Air Training Corps Gliding Training Camp

AIR TRAINING CORPS (ATC) NATIONAL GLIDING COURSE APRIL 2011 MATAMATA

By John Griffin and Flight Lieutenant Craig Walecki New Zealand Cadet Forces (NZCF).

John Griffin is an instructor with the Tauranga Gliding Club. Craig Walecki is a member of the Canterbury gliding club and the NZCF Aviation Officer. Both gentlemen wrote reports on the ATC Gliding Course, which have been combined to create the following article.

The first week of the April school holidays saw 16 air cadets from around NZ descend on Matamata Soaring Centre to experience an intense week of glider training. Auckland, Piako and Tauranga clubs provided four two-seater gliders for the cadets use, along with instructors who freely gave their time to help out.

After an initial wet patch on Monday morning, flying got underway in the late afternoon and then perfect weather conditions prevailed for the rest of the week. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were full flying days. Runway 22 was used often, as this provided into wind conditions, instead of the usual 10/28 runway.

Each instructor worked with the same four Cadets all week. This year three students achieved solo and one, Cadet Dunlop from No.40 (City of Manukau) Squadron in Auckland, did three solos, completing his ‘A’ syllabus. The four instructors were Bill Mace (Piako), Norman Duke (Auckland), John Griffin and Keith McIlroy (Tauranga). Tauranga also provided two tow planes to join Piako’s Pawnee, flown by Ian “Iggy” Wood (Piako) Tauranga’s Pawnee flown by Les Porter (TGC) and Cub flown by Craig Walecki (Christchurch). Les Porter (Tauranga) also did time in the towplanes.

When an instructor had their students to solo standard, the student then flew for Course CFI and Commander Rob Owens (Piako) before going solo.

On a not-so-gliding tangent, No. 3 Sqn RNZAF visited the course for dinner and to demonstrate their night vision goggles for the cadets, as part of a routine training mission. Ex ATC cadet and National Gliding Course student - now 3 Sqn Commanding Officer, Wing Commander Shaun Clarke RNZAF gave an interesting talk to the cadets about his career progression, from their position as gliding students to his position as an RNZAF Sqn Commander. Thanks to WGCDR Clarke and his crew for their time and support of the ATC.

The Matamata Soaring Centre provides excellent facilities for these courses and while they have occurred elsewhere in some years, Matamata is likely to be the site in the future. Courses are run to military standards and are as much about discipline, team work and co-operation as flying, which is based on the GNZ ‘A’ syllabus.

These courses are very satisfying, both for the students and for the volunteer instructors, tow pilots and administrators.