May 2011

 
         Date               Towpilot                  Instructor                  Instructor              Duty Pilot
         May 7             McKay                     Cook                                                         Hopkirk
                 8             ..                              Hdw-Smith                                               Jackson
               14             ..                                                                                               Hndz-Mago
               15             ..                                                                                               Van der Elst
               21             ..                                                                                               Brady
               22             ..                                                                                               Pittwood
               28             ..                                                                                               Hopkirk
               29             ..                                                                                               Jackson
        June 4             ..                                                                                                Hndz-Mago

With Les Sharp having one of his wings under-going a mandatory mod there is a gap in the tow-pilot ranks and with David Drummond off to the jungles of Papua-New Guinea there a temporary hiatus in the tow-pilot ranks.  The new members have, perforce been pitched into duty pilot tasks.  This is not as onerous as might be expected and gives valuable hands-on experience in learning how a gliding club operates.  With the flying notice going out on a Thursday evening, it is essential that those rostered know they can fulfil their duties or have arranged their replacement.  Finding out on Friday night that we have no tow-pilot or no instructor or none of both gets a bit worrisome.

New Members:

  We are very pleased to welcome Allan Brady, Brendan Pittwood and Josue Hernandez-Mago as members of our club and will enjoy exploring and learning the gentle art of soaring.  Conversely though, Iain Finer has moved to Australia for the moment and Gene Campbell has returned to the US of A, whilst as mentioned David Drummond has gone on jungle watch.  For some reason or other, gliding clubs can have sudden and abrupt changes in personnel.  If an old hand comes back after a temporary absence he/she finds a number of new faces to put names to.  And John Frew is one of those, having revalidated his PPL and is back towing.  Good to see you, John.

Next Saturday, May 7th at 1pm, we will have a briefing session for our new members and run through things gliding and what learning to fly and then begin soaring, entails.




The months that were:

  This takes us back to early January with two or three really good days, especially mid-week.  The Discus took Tim around the mountain three times without stopping and Glyn continued to build time in the PW5.  Les had a land-out in the K7 during February having got out of phase with the thermals which kept everyone else high and happy.  Steve became more and more accustomed to the Nimbus.  The Stratford ATC were our guests with a busy flying day of 25 flights.  Four cadets had a second turn.  All were keen as mustard and pitched in with helping retrieve gliders.  Another productive day was spent in early April, transferring exterior cladding from the main hangar across to the outside of the new extension.  A very tidy job was done, the guttering re-affixed and down pipes connected to the novaflo drains.  Intermediate uprights have been removed from the (now) internal wall.  The building interior size looks suitably impressive.  More pit metal has been spread inside the extension and we hope to be pouring concrete very soon.  No outside aprons for the moment.

Notes from awhile back – December 2003:
                                
            This year, so far, has been very active and the short to medium term outlook, as I see it, is going to be much of the same.

We had great showing at the Air Show and I would like to thank all those who helped out.  I think that just about everyone who could be there, was.  John Tullett's displays were really great and helped explain to the public where we are coming from.  Tim's poetic aerobatic displays showed what could be done in a glider without having a smelly engine roaring away.  Truly breath taking.  I think that we should get some very good feedback from that day and we should build our exposure to the public as much as we can.  Also, Peter Williams getting 1500ft from a winch launch, in no small way helped by the expert winch driving of Grant Jury and then had to go and make us all envious by catching a thermal.  I know that I am going to leave out an awful lot of names who played a very large part in the day, so please accept my thanks and the only way I can show my gratitude is to ask you all again for much, much more in the near future.  (what about the beer??-- Ed.)

We have major project on at the moment and that is to get ourselves permanently established at Stratford Airfield.  To this end Tim H/S has put in a great deal of time and effort applying for and getting a grant from the T.E.T. to the sum of $52,000.  That's right, 52 biggies.   Good eh!!

Our plan for this money is to build our own HANGAR, this will give us a base on which to build our club into the future.  The down side to this is that in the short-term future we are going to be having a lot of working bees, so please try and be available as much as you can.

Our CFI want us all to set down an individual target for this year and I think that this is a great idea as it will mean that once we have opened our big mouths, it means everyone knows our goals and we can't back out.  I intend to extend the scheme to our club, insofar as it will be a means of measuring our progress.  So what I would like to see happen is that we build our hangar, increase our flying membership by 20%, acquire another twin, fly two days a week and get a couple of private gliders based at Stratford.  As well, get a good roster of instructors going and more of us get our QGP's (me included) (more beer,-- Ed), have some club visits around the country and from time to time, get together for the odd drink or something!!!!  The club is coming up to its 45th anniversary in 2005 so we should be starting to think about what we can do to mark the occasion.

So let’s hear from you on what you think.

That's about enough from me now, so, think on the above, pull finger and get GLIDING.  

Seasons greetings everyone, 

Rick.     (Richard Arden)    

I’ve included this item from Richard because it presaged what we now have achieved and it now nearly the anniversary of his death last year.   So sad he is not here to see it all.

25 Years Back:

A Piper Cub – ZK-BRY purchased for $35000 from Don Mahon of Queenstown during December 1986.

German Hill Christmas Camp affected by poor weather.

New members were John Raven, Allan Mills, Bruce McLellan and Eric Reardon. The first  three being towpilots.

Tow charges increased during January to $1.60c per minute.

Auster BDW sold to Brett Emeny.  (See cartoon)

New members Bruce Green (gliding) and Hamish Thompson, Craig Sampson (tow pilots).

In late February the two seaters were towed to Stratford and the Astit trailered there.
A good flight by Chris Griffin in the Astir between the mountain & Toko and a longish one for John Schicker & passenger and some trial flights.  Sunday clagged in & aircraft hangared there.

New members Rangi de Abaffy, Martin Brown and Karl Frost.
C Cat instructor ratings to Chris Griffin & Louis Trichard.
Sunday start times 9am. (Everyone else kept coming late!)

During April a tow rope was lost because a tow-pilot was unsure what was going on behind – pilots urged to release on a tight rope.

Good flying on April 20th.  90 minutes in the Astir by one Tim Hardwick-Smith no less!  Likewise for John Schicker in his Skylark Two.

Members reminded to pay their accounts promptly by the 20th of the following month.
A perennial problem. (Our practice of paying on the day much better.)

New member – David Magill and John Spence begins his role as newsletter editor.

That’s a lot of blast from the past but I’ve been a bit slack in getting the newsletters out this year, partly I suppose because the Recent News seems to cover the field.

Papa Mike.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
This cartoon (Feb. 1986) by Bob Struthers marked the sale of our Auster ZK-BDW to Brett Emeny who, at that time, was embarking on his career in Ag. Aviation.  The gliders are the Cobra (JS) and the Bergfalke (AQ).  The last named was previously owned by our club and was one of NZ’s early higher performance two seaters.  Bob’s whimsical humour was a delight to all who knew him.