Day was Cancelled...WTF

We've had plenty of days cancelled before...before the start or before the launch...but during the task??
Let me paint the picture...between the task setters and the weather forecaster (me) we massively over called the day.
We were tasked from Matamata to Kuratau back over the to Galatea and home. 330 kms.
The start was OK...but by the time we got to Whakamaru things had overdeveloped...it happens...
However 4 of us plunged into the Whakamaru/Mangakino basin knowing we might land-out...actually probably would landout.
So by the time we got into the basin with little chance of escape back to Tokoroa the task was cancelled...
I've never had that happen before.
Time to raise a protest...

We were 6 kms short of 80kms when we landed out...had the task continued I would have made the Tihoi Strip...as would have 2 others at least.

From this to....

This in 2 hours...

My log book says it's the first land-out in 10 months for me...quite the record...there are times I barely go a month without meeting a farmer...

The picture doesn't do it justice...but below the wing tip is a 30cm hole about 45 cms wide. I missed it by 2 meters in my run-out and the other glider stopped just short. Niether of us could see it until after we had got out and walked about a bit. The luck of the draw...had either glider of run into it the main wheel would have collasped...and Sailplane services would have had more work...

We're underway...

Day 1.
A ridge day. About 300kms.

What more can I say...

Except here is the website for the results...

http://www.soaringspot.com/nzmnc2012/results/

A day at the races...

Well a week and a half actually...

The Nationals begin tomorrow...practise day today.

I'm strangely not that enthused...not sure why...

Apparently I'm the weather "dude" for the contest...so I'm getting prepared for the resultant abuse...

Today looks OK, as does tomorrow...so that's a good start.

Tauranga Airshow this weekend with a display tomorrow from the gliding team. Do be careful...

Omarama Yesterday morning...chains required

Sea Breezes...again

Interesting looking at the RASP for yesterday. With the southerly gone the dreaded sea breezes got to work. This was the forecast convergence zones for yesterday afternoon.
I thought Tuesday might have been better than Monday with the strong southerly diminishing but it didn't look that way...from the ground.
Today might be OK but sea breezes will be a problem, as will quite blue-ish conditions. Thermals of a slightly lower strength...3-5 knots, bases lower as well.
It's all academic here in Tauranga cos the airshow crowd have taken over the runway. What starts out as an airshow that closes our operation for the long weekend turns into a closure for the whole week.

The new glider from Schempp-Hirth. Geez they are getting bigger and bigger. Imagine trying to land this beast out in a small Waikato paddock, or a narrow Omarama airstrip.

Are we losing the point somewhat??? Does a longer wing-span (not to mention the extra $250,000) compensate for a lack of skill???

However once I get around to upgrading to a 18 meter glider I'm sure that argument will no longer apply...

Tuesday...another 300km day

Yip...that's right distance fans...
Tomorrow will be another great day.

The wind will drop so expect convergences about the coast.
Bases up to 7000ft inland by 3pm.

I'm busy but I'm sure some-one wants to take advantage of this great weather.

Did I squander an opportunity?

The day was as forecast...Bruce Little take note....

The task was a 300km out and return to an airstrip adjacent National Park.

Bases by 3pm were up around 7500ft in the Tokoroa area and looked higher over towards Galatea.
The climbs were a little less than hoped for, especially earlier in the day.

We launched too early.
First indications started at 11am and I was off at exactly 12 O'clock.
The sky worked but it was quite slow...the wind got stronger the further south we headed.
However when I headed down the western side of Taupo things got sticky.
A large blue hole forced a do or die decision...so off we went.
It took a best part of half an hour to dig myself out of the hills by which time my water was gone and with it any chance of getting to the Turnpoint.

Nevermind...next time.

Keith in GXT succeeded in getting to his first TP from Taupo...the Matahina Dam. From there he headed back to Tauranga.

Well done to Karl for organising the Taupo trip. Good fun, pity the weather today wasn't yesterday...but that's gliding.

GNM back in its trailer awaiting the start of the Nationals...

Totally Awesome Dude...

Like far out man.....it's still shaping up as a stunning day.
Launching by 12 O'clock should give a 5 hour window to achieve your 50 km...or 500km...

good luck.

I'll be racing to get GNM back togther in time.

