Post 1.559 on December 31 2024 ….this is it!!!!!

First some latest soaring news!
The 1000 km “fever”, has hit over the festivity days and it is not special enough anymore to fly 1000 km, only when you do it for the first time or when you fly it for fun.
Nowadays it is 1400 km!!! Young Simon Briel flew it on December 24 as “Christmas gift”; 1.487,57 km in the EB 28. Nice speed to 152, 45 km./h. [Bitterwasser]
Also Alexander Mueller flew far that day, in his EB 29 ; 1.456 km. from Pokweni.
The first 14 on the OLC flew all over 1.100 km.
Here is the Bitterwasser Lodge & Flying Centre;
“Christmas treats in Bitterwasser: A 1000 km flight for every pilot and a new continental record
Just in time for Christmas, our pilots were once again gifted with the best thermal weather, which they made perfect use of: 16 out of 16 flights that started here in Bitterwasser with a distance of more than 1000 km flown. Simon Briel made himself a special present: together with Philipp Freiheit, he flew 1,487 km from Bitterwasser – setting a new continental record in Africa.
The record-breaking flight took off from Bitterwasser before 10 a.m. local time. The route initially led to the northwest, towards the Naukluft Mountains. From there, they headed south along a strong convergence until shortly after Helmeringhausen. After the first leg, the two returned to the north to fly a second lap along the convergence and then back to Bitterwasser in time for the Christmas dinner in the evening.”

Also Australia had a few 1000 km flights ; On December 30 Tomas Suchanek flew 1 from Narromine 1.040 in the Ventus 2A with 125 km./h. So did Gerrit Kurstjens in his EB; 139 km./h.
Some just missed out on a few kilometres.
On December 27 Ryan Driscoll flew from Benalla 1.031 km to do it again one day later now 1.121 km in a Nimbus 3T [25.5 m]
Perfect!!!!!”Sophie Curio set a new Australian Woman’s speed record yesterday over 750km at 114kph from Narromine. ” Congrats Sophie!!!
See WeGlide: https://www.weglide.org/flight/510504…“

—————————————————————————————————————–

The support I had over all those years is HUGE. So a few THANK you’s are in place.
Specially in this festivity season, we have a lot of contact with each other and even after years of no contact , it’s as if we have been seeing each other often.
Indeed that is our soaring world. FRIENDSHIP!!!!

My grandson lives at the moment with Kait in Albury, a friend of my daughter and the daughter from my friend Jill. All from the Tocumwal time!
Yes it all happened due to gliding.
Got a mail from Teresa and she saw some good gliders on line in Tocumwal and she wants to go back. She is Swedish and was sad I won’t be there anymore, now she has retired.
Yes gliding again.
From our Finish mates Kari, Jari and Martti who frequently visited Tocumwal , Kari still visits. He got to know Marianne [Dutch] years ago ,who was a tuggy with us. They still are in contact and this year Kari brought a beer to Dennis for on the grave , on request of Marianne.
I noticed a picture from Bruce in Scottish kilt and the mother of their daughter , [we called her with respect the chatterbox] who married last week. When we were guests too, so before 1995, when we were all young ,beautiful and full of life ,we were mates already. ALL through gliding.

A lot have passed away in those years and I think with huge respect on them.
R.I.P.
Those lovely people are not forgotten and when we write or talk, we use their names and as in a big family , we all know whom we talk about , even if it is 50 years ago.
I can tell you from experience that in the toughest times, the soaring mates gather around you and help you trough the rough time.
I can even tell you that they still do now!!!!
My many photo books make me smile, when I see people I have not seen for a long time or belong to those who passed away.
Yesterday I got a lot of pictures from Daan[Pare] who frequently flew with us at Sportavia. Daan was often Dutch National Champion and flew many WGC’s and EGC’s.
Straight away memories come back .

The difference in dressing at Cat 1 comps from 1980 till now ,was interesting to follow. At the parades every country arrived in a nice out fit.
The CD’s from comps were impressive and we, as young new members of the WGC teams, carefully behaved.

