Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday December 14 2011

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com

John Coutts [NZ] from my Eskilstuna dvd.

It seems that “after a night full of rain  they woke up to sunshine at Welkom “ [Bruce] to start the S A Nationals and all pilots including quite a few international pilots, were ready to go for day 1 . Most of them fly in 18 m. class , where a 3 hour AAT was set.
Good old John Coutts  [ from NZ and winner  of the WGC 2003 in Poland and 4th at the 2001 WGC in Mafikeng in SA in st. class] won this day ;382 km. in 3 hours and ONE minute, speed 126km./h.
Dutch pilot Ronald Termaat was 2d with more kilometers [ 429 km] but he “used” more time; 3 hour and 24 minutes.
In club class the Schmidt family did good business by coming home from their 3 hour AAT as the only 2 finishers [from 12 participants] in ASW 20 and Speed Astir II.
  

Ronald Termaat [2006 Eskilstuna] not only an excellent glider pilot ……..

Day 2  gave for both classes a distance of 200 and 278 km. In 18 m there are 17 gliders and 10 are JS 1’s.
Here is Bruce for those who do not have FB after asking ofcourse permission from Anita first [to NOT disturb Bruce while flying] ;

“Just gone to task C here, as it looks to be very slow to get going. Blue to 10000 feet is the forecast – sounds ok, but that is only 5500 above ground. 280 km to fly now, mostly west of Wellkom, which is still a bit wet from the rain last w/e.
Results from yesterday were not too flattering for me- about 13 kph off the pace. It was one of those days when you are just not in tune with the weather. See what happens today.
Still not a perfect race for Bruce. Uys and Ronald did better in being 1 and 2.One of the Schmidt family , Maneste, outlanded after 41 km. costing her a lot of points.
Day 3  had an A and B Task in both classes, as the meteo was divided in their opinion. Wind, rain thunderstorms , it was all possible but at what time . Atleast  it was 31 dgr. BUT……
Only ONE pilot finished. Holger Karow from Germany, dealing best with the bad circumstances from wind and heavy rain. He just passed the finish line, landed about 2.5 km from the field [read the news on www.soaringspot.com ,good news/blog by the way] and it took them 3 hours to come back home. Atleast 1000 points were his!!! Not a good day for John Coutts outlanding after 132 km gaining only 331 preliminary points, dropping from 2 to 9 overall. After 3 days Ronald is on spot 1 overall with Danish pilot Arne on spot 2.
Here is what Bruce said on FB; ” 

 Courtesy Bruce Taylor via FB. Sunset in S.A.

After 1 cancelled day  the juniors [under25] started in Kingaroy their Nationals with a 2 hour AAT and Andrew Maddocks got the first 1000 points, for flying 162 km in just under 2 hours. On day 2 Andrew won again. [228km.task]  Today brother Nick flew the 320 km. just a fraction better, but Andrew was 2. After 3 days Andrew tops the overall scores and Nick is 4th.

On December 10  the first flight of the season for Swiss pilot Jean Marc Perrin was immediately a good one. He settled down  in Argentina[Esquel]  and flew in a 15m. conversion DG808 , 1.708 km with a nice speed of 136 km./h. Will Patagonia, stretched over Argentina and Chile be “hot” again this season for the pilots who love to fly over there ???

And……on December 12 it was Namibia -day again, with 8 x1000 km. One from Kiripotib in Ventus 2CM/18m. with a speed of 127 km./h and one from Pokweni , the rest from Bitterwasser. By the way, the first 29 flights on that day on the OLC were flown from Namibia.
Nice 1000 km. triangle from Dmytry Borovyk [Ukraine] in the Nimbus 4DM.
Since December 10 Kilometer -eater Alexander Müller is back in Pokweni flying the EB 29. Looking forward to his flights, ……will he fly as much kilometers as last season.

And here is the translation from an exclusive “retrospect” by Fabian Peitz  who flew HIS first and Australia’s first 1000 km. for this season. The first 1000 km from Stonefield as well, Fabian put it on the map!!!
—-It all started on the evening of the day before,  when Benni studied the weather , looked me in the eyes and said ” Tomorrow you are going to fly  1000 km”. I did not believe that straight away , but on the same evening we set 3 possible tasks to have different options on what ever way the weather should develop.

In the early morning ,a last view on the weather maps and I was convinced;” When not now, when then”. We arrived at 8 , punctual, at the airfield.The glider Discus 2B “YB” was filled with 100 l. of water the day before , I prepared myself for 10 hours of flying and Benni prepared the winch.
One more time-briefing, hopping in the glider, checks, the rope on the hook and at 10.20 local time, it all started.

But…..what was wrong with the air???? It was so quiet, no bumps it was as if I was flying trough butter, no positive news from the vario either, not while turning left , not right. Then…0.2 ,….but after trying hard I had to land again.
Straight after landing I wanted to go up again, but allowed the Nimbus 4DM to go first. I looked if the Nimbus would put off the engine and was able to thermal after 10 minutes. If not I would wait a bit longer.
Around 11.10 I really was keen to go for it. Everything necessary was done again and straight after I had released ,  I felt lift under my left wing;1 m/s., not long after 2 m/s . It had started and with one hour delay I went for it,” if you don’t try , you never win”. After 50 km I turned in 5m/s. up to 2800 m. the race was on!!!
I flew up north passed Burra, Peterborough and Hawker,  still 80 k to go to the first TP and at 14.00 I turned 320 km out from Stonefield at ; Wilpena Airstrip.

