Alphen aan den Rijn Sunday April 25 2010 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
After all the hassle of ” the ash cloud “, we go back to soaring again as the spring- weather is just great in the middle part of Europe.
As far as I heard, all gliders have arrived home safely after a long trip on container ships from Africa and Australia. So those pilots from different spots in Europe are for sure happy with the good soaring-circumstances and could start flying straight away. Thursday- afternoon was fantastic again for soaring,…but still very cold, which creates great circumstances for the pilots and even for me sitting out of the wind in the sun and looking at those great skies.
Belgian friend Tijl flew in a Ventus 2ct a beautiful thermal- flight from Balen – Keiheuvel, a lovely airfield, to the NE far into Germany;822 km!!!! And from Holland , Terlet, a nice 667 flight was made in a Discus BT, also to the East far into Germany. Pretty good for our flatland countries!
On Wednesday Lasham [gliding club of London] had a super day with flights up to 650 km.; I was pleased to see that some of my friends over there had really nice flights.
The super weather from Lienz in Austria has moved a bit south and Italy had with that great weather a day later; Calcinate had 4 flights over 800 km. one over 900 in a Nimbus 4M.
Yesterday with over 1000 flights on the OLC was not the easiest day , pretty blue, but most pilots as I noticed were happy, even after using their engine.
The FCC in Prievidza, had last Wednesday another AAT speed task with 2.30 [ 218/430 km] and 3 hours time [ 216/414 km] . Fabulous practise for the pilots who do fly the WGC there between July 3 and 18.
Sebastian is still number one overall after this 3d day. Half of the pilots outlanded in this mixed class. In club class Ge Dale is back on the top-position , winning day 3 with 286 km in 3 hours and 3 minutes! He flew about 40 km. MORE then the rest and was nearly back “at the dot” [-3 min.] .Also here about half of the competitors landed out, but …they had a 1000 point day!
On Thursday the weather expectations were even higher and another AAT was set;
for mixed an AAT in 3.15 with a distance between 242/523 km.
In Club class ; 3 hour and 30 minutes and between 215 and 448 km.
On Friday not an AAT but a short racing task 192 for mixed and 183 for club. In the end this day was cancelled.
Saturday was a great day for flying! Short , but the weather turned out better then expected.;192 km with 125 k/h. for Sebastian ” earning” 414 points and 113 km/h over 183 km for Ge “earning ” 448 points as day winner in his class.
After 5 days of flying no changes in the top; Sebastian and Ge are still the best, each of them won 3 days.
Only 17 days to go before the Dutch Nationals start. I can only hope for the same weather as we have now! You can read all about this CAE NLS Dutch Gliding Nationals in this blog and for pictures and scores you can look at www.nkzweefvliegen.nl
NOT because of volcano ASH, a United Airlines 767 had to make an emergency landing at a Portuguese military airfield.On its way from Washington to Moscow , a Belgian passenger told the captain a very bad/sharp smell came out of the cockpit. The captain told him that one of the engines was not working and that for that reason there was no electricity aboard. According to the Belgian media the plane flew over the Atlantic Ocean , with 179 passengers and dumped most of the fuel before making , as a precaution ,a landing at the Azores. All went well!
Talking about “ASH” our Scandinavian friends have closed some of their airports again last Thursday in Sweden and Norway. Also Finland was closed for a day. Due to a turning wind they got into problems again. Even helicopters flying from and to oil platforms were not allowed to fly. Denmark is OK as well as the rest from Europe.
Due to a webcam millions of people have looked at the eruption of the volcano in Iceland. On eldgos.mila.is , already 4 million people looked from 150 different countries. This is a record for an Icelandic site!!! I can imagine that!
Through the year a web cam is there for the police and scientists to keep an eye on the volcano.
Yesterday and today Reykjavik is closed, so Iceland itself has no incoming or out going flights.
Ready to enjoy the 23 dgr. which are fore-casted. CU next Wednesday
Cheers Ritz