Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday April 18 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

A phenomena hit Europe last week with a giant impact. An active volcano erupted in Iceland ,– a very heavy eruption –and a huge cloud full of dust and ash was on its way, with the NW later E wind to “attack” Europe on Thursday. Airfields in Scotland, Norway , Sweden and Ireland have been closed and from Schiphol there were no flights to Scandinavia and the UK, and all flights to the USA were diverted , creating delays. All the dust and ash is very bad for the engines of the planes, they even stop them,  so they will be not allowed to fly through it. As the cloud went from N to S more airfields were hit which meant more airports were closed and the disruption of the traffic created chaos.
The volcano erupted  under the Eyaflallajokull glacier, making a hole in it and forcing authorities to evacuate hundreds of people. The lava is not the biggest concern for these people but flooding is.
 There have been smaller clouds like this , but never from this magnitude! You might be still able to see the cloud at ;  www.flightradar24.com
At 7 PM that Thursday Schiphol Airport closed totally. The sunset was absolutely fantastic, but I guess the more then 2500 people , sleeping on beds brought in by the Red Cross  at the airport were less happy. All hotels were booked, so a small bed was the best they could get. At-least better then the ground or a chair. Even kings and queens were in trouble. Queen Margrethe from Denmark, celebrated her 70thiest birthday and our Royal family had to go by train. Other royals did not go at all.

On Friday slowly some Scottish and Irish airports started flying again. With the cloud moving to the East,  Germany got more into trouble. In 12 countries NO flying was possible. That is a HUGE impact!!!! In the end NO flying on Friday! Stranded passengers are either angry or resigned;what can we do? With 20.000 from 30.000 flights cancelled you can imagine this will cost!!! Estimated is 5 to 10 million  Euro PER DAY,…ONLY for the KLM!!!!!!! And ….airliners have , with the recession , already problems enough!!!!
Saturday morning  still no action and when you live , like I do not too far from the airport you really notice the Silence, pretty weird! But I would not like to miss the the noise of air-plane-engines.
Extra trains all over Europe are brought in to help out and hotels are booked till far from the airfields. Rich people just grab a cab to drive from Oslo to Brussels; cost 3800, -Euro!
Experts say that this is not yet the end of the eruptions from this volcano, and what if the cloud just remains on the same spot???!!!
!!! We can only hope the wind changes to another direction, but then maybe others will get into trouble.
As the Dutch airspace is closed  gliders, balloons and ultra lights are limited admitted,  as long as they can fly visual. When they fly , they do so on their own risk.
One motor-glider in Holland  , however , neglected the law  and will be traced by the aviation -police!!!!! Yesterday gliders in France, Germany , Austria, Italy  and Switzerland were flying; 490 were entered on the OLC. Friday and Saturday…no glider-flights in Holland.

Sunday morning with the latest news; The volcano is still spewing ash and rubbish! The UK and Germany will NOT fly till 8 Pm today .France and Denmark are closed till Monday and Finland till Monday evening!!! As the cloud is moving to the East, also Bulgaria has closed the airspace. KLM is going for another test flight and the Dutch airspace will be closed at least til 2 PM. I hope no airliner will “fall over”after these very unexpected hitches.

Yesterday evening , still with daylight, a 737 from KLM went up , with the KLM president. He wanted to see how it is to fly on a lower level. The plane has been checked during the night and MAYBE today , they are flying again after 2 o’clock. They went up to 13 km. first and checked also the lower levels later, saying without ” any problem “. President Hartman has critic on  European Air Traffic Control, saying “planes are grounded for too long”! He thinks the problem is not every where the same and those problems should be solved more adequate.
I received another critical blog from Frank Versteegh. He was our one and only Red Bull Racer and gives amongst other things, lectures about aviation as guest speaker or on TV programs. He is a real ” insider “.
Here is his opinion;
—-For many years I have been trying to explain that our government and our civil servants seriously suffer from the HEV syndrome.
HEV stand for Hercules-Enschede-Volendam. Three disasters we had in the Netherlands.These disasters paralised our society. The reason is that nobody in this country has the guts anymore to take responsibility.
Our government just took the decision of keeping our airspace closed for everything.
From hot air balloon to glider.
Of course we all know that the air intake of gliders is very sensitive to dust. The engine in the glider (OOPS, gliders have no engines) …
So, the nose of the pilot is very sensitive to Vulcanic ash of dust. Serious sneezing can be side affects.
In the backyard of my house I rescued thousands of Nile Geese who were sneezing and coughing. An environmental disaster, the Geese are grounded, Storchs just came in for the last landing.
Our aviation experts from the government decided to also ground hot air and gas balloons.
The burner of the balloon will re-ignite the  vulcanic ash and the result will be that we have people on Mars much earlier than President Obama promised us.
Fantastic, to see shooting stars launched from The Netherlands direction to Mars. I am so proud of my country. We did it.
A small step for men, a giant leap for mankind.
Finally we show the World that Dutch people have brains and spirit. The old VOC mentality is back.—-

FV

The replay of the investigation from a British Airways plane showed us this week what can happen, when you really fly through a cloud. That 747 in 1982 entered such a cloud full of ash and the pilots had no clue what happened to them. They “lost”engine by engine and the pilots tried hard to start them. Without engines the plane of course went lower and lower, and …when they were under the ash-cloud they could, to their huge relieve start each of the 4 engines again. When they had landed they could not believe their eyes. All paint was stripped from the plane and the glass in the windows was sandblasted!!!Amazing !

In Apeldoorn they found a Messerschmitt  which , as they found out, crashed in 1944 on January 30. The remains of the pilot were still in it and with the identity number found on him , they hope to find out who he is and inform his family. The body will be hand over to the German Embassy in Holland.

One of the readers sent an email and wrote; ” Has anyone noticed that earth quake is a bit frequent today. Does climate change have anything to do with these earthquakes?” I also thought, with the last one in China, what’s going on, another one !!??. That whole circle of earthquake areas has been hit more then the years before. So …if there is somebody who knows more about this please share it with us. Thanks!

