South Island Regionals

Yes they have started...
You wouldn't know it if used SoaringSpot as means of following gliding contests (as 99.999% of glider pilots do...except those in the Mainland). Oh...actually the Americians don't in many cases either but that's hardly a compelling reason given they still measure distance in inches or pounds or some quaint unit...
I seem to remember that buried in the excellent report that Ralph Henderson wrote after the Nationals held in Omarama last summer...was the comment that the results need to be posted to SoaringSpot.

However if you want to experience the good old days...lets do the timewarp again -

http://glidingcomps.42.net.nz/sireg2013/

And if some-one could suggest how I turn the "text" tracklogs into a "igc" file so I again re-play them in SeeYou it would be much appreciated. I just got to know how Trev Terry in a Duo beat Grae in a Ventus 2cxt....

Friday's convergence

As expected a warm day and little opposing wind saw the sea air push inland.
It stalled at about 4pm 20-25 kms inland.

The RASP!!!

It proved rather less than accurate last week.
As did metservice.

However a quick look at this mornings RASP indicates a large convergence from the Waikato all the way down pass Mt Ruapehu.
7-9000ft cloud bases and 7 knot climbs.
Very little over-development.
A converging sea breeze from the west coast colliding with the light S to Se winds.
We will see.

Two poo...or perhaps the Central Plateau Contest

Thanks to Taupo Gliding Club for yet again hosting another fun week.

Points to note;
The weather didn't quite live upto its normal standard.

My older Duo, which is a re-build from various bits and bobs, is clearly much faster than the clubs flash new Duo XLT...and a JS1 as well...

Weather forecasting is a Black Art. I under called one day and over called two others.

On the plus side I had to exit the contest for 2 days as work got in the way and had thought I'd miss at least 1 great day of flying...both days were write offs...good for me...not so for others.

Day 1 saw a pilot of huge experience part with his little Discus, having owned it for 27 years (that's longer than I've had to tolerate children), and drive off with an 18 meter Ventus. It's trend we might see more of as the standard/15 class slowly dwindles away. It could take 20 years to dwindle away all the same. Which provides some lucky club the chance of acquiring a mighty Discus B. In my humble opinion the best single seat glider a club can own. Easy fly, rig and maintain. Still competitive in the standard and club class. Lots of room. No vices in the air.

On a day that was too hard to task due to the uncertainty of holding the fleet up around the start area, the organisers allowed free flying and scored the day on the OLC. What a brilliant idea...especially since yours truely managed to win the day!!!

I was beaten on the last day by my old Discus GNM. Fantastic.

All my Co-pilots were great, none were air-sick (quite the achievement for me), and I hope everyone had fun...I did.

Sleeping in a tent was better than I remember it...although the fireworks on the last night was an added extra we could have done without.

I've decided I'm getting older. The climb up Mt Tauhara took 60 minutes...that's 10 minutes slower than 2 years ago...bugger.

Tauranga is now 4th on the inter-club NZ online contest. I'm finished flying for the meantime (due to a calling to investigate Canada's ski-fields), so it's up to the rest of you...mentioning no names. Remember it's distance that matters, not time in the air.

Its way way cheaper flying in Taupo than Omarama. I paid $420 total for the contest...entry fee, tows etc. That's about one days worth down south. Yes I know the flying in the mountains is really really great but the difference in cost is starting to get out of hand...I think.

It's so hot today I commissioned our pool and went for a swim...a short swim...

Another Duo on task...albeit a much slower one...

 

 

See slower...and lower...OK enough showing off...luck played a big part.

 

 

A very bad photo of Huka Falls

 

A nice evening as a thunder storm departs the task area.

Tauranga finally on the OLC

After getting a suggestion we keep a spreadsheet of the distances flown from Tauranga (how 2000's is that!!)...I decided it was time to get the local club on the OLC.
Anyone can log a flight...it's really easy. In fact with the SeeYou Recorder App on an iPhone or Android its even easier...however those of us with Microsoft Phone 8 phones (duh) it requires a few extra steps.
So we have a couple of flights up and hopefully more to come.
Remember X-Country soaring is about distance NOT time in the air...
For the record in 2009/10 we flew 11,000kms out of Tga.

