—You have an interesting selection of photos. I have a few photos of a friendly eagle who was kind enough to pose for his photo looking directly at the camera. —
Courtesy;  Morgan Sandercock, Project Manager of the Perle Project . Thanks Morgan!

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday April 13 2011      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

This time it feels different when I write the name Alphen aan den Rijn. The town has been unexpected world news and NOT because it is called ” the beautiful green heart ” , but because of this so unnecessary shooting on a sunny day at noon, when everybody likes to do the weekend-shopping. 7 People died including the 24 year old who hated the world. Tragic. His parents , who I happen to know, are lovely people , it is just unbelievable.
Heroes we have here in Alphen as well, as some helped others to escape. One hero did not survive her help!!! With over 100 shots it is amazing that not more people were killed.
Extra tragic is the death of a poet/journalist from Syria, who came to live here with his family, in a free country, to avoid the dangers in his own land.What can you do? He survived an attack in Syria decided to leave there as he was a peace- activist and came to live here in what he hoped a peaceful free part of the world…….He will be buried this afternoon.

As always life continues. So we continue as well. Italian club class pilots are still flying their Nationals and current World Champion Stefano Ghiorzo is in the lead after 2 days. Vittorio is on 2d place and young Davide at 3d, at this stage. Not too good weather over there. On day2 only 6 pilots finished.

It looks like Gianni is the competition director so here a nice picture from him made in Rieti.

The comps in Prievidza, look like a new possibility -to-win ,  for Sebastian Kawa. Still a few days to go but he won already the first 2 days! Also cancelled days over there, so not a lot happening at this stage. The weather looks like rain for today and tomorrow, BUT …then it is clearing , still with some showers but also with dry and sunnier conditions.

OLC then , more activities there! And for good weather yesterday we had to go to……the UK!!!! Dave Masson managed to fly a nice 766 km task in an LS 6!!! Great effort!!!
Sunday another 1000 km wave flight flown in Austria in an ASW 22BLE, best flight that day with 659 pilots taking the opportunity to share their flight with all of us.
And on Monday a duo discus flight was the best from Fayence in France, flying past Aosta in Italy and back;619 km.

From Rick in the USA I received the next good news for Blanik owners; THANKS Rick!!!

—Here is some news on the Blanik L13.  There is a factory-approved
modification that is available for 6500 Euro, not including labor!
The modification is expected to receive EASA approval soon.—

http://www.aircraftdc.de/ENG/visionen_blanik.htm

  That’s about it for this time. Tonight we ,  ” Holland helps Japan”  with a concert and a soccer match between Ajax Amsterdam and a top club from Japan in the ARENA in Amsterdam. Hope it generates lots of money for the Red Cross in Japan.
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday April 10 2011      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 from left to right;Ross Bodey, Jeff’s wife Margie Close,Don Escott,Bill Riley and George Schuit, all former owners of Sportavia. Upfront Val Riley.

First the sad news for all who have been involved with Sportavia at Tocumwal. One of the former owners and long time  instructor died last night in the hospital; Don Escott, a real gentleman and a born instructor. Even people who absolutely did not dare to fly , hopped in the glider and came back with a smile.
I particularly remember a Dutch girl who absolutely did not want to go up for a joy-flight. Before she went home with her boyfriend who did an Ab initio course, she did the course as well and went solo. That was Don.
I got to know Don in 1989 when he, together with Jeff (Close) and Stewart (Crawford), took over Sportavia from Bill Riley (who wanted out after a fatal accident the preceding season).  When Don later sold his shares to George and I in 1994,  he stayed on as a full time instructor until the demise of Sportavia in 2006.  Until very recently he instructed students in his ultralight aircraft in Tocumwal and Deniliquin. I knew he was very ill, but hoped to still see him back later this year. It is not meant to be.
I guess everybody will remember Don as a gentleman,a good instructor and pilot.
He had a real talent to get people into flying who were scared or apprehensive about the activity. Many reluctant starters became avid aviators as a result of Don’s gentle way of introducing them to the sport. Good on him!
He will be sadly missed!

Here is the message I received Saturday morning early from a Tocumwal friend;
It is with saddness to tell you that Don Escott died last night. He was only put into hospital on Friday and died that night.

 Have been busy with the CAE NLS Dutch National Championships. The site is full of news and documents and when you are interested just have a look at   www.nkzweefvliegen2011.nk
Under “prijsvraag” you can even guess how many kilometers the longest flight will be and win a simulator session on a Boeing 737-800 and other prizes.
Interesting is also that pilots can buy winch or tow tickets in the web shop.Also the camping can be paid this way as well as t shirts, polo’s and jackets.

Holland has a new airline. It starts flying on April 30 , the day the Queen celebrates her birthday and we all have a day off.The name of the company is Correndon Dutch Airlines and is founded by a tour operator for trips to Turkey. This Atilay Uslu and his partner, started in 2005 the Turkish Correndon Airlines as well. This Dutch company only flies customers from the tour operator.

One of the Dutch F16 fighters ready to be sold to Chili, made a “belly-landing” as the undercarriage collapsed after a test flight at Charleroi, last Thursday. Pilot had nothing, plane had a “sore”  belly , lost some parts , some fuel and nearly the tail. Charleroi airport had  temporarily  delayed flights, making about 4000 holiday- travellers a bit angry on this Dutch pilot. The F16 was for maintenance in Charleroi.

