The Olympic's...pfttt...

16 billion pounds to build, 16 billion dollars of concealed drugs, 16 billion hours of
TV coverage, and 16 billion seconds to get from the airport to the venue...

The World gliding champs have started in Uvalde...
16 people live in Uvalde apparently, 16 or so countries represented (but not NZ), an organising committee of 16 and a budget of 16 dollars and a couple of deep fried chicken burgers...and no TV coverage...

Not only that but I can't even seem to get the live tracking to work...the results aren't going to appear on SoaringSpot..

Quite the contrast really...some one once suggested the Gliding Worlds should be part of the Olympics...seems more logical than 3 day eventing (horses), synchronised swimming, or kite surfing...but given the very strong co-relationship between gliding contests and rain would you wish that on London where 40 days and nights of rain isn't biblical but just a normal summer...

But I'd still rather be in Uvalde than London this morning...

Watch the Sky

It could be soar-able this afternoon.
A thermal day with medium strength thermals to 4-5000ft and maybe higher further south.
The first day of the coming season perhaps...
That or I'm so rusty at forecasting that I've mistaken the frost on the ground for clouds...

I note some local interest in the previous post on this site...that's great.
But I should issue a general health warning...if you don't like what you read don't log in...quite simple really. Or you can take up the challange of putting a contra arguement...

The site seems to have settled down to a steady 12-1500 reads per month.
Most from New Zealand, then the good old US of A, Australia and then right down the bottom...Nigeria. Perhaps some-one in that fine country has some lottery winnings I haven't claimed yet....

Update - the forecast was fairly much on the mark...
However you can go back to bed...the next week will suit ducks, skiers and the hydro-dams...rain.

Yuk...

Three people killed in this glider accident...3 people????
It appears there was a 3 month old baby in with the passenger...unbelievable...
Not only that...the dolly wheel was still on...

The World Multi-Class Champs start very soon in Uvalde Texas (a small state somewhere in the south of the US of A)...I suspect given the propensity of US based contests not to post their results on SoaringSpot, we will need either to go directly to the contest website or to the SSA website. We'll see...

No Kiwi's at the World's this year...cost, lack of current NZ world class pilots with spare time, distance, motivation, security overload...take your pick.

Not much happening locally...cold, rain, easterlies, etc etc.
I had a look through the club's budget for this coming season and the one after that. With the lunacy that is Part 115 the resultant hole in the revenue figures for 2013/14 looks slightly disturbing.
Change will be required...and quite substantial change at that. Youth glide (no idea where that is at a present) won't fix the problem, asking local members to fly more seems a big leap of faith (and for one with little if any "faith" I'm not crossing any parts of my anatomy..), and reducing costs is almost an impossibility with aircraft. And and and we have one and maybe two tow-plane engines to replace in the next 3 years...yikes...

What's the solution...more normal members would help...but that's against a background of diminishing membership over the last 10 years.
Selling surplus aircraft...that's a start...what's next...

Something to sleep on...

Winter is for learning.

Little gems of information can be collected from many sources...here is just two.
(And before anyone claims we're needlessly benefiting from other peoples failures...I'll get in first and say...why yes we are...but only for the purposes of learning). I have left out the rego's and names.

1)

The aircraft was left unattended on the airstrip, with the engine running and the propeller in feather, and with the pilot standing nearby. The propeller moved to the fine position, causing the aircraft to move approximately 20m, striking the loading vehicle.

2)

The glider's sustainer motor was started, but was found to not be producing full power. Distracted by the motor, and with the increased drag from the wind-milling propeller, the glider had insufficient height to return to xxxxxxxxxxx. An approach to a farm airstrip was made, but the glider landed short. To avoid colliding with a fence the glider was ground-looped, breaking the fuselage behind the motor.

And now for something completely different...
Why it's sometimes better to live in a small temperate Island rather than a super big continent...
Remember theses photos' when you read about big thermals, 18,000ft cloudbases yada yada yada..