 A lot of “nothing” , but atleast a “street” to follow!!!

I was back on schedule [time] and I quickly found out looking at the last 60 minutes, that everything was  still possible. Now it was going South and as fast as possible over areas I just had seen under me. Burra was the next TP , checking on speed I noticed I had flown with 125 km/h.  Quickly to not loose any time, I carried on direction N. In between it was 16.00 and all went according to plan , as I wanted to have  the last 200 km to the next TP behind me, at 17.30. Cloudbase  at 4200m. was perfect, lift up to 6m/s was excellent and the speed over the task till now was just under 130km/h.

 At 17.20 I turned for the last time the TP up north and now I was going S. again and only 260 km from the magic 1000 km. dream. Still 2 hours of thermal activity and I was sure I was going to make it as the lift was strong and reliable. At 100 km. out,  I had 50 m . height left with arrival , enough but not too much, so I remained concentrated but felt some happiness inside.The next 40 km. were straight on with no sink , still 60 km to go …and lift from 2m/s. up to 2500 m. On final glide I really enjoyed the quiet evening circumstances in which I flew “home”. I put  the [whole day beeping]  vario softer and listened only  to the noise of  the soaring glider , sliding through the air.

 An exciting feeling…nearly home…1000 km.

After 8 hours and 20 minutes I landed, everybody was excited and happy for me. We finished the day with beer and an Aussie BBQ.—–
Well deserved and….. thank you to Fabian for writing his story and Benjamin for sending it to me.

Enough to read again; next time the finish of the Welkom Nationals and what’s more! To finish a picture send to me by Guy Courchesne via Glider Forever.

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday December 11 2011

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com      www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com

ETA during WGC in Eskilstuna with Giorgio Ballarati.

We GOT the gale-force-winds!Not as bad as in Scotland where schools had to be closed , and electricity was unavailable for many from Thursday till in the weekend,  due to electricity poles breaking like matches .
We had problems here, with high water and  some dyke’s were checked on permanently , due to gusty winds up to 115 km/h. in the N. Yesterday they cancelled the precautions.
Power of the wind in Scotland was much worse up to 240km/h. in the Highlands. Windmills [for electricity] were hit so badly that they exploded and got fire, which gave spectacular pictures on the news.
The planes had difficulties as well and a lot of flights here and in Schotland were delayed again or cancelled.
Also Scandinavia suffered from this bad weather with one person killed and several badly injured. On top of the wind they had snow up to 20 cm at some places. Also people in Sweden and Finland suffered from electricity problems.

In my last blog,  I just added before publishing,  the 1000 km. yoyo flown in a Discus 2 by young sport soldier Fabian Peitz. He flew up North,  a pretty remote “red” area.
He is one of the ” year 2011 sport-soldiers” send out to fly and get experience in another regio, as is Benjamin and Daniel. Fabian and Benjamin have been send out/invited  to Australia to promote also the new by German people sponsored flying -base [ www.fly-down-under.com] of  Stonefield.
Daniel [Pietsch] is send to New Zealand and will enjoy the pleasure of flying from Omarama. By the way the new Gliding International has 16 pages on Omarama . You can expect the new GI just after Christmas.

I love the enthusiasm from the young ones  flying from the new spot, Stonefield,  in Australia and as promised , I will keep you all updated and share the news with you. That fresh enthusiasm makes you feel happy! No jealousy either, Benjamin ‘s turn to fly a 1000 km. will come!!!
Here is Bemjamin’s story about his experience till now, he is a keen blogger like I am. Thanks Benjamin and pictures and Fabian’s story will be published as soon as I have it.
—-It sure was a great achievement to get Australia´s first 1000 k flight this season to Stonefield Base. Fabian did an awesome job in the Discus´ Cockpit, needing only little more than 8 hours for the task.
We´ve been exploring the area of South Australia for some weeks now, although the container with the planes was about 3 weeks late we still could do some good flying by now. First we tried to get the best out of the cool southerlies bringing strong winds and low cloud bases… still three flights between 600 and 730 km were possible. Afterwards came a period of blue soaring weather: I had a go on some out and return attempts and actually did a 580 km O&R to the Flinders Ranges and back in blue and relatively stable, but high (10500ft) conditions.
Then it was the prefield of an outstanding troughline wich brought the first 1000 k day. We were all waiting for it and fortunately, it was Fabian´s turn to fly the Discus. From all the flights done before, we had soon worked out the best turn points for a 4-leg-Yoyo flight: Wilpena, Burra and Cradock. Equipped with a tought through time schedule and two alternative tasks (with options involving the flatland in the East, Waikerie, Renmark…), I launched him with the Stonefield winch at 10:20 am local time. Unfortunately, we had been a bit too optimistic and Fabian found himself back on the ground only ten minutes later. Ballasted with 110 kg of water, there was no way to climb in the blue yet. At 10:45, we had another go, already late according to the schedule. This time it worked out and he got a nice climb to 3500 ft in the blue, just to see the first cu clouds developing in the north. From this moment on, Fabian speaks of a totally easy-going flight at up to 14000 ft cloudbase a
The flying in Australia, the exploring of almost unknown soaring terrain and the preparation of the long-distance tasks is an awesome experience for all of us. We have already worked out suitable turn points and prepared for a 1000 k FAI triangle – don´t be too surprised to find it on the OLC in the next weeks!
We are still a little unsure about how often these great weather patterns appear during December and January, but hopefully we will have a chance to get some more until late January when we will depart to Europe again.—–
I can tell them that the weather can be excellent in December and January in Australia, so long flights till then are possible , certainly in the Stonefield area where the best weather mostly comes a bit later. In fact the very first competition in Australia is in the East and the last one in the West[February Horsham]

