Last day of 2009...

Squiggly line graphs are looking better and better... Today as the winds ease expect mid-afternoon thermals to go through to 5500-6000ft. Tomorrow looks even better. Task for today - probably ridge based. Poripori - Flaxmill - Managkino - Home.

Seasons Greetings

Hi all, I been doing the family thing for a few days. Today (Wednesday) looks like a strong wave day. Increasing winds with hieght, 15-20 knots at ground level, 40-50 knots at 5000ft. Inversion at 4000ft which is suppose to be good for wave. Challange will be to climb in the wave and drop onto the kaimai's. Who wants to fly up and down in wave getting cold? Tomorrow the winds are forecast to drop a bit and New Years day looks even better.

Stay at the beach...

While yesterday looked like a good day inland, today not going to be worth the effort. As you can probably see there is a veil of high cloud which will stuff up thermal developement. While metservice are forecasting 26 degrees it'll still be blue in most areas. The forecast westerlies may set up a sea breeze convergence but not much else.

Just for Xmas

Squiggly lines show probably the best day of the season so far...and not a tow pilot to be seen...

More on Westridge

I had to have a look at the strip. Hard to believe we have something so good so close to home.

Strip is 300 meters long and could easily be made longer to 500 meters. It could also be made wider.

Mown area is 10 meters wide (looks to be mown regularly...but by whom??) and the grass on the sides is about 30cm's high and not very dense. Similiar to the grass on the side of 04/22.

The mound of dirty (read hill) is close to the center of the strip but if you were to run your main wheel up again the long grass on the eastern side than you would have 10-11 meters space...wide enough to land a Duo...just.

Owned by the city council. I met the lease holder. He is not sure what the council is planning for the area of ground. I wonder if we should offer to have an input.

Possible Land-out strip

You learn something new everyday...

Like there is a potential back-up outland strip right in the middle of the Route K valley.

So the best land-out options around the city are outlined on the photo. As is the likely layout of the Westridge strip (Maurice has taken photo's and I'll have a wee visit soon).

I'll put something in the Newsletter soon (the Fijian gliding clubs newsletter that is...) but that's not due out until Feb...Thanks to Maurice to alerting us to this strip.

Land-out practise...

The forecast for the Bay was about spot-on. By 4pm cloud base was probably 6000ft. Sea breezes and a solid convergence inland from the racecourse and the Poripori strip.

However the Waikato was a different matter. As we desended into the Waikato cloud base was 3500ft and rose to 4500ft by late afternoon. The thermals were weak and not very consistent.

So we had plenty of land-out practise. GKM got to 900ft over Piako before getting a climb and, again, down to 1200 ft over the Te Aroha Racecourse before finding a thermal.

My tracklog said I got as low as 877ft over the spud patch before blundering into a thermal.

It was good thermal tho with climbs of 5 knots. Right over the top of Ralph Gore's new cowshed...thanks for converting to dairyfarming Gore's.

However the day was no where near good enough for our task - Tga- Maramarua - Te Awa (East of Taupo) - Tga. 510kms.

Thursday Forecast - 500km day

Looks like Thursday should be a goodie...

Cloud bases 6000ft around the Bay and Waikato and higher to the south. Light winds from the south and sea breezes about the coast and Lakes.

At this stage I'm thinking Barkes Corner - Maramarua - Taumarunui - Galatea - Home.

Yeah I know...fairly impossible but i want to get into the area south of Bennydale.

The other option is a 300km out and return from Home to Tauramanui and back.

We'll see in the morning.

Wednesday Wx

NOAA's down again...so...I'm guessing cloud bases of 4500ft around the coast and higher inland. Sea breezes as the winds seem quite light. Some ridge activity but with quite a lot of southerly drift. Good day to go to Taupo I suspect. Not as unstable as yesterday so we shouldn't get as must shower/TStorm activity late in the day.

Listen to how it was done...

Weblink to an interview on National Radio with Terry Delore. He recounts his 2501 kms flight from Omarama to Ward to Clyde to Napier and back to Omarama http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/aft/2009/12/15/gliding_record

Thursday...

That's my best guess for the strongest day this week...

Gliding record

Two New Zealanders have smashed a world distance gliding record, beating temperatures as low as minus 35degC to fly 2500km over nearly 15 hours. Christchurch pilot Terry Delore and John Kokshoorn, originally from Christchurch but now living in Australia, touched down in Omarama in Central Otago last night, having glided 2501km. They smashed the previous record by Klaus Ohlmann by about 80km, the Timaru Herald reported. They took off from Omarama, flew to Ward in Marlborough, back to Clyde, near Alexandra, and then back up and level with Taihape in the North Island, before turning around and landing at Omarama. During the trip, the pair hit speeds of up to 200km/h, but a rough patch over the Canterbury plains slowed the glider to about 80km/h. Flying at 28,000 feet, or 8.5km high, for most of the way, the pair's water bags froze solid during the record-breaking flight. They relied on "electric socks, hand warmers, three hats, polyprops, three shirts, gloves and all that sort of thing", Mr Delore said. Mr Delore bought the Ash 25 glider from Steve Fossett, a millionaire adventurer who died in a light plane crash in the Nevada desert two years ago. Together Mr Fossett and Mr Delore set 11 world records between 2002 and 2007. Success followed four failed attempts. With the years of planning now behind him, Mr Delore was not sure what was next. "I don't know, I haven't thought that far ahead. There are still some speed records to do, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it." Stuff.co.nz

