Ready for the WEDNESDAY-news straight from my “office” in Holland. Now straight… is a bit much said, as I am late!!! Problems with my laptop again; the user profile service did not accept me on my own laptop. Could not do a thing! The PC doctor just left and it took him an hour to get me into the system, but he is afraid my hard disk is slowly giving up on me. So ,..when you do not hear ” a thing ” anymore you know the reason! Have to find a new laptop again I think! But I was so happy with this one!
The first competition of the 2013/2014 season is in progress, as we “are speaking”! In South Africa in Potchefstroom, 37 pilots are trying during this regional competition to be the best in each of the 3 classes!
They started on Sunday [practised on Saturday, but the weather was not good enough!] ] and continue till next Saturday. What happened till now?
Most of the pilots fly high-level-competitions, or are running glider field/ resorts so we could expect some great soaring…weather-permitting of course, as it is still early in the season!
Sunday…;unfortunately not good enough , a too small window ,but they tried hard!
Monday…;better… with tasks from 145 km in Club class, 219 in 15 m. and 269 in 18 m. class and winners and “loosers”, as some outlanded and straight away lost “expensive ” points.
Yesterday a task from over 500 km in 18 m. class so the weather has improved. Uys Jonker tops this class after 2 flying days.
For all the results you can go to www.soaringspot.com
Talking about S.A…..JS has finished serial number 53 of the JS1-C .
“And another one is completed … JS1-C serial number 53. Alexander Georgas, our first customer from Greece, is visiting JS soon to enjoy “SB” in the strong SA summer thermals!”
Good call-sign “SB” in Holland always used by double world champion Baer Selen.
As shared on FB.
By now most of you know Sarah ,who flew the WGC in Chaves, the WWGC in Issoudun and was the CD of the nationals at her airfield at Chilhowee in Tennessee, a few weeks ago. The club over there is very active and even I , far away got a nice invitation for this October Fest 2013;
“Register now for dinner tickets on Oct. 11 & 12. Friday night is awards night followed by a bonfire and movies at the clubhouse. Saturday night live music by a local bluegrass band, the “3rd Degree“.”
A pity it is SO far away. But one day I will visit Chilhowee.
Other friends ,Corinne {Australia} and Dieter Dundee , several Dutch friends and most probably a few Munich gliding-friends as well, will visit the Oktober Fest in Munich for a REAL big beer, called a ” ein Mass” ; cost 9.85 E.
They expect 6 million people from all over the world. What a boost for the economy!!!
I read that since October 1950 till 2010 the prices of a beer at this event, have risen with 1081 %. In the beginning, beers were not allowed at the OKTOBERFEST, you could only buy them outside the festival area. When they started the beer- marquises ,”anything went”.
Chilhowee not only ready for the Oktober Fest but also for joy-flights.
Picture courtesy; Russ Ferrell, great picture…. compliments.
Last Saturday was the premiere in Amsterdam from the Disney movie ” Planes“. In Holland some of the voices are from well-known pilots as astronaut Andre Kuipers and Frank Versteegh, who is a former Red Bull Air Racer and now still is a keen aerobatic pilot ,as well as a very good key-note-speaker and he wrote the book you- read -in- one -go, Niet voor piloten [Not for pilots] .The revenues from this book have been donated by Frank to the KIKA [Children cancer] and the Ronald Mac Donald House. The English version will be out soon. Will keep you informed about that!
www.aerobatics.nl .
Some pictures from the red carpet moments, as shared by Frank and with his permission.
“Together with astronaut Andre Kuipers I had the honour to voicecast one of the the two jets helping out Dusty the Cropduster in the Disney movie Planes.”
Red carpet moments.
Frank and Andre with one of their fans in the awesome vintage/art deco looking Tuschinski theater.
The Tuschinski in Amsterdam built in 1921 and THE PLACE TO BE for a premiere.
When you love your hang gliding I don’t have to tell you to read the reports from USA blogger Davis Straub, who I met in Tocumwal. He is a real ” guru” in this sport, not only as writer but he is an excellent hang glider pilot himself and already for many, many years.
At the moment he flies the 2013 Santa Cruz Flats Race [Casa Grande in the USA] and was after 3 days on a 3d place from 39 participants in Flexible Wing section. Jonny Durand was on a 10th spot. But after 7 days they finished the comps on spot 21 and 6 [Jonny] .
Chris Zimmermann [USA] was overall on spot 1 for 4 days but on day 5 he blew it by being 20thiest.In the end Zac Majors won.[6114] and Chris was the runner up[5506]
Here you find Davis’ blogs.
Last Monday I visited Amsterdam and caught up with Susie and Ian Cohn and their son Nick and daughter in law, Marianne.Ian is a member from the Mount Beauty Gliding Club in Victoria Australia. He updated till now every month,the Mount Beauty digital magazine and just said farewell to his readers after 146 editions, as he finished his job. They visit their family here in Holland and as we have never met only written to each other, it was time to have lunch together.
