PG2 - Bumpy air, smooth air

Tuesday, November 19, 2013 | Posted in

Once more the PG2 group gathered for some flying over the weekend. The action this time was at Maioro with a southerly wind providing for a very bumpy ride. Because of the angle between the wind and the cliff the lift band was very narrow and so one had to work hard to stay in the air. Over the course of the day I managed to get three long flights in but unfortunately I only managed to top land one of them, on the other two I bombed out and had to do a decent bit of walking to get back to the start place. Overall it was a good learning experience flying in very bumpy air with not much lift.

As a little treat for myself I had taken the Monday off from work so that I could go flying if the weather proved to be suitable. The weather forecast for Monday showed great promise for some good flying.

On Monday a convergence hanging around over the city so our instructor decided that with some luck the wind would turn northerly which would make North head an excellent place to fly. After some para-waiting the weather gods decided that the southerly wind would break through the convergence which thereby ended our hopes for flying at North head. Fortunately there are quite a few places around Auckland where flying is possible so our instructor suggested going to Maori bay. When we got to Maori bay it turned out that the wind was smooth and from a suitable direction, so indeed the site was flyable. My first flight was a tandem flight with my instructor. While flying he showed me how to pick the right soaring lines and what to look out for. In the 30 or so minutes that we flew the tandem I learned heaps, and I did most of the flying, except for the start and the landing.

After the tandem flight I managed to get two shorter flights in with my own glider. The launches were a bit more tricky than I was used to because the start place was on angled ground with the wind coming in slightly off angle. However I managed to get the glider to launch without too much trouble in both situations and I did some amazing flying in yet another beautiful New Zealand beach location.

comments powered by Disqus