Roster & Newsletter
June 2010
Date Tow pilot Instructor Duty pilot
May 30 Drummond Hdw-Smith
June 5 McKay Williams Walker
6 Drummond Williams Hopkirk
7 McKay Tullett Finer
12 McKay Sharp Engelbrecht
13 McKay Sharp Campbell
19 McKay Hdw-Smith Walker
20 Drummond Hdw-Smith Hopkirk
26 Drummond Tullett Finer
27 Drummond Tullett Engelbrecht
What a sad few weeks we’ve had. Firstly, there was the death of Les Smith in late April after a long illness then Richard was killed in a tractor accident on his farm on Hursthouse Road.
Margaret & Les Smith inspecting the new Pawnee tow-plane at Muller Aviation hangar during the autumn of 1996.
Les Smith had, with his wife Margaret, been a prime mover for the club during the 1980’s. Both were committee members, Margaret was Club Captain and Les was Secretary and President at various times. This was a time of hectic fund raising and the running of national raffles for Gliding New Zealand. Both found time to fly and go solo. Les particularly enjoyed a long cross- country flight in the Blanik with Bob Struthers out of Matamata and return. Both took a keen interest in the progress of the club and had made a substantial cash donation towards the purchase of the Pawnee towplane. Les put in quite a few hours work on it at Muller Aviation’s hangar. As a MOW engineer he was involved with the construction of NP Airport and as a passenger with Banga Martin, made the first landing and take-off from it, highly un-official though it was. He also was in charge of the reconstruction of the Stratford airfield. In the 1930’s, Margaret’s family had farmed that area prior to the land being formed into an airfield.
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On the 24th of April, Richard and I had travelled to Matamata to attend the Piako club’s autumn safety seminar. It was a happy trip there and back, enlivened by some of our fellow pilots disporting themselves high in the wave and the backchat that ensued as they tried to make us feel left out and us reminding them that some had to work on the club’s behalf.
In two weeks time, we will be at the GNZ AGM in Wellington. During the Saturday afternoon, there will be some time devoted to the Presidents’ forum. This forum has been held for several years now and it was Richard’s idea to have that time for club presidents to discuss things.. On Sunday, the Taranaki club will move a remit asking that the Rothmans club funds terms of reference be expanded to include grants to cross-country training for the “grass roots club pilots”. This was again, his idea and is highly likely to find favour. Both the above examples demonstrate how Richard had the ability to cut through to the heart of the matter and initiate progress to the benefit of all.
All the time whilst he was around, the moment was leavened by a wild and irrepressible humour. No-one, or anything was safe and coupled with some mangled malapropisms, his presence was a delight to all about him.
Here are some tributes to Richard, followed by the account he wrote of his competition flight at Matamata with Ian Finlayson.
Richard
Richard started flying with us in 2001 when we were using the winch from Stratford airfield. It wasn’t long before he was also driving the winch. Richard was making slow but steady progress learning to fly gliders. I told him not to worry about the slow progress as that was normal for someone his age – well I’ll never say that to anyone again!
Richard went solo in early 03 and I told him to be careful with the Blanik because other people wanted to fly it. I didn’t hear the end of that for a while either but by now we had learnt that it was quite good fun to wind Richard up a little.
I dragged Richard along to a committee meeting one night. He thought he was there just to make up numbers but I thought he might have a little more to offer than that. He was soon telling us how we should do things so we made him President. At the last AGM when he was nominated to be President again for the sixth time, everyone in the room said “I’ll second that”.
The first project to be completed under his command was the building of a new hangar on Stratford airfield. At a Gliding NZ AGM, Richard got talking to the president of the Wellington Club and arranged to take their Twin Astir home on trial for which we later got 100% funding from TET. We are currently working on extending the hangar which might somehow become a memorial to Richard.
He is also the motivation behind a remit to the next AGM to get funding for teaching ordinary glider pilots cross-country skills rather than having most of the funding going to the elite.
