SoaringNZ Issue 38

new zealand’s premier soaring magazine

world glide lesZno mitch polinsky/terry delore in nevada sunseeker duo agm • club news i s s u e 3 8 S e p t e m b e r– O c t o b e r 2 0 14

Images that SOAR above the ordinary

John McCaw – aviation and agricultural photographer

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Media

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c ommis sions a nd s t ock libr a ry sp eci a lis t s

contents

september–october 2014

features 12 World Flapped Gliding Championships, Leszno, Poland 2014

Photo Lima Charly

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24

32

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Aussie Invasion of the French Alps

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Steward in Finland, or “Have a look umpire!”

32

ASG 32 the newest entry in the 20m two-seater class

38

The first cross country flight in Sunseeker Duo

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How an everyday Cross Country Pilot became a record setter

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The second fastest 1250 km flight ever flown

46 48 53 55

How far we have come NCEA and Gliding Gliding NZ AGM National Awards

regulars 6 Letters to the Editor 7 Log Book 50 Vintage & Classic: Ten years of Vintage Kiwi 57 Safety 57 A question of Safety 58 News

59 60 61 62 70

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Airworthiness GNZ News Youth Glide News Gliding New Zealand Club News Classified Advertising

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UK $100 Europe $109 USA $109

Publisher

Advertising, editorial and subscription enquiries

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Editor Jill McCaw soaringnz@mccawmedia.co.nz

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ISSN 1178-4784 Sept–Oct 2014 3

from the editor september–october 2014

W

elcome to your big, thick, winter issue of SoaringNZ. There should be plenty of reading here to keep you going until the weather improves and you can get back out there flying yourself.

While most of us have been suffering through a long dreary winter, all the action has been happening overseas. Since the last issue of SoaringNZ there have been three world championships in Europe and we bring you coverage from all of them, in one form or another. Don’t worry; the magazine is not a dump of day by day contest plays. We had three pilots at the Flapped Classes Worlds at Leszno in Poland where John Coutts managed a second place in the 18 m class. He tells us of his struggles on Day Six. Brett Hunter and Steve Wallace give their take on their first worlds and Steve’s wife Lisa tells of the nail biting wait for the final day’s points when it seemed as if John might have won the contest.

With no Kiwis in the non-flapped contest in Finland, SoaringNZ gave the floor to Australian Terry Cubley who tells us what is involved in Stewarding at a World Contest. Prior to Leszno, John Coutts had also flown in the Grand Prix final at Sisteron in France. It was unfair to ask him to write two contest reports, so the Sisteron report comes from Team Australia who experienced some exhilarating flights.

The European summer was perfect for trial cross-country flights in the Sunseeker Duo and the American summer has given our own Terry Delore, flying in Nevada, the second fastest 1250 km flight on record. Terry’s friend Mitch Polinsky has done eight US and World records from Nevada this season, on top of the eight he achieved last season, he was happy to share his development from everyday pilot to record setter with SoaringNZ readers.

We haven’t completely ignored events at home with a report from the GNZ AGM and the winners of our National Awards.

Our next issue will be much more focused on New Zealand events and New Zealand flying, as it should be, during our soaring season. Don’t forget we’re happy to run your stories of great flights, things you’ve learnt through experience, things you think your clubs, your exec, or even your magazine could do better, or just maybe, they’re doing things well and you’d like to share. Just email me with your ideas and I can help you work up an article. Contest organising committees need to be sure that they have someone shoulder tapped to write up the coverage of

mitch polinsky/terry delore in nevada sunseeker duo agm • club news i s s u e 3 8 S e p t e m b e r– O c t o b e r 2 0 14

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the upcoming contests and someone else taking photos. Photos need to be taken at high resolution for best results in print.

The Central Plateau and South Island Regional contests will need reports for the next mag. SoaringNZ works because of the efforts of the volunteers who provide the stories and illustrations so thanks everyone.

Club News is working very well at the moment and again, thank you to all the club scribes out there. I know that one of the first things overseas pilots turn to is the club news, to find out what their friends in NZ are doing, so it is important and you’re all doing a good job.

SoaringNZ and GNZ encourage open debate, so if you agree

next issue

new zealand’s premier soaring magazine

world glide lezsno

More than one way to spend the winter. The editor contemplates soaring the Dunstans and the Remarkables, from the top of Cardrona ski field.

Sunseeker II, the solar powered aircraft designed and flown by Eric Raymond. Photo Irena Raymond.

Next issue: The NZ soaring season kicks off. Sth Island Regionals.

Central Plateau Contest. Older pilots – how old is too old to fly?

magazine deadlines Deadline for Club News, articles and pictures is 10 November and 20 November for advertising.

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es,

or disagree with what you read in the magazine, write a letter to the editor. We are happy to print honest opinions.

Go forth and clear the bird’s nests from your trailers; check all your equipment is flight ready and prepare yourself too. Get your medicals and BFRs out of the way, get current and be ready to burst into the air as soon as the thermals pop.

Stay Safe Jill McCaw

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letters to the editor september–october 2014 Cross-Country Flying and the QGP: An Open Letter to NZ Glider Pilots Summary Experience suggests that once a glider pilot has completed a solo cross-country flight, there is a good chance this pilot will be hooked on gliding for life. Getting pilots to fly cross-country may be an effective way to reduce and possibly reverse the declining number of active glider pilots. In NZ for the past 15 years, one can become a qualified glider pilot (QGP) without ever leaving the vicinity of an aerodrome. In the current QGP syllabus, all that is required is a 60-minute soaring flight and 25 hours as P1. Given the idea that cross-country pilots are hooked for life, there should be no surprise that membership numbers are dropping. This letter advocates a review of the QGP syllabus to include a 50 km out landing or 50 km out and return. This would not only simplify the C-syllabus of the QGP, but also change the focus of the pilot from the onset of training to an achievable goal. It would teach students to fly, not aviate.

I would also argue that if the pilot cannot complete this goal, then the likelihood of retaining that pilot as a GNZ member has been halved. The sooner cross-country soaring is added to the QGP, the sooner pilot numbers will cease to shrink.

Discussion Thanks to the efforts of Steve Wallace, many in NZ gliding now believe that once a glider pilot has completed a solo crosscountry flight, there is a high probability that this pilot will be hooked on gliding for life. The recent AGM confirmed this notion has gained traction, with the target of finding pilots early in their career and coaching them into cross-country flying.

Most of the 711 full-flying members of GNZ, who trained to fly by preparing for the Silver C badge, would be shocked to learn that since 1998, when the ‘new’ syllabus came on line, a pilot can obtain a QGP without flying cross-country. This means that for the past 15 years, new glider pilots have not had to fly cross-country, or past the point of no return, to the originating aerodrome. You could say that we have now trained a whole generation of pilots who do not fly cross-country. Like many gliding organisations around the world, we are good at attracting new members, but pathetic at retaining them, and as a result membership numbers are dropping.

In the late 1990’s, the QGP syllabus became necessary to bring glider training up to the standard of the Private Pilot Licence (PPL). However, unlike the PPL, which requires 10 hours of cross-country flying, the QGP has no significant component of cross-country training. What’s happening here? I estimate that we lose over half of our new members between solo and QGP. The A-syllabus has the goal of a solo flight, however, the C-syllabus, which results in the QGP, also requires a goal. The lack of a clear-cut goal at the end of the QGP means that many solo pilots get muddled and frustrated in ticking the repetitive boxes in the B and C syllabi.

A review of the C-syllabus (look for it under ‘training’ in the GNZ website) will show no tangible requirements for crosscountry flight. However, this syllabus does an excellent job of briefing the pilot on all the necessary points for cross-country flight. For example, according to the first 3 items on the

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C-syllabus a pilot must; 1) appreciate the weather, 2) improve climb performance, and 3) learn the proper speed to fly. How can the student pilot possibly appreciate these items without physically doing them as P1? Almost every box in the C-syllabus can be completed with the inclusion of a 50 km out landing or 50 km out and return. This would not only simplify the syllabus, but also change the focus of the pilot from the onset of training to an achievable goal.

The culture of cross-country flying seems to have been largely lost in glider pilot training. Perhaps much of this was lost by not including the Silver C badge in the QGP. Understanding why people do not start flying cross-country is a difficult topic, and it is currently the subject of several web forums. For most GNZ members, the Silver C was more than a QGP, it was a badge of courage for the pilot, who would now have the confidence to successfully fly away from the field and live to tell the story. The inclusion of a cross-country task into the QGP could have immediate and tangible results, but it will require a new focus in the instruction of student pilots from early in their flying career. It should be made clear that flying a glider cross-country is not for everyone, and the 50 km goal may be too difficult for many, but it may push others to new levels that, once obtained, will have a lasting and profound effect on their lives. In the words of Klaus Ohlmann, if you teach your students how to fly and not aviate, they will be birds for life.

Warren Dickinson, Wellington Gliding Club

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logbook

september–october 2014

Double Foxtrot Flies in its new home in Australia

After the extensive renovation of Ka6 ZK GFF, covered by SoaringNZ, owner Andy Benton had to move to Australia.

Double Foxtrot and its sunny new colour scheme finally took to

the skies in Bendigo, Victoria in July. Andy is looking forward to a great summer of soaring.

A Misty Moisty Morning Alain Marcuse, with his glider ZK-GNK (LS4) was on transit from Paraparaumu to Drury, when he stopped in Taupo for the night.

This photo was taken the next morning, 2nd July.

Sept–Oct 2014

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logbook september–october 2014

Deepwave Project in New Zealand The Christchurch skies hosted an exotic visitor from May through to July, a highly modified Gulfstream V jet. The NSF/NCAR High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER) aircraft is a cutting-edge observational platform used for the study of: Chemistry and Climate, Chemical Cycles, Studies of the Upper Troposphere/ Lower Stratosphere, Air Quality, and Mesoscale Weather. It was here as part of the Deepwave Project which studies the dynamics of gravity waves (GWs – simply ‘wave’ if you are a glider pilot) from the surface of the Earth to the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). The project examined how tropospheric winds and storms modulate the generation of GWs, how

GWs propagate across the tropopause into the stratosphere, and how the Polar Night Jet and tidal winds influence GW propagation and breakdown in the middle atmosphere. Important observational components of DEEPWAVE included in situ measurement from the research aircraft along with surface, airborne and satellite-based remote sensing. EOL also deployed an Integrated Sounding System (ISS) with a radar wind profiler and other ground instrumentation on the West Coast of New Zealand.

SoaringNZ hopes to bring you a more in depth look at the project in our next issue.

Roger Read Awarded The FAI Paul Tissandier Diploma This Diploma, established by the FAI in 1952, is named after Mr. Paul Tissandier, Secretary General of FAI from 1919 to 1945. It is awarded to those who have served the cause of Aviation in general and Sporting Aviation in particular, by their work, initiative, devotion, or in other ways.

Roger’s work with Youth Glide was one of his outstanding achievements leading to this award. The citation reads: Roger Read has a long history in aviation, having originally trained as a military pilot, followed by a career as an airline pilot.

During this time, Roger has been a glider pilot and it is his voluntary work as a gliding instructor that is quite outstanding.

Roger recognised that the sport of gliding

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would die out if more young people did not become involved. To help remedy the problem, Roger started Youth Glide Canterbury, under the umbrella of the Canterbury Gliding Club. This then led to the formation of Youth Glide New Zealand and has created a path for gaining educational credits for the New Zealand Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

Roger has been the driving force in the success of Youth Glide. He established the Youth Soaring Development camps, which are now an annual event, and has spent countless hours in fund-raising to lower the costs for participants. The enjoyment that young people get in learning how to safely participate in our sport is evident for all to see, and the flow-on effects to the wider opportunities in aviation are enormous.

Roger Read is the third Canterbury Gliding Club member and the fourth Kiwi in three years to receive this prestigious award.

Roger Harris and Ralph Gore were honoured in 2012, with Yvonne Loader collecting her award in person last year. Other prior NZ gliding volunteers rewarded are George Rogers, Peter Thorpe, Ross Macintyre, John Roake and Russell McDowall.

logbook

september–october 2014

World Champions 2014 COMPETITIONS Grand Prix Sisteron

1ST

2ND

Didier Haus

33rd, World non- flapped Championships Räyskälä, Finland

33rd World Flapped Championships Leszno, Poland

Club Class

Standard Class

20m Multi seat class

15 m

18 m

Open Class

Eric Bernard

Bert Schmelzer

Steve Jones & Howard Jones

Sebastian Kawa

Karol Staryszak

Michael Sommer

France

France

Belgium

UK

Poland

Poland

Germany

Ventus 2cxa

Std Cirrus

Discus 2a

Arcus T

Diana 2

ASG 29

EB 29

Sebastian Kawa

Killian Walbrou

Sebastian Kawa

Nikke Luukkanen & Antti Lehto

Wolfgang Janowitsch

John Coutts

Andy Davis

Poland

France

Poland

Finland

Austria

NZ

UK

Diana 2

Hornet

Discus 2a

Arcus M

Ventus 2a

JS-1

JS-1C

Airbus and Perlan to join forces

GNZ Members Have you logged in to the GNZ website?

Are your ratings and awards official?

Are your contact details right?

Are you receiving SoaringNZ magazine?

Do you need contacts for club members? http://members.gliding.co.nz

It’s only in the event of a

CL A IM

Chief scientist of the Perlan Project, Inc., Dr. Elizabeth Austin, CCM of WeatherExtreme Ltd. is pleased to announce the recent sponsorship of the Perlan II Mission by aircraft manufacturer Airbus Group. The Airbus Perlan II sponsorship was unveiled at the EAA Airventure Oshkosh 2014 event and will aim to help build and fly a glider high above 90,000 feet to the edge of space.

The record-breaking flight is set to occur in 2016.

The purpose-built pressurized high-altitude glider (the Perlan 2) will fly higher than any other manned wing borne aircraft has ever flown in sustained flight using stratospheric mountain waves and the polar vortex and in so doing harvest invaluable data about earth’s atmosphere and its ozone layer.

The Perlan 2 will fly in a near vacuum with air density at less than 2% of that at sea level. It must be extremely strong and light like a space ship, but extremely stiff to prevent flutter. Flying at the edge of space, the Perlan II must have the reliability and life support systems of a space ship. At such low air density the glider must fly at near transonic speeds to create enough lift to sustain flight. At these speeds shock waves can form and flow separation can ruin performance. The Perlan 2 requires a new and highly efficient aerodynamic design.

Contributions to Logbook are welcome from all of our readers within New Zealand and internationally.

Email your news snippets to: soaringnz@mccawmedia.co.nz.

Please put "logbook" in the subject line.

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Contact your broker or ring Brian or Arden and talk to the people who specialise in aviation insurance.

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TELEPhone 04 473 5593 admin @ aviationcoop.co.nz w w w. av ia t io n c o o p.c o.nz Sept–Oct 2014

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logbook september–october 2014

Robo Birds A new toy for Xmas? These realistic looking, remote control birds have a serious purpose. Birds that stray into the paths of aircraft, eat crops, or spread disease from foraging in large numbers at landfills cause nuisance, crop loss and can be dangerous.

Various scare tactics have rarely been successful. Now a designer from the Netherlands has come up with robotic birds of prey that look and fly exactly like the real thing.

The ‘birds’ actually flap their wings to fly, in a way that makes them remarkably similar to the real thing. According to the designers, this means that they can exploit the natural instinct of birds to avoid predators, particularly through silhouette and wing movement recognition.

News FAI World Air Games 2015 to be Staged in Dubai The FAI announced that the 2015 edition of the FAI World Air Games will be held in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for 12 days in December 2015. It is the only world competition that brings together the various different air sports.

Flagship event of the Federation, the FAI World Air Games is a combination of elite competition and spectacular demonstrations, which exemplify the very best that air sports have to offer. The 4th edition will include Powered and Glider Aerobatics, Aeromodelling, Amateur-Built and Experimental Aircraft, Ballooning, Gyrocopters, Hang Gliding, Helicopters, Microlights, Paramotors, and Parachuting.

FAI Young Artists Contest Create a Poster for the World Air Games in Dubai.

Entries will be divided into three age groups: junior category (ages 6-9), intermediate category (ages 10-13 years and senior category (ages 14-17).

The winners for each group will be awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze Medals.

The winning paintings will be exhibited in Dubai during the FAI World Air Games for all the spectators to admire.

For more information google FAI Young Artists Contest.

Entries must be with your FAI National representative – in our case The Royal NZ Aero Club (RNZAC) by 1 April 2015.

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Sept–Oct 2014

Gliding Photographer Geoff Soper Wins "Action" Category in the D-Photo Magazine Amateur Photographer of the Year competition.

Turn to the centrefold to see the winning photo.

This was Geoff's second time entering the competition. With no feedback from submissions he was unsure whether he even had a chance.

There are seven categories: people, action, monochrome, landscape, creative, nature and travel. Geoff submitted a few photos into some of the categories and was torn between entering the photo of Billy Walker in the monochrome or the action category. In the end, he says, “I decided that it epitomised 'action'. Who could doubt that if they saw the whole sequence of this spectacular competition finish! There is something magic about a well-executed finish, trailing water ballast at high speed. It is even more spectacular to watch it through a big camera lens.

Geoff will show the whole sequence in an evening presentation at the 50th South Island Regional Gliding championships this November in Omarama. Another good reason to attend the championships.

Air Sports on the Olympic Agenda FAI President Dr. John Grubbström and FAI Secretary General Susanne Schödel were recently invited to meet International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, to discuss current developments in air sports, their place in the Olympic movement and FAI's involvement in the ‘Olympic Agenda 2020’.

During the meeting, the FAI President pointed out the popularity of air sports, especially among young people, and how accessible they have become. Air sports are now a natural part of outdoor activities, giving young people a sound base for their personal and professional development.

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Sept–Oct 2014

11

World Flapped

Gliding Championships, Leszno, Poland 2014 Sunday 27 July – Saturday 9 August

By John Coutts

Representing New Zealand John Coutts and Brett Hunter – 18m class Steve Wallace – 15m class

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4

Team NZ was represented at this event by Steve Wallace in the 15m Class, Brett Hunter and John Coutts in the 18m class with Adam Cumberlege as Team Manager. Crew members Barbara Hunter, Lisa Wallace, Nigel McPhee, Geoff Gaddes, and Matt Findlay were indispensable. It is the first time for a number of years that NZ has had a team flying at a World event. World Championships have become so large that they are now split into two events. This event was the flapped classes which are the 15m, 18m and Open classes. The unflapped Worlds occurred a couple of weeks earlier in Finland.

A

uckland Gliding Club member and previous World Champion, John Coutts is currently based in South Africa, but still did us proud, coming only seven points behind the winner for a fantastic second place. While he mentions that he has flown at Leszno previously, at the 2003 Worlds, he neglects to mention that at that contest, he won the 15m class. This was a new contest with new challenges and things were different this time. John’s description of his flight on Day Six is an excellent example of just how much skill is involved in contest flying at this level. He tells us about the contest, and how it wasn’t just the pilots but glider types that were competing against each other.

Gliders in Competition From a sailplane development point of view, the competition was to be quite interesting, as the new JS1c 21m, the open class derivative of the popular 18 m glider, was to be pitted against the new EB29 single seat super glider and the Schempp Hirth Quintus. All the gliders had already been showcased in Uvalde, Texas in 2012, but it was argued that the fantastic strong conditions experienced there were special, and that the more common, weaker European weather would give a more accurate comparison. Weight would be a factor. The JS1c can only go to 720 kg while the EB 29 and Quintus could go to the maximum permitted by the competition rules, 850 kg. Dick

Sept–Oct 2014

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Worlds Leszno

Day 2. The haze layer below requires your next climb to be identified before you are half way up your current climb.

Day 2, thunderstorm. Bucketed down.

Pilots leaving briefing day 1, ready to do battle.

Day 4 Brett and crew, beer and icecream after dinner.

Day 4, the raining finish.

Sebastian Kawa waits on the grid for a launch

Butler’s Concordia was also there and this glider was rumoured to have cost in excess of $2,000,000. When you see the gliders side by side you can see that JS1 is quite a lot smaller and the much greater span of the EB 29 and Concordia is very apparent. I think that many people were surprised by the JS1c, me included, in its ability to hold its own even in the weak weather.

By the end of the contest, it was generally regarded that the JS1c was as competitive as the Quintus and had a small edge over the EB 29 at higher speeds. Of course when it comes to making long glides at best LD, there is no substitute for span

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and the EB 29 seemed to be the choice. In the end some pilots were saying the JS1c was the best choice, simply because for the same performance, it is much cheaper!

Background The weather before the practice period was reportedly very good and on my arrival, both Brett and Steve, who had already been on site for almost a week, told of many excellent flights at breakneck speeds. The official practice period also offered some good conditions, with one or two rain days in between. The big

Worlds Leszno

How I Went I don’t think that I flew particularly well, or certainly not as naturally as I did eleven years earlier, but I did fly with a little bit more wisdom, especially when it came time to survive. Apart from the one distance day back in 2003, I think I only dropped below 2000 feet once out of twelve days. This time I had multiple saves from less than 1000 feet! On one occasion I was down at 500 feet and full of water on a 35°C day, very sweaty. This was the 2nd day

and my only really bad result. I was just a little too late for a storm cycle and realised that I needed to get into the sun to survive.

It was otherwise a very good day and even though being full of water made the climb away very slow, I would have been far too light later in the flight and would have lost even more points.

