Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday March 16 2011 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
The nuclear plants are after the earth quake and the terrible tsunami the next scare for the Japanese. Tragic!! Just ONE BIG nightmare!!!! Some countries , as France, advise their people to leave Japan. Journalists are leaving as well.
On Monday morning I received the next message and the picture below from some of my Sportavia , now Sportaviation friends made in December last year, before going to a nice dinner in Tocumwal.
—Many people in Tokyo area tried to go to their office and workplace this morning but they had a big confusion.Almost all trains to go to the City from suburb have been cancelled and people living in suburb has no way to go their office because of the lack of electric power.This has been generated by the damage of the nuclear power plant.In order to save the power, the government authorities has decided to divide the city of Tokyo and its surrounding area into 5 groups and stop the power supply for 3 hours every day.The power supply to my area will stop at 15:20 today but it is a negligible problem in this circumstances.—
On top of that there is not enough water and food. People are cold as it is around 0 and heatings are not working. More then 150 after-earth-quakes have been counted as well. It is TOO much to comprehend.For me it feels like the moment the planes hit the twin towers in New York; you look at it but it does n’t get in the brain, it is TOO much.I know the Japanese are proud and strong people and I really hope they can cope with it the next weeks, months, years!!!! Holland is ready to help and many other countries, so when they ask more help it will happen straight away .
By the way only in Holland the news is followed by 1 million more people then normally look at the news.[over 3 million]
Soaring continues and last Sunday Switzerland had super wave conditions and top pilot Stefan Leutenegger “used “them to fly a distance of 1.192 km. with a speed of 115 km/h. in the ARCUS from Hausen am Albis . In the same conditions Bert Schmelzer jr. flew 546 km in a discus 2. Bert shares some wonderful pictures on the OLC , so for those who missed them, here is the link;
https://picasaweb.google.com/Bert.Schmelzer/FohnflugWaveflightHausen13032011#
On the picture under here, Bert jr to the left , his brother Tijl and mum Hilde [TC] and soaring -mate Patrick Stouffs in Rieti.On the picture to the right Bert Schmelzer sr. in Räyskälä [2d to the right]. The Schmelzer family is a truly soaring family, all 4 of them fly and mum is mostly the Belgium TC and dad wrote a book about the history of “Soaring in Flanders”, a real collectors item.
It seems that Libya has tried to get their 2 fighters [ Mirages] back , which were left in Malta by the crew ‘s who refused to kill their own people/ demonstrators and deserted. It did not work out. According to CNN , Malta refused, to trade them for the Dutch crew of 3 from the helicopter who entered Libya without permission . The only thing which stayed in Libya was the old Chinook helicopter. The 3 got a warm welcome back in Holland.
Talking about helicopters , one was totally damaged after it hit a building. The Sikorsky S-58 ET tried to move a heavy load and hit the office-building at the Los Angeles Airport. The pilot was injured.[CNN]
4000 pilots of India have to be ready to show their flying documents/ licenses to the Indian authorities as in the last months 4 pilots/ captains were caught with the wrong documents. One, a female pilot , damaging an Airbus A320, by landing on the front wheel first !!!! Pretty scaring, is n’t it ??!!
And what about drunk pilots who were ready to fly with Aeromexico???? 101 passengers had to wait for 24 hours before travelling from Costa Rica to Mexico City, as the pilots had partied too much before!
Fokker got broke about 15 years ago.I still remember it!! Now I read in the paper that they might start again in Brazil.REKKOF,[ FOKKER , but the other way around] has confirmed that they are talking with Brasilian authorities. Interesting detail is that the Embraers , which KLM bought since 2007, as replacement for their Fokkers, are build in Brasil as well.
Good news from Tocumwal!The SRGC [Southern Riverina Gliding Club] with Ingoi as CFI, has temporary a Pilatus B4 on line. With around 70 members they needed an extra glider. Good on them! Their annual general meeting with BBQ is on April 2 in Mike Toth ‘s hangar. More news on www.srgc.com.au
Lot’s of guests this week, so see you on Sunday again,
cheers Ritz