Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday May 6 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
The Belgium Nationals, had only 4 flyable days till now as yesterday had to be cancelled as well. A pity!
In club class on only 2 of those days points were earned. So still not a valid competition!Hopefully they can fly today!
Scores at this stage; Jeroen Jennen on spot 1 in LS 4 with 942 points in club class.
In 15 m. it is Tijl [1399] before brother Bert Schmelzer jr. [ 1331] .
In open class Olivier Brialmont [ASDG 29 /18m 991 points after 4 days] before dad Bert Schmelzer sr. in his Ventus 2CX T.[965] As said 45 competitors in 3 classes in St Hubert.
The French open class Nationals, in Buno Bonneveaux in the SE of France, had on day 3 their last day, 2, no-French-pilots winning over 462 km. , so flying HC. Peter Eriksen from Denmark and Pierre de Broqueville from Belgium.
Interesting also is that 2 handicapped pilots in the 2 seater class are flying in the Duo Discus during these comps. One of those pilots has nearly my name Deluy.
4 Cancelled days and 4 flying days in both classes!!!
Yesterday to finish the comps they had a 1 hour AAT. But…in open class the day was cancelled, so TEAM Sturm won the open class Nationals and 2181 points over 3 out of 8 days says enough of the weather.
The 2 seaters had to try the 1 hour AAT , the winners got 19 points for 121 km of soaring ; it turned out no valid day! A pity again!
At Uvalde there will be 108 pilots flying from 24 countries! It’s going to be a BIG event! Laptops can be used everywhere, as it will be “wired ” everywhere, thanks to the IT department of the South West Texas Junior College!!! I guess this is the college where we had a class as TEAMHUT in 1991. It looks over the airfield.
Some changes I noticed. The Australian team pilots from 18 m and open changed place. Brad and Bruce will fly open class now and David and Tom in 18 m.
For all who look and read at home , no worries as Hawke Tracking LLC will take care of the spot tracking, so you will be more or less there as well.
Klix has finished good for our young Dutch pilot Peter Millenaar. Being already once Dutch champion, he started to think of his career first and just finished his study to be an airline pilot in a pretty short time. Now he is back in soaring again and how! He was 2d on day 3 and won 1000 points on day 4. Due to the weather the last day was neutralised for 3 classes so Peter is Klix champion for standard class. Congratulations to him.
As club had not yet a valid competition , they were send airborne yesterday at 12PM, on the last day; a B task from 123 km. The window looked pretty good and the pilots made it, just before it started to rain and noise of thunder was heard!!!!Helge Liebertz [LS1f] was 2d in this class on the last day, with 4 points behind Danish Agnete Olesen in St Libelle, but won the comps.
Peter ready to go in Klix. Pictures courtesy Klix gallery.
Pretty marginal days in Klix but good days in Bayreuth and other places in Germany; 2 ASW22 gliders flew from Bayreuth over 1000 km last Friday. One from Alexander Müller had a 750 k FAI Triangle in it.
710 k. in a St Cirrus,and several over 800 k’s in Ventus and DG 800.At some places in Europe it is a nice [ soaring-] spring time.
And what about a 768 km yesterday in the N of Germany in a Discus from Aukrug !!! The North just had excellent weather and not only in Germany also in Holland where pilots could fly to Germany to achieve more kilometers, while the rest was “sitting” in rain or under grey clouds. Even a 500 k was possible!!! Great conditions in our N. as well and that is not so normal with the sea close by.Have a look at the OLC for those nice flights up North.
A 2 day competition from Teuge a bit more S. in Holland was in trouble; from 26 competitors in 3 classes only 2 flew over 100 km. Rik van den Brink in LS 4 and Peter Batenburg in the Nimbus 4T.
Today they try again and it looks better from here, anyway they are setting tasks I noticed!
The May-June issue from Gliding International arrived here yesterday with news about the DuckHawk,[ and …..I read Jim Payne is going to fly this plane today, feeling very happy about that -“life is good!-“! while he flew another 1000 k yesterday with Dennis in the DG 1001M,] the Colditz Cock, Cross Country-fascination and fear-, glidings trophy history by Marina Galetto and husband Giorgio is in it as GI’s pilot of the year,an “obscure gliding nation” and lots of news about the last IGC meeting and…more! Enjoy!
Some sad accidents/incidents these last days. A small plane with 4 crashed in sea just out of St Maarten with a pilot, a doctor and nurse as well as a patient ; all died.A man on his honeymoon got heart problems and was brought to Martinique for assistance. It was not meant to be.
In Holland some pilots fly around on special days with handicapped or terminal sick kids, to give them a happy day. Yesterday it went wrong when the pilot made a steep turn and crashed on the runway in Eindhoven. Investigation will sort out what exactly went wrong, but the pilot is in serious condition in hospital while the 2 young kids [11 and 13] with their dad had light injuries.
CU next Wednesday, cheers Ritz