Alphen aan den Rijn April 28 2010 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
Great weather here in Holland and more countries around us. With temperatures up to 24 dgr C. today, we are 10 dgr. above the average for this time of the year. Yesterday looked , while sitting outside fabulous for soaring here in Holland and a quick look on the OLC this morning showed that pilots were happy as well. 25 Of them went for a flight and the weather was in some parts less good then expected in other parts better; most kilometers were flown by Alfred Paul, 629 in LS 8, who has flown with us in Tocumwal, in the past, in a duodiscus , practising cross country flying with Ingo Renner. As winner of the Dutch Junior Nationals in that year, he received this as the first prize!!
Alfred Paul will fly the Nationals in 2 weeks.
Today no clouds here and blue skies , but lot’s of high cirrus….but that temperature……!
Yesterday was as said good in several countries and “good old Alexander Mueller” added another 1000 km flight to his long list . In his ASW 22 he flew from Bayreuth , the former WGC field, a nice 1044 polygon with 5 TP’s . Guy Bechtold, I met him in Fuentemilanos, is another “1000 km. -eater “, but in his Ventus 2CM /18m. ,he just could not make it; 933 from his home field in Luxemburg Useldange.
The weather last Sunday, was also really good in Prievidza, so long tasks were set to “divide the men from the boys”. Mixed had a race task from 471 km. and club 408 km. That is pretty good for these classes in a competition!!!!
On the end of the day , the men were still the same men. Sebastian and Ge [for Gerard] are still on ONE overall.
Great to see Lubor [Kuvik] flew so well in his ASG 29. He was fifth on that great Sunday. Lubor is OLC champion 2010 for Australia flying in Corowa during our winter, so he has some practice. Tibor is the great organizer behind the Fatraglide at Martin Airfield. These comps will be flown in May and as I said already , I will inform you about it. Tibor and his wife and some friends have flying in the past in Tocumwal with us.
I am also very pleased to see Dane from NZ flying so well. The last couple of years I met him as a great and enthusiastic junior, now he is preparing for the WGC. Good on him. He is 7 th overall, at this stage.
In club class UK pilot Gerard Dale is as it looks “not to stop”!!! He won another day, flying the 408 km. with a speed of 107 km/h in his ASW 24. Boris Zors won a few days as well and is doing a great job in his DG 101.He is 231 points behind Ge on the 2d spot.
Last Monday they had a 330 [mixed] and 306 km. [ club] racing task to fly. Before the strong wind arrived all pilots were back or counted for, one a Polish pilot, really at the last moment, as I could read on their online report in 2 languages, but very short in English. A pity! No changes in the top.
On Tuesday the pilots had an AAT again ; 3 hours and 210/425 km for mixed and 205 /396 km for club, also in 3 hours.
3 Polish pilots in the daily top 4 and on 3 “my young friend “Vitautas from Lithuania! Good on him!!!
Best distance in mixed class was 327 km with a speed of 109 km./h. In club class ;263 with 86 km/h.
Today Wednesday is the last day of the competition with another nice task set; 332 km race task for Club and 404 for mixed class. Sebastian and Ge are still on top, when they start their last day, hope they don’t get nervous!!!! For sure Sebastian is experienced enough, don’t know too much about Gerard !
For sure the many pilots had a great time and the competitors for the next WGC in Prievidza had a great training time.For the organizers of the next WGC, under the inspiring leadership of Jozef Snirc, this was great practise as well!!!
Final results on Sunday or when you want to know it earlier ; www.soaringspot.com or www.plachtenie.sk
Unterwössen ,” just on the other site of Austria “, is the airfield were a few of my German friends [ Dieter, Güstl and Hans] fly with great enthusiasm. They had, also last Sunday “hammerwetter” with distances up to 776 in LS 8. I was there a few years ago and I was very impressed to see the gliders, simply said, move in front of the “mountain” [hang] to get higher and higher to fly over the ridges , to where ever they want to go.
Heimo Demmerer , who flew last year the CIM in Rieti , had the longest flight last Sunday from Maria Zell [Austria] 895 in Ventus 2. Heimo is a real nice guy with a lovely family.
That whole area in Switzerland, Austria and Italy has SUPER circumstances this year for soaring. Giorgio flew another very nice flight from Bolzano; 880 km. in a Ventus 2c /18m. and an LS 6 pilot flew from Innsbruck 805 km.
But also the French Alps gave good wave. A few of my friends are flying there. Roland Wurbs von Bülow [DE] from Serres La Batie , where a few thunderstorms were “disturbing” the atmosphere and Mike Young [UK] from Grenobles;852 km in ASG 29 with a speed of 124 km/h. Roland learned how to fly with us years ago in Tocumwal and Mike we met in 1987 first at the WGC in Benalla. All our kids became friends, now they are all in their late 30thies/early 40thies and though the contact is not close , when they meet they start talking where they stopped last time. Mike flew several comps also as a WGC and EGC pilot for the UK.
And then this;
—–For the first time in 20 years a commercial flight has been flown between Baghdad and London Gatwick. From now on there will be 2 times a week a flight; from Bagdad with a stop in Sweden and to Baghdad direct!
—–From tomorrow on there will be a new rule in the USA , designed to prevent planes on domestic routes , from “sitting “on the tarmac for more then 3 hours with passengers on board. Fine; US dollar 27.500 per passenger, in the worst case !!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s it for now, you are up to date, so see you on Sunday
cheers Ritz