The May newsletter is here (PDF, 117 kB). The Annual General Meeting is coming, Grant's story about the Easter regatta at ASC, the Club in the news.
Craig - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 at 12:30:27 (CST)
Here's a list of the badge claims made at Waikerie this season. Well done, everyone!
Pete - Friday, April 9, 2004 at 19:01:27 (CST)
Antique Aircraft Fly-In
On Saturday 27 March, a small group of aviators visited Waikerie with their aeroplanes. The group travelled from Noarlunga South and Aldinga airfields. The aircraft included:While gliding conditions were not brilliant on Saturday, one of the visitors enjoyed a flight with Peter Robinson in the Twin Astir.
- 2 Mini-cab ultralights. These were the first minicab and the last (only recently completed) built by Keith Jarvis. Keith flew one of the aircraft and Keith's son the other.
- 1 Jabiru ultralight.
- 1 Tiger Moth. This aircraft has been restored by Bob Pratt (who flew the tug at Waikerie in years past) and Ivor Paech. This is truly a great example of a labour of love resulting in an immaculate looking Tiger Moth. Some photos are in the album.
- 1 Boeing Grumman Stearman, restored by Ivor Paech. A fine example of the Stearman.
- 1 Tecnam ultralight, owned by Club member John Marsh, who flew down from Port Augusta.
Some Club members experienced flights in the visiting aircraft, including Heather Baker who had a flight in the Stearman, including some aerobatics. We also saw a good demonstration of aerobatics by Bob Pratt in the Tiger Moth and some low passes by the Tiger Moth and Stearman.
I had a flight with John Marsh in the Tecnam. What a great performing and sophisticated little aeroplane - and nice and easy to fly. Electric flaps, electric trim, climb at 1000 ft / min (with me on board). Can see it being a great towing machine.
Most of the visitors stayed overnight - we put on a meal and had a great evening talking aeroplanes and flying over a few wines.
Unfortunately the weather on Sunday and the forecast of high winds prompted the visitors to leave early and get home before the forecast high winds and westerly change arrived.
The visit was a great success in encouraging people from the flying fraternity to visit Waikerie. Thanks to the members who assisted in the weekends activities.
John Hudson - Monday, March 29, 2004 at 11:52:34 (CST)
The March 2004 newsletter is here - PDF, 237 KB. Flying stories from Team Waikerie, a Dimona cross country, coming events, etc.
Pete - Friday, March 19, 2004 at 22:50:58 (CST)
Friday was 42 degrees and Grant and I were going to do some laps around a 100km task.
Grant launched first and got a climb to 3000ft and headed off to Kingston whilst I was still struggling to get above 2200ft.
Grant didn't find any lift and outlanded 16km SE of Waikerie. Being a total fire ban we could not do a aerotow retrieve so I came back down and went out and collected him. It was about 38 degrees at 2000ft so I didn't need much incentive to come down. Nice paddock Grant.
The highest anyone got that day was 4000ft.
Peter Robinson - Monday, February 16, 2004 at 16:47:16 (CST)
Here is the February newsletter - PDF, 137 KB. A wrap-up of the Clubclass Nationals. "Team Waikerie", coming events and instructor training.
Pete - Friday, February 20, 2004 at 11:43:45 (CST)
The Club Class nationals are keeping us busy. Please head over to the clubclass website for more info.
Pete - Tuesday, January 20, 2004 at 12:13:54 (CST)
Saturday 16 November - at Waikerie it got to 42 degrees with a Strong Sea breeze front hitting at about 5pm.
After rigging my glider in the morning (at 10am it was 34 degrees) filling it up with lots of water and getting the ASW22 and Duo Discus ready we ended up taking a late launch 1:30pm.
The ASW22 flown by Anders Olsen launched first then me in my Nimbus 2 followed by Mark Morgan and Mike McLaughlin in the Duo Discus.
The Duo took a while to find a decent climb and while I waited for the Duo, Anders was well on track and we never saw him again all day.
You could see the sea breeze front on the horizon already over Adelaide when we launched. A line of cloud was forming to the south of Waikerie running SE/NW, there was no other cloud anywhere.
We headed for the cloud and took a 9kt climb from 5000ft to 15,300ft just to the south west of Maggea.
From here we flew along the cloud street via Sandalwood and 20km beyond Pinnaroo and then turned and headed back on track towards Morgan. We flew 180km without turning staying between 11,000ft and 15,000ft and averaged 185km/hr.
