Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday March 14 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Of course I do not have to tell you  that the weather sometimes is weird ! Only last week;
Flooding in the NE of NSW in Australia.
Heavy snow hit ” winter-rest-paradises” in France and Spain.
 Slippery roads caused  ONE kilometer of damaged cars and trucks in Germany.
And today; heavy thunderstorms in the East of the USA ; result delayed flights and/or no flights and no electricity for thousands of people, due to fallen trees on powerlines.
On the contrary, Orient in SA had a beautiful flight last Thursday with 769 km. in a Nimbus 3 DM.
But also in the USA the weather did not “help” in flying a perfect ” every-day-is-a-flying-day” competition in Seminole-Lake; rain was here spoilsport.
Official last day was yesterday with fly-able weather  but,…… as Rick wrote ” the talk is about runway conditions . The runway is very wet and we may not be able to launch the gliders”. In the end they did NOT fly. ” They had strong post frontal winds and the combination with the wet field was too much to allow for a safe and fair competition day.”
The official rest day, was [as rain was forecasted] on Friday March 12, but still a report from Rick. Thursday was cancelled due to rain and here is the news from Wednesday and Friday;

Report for March 10

Florida weather cooperated rather well today.  Some pessimistic forecasts of yesterday gave way to sunny skies and predictions of blue lift to 4000’.  Winds looked to be a problem: one forecast said we’d see 30 knots at 3000’ AGL. 

In the event, thermals were stronger (5 knots) and higher (5000’) than predicted, and winds aloft were about half of the dire values predicted.  Even better, some area had useful cumulus clouds – the first seen during this contest (local wisdom says that southerly winds will yield cumulus clouds in Florida even when soundings say the day must remain blue).

The result was the best winning speeds of the contest thus far. But area of suppressed lift and troubles at low altitudes also led to more abandoned tasks, outlandings and motor starts than on any previous day.

Dick Butler did the best job of handling the variable conditions, posting an unhandicapped speed of 68.5 mph over a task of 185 miles.  Like contest leader Tom Kelley, Dick is flying an ASG-29 at 15 meters span, which seems to yield a good combination of performance, wingloading and handicap.  (It also helps if you can fly as well as Tom & Dick consistently do.)

With three good flying days out of four, this easily qualifies as the best soaring week in Florida so far this year (a number of pilots that have been here for a couple of months have doubled their total flying hours during this contest).  The forecast for Thursday and Friday calls for rain, and so Friday has been declared the official rest day (a feature of the Senior Contest).  Based on current predictions, we have some chance of good flying on Saturday.

2010 Senior Contest – Seminole Lake Gliderport, Clermont Florida

Report for March 12

Florida rain continues unabated – we’ve had a total of about 4 inches in the past 2 days. We have some hope this may cease by this evening, though satellite images suggest this may not be worth betting on. 

There is lots of sand in the soil here, and it’s thus said that soaring can be possibly only a short time after strong rains cease.  But optimism for the chances of a task tomorrow seems to be declining.

We have been reduced to telling stories from contests past, and flying model aircraft inside the airfield office.  Just now, Karl Striedieck is maneuvering a 5-inch-long RC helicopter past the noses of surprised observers with considerable skill.

Tom Kelley is the winner, after 3 racing days out of the possible 6. He will be flying for the USA in the Szeged WGC this summer in 18 m. class. Other wellknown pilots were at  spot;
2 Chip Garner—–3 Dick Butler—–5 Karl Striedeck—-13 Tom Knauff—-17 Ed Hollestelle.
I foud it fun to work together with Rick and we are going to do this again. Thanks Rick!

Last Friday I had dinner with Frouwke Kuijpers. She is one of the delegates representing the Dutch NAC at the plenary in Lausanne. Caught up with all the stories and heard about the preparations of Szeged where she will be steward. She is since October 2009  the coordinator between ALL air-sports and the NOC NSF, in Holland. To receive money from this organisation, you really have to be at a TOP LEVEL. The next 3 year she will put a lot of her energy in helping the different air sports to get , or to keep this high level. A lot of people know her international as the Dutch TC during WGC and EGC and I know she is a great and dedicated coach as well. And…a pilot who flies the Military comps in Holland ….and ……a mum of 3 flying kids and ….the wife of a pilot who flew international comps.

I was very pleased to see the Kookaburras from Australia win the Hockey WGC in India.They won from the young German players in a high standard match and as the German hockeyers  have won the last years it is good to see that somebody else won this time, though a hattrick would have been fantastic as well for our “neighbours”. The Dutch were first unhappy not being in the finals, but after being behind in the game for bronze they turned 3-1 behind around to a 4-3 win over England and that made  them feel good again.
The Aussie coach won years ago the world title as player and now as coach. He is the second achieving this as a Dutch player did in the past the same. His name was Jorritsma and he won as player in 1973 and as coach in 1990 and 1994.Not bad! And both Aussie players who made the goals are playing competition- hockey in Holland!
Looking also ahead to the new Formula 1 season starting today in Bahrein.

John Roake’s Gliding International for March is published, which again very interesting subjects. Here are a few ;
sailplanes as unmanned areal vehicles—new sustainer for all sailplanes—-grand prix final in Chile—ELT’s success rate investigated. Further on of course all international news for glider pilots, the Stemme, the progress on the PIK 27 home built tug , my report from Europe and the report on the world membership on gliding.[www.glidinginternational.com]

Good to see Hiroko back in Tocumwal. For her nothing has changed. She always arrived twice a year , sometimes “only” for ONE weekend, all the way from Japan with heavy luggage , to not miss out on whatever she needed for her soaring.For sure she will have an evening out with Dieter Dundee, who is in Tocumwal already since September and will leave, after some more travelling around,  in the beginning of June.

