Peter Williams. 2003

 Peter Williams at Taupo. 2003                                                                                                                Queen’s Birthday - Taupo

After keeping a tuned eye to the weather maps the previous week, Peter and myself headed off to the high country hoping for a good few days flying. Saturday didn’t look the best, so we headed off a bit later Saturday morning, arriving at Taupo about three in the afternoon.
The weather was flat there. The PW6, and K13 were busy with circuit training until about 5pm.
One of the students ( Denise ) had just gone solo. She arrived back at the clubrooms with a broad smile on her face. So it was handshakes and cuddles for the instructors ( don’t think Peter got one ), a complimentary drink to celebrate. She was really on cloud nine.
After everyone had gone home, Peter and I popped down to have dinner at a local Thai Restaurant, for a delicious meal. Taupo is worth a visit just for that alone.
Sunday dawned with an overcast day, but the wind was blowing from the South-west. A good wind for the ridge on Mount Tauhara to be working. Only thing was that most of the top was covered in cloud.
Peter and I rigged our gliders in anticipation of the day getting better ( usually does ), and helped the others get all the gear out. By midday the green light was given.
I went up in the clubs K13 for some instruction training on the slope with Peter. It is quite daunting flying close to the slope initially, and there are a lot of things one must learn. I had trouble just flying a balanced turn with the twenty knot wind coming up the slope. We only intended to go up for a half hour, but two and a quarter hours later we decided to come down for a late lunch.
At about 3-45 pm we decided to take our gliders for a spin. There was quite a lot of cloud still coming through, and misty rain at times, making it hard to see out, especially as the sun was also low in the sky. About 5 pm we decided we had better head down as the sun had gone down, and things looked rather dark on the ground. We both got down ok after dealing with the still strong 25 knot gusty wind. It was a great flight, not having to scratch around for thermals like at home base.
Everyone had gone home by the time we had tied the gliders down for the night, but the bar was still open.
It’s strange how a cold beer warms you up. It must have been zero degrees up on the slope.
Monday dawned much the same, except that the clouds were lower, with a lot of dark clouds around.
Same story – things had improved by lunch time, so it was a rush for a quick bite to eat, and we were flying by about 1 pm. It wasn’t much fun up there with lots of cloud coming through and misty rain. I had troubles with a patch on the inside of the canopy at two o’clock misting up all the time making it hard to see what was happening around. After about an hour, Peter and I were the only ones up there, when he decided to head down. I nearly came down when I saw a big rain shower approaching from the lake, but I hung in there. As I was punching out in the pressure wave at about 3pm at 3500 feet, my vario starting making a higher pitched noise. It wasn’t long before it was showing 4-5 knots up. The only problem was that there were still lots of clouds forming all around, but looked clear well ahead. After a lot of ducking and diving I was soon out in clear sunny air, still going up at a rate of knots. I called Taupo airport to give my intentions to enter the MBZ zone over town. By this time my vario was indicating 7 knots, when my head hit the 6500 ceiling. Time to pull the brakes. Funny thing was they didn’t seem to do much. By this time I realised I was back over the dump, and out of the MBZ zone. A quick radio call to Taupo Traffic, and tried to raise someone down below at the gliding site that I was in Wave. No answer. Spent another half hour up there realising that we had a trip home to make yet. Pulled the brakes right out, practiced full side-slips, and I finally got down to under the clouds at 4000 feet.
By this time some of the other gliders were on the way up but didn’t get into the wave. The clouds had thickened up, and was quite cold under them.
A quick call to base to say I was on the way in and landed at 4-20 pm. The wind was about 25 knots on the ground, so landing was a handful. What a neat flight as I told Peter as we dried off the K6E, and put her to bed ready for another day.
Before I knew it we were back in New Plymouth after spending a fabulous winter weekend in Taupo.

Peter Williams