Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday Mai 29 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
Sorry , the Dutch NK2011 site is temporarely off line and will be back on Monday!
Sietske, Lisette and Natasja, busy, busy at the strip.
Luggage unpacked,washing machine in full-speed-mode and a bit tired as I woke up on my normal -Terlet-Dutch-Nationals-time ;7 in the morning. The trip from Terlet took me only just over an hour, as there was not a lot of traffic that early.Time to sit down and update you all in English a bit more about the NK 2011 and MORE….
The last 2 days of the Dutch Nationals were AGAIN lashed by hard wind. Thursday they just cancelled straight away at briefing as there was no hope.
On Friday, the last day, the briefing was posponed to 12.15, as for sure the morning was n’t good either. But…Jeppe our only 31 year old brand new competition leader found with Meteo Hans a nice window to fly in in the afternoon.
Jeppe , our competition director, KLM pilot and good glider pilot!
First start at 2.30. We could see cloudstreets to the West , where pilots had to go too and after launching they climbed quite high. Club and open were launched first and had no problem to quickly move over the startline to go on track. Combi class however struggled. In the end some tried twice, BUT , in between others came back as well. The interesting moment was there, with pilots coming back for a restart, pilots coming back with the motor knowing it was over for them, tuggies still towing up the re-starters , AND the clubclass finishing after their short just over 100 km. task.The day turned out better then expected and the window was bigger then expected.
Rens and Jeroen. Rens keeps his Facebook going while flying.
We had 3 new Dutch Champions, Steven Raimond international well known, in the combi class, as well as Ronald Termaat flying the JS1 in open class and young very promising pilot Patrick van Breemen Schneider who won the Nationals before, flying in club class. In fact all 3 won the NATIONALS before!!!!!
The team finished the day after the final briefing and prize giving , with a huge bottle of champagne to celebrate this safe and very well ran comps, by mostly young people with a mix of experienced a bit elderly ones, doing it for the first time.
I was part of it and must say I LOVED every minute of being part of this team. It was full of talent in many ways , to the point , strict but also kind and friendly to each other and taking care of each other. The future here is safe!
my great spot just under the roof.
Sad was that Maurits Dortu son of Willem, who flew with me in 1967 with the Student Aeroclub from Eindhoven, had to go for work to Mexico and could not defend on this last day his second place in the open class! On Facebook he commented he was sad about it as well.Even far away he kept an eye on us!
We had 2 incidents both with an outlanding and both with engine problems. Pilots were in good condition gliders a bit less but all repairable, it was only not possible to continue flying with them in the comps.
With 6 out of 10 days, missing the practise day by rain, you can call it a REAL competition, with super-weather [ some Dutch pilots flew on a day about 800 km from Holland] , but also Dutch rain and Dutch conditions. ABOSULTELY WEIRD was the strong wind for such a long time!It still blows NOW, but it should ease tonight. Tomorrow we expect 29 dgr.!!!!
Anyhow it shows the skills of the 3 tuggies Daan, [ you know him from Tocumwal, now Corowa ] Sjoerd and Bert but also from the 50 pilots flying these comps. We just had a marvellous time, all of us!
Steven , the one but youngest participant.
Jelmer, specially for the German and Italian friends!!
More happened as our Belgium friends were flying their Nationals as well in the light-mountain-area of St. Hubert. More about this competition on Wednesday.
With 115 participants the famous Hahnweide competition has started with 5 classes yesterday. With a 311 km task the open class pilots started modest. A few well known pilots in this competition in each class, so I am going to keep an eye on it, as it will be wonderful soaring again over the Schwäbische Alps and the Black Forest. Tasks today; between 300 and 365 km.
From Italy I got the message that at Varese the Sailplane Qualification Grand Prix is on and starts today. Will keep an eye on them as well.
That’s it for today. Enough to do! All pictures today are from Joop Evertse. Thanks Joop!
Cheers Ritz
