Alphen aan den Rijn        Wednesday December 9 2010           ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Good to see so many familiar names   flying all over the well-known soaring places in winter. Anton from Austria is flying in Corowa at the moment , as well as Andy and Reinhard from Germany and not to forget Jozef from Slovak Rep . He is the next contest director for the WGC in Prievidza.  Corowa has about 25 pilots at the moment.
Paul from Belgium is in Narromine. Guy from Luxemburg flew a 1000 km in Bitterwasser. Some of my Japanese friends arrived in Tocumwal and Rene, the “fresh” European Champion , in club class, had a ball, flying for the first time in his life an ASG 29 in Corowa , where he works during this season.
In between one of the German juniors I met, Alexander Spaeth is having ” his ball ” in Chile, flying the mountain ranges in a Ventus in thermals, hang and wave!!!!!! A few of them are enjoying….and fly from Minivitacura Pis. Not a bad life, or did I say so already when they all flew in the mountains in France?
 One of these  German pilots flew a 1000 km. flight in a Ventus 2M18m. yesterday, flying up and down and…up and down , and….over the Ranges.
In  Narromine  the Juniors are flying the Nationals , Joeyglide 2009 , with 10 pilots. After 3 days Nathan , who flew the JWGC in the UK, has the lead with 70 points over Andrew who flew in Finland during the last JWGC, while New Zealand pilot Dane is 3d. He flew in Italy during the JWGC. Still a lot can happen as the comps go to December 12.

What about Richard Branson,  flying in his own space ship into space???? He seemed happy as a little boy!!!! And why not , he achieved a lot! It is a bit expensive 200.000 dollar but already 300 people have showed interest. And the flight is not even to the moon??!!!
KLM  is most probably having a new partner in their Sky Team Alliance in 2010. The expectation  is that the 2d biggest airline , China Eastern Airlines will be part of it, after the number 1 in China, China Southern joined in  already in  2007. It seems that China is more important for them then the USA, though Delta Airlines joined in this year as well.
United Airlines  just ordered 50 new modern planes to lower the environmental pollution with 33 %. The planes are 25 Airbus 350 XWB and 25 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. They should be delivered between 2016 and 2019 and will replace the older 747  and 767 types .

Very busy at the moment so I leave you here till Sunday. Cheers Ritz