Hi all, Gliding New Zealand has been producing videos of the world champs. Check them out on the Gliding NZ facebook page. Note you can still watch these even if you don't have a facebook account :) Just click "not now" and put up with the white box at the bottom of the page.

https://www.facebook.com/Gliding-New-Zealand-NZ--106056376128462/

Yesterday was a good day for Steve and myself, with a solid number of points for the first contest day. John was late and ran out of daylight, so had to start his engine to get home. Most others came mid field, with solid points. All the points are close except for Kawa in 15m who was another 5km/h faster than everyone else... See results at:
http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/34th-fai-world-gliding-championships-benalla-gld-2017/results

Looks like another hot blue day today.

Mark in OB

Brett in VZ

Alan and Kingaroy tow pilot Neil

It's all very exciting

Hello from Australia! Today is practice day 3 of the 34th World Gliding Champs.

To recap, we've got 6 NZers flying, plus crews, families and helpers. Pilots flying are Alan Belworthy (ASW27) and Steve Wallace (Ventus2) 15m, Mark Tingey and Brett Hunter (JS1s) in Open, and John Coutts (Ventus3) and myself (18m).

Crewing and helping we have: The Wallace family, The Coutts family, The Belworthy family, Barbara Hunter, Mark's partner Angela, Terry & Karen, Julian (Team Captain) & Janet Elder, Robert Smits, Lyndsay Stephens and arriving soon weather man Dave Hirst and there are rumours others such as Ross Gaddes, Steve Foreman and Paul Schofield are going to turn up.

It's amazing the effort everyone has been putting in, and we're nearly organised! There have been a few technical issues such as radios not working, and Steve's glider needing quite a bit of work such as tire change, wing leaking water (Still!!!), ASI not working due to crimping of a pipe. Otherwise all gliders are working smoothly.

The ASG29 I'm renting is working out very well, it has an LX9000, oxygen, parachute, and everything is working smoothly. I can even fit in it, after a bit of wrangling. No seat pan for me, and pedals at full extension which is how I end up in most gliders.

Official contest website. It has heaps of info, links, news and videos
http://www.wgc2017.com

So where to find results? On soaring spot:
http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/34th-fai-world-gliding-championships-benalla-gld-2017/results

Where to follow up to the minute news? On Facebook generally, there are a number of channels to follow:
Official WGC https://www.facebook.com/WGCBenalla/
Gliding NZ - we'll post most team news there https://www.facebook.com/Gliding-New-Zealand-NZ--106056376128462/
Tim - I'll post the odd update on my page, but will stick to the GNZ page. https://www.facebook.com/tim.bromhead

Live Tracking - I think we'll be launching between 12 and 1pm normally (2-3pm NZ time), and depending on the day can fly until 6pm (8pm NZ). Only 1 person of the 2 in each class will have a tracker. And the're delayed by 15 mins or so.
http://www.wgc2017.com/live!/tracking.aspx?contestID=25780

I've also set up my own tracker on SPOT and also my cell phone which I'm trying out so Robert (crewing for me) knows exactly where I am.
https://track.gs/4jSBLH

I've still got a Give a Little funding page open if anyone wants to help contribute. Total costs so far are around $11,000 so every little bit helps!
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/tim2glidingworldchamps

Today is the final practice day, with a BBQ at the club tonight. Tomorrow is a no fly day and opening ceromony. Then on Monday, we are into it. Bonza!

Cheers,
Tim

John's brand new Ventus 3 to fly

Karen and Terry looking casual

Steve and Robert sorting stuff

John sorting his radio

Just some of the landings. It gets pretty full on with 120 gliders landing at once...

Hi folks, a few things.

First up John Shuttleworth's funeral will be held at Piako club's hangar on Saturday, 22 October at 11am. There won't be any flying that day.

Australian Nationals

There are 2 days left, with the weather looking more like Matamata today. Low cloud, and showers forecast. Results are going up on SoaringSpot:

http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/55th-australian-multiclass-nationals-kingaroy-gld-2016/results

There are pics and notes from the contest available on the new Matamata Soaring Centre facebook page, I believe it is public so you don't need a facebook account to read https://www.facebook.com/MatamataSoaringCentre/

Spring Flying

Some pics from Gerard Robertson from Auckland who came to visit and had good flying on the ridge. Sounds like the Auckland field is a bit soggy, so glad we could help!

