Apparently one should not "give up".
So Sunday morning I caught a bus to the airport(read previous blog on why I wasnt driving).
Left my "famous" red hat on the bus....buggar...
Machine fianlly fuelled and ready to go. Local cloud cover at 2500ft but Waikato weather looking much better. Webcams at Taupo, Palmerston North and Kapit look very good. Into the sky at around 11:15 and a quick pop over the Kaimais. A long slow climb to 6500ft (on top) North of Taupo. The revers eof Saturday with cloud reasonably thick(duh) around 5/8 cover north of the Lake to 8/8 blue SOuth of the Mountain.
Today I didnt talk to a controller other than flight service at Paraparumu. This necessiatted a beach run from Wanganui to Otaki which didnt appear to add toooo much time to the trip 2 hours 17minutes takeoff to touchdown. The only place I have landed with the prop spinning! This so I could vacate the grass runway as it was a tad busy with landing aircraft.
Great reception from Wellington club and a chance for a quick chat to some competition friends. They tell me that they had a really busy summer with heaps of new members, something to do with a really enthusuastic young visiting instructor and nightly BBQs.
Luckily I was not planning to go south as a large band of cloud covered Cook Strait. Negotiating my way over/under that wouldnt have been nice for my blood pressure. NOT!
A 10 minute dash over the hill to Kaitoke and the Upper Valley gliding club's aircraft carrier in the hills. In all the places I have flown in to in the world!!!!! this is the most interesting. Landing uphill and launching downhill the club looks a great place to fly from. The members were again generous in their welcome and advice. Time was running short so reluctantly it was up up and away, over the hill to Papawai and the Wairarapa Club. Nobody appeared to be in residence after two "low approach and over shoots", "strip evaluation", "beat up", call it what you will. Not keen to land on a strip unless its an emergency or I see some activity or communication with someone on the ground...... I continue on my way.
A small diversion around some "Ohakea" airspace and its 7500ft on my way North. Not back to Tauranga but to Drury for the night as I had a morning business meeting with a Queen street lawyer. The Southern part of this leg was lovely with some occasional chunks of cloud which were easily flown over, decending to 5500ft over the South west corner of lake Taupo then further down to 3500ft under the northern cloud past Matamata with gliding still in progress, to land at Drury at 5:25 where at least 20 cars indicated a full clubhouse:-)
The only North Island club I have not visited in the Pipistrel is Thames.
Monday 16 April 2012
Friday 13 April 2012
Post Black Friday
Seems that "things" were against me for this weekends Safari Adventure.
It all started Friday afternoon when fuelling my Mazda in Auckland. Mind busy on other tasks, other than putting Hi Octane Petrol in car. By mistake grabbed the diesel hose and squirted 10 litres in the tank before realising!!!
Twat!!!. A quick google, no real problems some forum said. So topped it iup with 95 octance and drove back to Tauranga. No real problems....
Well not until just before 7am when I tried to start the mighty Mazda. Started OK then faded after about 60 seconds....diesel must have settled in to the fuel lines.
Gosh Gooly gee wizz. After some ringing around regarding mechanics to purge the fuel, gave up and took a "lift" to the airfield, to find that the fully fuelled Sinus had been flown a couple of times in my absence without a fuel topup.
Ho Hum off to the local Shell station for 20 litres of climbing juice.
All ready, charts, lifejacket, baggage stowed...................bloody flat battery.... Maybe the supreme being was trying to tell me something.
But tenacity wins .....press on Mc Duff!!! Its only 11:30am
A loverly sunny day and oncourse at 8500ft until Ruapehu when the vista changed from blue skies to cloud.
Descended west of Taihape as a bit "cautious" about going ontop of a thickening bunch of cloud.
Cloudbase 4000ft. Hilltops not far below that.
At this point I figured that someone was trying to tell me something. so aborted the mission and pottered off to Ohakune and a return to Tauranga.
Tomorrow is another day!
It all started Friday afternoon when fuelling my Mazda in Auckland. Mind busy on other tasks, other than putting Hi Octane Petrol in car. By mistake grabbed the diesel hose and squirted 10 litres in the tank before realising!!!