Keith the task still stands...unless you want stay closer to Airfields...in which case -
Start Cent Park - Galatea A/F, Te Kuiti A/F - Tauranga A/F.

Big big day coming...

Assuming the southerly clears the Nth Is in the morning...or is confined to the East Coast then watch out of a big day.
Bases of 8-9000ft over the central high country all the way out to the coasts. the southerly flow will keep any sea breezes out and there aren't no inversion.
Any areas that get above 20 degrees should have well marked thermals with good streets.

For Keith stuck in Taupo...the task I left with the gear by the Piano...is a 310km. You'll want to go north and east first.

It won't be spectacular but it will be fly-able.

Taupo.
Saturday should be OK...light to moderate winds from the west, bases of 5-7000ft and medium thermals. At this early stage tasking out over the forest to the east and then down the side of the Lake (western side for a real challnage). It looks like it'll get better and better as the afternoon moves on. Could be a little blue-ish.

Sunday. More wind and more cloud, but still ok although the range might be a little less. Nervous pilots will be able to park up on the hill...Maurice.

Aero-tow home looks OK if a little rough...good experience. Reminds me of a aero-tow home in a Ka7 years (and years and years) ago. Tow pilot couldn't decide whether to go above or below a band of cloud...needless to say when the decision finally came it was a very rapid descent, airbrakes open, full speed, rope slack - then tight - then slacker and so on...
I my younger, less experienced state I finally bunged off at 6000ft over the Papamoa Hills and worried but making it home...yeah right.

We've lost yet another one...

A glider pilot came to grief on Magic Mountain area yesterday afternoon.
No doubt details will follow later today.
The pilot wasn't in the contest currently underway in Omarama.

We seem to lose about one pilot per year...which out of a total base of 900 pilots seems quite high. Admittedly some of the losses come from visiting foreign pilots (I can think of at least 2 over the last few years) but the pen pushers aren't going to tolerate this for much longer.

Unlike the last few fatal accidents this one doesn't appear to be an out-landing...unless he was attempting an landing on Snowy Tops (Ribbonwood Station area)...it is quite smooth and round-ish.

This from the Otago Daily Times (ODT if you're a local)

Omarama is world-renowned as a premier gliding area.
Otago has been the location of several fatal gliding accidents including that of Owen James Truelove (69), of Cornwall, and his son James Christopher Scott Truelove (37), of Queenstown, who crashed near Lake Hawea in 2006; Greg Brosnan (44), of Wanaka, who died near Omarama in 2005; and Norman Howard Gray (53), of Colorado, who died in the Ohau range in 2002.

Help me understand something...

Before Xmas our short-lived CFI (having been battered to death, listed as one of the 3 most dubious pilots in the club, and an Aussie to boot) was regarded as an unsafe choice to fly the Duo.

Some-one even suggested that his out-landings could be regarded as arrivals...however the track-log I posted on this blog of his text book out-landing in the upper Waikato last summer (of course we might be reading the wrong text-book) resolved that issue...no more has been heard of this issue...thankfully. http://discuscs.blogspot.com/2011/11/text-book-land-out.html

So last night we had an interesting development...let me set the scene...
No-one had put their hand up to fly the Duo in the Nationals...I might have by giving up GNM for the trans-Tasman but logic bubbled to the top...why do I own a glider??? So I can fly it when I want to...especially in Contests.

Therefore the onus was on our new CFI...

Suddenly our friendly Aussie wasn't so bad after all....he's great, he can take the Duo, he can out-land it, he can loop it and fly it inverted...well maybe not the last one...
Something doesn't add up...but maybe I missed something along the way..maybe said Aussie did lots of practise flights in the Duo over the Xmas period...in the rain...
Which ever way you cut the mustard he is as competent as anybody else who sat around that table last night to enter the Duo in the contest...now all I have to do is beat him...

On a brighter note...there is some nice photo's on Phil's blog from the Club Class Nationals in Omarama... http://omarama.net/blog.html
Don't go looking for the results on Soaring Spot...that technology hasn't breached the Cook Strait yet...try here - http://glidingcomps.42.net.nz/nat2012/index.php

GYR looking really clean,....

Outstanding photos from our deep sea diving, high speed motorbike racing, globetrotting, adventurer Derek Wagstaff. A GoPro camera with a stick-on wing mount and I assume a remote control. These will appear in the newsletter...for those who claim never to read this blog...yeah right.

