August 15 2006
Latest news by Ritz

The Netherlands;
Last weekend John Nugent from Melbourne and Dieter “Dundee” Albrecht, from Germany visited me here in Holland. Their names are very familiar for the readers of my daily Latest News in Tocumwal. Though we had the heaviest rain in the coast areas with lots of flooding, we enjoyed only sun during our visit to Keiheuvel in Belgium on Sunday, where the “Royal” Areoclub of Keiheuvel celebrated her 50thiest anniversary with 3 OPEN DAYS. In co-operation with the Dutch and Belgium airforce the many thousands of visitors had 3 great days.We looked at the Mitchell B 21 and a great flight of a DC 3 Dakota. The noise made us all think of the good old Albatros, flying in Australia from Tocumwal Airport.
By the way, John was one of the passengers,enjoying the ferry flight from Santa Rosa in Californa over Honolulu and Noumea to OZ, a couple of years ago. A flight he will never EVER forget!!!
Also a Fokker S 11 and 2 Chipmunks presented theirselves. 5 Army Helicopters flew a nice demonstration and a Police Helicopter flew around with guests, who had won a flight with their raffle tickets.Lots of gliders too, as the ASK 21, a salto and LS 4, all launched by the Scout.

Sadly enough the Fokker S 11, crashed on Saturday evening in front of all spectators at the restaurant, after, as they think in first instance , an engine failure during landing. The 41 year old KLM pilot was severely injured and died on Sunday.

We missed out on the Balloon Race with 50 Balloons as it became too late.

England:
The last 2 days of the 18 m. class comps have been scrubbed, as the English call it so nicely. Leaves us after 6 days out of 9 , with Russell Cheetham as the well deserved winner! On the last flying day, interesting things happened as Steve, one of the Jones brothers had to outland. In the end Phill was 3d and Steve 5th .

Germany;
The preworld qualification for the Grand Prix will be flown in Hahnweide from August 19 -27 2006. Only 20 participants will “fight” for a qualification place to fly in New Zealand.Christoph Nacke, current junior world champion [ winner in Hus Bos] and Steven Raimoned current European champion [winner in Rayskala] are 2 of the pilots involved. You can keep track on their performances on www.gliding-grandprix.de.Hope the weather will improve to give them some great days of flying!

Still busy with my removal. Insurances, prizes for the removal, it is all going through my fingers.In between I get news from Tocumwal that the club is up and running. Secretary of the Murray Border Gliding Club is Donald Ashton and CFI Ingo Renner.They have a big meeting tonight with the Shire and I hope to have the LATEST on this item soon. Tocumwal WITHOUT GLIDING; IMPOSSIBLE!!!!
They need a hangar, a tug and a few gliders and all private gliders , still in the Sportavia hangar can be moved and fly then too.Fingers crossed!!!!

Jabiru flying is still possible. Don and Eddie have their 2d Jabiru now, so power flying in an ultra light is available in Tocumwal!

Expected soon; Story from the Schmelzer brothers Tijl and Bert jr. about the competition, “Spagettie Glide” in Rieti where Bert was the winner, of these Pre World Junior Comps.As you have read here too, they both won in Klippeneck too.

Ritz

August 11 2006
Latest news by Ritz

The Netherlands;
Lots of rain in Europe except for the more Southern parts were Spain struggles with huge bush fires! Not a lot of flying with this rain, though yesterday some pilots in France still managed to fly a task of 720 km. The rest of the countries “show” more or less “under-500 km-flights” , so after a terrible good time, it is a bit quiet now!

Germany; Klippeneck.
I should perhaps never have written , that I remembered a competition in Klippeneck with NO flying days at all, ONLY RAIN. It is a bit better now as pilots had 2 flying days, but of course they all hoped for more; pilots but also the organization. It is good to see that the marges between the scores are pretty small. Today , Friday the 11th, they have already the final party, to give a task tomorrow if the weather co-operates. So a lot can still happen, BUT they HAVE to fly first!! LET IT BE!!!!
You can find the scores on www.klippeneck.de. It is nice to see that my Belgium friends , travelling from Rieti [ were the brothers Tijl and Bert jr. participated in the junior pre worlds Spagettiglide with great results 1 and 3] to Belgium, share the first place in Standard class.
Dutch pilot Jaap Horsten is doing well too with a 1st place in 15 m class and toppilot Reinhard Schramme is 3d in 18 m. class at the moment.

