Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday September 16 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Preparations for the new season are in full swing. From Tocumwal I got news that Sportaviation is very busy to put the last points on the i , to be ready for an even bigger season then the one from last year. They flew through the winter with the Skyfox and also did some training with “to-be-glider-pilots”  and of course the “regulars/die-hards “arrived on all nice soaring days.
Young Jake will be at the field in the weekends to help out. He is doing some navigational training with Eddie, while the temperature is a nice 20 dgr. C. Jake loves this soaring world and I hope we might see him in the future at JWGC’s!Look for pictures at; www.sportaviation.com.au
Their first overseas -guest for the  season, Dundee will arrive tomorrow in Melbourne.

The Southern Riverina Gliding Club  members at Tocumwal Airport have some activities in the upcoming weekends.
This is what I received ;
Dear Members,

This is a reminder that our  FIRST  WINGS  NIGHT is only two and a half weeks away.  We would like to see as many of you here as possible as we have many wings to present and also some other awards. 

There will be a lighter side to the evening and there will be a lucky door prize and some raffles.  After flying we will have a BBQ at approximately 6pm with presentations to follow.

A donation of nibbles, a salad or sweet would be welcome but not necessary.  Please let me know if you can make it as this will help with catering.

Happy soaring

Judy Renner

SRGC WINGS NIGHT
at Saturday October 2
at the Toths hangar
BBQ at around 6 pm

Some changes as well in Tocumwal, as I read in Judy’s news letter, which I will publish as well in case you are thinking of visiting Tocumwal.
Dear members,

Recently changes have been made to our operating procedures and it is now mandatory for every pilot flying from Tocumwal aerodrome to have a radio operators licence or a log book endorsement for operating the radio while flying a glider.  Also all gliders must be fitted with a serviceable radio.

Because of this we would like to see every pilot, irrespective of his/her  level of experience have a check flight with one of the club’s instructors before flying.

Even if you are familiar with radio operating procedures please read the GFA Ops Manual (attachment enclosed) as it was recently updated (June 2010).

The GFA Ops Manual 005 Airways and Radio Procedure can be found here:  http://2009.gfa.org.au/Docs/ops/airradio.pdf

Of course the biggest center in Australia and celebrating their 10th anniversary, Australian Soaring Corowa ,is ready for the many guests for the ‘ 10-’11 season. The 2 tugs are waiting to go up in the air to make pilots happy with nice long cross country flights.
Today till the 19th ,they are packing their containers in the South of Holland and pilots from all over Europe have to travel through pretty tough autumn weather, with wind up to  8 bft. and lots of rain to be in time,  as schedules are strict. By now Francesco and Grietje are so experienced , that it does not look or feel like a job anymore. On top of that most pilots have been going for a few years as well, some even the 10 years, plus the ones they spend at Sportavia and also they know how to deal with packing. It normally is a feast of recognition there in the South of Holland, after a year not seeing each other.
But I know , as a former owner, that there is always a bit of tension to give it out of hand, as on the big container ships it is waiting, for them as well,  if it all goes perfect. But as far as I know , NEVER in all those years something went  wrong.
One container will be packed in Prievidza as well . All news at; www.australian-soaring-corowa.com

Talking about Slovakia, in Nitra the Pribina Sailplane Grand Prix 2010 has started on September 11. The 20 18 m. pilots  flew 3 days till now and day 3 changed the results dramatically as, after 2 days,  the number 1 position was occupied by 2 Czech pilots with 2 points, each winning one day and finishing as sole pilot. Day 3 showed the talent from Polish pilot Christoph Matkowski who has 10 points now and who had NO penalty points while others had a lot, mainly because the finish altitude was exceeded. Pavol Cerny has 8 points and then a few pilots with 7 points.  
Pilots flying are from Germany, Czech Rep, Lithuania, Austria, Slovakia and Poland. See for results and more at www.soaringspot.com

You have money or….you have n’t!!!Saudi Arabia just ordered , weapons, figthing planes and helicopters in the USA, for a total amount of 60 milliard. On September 13 Obama  presented the plan in the Congress. It is among other things about 84 F 15’s, 178 helicopters as Apaches and Black Hawks and they are still talking about “maritime-stuff “for a value of 30 milliard.

China suffers a bit with their aviation. Last month a plane crashed killing 40 people and after research it seems now the pilot might have made a mistake. Even worse after more investigation they found out that lots of pilots have false CV’s.
Yesterday a plane got fire and within 24 hours another one as well. One plane had a starting fire in the luggage department while the passengers had just entered the plane , the other one had on Sunday ,smoke due to an oil-leak combined with the hot temperatures of the wheels . Both planes belong to China Southern.

Yesterday a 52 year old captain  from the USA, just sitting in the cockpit ready to fly to New York from Schiphol Airport, had to leave the Delta Airlines plane again [after an anonymous tip] as just a bit too much alcohol [ just over the allowed 0.2 promille- 0.23] was still in his blood. The plane with 200 waiting passengers stayed at Schiphol, but passengers left later. His fine was 700 Euro, which he payed at the spot!!

Our hang -gliding mates are flying the Santa Cruz flats Race  in the USA at Casa Grande. In the HG flexible wing,  both Jonny Durand jr. and sr. are flying the Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5. Great to see Jonny jr. is still the best, at this stage , he is number ONE, after 2 days of flying. Davis Staub from The Oz Report is on spot 20 while dad Jon sr.  is on 21.

That’s about it. Most probably no news on Sunday as I attend a family weekend, but …you never know later in the evening, otherwise the next day.

Cheers Ritz.

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday September 12 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Nearly 23.000 spam- messages have been deleted from this blog, since it started, all in the comments “department”. With my hotmail address it is in fact not really necessary to have this possibility for comments, so I might close it!

