Rieti         Wednesday     August 12 2009

Sadly enough we miss already for nearly 72 hours a glider  with an Austrian pilot. I have never experienced this before and it feels just terrible. They work with all power they have, to find him. Hundreds of SAR people, also with dog’s , forest police , planes , helicopters and even competitors have gone yesterday morning , in fact from Sunday evening onwards , to see if they can find him. Here in the office a Dutch pilot has asked for all data from flight recorders ,Winpilot and FLARM with PDA to see the fixes of pilots flying with him. What they found out , is that they know for sure the time- fix from his mobile phone at 14.30 and that one pilot is SURE that he saw him flying direction S.

I investigated if this has happened before. Yes here in Rieti it happened in 1982 but they found the pilot within 24 hours …..alive! In France they found a pilot after 3 days ,…. also alive.

In Papua New Guinee they miss a passenger plane  with 13 people , 9 from Australia. The Twin Otter departed from Port Moresby on its way to Kokoda ,a place in the middle of nowhere , a real jungle , with mountains as well and visited a lot by Australian holidayers. In the WW2 this place was a battle -field , where quite a lot of Australian soldiers have fought.
One of the pilots flying  a SAR plane is our former tow pilot, Diana. She flies a Dornier 328 from AeroRescue. Furtheron 2 Blackhawks from the Australian Army are searching  and several other planes , also  5 or 6 civil helicopters. Unfortunately the weather is bad for searching.

I just heard that the Twin Otter has been found  and it is a miracle they found it as it ended on a steep mountain full of trees. Sadly enough no survivors. They put SAR mountain climbers low on a moutain-spot where it is possible to climb up to reach the wreck.
Here in Rieti they put SAR people close to a top and they go down between the trees of the forest . Unfortunately still no sign of the missing pilot.

The weather here in Rieti is great  and some pilots , NOT from the CIM, fly today. Tomorrow will be even better.
Sadly enough but totally understandable, the CIM 2009 has finished now after the 5 flown days. The prize giving will be most probably tonight and the winners in the total scores of day 5 are the winners from the CIM 2009.

This morning about 40 pilots/ crew left to search in the area where the last information might give hope! Not one pilot is interested in flying at the moment. They race against the clock in the hope to find the pilot …..hopefully still alive. It is still possible, but hope fades.Some pilots left already yesterday.

Greetings from Rieti! Life goes on here but still in a worried atmosphere. Hopefully better news in the next blog!But…Rieti is still a great soaring place, what ever has happened, that’s the conclusion of the pilots.

Ritz

Rieti           Sunday August 8 2009

The WWGC is over and with 9 days of flying you can only say that it was a great competition. As you know , a competition is only over after the last day and during this comps this was really clear. The last day was a tricky one and mixed the scoring system. The UK girls on top during the whole  competition,  tumbled down to 4 and 5 to make junior Nathalie Hurlin from France the new female WORLD CHAMPION in club class. Only very few points difference between the top ladies 21 points in club class.In standard class German lady Sue Kursbach is the new world champion with only 13 points on runner up Jana from Czech Rep. In 15 m class 2 German girls in the top with only 4 points difference.Wow!!!

The EGC in Pociunai had also a last tricky day! But….with 13 days a new record in EGC flying. Not always the best weather but possible for soaring, so why not!Look at the scores from SUPER MARIO over 12 000 points and what about the 2 Dutch juniors!!!!Rene de Dreu is the new European champion and his mate Tim Kuijpers is runner up with only 13 points difference. All the other scores you can find on soaringspot.com
Congratulations also to Belgian pilots Tijl and Bert being 6 and 8 in standard class. Well done!

Here in Rieti the weather is super!!!Not a long task today as the meteo expects thunderstorms, also here in this area. But at 12.00 it looked good enough to let the pilots go for a quick AAT. Yesterday one of the pilots flew around with a speed of 158.7 km in 18 m. class. Open class had 146.1 km, club 124.9 km/h, standard class 137.8 km/h and 15 m. 130.6 km. Local pilots nearly flew 800 km here!

Fuentemilanos is “hot” and the usual guests are flying long cross country flights . Lot’s of 1000 km flights also from airfields close by Fuente, as Villacastin Aero. This is a good year for soaring!

Back to my duties here in Rieti. Not long and the first pilots will be back

Cheers Ritz

Rieti     Wednesday August 5 2009

To be honest I am not too sad  about the weather here in Rieti over the last 2 days , nice cool for a change. The first competition day has been cancelled yesterday due to a through , which did not want to leave the area and “loved ” us so much that only at 6  the sun was shining and for the next days it really looks good.
Great to see so many familiar faces from all over Europe with children, wives and crew. A totally different atmosphere then the WGC or EGC but unique as well, I had nearly forgotten about it. It is all very relaxed here, but there are still strong rules which have to be kept to keep it all safe.
It was good to see Leo here,  as well as Ricky. Leo left yesterday morning , but will be back Ricky left 2 days ago. Very brave people!I even heard Leo has a new book, so I will tell you more about that when I have it. It is in Italian so not readable for everyone unfortunately.

Competition day 1 has started here today  with the first launch at 12.30. The weather is splendid and if you look at the www.soaringspot.com  you can see tasks now and results tonight. It seems that not every computer can straight find my news in the Ritz Corner. So if you are at the home page from www.rietigliding.it  please scroll down to under the pictures. If that does not work please go to the search engine in the right top. They are working on making it easier. Sorry about that!

In Ponciunai they are still flying  with all kind of weather conditions, but still till today 9 flying days and real competition in club class where the German ,Dutch and Polish pilots fight for the best place. After 9 days the German pilot is number 1  only with 12 points on the 2 Dutch pilots each having the same amount of points on place 2. And that after 9 days of flying! [ www.pociunai.lt] The most exciting class!!!!

In Szeged the ladies still enjoy HOT conditions  though today is cancelled due to the tough wind which made towing impossible.It was good to see that Orsi from Hungary , one of the juniors in Finland won the day on Monday. Well done! Yesterday they had their 2d restday , so a few days to go and it is over.  www.flatlandcup.hu  

That’s it for now greetings from warm Rieti where the skies just look great and we expect , atleast the director Giorgino does, high- speed-flights!!!
Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      Saturday August 1 2009

A spare minute to spend,  so some time to write ,while the women in Szeged have a well deserved rest day after 6 days of soaring with good to very good conditions! What a great competition, what great flights and what great speed , a real world championship!! They have another week to go , so if you are interested ,please follow them on www.flatlandcup.lt

The EGC has less good weather  , but still great results for hardworking pilots. And…hard working crew has to be applauded too ,as on some days the total group of competitors in one class landed out. Also one more week to go and today they had longer distances and hopefully better weather. They had their rest day yesterday , which was good , as the day before the weather was over -estimated and  so was the task; Result many outlandings!!!
Great to see the Dutch juniors Tim and Rene on place 1 and 2 in club class!

The 18 m. Nationals in the UK  are flown at Husbands Bosworth, in short Husbos!! A very nice airfield with lovely people and …the place were  the JWGC in 2005 was held. Several of my friends are flying there, all within the top 10 at this stage with 2 more days to go! Nice  to see “good old ” Andy Davis on place 1 at this stage.
Out of 7 days 3 were cancelled till now, but today and tomorrow should be fine.

Like the UK,  Holland has had a lot of rain in July.  But also high temperatures!The Southern province in Holland , Limburg, even got 31.8 dgr. With an average of 18.2 dgr., the temperature was 0.8 higher then normal in July.
The average rain fall in July was 31 mm higher then normal ;we “got” 101 mm as average. Last but not least; the sun shined 235 hours, while it normally is “only” 201 hours, so we were spoiled!

Off to Rieti now tomorrow morning.  There the temperatures are around 30/31 dgr. Good for the “bones” in my body! They were used for over 12 years to nice warm climate -circumstances , but since I am back in Holland in December 2006, they “suffer” a bit! Hope you  can ” follow ” me to Rieti, the country with the nice sunshine and good thermals, the place where the Coppa Internazionale del Mediterraneo has started today with the first practise day out of 3. The first mandatory briefing is at 18.00 on August 3 and the comps start on August 4!!!!
Look for www.rietigliding.it

“See you in Rieti ” and if time available I will continue with soaring.eu as well, with more newsy news.
cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       Wednesday July 29 3 days before departure to Roma!

