Looking back at 2013!

It’s that time of the year again! Like a lot of people, I look back at 2013,  as there are only a few days to go before the year 2014 starts.
My personal life was a good one. Only the end of 2013 gave some sadness and worries as my mother in law died age 89, but still rather unexpected. My 2 grand children got sick with some kind of Pfeiffer for my grand son and purple fever for my granddaughter. Both still look a bit off but are on the mend.

In my ” blogging/writing-life” disaster struck just in the beginning of December when my laptop crashed. Luckily I got some warnings before, so I had a back up.
Bought a new one but still struggle to get used to it.

A BIG thank you to ALL people WORLDWIDE who share their soaring enthusiasm with me, so my blogs are more and more international. Love the inter-action with my  readers through their comments and reactions on the blogs!!
They ” brought”  me to places I had never heard from or been. Believe me soaring can be done at more places then we thought.

I did not travel this year as due to a small incident with cars in June my trip to the WWGC had to be cancelled.No worries I am planning a few trips for 2014!Nothing sure now, but it’s brewing in my head.

Looking at the weather here in Holland and with that parts of Europe, we had an awful spring time , as if winter continued forgetting about spring.Summer was good and at this stage we have 10 dgr. which is rather warm for our winter time.
On the first day of January thousands of people here in Holland run over the beaches for a traditional dive in the sea. Normally it’s freezing cold and with their swimmers they use woolen hats to keep warm, which looks rather funny.
Not necessary this year as the water is still 8 dgr and though there will be a tough wind the temperature will be around 8 as well.

Till now Bitterwasser , THE SOARING MECCA , had a glorious time with fantastic flights. A few off-days as well with severe rain , making the normally brown landscape turn green.More and more pilots seem to love Bitterwasser.Looking ahead at the final results from this season.
In fact all overseas soaring destinations are doing well and with that a lot of pilots are smiling.In their enthusiasm they share their experiences and through that we feel happy as well.

As you know it has never been my intention to write high level soaring news in detail, it’s just a blog about soaring and the people in it. I try to share my enthusiasm and knowledge over nearly 50 years,  with you in an easy-going-way.That means that I read a lot and have to contact friends for inside-news and they NEVER refuse to share their knowledge.They all know that PR is the best to keep our sport alive.
I am grateful for that!
The comment on one of the last questions for this year was : ” For you Ritz, anything”. That says enough is n’t it.

I finish with the words from Dutch pilot Ronald Termaat, who flew the South African Nationals just recently and if I still would have been a pilot I could have written them:
” After a great competition we are on our way back to the cold, but also to the family. We had the best weather with speeds up to 167 km/h average. We had blue, clouds, thunderstorms, wave and 250 km of convergence.
But most of all we had a very good time with old and new friends!

Don’t we have a GREAT sport!!!
Fly SAFE in the new year and I wish you lot’s of happiness, good health and great soaring weather, with good wave, lots of gorgeous cu’s and hardworking ridges.

Back in 2014 with more day-to-day-news from our friends where ever they fly on comps, Grand Prix ‘s or just for fun at places they know or love.
We have 2 FAI WGC’s to look forward too , one in Rayskala in Finland from June 22 till July 6 2014 and one in Poland from Leszno between July 21 and August 10 both the 33d edition , several qualifying Grand Prix and many Nationals.
The first this week already and continuing in the new year in New Zealand at Matamata, where the multi – class Nationals are flown and next week in Waikirie in Australia the 33d Nationals for club and Sports class with 47 participants.

The best pictures this year, that is in my opinion, were presented by top photographers during the ECG in Ostrow. Just fantastic and thanks again for sharing!!!!

Ostrow mooi 3

 

Ostrow finish day 3  Ostrow finish day 3 2

Ostrow mooi1  Ostrow tuggies1

Ostrow tuggies 3  Ostrow tuggies 2

 OSTROW 2013 in pictures!

AND

HAPPY NEW YEAR
from Ritz

Written on December 29 2013. For all other news from last week please look at ; www.soaring.eu  Thanks!