South Island Regional Gliding Contest

The ‘Regionals’ have always been a bit special for me. I had my fi rst introduction to South Island fl ying, South Island pilots, Omarama, and my husband John, at this contest back in November 1988. Many things have changed over the years but the vagaries of gliding contest weather isn’t one of them. Practice Day this year was raining. The weather however was playing ball and improved throughout the week. I think this is the fi rst contest I can remember where we could have had seven fl ying days, although the last day - that was fi nally cancelled - would have been marginal.

DAY ONE

Day One was an interesting day, with SW winds, some wave, and a few showers. Tim Hardwick-Smith, a North Island pilot, completed his fi rst ever contest task today in very credible fashion, in spite of unfamiliar territory and conditions. There were many land-outs and land-backs, so Tim did really well to get around. Day winners:

Open/18m Grae Harrison Std/15m George Wills Club Class Steven Evans

DAY TWO

The wind was still light SW, with a large high pressure area keeping the winds light. The task setters changed to the ‘B’ task, which simply meant adding 20km circles to the original turnpoints, and a time limit. This worked well and had the interesting advantage of bringing everyone home within 45minutes or so of each other. This made watching the fi nishes much more of a spectator sport.

There were only two landouts, both in the standard class. Wal Bethwaite in CC and Alex McCaw in MQ. Alex did the classic Omarama, really regrettable landout – Omakau. This is only about 20 km as the crow fl ies, but at least fi ve hours on the road to retrieve. Unfortunately the paddock wasn’t suitable for an aero retrieve. Many thanks to Craig Walecki for offering to get him and saving me from doing it. Day winners:

Open/18m Theo Newfi eld Std/15m Tony van Dyk Club Class Steven Evans

DAY THREE

The wind inland was light and variable, with easterlies on the coast and an expected cloudbase of around 7 to 8,000’. The tasks were set well into the mountains, with turn points down around Makaroa and up around Tin Hut. The B tasks, with 20 km circles were put into effect for all classes.

George Wills

Photos Geoff Soper

End of day one. SW wave

I had a fantastic day. Craig Walecki volunteered to man the r adios, while Craig Keenan took me for a late birthday treat. Flying in the Cessna 172 – MAV, we fl ew up to Glentanner (near Mt Cook), where we were intending to partake of afternoon tea. The air was relatively still and smooth, and I was actually quite impressed with how easy it is to simply point a power plane in the direction you want it to go, and you just arrive. Sadly, on arrival at Glentanner, we discovered the café has not yet opened for the season. We were forced to make do with an ice cream. We sat and enjoyed the view, the peace (interspersed by the arrival and departure of noisy tourist helicopters) and fi nally decided we’d better head back around 5.30. We were just taxiing into position to take of f, Craig did his radio call and over the radio we heard, “MAV? MQ.” Turned out, Alex in MQ hadn’t managed to make it back over the saddle (only needed another 50 feet) and was about to land at Glentanner. Could we give him a tow?

Fortunately the tow rope was stowed in the back of the plane.

Within two minutes Alex was on the ground. If he was surprised to see his mother he didn’t mention it. It was an incredibly scenic place to land a glider, and of course I had my camera with me, so I was fairly pleased. We pushed him back to the end of the strip, hooked the rope on at both ends, and then we towed him back to Omarama. Sadly for Alex, he was the only land out of the day. He was however, undertaking a nearly impossible task for a non-retractable, single Astir. To get that far was fairly amazing.

Open/18m ‘The Foxies’ Doug Hamilton/Karen Morgan Std/15m Trevor Mollard Club Class Tim Hardwick-Smith

DAY FOUR

Depending on whether you were one of the ones on the ground at a back-of-beyond airstrip like Longslip, Makarora or the Dingle, or someone who made it home, it was either a really hard day or a good fun one. Derek Kraak said it all came down to where you started: if you got your fi rst climb on Magic (Mountain) then you were fi ne. He climbed over the Ribbonwood Gap and had a long hard slog. But he did make it around.