A bit of rest in Namibia and S.A. on December 7,  so the action comes from pilots flying in Australia. And one of them, Tobias Geiger  flew  a great 700 km triangle [827 total]  in an LS4 from Benalla.Not bad either  and also in LS 4 a 788 km task from  Czech pilot Petr, flying from Tocumwal. Petr is this seasons tuggie at Sportaviation and this was his longest flight ever . Good on him!!!
Corowa had some good and  long flights as well.
On December 8 , pilots were active again in Bitterwasser and Pokweni and added new 1000 km. distances to the airfield list.
Proud in between those big gliders on spot 5 on the OLC, Tobias from Benalla in his LS 4, chapeau!
December 9 gave more and more 1000 km.flights from Namibia, best distance 1.273 km. and best speed 143 km./h both by Guy Bechtold in the EB 29.
The first 42 flights that day were all flown in Namibia except for one flight [on spot 17]  by Gert Kalisch who flew in the past with us in Tocumwal. He flew from a for me new airfield Kuruman Johan Pi in SA; 995 km in his ASW22 BLE.
Yesterday Tomas Suchanek flew a very nice 750 km triangle [799 km and a total of 823 km from Gariep Dam in the Ventus[17.5m].

Both arrived in South Africa to fly the SA Nationals at Welkom; Bruce Taylor from Australia and Ronald Termaat from Holland. Both very strong pilots. Bruce flies the brand-new JS 1 from Uys Jonker and I am looking forward to follow these comps. Only hope the weather is better then last year.

The Victoria State comps are over  and good friend Tony Tabart was able to defend his title, though Jo added that there was not real tough competition as only 4 pilots participated in this class. Here is the link to the results. Thanks Jo!!
http://www.gliding.asn.au/index.php/competition/competition1/55-2012-state-comps-results-and-tasks
Now Australia’s  junior national comps have started  at Kingaroy in Queensland ; Joey Glide! Will keep you informed! 2 Of the participants are the brothers Maddocks, Andrew and Nick. Both flew already in JWGC ‘s. Nick is flying this competition in a Grunau Baby II. They missed out on the practice day due to not -the-best-weather. One of the mentors is Garret Willet from the USA, he also keeps a blog which you can read on soaring cafe.
http://soaringcafe.com/2011/12/how-to-best-describe-the-practice-day-for-joeyglide%e2%80%a6the-bar-opened-early/

That’s it for now , you are up to date , back to the Christmas tree, which is still empty and needs colourful balls. Last year I was in Salzburg around this time, before travelling to Australia . Maria and Dieter went alone this year and send me the next picture of my favourite “Schloss”.
 Courtesy Maria Böttcher
Cheers Ritz

 Alphen aan den Rijn   Wednesday December 7 2011

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com

Courtesy; Martino Agnoletto.THANKS!

The 9 bft. never came,  so….. No worries for St Nicolaas, who dropped, with his black Piet, in every chimney a present [or 2] for all “good ” kids! 
HOWEVER, this morning I woke up with a thunderstorm and the 9 bft. seems to “arrive ” at noon with an estimated 100 km/h wind on our NW coast. Real autumn weather with 8 dgr. C in winter-time. Silence before the storm at this stage. But Schiphol Airport has troubles already and flights have been cancelled or rescheduled!

The Victoria State Comps  have started in Ararat and had some nice days of soaring with over 400 km tasks. Good to see some familiar names from the past.
Today they flew even flew over 500 km. tasks in Astir CS and PIK 20 D.
Dundees ES, the ASW 15 flies there as well with Bernie Sizer. In one of his comments you read;” First actual day of competition. Good lift in some areas. Felt very rusty & had trouble with some thermals. Small strong cores. Must push on & not take so many climbs. It was good to have good weather after such cold & wind. Plenty of room for inprovement in my flying. Only one out landing today.”
Improvement was there with a flown 405 km task today.
Tocumwal is pretty busy as good friend from Finland Hannu has arrived to fly the LS 6 17.5 m JJ and 3 Japanese friends , Mr. Mizukawa -san, Mr.Kusakabe-san and frequent flyer in Tocumwal Mr.Okura-san. are flying the LS4 ‘s and PIK 20. The Grong Grong boys are back!! And I noticed Mr Okura has flown another 300 km this time out and return. He will be more then pleased.
And “one of the family” Terry always flies when possible in his ASH 26 still without engine as it is send for overhaul; 527 km last Sunday.
Corowa is “fully booked ” as well and with better gliders ,higher distances are flown. On December 5 they topped the OLC list.
At this stage, after the first real-overseas-soaring,  Bitterwasser tops the “stats” of the best airfield with 61 pilots making 293 flights. Corowa is on a 5th place with 23 pilots flying 128 flights and Tocumwal flying on a much smaller scale is on a good 9th place with 22 pilots making 85 flights!!!
At Stonefieldthe young German pilots got to know the real blue thermals, strong and reliable but invisible. [ 604 km. in Discus 2 yesterday] Ingo once flew a 1000 FAI triangle from Tocumwal in only blue thermals. But today young sport-soldier Fabian Peitz flew his VERY FIRST 1000 km. [yoyo up north]  in his discus 2. Great result and SOOOO much happiness for him!More later. They called it an unbelievable day.
That’s Australia , mate!

