Malcolm Walls

By Jill McCaw

The first day of the 2007 Nationals marked an amazing milestone for tow pilot Malcolm Walls. Walls, a familiar part of the gliding scene at Omarama, flew his sixteen thousandth glider tow. In New Zealand where towing is done predominantly voluntarily, this is an astounding number of tows.

Walls, a farmer from Twizel, first gained his tow rating in 1986 but had been flying his own Piper Cub in the mountainous region for many years. Initially a member of the Upper Waitaki Aero Club he received his PPL in 1971. His familiarity with tail draggers and knowledge of the mountains made him an ideal candidate for a tow pilot for gliding clubs visiting the area. Most of his twenty-plus year’s towing experience has been based in and around the Mackenzie basin. He has come to have a vast understanding of the area and of the sport of soaring. He became a vital part of camps and contests as soaring developed in the area.

Malcolm’s wife Roseann was also a valued member of the team. Roseann ran radios and start and finish lines at contests, co-ordinated outlandings and club activities with ease and made sure Malcolm, and quite a few of the rest of us, were fed and watered.

This article was originally printed in Pacific Wings in 2007 but due to Malcolm Walls’ recent decision not to renew his pilot’s license we felt it was worthwhile to update it and remind people what an exceptional tow pilot he has been.

I have known Malcolm Walls since I first joined the North Otago Gliding Club in 1988. His cheery face was as welcoming as his precision towing. No tow with Malcolm was ever longer than it needed to be and if there was lift to release into, you could be sure that Malcolm would have you in exactly the right position to use it.

Much of Walls’ towing, and in his mind the most enjoyable parts of it, have been club flying and Air Training Corp camps. The World Gliding Championship held in Omarama in 1995 was an exciting highlight with seventeen tow planes (with pilots of all experience levels) launching one hundred gliders daily for three weeks. Some of the retrieves were pretty interesting too.

Retrieving gliders from unfamiliar paddocks is always a challenge. Obstacles, wind direction, paddock surface and slope must all be taken into consideration. If a farmer can’t be found and briefed on wing running it may be necessary to prop the wings of the glider level on rocks, old fence posts or whatever else can be found. Shortening the tow rope to as little as thirty metres can help the combination to climb out of a short paddock with obstacles at the end, but the glider pilot has to be capable of the close formation flying required.

During the World Gliding Championships Walls flew a Cessna 182 borrowed from Drake Aviation. He spent his mornings flying visiting pilots out to look at the contest area, spotting landing areas and pointing out airstrips. The afternoons were spent towing the contest gliders, followed by what were often long retrieve flights into mountainous country. One day two-thirds of the field landed in the Ashburton Lakes area, in Walls’ words, “Real interesting terrain.” Fifteen towplanes flew out, launched the gliders back onto the ridges and hoped they would all make it back home. There were gliders and

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tow planes in all directions. It was a testament to good lookouts and the professionalism of all involved that there were no mid-air incidents.

Safety always comes first with Walls. The knowledge that his wife Roseann and the children were at home waiting for him has always tempered his judgement. He has still had a few close calls. Getting distracted while hooking up a glider once meant running a tank dry on a Dakota at 700 feet climbing out over the Omarama golf course. It took him 200 feet to react, ditch the glider and select the correct tank. It was close. An engine failure, again with a glider on tow, was fortuitously over another airstrip.

He laughs about the B Cat instructor on a BFR who thought the day was a little rough, maybe even marginal for flying, when it was the sort of conditions Walls flies in all the time. Walls acknowledges Drake Aviation, Glide Omarama and Gavin Wills for providing him with aircraft to fly, along with North Otago and South Canterbury Gliding clubs, for all of whom he has made many tow flights. Recently he has been flying for Southern Soaring.

Malcolm and his wife Roseann retired to Timaru in 2007 although he kept flying for the South Canterbury Gliding Club and was still a familiar face in the towing line up at Omarama in the summer. Hip troubles have made it hard for him to get in and out of the aircraft and he is calling it a day. Happy retirement Malcolm.

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