Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday September 2 2009
Looking back at Europe’s weather last Sunday, I think I was pretty right when I said we had a good soaring-summer, BUT….as I just heard this does not count for SWEDEN. Unfortunately it seems the weather for soaring was not too good over there even, “the worst for many years!!! as I heard from Robert and since July 1 , he has only made one over 500 km flight!! Sorry to hear that, but….Africa and Australia are waiting…….for those who want to fly more and long-longdistance and ……can afford it!
Still interesting that countries as Sweden and Finland , in the Northern part of Europe AND neighbours ,have such different weather for soaring. What great weather we had during the JWGC in Rayskala and also later when the pilots over there started complaining that it would be over now, some pilots really flew nice long distance flights from Rayskala.
Feel sorry for my Swedish friends!!!!
Then back to the good weather! John Roake from Gliding International, the KIWI Magazine [ which issue of August should be out now! ] , called after the WGC in Rieti, this place , the Mecca for gliding! The day before yesterday they still flew 500 km . from Rieti airfield.
In the September issue of SOARING, the USA Magazine I just read a story from Wilfried Krueger, he might be the son from Hardy Krueger, who flew in the past every season in Tocumwal, that ELY in Nevada is ” a paradise for glider pilots”. In June-July 2008 this pilot flew 7 flights over 1000 km. the longest 1330 km. and the fastest 167.5 km/h. over 1246 km.
From friend Daan Pare I heard already how good ELY is. Now I read, that Ray Linskey was still till last year, one of the frequent flyers there as well. Sorry, that this will not happen anymore as Ray died after a short illness a few weeks ago. Indeed Ray was one of those pilots never claiming his flight on the OLC, a bit of a pity as nobody can “learn” from how he flew.
Wilfried writes that 30 % of the pilots flying in ELY never claim their flight on the OLC!!!!
Knowing Nevada a tiny little bit, as I was there in Minden during the Pre-WGC in ’90, I found it a very pleasant area. We had to move in the end to Uvalde in Texas for the WGC as Minden could not guarantee that the flying -fire -brigade ” would not work ” as finishers arrived home! You might know how terrible the fires can be in those areas, so everybody understood. For us Uvalde was good as Baer Selen got his 2d world title there.
Still good weather in Minden at the moment as the day before yesterday a pilot flew 796 km in an ASH 26E.
In the end the Junior Comps in the UK had 5 flying days, so Will Ellis who also flew in the junior WGC in Rayskala was the winner and UK champion. He was 47 points ahead on JWGC-mate Mike Collett, both very talented young men.
The last competition of the season in Holland is the ” Vergulde Venturi ” and…another JWGC participant won in club class; Frank Hiemstra. Only one of the 2 days was flyable.In the combi-class retired KLM pilot Hein van der Linden won and in open class Peter Batenburg with nimbus 4 T [101.3 km/h over 256 km] , with Daan Pare [ Ventus 2CM and 88.2 km/h] as runner up!
More young pilots are having fun in Vinon, with “Divine” flights as Alexander calls it.
That’s it for now! I have decided to NOT take my laptop to Australia, so you will not have a twice a week update in soaring.eu , as I know I have some possibilities to write there as well. But ….this is all “only” from the middle of October onwards till the end of November.
cheers Ritz