Jeepers – it’s been a bit hectic again/still!

Wednesday 3/10 and Saturday 6/10 were canned but Sunday 7^th had some action finally. Captain Brown in command of the day for his inaugural turn on the roster came up against it immediately when I removed the backboard and paper flying sheet and said, “Sorry Pres – but we don’t do it that way anymore!” His initial professings to being digitally challenged were soon put one side as he rattled up 13 flights on the score sheet with only 1 error – caused by an errant entry being extinguished in a manner the pc didn’t like. Great job Roger and a big thanks for becoming an avid supporter of doing it digitally – sorry folks but if the president is on my side it’s pretty much a done deal!!

Turning out on the day and flying first up was Darren Smith, a keen ex RN lad 1 day off a plane from UK seeking a new life for himself and family here in godzone – with his gliding credentials and personality he will be an asset to any club he joins here and a welcome addition to our NZ fraternity, I am certain – keep a look out for him as he has promised to return on a ridge day! Members who flew were, Tim Bromhead, Jamie Pirrit and daughter, Carl Henderson, Will Kamp, Jacopo Detti, Edouard Deveonoges, Paul Knight, Mark Shrimpton, Dave Dennison, and me, practicing rope breaks with Rob Owens – but that’s another story!

Wednesday 10^th was not high on action as Iggy reported:

Two tows today.  The high cover cut off the promised thermal activity but Neil Raymond did 30 minutes WW and Phil Cox in PK managed 35 minutes.  Bill gave Phil a bit of a workout on tow, having him boxing the wake, levelling off into cruising flight and then establishing a descent while on tow.  I found out how much rudder and elevator it takes to counter the wayward glider!

Good to see we are keeping the Chief tow pilot entertained whilst at work!

Then the week got very short as the Instructors Course arrived ……….. Friday 12/10 there were 52 launches in 4.5 hours – none on Saturday (phew!) and 30 on Sunday, which as you can imagine kept the laptop humming. It was a great experience to be a part of the event and to see the number and quality of people coming through the system. Some great presentations on Saturday, while the rest of the world blew on by.

Club members Ian Finlayson, David Muckle, Robin Britton and Ralph Gore managed to squeeze a flight in, but the rest was strictly business!

Ralph has asked me to put out a call to all private owners who might want to have their parachutes re-packed, to give him a call or email as he has arranged for a packer to come to the airfield for a weekend (I don’t know which!), to get the job done for you.

By the way - old mate and ex club-member Gerald (thanks for your help on the grid at the course - deserves another plug), has his beautiful motor-glider for sale on Trademe:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=515813530

Hopefully we get a great long weekend! See you there!

PC

As I sit looking out at a rainy dreary Auckland Monday morning, I think how lucky we were to get a weekends flying! Not great but flying!!

Not so on Wednesday though – the day was cancelled.

Saturday was a busy one for Julian and pupil Pieter, who between them racked up 1hr 50 mins of circuits and thermalling in PK. David Muckle & Tim dusted off PC for ¾ of an hour, Julian & Keith had PK up for 49 mins to round out the club glider flights.

Also in the air were Fin in ZO and Phil Smith in VM – both notching up flights in excess of 2 hours – nice going guys.

Total for the day was 10 launches keeping Tracey and BZA in business, and Dave Dennison occupied at the desk

Sunday was one of those bonus days – you couldn’t see the Kaimai’s on the webcams, and you could easily have been fooled into thinking that “Day Cancelled due to weather” was to be the outcome, but Bob reckoned it would come right, and so it did. 13 flights in all with YL taking the prize for departures and arrivals with 6 (Bob  x 2 taking up some friends, Steve and Phil Smith X 2, then Phil was gone solo, with Dave and Steve getting to do the last flight of the day). Nudged out was PK on 5 flights (Will & Mark Drayson, Carl & Bob, Phil Cox & Mark, Carl again, and a trial flight) making the numbers. Completing the flying list were with Jacopo in NB and Tauranga’s Dave Jensen in NM (trying out some new gadgets apparently – watch out those competing later this year!). Phil Cox was doing the paperwork and Dave Harding enjoying himself as always at the controls of BZA.

Definitely a gliding weekend, unless you took a flight to Pauanui in a passing Tecnam and got back to find all the Cu’s had evaporated, and the much anticipated flight was left for another day!

By the way - old mate and ex club-member Gerald has his beautiful motor-glider for sale on Trademe:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=515813530

PC

My apologies for falling off the horse – back up and running – it’s a pity Uniform Lima can’t get re-hinged that quickly!

