Hello Soaring Enthusiasts.

It’s the end of Day 3 at the Nationals and I have been so busy, or so exhausted I have failed to keep up. Surely I am not slowing with age?

At the beginning of practice day we only had 24 entries and had 3 towplanes organized to service this fleet.  The rule of thumb is 1 tow plane per 8 entries to allow an hour for a fleet launch.

By the end of the day a further 8 entries had been received!  Needless to say there was a lot of grumpiness from this Director as he asked the committee for another towplane. In to the night, Chairman Bill was on his phone negotiating the use of Taranaki’s Pawnee and a special “Flying squad” to leave at 7am on Monday to take a pilot to fly the tug to Matamata.  A heartfelt thanks for those who stepped up and met the challenge.

As usual we had a number of pilots (funnily some repeat offenders) who turned up without appropriate equipment – some without batteries, some without working GPS…..you get the picture (another bit of Grumpy Director stuff……..)

At the Compulsory Safety briefing pilots were strongly advised that they needed to communicate with the organizers every hour as after two hours with no contact Search and rescue procedures would be put in place. The Director wished all the contestants a good and fun time with the Caveat that “Wallies will be wacked” This referred to the allocation of penalty points…If pilots were careless in their approach to rules and especially safety issues then they could expect to be penalized.

Day 1

With a forecast of good temperatures (30c) and mild SE winds) a good but not stretching day was set by “Tasker” Lindsey…The sky was alive with lift…...All gliders landed at Matamata after some excellent flying conditions…lots of happy pilots…and a happy Director!

Roy