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matamata ysdc GNZ National awards Nelson camp airworthiness • club news issue
34
june/july
2013
Images that SOAR above the ordinary
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contents june/july 2013
FEATURES 11
1st Northern Youth Soaring Development Camp
16
Giorgio Galetto
17
Pg 11
Pg 17
A Season in Bariloche
20
Nelson Lake Flying Camp
22
Sporting Code
28
Solar Impulse
31
Sunseeker Duo
32
Helen Georgeson
35
Top People Acknowledged
38
Restoring Double Foxtrot
40
Air Assault Gliders
42
Farewell to Chook
43
Collision Avoidance
RE GULARS Pg 24
Pg 36
Pg 32
6
Log Book
36 Airworthiness 36
A Question of Safety
37
GNZ Awards and Certificates
44
Gliding New Zealand Club News
50
Classified Advertising
Pg 28
Printer Advertising, editorial and subscription enquiries
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from the editor june/july 2013
This editorial is being written at the GNZ AGM in Wellington. From a personal perspective I’m really pleased with the way things went. We have a new President for Youth Glide New Zealand. Jordan Kerr, a ‘young’ pilot from Gliding Hutt Valley will replace me in the role. Jordan works for the Defence Force and his day job currently involves driving VIPs and organising ceremonial parades for dignitaries. He says his first flight in a glider was, “when Dad took Mum flying when she was pregnant with me.” He grew up at the Taupo Gliding Club where his father was chief tow pilot and at the Bridge Pa Gliding Club where his father instructed. “So every school holidays you would have found me and dad at Taupo and every weekend at Bridge Pa. I learnt to fly myself at Gliding Hutt Valley.” Thanks for taking on the job Jordan. You’re going to be great. To contact Jordan please email: jordankerr86@gmail.com This must be the seventh time I’ve attended the AGM and they have become a little blurred in my mind. I’ve grown to really like coming to the AGM, for a whole load of reasons, not all of which have anything to do with gliding. I like Wellington. I like the quirky public artworks along the waterfront and elsewhere in the city. I find a palpable sense of history in the place. Historic buildings and places are well placarded. In the basement of the Old Bank Building (okay the name is a bit of a giveaway that this might be a historic place) are the timbers from the jetty that used to be on the site, before obviously, a bank was built here some years later. The curve of Lampton Quay (and again the name is a clue) follows the original shoreline and statues like the Man and his Dog on the Plimmer Steps give a connection of sorts to the early inhabitants of the town. I’ve just been out for a walk down the Terrace from the James Cook Hotel where the AGM is held and quite by accident stumbled into the city’s original cemetery on Bolton Street. Well parts of it anyway. A large chunk of it now has a motorway through it, but there is enough left to give a feel for this historic site. There are some very famous NZ graves in there too. I stood in front of James Edward Fitzgerald, early NZ politician, and Col. William Edward Gibbon Wakefield, one of the creators of the New Zealand Company. Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull, of the Turnbull Library has his tombstone there, but it’s been moved and he and his family, like nearly 3,700 others, lie in a burial vault under a small piece of lawn, their remains moved for the motorway. What a shabby way to treat a
Abbey Delore and Enya McPherson just before they broke the Woman's 100km speed record. Photo Jill McCaw
Newly appointed Youth Glide NZ President, Jordan Kerr.
man who gave so much to this nation. I have ‘done’ Te Papa several times over the years and still have much there to see. I had hoped to catch a movie at the Embassy theatre one day but ran out of time this year. The big part of the gliding AGM however is the gliding people. It is great fun to spend a weekend in the company of like-minded people. True, quite a bit of that time is spent sitting in meetings, but we’re all aiming for the same things, so it’s not so bad. The President’s forum, where clubs share innovations and ideas is always
next issue
revised magazine deadlines
Preparing for Summer Soaring, Southern Regionals, Retaining Membership, Club Accounting
Deadline for Club News, articles and pictures is 31 October and 11 November for advertising.
subscription form Name:_______________________________________________________________
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worth attending. The speakers on Saturday afternoon, likewise, are always worth hearing and I usually ‘snag’ them to turn their words into articles for future magazines. The Saturday ‘Cocktail Party’ (I don’t know how it can be called that when the only drinks available are wine and beer) is when we celebrate outstanding people in NZ gliding. See the report on page 35 for this year’s National Award winners. The other big part of the weekend for most attendees, and the reason I really like going, is the social time after the official stuff is over on Saturday night. It’s become a tradition for large groups to go out to dinner and possibly on to other things if they have the stamina. The next AGM weekend will be same time, same place, next year. Why don’t you join us and take part in the running of your association? And have a bit of fun at the same time. Stay safe Jill McCaw
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log book Changes for SoaringNZ SoaringNZ is going quarterly, but fear not, you won’t be missing out. Previously, we have been locked into a printing schedule: 48 pages plus cover, every two months, with printing dates set a year in advance. This meant that it was very hard to get stories written when contests or other events didn’t fit in with our deadlines, particularly over summer. Our new printers, MHP Group of Auckland, have freed us from these constraints. Not only can we choose when to print, we can change our page numbers to suit. This is good news for both the editorial team and you, the readers. If there is a lot happening, then the magazine will be bigger. In discussion with the GNZ Executive, we envisage that there will be three big magazines over the summer and one fat one, full of in-depth reading, in the winter. The annual subscription remains at $75 for the year which will cover the cost of the extra pages. Please check the deadline information on the strip at the bottom of page 5, each issue. The next issue will be out in December, for your Christmas reading. Deadline for articles, club news and photographs will be 31 October.
Club Class Competitions around the world The US Club Class Nationals After a successful contest at Mifflin, Pennsylvania in May, the new US Sports Class and Club Class National Champ is John Seymour, flying an ASG 29. Showing that consistent flying wins contests, Seymour never won a day. His daily placings were 6th, 5th, 5th, 4th, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd and 6th. The UK Club Class Nationals The UK competition was held at Lasham in conjunction with the Lasham Regional Competition. The new Club Class champ is Pete Masson, flying a DG101. Masson consistently placed high in the rankings, with three day wins, a 4th, 5th, and a 2nd taking him to first place. G Dale, a familiar name to NZers, flying a Libelle 201, placed 4th, 300 points behind Masson. The final day was actually won by 16th placed Will Ellis in a K6 E.
Any women pilots wintering in the Americas may want to add the York Soaring Centre, an hour’s drive northwest of Toronto, in Ontario, Canada to their agenda. The WSPA is holding their annual seminar at the club owned field, from the 21st to 25th July. The time frame for the seminar was chosen because OLC registered flights showed that this was the best soaring part of the year. The landscape is flat, with many off-field landing possibilities. The club offers:
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Tie downs next to the runway, for visiting pilots
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A large club glider fleet, including: 10 two-seat and 5 single-seat gliders and three tow planes. Flight training, with free instruction from an active group of gliding instructors.
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Club-house with washrooms, full kitchen, drink vending machine, lounge area and classroom. Monthly social events after a day of great flying.
Campground with showers and cabins for out of town guests
◗◗ Two hangars for club and private air craft Emphasis for the seminar will be on aerobatics and cross country flying. To find out more about the York Soaring Association see: www.yorksoaring.com Information about the seminar can be found at www.womensoaring. org/seminar or by contacting Maja Djurisic djurisic@stanford.edu
Long Term Swedish Soaring Magazine Wraps up Robert Axelsson has spent 30 years as a member of the editorial group behind the Swedish Gliding Magazine Segelflygsport, the last few years as Editor. He reports that he is retiring and that no one is willing to take over his job. Instead, the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish Gliding Organisations have joined forces behind a new magazine Nordic Gliding. The new editor is Jens Trabholt, former editor of the Danish Magazine Flyv.
Aviation Medicine and Human Factors for Glider Pilots Text Rewritten “There have been joys too great to be described in words, and there have been griefs upon which I have not dared to dwell; and with these in mind I say: Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end”. Edward Whymper, Scrambles Amongst the Alps These are the words of Edward Whymper (1840 – 1911). What he said of mountaineering could very well apply to gliding, with minimal rewriting. He was the first to conquer the Matterhorn (in the European Alps) in 1865; on the descent, four of the party fell and died. Had Whymper lived in our times, he would surely have been a glider pilot. Again; “Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous but to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect” (Captain AG Lamplugh, an aviation insurance specialist of the 1930’s). These quotes come from the introduction to the new Human Factors text, extensively rewritten by former RAF Medical Officer and Auckland Aviation Sports Club glider pilot Jonathon Pote, with input from the RNZAF Aviation Medicine Unit. The full text is available in PDF form from the GNZ website and it is well worth reading. Presently found under ‘New Stuff’ – see right hand side of page, otherwise see Study Notes for QGP exams. Hopefully to be archived, so that it can be easily found.
The Road to Narromine New gliding book
Most of the books available about soaring aim to help you be a better pilot. The Road to Narromine by Jim Richards simply aims to share the joy of soaring. Richards learnt to fly gliders in Australia at the age of thirty nine, finding it first a challenge, then an exultation. The Road to Narrowmine will, according to the blurb, “lift your spirits, reawaken belief in a glass half full and change forever the way you view a summer sky.”
The FAI Sports Marketing and Events Company (FAME), the marketing arm of FAI, the World Air Sports Federation has signed Memorandums of Understanding with the FAI Gliding Commission (IGC) and the FAI Hang-Gliding and Paragliding Commission (CIVL). FAME was formed in 2012 to work with the individual sporting aviation groups in the FAI to help them develop, market and produce specialist sports events, aimed at promoting aviation sports to the public. Both the IGC and CIVL are developing specialist sports products that are fast, easy to understand and that make use of the latest video and on-line technology, to bring the action to the public via giant screens and through the internet. Eric Mozer, President of the IGC said: “I am very pleased that the FAI Gliding Commission and FAME have reached an agreement to advance the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix (SGP) series. The SGP is an established and very successful competitive sporting event. Each party will bring their unique energy and expertise to this ground breaking collaborative agreement with the goal of bringing the SGP to an exciting new level for the benefit of the pilots, sponsors and viewing audience. I believe that the partnership between FAME and the IGC will develop the SGP as the flagship promotion event for the sport of Gliding.” The Memorandums of Understanding allow the two sports bodies to work with FAME to create project teams, with financial backing, to facilitate the creation and presentation of their specialist events. FAME will provide the marketing, promotion and support for these events, as well as facilitate the opportunity for sponsors to benefit from being associated with the events. The two FAI sports bodies, IGC and CIVL, will be responsible for the safety, design, rules and operational conduct of the events. Giancarlo Sergi, the CEO of FAME, sees the signing of these two Memorandums of Understanding as being the beginning of a new chapter in aviation sports world-wide: “The synergies between the expertise of the FAI sports commissions and the marketing strength of FAME are exciting and I look forward to being able to assist the IGC and CIVL develop their sports.”
MEMBERSHIP There’s a new link to membership in the opening menu of www.gliding.co.nz Home page, making it easier to find and access. Follow this link and you can now view your Club’s membership list and contact details. While there, check your own data and update your contact details; especially if your postal address has changed and you want to receive your SoaringNZ magazine. Any problems logging in, contact membership@gliding.co.nz
June 2013
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log book A Shark Went Swimming The story of the shark painted, ASW 20 that ended up swimming with the sharks has been well covered, both on gliding related pages on the internet and in the latest issue of Sailplane and Gliding. There are lessons to be learned from the incident and, since many pilots here in NZ attempt similar flights along our coastline, with even less chance of finding help should something go wrong, it is worth looking at the key points of what happened and why. British pilot Matt Wright regularly flew his ASW20 around the Devon coastline in the south of Britain. His videos of previous flights are very popular on You Tube. On the last Friday in April, he declared a 300km flight, before giving it away to follow a cloud street out to the coast on the southern side of the Bristol Channel. He says his glide computer was showing a wind direction of 325-350°/19kts, about 35° off optimal for a cliff flight, but he believed, from past experience, that the cliffs would still be working. Wisps of cloud forming on the hills reinforced this idea. Arriving overhead the coast, he turned west and encountered turbulence and heavy sink. He kept going, expecting a hill ahead to provide a top up. Matt says, “I had just put all of my eggs in one very flimsy basket. The sink stayed on!” “The reality was not meshing with my mental model and doubts were finally starting to flood in. The kink in the hill reduced the sink but it didn’t eradicate it and I realised I could not get around Foreland Point at anything like a sensible height.” He was now below the top of the cliff and knew he was in trouble. He could now see too, that the wind that he had expected to be blowing up and over the cliffs was in fact blowing along the ridge. A sea landing was imminent, as the rocky/boulder beach was not an option. Remembering what he had read on ditching in water, Matt lowered the wheel and elected not to turn into the wind, as that would have required a low level turn. He continued wings level and landed with a tail wind into an approximately 3 metre swell, approximately 30 metres off shore. The tailwheel touched first and Matt assumed it was at the top of a swell, because the glider instantly pitched nose down and he was slammed into the water. It came to rest upside down, with the canopy gone. It took Matt a moment of fumbling to get his straps undone but then he popped up beside the glider, grateful to be alive. Matt made it to shore, cold and wet but otherwise well. The glider sank, to be washed up in pieces a few days later.
“The reality was not meshing with my mental model and doubts were finally starting to flood in. The kink in the hill reduced the sink but it didn’t eradicate it and I realised I could not get around Foreland Point at anything like a sensible height.”
Neuseela
The Lessons: Why wasn’t it working? Matt says he had overlooked the fact that the wind direction veers with height. He had based his assumptions on the 3,000 foot wind. Why didn’t he turn back earlier? Matt is very disappointed with himself for not having a plan B. He was overly confident in his initial assessment of the conditions and had made similar flights often enough to become a little complacent and comfortable with the low level flight. Matt’s experience is a cautionary tale for all pilots, but especially for those who regularly make runs along our coastal cliffs.
FUTU 10 A West SOU
eckey Phon Mobi
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PreWorlds Happening in Finland By the time we go to press, the Pre-WGC in Club, Standard and 20m Multi-seat Classes will have begun. The contest, running from 8-16 June, 2013 in Räyskälä, is being held in conjunction with the Finnish Open National Championships in Standard, 15m and 20m Multi-seat Classes. The 15m and 20m Multi-seat Classes are combined. Competitors will fly the same tasks and handicaps are applied. Australian Adam Woolley will report on the contest for SoaringNZ.
The final qualifying event for the 5th Sailplane Grand Prix series will take place at ZAR in Poland 27th July to 3rd August, the winners of this event will qualify for the World Sailplane Grand Prix final to take place at Sisteron in France during spring 2014. The event will be covered on the new official Sailplane Grand Prix web site that is being prepared for the 2014 final and the next series of Sailplane Grand Prix events. The official web site can be accessed at www.sgp.aero Details of all the previous Sailplane Grand Prix events can also be found on the new official site along with the list of pilots already qualified for the 2014 World final. Neuseeland Anzeige:Layout 1 29.06.09 07:57 Seite 3
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1st Northern Youth Soaring Development Camp Matamata 21-28 April 2013
Despite the typical autumn showery weather, only one day saw no flying. 135 flights were had over the six flying days.
WHY STAGE A CAMP? Planning started at the Matamata Soaring Centre’s (MSC) October meeting, when it was decided to have a Youth Glide Training Camp in the April 2013 school holidays. We believed that if we were going to ask instructors and helpers to give up their time for the camp then it would be a serious instructional camp, based on the concept of the Cross Country Course and the Walsh Flying School. The main aims were:
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To help establish a community of young pilots who could encourage and support each other in gliding.
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To provide a focus to local clubs and to assist them in attracting and retaining younger pilots.
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To involve the youth pilots in the planning and the direction of the camp.
FACTS AND FIGURES Seven students attended full time for seven days, one for five days, and several were part timers and casual attendees. (14 in total.)