Iggy filed this for Wednesday 19/09.

Tuesday was a good thermal day.  Light winds, well spaced Cu and a cloudbase rising to 3500 at Matamata.  All seen from the office window!  Damn!  Wednesday (19 Sep 12) was forecast to be similar to Tuesday.  Good!  You know the rest of the story ….  Yes - the high cover developed more than predicted and a little “feature” moved in preventing thermal activity.  However, BZA burst into life at 2pm and Roger in GJ was followed by Neil Raymond in XP.  Both took 2500 tows and made for the ridge.  Roger reported: “Great time over at the ridge in softish conditions I have to say but a wonderful 1.30 flight. Pity more did not turn up to enjoy the potential the day actually offered in the end. Neil also had a wonderful ride over there in XP. We both came back well satisfied young? men.”

As for the tow pilot - BZA was washed and was returned to the hangar prior to gliders landing and I got back to the office also well satisfied.  As for the Duty Instructor – Ralph Gore got to run two wings!

So, to the weekend:

A great, summer-like weekend in many respects with Saturday chalking up 20 slots on the time sheet and Sunday 14!

I wasn’t there Saturday but Julian filed the following for me:

An outstanding spring day with Tony Davies completing 20 tows!
Our very committed new Student, Pieter Bronkhorst, arrived 20 minutes early and had a1 hour flight in the morning and 80 minutes later in the afternoon. The thermals were going 4 to 5 knots to 4,000 ft by mid-afternoon.
A big welcome home goes to Phil Smith, who completed his BFR in fine style and flew VW for the first time in 18 months.
Stuart Wilson & Dave Reed both flew WW, with Dave ending up at the top of the by then waning thermal, putting much more experienced pilots to shame. Our other new member, Mark Shrimpton,(formerly with Tauranga he has joined us after a time out), flying with Mark Drayson showed good skills. The Duo Discus was also enjoying the day, with Dave Dennison getting to spend some time with Steve Care in his new acquisition. Fin completed the roundup of high performance singles and Evey Belworthy had a flight with Julian in the K13 at the end of the day.

That’s 3 new members folks Pieter, Mark and Evey (now officially a member after all her contributions!)  – that a great start to the goal of 15!

Sunday saw the return of NI (just – I missed the Drury off-ramp listening to something intensely intellectual on the radio – doh!!), and a bit of repositioning at the end of the day meaning XP is in hangar 15 for a while!

Mark S got us off the board with 2 circuits in PC then disappeared for his first solo for a while in PC – 3 nice landings and some good thermalling go under his belt for the day. Bob and Steve got YL into it after a circuit – disappearing for an hour and 40. The followed a rush of single seaters XP (Julian), VM, (Paul K), RY (Alan), and NB (Jacopo) all got away for hour plus stints.

PC then took Dennis and son Hamish Crequer away for another 1hour 26 completing its workout for the day. Evey and Steve Care managed 17 minutes in the K13, and Mark rounded out his busy weekend with a flight in YL with Bob.

Were off!!!  

PC 

A note about the upcoming contests and XCountry course. Now is the time to be booking time off work, organising gliders, sorting accomodation!

Here are the upcoming events:

• Central Plateau contest @ Taupo, practice day is on Sat 27th Oct and 1st Contest day is Sun 28th Oct finishing on Sun 4th Nov
• XCountry Course @ Matamata, Mon 19th - Fri 23rd Nov
• Matamata Soaring Center Regional Comp @ Matamata, Sat 24th practice day, Sun 25th Nov - Sun 1st Dec. 
• Nationals @ Taupo, Practice Sat 9th, Sun 10th Feb. First Contest Mon 11th Feb. Final Day Fri 22nd

The Central Plateau contest is the first competition of the season, so it's a great warm up for the Soaring Center competition a few weeks later in Matamata.

See Taupo's website for details on the upcoming central plateau contest. There is a good discount & competition entry for early bird entries.

http://www.taupoglidingclub.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52:cpsc-2012-invite&catid=2:competition-detail&Itemid=9

Well - The wave did not materialise as predicted. The thermal activity was stronger than anticipated and this combined with slack winds and a change of wind direction above 5000' resulted in a thermal day.

PK did a couple of flights with GS getting an airing care of Eric Gosse. XP and WW were ther on support with some good flights as well. Finn dusted off the post Annual Inspection dust with the longest flight of the day after launching last

Hopefully there are some pics attached of the ASK 13 Ballast Weights as GS has it's own weights designed to fit in the ballast box fwd of the P1 Pilot. Please refer to http://www.rcmodels.co.nz/ASK%2013.htm and follow the links to the information supplied. I had some-one ask the other day if GGS was available for club use.