Nice flight from a DG 200 from Kinross in Schotland  over the mountains over there; 670 km!!! To fly a 1000 km you had to be in Austria,  were over the last 2 days 5 x 1000 km. plus,  was flown from Lienz.

Nice to hear that one of the famous movie stars in Holland, maybe even the most famous, Carice van Houten, seems to have fallen in love with a glider pilot. He is airline pilot as well. I know the pilot , [a real nice and very good looking fellow,] but  not really good; he stayed with us in Tocumwal to fly there and travelled with our yellow old vintage Mercedes together with a mate , through the mountains [Buffalo ] in Australia.I wish them well.

The club class Nationals in Italy started last Friday in Thiene.  Great to see enough  young pilots as Elena [ also participant in the WWGC 2011  in Arboga and her brother Nicola Fergnani and Davide Schiavotto, all flew in the Junior Worlds .Current world champion , Stefano Ghiorzo flies in a Silent 2 as well as Luigi Bertoncini, who I know since 1984 I guess.  And since I wrote in Italy at several WGC’s and a competition, I got to know quite a lot of good Italian pilots, as Manuele Molinari, Vittorio Pinni and Andrea Tomasi, all flying this competition. So I keep a good eye on them for you.Unfortunately day 1 was cancelled.
 Day 2 was flyable , just, so a 2 hour AAT was given. Best result ;Vittorio Pinni with 196 km in just under 2 hours;result 403 points.Look for more results on www.soaringspot.com

Another shooting in my normally so quiet town of Alphen aan den Rijn. Yesterday!!!  At least 7 people are dead under them the young man, who entered the shopping mall with an automatic weapon/ machine gun , walked around and shoot  around in 2 different super markets and in the mall.Another 4 are on intensive care and about 10 more have lighter injuries.
 He killed himself with another gun in one of the 2  supermarkets he visited. He is around 24 , blond curly hair, somebody you like to see when he passes by. Unbelievable!!!! Don’t know what triggered this , but it is a disaster.
It was the shopping mall where I did my shopping for 20 years, before I left for Curacao and later Australia !! Activity of  helicopters flying over Alphen  , from police , ambulance and a military one, made me think somthing was wrong, and yes they all  were on their way to the spot where innocent people lost their lives on that beautiful sunny Saturday at 12.00 at noon.
Sat 4.30 PM they closed the shopping center in the area I live now, as well. They found signs in the house of the 24 year old that explosives could be in 3 more malls. Scaring, unreal!!!!
Got lots of phone calls, sms and mails even from friends in  the world , as it is world news, but except for a uneasy feeling I am well. Thanks dear friends!

Got this nice picture and news from Art from Canada. Not the weather we have here, “blooming ”  it is again , this whole weekend. A weird weekend as since yesterday you know that you can go shopping and not come back home anymore!!! Something to think about! Still “feel off”!!!
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday   April 6 2011      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 nice shot by Thomas Briesch during the Swedish WGC.

Day 5 from the Turino mixed comps  brought Giorgio Galetto on spot 2 for the day and on spot 10 overall after, you remember ZERO points on day 1. Luca Di Marcha won the competition and I know him  as a good pilot !!!! Only 6 pilots managed to finish after 229 km. on this last day . Must have been a very difficult day as the best speed was 66.8 km./h.

The weekend was just awesome. Warm and sunny and not only good for sun-bakers but also for pilots in a lot of parts in Europe. With 619 flights on the OLC on Saturday [Australia and the USA participated in the good weather!]  and 520 on Sunday a lot of pilots enjoyed their soaring.
The 1.089 km from Jim Payne from Rosamont Skypark in the ASW 27 with a speed of 129 km/h was good, but even better the flight with the Kestrel 17 m. from Warner Springs also in wave ; 610 km with a speed of 143 km./h.
The mountain-area Germany/Austria/Italy is still good with lot’s of nice flights.

That gorgeous weather continued here. In Alphen we had about 4/8 of big nice high cu’s on Monday, till about 4.30 PM when some” milky layer” drove in , BUT with still nice cu’s under it. [see picture] I guess that pilots who had their day off or just did not have to be at work on the beginning of this week, were happy. From Terlet flights from over 300 km. were flown. Quite some Dutch pilots “moved ” to Saint Auban to enjoy the mountains over there.

 at 4.50 pm

The hole in the roof of the 737 -300, from the USA company Southwest Airlines, forced the pilot to quickly dive –controlled –from 11.000 m to 3.350 m. and forced the company to ground the other planes to check them on metal fatigue cancelling 600 flights. The pilots got , as I read in the paper , after their emergency landing, a minutes -long-applause from the shocked passengers.Good on them !!!! By the way ,they found more weak spots in 2 or 3 other planes , so they are out of order till they are repaired. This morning I heard that the American Aviation Authority FAA, has ordered to check all  the Boeing 737-300  on metal fatigue. About 175  have to go through the test. They reckon it will take about 5 days.

