Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday May 4 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
Received the next mail from the USA to let you know the WGC site from Uvalde is up and running. Here is the message:
Hi Ritz!
News from the USA.
We here in Holland, remember all who died in the first and second world war today on May 4 and tomorrow we celebrate our freedom on May 5.
Swedish fans Martti to the r.with a mate who flew with us as well. Sorry ,senior- moment, I forgot his name and that’s bad as he is a lovely guy.HELP !!!
Very pleased to see the great spring weather has made pilots in Scandinavia happy as well. Martti Sucksdorff who flew with us in the past at Tocumwal had a ” beaut ” day with 708 km and a nice speed of 115 km/h in the ASG 29 E/18m. flying from Räyskälä and on the last day of this fantastic month of April Swedish pilot Gunnar Axelsson topped the OLC with a nice flight in his LS 8; 773km.
The first day of May was for Scandinavia again this time with a 514 km. flight from Aaku Jaakkola in his LS 8, again from Räyskälä. And forgive me and tell me when when I am wrong, but I am pretty sure this is Aaku with his gorgeous little daughter.
made this picture during the JWGC in Finland in 2009.
In Romania pilots are flying the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix from Brasov and the first day was won by Tilo Holighaus, for those who do not know him; the owner of Schempp Hirth. He mentioned that it was a tough day with lot’s of wind,but also cloud streets and ..a very tight finish.
German top junior Patrick Puskeiler was 2d.Difference in speed; 96.8 km/h, then 96.7 and 96.6 km/h for Romanian pilot Cosmin Nicolae.
Georgy Gulyas from Hungary, I am one of his fans, was 6 from the 7 participants in this GP, on day 1. Day 2 was cancelled , yesterday only Tilo finished received 2 points and is in the lead with 9 points overall with Patrick hanging in with 5 points.
Georgy to the left from Janus Centka in front of Gilles and Wolfgang[2006] and a bit “bigger”
Nice to see that the Potchefstroom regionals in S.A. have been flown a few days ago and good old Dick Bradley won after 5 very marginal days the 15 m. class , beating his son Doug ,who was 3d ,with 90 points.The best overall score was ……after 5 days…..621 points!!!!!! On some days pilots worked hard but got no scores as the distances were not far enough. Tough competition.The next IGC meeting will be in 2012 in Potchefstroom.
Dick to the right.
They found the black boxes of the Air France plane which crashed in heavy weather on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, just out of the coast of Brasil!! This crash cost the lives of 228 people and nobody knew exactly what has happened. Hopefully they find out more now! Not too long ago they found big pieces of the plane as well.
The Florida Ridge , La Belle, in Florida in the USA is host of the 2011 Rob Kells meet and we are talking hanggliding now. Australian topper Jonnie Durand moved to the States to fly there between April 30 and May 5. He was 4th on day 1 and 5th on day 2 in the flexible -wing -class. A lot of pilots fly the Moyes litespeed and good old Mr. Moyes did well in inventing this hang glider. Quite a caracter this Bill Moyes. He will be 80 next year! Lovely guy.Can’t find the picture I made from him.His children Steve, Vicki and Jenny run the business now, but he is not the person to sit behind the geraniums, not at all.
From my short involvement with hanggliding I remember him and Jonni best as well as Atilla and Bela also editor Davis Straub and his wife are still ” hanging ” somewhere in my mind and not to forget Tove and Grant Heany.
April was a good month as one clearly can see on the OLC , with 5 days with over 1000 entries and even one with more then 2000. Great spring, not every where I do realize that, but atleast in a lot of places.
That’s it for now , back to my new guests, CU you next Sunday, cheers Ritz