Newsletter: March 2005 (Note: all external links open in a new window)
Back to newsletter
The Wellington Nationals - by Guy Harding
You won’t believe it but Wellington turned it on for the 20 pilots that
turned up for this years Nationals. We flew 6 out of 8 days and it should
have been 7, but I’ll get to that later.
Day one:
Yours truly was at the NZ/Oz cricket game at the cake tin getting to see the only game that ended up being worth watching. But I still had one eye on the clouds, and from where I was sitting it didn’t look half bad.
The rest of the crew however were rigging on Climie.
The task: Climie/Gladstone/Lake ferry pub
Sounds like it was reasonable early on but the northerly came up which stopped some from flying. Dave Newton and a few others made it most of the way round the course. Dave actually ends up winning ever day but one. Not a bad effort at all.
Day 2: Bull Hill
Task: Bull Hill/7km north along the range/ Lake Ferry pub
The wind in Wellington was quite strong today but on launch it’s only10-15knots and slowly dropping. It’s basically a blue day which makes life a little trickier. Wasn’t hard to get up after launch, but most of us struggled to get a decent thermal after leaving BH. I made it past the 1st TP but not much more. The guys who left first seem to do the best today and make it past Bull Hill, with a little scratchy ridge soaring. But don’t get a lot further south, so I guess the day was moderately stable.
Day 3: Bennett’s
Task: Bennett’s/Opaki (5km north of Masterton)/Eketahuna air field
The day is completely over cast. When we get to the top rain can be seen down to the south. No one is particularly taken with the day, as is shown by the enthusiasm to rig. It’s also blowing in at about 15knots SE, but by the time we have finished rigging its up to 20+.
You would think it would be soarable. Grant launches first and has trouble getting above launch. But a semblance of a thermal comes through and gets him 500-1000ft or so over TO so it encourages a few more to launch. I’m not too keen to launch just yet as some blue sky has appeared to the east and it slowly heading our way.
Anton heads over the back first with not a lot of height as he thinks the days is not going to be any more than a glide ratio contest. It proves to be a mistake and in the end robs him of a top 3 finish.
One of the good things about Bennett’s is that you only need 300ft over launch to go over the back (west), so it’s easy to a least bomb positive.
Most others wait for a little more height and leave in a thermal, drifting with it until it dies.
I think my plan is coming to fruition as my small patch of blue sky is finally getting closer and things are starting to lighten up a little. 10 pilots are still waiting to launch and there isn’t much time before the window closes, so with 5 mins to go and 8-10 pilots clogging the ridge already I have to go. It’s chaos on the small ridge and not everyone is playing by the rules, so I am real keen to get up and away.
The day is obviously unstable as 3 of us get away even before the sun
reaches us. It requires tightening up in the surges while others just keep
on with the perfect circles. We drift with it 1/3 the way to the 1st TP
before gliding on. We are still in the shade but the thermals are regular.
So much for needing the sun! It seems most have made the TP as I can’t
see any gliders on the ground. Having left the other 2 behind, I come in under another 2 pilot’s thermalling over the TP. They go on glide shortly, making the 90 degree turn to head cross wind to the Eketahuna air field. I keep on thermalling and watch them both take different lines. The pilot to the right gets a much better glide line, so after I’ve topped out I follow him.
We are basically heading up the main road to Mt Bruce. The choice is now to head North/west around the left of Mt Bruce or over the ridge (North/East) on the other side. I elect to go the western route. Everyone else is. (Something inside tells me to fight the sheep mentality, but it loses.) The Eastern route now has sun in it, but I’m unsure if I’ve got the glide to get in there, as it’s punching into the wind.
I end up with one more scrappy thermal over the river bed, leaving it as the already broken core becomes even more diffuse, and glide a final 8km past
the TP to land with Rick Hawkeswood.
Dave N and Niall Muller make goal. They left early, so did all of it in the shade. Just show you what can be done.
Day 4: Climie
Task: Climie/Papawai airfield(east of Carterton)/Lake Ferry pub?)
It looks like a good day. 10 knot WSW + good cues. The thermals a definitely there but I’m struggling to get above 3500ft and make the first glide north. We have to drift back with the thermals and they are moderately broken and don’t seem to be long lived enough to get me to cloud base. I end up over climie
for over an hour while other pilots find good thermals that get them up high and away. Finally at the north end of climie I hook a good one, strong enough to stand up straighter into wind so less drift, and it takes me to 5000ft. Unfortunately by now I’m feeling a little quezzy. I see Trev going up on the ridge behind the glider field at Kiatoke So I scoot under him and find that it’s the roughest thermal/rotor I have been in for years. Slack side wires and over the falls everywhere. F**k this I'm outa here! It’s not doing my stomach any good. I head forward down the ridge line and pick up 200fpm but its smoother so it will do. It strengthens with height and is also drifting me over the Tucks road and over the tea house which is good.
Over the tea house I’m just over 4000ft the thermal dies and I go on a buoyant glide to Featherston. I spend about 20mins over Featherston getting up because I think this might be a final glide. The thermals are smooth over here but I still don’t feel good so every thermal I rock upright to try and settle things down a little. There is now a convergence line beginning to set up from Featherston heading NE which is basically where I want to go. So 2 thermals later I’m over the TP and heading down to Bull Hill. If I was felling better I would have taken the eastern line down the range to Martinborough. There are some good looking clouds down that way. As it is I head straight south (7km) over the flats, fly through 2 thermals
(I’ve had enough of feeling ill) and do a down wind landing. The southerly sea breaze comes through when I’m on final. Not a leaf was moving as I was circling down to land. No damage though. I'm 5th for the day and it’s the longest flight I’ve ever had from Climie, so there are positives.
