Alphen aan den Rijn                 Sunday April 11        ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Kupi,Kupi,Coober Pedy Gliding Club inc.  Ever heard of it???? No….???? Well this must be news for you then !!! AND….it is news!!!! I heard about it for a long time ago. The rumour was that Peter Buttler was going to fulfill his dream to start his own soaring field at Coober Pedy, where most people live under the ground , as it is very hot over there. It looks a bit like a moon landscape with little “towers”, to give air for the under-laying houses, restaurants, swimming pools and hotels!  At-least that is how I saw it on the many pictures I have seen from Coober Pedy. I had many possibilities to go there but,…..there was always something which I thought was more important. Of course the famous opal mines are the most well known reason to visit this town, with colourful people.

The most interesting news about it is, that the field will be “on holy ground”! This means that it is owned by the Aborigines and last week the paperwork between Peter and the Aborigines has been signed and the new club can start soon.
First they are going to level the field, then 2 asphalt runways will be made in a cross, so you can come in,  or go away from all 4 directions. They will have a winch and 2 gliders, a Blanik and a standard jantar and there will be , if necessary more gliders on line.
They also have some accommodation with 4 sleeping rooms built in a hangar!
Further on there will be a shower and toilet, a kitchen , a briefing room and a workshop for repair of gliders. Close by is more accommodation available and town has of course hotels and motels.
Don’t rush to go there now!!! It is all not yet finished but it will be and it could grow into a great new and weather-wise interesting place for soaring. I will keep you updated and when their site is on I will give you the details.
By the way, the name Kupi Kupi means “willi willi”; you know them when you have visited Australia and if you see these fast turning and moving little twisters , the weather is definitely GOOD!

The Pribibina Cup started again in great spirit after one cancelled and one official non flying day.
Open class even got a 500 km task ! Russell is climbing back to the top and Wolfgang just stays there by winning 2 days till now. One with a speed of 132 km/h over 351 km.
Good to see Swaantje flying so well in club class. She lived for a while in Australia. The UK boys continue to go strong, great to see.
In 15 m. Tomasz Rubaj in the Diana is proving he is still a topper and young Vitautas is not yet constant enough , but wait till he has more experience!!!
In 20 m class the 2 German pilots are steady defending their first 2 places in the duo discus!
Yesterday, the last day of the competition,  all classes got an AAT with 2 hours and a minimum task distance of around  100 km. to make it a valid day. The wind was tough , 8 mps at the ground with gusts up to 18 and the party in the evening already early  at 7 with  free goulash and beer, so a good reason to race over the area in 2 hours and NOT more!! First launches were planned at 11.30!But…..after launching 3 classes, they decided to not let the open “boys” go and then the day was cancelled for all. The price- giving moved forward to 5, with after the promised goulash with beer.
So the winners are known and after 5 days of flying we see;
Club class; “G” Dale in ASW 24 from the UK with his mate Ian MacArthur as runner up. Great practise for the WGC !!!
15 m. class; Tomasz Rubaj and Lukasz Wojcik both from Poland. They might not be in the mood for big celebrations.[see further on] UK pilot Jay Rebbeck was a good 3d .
20 m. dual; 2 German pilots , Andre Weidlich @1 ,Michael Sickert @2and  from Belgium Wim Akkermans @ 3d place.
Open class; Austrian airline pilot Wolfgang Janowitsch seems ready for maybe another WGC title! Pavol Cherny [Slovakia] @2 and Werner Amann [Austria] @3d place. Russell climbed back from 11 to 5!
Congratulations to the winners !
 

So you were a tuggie at Sportavia in Tocumwal and then you are the co-pilot on a flight with the Prime Minister!!!That happened to Diana! Last November I was in Cairns  and I told you how Diana  flies for Search and Rescue in the top-end of Australia. One of her  flights last week, for Marin Environmental Protection  was to Rockhampton to observe a ship which departed from Gladstone and had stranded at the Great Barrier Reef at Douglas Shoal and maybe was going to create a main environmental disaster when it would break.
 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wanted to see with his own eyes  this Chinese ship , Sheng Neng , with 975 ton oil aboard , so he flew with Diana and the rest of the crew,  in the  plane, same one as  I got the by Diana and her colleagues very interesting guided tour in  , over the ship and he spoke by radio to the observers from Marin Safety Queensland aboard the ship. Luckily not a lot of oil has been spilled, so the great scare for a disaster is a bit over as they are pumping the oil into other ships. After his flight he made a statement to the press , took time to be on a picture [ a very nice one! sorry I still can’t show pictures!] with the flying crew and left again.

With a signature the alliance between British Airways and Iberia [Spain] was a fact last week. In the next future they will be after KLM-Air France and Lufthansa the biggest company, having 400 planes and 200 destinations! Headquarters will be in London and they expect to carry 58 million people.Over 60.000 people will be working in this 3d biggest airliner in Europe.

A disaster yesterday in Russia where the Polish President died  in a crash while landing [ the fourth attempt!] in heavy fog with high guests and his wife with the government -plane  at Smolensk. The Toepolev- 154  crashed while landing about 1.5 km. in front of the runway, with 96 people dead according to the Russian press-bureau Tass, including 88 of the delegation! He and this Polish delegation were on their way to remember the 22.000 Polish prisoners of war , most officers and intellectuals , killed in the 2d World war in 1940 by Stalins secret service. Part of the ” elite “was killed then and now more or less again.Bizarre !
Amongst the high guests ; the president of the Polish Central Bank,  the chief staff of the Polish army, RC  bishops , some people from the Euro Parliament and the top of the armed military forces as generals , an air-force  commandant  and the vice admiral of the Polish Marine.
Now , it is maybe easy to wonder ,why so many high placed people flew in ONE plane, and 26 years old,  with a not too good name and a not too good reputation.  For sure the investigations will show us soon what has happened , as this accident has not only shocked Poland in the heart,  but also Europe and the world . So we better wait,  before taking over the quick conclusion, that  this is maybe a mistake from the pilot, who was advised to not  land there, but at Minsk . It seems the air-traffic controllers were NOT allowed to refuse the landing of a presidential plane, they could only advise. The 2 black boxes have been found, so we surely know quickly what has exactly happened and if it is correct,  that both the president and maybe for that reason , the pilot  definitely only wanted to land there , so that the delegation would be in time.
The story is, according to a Polish aviation expert, that this president in 2008 forced a pilot to land on a place the pilot thought was not safe,  so he refused and as a captain he had/has the right to do so. With that incident the president had to continue by car, no worries ….but what is worse is that the captain  was later reprimanded that he did not obey orders from the president ???!!!??? Was the captain today not a match for the President!?
From this place I would like to send my condolences to all my Polish friends,  if they were “fan”of Lech Kaczynski , or not , is not important now.

