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