Not a lot happening, yesterdays weather was superb, today we are back to autumn in the morning but the afternoon was not too bad. On September 11 a lot remembered that dramatic day, some in the USA with a nearly 700 km flight. Nice to see “the dust-devil-trace” from the LS 1 from Mountain Valley all the way up to Truckee close to Minden, with cloud streets till nearly the evening.

1702 points for the winner of the UK mountain  comps after 3 days and lots of scrubbed ones. Winner at Aboyne was Phil King with an 18 m. LS 8.

In the past  I mentioned that I was asked while being at the JWGC at Rayskala , via a lobby, if I was interested to be editor during  the JWGC in Musbach. As I heard nothing officially anymore,  I was glad to see that my friend Katja from Finland did a good job during the Pre JWGC in Germany , being also the webmaster overthere. This ” being editor ” is new to her , but she asked for some tips which I gave her with pleasure, so when the competition director decides and…… decides for her, she will be totally ready.
I have 2 other competitions to attend in 2011 and as you know I do only 2 a year.

Just saw a fabulous performance on a RAI TV  sport channel, about the Frecce Tricolori. WOW, what a show !!!! They are just amazing!!!!!

Gliders from pilots who are spending their holiday-soaring overseas  as in South Africa , Namibia or Australia and New Zealand , have booked a glider or are busy with the very last preparations to send their glider. I noticed that a Cirrus flew a nice 389 km flight in SA, so the beginning is there. In a few weeks those pilots are going to “top” the OLC list.
Places as Bitterwasser, Pokweni, Kiripotib and Corowa, Narromine and Tocumwal are finishing their jobs to be good hosts again! By the way , Australia, also Tocumwal and Corowa,  got quite some rain and a lot of places really look nice and green or yellow from the conola fields, yes it is that time of the year. The well known Murray River has a high water-level  at the moment.

Congratulations to the Argentinian hockey girls winning the WHC. “We ” lost as they played more effective , not really so much better.
As I said not a lot happening, so see you next Wednesday, cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday September 8 2010         ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Last Sunday was a glorious day weatherwise! Not only were the beaches full of people, the airfields were busy as well , certainly here in Holland. Around 1100 pilots world- wide shared with us their flight on the OLC. In Holland nearly 60 pilots and the weather was  good for flights up to 531 km and one of my friends enjoyed a bit of a cool , but great flight of 207 km.  in the oldtimer, Slingsby-t30 Prefect.
More “old-type” planes went up and in Germany a pilot flew in his LS1-d 623 km enjoying every minute of the cloud streets , the super visibility and the thermals till the end. Only spoilsport was the seabreeze just making the average speed of  83 km a bit lower then neccesary.Most of the pilots have forgotten after this nice day how wet August was.
Vinon is still good for 700 km + flights. Nice to see that 2 French pilots “from my time ” , Gilles and Gerard, both had a great day of flying with a flight of 762 km and 740. Gilles in the ASG 29 and as usual, Gerard in an open class glider the Nimbus 4D.
But also in a lot of other parts the weather was nice for a day out. In Germany this was fatal for a 47 year old lady , looking at the airshow in Schnaittach-Lillinghof. A vintage plane broke out while starting for a formation flight and run in the public hitting with the prop the poor lady. The pilot [68] had to go to hospital because of a shock and 38 other people were injured.
Investigation will learn us what went wrong and why the plane rolled to the right instead of straight on.

Monday was another glorious day, sunny, nice fluffy clouds and 23 dgr. but I could not find ONE flight on the OLC for the Netherlands. Unfortunately rain and storm on Tuesday ,with only in Holland at the morning peak hour,  a traffic jam of 700 km, worst for this year, but later they adjust it in 562 km.

The Dutch Nationals will be back next year at the National Gliding Center Terlet. Period; May 16-27. Official opening on Sunday May 15 and official closing ceremony on Saturday May 28.
After 6 years there will be a new competition director; Jeppe de Boer.

They managed to fly a 3d day during the Masters at St Hubert in Belgium. Young Bert Schmelzer won the day ; a task over 161 km with a speed of 105 km/h. After 3 days Yves Jeanmotte was the winner of these first Masters with “only” 893 points in total!!!!

The UK Mountain Soaring comps have started as a Regional competition at Aboyne on September 5 going till September 11. Till now no flying days and the expectation is ….maybe after today. As there was a lot of wind , rain and turbulence the editor of the comps wrote; “It is better to sit down here wishing we were up then vice versa. ”

In Australia one of the first comps of the new season 10/11 has started at the gorgeous field of Lake Keepit. Brian Hayhow, one of our regular guests at Sportavia, won the first day of the Keepit Speed Week in his Discus. In October the Australian Nationals will be flown at Dalby. Both Keepit and Dalby are on the East Coast where the new summer-flying-season always starts.
Also over there the weather is not yet really flash with only small tasks set and AAT ‘s of 2 hours.

Upcoming BIG events for the next season 2011;
 6 th FAI WWGC in Arboga in Sweden starting on June 15.
 16th FAI EGC at Nitra in Slovakia  starting on July 17
 4 th FAI World Grand Prix at Wasserkuppe in Germany starting on July 23
16 th FAI EGC in Pociunai in Lithuanian starting on July 31 [ BIG ships]
 7 th FAI JWGC at Musbach in Germany starting on August 6

Ever heard of SCUM??? Years and years ago we laughed about the “forming”of SCUM, the union for the crews; Sailplane Crew Union Member. The proud members walked around in t shirts with SCUM on it and told everybody who wanted to hear it that “they had rights”. It is nice to see that the SCUM revived in Szeged where a groupe wants to “go European”with a meeting in December in Barcelona. Look for more news at www.scum.aero .
I noticed that except for wellknown crew member Baldrick , several Dutch crew members will visit Barcelona. Great idea, this meeting of international crews/friends!

