August 4th

Garret arrived after 3 day's of driving  flat tires and waiting on a glider the had to be finished  along time ago. We agreed to be at the airfield at 07:00 AM to unload the 5th wheel. It holds a Nimbus 3 with trailer and a Discus a without trailer. After unloading we rigged the Discus and Garret's Nimbus 3.

The Nimbus 3 Garret is using isn't Garret own Nimbus 3 but he is using it from a friend. That friend makes winglets. I know Tilo Holighaus is also reeding this blog and my question to Tilo is what do you think of the winglets??

Jeroen and i helped Garret until he was in the air and we decided not to go flying. I went for house hunting for next year. 

People who are coming next year don't underestimate the heat.

it's really hot here…

Tomorrow we go flying and Willem will arrive this evening.

03-08-2011 second training day

This was what we saw during the pilots meeting on the grid..... Rather promising!!! Jeroen filled up the ASH 26 and we desided to do a task. 514 KM with 3 turnpoints. When we where in the air we found out that the best weather wasn't on the way to our first turningpoint... But it's a learning day and not a competition day so we went!! First turning point was 150 km out, and half of that trough the blue with alot of nice CU's on our left side. I had a wonderful idea but it didn't work out so Jeroen was 20 km ahead of me. After the first turnpoint the CU's came, and after 35 km on the second leg I found a very good thermal, 6+ on the hole termal with half a turn 7.4 m/s on the intergrator!!! up to 10.500 FT. Can get used to these thermals. I almost got up with Jeroen but i landed 7 minutes later then he did. At the first turning point Jeroen had 100 KM/H and after landing he had 126.5 KM/H. Good learning day but i have to learn how to fly this small Ventus. I'm to much an Openclass pilot i think.

First day of flying in TX skies!

Because I cached a cold I had to watch at the beautiful skies from the ground for two days. Today I felt fit enough and of course Francois wanted to go fly on his new toy after looking to the weather out of a car window for the same period…

Got up at 7:00, breakfast at 7:30, went to the airfield at 8:00 and were ready at 9:00. It’s not a good idea to finish preparations any later, because things can get pretty hot after that time. Slow pace is the only thing you can do to handle the high temperatures/humidity. And so we did.. After rigging we went straight back to the hotel and waited for the first launches in the swimming pool. Went back to the airfield at 12:00. Cumulus already way up high, but as the temperatures were rising, so was the pace… I think we started somewhere between 13:15 and 13:30. It was my first flight on the ASH-26e and though I was well prepared, you just have to get used to a new glider. Ok, what are the flap settings again? Lets try to practice to start the engine: on, on, open, checked, where was that switch again?, on, checked, prime, let give it a shot: nothing… Hmmm, let’s try that again but then at 60 kts. Etc etc. As a reader you can imagine Francois was getting impatience so I considered myself prepared enough and tried to find where he was. Where are we going? Number 48? Hmm, I have only names. How many miles is that? No, miles, not Kilometers.. Etc etc. I think it took 1 cloud to lose each other, so after our first runs we try to find each other again and give it another shot. Well, after the difficult start we had a beautiful flight along the Mexican border with very few circling, cloud base up to 10.000ft and the best thermal we had was almost 12 kts (6 m/s) on the integrator. I was amazed how easy the ASH flies. Its heavy, but who cares as long we have this kind of weather???

Saterday til Thusday

Something important for people who want to transport their glider with trailer to the US next year. A chain between the car and trailer is mandatory, and the hook from the car will not fit on an europain trailer. As you see on the pictures it's posible to replace the hook on a hired car but as I understood from Marc van Breemen (who sells car part's) it's not easy to get an hook like that in Europe .

Unfortuantly I didn't fly on Saturday, because it was more work then I thought it would be to prepare the Ventus.

 

and when i wanted to fly it rained.

This is what a LX8080 looks like when it's built in a Ventus a. Thanks to Maurits Dortu, he borrowed it to me for the comeptition.

In the evening Garret and his wife Renee took me out for dinner. We had Idian and we went to an other restaurant for desert.

Again a lot of choise and very good.

Sunday I finaly got the chance to fly my sexy looking Ventus Ca. Not for very long because of a BIG thunderstorm. After I landed we put the Ventus in the Discustrailer Willem is flying. Willem and I share a trailer so Willem doesn't has to drive the Discus 1250 miles from Warner Springs to Uvalde and back. I had to do this but I enjoyed it.

And after 24 hours driving I arrived at Uvalde. And it is HOT here!!! Jeroen and I did some shopping and went out for Pizza that we only eat half because it was to large. Thereafter we went to sleep because today will be our first flying day. We rigged the Ventus, filled it with water and put it on the grid. Now it's 11:45 AM, it's 36 degrees Celcius and we are now going back to the airfield and prepare for today.