A huge THANK you goes to Bill Elliott who was so kind to host my blog on his server in the USA ,when my good mate Tony Lentino [New Zealand] ,who had set it up, passed away.
Bill is doing, after this blog, the transfer from his server to the server from the FAI, thanks to the help of Visa-Matti-Leiniki, the IT specialist from the FAI.
They will archive all blogs ,so when you want to look back what happened in our soaring world, including WGC’s ,WWGC’ or JWGC’ or European championships, you can still read it.
Bill mentioned; “  That’s a long time posting and being connected with the soaring community.  And, what a great blog it has been!
Once you have posted it, I will start working with Visa-Matti on getting it moved.  My hope is that people will simple get to the blog through soaring.eu as before.”

I learned a lot when I was young from John Roake, Tor Johannessen [Yes Ritz 2x an n and an s] and Leonardo Brigliadori all passed away, but they put their soaring-stamp on me.
Also Ingo Renner, had a huge influence on my thinking about gliding.
Margie Close , a good friend, who lost her husband Jeff, just when we started the business with him, still is a good friend and I was always welcome in her house, when I stayed for a longer time.
She and Jeff ran Sportavia together with Don and Jane between Bill Riley and us and she wrote a short newsletter every year as well, printed on paper. Once ,I read some kind words about my daughter towing for them and that was the little seed , to write my blogs to give the guests and a people working with and around you , a happy feeling

THANK you to all pilots in my Dutch team when I was their TC. AND,…I had big teams both at the WGC or JWGC and at the Europeans. They were GOOD to me and I remember them ALL!!!!!

Thank you to Adam [ Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures ] and Matthew, [ Matthew Scutter’s Gliding] whose wise words and active performance at high level comps ,I was allowed to share.
I hope they continue their blogs at least over the next 20 years.

A thank you to Marina Vigorito and Rick Sheppe, always helpful when I “needed” them.
To my friends and family, missing me on the many occasions I was “writing somewhere in the world “.
To George, when necessary my “back up”. We were married for 30 years, so most soaring related things in the early times were with him. I have still good contact with him and his wife Diana.
Surely I forgot a few, but be aware that ALL MY SOARING MATES have been important in my life.

Well enough is enough NO DRAMA, I just stop writing!

I will try to follow soaring news on the net, but writing is over!
It was good!!!!
THANK you, especially to the diehard-readers and there were a few!!!

Ritz

For the last time ,…no CU later or cheers but FAREWELL .

Ritz

Post 1.558 on December 24 2024 AND ……1 blog to go on December 31.

——-Nice picture from Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
He flew in his SZD-56-2, DIANA 2, FES, 885 km . from Narromine ,where they fly the CHRISTMAS CAMP!
Don’t know if his co-pilot managed to fly with him.

——-Not all is good in Australia at the moment ; The Mount Beauty Gliding Club where I have been too, lovely airfield, is hit by smoke from the Grampian’s Fires. It’s that time of the year again and it has been HOT!!!
Mathew said , flying from Narromine, he had problems with this smoke as well, mind you that’s more than 600 km!!!!!:
“Very interesting day flying yesterday – a perfect day from Lake Keepit, ‘unfortunately’ I was in Narromine!
The trough system was 150km north-east of Narromine, with a long slog through low, blue windy conditions to get to the magic of the trough and 13,000ft cloudbase. I extended towards Lake Keepit on the first leg to allow the later starters to catch up so we could fly together. Awesome conditions but quite broken and incoherent trough system.

With it being the last day of good conditions on the horizon, I was determined to max out the day and risk landing elsewhere if required to do so. The smoke from the Victorian bushfires pushed in much stronger and faster than I expected and the risk was looking to become a reality.
I have never done a full range test on the FES before, I measured the maximum climb altitude at ~7000ft, but theoretically the range is longest at low power level flight.
97km from home at 1300ft AGL in thick smoke with a marginal horizon and a 20kph headwind component, I started the FES and an HOUR later I arrived back at Narromine with ~15-20% battery remaining.
I suspect this may be the longest-ever FES self-retrieve – I have the larger 5.5kWh batteries, and the Diana 2 is the lightest 50:1 glider, which makes it a perfect pairing with the FES.“
Matthew Scutter’s Gliding
There is often” ” something to learn” in his blogs.
He flew 861 km till the smoke moved in spoiling his task.
“Longest ever engine run. 96km with 80% used, into a 25kph headwind.” on https://www.weglide.org/flight/507859

