Feet Dry in NZ Dec 6th 2007

Hello Race Fans -
Well, the pilot half of Team EY arrived safe and sound (if not very sleepy) at the Omarama Airfield two nights ago (Dec 6^th). I plan to take some time to get rested up and then get into a glider on Sunday. So far only a few of the GP pilots are on site and they are taking their time getting their ships unloaded and setup. The “GP Circus”, as everyone around here is referring to it as, is coming but not quite here yet.

The flight went reasonably according to schedule from Dallas the entire way to Christchurch here on the South Island. The highlights/lowlights of the air travel were: LAX International Terminal (low), Qantas (high), Auckland (“gully washer “rainy and humid), Christchurch (cold, windy and misty). Picking up the car at the Christchurch airport went very well and off I set for Omarama – about a 4-5 hour drive from Christchurch. An important hint for travelers to Omarama – try as best you can to fly into Queenstown for the easiest drive after your epic flight just to get here.

I have heard about the Mackenzie Basin as a Shangri –la for glider flying. Looking at the low clouds spitting rain and the cold temperatures on the east side of Burkes Pass, I thought that if anyone was flying, surely they would have been just staying local and doing training flights or “flag pole-ing” over the airfield. But much to my amazement the skies opened up and this is what I saw:

Looking back at Burkes Pass

Looking at cap cloud and small, localised rotor cloud off the Two Thumbs Range (wind is from the east.

Looking West to the center of the Mackenzie Basin.

First good view of Mt. Cook over Lake Tekapo looking North.

The flying in these strong easterly wind conditions were pretty much limited to the basin. However, with a basin this big there was some good cross-country flying to be had in convergence lines and ridge lift with some spotty wave thrown in. Even in these atypical conditions, there were a lot of stories about good flying as well as frustrating flying.

The story of the day has to go to Gavin Wills (director of Glide Omarama) and G Dale (Brit and current British Club Class National Champion). The gist of it is that Gavin joined up with G flying the ridges up around Mount Cook. With G in the lead and Gavin in close trail, Gavin watched as G flew over and close to a cornice of snow which then broke off and started a tremendous slab avalanche right beneath them. They both immediately peeled up and off the ridge to take a close look at the splendor of nature at work. Wow!

So how do you ship 15 gliders halfway around the world in a 40-foot container? Well, apparently you have Alfred Spindleberger construct three giant “frames” to hold 6 gliders each and then load them into the container with no fuss nor muss. Seriously, these pieces of equipment are unlike anything I have seen and got all the gliders here in perfect working order. Slowly the gliders are being removed from the frame, rigged , and tinkered with in preparation for the racing to come.

40-foot container frame for 6 gliders.

Germans rigging their Glider with "other" wings laying on the floor of the hangar.

After looking at the unloading operation, I got to see “my” ship, VentusB “TM”. She is a beauty with very good wing profile and great gel coat all around. Phew!!! While not a V2 of ASW-27, it will do for my purposes.

The part owner of the ship who works at Southern Soaring is a neat guy named Don Mallinson. Just to show how small the soaring world is, it came up that I flew gliders in Kenya on my honeymoon – now that’s a supportive wife! It then came up that he spent time in Kenya at the end of Colonial days (early 1960’s) and resurrected a couple of dilapidated and abandoned gliders, a Slingsby Tutor and a Slingsby T-21 in which he got his start gliding and instructing. It just so happens that these two gliders were still airworthy and flying in 1996 and I flew both of them! Small world…

The current weather synoptic has a semi-tropical Low parked just northwest of the North Island and a maritime High building into place just East of the South Island. Since this is the southern hemisphere, the direction of twist in the atmosphere is reversed for these weather systems (Low rotates clockwise, High rotates counter-clockwise). The North Island is being socked with quite a bit of rain, while the South island is being battered by Easterlies off the far South Pacific. However, it could be worse as Fiji just got clipped by a Cat 4 Typhoon. This leaves the South island in a typical Colorado upslope condition, with the eastern coast socked in with clouds, but he mountains to the east of he Mackenzie Basin blocking the weather and leaving the basin clear and flyable.

The soaring forecast is for severe clear and stable air for the next few days. With that brilliant forecast, my host here Chris Rudge of Southern Soaring, organized the local airfield tour in the Cessna 172 with himself, me and two Brits. The flying conditions appeared to be as forecast, with very little bumps the entire way around the basin. But the views were spectacular and I will give everyone a quick photo tour of the Mackenzie Basin, as well as a little description of he area as I see it.

Basically, for U.S. pilots, the area (minus the brilliant blue lakes/reservoirs) could be the Alamosa Valley / the area of Northwest Colorado (North Park, Middle Park, Yampa Valley) – but with about 1.5-2 times the vertical that rises more sharply from the flat bottom of the basin floor. The similarities are striking to this pilot who has spent a lot of time flying in that area of Colorado. Let’s just hope this helps me pick up the peculiarities of this area a little faster than the other pilots who have not flown here (or in Colorado).

I'd also like to thank a new sponsor, Nielsen-Kellerman and its new ClearNav system. Check it out at http://www.nkhome.com/soaring/soaringindex.html.

Well that’s it from NZ for now.

See Ya! Tim/EY