KLM- AirFrance had in August a tiny little bit less passengers;0.8 %. And…foreign guests have less frequently visited Holland over the last 2 years . Was the number in 2007 still 11 million and in 2008 10 million-plus, 2009 haD 9.9 visitors.  The special tax in ’08 and ’09, which does n’t have to be paid anymore now, decreased the number of flight connections. Also the recession lowered the number of business passengers but the holiday makers increased in number.

By the way, keep an eye on ” our” hockey girls playing for and hopefully defending,  in Argentina their world title. They are doing a great job. They now play against the girls from England in the semi-final, while Argentina will play either Germany or Australia.
Looking forward to the finals!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday September 5 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

While reading the statistics  in the paper about the summer in Holland in 2010, I was quite correct that it was a good one , even for soaring, but…..as said in my last blog the month of August spoiled the total view on it. According to the meteo, we had a warm and sunny, but wet summer. We enjoyed 692 hours of sun while 591 is normal ,BUT we had 270 mm. of rain instead of 202 mm. But enough of this summer, we look ahead at a nice after-summer period with hopefully still some nice soaring, not only in Holland but all over Europe.

Rieti still has some great weather with a flight of 898 km  in the ASH 25, but also the DG808 did well with a declared and flown 822 km flight on September 1. And…great to see that , on that same day, Francesco Bernardinetti flew his first 300 km in Rieti in an LS 4! Well done!Yesterday 683 was flown from Rieti, while one of the USA pilots had a super day flying “for fun -no task set” a 908 km in a Discus, with over development in the morning and super weather in the afternoon from Frederick.
And…in FLAT Holland we had a very nice cross -country-  500- km -day , with super visibility and good streets, but also showers to avoid.So nice after-summer-weather!

Received a mail from Ron and let’s see if we can help him. This is his question!
—I am looking for a second hand cobra or Swan or similar trailer for a 18 metre glider with four piece wing  ie 15m trailer will do with some holders for the extra wing bits. Of course I have been looking on Segelflug.de and the UK advertising sites but would like to widen my search so do you know the web addresses for sites in Holland Belgium France Austria etc where gliders and instruments and trailers might be advertised for sale??—-

The new Gliding International dropped on my floor- mat yesterday and after looking at it and  reading in it, I was very pleased to see the new lay out ,the bigger seize of the magazine and the interesting contents, including the news that on August 5 was recommended that 20 m gliders can enter the WGC in 2014 while the world class will disappear .
The 13.5 m class will have its own WGC to be held fort the first time in 2015!!! 
At-least these are the recommendations accepted by the IGC Bureau and they will be formally proposed to the IGC Plenum in 2011 for adoption.
I am not sure about another WGC as 2 at 2 several places is already a lot, but let’s wait and see.This WGC would be biennially in odd years with 4 entries per N[ational A[ero] C[lub] with a “try out” in 2013 and the first “real one” in 2015.
By the way the proposal for class entries will be as follows; 2 entries per NAC in standard class and club class and ONE for 20 m. class.
I also liked the interview with the Polish National Coach, as indeed those Polish pilots are “pretty” successful and the story about the VFR flight from North Africa to Germany; the INTERCONTINENTAL motor glider.
Hope John, the editor of GI and his wife Chris are OK after the 7.1 earth quake  and ……the aftershocks and the 130 km.h wind. Was sad to hear also that a plane with 9 sky -divers crashed in NZ , killing all of them.

The first Belgium Masters had another soaring day with a 199km. set task. This time the task was flown by most of the pilots so a VALID day.Yves Jeanmotte won the day with 114. km /h. , together with Louis Bouderlique; same speed and both got 495 points for their effort. 2 Pilots out-landed and 4 did not start, under them Rene de Dreu and Tijl Schmelzer.

Never a boring moment when you read stories about the “boss” of price fighter Ryan Air.  He thinks one pilot is enough to fly the plane and in case of emergency a stewardess or steward could help out and bring the plane safely down,he thinks by the way, that she/he needs a course  first to do so!!!!!I don’t think I will fly Ryan Air anymore!!!!

Tha’t s it for this nice sunny Sunday. Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday September 1 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

September 1, means summer is over , meteorological spoken I mean , as we might enjoy a nice after-summer, who knows. So autumn starts , something we felt over the last week in several parts of Europe. The Alps from Bayern not far from Munich had SNOW at 1300 m!!!!! That is VERY unusual for the end of August!!! That low it still melts but higher then 1800 m. there is already real snow!!!!
“Our”August was the wettest since 1906 with an average of 170 mm instead of 62 mm.It was also cooler then normal with an average of 16.8 dgr. C instead of 17.2 dgr. and more dark,  as we had “only” 165 hours of sun instead of 198 hours.

They did not succeed to squeeze  another day out ,during the 18 m Nationals in the UK . They waited till nearly 4 PM and had to scrub another day, their last one. Mike Young is the winner in 18 m. class and the Regionals were won by Kim Tipple. The worst thing is that on Monday the nicer weather started!!!! Our meteo here advised even a holiday to the UK !!!!!
We had more fallen trees and damaged roofs over the weekend ,but is pretty good here now too.

