Maybe Sunday...maybe not.

Saturday doesn't look too crash hot. The front due to cross tonight has slowed down so I'm guessing it'll be a late day tomorrow or no day at all. Maybe a broken wave/ridge afternoon with passing instability...showers. Sunday on the other-hand looks better. Light southerlies and maybe enough instability to form a few thernals. We're past any notions of long thermal tasks...the days are too short and therefore no enough heat on the ground. However a wee float around the local area might be enjoyable.

There are better Turbo's about...

And Self-launchers. All this for just $21,000...

Raising Money...

Yip...it's underway. However you would think that targetting the low hanging fruit would be the first appraoch. Twice now I have suggested the committee sell the 2 180hp engines we own...I have even offered to list them on trademe at my expense...nothing was forthcoming. There is currently a 160hp engine for $15,000 and a 200hp one for $28,000...go figure.

Good ideas always deserve support...

I see one of our members has had a bright idea...let's hold a aerobatic training and competition. It's new, it provides an opportunity to get the club some local profile, it's easily viewable by the general public, we can probably get support for fuel, landing charges and the like, and it could be an anchor to generate some funding ideas for the new glider. So it's with some disappointment that I hear a muted response from our committee. They sent him off to the Instructors Panel probably hoping he'd lose enthusiasm...cos cake stalls and raffles sound like a much more exciting way to raise money and build profile...yeah right. I hope I'm wrong...

Saturday Forecast

Hmmm....the squiggly lines are forecasting a 3500ft cloud bases and probably mostly blue. Light to moderate SW winds. Probably some wave but will be blue as well as ridge. Not sure what I'll do today. It's already blowing 12 knots SW at the mount.

It will be soarable...

I'm guessing it will be a thermal/ridge day tomorrow. If anyone needs to do a quick 300km on the ridge then tomorrow could be it!! You'll probably need to tow to the ridge or else you'll waste too much time trying to cross over. Forecast in the morning...

Another Airstrip

This one was being used this morning by Derek Williams in ZK-JAA. Once again land from the north and it's a bit narrow. 37, 49, 102 by 176, 07, 674. 730ft AMSL.

Airstrips

Taumata Rd

For those who are interested both airstrips I used yesterday are great land out options. In both case land from the North, especially the strip on Taumata Rd. If you click on the photo and look behind the glider you'll get an idea of the slope. Flat-ish at the bottom of the strip with a up slope near the southern end.

37.53.322 - 176.07.381 1400ft AMSL

Burd Rd

37.51.219 - 176.10.217

1100ft AMSL

So...what happened???

Well the squiggly lines were right...cloud base was indeed 6000ft. Problem was the sea breeze (which I hadn't factored in...) was faster. By the time I launched I couldn't get in front of it.

Got to my old favourite strip at Burd Rd (upper Oropi) at 2300ft and hung around for a while hoping something would happen. Decided it was a hopeless cause, called Tga ATC and let them (and everybody else know) I was landing out, and then wouldn't you know it I stumbled into a weak thermal.

1 knot to start with, building to a huge 2 knots and tailing off to 0.2 knots at 3000ft. At 3000ft I could see our strip on Taumata Rd, which was closer to the convergence (but not close enough), headed towards home and landed out. Had a nice cuppa with the team on the farm before Brett arrived with the trailer.

Interestingly, I was 5-600ft above the strip when I hit the thermal...would I have fired up a turbo by then??

10th April

Cool temps forecast for today. Light SE-SW winds. Squiggly lines has cloud base at 6000ft but probably blue. May be some small cloud build ups. I'm not expecting strong thermals.

If it's looking good at 12 O'clock I'll give it a go.

Yesterday

It looked like a stunner from Auckland. I thinking today will be just as good. Pity I stuck here in the big smoke. Called into Sailplane Services...one Duo almost rebuilt, and ASH25 almost finished, an ASW20 almost finished. They'll all be ready for the winter. Talked new Duo's in general terms with the locals for awhile...if the weather holds for the weekend I'm game for one last flight before the winter

1100 hrs

Log book ticked over 1100 hrs... 450 hrs in my little Discus. 135 hours in either a ASW20 or ASW27. 200 hours in the club's Janus. 15 hours in Duo's - Omarama mostly... 190 hours based in Omarama. 290 hours out of Matamata. 50 hours out of Taupo.

