Low level pass in a 737

The things you can discover on Google Earth.
I was investigating an overland trip down the west coast of the North Island from Raglan to Awakino.
Following the road as it twists and winds it way around hills, forest and valleys a small shape caught my attention...

An Unidentified Flying Object...or the mid-day flight from Christchurch to Auckland.

For the love of God...make it stop...

These constant attacks on our airspace...
This strategy of chipping away at the freedom of unfettered airspace for the public to pursue their chosen activity seems designed to wear us down.
The latest attempt to lower large tracts of the Waikato to 3500ft and the area further south from 6500ft to 5500ft fits with the overall plan to control all airspace above 3500ft right across the central Nth Is.
Why do they want to do this??

Reading the latest proposal it's because they (Airways) seem unable to control IFR traffic around Hamilton airport. Nevermind the fact that Airways could have objected to the expansion of CTC operations, nevermind the fact that Performance Based Nav is due to roll out over the Bay Sector at some point, and nevermind the fact that they once promised that if we (glider pilots) installed Transponders we'd never have any more airspace issues in the future...yeah right.
4 years ago when the 2 GA areas were established (254 on request and 255 on approval) it was never suggested that Airways would resist opening both areas at the same time. So once you open 254 it seems there is real reluctance to open the other...despite assurances this wouldn't be the case.

I'm guessing we have little chance of changing this outcome...consultation in Airways speak means..."here's the plan...take it or leave it".

I know we are only a small group of merry pilots and the all important IFR heavy metal aircraft are the "Gods" but surely we are entitled to access to what is a public good...that being the airspace above us.

Hi de hi...

Today...Saturday...should be an OK gliding day. Thermals of 4-5 knots and light west to NW winds. The only challenge is it could be a little blue.
I'm off to Wellywood for the day so that I can be back in time for tomorrows rain.
That's good planning...not.

Perhaps today would a good day for a check flight or BFR for any members who are a little rusty.
All you need is a willing instructor and one of the clubs 2 seaters...any 2 seater will do. But one suspects it should be the 2 seater you expect to do most of your challenging flying in...
So if you expect to do lots of local flying, aerobatics or teaching newbies use a Puchcaz, if you thing is trial flights and maybe short X-country flights or flying the LS4 perhaps the Janus might be best...but if you expect to do X-country instruction, long X-country flights involving the use of a turbo...a logical person would point you in the direction of the Duo...wouldn't they???

So much to write about...

So little time.
We are about to see a major airspace violation...by Airways. The cardie wearers want to reduce uncontrolled airspace around the Matamata area. See map.

More to follow once I catch my breath...BUT picture this...
Airways finally get their wish and have all the airspace between Hamilton, Rotorua and Tauranga lowered to 3500ft. At this stage X-country gliding in the Waikato is effectively kazumped...

Today in a word...Sunny

Which means Blue.
Very blue.
Both the RASP and the Squiggly lines shows little chance of any thermal markers despite there being thermals about.
Forecast thermal strengthens of 4-6 knots and a sea breeze convergence all look promsing...but we will need quite high ground temps (25 degrees plus) to get Cu development.
Might be some markers on the convergence.
Lets see how accurate the forecast are...

Out and about.

Yesterday (Saturday) fairly much followed the forecast.
SW winds in the morning slowly turning more northerly.
Ridge and some wave.
Cloud bases slowly climbing to 5000ft in the afternoon.

First up was a check flight/BFR for one of our D Cat instructors. A tow to the ridge...24 mins which if it's split 2 ways, and at our X-country rate of $3.50 per minute, works out at $40-ish dollars each.
So there we were...practising in ridge lift and thermals up towards Thames and back and no sign of life at Piako. We assumed their tow-plane must be U/S...but no...a push out from the ridge to overfly the airfield showed a line up of gliders (by now it was 1pm)...I'm not sure daylight savings time has started in the Waikato...

So time to head home...we left the ridge at 4000ft and had the worst run back into Tauranga I can remember. By the time we got to the Wairoa River we were at 1400ft. Nothing worked...quite unusual. A 3 knot thermal over Judea got us high enough to comfortably cross the city...but you live and learn  I guess.
However it raises the usual challenge...at 1400ft over the Wairoa River in 4 knots down do you raise the turbo (I forgot to mention that we were in the super duper Duo turbo). We were on final glide with 600ft spare...there isn't many land-out options around the river, or between the river and the airfield...the only real strip had beef cattle on it... the short answer is - in this position I think the turbo is disadvantage. There is a real risk of focusing on the "let's put the motor up" and losing sight of the option of finding a climb or a land-out option. It all happens quite quickly. But here in lies the reason for check flights...we had the chance to analysis the decision making.