—–BITTERWASSER;
In the past I have written a lot about this 1000 km- camp ,as it is so valuable!!!!!
Young ones have the future and it is fabulous to see how Stefan and Simon, still young themselves , inspire, the even younger generation!!!
World-class coaching in Bitterwasser
The world and vice world champions of this year’s 18-meter class gliding world championships, Stefan Langer and Simon Schröder, have chosen Bitterwasser as their next destination. Following their successes in Uvalde, Texas, they are now taking on a special mission: as part of Wilfried Grosskinsky’s 1000 km camp, they are passing on their knowledge to young up-and-coming pilots.
At the invitation of Bitterwasser and Wilfried Grosskinsky, the two top pilots are currently in Bitterwasser, where they are coaching young, talented pilots as part of the renowned 1000 km camp. With their experience from international competitions and their successes at world-class level, they offer the participants valuable insights into flight tactics, route planning and performance optimization.

By now most of you know how we once arrived in Australia [ if not you can scroll down, if you wish] and that we lost our son [worst moment!!!] divorced around the year 2000 and later the business [bad moments]
No reason to love it, earlier to hate it , I often heard.
BUT, NO, I still love Australia.
Australia but mainly TOCUMWAL has been very good to us. We sometimes complained about the wrong decisions in our eyes by judges and the shire, but all in all we really belonged to the bigger growing Toc family.

Mind you, I travelled more than 30 times up and down between the Netherlands and Melbourne and had no problem with it. That I can’t do that anymore is sad ,but with my age,… OK.
Our “latest news” every day on internet in the nineties , was some kind of highlight in the soaring world and from every where in the world we got new glider pilots.
Of course Bill, from the beginning [with Ingo] and later Don and Jeff had a good management strategy already.
When the guests arrived at our office and they were new, they straight away knew, who Ritz was and they felt at home!
You can ask them!

Sportavia’s slogan ” learn to fly in one week” attracted many pilots and of course that was only possible due to our excellent instructors. Dessie [Russell] still from Bills time, helped us often. Don and Jeff and Eddie and of course our “biggest attraction” ….a bit disrespectful….Ingo belong to the very best. Later we had guest instructors too and when everything “failed” ” we always had Richard Vincent as a great “back up”!!!!!!
Eddie could read the weather, as the very best and in the high season we took temperatures for the briefing in the Tug and the tuggies we had, always loved it. Early wake up,….NO WORRIES!!!
His briefings were always TOP.
Ingo did briefing’s too, but I heard he sometimes was a bit optimistic. He looked through his own eyes and his own skills, to it.
He out landed sometimes, but mostly he flew exactly the task with the belonging weather and arrived long before the other pilots finished and they only knew because they saw his glider already in the hangar.!!!
We had tuggies from all part of the world and most of them were good to very good and most earn good money now as pilots with big airlines.

“Good, better, best “the affiche from Don [R,I.P.] and Jeff [R.I.P.][ running the business 8 years ahead of us] with a picture of a strawberry, the back of a beautiful naked female body and a glider was bought by all leaving customers ,also the Japanese.

Running a restaurant was the biggest job. Our[ later] co owners ,the Bodey’s , Glenda and Ross, took care of that and did a great job. It was difficult, as chefs are not the easiest people. One day with a full house ,George had to fly to Oaklands to fly in a chef to cook for the guests. I can tell you stories about them but I won’t. Luckily we had a few VERY good ones too.
One ,had to prepare regularly over 100 meals on a 3 dollar Wednesday-evening, luckily he had prepared meals for the army earlier. People also from town and far around, arrived for their meal and as we had not enough chairs in the dinning room, they ate outside around the pool or on the grass in the back garden of the WWII hangar.
Good old Bill and is family shared many nights and Bill looked around ,…..SO VERY PROUD!!!!

