Alphen aan den Rijn       Saturday July 17  EXTRA EDITION    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com    blog 321.

As you might have noticed I published a blog last Friday as well, to remain  ”fresh with the news” now we are in the last stage of this interesting WGC. When you missed it, no worries it is under this one, maybe you read blog  320 first.
I will share with you the last days by looking most of the day on what happens.

Friday July 16;
Friends in Prievidza heard rain on their tent in the morning!!!! But….though the meteo man was less convinced about the weather,  the forecast on the radar and the ”models” of the meteo-stations said ”FLY”. They changed from AAT’s from 3 hours to 2.30 in all classes , while the radar showed again showers and the pilots and crew could see a thunderstorm close by. Would it disappear ???

 These showers killed all activity over the field. Would it be still a lottery in the end !? I hate that to be honest. The best pilots should win not the most lucky ones just flying behind a shower or upfront when others have to land or cannot depart. I know it is a WGC , and the best pilots in the world should be able to fly under difficult circumstances as well, some use the “‘good site” of thunderstorms to climb really high……but still….
 I followed Art’s voice on the tracking system and they showed there as well the map with all the thunderstorms in the first sector at Trencin.  The ”art” is to find your way around them. Good luck guy’s! Nitra had to the S also thunderstorms but they did not reach their sector. But…while looking I saw altitudes of 600 m. up to 1800 m. and heard that some st. class pilots could not find the connection in the dead air after their launch and had to come back and start again, after waiting quite a long time!
In fact EVERYBODY should have a fair launch and possibility to start, also the last ones on the grid!!!!! If not ….they should neutralize the day for this class;my opinion! You have only 3 chances to be launched ,when it then still not works it is over and out! That happened!
Others up in the air had 2m climb. The word lottery is in everybody’s mouth now , not only in mine. But…I know that some countries love this weather.

Sorry but I do not really understand the organization! One day , a good-weather-one they give small tasks to be sure everybody comes home as we have seen that outlandings can be very difficult in the Prievidza-area —perfect—good thinking—so you avoid  more damage and yesterday they send over 100 pilots out , with the sure knowledge that a lot would go ”au vache”.
”This is a WGC”, does n’t count then.

It was only 2 hours and 30 minutes flying, but it turned out different for most pilots! Except for 7 ALL  of them had to land out as there was just no way to go to no direction. Differences in start-times are huge. I saw that Belgian pilot Wim , on a nice overall-position before today, started at 15.46 with 2 hours and 30 minutes to go! Sunset is at 20.40, so that would not be the problem, but I read that Martin is the field which is visited by many pilots and that is NOT Prievidza. A pity if such a day ”makes” the scores in the end of a mixed-feeling- competition!
Of course great class from the pilots who made it back home.  Were they lucky, or is it just their class??? From SUPER Mario , Mighty Michael and SUPER Sebastian, you can for sure say that they might have been lucky but they have for sure high quality soaring skills!!!The other 4 home-finishers I do not know good enough to to judge. But for all 7 GOOD ON YOU!!!!!

Happy news in between as the Team Captain from Germany Uli and Chrissie have received this morning a healthy young new future pilot with the name Fin. Congratulations to them!!! More happy news for the German team as out of the blue 2 pilots called 10 km.;Y4 and AK. Mario and Michael are back!!!!! But…topper Sebastian is back as well. It will take some time to find out about the scores.

CU tomorrow the last day of the comps, hope that is not such a lottery day!! Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Friday morning   July 16    EXTRA EDITION    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

An extra edition as we now are in the middle of the final stage of the 31st WGC for standard,-club and world class!!!!Otherwise the blog is getting too long and maybe boring to read!

The promised heavy weather for Holland arrived in the afternoon  on Wednesday with down -bursts and mini tornedos causing a lot of damage . Unfortunately a 62 year old lady died when her caravan was blown in the lake. Several caravan’s ended up in the lake as well and 4 more people had to be brought to intensive care. Whole roofs of farms disappeared with the wind and trucks were blown over. For the first time in Dutch history  5 electricity- poles of 40 meter high, broke like if they were matches!!! Damage bill up to maybe 75million Euro!!!!! Belgium was hit pretty bad as well and had the next day still no electricity in some places  and …..after it left Holland this heavy weather ”visited” Germany.

The last days of a competition give some extra tension, certainly at a WGC ,but when you can expect that the weather will be nice and no real ”lotterie-weather” can change the scores from up to down, it is a bit easier.
Last Wednesday was such an easy day again with nice results for the UK , making their TC Pete happy on the day of his return out of hospital. Howard Jones, yes from the famous Jones family, where I knew father Ralf pretty well in the past, was 6th . The 3 ”kids” Howard , Steven and Philip grew up in a soaring family , where I saw them through the years  grow up from kids to young men. 
 Have n’t seen them for a while now but  they are in their late thirties , early forthies and still good looking .
All 3 fly in the WGC this year.Howard in Prievidza and Philip and Steven in Szeged.Very special!!!!!In the Gliding International of July is a nice  story about the boy’s ,being  “the personalities of the month” ![written  by Walter Kahn.]
As said Wednesday was an easy day no great changes in the scores but only 79 points difference between Sebastian and Mario in standard class!!! The German ”boys” top the Club class with Austrian pilot Mario on a nice 3d place then the 2 UK boys G and Ian and then the reigning champion Matthias Sturm on 6!!

Thursday was hot ….hotter ….the hottest in  Prievidza and on day 10 the officials warned to drink a lot and to wear hats!!! This weather is NOT normal for Slovakia , like this weather here is very unusual for us. Global warming!!??
In Russia already 1700 people died by drowning after swimming drunk or just be unlucky. It is a terrible heat wave there as well with temperatures in the low 40thies!
Back to soaring; Racing tasks today in all 3 classes; 248 for the PW’s, 310 for club and 347 km for Standard class. But ….the late starters had a ” nail-biting ” day as it started to rain around 16.30, while thunderstorms were in the area around as well. Coming home was more and more difficult.
Then it is interesting to look at the st. class. The German boys started at 14.11 as the last pilots together with Sebastian…Sebastian made it home in 3.13 while our German friends needed 10 minutes MORE…..84 points lost!!! Sebastian leads now overall with 163 points!
Reigning “Welt-meister “, Matthias Sturm won in club class, storming to place 4 overall in his Hornet and I was very pleased to see that Luca won in the world class making it a good day for Italy .He is more then 1000 points behind the French number 1, so he won’t be world champion , but for sure he has had a few good days.
Belgium friend Bert jr. is  5th overall, SUPER Bert!!!!By the way, talking about unique  families. The Belgium family Schmelzer is one as well. Bert jr. flies in Prievidza, girlfriend Liesje is his crew  and mum Hilde is the Belgian TC in Slovakia. In Szeged son Tijl is flying and dad sits in the back of the nimbus, on top of that they are one of the loveliest families in the world!!!!
By the way our Dutch pilots have had very good days but also some ”off-days” as happens in comps! I know they are all top-quality and still can make the top 10. Let’s wait and see! And what about the day winner Erazum Polutnik and runner up Tobias Geiger. I never heard of Erazum, [nice name] but know that Tobias is a kilometer eater and often to be seen on the OLC. Good they had a great day!!
The day ended with some electrical storms causing problems,  as kiling the power  for the scores-computers  and other computers and laptops. A few BIG drops fell as well.

The biggest passenger plane in the world , the Airbus A 380, visited last Thursday Holland and hundreds of ‘spotters ‘were on side to make pictures. It departed the same day, as it visits different airfields in Europe to check the operational part of such a mega plane.
The merge between British Airways and Iberia has been ratified and American Airlines will be also a member of this new alliance with the name; Oneworld!

