I just saw that the email adress from the World Comps did not show up in the story. Hopefully it works now.
www.wgc2006.fr
Enjoy as the practise week has started!
Cheers Ritz

Well, I am happy it is back. Have no clue what happened but I am glad it is there!Enjoy reading! Cheers Ritz

Just wrote a story about Vinon where the Club class world comps and world class have started their practise, about top pilot Daan Pare in the USA and the and his good flights in ELY [USA] and also in Fuentemilanos in Spain and though I saved it, I lost it all!!!Stand by as I try to find out via Australia what to do. Sorry about this. We are trying hard , but it seems complicated sometimes, though behind the scenes we work hard.
Trying to find the story now first.Ritz

I am still trying to find my way in “soaring.eu land”.But don’t worry things are happening behind the scenes.
Not long and the World Club Class and World class will be flown in Vinon [ France.]
I will not attend, but surely somebody will do the daily bulletins.
Marina Galetto, will be there for her second steward job and I wish her well. She did already a great job on her first one in Eskilstuna, as I could see that with my own eyes.German pilot, Peter Ryder will be her boss this time.
Pilots have started in Vinon with the practise and temperatures seem to be really hot, up to 36 and 38 dgr. You can follow the news on Enjoy! Though it is a bit complicated at this stage to find it all and not very organized, but I am sure they will do better when it really starts.Anyhow I wish all pilots and the organization, good luck and safe flying.There is no [ at least not yet] competitor list, but if you look at the results from the first practise day, you can see who is who and which pilots are flying in both classes!

Good friend and top pilot Daan Pare spends part of his summer in the USA after flying the Euro glide in Europe and Amstel Glide [in Holland.]
After retiring as a KLM captain , he enjoys life now flying gliders on different airfields in the world. He has also spend a lot of time with us in Australia at Sportavia in our summer time, where he flew several 1000 km flights, even 2 in a row.Last year he flew a double seater in Gariep Dam and flew 5 or 6 1000 km. flights from there.
Now he is in ELY [NV] and though the weather is not as spectuculair as last year he is not complaining.On July 8 he flew 705 km with a speed of 120.5 nkm /h.
On July 10 however, 4 pilots flew over 1000 km from Ely and Daan was one of them ;1062 km.this time with a speed of 122 km/h.
Look for flights and more info on the International Online Competition 2006.
In April he did ridge flying in Pensylvania where the weather was n’t that good either but from Moriarty [NM] he flew 2 very nice flights; 2 from 1125 km. BUT, with a speed of 153 km/h. That is just fantastic! Enjoy the rest of your stay Daan!

Still have n’t heard what is going to happen with Sportavia in Tocumwal[ Australia.] One of the most visited gliding fields in the world ! The place were I ran “the show” to gether with George and our great team of very experienced instructors and other staff, for 10 years. One of them is the one and only 5 times World champion in gliding Ingo Renner, who after his retirement as instructor in Oerlinghausen [Germany] finally can spend all his time in Tocumwal, but…..will they still fly there???
Will Don and Eddie, the CFI, be back ??? Unfortunately I do not know. We can only wait fore the answer of the sole owner since 2 years, Richard Cawsey and even I hope , though I will be not involved anymore, that they will continue from this fantastic airfield, with its WW2 hangar where you can easily fit about 60 rigged gliders. Where you can sleep in a motel at the airfield and have your dinner and drinks in the Bomberbar and Grill.It would be terrible sad , if this most friendly aiport closes for gliding!!!!It should NOT happen !!!!

Spain has, as a lot of other countries in Europe, very good gliding weather too. This year is certainly NOT a bad year for gliding!!! Several over 1000 km. flights with speed over 110 km//h. have been flown in Fuentemilanos this weekend. A small airfield compared to many others, but with great weather and lots of summer guests, sometimes up to over 100. I had the honnour of staying there too and loved it. Very experienced people running the show and fast launches with enough tugs and lots of self launchers lined up for quick departures.

