News

Latest News 01/10/06

Daylight saving has started. Days are longer and the weather is warmer. Well some times :-). Craig has purchased a BBQ for the hanger so after a test run today all is set for a few beers and food after flying on the airfield. The weather station computor has decided its dropping its bundle and needs replacing so its not updating at all. Hope to get a newish replacement for it this week. One that will also run SeeYou and download flights etc at the hanger. Meanwhile the webcam from the house is still operating to give an idea what the weather is doing.

News 24/09/06

Havn't been up to much lately. Weather has been a little indifferent when I can fly and good when I can't. Summers coming :-). I have posted our Club newsletter here if you are interested. Nice article on New Zealands oldest glider pilot and active instuctor.

News 04/09/06

The boys had a good wave flight Saturday. Tony Passmore and Vaughn Ruddick both did 500k flights. See them on the OLC here. The sky looked pretty special late in the day. Some pics I took. Tony P said he took some good shots in the air as well which I will put up as soon as I get them. Peter Knudsen, Tony Van Dyke and Stewart Barton also had good flights. Sundays forecast was for the wind to drop abit but still wave. Well it dropped all right and turned into a nice convergence/Thermal day. With a little wave for the guns. Tony P, Tony VD, Ben Flewett, Martin Lindley, Pete Knudsen, Vaughn Ruddick and Craig Stobbs all had good rides. Ben managed to get into the wave and got up to 10k. Took a few pics as they arrived back. They didn't get very far but all agreed over a couple of beers it was a good start to the season.

News 22/08/06

Just added a page for TE Probes which are made by Dr Ludek Smolik. The prices are very reasonble and they can be ordered directly from him. He also makes some yaw free versions to help us less co-ordinated pilots :-)

News 21/08/06

Just added a couple of pics Tony Passmore took yesterday while ridge flying out of Paraparaumu.

News 21/08/06

We had a good weekend for flying around most of NZ by the reports recieved here. Wave and ridge flying was on offer. Tony Passmore continues to rack up air points on the OLC with 278k on the Saturday from Masterton and 450 k from Paraparumu on the Sunday. Both flights are on the OLC Vaughn Ruddick also racked up 460k. But sadly they are the only two putting up flights on a regular basis. Great learning tool and neat to see what bods get up to during their flights. Have a go! If you are having trouble figuring out how to do it let me know . I can help out. Tony also tooks some pics. They are on the web album here. Anyone else who took some pics feel free to send them for viewing or send me a link to a webpage if they are already online.

News 16/08/06

I have added some pictures to the photo album. Some more of the DG factory trip in Feb and some from Ross Anderson who is a member of the Wanganui & Manawatu Gliding Club based at Taonui Airfield near Fielding. The DG 200 shots are froma flight he had here at Masterton and the rest are off flying in our DG 1000 at Omarama on a trip there. Also some pictures from DG when they where packing the container with our DG 1000 and two DG 808Bs for customers here in NZ. Hopefully of interest to someone.

News 13/08/06

We now have a classifieds section for Gliders, Instruments and GA aircraft. I supply this free of charge so take no liabilty on behalf of the value or airworthiness of the glider or seller. You can post pictures with your ad so its a lot better than some other for sale sites. We are getting a large number of hits so there are plenty of people from all over the world perusing this site on a regular basis. So any ad posted here will get plenty of attention. I have loaded a few ads on some owners behalf. Ads will be autodeleted after 60 days.

News 10/08/06

Added some more DG 1000 pics to the Album. Have had a bit of a failure with the photo album uploader and have changed it to this setup so at least it works. Now features a slide show and bigger thumbnails for easier navigation. Not sure I like it yet. Takes up more space on the website. If its slow loading let me know.

News 07/08/06

After a week of not so bad weather, the Thursday night TV forcast looked good for nice weather all weekend. Not sure where they bought it from but I think they would have a good case to get a refund. It was crap. Saturday was overcast and damp and Sunday just bucketed down. Had 28 mm of rain for the day. Oh well. Theres always next week. I am also trying my hand at flash and the new banner above is a result of that. Hope its not too slow to load. Still refining it. I have also added a page with the Old Stick & Rudder Co clothing line. They have baseball hats and some polo shirts that look very nice. Its only temporary as I will be using their website as soon as I can get access.

News 31/07/06

Changed the webcam on the house to face south. Got bored with the other view:-) Also got the link right with the 21 Sdqn ATC on the map link page here. Realised it wasn't working as it should.

News 30/07/06

Better day today. Took Ben Wilson for a fly in the 1000. Actually he took me. He did most of it. Nice wave to 12000 ft. Rough in places. Funny looking lenticular with a base of about 14k had lots of chunks of it hanging down and rough air was associated with those parts. Tony P, Tony F, Russell Schultz, Martin Lindly and Simon Ford also partook in the rarified air above the Wairarapa. Some had better flights than others. Ben's and mine is shown here. Also some pictures from the flight have been uploaded.

News 29/07/06

Tony Passmore, Russell Schultz, Martin Lindley and Tony Flewett showed up to have a crack at the wave. Looked good to start with but wasn't as good as it was advertising. Pretty rough and ready. Tony P put in an OLC claim. Still better than sitting in the rain :-) Tony Flewett got to fly his new toy. A Discus a that he got from the USA. He reckons the nice thing about the Discus a cockpit is you can wedge your shoulders against the sides in turbulence which he discovered. :-) A couple of pics on the ground while rigging.