Talking about this incident , the accident from 2009 revives in our minds now we heard that pieces of the French Airbus have been found in the ocean. Everybody still hopes that the black boxes will be found to finally know what went wrong with this flight killing  228 passengers and crew.

By the way the shooting in Alphen  was not really meant for Alphen. 2 Bulgarian and 2 Dutch guy’s from the southern part of Holland must have tried to get rid of somebody who followed them and got stuck in a quiet area from Alphen. It seems a wild west race from criminals following criminals. But  it cost the lives of a 23 year old Dutch and a 39 year old Bulgarian guy.
And the accident with the two 15 year old scouts is really a drama as they were neighbours as well.One of them studied at the high school I was on in the past, the school only has another name now.

Next interesting competition is in Priviedza; the Flight Challenge Cup Gliding 2011 starts on April 8.Lot’s of participants. Will keep you updated.

Really like the pictures from Thomas as well, so here are a few more. CU next Sunday Cheers Ritz

   

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday  April 3 2011     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 interesting picture by Roger Karlsson

March was dry and sunny here in Holland , accordding to the Meteo from KNMI; the Royal Dutch Meteo Institute. With 185 hours of sun, normal is 125, we were spoiled.185 Hours we normally have in August. On top of that it was dry , but with all the sun still a bit colder then normal; 6.1 instead of 6.2, but who cares ???

Yesterday it was just summer. With 22 dgr. ,but at some places even up to 25, it felt not like  spring , but summer.Unfortunately today there will be rain and a drop of 10 dgr. We had lot’s of rain on Thursday and Friday as well. But not so much as here in Ely , on a picture I once received from Daan. THAT IS RAIN !!!!

Always wanted to have your own space capsule ????  Here is your chance ! Sotheby in New York is selling a Russian “oldie ” from the sixtees . Not the one we all remember with Yuri Gagarin, but the one before that , with which they did some test flights.
This will happen on April 12 , exactly 50 years after the first manned- space -trip.They hope to receive 7 million Euro for this Vostok-landing-capsule.

The NSW State Comps have finished yesterday and here some analyses. In Club class good old Gary Speight ended on spot 2, in the twin astir, good on him.BUT… he was nearly 1000 points behind the winner;   Richard Frawley flying a mosquito.Richard won 5 from the 6 days.
Paul Mander won nearly every day in his SZD 55, as well, [4 out of 6]  in standard/15 m. class. He proves he can still do it!!!
18 m./ open class  was full of tension till the end. Bruce won day 4 and 5 [with a speed of 140 km/h in his JS 1 over 334.8 km] , but Graham and Tom really fought for the honnors. On day 5 there was a difference of 6 points in favor of Graham in the over all scores.With 90 points behind Bruce was on the 3d spot.
DAY 6 brought it to a climax. Bruce won AGAIN and for Tom the tension was high , maybe too high, I don’t know. Anyway he ended on day 6 on spot 3 loosing 250 points. Graham won with ONLY TWO points on Bruce!!!!!  5713/5711 points !!!
That was a real final sprint from Bruce in the JS1. Tom ended on 4th  place behind David Jansen. Both flew the ASG 29, as well as Graham.
Anita Taylor, daughter from Hank and Eileen Kaufmann, also well known in our gliding-world, was correct, she expected a hot race and it was a hot race.

The Italian competition at Turino  only counted 4 days and if they fly today it will be 5. A good beginning with 3 days , then 5 days of looking around and then on April 1 , no not a joke, another 290 km. to fly. Winner and the ONLY one the make it home was Giorgio. This time he moved from 22 to 18 . Yesterday they had an other task with 281 km. and Giorgio had another good day finishing on spot 3 and moving to 11 overall.

Very sad news for friends and family from a farmers family in Australia. Mum and dad , both 77 and daughter 47 and the pilot died close to Moree airport,where the single engine Piper Cherokee crashed, after flying low and hitting tree-tops .One son of 42 survived , [but is in critical condition] , as well as  his 12 year old daughter, [who is in hospital in a more stable condition]. It is pretty normal for farmers from big homesteads to travel by plane to do business, due to the huge distances. They were big farmers owning wheat and cattle farms in NSW and Queensland. In Moree they operated a  22.000 ha cattle farm.
 The pilot [63] was experienced , the weather was good , so the Australian Safety Transport Bureau has to investigate what went wrong. Tragic!!!! 

And ….a hole in the roof. Passengers got the fright of their lives flying from Arizona to California with South West Airlines. The pressure had dropped totally and a hole in the roof was discovered, so an emergency landing was the result. One of the cabin was slightly injured the rest was OK, but said “it was horror”.

2 Scouts 15 year old from the town Valkenswaard [ the place where I lived for 20 years] in the S of Holland , who were dropped in the evening were killed by inattention of a car driver. Terrible!!!! Poor parents, family and friends !!!! And in my pretty quiet town here in Alphen [ also 20 year and now again 4] ,  2 people died by gunshots last night and 2 were injured ! What a world. Not to forget the VN people and others in Kandahar,  in Afghanistan, killed because somebody in the USA, burnt a koran.

Congratulations to the people and specially the fans from cricket in India. They won the world championships in their home country against Sri Lanka.

