G liding New Zealand Club News

CLUB DIRECTORY

Link for club info www.gliding.co.nz/Clubs/Clubs.htm

Auckland Aviation Sports Club

Club Website www.ascgliding.org Club Contact Peter Thorpe pbthorpe@xtra.co.nz Ph 09 413 8384 Base RNZAF Base Auckland (Whenuapai) 021 146 4288 Flying Weekends, Public Holidays

Auckland Gliding Club

Club Website www.glidingauckland.co.nz Club Ph (09) 294 8881, 0276 942 942 Club Contact Ed Gray info@glidingauckland.co.nz Base Appleby Rd, Drury Flying Weekends, Wednesdays, Public Holidays

Canterbur y Gliding Club

Club Website www.glidingcanterbury.co.nz Club Contact Kevin Bethwaite kevin.bethwaite@airways.co.nz Ph (03) 318 4758 Base Swamp Road, Springfi eld Flying Weekends, Public Holidays

Central Otago Flying Club (Inc)

Club Website www.cofc.co.nz Club Contact Phil Sumser phil.sumser@xtra.co.nz Base Alexandra Airport Flying Sundays, and by arrangement

Glid e Omarama.com

Website www.GlideOmarama.com Contact Gavin Wills gtmwills@xtra.co.nz Base Omarama Airfi eld Flying October through April 7 days per week

Gl iding Hutt Valley (Upper Valley Gliding Club)

Club Contact Wayne Fisk wayne_fi sk@xtra.co.nz Ph (04) 567-3069 Base Kaitoke Airfi eld, (04) 526 7336 Flying Weekends, Public Hols., Mid week by arrangement

Gliding Manawatu

Club Website www.glidingmanawatu.org.nz Club Contact Ron Sanders Resanders@xtra.co.nz Base Feilding Aerodrome Flying Weekends, Public holidays

Gliding Wairarapa

Club Website http://www.glidingwairarapa.co.nz/ Club Contact Diana Braithwaite Ph (06) 308 9101 Base Papawai Airfi eld, 5 km east of Greytown Ph (06) 308 8452 or 025 445 701 Flying Weekends, or by arrangement

Hauraki Aero Club

Club Website www.fl yhac.co.nz Club Contact Ron Bergersen d.rbergersen@xtra.co.nz Ph (027) 277 4238 Base Thames Airfi eld Flying Weekends and Public Holidays

Hawkes Bay and Waipukurau Gliding Club

Club Website www.skyhigh-photography.com/Main/ Aviation_and_Spacefl ight/HB_Gliding_Club.php Club Contact David Davidson Dhcd@clear.net.nz Ph (06) 876 9355 Base Bridge Pa Airfi eld, Hastings 0272 887 522 Flying Sundays. Other days by arrangement

Kaikohe Gliding Club

Club Contact Peter Fiske, (09) 407 8454 E mail Keith Falla keith@falla.co.nz Base Kaikohe Airfi eld, Mangakahia Road, Kaikohe Flying Sundays, Thursdays and Public Holidays

Marlborough Gliding Club

Club Website http://glide_marl.tripod.com Club Contact bmog@paradise.net.nz Base Omaka Airfi eld, Blenheim Flying Sundays and other days by arrangement

Nelson Lakes Gliding Club

Club Website www.glidingnelson.co.nz Club Contact Frank Saxton franksaxton@gmail.com Ph (03) 546 6098 Base Lake Station Airfi eld, St.Arnaud Ph (03) 521 1870 Flying Weekends and Public Holidays

Nor folk Aviation Sports Club

Club Website http://www.geocities.com/norfolkgliding/ Club Contact Kevin Wisnewski wizzbang@xtra.co.nz Ph (06) 756 8289 Base Norfolk Rd Flying Weekends and by appointment

Omarama Gliding Club

Club Website http://www.omarama.com Club Contact Yvonne Loader loaders@clear.net.nz Ph (03) 358 3251 Base Omarama Flying 7 days a week by arrangement

Otago/Southland (YouthGlide Omarama)

Club Website www.youthglideomarama.org.nz Club Contact Tom Shields tom.shields@century21.co.nz Ph (03) 473 1721 Base Omarama and Dunedin Flying By arrangement

Piako Gliding Club

Club Website www.glidingmatamata.co.nz Club Contact Steve Care s.care@xtra.co.nz P h (07) 843 7654 or 027 349 1180 Base Matamata Airfi eld, Ph (07) 888 5972 Flying Weekends, Wednesdays and Public Holidays