For sure it was not the goal from the French pilots,  potential winners in standard class, to outland on day 1! They flew quite enough kilometers [251] during the AAT but could not make it back home . German pilot Mario Kiessling managed to stay close to the 2.30 hour task [2.35] , still flying 229 km. and won the day! Strong class with pilots as Tomasz Rubaj and Tomas Suchanek  and ……who knows the Belgium brothers might surprise us ;Tijl and Bert jr..
 First time I see Janusz Centka flying during a competition in the 2-seater class, winning day1.
Dutch junior Rene flew to the 2d place after a Russian pilot in club class.
In world class the 2 French top pilots came home on place 2 and 3 after a pilot from Czech Rep.

Day 2 in Pocunai had rain again .The 16 Wilga’s managed to get all pilots up in the air quickly, some twice as rain forced them down again. They even had to stop launching due to showers. But ….in the end it was a 1000 point day, with  several  out landings  .Look for more results at www.soaringspot.com    The weather improved !

So day 3 on Tuesday had nice tasks but also rain on track and…it ” rained also outlandings”. As they said on the site, ” it looks if the comps are over ” , so many trailers had left.If you are interested please look for the news and results on the sites! Sometimes I have the feeling that it is a bit of a lottery !In World class  5 pilots arrived home in the 2 seater class only ONE and in club and standard nobody!!!!And….the juniors are still doing a great job!!! Rene is ONE overall after 3 days in club class and Tim 4!!!!!

Last Sunday showed interesting flights on the OLC  with 2 standard Libelles flying over 700 km. and heading the OLC list; a standard cirrus and 2 ASW 19 did about the same and an ASW 15 flew 662 km. Great results!!!! For sure very happy pilots!!

Day 2 on Monday in Szeged had racing tasks for the ladies  from 520 km[ 15 m. class], 509 km [standard class] and 439 km. [club class]. So the ladies are flying in the good part of Europe with nice sunshine and great conditions! Orsi the young Hungarian pilot is doing a great job , as well as young Nathalie from France; 8 and 5 on Monday and 3 and 5  overall after 2 days! Around 13 out landings!
Day 3 was another good one with NO outlandings and great results!!!! The girls have a great time over there in Hungary!

In Europe 12 countries have committed their-selves  to buy and fly 3 Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport-planes  and to do maintenance on them over the next 30 years. Holland is one of the countries and with the use of 500 flying hours a “big user”! Military forces will be moved with them , as well as freight.
And….Ryanair saw the profit grow from 21 million last year to 136.5 this year!!!!!!!They claim that the lower prize for fuel and the still growing amount of passengers is the reason. Not too bad in times like we are in now!In fact AMAZING!!!!

 Maybe I have time to write a bit on Saturday ,otherwise ” see you in Italy” most probably on Monday!  www.rietigliding.it

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Monday July 27 2009

Unfortunately it is has rained in Pocunai, till Saturday the openings-day and…as usual it was good weather on that day. Flying was possible till 4 PM so ,who ever wanted to practise atleast another day could do so. 
After the registration there are 29 pilots in club class, 14 ” pair of pilots ” in the 2 seaters, 25 pilots in standard class and in world class 10 pilots have entered! Is there a future for world class!????!
 It is nice to see that pilots from Belarus and Serbia have entered an EGC for the first time!

Yesterday was the first flying day. It did not look well in the morning, but AAT’s were  set and pilots were launched , some however were back straight away at the field and had to try again. In the end it turned out to be  a reasonable flying day , but not for all!
It started with some confusion about airspace, was ” one ” open or closed . After signing the note at the grid by the TC’s  and wiping the rain from the canopies and wings, the event could start.
Not all made it home[12 out landings]  but,  it was  day ONE of the competition, starting with rain then sunshine and….yes you guess well …..finishing with rain!!!
Not a 1000 point -day ,but a lot can happen over the next days.

 The weather in Czech Rep. and Poland has been  bad over the last week. One Dutch camping in Vchlabi [C.R]  has been hit last week by a tornado and NOTHING is left leaving 2 people badly injured and several light!! Austria had the same bad weather , as well as Poland, where several people got killed by nature forces.
In fact the whole middle part of Europe and some of the East countries have been hit by heavy,  to very heavy weather.
Some competitions in this time -frame have had not one day of flying. In Sweden 2 out of 7 days , in Holland 3 out of 7 with hope for another day on saturday and that happened so 4 days, it was in the end.
The southern parts of Europe suffer from heat waves with 40 dgr. plus and big bush fires. Even 4 men from the Spanish fire brigade got killed!

