Alphen aan den Rijn Wednesday September 12 2012
ritzdeluy@hotmail.com www.glidinginternational.com www.soaringcafe.com
Now Uvalde 2012 is part of our soaring history, we straight away look ahead at a new high-light in soaring, the WGC for non-flapped gliders in Argentina; Chaves. Part 2 of the 32d WGC.
Last year I heard already how great the atmosphere was there, so it can’t be else then another topper. Of course you can only say after it’s finished HOW good it was, but the news from the Pre Worlds was promising.
Today I noticed on the site that the final documents from the entries are available and …it is also possible to check on your glider when it is on a ship ” on full sea” , for departure and arrival dates.
First flying-day will be on January 6 and the last one on January 19, a total of 14 days with for sure one rest-day! Still have some pictures from last year from Jeroen who will fly there for the Dutch team, by the way a pretty strong team.
Looking at the entries I thought straight away; would it be possible for Sebastian Kawa to win this championship as well??? And ……I guess it is possible, he defends his 2010 title in standard class and will be very motivated to keep that title. With the winning mood still in his brain, he should do well. His mate Tomasz Rubaj will be there as well and number 3 pilot from Poland in standard is Michal Lewczuk.
BUT…of course there are more potential winners!!!!!! 29 Competitors in this class will do their utmost best to win.
In club class even 44 , with USA tuggie now glider-pilot Sarah, as somebody we met already in Uvalde, as well as the Russian pilot Dmitry Timoshenko and Louis Bouderlique, who was so unfortunate to be involved in that midair in Uvalde on the one-but-last-day. Wishing him this time an incident/accident-free competition, full of fun!!!!
It will be the last time for world class, as they will be on their own in the future and 25 pilots have entered in this PW5 class.
Sebastian Kawa after winning the 3d WGC in 15 m. class in Uvalde and “performing” in 2 WGC’s in one season.
Picture from FB.
Today it’s election-day in Holland and a very important one as we are going to choose who will get us out of the financial [European] crisis over the next 2 left-over years, as the last team did not agree anymore and left Holland in a bit of a shock already after 2 of the 4 years. 2 Parties have the same amount of “voices” both would have 35 “chairs” in parlament, so this morning we all go through rain , sun and wind to our election-stations.
Last weekend there was a clash in the air, that sounds less bad then a mid air, as 2 light planes with banners behind, one for the CDA[ christen-democrats] and one from the SP , [socialists,] were flying along the crowdy coast line to get the attention from the many visitors on the sunny beach and a 3d plane making pictures from the SP -plane, hit the CDA-banner-plane . This one had to land at the beach, where the pilot found a quiet spot and said after the ordeal, he had for sure a “little angel flying on his shoulder with him”.
On the ground you could see how the wheels had “bitten”in the left wing of the CDA plane. It was only a few seconds of being stuck together , then they were loose again. The other plane with 3 passengers flew back to the airfield, both planes however are in custody for investigations. The 3d plane was OK.
The weather has changed into a more then 10dgr. drop of temperature [17 dgr.! now] and …..rain. More places in Europe have the same weather, so less soaring, though the young German pilots in Puimoisson with their companions, are still having fun with p.e. a nice flight by former Junior World Champion [Husbos] Christophe Nacke in an LS 1 d; 469 km. They also have trouble however with rain and thunderstorms. Not the VERY best weather.
Some of those young ones , are the 2012/13 Sport Soldiers, having their training-camp and one of these Sport Soldiers will be in Chaves ; Marco Barth and 3 others go to Australia in November; Max Lecker[ got some pictures from him in the past] Felix Bauer and Simon Rautenberg. What experiences those young people get!!!!
The Netherlands will be one of the first European countries to “stream-line” air traffic. In short they are going to create more direct lines from A to B by rearranging the “lines”. There will be separated flying routes for airliners to Schiphol and for the regional carriers as well as for military traffic. No files anymore so traffic will be faster.
This makes the growth of Schiphol impressing; from 437.000 movements in 2011 to 510.000 in 2020.
It also means that air space now only open for military flying, will be open for civil aviation.
I guess it means as well that with the increase of traffic….. gliding at Eindhoven Airport will be more and more impossible. After more then 70 years they have to find their selves a new field and that’s not easy.
The overseas season in Australia will start soon and on October 18 Dundee is already travelling back to Tocumwal. Looking at the Sportaviation site from Eddie and Sheryl, I noticed that young Jake is a tuggie now as well. Good on him!!!
Tocumwal from above by Ronald Hermans.
The Southern Riverina Gliding Club , also flying from Tocumwal, [ Ingo and Judy] just had their annual meeting and are ready for a new season . Wings night was part of the event and a dinner, this time at Neil and Glenda’s, who live permanently in Tocumwal now, instead of Melbourne.
New tuggie as well good old Bruce Wilson. We worked with him in the past as well. The other long time tuggie, chief-tow-pilot Bill Harvey of course keeps going also.Bill was awarded a LIFE membership as well as former president Mike Burns and long time chief instructor Ingo Renner.
The club is the proud owner of a Cessna 150 with an upgraded engine and a ”new” Bergfalke 2.
It is great to be able to see the guests and friends flying at both locations at the field in the beginning of 2013, [till Jan 24 when I depart again]
A bit more to the East about 80 km. is the soaring center from Corowa and they are packing the 3 containers this upcoming weekend. They also installed an ADS-B base station , to have the most accurate height and position reports from the pilots, flying from Corowa.
On the 18th the containers, leave Holland/ Terlet and 10 days later they leave the harbour of Rotterdam for a long trip to Melbourne where the estimated arrival day would be October 23. First estimated flight in Corowa is expected on November 1 2012.
Of course I will travel to Corowa as well to catch up and…to Benalla.
Benalla about 100 km in a straight line from Tocumwal is ready as well for their overseas guests and club members from the Gliding Club of Victoria. I noticed they celebrate “a 60 years Benalla party” with a big band on November 24 and of course the 51 Multi Class Nationals will be hold in Benalla as well in January 2013.
Of course there are more great places in Australia as Narromine where the next JWGC will be in 2015 , the first one outside of Europe , there is Stonefield, Gawler, Lake Keepit, Waikirie, Jondaryan and Kingaroy and even more, but I will talk about them when something interesting happens, or when they send me news!
That’s it , quickly off to vote and then to Amsterdam ,pretty busy till Sunday afternoon, but try to be there on Sunday as “normal”,
Cheers Ritz