An OK day for a short X-country Flight.

190 kms.

Piako's DiscusB GXP turned up...joined up and flew up to the swamp.

Cloud base was 5000ft. Started off quite well but over=developed later on. Sea breezes around the coast with light winds.

Autumn is here

Last night at sunset...

Damn it...got that wrong.

Well if I'd been a bit more patient I would have had a good day. Turns out Friday had good thermals on this side of the hill.

Today. Similiar to yesterday although slightly lower cloud base (5000ft) and if the wind turns easterly some showers might appear last time. I'm busy with family stuff...wouldn't you know it...

Update...

It ain't heating up so the low cloud ain't burning off. Oh well...time to chop some firewood.

Easter friday

Light winds...mostly from the NE. Unusally this is producing an OK day. Once the lower cloud has burnt off I'm expecting thermals to 5-5500ft in the afternoon...assuming the temperature goes to 20plus degrees. If it gets too high (more than 24 degrees) then the day will turn totally blue. However watching the sky over the last few days it looked quite good in the Waikato.

Task - Tga to Te Kuiti and back. Remember we need another 450kms of X-Country flights...

Would a turbo be of any help? Interestingly I turned down 2 X-country flights from a Motor-glider because they essentially climbed out of Tga and then glided straight to Matamata where they "flamed up" and then did a reasonable distance. Sorry guys but a 35kms glide from Poripori to Matamata doesn't cut the mustard. Re-starting at Matamata doesn't class as a Tauranga based x-Country flight. So we are still 450kms short of the target.

What could this mean???

Tonite's the nite...

No it's not the Neil Young song but the club decision about a new two seat glider. The key judgement call to my mind is..."will a new two seat X-country machine help grow membership???". I've heard suggestions that current members should show some committment to the club by providing debentures to help fund any new purchase. Bollocks I say...members need to commit to using any new glider as a base for driving membership. If we purchase a Duo XL then it's probably more about retaining newly solo'ed members by providing X-country training (something we don't do very well) than attracting new people. However more activity around the club usually helps attract new members. We'll see. I have returned from Omarama is record time. 22 hours door to door, and we could have shaved another 2 hours off that as we arrived in Piicton 2 hours too early. The target for the next trip is 20 hours door to door - 1200kms. The Cook Strait Ferry is the major obstacle...5 hours to cross that very short piece of water. Interestingly the Interisland crowd were cheaper than BlueBridge - $405 vs $435 for a car/trailer and 2 passengers. Thats the first time that's happened. From my point of view the Bluebridge is still better as it has more room inside to turn the car and trailer around. The Arahura wasa tight squeeze. Wave in Omarama.

Doubting Thomas's

Ok...for the record. Yes I talked to Mr Plane. Yes we discussed DG1000's. Yes I had a full and frank discussion about the difference. So Mr Edwards don't be a life member...and you will notice I'm not using the kindergarden approach of bulk e-mails...time for some happy pills.

Which one to buy????

