Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday March 6 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
As promised the pictures from the Mallard. Bones send them straight away after his trip. I like this shot of the Paspaley boat and the plane , a G73 AT Turbine Mallard, behind. It all looks like “romantic adventure “, certainly when you see Bones on the wing in his holiday outfit, but it is hard work and pretty demanding as the weather certainly up in the North of Australia is not always the best. But for sure it is very special, as not everybody has the possibility to fly such a “machine” !!!!
Bones came as young student from India to Albury to learn “how to be a pilot”. He ended up in Tocumwal , was our tuggie to make hours , but helped in the kitchen as well to earn money to buy a car. So…cause George was in Minden for the pre worlds, flew the Albatross on his birthday to Lake Tahoe with the owner and a few glider pilots and crew in the back, as Daan Pare, Bruce Brockhoff and myself, got hooked to it, then bought it later and moved it to Tocumwal, where Bones, real name Ashock, got his type rating on it. You see how live sometimes has it’s own way???!!!
The IGC friends have been very busy and here is some news , thanks to Rick; the rest you can find later on the FAI site and already now on the twitter site from Rick— twitter.com/ricksheppe or follow@ricksheppe;
—South Africa has the next IGC meeting in March 2012.It will be in Potchestroom.
—enough FAI delegates at this meeting with 37 voting countries present, a new record
—Helmuth Fench from OSTIV seems to have given an excellent safety presentation
—EGU report; it seems we lost the battle for simplified medical certification in Europe
—discussion admissability of non certified gliders in WGC’s; allowed in sanctioned contest
—20 m. multi seat class replaces world class in WGC’s and will be unhandicapped
—13.5 m class WGC from 2015 onwards in odd years
—WGC 2014,open class, 15 m and 18 m. in Leszno in Poland
—WGC 2014 ,standard,club and 20 m. in Räyskälä in Finland
—EGC 2013 , “small ships” in Ostrow in Poland
—EGC 2013 , “big ships” in Vinon in France
—relation between stewards and contest organizers
—reference weights removed from club class glider- list
—barograph eliminated for silver, gold badge flights using position recorder
Very pleased to see a WGC in Finland again, that’s a long time ago; 1976 . They had an EGC in 2005 and the JWGC in 2009 and now in 2014 the WGC for the smaller ships!
The OLC shows more and more flights from Europe. From March 1 onwards I saw flights in France, Germany, the UK and Spain, but still also flights in Australia [ 300 km FAI triangle in a Hornet from Beverley in Western Australia and a total of 424 km. in autumn] in the USA,{ Blairstown} 821 with a speed of 132 km./h in an LS 3 and New Zealand with 480 from Omarama in a discus with a nice speed of 117 km/h.
And I heard today they are going to fly in Holland. Will be cold between 1 and 5 dgr. but it should be sunny.
The RAF flight in Libya was an excellent one, I told you about it last week. This week the Dutch tried to help 2 people as well; one Dutch engineer and 1 Swedish lady. They are both back home after being handed over to the Dutch Embassy,but….the 3 crew members are kept in prison . NOT good!!!! The pilot is a still young but seems to be very experienced, certainly when pressure is on, good looking girl with long blond hair!!! Now they are “marked” by Ghadaffi as spies!!!!! One thing is sure they were NO spies!!!!
They tried to evacuate these 2 people who were in danger in the town Sirte, where Ghadaffi was born. The Lynx helicopter flew to Sirte, from the flight deck of the HMS Tromp, a frigate from the Dutch marine for the coast of Libya, but was caught after the landing, by armed Libyers. They normally help out to protect ships against pirates.
The March edition of Gliding International was in my mailbox yesterday.
The latest Gliding International is with 61 pages a ” fat one ” . Interesting items as,
—-is gliding’s future depending on today’s youth?
—-worldmembership declines ;statistics by John
—-JS1 in South Africa, with a great picture on the cover by Ronald Termaat
—-flying in the French Alps
—-” war declared on 2 sailplanes ” ;I was there, but never heard the full story till now.
And much more news. Enjoy!!!!
To finish this blog some more pictures this time send by Ashock from the Albatross. Enjoy your new week. Of the South of Holland; CARNAVAL…ALAAF !!!! Cheers Ritz
Some people well known from Sportavia in the past; to the left George , former owner from Sportavia also from the Albatross,[pilot] Bones/Ashock,[pilot] ?, Michael Giles,[ pilot], Cameron Bodey former tuggie now A300-600F captain, ? Bob Smith engineer on Albatross now on Mallard and living in Darwin now as well. ?
