Alphen aan den Rijn    September 21 2009

The family weekend was great! It is good to touch base with the whole  family once a year! I do realize on such moments as well, how sad the 3 families are from the 3 Dutch young pilots who died in Portugal , while training to be a pilot. I read that one of the boys was Dutch/Australian and…that maybe the piper Seneca had exploded!! They found wreckage over 4 km., but it is better to wait for the investigation.

Holland belonged this weekend  to the area with the highest temperatures. We played farmers-golf on a huge field with 26 dgr., but for soaring it was a bit difficult as the visibility was pretty poor.Looking at the OLC  I could not find any flight in Belgium or Holland because of this bad visibility , but  clouds were definitely there.
The USA enjoys still great weather with a 705 km flight in an ASW 24 from Warner Springs, up and down over the mountain -chain!

The next weekend on Sunday the Dutch top pilots  come together to look back and celebrate the good results from the 2009 season. Specially Rene and Tim the new European champion in Club class and the runner up Tim , will be cheered on. It will be good see everybody, as the Rayskala juniors will be there as well . I will have an interview with Rene and Tim  both participating in the JWGC and the EGC.

It seems Airbus has no problems with the recession. They expect to sell over the next 20 years about 25.000 planes! They base their statement on the fact that low cost companies are growing and that there will be more “huge towns”, so more companies to bring people from A to B. They claim that  passenger-transport will grow with 4.7 % and freight/cargo with 5.2 %. Hope for them that this is correct.

The Corowa containers are packed and ready to “send” to Australia. In Rotterdam the Priviedza container is already waiting after a trip by train from the Slovak Republic, so all of them , 5 in total, can go on the same ship to Melbourne. A huge job, but Francesco and his team are very experienced. I heard Grietje has not been well, so I specially wish her an extra lot of  “power”, as the new season  over there in good old OZ, will be  pretty heavy again. On October 15 I will be in Tocumwal for 4 weeks and hope to see with my own eyes, that the over-seas season starts with good soaring weather.

That’s it for now, off to Amsterdam , see you on Wednesday!

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    September 17 2009

Just brought Gina to Schiphol Airport, so I have a bit of time to write.But…world-wide the soaring is slowing down at this moment. Only around 40 flights on mid-week-days, not many.Good to see Belgium pilot Joachim Aerts flying a duo discus in New Zealand. Nitra had some nice weather and also pilots in Sweden and Denmark enjoyed nice late summer conditions.
In Vinon the young German pilots with Alexander [ 3d place JWGC in Rayskala] amongst them,had the time of their life flying great flights in the mountains finishing their stay with 485 km flights. They are a nice bunch of young ones ,even making their comments in rhyme!!!Grateful as well to the people who made it possible for them to fly over there and getting such huge new experiences!!!
We have very nice after summer weather as well, with temperatures up to 23 dgr.

It was a bad week for the aviation world. In Germany a Fokker 100 was lucky enough to land without too much problems on a foam-bed , as the wheels did not come out. The pilot was called a hero!Only one person slightly injured.
 Then 2 pilots of a YAK 52 had to make an emergency landing on the gliding-field “Langeveld” here in Holland. They had engine problems but landed safely. Dutch authorities are investigating why the plane had to make an emergency landing.
Worst of all, the crash with the Piper Seneca in Portugal, with 3 Dutch pilots. One the 25 year old instructor with 2 of his students, 18 and 21 years old.
The NLS is one of the big sponsors from the Dutch Gliding Nationals and known as a good school for young people willing to be pilot. They do their theory in Hoofddorp , close to Schiphol airport and because of the weather and the more quiet flying areas they do their flight training in Portugal.
The weather was good at 22.27 yesterday evening when the plane disappeared from the radar, in good weather circumstances. They crashed between Faro a very well known holiday place, mid- south of Portugal and their home base Evora. Tragic!!!!

