Alphen aan den Rijn     Saturday morning October 15 2011    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

To remain actual I decided to publish this blog already on Saturday before my departure to Amsterdam.When something VERY special should happen I come back on Sunday evening.

A VERY HAPPY Uys Jonker and…he should be very happy; he flew from Potchefstroom,  his first 1000 km. Out and Return , the first 1000 km for a JS 1 glider in South Africa and the first 1000 km. for the 2012 South Africa Season, in fact for the total 2012 -overseas -season.
What better statement can you make as owner and manufacturer of  Jonker  Sailplanes  and for soaring in South Africa ?????!!!!!!!! Nice speed as well. 131 km./h!! Well done Uys and so early in the season.

 

Pictures courtesy Iain Baker from Jonker Sailplanes.

Something totally different to start with but also very happy sportsmen; Did you know “WE” could play baseball?? I did know,  but NOT on the HIGH level they are on now; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP- final!!! They won from the current titleholder the USA, won from South Korea the current Olympic winners and …from Cuba..25 times world champion!!!!! Never before a European team was in the final, what about that. The “orange” men did it; it would be nice if they could win now as well. But they have to beat Cuba again then and I guess the Cubans are warned now!
Did you know why “we” all show up in orange , if it is with World comps speed skating, swimming, or soccer even hockey??? Our royal family is from the : House of ORANGE”.

This years OLC symposium  is on October 22 in Poppenhausen/Wasserkuppe and starts at 13.00  when Helge Zembold from Segelfliegen Magazin has the first half hour to speak about press and good media contacts , then half an hour about WEATHER by Bernd Fischer from Wetter-jetzt. At 2 the Bitterwasser Cup with John Williams , then Hannes Linke and Klaus Ohlmann about the Barron Hilton Challenge  2011, to continue after a break at 15.30 with the 2011 OLC flight of the year with Tomaz Suchanek and at 4 the OLC Junior Challenge. Just to let you know the OLC, every year “donates” their OLC-discus to one junior to fly it that year;  on October 22 they announce the next “user”.
 At 4.30 the German winners of the OLC to finish last but not least with Rainer Rose who won with the OLC team the Lilienthal medal during the last IGC plenary.
I quote their site to even make more advertisement for that special day;
—“In diesem Jahr könnt Ihr Euch auf einen Treff der Superlative freuen. Erwarten dürft ihr geballte Informationen, spannende Vorträge, wertvolle Tipps und natürlich die Ehrung der Bundesliga-Sieger, der Deutschen Meister (OLC) und des Weltmeisters (OLC). Ausnahme-Segelflieger wie Tomaz Suchanek (Tschechien), John Williams (Schottland) und Klaus Ohlmann werden dabei sein. Sportliche Leistungen und herausragende Streckenflüge stehen im Mittelpunkt. Last but not Least wird die Verleihung der FAI Lilienthal-Medal an Reiner Rose und das OLC-Team gefeiert (bei Freibier & Brezn).
Jeder ist herzlich eingeladen, nach Poppenhausen zu kommen.—”
So everybody is welcome on a packed day with special guests and distance flying will be in the centre of interest.[Source OLC Magazine]
Where would we be ….without the OLC ?????

The German Soaring Day  on October 29 is in Darmstadt. On Facebook I read that Segelfliegen the Magazine will be there as well, so enough to read later also in the international version on their site, though to read it all you have to buy it but that is very easy, as you might have found out already!
 The Dutch Soaring day will be on November 26 and I try to be there!

Family of some of my Australian friends are living in Port Moresby on Papua New Guinea. In heavy weather a twin-prop-plane , Dash 8, with 32 people on board crashed killing 28 of them. Under them a mother  her  3 daughters and a grandchild going back home after Thanksgiving-day-celebrations!!!
 The pilots from Australia , captain Bill Spencer [64] and New Zealand , co pilot Campbell Wagstsaff, survived as well as one passenger from China [in his 50thies] and a steward. The captain has bad injuries on his leg , the co-pilot is “shaken up”!!!!!
Papua New Guinea has a pretty bad reputation on aviation- safety .
Investigators from the Australian Air Transport Safety Bureau have arrived in Port Moresby to help the PNG bureau.

Got some news from Greece!
“This summer a nice TV ad for Essilor was filmed in Kopais, Greece featuring BP. I believe can be used to attract more advertisers and sponsors to our sport.”

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtYgoG490Po

And…guess what . I saw this one on TV here as well. Really nice!!! Have a look!!!!Thanks Alexis!

From Perth in Australia I got the next news;
” Langley Park is a huge stretch of grass at the foot of Perth’s city “skyscrapers”, which has variously been an airport and a racecourse, and now is just Parkland. I’m not sure why this is the last time aircraft will be allowed to land there – it is where the Red Bull race flew from. The forecast is excellent for the weekend – meant to be 35 degrees on Sunday.”
What’s happening ???!!! The Sport Aircraft Association of Australia is holding a fly-in of sport aircraft at Langley Park on Saturday & Sunday this weekend. Reason; ….this is the LAST time , aircraft will be allowed to land on Langley park, Perth original airfield and one of the places  pilots were trained in WW 2.

Link to poster attached http://www.saaa.com/pdfs/Langley_Advertising.pdf

Enough updates! Sunny weather, but…we had the first night-frost. Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday October 12 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

When talking about overseas-soaring I should not forget to mention New Zealand  as well. It is not only Omarama , of course the biggest and most well known place [WGC in 1995 with NZ top-pilot Ray Lynskey winning in open class, Markku Kuittinen in standard class and Eric Napoleon in 15 m.. Ray , sadly enough died MUCH TOO YOUNG at age 54 in 2009 ] , for mountain soaring on the South Island  , but also the Nord Island has several places to fly from when over there for a holiday.

