Yes we started the meteorological autumn yesterday and Holland showed that spring and autumn create great soaring circumstances in The Netherlands. When you can fly a 650 km. cross-country over a flat-as-a-pancake area on September 1, the weather is GOOD. Even our Belgium friends flew from the N. of their country to nearly the N. of our country….in a Libelle.

Back in the rhythm / routine, but still treasuring my great time in Uvalde. Just read the story back,  I wrote for Gliding International and all those exciting, great, lovely, sad and mad moments came back. Reading the GI I learned something new too.
I knew of course about the OLC, as I use it frequently to analyse flights or to give a reaction on flights made by friends. I knew the BGA Ladder —UK- only flights —[ www.bgaladder.co.uk  and now I read in an article by Joseph King about another alternative look at http://skylines.xcsoar.org
Of course I checked it straight away to find out that there is not a lot of “action yet”, but it has great very detailed maps and it is easy to use as is the OLC system.The future will show what system will be preferable used by the pilots.

Also read in GI the story about skin cancer written by Robert Down. Are pilots having more chance to get it flying at higher elevation? Does altitude play a part?  It seems YES is the answer.A Nordic study of over 10.000 pilots showed that their risk of skin cancer was compared to not-pilots, was DOUBLE!!!!
So I am not going to scare you more then the picture below , but PLEASE keep an eye on it. The full story , which I read with great interest, is in the September/October issue from Gliding International.

And some more pictures I did not add to the blogs.Still nice impressions!The last picture from the French team is from FB.

A car in front of my house just killed a cat by hitting it. It still moved it’s tail but when the animal ambulance people arrived they only established it’s dead now. Luckily they were very careful with the little animal always walking and playing in my garden. Don’t know who’s cat it is.
A bit of a weird and quick “finish” of this blog, but as cat-lover it ‘s time for a strong cup of tea.

Cu next week.Ritz