Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday September 21 “AUTUMN” ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
The first heavy snow has fallen in the Alps and on TV, I saw towns in Switzerland looking like “good Christmas cards” .But the next day it was 20 dgr. again so the snow was gone. With autumn we prepare for winter on this site of the world. No worries!
More worries for Japan, around the town of Nagoya , were some of our former guests at Sportavia live, 1 million people have been advised to fly for typhoon Roke.Not good!
One of the good things about the link to Soaring Cafe is that I read more about the Concordia now. I am very interested in that project and I hope that with me, many more readers are going to follow this project from Dick Butler, who by the way is going to fly in Uvalde with the Concordia at the next WGC. Great news! The wings have been put on the fuselage last week, story to be read on www.soaringcafe.com
Flying at the WGC in Uvalde is also the JS1 , of course I should say the glider flew itself in the picture and not one but quite a few will participate there in Texas. And….the French team has just added a new JS1 to their WGC fleet in Uvalde. Who is going to fly this glider then, I do not know by now.
Sad but true! After investigation they found out that the pilot who crashed in Russia on the highway in June had too much alcohol in his blood. 47 People died!!!!
Who has not read the book Cross country soaring by Dr. Helmut Reichmann.
Picture; courtesy Sus [sister from Helmut] and Detlef Schroeder
This picture is made at the WGC in Finland in 1976.
I did not think about him for a long time. Of course you know that he died in 1992, during a squad training in the French Alps colliding with another pilot. He was 3 times World Champion [in 1970, 1974 in standard class and in 1978 in 15 m. class!] and and a lovely and very smart guy. I met him on several occasions in the far past.
My friends Jo and Tony from Australia visited during their trip around the world Helmut’s niece Katrin and her parents. Tony knew Helmut well and Katrin lived in Australia with Jo and Tony for a year between school and university.
Katrin is now a doctor working in orthopaedics in Germany and fondly called “daughter ” by Tony and Jo and her parents. A good reason to remember Helmut, specially for the younger ones; a top glider pilot and a very interesting guy to talk to. This way , by talking about him, he will be never forgotten.
The first Baron Hilton Cup was organised by him and Baron Hilton and before he died he was for several years team coach from the German team .He was a very influental pilot/person in the short time he lived.
Picture courtesy; Detlef Schroeder.
On the picture young Dr. Katrin Schroeder, her mother Sus Schroeder and sister from Helmut and of course Tony Tabart.
The Kilometer-eaters start now the overseas season. Allan Barnes is one of them, he flew last week in Jondaryan [Australia] 479 km. in his LS 1f. Already in mid-winter he flew on July 30 a 529 km. task in an LS 8.
The ABSOLUTE -TOP- KILOMETER- EATER this year will be Alfredo Giretti who flew most flights from Rieti .At this stage he has flown 100 flights [ also in Kiripotib] and a total of 59.446,69 km. and I guess nobody is going to beat it, so he will be the best/ champion in 2011 for the OLC world wide statistics. Good on him!
Great runner up is Pepe as he is about 10.000 km. ahead of the number 3! Well done Pepe! And we will see and hear more of him as he loves his ASH 31/21m.
Talking about Rieti, as said, my Australian friends Jo and Tony Tabart visited Rieti this summer on their world tour. Tony loved to fly once more in Rieti , after he flew there the WGC in 1985. Also in 1984 he flew the Pre WGC and that’s the year we met the Aussies and we still are great friends!!!! That’s soaring too! We even ended up for a few years [ 10] living in and running Sportavia at Tocumwal.
On the pictures Tony , now in his seventies with good old Alessandro the chief instructor from Rieti. Pictures courtesy Jo Pocklington. THANKS JO!!!!
The first competition in the 2011/12 season starts this weekend in Warwick [SE of Queensland] ; the Queensland 2011 State Soaring Championships, with toppers as Bruce Taylor and John Buchanan flying in 18m. class.
In that area there is wave, ridge- soaring, and as they claim;” the sparse darling downs plains “, usually offer conditions with 10 knots up to 10.000 ft.
When looking at the entries so far 34, I noticed the name from Sydney Dekker. Have to find out if he is the one who flew , when my son Dennis had to cut the cable from the winch , to save Sydney [ the handle to release the rope did not work!] .Both then 14 years old , managed to “kill” all electricity in a huge town as the cut-cable hit the powerlines .They were NOT at fault and Dennis even got a mention for bravery. A real story. Have n’t seen Sydney for at-least 20 years and that was , how bizar it might sound in Tocumwal at the cemetery were Dennis is buried.
Heard Sydney is a rather wellknown professor now in the science of human factors.
You are up- to-date , see you next Sunday when it will be 20 dgr. here ! Weird weather! Cheers Ritz