The next issue of the Flypaper newsletter is ready for viewing.  You can download by clicking the file below:

flypaper 2016 sep.pdf

Welcome to the first edition (in a while) of the Piako Gliding Club newsletter, The FlyPaper.

The newsletter can be downloaded by clicking the link below:

flypaper 2016 aug.pdf

Of particular note is:

Our annual awards dinner will be held on Saturday 20 August, starting around 6:00 pm at the club rooms. 

Jan and Joan have agreed to put on the dinner, to be followed by presentation of club trophies and the evening’s entertainment.

Cost will be $25 per person.  You don’t have to purchase tickets ahead of time, but please let Joan know if you are planning to attend by !7 August (to confirm catering arrangements).

Joan’s email is:

 winefamily1062@gmail.com

It's been a busy summer. Tim and 4 other kiwis in Benalla, competing at the Australian national champs. Our annual raglan camp, with some good and not-so-good weather. And next weekend the NZ Nationals down in Taupo.

Results from Benalla

Full results availalbe on soaring spot.

The question is asked, do we know who is in the NZ team for the worlds next year? The selection process is still underway, I suspect we'll find out after the NZ Nationals. It's going to be tricky, as we at no stage have compared all NZ pilots at a single contest.

Back in NZ the club has been over at Raglan, with a few coastal flights happening. Sounds like quite a few rainy days too, with 12 flying days.

At Matamata airfield, the Walsh flying school is well underway. Our second webcam has been installed properly now, so we get a good view looking North from the radio room.

The Walsh Camp flags and portable control tower

This coming weekend we start the NZ Nationals at Taupo. A list of pilots is available on soaring spot. We'll try and post updates when we have time, and check the facebook pages for more frequent updates.

Steve Wallace waiting around on the grid, last day, before the day was cancelled

Some of the fun flying conditions in Austrlia

With the Australian nationals starting in a few days, many pilots from around the world are arriving in time to get ready and practice flying.

The contest is the 'pre-worlds', a practice run for the following year where the worlds will be held in the same location. It's a practice for both pilots and organisers. It's also the Australian national competition.

From New Zealand we have 5 pilots competing:

• Alan Belworthy from Tauranga, ASG 29, 18m class
• Brett Hunter from Tauranga, JS1, Open class
• Mike Strathern from Nelson Lakes, Ventus B, 15m class
• Steve Wallace from Whenuapai, 15m class
• Myself, Tim Bromhead, from Piako, Ventus C, 15m class

Also arriving is Steve's family, Alan's family, Barbara Hunter, Julian Elder (Team captain), Terry Jones and Karen Morgan (Sailplane Racing Committee), so there's lots of Kiwis to keep the aussies off our backs!

Tim and Mike have been here for a few days and had a chance to fly. The first day was blue, so I went off to Tocomuwal and return. The second day Mike, Alan and I flew around lines of rain, and did around 300km, dodging showers and exploring the region.

We're posting small updates on facebook, and will post here as well.

Links to news, photos and results will be on the competition website http://www.ozglide.com

Helping unload a container of 4 ASG 29's. Never again :)

Tim on the first blue day, very few thermal clouds

Some of the rain we flew around.

Photo from Mike of Tim in VTM. Note the lovely weather, actually lots of lift in places at 10,000 feet

It's a wet, humid day in the Waikato, and today is the practice day for the NI Regionals. I don't think there will be much practice going on, however a good chance to sort out GPS equipment and the like. We have 18 competitors entered so far.

The past week we've had the X-Country course, which this year had 9 participants.  They took turns flying cross country with insturctors, and flying on their own. From our club Will Camp and Noel Bailey both flew and had some of their longest solo flights so far.

Marion from Auckland is catering for the contest and is looking for help this week with dinners, if anyone would be willing to give up a few hours even for a day.

The entry form for the Nationals in Taupo is up, and you can find it here:
http://goo.gl/forms/IBxLuqp35D

Starting 23rd Jan 2016. More info can be found on their website: http://www.taupoglidingclub.co.nz/2016-gliding-nz-multiclass-champs.html

For the regionals coming up, tasks and scores as they come in will be going up on Soaring Spot which can be seen here:
http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/nznir2015/

Landouts can been seen on soaring track:
http://soaringtrack.com/nir2015/pilots

Tomorrow looks like a good day, we'll try and put updates here and on Facebook when we can, although time is limited when scoring and flying!

New canopy cover for XP! Thanks to Marion from Auckland Gliding Club

The end of a long 400km flight

Some lovely convergence flying recently