WE ARE THERE! I can finally say that. After a few months of hard work with the new editor and putting everything into the InDesign document, the file will tonight be transferred to the printer in Poland. The book will be delivered on 16 November 2009. The total number of pages of the book: 236 pages including the cover. The book has 394 photographs, including two color profiles. The book will be sold for the first time during the Aviation Fair at the Aviodrome in the Netherlands on 21 and 22 November. The price of the book will be 35 Euro + pp. So go to the website www.elta1919.nl and order your copy.

By the way: On 20 November the official handover of the first books will take please sowhere in the Netherlands.

NEW EDITOR(S) FOR ELTA-BOOK

Unfortunately the original editor had since May 19 health problems and it has been a problem finding a new one. FInally we found one… actually two! Camilla and Jens Hxe5kon have agreed to take over the job and started right away. Another 17 pages have been edited and next week new pages will be returned. This makes it possible to make a new planning. We expect to be able to print in October. THe ELTA-book will now be ready in November 2009.

Meanwhile there will come an article in the French aviation managzin Le Fana de l’Aviation about the French participation on the ELTA. We are negociating for an article in an British aviation magazine. They also showed interest.

Now we have finished the lay out of chapter 1 and the next two chapters are much shorter, so now we are getting somewhere. The expected number of pages will be around 250+ pages. The first chapter has now 211 photographs! So this has become a fantastic chapter.

Unfortunately the editor of my book has turned ill and the editing of the book is further delayed. This is of course a pity, but nothing much I can do now. He will help me find a new one and send me the already edited text. Already 90 of the 150 pages were edited, so when I get that text I will be able to make a larger part of the book ready. So I look forward to that.

The first article from my hand has already been published. The magazine "Verenigde Vleugels" has published an article on a double page. New pre-orders for the book have arrived as well.

The website is also ready and I thank Marek Laba for all his help. He has done a fine job! The site is Dutch, English, French and Italian. The reason for this is that the ELTA had participants from these countries and thus I would like to sell the book in those countries. But of course other countries are welcome to buy. Actually I have already received numerous orders from the USA.

Unfortunately the editor of my book has turned ill and the editing of the book is further delayed. This is of course a pity, but nothing much I can do now. He will help me find a new one and send me the already edited text. Already 90 of the 150 pages were edited, so when I get that text I will be able to make a larger part of the book ready. So I look forward to that.

The first article from my hand has already been published. The magazine "Verenigde Vleugels" has published an article on a double page. New pre-orders for the book have arrived as well.

The website is also ready and I thank Marek Laba for all his help. He has done a fine job! The site is Dutch, English, French and Italian. The reason for this is that the ELTA had participants from these countries and thus I would like to sell the book in those countries. But of course other countries are welcome to buy. Actually I have already received numerous orders from the USA.

A new update of the work done on the book. I still receive new pictures of the aircraft present on the ELTA and it is nice to see that also picture from abroad are arriving. From Belgium I received pictures of the B.A.T. F.K.26 Commercial on its way from the UK to the Netherlands. The picture was taken at Evere and showed the aircraft with a spectacular background. Thank you for that one Frans!

Furthermore I have edited more pictures for the book. Together with Kjell Oskar we are editing the texts of the book and during Easter he will probably finish a larger portion of the book again.

Meanwhile I have been in contact with Air Britain and offered them one ELTA-book for a competion. Soon message 100,000 on the AB-IX forum will be send out and members can predict the date and time. The one correct or closest will earn the book.

The website www.elta1919.nl is under construction now and Marek Laba has so far done a great job. The site is in four languages: Dutch, English, French and Italian. There is still some editing to do, but the basic layout is ready. There is also a link to this weblog and it is nice to see that traffic is increasing, both on the website and the weblog. Thank you all for your visit.