The cleaning ladies were good too. With overseas guests ,Maria and Charlene, were so kind to take a baby kangaroo, they fed after “mum” died and a koala or Aussie bird. Guests loved that.
With 8 units and 10 rooms in the WWII hangar they were busy enough. On top of that a bar, an outside pool , the sun room for breakfast and a briefing room.
It’s not all there anymore, but the briefing room in the WWII hangar is till in use by Lumpy and his team from Tocumwal Soaring Centre
One of our Finish -long- time “frequent flyers”, flies with Eddie and with Lumpy nowadays and over the last 3 weeks , he was very positive;
“It is so good to see what Lumpy has done in Toc. It starts to remind a bit of the old good times at Sportavia and the atmosphere is nice .“

The briefing room still has the same colour but nice new chairs and a new slogan on the wall; the Texas reminder. [Lumpy flew his first WGC and even won a day in Uvalde!!]
The old chairs were bought by the BIG STRAWBERRIE at KONOOMOO. We have been sitting on them whilst eating our strawberries! Tocumwal Soaring Centre

Our office in early times with only ladies, later mostly with George and Peter [Brutus for friends] who worked day and night, was busy with bookings, welcome and farewell moments and ALL that had to be organized and that was A LOT. Too much to write down.

One of the special moments in life was for me being” part” of the Sydney to Hobart race, . We flew with a few soaring-mates in a Citation Jet and our vintage Albatross from Tocumwal to Hobart.
We looked, at a very special spot around a rocky mountain ,to see the boats reach the harbour. Then quickly to the harbour to see it dock ; WINNER that year was George Snow and his crew. He flew gliders with us and his brother Terry [R.I.P.] belonged to our friends. We were invited on the boat, the Brindabella, and had bubbles and all kinds of great sea food.
What a moment that was!!!!! I did n’t even sail but we sat at the WINNING BOAT, we just were invited by lovely people and saw how it all worked . Magic Around Christmas and New Year this All happens again .

The “family-feeling” at Sportavia, was strong ,as most guests returned a year later.
That family feeling was also strong at comps!
The same pilots returned and it was ONE BIG family!
I spend more time in that period with Sportavia guests and comps guests ,than with my own family.
The bubbles in the early evening and the port with tea to finish the day, were “standard” but not too good for my health.
The gliding world has enriched my life enormously!!!
A lot of those kind people invited me to their home town/country and this way, I saw a lot of the world AND many new gliding places!!!
Also in Japan. [3] I am proud we had so many guests from Japan and with a few I am still in contact.

So you see I love Australia through SPORTAVIA and the gliding world.
But honestly I travelled a bit too and it is one of the most interesting and beautiful parts of the world.
THANKS!!!!!

Some thank you’s.
—–-Ritz your blog is/was the best in our Community! — nostalgisch.
Thanks Ritz for all the years !!—
thanks a lot!—
–—–“Man oh man” loads of respect how you reached the gliding community ALL over the world”
——Since 2006, your blog has served as a repository for international news
and information about our sport, and it remains widely read by glider
pilots around the world.”
—-– Though I do understand , it’s so sad you stop writing your blog. It always had interesting news and stories and it was the easiest way of following the soaring world.”
—–-“Thank you for your Blog „soaring.eu“; I will miss it!”
—–“Rietje and her alter ego Ritz, are meanwhile engrained in the collective memory (and the hearts) of the global soaring society. You go, girl…!!!”
——“Congrats on your upcoming “retirement”. I’ve enjoyed following along since we met at Uvalde in 2012. Enjoy your free time!“
–—–I was honoured to have known you.

CU next week for the last blog….indeed “an end of an era” with MY THANK you’s!!!!

cheers Ritz

HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME!!!
May we live in peace all over the world!!!!!
The secretary general of the NAVO Mark Rutte said ;
“If you want peace ,you have to prepare for war“.
It does n’t sound good to me , but he is right.

Great picture from Jonker;

Post 1.557 on December 18 2024 AND ……2 blogs to go on December 24 and 31.

—-With 2 blogs to go the final is close by. Lot’s of friends have written to me already that they enjoyed the blogs and are sorry that it has to finish on the last day of this year 2024.
I am sorry too, but as 1 of my soaring-mates wrote;
”  While I miss my old WGC friends, the aches and pains of advancing years remind me that I could not do that again.  It was a great run, though, wasn’t it!”
IT WAS!!!!!!
On top of that I celebrated my 78 st birthday with so much reactions that I felt overwhelmed , but also proud and grateful, that……YOU ALL allowed me to write so long and in a way for some “closed me in your heart”.
With No readers it ‘s no fun to write.
Interesting is that a few wrote to me with a THANK YOU , and I had no idea that they followed my blog.