A good day on Day Six As with many competitions, there is a defining moment when perhaps you get a little lucky and suddenly the competition is split wide open. This happened on the sixth flying day, when large storms filled the skies and I managed to get closest to home out of all the competitors (in the three classes). The weatherman promised a good day's gliding, with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. The sounding and my own investigations led me to the opinion that the day was going to go to storms – big storms. Walking out of briefing it was already very hot and I passed the remark to Brett and Steve that I thought it would be a good day to start early.

I was toward the back on the starting grid and with a 15 km glide over to the starting line, the gate was already opened by the time I was ready to start. Large development was already visible on the horizon to the south and the east – our turnpoint directions - so I started as soon as I could get high enough and Brett started three minutes later. I realised that I needed to go as fast as possible because as the storm grew, the combinations and possibilities to penetrate or circumvent the storm would dwindle until the storm had completely engulfed the whole sky.

I pushed as hard and fast as I could and nailed a few good

Photo Mateusz Mocek

difference between this year and the last world championships which I’d flown here in Leszno in 2003 was that in 2003 they were practically in a drought. This year was very wet. This year everything was green and it stayed that way. Perhaps because of this, the forests seemed more important than I had remembered them. You had to be careful though, as the good climbs were to be had over a particular type of forest only, where the ground was sandier and obviously drained much quicker. I’m not a botanist but it looked like the better forests were pine or similar, much like in the North Island. On one particular day I couldn’t understand why the clouds were so soggy looking and the climbs almost non-existent, until I looked down to see the fields were sodden from all the rain.

The weather forecasting was fair but the task setting seemed to be very poor. Many days it seemed that we were flying yesterday’s task! Generally though, a number of tasks could have been much longer. Also, the tasks between the classes were conflicting and on more than one occasion the tasks had to be changed at the protest of the pilots.

Sept–Oct 2014

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Photo Mateusz Mocek

Worlds Leszno

"The Man". Sebastian Kawa, multiple world Champion

climbs and this enabled me to arrive at the edge of the first storm at a reasonable height and in a good position. I had caught up to many early starters. The tell-tale sea breeze type dags hanging from the cloud base told me I had gone a little too deep into the storm and I backtracked a few km’s until I centred on a nice climb which eventually took me right up to the mist, at almost 7,000 ft. Then it was a quick glide between two storms before they collided and ultimately blocked the route to those perhaps only ten minutes behind.

As it was, Brett arrived at the storm just minutes later, almost exactly where I had climbed, to find only turbulence generated by the outflow from the storm and eventually had to land. Timing is everything with storm flying. Steve also tried to penetrate the storm but realised that it would be fruitless and end in an outlanding. As a general rule, if you cannot see through the storm, then you can’t punch it.

The first turn point appeared to be obliterated by the storm, but a large detour of perhaps 50 km, slowly tiptoeing out to the right, found the turnpoint almost in the clear. This is where things got interesting. A few of the earlier starting gliders had arrived a few minutes earlier and had started to climb. They appeared to be climbing well, but when I pulled in underneath, I got four knots then three, then two, until I was no longer climbing. I could see a nice dag edge running up to the second turnpoint and thought that I needed to take the turn, about 5 k away and get back to the cloud edge and hopefully cruiseclimb up toward the next turnpoint. Just as I was taking the turnpoint, I flew into more lift of about four knots and only being at approximately 3,000 ft I thought it would be prudent to take a

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Sept–Oct 2014

bit of extra height, to make sure that I had options when I went back into the storm edge again.

Again, the lift died off quickly and I decided to carry on to the edge of the storm. As I said previously, timing is everything and sometimes when you see it is working well, you have to get there as soon as possible. I have had occasions in South Africa where followers were met with heavy rain and no lift, when only minutes earlier I had lift so strong that you barely needed to turn. Perhaps my procrastination cost me, as when I pulled in underneath the daggy edge it didn’t look very enticing anymore and at best I could just maintain height. I managed to glide perhaps 20 km but my height was slowly dwindling. Down at 2,000ft I had to make a decision. The storm edge had now almost completely dissolved and there were two options. To the left, an area between two dying storms that could work but looked very uncertain. I would probably arrive at 1000ft and be trying to climb away in light rain. To the right, I could see that the outflow from the storm was blowing away from me, with a wind speed of perhaps 20 knots, as some nearby wind turbines showed. Further in the distance, I could see other wind turbines almost still and facing another direction altogether. This was the safest chance and from the progressive collapse of the sky, I doubted that many, if any, would be able to get much further going straight on track. I turned hard right, dumped my water and slowed the glider to let the carpet wind from the storm blow me toward the potential unmarked low level convergence zone.

At perhaps only 800ft I finally hit what the South Africans like to call the ‘Gust Front.’ Unfortunately, it didn’t have as much energy as back home in Johannesburg, but still enough to

Worlds Leszno

Day 5 The sun shines on John Coutts winner for the day.

Day 6, John's paddock.

slowly climb, albeit with constant re-centring, similar to wave flying. Eventually I was joined by three open class gliders. It was time to glide to the only cloud left in the sky (but it looked a good one), although it was a fair glide and almost 90° off track.

We all arrived under the massive cloud together, but I got a strong feeling that I needed to be right on the upwind end of the cloud. The problem was that we were just too late and the cloud was in what I like to call the transition phase. This is when it changes from a large overdeveloped cloud to a proper storm. The conventional thermal lift that made the large cloud is exhausted but the storm frontal line has still yet to form.

After following the open class gliders for a few kilometres deeper into the cloud, I realised that we were heading for trouble. I turned 180 degrees and headed upwind, toward where I wanted to be initially, while the open class gliders persevered, eventually starting their engines a few minutes later. I was down to perhaps 500 ft when I finally hit lift. Swallows darting this way and that chasing the insects getting sucked up by the thermal reassured me that although low, I would be able to climb away easily. It took an age to climb up to cloud base at 8,000 ft, all while the big cloud slowly matured into a proper storm. I was over 40km off track, plus another 110 km from the turnpoint home. With 150 km to run home, the glide computer said I was only 1500 ft shy of a max LD glide. The visibility during the competition was often bad and today was no exception. It was difficult to know in the dark murk where to go, but I just flew slowly on track and seemed to be getting a great glide.

I noticed some interesting clouds perhaps 30 km off track to the left. I studied them for a while and they looked like they

Day 6, heading for trouble

could be growing. I wanted to turn for them, but I just couldn’t bring myself to turn. If they didn’t work, I would land there while sacrificing possibly 50 km of further distance.

While gliding straight for home, I eventually caught up the large storm that had caused all the initial drama. It was now dying and only drizzle and mild sink remained. I landed approximately 50 km from Leszno. While waiting for Nigel and Steve to come and get me, I could see the clouds that I should have diverted to grow into a new storm system. If I had have gone to them, I would have arrived in perfect time and been able to easily climb to cloud base. Furthermore, the old storm eventually fizzled out altogether and it would have been an easy glide for home. Nigel and Steve didn’t see the importance of my mistake; after all I had won the day anyhow. I was however frustrated by my wrong decision and I had had lost the opportunity to get a few extra points!

Team NZ It was great to have more of a team this year. This was the first three pilot team since 1999 in Bayreuth, Germany, and it made the whole event a lot more enjoyable, and not like it was a one man crusade, as it has been on so many occasions before. Brett and Steve perhaps didn’t fare as well as they would have liked, but they learned a lot and will be much better prepared for Benalla in 2017.

Steve, Brett and I would like to give a big thanks to the GNZ Umbrella trust for paying our entry fees, paying for the rental of Team Kiwi HQ (the container) and to the promotions fund for subsidising the cost of the team shirts.

Sept–Oct 2014

17

Worlds Leszno

the thrill of the worlds

by Steve Wallace

What a privilege it is to compete at a World Gliding Championship. It really is the epitome of gliding as a competitive sport; from the awe of lining up on a grid with 130 other high performance gliders, to the anticipation of the launch.

T

he rumble from the 15 post-war radial engined tow planes, signalling that things are about to get under way, is one of the great sounds in aviation. From the craziness of the pre-start gaggle tactics, to the beauty of the on-task climb and run rolling maul, where man and machine imitate nature, achieving speed and efficiency with peloton like precision that cannot be matched by the individual. And of course, there is nothing quite like the thrill of the final glide, streaming home with dozens of other gliders all around you. It really is all a sight to behold.

Best of all, New Zealand was there as a team. The pilots were supported by Adam Cumberlege as Team Captain, with stand-ins of Lisa Wallace before Adam arrived and Nigel McPhee when Adam took ill.

Geoff Gaddes and Matt Findlay arrived early in the first

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Sept–Oct 2014

week and worked hard preparing gliders and helping on retrieves when John, Brett or myself landed out. They were also excellent at appearing with cold beer just when it was needed.

Lisa and Barbara did a superb job of making lunches, driving the retrieve vehicles, preparing NZ’s contribution to International Night, looking after pilot morale and doing the numerous other tasks required to keep the whole ship on course. Fraser and Grace (my kids) did a great job acting as NZ cheer squad, decorating NZ’s container HQ with hand drawn pictures and sticker bombing our neighbours when the opportunity arose.

We may not have been one of the powerhouse teams like France, Germany, England, South Africa, the USA or even Australia, but what we lacked in hardware, logistics, knowledge and organisation we made up for with spirit and character. We waved our banners, flew the flag and wore our shirts with pride.

We did what New Zealand does best; we punched well above our weight on the world stage.

We flew 10 days out of the allocated 14, in weather that was average compared to the practice week. Many of the days were devalued, with the weather only allowing for shorter tasks to be set. Thunderstorms and thermal-killing high cirrus were the main culprits. Even Sebastian Kawa called the weather “nonLeszno-like” and “whimsical”. Consequently, the winners in

Photo Mateusz Mocek

Worlds Leszno

Steve, first day on the grid beside the Americans

all classes ended up with totals only in the seven thousands, compared with 2003 when they were in the ten thousands. As an indication of the experience amongst this group of pilots, it was amazing to hear the number that were able to talk about how good the conditions were when they were last at the World Champs in Leszno, back in 2003. Certainly, the leader board read like a who’s who of international competitive gliding.

At the end of the contest it was just great to see John Coutts, our most experienced and highest performing competition pilot at this level, on the podium once again, taking Silver in the 18m class. If it wasn’t for a few land-outs in the 18m class on the last day devaluing the speed points, it would have been Gold for John for a second time in Leszno. For Brett and myself, both way back in 42nd place, we were certainly hoping for a better result but not having competed at this level before, it was hard to know where to aim. At the beginning of the contest John said to us, “You must treat your first Worlds as a learning experience,” and of course he was right. Having now had the experience, we are both certainly better pilots for it and metaphorically speaking, we wouldn’t (and even if we wanted to, couldn’t) trade it for all the gold in China. With the benefit of hindsight, we now have the foresight to know how to do better and are both looking forward to the next chance we get to have a crack.

Like all gliding competitions, the best part was of course the people, both at the comp and back home. We have made some great international gliding friends, and being able to fly and converse with some of the best in the business was certainly an opportunity not to be missed.

The messages of support from NZ and friends around the world were just fantastic and we all looked forward to reading them every day.

As well as all the other thanks I would like to add a big thanks to my home club, Aviation Sports in Auckland, who raised an amazing sum of money for a small club, to support my first World Gliding Comp.

Team Captain, Adam

Steve, selfie

Sept–Oct 2014

19

Worlds Leszno

A Polish Experience by brett HUNTER

I arrived in Poland with preconceived ideas of the landscape, the flying, and the country in general. This came from google earth, SeeYou files for the 2003 WGC (also in Leszno) and general internet surfing. All the research just did not paint the picture that is Poland today.

F

rom the air the ground is a strikingly beautiful patchwork of maize, wheat and barley in different shades of gold, brown and green, which altered each week depending on the stage of the harvest. Add to that, frequent patches of forest, and many small lakes, multiple wind turbines, and ancient towns. It all meant there was plenty to look at and also plenty of surface variation to heat at different rates and to trigger thermals.

Rather than a full account of the competition I will recount some of the more lasting impressions of my experience there. ›› The contest organisation did not get off to a great start.

The briefings were held in a large hangar with shocking acoustics, which were not helped by a stone-age PA system. Things were made worse by barking dogs (yes – in the hangar with us) and general hubbub from the crews standing behind us. However by the second week things had improved markedly with a decent PA system and a sound technician.

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Sept–Oct 2014

›› I went to my first WGC with the expectation of rigid discipline and rule enforcement. The Poles had a pretty relaxed attitude to such details; for the entire practice week there was no glider weighing, no gridding in classes and no start gates. Start times were never required. Reports of cloud flying during the competition led to a good-natured safety warning by the chief steward at one briefing. There was no time limit for uploading flight logs after landing (one competitor often didn’t bother until the next morning). ›› The tasking was pretty abysmal, in fact there was some evidence the tasks were set the night before (yesterday’s date printed on the SeeYou task sheets). The Task setter grew gun-shy after Day Two when there was a thunderstorm over Leszno during the finish, leading to some interesting landing experiences. We had day after day of AATs with 10 km finish circles, with some obviously under called tasks. We had very few 1000 point days – one, rather perversely, was the mass land-out day. ›› It has made me appreciate just how professional and well run our New Zealand competitions are. We would not have to change much to run a successful WGC. ›› Gaggle flying. To the uninitiated like me, the pre-start gaggles were a place of high excitement. Really. Up to 30 sailplanes in one thermal in the murk with the flarm going ballistic. On reaching cloud base the accepted norm was to open out the circle and speed up - so there

Photo Mateusz Mocek

Worlds Leszno

could be a glider outside you, a glider inside you, cloud above and gliders below. All within two or three wingspans, not to mention the gliders in front and the unknown behind. Not the time to be unwrapping a sandwich. ›› The flying itself was simply amazing. The best of it was in the unofficial practice week where the tasks were between 400km and 560km, and accomplished easily at good speeds. Climbs would average about 5 knots from bottom to top (although the 20 second average would often be 8 – 10 knots) but most of the climbing would be pull-ups in the cruise. During the competition we were not so fortunate as we suffered with a very humid unstable airmass which brought with it lower cloud-bases, poorer visibility and…. ›› Thunderstorms. The closest I’ve come to an in-flight perm.

Exhilarating when you manage to get under the shelf and are screaming along at 130 knots and still climbing, while big raindrops hit you like machine gun fire. Terrifying when you get it wrong and have no control in the turbulence, the ASI flicking between 80 and 40 knots, and walls of darkness and heavy rain closing in on you.

Did I mention the lightning? On the mass land out day I got it wrong and got sandwiched in a meteorological oasis between several storm fronts. I opened the brakes from 2500 feet and landed while I still could. Downwind into my chosen field the wind changed 180 degrees and so did I – landing with about 15 -20 knots on the nose. ›› On many days we encountered areas of very high vertical cloud development with areas of heavy rain which were sometimes unavoidable. You had to hit them high to get through to the thermic areas, which could be 20km behind the rain.

Steve, John and I worked well as a team. After briefing we would have a discussion on the tasks over an early lunch.

In the air we would have a pre-start chat on our ‘secret’ Kiwi frequency (133.55) and pass on any intel we had gleaned from channel-surfing other team frequencies.

I knew John would be a medal contender and he didn’t disappoint. As well as being a superb pilot he is a great ambassador for New Zealand gliding and is well liked by his fellow competitors.

Steve and I were disappointed with our placings, but I know we have emerged much better competition pilots and I know what areas I have to improve on. I was surprised at how little difference there is between me and other well known competitors –we could fly together for most of a task, but they have a level of consistency which I just could not emulate.

The support crew was fantastic. Adam Cumberlege, then Nigel did a great job as Team Captain, but having Lisa Wallace and Barbara (my wife) was pure gold. Gliding New Zealand through the Umbrella Trust funded a team office, which was an air-conditioned shipping container, which we equipped with a refrigerator and a BBQ. Having this made a huge contribution to team morale.

Julian Elder and family visited for the first weekend, and Geoff Gaddes and Matthew Findlay arrived soon after and were a great help with the gliders and were valuable additions to the retrieve crews.

Thank you all for your support – both personal, and through GNZ funding for our entry fees and the Team office, as well as to the Matamata Soaring Centre for their assistance.

Sept–Oct 2014

21

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Sept–Oct 2014

How John Coutts nearly won the worlds

By Lisa Wallace and Jill McCaw

During the Worlds, Lisa Wallace, wife of NZ competitor Steve Wallace, kept the country updated with a blog post a day.

Jill put the following together from Lisa’s blog and other records from the contest.

I

t was absolutely nerve–wracking. John Coutts went into the final day of the 33rd World Gliding Competition in Leszno, Poland with a good chance of winning. John started the final day in 3rd place in the 18 m class. He was only 123 points behind the leader Karol Staryszak, the local pilot from Poland.

In 2nd place, another Polish pilot, Lukasz Wójcik was only 32 points in front of Coutts. A good day would have made 123 points perfectly possible.

The contest had had nine days flying and the pilots and crews were exhausted. We were hoping that this would mean that the others would make mistakes. John needed a good flight on a high scoring day; that is a day with a long task flight – 400 km would have been ideal. On the morning of the last day we were delighted when this was exactly what was announced at the task briefing. However, the weather wasn’t to co-operate and it became obvious to the task setters that a front moving onto the contest area meant that the competitors would never be able to fly that far. Rebriefings were called, and the task length was pulled back to 300 km and then eventually 250 km.

While this meant that the task should be doable for all, it also meant that the day would be devalued, making it harder to score well enough to make up a points deficit.

It turned out that the weather would be even worse than predicted and many pilots landed out in paddocks, unable to make it home. It was to be these outlanders who were to rob John of his chance at a 1st place. He did alright for the day, coming in at 10th for the day out of the field of 46, while his Polish rivals did even worse, ending up 32nd and 33rd.

As the logs were processed we held our breaths. John seemed to have done enough for the overall win. He was sitting at only seven more points overall than Staryszak. But it wasn’t over. As more and more pilots landed out, the day was devalued still further. The day winner ended up with only 670 points.

Played out live on screen in the briefing hall and on computer screens around the world, the points slowly changed as returning pilots’ electronic traces were processed. John’s lead was cut from seven points, to four points, then three points, then it was 1st equal and eventually the points dropped to seven behind Karol Staryszak. Lukasz Wójcik was another 76 points behind to place third.

Second isn’t a bad placing at that level of competition. This is a silver medal achievement.

John nervously waiting for the final results to come in.

John's retrieve car 'The Vengabus' was pretty special. Neither of the front windows worked, the aircon didn't work, first gear selected only sometimes and reverse selected rarely.

Sept–Oct 2014

23

Aussie invasion of the French Alps

2014 Sailplane Grand Prix Final

By Kerrie Claffey

Although we had a Kiwi (John Coutts) flying in the Grand Prix final, this report comes to us from across the ditch and follows the Aussies as they set out to fly (fast) in the mountains. Four Antipodean pilots may be something of a record for a GP final.

T

he IGC report that sponsor Breitling’s representative, who was present, was very impressed by the beauty and drama of glider racing at this level. The added enhancement of being able to follow the whole thing on the tracking system, has finally laid to rest the argument that glider competitions are of no interest to media or public because once they have flown away, no one knows what is happening till they come back!

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At the Sailplane Grand Prix Qualifier at Lake Keepit in November 2012, three Aussie pilots qualified to fly the SGP Final in Sisteron in May this year – Tom Claffey, Graham Parker and Bruce Taylor. And from the South African GP came Kiwi John Coutts. The three flatlanders had varying degrees of mountain experience. Bruce flew the 1995 WGC in Omarama, the 1996 pre-worlds and 1997 WGC in St Auban, plus a previous SGP in the French Alps. Graham flew the 1994 pre-worlds and several NZ nationals and regionals in Omarama, and Tom flew as P2 in the 1996 pre-worlds in St Auban plus a number of days in Omarama. John, of course, has considerable experience in Omarama and Rieti. Armed with this wealth of experience against 20 of the world’s best pilots, some born and bred in the mountains, our intrepid Antipodeans set off with the mission to stay alive and get a point!

Staying alive in the mountains is not trivial – with all sorts of fun things to hit – like each other, the mountain and assorted

Team Aus wondering what to make of the weather today (check the windsock behind!)

Photo Lima Charly

Tom & Bruce sharing the podium after Tom crossed first but Bruce got the win

Tom ready to do battle on the ridges again

obstacles – one day Tom got a Flarm warning ‘obstacle ahead’.

“What,” he asked the machine. “You mean this big mountain in front?” Closer inspection revealed a ski lift ahead of him.

Getting a point was also not easy – the points are allocated ten, eight, seven, through to one for places first, second to ninth, so unless you beat at least eleven of the world’s best pilots, you’re gonna get zero for the day.

As anyone who’s flown in Europe knows, it’s a marathon journey just getting pilot, car and glider to the comp site.

