Italy —–Belgium——Germany—–France

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

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