Alphen aan den Rijn       Wednesday January 27 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

What great weather still in Australia  , still in the low 30thies and even with the shorter days big distances have been  flown!
What about Stefan who flew yesterday in his LS 4 up and down to Forbes [nearly Narromine!] from Tocumwal !? 711 km. and …….LS 4  means  NO engine!!!!! SUPER !
Great flight also , again, from Tomas in the HpH s from Narromine,[ his 12th succesive  flight!!! ] and he claims that this is his best flight till now in this new glider. He flew 1.084 km and to the NW where there is real NOTHING! A very remote area. Gutsy effort , in a new type of glider !
Peter Summersby [ member of the VFMG and guest in Corowa ] flew yesterday a 724 km. flight in his ASW 24 ! Super !The VFMG [ Benalla] pilots really have a good time in Corowa. It was a long weekend in Australia because of Australia Day , so pretty busy and looking at the different sites, it has been truly celebrated!!

The 2d FAI South American Gliding Championships in Gonzales Chaves,  the place where in 2012 the WGC will be held for club,-standard and world class, have 5 days in club class now and 6 in 15 m. class and open.
In 15 m. Damien is still leading , winning 2 days , but Horacio, who I met in Rayskala during the last JWGC has won till now 2 days as well and is 3d overall. Still a few days to go .

When you have a daughter flying a Boeing 737 800 , EVERY aviation-accident HITS you. This time the one from Ethiopian Airlines, where 90 people including the crew were killed. Hopefully they find out soon , what happened here, to avoid new ones. Libanon claims that the pilot went to the opposite direction as they asked him to go to and then made a quick an unexpected move, maybe to avoid a thunderstorm, before it disappeaered from the radar . But…. I better leave this to the investigators.
Investigators did their work on the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 which crashed here in Holland a few months ago [February 26 2009] . The interim report shows that none of the pilots were to blame! One of the instruments failed and one could not expect them to see this, is one of the results. Very high claims are in the progress to be send to Boeing by lawyers of the survivors. Sadly enough 9 people died under them 3 [USA] people from Boeing .

And then this…..during a flight from Cardiff in the UK to the Canary Islands, with Thomson Airways , passengers and cabin crew had to overpower a man who panicked in a very bad way and got aggressive against everybody, even wanted to enter the cockpit!!! This sounds like  REALLY panicking !

Off to Brabant now, which is in the S. part of Holland.
Cheers Ritz and….a story about the 2d FAI comps in South America will be on soon. So keep reading.