See you on Monday as I have family-weekend on the 19th and 20thiest, enjoy your weekend as well!!Good luck to all the people packing the containers –this weekend–from Holland for Corowa!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday September 13 2009

” It must be your lucky day “ ,was just written on my comment site after deleting the last nonsense. We are up to 10.471, so it is slowing down.
Had a few busy days with my Tocumwal guest and she has seen a lot from Holland now. Sight seeing is pretty tiring  Gina thinks, so do I!
No gliding fields this time, as she is not so much in gliding, but for sure got to know a few pilots while visiting Sportavia in the past.
Today we were in touch with some of them, Maria and Dieter from Munich by phone and at noon Jonny and Corinne will be here for lunch to catch up. For sure you remember that they worked for us in the past as tow pilot and lady of all trades. They visit with their daughter Marylou.

In the USA they are still happily flying up to 805 km.  in an ASW 27. But also Europe still enjoys after summer weather and Germany , Spain, France , Italy and Finland had some good flights over the last couple of days!
In Germany pilots will meet at the annual glider-pilots-convention,  ” the 68th Deutscher Segelfliegertag”  in Bremen in the big fair complex on Saturday October 31 2009.They expect about 1000 guests. There are lectures [in German] and several types of gliders will be on display! Guests from outside Germany are welcome! A pity I will be in Australia , as I would have loved to be there.

Some people in the suburbs from Brussel  in Belgium are “getting crazy” from the noise from the helicopter of [Crown] Prince Filip from Belgium who loves his flying .He got a training as fighter pilot, but enjoys flying his helicopter on good-weather-days, making the same tour , sometimes 10 times on an afternoon,  around his palace  , can image some frustration in such a case.
Our crown prince is in New York, even visiting Barack and Michele Obama on his visit to celebrate 400 years NY and the liaison with Holland.

See you maybe on Wednesday, another busy day otherwise as soon as I have time. Sorry about that!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Thursday September 10 2009

Sorry, but I forgot all about my blog yesterday and as I travel up and down through Holland at the moment with Gina, my friend from Australia, there is not a lot of time left to write.
Places as The Hague, Amsterdam and Maastricht were on the to-do-list and we travel by train; timeconsuming but relaxing as well.

German Junior Alexander Spaeth is still in Vinon, enjoying his soaring and mentioned that “only mountains could give so much fun with blue thermals”. I remember that Ingo Renner loved blue thermals as well and flew a 1000 km. in only “the blue”! It is great to read how Alexander really enjoys his flying there and forgets about the more difficult moments and just sees a great gletscher as “a high”! Great young pilot!
It is more or less the mountain areas which are still good to fly and Europe still has flights then over 500 km. in a standard cirrus. In Germany [Munsingen Eisberg ] somebody even flew a very nice triangle in an ASW 19 from 579 km.via a few well known gliding places as , Klippeneck, Musbach, where the next JWGC will be held , Bruchsal and Hahnweide.

Next week on Wednesday the first containers  will be packed and pilots move their gliders in this case to Corowa in Australia. Unbelievable how quickly a year “flies”! These containers hope to arrive in Melbourne on November 2 and I hope to see the first gliders go up in Corowa on the 8th , when I am in “the neighbourhood”.

See you on Sunday, hope you don’t mind this is a short one! Greetings Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      Sunday    September 6    2009

After 2 days of REAL autumn weather here in Holland,  with heavy rain and wind and  a long thunderstorm [3 hours ] over Alphen on Thursday evening/night, we luckily go back to a nice after-summer-period with temperatures up to 25 dgr. on Tuesday.
This is good news for my Australian friend Gina, who will visit me next week. Though she visits Ireland first [at this moment] and …they have about the same weather as we do now.

Yesterday I received the September issue of International Gliding.On the cover page is written ” we are the best in what we do!” and to be honest I totally agree. It is a human, easy to read magazine. John Roake is the “boss” , it is “made” in New Zealand but the news is totally INTERNATIONAL.
Robert Danewid from Sweden, about wave flying in Norway.
A portrait of Spanish pilot , competition director, FAI jury member etc Angel Casado.
The ARCUS by Jochen Ewald !!!!
The jet-powered ASW 20 , the PW 6!
A short story about my friend Manfred Radius from Canada,  who did a great evening-display with his “Salto” with the jet sustainer motor at Oshkosh!
Manfred was our guest at Sportavia for many years and before performing at the Avalon airshow, [Melbourne] he practised over our airfield making all our guests and half of the town Tocumwal, as happy and excited as possible!An amazing pilot!!!!
A story about the 18 m. Nationals in the USA [Ephrata] by Bill Elliott , who flew his JS1 to a 3d place ,which makes him fly in Szeged in Hungary in 2010 in 18m. class. By the way , as I told you Andy Davis won in the UK the 18 m. Nationals, but…I forgot to tell you he flew an JS1 as well.
News about vintage gliding, “vintage pilots ” Joachim Keuttner who celebrates his 100th birthday on September 21 and the progress of the first home-built PIK27 [ Finland ] in Australia by friend Bob Ward.
As you can see , enough news , also about instruments as Spiderwatch [a major advantage on ELT ], which gave me yesterday a very pleasant afternoon of reading and catching up.

