Saturday was a good ridge day and only a few pilots turned up! Steve was in GVC and Julian & Dave Muckel in GPK got to 8,900ft near Te Aroha in very smooth ridge and wave.

Nice one guys, wish I could have been there.

I had been watching the weather for Wednesday for the last 5 days and it looked great for a good ridge task. Even the night before I was hopeful of being able to try for the long awaited 500 ridge task and it looked on. 

However the RASP on the day showed the lower wind starting after noon and the wind north of Te Aroha weakening, the further north you went. Not conducive to 500k flights, however the newly devised Kaimai Speed Challenge begged to be tried. Tim was keen also but he couldn't get out until 2pm. 

I was able to launch well before him and thought that I should be able to complete the course a couple of times. The first, to try the conditions, and the second to improve on that time. 

Heading to the start point I was able to climb at 85 kts. A good time seemed possible.

I headed off with the idea of keeping airspeed over 100kts and basically maintaining height. The cloud base was too low to consider a pass behind Te Aroha so around the face I went. Beyond Te A the lift eased and I sped up to go through the sink, but it kept on all the way to the turn. Heading back I eased up realising that 115kts was going to see me too low on Te A. I actually lost very little on the trip back but now I had time to make up. Oh well this is just the first run so I thought I would only push it moderately. In places it was a little rough and I thought +4 on the G meter occasionally meant I should stay below rough air speed when I anticipated a rough patch. Man those long wings flap.

I finished and thought it was not a bad run.

Back to the golf ball to gain height for the second run. All was good until I was about to round Te A and heard Tim was landing out. Spotted him in the racecourse and wondered how that had happened. I was about to find out. Little lift out to the turn point had me well slowed up. All chance of beating the first time was lost by the time I got back to Te A. Tim’s warning of not getting to low on Te Aroha was heeded and in fact I never got much lift at all until I was back towards the Maori Lady. I finished the course and headed back to retrieve Tim.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon. It was some time since I had flown a serious task and even if it was short it was still interesting on the day. There is enough going on to make it interesting no matter what level your experience. Oh and the speed, 166kph. The NZ record is 172kph. Achievable.

Yesterday was an interesting ridge day. Up top at 5000' there was 20-30 knots all day, but down at ground level, things started off very still, but picked up after lunch. I mentioned to Bill before leaving that today would be a good day to avoid getting too low...

I launched around quarter to 3, and had a 100km task to do, from the Tauranga road, to an airstrip just north of Te Aroha and return (more details about this special task coming soon).

It was all going swimmingly up to Te Aroha, and then it all fell apart quickly. I arrived on Te Aroha at 2700', and did notice there wasn't much up. We'll take it slowly and see how it goes. Carl in GXA passed underneath me the other way, and didn't seem to have any problems. Soon we were at the turnpoint and had only lost 300 feet getting there, so was feeling pretty confident.

As we started tracking towards Te Aroha again we hit some sink in behind the hill. I realised my mistake at the time, and should have kept out of this area. This dropped us down to 1500', and little did I know, the wind at lower level had died to 5 knots and below. I was expecting something on the side of the hill to be working, but alas, the wind has a habit of going around Te Aroha when light, rather than up.

We had trekked around the base of the mountain, and realised our game was up. There was no up, only down, and it didn't take long to get to 1000' with no where else to go.

So we made a prompt decision to put it down at the racecourse, and on turning around we hit a good amount of sink, loosing another 500'. Due to that we didn't have height to do a full circuit, so joined finals and landed safely on a freshly mown piece of track.

Stepping out it was obvious just how light the wind was, nothing more than a gentle breeze, while up higher the clouds were motoring still.

A tip for landing at the racecourse, ensure you land on one of the tracks rather than the paddocks in the middle. The middle is cut in half with a fence, and it's rough and boggy if wet.

A big thanks to Bill and Dave for coming to pick me up, as far as retrieves go it was a very easy one. A fun day, and it was great to have a good flyable day for a change.

It all happened pretty quick

Almost a runway

I think I won, but I was the only entrant

The crowds went wild

A big thanks to Bill for organising a very enjoyable landing contest last weekend. It was suprisingly difficult to touch down accurately, and many first attempts ended up touching down way too early. Honestly I thought we were meant to STOP by the bucket, not touch down there... anyway Things quickly improved however, well done to Steve for pretty much getting it bang on.

The winching was also excellent practice, for any new pilots who haven't done it yet, be sure to come out and give it a go next time. Unusually, the best bit is paying the bill at the end. You really do get a lot of fun for your money.

Here's a few pics from Saturday.

The crowds were a rowdy bunch

The passenger was obviously relaxed enough to be taking pics

Dodging rain, yet again

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN 

OF THE

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

OF THE

MATAMATA SOARING CENTRE INC

TO TAKE PLACE IN THE

TAURANGA GLIDING CLUB, CLUBROOMS

101 DAKOTA WAY

TAURANGA AIRPORT

ON

SUNDAY, 29th MAY 2011

COMMENCING AT 12.30 PM

• NOMINATIONS ARE INVITED FOR POSITIONS ON THE COMMITTEE

• NOMINATIONS AND REMITS FOR DISCUSSION SHOULD BE RECEIVED AT PO BOX 100, MATAMATA OR TO E-MAIL walest@jafa.net.nz  BY FRIDAY 27th MAY 2011

• MEMBER CLUBS ARE ASKED TO ENSURE THEY ARE REPRESENTED

• BE THERE AND HAVE A SAY IN THE FUTURE OF SOARING AT THE MATAMATA SOARING CENTRE, WAHAROA AIRFIELD

Last Wednesday I had an interesting flight and ended up landing out at the base of the Kaimais, slightly south of the radar dome.