We have all got memories of flying with Richard. One Christmas several years ago when Richard and I were both in the South Island we connived to abandon our families for a day and meet at Omarama. I had only recently done a course there so was able to hire a Janus two seat glider. We had an awesome flight climbing in a very gentle wave and flew all around the Mackenzie Basin at 10 -12,000 ft.
When Richard finally flew the PW5 again after recovering from cancer, after landing he did a victory dance around the glider. He really showed us that this is what an activity like gliding is all about.
One of his last flights in the PW5 was to the “Gap” between the mountain and the Pouakais, which was a good achievement for the PW5 especially since there was a strong headwind to get back to Stratford – which he did.
We will all miss his chairman style at meetings starting with the opening line, “Well girls and boys, let’s get this circus on the road. Have we all read our minutes?” which had us feeling like naughty school kids who hadn’t done their homework.
We will miss the dress code, yellow shorts, orange crocs and silly hat.
We will miss you Richard.
Tim Hardwick-Smith
Walking the PW5 wing:
Eulogy for Richard Arden at his funeral.
As we listen to eulogies at an occasion like this, they appear akin to turning the pages of a photograph album, each page showing one facet or another, of a life lived to the full.
In looking at the pages being turned today, we also contemplate with profound sorrow the reason that brings us together.
The Taranaki Gliding Club extends to Raewyn, Toni and Sven its love and heartfelt sympathy. We would like also, to thank Raewyn for the many kindnesses and hospitality extended to us over the years and her encouragement of Richard as he followed his dream of flight.
Richard, like most of us, was not a natural pilot and had to work hard at acquiring the art and skills necessary to become a soaring pilot.
He did – and was justly rewarded by a splendid soaring flight last Taranaki Anniversary weekend in our single seat glider. The flight lasted nearly two hours and ranged from Dawson Falls north to the Pouakai Range and then back to Stratford.
Onto the committee in 2003and straightaway elected President he led the club through a period of significant progress. Committee meetings have been, with him at the helm, some of the most enjoyable and hilarious assemblies one could wish for. His ability to cut to the chase, allied with a wild and free-ranging humour enhanced, not detracted from the decisions taken.
And so, as we bid farewell, remember occasionally to lift our eyes to the mountain. Be not surprised to glimpse a glider there, climbing higher and higher, then begin soaring the face of a tumbled cloud.
Think then of Richard – flying free.
Peter Miller
May 13th 2010.
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Steve Barham’s tribute:
Richard always wore crocs and a big, really big smile.
Richard always wore crocs, pink crocs and yellow crocs and he matched them with yellow pants and a big smile. He made you laugh and laugh. You couldn’t upset him, if you tried to tease him about the clothes and footwear he would only reply with “Oh but you do love them don’t you ducky.”
It always put a smile on my face when I arrived at the airfield and saw Richard’s truck parked at the end of the strip, we were in for a fun day.
It was usually a race between him and me to get to the field first, to get to the PW5 first. Most times I won which really meant Richard won because as we know the thermals are better in the afternoon. He had the last laugh, again.
Richard & Will Hopkirk give the PW5 a much needed wash and polish.
Richard was beginning his flying when I joined the club and so we both transitioned through the fledgling stages together and on to the club’s single seat glider, the PW5. We always had loads of fun. Fun was what Richard did best, always optimistic, always up for a truck load of ribbing and constantly setting himself up to be the butt of my sarcastic jibes and he loved it, really loved it, giving as good as he got. A day out flying with Richard was a barrel of fun and lunacy.
He was always full of energy, ready to help anyone get in the air, ready with a helpful comment and in my case many not so helpful, if it meant I was back on the ground in short order, the glider ready for him but this was all in jest really as he simply loved to see people having fun. For example, take the time Tim and I flew the mountain wave to 12000 feet, Richard’s comment was typical Richard, succinct and to the point “Once again, ARSHOLE, well done.”
