ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN   WEDNESDAY February 6 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com      www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com

Woke up this morning in a white world. SNOW!
Straight away 500 km. traffic jam , mainly in the mid and SE from Holland and trains travelling with a winter schedule, meaning less trains, fuller trains and longer periods of waiting. Welcome back snow!?

Winter in Holland as seen by Ronald Termaat this morning.

Still amazing weather in Australia . Tom Gilbert flew with his DG 400/17m.  a nice FAI triangle; 763 km. extended to 785 km.!!!! Flying to Narromine and Hillston and back to Temora! Nice flight indeed!
And today Tom  did it again; 912km. [ 806 km.] up N and then E to go back to Temora.
Also a real nice flight ,  from Ed Marel in the ASH 31 who “always wanted to fly  this 750 ” [extended to 810 km] from West Wyalong and did it now.
From Mount Beauty yesterday 786 km. in a 15 m. Ventus b.

Tom after the flight as shared by a proud daughter Sarah !

For sure the Australia season is a good and long one starting already in November with 4 over 1000 km. flights on the 25th. in Narromine and still going strong! At the moment they have a “squad week” in Narromine.
TODAY it was Adam Woolleys dad ,Chris who flew his very first 1000 km. from Narromine calling it a MAGIC day!!!!!!It is FEBRUARY ALREADY…. mind you!!!!And he flew a FAI 1000 k triangle. Hope this kind of weather will be in Narromine during the Junior Worlds in 2015 as well!
As Adam said: “Congratulations Dad, a monumental day & experience. So stoaked & proud for/of you for being the latest recipient of a 1000km FAI diploma!!
More super flights just have a look at the OLC.
Benalla with a Kestrel flying 690 FAI triangle extended to 704 km.
Tocumwal with a 683 FAI triangle extended to 706 km. in the ASH 26E and HIRO who flew his first EVER declared 500 km. Congratulations Hiro!!! And,…Takao achieved his Diamond Distance and Leo is silver badge. A great week for the 5 Japanese guests.For pictures you can go to www.sportaviation.com.au

And Tocumwal today with a nice 1000 [857 FAI triangle] by Neil Burns;
—“Excellent day.  Had to abandon 1000 km triangle attempt and then take advantage of the better conditions out to the north-west.—”
He flew the ARCUS M from and with Roger Druce! Great effort! What weather, I should have stayed longer!!!!

ARCUS ready to go with Glenda Burns on the tip and husband Neil in it with Roger Druce.
courtesy Birgitte Thomsen.

YESTERDAY Corowa had already exellent weather with a nice 1008 from Harry, nearly a triangle[ 942k]  but as he said he turned too early and had to gain some more kilometers in the end in the S where it was less good.Corowa with John Blyth taking over his  glider he shares with Anders, from Anders for the rest of the season flying in the ASW 22/ 24 m. today 618 km.
–“Absolutely FABULOUS day in Corowa! Even thought I didn’t launch until the CUs started to pop at 1300, I managed 618km at a record speed for me of 121kph.
As Harry said – “Put in water then push the stick foward and fly fast!”–

Not long anymore and the gliders will leave also from Corowa to go back to Europe. Great they still had some super days before packing.
On the 7th and 8th they pack both containers , to have a last check on the 9th and than it is to the harbour on the 16th and “back home”.
Esimated time of arrival at Terlet for unpacking; April 13.
Not such a busy season this year due to less gliders , but still very good pilots and lots of flights .At this stage Corowa is on the OLC list on spot 6 with 28 pilots [60 last year] flying 190.784,97 km. in 349 flights just behind Benalla.
As Grietje said on her birthday [happy birthday!] ; “Without staff it has been VERY busy for us, we had however a great season. “

Horsham week counted 4 days till now and with a 603 km. task for 18m./open , they had a great day 4 won by “veteran ” Tony Tabart [Ventus CM] with a speed of 140 km./h. Not bad!!!!
Club class had a 4 AAT with as best distance 441 km. in a twin astir,  15 m. had 510 km. , standard class 509 km and Peter Buskens [LS 8] won the 1000 points with a speed of 144 km./h , wow!

Jo and Tony while visiting Holland last year.

What about that a blog full of happy pilots and family! What a great way to end the summer season when ours here is about to begin.

I finish however, with a very sad moment!!!! I was very much touched to hear that Karen Lysakowsky died after being ill , at age 43!!!!
She was an airline pilot for B.A.
Her mum lost her only daughter now and before already her husband in a mid air collision. TRAGIC!!
I still visualize her with Lizzie [Wells] and my daughter Inge , being great mates at comps!
The Ted Lysakowski Memorial Trust reminds me and others on this kind UK WGC pilot.
When reading about it I will think now of Karin as well.

Picture courtesy Vanessa.

And a last minute note from Tibor which I share with pleasure and later more with pictures;

—“we prepare 13th year of our competition fatraglide13. 
Just to remind it is spring mountain flying comp on arguably most beautiful airfield in Slovakia.
We have new terrace with cafeteria, and parties are great – you know Brano, Wanda, me.. etc 🙂

We have brand new web site www.fatraglide.sk for it and G Dale is among participants already! We stil operate www.gliding.sk gliding portal but unfortunatelly only in slovak language but galleries should give you some idea about how do we live here..–“

And one more last message;

—“Notice is hereby provided that the Victorian Aerobatic Championships are to be held at the Tocumwal Aerodrome from Wednesday 6^th March through to Sunday 10^th March 2013.—“

picture courtesy Ronald  Hermans.

Cheers Ritz

ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN   SUNDAY FEBRUARY 3 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com      www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com

After loosing the entire  blog with pictures and all, I try again .