The Masters , the very first for Belgium,started in St. Hubert. From August 28 till September 5 20 selected pilots  fight for the honnour. Quite some top pilots do so as Rene de Dreu the former  young European champion , but also Patrick Stouffs who flies since ages. The Schmelzer -brothers are there as well as is dad. And some of the French speaking Belgium toppilots, as Jean- Luc Colson, and Yves Jeanmotte as well as French pilot Louis Bouderlique.
In fact ONLY the best 10 pilots from Belgium according to the IGC list have been invited as well as ,  5 from the Club of St Hubert and 5 wild cards!!!
 On the the first day a task was set but nobody finished some did not even start. Yves Jeanmotte [ President of the ACRA] flew 53 of the 148 km. and was the best, so NO day. In fact the same weather- description as above in  Holland.
On Monday and Tuesday the weather slightly improved  ……but …was still not good enough to fly. Maybe tomorrow!
Gliders with a handicap between 98 and 110 BGA handicap [discus to 18 m. gliders] are allowed.

The OLC showed for the end of August  perfect flights from the mountains in France and Italy. Serres la Batie showed 4 over 1000 km flights in a Stemme, LS 8 , LS10 and DG 8oo, flights were over Aosta,the Mecca [ in my time] for wave,  while Vinon had one as well. In Italy flights up to 727 km from Trento and 609  from Rieti.
And….indeed the weather improved over the UK with flights up to over 500 km. from Booker and around 400 from Dunstable, where a few of my ” Sportavia-soaring-friends “fly and Lasham, with some SSC friends as well. AND…..This weather is slowly arriving here!

Just back from Amsterdam , so enough to do. See you on Sunday,

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday August 29 2010      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Did I say “a lot of rain” last week?????  I can tell you even more rain last Thursday when 50 mm  fell in the morning, the same amount as normally falls in the WHOLE month of August. That is not normal even not for Holland , a real once in 100- years-phenomena, with at some places 140 and even 160 mm in 24 hours!!!! Amsterdam and The Hague got into trouble and lot’s of people had to “broom” the water out of their houses. I don’t even mention cellars…they were just UNDER water. 
Car’s are not used here to drive through water up to their windows, so they needed help and the traffic jam was enormous ; over 300 km . But….the last 2 days were a bit better again.
Yesterday one of the Germans at Vinon, managed to fly in Mistral,  a ” just-over-1000 km-flight ” in a discus 2 T and good old Gilles flew 993 km, also in Vinon.

The 18 m. Nationals in the UK at Lasham  suffer from the same bad weather .They started on August 21 and will finish today. In the same period the Regionals have been flown. Last Tuesday the pilots were able to fly a very short task. The Regionals flew an 86.6 km task!!! and nobody made it home!! Good friend Hugh won the day in the duo discus “making ” 57.3 km.
The 18 m. specialists  had a distance of 150 km. and former World champion Andy Davis in the JS 1 , proved how good he still is   finishing as the only one of 44 competing pilots!!!!
Great to see as well that Mike was 2d and interesting to see that former World champion in open class Pete flies in the Antares finishing that day on spot 6. All pilots started AFTER 4 PM and Andy flew with a speed of 62 km/h . THAT was really struggling and going for it. Former World champion young Leigh Wells was 5th.
Quite a lot of well known pilots in the Regionals as well; Kim Tipple,Steve Jones, David Mac Carthy[ good on you David!!!] and Peter Sheard.
Today they still try to “make it a day”, waiting for the weather and postponing, postponing. They flew in 18 m. 3 days till now and at this time Mike Young is number 1 overall. Andy Davis is the runner up. I was very pleased to see Patrick on spot 8.
Kim and Steve will be 1 and 2 if nothing happens today in the Regionals.

While some of the ” senior ” pilots, fly in Lasham , the UK  juniors  try to get up in the sky in Bicester  in the same period of time. No need to say that their weather was pretty miserable as well. They , the 44 female and male pilots , flew on day 2 ,then 4 days were cancelled! That one day Andy Cockerell won 1000 points flying his LS4 over 207 km with a speed of 86 km/h. GREAT JOB!!!!
On Friday morning it was still raining but as I heard here from the meteo, it should improve to the W of Europe and later in the day here as well.
Today was scrubbed, so no Day 4, but still a winner in the mixed class after 3 days; Tom Smith, who also won the 3d day by finishing as the one and only pilot ,….receiving a TOTAL of 60 points!!!!!!, while he was 3d on day 2.

In Germany the women were still busy with their Nationals till yesterday. Atleast they do fly…a bit. Last Wednesday they flew in 15 m class 226 km and after 4 soarable days Meike Muller is 1 overall in LS 8, with more as 200 points ahead on number 2. Standard class had 226 km. as well and after 4 soaring-days there is REAL something going on in that class as both ” toppers” Kathrin  Wötzel and Swaantje Geyer , both flying LS 1 f are 1 and 2 with 3 points DIFFERENCE!!!!!!
Club class had 196 km to fly and Susanne Schödel is on spot 1 leaving other good pilots as Anja Kohlrausch and Katrin Senne behind her. Katrin lost nearly 200 points on day 3. At that time the 3 girls each won a day ,Katrin even 2 days.
Thursday was cancelled but even with the rain and strong wind 7 pilots would have been ready to straight away  fly a free distance to the East; just going with the wind.
Friday the weather was bad in the morning and did not look too promising for the rest of the day. They did not fly anymore so the winners are; Meike Müller,  Katrin Wötzel with 3 points on Swaantje and Susanne Schödel

And then this ;
—-A British Airways pilot on the flight from London  to Hongkong, pushed the wrong button  while flying over the Nord Sea . The passengers heard that the plane was about to make an emergency-landing on the sea . Just a wrong automatic message on the intercom. Some got the scare of their life,  but the crew aboard listened as well , found out straight away that this was wrong and  was very quick with their apologies. Hope they served a glass of bubbles!
—- Boeing has announced a delay in the first delivery of their DREAMLINER [ Boeing 787] to the Japanese company All Nippon Airways to 2011 instead of the end of this year.It was more or less expected as several “things”had a delay through the years.
—- For the first time in the Dutch history a WOMAN is the squadron leader of a squadron [334] of 7 planes. Susanne has since Friday the command in Eindhoven. Planes as 2 KDC 10’s,[transport and refuelling] 2 Fokker 50 transport planes a Gulfstream and in case of…also 2 Dorniers to help the coastguard will be under her command. Flights up and down to Afghanistan and for the Red Cross belong to her tasks. Susanne is a Lieutenant-colonel.