Taupo awaits...

Hardly a weekend of Labour

Far from it...

My first proper thermal flight since last season.

Given I was taking the Duo I needed ballast and a front seat passenger. Found a delightful young chap from Aviation Sports Auckland. He'd only completed 7 previous flights in his training schedule, and from the look of it he'd be lucky to get any flying during the day due to the level of activity about the airfield.
Are you prepared for a 3 hour flight? Yip.
Do you have to be back by any set time? No...great cos we could land-out...
Do you get air-sick? No...well we fixed that...somewhere in forest between Tokoroa and Mangakino is a big bag of sick.

So off we went...South. Judging from the bleating on the radio North wasn't anywhere as good.

We should have gone further but for a first day out it wasn't too bad.
At one point we had 3 Duo's in the Mangakino area. GTT, GXT and GYL.

The young chap "in-command". Surprising good for a Year 11 student.

Also near Tokoroa

Mangakino.

I haven't forgotten..

Just been a bit distracted...
When some one suggested today that the blog had been taken down by the "dark side" I thought I better get back to it.

Flew today. Even convinced the "better half" to come flying.
I thought it was going to be blue...and it was in the Bay of Plenty...but in the Waikato it was a bit better.
Ran into Team Drury heading for Tirau and home. Really good to see experienced X-country pilots from Auckland being encouraged to take the Duo (GDX) for the day to mentor and coach newer members.
Duo's are made for that.
And I'm increasingly convinced that the best way to retain and encourage "post-solo" pilots is to foster X-country flying. It's distance flown NOT time in the air that is important.

Team NZ are competing in the Ozzie Nationals. Doing OK. Steve Wallace claimed a second today. Well done.
Here's the website if you haven't already found it.
News from the contest is a bit thin on the ground...that or I haven't stumbled across it yet.

http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti52/

Excuse the quality of the photos...it was a phone camera.

See there was thermals in the Waikato...

But it was blue in the BoP.

Who's that lurking in the back seat...

Good golly miss molly...

on Sunday I actually went flying. I could even remember how to rig the Duo. And guess what...when I pushed the stick forward the nose went down...just like last year.
A ridge day but with a nice 5 knot thermal climb that got us out to the Waikato River.

I did take some photos of the JS1 but it looks so so tiny in the photo that I'll need to do some photo-shopping to do it justice.

So I suppose I now have my Duo rating for the summer.

Planning on taking it down to Taupo for the Central Plateau blat.

Self-launcher

But not the one you were expecting...

 

 

This morning the US announced it had undertaken 2 more Drone strikes in the Yemen.
Up to nine suspected al-Qaida militants had been killed.
Good news to some perhaps...

However the key word in this press release is "suspected"...
Suspected by who? Suspected of doing what? Will we ever know if the "suspected bit" was even fact? Were the nine really al-Qaida members or just opponents of the Yemeni Government? If so can I call in a drone strike on the Green Party?

And even if the nine were "militants" it still raises other issues;
The Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute estimate that up to 50 civilians are killed for every 1 militant killed in a drone strike. So could the press release be re-worded to "450 mothers and children killed along with 9 suspected militants in todays Drone strikes" ?

What ever happened to the "Rule of Law" and "habeas corpus"??? Innocent until proven guilt??

Western Governments are given license to defend their populations...but using unmanned aircraft in a third world countries with dubious governments (which are being propped up by the US) to kill villagers, seems a very long bow to draw...

The Nobel Committee saw fit to give Obama a peace prize...is this what they envisaged?

And lastly, these drone strikes are being seen as grossly unjust and unfair by the local populations subjected to this abuse and so how many more young men are motivated to join the likes of al-Qaida as a result?

I suspect my neighbour is abusing his wife...can I call in a drone strike?? Of course not. I call the police who undertake an investigation and bring a case to court. The chap is arrested and brought before his peers. The facts are presented for all to see and jury of his peers and/or a judge decides. That is the Rule of Law".

