Classic Flyers coming this Saturday

Posted 15 years, 5 months ago    0 comments

The Classic Flyers from Tauranga are visiting Matamata airfield this Saturday Morning, and they've asked us to let the gliding club members know.

Here is the notice they've sent around:

A part day trip is planned for

this   SATURDAY Nov 1st 2008

************************

WEATHER PERMITTING

So....come in anyway. DECISION made at ClassicFlyers..8am

****

Aircraft all Out & Ready..8.15am

Briefing....(Avgas Cafe')..8.30  SHARP .

Start-up....9.15am.

Take off....9.30am.

*********

Midway to Matamata (Quiz for ALL on board)              [1st Prize..Harvard flight @ Matamata...Runner-up Airtourer flight there]

*********************

MATAMATA...visit field and its various tenants.

view any 'ops' taking place, and Spectate generally.

'Critically' view our own AEROBATICS 'training ops' underway nearby.

 Sumptuous lunch... courtesy Avgas Cafe'.

 (sandwiches etc) you lucky people

Depart Matamata ....load-up 1.30pm appx

********

Aircraft going to date (with appx 32 folk so far )...

DH Devon, Harvard 98, Stearman 03, GA Agcat, Yak 718, Yak (YKA)

Airtourer T3, 2xCessna C150's, and C172.

*******

It is intended to try and get most pax a differant a/c seat on the return trip

(Andrew will supply a SEAT PLAN by Sat am)

*********

Note: we are trying to get more aircraft added.

 (with other pilots/pax )

IF YOU WISH TO BE ADDED TO THE LIST........

.........call or email.....SHARE COST is =$110 pp

(Chq, visa or eftpos accepted )

****************

Also ...Please Note......

call or email Andrew, Pete Ham, Tim @ Euroflght

or Aidan @ the Aeroclub to confirm you are listed and intend going   DON'T FORGET

 

See you at ClassicFlyers ………Andrew


Flypaper October/November 08

Posted 15 years, 5 months ago    0 comments

Blowin' in the Wind

This Newsletter is being fully distributed through the new website. Thanks to Tim. Personally I find this a great innovation, as prior to this distribution had to be done in batches and could take me a whole evening! I now only need to print the 10 copies for members without emails (yes there are still such people) and some copies to secretaries of other clubs etc. I remind you, any comments, ideas, or letters to the editor are welcome. Of course, for those who like to read off a paper edition, press your print button now and enjoy with your cuppa.

Labour Weekend Flying with Aviation Sports

They will be coming en mass, with tow plane, members, others, gliders. Come out, join in, make them feel welcome, do some gliding. Inter-Club Dinner on Saturday Night starting at 6.30 if poor gliding conditions, or after 7pm if there's late flying. $14.00 and can be paid using Eftpos. RSVP to Jan would be appreciated (but not essential) up until 5pm on the day (ring the clubhouse 07 888 5972). All family and friends welcome.

Of course, these lucky fellas will be among the first to try out the new beds, mattresses, and bedroom facilities in the MSC Bunkrooms - now bit of a misnomer as No.'s 1-4 'bunkrooms' have disappeared. Two of them now have new innerspring Queen Size beds installed, the other 2 rooms have 2 new single mattresses and bases. Duvets, pillows, and bedside lights add to the luxury. The 'Family Room' has table and chairs and a small fridge. An 'Executive Room' includes lazyboy chairs. Both of these rooms also have new Queen sized beds, duvets, and pillows! All just waiting for you to come and make use of them. Bring your partner/friend/wife for a mini holiday - Matamata and Tauranga are only short drives away for their relaxation and enjoyment while you spend your day at the field. Bedlinen (sheets), toaster, electric frypan, plates and cutlery are also available for a trial period. Bookings with Ralph as usual. First in, first served. And, if its well used and seems a suitable arrangement perhaps next year rooms 5-8 will also get 'done over'.

