AUCKLAND REGIONAL PARAGLIDING COMPETITION

Just over a week until the scheduled Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition – November 2015.

Although the long distance forecast is not looking great it’s now time to start getting ready.

We have a wonderfully large number of pilots registered for this competition, so below are some pointers to help you get organised.

The decision whether we are on or not, and the likely area will be made at 2000hrs on Thursday 26^th November 2015 and this will be posted on the Airtribune website.

http://airtribune.com/auckland2015/

The meeting point on the Saturday 28^th / Sunday 29^th will be either:

• Puhoi Pub – for Auckland area 
• TBD – for Pukemore area 
• Corner Ngapouri Road – for Paeroas 
• Ronnies Café, Matamata – for Kaimais

Meeting time is 10:00 for most pilots, and 09:30 if it’s your first comp or you need explanations or help.

Waypoints
New waypoint files have been created for both Auckland and Paeroa/Kaimais areas, you should download these from either the Airtribune Competition Page or the NZHGPA website.

http://www.nzhgpa.org.nz/competitions/pg-competitions/downloads http://airtribune.com/auckland2015/info

Maps will be available shortly for download at the same locations.

Unless you have a modern instrument that can hold large numbers of waypoints then you will need to choose which files you upload once the announcement is made as to where the comp will be held.

We STRONGLY recommend practising and doing this in advance of the competition. While help is available in advance – it will be very difficult to provide technical assistance on the weekend itself – so please be ready.

Downloads of IGC files
As usual, we will use Highcloud for scoring.

Please be very familiar with the process of downloading an IGC file from you instrument after your flight.

Again – technical assistance on the weekend itself will be limited so please practise this in advance.

If you have a Flymaster instrument then a computer will be available to assist with downloads, though it’s still better to have your own facility for doing this.

If you have any other type of instrument, particularly Garmin, then the comp organisers expect you to be able to do this yourself. Failure to upload a tracklog after a task results in a zero score.

NZHGPA Membership
Some of those registered for the competition are still not members of the NZHGPA. If you are not a member of the NZHGPA on the weekend of the comp then you will not be allowed to partake (and you shouldn’t actually be flying a paraglider in New Zealand at all). No exceptions.

All wings need to have a valid WOF. All pilots need to have an altimeter, GPS, back protection, reserve parachute and 2-way UHF radio.

Questions and issues? Please don’t wait until the day itself.

Contact Johnny Hopper on 021 056 2275
Or Kyla MacDonald on 021 056 2320

Cheers, Johnny

NOT JUST FOR THE BIRDS

BOP in the news.

Bay Of Plenty Times article.

ACTUALLY... PHIL HYSTEK WON

The overseas league that was held during the Canungra Cup has been rescored.

We accidentally missed Phil Hystek.

He is actually an Aussie but is a full member of the NZHGPA.

Turns out that he actually won it. Well done, Phil.

I've updated the national ladder too, with this correction.
You can download that here.

CANUNGRA CUP TASK 6 & FINAL

We woke to beautiful blue skies on the final task day at Canungra, but the blue quickly disappeared until we had full cloud cover.

Oh well, let’s check out Beechmont and see what we can do.

A few free-fliers showed us they could stay up in the ridge lift, but it didn’t look exciting, and certainly not like something you should throw 90 pilots at.

We waited. Our patience was rewarded with reasonable flying conditions. The 58km task was to 36 OVAL in the Kerry Valley, then goal at 25 CROF.

No pilots made goal, but the Kiwis came out strong, with John Smith coming 2nd in the task, Mark Hardman 5th, and Evan Lamberton 6th. Nice work, boys.

We hurried back for the closing ceremony at the Canungra Hotel – plenty of well deserved cold beer and hot food.

The competition was won by Brazilian pilot Felipe Rezende on his Enzo2. John Smith was the highest ranking Kiwi, coming in 19th place, closely followed by Evan in 20th.

Final results are here: http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=173

Overall the Canungra Cup lived up to its reputation of being an incredibly well-run competition. The organisation is fantastic and retrieves are superb.

The conditions weren’t great for us, but the Task Committee made the most of what we had and turned it into some good flying. With 6 days of flying and close to 90 pilots, there were over 500 launches and landings with no reserve throws, no mid-airs and in fact no accidents to speak of, which in itself is a great result.

We’ll be back.