Alphen aan den Rijn             Wednesday April 15 2009

Did you enjoy your Easter weekend??
In Holland we were very blessed!  Not only by the Pope who wished us a good time and said thank you for the beautiful flowers we presented to the St. Pietersplein. But by the weather!!
The normal temperature around this time is 11 dgr. Since 1984, so 25 years ago,  we had now the warmest Easter with temperatures up to 20 dgr. and today we even expect 25 dgr. on some places !!!!!!
Easter Sunday was nice warm, but very hazy , due to the Easterly wind,  bringing smoke from the German  Easter -Bonfires.
We had 850.000 guests from abroad enjoying their time with us.
100.000 Of them visited the  Keukenhof in Lisse , the beautiful flower show.[bulbs/tulips/cherry-blossom.etc]

Wow, Easter weekend was busy  with soaring too , so  South and Middle Europe enjoyed great weather as well !!!! On April 10 over 1100, on April 11 over 1000 and on April 13 again over 1000 pilots , shared their flight with us on the OLC. And…lots of them just enjoy their soaring as you know, without mentioning it. But I am glad to see through this great system of OLC , where everybody is having fun.
On second Easter day Nitra had 3 days out of 3 and certainly the open class is interesting with 3 toppers “fighting” for the first place; Wolfgang Janowitsch [ Ventus 2 C 18m. ],Uli Schwenk [ Ash 25 EB 28]and Russel Cheetham [ASG 29 18m.]. All 3 have been  champion ‘s in the past!
But yesterday [ day 4] …..lot’s of out-landings so former WGC Champion Wolfgang is still on 1 but Uli and Russell are 7 and 9 now. With circumstances like this, a lot can still happen, so  keep an eye on www.soaring.spot  or the Nitra home site. Very interesting competition!
 Hockenheim had 4 days out of 5 till now and also lot’s of outlandings yesterday.

Pilots loving the mountains  [lot’s of them living between them!] had a great time in the Swiss and Austrian Alps. Stefan Leutenegger  flew a 1000 km flight in Switserland. Not only wave , but also the first thermal activity  in the Swiss mountains!!!
From Lienz in Austria 4 German pilots managed to fly 1000 km plus as well .
Unterwoessen with it’s “HANG” shared also in the fun and good old Hans Raschke flew at his home-field in the ASW 20 673 km. My good friends Maria and Dieter Bottcher are also members from this club and a few years ago I visited Unterwoessen with them. Nice big field and a “real hang” to fly alomng, up and down to climb high and to just…go!
Pilots not flying in the mountains had a good time as well.  It pleased me to see that at “The Hahnweide” former WGC competition director in Bayreuth , Walter Eisele flew 924 km. in a Ventus 2CM 18 m., while his son Michael flies in Nitra.

For some passengers it is their biggest nightmare  !!!! Flying in a plane and the captain dies!!!! For some however it is a “nasty ” dream come true!  I know discussions enough in , “how we would do it” if it would happen to us.
This week a small twin-engine aircraft in the USA, with 6 passengers aboard, lost its pilot in command. As the pilot flew on the automatic pilot, one of the passengers had time to take over. Not used to fly twin engines, but having a license on a single engine plane, he managed to put the plane safely on the ground with…the help of the tower. Great job!!!  

In the UK and Holland  planes from the Zodiac type have been forbidden already. Now the American Bureau for Safety and Transport  in the USA urged the FAA to stop this single engine plane from flying over there too, as it flutters and just breaks in pieces in the air!!! This has happened to 6 of these planes in 3 years ! I would not even think of flying such a plane anymore!!!

Busy enough this week, so that’s it for now. CU on Sunday.

Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      Saturday April 11 2009

As I will be in Amsterdam  over Easter I write a day earlier to say HAPPY Easter to all of you wherever you are in the world.
In Holland ,we always had our first camp with the club in the Easter period. This was in 1967 when I was a member of the ZES, the student aeroclub from Eindhoven. We had the best weather, great flights and to get there we carried behind an old tractor an even older winch over the road  and it took us half a day over 70 km.  with lots of stress due to angry , umpatient drivers on the road who could not pass us or with difficulty, as also an old pick up with tents and other gear, was part of this Easter Parade.
This would not be possible anymore nowadays.
 We as club-members  had no field of our own and were during  the holidays guest at another airfield.  Easter was at Venlo, Summer at Malden [ where I went solo in the Grunau Baby after lessons in the Rhonlerche!] and the last one before autumn at the National Gliding Center Terlet together with the Student Aeroclub from Delft. Fantastic  memories !!!