Rotorua Gliding Club

Club Website http://www.rotoruaglidingclub.blogspot.co.nz/ Club Contact Mike Foley roseand mikefoley@clear.net.nz Ph (07) 347 2927 Base Rotorua Airport Flying Sundays

S outh Canterbury Gliding Club

Club Website www.glidingsouthcanterbury.co.nz Club Contact John Eggers johneggers@xtra.co.nz 3 3 Barnes St Timaru Base Levels Timaru & Omarama Wardell Field Flying Weekends, Public Holidays & by arrangement

Taranaki Gliding Club

Club Website www.glidingtaranaki.com Club Contact Peter Williams peter.williams@xtra.co.nz Ph (06) 278 4292 Base Stratford Flying Weekends and Public Holidays

Taupo Gliding Club

Club Website www.taupoglidingclub.co.nz Club Contact Tom Anderson Tomolo@xtra.co.nz PO Box 296, Taupo 2730 Ph (07) 378 5506 M 0274 939 272 Base Centennial Park, Taupo Flying 7 days a week

Tauranga Gliding Club

Club Website www.glidingtauranga.co.nz Club President Alan Belworthy a.belworthy@xtra.co.nz P h 0274 960 748 Base Tauranga Airport Flying Weekends and Public Holidays, Wednesday afternoons and other times on request

Wellington Gliding Club

Club Website http://www.soar.co.nz Club President Philip Milne milnelaw@gmail.com Ph 021 803 37 Base Paraparaumu Airport Bookings Ph 04 297 1341 (clubhouse) Ph 027 618 9845 (operations) Flying Weekends and Public Holidays 7 days a week December through to March

Whangarei District Gliding Club

Club Website www.igrin.co.nz/~peter/gliding.htm Club Contact Paul Rockell rockelkaym@xtra.co.nz Base Rockelkaym Ridge, Gibbs Road, Puhi Puhi Flying Weekends and Public Holidays

GLIDING NEW ZEALAND CLUB NEWS

The club news is your chance to share with the rest of the country and abroad, some of what makes your club the best gliding club in the world. Club scribes, please watch the deadlines (but we'll make allowances for special circumstances so contact me before you panic) and likewise, the word count is supposed to be 300 words to allow everyone to have a say. If you need more words than that, you probably should write a real article about that special event. Deadline for club news for the next issue 11 March 2013.

AUCKLAND AVIATION SPORTS CLUB

After all our moaning about crappy weather t hrough winter, with only the tow pilots happy about the smooth fl ying conditions, summer has settled in quite nicely. Some excellent soaring conditions have been our fortune through December and the Christmas holiday break. We have managed fi ve hour fl ights by both Steve Foreman and Gary Patten, both in our PW5. Pretty good efforts considering our 3,500 ft ceiling cap. Our cross country folk have extended themselves, and so have our retrieve crews. Steve Foreman is certainly showing the benefi t of the Cross Country course and is getting further afi eld. Ian O’Keefe has been visiting the RC model fi elds in the area to show them the full sized version.

First solo for Rudolph Struyck, and a number of our students have transitioned to the singles. Our youth gliding endeavour continued up to the Christmas break, and two of our members, Enya McPherson and Campbell Hall, attended the Youth Glide camp at Omarama, both going solo.

We continued through the Christmas break with good fl ights from many of our members. We even managed a West Coast run, much to the delight of those able to turn out. All in all, a good summer for us so far. Graham Lake

CANTERBURY

The club moved the fl eet to Omarama during D ecember for the Youth Soaring Development Camp and they are still there at this time. Under the care of Roger Read and many helpers, a very successful camp was held for the young ones and is reported elsewhere.

As this was taking place, Alex McCaw and Nick Oakley were representing us at the Joey Glide competition in Australia. Both put up a creditable display and Nick brought the Junior Tasman Trophy home with him. An excellent effort and was a close run thing I understand.

The main summer camp has had a hotch potch of weather, varying from record heat to teeming rain and gale force winds. In between, some good

Auckland Aviation Sports Club: L: Steve Foreman after his fi ve hour fl ight. R:Relaxing after a good day’s gliding.

soaring conditions have allowed for successful fl ights. One of these saw Richie and Alex McCaw, fl ying a Duo, come second in their class during the early part of the New Zealand National Gliding Championships.

