Recent News at Waikerie

Gliding news, 23 April 2005

The day dawned cool and overcast on Saturday but some of our regular pilots arrived for a day's flying and they weren't disappointed. Bill Mudge gave the daily briefing at 1030 telling them that the thermals should start about 1.00 pm but be weak at first, increase to about 4 knots then by 4 pm they would weaken rapidly again. Pete Siddall came over from Renmark to fly the tug.

David Lawley had three flights with Bill in the Twin Astir then went solo again at the end of the day. Bill also gave three air experience flights during the day. I'm sure they must have enjoyed their flights as Bill later described the flying as very pleasant and wafty. There was no wind except for a slight breeze as the thermals went through.

Peter Paine flew for 3 hours in the Astir 77 (KYS) launching about 1.30 pm. He said the thermals were very broken and didn't really get going till about 3.00 pm averaging 3 knots. He managed to reach 5,000 ft a couple of times to the south of the airfield after that time.

The Astir CS (WUN) was flown by Bernie Konopka but he didn't manage to get much joy out of the day as he found no really good thermals - his flights lasted 18 minutes and 14 minutes. John Mudge fared better with almost 1.5 hours of flying, finding cores of 6 knots in places but they were very narrow and difficult to stay in. Most of his thermals averaged 2-4 knots and he managed to reach a height of 4,200 ft.

The Discus (HP) gave Greg Jackson a 2 hour flight, finding, like John, an average of 2-4 knots but he managed to get up to 4,800 ft. Everyone flew locally as it was not good enough to try for any cross country flights.

The totals for the day were 12 launches for just under 9 hours of flying.
Ann Woolf - Tuesday, April 26, 2005 at 16:21:56 (CST)

Aerial photo of Waikerie during Clubclass

Thanks to Dr Jorg Hacker of Airborne Research for showing us this photo. It was taken on 19 January 2005 and shows launching for the Clubclass Comp, as well as a good view of Waikerie airfield and surroundings.

Jorg Hacker writes: "It was taken during a chance overflight of Waikerie during the competition on 19 January this year. We flew with our ECO-Dimona (see other attachment) fitted with (amongst many other sensors like scanners and Infra-red imagers) a Canon EOS 1Ds 11 Megapixel camera pointing vertically down. The flight was to look at salt incursions into paddocks and also to map some of the vegetation patterns in the irrigated areas."
Pete - Monday, April 11, 2005 at 11:07:15 (CST)

Gliding News 10 April 2005

Last Saturday was very windy and rough. Mark Morgan and Ron Brock went gliding trying to chase the lift from the lenticular clouds (wave) that are formed by strong winds. They had a very good flight and I am hoping Mark is able to write something about it for the club web page.

This Saturday turned out very hot with a northerly wind. Sarah Allen in the Discus (HP) and Peter Robinson in his Nimbus took off just after midday but couldn't get above launch height so they landed after about 10 minutes and waited till about 2.30 to launch again.

Craig Vinall and Peter Paine also took a launch in the Duo Discus: they all climbed to about 9,000 ft and headed off towards Burra. It was a long way between thermals, about 20 km, and averaging 6 knots of lift. At 3:30, out near The Gums at the pumping station, they were down to about 3,000 ft, the sun was looking very low in the sky and they were only getting 1-1.5 knots of lift so they began looking around for a good place to land. However, luck was with them and they eventually found a thermal that turned into 4 knots of lift and they were able to climb to 6,000 ft which gave them enough height for a final glide back to Waikerie.

Steve Drummond visited us from Newport, Vic for a 2 day gliding course. His partner bought it for him for a present. He'd had a flight when they had visited us earlier in the year, was very impressed and wanted to learn to glide.

Also at the club for the weekend were David Lawley and his son Ray who joined the club this weekend. David had a couple of flights on Saturday with Bill Mudge who was the duty instructor, but it was too rough for him to go solo again. Bernie Konopka also flew with Bill for a 36 minute flight whilst Graham Francis flew the Astir 77 (KYS) for just over an hour.

Another new member was Mark O'Meadhra who at present is working in Loxton and very keen to learn to glide.

Sunday turned out very overcast and there was quite a southerly breeze. Steve carried on with his course flying with Mark Newton who was instructor for the day.

In the evening a party arrived from the Flinders University who are here for the week to study one of our local lagoons. We wish them a pleasant stay.

Totals for the weekend were Saturday 18 launches and just over 14 hrs, tug pilot was Rob Pollnitz. Sunday 7 launches and 2.5 hrs, tug pilot was Peter Cassidy.

Ann Woolf - Monday, April 11, 2005 at 10:19:54 (CST)

Gliding News - 26 March 2005

Saturday was the only flying day this weekend: we didn't have enough crew for the other days. Bill Mudge was the instructor with Pete Siddall as tuggy. Pete also stayed over till Sunday but no one showed up.

Flying began about 1130 with a couple of Air Experience flights, then Mark Newton took off in the Discus 2T (SHD) followed by John Mudge in the Hornet (MU). He knew it was up for sale so wanted to try it out before it left the club.

Mark flew for 2 hrs 21 mins and John had 18 minutes then later in the day 23 minutes. He found the Hornet very responsive and pleasant to fly.

Bill took another four people for Air Experience flights during the day, one of them Anthony Fulwood who lives locally; a birthday present from his wife.

Craig Vinall came up to stay with his parents Betty and John for the weekend and flew for just over 1.5 hrs in the Discus (HP).

In the afternoon David Lawley had a couple of instructional flights then went solo in the Twin Astir. David was solo 7 years ago but hadn't flown since. He was a happy man by the end of the day. Well done David.

The Astir 77 (KYS) was flown mid afternoon for 2 hrs 11 mins by Graham Francis. The thermic activity was not very strong as a band of high Cirrus cloud had come over about midday cutting off some of the heating. The thermals were very smooth up to 3,500 ft at 2-4 knots strength. Perfect weather for people experiencing their first flight in a glider or early solo. (Nice for Graham too... ps)

In the early evening David Pietsch - also a local man - gave a very interesting 2 hour talk on the use of oxygen in gliders. David now lives in Canberra but is in Waikerie doing some inspection and repair work on his own glider, an ASW 20 (GZZ).

On Sunday Pete, for something to do whilst waiting for any other club members to turn up, got out the mower and mowed the grass around the clubhouse area. Ann was also at the club from 1100 and showed three lots of interested people around the gliders in the hangar and talked to them about the club and gliding.

On Saturday there were 14 flights, totalling 9 hrs 10 mins of flying time.

Ann Woolf - Monday, March 28, 2005 at 13:51:39 (CST)

Gliding News 20 March 2005

On Friday evening Dave Lawley and John Hudson came up to Waikerie, and on Saturday Graham Francis, Peter Paine and Stuart Skevington were here to go flying.

There was also a visitor from Darling Downs Gliding Club in Qld, Brett Kettle. He had come to try out our Hornet (MU) which is for sale. I think he was quite impressed with it after his 1.2 hour flight.

Stuart had a couple of short flights in the Astir CS (WUN) whilst Peter had just under 3 hours in the Astir 77 (KYS) flying to Banrock Station, Blanchetown and half way to Maggea then back to Waikerie, a distance of about 90 kms. The thermal strengths were an average of 2-3 knots with a few at 4 knots and he managed to climb to 6,000 ft a few times.

Dave Lawley spent the morning mending our very ancient photo copier and now it works a treat. Graham has already checked it out. Later on Dave went for a couple of instructional flights with John after which Graham also had a flight with John in the Twin Astir.

Just after the gliders had been pulled out of the hangar we had a visit from Peter Hynes, his wife June Ruigrok and daughter Clara. They are from Dublin, Ireland and are touring round Australia calling in on friends. Peter is a glider pilot too, so after his daughter had a flight with John in the Twin Astir, Peter also went for a flight with John and so did June to see what our lovely countryside was like.

Mid afternoon a party arrived from Monash with Eija Haaja blindfolded and in her pyjamas. It was her 50th birthday and family and friends had told her she was going to a pyjama party. Two of them had even come in pyjamas themselves. She had no idea when she arrived on the airfield where she was but Peter Cassidy, our duty tuggy, had the tug running so she guessed when she heard the tug engine. Off she went for a flight with John in the Twin Astir.

There were 13 flights for the day and a total of 6.7 hours.

In the evening there was a BBQ then John gave a lecture on Altimetry and explained why the altimeter in the glider should be set to the air pressure of the day (QNH) and not to zero (QFE) to enable everyone in the air to be talking to each other about their vertical position using the same datum point.

There was no flying on Sunday as we had no instructor, although John stayed overnight as the tug pilot, but no one turned up, so he managed to get some odd jobs done around the club.
Ann Woolf - Sunday, March 20, 2005 at 21:57:38 (CST)

Gliding News, 13 March 2005

The weather for the weekend looked promising with very light southerly winds and from 2.00 pm the thermals were forecast to go up to 10,000, with thermal strengths moderate until early evening.

Grant Hudson and Sarah Allen drove up from Adelaide for the day. Grant flew his Pik 20D (WVC) Cadell - Maggea - Blanchetown - Waikerie for a total of 170 kms in 2.7 hrs, and Sarah flew the Discus Turbo (SHD) Blanchetown - Alawoona - Notts Well - Waikerie, 244 kms in just under 3 hrs.

The thermals began as forecast and Sarah reached a height of 10,000 ft in lift averaging 5-6 knots, her strongest climb being over 10 knots. Grant reached 8,500 ft on his flights with about the same strength of thermals. Unfortunately neither of them could get into the wave which was all over the sky later on - it was too high.

Bill had a quiet day as duty instructor for a change and did some instruction with his son Andrew. John Mudge flew for 30 minutes in the Astir 77 (KYS). The duty tug pilot was Rob Pollnitz.

Sunday gave us a very disappointing day, even though it was hot. Peter Paine and John Mudge arrived in the morning and our new member - although he had been a member here in earlier years - David Lawley had arrived on Saturday with his son. Peter began his day by mowing part of the lawns round the clubhouse then flew KYS for 28 minutes. Thanks Peter.

Nigel Baker, the duty instructor, arrived with his sons, Aiden and Dion followed by our tuggy, Ben Ragg who flew in from Adelaide.

David Lawley had three instructional flights with Nigel. Aiden had a couple of flights in the Astir CS (WUN). He only managed 15 minutes on his first flight, but later in the day, at just before 4.00 pm, he launched and managed 26 minutes struggling around a weak thermal of about 1.5 knots strength.

The Discus (HP) was also flying with Jade Palmer taking it up just after Aiden in the evening for a short flight of 19 minutes whilst earlier Graham Francis had a short flight in KYS.

On Saturday there were 4 launches for just under 6.5 hours and on Sunday there were 8 launches for 2 hrs 11 minutes.
Ann Woolf - Sunday, March 13, 2005 at 22:04:00 (CST)

Nigel and Bernard's big day out

Touring around in a Motor Glider is a lot of fun, and it really is little different to power flying. However it's done under the G.F.A. requirements in the way of endorsements and ratings. It involves mixing in the sky with licensed Power Pilots, in the airspace they frequent much more than Glider Pilots do. Many of the Airports we go in to when touring are licenced and have regular passenger transport services - therefore you really need to know what it is all about when going in to these locations. The G.F.A. M.O.S.P. states that the Glider Pilot should be trained to the standard of P.P.L. in order to conduct such operations.

Considering that Dion and I will be flying in to Avalon for the air show this month I decided it was time to sharpen my skills and also get some experience in controlled air space.

Here Bernard Le Riche enters the story.

