Big thanks to all those who came to the start of season briefing and lunch. The lunch of soup & quiche was great, thanks Jan, Joan and anyone else who helped.

If you didn't make this briefing there is a repeat 11am Wednesday morning, and if you can't make that as well, you'll need to get in touch with Bob before you next want to fly.

Feedback from those at the briefing was very good, with newer members appreciating the chance to meet everyone.

Key points from the briefing:

• Due to a less-than-ideal weather, declining membership, and increasing costs, we really need to get flying and have a great summer.
• If you're a club member, bring a friend along for a flight! They are welcome to fly at club rates.
• There have been airspace changes, primarily extending Hamilton's airspace down south, and the Coromandel CFZ (Common Frequency Zone) is now called "Peninsular". Changes and new maps apply from 18th Nov.
• Info about being duty pilot, and how important your role is for the club.
• Julian gave an interesting talk on Motor Gliding.
• Bob talked about dehydration, how water might not be enough, and we had a jolly good discussion about peeing in the glider too.

We're now on facebook, so if you're on there, feel free to befriend us! We'll be putting news and other stuff on there of interest. Check us out at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Piako-Gliding-Club/161443680535538

Also Tim has started a private blog, which will feature gliding news and info from around NZ. Check it out and subscribe at:

http://gliding.net.nz/

Also don't forget, start of season briefing this Saturday 10am, followed by food. With a bit of luck there will be some ridge flying afterwards, so a good opportunity to get some ridge syllabus ticked off if needed.

Piako Gliding Club Inc.

 Hi All Glider Pilots,

 Reminder notice to make sure you come along to the:

2010 PRESEASON BRIEFING

 Yes there will be a soaring season sometime soon!?

 10.00am Saturday 25 September 2010,

with repeat of briefing at 11.00 Wednesday 29 September 2010

Gliding Clubhouse, Matamata Airfield

 To be followed by Jan’s free lunch at 12.00 (Saturday only, no free lunch on Wednesday) and club flying in the afternoon.

 (Instructors meeting to be held 1.30pm to 2.30pm)

 Stop the rain,

Bob Gray

CFI

 

Piako Gliding Club Inc. 

2010 PRESEASON BRIEFING & Lunch

10.00am Saturday 25 September 2010,

with repeat of briefing at 11.00 Wednesday 29 September 2010 

Gliding Clubhouse, Matamata Airfield

Note This is a compulsory briefing for all glider pilots (to attend either day). Glider pilots who have not attended the briefing will not be cleared for solo flying and will have to make arrangements for a special session with the CFI.

 

PROGRAM

Introduction

Duty Pilot's daily duties.
Bill Mace

Update on Airspace and Gliding Safely.
Bob Gray
Steve Care

Operating Motor Gliders
Julian Mason 

IMSAFE – Dehydration and Fatigue
Bob Gray

Pilot Discussion

• Club Tasks
• OO’s to requalify 

To be followed by lunch at 12.00 and club flying.

Any BFRs or currency checks this afternoon?

Instructors meeting to be held 1.00pm to 2.00pm. 

The weather over winter hasn't been very conducive to flying. With this in mind we recently floated the idea of moving Wednesdays with crappy forecasts to another day of the week, and this week proved a good opportunity to try out the idea.

It worked well. Wed was forecast for too much rain and the wind was more northerly, while today was for a more direct westerly and in theory, less rain. It proved to be a bit wetter than we hoped, with a lot of showers to fly around. The ridge however was working well, with a steady 20knots everywhere, except behind the showers as Paul from Auckland found out.

We did have to wait around for a shower or two to past before flying, luckily we had GPK and GNI to rig to keep us busy.

We had 6 club members flying, and a few from Auckland. Alan and Brett had a great flight up past Thames to Kereta and back, so well done guys.

We'd like to do this more often, especially as the weather is so crappy at the moment, and often the good days don't align with our flying days. We'll aim for Wednesdays, and try and organise a different day if one is going to be obviously better.

Also for any day of the week don't forget to book on the website. That way the instructor, duty pilot and tow pilot can decide wether to cancel the day or not, and so we don't waste their time if there is no one planning to fly.

A couple of handy ridge flying tips

• If there is a lot of cloud around, give regular position reports so we have good situational awareness of each other. Today there was a lot of cloud, some at low level that we often had to fly around. Giving regular reports of position, altitude, and heading helped a lot.
•  We now have a common frequency zone up past Paeroa for the coromandel area. Check the VNC charts before flying up this way. You should report your position when entering the zone and when passing airfields such as Thames.

Hopefully we'll have more good ridge flying soon.

Taupo Gliding Club is to hold a training course for prospective scorers at the TGC Clubhouse

Sat 9th—Sun 10th Oct

Applicants should have a laptop available with See You and have computer skills.

The course will be at N/c in the interest of improving our base of scorers.

Rob Lyon of the Taupo Gliding Club will be the course trainer.

Accommodation is available at the Clubhouse at very cheap rates and some meals/bbqs will be available.

Please contact Tom Anderson Manager gliding@reap.org.nz for bookings and information.

www.taupoglidingclub.co.nz

Yesterday I thought up a clever, cheesy middle name for the bookings, going with the classic "Wave Bird". An easterly wind was forecast, although only 2 notches on the little weather arrow, so I wasn't expecting anything too amazing. I thought an overly optimistic booking name would be good for moral during this 'bad patch' of weather.

When I woke up this morning the first thing I noticed was the lack of wind. "I'd better wait it out a bit and see if it's worth it" I thought to myself. Later in the day the weather probe at Matamata said 10knots gusting to 20, yet in Hamilton everything was as still as could possible be. Almost didn't bother going out although figured I'd go and worst case, do a circuit.

Anyway long story short, it was an absolute rip snorter of an Easterly wave. When we were pulling the gliders out of the hangers a small patch of what looked like rotor had started, but by the time we were in the air there was a distinct line of thickening cloud running from Te Aroha down to the waterfall. Throughout the day things picked up, and at it's peak there were 3 distinct lines of rotor.

It was rough as guts, big downs, but oh so amazing ups to go with them. GSN, GXP, GPC and GPK all flew today. Here are some pics from GXP.

A big thanks to Jeff for towing on a day he described as a "tow pilots nightmare" :) Hopefully tomorrow will pull off something similar, although it may be raining...

Ian Hector, one of our intrepid tow pilots, had a starring role tonight on Campbell Live. The segment was about JetStar's pilot training programme through CTC.

See it on the TV3 website if you missed it. Well done Ian!