The Frenchman who wanted to be the first to cross the North Pole  in a balloon , succeeded in his mission, and arrived back safely yesterday, not  due to snow storms,  in Alaska, but in Siberia. After 121 hours and 30 minutes AND 3631 km. and lots of tests,  he must have been glad to feel some warm temperatures , in a house on earth.

And then this………
—-In Switzerland a small plane has made the first test flight using ONLY sun energy!!! It flew 2 hours at a height of 1000 m. De wings of the “Solar Impulse “are covered with 1.200 sun panels. The goal according to this source is to fly around the world . Wing span is as big as from a passenger plane , but it only weighs as much as a passenger car.
—-Ever heard of a “Space jump”; Steve Truglia from the UK seems to be a well-known stuntman, but is also a “daredevil”.  He wants to jump from the site of the atmosphere,  out of space , back to mother earth! He wants to go up in a helium balloon to 40 000 m. jumps out and “quickly”  [ within 15 seconds] falls through the sound barrier , pulls his parachute at height 3000 m. and is back “home”. He wants to renew the record from Joseph Kittinger, who “jumped down “from 31.300 m. When you have seen the TV program Fith Gear you have seen him doing stunts there as well!
—-Never ever before, so many women were flying around in space. 3 American and 1 Japanese lady made history, by flying together in one of the last Space Shuttle flights.After this flight only Japanese, European and Russian Shuttles will continue!
—-Julio Poch the captain who ended up in a Spanish prison, while flying his last flight before retirement for a Dutch Company will be extradited to Argentina , his home country after living for years in Holland. He is accused of flying Death flights for the Junta long time ago, in which they threw opponents from the regime out of the plane into the sea! Hope he gets a fair trial, as I am not so sure, reading and hearing all the stories,  he did this! At-least the Argentinians promised the Spanish court, that when Julio would have been wrong he will be  NOT put in prison for life!

CU on Wednesday,
Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday April 7 2010   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Easter is over and so is the bad weather. The sun is shining and the world looks bright. At 12 yesterday [11 suntime]the clouds popped up and it was for a few hours looking great for soaring.In the end only here,  as not a lot of pilots went flying here in Holland.
The bad weather did not matter too much for  the foreigners visiting Holland, as they still came, about 800.000,but…. not as many as last year, [we had 50.000 less ] , when we had the warmest Easter in 25 years. Attraction parks however were satisfied! Inside attractions as Madame Tussaud and the cinemas here in Holland and as I heard in the UK , had a great time , with 50.000 guests more this year in Holland , then last and 3D movie Alice in Wonderland topped the list.

The Pribina Cup had a difficult 2d day , with several outlandings and an AAT of 2 hours set . Not a 1000 point day but at least a valid day for all classes! A “bad”day for Russell who outlanded in open class and  ” dropped ” from spot 1 to 11 overall, which made Wolfgang 1 , after 2 days! Only 13 from 35 arrived home! This is soaring too!
In 20 m. class 7 from 12 ! In this class  2 DG 1000/20m. are flying and the rest is duo discus!
In 15 m. 21 pilots arrived home,  all the rest [22] out-landed.
In club class 18 gliders back home, from 42!
The 3d day was cancelled due to rain.
Yesterday was the 4th day but as the weather had not improved the day was officially announced as a non flying day.
So let’s hope they fly today. Easter is very early this year!

No Easter thoughts for a huge group of Apple-lovers. While waiting for the shop in New York they spend  their thoughts and money, about 499 dollar , for the new long awaited iPad and hopefully it makes them happy! 300.000 were sold on the first day!!!!
Easter Saturday had rain for the Formula 1 drivers in Malaysia, but on Easter Sunday they had nice race-weather with finally Vettel as winner. Twice , he drove upfront,  but his car gave up, this time it all ” worked out well” for him and his team!

The final date to enter the Dutch Nationals was on April 1  and 56 pilots have entered! I am sure it will be a super competition! It is a great mix of top-pilots,  who have won comps already on EGC level or were high on WGC level, with pilots with less experience but a lot of motivation to climb up. Several juniors who participated in the JWGC in HusBos,Rieti and Rayskala are still on the scene . Good to see that only a few have given up competition gliding, some only because they want to finish their study first.
Even my instructor from 1967, Dick Teuling,   is amongst the participants and he is one of those pilots who has won the Nationals in the past. From the 56, I do not know 11, so it will be great to meet some new pilots.
I will keep you updated on soaring.eu as my stories at the www.nkzweefvliegen.nl will be in Dutch .

The 38th Trofeo Citta di Torino has been flown  and since I have been several years in Rieti for the WGC the JWGC and the CIM , I really enjoy to see so many familiar names in the top. I met them all and they are not only top pilots, but also very nice guys. Vittorio Pinni flew last year the fastest speed during the CIM and unfortunately had a bad 4th day in Torino, dropping in the overall scores from 3 to 7. Good practise however, as he will be flying the WGC in club class this year, so better a bad day now then in Prievidza.
Alberto Sironi won the Trofea in the duo discus, winning 2 days out of  4 . He will fly in Hungary during the WGC. In Hungary Marina Galetto will be their TC and Frouwke Kuijpers one of their stewards.

Compliments for Alexander Spaeth.  Again…yes! Great flight from Vinon 2 days ago to Aosta in Italy; 780 km. in a standard cirrus. One of his “mates “flew 750 in an LS 1, not bad either !!!
One of my Italian friends Luciano “used “the same weather on the same day, flying from Calcinate, to Serres La Batie in France, “making” 838 km. in a Nimbus 4!

