Wellington Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club  
Newsletter: March 2008 (Note: all external links open in a new window) Home
January 2008 newsletter

Next Meeting: Tuesday 1 April 2008, 7:30 pm @ The Valley Club, 10 Daly St, Lower Hutt  (MAP).

Minutes: 5 February TBA....

Hang Gliding Nationals
The weather gods weren't very kind.....  : (

New Zealand Air Games
Kris will show some DVDs from the NZ Air Games at the  1 April meeting. 
Check out www.nzairgames.co.nz

New Paraglider/paramotor pilots in Wellington!
Barbara and Ian McCallum have just arrived in Wellington - and are keen to get their NZ Pilot Certificates so they can get into the air!  Here is a brief introduction from Ian:  My wife (Barbara) and I learnt to fly on the Northern beaches of Sydney.  We where taught by a Swiss bloke 90% coastal soaring with a couple of trips to Stanwell Tops and  a couple of long drives to Manilla to experience some thermalling.  Six months later we packed one pack and shared one glider around Eastern Europe for a couple of months on our way to the U.K.  Favourite spot was Sopot in Bulgaria, but enjoyed some great flying at some world class sites such as Lake Ochrid in Macedonia and the paragliding world accuracy champs in Serbia.  Small world that paragliding is we met a U.K instructor from Surrey (Andy Shaw) in Serbia, who helped us get our U.K licences and introduced us to a couple of U.K sights.  We didn't get much paragliding done in the U.K due to the fact that when the weather was suitable, there were dozens of mad English all queuing on small sites. 
Over the next couple of years we planned our trips to Europe around paragliding, always independently,  looking skyward enabled us to easily identify the safe and popular take-offs due to the massive number of pilots in Europe.  We did the same thing in Morocco and India but obviously with a lot more research into sites as these are large countries and days of traveling to a site is always more worthwhile if it is a guaranteed site.
Meanwhile in the U.K I was increasingly frustrated at the lack of flying so bought myself a paramotor.  Barbara still regards paramotoring as a bogan sport and despite the fact I can fly from a flat paddock from dusk till dawn she has no interest in joining the fold, preferring to be a purist.  There is a lot of skill cross over in paramotoring, but for stress free cross country flying, paramotoring is definitely cheating.  I meet quite a few guys learning to paramotor that had previously no experience with paragliding and have no intention to learn which I found strange.  As I'm a novice paramotorist my favourite time to fly is a couple of hours before sunset when things are generally smooth and you can see some awesome natural sights.  This reduces the variables that are added when paramotoring, such as getting used to the effect of thrust, extra wing loading and other quirks.
Looking forward to meeting some of you over the next year or so and seeing how things are done at home.
Ian McCallum

Easter at the Paeroas - report from Dice
What a place!!  I was amazed with the accessibility to the takeoff (easy) as well as the flying opportunity around the area.  Good thermals which constantly popping up just in front of the take off will take you easily up to 5000ft and it's all up to you which way to head to...  And in evenings the wind would be silky smooth which will allow you to stay in the air till the sun sets, followed by the hot pools back at the camp and the usual talks and laughs about the days flying with your mates
were all great experience.  What else can you ask for?  Thanks
very much to Reuben and Eva for organising the great trip.  I look
forward to the next Easter trip.
DICEMAN

Flights
In January John Morgan from New Plymouth logged the North Island's first ever FAI triangle, flying 30.1km from Kourarau!  Congratulations!

On Easter Monday a group of Wellington PG pilots went up Mt Climie, and Kris made it across to Featherston!  Check out his flight on the Leonardo website!  You can even view it in 3D on Google Earth!

Below is a photo by Hugo Handiside of the Ocean Beach launch (bottom right corner).

Interesting items
New application for radio controlled gliders: news item



Email Kris at whgpceditor@backup.net.nz with any news you may have!

Once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned forever skyward, for there you have been, and there you long to return" Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)