Great skies in parts of Europe last Wednesday.
As seen by Kathrin in Germany and by Ben in Holland.
Last Wednesday might have been the last glorious day for the time of the year, from this summer, for soaring. Great clouds and those who could fly, went flying.
And yes 525 in a Discus, 537 in a Duo Discus , it was all possible that day specially more in the N of Holland. It’s weird but Holland has had MORE rain this summer than normal, except in the N. were it was dryer than normal. And that in such a small country.They promised some nice after-summer-days as well for September , so let’s wait and see, it was pretty cool and wet over the last week.
Well they were right, it was 22 dgr.C yesterday up to 26 for tomorrow [where the normal average should be 20] Lovely another few days in the sun, NO rain, NO wind as in the last weeks.
But even with the cool weather with lots of showers, you could fly 257 km. as Sikko proved.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=4039076
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Days mixed with rain and sun for the RENCONTRE-ASK 13-2014 , which was flown between August 24 and 30 . Members from clubs all over Europe gather to fly the nostalgic wooden ASK 13 2-seater, from St Crepin in France the N. of the HAUTES ALPES !!! One of the teams was from Holland; called team BLUE.
35 Teams rigged, de-rigged and flew for 2 days, when disaster struck.
Busy, busy….
Gliders ready to go on Wednesday August 27 when the sun was back!!
As shared on their site.
AND up in the air.
All happy pictures and happy people but then as said, disaster struck!!!!
On that day , with a rather late start just before and after 3 PM, 2 pilots [ age 32 and 59] in one of the Nancy-ASK 13’s were missing in the evening and sadly enough found dead in the forest, after searching all night during the next early morning . Tragic!!!!! VERY TRAGIC!!!! Both were instructors and VERY experienced also in the mountains, both were real good mates in this group of ASK 13 pilots!!! RIP!!!!
They flew for 2 more days, as I guess everybody thought, maybe even knew, that this is what both pilots would have wanted/wished.Of course the other Nancy team stayed on the ground.
picture shared by Jerome Renault, the ” fresh” number 3 on this years 18 m. Nationals in France.
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In Australia the weather starts to heat-up and the big event in 2015 is the JWGC flown from Narromine in December. Of course you can practice before at several places, JoeyGlide will be flown and the ” old” juniors help a lot to make it easier for the ” World-pilots” .
Here is the message I share from Adam, flying already in September from Kingaroy;
” G Dale, Juniors Coaching Week
G’day all,
Another awesome opportunity is presenting itself to you, all you have to do is to take it by the horns!
World renowned UK gliding coach is putting on a week of coaching, specifically for the AUS Juniors.
Dates: 20-26 SEP, 2014
Venue: Kingaroy, QLD
You’d be mad to miss it.
Greg Schmidt is organizing it, he’s applying for substantial funding = next to no costs for you, seriously.
Please get in contact with Greg if you’re interested: 0414747201
If you need a lift from Brisbane to Kingaroy, we can arrange it.
If you need a glider for the event, we can arrange it.
If you need, we can arrange it.
Just ask!”
Other news from Adam; he was OK after the volcanic outburst on Papua New Guinea last week.
” I fly to this destination regularly, must’ve been a sight to see – or not (for the locals)!
I’m all good, flying out to Madang this afternoon – naturally, will be safe as always.’
As shared by Adam.
Picture;PNG Loop.com
One of the young pilots at the JWGC in Narromine will be 22 year old Alex McCaw from New Zealand, student geology and surveying earth quake damaged land in Canterbury . Here is a short part of his story in the magazine ” Life and leisure”. Good PR for our sport.
” —-Alex McCaw was never going to be anything other than a glider pilot. His grandfather was a World War II pilot and his parents, brother and uncles all fly gliders. He was 10 when his dad took him into the air for the first time and the thrill settled into his soul and took control, coaxing and guiding him to greater and greater heights.
While most 14-year-old boys are eyeing up their dad’s car keys and dreaming of buying their first beat-up Holden, Alex took to the skies on his first solo glider flight. As with learning to drive, training is closely supervised by an instructor (he is now certified as one) and flying solo comes only after its completion. “While it’s important to know about the glider and how not to crash, flying a glider is mainly about situation awareness, knowing what’s happening on the ground and what’s happening around you in terms of weather. It’s not something you can be taught; it’s more about slowly absorbing the knowledge of others.”
– See more at: http://nzlifeandleisure.co.nz/going-with-the-wind/#sthash.zysri9eK.dpuf—
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After the disasters for Malaysia Airlines with the MH 370 and MH 17 , they re-organize, which will cost about 6000 jobs. A lot of the stewards and stewardesses resigned already as they were scared.
The state Malaysia had a share of 69 % and is now 100 % share holder.
Here in Holland the Schiphol Group claims that they had 4 % more passengers in the first half of 2014; 25.7 million. A few of them were Aussie friends.
Not bad!
And German wings the budget daughter from Lufthansa was on strike for a few hours on Friday.
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Most comps are over now, so that part is getting quiet till the activities are starting again at the overseas destinations.
News will be shorter for a while till it’s booming again in our soaring world.
Cheers Ritz
on Wednesday September 3 one day before the 11th birthday of my granddaughter Indya. She is so much like me, but then also so different as you can see.
10 years old at 30 m!!!!!