Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday July 15 2009
A bit more time now, so we can have a better look on the 2 BIG competitions from the last weeks ;the JWGC and the EGC.
Did you notice that people still click on the JWGC site?! Since July 2 , 9705 unique visitors have visited the site and are still visiting it.
The last video made by Hubi is on it too. When I left Finland and while waiting for the KLM to arrive , Hubi was waiting for the same plane. He flew back to Germany via Amsterdam. He told me he had worked all night on the video, brought his girlfriend very early in the morning to the airport , as she had an earlier flight, drove back again in the borrowed car and was present at the closing ceremony to make more shots for this last video. He forgot all about the fact that the closing ceremony was outside, so no way to show the other video in the morning. Great young man this Hubi and keep his name in mind he will “go far”.
Some more statistics , this time about the kilometers flown including the practise days;
Club class flew 146 843.60 km and standard class 134 966.40 km.
I read on the JWGC site that the earth is 40.000 km in circumference, so the “girls and boys” flew a few times around the world!!!!
I just saw on the morning news and weather , that Finland has good gliding weather again today. Great !!
Rieti looks good to with 30dgr. Only 2 weeks to go and I will be there for some more news about soaring!Hope you “come with me” again !
Got an email yesterday from Leo and everything seems “to be ready to go ” over there!
In between Horacio and his TC and crew, Damian’s brother , will be back home too. At Helsinki airport I met them as well , looking around in the tax free shop, where Horacio tapped on my shoulder and said: “Here we meet again Ritz”.
Just back from a long driving trip are the pilots competing in the EGC in Nitra. The UK did very well in Nitra with a number one in open class; Pete Harvey and a number 1 in 18 m. class Russell Cheetham. Both very well known , very experienced, very good and very nice pilots and not for the first time on the highest spot.
I was impressed with the runner-up-place from Mike Young in 18 m. class. I met Mike for the first time in 1987 in Benalla, where he and the Wells kids, as well as the Jones brothers tried to teach the young Dutch kids how to play cricket! The “pommies” against the ” clockies ” !Great memories!Both Mike and Leigh [Wells] did very well during this competition.
I was a bit amazed with the German team. Used to see the German JWGC pilots up front all the time and on place 1 in BOTH classes during the JWGC, in Nitra this was different. Holger Karow was number 4 in open class and the rest of the German team was not within the best 5!!
The UK did well as said, but also the Polish pilots and the French. The Dutch were not bad either.
Now we wait for the next EGC for “smaller ships” in Pociunai in Lithuania from july 25 till August 8.
The 5th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championship will be in Szeged in Hungary from July 25 till August 8. Young Orsi from Hungary flying in Rayskala will compete here, as well as Belgian pilot Tijl . Also the young Italian TC in Rayskala will fly ;Elena. Marina, will be a member of the jury now ! Enough to look ahead to!
Not to forget the 14th military gliding competition which has started and will go till July 24 in Holzdorf in Germany.In 4 classes 82 competitors “fight” for the highest honors…..and I noticed also here some of the junior pilots!!
More news from some of the juniors, as I heard that Rene from Holland and Chris from Canada will be the season -helpers in Corowa [Australia] . Chris will be tuggie and Renee will help at the field and with the meteo. Good on them !
Yes the upcoming overseas season is next , while we are still enjoying this great summer in Europe.
This morning I received a mail from a motel close to Corowa from Annie Piggin | oakleighaccom@gmail.com | oakleighhideaway.com.au
—-Thought I would contact you and tell you about our accommodation near Corowa which would be a great place for gliders to stay for their Corowa visit.If you know any group which may be interested you could refer them to our website. Oakleigh is less than 20 minutes from the airport. It accommodates 9 people and would be available for $700 a week over that period.—-
Annie speaks Dutch as well if pilots from Holland would be interested! She has lived in Holland.
The weather in Spain is getting better and better as usual this time of the year and in August it will be really busy there. Also now ,great flights in both Fuente and Cuenca Sotos, where a few of my friends spend part of their soaring summer.
And what about Doug Levy from the USA making one of those interesting goal flights, one long flight in a Schweitzer SGS1, from Inyokern over the mountains passing between Truckey [Tahoe] to the West of track and Ely to the East, going up to the north with strong wind in the back, but also overdevelopment and…a landing on a dirt road at Deeth in Nevada! Luckily he had 2 very devoted crew of 2 men chasing him, one of them the tuggie!! Great story!
Another story from the USA. A plane from South West Airlines , flying yesterday from Nashville to Baltimore had to make an emergency landing in Charleston. A gap , as big as a soccer-bal, forced the people to use their oxygen masks as the pressure at height 10.000m. dropped! The pilots ,brought the 124 passengers and crew safely down. All planes will be checked on “holes” now, but it is unknown at this stage how this gap was caused by.
And…what about the 44 year old Italian lady who had the “unique” idea to throw her wedding bouquet out of the the window of a plane…… The flowers ended up in the engine, causing a fire and…an explosion. The plane smashed against a small hotel, luckily not killing any of the 50 guests. The pilot had minor injuries , the “poor” lady was badly wounded with several broken bones and a head injurie.
That’s it for now, see you on Sunday!
Cheers Ritz