  Terry Ryan last season at Sportaviation.

On his very first day in S.A Tomas Suchanek  flew straight away a 1000 km distance in a Ventus 17.6 m. Last week clearly were S.A Day’s with good long flights specially from Gariep [6x1000km.]  and Bloemfontein. Tomas flew another 1000 as well.Nice flight as well  from Polish pilot Marek Zsumsk; 1.057 km with a speed of 130 km/h.in an 18 m. ASG 29.A total of 10 x1000 km now from Gariep.
Best pilot at this stage on the OLC; Reinhard Schramme no doubt about it! A total of 42 x1000 km at this stage from Bitterwasser. WOW!

In the past I talked with you about Richie Mc Caw, the skipper of the New Zealand  All Blacks[rugby] . I found out he was a devoted glider pilot. Jo send me the next link to an interview with him. Thanks Jo.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/6087831/Rugby-legend-speaks-of-flying-passion

Congratulations to our neighbours , the people from Belgium. After 540 days , a new record, they finally have a government which will be sworn in this afternoon.

To finish this blog an interesting link to the Spherical Flying Machine Developed by Japan Ministry Of Defense #DigInfo and send to me by Peter. Thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA

CU next Sunday. Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday December 4 2011

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com 

Courtesy; Martino Agnoletto “City of Ferrara in summer time”. THANKS!!!!

Due to the fact we had the dryest EVER Novemberhere in Holland, the waterlevel in the rivers is lower then low. Some of the houseboats [and we have lot’s of them in Holland ] in the canals in different towns, are standing straight up in the mud! Now we are going to have  tomorrow a real storm and it seems that St. Nicholas and his white horse can’t climb the roofs of the houses to bring presents to the kids.The expected 9 Bft.  might blow him off!!!
The ski-season in the Alps,  is normally beginning this weekend ,….but there is NO snow. Not even on the top. It can change quickly however. Competitions on world-level, have been moved to Calgary in Canada or just cancelled till later.

In Bitterwasser the super conditions continued and also Kiripotib, Pokweni shared in the happiness. In SA , Gariep Dam had 2 great FAI  1000 km. triangles  flown by German pilots Klaus Engelhardt and Markus Kries. But also Kiripotib with UK pilot John Bally had one…..VERY good! The first 26 pilots on November 30 ,  all flew with a speed between 122 and 149 km. km/h. That 149 was for friend Daan who together with another Dutch pilot Henk “rushed ” the ASH 25 , over 964 km. There you go , Daan is still TOP. Hopefully the weather stays as good and we will see more from Daan and Henk this week!
Dutch pilot Bert de Wijs and German pilot Ernst Otto Dumke, NEARLY flew an FAI triangle in their 18 m. gliders! Just missed out on 50/60 km. They surely get there!
On December 2 the first 50 places on the OLC were filled with top flights undere them too-many-to-count-1000 km.flights.
On December 3 kilometer-eater Guy Bechtold,  started his flying in Pokweni with a first magic flight of 1.212 km. in it a 1.152 km FAI triangle! Speed 134 km./h , glider EB 29.
The season till now is a happy one for all visiting pilots.

The NSW State comps at Temora continued after 2 days of “drinking coffee ”  with 3 hour AAT’s in 3 classes. Enough coffee for Bruce,  as he won AGAIN, though he called it a tough day on FB. 3 Days 3000 points, this time, 292 km in 3 hours and 2 minutes. That JS1 fits him as a glove!
Local pilot, Tom Gilbert had a good run with 346 km. in the their 3.30 AAT[ for both 15m and st. class] in the SZD 55, being 2d for that day.
They had 2 more days with reasonable good weather, and Mac Ichikawa, won both days and by winning he topped both the st. class and 15 m. class . In 18m/open class it was Bruce who won those days so the 5000 points in this comps were his!!! Great effort. On the last day he flew the JS 1 over 272 km with 139 km on the clock.
In club class local pilot Richard Frawley, won in his Mosquito, 3 days out of 5 and with that the State comps.

The German boys flying from Stonefield, [West from Waikeri],  powered by Fly-down-under, finally had a great day of soaring with 728 km. in their “own” discus 2 shipped from Germany and the Nimbus 4DM with 648 km. Benjamin and Fabian are looking ahead at “the real weather”. It will surely come!!!! As said before where-ever you go for overseas soaring it is not every day “ball”. The weather still has to be there.
On December 1 the Nimbus 4DM pilots, flew 707 km. claiming it was a good day but a bit of as low cloudbase. The last 2 days were good fun for the boys.
The West of Australia was good, with a flight in an ASW 20 from Beverley of 864 km.[ 700 FAI] and 783 km. in a PIK 20 D from Southern Cross.

A young [37] year old female medical doctor from Holland , moved to Australia to a very remote area in Queensland were they needed a doctor badly.From 2006 she worked there. This week she and her 48 year old husband were killed in a crash with a small plane. Witnesses said they saw fire just after the plane was in the air. Both died instantly.

I was most impressed with the pictures from the soaring along the dunes. I picked 2 more for you to extra look at, as the brand new DG1001TE is on them; flying and on the ground.

Courtesy ;Lars Groot.

I finished my memories about the SSC in Tocumwal.Hope you enjoyed them as well. Next week it is back to  “normal” , in “my” part of the soaringcafe. You can just click on this site in the right top-corner of this blog to find it. See you then Cheers Ritz.