Almost finished being 'done over' is the Caravan. Dave (Qualtrough) has done a terrific job of rearranging its insides. There is a new purpose built desk area complete with sliding access windows, and business chair for the Duty Pilot. (As previously reported eftpos will be available at the caravan too.) Seating is arranged for briefings,there are storage areas, and an awsome awning mounted. Then there are whiteboards, noticeboards, cushions, pamphlet stands, chair rack on the drawer bar, glider tow hook and rope receptical on the rear - thanks Bill. New flooring is being installed - thanks Jamie. Sign writing is arranged - thanks Tim for the graphics. Then just the elctronics to be sorted and it should be in use well before Xmas!!

But, back to the website, it's well worth while taking some time to explore it. With its additional benefits such as:- current news items and notices, the booking system for trial flights, aerotows, passenger flights, instruction, and of course specific club gliders. There's a place for weekend flight reports preferably in photo form! Forms, technical information, how-to-do-it are all there. You could say the information hub of the club is now glidingmatamata.co.nz

NB If you are impressed with our web design - please don't hesitate to refer others to Tim Bromhead, our website designer.tim@pear.co.nz Tim and Dennis have also set up the new improved webcam so you can check the weather and what's happening at the field.Thanks guys for the input there.

Speaking of the weather - typical spring weather is apparent with frequent showers, cold fronts, and westerlies. Niwa's outlook favours a normal summer with slightly above average rainfall. Seems to favour gliding to me! Waves were working at the weekend, so was the ridge of course, but entry was difficult due to cloud cover. Reports were heard of Auckland flyers at 8500' over Port Waikato. Book in some gliding time!

A reminder that the new airspace charts can be ordered with Bill until the end of October. Ralph would like statistics on access into controlled Air Space, both successes and any difficulties with Air Traffic Control. (Have you got their number with you?) Please specify times and dates. This is important as we need a picture of what's happening.

Did you know AVEX was on last weekend? Did you go? As previously reported, attendance numbers were down - perhaps they needed to promote a little! Bill was thrilled with his t-shirt and  I thought the club simulator had a fair bit to do with his success!

Talking Simulators - the baby has gone to night school in Tauranga. Yip, the Tauranga Club is running a 10 week course of lectures and simulator flying prior to and then along side of actual glider experience. I will report in due course.

On the subject of new technology, it's interesting to note that the new Eftpos machine has even been engaged to pay annual membership fees. Thanks to all members who have paid theirs. Remember the bulk of this covers airfield lease and hangar rental, then there's club room and admin costs, and some to GNZ for your magazine etc.

The Raglan Aifield has been booked 10-18th January. Now is a good time to think about booking your own campsite or cabin. It's planned to take the new caravan (and Eftpos machine). Volunteers are required: we need a 'dangerous goods' licensed driver (for the Avgas trailer), duty pilots, motor-bike rider (glider retrieves), helpers, and participants. Keep a check on the website for details as they come to hand.

XMAS CAMP is not far away. The annual affair at the Airfield starting on Boxing Day through til 10th January. Tow Plane or winching will available every flyable day for 26 days - yippee!! (Remember the refurbished cabins are available.)

Lastly, a reminder that Early Entry Discounts close for the Northern Regional Competitions on 30th October. Day entries or glider syndicates are welcome. Contact Bill, wajvmace@ihug.co.nz. The Taupo Competition starts on the 1st of November - best of luck to those entered. The MSC Competition and PW5 Nationals will be held at Matamata in February. This is a good place to to start competition flying - have you thought of entering?

Finally, remember to keep a check on the website for your club info and to make those bookings.                    

Jan Mace (temporary Editor)

 

CFI JOTTINGS

TRAINING COURSES
The current A Cert course has an enthusiast mother and daughter combination of Manda and Amiee together with a couple of students from the last course, Neil Raymond and Josh Money when he can make it, who are completing their flying training after it was disrupted by the wet winter. Look out for the new students at the field and make them welcome.

ACHIEVEMENTS
Congratulations to Dom Stevens and Tim Bromhead who completed the recent GNZ Instructors Course at Taupo and have joined the instructors panel as C Cats.

