Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday January 22 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
Of course you know the terrible feeling of loosing “something” in your computer, even more when you have saved it all the time and it still disappears in “the nothing”!!
Hate it ; it happened to me yesterday afternoon when I looked satisfied at the new Sunday blog!GONE!!!!!!
So I have to start over again. Here we go!
Chaves finished with their Pre worlds and the 3d South American Nationals. A good competition as far as I could follow it on the different social media. NOT the best weather , but still organisers could find out where it went well, what could be better and what should be different.Pilots could look at the environment , “read” the weather, get familiar with the South American habits and people, and that was no problem, as I heard.
In standard class the French pilots were 1 and 3 after 7 days, with in their middle a very good 2d place for young Argentinian pilot Damian Goldenzweig. Not too much points difference in the end; 6195 for Didier Hauss and Laurent Aboulin, only 90 less for Damian and he leaded Killian Walbrou and Denis Guerin with only 10 points.
Our reporter from Olanda Jeroen won the last soarable day with a nice speed of 126 km/h. won the so-long- longed for -bottle of Argentinian red wine and ended in his hired Jantar with call sign 11 on spot 11;
Jeroen; –[ Last ]Day cancelled 🙁 11th place, if battery stayed alive and I would have been with the first 20 on day 3, I would have won. Still room for improvement, but I’m satisfied! :-)-
Thank you Jeroen for you great human and analysing blogs. http://pre-mundial.blogspot.com/
Jeroen flying on a cancelled day like the French did. As Jeroen said; It was interesting to see the difference of opinion what can be a contest- day between Europeans and Argentinians .
In 15 m. class local pilot Raul Garda won after 8 days in an ASW 20 . He was pretty consistent , won day 3 and had a few 2d -day -places. The first overseas pilots were on spot 5 and ..from France.
In open class Egon Rehn from Brasil was the best in the ASW 22 26.6 m. He won 5 days out of the 9.
For all results; www.soaringspot.com
Nice to read on the new FAI site that Visa-Matti Leinikki [Finland] has been appointed as the new IT manager from the FAI , working from May 1 onwards , in Lausanne at the FAI head office !! I have met Visa-Matti on several occasions where he was steward, juror and guest at comps. Never forget my trip on invitation from him, when he, Dick Bradley and I travelled on the Ferry from Helsinki to gorgeous Tallinn and also our early morning walks to a nice cafe in Rieti to have breakfast together, I remember with a smile. Good guy, and the right person on the right spot! Congratulations Visa-Matti!
The weather in Australia is still hot and good. Look at yesterday when “our” kilometer -eater Stephan Söll flew a distance of 796 km. FAI triangle from 538 km. in his LS 4 and declared ….NO engine..NO water, only skills ! Weather at Tocumwal at 3 , 35 dgr and a cloud base of 10.000 ft.
Stephan flew now in 7 days with one rest day in between; a total of 4.415.18 km!!!!! The good old LS 4 is still “hot”. And …to be honest Stephan is still TOP. Today he took a well deserved rest day , flying more or less local, but still relaxing while flying! And….he allowed young- helper -and -more from the field, Jake , to fly in his KYO. First time for Jake in a “fancy” glider.Look at the pictures at http://sportaviationtocumwal.blogspot.com/
Corowa is making a real race with lots of super flights, to be in the end runner up behind Bitterwasser on the stat’s list of the best airfield. 11 Flights added again today above 500 km. so they are @ SPOT 2 now! What’s still possible!? Anyhow WELLDONE!!!!
Stonefield; yes we know now about Stonefield. The young pilots Benjamin and Fabian have made their last flights and are heading home on Wednesday after a great holiday and…with each a 1000 in their pocket! One of the last great flights was by Andreas Kreil and Konrad Maierhofen , flying the Nimbus 4 DM for an out and return of 800 km. coming back in ONE go!!! No thermalling, just the view on unendless and go!!!!Great stuff and the fastest flight this season from Stonefield; 139km./h.
Last flight for this season from Fabian.
courtesy Fabian Peitz via FB.
We had a lovely evening yesterday with all the organisers from the last Dutch Nationals . As a “Thank you” the crew got a dinner voucher , from all the competitors, so we went to the middle of Holland, Utrecht, to a nice Japanese restaurant.Food was good, though for some pretty new and “interesting”, but we left with a full tummy, huge laughter and good mood. Maybe the sake helped a bit as well. THANK YOU COMPETITORS from the 2011 NATIONALS!!!
As I made these pictures you don’t see me, but Natasja will send me one for next Wednesday.
Great flight again from Gerard Lherm. Wrote about his last flight already, this time he “used” the Cevennes again and with more problems then during his last flight [showers in the area and tough wind] he made it home. Another very early in the season 1000 km and mind you days are still very short in Europe, getting longer since December 21 but still… He remains a top pilot. In Angers , in the 70thies he or George were the pilots who “fought” in open class, for the first prize from the HUIT JOURS d’ANGERS, the first unofficial European championships . Sometimes George won , sometimes Gerard. Those were good times!
In Soaringcafe, is a nice article about the first flight of the Quintus M, written by Bernd Weber who flew in the past , yes you guess it already….with us in Tocumwal. Here is the link.
http://soaringcafe.com/2012/01/first-impressions-of-the-quintus-m/
It is always tragic to read that we lost one of our “soaring mates” due to an accident. A 60 year old pilot died not far, 17 km NW from Omarama. Another pilot witnessed the crash , asked for help but sadly enough , all help did not help anymore.
Perth now by Vanessa; —“ know you like a bit of weather, and we’ve had plenty of it in Perth. It has been very hot and humid (a hangover from a cyclone up north) and we finally had some thunderstorms yesterday morning (although it reached 37 again later in the day, & 23 degrees overnight is the norm – yuk).
Great , no fabulous pictures about lightnings!!!
—” The forecast is hot for as long as I can see, and Australia Day on the 26th is forecast to be 39 degrees. It is a shame that it will be so hot – Perth has a large fireworks display by the Swan River, which this year is preceded by a series of air show events – including an aerobatic display by a motorised glider. It will probably be too hot for a lot of people to sit in the sun by the river and watch.— Look at the links and thanks Vanessa!
CU next week! Ritz
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-20/lightning-luke-baker-psjpg/3785438
and another dozen photos here http://www.watoday.com.au/photogallery/wa-news/perth-lightning-storm-january-20-2012-20120120-1q9eo.html