And then this, received it from an Australian friend;
—And a “funny” story about a stupid Australian. A 36 year old (old enough to know better) man had too many drinks at the pub in Broome and decided he would go and try to “ride” a crocodile. He climbed over several fences to reach a 5m adult male croc named Fatso (notoriously aggressive) who promptly took a chunk out of his leg. The man managed to climb back over the fence and stagger back to the pub, from which he was transferred to hospital, and then discharged today. Police are deciding whether to lay charges.—

No crocodiles here, but we know about ”drunk” people. See you in 2 days on Sunday, with the latest on the last 2 days of Prievidza!!!!!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday July 14 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

First things first; we lost!!!!!!! Talking soccer. We did play not too bad , but certainly in the beginning too hard, not ”orange-like” and totally NOT Dutch. We had 2 great possibilities for Robben, we missed the ”luck”. We played against Spain and the referee, who made some curious decisions, but that’s no excuse. After 116 minutes it was over and out. Spain was better……Life goes on.On Monday ” our heroes ” arrived back and got a reception to be proud of; 2 F16 ‘s , one in orange, accompanied and welcomed the KLM 777 back in Holland with the boys and staff  , which gave lots of people goose bumps. On Tuesday there was a reception at the Queens Palace in The Hague , then a tour through the canals in Amsterdam  which was unbelievable , wish you could have seen that and a party on the Museum square where in total more then a million enthusiasts looked at the 3 matches and the runner-up-party. In the beginning the players still were in their ”loosing-mood-dip” , most of us as well, but this day yesterday was very healing for all, so now it is off to the European championships in 2 years time.

On Sunday morning another incident  in Prievidza was mentioned during briefing .Glider  NX wanted to avoid during his landing , a fence … “jumped”over it and made a hard landing, behind it,  injuring his spine!! Both pilot [ best wishes for a full recovery!] and glider are out of the comps. Too many gliders have been damaged already with out landings. Not good!
It must be  great then for the organizers to hear  that their organization in Prievidza  is super and when they have n’t heard I can tell you I heard it from several teams!

 I looked already at the Szeged-site  and found out that they lost all news [ as the last bulletin]  and data ,[ as the local procedures] on July 6 due to a server error , I felt very sorry for them. More then sorry…. that really is  a disaster.
On top of that the Hungarian pilot of the NX with the spine injury, is the CD for…… Szeged!!! So though he seems fine and must be in a home-town hospital by now, he can for sure not do his job. Pretty tough on the whole organization. But ….Brian [Spreckley] is there , another SUPER chief steward to assist and our Dutch Frouwke Kuijpers is there as well as steward. Yes if the name sounds familiar to you , she is the mother of European champion Tim Kuijpers, who won the first day in Prievidza.
They just finished flying in Szeged the Malev-Flatland Cup 2010, [July 4-16] as last practise , specially for foreigners, for the 31st WGC over there in Hungary and…. their Open Class Nationals.

On Monday Prievidza had an easy going day. Heard some pilots  thought the tasks were too short, [over 300 for club and standard and just under for world class] but at-least most pilots arrived back home after a great soaring day. In standard only 2 outlandings .
Tomas , who had a difficult start as he was hit during the mid air ,just missed out on 3 points to ”have” 1000. Considering he  only received 253 points after that scaring moment at day one, as he had to land , he is doing a great job. He is 14 overall now!!! A great pilot he is!!!! Sebastian is still on number 1 on Tuesday morning and talking about Sebastian, in the last Gliding International , which I received yesterday, there is a very nice interview with him.
In club class the first 10 places after 7 days of flying are shared  by 4 German, 1 USA , 1 Belgium , 1 Austrian and 2 UK pilots.
 In world class Luca Urbani, real nice fellow, started well but lost a few places. The first 5 places are shared here between the 3  French, one pilot from Czech Rep.  and one from Poland. Still a few days to go, so this might all change!
 The UK team had to miss their TC , as he still could write by himself ; Last nights pizza seems to be getting the better of me. They  brought him to hospital to avoid he would dehydrate and he has to stay there for a couple of days . I wish Pete all the best. His team was organized and experienced enough to take over where necessary!
 A pity he had to miss the International Evening, a great event at each important competition; a good moment to socialise.

Tuesday in Prievidza started still with hot conditions. Swimming pools on the camping bought  or brought by several teams , gave some relief. The postponed briefing to 10.30 as well. I get messages that they,”swim” out of their tents in the early morning, so some must get tired! On top of that they had that International evening the day before, so that might have been for some a heavy night!!! On the German site I read this Tuesday morning; Wegen Krankheit geschlossen!!! Closed due to illness.  Don’t know if it was the Int. party or ” a pizza”, but …it was the party! By the way the  crew from Martin is doing a great job to inform the crowd at home !!!
AAT’ s from 3 hours for each class were set, while some TC’s could see the first showers appear on the radar. First launch was at 12.05. A TRICKY DAY!!!! But it ended well for most. Enough outlandings again [10 in standard,7 in club and 3 in world class] but good results for the UK where G won the day in club class.The first 5 in standard class 3 from Germany 2 from France , all flew with a speed of 116 km/h. The French did also well in World class.

Now it is Wednesday morning  and a busy time is waiting for me. Guests from today  till August 5. Will try to keep you posted as well.
In Prievidza they expect another 4 days to fly till it is finished, which is good. They are on day 9 now for club and standard class with tasks just over 300 for st and club and 219 km. for world class. A picture from all team and pilots, in the heat was made this morning as well.
The tracking system is now really up and running and Art [ from Canada] is , as always doing a great job with his comments.I heard over 1000 people are following  now and that number is increasing. Good on you Art!
In Europe pilots still had fun , though several  countries suffered from real heavy weather. We had another day with such weather and more people hurt. Today we might have again at some places REAL thunderstorms , we have to keep an eye on the news with warnings for the areas. After that it should be over with the violence of this hot weather.
I was very pleased to see that our former Sportavia guests Uwe and Hans flew both a 1000 km flight from Cuenca Sotos in Spain in a DG 808 last Sunday. Would they have looked at the soccer final as well?????

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn         Sunday July 11… final of the soccer championship tonight, for what it is worth!   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

The worst nightmare of a competition  not only for the organizers but also for the pilots and ALL involved in gliding,we readers at home as well,  is a fatal accident and that happened last Thursday when  the French pilots saw another friend from Russia spin his glider and crash in the mountains. The French stayed there to mark the place for search and rescue. The day for standard class was there for neutralised in the air.
What can we do !!?? Nothing , it seems more and more that we have to accept that it is part of our beautiful sport, as HOW many times do we all cry out KEEP IT SAFE, BE CAREFUL. But…. we are all ”only” human beings!!
 There are too many of our friends already in heaven, which is deeply sad, TRAGIC!!!!
My thoughts , ALL OUR thoughts are with Alexanders family and friends and the Russian team. On Friday they did not fly and then everybody had to try to focus on the comps again. Life goes on and the pilot, who was good in gliding  [ otherwise he would not have been on a WGC,  9oo hours]  and who must have loved his sport , would if he could ,  agree with this. Here are the words , when you have not yet read them, from  the chief steward Roland Stuck who I personally know and who is one of the best and most experienced chief stewards in the world. I totally stand behind him!!!!