The Pribina Cup 2009 in Nitra  [Slovakia] has started on Good Friday, with a practise day ! Lots of well-known to very well-known pilots under the 161 competitors  in 3 classes. Great practise for the Europeans and the World Comps in 2010 in Prievidza NE of Nitra.
The competition will be flown from April 10 – 19 -2009.
 I hear that there was snow and some showers and even thunderstorms, during practise, but for sure they will have some real NITRA-days as well.
 The C kader from the German juniors is having/ had a practise period in Nitra as well.
 For all info  , tasks and results you can go to ;www.soaringspot.com

I heard several readers  had a look at the new site ;www.rietigliding.it  and unanimous they found that it is  spectacular good! Well done!!!!

Several Australian top-pilots   participate in the Gliding Qeensland Easter Competition in Dalby for sports class and club class . They also started on Good Friday , with a practise day and fly till April 18. It is good to see that Dalby is organizing comps again. A few years ago it was closed. Good field with great soaring conditions! Also here you will be updated daily by soaring.spot

On April 7  , last Tuesday , Tilo  [Holighaus ] had the “maidenflight”  with the new Schempp Hirth two-sitter ARCUS at the famous airfield of Hahnweide. What a good looking new toy and it seems as easy to fly as a single seater. For sure a welcome addition at the gliding fields all over the world.
 I am very pleased to see how efficient Tilo took over the business after his dad, Klaus died in that sad glider accident. I knew Klaus pretty well, as well as his other son Ralf , both stayed with us in the past at Sportavia in Australia. As my ex only bought Schempp Hirth gliders, also  in the past , we got to know the whole family not to forget “the engine behind a lot of things”  mum Brigitte , pretty good. Lovely family!

Another competition  has started on Friday in the wellknown place Hockenheim. In 4 classes 51 pilots will fly for the first places, one of them Reinhard Haggenmueller flying in 15 m. class! Look for results and latest news on www.soaringspot.com and for more pilot information to the Hockenheim home site;www.sfc-hockenheim.de/sfc/home.htm
On day 1 tasks were set around 300km.

Lucky me!  I just said yes  to the organizers of the Rieti comps from August 4 till 14 to be their journalist. In 1984 I was in Rieti as crew , in 1985 as guest during the WGC , in 1991 [I think ] as TC for the Dutch team during the EC , in 2007 as juror and editor for the JWGC, in 2008 for the WGC and now again in 2009. And…I am very pleased to go , it feels like home overthere in Rieti.

Still no good news  from the EAC, though negotitians are still in full swing and some pilots live in hope, I heard! Others made theirselves a member of another club , to be able to fly, certainly now the Easter days look good. I still find it weird that just when the season started and all pilots were ready to fly, the base commandant decided to stop any action for gliderpilots to fly. If  necessary for safety reasons, IF, then they could have done so end of the season 2008, so there would have been time to anticipate on it for the 2009 season. I am lost here!!!

Wishing you sunny weather , nice clouds, enoughs eggs,  a good rest or a great flight… if possible a few …and see you on Wednesday.

cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn     Wednesday April 8 2009

When I woke up on Monday  morning and listened to the 9 o’ clock news , I heard that an earth quake had hit the middle of Italy. Worried about Rieti, I looked straight away at the news to see where the epic center had done so much damage that 16 people had died!!! L’Aquila was hit!!!! Everybody who has been in Rieti has passed or has been IN  L’Aquila and I felt VERY sorry for all the people over there. I wrote straightaway to Rieti friends to check if everything was OK in the area I have loved since my first visit in 1984.

The rest of Monday and Tuesday   I spend in Amsterdam, but received back news from some of my Italian friends that Rieti is safe.
 One of my friends wrote:

dear Ritz
thanks for your mail. This terrible event hasn’t fortunately hit Rieti at all. Despite the small distance between Rieti and the center of the earthquake, no major damns or victims are reported in the area. The situation is really tough and Rieti Airport is proving to be useful for the community as basis for many helicopters that are operating in the hit area.
The operations are really efficient and I’m hearing all the time helicopters flying in the area to transport injured and supplies. The earthquake has been really strong and I was awaken by the strength and the roaring of the moving terrain.
We are all praying and giving all the support to the close population. Many friends lost everything this night and they’re still lucky.”

