Namibia !South Africa !

Alphen aan den Rijn                                                               ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

The ” container-packers” at Venlo were pretty lucky as between the showers the sun was shining as well. Tuesday was a horrible day, Wednesday pretty bad in the evening but pretty good the rest of the day with a “sportive flight” of 248 km, from former EGChampion Steven Raimond with 60 km upperwind and Thursday was a bit better again for us on the ground but not so much for pilots due to a 8/8 cloud coverage.
So all in all, not too bad for packing containers , but…dust and sand/leaves should be avoided, I know how terribly precisely the quarantine people are, so they should.

Talking about overseas-soaring , I wrote about Australia last time, this time Namibia has its turn. A special season also for Bitterwasser as it celebrates its 50thiest birthday!!!! For that reason they have 30 % discount on lodging in the early [1-11/12-11-2010] and later season [18-01/31-01-2011].
Also they expect a BIG season as, they have organized 5 containers and till now 3100 “nights ” have been booked. Some of the containers are on  their way since September 13 travelling from Mengen and Ötisheim , with a total of 24 gliders. They expect 46 in total. Indeed a BIG season!!!! For more news look at; www.bitterwasser.com

Since 2002 pilots also travel to Namibia to fly at Pokweni. On Thursday September 9 they started packing their containers in Germany. For more news look at ; www.pokweni.org or www.pokweni.de this site is from Axel Nuss.
And Kiripotib is getting more and more popular as well. Bernd Dolba is very active here and you can find news for the 10/11 season soon at www.kiripotib.com

End of September , beginning of October containers will be packed in the UK to travel to Bloemfontein, where soaring-safaris from Dick Bradley welcomes you for some great soaring in South Africa. They have now 9 years of experience and long-distance-soaring is possible between mid November and the end of January.
The core of the 10/11 season will be their summer performance camp that will start at Sunday October 31. at Bloemfontein and continues till February 19 2011.
There will be a 25 % discount on  glider-hire -rates  for the early visitors booking between  October 31 and November 13 2010.
Look at ; www.soaring-safaris.com for more news.

Last but not least Gariep Dam in South Africa, where a few of my friends regurlarly fly. The gliding safari , I wrote about last year, is still on and organized between the middle of October and the middle of November 2010.
As they write; “Built 30 years ago, and used by glider pilots for 25 years,the airfield is owned by glider pilots dedicating to provide the best facilities and infra-structure that top pilots require, at an affordable price.” Read the 13 features at ; www.gariepgliding.com  I liked the “crime-free , quiet rural atmosphere. ”

I was impressed with the comment of junior pilot Alexander Spaeth on the OLC. He is a sportsoldier as well and “is a lot in the air”. His last day in France flying at Vinon ended with an outlanding at Barcelonette, where he and 2 mates were warmly welcomed. They even got a car to look at the sunset at Col d’Allos and they loved it, ” something which would not have happened if the would have had a turbo!!” He is gratefull for all things happening in his life. Alsop the open thank you to his friend Patrick, who borrowed him his discus 2 a, is heartwarming. He really is a nice young man and very down-to-earth. I wish him only the very best!!!!!I know of you of those young men in all parts of the world and it is great to now them.

To get back at the “drunken sai….pilot”, this is pretty rare incident,  as the social controle amongst the people in the aviation world is strong. Only in Holland it happened twice in 5 years that a pilot was stopped to fly. A 52 year old [is this the age they drink a bit more????] Norwegian pilot was stopped in 2008. Most companies have their own system to check and when they know about a problem-pilot, they mostly send him in time for sickness-leave for a while, or when older on an earlier pension.
In 2006 Schiphol Airport organized a big alcohol- check on 56 pilots and ALL those pilots were sober.

That’s it for now. The family weekend was awesome with great weather and tandem-bikes .
A friend here in Holland send me the next, a bit scaring link, but…… it looks it went well in the end for the pilot.

http://www.webpark.ru/comment/67415
 Cheers Ritz

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