The 22nd:

The quartet that flew that day gradually trickled in and the first flight took off just before 1300hrs. Tim Hardwick-Smith in NN, taking John Spence as non-jettison-able ballast had the best flight. They worked up to the mountain then along to Nth Egmont at about 5,000ft. Some good spots of sink there too. Headed for home via Ratapiko. By then Tim was keen for a rest so handed thr controls to the non-jettison-able ballast who informs me that it managed a couple of good climbs before heading back to the field. The local convergence topped out at just above 4000ft but higher up against the mountain. Four flights for the day and 4.5 hours glider time.

The 26th:

I was told it was a so - so sort of day but there was a useful amount of flying nonetheless. Four Trial Flights, two were for members of the Tullett clan who were treated to good flights in the Janus. A check flight for Dennis Green which he followed up with another solo in WZ Peter Williams got twenty-four minutes in the Janus with a useful amount of soaring. Two flights in TE for Dougal Wickham which gave him an hour & forty-four minutes.  Will Hopkirk did one of the T/F flights.  Glyn Jackson finished the day off with an eighteen minute fligh Les has kindly provided his take on his solo in the Janus >Another interesting day with others doing better than my attempt in NN. Took a tow towards Midhurst under some promising looking cloud although the sky was becoming over developed. I thought that what I released under was possibly a convergence and while I had released in lift and gained some height I lost that and proceeded to find more areas of sink than lift. As I got lower there appeared to be reasonable looking cloud over Stratford township and as TE appeared to be getting a good climb there, I tried to do the same. I did manage to gain about 500ft but it became too weak to maintain height. TE meanwhile had got to cloudbase and headed north to where I had been while I headed towards a patch of feeble sunshine to the northeast of the field. I found enough to hold altitude for another minute or two, but was well placed to join the circuit for 16. The local thermal that always seems to be just north of the 09 threshold was pumping away, but all I could do was fly through it and be more comfortable on base leg and the turn onto finals.

Soon after landing the sky started to clear from the east and by the time the gliders were in the hangar it looked quite a lot better, although no-one thought that it was good enough to get any of them out again.

Lynn & I were in an Air NZ flight bound for NP and passed Stratford to the east of the field at about 5.50pm. Everyone appeared to have left. A look at the webcam earlier in the day showed the hangar doors open and a cluster of people & cars at the start of 09. Six hours thirty-one minutes for the day with eleven flights.  Tim Hardwick-Smith on towing duties.I gather that the previous day, people had been down at Ohakea for the Air Force day there.  Peter Cook happily at Taupo doing a 150km cross-country.  The Taumarunui trip is on from the 4th through the 12th of March.with probable plans to aerotow the Twin and trailer the PW5.  Some P/O aircraft likely to make the trip.

The attached link goes some way to explain why gliding has some competition for participation interest.

Papa Mike.       http://kottke.org/16/10/danny- macaskills-wee-day-out