 —–Dear competitors, dear team members, 

I would like to express the condolences of the IGC officials present here to the family of Alexander, to the Russian team and to the organisers.The Secretary General of the FAI and the President of the FAI also asked me to pass on their sincere condolences and sympathy to the Russian Team and to the Organizers. 
As you know, the CD has decided to cancel the day in order to honour the memory of our friend
I would like you to make use of this rest day to think a little about the situation we have here at this competition

During the four first days of this competition we had one fatal accident, one mid air collision and yesterday morning we were very close to have another collision. We also have  several gliders damaged during outlandings.
This is definitely the worst safety record we ever had in a WGC!
Is this only due to bad luck?  
I do not think so
Every day we have pilots reporting dangerous flying, complaining about other pilots making silly manoeuvres before the start, entering into gaggles in a wild way, flying in clouds and so on, and so on.

Is this situation the fault of the organisers? 
I do not think so
The organisers pay due attention to safety. They have set up safe launching, start, finishing, and landing procedures, they made every day safety briefings, they made the right decision after the mid air collision.

So only YOU can improve the situation!

• – Remain concentrating during your flights!
• – Look out; do not look too much to your instruments or your PDA!
• – Respect the rules of the air; give the way if you have to do so!
• – Avoid leaching and flying in gaggles, make your own decisions!
• – Do not fly recklessly! 
• – Do not fly aggressively!

No medal, no placing in a WGC is worth to put at stake your integrity or the life of other competitors!
Think about your family, about your children and about your friends!
Please make sure we will have no more accident at this championship!

Roland Stuck
Chief Steward—–

In MEMORY of Alexander  is a touching 2 minute video which you can see at   www.wgc2010.sk  ; look for video’s!

I continue with what I had written already since Wednesday.

They did fly on Wednesday  in Prievidza, very short AAT’s in 2 hours and after cancelling the world class,  both club -and standard class had a reasonable day with the expectation of wave! Some ”found”it! A pity the tracking system fails so often as it is nice to hear Art’s [from Canada] comment with the great images. I even flew virtual with some pilots.
In the end a tricky day with several out-landings and yes G Dale on top!!!! He ”did”  it it this day together with his UK mate Ian.  Good on them.
Sebastian  tops the over- all -scores in Standard class, after 3 days of flying.He was lucky; in Prievidza they do not have a finish line but a finish ring and he just made it in the ring 2 km out, but he had to stay above 50 m, which he did not. So…a warning [only] and next time penalty points , but this day he was 2d!!!
Pleased to see young Bert Schmelzer is flying so constant till now he is at spot 8 over all!

In between soccer is more and more important in Holland and Spain, as they are in the final match to ”decide” who will be the best team in the world. The semi-final had in Holland an absolute record of people looking at TV; 12.3 million. And then there is this phenomena …. Octopus Paul from Sealife in Oberhausen in Germany, he predicts that Spain will win. Parakeet Mani in Singapore predicts that Holland wins and the people in Spain believe in their team and ”we ” in ours!!! May the best win tonight, it sometimes seems the world has gone crazy!!!
KLM and IBERIA the official carriers of the teams have doubled their flights, the bought- beer has made supermarkets already rich, [it is both in Spain and in Holland in the thirties, ]and business making the champions-flag-2010 here,  have sold already more then 10.000 and the game still has to be played!!!

A plane flying TOTALLY on sun energy  has flown over 24 hours . It is the prototype HB-SIA and it flew from the military airfield of Payerne in Switzerland. The plane produced by Solar Impulse, wants to show the possibilities of solar energy and they built 7 years on it. This ”24- hours- up- in- the -air ” is a new record and proves that you can store enough energy during the day to use it during the night. This opens new possibilities.

Thursday started blue in Prievidza and the expectation it would stay blue, but mountains sometimes keep their nice fluffy friends/clouds . Another day with new chances.In the morning I heard weather alarms for the East-bloc countries specially Rumania, but no problems in Prievidza.
Thursday ended sad , with the fatal accident of  Alexander. Standard class was cancelled and Club and World pilots  continued their flight.

On Friday  they had a briefing at 10 AM with one minute silence for Alexander and a TC briefing at 11 in Prievidza. A day to be together and think if possible on something totally different then gliding…fishing, hiking, swimming, sailing…. clear the mind and then on Saturday there was time to concentrate on soaring again, even more concentrated then before…I guess , I hope.
That some pilots doubted the day off, is beyond me,[would they think the same if their team was hit !!!???] but I am pleased the organizers respected the wish of the Russian team and TC who wanted,  and for sure mentally needed, this day off.
And what about the organizers…such a huge impact…. they needed the day as well!!!

On Saturday life continued and soaring in Prievidza as well. This accident had nothing to do with hazardous flying, but I heard they show a video about safety every day before briefing;perfect  nothing wrong with that, certainly not when you had a mid air and a nearly-mid-air! The beginning of the day was not easy as the temperature had problems to lift up to 31, needed for good lift  but got stuck at 28, so reason to go from task A to task B. In the end it was difficult again to come home and several pilots landed somewhere in a field. The tracking system was working and WHEN it works it is just fantastic!! It adds something to the comps.
After one week the overall results are as follows;
Standard class;1.Sebastian Kawa [Poland]–2.Mario Kiessling [Germany]–3.Michael Buchtal [Germany]
Club class; 1.Arndt Hovestadt [Germany]–2.Volker Sailer [Germany]–3.Mario Schupfer [Austria] 
 World class;1.Laurent Couture [France],–2.Martin Hriva[CZE]–3.Denis Geurin [France]
In Club class the 2 UK pilots have not yet given up and are on 4 and 5
What will the last week bring us ????? Hopefully only nice flying and happy pilots, which makes it easier to forget about the sad parts of the first week. And the scores now might be different then, let’s wait and see.
We here in Holland had severe thunderstorms last night with quite some damage, they came from the South of Europe so ”with damage” we might not have been the only ones. Train traffic at the busiest spot, Utrecht was stopped by flash of  lightning, several fires also due to lightning, flooding, trees on the road and tracks, but gardens and farmers were happy with some rain. It is very dry here!

Preparing now for a nice soccer -night.  Thousands of orange flowers will be “falling out of the sky” tonight over the 80 to 100.000 people looking at a big screen in Amsterdam. The sky will turn orange. What about that, a marketing-gesture from our famous flower -growers and they do the same over Madrid. Hopefully the thunderstorms pass by tonight somewhere else !!! By the way Germany won the match for 3d place. While waiting we can look at the Formula 1 at Silverstone and the Davis Cup match between Holland and White Russia , is that Belarus??

See you next Wednesday, and…sorry I would have been in Prievidza this weekend , but I was not in the mood and on top of that , the plane we were going with was ”in service” and not ready in time.
And…don’t forget life is much more valuable then a gold medal, also the lives of [y]our friends !!!!!!!Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      July 7 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

The first day of the WGC was a difficult one with task B set  and a dangerous situation for 2 gliders as the pilots did not see each other , with as a result a mid air collision.  Hope from now on pilots will take care of each other for themselves and our beautiful sport and I am extremely  happy that both pilots are alive and kicking!!!! Here is the official statement about the collision ;

”At the first competition day we had a mid-air collision between GX and 8K. The collision happened at an altitude of 2200 m approximately 10 km South West from Ruzomberok town. Only GX had a proximity warning device. Both gliders were damaged. 8K had his tail and bottom damaged but could fly back to the Prievidza airport. GX was more severely damaged losing part of the right wing and had his canopy broken but could land on the Ruzomberok airfield. Luckily the pilots were not injured.

The organizers heard both pilots and analyzed the igc flight records of their gliders. They came to the conclusion that GX was circling to the right in a thermal when 8K was entering the same thermal. For unknown reason the two pilots didn´t see each other. 8K entered the thermal in a normal way considering other gliders he saw in the same thermal but he didn´t see GX. When he started to turn right, he suddenly  saw GX coming from behind and below. He pulled up but couldn´t avoid the collision.