Back to soaring;
——The snow was kind enough to not fall down on December 13 , as an important moment for the HPH had to be shared; the maiden flight of HPH 304 MS SN:194-MS was on the airfield of Zbraslavice, in the Czech Rep.
And MORE great news from HPH;” fantastic news, the Twin Shark now has full uk CAA certification. All in good time for the Twin Sharks arriving in the uk next spring” Gliding

——-Between December 7 and 14 the NSW championship was flown from Temora, a very nice airfield with mostly good weather. Unfortunately NOT for the first couple of days, but then it changed to pretty normal GOOD Temora conditions.
They fly in 3 classes ; club standard and 18m/open class. The scoring is as a GP.
Day 1 was cancelled due to low convection and day 2 because of rain.
BUT THEN it started;
Day 3;
In 18 m/open the 10 pilots got a 246 km-task won by Richard Frawley in a JS3 with 133km./h.
In standard the 6 pilots all flying LS8 except for 1 ASW 24 had to go for 246 as well and Peter Trotter won the day ; 115 km../h
In club the 14 pilots flew the 246 km task with Jack Hart [ASW20] as the best and the only one over 100 km./h.
Day 4;
18m/open; 290 km… daily winner Norm Bloch in JS3.104 km./h.
Standard; 249 km….won by Peter
Club; 249 km….Paul Dickson in LS 4 was a tad faster than Jack; 89 for 87 km./h.
Day 5;
18m/open; 267 km…. and Geoff Brown was the daily winner with 122 km./h.
Standard; 254 km… and no not won by Peter this time , but by his wife Lisa also in LS 8;
club; 254 km…Jack in his ASW 20 was the best again; 91 km./h
Day 6;
18m/open ; 342 7 km….. won by Norm…157 km./h!!!!!
standard; 387 km… and AGAIN won by Lisa! She is a great pilot. Peter was just a tad slower.
Club; 295 km… and the Mosquito with Terry Cubley in it won the day; 116 km./h.
Day 7;
18m/open; 407 km….and best result for Richard for 11 points and a speed of 128.4 km./h.
standard: 340.7 km….Peter and Lisa started together, flew together and finished together and with the smallest margin Peter won the day 7 points for 5.[speed 113 and 110 km./h] .
club; 256 km….Les in the St Libelle won the day; 93,9 km./h.

The local Temora paper had a nice article about the NSW State comps.

Temora NSW state comps winners after 5 out of 7 days!!
18 m./open; Richard Frawley in JS 3 /18 m with 49 points, winning 2 days . Quite a “fight” in this class as Norm and Geoff both had 48 points.
Standard; Peter Trotter in LS8 with 32 points and winning 3 days!!
Club; Jack Hart in ASW 20 won with 74 points , winning 2 days and on 2 days also runner up.

All pictures were shared by Temora Gliding Club

—–Namibia has not only had a few excellent days again, on 1 of those days [December 11] a very good WWGC pilot, Katrin Senne, flew new records as well ; WORLD records , to be precise, but they have to be ratified. Katrin was WWGC champion in 2007 and 2017 and several times in the top 3. She is a Sales agent for JS.

BITTERWASSER continued.…This years 1000 km [every year] organized by Wilfried Grosskinsky from Bitterwasser had it’s last day on December 14. Wilfried flew with TOPPER Stefan Langer and for both it was a great pleasure.
On December 10 they flew together too, under difficult circumstances with overdevelopment, a huge front and a sand storm darkening the skies [ in all those years Wilfried had never experienced this before] and on top of that their logger gave up . Result the 1.242 km distance was not to be seen as well as the declared FAI 1.118 km . Bit anyhow no worries a pity and another great flight for them in the EB 28.
Last Sunday I had Luc as a visitor on my door with a parcel, but unfortunately he was not the fittest person, so talking about his recent flight at the 1000 km camp will happen in the future. He flew with Winfried on December 5 and long ago as a young pilot.
During the 1000 km camp the longest distance was flown by Wilfried and Stefan on December 8; 1.237.88 km [149,69 km./h] and FAI 1.068 km.[127.91 km/h]

Talking about Bitterwasser one of the “key-persons’ passed away last week. Very sad as Hansjörg Schweizer was the engine behind it, the founder from Bitterwasser (PTY) LTD.] and already for 30 years involved!!!!
On top of that he was a great glider pilot with 2300 hours logged in his soaring logbook. Without him Bitterwasser would not be what it is NOW!!!!
I don’t know him , but read and write about BITTERWASSER often ; the very best soaring spot for long CC flights and more. So he has done something special, excellent and epic and that ‘s what we will remember. Thank you!
R.I.P. Hansjörg…… he passed away on my birthday.