Twat!!!. A quick google, no real problems some forum said. So topped it iup with 95 octance and drove back to Tauranga. No real problems....
Well not until just before 7am when I tried to start the mighty Mazda. Started OK then faded after about 60 seconds....diesel must have settled in to the fuel lines.
Gosh Gooly gee wizz. After some ringing around regarding mechanics to purge the fuel, gave up and took a "lift" to the airfield, to find that the fully fuelled Sinus had been flown a couple of times in my absence without a fuel topup.
Ho Hum off to the local Shell station for 20 litres of climbing juice.
All ready, charts, lifejacket, baggage stowed...................bloody flat battery.... Maybe the supreme being was trying to tell me something.
But tenacity wins .....press on Mc Duff!!! Its only 11:30am
A loverly sunny day and oncourse at 8500ft until Ruapehu when the vista changed from blue skies to cloud.
Descended west of Taihape as a bit "cautious" about going ontop of a thickening bunch of cloud.
Cloudbase 4000ft. Hilltops not far below that.
At this point I figured that someone was trying to tell me something. so aborted the mission and pottered off to Ohakune and a return to Tauranga.
Tomorrow is another day!
Black Friday
The forecast for the weekend looks Okay for tomorrow Saturday.
Current cunning plan is to get out of bed "real early" and be ready to launch around 7am......
mmmm maybe that will be 7:30 :-)
Then a "dash" down to Wellington Club.
Depending on weather and time, pop over to upper Valley.
Then over the ditch to be at Omaka around lunch time.
Then another long haul down to Springfield and on to Timaru.
Depending on progress, then finally to the deep South and Balclutha to overnight
Thank goodness the days are a bit longer the furthe I go South.
The cunning plan then starts Sunday wiith a leg to Omarama, cup of tea then a long leg to Lake Station for lunch and back over the ditch heading north.
Of course at any time the weather gods could decide that I have to stop for a sleepover(or two) or divert to other destinations.
The joys of being a glider pilot, never 100% sure where your day will take you.
SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE:
Buggar contaminated fuel in my car. Need to get it sorted by Monday morning so the big adventure abndoned for today..........maybe a reduced version depending on when I have drained fuel etc etc on car. Buggar!
Current cunning plan is to get out of bed "real early" and be ready to launch around 7am......
mmmm maybe that will be 7:30 :-)
Then a "dash" down to Wellington Club.
Depending on weather and time, pop over to upper Valley.
Then over the ditch to be at Omaka around lunch time.
Then another long haul down to Springfield and on to Timaru.
Depending on progress, then finally to the deep South and Balclutha to overnight
Thank goodness the days are a bit longer the furthe I go South.
The cunning plan then starts Sunday wiith a leg to Omarama, cup of tea then a long leg to Lake Station for lunch and back over the ditch heading north.
Of course at any time the weather gods could decide that I have to stop for a sleepover(or two) or divert to other destinations.
The joys of being a glider pilot, never 100% sure where your day will take you.
SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE:
Buggar contaminated fuel in my car. Need to get it sorted by Monday morning so the big adventure abndoned for today..........maybe a reduced version depending on when I have drained fuel etc etc on car. Buggar!
Sunday 8 April 2012
Easter Monday
Today its Hawkes Bay.
Finally its a sunny day in the Bay. Checked Napier webcam- fine. Rang Dave Davidson and Gerrit van Asch, yep they woud be flying. Discarded my plan do do everything outside controlled airspace as that would have meant quiet a deviation from the Tauranga Hastings leg. No worries Christchurch controller quite blasee as I asked for clearance on track Hastings 6500ft. He got me to change my transponder from the glider code of 1300. Aha I thought must be other gliders appearing on his screen. Abeam Taupo the cumulus started to tower a bit higher, must be great thermals underneath. Recleared 8000ft and weaved my way onwards, changing to Napier Tower before landing after a Mustang(coming back from Wanaka??) at Hastings which is uncontrolled.
Great hospitality from the team with Dave showing me around. The Hawkes Bay & Waipukarau club have "merged" and have a handy fleet of gliders. They fly at Waipuk.. in December & January the rest of the time they are mainly at Brideg Pa. The membership of 22 has suffered from 2 years of unseasonable easterly winds which effectively "kooze" their flying activity. But while I was there an enthusiastic chap turned up to do a trial flight. Again the club doesnt see a major problem with Part 115.