Update - 9 days on and the Yemeni Gov't issued a press statement disputing claims 9 civilians had been killed in the Drone strikes and that "most" of those killed where suspected militants. So, firstly, some of those killed were in fact civilians, and secondly, after 9 days the Gov't hasn't been able to confirm that the others were militants at all. But 9 days is a long time and the bet will be we have forgotten about these poor unfortunate individuals...until the next time.

Back to gliding next...sorry.

Bit by little bit...

CAA have caved in to the request from Australian airlines and lowered the airspace over Mt Cook to accommodate flights originating out of Oz heading for Sth America.
Despite overwhelming objections from glider pilots about the desire to maintain a freedom to operate we are now constrained to FL245...for now.

Interesting note in the ruling is the claim that further reductions will be required in the future for Turbo-prop flights...I assume out of Queenstown heading for Auckland.

I'll give the US of A some credit...they seem free of these encroachments on publicly owned airspace.


Just watch one of Bruno Vassel's flights in the Utah area. 18,000ft without any need to talk to the fun police. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hze9WUSlzxk
They seem to be able to do this despite the vastly greater volumes of flying buses...and I mean really seriously greater volumes of flying heavy metal. I spent a season skiing in Utah (a miss spent youth) and you could always see 5-10 vapour trails in the sky at any time...and therefore you could assume a whole lot more at lowers levels as well.
Here in the land of the long white cloud you are lucky to see one IFR per hour or even per day.
There is something rotten in the state of Denmark people....

Rumours...updated...

It appears that yet another club is in the throws of changing from a big, old, smelly, loud, fuel hungry Piper type tow plane to something lighter, smaller, newer, quieter and considerably more fuel efficient.

You could almost say that if you had any doubts about the future of your Pawnee/Cub you'd better get it on the market quick before there's a flood.

Also here is a link to a neat little video that a local member produced before the fun police turned up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs681rB3aMQ

While I'm at it...here's a clip from the good old US of A...a couple of low passes at a gliding site in an ASW27...pass 1 is good BUT pass 2 is really testing the boundaries... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuptAQrwZZk ...I'm just imagining the outcome of doing that in NZ... We were once an adventurous, free-spirited nation where people set out to climb big mountains...maybe not now.

Oh, and on a different matter...sometimes you can beat the Cardigan wearers...this from the "GAA" site,
"The meddling by CAA with the NZTA medical for recreational pilot licence holders is effectively at an end. It has taken since February, but pilots now have an excellent result."
Read the rest, as well as the history behind the drama, here... http://www.caa.gen.nz/?p=3098

Rumour has it...

That a micro-light has become the leading option for yet another clubs primary towing aircraft.
It was either spend heaps on re-powering a big old Pawnee or look for something new.
We already have one club totally committed to using a Micro-light/LSA as the tow-plane of choice.

This is becoming a bit of a trend.
And why would one be surprised...what with most of us still using aircraft designed and built before the war, that cost a fortune to maintain, use gas like a Sherman tank, and make plenty of noise...

Times are a changing...

And then...and then...after I'd written this I went off for a 10 minute surf to see if there are any new gliding Video's posted - and guess what...a neat video of a Libelle flying somewhere in the Alps in Europe...A Libelle...how can that be interesting???

Ahh...no ordinary Libelle...it has bright red winglets...AND...bug wipers!!! That has got to be a first...
http://vimeo.com/70145532
Really well edited all the same...I think we forget that sticking a GoPro to the wing of your glider and going flying is the easy part. Good editing is still time consuming and a skill.

Actually we have been banned from sticking camera's to club gliders...the fun police have been about.
Pity really, it added to the sports promotion.
You can see it now...a bunch of younger people comparing cool video clips of their sport (base jumping, skiing, moto-cross etc) while the budding glider pilot hides under the table..."where's your video clip bro???"...umm the old codgers won't let me use the camera...

PowerFlarm...

This e-mail turned up this morning. An interesting read. (thanks to David Scott for thinking of passing it on and to the author Bruce from Canada)
We here in the North Island are probably lagging behind this debate. However for Flarm to work you need a critical mass of gliders equipped or else it's just an expensive power hungry lump of electronics's...a bit like a transponder really.
As for PowerFlarm...it might be useful in areas with lots of flying buses and VFR power chaps with their heads inside the cockpit relying on Airways for separation...Tauranga perhaps.
More data is probably required on power consumption, accuracy and pilot behavioural change.
However, if the owner of GlideOmarama is to be believed, he won't tow gliders at future contests unless they are equipped with Flarm.
I must admit that flying north along the Two Thumb Range with dust blowing off the upper reaches of the Godley River, and gliders going in and out of the turnpoint, it was very very difficult to see approaching gliders...at a combined closing speed of 200 knots plus.