Yes it is!! Follow the above link and run your own weights through the interactive Weight and Balance spreadsheet.

All the best for your soaring season and don't forget to attend the "Pre Season Briefing"

Ballast Weights

Ballast Box

GPC being fixed last Sunday by a hardy bunch...

...whether it likes it or not.

Will Kamp has just submitted a time lapse video of Saturday Aug 25 2012 ground ops - thanks Will - the changing skyscape and light levels are very cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbChuOc37K0&feature=youtu.be

Well - what a difference a week makes! 3 out of 3 flying days ..... that’s a turnup for the books - and great to see so many out to take advantage of it.

Iggy submitted his Wednesday cameo as follows:

It was a calm, clear day with some weak thermals to a low cloudbase at 2000 feet.  Bill was welded in the back seat of PC for four flights with Peter Minor, Carl Henderson, and Neil Raymond.  They were shaking the moths out of their logbooks which they apparently managed to Bill’s satisfaction, after which Peter did a second tow, this time to 3000 feet, and was run through spiral dive recovery.  He subsequently managed to work the weak thermals to have an extended flight.  Carl took WW up for an airing but was not so lucky with the thermals.  Paul Knight took VM for a flight and stayed aloft for sometime.  Carl and Neil reckon that it was just the performance of the Discus, or possibly the motor, that gave Paul the longer flight.  I think that BZA was the only one that burnt any fuel. 

Thanks Iggy!

To Saturday now, (and further thanks to Steve Care for taking the time to fold, copy, scan and email the time sheet to enable me to receive the data). 16 Flights for the day, some brief others 2 hours plus and 2 trial flights to kick the day off. In order of appearance the stars of the show were:

Tim Bromhead, Edouard Devonoges, Ralph Gore, Keith Irvine, Alan Belworthy, Peter Minor, Steven Care, David Muckle, Carl Henderson, Will Kamp, Dennis Crequer & June Ritting. Julian and Dom provided the instructorial services; pulling aloft was Scott Jeanes and womanning the books was June (well if you can man the books ….. I take literary licence!). A great day was had by all apparently, in 2 - 4 knot thermals fairly close to home, peaking in performance in the 1 - 3pm time band. Well done to all who came out for the day.

Having transcribed the day sheet onto the computer could I point out to ALL that we must record take-off and landing time of privately owned gliders as well as club gliders. IT IS MANDATORY THAT WE SUBMIT ALL GLIDER FLYING HOURS TO GNZ, SO THEY MUST BE RECORDED. Private owners, you can help by checking your time has been recorded when you pay for your tow. Thanks team!

Sunday held great promise when viewed heading east on the Tahuna highway at 10:30 but by arrival at 11 it had broken up and high cloud began filtering in from the North which started to fill in the blue hole overhead the field. However Tim got a couple of trial flights away in PK then took a mate up, which opened proceedings. PC had been DI’d and was sitting in front of the hangar awaiting the arrival of Julian for a BFR.  However, Jamie Pirritt swung by with family and Gump, spotted PC and DI’d it again (wrong page in the book!) then towed it to the 28 launch point. Much to-ing and fro-ing  followed as every nook and cranny was searched attempting to locate a missing ballast weight (left in GS last weekend as it transpired). In a fit of pique at all this attention and not being flown, PC decided to own the day by sighing and collapsing onto a dead flat main wheel right under our noses!. More to-ing and fro-ing to find a replacement tube that didn’t exist, pick up the flash hydraulic engine lifting device and a couple of strops to hopefully lift the stricken beast and drop the wheel out for repair, plus fill the compressor and drag that down for the much needed fill..

The plan worked, providing an afternoons entertainment for a team of willing mechanics who played a wonderful game of one-upsmanship by producing, at a moments notice, a tool that was absolutely necessary but seemed unlikely to be found. My basic kit was gazumped by Godrey’s far superior socket set, Steve produced a puncture repair kit when it was found that no spare tube was available, Bob just happened to have an Allen key tool, Carl produced a tyre pressure gauge, and apologies to any one I missed! Things would have gone better had I not got the port side spacer in the wrong place during re-assembly, but in the end it all came together nicely just in time to be towed back to the hangar!

