ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN SUNDAY NOVEMBER 18 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
a “bunch” of relaxed pilots/boys in Lake Keepit!
Courtesy Anita Taylor.
Regatta start at 12.50,…. 372. km.,… a speed of 140 km./h…. and some called it a day with “heaps of high cirrus”, others a “brilliant day. 12,000 ft thermals” anyhow these were the ingredients for day 4 in Lake Keepit …and the winner from the 10 points was Graham Parker! Bruce followed with 8 points.
And Allan Barnes was really doing a great job flying in his LS 8 to a 6th place in the 18m. scores! Of course he won in the standard class the max. 5 points and is 3 points ahead now of Shinzo [11] in that class, with 2 more days to fly!
Brad Edwards joined in on day 4, but missed some TP’s , so was only scored to TP 2 and you read WHY in Bruce’s daily comment;
—“Another big day, with cloudbase at about 12,000 feet, and a whisper that one of the JS1’s saw 15 knots on the averager for a while. We went north to Moree, then east to a little airstrip in the middle of nowhere, and home for around 380 km. The wind was not as strong as yesterday, but still had a big effect, with some heavy sink to deal with. I had a pretty good start, climbed well and got running quickly, but had a slower spot after leaving the Kaputar mountains. I was low close to Moree, but the aforementioned monster climb helped a bit! Brad Edwards (first day of competition for him) and Graham were close by and we stayed out the front for the rest of the flight. Graham did the last leg better than we did and took the win, I was second and Brad third, though Brad missed a turn due to no waypoints in his computer (he was trying to guess where the turns were!). It’s a little bit closer at the top of the list after today…”
On day 5 the message was “scrubbed”! So with only ONE day to go , the scores after 4 days , were in 18 m.
1. Tom with 35 points, 2. Graham with 31 and Bruce with 30 points.
In standard class;
1. Allan with 14 points, Shinzo with 11 and Matthew [ Atkinson] with 7.
Final day of another interesting and exciting Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix. A bit of a mixed-feeling-day, a challenging day with some good and some disappointing clouds but good enough for Graham , who won flying day 5 in the ASG 29E.; regatta start at 12.45,….325.4 km. with 133.km./h. Great to see Andrew Maddocks flying so well on spot 3 for the day.
Flowers for the winners Tom,[43 p.] Graham [ 41 p.] and Bruce [ 37 p.] in 18 m. for Allan [19 p.] , and Shinzo [11 p.] in the standard class and for the rest of the competitors for giving us another nice GP!
Here is Allan’s last comment;
-” With 4 points lead all I had to do was play it safe. Prior to the start though they missed the 10 minute call and then made a 7 minute call instead at 6 minutes. I was on the wrong side of the line and had to fly fast to get back in time for the 1 minute deadline, then I ended up starting at 3000ft instead of 4000ft. Cost me in the first climb.—”
But …he still won the day in standard class .In fact out of 5 days he won 3 and was 2x on spot 2.
On November 14 in 1912, the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina gave the KNVvL, our Dutch Gliding Association the title ROYAL; so ONE HUNDRED year of aviation with the predicate ROYAL. AND……the next 25 years they will remain ROYAL.
Congratulations and I share the cake they virtual shared with us from this special moment, with you.
And…also on November 14 but this time 2013 the first 1000 km. flights were made in Pokweni and Bitterwasser . Both in open class gliders in Pokweni by Axel Nuss in the Nimbus 3DM [ 1.001.85 km. /75o FAI triangle] …..”With love to all at home” and in Bitterwasser by Japanese pilot Kenzo Umetani flying the EB 28 with a speed of 138 km./h. over 1.016 km.[679 FAI].
An 18m Ventus with French pilot Jacques Tavernier flew from Pokweni already 930 km. Getting close to the magic 1000 as well!