As we write now on wednesday  more then 200 people have died, in fact the death toll has risen to 250 and 70.000 people have no house anymore..!Still pretty heavy after-shocks!!!One as heavy as 5.6 on the scale of Richter, killing 2 more people. The nights are just cold and it must be very bad for the people living in tents.
After 40 hours they found a young student from the university of L’Aquila ALIVE and after 34 hours a lady from 94, who knitted till she was found!!

Talking about Italy,  as life goes on; Rieti is organizing the INTERNATIONAL CIM 2009 with Giorgio, as their competition director. Georgini Ballarati was the deputy -WGC -2008-competition director working  very closely together with Leonardo Brigliadori ,the director.
As Leo is the new president of the Gliding Federation he wants to make this event a BIG one on a HIGH level with an international allure!!
 Many well known names , on the participants-list, several TOP pilots!  Look for the news on
www.rietigliding.it   The comps will be flown from August 4-14 2009.
You can still enter your name on the list till May 31 2009.  The comps are open for club and standard class, 15 m and 18 m., two-seater 20m and open class.
Have a look! I might even go myself !!!!  It would be great to see all pilots from nearly all classes together again during one competition!
One week later is the famous COPPA flown from August 19 -26 2009,  as well as the National 18 m. and open class championships and Italian Promotion Championship.
It seems the website is made by the POST FRONTAL guy’s, you remember their CONDOR system during the WGC????!!!
What a fabulous job!!!!

The Royal Fokker ,owned by the Dutch Government, was not a 28 model but a 70, sorry about that!!!I hesitated already , for that reason all the ?????

Off to the hospital now see you on Sunday.

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       Sunday April 5 2009

We just had the nicest temperature  here 2 days ago with on some places 21 dgr. , called the first warm day of the year, which is 11 dgr. higher then normal. So not bad. The weekend is/was a bit less “flash” but no worries, still better then normal.

From yesterday onwards  light air-crafts are not welcome anymore to fly in the area’s around Schiphol Airport. Due to the compulsory transponders in ALL planes, the people on the tower see so much “spots” on their radar, that they are scared to loose the overview. As safety is an issue here, the Dutch Aviation Authorities have decided for this rule. According to the the Dutch Inspection, the “TOWER” has not prepared it self in time! This might mean it is just a temporarily solution. We will wait and see!

Nitra in Slovakia,  Unterwoessen in South Germany and Austria have also put their long distance flights on the OLC, meaning they enjoy the great weather as well. The Austrian Grand Prix Gliding is by the way  from  16-24 Mai 2009 in on the airfield of Feldkirchen.  One of the 15 pilots attending is my good friend Wolfgang Janowitsch.

You might still wait  on your glider coming back from either Africa or Australia, but you can book already again on the sites for places in the containers for the 2009/2010 season. If you want to go flying in Bitterwasser be aware, that the site and internet adress has changed; booking@bitterwasser.eu  to reach the Bitterwasser Lodges and Flying Centres and to read more about Bitterwasser see for  www.bitterwasser.eu
The rest of the sites from Corowa, Benalla, Naromine and Tocumwal are the same, though the Riverina Gliding Club at Tocumwal, has a new site, stil under construction, but you can find their new web adress at ; www.srgc.com.au

” We “can nearly not live anymore, as glider pilots without the OLC. How did “we ” do that in the past???? I just read on the OLC site that you can now download your flight also with your mobile phone. In the past you had to bring your camera in and your barograph, then this all had to be checked, sometimes during WGC’s,  we had hot discussions about
” is the TP yes, or no ,or just on the picture.”
Now it is soooo easy. If you have not read it , here it is and I quote the OLC;

“Upload flightlogs with your mobile phone!!
As a result of the fruitful co-operation between  FLARM and OLC, the flights recorded by FLARM systems can be easily uploaded to the global OLC server just after landing.
You only need a mobile phone with an internet browser , supporting data upload and a micro SD/mini SD/SD cardslot.”
For how it works look at Latest news from April 5 on OLC.

About 20 years ago “our” Crown Prince   Willem Alexander started a relation with AMREF Flying Doctors by flying as a volunteer for this organisation. Yesterday they , [his wife Maxima was with him ] visited a theatre premiere, about how young people escape povertry in Africa, initiated by AMREF. The Prince still flies a lot. On most of the trips they do with their own plane [  a Fokker 28 ???] , he sits in the left chair!

Sun is shining,  so off I go into the garden. For sure pilots will have fun this afternoon as , when the fog disappears skies will be clear with later CLOUDS!!!!
Still no news from the EAC, but no news might be good news!

