Tuesday 30 July 2013

28th July 2013

We all had an early start so had time to land and de-rig in time for the AGM. There was wave about but heck it was hard to get to. Most of us had 2 tows, and when found the climbs were slow until above cloud base. Above about 10,000 it was blowing 30kts SW and producing up to 6kts of lift. Jack and Pete did about 3 hours in JW, John managed 2hrs in KG, and Phil and Vivienne also flew. Thanks to Russell for towing.
Looking south over Old Woman Range

The AGM and dinner at Chatto Creek was very pleasant.

Monday 22 July 2013

Sunday 21st July: Jack goes solo!

There was nice wave above the airfield from early in the day. Jack however needed a string of short flights first, and odd things occurred...like the instructor pulled the bung early, then on another flight Russell waved him off early, and finally John insisted on a few spins. Jack was probably relieved when John got out and let him fly in peace on his own! Congratulations Jack on your first solo!

Nice easy wave!

John's mate Kev ran the wing all day. Kev was ex Nelson GC so John took him up to experience the local wave. Russell towed them directly to the obvious secondary behind the Dunstans at they were quickly up at 13K exploring the district in the remaining hour of daylight. Upper winds were pretty light making the Dunstan wave easy to play-in with multiple bounces downwind. The Old Man wave was there but not working too well in the more northerly wind, plus it was snowing above 10,000' on and off.
...the ground looks wet!
 ERW was busy AM with Matt and Steve W. flying, and Stephen Morton late PM. Geoff and Steve W. also flew microlight RLS for an hour during the day. Thanks to Nick for instruction and Russell for the towing.

Thursday 4 July 2013

Sunday 30th June

Kerry J arrived for annuals on JW, KG and VH (Roland's LS6). Phil and Jack worked on JW and Pete and John weighed KG. We launched about noon with Gary towing JW (Alan and Doug ) up to the wave cloud in the lee of the Old Man. They were followed by John, Phil, Vivienne and Pete, all flying their single-seaters, all towed to the same spot.  The last flight was Jack and Doug, again in JW.

Phil in KJ on tow.


The wave was good in a narrow height band, but the upper winds fell above 10,000 which made high climbs difficult. The Garvie wave was followed into Southland by John, and Pete took the Nevis wave to Kingston. The Dunstans had poor wave but we all checked it out anyway. We derigged in the dusk and after a quick beer headed to Monteiths for dinner.

So OK westerly wave, we all had good flights.Thanks to Gary for tows, Doug for instruction, and Kerry for coming down all the way to do our annuals! Do anyone take some pics?