And the Wx will be???

Pretty average. Looks like Sunday could be an average wave day but Monday looks better. Small fronts will continue to drift through every 12 hours or so. High level wave visible on dark tonight. Update in the morning...

Good old England...

Click on the photo...go on I know you want to...

SeeYou...

What can you learn...? Firstly, I was thermalling almost as often lefthand as righthand. But the gain from righthand thermals were better. Secondly, from the wind data, there was a strong windshear at 3500ft which broke up thermal development from 3500ft upwards. My first thermal was quite strong and busted through to cloudbase at 4500ft (remember my forecast cloud hieghts from this morning...) but after that most were broken up at 3000-3500ft. Quite a strong shear although the winds were quite light.

Discus 2CTX takes direct hit...

Birdstrike...

Sundays Forecast

Blue and frosty this morning. Light SE winds which I'm guessing are partly due to the prevailing upper wind and partly katabatic. Upper winds are slightly more Southerly. Trigger temperature at 12.00am is 10 degrees and the forecast temp for Tauranga is 14 degrees. Sounds Good BUT we have a strong inversion from about 4500ft upperwards. Typical of winter high pressure systems... Also the dew point gets quite close to the dry air lapse rate. So some thermals later today but limited by the inversion (maybe 4500 ft if it gets warm enough) but if it really gets going I'm predicting it will overdevelop or at least spread out (a bit like late yesterday).

Wx Forecast

Hmmm...looks like a few local flights will be possible over the weekend. Map attached shows light SE winds which if this was summer would be a great day. Lack of heating and upper level stability (esp on sunday) will put a cap on any thermal development. Probably a short day starting about 1pm. Hanger update. I think we finally saw off the hanger builders. Although stranger things have happened... It's been a useful debate as I think we better understand the "slack we are cut" by the Airport to operate outside the "offical" rules. Any movement of powered aircraft on or around our airstrip would destroy this arrangement. Maybe we will have to (or choose to) move one day but not today. I guess everyone involved claimed the moral high ground and claimed everyone else was being "emotive" and this was especially true before the facts were accessed. Thankfully we still have a few people in the Club who understand the rules (I don't count myself in this group) and have a concern for the longer term future of the gliding community at the local Airport. What have we learned?? 1) For us to operate we need the help of the Airport and ATC management to allow uncontrolled movements in and around 04/22. 2) We probably need to be more visible on the airfield...Hi-Vis vests would be a start. 3) "They" will come again...sometime. So we need to clear why we operate the way we do. 4) The club still has a passion to stay at the airfield. 5) We really are not in a position to move. And coincidently we have a club prize giving tonight so hopefully we can "Move on"...

Looking Ahead.

Summer will arrive, so it's time to think about those long thermal flights. Time to get the tasks organised, 50, 200, 300 and 500km flights. I know of at least 1 club member who has set his sights on a 500km flight (not in wave...that would be cheating). Plan to finally rig GNM this weekend and get some wax polish on the wings. I have been updating my Landout database over the winter. Have located and inspected another good airstrip in the area between Lake Rotoma and the coast. Would you believe it...it's on Jensen Rd. Looks suitable for aero retrieves and safe to land any glider on. S37.56.873/176.30.337 - elevation 600ft AMSL. It's about mid-way between Kawerau and the big paddock at Griffins Dairy Farm. This makes it handy for the return trip back from Galatea or Kawerau.

Looking pretty average

Not much to get excited about weatherwise over the next week. But maybe the spring westerlies are coming early...

So what went wrong???

Too much wind and too unstable. We still had showers holding up on the Kaimai's all day. Better luck next time...

It's all there...so let's see.

Wind from 210 to 250 degrees. Forecast 15-20 knots at ground level rising to 40 knots at 6000 ft. Increasing stability...so it should be a wave day...time will tell. I think I will go down, rig GNM and wait...

The Boy is onto it...

Check this out...what an excellent idea.

Sunday's the day...I think

Just back from 2 great days skiing. Looks like Saturday will be a little unsettled and change-able but Sunday looks like a classic wave day. 20 knot West to Southwest winds. I'll have another update in the morning. In the meantime Maurice has his formal validation of his hieght gain flown a few months back. Well done. And just in case you have forgotten what wave looks like...

It's still looking good...

The forecast for wave this weekend is still holding up... Watch this space... PS I'm off skiing for a few days so expect an update on Friday.

Weekend Weather...

Maybe a wave day...fairly early to predict BUT it might a wave/ridge day over the weekend...probably depends how unstable the upper atmosphere turns out to be. If it is fly-able it'll be cold.