——Transavia the company where my daughter flies already for more than 25 years, is changing from Boeing 737 to Airbus A 321 NEO. They just received the 7th ‘bird’ of this new fleet. She will fly it in 2025!!!
A very old 737 I just found on the net.

To finish the story about my name Ritz.
Just noticed a really nice reel and some pictures on the net of the Ritz in Paris. You surely know what’s to come.
When I arrived for the first time in Tocumwal and introduced myself they “could n’t get their tongue around my name Rietje or Riet”.
David Riley ,then the young son of founder Bill Riley from Sportavia, thought about it to make it easier for people from down under.
Rita?? No I was not a Rita.
Ritz!!!!!!!…..yes he said you are classy as the hotel and so I turned into Ritz for my friends in the world.

2 more blogs to go on December 24 and December 31 both TUESDAYS!!!!!
Have to tell you a few words about my love for Australia and the last one will be a TANK-YOU- blog to so many who stood behind me.

Cheers Ritz

Post 1.557 on December 11 2024 AND ……3 blogs to go.

—–The Springfield Soaring Championship in N. Z. flown between November 30 and December 7, had 6 tasks out of 7 days, pretty good!!!!! BUT, the weather was not good every day! Host , the Canterbury gliding club, shared news about what happened.
Task 1 was straight away a NICE one for the 19 starting pilots in one class; 475.42 km
Terry Delore in the ASH 25 M “did it” in 4 hours and 58 minutes. They expected all more of this day. Terry had 111 km./h Only 4 pilots flew over 100 km./h and lot’s got a penalty for all kind of “mistakes”.
Task 2 was cancelled. “ Not good weather today and after a wee while the day was cancelled.“
Task 3 was smaller; 292.21 km , but only 8 pilots started NOBODY finished but the daily 330 points went to LS 8 pilot Terry Jones for 80 km distance!
Task 4; 14 went for a flight and the task was 449 km. Team Oakley in the ASH 25 won the day with 136.49 km./h ahead of Terry with 111.23 km./h and Tony van Dyk with 84.78 km./h in ASG 29E.
Task 5 ; got more pilots into action 17 started for a racing task of 265.98 km. and the Oakley ASH 25 was the best again with 111,04 km./h
Task 6; “There was quite a lot of low cloud around but that is burning off now.” was the message for the day. 17 tried hard to fly the 209.68 km and 13 finished. Terry [Jones] in the LS 8 won the day.
Task 7; 340.00 km to finish these comps. 2 Pilots flew over 100 km./h The Oakley team in the ASH 25 [ 103.64 km./h] and Patrick Driessen in the AS33es; 101.85km./h.

Overall scores after 6 out of 7 days.
1. Oakley & Team TF in ASH 25 with 4,422 points.
2. Terry Delore in ASH 25M with 4,198 points.
3. CGC Team BT in DG 1000 S with 3,667 points.

“Great organisation, lovely weather and good company. Tasks on nearly every day, with Thermals, convergence flying, and ridge and wave soaring too.
Thanks everyone for a great time. ” John McCaw

–—–Winter has started here after again one of the warmest months ever and where on the other site of the worlds gliders FLY, …..on this site it ‘s time for winter maintenance.

—–-Getting older is tough, it means also getting earlier pneumonia, even with jabs against flu and corona. So I am at anti biotics now to get my lungs in better condition again.
No worries!!!!

—— FINALLY!!!!! After 3 months the gliders from team South Africa arrived back home from Uvalde.
By now all gliders should be home again.

——One of my Aussie mates is in South Africa at the moment ,where he flew his JS 5, a few days ago for the first time. Whilst being there, he flew on December 4 , a JS 3 TJ/18m from Potchefstroom; 551,32 km @ 167,12 km/h. NOT BAD!!!! Not bad at all.
Great stats too.

Found this gorgeous picture from the new JS5 on the net ,Glider YY , for years is YY the call sign from Bruno Gantenbrink. Guess this might be his new glider!
“From all of us at JS, we wish you happy landings, endless adventures, and unforgettable moments in the air.”

