Recent News at Waikerie

The Australian National FAI Club Class Championships will be held at Waikerie in January 2004. WGC will be hosting the event with assistance from SAGA. Details will be coming to this site.

(announced a couple of weeks ago)
Pete
- Tuesday, June 03, 2003 at 18:23:26 (CST)
More happens at Waikerie than what's on the Recent News page! Here's a list of the badge claims made at Waikerie this season. Well done, everyone!
Pete
- Tuesday, March 04, 2003 at 19:01:27 (CST)
Saturday 25th January - Peter Page, John Marsh and myself flew into Waikerie from Port Augusta in a Cessena arriving at 9:30am after a very smooth flight. I got my Nimbus 2 prepared with 100Litres of Water and launched at 2pm as the Cu's starting popping to the east of Waikerie. The day needed a trigger temperature of 41 degrees which we reached at 1pm.
I decided to go east first and headed off to Pirlta then Peebinga then Morgan then Woolpunda then Waikerie. A total of 504km in 4hrs at 125km/hr. I stayed above 10,000ft for the entire flight and my best height was 14,000ft.
The temperature was a lovely 8 degrees as compared to 46 degrees on the ground. A trough went through that night and the next day was much cooler and with climbs to only 3,000ft predicted, we decided to fly back to Port Augusta.
Peter Robinson
- Tuesday, January 28, 2003 at 17:44:38 (CST)
I spent 2 days at Waikerie at the weekend for a total of 4 hours flying. The flights were not spectacular by some standards but for a pilot who has not decided whether he is a cross country pilot or a local soaring pilot, a 3hr 140km triangle on Saturday with a maximum height of 6000' is a significant (albeit slow) flight.

Peter Page
- Monday, January 13, 2003 at 12:13:43 (CST)
We've had some hot days in the Riverland, with thermals going amazingly high. Morgy took this photo of his altimeter indicating about 17,000 feet on Monday 16 December. Apparently it was cold, and apparently he was very close to getting a Diamond height gain under Cu.
Pete
- Wednesday, December 18, 2002 at 17:01:58 (CST)
The Basic Cross Country course went well again. The weather didn't give us any "huge" days, but that's not what the course is about. Dirk Seret flew all three legs of his Silver C. Rod van den Brink flew the five hours and height gain parts, but the weather near the turnpoint wasn't playing the part and claimed three other avid aviators.

Jim Kelly has sent in a collage of his photos of the week - the PDF is worth a look. Thanks Jim! It's 1.2 MB in size (maybe 5-6 minutes for a modem), and you may need Acrobat Reader to open it.
Pete Siddall
- Saturday, December 07, 2002 at 19:26:09 (CST)
South Australian Gliding Association has just completed its training week at Waikerie which follows on from the winter lecture program for coaches.
Thanks are extended to Bruce Taylor who came at Regional Coach Catherine Conway's request, and flew with many of the coaches.
The airfield was a busy place with the basic cross country course also on, and some classroom exercises were shared.
In addition to the flying where people tried to apply the techniques introduced in the classroom, Friday saw thermal, thermal wave and lee wave combine. Highest went Bernhard Eckey & Dave Hichens in the ASH25, with the cooperation of Melbourne Centre to climb to 17,500'.

A number of pilots flew to and from their home clubs (Balaklava, Adelaide, Adelaide Hills) with their sailplanes before, during and after the course.
The dinner on Saturday night saw certificates and recognition or encouragement awards handed out.
Thank you umpires, thank you ball boys. (the Waikerie crew who provided support, food, and keep the centre in shape to handle these sorts of influx)
Emilis Prelgauskas
- Monday, December 02, 2002 at 16:59:53 (CST)
It's getting hotter, summer is nearly here, and the club is preparing for the season.
Mike Maclachlan is taking in the local setup: he will be resident tuggie/instructor for the summer.
Herr Fritz flew with us for a week. Anders is here, and has prepared the ASW-22 and done some flying. On Monday he flew Notts Well - Loxton wheatbunker - Pelican Point - Waikerie. Another day he reached 8000 feet in wave.

Pete
- Friday, November 15, 2002 at 22:02:37 (CST)

For Basic and Advanced Cross Country Course information, please read the Events Calendar page.
Mark Morgan
- Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 12:13:01 (CST)

June 25th 2002
The shortest day of our year has just passed. This means the days will only get longer now to afford pilots more flying. Over the last weekend we were visited by the Sporting Car Club of South Australia. Some 50 beautifully restored sports cars from Porche, Jaguar, Corvette and to the Mini Cooper S were all to be seen when the club stopped over during their annual weekend tour. Many members enjoyed flights with others having to come back on the Sunday to have their flight. Comments about a revisit were in the wind on their departure.
The sky has shown quite a number of active wave days which is a little unusual for this time of year. As a matter of fact I have just ventured outside to photograph the approaching moving wave! A number of cold fronts have moved through which had some of the members a little excited about the prospect of frontal lift. The cloud formations that accompanied the fronts were quite spectacular!

Mark Morgan
- Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 12:11:21 (CST)
June 13th 2002
Mark Morgan has been out with a digital camera taking cloud pictures. If you know Morgy, you'll probably guess what kind of clouds take his fancy.
 Pete
- Thursday, 13 June 2002 at 17:01:02 (CST)
May 4th 2002
The warm northerly air streams mixed with the upper moisture had a very uncharacteristic few days peaking with 9,800 foot cloud base on Saturday which worked well into the late afternoon.
A couple of members along with an exasperated group of British Pilots had a ride on the strong vertical currents available. You should have been there!
This has been the warmest May in Australian history since early last century. The very low rainfall this season has now seen the halt to the water flow of the River Murray in this area. We are all hoping for rain soon to feed the thirsty, dry countryside.

Mark
- Friday, May 10, 2002 at 09:10:31 (CST)

There's also news from this season,, 2006/2007, 2005/2006, 2004/2005, 2003/2004, 2002/2003 and 2001/2002 seasons.

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