Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday March 7 2010 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
A few sunny days do make you feel so good and last Thursday the weather was like real spring-weather. I even enjoyed 2 hours of sun baking!!! Nice sunny conditions and for the pilots great cumulus clouds. Of course I looked straight away on Friday morning, if some pilots did use this weather and yes they did , they flew from Germany [ Borken] just over the border , to the N East of Holland . This is flatland flying with cu’s ! Good on them , 314 km. in a Ventus 2CM 18m!
In Holland most clubs get their first annual -opening- briefing this weekend!But….yesterday the first flights were made from Soesterberg as well ,by 2 pilots from the Amsterdam Club for Soaring,Mark and Sikko, both participating in the CAE NLS Nationals in May.They had nice cloud streets and a bit too much wind but a great start of the season with just over 300 km. flown. And as you know, Holland , flat as a pancake, has no ridge flying and or wave , “we” use thermals!!!
Not only here in Holland the weather was good , but at several places in Europe as well and not only France, Spain and Italy. So more pilots are back in the air! Nitra had a few good soaring days and in Germany they even flew last Wednesday a 533 km in ASW 20. Mostly wave or ridge flying, but sometimes you hear the word “thermal” as well.
Also former WGC champion Robin May tried his ASH 25 EB from Dunstable so the UK slowly wakes up as well.
In Prievidza [Slovakia]the preliminary entries have been closed and the result is very good; 116 pilots entered from 28 different countries. Club class has 51 pilots from 26 different countries , standard 49 from 24 countries and world class 16 from 9 countries. They anticipated before on 110 pilots from 24 countries, so when the “preliminaries” are all coming , they go over this number.
Jozef Snirc is the WGC director. I met Jozef in Italy where he was steward checking out and learning for his “own” competition. Aerospool the producer of the popular aircraft WT 9 Dynamic is the main sponsor and this is his company . All tow planes, he told me then, will be Dynamics during this WGC. And…they are good, fast and low-noise!!! I saw one in Rieti!!!
Condor will run parallel with the comps , the VIRTUAL comps with the same tasks, scoring and rules.
For the WGC in Hungary [Szeged] around 100 pilots have, at this stage, preliminary applied , from 23 countries.
The plenary meeting from the IGC is over and was on March 5 and 6. You can read all of it , also the amendments from the German and Dutch Aeroclub for the pilot selection process, on ; www.fai.org/gliding.igc_plenary10
Between igc and plenary is an “underscore like _, just to let you know!
Just received from the USA a summary of the unofficial voting details, this news is public but only official after it is published by the FAI. THANKS to one of my USA friends!
IGC Plenary Meeting
Unofficial Results of Votes 2010
March 6, 2010
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| 8.1.1 Pilot Selection Process | Use the IGC Pilot Ranking List to reduce the number of entries in oversubscribed championships | Amended to use Country Ranking, not Pilot Ranking. Amended version accepted. |
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8.1.2 Immediate application of Pilot Selection Process (1st April 2010) (2/3rds majority required) |
Advance the effective date of proposal 8.1.1 by 18 months | Accepted |
| 8.1.3 FAI Decentralised Gliding Competition | Seek a partner in a venture to create a decentralized competition, with tasks defined by FAI. | Accepted |
| 8.1.4 IGC Safety Strategy and Plan | Continued work by Bureau | Accepted |
| 8.1.5 Special budget for History Committee | 2500 Euro for expenses | Accepted |
| 8.2.2 Proposal for establishment of Continental Records (Year 2) | Start keeping Continental Records after October 1, 2010 | Accepted |
| 8.3.2a Establishment of 13.5m Class | New class | Accepted |
| 8.3.2b Handicap in 13.5m Class | Use handicaps | Rejected |
| 8.3.2c Use of ballast in 13.5m Class | No ballast | Rejected, and the MTOW is not limited |
| 8.3.2d Sub-classes in 13.5m Class | Recognize dominant type within class | Rejected |
| 8.4.2 Revised Annex A of the Sporting Code Section 3 (Year 2) | The new Annex A, to become effective October 1, 2010 | Amended to become effective April 1, 2010. Amended version accepted. |
| 8.5.2 Revision to Annex D (Competition quality factor) | Computational change | Accepted |
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8.6.1 Introduction of 20m Two-seater class at WGC |
Add 20M2S class to WGC, beginning in 2012 | Accepted, but not for 2012 |
| 8.7.1 Use of GPS Position recorders for silver and gold badge flights | Remove some of IGC’s authority for approval of position recorders | Accepted |
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8.8.1 Acceptance of discussing the notion from required) |
Allow 8.8.2 to be discussed | Accepted |
| 8.8.2. Allocation of WWGC and JWGC outside
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At least once every 10 years | Accepted |
| Site of 16th European Gliding Championships 2011 | Open, 18 Meter, 15 Meter |
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| Site of 16th European Gliding Championships 2011 | Standard, Club, World, 20 Meter 2 Seat |
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| Site of 7th Junior World Gliding Championships 2013 |
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| Site of 6th Women’s World Gliding Championships 2013 |
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| Lilienthal Medal | Ross Macintyre ( |
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| Majewska Medal | Beryl Hartley ( |
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| Gehriger Diploma | Igidio Galli ( |
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| Place and date of 2011 meeting |
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Thank you to the Finnish team organizing the JWGC last year. We all received our dvd, which gave back straight away great memories.
And then this…last Tuesday a pilot was arrested at Schiphol Airport. He was ready to fly from Schiphol to Ankara with 110 passengers, but…..without a license to fly!!!!!
The 41 year old pilot , living in Milano, with the Swedish nationality flew over 10.000 hours for Italian, Belgium and UK airlines and was now in function for the Turkish company Corendon. For 13 years he flew with false, “own-made” papers, never had an ATPL to fly Airliners, only a CPL license years ago and that was expired!!!! Swedish authorities found out about it and tipped the Dutch.
Weird, that he could continue for such a long time!!!! They do so many prof and line-checks through the years, at-least he must have been able to keep a 737 in the air, otherwise they would have found out much earlier.
And…..what about the young kid “helping” his father in the tower…..????!!!!!
And ….what about the 28 year old British helicopter pilot shot by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a few days ago. He picked up victims from the fight between the Americans and some Afghan rebels. The bullets hit the helicopter and the pilot. One bullit went in his helmet but also hit him between his eyes. While bleeding ,he flew his 20 mates in 8 minutes back to safety before being treated in the camp hospital. There are still heroes in this world!!!
When I read news like this, I often think of the French helicopter pilot , Killian Walbrou, who flew last year, in Rayskala the junior WGC in Club Class, becoming 4th overall. After the comps he had to go straight back to Kabul to his sometimes dangerous mission,[ he calls 10% dangerous,] to fly people to and from 20 different drop zones in an EC 725 CARACAL . By the way, I did not see him on the list of participants in Club Class in Prievidza. He might be still in Kabul.
See you on Wednesday
cheers Ritz