Sat 2nd Feb

With the airfield still a little too damp for the winch, the Pawnee came into its own for yet another day.  A strong northerly wind produced a mighty rough ground run and prevented most members from flying solo. Despite this, and the biting cold at the launch point, there was soon a respectable list of pilots eager to get off the ground.

Both K21s and DG505 were busy all day.  Adrian P and Martin W took advantage of the Junior reduced rates, with Adrian scoring the longest flight of the day (42 minutes).  Once off the ground, the air was smooth and crystal clear, and the views outstanding.  We flew our first Trial Lesson of the year and welcomed Darren, a visitor from Brentor.

Evening colours

Stu is rewarded after towing all day, by having an evening flight with Jimbob

Sat 2nd Feb - DSGC down under

Made it to South island just ahead of the rugby sevens in Wellington -well done England., with a nice smooth crossing (- no worries Mark L).

100kms drive to probably the remotest gliding club we've ever been to - Nelson Lakes, a 1.5 km x 100m east west paddock with ridges and foothills on both sides and big mountains within reach.There was a small farm building housing 2 twin Acros and a single Astir. Behind the hangar was ' a long drop' and by the launch point a large garden shed for a clubhouse.

Scenic Grid

Downwind right hand into Lake Station, Nelson

It was lovely day, with cloud still on the mountains at first, the breeze was down the strip and the usual assortment of local gliding people who were far outnumbered by the swarms of large Bumble bees.

Local knowledge suggested that it wouldn't be soarable for a while so we sat around and chatted with the friendly locals.

Do ya thinks it's working mate? Club house gallery.

CFi Rob launched his Nimbus 2 and disappeared for several hours,  but the other locals were still circuit bashing from 1400ft winch launches. We launched just after 2pm, wit duty instructor Kerry, but couldn't do any better.

Late afternoon, Pete had another go  and the single seaters also started soaring.

Pete and Kerry picked up a 4 kt thermal off the winch, to near cloudbase at 3000ft above site (airfield 1700ft amsl). Then flew along the line of the home ridge close to cloud-base then got onto the Mount Robert ridge and with an increasing westerly wind allowed them to follow the rising mountain crests and cloud-bases until they were at 7000ft and 30 kms south of the site.

The peak just left of centre under the cumulus is 7000ft, Mt Cupola

The rocks were incredibly craggy and there were two large glacial valleys full of water.

Incredible Craggy Rocks of Mt Cupola at 7000'

It was then more than time to go home, and they flew back over the lower cumulus to let down over the airfield. It was a very welcoming small club that fly mainly Saturdays + more if the weather suits.
- Jill and Pete.
See where Jill and Pete are click on the links.
Lake Station Airport
Mt Cupola, South of Lake Station

Thurs 31st Jan - Tantrums, Teas and Tuggies

When we rolled up today the sky was blue but within minutes it was raining, not AGAIN! Cue tantrums!

Luckily it was a short lived shower, there was then a long and extensive pitch inspection.  At first we thought we could winch launch, but driving on the field with the Land Rover, even with its big fat wheels left brown lines. We retired to the clubhouse for numerous hot cups of tea whilst we allowed the field to "dry" a little more. It was decided that we could set up the field with the launch point a little in front of the club house and aerotow from the crest of the field.

Conditions were "lively" to say the least  with a 30 mph + WNW wind but the intrepid Tuggies were keen to save the day - (respect). Once you endured the rather entertaining aerotow to 1000ft you could climb all the way along the West ridge. Heights to 1600 ft were easily possible, there was a real mix of wave rotor, thermal and pure ridge lift. Gliders were called down after 30-ish min so that everyone could get a flight. It would seem that Pete S had his iPod earphones plugged in because he could not hear us calling him down for nearly an hour, only descending so he could  post the "first" x-country of the year from North Hill, NHL-CUL-NHL.

http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=39512&RC=

Top honours go to Treasurer Tom (formally Texas) and Matt with their 58 min flight. They only descended to allow Tom to eagerly charge people's accounts for flying, a task that he has not been able to undertake of late! 

Everyone learnt something new today (I hope), and with the flying list completed the dirty bottoms were washed by 5pm. A challenging but hugely enjoyable day,  made possible by the rather brave Tuggies Matt and Peter St, my assistant instructor Chris W and all the usual super keen Thursday bunch.

Roll on next Thursday especially as I have ordered NE wave to arrive by 10 am.

Mark C  

Dirty bottoms cleaned!

Weds 30th January

Wednesday forecast was for very strong west wind it was 20 kt gusting to 35 kt, apart from that the field was waterlogged, this didn't stop the usual Wednesday optimists from turning up.

Our road repair materials have arrived and for those who would prefer to mend the road rather than fly the is a huge backlog of work to be done! JS.

