Alphen aan den Rijn      Sunday May 27 2012

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com      www.soaringcafe.com

 

pictures courtesy Oedske.

 I liked this years comps flown from Terlet. Good weather, good pilots and some tension specially in club class with nearly every day a different winner.
With 7 out of 10 days, we can for sure NOT complain.
Winners in 2 classes were to expect as they are just so good for years already , but still they can make a mistake. They did n’t , so Ronald Termaat and Steven Raimond, both in the past European Champion, are well deserved champions!
The prize for the “silver and bronze ” was in that light more interesting in the combi and open class .
The club class is a “fish-breeding-pond” for talented young Dutch pilots, only 2 from 9 are “a bit older” [have to be careful here!] They all performed well .

Yesterday there was a big crowd on sunny Terlet for the last soaringday and the finishes just in front of the restaurant were as always impressive. With AAT’s from 3.30 in club and combi and 3 hours in open class. The pilots had a long way in front of them, but better in the air then on the ground were you needed factor 30 and you still got sun-burnt.
I liked the daily win from Jelmer Wassenaar, in 2005 still a junior in Husbos this year winner of the last day in the openclass with the LS 10 [320 km in 3 hour 7] and of the “bronze medal”. The best 3 -for-the-day were also the best 3 overall. Ronald , Hadriaan and Jelmer.
The only flying-lady Irene van der Zwan [Ventus 2 c] was 13 from 20 and that’s just good!

After the hard work some [of the organization] have a rest under the Tug-wing.
Courtesy Oedske.

In a way it was a pity that we could not see the full potential of the Quintus. Water ballast is a decisive part of competition soaring, so we have to wait to see the full potential of this great looking glider with, what I heard very easy handling,  in Uvalde as all watertanks will be built in over the next weeks.
In that light it is SUPER to see the Concordia has flown !! Look for all the news at the next   link with pictures.
http://soaringcafe.com/2012/05/news-flash-dick-butler-makes-first-flight-in-concordia/

In the combi class Steven Raimond is the champion  and he was 5th on the last day. 2 New young talented pilots Peter Millenaar [Discus 2]  and Alfred Paul Alfers [LS8] are 2 and 3. Alfred Paul had a bit of a difficult last- but- one- day being 12th. Instead of winning , as he leaded the pact , he lost time when he heard his mates behind him had a good 2 m. lift . Too far ahead already he could not/did not want to fly back and lost over 100 points on a devalued day, so it could have been worse.

The club class  was interesting as said before!3 Pilots outlanded on the last day , 2 did not fly for different reasons and Stefan Telkamp won the last day and day 3. With a total of 3875 points he still is clearly the winner with 400 points more then runner up Hinse Osinga. Nice was that except for one day , all others had a different winner.
CONGRATULATIONS to the National Champions and to the organization for a safe competition.

From Ocana the UK overseas  had a ” cracking day” [as the “Pommies” so nicely call it,] with tasks up to 455 km. last Thursday during a 3.30 AAT with great weather circumstances but with quite some penalty points for flying too high before finish, [8000 2 min. before start] and some airspace violations really costing; up to 663 points. 2 Pilots ended up with 0 points through that.Louis Bouderlique won the day.
A 3 hour AAT on Friday was again for French pilot Louis Bouderlique with 366 km. in 3.02.
On the last day [yesterday] Ricardo Brigliadori from Italy was the best .
After 7 days Louis was the winner in the 15 m. ASG 29 before 3 of his country mates.

The Swiss Solar Impulse, a plane flying only on sunenergy, so NO DROP OF FUEL!!, flew from Payerne in the W. from Switzerland to Madrid in Spain and hopes to continue it’s flight to Morocco to Rabat ;2500 km. The Solar Impulse is a single-seater with a span of 64 m. and exists mostly out of sun panels.

Picture from internet.

On the WGC site I found the next recent news:
—The WGC Management has a special announcement for all pilots and team captains. Through the diligent work of WGC Management member Mark Huffstutler, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has notified us that they will issue a Blanket Special Flight Authorization for foreign gliders for our event. This is great news for all teams who will be flying foreign registered gliders without an ICAO compliant Certificate of Airworthiness”.—”
You can go if necessary to the WGC site to download the PDF document.