That’s it …see you next Wednesday most probably later in the day,
cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday August 25 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Last Monday is a day to quickly forget! Not only here in Holland but I guess as well in Germany, the UK, Belgium and the N of France. Some places in Holland had 54 mm of rain in one morning while normally 60 mm falls over a month. Sadly some people were wounded and the famous tree in the garden of the Anne Frank house does not exist anymore; it blew over from a wind gust. Even the steel frame around it to keep this sick tree straight up , was blown away. More wind in a small German town where several houses were ”beheaded”  by a huricane. And…it is not even autumn yet! On Tuesday this weather moved up N to Scandinavia.
Still great soaring weather in Fuente where Pepe managed to fly 946 km flying the ridges on Sunday.
Rieti still has good weather as well with frequent- Rieti -flyer Alfredo Giretti topping the list last Monday with a 640 km flight.
2 Islands close to Spain, Majorca and Ibiza have huge fires!

Some of the young pilots from Germany move over the world as if life only exists out of soaring. The Musbach pre junior worlds are over and Alexander Spaeth and some friends are back in Vinon to fly MORE! But…the weather is not really flash there as well. Today was quite a nice day here but lot’s of rain again later in the evening.

And then this…..
—- a 3 kilo weighing piece of ice falling out of the sky  smashed the front window of a car. According to an astronomist from the University of Groningen this must be a piece [looking blue from and smelling after soap and detergent]  fallen out of the the toilet from an airplane!!! This seems to happen once or twice a year???
—- A private jet crashed in bad weather in Nepal. The plane was on its way back to Kathmandu,  after it was not able to land close to the Mount Everest due to bad weather. It never reached Kathmandu either. 4 People from the USA, 1 Japanese and UK passenger were under the victims.

Short news today as I have as guest,..sorry
Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday August 22 2010      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Indeed the CIM continued  and the first top days for Flavio in Club class changed into “just” coming home on day 3 , which was a blue thermal day and not coming home on day 4, resulting in a drop from number 1 overall to 4 on soaring day 4. Austrian pilot Rudolf Schneider in the PIK 20 E took over, just leading before Andrea Tomasi, who was during the JWGC in Rieti  in 2007 and the WGC in 2008,  the president of the FIVV.[the Federation] Maybe he still is!  I know anyway he is also a passionate glider pilot.
 In standard class Angelo Gritti tops the overall scores on day 4.
 Luca Di Marchi was on each day till now either 1 or 2 so he tops the list also after this AAT day in 15 m .
 Giorgio Galetto is in super condition/form and flew the AAT [3 hours] in 3.02 over 360.2 km and has a very comfortable lead of over 250 points.
Alberto Sironi won every day till now so he is an easy going number 1 in the 20 m class, also with  230 points on number 2.
In open class Alexander seems to like an AAT as he flew in 2.09 a distance of 358.8 km winning day 4 and leading with 5 points the overall scores till now! Tension enough in this class!!!
 All in all another great day!

Soaring day  5, was a tough one! In club class only 2 Italian pilots flew the task of 235 km. Rudolf only flew 192 km loosing his first overall-spot to Andrea Tomasi. In standard class 18 gliders found their way home in an AAT of 2.30. The Austrians did well but Italian pilot Angelo Gritti, who flies nearly every day in the year when possible in Rieti is 1 overall now.
15 m. class had an AAT of 3 hours and nearly all pilots finished  and Luca won and is now 400 points ahead on number 2 overall. Another glorious day for Giorgio and another WIN, [he should have flown so well in Szeged, ], he is also 400 points ahead on number  In 20 m. class our Russian friends won the day , but Alberto did not loose too much to keep spot 1 for himself and his co-pilot. In open class also an AAT but….Alexander did not fly!!! So the new leader- position is for Austrian pilot Josef Kammerhofen.
A lot happening there in Rieti!
On day 6 last Friday the day was cancelled!