On 1 May Team Claffey flew via Dubai to Munich, where Swaantje Geyer kindly took us back to Nuremberg to lend us her Golf wagon. Next day we drove to Poppenhausen to pick up the ASW27 which Uli Kremer arranged for us to rent from his club. While there, we took the opportunity to explore the Wasserkuppe museum and see some legendary gliders like the D36 and the ASW12. Then a loooong day, about 1000km and $1000 in fuel and tolls, via some scenic territory through

Germany, Switzerland and France to Sisteron, finally arriving late on 3 May. Graham and super-crew Mark had already been there a week, and after some frustrating admin problems, Graham had finally flown Marta’s near-new ASG29E for a couple of days. Bruce and Anita had arrived the day before, only a day late. It seems Bruce had missed his flight from London and was fairly unhappy with Ryanair! Meanwhile Arne Boye-Moller had delivered his pristine Ventus2CXT all the way from Denmark (about 1800km) for Bruce to fly (and then drove it home again afterwards) – now that’s service!

8 May – Official Practice Day Graham: A very stable sky. I managed to stay afloat and make a start at the correct height, along with only five or six others.

But by then I had had enough of the day, so I went back and landed. Tom pushed on and landed out just down the road a bit.

Bruce didn't fly as he was unwell.

Sept–Oct 2014

25

Sebastian Kawa has won so many

world championships, all of us have long since lost count.

Sebastian Kawa

9 May - Day 1 Graham: A very pleasant day in the mountains; reasonable thermals and a bit of a north westerly draft to kick things along a bit. The usual suspects were at the front by the end of the race, and a few guys got it wrong. Mike Young had the wrong length start line in his computer, Tom went to the wrong turn point. My day was a mixture. I was at the top of the leading gaggle at the first turn and a decision had to be made. There were two choices. Turn on track and fly in the lee of an imposing mountain with no cumulus, or continue north, go round the northern side of the mountain and fly on the upwind side under a good looking sky. But it was at least 10km further. I chose the long way round and, while it wasn't bad, neither apparently was the other way. So that was that. Give these guys a 10km lead and it is all over.

with what was happening today and understood the conditions in front of me. However, the climbs pre-start were weak and the time to gain height was shorter than on previous days. Of course a group of us finally found a little thermal just as the start gate opened, so we stayed in it till quite sure of making the first ridge at a safe height. By the time I got to the ridge there was a group of half a dozen gliders well ahead and higher, but ever so carefully (by means of pushing the stick forward) I rounded each one up, except for Sebastian. To those for whom this name means absolutely nothing, Sebastian Kawa has won so many world championships, all of us have long since lost count. We played cat and mouse until the finish. He would gain height on me, then I would get it back, repeat. However, the run home went my way and it was a great feeling to cross the line first. More relief than anything. A good, honest day of fun.

Kawa 1st, Coutts 6th – 4 points, Tom 8th – but 300sec penalty for wrong turn point = 0 points, Graham 10th – privilege of highest place to get 0 points!

Bruce 1st, Graham – sick of coming 10th!

10 May - Day 2

Graham: An extraordinary race today. We had the usual difficulties at the start. With a stable air mass and little breeze, it was hard to get up to height but I had a reasonable start, then a mass of plastic descended on the first ridge.

The timing of the start was pretty good today. The thermals were picking up nicely and I had a few good climbs with the leading gaggle down the first two legs. Someone would occasionally drop off and the gaggle was whittled down to four half-way down the third leg. Laurent Aboulin went off on a tangent; then there were three. Mike Young and I snuck off while the other guy was looking the other way and it was just the two of us. It was neck and neck for the next 95km, all done without any circling.

We needed a climb on the second to last leg to get us home, and at the end of a ridge right where it should be, we pulled into 6kts. Mike was probably 100 feet above me and looking good.

Bruce: A difficult day. Heavy high overcast meant no heating until very late in the day, well after we had started. Just after I started, I realised that I had actually missed the start line (due to finger trouble on the flight computer or old age, one of the two) but to return would have meant a certain landing, and I thought it might be fun just to do the task anyway. Margin above final glide was nothing and it was very low and slow all the way to the finish. Strangely enough, quite a satisfying day.

Didier Hauss 1st, Tom outlanded, Graham fired up, Bruce finished but missed the start line.

11 May - Day 3 Bruce: Today looked impossible when we woke up, with steady rain, which was still falling at midday. But out came the sun, up came the wind and the race was on. I felt completely comfortable

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12 May - Day 4

Photo Lima Charly

aussie invasion

Photo Lima Charly

aussie invasion

Laurent Aboulin

... my speed was still probably 15kts faster than his.

From there it was just physics.

So when he left on final glide I thought, rather than meekly following home for second place, I would do something different. I stayed for one more turn, then set off in pursuit. I could see he was not having a particularly good run so I went a bit off his track and had much better air. When we came together near the last turn I was about a kilometre behind, but a good 500 feet higher. This was going to be close.

Around the last turn, 10km to go, speed up to 110kts. Ever so slowly I was getting closer, but so was the finish line. A kilometre from the line it was still a guess. 500 metres from the line I was down to minimum altitude and so was Mike, but my speed was still probably 15kts faster than his. From there it was just physics. I slid past him about 150 metres from the finish line, probably going across less than 10 metres in front. Heart stopping stuff, but enormously satisfying.

Graham 1st, Tom outlanded.

13 May - Day 5 Could Tom make it three Aussie wins in a row?

Tom: Blustery gnarly sort of day, where I was tossed around as much as any flight I can remember. Great fun though! It ended up a real drag-race for the first five. A few pilots aborted the task and went home because of the turbulence. I was in 4th spot with 20-30km to go, when the front runners went left around a spur and I slowed down and went right and climbed to a slightly higher ridge line, which lined up with the checkpoint. I had height to overtake Sebastian just after the checkpoint and then just managed to stay in front of everybody and above the finish height, just about stalling over the line. Bruce stayed in

5th position but expected that the gliders in front of him would break the finish height. As it happened, I had started three seconds early, getting a 30 second penalty and the others all got finish penalties, so Bruce ended up 1st, with me 2nd and Sebastian 3rd. Despite missing a day win, it was a fantastic feeling to win the race to the line against that crowd. By now the Europeans are shaking their heads at the way the Aussies are flying in the mountains!

Bruce: Probably one of the most exciting days I have flown.

The wind was blowing like mad and when you are counting the seconds, you don't waste time with excess height. You are right down in the action where there is severe turbulence and an incredible amount of energy. You have very little room for mistakes, as a short period in the wrong place could mean you are on the ground. Once or twice today I had to slow a little, just to see where to go next, which inevitably cost some seconds, but saved me from having a disaster. In a way, I was lucky to be slightly behind the first four as we turned the last point, it allowed me to watch the others and use better air and to manage my height more carefully, without the pressure of close company. As we approached the finish, I was sure that they had all flown below the limit, so I carefully ensured that I didn't. In the end, that is what gave me the result. It was sad for Tom; he flew a great race, and was only seconds away from a win. Sometimes what we see and do in our gliders still absolutely amazes me. Today was incredible.

Bruce 1st, Tom 2nd 8pts – 140kph, fastest speed of the comp, John 5th 5pts.

‌by now the Europeans

are shaking their heads at the way the Aussies are flying in the mountains!

Sept–Oct 2014

27

aussie invasion

Photo Lima Charly

...for the crew watching the live

display in the hangar it was like watching tennis.

John Coutts

14 May – Day 6 Graham & Didier couldn’t cross a small saddle – Didier outlanded, Graham fired up the motor, Sebastian got zero. This left Sebastian in the lead with one point on Bruce.

Bruce: Just a good, steady day today. I started well and was right with the fast crowd, then a bit in front until I flew to one of those hills that ‘always’ works and found nothing. I carried on behind about seven others until they made a fairly serious mistake by missing a crucial climb as we headed out into the flat. Things worked out unexpectedly well down there for me, and the rest of the flight was straightforward, over ground that I knew reasonably well. The air down low on the ridges was even rougher than yesterday - pretty sharp-edged and not really pleasant. I am very pleased with how the day went.

Bruce 1st, Tom 8th 2 pts, Graham o/l, John 0

15 May – Day 7 Tom: I had a great start and was able to get higher than everyone else on the first leg. With that height, I went a slightly different way to the second turnpoint, where Giorgio caught up with me.

On the long run to the east, I missed climbs on the smaller mountains and had to do a long glide to Morgan, where, low, I had to beat backwards and forwards for a long time to climb up the mountain (for the crew watching the live display in the hangar it was like watching tennis). A great run to the west again under the overdevelopment and a fairly easy run in for 5th place.

Didier 1st, Tom 5th 5 pts.

16 May – Day 8 Eight contest days is a GP record. Any of the top four could win.

Bruce: Such a difficult day to fly and if only the race finished

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just 50km earlier, then the result would be very different. But that is not how it was. There are so many stories to tell, and it feels like the flying week was an enormous number of intense experiences, forced into such a short period. It might take some months to unravel it all. So many thanks for the support from everybody. What a ride it has been!

Tom: This was the longest task of the competition but fairly thick cirrus came into the task area, so the thermals were very depressed. As we were close to Sisteron, heading towards the last turnpoint, I realized I had quite a few in front of me, so I slowed down and climbed as high as I could, counting inbound calls until there was no chance of points, then turned to glide home. Bruce unfortunately headed for Checkpoint S instead of Checkpoint N and it cost him a couple of places. Graham was yet again first of the zeros, which all of us had been during the comp.

Didier 1st, Bruce 7th 3 pts, Graham 10th again!

Overall: 1 Didier Haus 2 Sebastian Kawa 3 Uli Schwenk 5 Bruce Taylor 10 Tom Claffey 14= Graham Parker & John Coutts

46pts 41pts 36pts 33pts 15pts 33pts

Not a bad haul for a bunch of flatlanders – the mission to stay alive and get a point very well achieved!

Enormous thanks to all who helped Team Aus with cars, gliders, transport, paperwork and fan mail – Swaantje, Uli Kremer, Marta, Arne for glider, car and marathon drive – and all the supporters! Further details on sgp.aero – including both 2D and 3D replays.

Steward in Finland, or

“Have a look umpire!”

By Terry Cubley

E

ach world comps has a number of FAI/IGC officials. The two key roles are Steward and Jury. At the Grand Prix final, these two positions are combined into one referee.

The roles are a key part of the competition structure, but a far cry from the Referee or Umpire in more traditional sports.

How do you become a steward?

A steward needs a good practical understanding of the competition rules and experience in a range of functions, preferably at a number of world competitions.

In my own case, I have been a pilot at seven world championships. I was competition director at the first Club class world comps at Gawler, and then acted as Team Captain for the Australian team in Uvalde. I was also the referee at the GP final at Omarama.

There are usually two stewards at a World comp or European Championships. The Chief Steward is paid for by the International Gliding Commission (IGC), the other steward is paid from the entry fees by the contest organisers. Given that Australia is as far from Europe as is NZ, Chief Steward is the most likely invitation for me. Not many contest organisers want to spend the dollars to ship someone from the other side of the world. Tables will be turned when Australia runs two world championships in Dec 2015 and Jan 2017. We will be looking for Stewards and Jury members from New Zealand.

Role of the Steward The stewards are closely involved with the competition organisers

Photo Pekka Ylipaavalniemi

Well known Aussie pilot and contest organiser Terry Cubley did something a little different this year, taking on the role of Chief Steward at the non-flapped classes 33rd World Gliding Championship in Räyskälä in Finland. He explains what the stewards do and how the whole system works.

and team captains. The primary role of steward is to provide advice to the organisation, and guidance on the rules. Ultimately, the steward has no responsibility for the running of the competition; this is where the jury steps in. The jury has no involvement with day to day activity, but will consider and decide any protests and will decide if the competition has been run according to the rules and so determine if the competition is valid. The jury can stop the competition if the organisers do not run it according to the rules.

Together, the Stewards and Jury are FAI /IGC representatives at the competition and are charged with helping to make the competition a success.

The person with the biggest workload at the competition is the Competition Director (CD) – he/she is responsible for all activities and is the front person for the competitors. The CD makes all decisions, but a wise CD listens and responds to feedback and advice from the stewards and team captains. The team captains and pilots have a big job, which can be stressful and very demanding, but should be good fun.

There are many decisions made daily by the organisers of a major event. There are usually many options and the CD has to choose one. As steward you can give advice as to the consequences of some of these choices, but it is the CD’s decision.

The major job of the steward, in my opinion, is to make suggestions and then shut up and let the CD get on with it. Sometimes he follows your advice, sometimes not, but it is his choice. The Steward cannot afford to get too pushy with a point of view.

If I said that he should do something and then he does and it

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steward in finland

33rd World Gliding Championship in Räyskälä in Finland. Photos Pekka Ylipaavalniemi

creates a protest, it will be hard for the jury to argue differently if the CD says, “The steward told me to do it.”

The Stewards have a relatively easy job if the CD and his team are good at their job, and if the team captains represent their pilots well. In Finland, my job was quite simple, because of the good work by organisers and team captains. Heikki Pohjola was the CD and had a team of approximately 80 people running the event. Heikki’s strength was that he was prepared to seek and listen to advice, and respond appropriately. This meant that the competitors developed confidence in his abilities to look after their interests.

There have been competitions where the stewards have been very busy, when the comp organisers were inexperienced or inflexible and the team captains rather volatile. I have not been involved with such an event, and believe that they are rare.

The rules Competitions are run according to the sporting code general section and the Annexe A world comp rules. These are reasonably complex and provide a number of options for the organisers to consider. Types of tasks, scoring system, finish and start procedures, turnpoint sectors. Even modern innovations such as live tracking equipment and how to ensure pilots don’t turn them off.

The organisers produce a set of Local Procedures, which explain how they will run the competition. These are expected six months prior to the start of the event, and are usually preceded by a Bulletin or two, used to advertise the event and let people know where and when they can get more information, or where they can practice.

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As chief steward, I had the role to vet and provide advice on the local procedures. Mundane things like glider inspection and tie down areas, weighing procedures and finish circle location tend to get people upset when they aren’t quite right. Most of the team captains have been to a number of world comps and have seen these mundane things run well, and sometimes run badly. The competition director has often not had too much experience with the practical issues of running a world contest, so before the event they rely on the steward to give advice and suggest improvements.

Finnish Finish Circle The biggest issue we had to consider was the finish circle. This is typically a 3 km circle from the airfield reference and, depending on the size of the airfield, this may be 1 to 2.5 km from the airfield boundary. Many years ago, the finish was at the airfield boundary with low height and high speed – very spectacular. Unfortunately, this also provided some unsafe conditions and following a few accidents, the finish was moved out and a minimum height was set, the aim being to allow enough height and distance for the pilot to perform a safe landing.

A straight-in landing is accepted as the safest option - no low level turns, minimal manoeuvres and easy to see what other pilots are doing. If the finish is too high, then it creates difficulty and pilots have to do a steep descent to the direct landing, with potential blind spots ahead and below. If the finish is too low or too far out, pilots may be trapped and have to land before they reach the airfield – also a problem.

steward in finland Eventually they issued six updates to the airspace file. This was concerned with the definition of height. Finland uses Flight Levels from 6500 feet (based on an air pressure of 1013.5HPa) but they expressed this in metres rather than feet, and then there was a local amendment to this definition to describe FL65 as 2000m rather than the actual value of 1980m. Throw into this mix some pilots talking QNH, which the scoring system uses (and which is given on the task sheet each day), and other heights given as QFE (AGL at the airfield). Translation issues added to the complication, but this was finally sorted with airspace file F.

A potential protest

Finland has some special issues - they are called lakes and trees, and they have lots of both of these. In particular, much of the final glide areas in the last 10 km are unlandable. They do occasionally find someone in a lake when they fall short. So the push was to have the finish height higher than normal to try to reduce the possibility of a lake landing during the competition.

Eventually, we came to a compromise between my desire to have a lower height and the organisers’ choice for a higher finish. The agreed finish height of 274 m (MSL), which is 150 m (just under 500ft) above the airfield, worked out quite well for the club class gliders, although the heavy Standard and 20 m gliders found it a little hard to get down once they finished.

In retrospect, we should have pushed for a slightly lower finish height for the heavy classes.

Airspace issues Airspace is often an issue, mainly because the penalties for an airspace infringement are quite severe. First infringement is an outlanding at the point of airspace entry, second is zero points for the day, third time you go home.

Obviously, gliders infringing airspace is a major issue in most countries. We all have to battle for our fair share of available ‘sky to play in’. The rules have the option of a penalty scale of 1 point /metre for a vertical infringement, but this presumes a sporting buffer zone around the real airspace (a sporting limit). This was not done initially with the local procedures but the competition director listened to the suggestions of the team captains and stewards and re-issued the airspace file to include the vertical buffer.

We had no official protests during the event, but one issue came quite close, and it was an airspace issue. There are a lot of airspace zones in the Finland Task area; as many as 10 different sectors of varying heights to traverse.

One task in club class went close to the corner of an airspace block and it seems three gliders just clipped the corner. The flight recorder trace for one glider showed an infringement and the pilot was Each red area is no airspace, each of the other sectors has varying limits from 1700 to 2200 metres outlanded at that point, losing 600+ points, compared to their actual speed. Another pilot deviated slightly and just missed the airspace, so saving their points.

The trace of the third pilot showed a GPS fix just before the airspace block, and the next fix (8 seconds later) was on the other side of the block. The trace showed that the glider flew through the airspace, but there was no actual evidence of a GPS fix within the airspace.

There are a number of rules that come into play in this situation. The rules do not say that you interpolate between the GPS fixes, so the trace between fixes does not in itself prove an error. A back up Flight Recorder with a smaller time period (say a fix every 4 seconds) could show a fix inside the airspace, but another rule says we should use the record that gives most benefit to the pilot. Hence the pilot could insist that we use the original trace. There were many discussions with a number of team captains and pilots, but all concluded the same – the pilot should get the benefit of the doubt. No penalty. Either this pilot was very lucky, or the penalised pilot was very unlucky.

A lonely life I am used to being part of a team at a world comps, a large group of people with tactical and strategic choices daily. This is good fun. The stewards and jury on the other hand are a little more isolated. We are not part of the teams, we are not part of the core organisation, so it can get a little lonely. Luckily for us, the locals and some of the teams were very friendly and so we had quite a good social interaction. I even tried the sauna.

Will you be back?

I enjoyed the role, it was quite good fun. Not as much fun as competing yourself, not as satisfying as running an event yourself, but given the opportunity I would willingly do it again.

Sept–Oct 2014

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ASG 32

the newest entry in the 20m two-seater class

By Bernard Eckey

I knew that the ASG 32 was scheduled to have its maiden flight around the same time I was visiting my relatives in Germany. Due to other commitments, I missed this historic event but while talking to Ulrich Kremer, Schleicher Managing Director on the following day, I got an invitation for a test flight.

I

arrived a few days later to find the new glider surrounded by a number of other gliding addicts. All of them were busy inspecting the ASG 32 and were queuing to try it for size.

Because I was seen as another potential customer, they freely expressed their delight with the elegant appearance and the generous cockpit. “For the first time we have a glider that allows someone like me to enjoy long cross-country flights” the tallest visitor said. Bug wiper garages and automatic control connections are standard features but an additional outlet for cockpit air and integrated Anti Collision Lights (ACL) in the leading edge of the fin are available on request. The same applies to dual engine controls.

Looking at a new glider is nice but flying it is much better!

Therefore we kept a close eye on the sky and in the early afternoon our prayers were answered, when a few blue holes appeared on the horizon. Having travelled the furthest, I was offered the first flight of the day. My pilot was no other than

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Ulrich Kremer himself. First he remarked that our wing loading would be around 47 kg/m² and our C of G approximately 1/3 away from the rearmost limit. Then he told me to strap myself in while the glider was still parked in front of the hangar, quite a distance away from the end of the airstrip. That’s strange I thought, but being married for more than 30 years I figured it is best to do as you are told. The engine sprang to life without hesitation and after taxiing for about 50 metres and completing a 180° turn we were lined up on the runway, thanks to the steerable tail wheel. By now the engine was already warm enough and just seconds later we were rolling and climbing into a largely overcast sky at a rate of almost 6 knots. The humming sound of the rotary engine was a pleasant change from the 2-stroke engine in my ASH 25. Most noticeable is the total absence of vibration and a considerably lower noise level. In fact, there was hardly any need to raise my voice while talking to my front seat pilot. Very impressive indeed!

We climbed through 3000 ft with no sign of convection.

Therefore, my pilot elected to keep the engine running until we were in reach of a dark spot under an overcast sky. While cruising near best L/D the quiet cockpit is noticed straight away - most likely due to the very clean fuselage. No nose wheel can disturb the airflow and the tail wheel is also fully retractable – a first for a production glider. At the first sign of turbulent air, Ulrich initiated a turn and told me to take over. Soon we were climbing - rather slow at first, but after a few corrections the vario was reading about 3 knots up. The first pleasant surprise

“For the first time we have a glider that allows someone like me to enjoy long cross-country flights” the tallest visitor said.

In the front seat is Ulrich (Uli) Kremer – the MD of Schleicher with his dad, Edgar Kremer in the back seat.

Steerable and retractable tailwheel.

The author checks out the engine.

is the agility of this 20 m bird. This and the control harmony are wonderful and need to be experienced to be believed. The outstanding rate of roll is due to the fact that the outer flaperons extend over 48% of the wing span but somewhat surprisingly, the stick forces remain pleasantly low. It makes thermalling this new glider almost effortless, even on long to very long flights.

Initially, I was thermalling at around 60 knots but after about half a dozen turns it felt comfortable to bring the speed back to just over 50 knots. I must admit to over-ruddering the ASG 32 initially – most certainly a legacy of being a long time Open Class pilot. Most impressive of all is the feedback this glider provides, thanks to a new aerofoil and a clever control system.