Courtesy;  Bill Hill.THANKS!

Alphen aan den Rijn   Wednesday November 30 2011

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com 

Courtesy; Lars Boom

Last day of November  and it was another “weird ” month here in Holland; the dryest EVER! Tomorrow our metereological winter starts with temperatures around 9 dgr. +, so not too bad.  Down under the metereological summer starts and what I hear from friends,  ” we are coming into summer now 30 dgr.” [Tocumwal] and from Perth “summer has finally hit – mid 30s and a big, hot, gusty easterly wind. Big fires down south near Margaret River, about 20 houses gone, and 6 water bombers in action. The link is here http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-23/crews-fight-wa-bushfire/3689574?section=wa

What a great weekend the pilots had in Namibia! Saturday was already good and Sunday even better. Another 12x 1000 km. and only one 20 m. glider made it and…again as best; Reinhard Schramme in the ARCUS!!!! This time; 1.153 km with a speed of 135 km/h. The French pilots showed up in Bitterwasser as well and Didier Hebrard flew the 1.150 km with a speed of 148 km/h. in a Nimbus 4DM.
A great weather- cycle there in Namibia. On Monday more super flights and…Reinhard was the best again ; 1.181 km with a speed of 134 km./h.
Good old Walter Binder flying from Pokweni flew his EB 28 over 1.154 km with 150km on the clock!!! And…one day later  1.109 km with 152 km/h.
AND Bert de Wijs from Holland is the first 18 m glider -pilot -for -this-season who flew 1.014 km. Good on him!!!  And…2 in a row!
Another 13 x1000 km. in Namibia; Bitterwasser 7, Pokweni 4 and Kiripotib with 3.
A lot of happy chappies, though I am pleased to see that more and more women are flying big distances overseas now as well. Good on them!
Yesterday  still GREAT circumstances in Namibia and AGAIN Reinhard was the best in the ARCUS; 1.152 km [133km./h]  4 Days in a row over 1000 km. Guess the Arcus “sits” well!!!!  Bitterwasser had another 6x 1000 km and Kiripotib and Pokweni each 1more.

The pilots in Temora flying the NSW State comps have fun as well. Bruce Taylor in the JS 1 won the first 2 days in 18 m/open class and  Mac Ichikawa is flying well in std./15m class. After 2 days he is 1 overall. A 3 hour AAT for all classes on this day 2; best flown distance by Bruce 373 km in 2 hours 59 minutes and 46 sec. THAT IS SPOT ON!!!!!
Day 3 and 4 were cancelled. ” Absolutely bucketing down. And windy! With a great lightning show. Wow” from Anita Taylor at Temora. And “Absolutely poured down this morning, so Another day called off. Long sessions in the coffee shop! Weather looks good for the next three days though, so fingers crossed for a reasonable comp from here on. BT.”‘

“Ridge”  flying in Holland ??????” Maybe better called dune-running! In one of the lowest countries in the world,” as Jelmer said!And one of the flattest!
Impossible??? …..No, nothing is impossible….we do have dunes, you know!!!!
Here is the proof. Courtesy to the Kennemer Soaring Club

 One of the pilots is Jelmer, who was in “my ” team in 2005 at the JWGC in Husbos. He then studied aerodynamic design in Delft, now he works for DG in Germany. The pictures are made on November 27 . Jelmer flew the'” spify”  DG1001TE [lectro] .WOW !!! About 5 gliders used the opportunity.
What do you need to hang over the sea and dunes?
A good Westerlywind  and that was there,  as the roof from the big bird cage from my neighbours went …with that wind on that day. And dunes to “catch” that wind and create lift to fly up and down. Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

 
Courtesy ;  Jelmer Wassenaar and Lars Boom.

 Look for more pictures on the next link,  with a BIG THANK YOU  to the webmaster of Zweefportaal, Ben Hiemstra at
http://picasaweb.google.com/zweefportaal.nl/Hellingen2711authkey=Gv1sRgCNPOwcfFr7WtkQE 
And….a huge THANK YOU to Jelmer for sending me straight away after my request the link to his video. A must see !
http://www.facebook.com/v/10150479409343156

And more “Slope soaring”! From a friend in Italy , Marco ,  I received the next link;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pwFiyQVdoY with the message; Pilot: Luca De Marchi – From Futa Pass to Campo Imperatore (Gran Sasso) and back. Glider: Ventus 2ax
By all means … Have a look !

And to finish a funny link. Nothing to do with gliding but it “soars”. Enjoy and thanks Peter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIJINiK9azc
cheers Ritz ……..you see I feel much better!

Alphen aan den Rijn   Sunday November 27 2011

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com

courtesy ; Bruce Cooper flying over the Andes last season.

Due to my flu and ischias, [sciatica] I was not able to visit one of the highlights in Holland in soaring; the Dutch National Soaring Day. That’s where you meet all your “mates”.
A pity as it looks it was more then well organised, with a market with the latest on gliding as in gliders and instruments and of course “toys for the boys”! Great speakers as Reiner Rose from the OLC and Glenn Fisher from the Perlan Project, as well as double World Champion Baer Selen with a workshop about training for solo pilots and young topper Frank Hiemstra with a workshop about glider tracking! Workshops also about medical issues, vintage gliders and the service center for gliders here at Terlet.
A REAL pity…. a missed change, but…such is life!
See if I can add a link to the winning movie and to the tracking system ….. Sorry NOT working but when you are interested  go to www.zweefportaal.nl  you might be able to see both by clicking on the items.