Continuing on these global problems,the meteorological institute NOAA in the USA , announced that global seen March was the warmest month ever since they started in 1880 ,with 13.5 dgr. C. This was most felt in Africa, South Asia and Canada while N and W Europe were colder then normal.

No problems for the glider pilots in Lienz, who are still enjoying the best spring circumstances you can wish. Flights up to 918 km in a discus 2t/18m. and DG 600 /17m. from 887 km. Holland had on Wednesday again some flights from over 400 km. A pity the Nationals are not flown now in this great weather period, but maybe the weather between Mai 13 and 23 is even better, let’s hope! The infra structure at Twente-Airport  is SUPER , with a real motel, restaurant and bar and for  “military”prices. Not bad , not bad at all! I look forward to the CAE NLS comps.

Today will be the funeral from the President of Poland and  his wife. Both died last week in that terrible accident in the fog. Lot’s of dignities will be attending and even President Obama and Medvedev will be amongst the guests. That means….if they can fly in!

The Red Bull Race practise in Perth  started  with an incident as one of the pilots , Adilson Kindlemann from  Brasil a former airline pilot, hit with the wing the water and crashed . There were gusts of 20 k [37 km/h]  wind, when he was practising.
 No harm done to the pilot, only minor injuries, but the plane “looks” like lost.
Kindlemann is a rookie and the first South American, to fly in this Race. He has 11.000 flight hours as an airline pilot and
1200 hours in aerobatics. This is the first “crash”in the 7 year history of  The Red Bull Races .
For weeks Perth is ready to welcome the Red Bull Racers and the spectators with huge billboards along the road. From Perth I received some messages  from Vanessa, about the race and this is one of them;
—–Perth has had a large number of heavy showers (more than 60mm) and strong gusty winds over the past few days and for a while the forecast for the weekend was looking bleak. I can see patches of blue sky outside my window and although there are still a few showers expected today and Friday, the forecast for the weekend is sunny and around 27 degrees. It will be interesting to see how wet the runway is – as you probably know it is a large grassed park between the city and the river, once Perth airport many moons ago. Should be OK – Perth is on sandy soil and usually drains quickly.—–
And; Pilot ok, plane looking a bit sorry;
—–You have probably already heard the Brazilian pilot’s practice didn’t go according to plan today – an unscheduled dunking in the river. Emergency services were to him pretty fast and they’re keeping him in hospital overnight for obs, but from all reports it’s just a precaution. Know you’re not keen on accidents, but I’ve attached a link to the ABC site with video from about 4 different angles in case anyone is interested. —–
More from Vanessa:
Apparently all the talk among the pilots is not so much the race but how are they going to get home! Qantas has cancelled all inbound and outbound flights to Europe, and I guess other airlines must be doing the same. It must be chaos there and it doesn’t look like the ash cloud is clearing up anytime soon!I wandered down to check out the practice on Friday and it was all very relaxed, if slightly confusing. The skies seemed very busy with 4 planes “warming up” over Melville Water (the confluence of the Swan and Canning Rivers at the Kings Park end of the course), one plane in the course and another two flying about over Burswood waiting to land. All that plus two helicopters – I’m glad they all seemed to know where each other was because I was having trouble keeping up. They had highlight clips on the news that night and I pointed out to my son the one I liked the look of (thought the livery & upturned wing tips were pretty funky). I was informed  that it was Nigel Lamb, he finished about 5th in 2009 (6th actually, I think) and had a near miss in Death Valley last year. Where does he get this information from? He knew it was Lamb because of the sponsorship on the plane – proof that branding does work, I guess. I think Lamb has the smartest livery from a marketing point of view, anyway.They have been so lucky with the weather. Although it was only 25 degrees yesterday it was very warm by the river as there wasn’t a breath of breeze. As I’ve mentioned Perth is notoriously windy – an easterly in the morning and then between 12 & 3pm it swings to a south westerly sea breeze – although April is usually our kindest month. Yesterday the smoke from the planes was just hanging over the course and the river was very glassy. Rumour was that if the winds had been like they were on Thursday they would not have flown. I’m still going for Lamb, just because I like his plane, and he finished OK yesterday although he was unhappy to get penalties on one of the gates in his second run.——Enough news for today. Hope it is not too much, for you!
Ritz

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

Last weekend we really had nice gliding weather! From our National Soaring Center Terlet, Jeroen Kole flew 539 km. in his discus bt . He flew a polygon to the far South, into Germany,.. nice flight with great spring conditions! Specially Saturday “showed” great looking and hard working clouds. 48 Other Dutch pilots flew around as well , with distances between 64 km and 539 and 534 km. in a Nimbus 4 D.
Our Belgium friends had a great Saturday as well, with flights between 138 and 423 km. Good to see our former “Sportavia-righthand for the season “, Bert van Eycken still flying his Libelle; 356 km. They “used”parts of Holland  up North and then South , deeper into Belgium. And….this is all “soaring by thermals “!!!
In Europe,  also Austria and Italy had fantastic spring weather with flights from 881 km by Giorgio Galetto.
Last Friday the BIG day was for Lienz Nikolsdorf in Austria with 2 x  1000 km. flights [wave] in ASW 22 BLE, one from….you guessed already ???… German pilot Alexander Mueller, who flew those 15 magnicifent flights in Kiripotib in Namibia. 
Also Prievidza , where in a few weeks the WGC will be flown had good weather with flights up to 670 km. in an LS 7. Would n’t it be great if they would have this weather for their WGC??!!! Good luck,  Jozef !
By the way over 1000 pilots entered their flight on the OLC on April 10!!!

Poland is still in deep shock.  When you imagine to loose so many dignitaries in your own country , you must feel sad , if you like your head -of-state  or not. They have one full week of mourning. The first lady arrived “home “yesterday and again a big crowd turned up to watch how she was driven to the presidential palace.
 President Putin from Russia is the leader of the investigation team and both , experts from Poland as from Russia where the Tupolev is built,  will look at the flight data recorders, which seem in good condition. In any case they informed the world already that no technical failure had happened!! So why did the for sure highly experienced pilot  try 4 times and did not divert to another field as other pilots did? As said , even if he was forced, by the president or a general, …he still was the “boss” aboard! But…we can only wait for the correct conclusion from the investigators. And…..what would you have done …… when you would have been in that situation ….????

