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

First Weekend in September..

Looks like a ripper. Actually if the front clears off early enough on Friday it'll be a record ridge day.
Saturday has decreasing SW winds and thermals.
Sunday has less wind.

The forecast beyond sunday (and maybe including Sunday as well) is for a grubby High Pressure.
That's a new term..I think what they mean is cloud being dragged into the system. In the summer we sometimes call it anti-cyclonic gloom.
It is always present during contest weeks.
Just when you think we will get nice clear, hot and still afternoon all this grey murky stuff arrives...

Club Scholarship

Our highly talented marketing team have put together a scholarship plan so cunning that by Xmas we'll be rolling in cash...so much cash that various members have set their sights on the following glider -

And just when we got all excited...the chief organiser popped our balloon suggesting we might be better looking at this...

Or even this...

All jokes aside...it appears that the Scholarship Plan is shaping up very very well...excellent stuff.

OMG...I'll have to be responsible...bugger!!

GNZ's webmaster has put a link from the official GNZ website - http://www.gliding.co.nz/ - to my blog.

I'll have to be extra extra careful what I say...as you will have noticed I've only been marginally careful to date...

But don't panic...I'm sure frustration will get the better of me from time to time...

For those who actually go gliding...the weekend might be OK. Light SW are forecast...maybe we might get a thermal/ridge day. I'd better go inflate the main tyre on GNM...last time I flew 160 litres of water plus me and my stuff made the bottom of the tyre flatter than the top...

Kaimai Challenge - Sunday

This is proving quite hard to forecast.
MetVUW forecasts look promising but the offical State Weather forecaster is predicting heavy rain...go figure.

6500ft winds

I'll have a quizz tonight before I head off to the mountain.

It won't be a fast fast weekend but you can still see weather you are faster than anybody else in a lighter day.

Hey Mr Edwards...here's a real beaut...

Nice and bright...
Trailer just the way you like them...unpainted grey alloy...
Price is cheap at the current exchange rate...
Lots of spare bits laying about the place...
A bargain...

While I'm at it...that track you sent me of GXT...it hasn't appeared on the official Kaimai Challenge site...you might want to post it to Edouard (actually Tim is filling in for Edouard as he is over the seas)...or perhaps you don't want to admit the Little Discus beat the Big Discus by 30kph.

Speaking of the Kaimai Challenge...the next offical day is this Sunday. The weather is looking a bit "iffy"...I'll generate a forecast and a "Go/No Go" on Thursday night.

There'll be no sign of GNM this weekend...I'm off skiing.

Friday forecast

Tomorrow looks OK (now today...)
Cloud bases of 5-6000ft in the Waikato 12-3pm.
A little lower over this side of the Kaimai's but high enough to get over the hill.
Light-ish winds predominately Southerly.
Maybe a bit of Over-development over any high ground...so be careful coming home.

Update...looks like the forecast was about right...exept for the overdevelopment

I'm busy and in Canterbury over the weekend I haven't looked any further out but Sat/Sun could be OK as well...

Sunday in Review

We had a great afternoon..well almost everybody. The drivers of GBO may choose to disagree.

The fastest raw speed was the mighty Discus 2ct...204kph. That's quite quick.
Put another way that's 29 minutes to complete the 100.7 kms.
Once handicaps are applied it changes things a little bit.
In fact if I had declared the task in my Cambridge before we launched I'm reliably informed it would have been a NZ record. Maybe next time although Sunday had quite exceptional weather conditions.

So where did we fly and how did the task line up??

Clearly we got the start/finish line and the top Turnpoint about right. The niffy thing about the top T/P was you could approach at speed, pull up and drift into the vector as you turned. It was also handy that as you looked down in the turn, you could clearly see the bottom of the airstrip.

The start line was 2.5 kms either side of the start point. This caused a little confusion as if you wished to claim a record it needs to be 500 meters either side of the start/finish point. It should be remembered that the speed challange organisers wanted to make the task as simple as possible with as few rules as is necessary...so if you want to use the task for a record attempt you might wish to check what else you need to do to conform to the rules...like declaring the task before you launch.

However just because Sunday's times were so fast doesn't mean the Speed Challenge is a done deal...keep in mind that we are running the contest "On the Day"...so in 2 weeks time if the day is a light ridge day with thermals there will still be a winner...even if the times are only 110kph.
In fact more skill will be required to go fast on a weak day with ridge induced thermals...

Great fun.

Next Challenge day will be Sunday 28th...be there or be square...

"Go or No Go" decision will be made on Thursday 25th.

No Snow...BUT...

We had plenty of fun.
I counted 11 gliders on the ridge at one point...including 4 Duo's. Even Tauranga's GXT made it across after a long tow into wind. And for the record a little Discus with water is an even match for the Duo with 2 pilots and a motor...it might even be faster...
Unfortunately only 3 Duo's landed back as one ended up upside down in a tree...both pilots were OK but that may not be true of the Duo.

It took until about 1pm for the sky to clear properly...then it was all on.
Wind was 230-245 degrees at 20-38 knots. Perfect for fast times on the Kaimai ridge.
Tracks and times will appear in due course on the MSC site - http://msc.powersite.co.nz/kaimai-speed-challenge/
Seems a lot of times were posted at 30-35 minutes for the 100 kms. That would give an average speed of almost 200kph. Not bad.
I'm not sure I could go much faster...hitting bumps at 125 knots isn't a lot of fun for either me or my little bit of glass.

Sorry about the crap photo's...trying to fly at 100 plus knots, hold a camera and keep a good lookout is a bit beyond my skills. I ended up with a lot of blur's that were probably a glider, or a scrtach on my canopy.

Those with sharp eyes will notice this is not GXT but GDX...looks just the same in the air.

So all in all a good start to the season.

Ever wanted to glide in the snow???

Today is the day...
Speed challange today...we are going to give it a go...
Winds look like they might be a little too southerly for an ideal day, but who cares, the ridge will work and later in the afternoon it'll snow as well...yipee
Now how much water can I squeeze in the Discus???

Roy...I booked your glider (see below)...personally I'd have take the truck in the background instead...

Is it a pretty colour...

Piako disappears from view...

literally...

Forecast for tomorrow. It might just be OK...assuming Piako re-appears...

I've just put my batteries on the charger...I'll try to get the trailer out of the garage later today...and I have to find all the other stuff...I haven't seen the parachute in a month of Sundays

Sunday...Kaimai challange

Maybe...looks like the winds will be slowly moving from S to SW during the afternoon. The upper winds will move a little slower.
So will the ridge be useable of Sunday...dunno...at this stage.

I'll have a look tomorrow.

London Calling...

Photos from a BBC reporter on the scene...