It's wave Jim...but not as you know it...

Not your normal Sou'west wave but Nor'east wave off the Kaimai's. Photo taken from the Piako Club rooms at lunchtime. I've flown this easterly wave, it's strong, fiesty, and exciting...just like some other things in life...

Gotta love this...

Jesus Struck by Lightening....A six-storey-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said. The Insurance Company said it was "an act of God". True story...

Kiwi's in the US of A

US Sports Class Nationals are underway in Utah (home of the Mormons). Gavin and George Wills are competing. They won the practise day. Interesting how the commentary forgets to mention anyone othe than locals...

Winners

Well done to Eduoard and Brian. Winners at the recent GNZ AGM. Eduoard for accumulated distance flights in his PW5 over the past summer and Brian for a lifetime of service to gliding in NZ.

This could be of interest 2 our younger members

The Gliding New Zealand Dick Georgeson Trust One of the objects of the Gliding New Zealand Dick Georgeson Trust is “to promote the teaching of the use of New Zealand Westerly waves to registered pilot members of Gliding New Zealand with less than 100 solo hours in command of a sailplane.” The Trust is planning to sponsor the upcoming New Zealand Junior Development Squad wave and racing camp, to be held at Omarama 12-20 December 2010, by offering up to four scholarships. This opportunity is available to all junior pilots from anywhere in NZ provided they are no older than 25 years at the time of application. Scholarship winners will receive a grant to be applied to their glider hire and aero-towing costs. (Travel to/from Omarama and accommodation costs will remain their responsibility.) Applications must be received by 31 October 2010.

Typical Winter scene

GXT it is...

The blog does get read...

Just as well we flew yesterday...

Today it's pouring with rain.

Click on the picture...it's much clearer.

I vote for GXT

Saturday dawned blue and sunny. The squiggly lines predicted 5000ft cloud base without much chance of over-development. Ver little wind so maybe a sea breeze would push in. forecast temperature was 19 degrees. And so we ended up with a nice 2 hour window. Pictures attached. Plenty of small fires marked the convergences.

Also attached is Taylors Strip. Often useable but watch out for the stoch track across the middle. Aero-retrieves should be safe.

DUO Call Sign

If it hasn't been decided yet...GXT is currently available. If you want to check it out for yourself go to...http://www.caa.govt.nz/Script/Available_Reg.asp and scroll down to the G's.... Remember we want something that is easy to say Golf Tango X-Ray...so no N's or S's or Q's. Good luck...

Restitution Lift

Here's a term I hadn't heard before. We had a pilot who floated around over the city claiming the lift was restitution lift. Apparently its a common term in para-glider circles (pun intended). Actually they call it "magic lift". The figure outlines the theory...

So do we see this with real gliders?

According to the guru on gliding weather - Tom Bradbury - "This evening lift has been explored by glider pilots but is usually too weak to support a climb".

So what did our intrepid pilot really experience??? We may never know...

Yip...it was fairly blue.

Seems the squiggly lines were about right. cloud bases around Tauranga were 5000ft and 5500-6000ft further inland. Mostly blue with some thermal markers. The season is pretty much at an end with any thermal days being very short and very few opportunities to go anywhere. Only hope for the next 4 months are wave days and days where you can drop onto the ridge. I'm thinking I'll probably pack GNM away and take 4 months off. Don't expect much in the way of forecasts for a while.

It's still a maybe...

The lines are suggesting cloud bases of 6000ft inland. Probably blue in the Waikato. Given how close to blue its forecast to be around here and south to Taupo I wouldn't expect overdevelopment and probably big blue holes. Despite all this there should be something to keep you aloft for an hour or two...

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.