This was the second time I've been low around the golf ball without much wind this year. It can be a little daunting, as the ground slopes up to meet you, 1500' feels very low, and the terrain is rather undulating. Flying on the ridge is often done at lower than normal level, and if the wind stops, very quick thinking is needed. It's can be very hard to identify at what point to give up.

This particular day was forecast to be strong, but although working, was only around 10-15 knots. I joined the ridge at around 1800' and found it to be working well. I headed south to the radar dome, but on arrival was forced to track north again due to a shower going through.

I tracked up to TeAroha, then there was a shower arriving there as well, so I headed south again. The shower to the south had cleared so I ran all the way to the radar dome, around 2500'. Bill and I then climbed a bit, and spent some time spotting airstrips around this area, in particular an airstrip up the hill a bit. This would prove to be very useful later...

We then went back up to the waterfall again maintaing 2500' or so. At the waterfall we met up with VM, although I couldn't read his rego so dived down to see who it was. After doing this I thought, why not do a fun lower level run along the ridge, while waiting for the rain to clear to the north.

We all know where this is going. My thinking was:

• We had just been along there at 2500' and maintained height happily
• The rain had cleared through ages ago!
• VM was down lower, so it must be good! (never trust a glider with an engine...)

We all know that a shower going through can kill the wind on the ridge. What I learned that day is just how long it can take for the lower level wind to get going again. Ralph explained later that the rain and the cool air dumps onto the ridge and that coldness subdues the wind. At higher altitude it was working better which is why we were able to maintain altitude.

So basically I flew from the waterfall to the radar dome, and simply glided down the whole way. It didn't take long to realise the ridge wasn't working properly so dumped my water and thought 'no problem', once we get to the radar dome it'll be better, it always works better down there!

After doing a few figure of eights it quickly became apparent nothing was going up at all, so I found the airstrip we identified earlier and put it down.

The airstrip (A) slopes upwards towards the hill so you have to land downwind on a ridge day. I've never landed on a steep slope before, but it worked out fine with the top third of the strip a little flatter than the rest. The glider didn't roll backwards down the hill, so it obviously wasn't too bad.

A. The disused airstrip

I found out this airstrip is now disused, however it was still in good enough condition to land on, except for an animal track running down the middle. The airfield is hard to spot due to the shape of the paddock, however the fertiliser bin at the top of it gives it away. It's also very close to a duckpond so that makes it easy to find once you know.

B. Airstrip, note the big trees on one side and small trees on the other.

Walking down the hill through about 6 paddocks, I ended up at an occupied house and Old TeAroha Rd. Looking at my GPS maps while waiting for retrieve I discovered there was another airstrip (B) right beside where I was sitting! This one is longer and flatter, but with some big trees running down one side. It's also a lot closer to the road and a few hundred feet lower. 

Thanks Bill for the photos from above, and a really big thanks to Bill, Keith and new student Peter for coming to retrieve me.

Tim

We had a great days flying on Wednesday, both twins were used all afternoon which is great to see.

This weekend is also looking promising. We have training and some trial flights on Saturday. Sunday some ATC cadets will be flying from 10:30am, but one of the twins will be available for club members to fly in the afternoon.

Here's an amazing example of a thermal picking up light netting/plastic.

In an effort to help things run easily at the business end I have organised things around the till…..

And to show where things are at the bar and also to point out some new developments the photo shows……

• A new book that is to live at the bar – this is the library lending record – a base for messages between members and/or office bearers(ie something has been left for them, something has been fixed, or needs fixing, any IOU’s for flying or the bar and please see that these are removed when debts are paid. Flying IOU’s are to go in here as well as on the timesheet You will see that there is a ring on the book for you to put keys etc. on for other members. You can leave a note for them in the book and could you please put a date in with each entry. There is extra info inside the front cover.

• The spike where all bar eftpos payments are to go - It is important to use separate transactions for bar and other transactions. The bar runs a separate bank account. 

• The place for the eftpos machine and instructions. Most importantly there is now a separate facility on the EFTPOS machine for the Matamata Soaring Centre. Check that you are paying into the correct account – either the Piako Gliding Club or Matamata Soaring Centre. It will say on the screen. Press the green button on the bottom (enter) when it is reading the account you want. This facility allows accommodation payments to be made to the MSC.

• A calculator – This is to stay at the bar.

• A glass for pens to come and spend there retirement. It is not a source of pens for removal. 

• The booking in folder for the bunkrooms

• The nest of drawers in which there are envelopes for the timesheets, tools and stationary items such as a stapler and spare EFTPOS paper rolls.

Please use the book and get in the habit of looking in it when you go to the clubrooms.

Thanks for taking the time to read this update.