GNZ Newsletter August 2024
From the president
Welcome to the August 2024 GNZ newsletter.
Last month of winter already.
And winter so far has been a mixed bag.
Some cold days, some warm.
Some wet and some windy.
Which means some nice flying days.
And some, not so nice.
The snow on the hills in the South looks pretty though.
Clubs have been busy.
Some eating, some prize giving, some maintenance, some planning and some flying.
Sums it up really.
Steve Wallace
GNZ President
Congratulations
STACEY HART
First solo! Well done Stacey.
BEN GAMBARO
XCP complete. Well done Ben!
KEITH ESSEX and MARJU ROSSI
Flying this month in the World Gliding Champs in Uvalde, Texas , representing New Zealand in the two seater class.
Did you notice the highs & lows last month?
NIWA: Provisionally, a new national mean sea level pressure record was set in Ranfurly, Central Otago, reaching 1046.5 hPa on the evening of 10 July 2024.
The high pressure system is among the strongest to pass over New Zealand on record according to NIWA’s national climate database.
And not a record by any means but 976 hPa just 10 days later off to the north east of NZ is pretty low. I believe the record low is 964 hPa, set in 1968 as ex-tropical cyclone Giselle, the storm that sank the Wahine, passed over NZ.
Quiz question: 1046 hPa - 964hPa equates to a change in pressure height of what on your altimeter?
I should also mention the wind. Note the wind gust at 18:15 in the table below. Kariotahi is a west coast beach a few km's south of Auckland airport.
Up Coming Events
Springfield Enterprise Week
Enterprise is the perfect way for less experienced glider pilots to start racing gliders
Enterprise allows for 'novel' interpretation of the rules - normally called cheating
Enterprise is where the winner has done the most flying, not the least
Enterprise events are competitive and also fun to compete in
The Matamata Soaring Centre Cross Country Course
If you're a North Island pilot who's at or near the Getting to Cross Country Pilot (XCP) stage in the GNZ training programme and have the agreement of your CFI, this course will benefit you.
The Matamata Soaring Centre runs this course annually over Labour weekend and the weekdays following, combining lectures with flying instruction. Attendees may also bring a single seater from their club, as there is generally one twin (with instructor) for every two students. In recent years, there has also been field selection training using a motor glider, which has been widely appreciated.
This course has been run over the last several decades and has helped produce competent, safe cross-country pilots. Many pilots have made their first outlanding during this course, using a pre-selected field close to the airfield.
Accommodation is available at the airfield and it is hoped that catering may also be available.
The course will be added to the GNZ Events calendar shortly. In the meantime, please contact Gerard Robertson ([email protected]) if you'd like more information.
Competition Season Venues and Dates as approved at the SRC AGM
Central Plateau – Taupo - 2/11/24 to 9/11/24
South Island Regionals - Omarama - 16/11/2024 to 23/11/2024
Northern Regionals - Matamata - 23/11/2024 to 30/11/2024
Auckland Soaring Competition – Drury - 4/01/25 to 11/01/25
Multiclass Nationals- Omarama - 2/01/2025 to 11/01/2025
Club Class nationals - Taumarunui - 18/01/2025 to 26/01/2025
Central Districts Regionals - Waipukurau 15/02/2025 to 22/02/2025
NZ Grand Prix - Matamata - 1/03/2025 to 09/03/2025
From around the clubs
Aviation Sports. It's rainbow season.
Piako Gliding Club - winter easterly wave
TOW - back from some towing
Taranaki with her hat on...
...meanwhile inside the hangar much maintenance is being done.
Wellington Wairarapa - what a great photo
Rebecca Wilson with her wave finding assistant in the back
Canterbury mid-winter fun comp.
Abbey Delore helping the kids have fun - or is it the other way around?
Omarama - at -9.5C maybe a bit cold to go flying...
...but very pretty
Not NZ. Just a really nice shot.
GNZ 75th Anniversary
Gala Dinner
GNZ turns 75
The history of gliding in NZ goes back a long way, with recorded gliding flights (with photos) occurring on Browns Island, in the Hauraki Gulf of all places, in June 1909 and flights from the Cashmere Hills above Christchurch in December 1911. The New Zealand Gliding Association (before it became Gliding New Zealand), was not formally incorporated until the 13th June 1950. Interestingly enough this was not the first New Zealand Gliding Association. The original was formed in Dannevirke around 1932 but it was never formally incorporated and did not survive the start of WWII. So, 13th June 1950 is the formal formation date for GNZ which will make us 75 years old at the AGM in June next year. GNZ therefore is planning a weekend of celebration, the highlight of which will be a gala dinner at a yet to be selected venue in Auckland City. Fine food, fine wine and fine company with an evening of entertainment and history, including stories, photos, video and memorabilia. To help us with choosing the size of the venue, an early indication of how many people may be expected to attend would be much appreciated. If you think you, your partner or other related parties and ex-members will likely attend this celebration can you please indicate this by adding your name and the numbers in your party in the Google Form linked below (just click on the Google Form image below).
I'm sure you have lots of other questions, like what's the exact date and time, etc but no guarantees until we make a firm booking with a provider so we just need rough numbers for now to help us choose a venue. Thank you.
Below - Browns Island June 1909
Did you know?
Mangere Aerodrome
Did you know the Auckland Gliding Club used to fly from the Mangere Aerodrome - now known as Auckland International Airport!
After Mangere the club moved to Ardmore Airport before in 1973 moving to the Cossey Farm strip, now known as Drury airfield. Photo below of Cossey's Farm before the trees were removed to form the airfield strip.
Membership
Membership Display Panel
The winter sink has struck. Although we had a reasonable number of joins this month it was outweighed by those leaving, resulting in a net loss of 10 members. The figures are slightly distorted however as some of the resigns actually go back as far as before the 31st October last year! A club who shall not be named has promised to get better at their record keeping and supplying GNZ with more up to date data.
Incident Reports
A summary of incidents from the Ops Team frm May - June 2024
Reported Incidents
- brakes not fully locked on take-off after applying wheel brake to prevent cable over-run
- pilot flew above 14,000 ft without oxygen, then failed to complete pre-landing checks
- glider landed heavily, bounced without proper recovery, broken canopy and gear doors
- tow plane carried on with launch after signalled to stop, glider released, bat not used
You can access all back copies of the Ops Team Talking newsletters.
These have been placed on the Gliding NZ web site under News > Safety Bulletins A link to the GNZ accident & incident reporting form (OPS 10) can be found in the very top menu bar on the GNZ homepage, just to the right of the 'Classified Adverts'. You can now fill this form out on your phone at the airfield, so no excuses.
OPS 10 link: http://gliding.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OPS10v7f.pdf
In the case of an accident, asap please phone: 0508 ACCIDENT (0508 222 433)
NOTE: The OPS 10 form has been renamed and amended to include reporting of accidents as well as incidents – previously it was intended for incidents only.
(A CA005 still needs to be sent to CAA for accidents, but the OPS Team doesn’t require a copy of that now.) Consequential changes have been made to the MOAP and AC 2-08.
GNZ Classifieds
This months feature glider for sale is ASW20-f, ZK-GYR
A very sexy looking glider with great dollar value and excellent cross country and competition performance. Ideal for a first time owner or syndicate looking to leave club gliders behind and taste the freedom of flight in your own glider.
For more gliders and other gliding stuff you can check out the GNZ classifieds at the link below.
Thanks for reading
All contributions, pics, videos and opinions welcome
EMAIL: [email protected]