When I fi rst fl ew at Omarama in 1959, the propelling noise came from a Tiger Moth or Auster tow-plane and this year a new sound fi lled the sky when a jet engined glider soared overhead.

Back at home base at Springfi eld, the grass is growing fl at out and hopefully we are making a bit of money from it. Welcome news from Yvonne Loader, who has a fantastic ability to raise funds from everywhere, is that we have a $25,000 grant from Pub Charity to shift our clubhouse from Hororata to Springfi eld. Great news by any standards.

The club will return to Springfi eld on the 20 January. Stewart

CENTRAL OTAGO

We’ve had pretty good fl ying in the later part o f 2012. Club pilots fl ew to Mt Cook twice in December. Pete and Vivienne’s fl ight on the 16th was especially notable, being the best achieved in the club’s Twin Astir (JW) for many years. They launched off the winch into pretty poor wave and struggled for much of the 6hr fl ight. Ten points for persistence!

Pete says, “We spent nearly 2 of the 6 hours at the Omarama saddle climbing back into the wave, then it was 1hr 25 min return from Mt Cook”. This was actually a club challenge set by Doug White, to be fi rst to take JW to Mt Cook.

The other fl ight to Mt Cook was by John Robinson, his fi rst from Alex.

Doug and Owen also enjoyed a wonderful fl ight in JW recently. This time is was strong thermals, high bases and the stunning scenery of the Hector and Remarkables Ranges.

So far in 2013 we’ve had wave and thermal soaring, and we’re looking forward to the rest of summer. JR

MANAWATU

It’s been a fantastic couple of months for us in t he Manawatu. On the coat tails of Vaughan Ruddick enlightening us to cross country soaring, we were rapt that Tony Van Dyk also accepted an invitation. Wharite, on the Ruahines, at 12Nm from the fi eld, has never been so close. With our new-found wisdom and testicular fortitude, the fl edglings, fl appers and mottled albatrosses among us have fi nally found our wings.

Some memorable fl ights and signifi cant achievements have being witnessed. Ross Anderson, with Ian Rowe in the back seat of the DG 1000, did a 300 km on the ridge. Ross Anderson and Rob Laskey, jumping the ridge in search of wave, soon out-landed in Dannevirke. They aerotowed back to the ridge, and then went to 12,000 ft in pressure wave. I am reliably informed that both Rob Laskey and Stuart Cawood have taken (fl own that is), their respective partners behind Purity Hut in the Kawhatau Valley now! Ian Rowe and Ron Sanders, among others, have had great ridge fl ights. Patrick Richardson has being introduced to ridge, along with a well planned and executed practical lesson in out-landing or, as

Nelson Lakes: On Sunday 16 December April Rumsey fi nally fl ew her K6 for over 5 hours from Lake Station and in doing so completed the last component for her silver badge. She looks happy and so she should be.

his instructor for the day, Stu Anderson(RNZAF) described it, “the only carrier landing I’ve ever actually pulled off.”

The tale of the club is Rob Laskey and Stu Cawood heading for the eastern side of the Ruahines, tripping over a rocking horse turd and hooking into easterly wave over the Manawatu. A steady climb through to 20,000 ft plus! Both sacrifi ced their cell phone batteries, which should have being logging the fl ight, but instead were used to take 823 photos of every altimeter in the glider, digital, analogue, hell - if it was an instrument it got photographed! Photography was only interrupted by phone calls to anyone who would answer for the fi fth time! From the entire Manawatu club, we raise our glasses to you. Well done guys!

While toasting, we cannot forget either our President Ross Anderson, who arranged for over 135 people to take up the opportunity of a trial fl ight via an internet deal (Grab one) in less than one week – solvency, ahhhh bliss; and to our altruistic engineer Ron Sanders tirelessly rectifying that which needs rectifying. Two stalwarts of our club, who make every fl ight we fl y possible. We salute you. Patrick Frame

NELSON LAKES

It’s been a summer of pretty darn good we ather so far, after a great spring. The club members are out in the weekends in good spirits. There has been some excellent fl ying around Xmas, often with high cloud bases, some wave and convergence. The club has been trying to fl y both days on the good weekends and these days have been well supported. Some members are staying up overnight to have lashings of ginger beer and to swap yarns. Thanks to the instructors that have been willing to be Duty Instructor on the extra days. Julian Mason from Piako Gliding Club popped in in the New Year, so it was great to meet him.