According to the organizers opinion, although unintentionally, the pilot of 8K created an extremely dangerous situation by cutting the circle flown by GX. Considering that it is the full responsibility of the pilot entering a thermal to make sure that he does not interfere with a glider already circling in this thermal, the director of the competition decided to disqualify the pilot of 8K for the day and to exclude him temporarily from the competition for the next two flying days.

He also allowed the pilot of GX to replace his glider which cannot be repaired for this competition.

At the briefing the competition director announced his decision and showed the traces. He also urged all pilots to look out all the time and fly safely.  ”  
 Jozef Snirc –
Competition Director Prievidza July 6th 2010        
 I cannot agree more!!!!!And…please learn from it!!!

As life goes on ..luckily also for both pilots,  we look at  a great result that first day for Holland with European runner up and still junior ,Tim Kuijpers as number 1 in club class, though I was a bit shocked not to see G Dale under the first 5. As I found out he had troubles in the beginning, after missing a good thermal  and he was not able to go back as the weather at the start-point was even worse at that stage , so this slowed him down.
 Former junior JWGC winner Mario Kiessling won for Germany and the French had their first win in the PW 5 class with Laurent Couture. They say a ”good beginning is half the work” , so let’s see if this is true.
On day 2 the tracking system was working and it is really nice to follow the 14 pilots who have the system in their glider, with a 20 minute delay. If they like it as much as we do, I doubt it! Unfortunately the system  still had interuptions. A short AAT only with several out landings, some with damage and some people had to work all night to get the glider ready.
I was very pleased to see that Dane {NZ} won the day in standard class , even coming back 4 minutes TOO early. 
 Day 3 was cancelled due to rain, but that rain did not come straight away, they got colder air instead which most of the people over there had no problem with after the hot days. For at-least 2 gliders a little bit extra repair/drying- time was warmly welcomed.
Today they start for the first time from o4 after using 22 before! The weather looks this  early not too promising , it is only 14 dgr with 7 to 8/8 of clouds, but they expect a flying day. Look for news at your countries site or at the official site; www.wgc2010.sk 

I guessed that Sunday would be a better day for the pilots  here in Holland , you remember and I was right. On Monday I noticed we even  ”topped” the OLC list with spot 1-2 and 4. Well done guy’s!!!!
A total of 60 happy Dutch pilots with flights between 78 km and 686 km. Though…one of the girls was less happy, she was allowed a first flight in the discus and felt sick all the way [150 km.]!!! Some called it ”more promising then it was in reality”, but who cares when you can fly!!!
The pilots in France and Spain had a nice day as well, so had the Eastern countries,  as Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Czech Rep. , but our German neighbours got our ”sh..-weather”  from the day before.

Soccer was “hot” in Holland yesterday! The semi finals in Capetown between Holland and Uruguay…..and we…….WON!!
But I did not look. Like thousands in the world I have such a weird fobie; when I would look, they would lose, so I was typing away on my laptop only hearing the vuvuzela’ s from the neighbours loud when “we”made a goal  and…..I heard that 3 times and I joined in after the match.
Even CNN send a TV team to Holland to look how we “celebrate with our boys” all dressed in orange and they expect over 12 million  just have awesome and peaceful [except for one place in The Hague]  great fun.
Tonigh ”we” know who will play against ”us” in the final on Sunday. In any case it is a European final match with modern soccer. I think Holland goes mad when ”we” win. We NEVER did but reached the final in 1972 and 1978.

On top of that Holland had a great soaring weather  yesterday as well,  Jeroen Kole made a great flight again from Terlet ;717 km. in a discus BT. Wow this weather is just unique!!!!
Jaap van Steinfoorn flew from Teuge in the ASH 25 M 819 km. For a moment Jeroen topped the OLC list , but the weather in the USA and in Canada is super as well so in the end he was the 2d European on place 18 with Wilfried Grosskinsky in the Nimbus 4 M with another 1077 km on spot 5 and Jaap at 20.
This nice weather continues, though Spain and Portugal don’t call it nice anymore as up to 40 dgr. is a bit much. Also New York suffers from extreme high temperatures.

18 Women started yesterday in Issoudun with the French National Women Championships including , but  hors concours , Gill Spreckly from the UK and Italian pilot Margherita Aquaderni. The first day had a task of 305 km with 5 outlandings. I guess some of these ladies will be in Arboga for the WWGC in Sweden in 2011.
Same place other competition ; the International Issoudun 2010, a very pleasant competition with lots of pilots from Germany, Belgium, Italy and Holland flown between July 3 and July 13. Some of the International guests go their already for ”ages”!!

My head is still full of soccer, could write you pages about it, but I won’t! The Tour de France , normally also one of my favourites , misses out a bit , but after Sunday this will change. I ”hate” by the way the many cyclists falling REALLY hard!!!
CU on Sunday.
cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       July 4 2010      ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Last Friday we could reach here in Holland the highest temperature ever measured. That was 38.7 dgr. We ”could” , but we …. did n’t…. ”only” 36 ,  so we have to wait till mid next week when we will have nice hot weather again.
It is very hot and stable so no great soaring weather here in Holland, but around us nobody complains. The UK however had some rain , France some thunderstorms , Switserland and Austria are  still OK , so is Sweden and  Finland and …..Germany still had weather to fly up to 924 km. in an LS8  and  indeed I totally agree, with the pilot,  that it is a shame to not be able to make the last kilometers of such a nice set FAI 1000 km.  triangle. Still great effort.
Spain with Ocana and Fuente is going to be more and more busy from now on and some of my friends  enjoyed great flights over there.
I just checked what happened yeaterday in Europe and Alexander Mueller added a great more or less out and return in his ASW 22 from 1.231 km with a nice speed of 110 km. ph. He seems to feel really good in Bayreuth like he does in Kiripotib in Africa. Other super flights with this super weather in Germany were 824 km in an ASW 15,   911 in a Kestrel 17 m. and 909 km in an ASW 20 from Trieben in Austria.  Pilots in Holland did not even go to their field, but maybe today they have better luck for a nice flight.  

Prievidza has started with 3 official practise days and the opening yesterday  with an airshow and a banquet in a real castle. I hear that the organisation is excellent, to be honest did not expect anything else from Jozef and today seems OK with some high cirrus and very early in the morning  still blue skies. Let’s wait and see what this first day will bring, an important day, as you can see quickly who are performing well. You do not have to win that day, that gives less pressure, but you should be atleast within the first 10. Well, good luck to all 106 participants from 26 countries.May the best pilot in each class win. By the way it is not always the best pilot who wins, the luck-factor is important as well it all has to fall in place on the right moment. Look at www.wgc2010.sk

 To share with you the news about the open class and standard class Nationals in the USA,  I give you a link to my source Rick in the USA.  As he writes….Our situation is not very good.  We have been the victims of two consecutive low pressure systems, the second one being Tropical Storm Alex.  This area has not seen this much rain in a long time.  The desert is turning green….you expect already that there is not a lot of flying. Here is the link to his blog;
http://hobbs2010.blogspot.com/   Enjoy!!
By the way Alex is the first tropical storm of the hurricane season. It grew to a hurricane [155 km./h] and touched land on Wednesday evening in Mexico close to the border of Texas, and that is not too far from Uvalde. When we were in Uvalde for the WGC , we passed the border and visited very short Mexico.

 The biggest airfield in the world is open now! It is called Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai. It has 5 runways, 4 terminal buildings and can handle 160 million passengers a year and 12 million ton of freight!!!