There is a new Duo about...

Actually it's really a re-built Duo...with up-dated winglets and panel. Once upon a time it was GYY and based in Omarama.
How do I know all this?? I happened to view the glider in Auckland 2 weeks ago while retrieving GNM from its annual checks and installation of the LXNav stuff...which I'm sure you have read about in previous posts.

GYL...is now based in Matamata and is owned by a syndicate...I wonder who the owners are???
We will find out in time...

This means we could now have a North Island based contest for Duo's...we have GTT, GXT, GDX and now GYL...have I missed any??

Something to look forward too...

Summer...but hopefully a better summer than in good old England. The most read news article on the BBC website this morning....When will the rain stop???

Sahara

Sahara

Nevada - 20,000ft 10-12 knots.

Oh well only 4 months to go...

I'm $300 better off than this morning...

Because some-one has organised a booking discount on the Cook Strait Ferry.
Well done.

Very very little else to report...there were some signs of thermal development this afternoon...but only for and hour or so.
We are experiencing 5 minutes more sunlight than the shortest day...whipee.
That could be 5 minutes more than some of the Northern Hemisphere gliding contests...a lot of washed out days I'm lead to believe. Looking up contest results from around the world is a 2 step process because almost everyone posts results on SoaringSpot...everyone that is except the US of A (get with the program guys).

I see the National Club Class advertising has started...rumour has it that NZ's best Contest Director will be back in the Big Chair...excellent...less chance of any namby pamby decisions to cancel the day after the start cos it might be raining somewhere on the planet...(I guess I should build a bridge and get over this). Unfortunately for me 2 of the contest days will clash with work...I could selfishly hope they get rained out so I've still got a chance...but I'll need much much more than that...

Taupo is a great contest spot...although I would hasten to add so is Matamata and some place down south...I forget the name.

Byeee

God has entered the building...

Or at least the God Particle has...
Just watched the presentation from CERN of the results from the last few years of data...it looks like the Higgs Bosom is predicted within 5 SD's. The presentation stained my brain but the excitement was clear.
Cool eh...
Europe rules on the science front even if they are crap at merging currencies...

The Higgs Boson walks into a church.

The priest says “We don’t allow Higgs Bosons in here”.

The Higgs Boson says “But without me, how can you have mass?”

Closer to home I've been playing around with XCSoar...a open source Mobile X-country program that runs on most platforms...IPAQ's, PNA's, smartphones etc. Some of the new Smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S3 look ideal for this software.
Also XCSoar doing a friendlier version of the OLC...Skylines.
Have a look.
Also with these new phones we could very cheaply and quickly run a real time tracking system. Want to know where all the gliders are?? So long as their are in range of a cell phone tower you'll know real time...sounds like a better long term fix than "Spot"...and cheaper as well...

Go have a look... http://www.xcsoar.org/
http://skylines.xcsoar.org/flights/all

It's in, tested and going.

The Nano, V7 and a new IPAQ mount.
Really really cool.
The Nano is a GPS, logger and you can declare and fly a task and/or badge flight. It's small and light and very easy to connect to your PC. Powered either from an internal battery (28 hours) or from the glider battery, or a USB cable. Stores 128 years of track logs...I'll be 76 by then.
The V7 is a vario and final glide gadget. You can display 2 different outputs whilst the vario is going. The needles also show average and Netto as well as acceleration.
I've currently set mine to Altitude required (to get home) while thermalling and Arrival while cruising and Average vario and something else on the botom display.
IPAQ hooks to V7 and gets airspeed, GPS and other data.
The IPAQ logs as well...
Clear as mud???

I've also managed to reduce the panel clutter. And remove the large IPAQ holders off the canopy.

FOR SALE

GPS-Nav/L-Nav

All the cables, manuals and stuff.

All in working order.

$900

I've got some more interesting news but it'll have to wait awhile. Needless to say I won't be cueing for the club Duo...