Alphen aan den Rijn June 20 2010 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
Before I departed we had here in Holland some kind of political earthquake! For the first time in history the Liberal Party is the biggest in Holland and the poor Democrats lost half of their “fans”. Our Prime Minister , from this party CDA, announced straight away his departure out of politics. Over the last 8 years he did quite a good job under difficult circumstances but it seems the Dutch wanted a chance.
Labour Party struggled for first place but just lost with one “chair in parliament”, 31 VVD [Liberals] 30 Pvd A [Labour party]
What’s less good is that the super right wing of the PVV [ Party for Freedom and against too much immigration and against too much Islam!] from Geert Wilders gained most votes!!! They went from 9 to 23 ‘chairs ‘ in the Parliament. In my eyes not the best promotion for Holland.
I know a lot of people interested in and earning their income from aviation , voted for Frits Paymans who is Liberal but clearly “one of us”! Hope he got enough write-in-votes [ he was 63 on the VVD list] to be part of Parliament, to support the aviation world from all angles, including gliding of course!!!!!Unfortunately he did n’t !
So you know a tiny little bit of Dutch politics as well.
Back from Volendam ,a gorgeous place in Holland, very commercial but still nice to visit. Marken was even nicer , still very ”remote” ,an island with only one road ,[ since a few years ,] to the continent.The traditional clothes are stunning and all handmade with colours to match special occasions as Easter, or the Queens Birthday.
A bit of a nasty fall brought me back home Friday evening in ….pink plaster. A tiny little bone is broken in my left wrist and the plaster covers my arm till my elbow. Not too bad but I had forgotten already how much less you can do with one hand only! But… as most of you know I am the” right-hand-one-finger-quick-hard-hitter ”, on the panel, so I can still do my writing.
Euroglide starts tomorrow.For some pilots , the MECCA/ read ultimate way of soaring. Distance over 2000 km., 3 TP’s far spread over Europe and who’s back first is the winner! A lot of fun , lot’s of driving, lot’s of people as one glider can be flown by more pilots and you never know where your day will end. Daan Pare is one of the participants and he flies this Euroglide already for years. He will be flying his glider alone. Look at the site who is flying what glider with whom! Great fun!
Time frame; within Monday June 21 and Saturday July 3 2010!
Departure: Eindhoven Netherlands
First turnpoint: Bronkow Germany
Second turnpoint: Montricher Switzerland
Third turnpoint: Falaise France
Finish: Axel Netherlands.
Total 2328 km.
Look for news also at ; www.euroglide.nl
What happened more last week? I noticed that the Nationals for standard class in Poland have been flown in better weather circumstances then the Grand Prix and the other Nationals. This time every day in Zielona Gora was a flying day and the 59 pilots in that class, [a lot] and the organisers must have felt BIG relieve!
The open military comps in Holland were less lucky with only ONE day of flying. The winners ; Ard Tielenburg, [club], Ronald Berg [18m] and Ronald Kaay [double seater ] and last but not least in 15 m.Ton Staassen.
64 Competitors in 4 classes had rather nice weather in Arboga in Sweden where the next WWGC will be held in 2011. The first and last day were cancelled but still 5 days of soaring with well-known piolot Börje Eriksson as winner in the 15 m. class. Runner up in this class former world champion Göran Ax.
Henrik Breidahl from Denmark flew in open class in his ASG 29 E. Henrik belongs to the top, but had a few good and a few bad days. The worst on day 1 when he ”received ” ZERO points due to a failure of the logger.[no engine noise recording]
And the Italian Nationals in Ferrara for 18 m. are on their way [ June 11-20] and after 3 days of flying the 4 toppers from 14 pilots in total, are on top with only very small margins. Giorgio Galetto with 1965 points, Luciano Avanzini has 2 points less and Riccardo Brigliadori has 1945 points. Alberto Sironi another top pilot, landed out one day and lost some points there, a pity as he is just good!
Today is their last day but on the 18th they flew day 4 , which gave some changes in the overall scores.
Ricardo and Alberto flew their racing task of 240 km. but Giorgio flew 176 km and Luciano 170. As yesterday was cancelled they only have today to fly and on the news I saw lot’s of rain over there.
