were a lot of decisions which have been  made.
It seems it was a GOOD meeting. As a Dutch person that makes me happy.
Just said goodbye to Dick Bradley and Brian Spreckley , they are on their way home , as is Vitautas and Laima, but they are going by car to Pocuinai. Long drive over 10 hours.

We had a lovely shopping day , but also bought things like boots, we did n’t need but were to good to let go for the price. Lunch was in a gorgeous old building in Arnhem town. Not the best food maybe , but a great setting and very kind people. My international friends were pleased with the way the Dutch treated them, even with a free ride in the bus!!!!

 

And Rick has completed his “job” and here is his very short summary of the decisions. Thanks Rick.

Summary of voting:
For implemention this year:
1. Mandatory FLARM at competitions
2. Flight Recorders recalibration interval: 5 years
3. No change to Free/Declared distance record rules

For implementation next year:
4. New start height limit rules
5. Start time reporting is deleted.
6. Turnpoint geometry changed in competitions
7. No change to
Finish Ring rules

Championships:
2016 WGC in Open, 18, 15:  Benalla
2016 WGC in Std, Club, 20: Pociunai
2015 WGC in 13.5: Pociunai

Awards:
Lilienthal: Bob Henderson (NZ)
Gehriger: Jaroslav Vach (CZ)
Majewska: Maria Bolla (HU)

Our new President is Eric Mozer (USA)

And our next meeting will be in Varese, Italy.
Rick

You are totally up to date , so I can start relaxing now!
My congratulations go to the Award Winners Bob, Jaroslav and Maria, very well deserved!
And to the countries winning the bids for the WGC in 2015 Pocuinai and 2016, Benalla and Pocuinai.

So off to Malden tonight by bus at 6.30.

CU tomorrow cheers Ritz

 

Friday 9.15 AM;

The Meeting/Plenum started at 9 sharp in a full conference room.
The FAI Gliding Commission meets once a year in plenary session to discuss and work on the development of sport gliding, rules changes and sporting events.This year meeting is for reasons not in Lausanne but in the Netherlands.
Everybody was eager to start talking and listening. A long list -of- to- do -things and a long day and,..when there is news you can find it on;

http://www.fai.org/igc-about-us/igc-meetings

My news in fact Rick’s news will be here whenever I receive it.

Off to the Kröller Müller Museum now with ladies from Lithuania, Austria, Argentina , NZ/UK and Holland. Not only Vincent van Gogh – the Dutch years,  but also an Italian exhibition Arte Povera will be visited as well as the famous sculpture garden and the park where we can just take a bike to travel around through nature. The sun is not shining yet, but hopeful , at least it is promised, we will see the sun as well.
It will be a good , long day for us as well.

CU later.

The entrance of the museum.The “white” art on the ground is snow, guess left over from a snowman.

5 PM;
Lovely day at the museum and seeing van Gogh remains a HUGE pleasure even for me . The 2 Argentinian ladies went together as one of them did not speak English, so we went with Laima, who runs with Vitautas the Pocuinai airfield where in August 2011 the 16th European Championships were flown.
With “Trimmel Herman’s”  wife Edeltraud, who I met in the past at Wolfgangs wedding. Herman was called so at the Wiener Neustad WGC, when he took care in a perfect way of the weather.
Also with us Marion Macintyre who lived in New Zealand and now lives in the UK close to Cambridge. Never met Marion before but Ross I know from comps and once in Italy , I took over his job as juror  because he could n’t come for reasons.

 

Lunch at the museum with Marion, Laima,Edeltraud .
You see real Dutch pea- soupe on one site and biological bread with with French Brie and Dutch Old cheese on the other site.

So a very nice INTERNATIONAL ” Bunch”  of ladies. After arriving back at the hotel, we had tea looking out over the beautiful golf area here at Papendal
At 4PM  all the hardworking men came out for a little, 5 minutes  coffee/tea break , after talking about flight safety and ,…..as we heard the meeting -schedule was running in time. This IGC meeting is pretty “male”, but I noticed some female delegates as well, other than Marina and Frouwke ,who are doing this already for a longer time

I am impressed they are real  professionals. I heard yesterday that  the TOP of the IGC, who is here already since Wednesday “have “dot the i’s and crossed the t’s. Everything has been prepared  to the finesse, to make this meeting smooth, fast and to the point . Compliments!!!!!
Pure dedication to soaring, from ALL here, president, vice president and delegates,….. for ALL of us.

So off to dinner tonight. CU later,…..maybe!?

10 PM;
Lovely evening, very pleasant. The Dutch top of gliding joined in as well, had a “sip” of Japanese whisky mixed with water -50 %- as they do in Scotland , shared lot’s of great stories with Marina , Tor and Silva about Räyskälä and Rieti and enjoyed the stories from Marion and Ross Macintyre.

 

Very good to see young female delegates from Turkey and Russia, as well as young male delegates for example from Finland,  Germany and France.
If you want to see what happened today and what’s going to happen tomorrow you can go to
http://www.fai.org/igc-about-us/igc-meetings

For example tomorrow:
—strategy and votes on bids
—past and future championships
—IGC Awards
—proposals requiring voting

Off to bed, tomorrow is another day

Cheers Ritz

 Papendal on Thursday February 28 2013
last day of this pope in function ,
last day of the month and
last day of the metereological winter.
Spring is there, finally.
First day of a live -blog till Sunday morning.
Updated as much as possible!