It is also great to see how many junior pilots are flying SO well from different places.Where you are, if you have great weather or not so good , enjoy your flying to the fullest, but SAFE. Ritz

Holiday is over and we start again with some action on the gliding news.In between you might have found the 3 pictures in the “gallery”.
First picture is the LOOOONG long wing span from the ETA, a glider which has cost already about 1.3 million Euro. This picture is made in Eskilstuna, where Giorgio Ballarati became 2d during the World Championships Gliding in this open class glider.
Second picture is a total vieuw of the last day of the gliders from the very last MULTI CLASS World Champion ships in Eskilstuna. An historic picture, don’t you think!?From now on we have to visit 2 places to check on the results ;as said already, the open, 15 and 18 m. class pilots will fly in Lusse in Germany and the pilots from the World, club and standard class in Rietie in Italy both in 2008.
Third picture is from the young female Swiss pilot who “touched” the ground with one wing, made some kind of “airloop” and landed , after that, safely on the airport.I think the photographer Joost Mol, from the Netherlands made an absolutey fabulous “shot “.

The next trip I am going to make is to Belgium where at the “most friendly” airport The Keiheuvel [Balen, close to Mol] , an 8 day competition will be flown which I will attend as editor.
It is the 22d International “8 day competition” , the 18th BENELUX competition, also the Junior selection for Belgium and it will also give us a winner for Belgium in Club Class.What do you want more!!!???

In between the 4th Club class competition and the 5th World class [PW 5] on world level will be flown in Vinon sur Verdon from July 15 till July 29-2006.
The 8th European Glider Aerobatic Championship will be flown in Rybnik in Poland from July 18-29-2006.

The weather in Europe is GOOD! Not only for gliding but also for sunbaking etc. With temperatures here in Holland over 30 dgr. we are rather spoiled.On the OLC you can see that in most of the countries distances up to 800 km. have been flown.When I look outside , I see great blue skies and wellformed high white clouds. Surely lots of pilots are happily flying around.
Just heard that an amfibian plane has crashed close to Hamburg and killed 4 from 6.Having been a part -owner of an Albatross, it hurts to see and hear about accidents like this.

I work hard to get some correspondents lined up all over the world. But….when you have something interesting to say from where you fly in the world, please be my guest;write to and I will see if we can publish it.Also if you have something interesting to offer or to sell, let me know and we will add it to the stories.

As you can expect there is not a lot to write for me about gliding, when I am ” housesitting ” somewhere 30 km. South of Amsterdam, where I only see airliners pass by high above me, so as planned, we continue with weekly stories and we go daily when we are “onsite” or when something interesting appears. That’s it for now, enjoy the rest of your weekend and see you next time. Cheers Ritz

I know my English is not the very best, some are disturbed,sorry about that and some readers think it is charming and part of the reason you read it.Whatever, ….last article was not yet ready to send …I wanted to read it first again, take the mistakes out and then save it, but I pushed the wrong button and …off it went and now I still don’t know how to get in back in it to “do better”.It is rather complicated to work in one part of the world and to publish it on the other side. We are now that far that I can put the text straight on and as soon as I get more instructions we can put pictures on and I can get back in old stories if neccesary.

For that reason I leave you for a week. A welldeserved holiday on the beach is planned for this coming week. In between we improve the system and I hope it will work out better when I am back.

Yesterday I caught up with Jo and Tony Tabart [oldest pilot in the 2006 WGC] from Australia, in Amsterdam. After Sweden they drove to Frankfurt, flew to Denmark to visit Copenhagen and then to Holland where they found a beautiful place to stay on a “woonboot” on one of the Amsterdam canals. It is great to see that “after flying” there is so much more to do for people who travelled so far to fly in Eskilstuna.
The Dutch Team arrived home safely, though one of the teams spend one night sleeping on the tables outside the clubhouse from a gliding club in Hamburg, to arrive after some ” more or less troubled sleep” in a long, long Monday morning traffic jam.

