Wind over Wings
A perfect Wairarapa day. A cool morning warming to higher temperatures in the afternoon. In the spacious club rooms Stewart Barton reminded the club members to keep the wings and ailerons of the gliders level at take-off, to prevent being caught in the longer grass, despite the air strip having just been mown.
Amy Smith outlined the tasks for each member, and the current weather conditions. Wind was 03 knots backing towards the East and predicted to rise in the afternoon. Flights were checked. Ollie Cartwright a 12-year-old visitor from Tauranga was warmly welcomed, and quite naturally confessed to being a little nervous about his first trial flight.
“It was a present” he says, “from my grandparents. “It was supposed to be my 10th birthday present, but Covid intervened. I have had to wait two years.”
In the new hangar those on maintenance duty began checking some of the ten gliders currently stored. All the gliders are very thoroughly checked, with a full maintenance check every six months.
While Brian Sharpe drove the mini truck, Mark Shillingford took the recently purchased Sky launch Glider Winch to the far end of the airstrip. “The beauty of this winch,” says Brian, “is that it has two reels of line, which allows two flights to be launched in quite quick succession.”
With the air strip over 2 kms long the truck is the workhorse for pulling the lines down to gliders waiting for take-off. A parachute attached to each line helps to ensure a safe landing of the line on the runway when the line is released.
The line is attached to the glider. But before the pilots can fly there is another briefing to make sure everyone knows how to use the parachute and what to expect. A helper then ensures the wings are level before take-off.
Amy, in charge of communications for the day, relays the message to Mark that the glider is ready to go. The winch begins to take up the line. Then the G force kicks in, and the glider rises to 2,000ft within 40 seconds.
“I just love it” confessed Amy. “My Dad was in the Navy, and he used to glide. Then he took me up. It was amazing. I was hooked. I now fly as much as possible. I am trying to win my Silver C. One of the requirements is to ride a thermal for 5 hours at a height gain of 1,000 meters and to achieve a distance of 50 km. So far, I have only gone for 4 hours before I had to descend. My first landmark after going solo was a bucket of water where I got dunked. That is part of the fun and a tradition.
Several Kuranui students are receiving training as part of their curriculum studies.
If you want to know more about the Wellington Wairarapa Gliding Club, check out their website. Perhaps the challenge of a Blue Wave Day will get you hooked too.
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