The young German pilots are still having a lot of fun in Vinon.  3d Place winner in the last JWGC , Alexander Spaeth , in his young enthusiasm wrote as text with his 661 km. flight :” I hate the valley from Barcellonette”, but for sure he had a great run!
In Australia they fly through the year in Jondaryan , but now with the beginning of the spring the kilometers  are growing…..and…. 350 km is a nice beginning of spring. Today they even flow 438 km. with an LS1f.
In Holland we had rain in Amsterdam but good flying in the SW part of Holland, flying distances over 300 km even with the Standard Libelle. A day on which they just could fly straight on for kilometers, without thermalling , as they said !!!!
My friends in Israel had a great day as well as Rafi flew 367 km from their airfield Beer Sheba Teyma. And in Germany , former World Champion Reinhard Schramme, flew in a duo-discus 482 km. Don’t forget it is already late in the season and the days are really getting shorter!!

Airbus top man Thomas Enders said in an interview  in the French paper Le Parisien, that they study possibilities to replace the black boxes  with the flight information in the future, for direct satellite connections. They found , in the end, the black box from the crash close to the Comore Islands, but the other one over the Atlantic Ocean ,has never been found. To improve the safety of flying ALL information should be available after a crash, but….when you do not find the box , you have a problem. So this might be a great solution.

Quick action in India, where a Boeing 747 ready to go from Mumbai to Riyadh, on the taxi-way to the runway got fire in one engine. The fire was quickly put out and all 200 people  left in a flash via the security doors and slides. No injuries and all people travelled later on Friday to their destination, maybe a little more apprehensive.
Less lucky were the 5 passengers including the pilot, from a small plane in the USA [Oklahoma] , hitting in heavy fog , the cable of a high mast, killing all of them including 2 children. Very sad!

That’s it for now! I am negotiating 3 different jobs in PR/ writing/marketing, in 3 different parts of the world which have been offered recently, so it looks all very exciting! But…soaring.eu and my contribution for Gliding International STAND!!!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday September 2 2009

Looking back at Europe’s weather last Sunday,  I think I was pretty right when I said we had a good soaring-summer, BUT….as I just heard this does not count for SWEDEN. Unfortunately it seems the weather for soaring was not too good over there  even, “the worst for many years!!! as I heard from Robert and since July 1 , he has only made one over 500 km flight!! Sorry to hear that, but….Africa and Australia are waiting…….for those who want to fly more and long-longdistance  and ……can afford it!
Still interesting that countries as Sweden and Finland , in the Northern part of Europe AND neighbours ,have such different weather for soaring. What great weather we had during the JWGC in Rayskala and also later when the pilots over there started complaining that it would be over now, some pilots really flew nice long distance flights from Rayskala.
Feel sorry for my  Swedish friends!!!!

Then back to the good weather! John Roake from Gliding International, the KIWI Magazine [ which issue of August should be out now! ] , called after the WGC in Rieti, this place , the Mecca for gliding! The day before yesterday they still flew 500 km . from Rieti airfield.
 In the September issue of SOARING, the USA Magazine I just read a story from Wilfried Krueger, he might be the son from Hardy Krueger, who flew in the past every season in Tocumwal, that ELY in Nevada is ” a paradise for glider pilots”. In June-July 2008 this pilot flew 7 flights over 1000 km. the longest 1330 km. and the fastest 167.5 km/h. over 1246 km.
From friend Daan Pare I heard already how good ELY is. Now I read,  that Ray Linskey was still till last year, one of the frequent flyers there as well. Sorry, that this will not happen anymore as Ray died after a short illness a few weeks ago. Indeed Ray was one of those pilots never claiming his flight on the OLC, a bit of a pity as nobody can “learn” from how he flew.
Wilfried writes that 30 % of the pilots flying in ELY never claim their flight on the OLC!!!!

