Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday June 29 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
HOT!!! Also here in Holland![picture from archive.]
Hot here!! 35 Yesterday and 32 on Monday.Noticed that Stockholm had 26 on Monday, what a pity that weather came too late. It was , as on more comps I visited, during prizegiving, maybe the best day of the comps?!
I really felt sorry for the poor meteo man, even more when I saw the picture.
On Monday I was in Amsterdam. The train in Holland can be good but when the weather is too cold or too hot , with too much snow or thunder and lightning , they are hopelessly lost.
In 32 dgr. I travelled in train , bus and a fully packed metro , where you could only “hang” between the other people. 40 plus I guess in it. Normally it takes me from house to house 2 hours this time 4!!!!! The heat had upset rails and points.
Anyhow today it is back to 17 dgr. and around 20 is what I expect for my one week holiday. The damage in the Southern part of Holland after the severe thunderstorms yesterday evening, with hail and wind gusting to 120 km at some places was quite substantial.
picture from Archive.
The 20 m. 2-seaters in Italy just finished their Nationalsin Voghera and winner is the ARCUS T with Alberto Sironi with 2040 points. Great pilot, friendly guy! Only 3 days of flying, and Alberto won 2 of them.Also NOT one 1000-points-day!! All devalued days. 2d Was another Arcus T . There was one more ARCUS and the rest of the class were duo discusses.
A lot of Polish friends are flying in Leszno at the moment to be the best in club and 18 m. class. Club- A counts 41 participants and 18 m. 31. They fly till July 3 and till now they have flown 3 days with yesterday an AAT in 18m. class, from 232 /660 km in 4 hours.
Nice to see Steve Crabb is flying there is well. He is married to the daughter from a former Polish friend of mine Stan Witek. Well known pilots in this class; Tomasz Rubaj and Janusz Centka.
Mondays OLCwas topped by Pepe and that pleases me. He really loves his new ASH31/21 m. “Best glider I ever flew”. He showed it again with a nice 896 km. flight from Fuente. Spain slowly gets busier and places as Fuentemilanos and Beas de Segura will be soon full of soaring-enthusiasts. Another friend Hans, flies from Beas, and “made ” 682 km. in his DG 800B/18m. And in Greece , even with all the strikes, Alexis flew 784 km. in his ASW 22 BLE.
In Norway Erlend flew a nice 760 km. flight in the Nimbus 4 D with speed ; 107 km/h.
Yesterday I liked the 750 FAI triangle in an LS 8 in Germany and I was pleased to see Räyskälä had good weather with Martti flying 668 km.
I was touched by the crash in the USA where a young 16 year old boy survived his 2d crash flying with his father in a light aircraft. First he lost his mum and brother and sister,on their trip to their holyday house, this time his step mum and dad on the way back from again the summer house. Investigations are on why the plane flew into a garage. Last time the main reason was bad preparation by the dad, who’s plane lacked fuel in the end. This time , I read in the paper, he saved the life of his son by “kicking” him out of the plane before it burnt.
That’s it for now. 2 Guests this week and Dundee arrives this afternoon to keep an eye on my house/garden when I am gone.Cheers Ritz and see you on Sunday July 10.