Uvalde 2011 - Jeroen Verkuijl

I would like to use this opportunity to tell a bit about our adventure from my point of view.

Because I couldn’t find a suitable aircraft for the European Championship I had to think of something else that would be at least as an adventure. Or better! So I came up with the idea of going to the Pre-Worlds in Uvalde, Texas. First I tried to figure out with Francois if we could bring gliders over there. I had some opportunities, but it all became very expensive. So I tried to swap or rent a glider. I tried some e-mails and informed the contest director. But nothing…  Just before I had to think about something else Steve Dee got the word I was looking for a glider and  he sent me an e-mail. He came up with a good deal for his very nice ASH-26e. I could even use his car! So thanks Steve for renting your gear and bringing it to Uvalde.

As Francois, I had to do some preparations to be able to fly in the US. Garret Willat helped us al lot with this. I got to know him via Francois and met him the first time in Nitra, Slovakia. After a visit at his airfield it had some consequences: I got to try out buggy driving in the desert, got to fly the Stemme S10, flew on Francois Ventus (even before he did) and I got Willem and Boyd to swap gliders so Boyd could fly the Junior World Championships. Furthermore I can stay in Garrets HUGE R(ecreational) V(ehicle).  Europeans who never have been to the US, cannot imagine how big it is. So Garret and the rest of the family: THANKS.

After all this I’m now (7:00 AM!) sitting in the airplane to Frankfurt. All direct flights from Amsterdam to Houston were full, so I thought this was the best idea.. Let’s hope for the best, because this flight is delayed by quite some bit and I hope I will make the next flight or else I’ll get stuck in Frankfurt!

Ah, there we go. Have to shut down the computer. Hope to write some nice stories about very cool flights very soon.

My First day

After a bad night sleep I woke up at 05.00 am and got up at 06.30 am. After showering I walked up and down the street just to have a look at where I was and the surroundings. It is very nice here with some hills and allot of green.

After breakfast Garret and I went up to the airfield. I had alot to do, the Ventus needed a pollish very bad and the ceelings had to be redone, the electrical system had to be checked and the LX8080 I borrowed had to be installed. I started with the wings first, i hoped they would be finished but at the end of the day only one was finished and the other one half way. The forecast for Saturday wasn't as good anymore so an early start tomorrow and hopefully i can fly tomorrow afternoon.

I have been flying today but not i an glider. Only planes with doors. In the afternoon we went to the FAA office to pick-up my American license. If i would do something in Holland i would go by car.

In America you go by plane.....

We went to a small airfield.

It would be nice to have planes like this at the small airfield in Holland to.....

On the way back we had lunch.

After we had picked-up my license i had to do 3 flights with Garret as a flight review. I just told you I only flew plane with doors. Garret and I made the required flights in a Schweitzer 233, it has a door for the instructor. And the canopy opens to the wrong side.










It's unbeleaveable but this thing fly's

With a glide ratio from 1:22 it's not realy a good glider, in other words i don't think i have ever flown a glider with a this bad glider ratio but you can open the canopy if you are hot during the flight. Yes you under stood me wright.

Well, it's American build....

Hopefully i can finish the Ventus tomorrow morning and fly in the afternoon. I will not be as good as the forecast but maybe sunday i can try a long flight.

Arrival

Arrived

After 21 hours of traveling i arrived in San Diego. First from Amsterdam to Philadelphia in a Boeing 757 ( I didn't know those this flew that far) in economy class. It wasn't as bad as people had been saying but i was glad i could get out of the airplane. Getting through customs also wasn't as bad as I had though it would be so sofa everting all okay. The only thing that is different comparing to Europe is that every thing is bigger, cars roads, houses, peolpe. 

After 2.5 hours waighting the next flight from Philadelphia to San Diego in a Airbus 321. It's still 5.5 hours filching but you stay in the same country, what i already said, everything is a little bigger.

After arrival at San Diego I picked up my suitcase, it had arrived so very good USAirways, and Garret picked me up. The first thing we did was eating a hamburger in a restaurantchaine that was only located in California.

The fries where bad but the hamburger was okay. A tip for people who have never been to the US, buy just a small drink, you can refill as much as you like…….

For the people who don't know Garret Willet, this is his beautiful smile

For Friday the plan is to get my American license this means flying a Stemme S10 to pick it up, life is bad I know, and work on my Ventus to get it ready for the competition. I hope to tray to fly on Saturday, the forecast is 12000 to 16000 feet cloud base and climbs up to 10 knots, but this is only a forecast, lets see if i can finish the Ventus first.