1000 km Goal from the Dutch-Belgium Border to the French-Spanish Border!

—“Completing this flight is not only about flying the task. It is like a chain with many links. One missing,and it all falls apart.”—
Tijl after his 1000 km goal/free-distance flight.

 

Words from young Belgium pilot Tijl Schmelzer, who managed after his 1,000 km free distance flight to write, within 48 hours [ mind you he had to drive with mum in the car back to Belgium, trailer behind!!! after a short but good sleep in a hotel], a prestigious article with pictures and statistics that reads as an adventure book of high quality.
Here is the link .ENJOY!!!!!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/90226458/16042012-Keiheuvel-Viersen-SpanishBorder

Inspired by the record flight from Lübeck [ N of Hamburg in Germany] to Bayonne/Biarritz [French Spanish border]  by Hans Werner Grosse 40 years ago on April 25th and after very good preparations, Tijl started early Monday morning for this not too easy flight.

Tijl [see picture] is the youngest son of Bert and Hilde Schmelzer see picture], both glider pilots. His older brother Bert jr. is a very competent glider pilot too, flying as Tijl in JWGC and WGC as well as EGC.
The family “lives and breathes” gliding and they fly from Keiheuvel! Dad and Tijl, as father-son-combination, flew a WGC together in a Nimbus 4D and mum has been at several comps, served as the Belgium Team Captain, and is a very dedicated crew. Dad has written the book, “Soaring in Flanders -A Fascinating Adventure in Silence.” It is an overview and historic reference book and is richly laden with fantastic pictures from the past and present—334 pages of soaring joy!

Without such backup it would have been much more difficult, maybe even impossible, to do a free distance flight like this.
As you can read if you click the link above, this flight was very well prepared and the whole family and a few friends were involved. It is a new Belgium record [2x] and Tijl’s first 1,000 km flight. Good on him!
Tijl has finished university, is an engineer specializing in energy and busy now with the start up of consulting for financial-technical and risk analyses for new energy technology.

A few years ago, maybe 8 we, George and I, as owners of Sportavia invited him to fly during a distance competition “Shootout” from Tocumwal, to learn from Ingo Renner, the master himself, what you need to fly cross country. He enjoyed it to the fullest and so did Ingo.

Now that you know a bit more about the family, you should know about Bert jr. too; he  lives in Zurich where he works as an architect. He flies from Hausen Am Albis nowadays and makes the most beautiful pictures of his flights and shares them on Facebook. Bert jr. was the HQ from Switzerland during this goal flight, to keep an eye on weather and spot tracking from there and to keep mum in the car informed. His reaction on Facebook after the flight was over: ” Tijl is going to land after 1,000 km plus in Mimizan.Would have loved to be waiting there for him with a bottle of bubbles [or 2!] .”


Bert jr. on one of his flights in the mountains.

More of what happened last week…they flew from Prievidza for the Challenge Cup under pretty marginal circumstances, Transavia got a new 737, “we ” had a bad collision between trains in Holland yesterday and a government that collapsed …. also yesterday and there is more…”Anita Taylor for president” you can read at www.soaring.eu . Enjoy!

Cheers,

Ritz