ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN FEBRUARY 17 2013
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.soaringcafe.com www.glidinginternational.com
Bikes, cars, roads, traffic lights…all were full of frozen rain making life difficult and slippery!
As seen by Jeroen Beeke.
It has been a long time ago , that I was out side with freezing-rain!!! Last Thursday I had to be in Amsterdam and the meteo announced that morning around 10 AM snow and freezing rain in the W of Holland. They were spot on.
At 10 20 it reached Leiden, where I was waiting for the connecting train.My legs are still sore from not walking, but moving my feet carefully over the icy walking path. When coming home I had the same problem but looking at my car not far from the station, I was pleased as driving looked much more easy than walking. I carefully walked up to only find out the car was one big blog of ice!! Doors did n’t open and the wheels were icy as well. So more walking ,but I survived, without falling or breaking any bones.
Not everybody was soo lucky , only the car -accidents/incidents amount , reached over 160 in Holland!!!!
wave in Norway as seen by Robert Danewid last year.
Wrote in my last blog about wave in France, Italy and the USA but , …..missed out on WAVE IN GREECE. Luckily I do have a faithful reader there , who informed me straight away. THANK you for the update so I can share it with more friends!
–“You mentioned the start of the wave season in Europe but missed some interesting wave flights in Greece since December including a climb to 6800m by a Taurus, a climb to 6500m by a Sinus and last Saturday a 278km flight at 91.6km/h by a Sinus! —“
So I had a quick look and YES I missed it. The Pipistrel Sinus was last Saturday at spot 3 with pilot Petros Printezis and Alexis at height 3988 MSL and flying 268 km. from the airfield of Kopaida in Greece.
Talking about wave, there are lot’s of great places for wave but of course one of the paradises for wave is Omarama in NZ.
—“This unique environment is created by the Southern Alps of New Zealand with crystal clear air, extraordinary wave systems and fiesty thermals.
Come visit, Omarama – the place of light – and enjoy it all with us!”— As said on their website.
Last week Philip Plane flew at height 5079 m MSL in the duo discus. He commented;
—“Tricky thermal under messy wave. Then tricky wave, not well organised, scattered rotor cumulous and bits of lenticulars.”—
5215 MSL was the height for one of our Finnish friends Jiry Laukkanen, who is flying in Omarama.
Will try to be more alert on wave as well.
G Dale left Omarama yesterday but is already now, looking forward again to next spring.His last day with instruction in the duo discus was “Fun and good educational stuff but not fast”.
The day before he was with a guest at 5320 m. MSL.
Wave as I saw it on the North Island from N.Z. while visiting the Roake family in 2011.
The view from their house.
And of course the Morning Glory Wave , up North in Australia at Burketown
Wave over the airfield in Burketown and a second one looking East.
Pictures Jo Pocklington.
I “stay” in New Zealand with the Club class Nationals in Taupo and they had less good weather and cancelled day 3!
But the next day, flying-day-3 was a fact again , with a 341 km. racing task , but,….with only one finisher in a Mosquito!
As the CD Roy said;
—“A challenging day with pilots making great decisions. Whether it was the decision to land back or the decision to landout after a long day, all were well done.—”
Mark in the St Libelle, nearly flew home , missed out on a few kilometers but in points there was not a lot of difference; Coming home means 591 points and being [ just ]out 519.
Friday was day 4 and a 2.30 AAT was set, with the best distance flown in an ASW 20 with 266 km. in 2 hours 26.
Mark arrived as number 4 , Tim in the discus b on 7 and a few outlandings were a fact as well.
Overall scores after 4 days; Steve Wallace in the Mosquito with 3433 points, Mark in the St Libelle on 3430 and Tim on spot 5 with 3153 p.
Day 5 ;racing task 302 km. but,…the day turned out otherwise than expected. “Caracter building ” was the word the CD used. Nobody finished but Mark won with 266 km. and added 773 points to his total. He won already 4 days till now.
Day 6 today ; with a B task an AAT from 2.15. was a prey again for Mark,Steve and Tim , so with a couple of days to go [Febr.22] this is at this stage the overall score as well.
This weekend there will be more pilots flying , as the MATAMATA Soaring Center have joined in for their competition, since yesterday with 10 pilots.They flew the same B task and Tony van Dyk was 2d in his LS 8. Would this be the Tony I know from years , years ago!? Would be fun!
He had never been there before but Mac [Ichikawa] follows the good weather and travels up from Narromine to Tocumwal and even this week to Stonefield . So does young Matthew Scutter ,but he lives close to Stonefield.
Matthew had the privilege of flying the Nimbus 4DM for the first time in his life and Mac flew for the first time in his life up N from Stonefield to the remote and mostly unlandable area of Wilpena Airstrip; not much more than that.
Good distances ;just over 800 km. for both and a nice flight together each in a Nimbus 4DM!
Awesome weather they said at Stonefield!
Tocumwal had distances from just over 600 km in an ASH 26 and over 500 km. in an LS 6!Not bad either for late summer!
From Benalla 550 was flown in a Speed Astir!
Today another splendid soaring day in Victoria and the border of NSW.
A 500 FAI triangle in a Kestrel from Temora by Grant Johnson shows how good the weather was.
Rolf who flew his first 1000 a few weeks in Tocumwal, now enjoyed great late summer conditions flying a 640 km. FAI triangle [extended to 666 km] from Bacchus Mars, home of the Geelong Gliding Club. He flew his 18 m LS 8T. on a “typical Bacchus “day; nice q day , 11000 foot base, 38C.
Rolf here in Tocumwal had some really good flights this season.
And what about 795 km. in the LS 3 by Terry Cubley today from Gawler????Up to 3415 MSL in thermals!!!!!! And Graham had a good day as well with a 750 FAI triangle and a total of 794 km. in his ASG 29/18m. with 130 km./h.
“Not the best day ever but pretty good all the same.” That says enough!Not only Victoria and the South part of NSW but also South Australia had TOP weather.
With the combination US Airways and American Airlines, the biggest aviation concern has been born.The name will be American Airlines and they will remain a member of the One World group , together with B.A, Iberia and Jap. Airlines.
I will try to be in Issoudun for a weekend or so to be part of the WWGC . My “old”Blundstones will be there for sure as Natasja will fly with them.
Shiny “old” Blundstones great for landing in a field, but of course I hope she does n’t have to go “au vache”.
3 Blogs this time, one on Saturday as well , yesterday, for soaring cafe, as old news is no news. It is all about Yves Rossy, the JETMAN from Switzerland, who visited my friends Emily and Tony on their estate Springhill in New Zealand.Read the full story as an extra blog on www.soaringcafe.com yesterday, Saturday.
Yves after landing.
And last but not least,..this impact in the Russian “Oeral” from an exploding meteoriet. About 1000 people wounded [160 children] in atleast 6 towns and 100 pretty bad from them 2 VERY bad. Not good!
The impact made a huge hole in a lake and shattered panes of glass everywhere.Damage bill; 25 million!!!!
The most scary thing is that this can happen everywhere.
On Friday evening an asteroid passed by at only 27 .000 km from planet Earth. It sounds far away but it seems no asteroid has ever been so close.
Cheers Ritz