Back on the ground at 1.30pm with time on my hands. I was filling in for another instructor...but we had no trial flights (something we should get used to with Part 115 looming) and, far more concerning, only one student who opted to go flying in the Pipistrel. So a quick wax and polish of the little Discus and we were off again.

A 7 knot climb off tow to 4500ft (bases were 5000ft but airspace gets in the way), followed by a run to the Kaimai's and back and then a climb in wave to 7500ft. the wave was very weak at 4500ft but by the time we climbed to 7000ft we were going up at 5-6 knots.

Change is as good as a rest...

The blog needed a bit of spruce up...
Let me know if this format is crap...I already know that various people think the content is...

Running at about 1500 hits per month...mostly from NZ but a significant number from the US of A and Australia.

Still looking like a Wave day tomorrow but probably not good enough to make the jump from the Bay of Plenty down to Taupo and then across to the Hawkes Bay. I know some-one just itching to do this...
Besides I have to be back to judge the local Calf club day on Saturday.

Is a Dingo faster than a Griffin???

Apparently...
For those who have forgotten their Greek history a Griffin had the body of a lion but the wings of an eagle...
But in the outback a Dingo still goes faster than a Griffin...
Don't believe me??
Check out the club class scores from yesterday...

Team Dingo - 4259
Team Griffin - a bit less.

But a Weaver is much faster at - 4410.

But a Hunter is the fastest...5410 points.

Looks like conditions for the Nationals across the ditch have been the exact opposite of last year. To refresh your memory last year it rained, and rained, and rained and they called the whole contest off...quite like over here from time to time.

The wave season is upon us here in the land of the long white cloud. In fact on the return Air NZ flight from Wellington late yesterday the Q300 pilot (who is a glider pilot as well) took a small deviation from his track to soar the Ruapehu Wave...I think he was pleased one of his passengers noticed.

And this form the Naki...cool eh.

4 go mad in the desert...

Kiwi's lost in the great Australian outback...
Not so Live reports from the Australian Nationals.
Maurice Weaver is updating the Tauranga Club site on his (and others) adventures in the big dry. http://www.glidingtauranga.co.nz/news/
Seems Brett is doing OK against the local seasoned veterans...4th today, 3rd a few days back. It does seem some-one supplied him with an out of date Turnpoint File and hence he lost most of his day 2 points ...kinda reminds me of a 1 Day Cricket Match a few decades back.
Team Griffin appears to struggling to get going...but there is 3 days left.

The really weird part is the only actual news updates that I can find are coming from a displaced Aussie who lives in NZ competing in an Aussie Nationals...it appears the locals think anybody who's not on site isn't interested in following the event. Yeah yeah...we can get the scores off SeeYou but what about some news, gossip, photos, reports...oh well ho hum...promotion of our sport misses another opportunity.

I plugged my new PNA into the LX V7 today...with a few adjustments it seems to be operational. Gadgets complete...time for some flying. Looks like wave tomorrow and Friday. I'm off to Wellywood tomorrow so it'll have to be Friday. If any body's keen I will be too.

Looking about the hanger I see the forlorn shape of the Duo.
I hear some rumours that the current charge out rate is putting members off flying it.
I suspect this is true...and now we own and operate this large piece of plastic the best thing we could do is encourage as much use age as possible. A review is required...which might include raising the annual membership fee to cover all fixed costs but making the flying charges cheaper. It won't help me but the general health of the club still interests me...I want to go flying with others.

And before I hear some bleating about the weather (we have had rain, snow, wind, more rain etc etc) bear in mind that the Duo I own a part of has done heaps of flying - why you might ask?? Cos it's free...at least on a per minute basis.

Wave day...go go go

Because I'm off to the Hawkes Bay tomorrow and wasn't thinking about flying I overlooked consulting the RASP.
An observant local heavy metal pilot just rang and pointed out that it looks outstanding...
And so it does.
Wave locally as well as all the way down to the Hawkes Bay.
A 1000km day.

I note that the psuedo-international pilots in Australia have had a mixed day...the Pharamist only scored 36 points...what happened...however Maurice, the wave, Weaver did better than yesterday.