FIRST THINGS FIRST!!!!
It’s on line today  ….fresh from the press and what a great idea!!!!
Even more info with pictures on www.soaringcafe.com later today.
www.rent-a-glider.com
Here is the story as I received it this morning:

Wolfgang Janowitsch and Ludwig Starkl have founded a new company “Rent-a-Glider”. Within this renting company, they are organizing a big training event in Kiripotib next November and they have 8 former World or European Champions as their Coaches.

„Flying with the Champions“

Behind this headline hides a very special training event.

Organized by Ludwig Starkl and Wolfgang Janowitsch, within the scope of their recently established business Rent-a-Glider, eight former World- and European Champions spontaneously agreed to share their experience as coaches.

In particular there are:

 

Janusz Centka, Poland                     World Champion       1991, 1993, 2006   European Champion 1996, 2007, 2009

Andy Davis, Great Britain                World Champion       1993, 2003

Stefano Ghiorzo, Italy                      World Champion       2010                         European Champion 1994

Pete Harvey, Great Britain             European Champion 2005, 2007, 2009

Wolfgang Janowitsch, Austria        World Champion       2003                         European Champion 2004, 2005

Holger Karow, Germany                 World Champion       1999, 2003

Reinhard Schramme, Germany     European Champion 1994

Uli Schwenk, Germany European Champion                    1998

 

To have a team of world class pilots like this as trainers in one event, is unique in the world of soaring so far. In double-seaters they will pass on their experience and knowledge from many years of gliding. Besides specification of a clear target every day in a common briefing and analyses of flights after landing, the schedule of the course includes at least two speed- or assigned area tasks, like flown in competitions.

The location of the event should ensure maximum reliability weather-wise: Kiripotib, Namibia. Even in the early part of the season, beginning of November, flyable weather can be expected almost every day. And if someone wishes to implement the lessons learned right after the course, he/she can probably do it in daily improving conditions.

Target group are experienced cross country pilots or even competition pilots, aiming for exchange of knowledge and improvement of their skills on a very high level.

Logistics is in the hands of a well known and practiced team: Bernd Dolba and Christian Hynek are Namibia-experts. They are responsible for flight operations, accommodation, shipping of containers, weather-briefing, scoring and so on.  The gliders, several Arcus and ASH25, are organized by Rent-a-Glider. Ludwig Starkl is responsible for coordination.

The package includes virtually everything, except the trip to Windhoek. But even for booking the necessary airline-tickets the team will offer assistance.

Sounds interesting? Get more detailed information on the organizer’s homepage on line NOW:

 www.rent-a-glider.com

 

17.00:
Arrived at Papendal “Your Olympic experience” and settled in. What a fantastic complex this is. I have a lovely room, the ladies behind the desk are very friendly and internet as you see works straight away.
As written on their welcome-letter:” Only outstanding is good enough.”
Hotel Papendal is nicely situated in the woods around Arnhem. It is part of the Dutch sport academy “PAPENDAL”.

Pictures from Olympic Heroes everywhere so I choose one of my favourites.

While walking over the roads here from the hotel to other buildings you might see the Dutch athletic team preparing for the EGC , soccer players from top club Vitesse and people preparing for Soichi the Olympics in Russia.
Don’t know if “we ” try to do our utmost best to impress the IGC delegates, but ,…the sun is shining, FINALLY!

 
They are still expanding here .                                    My  beautiful modern room, with the SUN.

A modern open fire in a waiting launch

In a minute I am going to see where the conference room is , [at the moment the stewards are talking there] , the bar and the breakfast/diningroom.
Frouwke needs lots of feathers, as it is all organized in a super way. Coins  were ready for the welcome-drink tonight  , as well as  a welcome from our hosts, who want us to feel ” the energy ” from this Hotel and Conference Centre.

Don’t expect from me too much about the meetings as I most probably will be not there,  as I take care of the ladies program. But I am going to find Rick now and make a deal with him. He will be at the plenum from 9 till 5 , both days.

Cu later after drinks.

11.PM.
Lovely evening and,…finally I met Rene Vidal. Always wanted to meet him. Tor was so kind to introduce me to him.Caught up with the ladies who are going to see Vincent van Gogh in  the Kröller Museum Museum tomorrow with me. Congratulated Terry Cubley from Australia with his 60thiest birthday ; he arrived this morning and had never had such a long birthday and …yes Rick is going to give me all the details from this meeting on Saturday evening when it is all over again. The stewards meeting was one hour longer than planned and it was a great pleasure to see many young delegates , not only grey and very familiar faces. Good for the IGC to have input from the young ones as well. Most people left early as tomorrow is a big day;9 till 5. Saturday after 12 PM we know what FAI WGC will be where.

CU tomorrow, cheers Ritz

 

“Old and grey ” Peter Ryder, Tor Johannessen and Dick Bradley and young!!!!

 

Rick who is happy to write down for me what’s happening and the birthday boy Terry.