Not all land-outs are in dry paddocks...

Saturday Forecast

Inversion in place above 6500ft so that will put a lid on cloudbase. If the temperature gets to the forecasted 20 degrees today and tomorrow then it'll be good soaring conditions. S to W winds forecast so should be a re-run of the last few good days. I'm off to Taupo so no updated forecasts fo a week or so.

Someone should go flying today...

It won't be me as GNM is in its trailer and I'm sorting out wheel alignment stuff. However forecast is for 21 degrees and light westerlies. Should be a goodie... Expect cloud bases above 4000ft and maybe higher inland. Wind won't be strong enough for wave (thank goodness...wave is boring) but the ridge induced thernals will be strong. Tokoroa should be do-able (Maurice) as well a run up to Hikitaia.

At the risk of tempting fate...

We here in Tauranga are doing fairly well with our land-outs. As far as I can recall we have had 8 in the last few weeks. That's more than some years total land-outs by Tga pilots.
Atiamuri, Tokoroa twice, Mamaku twice, Fergueson Park twice, and somewhere else I've forgotten...
What does this mean???
Are we turning into PPP's (piss poor pilots) or are we testing the sky and our abilities?? I'll go for the second option...except maybe in my case...yesterdays landout in Atiamuri probably didn't need to happen if I'd pushed on a bit more into the sun and the hills.

Sunday's forecast. High cloud, 19 degrees, NW winds later today, sea breezes. Not crash hot, in fact mildly lukewarm...
I'm spending the day cleaning GNM, retrieving gear still at the airport and fixing a flat tyre.

Have fun...

The good, the bad and the ugly...

First the ugly...I landed out at Atiamuri. Another companion landed out a Tokoroa and got a aero-retrieve. The bad...we got a flat tyre on the trailer. The good...the thermals/convergence was strong to start with but got weaker as the day wore on. Friendly farmer and a nice-ish paddock. GYR managed a Tga to almost Taupo return flight. Video from on the spot 5 minutes after landing out....

Have a relaxed breakfast...

It's going to take a while to get going...but it should still be soarable. Winds are light S/SE in the back country a present. Metservice are still forecasting 19 degrees and are also forecasting sea breezes near the coast. Both of these are good signs. The T-Graph has lowered cloud bases a little to more like 4500 ft in the hills. Still do-able. The NW winds forecast for Sunday have been delayed a little so Sunday is a possibility but probably still not as good as today. Forget about Monday...Helen Clark still hasn't fronted for a press conference and nor will the weather...

For those in dorkland...

If you are unfortunate enough to be stuck in Auckland then you should think about leaving early Saturday morning for a day out in the sky...Mr Edwards!!! At this stage the forecast is for 19 degrees and enough instability for thermal development but maybe some late showers. Light westerlies so we can expect good thermal development and maybe some re-enforced thermals up against the Kaimai's. No wave (if the wind stays light). No sea breeze except very close to the coast...maybe a few convergences. Another update early in the morning. Sunday doesn't look as good and Monday looks like Helen Clark...

Early Heads up...

Plan to go gliding on Saturday. Sunday looks like a day suitable for trial flights only...and there is rain due on Monday...

GO Go go...struggle...

Well its wasn't quite as good as I expected but still OK. The westerly got up earlier than forecast and was stronger than predicted so we had a thermal, ridge, wave type of day. My best thermal was about 4-5 knots but I heard reports of 8-9 knots over Matamata. The ridge worked although wasn't super fast. An ASW27 was heard to be soaring the tree line at Tokoroa 200ft above the ground, and he wasn't particularly worried... Three pilots crossed into the Waikato from Tauranga, I have the tracks of two...GNM and GKM. 180 and 150kms scoring kms respectively. Total kms so far this season - 3400. Leading - Brett Hunter - 1400kms, next - David Jensen - 610 kms...and a bunch at 300-400 kms.

Go go go...