Time  to finish,here some photo’s I like from Roger Karlsson, made in Sweden. Enjoy! CU next time ! Ritz

   

Alphen aan den Rijn      Wednesday March 30 2011    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 meeting in the Postillion Hotel Arnhem, picture from iphone from Natasja

This is the organization of the 2011 Dutch Nationals at the National Gliding Center of Terlet.  Nice mob is n’t it and then the meteo and tuggies are not yet on it. As said we had a meeting last Sunday, in the Postillion Hotel Arnhem , very close, 2 minutes,  to the airfield. They are also one of the new sponsors and provide rooms for a very special rate for everybody involved with gliding, also for the  family/friends from the participants.
Of course our main sponsor is the CAE NLS , just to let you know. All other sponsors you can see , when you are interested, on the official site; www.nkzweefvliegen.nl which is under construction now,  to be perfect after April 1.
On rainy days, we can also go there to use our laptops in the business center including a cup of tea or coffee.
Our meeting was very constructive and uplifted with a nice gesture of Ronny , the owner of the Postillion, as you can see.

  www.postillion.com   picture ;Natasja

Enough about our meeting as there is more. In Italy the first big competition of the European season started not too good for top pilot and friend Giorgio Galetto. On day 1 he started too high and for this violation he got 0 points for that day. Luckily it was only a 552 points day, could have been worse. On day 2 NOBODY finished, but it was still a 1000 point day, Giorgio had 658 points, climbing from spot 31 to spot 22. No more news, so …no more results at this stage.

On the OLC  I liked recently the LS 7 flight ; 603 km. from Unterwössen. And not so far from Unterwössen from Königsdorf , both in the South of Germany, a Discus 2T /18m. flight from 764 km. This was an FAI Triangle of 730 km. That area  ,had really great weather and includes also, Sondrio and Bolzano in Italy, Kufstein in Austria and Zell am See  .
AKAFLIEG Frankfurt has a wave camp at Cerdanya in Spain , also with an ARCUS T.
Great to see that nice flights are still on in Tocumwal, up North it is often still good; 358 in a Ventus 2 CM/18m. by Neil Burns.
Talking about Tocumwal , look at the great pictures full of airplanes at the airfield.
Tocumwal had the RAAF 90 years FLY-IN, with static shows and demo’s. 58 Planes arrived to commemorate 90 years of the RAAF. http://sportaviationtocumwal/blogspot.com

From Australia I received a link to more about the Quantas flight QF32   from November and as they call it, it is  investigative journalism at it’s best, so when you are interested here is the link. Indeed very impressing with a video on demand.

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/

And more from Vanessa, certainly interesting when you like /love hang gliding as well. I have written before about Jonny , a real topper in hang gliding. He visited us in Tocumwal as well. Another topper,  now topper in gliding is Pete Harvey and Tomas Suchanek is one as well.
—-It seemed to be the night for being in the air on the ABC. The 7.30 program ran a segment on an Australian (Jonny Durand) off to the world hang gliding champs. Some great footage, especially doing loops on a cloud formation called the ‘morning glory’ in the Gulf of Carpentaria. You can see it on iview at  http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/program/741741. The story starts at 22min 15 sec and the morning glory part starts about 28.30.—
Enjoy  and thanks Vanessa!!!!

In Lake Keepit  ” the knives are sharpened ”   by the 18 m. pilots, during the NSW State comps. 8 Of the best 18m.  pilots in Australia are flying. The first 2 days were won by Tom Claffey.
 There are 5 classes with a total of 44 competitors. Unfortunately day 3 was cancelled for all classes but, day 4 had an AAT  for 18 m. and Graham is “really HOT” . 2 Second places and now number 1, with Tom as number 2;
Total scores after 3 flying days; Graham is 36 points ahead on Tom both flying ASG 29  and more then 200 on David Jansen [ASG 29]and Bruce Taylor [JS1]. A few more days to go ; tension enough!!! On Sunday I analyse all  the results in the different classes.
Talking bout the JS1; End of April a container with 5 JS1 gliders will arrive in Europe. One for the UK, one for Denmark, one for Lithuania , 2 for Holland , one for a pilot who bought the glider and one is the demo glider JS1 Revelation for the Dutch dealers for JS1 ; Maarten Baltussen en Ronald Termaat.

To finish a picture from Kai, who gave me the possibilty to use a lot of his pictures and” some more” from him. Cheers Ritz

   

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday March 27 2011     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

The Qualifying Grand Prix  in Australia counts 9 pilots  and a few of them are regulars at WGC’s.[on the picture the great initiator behind the Grand Prix Roland Stuck] On March 20 they started and after 3 flying days both Bruce Taylor [21 points]and David Jansen [18]won days with a good runner up in Brad Edwards [17] , who won the WGC in Uvalde in Texas in 1991. Competing gliders;  One Nimbus 3 DM and 2 JS1’s and 6 ASG 29’s.

Anita, she is just a lovely lady and the  wife from Bruce mentioned, that she was happy with the comps.

“Another good day for Bruce, he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat , after a dodgy start and first leg, so he was pleased to sneak home first [on day 4].”

On day 5 Graham Parker won with a speed of 134.5 km./h. over 354 km. climbing up to 3d place with 28 points, while Bruce arrived with a speed of  134  and David with 133.9 km/h..