But more on that later!

Cloud base was around 5000 ft by now and with a few promising signs of lift in the distance, we decided to try our luck further away. With the flap lever in overdrive, the new bird was soon cruising between 85 and 95 knots. Perhaps this was a bit fast for the prevailing conditions but an ideal opportunity to get a feel for the ASG 32’s high speed characteristics. The control forces remain remarkably low and if my first impression is anything to go by, the high speed glide performance is at least on par with the ASH 25 - not bad for a glider with 6 metre less wingspan. So far no performance measurements have been conducted but recent comparisons with the single-seater ASH 31 Mi (in 18 m configuration) have shown that the ASH 31 pilot had to work very hard to stay in touch on a 300 kilometre crosscountry flight.

Back in the upper height band, it was time to check the low speed characteristics. Slowly bringing the stick back to the control stop makes the nose point steeply into the air. It is more than enough to make every pilot feel very uncomfortable indeed but it doesn’t faze the ASG 32 at all. Only feeding in some rudder puts the glider into protest mode. Initial buffeting leads to dropping of a wing which is by no means violent. It can be immediately arrested by releasing the back pressure. To describe the stall as docile is an understatement.

Checking the slow speed characteristics came not a minute too early. Only small wisps of clouds remained under a thickening cloud cover with light rain evident in the distance. But even these wisps produced nothing but sink and when I was getting a bit too low for my liking, I handed over to Ulrich with the suggestion to start the engine. Without hesitation he pointed the nose towards a small industrial complex next to the Autobahn, where he managed to find a weak, broken and narrow thermal. We were low, the glider was standing on the left wingtip, the ASI was reading 65 knots and I admit that I was right at the edge of my comfort zone. But soon it didn’t matter anymore - we were climbing again. Pilot skill and local knowledge helps greatly in situations like these but as a test for the ASG 32, it passed with flying colours.

After about two hours in the air, it was time to give others a chance to test this new glider. The narrow factory airstrip is surrounded by tall trees and because it only tolerates landings in one direction, we faced a tailwind of at least 15 knots on

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ASG32

final. That is enough to put the average pilot right on edge but to my surprise Uli waved his left hand to demonstrate that the airbrakes remain in the selected position even if the pilot takes his hands off. Shortly after, the main wheel briefly squeaked while touching the runway and only then we noticed that cameras were pointing towards us from all directions.

Designer Michael Greiner was already waiting for us, to show his latest creation to another group of potential customers. He found himself bombarded with questions and while listening to him it soon became evident that this man knows what he is doing and that his ASG 29 did not become a best seller by coincidence.

Michael stressed that the ASG 32 is the only aircraft in its class designed to satisfy the new crash load requirements of 9G corresponding to a 7.5 ton load on the cockpit section. Extensive tests on a full scale fuselage, with strain gauges and thorough analysis were necessary to fulfil this requirement without excessive mass penalty. He also let us in on the design philosophy behind the ASG 32 and explained some of the aerodynamic refinements.

Although the front fuselage is a direct copy of the ASH 30, the tail section including the vertical and horizontal stabilizer is brand new. Their unusually high aspect ratio not only decreases overall drag but also reduced control forces – something we had just experienced first-hand.

The wing is also a totally new design. It features an almost elliptical lift distribution, 4 different aerofoil near the fuselage, three different aerofoil along the wing, a new 0.6 m tall winglet with snap on fittings, and a plan form consisting of 5 trapeziums. The wing plan form was kept as straight as possible, to avoid high speed torsion loads and a consequent premature migration away from the laminar bucket. Johannes Dillinger (of Concordia fame) greatly contributed to the aerodynamic design and in particular focused on the wing to fuselage junction, to reduce the effect of the fuselage on the lift distribution. He also helped design the fin to fuselage junction, to avoid the negative effect of the turbulent wedge created by the fuselage.

Just as much effort was put into the wing control system with advanced flaperons. A newly developed aileron and flap mixer is located in the inner wing panel. It guarantees high roll rates and at the same time decreases negative yawing moments, as well as ensuring minimum drag in stationary turns. The combined effect of this new mixer and the latest wing section ensures a high usable lift coefficient in positive flap settings, which is of prime importance when it comes to taking full advantage of gusts while thermalling. It not only results in improved rates of climb but – just as importantly – it also gives the pilot a first class feel for the air.

Driving home that day left me in no doubt that the ASG 32 will become another best seller for the oldest still-existing glider manufacturer. The ASG 32 nicely fills the gap between the ASK 21 and the latest Open Class two-seater ASH 30 Mi. Because it was designed without compromises and without any need to revert to existing components, it has what it takes to become the leading model in the new 20 m two-seater FAI class. At the time of writing, as many as twenty six firm orders are already on the Schleicher order book and this number is expected to grow rapidly.

The designer Michael Greiner and his creation.

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Sept–Oct 2014

Matamata Soaring Centre Calendar 2014

If you are thinking of attending please put the below dates in your diary NOW! EVENT

START

FINISH

X-Country Course – for those wanting to learn to fly cross country in a safe and friendly environment with expert instructors this course is a must.

Monday 24th November

Friday 28th November

Regionals – come join the fun. Test your skills and enjoy some of the best cross country flying you will ever do.

Tasks will be set to cater for all levels of experience.

Practice / set up day Saturday 29th November.

Sunday 30th November

Saturday 6th December

Vintage Enterprise Contest – the Matamata Soaring Centre is turning 50 and as part of the celebrations The Vintage and Classic Glider Club of NZ will be running an Enterprise style contest alongside the Regionals.

So please bring along your classic glider and join in the fun. Expect some old contest rules (ties and turn point photos) and perhaps even some old tow planes.

Sunday 30th November

Saturday 6th December

Saturday 6th December – drinks from late afternoon

Wee small hours

Matamata Soaring Centre 50th Anniversary Celebratory Dinner – for pilots, crew, helpers and associates, if you have had involvement with the Matamata Soaring Centre over the last 50 years we would love you to join us and help reminisce and celebrate.

To help the organisers with numbers, if you think you might attend any of the above events please register on the link available on the Matamata Soaring Centre Website: msc.gliding.co.nz Sept–Oct 2014

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Geoff Soper's award winning Action shot of Bill Walker.

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Sept–Oct 2014

Sept–Oct 2014

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Photo Geoff Soper

The first cross country flight in

Sunseeker Duo 19-20 June 2014

By Eric Raymond

The Duo (in the distance) and Sunseeker II fly in formation

The Sunseeker Duo is the new two-seater version of Solar Flight’s solar powered Sunseeker Aircraft. Solar Flight, the company created

by Eric and Irena Raymond has the goal of creating a truly environmentally friendly aircraft.

Sunseeker I crossed America in 1990, providing proof that the technology could work. In 2009 Eric took Sunseeker II on an epic tour of Europe, including crossing the Alps. The Duo is the first solar powered aircraft with a passenger seat, and this year the Raymonds made the most of it.

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Sept–Oct 2014

A

t the beginning of June we started planning the first cross country flight in the Sunseeker Duo. Irena and I set the goal of flying from our base at Voghera, in Italy, 100 miles to the small town of Pavullo, along the base of the Apennine mountain range. We had calm air at Voghera for take-off but we could see some cumulus clouds over the mountains. Starting with the batteries full, it was easy to get up to cloud base.

We had to decide whether to fly over the clouds or under them and in the end we did some of each. Over the clouds the air was smooth and there was lots of sun for the solar panels, but our path was sometimes blocked by towering cumulus.

Under the clouds we encountered more turbulence, downdrafts, lots of shadows and high terrain. Therefore we tried to stay on top as much as possible in the better conditions for a solar powered airplane.

It was an easy first cross country flight and we arrived to our destination in less than three hours. Since it was only early afternoon we decided to explore the high peaks to the south, some of which still have snow in mid-June.

Landing at Pavullo was easy, the airport was familiar to us. Pavullo airport was one of the destinations I used during the European Tour with the single seat Sunseeker II. Our hosts made room for us in their hangar and we folded the wings.

With the wings folded the Sunseeker Duo uses the same amount of space in a hangar as a Cessna.

The next morning we awoke to strong NW winds, a headwind to get home.

The air was turbulent in the area of the airport because of the wind, but after we gained some altitude it was smooth sailing and we made the flight back home in three hours despite the headwind.

Again, since it turned out to be so easy,

we continued on toward Genoa, hoping to get a nice view of the sparkling Mediterranean, but it was covered in low clouds.

Still we had some nice local flying.

Irena landed the Sunseeker Duo back at Voghera without problems, despite the rough air.

For more information on the Sunseeker aircraft see Solar-flight.com.

Sunseeker Duo specs

Empty weight Max weight Wing span Stall speed VNE Glide ratio Climb rate Wingload

290 kg 470 kg 22 m 28 mph 100 mph 1:38 2m/sec at 15 kW motor power 16-20 kg/m2

Direct drive brushless motor producer of the motor: Enstroj, Slovenia weight 9 kg power 20 kW We are using Lithium Polymer batteries

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Irena flies the Sunseeker Duo

solo

By Irena Raymond

After many training flights in a Diamond DA-20 and then the SUNSEEKER DUO, I am sitting in the Duo's cockpit, this time alone.

T

he electric motor starts humming quietly and the Duo is gaining speed on the runway, ready to take off. There is not much weight in the cockpit so I am high above the runway in just a few moments. With only me in the cockpit, the DUO climbs at 2 m/s on only 15 kW. After climbing for a while I turn off the motor. It is quiet, I hear only the whispering of the wind. This is pure joy!

The Duo is responding to my wishes, and we climb higher in light thermals. Eric is coming by for a pass with the Sunseeker II. Two white, large birds, playing with each other. The Duo is so comfortable that I could fly it for hours without any need for rest. With a lot of space in the cockpit, very good visibility, comfortable seats and excellent ventilation it is perfect for long touring flights.

As in the Sunseeker ll, the window can be opened in flight.

The whispering of the wind becomes much louder, but it is very convenient for taking photos.

As it gets late it is time to put down the landing gear and to land. I am happy that Eric decided to give the aircraft a tricycle landing gear, it is so easy to taxi the Duo to the hangar.

I feel very fortunate to spend a lot of time flying together with my husband Eric. I am thankful for his boundless confidence in me and for sharing his extensive knowledge. He is a great teacher.

I like flying both gliders and power planes, however, flying the Sunseeker Duo is something special.

I am proud for becoming the second pilot of DUO and I can hardly wait to fly it again.

Irena after landing back home

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Sept–Oct 2014

Takeoff

Landing

How an everyday Cross Country Pilot became a

record setter

by Mitch Polinsky

American pilot Mitch Polinsky has been having an incredible couple of years. This story details his exploits last year and was first printed in the American Soaring magazine in March.

We reprint it with their permission.

I

t is currently summer in America and Mitch has managed another eight new records, in addition to the eight he broke last summer in the single-seat motorglider category. He says: I surprised myself again this summer, achieving eight different U.S. National records than the eight described in the following article about the summer of 2013 (all in the single-seat motorglider category). Here is a listing of the newest records: 03/05/14 Out & return speed 300 km: 193.66 kph 12/0614 Straight distance to a goal: 770.2 km 03/07/14 Triangle speed 1250 km: 138.30 kph[1] 25/07/14 Free distance: 1110.9 km 15/08/14 Out and return distance: 1031.5 km 15/08/14 Free out and return distance: 1031.5 km 15/08/14 Out & return speed 1000 km: 118.89 kph 17/08/14 Out & return speed 750 km: 141.73 kph I’m still digesting how this happened again. Weather conditions in the Great Basin were generally thought to be worse in 2014 than in 2013. But because I more or less lived there for the summer, I was able to take advantage of the good days. One new technique I used this summer were long aerotows (some exceeding 200 km) to remote starts, in order to optimize the opportunities given the weather. My first record this summer, on May 3, was done in wave from Minden, NV. The rest were done in thermals from Ely, NV or Parowan, UT. My flying took off last summer in a way that delighted and puzzled me. Although I had never set a record previously in twenty-five years of soaring, I achieved eight U.S. national records over a period of six weeks in the summer of 2013. I did

flights that far exceeded what I thought I was capable of doing.

It made me wonder how this happened. I offer here some of my analysis of the factors that led to this outcome.

First, the facts — U.S. national soaring records in the singleseat motorglider category: 29/06/13 Free triangle distance: 1157.2 km 02/07/13 Triangle speed 1000 km: 133.77 km/h

[not submitted b/c surpassed on 7/18/13] 18/07/13 Distance up to 3 TPs: 1070.67 km 18/07/13 Triangle distance: 1070.25 km 18/07/13 Triangle speed 1000 km: 138.99 km/h 20/07/13 Triangle speed 750 km: 150.72 km/h 06/08/13 Triangle speed 500 km: 156.87 km/h 06/08/13 Triangle speed 300 km: 156.87 km/h 14/08/13 Out-and-return speed 500 km: 155.77 km/h All of these flights were done in the area known as the Great Basin. They were all flown from Ely, Nevada, except for the last one, which was done from Parowan.

The reason this list seems a bit unbelievable to me is the following. I started flying gliders in 1979. Except for a nine-year hiatus, I’ve flown every year since then, a total of 26 years of soaring. In 1985, I joined a partnership to buy a DG-400. In 2008, I started flying an ASH 26E and in 2012 I transitioned to an ASH 31Mi. My ambition was to fly a declared 1000 km triangle someday. My first 1000 km flight didn’t occur until the summer of 2011 in my ASH 26E, but it wasn’t a triangle and it wasn’t declared. In the summer of 2012, I flew four more 1000 km flights, now in my ASH 31Mi, including my first two 1000 Sept–Oct 2014

41

record flying

The excitement of that flight really whetted my appetite for record attempts.

km triangles, but none of these were declared either. In the summer of 2013, I flew ten more 1000 km flights, including eight 1000 km triangles, three of which were declared, and obtained the eight records listed above. I hope this explains why I still have some self-doubts about whether this past summer was real or a fluke.

I’ve never thought of myself as among the top-tier Great Basin thermal pilots. For example, until last summer, I never did better than Ramy Yanetz, flying his ASW 27, in terms of OLC points when flying from the same airport on the same day. The same was pretty much true with respect to Gordon Boettger, Bill Gawthrop, Uwe Kleinhempel, Russ Owens, Mike Parker, Jim Payne, and others. I was solidly in the second-tier, even though I aspired to fly like these guys.

I welcomed the opportunity to write this article as a form of self-analysis, to try to figure out why I did so much better than I had any reason to expect last summer. I’ve got a few thoughts about what caused this to happen.

(1) Inspiration For about two weeks before I showed up in Ely for my summer soaring encampment, I started noticing on the OLC some flights by two pilots flying out of Ely in really big-wing open class gliders: John Bally in a two-seat EB28 and Bandar AlFaisal in a single-seat EB29. I had previously heard a little about these gliders, but not about these pilots. They were doing remarkable flights from Ely during the first half of June, a period of time that the regular Ely soaring pilots considered too early in the season. Between June 6 and June 17, John had three flights exceeding 1000 km at speeds between 160-165 km/h, as well as a 910 km flight at 173 km/h. Bandar also had two long flights exceeding 150 km/h.

How was this possible? These were speeds comparable to wave-flying speeds, and done during a period of time generally thought not to be the best part of the Ely season. Luckily for me, John and Bandar were still in Ely when I showed up around the third week in June, and I eagerly sought them out to talk to them about their flying techniques. After a few conversations, John asked me whether I’d like to ride in his back seat the next day, an invitation I quickly accepted. The weather turned out to be quite weak and we couldn’t do a long-distance flight, but I observed for four hours how John could scratch and tip toe along just above the ridge lines and make steady — but on this day, slow — progress. I came to the conclusion that what he was doing wasn’t rocket science, but ‘simply’ the superb execution of the same lessons I’d been taught over the years by my cross-country soaring instructors and mentors (e.g., stay over the high ground, search over slopes with sun and wind on the same side, etc.). I was inspired to think that if I just concentrated on doing what I knew I should be doing better, I might be able to improve my flying outcomes significantly. A week later I flew the longest flight of my life (1244 km on the OLC), including the longest triangle of my life (1157 km), and broke my first record (more on this flight below). Thank you, John.

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Sept–Oct 2014

Along the crest of the High Sierras

Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah

Delano Peak

The High Sierras, out of Minden

(2) Friendly competition Although I don’t fly in live competitions, I love the friendly virtual competition promoted by the OLC, where everyone has a real chance of winning due to the handicapping. One of my best glider friends is Uwe Kleinhempel, who is as gung-ho about soaring as I am. He used to fly a PIK 20E and did surprisingly well with it in the OLC, given that it was a generation or more behind modern gliders in performance. But then he got a Ventus 2cM motorglider and his soaring really took off. In his first full summer with this plane, he ranked second in the U.S. and fifth in the World OLC rankings. On July 9, 2012, we both took off from Ely on a strong day and attempted the U.S. singleseat motorglider ‘free triangle distance’ record. I landed just before sunset, having flown a 1083 km free triangle, and breaking the prior distance record by 75 km. Obviously, I was very happy. After tying down my plane, I found Uwe to see how he had done, and he reported that he had flown a 1131 km free triangle, breaking the prior record by about 125 km. Obviously, he was very happy too, about 50 km happier than I was. He clearly deserved the record, and got it, because he flew further in the same conditions in a lower-performing glider than mine (and he flew faster).

I spent the rest of the summer of 2012 trying to beat his record, without success. Uwe’s performance inspired me to try harder. Throughout the winter, I thought about how I could do better. In prior summers, I always seemed to be one of the last pilots to launch at Ely. I vowed to get ready and get off sooner during the summer of 2013.

On June 29, 2013, the forecast was strong and I got a reasonably early start. I flew north first and went 25 km past Jackpot, NV into Idaho, before turning southwest towards Gabbs, NV. If I could make it to Gabbs and get back to Ely, I would have enough distance to break Uwe’s record of the prior summer.

When I was about 75 km short of Gabbs, there was a big blue hole. I started across it and hit sink. After a while, I abandoned Gabbs as a target and went into survival mode, heading for the hills west of Hadley, NV, keeping Hadley as my safety airport in case I needed to start my engine and couldn’t. My trace shows I got really low in the hills near Hadley, heading for the only visible lift, some clouds just west of Hadley. I barely got there, but recovered good altitude once I did. Now getting back to Ely wouldn’t suffice for a free triangle distance record, but the day was starting to overdevelop, and I would be grateful just to get back home. I headed east toward Ely and got eastward faster

record flying

The concentrated focus on soaring

while I was at Ely was exhilarating and, I believe, made a big difference to the outcomes of my flights

Terry Delore while flying together out of Ely, NV this summer.

than I expected, with an hour to spare. So instead of heading straight to Ely, I headed southeast of Ely, thinking that if I could go far enough southeast of Ely and still get back to Ely, I just might make enough distance for the free triangle record.

By the time I got southeast of Ely the sky was definitely overdeveloping and there was a dark layer of cloud covering the area I needed to get to, in order to achieve the record distance.

I headed toward it but got steadily lower. About 15 km short of the turnpoint I needed, I gave up and started back toward Ely. Approximately 2-3 km later on the way home I encountered strong lift and stopped and climbed a couple of thousand feet for an extra margin of safety getting back to Ely. But then it occurred to me that maybe I could actually make my turnpoint, and still get back to Ely with enough daylight to land safely. I decided to try, with the knowledge that I could land legally after sunset if necessary because I had position lights. I made it to the turnpoint and then put my MacCready setting on zero to tip-toe home. I landed four minutes after sunset with my lights on, having flown a 1157 km free triangle, beating Uwe’s record by 26 km. And best of all, my wife forgave me that I wasn’t home that day for our 38th anniversary.

(3) Declared flights The excitement of that flight really whetted my appetite for record attempts. But most of the records that seemed possible required a flight declaration, and I had very little experience flying declared tasks. In the latter part of the summer of 2012, I finally learned how to enter declared flights into my flight computer, but failed to complete any of my five or six attempts to fly a declared task.

One of my best glider friends at Ely, Marek Malolepszy, grew up in the Polish glider environment where people almost always flew declared flights. Every time I told him about a long flight I did, including the June 29th free triangle record flight, he’d ask me sceptically, “But was it a declared flight?” In his mind, it didn’t count as a real flight unless it was declared. I promised him that I’d relearn how to enter declared tasks into my flight computer and started doing so shortly after my June 29th flight.

Two days later, on July 1st, I completed the first declared task of my life, a 1011 km triangle at 128 km/h. I was surprised at my speed, which was only a few km/h short of the U.S. single-seat motorglider record for speed over a 1000 km triangle. The next day I got a late start — old habits creeping back in — and afraid of losing out on a good day, decided to just get off the ground and try the same task as the day before so as to not have to

On tow by James Adams from Ely, NV to very remote start 200+ km away this summer.

take the time to plan and enter a new task. Luckily, the weather on July 2nd was even better than on July 1st and I was able to complete the 1011 km triangle task faster than the day before, at just under 134 km/h — fast enough for the speed record for a 1000 km triangle. Thank you, Marek, for ‘encouraging’ me to declare tasks.

(4) Focus on soaring Another factor that I think contributed significantly to my leap forward in soaring last summer was my decision to try to structure my summer so that I could really focus on soaring without distractions. I’m a university professor (teaching economics at Stanford Law School), so I have few professional obligations during the summer, other than continuing to do research and writing. But in order to finance my soaring and to pay for the ASH 26E in 2008 and the ASH 31Mi in 2012, I occasionally do work as an economic consultant to law firms and corporations involved in litigation.