Richard was the club president. El Presidente. It was something he enjoyed and so as not to disappoint him we kept voting him back into the job (he loved it). He had many schemes, plans and ideas and his enthusiasm was so infectious he had no problem dragging the rest of us along for the journey.
Richard knew how to bring you down to earth and how to build you up as well. His outlook on life was always positive and his praise at your achievements likewise. Richard was a friend, a true friend and I was really annoyed when I heard of his passing, annoyed that I would no longer get to take the Mickey, to share the banter. We still had a lot of mischief to make and still many flights to fly, stories to tell, hangars to build and gliders to buy. He was one of the good sorts. Things will never be the same and I think of him often.
Steve Barham
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Richard, ready to hook up the PW5 for Will Hopkirk.
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Richard’s story from Matamata: February 2007.
Ian Finlayson) Fly-ing With Fin
Confucius once said about learning; I hear and forget
I see and recall
I do and I remember
When Peter Miller rang me and said that all was organized for me to fly with Fin, I looked forward to it with great anticipation. Because I am one of those people who need to do it to remember it.
On the morning of the 31st January, we got the PW6 out and gave it the usual morning clean, DI, etc; and then went off to the morning briefing. Our task for the day was a max; of 309 kms, start line was Walton, then up to Maramarua, back down to Tokoroa and then home. The Maramarua end had a turning circle of 10kms with Maramarua at the top and the Tokoroa end had a turning circle of 20kms, Tokoroa in the middle.
Piece of cake I thought, Yeah Right! Considering that I hadn’t flown more than 5kms from Stratford in any given direction. BUT, I was fly-ing with Fin and when Peter asked him what his plan was for the flight I waited with great anticipation for a lengthy briefing on how we, well actually that is Fin, would fly the course.
The reply; “Oh,” says Fin, “just go for it!!”
Ian Finlayson and Richard prior to their flight.
Lesson number one.
You can’t plan what you can’t see.
Hooking up the PW6 to the car, off we went down to the grid, we were in row 4, which gave us time to organize ourselves and get into the glider, it was at this stage that it dawned on me how much room there wasn’t in the back seat, I wandered if Fin would consider swapping but thought better of it to ask.
Finally it was our turn and we were hooked up to the tow plane and off we went.
Not a bad tow, I thought, Fin kept it reasonably straight and in a good position behind the tow plane, mind you, I didn’t say anything to the Fin, thought keeping mouth shut and opinion to oneself the best course of action.
Now all we had to do was stay up here until the other gliders arrived, then hold on until the start gate opens and then start our task.
Hey man, this is easy. Yeah, Right!
Below: With Fin & Steve.
Well, off the tow plane we went and started thermaling, all went well for about 10 to 15 minutes and then the sky over developed and we were in the proverbial poo, but not to worry because our man Fin just kept on doing his thing and I learnt another lesson.
Lesson number two:
Patience:
Of all the things I learnt that day this would have to be Number One.
Well, once we got across the start line and on our way, I kept on thinking to myself, man, if only I could do this in the Taranaki.
It was about this time that I started to think about suggesting we change seats, as I couldn’t feel my bum, oh, can I say that word? Oh hell why not? Can’t spell the other one anyway, but since the passenger aisle was full I kept this suggestion to myself as well.
I mean, since I couldn’t feel my you know what, then it wasn’t a problem.
It was something of a bit of an up and down trip up to the Swamp and this is where local knowledge takes over because Fin says, we always get good thermals over said swamp, and sure enough we did. Then a left turn and off to the Maramarua circle.
Looking down when we got to the hills before the turning point I saw another glider quite low and passed the remark that he could be in some trouble if he didn’t pick up some height soon.
Boy, should I have kept my mouth shut and opinion to myself. Because a short time later we weren’t that flash ourselves.
Any way I get ahead of myself.
