Alphen aan den Rijn        Wednesday August 4 2010         ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Dundee is enjoying his stay here in Holland  even when we cannot do everything I wanted to do , due to the FLU!!!!
My Aussie guests arrived with flu after their long flight , recovered mostly in Switzerland and France, but still were not very fit after arriving here and now I got it as well.
So there was not a lot of time to keep you updated , but I guess when you are interested in the WGC you have read their site and know all about it.

What struck me most was the fact that Graham Parker flying for Australia in 18 m. class gave up as as he said  “, I have been worried for my safety on every flight in this competition.” I know Graham for years. His glider was several years on line with us. He is a very good pilot several times Australian champion and a very serious person. Very unusual!!!
Of course the fact that his country mate Lars hit a truck does not really help either. The truck driver seems in stable condition at intensive care. The rumour is that he has to miss both his eyes, but the family has chosen to not say anything about his condition. The OSTIV members and all pilots and crew are donating money to help the family of the unlucky truckie. 
Hope he can continue his life in the best way under the conditions.
It must have been a shock for Lars as well; hitting a car on the road!!!!???? Luckily enough he had nothing but the glider was total loss.
 It is still beyond me how this is possible! Why not start with a finish ring straight away,or a set height over the road,  to avoid collisions like this. Another truck stopped when he saw the low finishing gliders, otherwise it could have been worse.
Here is the official news about the donation, so when you feel like giving you are very welcome to do so;

—On 29 July, 2010 at the World Gliding Championships in Szeged, there was an accident involving a glider and a truck. Fortunately, the glider pilot was not injured, but this was not the case for the truck driver. Under the supervision of OSTIV, a collection was established to help with the expenses of the driver and his family. If you wish to contribute to this fund, you may do so by sending a check or by making a bank transfer to the OSTIV Office in The Netherlands, or by using a credit card via PAYPAL. Please indicate that you wish these funds to be a donation for the truck driver. 

Bank: ABN-AMRO, Bastiaansplein 4-6, 2611DC, Delft,
The Netherlands
BIC Code: ABNANL2A
IBAN Code: NL93ABNA0500747709

Another “thing”, was the difficulty to get over the border from Serbia and Hungary. All 15 m. class gliders landed in Serbia. The organizers had made arrangements but it was more difficult then expected. A Russian pilot could not find his glider back anymore and that was another reason to come back “home “late. Some at 4 in the morning , some even the next day at noon!!!! Reason to give the 15m. class a day off, but as not everybody in that class got the message some were up early again.

Yesterday finally was a “normal” soaring day with good conditions, but still something went wrong, or am I too pessimistic now!? One of the tuggies launched the bicycle from the female steward Frouke from Holland. As they said on the official site:
—-“Yesterday was a very very good weather. Even a bicycle could transform into an Unmanned Air Vehicle 🙂 It has flown a short distance with a very good average speed!”
She borrowed the bicycle, so she was not amused!
But the always good pilots managed to fly well under the mostly difficult circumstances the days before.
So we have in 15 m. class  Stefano Ghiorzo on top at this stage, flying the Diana. His “mate” Thomas Gostner is on a good 4th place. Both were the winners yesterday with a speed of 114 and 112 km over 427 km in their 3.30 hours AAT.Stefano tops Leigh Wells with only 34 points so with 2 days to go still a lot happening if the weather co-operates. Friday is the last flying day.
Today they do not fly in open and 18 m. class but 15 m got a task which might be  cancelled at 12.Last night had severe thunderstorms and wind, but not too much rain. Still very humid!
In 18 m. class  the “real” soaring day was won by former WGC champion Wolfgang Janowitsch with the 2 S.A brothers  Uys and Attie as runners up in their own JS1. The totals are for 2 Polish pilots fying a ASG 29 with Wolfgang now on 7.
In open class good old friend Michael Sommer is ONE in the totals in his EB 29 . His mates Stephan and Holger both had 1000 points yesterday!They flew with a speed of 122 km/h over 427 km. The UK boys Steve and Pete, were 3d and 4th with 121 km ‘h.
On 2 overall is Steve Jones from the UK and Jan Andersen who won the first very marginal day is still on a great 3d place!

The rest of Europe flew as well  and on the 1st of August Fuentemilanos topped the OLC with several 1000 km flights;8 in total and 5 over 800 km. The last day of July was as good there in Fuente, with 3 x1000km , one by kilometer eater Guy Bechtold from Luxembourg. One pilot flew 997 km!!!!!! GRRrrr….!!!Fuente is as always in this time of the year FULL and very pleasant !!!

Just heard that the 15 m. class is going today for a 2.30 AAT .
That’s it for now! Tomorrow and Friday to go and then both WGC ‘s are over. We are all ”working” to the next ones in Uvalde Texas and Chaves in Argentina. Argentinian pilot  Damian Goldenzweig is not doing too bad under these circumstances with a 20thiest place in 18 m at this stage. See you on Sunday, back to normal, cheers Ritz
Maybe earlier when I have time and more inside news from the last 2 days in Szeged.