Another Day in Heaven - Day 7.

It would seem that the most coveted prize amongst the majority of pilots is the "chocolate fish" award.
For those readers not familiar with Kiwi Confectionery. A chocolate fish is marshmellow in the shape of a fish and covered in milk chocolate. One fish a day is awarded by the Contest Director at his wim to someone who has "touched his heart". Usually someone who has had a hell of a day and then arrived back at Omarama. Or anything at all really?

Yesterdays chocolate fish went to Derek Kraak who struggled in his ASW27 above Glendhu Bay near Wanaka. He tells us it is very pretty but after 2 hours he gave up on the task and came home. He is now a proud owner of a SPOT. So keep an eye on the adventures of KW.

Last evening an ELT was activated and was tracked to one of our hangars. Trevor Mollard declares it was not a heavy landing and that it was probably a wiring fault.

Yesterday all pilots seem to have thoroughly enjoyed themselves on task and this was enhanced by the Queenstown Controller giving us access to their airspace up to 11,000ft. Trevor reports actually getting to 11,000 ft in the area while on task. Others were above the 8,500 lower limit from time to time so also benefited from being able to use the airspace. The benefit to the organisation was the elimination of outlandings...

This morning Trevor has again had good talks with Queenstown Tower and obtained access again to 11,000ft in the Branches area North Of Queenstown up to 11,000ft. This with one Australian flight due to arrive today. It makes a huge difference having an airline captain dealing with airspace as they talk it and understand it very well. A Poor little old PPL Contest Director just doesn't have the firepower that Trevor has.

Have had some comments from my French friends asking what language I am writing this blog in, as it doesn't appear to be in English as they understand it. Even online dictionaries are not helping........Can someone help with translations for "arrogant buggar" please.... I will try to include as much English english as possible..

Every class has two tasks today which have been set to reflect the possibility of weather closing in.
Task A for Open class is Omarama,Tarras, Siberia,Branches,Stewarts, Omarama.
And for those not familiar with Omarama thats Southwest, Northwest Then South Then North, then South to Omarama
The other tasks are similiar.

We have set Grid time at 12:30 today guessing at a launch after 1pm. From an organisation point of view having the gliders on the airfield(grid) is determined by the earliest time we expect to start launching less 30 minutes. This 30 minutes can be used to brief pilots on any changes to tasks, airspace or any other conditions. Sometimes of course the weather doesn't quite go according to all the predictions, surprise surprise, and launching can often start an hour or more later than forecast.

The Contest supports the local Search and Rescue volunteers and we need to ramp up our donation program. This is usually based around "fines" for misdemeanours or other events that are noteworthy. This year we will be aiming to raise enough money to buy 3 Emergency beacons for them (EPIRBS). At approximately $700 each that means we need $2000. IF you are not at the contest but appreciate the great work and dedication of the small band based around Omarama. Then let me know and I am sure we can arrange for your donation to help us reach the target.

The sun is breaking thru and we now are starting to see some blue sky. I am off to the grid.