October 2009

 

Date          Tow Pilot              Instructor                   Duty Pilot
Oct 3         McKay                  Williams                       Arden
  4             McKay                   Williams                       Arden
10             Sharp                    Hdw-Smith                  Skene
11             Sharp                    Hdw-Smith                  Skene
17             Drummond           Tullett                          Jackson
18             Drummond           Tullett                          Jackson
24             McKay                   Hdw-Smith                  Hopkirk
25             McKay                   Tullett                          Barham
26             McKay                   Williams                       Walker
31             Sharp                    Hdw-Smith                  Hopkirk
Nov 1        Sharp                   Hdw-Smith                  Barham

The above roster as usual brackets the weekend days. Les & Tim may well be away for the 18th/19th at an instructors’ course at Matamata. Peter Cook is busy renovating the house at Beaumont Crescent. As usual, arrange your own replacement. Mid-week flying by arrangement.

The Month That Was:

Three days flying during the month. A reward for patience I suppose, for September was a bit pluvial and windy. Nonetheless, soaring flights were made. Some quite good ones too. The afternoon of Sept. 20th was interesting in that it improved near the airfield as a weak sea breeze front formed to the south of the town.

Stats:

                           Aircraft           Time               Flights
                           WZ                  4hrs 47m       (10)
                           TE                   2hrs 47m         (7)
                           XC                  2hrs 40m          (1)
                          RWS               2hrs 29m         (16)
                          JTA                         10m           (1)

JB missing out on all the action, but that is about to change.



Lecture Evenings:

Two held during the month. One, on radio procedures by Les Sharp and the other the final QGP lecture on human factors, by James Walker. Personally, I’m impressed as to how these are done and how people apply themselves. It would be appropriate, I feel, that a refresher course on thermals and how to achieve the best results, is timely. It costs enough to get airborne and some effort at the desk will certainly be economically rewarding, as well as prolonging flights and going a bit further in the direction of along.

Publicity:

John Tullett has been working on a business type card that we can hand out to people we meet. The Fathers’ Day ad did not return a significant response. The website is interesting with responses from around NZ, Canada and Nigeria. (A Kiwi ex-pat.) The site has had 700 visitors during September, 566 of who are new and 44 returns. Another project will get under-way soon. Word of mouth is always the best though and club members are good at being hospitable on the airfield. Keep up the good work!

RWS Annuals/ARA:

RWS is back after a very thorough overhaul in which a number of mandatory jobs were done and minor repairs carried out. Matthew Connor contributed his engineering skills and Les Sharp beavered away for several days. Many thanks. It is a rather large bill we have and the consideration of Flight Tech in enabling a payment schedule that we can achieve is much appreciated. A lot of the work can be regarded as “fair wear and tear” and must be expected and allowed for earlier than I think we have been good at doing. Dave Drummond reports that RWS flies more nicely now.

Be careful when moving RWS out from the hangar and remember to dis-connect the solar charging plug before moving the aircraft.

As to the assurance that rust repairs to the airframe of RWS, would be done “within the month”. It is now a forty day month and growing.

Annual Meeting:

A bit later this year. Primarily because some of us were away during August. The best attendance in years. The President, CFI and Club Captain/Treasurer all reported on a good 2008/9 year.

Officers stay the same and Will Hopkirk and Glyn Jackson come onto the committee.

Normona Cup: Tim Hardwick-Smith for his fight to Whangamomona
                        and return.
Most Improved Pilot: Will Hopkirk for a well-handled paddock landing near
                                    Stratford.

Other prizes, including the Ranges Cup were not awarded this year.


The next year’s subscriptions will increase as follows:

Flying member $315
Tow Pilot $165
Social member $ 40

Other charges remain the same though there may well be an increase in the insurance excess fee and I will ask the committee to increase the ferry fee for RWS to $300 p/hour at the November meeting.

Presidntial Speak 2009:

Hi. another year gone, some good fly-ing and with all the new toys, some of us are really getting into it. We have our new project on the go – the extension of the hangar and it won’t
be long before we are looking another single seater. So start putting your wish list together,
folks.

The Pawnee is undergoing some much over due maintenance. Having spent the money we are in the process of doing, I think it will be towing us around for some time to come.

.
As with all Clubs, we cannot function without the huge input of members and TGC is no exception, I am not going to name individuals, but take this opportunity to thank all of you
for your generous amount of work you have put in. Be assured that it is truly appreciated.

We are as usual just, (in the immortal words of our previous Treasurer) “keeping our lips above water” financially, but with a little creative wheeling and dealing, I am quite confident
that we can keep flying for some years to come.

Our membership is growing and I think at a rate that we can comfortably handle, but let’s keep on bringing in new members as much as we can.


On a personal note, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you ALL for your support and back-up over the last 12 months. Amazing how time flies! All the helpful suggestions on how
you could reconnect me back up using Hansen water pipe fittings have been passed onto my
surgeon and he is looking into these with some interest. Especially as this could save the
country millions. I do though consider myself very fortunate to have such a great bunch of friends, so

THANKS.

Well, let’s just keep getting up there and enjoy our flying.


Richard Arden

Club Captain’s report to the TGC 2009 AGM

A steady year of activity. There has been some good flying with the highlights being the Te Wera camp and Tim’s 50km.

The club is well out in the public eye with a clear identity and location.

The new website is going well with 631 visitors in the last 30 days. New visits 590 and 41 return visitors. It has proved quite easy to load material, much to my relief. I hope a grant can be obtained to cover the capital cost of its construction.

The calf scheme continues.

Newsletters and Recent News editions have come out from time to time. Losing the entire email address list was not helpful but was fixed. We’ve had several photos and a story or two published in Soaring NZ.

The Christmas Potluck dinner went well. Thanks to Judy, John and Sam. No mid-year one. Maybe we can do something soon.

Many thanks to one and all for pitching in and making things happen.

Peter Miller
Club Captain

A Bad Day at the Office:

The operator was spreading urea on our dairy farm at Uruti during May a few years ago. The soil was rather damp and he went too far over the brow of a small hill. As soon as he felt the truck slide, he turned in the direction of the slide thus lessening the chance of rolling. Good thinking. The truck was easily retrieved with the aid of our neighbour’s bulldozer and the spreading task completed.

Welcome:

To Jim McKay who has rejoined the towpilot ranks. Les will be overjoyed.

25 years back:

No flying happening with BDW still undergoing repair. Arrangements to hire a replacement towplane (Piper Cub) from Hawera fell through. Raffle sales continuing.

By way of comparison, if we had to rebuild the Pawnee wing today, that might cause a sharp intake of breath. R&M for the year 1984/85 totalled $12400. In today’s money that would be around $75000.

In my book, concerns about how much the Pawnee costs to run simply don’t cut it.

Papa Mike.

Below: An alternative fundraiser.