Holland;
The first month of the year has just disappeared. I only spend a few days in Holland but was part of the weather over the last days, when we had the hottest days for the date Jan.29 and 30 with plus 13, measured in the Bilt THE place for meteo measurement in Holland!!!!
Earlier in Jan.  it was weird as we had temperatures from minus 18 in the E. ,  up to plus 15 in the S. of Holland; a difference of 33 dgr.
With only 55 mm. of rain January was pretty dry as well.
This was totally different 60 years ago when parts of the SW from Holland were hit by severe flooding after the dyke’s broke. 1800 People got killed and it is a very black page in our history book.

Very different weather in Canada as well as I heard;
—“Currently -35C here with a windchill of -45! –“
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/mb-35_metric_e.html

Chile;
It was good to see Thomas back on the highest spot on day 4 in Vitacura.With the Diana 2 he flew fast over 437 km. with an average speed of 140 km./h. This day was flown over the mountain area and he got the full 10 points.

As seen by Varislav and shared on FB.

On day 5 the weather looked “as a piece of cake”, but turned out very different for some, due to the incoming cirrus creating problems specially on a lower level .It cost Tilo a lot of points as he had to land out . He was not the only one as only 5 from 11 made it back home. Amongst them the winners both from Chile,  for day 5 Carlos [ 6 points] and Rene [4 points]  who are both topping the overall list with 29 points!!!
Still 6 pilots in the race to win this Grand Prix together with Carlos and Rene; 4 from Europe; Tilo and Patrick both of spot 5 with 17 points, Didier on 4 with 18 points and Thomas on 3 with 23.

Day 6 was a different story. It looked like an easy day in the morning, with a task of 355 km. but,…it turned out different than expected or hoped for. ZERO points for all , [though Didier flew still 211 km. ] but,….with hope for day 7.

Day 7 was a short one,  in task and time as most pilots flew the 151 km. just over one hour. Patrick Puskeiler was the fastest with 134.4 km./h. Start was at 15.15!Didier was 2d and Thomas 3d. Quite a lot of penalty points on that day.
With one more day to go the overall scores look still good for Carlos with 35 points, Rene with 34, Thomas with 30 and Patrick is back on 4 with 27 points.That’s ONE more than Didier on 5.
What will the last day bring?

Last day from the GP, showed with a 305 km. task that Carlos clearly was the best. With a nice speed of 131.km./h. he raced to another 10 points, winning this Grand Prix with 46 points. Rene, who was 5 km./h slower won the 8 daily points, so the final score for the top 3 is;Carlos 46 points, Rene 43  and Thomas with 38.

Narromine;
With a 22 kt. head -wind Adam [Wooley]  decided to abandon his flight last Thursday, but still flew 0ver 800 km. 30 Year old Ben decided to continue and flew a declared 1023 km.task on not even the very best day!
Here is what Adam had to say about it;
—“What an ordinary day, but what a spectacular day!
4hrs into a 22kt headwind saw progress slow.BUT,…congratulations to Ben Loxton on his first of many declared 1000km flights.–“

 

Ben , very happy after his flight.
Courtesy Adam Woolley.

And more news from Adam who is an eager blogger as I am.
“Magnificent day! For the first 4hrs, we both battled into a 30kph wind in poor weather. Once the weather gods turned on the weather, it got extremely good, extremely fast!
I had the cirrus up to 143kph for a 200km leg!! 406:1 for 50km glides, just extraordinary. Unfortunately the switch was flicked at 1530, rather than 1330 when I needed it .”–

Adams Standard Cirrus at Narromine.

Narromine;
Also in Narromine the 2 seater Nationals , important for the next 33d WGC , where the 20 m pilots will fly together with club and standard class, finished with 8 days and good flights. The Maddock- family,  in the duo discus topped the list with dad Mike and son Nick flying.  They are the new National Champions and,…maybe we are going to see them in Räyskälä !
Terry Cubley and his mate in the DG 1000 ended on spot 2 and CHAPEAU for not the youngest couple anymore Harry and Wendy Medlicott in their ARCUS on spot 3.Good on them!!!They won day 5 and the last day

Father Mike and son Nick , the new 20 m. CHAMPIONS.
Picture courtesy Adam Woolley

Also great weather on Thursday in Benalla, Corowa  and Tocumwal.With a nice nearly 800 km. flight from Graham , my “instructor” in the simulator a few weeks ago,  in his ASW 20 from Benalla.
Over 800 also for the Corowa pilots who had to fight with a tough wind and had to rush home to be in time for a sand storm. As Jos said in his comment:
“On the last leg from 300 km. the wind was in the back with 50 km./h ., so I was  home, pretty fast.”
And a 750 from Tocumwal in the ARCUS.

And in the “Alpine Flyer” from the Mount Beauty Club I read ;
–“The Mt Feathertop bushfire created a lot of traffic on Mt Beauty airfield. On Monday 28 January there were 3 fixed wing water bombers working for DSE, we had 6 gliders in the air and there were also about 10 hang gliders and a Dragonfly ultralight tug operating on the airfield. The operation went reasonably smoothly despite this amount of traffic but it demonstrated the requirement for good lookout and radio communication. Air Traffic Control on the day would have helped however.”—-

 And to finish the picture by Mark Bland from his Libelle on Jan.22 2013 flying to Mt Feathertop.
The club class Nationals in NZ at beautiful Taupo start soon,  more on Wednesday.
Cheers for now Ritz

ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN  WEDNESDAY JANUARY 30 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com

She turns 75 tomorrow, our inspiring Queen Beatrix.In general ,people in Holland retire around their 65th birthday. For that reason speculations about the abduction of our queen went on for years. Last monday evening at 7 the historic moment was there. After 33 years Beatrix will step back on April 30, QUEENSDAY, not because she feels old or not well, but to make place for a new generation .
So after more than 100 years we are going to have a KING again. King Willem Alexander with on his site, a young [43] Argentinian girl Maxima, who will be our future queen. We could n’t have done any better, as she is a gem.
April 30 2013 will be a BIG day in Holland, certainly in Amsterdam where the Queen will sign the papers of her abduction in the Palace on the Dam and where the new king will be inaugurated in the New Church just to the right of the Palace.

