Southerlies pose good challenge
DESPITE some unusual wind conditions, the South Island Gliding Championships at Omarama secured the three competition flying days required before wrapping up at the weekend.
Thursday was the last competition day for the championships, but even Saturday had been rewarding for those who took to the skies at the gliding hot spot, Gliding New Zealand spokesman Nigel Davy said.
Six youth glide members — under 25 years old — spent the week learning ‘‘how to fly competitions’’ and were able to continue their informal competition.
‘‘It’s just an informal thing to give the kids one more day flying, really,’’ Mr Davy said. ‘‘It was just too dangerous to launch 29 gliders into the air. There just wasn’t enough lift around the airfield.’’
Mr Davy, who regularly flies from Omarama, said ‘‘it was a fantastic week, weatherwise just amazing’’, but the wind presented a challenge.
‘‘The wind direction was not normal for this time of year. It was a lot of south, southeasterly winds. It was quite different flying, reasonably challenging on days, but really, really good.
‘‘It made a lot of the pilots very even because it’s not a wind direction you’d normally take off and go ‘hey, it’s in southeast, I’ll go and fly a 350km task’.
‘‘People generally won’t fly in it, and we don’t normally have it at this time of year; we normally have westerlies in waves.’’
Tragedy hit the 2017 championships when 78yearold David MacLean Wilson, of Melbourne, was killed in a crash near Makarora on Tuesday during competition flying, but Mr Davy said the tightknit gliding community had mostly enjoyed its time in Omarama, taking in amenities like the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail and local wine tastings when not flying.
‘‘It’s always in the back of everyone’s minds, you just can’t have something like that that isn’t still in people’s heads.’’
Keith Essex, flying an ASG 29, was the open champion, ahead of Wills and Wardman in a Duo Discus X and Grae Harrison in a Ventus 2cxt. Alex Boyes, piloting an LS 8, won the racing competition ahead of McCormack and Patterson in a Duo Discus and Terry Jones in an LS 8.