Canada , I heard, started their flying season last weekend  and as so many they are TOTALLY ready to fly, after their not too cold winter, as we could see during the Olympics. Some places even had the warmest winter in years.
It is nice to see Willem Langelaan on the list of compititors for the WGC in Hungary for open class. He flies for Canada is born Dutch , flew as I remember well as a glider pilot for the EAC and lives for ” ages ” in Canada.
Great to see that father and son Schmelzer Tijl and Bert sr. from Belgium , will fly in this open class as well.

In Cairns the rain season seems to be over.  Now they might be “dry” till January or so. Since January 1 they had 1.637 mm of rain and on 73 of the 100 days it was WET !!!
Unfortunately the paint under the Chinese ship had some kind of poison in it and by pulling it away the reef seems badly damaged and has to be cleaned. It copuld have been worse when thje ship would have been broken. Luckily THAT did not happen.
Talking about Australia; A new baby has been born. Happy dad Simon Close our former tuggie and now proud air line pilot, happy mum Jess and the rest of their families. Oliver Jeffrey was born on April 11 .Congratulations!!!!

Though the wind was cold, I spend some time at the beach yesterday. It feels so good to see moter gliders flying not too high,  with the coast line. Different planes and even a helicopter enjoyed the sunny but fresh conditions , so with every different noise of an engine my head went up!
I noticed that our Danish friends are back in the sky as well and in Spain in Ocana the first guests have arrived for some nice soaring over there.It’s all happening!
Not more to say , cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn                 Sunday April 11        ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Kupi,Kupi,Coober Pedy Gliding Club inc.  Ever heard of it???? No….???? Well this must be news for you then !!! AND….it is news!!!! I heard about it for a long time ago. The rumour was that Peter Buttler was going to fulfill his dream to start his own soaring field at Coober Pedy, where most people live under the ground , as it is very hot over there. It looks a bit like a moon landscape with little “towers”, to give air for the under-laying houses, restaurants, swimming pools and hotels!  At-least that is how I saw it on the many pictures I have seen from Coober Pedy. I had many possibilities to go there but,…..there was always something which I thought was more important. Of course the famous opal mines are the most well known reason to visit this town, with colourful people.

The most interesting news about it is, that the field will be “on holy ground”! This means that it is owned by the Aborigines and last week the paperwork between Peter and the Aborigines has been signed and the new club can start soon.
First they are going to level the field, then 2 asphalt runways will be made in a cross, so you can come in,  or go away from all 4 directions. They will have a winch and 2 gliders, a Blanik and a standard jantar and there will be , if necessary more gliders on line.
They also have some accommodation with 4 sleeping rooms built in a hangar!
Further on there will be a shower and toilet, a kitchen , a briefing room and a workshop for repair of gliders. Close by is more accommodation available and town has of course hotels and motels.
Don’t rush to go there now!!! It is all not yet finished but it will be and it could grow into a great new and weather-wise interesting place for soaring. I will keep you updated and when their site is on I will give you the details.
By the way, the name Kupi Kupi means “willi willi”; you know them when you have visited Australia and if you see these fast turning and moving little twisters , the weather is definitely GOOD!

The Pribibina Cup started again in great spirit after one cancelled and one official non flying day.
Open class even got a 500 km task ! Russell is climbing back to the top and Wolfgang just stays there by winning 2 days till now. One with a speed of 132 km/h over 351 km.
Good to see Swaantje flying so well in club class. She lived for a while in Australia. The UK boys continue to go strong, great to see.
In 15 m. Tomasz Rubaj in the Diana is proving he is still a topper and young Vitautas is not yet constant enough , but wait till he has more experience!!!
In 20 m class the 2 German pilots are steady defending their first 2 places in the duo discus!
Yesterday, the last day of the competition,  all classes got an AAT with 2 hours and a minimum task distance of around  100 km. to make it a valid day. The wind was tough , 8 mps at the ground with gusts up to 18 and the party in the evening already early  at 7 with  free goulash and beer, so a good reason to race over the area in 2 hours and NOT more!! First launches were planned at 11.30!But…..after launching 3 classes, they decided to not let the open “boys” go and then the day was cancelled for all. The price- giving moved forward to 5, with after the promised goulash with beer.
So the winners are known and after 5 days of flying we see;
Club class; “G” Dale in ASW 24 from the UK with his mate Ian MacArthur as runner up. Great practise for the WGC !!!
15 m. class; Tomasz Rubaj and Lukasz Wojcik both from Poland. They might not be in the mood for big celebrations.[see further on] UK pilot Jay Rebbeck was a good 3d .
20 m. dual; 2 German pilots , Andre Weidlich @1 ,Michael Sickert @2and  from Belgium Wim Akkermans @ 3d place.
Open class; Austrian airline pilot Wolfgang Janowitsch seems ready for maybe another WGC title! Pavol Cherny [Slovakia] @2 and Werner Amann [Austria] @3d place. Russell climbed back from 11 to 5!
Congratulations to the winners !
 

So you were a tuggie at Sportavia in Tocumwal and then you are the co-pilot on a flight with the Prime Minister!!!That happened to Diana! Last November I was in Cairns  and I told you how Diana  flies for Search and Rescue in the top-end of Australia. One of her  flights last week, for Marin Environmental Protection  was to Rockhampton to observe a ship which departed from Gladstone and had stranded at the Great Barrier Reef at Douglas Shoal and maybe was going to create a main environmental disaster when it would break.
 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wanted to see with his own eyes  this Chinese ship , Sheng Neng , with 975 ton oil aboard , so he flew with Diana and the rest of the crew,  in the  plane, same one as  I got the by Diana and her colleagues very interesting guided tour in  , over the ship and he spoke by radio to the observers from Marin Safety Queensland aboard the ship. Luckily not a lot of oil has been spilled, so the great scare for a disaster is a bit over as they are pumping the oil into other ships. After his flight he made a statement to the press , took time to be on a picture [ a very nice one! sorry I still can’t show pictures!] with the flying crew and left again.

