Yesterday I was invited to the farewell party for Frits, chief editor of our soaring magazine, Thermiek, and organised by the Dutch Gliding Association. Over the last 10 years Frits was the one who “created” a great and readable soaring magazine. Every three months it dropped on the doormat and during the last months you could also read it in digital form. What would happen when Frits was gone, was a question keeping us busy. Rumour was “Thermiek ” would go with him

Interesting was that the younger ones straight away go for digital and…if there will be a new paper magazine, they want it totally different then in the past…younger but still high quality.
The older ones—and there were a lot, as Frits turned 65 and retired—are more for something to “hold,” to put away and look at again later. The last Thermiek, made by Frits, will be for them on the doormat soon. A collector’s item.

I guess there is something to say for both formats. In our digital world, with all the social media, you cannot do without fast digital news; it’s part of our lives, but  we should not forget that a generation of baby boomers all 65/66 now and soaring enthusiasts up to 90, might not be interested in computers and certainly not in digital news. They want to carefully lay down their magazines on a pile in a nice cupboard. There is hope for a new kind of  Thermiek here in Holland, I heard yesterday. There are plans to  continue with the paper magazine,  let’s wait and see.

I like both, digital and “on the mat”[I have piles of them!], but I know quite some people who are NOT interested in digital news, also not in Facebook, Twitter or Hyves. That should be possible as well. So let world wide soaring magazines exist, also in tough financial times!!! I loved the article put on FaceBook a few weeks ago about the WGC in Uvalde in 1991. I was there but took time to read it all again; the story from the magazine Soaring was published on FaceBook!!!!!

More “digital news” in my blog from last week, about the accident with the Belgium bus in Switzerland—what a tragedy, 28 people killed, amongst them 22 children around 12 years old and another 24 injured from minor to IC.
Also on the Hercules; helping out in bringing people and white [children] and brown [grown ups] coffins to Belgium, but also a crash from a Norwegian Hercules killing five .

Not a lot of soaring , but the weather improves!

CU next week

Cheers, Ritz
www.soaring.eu