 

To the world famous place Omarama you go and fly to enjoy the mountains and the huge wave-systems and many pilots have been introduced to wave flying there. [ www.glideomarama.com ]
In the past we had several guests who flew with us in Tocumwal over flat land and travelled after to NZ for some good mountain flying and trout or fly-fishing.
As said in my report last year when I visited the Nord Island, it is overwhelming beautiful!!!!! To prove it some pictures made during my trip.

 

 

At this stage the beautiful coast of Tauranga , where I had the privilege of staying with John and Chris Roake, is threatened by oil from a ship stuck on a riff. They work very hard , but weather circumstances stopped the rescuers from emptying the oil from the ship. It seems worse then expected. Now they think that not 30 ton but between 130 and 300 ton from the 1700, have gone in the water just close to that beautiful mountain  Maunganui , with the great beaches.

 
Mount Maunganui from close by and from a distance.

 

The beautiful clean white , beaches at Tauranga,  on the foot of  Mount Maunganui.

 The first flights from NZ are to be found on the OLC; 298 km from Paraparaumu,[ is n’t that a great Maori name?]  on the SW North Island , 50 km. N of Wellington.
In NZ at this stage the semi- finals  will be played who will be this years World-RUGBY -winner. I “love” both the Wallabies and the All Blacks so , may the best win!!!!They play on Sunday , BIG match and the French and the team from Wales on Saturday.
 When looking at the Omarama  site , I noticed that the captain/skipper of the All Blacks , Richie Mc Caw, is a soaring-pilot as well.Good on him and a nice picture!

On the 11 th of October the OLC started their 2012 season  and the very first flight from 2012 was for Ian Cohn flying at Mount Beauty in Victoria in Australia;136 km. in an ASK 21!! In the far past we had in the Mount Beauty area our spring camp with Sportavia . Flying over the mountain in a Blanik with Bill Harvey still is a great memory. Also the trip behind the tug back to Toc. was unforgettable.
Having said that the OLC champions for this year;
Overall champion Klaus Ohlmann…who else?
Statistics best flight;Gordon Boettger–2254 km. from Minden Tahoe in a Kestrel 17
Statistics all flights; Alfredo Giretti –62.365,90 km. in 108 flights
Most kilometers flown from an airfield; Bitterwasser–595.653.65 km./827 flights/127 pilots
And…the AFZ-club from Unterwössen  had the most flights;797 flown by 73 pilots and 266.614,86 km.
Congratulations to all winners!!!!! But also to ALL pilots who put their flight on the OLC as it is great to follow what you are doing and even compare that and of course it is nice to see where all friends are.

Strike in the aviation-world caused some problems in Germany.On Monday first the ground personnel was on strike so people arrived but suitcases did not. Now the traffic controllers are ready to strike today and that could cause a great mess in Germany. They threatened to do so twice in the past but NEVER did it! Are they going to do it today?

The Regionals in Argentina at Ceres  have had 2 days now. They fly in 3 classes with 46 participants in total. After 2 days Lucas Goldenzweig is 4th in an LS4. Look for the results at ; 
www.soaringspot.com  
Also at Bebedouro , Brasil, they are still active .The first day of the Nationals , the Campeonato Brasileiro de Vöo a Vela, has been flown on Oktober 10. Pepe , one of the participants, flies it in an ASH 25 E; 264 km. on day 1.

It happened again!!!!!  The Russian bomber-pilots visited us…..again!!! Not that they , 2 Bear T95 bombers, were invited, neither did they announce their arrival, they just flew over Holland, I guess looking if everything is the same as a few months ago and to check if the Nato partners are alert enough.Of course they were!!!!…..they were accompanied by a Dutch F 16 and English fighters and when they left Holland up North the Danish air-force took over,  when they moved over to Germany.

Last but not least! Just got some news from Rick in the USA which is really nice to share with you all. It’s about soaring with the Mount Washington Soaring Association  during their Wave Camp over the white mountains of New Hampshire. His friend flew this flight in a Glasflügel 304CZ/17.4m.[the best flight worldwide on the last day of the 2011 OLC season]
Here is story and have a look at the site as well;

On October 10, my friend Rick Roelke achieved a goal that he has been
seeking for at least 10 years, a triple diamond flight (all three
diamond badge legs in one flight).  As far as we know this has never
been done in the Eastern USA.
It was also the best OLC flight for that day.
He did this at the annual wave camp sponsored by the Mount Washington
Soaring Association:  http://www.mtwashingtonsoaring.org

It was a big day for wave soaring at Mount Washington.  Another pilot,
Jim David, reached 29000 feet that day.
Thanks Rick!

CU on Sunday afternoon,  will be in Amsterdam for the weekend, but my guest takes care of  the house !!!
Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday October 9 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 

Pictures in todays blog courtesy Kai Monkkonen[archive]

Even if it has nothing to do with soaring I still have to say a few words about Steve Jobs! Everybody did already and some know much more about him and his world , but one way or another I felt sad when I heard he died , though we all knew this was going to happen. He just must have heard that the latest toy,  the 64 GB iPhone 4S , was presented the day before, to the public.
I look with different eyes now to those kids in the train swiping their fingers over their phone!!! I am glad I can “handle ” my ACER, but do realize people got hooked to APPLE and to this great visionair who indeed as everybody says, changed our world.
Even my grandchildren [5 and 8]  “use” their mums iPad.
RIP Steve Jobs!