Yesterday was the last flying day in Rieti. Alexander , I heard, has gone home as during a long landing on the day he won on Thursday , his brakes were n’t working and he had some  damage to his wingtips hitting the airport fence and…..as you know by now he loves his soaring in Namibia as well , so he brought his glider straight home for reparation to be ready for shipping his ASW 22 within 4 weeks. A pity for him.
The rest of the pilots had to fly an AAT over 2 hours to define who would be the winner in each of the 6 classes and wow it was a great day with fantastic speed. A bit devalued in points , but who cares.
Club class; best pilot yesterday was not Andrea Tomasi but Andrea Terenziani in ASW 24. He flew an AAT of 242 km with a speed of 121 km/h gaining 600 points while Andrea Tomasi “only “flew 213 km with a speed of 90 km/h gaining 349 points and this way the ASW 24 pilot won the CIM , with 27 points on Austrian pilot Rudolf Schneider and Andrea Tomasi was 3d.
Standard class; Super speed of 149.9 let’s say 150 km. over a distance of  302 km. by Austrian pilot Jan Jagiello with Heinz just a little bit less. Winner of the CIM 2010 Angelo Gritti.
15 m. class; Speed of 145 km/h over 297 km. by Giancarlo Grinza.  Not bad is it??? Winner in this class , as expected Luca De Marchi.
18 m.class; Giorgio did NOT win the last day. Swiss pilot Werner Danz flew his AAT with a speed of 154 km./h over 334 km in 2 hours and 10 minutes!!! But Giorgio Galetto  won with a huge margin the CIM , nearly 400 points ahread of runner up Werner. Nothing wrong with AJ or Alvaro, he had to attend a meeting.
20 m class; another day-win for the Russian pilots, they finally got the hang of Rieti-mountain-flying.144 km/h over 308 km in the duo discus ,…..but  winner of the CIM this year is Alberto Sironi in the ARCUS t. Unfortunately he entered the forbidden area of Terni and got the virtual outlanding there after 250 km. but still had just enough points over [57] to win the cup.
open class; a pity Alexander had to leave but Josef Kammerhofer [Austria] won the last day with such nice speed 158.7 km./h over 318 km in exactly 2 hours that he is the deserved winner of this CIM edition 2010.
Amazing by the way, that so many pilots [9 in total!] entered forbidden areas on the last day, they should know better.
With the prize giving today and the party yesterday evening this must have been an unforgettable CIM again. Even not being there , made me enthusiastic and  curious about what was going on ”in the mecca for gliding”  and knowing so many of the competitors made it really interesting for me and I hope for you as well. Next year there will be another CIM.
For all news about soaring through the year in Rieti look at ; www.fivv.org  or www.aeccvv.eu

The SAIL AMSTERDAM, the biggest Maritime event in the world  started last Thursday with the ”sail-in-parade”   of 50 tall HISTORIC ships and hundreds of other interesting ships. Future King Willem Alexander was on the first ship, the clipper Stad Amsterdam and ships from all over the world are sailing behind him. This event is every year in Amsterdam and attracks millions of people. Really a great event also when you are not so much interested in sailing ships, these are too gorgeous for words.Some are “real” and still in use , as is the trainings ship for the marine from Oman, others are replica’s as the Götheborg a replica from the Swedish East- Indie ship. Also great looking and impressive ships from Russia and Indonesia.
Lot’s of Dutch pleasure-ships have  accompanied the fleet, it was an organized “mess”! Great to see and loved by all!!! The event will be till Monday when all ships leave again, except for the clipper Stad Amsterdam, which stays after 2 years away, at home again.

Luckily yesterday was a nice summer day , but August has been not such a great month. All over Europe the weather has been either too wet, too hot or too dry. Flights have been clearly under 1000 km on the OLC except for that SUPER Fuentemilanos day on August 7 with enough 1000 km flights to be happy for this August month . And on Friday Pepe still had a nice 776 km flight with 105 km.h from Fuente.
 So summer is not over yet but for soaring the days here are getting a bit shorter already and the more or less bad month of August spoils a bit the average of the good summer 2010. The OLC had in April 1517 entrees as best/highest result on ONE day for the month, in May 2301, in June 2598 on June 26, in July 2542 on July 18 and in August till now 1661 on August 7.

The German women have started their Nationals  in Zwickau on August 16 and will continue till August 28 2010. 3 Categories here; 15 m [11 participants] club [20] and standard class [12].
The first 4 days were cancelled but last Friday some pilots even finished and there was an overall score for the 43 pilots. Swaantje Geyer who frequently flew in Australia  in the past, won the first soaring day in her LS 1f in club class, while well known pilots as Katrin Senne and Anja Kohlrausch in 15 m. class “only “were 7 and 5.
Yesterday a task was set as well for the ladies. And…Katrin did better, she won the day in her class, being 3d now overall with Anja on 4. Today the weather is improving even more so just under and just over 300 km tasks have been set.

While the ladies in Germany still have a few days to go, the German juniors  finished their Nationals last Friday in Musbach, with 5 soaring days out of 10. So there was a new National champion in club class Sebastian Nägel with well know Alexander Späth as good runner up and in standard class another well known German pilot Patrick Puskeiler. A total of 75 young pilots from several countries  from Europe must have given a GREAT atmosphere during this pre-JWGC called; Black Forest Glide! A fantastic practise for the JWGC in 2011 in Musbach. When you are interested look at the site at www.dsmj10.de  where my friend Katja [webmaster] from Finland designed the site for the next JWGC and took care of  the news of this competition and she did a great job.

On the latest IGC pilot ranking list  last updated on August 19 2010, Michael Sommer is the new number 1. He passed Sebastian Kawa who is a good number  2 now .

 CU next. Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday  August 18 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

After 2 days of waiting the pilots competing in the CIM , received a nice long task for  soaring day 1  and those pilots were ready to go for it. In open class Alexander Mueller flew with a speed of 146.2 km/h over 426 km, winning the day.
Last year I noticed already what a good pilot Alberto Sironi is, now he showed that again flying in the ARCUS T with a speed of 136 km./h. over also 426 km. By the way 3 ARCUS gliders are flying in this dual-seat- competition. The rest is duo discus and young Davide flies a JANUS CM.
 No doubt about Giorgio Galetto flying in Rieti; in 18 m he won with a big marge on number 2 Swiss pilot Werner Danz in the Antares. Speed from Giorgio over 426 km.; 147.7 km  and Werner 134, while the brand new world champion Stefano and Thomas  flew with a speed of  129/130 km . This time no Diana’s for them; Thomas flies Ventus 2 CM and Stefano HPH304 S.
In 15 m. class Luca de Marchi, who flew last year very good and got my attention for that, was the winner on this first soaring day with a speed of 134 km/h over 388 km. in a Ventus 2 a.  Austrian top pilot and well know aerobatic pilot Reinhard Haggenmueller was 5th. with a speed of 118 km/h.
Good old Simon Leutenegger flew his DG 303 in Standard class to a nice first place with a speed of 133 km/h over 388 km  and in club class Flavio Del Pan did the same in his Club Libelle  with a speed of  86 km/h over 266 km.
A great first soaring day of the CIM.[= Coppa Internazionale del Mediterraneo] Base was 2200 at Rieti and pilots could use wave up to 2650 mainly over the first 70 km. and the rest was thermals and ridge-soaring.

