By Roland van der Wal
EUROGLIDE 2012 Every two years, a gliding club in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, organises Euroglide. It is a gliding race (or rather, gliding regatta) that covers a distance of approximately 2500km. This year, it was mainly through Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Contrary to a standard gliding competition, where a task is flown from the same airfield each day, Euroglide has one task of approximately 2500 km: “Depart from Eindhoven Airport, round the turnpoints and return to Eindhoven as soon as possible, but at latest on the last competition day.” Pilots have thirteen days to cover the task. Each night they report their position and intended point of launch for the next day’s flight. For years, I have been reading the reports of glider pilots who have participated in this epic gliding event (which can be found on www.Euroglide.nl). This year, I found myself in a situation where I could give it a shot. The task started in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and would lead us past Pasewalk, situated north east of Berlin, in former East Germany. The second turn point was somewhere in the east of the Czech Republic, which I cannot pronounce, let alone spell. That was followed by a third turn point that was situated close to Luxembourg. I wasn’t too worried about that because it was too far away to even consider in my basically non-existent flight plan. There was a last leg, but as I travelled that by car, it’s hardly worth mentioning
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October 2012
in this gliding epistle. How did I manage to talk my wife into crewing for me? Lucienne, my friend and wife, cut me a deal; I would cycle with her through Europe, which has been her dream for some years, and then she would consider crewing for me in Euroglide. Done deal. And although cycling is not exactly my cup of tea, I enjoyed most of this epic journey, which took us around Spain, through France and Belgium, to finish at my birth town in the geographical centre of Holland. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, I have to admit, but that is a story for another magazine. It all began with Warren Dickinson, who told me during the South Island Regionals that Dane had a job in Ghent (Belgium). Dane was in the process of shipping his glider over to Europe to fly in the European summer. In the end, I made a deal with Dane to fly his LS-8, rego ZN, in Euroglide, so that he could fly my glider, the mighty VH (as he calls it), during the Nationals here in New Zealand. Many thanks to Warren and Dane, for making all this happen. As it worked out, the glider arrived late in Antwerp, Belgium. Dane made last minute modifications to the glider and trailer, to have ‘Team ZN’ ready to fly and roll just in time for the starting date, 18th of June 2012. We attended the compulsory briefing on the Sunday night, which was conducted in English. There were 70 participating gliders in the field, with several foreign teams. The briefing was held in a very professional manner and it was the beginning of a great adventure. Every year the task changes and covers different terrain and countries, with new airspace issues and different weather patterns. I was faced with a steep learning curve, as I had never participated