With a signature the alliance between British Airways and Iberia [Spain] was a fact last week. In the next future they will be after KLM-Air France and Lufthansa the biggest company, having 400 planes and 200 destinations! Headquarters will be in London and they expect to carry 58 million people.Over 60.000 people will be working in this 3d biggest airliner in Europe.

A disaster yesterday in Russia where the Polish President died  in a crash while landing [ the fourth attempt!] in heavy fog with high guests and his wife with the government -plane  at Smolensk. The Toepolev- 154  crashed while landing about 1.5 km. in front of the runway, with 96 people dead according to the Russian press-bureau Tass, including 88 of the delegation! He and this Polish delegation were on their way to remember the 22.000 Polish prisoners of war , most officers and intellectuals , killed in the 2d World war in 1940 by Stalins secret service. Part of the ” elite “was killed then and now more or less again.Bizarre !
Amongst the high guests ; the president of the Polish Central Bank,  the chief staff of the Polish army, RC  bishops , some people from the Euro Parliament and the top of the armed military forces as generals , an air-force  commandant  and the vice admiral of the Polish Marine.
Now , it is maybe easy to wonder ,why so many high placed people flew in ONE plane, and 26 years old,  with a not too good name and a not too good reputation.  For sure the investigations will show us soon what has happened , as this accident has not only shocked Poland in the heart,  but also Europe and the world . So we better wait,  before taking over the quick conclusion, that  this is maybe a mistake from the pilot, who was advised to not  land there, but at Minsk . It seems the air-traffic controllers were NOT allowed to refuse the landing of a presidential plane, they could only advise. The 2 black boxes have been found, so we surely know quickly what has exactly happened and if it is correct,  that both the president and maybe for that reason , the pilot  definitely only wanted to land there , so that the delegation would be in time.
The story is, according to a Polish aviation expert, that this president in 2008 forced a pilot to land on a place the pilot thought was not safe,  so he refused and as a captain he had/has the right to do so. With that incident the president had to continue by car, no worries ….but what is worse is that the captain  was later reprimanded that he did not obey orders from the president ???!!!??? Was the captain today not a match for the President!?
From this place I would like to send my condolences to all my Polish friends,  if they were “fan”of Lech Kaczynski , or not , is not important now.

The Frenchman who wanted to be the first to cross the North Pole  in a balloon , succeeded in his mission, and arrived back safely yesterday, not  due to snow storms,  in Alaska, but in Siberia. After 121 hours and 30 minutes AND 3631 km. and lots of tests,  he must have been glad to feel some warm temperatures , in a house on earth.

And then this………
—-In Switzerland a small plane has made the first test flight using ONLY sun energy!!! It flew 2 hours at a height of 1000 m. De wings of the “Solar Impulse “are covered with 1.200 sun panels. The goal according to this source is to fly around the world . Wing span is as big as from a passenger plane , but it only weighs as much as a passenger car.
—-Ever heard of a “Space jump”; Steve Truglia from the UK seems to be a well-known stuntman, but is also a “daredevil”.  He wants to jump from the site of the atmosphere,  out of space , back to mother earth! He wants to go up in a helium balloon to 40 000 m. jumps out and “quickly”  [ within 15 seconds] falls through the sound barrier , pulls his parachute at height 3000 m. and is back “home”. He wants to renew the record from Joseph Kittinger, who “jumped down “from 31.300 m. When you have seen the TV program Fith Gear you have seen him doing stunts there as well!
—-Never ever before, so many women were flying around in space. 3 American and 1 Japanese lady made history, by flying together in one of the last Space Shuttle flights.After this flight only Japanese, European and Russian Shuttles will continue!
—-Julio Poch the captain who ended up in a Spanish prison, while flying his last flight before retirement for a Dutch Company will be extradited to Argentina , his home country after living for years in Holland. He is accused of flying Death flights for the Junta long time ago, in which they threw opponents from the regime out of the plane into the sea! Hope he gets a fair trial, as I am not so sure, reading and hearing all the stories,  he did this! At-least the Argentinians promised the Spanish court, that when Julio would have been wrong he will be  NOT put in prison for life!

CU on Wednesday,
Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday April 7 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Easter is over and so is the bad weather. The sun is shining and the world looks bright. At 12 yesterday [11 suntime]the clouds popped up and it was for a few hours looking great for soaring.In the end only here,  as not a lot of pilots went flying here in Holland.
The bad weather did not matter too much for  the foreigners visiting Holland, as they still came, about 800.000,but…. not as many as last year, [we had 50.000 less ] , when we had the warmest Easter in 25 years. Attraction parks however were satisfied! Inside attractions as Madame Tussaud and the cinemas here in Holland and as I heard in the UK , had a great time , with 50.000 guests more this year in Holland , then last and 3D movie Alice in Wonderland topped the list.

The Pribina Cup had a difficult 2d day , with several outlandings and an AAT of 2 hours set . Not a 1000 point day but at least a valid day for all classes! A “bad”day for Russell who outlanded in open class and  ” dropped ” from spot 1 to 11 overall, which made Wolfgang 1 , after 2 days! Only 13 from 35 arrived home! This is soaring too!
In 20 m. class 7 from 12 ! In this class  2 DG 1000/20m. are flying and the rest is duo discus!
In 15 m. 21 pilots arrived home,  all the rest [22] out-landed.
In club class 18 gliders back home, from 42!
The 3d day was cancelled due to rain.
Yesterday was the 4th day but as the weather had not improved the day was officially announced as a non flying day.
So let’s hope they fly today. Easter is very early this year!

No Easter thoughts for a huge group of Apple-lovers. While waiting for the shop in New York they spend  their thoughts and money, about 499 dollar , for the new long awaited iPad and hopefully it makes them happy! 300.000 were sold on the first day!!!!
Easter Saturday had rain for the Formula 1 drivers in Malaysia, but on Easter Sunday they had nice race-weather with finally Vettel as winner. Twice , he drove upfront,  but his car gave up, this time it all ” worked out well” for him and his team!