RADIO CALLS
It has been noted that the standard of radio procedures, on the Matamata MBZ frequency, among our pilots is variable with newer pilots getting mixed messages from listening to more experienced pilots.
Also the radio calls published on the website were not correct, these have now been changed by Rainer.
Please review your own radio procedures and let's up the standard. Remember that everyone can hear you when you're on the radio. Some of the basic things to apply:

  • Keep the message brief, the MBZ is NOT a chat frequency.
  • Think what you are going to say before you transmit.
  • Identify yourself with the full "Glider Golf Papa Charlie", not just "Papa Charlie".
  • Listen to what others are calling, especially power traffic, so that you are aware of parachuting, traffic in circuit, aircraft approaching, etc.

With the new airspace soon to apply, glider pilots will have to get used to talking to ATC and the more professional you sound the better the response you'll get from controllers.

 

NEW VNCs
And while we're on airspace stuff. New VNCs apply from 20 November 2008, and if you don't already know, there are some major changes to the airspace boundaries in the air where we fly.
Bill Mace is ordering a bulk buy of the new charts so if you want one see him pronto. Remember to legally fly away from the airfield after 20 Nov you must have the new chart onboard.

BACK SEAT PASSENGER RATINGS
The last Instructor Panel meeting reviewed the current Club policy on flying passengers from the rear seat of our two seaters. Whilst GNZ MOAP provides for pilots with passenger ratings to be able to get a rear seat rating as well, our Club has for a long time considered that only those with instructor training and experience should fly our gliders from the rear. After some discussion the Panel and CFI has decided that the current policy should not change. Which is that "All pilots flying the Club two seat gliders from the back seat must hold a GNZ Instructor Rating."

Bob Gray

 

This Is Your Club Captain Squawking

"There once was an ugly duckling with feathers all tattered and torn..." For those that don't know the history of GXP: it was revived from various bits of other rather dented Discus's to hatch into what we see now!! The reason I mention this is that the "other two" singles that will never be swans, GNI & GSN, are often left forlorn at the rear of the club hangar. Please make sure they get their fair share of air-time. They may be lacking in comparable performance to GXP but, nevertheless they are still great aircraft - fly them more - lots more!

It's brilliant to see students from the previous "A" syllabus course still polishing their skills nearly every flyable weekend. I'd also like to offer a warm welcome to our latest intake of students, Amanda and Amiee. Talking of all things great and wonderful, the ‘start of the season' Brunch was quite an occasion and as always lots of happy faces to be seen. We all digested not only good fare but some sound information by way of talks from Ralph, Rainer, Bill, Richard and Tim. Topics covered ranged from local airspace changes, decision making, PLBs, ZK-BZA to our website, all good stuff.

Our gliding season has officially begun and we are now really starting to ramp-up our activities. As we are being constantly reminded that gliding is a declining sport, we must take it upon ourselves to be pro-active in promoting our club and our sport. Our boundless enthusiasm will rub off on everybody we come into contact with (don't worry the rash doesn't last long!). So lets take all this declining nonsense and give it a good swift kick in the pants and make sure every man, women and their dog knows just how much fun flying a glider can be ... phew, I think I feel better now. (Just out of interest that last paragraph reads slightly better with "Ride of the Valkyries" or similar heraldic fanfaresque-type sounds playing in the back ground!)

With exposure in mind, the recent Avex show at Mystery Creek was our first promotion of the new season. Our display stand was very striking: a black background and brilliant white PW5 in the foreground, with gliding DVDs continually running to add to the lure. Although by some accounts the Thursday and Friday were a little quiet, the Saturday had a continual stream of interested people (can't believe how many CTC students there are!). I'd like to thank Joan, Ian, Ron, Stu, Bill, Carl and Tim for all the effort, much appreciated.
For phase II of the 2008 promotion we will once again be attacking the Hamilton popular front by way of the Centre Place shopping centre. The dates have been strategically selected and booked for Thursday November the 20th, through to Saturday November 22nd. Our aim is to entrap the retail-hungry public, who by now are fully psyched for Xmas. All those who can't decide on a present for mum, dad, brother or sister are to be saved from some "fluffy bunny slippers" by tempting them into purchasing a "Trial Flight" voucher - they're happy, we're happy, Ying and Yang is complete!