News 28/07/06

Looks like been a reasonable weekend for some flying. Maybe some wave if we are lucky. I have expanded the range of goods available for sale. The response has been fantastic. I have added beanies with the logos. Good for wave flying. I have also ordered some baseball hats to try out. So will add those to the page soon.

News 26/07/06

Did a fly by for the funeral of Murray Sykes yesterday. Long time pilot in the Wairarapa and did alot of the early gliding here at Masterton in the sixties. He died of complications after heart surgery. Interesting being on tow with a Tiger moth each side of the glider at 500 ft. Slipstream effect was interesting to say the least.

News 24/07/06

We now have Paypal as an option for paying for the Bucket hats for overseas customers. I will increase the range as they come available.

News 17/07/06

We now have the outstanding Glidingstuff bucket hat for pilots who want to look stylish. A must have for the intrepid glider driver. 100% locally produced in China. Can be personalised to your requirements. Order now for summer!!

News 17/07/06

I have revamped the forum layout so people who are visiting for the first time can see and post on the opening page. Weather station has been going ok apart from a hiccup over the weekend. Gone back to a still picture from the house on the webcam. Too hit and miss otherwise. I have organised to get the above logo stitched onto hats so will have those for sale shortly. Also added a link to Google maps from the links page. This shows you where we are in New Zealand if you are passing by and feel like sampling the soaring over the Wairarapa :-)

News 13/07/06

Sean had a dig around on the internet and found a satellite picture taken 2.00 pm on Monday the 10th. So you can see the sky we where flying in here. Nice wave rotor over the lake. Wave stops just past Dannevirke. Will try harder next time to go further north.

News 11/07/06

Went flying yesterday with Sean Nixon in the 1000. Had a great ride down Lake Wairarapa climbing to 15 k abeam Wellington Airport. Air traffic control where very obliging considering our mode C wasn't working. Turned and went north to Pahiatua. Meet up with our towpilot Craig Stobbs in his DG 400. Took some nice pictures. Starting having trouble with batterys and the 302 acted up giving all sorts of weird readings so had to turn back. Racked up 326kms so submitted that to the OLC contest. You can view the flight here.

News 10/07/06

I have added a links page. Also have added a Map of the airfield with live links to operators who have websites. Also shows where they are on the airfield. The Old Stick and Rudder hanger was built after this picture was taken. As soon as I can locate a suitable picture of the airfield which is more up to date I will upgrade it. The link in the middle of the map is to all the Hood Aerodrome infomation on the NZ AIP site.

News 05/07/06

Lots of rain here today. The rain gauge is holding up well on the weather station. I have put some more pictures in the photo album. And added some comments. The DG Factory visit especially.

News 03/07/06

Flew with Sean in the 1000 for 3 hours today in the wave. Not that good to start with. Got better as the day wore on. Craig joined us in the 400 and we had another photo session. Some pics here. Nice enjoyable afternoon. After the rain and crap we have had for the last month is was worth waiting for.

News 02/07/06

Flew with a passenger from Martinbough. Slow sled ride. A little bit happening but we where a little early. Craig decided to go for a fly in his DG 400 a hour later. Disapeared for a couple of hours in the wave. Got down on the ridge behind Gliding Hutt Valleys strip and ridge soared down to his mothers place in Whitemans valley and did a loop over head then got back up in the wave and flew through to Mt Bruce and back to Masterton. Meanwhile not a breath of wind on the ground at Masterton.

News 01/07/06

Went flying today. This was a photo sortie with the DG 1000. Hoped to get some nice shots in front of the Tararua Mountain Range to the west of Masterton while they are covered in snow. Cloud put paid to that idea so Alan Dempster towed us in the Pawnee while Craig Stobbs flew his 172 and Sean Nixon took the pics out the lefthand side. Some nice shots amongst the clouds. Had a friend of Seans in the front seat. Emma who works for Air NZ. She showed great promise as a part time model / pilot. Just need a better looking backseat driver. :-(

News 30/06/06

Added a second web cam to the weather page. If it slows down the loading of the page too much, just let me know and I will put them on separate pages. Also have a couple of items for sale on the For Sale page

News 29/06/06

Now added contact page and dedicated e-mail address.

Put some comments with the pictures on the photo page. We have more gliding bods signing up for the forum which is good. The more the merrier :-).

The weather station has been stuttering along. Seems to clog up the computor which runs it every now and then. No real pattern to it so is hard to pin down the reason. Of course then it stops updating the page. Getting it sorted slowly. Its on a wireless link from the hanger to my house then uses the ADSL to update the webpages both here and on the Wellington Gliding Clubs members page. So if you turn up here you can bring your laptop and use the wireless to check your e-mail etc. Just like Starbucks :-)

News 26/06/06

We have gotten this up and running so feel free to wander around and suss out whats here. The new NZ Gliding Forum is going now so join up and talk to like minded pilots from around NZ.

We also have a For Sale page. Send details of what you have for sale to me and I will set it up. Things connected to gliding would be ideal. If you have sold the item just drop me a note to have it removed. Its free.

The weather page is for the current conditions at Masterton. Also a few articles on LS and DG gliders. I will try and keep updating this site on a very regular basis. So if anyones got a nice pic they want to show off then please send it.

Hope you enjoy.

Paul