from the editor november 2018–january 2019 At the end of October, the GNZ executive and I met to discuss the future of the magazine. I’m very pleased that we are all on the same page. We want to keep the magazine useful, relevant and interesting to the full range of our members. That means we need articles that cover the range of experience of our members as well as stories covering the whole country. We need everyone’s help for that. We need your stories, whatever your experience level. If you’ve had a great flight, met someone interesting, or done something that might be best described as a learning experience, please let us know. My email address is in the red banner at the bottom of the contents page. If you don’t think you’re up to writing the story yourself, don’t worry, talk to me and I’ll sort it. The Taranaki Gliding Club sounds like a great place to fly. They’re kicking off our feature club series. I fully intend to get words on every active club in the country, so start thinking about what makes your piece of soaring paradise great. Think about your club’s history, the personalities past and present and why you love flying there. Be prepared to tell the rest of the country. It will take a couple of years or so to cover them all, but we will get to you. And in other news, John and I joined the winter exodus and spent some time in Canada in August. We did a big loop through the Rockies, a once in a life time experience, sadly marred by wildfire smoke blanketing not just the Canadian Rockies but the entire west coast of the continent, from San Francisco to well north of Vancouver. It was extraordinary, and like living in a perpetual orange fog. We spent a week at Panorama Mountain Resort where Robert, our younger son, was working. Panorama is about fifteen kilometres from the town of Invermere which is the home of ‘Soar the Rockies’, the Invermere Soaring Centre. Invermere is to British Columbia what Omarama is to New Zealand so of course we went to visit and, on a rare post rain day which cleared the sky a little, we got to fly. Many visitors to Omarama will remember Trevor Florence who was a Glide Omarama instructor for a number of years. Trevor says hello. Trevor is the owner and he’d love to see more New Zealand pilots come visit him for a very different sort of mountain flying to what they’re used to. I recommend you go before the end of July if you want to avoid fire season and smoke. Apparently, it was clear until the week before we arrived. Invermere is in a valley surrounded by really big mountains, lots
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and lots and lots of them. But they don’t get wave; well, not well set up streets of it like we do. That’s what makes their mountain soaring so different to ours. All their flying is in thermals. Most summer days the thermals are to 12 to 14,000 feet. Mind you, the mountains are well over 10,000. It was such a shame that the smoke didn’t let us get to experience that. I’ve seen the pictures. It’s an incredibly scenic place when you can see it. Trevor has a lovely Duo and he and John flew the day after it had rained when the sky was relatively clear. John got a reasonable flight and some good photos. I didn’t fly until the following day and the smoke was coming back. It was quite bizarre. There must have been an inversion at around 10,000 feet and the smoke was held below it. After the longest tow of my life, to about 8,500 feet, we scunged around in weak lift on the spurs and gradually managed to climb a little, all the time feeling like we must break out of the smoke soon. We never did.
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NEW ZEALAND’S PREMIER SOARING MAGAZINE
THE WORLDS HUMAN FACTORS • CLUB NEWS
It would be scenic if you could see it. Trying to climb out of the smoke.
Brett Hunter brought his JS3 to Omarama for the South Island Regionals. Photo Alex McCaw.
November 2018–January 2019
Next Issue: Youth Soaring Development Camp Nationals, Auckland Soaring Champs
magazine deadlines Competition Deadline for Club News, articles and pictures is 17 January 2019 and 26 January 2019 for advertising.