Then it was time to leave. This time I took a climb to 9400ft to pass over the cloud over the mountains and a smooth flight to about 50kms(9200ft) out from Tauranga when I closed down the motor, feathered the prop and sat back to see how much fuel I would save on my way home.Flying faster than best glide(62knots) ie around 70knots I still arrived over the airfield at 1150ft. Not a bad glide angle eh(OK I had a 5 knot tail wind) but still a useful L/D.
Home again 2 hours 40 flight time.
Finally its a sunny day in the Bay. Checked Napier webcam- fine. Rang Dave Davidson and Gerrit van Asch, yep they woud be flying. Discarded my plan do do everything outside controlled airspace as that would have meant quiet a deviation from the Tauranga Hastings leg. No worries Christchurch controller quite blasee as I asked for clearance on track Hastings 6500ft. He got me to change my transponder from the glider code of 1300. Aha I thought must be other gliders appearing on his screen. Abeam Taupo the cumulus started to tower a bit higher, must be great thermals underneath. Recleared 8000ft and weaved my way onwards, changing to Napier Tower before landing after a Mustang(coming back from Wanaka??) at Hastings which is uncontrolled.
Great hospitality from the team with Dave showing me around. The Hawkes Bay & Waipukarau club have "merged" and have a handy fleet of gliders. They fly at Waipuk.. in December & January the rest of the time they are mainly at Brideg Pa. The membership of 22 has suffered from 2 years of unseasonable easterly winds which effectively "kooze" their flying activity. But while I was there an enthusiastic chap turned up to do a trial flight. Again the club doesnt see a major problem with Part 115.
Then it was time to leave. This time I took a climb to 9400ft to pass over the cloud over the mountains and a smooth flight to about 50kms(9200ft) out from Tauranga when I closed down the motor, feathered the prop and sat back to see how much fuel I would save on my way home.Flying faster than best glide(62knots) ie around 70knots I still arrived over the airfield at 1150ft. Not a bad glide angle eh(OK I had a 5 knot tail wind) but still a useful L/D.
Home again 2 hours 40 flight time.
Saturday 7 April 2012
Day the second
Today is Northland day with the GNZ Awards Officer.
However all flights have been postponed until after Easter Egg hunting with grand daughters:-)
All sorted, tanks topped up and we takeoff for the 55 minute to the Northern Centre of air power. Whenuapai. Welcomed by Peter Thorpe and his merry men including Rex, Roy Neville and others.
They dont have a clubhouse but do have a hangar and a caravan launching with a Microlight with water cooled engine they are a happy we band of aviators. Somewhat stiffled by being an Air Force sports club and having limited trial flights they opine that Part 115 will not really affect them.
Then onwards and upwards into a fantastic looking Northland skies, theramsl to die for. Unfortunately we were on a mission to get to Kaikohe so had to power on. It got a bit "bumpy" so we climbed to around 7500ft to fly over the lumps and bumps. In the North airspace is free as a bird. How does an uncontrolled ceiling of 9500ft going to 13500ft grap ya!!!. Fantastic. Nice casual descent into the lovely rural and QUIET strip at Kaikoe to be met by Thomas Keith & Dave.
What a club! 9 members, Two 2 seaters and two single seaters a winch and some privately owned gliders and a motor glider. The motor glider is the cousin to our Sinus, its a Taurus. Just after we left I heard them call top of winch at 2600ft!!!
Had been trying to phone Paul Rockell off and on all morning but couldnt raise him. No worries, off to PuiPui, home of the Whangarei club about 12 minutes flying time from Kaikohe. Flew overhead and noted 3 cars outside the clubhouse. Low pass and overshoot. Maybe we could rasie them to come outside as nobody responding to teh radio. Second low pass, nobody came out(damn those Sinus are quiet) this time at about 50ft noted at least 2 electric wire fences across the strip so it was up up and away on our way South. IT was lovely to have the 25knot tailwind on the way north, bit of a pain as we headed south.
