Tuesday 25 June 2013

Sunday 23rd gliding

There was a strong SW at ridge height and the Old Man wave was working from low levels (although not that low John...I needed a relight!). Russell towed us to a rotor over the Lower Fraser and we climbed quickly to 12000' or so. Pete reported some severe turbulence at 8000' and the wind did shift to almost direct south at this altitude. Phil zipped up and down to between Roxburgh and Cromell, and John took a brief climb to FL175 (and -20C) to top the highest of the lennies, and Jack and Doug did 2hrs excellent training in JW.

 Pete has some very good pics at his Picasa Album


South down Rox. Gorge from 17000'

Ice on spar!
Jack in JW (Doug's pic)








  


Saturday 22 June 2013

AGM reminder

The plan is Chatto Creek Sunday 28th July. 530 AGM, 630 drinks, and 700 for dinner. Contact Steve for more info.

Monday 17 June 2013

Sunday 9th June
After a string of wet Sundays it was nice to have a warm and sunny day for flying. Soaring was however not going to happen this time of year unless it was windy enough for wave (which it wasn't). We met at noon and John instructed Jack with 5 flights. Phil did find a couple of rising bubbles when flying KJ and he was airborne for 35 minutes. Thanks to Gary for tows and Pete for winch driving.
ERW has been busy lately. Nick has been instructing several new members including Matt and Neil on Sunday. Matt actually went solo on Sunday after barely a week's instruction...well done indeed to Matt and Nick!
Stephen Morton had a pleasant flight in ERW late PM, sharing the cabin with Finn, another new member ex Taieri now living in Cromwell.

Sunday 19th May
The weather did not deter us, and despite a low cloud base JW was kept busy all afternoon. Jack had training flights with Pete, John and Doug, and in between Allen flew with Pete. Markers were set out for a 180m long 'paddock', and Vivienne was heartened to find that she could still land the HP18 short, both attempts stopping VB well within the area - good practice on an unsoarable day. Many thanks to Gary for spending his afternoon towing!

Sunday 12th May
We've not had a lot of flying recently due to poor weather. This Sunday however was a lovely warm autumn day with just a possibility of wave in the forecast. The sky remained blue all day, but wave was found late in the day. We started with stacking the season's firewood in the clubrooms (thanks to Gary and Russell for supplying).
Jack had an instructional flight with Pete initally. Phil and Vivienne had shortish flights to start off with but did find encouraging hints of wave. Doug and Jack had another go in JW and found wave over the Fraser and could hold 3-4000'. Viv joined them and they had about 2 hours pleasant soaring. Pete went biking and John returned from his bike ride (it was a nice day!). John rigged KG quickly, launched at 1545(!) and joined VB and JW who were still marking the very localised wave. The wave improved and John took it to 10,000' with a quick explore south before landing after sunset. We retired for a beer and started burning the new firewood. The day's soaring would have been impossible using the winch. Many thanks to Russell for aerotowing.

View from 10,000'
I'm trying this as a place where all members can post reports of recent flights or happenings. You'll need a google account and the blog admin (I, John) will invite you so we restrict posting to club members only. 

If you need a google account go to:

https://accounts.google.com

Enter your preferred email address (this need not be gmail but can be xtra or any other). Choose a new password (this is nothing to do with your current email account but could be the same if you really want...). Follow the instructions when you get a confirmation email from google.

When done, let me know your preferred email address and I'll send you an invite!