ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 10 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
The new OLC- season 2013 has started on October 9 . I am looking forward to see lot’s of nice flights in this upcoming year. Said it before “Where would we be , without the OLC? ”
On the last 2012-OLC-day, Israel, yes pretty special, topped the OLC with 415 km. from Beer Sheba Teyma in an ASW 24. Never been there but some friends showed me pictures and a video from the desert over there. Loved the comment from Arik Lichtman flying an ASW 24 as well and 319 km;
—Flight in the first rain (“Ha’Yore”). I washed the glider several times, and then dried it in the Jordan valley.”–“”
Great to see some nice flights from Japan as well , last week , from Itakura, [about 90 km. N of Tokyo] a place I visited a few years ago together with 2 other soaring places along the beds of the rivers. Only then I found out why Japanese pilots flew/fly in Australia , as there is not a lot of space to fly in Japan and they love long-distance-soaring.
Though …..a 1000 km. has been set in Japan, in wave over the NE parts of the islands, by Hirokazu Ichikawa in 2003 in a Nimbus 4DM!!
The club from Itakura has about 150 members.
In Canada Dave Springford, yes he was also in Uvalde, had a good October flight with 324 km. in the ASG 29/18m. as well as Jerzy Szemplinsky , who flew in the same glider but from another field a 282 km. flight this late in the season.
Morgan Sandercock finished for Australia as best on the 2012 list with a flight in the Sparrow Hawk from Kingaroy;191 km. Yesterday on the first day of the Club Class Nationals in Kingaroy he flew 343 km. in the Sparrow Hawk.He topped with that the new Aussie list of 2013.
Just above him on the first day world wide; USA pilot Matt Gillis in a DG 100o/20m. with 476 km. using the Central California Coast Ranges. This Mountain Range is on the UNESCO list.
Also Holland enjoyed nice autumn weather/flights. Our Dutch-kilometer-eater Jeroen Kole , who won the Dutch OLC champion-title, flew on the first day of the 2013 the best flight again; 255 km. ,and…. indeed it is lovely weather the last couple of days here, not only for biking or walking but also for soaring! Jeroen is a member of the Gelderse and I am still amazed and even more PLEASED and PROUD, to see this Dutch club on the FIRST place from all clubs world wide on the OLC. [look also at last Sunday’s blog on soaringcafe. Thanks]
5 From the 10 pilots flying yesterday were pilots from the Gelderse. They fly from Terlet our National Gliding Center where you can fly every day, weather permitting, so that might make a difference.
Dutch OLC champion Jeroen Kole.
Belgium pilots enjoyed a great afternoon and on Niels blog spot you can read the story of their flight in the Duo Discus on October 8 partly over Holland and with nice pictures!!
http://nieldeijgers.blogspot.be/ It’s in English by the way! Enjoy!
In Kingaroy the club and sports class Nationals started with a practise day on Monday with a 2 hour AAT. The comps finish on the 19th.
Noticed Swaantje Geyer, one of the German squad ladies, is flying the Nationals as well. Good on her. She flew already several comps in Australia.
Also quite a few pilots moved from Jondaryan, where they flew from Mccaffrey Field the Queensland State Comps last week , to Kingaroy, it’s all close by and they start with extra practise!
On Tuesday the “real thing” was on and pilots could not afford any mistakes anymore.
Top names in a ” big field ” with 22 pilots in club and 15 in sports class.
Winners on day 1 Allan Barnes in the LS 1f just 5 points ahead of Adam Woolley and John Buchanan in ASG 29 in sports class . Uvalde pilots Lisa Trotter , Brad Edwards , as well as Kerrie Claffey , who’s husband flew in Uvalde where she was crewing, participate in sports class .And Peter Trotter in club class in an ASW20 A.
Adam’s glider W3.
Bruce Taylor is on the list as well, but was not scored till now. WHY!? Cause the poor fellow is waiting in the docks from Sydney to take his trailer and glider with him. Grrrr…… I know what a terrible “nuissance” that is!!!!!
He will be very motivated now to win EVERY day in his JS 1.
Day 1 was blue, had strong winds and wave over the Darling Downs . Fixed tasks in both classes from 337.6 km.
Adam Woolley keeps a blog so you can read straight from one of the pilots , what’s going on there. He was pumped up as he mentioned, ready to go for it and …even more important in a ” positive frame of mind.”On day 1 he showed that it worked, only loosing 5 points from 1000!
www.facebook.com/W3Racing and http://www.kingaroynationals.com/
Today on day 2, club class had a 3.30 AAT and from the preliminary results I noticed 377.1 km. in an ASW 19 in 3.31 for Jim Crowhurst!!! What about that!!! Runner up Adam Woolley with 374 km. in 3.44.
Sports class had the same AAT and Lisa Trotter flew 395 km. in 3.44 in the LS 8. John Buchanan was 2d with 376 km [3.35] .
Allan Barnes who topped the overall list in club on day 1 went well, but…lost some points today due to pushing on too much , getting low and having to take weaker lift after that on a time lift was quickly disappearing.
After 2 days on TOP overall , with ONE point ahead on Butch[John Buchanan]
DG -FLUGZEUGBAU said “FAREWELL” to Wilhelm Dirks. He has retired. In the “far” past I met him several times and liked him a lot, very down to earth person. He made DG very popular first with the DG 100 , then the 300 and 800 and now with the already famous DG1001M, flying all those great long flights with Jim Payne and Dennis Tito but also the DG 808 C.and the LS 8 and LS 10.
In 2003 DG combined their effort with the LS business by taking over Rolladen Schneider .
Now it is my ” 2005 JWGC junior” [HusBos] who is taking over at DG as Chief Construktor. Jelmer is a really nice young man, very talented, modest , motivated and clever.I am very proud on him .
Jelmer studied at the University of Delft and graduated with Loek Boermans , is 32 years old now and works already 3 years for DG. Wishing him GOOD LUCK and a good retirement for Wilhelm!!!!!
Wilhelm Dirks with Jelmer Wassenaar.
Picture courtesy Lothar Schwark.
New Mexico was on “the map” this week.A long time ago the WGC was in Hobbs in New Mexico, this year Albuquerque had the best statistics for the USA OLC list as club and this week 500 hot air balloons started at the same time for a Hot Air Balloon Week. What a colourful magnificent event.
In Roswell also in New Mexico, an Austrian dare devil was supposed to jump , weather permitting, yesterday with a parachute, from the “border of space/read,…what’s possible for a human being….36.576 m.”. He tests a new pressure outfit, for future flights at big height and for private space missions. On top of that he tries to set a few new world records. Sponsored by Red Bull the 43 year old Felix Baumgartner ,is supposed to fall down with a speed of 1110 km./ph, through the sound barrier. The speed of a “normal” parachutist is about 200 km./ph.
He will go up with a huge helium balloon with a little capsule under it ; that’s his spot to jump from. Unfortunately the wind was too strong so we have to wait till at least tomorrow for the next attempt.
Do not know how smart this is?
We might know next Sunday, see you then,
cheers Ritz