Bernard is the son of some old gliding friends (Peter and Pam Le Riche) from my days at the Scout Flying Club where I learnt to fly and eventually became a level 2 instructor. He also has his Commercial Pilots licence. Last Friday morning I had a very early start to my day meeting him at Parafield at 6.30 am. (Yes, I was up that early.) We took off shortly after in a C172. The objective was for me to listen to all the radio traffic and observe how it is done as we flew around in Adelaide Controlled Airspace. The fact that the flight was also the morning traffic watch and the radio announcer for 5AA traffic report was in the back is irrelevant. We landed in time for me to get to work and open the shop. All in all a very pleasant way to start the day in clear skies and smooth air. Bernard was very instructive and I found the experience worthwhile and am going to do it again next week.

Bernard also wants to take up gliding to sharpen his skills and broaden his horizons as well as start towing once he has a Tail Dragger endorsement. Of course there is a mutually beneficial situation arising here.

Thus Tuesday morning we read the met for the day and took off from Waikerie for a day's fun and mutually beneficial training: Bernard getting used to using his feet to be able to fly in a straight line, and myself getting tuition in controlled airspace in the Dimona.

We went in to Parafield (Bernard had already alerted his mates in the tower the day before of our activities for the day and to expect a dummy like me flying around) for a loo break and leg stretch and planned our next exercise. Bernard then ran me through procedures to get clearance to track Parafield for Hunt Field (previously known as Old Noarlunga and where my mate Ivor Paech has his aircraft and work shop) and this is a bit like learning lines in the script of a play only if you mess it up the audience talks back.

I called the Tower and requested clearance where upon they came back with a track via Port Adelaide, Adelaide then Hunt Field and a Squawk code (squawk code is Tech speak for the number you put in the transponder to get a corresponding code for identification on the radar screen) and report at 2,500 feet. We took off and were soon handed over to Adelaide Approach who asked if we were Mode Charlie equipped.

As there were only Bernard and I on board and no bloke called Charlie present we had obviously not switched the transponder to mode C (emits altitude reading to radar). My first mistake, and Bernard was not familiar with the Microair unit but this was soon resolved and then to make sure it was us, they then asked for Squawk Ident. (Pilot tech speak for pressing the button that emits a single extra code on the next pass of the radar to indicate it is you they have on the screen).

After turning Port Adelaide I headed for Adelaide International lining up on the intersections of the 2 strips as we had done on the traffic watch flight. Bernard then comments Adelaide is that way (pointing to the City).

My response was don't they mean Adelaide International as that is on route and overhead we won't be in a traffic lane. Of course with all the traffic watch flying he has been using City as Adelaide so a quick Query with Adelaide Approach and the confusion is fixed and we are on our way to overhead Adelaide International. Bernard graciously brought a camera and took some pics over the Instrument Panel of N.H.B. for posterity.

I was surprised at how many landing options I had during this trip around Adelaide and at NO time felt uncomfortable about the possibility of engine failure.

On approach to Old Noarlunga we were cleared to descend and as we did we watched the trough predicted in the met approach the coast with a bit of gusto.

The met showed a wind increase of 5 knots so were expecting it to be mild.

The result was that as we descended out of Controlled Air Space we were immediately pushed back up in to it and brakes were needed to get us back on a descent. This was educational for Bernard who was amazed by this phenomenon and surprised by an aircraft going up at 500ft per minute with the engine idling.

Overhead the field looking at the windsock the wind was clearly not as predicted and was at 45deg or more cross wind. We could see Ivor outside the hanger watching us so I gave him a call on the mobile and he advised 20kts and gusting more. He also advised wind shear risk for this location and suggested Aldinga as an alternate.

We decided to go to Aldinga and sit around watching the conditions for a bit. On arrival the strip was more in to wind as Ivor suggested and less chance of wind shear so in we went. With about a 45 minute stay the wind had not abated (although it was a worthwhile visit with Bernard getting wind of some additional flying work he might like) so we headed back to Parafield.

Again we went through the pilot tech speak for clearance and headed back to Parafield via the coast at 2,500ft and across the western approach for Adelaide International with Bernard once again getting a nice photo looking along runway 05.

We tracked coastal to Outer Harbour and then in to Parafield for more practice on my part and then planned our trip back to Waikerie. At Parafield the wind was about 15 knots and gusting to 20 and we figured on a fast trip home.

After departing Parafield we climbed to 5,500ft enroute and achieved a ground speed of 112kt so it was a quick trip as expected. After crossing the ranges and out on the flats coming in to Blanchetown we could see the enormous dust cloud (over 6000 feet) produced by the trough and were surprised by the extent of it. 10 miles out we discussed the conditions and agreed we had VMC and in fact could pick out the aerodrome from about 5 miles.

We were in a glide approach and looking at the windsock considered waiting in the hope of things improving both visually and in wind strength.

After some minutes of assessment it seemed things were getting worse and although we had 45 minutes reserve fuel left, where were we to go to get out of it? The decision was made to continue in to circuit which proved interesting as the horizontal visibility got noticeably worse the lower we got and picking the strip was not easy as Bernard found being unfamiliar with the area.

An interesting and challenging landing ensued and after rolling to a halt from our 10knt ground speed approach. Bernard held the brakes out while I started the engine and we taxied cross country direct from 20 to the hangar, so as to not put the aircraft at 90deg to the wind in order to keep control. The Dimona clearly wanted to fly as we SLOWLY worked our way back to the hangar.

Parking in front of the Hanger and securing the aircraft we contemplated our next move when Mark Morgan came to the rescue holding the wing while we opened the doors and he gave us a hand to put it to bed.

All in all a pleasant day (although challenging at times) and very rewarding for me in gaining more experience with airspace procedures. I look forward to my next traffic watch with Bernard in the 172.

There is a night set for the subject of Airspace coming up soon, hosted by John Hudson, and I recommend attending and gaining more understanding on the matter. We are all going to have to get more awareness of the requirements if as a movement we want to keep the freedoms that the G.F.A. provides us with now.
Nigel Baker - Saturday, March 05, 2005 at 12:42:56 (CST)

Gliding news 27 Feb 2005

This weekend began with a 10 knot southerly and high Cirrus cloud. We were joined on Saturday by an instructor from the Blanchetown gliding club, Colin Turner, who brought along a couple of his pupils, Lyn Gray and Josh Larby. After a check flight with the duty instructor, Bill Mudge, Colin took his pupils for three instructional flights each during the day. Colin is also a member of the Waikerie gliding club.

Two of the single seaters were flying today but without much success. James Doman took off about midday in the Discus Turbo but only managed 18 minutes. When Peter Robinson took off an hour later in his Nimbus 2 (IUS) he found the thermals stronger, between 3-4 knots and managed to climb to 4,800 ft, the forecast for the day having been 5,000 ft, and spent the 3 hours he was airborne flying between Maggea and Waikerie a few times doing some practice for future longer flights. Peter had obviously taken in what was forecast and used the forecast thermic activity of 3-4 hours to the best advantage.

Bill took his turn in the Twin Astir between Colin�s flights and flew with Anthony Jones from Waikerie who came to redeem his gift voucher for an Air Experience flight. Andrew Mudge then continued his training in the Twin Astir.

Sunday looked much more promising but the thermals only went up to 4,000 ft occasionally with thermal strengths of 2-3 and sometimes 4 knots. Stuart Skevington flew for an hour in the Astir 77 (KYS) and Nigel took his son Dion for four instructional flights in the Twin Astir. The last three flights being very short to practice emergencies, circuits and landings. Greg Jackson was the tug pilot for both days.

Saturday there were 12 launches for just over 7 hours of flying and on Sunday only 5 launches for 1.7 hours.
Ann Woolf - Saturday, March 05, 2005 at 12:32:38 (CST)

Gliding News 15 Feb 2005

With Gavin and Ben gone, we will be back to only weekend operations from Mon 21st February. Thank you both for all your help - it was a real pleasure to have you here. We're back to weekend operations now - information will be on our website (calendar page) - if we have a tuggy and an instructor we will be flying.

On Friday afternoon Graham Francis brought Susumu Sawai and his wife Katsuko up to the club again from Adelaide. Susumu carried on with his instruction with John Hudson on the Saturday and Nigel Baker on the Sunday. As he felt too tired to take his last flight on Sunday, Katsuko took a flight with Nigel and saw Waikerie from the air.

Friday evening there was a committee meeting so Craig Vinall and Peter Page were at the club on the Saturday catching up on computer work in the office. Greg Jackson was our tuggy for Saturday and Pete Siddal did the honours on Sunday.

Michael and Joanne McCulkin joined us for the weekend. Joanne had booked Michael for a 2 day course of instruction for his birthday. They had driven down from Broken Hill where they run Tri State Safaris, outback tours. Michael was so pleased with flying, although he found it quite a lot to take in at first, that he has decided to become a member. He hopes to find the time to come down to Waikerie for more training and eventually go solo and on to cross country flying.

John Hudson, duty instructor on Saturday, gave Aiden Baker a check flight in the Twin Astir before he once again went off for a solo which he managed well, considering the wind was near 20 knots.

Also on Saturday Anthony and Nicole, who look after the Waikerie caravan park, turned up with some friends. One of them was Paul Sandy who had an enjoyable flight with John in the Twin Astir.

Sunday was a lovely day to be on the airfield; not much wind and a blue sky. Michael progressed well with his instruction with Nigel, and had a flight in the Dimona. Dion Baker also had three instructional flights.

Three single seaters flew. Greg Jackson flew for 36 minutes in the Discus turbo (SHD), Bernie Konopka had a couple of flights in the Astir (WUN) of 21 and 51 minutes, and Peter Paine took the other Astir (KYS) for a couple of flights for 21 minutes and 1 hour 53 minutes, but the thermals were not going much above launch height. For Pete's second flight, taking off just after 3.00 pm, the thermals had gained some strength so he was able to stay up longer.

Up until Pete's flight, Aiden had had the longest flight for the day (29 minutes) in an Astir (WUN). This was his second flight in a single seater. His first was earlier in the day - well done Aiden! Another single seater pilot.

Flying on Saturday totalled 11 launches and 3 hours 20 minutes, whilst on Sunday we flew 21 launches and 6 hours 53 minutes.
Ann Woolf - Monday, February 21, 2005 at 19:50:24 (CST)

It was just another one of those days!!

(Tue 8th Feb 2005) Arriving back at the field after lunch I was looking at the sky, like most days. The sky looked a bit unusual. I remember looking at the weather info that morning and making comments to some of the pilots of some interesting possibilities.

One of my mates, Yugi Higuchi was standing outside the clubhouse looking skyward too as he was packed and ready to leave for home (Japan) early the next morning.

I sidled up to him and mentioned that maybe we should take that ride in the Duo Discus he had been talking about a few days earlier. I didn't have to ask him twice, even though he had to unpack some to get to his flying gear.

The wind direction was from 190 to 200 with a few CU's. They were not lined up in any particular fashion. The weather info said strong wind starting at 190 on the ground and rounding to 300 at 35kts by 10,000 feet - Thermal Wave conditions!!!

After a briefing on the bits in the cockpit for Yugi, Ben launched us into wind. Yugi thought about getting off at 1,200 feet in a good gust but did stay on until 1,600. The first climb was rough and gusty as we expected.

The interesting part though was the lift was well out on the north western side of the cloud but we had a south westerly on the ground!
There must be a good westerly influence at inversion level.

Cloudbase was about 4,500 at that time and we headed off south looking at the better shaped and size clouds. About Maggea, Yugi was looking to get a climb out in the blue in a new thermal so we could try the transition into thermal shear that was indicated.

Trying, trying, trying to get that last 200 feet so we that we were positioned in the inversion layer, then finally it looked OK for a try out into the new windward direction being westerly.

2kts, 3kts, this looks OK!!, 4 kts but turbulent (take a couple of turns here), now keep going, then smooth at 2kts, this is it!!, turn right!

The inversion had been rising quickly and about 45 min after our first climb, cloudbase was just over 6,000 feet. It was a bit hard to discern what was actually base as different sized clouds had different base heights. Contact was made at 6,500 and the really interesting part of it was how far out into wind from the cloud we were to actually contact the lift.

