Extraordinary parachutist/balloonist,Felix!

ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN  WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17 2012

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

What a hero that Felix Baumgartner. I guess after 5 year of preparations you should believe in such a triple-world -record -jump, but like me , his family was very nervous and even crying, before he went up in that thin balloon.
My heart was beating faster as I did not believe too much in that high jump .But all went well and fast, so he is for ever the best, not only in our aviation world , but also all over the world. Tweets have been send by the thousands , so a lot of people were interested. More then 8 million people followed Felix live on you- tube,  another record!
Aviation wrote history  as both balloonists and parachute jumpers saw the highest possible in their sport,  perfectly performed by one of them. World record for highest balloon flight, highest parachute jump and first “body”… breaking the speed of sound.
Also the space world was happy as the out fit can be used in the future as an emergency jump would be necessary. Only thing to look at; the visor from the helmet got damped, but if that’s all,  the 5 years of preparation have ended in an extraordinary moment in history. Happy to hear he retires now and starts a life as helicopter pilot. Nice to see 84 year old Joe Kittinger on his site;  he had the world record for highest jump since 1960.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGFjQKgM_fU

Found this link put on FB by Frank Versteegh, who  is a RED BULL-AIR-RACING- veteran.
By the way his new book “NIET VOOR PILOTEN” is for sale now in the shops and the money goes straight to KIKA, the organisation helping children with cancer.
Kingaroy day 5 was a prey for club class number 1 pilot overall at the moment Jim Crowhurst.He flew his ASW19 over 284.6 km. with a speed of 118 km./h. Good on him! Adam had a less good day loosing over 300 points and dropping to spot 3 overall behind Jim and kilometer eater Allan Barnes.
His comment was that the task was hugely underset, that he left way too early, that some pilots mentioned 10 kt up to 10.000, but he never saw that and that he liked flying together with Swaantje from Germany who has a similar style of soaring as he has. By the way Swaantje is doing well.On spot 10 overall after 7 days flying LS 1f.

At 8 in the morning Adam made this picture so not a blue day but cu’s.
Picture via FB.

In sportsclass some changes as well. Brad won again, Bruce was 3d and the well known Maddocks Family ,[ dad and his boys, who flew junior worlds]  ] was in between. John Buchanan tops the overall-list now with Lisa on 2 and Brad on 3, but still a few days to go.
Speed from Brad over 330 km. was 115 km. /h.

Day 6 showed 3 ASW 20  gliders on top,  one A ,one B and a 19! 358 km. was the set task and best speed was for Peter Trotter winning the 1000 points with just over 100 km./h.
In sports class the task was a 4 hour AAT and the most  kilometers were flown by  winner Bruce, who  flew 404 km. in 3 hours and 59 minutes and 10 seconds!!!! Butch was 2d and Brad 3d.
A good day with a mix of areas , with clouds, some blue spots and a pretty  early dying day.

On Flying day 7, today,  the SPARROW HAWK was the best in club class! Pilot Morgan Sanderkock flew during the 3 hour AAT 268.4 km. with ONE minute over-time;1000 points!!!
In sports class Butch was again the best. A bit of a tricky , weak, blue day , so HARD work for most!!!
Only 2 more days last day on Friday as well as prize giving and closing ceremony.
Overall scores with 2 days to go; Club  on 1 Jim, strong lead with just under 500 points, 2 Allan and 3 Adam but only with 9 points difference.
In sports class; John[Butch] Brad and Lisa.

The Airport of Eindhoven is growing , I told you already in the past and soaring there is  more and more under pressure.
Now one of the the full “daughters” from KLM,  Transavia is going to establish a new office there and will station 3 Boeing 737′s over there and in the future even maybe 7 instead of flying from Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. To avoid noise for the pretty crowded area over and around Eindhoven in the South of Holland,  Transavia announced that they are going to practise/test  ”final glides”. Luckily a lot of Transavia pilots are glider pilots as well so they won’t have problems with such final glide landings. From 2014 all passenger planes also the military transport ones , have to land with more silent and energy-saving-procedures.

Chaves; Not that long anymore and pilots will depart for Argentina to fly the “other ” WGC. Heard quite some sorrow about the costs certainly from shipping gliders. A good reason for the organisation to come with the next news;
“In order to provide better costs to the teams, FAVAV has introduced important changes to the process of gliders temporary imports, with the incorporation of the National Administration of Civil Aviation (ANAC) as an importer and now with the participation of Aerotec Argentina SA, a family gliding company with over 15 years of experience in the Argentine air, dedicated to the import of aircraft and gliders. “
Hope that helps overseas pilots to decide to go. Most gliders from Europe will leave in October.
Still 17 not-yet-defenitely-decided/accepted – pilots who’s pre-acceptance  is only sure at this stage.

And a very exciting message on FB from Anne from Narromine….

—”  Yeyyy!! The Morning Glory arrived in Burketown this morning – the day the Safari group was leaving!! Five days travelling to Burketown from Keepit, five days in Burketown getting up around 5AM, then on the sixth day it arrived!! Keith and Paul in the Stemme flew 1hr 45minutes and say it was absolutely sensational!!Now there packing up to head off to Cloncurry for the long trip back to Keepit.  I’m SO happy for them, but sad for three of the group who headed back yesterday.–”
That’s life. Guess my friends were the ones who had left already. Hope not!!!!!!
JUST HEARD THEY ARE STILL THERE AND TONY WAS THE FIRST TO LAUNCH.

Sport; Was shocked by the news about Lance Armstrong. As a real sports fan, I hoped he would have been honest, not that I believed his 7 wins in the Tour de France where without supplements,but this bad,..no I did not expect that, but….still I love cycling. The fact that he was more then a cheater , even the engine behind others in the team to use doping, struck me.
Was pleased to see Vettel win again, talking about Formula 1 now, great young man. Guess no doping in this sport.
And ” our ” Under- 19 and A team soccer-players have been qualified both for the Europeans, and the toppers are likely go to Brasil for the World Soccer Games in 2014. They are on top now after winning from Roumania yesterday with 4-1.
Loved the match between Germany and Sweden; 4-0 for Germany sitting on roses in the break but …after tea and coffee the Swedish players got back to 4-1 and in the very LAST minute it was 4-4.

Today the last memory of Uvalde will arrive here. I gave a present I got from my land lord Les  to Mark, one of our Dutch team members flying in Uvalde and he took it for me in the container as it was very heavy. Steel, in black colour and representing Texas with a glider in the middle. Will show you the picture next week as Mark arrives here somewhere today!

That’s it for now, still not a lot happening in ” our World of soaring” so, till Sunday.

Cheers Ritz