U learn something every day...

After a useful tip from Maurice I can now post SeeYou flightlogs in full colour. Thanks, and in recognition for this achievement here is a 65 km flight of Maurices along the coast to Kawarau.

Low thermal trigger...

This is the lowest thermal trigger temp I've seen in Tauranga. Unfortunately the predicted high cloud will probably bugger things up a bit. However if the ground temp gets to 12 degrees then predicted cloud bases are 4-4500 feet.

Wind will be a problem as well.

Towplane??

Could this do the job at the Fijian Gliding Club based in Tauranga???

All metal, light, taildragger, 5 or so in NZ. The question is could we up the HP from 160 to 180?? Will be experimental class...but so what?

Can't remember the arguements against the club owning a experimental aircraft. I guess the issue is could it out climb a 180hp cub?

For sale on trademe for $85k. Second one up for sale in the last 2 months...could there be a message in this???

Winter...

This has nothing to do with gliding but lest we forget, this was winter last year in the South Island.

Gliding for young people

Well I said "Watch this Space" for membership ideas...SO it looks like the Fijian Gliding club (based very close to Tauranga) is going to try a Youth Glide program. The hope is to drive membership (a big issue for any club), provide young people with an opportunity, and to raise general activity levels.

Hopefully in a year or so these young people will be driving us "oldies" crazy with high speeds finishes, lots of applications for contests, land-outs and new ideas. When the average age of gliding pilots is approaching that of a NZ First Supporter any young people will come as a breath of fresh air.

It appears some flying was possible on Wednesday. We are picking kiwifruit at present so I didn't even notice. Today was a little blue and the graphs had predicted that. Needed 20 plus degrees to get any real thermal/cloud development. Weekend looks doubtful although late sunday may bring some wave.

We spend our time worrying about westerly wave...of course went he wind blows the other way you get Easterly Wave on the Waikato side of the Kaimai's. What does this look like???

Task Setting

Winter is a time to plan tasks for the summer. SO...with this in mind here are some short and long tasks for next summer. Full details will be printed in a certain gliding clubs' up coming newsletter.

I'll also hang the task maps on the clubhouse wall so no-one can possibly claim the newsletter is being replaced by a blog.

Task A - Tga Racecourse - Kawerau - 64kms

Task B - Tga Racecourse - Tokoroa A/F - 59 kms

Task C - Kaimai Lookout - Tirohia - 55 kms (possible from Matamata as well)

Task D - Tga Racecourse - Tirohia - 54 kms

Task E - Tga Racecourse - Waimahora (near Te Kuiti) - Murupara - Tga A/F - 308 kms

Task F - Tga A/F - Echolands (past Bennydale) - Tga A/F - 304 out and return

Task G - Tga Racecourse - Maramarua - Mangakino - Tga A/F - 312 kms

Up coming Weather

What's the gliding weather going to be like at my local un-named Gliding Club. While Wednesday looks promising there is a lot of mositure at low level and the temperature required to get any theraml developement will be higher than the daytime maximum. Saturday looks like rain. Sunday...a chance here. It will depend how far round to the south the wind goes after the passing of the front on Saturday. If the wind direction stays more westerly then we should get wave. It will, however, be cold so put a hat on. Let us see....

Winter Wave

Late evening high level wave cloud over home.

Please bring back summer...

Once upon a time I liked winter...cold, snow and all that. I'm offically over it...nevermind I'm off to the UK/Europe in 2 weeks so at least there is some respite on the horizon. The picture is the upper Ahuriri Valley in mid summer. It was 32 degrees and very clear. Later in the day the westerlies built up and generated very good late evening wave.

What does a glider pilot do in the winter?

Other than drawing obscure connections between blog sites and club* activities, it's a time to plan tasks for the summer, clean and repair your glider, think about strategies to help the club* grow its membership and wonder what GNZ has been doing with our monies over the last 12 months.

*in the interests of club harmony I am now practising self-censorship (the visit from representatives of the Fiji Gov't suggesting I no longer refer to, implicate or otherwise mention a certain gliding club did help a bit).

Opportunities abound. The flash flood in Omarama last week left the owners of Omarama Station with the only bridge over the Omarama Stream. An approach from Transit NZ to use the farm bridge to keep the State Highway open resulted in a $5 per car donation to the local school.

Good thinking team. Who says the owners of the station haven't got the interests of the community at heart...a few gliders pilots could learn a bit from this.

Club Membership...

Does it matter? You bet it does.

In 2000 my local club (I'm forbidden to mention it's name...it's getting a bit like Fiji around here) had a membership base of 80-85 happy pilots.

Today I'm guessing that figure is nearer 60 odd (I mean odd in the nicest possible sense...unless you are a paranoid dellusional fellow) happy pilots.

Less members means less activity about the club. Less members means less people to carry the burden of voluntary tasks. Less members means the fixed overhead costs have to be shared by less people...ie the cost per member goes up.