The Swiss Nationalsin 3 classes with 42 competitors from Birrfeld had more cancelled days then flying days. Last Thursday finally it looked good so pretty big tasks were set for flying- day 3, but in standard class nobody finished the 417 km. task.
In the mixed 18 m. class it was better; 6 from 18 finished after 456 km. under them the 2 pilots who will compete at the WGC in July/August. Werner Danz and Rolf Friedli are also the only 2 competitors from Switzerland this year. I miss a few well known names in open class for Uvalde.
In open class 5 from 12 finished their task of 465 km. with 3 NIMBUS 4DM on top.
In the end they had 3 days in standard class and 6 cancelled days and the other classes had one more flying-day more. Look for all results at www.soaringspot.com

Off to the beach now with the kids!
Cheers Ritz and enjoy you long weekend!

 

17.30; It looks like a tough day. In club class 2 daily winners from last week, had to make an outlanding, one after 8.2 km. That’s hard! Also the overall leader from this moment is in a paddock. From the 8 pilots left in this class , 5 outlanded early , one did not start and one JU finished !! He , Patrick, was National Champion in the past already and flew the JWGC. He started just after 15.00 and arrived at 17.30 . Willem is the 2d pilot who finished and flew the task. Tough for the  early ” outland-birds ” .

20.10 ;At 5.30 a bunch of pilots finished, that ‘s better news. Even the live-scoring must have  the wind on the nose as it is slow today! Not a lot of news either on the Dutch site! Just a bit on the FB department.
Anyhow in combi and open class it is a valid day as enough pilots arrived home.
Hadriaan won again in open class in his DG 800S and is 2d overall behind Ronald with less then 100 points on number 3 and just over 100 points on 4.
In combi not all pilots got scores [ last glider just arrived before 19.00] but it looks like another great day for Steven , who started pretty late [after 16.00] and also for Peter Millenaar. Steven is about 300 points ahead on Peter who at this stage is 2d.

Tomorrow I will be at Terlet and with 2 grand kids who dream of looking at the deer behind the airfield in an open jeep, I will not take my laptop .A pity and sorry about that, as it is the last day, but it is hobby for me not a paid job, so please look at the scoring carousel, live tracking and FB.
Will be there on Sunday morning with my regular blog on both my own site and soaringcafe. Thanks for the notes from a few who were pleased to read a daily blog again. But …just temporarily.

Cheers…and who knows…maybe I ” find” a laptop to write on….Hope tomorrow will be a great last day of a great competition with 7 days!

 
Waiting…in different ways. Pictures courtesy Oedske.
Love her pictures!

courtesy;Oedske.

Friday morning May 25 2012
9.00 ; Day 5 at the CAE/NLS NK is a fact and I guess day 6 and 7 will be there as well as the weather for the rest of this week looks good,  not only for the beach but also for soaring.
I told you already that Rob [Looisen] was and still is a good pilot and after his out landing he proved it straight away by winning the combi class yesterday. It was not a flash day,as you can see on the speed of 66 km./h. over the 178 km he flew during the 2.30 AAT. But a win is a win . Rob flew the pre-worlds in 1990 at Minden , I forgot why he was not in the team at Uvalde in 1991, as I had only 4 pilots then.
Steven [Raimond] was 2d again so 3 times daywinner and 2 times 2d, till now, so good on him and more then ready for Uvalde this year. One of them Sikko Vermeer.

And…Sikko flies in open class in an ASG 29 and is doing well, very well. Yesterday he was 4th and overall he is on spot 3!!!!!Daily winner Rien Bastiaanse in the Nimbus 4M, flying during the 2 hour AAT a distance of 171 km. with 78 km./h., before Ronald [Termaat], who was 2 times 1 once on spot 6 and 2 times 2 till now. Ready as well for Uvalde!!!

In club class the pilots had the same task as the combi-pilots and the best was this time Arjan Scheffers with 145 km. with 55.6 km./h. In this class every day a different winner. But on spot 1 overall with 2 days to go; Stefan Telkamp.