Nothing to do with soaring either but…with speed. Just looked at the Formula 1 to see Jenson Button win , but even more to see Vettel winning a back-to-back-world title  already now in Japan. Phenomenal!!!!! No secret I am a fan, but he is just good!!! I liked his answer, when the team congratulated him just after he drove the car over the finish line with his 2d title; “I would have preferred to win today as well”. But he decided with the team to drive safe today.
A class act and a class Formula 1 this year!!!!!

Not a lot happening in our soaring world at this stage. A state competition in Brasil shows many flights on the OLC and though he is already sure to be the champion , Alfredo Giretti , still flies as much as possible from Rieti Airport in his ASH 31 /21m. Last Thursday even a nice 648 km. along the mountains up to past Foligno and back ,continuing to far SE of Rieti and back.
Pepe who flies in Brasil at the moment is a good runner up in the race for “all flights”  from this OLC-year ;493 km. for him in the state comps in Brasil.

It is pretty tough to go from 27 dgr. C to 12 .That’s what happens here now in Holland. The UK was even worse they moved last weekend  from 30 dgr. C. to snow in the Scottish Highlands on Tuesday; so from bathers into ski-boots.
Shops here moved from sunglasses into Christmas decorations!!!
On the other hand a member of the Scottish Gliding Center flew, 3 days ago,  from Kinross a nice 592 km. flight in a Discus, as the mountains , at some places, gave him lift up to 5000 m. 
Switzerland had a lot of snow yesterday and roads to and over the  passes [10 of them] of the Alps were closed. Only the Gotthard tunnel was open and of course a long traffic jam was the result.
In Munich, the temperature dropped within 12 hours with 15 dgr.[from 23 to 7]!!!!
As said many times; the weather is the weather!!!
No snow-problems it seems for the French mountains as yesterday a French pilot managed to use the wave lift from the Alps starting at Vinon for a nearly 1000 km flight in an ASH 25; a yoyo from 926 km. with an FAI 500 triangle in it!

Our former tuggie [ only for a short time as he found a job up North in the middle of our high season!!!!!] Adam Woolley keeps a blog about his soaring and that from the juniors in Australia. The next [ 8th] Australian Junior comps are in Jondaryan from December 10-17.He is already practising, as last Friday he flew 300 km. in the standard cirrus from that airfield!
www.joeyglide.com and for his blog; www.adamwoolley.blogspot.com
Adam , a commercial pilot now, flew at  junior world comps  and still loves competition soaring.
His dad Chris flew today from Kingaroy[N. from Jondaryan] a nice 528 set FAI triangle in his Ventus 2CM/18m. Yes it is starting up this nice Australian weather. And for the connaisseurs it is clear,  but for others it is good to know that the season starts best at the East ,[Jondaryan, Kingaroy, Dalby]  then moves more South to Narromine, Corowa , Benalla and Tocumwal to move further to the  West to Gawler ,Adelaide,  Waikerie, etc. This is not a written law but often it works like this.

To finish today’s blog some more pictures from Kai. Back on Wednesday enjoy the beginning of this new week.
 

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday October 5 2011    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 A very relaxed Bruce in the middle.

To start with , a picture from Aussie top-pilot Bruce Taylor  at Warwick. Got the permission too late to add it to the last blog , but this is a more recent one  for you. After winning the pre- worlds in Uvalde with more then 600 points ahead on the runner up and now scoring 4000 points in 4 days, he deserves to have a special spot. Being relaxed seems to be the secret and of course he has a great glider flying the JS1.
As relaxed was Brad Edwards in 1991 when he won the WGC in Uvalde while playing when possible his guitar and singing a long with friends. Same as Tim Kuijpers who just won the JWGC.
So dear competion-pilots/friends ……FLY  RELAXED!!!!!

My friend Jo send me some Aussie news  and it is nice to see that Narromine hosts the 50thiest Nationals in January 2012. Great to see Chris Stevens is still so active and yes I know he is a great organizer. He also was a regular in the past with us at Tocumwal. I visited a few Nationals in Narromine and I was always happy to be there. How could it be different with hosts as Beryl and Arney Hartley?!
Here is all the news on behalf of Ross McLean;

 Hello everyone

Don’t forget Narromine Cup week is coming up in the last week of November. Come up and fly with all your friends, try for a personal best, be it Silver C, Gold C, 500K, 750k or maybe that elusive 1000k you are after.  We are always looking for willing helpers to take some of the load off Beryl, Arnie, Chris, Kenny Mc and David. So don’t be bashful about offering to help.

If you are thinking about attending please let Beryl know at arnie.hartley@gmail.com

 The 50^thMultiClass Nationals are coming to Narromine in January 2012. Work has already commenced in earnest and the Contest Director is our own Chris Stephens who does such an outstanding job running Narromine Cup week.  Chris is also looking for willing helpers.  This is quite an historic event for Narromine Gliding Club as the very first Nationals were held at Narromine 50 years ago and we would all like it to be a great event.  The competition website is well established and can be accessed from the “MultiClass Nationals” button on any page of the NGC website or you can go there directly via the following link:

http://www.narromineglidingclub.com.au/Narromine50/MultiClass2012.html

If you intend to enter but have not yet done so, please go the site and click on the “ENTRY FORM” button, download the entry form and send the completed form back to Beryl with your entry fee. Banking details are on the form.
ROSS
The FIRST and the 50thiest one in Narromine; good on them!!!!!
By the way , the new 2 seater class and club and sports-class fly in January [2-13 2012] from Benalla. Then you are totally updated concerning comps down under.