So what do we do about this? This has been challanging the club, and other clubs, for years. Clearly the effort members have put into past activities like scholarships, big day ups, trial flights have helped bring in some newbies. But it doesn't seem to be enough. Maybe it's time for something new. And by new it might require some real investment and a bit of thinking outside the box. Watch this space...

On to fun things...CAA and old farts don't like high speed finishes at contests, or anywhere for that matter. Bugger them I say (figuratively), bring it on...below is high speed finish at the last contest. In fact we had quite alot thanks to the Auckalnd contingent...maybe they have more fun than us.

And lastly to our tow pilots...clearly some cub drivers are faster than others.

On a roll...

It's wet, it's cold and it's boring...so what to do?

How about reliving some of those past flights. Some one has cheekily suggested I mightn't have flown more than 300kms yet. A reasonable proposition as no Gold C's have been claimed under my name yet. Let's put this rumour to bed...below a ridge/thermal/wave flight out of Omarama. 488kms.

I have identified a small snag in the plan, this blog site doesn't support file sharing...or not that I have worked out yet. A possible solution might be to use the OLC to post flight logs...but it's a complicated website due to the need to verify flight logs etc. We are working on a solution. There's always a solution...

Weather update...it's not looking good...which is why I'm off to the UK and Europe in 2 weeks. Got to be warmer over there...

Some feedback...

Well it appears I must be on the right track...thank you to those who sent positive e-mails. I've generated some discussion, always a good thing. I may need to reiterate this point from time to time - this blog is my blog, so expect to read my view of the world but more importantly lets see those track logs from people flights. I'll use the blog to publish various flights as well as upload the igc file so anyone with SeeYou can replay the flight at home. 500 km from Tauranga We have "stress tested" the proposed task, which included a leg to Twin Falls near Rangitiaki (Lochinvar), and have had some suggestions that the lake breeze and sea breeze from the East Coast gets into that area quite early. So I'm proposing we head a little further north and further into the Urewera's. That's sure to test the nerves... Weather Update...looks like there might be some wave about on Wednesday but it won't be that fantastic...cold stable weather later in the week so probably not much chop then...building westerlies later in the week so maybe wave on the weekend. What does a good wave flight look like... Maurice in wave over Whangamata...

Target for next summer

Now is the time to think about the tasks for next summer. Gone are the days of trying to put a task together as you are cleaning your glider and under pressure to launch.

The task we haven't completed out of Tauranga yet is 500 km 3 turnpoint task in thermals. It's been done in the wave but not in thermals. We need a post frontal day with light W-SW winds that help the Kaimai ridge produce strong ridge induced thermals are well as not too muck Lake breeze from Lake Taupo. we actually get quite a few of these days.

Task - Start from Papamoa Hills because they start working early in the day - up to the Hauraki Plains before the sea breeze gets in then down past Taupo hopefully around the lake breeze, back up along the Kaimai's just to the edge of the sea breeze convergence and home. Piece of cake...yeah right. But lets give it a go. All the turnpoints have been achieved fro Tauranga.

we were lucky...

Other than gliding we are kiwifruit growers. The hail missed us by inches...Some growers have had this years crop completely or partially destroyed.

The westerlies are coming

Strong West/Southwest winds over the next few days. Where can we get to in our gliders in a westerly? The photo shows a typical 200-300km flight out of Tauranga in the wave, then dropping down onto the ridge to run up to Coromandel and back down towards Pataruru.

The challanging bits are getting started in wave, and dealing with Airways staff to get airspace clearances, and finally getting enough height to make the long downwind dash back to the airfield.

All good fun...

Low level rope breaks

Long discussion last night about low level rope break training. Rope breaks on tow is one of those risks that we need to aways be watchful for and we must have a plan in the event it happens. A useful discussion I think. Winter is coming with temperatures rarely over 18 degrees and more rain about. Snow in the South, hail in wellington etc. Outlook for the weekend isn't great with maybe a short wave window if the unstable showery weather moves off on sunday.

Typical wave photo in Tauranga.

Farewell to GYR

My log book shows I've accumulated 135 hours in the ASW20. More than I had thought.

Here is a picture of my last land-out in GYR. At the local high school grounds.

With winter comes Gliding New Zealands AGM. What have they done this year? We paid them somewhere between $50k and $60k and I'm not sure what we got in return? Maybe some-one should ask this question....

Sold the ASW20.

Finally sold my share in a ASW20F to another club member. I hope he has as much fun in it as I had. Best land-out was on a college footy field. Now I can concentrate on the Discus. As a result of the sale of GYR I'm now the full owner of Discus GNM. Clear as mud...???

More wet cold weather...maybe tomorrow will improve but probably not enough to make gliding worth while.

So for the meantime gaze at the picture and think of Wave and Omarama.

PS Wave cloud over the Lindis Pass taken from the Ahuriri valley.