Alphen aan den Rijn          Friday evening  October 22 2010             ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

It took the jury of 12 last Wednesday , 4 hours to decide that 26 year old Lady E. is guilty of murdering  her friend and parachute colleague in 2006 . Though there is and was no proof, the jury thought she was the only one who could have done it ,as she had the knowledge, the opportunity and….. according to psychiatrists there is something wrong with her personality.
On Thursday the judge and jury sentenced her to 30 years in prison, which ends up normally with good behaviour with 10 years. With that,  one of the most sensational court cases in the lower countries of Europe  finished….we hope as there is 15 days time to fight the decision.

Yesterday the weather in Tocumwal  was good again for over 300 km. flights. Corowa starts in about 3 weeks , when all containers have arrived , have been checked by quarantine  and the first  pilots have arrived. The estimated arrival time of the containers in Melbourne is on November 1 and if all goes well, the first flying day will be on November 9.
It looks like a very busy African and Australian season again, which is great.

The Formula 1 will be this weekend at the brand new Korean International Circuit. Practise today showed Formula 1 Championshipsleader , Mark Webber as the fastest driver. Enjoy the race.

Ever heard of West Coast Soaring???  I had not! Shame on me! But it is in Holland and pilots fly alongside the dunes  of the Nordsea from Castricum . A tremendous kick I presume! It all happened yesterday and they even managed to fly this out and return of 144 km in the SZD 55. Look for fantastic  pictures and a video on www.zweefportaal.nl   Great stuff!!!

Not a lot happening in “soaring- land” , so then this …. a story at-least related to flying……In August a plane in Congo crashed and killed 20 people!!! The thought was,  that the plane had no fuel anymore, but the one and only survivor has a bizarre story about this accident. It seems that one of the passengers tried to take/smuggle with him a crocodile in a sports bag!!!! The animal escaped and all passengers ran behind the stewardess into the cockpit making the weight and balance unstable. The crocodile survived but was killed later. An African/Congo paper got the story from the survivor.Can’t imagine somebody makes such a story up, but if he had not survived we would have never known, not even imagined for ONE minute that such a thing could happen !???!

Preparing and…off for the weekend, CU you soon, cheers Ritz