Look for more pictures from Oedske at the NK site, but here are a few I like!!

 

By the way , Vlissingen in the SW of Holland was sunny and pleasant yesterday. No beach but a walk over the boulevard was very relaxing.
CU you around 11.00 as they are setting the tasks for today I noticed on soaringspot.
club ; 190.9 km
combi ; 232 km
open ; 270 km
Tasks are in the East direction into Germany. Look at the tasks I got from Facebook.

The club boys get the B task ,[137 km.] not due to bad thermal activity but due to strong wind it just did not get high enough. Here in Alphen the pillows from my lounche chairs  go with the wind.
So after delay of launches to 13.30 it was then 14.00.
Also the other 2 classes go for the B task  169 combi and 185 open. Hurray for “glidertracking” with the latest news , you can follow the pilots on this link. www.live.glidertracking.com

More later in a new blog!

As promised back with some more news.
14.00;
The CAE/NLS Dutch Nationals will have, as it looks now ,  a champion not a winner, as this is day 4, which is good as over the last period we have n’t seen too many good days at comps in countries around us. But….First they have to fly-around today!
In the end they launched at 12.30 and then the tactics will start; Depart early, depart later knowing the weather, when will the thunderstorms arrive,  late like last Sunday or earlier.It’s only a very short task , I guess like here not too good visibility and blue or more grey.

 
Task on line via glidertracking!!

15.45; On the scoring carousel , click on “uitslagen” and live scoring at www.nkzweefvliegen.nl  you can see the start times from the pilots! A great system invented by Jasper Grannetia. Worked with it last year and it is just so good.
So having said that and looked at it on page 8, I noticed start times between 14.27 and 15.21!!!!!!But also one outlanding from LR Rob Looisen, [on page 9] who I know as a very good pilot. Mmm…Also heard that there was some noise from thunder..not good either, but we just have to wait and looking at the radar……from the East some heavy showers are arriving and pretty fast.

Showers building up around Utrecht  as seen enroute by  Philippe Hendrikx and put on FB. Thanks Frank!

Let’s hope the pilots do not have problems with them. And…we still might have to see if day 4 is a day! 2d outlanding is a fact as well.
Back later!

20.00; It clearly was a day full of tension with several heavy thunderstorms around, but luckily everybody is home or counted for on a airfield or paddock.The showers and thunderstorms were/are just in the area of Terlet and even for tonight there is code orange there for heavy weather with hail and gusty wind and maybe flooding.
Looking at the prelimanary results it is clear that the very late starters had a problem. That clearly did not pay off. Though Steven Raimond also started after 3 [15.09], he still managed to fly well with at this stage a 2d place, while Peter Millenaar who started at 14.55 is on spot 1 in the combi class.
Holland had the first tropical day with at one place 31 dgr.

 Peter Millenaar talented young Dutch pilot.

It’s waiting now for the rest of the results , so I will be back once again later,  as I spend a day on the beach tomorrow. So no news from me tomorrow! SORRY!
CU later in the day when the scores are ready.

21.30: It clearly was a tough day loosing points by some,  due to an out landing or by missing a TP or by violating the CTR of Deelen the military airfield to the W of Terlet.
Most pilots however finished and have their gliders safely in the trailers, for what’s about to come.Here are the prelimenary scores of the day-winners.
Winner in club class today Boris Broere in a St. Cirrus ;499 points
Winner in Combi , as said, Peter Millenaar with 498 points. 
In open, it looks  the UFO [Nimbus 4DM] won with Max Leenders, airline pilot by Transavia; 568 points for him.

 
Fantastic picture by Oedske; The CB arriving East from  Terlet.

The HIGH over Scandinavia  created good soaring for some of my Räyskälä friends today with just over and under 600 km. This weather is on its way to us. So let’s hope for a few more good days. Last day is Saturday.
It starts to rain here , it is spooky grey outside, it might be our turn now. I quickly leave you.
cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      Wednesday May 23 2012

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com     www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com

Great picture from Oedske! Finish at Terlet yesterday.

