Monday 20 June 2016

Gliding 19th June 2016

A stable training day off the winch. Pete drove the winch, John instructed, and everybody else helped keeping the rotations going. Doug updated his BFR, and Phil rigged KJ and took a flight in JW. Roland won the flight of the day when 10 mins of sun popped up a thermal enabling him to soar for 30 mins or so. Doug flew KG for a couple of flights. Nick and Masato had 2 flights each with John.

Sunday 19 June 2016

Kingston

Today I am heading over to Kingston to have a look at the development of the airfield just south of the township.

Kingston is a great destination if you are looking for a flight with plenty of variation. Departing from Alexandra in calm conditions, I climbed to 8500ft and contacted Christchurch Information. The weather forecast was good, but there was frontal conditions coming in from the west. The wind at Queenstown was steady at 15kts on the ATIS. However, a check using the GPS gave me an actual 30kts wind at 8000ft. A good idea not to get too close to those mountains.



After flying along the Nevis valley, I dropped down the face of the Hector mountain to arrive at the Devils staircase.  From there it was just a short low level flight along the lake to Kingston.








A short distance from the town is the airfield. There is no landing chart in the AIP yet, but I could see a new hangar with a plane in it and taxi-ways being constructed.
Kingston is a definitely on the 'Where to go' list. Allow a good 30 minutes flying time each way and take care crossing the ridge into the valley.

Garvie Mountains (left)  Hector Mountains (right)


Approaching Kingston


Sunday 12 June 2016

Gliding 12th June 2016


It cleared about noon so we got the kit out.
First off was Pete instructing Nick off the winch. John took a tow to reach the wave, Wills followed with Pete backseat in JW. The areotows gave good wave flights. John flew down to Ettrick and back and Wills had a good flight too.

Roland and Nick did more flights off the winch and we stopped at dusk. Thanks to Phil and Russell for launches.







Tuesday 7 June 2016

St. Bathans Range


May was not a particularly good month, weather wise, for flying. The unusual frontal pattern produced a lot of low cloud and frequent rain showers. However, ERW was in the air for 26 hrs. The main pilots were Greg Foster, Dave Burke, Aaron Simpson, Russell Anderson (towing), Nick Taylor (instructing), and myself.

On todays flight, I am heading north to the Lindis Pass. After flying in challenging conditions during May, today was just awesome. And I’m not alone, there were already a couple of aircraft preparing to take to the air by the time I arrived at the Airport.

After departing on 32, it was a steady climb up to my cruising level of 7500ft. From that height I could see the Remarkables to the west, Mt. Aspiring in the distance off to the left and Mt Cook reaching up in the distance off the nose of the aircraft. The day was just magic. Calm, clear and a dream world all around me.
To the right of the valley is the Hawdun Range. What impressed me about the Hawdun Range was the flat surface on top. Reaching well over 6000ft, this plateau is snow covered for most of the winter.

Lindis Pass
Hawdun Range








Crossing over the ridge at the end of the valley brings me onto the Lindis Pass. I could see a steady flow of traffic heading away for their holiday weekend. This is an interesting area to fly around, but it is also a busy corridor between Wanaka and the north. So a position report and a listening watch is important.
Finally, I am along side the St. Bathans Range. What is unusual about these ranges is the steep uniform slope on the western side. When covered with a layer of snow, the range is clearly visible from the Cromwell Basin. Up close however, it doesn’t show it’s sharp contrast and tends to merge into the other mountains surrounding it.
St.Bathans Range

Wednesday 1 June 2016

Gliding 29th May 2016

It cleared-up nicely. John instructed Masato and Nick in JW, and Phil drove the winch. 6 flights in all.