Dear ESC Friends,

 

Being out of town, and unable to "reply" to my shaw email, I missed out on the recent PowerFlarm dustup, or at least I missed out on the opportunity to stick my oar in and say something I would regret.

 

I am now, however, able to provide a User Report on the PowerFlarm.  

 

Here is a photo of the Discus and me, with the PowerFlarm portable unit prominent on the top of the glare shield, with its distinctive twin antennas.  From what I have read, the Schempp-Hirth gliders allow the easiest and cleanest installation, since the whole unit including vertical antennas fit under the canopy.  My unit is an early portable version, and has not yet had the most recent hardware and software upgrades.  The portable has a small (1.5 inch?) screen which in this installation has a prominent place in the pilot's vision.  It displays the location of each target acquired and its relative altitude.  The unit has a speaker, which issues audible warnings:   alerts for proximity, and more urgent noises when it has computed a collision course.  I have the PowerFlarm connected to the Oudie soaring computer, running LK8000, which also displays the locations of targets on a larger screen, plus relative climb rate.

 

At the Ephrata contest, about 25 of the 30 gliders participating were PowerFlarm equipped.

There are, of course, positives and negatives.  I will start with the negatives.

 

• In a large pre-start gaggle - 5 or 10 gliders in one thermal within a total of 1000' of altitude, I allocated zero scan time to the PowerFlarm.  My eyes were outside.  The unit was frequently issuing alerts.  As if I needed any encouragement to be alert.  Well, to be honest, one can become even more alert - it did have that effect on me - but other than that the information was more scary than helpful.
• Transponder data is very fuzzy - it tells you range to target is decreasing but not the direction from which it is coming.  
• This was the main reason for the net negative contribution from PowerFlarm in large gaggles.  If I had had the power, I would have insisted all gliders turn off their transponders in the pre-start period.
• It was "disconcerting" to be looking out the window, spotting guys over there, up there, down there, and having the unit making very urgent noises.
• Transponders show up as an additional aircraft.  One day, coming back at the end of the day, I found myself in a thermal with another glider.  I could see him there, perfectly positioned on the other side of the thermal, just a little below me, consistent with the Flarm display.  Except the PowerFlarm was showing two other aircraft, both "-02", or 200 feet below me.  I could see one, where was the other?  And the unit was making quite a racket.  That evening I had a chat with the other pilot, confirmed there were only two of us, and confirmed he had a transponder switched on plus a PowerFlarm.
• The PowerFlarm is not reliable.  Frequently I saw a target, e.g. 800 feet below and to the right rear.  And then it disappeared.   Where did it go?  My conclusion was my unit was almost blind to aircraft directly behind me.  Antenna issues are a challenge.  Therefore, the PowerFlarm does not replace the window.
• People found it disconcerting to see a bunch of gliders in the landing pattern area.  Turns out if you land, clear the runway, and leave the unit running, it looks like a glider beside the runway.  Well, duh!  And there is an altitude readout.  Except if you get too many of them, the data displayed steps all over itself, and anyways it is hard to figure out when there are a bunch of targets.  The morning pilot meeting safety tips repetitively included calls to switch off the Flarm as soon as possible.
• It is a sensor.  Like any sensor, it has some accuracy and some precision.  A reading of 200 foot separation can mean zero separation - all that would take is a mis-calibration of one or both units, well within the error margin for the technology.  You can't trust it to be exact.

