Latest news by Ritz on November 22 2006

Alphen aan den Rijn in Holland;
Yes I am back in Holland again.No snow, a nice temperature of 10 dgr. ( I heard in Toc they expect 43!!!) but also rain, wind, thunder and hail were welcoming me back home!The flight was long with over 30 hours and one scary point in which we flew just over a thunderstorm , were slightly hit and fell down a few meters, which gave some loud yells from a few ladies. I was really happy the captain had the sign still on to have the safety belts on. We saw nothing, as we had the blinds down, but he surely did!

This will be one of the few news items I will write, as now the key and the new house are waiting for me on December 7. It takes a lot of work and organisation to have water and gas and electricity in time. TV and telephone etc. In between I will visit 2 seminars on promoting topsport ,in our case top gliding ,in Utrecht on November 25 and December 9 and I hope to learn there a lot.

Tocumwal, Australia.
Before I left I saw the new Maule in David’s hangar. A goodlooking blue and white tug. The towhook should arrive today from the Maule factory in the USA. This coming weekend they have an inaugural flying weekend with Ingo as the CFI. A tug has been organized for the weekend and if the Maule is ready it will fly too, but that might be too optimistic.
In between they fly long distances in Corowa up to 800 km. Not bad!!!Keep an eye on the flights there, as I expect a few really good ones!!!!
Also Narromine is very busy with the Narromine Cup and good friend Gerrit Kurstjens nearly flew 900 km in his Nimbus 4 T and other good friend Pepe over 800 km.Great weather! More to come, I can assure you!

Good and long flights also in Africa with up to 970 km. Bitterwasser, Gariep Dam and Pokweni have lots of long distance flying pilots too as well as Bloemfontein.

Argentinia tops the long flights with a 1243 km flight , flown in a DG 800 18 m.

Still “working on ” the intervieuw with open class world champion Michael Sommer.Stay tuned, but …as said I am busy! Ritz

Back in Holland, where it was 30 dgr. when we arrived. We had 29 already in Germany on the Niederhein Airfield at Weeze.Nothing a lot happening and an easy going flight which brought us back 10 minutes before schedule.

We left Sweden, with great memories and it was a bit sad to see how empty the field was , after we left.We were nearly the last to leave. Cleaning ladies were cleaning all toilets and showers as they went back on Monday. Every spot of high grass, where caravans or cars stood was mowed.

They prepare for new guests to come . One of the Hamburg clubs will arrive in the weekend for a camp, so is a club from Lubeck!

Before I left I saw some info about anotther World Championship in the samr area in Sweden and as a lot of glider pilots started their carreers with model flying I will give you this info too!

The 19th FAI Scale Model World Championships 2006 , will be held at Bravala airfield in Norrkoping, from July 15 till 21.For more info you can look at: www.scalechamps-in-sweden.se Enjoy!

As this is just the beginning, we struggle still a bit how to do this well, as till now I have send all info to Australia and the server there puts in on. In between I lost an article about the World Champions, but I hope it will be put on later.

While we were in Sweden, lots of pilots loving their distance flying , went on a trip trough parts of Europe and flew for over 2000 km. Euroglide, which starts every year in Holland at Eindhoven Airport, has been flown in the same period. Will come back on that.

Let me see first if this works!!! CU later from reasonable war Holland with 20 dgr. in Amsterdam, where I am now. Ritz