It’s Wednesday my normal day to write , so back to the basics. Of course having a look first at the Nationals at Terlet where nobody had to outland and all pilots flew their different kilometers with nice speed.
Not a 1000 point -day but the winner in Clubclass, Stefan Telkamp,  got for his flight of 262 km. with 97 km. /h. 882 points.
In the combi class Steven Raimond is just too good and won his 3d day-prize;308 km. with 110 on the clock;921 points. Some strong pilots in his class, are waiting for their chances.
In open class it was not Ronald today but, Hadriaan van Nes in the DG 800 S , before the 2 Nimbusses; 988 points for flying with 115.6 km/h over 359 km.

Winning each of the 3 days; 1R Steven Raimond.
picture courtesy Oedske

 Today will be a day with another possibility of heavy thunderstorms. Yesterday it was 28 dgr. our first real summerday[meaning a temperature at the weatherstation at The Bilt from over 25 dgr.] Today will be about the same but up to 30 dgr. Whoepie!
After that it seems the HIGH over Scandinavia will reach us with dry and more quiet weather and a bit lower temperatures around 22.
Talking about the weather, the most famous TV-meteo-man in Holland is Piet Paulisma and the organizers invited him to Terlet like last year. He is a very busy person, so good on the organization to have him,  as PR on TV is always good.
Should not forget  “our” comps [military] meteorologist Hans , who sits and looks at all weather maps, thinks , smokes a cigarette , goes back again and nearly always is spot on with his forecast.

 
Hans Spekkers NK metereologist;  picture courtesy Bert Kuijper
and Piet Paulisma TV weather-man.

Tasks at the CAE/NLS NK will be set soon, [briefing is at 10.30] so I will be back in a minute Stand by;
Club class; 149.7 km.
combi class;149.7 km.
open class; 188.5 km.
On www.live.glidertracking.com  you can follow the pilots again, the first launch is set at 12.

From Ocana also good weather news yesterday, with 22 dgr. and a task from 408 km. and OUCH, the French pilots gave the UK pilots heaps to think of. Helicopter pilot Killian Walbrou won yesterday followed by 5 French mates and then…good to see Gill Spreckley wife from… Good on her!After 3 days 6 French pilot top the overall list.
Today pilots are send out for 317 km.

Yesterday Jim Payne and Dennis Tito flew their so maniest 1000 k in the DG 1001M. They do not concentrate on the 1000 but on the OLC points, that’s what OLC is all about. I like the distances compared to the gliders and to be honest never look at the points.
From Minden, this time,  they flew 1.098.96 and…yes scored over 1000 points to be precise;1.027.25.

No “heavy” duties today,  so will be back later in a new blog.
cheers Ritz

 Flying today …YES
             picture; courtesy Oedske Osinga

Tuesday morning;
Unfortunately after postponing the launches,  the weather yesterday was still not good enough to fly. Lovely weather for BBQ and…. for what I did… sitting on a terrace in Amsterdam with 23 dgr., but pretty poor visibility. So another cancelled day, a pity, but that is soaring too.

 Waiting ….courtesy Oedske!

Today new possibilities and after the 10.30- briefing we know more!Lot’s of great pictures; look at www.nkzweefvliegen.nl above you see foto&video, if you click on it you see pictures from different photographers and I can tell you there are some great ones!

 

 
pictures courtesy Loe Baltussen.

Distances from  262 [club] ,308 [combi] and 359 km. for open class have been set for TODAY. On the news I saw that the rest of the week and the long weekend will have lovely weather with temperatures up to 28 dgr. , hope it will be good for soaring as well. If today is a day they need one more to make it a COMPETITION. Saturday will be the last day.

In Spain at Ocana they fly at the moment the UK Overseas Championship in open class with all kind of gliders and interesting is that they try out a new handicap system .Comps directors Brian Spreckley and Dick Bradley are /were not only good pilots but are hard workers to keep international soaring updated. You can read all procedures and the handicap factors in the download area from www.soaringspot over this competition. Have a look.

