Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday April 3 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
interesting picture by Roger Karlsson
March was dry and sunny here in Holland , accordding to the Meteo from KNMI; the Royal Dutch Meteo Institute. With 185 hours of sun, normal is 125, we were spoiled.185 Hours we normally have in August. On top of that it was dry , but with all the sun still a bit colder then normal; 6.1 instead of 6.2, but who cares ???
Yesterday it was just summer. With 22 dgr. ,but at some places even up to 25, it felt not like spring , but summer.Unfortunately today there will be rain and a drop of 10 dgr. We had lot’s of rain on Thursday and Friday as well. But not so much as here in Ely , on a picture I once received from Daan. THAT IS RAIN !!!!
Always wanted to have your own space capsule ???? Here is your chance ! Sotheby in New York is selling a Russian “oldie ” from the sixtees . Not the one we all remember with Yuri Gagarin, but the one before that , with which they did some test flights.
This will happen on April 12 , exactly 50 years after the first manned- space -trip.They hope to receive 7 million Euro for this Vostok-landing-capsule.
The NSW State Comps have finished yesterday and here some analyses. In Club class good old Gary Speight ended on spot 2, in the twin astir, good on him.BUT… he was nearly 1000 points behind the winner; Richard Frawley flying a mosquito.Richard won 5 from the 6 days.
Paul Mander won nearly every day in his SZD 55, as well, [4 out of 6] in standard/15 m. class. He proves he can still do it!!!
18 m./ open class was full of tension till the end. Bruce won day 4 and 5 [with a speed of 140 km/h in his JS 1 over 334.8 km] , but Graham and Tom really fought for the honnors. On day 5 there was a difference of 6 points in favor of Graham in the over all scores.With 90 points behind Bruce was on the 3d spot.
DAY 6 brought it to a climax. Bruce won AGAIN and for Tom the tension was high , maybe too high, I don’t know. Anyway he ended on day 6 on spot 3 loosing 250 points. Graham won with ONLY TWO points on Bruce!!!!! 5713/5711 points !!!
That was a real final sprint from Bruce in the JS1. Tom ended on 4th place behind David Jansen. Both flew the ASG 29, as well as Graham.
Anita Taylor, daughter from Hank and Eileen Kaufmann, also well known in our gliding-world, was correct, she expected a hot race and it was a hot race.
The Italian competition at Turino only counted 4 days and if they fly today it will be 5. A good beginning with 3 days , then 5 days of looking around and then on April 1 , no not a joke, another 290 km. to fly. Winner and the ONLY one the make it home was Giorgio. This time he moved from 22 to 18 . Yesterday they had an other task with 281 km. and Giorgio had another good day finishing on spot 3 and moving to 11 overall.
Very sad news for friends and family from a farmers family in Australia. Mum and dad , both 77 and daughter 47 and the pilot died close to Moree airport,where the single engine Piper Cherokee crashed, after flying low and hitting tree-tops .One son of 42 survived , [but is in critical condition] , as well as his 12 year old daughter, [who is in hospital in a more stable condition]. It is pretty normal for farmers from big homesteads to travel by plane to do business, due to the huge distances. They were big farmers owning wheat and cattle farms in NSW and Queensland. In Moree they operated a 22.000 ha cattle farm.
The pilot [63] was experienced , the weather was good , so the Australian Safety Transport Bureau has to investigate what went wrong. Tragic!!!!
And ….a hole in the roof. Passengers got the fright of their lives flying from Arizona to California with South West Airlines. The pressure had dropped totally and a hole in the roof was discovered, so an emergency landing was the result. One of the cabin was slightly injured the rest was OK, but said “it was horror”.
2 Scouts 15 year old from the town Valkenswaard [ the place where I lived for 20 years] in the S of Holland , who were dropped in the evening were killed by inattention of a car driver. Terrible!!!! Poor parents, family and friends !!!! And in my pretty quiet town here in Alphen [ also 20 year and now again 4] , 2 people died by gunshots last night and 2 were injured ! What a world. Not to forget the VN people and others in Kandahar, in Afghanistan, killed because somebody in the USA, burnt a koran.
Congratulations to the people and specially the fans from cricket in India. They won the world championships in their home country against Sri Lanka.
Time to finish,here some photo’s I like from Roger Karlsson, made in Sweden. Enjoy! CU next time ! Ritz