The summer of 2012 was especially distracting due to this work, leading me at one point to wear a phone headset while I put water ballast in my glider so that I could participate in a business conference call with lawyers on the east coast. I took off forty minutes after everyone else that day because of this, and flew about 950 km while several people flew well over 1000 km. That call clearly cost me a 1000 km flight. I vowed to try to arrange things to be free of this work during the summer of 2013 so that I could focus more intensely on flying and taking off earlier. I turned down two consulting opportunities last spring and didn’t have any litigation-related consulting obligations during the summer. As a result, I got a little more sleep and I found time to study weather forecasts more thoroughly than I had in the past. I flew more days and more hours — 261 hours between mid-May and mid-August. The concentrated focus on soaring while I was at Ely was exhilarating and, I believe, made a big difference to the outcomes of my flights.

(5) Risk ‘management’ This last factor is a euphemism for risk ‘taking.’ I consider myself a very conservative pilot in terms of safety. Until last summer, I had only one scary mishap in a glider in twenty-five years of soaring. It was in my DG-400 in 1989 when, after three days of cross-country soaring training from a champion glider pilot, I set my sights too high on my very next solo flight and got myself in trouble. It turned out to be a ‘fender bender,’ but it came close to being much worse for both me and the glider.

Sept–Oct 2014

43

record flying After landing June 12. My second record of this summer 770 km distance to a goal flight. Picture taken shortly after landing at Butte, MT, having started at Ely, NV

MP at Ely, 1 of 2, June, 2008 (by Hugh Milne)

That was a sobering experience and ultimately resulted in my taking a nine-year hiatus from soaring. I resumed soaring in 2000 and, flying conservatively again, didn’t scare myself for the next thirteen seasons. But last summer was different. I scared myself twice.

I knew I was pushing myself harder than usual in order to have a chance at accomplishing the record flights, but this consisted mainly of taking ‘inconvenience risks,’ where I might have to motor home a long distance (I did a couple of times) or land at another airport. Several times, however, I got low when the only safety field was a farmer’s crop circle or a ploughed field. I didn’t consider this dangerous to me physically, but I knew that if my engine didn’t start, and I had to land there, I was putting my glider at greater risk for damage. Then, one day, coming back to Ely from Wells, NV, I was struggling a bit in weak conditions. I tried to gain height in a range of peaks southeast of Wells, while keeping the Wells airport in safe gliding range. I did gain some height and kept proceeding south toward Ely. Eventually I was out of range of Wells, but still within what I thought was safe range of a marginal field in the high desert. As I headed in the direction of this field I hit unexpectedly severe and sustained sink that quickly put me out of safe gliding range to that field. I wasn’t going to make it, but there was one small cloud building between me and that field. If it worked, I’d be ok. If it didn’t, I’d be starting my engine over very unpleasant terrain and praying that it didn’t fail (it never has, so far). The cloud worked, I got high enough to switch to another, better field as my safety field, and I made it home, feeling a bit shaky.

The second scare occurred on my final day of flying last summer. It was my final day because of what I’m about to describe. I was flying out of Parowan and trying for a 300 km out-and-return speed record, having achieved the 500 km outand-return speed record a few days earlier. The forecast on August 17th was for thunderstorms to the north of Parowan, but conditions appeared better to the west. I set up a 300 km outand-return task to the west and took off mid-afternoon, after it looked like the overdevelopment was starting to dissipate.

I rounded my turnpoint, though not making great speed, and discovered when I looked back in the direction of Parowan that the weather there had got worse, not better, with widespread thunderstorms and lightning. As I got closer, it became apparent that Cedar City, about 30 km south of Parowan, was a much safer place to land, so I landed there. I expected the stormy weather around Parowan to clear and planned to take off from Cedar City about half an hour before sunset and land back at Parowan. I took off again, but when I got to Parowan it was clear from the windsock that the cross-wind component far exceeded the capability of my glider, and I’d be landing on a 75 foot wide

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runway with a 69 foot wingspan. So I returned to land at Cedar City for a second time and spend the night there. However, by the time I got back there the same winds that were problematic at Parowan were problematic for landing on the 150 foot wide main runway at Cedar City (23 kts gusting to 33 kts, essentially perpendicular to the runway). The only option then, now that it was sunset, was to land on the auxiliary runway, which only had a 30 degree crosswind component. I knew it was much narrower, but didn’t learn until I was on the ground that I had landed on a 60 foot wide runway with a 69 foot wingspan. The landing was in very gusty conditions and I bounced hard, but remained in control. Near the end of the rollout a gust caused my right wing tip to go down just off the runway, scraping the bottom of it. Luckily, the only damage was cosmetic and easily fixed, but this was a wake-up call — two scares in one summer after thirteen summers of no scares.

This flight drained me emotionally, and my body and mind were unanimous that it was time to call it quits. I packed up the next day and drove the glider to the Williams Soaring Center for an inspection after the hard landing (no damage) and the cosmetic repair of the scrape. This was a disappointing way to end the most exciting and satisfying soaring season of my life, but I knew that I’d come close to having too much excitement. I learned a lesson again about the psychology of flying and risk-taking, that I’d first learned twenty-four years ago in my DG-400. This was a refresher course that happily, I passed.

I’ve got a new goal for next summer: No more scares.

So, in the end, my soaring success last summer makes a little more sense to me. It was the culmination of things I’d been working towards for many years. I hope the magic will continue this coming season and beyond.

Acknowledgements: In addition to the people already mentioned above, several others were instrumental to my soaring enjoyment during the past year. The three FBO’s in the Great Basin where I fly have all been wonderfully helpful: James Adams at the Ely Jet Center, Laurie Harden at SoaringNV at Minden, and Dave Norwood at Parowan Aero Services. At Minden and Ely, my friends Darren Braun, Terry Delore, Buzz Graves, Eric Greenwell, Craig Melvin, Michael Mitton, John Morgan, Dieter Reuter, Ed Salkeld, Tom Seim, and Tom Stowers all provided moral and technical support of various kinds.

Special thanks to Rex Mayes at the Williams Soaring Center for his excellent maintenance of my glider, and to Paul Remde at Cumulus Soaring and Richard Pfiffner at Craggy Aero for help with instrumentation and equipment. Lastly, I dedicate this article to the memory of Doug Armstrong, a great meteorologist and cheerleader for Great Basin soaring.

The second fastest

1250 km flight ever flown

By Terry Delore

Multiple world record holder and well known New Zealand pilot, Terry Delore is one of the many New Zealand pilots who heads off to better soaring conditions during our winter.

Terry has been flying in Nevada for many years and this year based himself out of Ely. He tells us about a fantastic season of soaring.

T

he conditions this year were awesome, with solid 12 knot plus climbs, in places. Cloud bases were sometimes in excess of 22,000 ft. There were 1000 kilometre flights done here most good days and several national records.

This place is a must do for any serious distance soaring pilot, but not a place for bunnies; if you get it wrong out in the desert it bites and creates a big hassle.

This season I did the best thermal flight of my life. It was an attempt on the 1250 km speed record, but unfortunately I let myself down by being 0.5 kph slower than the world record speed of 151.5 kph. Each year I get a tad closer and each year I get less enthusiastic about pedalling a Nimbus 3, fully loaded with ballast, around this task for 8 ½ hours, only to find at the end that if I’d made two less turns in bad air it would have made the difference.

The flight was less than text book, with a very slow first leg in weak conditions, to Jack Pot, 300 km to the north. The climbs were 4-6 knots, with the odd 8 knots. I only managed 125 kph. Teals Marsh waypoint was next, a leg of 525 km into a slight head wind, but running roughly along the mountain lines where the big thermals blast off. Although the long lines of streeting were not present, glides of 100 km or more were possible, at cruising speeds of around 110 knots. The Nimbus took me down to 1300 ft above the desert floor around Gabbs, but there is a good airport right there, so no worries. I gave up a 5 knot thermal and dug out 11 knots plus all the way to 17,999 ft. Some climbs before that had exceeded 14.5 knots. This was all helping. Now, with only 515 km to go, all I needed was to get around Teals Marsh, stay connected with good to excellent climbs in the tail wind to the last turn, then home. I had to average 178 kph for the last three hours. I believed this was possible if I didn’t make mistakes.

The final glide on these flights is normally 130 km or more and the average speed for that is in excess of 200 kph if done correctly, so I was backing the Nimbus and me to do exactly

that. Added to this, I was hanging out for a smoke and a Stella, and was in no mood to delay either. All went well until the last turn, where the sky over-developed and my Stella was delayed.

As I rounded the turn, it was right into a 6 knot climb. Was this enough? I looked at my watch, left the thermal and set off, 3000 ft under glide slope, confident I’d bag a ball tickler soon.

Sadly, this was not the case, but I did manage to use the late evening thermals that were broad and friendly to add to the tail wind, to do a very skinny final glide back to Ely, with nothing much to spare.

It is daunting coming off rising ground with a tail wind, over unlandable terrain, into the sun, not being able to even see the airport 30 km out, about 1200 ft above the ground below.

All in all, on reflection, I was bloody disappointed. It was the second fastest 1250km ever done, but nobody remembers who came second. I am not flying as well as I have in the past but I doubt I will continue flogging a dead horse with this task.

L to R) James Adams (Mr Ely Soaring), Sam the great line girl and rose between two thorns and Roger the tow pilot.

Sept–Oct 2014

45

record flying

How faR we have come

By Jill McCaw

Mitch Polinsky

Terry Delore

The Sailplane GLIDING FOR WOMEN

My wife Wendy tells me I need to fly just for fun, so that is what I will do for a while.

As well as making record attempts, I had some good times with other pilots, flying alongside Mitch Polinski some days and catching up with other international gliding friends.

One day I flew as an Advanced Cross Country Instructor with a guy called Miko, in his Arcus. He is a pretty good pilot and has several gliders and powered aircraft. We declared a 1000 km. Halfway through he got a little sick, so we headed home. Again 6-11 knot thermals, bases up to 20,000 ft plus, but not good all the way around the course.

The Arcus is so easy to fly and sits in the turn effortlessly, plus we self-launched at 6200 ft in hot conditions; pretty good for max all up. It is a great ship but it is not so happy landing. I dropped it on from 1-2 ft. It runs out quickly.

Next year there may be an Ely Cup, invitational contest, for big triangle flights. New Zealand pilots will be considered and some of the best pilots in the world will be there. If you don't fly the Great Nevada Basin once in your glider pilot’s lifetime you have lost your marbles for sure. It is absolutely fan-bloody-tastic!!

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Sept–Oct 2014

By Joan Bradbrooke [Mrs. Bradbrooke, who is a Canadian by birth, was the first woman to get a Gliding Certificate in this country, and she was indeed one of the very early enthusiasts for her Certificate is number 12. She has done a little power flying, but practically all her training was gained at a Club. In this article she explains how gliding appeals to women, – and most importantly the sort of clothes they ought to wear. – ED] Women have taken over so many sports now that whenever a new one comes along the question arises – what is in it for a woman? We go in for most sports I suppose because we want exercise, like to be out in the open air, like thrills and in many cases, I think, because we like to show that we can hold our own in anything that at one time was considered fit for men only. I think, too, that most of us enjoy things in which we have to use our brains.

Gliding is not difficult, but as in most things one must grasp a few essentials, know what one is doing and be able to keep one's head. Gliding is one of the few sports I know of in which women start out on an equal basis with men-even with an advantage. The advantage is that usually women weigh less. This counts tremendously in the later stage of soaring, although it is always an advantage to be able to get off the ground easily – as a light person can-with a small pull-off. I myself can get up to a height of about 50 feet with only two people on each rope, whereas for the average man the pull-off consists of from three to four people on each rope. Also, being light, one can glide further, as the weight in the machine is less and the sinking speed is therefore lower.

If you are keen on being out of doors, prepared for all weather, are not afraid of work and exercise, are interested in flying and want what I believe to be the most unique feeling and most marvellous thrill in the world – by all means try gliding.

When I first joined a gliding Club over here – because I was keen on flying and anything to do with it, but could not afford to learn–I thought it would be the next best thing to flying an aeroplane. Since then I think it far more fun, although so far I have only tried primary machines· but I have never had a more marvellous experience than the first time I went off a real hill and stayed up for what seemed like ten minutes in heaven, but what was actually about thirty-five seconds. I think it is the feeling of being all on one’s own and thinking “I'm doing this and I feel like a bird.” Then the absolute peace and quietness–there is no sound but the swish of the wind through the wires as one sails gently and calmly and slowly down till you slide along the ground and feel you want to sit there and store up these few precious seconds forever.

R

Just in case you need a reminder that things have changed for the better for women in general and airfield orientated women in particular, have a look at the following page taken from a 1930s souvenir issue of The Sailplane and Glider – a pamphlet that would grow to become the British Gliding Association’s Sailplane and Gliding Magazine.

I

t is interesting to read of what glider launching involved and how short flights were. It is the glimpse of how women were expected to be a breed apart that really stand out in this. I could add comments from the peanut gallery on every paragraph but will refrain.

However I must mention the part about how Mrs Bradbrooke (that Mrs was very important) couldn’t envisage gliding becoming a family sport. I found that amusing, but by far the funniest paragraph, from my view point is the advice on what women should wear to go flying, something the editor of the original article thought was very important too.

In that paragraph the last line is wonderful.

It isn’t all peace and quiet though. There is plenty of work to do – at least an hour’s work for every few seconds' glide per person, and work that every woman should do if she joins a club. She must do her share. Every one works when it’s your turn to glide, so it is only fair that you should do your bit. There are always wingtips to hold, or tails to hang on to – help haul on the rope towing the glider up the hill, dash down again and help haul back – an excellent way to “reduce,” climbing up and down hills. There is only one job which I do not believe in a woman sharing – and that is the pull-off. For one thing she hasn’t the weight and strength which count there, nor can she keep step with the long strides the men take. There are plenty of other things to do and I must say that in the club I belong to, although I have tried to do my share, my club members have gone out of their way to help me and to give me the easy things to do. There is a lot of fun to be had out of the club, the members are a very happy and likeable lot.

I have often heard the question asked – “Yes, but what use is gliding? What good is all this tobogganing down hills?” People do not seem to realize that before really accomplishing anything one must learn. All this so-called tobogganing down hills is simply the preliminary step towards soaring – the real thing. One must know how to handle one's glider, the feel of it, and how it reacts before attempting to make use of up-currents and winds and clouds for soaring. Then comes the thrill of seeing how long one can stay up in the air by making use of these, and eventually seeing how far across country one can get.

That is where the real fun will come in, but in the meantime we have to go to school and learn a bit about the game before we go out and make our mark in it.

Gliding has been called a sport – it is, in the same way that we call yachting a sport. It more nearly corresponds to yachting than to any other sport we have, I think. It has no real use commercially – it will never do for passenger carrying or identify itself in any way with the aeroplane industry, but do we want it to? It is purely and simply a sport, and a very fine one because it is not easy or merely mechanical. As I have said, it offers as much scope for enjoyment to women as it does to men.

The majority of people in this country have so far only seen this preliminary training business, which, I admit, does get rather boring to an onlooker after a time, and as few know much about the thing they go away thinking we are working very hard for what looks like very tame sport. but the Lyons' demonstration will give them the idea of what we hope to achieve.

It is odd how soon a crowd of onlookers will start to criticise the various training hops made though, and simply because, as yet, the great majority of club members are men a general murmur of interest runs through the crowd when a woman takes her turn. Usually they think she is either mad or trying to be smart because to their uninitiated eye it all looks rather dangerous. It isn't at all. One can make it so by not understanding what is what, but it is surprising how many gliders in this

country have been smashed up, through carelessness, and how very few people have been hurt.

It is mostly their feelings that are damaged.

In spite of the possibilities of gliding as a sport I am doubtful of the future as visualised in an article I read some months ago, which stated that people would make family parties of it and while husbands and wives sailed around in the air their children would play quietly on the hillside. They object to playing quietly if there is anything else going on.

Still less do I agree with the same writer that in a few years' time young honeymooners will start off together in gliders. I doubt if their friends will be obliging enough to station themselves in groups at intervals along a range of hills ready to pull them off if they are forced to come down through loss of up-currents. But why do people always want to find some practical use for everything We’re having a lot of healthy fun and enjoyment and we are going to have more when we have advanced a bit. In the meantime there's room for a lot more women to join in and try for themselves.

I suppose anything which deals with sport or any occupation for women should include a few words on clothes – the all-important question. Personally, in winter I wear riding breeches, golf socks, sweaters, of course, or a leather coat, and heavy brogues – not rubber-soled shoes as I find that in wet weather my feet tend to slip off rudder bars if I have rubber soles. Boots aren 't much good because they are so heavy, but really stout shoes are a necessity.

In summer I find flannel bags cooler and more comfortable, also cheaper, as I once got my tea for half-price while wearing them. Skirts are unsuitable for climbing around gliders.

One doesn't go gliding to look smart, but comfortable and ready for any kind of work or weather. As a matter of fact I defy anyone to care tuppence whether their nose is powdered or not when spending a day in the open gliding!

It's marvellous!

Sept–Oct 2014

47

NCEA and Gliding

By Jill McCaw

For several years now, often as a selling point for Youth Glide, it gets mentioned that it is possible to get NCEA credits for learning to glide. This sounds like it is a good thing, but many of our members, who mostly went to school before this new crop of pilots was born, don’t know what that means. I am going to attempt to demystify NCEA and gliding credits.

Excuse me if I dumb this down too much for some people, but it really is hard to understand if you finished high school prior to 2000.

Most of the following information comes from the NCEA website.

What is NCEA? NCEA stands for National Certificate of Educational Achievement. It replaces the old School Certificate/University Entrance/ Bursary/Scholarship exam system. “NCEA,” says the website, “challenges students of all abilities in all learning areas, and shows credits and grades for separate skills and knowledge. It enables students to gain credits from both traditional school

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curriculum areas and alternative programmes.”

In other words, the traditional core subjects are still studied and examined, but so are many other, potentially useful subjects.

“NCEA and other national certificates are recognised by employers and used as the benchmark for selection by universities and polytechnics. NCEA is also readily accepted overseas, including by universities. When applying for employment, prospective employees can create a summary of their results from their Record of Achievement.”

Where NCEA differs from the system the rest of us grew up with, is that instead of saving up a year’s worth of study to be examined in one terrifying three hour burst, the subject is broken down into ‘Standards’, mini subsets of the whole subject eg a Maths standard could be: Apply numeric reasoning in solving problems. And these standards are assessed within a short time of the students studying them. ›› When a student achieves a standard, they gain a number of credits. Students must achieve a certain number of credits to gain an NCEA certificate. ›› There are three levels of NCEA certificate for school children, depending on the difficulty of the standards achieved. In general, students work through levels 1 to 3 in years 11 to 13 (Form 5 to 7) at school. ›› Levels 4, 5, and 6 are at University or Polytechnic level

›› Students are recognised for high achievement at each level by gaining NCEA with Merit or NCEA with Excellence.

High achievement in a course is also recognised.

There are still exams at the end of the year, but often by then, the good students will already have enough credits to have passed the subject.

How does NCEA work for Gliding?

Vern Grant, CFI of Gliding Wairarapa, and Head of the Social Science Department at Kuranui College, Greytown, put a huge amount of effort into making gliding an NCEA standard. However gliding does not stand alone. Gliding fits inside the National Certificate in Aviation as the practical part of the programme. It is possible to receive the same qualification with power flying as the practical component. Other aviation disciplines will be coming online as the standards are finalised.

To gain a complete National Certificate in Aviation a student would have to study other standards besides just gliding. See the Aviation Standards chart.

The GNZ gliding log book, correctly filled in and annotated throughout the student’s training, then signed off by the CFI will gain the student the gliding standards.

The school can supply the materials for the other standards through either the Gateway Programme or STAR which both

provide funding for schools for vocational training outside of school. If a student is lucky, the school will have enough funding and will provide materials and study time within school. Sadly however resources are tight and schools need to make the money cover courses from panelbeating to chefing and floristry. We have had a student refused the Aviation Certificate because the student had already attended a welding course and presumably used his share of the pot. However a student can still study for the Certificate independently. They need to contact ServiceIQ (previously known as Aviation, Tourism and Travel Training Organisation (ATTTO)) to buy the books and resources for the course. ServiceIQ will organise assessment and qualification and will liaise with the school.

Kuranui College has had several groups of students achieve the National Certificate in Aviation and there is talk of making it available to the participants at the Youth Soaring Development camps in Omarama and Matamata. Because of the logistics involved, and mainly because the adults involved are still working out how this all works, this hasn’t happened – yet.

We certainly have many young people who would be capable of gaining this certificate.

NATIONAL CERTIFICATE IN AVIATION 2011 NUMBER TITLE 26833 Demonstrate glider ground handling 26834 Demonstrate glider winch launch as a pilot 26835 Demonstrate glider aero-tow launch as a pilot 26836 Fly a glider to achieve a GNZ “A” certificate 26837 Fly a glider to achieve a GNZ “B” certificate 26838 Fly a glider to achieve a GNZ QGP rating.