—A new handicap system will be used at this event, being a trial set up by the BGA Competition committee to correct the BGA handicaps to suit the conditions at Ocana rather than standard UK conditions for which the handicaps were intended.–“-

Their first day was cancelled but they had 2 days till now , one pretty miserable one but still with 2 finishers from 32, over a 2 hour AAT with 136.9 km in LS 6 [Frank Davis UK] and 177 .7 km. in [Gilles Navas Fr.] ]  ASG 29 . Then on day 2 , a 2.45 AAT with as best distance 355 km. with 127 km./h by French pilot Louis Bouderlique. 3 French on top in ASG 29, Ventus 2AX and ARCUS M.

 
Dick Bradley , now co- director in Ocana , in July Chief Steward in Uvalde.

Had a quick look for you at the OLC and they are all still flying well ,with 1000 km., flights from Wiener Neustadt in Austria. One in ASW 20 flown with first weak “Hang-wind”but later strong. Good effort also from the DG 800B pilot.
Off to Amsterdam again.
Cu tomorrow morning or later today ,depending….
cheers Ritz

 
Busy Saturday morning at Terlet.
Picture courtesy Bert Kuijper.

Monday May 21 2012;
As said I try to write EVERY day till the end of the Dutch Nationals. So here we go with some Monday morning news beforte I travel to Amsterdam.
In retrospect it is always easy to be the best meteo/tasksetter/CD. A lot of opinions yesterday as the weather turned out MUCH better then expected and the indeed predicted very bad weather arrived but around Terlet only in the evening. We felt the first drops , a few only and quickly disappearing again around 5. But in the night some places in Holland had in a few moments 23 mm. of rain and severe thunderstorms.
Local pilots however had a top SUN-day!We on the ground as well ,with lot’s of sun and a view on greatlooking high clouds…and gliders.

 
The weather yesterday

So no risk today; boxing …yes ,soaring if possible ..yes!
Tasks; 164 km. for the club pilots, 197 for the “combies” and open/18 m. goes for 227 km.

 
Towplanes ready to go.Picture courtesy Bert Kuijper.

Several guests arrived at Terlet during the weekend.
Eric Borgmann from France and for those who are young, Eric was runner up during the Borlange WGC, still flies for pleasure, but no comps anymore.
For the older pilots George Schuit and Diana from Cairns in Australia. Old times were back at Terlet with laughing faces , memories and lot’s of beer, with Eagle and faithful crew Egbert, tuggie Bert and Ans and Henk Frohwein.
From Hahnweide the fresh new champion in 18 m. class arrived Russell Cheetham, so we could congratulate him straight away.
And also a good memory Thijs and his wife , former owners of the old Thermiekbel spend their afternoon at Terlet.

 
Eric and Marco Vermeer and George and Diana with Franklin and Paul and my friend Ans.

The winner of Hahnweide Russell Cheetham[UK]  with Ronald Termaat.

 
Henk and Eagle [Arend Versteege] Egbert and George and Thijs and Eagle.

 No finishing gliders but still a nice afternoon for the many visitors,  as about 40 old timers , this time talking cars , parked their splendid vehicles on the grass in front of the Thermiekbel.

 

 
Wonderful vintage cars.

I spoke with you about the CAE/NLS , a GLOBAL LEADER NOW and sponsor from the Dutch Nationals. Here is the link to the presse release. Very interesting!!

http://www.cae.com/news/details.ashx?lng=English&location=HomePage&showEvents=False&count=2&id=1449&year=0

So finishing my blog from today should be with a finishing glider. Till now the Dutch NK had one day flying one day off, hope todsay is a good day again. CU tomorrow for live news and tracking go to www.nkzweefvliegen.nl

 
courtesy Loe Baltussen

 

Sunday morning!11.11 with some internet problems and a movement from the Thermiekbel to the Hangar .

The briefing is over here at Terlet and the day is cancelled due to the expectation of thunderstorms with heavy gusts and hail.
For tomorrow it does n’t look to good either , but there is hope ….as from Tuesday onwards it seems to be better.

You might have noticed already that I have written every day from the hotel Postillion and I try to continue to do this over the next week, as the Dutch Nationals are always interesting. Not that I am here, but analyses you can do from home as well and for live news you can go to www.nkzweefvliegen.com  or to their FACEBOOK site and to follow the gliders you can follow the tracking system.

