New Zealand trip

[mcelrah]

Hired a professional guide and flew three sites for a total of 90 minutes. Weather in the high 60s. First site, Allandale, was morning ridge soaring (1450 AGL) before the sea breeze would blow it out. Proceeded to Little River (all these are on the Banks Peninsula SE of Christchurch), a higher site (2500) with thermals - I got to cloudbase at 3700 and pretty much stayed there. There was a convergence between sea and land breezes. Last site was Taylor's Mistake (sea captain mistook the little beach for the real harbor) which is the local school/kiting site. Ellis' wing arrived and she is very happy with it. Nigel and Carolyn bore up well after 26 hours of flying from UK via LAX. Other participants are from Operation Deepfreeze (we call them "the Antarcticans"): Ron Hight, whom we have met in the mid-Atlantic (he was at the Mountaineers Memorial Day party at Seneca Rocks), and husband and wife team of Nicky and Becky. One more day here, then off to Wanaka and eventually Queenstown. - Hugh


Date: Monday, February 16, 2009, 12:20 AM


Well, we made it Christchurch after a scheduled 26 hours in the airline system. Ambien bought me maybe 4 hours of sleep and seemed to make me less uncomfortable in the seat. Took awhile to get our camper van, but we are now ensconced in a backpacker hotel at Sumner Beach, not far from "cheech" as they call it, which appears to be a good spot for surfing. Ellis' newly ordered wing is on it's way - UPS latest report is that it is in Hong Kong. It's blown out for paragliding at the top of the gondola, but that's just as well: we're both pretty zonked (even though Ellis won't admit it and would fly if she had her wing and the wind was reasonable). Ron has been here for almost a week and has the place pretty well wired - he's on his way to Nepal in a week and a half, which sounds like yet another place to put on the list... Nigel and Carolyn arrive tomorrow. There are two young women here from Boulder CO, world travelling but staying here to study paragliding with one of the local outfits. We are not the only older sorts in the "Marriner Bar and Backpacker Hotel"...
- Hugh

[mcelrah]

Yesterday Wednesday the 18th was overcast, so we went two hours NW of Christchurch to a site below the gondola of the Mt. Cheeseman ski area (2000 AGL) in the Craigieburn Forest region. As soon as we came over the pass through the clouds, we were greeted with blue sky. The launch was a bit difficult - rocky slope, no/low wind) and the flights were somewhat shorter. We are growing to understand the idea of opposite upper-level and surface winds. Ellis worked a convergence on her second flight. Ron suffered some minor damage tohis wing from the rocks. Carolyn had the flight of the day first off launch getting ihihg in a thermal out front, but then mistook the LZ and landed out by the main road - took us awhile to find her. But we were flying in one of the many "Lord of the Rings" scenes - Ellis thought maybe the Horse Lords' redoubt - and the "natural stonehenge" Castle Hill was within sight. Ellis and I both have colds - probably from the long airline ordeal. We are eating exceptionally well - Kiwi food has improved tremendously since I was here 20 years ago. We had an interesting visit to the Antarctic Program support office to pick up Nicky's wing, which had been sent out for repair. They have to have full Antarctic cold suits to get on the airplane. Cheers - Hugh

[jimrooney]

Welcome to Kiwi-Land guys

Weather warning... we're about to get clobbered by a low...
http://www.metservice.co.nz/default/ind ... hartlatest
Enjoy flying today, cuz we're not flying tomorrow. Hopefully the system will move along quickly.

BTW, I'm going to be stuck under some books for the next few days (big test Tuesday).
See ya whenever ya get here.
Jim

[mcelrah]

Yesterday Thursday 19 February was an 8-hour drive from near Christchurch SW across the Canturbury plain to Wanaka in the mountain lake district. Got a nice photos of "fourteeners" Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman across a lake. As the day before, we drove out of overcast into blue skies and sunshine (broke out shorts and t-shirt for the first time), but rain started last night and promises to hang around a couple of days. Looks like a wine-tasting day. Theory class for the SIV course ("simulation d'incident en vol") is tomorrow in Queenstown. Been reading the USHPA mag article on the three types of malfunction: stalls, spins and collapses... We plan to stay in Arrowtown, a few miles north, to avoid crowds - it's an old gold-mining town - looks like a Western movie set - there's a backpacker hostel run by a pilot and it's the closest town to Coronet Peak and Treble Cone flying sites. I've broken the back of my cold, but Ellis still has a wicked sore throat. - Hugh

[mcelrah]

Yesterday, the 20th, we drove over the highest highway in New Zealand from Wanaka down to Arrowtown, an 1862 gold mining town quite near Queenstown. Went for a short hike and saw the remains of the Chinese miners' settlement on the edge of town. Ron got his wing repaired in Wanaka. Today is the theory class for the SIV course - good thing, since it is *still* raining. Also, Ellis has been pretty sick, so the down time is good for her - she just sleeps in the back of the van. Looking a bit more chipper this morning.



On the non-flying front, New Zealand is a giant half price sale for Americans (Kiwi dollar got hammered in the financial meltdown). I am trying to test my cholesterol tolerance with a continuous breakfast diet of eggs benedict with smoked NZ salmon instead. Cars and houses look like good value also. If it's still cloudy but not actually raining, we may go horseback riding.

Nigel's blog with pictures at flyingdudes.blogspot.com

- Hugh

[Spark]

Get well soon Ellis

Hugh, thanks - keep those stories coming.