Looking at the Formula 1 in Hungary , I saw that the weather there was not too bad! Great looking skies with nice cumulus clouds and a temperature of 25 dgr. so a good sign for a nice day for the 5th Women Championships in Szeged in Hungary. The ladies fly in 15 m. class, standard and club. In 45 minutes I read on their site [www.flatlandcup.hu] all the girls were up in the air and tasks were set from 310 km in club, 405 km for standard and 415km for 15 m. class.
In club 18 girls are competing under them Orsi the young girl flying during the JWGC for Hungary and Elena the TC for her brother during the JWGC, from Italy and Nathalie for France finishing 10th. overall in Rayskala.
In standard class Gill Spreckley is the former world champion and best known of the 16 ladies. Great to see Akemi a Japanese pilot and Andrea, a Turkish pilot!
In 15 m class also 15 girls.
On the end of the day all pilots came back home, so indeed a good day.
I like the funny comments on their site! For sure more flying days to come as they have I heard this morning oin the news, up to 30 dgr. in Hungary and no predicted storms or rain.
While writing about women in sport , during the 13th FINA World Swim Comps in Rome the Dutch girls set a new world record on the estafette 4×100 m. in a great race, just in front of Germany [2]and Australia [3].

Another crash with a Russian plane in Iran,  this time killing 16 people from the 150 aboard and most of them in the front of the plane as it hit a wall after landing ,while having a fire. Under the people which were killed,  13 crew members!!!!!

An historic flight over the CHANNEL  between the UK and France was made on Saturday by French pilot Edmond Salis. Exactly 100 year after Bleriot made the first flight,  a restored Bleriot- plane from 1934 flew in 40 minutes [ just one or 2 minutes MORE then in the past]over the Nord Sea and landed at Dover. Lots of people were interested in that historical flight and about 300 planes flew the same traject as well later during the day all celebrating the 100 years!

See you on Wednesday,cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday July 22 2009

The unofficial practise days are over  and today it starts to be more serious in Pociunai, as the official practise days including briefing, tasks etc . are about to begin .
The weather was spoilsport during the first 3 unofficial days with storms and heavy rain, but the “high” has arrived !
Competition director/meteo  in Lithuania ,  is Vytautas Maciulis.
Stewards are Dick Bradley and Raimo Huoviala and the jury president is Peter Ryder with as members Ross Macintyre and Vytautas Sriubas!
19 Different countries and over 90 competitors if I count the 2 pilots in the 2 seater class each.
For official practise day 1 from the EGC , today , the weather looks indeed a bit more promising with 2 tasks set , one  AAT with 4 areas for world and club class [ 224 km. / 344 in 3 hours] and one for standard and 2 seater class [ 302 km. /444 in 3 hours].It is nice to see that they also have a weather-woman in Pociunai ,when the director ,is too busy, but it seems her English is not too good, as she seems to have said while introducing herself!

The weather is very different these days.  In areas as France , Spain  , Italy ,even Slovenia ,  the weather for soaring is excellent. Germany, Switzerland  and Austria had severe storms with hail and heavy rain, causing a lot of damage. A competition in Sweden started on July 18 and still has only one flying day! But yesterday the area around Luesse /Roitzschjora was good again with a nice first practise day;545 km for young Dutch pilot Afred Paul Alfers.
Here in Holland and Belgium we are between sun and thunderstorms as well, but….next week will be good again ….is what they predict.

The planet Jupiter was hit  by an unidentified object according to CNN. It seems the object, maybe an ice bloc or a lost comet, had a cross section of  about 80 to 160 km. but the crater was a big as the planet earth in total ,according to NASA scientists !!!!! It seems that this unidentified object moved with a speed of 50 to 100 km per SECOND! Good it did not hit our planet! Even better to hear from one of the scientists that Jupiter , the biggest planet of the  solar system  and 11 times bigger then “earth” , seems to be “the heavenly vacuum cleaner” for around flying objects, being a potential danger for us and other close by planets.

