Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday July 7 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
The Schmelzer family added some new high- lights to their Moroccan holiday, loving every minute of their stay, taking the less good weather days for granted. The exclusive interview with Tijl is to be read in soaringcafe main page left today. Some flights I hear, were pretty exhausting. The weather with lot’s of showers, was sometimes pretty difficult, but no worries they set records and flew long distances and discovered a new airfield.
Another high- light of their holiday on July 4 written by Bert jr. on FB:
—“1211 km !
Today Tijl and I declared a 1161km declared task, which we had to abandon after a struggle to find good climbs along the Sahara desert.Instead we modified our task, and tried and succeeded in completing a 1211 km free 3TP-distance task and achieved a new African Continental and Belgian record (still to be approved off course).
Needless to say, WE LIKE MAROC !—“
On their last day yesterday they finished with a 300 km. out and return record with a speed of 173.5 km./h. and another 1000 km. flight by Bert jr. and sr., as…dad wanted to “optimax” to a 1000 km day again !!!! Good old Bert sr.
We know so much more now about a for most of us pretty unknown area to fly in. I am grateful the family shared their experiences with us. They certainly are great PR for our great sport. Thanks to all of them!!!!!
What a happy family!!! What great results ..And so deserved!
For more pictures about the 100 km. record and the 1211 km. flight go to ;
https://picasaweb.google.com/101367179377196465151/03072012174KphAt100KmFAITriangleContinentalRecord
https://picasaweb.google.com/101367179377196465151/040720121211kmFreeDistanceContinentalRecord
And for the 300 km record and optimaxed 1.100 km. at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/101367179377196465151/06072012173KphAt300KmOutReturnBelgianRecord#
Day 2 at Issoudun was cancelled and looking at the European weather fore-cast I was n’ t amazed . Day 3…same verdict…
Natasja , one of the Dutch soaring- girls, was flying the 37th Competition till now , preparing in her own way to get hopefully, a ticket for the WWGC next year. She was a bit unlucky, as she came low “without prospect” as she said herself, before the first TP , ready to land, wheel out , water taps open and a reasonable field [it seems that the harvest is also late in France , meaning not a lot of good paddocks to land in!!!] BUT dug herself out with the help of “some sweet buzzards” , lost however 340 points on that day 1 , BUT she finished showing caracter!!! Who reads Dutch can follow her on her blog; http://www.natasjavanderneut.blogspot.nl/
On Friday I heard she had made the decision to move from the 37th International edition of Issoudun to participate in the Pre Worlds. She got the invitation and was more then happy and proud. I wondered already why she did not go for that in the first time, as her dream and goal is; flying a WWGC and she can do it. Not a winner yet, but gaining experience is so important.
SO…..GOOD ON HER !!! Will follow the girls and the 18 m. pilots as well.
Also on Friday; a small window with a 1.30 AAT in both classes. Only 2 pilots in open class finished this AAT in 2.37 and 2. 56 and 152 and 147 km. Tough day, but good on the finishers!
day 2 and 3 were cancelled. picture courtesy Natasja.
In Spain at Ocana the Spanish Nationals in 4 classes are finished now. 43 Pilots participated, to be honest I only know 1 of them. They flew 7 days, so a good competition with just under and over 200 km. tasks in club class, between 250 and 350 in standard class, under and above 300km in 15 m. class with 382 on Wednesday and in open class 416 was the longest task.
Pilots flying in Uvalde surely have seen on the WGC site already, that on July 1 and 4 new updates have been placed about airspace and control point and log file documents . When you are interested you can have a look as well.
http://wgc2012uvalde.com/
The official control point shows pictures from ALL TP’s. Only 19 days to go!!! Here is the Belgian open class team with Pierre de Broqueville, Arnaud de Brockeville and Patrick Stoufs who flies “EB 28 -edition Uvalde “with a 25 m. wing span!!! As said before Patrick flew in 1991 as well in Uvalde!
Promised you some more news about the “New” Gariep- Dam- Aviation -status.
The new owners finally after 10 years have become OWNERS of the airfield. They are upgrading the facilities and operations will be in their hands. They announce transparent prices, hospitality and comfort for all.
You can read, about the new operations, the new prices , the new upgraded infra structure and more on ; http://www.gariepdamaviation.com/images/flyers/flyer_en_2012.pdf
Several competitions started yesterday ;Rayskala with the Nationals in standard, 20 m and 15 m. and the PRE- WWGC and the French 18m. Nationals.
SORRY, in my last blog I quickly added Hyvinkää as the place to be for the 2 seater class [20 m.] but looking later at the FAI site to check it, I found out it was Räyskälä and they started yesterday, but looking at their site… no task, so I presume the weather did not allow for day 1 .Though I was a few times in Finland my Finnish is NON existing!
The Pre WWGC and 18 m French Nationals had pretty miserable weather. Task length for the women; 178 km.
12 from the 38 girls finished!!! German Sabrina Vogt from Germany and UK pilot Elisabeth Sparrow were the best gaining 311 and 310 points for the day.
Best French girl, as it is also the French Nationals for women was Celine Gantie in Pegase.
The 18 m. pilots got a task from 209.6 km. and NOBODY finished! Best distance was 115 km. followed by 76.3.Still a week to go!!!
Task for today in 18 m. class; 224 km. The women got 208.5 km. on ” their plate.”
Also a one-day-competition yesterday in Holland called Amstelglide with a real Regatta start! On Friday organizers were still worried about the weather and asked for alternatives if the day would not be good enough. No worries, it turned out to be a nice , no a very nice day.[see picture and…a 523 km. flight was even flown in Holland] About 58 pilots in 4 classes were launched from Soesterberg the “home” from the Amsterdam Soaring Club. The preliminary results in 20 m. say that Steven Huiskes, who flew together with his dad in the Duo Discus XLT, won with 2.42.49 over 253 km., which means Steven is “good” and ready for Uvalde as youngest participant from the Dutch team. He finished just before Wim Akkermans [ partner from Sofie making the picture below] who flew the ARCUS with 2.42.52. What about that!!!!!????
Another young talented pilot is Jeroen Jennen from Belgium . He flew the 258 km. with a speed of 89.2 km. /ph. winning in the st/15 m. class.
Picture from Jeroen Jennen and the LS 8, via FB ; courtesy Sofie Huybreckx
By the way ELY had fantastic weather yesterday and with a declared 3 TP 1000 km. in an ASW 27 , Ramy Yanetz topped the OLC list.
Last but not least; One of the few hang glider pilots I personally met is Jonny Durand.[Australia] Now I saw that on July 3 he flew together with an American mate , Dustin Martin, a new word record in TEXAS,[ the Zapata -area] : 760 km. in 11 hours-plus. The old record was just over 700 km. and set in 2011 by an Austrian pilot. Amazing to “hang” for so many hours!!! Everybody who wished, could follow the attempt on a tracking system. The dream was to fly 800 km. but that will happen one day as well.
The loggers are going to say within days, who in fact has the real new World record. It’s still NOT confirmed now but it seems Jonny said that Dustin passed over him and landed a few km. further. We will patiently wait.
Enough updates, too much happening, so CU on Wednesday, cheers Ritz