16818 Demonstrate knowledge of aviation industry law 19585 Demonstrate development of aviation from pre WW1 through to current times 19586 Identify aviation support structures 19587 Demonstrate knowledge of internal structures of CAA in NZ 20676 Demonstrate knowledge of aviation career paths 20677 Demonstrate knowledge of the principles of flight

LEVEL 2 4 4 4 4 4 1 2 2 2 2 2

CREDITS 3 1 1 6 5 5 1 5 3 2 3 3

KEY: blue = gliding standards. Delivered by the gliding club. Green are the STAR standards…delivered by the college or an accredited provider.

Sept–Oct 2014

49

Ten years of Vintage Kiwi

By Roger Brown

We are 10 years old; how about that.

Who would have thought!

The Vintage and Classic Glider Club of New Zealand Inc. VK Rally Taupo 2008 Glider-Pilot line up.

I

an Dunkley came to New Zealand from England on a voyage of discovery. Earlier visitors discovered a modern and vibrant country. Ian discovered that there was no Vintage Gliding movement operating! Ian was obviously on a crusade and decided to stay on and rectify this colonial indiscretion. So late in 2003, in an attempt to redress this issue, he posted out an invitation to all registered glider owners to a rally at Taupo in January 2004, with the intention of forming such a group here in NZ. A good turnout attended and a meeting was held one evening after flying. It seems Ian’s idea had certainly pressed ‘a number of buttons’ and all of the attendees gave him enthusiastic support to form such a group.

An approach was then made to GNZ, raising the possibility of a group being formed, asking if they would be comfortable with such a movement operating in NZ as a member club? The GNZ executive were very supportive in their response and so The Vintage and Classic Glider Club of NZ was born, to become better known simply as ‘Vintage Kiwi’ (VK). A lot of work was done over the next 15 months to set up the operating structures and rules of the organisation, so it could become an Incorporated Society. In 2006 this was achieved when ‘Vintage Kiwi’ was then admitted as a member to GNZ. The objectives of Vintage Kiwi are quite simple. In simple terms, the organisation was formed to try and ‘Stop the Rot’.

In other words, to promote the preservation and restoration of Vintage and Classic gliders to either flying status or, for selected

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aircraft, for permanent display when possible. There are other goals, however this is the main function of the organisation.

Our archival section is just as important however, and VK also collates historic items, photos and memorabilia etc. so the NZ gliding story will never be lost. A number of films and photographs have already been archived on modern disk formats and safely stored for future use.

Vintage Kiwi, as well as having its own membership, also acts as an umbrella organisation for GNZ members who want to contribute by becoming a member and operate their gliders under the ‘Vintage Kiwi’ banner. In doing so, they are playing their part in preserving our gliding heritage. We now have a membership of 60.

We hold a number of well-established rallies during the summer. A ‘rally’ is really just an excuse to get together and go flying at a variety of different venues and to have a really great time. These have been held at Taupo, Norfolk Rd, Taranaki, Raglan (by the sea), Drury, Matamata and at Nelson Lakes.

Future rallies that are being considered are Jury Hill, Wairarapa, Taumarunui (February 2015), King Country and possibly even the historic site of Simons Hill, Mt Cook, if it is ever possible.

A good number of our members are cross country pilots who really like to explore this new and exciting region when on a rally. Anyone can attend. You are more than welcome too.

There are now a number of gliders, which are flying under the Vintage Kiwi banner. These include an Elliot’s of Newbury

vintage & Classic

First VK Rally

Eon Baby – NZ s oldest registered flying glider ZK GAF (1949) and Vintage Kiwi’s first syndicated glider, a Schleicher KA8 GLE (another KA8 will be taking to the air, hopefully, next year) as well as the only surviving Schneider Kookaburra flying in NZ. There are also a number of Schleicher KA6 variants, Slingsby T31, Slingsby Skylark 3F GCF (gifted by Dick Georgeson to VK), to name but some. Under the ‘Classic’ section there are Open and Standard Libelles, ASW15s, SH Cirrus, Nimbus and the list continues. For NZ purposes, we combine the two categories of Vintage and Classic Class so as to make a viable organisation. The Classic Class was initiated to capture the early ‘glass’ generation, the criteria being that the original design of that glider had to be 25 years old. It’s hard to believe that it now captures the ASH25 and in 4 years’ time, the Duo Discus design.

Vintage Kiwi have also been active with preserving ‘no-longerflyable’ gliders to Display Standard and the following are now on permanent display at the Classic Flyers Aviation Museum at Tauranga airport. These are on long term loan to the museum, as are all the other aircraft and exhibits on display there.

Hall Cherokee 2 ZK-GBT.

Slingsby Swallow (1961) Schleicher Ka6cr (1966)

DSK BJ-1 Duster SZD Foka 4

The first post war ‘home built glider’ that CAA approved.

An elementary Foot launcher.

ZK-GCD (The English stalwart design of the 1960s ) ZK-GFD (actual holder of numerous NZ women’s records in the 1970s) ZK-GSR (American designed performance home-built) ZK-GHS (the Polish ‘Pin up’ model of the 1960s – World championship winner 1965)

All of these gliders have a unique story to tell.

Vintage Kiwi has a very good working relationship with the Classic Flyers Museum and has been involved with them from their very first year of operation. As an organisation, we have now been given three very large display cases to fill with gliding memorabilia and artifacts to highlight NZ gliding. This will key in nicely with the six gliders we already have there on permanent display. The museum sees VK as one of their key exhibitors, as we increase their range of aircraft and exhibits on display. This has contributed to the increased numbers of paying visitors to the museum.

Other gliders currently being returned to full flying status within the VK membership.

Slingsby T31 ZK-GAD Slingsby Skylark 4 ZK-GCP Slingsby Skylark 4 ZK-GCY Elliot’s of Newbury EON 463 ZK-GCZ Schleicher KA6e ZK-GET Schleicher KA8

Jury Hill Matamata Inglewood Wellington.

Nelson Lakes North Shore Auckland

Vintage Kiwi is also combining with the Matamata Soaring Centre to be part of their 50th birthday celebrations in the first week of December 2014. VK‘s involvement is twofold.

Peter Layne our historian is putting together the history of the Soaring Centre in booklet form for them. VK will also organise a non-sanctioned Enterprise type ‘Contest’ to be held in conjunction with the Centre’s own Regionals. We will be ‘reflying our past history’ as it were. We will be using the old turn point

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vintage & Classic

VK National Rally 2014

VK National Rally Group 2014

Drury Mini Rally 2006

VK Group Mini Rally NRASC 2008

VK National Rally 2014

photo confirmation system (however using digital cameras) as well as utilising a different rule from the 1960 – 1980 era every day. We hope to attract a field of 10 gliders from the early ‘60s through to a sampling of our more modern fleet.

As time has rolled on, we have seen Vintage Kiwi evolve from an organisation that just produces a magazine, to an organisation that also supports its members with a number of initiative services. As an example, if you do not own a glider but would like to, Vintage Kiwi can help to put together a syndicate, or point a member in the right direction if they would prefer to purchase one outright. Our ‘older’ single seater fleet is certainly great value for money and is a very inexpensive way to go flying and to keep these sailplanes alive. You certainly get an awful lot of L/D for your dollar and all gliders are very capable of reliving their diamond distance performances.

Vintage Kiwi can also put together a technical team for any member, to either survey a potential purchase, or if the glider has not flown for some years (placed in storage) can, by using the team, help to get the glider back up to flying status at minimum costs and fuss. At the moment, we have three such gliders going through this process.

Vintage Kiwi will also endeavour to reserve the original glider registration of a deregistered glider that we are all hopeful of successfully returning to the air, for its members. This is so the original heritage of the glider is never lost to a more modern and meaningless set of letters and, as a bonus, is also a much

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less expensive exercise than trying to re-register again years later, which can cost heaps.

Future Vintage Kiwi initiatives are: »» seriously looking at ways to reduce our rather expensive glider compliance and engineering requirement costs »» reviewing the NZ glider insurance model and how that may be redesigned to better suit the Vintage Kiwi membership fleet.

VK would also like to support members that have the skills and desire to gain a GNZ engineering qualification, so as to support both the Vintage Kiwi membership and their gliders, but as well the general GNZ fleet. It is hoped that we may be able to work closely with GNZ on that project, as VK sees NZ desperately short of young qualified engineers to ensure our sports engineering future.

We therefore see the future of Vintage Kiwi as a very positive one. However, continuing to save and fly all of our aircraft is very much in our own hands. Yes, ‘Vintage Kiwi’ certainly has come a long way, but with your help it can only get better.

See you at our next rally in Taumarunui then.

To contact Vintage Kiwi email directly to sailplane@xtra.co.nz or kiwigregdouglas@xtra.co.nz or c/o 7 Calder Place Glendowie Auckland 1072 NZ.

Gliding NZ

AGM

7 & 8 June, Wellington Photo Oliver Winkler

By Maurice Weaver (TGC)

A positive event. The focus of the whole weekend was about GNZ and clubs embracing cross country and improving membership.

The issues and comments that stick in my mind were:›› We attract members easily but we retain poorly.

Our focus needs to shift to retention. ›› The ones that stay and get involved are, by an overwhelming majority, cross country pilots (the best example was to look at our silver C pilots and see the degree those members are involved). ›› Youth glide is really getting some traction ›› Peter and Lisa Trotter did a fantastic presentation on coaching • See section below. ›› Some individuals are struggling with what a coach is. ›› The SRC is going to try to revamp the contest scene and make the entry end more accessible and less intimidating, and the experienced end more competitive and relevant. ›› A couple of clubs are operating microlights as tow planes and currently there are three club Pawnees for sale. ›› The success of GNZ negotiations with CAA to accommodate trial flights without the need for part 115.

Youth Glide The meetings on Saturday started with a Youth Glide forum.

A couple of comments that I recall were very worthwhile to pass on. ›› Get Youth Glide involved in the committee structure at club level. ›› If not already, your club should be registered with Youth Glide New Zealand. ›› Have a special day in a month that particularly focuses on youth, and get them to run it. Youth instructor, youth duty pilot, youth wing runners. It’s their day, which the rest of the club shares in.

›› There was quite a bit of discussion about NCEA accreditation for schools but there was limited information at the AGM, so they are going to do the research and come back to the clubs. ›› Youth glide shouldn’t be just about flying, but introducing our youth group to the aviation industry, with visits to the tower, to maintenance facilities on the airfield etc., to encourage vocation in the aviation industry. ›› Youth glide is about making better young people. ›› Youth Glide New Zealand is now a separate entity, but youth glide within the clubs remains under the umbrella of the club.

Gliding membership is around 800 New Zealand wide.

Roger Read, who is the mentor for the Youth Glide movement, wants 2016 members of Youth Glide NZ by 2016. (These are not necessarily youth members.) We are nowhere near that at the moment. This would have an enormous impact on fund raising and obtaining corporate financial support. Youth and a larger membership will attract that support. How do we do that? By signing up anyone who has an interest in Youth Glide - mums, dads, friends, other pilots, brothers, sisters uncles, aunties etc., become social members for a token amount. Go to the Youth Glide NZ website for the application form. Become a social member of Youth Glide for $20 dollars. You can look at this in many ways, but it can only be positive as it provides a small donation to Youth Glide, it will help with funding applications and fund raising. More youth, more activity, more members, more fun, more future.

Coaching The next major topic was coaching in the gliding movement.

This was addressed in a number of ways.

Steve Wallace did a brief review of his presentation last year, on growing membership by focusing on cross country flying. He didn’t say, "I want more members to fly cross country." What he did was look at what we and other countries do well. We all attract new members quite successfully. What we don’t do, he

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observed, was retain members much past solo, and our attrition rates after solo are significant and that’s the area we need to focus on. He next looked for those that do stay. What keeps them in gliding? Not in all cases, but overwhelmingly, he found that retention was directly proportional to members that flew cross country. He asked the attendees at the AGM to raise their hands if they were cross country pilots. Ninety percent raised their hands. Members for more than ten years? Ninety percent had their hands up. Twenty years - probably eighty percent had their hands up. I thought of Tauranga’s Silver C board. It reads like the who’s who of committed members of our club.

Getting new members is important, but like a leaking sieve, pouring more water in the top isn’t going to raise the level if there is nothing stopping the water pouring out the bottom. We need to block up those holes and retain our members by creating an ongoing pathway and challenge to pilots.

Next, Lisa and Peter Trotter did a presentation on what Australia has done about coaching cross country and the impact it has had. ›› Australia is one of the few countries in which National membership is increasing. ›› Australia have been coaching and providing coaching camps (such as the recent Fly Fast course in Matamata) for more than ten years. It’s now so popular that the calendar is full throughout the year, and interest so high they regularly have events over subscribed. ›› It took some time for its benefits to be recognised and interest to develop. ›› Coaching teaches cross country pilots to fly faster and they are better for being coached.

One interesting point made was how attendees at the meeting had gone cross country. Most admitted it was selftaught and required a particular type of personality to do so.

Coaching changes all that, providing support and structure, motivation and guidance.

President’s Forum The President’s meeting is an opportunity for the clubs to discuss issues and ask the Executive to explain any issues that occurred during the year. (It’s the GNZ President’s forum, not a meeting for club presidents – a common misconception.

Anyone can and should attend.) The main topic was again cross country flying and coaching, what the clubs’ experiences were and what each club was doing about coaching. Other matters were also discussed.

Highlights were:›› Some clubs had short course tasks from the home airfield and the idea was to get around as many turn points as possible in a set period, for say an hour. The turn points were mostly close to the field with some further away. ›› Some clubs have achievement boards (like ours). ›› They liked the idea of weekend weather forecasts. ›› Some clubs have an organised briefing on a weekend at the club at 9am in the morning. ›› Mentoring was identified as a worthwhile system. ›› Every club was trying to find ways of increasing cross country activity. ›› I was asked about our motorised Duo and how it was functioning as a club glider and a tool for cross country

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More youth, more activity, more

members, more fun, more future.

coaching and training. I mentioned it was being underutilised and flying an average of a 100 hr/year, but we were always looking at ways to improve its use and cross country coaching was a natural use of this aircraft.

Other matters discussed of interest to clubs are that two clubs have purchased microlights to tow gliders. Auckland Aviation Sports club has been using an FK9 for a couple of years. The Canterbury club has purchased a Eurofox. Both have a 100hp Rotax engine. Initial reports are that there have been some issues, but that those issues have been addressed by launch techniques being improved, rather than the tugs underperforming. They appear not to be the complete answer (as we have experienced with our own tow planes, under certain conditions) but they address 90% of their needs. Speaking with the CFI of the Canterbury club, he said they were planning on using the Eurofox on 90% of days but on days with specific conditions would hire a cub or other suitable aircraft. This was deemed their most cost effective solution, which was to accept they couldn’t address all conditions cost effectively without owning an aircraft that was expensive to own and operate.

AGM The last meeting I attended on the Sunday was the AGM. The only item of interest in this meeting (which is always a bit slow) was the issue of Part 115 and what has occurred with Glide Omarama and the CAA. The highlight of this discussion was:›› The systems and structures that GNZ have in place to operate outside of Part 115 aren’t an area that CAA deemed of greatest concern, provided clubs follow GNZ Advisory circular 1-04.

Lastly, unrelated to the AGM, there was talk of a Duo class in the Nationals at Omarama this year if sufficient Duos were to enter.

National Awards 2014

NZ’s premier award, the Angus Rose Bowl John Goddard

Friendship Cup Mike Strathern Awarded for outstanding contribution to the gliding movement during the preceding year.

Mike Strathern is known for unselfishly giving help and guidance to other glider pilots, both young and old, right across the country; often foregoing his own gliding in the pursuit of coaching others.

For example, last year he went to Australia to assist the NZ Youth Glide team, as well as instructing for Joey glide. On returning home, he went straight down to Omarama to help at the annual Youth Soaring Development Camp. He was only back home for a few days before going up to the NZ Multi-Class Nationals at Matamata, where he coached young pilots from the back seat in Auckland’s Duo Discus. He returned home to complete the organisation of the National Club Class Contest, an idea that he had promoted to his club, which was virtually a new site for such a contest. It was a very successful event that combined both the contest and the club’s annual ‘flying week’.

He has now started a Youth Glide group at his club.

He is a never ending resource to all those around him. He is often the instructor that helps students and cross-country pilots alike to achieve a key breakthrough in their flying. He is a wizard at putting his finger on any particular problem that is holding them back. He is always keen and supportive of pilots who are starting out in competition. He sets very high standard of flying and professionalism in gliding, which makes him a very good role model. Many people flying today have his voice in their head as they fly. He also guides budding glider engineers.

He has been one of the key drivers of many positive changes in his club. His positive influence in the sport in New Zealand is impressive. In fact, he is really a living legend within NZ gliding, especially for the coaching occurring within the younger crop of pilots that are coming through.

Presented to the NZGA by Bill Angus, one of the original pioneers of aviation in New Zealand, the Angus Rose Bowl is awarded in recognition of outstanding services to the sport of gliding in this country.

John has been gliding for 57 years, being a much valued tow pilot and instructor for most of those years. He still instructs in gliders and is the Chief Tow Pilot at Canterbury Gliding Club, having been in that role for more than 20 years.

He has used his ‘A’ category instructor qualification in both power and glider flying to instruct many students over his long career and to give type ratings and towing ratings to potential tow pilots. It fell to him to vet the many hopefuls who knocked on the door wanting to be tow pilots, always taking his time to choose wisely and carry out the best of training to the highest standards and in the best interests of the club.

He is always quietly supportive when things don’t go according to plan and won’t hesitate to address the difficult issues. He always stands up for what he believes to be right, and his enormous depth of experience and knowledge has served the club well over the decades. His club has benefitted from his wise counselling, methodical approach, organisational skills and professional aviation knowledge, through both the Flying and Executive committees.

He always assists with tug maintenance under the supervision of a LAME, saving the club many thousands of dollars. This includes keeping aircraft log books up to date, organising the scheduling of maintenance, sourcing spare parts, and flying the tugs for maintenance and ferrying. He has never sought accolades and most members have no idea as to the extent of his 'behind the scenes' contribution.

He has carried a particularly big work load in the last two or three years, during which the club operated three different types of tow-planes, often stepping into the breach to keep the towing going when no one else was available.

He is currently involved in the evaluation process of a Microlight as the next possible club tow plane He is highly respected for his quiet manner, quips and sense of humour, enthusiasm and love of aviation in so many different aspects. He is never judgmental or indiscrete and his calm manner is an asset to aviation.

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Steve Foreman collects his award.

Steve Wallace accepts his award from guest presenter Steve Moore, General Manager, General Aviation at CAA and ex Wiggie Club member.

Air NZ Cross-Country Awards These Awards aim to stimulate cross-country flying from club sites and particularly encourage those new to this aspect of the sport. Flights during Championships are not eligible.

It is a decentralised competition, a distance event extending over the whole year and run in two divisions; one for flights originating in the North Island and one for flights originating in the South Island. Pilots who have previously achieved a Gold distance flight are not eligible. The winner is determined by the highest total handicapped distance from three flights.

North Island Division 2nd Ian O’Keefe Auckland Aviation Sports Grob-102 533 pts 1st Steve Foreman Auckland Aviation Sports LS4 1086 pts South Island Division No claims, unfortunately.

Air NZ Soaring Award Steve Wallace This trophy is awarded to the pilot who has shown the most significant improvement in their personal standard of competition or record flying during the year.

Steve has been a regular competitor in the North Island, generally doing very well. Last year he really started to shine, winning the 2013 Club Class Nationals in Taupo by a huge margin, then 15m in the Northern Regionals, followed by a resounding win in 15m at the 2014 Multi-Class Nationals at Matamata. Next month he will be representing NZ in the World Championships in Poland.

However, he is much more than a contest pilot. He is highly motivated to arrest the attrition of glider pilots leaving our sport, and to this end he is taking the initiative on a number of fronts, such as promoting inter-club rivalry using the OLC, and introducing a system of coaching to get pilots to venture into genuine cross-country flying.

CWF Hamilton Trophy Abbey Delore and Enya McPherson This trophy is awarded to a New Zealander operating in New Zealand for the most meritorious flight that is a New Zealand gliding record.

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Abbey Delore

Enya McPherson

There were four NZ records broken during the year, but the one judged most meritorious was the female 100 km out-andreturn speed record achieved by two of our youngest pilots, one aged 22 and the other just turned 17 the day before.

They achieved 131.99 km/h in a Janus B on the Kaimai ridge.

Buckland Soaring Award This is awarded annually to the highest scoring New Zealand national in the New Zealand division of the Aerokurier Online Contest (OLC) for the previous season. OLC rules and handicaps are used. There are two divisions: one for soaring flights commencing in the North Island and the other for soaring flights commencing in the South Island. The winning pilots stand down for the following two seasons.

South Island Division 3rd Phil Plane Glide Omarama 2,402 pts 2nd Hugh Turner Marlborough 2,906 pts 1st Pete McKenzie Central Otago 3,459 pts North Island Division 3rd Bob Gray Piako 2,316 pts 2nd Tony Passmore Wellington 2,608 pts 1st Pat Driessen Auckland 2,677 pts

a question of safety STEVEN CARE National Operationals Officer

Incident Reporting Over the last decade I have watched our accident rate increase, our membership figures decrease and incident reporting decrease to the point where a couple of years ago it was almost non-existent.