Julian did his BFR, and took a certain to be new member, Harn for his first flight, Jamie got the kids airborne, Carl got some boxes ticked off. PC got DI’d twice and never flew and a large team of us that didn’t actually fly had an enjoyable afternoon! Godfrey managed the paperwork and Dave Harding added 7 launches to his tally in BZA. A bit more than just a lazy day at the airfield, and proof that you don’t actually need to fly to have fun at a gliding club. Lets hope the puncture repair holds out long enough for the new tyre and tube to arrive.

Keep a lookout for a couple of new members as a result of this weekends flying – just what we need at the start of the season – speaking of which REMINDER – SEASON OPENING EVENT SAT. 8^th September 10:00am –and yes, there is such a thing as a FREE LUNCH!!

Welcome all, and thanks to Tim for filling in with news while I took leave!

The week that was ………

Another wet Wednesday – followed by an eventually cancelled Saturday – just about situation normal this winter! However, Saturday did produce enthusiastic glider riggers that turned out to de-trailer and rig PC and de-rig and trailer PK – if you haven’t got that ticked off on your ‘B’ cert you missed a golden opportunity! Neil, Roger, David Muckle, Julian, Paul Knight myself and a guy who stopped in to ask about the next course was the roll call, as I remember. I had arrived with a friend but he never got past the clubhouse having spotted someone he knew at Middle Earth FS. By the time I was holding up PC’s left wing for 15 minutes while the fuse team debated why the wings wouldn’t fit, he was waving to me from a taxiing Tecnam twin!

Saturday was about keeping the best part to the end – and 35 or so turned out for the Annual Awards dinner and seemed to enjoy themselves – either that or they were making a lot of noise complaining to each other. Hopefully the volume of talk equates to the volume of the cash take at the bar – the bottle sacks certainly were bulging at the end of the night!

Our guest speaker (Barry Murray) is certainly passionate about his subject (the soon to be here 787) and the level of interest seemed to be pretty good given the audience participation. Man can those wings bend before breaking!! And how do all those fuselage bits fit and stay together once they do arrive from a surprising number of places around the world? You won’t be able to call yourself a pilot soon – a flight information & systems management officer (FISMO?) would seem more appropriate!

Awards were awarded and prizes carried off by their worthy recipients – I won’t detail them here because I don’t have a proper list with me and I am not entirely certain Roger & Bob giving out the prizes were 100% sure either – (note to self – perhaps prize-giving should take place before the bar opens?). A fit and proper list will be published asap, I promise.

A decorous but rapid exit occurred in, what was later realised to be, time for the rugby on Sky. Your intrepid Winglet editor and his guest who were over-nighting in the Soaring Centre Acomm rapidly completed the task of loading a couple of dishwashers and passing the time until the free version of the game started close to midnight! The number of topics debated seemed directly proportionate to the ongoing contributions to the bar fund which were increasing exponentially on a per capita basis. In the end we had to change from beer to rum due to the froth coming out our ears (beer and Allan Rollande don’t mix). Fortuitously the game ended with enough forward motion remaining in both of us to find our way to the other side of the carpark, after a beautifully executed sprint from the alarm panel to the light switches near the bathrooms then the airside exit door, sidestepping chairs in the dark a la Dan Carter!

Sunday for those of us not flying, delivered a day that seemed like another NFD, at least, that was how it looked from Julian’s lounge, but how wrong you can be when there are ATC scouts around. We got to the airfield at about 2:30 to find 3 2-seaters (PC, GS and YL) on station and taking 3000 foot tows. I recollect that Tracey never left BZA’s cockpit except when Steve Care had to redo a rope splice sitting in YL’s rear seat! Rob Owens, Jamie Pirrit and Dennis Crequer were all kept busy as well but had good help from the scouts and their leaders. We couldn’t stay too long due to the ‘towing PK to Auckland’ duty we had, so at this stage no report on the number of flights achieved is available, but suffice to say they did a reasonable number, and avoided disappointing the youngsters by cancelling the day.

I would like to thank all those who did support the Awards function and who helped make it possible especially Bill & Jan Mace, Dave Reed, Roger & Bob, and Joan for the support and encouragement, and, of course my guest Barry for giving his time and expertise to address us. Plus anyone I may have forgotten and not to exclude Julian and Caroline Mason for providing us with breakfast and lunch on Sunday!

I would also like to give a special thank you to Norm Duke and his buddies at Auckland Gliding Club who helped us out sheltering PK in their hangar when we arrived there at 6:00pm in pouring rain on Sunday evening. You certainly realize what spirit there is in the gliding community when the call for help goes out!

PC