My Aussie friends are preparing for the different comps down-under for the new season and for them I have the latest about the Club class nationals in January 2011. Thanks Jo !A pity I can’t show pictures as she sent me a beauty from the airfield Bacchus March, where a lightning hit the ground. Luckily all gliders were in the hangars before this severe thunderstorm hit the town , after hitting Melbourne first last weekend.Here’s what Jo has sent me;

Hi all, 
The 2011 Club and Sports Class Nationals will be held at Benalla from 10^th-21^st Jan 2011.  Details of entry fees are still being finalised but all details will appear on the website at http://www.glidingclub.org.au/competition/live/Club_Class_2011/index Please keep checking the site – it does not have a lot of detail at present but that will change rapidly.  Entries should be available around the beginning of May.  We will accept a maximum of 60, and the cutoff date for normal entries will be 30^th November.GCV looks forward to welcoming all competition pilots to this event.  Please note that we operate every day during the summer months, and you are welcome to come early to practice or just take advantage of the weather and local area. Hope to see you there. Tim Shirley     Contest Director
Yesterday a pilot flew in his LS 4 a nice distance from Benalla, from 427 km. He went to the East to enjoy the mountains and flew over the great area of Mount Beauty. I flew there myself in the back of a Blanik with Bill one of our tuggies and instructors in the past. In that period we had a spring camp in the mountains at Mount Beauty, with some of our guests. Very nice!

Do you remember Kees Musters? He won the WGC in Hobbs in New Mexico. Sometimes I read the local papers and one day I found an article about a new to make Wall of Fame here in my town even in the KeesMusters street. I reacted on that article that they should nor forget Kees. They did not and last week the Wall was opened and Gretha , Kees wife, was there to be part of it. She was very proud and said she was sure Kees would have loved it! Kees and Gretha and George and I have lived for many years in Alphen in the past as this was close to Schiphol Airport were both “boys” worked.
Unfortunately the organisation forgot to invite me !!!! MINUS point for them!

That’s about it. Busy enough with the preparations for the Dutch Nationals, but NOT as busy as some of the others!!! I am only a small part of a very dedicated and hard working team.
Have not heard from Szeged anymore, so for the first time in a few years I will be not writing about the WGC, weird, but I will read all about it on the sites from both Szeged and Prievidza , where they have invited local writers, which is maybe even better and of course I do have some friends over there who support me with news for soaring.eu.
And…I will not be bored , as I have a lot to do and made other arrangements already! But I will be writing my blog on every Wednesday and Sunday . I believe I am close to BLOG 300  !!!
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday March 10 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Last Sunday was another beautiful but VERY cold  day here in Holland. And again more parts of Europe were good enough to give the pilots a great feeling for this beginning of the season. In Germany a nice wave flight in a Phoebus B from Rheinstetten with 707 km. made me hold my breath!
Some top pilots from Germany have a spring camp to brush up their mountain-skills in St . Auban. Reinhard Schramme and Tassilo Bode are flying there,  as well as Bernd Weber , who flew in the past with us in Tocumwal. Bernd works for Schempp Hirth and has the ARCUS T with him!!!!

The latest USA magazine Soaring  had a lot of news about the Little Rock 2010 Soaring Society of America Convention,  I mentioned a while ago. I was most interested in the pictures and technical data from several planes, which were exhibited during this convention. You can get all the news about the ARCUS T , the HpH 304S, the Pipistrel Taurus, AMS Flight CARAT, the TST 14, the SparrowHawk and the Jonkers JS1 Revelation.
Soar Minden , the commercial premier gliding site is still for sale, including gliders 3 towplanes and land leases of 25 years.
Once my ex and I took over a commercial soaring center in Australia , Tocumwal, a few of our guests started later their own center in Corowa and they are still running it with success. I can tell you it is a lot of hard work, you should not do it to make money, but it is a fantastic life style.
So if you always dreamed of your own center, here is your chance, go for it!!

In Holland we might have a new Fokker  flying from 2015 onwards. As you surely know , Fokker was a good ” builder” of planes and in the past every 4 working days a new Fokker 100 left the factory, but unfortunately they got broke about 14 years ago, pretty sad as several of my friends were working there. It seems now, so I heard , that the Fokker 100 will be built again but with the latest brand-new systems, silent and ECO. There are orders already, the money  20 million,  comes from a loan from the government [economic affairs]and the rest another 70 million is organized for half of it. Will keep an eye on this ‘MAGIC’ FOKKER for you.

On March 6 the Australian Coaching Week  started in Narromine, with 13 in Australia well known and good pilots. After 2 days of practise the pilots flying in 2 classes, standard and 18 m. started yesterday.
Talking about Narromine, the well known “godmother” of many pilots,  Beryl Hartley,  living and working for soaring all her life in Narromine and International as Australian representative for FAI,  received during the last IGC plenary in Lausanne  the Majewska medal. Very well deserved!!! Congratulations Beryl! And…when I send congratulations I can add Ross Macintyre ,[NZ]  who I replaced once as juror at the WGC in Italy due to personnel circumstances in his life , he received a well deserved Lilienthal medal.

Last week I received the preliminary “results” of the IGC  by USA friend Rick Sheppe. He ia a long time “faithful “reader of my blog, as he calls it him self . He had to rush from Lausanne to Seminole -Lake for the USA senior comps ,where he is the scorer. Now…he also writes daily bulletins for us. Thanks Rick! And as we normally do not hear too much about the USA comps ,I am very pleased to inform you with this news as well.
So here are the first days;

2010 Senior Contest – Seminole Lake Gliderport, Clermont Florida

Report for March 6

It’s the 20^th annual Senior Contest.  We checked, and this contest is still being held in central Florida – though based on recent weather you could be excused for thinking it had been moved to Wisconsin.  The past two days have seen near record low overnight temperatures and hard frosts at sunrise (few Florida vehicles are equipped with the windshield ice scrapers they needed to deal with this).

 In fact this has been the coldest winter of the past 30 years or so in this area – and cold days aren’t quite the thing for good Florida soaring.  But the Senior Contest has enjoyed a lot of good weather luck in its long history, and the forecast seems to be obliging again this year – if you believe current predictions, we could be looking at a week better than any during the past 3 months.

