October 11th 2009

What a day it turned out to be. I arrived at the field to find Tim & Les and Jim McKay already there. The Twin out and RWS fuelled up. Tim expressed (after a look at the sky) profound disappointment at me coming and any intention of flying the Discus but gallantly helped me get ready after seeing Les away in the Twin.

Jim towed me straight into lift, which got me established for the day. Les, by that time had got out to the Nth.Egmont Visitor Centre and was at 5000ft. Tim soon joined us in the PW5. Ah well, you’ve got to slum it a bit once in a while I suppose, but he continued on to fly all around the place. About this time we heard the calls from glider Victor Hotel, inbound from the east. It was Roland van der Wal on a x-country flight from Wanganui in his LS6. He got right up onto the slopes of the mountain before heading back home. We’ll have to return the compliment!

More radio noise ensued as Richard and James launched in JB and got established at 4000ft over Stratford followed by Steve in the Twin. They all went on to have great flights. Totally unrelated but I remember a song-line which went “You can’t get to heaven on a Berlei Bra, ‘cause a Berlei Bra won’t stretch that far”. Did anyone ever try a bungee launch using one or several such items?

Looking at my log-book I noted that October 10th last year was also a good day and not just because I had my first flight in the Discus. The stats below will show the length of flights with all of them being prolonged soaring flights as we explored the area, pushing out here and there. Collectively, this was the best day the TGC has had at Stratford. A total of 12hrs 34m soaring.

Who did what:   Les Sharp WZ 1hr 56m

                          Peter Miller XC 3hrs 14m

                          Tim Hardwick-Smith TE 3hrs 10m

                          Richard Arden/James Walker JB 2hrs 31m

                          Steve Barham WZ 1hr 43m

Also: A big welcome to Gareth Semmenoff and Chris Wishnowsky who are joining us and are going to enjoy the sort of flying related above, from time to time.


Stats:
              Aircraft              Time                 Flights
              WZ                     3hrs 39m          (2)
              JB                      2hrs 31m          (1)
             TE                       3hrs 10m          (1)
             XC                      3hrs  14m         (1)
            RWS                             35m         (5)
                                  Best height. 5000ft.
Peter Miller
Club Captain
Tim and Sue’s airstrip. A good turn-point photo should have the wingtip in it.

Tim arrived a bit later in the PW5.


Their homestead and the adjacent woolshed. The striated effect is canopy reflection of my shirt.
Having got out there, it was looking towards home and I found lift most of the way.