By Bill Mace Camp Coordinator President MSC
Experience levels were widely varied. Two students had done less than 10 hours flying, several fitted in with 16-30 hours flying, four had their QGP, a couple had 100 to 200 plus hours flying. Three were from Canterbury, eight were previous Omarama YSDC attendants, one was an instructor. Ages ranged from 14 to 22. GLIDERS EMPLOYED: six twins and three singles were used, club gliders from Auckland, Tauranga, and Piako. Mainly Piako’s tow plane was used but Tauranga’s tug joined in for two days. Two syndicate gliders were also used. 15 Instructors gave briefings and flew instructional flights, we had three full-time helpers, plus Bill Mace as CFI and Manager, and Steve Care (NOO) was Safety Officer and Instructor. Despite the typical autumn showery weather, only one day saw no flying. 135 flights were had over the six flying days, and included the following:
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Ridge flying experiences with a 15-30 kt westerlies. Many circuits and landings, practicing specific skills, e.g. no brakes and brakes jammed, one land-out, and one incident report. Most participants flew a 100km out & return task, comparing av. speeds, several did ‘type’ June 2013
11
Youth Glide in New Zealand is going from strength to strength with more clubs seeing the benefit of being involved. The Matamata Soaring Centre decided to be brave and host their own Youth Soaring Development Camp, inviting Youth membe it will be an annual event and provide young people with the choice of a North or South Island camp, or as some seem to be a
conversions, two double aero tow ratings, and an aero tow rating by a pilot who had only winched.
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Two pilots soloed, attaining ‘A’ certificates, two 50 km silver “C”s, and a record attempt (confirmed) for Woman’s 100km speed record.
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Five tow pilots gave their time and several people provided ground services, book keeping and feeding of participants. There were extensive briefings both in class and one-on-one, covering the following subjects:
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Aero Tow Basics Air Traffic Control Award and Badge Recognition Badges, Awards, Competitions Convergences/Sea Breeze Flying Flight Analysis Flight Planning Flight Preparation & Glider Setup Glider Flying Basics Out Landing Instruments
◗◗ ◗◗ ◗◗ ◗◗ ◗◗ ◗◗ ◗◗ ◗◗
Human Factors including Aviation Medicine Ridge Flying Thermalling Training Progress Use of Ballast, Flaps etc. Wave Flying Weather, Basics and Advanced & Forecast Analysis Winch Launching
The following speakers also addressed the pilots at the dinner on Saturday night: Alex McCaw, who had represented NZ at Australia’s National Joey Glide (Junior) Competition. Tim Bromhead, the winner of the Trans Tasman Trophy. The National Youth Glide President Jill McCaw spoke to us on how she sees Youth Glide developing, and Abbey Delore showed us a promotional presentation she has used at various speaking venues.
NYSDC
ved. g Youth members of clubs from around the country. The camp was so successful e seem to be aiming for two gliding camps in a year.
CONTRIBUTORS/SPONSORS Given the short lead-in time, unknown participant numbers, and the small numbers expected, our thanks to the following sponsors who enabled prices to be kept affordable. All pilots were very appreciative and would like to thank the following:
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FONTERRA, BLUEBIRD, & GILMOURS for donations of food/drinks.
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Matamata-Piako District Council for reducing the camping ground charges in line for those charged to the Walsh Flying School.
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MSC for dropping all accommodation charges on the bunkrooms.
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Auckland, Tauranga, and Piako Gliding Clubs for negligible glider hire charges.
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The private glider owners who made gliders available.
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The various helpers in the kitchen.
Those individuals who donated meat, vegetables, fruit and baking.
They also recognise the large amount of work that went into briefing preparation, and appreciate the time taken by those who came just to deliver the briefings.
Matamata Youth Soaring Development Camp By Campbell McIver
The Inaugural Northern Youth Soaring Development Camp has been successful, thanks to Bill Mace of Piako Gliding Club and his team, who organised it. I live in Auckland and fly at the Auckland Gliding Club, alongside fellow Youth Glide member Philip Dunlop. We experience thermal conditions in the summer and occasional ridge conditions off Drury Hill. Youth Glide takes keen young pilots and puts them in an environment where they can experience different conditions. Gliding down in Omarama at the Youth Soaring Development camp of 2012, I, a young, wide-eyed pilot who had only 12 hours gliding and about two hours solo, was put in a stunning environment and was privileged enough to experience the incredible conditions Omarama has to offer. Attending the Matamata camp, now with 60 hours, and nearing QGP, I felt I had an understanding of what Youth Glide is about. Matamata brought together young pilots at a range of flying stages, from the early stages of training, some nearing solo and others such as myself in the late stages of training and a few who were
June 2013
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NYSDC
The food was fantastic
QGP. While the weather did not favour us for the beginning of the camp, there was only one day when no flying was done. We were given many lectures, not only for QGP, but others that helped us with landing out, competitions and more. When the weather had calmed, students did exercises such as circuits, including non-standard situations such as brakes jammed open and closed, rope breaks and the odd surprise bounce recovery, thrown out by the instructor! We were very lucky, as on the last few days of the camp westerly winds picked up, giving us what we were waiting for - ridge soaring the Kaimais! This gave us the opportunity to soar for hours and gave the new entrants of Youth Glide an opportunity to experience the excitement of ridge soaring. In the first part of the week, the students were able to practice thermal entry, circuits and landing practice which led to some inevitable first solo flights. We are proud to announce that we had two first solos, which were then followed by the students being attacked by several buckets of ice cold water in the traditional first solo dunking.
Phillip Dunlop.
With ridge soaring available at the end of the week, the cross country aspect of gliding was introduced to many. Alex McCaw flew Alan Belworthy’s DG-101 up to Thames and back. Jordan Kerr and myself both completed our 50km silver C distance tasks. I achieved a 170km flight, Phillip Dunlop was skilful enough to climb to 6500ft in pressure wave, however the prize goes to Abbey Delore and co-pilot Enya McPherson for their record breaking flight for the New Zealand Women’s 100km out and return flight (they used the Kaimai speed challenge track) with an average speed of 132km/h in Tauranga’s Janus (ZK-GNN). This was a very memorable moment for Youth Glide and we hope there will be more of these in the near future. They had a second attempt at the record the next day but unfortunately luck was not on their side and Abbey had no choice but to land out in the Te Aroha racecourse. The landout was observed by Alan Belworthy in his Ventus, who was giving Abbey advice over the radio, as well as by Alex McCaw and myself, who were at 4000ft in pressure wave at the time. We can all report that Abbey performed an incredibly well executed landout and the girls set down safely to
Joan Wine, one of the wonderful ladies in the kitchen.
Safety Ops and Instructor, Steve Care
NYSDC
Father and son, Dennis Crequer.
Hamish Crequer.
wait for Scott “Swagstaff” Wagstaff to retrieve them. Youth Glide New Zealand is something we are very lucky to have. I would like to encourage all to support it because our Youth are keen to learn. Youth Glide is expanding to include a system where more experienced, and usually older, members command and steer camps and contests for those who are looking for more coaching and challenges in their flying. This may be in conjunction with the YSD Camps or separate coaching camps and contests aimed at just these ‘juniors’. Philip Dunlop and I will be participating in the Nationals at the end of this year, with pilot Mike Strathern in the back seat of Auckland Gliding Club’s Duo Discus, and who could forget the illustrious ‘Mr Frog’, co-pilot for Mike and a world class aviator! By doing this we can learn how to fly effectively and efficiently. I encourage all youth glide pilots to experience a competition, whether it be in the air, or ground crewing, as I have learnt. On behalf of all Youth Glide participants of Matamata 2013 I would like to thank Bill Mace for giving up his time to organise an incredible camp. I’d also like to thank head instructors Steve Care
Instructor John Bayliss
Lectures were interesting and varied.
and John Bayliss, for giving up their time to instruct and mentor us along the way. A big thank you to our master chefs, Jan Mace and Joan Wine, and to all instructors, lecturers, tow pilots and ground crew. Your support for the Youth Glide initiative is amazing, and without you it would not exist. Thanks to the founders of Youth Glide - the organisation is now a growing initiative, and we youth members are committed towards making it bigger and better. It could not have become what it is today without all your hard work in the early stages. To our patrons and fundraisers, and especially sponsors, for all they have generously given to make it a more affordable camp. A personal thank you from Philip Dunlop and myself to the Auckland Gliding club for all their support and particularly Bruce Barber, our Youth Co-ordinator and, of course, my wonderful parents and family, who have been behind me all the way. Finally, to the youth glide participants themselves, you are the future of this very unique and special sport and have been committed to working hard at it and attending camps. We only hope that you can strive to be the very best pilot you can be and have a positive future whatever it may be. Thanks team!
Scott Wagstaff, Bill Mace and Jonathon Wardman.
June 2013
15
Giorgio Galetto By Marina Vigorito
During the Opening Ceremony of the 106th General Conference of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in Turkey, the Italian pilot Giorgio Galetto was awarded the Lillienthal Medal, the most prestigious award for FAI Gliding. The FAI created this medal in 1938, to reward remarkable performance in gliding, or for services rendered to the sport of gliding over a long period of time. It can be awarded annually, to a glider pilot still active, who has established an international record over the last year, or has made a pioneer flight (defined as a flight that has opened up new possibilities for gliding and / or technical soaring) or is distinguished by services to the sport.
In March this year, the delegates of the countries represented at the annual meeting of the Commission for International Gliding chose to give this important recognition to Italian pilot Giorgio Galetto. In its long history, the Lillienthal Medal has been granted to only one other Italian, Prof. Piero Morelli of Turin, for his innovative ideas in glider design. It’s interesting to note that Giorgio wasn’t awarded the medal for his enviable soaring achievements, but for his great commitment to the promotion of the sport to young people. This is Giorgio’s comment: “When my wife Marina, Italian IGC delegate, phoned me from South Africa to inform me that I was awarded the Lillienthal Medal, I felt absolutely proud, but incredulous. I have joined the greats of Gliding! Despite the undeniable results I have achieved and in spite of my age, that passes inexorably, I am still so excited by a beautiful sky full of cumulus or my beautiful glider. Since I was a child, I haven’t been interested in anything else but flying. For me, flying is like second nature. My father is a pilot - both gliding and power - still active at the age of 89 years. My grandfather had his licence in France in 1915 and he participated in the First World War as a pilot, achieving various decorations of merit, including a Silver Medal for valour, for courage shown in battle.”
Giorgio receives his award from FAI's Bob Henderson
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June 2013
“I owe a lot to my wife Marina, a glider pilot and a brilliant, decisive lady. She has tremendous determination, and she is my first and most important supporter. I have not lost the enthusiasm of my youth and I believe that the support of my family helps me to compete with the serenity necessary to achieve good results. In two years, my family celebrates 100 years of flight, and my dream is to fly with my father and my daughter in France, where my grandfather took his license, as a tribute to his memory. It would be nice to have a fourth generation of pilots in the family, but for the moment, my daughter Chiara’s only love has four legs, a tail and a mane!” Giorgio’s work with young people is in conjunction with aeronautical institutions. In practice, these are high schools that, in addition to the standard lessons, which are the same for all high schools (such as Italian, mathematics, history, English), have several hours devoted to the history of aviation, and aeronautical techniques and construction. Approximately every four months, Giorgio holds lectures on various topics like flight safety, mountain flight, human factors in competition etc. The lectures are generally given to students of third and fourth classes, who already have adequate background and preparation to competently follow certain topics. They are also over sixteen years, so if they wish to fly there is no need for a discharge of liability from their parents. Sixteen is the age at which you can take your license here in Italy. After the lessons, the teachers give tests on the topics covered and at the end of the year, the best students ‘win’ a glider flight with Giorgio, paid for by the school. Giorgio does this for gliding, but they also invite athletes from other air sports to do similar programmes. As well as the programme with the Aeronautical Institutions, Giorgio goes into primary and secondary schools within our region. He talks to children from five to twelve years, giving short lessons on flight and gliding. Where there is adequate space, Giorgio also brings his glider and rigs it, explaining each step and what the various pieces are for. Children (and teachers!) are always hugely enthusiastic. Giorgio is a worthy recipient of this prestigious award.
A Season in
Bariloche By Jean-Marie Clément
The Mascardi lake and the volcano Tronador in summer, a slice of paradise.
Jean-Marie Clément runs Top Fly, a commercial gliding operation based at the Lago Nahuel Huapi Aero-Club, in San Carlos de Bariloche, in Argentina. He has a Nimbus 4DM and also provides assistance for people bringing their own gliders. Bariloche was one of the bases for the Delore/Fossett distance and speed world record attempts. It sits at 800m altitude, in the foothills of the Andes. Jean-Marie shares some of the highlights of the summer with Top Fly. It was a very pleasant season, even though the weather trends, in particular at altitude, didn’t permit us to go for any dawn to dusk flights. All pilots enjoyed their expedition and would like to come back, but we need the customs officers and the logistics companies to become more collaborative. Indeed, I was the only visiting European glider pilot, all others having been discouraged by these frustrating problems. A diverse range of activity: air, ground and water. The gliding activity was statistically similar to the previous season but with more flying hours: 30 flying days out of 60 days available, and 200 hours against 160 in the past year. We had an average of 7 hours per flight, the longest being 12 hrs 40 mins on January 7th. This was also the last flight and the longest distance (2,200 km). The non- flying days were either due to rain or windless blue sky. 27 days were wave days, with winds varying from full South,
to NW, for speeds between 20 and 180 km/h. We have, therefore, been well served with diversity and this season was altogether very interesting. And, as we had a Zodiac inflatable at our disposal, with all the fishing equipment, the days of ‘lake mirror’ were a true pleasure. When one remembers the storms of wind, cold and rain of the previous years here, it is difficult to imagine the heavenly side of these lakes and snow-covered volcanoes in full summer. In November, Bariloche was celebrating the feast of the Tradition, and the return of the spring, where the estancieros and other gauchos of the region meet in their most beautiful costumes. Saturday is dedicated to the parade in the town, and Sunday is for equestrian games and the inescapable ‘doma’ or rodeo, where the game consists of staying on the back of a wild horse for 14 seconds. That day, the ambulance intervened only once.
L: Gaucho in ceremony costume. R: Prepare the ambulance.