United Kingdom;
At Lasham, they are flying the 18 meter class Nationals with lots of “famous/ wellknown ” glider pilots. There are 49 pilots competiting!Also the Jones brothers, both flying in the last world comps , as well as Russell Cheetham, who flew in Sweden in open class.
The weather there is much better then here and they have flown already 5 out of 9 days with 3 to go including today [they have a 302 km task] and one scrubbed. [ Period; August 5 till August 13 2006].
After 5 days the general score is;
1. Russell Cheetham in ASG 29/18 m. with 4322 points.
2. Steve Jones in Ventus 2CX/18 m. with 4150 points.
3. Phil Jones in Ventus 2 CX/18 m. with 4136 points.

In the UK they will fly at Lasham also the Regionals , from August 19- 27.Just to let you know. Look for results from the 18 m. Nationals , when you are interested at www.lasham.org.uk Enjoy!

Not much more to say. I am still busy with the organization of moving from good old OZ to Holland and it has cost me a lot of time! There is SOOOOO much to do. But…..I found a house, which is great!It looked like an impossible job, with one disappointment after another, but it is OK now.Still trying to find a job too here in Holland ,one to combine with my ART job.Preferrable one writing on the computer.

Enjoy your [wet] weekend and safe travelling for the many competitors travelling from Klippeneck to home, where-ever that is.Ritz

August 8;
Latest news by Ritz

The Netherlands;
Due to the fact I am moving house the stories will be a “bit” irregular. Sorry about that! Reason to ask for some “help of my friends”, so the article written by Marina Vigoreto Galetto is already on. Thanks Marina , great intervieuw and now we know a bit more about this fantastic NUMBER 1 pilot Sebastian Kawa,and there is still a huge future for him!!!So more to come!!!!

We are still trying to get the topics on a different page, but that does n’t work, at the moment. So you can click on topics 1 with Mike Mike articles and topics number 2 with the general articles. So for the time being,it remains like this, with the same article ALSO in the blog,hope you do not mind .

Belgium;
The competition is Belgium is over and they really were hit by bad weather. They managed to get 3 days out of 8 and Hans Biesters was the winner in 15/18 m. class.
In Standard class Emilel de Wachter kept his first place , but in open Pierre de Broqueville just lost with 50 points from Joost Wolff and Herman Muller.
Though the weather did not co-operate they look ahead at next year!

Germany;
The 38th Klippeneck competition has started with bad weather too. They did some flying on Monday and to see how they did, you can look at www.klippeneck.de.Enjoy!

That’s it for now . A lot of pleasure reading the Sebastian Kawa story.

The not so good news this week , was the accident from a very well known pilot and flying club member in Rieti. I wish all pilots, friends and family from the pilot strenghts, as they need that. I know all about it!They cancelled flying on Monday out of respect.

August 1 2006
Latest News by Ritz

Europe;
The weather in Europe in July, has been fantastic and in Holland it was the hottest ever in history, which means since they started counting. But…after 16 days the heatwave here is over , we just missed out on one more day as the temperature reached 24.3 and we needed 25 yesterday .
We are back to more or less normal, rainy and windy Dutch weather with temperatures around 20 dgr. Londen,Berlin, Oslo, Helsinki and Stockholm have about the same.Spain however is still hot with 36 dgr. in the S. part
On the 19th of July, 4.5 milliard liters of water have been “used” on ONE day by Dutch consuments.That is 1 1/2 times more then normal.

Belgium;
BeNeLux competition;
August 1 is the fourth day of the BeNeLux competitiion in Belgium, just over the Dutch border.I guess looking out side that today is cancelled; Quite heavy showers with in between small windows of sunshine. And… Day 2 was also cancelled due to bad weather.
But…Day 3 was a good looking day with a rather late start between 3.30 and 4 o’clock. A day with blue skies and huge white clouds in the afternoon , but still with possibilities or showers later in the day; a task was set in each of the 3 classes;
St class;
145 km with 5 points. Winner was, as on day 1, good old friend Emiel De Wachter [B] who, as in the early 70thies has his wife Godelieve as his crew.In the 70thies when we all met, he flew Libelle. He still has that glider , he told me, though he flies his LS 8 now.I urged him to never get rid of the Lbelle as , in my opinion, it was one of the best ever made!
Only 4 from the 11 pilots in this class arrived back home. Last to make it home was Eric Colbrant at 18.34.