As we climbed through 7,500 it was necessary to move over to a new cloud. The life cycle of the thermals was quite fast and as the thermal died so did the thermal wave above it because there was no longer a bump in the upper layer created by the rising air of the thermal.

We could see below us another glider SHD, flown by Mr. Nishizato, trying to make the jump into the thermal wave as we did. Unfortunately for him he could not make the transition. I did find out later that he was still carrying ballast. This probably made him too heavy to climb in the last bit of weaker lift you had to use to make the step out into the thermal wave.

What was also very interesting was the positioning of the lift varied greatly from right above the cloud to half a km or so out in front of the cloud. It seemed the position of the cloud to the west had a significant influence on the thermal wave of the cloud we were using.
The size and shape of the cloud, especially its depth had influence on the position and the strength of the wave. Sometimes it was as little as 0.5 kt or the best got to 4 kts for a short time.

The best height we achieved was 8,000 feet and that seemed to be the best you could do given the strength of the wave and the life cycle of the clouds below.

As we jumped form cloud to cloud it we noted how important it was to choose the jump at the right time so you could make best use of the stronger part of the next lift cycle. The deeper the cloud the better and higher the lift went but if you picked the cloud too late, by the time you got there it was already starting to cycle down.

The strongest sink we encountered was a little better than 10 kts so it was necessary on one occasion to make the jump again from under the cloud out into the thermal wave. Normally the transition into thermal wave is relatively easy, this was not the case today!

In all we spent 3 hours above cloud in some very interesting and very beautiful visual surrounds. I can say it was just another one of those days when, "you should have been there"!!!

Here's to looking down at you - Mark
Mark Morgan - Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 21:37:58 (CST)

Gliding News, 15 Feb 2005

Monday was expected to be a good day: it usually is when everyone has gone back to work. Gavin declared a 750 km flight in the Discus (HP) to near Mildura, then south west across the sunset country to Lameroo, back to Mildura and home to Waikerie. Horii declared a 500 km flight to Lake Cullulleraine - Morgan - Alawoona - Waikerie in the Discus turbo (SHD). However, neither of these flights came about because the weather didn't produce the strength of thermals - only about 4-5 knots strength - and neither of them could get much above 3,000 ft except for one thermal which Horii found which was 8 knots on average, 10 knots at the best and he got to 4,000 ft in that one.

They took off just after midday and within 25 minutes Gavin had landed in a paddock to the east of the airfield. Ben Ragg went out on his first paddock retrieve. Gavin 'gathered his druthers', relaunched and went on to Morgan and back for a flight of 1.5 hours.

Horii reached Lake Cullulleraine fairly easily with a tail wind but as he turned back he found it very hard work and finally, after an exhausting 5 hour flight, landed at Renmark airfield - Ben went out again in the tug to bring him back.

Another couple of club members turned up for a day's gliding also expecting it to be better than it was. John Mudge flew for an hour locally in the Astir (WUN) and Grant Hudson flew in his Pik 20 for a couple of hours but also found it a very difficult day.

Gavin and Horii had planned to fly in the Duo Discus on Tuesday for some coaching in cross country, but once again the weather was disappointing as it was overcast all day, so Horii went off for a tourist trip to Banrock Station whilst Ben and Gavin cleared up some loose ends at the club ready for their departure on Wednesday.

There is a committee meeting this weekend, so hopefully the weather will be good and some members will be flying.
Ann Woolf - Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 19:25:08 (CST)

Gliding news 11 Feb 2005

Friday morning saw the departure of Yoshiaki and and his daughter Yaek. Lisa also set off early with her LS8 in tow having spent the night camping at the gliding club. There were two air experience flights booked but by 1100 they had rung to cancel and another turned up as they were passing by, so Gavin flew Merilee Reynolds in the Twin Astir; that was then put back in the hangar and he took a launch in the Hornet (MU) after lunch when a leak in the water ballast system had been fixed. Timo in HP and Torii in SHD launched just before 1230 but after his long flight the day before, Timo was rather tired and the conditions were fairly difficult, so he came down after 1.7 hours. Gavin also landed put the Hornet back in the hangar then took off in the Discus for just under 2 hours. The Discus turbo was also flown for about 4 hours by Toshihide Horii.

In the evening a G164 Grumman Agcat 450 belonging to Aerocare in Griffiths, NSW flew in from WA to refuel and parked overnight. Rob Robilliard was the pilot and his engineer was following him by car. They left half an hour after dawn the Saturday morning after 20 minutes warming up the large Pratt & Whitney engine.
Ann Woolf - Wednesday, February 16, 2005 at 15:31:52 (CST)

Australian Gliding magazines on CD

I have now scanned in all the Australian Gliding Magazines from 1951 - 1973 and hope to have 1974 finished by the end of the month. This will complete the first 4 CDs of this project. 1951-1961, 1962-1966, 1967-1970 and 1971-1974 plus the indexes to all the AGs up to 1997 when they were then changed to A4 size. They will be for sale at $20.00 Australian per CD.

Ann Woolf - Saturday, February 12, 2005 at 21:07:03 (CST)

Gliding News 11 Feb 2005

The weather turned out good on Tuesday (8 Feb 2005) after a slow start. Yoshiaki Nishizato took his daughter Yaeko for a flight in the Twin Astir and soared for 42 minutes.

During this time Yuji Higuchi derigged his ASW 22 with the help of Mark Morgan and a few others. It is stored in the trailer at the back of the hangar for the winter: Yuji leaves for Japan tomorrow with Shigeru Yashimoto.

Timo had the best day since arriving here with a 5 hour flight to Swan Reach - Alawoona - Loxton, back to Waikerie then 50 kms south and back again a total of 375 kms. His maximum height was 6,200 ft and his best climb was 9.9 knots for just over two turns. The rest of the time he was only getting between 4-5 knots climb.

The conditions increased rapidly as the day went on. Mark flew with Yuji in the Duo Discus around the vicinity of Maggea for most of their four hour flight, finding a good thermal street, getting to 9,000 ft and managing to get up above the clouds. They used thermal wave, caused by changes of wind direction at different heights. Even at the end of the day cloudbase was 7,000 ft.

The following day Gavin and Paul Dear had 4 flights in the morning practicing his landings, but when the rain came about midday the Twin went back in the hangar. This was Paul's last day but he will try to get back for some more tuition soon on a weekend.

The good day came on Thursday - at least for Timo. He flew his longest time in time and distance: 6.5 hours and a distance of 500 kms. His task was Peebinga - Waikerie - Yambaro - Waikerie - Blanchetown - Swan Reach and back again to Waikerie. Conditions looked better there than further east. This was borne out by Yoshiaki's flight in the Discus Turbo (SHD).

On the way to Yambaro Timo had a couple of climbs of over 8 knots to 5,000 ft. He cut his flight a bit short at Swan Reach and did not go round the turn because the sea breeze had begun to arrive, so he set off for home flying just behind the front as he turned for home too late. He got very low to only 1,600 ft at one stage, so he dumped all his water and struggled on home to Waikerie to be met by Lisa, the owner of the glider, who had arrived not long before his arrival.

Yoshiaki had declared a task of approximately 500 kms to Nangiloc shed (just south of Mildura) - The Gums homestead - Meribah Silo - Waikerie but he found the conditions on the way to Renmark not too good and only managed to climb to 3,000 ft so he went east to Pirlta silo and turned for home. His highest point was 5,000 ft later in the day. Horii flew for 4.5 hours in the Discus Turbo (SHD) but he hasn't told me where he flew.

Once Timo, Yoshiaki and Toshihide Horii had launched, Gavin and Ben Ragg went flying in the Dimona to get some practice in it.
Ann Woolf - Saturday, February 12, 2005 at 21:05:57 (CST)

Gliding News 6 Feb 2005

The plan for Monday (31 Jan 2005) was for the Japanese solo pilots to do a 100 km task as many times as they could, to get some practice in for the better days.

Yoshi Nishizato flew about 120 km. From Waikerie to Wunkar he had a very good thermal street taking him up to a maximum of 6,000 ft with the wind from 280 degrees, which was a tail wind, he sped along this street at 80 knots for most of the time. His average rate of climb was 6-8 knots with some up to 10 knots. However, 8 kms before Ittledoo he came to a bad sink area and struggled along until at Ittledoo he managed to find a good thermal which took him to 6,000 ft again and so back to Waikerie.

Timo also had a very interesting flight in Lisa's LS8. Again the tail wind sped him south to Alawoona (75.6 km) in 45 minutes with heights over 5,000 ft then he hit a large area of sink at Alawoona which took him down to 2,000 ft and he couldn't gain very much height for ages. On the way back to Waikerie he struggled along into wind between 2,500 and 3,400 ft passing through 8.4 knots average of sink and finally finding 1.5 knots lift to struggle away again. The last 25 kms to Waikerie was very easy after that but it had taken him 2.2 hours from Alawoona.

We had one outlanding at 1800 hrs 8 km east of Waikerie - Takaaki Isono in the Discus (HP).

Gavin spent the day in the Twin Astir with Yoshi (Shigeru Yoshimoto) and the highlight of the day was when they had a 50 minute flight with no instruction from Gavin. Progress has been made.

Tuesday there were some local flights early in the day but the cold front came in with strong winds and a rapid drop in temperature, so by 2.00pm, after only eight launches and just over 5 hours flying, everything was in the hangar. On Wednesday freezing level was 5,000 ft and we actually got some hail for a few minutes about 1100 am.

Graham Francis drove up from Adelaide on Tuesday bringing Susumu Sawai and his wife Katsuko to the gliding club for four days of instruction. Susumu had been up to Waikerie last winter and had a very memorable flight with John Hudson soaring up to 5,000 ft. Unfortunately the weather so far hasn't been too good so he is staying on a day or so longer than planned in the hopes that he can get in some more flying if the weather improves.

For the rest of the week there was no flying until Friday apart from one launch on Wednesday when it was decided that the wind was getting too strong so all was put away again. On Friday Gavin managed to squeeze in six instructional launches, four with Sasumu Sawai and two with Yoshi for circuit and landing practice making a total of 1 hr 49 mins.

John & Bronwyn Blyth left us on Friday morning to stay with Craig Vinall overnight in Adelaide then on to Carnarvon, WA the next day. On Saturday morning Noboru Akaya, Takaaki Isono and Shun Iseki left us, which meant the rest of the Japanese were left without their cook as Shun had been their chef during his stay at Waikerie.

The weekend offered better flying than the week had. Peter Cassidy was our duty tug pilot on Saturday with Gavin still instructing. Yuji in the ASW 22 flew south to Wunkar where he found the thermals were broken and only 2-3 knots whereas he had 6-8 knots earlier to 4,500 ft. He came back to Waikerie and on to Galga, Alawoona and back to Waikerie a distance of about 250 kms. By mid afternoon the clouds had disappeared but the thermals were still streeting at 4-6 knots.

Timo took the LS8 to Pelican Point - Loxton - Morgan and back to Waikerie. A distance of over 250 kms. At Loxton he found the conditions were very good and climbed to 4,200 ft with an average of 4 knots but he had a great struggle to get out of Morgan and back home. Yoshi Nishizato flew to near Sandalwood, then Alawoona and back home a distance of about 210 kms.

Sunday there was practically no wind with a blue sky. Nigel Baker was our duty instructor with Pete Siddall as the tuggy. Nigel and Gavin did some checks in the Dimona which now means that Gavin is able to fly the Dimona in the week and do outlanding tuition and other instruction in it. Nigel then flew in the Twin Astir to give Susumu Sawai a flight before he and his wife Katsuko left on the midday bus for Adelaide.