I also quickly remind you of the fast approaching events about to take place on the air field: i) Labour weekend: fun, food and frivolities oh, and possibly some flying! ii) X-country course to hone the skills of our finest by the finest. iii) The North Island Regional gliding contest - big bun fight!

-Dom Stevens

And now as promised in the last Fly Paper some origami:

orgiami.doc

 

From the President's Cockpit

The season has kicked off. The ridge is working and the thermals are popping. A few quite serious cross-country flights have started to happen.

Firstly I (also) would like to welcome our two new A cert course participants who have now had 3 Saturdays of southwesterly ridge flying. At the same time some of the previous A cert pilots have joined the course, as they had been caught out with bad weather during their course. Last A course pilots are Neil, John, Josh, Brad and the A course prior Justin, Carl, Matthew & Stuart. So far this year we have trained 10 new pilots and 9 are now club members.

Big events coming up are paddock landing training, the x-country course, Regionals, Christmas camp, Raglan, Mtm Soaring Centre Camps in late Feb.

You might not realise, but the things we have done over the last 6 months include, disk brake fitted to the PW6, club EFT POS facilities (Dennis), new EPERB's for all club gliders, new transponder for the Puchacz, new caravan (major contributors towards this Bill Mace and Dave Qualtrough), new website and logo (Tim Bromhead), 4 training courses, mid winter dinner , season kick-off breakfast (Bill and Jan) and Avex display (Dom, Tim and others), grass contract resolved (Bill), grants and review of 5 year plan (Bill, Joan,Tim and Jamie). Sefton Crandall has contributed a huge amount towards maintaining our fleet, Bob Gray organising courses and Richard Small has been kept very busy keeping BZA in the air and organising new tow pilots.

I have been part of the committee for quite a number of years and I cannot recall a time when all committee members have put in such enormous effort toward making the club successful. I am very confident that the results will show in the future.

I know that the change in airspace around Matamata on the 20th November 2008 will have an effect on us, but we need to accept that it is something that we have to live with. For local flying, I feel there is not very much change, other than the need to open airspace. For cross country and higher altitude flying, I have only ever had one problem getting access to airspace and on all other occasions, controllers have always been very helpful. It helps if you have good radio skills and good transponder equipment. If you do not have an FRTO license, refer to Bob so we can consider organising a future course.

Apart from some very bad winter weather, the club has been very active and I suspect that we are in for a good summer. Make the most of the club's resources and enjoy some fun flying this season.

- Steve Care

PGC       RAGLAN CAMP

10TH - 18TH Jan 2009

  *****            FEATURING            *******

                                      Good weather
Fabulous coastal gliding
                                                     Good company
                  Beach walks
                                      Boating  
   Hiking                                                Great scenery
                    Fishing
                                                     Camping
                                 Good food
   Wine & beer
                                      Book it in your diaries today       

!


Labour Weekend Flying & Dinner

Posted 15 years, 5 months ago    0 comments

Labour Weekend Flying with Aviation Sports

Dinner on Saturday night  6.30-7pm

Aviation Sports Club are coming to join us for the weekend at the Matamata Airfield. They are bringing their tow plane, gliders, pilots, and others.

An inter-club dinner will be held on Saturday night, and you are all invited.$14/hd     RSVP's prefered (but not essential) to Jan at wajvmace@ihug.co.nz or phone the club house on Saturday up til 5pm.

Check out details in the Flypaper - coming out soon


AVEX Aviation Expo Wrap up

Posted 15 years, 5 months ago    0 comments

Well the aviation expo finished on Saturday, and overall it was some excellent exposure for the club.

We took the PW5 and had a good gliding video playing which generated a lot of interest.

The number of people through the show was pretty limited, however the people that did attend were interested in aviation, many were definitely interested in the gliding club.  I'm sure we'll have a number of flights and potential new members from the show.

A big thanks to those who helped out with the stand, including Bill, Fin, Carl, Stu, Ron, Les and Dom who helped bring the PW5 back too.

Well done to Bill for landing the hercules in the airforce simulator!

Dom looking organised
Dom looking organised

The AirForce stand just across from ours
The AirForce stand just across from ours


EFTPOS now up and running

Posted 15 years, 5 months ago    0 comments

The club now has a mobile EFTPOS terminal, which everyone will be able to use to pay for tows, glider time, vouchers, food and drinks.