We went into the circle by about 5kms and then turned back, aiming to go over to Te Aroha, well that was the intention but the Gods had other ideas. Back to old faithful, the swamp, we went but this time it was not working so we just kept on going but headed towards Paeroa instead. It was closer and Fin thought that we would have a better chance of picking up a thermal there.
Lesson number three:
Be positive: even when you can reach out and pick the daisies.
We were a bit short of Paeroa and down to about 800 feet, I was looking very seriously at several attractive paddocks, when from the front seat comes a rather laconic comment,
Hmm, some of those paddocks look pretty good down there.
Oh doggie doos thinks I, Steve my mate, will give me hell if we land out. But there is a good pub not far from here.
And then Fin starts doing his magic, we scratch a bit of lift off the ponds and river, never would have thought about using them, then we head towards the back of Paeroa and get a bit off lift of the town I guess, then he heads out towards the edge of the hills and I think to myself, another small lesson for me here, don’t think, he is going in the wrong direction, when all of a sudden we cotton onto a good thermal and climbing at 4 to 6 knots.
Fin says, “You can get some good thermals off cows walking along the race.”
And here I must admit I thought to myself, Yeah Right! And then I look down and think, Boy why don’t I just shut up and listen. Because down below us was a herd of cows heading towards the shed for milking.
Lesson number four:
Look for thermals anywhere. Stock on the move, milking sheds, implement yards, ponds, rivers, factories, towns, and the list is just about endless. Don’t just expect thermals to be under clouds.
Well in the hands of Fin we climbed up to 3000ft and off we went for Te Aroha, thermalled some more up to 3500approx and then headed down the Kaimais for the Tokoroa turning circle.
This for me was one of the high points of the flight for I have always wanted to soar down this range, and now next time I will do it on my own.
At about this time I also made another discovery about the PW6, if you are 185cm tall and have been sitting in the back seat for three hours you need to have great control over the pain you are by now feeling in your knees. But not being one to complain I just weathered on, boy what a hero.
On the way down we did a couple of turns but most of the time we just went for it. Great fun!
Upon arriving at about a point adjacent to Putaruru, the turning circle came up to just south of said township, we took a look at what we would have to do to get there. My immediate thought was, walk.
But by this time I was getting used to Fin pulling thermals out of nowhere and so off we went. We headed towards what I thought was a couple of wisps of stuff, you couldn’t call them clouds and once again we were in some good lift. 5 Knots, or there-about.
Lesson number five:
Clouds that are formed have often stopped working.
(But there are no hard and fast rules.)
Everything looked good and then the Gods did it again and took away all the lift. So, we started scratching around once more and not being one to heed my own advice I made the comment at one point, when we were rather on the low side, that there was a landing strip just over there. !” “HUMPH!” was the only remark that came back, thought I did read into that comment volumes and decided that I should do what many a teacher in the past has said to me and that was shut up and learn.
Well, we scratched around some more and then Fin got a thermal off a cow shed and implement yard and up we went, albeit with a bit of work. Then we headed back to where we had come from. At this point I thought, “yes I know, don’t do it, he’s going the wrong way!”
But once again this was a lesson in patience and good thinking, because we went back to where we had found lift, picked up a heap more of height and then headed out towards Putaruru, we got about half way there and struck another thermal, of which I am sure Fin knew was waiting for us ( though by this time I was of the opinion that he manufactured them by himself and really didn’t need them), we made a mad dash for the bottom end of the circle did a sharp about face and headed back. A thermal or two and we were back on the Kaimais and off home. Fin put the pedal to the metal and we were zipping along very nicely thank you. Passed one chap on the top of the hills and reached out and shook his hand as we went by, then Fin radios in that we are on finals, this is obviously something that Matamata does, I look around for the strip thinking oh boy to be able to straighten my legs will be Ooooooohhhhh so good! See the field is still some way off, but we are definitely on finals and here we come.