In my last blog I had a nice picture from Rene de Dreu en Tim Kuijpers, former European champion and current Junior world champion.
Now I heard that Rene is the contact address for Alexander Schleicher BENELUX. Good on him. Congratulations Rene and good luck!!!!
For Holland he is taking over from Francesco Bruinsma, who as you know is busy enough with his wife Grietje to run soaring – Corowa and from October 1, Rene also started the agency for Belgium and  Luxembourg.
With the great ASG 29 and the latest ASH 31 and ASH 30[ flapped 2- seater]  the future looks bright for Schleicher!!! And…the ASW 27 and 28 are still popular as well as is the ASH 26 and not to forget the club-trainer ASK 21. For ALL the news look at;  www.alexander-schleicher.nl

On October 2 both Tocumwal and Benalla were to be seen again at the OLC . Between all the longer flights in the USA and some in Argentina , Judy Renner flew in her discus 317 km. and one day later , on a public holiday for some states, good old George Lee from his own airfield a nice FAI triangle in his Nimbus 4DM with a speed of 113 km./h. And..Francesco opened the Corowa season with the first flight of the season in the ASH 31 MI/18m.

 

Hidden behind trees and [too] high grass our former WW2 hangar in Tocumwal. Closed now! But luckily on the South  site of the field operates Sportaviation and the SRGC.

On October 4 the 2d day of the regional comps from the airfield of  Bebedouro in Brasil. Pepe flies over there in the ASH 25. A few well known Brazilians as Joao Widmer, as well. He is flying the Standard Jantar.

Not much more to say so see you on Sunday. cheers Ritz

 Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday October 2 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

And yes ……. they are on line NOW. Here is the message and by all means have a look;

Dear friends,
I’m happy to announce that the first issue of segelfliegen’s  “international edition” is now online! For those of you who haven’t read our German magazine before, you find some brief information below.
At the moment, it is only available three times per year at this stage, but if there is enough interest, there’s a good chance of having a 2-months-frequency of publication.
Please give it a go and please send this information on to anyone who you think may be interested. To find out how it works just check
www.segelfliegen-magazin.de.

“segelfliegen – Das Magazin” was founded in 2003 and is said to be Germany’s most popular gliding magazine. For all international readers, an “international edition” has now been published, using modern digital distribution methods.
It is available for PC, Mac, iPad and Android-based tablet-PCs.
“segelfliegen – international edition” appears starting the 1st of October 2011.
“segelfliegen” contains information about gliding both for beginners and experts. The articles give detailed descriptions of the things glider pilots want to know, practically oriented, written by gliding experts and experienced glider pilots.
“segelfliegen” portrays the fascination of the silent sport in a uniqueway and provides great support to gliding clubs with its detailed articles.
“segelfliegen” international edition covers all important aspects of gliding:
– background information on recent events
– specialized articles about technology and science
– test reports on gliders and gliding equipment
– reports on international competitions
– coverage of the finest gliding areas around the world
– interviews with famous glider pilots
– practical advice for students, instructors and clubs
– news and information from IGC and OSTIV
More information can be found on www.segelfliegen-magazin.de  from
October onwards; this is also the only way to access the online-magazine.

Thanks everyone,  Helge

If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would NOT have believed it. September 29 and 29. dgr.C.  on a pole, in the shade,  in front of the shopping center!!!!!! Finally summer, we must have deserved it. Not only here but Germany, Belgium, France , Central Europe , they all enjoy the blue skies , awesome temperatures and nearly no wind; a strong HIGH is covering us all. People walk around with smiles from ear to ear. Interesting/ nice  to see how sun makes people HAPPY.!!!!
Perfect weather also for my Australian guest who arrived that day,for the next couple of weeks.
The visibility here is pretty poor and clouds were nowhere to be seen on Thursday neither Friday or yesterday, so the pilots here were less enthusiastic but more then happy with the sun; no  OLC flights over the last couple of days here in Holland.
Yesterday we had the warmest day-ever-measured in Holland in/on October 1 with 26 dgr.More to the S and E it was at some places  27 again.
Even the UK has a new record, yesterday it was 29.9 dgr. the warmest day EVER. Also Belgium shares in the records .

 Summer in Holland; finally!

In Australia the Warwick State comps finished yesterday. After 2 non-flying-days, with rain , they continued on Friday. The “break” did not disturb the soaring mind of Bruce, so his 4th -1000- points- day was written down in the books; 365 km. was the task for 18m/open class, with 107 km /h. for him and in this class several outlandings. So not a real easy day.
The last day was cancelled so Bruce won with the max score of 4000 points out of 4 days in 18m and 18m/open combined!!!!!!!

 

WGC in Rieti[archive]with Bruce, Anita Indea and Vickey Cubley.

Going through these pictures I found a nice one from Art [Grant from Canada] as well. On Facebook I saw he had hurt himself “playing volley ball with the boys”.
“Not the best day. I tore my Achilles tendon this morning playing volley ball with the senior boys. Time to listen to my head instead of my heart.”
Who does not know ART? Either you find him at the weigh stations on several WGC’s or behind the microphone talking you through the virtual flights of competitors with his nice heavy voice. Get well better soon Art!!

    

Art in Rieti as “the voice”. [archive]

Having installed Picasa, it is easier to find pictures so another nice one;
The European champion and the Junior World Champion together at the Dutch Nationals in May.

