Alphen aan den Rijn 4 november 2007
Finally I am settled in my new house and to be honest I am very pleased with it. I like to be at home nowadays. It has cost me quite some time, to get used to living back in Holland, but also that problem is solved.Of course I will NEVER forget the great years in Australia and the fact that I had the opportunity to run with a few people the gliding resort in Tocumwal, with great succes and lots of guests who became friends through the years. After 20 years with NO winters , I see ” COLD” as my biggest problem here, but with lots of “sunny ” stories from friends who are back, I will survive! Life goes on!
Talking bout Australia; Mr. Bones married last week!!!!You remember Ashock???? Yes our tow pilot for many years in Tocumwal. As a very young pilot-to-be ,he arrived many years ago from India in Australia. He was a very experienced tuggie. Nowadays he flies on a Mallard for Paspaley Pearls up in Darwin. Congratulations Bones!!!
For sure you will find more news about Australia in wintertime as that is together with Africa , the place to be in European wintertime! Though I saw last week on the OLC that a 1000 km flight was made somewhere in the USA.
In HOLLAND the gliding world will meet on the 24th of november for the ” Dutch Gliding Day”. This year the aeroclub of Venlo is organizing the day . They celebrate their 75th anniversary. There will be different sessions to participate and to listen to stories about safety, technics, European rules for the air and the airspace, a pretty hot item.
Pilots as Baer Selen and Roland Termaat, the new European Champion in 18 m. class will talk about gliding on top-level and Leonardo Brigliadori and his son Rick will talk about ” Competing in gliders-Winning with your mind” . Last year the book with this title came on the market and it is a very pleasant. informative and readable book. What can you expect else from pilots with their HUGE experience!
Speaking about Leonardo. He will be the director of the Rieti 2008 world championships for “the smaller ships , meaning standard class, club class and world class. The new 2008 site has just been put on the internet with the first bulletin!
The World competition in Luesse for open, 18 and 15 m, the bigger ships and in Rieti will be the 30thiest World Competition organized by the FAI. A fact to think about!!!
I wrote already the first article for the Ritz corner and I hope you are all going to read the stories again in 2008.
Finishing off this post, with 2 sites where you can look to vintage gliders. They are in Dutch , but even if you can’t read it, it is still worthwhile to look at.One about the PH 58, a Grunau Baby; the history and restoration.
And one site about a KA 7 privately owned flying 3 times a 300 km [ one 367!!]in August. The site is called; Gliding is fun and you can find it at
That’s it for today. Have fun this coming week and enjoy reading and looking at the different sites on this Sunday. Will be back next Sunday. Cheers Ritz