Our Queen Beatrix.

Back to soaring now!

Chile Sailplane Grand Prix;

First the nice flight from Art in the tow plane, lucky him.
As he said;”On my last day here at the Club de Planeadores in Santiago, someone suggested that because I couldn’t go soaring due to the airspace restrictions in place ,that I should at least get a view of the city from a tow plane.  Two launches in the club’s L19!  Great view if a bit smoggy,  Huge thanks to the wonderful people I’ve met here.  I felt very much at home.”

 

 
Lucky Art!

Had Didier [Hauss] only one point on day 1 ,…on day 2 ,he put that straight by winning over 347 km. with 119 km./h. on a day, where you could see the rain in the mountains ; 7 points in the pocket, bringing him on spot 4 overall, behind Rene, Carlos [both 13 p.] and Patrick.[11p.]

 

As seen by Art, with the rain over the mountains.

Day 3 was one with outlandings!Patrick was one of them, while Tilo won the day over 360 km. and got the 7 points.Rene got the 5 points and Didier the 4.
After 3 days Rene is still on top with 18 points, Carlos is on 2 with 15 and Tilo now on spot 3 with 13 points.
When we were in Uvalde I spoke with Tilo about his Grand Prix flying and he said he just loves it!

Tilo here in Uvalde on the tip of  the Quintus.

Another good day in Narromine, the home of the 2015 JWGC.
Congratulations to James Dutschke for completing his first 750km declared flight and extending to 820!  James flew a H 301!
Also to Ben Loxton who did 850 in his Ventus 2CT!!

Young Ben Loxton, a talented glider pilot as I heard in Benalla AND noticed on the results, being runner up in 18 m. class in the multi class Nationals over there this year.

Most gliders from Namibia have been packed in the containers for their return trip to Europe. Most of those gliders made more hours than ever before. What a seaon it was for Namibia!
Reinhard Schramme flew from Bitterwasser 15 over 1000 km. flights in the ARCUS out of
the 26 flights he flew. And one was a 1.335,51 km. with 140 km./h. Pretty spectacular !!

13 x 1000 km. out of  37 from Kiripotib by Robin May in the ASH 25 EB 28 is not bad either! And Pokweni shows some very good flights from Walter Binder ; 11x 1000 out of 19 !!!!

Off to Amsterdam now , but I will finish with a nice picture from Lindert Hanekom as seen on FB. It’s Oscar Goudriaans JS1C with a great and dark background. Home in time?

WOW!!! Cheers Ritz

ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN   SUNDAY JANUARY 27 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com      www.glidinginternational.com

To get back in the rhythm some short news as guests come to see me today.

Soaring in Australia is still BIG! On Friday  Narromine had great weather [again!] and Adam Woolley was one very happy chappy flying his St.Cirrus. The day before he flew a nice set 600FAI triangle. Narromine has been blessed this year with top weather, good as last year was n’t too good!Normally the weather is pretty good in Narromine.
Here is his comment:

—“What a day!  Pity this 750 took us 50% of the time in the blue, while all to the North was STONKING!  1100-1250km FAI possible with a supership 🙂
Flew this task in my dry Cirrus, had a great time.  Was awesome to team up with Dutters for the final 220km – cruised home together, even with the sharp shut off of the day.—“

Adam and his W3.

And than , a bit later in the season there is Potchefstroom with 3 1000 km. flights on Jan 24 and as Oscar said ;” More to come”.
Oscar Goudriaan and mates Uys and Attie Jonker each flew their JS 1 over 1000 km with speeds from 126 117 and 118 km. p/h.
In between Laurens Goudriaan flew 460 km from Worcester where he flies the Western Cape Regionals with p.e. Sven Olivier, with 182 km./h. Sven had a speed of 172 klm./h. Not bad either.
As Sven mentioned on FB;
—” Today Oscar Goudriaan became the first pilot to complete a 1000 km task in a 21m JS1-C.  Oscar, accompanied by Attie and Uys Jonker in their 18m JS1 gliders took off from Potchefstroom and started a declared 1000km out and return.  Unfortunately thunderstorms south of Petrusburg (near Bloemfontein), forced them to chang…e the declared task in flight.  Oscar’s 2nd turnpoint was North West of Stella, and a much needed climb well past 18h00 allowed them to add the last 100km leg required complete a 1000km free distance flight just before sunset.  It was not a great day for a 1000km, with the trio struggling through the low, blue conditions unitl 13h00. Althouhg some good climbs were found in the latter part of the day, 3m/s climbs were the standard.  It is the first time in the history of the Potch Gliding club that more than one 1000km flight was completed in a season.  Oscar completed 1042km, Attie 1004 and Uys 1001 km.—“

More news about the “to come”  1000 km flights in soaringcafe!

Not every body has the same good time as I had in Australia. Some Dutch people [4] working for a Dutch business up in the NW went fishing and when the boat capseized due to a wind gust, they were chased by sweetwatercrocodiles. They saved their lives by climbing in the highest tree where they were waiting to be rescued for 22 hours. Kidney and liver might be damaged by dehydration but,…they survived!What a story is n’t it?
Read on the same page that Australia has the biggest amount of  dangerous animals in the world. From the 10 deadly animals 8 live in Australia under them the red back and funnel-web spiders,  snakes, crocodiles and several under-water-animals.
Still ,…knowing that , it is one of the most beautiful, interesting and kind countries.