And then this….A French doctor and a discovery-voyager left last Monday for a trip of 3500 km. from Spitsbergen to Alaska in hopefully 7 to 10 days and hopes to be the first ballooner to cross the North Pole. In between he serves science with measurements about CO2, the magnetic field and ozone layer. Interesting! Have n’t heard anything more , so he should be still OK!!!!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Sunday April 4 2010       ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Hope , that wherever you are, you have better weather  then we have here in Holland. It feels like autumn instead of spring. Feel sorry for the 100.000 of foreign guests visiting Holland over Easter. The worldwide well known flower show, KEUKENHOF , will attrack lots of them and to be honest it feels and looks better there when the sun is shining. Though….. the colourful flowers are always a pleasure for the eyes.

Good Friday was a “full” day for soaring with 733 flights on the OLC. Best one from Alexander Spaeth in Standard Cirrus with 566 km. from Vinon.Great flight also from Carsten Lindemann, who in the Berlin Area , from Luesse-airport   a 628 flight could enter on the OLC list , flown in a discus bt. He flew in a small area to the NW from Luesse and SE just above Klix and that up and down. Nice spring weather in that area!!

Told you last that Bear Selen and Erik Borgmann were flying in Vinon, now I can tell you as well, that more Dutch pilots were there. Erik and another Dutch pilot Joep Geraedts  were training young pilots from our squad to fly in the mountains. What better experienced pilots could you have for that. Tim Kuijpers , runner up during the last EGC and still a junior, had the privilege together with junior top pilot Frank Hiemstra to be with these cracks in the mountains from Vinon, claiming they learned a lot and had a fantastic week. They flew with the Nimbus 3DT and 4 DM. All great practise for the future and the WGC in Prievidza.
A huge team of German pilots was/is there as well and it seems that they have their own” German Vinon”, with what ever facilities they need. What’s new ……and this is more respect , then envy!! Of course they do not stay for ONE week.
Frank , who is a great photographer, made some pictures and you can share them on http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankhiemstra/sets/72157623728269176/

Only 39 days to go and The Dutch Nationals are on at Twente Airport. This former air-force base of Twente is closed but about a week ago it “got “a lost pilot! Better said the 67 year old pilot of the Lockheed T 33 had to make an emergency landing, due to a technical problem!! And…as he had not the required papers and licenses to fly this plane, he got a 2000 E. fine! The plane has to be repaired first , so we might see it , before another pilot will fly it to Frankfurt for further revisions.

The Pribina Cup in Slovakia, has started, with 140 pilots in 4 classes. They had one practise day , but not everybody did fly that day, so yesterday was the first day, with a 402 km. task for open class. Club had 283 , 15 m. 350, and the 20m.”  multi seats” went for a 330 km. flight with major frontal systems and pressure distribution in the forecast area.Pilots love this Cup, so I hope it will be a safe and fair competition. We will know on the 10th!
Day 1 was good for most pilots, a few were unlucky by not making it home. Open class winner Russell Cheetham from the UK flew around with a speed of 121 km. /h with Wolfgang Janowitch only a fraction slower.Both former WGC winners remain top pilots!!!!
In 15 m. our Dutch former EGC champion Steven Raimond had to outland loosing 500 points which is a pity , but I was pleasantly surprised to see Vitautas on spot 1 after  day 1. He is a great and very well organized guy! Great pilot as well!!! His speed was 102 km/h in a LAK 19/15m.
During the JWGC in Finland last year he was pilot and TC for Lithuania and did a marvellous job!!!!
In club class 2 UK pilots were the best and in 20m/twoseaters , 2 German teams in duo discus, with a Dutch pilot Hans Biesters on 3d place.
But this was only day one so a lot can happen.

It is more or less “the end of the season” , in Australia. Tocumwal has there Easter holiday guests flying and staying for a nice holiday on the great caravan park, Chinchilla has an Easter Competition with several Australian top pilots and Mount Beauty and the rest of Victoria had a few pleasant days as well. The East coast normally has flying through the year, so you can only say that it slows down over there!

Wishing you HAPPY EASTER holidays and CU on Wednesday, with more news.When you are interested in the results from the Pribina Cup and Chinchilla Easter comps please look at; www.soaringspot.com

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday March 31  ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Last day of March and we are looking ahead at April,…..be aware tomorrow ,who knows somebody will “hit”you with a “joke” on April Fools Day. The next story is NO joke.
It is a very  sad story ! A Spanish pilot took last Saturday a very wealthy sheik from Abu Dhabi, in his early 40thies AND a member of the Royal Family, for a ride in a glider south of Rabat in Morocco.
What should have been a great flight ended one way or another totally wrong as they crashed in a lake , also south of Rabat. The Spanish pilot was saved according to the BBC, but the sheik, last year number 27 on the Forbes list of wealthiest men drowned. At-least they are still trying to find him! Have not yet heard more and do not know what glider it was!

One of the aldermen from the Shire of Eindhoven Mary Fiers, has opened the new season with a flight , of course with an instructor,  in a duo discus. She hopes the EAC will have an excellent and safe season. The president from the club was grateful  for her support to lower high obstacles along the gliding field , one of the reasons soaring nearly had to stop in Eindhoven after 70 years.

Great new job for our Dutch top pilot Ronald Termaat. He and Maarten Baltussen will be the Central European Agents for Jonker Sailplanes. Good luck guys and “happy selling”! For sure this seems to be a great glider!!!!
Here is the news, I received,  from the 2d news letter from Jonker Sailplanes;

New Central European Agents for Jonker Sailplanes Glider-Import BV based in the Netherlands now represents Jonker Sailplanes in central Europe.
The owners of Glider-Import BV are Maarten Baltussen and Ronald Termaat. They both have more than 25 years experience in flying gliders.
As former European Champion and Vice-World Champion in the 18m Class, Ronald Termaat is a very well known name in the international gliding scene. In 2009 he changed his professional career from the IT industry, where he had numerous management positions, to become the Director of the Royal Netherland Air Sports Association (KNVvL).
Maarten Baltussen holds a Diamond FAI certificate. He has flown the last two editions of the Euroglide, a 2000 km . gliding race across Europe, and flew the longest distance flight from the Netherlands in 2009. Professionally he
has been successfully growing his IT company over the last two years. Before that he had numerous international management positions in big software companies.
Ronald and Maarten explain:
“At the WGC 2004 in Poland, Uys and Attie told us about their plans to build a high performance sailplane. Ever since then we have maintained contact with JS, and had
numerous conversations about the JS1 Revelation. The Jonker Sailplanes brand is born out of dedication to a dream and in this way we were able to live the dream
with them.
We always said we would like to represent a sailplane manufacturer that has the same passion for our sport as we do, and to share developing sailplanes with the latest technology. The philosophy behind Jonker Sailplanes matched our own views exactly.
So here we are, European Jonker Sailplanes Agency for Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. A good agent approaches the market from a Product, Marketing, Sales and Operations point of view. Ronald will take care of the Product and Operations aspects whilst Maarten will look after
Marketing and Communications. Both of us will be taking responsibility for Sales.”
Glider-Import also currently acts for Scandinavia and the Eastern European market for the moment.