Trev and Grant do an even better job, Trev almost getting to
Martinborough and Grant is down towards Bull Hill. Dave wins another
one however, extending an already large lead.
Day 5:Kourau
Task: Kourau/TV3/Tinui
Another good looking day, 0-10knots W. Good cues and good cycles coming up the face. Trev and Grant launch first. (Trev does his normal 2 takeoffs before he gets to the fence.) They head right and hook 1400fpm.I take off 5th and get a good one along with Dave N to 5000ft Dave and I head south to TV3 (grant and Trev left 20min earlier).
Some cirrus is coming over to the south and to the immediate south of us it’s starting to look a bit OD'd locally. There is one BIG long cloud south, so we head for it and get back to base at its northern edge. We then have a great run under it for about 5 or so km as its sucking the whole way. I'm flying at 85kph
to avoid being sucked up. Dave takes a line to the left and my right line turns out to be the better. He was in front mostly and I could see that the further to the right I went the better my glide got to his. I'm a bit more conservative after the run ends (I take a weakish thermal after getting down to 3000ft) Dave ploughs on. I watch him make the TP and come back. I don’t catch him again until about 30km from goal. Half way back to Kourau it doesn’t look so good above TO (blue). It paid to take off early today. Some of the field bomb. The sea breeze now has an obvious convergence line running parallel with the coast 5-10km east of Kourau. There was another short street leading just in front of Kourau that I was going to take but after looking at it for the last 5 mins while thermalling I can see that’s its starting to deteriorate so I head over the back to connect up with one more thermal before I make it to the sea breeze convergence. Not taking the immediate street turns out to be the most important decision of the flight. What should have been an obvious one I guess.
I'm flying about 500m-1km inland from cloud that’s hanging down. The sea beaze wedge is pushing up plenty of thermals and creating a solid cloud street.
By the time I'm just East of kourau I can make out Grant Trev and Dave, probably 10-15km in front. Trev and Grant got low in the boon docks over the back of Kourau which let Dave catch them. I go on a long buoyant glide which is only broken by a couple of thermals to top up 1000ft or so. I think that by staying higher than the guys in front I get into the cloud suck more so get a much better glide, and by the time I'm
25km out from goal I come in under the three. Even if it is by a few thousand feet. By the time they leave the thermal I think I'm only 1000ft below them. I think the Compeo really comes into its own now. With the cloud street I really only take one more thermal to base (6300 ft), the rest of it is just maximizing the glide using the instrument. I go on what turns out to be the final glide (25km out) G/T/D are only a few km in front. Once again I think I went slightly slower but stayed in the cloud suck. The other guys are in
front but getting lower especially G/T. Dave just gets an awesome glide on his Combat no matter what. It appears that the convergence line ends a couple of km short of goal. G/T are getting low and have to slow right up. There is a ridge to get over to make goal and they want to be sure of making it. Me, I’ve got height to burn so from about 8km out I can stuff the bar and slowly
fly over G/T with under a km to spare. Dave has already made it in
so I think I'm second for the day. Rick Hawkeswood comes in 20mins
later and Anton Lawrence is 3 km short. There are 5 very happy pilots
in goal. It turns out though that Dave didn’t enter the TP1 cylinder, which
means I end up winning the day with Grant 2nd and Trev 3rd. A local Trifecta.
Day 6 Kourau: the crop dusting day. A 100km day.
We set up looking at a great sky with light winds. Shortly afterward 2 crop dusters fly over and begin work on the north face. No one worries too much to start with, but after an hour or so we start to get a little worried. They end up leaving just as the sea breeze comes through late in the afternoon. A lot of very annoyed pilots pack up their crop dusted gliders.
Day 7 (Officially day 6) Kourau:
Task: Kourau/Bull Hill
Mostly overcast with what ends up being a 15+knot WSW. So we are slightly punching into a good wind. It takes a while to get a thermal strong enough to warrant taking it to the top as the weaker stuff has too much drift and most height is lost getting out front again. As we head south it becomes worse as the hill flattens considerably and you have
to fly a long way out front to a landing.
I leave the hill at 3500ft, not really high enough, but Dennis Green is coming with me so we can search together. It turns out to be a short (14km) and hard flight. With so much drift in the thermals I end up back where I started after punching back into wind. The topless gliders have a distinct advantage today with the into wind flying.
I basically get one thermal strong enough to make some reasonable ground and end up dolphin flying through the weak stuff and head straight into wind when I find some broken lift to make the most of the heavily ovalized thermals.
No one gets more than 1/2 way to Bull Hill so it’s a low scoring day.
Dave Newton won the comp hands down. Definitely the best pilot. Grant came second. A bloody good effort considering he’s flying a small shark; and me third. 2nd place prize is $2500 off a Climax so we are encouraging him to go topless. We will see if he bares all next summer!
Apart from Waipuk last year this Nats has had the best weather I have seen.
So Wellingtons not such a bad place after all!
Back to newsletter