And about the 17th FAI European Gliding Championships in Poland in Ostrow the next news;

Dear all,

First of all we would like to wish you all the best for the upcoming season 2013! We trust this year will bring you lots of joy as well as many successes in gliding.

We are happy to announce that the official website of the 17th FAI European Gliding Championships in Standard, Club, World and 20m Multi-seat Classes is up and running.
Please visit http://www.egc2013.eu .

Currently an official Entry Form as well as 1st Bulletin are available in “Download” section.
Please also find these documents attached to this message.

We are also  active on facebook http://www.facebook.com/Ostrow2013
.
In order to familiarise yourselves with our airfield as well as the
region, we encourage you to watch the welcoming spot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76vTF0DH8Js
.
In case you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to
contact us! We will be happy to help you with your preparations for this
exciting event.

CU in Ostrów!

With best regards,
Team
EGC2013 Ostrów, Poland

The FAI Sailplane Grand Prix in Chile [Jan.26-Febr.2] 2013 started yesterday with amongst others Chilean hero’s Carlos Rocca and Rene Vidal, several German pilots as  Thilo Holighaus, Patrick Puskeiler and Jurgen Wenzel and Thomas Gostner from Italy and Didier Hauss from France.
The first task was a prey for the Chilian pilots Carlos and Rene, winning the 10 and 8 points for the day. Patrick, Thomas and Tilo had the 7,6 and 5 points.
Task length; 433 km.

after the openings ceremony , the pilots are ready to go!
Picture courtesy Grand Prix site;
www.grandprixchile.org

First day as seen by Art.

And last but not least , the final results from the Chaves WGC as send out by the FAI.

Final Results :

club Class – Overall
1st : Santiago Berca ARG
2nd : Tobias Geiger AUS
3rd : Roman Mracek CZE

Standard Class – Overall
1st: Sebastian Kawa POL
2nd: Mario Kiessling GER
3rd: Felipe Levin GER

World Class – Overall
1st: Sebastian Riera ARG
2nd: Jorge Tartara ARG
3rd: Jedrzej Sklodowski POL

The full results can be found at the following address :
http://www.wgc2012.com.ar/index.php

Cu next Wednesday, cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn   Friday January 25 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com

Kangaroos at the caravan park at Sportaviation

LAST PART OF THE DIARY ,FIRST FROM KUALA LUMPUR THAN FROM HOME.

It’s 6 in the morning and I arrived 1 hour early at Kuala Lumpur, meaning 1 hour more waiting to continue to the minus 7 dgr.in Holland. Easy to get used to the cold here, as the airco makes over-hours and I am just freezing.

Had a great first part of the trip. Forgot to ask for a window or aisle seat. In the end good that I did n’t as I had 4 ,as in FOUR seats for myself, so I slept for 5 hours had a light breakfast and I am sitting bright eyed on a spot close to the gate WITHOUT airco. It’s some kind of art to find such a place.

I left Toc at 11.30, just had time to catch up with Ray Waller, who arrived in the caravan park from Sportaviation for the long weekend { Australia day on Jan. 26} and to go to Rosa in Cobram my very good travel agent for years. I tried hard to check in via internet and print out a boarding card. It did not work and even she was not able to do so. No worries as I had time enough.

Caught up with Richard V., one of our instructors in the past,  who I missed seeing, but we had time to talk in the car park of the Cobram shopping center. Weird but on this last day I visited [of course] Dennis and coming back from the cemetery there is this huge truck stopping on the site of the road. Ouch, a big bloke jumped out and nobody to see in the whole area. But,…a loud Hi Ritz at the same moment as I recognized him and big smiles and hugs; one of our former tuggies Geoff Gowty. He called straight away Charlie Tootle, yes the dad from young Charlie who was also one of our tuggies.
Young Charlie . married to Bianca , has 3 sons now, an AG business with several AG-planes/crop dusters not too far above Sydney and a small jet to pick up mum and dad. Not bad for our “a bit wild boy”  when he was young.

Via car, bus and train I arrived in Melbourne at 7, easy trip.

Nice quick flight with Malaysian and then back home. More from Holland.

Holland;
It was not that easy to depart from Kuala Lumpur with our big blue bird a 747 from KLM. We were nicely checked in, in time, ready to go and waiting for the yes to depart when we turned around and the captain told us that there was a problem with engine 4 and we could not go, but went back to the terminal to check why the oil indicator did not work.

Technicians rushed to the plane and after a short while, we were sitting in a hot plane, the captain was back to share with us, what was wrong.
It could be a broken sensor, than we needed a new one and a search to find one was started, meaning we would have to get out of the plane again and wait till it was ready aprox. 2 to 3 hours. Or,….. there was something wrong with the wires , meaning we would be able to not depart before the next day , but he did not expect that.

After 2 hours , with great KLM service on board and a very open captain sharing with us what happened…. that gives you a good feeling,….the verdict was there. It was” only “a filthy sensor!!!
So we got some more fuel and had to undo the seat belts while tanking, waited a few more minutes for paperwork , engine 4 was tested for 15 minutes and,…there was the all clear to go!!!

No more excitement during the flight, no “bed ” as the plane was full , 3 movies and some music and with a bit more then 2 hour delay I arrived in cold Holland.

Another trip, lot’s of stories and pictures and in a way also happy to be home again. The sun now is shining brightly , the snow is slowly disappearing, it’s about -5 and the winter will be over after the weekend at-least for a while as fore-casted, so time to start 2013 in Holland.
Finish with the good life of Australia, kangaroos and birds sharing life with the people, what do you want more.