June 2013
17
a season in bariloche
Eruption of the volcano Copahué December 22nd
Unloading the container onto the sidewalk
The arrival in Buenos Aires, a problem This was our eleventh year entering via Buenos Aires, and every year brings a new surprise. Until last year, it always occurred on the customs side. The chief of customs told us in a ‘friendly’ tone “Inventamos problemas para venderte soluciones”, i.e. “we invent problems in order to sell you solutions”. This year, I entered with my trailer and only one glider, and I hoped that these problems would not be as complex as with the container. I have never been so wrong! To my great surprise, the customs papers were signed in one hour, but that was the end of the good luck. It took US $6050, plus nine days of wrangling and jumping through ridiculous hoops, before I could finally get my trailer out of the container, hook onto it and drive it out of the port. I will never again use Buenos Aires. The trailer went back to Europe via the Chilean port of San Antonio, near Santiago. I will also never again use DSV-GL for South America, and I can only recommend that readers do the same!
and the presence of Philippe Athuil, a top French pilot residing in the United States, made it possible to break eleven American records and, on December 12th, one world record (see below). All flights are downloadable from the OLC. Most American records broken by Philippe were previously held by Jim Payne. Jim was also with us in Bariloche, as Dennis Tito’s trainer pilot with the Perlan project, with a DG 1001M. Personally, I was very much impressed by these two personalities, on one hand a 72 year old, multimillionaire Californian (who didn’t hesitate to spend US $20 million to buy the first space tourist ticket for one flight of 7 days, and 54 revolutions around our planet in a Soyuz space ship), who now finances a project to go freezing his buttocks in a glider at 27,000 m, and who hopes to be the first to go to Mars; and on the other hand, an ex- fighter pilot, jet pilot, active test pilot, glider pilot of the highest level, who displays exemplary professionalism. The world speed record - 1000 km out-and-return at 214.8 km/h. On the eve preceding this flight, the pilots had to anticipate their return home, because of the arrival of a front and strong rain, flying ‘only’ a small flat triangle of 1200 km in 7 hours. I had a lot of doubts about the timing of the end of the front and, in fact, it was still raining at breakfast at 7.30am. But the situation improved and I proposed a speed task, with one southbound additional point close to Esquel, to close a 1500 km flat triangle if the conditions permitted. The centres of pressure were in the right place, with a good low pressure centre located on the Atlantic ocean (Fig. 1) generating a good ‘pulled’ flow. Only drawback – the front would limit the flight to 200km to the south (Fig. 2) and the wind should turn NW around 600km to the north. The play ground was nevertheless more than 800km long! I am quite conscious that this course is far from being the best for this type of task, because it was necessary to twice cross the wake of the Lanin volcano, which breaks up the organized rebound wave system. On departure, things started to go wrong. The lift was very weak; we spent 75 minutes in a convergence, in order to reach the
Meteorological conditions: warmer, higher. The situation was hardly typical of recent years, but at least we didn’t have to deal with last year’s eruption of Copahué volcano, situated 360 north km of Bariloche. We did need to remain high between 5,000 and 6,000 m - to overfly the plume of ash during all our northbound flights, which was never a problem. Observation of the undulations of the plume clearly confirms that the displacement of air particles in a resonating wave system is only a few hundreds of meters, even though this phenomenon goes on until, and likely beyond, the tropopause. Our local volcano, Puyéhué, had stopped erupting in March 2012. The only ash was that raised by the NW-NE sector winds, and was small enough not to create any harm for aviation or people. The big flights The last three weeks of December were particularly interesting,
BARILOCHE BARILOCHE
CARTE TEMSI PREVUE POUR LE 12/12 à 21h LOC La couverture nuageuse reste proche de Bariloche
Fig 1
Fig 2
Tail wind above Catan Lil at 448 kph at FL130 (personal record)
The sky on the way back seen from the turn point of the 1,000 km
Rotors downwind of volcano Chapelco towards Bariloche. Between the two bars, the valley of the Rio Collon Cura.
departure altitude of 4700m. The start point was invisible, drowned in the front and did not give any lift. It was therefore necessary for us to climb behind the start point and come back, to take the start above the clouds. We then quickly jumped above the pampa, which was full of small cumulus rotors and left on tiptoe, while taking advantage of a good tail wind component (230°-160 km/h). I always give great importance to the choice of the range of working altitude, corresponding to the most favourable wind, both in terms of speed and orientation with respect to the track. Crossing Chapelco’s runway axis, we were not very high and had difficulty seeing the best northbound track because, in order to go fast, we had to go straight on track and fly with a full tail wind (therefore L/D >100), above a solid cloud layer 100 km long. The top was at 3,500 m, full of rock up to 2,600 m (Catan Lil range). I made the mistake of losing six minutes in the wake of Lanin volcano, hoping to climb, but without success. The front had encroached deeply into the valley of Zapala, and it was necessary to continue downwind for 25 km to find the first rebound at only 3500 m QNH (2,300 m QFE), in reach of the nice runway of Las Lajas. During this transition with 136 km/h of tail wind, the calculator showed a ground speed of 448 km/h, my personal record. From that point, the system was well organsed with beautiful rolls for 150 km. The junction with the valley of the Cordillera del Viento was all in lift and we arrived there at 5200 m, which was 1000 m too high. Finally the delirium began. It was necessary to accelerate ‘full steam ahead’ for 200 km in an initial netto of +11.7 m/s. The wind speed was lower (90-100 km/h) and better oriented (260-270°) at high altitude than below 5000 m. We played for a long time around the Vne, between 7000 m and 8600 m (244 km/h IAS). Photo (at turn point looking south) shows the sky that awaited us for the first 200 km on the way back, not extraordinary but sufficient.
The key to the speed record was the track between Zapala and Chapelco, 120km without any marked rebound, wind ¾ in front, but less strong at high altitude, 100-110 km/h against 130-150 km/h below 5000 m. We lost 4000 m as expected, without reducing speed, with a steady Macready setting at +5 (the maximum possible of the Zander computer), flying even faster than requested, manually managing the trajectory, to reach the rotors of the Chapelco volcano (photo 16) at cloud base, where the lift is strongest, thus converting lift into speed. The rotor was an 80km long tube that brought us back to the finish line of the O/R at 1720 hours, ready to head south to the next TP. The crossing of the plain toward the next point to the South was made on tiptoe, because the front entered exactly as foreseen. At the end, the enormous rotors and lenticulars of Esquel invited us to begin the final glide at 250 km, 3600 m below the glide path, at an average speed of 295 km/h. World Record broken, and at least four US records, in spite of my mistake that cost six minutes. Happiness for Philippe! And congratulations to the weather forecaster.
Netto +11.7 m/s at the Vne in the Cordillera del Viento valley.
Tronador rebound, south wind.
And now? I shall likely re-launch an expedition for next year, but it is necessary to find a new way to get gliders into Argentina. There are two options: either entering via the port of Zarate, 100 km NW of Buenos Aires on the Rio Parana, or entering via Chile, before crossing to Argentina in flight, under a different customs system. In any case, both options take about three weeks more than via Buenos Aires and it is therefore necessary to leave Europe in mid-September to fly the first week of November. The costs should not be significantly different.
Back home just in time.
June 2013
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16-22 February 2013
Nelson Lakes Flying Camp By John Robinson
Looking north along the Spenser Range, with about 40km to run till Lake Station.
John Robinson learnt to fly with the Nelson Gliding Club in the late ‘70s, when they were based at Nelson Airport. Once or twice a year, the club held a very popular camp at Lake Rotoiti, flying from McConochie’s strip at Lake Station. The club is now permanently based at ‘The Lake’, and each February John makes the long road trip north from Central Otago to attend the annual gliding week. The week is popular with Nelson members and a few regulars from other South Island clubs. A big attraction of Lake Station is the wide variety of terrain that exists nearby. Within an hour of launch, via winch, you can be threading through the karst landscape of Mt Owen to the west, or entering the arid Molesworth high country to the east. Southwards lie the Spenser Range, which is a compact extension of the Southern Alps, possessing much of the grandeur of its higher cousins further down the island. And there are, of course, the beautiful (and cold!) Lakes Rotoiti and Rotoroa, to cross on most flights. Despite several visits, I still find the flying challenging. This is true mountain-flying and it’s not long before you’re in them. The Spenser summits are steep, rocky, and reach to 7500 feet. Valleys are long and winding, with few signs of civilisation. There are adequate landout options, but it pays to know where you are before getting low. A landout in the Molesworth would be a real nuisance, but that area is often blessed with the highest cloud bases in the country, so you can generally have an exit planned. This year the weather behaved, and we had much better soaring than other visits. This enabled me to finally reach Mt Tapuaenuku, which at 9500 feet is our highest peak outside of the Southern Alps.
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June 2013
‘Tappy’ is just 80km from the airfield, but there’s some high and rough country in-between. Locals like Jerry O’Neil know this area extremely well, and I met up with him and Nigel Maxey on Shingle Peak, just west of Molesworth Station. We’d had OK soaring in the blue up to this point, and now faced a long glide across the Awatere Valley to reach the nearest part of the Inland Kaikoura Range. We arrived at ridge height, where a thermal obliged briefly, one of only two climbs we found on the whole range. With nothing to lose, we crept north towards Tappy. Even the bare sunny rocks failed to lift us above ridge height; it was different air over there! We found the other thermal just west of Tappy. I eventually got high enough for a brief sweep over the summit, before returning to the same spot, still marked by Nigel, and now Pete McKenzie, who was lured across to join us. Jerry had set off home, to find the next important climb for us. The clock was ticking, so we soon followed, back across the Awatere in another long smooth glide. The day was dying fast and it was pretty quiet on the lower ridges when we arrived. We visitors were squeaking a bit, especially me, who was last as usual. Getting home meant gliding yet deeper into the higher ground, searching for another climb to clear the considerable barrier of the Raglan Range. I wasn’t comfy with that, so took a longer route, finally getting into better air and home somewhat later. The beer at the Alpine Lodge that evening tasted very good indeed! The soaring week continued. Another flight to the Molesworth a few days later involved a clearance into controlled airspace, to sample cumulus bases at 13,000 feet. Other good flights were had southwards down the Spensers to Lewis Pass or beyond, towards Lake Sumner 100km from Lake Station. The whole route south is over National Park or other public conservation land, and the only road crossed is the State Highway at Lewis Pass. We had a couple of days flying west of Lake Station. The cloud base is often lower here but so are the hills. Scars from the
Mts Tapuaenuku (centre) and Alarm (right), with that other island in the far distance.
1929 Murchison earthquake are very prominent from the air, as are the landslide lakes in the Matiri Valley. On one flight, I managed to reach the Victoria Range, another first for me. Pete continued southwards into the Grey Valley and had a great run home. At the end of each day we generally met for dinner, or at least a debrief, at the Alpine Lodge. On nice evenings, we’d go first to the shore of Lake Rotoiti, armed with beer, cheese, crackers and perhaps a towel. Apart from the ducks, we had the lake to ourselves. After a quick swim, we could dry in the last rays of the sun and watch the cu’s fade on the St Arnaud Range next door. Magic! It’s a busy time for Nelson members, as the gliding week runs straight after an intensive week-long ab initio course. I’d like to thank all the Nelson members, especially Frank Saxton, Jerry O’Neil and Kerry Eggers, who were looking after us much of the week. Also thanks to Robin Black, who kindly did a few aero tows and, of course, a big thanks to the winch drivers. The winch makes a full week of flying affordable, and it sure hones the scratching skills!
Broken country near the Matiri Range, westwards of Lake Station.
Above the headwaters of the Waiau and Clarence Rivers, just east of the Spenser Range.
June 2013
21
SPorting code
Sporting Code committee On simplifying the content of the Sporting Code
The Sporting Code Committee regularly receives questions from ordinary pilots, OOs and even national Claims Officers, on how to interpret some aspect of task selection for badges and records, how to resolve start/finish problems, how to find a viable claim from failures in declarations or flight decisions, etc. They ask why the Code should be so difficult to under-stand, and often complain that the many Code requirements discourage badge flight activity. Even experienced record pilots have problems. Preamble In 1999, the Sporting Code committee undertook a major overhaul of the language of the Code by reorganizing the text layout and simplifying the sentence structure and wording. However, there was no mandate to simplify its content, which is what we now propose. The Code contains many fossils – procedures that have been superseded in practice by time or advances in technology, but have been retained because their continued need has not been questioned. Imagine that gliding was a brand new sport today and the IGC had the job of writing the procedures for the conduct of records and badges; it would not make it as complex as it now is. The problem with the current Code is that, over time, each new method used to gather flight evidence introduced another layer of procedures. Also, with each new means of collecting more precise evidence, new tasks have been added to make use of this newfound ability. However, the
older means of evidence gathering has rarely been deleted, so the Code more and more resembles an onion, and its complexity grows. Simplification examples It is easy to state that the area of the Code most in need of simplification, since it has the most options and accompanying restrictions, and presents the most problems to pilots, is that relating to the start and finish of a task, and navigating its turn points.
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Flight evidence was originally collected using one’s eyes and a wristwatch. A start gate to visually mark the crossing of a start line was used for decades, before cameras replaced it (except in contests). Yet, when this means of recording position evidence was superseded by photography, the start line remained. It could be eliminated.
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New closed courses were invented for badges and records, to make use of the additional task freedom allowed by the camera, as OOs no longer had to be in place at the turn point. The sector observation zone (OZ) was introduced then as a sufficient means of establishing the rounding of a TP using photo-interpretation. When flight recorders were introduced for position evidence, a new cylinder OZ was defined to accommodate this technology. But when camera use was deleted from the Code (the only text reduction since 1999), the sector OZ remained. It could be eliminated.
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Relatively cheap FRs and PRs provide accurate height and less error-prone height data or calculation. When will the time be appropriate to retire the mechanical barograph and the paper trace? (The Claims Officers
Discussion paper
e
of three of the largest NACs have indicated that the use of a paper trace has almost vanished.)
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So, is habit a legitimate reason to retain old evidence collection methods in the Code?
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Consider modern record courses. Sailplane performance now make flights possible that outstrip a pilot’s ability to make reasonable assumptions about the meteo conditions over the entire extent and duration of the flight. The three free distance closed course tasks were introduced for this reason. So, new records are added, but old record types, whose definitions had been constrained by past limitations of evidence-gathering, have not been examined as to their continued utility, or retired on the basis of obsolescence, such as
difficult as a result of this complexity, and causes flight and evidence problems. OOs and Claims Officers state that the Code, in its present form, can be detrimental to the progress of beginning cross-country and badge pilots – a group that, for the betterment of the sport, must not be discouraged. The intent of the committee is to redraft the Sporting Code on the following basis:
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that the Code only retain the minimum set of rules/ procedures necessary to establish a soaring performance, and that alternate means be eliminated unless there is a positive reason to keep them.
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that certain record types be retired, in order to shorten the list to those that most effectively span the range of distance and speed performances that the IGC recognises.
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Immediate comment and suggestions from delegates and other knowledgeable pilots is invited. Based on a consensus of input received, the committee will prepare one or more draft changes to the Code, and present them as Year 1 Proposal(s) for IGC approval.
the duration record.
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Is there still a compelling reason for record and badge tasks to require TP declarations (excepting perhaps the Diamond Goal)? In what other sport is an athlete required to state in advance how the record is to be exceeded, and that it must be completed by that increment to be accepted? Considerable comment is being expressed in the gliding community on the neverending increase in glider competition classes, and the problems it is causing for the sport.
Conclusion A difficult-to-understand Code is a disincentive to the growth of our sport. It has become unnecessarily complex and needs to be trimmed of its fossil regulations. Judging from the problems sent to the committee, the Code is often found to be unnecessarily
Ross Macintyre IGC Sporting Code Committee Note that the Committee cannot respond to all suggestions, but will guarantee they will be considered. Suggestions should be by email to igc-sporting-code@fai.org
June 2013
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SPorting code The following abridged and updated article, by Tony Burton, Canadian pilot and member of the Sporting Code Committee, gives some of the background to the history of the Sporting Code, as it stands, and a look at what led to the need to change it. The original article first appeared in Free Flight in 2012.