In May I will be travelling to Minneapolis and Seattle and in latter city I will hold a presentation of the ELTA-book in front of a group of people interested in the inter-war period and the development of civil aviation in that period. I look forward to the visit to the Boeing factory and to the Museum of Flight. Also other smaller museums will be visited. In Minneapolis I will attend a ceremony, where Oliver Rosto will be taken up in the "Minnesota Hall of Fame". The ceremony will be attend by Norwegian family of the Oliver Rosto, Hans Olav Lxf8kken and me. Unfortunately the ELTA-book will not be ready for this trip, but I hope to pre-sell some copies anyway.

The publication of a book takes time. The editing has been delayed for various reasons, but the reasons are valid for that matter. We have to be able to publish a book that is exactly how it should be. The scheduled date for publication is now June 2009.
During the past month I made some more preparations for the different chapters. So when Kjell Oskar is ready with the editing we can simply put in the text and finish the whole book. The editing of the photographs has also been finished and they now all look very nice.
Meanwhile we have started work of a new and final layout of the website www.elta1919.nl and this work is done in … Poland. Marek Laba is the specialist for this kind of work and he has made many websites for me. We hope that the website will be up and running in the near future.
Also I have written an article for publication in the Dutch magazine "Verenigde Vleugels". I look forward to some promotion and more pre-bookings of the book. So far nearly 50 books have been presold. Another article will come in the magazine "Ons Amsterdam". The editing of that article has been done by my brother Theo.
There will also come an article about the forced landing of the Handley Page V/1500 near Vreeswijk in a local magazine and that also means more advertisment for my book.
Should anyone be interested in an article the can take contact with me. Visit my websites and go to contact and fill in your wishes.
Finally, Carin (the wife of Kjell Oskar) is a genius with regard to video-editing and she will make a short introduction of the book, illustrated with music and photographes.
There will also be made a digital version of some of the pages of the book and that will be added to the website www.elta1919.nl as well. Another way to promote the book. Perhaps we can even publish it on Youtube and on this weblog!

Meanwhile I have started work on a book about the first aircraft to be taken into service by Det Norske Luftfartselskap, Fred. Olsen & Bergenske A/S (DNL) back in 1935. The book is called "Ternen – the Junkers W 34hi, LN-DAB" and describes the history of this aircraft in Norwegian service. The daily use of the aircraft will be described in detail with numerous pictures, a colour drawing of the aircraft and a 3-view plan. In addition Nils Mathisrud has been so kind to write a chapter about how he built a scale model of the aircraft. His work will be illustrated by his own pictures. Thus this book will also serve as a reference for scale modellers. I believe the book will have around 60 pages and can be published after the summer. This text in this book will be in Norwegian and in English!

Work on the lay-out of the book has started now. After purchasing the correct software (Indesign and Photoshop) it was now possible to start to make the first pages. The main color used in addition to black/white is orange. The first pages look delicious.

Last Sunday I returned to Amsterdam-North to have a look at the area where the ELTA was held. It was fun to stand on the same spot where the restaurant on the ELTA stood. Or where the Richard’s Hangar was situated. I made some 20 pictures and I will see if any can be published in the book. Otherwise I will publish them here on the http://elta1919.web-log.nl.

Furthermore, I visited Frans Kerkdijk again and he was so kind to loan parts of his collection again. I needed it to make new scans of some of his pictures. During the last visit I had made digital pictures, but these were not too good. Some could be used, but many not. Now I have scanned them again and the quality is really good. I will deliver the items back on Wednesday. He also showed me his collection and among them was a silver model of the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla that Arturo Ferrarin flew during the ELTA. Really nice and I made some nice pictures of that as well. He also showed me a silver medal of the ELTA that was given to pilots, who had done an outstanding job. He told me that he was the only one to possess such a coin. I have seen the coin in bronze but never in silver. His collection also includes a poster of the ELTA and many porcelain plates. All in perfect state. I made some pictures of them as well.

Kjell Oskar will finish editing the chapter 1 during this week or early next week so we can start to work on the first chapter of the book, which contains most of the pictrues (some 186). That chapter will require a lot of work. It will be a challenge to get all those pictures into that chapter. The pictures we have to remove from this chapter will be transferred to the photo album I am planning at the end of the book. As mention I will put some of the remaining pictures there. It would be a waste not to publish them.