Anita adds;—“Quite a spectacular finish on the last day Ritz, 5 gliders all within seconds, ballast streaming, finishing from the north over the lake, just fantastic. Great opportunity to see how the JS1 compares to the ASG29, The ’29 still glides exceptionally well,but  Bruce feels the JS1 has an edge in the climb and really enhances his ability to feel the air. —

So the winner was; Bruce Taylor  with 38 points, runner up David Jansen 29 and Graham Parker 28.

For pictures from the Grand Prix  you can go to; picasweb.google com and here is a picture from Bruce and Anita and daughter Indea and from Anita , Indea and Vickey Cubley both made in Rieti.

 

Lake Keepit continues  with the State Comps with 31 pilots in 5 classes. Yesterday was the practise day!

The weather here is absolutely TOP  for early spring . Temperatures around 15 dgr, blue skies with nice fluffy clouds. But on Saturday it changed to 8 dgr. and you could really feel the difference.

Look at my front garden!!! All pink, in cherry blossom, specially made these pictures for my Japanese friends who have to endure a lot. A lot of “support-actions for Japan ”  yesterday here in Holland, but al;so all over the world. They are not forgotten, which is good to see. Very worried with them about the radiation which is 10 million times higher then allowed at Fukushima!!!! Not good, this might have an influence on the state elections in a part of Germany today , Baden Wurttemberg, where normally the CDU is big but now maybe the greens might win as they are totally against nuclear plants/energy.

     

Nice to see Rick [Sheppe]  had such a great flight in the USA  last Thursday. Rick is always very kind to share his news with me and is a longtime reader of my blog. He flew 722 km in a Silent 2. As I did not quite know how the Silent 2 looks I went to google and here is what I found;

—The Alisport Silent 2is a single seater sailplane of Italian manufacture. It is of the FAI type DU Class glider. It is sold by Alisport ready-to-fly or kit-built as pure glider or self-launching glider. The self-launching version is fitted with a single-blade propeller belt-driven by a two-stroke engine.—

Lot’s of interesting pilots on the list   for the Italian Trofeo Citta di Turino going till  April 3. This is the beginning of the long Italian soaring-summer. Flying -day 1 started with a 182 km. distance for the 31 pilots. Day 2 had 276 km, but nobody made it home , though it was a 1000 point day.See for results at www.soaringspot.com

        
Picture 1 Giorgio Galetto, here with crew Roberto, at Rieti.
Picture 2;Leonardo Brigliadori is flying with son Ricardo and
picture 3 Leonardo and Marina , who turned 50 yesterday Happy Birthday Marina  !!!!!and Giorgio.

I was shocked to see on the news the crash of a freight plane from Trans Air Congo.  Peter send me a link to a video. If you have n’t seen it you can still look at it. Once was enough for me.  It seems the plane had 2 engines on one wing , which gave up. Then it rolled over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UYg1vstCgM&feature=player_embedded
also from Peter the news about the sleeping air-traffic-controller to be found at www.avherald.com  written on March 23 and edited on March 24 and from Vanessa some news about the not-yet-strike from Quantas and an incident , with a Quantas plane. So when you are interested , here are the links.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/unions-set-to-tackle-the-flying-kangaroo/story-e6frgd0x-1226028315174
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/26/3174547.htm

First Grand Prix of the season for Formula 1  at Albert Park in Melbourne. Was there once live!!! What an atmosphere, what noise , just fantastic.
Todays race just finished and I am very pleased to see that my favourite Sebastian Vettel won. Great 2d place for Lewis Hamilton and a for me new face on spot 3 Vitaly Petrov with Renault.

And what about the the Great Boat Race 2011  at the Themes where Cambridge and Oxford, fought for the honours yesterday? It was said , expected and hoped for, that Cambridge was to be going the winner, but Oxford dominated from the start. They utterly out classed Cambridge. So a handsome victory this year for Oxford and they won the reserve race , before, as well.

Just to get things correct , as I always try to do!!! The photographs made from Bruce Cooper, not from the air but from Bruce as a person, are from Jane Lawrence. So credit to her for that picture!!!!

 The time has changed in all European countries last night with one hour from 2 AM to 3, so one hour less sleep; summer time is back. Off to Arnheim now for a meeting with the organizing team from the Nationals. CU on Wednesday! Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday March 23 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 

On March 1 the meteorological spring started, but  Holland prefers the date  March 21, the astronomical beginning of spring. And …it was a good day, we were overloaded with sun and the terasses and the just opened Italian ice -shops in Amsterdam had  people waiting in line.
The weekend was already good with nice flights, though the mornings are still a bit chilly.
If you click on the photo to enlarge you can see that the vase is a prize won by George,  as winner in open class in the early years at Angers ,where the un- official European championships were held. In that time there were no European Championships.  The tulips represent the spring feeling !

Boeing made a test flight with their new Super Jumbo 747 -8   and it went without problems which means it will be on the market around the end of this year. Lufthansa has ordered 20 to  be delivered in the beginning of 2012[was 2010].
467 Passengers are welcome in the longest plane in the world; 76.4 m.