See you on Wednesday, a few days before Easter, for sure a busy weekend.
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       April 1 2009

No it is NO April joke  on this first day of the month of April, the weather is really good here in Holland!!! With an over 500 km. task flown in Holland last Monday, we may say ; great spring weather! One of the young Dutch pilots flew till N.E of Oerlinghausen in Germany starting at Hoogeveen in a discus 2 A. Looking up from my chair in the garden I could see the great clouds and imagine how happy the pilots must have been over the last couple of days.
Terlet the National Gliding Center was busy , as well as Venlo in the S. of Holland. It is so good to hear the pilots say how happy they are with their first flights. And as you know our country is flat, flat as a pancake!!!!
Also from Soesterberg a great flight on Sunday. Bart and former Dutch team pilot Sikko flew an impressive flight, with even more interesting weather, as showers and a not to high cloud-base. Still 361 km.
One of our former “helpers” at Sportavia , Bert from Belgium flew a 299 km task in his standard libelle.
So let’s hope this great soaring weather will continue over summer and everywhere in Europe!!!

Europe is more  and more active in the air. Nearly from every country pilots enjoy their soaring. The UK with very nice flights over the Scottish mountains and from Dunstable and Lasham , where good old friend Roy flew a nice triangle in his ASG 29. The Swiss, the pilots from Italy and Spain , the Germans not only in France but also in their home country, it is ALL happening!!!!!

A few weeks ago  I wrote about the 6th WWGC in Sweden in 2011. Not to forget that before Sweden the next 5th WWGC will be in Szeded in Hungary from July 25-August 08 in 2009. They will be flown in 3 classes, club,standard and 15 m. Just a few months away!!
Winter is over !  And only in Holland “we” used 105.000 ton of salt to keep the roads ice-free. In 2005/06 they used 124.000 ton, but that is an all-time -record!

That ‘s it for now   the sun is shining brightly and also for non-flyers , this weather is perfect, so a few hours outside is lovely. By the way……..

The Mai issue of Gliding International is nearly finished. It will be the largest one produced till now with 72 pages. Some items;FAA report on Steve Fossett’s accident……….glasses;you can actually see thermals wih this pair……..full report on the IGC meeting in Lausanne and more…….more…..
Look for info on;www.internationalgliding.com
I will come back on it later too.

See you on sunday, European weather will be great till that day!!! The OLC will be full!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn        Sunday March 29 2009

And…the day  of the opening of the Grand Prix season with as usual ,the first race in Melbourne.
Sorry but I have to start with this as it was just fantastic to see this first race.
Jens Button from the UK was the winner and for half a year,  he thought he was out of business when Honda , due to the financial crisis in the world gave up.
Ross Brawn, the guy behind the 7 world titles from Michael Schumacher bought it with “some help of his friends-one is Virgin , with Richard Branson!] and called the new team Brawn GP.
With Rubens Barrichello as team mate in runner up position , this BRAWN GP team wrote history, to win as new team, in remarkable one-two-style its FIRST Grand Prix.
They drive with a Mercedes Benz motor, so they deserve credit too!!!!
In the end the numbers 2 and 3 Kubica and Vettel,were fighting for best place behind Button, collided, tried to continue but had to give up loosing a certain 2 and 3 position!!!
” I am a fool’, was what one of the drivers cried out loud on the radio!!
The race ended behind the safety car,but even with that it was a spectacular first race of the season.

Great fun also for pilots  who went to the wave camp in Norway. One of them Robert Danewid , director of the WGC in Eskilstuna.
He went to this Vaga Wave Camp in Norway and just had a fantastic week.
He was so kind to send me some of his pictures and I will share them with you; it looks VERY cold to me , but it seems to have been  super!
look at ;  www.wavecamp.no  for info about the week and to 
 pisaweb.google.com/robert.danewid/Vaga2009  for the pictures! Thanks Robert!
  Enjoy!!!!

Wave in the mountains  is still fantastic, all pilots seem to be happy with it.
Another 2 1000 km. flights were flown by 2 German pilots last Thursday from  Vinon. 
Both flying a Discus 2/18m. one with turbo, setting their task up North passing places as Saint Auban and Serres la Batie.

Luckily still some flights  in warm areas too,  as Australia , far in autumn, stilll enjoys good soaring on the East Coast with great triangles up to nearly 600 km in an LS 1 f.
Even the “good old Mosquito” made a very nice triangle of 554 km. from Jondaryan.
But…also South Africa still enjoys good weather with a 371 km flight from Orient flown in an Astir CS.
Those “oldies” still do a great job.

