Holland has from today on , its second HEATWAVE in 2006!!! Pretty unusual and not even the hottest summer, as the hottest one was still in 1947, but I can’t remember, as I was only 1 year old then.
I can tell you however;it is hot with 46 dgr. in the sun and 36 in the shade.Even as an ” Aussie” girl, I suffer a bit from the heat, during this holiday in normally cool and rainy Holland. For the first time in my life it was not even “cold” on the North Sea beach, as hot, still over 30 dgr. as in the country but with a nice wind.Very pleasant!
But….if it means that, ” over 1000 km. flights” are a measurement for good gliding weather, then we can ALSO say that the weather is not only perfect for sunbakers, but also for glider pilots.
Many 1000 km PLUS flights have been made both in the USA { p.e Parowan} and in many European countries as Germany {Unterwoessen} and Spain {Fuentemilanos}.Many, many….!!!
Ofcourse just under 1000 km flights enough too. What anbout 775 km. for my friend Antti flown from Rayskala in Finland and 783 km from Rieti in Italy not to forget Lubor, who flew 818 km in CS., so I think all pilots this summer season are more or less HAPPY!
The Club class and World class World Comps however, suffer a bit [ till now] with their weather as storms and thunderstorms “visited” the area of Vinon over the last couple of days.Yesterday they had a rest day due to the weather and long retrieves the day before, but today they finally go for longer flights; 405.5 km. for the Clubclass pilots and the PW 5 pilots go for a nice 312.5 km. task.
Hope they all have an excellent day with no, or just a few, outlandings.
There are not a lot of competitors in the Keiheuvel Competetion in Belgium, so I am not sure if I will go there. At least ONE day , for sure!
Due to the fact that the next World Junior Championships are in Rieti in the mountains , there will be no selection [as planned] this time over flat land.Both Belgian juniors who might go are the brothers Bert [jr.] and Tijl Schmelzer , but they practised in Switserland and Germany [Klippeneck] and go to Italy in August.
Dutch pilot and junior member Bart Berendsen will go to Italy too. He flies in a single seater with one of the top pilots from Holland, Ronald Termaat to practise and to find out if this area is safe enough for him to fly.
I know that Leonardo Brigliadori, who is the Comps director, is very kehn on having lots of juniors practising with top pilots who have been flying there in the mountains already, to fly in Rieti and specially in the competition, so they know the area and what they can expect in 2007.If you have trained well, it is a great area to fly there in sunny Rieti.Those Junior Comps will be held from July 28 till August 11 in 2007. I will be there as their “blogger”.
Back to the garden now. Still very blue skies, no wind , no clouds so still HOT, but…. the last day as we expect rain with possible thunderstorms tomorrow and then temperatures between 25 and 30. Not too bad!
Cheers Ritz