Accident/Incident Relationship The reading I have done on aviation safety very clearly suggests that there is a relationship between numbers of serious accidents, minor accidents and incidents. In the 1930’s there was a model called the ‘Heinrich law’, looking primarily at Industrial Accidents. It showed that for every one major injury accident, there were 29 minor injury accidents and 300 no injury accidents. This was further developed in 1969 by Frank E Bird into an accident pyramid to show that for every fatal accident there are 10 serious accidents, 30 accidents and 600 incidents. There have been many other studies since, challenging these figures and while I accept that our ratios might not fit, I am convinced that the number of incidents we are having are far more than are being reported. Our current culture seems to lean towards non-reporting and inaccurate recording.

GNZ Accidents

Fatal Accidents Incidents 6 2004/5 1 2005/6 8 2006/7 2 5 2007/8 2 9 2008/9 1 14 2009/10 2 15 2011/12 1 18 2012/13 16 2013/14 2 8 36 There has been incident recording prior to 2013 of course, but at the moment I don’t have a breakdown of the figures.

Judging by Northern Region records I suspect that they will be quite low. The increase in 2013/14 is due to a good reporting culture developing in the Auckland (13) and Piako (11) clubs. From these figures there would be around 1 incident per 5 club members per year meaning number of actual incidents could be around 140 nationally. This figure would also be affected by the amount and type of flying individuals do.

You may well ask, what is the point of reporting incidents? The fact is that they are a very important tool for your club to see if there are organisational influences that can be introduced to prevent these incidents from re-occurring and in turn accidents. It also helps Regional and National Operations officers notice influences that should be looked at.

Barriers to reporting »» Damage to self-esteem/ego »» Seemingly being asked to criticise one’s self »» Loss of standing amongst peers »» Could be used for personal attack on credibility »» Effort and time required to report (easier to say nothing) »» Being subject to personal investigation »» Fear of an effect on future aviation endeavours »» Fear that it will be published, so that all friends and peers throughout NZ will know the mistakes you made »» It won’t make any difference to anybody else, as every gliding incident that has ever happened has happened before. »» Forms will just end up getting lost Factors in Favour of Reporting »» Helps identify operational and training risk factors that can be corrected, to prevent future accidents »» Others might identify something that could save your life »» Club reporting culture »» The greater good; can reduce accidents Just Culture To have good reporting within your club, you need to have a ‘Just Culture’.

This encourages and supports a nonthreatening environment and having a ‘no blame’ approach to incidents. The only exceptions to ‘no blame’ are wilful violations, gross negligence and destructive acts, which I would imagine would be extremely rare in gliding circles.

It means switching from an individual focus to a systems focus with individuals having no fear of

repercussions. This is quite a big change in thinking for pilots that have been around a while, who will view human error as the cause of incidents and will want to do something about the human involved. In a just culture, human error is the symptom, not the cause. This begs the question, can people just blame the system when things go wrong and cop out of any personal responsibility? Just Culture is not only about individuals versus system; it’s about relationships and roles of people in systems. It’s more important to build ‘trust’ and effectively deal with inevitable mishaps.

A very senior instructor told me recently that we should be publishing all incidents, so that everyone can see what mistakes not to make. At the moment, reporting is quite limited and this distorts what is happening. The most common incident is wheel up landings, followed by airbrakes open on tow and inadvertent ground loops. When I have the support of all clubs, I will be happy to provide a detailed breakdown of the number and type of incidents we are having, while maintaining the confidentiality of individuals.

Reporting For reporting to be effective, incidents need to be investigated for possible latent failures (organisational matters) and this should rest with club CFIs and Instructor Panels. I am accurately maintaining an incident register and giving direct feedback to CFIs where I can. The more serious the incident, the more carefully root system causes need to be looked at.

The definition from CAA of incident is: any occurrence, other than an accident, that is associated with the operation of an aircraft and affects, or could affect, the safety of operation.

Some common incidents that I would expect reported are:»» Wheel up landings »» Airbrakes inadvertently open on tow »» Canopy not locked in flight »» Ground loops (unless very minor) »» Aero-tow upsets »» Near misses »» Instrument failures »» Oxygen problems »» Launch or landing abnormalities »» Airspace infringements »» In flight controls abnormalities »» Less than full capacity in flight »» Running out of fuel in flight »» Engine unable to restart in flight Sept–Oct 2014

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safety Any incident involving GA aircraft, other disciplines, airspace or members of the public, need to go on a CA005 (copy retained for CFI,ROO & NOO); all others, OPS10.

OPs10 Forms These can currently be downloaded from the GNZ website, typed, saved and printed. I am not concerned if they are not signed. They do require PIC hours, but I am happy if they have ‘approx.’ on them. The form should only be completed

by either the PIC, or if there are circumstances involved, the CFI. If a 3rd party wishes to report an incident, it should be done through the Deputy CFI, CFI or in isolated circumstances, the ROO. A very brief explanation of the incident is all that is needed (one or two sentences).

If it takes more than five minutes to complete, you are doing something wrong. If you feel a more detailed description is needed, by all means send that separately to your CFI. He may call

for more information if further investigation is needed. At the moment, the form needs to go through the CFI, ROO and then NOO. For that reason, the electronic format is best, as it is traceable and less likely to get lost. In time, we will have a more automated online system, which will hopefully remove further barriers towards a Reporting Culture.

Club Rules Also refer AC 1-02, but also make sure that the two clauses from AC 1-04 are added. Best time to do this if it has not already been done is at your AGM, although you can also hold a Special GM.

news

STEVEN CARE National Operationals Officer

Threat & Error Management 2014 Instructors Course This will be held on 17th, 18th and 19th October at Matamata Airfield. I had earlier advised it was a week earlier, but have had to change. There may be limited places for this year’s course, as there may be fewer gliders and ITs available. Please ensure that you have some quality back seat training and experience before coming to the course. Email

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me at s.care@xtra.co.nz if you would like to attend.

Standard Operating Procedures Every club should have one of these; during this year’s round of Audits I have been focussing on the quality and distribution. Be guided by AC 1-02

Never heard of this? Look it up on the GNZ web site under FOR PILOTS – glider pilot training – safety information – 4. TEM

Start of Season Remember this is when you are likely to be the most ambitious and least current. Make sure that before you go Cross Country or enter a contest, you get a good amount of time in the air first and practise some short landings.

safety

Flying Without Radar I was lucky to spend a week in July soaring in the French Alps. Sweltering in hot temperatures was definitely preferable to weathering wintery blasts at home. These mountain thermals were often crowded with gliders, hang gliders and parapenters all in together, even at 13,000 feet. I would be sweating with the effort of keeping a good lookout in the crowded, buoyant air.

My Flarm - unfortunately - was next to useless, despite being mandatory equipment in all gliders flying in this region. I had to virtually run into the tail of some gliders before seeing a Flarm response. Flarm is a such great aid to detecting other gliders close by, but if the installation instructions are disregarded then they don't work. With Flarm now mandated in Omarama and likely to be required in other NZ sites, what lessons can be learned?

Firstly, an engineer with a Radio rating is required to install a Flarm, just as with a radio, transponder or other transmitting device. Installations done by owners who lack a good sense of radio-frequency antenna function can result in poor or erratic Flarm performance, which defeats the purpose completely.

Secondly, the antenna needs to be fully ‘visible’ to another aircraft if a useful signal is to be exchanged. Any conducting material near or around the antenna

(e.g. metal or carbon structure, brackets, wires, connectors) will obscure the signal.

Locating the antenna even partly inside that bird's nest of wiring behind the instrument panel virtually guarantees that this Flarm will neither see nor be seen.

Best practice is to place the whole antenna directly above the instrument panel, exactly vertical and with the top almost touching the inside of the canopy in flight. It will be visible forward, above and to the sides. A carbon or metal fuselage will partly attenuate the signal below and behind, but this is the most practical location. Don't worry about the antenna obstructing the pilot's vision, as you won't be aware of it in flight.

Thirdly, the effectiveness of the Flarm antenna in three dimensional space is not easily tested, making it difficult to ground-check and fine-tune a Flarm installation. There are at least 5 different types of Flarm antenna. Some of these are delicate and can be broken inside at the base without it being obvious. There is a Flarm web page (www.flarm.com/ support/analyze/index_en.html) where you can upload your Flarm IGC data file and get a print out of the received range information for a flight. It’s only conclusive if there is a fair amount of Flarm traffic, but it's the best check available.

Fourthly, Flarm units require a software update every few years,

airworthiness martyn cook National Airworthiness Officer

otherwise they will be incompatible with other Flarms and will stop working.

The last update was in February 2011 and the next will be in March 2015.

So, follow all the instructions exactly and have a radio-savvy technician check and sign off the installation. Flarm is a radio transmitting device, so the aircraft's Form 2129 needs to be updated and a duplicate copy sent to CAA.

Correct position of flarm and aerial on top of instrument panel.

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gliding new zealand news karen morgan GNZ President

Hello pilots, tow pilots, students, club officials and interested parties

New President Some of you already know me, but to the rest of you, I am the latest GNZ President. There’s nothing momentous in that for you, but for me it is a new voluntary position. We are the beneficiaries of the skills and efforts of a long line of people who have previously held this leadership role, which has resulted in GNZ largely being in good heart as I take over.

This is my 30th year of gliding and, like many of our longer term members, I was one of the ‘youth glide’ of my time. I have been a member of Taupo, Manawatu, Central Otago, Southland and Omarama clubs, and I currently fly with the smallest club, Clutha Valley, at Omarama. I fly a range of gliders, Ash25, LS8 and my latest acquisition is a wee Skylark. Please contact me if you need to (details on the GNZ website); I am generally available for discussions, media enquiries and complaints.

We have three good pieces of news to start with 2nd Place at the Worlds John Coutts flew really well in the recent World Championships in Poland, narrowly coming second in 18m. Although further down the field, we were also pleased with Steve Wallace and Brett Hunter’s results in 15m and 18m respectively, and expect that this has been good training for future World events. It is a huge step up from our competitions to fly at World events, so congratulations to the whole team and their supporters.

Another Tissandier Award for NZ I am pleased to advise that Roger Read of Canterbury has been chosen for a Paul Tissandier award from FAI. He and Kim will be collecting it in Thailand in October. This award represents our recognition of Roger’s hours of efforts for his club, and more recently for Youth Glide in New Zealand. Well done Roger.

Mt Cook Airspace is FREE It was a long and arduous battle, so GNZ is delighted to advise that CAA have revised their earlier decision, and the

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Mt Cook airspace will revert to being completely uncontrolled again. This means that the wider area around Mt Cook will be accessible to any height, without calling for clearances, with only the MBZ requirements to comply with at the lower levels. This was the result of a lot of work by Nigel Davy, Trevor Mollard and many others who put in submissions, and Nigel who led the discussions with CAA which has led to this result. We understand that completely uncontrolled airspace is very rare in the world, and to have this widely acknowledged superior wave site free of constriction is splendid news.

Part 149 We are currently working with CAA to renew our Part 149 certification.

This is the rule that allows GNZ to organise gliding in New Zealand. The process has seen Max Stevens work on our Exposition, and I, along with the officers from airworthiness, operations, awards and quality control, have been interviewed by CAA. We are pleased to report their feedback that we are seen as a responsible and well organised sport.

Senior officials are also going through ‘fit and proper’ tests as part of this process, to allow us to receive and exercise delegations from the Director of CAA. The CAA has also met with Glide Omarama and GNZ, with the good result that it has been accepted that no organisation in gliding needs to become a Part 115 (commercial) organisation at present, provided trial flights are conducted only for those who show a genuine interest in gliding and the flights are conducted in accordance with GNZ Advisory Circular AC 1-04.

Our Regional Operations Officers (ROO) will continue the usual level of operational audits, without the need for CAA audits at this time.

The GNZ Executive has also met with CAA senior management, but the rule changes that we have been awaiting for aerobatics and paying instructors are still a long way away. We have recently attended CAA meetings on funding the CAA, and we do not see much that will affect us, except it is likely that the controversial medical fees will reduce. The CAA Act itself is

This column is intended to give readers an ongoing insight into the activities of the GNZ Executive and its Committees. Rather than a detailed report on matters currently under consideration, here are some recent items of significance.

under review and we are doing some work to put in a submission on this.

New Sport Policies Sport New Zealand is a major funder of GNZ, giving us $15,000 last year.

There are several requirements that we need to meet, and this year’s ones are to introduce policies on drug testing and match fixing. The short versions of these policies, which will largely appear in the competition rules, are that you should not take drugs or fix matches while gliding. Job done! If you have concerns in these areas and want a longer policy, please let me know.

We have also attended a recent meeting with Flying NZ which fronts the FAI in New Zealand. It is possible that the term of the sporting licences, needed for representation at World events and for claiming World records, may be lengthened from the current one year term.

Badge Costs We urge you to do lots of flying and do your badge legs for Silver, Gold and Diamonds. However, the cost of buying the actual badges has crept up over the years, and we have had to adjust the price per badge leg to $20 (it hadn’t changed for 15 years). For full details and how to claim, from the GNZ Home page navigate For Pilots >FAI Badges/ Records >Badge Flight Claiming.

Coaching The new Sailplane Racing Committee has a big workload ahead of them to build up competition flying in line with our intention to increase the availability of coaching. Participants at the AGM in June listened to Lisa and Peter Trotter outline coaching in Australia, and we are working towards a scale version of this model. The long term intention is to increase the training and support for cross country flying leading into competition, as a survey of our membership clearly show that pilots find this a rewarding part of the sport. We know that pilots who fly cross country stay in our sport for longer, thus repaying all the volunteers’ efforts for training them.

GNZ Umbrella Trust The GNZ Umbrella Trust reports a change of trustee, with Grae Harrison replacing David Speight.

The Trust’s investments are bedding in, and Trustees are looking forward to helping pilots attend World events in Narromine, Australia in December 2015 (Juniors) and January 2017 (15m, 18m and Open classes).

Audits I remind you that clubs bear equal responsibility along with the operations team for having the club audits done on time. If you have not had an audit in the past couple of years, please contact your Regional Operations Officer (ROO) and make arrangements to complete this in the spring. Their contact details are on the website.

New Advisory Circular (AC) redrafts or new issues These are: »» AC 1-02 Club Rules now includes sample responsibility descriptions for key club roles – CFI, Club Captain, Glider Maintenance Liaison, Ground Maintenance, Public Liaison, and Secretary. »» AC 1-05 Emergency Plans is a new AC intended to address a general observation from club audits that this is often a weak area. Clubs are urged to review their Emergency Plans in the light of this AC and also give us some feedback from your own experiences to develop it further. »» AC 2-07 Carriage & Use of Oxygen has been updated and expanded to include information on testing of cylinders.

youth glide nz news enya mcpherson

Gliding New Zealand, Youth Glide needs you!

Whatever your age, we need your help.

Once again, it's only $30 to become a full flying member and only $20 to become an associate member; your mum, dad, sister, brother, friends - anyone can join.

We have a real passion for youth achievement and Youth Glide has had some incredible successes, from many qualifying badge flights, to Alex McCaw's 1000km at 18 and our youngest instructor Philip Dunlop ( also 18) to name a few.

Our annual South Island Youth Soaring Development Camp is being held from the 7th to 17th of December this year and we'd love to see some new blood. Spread the word to young pilots. It doesn't matter how much or how little gliding experience you have - from pre solo to QGP, we cater for all. The mountainous terrain in Omarama,

combined with a bunch of enthusiastic young glider pilots definitely makes it the place to be for 10 days over summer.

Registration is now open through our website – youthglide.org.nz or check out our

»» AC 2-08 Accidents & Incidents has been amended to make the reporting requirements easier to interpret. »» AC 3-04 Winch & Auto-Launch Cable configuration has been expanded to follow the latest BGA practice and to include more information than just weak-links, with the title changed accordingly. »» AC 3-15 Operator Responsibility for Maintenance has been updated to reflect the recent CAA Rule exemptions.

There’s lots of great material in the ACs so I urge you to have a look. From the GNZ Home page, navigate For Pilots >Admin & Forms >Advisory Circulars.

The soaring season is nearly here, so please get your currency checks and planning in place before heading cross country this spring. Have a safe summer’s flying!

Facebook or Instagram page - youthglidenz Don't forget to please keep sending us your membership forms and money.

Without your support we won't be able to achieve great things.

If you're a member of GNZ, there's no excuse not to become a member of the youth glide section too. Support young pilots up to age 25 and see them soaring the skies.

Thank you and safe soaring.

The YG team.

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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

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

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

Omarama Gliding Club Club Website http://www.omarama.com Club Contact Yvonne Loader loaders@clear.net.nz Ph (03) 358 3251 Base Omarama Flying 7 days a week by arrangement

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

Otago/Southland (YouthGlide Omarama) Club Website www.youthglideomarama.org.nz Club Contact Tom Shields tom.shields@century21.co.nz Ph (03) 473 1721 Base Omarama and Dunedin Flying By arrangement

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

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

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 Hauraki Aero Club Club Website www.flyhac.co.nz Club Contact Ron Bergersen d.rbergersen@xtra.co.nz Ph (027) 277 4238 Base Thames Airfield Flying Weekends and Public Holidays 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 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

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 Alan Belworthy a.belworthy@xtra.co.nz Ph 0274 960 748 Base Tauranga Airport Flying Weekends and Public Holidays, Wednesday afternoons and other times on request

Guidelines for the compilation and contents of club news articles are now available on the new SoaringNZ website.

Visit www.mccawmedia.co.nz for all you need to know.

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 10 November 2014.

Auckland On behalf of the Auckland Gliding Club, I would like to congratulate all the NZ team who were in Poland for the Flapped Worlds.

Many, if not most of us, were regularly checking the blogs and Soaring Spot sites to check the progress and tales of these guys on the other side of the world. In the final days, John Coutts was pipped at the post and took out second place. I’m sure he was gutted at the time, but as we move on he will realise what an extraordinary achievement that placing really is. AGC had a good team there, with Matt, Geoff, Adam and Nigel all helping out. Both Steve Wallace and Brett Hunter also deserve big congratulations for jumping into the deep end and having a go. They both placed 42nd in a field of around 45 entrants. They will return with many stories to tell. I know John gets this magazine, so this is a great opportunity to offer our congratulations. I know John has always stayed close to his roots here in Auckland and we appreciate it (check out the cup in our trophy cabinet).

Wellington Gliding Club Club Website http://www.soar.co.nz Club President Philip Milne milnelaw@gmail.com Ph 021 803 37 Base Paraparaumu Airport Bookings Ph 04 297 1341 (clubhouse) Ph 027 618 9845 (operations) Flying Weekends and Public Holidays 7 days a week December through to March Whangarei District Gliding Club Club Website www.igrin.co.nz/~peter/gliding.htm Club Contact Paul Rockell rockelkaym@xtra.co.nz Base Rockelkaym Ridge, Gibbs Road, Puhi Puhi Flying Weekends and Public Holidays

Auckland: John Coutts.

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zealand

Auckland: Top: After 18 years on the ground, Dimona -GCB returned to the sky after a complete refurbish by AGC member Ian Williams.

L: Drury airstrip in its winter green finery - site of Club Class Nationals 2015! R: Auckland's PW-6 returns to service looking all sparkly after a shop visit.

Auckland: L: Volunteers are always appreciated, not often acknowledged! Thanks to Paul Knight for his winter weed spraying programme. R: Ian Williams and Dimona.

Otherwise, we have been quiet here, as has the rest of the country, due to winter.

We are weathering the winter okay but the recent very rainy weather has meant the field is closed quite a lot. We are holding weekly QGP lectures and we are really keen to

introduce more members to our sport and of course our club. We recently hosted Gavin and Mandy from Glide Omarama. Gavin gave an excellent presentation on gliding in the Southern Alps and was able to show some stunning photographs, many of which

were taken by well-known photographer Marty Taylor. The combination of real soaring experience, with the backdrop of stunning and unique photos made Gavin’s talk a must-see event. We had a full house of just over 45, many of whom were visitors.

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club news Thanks to Marion, who always puts on a good spread, all our club member helpers and Simon Gault, who was a great help in bringing some keen pilots and friends over from Ardmore. Also thanks, of course, to Gavin, Mandy and Marty for such a great evening.

CANTERBURY We have been very active since our last report, albeit it has been winter time. Many extended soaring flights have been possible, enabling scenic flights over the snow-clad mountain ranges.

Mike Oakley and his crew ran another wellorganised weekend for a large group of scouts at the annual Aviation Badge Camp. Each scout gets to fly in a variety of aircraft ranging from hot air balloons to helicopters. Mt Hutt Helicopters and Ballooning Canterbury gave their services at a cut rate and our club did 70 winch launches in one day.

The Eurofox tow-plane is performing very well but trials are still being done to find its limits. Very strong turbulent conditions certainly do not suit this aircraft but fortunately those types of days are few and far between.

Roger Read has bought a nice little toy in the form of a Sirius microlight, complete with tow-hook and lots of mod cons like TV

Auckland

screens which show all sorts of information.

He maintains he can also get Sky. He did a few tows with it and it performed well. Later Bruce Drake flew in with his new Dynamic.

He also did a few tows. The two aircraft were quiet like the Eurofox and have a similar performance although the Dynamic, with its larger motor, got airborne a little quicker. I don’t know what their purchase cost is.