 

  

Dundees bird bath is used by many.

 

 

 

 

 

When looking at the OLC, you see sometimes flights from people and slowly you start to admire them. Not difficult to guess who those pilots are , as I refer often to them. They even feel like my  friends , while I do not even know them.
Matthew Scutter is one of them. Looking at his 1000 km. flight last year in the LS 4 , at his performance at Joey glide and his 1000 km.-flight 2 weeks ago from Tocumwal, I was eager to meet him and talk to him.
He was very kind and straight away said YES when I asked for a few words. Here is the interview and the pictures  Enjoy and THANK YOU MATTHEW!!!
And,….when friends in Poland close to Leszno read this blog , please read the last part very well. THANKS!!!! Would be great if we could help him.
Let me introduce you to Matthew with a picture of him.

1. Matthew you are still very young, what gives you the courage to fly over unlandable areas during a 1000 k?
Do you  believe in the weather or in your self or both?
How do you prepare your self?

No courage required, I thoroughly research the area in advance,have waypoints for all the outlanding areas as well as a completely redundant navigation system in case my primary system
fails over unhospitable terrain. I also drop a marker on the edge of the unlandable terrain so I have a rough idea of how far back to good country it is.
I must rely on the weather forecasting and myself toavoid having to make use of this preparation though!
In my most recent long flight I only once needed to consider deviating towards a landable area, as I was heading out over the Hay plains before the cumulus were forming.
I also like to have a good nights sleep prior, and everything prepared at least the day before so I can relax on the morning of the flight.

2. How did you get in to gliding and do you have somebody you admire
in our soaring world, an example?

 I wanted to fly powered aircraft as a small child, and my
parents encouraged me to join the air force cadets to experience gliding. After over a year of the air force cadets, and still no opportunities for gliding, my father and I joined the Adelaide
University Gliding Club and went out together most weekends.
I look up to the excellent coaches at my club (Adelaide Soaring Club), Graham Parker, Terry Cubley, Peter Temple who’ve generously donated their time and shared their wisdom to help my flying over the years.
As someone who finds consistent flying far more challenging than fast flying, I aspire to the incredibly consistent performances of the likes of Sebastien Kawa.

3. Flying a competition is different , then “eating” kilometers / read fly long distance, what do you like most?
Being young means also sometimes being impatient , maybe the reason for your outlandings during comps?

 I much prefer free flying, no declared tasks, just playing in the atmosphere. I fly competitions because I find I learn much quicker when I’m able to compare what I’m doing to so many other
pilots. I do find the competitive aspect great fun though – a tight competition is a whole different source of fun aside from the gliding.
I will admit I’ve outlanded quite a few times due to impatience, but I think the majority of my outlandings nowadays are misreading the next 50km and failing to ‘change down gears’ if conditions are deteriorating – something I’ve been working on this season but still haven’t quite nailed.

 4. I guess there is a bright future for you, how do you see the future in soaring your self?

 This year I’m stepping up my commitment to soaring by saving for my own glider and travelling to the site of the junior worlds months in advance and getting some practice in.
With my own glider I hope to increase the amount of flying I do, and hopefully improve my performances! I also have my eye on a few ‘low-hanging fruit’ in the record books at the moment.

5. Please tell us about your 1000 km. flight from Tocumwal on that “bloody hot “day?

It was a huge gamble to drive over from South Australia (without a crew!) on a hope the weather forecast was correct. I’d been watching it for a few days prior and it hadn’t been as forecast, but it looked to me like the stars might just align on this particular day.
I arrived at Tocumwal in the evening the night before, rigged and ballasted in the twilight and settled in for a big nights sleep in preparation. The forecast had deteriorated substantially at this stage, so now I was hoping it was not as forecast!

I optimistically launched first (having felt some movement in the air), with more water on board
than I’d ever flown with (525kg).
The LS4 doesn’t quite have the same pleasant handling characteristics this heavy, and it was a
long struggle to core a broken two knots over the field, which took me to a few thousand feet.
I very tentatively pushed on north, with the thought of outlanding on the morning of a 1000k day
weighing heavily on my mind. Conditions slowly improved, three knots, four knots up to 4000ft. I heard chatter on the radio of all the other clubs in the area launching and pilots struggling to stay afloat.
After about an hour I made it to Jerilderie (not very far north!) { 50km Ritz} , and I saw the very first cumulus of the day form far, far above me at well over 10,000ft.
I couldn’t find a strong core up to it, so I continued pushing north and eventually found a strong climb up to cloudbase, and the day was on!

panorama view

The primary purpose of this flight was not to set a record, or even to fly 1000k+, but rather just to gain a better understanding of troughs so I can maximize my distance and speed next time around, so I started by heading far out to the west, right against the west-most edge of the trough. For reasons I still don’t understand, I didn’t find verygood climbs or air against this edge, nor in the second or third streets to the east.
I ended up tracking about 30km ‘into’ the trough, and had a good run up past Ivanhoe (about 400km from Tocumwal). It was about here that I heard pilots on the radio complaining of rain and thunderstorms back towards Temora, and I grew increasingly concerned about the prospects of returning.
After talking with a few of them, I decided it was time to head back towards Tocumwal, but via the eastern side of the trough where I thought there might be less over development.
About 100km on the way back I saw a large anvil looming out to the east, but what appeared to be a convergence setting up out on the far western edge of the trough (where it had not been good before!).

climbing in a straight line

I had seen a convergence like this just once before,the year prior when I did another OLC 1000.
I gave it a try and was rewarded – a 224km glide losing 3000ft, at 90kts average that took me through heavy showers and sleet. The sleet was forming ice on thewings, so I found myself frequently having to move out into the sun to melt the ice and regain the glideperformance. In some places the lift was so strong I had to do 130kts+ to keep out of the cloud – andperiodically a single droplet of water would come through the vent and hit me in the face at 130kts leaving little welts! Quite painful!
I now had quite a few hours before last light, and played in the convergence trying to better understand how it worked and where to find the strongest lift while making up a bit more distance.