For the first time  in 19 years a plane from Iraqi Airways has flown to Europe. It flew from Baghdad via Athens to Stockholm.
In the future they seem to start a co-operation with Air France-KLM.

The sun is shining,  the rain has disappeared , huge white …and some dark clouds in the sky, time to enjoy some fresh air on this sunday.
Still a bit tired from the time difference, ONE HOUR, so I better be careful the next 5 days. You remember heart problems and accidents!!!???Just be careful too!!
 Still NO news from the EAC!!!

Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn      March 25 2009

Would you be AS unhappy  and sad, as the members of the EAC,  when you would hear , absolutely unexpected, in the beginning of the season , totally ready to go-and-fly, that you are NOT allowed to do so????
I received from one of my friend ‘s Peter, member from the club [ thank you, Peter!] a copy of an article in one of the papers on Monday morning, in the Eindhoven regio.
It says that a team from members of the Aeroclub and Defense are going to investigate if gliding still “might “be possible. In the article the president of the Aeroclub Ben Zwaga said that the negotiations were ” constructive and profound” and the lieutenant -colonel van Wieringen says,  that they try to find solutions  ” in good consultation with the areoclub “.
So I hope there is still HOPE for the 144 active members from the club !!!!
They just unfortunately,  missed out on some nice Spring days here in Holland as the thermal activity was even “crazy and bumpy” on the ground, as I personally could feel!!! Table cloth, cookies and pillows went with the wind and then…it was silent again and I could start cleaning with a smile. Last Sunday afternoon the clouds were “running around like hell” , I observed it and it really looked interesting-wild and some of them had some kind of lenti-tops.

My young Belgian friends  Bert jr. and Tijl Schmelzer had a good sunday too, flying 350 and 330 km., from one of my most favourite airfields,  Keiheuvel in Belgium not so far over the Dutch border.  Good practise for Tijl for the JWGC in Finland and  Bert jr . who will go to the Europeans and I even think Tijl will go too when the JWGC is over.
More young pilots happily flying as German pilot Patrick Gai, had a nice 330 km. flight from Serres la Batie .
It is great to see that so many young pilots, flying or having flown the JWGC are so active already and eager to fly in the beginning of the season.
Even better to see is , that still enough young people like gliding!! The Bayerische Meisterschaft der Junioren in Ansbach from August  12-21 2009 has already 45 competitors in 2 classes! Several young ladies amongst them. Cool!

Finland has 2 very interesting competitions BEFORE the JWGC; the Vesiveemah open from Mai 16 till 23 , which is called the beginning of the Finnish season with several top pilots attending . The airfield  is 100 km. East from Rayskala and 130 km. North of Helsinki.
The other competition is just the week before the JWGC from June 13-18  in Rayskala and called Jannen Kisat.
From both competitions you can find more info on www.jwgc2009.fi and the respectively home pages announced there.

Just received a mail  from my friend Teresa from Sweden. While we are sitting in the rain, combined with hail, tough wind and thunderstorms, the Swedish friends around Stockholm have -10 dgr C. and this morning 2 cm of fresh snow. You have to be a real Swedish optimist and I know Teresa is such a person, to see the BEST in it; “..the snow came yesterday from some nice fresh looking overdeveloped cumulus..” , so the new season is nearly ready to start in Scandinavia too.
 By the way the WWGC are in 2011 in Arboga 30 km. West of Eskilstuna. Teresa will be one of the competitors!!

Talking about Sweden,I just read in the paper that Swedish professors have showed that , with the change of time here from winter to summer, which will happen this weekend, [ we are going forward one hour , down under they go backwards and of course from summer to winter ] , the rate of heart infarcts increases with 5 % in the first week. So be careful and ” do not belong to that group ” in the first week!!!!
It also says that a Dutch female professor in chrono-biology is against changing time for this reason, she claims it is unhealthy, but also causes traffic accidents due to the fact that people are out of their rhythm.
Another professor from Groningen , investigating the 24-hour rhythm by people and animals says , that specially evening-people have problems. Lucky I am a ‘morning-girl! ”
[source www.AD.nl]

So looking ahead at an interesting weekend. I must admit that I do have problems with that 1 hour difference!!
See you on Sunday with hopefully good news about the EAC. I heard another meeting will be tomorrow!
Cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       Sunday March 22 2009