On Saturday Toshihide Horii arrived and, chatting round the table that evening, we were told he is called Horii the Great and that he is a professional wrestler. I'm not sure how true this is, as he told me he was a surveyor. He had a check flight with Nigel on Sunday morning. The rest of the day was instruction for Yoshi trying to improve his landings and five air experience flights, as well as some flights with his sons. He sent Aiden for two solo flights just after 1500. Well done Aiden.

Peter Robinson and Sara Allan came up from Adelaide on Saturday and flew on Sunday in the Duo Discus. David Conway flew his Ventus and Jade Palmer flew the Astir (WUN) hoping to do her 50 kms but it was not to be. Yoshiaki Nishizato's planned 750 km didn't happen.

Sunday's weather did not turn out as forecast. There was a blue sky all day but thermals were very weak and no one got much above 2,500 ft except for Timo, who after struggling for 3 hours between 1,200 and 2,700 ft with 2 knot thermals, he managed to get 4 knots up to 4,000 ft. Gavin flying the Hornet (MU) found only 1.7 knots average. They look forward to Monday which should be better - it usually is when everyone has gone back to work.
Ann Woolf - Monday, February 07, 2005 at 18:38:09 (CST)

Gliding News 30 Jan 2005

Monday was a day for us all to get back to normal again after the competitions. Gavin Wrigley was back instructing and they began launching to the south, but later in the day they had to change to the east. It was also a day for check flights for our two latest Japanese arrivals.

Tuesday started off with a great deal of high cloud covering the sun and the temperature dropping, but about an hour later it had gone away and the temperatures soared to the high 30s.

Jeremy Thompson and Joseph Walsh continued their tuition with Gavin while the solo pilots went off to enjoy over 10 knot thermals to cloudbase at 10,5000 ft.

Eiji Komija had an hour in the Discus (HP) whilst Yuji Higuchi had his first flight in the ASW 28 (Z2), just over 3 hours. He told me he had a most enjoyable flight. After that John Blyth, who had flown home with Bernard Eckey in the ASH 25 on Monday for some extra coaching, arrived back on the afternoon bus from Adelaide. John then took off for hist first flight in the ASW 28.

David Conway drove to Waikerie from Mount Barker in the morning and set off just after midday in his Ventus b (QH) for an attempt at a 750 km flight. He arrived back about 7.45 pm having completed his flight at a speed of approximately 100 kph. His route was Loxton - Carwarp - Morgan - Lake Cullulleraine and back to Waikerie. There were a few storms around Morgan which he dodged, then while over the scrub near Lake Cullulleraine he got very low and thought he might have to land. However, he managed to find a fairly decent thermal and climbed up to 9,000 ft again and cruised home topping up his height on the way back, finishing off with a few light aerobatics over the airfield to the delight of those waiting for him outside the clubhouse.

The following day Yuji had an exciting flight which took him 5.5 hrs flying the brand new ASW28-18E! He had filled the wings with 100 litres of water to give him more penetration through the air on his glides. The task he set was Waikerie - Lake Cullulleraine - 40km south of Murrayville - Morgan - 60km north of lake Bonney and back home to Waikerie, a distance of about 620km

The cloud base on his first leg of the flight was 8,200ft, then it rose to 9,500-10,300ft on the second leg whilst 3rd and 4th leg as the day progressed was 9,500ft. The thermals were broken at 6-8kts in strength but 10kts just below cloud base.

The conditions were pre-frontal with a tropical atmosphere. The wind on the ground were 040 deg at 15kts, upper winds at 7,000ft were 340 deg at 10-15kts. Break through was around 12:00 at 37 C. Dew point 13.2 C at Renmark

Ron Brock with his new LS4 (NM), Mark Morgan with his ASW19 (WL) and Eiji Komiya with the Discus (HP) were all flying in almost the same area. Eiji flew 450 kms. Hopefully we will have a story from Mark for the website later on in the week.

During the day Shun Iseki and Shigeru Yoshimoto arrived at the airfield and on Thursday Timo Korvenp�� arrived from Finland to fly Lisa Trotter's LS8 which was left at Waikerie for him after the competitions.

Josh Walsh was sent on his first solo flight in the Twin Astir on Wednesday and his son Jeremy Thompson went solo at the end of the day on Friday. Well done both of you. Unfortunately we had no instructor for Sunday and with the Saturday weather not looking too good, they set off on the long drive home to Sydney on Saturday morning, hoping to be back again next year.

John Blyth flew the ASW28-18E on Thursday for 250 km with a final glide all the way from Renmark. John Mudge also came flying and had a good 1.5 hour flight in the Astir (KYS) soaring to 4,000 ft.

Early Friday morning, about 0745, we were all surprised to see this tremendous roll cloud approaching from the west. I drove out to the far end of the airfield and took some photos of it before it overtook me whilst others took photos from the hangar area. Some of the photos can be seen on our website. A few people have seen this before, but it doesn't happen very often and is similar to the Morning Glory which happens at the Gulf of Carpentaria.

We had four new arrivals on Friday evening: Yoshiaki Nishizato and his daughter Yaeko, Nobu Akaya and Takaaki Isono.

On Saturday Bill Mudge had four check rides to do with our new arrivals, a couple of air experience flights in the afternoon then the rest of the day spent instructing Shigeru Yoshimoto. Stuart Skevington came up for the day from Adelaide to fly the Astir and some of the Japanese pilots flew later on in the afternoon after their checks. The frontal cloud cleared by about 3.00 pm and the maximum height reached was 4,200 ft by Shun Iseki which was what John Blyth had forecast at briefing that morning.

The Sunday forecast looked good and all the gliders were being flown. Terry Cubley came up from Adelaide to fly a friend in the Duo Discus. Bernie Konopka arrived about 11.00 and got the Astir (KYS) out of the hangar. Looking at the forecast Ann suggested he try for his 5 hours and maybe a height as it was supposed to go to 6,500 ft between 2.00 and 6.00. After smoking the barograph he took it to the launch point and took off.

Unfortunately the weather was not as good as forecast. No one was able to get much above 3,000 ft and the furthest anyone went was Terry for about 25 kms so nothing much was achieved but it has certainly given Bernie something to think about and aim for. The weather looks good for the next 2 days - such is life!
Ann Woolf - Sunday, January 30, 2005 at 23:20:30 (CST)

ASW28 Delights

Last Tuesday I returned from Adelaide from a most enjoyable and instructional flight to Balaclava with Bernard Eckey in his superb ASH25. I was delighted to find that Higuchi-san had finished with the Factory Demonstrator ASW28 for the day. As there seemed to be plenty of life left in the sky, I didn't need any encouragement to make my self comfortable in the well laid out cockpit, belt my self in, and rocket skywards behind WGC.

A comfortable release height soon saw me established in a good thermal to 7,000, so I did a couple of engine starts to familiarise myself with the super easy engine controls of the 28. Just advance the lever one indent - up comes the engine. As the lever is then advanced further, the fuel tap is automatically turned on, and with the lever now all the way forward in the decompression setting, the propeller is soon whirring around. Then it is just a matter of bring the control lever back one indent and the engine soon roars into life for climb at 48knots.

Shutdown is just as easy. Move the lever back one notch to turn off the engine, and slow to 48knots. The propeller soon slows down to a standstill, and then another notch further back to engage the propeller brake. A gentle acceleration moves the prop onto the brake, then back again with the control lever, and all is stowed away with a clunk. By the second practise, I was up and running in less than 300 ft, and tucked away again in even less.

It was one of those magic afternoons, plunging along at 90+ knots below the Cu to Knott's Well, back to Waikerie, then Kingston Winery was beckoning off to the east in the sunshine. No Cu's there, but plenty of height for an easy final glide and a couple of gentle Chandelles for good measure.

By Thursday, I was itching to get into the 28 again, but my launch at 1400 into poor conditions saw me scratching around the airfield. I popped out the engine at 1700 and searched around for a thermal south of the airfield, then it was a slow climb to 3,300ft, when, with the courage of an engine behind me I departed eastwards. The occasional Cu beckoned, but climbs were rarely above 4 knots. Peebinga did appear in a little over an hour an a bit, so I was quite a happy chappie, but upon turning northwards toward Lindsay River, there was little life in the sky to the west, and things looked very dark over Waikerie. Changing my glasses to the non-dark ones did brighten the western horizon, but the way home looked dubious.

In the end I made a remarkably wise decision to head north to contact the Cu's 60 kilometres to the north. Arriving somewhat low, I climbed at 6-7 knots to cloud base at 8000, and felt quite pleased with my self! A few bolts of lightning near by, brought me back to reality, but I was able to skirt the rain and finally departed the cloud at Remark for a slow and very smooth long final glide. My Garmin 76S GPS descent graph gave me a marginal final glide speed of 55 knots, but once Woolpunda Tower slid by it was up to 90 knots or more.

It was only a 250km flight, but it was one of those memorable ones flown in a superb glider, in some better than expected conditions, and followed by a soothing ale in the bar afterwards to regale all in listening range of my delight and imagined prowess.
John Blyth - Sunday, January 30, 2005 at 10:36:58 (CST)

A roll cloud passed over the airfield on Friday morning - there's speculation that it's formed the same way as the Morning Glory at Burketown. Apparently these have been seen at Waikerie on 3 or 4 occasions.

Nigel Baker writes: "The Glory is not unique to the Gulf but [that] is the only location in the world where it happens regularly and to some extent predictably. That it should happen in Waikerie is not completely surprising given we get a sea breeze, so the geography is such that it could happen when conditions are right."

The photos were taken by Ann Woolf at 7.45 on Friday 28 Jan 2005.
Pete S - Saturday, January 29, 2005 at 16:36:13 (CST)

Gliding News, 23 Jan 2005

A very successful and safe gliding competition finished on Friday with a farewell dinner and prizegiving in the evening at the Gliding Club. Although there were only 6 flying days out of a possible 10 because of the inclement weather the pilots were pleased with what they did get. All the results are on the Waikerie Gliding club web site as well as many photos.

On Saturday club members spent the day cleaning and tidying up whilst a few of the pilots went flying. There were sixteen launches that day nearly all solo flights. Bernard Eckey took Peter Paine up in the ASH 25 for a training trip around Loxton and other places south of Waikerie, whilst Bill Mudge flew a passenger for an Air Experience flight.

We are back to normal operations again which means flying through the week until possibly the end of February. This Sunday Joshua Walsh and Jeremy Thompson arrived from Sydney for a week of training and hope to go solo before they leave us. Their instruction was with John Hudson with John Blyth flying the tug. John�s wife Bronwyn accompanied him to Waikerie again this year from Carnarvon in WA.

Two more Japanese visitors have arrived to spend some time with us. Yugi Higuchi and Eiji Komiya. They are both regular visitors to Waikerie in the summer months.

Gavin Wrigley arrived back in Waikerie on Sunday evening to begin instructing on Monday. Welcome back Gavin.

On Sunday Peter Paine flew the Astir (KYS) to Loxton wheat bunkers and back getting very low at one point, only 1200 ft, and it took him half an hour to regain enough height to continue the flight. Peter now has his height, distance and 5 hour flights and, subject to his turn point photos of Loxton being in sector, has successfully completed his Silver C Certificate. Well done Peter.
Ann Woolf - Saturday, January 29, 2005 at 16:20:47 (CST)

Gliding News 11 Jan 2005

By Saturday most of the Japanese pilots had gone home, looking forward to their next visit at the end of 2005 or January 2006. Tokushige Nakayama stayed on with some friends for a couple of nights.

During the weekend our performance week pilots from the Barossa and Adelaide Uni Clubs left to go home after a very successful week's flying and learning. Their places were taken by clubclass competition pilots and their crews who began arriving on Saturday.

