Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday November 24 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
The great-soaring-flow in NSW in Australia continued and only happy pilots in the air, with distances up to over 700 km in both Corowa and Tocumwal.Later then normal, but it is still there that great spring -November-weather in NSW. Love it!!!
And what’s even better , more and more pilots fly real tasks , I mean set triangles, not “just going with the weather”! Corowa stimulates that in setting tasks, for whoever wants to fly them and last Sunday this was a Hay -Pyramid Hill ….a 600 km. FAI triangle . That area is pretty remote, certainly the way to Hay, a sort of desert with in 300 km. only ONE pub and of course I visited that one in the past for a cool beer. We travelled by car from Mildura via Hay to Tocumwal with 2 cars WITH radio , on my very first visit to Australia. I felt from one astonishment in the other, first fighting and swallowing grasshoppers and later this trip through the desert!!! But our friend Bruce Brockhoff was a great host and coach in this for Dutch people difficult area.
In the middle of November we usually had the Shoot- out in Tocumwal with free distance flying and pilots really flew long distances with the best weather. So very happy it is still there.
A bizar incident in Birmingham, in the UK , where a small plane crashed in heavy fog with aboard a donor liver. Luckily a police found the liver , brought it straight to hospital and the person waiting for the liver had his operation and is doing well. The pilot and another person were badly injured.
The statistics of best airfield on the OLC in 2011 are , as I announced already , changing quickly. Gariep Dam jumped to first place with 21 pilots flying 47.894 km in 84 flights while , now it gets busier in Corowa , this field jumped to place 4 with 22 pilots flying 31.000 km. over 74 flights. It will change more in the future! Till now 2011 showed us 11 x 1000 km. flights. [26th of November!]
1 in Austria and 1 in Switzerland, 5 in the USA and 3 in South Africa an 1 in Namibia.
Yesterday it was all Namibia in the top of the list. And….about time as he says himself, another 1000 km. for Alexander Müller, flown from Kiripotib, first for him from …how many?? We will find out in the end of the season.
This time the USA had a lucky escape with an airliner as Delta flight 30 [ Boeing 767] on its way from New York to Moscow had to return just after the start, after one of the 2 engines failed. Safe landing ,after flying around for an hour to first get rid of the kerosine .One of the passengers was movie star Leonardo DiCaprio, who mentioned that he he wanted to thank the pilots and cabin staff for the safe landing. It must have looked a bit scary on the ground , as 160 people from the fire brigade with their trucks were waiting . First reactions are that it might be a bird strike, but let’s wait and see/hear!
In between guests and writing and visiting and shopping and more, I prepare for Munich with a suitcase of warm clothes and on the spare guest bed, all the stuff for warm Australia and New Zealand are waiting to go. I heard Australia has in the low thirthies high twenthies, so that is good! Have no clue what NZ would be, but know that, if we are getting snow , maybe already this weekend here in Holland, I might have that too in Munich and or Salzburg. I am a bit worried about all the treaths Germany has received and hope it is all safe for everybody over there. Atleast there is a lot of green in every corner, meaning policemen everywhere!
I love flying with Cathay, but this morning I saw in the paper that one of the two Dutch 3-star -Michelin restaurants [so one of the 50 best WORLD WIDE, ] is going to prepare the food on Intercontinental flights by KLM, between December now and Sptember 2011. But…only in the World Business Class…a pity! Would have been good!
When you are a fan of speed skating you are going to miss this season, like I do , our hero Sven Kramer. First he was overtrained and now he has a muscle in his leg, not doing what he wants it to do. A pity!!
Well a busy weekend ahead for me , travelling to the East, so NO news on Sunday or maybe later in the day!
Cheers Ritz