GNZ Newsletter January 2023
From the president
Welcome to the January 2023 GNZ newsletter.
I trust Santa was good to you all.
Time to go try out that new gliding bucket hat / T-Shirt / LX-9000 / Glider.
Wish the weather would make up its mind.
Contests seem to be the equivalent of a rain dance at the moment.
Some stunning days so far over the holiday period though.
What will 2023 bring?
An abundance of aerial adventures are certain for those that get airborne.
Happy flying.
Steve Wallace
GNZ President
Congratulations
ANGELIE MADSEN
First solo, aged 15. Well done Angelie!
JOSH DONDERWINKEL
First solo at the Matamata YGNZ camp.
NATHAN MONTANO
First paddock landing. Nice one!
ROD STUART
"I went solo in a glider this morning!
What a completely awesome feeling!"
MARTIN RAVINA
One of GNZ's newest members
DEREK WAGSTAFF & CHARLIE IRVIN
What a great interview on TVNZ's Breakfast show (click on the pic to watch)
KIERAN CASSIDY
A very credible 4th place flying at JoeyGlide in Australia.
More importantly, winner of the junior Trans-Tasman Trophy!!
ADS-B Data
Now being sent to the GNZ Tracking System
https://gliding.net.nz/tracking
New to GNZ Tracking: ADSB Data. Courtesy of PureTrack.io. It filters to only ZK-G gliders and a select list of tow planes. The data comes from a system called ADSBHub, they don't have a lot of receivers in NZ (green dots pictured), so if you can help add a receiver at your club get in touch. South Island, Taranaki, Napier needed in particular. Taupo coming soon...
Don't forget the Gov $2500 subsidy ends early next year, so get your ADSB ASAP!
From the SRC
Competition Pilots
Rules for the 2022/23 competition season
BGA Glider Handicaps 2022/23 as adopted by the SRC
Contest Organisers
new Contest Management Guide now available
New Levies
Organisers of national and regional competition events for 2022/2023 season please include $10 per contestant and send this to GNZ to fund the purchase of glider scales as agreed at the AGM Pilots Meeting.
Organisers to also ask pilots for a voluntary $10 donation and pass this to GNZ to fund the igc ranking fee for the 2022/2023 season.
Multi-Class Nationals Omarama
Make sure your club Duo / DG-1000 / Arcus / Janus enters and that you have a seat booked!
Thursday 19th January - Saturday 28th January
Omarama always offers up some of the best high energy competition flying available anywhere in the world. Want to fly a 600km racing task at over 200kph? Omarama is the proven place to do it.
Are you taking your glider to the 'other' island this year? Click on the pic below to get a 10% ferry discount.
Club Class Nationals Matamata
Friday 3rd February - Sunday 12th February
You don't need the latest and greatest to have fun testing your skills against some of the best in this highly competitive class. Indeed you don't even need your own glider as a club glider will do just fine.
From around the clubs
Trophy time at the South Island Regionals
Mike Strathern in his happy place!
Georgia Schofield in her happy place (sponsored by PureGlide?)
Aviation Sports - Whenuapai. Craig Best delivers a new (old) tractor.
Interesting wave clouds by Nigel Davy.
Yummy wave clouds by Kahu Soaring.
Long wings at Springfield
Auckland's Duo wing over Mt Cook
Tim finally flies around Lake Taupo.
Updated Instructor Training Programme
Here comes the paperwork!
The new ITP is very nearly ready to roll out. The documents have been loaded onto the Gliding NZ web site here and the forms are here. The MOAP has been revised accordingly. The updated documents include: - Instructor Assessment Standards (IAS) for Category C, B and A Instructors - Instructor Support Material (ISM) - for teaching airborne exercises - Use of Patter (optional - for those who might find this helpful) - New OPS-07 Form - Page 2 is the Assessment Form for future ratings and upgrades - New OPS-08 Form - Flying exercises approved to teach - New OPS-09 Form - Instructor Competency Review - New OPS-12 Form - Flight Test for XCP Passenger Rating - New OPS-17 Form - Fit and Proper Person Declaration for Passenger Rating (without XCP) The plan is to conduct 2-day workshops in each region towards the end of the current soaring season, to explain the new standards to instructors and address any questions or other issues that arise. Some training will be given where there is opportunity. These workshops will most likely be held at Matamata, Papawai and Springfield airfields, plus other venues as required. One key change is that an A-Cat rating is now required to train instructors. It is expected that those with a current B-Cat + IT rating will be able to upgrade to A-Cat once all the criteria have been met. The role of A-Cats will be to maintain the highest standards of safety and discipline within the clubs, and to train and supervise instructors. Another change is that the minimum standard for a CFI is now a B-Cat rating. 12 months will be allowed for all instructors to meet the new standards and upgrade as appropriate. There is a new ICR form, plus a form on which to record the Flight Test for XCP. Some pilots might wish to exercise the privileges of a passenger rating without completing their 50 km flight. In this case CAA requires that a fit-and-proper person declaration be filled out and ratified. This can be done using the OPS-17 form. The declaration is already included on the application form OPS-03 for XCP Certificate.
