Alphen aan den Rijn                                  Wednesday May 6 2009

On Monday evening May 4 ,I was more anxious then normal, to see what had happened that day with soaring. The weather here above my head was so wonderful, that I knew some pilots would go to bed with a very happy and satisfying feeling. Huge cumulus clouds with “black bottoms” ! Really like fast growing cauliflowers.
I was not wrong. Here in Holland nearly a 750 was flown from Malden close to Nijmegen. The task was set , but just not made, the pilot in a Ventus 2 CT, missed out on one thermal in the southern part of Holland to bring him home and achieve his 750 km.
It is not every day here in Holland that pilots fly a 715 km task.
Some enjoyed flying from our National Gliding Center Terlet near Arnhem, over Belgium [ east from St Hubert] and even reached France before turning back home.[591 km. in a Nimbus 4 DT]

Looking at the different flights , the St. Hubert area was in the good weather situation and Yves Jeanmotte managed to fly from there 966 km. Guy , from Luxembourg, who flies most part of the summer in Fuente and in winter mostly in Bitterwasser, flew from his home field a great 925 km flight and he “used” big parts of Germany [area to N and S of Ludwigshafen] as lift! That whole area must have been booming!

I was very pleased to see  that one of our guests from the Sportavia -past , Carsten is still flying and had a good one as well; 534 km in a CARAT, what ever that is!!?? Have to find out, I have never heard of it! Sorry!

Today we had some rain, a tough wind , but the weekend will be good again. Not long , about 2 weeks and the Dutch Nationals with a strong field , will be flown from Terlet.

Unfortunately, Frata glide ,  which started on May 1,has till now 3 flying days out of 6. In 2 classes , pilots  go for 4 more days in Slovakia at Martin Field.In the combi class Lubor [ in ASG 29] is at this stage number one, with Danish top pilot Henrik Breidahl in ASH 26 ,  as runner up. In club class , CZ pilot Jan Louda in Cirrus is at this stage, number 1.

That ‘s it for now! Cheers Ritz