[mcelrah]

Mark and Swanny, the Paraventure guys teaching the maneuvers course, are quite professional. After introductions, Mark went over each of the maneuvers - entry and recovery - from big ears, through assymetrical collapses, near stalls, parachutals, full stalls, spins, spiral dives - followed by a clip from Jocky Sanderson's "Sarfety in Flight" video. They inspected our gear, removing back protection padding and air bags (if you go in the water, this stuff will float you - upside down), checked the integration of our reserve parachutes, and did repacks if required. Tuesday will probably be the first day for the actual clinic, but we may get to fly Coronet Peak on Monday, and could get some of the lower end maneuvers out of the way, since we don't have to be over water for them.

- Hugh

[mcelrah]

Been having trouble posting to this forum.

On the 24th, the Paraventure boys tried valiantly but the seather kept Kingston Peak in clouds. After a struggle to get up the wet track (4WD made it but not AWD), a couple of the local acro pilots did cloud dives - this involved having a lookout posted who would shout when he could see the beach 2500 feet below. If the pilot about to launch 100 meters away could see the lookout and the lookout saw the beach at that moment, he went for it and the lookout gave hima last direction as he flew past. We didn't try it.

We salvaged the day with a nearly two hour flight at Coronet Peak, being talked through some of the gentler maneuvers (big ears, with speed bar; assymetrical collapses, with speed bar) and then clawing our way back up to ridge height in the wonderful reliable lift.

The 25th was our weather window. Paraventure mustered two beefy Land Cruisers which made short work of the (now drying) track, plus safety boat, drivers, launch marshal, and Mark's soothing voice in our ears. The Kiwi's enthusiastic four wheeling shook us up pretty well as we bounced up the track, but that made the somewhat more radical maneuvers less jarring. We did full frontals, with speed bar, deep spirals, B-line stalls, pitching, pre-stalls (which for me developed into spin entries) and stalls. These last are quite "interesting" with your wing turning into so much laundry overhead and a plummeting sensation. The recovery jangles you around a bit too. Ellis got stuck on the mountain for her last flight - wind had increased and shifted - so had to drive down after several unsuccessful launch attempts.

Yesterday, the 26th, we took a couple of sleds at Coronet Peak, then took the chairlift up to the very top (5500 MSL/4200 AGL) for a nice long one. It had started misting rain, so we finished the day with excellent sandwiches from the cafe at the flight park, brie and hoey on crackers. Jim Rooney appeared, also skunked from his HG tandem job by the weather. We finished out the evening with him, visited his excellently located "animal house" in town.

- Hugh

[mcelrah]

Friday 27 February - watched video of our maneuvers, then off to the flight park.
Couple of sleds/extendos from the lower launch at Coronet Peak (2100 agl), then hiked up about 100 meters higher, but had to make no wind launches.
Shifted to Crown Terrace further down the valley, which is better placed for the sea breeze, and it was working with thermals - got to 1000 feet above launch, top landed in a big sheep paddock a couple of times, drank water and applied more sun screen.
Planning to fly the gondola in town tomorrow AM (land in the rugby field), then try for Treble Cone in Wanaka (shaping course for Christchurch - flying out Sunday afternoon) .
- Hugh

[mcelrah]

Saturday 28 February - our last full day. Spent the night at a backpackers hostel in Queenstown - bit more of the itinerant youth culture than we had before - all good. Rose early to be at Rooney's door at 0830 to be at the gondola when it opened at 0900. (Antarcticans Becky and Nick, too.) Upper chair lift not open yet, so we humped gliders up another 300 meters to the launch (huff puff) where Rooney hustled us off lest the undercast fill in over the LZ (rugby field amongst buildings, light poles etc in the middle of Queenstown), which we could not see from launch. One of the paraglider tandem pilots (they launch from just above the gondola) offered to call Rooney on his cell phone if it filled in suddenly. So, a 1900 foot cloud dive over a city. Got some good in-flight pictures of Ellis over the undercast. She and I landed together, avoiding the rugby uprights. Field is well -irrigated and beautifully green, but our gliders were a bit damp, so we *had* to dry them by shifting to Coronet Peak after a late breakfast for a sled. 1530/3:30 PM by the time we tore ourselves away from our adopted home and took the scenic route via Wanaka and the west coast. Not so scenic after midnight driving windy mountain roads in the dark and wind-driven rain, but we'll sleep better on the plane. Ellis and I took turns sleeping in the back while the other did "wingovers" down the mountain. Home today.

[jimrooney]

Haha, happy to have you guys. So glad you got to see some of the good flying in Queenstown and not that sh*t rain crap it started off with. Yeah, I was a *bit* concerned that we'd hike up the godola and get socked in. Glad it worked out in the end.

Ya'll have a fun trip back
See ya soon.
Jim

[mcelrah]

Pictures at http://mcelrah.smugmug.com (album entitled "New Zealand" duh). Ellis will have more and better pics, too. Thankful for snow day to recover before crashing into reality of work. - Hugh

[pink_albatross]

Very cool pictures!
Ellis will have some photos, but not a lot and not better.
Was more interested in flying than taking pix.
-- ellis

[pink_albatross]

Ellis's pix: http://picasaweb.google.com/pink.albatr ... bruary2009#

[markc]

Wow, I'm drooling over the mnts and the scenery. Thanks to you both for
the many pics, and the vicarious fun, following your adventures!

MarkC