Membership
Membership Display Panel
The figures have finally sorted themselves out post clubs doing their end of membership year clean outs, so to smooth out the turbulence this causes the last three months have been averaged - just like the averager in a vario. This has resulted in minus one member for each of the three months and minus five for the YTD total. Summer however, is a great time for clubs to gain new members so if everybody can do their bit to get potential new members along to their club for a fly we should be able to get that vario chirping happily again.
Safety Tips
Am I hydrated?
A urine colour chart
When you are dehydrated, your brain is dehydrated and a dehydrated brain cannot process information or make good quality decisions. 4,5,6 & 7 on the chart means you are no longer safe to fly. Before and during a flight make sure you drink sufficient fluids to stay in the 1,2 & 3 safe zones.
Don't move it without permission!
Moving aircraft after injury or accident
The CAA is reminding all Part 149 organisations about the rules for moving an aircraft after an incident where the aircraft is damaged in any way. This reminder is not specifically aimed at gliding - recent gliding accidents have all been reported promptly and permission to move the wreck has been obtained. The reason for this rule is that CAA is responsible for determining the cause of any accidental damage or injury, and there may be useful clues embodied in the wreckage. This means that the aircraft and any associated evidence like impact marks) can only be disturbed or moved under specific circumstances. These are all explained in the GAP booklet, How to Deal with an Aircraft Accident Scene. This knowledge is required in the new GNZ Assessment Standards at the B-Cat Instructor level and above. There is more information available on the CAA website. The Civil Aviation Rule is in Part 12: Accidents, Incidents and Statistics and further advice is given in the Advisory Circulars AC12-1 - Mandatory occurrence notification and information and AC12-2 - Occurrence Investigation.
Incident Reports
From the desk of the NOO (National Operations Officer)
INCIDENT REPORTS FOR NOV - DEC 2022
- glider stalled and landed heavily after winch launch abandoned, pilot suffered serious spinal injury
- downhill outlanding on airstrip, attempted ground loop but still went through far fence, no injury
- outlanding without a proper circuit, downwind, ran through fence at end of field, glider a write off
- outlanding on known strip, ground loop due to long grass, adjacent field perhaps a better option
- air brakes unlocked on takeoff, opened during launch, radio call prompted pilot to lock them
- control check prior to launch - small stone prevented full and free movement of aileron control
- winch cable coupling not fully engaged, parted during transition to full climb, normal recovery
- power fade late in rotation on winch launch, pilot lowered nose but did not release, resumed climb
- main wheel locked down but retracted on landing, attributed to handle bouncing inwards in slot
- tail dolly was still attached after pilot had strapped into cockpit for launch
- insect lodged in pitot tube caused ASI to respond sluggishly and give false readings
- inexperienced visitors pushing a glider without supervision, nearly damaged another glider
- no ASI reading on launch due to pitot tube fitted into wrong hole in fin, better label requested
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
Do you need to file an OPS-10 as well as CA005? This question comes up a lot. The CAA must be notified immediately by phone after an "accident", along with the relevant CFI (MOAP Ref page 61 & 62). A Form CA005 Occurrence Report must then be filed with CAA within ten days. The view of Gliding NZ is that every incident or accident is also an opportunity to learn something that could prevent a similar occurrence in the future, and for this reason an OPS-10 report should also be filed with the ROO even though this is not explicitly requested in AC 2-08. 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.
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)
ASW20L
For Sale
GNZ Classifieds
Just in case Santa did not deliver and you now need to buy yourself your own Xmas present.
https://gliding.co.nz/classifieds/
Check out the 'merch' from Tim's Pure Glide store.
Or how about Simon Gault's autobiography "No half measures" with guest appearance by Terry & Abbey Delore.
Don't forget, Milan has on offer from his fotorama.co.nz web-shop a selection of amazing high quality printed gliding photos ready for you to frame and hang.
Or if you have always wanted to fly from the incredible soaring paradise of Omarama you can just book a flight with Milan at Kahu Soaring. Maybeb you get a day or two in the upcoming Nationals. How cool would that be!
Thanks for reading
All contributions, pics, videos and opinions welcome
EMAIL: [email protected]