It's battery powered and runs over the cell phone network so we can take it out to the caravan, and away to events like Raglan.

It accepts EFTPOS (debit) cards only, not credit cards due to the higher fees charged.

It's easy to use, instructions can be found with the machine, and also on the website:
glidingmatamata.co.nz/members/procedures/mobile_eftpos/

If you're duty pilot, be sure to take it out with you when you grab the money box, and plug it in again at the bar at the end of the day.

Thanks Dennis for organising and writing up the instructions.


Brunch Debrief, Safety talk and MBZ Radio call info update

Posted 15 years, 6 months ago    1 comment

Here's some more info from the Start of Season briefing

Rainer Kunnemeyer gave a talk on safety. The notes are available as a PDF file attached below, and also are available on the website inside the members training section.

Season 2008-9 RK.pdf (700Kb)

Also updated is the MBZ radio call info page, which is now more inline with standard CAA procedures. A good idea for everyone to check you're doing the MBZ radio calls correctly.

We can also report Brunch was absolutely delicious, thanks to Jan, Bill and Dom (and any others I've missed) for doing such a great job yet again.

The flying was also great, summer is definitely on its way!

Other topics covered at the briefing:

  • New higher res webcam on the front page. Click on the image to view a big version. It will update more frequently on flying days, especially in the morning.
  • New booking system, already being put to good use. It's really simple to use, so if you're planning on coming out please add a booking. Also available from the front page.
  • Local airspace changes take effect from the 19th November 2008. New maps will be available in the coming months, contact Bill if you wish to order. We will put updated GPS maps on the website when available. More details are available on the CAA website
  • The Christchurch Control phone number is 0800 626 324 for those that missed it.
  • The club needs to start logging our use of airspace. We will devise a method of doing this soon, possibly using the timesheets.
Thanks everyone for the great turnout, and we look forward to a great 2008/09 season.


Chief Tow Pilot Start of Season Briefing Notes

Posted 15 years, 6 months ago by Richard Small, Chief Tow Pilot    1 comment

[These notes were from Richard's talk at the 2008-2009 Start of Season briefing.]

I want to ramble around a few topics that cover things I have noticed over the last couple of years and also points of discussion that come up occasionally with glider pilots relating to towing and safety. Please consider the following factors as part of your situational awareness every time you fly.

1. Turning right after takeoff from 28 to get to the ridge.

We often get requests from glider pilots to turn right after takeoff from runway 28. Presumably the thought is that this will get them closer to the ridge on release. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. The difference is actually only about half a mile if things go well. Sometimes the tow pilot is happy to do this, other times not. Things that affect our decisions include: model aircraft activity, strength of the crosswind factor (many glider pilots comment that they dislike turning downwind at low level on tow), circuit traffic, overhead rejoin traffic, parachute activity, and the fact that a right turn is not the published circuit direction.

The tow pilot will make his decision based on his assessment of the conditions at the time. To put it bluntly, the wishes of the glider pilot in this instance are at the bottom of the priorities in the decision making process. Safety comes first.

2. Tow Speed

The normal tow speed is 80mph or 70kt. If your glider has water on board please make sure you inform the tow pilot and the tow speed will then be 75kt. If you have an issue with the tow speed please do not request a specific speed as the ASI in the tow plane will read up to 7kt different from the ASI in the glider on tow. Instead please ask to either increase or decrease the speed (as desired) by a certain amount eg 5kt.

3. Gliders rejoining the circuit to land

When you rejoin to land please consider your position if you are joining crosswind or from a standard overhead rejoin position. The SOP in this instance is to pass overhead the departure end of the active runway prior to entering downwind. If you fly the crosswind leg further out from the airfield you are flying directly across and in the path of departing aircraft including the tug with a glider on tow. I have discussed this with Bob and as a result of his actions there has been pleasing improvement in this aspect but it still happens occasionally.