—–In my blogs , the Thermiekbel regularly passed by. It’s the restaurant at the Terlet soaring airfield. The picture in the left corner from my blog, is how it looks now.
This picture below, shows how it was when I was young. I was even at the last party before it closed. Must be 1967!!!!Great times!
All pilots flying the Dutch SGP at Terlet , between Mai 11 and 17 in 2015 , will have a drink and/or meal at the new [old by now] Thermiekbel.

——For my Dutch mates;
The dates of the upcoming 2025 competitions.

–—-More then 40 over 1000 km flights last Monday in Namibia [ up to over 1200 km!!!]and on Sunday even flights over 1.305 in the EB 28. The magic is back in Namibia!
My Dutch mates Alfred Paul and Mark flew 1.253,24 in the Arcus M from Kiripotib and my other friends Rob and his sister Marianne flew from Veronica 1.109.30 km.
4 new Records for team Peter Szabó and Peter Hársfalvi from Hungary flown from Veronica in a Twin Shark; 1. 153.09 km with 136,17 km./h. Also on Monday a real HAMMER DAY!!!!!
Congratulations to our Hungarian mates.
Yesterday another TOP DAY!!!! Flights up to 1.405,79 km by 2 German pilots flying from Veronica with a speed of 155 km./h. Also 3 over 1.300 km flights!

Flying over the deserts and scrub is different than the scene in Worcester, look at this picture from other Dutch mates.

And from Kiripotib

——Spend the weekend in Luxembourg with my family and even Diana who lives in Luxemburg and has a very busy schedule, had time to join in. Grand daughter Indya lives there for 6 months. Cold and wet, but we had a great time! Luxembourg is so beautiful, I forgot all about that.

We visited the Luxembourg American cemetery and Memorial. Later also the German side and it was more than IMPRESSIVE.
5.600 American soldiers are buried here and about 1.5 km further 10 000 Germans mostly very young!

Of course fun as well; dinner in a Lebanese restaurant BAZAAR, and a visit to the Christmas Market with TOO many visiting people, but beautiful.

Post 1.557 on December 4 2024 AND ……4 blogs to go.

The Australian multi class nationals flown in 2 classes 18 m and open, continued ,but initially more with talking than flying.
It RAINED!!!!
So on November 28 , 29 and 30 ...NO FLYING.….BUT better weather was expected!
I know , that on non flying days the pilots meet and talk and talk and talk. Everybody can say what ‘s on her/his mind. For sure with the troubles ahead of the comps…. TALKING was necessary!!!!
On December 1 their meteorological summer started and our winter. Yes indeed we had minus 2 dgr. C ,but sunny and blue skies during the day.
Sunday December 1…with a 3 hour AAT the comps continued again . A task around the airfield to fly 3x!
It was looking and waiting ,what this day would bring.. Later on the day showers were expected . The first pilots however could leave at 1 PM.
Task 7 on flying day 4;
3 hour AAT for both classes!!!! It turned out a GOOD day with Norm as winner in 18 m flying 391.33 km with 119.99 km./h. for 1000 points! Only one out-landing by Jacques in his JS 1C a real nice local pilot!
In open it was Tobias with 318.80 km. with 104.47 km./h the only one over 100 km./h. also for 1000 points! Allan was 3d.
“Awesome that we got a task in, certainly the best one for the weather we had.”
“Today was a day not to lose” more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures

Monday December 2; both classes got a set task of 386.56.
It was a day for Adam to quickly forget, but …..he explained with a “smile” how he ended up back at the field using his engine and hard to be said but ,also loosing the comps!
“Today was a day that I really wished I had my 18m tips. Currently I’m flying in 18m class in 15m config – with the wrong handicap (by 0.005 to 0.025, depending on how crazy you want to stick to the national rules).”
There is a video on which he explained what happened on his site.
In 18 m it was Lumpy who won the day; 131.55 km./h Lumpy is really doing better than any year before and Uvalde might have been, what he needed to get to these results.
Runner up was Norm, [128.59 km./h] who I met in the past at many Nationals, and on 3 was Ray.[123.54 km./h. ]
From 9, 2 were out after 182 km.
In “open” class Allan was the best with 123.58 km./h , with ARCUS M team CHA as runner up [127.40 km./h handicap 1055] WOW, this was his 37th Nationals!!!!! Just excellent!!!!And as said a lovely guy!