Today was the unofficial practice day, and featured bright sun and blue thermals to as much as 5000’.  A few pilots reported the odd 7-knot climb, but most were happy with 4 knots; best speeds around a 6-turnpoint “sightseeing” turn-area task approached 60 mph. It wasn’t a super day, but pilots who’ve been here for several weeks pronounced it one of the best of 2010.

 

2010 Senior Contest – Seminole Lake Gliderport, Clermont Florida

Report for March 7

Weather for the first competition day was, as forecast, little different from what preceded it.  We again awoke to a hard frost with substantial ice on windshields.  But the sun did its work and with lower winds it was actually rather pleasant by grid time (11:30).  No cumulus clouds were visible at any time, but lift in the blue was mostly dependable, 3 to 4 knots to 4000 ft being typical.  This is scarcely a match for last year (which featured 10 straight 500-km days in central Florida, something to be expected perhaps once in 25 years) but is about as good as anything yet seen in 2010.

The task followed a friendly course a bit east of due south, past such towns as Winter Haven and Frostproof (which this winter no doubt failed to live up to its name).  The boldest pilots got as far as Sebring (one reported seeing cars racing around the track there).  Best distances for the Turn-Area Task were around 150 miles; best raw speeds were just under 60 mph.

Pending handicap tweaking, Tom Kelley in his ASG-29 (flying with 15 meters of wingspan) did it best, edging out several other US Team pilots: Chip Garner, Karl Striedieck, Dick Butler and Ken Sorenson. Frank Paynter was the only one in the top 6 who has not (yet) been on a US Soaring Team.

Unlike some past years, there is no great influx of new designs in this contest.  One exception is the Arcus Turbo, the new Schempp-Hirth 2-place ship.  Most pilots think of this as the “flapped Duo Discus”.

2010 Senior Contest – Seminole Lake Gliderport, Clermont Florida

Report for March 8

Florida actually seems to have warmed up a bit.  With only a small shove, today could have passed for a pleasant winter day here.  To be sure, several blankets were needed last night – but there was no frost, and bright sun raised afternoon temperatures above 70 degrees.  It was again entirely blue in our task area, but thermals – and speeds – were generally good.

A significant feature today was fires.  In addition to temperatures well below normal, Florida has had plenty of rain (and even some traces of snow) this winter, so it’s a bit of a mystery why brush fires should be happening.  But pillars of smoke have been seen every day here, and today they affected areas south of home, where a Turn-Area task was set.  Those who used them (most of the fleet) reported restricted visibility, considerable turbulence, and often impressive lift – 10 knots was commonplace, and one pilot briefly saw 18 knots on his averager.

Yet the task also had some tricky areas, and spreading cirrus clouds caused problems late in the day.  A few pilots landed at Winter Haven airport, 25 miles south of home, and a couple of motor glider pilots invoked their “iron thermals”.

Familiar names were again at the top of the scoresheet.  Tom Kelley did 66 mph for first place, closely followed by Ken Sorenson.  Dave Nadler is a guest here (not yet of eligible Senior age) but he had the best speed of the day at 68 mph.

Day 2 was won by Tom Kelley , while wellknown pilots as Chip Garner, Dick Butler and Karl Striedieck were 3-4 and 5.

See you next Sunday with more news ,also about Seminole…….I hope , as I heard the weather is about to get weaker and……just got the message that yesterday’s flying [March 9] was cancelled!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn          Sunday March 7 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

A few sunny days do make you feel so good  and last Thursday the weather was like  real spring-weather. I even enjoyed 2 hours of sun baking!!! Nice sunny conditions and for the pilots great cumulus clouds. Of course I looked straight away on Friday morning, if some pilots did use this weather and yes they did , they flew from Germany [ Borken] just over the border , to the N East of Holland . This is flatland flying with cu’s ! Good on them , 314 km. in a Ventus 2CM 18m!
In Holland most clubs get their first annual -opening- briefing this weekend!But….yesterday the first flights were made from Soesterberg as well ,by 2 pilots from the Amsterdam Club for Soaring,Mark and Sikko,  both participating in the CAE NLS Nationals in May.They had nice cloud streets and a bit too much wind but a great start of the season with just over 300 km. flown. And as you know, Holland , flat as a pancake, has no ridge flying and or wave , “we” use thermals!!!

Not only here in Holland the weather was good , but at several places in Europe as well and not only France, Spain and Italy. So more pilots are back in the air! Nitra had a few good soaring days and in Germany they even flew last Wednesday a 533 km in ASW 20. Mostly wave or ridge flying, but sometimes you hear the word  “thermal” as well.
Also former WGC champion Robin May tried his ASH 25 EB from Dunstable  so the UK slowly wakes up as well.

In Prievidza [Slovakia]the preliminary entries have been closed  and the result is very good; 116 pilots entered from 28 different countries. Club class has 51 pilots from 26 different countries , standard 49 from 24 countries and world class 16 from 9 countries. They anticipated before on 110 pilots from 24 countries, so when the “preliminaries” are all coming , they go over this number.
Jozef Snirc is the WGC director. I met Jozef in Italy where he was steward checking out and learning for his “own” competition. Aerospool the producer of the popular aircraft WT 9 Dynamic is the main sponsor and this is his company . All tow planes, he told me then,  will be Dynamics during this WGC. And…they are good, fast and low-noise!!! I saw one in Rieti!!!
Condor will run parallel with the comps , the VIRTUAL comps with the same tasks, scoring and rules.
For the WGC in Hungary [Szeged] around 100 pilots have, at this stage,  preliminary applied , from 23 countries.

The plenary meeting from the IGC is over and was on March 5 and 6.  You can read all of it , also the amendments from the German and Dutch Aeroclub for the pilot selection process,  on ; www.fai.org/gliding.igc_plenary10 
Between igc and plenary is an “underscore like _, just to let you know!
Just received from the USA  a summary of the unofficial voting details, this news is public but only official after it is published by the FAI. THANKS to one of my USA friends!