Billy Walker

Steven Evans

There were some strategic engine starts, and several came home without completing the task. Everyone agreed it was very scenic. It was mentioned that this is probably the fi rst Regionals where the Club Class has been sent so far into the mountains. Most pilots trickling back into the Terminal building for a beer looked wrung out and exhausted. Day Winners:

Open/18m Grae Harrison Std/15m Billy Walker Club Steven Evans

DAY FIVE

Light westerlies created wave infl uence on thermals and ridges, and tasks were again set back into the mountains, with turnpoints like Siberia, but not as far north as previous days. Only one landout today - Wal Bethwaite in CC on the Maitland, but there were quite a few land back, for relights. There were lots of late starts and that seemed to be the recipe for success, but it made it a VERY long day for the contest staff on the ground. It was 8.30pm before the last gliders were home on the ground. Day Winners:

Open/18m Grae Harrison Std/15m Tony van Dyk Club Class Tim Hardwick-Smith

Grae Harrison

DAY SIX

The day was a mixed bag, weather wise with souwesterly wave, thermals and convergence. The task was completely different from the rest of the week, sending all classes down the Kakanuis, across to the Kirklestons and home via Craigieburn. It was a much shorter day, with everyone home for a decent tea time. There was only one land out.

Mark Aldridge, one of the PB duo who decided to give themselves a rest day, took over the radio ops. Unfortunately the repeater, based up on the Lindis ridge, died, meaning radio communications were very diffi cult and tracking gliders down for Ops Normal calls was problematic. Day Winners:

Open/18m Graham Parker (from Australia) Std/15m Max Stevens Club Class Steven Evans

DAY SEVEN

Dawned overcast and a rebrief was called for midday. This was put back to 1300, when in spite of what appeared to be clearing skies, the day was called off. This turned out to be the right move, as the window for fl ying would have been very short. The exhausted pilots applauded the Contest Director when he made the call. So, sadly, we didn’t quite get a full run of contest days, but it is the closest I’ve seen in all the years I’ve been coming to this competition.

Graham Parker and Kerry Claffey (Team Oz)

Wal Bethwaite

Like many glider pilots, I have always thought that one day I would do some gliding from Omarama. This year I got around to it and booked a Mountain Soaring Course with Glide Omarama, which involved fi ve days of a lecture in the morning, followed by an afternoon fl ight in a Duo with Philip Plane. Since the South Island Regionals were the following week, I entered the Club class to see if I could put what I had learnt into practice.

The gliding from Omarama is totally different to gliding in Taranaki. There are strong narrow thermals that have very defi nite ground trigger points. They go high, and wave infl uence takes them even higher, and also gives lots of sink. Flying here involves spending a lot of time fl ying around at the height of Mount Egmont, above (try to stay above) the most awesome scenery, and sometimes getting quite close to it. Although we were over some very inhospitable country, there is nearly always a way out to an airstrip and the exceptions are worth knowing about.

The fi rst day of the competition was exciting for me because I actually completed the task. I hadn’t done that before. Task setter Jerry O’Neill very cleverly gave us tasks that were both considerate of our skill level and extended us in a new direction every day. After every fl ight I got out of the glider thinking, “I don’t believe I just did that.”

It was great to get to know the other Club class competitors, and we all shared any information we had and looked after each other for road retrieves. Well done Steve Evans – another day and you would probably have won. Steve was fl ying his glider only a little bit slower than the 777 he normally fl ies. Brian and Rob, watch out for that Easterly sea breeze. I know you would have relished the experience of retrieving me, but thankfully that didn’t eventuate. Phil and I will have to learn not to use so many thermals, but old habits are hard to break, Phil from fl ying hang gliders and me from fl ying in Taranaki.

The six competition days are a blur now but some memories stand out:

Heading across Lake Hawea towards the Makarora turn point with blue below and blue above. Gavin Wills told us to take the second thermal in the McKerrows because it would be better. We all took the fi rst one, so relieved to make it across, and yes, the second one was better.

