Alphen aan den Rijn The Netherlands
18-03-2007
Well ….when you request internet on September 26 2006 for your new house , you may expect to have it at least 2 months later, when they say “about 5 weeks”. Unfortunately this never happened and in the end , on February 20, when they postponed AGAIN, I changed from KPN , the top Dutch tele- groupe, to another company . They “helped” me within 3 weeks , so now I am on the net again.
A lot of things have happened over the last couple of weeks and there will be a few changes in soaring.eu too. I am not so much involved in gliding anymore, but try to pick up what is interesting , when I have time.
I am back in the “Art scene ” ,as in the past when I ran, with my friend Helga a very good art business, but will still do editing on world comps, when it fits in the new system.Rieti; the World Junior Comps will be my first place to go to.
I am thinking how to make reading interesting, so over the next few weeks we will sort it out.
I might write more on a private base, talking about all interesting subjects. Will see!
In between gliding has nearly finished in Australia and Africa and will slowly start in Europe.We do have clouds today but also STORM with atleast winds with 100 k p/h gusting even more! Hail and rain are part of it too, but also clouds and sun. Winter was not really winter here in Holland. We had already up to 17 dgr. here. A bit sad for the flowering blossom- trees as we might have tomorrow wet snow again. But March will do what it wants to do and we will have no influence.
They are busy again in Tocumwal, the place were George and I ran the gliding-show for nearly 10 years till Richard Cawsey took over and sold everything after 2 good years, [not good enough for him,] for low prices on the sale in the WW2 hangar.
The Murray Border Flying Club is running a nice show there now with Ingo Renner as chief instructor.But the super fleet we had will be difficult to built up again.
They have camps now and a few “old” guests still made it back over summer to fly their own glider at the field, as Michael [EU] Wolffdietrich, Dundee, Kari and lots of Aussie glider pilots.
Eddie and Don are very busy with their organization for ultralight flying and gliding. As always they will be host for the army cadets during their April holiday.Have fun guy’s!
Look for pictures from Don and Eddie and their business at
Good friend Jo , flew with husband Tony Tabart to Toc. and has sent me some info about the first camp and I will copy that for you to read if you are interested.
Tocumwal Regatta
by Jo Pocklington 14 March 07
The March long weekend in Victoria was discovered to be an open weekend for glider pilots so Jack Hart (Beaufort GC) organised a few friends for 4 days of flying at Tocumwal, home to Murray Border Flying Club.
Fifteen gliders and 20 pilots participated in a friendly regatta flying AATs and, for something different, run tasks. Ingo Renner (CFI, MBFC) was looking forward to competing, but a broken wrist got in the way. Eddie Madden assisted Jack with weather and local knowledge at briefings. Thanks to Jim Barton for bringing a tug from Gliding Club of Victoria (Benalla) and to Mike Burns (Aviation & General Engineering) for allowing use of his hangar and facilities for briefings.
The first day’s flying was in difficult conditions – or so we thought at the time. But day 2 proved even harder – conditions a lot weaker and wind a lot stronger than forecast, resulting in 4 outlandings in paddocks and several pilots cutting short the task.
Steve Trone (VMFG) won day 1 (300km AAT) in a mini-Nimbus – “Experience at Horsham Week over the years and flying those very difficult conditions assisted me greatly in coping with the day!”
Local pilot, Judy Renner won day 2 (200km AAT): “The conditions were very challenging so I took Ingo’s advice and flew as far as I could into the north of the first turnpoint (Urana) and as predicted by Ingo, the thermals were much better there to the north, as usual. After a good climb in a dust devil, I headed towards Jerilderie and found heading into wind very difficult. I was only 1,500 feet at one point and almost outlanded. However, I made it to the airfield at Jerilderie and putting safety first, landed there – I knew that I couldn’t fight that wind and make it back to Tocumwal.”
Given worsening conditions with cool air and lower temperatures, a run task was set for day 3 – Berrigan, Finley – 64 km 2.5 hours. Simon Holding and Tony Tabart in the Corangamite Soaring Club Janus were declared winners for getting around 1+ times before landing in a paddock and then being last into the pub. Everyone else had abandoned the task early.
Day 4 was a lot better conditions and flew the same task as day 3, with the aim of more gliders sticking with it over 2 hours. Thermals to almost six thousand made for a very enjoyable afternoon and everyone had a smile on their face. Keith Willis in the PW5 almost made it around twice, with some of the higher performance gliders just short of 3 times. An early finish to the day allowed time for derigging and the drive home. In Jack’s words: “it turned out to be a great afternoon, and the run task was a lot of fun”.
The long weekend was an enjoyable gathering for safe and challenging flying and after-hours good times with pilots from Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. It’s hoped to become an annual event as a way of promoting gliding in the Tocumwal area once again. Contact is Jack Hart jha66971@bigpond.net.au
Good friend Daan Pare arrived back from Australia , where he flew at Corowa. He mentioned;
” The weather in November-December was pretty average. But January and February were great.
I flew 300 hours and 26.000 km. in 2 times 1 month there. One flight was 1085 km. and I had many ” nearly ” 1000 km flights including 7 flights between 955 and 990 km.. I plan next season Pokweni in Namibia and one year later I go back to Corowa.” So far Daan.
Good news and enthousiastic stories from Africa were several friends had good times. More about that next time.
Cheers Ritz. Glad to be back on track!! Hope you like it too.