It's a soarable day... The T Graphs are suggesting cloud bases of 6000ft by mid afternoon (if the ground temp gets to 18 degrees...Metservice forecast for Tga) and light westerly winds. No high cloud and enough westerly to hold any sea breeze at bay. If the westerly fails to appear to very late in the day then maybe some sea air will leech inland...so don't be late. Expect cloud to build up from later in the day so it'll get a bit grey in the Waikato/Taupo...probably after 4pm...ish. Quite similiar to the last time I crossed the Kaimai's...good lift but lots of clouds. The graphs suggest it'll be blue until lunch-time then get going quite fast and end the day very cloudy... Poosible task...Tga - Tokoroa or Bennydale - Thames or Hikutaia - Tga. watch for the sea breeze off the Hauraki Gulf and overdevelopment around Tokoroa. Have fun...

What do u call 2 Gliders in a Park?

Lucky I guess...rumour has it our two club trainers landed out trying to get back from the ridge. Well done guys... What did we learn? That we can get more than 1 glider into Fergueson Park at any one time, that you need more hieght in a Puchcaz (than a high peformance single) to get back from the ridge... Landing out...its got to be encouraged...wouldn't it be great if every soarable day at least 1 glider landed out...it would mean we were testing the boundaries...

The old cliche...

Fail to plan...plan to fail. Yes it's Strategic Plan time again. I know some people struggle to understand the value of a strategic plan and instead focus on the "today" and an annual plan but as a club we need a broad outline of what we want and/or can achieve over the next 3-5 years. Things like changing the accounting software or deciding not to do much with the tow fleet, while important decisions on the day, are not strategic in nature. Having read the excellent document put together by Paul I have a few suggestions to start the process. Small things first...why do we roster on two instructors each day? The current arguement seems to be "we can not be assured that either will turn up, so roster two to reduce the risk that no-one turns up...". Hardly very positive, especially given that many instructors have a busy work load as it is and probably don't want to be rostered on every 3-4 weeks. And if two instructors do indeed turn up they end up being underwhelmed with the workload...especially from April to October. Lets try one instructor over the winter months but strenghten up the mentor scheme so that newbies have the option of plenty of instruction. Larger things...we need to constantly consider upgrading our fleet. The Janus is very old, GEO is now quite old and we have two under-utelised PW5's. As a target I would suggest we upgrade the Janus to a Duo-Discus, look to change a PW5 to a higher peformance single seater (club-class or similiar...LS4, Discus, ASW20 etc), and we should consider the long term replacement of the trainers GEO, GPZ. Tow-planes...it's time to review the tow fleet. I recognise that the Cub and Pawnee are adequate on most days but using 04 on light wind days is not comfortable for either the tow pilot or those people on the ground around the parachute hanger or Bunnings. This is primarily as a result of the Airport Board allowing Bunnings to be built (thankfully we haven't got other hangers to deal with...) but we do need to think this through. What type of towplane do we want?? Not fabric, water cooled engine if possible, more Horsepower (or at least a better climb rate), and maybe not Avgas powered. About 5 years ago I asked a team of three to go out and consider whats available, it is probably time to do this again... Membership...the really really large issue. Firstly, I need to twist the arm of my partner in crime and get the Youth glide program up and running. Realistically that will happen after the summer contest season... But we also need to target other groups as well... We need a Marketing Plan...or at the very least an agreed program to get people through the door...and keep them in the room. Night classes, Scholarships, Youth Glide, advertising, Press releases etc all form part of a marketing plan. Those are my thoughts...if anybody reads this far...

Sunday 18th.

Don't bother getting out of bed...

Improved Tow plane performance...

Distinctive modifications to the wings of Air New Zealand's fleet of Boeing 767-300ER jets are providing fuel savings 19 percent greater than expected. Four of the five planes, used on Tasman and South Pacific routes, have been fitted with the 3.4 metre high blended winglets since July. The fifth aircraft will return to service next month after the $4 million refit in Hong Kong. The winglets were expected to improve fuel burn by 4 percent by reducing wing tip drag and increasing lift, allowing the plane to climb to cruise altitude faster. The fleet had been forecast to save a total of six million litres of fuel a year. Air New Zealand spent $1.7 billion on fuel in the last financial year, its biggest single cost, chief executive Rob Fyfe said.