Keeping up with the plan not to go thru controlled airspace we descend to pass off Auckland City coast at 1400ft. Lovely to see the traffic jams at Mission bay as we pass bay on a lovely sunny afternoon. Then a nice climb out on our way back to Tauranga. Total flight time 3 hours 59.
However all flights have been postponed until after Easter Egg hunting with grand daughters:-)
All sorted, tanks topped up and we takeoff for the 55 minute to the Northern Centre of air power. Whenuapai. Welcomed by Peter Thorpe and his merry men including Rex, Roy Neville and others.
They dont have a clubhouse but do have a hangar and a caravan launching with a Microlight with water cooled engine they are a happy we band of aviators. Somewhat stiffled by being an Air Force sports club and having limited trial flights they opine that Part 115 will not really affect them.
Then onwards and upwards into a fantastic looking Northland skies, theramsl to die for. Unfortunately we were on a mission to get to Kaikohe so had to power on. It got a bit "bumpy" so we climbed to around 7500ft to fly over the lumps and bumps. In the North airspace is free as a bird. How does an uncontrolled ceiling of 9500ft going to 13500ft grap ya!!!. Fantastic. Nice casual descent into the lovely rural and QUIET strip at Kaikoe to be met by Thomas Keith & Dave.
What a club! 9 members, Two 2 seaters and two single seaters a winch and some privately owned gliders and a motor glider. The motor glider is the cousin to our Sinus, its a Taurus. Just after we left I heard them call top of winch at 2600ft!!!
Had been trying to phone Paul Rockell off and on all morning but couldnt raise him. No worries, off to PuiPui, home of the Whangarei club about 12 minutes flying time from Kaikohe. Flew overhead and noted 3 cars outside the clubhouse. Low pass and overshoot. Maybe we could rasie them to come outside as nobody responding to teh radio. Second low pass, nobody came out(damn those Sinus are quiet) this time at about 50ft noted at least 2 electric wire fences across the strip so it was up up and away on our way South. IT was lovely to have the 25knot tailwind on the way north, bit of a pain as we headed south.
Keeping up with the plan not to go thru controlled airspace we descend to pass off Auckland City coast at 1400ft. Lovely to see the traffic jams at Mission bay as we pass bay on a lovely sunny afternoon. Then a nice climb out on our way back to Tauranga. Total flight time 3 hours 59.
Day the First
Easter Saturday dawned nice and sunny.
Filled the glider to the brim with 95 Octane from the local Shell station.
Checked all was aboard, you know the drill, a chart:-), camera and phone.
Interesting observation that with a Garmin GPS loaded with airspace data the paper chart is really a standby option in case the gadgets fail.
Nice little app for my Galaxy phone recorded the day in an IGC file. As well as being available for receiving inflight txts.....:-)
The trip from Tauranga to Norfolk Road Aviation took 1 hour 25mins with sometimes a tailwind up to 20 knots. WIth a sunny cloudless day and crusining mainly at just under 6500ft airspace, it was great to be able to appreciate the rugged King Country. As a glider pilot I was very conscious of looking at landout options. I was surprised at actually how many survivable landing options presented themselves, from top dressing strips to river valley flats.
What a great location at Norfolk Road in the lee of Mt Egmont/Taranaki, lots of people and lots of gliders and a mid day BBQ!!!
Easter visitors from all over the North Island were there with Vintage Kiwi gliders and Aucklands ASK21 in attendance as well. Nice cup of tea(Thanks Clint) and chats. Some discussion re Part 115 and its impact on Mountain Trial flights it was not seen as a major problem. Thanks Kevin for your great contribution and support of Gliding.
Then a 6 minute hop over to Stratford. Unfortunately I missed the locals who apparently were mssing a towpilot and had shot off to do other sunny day things.
With nice therms developing over the area I headed off to Fielding and the Manawatu Club. Unfortunately due to time pressure I was unable to stop and "smell the roses" ie switch of the noise and enjoy some soaring. Onwards at 115knots.!