One day later 2 x 1000 again one AGAIN by the Japanese pilot from Pokweni[ 1.060 km. / 750 FAI triangle ] , he must be “over the moon” and one by Robin May [1.119 km with a speed of 159 km./h. / 500 Fai triangle] from Kiripotib also in the EB 28 , who flew in the past several WGC’s , once my daughter even helped with crewing for him.
The 18 m. gliders, 2 Ventus 2CM flew 950 and also Gariep Dam had some good flights up to 868 km.[781 FAI triangle]
From Douglas were the cloud base was 14.500 UK pilots had great fun in the JS 1’s and Iain Evans declared and flew 800 km.!
AND …what about the 809 km flight [ FAI 799 km.TRIANGLE] in an ASG 29 from Cunderdin in Western Australia last Friday by Swain Johnson.
From my Perth- friends I heard already it was over 30 dgr. in the West, and luckily also good soaring conditions.
Even a 637 FAI triangle was possible in a junior!
Also yesterday they had the awesome weather you hope for as a pilot. 735km.[ 718 FAI] yesterday from Bevertley in an LS 8 and today with not all OLC flights added yet, a good over 600 km. from Benalla in Victoria by Tobias Geiger in the LS 4. And what about 624 km from Mount Beauty pilot Graig Collings flying at Benalla in the ASW 20.
The Bariloche is also a place for overseas soaring. The wave can be very good there , though last year they had one of the worst years as the vulcano in Chile ruined the season. This year should be better again and one of my friends Bruce has arrived already and I noticed Morgan Sandercock from the Perlan Project and a few of that team are there as well.
You can keep track on what Morgan sees, finds and shares on http://perlanproject.org/news/
They will be flying from Bariloche and Chos Malal, in November and December so keep an eye on them.
Here is a picture from the Perlan Project News [October/November] I received this morning and I am looking forward to some long great and exciting flights :
From left ro right;
Jackie Payne, Dennis Tito, Sander, Marcelo Yanguez (Esquel Air Traffic Controller), Tago dePietro, Jim Payne.
In my last blog I wrote about the Uppsala Masters! Here is the latest by Mats Larsson!
—182 days until first competition day, but web-site is now up running. “–
http://masters.flyg.org/
From the SRGC from Tocumwal I received some pictures with CFI Ingo and some Chinese guests learning to fly in the still quiet early season.
With Ingo in the middle!
And LAST BUT NOT LEAST,….the links in German and English, to the VERY interesting story from Peter Harvey who flew the new Antares at the Uvalde WGC. Full of humour , totally [as we know] Pete! ENJOY!!!!! A very small part of the story from Pete, to “tease” you! Thanks Ludwig!!
—-” It was beyond my hopes that 2012 would begin with a phone call from Axel saying he thought the machine would be ready and would I be interested in flying it in Texas?
YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS, AXEL!!! Actually, I’m a cool competition pilot so tried to hide my excitement and stupidity, while asking almost intelligent questions about the design, performance projections, timescales, logistics, arrangements, blah, blah. I don’t remember too much of the phone call, but it was clear that this was a project involving a lot of people – a real team effort – and that there was a lot of responsibility on everyone to work hard and deliver. —”
For more…..
English: http://www.lange-aviation.com/htm/english/news/news_2012_11_16.html
German: http://www.lange-aviation.com/htm/deutsch/aktuelles/news_2012_11_16.html
As you can see on the top, I live on the Rijn at least not far from it and on that river passed by this week the brandnew ship from Steve Jobs , now of course after he died, the ship from his family. It really looks futuristic was built from 2006 till now , is 78.2 m. long and designed by Steve himself. They started building the boat in Aalsmeer and now it goes on it’s own power to Rotterdam for the finishing touch. The aluminium ship, light and economical, cruises on iMacs, 7 Apple computers from 27 inch. have been specially designed for the wheelhouse to make life easy for the shipper. You can imagine a lot of pictures were made.
Next Wednesday I hope not to forget that it is Wednesday. LOL!!!
cheers Ritz