Club Newsletter...

I'm told it's on the way to a letterbox near you...however it is quite late. One of the hold ups has been trouble getting the existing software that handles your accounts up and running. In my limited experience with software upgrades (or extensions) at any level, the Software promises much and delivers considerably less...and takes 4 times as long to get understand than its supporters thought. I feel some empathy for our treasurer who is, no doubt, under pressure to get the job completed this month.

What defines a plonker???

The map shows the tracks of two gliders getting established over the Papamoa hills before heading off to the SE. The airspace in question is the small slice that runs up from Te Puke at 2500ft. When Area Alpha is open you have the illogical situation of the airspace dropping from 4500ft to 2500ft and then back to 3500ft. Both gliders received clearances into the Rotora Class D above 3500ft. The width of the slice where the gliders crossed Class 251 is 900 meters for one track and 3200 meters for the other. One could be fairly certain no IFR traffic would be vectored into that space while gliders were about and none would want to desend to 2500ft over the Papamoa Hills with rise to 2000plus ft in that area. Further the gliders were still under control from Tauranga. Interestingly, when one of the gliders recieved a clearance it was for 4500ft to 6000ft which required a climb of 1000ft to get into that band. Maybe we should send Airways a picture of a glider so that they can appriecate the lack of an engine... So whats the problem Airways...

An Interesting Day

The forecast was a little optimistic...cloud base was 5000ft in the most part and a little lower in the Waikato. The westerly did get up in the afternoon but not before we had a weak sea breeze convergence behind Tauranga and down to Lake Rotoma. Big blue areas as well. The ridge worked from about 3pm and by 4pm the thermals/ridge was quite strong. Best climb 5plus knots. Two land outs today.

Hooray...

Finally a day that has some potential and I'm not tied up with something else. T-Graph has cloudbase at 6000ft inland from Tga at 2pm. Maybe a bit of overdevelopment late in the day. Metservice has westerlies building in the afternoon which should allow some options late afternoon to beat the overdevelopment. Personally I not sure it'll be a problem. Expected higher bases late in the day further back towards Taupo. Task - Tga, Tokoroa (and maybe on to Taupo or Te Kuiti), up to Hikitaia and home.

Sunday?? Maybe...

A bit early to be really confident but here goes... No sign of any high cloud....good. Westerlies....good Not too strong either...good Cold temps but rising dew point...not so good No-one is really sure what the current system is going to do...could good or bad. I think Sunday will be soarable...but will it be a great day...probably not. If we are lucky it will be another ridge/wave day.

Another flight from last Wed...

GVM and GYR. Quite similiar really.

And so it was...

Forecast was fairly close to the mark...except the SW was stronger than I guessed and therefore it was a weak wave/good ridge/broken thermal day. Track below is Roy in GYR. Only two club aircraft flew yesterday despite the good weather...maybe we have 1 too many Puchacz's??? I couldn't possible comment however knowing how emotive this could be... What we really really need is more members...so it's just great we have a marketing plan...not.

I was right...

Wednesday will be the pick for the week. Should be 4500-5000 cloud base inland (if the ground temp gets past 16 degrees) and SW winds. Probably better the further away from the coast you get. Guessing thermals over to the Kaimai's followed by a wee explore down past Tokoroa and either out across to Te Kuiti (where I was yesterday docking lambs), over to Bennydale (where we drove through heavy snow on Monday evening) or down towards Taupo (where I haven't been for a while). Pity I have organised to be busy this afternoon.

SE Change...

Check out the temperature and wind direction change as the SE change came through. This is the same sysytem that caught out cars on the Desert Rd and Napier/Taupo highway.

Things are getting desperate...

Looks like the only chance this week will be Wednesday.

Wave...Thursday.

The conditions are OK for a wave day. 10-15 knots SWS at ground level, 20-25 knots at 6500ft SW. If the temp gets to 19 degrees the cloudbase should lift off the Kaimai's so a wave/ridge day is possible. I'm busy but that shouldn't stop anybody else.