A working bee was underway at Fielding with a clubhouse exterior paint job and deck replacment and enhancement in progress. Meanwhile their main weapon(The DG1000) was popping in to the sky. Some lovely chats with the locals and again a question on Part 115 and the impact on local trial flights. No major concerns here either. Another great little club (25ish members) with a dozen or so out on Easter Saturday working...Thanks Ross & Team for your hospitality
One thing that was apparent to me at both these clubs that SIZE matters. These smaller clubs appear to have none of the negative "politics" that seem to invade larger clubs.
With a stiff Easterly on the ground at Fielding it looked like there may be some wave to help me on my way north. After easily outclimbing and much faster than a Cessna 152 that departed 30 seconds before me I headed north thru the Fielding Clubs GFA, Unfortunately no bars of wave. Taking advantage of some pockets of lift I easily climbed in uncontrolled airspace around some cloud to settle in the cruise at 7500ft.
What beautfull country we have in the middle of the North Island, makes me want to come back when I have some time and do some soaring here.
And so back to Tauranga. 4 hours flying time, $90 worth of fuel and having met some more great gliding people. A great day and a really happy webmaster.
Filled the glider to the brim with 95 Octane from the local Shell station.
Checked all was aboard, you know the drill, a chart:-), camera and phone.
Interesting observation that with a Garmin GPS loaded with airspace data the paper chart is really a standby option in case the gadgets fail.
Nice little app for my Galaxy phone recorded the day in an IGC file. As well as being available for receiving inflight txts.....:-)
The trip from Tauranga to Norfolk Road Aviation took 1 hour 25mins with sometimes a tailwind up to 20 knots. WIth a sunny cloudless day and crusining mainly at just under 6500ft airspace, it was great to be able to appreciate the rugged King Country. As a glider pilot I was very conscious of looking at landout options. I was surprised at actually how many survivable landing options presented themselves, from top dressing strips to river valley flats.
What a great location at Norfolk Road in the lee of Mt Egmont/Taranaki, lots of people and lots of gliders and a mid day BBQ!!!
Easter visitors from all over the North Island were there with Vintage Kiwi gliders and Aucklands ASK21 in attendance as well. Nice cup of tea(Thanks Clint) and chats. Some discussion re Part 115 and its impact on Mountain Trial flights it was not seen as a major problem. Thanks Kevin for your great contribution and support of Gliding.
Then a 6 minute hop over to Stratford. Unfortunately I missed the locals who apparently were mssing a towpilot and had shot off to do other sunny day things.
With nice therms developing over the area I headed off to Fielding and the Manawatu Club. Unfortunately due to time pressure I was unable to stop and "smell the roses" ie switch of the noise and enjoy some soaring. Onwards at 115knots.!
A working bee was underway at Fielding with a clubhouse exterior paint job and deck replacment and enhancement in progress. Meanwhile their main weapon(The DG1000) was popping in to the sky. Some lovely chats with the locals and again a question on Part 115 and the impact on local trial flights. No major concerns here either. Another great little club (25ish members) with a dozen or so out on Easter Saturday working...Thanks Ross & Team for your hospitality
One thing that was apparent to me at both these clubs that SIZE matters. These smaller clubs appear to have none of the negative "politics" that seem to invade larger clubs.
With a stiff Easterly on the ground at Fielding it looked like there may be some wave to help me on my way north. After easily outclimbing and much faster than a Cessna 152 that departed 30 seconds before me I headed north thru the Fielding Clubs GFA, Unfortunately no bars of wave. Taking advantage of some pockets of lift I easily climbed in uncontrolled airspace around some cloud to settle in the cruise at 7500ft.
What beautfull country we have in the middle of the North Island, makes me want to come back when I have some time and do some soaring here.
And so back to Tauranga. 4 hours flying time, $90 worth of fuel and having met some more great gliding people. A great day and a really happy webmaster.
Tracking
By loading your browser with
http://map.xinqu.net/spot/index.html
Then selecting "tauranga" you will be able to see the progress of the little Blob "NM".
Usually in Dave Jensen's Discus, he has been a nice bloke and given it to me to use on Safari.
It will update GIM's position every five minutes.
http://map.xinqu.net/spot/index.html
Then selecting "tauranga" you will be able to see the progress of the little Blob "NM".
Usually in Dave Jensen's Discus, he has been a nice bloke and given it to me to use on Safari.
It will update GIM's position every five minutes.
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