In Argentina  the weather continues to be good for racing the ridges of the Andes and if you like that way of soaring you certainly enjoy looking at the good flights and stamina from the pilots from Germany and Czech Rep. flying long distances. And…in 15 m. conversion.1.295 with a speed of 162 km/h.  for Danes Crula is pretty good! From the 7 flights flown in this beginning of the season,  4 were over 1000 km.

Max Leenders our Dutch topper in Bitterwasser flying his Nimbus 4DM,  is not racing ridges, but flies out and returns and FAI triangles to set records!
I gave you already one here is the other;” Declared 900km FAI. Finished at 133km/h. New Dutch national record??. Excellent weather, mostly 1/8 CU. Blue sky on the third leg.” Well done Max!!!
I noticed that ” Trimmel Hermann” ,  as he was called during the WGC in Wiener Neustadt, where he was the very good meteo-forecaster , has arrived in Bitterwasser as well.
It is only waiting for the day Bitterwasser has a lot of 1000 km. flights, the pilots are there, good gliders as well, so now pilots ” only ” need the weather.
I had not written this down or the 1000 km flights are there ;3 in Bitterwasser, 3 more in Pokweni and 1 more for Gariep Dam.
Great effort from Reinhard Schramme in the 20 m. ARCUS;1.101 km with a speed of 129 km./h.  Other 1000 km. flights were all in open class gliders again. The 18 m. class gliders just did not make it!But Hans Wiesenthal was in Gariep,  close with his DG 808B/18m. ;978 km with a speed of 122km./h. Good on him! It is ALL happening now overseas!

In Temora a great little town, weatherwise even maybe better then Tocumwal and Corowa as it is more up N., more up to “nothing” , the NSW State Comps have started with a practice day and should be in full swing now with 45 participants in 5 classes! ” After rain there will be sunshine”,and I heard that’s happening ” it looks as if the rain may have stopped. 90mm at harvest time is not good for the farmers.”
Pilots as Bruce Taylor, Gerrit and Pam Kurstjens, Paul Mander and so many more are competing. Look for results at www.soaringspot.com  and for more news to their great-looking site. On that picture you can clearly see the “”nothing” !  
http://tandjsailplanes.com/NSWStateComps/

More news from Jo,  this time something to REALLY learn from. Keep your mind set,while rigging your glider!!! Don’t get disturbed/distracted!!!
http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/news/282129-glider-plunged-1000ft-to-her-death-because-the-aircraft-was-not-assembled-properly/

Rain in Narromine, I told you already that most pilots had left the Narromine Cup, what should have been a fantastic week, “just fell in the water”. What can you do!!??
—-Torrential rain today … no phone landlines; no eftpos; harvest a disaster for some; unhappy glider pilots!! Only my garden is happy!— message from one of my FB friends.
But a bit more upnorth in the East of Australia they flew today 819 km. in a Ventus 2CM/18m.
The West of Australia is hit by fires and at least 20 houses have burned down. Saw on TV the guy who saved himself in the pool from the neighbours with oxygen and a mask. I remember when the big fire hit Tocumwal on January 3 in 1991, we were told to jump in the pool as well with woollen blankets over us for when the fire passed. That went quickly ,we did not need to  jump in the pool, the hangar surrounded by green wet grass was passed by as the wind turned a bit more to the S. ,  but those fires caused a lot of damage around the airfield.

The most expensive and most advanced space-robot, has been send to Mars yesterday by NASA. “Curiosity” is the name of this little “car ” on wheels with a compact but very fancy chemistry-lab in it.Cost; 1.5 milliard Euro.It will hopefully arrive in within 9 months! Same time as waiting for a baby, ..an even bigger miracle.

Enjoy the 2d part of the SSC story. Click on soaring cafe above and you find part with lots of pictures [ here a few as well]which have been send to me by George but he thinks they are made by our former Swedish guest Lars. Cheers Ritz

When you are interetested; I heard, the Blanik, in the hangar,  pained by Dutch Artist Gerry Jillisen is for sale as ART-OBJECT for 59.000 Australian Dollar ex. Tocumwal.

Alphen aan den Rijn    Thursday November 24 2011

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com

Courtesy; Bruce Cooper while flying in Argentina last season and making this great picture of the Stemme.

Finally a bit of sun  after another weather-phenomena,[ the so-maniest in this year 2011,]  last week. 7 days of FOG! A real grey blanket covered not only Holland but also other parts of Europe. Traffic, boats and planes suffered! And of course the people !
Sorry I am one day late! In the middle of this nasty flu, I got from all the heavy coughing sciatica,[we call it here  ischias] VERY painful, but the medicins are helping.