News about the clubclass competition is being posted on the clubclass webpages.
Ann Woolf - Thursday, January 13, 2005 at 13:02:29 (CST)

Gliding News 7 Jan 2005

This week has been a hectic one here, with the performance week being run by Bernard Eckey. Pilots began arriving on New Year's Day, some with their gliders in the trailers, and some adventurous ones flying their gliders in from their home clubs. The Barossa Valley and Balaklava Gliding Clubs are each operating a winch here for the week, which has given pilots a choice of launch methods and allowed everyone to get in the air quicker.

Each day began with a main briefing at 0900 in the main club room with Terry Moore giving the weather briefing. This was followed by a briefing on the day's operational procedures by Peter Robinson.

After the briefing there would be a lecture by one of the coaches. The first day's was an excellent Flight Safety Lecture based on the World Comps lectures from Finland, developed by Sakari Haubrandt. For some of the lectures the pilots were split into two groups: the more experienced pilots are here for Performance Week, while the not so experienced are taking a Basic Crosscountry Course, run by Andrew Wright. Amongst the Performance Week pilots are some who have come for the Sports Class Competition which starts on 10th January.

Flying usually commenced after midday when the pilots were split up into teams for cross country training, with a leader and two followers. After each task a couple of hours were spent putting gliders away and having a beer, with supper at 7.00 pm cooked by Marie and Jean and John Hudson. About 8 pm there was another lecture for each group.

On Monday 3rd Jan we had a large storm come through, including gusts of 46 knots, just after the launching had started. Before it hit us all the gliders had been tied down securely, put in their boxes or stacked away tightly in the hangars. The storms kept coming throughout that day with the air full of dust and eventually some rain and the inevitable power cuts that night. Luckily supper had been cooked by then.

Tuesday turned out to be a day with wave lift over Waikerie. A few pilots managed to get into it, and they climbed to 12,000 to 13,000 feet. Wednesday and Thursday were overcast but with some good lift. Hiro Shimizu flew a 300 km FAI triangle in the Discus 2T (SHD) Carina silo - Pelican Point shed - Alawoona silo - Waikerie, which gave him another leg of his Gold C badge, the Goal flight.

Friday morning Hiro has set off for a 500 km triangle, whilst Yasuhito Maekawa and Atsushi Sugiyama have set out for 300 km triangles.

Ann Woolf - Friday, January 07, 2005 at 14:08:06 (CST)

The combined SA Performance Week and Basic Cross Country Week is running at Waikerie now. There about 20 visiting pilots, in addition to those booked to fly the club gliders, so it's fairly busy. They're here for a week of learning on the ground and in the air - Bernard Eckey is running the courses and he has a lot to pass on.

Sunday, the first day of the course, was a good flying day. Monday there was only a little flying before the thunderstorms. Today the strong winds made wave flying look possible: Bernard gave a lot of clues, and a few were successful in reaching wave.

Pete S - Tuesday, January 04, 2005 at 22:33:00 (CST)

Gliding News 31 Dec 2004

The forecast on Friday 31 December looked good, but with a trough approaching about 4.30 in the afternoon. Hiro Shimizu in the Hornet and Hitoshi Itoh in the Discus prepared for their 300km tasks, launching just before 1100. Veitch - Pelican Point - Loxton wheat bunker - Waikerie. Hiro arrived back at 1645 having completed the task and reaching a height of 10,000 feet and Itoh came back after a 6.5 hour flight also having completed his task. Two very happy people, well done both of you. Next challenge is the 500km distance.

Next off was Yashuski Iwasaki in the Astir for his 5 hour duration flight and a 50 kms trip to the Loxton wheat bunker and back to Waikerie. 6 hrs 8 mins later he landed back at Waikerie having completed both his tasks. He was almost overwhelmed with happiness at his achievement. Well done.

Bernard Eckey offered a trip to anyone with him in his ASH 25 for the cost of the aerotow, so Mr Honma went with him for 3 hours. He told me he had never experienced such a good flight and he was amazed at the way the wings flexed up and down.

Haidyn Dunn arrived with his ASW 20 (UKE) and once rigged he was down at the launch point and away for a 3 hour flight. Simon Harding arrived with a couple of friends who he was staying with in Adelaide and gave them each a flight in the Twin Astir. Later which Sarah Allen flew it with Adam (Charlie) Ianson for an hour and a half.

Another 330.5 km flight was made by Isau Takahashi in his Discus (SO). He flew the same task as Hiro and Itoh, but he had already claimed his 300km flight in an earlier year. Tohru Ikeda in the ASW 22 was trying for his 750 kms but flew 700 kms Carwarp - Burra - Wunkar - Waikerie.

Ben has left us for a couple of days, but not before having an enjoyable flight with Nigel Baker in his Dimona. Emilis Prelgauskas flew in for the performance week, and Catherine and David Conway plus kids arrived. They were joined around the club bar by David and Lynley Jones and Haidyn.

Happy New Year to you all.

Ann Woolf - Sunday, January 2, 2005 at 23:07 (CST)

Gliding News 26 Dec 2004

Yo Hasegawa left us on 22 Dec while six more pilots from Japan arrived at Waikerie on 23 December. Isao Takahashi, Kai Honma, Tohru Ikeda, Tokushige Nakayama, Atsushi Sugiyama and Hitushi Itoh.

Thursday with temperatures of 40 deg C three gliders flew to Morgan then to a spot near The Gums and on to Blanchetown, a distance of 120 kms, arriving back at Waikerie before the weather changed. Eguchi and Teranishi flying together in the Nimbus 4DM had a very good climb of over 10 knots lift up to 10,500 ft, Isao Takahashi in his LS4a reached 11,000 ft while Hiro Shimizu in the Hornet reached 10,000 ft.

By Friday Michi had SO, the Discus A, on line after working on it all week. His syndicate partner Isao Takahashi was then able to fly it.

Gavin Wrigley left us on 24 December but will be back after the Competitions to resume his instructor's position. He has been a great asset to the club in the short time he has been with us and we look forward to seeing him again towards the end of January.

There was no flying on Christmas Day as our tug pilots and instructors were spending time with their families, but on Boxing Day John Hudson and Ben Ragg came up from Adelaide and we resumed flying. John had joined the ranks of retirees on Friday, so we shall be seeing a lot more of him in the future.

We started off the week with a very windy day. Most of the Japanese pilots flew but they only stayed locally brushing up on their handling of the gliders and practising their cross country techniques. That evening Ben and Ann were invited to join the pilots for supper in the club kitchen where we had a very good evening and an excellent meal.

Tuesday also turned out to be a windy day but not quite so bad as Monday. Iwasaki flew with John for two flights practising his landings then he went up to practise his thermalling techniques and spins. By the end he was doing some really good landings and was very happy with himself.

Okai and Nakayama in the Duo Discus flew Alwawoona - Maggea - Waikerie taking about 2 hours to get to Alawoona in the strong headwind. The lift averaged 6 knots, the best being achieved between 3.00 and 4.00 pm, climbing mainly up to 3,000-4,000 ft but once to 7,000 ft. Mr Hotta in the Discus turbo flew to the wheat bunker but came back again as he was finding the seating in the glider needed some adjustment to make it more comfortable. Hiro flew 50 km south of the airfield into the strong headwind in the Hornet then turned for a fast flight back downwind to Waikerie.

John flew three air experience flights and mid morning Ben's parents, Yvonne and John turned up to see him. After a flight each with John Hudson, they stayed on the airfield helping out with the log keeping and some wing running. Once again the day ended with John and Ann joining the Japanese pilots for an evening meal and later on Ben, Yvonne and John joined us. Again, a most enjoyable evening with much hilarity.

The wind had died down by Wednesday so Hiro in the Hornet and Ikoh in the Discus (HP) set off to try for their 300km Gold distance flight. They set a task of Veitch - Pelican Point - Loxton wheat bunker - Waikerie. Hiro managed 200kms and had to turn for home when he was half way to Loxton as the thermals were getting weaker then got his best climb of the day to 4,500 ft. Unfortunately time was also running out but he did achieve his 5 hour duration flight for his Silver/Gold leg, subject to verification. Ikoh managed to get to Veitch and back, a distance of 134 km. They both enjoyed their flights, learnt a lot and will try again on the next suitable day.

The thermals were not very strong so Okai and Nakamura in the duo Discus flew Maggea - Wunkar - Kingston - Waikerie, a distance of 160 kms and also found that the thermals went up to 4,500 ft. John Hudson took Honma for some instructional flights in the Twin Astir after spending the early morning doing some much needed grass cutting on our take off strips.

Thursday turned out a much warmer day with high cloud and it felt very flat, but that was not to be. Although it wasn't brilliant the high climbs by everyone were between 5,500 - 6,500 feet with thermal strengths of around 6 knots. The Japanese pilots told me the lift was "so-so" (English, not Japanese).

Hiro and Ikoh set off on the same task as the day before, but the day proved too "so-so" and Hiro came back with only 200 kms whilst Ikoh managed to get to 5 kms from the airfield, so a party was sent out with the trailer to fetch him.

The Nimbus 4DM with Nakayama and Nakamura flying did 250 kms, Veitch - Pelican Point - near Loxton and home in 4.5 hours whilst Okai and Eguchi in the Duo Discus went Galga - Wunkar - Pelican Point - near Kingston and home, a distance of 250 kms also in 4.5 hours.

Mr Sugiyama and Mr Hotta flew locally, getting to know the area. Iwasaki went off to try for his 5 hour duration in the Astir but came back after 44 minutes. By then Nigel Baker had arrived so he went off in the Dimona to do some field landing practice. Later in the day he flew again in the Astir for 53 minutes, after a discussion on thermalling, reaching a height of 6,000 ft of which he was very proud and has kept his barograph trace signed by John.

The Dimona flew again with Honma for an orientation flight then John went off with Nigel to familiarise himself with the aircraft again.

Bernard Eckey flew in to prepare for the performance week and various club members arrived just delivering items for this too. Alan Hudson is back with us from Egypt and Jean, John's wife has joined us at the club to help out.
Ann Woolf - Thursday, December 30, 2004 at 22:07:29 (CST)

Gliding News 19 Dec 2004

There has been gliding every day this week, but until Friday the weather was not too favourable. John Hudson as tuggy for the week had a fairly busy time as Gavin Wrigley from Qld, our resident instructor for the season, started this week.

Bill Gregory was the only pupil for the week but there were also some Japanese pilots visiting the club who needed site checks etc before flying solo.

Brett Potter has been with us all week and did some air experience flying with friends before flying the ASW 20 (KYA) on Thursday and Friday. He has also done some much needed maintenance work about the club. Thanks Brett.

Yo Hasegawa has been flying the Discus (HP) all week trying for 300 kms. He outlanded on Tuesday and a trailer was sent to bring him and the glider back, then again a couple of outlandings on Thursday when the tug retrieved him. However, he succeeded with his goal on Friday so achieved another leg towards his Gold Badge. Thermals strengths were on average about 6 knots. Congratulations Yo.

Anders Olsen and Brett flew on Thursday both completing 300 km flights in just over 3 hours.

Simon Holding from Alice Springs joined us and flew the Turbo Discus (SHD) on Friday and Saturday. Keisuke Eguchi arrived from Japan earlier in the week. He flew in his Duo Discus with a flight of 5.5 hours. Hirotoshi Shimizu from Japan arrived on Friday evening for ten days of flying in the Hornet (MU).

Simon Hackett from Adelaide flew in with his Stemme VH-TCP (a motor glider) just to say "hello" as it was his birthday and he wanted to enjoy the day. He soared to Waikerie from about 20 km north of Meningie (about 150 km) with good climbs to over 9000 feet along the way, and then motored back to Meningie just before sunset. Thermals in the area around 7pm were still working to over 5000 feet.

We also had a visitor from another gliding club in the east, Michelle Lappin who was travelling across to Whyalla by car with her son to pick up a two seater for her club. She is also a member of the Australian Women Pilots Association. Michelle stayed the night at the club and had a flight in the morning in the Twin Astir with Bill. We hope to see her again on her return trip later this week.