Ice on wings

In retrospect, this trough was far weaker than the one I had flown the year previously, but
my improved understanding let me achieve a better flight from it. Hopefully the next one is even better! I believe with the understanding I now have, and a strong trough like last year, 1250km out and return is possible in the LS4. I suspect it may be some years before we get a trough like that again though.
Terrain might be a problem though, with that far north of most potential sites being totally unlandable (no strips!). Big triangles are a whole art form unto themselves I haven’t even
considered yet.

 

                     Leaving the street                                         A long street with rain

6. What would you like to tell us and I have not asked?

I will be packing up and heading to Leszno, Poland this year from May until September to holiday and practice for the junior worlds, and would love to meet any locals who can introduce me to the area or give me tips!
I am still looking for a car and caravan or other accomodation near Leszno, so if there is anyone reading out there who might be able to loan, lease or lend me any of the
above it would be much appreciated!

Thanks!
Matthew

Just heard his birthday is in 4 days so HAPPY 22 d BIRTHDAY  MATTHEW!!!!!

 

Public library on January 22 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com      www.glidinginternational.com

Last day in the library.

Though the skies REALLY looked beautiful yesterday the distances were not as good as hoped for , but at least all pilots were happy with the great clouds and for Terry in the ASH 26 a nice over 700 km. flight.
Look at them, at 3 in the afternoon yesterday, all around,……. CLOUDS to the N. , the S., the W. and E.
Pepe used the clouds for another 1000 km. flight from Corowa in his ASH 31, while on the other site of the world in South Africa, some friends flew from Kuruman over 1000 km. as well.
Neil Burns was so lucky to fly the brand new ARCUS M.  from Roger Druce and flew all the way up NW and back with Roger; 654 km.

 

Great looking skies!

Yesterday I had a great dinner with the Riley family; Bill  the founder of Sportavia, his wife Val, Bill’s daughter Chrissie who knows nearly all pilots from the time she was involved helping out, her husband Stuart and June, who knows all of the past as well.
Tonight a last dinner with the “girls” and than it is preparing for my trip back.

With Val, June, Suart, Chrissie and good old Bill.

It has been a fantastic time here in my old town Tocumwal. Those who were interested and have been here , I heard enjoyed it as well.
Back to “normal” soaring business and I will add another blog with the interview and pictures from young Matthew Scutter. What a flight that was here from Tocumwal,…enjoy both the pictures and the story.

Cu on Sunday , when my plane can “defeat” the icy conditions and when I can do the same after nearly 40 dgr. here today and tomorrow.

Last but not least a press release I received from one of my friends. Tony is the one who invited me to visit New Zealand in 2010.

 

Australian Domain Registrar

Powers mega.co.nz

Melbourne Australia, January 18, 2013

As Mega prepares to launch their new cloud storage service on January 19,

2013, Instra Corporation

– a global domain name registrar – is primed to provide

expert product, billing and technical support services to mega.co.nz users in

anticipation of dramatic new global demand for the Mega service.

According to Instra CEO, Brian Clarkson,

“The new Mega promises a revolution

in online privacy with one-click encryption for every user, creating a secure online

cloud data haven for Internet users across the globe.

”

During the launch phase, Instra will be assisting in day-to-day operations,

providing all front-line technical support for any and all related products and

services.

According to Tony Lentino, CEO of Mega, the new cloud storage service will

bring immediate economic value to Australia and New Zealand in the form of new

jobs as it grows the Mega venture.

About Instra Corporation Pty. Ltd.

Formed in 1997, Instra Corporation is a privately-owned company based in

Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand, Instra has expanded its initial

domain name business from New Zealand and Australia into a leading, worldwide

domain registrar.

Instra Corporation supplies over 300+ country domains worldwide and has direct

accreditations with over 100 registries. Many companies and household brand

names from around the world take advantage of Instra’s unique and

sophisticated Domain Management System to actively manage their online

intellectual property. Our customers come from over 160 different countries.

http://www.instra.com

Cheers Ritz

Sportaviation reception room on January 21 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com    www.soaringcafe.com

Last day of writing at Sportaviation and I am grateful for the use of their WIFI. A real good one as well.
Tomorrow one more day of daily news and then the diary 2012/2013  will be closed. Hope you enjoyed the trip with me!
The first pilot { J J } has left already , just after 11 and Mac , who is back from Narromine with a young Japanese friend ,who has flown in Waikiri already, but not yet from Tocumwal, is preparing his flight. So is Stefan and Jochen and Bill, who I have not seen for years. It was great to catch up again with so many old “friends”.

 

Stefan flew 803 km yesterday in his LS 4 . He still is such a great cross country pilot!

I still was a bit on -a -high , after a great 3 course- dinner with friends in town and,…after reading the results and news from Chaves, so I did not sleep too well.
It’s always extra interesting when things change on the last day. A non flying last day makes the toppers happy , BUT  they have to be on their best to keep the “others from their back” on a flying day as everybody close by is eager to win. Nerves can play a role and tactics are MOST IMPORTANT.
Read on the Aussie site that the pilots decided to pair flying as practised before in Benalla.It turned out great with a 2d place for Tobias in Club class and a 9th spot for Craig, while Allan was on spot 6 in World Class!
In this case certainly the Argentinean pilots who , maybe?/surely?  with some local- knowledge, did extremely well.
That they celebrated was just so much deserved.