IGC Plenary Meeting

Unofficial Results of Votes 2010

March 6, 2010 

8.1.1 Pilot Selection Process	Use the IGC Pilot Ranking List to reduce the number of entries in oversubscribed championships	Amended to use Country Ranking, not Pilot Ranking.  Amended version accepted.
8.1.2 Immediate application of Pilot Selection Process (1st April 2010) (2/3rds majority required)	Advance the effective date of proposal 8.1.1 by 18 months	Accepted
8.1.3 FAI Decentralised Gliding Competition	Seek a partner in a venture to create a decentralized competition, with tasks defined by FAI.	Accepted
8.1.4 IGC Safety Strategy and Plan	Continued work by Bureau	Accepted
8.1.5 Special budget for History Committee	2500 Euro for expenses	Accepted
8.2.2 Proposal for establishment of Continental Records (Year 2)	Start keeping Continental Records after October 1, 2010	Accepted
8.3.2a Establishment of 13.5m Class	New class	Accepted
8.3.2b Handicap in 13.5m Class	Use handicaps	Rejected
8.3.2c Use of ballast in 13.5m Class	No ballast	Rejected, and the MTOW is not limited
8.3.2d Sub-classes in 13.5m Class	Recognize dominant type within class	Rejected
8.4.2 Revised Annex A of the Sporting Code Section 3 (Year 2)	The new Annex A, to become effective October 1, 2010	Amended to become effective April 1, 2010.  Amended version accepted.
8.5.2 Revision to Annex D (Competition quality factor)	Computational change	Accepted

8.6.1 Introduction of 20m Two-seater class at WGC	Add 20M2S class to WGC, beginning in 2012	Accepted, but not for 2012
8.7.1 Use of GPS Position recorders for silver and gold badge flights	Remove some of IGC’s authority for approval of position recorders	Accepted
8.8.1 Acceptance of discussing the notion from Australia (2/3rds majority required)	Allow 8.8.2 to be discussed	Accepted
8.8.2. Allocation of WWGC and JWGC outside Europe	At least once every 10 years	Accepted
Site of 16th European Gliding Championships 2011	Open, 18 Meter, 15 Meter	Pociunai, Lithuania
Site of 16th European Gliding Championships 2011	Standard, Club, World, 20 Meter 2 Seat	Nitra, Slovakia
Site of 7th Junior World Gliding Championships 2013		Leszno, Poland
Site of 6th Women’s World Gliding Championships 2013		Issoudun, France
Lilienthal Medal		Ross Macintyre ( New Zealand)
Majewska Medal		Beryl Hartley ( Australia)
Gehriger Diploma		Igidio Galli ( Italy)
Place and date of 2011 meeting		Lausanne, Switzerland, March 4-5, 2011

Thank you to the Finnish team organizing the JWGC  last year. We all received our dvd, which gave back straight away great memories.

And then this…last Tuesday a pilot was arrested at Schiphol Airport. He was ready to fly from Schiphol to Ankara with 110 passengers,  but…..without a license to fly!!!!!
The 41 year old pilot , living in Milano, with the Swedish nationality flew over 10.000 hours for Italian, Belgium and UK airlines and was now in function for the Turkish company Corendon. For 13 years he flew with false, “own-made”  papers, never had an ATPL  to fly Airliners, only a CPL license years ago and that was expired!!!! Swedish authorities found out about it and tipped the Dutch.
Weird, that he could continue for such a long time!!!! They do so many prof and line-checks through the years, at-least he must have been able to keep a 737 in the air, otherwise they would have found out much earlier. 

And…..what about the young kid “helping” his father in the tower…..????!!!!!

And ….what about the 28 year old British helicopter pilot shot by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a few days ago. He picked up victims from the fight between the Americans and some Afghan rebels. The bullets hit the helicopter and the pilot. One bullit went in his helmet but also hit him between his eyes. While bleeding ,he flew his 20 mates in 8 minutes back to safety before being treated in the camp hospital. There are still heroes in this world!!!
When I read news like this, I often think of the French helicopter pilot , Killian Walbrou, who flew last year, in Rayskala the junior WGC in Club Class, becoming 4th overall. After the comps he had to go straight back to Kabul to his sometimes dangerous  mission,[ he calls 10% dangerous,] to fly people to and from 20 different drop zones in an EC 725 CARACAL . By the way, I did not see him on the list of participants in Club Class in Prievidza. He might be still in Kabul.

See you on Wednesday

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     March 3 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Europe had some severe storms  last weekend  and ” Xynthia ” killed 62 people in different countries. Spain and even worse, France were hit by it; dyke’s broke and caused deadly flooding. Belgium ,Holland and Germany had their share but not so bad, we “only” had a damage bill of 23 million Euro.
Chile turned out to be really hit last week, with this 8.8 earth quake, even after they have built their houses ,after earlier bad experiences, more or less earth quake-proof. The tsunamis caused a lot of damage as well. After Haiti another huge disaster!

It is nice to see that carefully pilots here in Europe  think of gliding again. It is still a bit cold, but pilots used to fly in the mountains, don’t care and are “well-dressed for the occasion”.
I noticed on the last day of February “modest” flights in Germany [Koeningsdorf] with 137 km. in duo discus, Ocana in Spain  with 130 km in ASW 27 and Jelinia Gora in Poland with 94 km. in a Puchacz. Pilots were either using moderate thermals up to 900 m or hang / ridges or wave.
Yesterday was even more active with several pilots saying; ” What a great start of the new season” . Love it!
Italian kilometer eater Alfredo Giretti flew in Rieti 453 km . Belgium top pilot Jean -Luc Colson flew from St Hubert 313 km in his home country and French top pilot Gerard Lherm flew 350 km.  in France. A group of German pilots enjoys the nice soaring weather in France in Serres La Batie with a best flight of 398 km.

Like last year I will keep an eye for you on the “Oldies ” in the USA. In fact the first gliding competition of the Northern hemisphere is the SENIOR SOARING CHAMPIONSHIP in Seminole-Lake, Florida not too far, about 20 minutes  from Orlando ,where a few of them live , enjoying the “always” nice ” good- for- the -bones-climate.
A total of 55 pilots participates , while on a waiting list a few others are hoping for cancellations so they might enter as well. BIG names from former world champions are on this list as Karl Striedeck, Dick Butler and former WGC pilots as Tom Knauf  and Canadian pilot Ed Hollestelle. The practise day will be on March 6 and the comps will go till March 13 2010.