New number one is now Ricardo , with Albert0 on 2 , [you see I knew he can fly] and Giorgio is on 3 with Luciano on 4.
Pretty difficult circumstances with small tasks and I guess rain today as well.
Did you see the poor holiday makers in the south of France? All cars and caravans on one pile by the flooding and stream of water and mud. What’s worse …..25 people are dead!!
More Nationals in Italy at Ferrara. Elena and Nicola Fergnani [sister and brother] and Davide Schiavotto, in the past good juniors at the several comps are flying for top places in the Italian club class and lovely to see that another member , Michele, of the Fergnani family flies in the nationals as well. Another good pilot is Vittorio Pinni. By the way…The double seaters are also flying in Ferrara . Busy, busy….
The 4th soaring day gave a big change in results as well for club class pilots. The Fergnani family had a ”bad” day, with Nicola still earning 240 points, but winner of the day Davide got 479. Gorgious looking and very nice sister Elena only got 52 points and Michele 37 !!!
Interesting to see that Andrea Tomasi, who was one of the finishers on day 4, is now on spot 3 in the overall scores , with Davide still on 1 and Vittorio now on 2. Andrea was the president of the Gliding Federation of Italy, when I was there in 2008. I guess he still is !
Look for nice pictures on the next links:
http://www.yankee-yankee.com/grfe10/index.html or
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyimage/
In Romorantin the French pilots started on June 5 their National Air 2010. Winner in 15 m class after 4 days; Killian Wallbrou former WGC winner in Rieti. In open class Gerard Lherm is still good. About 35 years ago he “fought “with my ex for first place during at least 5 of the ”Huit Jours d’Angers-comps” , then George won, then Gerard and he still is on spot 1 or 2 nowadays. Good on him!After 5 days of flying he is …indeed 2d.
The comps have finished yesterday and as they did not fly anymore [rain!!!] Killian won again and Gerard was 2d.
What was interesting in the OLC last week ? Maybe more 1000 km flights in Morrocco….??? I liked to see that Carsten Bauer who flew with us in Australia in the past is still flying!! And..same story for Gert Kalisch, Klaus Warnke, Jan Umlauf and Stefan Soell, all of them flew and Jan and Stefan still fly in Tocumwal and so many others, …..Jaap van Steinfoorn, made his first glider flight for this year in the ASH 25 from Teuge in Holland and ” made” 748 km. ……My Belgian friends had some over 500/600 km flights……What about Reinhard Schramme with his 1024 km flight in the Ventus 2 CT……..it was a great soaring week in most parts of Europe and also in the well known parts of the USA with several good and 1000 km. flights as well.
Received a story from a friend which I like to share with you as well; here you go!
747 stowaway survives Pacific flight
A stowaway has survived a seven-and-a-half hour flight across the Pacific Ocean hidden in the wheel well of an Air France Boeing 747.Mechanics discovered the man – who remains unidentified – at Los Angeles airport late on Thursday, after the plane arrived from Papeete in Tahiti.
It was unclear how he had survived the below zero temperatures and thin oxygen at the cruising altitude of 10,700 metres (35,000 ft).
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He was taken to hospital with a core temperature of less than 29 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit), which is usually fatal, and was gradually warmed over a period of hours. Medical staff at UCLA Medical Centre said his survival was “little short of a miracle”. “We don’t know of any other person whose body temperature dropped this low who has survived,” said David Langness, a hospital spokesman at UCLA. Earlier cases of people trying to stow away in wheel wells have usually ended in death from hyporthermia or crushing in the hydraulic works of the landing gear. Doctors said the man was in his late 20s, 1.80 metres (6ft) tall, weighing 80kg (180 lbs), but his identity is still unknown. All communication by the man has been by written notes, in French and English. Doctors are trying to determine whether oxygen deprivation has damaged the man’s brain.
Well,….good luck for the EuroGlide pilots and their crews. The weather is not too good this weekend, after 5 days of pretty nice sunny conditions with pretty strong wind however, but it improves again when they start.
Loved the wedding of the Swedish crown princess yesterday and of course the SOCCER, though we played just ”bad”, but are still the first to enter the 1/8 finals as Denmark, who played well, won from Cameroon. The Aussies did a better job in their poule and still have chances. Stay well and see you on Wednesday
Ritz