Picture courtesy to the Argentinean wgc website.

“What I feel? Happiness. I am more than just happy. I obtained more than what I
had expected and now I am trying to enjoy it. “
Young pilot Sebastian Riera.

Good news for the Dutch team as well. No podium places this time but the TEAM CUP was for The Netherlands and is here in the hands of TC Bart Renckens.

Bart with the TEAM CUP!
source zweefportaal.

Life continues ! Still good flights from Namibia and South Africa , but slowly the season there comes to an end. The Australian season still continues for a bit, though days are getting shorter.
Yesterday Corowa had still flights over 950 km.
Swaantje is still in Benalla and had a “joy[able] -flight” flying an FAI triangle of 500 km.[636 in total]  mostly in clouds. During the comps most days were blue! She must have enjoyed the day in the LS 8!!

It’s 12 now and Terry in PC is at 8000 ft. on it’s way , hopefully for a nice long flight. Stefan left as well and the pilots flying mainly for fun are taking it easy, but have left the reception room as well. Ralf is the last to go. Mac is still in the hangar with his mate!
12.15 clouds everywhere to the N, W and E. It looks to be going a great day!

 

Clouds to the East, North and West.

Quite a lot of my soaring friends are slowly getting older! BUT,…not as old as this 92 year old pilot , who flies from Western Australia; Mr. Dick Sasse. He flew the Western Australian state Comps from Cunderdin in club class. He did not win one of the 5 days , but flew very consistant and ended on spot 2 as runner up!.
GOOD on him!!!!!
As one of my friends Ron mentioned;
—“He has come second in an ASTIR  WQI and he is AT LEAST 92 YEARS OLD—he must be
THE oldest competing solo pilot in the world!!  He is a member of the Morowa
club in WA.—“

Just got the latest Gliding Australia in hand, with items as the Narromine Cup, the NSW State comps,an interview with G Dale who coached in Australia in Lake Keepit, Benalla and Narromine, about levels of  high risk certainly in mountains  and competitions with gaggle flying. And about Sebastian Kawa;
—” I ve seen him operate. He is just 100 % professional in his approach. He has all the bases covered, but it’s not just talent, it’s WORK.”—“
More for you to read in the latest January/February issue!

Off to town again , cu tomorrow, Ritz

Sportaviation on Sunday January 20 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com      www.glidinginternational.com

Wow, WOW, wow,it happened all on the last day!!!!

It is a splendid Sunday here in Tocumwal, sunny , clouds up but far East , a nice breeze , not too hot not too cold.
It cost me some effort to not rush out to a WIFI spot to see what happened in Chaves! Time difference, you know!
When I saw the final results I could not believe my eyes. YES , I knew and felt Sebastian was going to win, but that Roman dropped to 3 , Toby climbed to 2 and 3 Argentinians on TOP POSITIONS is specially for the home country a GREAT moment in history.
Well done too for the German pilots with 2 in the top 3 and of course the Polish pilots with Sebastian winning 2 WGC’s in one season and with 2 pilots in the top 3 !!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL best pilots/winners and to all other pilots for flying well under not too easy circumstances.

On day 4 the top 1 and 2 Argentinean pilots  Sebastian Riera and Jorge Tartara in World class were still on spot 3 and 4. The next 3 days they raced to the 2 best spots to keep their top- places overall till the end!
Mind you the winner won not one single day!
A pity Allan dropped to spot 6 but looking at the points there is not much difference. Number 4 had 3388 points , number 5 3385 and number 6, 3382. WOW, again!
Sebastian Riera is the winner and last World champion in World class during a combined WGC with 2 other classes. They are on their selves now.

In Club class I had hope as a good Dutch citizen and knowing how good he is , that Tim would be in the top 3 , but unfortunately on the last day [8] he had only 773 points from the 1000 available on this 3 hour AAT day. Over the last days Tim had to deal with flu as well and that’s not .
The last day was won by Santiago Berca with 311 km in 3 hours 12. He was 2d overall on the last but one day and won with this very last flight of the comps  the TITLE. He seems to be the local hero , so that’s extra good for the Argentineans. On this last day he needed 125 points to beat Roman,…it turned out all different.
Great news for Toby Geiger, I know my Aussie friends are happy for him. His name sounds German , he has German roots and as I heard he even has joined in the past the German team. What about that. Tobias flies from Benalla and I have seen they kept a good eye on him.
Toby was 16 points better than Roman who dropped from 1 to 3 on the last day. You don’t want that , but it can happen, as we all know. He was 25th on the last day a pity for him.

In standard class the last title was by Sebastian Kawa. This years title is for SEBASTIAN KAWA.
His book goes “as a train” , he wins Uvalde in 15 m. class  and now he wins the standard class in Argentina. Who will be ever better then Sebastian?
What a HERO!
They had 9 days in this class. On the last day the pilots had a 2.45 AAT, won by Czech pilot Jan Louda [951 points] .Sebastian was 4th with 903 points. Felipe and Mario “hung”in  coming back in the top 6, but that was not enough to pass Sebastian.
With the total of 6102 points  he was the deserved winner  but can’t say anything else then TOP JOB for Mario [ 6038] and Filipe [ 5955].

A competition without accidents , ….PERFECT and as I heard with a lot of  atmosphere also created as I hear by the lovely local people, …..very good,…. and with top organizers ,….TOP!
And, as the TC from the USA team mentioned about this last day; “a day with 100 % completions and the best overall speeds of the contest”. The trouble was the weather, but I guess so what I read that this will be quickly forgotten the rest also the interesting retrieves will stay in the minds.
Another WGC over. With 7 Argentinean participants and all of them within the best 7 spots, they did VERY WELL. Congratulations!

