Sunday, February 27, 2011

You lucky lucky barst@#ds...

While some of you got to play I was stuck inside doing my bit for the "Greater Good"...
And the worst part was I could see the day unfold through a large bay window that overlooked the airfield and the hills beyond.




















Feel free to thank me, and the other participants, when we develop a Marketing Plan, Promotion Strategy and other Goodie's to take Gliding into the next decade...a couple of free tows perhaps...

The club trip to Taupo next weekend looks under threat from the weather...what a surprise...cos the weather has been so good this summer...NOT.

A very nice sunday

Good enough for anybody who wants to do a thermal 300km.
Bases around 5-6500ft. Some over-developement, no TStorms, light winds.
A weak sea breeze converegence because there is a light SW.


Mangakino 4pm

McLarens Falls 1pm

























Thermal hieght 4pm...looks good.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Earthquake quote...

"When your fridge starts walking towards you, you know you are in trouble..."
From national radio interview this morning...

Thunderstorms...really?? why???

Metservice is predicting TStorms about the Bay and Taupo. Quite hard things to predict in NZ, unlike predictions for countries with large land masses...the US of A for example.


























Both these predictions are for 4pm, inland from Tauranga and also for Taupo. Not a great gliding day...

Friday, February 25, 2011

SoaringNZ Mag

This month's edition is a winner...great articles, coverage of contests, youth glide etc.
Well done to the team...clearly the latest edition had got into the post before the Chch earthquake.
Who knows when we will see another edition...given the editor, resources and material are mostly in Canterbury.
Jill McCaw used Facebook to scratch together a list of the Canterbury gliding people who are OK. Great use of technology. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1284815484

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

And the stunning contest season goes on...and on...

The central contest is underway in Waipuk...started on Sunday...scoring days so far...nil.
So we can add this to a fairly average Nationals, both Regionals, most Oz contests, the club class Nationals were OK...just, and now the central contest has 4 days left to get a day or two.
Only Drury seems to have had a win.

I see a number of E-mails concerning the Oudie...remember folks it's the software "SeeYou" that is the issue, not the gadget...and a number of local pilots have been using it for a while. You could ask them...
I feel the hand of Big Brother descending...thou shalt not change any settings...wouldn't it be better to educate members on how SeeYou works, how to change the settings, what they mean, rather than issue rules...thou shalt not change the Navbox's, or the safety altitude...

The neat thing about SeeYou is it has lots and lots of options about how to present the information it can generate. The problem is it is so easy to change the settings, and inadvertent touch of the screen would get a beginner into parts of the program they might not understand, both what they are looking at and what it could mean. Accidentally changing your destination from  "Finish Sth" to "Matamata" would have some interesting implications on a final glide back from Tokoroa...

I've had SeeYou for 5 years. I spent quite alot of time playing with the gadget out of the glider, at home, at night, to get a good feel for what's best for me. I'd suggest that members are encouraged (notice I didn't use "allowed" or "permitted"...trying to avoid Big Brother) to take an Oudie home once and a while and practise.

As for my old home in Christchurch...bugger...again. This one is really going to hurt...

Monday, February 21, 2011

What is a curmudgeon anyhow???

Seems no-one really knows...


A curmudgeon's reputation for malevolence is undeserved. They're neither warped nor evil at heart. They don't hate mankind, just mankind's absurdities. They're just as sensitive and soft-hearted as the next guy, but they hide their vulnerability beneath a crust of misanthropy. They ease the pain by turning hurt into humor.  . . They attack maudlinism because it devalues genuine sentiment.   . . . . .  
Nature, having failed to equip them with a servicable denial mechanism, has endowed them with astute perception and sly wit.
Curmudgeons are mockers and debunkers whose bitterness is a symptom rather than a disease. They can't compromise their standards and can't manage the suspension of disbelief necessary for feigned cheerfulness. Their awareness is a curse.
Perhaps curmudgeons have gotten a bad rap in the same way that the messenger is blamed for the message: They have the temerity to comment on the human condition without apology. They not only refuse to applaud mediocrity, they howl it down with morose glee. Their versions of the truth unsettle us, and we hold it against them, even though they soften it with humor.

