Alphen aan den Rijn Thursday November 24 2011
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
Courtesy; Bruce Cooper while flying in Argentina last season and making this great picture of the Stemme.
Finally a bit of sun after another weather-phenomena,[ the so-maniest in this year 2011,] last week. 7 days of FOG! A real grey blanket covered not only Holland but also other parts of Europe. Traffic, boats and planes suffered! And of course the people !
Sorry I am one day late! In the middle of this nasty flu, I got from all the heavy coughing sciatica,[we call it here ischias] VERY painful, but the medicins are helping.
No fog in Chapelco where German pilot, Jürgen Wenzel enjoyed another great flight “racing the ridges of the Andes”. Again in the Ventus 2cm 15m. figuration; 1.447,28 km. SPEED nearly 160 km. /h.[158.8]
No fog either in Gariep Dam where friends flew up to 882 km. on Tuesday. One day earlier the pilots in Namibia had the best of the weather with flights up to 921 [Nimbus3DM] from Pokweni, 665 from Bitterwasser in Ventus 2 CM/18m. but…also 657 from Kingaroy in the East of Australia in ventus 2 CM/18m.
Unfortunately the Narromine Cup is hit by bad weather so hopefully we will see some flights later this week, though I heard some pilots have left already as the forecast was not too flash!
When I was in pain,yesterday Klaus flew a 1000 km in Nimbus 3T from Gariep Dam , so they have their first 1000 as well.
And..though Narromine has not too good weather, Corowa had …with flights up to 902 km. in a Ventus 2CM/18m.
Great to see so many old friends back in Tocumwal,flying with both Sportaviation from Eddie and Sheryll and/or the Southern Riverina Gliding Club from Judy and Ingo. YES, there is still flying in Tocumwal!!! On an other scale and different then in the past , but flying …yes you can!
First Stephan and Aljoscha now, Björn and Lis [from Norway] and Rhys and also good to see several former Sportavia guests who are very happy now in Corowa, but surely still remember the good times of Tocumwal!!! But that is the past …..we live now.
Have started a story / memories ,about how we ended up running the Sportavia Soaring Center in Tocumwal Australia for Soaring cafe to make it easier for USA readers to follow my links to this period. You can click on the top of this story to find the story including pictures which George has send to me, on soaring cafe!! Part 2 next Sunday with the pictures. Enjoy!
Shared with you the happiness of the Dutch baseballplayers winning the word title. Now they are all in mourning. One of the topplayers [he did not play for Holland because he was to valuable for his club the Seattle Mariners ]24 year old Gregory Halman, was killed with a knive, last monday morning by his 22 year old brother ,….because of too loud radio noise in the night!!!!!!
Also the American Major League is in deep mourning. Tragic such a great looking, lovely young man, here in Holland for a short period only, to share his love for baseball with the young ones! Unbelievable!
Hope I will be fit enough to visit the Dutch Soaring Day on the 26th. Cheers Ritz