What they did n’t know on the morning of December 2 was,….that this was in fact ,their last day!!!!! The weather was not good enough to set another task. So a pretty bad end of the nationals for Adam [his reflections are on his site “ What did I forget? That this nationals is also the 18m team selection for the POL WGC. If I had remembered this at the time, I probably would have played my cards correctly. Unfortunately, I’m now ranked #3 to go to Poland, the upside, that if one of the two above me choose not to go, then I’ll receive the funding by the smallest of margins..”
and a great one for Lumpy; his very first Australian title.
“Don’t give up on your passions and dreams ! If you have to work harder to achieve them, then reward is that much sweeter
Today I released a goal I put on myself forty years ago and it was worth every bit of the struggle.
Australian National 18mtr Champion “

Final scores after 5 out of 8 days in 18 m class!
1. Lumpy Paterson in JS3 /18 m with 4,319 points. Congratulations Lumpy!!!!
2. Norm Bloch in JS3 /18 m with 4,277 points. Great to see how GOOD you still fly!!!!
3. Ray Stewart in JS3 /18 m with 4,240 points. Good on you Ray!!!

Finals scores in “open” class also 5 out of 8 days!!!
1. Allan Barnes in LS8 with 4,779 points. Top job Allan!!!!
2. Tobias Geiger in Ventus 2/15 m with 4,627 points. Well done Tobias!!!
3. Atkinson & Durand in the Arcus M with 4,211 points. GOOD!!!!

Some more short news:
—–DUO DISCUS -story! We all know the Duo Discus as a “working horse”. Training, checks etc BUT …you can fly SUPER overland flights as well in it. Justin Wills with a guest Julian ,from the Romanian Airclub, proofed it by flying 1.214 km with 146 km./h!! 9 hours and 19 minutes!!!
GOOD ON THEM!!!!!!
Wave up to 8324 m MSL.

Kelvyn from the USA, flew an ASG 29E/18m and called it a “Stonking wave day.”. He flew just over 1000 km!!!

……..Namibia had a bit of a quiet time. Still good flights but not every day a 1000 k as some expect/ hope for! Last Sunday Russell [Cheetham] flew a 1.007 km again from Kiripotib.
Tobias [Welsch] flew from Bitterwasser a 1.014 km flight. The last 6 ,were on November 25 and another 8 on November 24.
On December 2 the over 1000 km-flights were back at Veronica and Bitterwasser. Wilfried Grosskinsky flew his EB with one of his 1000-km- students Nils over 1.017 km.

——THANKSGIVING; Hope all my USA friends had a happy day with lot’s of good turkey WITH stuffing, and still energy enough for those who wanted ,to visit the shops on BLACK FRIDAY.

—– Australian Junior Soaring “JOEYGLIDE KICKS OFF IN JUST OVER A MONTH, 12TH OF JANUARY 2025! GET EXCITED! IF YOU HAVEN’T PUT YOUR REGISTRATION IN YET, GET IT IN NOW! SPOTS ARE FILLING QUICK.”
Adam wrote about it ;“Hard to believe, but this year is the 20th anniversary of JoeyGlide – super cool to still seeing it run since I was involved in it’s inception, & initial event in 2004/2005“

——Dutch Sailplane Grand Prix
“Last Saturday I got the opportunity to present next year’s Sailplane Grand Prix to the board and members of our club the Gelderse Zweefvliegclub at our general meeting.
6 months and counting to the start of the first ever GP taking place in the Netherlands.
We plan to close registration in January 2025 and send out our first information bulletin as well as local procedures.
We’re looking forward to this event in May 2025, where the world’s best pilots will be competing!”
https://sgp.aero/netherlands2025

——I found my memory sticks but one way or another I cannot see the pictures , so no pictures as promised from Rieti.
I do have pictures from another airfield I frequently visited and that’s the KEIHEUVEL in Belgium.
These are from 2020.

And what about Benalla....? In the simulator in 2013!!!With Benalla -icon Graham Garlick.

That’s it!!! Sinterklaas ahead, a short visit to Luxembourg to see Indya , my birthday, Christmas and the start of the New Year in which we NOT meet again!
Weird feeling but good , better for my health.
Cheers Ritz