So the debate is heating up...I arrived down here in Omarama and decided to download my e-mails...that was a mistake...15 e-mails about restoring the Janus or we can't afford a glider or we should buy a single seater so a few can go contest flying...and on and on it goes. So to more productively use my time I went and talked to some real pilots who fly gliders and have some experience training X-Country pilots. The parameters were; we are looking for a easy to handle, sensible two seat glider that is tolerant to some mis-handling especially near the ground (landing out), x winds, rigging, comfort, easy of getting in/out and lastly performance in the air. After a couple of hours, a good look at GQQ (Duo XL) and a coffee here is my humble opinion. Buy a DuoXL. Forget about a DG1000... Why - Duo's have better handling, shorter stopping distance, better vis from the back seat on finals (due to landing flap), more cockpit room, easier rigging (very important esp given our constant drama with GPZ/GEO), probably better long term support from the manufacturer, slower minimum speed on approach, greater options for water ballast (max AUW of 850kg's), getting in and out is no worse than a DG, at speed the polar is better (for you racer types), one piece canopy, and it looks better. There are some down sides - the DG has more aerobatic options (but who wants to fly upside down anyhow...), it spins better (yip I want to do that in the mountains), the tail ballast is fixed which in some cases in a better option, there are probably second-hand ones about, the Duo's have had a couple of under-cart problems which I think are almost sorted, at 50-70 knots the performance is probably similiar to a Duo (and 50-70 knots is the speed most club pilots fly at...). The manufacturer issue should not be over-looked. DG/LS haven't produced a new glider in some time now. Think LS10 and DG1000/808...at least 10 years old. The other surprise to many has been the suggestion that the DG factory is going to charge for annual maintenaance releases for older gliders next year...hmmm...not a move that inspires confidence. Shempps have changed the Duo 3 times in the last 15 years, are using the XL fuse for the Arcus and Nimbus as well and are therefore more likely to provide support long term...but then again who knows in this topsy world??? Have I flown the XL...no cos it's so bloody windy you wouldn't really get a good sense of the glider while you fight to stay airborne. Maybe tomorrow... Should the club consider a single seater instead (the cheaper halfway decision)...not in my biased view. If you want a flash single seater go buy your own one. There are plenty available and plenty of joint ownership options. We are a club, we provide training (GPZ/GEO), we provide early entry to base level contests (PW5's), we provide help in X-country training (Janus til now), and we do trial flights (GPZ/GEO). I hear the suggestion that the Janus is still a good X-Country trainer...it was once but times change and the world moves on...if we use that arguement we would still have a K7 for X-country training. Anyhow I'm off to take my happy pills...find a gun and shoot some bunnies on the airfield. As look out the window there is strong wave over the Benmore's, two glider on the way to Mt Cook and another few waiting for a launch. If my partner in crime gets here some we're off to Mt Cook or Twizel...TTFN.

Of Duo's and other things..

We should test drive a new glider every month. Best turn-out of members old and new I've seen for a while. For those of you who thought GDX looked good on finals from the clubhouse, you should have seen it from the Bunnings carpark. I expect the 636 X-Country kms to be ticked off this week. I given the keys to GNM to Paul...he looked so enthused I expect him to try some X-country flights in the rain... I'm off to Omarama in the morning...Maadi Cup, test drive a Duo XL, endless chatter about gliding with the locals, overnight tramp into the Dingle from the Ahuriri, catch-up with some locals (including Roy's favourite farmer), and maybe a wee tour of the district in GUO - Omarama Gliding club's Duo. I'll keep you updated...

636 kms to go

Come on X-country pilots...we are only 636kms away from a 10,000km summer. Two good flights will do it given that we are getting too late in the season for a 500km plus flight. We are well ahead of last year which had a grand total of 7090kms. Yours truely leads the board with 2300kms followed by Adrian at 2100kms.

Saturday and Sunday

Yesterdays flights for GNM and GKM. Bog standard ridge day...had hoped to go further south to Bennydale but the "murk" appeared.

Task had been Okoriore to ThamesA/F to Bennydale to Tirohia to Okoriore. 425 kms. Got the start and Thames and just over halfway to Bennydale...

Today...go back to bed young grasshoppers...or earn some brownie points...or both.

I'm off to play tennis...my once a year tennis engagement.

I feel the need for speed...

Looking good. Inversion in place at about 4500ft over the Bay but nearer 6500ft over the lower Waikato/Taupo area.

The SW should stay in place all day so the ridge will work and there maybe wave on and off during the day.

Still working on a task but it'll include a bit of ridge and a push south.

New product. windrose for the Te Papa area...just south of the Kaimai road crossing out on the plains. Shows a fairly consistant SW all afternoon and evening.