Flight time was about 4 hours and 55 minutes approx. I think I learnt more in that time than I learnt at school. Now all I have to do is put it to use.
My thanks to Fin for the lesson and I hope to do it again with him. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Matamata on a well run Competition. Last, but not least, Peter Miller for organizing this opportunity.
I have but one more request and that is Fin to put down his knowledge and experiences, I believe that he has such a wealth of the above that we would all benefit from them.
Rick Arden
2007
Richard, about to take his friend Ian Hill for a flight.
Below: Congratulating Kieran McLaughlan on his 1st solo.
Te Wera 2009. Richard & Tim getting ready for the flight back to Stratford. John Tullett observing.
Below: On their way.
25 years back:
The Auster towplane, BDW, gave someone a fright when the propeller was being swung to test compressions (after a test run). Its engine had been u/s after having a cracked cylinder. An engine oil seal also fixed.
John Schicker aided the purchase of an NZ Post Office caravan which, painted up, became the Checkers van.
Dave Paul donated a TV for the club house. He had also spent a lot of time helping Paul Muller repair BDW.
Erwin Oberhumer did 49 minutes in the Blanik for his C Certificate. The weather during April had, though, not been good for flying.
Also:
There is a change to the Taranaki radio frequency: - 119.10 is now replaced by a CFZ (Common Frequency Zone) of 124.65 MHz. NP Tower is 124.7 MHz. Many thanks to PeterW, Steve Barham & Les Sharp for their work in fitting the new radio in the Blanik.
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Club Wave Day on the mountain:
On Saturday, April 24th, both the Taranaki Gliding Club and the Norfolk Aviation Sports
Club joined together to experience a fantastic wave day on the mountain. I call it, like most of the locals “The Mountain” as it is very hard not to notice it here in Taranaki and well, as we all know, people in other parts like to call it “Mt Taranaki” or Mt Taranaki/Egmont or Mt Egmont, whatever.
Any way what-ever you choose to call it, it can develop some great wave conditions, yes I know, nothing like the South Island but never the less, wave all the same. This wave has been flown before by pilots from both clubs, the Norfolk club doing the bulk of the mountain wave flights of late.
In the late 70’s and into the 80’s pilots from the Taranaki Gliding Club, then based at German Hill did wave flights to 25 and 28 thousand feet. Some memorable ones being Chris Griffin in a Standard Astir November Golf going to 28,000 ft as well as Bob Struthers and Rod Smith doing diamond height gains to 25,000 ft and several flights to 15,000 ft. However after the club relocated to Stratford airfield the wave flying had been all but forgotten about, except for the Norfolk Club who have the advantage of being located directly alongside where the wave sets up.
However saying we had forgotten about the wave isn’t strictly true, it was lying dormant just below the surface and many of the older club pilots would reminisce around a few beers with tall tales and bold. What we needed was some oxygen and a bold heart. Getting some oxygen took longer than we thought but eventually a Pub Charity Trust came through and allowed us to buy the gear, now all we needed to do was fill it with air, easy we thought but alas not true. No one wants to fill oxygen cylinders for airmen any more. The solution came in the form of help from a friend who filled his own bottles, so we were on.
Aha! Easy! You’re thinking, the lads are on their way again, not so, we still needed the bold heart. This came along when about a week before our flight, work-mate Jamie Sheehan rushed in to tell me a story of how he had flown to 10,000 ft in a Blanik with Kevin Koch along with Clinton Steele in an ASW15 from the Norfolk Club. Grrrr! Then he went on to talk about Clinton’s 50km flight in the mountain wave going from coast to coast, his flight going from the coast off of New Plymouth across Taranaki to the coast off Hawera. Grrrr again!! Well that can’t go un-answered so it was onto the phone and a cry of help to Tim Hardwick-Smith, “How about a wave flight tomorrow Tim?” “Sorry,” he says,”Have to work the stock this week, no go.” Says me… ”Sheep farmers!!
