LIONEL AND PETER’S
EXCELLENT ADVENTURE by Peter Coveney
A Diamond Goal declared distance 300 km task from Whenuapai is not an easy task but Lionel Page, Dave Todd and myself are very keen to achieve it. We have made numerous attempts. Some rather dismally failed to cross the hills north of Orewa. There was the magnificent effort by Dave Todd in GHU last year when alone and unaided he got to Kaikohe and a lot of the way home. Lionel and I were determined to beat that. At the end of January, after looking at some marvellous weather during the week from my office window I was rueing the fact that my glide computer and transponder were unserviceable. With fine weather predicted I still thought an attempt could be on for Auckland Anniversary weekend. The Friday looked remarkable with big fat Cu’s going north so I phoned Lionel and we agreed to get an attempt set up for Saturday. Saturday dawned with talk of an inversion and initially a clear blue sky. Andy MacGregor was the tow pilot for the day. He was ready. The gliders were each filled with 60 kgs of water ballast. They were ready. The weather was not. It was very blue over Whenuapai. We waited as big Cu’s formed over Kumeu and eventually I got airborne in KP about 1 pm. We hit solid lift at Riverhead so I bunged off at 2,000 feet and climbed steadily to 3,500 feet over Kumeu. Lionel was soon at the same height and location in ON, so without further ado we both rounded our first turnpoint of Paremoremo. Then it was back to Kumeu to top up before heading off past the airfield at North Shore and up towards Orewa. The lift wasn’t as good as I had hoped and I might have decided to just have a local flight but I didn’t fancy just landing out at North Shore airfield. Luckily for me Lionel was very persuasive and I summoned my courage and thought, let’s get this thing underway. If I got to Kaipara Flats it would be an achievement of sorts. I was restricted to staying below 3,500 feet (no transponder) until past Kaipara Flats. I estimated I could get to Kaipara airfield safely. It wasn’t a problem, I was having to force myself to stay down
below 3,500 feet when passing there anyway. From this height the sealed strip at Springhill near Wellsford was very visible and a safe glide away and at cloudbase at 3400 ft we passed over Wellsford township. The cloud build-ups to the north and west of here looked impressive but the landout options definitely less so. It is very uneven hilly terrain with the odd settlement and dubious paddocks. Still the lift was still there to be used and use it we did. Sometimes the varios went off the clock and the averager hit nearly 5.0 knots up. Of course by now we were communicating on the glider chatter frequency of 133.55 and could hear the pilots from Drury as they reported their situations as they headed south. Russell Thorne, an Air NZ 777 pilot in his brand new ASG29, was attempting his 300 km towards Tokoroa out of Drury. We wished each other well and Lionel and I kept moving north. Eventually we could hear no more gliders as the distance toward Kaikohe gradually decreased – 90 km … 80 km … 70 km … I looked across to the right and saw Whangarei and thought of Dave Todd when he mentioned reaching here and deciding to keep going. Lionel and I had the luxury of each other’s company and mutual support in finding lift and encouraging each other to keep going. It gives a great boost to one’s confidence when following someone to see them rock over into a turn and pitch up. The relief is palpable knowing you will soon be going up and can stop looking so hard at the paddocks. The various small towns whose names I had never heard of passed below as we flew from good lift through nothing and solid sink to the next good climb – moments of worry followed by moments of delight. But each time the distance to Kaikohe read less and less. Soon in the distance I could make out the town of Kaikohe and Lake Omapere behind it. Then the airfield was distinguishable and an easy glide from our present position. There was some high ground in front and here we got a massive climb to cloudbase so the rounding of the second turnpoint at Kaikohe airfield was quite easy at a comfortable 5,000 feet.
April 2009
33
