GNZ Newsletter June 2022
From the president
Welcome to the June 2022 GNZ newsletter.
Can you believe it, the shortest day of the year is coming up later this month so very soon the days will be getting longer again.
Obviously the low sun means less thermal flying but when the wind blows there is still plenty of ridge and wave flying to be had.
Winter days also make for great training days, whether it is learning to fly on some of those blustery, showery days or making the most of a crisp, clear, can see for ever sky.
There's always a reason to go flying!
Steve Wallace
GNZ President
Congratulations
JIM FINER
First solo in a glider for the Taranaki tow pilot!
CALEB FINER
Grandson of Jim, first solo just minutes after his Grandad!
REEGAN TOCK
First flight in a single seater.
ALEX MICHAEL & ANDREW FLETCHER
First time on the west coast for Alex and first student taken to the coast for instructor Andrew.
IZZY BURR
First time on the west coast for C Cat instructor Izzy.
SHIVNEET CHAND
First time on the west coast for Shiv.
LANCE FELDWICKE
1st solo. Nice one Lance!
ANTON LAWRENCE
B Category Instructor Rating done.
GNZ AGM
The agenda is coming together.
Make sure your club is represented!
THE GNZ EXECUTIVE IS LOOKING FOR NEW BLOOD
If you have some good club committee experience behind you and would like to contribute at a national level please ask your club to nominate you for voting at the AGM.
Tim's guided tours of NZ clubs
Tim's Pure Glide channel has been touring a few clubs and giving us some nice video tours.
Hopefully it will inspire you to visit and fly from some other NZ club locations.
I'm too sexy for my glider, too sexy by far!
Who knew Sebastian Vettell was also a glider pilot!
Membership
Membership is one of GNZ's key performance indicators. Chairman of the Membership Development Committee, Brian Sharpe says "If you don't measure it, you can't manage it". Henceforth GNZ will be sharing with you on a monthly basis Brian's latest initiative - The Membership Instrument Panel. Each month you will see whether GNZ is gaining or losing members - The Membership Vario; and on a Year to Date basis - The Membership Altimeter. Let's all think about what we can do to keep these dials going up!
Engineers
Take Note
From the desk of the NAO
Our hard working glider engineers perform a vital task of ensuring our gliders are safe and airworthy.
To ensure your glider engineer maintains their skills they are required to maintain their currency and apply for renewal every two years. And it’s that time of year for 25 of our engineers who need to renew by June 30th 2022.
The full list of all GNZ engineers is on the web site here https://gliding.co.nz/glider-engineers/ Only GNZ engineers listed in this link can work on your glider.
As part of their renewal process (no it’s not just automatically renewed) the engineers need to supply the NAO with a formal renewal application on a TECH 17 and also supply a log of work done in the past two years on a TECH 25. This is all explained in Section 4 of the MOAP page 106.
Pages 106 and 107 section 5 explains their currency requirements.
I look forward to 25 applications this month please 😊 Mike Strathern, NAO.
CAA Airspace Poster Updated
Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand
This is a notification that the following information has been added to the CAA website, aviation.govt.nz:
New poster revision: New Zealand airspace
Logbooks back in stock
Pilot Logbook
Hard back glider pilot log books are back in stock.
$35 each + pack + post
Orders should preferably be in multiples of five.
Orders to [email protected]
High on tow, let it go!
Out of position
For those that are not aware we are extremely saddened by the loss of one of our valued tow pilots this month in a towing accident. While exact causes will take a formal investigation time to determine, it is a tragic reminder that glider tows can get out of hand very quickly. If you lose sight of the tow plane or get significantly out of position then an immediate release from tow is the correct course of action. If you have done your pre-take-off checks, 'Eventualities', will mean you will have already thought about what to do and where to go in the event of an upset.
Incident Reports
From the desk of the NOO (National Operations Officer)
Brief Review of Incident Reports for April - May 2022
- nosewheel collapse on tow plane following a heavy landing, multiple contributing factors
- glider out of position at top of aerotow, tow pilot concerned, instructor not concerned
- aerotow upset at 200 ft, rope broke, towplane crashed into trees, tow pilot fatally injured
- very low turn onto final at end of a competition flight, other landing options were available
- rear canopy of 2-seater opened and broke during winch launch, not locked before takeoff
- shards of steel winch cable passed through protective grate, contacted leg of operator
- ATC camp, launch commenced then aborted by glider pilot due to glider landed ahead
- ATC camp, heavy landing on last flight of day, instructor slow to react, tiredness possible
- ATC cadet retrieving aerotow rope ran in front of wing, operation paused for a rebriefing
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
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)
Thanks for reading
All contributions, pics, videos and opinions welcome
EMAIL: [email protected]