Western Europe Region including the UK, Ireland and currently Spain, France and Portugal will be in the capable hands of Iain Evans and former World champion for the UK Andy Davis.

Now spring has started  we can look back on a pretty tough winter. ONLY in Holland 36.000 people needed first aid and this is more then in first case anticipated on and 7 % more then in normal years. More then half of them,  had broken “something”and 15 % had to stay in hospital.So …we deserve a nice warm summer.
Italy had some nice spring weather, specially on March 28 when Giorgio Galetto flew from Bolzano a great 669 km.[ wave ]  flight. Another 4 pilots flew over-500km. flights, from Rieti, Trento and Calcinate.
By the way….the 38th Trofeo Citta di Torino  has started with 25 participants in one class. After 2 days Alberto Sironi is on top in a duo discus with 1755 points. The competition ‘s last day will be on April 5 2010.

Cheers and see you on EASTER SUNDAY,
 Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn   Sunday March 28 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

After 7 years my good old laptop  from Dick Smith in Australia, started to do few weird things and before loosing all my “stuff” and before not been able to write anymore, I bought myself a nice new one. I guess specially my friends in Italy will be more then pleased , so they don’t have to struggle anymore with my Australian WIFI.
WIFI is superb now and I even have a built in webcam, my new acer crystal eye””. A new world opens here for me , but also some stress as a lot of things have to be installed again.Luckily at this stage I can work on the old and the new one.
Yesterday I started windows messenger and names of all kind of friends popped up and “asked” if they were welcome in my system, of course they were, but…I prefer not to be on facebook, on linked -in and plaxo.
My old Acer has done a great job! Travelled with me all over the world and I hope it still can be used for a while.

Great ridge soaring weather in the USA.  What about Blairstone where a pilot managed to fly 972 km. in an LS 3 !! Also the Schweizer pilots had a beautiful day flying just over and just under 500 km.
The Swiss and Italian mountain- pilots had their fun as well last week.

This weekend the first RED BULL RACE for 2010 will be flown in Abu Dhabi. A very thrilling sport and a spectecular way of flying and…the 10th time  they are on!! There will be 8 races this year in 5 continents with 15 pilots , between age 26 and 53!!! Some of those pilots have started with soaring. The 2 debutants are from Brasil, 36 year old Adilson Kindlemann and 31 year old Czech pilot Martin Sonka. The 2010 season will have a new rule; Like in gliding there will be a min.weight of 82 kilo. So if you are only 70 kilo, you have to take 10 kilo of ballast.
Races are 3 times in Europe [ Lausitz -Germany, Budapest,Lissabon] further on in Perth[Australia],Rio de Janeiro[Brasil],Windsor [Canada] New York [USA] and this weekend as said ; Abu Dhabi.
Holland had one pilot participating for a few years in this Race and a good one!! He retired however in 2007 . His name Frank Versteegh in his 50thies and very popular and wellknown in Holland. This year he and I are going to do the main part of the PR for the CAE NLS Dutch Nationals. So you will hear his name more over the next few months.
By the way ,with the selection for this year and for the first time in history, one woman tried to be part of this race, but unfortunately the 2 new mentioned men were better.

British Airways cabin crews started a new series of strikes yesterday.  This time for 4 days! Several flights were cancelled, but most people knew , as it was advised last week already that this was going to happen.

Just a short blog this time, have been away, so more news on Wednesday.

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn   Wednesday March 24 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Spring really has arrived now  with temperatures up to 18/19 dgr. More pilots get their glider out of the winter sleep and start flying. This upcoming weekend most gliding places in Holland will be open. I also heard good news for the EAC. They , the club from Eindhoven,  started on a very low scale last year with all kind of restrictions, after flying for 70 years under “normal” conditions,  but it seems that for this year it is going to be a bit better! Happy with that! It has cost the club quite some pilots, as they decided to fly somewhere else. A pity as they are /were a club full of enthusiast pilots putting a lot of time in competition flying and the education of young pilots. I hope they can continue with that!

Yesterday the French Alps were HOT again with a lot of flights.Great to see 2 of my friends flying there. Easy for Erik [Borgmann] who lives in that area, but a bit of a trip for Baer [Selen] ,who flies there now as well. Erik was runner up in the Borlange WGC and Baer was twice WORLD CHAMPION in Chateuaroux and in Uvalde [Texas], where I had the honor to be his TC. Both fly for fun now and  they deserve only the best! And….they are still good!
See that , between all the German guests is also another Dutch pilot, Jan Seton,  the father of one of my juniors in HusBos, Robbie. Robbie is on the list of participants in Twente but might not come as their big dog might not be allowed. Would be a pity as he is a good pilot, but certainly on a military base rules are rules! Hope there will be a good other solution!

Here some news  from Australia from my friend Vanessa. She lives in Perth on the West Coast. Thanks Vanessa! Just to let you know that the weather is and remains the weather and is not good everywhere!

What a massive storm!

After two days of building clouds and humidity the atmosphere finally exploded with some of the most spectacular storms Perth has seen in 20 years. The storm hit Kensington at about 4pm and the power went out around 5.15pm. I was at uni on the 3rd floor of the library when the power went out – absolute darkness. We were all wishing we had the torch app on our phones! Finally the emergency lighting kicked in & the staff with the hardhats and loud hailers came around to evacuate us. It was clear the storm wasn’t going away in a hurry. The power to the campus was out so of course everyone decided to jump in their car and drive home. Usually I cycle the 10min to uni but because of the weather I had driven. 20 minutes to get out of the car park, and another 20 minutes to get home. Lots of traffic lights out, branches and trees all over roads, houses etc, lots of localized flooding too.

