Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday July 17 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
Was a bit worried about the pilots coming back from Lüsseto the Dutch weather on Thursday! My goodness me did we have some weather!!!! Rain was smashing the houses , trees and people and wind was even worse. In my street several trees had to give in , so did my nice old lavendel plant, “gone with the wind”. But…the fence is still upright.
My area here , with the Hague and Leiden, was the worst with 7 CENTIMETER of rain. New records also on the time of the rain; 20 hours and 30 minutes!!!
That day, Tocumwal Dundee [ Dieter] and I went to Amsterdam but only going from a little roof above our heads on the platform, to the train, we were soaked. Luckily Amsterdam was a bit better. But …only 13 dgr. on that high pole in front of the RAI.
Anyhow Sikko arrived home safely from Lüsse, but “felt” the horrible rain and wind as well.
On Friday we were back to sunny conditions with 23 dgr. Weather???????
We even made a SUPER trip on the new boat from my kids touring for 2 hours over the Canals. Loved it!!! So nice also to make pictures from the boat; here are a few. On top the Amstel hotel with in front to the right our Prime Minister enjoying the beginning of the weekend with a cool drink and the Anne Frank Museum were at 7 PM still a long queue was waiting to get in.
The new Gliding International is outand as always I just give you a little “look” in it. Interesting items are; the story from Jean Marie Clement in Argentina for those who have not read it yet. The Quintus, —China; the sleeping giant,—“upwind and down wind”, by John Cochrane[ It’s not take upwind tp’s low and downwind tp’s high” but……..
Further on a very interesting article about EAA, the Young Eagles program in the USA to grow pilot population, and “cockpit too small for an iPad???? Read it all in the latest GI.
Of course today the EGC starts in Nitra with the opening ceremony at 7 PM. Enough to enjoy again, so I will try to write as much as possible to keep you posted my way, with an everyday blog, when neccesary. Comps will go from July 18 till July 29, for the unflapped gliders.
The Issoudun comps finished also with rain on the last day. So everybody is back home again and the winners in each class were; Brian and Dick with nearly 800 points on the runner up , flying also a standard Libelle; Bart from Belgium.
In open class Ronald won from Holland with ASW27 and 6080 points , also here just more then 800 points in front of the runner up;Antoon in the duo discus!!!
The UK 18 meter Nationals have 5 flying daysnow and Mike Young still leads but just with a very small margin;69 points. There are 5 JS 1 gliders in this competition. Day 5 was won by Russell Cheetham in JS1, with a speed of 121 km/h. Only day 3 was a 1000 points day, so pretty marginal weather in the UK. Yesterday was bad as well with rain and wind.So …no flying day!Today is their last day.
The French 18 m. Nationals and 2 -seater Nationals have finished yesterday with the 7th day. Russian pilot Dimitri Timochenko is flying the duo discus T, well and is on top, but as he is not French he can’t win , but only be “the best”. By the way in France you just fly HC.Best pilot is now Pierre Lemaire with ARCUS.
Last task day 7 for this class, was an AAT with 2.30 hours and between 183km/ 306. The Russian pilots did not fly,and best distance was flown by Dutch pilot Herman Muller; 240 km in 2 hours and 37 min.
In 18 m. day 7 had an AAT as well; 2.30 and between 215/405km. Here Didier Hauss is the best , with Gilles Navas on 2 and Laurent Couture on 3. All 3 top pilots.By the way the last day was won HC by UK pilot Afandi Darlington;ASG29-314 km.-2hours44 and again not a 1000 point day.
Winners;
15 m. class Jose Jaime from Belgium in LS 8
18 m. class Didier Hauss from Vinon in France in Ventus 2cm National Champion
2 seater class Pierre Lemaire in ARCUS [France] National Champion
open class Dmytry Borovyk from Ukraine in Nimbus 4 DM
Only 2 seater and 18 m were Nationals.
Delta Airlines had a bad day this week, when 2 of their planes collided at the airfield. One a 767 was on it’s way to Amsterdam and hit with a wing the tail of a smaller plane. Both planes were replaced and a total of 288 people including crew could continue , though one person went to hospital with neck problems.
Talking about problems this is the news I got from Australia, pretty sad!
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/man-dies-in-bluff-knoll-glider-crash-80km-north-of-albany/story-e6frg13u-1226095043801
And a brief update from the ABC:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-15/glider-killed/2795954
To finish a picture from the Rijksmuseum[ under construction] and the famous Theater Carre. CU Ritz and…when the EGC is really interesting I come with special blogs.