Thursday 31st January -DSGC down under

Another beach and another gliding club, Wellington Gliding Club at Kapiti Coast.The hot sunny high pressure has started to pull away and we had a fresh northerly wind which was blowing along the mountain range and not working, They had wave yesterday, but the views were great again. We both flew 3000ft sleigh rides with Vojtech from Czech Republic in a DG1000.
Across the Straits tomorrow ready to attack South Island - there's no cobwebs here!
- Jill and Pete

Kapiti Island

Paraparaumu

Mon 27th Jan - pics from somewhere it's not raining.

A couple of pics from Pete and Jill - looks nice doesn't it.

Tauranga 25th January

Lake Taupo 27th January. See how they photoshopped a bit of glider in this one just to make us think they're actually flying - very clever.

Sunday 27th January - DSGC down under

The second gliding club visit in NZ, Taupo, Central Plateau, North Island, 1500ft above sea level.The vintage kiwi rally was onthis week, and we popped in on Saturday afternoon, to find that there was no flying due to extreme easterly turbulence behind the nearby 3000ft mountain. Sunday morning after a quick stroll round the power boats on the lakeside, that were racing in the afternoon, we drove up to the gliding club at 10:00.

The cumulus were forming readily despite a dodgy forecast on nz rasp. We found them all a bit laid back, and just like the French didn't start launching until after lunch. Pete flew with a pommy Sid from Hus Bos who he had previously flown with at Dunstable. Jill flew with an aussie bloke called Tracey. The conditions were superb with 10 knot thermals to 6500ft, (had to stop there or make a call to Christchurch ATC.

We made a lot of new friends and invited several back to North Hill when visiting UK.

Jill and Pete

Sat 26th Jan - Fire, Mice, Men and a drop of water

North Hill water park

The deep end

Well as we thought the predicted thaw saw the field awash with water, so that was it, a wasted day ---- not a chance !

The main aim was to return the lecture room to its former glory with some minor improvements, more of that later.  We gathered our men. Firstly we had to clear a space at the rear of the old hanger for the expected influx of items  from the lecture room. No mean feat as most of the vehicles were reluctant to move after their forced hibernation. The old hanger floor was then brushed clean, a job overdue. By the time Andrew M's items were placed in his secret storage area, ( not quite so secret anymore) the rubbish was either burnt on a rather large bonfire, simply thrown in the bin or claimed by members resembling rubbish tip reclaimers, there was not a lot of new storage space needed!

The old storage cupboards were checked by our chief mouse retention officer (Jonathan S) and came through with a clean bill of health, it looks like the single culprit has now been eradicated.

Back in the lecture room Martin W, Dave W and myself wrestled the metal wipe board onto its new fixing brackets. It can be removed with care if needed in the main club room. With a slight amount of re arranging the room is now ready for lectures or instructor reviews (of which there are a few). Thanks to Mrs Mop (Heather C) for getting on her hands and knees to scrub the floor clean !

Ron supervised his team of elves re-weighing 611 - looks like diet time again! - and 711 made it out of the workshop like a leviathan space ship being relaunched.

In the main club room there was a great atmosphere with people chatting , reminiscing and planning for the coming season, with bacon sandwiches a plenty and hot tea who could wish to be anywhere else ?? Well apart from NZ like Jill and Pete oh and Jamaica where our Lisa H is sunning herself !

Thanks to all the helpers

MC

Friday 25th January - DSGC down under

Our first gliding day in NZ, at Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, North Island. The very friendly club members opened up operations just for us. After a little delay fettling the Duo XLT for Pete and the Janus for Jill,we towed them tail first with rope and nobody on the glider, we towed them to the end of the strip .Jill launched first but the sky was all changing and there was just time for photos and a few odd bits of lift.

Pete had a better trip, once the streets restablished, with cloudbase at 4500ft.visiting both coasts over nearly 4 hours with just a few engine burns. Great hospitality from the locals in the evening with a fish supper.

Jill and Pete

Thurs 24th Jan - SNOW so WHITE and the 3 dwarfs

Well, getting to the club was ok today despite a large drift across the entrance to the lane. The whole site looked amazing under the bright winter sun, in fact the snow was the whitest smoothest I have ever seen (confirmed by Dave R). 

Ron J turned up to "work" on the ASH and soon had his 3 dwarfs grafting under his supervision. In no particular order , Grumpy , Pete S  , Sleepy Adrian P , (Turned up late) and Bashful,  Mark C. Later Ron's backup dwarfs arrived to finish the job ,Doc, Phil M and Sneezy Chris W (bad cold). The workshop was nice and warm despite the -1 deg C outside ,what a great club asset this facility is. 

With heavy rain forecast tomorrow and the big thaw we all agreed that the field might take some time to recover. On Sat we are hoping  that members will turn up anyway as there will be some lectures taking place, also it would be great if we can clear the lecture room of the accumulated items.

On the plus side its nearly the end of January so spring should be round the corner! 

( it's quite a way off I just added this to cheer up Grumpy). 

Mark C (aka The Disbeliever) Snow? - can't be true, we haven't seen a single flake in Plymouth!

Polar bear or frozen walker?

Snow so White!

Grumpy smiles but check out his mug!