 The power was back on by 9pm.

 We had wind up to 120km/hr, mini tornadoes, hail the size of golf balls and the lightning was massive. We had 59mm of rain in our gauge in less than an hour, although I suspect most of it went sideways across the top! Lovely to have rain again – it has been 6 dry months and the garden looks much happier for it.

Our immediate area is OK. Some apartments in town which are at the base of the hill Kings Park sits on have 1.5m of sand/mud in the ground floor. There are a lot of trees down and they are estimating a $1billion damage bill. So many cars with hail damage and many of the beautiful old stained glass windows at the University of WA are smashed. Still thousands of people without power. Fortunately no-one seriously injured that I’ve heard of.

The photos you can see at www.watoday.com.au.  Also there is a photo of a boy on the Wesley school oval which is well worth a look at www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2010/03/23/2853616.htm .
As you see the weather is not everywhere “nice”.

Exciting news from South Africa as I received the next mail:

Jonker Sailplanes

Press Release

March 19th, 2010

JS1 Revelation Awarded the

First South African CAA Type Certification

On March 12th, 2010 the Jonker Sailplanes JS1 Revelation 18-metre class sailplane received South African Civil Aviation Authority (SA CAA) Type Certification.

This is a historic milestone for the JS1 Revelation, for Jonker Sailplanes (JS) and for the SA CAA as this is the first South African designed and manufactured aircraft certificated to modern airworthiness standards. The certification requirements for the JS1 Revelation are the latest issue of EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) CS-22 Certification Standards for Sailplanes and Powered Sailplanes.

For this pioneering work, the SA CAA formed a highly capable team from CAA Engineering, led by Kavita Vanmari.
Throughout the Type Certification (TC) process the SA CAA team was thorough and meticulous, while being practical and working with JS towards the common goal of TC. As this is the first TC awarded by the SA CAA, it was essential that the process was rigorous, especially as the TC will be subject to the scrutiny of EASA and FAA prior to their validation of the TC.

The TC award follows an extensive programme of engineering analysis, ground-based structural testing and flight testing to demonstrate that the certification requirements have been met.

There will be a formal handover of the Type Certificate by Captain Colin Jordaan, CEO/Commissioner, SA CAA at CAA Headquarters, near Johannesburg, South Africa during April with full local and international media coverage.

With a TC to the highest and latest international standards, the JS1 Revelation can now be operated with South African registration in any ICAO country.

CONGRATULATIONS to the S A Boys ; what a great achievement. When there is more news you read it of course here!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     March 21 2010     SPRING   ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

As every year most of the Spring [training] camps  are in the French Mountains. Most popular is , when I look at the OLC, Vinon, where a  lot of young pilots like Alexander Spaeth , [JWGC] are flying to get in the soaring-mood for the 2010 season. But in that same area , Serres la Batie is popular as well , so is Sisteron. A bit amazed that St Aubain and Gap  are not so busy.

For the Italian high performance stage pilots  the week is over and I did not hear a lot of news. Saw on the European weatherstations that the North of Italy had not always the best soaring weather. Atleast they flew 4 days !
A competition under supervision of TOP pilots as their coach, is of course not bad. THE way to learn from experts how to fly in the mountains, like they do in St. Auban already for years. A good initiative from the brand new group CTF, with very familiar and wellknown names , as Giorgino Ballarati.

Last date to register for the Dutch Nationals is March 31. Only 53 days to go and the comps will start . Practise day will be on the 12th. At this stage 53 pilots are on the list of participants; 10 in standard class, 7 in club, 4 in open and 4 in the 20 m. two-seater class and  22 in 18 m.  and 6 in 15 m. class. For the 2d time in history the CAE NLS comps will be held on the former air base Twente. Long, very long ago I was there as my ex flew passengers for the Flying Syndicate of Twente. I remember some nice parties though…I was very pregnant in that time. So I am looking forward to see if something comes back to my “brain”.

103 days to go, for the Prievidza WGC where ALL 115 pilots are accepted . So after payment BEFORE March 31 2010, we hope to see indeed 115 pilots in club,standard and world class.
Szeged, where 15 m. 18m. and open class will fly, has no extra news and not yet a list of definite competitors. Will keep you updated!

I was a bit amazed to not see more and longer flights  on March 18 when we all felt in Holland that SPRING had arrived. Terraces were full, flowers popping up in all parks in all colours , but …as you all know , spring does not per defenition mean soaring straight away. Even in Holland nobody took the glider out for “a ride”, as in a lot of places the sun was covered by very high and thin clouds. So….glider pilots have to wait a bit longer here.

12.000 British Airways cabin staff started their strike  in the night from Friday to Saturday and for 3 days. They do not agree with the 70 million cut back. For next week another 4-day-strike is announced! Premier Brown is very unhappy with it and is scared this might cause the end of BA. Hope not!!! Lots of flights have been cancelled and BA has tried hard to ask help from other companies. 2 Dutch companies, Transavia and Arke Fly have answered with yes on that, making the union unhappy and “breaking the strike”.
This morning I saw that BA “thinks” , it is all not TOO bad, as some of the cabin staff went to work as well, but the Union claims 80% is on strike.

What about this………Have you ever seen the boxing kangaroo with a brown “glove” on green and yellow Aussie flags and PR material? Now such a kangaroo REALLY exists! A jogger was knocked down by ….a kangaroo not far from Canberra town !!! The young man does not recall very well what happened. He looked over his shoulder was hit by a direct punch in his face , was found unconscious by a passer-by and brought to hospital , where he was diagnosed with a blue eye , but no more harm was done!!!

And this…….In 1968 a hijacker forced a PanAm plane with 100 passengers to go from New York to Cuba instead of the planned destination , Puerto Rico. With a knife on the throat of a stewardess,  he arrived in Cuba to visit his sick father and stayed there. Now after 42 years  this 67 year old guy, has admitted his deed and might be in prison for maybe up to 21 years. A bit weird he moved back from Cuba to the USA.

