A conference of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration took me to Wellington, New Zealand in September. The conference finished on Sunday at 1 pm and I got straight onto a train to have a peek at the Wellington Gliding Club's operation at Parapararamu. The train trip took only 50 minutes and we went through innumerable tunnels as flat land is a rare commodity.
They have 2 Pawnee tugs and 11 club gliders including a Twin Astir, Janus A, 4 Blaniks, 2 PW5, Ka6CR, Club Libelle and Standard Libelle. The tugs are $5 per minute and dual tows are $2.50 each. The short rope glider flies in high tow position and releases first. The first hour of flying costs $27 and subsequent time is at $18 p.h. On each launch the pilot also has to pay $3.50 to the private owner of the airstrip and a further $3.25 to the Civil Aviation Authority as a flight service charge.
NZ pilots are permitted to fly in cloud provided:
I saw a neat tie down arrangement out on the line. It consisted of two strips of a heavy duty plasticised canvas about 50mm wide and 18' in length sewn together with eyelets at each end. Round pegs are hammered through the eyelets as a tie down. A further strip is sown on the top in case one wishes to feed a rope through it for a further or alternative tie down.
This gilding club claims that although their site is on the sea they are able to cross country using slope lift and wave further inland. Some wave comes off an island out to sea. They say, inland at Jury, they get as good as wave as Omarama.
Before I left Wellington I bought some relevant charts which anyone can borrow from me. New Zealand aeronautical charts are 1:500,000 and cost $17. For gilding a 1:250,000 is also desirable.
To make my arrangements I bought a telephone credit card as I could not see any coin operated public telephones. A word of warning about telephone charges in NZ. They are horrendous. One finds it hard to complete a telephone conversation from a public phone booth before a $5 plastic card runs out. There are two types of phone booth. In one you can have your ordinary credit card debited and in the other you use a purchased telephone card; I wasn't game to trust my credit card to that machine.
The next day saw me crossing Cook Straight on the ferry and then travelling by train along the coast to Christchurch. It was on this ferrry that I first saw an occluded front on a weather chart. Subsequently I was to see one whenever I saw a NZ weather chart. An occluded front occurs when a warm front overtakes a cold front. Despite this we had blue skies and warm weather, so warm in fact that the locals called it hot. The days had lift to 6 or 7,000 feet.
I had the good fortune to run into a glider pilot from Adelaide University Gliding Club who flies at Pomonal on the Queen's birthday long weekend. Justine Thompson got off one station before Christchurch, to act as a bridesmaid to an old friend, but it made for a pleasant journey with plenty of glider talk. I stayed in good backpackers accommodation in Christchurch. The Vagabond was $15 per night (Tel 379 9677) and Dreamland was $13. Both were in quiet locations and offered good, clean accommodation.
The following day was spent on travelling by bus to Omarama which as we all know was the site of the recent world championships. The bus travels across the rich Canterbury plains before getting to the dry and desolate McKenzie country which surrounds Ornarama. The bus trip I took from Christchurch to Omarama takes all day but that includes a diversion to the Mt Cook village. Mt Cook was first climbed on Christmas Day 100 years ago. So far it has claimed 200 lives.
One thing about buses: it is cheaper if you book beforehand. Full fare is $54 but this drops to $39 if you book the day before. The Atomic shuttle is quicker and cheaper at $35 one way. It departs Christchurch at 7.30 am and arrives Omarama at 11.30 am;
Omarama, population less than 400, in the South Island is renowned for its trout fishing and for gliding. The river system is open to trout fishermen on 1 October above the weir and 1 November below it (or vice versa). This might put pressure on accommodation. It has a number of hotels and motels as well as a motor camp which means that any level of accommodation is available. It is about 320 km south of Christchurch and 170 km north of Queenstown.
Omarama is ringed on three sides by snow covered mountains. In September the number of snow covered mountains was simply overwhelming. Range follows range and there seems no end to them. When you understand that Australia's highest mountain is about 7,500' and that in the Mt Cook National Park there are 140 mountains higher than Mt Kosciusko, then you realise how flat Oz is and how tall NZ is.
The mountains to the west are about 10 to 15 km away. The country side is tussocky grass with few trees, few houses and few roads. The country around it is dry because of the high mountains to the west. It is sparsely settled because the sheep stations can be as big as 30,000 acres. Omarama is famous for its superfine Merino fleeces of about 18-19 microns. Sheep are pastured up to 7,000' in summer and are mustered by various means such as helicoptering shepherds to the tops of the mountains who then drive the sheep downhill. Most mountains are too steep for motor vehicles. Most shearing is done with hand pieces as it is necessary to leave some wool on the sheep to prevent the animal perishing from the cold. If mechanical shears are used a pair of raised guides are fitted to raise the comb.
Omarama is also at the head of the Waitaki Valley which travels about 140 KM SE to Oamaru on the ocean and can transmit a sea breeze. The Waitaki is one of NZ's largest rivers.
The South island of NZ has about one million inhabitants and even with tourism the roads are not crowded. The country is rabbit infested and years ago stouts and weasels were introduced to curb the rabbit population; unfortunately they preferred native birds and animals such as the kiwi.
I stayed in the Omarama Holiday Park PO Box 34 or Fax (03) 4389 875 at $16 per night. Two people cost $30 and 3 cost $40. It was a hut about 9'x9' with communal well equipped kitchen etc. You need your own crockery and cutlery.