 This Facebook-stuff is indeed great fun. I found lost friends and happily receive mails every day from friends from other friends  willing to be my friend.
Here is one more sensitive-message I would like to share with you as I could not agree more.
Richard Jones

Two planes landed in England Monday…One brought back a group of overpaid, underachieving footballers.The other brought back seven coffins, each with the Union Jack draped over them.Footballers play for our country, soldiers FIGHT for our country.Footballers give ninety minutes, soldiers give their lives…….I know who I respect more. R.I.P. Our Boys.Copy & Paste this to your status, show your support.

Don’t want to bore you with too much soccer news, but……you might have noticed that ”we” ….the Dutch  ”fighting orange lions”  ”eat” [sorry to my Brazilian friends!!!] the Brazilian ”divine yellow canaries”. I was amazed to see all people on the bike just after the match with their mobile on their ear. The lines were like in the New Years night sooooo busy that some did not work anymore;800.000 sms messages were sent in 5 minutes!!!! And…everybody must have seen it as 7 million looked at home and a few more millions on big screens in several towns and in thousands of cafe’s. They say that from the 16 million people living in Holland 11 million saw the match.
Don’t forget the temperature that day at 7 PM was still 31 dgr.!!!!! A fantastic day for ALL of us !!! But ”we”  are not yet there!
By the way the Tour de France started yesterday as well in Rotterdam, also Holland, while Wimbledon stops today with a for sure great match between Berdych and Nadal. To be honest the ladies final was boring. But…the Germans played great soccer [ in a Dutch way, as they admit!] again, I hope we can meet them in the final, but both have to win the semi-finals first.

And then this…….received it yesterday from George. What about that!!! RITZ FOR SALE !!!!!
It happened in 2006 and yesterday the guy was convicted . It was a complete fantasy, but this British unemployed truck-driver got 1.8 million Australian dollar as an advance payment for the sale of the Grand Hotel Ritz in London [ 449.36 million Australian dollars] and ”used ” it all! The final sentence will be on July 27. By the way I AM not for sale!!!!

Conman convicted of trying to sell Ritz

Plaster is off but the next 3 months are needed to “repair” my left hand, so I started practising within the pain-zone , straight away. Will get there!
Yesterday it was 22.5 years ago that our  son Dennis died, after crashing his tug by hitting a power-line,  on the way to a happy German customer who just flew his first 50 km. from Tocumwal to Jerilderie.
————-Never forgotten !!  July 3 1969-January 3 1988————–
 Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       June 30 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

As every Monday, I travelled to Amsterdam 2 days ago. In the train I heard an elderly lady; “For me it can start snowing NOW”. She clearly did not like the high temperatures in Holland and in more places in Europe. I noticed on the big pole in front of the RAI building 32 dgr. at 13.29. Never saw such a high temperature on that pole.[ because it is rather high and in the wind] So….yes we have nice weather here and June has been really good. July looks great as well, certainly the beginning with 30 dgr even up to 37 on Friday, but then it seems in the weekend, we have to “pay” with thunderstorms. This started already in France and Spain on Tuesday.

When you are already looking ahead at the next 32d WGC in 2012,  in Chaves in Argentina, I can give you a link which I got from Horacio. Great shots from the area by air , from some pilots and in total  a nice promotion for gliding at Chaves Airport. The video is made for a TV channel and covers the South American Gliding Championships in Chaves.This is a preview on the programme which will ”go air ” next month. When that programme is ready I will receive it as well and share the 45 minutes with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8211RTSboFg

 Horacio is leaving in 11 days for Rom to get the glider for Damian Goldenzweig, young toppilot from Argentina and will crew for him in Szeged. In this video you can see that Horacio is doing well in soaring too , standing at the podium ,[ winning st.class ], with a few other top names. Horacio flew the Junior Worlds in Finland and is just a great young and very enthusiastic guy.He loves gliding!!!

Last Saturday it could have gone wrong with a small aircraft  doing a joy-flight around Berlin , carrying 4 people including the pilot. Luckily he knew how to glide his plane having a failure in the engine,and ……where to? To Tempelhof the closed airport at Berlin and this is the 2d emergency landing at this field. Everybody was well!!!
Less lucky were 5 people in a helicopter above a cycling-tour in Rotterdam here in Holland. This town has the prologue from the great event the Tour de France,next week,  but a shade has fallen over all excitement now the pilot and 3 other people, 2 of them press photographers were killed. The crash could have been even worse as cyclists on the ground claim that the very experienced pilot tried not to hit them. This tour with 1000 enthusiastic non-prof-bicyclist was stopped immediately.

Prievidza is ready for the 31 WGC  and lot’s of my friends have arrived already and find their new temporarily home on the camping site, a motel or in private houses. I noticed Jozef , the competition director did a good job in building some nice wooden houses where you can live with a few. Friend Art has started his job weighing and will be like in Italy doing the virtual race-visualisation . He has the best voice to do so and knows all about soaring.
The Dutch team has arrived with a brand new TC Bart ,his very first time, but I am sure he will do a great job, knowing him.
I am very pleased to see that the daily bulletin editor Zulu, is doing a good job as well and in perfect English, so the world is going to enjoy theirselves with his stories. Thanks Zulu!   www.wgc2010.sk for news about the first practise days and pictures.

About the OLC over the last 3 days; Still Hammerwetter in lots of parts from Europe!!!!!
You know I have ”something” for 1000 km flights and when a pilot flies a set 1040km FAI triangle  I really get excited!!! That’s what happened in ELY in the USA one of those great soaring places where pilots go to fly 1000 km-plus and to just enjoy the great conditions. Minden had,  as well as Mountain Valley, great weather.
 Guy does n’t have to go to Fuente[Spain], this year to fly nice long distance flights he flew several [4 till now] 1000 km from his home field in Luxembourg already.
One of the German pilots was super-enthusiastic about this hammer- wetter he could not believe that there was still 2.5 lift at 8 pm. A lot of set tasks…… and flown on that Tuesday.
Yesterday was total overcast here in Holland, after another glorious morning. At 1 pm it was raining!!!!!!! Temperature dropped at-least with 6 dgr. after ….the sun started shining again. But it was much better in other parts of Europe.
Another 1060 km set FAI triangle  was flown from Köningsdorf in Germany in a Ventus 2CT/18m. while another pilot thought in retrospect he did not make the correct decisions on track ; he set the task flying his discus 2b/18m. but could not make all the TP’s as the 2d one was unreachable due to a too low base. He still flew his 1065 km. but not as a 1000 km FAI triangle.
Some open class gliders also flew 1000 km tasks in Austria yesterday.

Finally I reacted on a Facebook invitation  and …I am now on Facebook sharing with [in 2 days] 52 of my friends, news and having just fun and ”finding” some friends , I had lost!!! I did not know it was such fun, but I am still not good in it. Sometimes I loose what I just wrote, but I will be fine. And…friends even advise what to do and not to do! Thanks! Also love the pictures!!!!

Got a message from the USA that pilots over there started with their  National Open and Standard class competition  in Hobbs New Mexico, the place where in 1983 the WGC has been flown.  Our Dutch  pilot Kees Muster won in one class that year. Will keep you informed. Not much happened as I heard ,since they started on June 28, but more can happen as they fly till July 8.