The fantastic book ” History of gliding in Vlaanderen”  has been sold already 600 times in 3 months. Only 800 have been published, so for my Dutch and Belgian friends , when you do not have it and you do wish to have it,  order it now, so you will be the lucky one to have such a real collectors-item as well . Just send a mail to Bert.Schmelzer@Belgacom.net

2 Days of after-celebrating  with our Olympic sport heroes, yesterday in Haarlem for everybody and thousands filled a huge square and today in The Hague where the guests will be  invited by the government, then by the Queen and after they go  through town  and then …. the end of the 21st Olympic Games ; it is  over and OUT! I enjoyed it to the fullest!!!! Look already ahead at the Summer Olympics in London in 2 years.

And then this….a 48 year old man in Malaysia prepared his model plane for a nice flight . Another guy was flying his  1.30 m.long  model ,  a Richmodel Quicky 40 RC , which can fly with a speed of 200 km/h and is made in China….but lost control over it and the poor 48 year old was  hit full on the head and sadly enough died. [source;New Straits Times] .
On the more “sunny site” , the IATA sees a grow with passengers for Airliners in January with 6.4 %, that is encouraging! Also freight went up with 28.3 %, even more encouraging! 

See you on Sunday
Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    February 28   2010       ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

The last day of February already and it still feels like 2010 only started yesterday. Time flies! And….March 1 is the day  the metereological spring starts and the 21st here is called the “real” beginning of spring. HURRAY!!! After a dark , cold and white winter we all need SUNLIGHT and if possible LOTS of it!!!!.
February was a typical winter month again.
What strikes me most weatherwise is the huge amount of rain in Europe with floodings and terrible landslides with several death as a result.
And world wide the earth quakes in Haiti , a shocking and unbelievable one and yesterday in Chile [ 8.8 and and after shocks 0f 6.3]  and one, but that seems pretty “normal” in the far South of Japan [7.0] . Tsunami-warnings have been given for all countries around the Great Ocean but have been lifted this morning except for Japan.
The International Airport from Santiago is closed for atleast 24 hours , as several terminal buildings have been damaged according to CNN.

Looking back at our winter  we had the coldest in 14 years with 55 days UNDER 0 C.[normal is 38 days].On top of that we had an average of 41 days with snow and even 55 days in the NE. Worst day had 40 cm of snow![ Source; KNMI Dutch weather station]
But….they expect the first real severe storm from this year today [9 Bft at the coast] and temperatures of minus 3-6 in the night , next week, so it is not over yet!

Now Corowa has packed it’s containers  the result of the OLC on airfields is a bit more defenite and with 901 flights by 75 pilots  and a total of flown kilometers of 507 .619.80, you can only say that Corowa was very active, had great weather , specially in January , enough enthusiastic pilots who wanted to fly and a TOP year.

The NZ Nationals have been flown  and in 3 classes we know the winners now. After an average start, Dane Dickenson showed what a good pilot he is and won in standard class flying the LS 8. In Italy both at the JWGC and WGC we noticed already the potential of this young guy! Keep an eye on him! Congratulations Dane! But…..The runner up in his class only missed out on 17 points in the overall scores, so not bad either !
Luckily day 6 gave “normal” weather with “normal” tasks and a 356 km was set as racing task. But…..as forecasted pilots could expect over- development as well. From ALL pilots only ONE  in club class, made it back home flying the 213 km. in 3 hours and 44 minutes, earning 1000 points.
Winner in Club class;Paul Schofield in PW5 with 3085 points out of  6 days
          Standard class; Dane Dickinson in LS 8 with 4197 points out of 6 days
                 Open class; Nigel Mcphee in duo discus with 4544 points out of 6 days
Taupo looks like a nice and interesting airfield just on the N East side of a huge Lake, which must give influences as well. When I read what Rob Lyon writes I have the feeling that I have to go there one day and look for myself;
—-Again todays task takes the pilots right out to the West of the area task,but with the botton turnpoint at National park , down beside the 3 main volcanoes of the central plateau.—
Volcanoes, lake, plateau, park; it sounds perfect.

On Thursday February 25  the disaster with the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 was remembered by around 300 guests .One year ago this terrible accident happened while landing  at the Schiphol Airport Polderbaan, killing 9 . A memorial stone has been placed at the spot , with the text; ” Your grief is our grief ” in 3 languages: Turkish and Dutch as well. Very simple stone but just right for this sad occasion.

Thanks for reactions on the story of the “bad fumes”! I hear that more pilots know about it , but that it is a ” fragile ” subject. It is a bit sad to hear from pilots, that “lawsuits against big companies are only won by the lawyers”.
When there is ” really smoke there could be fire as well, ” so hopefully the pilots in Belgium, Australia ,the UK , Holland and Australia and maybe more countries, go to the bottom to find the truth!!

Apologies when I am sometimes a bit TOO carried away with sport! But…when you are still interested in who won the 100st Dutch gold medal in total,  counting summer and winter Olympics , then I can tell you that this was in the end a surprise. For the first time in history , “we” won at the Winter Olympics, a gold medal in a snow sport. The very first also NOT on ice!!!Nicolien Sauerbreij won gold on the parallel giant slalom for snow boarders. Great effort, while our pursuit skaters both men [very unexpected!] and women failed to win gold! Again we were counting on them, as they won all races over the last years world wide, but……such is life!

Not a lot of soaring happening last week,  only and of course very important , a lot of talking at the IGC meeting this upcoming week in Lausanne, so see you next week…and I hope our friends in the Southern part of Japan and in Chile are OK!
Cheers Ritz

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

In a “sad” mood all day! I know there are much worse things in the world  then loosing a “sure”  gold Olympic medal, but nearly 7 million Dutch people and I, had a great evening yesterday, looking at the last race of the 10.000 m. , till the moment after 9 minutes with only less then 4 to go, that Svens coach told him to go to the other lane , Sven got confused , listened and….”paffff” gone was the 4th gold for Holland, Sven’s 2d this year and the hundreds Olympic gold medal in Dutch history, we ALL wanted Sven to win. He might still win it in the pursuit, as he announced straight after the disaster he will go for that, with his mates! TOP GUY!!!!Sorry I had to get this of my chest!!!