 Former EGC champion Rene and current JWGC champion Tim.

And then this; 2 Kids enjoy the pleasure of a FERRIS WHEEL on the beach about 250 km. N of Sydney. Then a plane is “enjoying” the wheel as well. Not planned but the single engine pilot hung in the wheel with a mate. Of course they first freed the 2 kids [9 and 13] and later the pilot and his passenger. It was in fact the best moment to ” hit” , if you can talk about a best moment in such a case , as due to a big shower all kids except 2 had left the wheel. Just before it was FULL!!!
Nobody was hurt but it remains weird/ bizarre . The pilot  started from a close-by airfield and said he never saw the wheel.
Here is the link I got from Vanessa in Australia;
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-01/plane-crashes-into-nsw-ferris-wheel/3204912

That’s it for now. See you again on Wednesday.
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn   Wednesday September 28 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 

Pictures courtesy; Bert Kuijper at Terlet 2011

The State comps in Queensland  in Warwick,  South from Toowoomba, started with a good day for Bruce Taylor, gaining the first 1000 points.But also the 2d day was  his , so 2000 points in the pocket. He flew his JS1 with a speed of 125 km. over 334 km. distance. He topped after 2 days the 18 m. class and combined 18m/open class.
On day 3 NO surprises Bruce won again! It is not that there are no other good pilots, specially in the combination with open class which Bruce tops as well, are several WGC -level-pilots, he is just good and I look forward to see how he is flying with that speed-weather in Uvalde during the WGC.
Day 4 was cancelled! Showers!!! And…showers are predicted for tomorrow as well. And…the temperature drops from 26  to 19 .

Good to see my “mate ” Gerrit [Kurstjens] is back after a period of loosing interest in competition soaring and….by being too busy with his farms! In the past I was his TC during several comps . Gerrit moved years ago from Holland to Toowoomba and is married to Pam another top pilot.
I believe that our “move down under ” in 1996 , inspired Gerrit , but also Francesco and Grietje who run Australian-Soaring-Corowa now . After packing the containers in Holland, last weekend, they moved  back to Corowa for an hopefully awesome 2011/2012 season.
Gerrit was 3d after 2 days but got no scores for day 3 , have to check on that, so dropped at this stage to 7. His wife Pam is after 3 days on spot 4. Good on her!

Finally the Dreamliner arrived in Japan. All Nippon Airways waited an extra 3 years but now they can fly this “green”machine! Due to strikes and problems, lot’s of problems, Boeing was 3 years behind schedule! Good luck for some of my Japanese friends who fly for All Nippon and maybe now on this “cool” plane. Looks beautiful and in the future we can see them everywhere as Boeing sold 800 of them.

Not long and ” Segelfliegen Magazine ” will be international and…online.  As said before , the German version is digital now ,but also still printed and from October 1 onwards the VERY FIRST International digital version will be a fact  ,look at ; www.segelfliegen-magazine.de
The ad about the English version of the most read German magazine will appear soon, so be stand- by if you are interested.
The magazine is published every 2 months.

Last I told you how good the season started in Australia, now I can add that South Africa is doing well too  in this early spring-period. Oscar [Goudriaan] flew from Potchefstroom 428 km. in JS1 with 107 km/h speed on the clock. In fact the East of Australia and the region of Potchefstroom have soarable conditions through the year. Not for big tasks , but you can enjoy your glider and the elements of weather.
The European Alps are still giving joy to pilots and some of my Finnish friends moved to Spain for a camp at Santa Cilia Jaca and fly there up to 400 km. tasks in an Arcus and Duo Discus.

Found some interesting news at our soaring site www.zweefportaal.nl. For those who are interested in the 2011 Green Flight Challenge hosted by NASA at the Moffett field [ named after Rear Admiral William A.  Moffett in 1933] and sponsored by Google, where planes as Pipistrelli , e-genius and Tauris G4 are going to “fight ” for a prize of 1 million dollar, here are 2 links I found on this site.
www.cafefoundation.org
www.blog.cafefoundation.org

See you next Sunday. Going to enjoy a late -summer -period with up to 25 dgr.Enjoy the pictures by Bert Kuijper from the NK 2011 at Terlet Holland.Ritz

 

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday September 25 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

From several places in Europe  gliders are now on their way to either Africa or Australia. From Hamburg 4 containers packed in Mengen in Germany are now on their way to Bitterwasser in Namibia. Another 2 containers from Illingen will follow soon. It looks like a busy year in Bitterwasser! Good on them! After a bad summer more pilots need good conditions for soaring to be happy and Namibia is one of the best places to go to.
Other containers , I know of, have left for Gariep Dam, Corowa and Stonefield.
Talking about a bad summer, today it is 24 dgr. here!!!And what’s more…. it will be like this for the next week. Let’s wait and see!!!

Ever heard of the Bunyan Wavecamp in NSW ? I had not and I lived for 11 years in Australia and spend a total of 23 winters over there.
Time to give you their latest news by Stuart Ferguson send via Jo: THANKS!
—-” Todate [as on Thursday September 22] we have flown every day with only Tuesday seeing 10 or so gliders returning about midday before a line of rain and snow passed over the airfield.
Wednesday has been our best day yet with some pilots climbing to around FL200 in blue conditions up over the main range with one venturing briefly south into Victoria; we also
congratulate one visitor who will be making a Gold Height Badge claim; its smiles all round
at Bunyan.
There are two rules to enjoying the Bunyan Wave Camp
1 – You have to be there
2 – You have to take a launch
Just to let you know!!!!
And…got more!