Knowing Nevada a tiny little bit, as I was there in Minden during the Pre-WGC in ’90, I found it a very pleasant area. We had to move in the end to Uvalde in Texas for the WGC as Minden could not guarantee that the flying -fire -brigade ” would not work ” as finishers arrived home! You might know how terrible the fires can be in those areas, so everybody understood. For us Uvalde was good as Baer Selen got his 2d world title there.
Still good weather in Minden at the moment as the day before yesterday a pilot flew 796 km in an ASH 26E.

In the end the Junior Comps in the UK had 5 flying days,  so Will Ellis who also flew in the junior WGC in Rayskala was the winner and UK champion. He was 47 points ahead on JWGC-mate Mike Collett, both very talented young men.
The last competition of the season in Holland is the ” Vergulde Venturi ” and…another JWGC participant won in club class; Frank Hiemstra. Only one of the 2 days was flyable.In the combi-class retired  KLM pilot Hein van der Linden won and in open class Peter Batenburg with nimbus 4 T [101.3 km/h over 256 km] , with Daan Pare [ Ventus 2CM and 88.2 km/h] as runner up!
More young pilots are having fun in Vinon, with “Divine” flights as Alexander calls it.

That’s it for now! I have decided to NOT take my laptop to Australia, so you will not have a twice a week update in soaring.eu , as I know I have some possibilities to write there as well. But ….this is all  “only” from the middle of October onwards till the end of November.

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      Sunday August 30 2009

I was wrong with the date from the 18 m. Nationals. Sorry about that, I really hoped for one more day with exciting flying, but the last flying-day was the 25th , the comps went till the 26 th and on that day was the prize giving and….that confused me !!! So congratulations to Ricky who won with 43 points on runner up Giorgio , who was 10 points ahead of the number 3 Luciano. 
For sure this competition -win was an “homage”  to Adriana ,Ricky’s  mum who died recently of cancer. Great competition, great winner!
And….talking about the 26th ,…that was another great day with a 773 km flight flown from Rieti, best distance in the World’s OLC for that day.
Did you ever hear of a competition where on every of the SEVEN competition days  a speed of  more then 138 km./h was flown  ???? If yes ,please let me know!
So it stands; Rieti is the mecca for gliding!

Slowly the season seems to be over.  In Holland however we go to 27 dgr. again on Tuesday . Pilots have had a fantastic year of soaring, with unbelievable distances flown also from Holland and a few even very late in the season [August] . Some pilots are tired from the busy season, some NEVER get tired and are ready “to wash the glider and the trailer”  , to ship them to other continents. Yes, in September the first gliders “disappear” from Europe on their way to Africa and Australia. And both parts of the world are ready to receive their guests.

Summer 2009 was a good one as said!  Now on Tuesday the metereological autumn starts , we can look back on great summer -weather ,also for most countries for soaring. In Holland, we had the 9th warm summer in a row above the long-time-average!
The highest temperature in Holland was 37 and during the night 22 , which is very unusual. We had less rain, 185 mm against 220 mm normal and most rain fell in july. So no complaints. With 67 days over 20 dgr. and 25 over 25 dgr. we had 715 hours of sunshine , while the long time average is 591. So you are up-to-date!

Back after the weekend on Wednesday with more news , as I have a guest now and leave for the Southern part of Holland.Enjoy!!!
Hopefully Ricky has time to look back for us on the 18 m. Nationals !

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday August 26 2009

The Rieti 18 m. pilots are busy on their last day after 7 competition-days.  The last 2 days Ricardo Brigliadori, [ YES the son from ] was “HOT” and won both days. Yesterday he flew the 3 hour AAT with a speed of 148 km. over 461 km. ,the day before a racing task of 465.9 km with 138.4 km. But…today , the last flying day, will be really exciting as top pilot Giorgio Galetto is just 43 points behind him and the number 3 Luciano Avanzini, only 10 points behind Giorgio!!!!WOW!!!!!!