Still a lot of problems in Japan,  though spirits were lifted by the fact that a young 16 year old got his way out of the ruble after 9 days , weak and  undercooled but  safe. He  also  pointed out that his 80 year old nan was still under the ruble. She was saved by the rescuers.
 Awful on the other hand,  to know that from the 300 rescuers/hero’s at the Fukushima nuclear plant, a lot , [experts say 150] , are going to die from too high  radiation.
No fresh vegetables and water is not good either. This morning Fukushima got some after-shocks. When does it stop????

The USA started their spring with active soaring weather. Moriarty [ 632 km in a Discus 2] , Minden [ 688 km in ASW27]  , Rosamond Skypark,[ 1.765 with ASH 25],  Blairstown [ 939 km. with an LS 3] , they all topped the OLC list with good long flights.
Last Sunday March 20 , 530  pilots worldwide, shared their flight on the OLC, with us.

Sadly enough it is busy in the air above Libya.  Sad because it was necessary to intervere in the domestic politics cause the world was not going to sit aside  to see how demonstrators are killed. The United Nations voted for a no-fly-zone above Libya.  France , the USA, with F 15’s and cruise missiles from their aircraft carrier  and the UK were the first to be active in and over Libya. Now F18’s from Spain , F 16’s from Norway have been added. Fighters from Denmark, Belgium and Italy have been sent as well to keep an eye on the weapon- embargo.This morning 6 Dutch F16’s will be added ,as well as a tanker plane a KDC10 and a mine-destroyer.The Dutch participation involves 200 men/women and the cost will be around 20 million!!!!!!

Very nice to hear that the club ZES   [Aeroclub from the Students from Eindhoven] were I was a member in 1967/68, started my very short career as glider pilot, has a new HPH 304 C. They own already 4 single seaters and 3 two seaters and I hope the new glider will fly during the Nationals in Mai.
 It is not yet on the list of 31 participants at this stage.
When I flew there we had about 20 members a KA7, Rhöhnlerche and Grunau Baby and a very old winch. Now the built their own winch [technical university] and have about 100 members.
 The HPH 304 C is a standard class glider [15 m] and built on the concept of  Glasf’lügel, which stopped in 1982, after building really good gliders as Libelle, Mosquito and Hornet. 
On the picture; Me while being a member of the ZES, enjoying chips and going SOLO.

  

The triangle South of the Alpes D Huez  ,where cyclists in summer are the “boss”  and where the Tour the France sometimes “passes by” ,  is now the area with most pilots. Aubenasson, Serres La Batie, Vinon and Saint Auban are very active with pilots enjoying themselves from all over Europe. Barcelonette belongs to this triangle as well, but mostly it is a bit later in the season busy over there. And Fayence I remember as a place where the club from my children had their camp. Mountain-flying, it is still very popular.
In between the pilots in the North of  Italy finished their height -performance- stage at Calcinate del Pesce with 3 flyable days.

To finish some nice pictures from the archive from mountains in Italy and Argentina.

 

Alphen aan den Rijn   Sunday March 20 2011     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

 picture by Kai Monkkonen

Got the next message from Japan from one of my friends   and though it is tough there, still with the nuclear threat, maybe cholera or typhus dooming up, the snow and icy conditions for the homeless, the vegetables and water around Fukushima,   “poisoned by radiation “,…the  Japanese spirit is not lost. And what about the 2 doggies after the earth quake ??! Unbelievable. In the middle of the rubble and devastation , nobody to be seen only one dog who  stayed with his injured friend.But….both dogs found a home and are safe now . And…the lady from 80 and the boy from 16 , found this morning after 9 days, weak but alive!!!!
Here is  the message I received;

 On the OLC you surely noticed  a fantastic run up and down over the mountains  from Jim Payne starting at Rosamund Skypark; 1.765 km and a nice speed of  156.6 km/h. Must have been great fun in the ASH 25.This is his second long flight. On March 6 he flew 1.176 km with a speed of  165 km. /h also in the ASH 25.
I found on internet , that this park originally is already from 1947.It is privately owned and run by residents and located in Southern California’s Antelope Valley. When you want to know more about it you can go to ; www.skypark.org

This weekend  we have great spring- weather here. Sunny, 2/8 of cumulus clouds yesterday and I even felt thermal activity. And when I looked on Sunday morning to see if it was good enough for soaring, I saw that 16pilots  found their flight interesting enough to put it on line. Clear visibility, great beginning of the season, a big difference in height en route, were some of the comments. In any case for all of them it was very morish.
And…249 flights in total, it says the season has started.
A lot of German pilots are getting in the right soaring-spirit at camps or private holidays, in Saint Auban, Puimoisson, Gap Tallard, Vinon and Serres La Baties. As you know I like to follow the junior pilots and follow a bit where they go and fly. One of them is Alexander Spaeth who flies at Puimoisson at the moment. I noticed that German super TC Uli Gmelin is using the beginning of the season for a few nice flights by himself. Over the season he accompanies most teams as their full time TC.
Now he flies the ARCUS T, the new super twinseater.
Here some pictures from the ETA another super glider; start,soaring,landing with Giorgio Ballarati. Pictures by Kai Monkkonen.