Whoops...rush of blood to the head...not so good wave day. Oh well maybe next week.

A Parallel Universe...but not quite.

For those who's memory stretches back at least a week...I mentioned I was facilitating a club discussion for the local Hunt Club. That sport on horses, with hounds, funny trumpets and lots of tradition. Very poor method of pest control but great fun all the same.
So let's draw some comparisons between racing about the sky and racing about after hares,

A sport that has a long history - check
A sport that requires lots of personal investment - check
A sport that is time consuming - check
A sport that has built up a lot of assets in buildings and equipment - check
A sport that has plenty of passionate people - check
A sport that essentially run by volunteers - check
A sport that has a lot of people who have been around for a while and who are resistant to change -check
A sport that is struggling for young members - check
A sport that has a high turn over rate of members - check
And as a result of the last 2 issues....a sport with an increasing average age - check
A sport with a very high percentage of members involved in club committees (15 percent) - check

Do you see a pattern??

Can I see a solution?? No...not yet.

Aussie Nationals

Various Tauranga pilots are masquerading as International entries in the Australian Nationals being held in Kingaroy.
Our local drug dealer (otherwise called a pharmacist) will feel at home flying a JS1.

Go here for the only on-line coverage I can find - http://www.kingaroynationals.com/

It would appear that this interweb fang dangled thingy is a bit new out in the G.A.F.A...what does GAFA stand for??? The Great Australian Eff All...and it is...

What's even more frustrating???

I received a text this morning from an ex-pat Australian who's in Kingaroy for the Aussie Nationals...or some such contest.
Whats Kingaroy famous for? It's the former home of ex-Kiwi and past Queensland state premier - Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson - what a man, he knew how to deal to a problem...just shoot it. Mitt, I'm not really a breed of sheep, Romney, could learn a thing or two from this chap.

Get this - 10,000ft cloud base and 10 knot climbs...amazing day...bastard.

How frustrating is this...

I'm stuck in traffic on the Akl motorway heading north just south of the Drury turnoff...and I have just watched 3 glider trailers head south. In light traffic with smiles on their faces...buggers.
Looks like a wild ridge day. Forecast winds of 40 to 50 knots...yee ha.
Have fun Auckland people...think of me stuck in traffic followed by dress shopping for teenage girls.

It's gone strangely quiet...

I notice that Soaring Cafe http://soaringcafe.com/ hasn't posted much for 2 weeks now.
And the Cumulus Soaring site hasn't posted anything for a month. The regular newsletter produced by Paul was last regularly updated in November 2011...I guess if it's a yearly newsletter then that's regular on a geological scale.
However I edit the newsletter for my local club...I asked for content...I waited and waited...nothing. So it's not a only a local phenomenon.

Maybe gliding membership has finally dropped below a critical mass and it's all over folks???
However I did get around to reading an op-ed of the membership crisis in a soaring publication called Gliding International...it didn't add much to the pool of knowledge other than its a problem, someone should do something, but no one really knows what.

Maybe this might be of interest - I've been asked to facilitate a club discussion about;
- where members want the club to go?
- what to do about declining membership?
- how do we handle all these assets?
- what other things should the club be doing?
- how do we attract and hold onto younger potential members?

Sound vaguely familiar?
No, it's not a Gliding Club - it's the local Bay of Plenty Hunt Club. Not the hunting of deer, pigs or sheep, but that lot on horses with hounds, red jackets and funny trumpet thingy's.
It's  a great social day out, open air, new country, a bit of a challenge, no-one gets too badly hurt (except possibly a varmint or two), and it's a largely volunteer effort.
Hunt clubs have been around a while, have lots of assets from years of investment and bequeaths, and have a small pool of very keen volunteers.

I wonder if they view the possible challanges and outcomes any differently from what we do???

Could be a Wave day tomorrow...

It's definitely possible.
Wind at ground level - SW at 10-12 knots,
Wind at 6500ft a bit more south but still over the hills. - 20 knots

Only problem is the chance of showers that will hang up on the Kaimai's and destroy the airflow.
Let's see shall we...

If it's looking promising in the morning I might drag GNM out for a wave flight.

Update - But it wasn't that good...instead I rigged GNM and put it in the club hanger, and climbed in the local motor-glider (I still can't spell the name pipistel -or similiar) and spent an hour checking out a non-active Piako and soaring in the pressure wave on the Kaimai's.