Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday January 18 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
Flowers for all happy pilots this season!!Picture courtesy; Maria Böttcher.
We had a few very nice days, weather-wise! Up to minus 6 in the night and plus 6 during the day, very sunny conditions, blue skies and very clear. Never saw so many trails from planes on the sky and on FB, I read that the visibility was so good that one of the young pilots who flies for KLM mentioned he could see Paris and Amsterdam in one view, and that is by car still 500 km.
In the North of Greece it is bizarre cold. Minus 24, never happened before, they even closed schools. Athens has 7 dgr.
The weather!!!???
Talking about the weather , it remained good in the South of Australia and Harry [Wondergem] managed to fly from Corowa a 1000 km FAI triangle in the Ventus 2CT 15 m conversion and that is JUST AWESOME !!!Good on you Harry! Not that it is his first time ,because when I remember , well he did it in Toc in the past as well.
This all happened on Monday, after a few really good days already.
I translate his comment for you in English:
First leg; tough against the strong wind and a relatively low cloud base.
Second leg; was OK, with tailwind and still a not too high base.
Third leg; finally the cloud base raised and time to make speed.
4th leg; quietly flying and a bit of a detour to be on a good final glide.
On such great days we always said:” Heaven on earth!!! ” Or…”this is paradise…”It even still makes me proud to see “our ” pilots fly so well at their new destinations.
More great flights in Corowa in Benalla, and Tocumwal that day. That really pleases me!!! Caspar Garrelts , son from one of the former owners Harm in the very beginning of Corowa Soaring, flew his very first 1000 km.,he must have been over the moon. Guess Harm will be as pleased!
In Toc kilometer-eater Stephan flew in his LS 4 641 km. and yesterday a 662 km. triangle!!!
YES IN AN LS4!!! In 4 days in a row he flew a total of 2. 391 km. Chapeau!!!
One day earlier on the Sunday , Hans flew from Gariep his 5th 1000 and on Monday his 6th, except for 1 [on December30] all these flights were in January!!Polish pilot Adam Czeladski topped that Sunday the OLC list but what a day for both Gariep and even more Corowa!!!!
With 7 x1000 , 5 x 900 and 5x 800 Corowa can loud say: WHATADAY!!!
I heard there were some big showers in Gariep while coming back, but in the S of Australia it was pretty good and 32 dgr. but to start with a tough wind ;25 km.
Corowa is 3d on the statistic list for airfields now behind Pokweni and Bitterwasser. In Bitterwasserthey still had pretty late in their season a 1000 km [Nimbus 4DM] missing out on 22 km. on Jan 15. A record year for Bitterwasser this 2011/2012 season!!!
And…believe me , the season is not over yet , certainly not in Australia!!! Days are getting shorter, we can’t stop that, but the weather still can be very good! I should have been there this January instead of the next one!!!!
Tocumwal said yesterday and what do you want more; 8000 ft cloud base, streeting with a fresh northerly wind and 33dgr. at 3.
And from Corowa Ivo flew a nice 849 flight while others had a well deserved rest.
Finally Narromine had a bit of a good day as well. A few over 600 km-flights. They were not too blessed with great soaring weather this season and I know how good it can be there. Hope the Nationals they host , though pretty late in the season will have super-competition-weather.[January 30-February 10]
At Chaves day 7 was cancelled for the standard class. So Jeroen could go to the beach. No beach for the 15 m. pilots they had to fly a 2 hour AAT and again Francois Pin was the best. Only 32 points ahead on Argentinian pilot Javier Gaude, but still…..The day devalued so “only” 676 points for the day-winner and as Francois is on spot 14 overall, it will not make the difference in the end, this time. As we saw in SA; loosing with one point!!!!
A 1000 point-day for the combined -open-class pilots also flying a 2 hour AAT. 288 km in 2 hour 11 is a nice result for Fernando Repicky.
See also the blog from Jeroen about day 6; ” That’s flying AAT over unknown countryside!”
http://pre-mundial.blogspot.com/
Time to go to the beach.Courtesy Jeroen Verkuijl
Busy week, so short news but with a very nice picture to finish send by Dundee.
Fresh bacon from the grill .