Yes there were lockdowns and a few events had to be cancelled.
Yes we all had to get used to a slightly different way of doing things.
But you can't keep good pilots down so we still managed an awful lot of magnificent flying.
And December was exceptional for some spectacular flights and wonderful achievements.
2022 is now underway.
We've got a whole new year to see what can be done.
Happy soaring!
Steve Wallace
GNZ President
Congratulations
TERRY DELORE and ABBEY DELORE
Omarama, Bluff, Drury - 1,600km, 14hrs
An outstanding, inspiring flight. Not much of NZ they didn't see on this flight.
MIKE OAKLEY
2,007 km declared flight attempt. Not quite with 1,800km on task achieved. Awesome flight. Fingers crossed for the next attempt.
HENRY HOPE-CROSS
Well done Henry. Passenger rating done. Who better for your first passenger than Mum!
MARK WILSON
XCP complete. Good job!
ANTHONY TRIBE & WILLIAM KEEDWELL
Silver / Gold 5 hour flights done.
EMILIO LEAL SCHWENKE
First solo! Congrats Emilio.
Now Here's an Opportunity for 2022!
Flying with Milan in his Duo
Experience a contest day with world class professional gliding instructor, Milan Sawyer. Flying his Duo Discus X, Milan has a wealth of experience flying in NZ and throughout the world.
This is your opportunity to fly with Milan at either the NZ National Gliding Champs at Matamata, or at the Taupo NI Regionals.
Costs to be confirmed based on numbers but each day will be:
- Fixed fee per day (to cover travel & ferry costs, based on the number of pilots)
- PLUS Hourly rate of $150/hour including glider hire and Milan's time.
- PLUS Contest tow fee
The flight will include pre and post flight briefings.
14 Youth Glide Students, 8 two seat gliders, 2 single seat gliders, 3 tow planes, 126 glider flights, 199,700ft of aerotowing, 4 winch launches, and 3,993 minutes of glider flying.
We all know Glyn Jackson loves his stats so you can guess who was the main driver behind this event. Well done to Glyn and the assembled team.
Safety Corner
Bird Strike
If it can happen on larger airfields that have active bird surveillance and suppression systems in place what are the risks at your home airfield? What do you consider under eventualities in your pre-take-off checks? What about when you are landing, ridge soaring or thermalling? Eventualities are something that should be thought about for all phases of a flight, not just taking-off.
Spur-winged plover are not a small bird and below Alex Michael holds up the two Plovers he encountered while landing at Whenuapai.
Incident Reports
From the desk of the NOO (National Operations Officer)
Brief Review of Incident Reports for October to November 2021
glider self-launched with a towplane on short final, wing runner failed to confirm all clear behind
1200 ft on tow in controlled airspace, glider radio found inoperative, broken microphone wire
loss of battery power in controlled airspace due to taking off with flat battery by mistake
altitude encoder failure on aerotow in controlled airspace - tug + glider reported different heights
strong sink in controlled airspace, sank below lower limit before obtaining a new clearance
unable to comply with requirement to remain clear of airfield for 10 mins due to rain and sink
training flight, heavy landing - possibly due local turbulence, instructor did not take over in time
winch launch - wing tip dragged along the ground and the pilot failed to automatically release
cell phone fell in slot for undercarriage lever, gear would not lower, phone was retrieved in flight
landed out on known airstrip, wing clipped trees on aerotow retrieve due to strong cross-wind
glider with turbo landed out heavily - hit a hollow area at high speed, no visible damage reported
You can access all back copies of the Ops Team Talking newsletter. These have been placed on the Gliding NZ web site under News > Safety Bulletins
A link to the GNZ 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.