The final date to enter the Dutch Nationals was on April 1  and 56 pilots have entered! I am sure it will be a super competition! It is a great mix of top-pilots,  who have won comps already on EGC level or were high on WGC level, with pilots with less experience but a lot of motivation to climb up. Several juniors who participated in the JWGC in HusBos,Rieti and Rayskala are still on the scene . Good to see that only a few have given up competition gliding, some only because they want to finish their study first.
Even my instructor from 1967, Dick Teuling,   is amongst the participants and he is one of those pilots who has won the Nationals in the past. From the 56, I do not know 11, so it will be great to meet some new pilots.
I will keep you updated on soaring.eu as my stories at the www.nkzweefvliegen.nl will be in Dutch .

The 38th Trofeo Citta di Torino has been flown  and since I have been several years in Rieti for the WGC the JWGC and the CIM , I really enjoy to see so many familiar names in the top. I met them all and they are not only top pilots, but also very nice guys. Vittorio Pinni flew last year the fastest speed during the CIM and unfortunately had a bad 4th day in Torino, dropping in the overall scores from 3 to 7. Good practise however, as he will be flying the WGC in club class this year, so better a bad day now then in Prievidza.
Alberto Sironi won the Trofea in the duo discus, winning 2 days out of  4 . He will fly in Hungary during the WGC. In Hungary Marina Galetto will be their TC and Frouwke Kuijpers one of their stewards.

Compliments for Alexander Spaeth.  Again…yes! Great flight from Vinon 2 days ago to Aosta in Italy; 780 km. in a standard cirrus. One of his “mates “flew 750 in an LS 1, not bad either !!!
One of my Italian friends Luciano “used “the same weather on the same day, flying from Calcinate, to Serres La Batie in France, “making” 838 km. in a Nimbus 4!

And then this….A French doctor and a discovery-voyager left last Monday for a trip of 3500 km. from Spitsbergen to Alaska in hopefully 7 to 10 days and hopes to be the first ballooner to cross the North Pole. In between he serves science with measurements about CO2, the magnetic field and ozone layer. Interesting! Have n’t heard anything more , so he should be still OK!!!!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday April 4 2010       ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Hope , that wherever you are, you have better weather  then we have here in Holland. It feels like autumn instead of spring. Feel sorry for the 100.000 of foreign guests visiting Holland over Easter. The worldwide well known flower show, KEUKENHOF , will attrack lots of them and to be honest it feels and looks better there when the sun is shining. Though….. the colourful flowers are always a pleasure for the eyes.

Good Friday was a “full” day for soaring with 733 flights on the OLC. Best one from Alexander Spaeth in Standard Cirrus with 566 km. from Vinon.Great flight also from Carsten Lindemann, who in the Berlin Area , from Luesse-airport   a 628 flight could enter on the OLC list , flown in a discus bt. He flew in a small area to the NW from Luesse and SE just above Klix and that up and down. Nice spring weather in that area!!

Told you last that Bear Selen and Erik Borgmann were flying in Vinon, now I can tell you as well, that more Dutch pilots were there. Erik and another Dutch pilot Joep Geraedts  were training young pilots from our squad to fly in the mountains. What better experienced pilots could you have for that. Tim Kuijpers , runner up during the last EGC and still a junior, had the privilege together with junior top pilot Frank Hiemstra to be with these cracks in the mountains from Vinon, claiming they learned a lot and had a fantastic week. They flew with the Nimbus 3DT and 4 DM. All great practise for the future and the WGC in Prievidza.
A huge team of German pilots was/is there as well and it seems that they have their own” German Vinon”, with what ever facilities they need. What’s new ……and this is more respect , then envy!! Of course they do not stay for ONE week.
Frank , who is a great photographer, made some pictures and you can share them on http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankhiemstra/sets/72157623728269176/

Only 39 days to go and The Dutch Nationals are on at Twente Airport. This former air-force base of Twente is closed but about a week ago it “got “a lost pilot! Better said the 67 year old pilot of the Lockheed T 33 had to make an emergency landing, due to a technical problem!! And…as he had not the required papers and licenses to fly this plane, he got a 2000 E. fine! The plane has to be repaired first , so we might see it , before another pilot will fly it to Frankfurt for further revisions.

The Pribina Cup in Slovakia, has started, with 140 pilots in 4 classes. They had one practise day , but not everybody did fly that day, so yesterday was the first day, with a 402 km. task for open class. Club had 283 , 15 m. 350, and the 20m.”  multi seats” went for a 330 km. flight with major frontal systems and pressure distribution in the forecast area.Pilots love this Cup, so I hope it will be a safe and fair competition. We will know on the 10th!
Day 1 was good for most pilots, a few were unlucky by not making it home. Open class winner Russell Cheetham from the UK flew around with a speed of 121 km. /h with Wolfgang Janowitch only a fraction slower.Both former WGC winners remain top pilots!!!!
In 15 m. our Dutch former EGC champion Steven Raimond had to outland loosing 500 points which is a pity , but I was pleasantly surprised to see Vitautas on spot 1 after  day 1. He is a great and very well organized guy! Great pilot as well!!! His speed was 102 km/h in a LAK 19/15m.
During the JWGC in Finland last year he was pilot and TC for Lithuania and did a marvellous job!!!!
In club class 2 UK pilots were the best and in 20m/twoseaters , 2 German teams in duo discus, with a Dutch pilot Hans Biesters on 3d place.
But this was only day one so a lot can happen.

It is more or less “the end of the season” , in Australia. Tocumwal has there Easter holiday guests flying and staying for a nice holiday on the great caravan park, Chinchilla has an Easter Competition with several Australian top pilots and Mount Beauty and the rest of Victoria had a few pleasant days as well. The East coast normally has flying through the year, so you can only say that it slows down over there!

