Kicking off the comp season

Goal at the end of the peninsula.
Pretty special.
Photo: Matt Senior

Auckland kicked off the season big style with the first competition of 2016/2017.

Great to see representation from Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Tasman & Southern clubs, some new faces to the scene, and of course loads of the usual characters making up the 36 competition pilots.

Saturday morning started with a lot more cloud cover than we were expecting, and it stuck around a lot longer than we wanted it to. When we rocked up to Moirs it was a bit fresh, but looked reasonable for a 42km task up to Mangawhai. We just weren't sure whether to get straight into it, or wait for more sun to break through.

The tourists were so excited by the possibilities our world-famous Auckland sites offer, that we had three out-of-towners (Hamish, Matt & Abe) leading the launch, within seconds of the window opening. Conditions for launching were tricky, with lots of pilots needing second and third attempts.

Jeff decided to launch with a nice big cravat, which took a while to clean out, but it didn't distract him from going on to win the task, making it 35.27km along the courseline.

Sunday's sky had more blue in it. What a gorgeous day for a flight out to Tawharanui. A whole heap of pilots thought so, with 14 making it to the End of Speed section, and 9 of those following Jeff into goal.


Overall, Jeff came out on top. His name is becoming a familiar sight on the Auckland Regional Competition trophy. In hot pursuit was Bruce Vickerman, King of the Waikato, coming second & also top of the sport class. Rob Gillard is never far away from Brucie, and this comp was no exception - he came third & top of the fun class (in his first ever PG comp - great going!).

Results are in: Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition Dec 2016 Results

Big thanks to Johnny for organising, and remembering to bribe the Ministry of Weather and getting us two great days of flying; Janice for keeping us organised on launch; Diane for keeping our wings organised on launch; and Rodger (aka Santa) for helping everyone got off safely.

And as always, thanks to all the pilots for good times & good flying.

Hurry up & take the photo - it's ON!

PAEROA HANG GLIDER LEAGUE

 The Auckland Club held a successful Hang Glider League at the Paeroas during the weekend of the 5th and 6th of March.

Results:

Day 1
Day 2
Overall

AUCKLAND REGIONAL PG COMPETITION

There will be an Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition on the weekend of the 12 and13th of March 2016.

The following weekend is the reserve date.

FAI Cat-2 sanction is pending.

Sites will be either Dills, Moirs, Pukemore, Kaimais or Paeroas.

All qualified NZHGPA PG pilots are welcome.

All details available at https://airtribune.com/auckland/ where you can also register, please.

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

BRIDGES WORKING BEE

Yesterday the Auckland Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club held a site working bee at Bridges.

Read about it here.

AUCKLAND HG LEAGUE - PAEROA RANGE

The forecast improved from average to quite reasonable. 

The Auckland PG’s were quick to realise this and called their league. We followed suit. 

Unfortunately, predicting 2 flyable days in a row, on a weekend, in Auckland, wasn’t going to eventuate for us, this summer.

An early rise Saturday morning and drive to the Paeroas was untaken for a meeting time of 11am. We were only slightly late due to Marks ‘scenic route’ which took us in a complete circle! 

The sky was starting to look promising with the odd cumulus cloud forming. The PG’s briefed and were off while for us a task was set to Rangitaiki, some 56km away on the Taupo-Napier road.

We launched, some boated around waiting for maximum height, others left quickly. The thermals were broken, some with strong cores which appeared to move about, proving difficult to stay centred in the strongest lift. 

Most pilots made it to the vicinity of Mt Tauhara, Geoff and Rick venturing up the Taupo-Napier highway and Mark debating whether to venture over the forest. 

The PG folks didn’t seem to have any qualms about landing in the forest and walking out but that was too daunting for us.

The only bummer for the day was James having his glider stolen from the roadside after he walked 200m down the road to check road signs. He witnessed a van going past with a HG poking out the window and did not realise it was his until he returned to find it gone. Fortunately the glider turned up as the remover thought better of it and contacted the police. It may have suffered a little damage due to poor handling but at least he got it back.

Next day saw similar conditions and a task was set with a turn-point at Whites Road (@26km) then back to Reporoa (@21km). Climbs appeared a little bit slower and perhaps a little further apart but again, most got away with 3 getting to turn-point 1 and Geoff showing his skills at reading the conditions and making goal.

All in all, a great weekend's flying. Thanks to our PG friends support crews for bringing all the cars off the hill enabling us to be home by 10pm instead of midnight. Scoring to follow once we get all track logs in.

Reporter

Les Graham

Results:

Day 1	Day 2	Total
Rick 900	Baz 733	Baz 1362
Geoff 882	Les 578	Geoff 1311
Mark 767	Bill 488	Les 1286
Les 708	Geoff 429	Rick 1190
Baz 629	Rick 291	Bill 1116
Bill 628	Dave 175	Mark 767
Dave 193	Neville 142	Dave 368
Neville 155	Aaron 142	Neville 296
Aaron 155	Mark 0	Aaron 296
James 155	James 0	James 155

NEW TROPHY FOR AUCKLAND REGIONAL PG COMPS

Fashioned from only the finest Chinese metals, this new Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition trophy will be awarded to the winner of each competition.

The names of the winners will be engraved on the back for posterity.

MAGNIFICENT MOIRS

The Auckland Club had a big turn out of paraglider pilots, on Sunday 9th November 2014, at Moir Hill.

The RASP forecast was predicting light winds, base at 5000ft, and a convergence stretching north.

The site record not only fell, it went down in a screaming heap. Whacked by 9km, almost 20%.

All of the pilots who logged a flight on Leonardo did Site Personal Bests, the majority also doing Leonardo NZ Personal Bests. 9 pilots logged 328km OD.

Have a look at the flights.

FREE AS A BIRD

Graham gets into the AA Directions Magazine.

Link to article: Free As A Bird

WOF GOES OFF

Reuben sharing his knowledge.

A record number turned up, on a perfect evening, for the AHGPC WOF night.

And the BBQ was good too.

FERRY DISCOUNT FOR NATIONAL COMPETITIONS

Pilots heading down from the North Island to the mainland for either the National Hang Gliding Championship, or the PG Open in Wanaka are eligible for substantial discounts with Blue Bridge Ferries. Apply early!

Hangies should contact Mark Alton

Paragliders should contact Derek Divers

FLIGHT OF THE SEAGULL

Paddy gets to relive his "childhood" ? 

Heres' the full story:

Also here:

REUNION TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE

The Auckland Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club is holding a 40th Anniversary/Reunion.

Its been 40 years since the AHGPC was established; shortly after modern hang gliding was introduced to New Zealand circa 1973.

So we are having a reunion of past and present members, a bit of nostalgia, some catching up with friends and aquaintances, and of course some fun.

Plans include a social gathering with some short presentations from founding and current members, archival videos/movies and photos, and at least one Rogallo Glider.

For more information and tickets go to: Cloudbase