In Holland , in Nijmegen about 42.000 people are “walking”  for 4 days , the famous ” 4 daagse “. On day one about 350 people had to give up. Friday is the last day and all walkers get flowers then and it is ONE GREAT party in Nijmegen and surrounding , giving a huge financial and economic boost to these areas!
It seems that one English walker is ,or might have been  diagnosed, with the Mexican flu, so he is in quarantine and out of the “race”.

See you NOT on sunday, but on Monday july 27. If you want to follow the EGC please look at www.pociunai.lt

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday July 19 2009

While my family  is  having a great ,but very hot [40dgr. C. ] holiday in sunny Greece, we are here in Holland back to 17 dgr. and rain with very grey skies, but with the promise that we might see some sun in the afternoon. So no soaring weather this weekend here in Holland.
In parts of Italy , Germany and  Austria  the heat [wave] was followed by bad weather and severe rain which  caused land-slides killing 3 people and due to the wind one person in Austria ,a very experienced German hiker from 71 years old , was killed by falling from/blowing off  a mountain. He was the last from a row of 4 man trying to take shelter for the bad weather , when he just disappeared. 

Italy is suffering from a heat wave , as is Greece and the southern parts of Europe , but in Rieti they are still working hard to make the next Coppa Internazionale del Mediteranneo a great success. All airspace is open for the competitors so a REAL Rieti competition is about to begin.
Guiliano, the man from PostFrontal ,who had a great success with his mate Alex and the help of speaker Art from Canada, with the Condor Tracking system during the 2008 WGC in Rieti, has made as he says “from scratch” a very easy Ritz Corner for me, so I am happy to co-operate again with people who know what they are doing and are excellent in their job. In Eskilstuna  in 2006 , KG was the superman, in Rieti in 2007/08 Maurizio and in Finland twice in 2005/09 Katja.
If you look at the site www.rietigliding.it  designed by PostFrontal in co-operation with the Italian Gliding Association, you can see a site with great pictures , easy to handle and you can , as pilot, even use the Condor simulator system to practice before you arrive .Just have a look!

In Pociunai were it is 28 dgr.  the first pilots have arrived for the 15th EGC for standard class, club , world and two-seater- class.The un-official practise days are between July 19 and 22 and the official from 22/24 July. The comps go from July 24 till August 8. Will keep you informed. A few very good pilots have entered, so let’s see who will go home with the highest honors!

In the UK , the club class nationals  are held in Pocklington between July 11 and July 19 .It looks the 33 pilots  have the same weather as we have at this stage, but at least they have flown on July 11-13-14-15-16.It pleases me that our former tuggie at Sportavia in Tocumwal , Tim Milner is at this stage number 1 over-all ,in a standard cirrus, winning 2 days !I do not know yet if they can fly today, which is the last competition day!

Parts of the USA are still fantastic, they have an awesome year. More 1000 km flights from Ely, Minden and Mountain Valley, where Mark Grubb even flew 1061 km in an ASW 20 on July 17!!!!  ” Perhaps  the strongest conditions  I have ever seen”, he said.
On July 15 he flew in the ASW 20, 800 km, one day later 768 km .
Norbert Schlafke flies in Ely and has already 5 1000 km. flights in his ASW 22 with as best speed ;143.79 km/h. and best distance 1.206 km.
Invermere in Canada had great conditions as well with flights up to 836 km by well -known pilot Hans Binder.

But…Europe still has great weather as well. Not everywhere as I see no flying day at all during the Military comps in Germany at this stage. But all those mountain areas are just good .Yesterday Serres la Batie in France had such great weather for their guests. Several German pilots flew their 1000 km. there and some …only just, did not make the 1000!!! Italy showed nice long flights as well as …yes….Rayskala, so we did not use all good weather there, but left enough for our Finnish friends.

Talking about the USA we have to remember  as well the 40thiest anniversary of the Apollo going to the moon and as so many in the world I was sitting that evening, with my 2 weeks old son Dennis on my lap….[history was about to be written , so he should be able to say later that “he had seen it”] , looking at the first men walking on the moon!!!!!40 years ago….where goes the time!

It is with great sadness  that I finish today’s blog with the message that yesterday in the early morning, Adriana, the wife from Leonardo Brigliadori , mother from Riccardo and Stefano and grandmother of their children , has died of cancer. Adriana was a very vivid , loving and caring person, who stole the hearts of so many people in the soaring world. Also mine, years ago already and till the end! I will miss her  loud and enthusiastic , ” Ciao Ritz”!” I can only say;
“Ciao Adriana”!

Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday July 15 2009

A bit more time now, so we can have a better look on the 2 BIG competitions from the last weeks ;the JWGC and the EGC.
Did you notice that people still click on the JWGC site?! Since July 2 , 9705 unique visitors have visited the site and are still visiting it.
 The last video made by Hubi is on it too. When I left Finland and while waiting for the KLM to arrive , Hubi was waiting for the same plane. He flew back to Germany via Amsterdam. He told me he had worked all night on the video, brought his girlfriend very early in the morning to the airport , as she had an earlier flight, drove back again in the borrowed car and was present at the closing ceremony to make more shots for this last video. He forgot all about the fact that the closing ceremony was outside, so no way to show the other video in the morning. Great young man this Hubi and keep his name in mind he will “go far”.

Some more statistics ,  this time about the kilometers flown including the practise days;
Club class flew 146 843.60 km and standard class 134 966.40 km.
 I read on the JWGC site that the earth is 40.000 km in circumference, so the “girls and boys” flew a few times around the world!!!!
I just saw on the morning news and weather , that Finland has good gliding weather again today. Great !!
Rieti looks good to with 30dgr. Only 2 weeks to go and I will be there for some more news about soaring!Hope you “come with me” again !
Got an email yesterday from Leo and everything seems “to be ready to go ” over there!

In between Horacio and his TC and crew, Damian’s brother , will be back home too. At Helsinki airport I met them as well , looking around in the tax free shop, where Horacio tapped on my shoulder and said: “Here we meet again Ritz”.
Just back from a long driving trip are the pilots competing in the EGC in Nitra. The UK did very well in Nitra with a number one in open class; Pete Harvey and a number 1 in 18 m. class Russell Cheetham. Both very well known , very experienced, very good and very nice pilots and not for the first time on the highest spot.
 I was impressed with the runner-up-place from Mike Young in 18 m. class. I met Mike for the first time in 1987 in Benalla, where he and the Wells kids, as well as the Jones brothers tried to teach the young Dutch kids how to play cricket! The “pommies” against the ” clockies ” !Great memories!Both Mike and Leigh [Wells] did very well during this competition.

I was a bit amazed with the German team. Used to see the German JWGC pilots up front all the time and on place 1 in BOTH classes during the JWGC, in Nitra this was different. Holger Karow was number 4 in open class and the rest of the German team was not within the best 5!!
The UK did well as said, but also the Polish pilots and the French. The Dutch were not bad either.
Now we wait for the next EGC for “smaller ships” in Pociunai in Lithuania from july 25 till August 8.
The 5th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championship will be in Szeged in Hungary from July 25 till August 8. Young Orsi from Hungary flying in Rayskala will compete here, as well as Belgian pilot Tijl . Also the young Italian TC in Rayskala will fly ;Elena. Marina, will be a member of the jury now ! Enough to look ahead to!
Not to forget the 14th  military gliding competition which has started and will go till July 24 in Holzdorf in Germany.In 4 classes 82 competitors “fight” for the highest honors…..and I noticed also here some of the junior pilots!!
More news from some of the juniors, as I heard that Rene from Holland and Chris from Canada will be the season -helpers in Corowa [Australia] . Chris will be tuggie and Renee will help at the field and with the meteo. Good on them !
 Yes the upcoming overseas season is next , while we are still enjoying this great summer in Europe.
This morning I received a mail from a motel close to Corowa from Annie Piggin | oakleighaccom@gmail.com | oakleighhideaway.com.au

—-Thought I would contact you and tell you about our accommodation near Corowa which would be a great place for gliders to stay for their Corowa visit.If you know any group which may be interested you could refer them to our website. Oakleigh is less than 20 minutes from the airport. It accommodates 9 people and would be available for $700 a week over that period.—-
Annie speaks Dutch as well if pilots from Holland would be interested! She has lived in Holland.

The weather in Spain is getting better and better  as usual this time of the year and in August it will be really busy there. Also now ,great flights in both Fuente and Cuenca Sotos, where a few of my friends spend part of their soaring summer.
 And what about Doug Levy from the USA making one of those interesting goal flights, one long flight in a Schweitzer SGS1, from  Inyokern over the mountains passing between Truckey [Tahoe] to the West of track and Ely to the East, going up to the north with strong wind in the back, but also overdevelopment and…a landing on a dirt road at Deeth in Nevada! Luckily he had 2 very devoted crew of 2 men chasing him, one of them the tuggie!! Great story!