Off to Arnhem now , for the 2d meeting  of the CAE -NLS- Dutch -Nationals- TEAM. Still impressed with the high quality capacities and expertise in different ways from the members of this TEAM.
Take care and have good beginning of the next week, and CU on Wednesday
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    March 17 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com  

” They ” predict that Spring starts today, with maybe temperatures up to 17 dgr. tomorrow. OK , good ….I am ready!
Though spring , [the astronomical at March 21] is coming and already 88 pilots sent their file to the OLC  last Sunday, the best flight that day with a sunny 27 dgr., was from Benalla in Australia in autumn ;512 km. by Tobias Geiger in his LS 4 with a nice polygon with 4 TP’s. I know Hiroko was very happy with her flight from Toc. also in LS 4; 393 km. Worthwhile for her to travel up all the way from Japan.
Chris flew in his ASW 27 a good 457 km. distance. Also “the Club” in Toc. had a great day with their first solo pilot. Well done!
Interesting to see that the South, West and East of Australia, still have great autumn weather .
One day earlier on Saturday even more pilots “went up” world wide and a good amount of 176 world , enjoyed good to very good conditions. The UK had wave at their mountain area and with 610 km. a nice up and down flight across the ridges was made in a DG 400.

In Calcinate in Italy, several of my Italian friends  are flying a high performance -mountain-competition / training-camp,  organised by the Centro Tecnico Federale. Between March 12 and 20 ,  38 pilots will fly in one class , 23 participants , the rest coaches. Interesting is that top pilots as Georgio Ballarati, Ricky Brigliadori, Stefano Ghiorzo , Alberto Sironi and Luciano Avanzini and more,  are coaches to fly with pilots, who are interested. They even had to refuse pilots in excess. They had a racing task of 254 km. to start with. The weather was good yesterday and the pilots flew 315 km.

Today I spend some hours in Hoofddorp on the CAE NLS flying school. As they are the main sponsor of the Dutch Gliding Nationals ,I was interested who they are and what they are exactly doing, to promote them in our best way. The CAE stands for Canadian Aviation Electronics and they are a type rating training organisation, for pilots from all over the world.[TRTO]
They are the parent company for the NLS , which is the Dutch Flying School and they are a Flight Training Organisation.[FTO]
It was a very pleasant atmosphere in which I was even allowed to make a little trip in a Full Flight  Simulator [737] . VERY EXCITING!!!! This was one of the 7 simulators they have.
The school counts 144 students per year and there is an average of 4 women on 24 men, though this year they have one class starting last September with 7 girls.The NLS has their own finance system, so that pilots- to-be, between 18 and 28 with whatever financial background, still can do such an expensive study. For more news look at;
www.nls.nl  and for selection procedures at; www.therightwaytotheleftseat.nl

And then this……..It should have been a wonderful Sunday-afternoon for father and son. The 42 year old son took his dad 71, for a nice ride in a home built Ultravia Pelican [1998] , but….they got engine problems, in fact the engine totally failed in the air and the pilot could not reach anymore the strip he started from. He had to land in a field , hit with one wing the ground first and “fell on his nose”.  A bit of a different afternoon then hoped for and expected, but they have a lot to talk about,as a bit of excitement like this will be a hot item on many parties to come, as luckily dad and son were unharmed. The plane however was pretty badly damaged and the incident is under investigation.
And what about this……..a jogger enjoyed his run along the beach in North Carolina [USA] but….was hit by an Experimental IV-P Lancair making an emergency landing at the beach after loosing oil. This oil splashed on his window so he could not go to the closest-by airfield, due to lack of visibility. This story is sad as the jogger did not survive. But what a terrible way to die, though most probably he never knew what happened to him.

Sorry I was late today.
Cheers Ritz and…… fly safely!

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday March 14 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Of course I do not have to tell you  that the weather sometimes is weird ! Only last week;
Flooding in the NE of NSW in Australia.
Heavy snow hit ” winter-rest-paradises” in France and Spain.
 Slippery roads caused  ONE kilometer of damaged cars and trucks in Germany.
And today; heavy thunderstorms in the East of the USA ; result delayed flights and/or no flights and no electricity for thousands of people, due to fallen trees on powerlines.
On the contrary, Orient in SA had a beautiful flight last Thursday with 769 km. in a Nimbus 3 DM.
But also in the USA the weather did not “help” in flying a perfect ” every-day-is-a-flying-day” competition in Seminole-Lake; rain was here spoilsport.
Official last day was yesterday with fly-able weather  but,…… as Rick wrote ” the talk is about runway conditions . The runway is very wet and we may not be able to launch the gliders”. In the end they did NOT fly. ” They had strong post frontal winds and the combination with the wet field was too much to allow for a safe and fair competition day.”
The official rest day, was [as rain was forecasted] on Friday March 12, but still a report from Rick. Thursday was cancelled due to rain and here is the news from Wednesday and Friday;

Report for March 10

Florida weather cooperated rather well today.  Some pessimistic forecasts of yesterday gave way to sunny skies and predictions of blue lift to 4000’.  Winds looked to be a problem: one forecast said we’d see 30 knots at 3000’ AGL. 

In the event, thermals were stronger (5 knots) and higher (5000’) than predicted, and winds aloft were about half of the dire values predicted.  Even better, some area had useful cumulus clouds – the first seen during this contest (local wisdom says that southerly winds will yield cumulus clouds in Florida even when soundings say the day must remain blue).

The result was the best winning speeds of the contest thus far. But area of suppressed lift and troubles at low altitudes also led to more abandoned tasks, outlandings and motor starts than on any previous day.

Dick Butler did the best job of handling the variable conditions, posting an unhandicapped speed of 68.5 mph over a task of 185 miles.  Like contest leader Tom Kelley, Dick is flying an ASG-29 at 15 meters span, which seems to yield a good combination of performance, wingloading and handicap.  (It also helps if you can fly as well as Tom & Dick consistently do.)

With three good flying days out of four, this easily qualifies as the best soaring week in Florida so far this year (a number of pilots that have been here for a couple of months have doubled their total flying hours during this contest).  The forecast for Thursday and Friday calls for rain, and so Friday has been declared the official rest day (a feature of the Senior Contest).  Based on current predictions, we have some chance of good flying on Saturday.

2010 Senior Contest – Seminole Lake Gliderport, Clermont Florida

Report for March 12

Florida rain continues unabated – we’ve had a total of about 4 inches in the past 2 days. We have some hope this may cease by this evening, though satellite images suggest this may not be worth betting on. 