Looking back at the flights from yesterday Ronald Termaat won 2 days now. The Dutch team is pretty busy with their preparations for the WGC and regularly you here the word Uvalde. Ronald is one of the competitors in Texas.

Picture courtesy Joe Baltussen.

From the Dutch team the 2 open class pilots are here. Francois Jeremiasse who flies the Quintus,  told me that he flies without water , as all Quintesses do at the moment but the electric valves for the watertanks will be in soon. Peter Batenburg flies in his Nimbus 4T, here and at Uvalde.
In 15 m. classs Steven Raimond has won 2 days and ships his ASW 27 soon to Houston. His mate Mark is not here. In 18 m.class in Uvalde Ronald will fly together with Steven Huiskes. So 4 from our 6 WGC pilots fly here at the moment.

Some impressions by Loe Baltussen.

 

 Sorry for the delay in news about the vintage gliders. I got the message that a KA 6 had flown a distance from 220 km. from Schmallenberg-Rennefeld to Malden last Thursday in the nice time of 3 hours and 30 minutes.A day on which EVERYTHING went well also for this pilot.

Back from home on Wednesday CU then cheers Ritz

 

 

Saturday evening 22.30;Lovely evening, very pleasant day! Good food,  long waiting in a queue, nice company and people sitting everywhere even in the grass. NO bad weather,  not at all, we sat till the sun -set outside and got a nice colour!

 

Even the friends from Germany , who were involved with the Dutch Nationals in Stendal in 2008 in Germany were at Terlet.

Björn with daughter Pilvi [which means cloud in Finnish]

Scores were devalued due to the small tasks .Winner in the combi class …again…Steven Raimond with young Peter Millenaar as runner up.
In the Club class the LS 1 F with Nick Hanenberg and in open class Ronald Termaat had his 2d success in the JS 1.

An impression of the BBQ;

 

At the Hahnweide Bert Schmelzer won the last day in 18 m. class .Russell Cheetham won the comps with only 23 points on Reinhard Schramme. Wolfgang Janowitsch was 3d.
In standard class Mac was the best. In open class the Levins / Uli Schwenk won before Michael Sommer, also with minor points. Michael won the last day but it was just not enough.
For all other scores look at www.soaring.com

CU tomorrow, cheers Ritz

2.30 PM. The pilots are in the air and the skies look pretty good. Short tasks however as showers hang around in the evening. Hope not as over 150 people are part of the BBQ tonight.
So 150.9 km. for the club class pilots, 183.3 km. for the combi class and 221 for the open classs gliders.
During briefing Marc Landsman from the CAE/NLS told all of us that they remain sponsor for the next 3 years and…he had a scoop for us!!!
The CAE/NLS is taking over Oxford Aviation Academy , which means that CAE Global Academy belongs to the worldwide biggest Academy now. Proud they sponsor the NK!!!
This way it is even easier for them to “find “jobs for the students which are ready, as they will have 42 training locations now for pilots , maintenance and cabin staff.
Later more!

 Marc Landsman with BIG news!

Back to soaring. Starts went smooth and fast with 4 tuggies. Saw for the first time the Quintus, great looking glider.
Here is an impression from pictures made today.

 
Tuggies Sjoerd, Zweef, Bert and Daan       and the QUINTUS!

 

Alfred Paul one of the pilots , Stephanie here with one of her 3 children and Brutus all stayed with us in Tocumwal!!!

 
Rene de Dreu TC in Uvalde and Steven Raimond who flies in Uvalde and the selflauncher Quintus ready to go.

Off to the field again to see the finishes and to the BBQ later. Scores on www.nkzweefvliegen.nl on livescoring and/or at soaring spot. Latest news at the site.

Hahnweide is flying on their last day!!
269 for St class and 15 m, 270 for the 18 m. pilots , 265 for open and 227 for the 2-seaters. It seems nice weather there as well , so the tasks should be flown by most. Tomorrow the final results and analyses.

Cheers Ritz