The UK juniorchampionships have started on August 22 in Dunstable. Good to see that the young ones from the JWGC in Rayskala are in the top after 2 days of flying. The UK has not the best weather at the moment, but Will Ellis ASW 15 [1] and Mike Collett standard libelle, [3] are for sure hoping on more days , as these comps go till August 30 and I guess they need at-least 3 or 4 days to make it a competition and to call them winners. Fantastic to see that the UK has 52 !!!!! competitors under 25!!!!!!

Last Sunday, Germany , specially the Berlin area  had fantastic weather  and pilots from Luesse, flew over 800 km. while one pilot from Burg Feuerstein , where also some of my friends fly, flew 979 km in an ASW 22 and Bayreuth had a great flight from 782 km.

The meteo here says  that we have been the last 2 months on the border of very hot weather, that’s why we have sometimes indeed very hot weather but also heavy showers and lots of tough wind. Just to let you know.
Italy,Spain, Greece and Portugal and the South of France  are still “bloody hot”! The UK has only 18 dgr. and rain, Finland is not too bad at the moment and Norway has rain as well , specially the south!

Some short news;
In the USA ,a small plane [Piper Comanche]  had to land on the highway in California, hitting 3 cars but nobody got insured. The pilot tried his best to “land with the flow of cars in one direction”, but could not handle it correct and arrived on the wrong side.
You would be one of those car-drivers!!!!
In Belgium , a Dutch pilot flying his private Diamond DA40   over the coast line , got problems with his engine and tried to fly back to the airport which he had just left. That seemed impossible so he landed the plane on the sea looking first for a few boats who would be able to help him out. He had read about landings on water , but never dreamed of doing one by himself. Indeed ,the crew on board saved him from the wing he was standing on and all of them including the pilot could see the plane disappear under water!! He stayed calm all the way, but collapsed at Oostende Airport, but left the hospital after a check, the same afternoon. So …you see what can/might  happen if you just go for a relaxing afternoon flight, to check the waves .

 Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       Sunday August 23 2009

Yesterday the last day was flown in Szeged  where the pre-worlds and Hungarian 18 m. Championships, as well as the 20m/open class was active. Another competition with many soaring days and for that, lot’s of points for the winner. Please look for the results from the different classes to;  www.flatlandcup.hu
Christophe Cousseau  from France, did a great job in nearly winning “everything” and gaining OVER 10.000 points!
In open class both Argentinian and Australian friends flew fantastic,  ending up as 2d and 4th.

I was very pleased to see that Ronald Termaat,  vice- WGC and former European Champion , will start as director of the KNVvL ,[the Royal Dutch Gliding Association] in Woerden on September 1. For sure a good man on the right spot!
I wish him a lot of success and bright new ideas to get the KNVvL , ” out of the , a little bit d[r]usty jacket.”

The 18m. Nationals in Rieti have had 4 soaring days now  and all of them were flown with good speed. 4 More days to go as the 26th will be the last day!As expected Giorgio Galetto is at this stage on spot ONE! Yesterday the pilots flew an AAT in 4 hours and Giorgio flew 599 km. with a speed of 149.9 km/h.
Compliments to Jelmer from Holland flying his LS 6 18 m. to a nice 12th spot [also overall at this stage.] Except for 1 pilot, 17 pilots flew in those 4 hours more then 500 km, so speed for all was over 100 km./h.

Just received an sms from Tocumwal Dundee,  that he has arrived safely in Melbourne, for his annual holiday! Now he stays so long, nearly one year, that we can nearly call him an Aussie! I still remember how he arrived without a booking for a glider or room, a few years ago and with NO word of English to stay with us for a few months.
” Ingo said I should just show up”, he said in German !!! We managed to get him in gliders and a room [6] which nearly has been over the years only HIS room. He still loves Tocumwal and his friends over there!

Yesterday the weather looked fabulous here in Alphen,  reason to look in the evening if this was everywhere so. And YES it was. WOW , great distances were flown both in Holland and Belgium. After the 901 km. flown in Rieti , Holland was SECOND on the OLC list with Mark flying from Soesterberg 820 km!!!!!He was in hurray -mood, even claiming that an out and return of 900 km. had been possible, flying fast into East direction into Germany!!!!And…I do believe him …the weather was just STRONG!!
A Nimbus 4 DT flew from our National Gliding Center Terlet an 852 km. out and return where they were 308 km out of their start place.
Also the Belgium brothers Tijl and Bert , just back from the great EGC in Pociunai , were still in speedy Cross -Country- mood , as they flew from Keiheuvel  755 and 771 km. This is pretty special for Holland and Belgium  , even more because we have past the middle of August, so we can only say 2009 was a great soaring season in Europe, from the beginning till the end!!

