While there may be a few sad faces on occasion due to the weather interrupting our flying plans we must of course put this into perspective and consider this nothing when thinking of those who have lost so much.
So, while in the north we have had 4 out of 5 contests cancelled due to weather the flying in-between the rain has been very good. Great to see though it is now looking good for March weather and two contests still to go.
Our Southern pilots are of course enjoying a magnificent soaring season.
Lots of pilots achieving lots despite the weather, as you will see in this newsletter.
Here's hoping for a more settled, drier autumn.
We are privileged to do what we do.
Steve Wallace
GNZ President
Congratulations
AIDAN CARTWRIGHT
First solo, age 15! Well done Aidan!
MAX CLAXTON
First solo, age 16! Well done Max 2.0, Piako members will get this!
ANDREW SIMMONS
First solo, well done. Piako is just pumping them out.
BRETT SLATER
First solo! Nice one Brett!
KONSTANTIN MARCHENKO
First solo. Nice one Kostya! Instructor Malcolm Wright on the left seems pretty happy to!
KEVIN JOHNSON
First solo. Great effort Kevin!
IAIN ANDERSON
Pawnee rating which in this case also means a tow rating. Happy days.
CHARLIE IRVIN
XCP certificate complete! GNZ XCP No. 3,500, plus the GNZ first competition award.
KIERAN CASSIDY
C Cat Instructor Rating
WILL VERLAND
XCP certificate complete!
BRETT HUNTER
Winner of the MSC Open Class Contest, Matamata
STEVE WALLACE
Winner of the Club Class Nationals, Matamata.
Stranger Things
At the Club Class Nationals. An article by Steve Care
Never seen this before
Day 3 was a racing task. Ridge was expected, although the winds were light (around 10 to 14 kts). thermals weak and patchy. It had been decided the day before, that due to tracking, no start times would be announced on the radio (as we usually do). The task distance 329.1km. Thermalling near Thames was essential to get around and no one knew each others start time, but 2 pilots completed the task in exactly the same time (to the second) and yours truly 2 seconds slower. All 3 gliders had the same handicap, no winglet's and no ballast (of course). The contest SeeYou program could not differentiate 0.02 kph, so all pilots were awarded 1,000 points. It’s staggering to think that this could
happen over a 300+km task and almost 3 hours duration.
All 3 pilots were awarded the Van Dyk trophy for the fastest time around a speed task in a
Club Class Nationals. Left to right, Steven Care, Steve Wallace and Mike Strathern.
Proving Grounds
Fly deliberatly. Flys tasks.
TASK FLYING AND RECOGNITION WITH THE NOVICE GLIDER PILOT IN MIND
Currently in use at the Piako Gliding Club, this is a Canadian product designed to get club members into task flying. In the words of the developers:
The Proving Grounds platform provides a unique, low maintenance approach to member development.
Pilots fly fixed tasks and email their traces to a customized ‘bot’ for their club which returns time & average speed for successfully flown tasks automatically.
Pilots record their specifics on magnetic slips, then order the slips from fastest to slowest on beautiful, stainless steel task boards.
All you have to do is define the right tasks for your club. We ship you task sheets (laminated and loose), ranking boards, magnetic slips, a holder for the task sheets, even some felt tipped markers. All that’s left for members of your club is to fly a task and record a result – for years to come.
Turn your glider pilots into soaring pilots and retain new members!
A busy sky full of gliders at the recent Club Class Nationals. What we like to see!
Not sure where they are all going though? Except for TZB who's going to the moon!
Tim Bromhead. Never let the rain or the sun stop you from tinkering with your glider.
High cirrus on the last day of the Club Class Nationals forewarns of the approach of cyclone Gabrielle.
Cyclone Gabrielle 1. Neil Harker's Taupo cabin 0.
Papawai airfield / lake.
Miha Gosak (age 22 - Akl Club VFI) gives a talk about gliding in his home country of Slovenia
Justin Wills visits Puysiger Point (seen in the distance)
Where is Puysiger Point?
And at the extreme other end of the country this month Julian Stevens in his DG500 visits the Cape Reinga lighthouse.
A Photo from Morrie Honey flying his PW5 along the West Coast Seabreeze. Of note, this flight was some six hours in duration and Morrie is in his 87th year!
When you have an excess of engineering talent.
The do up of Aviation Sports new/old tractor is complete. Note the hood ornament.
Instructor Competency Standards
An update from the Ops Team
A simple "road map" to the Instructor Training Program is available here. There are two check list forms to capture satisfactory assessment of the candidate by the instructor trainer: The OPS-07 (page 2) and the OPS-08.
Regional Operations Officers have made a review of their individual competencies in order to identify areas that "need work". It is hoped to get the entire Operations Team up to A-Cat standard within a few months.
One issue that did arise concerns the "body of knowledge" that a competent instructor needs to get their head around. Some people are put off by lots of written text and would prefer to learn by listening and interacting with others, rather than by reading. The variation in preferred learning styles is well understood and indeed forms part of the "theory of learning" included in the instructor training program. So what are the alternatives?
One club reported holding a "group learning session" which seemed to be very successful. The senior instructors sat together and worked through the "road map" and linked documents, discussing each point in turn. Perhaps more clubs will find this an effective and enjoyable approach. More than one day will be required, of course, but it's a great start.
Finally, a reminder that regional seminars for instructors will be scheduled after the end of the contest season.
Membership
Membership Display Panel
A bit of a rejig this month regards whom we include as net members. It has been decided to exclude Visiting Foreign Instructors (VFI's) even though technically they are full GNZ members (note we already exclude Visiting Foreign Pilots). The reasoning is that VFI’s are only ‘temporary’ members in terms of developing our ‘core' Membership . They are a significant number, ie we currently have 9 in the country so our ‘real’ net Membership gain for the year so far, if VFI's are now excluded, is 7. Still a good net gain overall and still a positive net for the month as well. Keep up the good work!
Two to go.
It's not too late to sneak in one or two more contests for the year!
The long range forecast for the Central Plateau Contest is looking like great flying everyday! Just click below to enter.
Always the best contest of the year. Pilots just love the Grand Prix format. Exciting and different. Click below to enter.
Incident Reports
December 2022 - January 2023
ground loop after landing on part of airfield with longer grass than in other places, minor damage
nose wheel on twin jammed against fairing after heavy landing on nosewheel, grass debris inside
airspace incursion on cross-country flight, transgressed while chasing a thermal, CA005 filed
gear collapsed on outlanding, towards end of landing roll, glider had jumped a small depression
airbrakes opened at end of aerotow, pilot admits to rushed pre-flight checks with towplane waiting
grid rage by angry person after Duty Instructor attempted to rearrange the launch order
freshly-grazed field chosen for outlanding proved to be very rough due recent removal of stumps
glider and parachute drop accidentally cleared into same airspace - ATC procedures under review
You can access all back copies of the Ops Team Talking newsletters.
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.
