ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN OCTOBER 31 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
Pretty shocked seeing the devastation after Sandy had hit parts of the North East Coast, specially between Washington and New York and killing several people , at-least 45 at this stage and not to forget the 61 in the Caribbean before.
For the first time in the 108 year history the underground in New York was full of water [” the NY – subway-system has never had such a devastating disaster”] and flooding was terrible everywhere specially in New Jersey, also in the old famous areas of Manhattan [ “rivers flowing through the streets”] and in Delaware , where I spend a few summers with my kids. Fires, exposions by blown up transformers, no power for over 8 million houses/businesses, no public transport , no stock market and costs estimated on 1 milliard a day, that is TERRIBLE!!!
Also one person killed in Canada [Toronto] due to Sandies vicious wind-power.
And…it is not over yet as they expect 1 meter of snow in Tenessee.
Good luck to all my friends living in the stricken areas in the USA and Canada, hope they do not suffer too much and stay/are safe. All I contacted are OK!!!!
Not all of them were so lucky as you can see on the pictures from one of my FB friends, Dianne, “the effects of Sandy the storm – my back yard with two tall evergreens down. One on the house and one in the yard.”
When you see these pictures hear about how many people did not survive and how the economy is hit , it is a bit weird that some here in Holland are worried about the fact if the NY Marathon will be on this weekend!? Of course they practised hard, are ready to jump in the plane [they fly again I heard on the news, only not to La Guardia yet and from Schiphol the first 2 planes will leave today] and most probably they just run, but still,…..
Some say they have never flown cross country in November here in Holland or Belgium, both with their W. border on the Nord sea , some did and had a good time.
Last weekend ,when the wintertime started with minus 10 in some places , while it one week earlier still was 13 dgr. in the night, some pilots did their best. 5 Flights from Holland on Sunday and 2 above 200 km. but one using the engine to go to the nice weather and the other could not make the last 50 km. so “motored” home as well, but still enough to really enjoy, on maybe the very last day.
In Belgium, Saturday was the day to go up, with 3 under 100 km. flights [ 2 in Libelle] but also here, GREAT FUN even,….with the first official out-landing by one of the 3! Of course that IS SOMETHING even in a Janus C FG!!
Tomorrow November starts let’s wait and see if soaring x-country is still possible.
Australia has of course already great spring weather, one place better then the other but still. Young and talented Matthew Scutter flew 749,28 km. from good old Gawler in the West in an LS 4, last Monday. Nice speed as well with 117 km./h. on the clock. He flew high up North and started with blue conditions but on the way back he had cu’s as well, due to “a bit of convergence”.
On Tuesday this nice weather also reached Tocumwal and Corowa where one of the owners Francesco decided to “use the first great day, for a nice first flight from 588 km [500FAI triangle] in the 21 m. ASH 31 from Corowa Airfield.
On November 1 they expect the 2 containers with gliders in Melbourne and about one week later they can fly!!!!
Good old Anders is already in Corowa preparing his glider for the new season. Have fun Anders!
Ian Cohn , who is so kind to keep me informed about Mount Beauty, had a good day flying there 240 km. in the ASK 21.
Tocumwal pilot Robert Brodie had a 400 km triangle [460 km. in total] in the ASW 28/18m.
And today even Eddie , who runs Sportaviation in Tocumwal, took the glider out for a nice flight with mate Terry in the Janus CT RG;418 km [335 FAI triangle]
And kilometer -eater Terry Bellair added another nice long flight in his DG 400/17m. from Raywood , this time also a triangle [570 km. but 650 in total] and as he said he ” achieved an average climb rate in the blue of 4.6 kt. up to 10.000 ft.” Not bad for OCTOBER!!!!
At Taupo, talking about New Zealand now, not far from that fantastic lake I visited 2 years ago, a competition is on it’s way with 15 pilots. The 2012 Central Plateau is flown between October 27 and November 4 in a handicapped open class. Day 1 was cancelled due to a very wet front passing by, but as I saw myself in NZ , the weather can change quickly and that happened on Monday. However…a 15 knt Easterly did n’t promis any goods.
They set a 2 hour AAT on Monday, but the best flight was 144 km. in a Duo Discus ,[124 points] the winner with one point more was an LS 6, with 76 km..[125 points]
A 3 hour AAT on flying-day 2 , but only ONE pilot finished after 234 km.
7 from 14 Over 100 km., so a valid day!
Yesterday was cancelled as well.
On Saturday the Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix [18m.] will start in South Africa’s Potchefstroom with 17 pilots, with 7 indeed from SA. Further on 4 toppers from Germany [ amongst them Holger Karow and Tassillo Bode and Robert Schroeder] , 2 from the UK, [Andy Davis one of them] 1 from Czech Rep. and1 from Belgium [Patrick Stouffs] and Japan [Mac Ichikawa] and John Coutts from NZ. From these 17 pilots , 8 flew the WGC in Uvalde. It is nearly a JS1 competition as 11 from 17 gliders are JS 1.
Did I show you last time the hail , here is a recent picture from Jeroen [via FB] from Holland who flies in Potchefstroom at the moment. It clearly cleared!!!
Schiphol Airport has had in 2011 around 50 million international visitors a new record and it looks like 2012 will be even better.From those 50 million,28 million had not Schiphol as final destination but Schiphol was a “hub” for Europe specially the UK and Germany. So Schiphol more and more seems to be THE HUB for European travellers.
The WWGC has as I mentioned already before, 2 countries who participate for the first time in a WWGC; The Netherlands and the USA. And,..maybe even more “new” countries will be there.
I wrote you already about the sponsoring by lot’s of people donating money for Sarah from the USA, to participate in the 32d WGC in Chaves, where the organizers now mention that they provide tow ropes and help with cars as it seems VERY difficult to find cars with tow bars.
The story even gets nicer more like a fairy tale, as now a former UK world champion “has made a Libelle available for Sarah and somebody else has donated his, soon to expire frequent flyer points, enabling her to buy her flight ticket already!!!!” [source Hangar Soaring]
More about power- girls- in- soaring, in Sunday’s SoaringCafe.
Having said that, we do have power-girls in Holland as well and 2 of them Natasja , yes the one who is going to participate in the WWGC for Holland and she also was the CD from the last Dutch Nationals and Aukje, are opening their office at Terlet on Friday. They started FLIGHT DECK BUSINESS CLUB and are going to do PR, organise network- drinks and business events and gliding-arrangements.
Aukje works full time and Natasja, who loves her own long-time-job , will do as much as she can in the evening and weekends!!!!CHAPEAU!
It seems business is going VERY well and they deserve that.
One of the events , in co-operation with just AIRBORNE.com and the University of Delft, will be the National Congress in Delft at the University called “Passion for Flying” and a famous Dutch TV Programming and Positioning Consultant AND pilot, Leo van der Goot will be the talk- hos-t and- forum -discussion- leader on Saturday December 1.
One of the speakers will be Tim Kuijpers the Junior World Champion, studying now at EPST to become an airline pilot. Another speaker is top pilot and director of the KNVvL Ronald Termaat.
Try to go there .
CU you next Sunday, busy week ahead.
Cheers Ritz