There is lots of sand in the soil here, and it’s thus said that soaring can be possibly only a short time after strong rains cease.  But optimism for the chances of a task tomorrow seems to be declining.

We have been reduced to telling stories from contests past, and flying model aircraft inside the airfield office.  Just now, Karl Striedieck is maneuvering a 5-inch-long RC helicopter past the noses of surprised observers with considerable skill.

Tom Kelley is the winner, after 3 racing days out of the possible 6. He will be flying for the USA in the Szeged WGC this summer in 18 m. class. Other wellknown pilots were at  spot;
2 Chip Garner—–3 Dick Butler—–5 Karl Striedeck—-13 Tom Knauff—-17 Ed Hollestelle.
I foud it fun to work together with Rick and we are going to do this again. Thanks Rick!

Last Friday I had dinner with Frouwke Kuijpers. She is one of the delegates representing the Dutch NAC at the plenary in Lausanne. Caught up with all the stories and heard about the preparations of Szeged where she will be steward. She is since October 2009  the coordinator between ALL air-sports and the NOC NSF, in Holland. To receive money from this organisation, you really have to be at a TOP LEVEL. The next 3 year she will put a lot of her energy in helping the different air sports to get , or to keep this high level. A lot of people know her international as the Dutch TC during WGC and EGC and I know she is a great and dedicated coach as well. And…a pilot who flies the Military comps in Holland ….and ……a mum of 3 flying kids and ….the wife of a pilot who flew international comps.

I was very pleased to see the Kookaburras from Australia win the Hockey WGC in India.They won from the young German players in a high standard match and as the German hockeyers  have won the last years it is good to see that somebody else won this time, though a hattrick would have been fantastic as well for our “neighbours”. The Dutch were first unhappy not being in the finals, but after being behind in the game for bronze they turned 3-1 behind around to a 4-3 win over England and that made  them feel good again.
The Aussie coach won years ago the world title as player and now as coach. He is the second achieving this as a Dutch player did in the past the same. His name was Jorritsma and he won as player in 1973 and as coach in 1990 and 1994.Not bad! And both Aussie players who made the goals are playing competition- hockey in Holland!
Looking also ahead to the new Formula 1 season starting today in Bahrein.

John Roake’s Gliding International for March is published, which again very interesting subjects. Here are a few ;
sailplanes as unmanned areal vehicles—new sustainer for all sailplanes—-grand prix final in Chile—ELT’s success rate investigated. Further on of course all international news for glider pilots, the Stemme, the progress on the PIK 27 home built tug , my report from Europe and the report on the world membership on gliding.[www.glidinginternational.com]

Good to see Hiroko back in Tocumwal. For her nothing has changed. She always arrived twice a year , sometimes “only” for ONE weekend, all the way from Japan with heavy luggage , to not miss out on whatever she needed for her soaring.For sure she will have an evening out with Dieter Dundee, who is in Tocumwal already since September and will leave, after some more travelling around,  in the beginning of June.

My Aussie friends are preparing for the different comps down-under for the new season and for them I have the latest about the Club class nationals in January 2011. Thanks Jo !A pity I can’t show pictures as she sent me a beauty from the airfield Bacchus March, where a lightning hit the ground. Luckily all gliders were in the hangars before this severe thunderstorm hit the town , after hitting Melbourne first last weekend.Here’s what Jo has sent me;

Hi all, 
The 2011 Club and Sports Class Nationals will be held at Benalla from 10^th-21^st Jan 2011.  Details of entry fees are still being finalised but all details will appear on the website at http://www.glidingclub.org.au/competition/live/Club_Class_2011/index Please keep checking the site – it does not have a lot of detail at present but that will change rapidly.  Entries should be available around the beginning of May.  We will accept a maximum of 60, and the cutoff date for normal entries will be 30^th November.GCV looks forward to welcoming all competition pilots to this event.  Please note that we operate every day during the summer months, and you are welcome to come early to practice or just take advantage of the weather and local area. Hope to see you there. Tim Shirley     Contest Director
Yesterday a pilot flew in his LS 4 a nice distance from Benalla, from 427 km. He went to the East to enjoy the mountains and flew over the great area of Mount Beauty. I flew there myself in the back of a Blanik with Bill one of our tuggies and instructors in the past. In that period we had a spring camp in the mountains at Mount Beauty, with some of our guests. Very nice!

Do you remember Kees Musters? He won the WGC in Hobbs in New Mexico. Sometimes I read the local papers and one day I found an article about a new to make Wall of Fame here in my town even in the KeesMusters street. I reacted on that article that they should nor forget Kees. They did not and last week the Wall was opened and Gretha , Kees wife, was there to be part of it. She was very proud and said she was sure Kees would have loved it! Kees and Gretha and George and I have lived for many years in Alphen in the past as this was close to Schiphol Airport were both “boys” worked.
Unfortunately the organisation forgot to invite me !!!! MINUS point for them!

That’s about it. Busy enough with the preparations for the Dutch Nationals, but NOT as busy as some of the others!!! I am only a small part of a very dedicated and hard working team.
Have not heard from Szeged anymore, so for the first time in a few years I will be not writing about the WGC, weird, but I will read all about it on the sites from both Szeged and Prievidza , where they have invited local writers, which is maybe even better and of course I do have some friends over there who support me with news for soaring.eu.
And…I will not be bored , as I have a lot to do and made other arrangements already! But I will be writing my blog on every Wednesday and Sunday . I believe I am close to BLOG 300  !!!
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn    Wednesday March 10 2010    ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

Last Sunday was another beautiful but VERY cold  day here in Holland. And again more parts of Europe were good enough to give the pilots a great feeling for this beginning of the season. In Germany a nice wave flight in a Phoebus B from Rheinstetten with 707 km. made me hold my breath!
Some top pilots from Germany have a spring camp to brush up their mountain-skills in St . Auban. Reinhard Schramme and Tassilo Bode are flying there,  as well as Bernd Weber , who flew in the past with us in Tocumwal. Bernd works for Schempp Hirth and has the ARCUS T with him!!!!

