Alphen aan den Rijn      Sunday August 30 2009

I was wrong with the date from the 18 m. Nationals. Sorry about that, I really hoped for one more day with exciting flying, but the last flying-day was the 25th , the comps went till the 26 th and on that day was the prize giving and….that confused me !!! So congratulations to Ricky who won with 43 points on runner up Giorgio , who was 10 points ahead of the number 3 Luciano. 
For sure this competition -win was an “homage”  to Adriana ,Ricky’s  mum who died recently of cancer. Great competition, great winner!
And….talking about the 26th ,…that was another great day with a 773 km flight flown from Rieti, best distance in the World’s OLC for that day.
Did you ever hear of a competition where on every of the SEVEN competition days  a speed of  more then 138 km./h was flown  ???? If yes ,please let me know!
So it stands; Rieti is the mecca for gliding!

Slowly the season seems to be over.  In Holland however we go to 27 dgr. again on Tuesday . Pilots have had a fantastic year of soaring, with unbelievable distances flown also from Holland and a few even very late in the season [August] . Some pilots are tired from the busy season, some NEVER get tired and are ready “to wash the glider and the trailer”  , to ship them to other continents. Yes, in September the first gliders “disappear” from Europe on their way to Africa and Australia. And both parts of the world are ready to receive their guests.

Summer 2009 was a good one as said!  Now on Tuesday the metereological autumn starts , we can look back on great summer -weather ,also for most countries for soaring. In Holland, we had the 9th warm summer in a row above the long-time-average!
The highest temperature in Holland was 37 and during the night 22 , which is very unusual. We had less rain, 185 mm against 220 mm normal and most rain fell in july. So no complaints. With 67 days over 20 dgr. and 25 over 25 dgr. we had 715 hours of sunshine , while the long time average is 591. So you are up-to-date!

Back after the weekend on Wednesday with more news , as I have a guest now and leave for the Southern part of Holland.Enjoy!!!
Hopefully Ricky has time to look back for us on the 18 m. Nationals !

Cheers Ritz