15/18 m. class;
A task from 166 km over 5 points and winner in this class was Rob Looisen, former Dutch champion, now flying comps for fun, but don’t underestimate him as he is still a very, no an extremely good pilot. He shares flying the ASW 27 with friend Max Bloch, who organizes nowadays the Dutch Nationals.From 13 pilots, 4 did not make it home!
After 2 days, Chiel Wijnheimer { The Neth] is 1 overall, flying his DG800/18m..

Open class;
A task from 167 km with 5 points for 4 open class teams, who all made it home. Winner Hugo Mertens in Jantar 2 from Belgium.Overall after 2 days;Pierre de Broqueville with a Nimbus 4 DM.
You can find tasks and scores now at www.aeroclub-keiheuvel-be Enjoy!
Cheers Ritz

Last day of July 2006
Latest news by Ritz .

The Netherlands;
First I would like to introduce to you , a new guest-editor who will write on a regular base, articles about “things” belonging to gliding. His first topic will be;
The Case for v Pos!

Enjoy reading, “MM’s Gliding Topics.” You can find it here now on the home site, but it should go under Section, then click TOPICS! We work on that, so you can easily find the topics!! Thanks and enjoy!

Mike Mike, [MM] is an alias and competition number of George Schuit,former National Gliding Team member of the Netherlands and former long- time operator of a very well known gliding centre in Australia. He was the first Dutchman EVER to complete an FAI 1000km. triangle in the mid -eighties and also invented “the Outback Shootout”, a soaring contest aimed at making most of the day in terms of distance flown. Something for the toughies…….
Welcome George!

In between I have contacted a few pilots , and TC’s for their evaluations on several comps, so stay tuned over the next weeks!

Italy;
The Spaghetti glide is over and though the last day was a difficult one for some, young Bert Schmelzer jr. kept his “head and good flying-rhythm” AND first place with another day-win over an AAT task! Well done Bert and congratulations with your overall win in Rieti.
The top changed a bit in both classes, as young Swiss pilot Stefan Leutenegger “dropped” out of the top 3 and Georg Falkensammer from Austria entered it on spot 2! Steady on third position Bert’s brother Tijl!
In Club class Piotr ,also kept his act together and his first place, but one of the 3 Polish top pilots “dropped” out missing 36 points and Rasmus Orskov from Denmark entered the top as third!

Europe;
It has started to rain in Europe now. In Holland we still will have 25 dgr. today, but then it is over, going down to 20/21 with rain and thunderstorms. Feel sorry for the Keiheuvel competition, but hope it will dry up soon again, so they have a few good last days . I remember stories from Klippeneck [starting on the 5th of August] with NO flying day at all, ONLY RAIN! Hope this will NOT happen this year! One of the farmers in the area here, said that August would be warm and nice and…. those farmers know a lot about weather!Good luck and safe flying, where ever you are!
Ritz

July 29 2006
Latest News by Ritz

Italy;
With one day to go and a rest day today, Spaghettie glide, or with other words the Pre World Junior Championships are nearly over.
The youngsters , some flying with coaches have trained well and good results , specially from the Belgian brothers Bert jr. and Tijl Schmelzer, show that it should not be too dangerous for our juniors to fly there. “Good training IN the area during a competition, helps a lot “,is what comps director Leonardo Brigliadori already said when we left Hus Bos in the UK, where we had the last Junior -World-Comps. And…that’s what they did, though not a lot of them.But I am sure the juniors who are going to Rieti, will train in another period there then.

I could not believe my eyes when I saw that during the practise day on July 22 Bert Schmelzer jr. flew the 292.9 km with a speed of 150.8 km/h.in a discus 2. AMAZING!!!!

