Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday March 11 2012
I think of my Japanese friends today!
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
It is REALLY spring now in The Netherlands. Spring starts here when the first egg of a peewit has been found and that happened yesterday!!! In Friesland! A traditional ceremony goes with finding it! So we can relax now as spring is here!
Temperatures will be good as well up to 16 dgr. C. next week!And the sun is shining brightly now!
Slowly the soaring action has started and the first over 500 km. flights have been flown in Europe. Wave and ridge-soaring surely made French pilot Robert Pratt happy and he should with a nice 841 km flight in the ARCUS M from St. Gaudens.
Also a nice flight from the Hahnweide in the Nimbus 4 from young German topper Patrick Puskeiler. He was a sportsoldier in 2009.
Could not find any Dutch flights on the OLC, but I know they made some starts at several clubs. Belgium had already some flights as well. One from Bert who worked for us in the past in Australia . He flew his Standard Libelle in the end of February over 123 km. using the first “streets” .
Slowly the soaring season has come to an end in Australia ,but still great soaring in the East and West. While NSW suffers from the worst flooding,[ Corowa and Tocumwal are surrounded by flooding as well, ] Queensland ,in the East, had some great flights yesterday in blue conditions with 543 km. in an LS 8 from Warwick as the best. Great flights from Jondaryan down to Warwick or from Warwick up to Jondaryan.
In the West the weather is good as well. “The best day in 5 years “, one pilot mentioned! What about a 500 FAI triangle in an LS 3 from Beverley, [ about 130 km. East of Perth] this late in the season, it is autumn over there!? And a 500 FAI triangle by 2 St. Jantars?? And…572 in a PIK 20 also 500k FAI Triangle.
And 614 in total but also a 500 km. FAI triangle in a St.Cirrus ????? Good on them!!!
BEVERLEY in W.A. courtesy; SoaringCafe issue 2011-March 8
And here is the reason WHY it is so good!!! News from Vanessa! Thanks!
Record breaking heat wave for Perth.
—” Hope your weather is warming up – I wish ours would cool down!
Perth looks set to break a record this weekend – an eighth heat wave (3 consecutive days of 35 degrees or more) this summer season – even though it’s not summer anymore! Yesterday was 38, today 40 (it is still 38 degrees while I am typing this at 5.15pm), forecast 40 for Sunday and 37 Monday.—“
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/03/09/3450127.htm
So we might look forward to more nice long flights this Sunday or tomorrow!
Professionnel Team Captain and trainer /coach, Uli Gmelin from Germany, has since last weekend, settled down with his Sportsoldiers in Puimoisson in France for the annual practise and team building-time. Nice to read the gratitude from the pilots he flies with in the ARCUS T. The mountain-area is of course fantastic with thermals, wave and ridge soaring. The pilots share practise in a double seater , with flying single seaters as ASW 24 , Discus or LS 8. They stay till March 31!!!
For 2012 there are 6 new Sportsoldiers and one of them is Max Lecker who keeps their website about what they are doing [ www.sportsoldaten.de ] and Felix Bauer made this brilliant picture. Got permission to publish it from Max and Felix. THANKS to Benjamin as well for his intervention!
Courtesy; Felix Bauer. Worth to klick on and enlarge!
Other top pilots as Tassilo Bode , Reinhard Schramme and Bernd Weber [Schempp-Hirth] fly the ARCUS, at Saint Auban [ a bit more to the NW of Puimoisson] with in the back also pilots who want to practise mountain flying and wave. Also here pilots who fly single seaters with enthusiastic comments as: “Hold on…from -12 m/s to + 11 m/s in 2 seconds!!!!!! WOW!
Those Germans are doing a sterling job in training. Lot’s of flights from Puimoisson and St. Auban on the OLC.
Some of our Dutch pilots soon move to France as well.
Talking about mountains here is some news from the Mount Beauty Gliding Club in Victoria Australia. Also over-there lives the OLC. In their latest newsletter on the the subject ” internet ” they write about the best airfield on the OLC in 2012 and though they were happy with their 8th place Australia-only and 12th World wide, they ascertain that they are still far behind the Geelong Gliding Club I wrote you about, a few blogs ago.
For Easter they organize a Fly Inn and members from Victoria but also from South Australia and NSW have announced their arrival. For more CLUB-news , also about the Alpine Flyer their monthly newsbulletin…….www.mtbeauty.com/gliding
Next week I get a splendid picture from wave over Mount Beauty.
The Mount Beauty area.
To finish something totally different and you might find me a bit chauvinistic, but it is more pride! From 2500 different pieces of cheese “our” Dutch cheese was the BEST in the WORLD. I did not even know a Cheese WC existed , but it does and was this year in Wisconsin in the USA. Love cheese , so I am going to buy “the best one”, straight away.
Cu most probably on Sunday. Have a very busy week ahead with also on Saturday a farewell drink with the editor of the Thermiek, the Dutch Gliding Magazine. He retires after doing a great job. The Dutch Gliding Association offers him a reception and I was invited too.
The Magazine exists now for 48 years and I hope it continues. Will keep you informed.
MARCH 11…..One year Fukushima ! One year ago that terrible earth quake…. and that deadly tsunami ….and a nuclear disaster, we not know now , what happens to the people, like the fire brigade, in a few years. My thoughts are with my Japanese friends.
Cheers Ritz