ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 24 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
On Monday October 22 , we had in The Bilt the place where the official temperature is measured for the KNMI, [Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute] ; 22 dgr. the HIGHEST EVER in history here in Holland on that day. The morning started fresh with the firs real fog at some places, but the afternoon was delightful; I could read my book outside in the sun end of October!
But…next Saturday we are back to lower then normal [13 dgr.] and it will be 8 dgr. C. ,.grrr…
Sad day that warm sunny Monday as well, as 2 single engine aircraft’s from Wings over Holland, collided in the air while doing a photo- shoot, close to the airfield of Lelystad where they just started from; 2 people [ in one plane the pilot and the female photographer, working also for WoH [ 36 and 23] killed and 2 badly injured, in the other one, [62 and 63] one the company director. VERY SAD!
Could not believe this news when I looked at the picture on FB by UK pilot Graham Garnett, about the fully packed container for Chaves. Thought first it was a nice UK joke. Have a look, do you see 2 trailers and 4 gliders???
It seems more people did not see it, so there was the question ; Where are the trailers???
Then Graham’s answer [copied and pasted] :
—“The first steel framed open trailer is on it’s side up against the wall of the container on the left of the picture the second one is a cobra trailer with no lid and the axle dropped of interleaved with the first. What you see on the left of the picture is the underneath of the Cobra trailer.—”
To be honest that’s the best packing , as in so much stuff in ONE container , I have ever seen. AMAZING!!!!AND …compliments. Great job!
Hope it all arrives in perfect condition in Chaves!
Talking about Chaves; heard that a few countries had problems with shipment to Argentina and some even thought of NOT going. The new rules , of temporary imports might have changed that, as packing has been done and most containers from Europe will leave end of this month.
Latest news also about parachutes. BRING YOUR OWN!!!!!! Pilots renting gliders in Argentina should bring their own as in Argentina, as I read on the site, there are no restrictions regarding deadlines for parachutes operation.
—“For this reason some of them could be old, and their condition according to its age. ‘—”
So a MUST to take your own!!!!
Checking the teams; still a few not officially accepted pilots but less then last time; 4 in standard and 3 in club class [ all the Dutch pilots] and 1 in world class .
2000 blogs since January 2011 for SOARINGCAFE.
My Soaringcafe uniform in Uvalde washed and ironed !
I was very pleased to have written the 2000st blog for SoaringCafe. As blogs are automatically ordered under soaringcafe news, special events , external feeds etc. , nobody knew who would be number 2000. I only knew that on Sunday 2 of my blogs appear on Soaring Cafe, one on the main site specially written for soaringcafe and the other is my soaring.eu blog also on Sunday[and Wednesday] appearing under external feeds.
With Rand and with Carol Bill and Rand.
“2000 blogs—and climbing” is the editorial tribute on October 21 , from Rand and Bill on www.soaringcafe.com Have a look!
As Bill and Rand and MASNY others, I loved the stories from Dick Butler, Loek Boermans and Gerhard Waibel about the Concordia project. Would n’t it be great if Dick started a new project, so we can follow him again? Hope atleast he keeps us informed about where he is flying in his “gracious ship” , so we can keep an eye on the performance as well, of his “old” project or…maybe STILL his project.
With Rand and Bill in Uvalde as a great “winning ” team.
Picture courtesy Leo Bennetti-Longhini.
Last weekend showed some nice autumn flights in the USA and some good spring flights down under. A total of 148 flights on OLC on Saterday and 108 on Sunday . Best flight from Mifflin Couty in the USA with 572 km. in a Discus 2. An enjoyable , “no-task-no-goal day.” Best flight in Australia from Kingaroy 372 in St. Cirrus .
I loved Allan Barnes comment on flying a PW 5 from Gympie South of Brisbane and if you have not read it yet I share it here with you;”
—“second day’s flying in a PW5. You sure don’t push these babies hard. But they thermal brilliantly and very tightly. At one stage I felt like I was in a spin, the glider was rotating so fast in the thermal. At the end of the flight I got a great climb as instability moved in from the west, but sea breeze had killed off everything between there and the coast.–“
More news from Australia;
For those thinking/pondering to go and not having made a firm decision yet;
–“Just a quick reminder that Narromine Cup Week is on again this year from November 26 to 30, immediately followed by the NSW State Comps also at Narromine but hosted and run by the Bathurst Club. Promising to be a great two weeks of gliding and camaraderie.