In club class 3 Polish pilots have settled on the 3 top places with one day to go. It is great that the youngest pilot from the World comps in Sweden Piotr Jarysz is number 1 at this stage flying a Jantar 3 W !
Good on you Piotr!!!!A lovely young man, you might remember my intervieuw with him in Eskilstuna!
Young Dutch pilot Bart Berendsen is 5th overall flying a cirrus 75. He is coached by Ronald Termaat [Libelle] who belongs to the TOP pilots in Holland and was on the last days 2d in the Swedish world comps but unfortunately landed out and fell down a few places.He flew many comps in Rieti and won one and was 3d at the European comps there a few years ago, so good to have him as coach, he knows all the in’s and out’s around Rieti and the Terminillo.
The Junior World Championships will be from July 26 till August 11 2007.

France;
Today is known in France as “Black Saturday”,a day on which everybody goes on holiday. Traffic jams are calculated in the travel schedules, but…..today was not too bad.” Only ” 600 km all over France, better then in the last years. So competitors leaving Vinon after the Prize giving had the possibility to end up in one, but hopefully it was easy going for most of them! Another World Competition is over.Next one is in Rieti in Italy!Another mountain area !But pilots are used to it now!
SABINA GLIDE the pre -world Standard, Club and World class will be from July 6 to 20 2007.The World Comps will be in 2008 from July 6 till July 20.So now you know it all!

Belgium;
Today I visited the first competition day of the more or less “fun comps, with a serious touch ” at Keiheuvel, with 28 competitors. I caught up with lots of friends and of course had a long talk with Brutus about Sportavia. This topic was HOT. Of course different pilots and youngsters from this area flew or gave a hand at Sportavia in the past.
It was also nice to catch up with Pierre de Broqueville who I met in Sweden during the World comps and who so generously invited the 4 winners from the World Comps in Sweden 2006, to be his and his families guests , to come and fly for a week in the Pyrenees and play golf there. I never knew his home club was Keiheuvel and that he lives so close by.He flies this week his Nimbus 4 D with his Team captain from Sweden, as his co pilot.This gliding world is so small.

Germany;
Several pilots travel straight from Italy to Germany where the 38th comps at Klippeneck , will be flown from August 5 till August 12 2006.A few well known competitors as Reinhard Schramme who flew in the European comps in Finland and in the World comps in Sweden, will compete there. He flies in 18 m. class, with 32 other pilots.
There are 28 competitors in Standard class . The Schmelzer brothers Tijl and Bert jr, but also Bert sr. and young Dennis Huybreckx are a few of them. Eduard Inabnit is another well known pilot from Switserland and I met him in both Sweden and Finland.
Also 8 competitors in open class. I will keep you informed!

Europe;
The last great weather days , as the next week we will have some more unstable weather with thunderstorms and rain. A bit what the “poor Pilots in Vinon ” had over the last weeks, though they still managed to fly thanks to AAT tasks.On the OLC you can see already less longer flights. But we CANNOT complain , the weather has been SUPER!!!
Just having a nice glass of cool rose tonight after a beautiful lunch at Keiheuvel.American salad! Temperature is 28 dgr. and sunny and nice conditions to fly should make this first day an easy one at Keiheuvel. About 232 km. were the tasks for the 2 classes.No stories, a pity as I would not have mind to write for a smaller competition , it does n’t always has to be a World or European contest. But…I will go back one day, so stay tuned!Ritz

July 28 2006 Latest News by Ritz

France;
The last day of competition flying was cancelled at 12.00 to day, by the competition director, due to thunderstorms over the field. Result is that the World champions in Club class and World class {PW5} are known now.
Winner in Club class is Sebastian Kawa from Polen with 9129 points flying his Jantar 3 B.Congratualations to him. Well done Sebastian!!

Good runner up is French pilot Benjamin Neglais flying his St.Cirrus cs11-75, with 8733 points and 3d is Petr Krejcirik, from Czech- Rep. with his St cirrus gaining 8720 points.

UK pilot Jay Rebeck had still chances to day to get higher up in the ranks, but weather did stop him. Off course he could have lost too, by outlanding, but a lot would have been possible on this last day, though the winner only had to fly and not outland as he was well ahead! Jay ends as 4th with 8611 and yesterdays day winner , Uli Schwenk from Germany finished these comps with a nice 5th place. Good on you, Uli!
Though I was not there, but analizing from what I had read I was most impressed with the flying from Jaroslav Tomana, who finished 9th.