Day 2 had again great and even slightly  bigger tasks; Club 289 km.—- Standard  and 15 m . 413 km.—-18 m and 20 m 458.7 km and open class 476 km. All pilots returned at the airfield but some pilots were scored as a virtual outlanding as they violated the airspace of Terni and Perugia,  and if you look well at the scores [ www.aeccvv.it   click on soaringspot, by the way for non Italians there is www.aeccvv.eu  in English and some parts for downloading also in German, Spanish and French ],  you see that Alvaro in 18 m. class started nearly 45 minutes later then the rest. This was not a tactical decision but as the propeller stuck to the engine bay doors, while attempting to start the engine for the flight recorder check, he decided to land again and check what was going on. On the ground it was all OK, [ a sticky engine bay door , problem solved with a drop of  grease on the edge] so off he went again, still flying in good conditions and  still coming back home with a 13th place! It was what I heard a great real- Rieti- soaring -day!

On day 3 , yesterday, another good soaring day. In 18 m. class Giorgio started 8 minutes ahead of Thomas and Stefano, but the 2 of them could not catch up or pass  him , so he won another day; 121 km/h over 372.6 km. with Thomas and Stefano on a good 3d and 4th place. [prelimanary results!] and same places in the overall results after 3 days with Swiss pilot Werner Danz in Antares at spot 2! Open class had a task of 406 km and the speed of  day-winner, Josef Kammerhofer from Austria was 2 km slower then from Giorgio in 18 m. class. Interesting to see that from the 10 gliders ,only 2 Schempp-Hirth gliders [ a Nimbus 2 b and 4 DM] fly in open class in Rieti. There are 2 ASW22 ,4 ASH 25, 1 Antares and 1 ETA.
The Swiss “Leuteneggers “, won the first 2 spots in 15 m. class and I guess that Simon is the one I met years and years ago in Angers, where I also met Heinz Hammerle and his wife, great to see that they still love their comptition soaring. Caught up last year with Heinz and his wife and they did not change at all, was good to see them.

I was wondering about the change of names in Bailleau  for their classes and from one of the young winners in the amical class I got the link below and I would really recommend to read the link as it is a nice philosophie on the way we look at competition soaring. Thanks Bart and enjoy all who are going to read it! Specially my friends in FAI and IGC.

http://www.cvve.org/new/docs/2010/concours/presse/Bailleau_2010_News_1_EN.pdf

It does n’t happen often that an airliner is hit by lightning. This week it happened at the Island of  San Andres . The 737 700 from Aires  was hit in descend at about 80 m height and crashed breaking in 3 parts. ONLY one female passenger killed through a heart attack, so quite a miracle that so many , 126, survived. The weather was very bad with thunderstorms gusty wind and heavy rain, but under the circumstances the pilots did a good job , though I wonder IF it was smart to land in such weather [ guess they are used to it]  and everybody was lucky that no fire started! Atleast 5 people survived with bad injuries, the rest had minor injuries. On TV I heard the story of  a mum and dad looking quickly at each other seeing they were well then to the chairs behind them where their children were ….but …..there was NOTHING as the plane broke just behind them . Scaring!

More sad news  as one of the former top RED BULL RACERS Alejandro Maclean [only 41 years old] from Spain died yesterday, crashing his plane during a training flight not too far S from Madrid. Alejandro was also  twice Spanish aerobatic champion , married and  father of 2 children who, for sure,  are going to dearly miss him. [ANP news]
The ex-husband of our princess Irene, Prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme,  died this morning early from prostate cancer.[80] Though he was not part of the Royal family and not much here, he was pretty much loved in Holland. The wedding of his oldest son Carlos jr. in Brussel on August 28 is postponed.
And…talking about royals….the [ female] Australian premier wants Australia to be a Republic after the UK queen dies or announces that she stands down.????!!!!

Enough for now, it’s raining cat’s and dog’s here, but…the weekend will be nice with 24/26 dgr. The owners of beach-cafe’s seem not to happy with this weather, they even claim to have earned up to 20% less this summer, which according to them was less good as 2009. I was pretty happy with this summer and a lot of pilots as well. CU you on Sunday,
Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday August 15 2010  ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Feelings of relieve in Russia still suffering from extreme hot conditions  and fires ;already for a long , long time. On Friday they finally got rain , but still temperatures of 30 dgr. Today the smog is back and people are advised when going outside to wear mouth-caps. On Friday Finland still had 27 dgr. and the Southern part of Europe is hot while the middle suffers from thunderstorms and heavy rain, which we seem to get over the next couple of days.
Promised you to see what happened on Wednesday, a day it really looked bright here for good gliding.But there was only ONE flight. Thursday was better with 300 km flights.Still enough “nice” flights on the OLC in Spain, Italy and France.
Though yesterday the best flights were in the USA and Canada and not in Europe.

The International competition in Bailleau is over  and the pilots were happy with the weather, though it was not as good as it could be and most of them were satisfied  with the results.
 After 9 days Robbie won the competition in the class Vitesse with 6033 points. More Dutch pilots won as in the Grands Vols David won with 7166 points and to be complete 2 young new- comers in competition soaring,  also Dutch, Bart and Bram won the Amical class with 7 flying days. So the Dutchies/Clockies did well.
Look for all the results at www.soaringspot.com

Eric Bernard is the new French champion in 18 m. class,flying 6 days in an ASG 19 /18m. Gilles Navas was 4th. Only 4 days in the A class from the French Juniors. Adrian Henry from Bailleau was the best in an LS4, with more then 150 points on the runner up. The Henry family is a well known soaring family in France. Great to see that the young generation is as good as the older was.