At TV I saw an interesting program  about aviation, which even worried me a bit .
On Sunday evening , reporters from  Zembla [ a Dutch program with a critical look on the world]  claimed  that a very strong bad smell and smoke in the cockpit of  one of the KLM planes , has made, at least in 2 occasions  pilots dizzy and they even  had to  use their oxygen-masks!!! It happened , as the programmers  said,  on December 2 and 23 2009 with the same Fokker 100, from City Hopper . I know how careful KLM is with their pilots  and passengers, always safety first is their device, so I was a bit surprised that the Inspection has confirmed that both these incidents indeed have happened.
It seems that, maybe due to bad sealings ,oil from the engine or from the hydraulic systems, can leak into the airco system and pilots ,but also crew and passengers can inhale toxic fumes.
KLM did not want to say anything  in the program, Fokker said they knew from the incidents ,but they guarantee the safety for everybody involved and others said it was a “hidden truth”. Some pilots who got sick are preparing a “case”. Let’s wait and see what comes out of that.
Anyhow serious enough to keep a good eye on it, as a lot of my friends, young and old are [airline ] pilots!”
One day later KLM denied that the crew was sick , but admitted the bad smell.
Very glad that there are no toxic fumes in gliders !!!

Commotion in Europe’ aviation-world; On Monday morning early a  strike started by the Lufthansa  pilots [4000, including German Wings and  Lufthansa Cargo] ] for better working-circumstances  , more money and ….they are not happy with the fact that Lufthansa has announced drastic changes  to survive in these times of  crises .One of  those new changes “could be”  , that they want to reduce the staff  with 4500 and they seem to prefer “cheaper ” pilots from outside Germany . On Sunday the Lufthansa TOP offered them better conditions,but that was not good enough. Lots of passengers were stuck  as around 800 flights were cancelled on Monday only and it will cost Lufthansa as they say, 25.000.000 Euro per day. Lufthansa went to Court and on Monday,they decided in court, that the union and Lufthansa are continuing their negotiations, so till March 8 no more strike!!!

Europe’ s aviation is a bit lost  as also air traffic controllers strike in France as a protest for possible loss of jobs. Poor passengers over there at Orly and Charles de Gaulle and the same in Greece where AND pilots AND  cabin crew AND  air traffic-controllers are on strike and on top of that the UK cabin crew union has announced a strike for guaranty of their jobs and a better CAO.

Most of the OLC flights in gliders were from Lake Keepit, where the Lake Keepit Regatta started last Sunday. Over the last couple of days they enjoyed very pleasant soaring weather with flights up to 350 km..
Great to see Rieti is already early active with a 433 km.  flight from Alfredo Giretti, flying up and down over the ridges of those great looking mountains  reaching a height of 2800 m.

In Taupo, [ NZ ] the Nationals finally had some better weather  and Dane , in standard class, straight away set the record straight , by winning day 3 with 1000 points.
Also for Dutch born Tony van Dyk,  day 3 was a good one getting 4th. and…an even  better day, was day 2 which he won! He climbed up from last place [22] overall on day 1 to 15 and is on spot 12 today. He is not the youngest anymore, but still shows how good he can be.
They have had ,between showers 5 soaring days and Dane…is on top NOW.

Only a few more days and a regular life with normal sleep will start again. Olympics are great but you have to have nerves and stamina, when you are a sports-fan.

Cheers Ritz and enjoy the rest of your week

Alphen aan den Rijn     February 21 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com       blog  275

The overseas season is REALLY over  and all the gliders are on their way home , or about to go home, after a great time in December in Namibia and SA and one of the best times in January in Australia.
Rain is still spoiling the NZ Nationals, but…..yesterday they had their first nice flying-day, even with 1000 points for the winner in Standard class . Only 3 pilots however manged to fly the AAT in 3.30 gaining with that effort the highest points. Still going till the 25th of February , so possibilities enough for those who missed out on this first soar-able day, certainly for them who landed within 100km. after their start, while the biggest distance turned out to be 239 km..
Dane lost about 400 points,ai-ai! Today they tried hard again and pilots FLEW , but…not far enough to make it a day!

 I had a look at our friends in hang gliding. They had a competition in Manilla going till yesterday; the NSW Hang Gliding State Titles.
I know only 2 of them a bit better and that’s Jonny Durand jr. from Australia,  1 overall after 4 days of flying in open class and…after winning day 1, 2  and 4 and in the end the  overall – winner after 5 days .
The other even more familiar pilot is Grant Heany, my kind colleague for 2 years in the organisation of Sportavia “under” Richard Cawsey.
Grant, who is a great glider pilot as well, dropped on the 5th and last flying day from 6 to 7 ,but still very good. From the 54 competitors I have met quite a few in the past, as for ONE year hang-gliding and gliding were combined in Tocumwal. We organised a big competition as well, with Jonny in the top as well, can’t remember if he won or Atilla.
Day 2 was a real good day with 19 pilots flying the maximum set task of 128 km. with best speed by Jonny ; 52.9 km/h. Most pilots fly Moyes Litespeed and it would be nice to know how Mr . Moyes , who is not the youngest anymore, but still a very interesting ” guy” , is doing. I liked his enthusiasm!

Still absolute fabulous weather in the East of Australia  , where about 200 km.S. of Lake Keepit a Standard Libelle from Warkworth in the Hunter Valley was launched and could fly a beautiful triangle of 468 km. up to Lake Keepit and back home via the W.
Tocumwal’s pilot Terry Ryan, who had a fabulous year, flew still a 529 km. flight this late in the season, though there might be more nice flights to come as even March can be good.Benalla had a wonderful flight with Louise O’Grady topping the day with a flight of  490 km. in ASW 19, not making it back home ,but  close and still a great flight!

