Europe is booming!Hurray for the EAC!Nitra winners!Perth!

Alphen aan den Rijn       Wednesday April 22 2009

Last Sunday morning  I had the feeling that it would be a great day for soaring, with the blue skies in the early morning, the nice temperature and the predicted cumulus clouds. It all happened and not only in Holland, most parts of Europe were booming.
Bas Seiffert, participant in the last WGC for Holland in Rieti flew together with Ronald Termaat in the Nimbus 4 DT, { Happy Birthday Ronald,  44 years young since yesterday!} the runner up during the last 18 m. WGC and earlier European champion. Nice task good flight with 585 km.
 Bas will fly the nimbus 4 during the Nationals in Mai together with his father Frits who was 50 years ago , Dutch National champion. So maybe with some good practise dad will be champion again, this time together with his son. Is n’t that great?

In Belgium Yves Jeanmotte,   flew in the Ventus 2 CT 654 km so good weather in Belgium too.Uwe Thiele the ” Kilometer-eater ” from Germany had a long flight with the DG808 C 18m. Unterwoessen was good and I can go on, but you surely you have seen it yourself.
 What I only wanted to say is, that the European spring weather is just GOOD!

Nitra , the first major International competition in the season,   did not have the weather as good as the JWGC a few years ago. That was superb!!But with 7 days out of 7 it was a  good competition for the Pribina Cup participants with good winners. Wolfgang won in open class, Sebastian in 15/20m and Steffen in Clubclass. Congratulations !!!Also to Wim Akkermans with his 2d place behind Steffen!!

YES!…. WE can [fly again]!!!!!
EAC member and good friend Peter scanned the news and send it to me!
In the paper yesterday  morning was ;
” The EAC can stay and fly at AirBase Eindhoven.”
 They have divided the field in a better way, so that gliders and other planes using the main runway, are better separated! So it will be extra safe now. There will be also a more intense contact between the glider pilots and the tower!
So this Saturday the pilots can fly on their “own” field, where they flew the last 77 years. On Friday evening there will be a  general briefing, so everybody has been introduced then ,before flying, to the new rules. In between pilots have flown at guest airfields as Malden [ most of the students ] and Venlo [private owners/cc pilots/performance pilots].
I am very happy with the result and I hope the air space will be “open enough” to continue the nice flights from Eindhoven.

How stupid can you be??? 
A Virgin Blue Jet had a near miss with a remote controlled plane , as it was landing at Perth Airport. ”
The offender , who could face up to two years in jail,uploaded the footage to you tube , before taking it down over  the weekend.” [source;ninenewsnsm]

The video showed  the model plane , which weighs about 850 gram and had a wing span  of 1 meter, only around  30 m from the Virgin Blue Jet, before it plummets to the ground.
To do such a thing and even worse….put such a video on you tube ,is asking for problems and very stupid. Outraged aircraft enthusiasts made copies of the clip and handed them to the authorities!!!
Investigations by the Civil Aviation Safety Authorities have been confirmed!
It did not happen, but what if…the “toy”  was sucked in the engine, or had hit the canopy of the jet…????!!!!
Reckless…indeed! For sure he/she is not representing the group of remote controllers, as ALL of them I know , are just very enthusiastic about their sport and the young ones , when starting gliding ,have a very good co-ordination in handling the glider. Normally they go solo quickly!

Well, that’s it for today. CU on Sunday. The weather here has a bit of a dip today , but then we go on with “summer” again in spring ; I presume several April weather records will go in the bin.

cheers Ritz

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