Wishing you HAPPY EASTER holidays and CU on Wednesday, with more news.When you are interested in the results from the Pribina Cup and Chinchilla Easter comps please look at; www.soaringspot.com

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday March 31  ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Last day of March and we are looking ahead at April,…..be aware tomorrow ,who knows somebody will “hit”you with a “joke” on April Fools Day. The next story is NO joke.
It is a very  sad story ! A Spanish pilot took last Saturday a very wealthy sheik from Abu Dhabi, in his early 40thies AND a member of the Royal Family, for a ride in a glider south of Rabat in Morocco.
What should have been a great flight ended one way or another totally wrong as they crashed in a lake , also south of Rabat. The Spanish pilot was saved according to the BBC, but the sheik, last year number 27 on the Forbes list of wealthiest men drowned. At-least they are still trying to find him! Have not yet heard more and do not know what glider it was!

One of the aldermen from the Shire of Eindhoven Mary Fiers, has opened the new season with a flight , of course with an instructor,  in a duo discus. She hopes the EAC will have an excellent and safe season. The president from the club was grateful  for her support to lower high obstacles along the gliding field , one of the reasons soaring nearly had to stop in Eindhoven after 70 years.

Great new job for our Dutch top pilot Ronald Termaat. He and Maarten Baltussen will be the Central European Agents for Jonker Sailplanes. Good luck guys and “happy selling”! For sure this seems to be a great glider!!!!
Here is the news, I received,  from the 2d news letter from Jonker Sailplanes;

New Central European Agents for Jonker Sailplanes Glider-Import BV based in the Netherlands now represents Jonker Sailplanes in central Europe.
The owners of Glider-Import BV are Maarten Baltussen and Ronald Termaat. They both have more than 25 years experience in flying gliders.
As former European Champion and Vice-World Champion in the 18m Class, Ronald Termaat is a very well known name in the international gliding scene. In 2009 he changed his professional career from the IT industry, where he had numerous management positions, to become the Director of the Royal Netherland Air Sports Association (KNVvL).
Maarten Baltussen holds a Diamond FAI certificate. He has flown the last two editions of the Euroglide, a 2000 km . gliding race across Europe, and flew the longest distance flight from the Netherlands in 2009. Professionally he
has been successfully growing his IT company over the last two years. Before that he had numerous international management positions in big software companies.
Ronald and Maarten explain:
“At the WGC 2004 in Poland, Uys and Attie told us about their plans to build a high performance sailplane. Ever since then we have maintained contact with JS, and had
numerous conversations about the JS1 Revelation. The Jonker Sailplanes brand is born out of dedication to a dream and in this way we were able to live the dream
with them.
We always said we would like to represent a sailplane manufacturer that has the same passion for our sport as we do, and to share developing sailplanes with the latest technology. The philosophy behind Jonker Sailplanes matched our own views exactly.
So here we are, European Jonker Sailplanes Agency for Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. A good agent approaches the market from a Product, Marketing, Sales and Operations point of view. Ronald will take care of the Product and Operations aspects whilst Maarten will look after
Marketing and Communications. Both of us will be taking responsibility for Sales.”
Glider-Import also currently acts for Scandinavia and the Eastern European market for the moment.

Western Europe Region including the UK, Ireland and currently Spain, France and Portugal will be in the capable hands of Iain Evans and former World champion for the UK Andy Davis.

Now spring has started  we can look back on a pretty tough winter. ONLY in Holland 36.000 people needed first aid and this is more then in first case anticipated on and 7 % more then in normal years. More then half of them,  had broken “something”and 15 % had to stay in hospital.So …we deserve a nice warm summer.
Italy had some nice spring weather, specially on March 28 when Giorgio Galetto flew from Bolzano a great 669 km.[ wave ]  flight. Another 4 pilots flew over-500km. flights, from Rieti, Trento and Calcinate.
By the way….the 38th Trofeo Citta di Torino  has started with 25 participants in one class. After 2 days Alberto Sironi is on top in a duo discus with 1755 points. The competition ‘s last day will be on April 5 2010.

Cheers and see you on EASTER SUNDAY,
 Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn   Sunday March 28 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

After 7 years my good old laptop  from Dick Smith in Australia, started to do few weird things and before loosing all my “stuff” and before not been able to write anymore, I bought myself a nice new one. I guess specially my friends in Italy will be more then pleased , so they don’t have to struggle anymore with my Australian WIFI.
WIFI is superb now and I even have a built in webcam, my new acer crystal eye””. A new world opens here for me , but also some stress as a lot of things have to be installed again.Luckily at this stage I can work on the old and the new one.
Yesterday I started windows messenger and names of all kind of friends popped up and “asked” if they were welcome in my system, of course they were, but…I prefer not to be on facebook, on linked -in and plaxo.
My old Acer has done a great job! Travelled with me all over the world and I hope it still can be used for a while.

Great ridge soaring weather in the USA.  What about Blairstone where a pilot managed to fly 972 km. in an LS 3 !! Also the Schweizer pilots had a beautiful day flying just over and just under 500 km.
The Swiss and Italian mountain- pilots had their fun as well last week.

This weekend the first RED BULL RACE for 2010 will be flown in Abu Dhabi. A very thrilling sport and a spectecular way of flying and…the 10th time  they are on!! There will be 8 races this year in 5 continents with 15 pilots , between age 26 and 53!!! Some of those pilots have started with soaring. The 2 debutants are from Brasil, 36 year old Adilson Kindlemann and 31 year old Czech pilot Martin Sonka. The 2010 season will have a new rule; Like in gliding there will be a min.weight of 82 kilo. So if you are only 70 kilo, you have to take 10 kilo of ballast.
Races are 3 times in Europe [ Lausitz -Germany, Budapest,Lissabon] further on in Perth[Australia],Rio de Janeiro[Brasil],Windsor [Canada] New York [USA] and this weekend as said ; Abu Dhabi.
Holland had one pilot participating for a few years in this Race and a good one!! He retired however in 2007 . His name Frank Versteegh in his 50thies and very popular and wellknown in Holland. This year he and I are going to do the main part of the PR for the CAE NLS Dutch Nationals. So you will hear his name more over the next few months.
By the way ,with the selection for this year and for the first time in history, one woman tried to be part of this race, but unfortunately the 2 new mentioned men were better.