No fog in Chapelco where German pilot, Jürgen Wenzel enjoyed another great flight “racing the ridges of the Andes”. Again in the Ventus 2cm 15m. figuration; 1.447,28 km. SPEED nearly 160 km. /h.[158.8]

No fog either in Gariep Dam where friends flew up to 882 km. on Tuesday. One day earlier the pilots in Namibia had the best of the weather with flights up to 921 [Nimbus3DM] from Pokweni, 665 from Bitterwasser in Ventus 2 CM/18m. but…also 657 from Kingaroy in the East of Australia in ventus 2 CM/18m.
Unfortunately the Narromine Cup is hit by bad weather so hopefully we will see some flights later this week, though I heard some pilots have left already as the forecast was not too flash!
When I was in pain,yesterday Klaus flew a 1000 km in Nimbus 3T from Gariep Dam , so they have their first 1000 as well.
And..though Narromine has not too good weather, Corowa had …with flights up to 902 km. in a Ventus 2CM/18m.
Great to see so many old friends back in Tocumwal,flying with both Sportaviation from Eddie and Sheryll and/or the Southern Riverina Gliding Club from Judy and Ingo. YES, there is still flying in Tocumwal!!! On an other scale and different then in the past , but flying …yes you can!
First Stephan and Aljoscha now, Björn and Lis [from Norway]  and Rhys and also good to see several former Sportavia guests who are very happy now in Corowa, but surely still remember the good times of Tocumwal!!! But that is the past …..we live now.

Have started a story / memories ,about how we ended up running the Sportavia Soaring Center in Tocumwal Australia for Soaring cafe to make it easier for USA readers to follow my links to this period. You can click on the top of this story to find the story including pictures which George has send to me, on soaring cafe!! Part 2 next Sunday with the pictures. Enjoy!

Shared with you the happiness of the Dutch  baseballplayers  winning the word title. Now they are all in mourning. One of the topplayers [he did not play for Holland because he was to valuable for his club the Seattle Mariners ]24 year old Gregory Halman, was killed with a knive, last monday morning by his 22 year old brother ,….because of too loud radio noise in the night!!!!!!
Also the American Major League is in deep mourning. Tragic such a great looking, lovely young man, here in Holland for a short period only,  to share his love for baseball with the young ones! Unbelievable!

Hope I will be fit enough to visit the Dutch Soaring Day on the 26th. Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday November 20 2011     

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com      www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com 

Andes seen  by Bruce Cooper, from above,  last season.

Thanks for the kind reactions of concern, on the message , I got the flu!! A real nasty one! But it is a bit better now!Very tired however and…worn out!!!So only some short news.

Overseas soaring; Yes…. when I was sick in bed a lot of people I know had happy-soaring- times.
The 15th was the day to be in Gariep Dam  with great flights up to  just over 750 km. Hans and Uwe had a great day. One day later Pierre [Belgium] had and even better day in Kiripotib, 1025 km in the EB 28 with a speed of 127 km/h, while UK pilot John Bally in EB 29 flew an even faster 1000 km;134 km/h.
Very nice to see Austrian friends in Bitterwasser. Ludwig and Heimo flew in the Arcus E and DG 808/18 m. resp. 794 and 775 km, while Gerd Marzinzik ,[ editor in the past ,maybe still now from Aerokurier, have n’tspoken with him or seen him for a while ]flew 756 km. in the Ventus 2 CM.
Danish pilot Anders enjoyed good circumstances in Bloemfontein with 725 km. in the JS1.
All happy chappies!!!
On the 18th of November the great weather was in Australia and both Tocumwal and Corowa enjoyed great conditions. Several very nice FAI triangles!!!!!
“Nearly ” 1000 [975 and he planned a 750!] for Hans Jürgen, [Ventus 2CM-Corowa] but no worries, his 1000 will come again!!! Terry flew his ASH 26 from Toc. over such a nice 600 km.  triangle as well [668 km] and…without engine! The engine is shipped for overhaul!!! Good on you Terry!
In Narromine the Narromine  Cup starts soon/tomorrow [November 21-26] and several pilots have arrived already. Some had to struggle with the 25 kn. Northerly. But…good practise, also for the NSW State Comps later and the 50thiest Multi Class Nationals from January 30 till February 10 2012 in Narromine.
In Argentina  the Andes  created  great “stuff”  for German pilot Jürgen Wenzel,  in a Ventus 2CM 15 meter!!!,  who flew from Chapelco  1.217 km with a nice speed of 132 km/h. First flight for the season and surely more great ones will follow!
Yesterday best flights from Gariep Dam with 870 km.  in the DG808 and 906 km. in a Nimbus 3T/25m, but a good flight as well from Dutch pilot Max Leenders. If you have not read his comment , here it is;
” Declared 400km out & return. Finished at 151.35 km/h. New Dutch national record?? We used a remote starting and finish point in order to fly in the best forecastedweather. Start was in almost blue sky, but after a few minutes very good cumulus developed with excellent thermals.”
Good to see more friends have arrived in Gariep, also Rob is there now, flying the duo discus XL  with a good 701 and  714 km flight to start with . And if I remember well, Brutus must be  there too now.

What terrific news for Boeing so in the end of the year 2011!!!! What an order!!!22 Milliard dollar for 230 Boeings from the type 373. The order is from Lion Air based in Indonesia and the biggest  private airline in the world.
Interesting is that a lot of students from the CAE here in Hoofddorp,[ Global Academy Amsterdam-Nationale Luchtvaartschool]  the head sponsor of the Dutch Gliding Nationals, will fly there in the future,  as they co-operate. Lion Air is one of the companies where the young students can fly, make hours / get experience and earn money!
I had the honour a few years ago to fly in one of the CAE 737- 800 simulators here in Hoofddorp !!!
Look for all their news on; www.caeglobalacademy.com

I had no clue,  but here in Alphen lives another person , Ronald van Rijn,who is crazy about aviation. This time parachute jumping!!! He is the president of POPS.NL , Parachutists Over Phorty Society.
In my paper I read this gentleman has made a bid and won….to have the over -40-parachute-world- championships to Holland.About 200 parachutists over 40 years old will visit Holland between June 28 and July 7 2012. The oldest Dutch parachutist is 81 and will jump as well. 2 Disciplines; precision jumping and formation jumping.