In the World Class the last flying day yesterday “disturbed” the top 3 places from the 3 French musquetiers, as Milos Dedera from Czech Rep, settled down on 3d place over all. Winner and World champion is Christophe Ruch from France, who flew in his PW 5 9319 points together. French pilot Didier Hauss who I know from the 1987 World comps in Benalla was the good 2d pilot and as said Milos moved in on 3d just before Laurent Couture.

I have not heard a lot about the comps in Vinon and though the stories were a bit better in the end it was difficult to get a good impression of these World Comps.Now I saw , how important a good story writer is for top comps, as whoever writes the stories, is the PR for our great sport gliding, and sadly enough it STILL does n’t get enough PR.Perhaps the IGC should spend some money and employ an editor for all their big events, so they are sure they get the best advertisement.

Europe ;
Still great weather with absolute fantastic flights all over Europe. I was most impressed with flights from pilots flying in an LS1-c for over 668 km and a mosquito with 644 km.Most probably Germany and Spain have more 1000 km flights then ever before in one season.

USA;
Also the weather in the USA is still good with 1000 km flights. Hobbs, Ely and Parowan show long distance flights.

Australia;
The shock and horror of the closure of Sportavia slowly sinks in, and lots of pilots and friends write each other for comfort. There are people furious as they think it was not necessary, but also sad, very sad, a great gliding place which earned its place in the world, has been closed.

If you wish you can send your reactions on this site as there is somewhere a place for comments. Please use it when you feel the need!

Belgium;
As there are only about 30 participants in the BENELUX competition on Keiheuvel airport , I do not have to write there. Rudy called it off yesterday. But I will go and have a look tomorrow and inform you anyhow about their first competition day.

That’s it for now. VERY HUMID here in the Southern part from Holland.Ritz

July 25 2006 at; 16.00.PART 2.

After finishing the story about Sportavia in Australia, I found out, that with the many people helping us to run the business, I forgot to mention Ross and Glenda Bodey, who have been partners with us for a few years. Sorry about that, they deserve to be mentioned.

About the European weather and the great flights , I found out that 98 pilots yesterday, flew over 565 km. The list of pilots flying and filing the REAL FAI tasks is huge too.
What a blessing for the glider pilots, this extremely good weather, but unfortunately NOT for the farmers. They complain that it is too hot and too dry and the whole harvest in Europe will be less then any year before or even nearly nothing. So we will have expensive potatoes and vegies.I feel for the farmers , but the rain should start on Thursday again, so a few real showers but without damage , might help, though I doubt it, it might be too late for this season.

Thanks for your reactions on the sad closure of Sportavia.People who suffer most are, Eddie the CFI and Peter, the engineer for gliders.They did an extremely good job over many years and have to find something else now, after dedicating their lives “totally” to gliding. Hope the new club can be arranged soon, so they might be involved in gliding and repairing again, but I am sure they will miss the international caracter from the past. For them it was a “life style” too,not only a job, they did not mind “pretty low wages”, but loved the guests and helped them where they could. Also after working hours!

If you were interested …and you have read the Sportavia site, you have also read that all pilots who have a private glider IN the hangar or a caravan ON the camping area have been asked to remove them from the premisses before the end of October , but….IF a club starts they might perhaps stay again!!?? Do you understand it!?
There are 2 more nice hangars on the field, not as beautiful as the WW2 hangar , but for the time being it might help, for the new founded club. As said , I keep you informed!

You might “feel”that it really has done something to me, so sorry for carrying on!
Ritz

July 25 2006;Another hot day in Holland with 34 dgr. in the shade. Here is the news.

AUSTRALIA:

The 25th of July 2006 will be always in my memorie as A BLACK ONE.As you can read on the web site; www.sportavia.com.au the most interesting and international gliding school from the world, situated in Tocumwal[ Australia] on the mighty Murray River, does NOT exist anymore!!!
Lot’s and lot’s of pilots have flown there, came back year after year, then they spread the word and more pilots came with their wives, friends or new pilots.
I myself arrived there for the first time in 1985, travelling from Holland to down under. We missed after our first visit NO year, so we had no winters anymore with suited me fine!
In 1995 we bought the business from one of the owners Don and continued with his partner Jeff, who just 2 weeks later died in a terrible accident.
After being guests for 10 years we were sole owners now and I can tell you it is a total different story to be a guest from Sportavia or to run it.
But with help of Don and Eddie the CFI, Peter the technician, who started working there 30 years ago when the founder Bill Riley had this dream to put Tocumwal on the map , with Ingo Renner , Bob and many other people we managed to make it big, BIGGER !
The last 2 years Sportavia was in the hands of Richard Cawsey, who did his best, had the money and really tried hard, but in my humble and personal opinion, had not enough knowledge of aviation.
So the sad outcome is that the curtain has fallen over the place I dearly loved!
NO commercial gliding anymore IN TOCUMWAL!!!!Everybody who has been there, will feel the loss of this very special place.
A club has been started, so I will keep you informed where what and how, as soon as I know more!!

