Alphen aan den Rijn Friday May 29 blog 201
As I told you on Wednesday I was going to visit Terlet on Thursday. So I did. I went to gether with friend Ans, who started gliding with me with the ZES in 1967! It was very nice to catch up with one of the student members from that time; Willem Dortu. ” I think we know eacht other”, he said when he shook hands. Memories came back and sadly enough we heard that several of our friends from that period have died already.
Both sons from Willem are flying the Nationals and ended up in the flying world. One is a pilot for Lufthansa, the other one for Martin Air here in Holland.
Talking about Martin Air,[ freight- and -long -distance -holiday-airline ] I just read, they will NOT merge with Transavia [lowbudget -charter-and line-flying in Europe], both full daughters of KLM. Transavia was, as I also read , one of the few flying companies in the world closing the last financial year in the plus!!!! Good on them!!!
Another very pleasant day at Terlet, with as I heard straight away, not the best weather on that Wednesday with the “small window”. It was just cold in the morning with a lot of wind. For some the window was TOO small and they had to out land. One of them former European champion Steven. Unfortunately he dropped from 1 to 7!!!! In the top from the combi-class now rule 3 young “hot-shots”.
It looks like the next 3 days including this Friday will be good! Temperatures will go up to 26 dgr. on Sunday the last flying day and that day might be unstable as thunder storms “might” hit the East from Holland where Terlet is situated.
As I noticed already long tasks for today up to over 500 km in 2 AAT ‘s for club and 18 m. Open class can race over 428 km.and the combi class over 369 km.
For sure they will have fun, as skies are blue , some clouds 1/8 here, but that I noticed already a “million” times, will be different over there.
Yesterday we saw great finishes.Though ….not all pilots made it back home. Leeuwe, one of “my” Hus Bos boys, unfortunately landed straight after being on track, as he caught up with a shower; 19 km. and a score of 38 points , dropping from place 4 to 8!
He is back in gliding. After Hus Bos he concentrated on his commercial license and he is an airline pilot now, flying into the City center of London!!!!!! Wow.!! ” Must be scaring “, I said and with a smile he said “it is not boring”.He lives in Schotland!
The other Hus Bos boy Bart won the day in club class and with Leeuwe 2 other pilots landed out .
In 18 m. class European champion Ronald still leeds the class with over 400 points. Runner up at this stage is Sicco , who flew in “my” team in Uvalde in 1991.
In open class Bas and Frits Seijffert still try to win and make dad Frits after 50 years AGAIN Dutch Champion, but…Francois, flying in the last EGC and WGC for Holland is a very good pilot too. We will see what happens!
Some sensational finishes yesterday and you can find pictures on the Dutch site
www.nkzweefvliegen.nl
One of the outlandings on Wednesday was in Staphorst. It is a small pittoresque town, but very traditional as p.e Pennsylvania. Most women still wear traditional costumes which looks pretty “nostalgic ” , colourful and impressive for foreigners. One of the pilots landing there, caught up with 2 young ladies driving a brand new BMW, …in their traditional clothes. Both he and his crew had to laugh a bit about that! It just seems to not match …..a BMW and such clothes!
Some of the pilots who seem to be flying the Nationals for ages and for that reason not the youngest anymore are doing well. It is great to see the mix in Holland from young [up to 35] and a bit older pilots [ up to 50] and older pilots [over 50]. It gives a great atmosphere. Roel, Ferdi , Hein, Theo are some of the above 50 categorie and still going strong!
Keep your eyes on www.soaringspot.com for results and tasks and even the weather, that is….when you are interested.
Today is a sponsor-/ press -day, and indeed they are doing a great job there too, to promote gliding. One of the PR people helping Diane is Frank Versteegh. He writes articles for the local paper the Gelderlander. Frank is tow pilot at the comps and the only Dutch participant [ between 2003 and 2007] in the Red Bull Air Races ever, but also since 1987 participant in World and European Aerobatic comps.
In 2007 he had totalled 1350 displays in 38 countries.
His co-pilot is ……..a Jack Russell who goes everywhere where Frank goes! Of course the doggie was yesterday at Terlet.
Recently I received an e-mail from Leo to tell me about the notam issued for the L’Aquila region, also concerning flying from Rieti. I hope and I am pretty convinced that it will work out well for the organizers, though I see that “helping” l’Aquila has first priority. The organizers have put a PDF file about the notam on their site and I share it with you.
Anyhow…I will be there to promote the CIM and I hope to see all competitors who have entered and even more in August at Rieti Airport!!!.
Rieti, May 24th 2009
To all the competitors of Rieti 2009 races
Dear competitor and Rieti’s friend,
the tragic earthquake of L’Aquila brought the Italian Civil Protection Authorities to issue a
special NOTAM to protect the activity of the rescue teams and then the reconstruction
workers. Extensive and massif helicopter activity are still under way. This NOTAM is
tremendously large having 25 NM of radius. We hoped this NOTAM would have been
cancelled after a couple of months; unfortunately the G8 meeting has been organized for
the beginning of July in the same area and consequently until the end of this meeting (11
of July) we are pretty sure there will be no way to have it cancelled.
Nevertheless we trust the massif action supported by all the Italian Air Sport Federations
and AOPA Italy, towards the Italian Government, through the assistance of Senator Leoni,
the President of Italian Aero Club, will be successful and we will at least obtain the
prohibition of flying from GND to a certain FL only in few small areas which will not prevent
our soaring activity over all the ridges we are normally using at South and East of Rieti.
However, in the unfortunate case our petition will be rejected, hypothesis we don’t
sincerely think will happen, we promise that:
ALL THE COMPETITIONS IN RIETI WILL BE HELD AS SCHEDULED
Obviously, in this unlucky but improbable case, the tasks will have to be set only towards
North, going back to the beginning of Rieti’s competitions, when we were afraid and
reluctant to fly to the South in such high mountains and with less landable places.
We are inviting all the competitors, and in particular the Italians, to support the Rieti 2009
competitions and the airport itself, preventing the local authorities after 2 WGC to be afraid
that European pilots will abandon this Gliding Mecca.
We understand, however, that some pilots could be reluctant to risk to fly in a reduced
(and if it can help “more landable area”) and we have to respect their decision. For this
reason we ask all entrants which might be in this condition to let us know their renounce as
soon as possible and not after July 15th in order to adjust our organization consequently.
If we will have further information and developments in the next future you will find them on
our website www.rietigliding.it.
For any further detail you can contact the Contest Director Mr. Giorgio Ballarati at the
following numbers: +39 3929858592 or +39 0332320206.
The Organizing Committee
On Sunday I will be visiting the last day of the comps with Inge and the kids! So the very last news of the Dutch Nationals you can read then with some “inside-information-stories !
See you on Monday. It looks like a great weekend is laying ahead of us
cheers Ritz