Day 2 - Mt Murchison

Task: Mt Murchison to Murchison Town, on to Braeburn point to bomb out Mt Murchison;  46km.

No one was keen to take off until a couple of intermediate pilots took off and it was proved that there was light lift out there. 

The top pilots took-off and got into a slow climb getting to over 8000ft and going on glide to wpt 1 while the rest of us stood on the hill.  A few more pilots took off but scratched and it took a while for them to get into a climb. The next pilot could not get off the hill for about 15 minutes due to it being crossed on take-off. A couple of dusties came through and the wind straightened up and he hooked into a straight climb to 8500ft. 

It took the rest of the pilots a while to get off the hill and a few of them moved to the right of take-off to allow for the crossed wind. Unfortunately this was where the dusties were coming from. One came through and trashed a glider.

Everyone else got off with most pilots making it to turn point 1. This included 3 floaters.  Due to the minimal landings past turn point 1 a lot of pilots could not get enough height to leave for wpt 2 and landed and went to the Murch pub. Those who carried on found good but broken lift to wpt 2 and a lot of height was not needed for the glide to goal.

Pilots who got to goal (about 15) found it hard to get down as the valley was very buoyant. 
John Smith was the first in followed by Paris and Hagen.

A few pilots in goal looked up to the peak of Mt Murchison and saw the mother of all dusties over 60 meters in height. Luckily everyone was off the hill and the cars on their way down.

There is talk of going to Mt Murchison tomorrow. Results to follow.

Day 1 Results

Day 1 results are over on the left.

Omarama Classic Results

Here's a link to the Classic results. Bill Degen 1st overall, 2nd Warren Simonsen.

Day 1 - Sherry River

A great first day at Sherry River with a 38 pilots taking off into a light north easterly.
 
John Smith led the charge, giving an impressive display of working light lift. The rest of us followed and were surprised with amount of lift around. Most pilots got to around 4200ft above the hill and pushed out to the next ridge in front of take-off to get there next thermal.

The first turn point was Tapawera township and then down to Inwoods and back to Tapawera . 

It was impressive to see gaggles along the line of hills to Tapawera. Gliders littered the roadside to Tapawera and down to Kohatu. Two pilots landed on the northern side of Inwoods in not such a pretty paddock. John Smith landed 4km from goal after getting flushed off the hills to the east of Tapawera.

14 pilots crossed the Strait to compete against the best of the south but at this stage it looks like John Smith won the day (unconfirmed) .

Someone was heard to say it was a 50/50 comp. 50 pilots with an average age of 50!
Carbon and aluminium were sacrificed on the to the thermal gods today.

It looks like we are heading up to Mt Murchison tomorrow for day two.

NZ Nationals Cup

Mark Alton has had all past winners (up to Smithy last year) engraved on the new Cup. They extend around 1 1/2 sides of the plinth so far. Plenty of room for more...

Nelson Waypoints

If you follow this link Waypoints on NZHGPA website to and look for the Nelson waypoints, you can download all waypoints which may be used in the competition.

They're listing as 'Paragliding' but they're the same ones.

Do yourself a huge favour and load them to your GPS now - and learn how to do it if you have to.

2016 Pilot List

There's now a link to the registered pilots list over on the left. This will be updated as pilots register.