Cheers Ritz

Nearly forgot; The hanggliding World Comps are over too ; here are the results.
Great result for Tocumwal “girl” Tove Heany being 3d in the womens!!!

Sport: Hang Gliding class 1
Title: 19th FAI World Hang Gliding Class 1
Championship
Type : World
Date:  05.01 – 18.01.2013
Location: Forbes
(Australia)

Final Results :

Overall
1st : Manfred Ruhmer
AUT
2nd : Alessandro Ploner ITA
3rd : Filippo Oppici
ITA

Women
1st: Corinna Schwiegershausen GER
2nd: Kathleen Rigg
GBR
3rd: Tove Heaney AUS

Team
1st : Italy
2nd : USA
3rd :
United Kingdom

The full results can be found at the following address :
http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Sportaviation Reception Area on Saturday January 19 2013.

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com      www.glidinginternational.com

Welcome to the Benalla prize-giving and party.

This morning at 7 AM, I was ready to leave the Glider City Motel in Benalla again , as Lisa and Peter Trotter were so kind to take me with them to Tocumwal, where they had to be on their way to the Sunshine Coast,  for a “pick-up” .
I was a bit worried, as the terrible smell of the bushfires in Gippsland in Victoria , had reached Benalla as well. This deadly fire storm hit several small places in the South of Victoria killing one man [80] , who tried to escape in his car, but sadly enough was too late and destroying homes and land [50.000 hectares at this stage and the blaze continues!] with wild life.

No fire smells in Tocumwal, where we arrived nicely at 8 AM. I felt very privileged to drive with the Trotters , both in their class the new Australian champions. Peter drove upfront with his glider on tow , I drove with Lisa behind him, with her glider on tow. When I jumped out they still had 10 to 12 hours to go before reaching Anita and Bruces place at Kentucky and then one more day of driving to make it home. That says enough about distances in Australia.

the Trotters with all their prizes.

Not a lot of sleep after a real nice party where old times revived with friends as Griffo [with Monica], Brockie [with Christine and daughter Brooke] , Terry [with Vicky] and so many others. The prizes were ready to be handed over and the food smelled delicious. After the beef/chicken the fun teams were mentioned first by Competition Director Peter Gray, who in the end got a huge applause for “a job well-done”. Tim Shearly was the well respected task setter this year, so not the CD as mentioned yesterday , sorry about that.

 

Bruce , Griffo and Tony and with Vicky

 

Bruce, Terry and a friend from Griffo and Peters wife Monica

 

Griffo [Peter] and Bruce! Nothing changed!

 
The table full of prizes!

As said the fun teams were announced first and the winners were; “ Gun’s & liquor” formed by Tom Claffey and Lisa and Peter Trotter with 956 points.
The winning STATE team was Queensland with Andrew Maddocks and again ,…Lisa and Peter Trotter. They took the beautiful GFA shield home.[picture below]

 

 

Then there was the record presentation for a new Australian 300 km. triangle record flown on November 26 by Jenny Thomson in her ASW 27 from Narromine 144.34 km./h. a record in 15m., 18m., and open class.

Jenny surrounded by task setter Tim to the l. and CD Peter Gray to the r.

German pilot Swaantje was the highest international ranked pilot with her 5^th place and TEAM NEW ZEALAND won the Tasman Trophy. This prize goes to an upcoming pilot from Australia or New Zealand flying the nationals in alternate countries and not having flown world comps before. For Australia it was Ian Mc Callum  for NZ Tim Bromhead ,who won 2 days and he takes the trophy back home to NZ. Nice young lad and like Australia, they have a few young and upcoming pilots!

 

Swaantje and Tim

Lothar Arndt , flying in Tocumwal was the highest novice pilot . He flew his glider back to Tocumwal after the cancellation and was nicely back in time for the party.
The highest- raw -speed –prize the Taylor &Kauffmann Speed Trophy was for Tom Claffey.

 

Lothar and the SPEED TROPHY.

It was good to see Norm Bloch back in competition soaring after more than 25 years and even better,…he ended on a 3d place in his first Nationals, after the break.

 

The winners in each class were cheered on; Peter, Lisa, Lars and Tom. They all said a word as well and I was pleased to hear that Lisa mentioned “young blood” in the comps with a lot of young ones and SEVEN Lady pilots, one of them the very young Ailsa Mc Millan , being 2d on the last day in standard class. In her opinion,  it “enriches” the comps and I totally agree.

 

Brian surrounded by ” new blood” as Andrew and Nick Maddocks and Ben Loxton who as I heard flew VERY well.

Specially for Tim Kuijpers in Chaves!

And kilometer -eater Matthew Scutter with 2x 1000 km. under his belt in an LS 4.Story about him will follow soon!

Australian [ competition] Soaring is doing well  and that is great to see.
The next Nationals will be in Kingaroy in Queensland from October 14-24.

This years winners;

  
Lisa [standard class]  and Peter Trotter [15 m. class]

 

Tom [18 m.]and Lars [open class].

A scoop as well; There was NO bid for the 2016 flapped class,… so Australia said they wanted to go for it. Out of Lake Keepit , Corowa and Benalla , the final choice was Benalla! [ as you know the WGC was in 1987 in Benalla as well.]
They have however to compete with the UK , where Lasham will send their bid and it seems also Austria has showed interest now.
In the end of February the IGC will decide where it will be. That IGC meeting will be in Holland, and I play a very small role in the organization as well. All credit goes to Frauke.

It was great to be back in Benalla.

 

The Peters [Trotter and Temple] and Shinzo with crew.
and to finish the gorgeous wife from Bruce Christine and their daughter Brooke.

See you hopefully tomorrow, library will be closed, so we will see.

cheers Ritz