The North Island Regional Gliding Competition has started and we had a great first day. Admittedly, 16 of the 25 gliders landed in paddocks, the rest landed back. It was a great challenge and all landouts went well.

Congratulations to Maurice Honey for winning the sports class, Bryan O'Brien winner club class, John Bayliss winner standard class and Roger Didsbury winner of the 18 meter class.

Full results from the day can be found online at soaringspot.com

:(

The day started as it ended. Blue.

Today, day 2, proved to be cloudy with drizzle. Not ideal gliding weather at all, it was a no fly day. Tomorrow shows more promise...

Grounded by the rain.

The only fast moving vehicles today were the grounded 3 wheeled variety.

More updates soon, and hopefully we'll get some pictures of gliders flying...

There's a lot happening over the next couple of weeks, here's a quick outline.

This weekend is normal club flying, the only thing to be aware of is EFTPOS will not be available Saturday as we're using it at CentrePlace. Here is the roster:

Saturday 22nd Nov
Instructors: Tony Davies, Dom Stevens, Rainer
Tow Pilot: Jeffery Hunter
Duty Pilot: Chris Money

Sunday 23rd Nov
Instructors: Tony Davies, Rainer Kunnemeyer
Tow Pilot: Ian Hector
Duty Pilot: Mark Drayson

Sunday evening is a BBQ and briefing for those on the cross country course.

Monday 24th - Friday 28th Nov: Cross Country Course 
All club gliders are booked for the week, there won't be club flying on Wednesday.
Towing will be available all week for private owners.
The tow pilots intend to hang around after the X country launch only for an hour or so on the weekdays depending on demand. They will stay long anough for any re-lights so if anybody turns up during that period we will be happy to tow them.
Launching will be similar to a competition grid launch, you'll need to have your glider to the end of the grid before launching, or wait until after.

Saturday 29th Nov: Normal club flying

This is the competition practice day, there will be lots of gliders, but otherwise normal flying. GSN and GXP might be booked.
Book other gliders like normal through the booking system.

Sun 30th Nov - Sat 6th Dec: Regional Contest 
Towing and club gliders will be available all week, with priority given to the competition.
GSN and GXP are booked for use in the competition, GPK, GPC and GNI are available for use by club members.
Instructors will not be rostered on, so if you want one you'll need to make your own arrangements.
We will also need help launching the glider grid, Contact Les at ljrmata@wave.co.nz if you can help out with this.
Typically those wanting to fly help with the launch, and have their gliders ready at the back of the grid.
If you would like to fly a club glider it will need to be DI'ed and down the end of the field well before the grid launches.
The time the grid launches varies depending on conditions, but normally somewhere between 11am and 2pm.
Please use the booking system at least the day before you intend to come out, to book any of the club gliders.

Flying during a competition is great fun, there are lots of people, lots of gliders, and a great atmosphere. Hopefully we'll see you out there!

The CentrePlace stand is going well, with at least 6 vouchers sold so far (as of lunchtime today), and many flyers handed out. We are expecting this afternoon and Saturday to be even busier.

If you're in Hamilton feel free to drop by and poke fun at us. Here are some pics of the stand.

Thanks to the volunteers.

Making it obvious what we're selling!

Looking towards the food court

Richard looking composed as always

Congratulations to everyone at Piako Gliding Club for winning the "Club of the year" award at the Metso Matamata Piako District Sports Awards on Tuesday night.

Also congratulations to Bill Mace for winning "Administrator of the year". Bill really does put in a huge amount of effort and time into the club, so this is well deserved.

More details and other winners can be found the Sports Waikato website.

Bill Mace and Steve Care with the awards

As mentioned in the flypaper, thanks to Bill & Jan some of the bunkrooms have been upgraded to luxurious suites. Information and images are now online here:

http://glidingmatamata.co.nz/msc/accommodation/

Here's an image that escaped from the last post of dinner images:

In other news, the new Piako Gliding Club Caravan/First aid station has arrived! Here are some pics we snapped today, after taking up a bunch of students for a flight (in gliders, not the caravan. Sorry it doesn't fly... yet).

Exciting stuff, Summer is going to be great!

This weekend Vintage Kiwi are holding a Rally at Raglan. Anyone is welcome to take any sort of glider along. Full details can be found in this PDF.

The Centreplace mall promotion is coming up, from Thursday 20th November to Saturday 22nd.

Can any club members volunteer to help out with a session to attend the stand? I've outlined the sessions here:

It's a very simple job, just hand out phamplets, answer a few questions, and sell some vouchers.

We've got some great looking pop up banner displays organised, and will have some new phamplets and business cards organised to hand out. We've also got the EFTPOS machine which will make selling vouchers easier.

If you can help out send us an email tim.bromhead@glidingmatamata.co.nz or phone 07 858 3595

The fancy banners we've got this year

The stand will be in the same place as last year

Labour weekend started off looking a bit dodgy weather wise, but by 3pm Saturday the weather cleared a bit, the arrow was out and we started launching! Aviation Sports Club showed up in force, and the late start gave them plenty of time to travel and get stuff rigged.

The start of dinner was extended to 7:30 to give those flying more time, which was lucky as the ridge was booming. A few flights arrived back after 7.

Thanks Jan and helpers yet again for a magnificent meal, everyone had a great time.

We took lots of photos over the weekend, and a gallery has been put together here, with a quick sample below.

Monday put on another good ridge and thermal day, with the tow sheet full to the brim and going over the page. Good work Ross for towing all day. Bad luck to Aviation Sports Club's single Astir GMP who landed out on the way up to Thames!

Webcam

Apologies the web cam hasn't been up and running, Tim keeps forgetting to fix it. We'll get it back and going again very soon.

Roster this weekend

Tim's long range weather prediction: Westerly winds, book gliders now!

Weekend Photos

"My drinking club has a gliding problem"

Steve in GVC