Monday-Friday there were approximately 51.5 hours flown for 53 launches.

The weekend turned out good for gliding on Saturday. Bill Mudge was the duty instructor and Pete Siddall came to do the towing.

Stuart Skevington and Bernie Konopka took turns to fly the single Astir (WUN). Stuart went up to 10,000 ft but had not put a barograph in his glider, so he will have to try again for his Silver C height. The barograph records his height and time in the air. Peter Paine flew the other Astir (KYS) for just over 3 hours mainly around the local area practicing his thermalling and cross country techniques. Peter also had some good climbs to about 9,000ft and an enjoyable flight.

The Hornet was flown by Gavin, getting to know the local area. Anders in his ASW 22, and Brett Potter in his ASW 20 flew to Alawoona / Burra / Waikerie. Peter Robinson in his Nimbus flew Waikerie / Alawoona / Burra / Kingston / Maggea / Notts Well / Waikerie, a distance of 500km at 120km/hr. His average thermal strength was 7kts mainly between 6,000ft and 10,000ft with one climb to 12,000ft. The flight time was 5hrs 5min.

Mark Morgan flew with Mr Eguchi in the Nimbus 4DM (which has a wingspan of 25 metres) for a very exciting flight of 4 hours. They flew to Morgan then across to Peterborough where they picked up a convergence of two air masses which created some good lift where they met. They flew with this down to Mercunda without having to turn and gained some height too, then turned for home arriving back just before 7.00 pm. A distance of 320 km, highest climb was to 13,000 ft. When they came into the bar they were both beaming from the enjoyment of their flight and very exhausted.

There were three air experience flights which were enjoyed by Steve Krohn, Shaun Arnold and Gladys Werner.

Sunday was very windy although there was some flying. Nigel Baker came up with his sons for the day and did some flying in his Dimona. Aiden Baker had an instructional flight with Peter Robinson who was the duty instructor. Rob Pollnitz had come up from Adelaide to tow for the day. Mark Newton brought some friends for some flying.

Teranishi Tetsuya arrived on Sunday for a month's flying in his own glider. Welcome to all our Japanese members.

Statistics for the weekend were: Saturday 29.5 hours for 18 launches, and Sunday 3hrs for 8 launches.

There will be flying every day now through to the end of February, and probably over the Christmas break if we have a tug pilot and instructor on the field. Performance week starts on 2 Jan and then the Sports Class competition 10-21 Jan. We now have 54 entries for the clubclass, the last one being Adam Woolley who is the only Junior pilot entering. He has just won the Junior National Competition at Temora and his trophy was the Maurie Bradney trophy. There is another Maurie Bradney Trophy to be won at the Waikerie competition and Adam hopes to win that too if he gets within the first 15 places.

Ann Woolf - Monday, December 20, 2004 at 12:55:22 (CST)

Gliding News 12 Dec 2004

Saturday began with early cumulus covering the sky and launching began about mid-day. Bill Mudge took Peter Robinson in the Twin Astir for his annual instructor's check then Peter took Andrew Mudge for an instructional flight.

Not long after, Craig Vinall in the Discus (HP) and Anders Olsen in his ASW 22 (QL) were launched. There was good cumulus cloud around the airfield and they flew off to Kingston. The clouds then overdeveloped with a large thunderstorm reaching from Murray Bridge area right up to Waikerie and north so Anders turned for home having been airborne for about an hour. Craig flew off towards Maggea but turned back as the black clouds came nearer and landed after a 1.5 hour flight. He said the landing was interesting with a very strong westerly wind blowing by then.

Graham Francis in the Astir (KYS) then launched after Craig and Anders and flew locally, followed by Bill in the Twin Astir for a couple of air experience flights with Lloyd and Ruth Halliday.

About 1.30 pm all the gliders were landed and put away safely in the hangar before the approaching storm arrived.

Sunday started off looking promising at 0900 but by 1100 it had overdeveloped to be very grey and overcast. Craig launched in the Discus not expecting to stay up for very long but he found 4 knots of lift under the strato cumulus and climbed up to 4000 ft but stayed local flying for 2.7 hours.

Peter flew an air experience flight in the Duo Discus then took a friend, Jenny Bishop, up for a flight. Bernie Konopka arrived and he and John Hudson got the single Astir out for him to fly. Being inexperienced he was unable to stay up for very long.

A previous member of the gliding club, Richard Geytenbeek, turned up for the day visiting friends in the area. Damien O'Reilly has been with us again this week doing some more work on his Stemme in the workshop. It's a long job, so we should be seeing a lot more of him in the weeks ahead.

Our instructor for the season, Gavin Wrigley, has arrived and is finding his way around before he begins his instructing duties. He was the CFI of the Northern Territory gliding club at Darwin. During our last winter he has been instructing at the Nymphsfield gliding club in the UK then spent some weeks at Omarama in NZ.

Late afternoon Bill came out to give Gavin his annual instructor's check and site check. The day ended with a BBQ at the club.

Four members from Gawler turned up with gliders in the evening. They were going to fly up but the cloud base was too low over the hills. They will be flying on to Mildura on a gliding safari when the weather is good again.

One of our Japanese members, Yo Hasekawa, has come over for ten days of flying in the Turbo Discus. He was here two years ago and completed his 300 km flight, now he has his sights set on at least 500 kms or possibly 750 kms if we get good weather.

With Gavin here this means there will be flying all week and possibly over the Christmas break. John Hudson will be doing the towing this week, Peter Siddall will be here for the following week.
Ann Woolf - Monday, December 13, 2004 at 11:52:29 (CST)

The December newsletter is here. (110k, PDF) Waikerie operations, committee news, benefits of flying in two-seaters.
Greg Jackson - Thursday, December 09, 2004 at 20:37:20 (CST)

This Saturday, John Hudson came up from Adelaide to be duty instructor and Greg Jackson was the duty tug pilot. Greg had some help during the day from Rob Boyd, who used to tow gliders at Waikerie in the early 1980s.

The gliders were taken out of the hangar about 0930 when Stuart Skevington arrived and prepared for the day's flying. Some wave-like clouds were seen to the north. John flew a passenger first before Anders took off in his ASW 22 for a flight of 450 kms in very strong thermals.

Stuart flew the Twin Astir on his own after which he was briefed on flying the single Astir which he flew for about 20 minutes. All went well and later in the day he flew it for a further half hour.

Bill Mudge came out to fly with a couple of passengers after lunch - some who had booked air experience flights and one who hadn't. He was fitted in between other flights. One of his passengers was a Waikerie man now working in the Mediterranean, Greg Blazing.

Mark Morgan did a couple of evaluation flights: one in the Hornet (MU) which Pete Siddall then flew, and the other in the LS4 (BC) which he then flew cross country joining Pete Siddall. They flew south to near Mindarie then went off to explore the seabreeze front. Pete then went north again to Cadell and back to Waikerie, approximately 180 kms. Mark flew about 150 kms with some lift over 11 knots average.

Bernie Konopka was out flying again with a couple of solo flights in the Twin Astir, one of 40 minutes, with some very good landings then to his delight he was allowed to fly the single Astir at the end of the day. Well done Bernie.

We had a total of 14 launches 14 hrs, 10 mins. Last weekend we did Sat: 20 launches, 27 hrs 20 mins and Sun: 8 launches 17 hrs 50 mins.

Ann Woolf - Monday, December 06, 2004 at 13:45:40 (CST)

Gliding News 27, 28 Nov 2004

Saturday turned out to be very hot with 43.3 deg C on the airfield and a humidity of 15. This didn't deter our pilots. The Team Waikerie, Greg Jackson, Peter Robinson and Craig Vinall, were out practicing for the coming competitions and set themselves an assigned area task. They flew Alawoona - Morgan - Cadell - Loxton Silo and back to Wakerie, approximately 320 km. Greg flew a bit extra out to Morgan and back to Waikerie again making his distance up to 400 km.

Craig reached a height of 12,000 ft with two of his thermals recording off the stops on his variometer which was matched by Peter's climbs; his best one was 13 kts on his averager. Peter's average speed round the task was 110 kph. Unfortunately part way though Craig's flight his batteries gave up on him due to a loose connection, but he found it was really quite easy flying on the mechanical vario instead of the computerised one.

Although Peter launched well after Greg and Craig, he managed to leave Greg behind at the start because Greg was also on a converting to a new aircraft. Having never flown the Discus Turbo before, he had to practice 2 engine starts after thermaling up to sufficient height after launch. This of course meant that by the time Peter was launched, Greg had lost a fair bit of height doing this so had to regain a some more height before going out on the task.

Peter Paine flew 3.5 hrs in the Astir taking off just after 3.00 pm to fly locally. He went to a few points within a 50 km radius of Waikerie. Before Peter's flight, Graham Francis flew for just over an hour in the same Astir, also experiencing strong lift.

Bill Mudge was our duty instructor who we kept supplied with mugs of water between each flight. He did a wonderful job in all the heat, as did our duty tuggy, Rob Pollnitz from Adelaide. There were six air experience flights during the day which made it quite difficult to fit in our club pilots who were needing checks in the Twin Astir before flying solo. Also a late start because the Twin Astir needed an evaluation flight by Mark Morgan before the day's flying began as some work had been done on it in the workshop during the week.

Cathy Conway was here with her two small boys and she flew the Duo Discus in the afternoon with Tim Bates, coaching him in cross country techniques. Simon Hackett, the boss of Internode.com.au, flew in in his Stemme motor glider and took Sarah Allen for a flight. Good to see Simon again. He will also be flying it in the competitions in January with Cathy as co-pilot.

About 3.30 pm John Mudge (no relation to Bill) flew the single Astir for just over an hour after a check flight and Bernie Konopka finally went off at the end of the day for just under an hour solo in the Twin Astir.

Tim Wilson had driven over from WA with his Mosquito XJQ. We helped him rig it in the morning, then after a check flight with Bill went off for 3.5 hours for a most enjoyable flight. He was ecstatic about the Waikerie flying conditions and also with the set up at the club and the facilities. Tim is also flying in the competition in January.

The day was finished off with a wonderful meal cooked by Rob Thompson who had flown over in his Dimona from NSW the day before with an American friend Tom Preisser from Maine. Tom told me he had come to Mecca to do a pilgrimage and it had turned out to be everything of his dreams.

Nigel and his wife Heather had just flown back on Friday after a two week trip around NSW meeting up with friends at Lake Keepit and Byron Bay joining up with Rob for the trip back to Waikerie. Nigel took Heather back to Adelaide on Friday and returned on Saturday and assisted with the BBQ.

Sunday dawned with the promises of more heat. It was 39.4 deg C at 1430 in the afternoon on the airfield. Gliders were taken out of the hangar and a task of 100 kms was set to fly round it as many times as the pilots wished. Maggea - Kingston and back to Waikerie.

By 1300 launching had begun with Tim Wilson leading the way in the Mosquito. Mark Morgan then flew the LS1f (EB) on an evaluation flight as it had been in the workshop having annual checks done. Once that had been checked out, Sarah Allen flew it round the task of 100 kms reaching 6,000 ft in thermals averaging 6-8 kts.

Greg Jackson then went off in the Discus (HP) flying the task once round at a speed of about 95 kph reaching 7,000 ft. He actually flew in some weak 2-3 knot wave about 5.00 in the evening just to the west of the airfield which was very smooth and enjoyable. Ben Ragg had almost an hour's flight in the other single Astir in some good lift but stayed in the local area.

Peter Paine flew with Nigel in the Dimona for some cross country tuition and field landing checks. He also managed some thermaling practice. Nigel was the duty instructor for the day but we had no other pilots needing to fly in the Twin Astir.

Craig Vinall flew with Peter Robinson in the Duo Discus at a speed of over 100 kph but as the lift was getting weaker when they got back to Waikerie, they did not go round again. Anders in the ASW 22 flew twice round the task and went up to 8,000 ft.