Saving the poor badge pilot
The Sporting Code comes to the aid of human (and inhumane) error Tony Burton, member Sporting Code committee
THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY to get the novice pilot started on developing the skills that define soaring as a sport has been the badge hierarchy of cross-country achievement. For our common club pilot, this is the proper answer to the question, “What do I do next, now that I have gone solo?” Many decades ago, the Silver and onwards badge requirements were established to prove and certify your growing skill level. A little history The Sporting Code was established to set the rules of soaring flight evidence to be followed: a declaration, photos of your turn points, a barogram to establish height and continuity of flight. Nothing stopped the steady parade of mistakes made, failure to read the rules, failure to operate the camera or barograph properly or, more sadly, failure of the equipment itself. The IGC Sporting Code committee’s job is to craft the mandated changes as clearly as possible into the Code (occasionally it will propose a rule change to the IGC for approval). Code changes always lean more towards accommodating records and competition. It is almost a universal law that rule-writers will make them all-encompassing and only add exceptions if needed. As a committee member, I have the background to comment here on the Code, but the following opinions are my own. When rule changes are made, the presumption is that the rule followers will do it correctly. Unfortunately, human nature (common stupidity, misinterpretation, brain fade) or the perversity of inanimate objects regularly interferes. The rules on evidencegathering and its security are followed by two sets of users: the record and competition pilots, for whom no slackness can be tolerated, since their actions affect every other pilot, and badge flyers, who are simply trying to exceed a given level of performance that effects no one but themselves. The rules ought to be more effective in accommodating this difference. The IGC does recognise that making things difficult for the Silver distance pilot is not effective policy in the long run, because it hinders rather than advances the goals of the sport. The Code is complex, because of the many ways evidence can be gathered. It can intimidate a lot of badge hopefuls and
people willing to consider being Official Observers (OO). It is a document that has had layers of requirements added with each change of evidence-gathering methodology. For example, position evidence has moved from eyeball, to camera, to GPS, with the Code gathering up paragraphs along the way to accommodate each method. (The demise of camera and most eyeball evidence did shorten the Code’s text about 15% a few years ago.) Now we accept only GPS evidence, with a few exceptions, like the eyeball for a Silver duration. The Sporting Code committee is now looking to strip it of all rules and options that were tailored to the needs of past evidence acquisition methods. They are asking, “If you were inventing the Code today, what would you write down on your blank sheet of paper?” However, while the Code (and those that use it) will certainly benefit from simplification, it’s unfair to blame it entirely for badge flight woes: [Rant alarm ON] I hear moans after badge flight failures that are purely and simply due to the pilot’s lack of preparation for the flight, or the pilot not doing the least bit of planning, or discussing his requirements for the task of the day with his OO. Some pilots haven’t even read their national badge application form, let alone the Code requirements! Unbelievable. [Rant alarm OFF] In olden times Let’s go back to the days of the turn-point camera and barograph. You left the lens cap on (ouch, that was stupid!) or you opened the camera back before rewinding the film (brain fade – I did that at a contest once). The Code, and in my case the contest Scorer, will be rightly harsh with you. And what about the old camera rule that stated that the complete negative strip had to be uncut? This type of rule, which made life difficult for the majority of pilots, in order to foil a microscopically small number of potential cheaters, is often the default choice of someone trying to make a rule ‘foolproof’. Here’s another old rule: the barogram trace had to be
“If you were inventing the Code today, what would you write down on your blank sheet of paper?” continuous, in order to prove that just one flight was taking place. But ink sometimes froze, or for some reason the needle lifted off the foil. In these cases, strict continuity was relaxed, so that the OO could verify that the film strip was from the particular flight, and the barograph rule was interpreted as unnecessary, since a minor interruption in the trace clearly couldn’t hide a landing and relaunch; or a gain of height claim would not be disallowed, provided that an interruption did not occur over the low or high points of the flight. Enter the GPS The advent of this technology was a boon to our sport, given its ability to digitally record a flight with great accuracy in all four dimensions of space and time. However, the wonderful Flight Recorder (FR) has now placed a significant requirement on the pilot and OO to be digital geeks. But digits can be hacked, so the problem of using GPS evidence for badges and especially records demanded strong data security in the flight recorder. An IGC committee of digital experts (GFAC) was formed to draft tight specifications required to be followed by FR manufacturers, to ensure the security and accuracy of flight data, and to draft the extensive Sporting Code text that defined their operation: what and how data was to be loaded and downloaded, and how the data was to be analysed – all to maintain that strict security. The security built into these devices for the relatively small glider pilot market put their price as much as ten times higher than units commonly available to the consumer market, and their operation is often quite user-unfriendly. How many of you, strapped in the cockpit, have tried to change some of that declaration information by pushing the buttons – right?! Pilots
also discovered that some FRs were capable of making up their own minds as to what data they decide to keep (or even change) without the pilot’s knowledge.
What happened to the OO? Many more pages were added into the Code’s Annex C Pilot & OO Guide to explain the rules and the hazards that were present in FR use and operation. But perfect FR security for badges isn’t necessary – bytes shouldn’t tell the whole story. The GFAC are greatly concerned about security and electronically eliminating all possibility of cheating. For records, yes, but what is the point of trying to cheat on a badge flight? The Code needs to give back to the OO the responsibility of being at the front of the evidence chain, rather than the FR data itself. If the .igc file is allowed to become contributory evidence to the OO’s certification (as were photos and barograms in the past), the Code can be crafted to logically differentiate between badge and record evidence needs, and support alternate means of acquiring the necessary and sufficient evidence. Easing the badge burden Keeping unnecessary complication out of the Code is not easy, however, work is now very actively underway to do so. You are invited to read new papers that are now on the IGC website in its Documents section. One is the proposal to simplify the Sporting Code (this outlines the general problem), one is a proposal to have a new and shorter list of available record courses (eliminating declared courses), one is a proposal to have only a single observation zone (the cylinder), and another (which may be on-line as you read this) is a draft text of the Code, that separates all badge requirements into their own chapter. Steady feedback to the Sporting Code committee on the Code difficulties you may experience, directed through your IGC delegate, does work. All comments on the possible content of a new Code are welcome – they have already resulted in improvements to the papers presented.
June 2013
25
matamata Youth Soar ing
Top L - Scott Wagstaff leads a team of helpers repositioning a glider. Bottom L - Enya McPherson prepares for flight Top R - Campbell McIver concentrates on landing. Bottom R - Instructor John Bayliss briefs Gina Pirritt. 26
June 2013
ar ing Development Camp
June 2013
27
Solar Powered Aircraft SoaringNZ has been following the Solar Flight Sunseeker aircraft for several years. The Sunseekers are designed to utilise solar power, not just through photovoltaic cells storing energy in batteries, but using the same solar energy as glider pilots use in the atmosphere. The Sunseekers are not just solar powered aircraft, they’re gliders. In contrast, there is another solar aircraft making news at the moment. The Solar Impulse can not fly if there is any turbulence or thermals, but it has been making some successful long distance flights in America. We take a look at the Solar Impulse and catch up with the new Sunseeker Duo.
Solar Impulse Swiss pioneers Dr Bertrand Piccard (Chairman) and André Borschberg (CEO) are the founders, pilots and driving force behind Solar Impulse, the first aeroplane that can fly day and night without fuel. They say that the aircraft aims to bring emotions back to the heart of scientific exploration, calling it a flying laboratory, to find innovative technological solutions for today’s challenges, and a vision to inspire each of us to be pioneers in our everyday lives. The carbon fibre aeroplane has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 (63.4m / 208 ft) while weighing only as much as small car (1,600kg). It is the result of seven years of intense work, calculations, simulations and tests by a team of about 80 people and 100 partners and advisors. 12,000 solar cells built into the wing power four 10 HP electric motors. By day, the solar cells recharge the 400kg lithium batteries, which allow the plane to fly at night. Solar Impulse is being flown across the United States, although this is not a non-stop flight. At the time of writing, two legs had been successfully completed, with the third leg expected to take place any day. On May 4, Bertrand Piccard flew the first leg, from Moffett Field, NASA Ames Research Centre in California, to Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport in Arizona. He took off just after 6 am and, after overflying the Mojave National Preserve, landed in Arizona at 00:30 am, after a flight of 18 hours and 18 minutes. “We’ve been dreaming about crossing the United States for years – the land of scientific research, innovation and aviation pioneers – and it’s hard to believe it’s really happening,” André Borschberg (Co-Founder, CEO and pilot of Solar Impulse) and Bertrand Piccard (Initiator, Chairman and pilot of Solar Impulse) said as they walked down the runway. “We are thrilled to have safely and successfully completed this first leg and we weren’t alone: thousands of names of our supporters virtually accompanied us. With them, we launched the ‘Clean Generation’ initiative, promoting clean technologies.” The second flight, on May 22, took the aircraft to Dallas-Fort
Across America Flight landing in Dallas
Photo: Solar Impulse / Polaris Photo: Solar Impulse / Polaris Photo: Solar Impulse / Polaris
Andre Borschberg
Worth and set a new absolute world distance record in solar aviation (832 NM/1541 km). The flight took 18 hours and 21 minutes. The previous distance record was also established in Solar Impulse, when AndrĂŠ Borschberg flew 602 NM (1116 km) from Switzerland to Spain in May 2012.
June 2013
29
Photo: Solar Impulse / Polaris
Solar Powered Aircraft
“This leg was particularly challenging because of fairly strong winds at the landing. It also was the longest flight – in terms of distance - ever flown by a solar airplane. You have to understand that the pilot needs to stay awake for more than 20 hours without any autopilot” said André Borschberg who still holds the record for the longest duration ever in a solar powered airplane with 26 hours. SoaringNZ wanted to know what it was actually like to fly. André Borschberg answered: “What is extraordinary about a solarpowered plane is that the more you fly it, the more you see its energy reserves increase! In the solar-powered plane, your state of consciousness is different than with any other device: you have the time to realize what you’re doing, to fly, to be in the air, to admire the beauty of the earth and its landscapes; we have time to think…. It’s another form of plenitude. The amount of energy that you collect with solar cells and manage to store in your batteries thus allows Solar Impulse to get closer to the target of perpetual flight.” There are two critical concerns when flying Solar Impulse. - Turbulence: it is a very light aircraft with a huge wingspan. Solar Impulse is particularly sensitive to turbulence and wind during take-off and landing. To avoid turbulence caused by thermals, the aircraft must take off and land early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The surface wind must be less than 10 knots and maximum crosswind of 4 knots.
30
June 2013
- Energy management: for flying at night, the energy stored in the batteries throughout the day must be enough to last until the next morning, otherwise the plane would have to land before dawn. Therefore, the pilot must fly with utmost precision. Solar Impulse has captured the imagination of people worldwide and gained the support of thousands of influential people worldwide, including key opinion leaders such as Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and film maker James Cameron. Stop Press Solar Impulse successfully flew from Fort Worth to St Louis on June 3rd, the longest flight yet of 21 hours 21 minutes.
Sunseeker Duo The ultimate solar-powered touring aeroplane By Irena Raymond
Photo: Solar Impulse / Polaris
Sunseeker Duo is the third solar-powered aeroplane built by Solar Flight. Eric and Irena Raymond are on the path to complete the fastest solarpowered aeroplane ever built and this will be the first one to offer a seat for passengers. Sunseeker Duo has many features of the Sunseekers I and II, with significant improvements - not the least of which is that is a two-seat aeroplane. The new aircraft is equipped with fully reclining seats, allowing one pilot to rest during long flights. The project has received technical and material support from companies around the world. Unique, large sliding windows give an unobstructed view and will be perfect for aerial photography. The tricycle landing gear arrangement ensures that the Duo will operate normally at any airport in the world and folding wings give the aeroplane a hangar footprint no larger than a conventional light plane. The aeroplane can also be quickly disassembled and packed into a trailer. Eric Raymond is the most experienced person in the world, in the field of solar-powered aircraft. A veteran of Paul MacCready’s AeroVironment, Raymond’s recent work can be found in the Boeing Vulture solar-powered UAV, the solar-powered Lockheed HALE-D airship, as well as Solar Impulse’s aircraft, featured elsewhere in this magazine. Raymond founded Solar Flight in 1986 to develop solar-powered aircraft for sport and adventure flying. Solar Flight’s first aeroplane, Sunseeker I, was designed for a mission to cross America; a feat it accomplished during the summer of 1990. The expedition began in the Southern California desert and, after 21 flights, ended in a field near the site where the Wright Brothers first flew. It was the first time that a solar-powered aeroplane crossed the United States, and the first demonstration of a practical solarpowered sport aeroplane. Lithium Polymer batteries, 50% more powerful than those used by Sunseeker II, store enough power for 20 minutes of full-power climbing. After that, they will be charged when soaring. Above the clouds, Sunseeker Duo has the capacity to cruise on direct solar power for hours and hours. The 22.8 % efficient SunPower solar cells, developed by Eric Raymond, are integrated on the wing surface, producing enough energy for level flight and even a slight climb under mid-day sun. After his successful crossing of the US with Sunseeker I in 1990, and crossing of the European Alps with Sunseeker II in 2009, Eric Raymond is planning new adventures with Sunseeker Duo. Sunseeker Duo is going to be the first practical touring solarpowered aeroplane, and the Solar Flight Team is looking towards exploring Eastern Europe with the aeroplane. Central and Western
Asia are possible for future flying expeditions. The Sunseeker Duo was unveiled at the largest European aviation show, AERO, in Friedrichshafen. After the show, the aeroplane was brought to Italy, to be prepared for the first test flights. Website: www.solar-flight.com
June 2013
31
Helen Georgeson By Nigel Ackroyd and others
In April, pioneering woman pilot Helen Georgeson passed away. A successful pilot, both in partnership with her ex-husband Dick and in her own right, she was an inspiration to friends, family and women pilots who came after her. Her nephew Nigel Ackroyd has put some words together in memory of an extraordinary woman. Helen Pamela Georgeson, known as Heli, was a lovely lady. She was full of the joys of life, caring and always busy. Heli was a mine of information, be it sailplanes, gardening, jet boating, or sailing. Helen excelled in gliding. Her first instructional flight was in 1953. She soloed shortly after and achieved the Women’s absolute gain of height record in 1954, soaring to 13,200 feet in the Weihe. Helen did her five hours duration in Queenstown and her 50K, the final cross country leg of the silver C, at Simons Hill. This gave her the first Silver C of anyone in New Zealand, at the end of 1954. A feat the men of the era were not so keen to celebrate. For Helen, this was only the beginning! Besides the Weihe, Heli flew the Slingsby Eagle and the new Skylark 3F in 1960. She set a new women’s altitude record of 18,100 feet in 1961. A further flight to 22,000 feet, unfortunately, could not be ratified. There were trips to world championships and numerous NZ championships, as well as driving hundreds of miles supporting Dick’s record attempts. She and husband Dick achieved two two-seater world records in their Janus VV. A 1018.6km flight from Alexandra to Gisborne in 1982 gained them the Straight Distance, and Straight Distance to a predetermined goal records. Of those flights,
Dick says that Heli was a great partner to fly with. She had a flair for recognising the weather and directed him to areas of best lift. On their world record flight, Dick says he was “fluffing around in behind the Torlesse range, when Heli said, ‘If you stay here any longer, we’ll never even get to Hanmer. Why don’t you go on the Western side?’” Dick did and they got into good lift, which took them all the way to Cook Strait. “She was great to fly with,” Dick says. “I couldn’t have had a better partner.” Dick tells that he wanted her to get her Gold C, but once the children came along, things became difficult. She was, however, a terrific supporter for his record attempts and could pack up at a moment’s notice when the weather was right, to get them where Dick needed to be. Heli’s time in gliding is well documented in Dick Georgeson and Anna Wilson’s book, The Leading Edge.
Helen’s personality is best described in some short accounts by some of her many friends in the gliding fraternity: Heli – we all had good times together in Queenstown, Five Rivers, Omarama, at Mt Cook. Angela was lucky to have delightful visits with Helen in the Sounds. She was a loyal friend. She was always supportive. We admired her edgy and powerful style and great company. We are all so glad she was our friend.
Jan, Bill, Angela and Sonya Walker
Helen just before she soared around Mt Cook.
It was February 1973 and the mercury was soaring to ridiculous heights, as Bruce and I went to visit the Georgesons at Kennedys Bush Road. I was very heavily pregnant and Heli sat us down and gave us stern warnings about how long my labour should be and when we should call in the experts, sharing with us the tragic loss of her first child. Then she instructed Bruce to take me down the path to their secluded pool. That was the most memorable swim of my life. I was cool, I was comfortable, I was weightless! By morning tea time the next day, our daughter was born and a week later, with baby in the carry cot, we arrived once again at Kennedys Bush Road, this time for a barbecue. Helen and Dick were thrilled for us. Bruce recalls being out flying in a Hughes 300 helicopter and the Georgeson’s came up on his radar. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to try and land on their lawn? Maybe, except that Helen had been hard at work in the garden, as usual, and there was a full wheelbarrow off to one side. As he hovered overhead, Helen’s wheelbarrow tipped over in the downwash, spewing its contents all over the garden again. At that stage, Bruce decided that he was so far in the doo doo, he might just as well continue and land. Dick ran round like a chook with his head cut off, looking for a camera - which fortunately he couldn’t find and after a quick hello and goodbye, Bruce took off again
before Helen could give him the dressing down he was expecting and probably deserved!
Rae & Bruce Drake
Helen Georgeson had a vibrant personality and was a great inspiration to us all - particularly Dick, on many of his record breaking glider flights. She was most supportive. The flight I was most familiar with was the world record flight to Te Araroa from Tower Peak, where we farmed, on the south east of the Te Anau basin. On this flight, Dick became desperately low, down to two thousand feet above Methven. Heli bellowed over the radio, “Get that wheel up and get going!” Which he did. There may have been another outcome, were it not for the support from Heli. For many of the gliding attempts made from Tower Peak, more than seven or eight times, Heli was there towing the trailer from Christchurch and back. Jet boating was probably Heli’s most passionate pursuit and she became a very able jet boat driver. I recall well a national gliding contest at Alexandra, 1982 I think, when Heli took a number of us up the Clutha from Clyde. We went ashore and discovered a small Chinese miner’s hut, in which we found a shoe nailed together with bamboo. We left it there on Heli’s request, she being one to leave things as they were. She was always one to help the less fortunate, even to
June 2013
33
the point of adopting a poor little homeless dog from the pound. She named it Piglet. A beardy little soul with one eye missing. We all soon fell in love with this little one eyed friend. It was a privilege to have known Heli Georgeson and those of us who did are all the better for having done so. Our condolences go out to the family.
Mairi and David Speight
I joined the CGC well after Heli had made her pioneering milestone in NZ’s early aviation history, by being the first to achieve a Silver C badge in NZ – that was certainly some achievement in those days. I relate well to how much she must have upset the men who were equally as keen to be the prestigious ‘first’. It would only be a few years later that I would have a similar experience, as the only woman competitor winning against the men at top level flying competitions. Men did not take easily to being outdone by a woman at anything in those male dominated and chauvinistic days, let alone in the male bastion of ‘aviation,’ in the era when women were expected to be at home: housekeeping, cooking and looking after the children. How special it must have been to have Dick’s expertise, support and encouragement, added to her own willingness to step outside the ‘norm’ for women then. And how lucky Dick was, to have a wife who so fully supported his gliding goals, which were many, over several decades. Everyone knew the dynamic gliding team of ‘Dick and Heli,’ with Heli being well known to many for her adaptability (dropping everything to prepare for yet another of Dick’s record attempts, while raising a family), co-piloting with Dick on his Twin Seat world record attempts in VV, driving long distances with glider in tow, a lot of laughter, expertise in jet boating, gliding and crewing and her enjoyment of family, people and love of animals (I particularly remember Piglet, that she had rescued from an owner she witnessed ill-treating the dog)
– oh yes, and the odd temper tantrum that had us beating a hasty retreat, and no doubt Piglet’s owner too. I remember Heli fondly and will continue to enjoy many wonderful memories of a ‘tall poppy’ woman.
Yvonne Loader
Helen had left the gliding scene by the time I was around, so sadly I never met her. I was always impressed reading of her flying and thought she must have been amazingly tough to fly in bare feet. The people who knew her well always speak of her warmly and it can’t have been easy achieving the goals and records that she did, living somewhat in Dick’s shadow, even though Dick would never have intended that. The wing of fame in the (Canterbury) clubhouse had a space left for Helen’s records, so I hope that will be written in on her behalf.
Jenny Wilkinson
Heli was a special friend to me and my late husband Neville and we often recalled the wonderful times we had, jet-boating, salmon fishing on the Rakaia, holidaying in the Sounds with Heli, Dick and family. Heli was an animal lover, her dogs Tara, the (mad !!) Piglet and the lamb went everywhere with her. The few times I crewed, on the drive down south I was stuck in the back of the Landrover with the animals with very unpleasant smells! Helie was a loyal friend, who was very caring and generous of her time. We remember her love of the garden and her warm and generous hospitality. We mourn the passing of a great friend and accomplished sportswoman. Fond memories
Robyn Banton, Perth WA
Top People Acknowledged The highlight of the GNZ Annual conference, held 8 June in Wellington, is the recognition and awarding of prizes to New Zealand’s top pilots and gliding personalities. The flying awards recognise excellence in specific areas and the two ‘non-flying’ awards celebrate individuals who have given extraordinary service to the sport.
Air NZ Soaring Award Bob Gray This trophy is awarded to the pilot who has shown the most significant improvement in their personal standard of competition or record flying during the year. Bob Gray has been a regular club class competitor, in the North Island. He competes regularly, is highly motivated and at this year’s Taupo contest gave an outstanding performance allowing him to come in 4th against strong competition and even though work commitments meant he couldn’t fly one day. He was the only one home on the last and toughest day of the contest. CWF Hamilton Trophy Peter Chadwick This trophy is awarded to a New Zealander operating in NZ for the most meritorious flight that is a NZ gliding record. In January, Peter Chadwick lifted the 300 km out-and-return record to 196.35 km/h in his ASW20, setting a new mark in both the 15m and open categories. Air NZ Cross-Country Awards These awards aim to stimulate cross-country flying from club sites and particularly encourage those new to this aspect of the sport. This is a distance event extending over the whole year and run in two divisions. Pilots who have previously achieved a Gold distance flight are not eligible. North Island Division: Neil Raymond South Island Division: Bob Martin Buckland Soaring Award Awarded to the highest scoring NZ national in the NZ division of the Aerokurier Online Contest (OLC) for the previous season. OLC rules and handicaps are used. The winning pilots stand down for two seasons. North Island Division: Vaughan Ruddick South Island Division: Max Stevens
www.gliding.co.nz
The
Friendship
Cup
Tom Davies Awarded for outstanding contribution to the gliding movement during the preceding year. Tom Davies has been gliding for nearly 50 years and has been the treasurer of his club for most of that time – and still is. He has given valuable service to gliding nationally, having been on the Executive Committee Tom Davies received The Friendship Cup. on and off for several years, in particular looking after the routine administration of loans to clubs. While on the Executive he spearheaded the overhaul of our constitutional rules, modernising them and making them easier to understand and use. In the context of this award, his determined efforts in the establishment of the GNZ Umbrella Trust, is what the Executive particularly wishes to acknowledge. After quite a few challenges along the way the trust is now up and running. The Angus Rose Bowl Terry Jones NZ’s premier award. Presented to the NZGA by Bill Angus, one of the original pioneers in aviation in NZ, the Angus Rose Bowl is awarded in recognition of outstanding services to the sport of gliding in this country. Terry Jones was one of the GNZ’s Regional Operations Officers (ROO) for ten years, providing wise counsel and support to the National Operations Officer, his ROO colleagues and the GNZ Executive, as well as mentoring and general assistance to clubs in his region. In 2003 he joined the board of directors of Omarama Airfield Limited. As we all know, the South Island gliding clubs own 50% of the Omarama airfield and its infrastructure and common facilities. These have steadily been developed by the company over the past 20 years in the fantastic site it is today. Behind all this development is the four-person board of directors (unpaid) which is responsible for the on-going development and day to day airfield operations, maintenance and administration. Terry Terry Jones was surprised and delighted to be very quickly became the awarded the Angus Rose Bowl ‘go-to’ person for any strategic or operational matters involving the airfield, almost totally eclipsing the efforts of his fellow board members. Whether it is a planning issue, or an irrigation leak, Terry can always be relied on to be there, with collar and tie, or gumboots, whatever is required. June 2013
35
airworthiness martyn cook
national airworthiness officer
The Log Book Last issue we described how a glider certified to CS-22 becomes eligible for an Airworthiness Certificate. This means that the glider you are now strapping yourself into was “airworthy” on the day the certificate was issued. But what about all the events in the life of this glider since it was new? It’s impractical to perform a full airworthiness inspection before every flight. But a careful pilot will always ask questions like, “Was there any damage after that ground loop I saw with this glider last week?” “Does this PDA have the correct size of fuse?” “Is that camera on the top of the fin going to disrupt the airflow over the tailplane and make the glider unstable in pitch?” “Did the repairer use good glue on that wing repair last year?” It’s better to ask these questions before flight than deep in the mountains in sudden turbulence! In practice we rely on the continuous record in the Log Book to provide ongoing assurance of airworthiness. The first aspect is the service record, where the operator makes an entry for every flight. This includes every detail that could be necessary for an engineer to assess serviceability in the future. The number of take-offs and landings gives an indication of wear on tow hooks, airbrakes, wheels, tyres and skids. Time in flight relates to wear on control surface hinges, linkages and cables, and fatigue of the main structure. Long periods of non-flying could trigger an inspection for corrosion or
stiffness in controls, a brake cylinder seized up, or fabric deterioration due to dampness. Log Book entries are also made by glider engineers. The main event is the Annual Inspection, in which every part of the glider and its systems is inspected in accordance with an approved schedule. This is a mandatory inspection, and requires an accurate service record to complete many of the items. The output from this inspection (and any required maintenance) is a Release to Service (RTS) in respect of the work performed. The engineer does not declare the aircraft to be “airworthy” - but simply states that a specific inspection, repair or adjustment has been made and in respect of that work the glider has been released to service. Life doesn’t always go smoothly, and gliders are occasionally subjected to abnormal loads, eg overstress during aerobatics or a wheel-up landing. Such an event automatically invalidates the RTS until the required inspection is carried out and a new release entered in the Log Book. If the glider needs to be repaired then the same release process is followed. Another event is the Review of Airworthiness, in which the engineer (who would hold an IA rating) works carefully through all the records in the log book to ensure that the service record is accurate, every defect has been rectified, all required maintenance and testing is up to date, all lifed components are within limits, and there are no unauthorised modifications or repairs. Yes, now you can strap yourself in!
A QUESTION OF SAFETY GEORGE ROGERS
national operations officer
Accidents Four occurrences/accidents since the last article.
were
reported
All four occurred at out-landing in single seaters with material damage to the gliders. Decisions leading to out-landing and paddock selection and/or management of circuit and approach are suspected to have contributed to the outcome. Obviously all were in the landing phase of flight, in which we know a high proportion of all accidents occur. Outcome of Fatal Accident Investigation The CAA Report on a fatal glider accident in 2012 was recently released, as was the Coroner's Findings. The accident occurred when the glider turned towards a ridge and continued to roll until inverted at impact. No conclusive cause of the accident was revealed but CAA
considered there may have been some degree of pilot incapacitation. The Coroner suggested that the pilot might have suffered from dehydration. GNZ has developed an Advisory Circular (AC 2-13) on Mountain & Ridge Soaring Safety Principles reinforcing guidelines for prudent flying in the vicinity of high ground. Pilots and Instructors are encouraged to use the principles in their flying and in the development of pilots. GNZ has a section (Training - Safety Information – Dehydration) in the Website which provide good information on the effects of and how to prevent dehydration. Pilots are encouraged to ensure they are aware of the effects of dehydration and steps they can take to prevent onset and consequences. Safe flying
GNZ Awards & certificates
April 2013 – May 2013
GNZ Awards Officer, Edouard Devenoges gnzawards@xtra.co.nz 40 Eversham Road, Mt Maunganui 3116. QGP No. Pilot’s Name 3206 Wayne D. Mapp 3207 Tony Cummins 3208 James B. Ferguson 3209 Gerard Robertson 3210 Patricia Graf 3211 Craig J. Walecki 3212 Mark I. Shrimpton 3213 Jeremy Miller 3214 Vladyslav Leonenko 3215 Daryl J. Hayes 3216 Thomas Hoksbergen
Club Wellington GC Canterbury GC Gliding Hutt Valley Auckland GC Taupo GC Canterbury GC Piako GC Wellington GC Auckland GC Wellington GC Kaikohe GC
Date 23 03 2013 17 03 2013 28 03 2013 29 03 2013 9 04 2013 10 04 2013 16 04 2013 17 04 2013 24 04 2013 13 05 2013 22 05 2013
Glider
Silver Distance Jordan R. Kerr
Gliding Hutt Valley
27 04 2013
Club Astir
Silver Duration Yatharth Mitra Gerard Robertson Stuart J. Cawood Scott K. Wagstaff
Auckland GC Auckland GC Gliding Manawatu Tauranga GC
06 02 2013 19 01 2013 24 03 2013 12 12 2012
Club Astir Club Astir Ka 6 cr LS4
Silver Badge 1160 Stuart J. Cawood
Gliding Manawatu
24 03 2013
Gold Duration Yatharth Mitra Gerard Robertson Stuart J. Cawood Scott K. Wagstaff
Auckland GC Auckland GC Gliding Manawatu Tauranga GC
06 02 2013 19 01 2013 24 03 2013 12 12 2012
Club Astir Club Astir Ka 6 cr LS4
Canterbury GC
17 12 2012
DG 808c
Glider
Date
Speed
Janus B
26 04 2013
131.98 km/h
Discus b
26 04 2013
191.33 km/h
Discus b
26 04 2013
191.33 km/h
Discus b
26 04 2013
173.11 km/h
Discus b
26 04 2013
173.11 km/h
Official Observers QGP No. Pilot’s Name 09/104 Jordan R. Kerr 09/105 James B. Ferguson
Club Gliding Hutt Valley Gliding Hutt Valley
Date 15 05 2013 15 05 2013
Glider
GNZ First Competition Award 030 Jordan R. Kerr
Gliding Hutt Valley
30 04 2013
G. Deans
NZ Records Pilot’s Name 100 km, O&R, Speed, D-O, F Abbey Delore & Enya-Mae McPherson 200 km, O&R, Speed, D-O, G Max Stevens 200 km, O&R, Speed, D-15, G Max Stevens 400 km, O&R, Speed, D-O, G Max Stevens 400 km, O&R, Speed, D-15, G Max Stevens
Latest Technology Sunlight Readable PNA Device
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Will be supplied ready to use fully loaded with software and maps
Diamond Distance 148
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Contact Jerry O'Neill jerryo@xtra.co.nz for more information
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CL A IM
that you really find out who has the best policy!
Contact your broker or ring Brian or Arden and talk to the people who specialise in aviation insurance. “Kiwis providing Glider pilots with aviation insurance for over 25 years”
TELEPhone 04 473 5593 admin @ aviationcoop.co.nz w w w. av ia t io n c o o p.c o.nz June 2013
37
VINTAGE & CLASSIC
Restoring Double Foxtrot By Andrew Benton
In June 2007, the Nelson Lakes Gliding Club let me loose on their club single, Ka6 CR, GFF. It was wonderful, compared to the humble Ka4, (Rhönlerche II) BW. I had beautifully light controls and the ability to out-climb everyone else in the sky. My dad Rob is into gliding in Melbourne, and when I was extolling the Ka6’s virtues, his comment was, “Fly a K6, don’t buy a K6.” So, um, these are a series of articles about my experience, buying this particular K6 with my Dad and refurbishing it. Overall, it has been a really cool adventure, and while it has taken more TIME than I would ever have believed possible, I have learned some great skills, and the end result will be a lovely classic glider and years of soaring enjoyment. I hope that through this, others may be encouraged to have a go at refurbishing older gliders, which, while not as sleek or high performing as the latest 25m critter with a jet engine, are lovely to fly and could serve to counter the public perception that gliding is prohibitively expensive. My wife Jude has been very sporting about the whole glider project, putting up with the driveway, garage and at times the living room, being full of glider. She has been great, helping move bits of glider around and has even been known to don the overalls and help with the paint stripping. Now, that is love! Also, this project wouldn’t have gone ahead without the assistance and oversight from Mike Strathern (NZ Sailplanes). Mike has previously restored a K6E, and made it clear that the project would involve taking off all the paint and all the fabric, and would be a huge amount of work. Mike has let me use his workshop and tools, put up
with my endless stupid questions, and always had the kettle boiled for another cup of tea. The star of the show...... Alexander Schleicher Ka6 CR, serial 6560, was built in 1966. It was the last Ka6 imported new into New Zealand. Initially, it was owned by the Whakatane GC. It was crashed in 1967 and again in 1971, and was fixed by Airepair in Hastings. It then passed into syndicate ownership, including Roger Brown (who has supplied the historical photos) and others, who I hope will share their recollections of this neat glider. Based out of Matamata, it was repainted cream over red, and then moved to Taupo, where the logbook shows that Gold badge flights were done. In 1979, Trevor Terry took it over and then in 1981, Claude Rennie bought it and operated it from Nelson. This period shows a high level of activity, at locations all around NZ. In 1996, it passed to the Nelson Lakes Gliding Club and was re-covered in ceconite, and painted all-white in automotive polyurethane. Unfortunately, this re-covering job wasn’t of very good quality, the underlying paint being simply painted over, and this has caused repetitive issues with paint cracking on the top of the wings and tailplane. This was bad news on a wooden glider, and regularly had to be sanded and repaired. Despite this, club members did a lot of flying in the Ka6. I did my Five Hours in FF and have lots of great memories, such as being in wave above the clouds and watching the fibreglass fleet struggling at tree-top height. What a great feeling! In 2010, FF was damaged in a landing accident and its fin and rudder were rebuilt, but by now it was looking very tatty and utilisation was low. The club has been very fortunate to be able to upgrade its fleet, rather than worry about re-covering old gliders, and the Ka6 was replaced by a beautiful LS4, which has much greater performance and is able to fit today’s heavier and taller pilots. At the point where members were proposing they sell FF’s
VINTAGE & CLASSIC
trailer to the metal recycler, the instruments on Trademe, and burn the glider, I took the plunge into the joys and frustrations of private ownership. GFF had now done 2825 hours and 3184 flights. While there were other Ka6’s locally which were already in neat, airworthy condition, and at a lower price than the restoration would likely cost, I wanted to get into the engineering side of things, and wanted a project to work on. Here was an opportunity to work on a wood and fabric glider, and learn some rare skills. Once it is done, I will have a nice safe little glider, and at my relatively low flying hours, a few hundred hours in a Ka6 will be a good thing.
Once my Class 2 rating was achieved, I could replace aircraft paint and covering but, for more technical work, I needed to be supervised by a Class 3. The general plan was always to log the experience, with the aim of becoming a Class 3 in the future. In June 2012, I started stripping paint off the tailplane.... to be continued!
Refurbishing the trailer While I was itching to start work on my really big model aeroplane, I had to get qualified. So, the first step was to badger Roger Harris and get on to a GNZ Class 2 engineering course. While I was waiting for that to happen, I started with the trailer. There’s no point spending hundreds of hours on a wooden glider if the trailer leaks, so I removed the floor, ground off all the surface rust on the chassis, primed it and got Mike to weld up the holes. The entire front wall was rusted out, so this was replaced. The new 17 mm H3 ply floor went down and the leaks and lining was fixed. My father-in-law Rob then helped install LED tail lights and internal lights. Doing the training In April 2012, I attended a class 2 engineering course at Springfield, run by Roger Harris, which was a very well run and informative week, although it was hard being inside studying legislation while aero-towing was going on outside! One of the real benefits of the course was meeting fellow engineers and being able to benefit from their experience. I have also found the Ka6 sailplane discussion group on yahoo to be very helpful in sharing information and ideas, not to mention Schleicher, the members of Vintage Kiwi, and Vintage Gliders Australia.
June 2013
39
World War II
Air Assault Gliders
Jim Wallwork stands in front of the replica Horsa glider at Pegasus Bridge.
The scale model prototype Hamilcar was still a large aircraft.
If you think flying gliders is difficult, imagine flying one while under enemy fire. Imagine being in a very big glider, carrying up to 30 troops or two light tanks, and you start to have some idea what the pilots of the Glider Pilots Regiment of the British Army AirCorp went through. Their aircraft however, weren’t expected to ever be used again. Arguably one of the greatest of these pilots, Jim Wallwork died early this year aged 93. Wallwork was the pilot of the first glider to land in the coup-de-main on the bridges across the river Orne and the Caen Canal, during the D-Day landings. The force of the impact caused both Wallwork and his co-pilot to catapult through the front of the cockpit of the troop carrying Horsa glider, awarding Wallwork the dubious privilege of being the first Allied soldier to set foot on French soil that day. According to Wallwork’s obituary in The Telegraph: Just before midnight on June 5, 1944, six Horsa gliders were towed to the French coast, each carrying men of Major John Howard’s D Company of the 2nd Battalion Ox & Bucks Light Infantry. Bearing rifles, Sten and Bren guns, mortars and grenades, and with their faces blackened with burned cork or coke, they had been
entrusted with capturing the key bridges near Ranville, to prevent German reinforcements reaching the landing beaches further west. The gliders were towed by Halifax bombers, above the clouds to 6,000ft. There was a relaxed atmosphere as the troops sang and joked, but this stopped abruptly as each glider was released from the tug within sight of the French coast. Wallwork was flying the lead glider, and he saw the twin waterways in the moonlight as he descended. He flew a perfect circuit, to land within a few yards of the well-defended bridge, later to become known as Pegasus Bridge. Within a minute, two more gliders had landed alongside Wallwork’s, which had its nose buried in an embankment. Wallwork was injured when he was thrown from the glider and, although concussed, he carried ammunition forward to Howard’s troops, who had advanced on the bridge, overcoming resistance from machine-gun pits and slit trenches, and storming underground bunkers. Despite strong opposition, they held the bridge until relieved some hours later by Lord Lovat and his commandos. Wallwork was later repatriated to England, where he recovered from his injuries. The precise flying of the glider pilots had been remarkable, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory observed: “It was one of the most outstanding flying achievements of the war.” Wallwork was awarded an immediate DFM. Actual numbers of Horsa gliders are unclear, but somewhere between 4 and 5,000 were built. The Horsas, like their cousins the Hamilcar and the American Waco gliders, were all of wood and fabric construction. This meant they were easily built and manufactured by non- aircraft manufacturers. Horsas were produced in three
Specifications Hamilcar Data from Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft 1945-1946 General characteristics Crew: 2 Capacity: 7 tons Length: 68 ft (20.73 m) Wingspan: 110 ft (33.53 m) Height: 20 ft 3 in (6.17 m) Wing area: 1,657.5 ft2 (153.98 m2) Airfoil: RAF.34 modified Empty weight: 18,400 lb (8,346 kg) Max. takeoff weight: 36,000 lb (16,329 kg) modules, which were put together on airfields later, by Austin Motors and a furniture manufacturer. Hamilcars were built by the ‘Hamilcar Production Group’, which included the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, the Co-operative Wholesale Society and AC Cars. Production of the Hamilcars was problematic, with competition for materials and lack of space to store the completed aircraft. Only 344 were produced, although 80 of these saw service during the Normandy landings. Horsas and the American Waco gliders were first and foremost troop carriers. The Waco could carry 13 troops and their equipment. Their tugs were usually the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, a variation on the DC3. The Horsa had up to 30 troop seats, benches down either side of the fuselage and could carry a jeep or a six pound anti-tank gun. They were often towed by Halifax bombers but various other bombers and the Skytrain were also used. The gliders were launched by a ‘snatch’ technique. The tug’s pickup arm extended a steel cable and hook to catch the glider’s towline, which was looped tightly between two poles on the ground station. The towline was caught and a winch on board the tug paid out steel cable for several hundred feet. A preset clutch slowed and then stopped the cable payout. The reusable nylon towline stretched under the load. The glider accelerated 0.7 G into the tow in six seconds. The tug’s climb got the glider airborne quickly, primarily so they could both clear obstacles. As is the case in modern gliders, the glider could climb faster than the tug. The Telegraph says that James Wallwork had the extremely
Performance Never exceed speed: Maximum speed: Stall speed: Wing loading:
187 mph (300 km/h) 150 mph (240 km/h) 65 mph (105 km/h) 22.37 lb/ft² (109.2 kg/m²)
rare, possibly unique, distinction of flying a glider on the four major Allied airborne landings: Sicily, Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine. On the night of July 8/9, 1943, Wallwork flew one of the 137 gliders on Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. Unusually high winds, illtrained tug aircraft crews and poor navigation, led to the force being widely scattered; many gliders landed in the sea, and there was heavy loss of life. Wallwork just managed to make his landing zone, where he was met by heavy enemy fire. He remained in Italy with the 1st Airborne Division until later in the year, when he returned to England for intensive training for the D-Day landings. His was one of eight crews selected for the ‘special mission’ to capture the bridges near Caen. After returning to his regiment, Wallwork flew on the illfated landings at Arnhem, before converting to the Hamilcar. During Operation Varsity, the airborne landings on the Rhine, he took a 17-pound anti-tank gun and its crew to the east bank of the river. In later life, Wallwork attended reunions at Pegasus Bridge, including one in 2004 when the Prince of Wales unveiled a replica Horsa glider at the site, recognition for the exceptional pilots who flew these cumbersome aircraft. Horsas
Specifications Horsa (AS 51) Data from British Warplanes of World War II General characteristics Crew: 2 Capacity: 25 troops (20-25 troops were the “standard” load) Length: 67 ft 0 in (20.43 m) Wingspan: 88 ft 0 in (26.83 m) Height: 19 ft 6 in (5.95 m) Wing area: 1,104 ft² (102.6 m²) Empty weight: 8,370 lb (3,804 kg) Loaded weight: 15,500 lb (7,045 kg) Performance Maximum speed: 150 mph on tow; 100 mph gliding (242 km/h /160 km/h) Wing loading: 14.0 lb/ft² (68.7 kg/m²)
June 2013
41
Chook goes to Little Ben and beyond
Farewell to Steve ‘Chook’ Morrissey By Herb Familton
51 year old Steve Morrissey, Omarama Gliding Club member and long term identity in South Island gliding, died in Hong Kong in 2010. He is greatly missed by family and friends, and in January some of them banded together to give him a fitting farewell. Good friend Herb Familton tells us of the evening Chook’s ashes were scattered over his beloved southern hills. Two weeks ago, I showed Rachel, an ex-flatmate, a video. Rachel had flatted with Chook and me for a year in Henderson’s Road and she wanted to see Chook’s last flight. It was a video I’d done of a glider flight this January. The family were going to be down at Omarama to scatter Chook’s ashes. The plan was simple really: Two gliders, one with Roger Read and Steve’s sister Christine, to scatter the ashes (Chook had been the driving force for Omarama GC to get the Duo, so it was only appropriate that that was the glider) and Graham Eriksen and I to fly in Gavin’s Duo, in tandem with Roger. The two Duos were to be followed by Craig Keenan and the rest of the family in his Cessna. The event was to finish with nibbles and a social event in the Hanger. But it was more than that… It was a magical day in a long hot summer in the place of light. It was a day that you might have got once a January, if you had the luck of the Irish. The sun was going down on the hills around Omarama, cloaking the hills with brilliant shades of liquid gold on sunlit tussock faces, flecked with dark brown in the shadows in the gullies. Not a breath of wind on the ground, and not another glider in the air as we launched. The heat was slowly dropping as Graham and I took off in the Duo XL, and released onto Little Ben, and we immediately curled into a solid 3 to 4 knot climb, a large and smooth late evening thermal that effortlessly wafted us higher without a bump of turbulence. Perfect.
UO joined us off tow and a Duo dance began. Formating on UO, we circled lazy circles one way then the other, tucking underneath and slightly behind. Just the occasional word from Graham and Roger over the radio was needed, round and round, this way and then that way, one side then the other. Time stood still for a while, as the Duo pair circled just for the sake of circling, because that was all we wanted to do, and had come to do for Steve. I watched for the rudder and aileron deflection on UO and it wasn’t ever obvious. I’d flown with some very skilled and smooth pilots, but this was special, this was the smoothest thermalling I’d ever seen. Round and round, round and round, into evening, watching the sun slowly sink, and flying through golden orbs of light every time we passed the rugged Otago mountains to the west. All too soon, it was time for Chook’s ashes to go and we ceased our Duo duet and followed the Little Ben ridge to the south, back to Omarama. Craig’s Cessna joined us to the west with the rest of the Morrissey family and we watched for a series of grey ash puffs from the glider. To be fair, his ashes were initially reluctant to go, but we could see periodic puffs of grey ash every now and again as Christine shook the tube, and finally they were gone. We flew past a dazzling three-quarter silver moon in formation, then re-paired and descended back to Omarama airfield. Noses down, 70, 80, 90, then 100 knots, as we dived over the golf course and tandem flew past, Duo, then Duo XL, passed the Hangar onto the downwind leg. I looked down and saw that quite a large crowd had formed outside, waving to the Duo Duo dance. Roger called downwind and we lowered the under carriage, still paired as we lined up the Omarama airfield and floated gently down to the strip. Touching down simultaneously, we rolled towards the hangar, and then, as if on cue, both left wings dropped together, saluted the hangar, and the gliders stopped. Well done Guys, Chook would have been proud. Thanks to Gavin Willis, for the Duo XL and tows.
Collision Avoidance seminar at North Shore Aero Club 8 May 2013 By Jonathon Pote, Auckland Aviation Sports Club
Every year, the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority Safety Road Show visits major centres to give an evening presentation. All licence power holders are invited, and whilst the presentation is tailored for them, glider pilots are very welcome and can learn a lot. Attendance is free, tables are covered with ‘freebies’ and a snack is provided. It is also, of course, an excellent chance to meet your power compatriots and sample their bar. Last year it covered radio procedure. The CAA safety seminar this year was on collision avoidance. Whilst a lot of the material is not relevant to gliding, much was. It was also very sobering to watch a video taken by a passenger in the cockpit of a Cessna single, out of Milford Sound in poor weather. He filmed another Cessna single slowly converge and collide with them, complete with the sound of impact. His pilot made it back to the strip, barely under control, but six in the other aircraft died. So, what were the main points? Firstly, most collisions occur in good VMC; poor visibility is not often a factor. Most also occur at choke points, so we need to be especially careful as we rejoin, and also when we all make for a promising area, especially during competitions. The West Coast is another venue for several ‘air prox’s’, even although the powered chaps theoretically have different height bands for North and South headings. Gliders, of course, cannot comply with these, adding to the problem. Experience is no barrier to colliding; several accidents involved multi-thousand hour pilots. Instructional flying often means two pilots having less lookout than a single pilot. Again, there was a sobering video of an instructor telling how she had to take control from her (CPL) student at the last moment, to avoid colliding head-on with a Tiger Moth. Still in control and berating her student, she very nearly hit the next Tiger Moth of a loose formation. Increasingly, commercial flying schools are using rural locations to reduce their costs, thus potentially coming into conflict with gliders. The ways to minimise the risk are: - Firstly, of course, keep your eyes outside the cockpit and have a good scan, which involves moving the whole upper body, not just the head. Scan the most important areas (ahead, into the turn, below the intended spin etc.) using two seconds per twenty degree
sector. Most collisions are with an aircraft within a sixty degree cone ahead of your flight path, but not all. Remember ‘constant angle, constant danger’. - Secondly, keep up your situational awareness, which involves more than just translating radio transmissions into a three dimensional picture of your surroundings. One suggested framework is ‘What was’, ‘What is’ and therefore, ‘What might be’, or ‘gather, understand, and think ahead’. - Help others to keep up their situational awareness by giving correct transmissions: Who are you addressing? Who are you? Where are you? What are your intentions? Remember that even if you do not see him, it is very helpful if he sees you! A specific gliding scenario is that of multiple gliders in a thermal. When joining, simply follow the rules. They are there for reasons born of dangerous experiences. - The first glider in sets the thermalling direction. Always circle in the same direction as the gliders already circling in the thermal, even if a local rule says they are circling in the wrong direction. - Try to join on the opposite side of the thermal to the glider you will be closest to. This is especially important if you are joining at the same height as another glider. - Follow the glider in front. Under no circumstances turn inside the circle of the gliders in the thermal you have joined, even if you think they are not circling tightly enough. - Use your radio. It is good airmanship to let another glider know you are about to join their thermal. Even if you don’t know their identity, make a general call announcing your registration and the fact that you are about to join a thermal with another glider in it, giving your height and location. Finally (and this includes colliding with the ground) never give up. Unless, of course, you can use a parachute, continue to try to control your glider, however serious things seem. Many aircraft very badly damaged in a collision have made ‘semi-controlled arrivals’ with minimal injury.
June 2013
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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
Norfolk 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
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
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
Canterbury Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingcanterbury.co.nz Club Contact Kevin Bethwaite kevin.bethwaite@airways.co.nz Ph (03) 318 4758 Base Swamp Road, Springfield Flying Weekends, Public Holidays
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
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
Piako Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingmatamata.co.nz Club Contact Steve Care s.care@xtra.co.nz Ph (07) 843 7654 or 027 349 1180 Base Matamata Airfield, Ph (07) 888 5972 Flying Weekends, Wednesdays and Public Holidays
Glide Omarama.com Website www.GlideOmarama.com Contact Gavin Wills gtmwills@xtra.co.nz Base Omarama Airfield Flying October through April 7 days per week Gliding Hutt Valley (Upper Valley Gliding Club) Club Contact Wayne Fisk wayne_fisk@xtra.co.nz Ph (04) 567-3069 Base Kaitoke Airfield, (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 Airfield, 5 km east of Greytown Ph (06) 308 8452 or 025 445 701 Flying Weekends, or by arrangement
Rotorua Gliding Club Club Website http://www.rotoruaglidingclub.blogspot.co.nz/ Club Contact Mike Foley roseandmikefoley@clear.net.nz Ph (07) 347 2927 Base Rotorua Airport Flying Sundays South Canterbury Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingsouthcanterbury.co.nz Club Contact John Eggers johneggers@xtra.co.nz 33 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
Hauraki Aero Club Club Website www.flyhac.co.nz Club Contact Ron Bergersen d.rbergersen@xtra.co.nz Ph (027) 277 4238 Base Thames Airfield 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
Hawkes Bay and Waipukurau Gliding Club Club Website wwww.glidinghbw.co.nz Club Contact David Davidson, 027 2887 522, info@glidinghbw. co.nz Base Bridge Pa Airfield, Hastings and Waipukurau Airfield December & January Flying Sundays and other days by arrangement
Tauranga Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingtauranga.co.nz Club President Alan Belworthy a.belworthy@xtra.co.nz Ph 0274 960 748 Base Tauranga Airport Flying Weekends and Public Holidays, Wednesday afternoons and other times on request
Kaikohe Gliding Club Club Contact Peter Fiske, (09) 407 8454 Email Keith Falla keith@falla.co.nz Base Kaikohe Airfield, Mangakahia Road, Kaikohe Flying Sundays, Thursdays and Public Holidays
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
Marlborough Gliding Club Club Website http://glide_marl.tripod.com Club Contact bmog@paradise.net.nz Base Omaka Airfield, 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 Airfield, St.Arnaud Ph (03) 521 1870 Flying Weekends and Public Holidays
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 Guidelines for the compilation and contents of club news articles are now available on the new SoaringNZ website. Visit www. mccawmedia.co.nz for all you need to know. 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 the editor 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 31 October 2013. Auckland Aviation Sports Club Responding to an invitation from the North Shore Aero Club, we deployed to North Shore one Sunday in March to offer glider trial flights to NSAC members. This proved to be very successful, with a long queue of folk wanting to see what it was all about. It was also a chance to fly our singles a bit further north than is usual for us. Alas, we supplied one too many show items when we broke the towplane nose gear with a spot of PIO, as it went over the cross runway. We did get to add another item to the show, derigging the gliders we had intended to aerotow home. Our towplane left the next day, courtesy of a trailer and folded wings. Notwithstanding this event, the day proved popular and we will do this again when we have a spot in our calendars and the NS airfield grass is dry enough. We were fortunate to be able to arrange the lease of DSM, a Cessna 172, while we waited for the parts to fix RDW. One day Steve Foreman set a task for the day. Many had a go, some did it twice, after going around the wrong way the first time. Some gave it away and landed out on the airfield. A very enjoyable day, with much laughter and bragging. Tony Prentice and Genny Healey both achieved their first solos and A cert. Well done to both. Faced with a weekend when the Air Force wanted the airfield, we decided to go somewhere else – Springhill, just south of Wellsford. This is a sealed private strip, around 50m shorter than our strip and with some interesting approaches. We were welcomed by the incumbent Aviation club. RDW was back and we aero towed the twin and trailered the rest. This proved an interesting weekend, with the decidedly different topography quickly showing up those who did not properly use their touchdown point as the anchor of their circuit. Lessons were learnt and performances improved. A great weekend, thoroughly enjoyed by the significant majority of the club that made the trip.
nd
Auckland Aviation Sports Club: ASC at Springhill, MW and Tug ready to launch.
ASC members Gray Patten and Richard Pitt at Springhill.
ASC at North Shore airfield, briefing.
RDW and MW airborne at North Shore.
In between, we have flown our youth and groups of ATC Cadets, including a full weekend camp for one Squadron. Autumn seems to have kicked in, with rain, stable no-lift air....summer come back. GL Auckland With the season now finished, we still seem to be enjoying a reasonable number of good training days and even some local soaring opportunities. The club, therefore, is still managing to operate on the normal Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday club days. Although we can operate on other days, those available have chosen to take a break and either catch up on some maintenance, or just keep in good with the family at home until next season. The club house fire has even been lit a few times and has given birth to some great ideas for next season and beyond. We will bang them into shape and hopefully have some news for the next instalment. We were happy to have such a great representative bunch of pilots at the Youth Glide camp at Matamata and we applaud the organisers for
getting this important faction of gliding into an organised movement in the North Island. There is not a lot new to report since the last issue. We have had a good summer, which has lasted well into autumn. We are keeping our heads above water and there are lots of enthusiastic individuals determined to keep the momentum going. There are also a few very hard workers who work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep our buildings, grounds and equipment in good shape. I am loathe to name them, because I will inevitably offend those who I miss out. However, a few are worth mentioning: Maurice Honey, who can be seen on our tractor, or just mowing around the clubhouse, and always giving something back without expectation. Seamus Breen, who spent ages replacing the guttering down the side of our hangar. Colin Bell, for his efforts to ensure our tow plane is in pristine condition. Rae Kerr, who is somehow fitting in painting the clubhouse with making a living. Marion Moody, who organises the introductory flights, and most of our evening meals at functions. There are lots of others, who really need more credit. Without them, we cannot function. It is a continuing conundrum as to how
MP Circling in a small thermal up near Silverdale.
we can share the various duties between the shrinking numbers of enthusiast pilots, and yet still make the sport attractive and accessible in a world that is very demanding on personal time. It’s a work in progress – roll on springtime. RG CANTERBURY Members have been very busy over the last few months with numerous good soaring flights, plus hosting a gathering of young people and running an ab-initio course. Recently instructor Paul Barrett took Tony Bush up in our Janus for a lesson on wave flying. After a nice flight which included a tiki tour around local mountain ranges they returned and Tony went off on his own and shortly afterwards he was sitting at 9500ft above the field. Great stuff. More and more members are finding how quickly they can get into the good lift flying from this site. The ab-initio course enjoyed several days with good soaring and ground conditions although the first and last days were rained out. All the pupils had soaring flights and at least one made his first
Auckland: L: Maurie & Muriel Honey even sing for us. M: Rae Kerr painting our clubhouse roof. R: Margaret, Marion, Jocelyn & Sally – tireless kitchen team at work.
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club news
Thanks to Peter Jonson for bringing ETL, Balclutha’s 172, and towing us all into the air; and Bill, who accompanied Peter and ran wings. We must thank the Fiordland Aero Club, for the use of their clubrooms and superb airfield. We welcome new member Jack Pivac – if one can call someone who’s spent hours flying on computers ‘a natural’ – Jack’s apparently one of those. Vivienne
Central Otago Flying Club: Towing towards the Takitimus.
glider solo. Thanks go to all the instructors and tow-pilots plus other helpers ensuring a successful course. During the school holidays Mike Oakley ran his annual flying weekend for a large group of Aviation Scouts. They were given lectures on aviation stuff, had a winch launch, a flight in a Mt. Hutt helicopter and a hot-air balloon flight with Canterbury Ballooning. They camped on site for the weekend and again many instructors , tow-pilots and others made this a successful weekend. Lastly a very busy working bee was held and a huge amount of improvements were made to various sheds and the property, cleaning out the large hangar and many other tasks. These working days are great for getting the members involved and generally keeping in touch with each other. The next big job will be shifting the club
Marlborough: New site for winter southerleys.
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June 2013
rooms from Hororata which will have to be done within the next month or so. Stewart. Central Otago Flying Club (Inc) In March, we flew four weekends out of five – the usual four privately owned gliders (KJ, KG, LP & VB), along with our trusty two-seater, JW, getting into the action. Thanks to Allen Hogan’s land-out in February in JW (making the idea of trailering JW seem possible again), and the hours Pete McKenzie spent fixing the trailer up, JW was taken to Manapouri for Easter, where it flew all four days. With us, were Nigel and Sheena, with Duo NS and LS8 ZA. Hadleigh Bognuda was down from Auckland and had flights in ZA and NS. Terry and Karen flew the LS8 TK, and Frank Saxton from Nelson was down with his Discus TH.
Gliding Hawkes Bay and Waipukurau The last two months have been relatively quiet on the flying front, with the occasional brilliant thermal day and some good convergences. Wave has been rare at the time of writing and mostly seen on weekdays, with a number of members taking advantage of it to fly on ANZAC Day afternoon. One of the founding members and early presidents of the club, Gerry van Asch (father of the current Club President Gerrit), passed away recently. Brian Kelly organised a fly past for the funeral service, utilising the club’s towplane, Graham White’s LS8, the club’s Grob 103SL motor glider and Brian’s shared ASH25M. This was appreciated by the family. The club website at www.glidinghbw.co.nz is now up and running. Further development of this site is planned as time progresses. Club Captain, Grant Jarden is organising a spot landing competition and club BBQ, scheduled for May. The club is also applying for funds to try to run a youth scholarship, to help bolster our flying ranks and maintain good flying levels during the winter months.
Marlborough: Chris Walbran first solo.
club news
Marlborough As outlined in the last issue of SoaringNZ, the Classic Fighters Airshow here in Marlborough drew big crowds over the Easter weekend. This is always good publicity for Marlborough, as well as the aviation/gliding community in the region. We received a lot of positive feedback from Doug Hamilton’s display with Jamie Halstead’s ASH. A big thanks to Carl Jackson and Jamie, for their behind-the-scenes efforts, getting the gliding display off the ground. Congratulations to Chris Walbran on completing his First Solo. Yet another keen member taking that first major step forward towards a rewarding and challenging pastime! The late summer north easterlies have provided us with difficult, but still flyable, conditions. We move now into the early winter months, with the southerly winds from the coast soon to be more dominant. This may have traditionally proven challenging, with our current equipment at our home of Omaka, but an alternative site for flying in the winter southerlies has been established. Taking the opportunity on a recent wet Sunday, a number of Club members, including our CFI, took a field trip to inspect a new private airstrip that has been built close to the coast, with a north – south facing runway. The outcome was positive, with the ability to aero tow (and possibly winch) from the site. The intention is to utilise this field when the southerlies prevail during the winter months, giving us access to the foothills at Rarangi and beyond. Moving with the times, we have followed a number of other clubs around the country and set up a Marlborough Gliding Club Facebook page. I
encourage any members out there who use Facebook to ‘like’ our club’s page and would also like to extend the invitation to any other clubs or members of the gliding community. I will be updating the page on a regular basis, with photos and current news. Des Mulhern Nelson Lakes Late summer was one that we’ll measure others by for some time. “Remember ole 2013,” we’ll cry from the club porch, “now, that was a summer!” The good flying has continued right through March. Frank had a trip down to Manapouri, as well as getting some wave flights locally. Mike has been flying TJ around the haunts. Adrian has been up at Taupo, Nick down at Omarama, to train up in Discus, as he now has one in the driveway. Marc got his Skylark BX over Angelus one day. Mike had a go in BX and was as happy as a lark. Jerry has been covering the country in RC. The club gliders have been steady and the LS4 CX has had some good flying. Ken was in it, chasing a gaggle over the Victoria ranges. UP and JK were getting in some good flying as well. The club’s Twins have been flying, with most of the regular flying crowd being up there using them. Adjustments to the winch throttle by Brent and Mike have helped to improve our launching. Mike has been busy doing a major repair job on our Club Astir, GNH. We have changed our trial vouchers now, and seen that side quieten down for us. We now only offer an instructional three flight package, so we’ll see how it goes. Then, with a cough cough splatter, April (not April Rumsey) arrived and with it the rain. We are now changing gears into winter
flying. Jon Burnett has recently left the club. He will be sorely missed. Thanks Jon for all your help, instruction and ability to fix things. Cheers. Captain Rusty Piako Summer seems to have gone by in a flash. There were very few days where we could not fly, so you would have to say it’s been a pretty fine season, given the lousy January we had. We had a number of achievements for club pilots this year and, because I missed the last issue, I do want to acknowledge them:
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Ian Finlayson completed the 300k Dave McPherson One Diamond Trophy task on the 27th of January, at an average handicapped speed of 87.58 km/h.
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Pieter Bronkhorst - first solo on Waitangi Day.
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Tim Bromhead - completed the Dave McPherson 300k Flight on the 23rd of March, at handicapped speed of 68.47 km/h
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Mark Shrimpton completed his QGP
Mark Shrimpton and Paul Castle have converted to GXP With 9 students at various stages, our instructors have plenty to work with on a typical club day. The most notable event has been the Youth Glide camp, which will be well reported elsewhere in this issue, but let me say this – if you are wondering what sort of shape our sport is going to be in the future, then fear not, there is a fine group of young leaders emerging, and it was a pleasure to be working with them.
First time flying a skylark since 1978!
Nelson Lakes: The wave was from some 12,000 feet over the Wairau, on 29 April in my glider TH. (story of the flight on the club’s blog)
Farewell drinks to Jon Burnett, who has resigned from the club due to young-family pressures.
June 2013
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club news
Taranaki: L: Steve Barham seeks thermals, 12 May 2013. R: Weekend of 18-19 May – No flying today! Photos by Glyn Jackson
A wonderful feature was the revival of the post-solo dunking that seemed to have died out at Matamata (possibly due to the lack of youthful exuberance of our newbies.) We were shown how it was done when Hamish Crequer and Oliver Roberts both soloed on Sunday 28th! A great job guys. And how about Abbey Delore and Enya McPherson having a crack at a women’s 100K record! In their own way, each and every one of the participants achieved a personal milestone and advanced their gliding careers, in a supportive environment packed with talented instructors and experts. One gets the impression that this is what the Soaring Centre is about; not just contests, but a facility to nurture and progress pilots of all levels. For that we have to thank the visionary thinking of those who made it possible years ago. It is with regret I advise I did my best to spoil the party on that last Sunday, with a forgettable out-landing at Te Aroha that went pear-shaped, and resulted in a damaged club glider (XP). Having spent a week with the youth team sitting in on lectures and briefings, you might have thought I was in good shape to tackle a paddock, but I was found wanting when it mattered. My reconciliation will be to ensure it translates to a learning experience for those who wish to understand how things can go wrong and what can be done to avoid a similar situation occurring for them. Our AGM is on the day before this news page is due at Madam Editor’s desk, and there will be changes in our management team. I know both Tim Bromhead and I are standing down, due to work commitments, but I am sure we will continue doing all we can to keep the club we are passionate about moving on and up. I wish all readers and members of our gliding community all the very best and thank you for your interest in what Piako has been up to. It has been a pleasure reading of your doings and bringing ours to you. PC
TARANAKI The club has been quite active over the summer, with the dry weather improving the thermal prospects. Pilots have taken good advantage of it, by treating themselves to extended local flights. Tim Hardwick-Smith and Peter Cook are well to the fore in this, with Glyn Jackson and Clinton Steele not far behind. Glyn seeks to improve his chances by importing a Ventus 2, which should be safely past Somalia by now. Steve Barham has rigged his Nimbus, ready for the fray. Clinton Steele, who has hangared his glider with us, and Kevin Koch are flying at Stratford, prompted by a current Wilga shortage where they normally fly. We had a busy and pleasant weekend in late March, flying members of the Stratford and NP ATC squadrons. Compliments to our energetic Club Captain, Glyn Jackson, for the increased flying activity that we (and the treasurer) are enjoying. I’m happy to report that our website does generate an increasing number of inquiries these days. A good way to get the message out there. Glyn managed an intriguing photo for the last SNZ issue. A big welcome to new members Dennis Green, Kevin Koch, Sam Tullett and Rodrigo De Ateaga, who have joined and are pushing ahead with their flying. Kevin though, flies his own glider out of Norfolk. It is a good thing then that Glyn Jackson and Will Hopkirk have joined the instructor ranks. PJM TAUPO Things have slowed down a bit here in Taupo, after great summer weather. We are still enjoying good flights but, with the nights getting cooler and a lack of heat in the ground, those long cross country flights of the summer are now but memories. The biggest event at the club since our last letter was the Oxfam charity walk, where 1200 walkers, plus their support teams, visited the club for a ‘Mad Hatters Tea Party’. A great night was had by all well those that didn’t have sore feet!