Off to the hospital now, see how we go. See you next Sunday, will tell you how we survived up to 37 dgr. in the South of Holland on Friday and….of course I keep an eye on Prievidza. Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      Sunday June  27 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

WOW..what absolute fabulous weather for Euroglide !!!!On flight -day 3 the self launching Nimbus 4 UFO, was , with Max Leenders and 2 mates , already past the 3 TP and  on its way home. They flew on Wednesday another 832 km… they had rounded Germany and Switzerland and were on their way back home from the TP in France.  The organisers expected them back in Axel on Thursday the 24th. this day had 26 dgr. here in Holland and a bit of over-development, but above Belgium it looked super as well….Would they make it on June 24 ????
Yes they did , they finished over Axel and had even time to fly to our National Gliding Center Terlet. Great effort . Anxious to know if this is the fastest ever Euroglide.
They did it in just a bit more then 3 days;  Monday noon till Thursday afternoon, so a lot of holiday-days left for the 3 pilots involved.
Not far behind them ; LL [ nimbus 4dm] and MD [ dg 808 c]. MD is flown by  Max, alone. He just flew the nationals and is in great ”form”. He was a participant over the last years so very experienced. He is also a frequent flyer in Corowa in our winter.
The leader in the ”turbo’s ” was ZZ a nimbus 4 dm,  , he was on the 3d day at Bailleau and one of the 3 pilots flying here is the former European champion Ronald Termaat and former runner up in the WGC in Luesse, who flew during the nationals the JS1 Revelation.
Also this team arrived home in Axel at the 24th. Great effort, as well as IN1, an ASH 25 from Germany.
 The ”just”  gliders XX [LS 6 17.6 m] and EH [duo discus] were doing well and were upfront, at day 3 at Lyon. At day 4 XX came home as the first glider!!!!! WELL DONE!!!!!
EH is the duo discus from Eindhoven flown by 4 different pilots and XX is alo from Eindhoven ,all are members of the EAC, the club with all the problems in the past , I wrote you about  .
On Friday another 16 pilots/gliders arrived at the final place Axel. Under them Max and his son Vincent, each in their own glider.
The site has 13 days for news but they only needed for the best pilots till day 4.
Yesterday more teams arrived back home. Still great weather and today we might reach 30 dgr. ……with a heatwave , not impossible for the next coming week.
It is interesting to read the rules about this competition at www. euroglide.nl 

Most parts of Europe were blessed  last week with fantastic soaring weather. On the OLC you had to fly at-least 700 km on Wednesday to be on page one[ 50 pilots] . Of course an LS 1 in between, flying a good 600 km is super,  as well as an SZD 55 with 670 km. and what about the always high scoring Libelle; this time 609 km. and a st. cirrus flew 598, I call that 600 km. ….well done…

Sorry I forgot to share with you the news that Ingo Renner,  still the one and only 4 times world champion soaring celebrated his 70thiest birthday in his hometown Tocumwal on June 1.It was a surprise party organised by his wife Judy and as I was not allowed to write about it when I received it , …I just forgot.But he had a great day with lots of friends visiting the BBQ and congratulating him on this special day. This is what his friends received yesterday;

Ingo would like to send his heartfelt thanks to everyone who wished him well on his birthday, helped him to celebrate and who contributed to the wishing well or brought a gift.  As you all know this was a big surprise for Ingo and he thoroughly enjoyed himself on the evening.  He has found a rocking chair – we just have to get it home from Sydney.
Can you imagine Ingo in a rocking chair…?????

This weekend there is an Airshow at Cambrai  in the Northern part of France , I was there once longtime ago . Here is the  touching news I took from their site, written by the Colonel from the base,  so you know about it as well!! You might be even able to see a bit on the site; www.meetingcambrai2010.fr 

On June 26^th and 27^th, a national air show will take place on Cambrai Air Force Base 103. This great festival of aeronautics is made for any passionate, and it will benefit the Air Charity Foundation (FOSA). This foundation has helped – for more than 70 years – people in misfortune or in need because of an accident having occurred to a member of their family, in the civil or military aviation.

This great international event (more than 50.000 visitors are expected) is based on the theme “Du Blériot au Rafale”. It is part of a communication approach between the armed forces and the civilian society. It will be both an opportunity and a pleasure to share our common passion for aeronautics, which links men and women, civilians and militaries proud to serve France.

Talking about airshows , there must have been one not too far from my place as I saw  yesterday at 13.15, a DC 3 in formation passing by over my house with 3 Fokker 11 and not long after another plane, maybe a Mustang and after that another formation beautiful flown by 6 planes could not see what they were but it was a fantastic noise, from old engines  and  then on top of that a Hercules and a Lockheed, I  had my private airshow here!!!!! LOVED IT!!!!! It was not over then with 4 F16 planes hurrying behind the others,  all were lined up going to or coming from a demo-show……. and with a bit of thinking I knew , it was a tribute to our 50.000 old and 50.000 younger veterans on the 6th National  Veterans day yesterday in the Hague and our  Crown Prince was there as well.

This weekend; a 2-day-competition at Salland  here in Holland. They fly in mixed, club  and open class. Yesterday they had nice tasks with an expectation of blue thermals,[  hopefully they got some of the clouds above my house] and tasks from 354 km in 15m mixed, 322 for club and 415 for open with an expected cloud base of up to 1700 m.
All but one pilot arrived home after a super day with great flights and nice speed. look for results from yesterday and today at www.soaringspot.com [Sallandse tweedaagse 2010]

Looking at the OLC the last 3 days ; I always like the enthusiasm of Alexander Müller, he writes ;” first cumulus at 8 AM and the last ones at 8 PM ….Bayreuth is SUPER, ”;that’s where he did another 1.164 km flight in his ASW 22.
 I was most impressed and a bit sad with the flight of  one of my Finnish friends, Martti [Sucksdorf] from Rayskala. I forgot if he ever flew his 1000km with us in Tocumwal, but he did NEARLY on Thursday ;954.50 km. What a shame, I would have loved to see him fly it in his home country !!!!
An LS 4 flew that day 679 km from Jena which is North of Bayreuth and here in Holland another friend Jeroen Koole flew 700 km!!! This weather is just ”delightful”!!!!!
On Friday ”young” Jeroen Jennen,[ Belgium]  I guess he is growing older since I saw him last,[ was that Husbos in 2005, when he was still too young to fly by himsellf, ????],  but can’t be older then 17/ 18 or so, flew his 500 km from Keiheuvel in an LS 8 . Great effort Jeroen!!! I have the feeling this is his first one, if it is congratulations!
I also noticed a few absolutely fabulous set FAI tasks/ triangles and THAT is the real gliding, you surely agree with me!!!; what about 828 km. from Königsdorf or a nice 530  by Wolli, without mountains from Oerlinghausen and not to forget 923 km from Winzeln Schramberg. This fantastic weather in a huge area stimulates the flying of set triangles/tasks and I love to see that.
One of our top-pilots Sicco, set a 1000 km task from Soesterberg yesterday ,[ it is not often that these tasks are set in Holland], but was unfortunately  too slow in the beginning , saw cumulus but not where he wanted to go. He still wanted to stick as long as possible to his set task, flew 866 km and thought that a 1000 would have been  possible for an open class glider. He flew a ventus BT.
Yesterday pilots nearly had to fly 800 km to be on page 1 of the OLC. HAMMERWETTER in most parts of Europe!!!!!