Doug Hamilton has now taken over from Richard Halstead at Omarama. Doug trades as Alpine Soaring and his telephone number is (03) 4389 600. His Email is Alpsoar@xtra. Co. NZ. While I was there he was using the South Canterbury Super Cub and his own Twin Astir ZK GMN. His address is 11 Teal Av., (PO Box 41) Omarama. They will soon be using a C182 to tow. All towing is in the high tow position. The tow was $3 per minute and the glider $80 per hour. Doug does not own a barograph and is not an Official Observer.
Doug Hamilton has beautiful wing covers for his Twin Astir made of a white boat cover plasticised canvas with polar fleece sewn on the inside. Eyelets are spaced about 10" apart and the two edges are laced on the bottom surface. They truly are superb.
The tug pilot was Frazer Dore who had 450 hours in power before he took up gliding. He said he learned more in 50 hours gliding than he had in 450 hours power.
No actual club operates at Omarama aerodrome. At Christmas time a number of clubs from North Otago and thereabouts hold a month long, Christmas camp there. South Canterbury operates at nearby Wardell's strip which is on the other side of town. These are cross-country rather than wave camps.
If you go to NZ you will need to take your log book or photocopies of relevant parts, your GFA card and if you have one - a medical certificate.
The best wave conditions occur in October and November. The glider chatter frequency is 133.55Mhz. The locals say they did not expect the wave at the World's in January.
For those of you who drink cordial, Kia Ora is a friendly hello which literally means "be well and alive".
Local knowledge is terribly important in mountain flying. The winds and their effects are variable depending on the shape and form of the interacting mountains. Wind direction can vary remarkably. One method of obtaining drift is to fly directly towards a peak. Using the snowline as a horizon is sensible because it is more or less uniform. A gust in close to the mountain can lift the tail of the glider and cause you to wrongly raise the nose. Doug kept telling me I was misreading rotor clouds as cumulus. The rotor at Bacchus Marsh may occur over 100 yards; even on the mild days we had at Omarama the rotor was 10 kilometres long and so were the clouds. The trick of course was to look at the trailing edge and see if the cloud wisps were going down. With few outlanding opportunities the concentration level was at an all time high; so much so that after 1¾ hours I was euchred.
The hardest thing to realise is that there is no wave system. What there is system upon system; that is there are many interacting systems. We were often below the tops of the Mountains and out of sight of home. Cap clouds sit on top of the mountains and the Fohn Gap is behind each one.
On my second day I had several check flights, the second with simulated down rotor via fully extended divebrakes, and then was sent solo. The next day it was suggested I go solo on the ridge but I said I preferred to learn with the aid of local knowledge, much to Doug's surprise as he had offered me the Twin with $20 per hour off the normal rate.
When, on another flight, we were flying on the slope, which in fact was a 5,000' mountain more or less standing alone, I learned further techniques. The most important I was shown was how to enter a gully without getting trapped. It involves never pointing the nose directly in but having a heading only slightly in that direction and letting the wind drift carry you in; because your nose is more or less pointing out you cannot get trapped. One does not follow the contours exactly but rather takes an average path. I was told not to let my speed get below 53 knots and not to exceed 30 degrees of bank. Doug thinks the Twin Astir handles better on the slope with a bit of top rudder.
Most gliders had oxygen fittings and because I was hoping for high altitude wave and because sunburn cream and lip cream contain greases which might cause oxygen to explode, I was sunburnt through lack of sun protection.
What I really hated was the altimeter in the Twin Astir. It had a small drum with gold lettering on a chocolate background for thousands of feet. To read this monstrosity one read the thousands on this rotary face and then went to the normal clockface type dial on the perimeter for hundreds of feet. The elevation of the field was 1,380'.
Andrew Ward (son of ex member Bob Ward) arrived from Queensland at the end of my second day's flying. He declined the offer of a flight that evening because of the long drive from Christchurch. (By the way his hire car had unlimited mileage at $21 per day.) Andrew fancied himself as a trivial pursuit man so he, Frazer and myself joined forces with a Maori women shearer and entered our team in the Golden Shears fund raising competition at the Omarama Hotel. We struggled in vain with names of NZ rugby players, names of NZ lakes and whatever and missed out on the trophy by a halfhead. The next day was too foggy to fly so we drove down to Wanaka, a round trip of probably 250 km. I had offered to pick up a wool painting at Wanaka for someone at the Conference little realising that by bus it would be a two day trip. Because We thought we still might fly we only spent half an hour at the famous Wanaka air museum but it was certainly worth the visit. They had a YAK 3 which was not unlike the P51 Mustang in looks.
Many of the glider trailers and fittings are wood which is kind to the gliders. (We had a wooden trailer for the Vasama and it towed beautifully.) And by the way, the pdce of unleaded petrol is 95 cents in the Country. Super is 99.9c.
I arrived at the Christchurch airport at midday for a 4 pm flight as I wanted to see the famous Antarctic showcase. It was superb. Christchurch has numerous Galaxy flights to the Antarctic by the USA so the C5a is a common sight. The Air France Concorde was also there en route to Tahiti.
Because I had arrived so early I was offered a flight to Auckland at 5 pm because my flight to Melbourne was overbooked. I was promised a guaranteed seat from Auckland the next morning, overnight hotel expenses paid and $363 for my troubles. I was told to report back at the counter 30 minutes before departure. Unfortunately they had some no-shows and I missed out on my trip to Auckland, etc.
What I learned from this trip is that one can have a NZ holiday for the cost of a cheap aifare and $120 for a passport. NZ is set up for the budget conscious tourist, of whom the Japanese are the most common. For any flatlander glider pilot who wants something different I recommend a trip to the land of the long white cloud.