Flying wise – well, April Rumsey knocked off her 5 hours for her Silver badge in December in her Ka6. Well done. Frank Saxton came back from his Omarama pilgrimage and has had some good fl ying over on the eastern ranges, down past Hanmer Springs and back home via Dillon’s cone (on the Inland Kaikouras), with Chris Richards, who fl ew from Omaka. Mike Strathern popped back down to Omarama to help out at the youth gliding camp there and has been busy fi xing gliders.

Andy Heap did his biggest fl ight into the mountains around Nelson lakes with the club’s Ls4, GCX, with Kerry Eggers in GJK. Kerry then split off and headed over into the Molesworth country to Shingle peak. This was a summer goal of his and he knocked it off before Xmas. Others

Nelson Lakes: Nick in NH

have been enjoying the Ls4 too, with the latest happy punter being Andrew Lush. Pete Mundy, in his Cirrus GHD, has often been the fi rst to climb away off the local ridges lately, and has been knocking off a few personal goals, stretching his cross country legs.

Dave Smith has been becoming well acquainted with the Robert ridge, in the club’s Single Astir GNH. Chris Stanton has worked hard to get back into gliding after a wee break and is now beetling around in GNH. The Nimbus GKU club has been up and about, snooping around the

Piako at Raglan

ridges, and Adrian in GSS has been fl oating over Roberts and St Arnaud’s ranges.

Coming up in February is the club’s Ab–initio course, and then followed by the fl ying week, which many are looking forward to.

PIAKO

Yesterday, Tim Bromhead won Day 4 in the 1 5m Class at the Australian Multiclass Nationals at Benalla. Tim is defending his Tasman Trophy and is currently going neck and neck with his Aussie counterpart, Ian McCallum - both fl ying Ventus C’s. Tim is currently sporting 2961 points, behind Ian’s 3200. We are really delighted for him and watching his daily blog on our website with great anticipation.

The club is on our annual camp to Raglan (2 - 20 Jan) and the weather is doing its best to spoil the party. On the good days, we have had a lot of interest, and some very interesting visitors from around the world - Japan, UK, USA, a super yacht crew, and even the press - Neroli Henwood of Aviation News and husband Bill dropped in to chat re a story she is doing about Matamata airfi eld, the people and their planes.

On Tues 7 Jan, our team rigged the duo for fi ve fl ights in awful but safe conditions, from Raglan to Port Waikato harbour mouth and back, at 900 ft max! Truly symbolic of the very different fl ying conditions that can be experienced at Raglan and the beautiful coastal scenery.

Our Christmas camp was a weather washout on more than 50% of the days, but my log shows 3 days fl ying - 2 thermalling in very unpredictable skies and one gem of a ridge day, where we were pretty happy chalking up a trip to Thames and back in UL over 2.5 hours. We arrived back to fi nd Neil Raymond had completed a 300km task, after having chatted to us in the air a couple of times, having never let on what he was attempting. A huge well done to him for a very meritorious fl ight.

Carl Henderson, David Muckle and I achieved QGP status in November. We also widened our instructor’s panel, with Phil Smith and Dennis Crequer returning to frontline duties, after breaking away for a period. Congratulations all round!

A Happy New Year to all and a wish for a wonderful and safe year of gliding in 2013 PC

ROTORUA

A busy summer here in Rotorua. Our last fl ying d ay saw nine fl ights in total, which is good for us and may result in some new membership, which would be welcome. The silly season seems to be behind us and we have been able to make plans for more regular fl ying days in the months ahead. Hopefully the weather will last, it’s been great here. A recent fl ying day with crosswind conditions challenged our student pilots, but was no problem for Mike or Don, who were able to demonstrate with precision how it should be done.

We are grateful to Tauranga Gliding Club for loaning us their tow plane. It would seem our regular Pawnee (the pink one in the photo) has moved on, so we will continue to use PNE from Tauranga as we are able to. As we have come to know a few of the Tauranga tow pilots over the past months, we thought we should pay them a

visit. We were made most welcome by the club members there on the day, and three of us had fl ights over the Mount Maunganui area. A fantastic day out that we will repeat sometime soon. CT.

TARANAKI

The annual Christmas/New Year diaspora, as u sual, dictated our fl ying as much as anything

Taranaki: Ralph Gibson towing over Mt Taranaki. Left: Melissa Jenkins & Glyn Jackson ready for a wave fl ight. Photo by Peter Millar. Below: A new trolley for our Twin. Made by John Tullett.

else over the past few weeks. Nonetheless, some did happen and some of it was quite good. It’s helpful too that stretching the SoaringNZ deadline, not to mention Madame Editor’s patience, I do have a bit more to write about. The fact that we have deregistered our Blanik JB will wait for another time to talk about.

