Sunday 15 November 2015

Gliding 9 -15 November 2015


John was at Omarama for some of the week. The weather was changeable but he got 4 flights ranging from Mt Cook in the north, to Alex in the south, and eastwards to Mt Ida and westwards to the Main Divide at Brodrick Pass.

Roland is at Omarama this coming week for the South Island Regionals. Follow his progress at:

On the 12th Gary towed Pete and Roland, each with Doug in back seat for BFR flights.

And on the 15th Ami had 2 winch flights with John.


Cruising back to Omamara following convergence thermals on the Hawduns

In the Mts near the Main Divide

Mt Cook from the head of the Dobson

Regional Rally

Another good week of flying for ERW. On Sunday Gary was towing, Greg Foster was back in the air again, and Nick had a busy week instructing.

However, the highlight must be the Regional Rally. This is a major event for the club and puts our reputation on the line. Thanks to Steve Whitren and David Burke, the whole weekend went like clockwork and visitors were treated to an extremely professionally run event.


(Photos – Aircraft parked outside the Terminal)
Friday was the practice day with planes arriving and some in the air under perfect conditions. Conditions on Saturday were a little more challenging. A gusty 10 to 15kt wind tested even the most experienced pilots. Despite the conditions, there were some excellent performances.

The morning started with a 8.00am briefing. The Air cadets staffed the spot landing grid, Dave King made sure that pilots were ready and on time for their event, Steve Whitren was the safety officer and COFC contact, Dave Burke, Nigel Forrester and Gary Wilson worked with Flying NZ to make sure every thing run smoothly. Roger Bennet lead the team judges that included Carlton Campbell, CAA Safety Officer and this years Ínstructor of the year’ award winner. My task was ground traffic control.


(Photos – Steve Whitren, Dave Burke and Gary Wilson club members. CAA Carlton Campbell )
The prize giving dinner was held at the District Club with Roger Bennet recalling his early experiences of competition flying. Certificates were presented by Flying NZ President Paul Drake. Congratulations to Dave Burke and Pauline Hogue on their wins in their events.

We have two more major events coming up in the next few months. Its great to see that the flying club is developing a social profile in the aviation community.

Happy flying

Stephen Morton

Saturday 7 November 2015

Flying Report - ERW

ERW has had a busy week with Russell towing on Sunday, Dave Burk, Greg Foster, Aaron Simpson, S.Radford flying during the week, and Nick working with the Air Training Cadets yesterday.

Today I was taking ERW over to the West Coast with any of our Aircraft owners that might be interested. Departure was 2000hrs UTC, ok 9.00am local. The weather forecast was for stable conditions with high cloud. But we are talking about the West Coast.

My first stop was the home strip in Cromwell. I have expended the strip 100m on the south end so that we can divide it in two for grazing. Yes, it does have to pay for itself. No rate payers money here. Anyway, with the options of two 800m strips or one 1600m, there should be something there to land on.

Heading out of Cromwell and climbing to 7500ft, I could hear on the radio that there was plenty of activity in the Wanaka circuit. Flying conditions were perfect, although I noticed a slow decrease in the ground speed as we headed into the mountains. A 30kt head wind was a lot more than the forecast predicted.

The next Waypoint was Makarora. A friend who sat his CPL with me, started his flying on a Beaver based in Makarora. A bit different from the ATR he now flys. This area is also known for deer stalking. There are two main valleys running up the South side, the Wilkin and the Young valley. Changing heading to 315 should take us directly to Haast.


(Photo – Wilkin and Young Valley)

Mt. Victor is the next landmark. There are a number of mountain ranges running in different directions all rising shapely from the valley floor to about 6000ft. Mt. Victor is almost in the middle of them. Clearing the ridge, I could see Lake Douglas nested in a valley, but sitting high up from the other valley floors. This morning it was particularly attractive, as it was surround by a blanket of cloud.


(Photo – Mt. Victor and Lake Douglas)

Finally I arrived at Haast. Well, I could see the Haast bridge through the broken cloud, and the GPS was confirming my position, but today I wasn’t going to waste time looking for a good entry area to get under the 5000ft cloud base. It was time to head home and with a 30kt tail wind and a ground speed indicating 138kts, it wasn’t long before I was back on the ground in Alexandra.

Handing ERW over to Gary for his flight, I headed home.

Happy Flying

Stephen Morton

Monday 2 November 2015

Sunday 1st November 2015

Russell towed us over to the hills but the day was just too stable to produce much in the way of thermals, even on the translator ridge. Nearer the airfield a cool southerly prevented long flight (but we all did about and hour's soaring). Flying were KG, VH, KJ and Doug and Roy in JW.

28th October 2015

Roland and John flew. We winched (thanks Phil) but really needed an aerotow to escape the influence of the cold southerly which came in very early in the day. Short scratchy flights resulted!