It seems soaring is not yet over Down Under, as pilots still manage to fly great long distance flights in autumn. “Good old ” Terry Bellair,made a wonderfull 4 TP flight , looking more like a big triangle, from 624 km. over places as Deniliquin, {in  NSW} a lovely town N.W  from Tocumwal, Swann Hill {NSW}a bit more “empty” with scrub and more to the W. and to S. from Raywood {VICT}his home-airfield. I have written more about Terry, a lovely guy who loves his long distance flying in his DG 400/ 17m..This year he flew from Raywood [close to Bendigo] ,Narromine and he was one of the lucky ones flying in that very good weather period in January in Corowa. I think this was his first time in Corowa, so for sure he has good memories on that time. Terry just missed out on 1000 km then.
George Lee made , on the other site of Australia, a good triangle  from his own, after him called airfield;614 in a nimbus 4DM.
One of the ladies flying at Sportaviation in Tocumwal , Sigrid from ShangHai ,is loving her time flying ultra light [FOX] and LS4 for a week. I remember she loves swimming in the Murray River as well and not to forget swimming at Ulupna Island in the same river, where the koala’s check on you. A real OZ holiday! She was a frequent flyer at Sportavia in the past, great to see her back in Toc!!
From friends not involved in gliding , I heard that the temperature in Toc is still 33 dgr and it looks good for the upcoming week too.

Still no good news  from the EAC. The gliding club from Eindhoven [Holland] for 77 years , has triggered all kind of people to write in the local paper, to support gliding, but till now it has had no result. We can only wait!
Well known European editor and book writer Ary Ceelen , he must be in his eighties now, even mingled in this writing, asking when the field really has to be closed , where the alternative is to start flying NOW, as the season starts. Other writers  support gliding, a sport they do not do ,but look at as a safe and “green ” sport.

Ingo Renner  and his wife Judy are on a well deserved holiday in Tasmanie! They never had time to do something different then visiting an airfield wherever in the world. This is their first holiday NOT at an airfield and I wish them a lovely time!!!
Ingo normally visited before he retired a couple of years ago , Oerlinghausen in Germany, Sondrio in Italy and La Motte in France, but this was not a holiday but work for him as instructor for Oerlinghausen. Maybe a working -holiday!?
In between the job as secretary for the Murray Border Flying Club goes on for Judy , as I just received a tax invoice to renew my membership for 2010.

This world unfortunately  has more and more weirdo’s. What about the “lady” from Samoa, who got a baby in the toilet of a plane while flying to Auckland. One hour after the landing in New Zealand , the baby was found by the cleaners in the rubbish bin from the toilet !!!!Tragic in ALL ways!!!!!

Spring is really” visiting” Holland and parts of Europe. The blue skies invite to sit outside and just enjoy the nice weather, but temperatures are still low as in 10 dgr. , but out of the wind in the sun it feels like summer.I even felt thermal activity while sitting in my garden this afternoon. They might fly here in Holland on this Thursday. And yes they did!!!!
It is good to hear and read that wherever they fly , pilots are very pleased with their first flight of the season.
Hope this is an indication for the rest of 2009/2010!!!
The astronomical,{ is this the correct word?} spring has started yesterday on March 21 and we could feel here and see it all over Europe , as for the first time this year more then 200 flights have been added to the OLC list. To be correct,  yesterday 462 flights all over the world. So soaring has really started and a lot of pilots do not even  “use” the OLC , but still fly  with pleasure, without bothering about reading loggers etc. It means it was busy in the air!
But….no flights from Eindhoven…….a bad sign!?

Emirates flight EK 407 on its way from Melbourne to Dubai with 225 passengers  was less lucky hitting with the tail of the Airbus A 340 the tarmac of the runway. He started   ” a bit ” to steep! After dumping the fuel , the plane landed safe, however with smoke in the cabin but nobody was hurt.[source ; www.telegraaf.nl]

Today is the last [ 5 in a row ] of the very nice sunny days here in Holland, tomorrow we will have hail and wind and rain and only “a bit of sunshine”. Spring is coming,  but not yet totally here.
In 3 months I will be in Finland and I know the TEAM is working very hard to make the JWGC an unforgettable one!
In Mai the Dutch Nationals will be flown with many top pilots and this year I can go there!