Narromine Gliding Club: http://www.narromineglidingclub.com.au/
NSW State Comps Website: http://www.nswgc2012.com.au/
Something very special at Narromine Cup this year is the presence of G. Dale, one of the best cross country gliding coaches in the world. G is employed full time at Lasham Gliding Club in the UK as a coach and has been coaching each season at Omarama with Gavin Wills for many years.
G will be providing coaching theory lectures (not to be missed) and practical each day as a part of the NSW GA coaching initiative set up by Bryan Hayhow for Cup Week. Narromine Gliding Club will have two Duo Discus and a Grob Twin Astir available for hire for one-on-one coaching.
G’s coaching is provided at no cost to GFA members. —“
So far the news from Narromine.
Also some news from the Geelong Gliding Club in Victoria;
—” during our winter there is not that much exciting going on. Its mainly workshop for annual glider inspections and training flights. The weather is now finally turning to spring even in the deep south of Victoria. Last weekend we have been able to post a few very moderate flights to the OLC. The weather should improve from here on and enable us to place well again as a club. We had our AGM late September, where we decided to return for our annual Christmas camp to Tocumwal as guests of Judy and Ingo Renner and the Southern Riverina Gliding Club. The Geelong Gliding Club will be there from Boxing day for 2 weeks.—”
AND……I will be there too then!!! GOOD!!!
When the Gliding International arrives in my house, I loose straight away an hour of my day, by quickly going through all interesting items to read everything better later, when I have time.
Another magazine full of news and things you need to know.
About ;
—Andrej Koller and the story behind NAVIGATER
—mountain thermals by Gavin Wills who loves and knows the mountains as no one else
—a very interesting and different “wind up ” on Uvalde by Joseph King
—a tribute to Neil Armstrong..the glider pilot
—a good year from Schleicher
—Sebastian Kawa’s new book “SKY FULL OF HEAT”
—Dittolog Electronic Flight Time logging system FIRST used by the Kingaroy Gliding club as the answer to time-keeping AND what’s even more interesting for me , one of the engineers behind it , Ernst Ditges flew with us in the past in Tocumwal and became trough the years a friend. He moved from Germany to Queensland and happily lives there now.
All about it in the latest GI.
—Chaves …looking ahead , specially to the weather patterns and- phenomena
—soaring in the “city of gliding” in Japan
—and not to forget 2 fantastic pictures by Maria.
—and MUCH more!!!
I was a bit shocked after seeing the perfect picture as advertisement on the back of GI from Schempp-Hirth’s ARCUS m and the picture in WORLD AVIATION NEWS for glider pilots; totally destroyed after a crash on August 7 in Italy close to Arezzo, due to an engine problem on take off. The pilots walked away from it with minor injuries but looking at the picture…..
the pilot tried to return to the field a big one but with horizontal ploughed ridges…the rest you can read in the latest November/December GI.
What a difference on Monday between the number 1 and 2 on the OLC! Jim Payne in the DG 1001 M. flew a long wave flight ….1.368.19 km. with Dennis Tito, from Rosamond Skypark. On Spot 2 a flight in a PW 5 with 224 km. in Brasil. From Bebedouro it was day 3 from the Nationals. That’s what it is all about , is n’t it?
A total of only 23 flights, from which 12 were added from the Brasil Nationals. The real overseas season will start in the middle of November.
Yesterday the Uvalde CD Ken, had a good late season flight from 524 [343 FAI triangle] in his Ventus 2cxa, no not from Uvalde but from his soaring club in Houston and topped the list of 20 pilots and the club pilots happily flew day 4 of their nationals.
By the way the 2012 Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix will be flown from November 2 till November 10 in Potchefstroom in South Africa and from November 12 till November 18 , from beautiful Lake Keepit in Australia. Both in 18 m.
Will keep you informed!
That’s it for now, oh and by the way , please visit Amsterdam next year, when you have time. They are behind San Francisco 2d on the Lonely Planet list of towns- as -a -MUST -SEE, world wide. Now the Rijksmuseum after too many years of restoration [10] will officially open the doors again in April and Amsterdam celebrates next year “400 year of canals” , it is a great destination to go to. Not to forget the very old and famous Red Light District for those who are interested.
cheers Ritz