With the increasing activity of GA and microlight traffic at Matamata I think it is an important safety aspect to fly how others (particularly power pilots) are trained to expect you to fly in the vicinity of the field. It can be difficult for others to spot you if they are looking for you in one place and you are nearly a mile away from where they expect to see you based on a standard circuit position report that you have just made.

4. Radio calls

We all get foot in mouth disease occasionally on the radio and make a mess of our calls. However it is helpful to all in the vicinity of the field if your calls are accurate, timely and concise. The tow pilots really appreciate being able to build an accurate picture of the traffic in the vicinity of the field. It helps us greatly with decision making and collision avoidance.

5. A hint for the ground crew.

Tow costs are dear to every glider pilot's heart. Every minute that the prop is turning on the Pawnee costs money. If the prop is turning while we are sitting on the ground waiting for a hookup then the fuel cost is not that much but the interval to the next scheduled maintenance is reducing for no real reason. We often sit there for a couple of minutes while waiting for ground crew to wander over from the caravan. This is a situation where simple awareness can have a positive effect on reducing costs without compromising safety.

Maintenance schedules are based on engine running time. FYI our average tow takes about seven minutes of aircraft operating time, so you can see that if we waste 2 minutes per tow sitting on the ground with the prop turning, this is about 25 percent of the engine running time! (not quite true because of run up time and a few other factors but it is significant).

This is not to be confused with rushing the glider pilot to complete his/her preparations. Under no circumstances should tug operating costs be a factor in the glider pilot completing preflight checks. If you are going to be a while, simply signal the tow pilot to shut down,

6. Factors affecting what a tow pilot does (or will not do).

We have ten individuals on the tow roster. We all want to do the job properly and professionally. We have vastly differing levels of experience and we all have our own personal operating minima based on the things we are comfortable with at the time.

You are unlikely to get "unusual" requests granted in the first couple of tows of the day. This is the time we use to get re-familiarised with the operation, get a feel for the weather/wind/thermal conditions, and get a feel for the other operations happening around the field.

You are also unlikely to get "unusual" requests granted later in the day. The tow pilot will be getting tired and will not want to explore the outer edges of his personal minima.

It might be your first or only flight for the day but imagine for a minute how you would be feeling on your 25th circuit for the day in a busy operating environment in hot and bumpy conditions with a 10kt crosswind for landing.

We also take into account the competence of the glider pilot on tow. If our previous experiences with you on tow are all warm and fuzzy then you are more likely to get what you want based on our assessment of the risk involved in granting your wishes. If, on the other hand you have a history of dragging us all over the sky then you can expect a thoroughly standard tow to the safest place for the tow pilot with no turns until we have a lot of air between us and the ground.

7. Pilot in command

Please remember that from the time you hook up until the moment you release the tow pilot is the pilot in command. We have a lot of things on our mind during a tow. Firstly we are responsible for your safety as well as our own. We have all our own pre takeoff checks to do as well as monitoring all the usual in flight conditions including fuel, airspeed and engine instruments. The most stressful time for us is from the beginning of the takeoff roll until we are about 500ft AGL when we achieve a margin of safety if things go pear-shaped. We have to have one eye on the glider and one eye on where we are going. We need a third eye to monitor the instruments!

If you have a request then please go ahead and make it, but equally please respect the tow pilot's decision if he decides that what you want can't be accommodated.

The place to discuss any differences of opinion is on the ground and away from the aircraft. If you have any issues regarding towing or tow pilots then please feel free to contact me. I am always looking to do things better and I appreciate constructive dialogue.

Richard Small
Chief Tow Pilot


Reminder About Start of Season Briefing & Brunch

Posted 15 years, 6 months ago    1 comment

Don't forget, the start of season briefing & brunch is this Sunday, the 21st of September! Not to be missed for all members. Brunch starts at 9am, Briefing starts at 10am.

We've had some great flying days recently, the weather is finally coming right. Should be a great start of season. There will be normal club flying after the briefing, so could be a good opportunity to get current again.

If you can, let Jan know at wajvmace@ihug.co.nz if you will be turning up for brunch. There will be heaps of food so feel free to turn up even if you haven't said you'll be there.

More details can be found in the original announcement here. See you there!

Mmmmm brunch...
Mmmmm brunch...



Shim