It was last winter somewhere in December ,when my friends Hilde and Bert Schmelzer, traveled from Belgium to Kiripotib in Namibia. They knew already in January that they had a fabulous flight in the ASH 25/28, from Bernd Dolba and filed the flight for a new Belgian record.
The commission who looks at the claims in Belgium was together for the first of their 3 meetings per year.
Last weekend Hilde and Bert got the good news that the flight was recognized as a new Belgian record;
Category Free Distance FAI Triangle over 1.119.9 km in open class on January 2 2014;with an average speed of 138 km./h.
With 2 children who have their own records already the parents have one now as well.Pretty special!
Son Tijl flew in 2012 from the airport of Keiheuvel to Biaritz a 1000 k. Belgian record in 18 m. and brother Bert jr. flew 3 European records in Mai 2013 in the Alps . You surely remember that great flight from Zurich to Vienna and back; 1000 km.PLUS in a Discus .
I just published some new pictures from Bert jr. in my Soaringcafe blog, when you are interested.
So in each of the classes ….open, 18 m and Standard class they have records now. Congratulations !!!!
Bert sr. and Hilde; now they have as parents their own Belgian record!
So when they travel again in the end of this year they will be honored with a special Oscar [see picture] in the special Kiripotib way.
This summer the family travels to Rayskala in Finland where both boys participate in the 33d WGC. Mum Hilde will be TC.
Another well known family from Belgium the Litt’s travel to Poland, Emmanuel as participating pilot and brother Baudouin as TC.
The other well known Belgian family is the Huybreckx family and I meet them again somewhere in August at the airfield of Keiheuvel. Is n’t it great to fly with so many in one family and on a high level now and in the past ;Marc, Eddy, Tim, Dennis, Jeroen and married into the family Wim and Jeff.
Of course there are more flying-families but I don’t know them all too good to write about them. Though I know in Belgium of course the Stouffs family and the Brocquevilles , the family The Coninck and the Van Eyken family……..
By the way Belgian Patrick Pauwels is in Finland as steward.
The Schmelzer family.
Talking even more about Belgium. About 10 pilots from the Diest Aeroclub have set up camp in Germany and fly from Laucha.
We stay in Belgium, for a moment , as I LOVE BRUGGE!!!! Jeroen Jennen, one of the Huybreckx family shared some pictures from this lovely ancient town this week and I picked 2 for you. Whenever,…you should visit Brugge.
Courtesy Jeroen Jennen.
Can you imagine the happiness of the Australian Air Force Cadets when they can fly in these gliders ? The first 2 gliders have been handed over!!!!
As shared by John Welsh and congratulations to my friends Jane and Tom Gilbert from DG Australia.
More news about DG you can read in their newsletter number 174! With in it;
Flugzeugbau:
Australian Air Force Cadets order second batch of DG-1001Club. The first gliders were delivered in January already. Now they order some more.
New Instrument Panel for DG-808C Competition . Now modern flight computers can be used too
Lisa Trotter from Australia breaks 31 records on a LS8 within one flight!
Australian duo breaks Australian 750km record.
Jim Payne and Dennis Tito catch >2000 Points!
Tony van Dyk wins New Zealand Nationals
Photo of the Month – Liberty
Service and Maintenance: Mobile Service and Maintenance by DG
DG-1000T propeller axis runs through all tests successfully
EASA Maintenance Programs
Composite: CNC Milling System has arrived. In the meantime the system is running steadily.
DG successfully manufactures 250th wind blade.
To read all items;
http://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/
They , Friedel Weber, Holger Back and the entire DG- and LS-Tea, wish all pilots a wonderful flight season.
It seems it’s over here for a while with the high temperatures. Monday was a day with at some places severe thunderstorms with hail and strong gusty wind, today it is back to the normal temperatures for the time of the year; between 11 and 13 dgr. We loved the up to 25 dgr. we had at some days!!! BUT,..the sun is still shining!!!!
Last Sunday 754 pilots entered their flight on the OLC, so a good Sunday !!! Specially Italy contributed as lot’s of pilots flew from Calcinate, [the SAP] , with on day 3 a declared FAI triangle of 500 km. They had a successful couple of [training-] days there with more than 100 flights and good distances! Only happy pilots and enough gliders as you can see on the pictures from Alberto Sironi and shared by Aldo Cernezzi.
For more public shared pictures you can go to ;
https://plus.google.com/u/0/
On page 1 that day the first 50 flights were all over 500 km. The day was topped by Swiss pilot Didi Albrecht who flew from Locarno in the SILENT 2 targa 586.11 km.
Longest flight that day was from Sondrio in wave in a NIMBUS 4DM; 710 km.
And on Monday Austria had superb spring weather with flights up to 800 km . in the EB 29, from Lienz by Alexander Muller, but also Trento in Italy had good weather ; Walter Giordani flew 637 km. in Ventus 2CM/18m. and from Ajdovskina [SL] ;586 [ 500 FAI triangle] also in Ventus now 2C/18m..
Yesterday the ” ridge-soarers” Brian and Dan in the USA had their 500- plus- days in a PIK 20 and a 17.4 m 304CZ from Ridge Soaring.Specially the afternoon/evening was perfect, according to the happy-sounding-pilots .
Brian has a real good ridge-season till now in his PIK 20; one flight over 1000 km on March 26 with 1.152,11km. [speed 154,33 km./h] and in April 2 flights one from 799.19 km. [ speed 133.07 km./h] and the 584 km. from yesterday with a speed of 158,77 km./h.!!!
And in the UK [Scotland] they had good wave up to over 3000 m AGL. over Kinross, based on the shores of Loch Leven .
Fuentemilanos yesterday had the longest flight for the beginning of the season; 418 km. in a DG 808b/18m.
And ,…..for those interested in aeromodelling;
In Romania [Slanic Prahova] they ” fought” from March 31 till April 5 for the titles for the FAI World Championship for Free Flight Indoor Model Aircraft& FAI Junior World Championship for Free Flight Indoor Model Aircraft.A mouth-full!!
Here are the final results as I received them:
Senior
1st : Lee Yuan Kang USA
2nd : Brett Sanborn USA
3rd : Ivan Treger SVK
Senior – Team
1st: USA
2nd: Romania
3rd: France
Junior
1st : Evab Guyett USA
2nd : Calin BUlai ROU
3rd : Antonin Ricou FRA
Junior – Team
1st: Romania
2nd: France
3rd: USA
The full results can be found at the following address :
http://www.frmd.ro/
4 Of my 5 highschool friends visited me yesterday .A FUN_DAY, full of memories!
Enough for now!!!
Cheers and have a good week.CU back in the CAFE on Sunday www.soaringcafe.com
Ritz
On Wednesday April 9 2014.