Who wants to go back to the "good old days"....these photo's were sent from Dubai, no doubt from underwater whilst Derek was doing battle with a shark, or a deranged jihadist...

 

Too much choice is not a good thing...

So, like, I've just been offered the Duo option for the Nationals, like really, am I bothered???
More too the point, can I be bothered....

We'll see...

Instructed yesterday. A mixed bag...reasonable climbs ment all trial flighters got 30 mins or more. On the positive side all of the punters were upto some aero's so the Janus managed at least 5 loops and some wingovers.
But it was a bitsy day...the Duo stayed in the hanger, the LS4 nearly when flying but then again not, we did 6 trial flights, a couple of private flights and that was that. We are not a busy club anymore...but I see 2 of us rostered on next Saturday. The more things change the more we seem to stay the same.
The instructor might need to handle things on their own cos if the weathers OK I'm off to Taupo in GNM.

The club class nationals have started in Omarama. 10 entries...that's better than I thought they might get. This Club Class thing is getting better...what a great idea holding the class in the opposite island from the Multi-class Nationals. Next year I'll get to fly 2 Nationals...the Standard Class in Omarama (yes that's right folks...we're back to Omarama next Jan)...and the Club Class in Matamata...or better still Taupo if we can motivate the Taupo crowd.

A mixed bag over the weekend.

Look like the winds will be a little too NW to generate much wave. As a result the thermals will be a bit bustered up and cloud bases aren't forecast to get very high.
Sunday looks similar.
The only positive bit is sometimes (only sometimes) the wind direction stays a little more W than forecast and things set-up for the afternoon. If it does it won't be stunning but fly-able.
For anyone wanting to cross the Kaimai's onto the ridge it will be a little challenging.

I'm suppose to be instructing tomorrow...so I'll geta first hand look at things.

The end is near...

No not the rapture, or some such 15th century nonsense...the end to this wet weather. Saturday should see a new airmass...hurrah, and jolly hockey sticks.

Quite how well next week will pan out will depend on how far south the High centers itself. The trend over the last 3 months means we quite quickly get Easterlies off the northern edge of the high...low cloud bases, wet air etc.

But at least it's a sign of hope...

It's just not fair...

I want my money back...this isn't summer, it's a poor excuse for winter but with extra daylight hours...so you can watch it rain for longer.
The real dichotomy is the difference between here in the heartland of gliding and that small outpost in Omarama, where they have had endless days of thermals and high bases...bugger bugger bugger.

Oh and a belated Happy New Year...

I took time out to visit the CAA poster boy and his Part 115 operation in the Coromandel.
He seems to think it was a good idea (as did an itinerant Air NZ 767 pilot who turned up for a chat...as pilots are want to do)...but my observation was not much had changed...joy rides were proceeding as usual, and the safety was dependant on the pilot...
Does paperwork and fees payable to CAA improve safety??? Would 115 have prevented the disastrous balloon accident yesterday...we'll see (in 12 months as that's the current response time to an accident by CAA inspectors).

As you might of detected on this blog I have a slight degree of difficulty accepted the logic for applying Part 115 to gliding. In short...it's total bollocks...but it is here to stay...(but who ever said logic plays any part in the life of a Gov't bureaucrat).
2012 will be the year we have to debate how our local club responds to this overt imposition of paperwork, cost and lunacy on our trial flight operation.

We will also need to keep debating our long term tow-plane strategy. This will, no doubt, be a long and protracted debate. But tow-planes are the biggest expense we have and we have changed significantly as a club (smaller, less trial flights, more private owners etc).

The Duo will continue to pose challenges...both from a usage point of view, and from a technical angle. It would appear we should remove the turbo and replace it with a very very large battery...

And we have the Nationals to look forward too. I debated entering the Duo instead of my little Discus...but the on going technical challenges with the aircraft have softened this enthusiasm...
And the big IF is....will this weather improve by the end of the month?...NIWA and Metservice don't think so....so it'll be great.

And lastly, I spent 4 days on Slipper Island and my worst nightmare didn't come true...that being I'd spend 4 days looking back at the mainland watching stunning skies being underutilised. Under utilised by me that is....as it was we watched the mainland get constant grey skies and showers while we were sunning ourselves in beautiful weather...catching fish and watching a Cessna 180 come and go on the little airstrip.