   

A busy weekwith guests from Australia , Holland and New Zealand. But GREAT fun!!!! Only the weather was a bit off on Friday , the day I showed my friends Tony and Emily from NZ around in Amsterdam. It was grey and it rained and they only had ONE day !!! No nice terrasses, but still good beer!!!!Inside!!! They will be back soon, they promised.

Very nasty to see a burning  fighter crash  close to Benghazi. It remains sad to see. The pilot died. Unfortunately there is at the moment a lot to worry about in our world! Certainly in Libya, were the VN resolution choose to interfere to  stop Kadafi from killing his own people. Wished the Colonel would have stopped this all himself.

After his visit to New Zealand   Prince William visited the Cairns area where disaster struck with the cyclone and the flooding. He specially wanted to visit the Royal  Flying Doctors Service at Cairns arriving there in a  Black Hawk helicopter. He visits both NZ and Australia after both parts of the world were hit by nature- forces.The spirit of many was lifted not only by the prince but also by the great weather with 32 dgr.. Good on him.

Sad news from the Berlin Zoo   yesterday , Knut, the lovely ice bear ,died age 4 . He stole the hearts of millions in the world when his mother decided to leave him on its own and was brought up by people in the Zoo and now millions are sad he suddenly passed away. There is some critic on the whole history of this kute little one , as well!!!

A very interesting phenomena yesterday  evening around 7. We had a SUPERMOON. It was full moon but as the moon was at the closest spot to the earth since 18 years , we had a huge moon. It looked about 14% bigger then a normal full moon.And…it was clear , cold, but you could look at it inside. The sunset was pretty good as well. I can only share the sunset as the super moon did not look SUPER with my camera.Sorry!

  

That’s it for now. CU next Wednesday, another busy week ahead.Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       Wednesday March 16 2011     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

The nuclear plants are after the earth quake and the terrible tsunami  the next scare for the Japanese. Tragic!! Just ONE BIG nightmare!!!! Some countries , as France, advise their people to leave Japan. Journalists are leaving as well.
On Monday morning I received the next message and the picture below from some of my Sportavia , now Sportaviation friends made in December last year, before going to a nice dinner in Tocumwal.
—Many people in Tokyo area tried to go to their office and workplace this morning but they had a big confusion.Almost all trains to go to the City from suburb have been cancelled and people living in suburb has no way to go their office because of the lack of electric power.This has been generated by the damage of the nuclear power plant.In order to save the power, the government authorities has decided to divide the city of Tokyo and its surrounding area into 5 groups and stop the power supply for 3 hours every day.The power supply to my area will stop at 15:20 today but it is a negligible problem in this circumstances.—

On top of that there is not enough water and food. People are cold as it is around 0 and heatings are not working. More then 150 after-earth-quakes have been counted as well. It is TOO much to comprehend.For me it feels like the moment the planes hit the twin towers in New York; you look at it but it does n’t get in the brain, it is TOO much.I know the Japanese are proud and strong people and I really hope they can cope with it the next weeks, months, years!!!! Holland is ready to help and many other countries, so when they ask more help it will happen straight away .
By the way only in Holland the news is followed by 1 million more people then normally look at the news.[over 3 million]

Soaring continues and last Sunday Switzerland had super wave conditions  and top pilot Stefan Leutenegger “used “them to fly a distance of 1.192 km. with a speed of 115 km/h. in the ARCUS from Hausen am Albis . In the same conditions Bert Schmelzer jr. flew  546 km in a discus 2. Bert shares some wonderful pictures on the OLC , so for those who missed them, here is the link;

https://picasaweb.google.com/Bert.Schmelzer/FohnflugWaveflightHausen13032011#

On the picture under here, Bert jr to the left , his brother Tijl and mum Hilde [TC] and soaring -mate  Patrick Stouffs in Rieti.On the picture to the right Bert Schmelzer sr. in Räyskälä [2d to the right]. The Schmelzer family is a  truly soaring family, all 4 of them fly and mum is mostly the Belgium TC and dad wrote  a book about the history of  “Soaring in Flanders”, a real collectors item.

  

It seems that Libya has tried to get their 2 fighters [ Mirages]  back , which were left in Malta by the crew ‘s who refused to kill their own people/ demonstrators and deserted. It did not work out. According to CNN , Malta refused, to trade them for the  Dutch crew of 3 from the helicopter who entered Libya without permission . The only thing which stayed in Libya was the old Chinook helicopter. The 3 got a warm welcome back in Holland.

Talking about helicopters , one was totally damaged after it hit a building. The Sikorsky S-58 ET tried to move a heavy load and hit the office-building at the Los Angeles Airport. The pilot was injured.[CNN]

4000 pilots of India  have to be ready to show their flying documents/ licenses to the Indian authorities as in the last months 4 pilots/ captains were caught with the wrong documents. One,  a female pilot , damaging an Airbus A320, by landing on the front wheel first  !!!! Pretty scaring, is n’t it ??!!
And what about drunk pilots who were ready to fly with Aeromexico???? 101 passengers had to wait for 24 hours before travelling from Costa Rica to Mexico City, as the pilots had partied too much before!

Fokker  got broke about 15 years ago.I still remember it!! Now I read in the paper that they might start again in Brazil.REKKOF,[ FOKKER , but the other way around] has confirmed that they are talking with Brasilian authorities. Interesting detail is that the Embraers , which KLM bought since 2007, as replacement for their Fokkers,  are build in Brasil as well.