Going up the east side of the Ahuriri Valley, wondering how I was going to get over the saddle at the end to get to the Huxley turn point, and then getting shot into the wave from another scree sourced thermal – problem solved.

Ridge soaring the Hawkdun Range from Omarama Saddle down to the Mount Ida turn point and back, and then peeling over the back to head north.

I would like to thank Philip Plane and Glide Omarama, and the Canterbury Gliding Club for the best gliding experience ever.

This competition has been memorable for me for a combination of factors – the good weather, the creative task setting, the good humour of the competition director and his many helpers, and the generous sponsors – and also for me, the mix of pilots with whom I fl ew.

Our syndicate glider, ASH25 TF, is usually raced by Doug Hamilton or Michael Oakley, and I usually occupy the back seat and have a pretty light workload. They were both busy with work this year, and it looked as though a few days might have to be spent on the ground instead of racing.

TF started the week with three days fl ying with Doug Hamilton, and we enjoyed a mix of tasks and also an impromptu visit to a new dairy farm near Omarama. The third day saw us fl y to Mt Aspiring, an area I visit only in competitions. An added bonus was that we actually won the day after a very long and conservatively slow 90 kilometre fi nal glide. This fl ight earned us the Roy Evans Trophy for most meritorious Flight in a two seater.

Neither Doug nor Michael could fl y for the next two days, and Grae Harrison suggested an appropriate replacement would be Tom Claffey, a top Australian pilot who was fl ying with regular Aussie visitor Graham Parker. A quick call around the syndicate and to the insurance company, and I had a new front seat driver. Day 4, the task was ambitious in the blue – 325 kilometres to Rees Station (near Glenorchy, on Lake Wakatipu) and then a little north of Omarama to Huxley. I wasn’t worried about the second turn as that looked a bit academic if we could not fi nd our way south.

It was a real struggle to stay airborne at the launch point and it took considerable time to get high enough to start, but fi nally we were off to Ribbonwood for the fi rst climb on track. Navigationally, I was OK for the fi rst half of the fl ight, so we went over the Dingle and Hunter ridges and into the McKerrow Ranges in good order, crossed Makarora and headed into Aspiring via the Albert Burn Hut. Being blue, we aimed to stay high, however the relatively weak and broken thermals made this hard. From Mt Aspiring we headed out

Tony Van Dyk and Karen Morgan. May the best pilot win.

into the Matukituki Valley, but we were not quite high enough for us to see into the top of the Rees River and Dart River, and it was hard to pick the correct valley to fl y into. Plan B came into play, and we headed into the Branches sheep station, south along the Shotover River to Lake Lochnagar, where Tom found a stunning thermal that took us over 9000’. That made the trip onto the Richardson Mountains possible, and we turned Rees Station with height to get back into the Branches, then picked our way north again to the McKerrows and Hunter Ridge. It was fi nally ‘easy’ fl ying, and we hopped from the high point on the Hunter Ridge into the back of Huxley, where a thermal gave us enough height for our fi nal glide. second for the day was a good reward for Tom’s hard work – we could not travel fast in the south and clearly no-one else did either!

The second day with Tom was a very pleasant 254 kilometre fl ight, largely in wave and ridge conditions, for another second place. It was interesting to see how a top world pilot operates in a largely unfamiliar place, and I enjoyed this fl ight and the sharing of my local racing knowledge.

Michael Oakley fi nished ballooning with Ballooning Canterbury, and appeared just in time to launch for Day 6’s ridge and convergence task. It was a real blast running the ridges towards the east coast and as we seldom stopped to climb, TF achieved the fastest pre-handicap time of just over two hours for 290 kilometres. This was a great task which was perfect for the conditions, well done to tasksetter Jerry O’Neill.

Thanks to all three of my pilots and to the organisers for a fun and successful competition.

Michael Oakley and Karen Morgan.