The duty tug pilot was Pete Siddall and once he had launched all the gliders he went for two flights with Nigel in the Dimona. After turning off the engine they soared to about 4,000 ft.

At the end of flying, EB was derigged as Sarah is taking it to fly in the Junior National Competition at Temora, NSW. It will be her first competition, so good luck Sarah. Tim Wilson also derigged his Mosquito to drive over to Lake Keepit, NSW for some more flying.

The day ended with Rob, Tom and Nigel cooking up a meal for us all again and Marie Hudson joining us for the evening.
Ann Woolf - Monday, November 29, 2004 at 11:45:22 (CST)

Friday 26 Nov was a hot day, about 41 deg on the ground, and a few high Cu. Of course most of us had to work, but some who didn't had big days.

Anders flew Nangiloc - Morgan - Wanbi - Waikerie silo - Renmark airfield - Pelican point - Waikerie, 823 km.

Grant Hudson flew 500 km. (don't know the details)

Nigel Baker returned from his Dimona cruise on Friday and writes: "Travelled from Broken Hill today to WKI (sigh, end of holiday) and climbed to 9,000 for cruise in good lift at 6 knots. Got to WKI when Anders and Grant were launching. Must have only got better after that".

Pete S - Monday, November 29, 2004 at 11:34:12 (CST)

Saturday 20 Nov 2004

When I arrived at the gliding club just before 0700 on Saturday morning I was surprised to find Brett Potter and Grant Hudson up and about fixing tyres and axles on the glider trailers ready for the coming season. They had a good night out the previous evening and Brett had a bit of a headache. However, I took him out with me on the tractor on the E-W runway to put in the sprinkler heads to water the pie cart areas.

Damien O'Reilly is also at the gliding club for a few days carrying on with the work on his Stemme, assisted by Mark Morgan. Lots of rubbing down to do.

Anders Olsen has been flying most of the week, with Lloyd taking time off to launch him about midday. I can't get much info from him about the flights apart from what is on the computer from his trace.

Monday 15 Nov: Wunkar - Meribah - Melivale - Swan Reach - Loxton - Waikerie. Climbed to 5,548 ft in 3 - 6 kts average, a flight of 395 km in 3.7 hours.

Tuesday 16 Nov: Notts Well - Wunkar - Waikerie speedway - Kingston - Maggea - Lock 2 - Waikerie, reaching a height of 5,946 ft in 3-6 kts average, in a flight of 281 km in 3.2 hours.

Friday 19 Nov: Galga - Kingston - Loxton - Pelican Point - Waikerie. Climbed to 7,500 ft in average 4 - 7 kts in a flight of 270 km in 3.7 hours. Very windy day.

Saturday 20 Nov: Morgan - Veitch - Pelican Point - Waikerie. He reached a height of 4,931 ft in lift averaging 4-6 kts with the occasional 8 kts in a flight of 266 km lasting 3 hours 52 min.

Sunday 21 Nov: Wanbi - Woolpunda - Maggea - Waikerie. Climbed to 4,842 ft in 4-6 kts average in a flight of 198 km in 2.5 hours. Fairly windy from the south. "An interesting day but a reasonable flight"

Brett also flew on Sunday but he went home before I could ask him about his flight.
Ann Woolf - Monday, November 22, 2004 at 14:42:28 (CST)

Nigel's expedition to the East

I heard from Nigel and Heather at Swan Hill where they got bogged on the Sunday. They had plans to go sight seeing the next day, but found the tourist places were closed on a Monday so they went to Lake Boga, to the Catalina Museum. This had very special attraction for Nigel as his grandfather used to work there.

Tuesday they flew into Lilydale in Melbourne. There was low cloud as they came over the ranges and he didn't enjoy it. There was 1500 ft between the cloud base and the hills.

After they landed they ended up having a business lunch on the steam train "Puffing Billy". Afterwards they went on to the Australian Research Laboratory and looked at the fatigue testing jig for the new RAAF fighter trainer, the Hawk.

Friday morning they left Melbourne and flew on to Bathurst. All the locals were swooning over the Dimona, but that was short lived when Bob Jane, the big tyre magnate, arrived with his family in his Lear Jet for the weekend.

Rob Thompson picked them up from Bathurst and took them to his place where they spent the weekend. Nigel can't be kept away from the kitchen, where he cooked up three of his famous lasagnes and froze a couple of them on the Sunday night.

Monday saw them on the way to Lake Keepit to see Geoff Neely, complete with frozen lasagne and a bottle of wine. The trip was very pleasant; the engine idling under cumulus clouds with a base of 8500 ft and a ground speed of 150 kts.

They left Lake Keepit and Geoff on Wednesday for Tyagarah at Byron Bay. This trip wasn't so good. The visibility was poor and Heather was getting rather nervous. Cumulus was at 7500 ft but visibility was only 4500 ft. Once they got over the ranges they realised the poor visibility was due to bushfires 30-40 kms the other side of the ranges. However, once they left that area behind them, the visibility improved. They had a bit of a head wind but they still managed to maintain about 100 kts ground speed.

Nigel rang me in the early evening of Thursday 18th. He was just cooking the supper at Russell White's place at Byron Bay and waiting for Ian McPhee to arrive.

On Sunday the plan is to leave Byron Bay and meet up with Rob Thompson somewhere inland then fly on back home to Waikerie arriving on Wednesday or Thursday (24th or 25th November)
Ann Woolf - Friday, November 19, 2004 at 09:05:31 (CST)

After a forecast on Friday night where we all thought we were in for a dismal, wet weekend, it turned out wonderful. Arriving at the airfield on Saturday morning there were cumulus clouds all over the sky, so gliders were pushed out of the hangar and given their daily inspections.

Launching began at 1045 when Anders Olsen had his annual check flight with Bill Mudge, duty instructor for the day.

Some of the solo gliders were then launched by Greg Jackson, our duty tuggie for the weekend, with Sarah Allen leading the way in the Discus (HP) as she was going to try to achieve her 5 hour duration flight towards her Silver C Badge. Mark Newton in the LS1f (EB), Peter Paine in the Astir (KYS) Peter Robinson in his Nimbus (IUS) and Anders in his ASW 22 (QL) then launched.

The thermals were strong for most of the day averaging 3-4 knots with some up to 8 knots. Peter Robinson reached 6500 ft, he was rained on at Maggea so he went on to Notts Well where he then flew down a couple of cloud streets for about 20km just under cloudbase.

Anders' flight lasted for a couple of hours whilst Peter Paine flew for nearly two hours both of them reaching cloudbase many times.

Our pupils progressed well under Bill's tuition and Bernie Konopka went solo in the Twin Astir again then came up to the clubhouse with a beaming smile to tell us all. After a couple of flights with Bill, Stuart Skevington resoloed in the Twin Astir, then Andrew Mudge took his turn. Andrew Maywald also had some instructional flights in the day telling us he couldn't get enough flying and each one was a step forward towards going solo.

Whilst Ben Ragg was flying in the LS1f later in the day he got a radio call from Sarah saying she had landed in a paddock 5 km to the north of the airfield across the river, so Ben came down and went with Mark Newton to bring her and the Discus back in a trailer, arriving just as we were finishing a delicious meal, once again cooked by Marie and Jean Hudson. Sarah had completed her 5 hour duration before landing. Well done Sarah.

Sunday turned out just as fantastic as the Saturday with good thermal strengths and cloudbase at 6500 ft again but without the rain squalls that were threatening us on Saturday.

Andrew Maywald set off the day with a couple of flights with Peter Robinson. Peter Paine then took of once again in KYS, complete with his ticking barograph, to record his height gain hopefully to 3000 metres above lowest point after launch. This would achieve one leg of his Silver C Badge. Whilst up there he also decided to try to complete another leg for the Silver C, his 5 hour duration flight. He landed at 1702 with a big smile, having achieved both. Well done Peter.

Our solo pilots from yesterday flew again, Sarah and Ben both landing after about 1.5 hours to swap gliders and go off again. Anders had an enjoyable 3.7 hour flight whilst Mark Morgan did an evaluation flight in the other Twin Astir (IKU) and the Discus 2T (SHD) which were both successful.

John Hudson took Simon Woods for an Air Experience Flight then at about midday the caravaners turned up for their flights. Four of them flew with Peter Robinson and John Hudson and were overjoyed with their flights all wishing they could have more - maybe another day.

Bernie and Stuart were off again solo then Bill Gregory flew with John and Mark Morgan took his son Terry for a flight flying in the front seat for the first time.

Then came the flights we were all waiting for. Andrew Maywald had a flight with John Hudson then six with Peter Robinson who gave him low pull offs from the launch and other diversions to see how he could cope with them. Obviously Peter was well satisfied as he sent Andrew off solo on the last flight of a very successful weekend. Congratulations Andrew.

Achievements for the weekend were 1 solo, 2 resolo, 2 five hour durations, one Silver height gain and a lot of very happy people. Saturday 22 flights, 24 hrs 20 mins, Sunday 31 flights, 22 hrs 54 mins not bad for an early November weekend.

We will be flying again next Saturday (13 Nov) with Andrew, Stuart and Bernie hoping to get more solo flights in so they can progress on to a single seater Astir.

Ann Woolf - Monday, November 08, 2004 at 13:39:31 (CST)

There is an opportunity for members to fly a ASW28-18e which is an 18m self launching glider. More info on Schleicher's webpage

This glider will be here in Waikerie in early January 2005 and is available for hire for $150 per day.

Bookings can be made with Bernard Eckey at eckey@internode.on.net
Peter Robinson - Wednesday, October 27, 2004 at 17:31:24 (CST)

There was a good turnout at the gliding club this weekend. The weather turned out much better than forecast although there was a 20 knot plus southerly wind blowing on Saturday. The thermals were 6-8 knots in strength with a cloud base of 4800 ft..

Rob Pollnitz was the duty tug pilot and Bill Mudge the duty instructor. There were two students on a weekend course so they were kept busy.

Stuart Skevinton was one of the students. He was a glider pilot from the 1970s at Waikerie so a few of our local pilots from those days may remember him. He was also a volunteer helper when the World Gliding Competition was held here in 1974.

Joining Stuart on the course was Peter Frearson who had his first flight in a glider at Waikerie in May this year as a birthday present. He got to wondering about how things worked about gliding on the way home, so came on this short course to find out. Both Stuart and Peter are now new club members.

Another very enthusiastic pilot with the club on Saturday was Sarah Allen. She began flying in March with the Adelaide Uni Club at Lochiel and has already flown quite a few solo aircraft. She did some flights in the Twin Astir with Bill before being sent for her first solo aerotow. We hope we may see more of Sarah in the future as she has a lot of ambition and loves flying.

Our Team Waikerie were out practicing for the January competition on Saturday. Greg Jackson flew around the Maggea - Kingston area and practiced getting away from low altitudes when he got back near the airfield. Allen Hudson also flew around this area. Peter Robinson was flying in the 2 seater Duo Discus, quite a luxury aircraft compared to the Twin Astir. He took Sarah flying in it and she was thrilled. Later on he flew with Craig Vinall and John Hudson.

Marie and Jean Hudson put on a wonderful evening meal which was very much appreciated by everyone. Earlier in the day Ann Woolf and Brett Potter did some tidying up of the lawns around the premises.

Sunday was not so good for soaring but Brett Potter and Grant Hudson managed cross country flights of approximately 2 hours each with Grant outlanding in the Discus around 4.15pm. Peter Siddall flew the tug out to a paddock to retrieve him. (Nice paddock Grant. -ps) Greg Jackson had been the tug pilot for the launches all day with Nigel Baker duty instructor.

John Hudson flew three Air Experience flights in the Duo Discus. One of them, Mr C Farndon, had actually come up to Waikerie with his wife on Saturday and spent the evening with us in the club room. It was his 60th birthday present from his wife which he enjoyed immensely.