FRANCE;

Today is a rest day in the World Comps for World and Club class in Vinon.The 3 top pilots in each class are really top pilots and with 3 days to go it will be an interesting finish of these comps, which had unusual [for the time of the year] , as I heard, showers and thunderstorms. Unfortunately in my opinion the daily news is very poor and the results much too late. Preliminary results can have mistakes, but that’s why they are preliminary.Look for all news at www.wgc2006.fr

EUROPE:

Flying in Europe is still great fun. Pilots must get tired from flying nearly every day in such great weather.Lots of long distance flights have been made in many different European countries, as Germany, Italy and Spain but also the Scandinavian countries got their share of fantastic weather.look on the ON LINE COMPETITION for the daily results.
AMAZING!!! July will be the hottest summer EVER , they announced that already now. A summer to never forget , a day to never forget this July 25 2006.

A sad Ritz

Holland has from today on , its second HEATWAVE in 2006!!! Pretty unusual and not even the hottest summer, as the hottest one was still in 1947, but I can’t remember, as I was only 1 year old then.
I can tell you however;it is hot with 46 dgr. in the sun and 36 in the shade.Even as an ” Aussie” girl, I suffer a bit from the heat, during this holiday in normally cool and rainy Holland. For the first time in my life it was not even “cold” on the North Sea beach, as hot, still over 30 dgr. as in the country but with a nice wind.Very pleasant!

But….if it means that, ” over 1000 km. flights” are a measurement for good gliding weather, then we can ALSO say that the weather is not only perfect for sunbakers, but also for glider pilots.
Many 1000 km PLUS flights have been made both in the USA { p.e Parowan} and in many European countries as Germany {Unterwoessen} and Spain {Fuentemilanos}.Many, many….!!!
Ofcourse just under 1000 km flights enough too. What anbout 775 km. for my friend Antti flown from Rayskala in Finland and 783 km from Rieti in Italy not to forget Lubor, who flew 818 km in CS., so I think all pilots this summer season are more or less HAPPY!

The Club class and World class World Comps however, suffer a bit [ till now] with their weather as storms and thunderstorms “visited” the area of Vinon over the last couple of days.Yesterday they had a rest day due to the weather and long retrieves the day before, but today they finally go for longer flights; 405.5 km. for the Clubclass pilots and the PW 5 pilots go for a nice 312.5 km. task.
Hope they all have an excellent day with no, or just a few, outlandings.

There are not a lot of competitors in the Keiheuvel Competetion in Belgium, so I am not sure if I will go there. At least ONE day , for sure!
Due to the fact that the next World Junior Championships are in Rieti in the mountains , there will be no selection [as planned] this time over flat land.Both Belgian juniors who might go are the brothers Bert [jr.] and Tijl Schmelzer , but they practised in Switserland and Germany [Klippeneck] and go to Italy in August.
Dutch pilot and junior member Bart Berendsen will go to Italy too. He flies in a single seater with one of the top pilots from Holland, Ronald Termaat to practise and to find out if this area is safe enough for him to fly.
I know that Leonardo Brigliadori, who is the Comps director, is very kehn on having lots of juniors practising with top pilots who have been flying there in the mountains already, to fly in Rieti and specially in the competition, so they know the area and what they can expect in 2007.If you have trained well, it is a great area to fly there in sunny Rieti.Those Junior Comps will be held from July 28 till August 11 in 2007. I will be there as their “blogger”.

Back to the garden now. Still very blue skies, no wind , no clouds so still HOT, but…. the last day as we expect rain with possible thunderstorms tomorrow and then temperatures between 25 and 30. Not too bad!
Cheers Ritz