British Airways cabin crews started a new series of strikes yesterday.  This time for 4 days! Several flights were cancelled, but most people knew , as it was advised last week already that this was going to happen.

Just a short blog this time, have been away, so more news on Wednesday.

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn   Wednesday March 24 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Spring really has arrived now  with temperatures up to 18/19 dgr. More pilots get their glider out of the winter sleep and start flying. This upcoming weekend most gliding places in Holland will be open. I also heard good news for the EAC. They , the club from Eindhoven,  started on a very low scale last year with all kind of restrictions, after flying for 70 years under “normal” conditions,  but it seems that for this year it is going to be a bit better! Happy with that! It has cost the club quite some pilots, as they decided to fly somewhere else. A pity as they are /were a club full of enthusiast pilots putting a lot of time in competition flying and the education of young pilots. I hope they can continue with that!

Yesterday the French Alps were HOT again with a lot of flights.Great to see 2 of my friends flying there. Easy for Erik [Borgmann] who lives in that area, but a bit of a trip for Baer [Selen] ,who flies there now as well. Erik was runner up in the Borlange WGC and Baer was twice WORLD CHAMPION in Chateuaroux and in Uvalde [Texas], where I had the honor to be his TC. Both fly for fun now and  they deserve only the best! And….they are still good!
See that , between all the German guests is also another Dutch pilot, Jan Seton,  the father of one of my juniors in HusBos, Robbie. Robbie is on the list of participants in Twente but might not come as their big dog might not be allowed. Would be a pity as he is a good pilot, but certainly on a military base rules are rules! Hope there will be a good other solution!

Here some news  from Australia from my friend Vanessa. She lives in Perth on the West Coast. Thanks Vanessa! Just to let you know that the weather is and remains the weather and is not good everywhere!

What a massive storm!

After two days of building clouds and humidity the atmosphere finally exploded with some of the most spectacular storms Perth has seen in 20 years. The storm hit Kensington at about 4pm and the power went out around 5.15pm. I was at uni on the 3rd floor of the library when the power went out – absolute darkness. We were all wishing we had the torch app on our phones! Finally the emergency lighting kicked in & the staff with the hardhats and loud hailers came around to evacuate us. It was clear the storm wasn’t going away in a hurry. The power to the campus was out so of course everyone decided to jump in their car and drive home. Usually I cycle the 10min to uni but because of the weather I had driven. 20 minutes to get out of the car park, and another 20 minutes to get home. Lots of traffic lights out, branches and trees all over roads, houses etc, lots of localized flooding too.

 The power was back on by 9pm.

 We had wind up to 120km/hr, mini tornadoes, hail the size of golf balls and the lightning was massive. We had 59mm of rain in our gauge in less than an hour, although I suspect most of it went sideways across the top! Lovely to have rain again – it has been 6 dry months and the garden looks much happier for it.

Our immediate area is OK. Some apartments in town which are at the base of the hill Kings Park sits on have 1.5m of sand/mud in the ground floor. There are a lot of trees down and they are estimating a $1billion damage bill. So many cars with hail damage and many of the beautiful old stained glass windows at the University of WA are smashed. Still thousands of people without power. Fortunately no-one seriously injured that I’ve heard of.

The photos you can see at www.watoday.com.au.  Also there is a photo of a boy on the Wesley school oval which is well worth a look at www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2010/03/23/2853616.htm .
As you see the weather is not everywhere “nice”.

Exciting news from South Africa as I received the next mail:

Jonker Sailplanes

Press Release

March 19th, 2010

JS1 Revelation Awarded the

First South African CAA Type Certification

On March 12th, 2010 the Jonker Sailplanes JS1 Revelation 18-metre class sailplane received South African Civil Aviation Authority (SA CAA) Type Certification.

This is a historic milestone for the JS1 Revelation, for Jonker Sailplanes (JS) and for the SA CAA as this is the first South African designed and manufactured aircraft certificated to modern airworthiness standards. The certification requirements for the JS1 Revelation are the latest issue of EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) CS-22 Certification Standards for Sailplanes and Powered Sailplanes.

For this pioneering work, the SA CAA formed a highly capable team from CAA Engineering, led by Kavita Vanmari.
Throughout the Type Certification (TC) process the SA CAA team was thorough and meticulous, while being practical and working with JS towards the common goal of TC. As this is the first TC awarded by the SA CAA, it was essential that the process was rigorous, especially as the TC will be subject to the scrutiny of EASA and FAA prior to their validation of the TC.

The TC award follows an extensive programme of engineering analysis, ground-based structural testing and flight testing to demonstrate that the certification requirements have been met.

There will be a formal handover of the Type Certificate by Captain Colin Jordaan, CEO/Commissioner, SA CAA at CAA Headquarters, near Johannesburg, South Africa during April with full local and international media coverage.

With a TC to the highest and latest international standards, the JS1 Revelation can now be operated with South African registration in any ICAO country.

CONGRATULATIONS to the S A Boys ; what a great achievement. When there is more news you read it of course here!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     March 21 2010     SPRING   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

As every year most of the Spring [training] camps  are in the French Mountains. Most popular is , when I look at the OLC, Vinon, where a  lot of young pilots like Alexander Spaeth , [JWGC] are flying to get in the soaring-mood for the 2010 season. But in that same area , Serres la Batie is popular as well , so is Sisteron. A bit amazed that St Aubain and Gap  are not so busy.

For the Italian high performance stage pilots  the week is over and I did not hear a lot of news. Saw on the European weatherstations that the North of Italy had not always the best soaring weather. Atleast they flew 4 days !
A competition under supervision of TOP pilots as their coach, is of course not bad. THE way to learn from experts how to fly in the mountains, like they do in St. Auban already for years. A good initiative from the brand new group CTF, with very familiar and wellknown names , as Giorgino Ballarati.

Last date to register for the Dutch Nationals is March 31. Only 53 days to go and the comps will start . Practise day will be on the 12th. At this stage 53 pilots are on the list of participants; 10 in standard class, 7 in club, 4 in open and 4 in the 20 m. two-seater class and  22 in 18 m.  and 6 in 15 m. class. For the 2d time in history the CAE NLS comps will be held on the former air base Twente. Long, very long ago I was there as my ex flew passengers for the Flying Syndicate of Twente. I remember some nice parties though…I was very pregnant in that time. So I am looking forward to see if something comes back to my “brain”.