Life member goes flying...

Rumour has it that that old curmudgeon, past president, life member, tow pilot, contest director, finally went flying in the Duo. Did he get his turbo ratings as well???
Personally I've been waiting for the "rush" to finish before going anywhere near said aircraft...

Friday, February 18, 2011

An opportunity goes begging...

Seems no-one went flying today. Clearly 7-8000ft well marked cloud bases, reliable thermals, little wind, sea breeze convergences aren't quite good enough.
I'm not sure what is...
Perhaps last weeks weather...grey skies, weak thermals, bases of 4000ft on a good day but mostly 3500ft...
By tomorrow the best will have passed...expect bluer conditions, an earlier sea breeze, poorer visiblility, and an earlier finish to the day. The RASP forecast a collaspe of thermals at 5pm.

I'm off to National Park to walk and paddle to the "Bridge to nowhere"...quite ironic really...

It just gets better and better...

Forecast continues to improve (remember it is a forecast) but they don't get much better.
Sqiggly lines suggest 6000ft over Poripori by 1pm.
Good grief...

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Friday...shaping up to be a real ripper...

Forecasting has it's risks...but tomorrow looks like being the best day of the summer so far. Bases over 8000ft around Taupo...especially out west. Appears the day will last long after 5.30pm.
Why oh why am I tied up with other commitments...and the L-Nav is out of GNM for repair.


A good target mifght be Tga - National Park return...





Why did Thursday look so good??


























However the RASP predicted some over-development...and lo and behold...we got some overdevelopment. Cool eh.

Tokoroa International Airport

This used to be Maurice's favourite spot but on Day 4 of the club class contest 25% of the fleet landed at Tokoroa. Photo shows Piako's Discus about to tow home, also present was GNM, GNV, GKT, GGO, GXP. And if you look at the sky you'd wonder why we landed...










This strip is so good you could run a contest out of this site. However accomodation in the local town might be a bit suspect.
Has anybody had a beer in the public bar of the Timberlands Hotel?? I did once as a dare while at varsity...we did drink quite quickly...

Gliding hours - just updating my logbook. Would appear I've spent 1200hrs in the air, of which half has been somewhere other than Tauranga. Mostly Omarama and Matamata but also 50 hours at Taupo.
40 land outs. 500 hours in GNM.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Forecasting resume's...

It's a Wednesday...so maybe some-one will want to go flying...not me, I've had enough for the moment.
The squiggly lines shows cloud bases of 6000ft and higher inland...but before anyone races around in great excitement...we also have easterlies and strong sea breezes.
There is also a suggestion of high cloud...
So if you want to go, go early, tow high and expect to have to glide out past Tauriko to get away. Once out of the zone it should be a good afternoon.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Terror Alert...

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross."

The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out.

Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards."
They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender."  The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

Monday, February 14, 2011

The mighty Janus...heading 4 a land-out

















Tim has some photo's up on Flicka...if you want to re-live the excitement, drama, tension, and low cloud bases. Although the shot's taken in the easterly wave before the start on Day 4 shows the dis-advantage those of us who launched last were facing. Not fair I heard people say...although the loudest voice also won the day...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piakoglidingclub/sets/72157626042203140/

The day after a contest is always a good day..

Just look at the Tokoroa Webcam...bugger bugger.

$500

Good Golly Miss Molly...a gliding contest that only cost me $50....
The last day was a roller coaster ride of up's and down's and the odd sideways lurch..

Would we task or not?? We didn't really know until 15 minutes before the 1.30pm cut off.
Off tow and into a sky with a 2500ft cloud base with weak broken thermals and the start gate area blue'ing out.
Off we went, starting at 2700ft. Top up at the Cambridge Hills, followed by the now common dive into Maungataurai at low level. Rough climb to the top and then dive over the back into the best thermal of the day. Vario decided at this point to under-read by 3 knots...so you would be climbing with the gadget making the "going down sound"...
Low level tip toe into Tokoroa. Arrived at 600ft above ground, found a weak climb (despite the averager saying 2 knots down). slow climb back to 4000ft. Back towards Atiamuri...and then an easy run home.

