Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday April 1 2012 , sorry ….no jokes here today!
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
Frya in Norway last week. Great picture!!!
Courtesy; Robert Danewid
“We ” dropped more then 10 dgr. in temperature and from a nice 22 dgr. for spring it will be next week a cold- winter- week with around 5 dgr. and up to minus 5 C. in the night [ in the East from Holland] and wet snow!!!!! Poor little animals as duckies and lambs, but also poor plants. A lot of my plants have been killed already by the minus 21 C. a few weeks ago! Enough work to do. And…not yet summer! Though March was one of the better months again, belonging qua temperature in the top 3.
WNF Earth Hour!!!!No light, in a dark world for one hour to save energy to help the environment/ EARTH. Holland co-operated and lights on the famous Euro mast in Rotterdam some church towers as in Groningen and Utrecht were out. Our astronaut Andre Kuijpers, still in space, co-operated as well and the lights which were allowed to be out , were out between 20.30 and 21.30, so he could make pictures from the dark spaces on earth!!! The Bridge in Sydney was dark and so were spots in China.
Also the Tower of Pisa, the Eiffeltower and the BIG BEN, put out their lights. I did so too!
Mid Atlantic and Blairstown both had fantastic flights on Thursday in a Schweizer, Discus 2 and LS 3.
Though he just did not make it home, a great flight for Michael Higgins; 1.102 km.
And ……866 for Robert Templin [LS3] is some thing “to write home about ” as well.
And what about 708 by Ron Schwartz, in that Schweizer. Great conditions!!!
Also Minden showed why it is such a nice wave paradise with flights on Friday, one in particular in a Sparrow Hawk was super; Robert Spielman with 864 km. Robert flew from Minden over the last month 3 over 800 km. flights in his Sparrow, gaining lot’s of points for the OLC!!
While a huge “bunch ” of German pilots enjoys soaring in the mountains in all the different French wave-meccas, the German AKA flieg team choose for their camp La Cerdanya in Spain, with flights up to 750 k. in Duo Discus and ARCUS T.
The young sport soldiers hat their last training day in Puimoisson yesterday.
Also flying in Puimoisson is former sport soldier Alexander Späth flying 5 over 700 km. flights in 5 days in the Discus 2 T/18m.
The training from the National German Team, has started yesterday in Vinon , where it is pretty busy. They train till April 8.
One of our Dutch pilots , former [twice] World champion in Chatauroux and Uvalde , Baer Selen , flies an LS 8 in Vinon as well and had some nice days already,together with some of his mates from the Venlo Aeroclub.
On the last day of March Giorgio had such a nice flight again ;911 km. from Bolzano, BUT , also from Rosamond Skypark a great flight on this last day of March, by Jim Payne and Dennis Tito, who flew another long flight mentioned by Jim as, ” could be the flight of the year”; 1.132 km. [750 FAI triangle] . Again this flight was in Dennis’ DG 1001M.
Great conditions in the East of Australia were my friend Gerrit Kurstjens yesterday, flew from Jondaryan [ no wave there] in autumn a flight from 780 km[500 FAI triangle] in his Nimbus 4T. Mind you the days are getting pretty short over there! His wife Pam flew a very nice 574 k. in the ASH 31/21m. By the way and…as said before Jondaryan is one of those places where you can fly through the year.
Pilots from Warwick [ South from Jondaryan ] used the area to the West as well,using a convergence line which stretched over 100km. Result; 518 in LS 8 and 467 km in Discus and the St. Libelle flew a nice FAI 300 triangle.
Gerrit and Pam used the “line” as well.
About Uvalde; The official online-enties have been send out on March 14 , to ALL TC’s. They provide their pilots with the entry to complete their form.To my astonishment I noticed that Gerrit Kurstjens was replaced for Brad Edwards. Brad of course was WGC champion in Uvalde in 1991 , so now he can defend his title. A quick check with Gerrit and I knew he has indeed withdrawn and one of the reasons is that his Quintus will be delivered later then planned, so that he has not enough time to practise for this big event.
At this stage 34 pilots in 18 m., 40 in 15 m and 29 in open class.[120 is the limit]
April 4 is the deadline and all entries have to be submitted as well as the entry fee.
Very nice to see Peter Ryder back as president of the jury as well as the other jurors Hannes [Linke] and Eric[Herbie Moser]]. Dick [Bradley] is the chief steward and works with Art [Grant] from Canada. Yes Art who “drove”the Pink Panther in Rieti , did a great job as scrutineer in different countries and was “the voice” from that great tracking system from PostFrontal.[pictures on www.soaringcafe.com ]
Looking forward to see them all back!!!
Some more news “found” by Jo, about this new sailplane area in Colorado,used by the US Airforce Academy.Cost 3.6 million US dollar but …..crucial as they say for the groups mission; safety, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability. One way or another it makes me nearly think of a 1- April- joke!
http://www.usafa.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123295030
And last but certainly NOT least; Those who visited us at Sportavia in Tocumwal might remember our very good chef, Henrik from Denmark, cooking the best rack of lamb. “Town” specially came to eat his great food and mixed with all our international guests making those evenings unforgettable.
He married and here is the story and the picture; CONGRATULATIONS!!
http://www.summitsun.com.au/news/local/news/general/berridale-couple-wed/2505066.aspx
Enjoy your new week, cheers Ritz