Alphen aan den Rijn

november 18 2007

A great sunday morning here in Holland, full of sunshine and a bleu sky, a morning to just feel happy. Specially cause I do not have to scratch the ice from my carwindow. It’s my day off!

Still have to get used to scratching ice from windows and to be honest I am NOT good in it and too impatient. Don’t forget that I had no winters since 1984!!!!! I surely will get used to it.Though I heard that there is a “magic bottle” ;spray the stuff from the bottle on the window , use your wipers and the problem is solved!!! Have to buy such a bottle immedeately.

Never underestimate Klaus Ohlman , THE best long distance pilot in the world. In Argentina he made a few nice long ones again. Also Bitterwasser pilots flew long distances and OZ had great weather too.

I am more then pleaesed with the very good flights from Terry Bellair from Bendigo in Victoria Australia.He flew several times in our Tocumwal-Outback-Shootout and was eager to fly the longest distance. He never won , but I see that he still improves and flew another over-700 km flight this time from Narromine in his DG 400 17.I am really impressed and pleased!!!!!

This afternoon the young Rieti team from the junior World comps meets in Noordwijk on the beach for a beach walk and a nice dinner in an Italian restaurant.Looking forward to catch up with them again. One of them, Bart , will fly in 2008 in THE WORLD COMPS, together with Jelmer and Robbie , as said in an earlier post all junior world pilots! Maaike , yes good looking always smiling Maaike, will be there as TC and she has got some practise now too. She was my assistant in Hus Bos and did the job by herself last year in Rieti and….she did a good job. Pilots are mostly a bit jealous on the dutch team , because of their dedicated TC s’. Yes we have a few good ones here and Maaike ‘s mum is a great ,very experienced TC too.

Talking about World comps! The first bulletin of the Luesse world comps is online.[www.wgc2008.org] since november 15. 130 Pilots are max. allowed to fly or 50 max. per class.Lufthansa will be the main sponsor, more to follow ofcourse  and nice news is that ” under circumstances special conditions may be available exclusively for ALL_LUFTHANSA _flights.

Next week is the Dutch Gliding Day and all 300 allowed guests got a ticket. Even some have to wait on a waiting list.Will give you the news after. Read in the papers about a special English meteo-prof.  who predicts that around that day, between november 24 and 28 we can expect extreme weather in the NW part of Europe touching Holland too with 12 b. wind and lots of rain. The Dutch meteo says “nonsense”, waiting anxious now who is correct.

Last but not least ! I was wondering where the Japanese pilots have gone after the demise of Sportavia, but I saw that Yoghi is back in Toc and flies with the Sportaviation team in Tocumwal. For sure Junzo is there too then!

Eddie and Don are very busy building up the new center and their website is under construction; www.sportaviation.com.au

The club in Toc has their annual Christmas party on December 2 with a meeting before with as main ” item ” to buy yes or no a glider for joy flights and instruction, which they lease now.

Just saw that this is POST—- ONE HUNDRED—- . Not too bad, is it?

That’s it for today Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn                  November 11 2007

After the demise of “our” own gliding paradise Sportavia Soaring Center in Tocumwal, it is great to see that our many guests/customers/friends have found their ‘new homes” in Africa and Australia.I worried about it a lot, but it all looks fine! That pleases me more then I can say!!! I wish all friends great flights and good times. I write a bit about them!

Great flights already in Gariep Dam were Uwe flew nearly his so maniest 1000 km. flight in his Nimbus 3DM. But also very nice to see that Lothar flew in a DG 600 some nice long flights from Tocumwal airport. The Murray Border flying club is active there with Ingo Renner as their instructor.

In Corowa they have had the first briefing and good old friend Harry has made a few real nice flights already in his own ventus and I know how special this is for him now. Great Harry!!!!!Also Pepe has arrived there and made his paella as ever before and …already a great flight;FAI, yes that’s what he wants!!!!Good on him!

Terry who always flew the “OUTBACK-SHOOTOUT -comps” from Toc is as  busy gliding , but now from his home field Raywood [Victoria ], where they have great weather too as he made a   789 km.  flight in his DG 400 [17m].Super Terry!!!He is a “go-er”.

