Great picture of ORANGE AMSTERDAM, courtesy Theo Hagenberg.

My goodness me, what a lovely KINGS-day we had last Monday. New Style ,…as we have a king now instead of queen Beatrix, , but it was all perfect .Even the weather, —-predicted was cold and rain, —-helped as it was sunny all day with fabulous clouds , but indeed pretty COLD.For those celebrating till mid night in the East of Holland it was extra cold; the ground temperature was MINUS 9 there. April has it’s own ideas about weather.
The glider pilots had a fab day too. A day off,  for starters, but those cloud streets and clouds!!!??? Only the wind was a bit of a spoilsport.
In the evening I looked straight at the OLC .
My friends Ake from Sweden and Dave from the UK “spoiled ” the Dutch OLC party a bit with a spot 1 for Ake   [652 km.in his Ventus2/350 FAI triangle] and a spot 10 for Dave. [496 in his LS 6 with winglets/428 FAI triangle]
The rest of the top 19 was for Dutch pilots ;31 from the 48 page-one-flights were Dutch.Pretty UNIQUE!!!!!!

Great gliding weather in the UK, as shared by Peter Millenaar, at work!
Peter flies a 737-800 for Ryan Air and is based in Karlsruhe Baden Baden, but,..moves soon [June1] closer to Holland Niederrhein Weeze. Better for him as soaring is close by there [NIJAC] and he runs his own business in Holland ; Millen Air Glider Supplies  (www.MillenAir.eu)

AND YES,..Holland did well!!!!2 x a 700 by 2 mates who just bought their-selves an ASG 29e / 18m. and try it out now to the fullest; Mark [Leeuwenburgh] and Alfred Paul[Alfers] .By the way, 10 days earlier they both flew  888 km. on the other perfect day in Holland.
Bart[Berendesen] one of “my” former juniors tried out his new DG 300;570 and getting to know each other better in Corowa last winter, Bart [Renckens] and Max [Dolphin] flew the ARCUS M again together ;678 km.
A lot of flights from Soesterberg.
One day later , so yesterday,another good day in some parts with a max of 591 in an ASG 29 , from the South West of Holland flying far into Belgium. Of course some people had to work again.
In the UK, Roy Pentecost was lucky as he had a day off and flew 622 km. in his ASG 29.Both Lasham and Dunstable [756 km. in the ASH 25 EB 28 by Robin May]  showed long distance flights .

From Belgium , St Hubert, where in May the BENELUX comps will be flown, a nice 746 km. flight in the ASG 29/18 m.
From France [Serres] Klaus [Ohlmann] had, as he called it an  “ higly interesting flight between wave, ridge and thermal soaring.”
1.182,39 km. was the distance ,750 FAI triangle in the Stemme.

Ridge Soaring,in the USA,  still has great ridge soaring , but thermals were broken and the LAK FES 17/21m. made quite some kilometers over the last couple of days; one over 1000 and 2 over 700.

Also the Scandinavian countries had some “proper”  weather over the last couple of days. Rayskala [ Finland] with 669 in the ARCUS,Sweden with the good flight from Ake and Norway with 516 in an ASW 20 and Arne Martin [Guettler] mentioned about his 466 km. flight in the Discus bt;
“My first proper cross country flight of the year. There were some great conditions with awesome cloud streets in places, making this a high speed run eventually.
What a day, and after the initial difficulty it was the fastest flying I’ve ever done in thermal conditions! Should have carried water ballast to go even faster.[127 km./h.]
Flight track: www.skylines.aero/flights/45355/

Arne Martin always makes great pictures and here are 2. The rest with the story you can find on;
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?

“Flying along the north side of lake Seljord I was able to maintain height, but not climb.”
Courtesy Arne Martin.

Passing by TT above Seljord.
Courtesy Arne Martin

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In Orient in South Africa the Gauteng Regionals started on April 26 continuing till May 2, with 23 participants in 2 classes, 15 m and open.
In 15 m. a 216 racing task was set , but the racing was so fast that not a lot of points were earned; 345  points for Richard Glennie in the ASW 20 with a speed of 139.4 km./h. Even faster was the runner up Wayne Schmidt in the ASW 27; 155.4 km./h.
Day 2 for them was a bit further 374 km.and Wayne was in a hurry again; 160 km./h. Richard was 2d and only 5 from 11 finished.
Day 3 , yesterday had 213.9 km as task and the glorious winner with a speed of 161 km./h on the clock was Wayne.
Day 4 today;336.2 km.

Open class;on day 1 they had 404.7 km and by now half KIWI half South African, John [Coutts] won the 840 points with a speed of 161.3 km./h. in the JS1. Runner up Oscar [Goudriaan] was even faster in his JS 1 ;167.1 km./h.
Day 2…. Martin [Lessle], who was 1 of the 3 “out-landers”  on day 1, took revenge and won in his Ventus CM/17.6m. with Oscar and John behind him. ALL 3 about 177 km./h.!!!!! Thermals up to 6.7 m./sec
Day 3 ;459.7 km.And,….John did it again!!!Speed this time 167.1 km. Four Pilots flew their selves in the 800 points-range and 900 points was the top for John.
Day 4 today;355.9 km.

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The Club class Nationals in Italy have started with a 312 racing- task, in Alzate Brianza on April 24. Stefano Ghiorzo “got” the first 1000 points just ahead of Alberto Sironi , both flying the SILENT 2 TARGA. Unfortunately a bad first day for Nicola Vergnani; only 26 points for him.His sister Elena is not flying this year I noticed.
Davide [Schiavotto] was 3d and Ricardo [Brigliadori] 9th.They normally fly only in the weekends , so I guess this year as well, as nothing has happened after. More in my next blog.

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On May 2 there is a one-day- competition at Terlet here in Holland and the weather is looking good.
Fatraglide starts on May 1 with 27 competitors in 2 classes.
Also on May 2 the Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix 18 m. [ Frydlant ] starts in the Czech Rep. with 16 pilots and several names we saw during the last comps in the East of Europe. Will look at all of them next Wednesday.

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The Women Pilots Association has invited also via the social media [FB] women to visit Minden for their seminar.

 The organization of our upcoming Seminar at Minden to be held from June 15-19 2015 is in full swing! In addition to world-class soaring conditions which you should not miss, WSPA Seminar Organizers are also planning a lot of interesting events in addition to flying. If you wish to read more about the Seminar and about Minden, please visit our website http://www.womensoaring.org/?p=seminar.
And if you would like to register: http://www.womensoaring.org/index.php?p=seminarform

We are looking forward to seeing you at Minden!

That’s it for today CU next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz