Gliding New Zealand Club News

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

Auckland Aviation Sports Club

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

Auckland Gliding Club

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

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

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

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 Hawkes Bay and Waipukurau

Club Website www.glidinghbw.co.nz Club Contact E-mail: info@glidinghbw.co.nz, Ph 027 2877 522 Base Hastings Airfield (Bridge Pa) and Waipukurau Airfield (December & February) Flying Sundays and other days by arrangement

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

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

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

Masterton Soaring Club

Club Website www.nzsoaring.solutions Club Contact Michael O’Donnell modp@inspire.net.nz Ph (06) 370 4282 or 021 279 4415 Base Hood Aerodrome, Masterton Flying 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

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

Omarama Gliding Club

Club Website http://www.omarama.com Club Contact Bruce Graham bruceandstell@xtra.co.nz Ph (03) 358 3251 Base Omarama Flying 7 days a week 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

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

Taupo Gliding Club

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

Tauranga Gliding Club

Club Website www.glidingtauranga.co.nz Club President Adrian Cable adrian.cable@xtra.co.nz Base Tauranga Airport Flying Weekends and Public Holidays, Wednesday afternoons and other times on request

Wellington Gliding Club

Club Website http://www.soar.co.nz Club President Brian Sharpe bwsharpe@xtra.co.nz Ph 027 248 1780 Base Greytown Soaring Centre, Papawai Airfield, 5 km east of Greytown Bookings Ph 027 618 9845 (operations) Flying Weekends and Public Holidays 7 days a week December through to March

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 22 April 2017.

AUCKLAND AVIATION SPORTS CLUB

Summer holiday season huh? Windy? Check. Rain? Check. Grey overcast, no lift? Check. Sun and a soaring day? A couple but mostly when we are back at work. Not the greatest summer we ever saw. In between the bad days there were some good ones. One blue day, that predictions suggested had little lift, turned out to be booming. So much so that Jonathan Pote achieved his height gain in his K6. Well done old chap.

A number of our juniors and student pilots have soloed and will soon to be reaching for the canopy latch on our PW5 and Astir as some of our QGP club members look on with dismay at the competition. Some of our members have headed away for Regionals, Nationals and for training courses to equip them to be mentors. Steve Wallace has once again represented NZ at the Worlds in Australia coming a creditable 17th in a class packed field.

Roll on summer with the hope of a much better Feb through March than we have had so far. Graham

AUCKLAND

We have had a busy few months at our club. Our Duo Discus was returned from Omarama, in good order, along with our Norwegian Summer Instructor Arnulf. The trip to Omarama for eight weeks was hugely successful and DX was booked for use every day. It enabled club members to utilise our great glider in one of the best places in the world. Accompanying Arnulf was another visitor, Miklas, who is a student pilot from Germany. Miklas has been a great asset as well, and along with Arnulf has enabled us to provide mid-week flying for students and experienced members. Our Christmas Camp at Matamata was attended by several members who enjoyed the holiday period using the Matamata Soaring Centre facility of which we are members. Back home we had a

few days of soaring as we also kept the home fires burning for those who preferred to stay near Drury.

We held an important meeting in November in the form a club ‘Hui’, where members were encouraged to discuss problems and initiatives in a receptive environment. This worked well and has initiated some changes, many of which will take time, but will be acted upon.

Our annual Drury Competition – Audi Soaring Competition 2017 – was well attended and we had over 20 entries with all except one being AGC members. This competition loosely utilised the ‘Enterprise’ concept to emphasise cross country flying and fun. To make it even more fun and add spice, some very good sponsorship was offered by some great companies. Audi NZ offered the main prize – The top of the range Audi Q7 Luxury SUV. This beautiful vehicle will be available to be used by the winner for a couple of weeks of luxury motoring. Day prizes from Pilot Breweries (craft beer from Hamilton) and Cookie Time were also well appreciated. Thanks to Simon Gault for helping us gain this fantastic support. Simon’s company, Sous Chef, also provided a fine quality meal for our final evening which was absolutely superb and enjoyed by over 60 members, partners and friends. Over 18,000 OLC km were flown over the six competition days. This event will be built on and if all goes to plan, will be something for all soaring pilots to look out for in 2018.

While we could always do with more trainees, we are busy with several members, both young and older, who are moving through the training system assisted by the seven day operation. However, we are not standing still and there is a lot of work to be done in order to improve our operation at many levels. We all know that our club can do better and there are initiatives underway that will change and ultimately steer our club towards a very successful future.

The best of the 2016/17 season is yet to come – visitors are always welcome. RG

CANTERBURY

In December, Grob 103 OR , the Libelle, and tug DYT moved south along with resident instructor Paul Marriott for several weeks to serve the Youth Soaring Development Camp and the National Championships in Omarama. The youth development camp was enthusiastically endorsed by participants, several of whom are the second generation in gliding families and building great social bonds as well as flying enthusiam.

Many of the usual suspects enjoyed race,

Canterbury:

recreational, and record breaking gliding at Omarama, with Edwin Oude Vrielink making both distance and 5 hour duration achievements in one flight, Peter Taylor and Sandy Yong touring the Mt Cook area, Terry Delore making a new and very fast 300km triangle record (to be confirmed), and very chilled Paul Marriott, Rick Millane, and glider returning from an unexpected and reasonably lengthy wave soaring flight overhead at the end of one overcast day.

Back at Springfield winch operators and pilots were trained in the arts at both ends of the wire for most of December and, as it turns out, February, due to a faulty fuel pump in the tug. Some good flights from the winch were had with John McCaw actively working scrappy thermals from straight off the wire to make a good escape, Derek Kraak and guest passenger in Janus PB playing ridge

lift for an hour to eventually climb into wave and explore the Craigieburn basin, and new pilot Tim Hughes finding ridge, convergence, thermal and then wave to make 9500 feet overhead the field. An outstanding day developed mid January giving Wal Bethwaite in CC, Kev Bethwaite and Greg Tucker in PB great soaring: thermal to 7500 then wave to FL180 landing at 7:30pm.

In the last week in February, Kev towed glider PB up to Lakes Station where he, Greg Tucker and Tim Hughes enjoyed the top of the south gliding and socialising with the Nelson club’s gliding week. Finishing February off, Paul Marriott hosted a “pom’s party” spit roast at the club field as a farewell at the end of his summer sojourn with the club. Thanks for your work and wit Paul – and all the best for your next adventure.

Central Otago: Cruising past Mt Aspiring after an early season winch day out of Alexandra

CENTRAL OTAGO

We’ve had very poor soaring weather over November, December and early January. Sure there’s been excellent westerly wave (almost continuously in fact) but we like variety and thermals would be nice for a change. Early spring did see some better soaring such as winching into thermals over Alexandra Airport then flying to Mount Aspiring and other Main Divide locations. We also had a few okay thermal days exploring our eastern playground of the Hawkdun and the Rock and Pillar Ranges. John (KG) did end up needing a trailer sent to Middlemarch on one of those occasions.

Nick and Wills have the club Twin Astir to themselves and both are able to soar away happily on their own when the conditions suit. They both gained a lot from their experience at the Youth Soaring Development Camp this year and have even flown in the YG Single Astir.

Summer returned on January 20th which was a real ‘drop tools’ day. Even being a Friday we mustered four singles for what must have been the best thermal day of the year to date. We all flew 4 - 5 hours, reaching the Southern Alps. We all made it back just as the high cloud from the next system blotted out the sun. JR

GLIDING HAWKES BAY AND WAIPUKURAU

Local soaring weather has been less than spectacular in recent times but some good thermals, convergences and wave have occurred occasionally. Overall, when flyable, conditions have been suitable for trial flights, training and some small cross-country flights.

The first weekend in December was fine, calm, sunny and mild for the local ATC squadron annual gliding day. This saw the club complete 28 flights on the Saturday in conditions that were ideal for introductory lessons. Some convection of up to 6 knots was reported which gave cadets a brief introduction to soaring.

The period leading up to Christmas saw a large volume of trial flight vouchers purchased and hopefully some of these can be converted into members.

Students Allie Thompson and Nicholas Kelly, along with instructors Graham White and Jason Kelly, attended the Omarama Youth Soaring Development Camp. The club’s Grob 103C Twin III SL made the epic road journey with Paul Thompson while Jason Kelly took an LS4 and Graham White his Libelle. These aircraft were all utilised with Graham taking a number of people around Mount Cook in wave while Jason Kelly managed the same trip in the LS4 and a diamond height gain attempt. Allie was let loose in the Libelle and claimed her 5 hour duration and Silver and Gold height gains in the same flight. Nicholas Kelly completed virtually all his A Certificate syllabus and ended the camp very close to his first solo flight.

Jason Price has been undergoing instructor training and will soon be joining the roster to increase the pool of available instructor members.

The Skylux auto tug project continues to progress with the weather causing delays and frustrations. One tow pilot is now rated to fly it with another set to convert. Once the weather and the stars align, towing trials will

Kaikohe: Looking south from the winch

Kaikohe:

Kaikohe: HO forced down by rain

Kaikohe: Lake Omapere with Kaikohe behind

Kaikohe: Launch point on runway 17

begin in earnest. Current plans are for these to start in mid-January.

We look forward to some classic Hawkes Bay soaring weather in 2017.

KAIKOHE

The clouds and rainy days of spring seem a long time ago, now that Northland has gone into drought with day after day of blue skies and hot sun. Our club members have been making the most of it, of course. Some days have been exceptional with the combination of the southerly wind and strong sea breeze convergence helping to give long flights, but others have been difficult cloudless days with strong winds and skinny, broken thermals.

The club has been changing slowly over past few years. In 2008 there were five club gliders and no private ones. Last year that had changed to four club machines and four private. Since then, the Whangarei District Gliding Club lost the use of their airfield at Puhipuhi and they made the painful decision to wind up the club and transfer their assets to the Kaikohe Club. This added another four privately owned gliders to the fleet. We are still in the process of transferring the assets and won’t be making any decisions regarding the club gliders for a while. It will take some time to work out what is needed and what isn’t. We have agreed to wait several months before making any big financial decisions.

The new members from Whangarei have been making the most of the holiday period with some of them camping at the field, taking advantage of the best conditions whenever they occurred. There were a number of cross country flights to Doubtless Bay and beyond in January.

We have had a few introductory flights recently which we hope will result in a few new students for our instructors. Getting new young members is still the biggest problem with us, as it is with many places. In the meantime, we will be enjoying the remaining summer days. Keith

TARANAKI

Nice to report on some flying activity and nearly a whole month of it too. During December we welcomed Lily Upton-Hansen who has been awarded an ATC flying scholarship and commenced flying. A welcome also to Jesse Robinson who intends to move up from the Temporary Member list. Eleanor Gilbert has had a couple of flights already and more to come we hope. We provided a trial flight to a man who, having seen the film ‘Sully’, really wanted to have a glider flight. He enjoyed the experience. And we have a new tow pilot – Alister Berry.

Relinquishing the bridesmaid role, Dennis Green has gone solo. That might be an inglorious mix of metaphors but nonetheless, well done Dennis. It will be nice to have a bunch of trainees following on. Our most

recent ‘trainee’, ex CFI John Spence, relished his chance to fly the Janus and has had some long flights, one a three-hour, as has Dougal Wickham in the PW5.

Dougal Wickham had a great experience at the 2016 Matamata Cross-Country course and Glyn Jackson was involved in the crosscountry course down at Omarama and then entered the 2017 Nationals. Les Sharp had a flight in the Nimbus, more to come maybe?

And as an aside, the local Taranaki Daily News runs a column entitled ’Fifty Years Back’. The January 21st edition included a mention of a first solo for Murray Smith aged 16. His dad Harry Smith was the founderchairman of the Taranaki Gliding Club, its secretary, CFI and had had an interesting WWII career. No solos today though, wind, rain and strong wind. PJM

TAUPO

It is the start of another year and summer has arrived! Well, we are not quite sure about that but conditions have improved and so have the happenings around the club.

Since our last club news we have had participants at the Northern Regionals, our Christmas camp, the arrival of Sid and another Youth Glide Mini-camp.

Hugh, Trev, Brian and Trace went to the Northern Regionals in Matamata where they all had a great week of flying and socialising. It was during this week that Hugh found out that he had achieved his Gold Height from a flight out of Omarama.

Congratulations go to Ivan Booth. Ivan went solo and has achieved his ‘A’ certificate at the ripe young age of 70.

The club’s Christmas camp was held between 26 December and 08 January. It was a quiet affair compared to previous years however a good time was had by those who attended.

Sid, our UK summer resident, arrived on 2 January and will be with us until March, doing what he loves most – instructing. Denis will have departed back to Switzerland by the time this edition of SoaringNZ is released. Having both Sid and Denis out here for the summer is a tremendous support to the club during a normally busy period.

Another Youth Glide Mini-camp was held in Taupo between 16-20 January. There was only one non-flying day and that was not wasted as they took the opportunity to go to the hot pools. There were exams, a number of type conversions and our local junior, Akira, re-soloed. So, a fantastic time was had by all with every junior member achieving their set goals. At the end of the week Kirsten cooked a fantastic dinner for all of those involved during the week. The young glider pilots presented the club with a signed photograph.

We are all looking forward to more great flying as the weather conditions continue to improve, so until next time, fly well. Trace

WELLINGTON

Wellington Gliding has thrived, despite the dismal summer weather in many parts of the country. Compared to the previous year, we have doubled our launches for Dec (278) and Jan (316). A good number of these launches comes from the ten new members who have joined since the beginning of December. It is not entirely clear what we are doing, but 7-day operations, low cost launches via a winch, and friendly folk around the club, must play a big part in the increase.

One of our main priorities for 2017 is the construction of a Training Centre/Clubhouse, which we hope to start by June so that it is ready for next season. This building will include a briefing area as well as an office, committee room, kitchen and ablution block with toilets, showers and laundry facilities. The projected cost is $200,000 for the closed in shell, which will be fully insulated and include most of the internal facilities mentioned.

To date 40 of our members have each donated $1,000 each to kick-start the project and our fund raising committee (aka, Daryl Hayes) was successful in obtaining a grant of $30,000 from a Hawkes Bay Trust. We have to use the funds this year or lose them, so we have decided to get cracking.

Although we have $70,000 available, we really need more help than ever to raise the remaining $130,000. The new Training Centre will be a tremendous asset for the club and gliding community. Not only can we provide quality training in a classroom environment, but we will also have a hub and social centre for members, visitors and their families.

If you would like to donate, please email Tom Davies (Treasurer) tom.davies@clear.net. nz or Grae Harrison grae@letsgotravel.co.nz and help complete this project. WD