The latest USA magazine Soaring  had a lot of news about the Little Rock 2010 Soaring Society of America Convention,  I mentioned a while ago. I was most interested in the pictures and technical data from several planes, which were exhibited during this convention. You can get all the news about the ARCUS T , the HpH 304S, the Pipistrel Taurus, AMS Flight CARAT, the TST 14, the SparrowHawk and the Jonkers JS1 Revelation.
Soar Minden , the commercial premier gliding site is still for sale, including gliders 3 towplanes and land leases of 25 years.
Once my ex and I took over a commercial soaring center in Australia , Tocumwal, a few of our guests started later their own center in Corowa and they are still running it with success. I can tell you it is a lot of hard work, you should not do it to make money, but it is a fantastic life style.
So if you always dreamed of your own center, here is your chance, go for it!!

In Holland we might have a new Fokker  flying from 2015 onwards. As you surely know , Fokker was a good ” builder” of planes and in the past every 4 working days a new Fokker 100 left the factory, but unfortunately they got broke about 14 years ago, pretty sad as several of my friends were working there. It seems now, so I heard , that the Fokker 100 will be built again but with the latest brand-new systems, silent and ECO. There are orders already, the money  20 million,  comes from a loan from the government [economic affairs]and the rest another 70 million is organized for half of it. Will keep an eye on this ‘MAGIC’ FOKKER for you.

On March 6 the Australian Coaching Week  started in Narromine, with 13 in Australia well known and good pilots. After 2 days of practise the pilots flying in 2 classes, standard and 18 m. started yesterday.
Talking about Narromine, the well known “godmother” of many pilots,  Beryl Hartley,  living and working for soaring all her life in Narromine and International as Australian representative for FAI,  received during the last IGC plenary in Lausanne  the Majewska medal. Very well deserved!!! Congratulations Beryl! And…when I send congratulations I can add Ross Macintyre ,[NZ]  who I replaced once as juror at the WGC in Italy due to personnel circumstances in his life , he received a well deserved Lilienthal medal.

Last week I received the preliminary “results” of the IGC  by USA friend Rick Sheppe. He ia a long time “faithful “reader of my blog, as he calls it him self . He had to rush from Lausanne to Seminole -Lake for the USA senior comps ,where he is the scorer. Now…he also writes daily bulletins for us. Thanks Rick! And as we normally do not hear too much about the USA comps ,I am very pleased to inform you with this news as well.
So here are the first days;

2010 Senior Contest – Seminole Lake Gliderport, Clermont Florida

Report for March 6

It’s the 20^th annual Senior Contest.  We checked, and this contest is still being held in central Florida – though based on recent weather you could be excused for thinking it had been moved to Wisconsin.  The past two days have seen near record low overnight temperatures and hard frosts at sunrise (few Florida vehicles are equipped with the windshield ice scrapers they needed to deal with this).

 In fact this has been the coldest winter of the past 30 years or so in this area – and cold days aren’t quite the thing for good Florida soaring.  But the Senior Contest has enjoyed a lot of good weather luck in its long history, and the forecast seems to be obliging again this year – if you believe current predictions, we could be looking at a week better than any during the past 3 months.

Today was the unofficial practice day, and featured bright sun and blue thermals to as much as 5000’.  A few pilots reported the odd 7-knot climb, but most were happy with 4 knots; best speeds around a 6-turnpoint “sightseeing” turn-area task approached 60 mph. It wasn’t a super day, but pilots who’ve been here for several weeks pronounced it one of the best of 2010.

 

2010 Senior Contest – Seminole Lake Gliderport, Clermont Florida

Report for March 7

Weather for the first competition day was, as forecast, little different from what preceded it.  We again awoke to a hard frost with substantial ice on windshields.  But the sun did its work and with lower winds it was actually rather pleasant by grid time (11:30).  No cumulus clouds were visible at any time, but lift in the blue was mostly dependable, 3 to 4 knots to 4000 ft being typical.  This is scarcely a match for last year (which featured 10 straight 500-km days in central Florida, something to be expected perhaps once in 25 years) but is about as good as anything yet seen in 2010.

The task followed a friendly course a bit east of due south, past such towns as Winter Haven and Frostproof (which this winter no doubt failed to live up to its name).  The boldest pilots got as far as Sebring (one reported seeing cars racing around the track there).  Best distances for the Turn-Area Task were around 150 miles; best raw speeds were just under 60 mph.

Pending handicap tweaking, Tom Kelley in his ASG-29 (flying with 15 meters of wingspan) did it best, edging out several other US Team pilots: Chip Garner, Karl Striedieck, Dick Butler and Ken Sorenson. Frank Paynter was the only one in the top 6 who has not (yet) been on a US Soaring Team.

Unlike some past years, there is no great influx of new designs in this contest.  One exception is the Arcus Turbo, the new Schempp-Hirth 2-place ship.  Most pilots think of this as the “flapped Duo Discus”.

2010 Senior Contest – Seminole Lake Gliderport, Clermont Florida

Report for March 8

Florida actually seems to have warmed up a bit.  With only a small shove, today could have passed for a pleasant winter day here.  To be sure, several blankets were needed last night – but there was no frost, and bright sun raised afternoon temperatures above 70 degrees.  It was again entirely blue in our task area, but thermals – and speeds – were generally good.

A significant feature today was fires.  In addition to temperatures well below normal, Florida has had plenty of rain (and even some traces of snow) this winter, so it’s a bit of a mystery why brush fires should be happening.  But pillars of smoke have been seen every day here, and today they affected areas south of home, where a Turn-Area task was set.  Those who used them (most of the fleet) reported restricted visibility, considerable turbulence, and often impressive lift – 10 knots was commonplace, and one pilot briefly saw 18 knots on his averager.

Yet the task also had some tricky areas, and spreading cirrus clouds caused problems late in the day.  A few pilots landed at Winter Haven airport, 25 miles south of home, and a couple of motor glider pilots invoked their “iron thermals”.

Familiar names were again at the top of the scoresheet.  Tom Kelley did 66 mph for first place, closely followed by Ken Sorenson.  Dave Nadler is a guest here (not yet of eligible Senior age) but he had the best speed of the day at 68 mph.

Day 2 was won by Tom Kelley , while wellknown pilots as Chip Garner, Dick Butler and Karl Striedieck were 3-4 and 5.

See you next Sunday with more news ,also about Seminole…….I hope , as I heard the weather is about to get weaker and……just got the message that yesterday’s flying [March 9] was cancelled!

Cheers Ritz