and then this….
—–how it is possible ,…… Idon’t know, but from one day to another they moved Prime Minister Rudd from Australia out of his function and replaced him with Julia Gilard,[ also from the Labour Party]  now the first female president in Australia.
—–you have heard  for sure about the ”all blacks”,  the famous and very great playing rugby team from New Zealand. With their warrior-dance ” haka ”, they impress the world at each WRC.
 Now they have the ”all whites ”, the more or less ”surprise” soccer players. In the beginning , I heard, the Kiwi’s called them ”pussies”, as the rugby players are already their tough heroes, but by playing not too bad, they got Wellington ”dancing on the tables” from enthusiasm…great stuff…..and well done. Soccer is on the map there now too. Even when it was a draw against Paraqua and they did go further to the 1/8 finals , they did a fabulous job and deserve the special warm welcome at home. 
 —- a pity that the Australian socceroos won….. but still had to leave S.A,  due to a negative goal-balance.
—–59-59, we talk tennis now at Wimbledon…all records broken, 2 heroes one from France one from the USA and they did not even win the tournament, but for sure their names are on the map. In the end the match was finished after 3 days; final result;70-68 , in fact no winner but the American young lad John Isner won.
—–it seems , according to the Argentinian lawyers that Julio Poch , has made those ”death-flights”. They read, as they claim,  his flight-logbook and diaries and found there enough evidence…will be continued. How he ”earned” 130 million e.[it seems he possesses this in assets and money] as a commercial airline pilot , is beyond me…..
—–unbelievable but true; in Holland they found a guy who was dead for 4 years. [50 years old] He lived on the top floor of a house and  asked  his 4 family members,  all living in the same house on the 2d floor[ 2 sisters ,2 brothers] one day in 2006 , to not disturb him anymore. They did and  the painters who came to do renovations in the house last week, found him. The family might see  legal action taken against them for neglecting.
—–from Western Australia, I got a more personnel message about the crash in Congo,  as nearly everybody overthere is one way or another linked to Sundance so the population is in shock.
”The crash in the Congo has had a huge impact in WA. The WA mining industry is very close knit and most people know each other .
As for Sundance Resources, their shares remain suspended but they are already working to construct a new board. Most people’s hearts are going out to the families who have lost their loved ones – it seems it will be some time before their bodies will be returned to Australia

tragic, …..see you next

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn        Wednesday June 23     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Euroglide started with pretty good weather  on June 21, as the weather turned out much better then expected.At 13.00 the first started and within 2 hours everybody was gone.
 And  the forecast for the next couple of days is that of great summer weather all over the places they fly too. I looked at the European weather and it was glorious from the South of Spain till nearly the top of Scandinavia. The top-end only had some rain. The Eastern countries however have more unstable weather at this stage.
On that first day Thom Wammerdam in the duo discus flew 371 km from Eindhoven, straight to the East on his way to the first TP  under Berlin.
Another pilot Mark Besten, in a duo, tried the same but could just not reach Nordhausen, had to go back a bit to land at Aue where he ”found” 12 more teams, staying over there for the night; 362 km.
All by himself, Ton Staassen, who won the Military comps in his class 2 weeks ago, flew his Mosquito to a nice distance of 381 km. He is a member of the ZES, the club of the students from Eindhoven University where I was ages ago a member and as you know , the first female member.
On day 2 , I noticed that Max Leenders who flew the Nationals @Twente, had a super flight in his nimbus 4DM; 767 km. He passed TP 1 and on his way to Montricher in Switserland, also Bayreuth and Hahnweide and if he continues like this,…..he is back in a flash. They have till July 3 but with this weather …….”
Look for the map on www.euroglide.nl  Great stuff…this Euroglide!!!!!Try to go with one of the crews,  next year for a full coverage of the ”show”.

June 21 was also the beginning of the calendar-summer  and of course we had our longest day here, [ for one moment I had the feeling, that winter is close by again!] with in the weekend midsummer-night-celebrations in Scandinavia. Australia had it’s shortest day and I hear it is pretty cold over there, …pullover/cardigan-weather, but still some good days for flying and fresh snow on the mountains for the people who change gliders for skies for a while.

Last Sunday for the first time this year[ last year it happened 6 times!] 2 F16 pilots , here in Holland, had to check on a passenger-plane as no communication was heard and no contact could be made anymore by the traffic controllers. The plane , an Airbus 321 from Onur Air, travelling from Turkey to Ireland [Dublin] however contacted the tower after passing the Dutch border and the F 16’s were send home.

The Italian Nationals ended as I gave them to you as the last day was cancelled. Congratulations to Riccardo and Davide each in their class.
From July 3 several new National Championships under FAI flag, will be flown , p.e in Sweden in Sundbro for 18 m and double seaters , in Spain at Santa Cilia, 4 classes, club , standard , open and 15m. in the UK at Nympsfield the 15 m class and of course last but NOT least, the WGC in Prievidza. At this stage the Nationals in the Ukraine for open and 15 m. are flown, finishing tomorrow.

Sad news from Congo where a plane with 9 passengers,  amongst them 6  top executives of a mining business, Sundance Resources Limited from Western  Australia,  got lost.One of them is Queenslands mining magnate Ken Talbot, as one of their non executive directors. On Tuesday morning they found the plane in the bush, all passengers and 2 crew died. Investigation has to constitute, what has happened. A big blow for the Australian mining business.

Received a link to an interesting story, [THANKS!]certainly when you are into vintage planes.

Air Service Berlin DC3 at Berlin on June 19th 2010, engine failure

By Simon Hradecky, created Saturday, Jun 19th 2010

An Air Service Berlin Douglas C-47 Skytrain, registration D-CXXX performing a sight seeing flight from Berlin Schoenefeld to Berlin Schoenefeld (Germany) with 25 passengers and 3 crew, departed Schoenefeld’s runway 25 (former 25L) when the left hand engine failed at a height of about 200-300 feet. The airplane struggled to climb out, after a left hand turn the crew set the airplane down into a grassy field near Selchow and the building site of the new runway (which is planned to turn Schoenefeld into Berlin Brandenburg International Airport). All 3 crew and 4 passengers received minor injuries, the airplane sustained substantial damage and is thought to be a write off.

http://avherald.com/h?article=42d26069&opt=0  for the picture and when you are intertested the rest of the story.

 The OLC this beginning of the week;
Young Bert Schmelzer from Belgium seems to be ready for the WGC soon. In his Discus A he flew from Belgium straight into Germany and made a super flight of 708 km. starting at Keiheuvel. Well done!
1000 km.-Eaters Guy Bechtold [flew from Useldange in Luxembourg] and Alexander Mueller [ from Bayreuth the former WGC airfield ] added another 1000 km flight to their list of 2010 and Wilfried Grosskinsky did in a Nimbus 4M the same from Dahlemer Binz. He claims that the cold air and great lift made it a super day , though the base in the Eifel was not too heigh, but every cloud ”worked”, which is what ”we ” need, is n’t it!
This all happened yesterday!
The day before a Swedish pilot tried a 1000 k from Orebro in a discus 2 T and just missed out on a few km. ;928 a pity.

A super day again today. What will it bring for us soaring-enthusiasts….?
You are up- to-date now, see you next Sunday. Plaster will be off in a week to check the situation with x-rays again and to hopefully walk then around without it , but in the worst case , new plaster will be on for 8 weeks, grrr…..
Safe travelling for all FAI officials, pilots and crew to Prievidza.

Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     June 20 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Before I departed we had here in Holland some kind of political earthquake!  For the first time in history the Liberal Party is the biggest in Holland and the poor Democrats lost half of their “fans”. Our Prime Minister , from this party CDA, announced straight away his departure out of politics. Over the last 8 years he did quite a good job under difficult circumstances but it seems the Dutch wanted a chance.
Labour Party struggled for first place but just lost with one “chair in parliament”, 31 VVD [Liberals] 30 Pvd A [Labour party]
What’s less good is that the super right wing of the PVV [ Party for Freedom and  against too much immigration and against too much Islam!] from Geert Wilders gained most votes!!! They went from 9 to 23 ‘chairs ‘ in the Parliament. In my eyes not the best promotion for Holland.
I know a lot of people interested in and earning their income from aviation , voted for Frits Paymans who is Liberal but clearly “one of us”! Hope he got enough write-in-votes  [ he was 63 on the VVD list]  to be part of Parliament, to support the aviation world from all angles, including gliding of course!!!!!Unfortunately he did n’t !
So you know a tiny little bit of Dutch politics as well.

