What the Taupo Gliding Club don't want you to see...

Or at least what the view is from Mt Tauhara in the rain. Nice walk...takes about 1.5hours up and half an hour down. Looking ahead. Tuesday...too northerly, Wednesday could be on for wave/ridge and some thermals, Thursday and Friday the wind goes further South and a thermal afternoon beakons. Especially Friday as the wind dies down and the ground dries out. Thermal predictions later in the week.

Gliding Credits...

A good weekend to focus on gaining gliding credits around the house for those future good gliding days. Be thankful you don't live on the West Coast of the South Island...the weather will have been (and will be for the next 5 days) total crap. In the late 80's when we lived in Christchurch we had a similiar spring...it rained continously for all of September at Arthurs Pass...except for two hours when it stopped and then they got 200mm that night. Looks like it's going to next a week or so to settle down. There will be some very short windows for a wave flight but a good stable SW that allows for a 300km ridge flight are going to be hard to find. Currently we have fronts coming through ever 12 hours or so.

Upper winds...

Lunchtime upper winds (6500ft) for the Fri/Sat/Sun. Probably a little too Northerly. A small possibility of wave tomorrow (Fri) but not much hope over the weekend.

Better Weather at least a week away...

Very little to get enthused about until late next week. Saturday might be fine-ish but winds look like being too Northerly for anything to happen. By next Wednesday we get a settling down of the wind to a more SW direction with less mositure embedded in the airstream. A very intense fast moving TStorm last night. Picture shows strikes were mostly concentrated around the BoP area.

How's this for uninspiring...

This is what we want...

Wave...What wave??

NIWA forecast an El Nino spring/summer...yeah right. So where are the westerlies...other than gale Nor'Westerlies down south. If it ever does settle down then here's a 300km ridge task that shouldn't be too hard. Be aware that I have added a new turnpoint at Fitzgerald Glade rather than having to push out to Tepapa or KFC sheds.

It appears I was wrong...

We did get a report on GNZ's AGM... What's worse it was in the club newsletter which I have some association with...heavens how did that happen...

No flying til Saturday

So much for a wave season...

Rubbish...again

Northerly rubbish weather again for this weekend. Will it ever end? I'm going skiing.

Why do we go to Omarama???

Clearly to freeze our butts off...

They're coming thick and fast...

Getting some track logs already for Tauranga based X-country flights. 935 kms already for August. Combination of wave/ridge and thermals flights. Longest so far 210 kms in wave, onto the ridge and then ridge/thermal flying...who else but Brett Hunter in the Discus 2ctxpq... Glider performance gets better all the time...even with 80 liters in my Discus CS and none in the 18 meter supership I could only just keep up on the ridge. M Arundel leads the totals so far on 395 kms for August. Brett Hunter is in second place...clearly being a drug seller has its benefits... R Edwards, M Weaver, A Cable and Bruce Little all yet to get off the mark.

Cross Country Totals

I'm doing it again...trying to get a handle on the X-country distances flown out of Tauranga. Same rules as last year. Flights to start from Tauranga even if you land-out (like I do often enough). No contest flights unless they start from Tga...not likely. You probably need to travel beyond the control zone to bother measuring a X-Country distance. Some-one needs to see your flight log...I know no-one cheats but some are prone to small errors of memory... If you send the log to me I'll put it up on the blog. Last year we achieved 8140 km's. Not bad but I thought we should be able to get 10,000 km's.

2 hours on the Ridge..

A fast tow to 3000ft. A slow climb in wave to 7000ft. A fast dive onto the Kaimai's arriving way too high at 5000ft. A slow run out to Hinuera arriving at 3000ft. Fast run back to the Radar Dome. An average run up the ridge at 80 knots arriving at the grassy hill behind Paeroa at 1400ft. A very slow climb back upto 3000ft before setting off back over the Waihi Gap and up to the high point before heading for home. Met up with GVM, GZO and GOI. No-one else about...

Wednesday

It's possible??? Light winds at ground level, 20knots at 6500ft. Probably high cloud...very high but might reduce temperatures. Thermal height...4000ft. Hopefully cloud streets towards the Kaimai ranges and a light ridge day on the tops. Let us see...

Badge Week...

What's this? Planning to run a Badge Week in Matamata between Xmas and New Years Day with the express aim of getting pilots to attempt some badge flights. If the interest is high enough we'll take a tow-plane, to avoid relying on Piako's tow-plane, do some weather forecasting and set tasks to achieve your badge. Silver, Gold or Diamond tasks up for graps. Plenty of land-out opportunities, tow plane available, personal tasks, retrieve crew on-hand, fun flying with other club members, no airspace problems, and close to home. Hands up those who want to go?? If you don't own a glider request a club glider. There should be no reason the LS4, a PW5 and maybe the Janus shouldn't be available. Besides the club is only doing trial flights out of Tauranga at this time of the year.

Sunday Forecast - 2/8/09

Should be wave...but I can't see much sign yet. Lower winds forecast to be 10-15 knots SW going NW late in the day. Upper winds (6500 ft) as you can see from the chart are 20-25 knots W. All the predictions are there...Metservice are forecasting an increase in wind strenght later today as the front gets nearer. Expect cloud buildup at lower levels from 4pm onwards and rain/showers at or after dark. Little wind at present in Matamata and Cambridge. Piako site off line. Interestingly not much wind on Mt Ruapehu...yet.

Wave

Should be a wave day tomorrow (Sunday) but a better day on Monday. Upper winds are 25-30 knots W to SW...ideal for the Kaimais. Could be some showers about on sunday but Monday looks clear and dry.

Happy Faces...

Annual prize giving and dinner.