From the 8th of November onwards,  we will see many long flights from Corowa as the gliders have arrived in their containers, after a short delay ,so pilots had a a bit of a forced rest but could go straight up in the air after , under good circumstances.More good friends will arrive there over summer!

But even my friends in Israel are doing well. Rafi , who flies at world comps, made in his own area , some nice long flights. We had of course many, many Japanese guests and I have to find out what happened to them; were have they gone for flying!

So keep an eye on the OLC [On Line Competion] if you are interested in the longer flights this summer overseas. But be aware that NOT everybody wants to be on it and some pilots only want to fly with FAI rules, which makes it more difficult , then “following the weather” to make the longest flight.

 Art, another guest from Canada, will be in Rieti to help out on the technical site. Great news! Keeping in touch with him, brought me back to another “old” friend, Jos , who flew in the same club as we did , 40 years ago .He moved to Canada and I never heard from him again. Now we are on “writing terms ” again. Is n’t gliding great for friendships!!??

That’s about it for this week!Absolutey appalling weather here in Holland with storms, rain , hail , thunder and lightning, so be happy if you are somewhere in the sun. If not ……enjoy life anyhow,  as I do!

Cheers Ritz

ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN  6  november 2007

Just received this news from good friend Bruce from Australia and as a “fan ” from vintage gliders , I share it with you, Ozzie readers. Hope you all recovered from Melbourne Cup Day! Efficient was superb , so was his jockey Michael Rodd. Yes, I keep an eye on things!

 A bit of a pity; but I could not copy and paste the pictures on top and bottom, so there is a bit of space left between the writing.Bruce was one of the pilots we met in Rieti for the preworlds in Italy in 1984 and due to him and his mates , we moved later to OZ to live there.You see gliding can have a lot of influence on your life! I found out!!!!!!

In other countries during my soaring-trips as TC , crew or editor I met lots and lots of people, also Canadian pilot Art Grant. A hard-working  glider -freak, if I may say so, a really nice guy and a responsable help on a field during a competition. He has offered his help in Rieti for the technical team, during the world comps in 2008, so I hope to meet him there . One bottle of nice red and lots of stories from the past!!! I see it already happen.

Gliding was very good in Canada last summer,specially in the mountains but according to him the plains were less good!He even met good friend Daan there, who picked up his glider to put in store for his next American summer. Daan leaves for Africa this winter.

Soon  young pilot Bart,his  crew and coach from the junior world championships in Italy [Rieti] will meet for a drink and nice food,in Scheveningen on the beach.Will be there too on invitation, which is really nice. Maaike, the very goodlooking TC from the juniors will be NOW the TC for the Dutch team in Rieti-2008. 3 Young pilots from my HusBos Junior team will fly in the WORLDS now. Great achievement in such a short time.Robbie, Bart and Jelmer are preparing already to WIN!

That’s it for now. See you Ritz .                                                                                Below the Vintage invitation.Good old Bruce is doing a great thing there, in donating money for the GFA gliding museum ,for a building for old donated gliders. Would Bill Riley former owner and founder of Sportavia have donated one of his vintage gliders??? Will find out for you.

“The Australian Gliding Museum was incorporated in December, 1999, mainly to
establish and operate a public museum in which gliding is to be featured, to
encourage participation in gliding, to restore, display and fly vintage
gliders , and encourage greater participation in the adventure of flight.To date we have been given approximately 30 gliders. These include 2
Primaries, Schneider Club 2-seater, Slingsby T31 and T35, Dunstable Kestrel,
Olympia, Coogee, LO150, HP-14, Grunau Baby 3, Slingsby Skylark 4, Hutter
H-17, Altair, Open Cirrus, Flying Plank, Schleicher Ka7, Schneider ES52
Kookaburra, Schweizer TG-3A, and IS28B2.In addition we have major components
of Bocian, Mucha and Gull 4 aircraft and a number of other aircraft have
been promised when we have suitable storage facilities. These aircraft are
located at different locations around Victoria so unfortunately they will
not be available for viewing at the November 10 function. We have an active
refurbishment program underway and, apart from painting, close on half of
these aircraft have been refurbished to display standard. In addition to
aircraft, we are also accumulating considerable archival material so that we
will eventually be able to present a comprehensive history of gliding in
Australia.”

