Alphen aan den Rijn      Thursday December 2 2010     ritzdeluy@hotmail.com

YES, on Monday at around 5,  we got our first snow here in town. Not only in town but most of Holland was happy, or ….maybe NOT SO MUCH , as the travellers by car got into the worst-ever-in-history-traffic-jam in the evening. Just over 900 km! The worst ever was in the morning on February  8 in 1999 with 975 km. Anyway it looks great outside with the sun shining on the white world. Maria thinks I can make it into Munich, so I will let you know.
It is so cold with minus 7 but with the NE wind , straight from Russia, the wind chill factor is around -20.  Amsterdam has ordered that all people without a home, should be inside! Even if they do not want to be inside they have too. Other towns leave it up to the homeless their-selves. 
The animals in the ZOO go inside as well when necessary and some even get heaters. In Belgium they distribute warm clothes to those who need it. Yes it is really cold , yesterday-morning was one of the coldest moments I ever felt, but after this week it should go back to more  normal.
The UK , Germany and Poland suffer as well and even more.

KLM cabin personnel will work in the future on 3 different types  instead of 4  [ Boeing 737, Boeing 777, Airbus and MD-11]. It is better to avoid mistakes to know the security procedures for 3 types , is what they found out after risk-analyses. And…as the first priority of KLM is safety, they will change that. From April 2011 it should all be in place and all stewards and stewardesses “only ” have know the flight safety rules for 3 types.

Only ONE soaring-day till now at Lake Keepit  ! My Aussie friends suffer a bit from the rain and on channel 9 I noticed that this rain might well go into the Christmas period. HOPE NOT!!! Due to the poor weather this competition has been cancelled and is re-scheduled for March 2011.

And then the ridge soaring in Argentina is “hot”.   Klaus flew 1.572 km with the comment ; “unfortunately not the most ideal day”!!!! He started at Chapelco in a Nimbus 4D, while Sebastian Kawa started a bit more south from Lago Nahuel and he flew in a Nimbus 4, a great 1. 623 km task up and down over the ridges. Speed ; 138 km./h not bad!!!
Dirk , one of our guests in Tocumwal in the past and if I remember well he learned how to fly gliders with us, must be over the moon with his great flights in Kiripotib.Till now 5 out of 9 flights over 700 km.  in the ASH 26E. Great job Dirk!
Alexander flew from Kiripotib another 1.224 km flight with a speed of 141 km/h. on the last day of November. Sadly he has a problem with his ASW 22, so as he mentions , he has to stay a few days on the ground. Won’t be easy for him I guess. From 7 flights till now he had 5 1000 km flights, and what flights!!!!

Did you hear from the co -pilot who “dived ”  his plane 2000 m lower,  to the huge scare of the passengers. I guess we would have never found out, what had happened ,would it have crashed.
The captain went to the toilet. The co moved his chair a bit forward to reach better. While doing that he hit the stick and put it full down , causing the dive. The captain quickly came back, but as the co panicked and tried to recover the situation,he did not open the door straight away. When the captain sat on his chair again, they had dropped already 600 m. and dived further another 1400 m, till it all was established. In the end the 737-800 from Air India Express got away with it, but not thanks to the co who kept pushing while the captain tried to pull back, to get back to normal.” The poor co had no idea what he was doing”  is the result after the investigation. This all happened on May 26.

December  1 2010; Most of Europe is “cold “,  Australia is pretty wet , but South Africa  ,  Namibia and  also Argentina still have great soaring weather. Klaus [ Ohlman] added a great 1.709 km. ridge flight to his total till now with a nice speed of 130 km/h. A good beginning of December.  Also the speed from UK pilot John makes you smile; 168 km/h over 1.198 km over the ridges starting at  Lago Nahuel in an Antares.
AND ……more ridge flying, also from Lago Nahuel; a SUPER flight by Sebastian Kawa with my friend Bruce Cooper as co pilot. Good to see Bruce is back in Argentina. He really loved it last year!!! They flew 2.125 km with a speed of 160 km/h!!!!!  Straight away the longest flight till now in the 2011 season.
Gariep Dam had a “WOW ” -day with Max who flew a magic declared 1012 km triangle with 117 km/h! Well done Max!!

What a  bet at TWITTER  can do?  Before December 6 there should have been enough pre-subscriptions for a special  extra flight to Miami. Within 5 hours they had enough people to do the flight, so on March 21  2011 , fans from the dance scene will travel to the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. Nice to see that the vice president of E- Commerce at KLM has organised this and…I know him.

Soccer; who gets the world comps in 2018 and 2022??? Today at 4 it will be known to the world. Holland and Belgium still have a chance, though Russia and the UK will be strong competitors, as well as Portugal/Spain.

While my daughter and family travel to Cairns tomorrow, I am off to Munich tomorrow as well and Salzburg on Saturday, CU there, if possible. Clothes for Australia and New Zealand are sorted out , so the only problem might be too much snow to fly back from Munich to get the next plane in time for Melbourne. No worries it will be OK! If not I travel by train.

Cheers Ritz