News for the younger ones! At least for those who visited the Musbach JWGC and the Finnish JWGC earlier. In the Australian paper,  Queensland Times, a nice article appeared about the “Maddocks”. Thanks Jo!!!!

http://www.qt.com.au/story/2011/11/18/tradition-on-high-at-world-festival/

Always wanted to visit Australia!?  The Last FrontiersNews Flash from Shanghai, has in this months special , …a flight over the Sunshine Coast with a landing on Fraser Island….and more….
www.TheLastFrontiers.com

My friend Maria left again back to Munich on Wednesday and she was lucky as several flights over the last days were cancelled or very much delayed due to fog.She came home without problems!

High tea for 2!
Just before I got sick!

Cu next week Ritz

No news today , the head , troath and ear are  soar,  the nose running,  the cough bad. A real nasty flu!!!! And on November 4 I got the anti-flu-injection!!!!!!
Certainly not helping this time. Sorry …..see you on Sunday, I hope!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday November 13 2011

www.soaring.eu    www.glidinginternational.com      www.soaringcafe.com 

Courtesy; Mattias Hemborg 2006
double click to enlarge

Soaring in Africa started strong with NEARLY another 1000 km flight. I share with you the enthusiasm;
” Oscar declared a 1000km FAI triangle Potchefstroom-Dealsville-Pomfret-Potchefstroom yesterday and came close, landing out nears Klerksdorp some 60km short.  Some 5m/s climbs in the best part of the day and eventually 4800m but the last glide looks as if it was dead with a 186km glide to the landing…
  second longest flight in Africa this season (so far) after Uys’ 1000km o/r exactly one month ago. Oscar flew the JS1.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=2158036

Another super flight that day, in the ASG 29 by Mannie a 700 km. triangle also from Potchefstroom.
And…the National record , distance over 750 km. with 3 fixed TP’s for open class [ Nimbus 3T/25.5m.] in Brasil by Henrique Navarro,  is not too bad either. 
Gariep was still struggling with a 50km./h wind, but some pilots enjoyed flying ……even with the tough wind.
Nice to see Pierre has settled in Kiripotib for some good overseas soaring and Sven had another good flight , this time on November 12 from Worchester , with 739 km. [ speed 121 km/h.] in ASW 27.

Very unusual to see in the middle of November poppies and cornflowers  in Holland [close to my house along the road] .We still enjoy nice weather during the days with very sunny conditions , but colder nights.

 The economical situation is world wide a bit of a problem.  Problems also for many European countries. The people who know , claim there will be soon a new recession.
Airbus has till now, as ALL carriers do, sold planes in dollars. Even the French businesses delevering to Airbus , were paid in dollars.
Now they deal with EUROS as most of the customers prefer to pay with that currency. Interesting!

The 2 young German pilots, Benjamin and Fabian, who have arrived in Australia to promote  Fly-Down-under, from the airfield of Stonefield, { NE of Gawler}  and started their soaring in a PIK 20D,{ www.fly-down-under.com}, while waiting for their Discus 2B YB, who was send from Germany with 4 other gliders to Adelaide.

Talking about Australia, the first briefing and flights from guests at Corowa are a fact. Good to see Harry back in Australia and flying over Tocumwal on his first day starting at Corowa again after an absence of 2 years . He knows Toc. so well, as he flew several years at Sportavia. Even better to read that Grietje, together with Francesco the owner of Australian Soaring Corowa , has been allowed after an absence of 2 years , to fly the tug again. Knowing Grietje [ she worked for us in Tocumwal one season and Francesco was our guest] she will be over the moon. Good on you Grietje!!!
Also nice to see that Graham Parker , who had his glider with us on line in the past and toppilot for Australia at WGC’s,  is flying at Omarama.
In Tocumwal some pilots got together to fly a few days and flights up to 567 in ASH 26 were flown.

This year the Australian -Women- in- Gliding- week, will be held in Benalla from December 27 to 31. Ladies can come for an Ab Initio training or rent a glider or BYO [bring your own]  Next year the event will be in South Australia.

Not so nice ……the accident from one of the toppilots [35 years old] from the Red Arrows. His automatic chair went up on the ground , while going over the taxi-way. He “flew”  through the glass [ the canopy is supposed to disappear under these circumstances!!!] and was catapulted up to 60 m, to fall down again. He did not survive and with this tragic and curious way of dying,  the Red Arrows lost 2 pilots [one in August] in a short time. All the Hawk T1 planes are grounded now to find out what went wrong. Very sad!!!!

From Jo I received the next message  on behalf of Christopher Mac Donnell about a new book about Italian Vintage Sailplanes.
—-I am glad to inform you that my book “Italian Vintage Sailplanes” is finally coming out from the printer. It is now available by EQIP, who were also the same editors for Martin Simons’ books.
http://www.eqip.de/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=74&lang=de

 It covers most of the sailplanes designed and built in Italy from the beginning of the 20th century through until the early 1970s.  It includes sailplanes in wood or tube and fabric and it fills the gap in Italian gliding history.
With my best regards
Vincenzo
E-Mail: vincenzopedrielli@gmail.com 
www.vincenzopedrielli.it

 Talking about vintage sailplanes . Cheers Ritz

 
Picture above; courtesy Fritz Schweikart and under Johan Ersson.[2006]