Wave afternoon

Not a bad afternoon if you like wave flying Click on the picture watch a timelapse of this afternoon

Sunday 13th Dec

Update  - I just looked outside...high cloud is advancing fast as is the mid level cloud as well...so bugger that I'm off to do other stuff...

Hmmm....let me see.
Westerlies slowly turning to the North west.
Wind increasing in general from 5-10 knots to 20 knots late today. Wind increasing with hieght. 35 knots at 10,000ft at 1pm.
Approaching front...so at some stage mositure will start turning up...usually some high cloud precedes a front but not much is forecast from the squiggly lines.
Squiggly lines suggest convection to 5-5500 ft later today if the forecast ground temps are correct. Forecast 21 degrees in Tga and 20 degrees in Taupo.
Probably a ridge/thermal/wave day. Expect wave later in the day...it will probably be well marked after 5pm. It will depend how far North the wind goes.

Would I be using up brownie points today??? Especially this close to Xmas?? Only if you have nothing better to do...
Task...the usual...Tauranga, struggle over the ridge, north somewhere like Tirohia (and if the swamp is working maybe FlaxMill), south as far as you can get...Tokoroa possibly, home. 250kms.

Brad Pitt sighted at Piako...

Currently secretly filming his latest big budget film, Brad Pitt's stunt double was snapped hanging about the Piako Gliding Club...

The movie is rumoured to be a sequel to "Thelma and Louise" called "Bob and Bart" with the car scenes being filmed in and around Walton...

X-country Kms update

Quick re-cap. I'm recording the X-Country kms Tauranga pilots clock-up during the summer. These are flights that originate from Tauranga rather than elsewhere, and are flights I recieve some verification of the flight log...ie no cheating, made up stories or use of motors/turbo's.

Last year we achieved about 7000kms. So far this summer we are at 6800kms with another 4 months to go. Here's the track of the latest flight I have recieved. Bruce Little and his flight out to Tirohia and back. Well done. Crossing the Kaimai's is always a challange...why just last Tuesday 4 people tried and only one succeeded...

On the leaders board is Brett, Adrian, Mark and myself.

Click on the movie clip below to watch the day blue out...

In fear of getting it wrong twice in a row...

Forecast. Convection hieght of about 5000ft which sounds good but at that hieght it'll be blue. Blue everywhere...here, Matamata, Taupo, Tokoroa etc...but there is some hope...Sea breezes are highly likely. So we may get sound clouds around any convergences which will probably look better than they actually are. If you look at the squiggly line graph...the mixing lines cross on the left of the lapse rate line...a sure sign that clouds will be hard to find. A few clouds may appear where the ground temperature gets temporarily higher than 30 degrees...valleys, logging sites, etc. I'm not game to set a task until we see how fast or far the sea breeze develops. It could be possible to cruise the front down to Lake Rotoma and back...but be early as the front will move around later in the day...

Forecast was off the mark.

Cloud base in the Waikato didn't get above 3700ft. I suspect the reason why was cos it never warmed upto the expected temperature required and had been forecast. The 2 online temp gauges up by the farm only peaked at 18 degrees. Oh and piss poor forecasting and a rush of blood to the head. Click on the photos and track to get a better view... Met up with GOI on the ridge...couple of photos included.

Forecast

Looks OK. Cloud base 5500ft. Light westerlies Warm inland. Some suggestion of high cloud developing further to the south. Sea breezes around the coast. I would suggest a 300km out and return...Tga to Taumarunui. Or a triangle of Tga to the Swamp and down to Taupo. See you there...

Better airmass..

After a week of a crappy northerly airmass we have had a change. The showery SW change that went through last night being the prospect of a couple of good days. Today will start a little late, as we wait for the ground to heat up, but should generate cloud bases of 4500-5000 ft later in the afternoon. The SW wind should hold out any sea breeze. Tomorrow looks more promising. Lighter winds so we'll see sea breezes in the afternoon but inland cloud bases should go higher than today. Wednesday should also be do-able depending whether the change to NW arrives early. I'm up for tomorrow.

Not too much to report...

A week of rain...killed the regionals unfortunately. First sunny day...attached is a timelapse of thermals passing overhead. Watch the day slowly fill in and sections of the sky overdevelop.