Next Saturday arrives and there’s an early morning call from Tim, and I’m still in bed, “The tow plane is in New Plymouth. If people want to fly then we need to bring it down to Stratford.” he says. “Oh well,” I say, “It’s probably not worth it, and the weather doesn’t look that good anyway.” “Oh” says Tim, “I don’t know, I can see a big lenticular wave cloud in the sky from where I’m sitting.” “OK, I’ll get the oxygen, you get the plane.”
Dave Drummond flew the tow plane down to Stratford while I quietly got the oxygen gear worked out, didn’t want to arouse my partner’s suspicions. I think she guessed as I got more than the usual solitary “you be careful”.
We towed off from Stratford at midday in the club Twin Astir, Whisky Zulu and headed for the mountain, by this time the wave wasn’t looking as good as we hoped but with neither of us having done this before, what were we to know.
Man it looked scary; the mountain was covered in cloud except for the area on the eastern side, the side we were flying towards. The strong westerly wind was hitting the mountain on the west side then pouring over the top and rushing (screaming would be a better term) down the other side, no place for a glider I thought. We towed to 5000 ft asl and released well short of the mountain. No strong lift but no strong rotor either. We continued to fly towards the mountain in zero sink. As we come closer we came around a vertical wall of cloud on our left then a gap then the mountain with its terrible jaws of down rushing air on one side and a vertical wall of cloud on the other side that was visibly shooting skyward.
As we came around the cloud the lift started to increase and increase and took us on a silky smooth ride to 10,000ft, fan-bloody-tastic and what a view. We continued on up to 12000 ft and could have undoubtedly have gone on up to the 15,000ft that Tim managed on his second flight of the day with club member Iain Finer.
So what about the Norfolk lads? Well we had radio contact with them as they left the Norfolk field and headed on up. Clinton soon joined us and we had some great formation flying at 12000ft, the mountain below us on one side and a vertical wall of cloud on the other. Kevin and Jamie then appeared in their trusty Blanik.
What a great day. What’s better than a few mates, a mountain, some smooth air, a little oxygen and wave? We finished it off with a beer and lots of stories. Go beat that!
Steve Barham
This photo clearly shows the vertical wall of wave cloud as it sweeps up from the mountain at left.
Iain Finer’s story:
Turning up at the field on a whim last weekend, the last thing I expected was to eventually end up at 15,000ft above Mt.Egmont.
Tim and Steve had shot off after I’d run their wing, so I took up the role of hanging around and waiting to see what happens. When I was just about to leave, the phone call came through wanting to know if I was keen to go up and fly in some wave. Having never flown in wave, I thought why not, not really expecting too much.
A tow to 6000ft had us right amongst it, you could see the cloud coming down off the mountain and then rushing back up and it was exactly how Tim had described, like flying into the tigers mouth! A bit daunting at first but when you got your ears tuned to the constant sound of the vario telling you were going up everything went out the window. From then it was just a matter of staying in the clean air, soaring up and down the cloud bank while Tim requested our air space clearances from Christchurch Control. Cleared to 13,000ft, a few minutes later we found ourselves nearing 12,000ft when Tim asks "should we go to 15?" "Be rude not to,” I say. We were cleared to 15,000ft. And up we go!
Topping out at 15,000ft the view was pretty amazing, although partially obscured by cloud, it was pretty crazy thinking you’re almost twice the height of the mountain up and the airline jet streams all look so much closer from up here.
All in all I was glad I turned up at the gliding club that day, still got a smile on my face when I think about it!
Let’s hope it will happen again sometime soon in the near future, 18,000ft next time!
Iain Finer.
Iain & Tim after their flight. A study in nonchalance!
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Three excellent stories to round off a newsletter contrasting sadness with the elation of success and the promise of more of the latter to come. More photos than usual but an appropriate time to share them.
Papa Mike.
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