Back from Volendam ,a gorgeous place in Holland,  very commercial but still nice to visit. Marken was even nicer ,  still very ”remote” ,an island with only one road ,[ since a few years ,] to the continent.The traditional clothes are stunning and all handmade with colours to match special occasions as Easter, or the Queens Birthday.
A bit of a nasty fall brought me back home Friday evening in ….pink plaster. A tiny little bone is broken in my left  wrist and the plaster covers my arm till my elbow. Not too bad but I had forgotten already how much less you can do with one hand only! But… as most of you know I am the”  right-hand-one-finger-quick-hard-hitter ”, on the panel, so I can still do my writing.

Euroglide starts tomorrow.For some pilots , the MECCA/ read ultimate way of soaring. Distance over 2000 km.,  3 TP’s far spread over Europe and who’s back first is the winner! A lot of fun , lot’s of driving, lot’s of people as one glider can be flown by more pilots and you never know where your day will end. Daan Pare is one of the participants and he flies this Euroglide already for years. He will be flying his glider alone. Look at the site who is flying what glider with whom! Great fun!
Time frame; within Monday June 21 and  Saturday July 3 2010!

Departure: Eindhoven Netherlands
First turnpoint: Bronkow Germany
Second turnpoint: Montricher Switzerland
Third turnpoint: Falaise France
Finish: Axel Netherlands.
Total 2328 km.
Look for news also at ; www.euroglide.nl

What happened more last week?  I noticed that the Nationals for standard class in Poland  have been flown in better weather circumstances then the Grand Prix and the other Nationals. This time every day in Zielona Gora was a flying day and the 59 pilots in that class, [a lot] and the organisers must have felt BIG relieve!
The open military comps in Holland were less lucky with only ONE day of flying.  The winners ; Ard Tielenburg, [club], Ronald Berg [18m] and Ronald Kaay [double seater ] and last but not least in 15 m.Ton Staassen.

64 Competitors in 4 classes had rather nice weather in Arboga  in Sweden where the next WWGC will be held in 2011. The first and last day were cancelled but still 5 days of soaring with well-known piolot Börje Eriksson as winner in the 15 m. class. Runner up in this class former world champion Göran Ax.
Henrik Breidahl from Denmark flew in open class in his ASG 29 E. Henrik belongs to the top, but had a few good and a few bad days. The worst on day 1 when he ”received ” ZERO points due to a failure of the logger.[no engine noise recording]

 And the Italian Nationals in Ferrara  for 18 m. are on their way [ June 11-20] and after 3 days of flying the 4 toppers from 14 pilots in total, are on top with only very small margins. Giorgio Galetto with 1965 points, Luciano Avanzini has 2 points less and Riccardo Brigliadori has 1945 points. Alberto Sironi another top pilot, landed out one day and lost some points there, a pity as he is just good!
Today is their last day but  on the 18th they flew day 4 , which gave some changes in the overall scores.
Ricardo and Alberto flew their racing task of 240 km. but Giorgio flew 176 km and Luciano 170. As yesterday was cancelled they only have today to fly and on the news I saw lot’s of rain over there.
New number one is now Ricardo , with Albert0 on 2 , [you see I knew he can fly] and Giorgio is on 3 with Luciano on 4.
Pretty difficult circumstances with small tasks and I guess rain today as well.
Did you see the poor holiday makers in the south of France? All cars and caravans on one pile by the flooding and stream of water and mud. What’s worse …..25 people are dead!!

More Nationals in Italy at Ferrara. Elena  and Nicola Fergnani [sister and brother] and Davide Schiavotto, in the past good juniors at the several comps are flying for top places in the Italian club class and lovely to see that another member , Michele, of the  Fergnani family flies in the nationals as well. Another good pilot is Vittorio Pinni. By the way…The double seaters are also flying in Ferrara . Busy, busy….
The 4th soaring day gave a big change in results as well for club class pilots. The Fergnani family had a ”bad” day, with Nicola still earning 240 points, but  winner of the day Davide got 479. Gorgious looking and very nice sister Elena only got 52 points and Michele 37 !!! 
 Interesting to see that Andrea Tomasi, who was one of the finishers on day 4, is now on spot 3 in the overall scores , with Davide still on 1 and Vittorio now on 2. Andrea was the president of the Gliding Federation of Italy, when I was there in 2008. I guess he still is !
Look for nice pictures on the next links:
http://www.yankee-yankee.com/grfe10/index.html  or
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyimage/

In Romorantin the French pilots started on June 5 their National Air 2010. Winner in 15 m class after 4 days; Killian Wallbrou former WGC winner in Rieti. In open class Gerard Lherm is still good. About 35 years ago  he “fought “with my ex for first place during at least 5 of the ”Huit Jours d’Angers-comps”  , then George won, then Gerard and he still is on spot 1 or 2 nowadays. Good on him!After 5 days of flying he is …indeed 2d.
The comps have finished yesterday and as they did not fly anymore [rain!!!] Killian won again and Gerard was 2d.

What was interesting in the OLC last week ? Maybe more 1000 km flights  in Morrocco….??? I liked to see that Carsten Bauer who flew with us in Australia in the past is still flying!! And..same story for Gert Kalisch, Klaus Warnke,  Jan Umlauf and Stefan Soell, all of them flew and Jan and Stefan still fly in Tocumwal and so many others,  …..Jaap van Steinfoorn, made his first glider flight for this year in the ASH 25 from Teuge in Holland and ” made” 748 km. ……My Belgian friends had some over 500/600 km flights……What about Reinhard Schramme with his 1024 km flight in the Ventus 2 CT……..it was a great soaring week in most parts of Europe and also in the well known parts of the USA with several good and 1000 km. flights as well.

Received a story from a friend which I like to share with you as well; here you go!

747 stowaway survives Pacific flight

A stowaway has survived a seven-and-a-half hour flight across the Pacific Ocean hidden in the wheel well of an Air France Boeing 747.Mechanics discovered the man – who remains unidentified – at Los Angeles airport late on Thursday, after the plane arrived from Papeete in Tahiti.

It was unclear how he had survived the below zero temperatures and thin oxygen at the cruising altitude of 10,700 metres (35,000 ft).

He was taken to hospital with a core temperature of less than 29 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit), which is usually fatal, and was gradually warmed over a period of hours. Medical staff at UCLA Medical Centre said his survival was “little short of a miracle”. “We don’t know of any other person whose body temperature dropped this low who has survived,” said David Langness, a hospital spokesman at UCLA. Earlier cases of people trying to stow away in wheel wells have usually ended in death from hyporthermia or crushing in the hydraulic works of the landing gear. Doctors said the man was in his late 20s, 1.80 metres (6ft) tall, weighing 80kg (180 lbs), but his identity is still unknown. All communication by the man has been by written notes, in French and English. Doctors are trying to determine whether oxygen deprivation has damaged the man’s brain.

 Well,….good luck for the EuroGlide  pilots and their  crews. The weather is not too good this weekend, after 5 days of pretty nice sunny conditions with pretty strong wind however, but it improves again when they start.
Loved the wedding of the Swedish crown princess yesterday and of course the SOCCER, though we played  just ”bad”, but are still  the first to enter the 1/8 finals as Denmark, who played well, won from Cameroon. The Aussies did a better job in their poule and still have chances. Stay well and see you on Wednesday
Ritz