Just received by mail the  new book SOARING IN VLAANDEREN  by professor Bert Schmelzer sr. ,  “a fascinating adventure in silence” and wow what a fantastic book this is !!!
331 Pages , bound and with a hard cover, lot’s of pictures, history , even registrations of gliders in Belgium,  competition results, facts, stories and interviews with pilots; unique in his kind! My weekend is JUST GOOD, I started reading straight away!!!!
Just to let you know; Bert sr. is the father from Bert jr and Tijl, both top pilots in Belgium in both JWGC and WGC  and the husband of Hilde, TC during several EGC’s and WGC’s.
And….the whole family flies!!!
After my first impressions I can recommend the book to everybody who reads Flemish/Dutch. In fact it is a “MUST”!

I got back all nice memories after starting to read this book.  One I would like to share with you;
Being the first female pilot from the student aeroclub from the University of Eindhoven, I had some priviliges. I loved going for retrieves in the old jeep with an open trailer behind it; exploring the world. So on the 27th of April in 1968 we went to Eindhoven where the Victor Boin Trophy was to be flown. Theo and George were the pilots, flying the real “FLASH” competition glider KA7. I was going with Kees, who later became world champion in Hobbs and as I remember well, Leo for the retrieve. For a long time we did not know anything and as this one day competition is all about free distance, we drove a bit direction South as that was where the wind went. At 8 we heard that “our” pilots had long flown “off”  their map and landed not far from a garden with a castle , where a fighter pilot was living with his wife and children. Nivelles was the place and…. in the North of France. With more speed we drove the jeep into that direction, but Fortuna was not with us. Some of the cables in the old jeep burned which “killed” the action. It was after midnight and no cars to be seen on a straight road without lights and full of trees, just past Brussel. Kees managed to park the car between the trees and asked for one of my stockings??? to repair the cables, but I was in jeans , so no silk stockings.
The first aid kit helped and with plaster , our to be electro technical engineer, did a great job.
At 3 in the morning the glider was on the trailer and after lots of thank you’s , to the kind but by then very tired new friends, we went home.They dropped me off at home , it was light already and the boys were going to the airfield.Not long after I had fallen in an exhausted  deep sleep, mum entered my room and said with big eyes; “Who are those tall guys sleeping in the sun-chairs in the garden???”

See you next week Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      February 21 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Looking outside I still see snow but…. some glider pilots in the East of Australia  at Jondaryan, where you can fly all year around, enjoyed their Valentine Day with  superb flights, p.e one  in LS 1f by Allan Barnes;710 km. a big polygone to the S and N West of Jondaryan. Great effort!
” Poor Italy ” has the most shocking landslides after heavy rain in Sicilie and Calabria , luckily people were warned in time and escaped their towns and Belgium suffered the sad loss of 18 people in a horrific train accident. More then 160 people wounded!
Looking at the bright site; spring WILL come , days are getting longer and temperatures end of this week will be around 5 PLUS.

In Taupo in New Zealand the NZ-Nationals  2010 have started with well known names as Dane Dickinson , George Wills and Tony van Dyke. As far as I heard the NZ season was not the best and also now rain was spoilsport. They hope however to fly tomorrow. The comps count 41 competitors  in club, standard and open class and started on February 14 with a practise day and Dane used it to still fly a 197 km task, though the forecast was not too good.  They go till February 25. Will keep you informed.

Yesterday several planned flights to the Canarian Islands  were cancelled due to winds up to 120 km /h.  Result for that day; 9000 people could neither go home nor to their holiday destination. The meteo had given a weather-alarm for all the different islands.

Last time I mentioned  the Pribina Cup in Nitra [Slovakia] and Fatraglide also in Slovakia at Martin Airport, both celebrating their 10th edition, today I would like to mention the 2010 Trofeo Internazionale Citta di Torino in Italy as well. This is planned from March 26-April 5 for 15m. class[handicapted]
And very important for glider pilots is as well the next IGC MEETING in Lausanne on March 5 and 6 2010. Delegates from all countries have been invited! If you are interested the agenda  for the plenary is to be found at ; www.fai.org/gliding/igc_plenary10

Air Berlin is willing to upgrade their interest in Niki,  an Austrian price -fighter and owned by Formula 1 legend Niki Lauda, from 24 to 49 %. Air Berlin is the second biggest passenger carrier after Lufthansa and last year 8.3 million passengers choose to fly with  Air Berlin. Their co-operation started in 2004. [source; Der Standard]

 While doing research for my article   for the Dutch Gliding Magazine Thermiek,because of the CAE NLS Dutch National Championships in Twente early in May,  I found on google that 74 years ago, in 1936,  the first Dutch Gliding Competition was in Twente as well. One of the well known soaring editors writing p.e about the past, was Ary Ceelen and he mentioned in an article that 50 pilots and 14 gliders arrived for that event.  Gliders as Zogling, ESG and Grunau Baby[ I went solo in a Baby in 1967].
Goals of that first Dutch competition were; reaching best heightgain over start height ; this time 380 m., the biggest distance , this was 39 km. flown by the winner and the longest flight and that was 100 minutes!!!!!!!!! Only 3 flights were allowed and you got points for them and out of that the winners were selected.
During that competition 1 pilot flew over the “magic 100 km.” and one flew over  50 km, so 2 pilots were the first to fly their 50k for the silver C. But…the story says that they did not win any competition-points or got any prize” ,while they had used their 3 flights already on other days”!!!! What about that!! But the silver C’s must have felt like gold!

That’s it for today, still enjoying the Olympics to the fullest. Sorry to see the organizers in Richmond struggle so badly with the ice and their machines. We , Dutch, are a real ice-skating-nation and all our millions of toes were “bend”, from frustration. We are also still stuck with “only” ONE gold medal, but more is to come, wait and see!

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      Sunday February 14 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

                                           HAPPY VALENTINE !!!!

