Cross country soaring and more!

Alphen aan den Rijn   Sunday September 23 2012

ritzdeluy@hotmail.com    www.glidinginternational.com     www.soaringcafe.com

Where is the Party??? Here is the party!
She turned 16
on Friday and invited her friends for a Sweet 16 -party via a Facebook- event-note. BUT …she forgot to add PRIVATE,…so about 15.000 “friends liked the message” thought you cannot refuse such an nice invitation and between 3000 and 5000  travelled from all places in Holland, even from Germany and Belgium to a tiny little place in the North of Holland. The mayor , hearing about it anticipated as quick as possible, closed the street where the girl lived, told her to leave with the family to an unknown spot and he placed notes as THERE IS NO PARTY HERE, at that stage even hoping/thinking they would only steal name plates from the street, so they removed them !
It did not help. Was 95 % there to just be part of a HYPE and see whó was there, 5 % made a mess from this innocent meant party. They ruined gardens and what’s in it, stole beers and cigarettes out of shops , put cars in fire and created total chaos around 8.30 PM till about 3 AM.
30 People , from project X , were injured in the battle with the police [ a total of 500 and special trained!!!!] , 2 had bad injuries, streets full of broken glass, empty beer can’s and bottles,  just ONE BIG MESS!!!!!!
Worst thing; the hooligans turned against ambulance personel and other helpers.
This morning some created on FB a new event; project X -cleaning the little town. But …town started yesterday morning to do that theirselves and thought it was kind of the AGAIN 15.000 “likes” to come and help with the cleaning, but they preferred to do it their selves.
About 400.000 tweets have been send during project X that evening/night.
Be warned, be precise while making events!!!

Young and old pilots , it does n’t matter as long as you are motivated, are invited here in Holland during the winter period,  to a training program, to learn all the in’s and out’s from cross country soaring. All who are interested in more then gliding over the field and who want to broaden their horizon are welcome to visit the TABOE [Training Aan Beginnende Overland Experts]  program, which started in 2003 and helps pilots to be a better cross country pilot and or to help them on their way to competition soaring.
On 3 Saturdays they will have indeas and input from top cc pilots and they will introduce the “new ones” to subjects as competition soaring, McCready flying, final glide, flight computers, meteo and how to be mentally strong.
Great effort from all ! 2 From the 3 people behind this project are Natasja , and Frans.[see pictures]
More news [in Dutch ] at www.taboe.zweefportaal.nl

  

Lasham can have VERY good weather but also lot’s of rain. Last Wednesday some of my friends were flying happily  from Lasham. The autumn- weather was not perfect as Mark said, “Very strange day, very small window to fly in with lots of overdevelopment but lovely day out along the coast…” but Dave, Roy and Mark flew  530 [ LS 6] 493 k. [ASG29E/18m.] and nearly 200 in the Nimbus 4. Happy for them.
On Wednesday the weather was still good with a nearly 500 km. flight from Roy!

Like the {pimped}  site from the Bitterwasser Lodge and flying Centre [ http://www.bitterwasser.com/ ], well done and lovely pictures and good news for those who are not only going to fly,  but like the “rest” [ good food] as well,  will be happy with a new chef from Germany. Like the chef’s name; Lothar Ewigleben.[living-for-ever]
Their containers have been packed as well and I read at least one EB will be flying there.
More news in the future blogs also about Kiripotib, Pokweni, Gariep Dam airfield and Douglas Field, Bloemfontein and all other places with interesting flights in Africa. Quite a few of my friends will go there as well, so nice to keep an eye on it. Maybe I will go in the 2013/14 season myself.

“Friends”  now with Seminole Airport where Andreea is THE FACE. Met her as you know in Uvalde and she seems to be a copy of me in my earlier life. She wrote under the name Miss Daisy in Uvalde and I found out, she has her own blog now as well, good on her… so go to http://wordsaboutsoaring.com/ and you can read that she writes at a competition [Region 4 South] in New Castle  [USA] at the moment.
When I met her she had nearly not written a word, was even a bit afraid to put words in a blog and ….she is really doing well now!!!
She makes nice pictures too, here is one I found on her site and when you go there you see quite a few Uvalde-USA-faces on pictures as well.

Courtesy Andreea/Miss Daisy.

Noticed a nice picture from Sarah as well on FB from New Castle, you remember her as the tuggie in Uvalde and she is like Andreea involved in her own soaring business as owner operator from the Chilhowee Gliding Association  at Tenton in Tenessee. And…she will fly in Chaves!!!!!Glider this time!!!! |
Both are VERY active girls!!!

Before towing at New Castle.
“Guess it’s time to launch” courtesy by Sarah.