Heading back along the street which now stretch from Pinnaroo to Burra, I lost contact with the street whilst playing around with my new instruments (first flight with them) and headed back into Waikerie after doing 350km.
The best height for the day for 16,300ft.
The Duo Discus made it to Morgan and back to Waikerie after doing 500km and the ASW22 ended up doing 650km.
The flights in the Duo Discus and my Nimbus were both evaluation flights after Form 2's - the only way to do evaluation flights.
Peter Robinson - Monday, December 01, 2003 at 18:12:36 (CST)
After following the weather pattern over the last week it appeared that Saturday 18th October 27, 2003 had great potential to be a fabulous day for flying. An intense low with two fronts one heading North and the other South was being sandwiched between two highs that covered the remainder of the continent. Temp trace indicated the thermals would go above 10,000ft. The wind was strong 20kts on the ground coming from the North.
Mark advised to take a reasonable high tow, releasing at 1900ft and climbing to over 6,000 in my first thermal of the day. The following 3 hours I spent cruising to the West over towards Morgan and down to Swan Reach in thermals averaging 8.7 on the Borgelt. Best climbs were at times better then 10kts and even under the full cloud cover of the front climbs to 11,250ft were possible.
Observations of the flight: Another memorable flight offering total enjoyment, early in the day a week trough to the South proceeded the frontal systems but with strong upper head winds and loads of sink around I was not venturing there. Graham Francis reported he might have contacted to the South of the airfield lift that was being pushed up by the trough. What a totally relaxing experience, don't you just love spring...gj
Greg J - Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at 18:56:39 (CST)
Sunday the 29th September 03 emerged as a beautiful crisp sunny morning with a thick cover of frost on the ground. Until 10am the aerodrome had very little wind, however with a couple of fast approaching cirrus bands moving in from the west this was a sign of things to come.
The wind had picked up to around 15kts with the cross wind slightly favoring Rwy 02. At 12:25pm as a band of cirrus moved through John Hudson provided me with a tow to 2200ft. What a treat it is to fly the Discus VH-GHP, this glider has recently had its annual inspection and looks and feels like new, thanks again to the workshop Craig & Mark. If members have the availability and a few basic skills I am sure they could do with a hand to complete inspections of our Club gliders.
The first hour was spent thermaling in 4 knot thermals up to 4000ft. They very broken and elongated sometimes contactable by pushing into wind or searching slightly down wind, it was difficult to fly up wind to the North West of Waikerie as heavy sink areas (8kts down) required large course deviation to find areas of less sink.
The second hour was exhilarating yet challenging. During the afternoon a trough followed by the tail end of a cold front (sandwiched between two highs) moved though Waikerie. This variable weather produced very unstable conditions with 8 to 10kts of lift to 8500ft, above 5000ft the thermal were wider and rougher than a mid summers day.
From observing the cloud formation sheer wave was evident, pushing up wind through the vertical streaks of cloud (rotor?) did not leave enough height to contact the tertiary wave pattern. After the variable weather patterns had moved through searching upwind in the direction of Morgan I found widely spaced late afternoon trigger sources were producing 4kts to 4000ft. After 3 ½ hours of this totally enjoyable experience it was time for me to land.
Observations of the flight: Windy day with several layers of wind sheer, elongated thermals that required chasing, lift was cycling as weather patterns changed, there were periods when it was necessary to fly to another area (sunny spot) to find lift, strong and rough thermals, water ballast would have been useful, for anyone lucky enough to contact the wave over the aerodrome Diamond height was possible but only for about an hour, I would have liked another glider or two for company... gj
GregJ - Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at 18:52:56 (CST)
The October newsletter is here: welcome to Mike Valentine, members' flying days, more of Bernard's ridge tactics, and other news.
WGC-October-2003.pdf, PDF file, 57k
Craig - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 at 10:01:25 (CST)
The September newsletter is here, with more of Bernard's article on ridge lift and other news.
WGC-September-2003.pdf, PDF file, 154k
Craig - Monday, September 08, 2003 at 16:15:50 (CST)
Here is the Club newsletter for August 2003. Photos this time!
WGC-August-2003.pdf, PDF file, 82k
Craig - Thursday, August 07, 2003 at 16:20:22 (CST)
Here is the Club newsletter for July 2003.
WGC-July-2003.pdf, PDF file, 34k
Craig - Thursday, July 03, 2003 at 16:05:43 (CST)
And here is the newsletter for June 2003.
WGC-June-2003.pdf, PDF file, 34k
Craig - Thursday, July 03, 2003 at 16:02:33 (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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