While Belgium suffered nearly 1000 km of traffic jam  on Wednesday, Afghanistan was hit by terrible avalanches after heavy snow, killing at-least 160 people. The people in the East of the USA are still cleaning a meter of snow in front of their houses and  Melbourne was hit by a severe thunderstorm  causing chaos in most of the state Victoria and flooding in the town, so badly that people could swim at places.
The weather this year  is ” impressive”  world wide, both in a good and bad way and as glider pilots depend on  weather , they will be , as I am , interested in what this weather does!

In Austria glider pilot and millionaire Karl Rabeder  has decided that a “5 star life ” does not make him happy and he is planning to raffle his house on a lake looking at the Alps, to sell his farm in France , his car  and….his 6 gliders !!!! The money will go to orphanages, small business and development projects in Central and Latin America.
Well, to be honest I do understand him! Hope he “finds” happiness now!

As last year I would like to inform you about Fatraglide. [Thanks Tibor!] They prepare a jubilee competition as it is the 10 th time they fly this International Mountain competition at the airfield “Martin “.
 New is that they offer prize money for the 3 prize winners in each of the 2 classes, 500,-300,-and 100,-Euro, plus a special bonus for the best junior of 200,-Euro!!! I like that special …for the best junior!!
You can find all the details on www.fatraglide.sk and…included in the entry-fee is, like last year,  a unique design T-shirt [by www.wingthing.com] , so if you are interested go and look to their site! Competition is from May 1 – 8 and May 9 is a reserve day.

Also the 10th anniversary of the Pribina Cup 2010 ,the first BIG competition of the season 2010. There will be a limit of 50 participants in each class with a maximum of 150 pilots in total in all classes! The comps are as always in Nitra during the Easter holidays. During the next plenary meeting in Lausanne we will hear,  if Nitra will win the bid to have the EGC for the smaller ships and 20 m. multi- seat class in 2011.

Not a lot happening in our soaring world!  This is a real in-between period again , so let’s look at something different BIG and SPORT; The Olympics.
I noticed that the Dutch Olympic team lives above Australia and they are “neighbours” from Canada! I guess they will have a lot of fun!!! And for sure their new neighbours will be invited by the Dutch in the famous Holland Heineken House!
The opening ceremony was just awesome. I loved the fiddlers and the tap dancers, the way they honoured their original population and the fairy-tale-way way they showed the environment.
Of course I had a tear in my eye when I saw how the young only 21 year old  luger  got killed in that horrific accident, while practising and doing what he loved most and he was good in. The one minute silence and the way his team was supported by the crowd, coming in into the oval, was more then impressive. These Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver have been dedicated to this young man, Nodar.

Had a great Carnival time and  …..looked with OVER 5 million Dutch people to the 5000 m. race from Sven in Richmond and had tears again  when he won his first Olympic GOLD!
Off to look at the 3000 m. for ladies now . See you on Wednesday
Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday February 10   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

As I told you the after-summer in Australia can be very good.  It was proved by several pilots last Monday ,though we all know that the days in this period of time, normally start later and are shorter!
Pepe the well deserved FAI-OLC  winner for AUSTRALIA, managed to fly that day a nice big task from Corowa to the SW and NW making 802 km. adding some points to his “title” , while yesterday 8 pilots flew between 700 and 800 km.
On top of that Pepe was today one of the flying pilots to bring Corowa to a new milestone ; all pilots flew together 500.080.29 kilometer in this successful Corowa-season . Great achievement again !.

In both Szeged and Prievidza  organisers are very busy with the preparations for the WGC. 87 Pilots have preliminary entered already  for Hungary and I see BIG names!!!
In Slovenia I noticed 90 pilots on the list with  more or less defenite , 27 pilots in club, 29 in standard and 9 in World class. BIG names here as well. They will be great comps in both countries! Looking forward to it!

In the French mountains  top pilot Gerard Lherm made a nice flight from St Martin de Londres, claiming that , though he lost 2 hours in the Ganges area, he really enjoyed this early European flight in the Ventus b/15m. of 519 km.

From February 8 onwards  pilots here could enter to fly in  the Dutch Nationals at the Military Base of Twente. Within 24 hours 21 pilots did so on line! Pilots can still do so till April 1 2010.The organisers are very busy with presse-releases,talking to different parties who are involved, having the site ready and what’s more to do.
I noticed that the current European champion Rene de Dreu will fly, as well as his runner up in club class Tim Kuijpers. With Ronald Termaat who was European Champion in France [Issoudun] in 2007 and runner up in Luesse during the WGC in 2008 and Steven Raimond, who was the EG champion in Finland  in 2005 , the Dutch Nationals will be a TOP EVENT.On top of that the JS1 will fly for the first time in Holland and Ronald will fly this glider.

In Horsham a lot of pilots enjoy the real great soaring weather  in the West with great distances as well. What about Rolf who flew at day 3 from the comps a 787 km task in the LS 8/18 m. As I hear they still have good soaring conditions,  but also storm cells on track. Yesterday day 4 had an AAT  task set to the S. over the Grampians with rainstorms over the 2d and 3d circle , so not everybody could complete the task.
Day 5 today still distances up to 351 km in a Standard Jantar. 

Saw an impressive  programme on National Geographic   about the tragic flight from the Concorde flying from Paris to New York, crashing just after the start on an hotel in Paris on July 25 2000. Unbelievable how in fact “small” things [ a strip of titan!] can cause such a disaster, killing 100 passengers , 9 crew and  4 people on the ground. Last week the court has started on a 4 months during case who is to blame for this catastrophe, after already in 2004  a preliminary investigation concluded that ” this strip” from a Continental Airlines plane caused the disaster.

Slowly I prepare myself for the long nights  to see specially speed-skating on the TV as the Olympic Winter Games start on Friday.I was a bit worried as temperatures in Vancouver reached 20dgr. but it seems that there is snow everywhere, even if they had to bring it  by trucks and helicopters , to do skiing and snow-boarding on good pistes. Enjoy , as we hopefully will, our hero Sven Kramer! He is JUST GOOD!

Off to celebrate  CARNAVAL now for the weekend, not sure when I will be back, but I will be back.
Cheers Ritz