It’s great to keep in good contact with mates you know half your life! One of Australia’s former-top- glider -pilots Bruce Brockhoff, 3 times National Champion, represented Australia  10 times and still CHAMPION of the GOBI desert in China, read ALL the stories I wrote about Uvalde.  He was so keen to hear it all first hand that he called every 2d day via SKYPE with Brad Edwards. Both Brad and Bruce flew in the 1991 Uvalde WGC. This catching-up after a long time was for both a reason to see each other again. Both had a ride in the Citation Jet from Brad. Interesting is that this Citation is the one I flew over the LAKE Eyre with when there was water in it. Great memories on this trip, as we were flying as low as allowed , so we could see wild life and wild flowers in a Lake which is normally DRY. Unforgettable.
During that time the Citation was owned by another friend and glider pilot, Terry Snow, who has made from  the Airfield from Canberra , the most innovative and attractive  place to land in Australia.

 

The Citation Jet, Brad and Bruce . Their second love is “water” , catamaran’s and sailing boats.
AND LOOK AT THE STUNNING VIEW on the Barrier Reef and Whitehaven Beach below!!!!

 

For more about Brad’s business go to  http://www.air-charter-australia.com/aircraft-charters/cessna-citation-cj2/

Talking about Bruce,…….one of his daughter’s  Belle, was born during the Nationals in Benalla  19 years ago. We were all SO pleased for him as he was not 20 anymore!He has 2 lovely daughters, Belle and Brooke,  with his wife Christine. The girls however, have  NOTHING with soaring they love SNOW.
Belle,  http://bellebrockhoff.com/?page_id=44  is an ace in snow boarding and hopefully on her way to the winter Olympics in Sochi [Russia 2014] . She started this season well!
Last weekend she won 2 races in the resort of Cardona in New Zealand.
She belongs to the squad of the NSW Institute of Sport, which is part of the Australian Institute of Sport and that is part again of the Olympic Winter Institute in Australia.
I read on the site of the Australian Olympic Winter Institute [ an initiative of the Australian Olympic Committee]  ;
—”The second win in as many days of the Australia New Zealand Cup competition capped off a perfect two week training camp for the  19-year-old from Mount Buller,  in preparation for an assault on the coming World Cup season in the northern hemisphere, starting later this year.–”
7 World Cup Races in 7 countries from Spain to Norway , to the USSR and the USA!!!!!! Quite a schedule!!!
After a little more training in Australia  the athletes  will fly to Austria , where in early December in Montafon the first World Cup will be held. Mum Christine travels mostly to all spots in the world to accompany her daughter. Wishing them good luck! And great to keep track on the children from your mates.

Belle in the middle!

What about Giorgio Galetto ? He was sitting in a glider again!!! SO pleased and happy for him and Marina and of course Chiara!!!! Go for it Giorgio!
–”Today I made the first flight after the accident. Everything is OK, now I just have to take the physical form.–”

And more Aussie news this time ONLY for my Aussie mates as it is about a TV series IN Australia. Got the news from Judy Renner and I also read it on the Mount Beauty News Letter from this week. I also read there that 2 top pilots Paul Mander and maybe Dion Weston will attend the Mount Beauty Alpine  Gliding course in February. Both bringing their ASH 25. Will be a good training stage.

—”A four-part series called ‘Great Southern Land’ will feature Australia from an aerial perspective. On Sunday 23rd September at 7:30pm in Episode 1 , ‘Great Australian Bite’ , Maurice Little is seen flying a Janus glider above the wind turbines at Ararat .
ABC Website details at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/greatsouthernland/episodes/ep01.htm

You can see some photos from the filming here http://kristiangehradtephotography.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/stills-photography-for-upcoming.html

And…the weather in the East of Australia is really nice with a 400 km triangle from Kingaroy in a St. Libelle and several other between 250 and 500 km flights in that area.

And last but not least….more REALLY BAD people in this world, look at this news I received via Natasja;

****STOLEN**** Dear Gliding Friends, At the German gliding club in Mosbach – Schreckhof burglars have stolen a lot of material. Please have a sharp look out for these stolen goods and contact the Police when found; Erik .
SPREAD THE NEWS PLEASE!!!
Item Manufacturer Type Serial No.
Parachute Brueggemann RFS I-11-A 80355
Parachute Brueggemann RFS I-11-A 80356 …
Parachute Mertens 12-82/23 R I 04-224614
Parachute Mertens 12-82/23 R I 04-224745
Parachute Mertens 12-82/23 R I 04-224419
Parachute Mertens 12-82/23 R I 04-224420
Parachute SPEKON RE-5 L4 73929
Airspeed Indic. Winter 6FMS421 115474
Airspeed Indic. Winter 6FMS421 115475
Altimeter Winter 4FGH20 203328
Altimeter Winter 4FGH10 203379
Variometer Winter 5StVM5 63832
Variometer Winter 5StVM5 63833
Radio Becker AR3201 12572

That’s it for now , oh, YES the Octoberfest has started in Munich. Last year guests drunk 7.5 million liters of beer!!!
More on Tuesday and than you have to do without me for a week, as I am off for a family- get- to- gether.

Cheers Ritz