Stuart ended the day by having instruction in safety aspects of emergencies and we hope will resolo again soon. Andrew Maywald joined us later on in the day and had some instruction with John Hudson in th Duo Discus.

Altogether we did 26 flights and 14.5 hours on Saturday, 18 flights and 11.5 hours flying on Sunday. The biggest weekend we have had for a while.
Ann Woolf - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 at 11:06:06 (CST)

Here's the club newsletter for October (PDF, 203 kB). Club operations at Waikerie, mailing lists.
Craig V - Friday, October 22, 2004 at 12:37:22 (CST)

The airfield was a hive of activity on Saturday 2 October. The club had finally managed to get a trench digger at the same time as some of the members were able to be at the club to lay down irrigation pipes in the trenches and refill them. This is all to make the irrigation system on the launch pads more efficient. The work occupied the day for Nigel Baker, Ron Brock, Mark Morgan and his son Scott, Craig Vinall, Greg Jackson, Pete Paine and Pete Page with help from John Hudson in the earlier morning and later from Bernie Konopka.

However, there were people to get flying, so when the duty tug pilot, Pete Siddall arrived, the tug and the Twin Astir were made ready for flying and John left the irrigation work to instruct for the rest of the day.

A Japanese couple, Susumu Sawai and his wife Katsuko, were brought up from Adelaide by Graham Francis for the day. Although Susumu had done some flying in Japan, he wanted to sample some of the famous Waikerie soaring conditions and the weather didn�t disappoint him. His first two flights there was no lift so fairly short, but when he went up again with John just after 2.00 pm he went soaring up to 8,000 ft in strong lift flying for almost 1� hours. He went back to Adelaide a very happy man.

Bill Gregory and Bernie Konopka were on the airfield to get some instructional flying. Bernie is very near to being able to fly solo again, so hopefully he can then have a good summer soaring on his own and eventually go cross country flying.

There were three passengers from the Katherine area, who all had most enjoyable flights in the afternoon.

Altogether it was a wonderful gliding day with 11 launches and almost 3 hours of flying time. No solo flying unfortunately as all the solo pilots present were working on the irrigation project.
Ann Woolf - Wednesday, October 06, 2004 at 10:33:46 (CST)

Some members (Craig, Greg and Peter) of Team Waikerie went flying on Saturday and started off with a 100km triangle being Maggea, Kingston Winery and Waikerie. We then headed off to Morgan then back to Waikerie then Wunkar then to Notts Well and home, around 270km in total. Conditions were general 4 to 6kts to 7,000ft under Cu. Best climb was 8kts average from 4,500ft to 6,500ft. The day started early with climbs to 4,500ft in the blue and by midday it was going to 6,000ft under Cu and thermals going until 5:30pm. The wind was 10 to 12kts NNW all morning and in the afternoon dropped to less than 5kts from the NW.
Robbo's finish photo
Peter Robinson - Monday, September 27, 2004 at 12:23:21 (CST)

The Club newsletter for September is here (PDF, 122k). The new off-peak prices for glider hire and launches are pretty good. Peter Paine's story about going solo.
Craig V - Thursday, September 09, 2004 at 14:10:39 (CST)

Over the weekend we had a crowd of young soccer players overnighting at the clubhouse, along with a referee and some parents. They were very pleased with what we offered them and they left the place very clean and tidy after them. Well done to you all.

We will also hire out the clubrooms, kitchen and accommodation for functions if required.

Our duty instructor Nigel Baker came up from Adelaide on Saturday evening for gliding on Sunday and the duty tug pilot, Rob Polnitz, arrived on Sunday but we only had one air experience flight.

Des Cooke has been touring Australia with his wife and young son and had a very enjoyable flight with Nigel just as the cumulus clouds arrived over the airfield. His young son was thrilled to be allowed to sit in the front cockpit of the 2 seater - the Twin Astir - and move the control column around. All captured on video by his proud Dad.

Bernard Konopka arrived just as Marie Hudson and Ann were tidying up early Sunday morning. He had a couple of instructional flights with Nigel and hopes to resolo soon.

Peter Paine took the single seat Astir out of the hangar and had a very good flight of three and a quarter hours reaching just over 6000 ft with thermal strengths of 5-6 knots. Not bad for an early spring day.

Peter was checked out to do Daily Inspections on gliders and was also taught how to get a barograph ready for use. This is an instrument which is put in the glider to measures height against time and is used to verify what a pilot achieves in the way of height or length of flight.

We could see the clouds coming in from the north and east just after 11.00 and it built up into a good gliding day but then they thinned out early afternoon with some cirrus clouds coming in although the thermals were still there after Peter landed at 1545 hrs.
Ann Woolf - Monday, September 06, 2004 at 11:03:38 (CST)

We couldn�t have asked for a better weekend weather wise for the fly in of the Ultralight group. About 14 or 15 aircraft arrived on Saturday morning and a couple more on Sunday midday. The group stayed in the gliding club accommodation overnight filling all the rooms. They were up to an early breakfast of pancakes cooked by John on Sunday ready to set off for the morning at Banrock Station; arriving back for lunch with us before flying off home.

Marie and Jean as usual did a very good job with the catering whilst other club members mucked in to help them out with other preparations.

On Saturday five people came for passenger rides in a glider which they had booked previously in the week. John Hudson was our duty instructor for the weekend with Greg Jackson flying the tow plane. There were cumulus clouds all over the sky with 8 knot thermals but the club members were busy doing other more mundane things and unfortunately unable to enjoy them.

Sunday was another wonderful day with some sheer wave in the sky for an hour or so which then turned into proper cumulus clouds. There were strong thermals up to 10 knots with a cloud base of 7,300 ft

Aiden Baker, one of our teenage members, had a few check flights with John as he hadn�t been flying for a few weeks then resoloed much to the delight of himself and his parents, Nigel and Heather. Peter Robinson gave a couple of passenger rides in the Twin Astir before flying his Nimbus for about two and a half hours.

Mark Morgan flew the Discus for 3 hours and Ron Brock, who initially had thought the day wasn�t going to be very good and had gone off home, came back to fly his Libelle for over 3 hours landing just after 1700 as the clouds were disappearing from the sky.

A great achievement on Sunday was Peter Payne converting to a single seater Astir having completed his required number of flights in the Twin Astir after his initial solo flight a few months ago. He was up for just over 2 hours flying around the local area and climbing to cloudbase quite a few times. It took him some time after he landed to settle down after this day�s excitement.

Marie and John Hudson were taken for a fly round in the Glasair by it�s pilot which was a wonderful end to a perfect weekend.
Ann Woolf - Monday, August 23, 2004 at 10:53:50 (CST)

We have just had a great weekend at Waikerie � good weather, good gliding and some great company.

The Club, led by Marie Hudson and the Social Committee, hosted the South Australian Chapter of the Sport Aircraft Association. Several aircraft, from as far away as Port Lincoln started arriving around lunchtime on Saturday.

Saturday afternoon was spend settling in, taking a flight in a glider or flying in the various visiting aircraft. A 3 course dinner on Saturday evening over a few ales was a pleasant way to end the day.

The weather on Saturday, while a little windy provided some good flying conditions.

After an early breakfast on Sunday morning, the visitors departed by bus to the Banrock Wine and Wetland Centre. At Waikerie, the aircraft were prepared for flying.

A few flights in the Twin Astir saw Aiden Baker back solo, Mark Morgan test flew the Astir CS and Discus, Peter Robinson got away in his Nimbus for a few hours cross country as did Ron Brock in his Libelle. Peter Paine was converted his first single seat glider and got away for a couple of hours flying in good conditions.

The visitors returned for a BBQ lunch at Waikerie before departing to their various destinations.

All in all, a very full, enjoyable and successful weekend at Waikerie.

John Hudson - Monday, August 23, 2004 at 10:50:25 (CST)

Both days of the weekend were wonderful winter gliding days with cumulus clouds all over the sky. However it was not one of our scheduled winter flying days so the good weather was not taken advantage of.

On Sunday, Mark Morgan and Ron Brock decided at short notice to fly their own gliders so they took Lloyd Baum away from his pruning to tow them up. They launched at 1245 and landed back at the airfied at 1630. Near four hours and approximately 350 kms of good gliding

Cloudbase over Waikerie was 4,000 ft and as they ventured upwind towards Blanchetown the cloudbase fell to 3,500 ft. The streets of cloud seemed to stop at the river with a clear blue area just west of the river and a blanket of cloud further west, so they turned back to Waikerie.

Their flying was around the Murbko-Blanchetown-Notts Well-Maggea-Jubilee Almonds area and by 1600 the cloudbase had dropped to 3,000 ft over Waikerie and the convection had ceased.

The climbs were not strong, quite a few averaging about 3 to 4 kts. The best returned about 6 to 7 kts for a few turns. The clouds were cycling quite fast so it was not a good idea to plan too far ahead so their flight track wove all over the sky trying to chase the better looking clouds.

During the day an eagle joined them as they were climbing in a thermal. Mark thought the eagle didn't know what to do with the gliders or what they were as he was ducking and weaving all over the place. It was the first time Mark had ever seen a bird climb out into cloud and disappear. About 10km later down the track he popped up again but Mark wasn't sure if it was a different eagle.

There was something happening above the inversion level as some clouds were towering to about 8,000 ft. Mark saw a couple of clouds being sucked into and over lenticular clouds; something he cannot remember seeing before. They were hoping there was enough lift to get a ride up the side of these clouds but did not find any.

At one time Mark found lift in a clear shelf under the back of a cloud and climbed 800 ft above the base and then flew across to the next windward side of a cloud but still did not find any lift up the side.

Still a nice day with some interesting looking cloud formations. They were surprised that the lift lasted as long into the day as it did. Usually at this time of year the thermals shut down about 1530.

Ann Woolf - Monday, August 09, 2004 at 18:59:25 (CST)

Gliding News 17-18 July 2004

With a large high pressure sitting over Waikerie this Saturday we managed 5 flights with the Twin Astir as the day started off with clear skies. However, when John Hudson flew with Peter Paine the clouds had started to form and they experienced 9 knots of lift and soared up to 5,000 feet in their 50 minute flight. Peter Robinson also flew a quick 20 minute flight later in the day when the clouds started to overdevelop. The rest of the flights Peter Paine flew solo.

Craig Vinall and Peter Page spent their time at the computer and managed to get the new gliding accounting program up and running to their satisfaction. The program integrates the flight times with the actual accounting so it will save a lot of time and effort.

Meanwhile, Ann Woolf spent her time in the igloo hangar getting stuck into sorting out some of the amassed oddments stored in the cupboards. We hope to hold a garage sale sometime in August or September.

The girls, Jean and Marie Hudson put on a splendid 3 course supper for us all in the evening.

Sunday saw Peter Robinson and Peter Page turning out more unwanted items from the igloo hangar including a dust extracting fan and booth, an irrigation pump motor and our old pie cart.

Our clubrooms are available now for functions and we also have accommodation on sight. Marie is in charge of that.
Ann Woolf - Wednesday, July 21, 2004 at 11:52:19 (CST)

We had some great flying last Saturday. First some tug pilot training.

Later I had a flight of 50 minutes duration with Peter Paine. After working through all the emergency procedures behind the tug, we got off tow into lift, 9 kts to cloud base at 5000 ft.

Despite the cold (bitterly cold) wind, with max temp about 11 C, there was tons of lift. Others, including Pete Paine had extended solo flights.

John H - Tuesday, July 20, 2004 at 12:39:36 (CST)

The July newsletter (PDF, 46k) is here. News from the AGM, thanks to many, some changes and coming events. "Just Another Flight" is worth a read!
Craig - Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 09:59:33 (CST)

There's also news from the current season, 2003/2004, 2002/2003 and 2001/2002 seasons.

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