See you on Wednesday
cheers Ritz

Alphen aan den Rijn       Wednesday March 18 2009

Slowly more wellknown European destinations for cross country soaring wake up from their winter-sleep. Fuentemilanos and Rieti showed the first nice cross country flights and in a few weeks/months, it will be pleasantly busy there again.I know several people who are ready  to go to either Fuente or Rieti, some have been in Fuente for over 20 times!!!Most pilots ,specially in Fuente, stay for a longer time , as 1, 2 or even 3 months, to not miss out on any good soaring weather. For sure lot’s of 1000 km flights will be flown again and lots of other first achievements! I will keep an eye on it.

This week the famous  and very wellknown Art and Antique Fair TEFAF is held in Maastricht in the south of Holland. From all over Europe people fly in with private jets to visit,  even in these difficult economic times.
Yesterday was for some guests a bit more difficult then they planned. Due to , what they say a ” steering-failure”  from the pilot of a Cargo Lux 747-400 while taxiing , the nose wheel , did not stay on the tarmac but ended up in the grass on the site, meaning the plane was stuck and the airport closed for several hours.
After unloading 100 tons of flowers and vegies from Kenia, they brought it back with some “help from friends” on the runway then to the hangar for a check, luckily nothing was damaged and later in the day, they could still depart.
The “poor” guests arriving in their jet had to go to a small airfield over the border in Belgium and their taxi had to drive a bit further then planned.

Several European pilots, most of  Germany however, enjoy [wave] soaring in France at the moment. All well known places as , Saint Auban, Sisteron,Vinon, Serres la Batie, La Motte  [where Ingo Renner started the season in the past with club members from Oerlinghausen] Fayence and Gap have their guests.

A very weird story  today in the Philippines where a plane with 44 passengers and  busy to land on the runway, had to make a touch and go, as….a car was driving on the runway. A young man , son of an airport-official, [ read the airport-director!]was teaching his girlfriend how to drive a car!!!!!!!!!!!!

A very bitter pill for the EAC,the gliding club from Eindhoven in the south of Holland, where I was a member in the past, after being a member of the ZES, the Eindhoven student aeroclub where I learned how to fly in a Rhonlerche and went solo in a Grunau Baby!![1967]
The EAC is a  very nice club and investing since years, a lot of time in cross country flying.
2 Years ago they celebrated their 75 th anniversary, they have about 150 members ready to fly and last week , THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON, they got the message that gliding was immediately prohibited for as they claim, safety reasons by the commandant of the airforce department!! Nothing ever happened ,as in unsafe at the gliding strip on this military part of the field and the club invested a lot of money in making things even safer now that Eindhoven Airport, which is more or less connected to the military base,  is a more busy airfield in Holland.
Negotiations are still going on, but even I can’t believe this!!!Will investigate it as this is not good!!  But….as I just heard from a friend, it does not look too good!!!!CAN’T believe it!

Just to inform you, as I think this is very important for you as computer-user. I just received this message from one of my Australian readers [thanks!!!!], so it is recent news!

See you next sunday, Ritz

TREVOR SMALLWOOD
BRISBANE OFFICE
Tel   +61(0) 7 32221347  Ext 17347  Fax  +61(0)  7 32221219
www.afp.gov.au < http://www.afp.gov.au >
PLEASE INFORM EVERYONE
Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will not be able to fix it!
If you get an email along the lines of ‘Osama Bin Laden Captured’
or ‘Osama Hanged’ don’t open the attachment.
This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe.
Be considerate & send this warning to  whomever you know.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:
You should be alert during the next days:
Do not open any message with an attached filed called
‘Invitation’ regardless of who sent it.
It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C of your computer.
This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts.
It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.
If you receive a mail called ‘invitation’, though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately.
This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.
This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.
This virus simply  destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where  the vital information is kept.

Alphen aan den Rijn     Sunday March 15 2009

Did you discover that I write a midweek blog now too? If not just continue after reading this blog! Of course only when you are interested!
I have a bit more time now that I have retired, so another blog is easy enough now ….and I still like writing.

Last Wednesday I lay down in a nice hot sun …but with factor 10 on my body. Yes I know the dangers! The skies looked great for gliding and yes in the evening I saw that Soesterberg was active again with soaring in Holland. It is not active anymore as an American military “airfield”. It was closed not long ago with a solemn ceremony. This week I saw in the paper the new development-plans for the area and…I heard that gliding fits in the plans , which is great for the Amsterdam Club of Gliding.
In the past the medicals for lots of pilots have been done at Soesterberg.