—-After a week of thermal and wave conditions on Day 7 of the Bunyan Wave Camp lived up to reputation – with conditions aloft ideal for wave at 6:30am as the first gliders were positioned on the grid conditions on the ground were calm, but at 500ft it was a different story as the combination flew through the wind shear; then it was the wild bucking bronco ride before reaching the laminar flow. By 9:30am the tugs had to be put away due to 40kt + gusts on the ground (it was gusting so hard that full coffee cups off tables).

5 Diamond Heights were flown 😉
How was your day?—–

Sad news as well as Karl-Heinz Schneider died, age 55 only. Karl Heinz was the son of Walther ,who supplied SO many people with his LS gliders as manufacturer of this business kin the past. Who has never flown in an LS glider?? Nearly everybody , is nt it?
Had not seen him for a long time, but as far as I remember his health was  never the very best.
See also ; www.soaringcafe.com

This weekend [23-25] the European Women gather in Amstelveen  not far from Amsterdam. The 7th AWE [ Aviation and Women in Europe Conference] has 10 great guest-speakers one of them Frank Versteegh former Red Bull Racer  and now still involved in air shows, [ he was in Reno when the P51 crashed] , a stewardess , a female airline captain and more . It is good to see that more and more women in the aviation world gather, as not long ago the soaring-ladies did in France and Holland. When you are interested look at;
www.aweu.org

Today the State Comps started in Warwick. Yesterday they had their practise day and today they started with a 3 hour AAT for club class, 313 km. for standard, 353 for 18 m. Scores are coming in now so if you are interested look at www.soaringspot.com
It looks like the toppers are winning this day, as in Bruce Taylor [JS1] and John Buchanan [ ASG 29] in 18 m. with at this stage 1000 and 956 points.
70 Pilots in 5 classes, as they also have a combined 15m/standard and 18m/open class.

The East of Australia starts the season with good and interesting weather. Look at the flight yesterday from Geoff Pratt on the OLC. Starting with the Morning Glory and back with thermals; 941 km. [833 FAI triangle!!!!!] in a PIK 20E !!!!!! Good on him!

So you are happy and excited to have seen the Himalaya from above , flying with  Buddha Air, ready to tell “the world “about what you have seen , on the way back to Kathmandu airport ….. and so the plane [ Beechcraft] crashes in rain and fog….no stories to tell anymore and huge sadness for families in India, Japan , Nepal and the USA and for the family of the crew of 3. 19 People died !Very SAD!!!!!!

It is good that vintage gliders are not forgotten! Some pilots really love to take their toy for a flight on nice after-summer-days as we have now here in many parts of Europe as there is a strong high over Central Europe. On Facebook I read that they loved their flight. Found a few vintage planes in my archive from Lars Ake Allerhed during the WGC opening in 2006 in Eskilstuna. Enjoy!

 

Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday September 21 “AUTUMN”   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 

The first heavy snow has fallen in the Alps  and on TV, I saw towns in Switzerland looking like  “good Christmas cards” .But the next day it was 20 dgr. again so the snow was gone. With autumn we prepare for winter on this site of the world. No worries!
More worries for Japan, around the town of Nagoya , were some of our former guests at Sportavia live,  1 million people have been advised to fly for typhoon Roke.Not good!

One of the good things about the link to Soaring Cafe  is that I read more about the Concordia now. I am very interested in that project and I hope that with me,  many more readers are going to follow this project from Dick Butler, who by the way is going to fly in Uvalde with the Concordia at the next WGC. Great news! The wings have been put on the fuselage last week, story to be read on www.soaringcafe.com

Flying at the WGC in Uvalde  is also the JS1 , of course I should say the glider flew itself in the picture and not one but quite a few will participate there in Texas. And….the French team has just added a new JS1 to their WGC fleet in Uvalde. Who is going to fly this glider then, I do not know by now.

Sad but true! After investigation they found out that the pilot who crashed in Russia on the highway in June had too much alcohol in his blood. 47 People died!!!!

Who has not read the book Cross country soaring by Dr. Helmut Reichmann.

Picture; courtesy Sus [sister from Helmut] and Detlef Schroeder
This picture is made at the WGC in Finland in 1976.

I did not think about him for a long time. Of course you know that he died in 1992, during a squad training in the French Alps colliding with another pilot. He was 3 times World Champion [in 1970, 1974 in standard class and in 1978 in 15 m. class!] and and a lovely and very smart guy. I met him on several occasions in the far past.
My friends Jo and Tony from Australia visited during their  trip around the world  Helmut’s niece Katrin  and her parents. Tony knew Helmut well and  Katrin lived in Australia with Jo and Tony for a year between school and university.
Katrin is now a doctor working in orthopaedics in Germany and fondly called “daughter ” by Tony and Jo and her parents.  A good reason to remember Helmut, specially for the younger ones;  a top glider pilot and a very interesting guy to talk to. This way , by talking about him, he will be never forgotten.
The first Baron Hilton Cup was organised by him and Baron Hilton and before he died he was for several years team coach from the German team .He was a very influental pilot/person  in the short time he lived.

Picture courtesy; Detlef Schroeder.
On the picture young Dr. Katrin Schroeder, her mother Sus Schroeder and sister from Helmut and of course Tony Tabart.

