The Auckland Gliding Club Weekly

Transcription

1 The Auckland Gliding Club Weekly Saturday 12 August Sunday 13 August Volunteers for this weekend August 2017 Instructor Duty Pilot Winch Driver Tow Pilots Nigel McPhee Russell Jones Norm Duke Seamus Breen Russell Thorne No roster Due wet airfield (Remember AK is at Matamata already, and Seamus is happy to instruct if there are sufficient pilots interested; call or text him!) Coming Events 12 August An evening with Gavin Wills, Clubhouse, Drury (Advance Notice, no details!) 16 September Annual General Meeting, Clubhouse, Drury, from 5:30pm 25 November Northern Regionals, Matamata 26 December Christmas Camp January Cross-Country Course, Matamata Soaring Centre 5-13 January Club Class National Championship, Drury 6-13 January Audi Enterprise Competition, Drury Junior World Gliding Championships, Lithuania

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3 Then Alex won the day! (Mike Strathern writes) A great day for the kiwis yesterday! The plan was for Alex to go out early with the first starters and call Nick through. Task was 305 k with climbs of 4-6 knots to '. There were cu on track until nearly the second turn where it went blue for the rest of the flight. The gaggle hung around from the start for over 1.5 hrs. Alex went out with Polish who he stayed with all day to the finish. Nick played the game and started with the gaggle and lead them round the first turn where it all broke apart and reformed smaller gaggles half way to the next turn. By the last turn they were getting lower. Nick lead out once to many and the gaggle got a climb behind him to get home and he landed short. Alex got on glide and had a very tight but well flown and worthy win for the day. We rounded off the day with international night where we did mini pavlovas with cream, Kiwi fruit and strawberries on top with a fruit punch which contained Jill's secret recipe. Thanks to the Tillman's, McCaw's and Mike S for their help. It was a fantastic night with lots of food and drink.

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5 Today was another long one for pilots and crew. We started with Alex receiving his medal for the day before win. Today's task is 268 km with up to 25 knots of head wind to the first turn of 50 k. Then out and back across wind before a run for home of 67 k. Nicholas stared on his own early but had a bad run. He took a climb and when he got to the top he was back over the start line. He started again with Alex a little lower. They flew with the gaggle to the first turn with their speed was slower than their distance covered. They were now in big gaggles with some of the standard class as well. Around the turn Alex got into a break away gaggle which remained ahead for most of the day. After rounding the second turn it was starting to become obvious that there was going to be a lot of gliders not getting home. Gliders were dropping out of the sky in some interesting places. Alex landed in a wheat paddock at 168 k with Nick landing on a private airfield with 3 others at 193 k. Nick said it's not every day you land at an airfield and the lake beside it has a pirate ship in it. Only 3 finished in the club class. No finishers in standard. No gliders landed back to the field that finished. Over 70 gliders landed out for the second time this comp. Rumour is there may be a glider or two not flying tomorrow. Weather for tomorrow looks a bit unsettled (Great to see these young men and women having fun in their Club Class machines. It isn t necessary to spend a fortune to have a sailplane capable of several hundred kilometres of cross-country flight, and if you re in the right crowd, you are competitive, and handicaps take care of the remaining small differences in performance. Roll on Club Class Nationals in January at Drury!

6 Upside Down World! The Perkoz demonstrator has been with us for the last three days and well over 30 members have enjoyed some exciting flying. See the video for an upside down view of the world. Many thanks to Allstar and pilot Michal Ombach for the experience. Bath Wilts & North Dorset Gliding Club We re flying too! (Photo Viktor Pesek) Last weeekend there were a couple of noteworthy happenings:

7 A small group of pilots took AK and BI to Matamata, and enjoyed some thermal flights on Saturday, and some non-thermal flights with a bit of broken Easterly wave on Sunday (before the rain arrived) (Photo Viktor Pesek) (Photo: Lois Kok)

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9 Attached a couple of photos I took at the weekend of Maurie and Pat getting ready for a late winter flight, tows were to 2000' and 1500' and both gliders were in the air for over 2 hours. Flying between Cossey s Reservoir and Pukekohe. The field is soft and requires several favourable factors to allow limited aero towing, and there are areas of the airfield to avoid even on the tractors, but we are getting closer! (Photos: Graham Cochrane)

10 Voice of the Participant survey Brian Sharpe from GNZ has sent a summary of insights from the recent marketing meeting at Matamata. Have a read, and see how these ideas fit with your experience of our club. Between us, we can work out how best to make some changes. (More next week) Insight 1 Expectations should be correctly set to help students and prospective students plan and budget New members having no clear view of the time and $$ required as they work through their training program can have problems in budgeting both time & $$ causing frustration - i.e. an obstacle to effective and rewarding progress Similarly, if a dual cross-country flight is not included early in the program there is no clear expectation of what the training program is there to deliver i.e. There is no vision of the Holy Grail At the Trial Flight stage prospective members may not have a correct view of both the rewards and the necessary commitment that gliding delivers and requires. They may not be in a good position to make an informed decision whether to take up the sport. This can result in missing candidates because of a poor experience or gaining members who later drop out because they didn t appreciate or were able to make the required commitment of time and voluntary effort. Suggested actions Thorough briefings post Trial Flight Issue an Introductory Starter Pack with Membership Application New member Orientation / Induction sessions Ensure a soaring flight features early in a new students experience Vet existing promotional material

11 Insight 2 It s a long haul from solo to QGP.: - Syllabus + 25 hrs solo. Students can become frustrated and discouraged with lack of progress and or/ may lose their way. Also, if soaring skills not learned early enough, expense increases with a large number of shorter flights whilst watching others on 30 min + flights. Suggested actions Celebrate significant milestones - award and publicise A, B and QGP achievements with badges & certificates Introduce and train in the use of soaring software (XC Soar, Top Hat) as soon as the student is ready the steps in the training program are not linear when under instruction. Encourage OLC logging of flights (also helps with inter club camaraderie!) Encourage FAI Badge flights Enter Club two seaters with a student in the front seat into appropriate Competitions Encourage & assist students into private ownership / syndicates o Frees up two seaters o Enables unlimited flight times for student

12 Insight 3 If there are a largish number of students in training -there should be one person (not necessarily an Instructor) to shepherd students through their training. Advantages to having several instructors through the training program is understood but it has the potential downside of students not having a clear view of next steps. From Stephen Hughson: People without a pushy and determined "get it done" personality need a hand with gliding. The older generation that still fly have this attitude, not everyone does. Maybe it comes from not having very much after the war or something! I don't know but I see that it exists. They can fix a tractor, a door, a car... I'm Internet, consuming things, "services". We're not as handy in some ways. Suggested actions: Appoint Training Coach to oversee, assist & encourage students through the program. If there are many students at differing stages perhaps several coaches would be useful, possibly grouped by the stage of the stage of the training program i.e. o A Cert o B Cert o QGP Establishing Groups of students may also incentivise progress through the training (peer pressure) and add to the fulfilment and enjoyment factors. This might work for students and instructors alike.