Spring is over, summer starts! Canberra Airport! Tuggie….needed!

Alphen aan den Rijn                Wednesday   June 2 2010                   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Not long and the 2 WGC’s will be flown. Only 30 days of waiting for the non-flapped glider-pilots competing in Prievidza. I am looking forward to see how they will be, who will win  and how the weather will be. As far as I can see on both sites, organizers  have been very busy and look ready for the big days!
The meteorological summer has started and this weekend we are going to “have” 25 dgr. Spring was not too bad , though the first part was much better for soaring then the last part and this is for many countries in Europe. A persistant low pressure system spoiled a lot of fun.

In the Northern part of Italy they are flying the Italian Nationals for 15 m and club class. After rain on Sunday both classes got a speed-task of 309 km. on Monday. Only 4 pilots from 11 made it back home in standard class . In 15 m. 6 from 13 made it home. Luca De Marchi flew with a nice speed of 123 km/h. and won, while well known pilots Thomas Gostner and Stefano Ghiorzo arrived home on place 3 and 4 with a speed of 107 and 106 km/h. Both are flying the WGC in Szeged.
On day 2 , yesterday another reasonable long task; standard 329 km and 2 pilots made it home. Corrado Costa was 2d but is after 2 days of flying number 1 overall. Corrado will fly the WGC in Prievidza.
In 15 m. pilots had to fly 331 km and Stefano won and is 1 overall after 2 days. 6 Pilots made it home. I know that Stefano and Thomas fly and practise a lot together. They started at the same time , but somewhere Thomas must have lost the “connection ” 
as he arrived home half an hour later.

Last Monday a light Polish aircraft  with 2 men and 2 women crashed in the forest close to the town of Bielefeld in Germany. Investigators try to find the reason for this accident not far from the airfield of Windelsbleiche.
And talking about Poland……..the voice recorders of the black boxes from the Polish plane with the Polish president, have been published. What was to be heard about the last 39 minutes ,  is that the pilots neglected the several warnings for a longer period about the fog and the wind and…the warning that they were too low…then shouting and abusing…then silence….Why did they not react !!!!

4/3 out of 5 days are flown in a Czech competition in Plasy.  In club class well-known pilot Jan Louda is on 3d place and junior pilot Miloslav Cink winning days in the JWGC is on 6th spot, both flying a standard cirrus. In combi /15 m only 3 days of flying and well known pilots Roman Mracek and Tomas Suchanek are on the first places and in combi/open also 3 days…..An ASG 29/ 18m on 1 , a Ventus 2CM/18m at 2 and an ASW 22BLE on 3 . Lubor is at spot 8.

In Canberra the new terminal , is as I read in “The Hub”on final approach.
“A team of more then 300 people have been working hard and going to the ends of the earth to ensure the job is completed in time .”
Very much involved in this job is Ben Rayner, who learned how to fly gliders with us in the past at Sportavia. Nowadays he is approving the first 3 up to 8 aero-bridges, which are ordered in China [ Zhongshan] to be installed in the Southern Terminal Extension. So when you visit Australia and end up in Canberra enjoy the great looking new  terminal. It will be ready in September!!

Talking about Australia!!!  When you are a tow pilot and trying to make hours to be an airline pilot late  and if you love Australia …here is an opportunity for you. I have been at Lake Keepit and it is just a beautiful airfield close to a great lake. Just received it via Jo [thanks!];

LKSC Summer Tug PilotThe Lake Keepit Soaring Club (LKSC) is located between Tamworth and Gunnedah in northern NSW. LKSC operates in summer with a live-in tug pilot member to support its mid-week operations. Expressions of interest are invited from tug pilots with suitable experience in aerotowing with tailwheel Pawnee/Callair aircraft, to assist with aerotowing operations club between September 2010 and April 2011 Enquiries please by personal email to LKSC Tugmaster Phil Anderton (pjanderton@optusnet.com.au)

Yesterday and the day before there was topweather  in 2 of my most favourite soaring places Rieti in Italy and Räyskala in Finland. Flights in Rieti up to 726 km.  in a Nimbus 2 B “racing” the mountain-chain. And up to 655 in an ASW 20 from Räyskala. Good to see Hannu flying his “PIK” over 607 km. Hannu flew with us in the past and some know him as the “man of the bug-wipers”. But he has more to sell then that.
Also Beas de Sigura where some of my friends fly had great weather with a flight of  739 km in a DG 808B/18m.
The day before was also very good in Italy as Luciano Avanzini flew over the mountains a 1.159 km flight in a Nimbus 4 M.!!!!!!
Last day of spring ended well this way and the first day of summer was good too.
 Eskilstuna where I was invited for the WGC a couple of years ago, to be the editor and on which I look back with enormous pleasure, had great weather as well with 727 km in an ASW 27. I remember some German pilots have their annual camp in Eskilstuna and fly from this nice airfield.
 SO…..is it ALL going to happen this summer???!!!

And then this
——In Holland we do have a bit of a weird positivity-guru. Last Monday he crashed a model plane -a Robbe Charter- in our Government town The Hague against the “tower” of the House of Parliament. The span from the plane was 1.50 m  and it had 0.4 liter of methanol for its 5 cc Magnum engine ….and…what’s more ,it is for most parts  forbidden to fly over  The Hague, specially the House of Parliament and the Palace of the Queen, it is a no fly zone. He thought this was an interesting way of promoting his new book “Holland is mixed up “, written on a banner behind the plane.He went by himself to the police to mention it , but still can expect maybe a prison visit [ up to 6 months!] and/or a big amount of money to pay!!!!
 I guess HE lost the plot…a rather expensive way of trying to find attention!
—–The first tropical storm of the hurricane season, Agatha,  killed till now 150 people. As a result of heavy wind and rain,  landslides and flooding  were the main reason for the death in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Sad!
—–One of the companies not making a loss in the aviation-world  is Ryan Air!!! They even made a profit of 319 million!!!! Well done! “Boss ” Michael O’Leary prefers to compare his company with companies as Aldi,  Lidl  as you know  big super markets ..prize-fighters and with IKEA, everybody knows what IKEA is.

Cheers Ritz

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