Public Library Tocumwal on Tuesday January 15 2013

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.soaringcafe.com     www.glidinginternational.com

SORRY!!! Have n’t been writing for 2 days as the Library was closed on Sunday and Monday and due to the weather not a lot happening at the airport. But that is the beauty of Tocumwal, you can have 2 days with cold and rainy weather and on Monday the sun is shining brightly , blue skies and a raising temperature.

In between I visited lot’s of people as Bill and Val Riley,  the founders of Sportavia , both getting a bit fragile now, but still going as strong as their age of just over 80 and 86 going 87, allows them.
Another lady of that age , just a bit younger is Mary, she is the wife of the CFI in Bill’s time Des Russell. Caught up with her and her daughters Libby and Mary Anne[ who worked with Sportavia for many years as a secretary also for GFA business].

Libby, Mary and Mary- Anne.

Spend some time having coffee and tea with some Sportaviation guests and talking with them we talk ofcourse gliding. In this case the beautiful flight from Ingo last Friday of 636 km. in his Discus a. He went South first to Benalla where the best pilot that day flew 459  km. during the comps in his Ventus 2CT,  [ just to compare] up north to Leeton , then to Hay very unfriendly country and NO engine and then back home.
Still have a lot of admiration for Ingo who is very well now , but has n’t been for a while.

Ingo still flies his XX and in the past during the WGC in Benalla in 1987 it was flown by Markku Kuittinen who recently passed away. We are going to have a small ceremony on him this week, drinking the “double kuittinen” , 4x gold this beer is called, to remember this double world champion.

 

Sunday was just a very cold day full of rain. We even had the heater on in the evening when we had dinner with Joan Escott , wife from former owner of Sportavia Don who passed away 2 years ago and with long time friends Margie and Jill. When they left the air we blew was visible , as on a cold day in our Dutch winter.

Talking about that, last night I got an SMS on my Dutch mobile and to sleep without “sorrow”, I quickly read it. An alert by the Dutch Railway organisation to warn me that travelling by train might have hick up’s due to frost and snow. I turned around and slept happily further , only worry about that in 10 days when I go home again.

My visit to Benalla is on Friday and Saturday and I am looking forward to catch up with a lot of mates , some I have n’t see for maybe 20 years,  as we visited as in the past Shepparton “to shop till we drop”, as in the past with Ute and Doris, Maria and of course my daughter Inge.
Pilots flew in 18 m. a 3 hour AAT with as winner Dave Shorter. In open it was Andrew Georgeson before Shinzo and in 15 m. Tim Bromhead from New Zealand before Peter Trotter and in standard class German “young lady” Swaantje was the best, before Norm Bloch who I might not have seen for over 20 years as well.

Some pictures about the great trees here in Australia to finish this blog and more about the blow hole. While clicking you can enlarge them so you can read them better.
This tree fell over about 25 years ago and as you can see new trees grow from the dead -on-the-ground-laying-tree.

 

 

That s it for now, have to rush again. Thursday will be over 40 again, have to catch up with John, Stefan and Jochen and lunches and dinners continue again , so I am afraid that the 5 kilo’s I lost are back on again.
Today my visit to my chiropractor who saves my year again . He gets the “lost ” parts in my neck back wo where they belong, as it is often out of balance.
Cheers Ritz