Surprisingly, second for the day and second overall. I wrote out a cheque for $550 (tows, aero-retrieve from Tokoroa, entry fee etc) and received a cheque in return for $500.

A week that really never had any great days, mostly low level, difficult weather. I never got higher than 4500ft for the whole week. I guess it demonstrates what can be achieved in a glider on days that you would usually give up and go home.
The overall winner and the club class winner were the best pilots for the week (so the contest achieved it's aim), the rest of us were also ran's.
It was a week where we got to watch the new Duo in action. My little Discus appears to out-climb it in a thermal although my wing loader was a little less. If anyone was serious about entering GXT in a contest I'd suggest we take the engine out for the week. It add's to the workload, and more importantly the decision making drama when you get low. The 3 low saves I managed during the week (all at about 7-1000ft above the ground) would have caused a Duo turbo pilot a problem...you are still carrying all that weight and when to do start the motor. Take the motor out, use lots of water ballast and accept the likely hood of landing out...ie take the trailer over.




























Thanks to the organising team...especially the contest director who claims this is his last contest (time will tell...would he CD a Worlds in Omarama???)

Sunday, February 13, 2011

$250 day...

Running late, and wanting to make up time, forced a decision to cut the corner at Tokoroa. Everything told me that it would have been safer to go around the back of Tokoroa...near the valley of death (Atiamuri)...but no, so off I trundle into the blue over the cutover forest country northwest of Tokoroa. I got low twice, sworn a lot and eventually ended up over Tokoroa township at 1800ft feet. There were already 2 other gliders on the strip...GNM made 3 20 minutes later and we were joined by 2 more.

So that cost me second place overall...with one short, marginal day to go. I'm 181 points ahead of 4th, and 11 points behind second.
An all or nothing day I suspect....and it's an AAT.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Oh goodie...the newsletter has arrived...

But wait...something is wrong...the BBQ that is advertised for the 19th in the newsletter (and an earlier e-mail) has been shifted - I thought - to the 26th. A BBQ is a good idea...assuming we all turn up on the right date.

Having been editor in the distant past nothing is more frustrating than people trying to re-engineer dates after the newsletter has been printed, or leaving their reports to the last minute and therefore not allowing time to proof read and cross-reference any dates, activities or events. My sympathies to the current editor...remembering that I gave up the job due to people interferring in the process.

I must also confess that the picture of Bruce "helping out" is really him helping me de-rig my glider. A big thanks to anybody who gets press ganged into rigging or de-rigging GNM...it might be a common event since I'm not planning on leaving it in the hanger for at least the next 12 months.

The summer of discontent continues...

Not only in Queensland, Egypt, and Waitangi, but here at Piako as well....more NE wet crappy weather...
Today has been canned, tomorrow looks no better and the less said about sunday the better...
At least I can keep an eye on my glider from home...

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Waiting, waiting , waiting...

and then we called off the day. Mildly disappointing...especially as yesterday it looked quite promising for today. But it was not to be...

This is what we launched into yesterday...and people still managed 240kms plus...hard to believe really...


Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A ridge task for a day that wasn't....

We set a ridge task as the high cloud obscured any chance of a thermal day AND the forecast was for a fairly dependable westerly.
What we got was some thermal activity, especially over the swamp...but the ridge died late in the day.
No-one got around the 5 turn-points...yes you read that correctly..5 turn-points. A total task distance of 300kms with 2 small circles at either end.
A few hardy souls elected to fly to the last TP even thou they had little chance of getting home. Yours truly wimped out and turned 12 kms short of the last TP and only just got back. Imagine turning back and still landing-out!!!



It's now offically a contest as we have had 3 score-able days...with tomorrow looking good, Friday a maybe..and who knows for the weekend.

So the Duo has been here about a month...

And still no news, photo's or articles have appeared on the club's website. There was an effort to get a photo and story in the local newspaper...that succeeded - we got a photo and story of the reporter getting air-sick. However readers of the BoP times aren't likely to be potential glider pilots...
But if we consider "a local" who might be taking an interest in gliding they are highly likely to google "gliding in tauranga"...they will find a website that hasn't been updated some quite some time...no photo's or references to GXT. I suspect our webmaster has had no new material in months.
I haven't been about much lately, but surely some-one else has a camera...

