Getting the last word is so important...

Jandals...also known as "Flip Flops"....

There is a pair with the "Bald Man's" name on waiting on the PW5 trailer...

For those who are finding this a bit cryptic...don't worry...this is the last word on this subject of the "flip flopping"...

Looking ahead to issues of much greater gravity...the weather.

It looks like total poo from Sunday to late next week.
The small flurry of activity about the club might take a break for a while.

On a positive note I see the signs for the current promotion about town and I'm reliably informed it is also on the wireless.
To date this has been an outstanding idea and shows signs of addressing the core issue the Club has faced for some time now...declining membership. We've had the fun, stress and drama of buying a big piece of glass but filling all the other gliders with keen trainee's is the real measure of success.

Off to Party Central (otherwise known as the Hu Hu grub) for the weekend...

Out and about.

Arrived at the club under grey skies.
The CFI decided it'll be a waste of effort launching so he headed back to fix more teeth...silly man.
Other members wandered around looking doubtful...
The forecast had predicted something better than this...

And then the penny dropped....it's 12noon but because of daylight saving it was only 11am real time. Let's go have a cup of tea...DI the gliders and wait awhile.

Some blue skies appeared by 1pm, a few streets setup off the Kaimai's and excitement was restored.

I took SupaSid in the Duo for a few hours. Over the Kaimai's to find Karl in GXA pottering along the ridge (10 knots 250 degrees) and another mystery glider who we couldn't identify...it looked like a 18 meter Discus or Ventus.

Pictures below.

Part 115.

It seems our "Bald Man" member has gone full circle. 3 days ago he refused to believe Part 115 would ever be introduced, or we could continue to operate under the "radar" without attracting any attention. Apparently we'd never have to go to court if we made a mistake, and by some magic we could defend all the possible charges cos we'd be smarter than the cardigan wearers...Harry Potter comes to mind.
By yesterday he was suggesting the Club should register as a compliant Part 115 organisation. Quite the flip flop...John Key would be proud.



However he has offered to eat his hat twice should anyone lose a case under this new regulation...I look forward to this...

Sid in charge...climbing at 3 knots to get high enough to get home.

It's always a nervous few minutes crossing the Kaimai's...nowhere to land down there...

A cracker day.

It's the first time I've seen the RASP forecast 8 knot climbs.
Cloud bases around 7-8000ft inland, sea breeze convergences etc etc

And I'm off to work...bugger

First contest of the 2011/12 is looming upon the horizon...
Website below...

http://www.soaringspot.com/cpnz2011

The early bird got the worm..

You wanted to be early today...because it over-developed and clouded up from about 2pm.

A nice short convergence set up from about 10.30am with some nice 5-6knot climbs to 4-5000ft.
90 minutes in the Duo was good enough for a club members rating...
He was, however, amazed at your authors outstanding abilities...after getting off tow, pushing towards the further-est cloud, arriving with 50ft to spare (for a final glide back to the airfield), your scribe was able to immediately hook into a 3-4 knot climb...how'd you do that?? Luck...

Note the convergence heading towards Whakatane..

Not the prettiest landscape...

Kaimai Challenge - this Sunday

Not looking very promising...sorry.

It's possible a late clearance might allow a few runs up and down the ridge...but it doesn't look like a ripper...

I'm off to the Irish vs Russia game on Sunday so rain in Rotorua won't be very welcome either.

Finally...

I see somebody has moved the newsletter, roster and most of the other stuff out from behind the secure section on the club's website into the public domain...

It only took 2 years to get this done...

Things are starting to happen...excellent.

Weekend weather looks dodgy...especially Sunday. Which once again will spoil the Kaimai Challange...

Although looking forward we are hopefull of a last florish on Labour Weekend.

Wow...that was fast...

Despite the rough conditions Tim in GXP had a raw speed of 194.115 kph...which if you apply the handicap for a DiscusCS that's a Total Handicapped Speed of 198.117 kph...
It's such a pity he started too high and breached the Start Height rule..
Such a pity...


Check out the latest results on - http://msc.powersite.co.nz/kaimai-speed-challenge/

Quick Quiz...

What's worth more...the glider in the foreground...or the trailer in the background...

A PW5 in a Cobra trailer????...good god man what's the world coming to...

It was...pretty average really...

Rush of blood to the head...sprinted over the hill with glider in tow. Rigged and ready to go in 30 minutes (a new record for me), added 180 liters of water, launched into a wild looking sky...AND...
We had a rough ridge day...couldn't go south of the road X-crossing or north of Tirohia spur (showers and heavy overcast).
A bit too rough to go faster than 120 kots and sometimes at 90 knots it felt like the tailplane would come off...