The most recent club event was a Black Tie dinner at Lincoln University, held to honour the memory of Dick Georgeson. This was well attended with people coming from all over the country. A great number of older members turned up and the food was just wonderful. Dick’s old glider CF was rigged inside the Lincoln University hall, the largest table centrepiece we’ve ever seen. A huge thank you to Abbey Delore and her team for organising the event.

The last week of August will see our AGM when members will get to hear how our finances are holding and find out who will stand for committee. In this respect we are most fortunate to always get good sound people coming forward.

Stewart

Central Otago Flying CLub We have been flying most Sundays lately, after a poor start to winter. Like much of the

Canterbury: L to R) Derek Kraak, Michael Oakley, Mike Grey, Terry Delore and Nick Reekie, Canterbury's surviving Barron Hilton winners with Abbey Delore at the dinner held at the Lincoln University Dining Hall to honour Dick Georgeson. These pilots all credit Dick with inspiring and mentoring them right through their gliding careers. Dick's glider CF was there too.

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Hawkes Bay: Returning to Hastings.

club news

Central Otago Flying Club: NOT a wooden, man-powered winch!

Phil, Roy and Brian from Central Otago store old dyneema on spare spool prior to adding new dyneema on the club's winch.

country, it’s been wet and we’ve had little wave since the end of summer. Surprisingly, the first Sunday in August saw us thermalling off the winch, to a paltry 4000’ but we didn’t complain. The very next Sunday saw a return to the more normal winter wave, with ‘cool’ flights of 200–300km for everybody.

New member Dave Pollard got his first taste of wave that day, sharing the twin with Doug White, racing up and down the Dunstan Wave. Dave’s from the UK, with an interest in aviation and had flown gliders a few times prior to joining our club.

Over the worst of winter we replaced our old Dyneema winch rope with a new and slightly thicker version. The old string had done 9 years.

Naturally, we’re all hanging out for longer days, warmer days and a sky full of Cu. See you up there!

Flyable wave days have been rare, with Sunday 25th May providing the best conditions for some time. While some parts of the country were battered by high winds and bad weather, members took advantage of wave conditions to explore both locally and the lower North Island. Graham White completed just under 500km as he flew south to Lake Ferry and return, at heights of up to 15,000 ft. Wind speeds of 80 kts plus were recorded in the process. Blue wave close to Hastings Airfield saw Craig Hunter in his Open Cirrus, and Jason Kelly and Richard Keir in the club's self-launching Grob 103 C III SL, easily reach 10,000 ft, while flying around the local area.

The club has had a number of potential new members enjoy trial flights in typical Hawkes Bay fine and sunny conditions.

Further youth flying has been undertaken, with more planned later in the year. Jason Price has purchased a DG-200 to add to the local privately owned fleet.

Thanks to Grant Jarden, the local Aero Club were invited to try gliding as part of their club day. The sky was flat and calm, which was ideal for this experience, where a number of power pilots tried their hands at gliding. The event was rounded out with an evening BBQ at the Aero Club.

With the AGM scheduled for September, the club trophies are being dusted off and pilots encouraged to compete for them.

With spring just around the corner, we look forward to some great soaring weather.

Nelson Lakes It’s been good winter weather so far, with quite consistent southwest wind days and typical low winter inversions. This sets up wave right over the airstrip that we can get into straight from the winch or off the nursery ridge. These days are fun. The wave never gets high, but George has been over 9000’ over the field a couple of times in KW. Frank likes to get high, then bug off downwind to land in Nelson, where the coffee is better, he says.

Marc has got his QGP and has been allowed into the club’s LS4 CX; he had to ice his cheek muscles after his first day, from grinning so much. Robin Whalley went solo recently. Our Youth Glide is up and running, with four to five keen young bucks up there terrorising the sky and ground, under Mike and Jeremy’s guidance. It’s great. We have some new keen students, so we are ticking along nicely. Jeremy Glasgow has stood down as our long serving President. He has a done a marvellous job over the years as our fearless leader, so cheers Jeremy. Nick White has bravely stepped into the role. Frank ran an OO course night, which we passed, so it should be a summer of badges coming up. Congrats to Mike for being awarded the Friendship Cup. Well deserved.

PIAKO The club has had a reasonably active winter, starting with a spot landing winchbased contest during Queens Birthday weekend. The following weekend we held

Gliding Hawkes Bay and Waipukurau The recent soaring weather has left little to write about, with cold, rainy days interspersed with fine, sunny, warm, but calm days. However, some local soaring has been possible, even on clear days, with some weak convection and convergences. A recent Sunday saw flying in a blue convergence, only abandoned due to impending darkness.

Nelson Lakes: Marc in CX.

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club news

South Canterbury: Bruce Drake flew his new Dynamic down to Timaru to show off its towing ability. Photos John McCaw

our AGM, which had an unusually low attendance. I think a lot of the club escaped overseas for warmer weather.

On 28th June we had a classic winter ridge day. A convoy of half a dozen trailers appeared from Auckland and a great time was had by all.

Our Mid-Winter Dinner and Trophy night on the 19th July was really well attended.

Our guest speaker (organised by President Iggy) was Peter Stockwell, the current CTC Managing Director. Up until recently, he was the Chief of the RNZAF, so a really interesting speaker.

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Over the past few months we have had a group of Hamilton Boys High School students winch launching from 3pm on Thursday afternoons. We have also been giving Tuesday afternoon lectures at the College.

We have had to cancel quite a few days due to weather and 3pm in winter doesn’t give us much flying time. It should improve, the closer we get to summer.

Coming up, we have our annual Start of Season Briefing on Sunday 28th September.

SC

Taupo It has been a quiet time here in Taupo over the last couple of months, mainly due to the winter weather. Although, there has been good opportunity to do some flying around good old Mt Tauhara, and on occasion, to venture down the valley towards Rotorua.

Once again, the club participated in the annual Hobby Expo, exhibiting a PW5. The turnout was better this year, possibly due to the inclement weather and as a result, we may have a few new participants at the club.

The Club's Annual Dinner and Awards

club news

Taupo: TT with Trev and Joe.

Taupo: Hobby Expo.

Taupo: Never get sick of the view

Taupo: SW being preped.

night was celebrated with an Art Deco theme and members enjoyed the evening with good friends, food and entertainment.

Congratulations to those members who took home awards......WELL DONE!!

The following day, the club AGM was held. Tim Norman has taken over the reigns as President and we thank Martin Jones for his efforts during the previous two years.

There are new faces on the committee and all are looking forward to the forthcoming 12 months.

The club has also recognised a couple of major achievements: Brett Cameron attained QGP, and Rod Ball went Solo.

Congratulations to them, well done! We have welcomed new members: Peter Simmons, David Bickner, Anton Belyakov and Mathieu Turquier. These four new students are very keen and we look forward to seeing them achieve their goals.

Unfortunately, as a result of a break-in several weeks ago, security around the club has had to be upgraded. These new measures will hopefully discourage any future attempts. Typically with winter, glider

maintenance and preparations have been and are being completed, and with winter almost over, we are all keenly anticipating the improvements in soaring conditions as spring approaches.

As the new season begins, we are fast approaching the Central Plateau Gliding Competition. Entry forms are available on the website, so get your entries in. WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE! Trace

Tauranga It’s been a fairly steady winter for the Tauranga Club. We continue to attract a few students, and some of those cool, clear winter days can be great for getting some time in the seat. We’ve had a few first solos and type ratings achieved over the cooler months.

Maintenance on the fleet has also been an ongoing task, but having all aircraft available for the contest and summer season is the aim.

Two significant events happened since the last SoaringNZ update. The Club had

its 60th Anniversary bash, well organised and presented by a core crew who made it a very memorable night for the 130 past and current members and friends. Many sponsors assisted with the event, including Z Energy, with a donation of Avgas to take past members flying, the Mayor, Tauranga Airport authority and the Air Traffic Controllers, Classic Flyers for the venue and a number of individuals that ensured it would all happen successfully. Glen Martin of the Martin Jetpack Company gave a fantastic speech.

The second significant event was the sad passing of Ewen Irvine, our Committee Member and Property Manager for many years, but also a Club Member for 59 of those 60 years. An incredible record and, as our President commented, unlikely to ever be repeated.

Ewen passed away barely a week before the 60th Anniversary, something he had been very much looking forward to.

We also had the pleasure of following our Club Member Brett Hunter as he competed in Poland’s recent World Gliding Competition.

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club news

Vintage Kiwi Easter Rally 2014 Inglewood Taranaki

By V.K. Scribe (Roger Brown) Last year the traditional Easter Mini Rally at Inglewood had to be cancelled because the Wilga tow plane that we use had an accident at Blenheim and there was no replacement available. This year we were back at Inglewood with our host club, the Norfolk Aviation Sports Club, using their Wilga ‘2’ replacement. Although Easter was later this year, the long range forecasters were still predicting our ‘Indian Summer ‘to last right through April. Yeah, right! Australian tropical cyclone Ita decided to visit the Tasman sea instead and by-pass our western shores over the Easter period. This gave us an ‘exciting’ two flying days out of four, flying on the coat tails of Ita as she progressed south. Normally, most of our members are on the road, trailering their gliders to the rally the day before Easter Friday.

However, on this occasion, with winds gusting up to 35 knots plus, everyone left a day later, for obvious reasons. However, one still had to drive with care, dodging downed trees and the rather big branches and other debris that had succumbed to Ita’s tail lashing as she passed by. Saturday was fine but very windy, so we decided to all have a fly in the Vintage Kiwi’s 1955 Kookaburra and see how a 13 metre, two-seater handled all the major ‘lumps and bumps’.

And handle it she did, so very well.

Sunday saw the return of some non-flying conditions, so we retired to the comfort of the club house, scoffing down some very good VK Easter Eggs. VK member Warren Spence gave us all an excellent slide show of some early days of the Nelson Gliding Club.

That night saw us all troop off to the local RSA for an excellent meal and a general catch up with everyone. Local rumour was that because of the effects of Cyclone Ita, Monday could well produce the famous Taranaki Wave that we had not seen nor flown in before. The dinner party that night certainly had an air of excited anticipation. However, whilst walking to the RSA, the crew ‘chief’ of GEJ somehow managed to trip on something and nose-dived onto the footpath. (Dead sober, they kept saying, but what happens on tour stays on tour) He eventually hobbled the rest of the way and survived the meal, but got driven back to the motel and off to the hospital in the early hours of the morning, where it was found he had cracked a bone in his leg. (Painful) The moral of the story is that it’s obviously much safer to fly in the rough stuff and operate within a violent cross wind environment than it was to walk a short ‘safe’ distance to the local pub.

Monday was in fact THE wave day. Every man (oops sorry Robin) and their dog was up there. What an amazing day. When I released, I discovered that I had to fly about 20 degrees from where I thought I should have been pointing, as the lower winds, although

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Sept–Oct 2014

VK Nat Rally group with Fokker Tri Plane

producing wave, had not conformed to the more ideal direction for this wave to truly develop. As I climbed up, the winds got stronger and then started backing to that ideal direction, and it did not take long for everyone to catch on to what was happening and adjust their heading as they climbed. We were rewarded with a wonderful view of the local terrain. The only downfall was that the mountain range that the wave was developing off is right on the coast, so at about 8000 ft QNH, cloud would be streaming off the mountain top, limiting our height to that level. The wave was strong, consistent, and made for an enjoyable last day with our host club the Norfolk Aviation Sports Club, who once again showed us what Taranaki hospitality is all about.

Next year, we will be going to a very different site, where gliding operations have only been undertaken in a very limited form before.

Where? The challenge will be in Taumarunui, in the heart of the King Country, in the middle of summer, when the cloud base should be at its highest. Come and join the adventure.

club news

Tauranga: BKJ and friends

Tauranga:

Tauranga:

A challenging event by all accounts, both the event itself and the logistics of getting there and back, but a great effort by Brett and Steve, and of course John, for putting NZ back on the podium.

While we’ve had some good flying days over winter, the days are now getting longer and the activity will be increasing at the club.

People are already booking some of the better aircraft for forthcoming competitions.

We’re all looking forward to it.

receiving rave reviews from our Treasurer, Engineers, Tow Pilots and CFI. A side benefit has been an incentive to tidy up other processes, documentation and Clubhouse ‘hardware’.

Our engineers decided the winter would be a good time to have some preventive maintenance done on GGR, one of our DG 1000s, and that will be back with us in a week or two.

We have welcomed to our field an

immigrant, DG 101 – GNB, from Matamata, which is now in the ownership of a Club syndicate.

Two Ventii have also been spotted with raised canopies and huddled pilots, something to do with new instrument panels …

Needless to say we are bursting to see the return of some decent soaring weather!

And the return of Ross and summer.

The Weathermen

wellington Our last season’s summer crew of Ross, Ilse, Bob and Peter are now just fond and distant memories as we confront a winter of persistently uncooperative weather. But we promised the summer crew that we would endeavour to continue their high standards of regular club communications and while things have slowed down a little in the flying department, we have kept ourselves busy with several projects.

Tim Hogan has taken it upon himself to move our somewhat archaic paper-based time-keeping system to a web based, Notebook driven system, which is in the final stages of user acceptance. Apart from producing altogether more consistent and reliable data, the reports it can generate are

Sept–Oct 2014

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f or s a l e • wa n t e d • s e r v ic e s • e v e n t s

We take our classifieds list from the GNZ website and from ads detailed with us personally. To update your ad, please go online or advise Hadley Bognuda, our webmaster. Ads notified to me will appear on this page but we are unable to make changes for you on the web page. Please contact the webmaster if your item sells.

wing rigging cradle. Trailer refurbished and New Trojan Axles fitted. $50K ono. Phone 027 462 6751 or 09 232 1254

Gliders

Lak 12 • ZK-GRR. 20m Glider. $45,000. Open/18m class flapped glider.

50:1 performance with a wide range of wing loadings. A nice glider to fly with no bad vices. Always hangared, no crashes. Price includes trailer, Australian Parachute, Tow out gear. Just had 1000 hr and 20 year check done and came through perfectly. Phone Bill Mace 027 541 0948

Libelle 201b, GIU • #579 out of 601 made. 2358 hours 1688 launches (20 August) O2, Transponder, 6 channel Tait radio, Borgelt B40 vario, Chute, Trailer. Good original finish. Annuals currently underway. $18K. Phone Paul 021 331 838 Cobra 15, ZK-GJE • In good condition with a refurbished trailer. Easy to fly and fully aerobatic with a 38:1 glide ratio, comparable with a Libelle or Standard Cirrus. Includes tow out gear, Borgelt B40 vario and a parachute.

Price now dropped to $9,995! Phone Russell Jones on 09 575 9788 or email prismconsult@gmail.com ASW15, ZK-GGO • S/N 15069. Microair radio and transponder. Cambridge 302 DDV and 303 nav screen. $15,000 ono. Phone 027 497 2723, email g_gaddes@xtra.co.nz DG 300 Elan • GOZ Full panel. Road trailer. $45,000 or near offer. Apply to Errol Shirtliff. Phone 03 526 8724 or email shirtliff@xtra.co.nz Standard Cirrus GJK, serial number 484G • Has three varios including a Borgelt B40. King aviation radio, Terra Transponder, colibri flight logger, oxygen, parachute and tow out gear. Trailer is well set up, glider goes into trailer in a raise/lower cradle that can be done single handed. Gel coat in very good condition, glider condition in general is good. Good club class glider that is cheap to run and has no parts register fees to pay each year. $24,000 ono. Phone Kerry on 03 526 8584 or 027 334 4176.

DG 800b Self Launch, ZK GUP • Built 1998, Solo 2625 engine, airframe 810 hrs, Eng 105 hrs, Cambridge GPS NAV & PNA running SeeYou. LD 50:1 + with 18m winglets. All Ads complied. Service History available, NZ Sailplanes (Mike Strathern). 15m & 18m tips. Cobra trailer. Mountain High oxygen. One man rigging equipment, tail dolly, wing walker. Disc Brake conversion kit available but not yet fitted. Can arrange shipping to Australia if required. NZ$158,000. Phone Kerry Greig 021 857 066 or email kerrygreig@hotmail.com Ventus CT – TX • TT approx 1700hrs, Engine 38hrs, flies like a dream, very straight glider, new Trig transponder fitted, new parachute, Dittel Radio, Borgelt vario, trailer tows well, recently overhauled, price $110,000 negotiable, phone Conal on 021 183 9359, email conal@rcsed.ac.uk Puchatek KRO3A 2 Seat Trainer, GXO • Manufactured 1991. 2866 Hrs. Becker Radio. Spare, brand new tinted canopy plus frame. Refinished surface. Ex Auckland Gliding Club, currently owned by the Mark Ford Estate. This is a first rate training glider looking for a new home. A new annual will be provided. Expression of interest to Paul Knight phone 027 628 8077 or 09 238 9827 Nimbus 2 • ZK-GIW. $50,000. PU Paint, Fixed Tail plane, All Surfaces Sealed and Mylared, Tabulator Tape, Mask Winglets, Double Bladed Airbrakes, Tinted Canopy, Adjustable seat back, L-Nav, GPS-Nav, Oxy, C Mode Transponder, National Parachute, Tow out gear, Trestles, Electric

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Sept–Oct 2014

Discus A • ZK-GYT (Y2) $76,000. Cobra Trailer .Very good condition. PU paint. Setup for competition soaring. Phone Russle Schultz 04 526 7882

Ventus CT • $115,000. Excellent condition. C302/PNA, EDS oxy, 4 x sets of tips from Maumuer 15m winglets to 18m wingtips with winglets. All towout gear. Good trailer. Phone Patrick Driessen 027 486 6441 Retired glider (GHS) with all Instruments in Service but removed for sale • Altimeter, Cambridge Vario and Airspeed still in the cockpit mounting.

Transponder: Terra AT3000 altitude digital encoder, tubing, flask etc. Icon trans/receiver radio with full manual and external speaker. Phone Colin Deeker 07 378 4862. Price $400.00

Hangars Two adjacent 18m hangar spaces in the Omarama Hangar • $30,000 each or near offer. Phone Mike Hamilton 03 962 1530 or email mike.hamilton@ hamjet.co.nz Hangar space, 15m, east hangar at Omarama • Asking $1,500/m or reasonable offer. Contact Linda vindaloulou@gmail.com, 03 348 7009 or 021 071 8402.

Hangar Space – right to occupy, for sale • A space in the Canterbury Gliding Club’s new Springfield hangar. This state of the art hangar is in a prime position on the field, giving easy access to the main vector. Springfield has been developed as the long term home of the CGC and provides access to some of the best soaring in NZ and is active all year round. The purchaser will need to maintain membership of the club, one of the strongest and most progressive in NZ. Phone John 021 2234 911.

Other For Sale Pawnee Pawnee PA25-235 ZK-RWS S/N 25-2161 • Engine 250HP out of hours (can be ground run), total airframe hours 5558, fuselage stripped, repainted and rebagged September 2010, as is located at Stratford. $15,000 ono. For any further details phone Les Sharp 06 753 4227 or email lesue@ihug.co.nz Cambridge 302 and 303 set • Both instruments are in great condition.

GPS Antenne, handbook, and all cables included price $2,300 including postage. Email R.Drake@inbox.com Blood Oxygen reader • A little finger tip one. Take the guess work out of hypoxia. A modern must-have for wave flying. This one is a hard to get Liquid Crystal Display unit which means it is really easy to read in bright sunlight. Runs off two AA batteries. See pictures at http://tinyurl.com/ nx2lwtt Bran new. $80 incl gst and freight. Contact Frank at franksaxton@gmail.com

GNz members are eligible for one free non-commercial classified advertisement per issue.

Deadline for receipt of advertising for our December issue is 20 November 2014.

Nelson Lakes GC land out books, covering airstrips north of Hanmer • $30 ea. Email Nick at Nick7k@Outlook.com

proof reader

Personalised Plates: SØARING (Fly the High Way) • I will consider any reasonable offer and can be contacted at my email dhcd@nowmail.co.nz

wanted Second Hand Mode C Transponder • Phone Jason Price 021 977 240

DG 400 Self launching glider ZK - GOM first flew in December 1984 and has completed 1,793 hours and 247 hours on the engine. Comes with 15 and 17m tips, tow out gear, wing and tail plane hanger covers, 2 canopy covers, EDS and A8A oxygen with quick connect refill. Cambridge 302/303 GPS and Winter mechanical vario. Dittel FSG60M radio and Terra transponder. Trailer incorporates cobra fittings with hydraulic ramp, interior lights and ability to charge batteries via an external socket while glider is in the trailer. This glider would be ideal for a syndicate, finance can be discussed if necessary. $95,000.

Contact: Mark Aldridge 0274 508 505

Wanted

Pedantic Grammar Nerd Around 8 hours work per issue spread out over a period of two to three weeks. Four times a year. $225 per issue.

This is not a big time commitment but it makes a vital difference to the quality of this magazine.

Gliding or general aviation knowledge an advantage.

Previous proof readers have been partners of glider pilots. email the editor for more information soaringnz@mccawmedia.co.nz

Photo John McCaw

For Sale

Second hand flight computer • Cambridge or similar Contact Hamish.

Phone: 021558842

Sept–Oct 2014

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Sailplane Services Ltd Specialist Composite Aviation Engineering

NZ agents for Schempp-Hirth Sailplanes, LXNav Soaring Equipment and Trig Avionics all state of the art equipment for soaring aircraft.

Ross Gaddes email ross@sailplaneservices.co.nz phone +64 9 294 7324 or +674 274 789 123