Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday September 8 2010 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
Last Sunday was a glorious day weatherwise! Not only were the beaches full of people, the airfields were busy as well , certainly here in Holland. Around 1100 pilots world- wide shared with us their flight on the OLC. In Holland nearly 60 pilots and the weather was good for flights up to 531 km and one of my friends enjoyed a bit of a cool , but great flight of 207 km. in the oldtimer, Slingsby-t30 Prefect.
More “old-type” planes went up and in Germany a pilot flew in his LS1-d 623 km enjoying every minute of the cloud streets , the super visibility and the thermals till the end. Only spoilsport was the seabreeze just making the average speed of 83 km a bit lower then neccesary.Most of the pilots have forgotten after this nice day how wet August was.
Vinon is still good for 700 km + flights. Nice to see that 2 French pilots “from my time ” , Gilles and Gerard, both had a great day of flying with a flight of 762 km and 740. Gilles in the ASG 29 and as usual, Gerard in an open class glider the Nimbus 4D.
But also in a lot of other parts the weather was nice for a day out. In Germany this was fatal for a 47 year old lady , looking at the airshow in Schnaittach-Lillinghof. A vintage plane broke out while starting for a formation flight and run in the public hitting with the prop the poor lady. The pilot [68] had to go to hospital because of a shock and 38 other people were injured.
Investigation will learn us what went wrong and why the plane rolled to the right instead of straight on.
Monday was another glorious day, sunny, nice fluffy clouds and 23 dgr. but I could not find ONE flight on the OLC for the Netherlands. Unfortunately rain and storm on Tuesday ,with only in Holland at the morning peak hour, a traffic jam of 700 km, worst for this year, but later they adjust it in 562 km.
The Dutch Nationals will be back next year at the National Gliding Center Terlet. Period; May 16-27. Official opening on Sunday May 15 and official closing ceremony on Saturday May 28.
After 6 years there will be a new competition director; Jeppe de Boer.
They managed to fly a 3d day during the Masters at St Hubert in Belgium. Young Bert Schmelzer won the day ; a task over 161 km with a speed of 105 km/h. After 3 days Yves Jeanmotte was the winner of these first Masters with “only” 893 points in total!!!!
The UK Mountain Soaring comps have started as a Regional competition at Aboyne on September 5 going till September 11. Till now no flying days and the expectation is ….maybe after today. As there was a lot of wind , rain and turbulence the editor of the comps wrote; “It is better to sit down here wishing we were up then vice versa. ”
In Australia one of the first comps of the new season 10/11 has started at the gorgeous field of Lake Keepit. Brian Hayhow, one of our regular guests at Sportavia, won the first day of the Keepit Speed Week in his Discus. In October the Australian Nationals will be flown at Dalby. Both Keepit and Dalby are on the East Coast where the new summer-flying-season always starts.
Also over there the weather is not yet really flash with only small tasks set and AAT ‘s of 2 hours.
Upcoming BIG events for the next season 2011;
6 th FAI WWGC in Arboga in Sweden starting on June 15.
16th FAI EGC at Nitra in Slovakia starting on July 17
4 th FAI World Grand Prix at Wasserkuppe in Germany starting on July 23
16 th FAI EGC in Pociunai in Lithuanian starting on July 31 [ BIG ships]
7 th FAI JWGC at Musbach in Germany starting on August 6
Ever heard of SCUM??? Years and years ago we laughed about the “forming”of SCUM, the union for the crews; Sailplane Crew Union Member. The proud members walked around in t shirts with SCUM on it and told everybody who wanted to hear it that “they had rights”. It is nice to see that the SCUM revived in Szeged where a groupe wants to “go European”with a meeting in December in Barcelona. Look for more news at www.scum.aero .
I noticed that except for wellknown crew member Baldrick , several Dutch crew members will visit Barcelona. Great idea, this meeting of international crews/friends!
KLM- AirFrance had in August a tiny little bit less passengers;0.8 %. And…foreign guests have less frequently visited Holland over the last 2 years . Was the number in 2007 still 11 million and in 2008 10 million-plus, 2009 haD 9.9 visitors. The special tax in ’08 and ’09, which does n’t have to be paid anymore now, decreased the number of flight connections. Also the recession lowered the number of business passengers but the holiday makers increased in number.
By the way, keep an eye on ” our” hockey girls playing for and hopefully defending, in Argentina their world title. They are doing a great job. They now play against the girls from England in the semi-final, while Argentina will play either Germany or Australia.
Looking forward to the finals!
Cheers Ritz