Sorry again about the last article.See you in a week for more news, about other flying/gliding then the WGC in Sweden. That is over and out now. A pity! We had a great time!
Cheers Ritz

Back in Holland, where it was 30 dgr. when we arrived. We had 29 already in Germany on the Niederhein Airfield at Weeze.Nothing a lot happening and an easy going flight which brought us back 10 minutes before schedule.

We left Sweden, with great memories and it was a bit sad to see how empty the field was , after we left.We were nearly the last to leave. Cleaning ladies were cleaning all toilets and showers as they went back on Monday. Every spot of high grass, where caravans or cars stood was mowed.

They prepare for new guests to come . One of the Hamburg clubs will arrive in the weekend for a camp, so is a club from Lubeck!

Before I left I saw some info about anotther World Championship in the samr area in Sweden and as a lot of glider pilots started their carreers with model flying I will give you this info too!

The 19th FAI Scale Model World Championships 2006 , will be held at Bravala airfield in Norrkoping, from July 15 till 21.For more info you can look at: www.scalechamps-in-sweden.se Enjoy!

As this is just the beginning, we struggle still a bit how to do this well, as till now I have send all info to Australia and the server there puts in on. In between I lost an article about the World Champions, but I hope it will be put on later.

While we were in Sweden, lots of pilots loving their distance flying , went on a trip trough parts of Europe and flew for over 2000 km. Euroglide, which starts every year in Holland at Eindhoven Airport, has been flown in the same period. Will come back on that.

Let me see first if this works!!! CU later from reasonable war Holland with 20 dgr. in Amsterdam, where I am now. Ritz

Hello dear friends this is me Ritz and it is an honnor and a pleasure to write about gliding and all other things belonging to it, specially when you know that people are interested in reading it.
The many , many reactions from people from all over the world have inspired me to do so and on top of that I love writing and sharing my thoughts about gliding with you.
Old news is no news , so we try to be up to date or to reflect on news in our own way!

Where can you better start with the first article, then in the MEKKA of gliding at this moment; Sweden,of course in Eskilstuna on Ekeby Airport, where tomorrow on June 16 2006 the last day of the 29th FAI Multi Class Gliding Championships will be flown.These are the very last Comps with 4 classes involved.So a very special day! With 116 pilots flying, also one of the bigger gliding events in history.26 Different nations are here and with 12 tow planes all pilots are launched in a very short time.

And …they are great comps! The weather was not all that flash , for that reason the tasks were not too big, but it was till now a real competition with ups and downs and weather circumstances with a variety I have never seen before in my life. The weather can change here very quickly and we have had, snow, hail, rain, sun, temperatures around 0 and temperatures around 30, lenties, clouds, blue days, tough wind and weak wind and a sunset at 22.15.Yes it seems it is never dark here and you go to bed too late for that reason.

We had 10 soaring days and you can read all the stories from these comps till now on www.wgc2006.se Enjoy them!

The nicest part of gliding is the fact that through the years we all became a big family.We share our love for gliding and for competition flying, but we also share a warm friendship for each other. Young and old, the oldest pilot here competing is Tony Tabart from Australia who is 70 years young and the youngest is Piotr Jarysz 23 years old from Poland , we all get together love the flying and fly to be the best. Crews help to make it easier for the pilot , organizers try to do their best to make it the best competition ever and if we go home with a good feeling, even after having lost, it was a good competition!

But it will be not only World Comps ,we write about.There are so many nice events worthwhile talking about. We saw here a good video from flying in Argentina, also one from the desert in Israel. We want to hgear about new gliders , new designs , new trailers, new instruments ,like the one we saw here in the back of the ETA.

SOARING.EU here we go ! Join in with us, share your thoughts, send info if you have it about interesting events and we will write about it.From Sweden a warm welcome and for now a nice good night. It was a long day and all what has happened is written in 3 stories today.As said if you not have read them yet, ENJOY THEM! Ritz