Please bring back summer...Part 2

UK in the summer. Lucky buggers...

Omarama in the winter...

We glider pilots usually see Omarama in the Summer with brown hills and hot temperatures. This is what it looks like in winter. Last year I was about Omarama in July, started the day at minus 7 and warmed up to 2 degrees. And we think it's cold up here in Tauranga???

Interest in the local club...

Some of you reading this blog (and I can count you all on one hand) will be aware that the local club is having an internal debate about the potential for new hangers to be built next door to the clubhouse/club hanger. What ever the way the final decision falls it sure has been instructive about how quick folk are to resort to personal attacks. Sad really. Good grief - I have been excused of a lack of independant thought, imagine that!! Another person, who some would claim is somewhat delusional, has decided that the club is run purely for personal gain...so what are annual elections for I wonder!!! It gets worse...the chief supporter is likely to be paid to build said hangers...but no conflict of interest...yeah right. The club President has decided to stay neutral and have no views what so ever...so much for holding a leadership position. So what can we make of this? On a positive note it shows that members are still actively interested in what happens around their club. That's good. Short of maybe one conflict of interest, I think everybody else is thinking about the issue in terms of the long term interest of the club. Human nature means people get passionate about things...that's one of things that makes us different from other species. Unfortunately the other difference is our inability to avoid emotive responses... What we all need is a jolly good flying day...wave and ridge or lots of thermals. so when is this going to happen? Not anytime soon unfortunately. But the skiing is good. Weather forecasting will resume when its worthwhile. PS I've brought a Spot. So you'll be able to keep track of GNM on http://map.xinqu.net/spot/index.html Select Matamata in the drop down menu at the top left. I see Roy and Sandy Griffin have also registered their Spots so it could be an interesting summer.

More breaking news...

Long Range Weather Forecast from Metris Forecasting. El Nino. Similiar to 2002. What does that mean for gliding? If I look back at my Logbook for 2002 the Regionals were a blast - 5 days of 3-4 hours each. looks like plenty of wave activity as well. Let's see shall we...

Breaking News...

Well for me anyhow... Maurice Weaver (member of the Fijian Gliding club) won the "Air NZ Cross-country Award - Sports Class". Excellent effort...time Maurice ran a lecture series on how he did it.

Picture this...

Look at the photo, close your eyes and then imagine this... The transport plane is a Janus on finals to 04. The workers on the runway represent a high wing Tecnam taking a short cut across the grass runway to refuel. Why would they take a short cut you might ask?? Well...people being what they are will look to save time especially if they are running late. There will be no requirement to request taxi instructions from ATC because gliding is in operation and the manoeurving area will have been relinquished by ATC. A Janus (or any other glider) has a very thin profile and the visiting Tecnam pilot won't fully understand what to look for or where... Now remind me why we want 9 hangers down the side of 04/22???

The week ahead...

Nil, zippo, nothing...sadly there's no glide-able weather on the horizon. If the attached forecast chart was for Dec-Mar I'd be getting excited. Light west to Southerly winds, after a front, with mildly unstabe air. Looks perfect but it's a chart for July. Cold stable air...probably frost in the morning and clear blue skies. we really need stronger westerlies to get some wave/ridge going. Generally we need to wait until late August/September to get some thermal days. We also need some extra day length. Oh well...it'll turn up in due course. Let's go skiing.

A pretty field?

The picture shows a pleasant field in the Belgium countryside. On the 12th Oct 1917 about 1200 NZ soldiers were killed in 2 hours for almost no gain in ground. The worst day in NZ's history - worse than Gallipoli, worse than Erubus, worse than any day in WW2. How did this happen?? On the 4th Oct on dry ground with plenty of artillery support the NZ division made huge gains (2000 yards which was unheard of during 1917) towards Passendale (with the loss of 350 men which was considered light)...so the British Generals in their wisedom decided to send the NZ and Aussies in again 8 days later. This was despite nearly constant rain and almost no artillery support (guns were bogged down in the mud). The result - in the early morning of the 12th the NZers climbed over the top into uncut barbed wire and German machine guns. The losses were huge...two of the regiments who went in with 300-330 men each came out with less than 20. The Otago and Wellington regiments disappeared... Because the NZ Div hadn't been able to move forward, and the Australians had moved 500 meters, the Aussie left flank was exposed to German machine guns and they had to retreat. The Canadians finally took Passendale a few weeks later...the Canadian cemetry has the names of 1000's of men killed in persuit of this objective...