Firstly though, a big welcome to new members Viv Davy and Justin Wonderlick, who have begun their fl ying training with us. Viv is local, Justin is from the US of A. Dennis Green is a possible starter but is away at the Hang Gliding Nationals. Anirudh Tyagi is still somewhere between here and India but should be back soon. We also were privileged to have Melissa Jenkins grace our operations for a few days. She belongs to the London Gliding Club, fl ying from the famous Dunstable site. Her visit is not co-incidental though. Viv is her mother and Melissa was keen to help her get started - which she did. A good reward was a wave fl ight with Glyn Jackson in our Twin. Actually, they had to grovel in rotor, unlike Will Hopkirk, who kept further upwind and soared to more than 9000ft. Steve Barham has been doing some fl ying, getting ready for the return of his Nimbus. The Nimbus rabbit is probably looking forward to the return as well.

Tim Hardwick-Smith has built on his Omarama fl ying and has had two or three long fl ights, as have Glyn and Peter Cook. Glyn has followed up his Taupo fl ying by barrelling into paddocks near York Road on successive weekends. John McFadgen towed him out of one, but it was retrieve by road the second time. He had a long fl ight the next day, keeping well away from the York Road ‘Bermuda Triangle’. It is usually a reliable thermal area for most. Pilots have made good use of convergence lines that develop from time to time. The trick is now, how to extend out from them, or how to get away, without relying on the convergence lines. They are fun to fl y and if one can climb up alongside, provide a sight of extra-ordinary beauty. Such a fl ight I had years ago with John Spence at German Hill is a precious memory. PJM

TAUPO

Since the completion of the Central Plateau S oaring Competition, things have not slowed down here at Taupo. The weather has been great and there have been a number of achievements.

We had members Bill Kendall and Joe Ward attend the cross country course that was held at Matamata, with both members having a great week. Bill has had previous cross country experience, however with instructional and tow pilot duties, his private fl ying slowed up. The opportunity to have a cross country refresher was not to be missed. Joe had some back seat time during the CPSC and broke the boundary of the home fi eld in the PW5, so he was also very keen to undertake the cross country course. Both members said that the course was well worth doing and recommended it to anyone wanting to

Taupo: Christmas Camp

go cross country fl ying.

Back at home, there has been the ATC camp, which was held during 07-09 December, and the club’s Christmas camp, which went from 26 Dec – 06 Jan. The weather gods allowed for some very good fl ying days and everyone had a fun time.

Once again, we have our two overseas family members join us again for the summer - Sid Gilmore from the UK and Denis Filgas from Switzerland. Sid helps out with instructional duties and Denis, we like to think, takes over from Tom as Club Manager. Both enjoy being here to fl y and, of course, the warmer weather.

The 3000 hour maintenance work has been completed on the Jantar and, as this piece is being written, the Jantar is being prepared to go to Waipukurau for the Central Districts Competition. It has been a long three months without the use of this club aircraft and with another 3000 hours of extended life, I’m sure club members will enjoy fl ying it. Trace

WHANGAREI

The weather system is having a neutral year t hus far. Farming emotions swing between the risk of being drowned by a tropical cyclone, to being fried to a crisp in baking Australian air. The same vagaries of easterlies and westerlies affl ict us on the gliding front.

With the loss of older members due to recession, and the fact that we do not have fancy club gliders, other than a K13 at present, we may be in a neutral year also. We are endeavouring to raise funds, thus far unsuccessfully, and had been hopeful of the sale of our Grob 109 to enable us to purchase a quality two seater for cross country pilots. Yet, on the fl ip side, it has been heartening to have six young men join us this summer and keep our instructors and equipment active, with long thermic and convergence fl ights to settle down in. Alan Jolly from Camphill assisted with instructor and student training, with Mark Arrowsmith becoming a C cat, and Tim Gordon going solo two weeks after joining. Most of the others are close behind. New Year’s Eve was celebrated with a ‘Beast Feast’ of wild pork and was a great occasion. Lots of fl ying visits from aircraft and gyros; pilots and visitors from around the world to liven us up.

Whangarei: Sea breeze coming in from Hokianga Harbour.

Evening at clubrooms

PIK20 ready for launch down street

Sea breeze convergence

Student pilots