Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday July 24 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
14.30; Update!! They really tried at Nitra, Vladimir and his team!!! No doubt about that. But…the weather does not want to co-operate. A pity, pilots were up in the air but there was no way to go on track for distances just over 100 km. What a pity but what can you do,..yes just wait till tomorrow …..it might be better.
No good news either from Wasserkuppe : ” Competition director Hanno Obermayor has cancelled day 2″.
Great on days like this that there is TV. I am not a great fan, mainly look at news and sport, but this afternoon is full of Tour De France [last day] and racing, Hamilton is on spot 1 at this stage and of course I enjoyed the World champions swimming in Shanghai. “WE” , I mean our Dutch 4×100 freestyle ladies WON after being 5th after the first 100 m!!”
And…what a great and pretty unexpected gold medal for the Aussie 4x freestylers. Good on them. They won from the USA and France, who were expected to be the best.
Before that I cried with Norway during the morning- mass in Oslo.
RAIN!!!!!!Forgot who made this picture during the Dutch Nationals.Sorry!
A good Sunday morning! We need that certainly here in Holland. It looks like autumn and it feels like it. The disaster in Norway still keeps me and us here in Holland in a grip with hourly updates and the 1500 pages manifest this murderer wrote and found by a USA blogger yesterday on internet, shows how deep this normally looking young man believes in what he did and started organising it more then a year ago. A clever boy , this Anders, with a sick , very sick mind.
Nitra hopes for a new soaring day, but though it looks not TOO bad, hope is not BIG yet. It seems the International party was great , so for a few, mainly crew ???, it might be better that it all starts tomorrow again with really good weather and clear heads. We can only wait. Atleast they have a grid order today and briefing as normal at 10 AM.
Then Amy Winehouse died [27] and… a top actress here in Holland [84] and a top singer from Dutch songs about life [94] and my favourite Andy Schleck lost the yellow, but…an Aussie, Cadel Evans is the best ” replacement.” Great bicyclist this Cadel and after 20 years of Tour de France he finally shows some feelings, good to see he is not that gruff person anymore. And…if Mark Webber wins today the Formula 1 at Hockenheim,he is on pole position, Australia can be very proud on their “sons”. And as ” old ” Aussie, I do feel so too.
Serres had a SUPER day on Wednesday. Great wave conditions over the Alps from France to Italy and where the Tour De France luckily had no snow on the Galibier or Alpes d’Huez over the last days, the 4 pilots flying distances over 1000 km must have tremendously enjoyed theirselves. Klaus Ohlmann, 1.328 km with a speed of just over 100 km/h. in the Stemme. We know he is good , but his biggest joy was that the rest of his pilots was so good as well.A total of 5 pilots flew great distances, thanking the ATC of Milano for their kind co-operation. YES good on them!!!
Gliders as ASW17 [ 1.307!!!!] DG 400 /17m,[ 1.311] DG 800/18m. [ 1.315] and a ventus 2 cm /18 m.[1.146] all had the pleasure of this fabulous wave -weather. What a great night they must have had as well celebrating so much joy.
In between the last landing of the space shuttle Atlantis was a fact and “it” can go to the museum now. A era has ended after 30 years of travelling up and down in space!
In between also great deals for Boeing and specially Airbus , putting a foot on USA soil, in aviation. American Airlines has ordered a total of 460 planes at Boeing and Airbus , between 2013 and 2022.
The Wasserkuppe Grand Prix just started till 31. This 4th FAI World GP Gliding Championship FINAL 2011has only well known pilots; 19 of them winners and number 2 and 3, of the qualifying GP during the year.It is combined with the Centenary of gliding at the Wasserkuppe. Congratulations WASSERKUPPE, THE historic place for soaring!
Day ONE was scrubbed after it started so hopefully , they have day 2 today, but the weather should be better then , then here. And it does not look like that at this stage, with pictures from foggy early morning conditions and the message that it is only 6 dgr.!!!!
Pretty marginal weather also for the Zomerwedstijd at Malden. In the end they squeezed 3 days out so a valid competition but look at the total amount of points from the best pilots; Boris Broere in club class with 390 points.
In the combi class , Peter Millenaar who studied and finished his flight education recently, at the Global Academy Amsterdam [NLS] , yes the main sponsor of the Dutch Nationals, and who is just back from the USA and a “real ” pilot now , just missed out on 4 points to win [493] , while he won 2 of the 3 days. On those days …he was the only one who finished in his class!!!! But winning a task of 111 km. this way, only gives 24 points. In open class Bart Groen had a total of 545 points.
That’s it…. waiting for my young guests to arrive soon and they stay till Friday.If you are truly interested in the Nitra EGC then look at the blog from Howard and Matt with their view on day 1 and 2. It is great reading!
www.glidingteam.co.uk
Cheers Ritz
More rain.Daan , who made this picture a few years ago at Ely, was back there last week and flies now from Minden [Nevada]