The Kilometer-eaters  start now the overseas season. Allan Barnes is one of them,  he flew last week in Jondaryan [Australia] 479 km. in his LS 1f. Already in mid-winter he flew on July 30 a 529 km. task in an LS 8.
The ABSOLUTE -TOP- KILOMETER- EATER this year will be Alfredo Giretti who flew most flights from Rieti .At this stage he has flown 100 flights [ also in Kiripotib] and a total of 59.446,69 km. and I guess nobody is going to beat it, so he will be the best/ champion  in 2011 for the OLC world wide statistics. Good on him!
Great runner up is Pepe as he is about 10.000 km. ahead of the number 3! Well done Pepe! And we will see and hear more of him as he loves his ASH 31/21m.

Talking about Rieti, as said, my Australian friends Jo and Tony Tabart visited Rieti this summer on their world tour. Tony loved to fly once more in Rieti , after he flew there the WGC in 1985. Also in 1984 he flew the Pre WGC and that’s the year we met the Aussies and we still are great friends!!!! That’s soaring too! We even ended up for a few years [ 10] living in and running Sportavia at Tocumwal.
On the pictures Tony , now in his seventies with good old Alessandro the chief instructor from Rieti. Pictures courtesy Jo Pocklington. THANKS JO!!!!

 

 

The first competition in the 2011/12 season starts this weekend in Warwick [SE of Queensland] ; the Queensland 2011 State Soaring Championships, with toppers as Bruce Taylor and John Buchanan flying in 18m. class.
In that area there is wave, ridge- soaring, and as they claim;” the sparse darling downs plains “, usually offer conditions with 10 knots up to 10.000 ft.
When looking at the entries so far 34, I noticed the name from Sydney Dekker. Have to find out if he is the one who flew , when my son Dennis had to cut  the cable from the winch , to save Sydney [ the handle to release the rope did not work!] .Both then 14 years old , managed to “kill” all electricity in a huge town as the cut-cable hit the powerlines .They were NOT at fault and Dennis even got a mention for bravery. A real story. Have n’t seen Sydney for at-least 20 years and that was , how bizar it might sound in Tocumwal at the cemetery were Dennis is buried.
Heard Sydney is a rather wellknown professor now in the science of human factors.

You are up- to-date , see you next Sunday when it will be 20 dgr. here ! Weird weather! Cheers Ritz

 

All pictures in this blog courtesy Bert Kuijper.[Dutch Nationals 2011]

Alphen aan den Rijn      Sunday evening September 18 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 Not long after I published my last blog I received a mail from Germany from the chief editor of the German Magazine “Segelfliegen”  Helge Zembold with GREAT news. 
I share it with pleasure:
“segelfliegen” ist Germany’s favourite soaring magazine, and as the
demand by international readers is extremely high, we will be publishing
an “international edition” by the 1st of October! This will also be a
fully digital magazine, like our German version that is out now for the
second time printed as well as digitalized.

You find some more information on their website
“www.segelfliegen-magazin.de“,
About the new English version ;
“segelfliegen goes international” , scroll , browse and read wherever you are , your magazine is always with you!!!
It’s so easy; The link on our website www.segelfliegen-magazin.de  leads you to the digital kiosk, where you can sign in and order your digital issue of segelfliegen -magazin international edition.
That’s it!
But it is NOT YET October 1 so , you are the first to know , but have to be a bit patient. Will come back on it!
For those who do not know the Magazine , it started in 2003 and the target group is , glider pilots, motor-glider-pilots and ultra-light-pilots and…what’s even better more then 20.000 people read  the German version.

The 26th FAI Aerobatic Championships  have been flown and finished on September 11 in Italy in Foligno. In both the male and female category the Russians were the best. But…the French were great runner up’s.
Overall final result;
1. Mikhail Mamistov  from Russia in a Sukhoi 26 M3
2. Olivier Masurel from France in a Cap 232.
Female best results;
1. Svetlana Kapanina from Russia in a Sukhoi 26 M3
2. Aude Lemordant from France in a Cap 232
And ………no secret, the best team was Russia [ 9 pilots] and France [ 9 pilots]was 2d before the USA [ 6 pilots]. 51 Male pilots were competing at Foligno Airport including 2 pilots from Australia flying the Extra and 5 ladies , from 17 different countries.

Tomorrow the gliders for Corowa  which have been all packed over the last couple of days , will be  ready for the last “finishing touch” , to depart then for Rotterdam and from the harbour there for  their long trip to Melbourne on  Tuesday. Francesco and Grietje hope that the gliders will arrive at Corowa Airport on November 5 to start flying on November 8. With more then 10 years of experience I am sure ,  it will be ALL OK, ” a piece of cake”!!!! Wishing them and a lot of my friends who fly over there a great new 2011/2012 season!!!

Richard Branson proofed already,he is not a “one-day-fly”. This time he announced on CNN that within a year his first space-ship should be ready for commercial space-flights!!! His business Virgin Galactic sold already 430 tickets for future flights he claims. KLM is very busy with this kind of speed-travelling as well. Maybe my grand children fly in the future to Australia in a few hours instead of the 20 hours I need now to get there… flying only!!!