Another story from the USA. A plane from South West Airlines , flying yesterday from Nashville to Baltimore had to make an emergency landing in Charleston. A gap , as big as a soccer-bal, forced the people to use their oxygen masks as the pressure at height 10.000m. dropped! The pilots ,brought the 124 passengers and crew safely down. All planes will be checked on “holes” now, but it is unknown at this stage how this gap was caused by.

And…what about the 44 year old Italian lady  who had the “unique” idea to throw her wedding bouquet out of the the window of a plane…… The flowers ended up in the engine, causing a fire and…an explosion. The plane smashed against a small hotel, luckily not killing  any of the 50 guests. The pilot had minor injuries , the “poor” lady was badly wounded with several broken bones and a head injurie.

That’s it for now, see you on Sunday!
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      Sunday July 12 2009

 It feels and looks like autumn here!! The summer has left us ,hopefully only temporally, but it should be back after this weekend with up to 23 dgr. On Friday we had 17 and rain and forecast for severe wind and even hail. No weather for soaring here in Holland at the moment, though yesterday was unexpected good here in Alphen!!

Silva , the competition director from the 6th Junior World Comps, wrote a nice thank you on the JWGC site;

THANK YOU ALL!For making this Contest a fair sporting event! We were unbelievable lucky with the weather which made it a real gliding competition. More than 800 flights, more than 280 000 kilometers practice days included was much more than we expected.I am very satisfied with the safety in this contest. Only occasions were two minor damages during outlanding which indicates good airmanship. From the results we can see you are the top of the world already now!I would like to thank you all for the smooth and relaxed feeling during your stay. You made this competition to stay in our memories rest of our lives. Your smiling faces will stay in our hearts forever!We wish you all the nice and good things. See you some day!Silva and the Organization of the 6th JWGC.

And what about the web statistics!!!!

Period

Visits

Hits

Files

Pages

KBytes

20.6.-6.7.

109 539

12 991 597

8 192 177

1 399 352

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So who says that a gliding competition is not a “tool” for PR????????A competition with live coverage and great videos from big FAI events , might be another key for promotion for soaring. Silva had both, live coverage with the Ritz Corner and videos with Hubi!!!Of course the names can be different it does not have to be Ritz or Hubi,…

Summer continued in Finland when we all left. Some of the pilots said while saying goodbye,” Now we are sitting in the cold and rain again, no gliding for another 4 years”. They were clearly a bit too “gloomey” and for sure sad that we were all leaving.When you look at the nice flight from top junior Miloslav Cink who flew 769 km. one day after the prize giving, then the ” doom and gloom”,  was not necessary. And on the same day 2 other nice flights in Finland, one 806 in ASW 22 and 2 more flights over 600 km.
Jyrki wrote ;
–We have had a variety of weather here with thermal enough for good soaring but rather cool. Yesterday at 2000 meters in cloud it was well below freezing with ice in the wings. It melted only below 1200 meters. meters ;light rain in showers . After 5 hours it was time to land to warm up.–

Specially the last couple of days Fuente and Ocana and Cuenca Sotos in Spain had their annual guests enjoying  great soaring.

The EGC is over and it was interesting to follow it. What about 2 points difference between Pete Harvey [UK]and Laurent Aboulin [FR] in open class. Pete is a great pilot and I am not surprised he won, but the last 2 days nearly made him runner up with 721 points  for him , 772 for Laurent and 1000 points for Tomas Rendla
Most impressed with Francois who won 2 days and missed out on day 1 due to some damage on his glider while bringing it to the grid!
In 15 m class the French did well with a number 1 and 3 position. Runner up from Poland was Lukasz Wojcik and former world champion Leigh Wells was 4th.
In 18 m. class not Wolfgang as winner, a bit of a surprise for me, but Russell and Mike from the UK, both by the way, great pilots. Poland , Holland and Austria [Wolfgang] were on place 3-4-and 5.
With 9 flying days a great,  but weatherwise not all too easy competition.

Back to my family, waiting downstairs for coffee, so till wednesday with more!!!!

Cheers Ritz