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Day 2

Sorry I'm not keeping up with the play...by the time I drive over to Matamata, do the weather, help set a task, clean my glider, launch, fly, land, pack-up and drive home...the day is done.
Today was better than both the forecast and my best guess, however we set a 200km plus task...start to Tirua, back up to Flaxmil (top of the swamp), back down to Ta Papa and home.
About 2 thirds of the fleet got round...but most had a tough patch somewhere.
Mine was half an hour at 1000ft around Waitao...hot, sweaty and no fun.


Check out the track...notice the large change of course going north around Morrinsville...almost the beginning of the end.

Forecast looks OK for a late day tomorrow...good for Thursday and Friday...not sure about the weekend.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Club Class Nationals

A bit up and down so far...excuse the pun...
Practise day...cancelled but a few hardie souls zipped along the ridge.
Day 1 - wx forecast was fairly good...ridge day with speeds around the 100-110kph range. A few land-outs...
Day 2 - washed out...grey, low cloud bases, drizzle etc.
But then again...so was Omarama...




















Looking ahead...tomorrow looks like a lost cause.
Wednesday might be OK.
Thursday is looking like the pick of the week
Friday - hard to tell...will depend what this ex-tropical depression does...will be drift SW or not?

Saturday, February 5, 2011

New Places to land-out

Can you guess where this is??
The DoC sign in the background will help...a very long aero-retrieve. Helps when you won the tow-plane as well...

While you wait for the weather to clear...

Quite a nice video as well as background music...

Friday, February 4, 2011

Practise Day tomorrow...

Looks like a ridge day...without water...that'll be slow.

What ever the weather brings this week, we have 20 odd gliders in one class...that's the most I've seen for a while, or even ever.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Thursday is off...

as in cancelled. So if I heightened your expectations of a ridge day...sorry...there isn't a tow-plane available at Matamata today. And looking out the window I'm not surprised.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Another ridge day tomorrow

I hear through the grapevine (tow-rope perhaps) that there is a tow-plane available at Matamata tomorrow. It'll be a good ridge day tomorrow, but similiar to today...lowish cloud to start, blue-ing out during the afternoon and not many useful thermals. Hot again. Good practise all the same...

Looking further out...practise day (Saturday looks good), 1st contest day looking OK, Monday...not so sure...wind going NW...usually not a good sign. Beyond that it's anybody's guess...

I'm presuming that while the contest is on GXT (the big white thingy...) will be over for flying????

Jan 2011...420mm of rain for the month...a new record for Janurary here on the farm.

To our friends in the Big East Island...sorry Australia...it's hardly living up to it's reputation as the "Lucky Country". La Nino can bugger off...

You'd think today would be a good day...

Light/moderate westerly, blue skies, cool morning temperature....all set for a strong day...right??? Wrong...there is the matter of the strong inversion to deal with, as well as the suggestion of some thin high cloud.
The ridge will work...it'll be strong and fast, but hot and blue. Maybe some thin clouds around lunchtime but I'm guessing it will blue out. Probably blue wave on the Tauranga side of the Kaimai's.
The RASP is suggesting very similiar things...
Here the 1pm plot of the Ta Papa...just south of Te Poi.

How to win the club class...

Buy 2 of these and install USB plugs on each wing...thanks Tim.
You could take the Howard Hughes approach and install 4 on each wing...much faster.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tow-planes...casting the net a little wider...

Interesting to see what's happening about the place.
This from South Canterbury....
"Our club looked at the Bushman as part of the usual towplane discussion."

Take off Distance

Solo
>100 m
MTOW
>150 m

Rate of Climb

Solo
1400 f.p.m.
Max. gross
1000 f.p.m.


Whereas one of the club's from "across the ditch" are building one of these...


Hornet landing

Climb Rate @ 55-60kmts
1100ft/min
Climb Rate @480kg takeoff weight (prop dependent)
1600ft/min max


Interesting...