Alphen aan den Rijn      March 25 2009

Would you be AS unhappy  and sad, as the members of the EAC,  when you would hear , absolutely unexpected, in the beginning of the season , totally ready to go-and-fly, that you are NOT allowed to do so????
I received from one of my friend ‘s Peter, member from the club [ thank you, Peter!] a copy of an article in one of the papers on Monday morning, in the Eindhoven regio.
It says that a team from members of the Aeroclub and Defense are going to investigate if gliding still “might “be possible. In the article the president of the Aeroclub Ben Zwaga said that the negotiations were ” constructive and profound” and the lieutenant -colonel van Wieringen says,  that they try to find solutions  ” in good consultation with the areoclub “.
So I hope there is still HOPE for the 144 active members from the club !!!!
They just unfortunately,  missed out on some nice Spring days here in Holland as the thermal activity was even “crazy and bumpy” on the ground, as I personally could feel!!! Table cloth, cookies and pillows went with the wind and then…it was silent again and I could start cleaning with a smile. Last Sunday afternoon the clouds were “running around like hell” , I observed it and it really looked interesting-wild and some of them had some kind of lenti-tops.

My young Belgian friends  Bert jr. and Tijl Schmelzer had a good sunday too, flying 350 and 330 km., from one of my most favourite airfields,  Keiheuvel in Belgium not so far over the Dutch border.  Good practise for Tijl for the JWGC in Finland and  Bert jr . who will go to the Europeans and I even think Tijl will go too when the JWGC is over.
More young pilots happily flying as German pilot Patrick Gai, had a nice 330 km. flight from Serres la Batie .
It is great to see that so many young pilots, flying or having flown the JWGC are so active already and eager to fly in the beginning of the season.
Even better to see is , that still enough young people like gliding!! The Bayerische Meisterschaft der Junioren in Ansbach from August  12-21 2009 has already 45 competitors in 2 classes! Several young ladies amongst them. Cool!

Finland has 2 very interesting competitions BEFORE the JWGC; the Vesiveemah open from Mai 16 till 23 , which is called the beginning of the Finnish season with several top pilots attending . The airfield  is 100 km. East from Rayskala and 130 km. North of Helsinki.
The other competition is just the week before the JWGC from June 13-18  in Rayskala and called Jannen Kisat.
From both competitions you can find more info on www.jwgc2009.fi and the respectively home pages announced there.

Just received a mail  from my friend Teresa from Sweden. While we are sitting in the rain, combined with hail, tough wind and thunderstorms, the Swedish friends around Stockholm have -10 dgr C. and this morning 2 cm of fresh snow. You have to be a real Swedish optimist and I know Teresa is such a person, to see the BEST in it; “..the snow came yesterday from some nice fresh looking overdeveloped cumulus..” , so the new season is nearly ready to start in Scandinavia too.
 By the way the WWGC are in 2011 in Arboga 30 km. West of Eskilstuna. Teresa will be one of the competitors!!

Talking about Sweden,I just read in the paper that Swedish professors have showed that , with the change of time here from winter to summer, which will happen this weekend, [ we are going forward one hour , down under they go backwards and of course from summer to winter ] , the rate of heart infarcts increases with 5 % in the first week. So be careful and ” do not belong to that group ” in the first week!!!!
It also says that a Dutch female professor in chrono-biology is against changing time for this reason, she claims it is unhealthy, but also causes traffic accidents due to the fact that people are out of their rhythm.
Another professor from Groningen , investigating the 24-hour rhythm by people and animals says , that specially evening-people have problems. Lucky I am a ‘morning-girl! ”
[source www.AD.nl]

So looking ahead at an interesting weekend. I must admit that I do have problems with that 1 hour difference!!
See you on Sunday with hopefully good news about the EAC. I heard another meeting will be tomorrow!
Cheers Ritz