Last Friday the prestigious competition CIM has started in Rieti till August 22. This year the “club ” [ www.aeccvv.eu ] is organizing , while last year the excellent organization  was in the hands of the “federation” [ www.fivv.org] . 79 Pilots fly in 6 classes. In standard class 19 pilots , 8 in club class, 11 in 15 m and 23 in 18 m. , 8 in 20 m, double seaters and 10 in open class.
And….now I am not there…Alexander Mueller is flying there in his ASW 22 and I would have liked to meet him one day.
More great pilots as the new World champion Stefano Ghiorzo, 3d place winner Thomas Gostner, Giorgio Galetto, Davide , one of the top- junior- pilot’s  from Italy, lot’s of Austrian friends even a well known Russian pilot  Timoshenko, in the twoseater class and more….. Weird is that last year lot’s of Dutch pilots were competing and now I do not see ONE!!!!! Have to check on that.
 And…it was really  nice to see Maurico Cocchi in F1 flying in standard class. Maurizio flew regularly in Tocumwal in the past.
Unfortunately the weather is tragically bad in the N of Italy,even worse  in Poland, with LOTS of rain , so till now , no soaring-days. On one of these rainy days Alvaro showed a video about soaring in Morocco.

The 3d place in Szeged, for Belgium pilot Pierre de Broqueville  and his nephew/cousin [son from his brother] Arnaud, have given a boost to the PR about soaring in Belgium. The last time that a Belgium pilot won a prize was with Bert Zegels in Waikirie in 1974….silver!!!!For years the 2 fly together already. Last year they practised in the mountains from Rieti, during the CIM.
 It is very nice to read that the co-operation between the Wallonian pilots [ speaking French] and the Flemish [ speaking Dutch] was very good .This atmosphere on the ground and in the air has contributed to the great result, is what I heard /read. 

The  Dutch Soaring Magazine “Thermiek ” is out  and is as always great reading! What’s in it? Except from my story about the Dutch Nationals , there is an interesting column from former Red Bull Racer Frank Versteegh who wants to get the PR for gliding in a more professional way, another story about aerodynamic research at the famous University of Delft, the National women day 2010 , “Bob Henderson for {FAI} president”, and much more, unfortunately ONLY for Dutch and Belgium readers.
When you are not a member of the KNvVL you can still read it digital on their site, easy to find via www.zweefportaal.nl

We had a few colder and rainy days last week, though yesterday was perfect again, but slowly “some pilots  “start thinking , of moving to the other site of the world again, even after a great summer as we had. For that reason I had a look at the site from Corowa and balloons in bright colours where the first thing I noticed. Ouch,  it is already 10 years ago that Francesco and Grietje started their operation.
So time to say HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY!!! Time really flies, I still see Francesco happily talking in our restaurant after he flew in at Sportavia from Narromine and felt at home straight away. Was that 15 years ago, maybe even more????
Like we, they loved Australia and soaring and created their own center with gliders brought from home in containers! And….they are doing a great job, in between taking care of 2 little lovely kids as well. Wishing them more great years !
But …I was looking when their season would start and I read that the expected first day of flying will be on November 9.The estimated departure out of Holland will be on September 28 and the packing will be between September 15 and 19, so not long anymore. This season they start their Corowa Classic. Great to see that my friend Terry Cubley from Western Australia, is the first to enter this competition already now! He will fly the DG 1000.Here is what they write about it;
—The concept is to give, up and coming cross country pilots, a taste of Grand Prix style flying in a safe training environment with the opportunity to fly with and along side some of the worlds best glider pilots.

Dates	21-01-2011	29-01-2011
Practice Day	21-01-2011
Competition Days	22-01-2011	29-01-2011
Presentation Dinner Night		29-01-2011

20m 2 seat Grand Prix style competition hosted by Australian Soaring Centre Corowa & Corowa Shire Counsel. A friendly competition designed to  introduce competitors to Grand Prix racing. Opportunity to learn from the some of Europe’s best pilots.

Daily Prizes include: Daily Winner Plaque, Extra 300 Aerobatic Flight , Go Soaring Products

Sponsors include: Australian Soaring Centre Corowa,Corowa Shire Council, Go Soaring.

Look for all info at ; www.australian-soaring-corowa.com

And then this;……….
—An historical  Dakota C47 was moved from an Open Air  Museum in the South of Holland to Katwijk not far from where I live in the middle of Holland. They used a special deep truck , during the night, but it still went wrong as the truck got stuck between 2 walls of a viaduct on one of the main highways in Holland. Luckily they got it “on the road again” before the heavy morning traffic started.
Why moving such a great old vintage plane?
They will use the Dakota as a decor in the musical “Soldier of Orange “. The musical opens on October 31 in an hangar at the military airport of Valkenburg.
They hope to restore this 70 year old beauty, before or after the musical has finished.It is squeezed in the middle as there was  only “room ” for  6.80 m but the plane was 7.20!!!!! And then they claim they made very secure preparations…..
—-Heard of Steven Slater?????? He is the Jet Blue steward who escaped via an emergency -slide , from the plane he just flew “his last flight for “, with a beer in his hand. After 20 years he was sick of the intolerance of some passengers. Like his style!!!!! However he can be “punished “with 7 years max. Hope it will be not that bad!

See you next Wednesday, Ritz