Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday November 27 2011
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
courtesy ; Bruce Cooper flying over the Andes last season.
Due to my flu and ischias, [sciatica] I was not able to visit one of the highlights in Holland in soaring; the Dutch National Soaring Day. That’s where you meet all your “mates”.
A pity as it looks it was more then well organised, with a market with the latest on gliding as in gliders and instruments and of course “toys for the boys”! Great speakers as Reiner Rose from the OLC and Glenn Fisher from the Perlan Project, as well as double World Champion Baer Selen with a workshop about training for solo pilots and young topper Frank Hiemstra with a workshop about glider tracking! Workshops also about medical issues, vintage gliders and the service center for gliders here at Terlet.
A REAL pity…. a missed change, but…such is life!
See if I can add a link to the winning movie and to the tracking system ….. Sorry NOT working but when you are interested go to www.zweefportaal.nl you might be able to see both by clicking on the items.
In Argentina the weather continues to be good for racing the ridges of the Andes and if you like that way of soaring you certainly enjoy looking at the good flights and stamina from the pilots from Germany and Czech Rep. flying long distances. And…in 15 m. conversion.1.295 with a speed of 162 km/h. for Danes Crula is pretty good! From the 7 flights flown in this beginning of the season, 4 were over 1000 km.
Max Leenders our Dutch topper in Bitterwasser flying his Nimbus 4DM, is not racing ridges, but flies out and returns and FAI triangles to set records!
I gave you already one here is the other;” Declared 900km FAI. Finished at 133km/h. New Dutch national record??. Excellent weather, mostly 1/8 CU. Blue sky on the third leg.” Well done Max!!!
I noticed that ” Trimmel Hermann” , as he was called during the WGC in Wiener Neustadt, where he was the very good meteo-forecaster , has arrived in Bitterwasser as well.
It is only waiting for the day Bitterwasser has a lot of 1000 km. flights, the pilots are there, good gliders as well, so now pilots ” only ” need the weather.
I had not written this down or the 1000 km flights are there ;3 in Bitterwasser, 3 more in Pokweni and 1 more for Gariep Dam.
Great effort from Reinhard Schramme in the 20 m. ARCUS;1.101 km with a speed of 129 km./h. Other 1000 km. flights were all in open class gliders again. The 18 m. class gliders just did not make it!But Hans Wiesenthal was in Gariep, close with his DG 808B/18m. ;978 km with a speed of 122km./h. Good on him! It is ALL happening now overseas!
In Temora a great little town, weatherwise even maybe better then Tocumwal and Corowa as it is more up N., more up to “nothing” , the NSW State Comps have started with a practice day and should be in full swing now with 45 participants in 5 classes! ” After rain there will be sunshine”,and I heard that’s happening ” it looks as if the rain may have stopped. 90mm at harvest time is not good for the farmers.”
Pilots as Bruce Taylor, Gerrit and Pam Kurstjens, Paul Mander and so many more are competing. Look for results at www.soaringspot.com and for more news to their great-looking site. On that picture you can clearly see the “”nothing” !
http://tandjsailplanes.com/NSWStateComps/
More news from Jo, this time something to REALLY learn from. Keep your mind set,while rigging your glider!!! Don’t get disturbed/distracted!!!
http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/news/282129-glider-plunged-1000ft-to-her-death-because-the-aircraft-was-not-assembled-properly/
Rain in Narromine, I told you already that most pilots had left the Narromine Cup, what should have been a fantastic week, “just fell in the water”. What can you do!!??
—-Torrential rain today … no phone landlines; no eftpos; harvest a disaster for some; unhappy glider pilots!! Only my garden is happy!— message from one of my FB friends.
But a bit more upnorth in the East of Australia they flew today 819 km. in a Ventus 2CM/18m.
The West of Australia is hit by fires and at least 20 houses have burned down. Saw on TV the guy who saved himself in the pool from the neighbours with oxygen and a mask. I remember when the big fire hit Tocumwal on January 3 in 1991, we were told to jump in the pool as well with woollen blankets over us for when the fire passed. That went quickly ,we did not need to jump in the pool, the hangar surrounded by green wet grass was passed by as the wind turned a bit more to the S. , but those fires caused a lot of damage around the airfield.
The most expensive and most advanced space-robot, has been send to Mars yesterday by NASA. “Curiosity” is the name of this little “car ” on wheels with a compact but very fancy chemistry-lab in it.Cost; 1.5 milliard Euro.It will hopefully arrive in within 9 months! Same time as waiting for a baby, ..an even bigger miracle.
Enjoy the 2d part of the SSC story. Click on soaring cafe above and you find part with lots of pictures [ here a few as well]which have been send to me by George but he thinks they are made by our former Swedish guest Lars. Cheers Ritz
When you are interetested; I heard, the Blanik, in the hangar, pained by Dutch Artist Gerry Jillisen is for sale as ART-OBJECT for 59.000 Australian Dollar ex. Tocumwal.