 

Positives:

 

• The PowerFlarm does indeed provide a heads up when there are other gliders nearby, usually.  I found this most helpful in situations such as:
• another glider joins you in a thermal far enough below you that the pilot does not feel the need to join on the far side - can be below or below and behind.  You know he/she is there.
• you hit a thermal, swing in to the core, and only then notice there is someone a thousand feet above you - perhaps hard to spot against the cloud above him.  Then you start gaining on him (well, sometimes).  perhaps you need to reverse your turn.
• you are thermaling away, and then notice a couple of gliders half a mile away - they are in a different core, and circling the other way.
•  O.K. you should always see all the other gliders.  Well, no, you don't.  At least, I don't - I now know that for a fact.  And all the other pilots I spoke to were willing to make the same admission.  No, it doesn't replace the window, but it does add information.
• It is fun to be able to watch whether the folks in the next core over are doing better or worse than you.
• It is extremely interesting to watch the separation between you and the person below you in the same thermal shrinking.  Clearly, at some point, that glider will become very important.  Perhaps you can't see it; you now know you need to find it, whatever that takes
• It is an OLC valid logger.
• It can feed glide computers, which can then do very interesting things like tell you who in the vicinity has the best thermal.
• It does display not only other PowerFlarm equipped gliders, but also ADIS-B and PCAS (transponder equipped) aircraft.  The complaints above about transponders relate solely to gliders carrying both units - power planes with transponders will show up, and that is a huge benefit.

 

In summary:

• I found the PowerFlarm a valuable assistant at Ephrata.  It added information.  It showed me things I hadn't seen, or seen yet.
• I found it most useful when dealing with one or two or perhaps three other targets within a mile or two.  In other words, in the environment one finds around a field such as Chipman on a lovely afternoon.
• In normal flying, I added it to my scan.  Sitting on top of my glare shield, it is perfectly placed to be one stop in a horizontal scan.  I found myself, as I rolled in to a thermal, starting my scan as far over my shoulder as possible, as usual, scanning across the horizon to try to spot any "company" already in that thermal - and as my scan traversed across dead ahead it was a piece of cake to see if there were any "targets" on the PowerFlarm screen.  I carried on, completed the scan, without actually "reading" what was on the screen, then, if there was data on the PowerFlarm screen, came back to it to actually read the numbers and compass direction of the target, to establish direction and relative altitude.  Seeing nothing there was encouraging (my unit seems pretty reliable when banked into a thermal, no blind spots that I could tell).  The time required to include one additional stop in the scan I was making anyways, and to shift focus for that one stop, was, in my experience minimal and manageable. 
• Other than that I rarely even glanced at it.  But it would have squawked if it had computed a collision course.  Therefore, one legitimate option is to relegate it to solely that audible warning device role, and still gain considerable safety benefit.  In other words, speculation the PowerFlarm would be a net safety negative - because attention to it would compete with/decrease attention to more important or effective tasks - is, in my experience, not correct.  A valid concern, but, in my experience, not true.
• I never looked at the PowerFlarm data on the flight computer; I never used the LK8000 extension of the data provided by the PowerFlarm.
• It was apparent the better PowerFlarm installations, with the "Brick" unit and better antennas, were better than mine.
• At Ephrata, flying without a PowerFlarm was almost socially unacceptable.  At the morning pilots' meetings, and in numerous smaller-group discussions, there were many comments along the lines, "if you don't have a PowerFlarm, I'd rather you don't lurk along behind me", and "if you don't have a PowerFlarm, please find your own thermal".  It was not brutal, or nasty, or "excluding".  However, it was clear: that particular group of experienced sailplane pilots were convinced, as individuals, that PowerFlarm is a net safety benefit.

 

I would be happy to expand on any of these comments, or answer any questions, to the whole group or in private email exchanges.

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

The shortest day - 3 times in one year

This years shortest day has just passed...I now realise that I'll experience 3 shortest days in 12 months.
I plan to be in Banff Canada on the 21st December and back in Kiwiland next winter.

By that time I expect to be a poor imitation of an Eskimo...

Hopefully we will get to experience the Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis

A win and a loss

It appears that finally this nonsense of turning off electronic devices for take off and landing is being reviewed with a view to scrapping it. Frankly using my Ipad or cell phone while taking off or landing my glider has never affected the planes nav systems...oh wait where has that airfield gone...
A working group assigned by the Federal Aviation Administration to research the use of electronics on airplanes is expected to recommend relaxing the ban on portable devices during takeoff and landing.