103 days to go, for the Prievidza WGC where ALL 115 pilots are accepted . So after payment BEFORE March 31 2010, we hope to see indeed 115 pilots in club,standard and world class.
Szeged, where 15 m. 18m. and open class will fly, has no extra news and not yet a list of definite competitors. Will keep you updated!

I was a bit amazed to not see more and longer flights  on March 18 when we all felt in Holland that SPRING had arrived. Terraces were full, flowers popping up in all parks in all colours , but …as you all know , spring does not per defenition mean soaring straight away. Even in Holland nobody took the glider out for “a ride”, as in a lot of places the sun was covered by very high and thin clouds. So….glider pilots have to wait a bit longer here.

12.000 British Airways cabin staff started their strike  in the night from Friday to Saturday and for 3 days. They do not agree with the 70 million cut back. For next week another 4-day-strike is announced! Premier Brown is very unhappy with it and is scared this might cause the end of BA. Hope not!!! Lots of flights have been cancelled and BA has tried hard to ask help from other companies. 2 Dutch companies, Transavia and Arke Fly have answered with yes on that, making the union unhappy and “breaking the strike”.
This morning I saw that BA “thinks” , it is all not TOO bad, as some of the cabin staff went to work as well, but the Union claims 80% is on strike.

What about this………Have you ever seen the boxing kangaroo with a brown “glove” on green and yellow Aussie flags and PR material? Now such a kangaroo REALLY exists! A jogger was knocked down by ….a kangaroo not far from Canberra town !!! The young man does not recall very well what happened. He looked over his shoulder was hit by a direct punch in his face , was found unconscious by a passer-by and brought to hospital , where he was diagnosed with a blue eye , but no more harm was done!!!

And this…….In 1968 a hijacker forced a PanAm plane with 100 passengers to go from New York to Cuba instead of the planned destination , Puerto Rico. With a knife on the throat of a stewardess,  he arrived in Cuba to visit his sick father and stayed there. Now after 42 years  this 67 year old guy, has admitted his deed and might be in prison for maybe up to 21 years. A bit weird he moved back from Cuba to the USA.

Off to Arnhem now , for the 2d meeting  of the CAE -NLS- Dutch -Nationals- TEAM. Still impressed with the high quality capacities and expertise in different ways from the members of this TEAM.
Take care and have good beginning of the next week, and CU on Wednesday
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    March 17 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com  

” They ” predict that Spring starts today, with maybe temperatures up to 17 dgr. tomorrow. OK , good ….I am ready!
Though spring , [the astronomical at March 21] is coming and already 88 pilots sent their file to the OLC  last Sunday, the best flight that day with a sunny 27 dgr., was from Benalla in Australia in autumn ;512 km. by Tobias Geiger in his LS 4 with a nice polygon with 4 TP’s. I know Hiroko was very happy with her flight from Toc. also in LS 4; 393 km. Worthwhile for her to travel up all the way from Japan.
Chris flew in his ASW 27 a good 457 km. distance. Also “the Club” in Toc. had a great day with their first solo pilot. Well done!
Interesting to see that the South, West and East of Australia, still have great autumn weather .
One day earlier on Saturday even more pilots “went up” world wide and a good amount of 176 world , enjoyed good to very good conditions. The UK had wave at their mountain area and with 610 km. a nice up and down flight across the ridges was made in a DG 400.

In Calcinate in Italy, several of my Italian friends  are flying a high performance -mountain-competition / training-camp,  organised by the Centro Tecnico Federale. Between March 12 and 20 ,  38 pilots will fly in one class , 23 participants , the rest coaches. Interesting is that top pilots as Georgio Ballarati, Ricky Brigliadori, Stefano Ghiorzo , Alberto Sironi and Luciano Avanzini and more,  are coaches to fly with pilots, who are interested. They even had to refuse pilots in excess. They had a racing task of 254 km. to start with. The weather was good yesterday and the pilots flew 315 km.

Today I spend some hours in Hoofddorp on the CAE NLS flying school. As they are the main sponsor of the Dutch Gliding Nationals ,I was interested who they are and what they are exactly doing, to promote them in our best way. The CAE stands for Canadian Aviation Electronics and they are a type rating training organisation, for pilots from all over the world.[TRTO]
They are the parent company for the NLS , which is the Dutch Flying School and they are a Flight Training Organisation.[FTO]
It was a very pleasant atmosphere in which I was even allowed to make a little trip in a Full Flight  Simulator [737] . VERY EXCITING!!!! This was one of the 7 simulators they have.
The school counts 144 students per year and there is an average of 4 women on 24 men, though this year they have one class starting last September with 7 girls.The NLS has their own finance system, so that pilots- to-be, between 18 and 28 with whatever financial background, still can do such an expensive study. For more news look at;
www.nls.nl  and for selection procedures at; www.therightwaytotheleftseat.nl

And then this……..It should have been a wonderful Sunday-afternoon for father and son. The 42 year old son took his dad 71, for a nice ride in a home built Ultravia Pelican [1998] , but….they got engine problems, in fact the engine totally failed in the air and the pilot could not reach anymore the strip he started from. He had to land in a field , hit with one wing the ground first and “fell on his nose”.  A bit of a different afternoon then hoped for and expected, but they have a lot to talk about,as a bit of excitement like this will be a hot item on many parties to come, as luckily dad and son were unharmed. The plane however was pretty badly damaged and the incident is under investigation.
And what about this……..a jogger enjoyed his run along the beach in North Carolina [USA] but….was hit by an Experimental IV-P Lancair making an emergency landing at the beach after loosing oil. This oil splashed on his window so he could not go to the closest-by airfield, due to lack of visibility. This story is sad as the jogger did not survive. But what a terrible way to die, though most probably he never knew what happened to him.

Sorry I was late today.
Cheers Ritz and…… fly safely!