PG OPEN 2017 WILL BE IN ROTORUA

In 2017 there will be only one round of the PG Open (the National Championship).

The successful bid was from the Auckland Club, and the event will be held in Rotorua, Sunday 26th Feb - Sunday 5th March 2017.

The most likely sites will be the Paeroas and Kaimais ranges.

The competition director will be Xen Zambas, and the main organiser will be Graham Surrey.

The PCC would like to thank Xen, Graham and others for volunteering to run this event for us.

Details will soon follow, particularly regarding registration.

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

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

THE LAST BLAST 21 - 22 MARCH

Saturday Task Briefing

Wow, it was another wildly successful weekend for flying competitions!

The Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition – The Last Blast, was held at the Paeroas over the weekend.

It was a great turnout, with representation from Hawkes Bay, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and of course Auckland.

The hang gliders had also been eyeing up the forecast, and joined us for a League of their own.

Saturday’s task was pretty straightforward, taking us up over the back and about 53km south to Rangitaiki.

Jeff Ripley won the day with his 38km flight. Emlyn Revell-Nash put in a notable effort, but was penalised heavily for a couple of indiscretions and ended up losing all his points. Still, he won the coveted ‘Thermal Core-gette’ prize for his struggles. Keep an eye on this guy, I reckon.

The massive Thermal Core-gette

Sunday had us up and down the ridge, then up and over to Deep Creek and back to Broadlands.

Again, Jeff reminded us that he is indeed the Talented Mr Ripley, being first to goal.

Debriefing and prize giving was done up the road at the Reporoa Pub. Congratulations Jeff, for winning both the overall comp and the Fun Class trophies! 

And the Winner is...

Final scores here: http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=160

Kudos went to Mavis and Steve Wright for getting all the vehicles down from launch, and to Janice for being a super launch marshall.

It was great to see a lot of pilots dipping their toes (or wings?) into the competition scene for the first time. Hope to see you back for more next season.

Thanks again, Johnny, for organising. And for remembering to line up good weather this time.

I know the hangies also had a superb weekend with some great flights, but no news yet on who won the HG league. I can’t handle the suspense!