 To finish today’s blog I have some sad news as well;
Ray Linskey from New Zealand has died. I got to know Ray many years ago, we even became friends and my daughter Inge stayed with him and Kate for a few days,during her trip through NZ. VERY SORRY to hear that he died so young!!!!My thoughts are with Kate and his family and friends. Here is the message I received. See you next Wednesday!
Ritz

I deeply regret having to inform the many Australian friends of Ray Lynskey (54)  that he died on Wednesday from an inoperable brain tumour after a relatively short illness. His funeral is tomorrow in the new hangar he had recently  built on the airfield at Blenheim, New Zealand.  Many will remember that Ray was a competitor at numerable world championships including Australia and that he was the first person ever to fly in excess of 2000 km (1991).
 Ray will also be remembered for his exploits in Nevada and Utah. One 14 day spell there, he flew six 1000 km .flight.

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday August 19 2009

First of all apologies for not writing last Sunday. I arrived back home later in the afternoon on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday I was occupied with a few important “things” , so here we are again with the latest news in the new blog.

Looking back at Rieti, it was 5 days GREAT fun and 5 days with a lost feeling how it is possible that we can miss a pilot for 73 hours with all the technical and electronical new “toys” in the gliders and when 500 people and 7 helicopters are trying desperately to find him. About 40 of the pilots and crew from the CIM were searching as well, as maybe the way a glider pilot thinks while flying was important as well.

The pilot loved flying, it was his dream and he was able to fulfill it , so it’s most of our dream as well to fly or be involved with flying, so …as life goes on …we go on as well, wishing his family all strength!

This time was the 3d time in a row  that I had the honor of visiting Rieti. And again  I could enjoy the friendship, the professional organization and the good to very good weather. Meteo Guido “missed” one day with a lot of out-landings, but for the rest he was spot on.
Today the 18 m. Nationals start in Rieti and 17 pilots will “fight” for the best place and a spot in the team for the WGC. Pilots as Giorgio Galetto, Alberto Sironi and Rick Brigliadori belong already to the top and will fight each other on the edge.
 The day I left the weather looked fantastic and indeed it was great as some pilots flew over 700 km.

Holland now has hot weather  with temperatures up to 35 tomorrow, real tropic!!!We are not so much used to that.But yesterday pilots were happy here and from our National Gliding Center flights from 640 km. were flown.
In Szeged in Hungary they still fly!!After the success of the WWGC and the great weather it is now time for pilots to fly the pre-worlds during the Flatland Cup between August 9-22.Pilots fly in 3 classes and the Hungarian Nationals are part of it as well!!
The mixed open class with after 7 days of flying Petr Krejcirik from Czech Rep on spot 1, with Ventus 2 18 m. , as well as in 15m / 18 m.
In 20 m. multi seat -open class 2 Hungarian pilots in the top with friends David Jansen and Graham Parker on 3d place in an ASH 25.

In Prievidza the 52 th. Slovak nationals  have been finished last Saturday. These comps were as well the 2009 pre-worlds  for ” the smaller ships”.In the mixed class was after 7 days of flying top pilot Sebastian Kawa , the best.
In club class after 6 days , Australian pilot Alan Barnes  and in standard class Finnish pilot Juha Sorri.

In between the Lasham Nationals and regionals  have been finished last Sunday. After 6 flying days, Leigh Wells , former world champion in Eskilstuna , was the winner in standard class  , with…his father Martyn still on a VERY good 3d place!!!!
Winner in open class; Pete Harvey , former World and European Champion and the current European Champion from Nitra.

 Only 2 months to go and I will fly out to Australia to visit my friends in Tocumwal. Till then I will write newsy blogs for you , as I am not sure , at this stage, if I will carry my laptop up to OZ. For now you are up to date….

Greetings Ritz