Won't have beaten the times of early August.

Interestingly with that much water on-board the ground roll on tow was quite long even with a 15 knot headwind.

The tow-plane had come across from Tauranga...with a glider in tow...in the rotor behind the Kaimai's, dodging showers...and the glider pilot got air-sick and had to release and fly home...bugger.

There are worse ways to spend a Wednesday afternoon...

Whew...it's going to be a wild day...

Will the wind be too strong to go racing??
18,000 ft winds - 85 knots...notice the large wave predictions...
Otherwise everything else is OK...SW winds, increasing with height, tow planes on standby, sun coming out after lunch...we'll see.

A photo of Roy's new glider turned up in my inbox...a real high tech and special glider.

A nice white colour, almost one piece canopy, winglets, high tech wing stand, a high spec vario that has 2 special balls in tubes that go up and down, unique rego (BAL...as in you'll need big ones to fly this glider)...

We are all impressed that Roy has opened his wallet (which was last opened between the wars) and extracted some moth eaten notes to splash out of this prime example of gliding in yesteryear...

Records are in the offering...

Wednesday looks a possible record day...
WSW winds of 25-35 knots with a cloud base 4-5000 ft (except for the occassional shower).

Time to set some records...
100km out and return - only 163kph to beat
200km - only 157kph

100km World class (PW5) - 108kph
200km - not claimed yet...here's one made just for you Roy...

100 Open class - 191kph...should be easy in a Discus 2c 18 meter turbo...

Damn it's a lovely day...

Probably better than being in Queensland for example...
However given it's so warm and we have had good looking skies the last few days (albeit with low cloud bases) why is it so blue???

Here's a clue...and we are starting to see the approaching high cloud for tomorrows much needed rain...

Who would have believed...

That you could turn container loaders into a feature at the RWC opening...inspired or bizarre I'm not sure...

A picture tells a thousand words...you decide about tomorrow...

Is it worth getting excited about todays weather??

Nah...FWIW (for what its worth) I think it'll be a good training day.

A good day for grass growth...

But not for gliding...
Sunday.

Raced over to Matamata with GNM in tow ready for a great thermal day. Arrived to see the Matamata Soaring Center committee gathering on the steps...bugger, I'd forgotten we had a meeting at 11am Sunday. I could have claimed to be so well organised to show up 5 minutes before the meeting start time and with a glider ready for the afternoon. That would have been a large stretch of the truth...

An hour later, meeting finished, GNM rigged and ready in 30 minutes, 80 liters of water added, sky looking OK, tow plane ready...we are off.

Off tow at 2000ft only to find things going blue, an inversion at 3500ft and climbs of 2-3 knots...and it only got poorer...
An hour later we were back overhead at 1500ft in a 0.4 knot climb wondering why I'd bothered.

Climbed to 3000ft with GNV as company, did a couple of loops to clear the cobwebs and home.

Things aren't looking that crash hot for the next week.

On the positive side the MSC is keen to support the continuation of the RASP.
I think with help from the hang glider crowd we might get there...

Lets stay RASPee

Can we save the RASP??
I've had an offer of money from the Taranaki Club (see comment in last post)...I think I can get Tauranga to front with $100...
A bit from Taupo, Piako, the Matamata Soaring Center, and Wellington and we'd have the North Island covered.

I guess out mountainous cousins down south would then need to digest the fact they might get cut off...

I must admit that although I tend to use the squiggly lines as a first stop for forecasting the RASP has become increasingly useful...albeit a bit off when high cloud is involved.

I think we have until the end of the month to sort this out...

Outside it's sunny and clear...light wave although I'm guessing it'll go around to the south during the day so the wave will be "Toast" later on this afternoon...GNM is ready to go...probably tomorrow. It's been awhile since I've had a good thermal day...let's see.

The RASP or No RASP...

Our access to the RASP forecasts is likely to stop shortly unless we can secure some funding.

We have been quite lucky with the small team who have brought you access to this forecasting tool...they have been putting up their time for free and provding very cheap computer server time.

However this arrangment is coming to an end this month.

An attempt was made to get the Omarama Soaring Center, the Matamata soaring Center and GNZ to fund a third each (with some financial help from the hang gliding blokes and blokess's who use it as well). It appears Omarama put more store in Lemmy Tanner (which is cool)...but perhaps he should be charging for his time as well...

Either way we could be back to the squiggly lines, Metservice, and relying on the retired chaps about the airfield who always think the day won't work and it was better in the old days...

In answer to the question...how much per year...a bit over $1000