However in a twist the cardy wearers (CASA) has.. "CASA has confirmed that pilots will need to comply with the regulations of CASR 21.M to install "GoPro" type cameras on the external surface of an aircraft."
Plonkers.

Sitting and talking

Yip...it is AGM time again.
Gliding NZ holds it's AGM in Wellington.
Held over 2 days to allow time for Sailplane Racing, Club Presidents and others to meet and talk on the Saturday and the actual AGM to be held Sunday morning.
It feels a bit like a "Union" meeting with delegates and voting and procedures but rules and history dictates...

However the stand-out hour was a presentation on how to address declining membership.
As I have mentioned on here before declining membership of gliding clubs is equally matched by declining membership in many sports. The day I spent with SportNZ attested to this.

However it could be argued that we (Gliding in NZ) don't have too much of a challenge enticing people through the front door ...the problem is shortly afterwards they exit out the back door ...usually just after they have gone "solo".

A survey carried out by our friends in the Northern Hemisphere of 3000 pilots suggested that the reason pilots stay involved in the sport is X-country flying...and maybe by extension contests. It's not because it gives you a reason to wear a silly floppy white hat...

There was much much more in this presentation but a condensed version is due in the SoaringNZ mag...so perhaps we should wait for that.

The Field-days beckon...apparently farmers are expected to be spending up bigtime...so I will be seeking out the most expensive short black on offer (coffee that is)...

Why painting things on your glider is not a good idea...

This chap painted shark jaws on the front of his glider...looked quite cool...just. Remembering of course, that the gap between looking "cool" and looking like a "dickhead" is quite small...(just ask Aaron Gilmore).

 

Here is a video of the "shark" flying along some coastal area in the UK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x46ffIbdRA0

This is really cool...no dickheads to be seen.

Although if this is representative of an English summer by the beach it's no wonder they invaded hot countries in the Middle East...however that doesn't explain the Falklands...strategic sheep purposes perhaps...

Sadly his shark when swimming...
Read it here...
http://soaringcafe.com/2013/06/swimming-with-a-shark/

Ouch is all I can say...

Flying suspended...Why?

I've broken yet another bone...I think this makes 17 or 18.
There must be a message in this...

Sadly it wasn't broken in the pursuit of something great or altruistic...no it was the result of too much office work...
This is what happens when your foot goes to "sleep" and then you attempt to dash out the door...

It might even interfere with the coming ski season...

3 into 1

I'd not seen this before...trial flights that squeeze 2 punters into the backseat.
I was aware of a triple fatality in the US that involved a mother and wee child in the backseat...
However this company offers a 3 up experience in Hawaii...
3 in a Duo...perhaps not.
CAA would have kittens...

Reprint from a Herald aricle  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10881870

I must be getting old...

Younger people are so so much more enthusastic...
5 days of Youth glide 2013 was good fun...

People wanted to beat each others times on the ridge, we had a new record set (womens 100km out and return), we had a land-out in a Janus, lots of circuits, lots of helpers to rig and de-rig gliders...a desire to get double tow ratings etc etc

All great stuff. And all this with fairly average gliding conditions...

Ideas...like running a youth contest alongside the multi-class nationals...a good use for PW5's...

It's hugely encouraging to sit in the back seat of a Duo while a 16 year old pre-solo pilot averages 166 kph on the 100km Speed Task.

So that's about it for me this season...only 70 hours...of which only 5 were at Tauranga.
Mile stones...sold a DiscusCS, brought a re-built Duo, and a part of a JS1.

Zipping along the ridge.

A Kaimai ridge week is the ideal setup for a youth glide week. Plenty of fun. The Janus GNN will feature in the record books as two young ladies set a new 2 seat 100kph NZ record. Life in the old dog yet.
Speaking of old dogs...I sat in the back seat of GYL while two pilots blazed up and down the 100 km speed challnge course. First run averaged 150 kph...not bad for Hamish...who is yet to go solo (but oh so close). And the second run with Johno averaged 166 kph...
I left early so perhaps even faster times were achieved...

 

Photos below are the girls on the the record attempt.

18 meter class here we come...