Good news from Tocumwal!The SRGC [Southern Riverina Gliding Club] with Ingoi as CFI,  has temporary a Pilatus B4 on line. With around 70 members they needed an extra glider. Good on them! Their annual general  meeting with BBQ is on April 2 in Mike Toth ‘s hangar. More news on www.srgc.com.au

Lot’s of guests this week, so see you on Sunday again,

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday March 13 2011   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

  picture by Bruce Cooper

Just when you think it is enough now with all those natural disasters  a new wake up call, on Friday morning,  this time in Japan. At 3 o’clock PM , local time,about 135 km to the east in the ocean, the epic center which was undeep ,caused straight after the quake a tsunami with waves up to 10 m high causing an unbelievable disaster. 8 Military planes were send up in the  air straightaway  to oversee what was happening and to be honest I could not believe my eyes!!! This powerful water took EVERYTHING, houses , boats, people ,a whole infra structure just GONE!!!! In Sendai the whole airfield was in no time under water , people on the roof of the terminal building. Tokyo , to the S of Sendai, felt it and nuclear plants were stopped, the airfield closed , monorail and trains were on hold and it got even worse with huge fires at oil plants causing explosions as well.
Looking at the pictures there will be many veryvery sad casualties in Japan.Today I hear that they fear for more then 10.000
Just not to comprehend!!!!
The entire pacific coast got a warning and they had more time to go to higher spots, even a warnning for Australia and New Zealand.But only 3 small harbour places at the USA coast had problems.
I straight away wrote all my Japanese friends but I knew that there was no power , so no electricity so no way to tell me if they and their family and friends are safe. I do realize, but I had to do it.
Then Mikiko was the first to react; They were fine, could not go anywhere after work,no bus, no train, no nothing; they had to stay with the parents in Tokyo and their little daughter had to stay at the nursery.They hoped to see her the next day which happened,but…they are all safe , that’s the most important.Even their house is OK.
Hisashi is OK as well. It seems the Osaka area had no impact except for some small tsunami’s. Good to hear! Yoghi is well ;minor damage over there. The rest has not yet answered.
Big worry still the nuclear plants.
Received this picture from Shige, Mikiko and Chihiro this morning, after the ordeal they went through.

Some of my glider friends tried to get 99 people in a Fokker 100 within 99 hours  to be the quickest to win free accommodation in Berlin and a free city trip to that fantastic town Berlin. The weekend will be on March 25 to fly back on March 26. Great idea, but I was already busy that weekend.

Better news ,[ for what it is worth after this disaster], for Holland as on this same Friday morning, we got the news that “our” 3 hostages in Libya were freed with help of our diplomats and the Greek diplomats.On Saturday morning the female pilot and 2 men crew arrived back home, glad to be free after 12 very uncertain days. A rescue effort went wrong , but they were released earlier then expected and hoped for.Libya keeps the helicopter, but “who cares”.

With the 20 m. 2-seater class allowed for the 2014 WGC [in Finland] , National Aeroclubs   introduce during their Nationals this class as well. So over the next years pilots are going to qualify for this event as well. In Australia, they have announced their Multi class Nationals for the end of January in NARROMINE. Of course the 2 seater class can start with qualifying already.
The sports and clubclass Nationals will be held  again in Benalla, between January 2 and 13. Just to inform you in time.
In Holland we have a 2 seater 20 m class as well this May. By the way 25 pilots will participate at this stage in this multi class event, but till April 24 you can enter. At this stage only 3 2-seaters, but I know more will follow.

With 617 km. Cross Country and a speed of 127 km./h,  Oscar Goudriaan had another good day, last Wednesday  in South Africa in his JS1 relevation.
Loved the you tube link on Facebook to a video from the JWGC in Finland in 2009.[www.youtube.com]

Phenomena! They are special!!!Look at the link to the Morning Glory site about phenomenal clouds in the North of Australia. Thanks Gerrit! As soaring pilot you should love this!!!

http://www.morningglorycloud.com/

Never to old to learn. I thought I was pretty well informed in the aviation world in Holland now I am back for 4 years. But no! For the next Dutch Nationals I offered the team,  to help to find my own accommodation. I lived at Terlet in the weekends for many  years in the past. We sold however, our caravan before we moved to Curacao. With other words I know a few people.
Now I am allowed to live in my “own” caravan again during the Nationals. The new owner Jaap has no time to much involved in his business ….the in 2007 founded Amsterdam Airlines!!!!!
Pardon me? So this way I found out that they fly with 2 A 320’s and one on order; on their site I found;
 —-Amsterdam Airlines is set up as a fully certified operator according to the highest standards from the start. This way we can satisfy the air transport requirements of our partners and respond to the demands for safety, reliability, quality, value and security in all its activities.—
Amsterdam Airlines operates in the business-to-business market and serves the following market segments

• Full Charter All-Economy services on selected routes on behalf of other airlines, tour operators, goverments and ad-hoc services for incentive and group travel

• ACMI (wet lease) services for other airlines
  So now you are informed as well!!! Cheers Ritz