THE AUSTRALIAN GLIDING MUSEUM INC. 

is pleased to invite You 

To Bacchus Marsh Airfield 

At 11 am on Saturday, 10^th November, 2007 on the occasion of an  

 Important Presentation by Bruce

 Brockhoff to the Museum

and the Rollout of the Slingsby T31b

and possible demonstration flight

 Barbeque Lunch  RSVP Graeme Barton, 03 9802 1098 

The Australian Gliding Museum Inc. Annual General Meetingwill be held after lunch 

SAILPLANES 1945 – 1965, MARTIN SIMONS

Alphen aan den Rijn 4 november 2007

Finally I am settled in my new house and to be honest I am very pleased with it. I like to be at home nowadays. It has cost me quite some time, to get used to living back in Holland, but also that problem is solved.Of course I will NEVER forget the great years in Australia and the fact that I had the opportunity to run with a few people the gliding resort in Tocumwal, with great succes and lots of guests who became friends through the years. After 20 years with NO winters , I see ” COLD” as  my biggest problem here,  but with lots of “sunny ” stories from friends who are back, I will survive! Life goes on!

Talking bout Australia; Mr. Bones married last week!!!!You remember Ashock???? Yes our tow pilot for many years in Tocumwal. As a very young pilot-to-be ,he arrived many years ago from India in Australia. He was a very experienced tuggie. Nowadays he flies on a Mallard for Paspaley Pearls up in Darwin. Congratulations Bones!!!

For sure you will find more news about Australia in wintertime as that is together with Africa , the place to be in European wintertime! Though I saw last week on the OLC that a 1000 km flight was made somewhere in the USA.

In HOLLAND the gliding world will meet on the 24th of november for the   ” Dutch Gliding Day”. This year the aeroclub of Venlo is organizing the day . They celebrate their 75th anniversary. There will be different sessions to participate and to listen to stories about safety, technics, European rules for the air and the airspace, a pretty hot item.

Pilots as Baer Selen and Roland Termaat, the new European Champion in 18 m. class will talk about gliding on top-level and Leonardo Brigliadori and his son Rick will talk about ” Competing in gliders-Winning with your mind” . Last year the book with this title came on the market and it is a very pleasant. informative and readable book. What can you expect else from pilots with their HUGE experience!

Speaking about Leonardo. He will be  the director of the Rieti 2008 world championships for “the smaller ships , meaning standard class, club class and world class. The new 2008 site has just been put on the internet with the first bulletin!

The World competition in Luesse for open, 18 and 15 m, the bigger ships and in Rieti will be the 30thiest World Competition organized by the FAI. A fact to think about!!!

I wrote already the first article for the Ritz corner and I hope you are all going to read the stories again in 2008.

Finishing off this post, with 2 sites where you can look to vintage gliders. They are in Dutch , but even if you can’t read it, it is still worthwhile to look at.One about the PH 58, a Grunau Baby; the history and restoration.

www.baby58.nl

And one site about a KA 7 privately owned flying 3 times a 300 km [ one 367!!]in August. The site is called; Gliding is fun and you can find it at

www.henkvanderheijden.nl

That’s it for today. Have fun this coming week and enjoy reading and looking at the different sites on this Sunday. Will be back next Sunday. Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn  28-10-2007

Good old Phill in Melbourne , has put me back on line again. THANKS!!!!

Yes , slowly my friends leave for AFRICA and AUSTRALIA and we will soon hear about their long and exciting flights.Sadly enough I stay in Holland as I work for the gallery where I worked before I left Holland in 1995.But I will read the news and surely will receive emails from the most spectecular flights as the pilots like to share them with all of us.

In between te season has started in Queensland in Australia wit a few comps and state comps. From Jo I received a message about new gliding-and weathersites and I share them with you.

We're just back from 5 weeks gliding in Qld . 
The weather site (Qld version) was used at the recent comps and worked 
well apparently. 
xxxx Jo and Tony    

-----Original Message----- 
From: Bernard Baer [mailto:bbaer@csc.com.au] 
Sent: Thursday, 25 October 2007 9:54 AM 
Subject: New soaring web sites    

Folks, 
It would be much appreciated if you could pass the following info onto 
your 
club members. 
Regards, Bernie Baer.    