David Bailey has returned to the UK, after lending a hand and doing some sightseeing around both islands. We hope to see him again next year. Next on our agenda is the club members’ dinner and prize giving evening, followed by the AGM. Going by past events, it will be a good weekend. As winter is with us, roll on the next soaring season and with luck it will be as good as the last. As we go to print, we all look forward to wishing our club manager Tom Anderson a very happy 80th birthday! Trace Whangarei Northland soaring this summer, from January until mid-April, was characterised by slow moving high pressure areas, with little wind, very little humidity and a very desiccated landscape, eventuating in an increase of flying hours for most members. Thermals, convergences and sea breeze fronts were prolific, with some wave early in January. At times, our small band of instructors and winch drivers were becoming quite fatigued by our student pilots, who have been a delight with their unbounded enthusiasm for gliding. Three students went solo post-Christmas and Tim Gordon attended the Youth Glide camp at Matamata Club recently. We are delighted by the return of Bernie Massey. He frightened the club Libelle by showing its underside to Dargaville recently, and we have a new member, Lee Middleton, with his lovely K6cr flying Northland skies. The new student pilots were soon able to sign off on a retrieve. With the club purchase of the Janus cm VQ after two years of fund raising, and despite the club secretary feeling quite ill over depletion of bank accounts, the club is very much looking forward to now having the legs to reach those soarable fruit just hanging slightly out of reach from our winch. Also allowing midweek flying independent of the mob. It has also been rumoured that potential members for our club have been hanging off joining
club news
Whangarei: Photos of sea breeze fronts and convergences during this last long dry summer in Northland. They were taken with the clubroom’s new GoPro3 camera attached to my DG400 in different positions. Tim Harrison was often found flying his DG 400 in the southern sector of the same convergence, that stretched from Kaitiaia to Auckland. Paul
for lack of a quality aircraft, so we look forward to the rush. The Janus has absolutely met everyone’s expectations thus far, with handling and performance. We flew another group of exemplary ATC cadets from Kaitaia in March and expect a visit from Kaikohe ATC soon. The club heavily subsidises this flying as a service to these youngsters, in the hope of leading them into our Youth Glide and school Gateway Programme. This has been very successful for us, with some of the local High schools. Dargaville Aero club flew a rally of over a dozen
aircraft to Cape Reinga and back to us, for a dose of cholesterol disguised as our famous scones and whipped cream, and then home for a BBQ. From June, our club will vacate Puhipuhi for the winter and fly from Dargaville air field, to better utilise the West coast sand dunes and Tutumohe Plateau for wave. There may be three motor gliders based there over the windy months. We invite all gliding enthusiasts to join us in the world wide trend amongst hundreds of sister gliding clubs - using Facebook for club Communication. Join us on Whangarei Gliding Club Facebook, where you can keep up-to-date with
the special and unique soaring in the Northland region, through our beautiful photos. It is updated most days and has the majority of its followers outside of NZ. Through it, a data base of a great many world wide gliding clubs is also available. PHR
Whangarei: L: the new-to-us Janus cm VQ at top of winch launch. R: is glider NZ thermaling in a wide angle shot of the Northland landscape.
June 2013
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f o r s a l e • wa n t ed • s erv i c es • e v en ts
We take our classifieds list from the GNZ website and from ads detailed with us personally. To update your ad, please go online or advise Hadleigh Bognuda, our webmaster. Ads notified to me will appear on this page but we are unable to make changes for you on the web page. Please contact the webmaster if your item sells.
Gliders ASH 25M, ZK-GRJ • in top condition, possibly the best available. Schleicher self-launching two seat motor glider, complete with German trailer. Fully equipped, re-finished by Sailplane Services in Autocryl, in very good condition. Low hours. Annual just completed. Always hangared. Fully instrumented. Contact Brian Kelly, phone 06 876-7437, e-mail: Erinpac@xtra.co.nz Ventus b Turbo, GSP • NZ$74,000, but his arm can be twisted a little bit if you have a good story and he takes pity on you. 15 and/or 16.4 metre. You can fly it as a 15 metre ship or wack on the winglets to grow the wingspan to 16.6 metres for those not so strong days. Includes trailer, oxygen and parachute plus GPS. In good condition and competition ready with trailer. We could say its never been raced or rallied but that would be a lie as that is what it is good at...competitions.... Phone Auckland 09 478 8858 or email tony.timmermans@paradise.net.nz ASK 13 • Fresh annual inspection. King KY97A com, Borgelt B40 electric vario with rear seat repeater. New winch hook and tailplane fittings installed at last annuals. Further details, please contact Alan, 0274 960 748 or a.belworthy@xtra.co.nz Std Cirrus, GXA • Will also consider ½ share based in Matamata. Best performing Std Cirrus in NZ, re-profiled wing, all Std Cirrus 75 mods done (reshaped nose, wing roots, double-blade airbrakes). 2800 Hrs logged, gel coat in good condition, tinted canopy. Fibreglass clam-shell type trailer. M-nav computer, Terra mode-c transponder, Icom radio. Genuine 37:1 performance. $28K ono, Contact Karl on 0274 999 183 or karltht@ yahoo.co.uk ASW 20F, ZK GYR • Equipped with Cambridge 302 and IPAQ loaded with Seeyou Mobile. Parachute (2004 new) and repacked Feb 2012,radio, transponder, oxygen system, wing covers, wing extensions and winglets, recently upgraded trailer with internal winch, insured through to 31/10/12. Price $52,000, to view check out http://discuscs.blogspot. co.nz/2012/01/gyr-looking-really-clean.html Contact Paul 0274 409462
For Sale
DG 300 Elan • GOZ Full panel. Road trailer. $45,000 or near offer. Apply to Errol Shirtliff. Phone 035268724 or email shirtliff@xtra.co.nz
2 Seater Motor Glider Grob 109 Total Hours 2546 – Engine Hours 1272 Since overhaul 272 Propeller since new 615 hours Fitted with 720 Channel Radio. Transponder Asking Price $55,000 or will consider any offer if taken as is
Contact Bill 09 437 2807 Brossiter37@Gmail.Com
DG200, GNA 15M • 40:1 L/D $27,000 or near offer. Current ARA. Tidy condition just finished cut and polish. Cambridge GPS, Mode C transponder, Radio, parachute, wing covers and ground handling equipment. Oxygen system available. Good trailer with recent new galvanised sub-frame. Best value L/D and ideal XC performance suit low time pilot. Total 2400hrs Contact: Mike gdg200@gmail.com Tel: 04 904 0651 Libelle 201b, GIU • 2358 hours 1688 launches (20 August) O2, Transponder, 6 channel Tait radio, Borgelt B40 vario, Chute, Trailer. Good original finish. Annuals currently underway. $20K. Phone Paul 021 331 838 Cobra 15, ZK-GJE • In good condition with a refurbished trailer. Easy to fly and fully aerobatic with a 38:1 glide ratio, comparable with a Libelle or Standard Cirrus. Includes tow out gear, Borgelt B40 vario and a parachute. Price now dropped to $9,995! Contact Russell Jones on 09 575 9788 or email:prismconsult@gmail.com ASH 25, ZK-GXZ • Placed 1st and 2nd in Open Class at last two Omarama New Zealand nationals (with a little bit of help from the pilot) 1,700 hours. Serial no: 25016, the lightest Ash to come out of the factory. Instruments: Glide computer Ilec SM10B, Becker radio, O2 EDS, 25.6 winglets, transponder, 4 water ballast bags, 1 parachute. Trailer: Aluminium Top Cobra Tandem wheel, tows extremely well. Cobra lifting tail dolly. NZ$150,000. Hangar space also available in Omarama to fit the ASH (35m) - right next to the airstrip. Contact: Garry Wakefield, phone +64 3 357 8995, or email garry@investment.co.nz TeST 10-M • Self launch microlight glider 15 mtr single seat self-launch glider. Rotax 447 UL retractable 40 hp engine. Brauniger ALPHA MFD digital instrument panel for flight & engine management. XCOM VHF 760 Transceiver. Becker ATC 4401-1 Transponder with mode A plus C. Glider is finished in epoxy paint and has tinted canopy, winglets and HI high performance air-brakes and ground-handling equipment inclusive canopy and wing-covers. Asking price: $67,500 emailgeraldv14 squiggle gmail.com LS4a,GKP • $55,000. Imported by and maintained by Sailplane Services. Only 1069 hrs since new. Really nice condition with very good Komet trailer and tow out gear. Strong parachute, Colibri secure logger, Mode C transponder, Borgelt B500 vario and B2500 Glide Computer. Located at Whenuapai. Contact Peter ph 02102251470, 094737979 or email petercove@ihug.co.nz ASW 20CL, ZK-GRA • 1984 Serial Number: 20772. 15M & Optional 16.6M Tip Extensions, Tinted Canopy with Tilt-up Panel, Disc br ake & Tailwheel, Blow Turbulators, Factory Ballast Bags, Transponder & O2 System, Cambridge 302 DDV & 303 Nav, Full ‘Tow-out’ Gear, Annuals due Nov 2013, (also have ASW 20 Winglets for this glider available, price negotiable) 1600 Hours, asking $59,000. Trailer locally built, Clam-type (composite top) in tidy overall condition. email: richard.downer@xtra.co.nz ph 06 3645767 Ka6-CR L/D max • 31:1 at 80 kph /43 kt. GLR annuals and new paper work completed on 20/12/2012. Basic instruments and excellent road trailer. $6,850 or near offer. Call Simon Lillico Phone 04 4797 123 or email slillico@gmail.com ASW15, ZK-GGO • S/N 15069. Microair radio and transponder. Cambridge 302 DDV and 303 nav screen. $15,000 ono. ph 0274972723, g_gaddes@ xtra.co.nz. Speed Astir 2B, ZK-GUB • Flapped 15m; 40:1; approx 2000hrs; oxygen (A8A); Microair radio; transponder; 2 varios; good trailer; gelcoat in good condition; slim-pack parachute; excellent first glider and competitive clubclass machine; hangared Omarama; reluctantly selling after 20yrs; reasonable offers; email Paul Barrett paullinda@xtra.co.nz phone 03 3181331 (evenings)
GNz members are eligible for one free non-commercial classified advertisement per issue. Deadline for receipt of advertising for our April issue is 22 July 2013.
Grob Twin Astir, ZK-GKX • With retractable gear - the less wealthy man’s Duo. A bit dated, but has been well set-up with O2 and transponder. New tyres on the trailer. Ready for inspection in the CGC Springfield hangar. 3085 hours from 3011 flights. 1 x chute. Best offer over $29,000 - finance available. Contact John on 021 2234 911. Sagitta, ZK-GDO • All wood & rags, built for performance not for comfort! Keeps up with anything wood, plus PW’s and Astirs on a good day. For the vintage enthusiast - $5,000 with current rego and annuals. Come on then, you know you want one, and I need to finance a Duo share ;-) Email robert@smits.co.nz ASH 25m, ZK-GYJ • $210,000 ONO. Extension wing tips, 26m Cobra alloy trailer, self-rigging gear and all tow out equipment inc 2 wing wheels. All weather wing and tail covers, engine time 54hrs airframe 1350 hrs 15 ltr. wing fuel tank. Two parachutes, MH duel oxy system, standard instruments plus SN10 computer/vario 2 15amph batteries + 2 engine batteries. Leather upholstery, tinted canopies, always hangared at Omarama. Contact david. mairi@xtra.co.nz 034098380 Foka 4 Glider 15m • Polish built 1967. LD 34-1 VNE-141kts. 16/3/13 passed annual airworthy and review. 10yr Wt. & Bal 24mths avionics, bore-scope inspection-2012 Total Hrs 1826. Based at Taupo Club $12,000 includes free hanger space until 2021. Separate sale of glider if required Ph Colin Deeker @ 07 378 4862 or codeek@xtra.co.nz Owner now past useby date! DG808C. ZK-GWD • 18m self-launching single seater. 500hrs airframe and 25 hrs engine time. Zander ZS1 and GP941 computer linked to electronic vario and compass. Winter mechanical vario. Flarm and Spidertracs. MH oxygen system.Becker radio and Filser S mode transponder. AHI. Jaxcida covers. Cobra trailer with all tow-out gear and self-rigging set. Priced for quick sale $190,000. Contact George Deans 03-3180833 or georgedeans@xtra.co.nz
Hangar Two adjacent 18m hangar spaces in the Omarama Hangar • $ 30,000 each or near offer. Contact Mike Hamilton Phone: 03 962 1530 email: mike. hamilton@hamjet.co.nz. Hangar space, 15m, east hangar at Omarama • Asking $2000/m or reasonable offer. Contact Linda vindaloulou@gmail.com, 03 348 7009 or 021 071 8402. Hangar Space 15 m at Omarama • We need the cash for new toys so here’s the deal, $1500 per metre. First in gets a bargain. Call Paul on 021 162 2396 or Nigel on 027 274 1624 or email pchisnall@xtra.co.nz Hangar spaces for sale in Omarama • 20m and or 15m next to the runway. $1,800pm ONO. Both in the most eastern hangar. Contact: Garry Wakefield, phone +64 3 357 8995, or email garry@investment.co.nz 20 Metre space in latest and greatest private lock-up hangar on Omarama Airfield • Secure (complete lock-up), convenient (nearest space to Kahu Cafe). Water. power, painted floor. Great neighbours. Absolutely one of the best slots at Omarama. Contact: david.p.laing@gmail.com, 0274 340 074 Hangar Space • right to occupy, for sale. A space in the Canterbury Gliding Club’s new Springfield hangar. This state of the art hangar is in a prime position on the field, giving easy access to the main vector. Springfield has been developed as the long term home of the CGC and provides access to some of the best soaring in NZ and is active all year round. The purchaser will need to maintain membership of the club, one of the strongest and most progressive in NZ. Contact John 021 2234 911.
INSTRUCTORS COURSE Matamata Airfield 11th, 12th and 13th October 2013 (Friday to Sunday) email s.care@xtra.co.nz further details will be on GNZ website www.gliding.co.nz
Other For Sale Second hand Accusat MT410 406/121.5 Mhz Personal locator beacon • (Non GPS type) Battery due replacement July 2014. $350 o.n.o. Contact Lionel Page, Aviation Sports Club, 021 333031 Free • HP iPaq HX4700 with faulty charge socket. Has USB cradle and battery that lasts for approx 1 hour. Has been used previously with XC Soar software. Free to a good home, ideally someone else with an iPaq that needs parts (e.g. battery, screen, cradle, memory card etc), so they can make a working one. The stylus is missing, but the hx4700 is ‘meat stylus’ compatible. Interested parties should e-mail pete@fiberphone.co.nz. The editor of the Canadian soaring journal has available some old issues of S&G magazine • The issues are: 1948 Jan to Jun, Sept to Dec1949 Feb, 1950 Jan, Feb, Apr to Aug, Oct 1951 Jan to Sep, Dec, 1952 Feb to May, Jul to Oct, 1955 Jan/Feb, May/ June, if interested, e-mail Tony Burton at <t-burton@telus.net>. Omarama chalet • Partially built. Make an offer. David Craill raymar@ vodafone.co.nz Volkslogger 1.0 SN 1A4 Hardware: 3.4. Plus power cord • $650. or near offer. Contact Brian Mogford Ph (03) 5729902 evenings. Or E-Mail: bmog@clear.net.nz for further details. Metric Winter ASI and Altimeter • Both in excellent condition. ASI=$300. Altimeter=$600. Both=$800. Contact Matt Findlay sgt_findlay@hotmail. com BECKER TRANSCEIVERS AND TRANSPONDERS • ICOM HANDHELDS We guarantee to be the cheapest source in New Zealand - JOHN ROAKE LTD, avionics@johnroake.com.
For Sale
omarama chalet
Get a syndicate together – make it more affordable – enjoy a rental income when you are not using it. Under construction now – Act fast to choose your layout
Available as completed shell to allow buyer to finish or completely finished to buyer specs. No more sites available
phone 0274 774 885 June 2013
51
QUINTUS BETTER BY
design
Sailplane Services Congratulate the winners of the NZ Nationals: Grae Harrison, Champion in Open and 18m Class in his Ventus 2xT, Geroge Wills, Champion Std Class in Discus 2c and Vaughn Ruddick, Champion Std Class in the LS6.
Please contact us for servicing onsite at our Omarama workshop.
Sailplane Services Ltd email sailplaneservices@xtra.co.nz phone 09 294 7324