With Ian, Nick, Susie and Marianne in @SEVEN for a lovely lunch.
Before they visited the WASSERKUPPE.
They had a look in the Gliding Museum and looked at Olympia, KA 6,Phoebus and the Grunau Baby 2.
After they visited the Alexander Schleicher business in Poppenhausen and caught up with Uli Kremer. One of the high lights there was a look at the already completed fuselage of the new large 2-seater ASG 32. Interesting to hear also that 80 % of their gliders now have an engine installed. Got some pictures as well:
When I asked permission I got a nice mail from Uli Kremer giving the latest details about the progress; they are now busy with the last part of the wing mould, so in a few weeks they can start with the building of the wings for the prototype, as most components for the wings, wing ribs, steering controls, ailerons, flaps and winglets are already available. The glider has integrated bug wipers , an optional retractable and steerable tailwheel and an integrated LED strobelight on the nose of the tail.
And…. they expect to fly the proto type for the very first time this upcoming winter. Will keep you informed!
[Thanks to Rene for the translation of some of the German words.]
courtesy Uli Kremer.
More news about the ASG 32 on www.soaringcafe.com written by Gerd Marzinzik.
Always interesting to meet new people and never a dull moment. Heard from Ian’s son Nick who flew gliders and power planes as well in the past, that he is involved as a volunteer Ambassador in Bloodhound SSC. One of the 600!!! I see you think….I did the same, so as it has to do with speed, and we all love speed, I asked him to write me a bit about it. Certainly very interesting;
” The Bloodhound Project wants to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. They are doing that by building the fastest car in the world! The car is being built at the moment and should be finished early in 2015. The high speed runs will be done at Hakskeen Pan in the north of South Africa. Some of the amazing numbers are:
Length: 13.5 metres
Top speed: 1690km/h (1050mph – Mach 1.4)
Current record: 1228km/h (763mph – Mach 1.02) see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKFDcZuM40M
Powered by an EJ200 turbofan engine from a Eurofighter Typhoon and a rocket EJ200 Turbofan would suck the air out of your house in just 3 seconds.
Rocket burns solid rubber fuel and hydrogen peroxide as oxidizer.
750hp Formula 1 V8 engine pumps 800 litres in 20 seconds at a pressure of 75 bar. This would fill a normal bath in just 3 seconds!
20,000kg thrust, roughly 135,000 horse power, as much power as the QE2 ocean liner.
15,000kg drag at 1600km/h
90cm diameter solid aluminium wheels will rotate at up to 10,000rpm. That will produce 50,000g at the rim of the wheels.
20km distance in less than 2 minutes.
2g acceleration, 3g deceleration. That’s 0 to 1600 km/h in just 55 seconds and 100km/h per second deceleration – in your car 100 to 0 km/h in 1 second would be a crash!
You can see an interview I gave to ING’s internal video magazine on my you tube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpq5Kz4fq_k
Nick Cohn one of the 600 volunteer ambassadors!
All of you should join in the engineering adventure at www.bloodhoundssc.com!
build progress
External view front
From fast cars to long-distance-flying-gliders.Last Sunday Kingaroy enjoyed a real good early-spring day already. The Trotter’s Lisa and Peter flew 584 km in ASW 20 and LS 8. One of the Kingaroy pilots mentioned;
“Cu-blue-cu. Great day with some good climbs and some streeting. Bubble thermals.”
6 Over 500 km. flights ,1 by Butch [ASG 29/18m.even over 600 km. The overseas season has REALLY started!
“Kingaroy Soaring Club is in the heart of Australia’s cross country heaven. Located at the Kingaroy Airport we soar all year round over the very well known Kingaroy Valley and the Darling Downs.
Featuring an all weather strip and two runways Kingaroy Soaring proudly has some of the best facilities in Australia.
Kingaroy Soaring has over 60 members who enjoy a very modern fleet including the latest Schempp Hirth Duo Discus X”
The next 52 Multi Class Nationals will be flown from Kingaroy between October 14 and 25 2013. At this stage 54 pilots have already entered, the ones who flew on Sunday had really good practise already.
Very nice to see that Danish pilot Arne Boye Möller is going to make ” soaring-life difficult ” in Kingaroy, for his mate Bruce Taylor.
At the moment the East of Australia “suffers” from hot spring temperatures up to 34 in Toowoomba and even 41 in Mount Isa.
The Darling Downs might even break the all time maximum September temperature records.
We here have had our normal-for-this-time- fog but also a temperature of 22 dgr. and some of the leaves are colouring already, whilst some daffodils think they live “down under”.
Just a street in Amsterdam and SPRING-flowers in the park.
You are up to date so CU next week HOPEFULLY or on Sunday in the SoaringCAFE.
Cheers Ritz on Wednesday September 25 2013, the day Brutus really has his [50thiest] birthday, [ he is just back from South Africa!!] so does Peter Menhennit in Tocumwal and Paul Wijsman in Holland.
Happy birthday.