Kurt is working on the drawings now and seem to have finished some of them. I look forward to the result of his work. I already saw the Caproni Ca.48 and it look great. The green color applied was not correct, but he knew that and will adapt it.

This is the state as per today. More information to follow.

Work on the lay-out of the book has started now. After purchasing the correct software (Indesign and Photoshop) it was now possible to start to make the first pages. The main color used in addition to black/white is orange. The first pages look delicious.

Last Sunday I returned to Amsterdam-North to have a look at the area where the ELTA was held. It was fun to stand on the same spot where the restaurant on the ELTA stood. Or where the Richard’s Hangar was situated. I made some 20 pictures and I will see if any can be published in the book. Otherwise I will publish them here on the http://elta1919.web-log.nl.

Furthermore, I visited Frans Kerkdijk again and he was so kind to loan parts of his collection again. I needed it to make new scans of some of his pictures. During the last visit I had made digital pictures, but these were not too good. Some could be used, but many not. Now I have scanned them again and the quality is really good. I will deliver the items back on Wednesday. He also showed me his collection and among them was a silver model of the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla that Arturo Ferrarin flew during the ELTA. Really nice and I made some nice pictures of that as well. He also showed me a silver medal of the ELTA that was given to pilots, who had done an outstanding job. He told me that he was the only one to possess such a coin. I have seen the coin in bronze but never in silver. His collection also includes a poster of the ELTA and many porcelain plates. All in perfect state. I made some pictures of them as well.

Kjell Oskar will finish editing the chapter 1 during this week or early next week so we can start to work on the first chapter of the book, which contains most of the pictrues (some 186). That chapter will require a lot of work. It will be a challenge to get all those pictures into that chapter. The pictures we have to remove from this chapter will be transferred to the photo album I am planning at the end of the book. As mention I will put some of the remaining pictures there. It would be a waste not to publish them.

Kurt is working on the drawings now and seem to have finished some of them. I look forward to the result of his work. I already saw the Caproni Ca.48 and it look great. The green color applied was not correct, but he knew that and will adapt it.

This is the state as per today. More information to follow.

The last weeks have been very interesting. By now the work on the book has been finished and Kjell Oskar Granlund has started with the editing of the text. In addition Kurt Gorm Larsen has started with the color profiles of some of the aircraft.

I was lucky to receive a number of new photographs. First of all I was offered an original photo album with some pictures of the stands on the ELTA. Upon receival of the album the pictures have been scanned in and will be published in the book. In addition Philip Jarret has offered me a number of photographs of English aircraft for use in the book. Since the arrival of these last pictures I have finished also the texts belonging to these pictures and it turns out that I now have more than 240 pictures for the book. These photographes are of good quality and some with lower quality. But the pictures are so interesting that I will add them anyway.

In addition we have now purchased a new computer and also Indesign and Photoshop in order to be able to make the book ourself. Monika will start make the layout during the x-mas vacation. Together we will make this a beautiful book. We already have some thoughts about the layout.

Of course numerous people have helped me with information from everything between confirmation of a single registration until translation of foreign texts. A few person deserve a little bit more attention. First of all Thijs Postma, who has made the front page of the book. Rosie from New Zealand has helped me with the choice of the font for the headings. Henk Verrijt in the Netherlands gave me the possibility to purchase the three booklets about the ELTA. And than there is Frans Kerkdijk, who I met resently and showed me parts of his extensive private archive about the ELTA. He allowed me to take pictures of pins, photographes, magazines, plates and much more. This week I have been in close contact with the Stichting Koolhoven (the Koolhoven Aeroplan Foundation), where Henri Kaper and Harry van der Meer supplied me with some new information as well!

It is obvious that a network is important and that is one of the things you have to work on all the time. Good ideas in that direction is membership for several forums on the internet (see for example yahoo.groups.com). Also through membership in (aviation) societies one can get much valuable information. Use you contacts wherever possible, but allways be descrete and modest. Give people time to answer any questions.