Doesn't look anything like a Discus...and with the leave blower going it fair scoots along.

For April a 5 knot climb isn't too bad.

Certainly a different wing profile from GNM.

A Mad Hatter

Thanks to the Taupo Gliding Club who greeted our 100km Walking Team at 11pm on Saturday night. The clubs theme was "Alice in Wonderland". The chap who brought GNM was the Mad Hatter...so well done I didn't recognise him...

The club was checkpoint 4 on the OxFam 100km charity walk.
From the club the team headed off on a 20km section from 11pm to 3am Sunday morning. Over the farm land to the west of the club, under the new motorway, alongside the Waikato River up to the Aratiatia Dam and back down to Wairakei...CP 5.
1200 people started and almost all finished. Fastest was 12 hours, not sure who was slowest.

Now for some recovery time.

A cockpit smaller than a Ventus A

Squeezed into something smaller than a PW5, that's goes around corners faster than a Discus, and self-launches from 0 to 100kph in 4 seconds...

 Can I fit is this???

Yip...but only just...

 

Let's go...

 

200 and something kph...red lines at 8500rpm...but at 7000rpm your socks get blown off...

 

And it goes around corners faster than anything I've driven...

 

 

But at a slower pace...

 

 

Saw this Falcon over the back from Q'town on the way to the top of Mt Ben Lomond. A practise walk for this weekends 100km OxFam.

 

 



The curtain falls..

On another gliding season.
There will be a few thermals days and plenty of ridge flying available on the Kaimai's but for all intents and purposes the real summer as come to an end...which is how it should be.

Highs and lows;
Only 60 hours this summer, mostly in Omarama and Matamata.
And, for me, a very poor contest season. Between average flying and work intruding on the Club Class Nationals and Regionals I can count on one hand the number of good contest days.
Omarama this summer was below average with lots of wind, low cloud bases and even snow.

Did my duty day on Saturday. Sat about for 6 hours to do 2 flights...although I must say that the success of the mid-week evening training program means that the weekends will suffer from a lack of students. That's great because a single instructor can manage the schedule with one arm tied behind his/her back...

But on the other hand, I sold GNM in 1 week. Must be a record. And it's gone to a chap who seems thrilled to be getting up and away.
I have paid a deposit on a replacement glider...one that makes heaps of noise, isn't speed limited with the engine up, and is 18 meters. I let you guess what brand. Long term I think the 15 meter/Standard Class will wind down as no manufacturers are putting any resources into development. Further, the powers that be saw fit to develop a 13.5 meter class...why???
I also brought a share in a Duo...although I haven't had the time to fly it.
However I can spend the winter reading up on butterfly Vario's, Flarm and ClearNav.

Youth Glide - finally it appears to be taking shape in a format that I think has a reasonable chance of success. It's being driven by a few younger, sharper and enthused people... I've even enrolled my daughter in the week...although how committed she will be I'm not sure...dance, surfing, long boarding, skiing and school seem to get in the way. We can only but try...

And why has work got in the way??? Two company mergers are the main reason. My New Years wish was to get both mergers over the line before March. Farmlands/CRT was far easier than the Kiwifruit merger. But logic prevailed.
However out of the process I learnt something important. Dissent is not to be avoided. I am/was a Director of all the companies involved. With both mergers we had directors who opposed the plan and appeared to work counter-productively in the background. It's frustrating and time consuming.

I've heard people refer to it as "bad behaviour" or "value-distructive"...and it can be...BUT...the process and the outcome can be better because of it. In both cases I believe the dissenting directors were wrong in their logic and arguments...but that doesn't matter. "Groupthink" is a far far more dangerous and insidious condition, whether it be in clubs, companies, your own business, or a country (think Germany in the 1930's...or even America in 2003). Male dominated company boards, and a male dominated gliding movement doesn't make for good listeners.

Looking ahead...next summer will be truncated for me as I'm off to Canada for the ski season. We've found a house just out of Banff which has 4 ski fields within an hour. The house comes with a car...so Fernie and Revelstroke will also be on the hit list. Xmas in the snow...albeit minus 20 degrees or lower.
By the time I get back all the contests will have finished.

Phew...that was a long ramble...with no photos....