March 2010 Presidents Message

Getting back into flying a couple of weeks ago was great after a break of quite a few months. The evening flight was beautiful out to Geraldine after one of our 30 degree days. There were a few thermals but it was mostly smooth air.
Our Agnes Turnbull Scholarship recipi-ent, Dianne Roberts recently passed her PPL . Well done Dianne. Sue South went solo in Rans Microlight JHZ a couple of weeks ago. It‟s great to see more women flying microlights from Rangitata Air-field.
By now most of you will have received your rally forms. It would be great to see as many members as possible at Tauranga in June. Get those flights booked and accommodation sorted early. Your rally committee members have been working hard to make it a week-end to remember.
Warbirds Over Wanaka is not far away now. NZAWA has a stand at the show where we will be advertising our organisation and selling the new edition of Silver Wings. Pam Collings has been working very hard over the last couple of years to bring this to fruition. A huge effort. Thank you very much Pam. I am really looking forward to reading it. Remember the book launch on Tuesday 30th March in Christchurch. Some of you may be passing on the way to Wanaka and can work this into your schedule. We have a guest speaker, the CEO of Mount Cook Airlines, Sarah Williamson.
Autumn usually has settled weather so get into some flying before the days get shorter and cooler.
Regards
Desiree McCaskill

First 1000 km Glider Flight in NZ by a Woman

The forecast was promising enough, so I drove the three and a half hours down to Omarama after work on Monday 16 January 2006.

Tuesday's task for a 1000km diploma flight was from Omarama - Waiparu - Totara Peak - Waikaia - Omarama. (Waiparu and Waikaia, the two southern points are both near Lumsden and Totara Peak is 12nm west of Lake Coleridge). Total distance = 1007.8 km.

It took 7 hours 17 minutes to complete the task, with an average speed of 138kmph. This was done almost completely in wave off the Southern alps, and mostly flying between 14 000 and 17 000 feet AMSL and using oxygen.

Launched after a weather briefing at 10.45am. The tow pilot was a friend Annie so it was nice to be towed by another woman. There were two “interesting moments" during the flight:

In the wave over Lake Pukaki at 18 000ft, I saw another glider coming towards me rather closer than was comfortable, we were head on and both turned away, phew ! Gliders have little frontal area so look out is critical.

Around Waikaia on the last leg, the front air vent was squealing so I thought I'd open and close it to stop the noise. Ha, it jammed open and
I'd replaced a squeal with a loud roar! (well done Jen- argh !) I finally pushed it shut with a "wing holder upper" stick so I could talk on the radio, then realised that while holding it shut my wrist was over the GPS aerial and the display wasn't showing satellites. Thought bugger, this might invalidate my GPS trace so flew the rest of the way back leaving it open and blasting cold air in. It was freezing -up until then I'd been comfy, electric socks are just the best! It was 6.20pm when I landed back at Omarama, downloaded the GPS trace and then drove home. Did make it back to work on time and was a tired but happy girl for days afterwards. Thanks goes to members of the gliding club for their encouragement and advice and especially to Yvonne Loader who first introduced me to gliding via an Airwomans rally and who I regularly share soaring experiences with.

The picture was taken immediately after I landed, no time for lippy or tidy hair, I really don't know how Jean Batten always emerged looking glamorous.

Jenny Wilkinson