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--------------------------------    

New Soaring Web Sites    

I have created two new web sites for the Australian soaring community, 
the 
first being a forum 
devoted to all facets of soaring in Australia: 
http://blipmap.walsys.net/forum/index.php    

and the second of more interest to NSW pilots is an installation of the 
forecasting program RASP 
(better known as Dr Jacks BLIPMAPS): 
http://blipmap.walsys.net/NEWSOUTHWALES/index.html    

Dr Jack blipmaps are also available for Victoria and Qld via websites 
provided by Johnny Wharington, which are linked to from the above NSW 
site.    

A third website which has been around for a while is Wikiglide, provided 
by 
Gus Stewart. This is a Wiki page which provides a repository for all 
things 
soaring for future reference: 
http://www.wikiglide.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Tocumwal;

In between Eddie Madden, former chief instructor at the Sportavia Gliding Center and his team are working hard to get the new commercial gliding center up and running. They are busy with their web site and as soon as it is ready you can read what’s happening there.

In Corowa they prepare for a very busy season with 36 glider. The containers from Europe are on their way , so there will be a lot of activity in the skies over Corowa [N.S.W ] and {far} around.

In Luesse [Germany] and Rieti [ Italy], they work hard to get their act together for the World comps gliding. Just wrote the first article for the ” Ritz corner ” , in the new and first bulletin for the 20thiest World comps for standard-clubclass and world class gliders, which means that I will be back in Rieti for the 2008 comps. I am sure someone else will make good articles for the Luesse site!

It is raining like hell here, so back to reality and cooking, working etc. No trips to Africa or Australia but in 5 years , when I retire from work, I still hope to be fit enough to do the job ON the spot. I love to observe and share what I see with you.So travelling is still on my to-do-list!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn

September 17 2007

Finally back on line again. Troubles, troubles! But when it works ,IT WORKS!!!!So here we go! First news from South Africa, from Bloemfontein!

I received this news from good friend Dick and share it with you.

Alphen aan den rijn

August 27 2007

It was a bit difficult to reach you, dear friends. I could only write the title and to write in the post – department was impossible.Phil has made it again. Thanks!

In between I am back home now for 2 weeks, still enjoying my Rieti time. Just received the message from the web master in Italy ;nearly 1 million hits , with 600.000 REAL visitors. Not bad for a gliding site , is it!?

The comps in Issoudun are over too. The weather during the European Championships for big ships was weird!From some pilots I heard it was more a lottery then a competition, but all of them have enjoyed the comps.They hope, however for better weather in Luesse for the Worls Comps in 2008. I will not go there as I have been invited back in Rieti, so you can read about the “little” ships on the WGC -Rieti 2008 site.

Winners in France were in open class Peter Harvey who defended his EC title from Finland with succes. Telling me that the weather in Finland in 2005 during the EC was the best he ever had and it might take LONG before we have such weather again.

In 18 m. class Ronald Termaat from The Netherlands was the very best, winning his first major title. He was already very good during the world comps in Sweden but “failed ” on one day loosing his 2d place and…too many points to be with in the first 3.

Good old Janus Centka managed to add one more title to the many he has already, winning in the Diana.

The European season is nearly over now. The Belgium pilots had a 2 day competition last weekend on KEIHEUVEL-airfield in 3 classes. Max van Bree from Holland and Rogier Weekers , also from Holland , were the winners in 2 classes. In one class the best pilot flew 15 km , which means ;no competition day!

In Australia, in Tocumwal Eddie Madden got permission from the SHIRE to start his camping area at the field!!!This is great news!!! Season starts soon in OZ with the new commercial center , from Eddie and Don including the ultra light flying which went on through winter with lots of flying guests. When there is more news , you are the first to know!

The Murray Border Flying Club club with instructor Ingo Renner starts with a BBQ and a meeting on September 2  and they start flying every Sunday from Oktober 14 onwards or by arrangement.

Glad to be back on track , so more news in the future, but…this Friday first the wedding of my daughter! So busy, busy!!!

Cheers Ritz

Testing 2 for Ritz.

Testing for Ritz.