Same day Vinon-Aosta-Vinon was flown by Tobias Welsch in a discus 2T; 1.117 km. A jo-jo with 5 TP’s. Great! From France to Italy over Switzerland and back home, WOW!
Nice speed with 105 km.p/h. but he was high up to 6000 m, must have been awfully cold, even with hot clothes and boots [ hopefully with electrical heating in them????] and……. with those oxygen masks you never know if the face around the mouth freezes. For sure he said WOW too, but I hope he was comfortable during those 10 hours and 34 minutes!!!!
I loved Aosta, not so much for the flying that time, the boy’s did their thing, flying in wave as high as the could gaining their 3000 and 5000 m. [ and came back with a frozen mouth!] and the girls went up high to Pila for some good skiing or sun-baking! When the boy’s were ready they flew “low” and fast over “our mountain ” , to tell us it was time for apres-ski. This was in the 70thies!
Several clubs have a [wave-] camp now in Vinon , Saint Auban , Sisteron or Serres La Batie.

Talking about Uvalde brings also back memories on Minden. In fact the 1991 WGC was supposed to be flown in Minden, ” we” all practised there. But fires in that area and the possibility for the huge planes from the fire brigade to ALWAYS be on duty while a fire was burning, stopped the glider-pilots from going there. A temporary closed airfield during a final glide was “impossible” for a WGC!
We all moved to Uvalde in Texas and had a great time there too.
By the way I was told that Soar Minden ‘s owner Tony Sabino is trying to find a silent or active business partner; look at www.soarminden.com or email to Tony at soarminden@powernet.net if you are interested. Great place, nice people, high mountains , wave , thermals , so a top location! If you always wanted to be part of the organization of a wellknown soaring place, go for it, this is your chance!

It is nice to see that the USA has a real competiton for “oldies”! Yes in Seminole Lake the seniors are having a ball flying good distances with good weather. Different gliders, different clubs, it is all happening in Seminole Lake and what great stories they will have after flying in the bar!!!That’s the good thing from soaring, you can still belong to the best long distance flyers in the world when you are 70 years old. In fact many of my friends are 70 and + and they still love it and ….in my eyes they are not OLD and do not look old!!!!!!!!! But most of them have flown nearly all their life, so they are very experienced.On the other hand some have given up because of their age or a “problem” like diabetes. It is all very subjective.

Don’t worry about the “Pound” [1.12 Euro] for the toilet in the Ryan Air planes. They now claim “it is a joke”! I don’t see the point of it, but I found it weird!!!

And then ….after writing about 70 year old pilots I receive this message from OZ. Is n’t it wonderfull!!!! I am very proud on him too!
G’DAY RITZ
THE PILOT WHO FLEW THE 1000KM FAI TRIANGLE AT NARROMINE IN A LAK17/18, WAS BILL HATFEILD VH-OBH ,IE OLD BILL HATFEILD, AS EVERYONE IN NSW AND QLD KNOWS HIM. HE IS A MEMBER OF KINGAROY SOARING CLUB AND HE JUST TURNED 70 THIS YEAR, HE COMPLETED THE TRIANGLE AFTER DROPPING IN FOR A DAY WHILE RETURNING FROM THE BENALLA NATIONALS.WE ARE VERY PROUD OF HIM.
REGARDS MICK SLY

Jondaryan has great autumn weather, flights up to 600 km. are still flown here on the east part of OZ. Several of my friends are members of the club at Jondaryan and I feel happy for them that they have such a long season. In fact you can fly all year around from this airfield.
It is very sad however that on the same East coast this terrible environmental disaster with spilling oil happened after a Chinese ship lost , in the big storm, some containers with ” dangerous goods”,[ they have not been found yet ] and 250.000 liters of oil. Lot’s of people try to help the animals covered in thick “ugly looking” oil , specially the pelicans who are living on Moreton Island.

Shocked as most of you I presume, I was with another waste-less attack on innocent people by a young “derailed” person. This time in Germany where a 17 year old young man, went back to the school where he passed his exams a  year before, went into the class rooms killing 9 ,14/15 year old students [8 girls and 1 boy] and 3 female teachers. On his way to escape to another town he killed another 3 people, is then shot by the police in his legs and commits suicide…..!!!!!
And then you think as parents, that your child is in a safe environment at school…!!!!

Well, as I love nearly ALL sports , I was very pleased with the great results from the Dutch ice-speed- skaters in Richmond {Canada}, close to Vancouver where next year the Olympics will be held. It was a late night , I looked till 2.30 AM , so as the sun is shining brightly, I go and do some more sleeping outside! Feels good, SPRING IS REALLY coming now!

Enjoy your week, see you on Wednesday. Ritz