Talking about speed , you might know that the Dutch are “born ” on a bicycle. We all have 1, some 2 and some 3 or 4 bikes. We also have great universities who support great ideas from students. In Delft is such a university, they are not only good in giving us new bright ingenieurs in aircraft construction,[ some of my friends studied there and are top glider pilots as well, ] but they also support the fastest solar-car [on a track in Australia ] and now the bicycle going with a speed of over  133 km/h. just by using the human legs!!!! At least…this is what they want to do in Nevada in the USA…breaking the world record from Canadian daredevil Sam Whittingham, who did so on September 18 2009.[133 km./h] and …….who tries this week as well/again to go faster.
The Dutch team has 9 students from Delft,  5 from Amsterdam specialised in the science of movements and 2 bicyclists.
Of course all has to fall in place to achieve the new record but everybody tries hard!!! The first attempt was 130 km/h so “only” an new European record, but they continue…want to be faster…

In the same area , not in the desert this time but at Reno also in Nevada and not too far from Minden where we practised for the 1991 WGC , but due to circumstances they were held in Uvalde in Texas, a P 51 Mustang crashed during a demo at the Reno airfield during the National Championship Airraces. The 71 year old pilot crashed in front of the gallery where lots of people were looking ,  killing 8  of them and[ badly]  injuring many more. The pilot himself died at the spot but as some state , he saved maybe more people by moving the plane away from this gallery. Tragic!

Accidently my eye fell on a site I noted a while ago to keep an eye on. It is the site from a young sport soldier from Germany; Benjamin Bachmaier. His glider and 4 other ones are shipped at the moment from Germany to Adelaide in Australia. The boys , Benjamin and his mate Fabian Peitz are going to fly at Stonefield about 40 km. North East of Gawler in their Discus 2B YB and for sure they are going to have great fun there in and over  the Barossa Valley -area and in the meantime they hope to promote the new center by flying fast and far, as Fly Down Under wants to make  it a real long-distance-flying-field! When your German is good look at ;
www.flugfieber.net  and   www.fly-down-under.com   and in the future on the OLC for their flights. Keep an eye on them as well. I got permission to translate so now and then their German for you in English.
Last Wednesday Benjamin flew 524 km. in an LS1 f, in Puimoisson in France where the sport soldiers have/had their  training-camp, Fabian flew 443 km. on Thursday .

See you on Wednesday, cheers Ritz

 

 click on pictures to see text and double to enlarge
 

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday   September 14 2011    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 
The 3 pictures are from the finish from one of the gliders during the Dutch Nationals at the beautiful airfield of Terlet. Pictures courtesy Bert Kuijper.

 Yesterday I received in the mail, a pretty thin Dutch Soaring Magazine “Thermiek”.  But through the plastic cover you could already read that  more articles could be found on the web publication of this magazine. So for all Dutch and Belgium readers here is the link;
www.issuu.com/knvvl
When I read it again, I was proud on the article I wrote myself over the Dutch Nationals, 4 pages including good pictures from Frans, Jeroen and Frits, but a bit “annoyed” that somebody else added the wrong company for Maurits, who was runner up on the last day, but lost that position due to the fact he had to work/fly for his boss and left for Mexico. He is NOT  flying for Transavia!!!! 
But with my name above it , I will say sorry to Maurits.
When you prefer to read the Thermiek off-line, no worries you can download the PDF. You can find the PDF at www.thermiekfotowedstrijd.nl

 

Restaurant the “Thermiekbel “and service center from Terlet.

The latest issue of Gliding International  dropped on my doormat on the same day. You have heard and read about the Helli Lasch Challenge by Iain Baker, but the way John { Roake, editor of G I. } shows it in the Magazine is TOP!!!! There is Soaring-product-news, a story about Hanna Reitsch, the “sad story of a heroine of the Third Reich”, the new electric flying machine; eGenius and much more; 63 pages of great reading and looking.
www.glidinginternational.com

 

 Pictures from Helli Lasch Challenge [some again] courtesy Iain Baker.

 Flights nowadays are shorter as well as the days. Slowly we move to winter and down under and Africa  move to summer, but there is still some nice soaring here in Europe. I specially liked the ridge-soaring-flight [ on the hang!] with 35 up to 60 km/h wind from the S. and great looking lenties, from Porta Westfalica in Germany in a Standard Libelle ;554 km. German top pilot Reinhard Schramme flew there as well and ,”raced the ridges” with a speed of 139km/h in the ARCUS/M. What I read a SUPER day!

Dick Bradley, Reb Rebbeck and Claire Durston and Jennifer Bradley , yes daughter from…are preparing for the 2011/2012 season at Bloemfontein in S.A. The core of the season will be their Summer Performance Camp commencing on Sunday October 30 till February 18 2012. Look for all their info on ; www.soaring-safaris.com .
Also Gariep Dam is gearing up for a new season. I know some of my friends fly over there sharing an ASH 25 which is shipped to Africa already now, as I heard.For more news; www.gariepgliding.com
Of course Namibia is in full swing as well. Could not find the Bitterwasser site as it seems to be out and busy with renewal. Will keep you updated, as it is still early, but…when you want to hire a good gliders to fly in the overseas season , you should be in time to do so!
Australia’s more well known places to go to are Corowa [ www.australian-soaring-corowa.com ] and Narromine with several schools. I gave you already the sites from Tocumwal.

Got an invitation from Jutta to attend the first Rassemblement des Femmes de l’air;  A meeting for women at the airport of Niort. It is free and starts on Friday September 16 at 9.30 till Sunday September 18 .30. Must be a great weekend, a bit far for me and I have something else on already but….enjoy it when you are there!!!Enough women in soaring at the moment. A huge difference when I started in 1967. I was the one and only girl in my club at that stage.

And….when your glider needs new jaxida-covers for this upcoming winter;  just reived the new email adress from Uli Schwenk to reach him as a friend or business partner;
uli.schwenk@jaxida-cover.de

Will be back on Sunday evening, first a weekend with the family! cheers Ritz