Blog September and October 2008

In late September Tom Hamilton from California opened our flying season with attendance on a learn to fly course with instructor Phil Plane. He returned to his professional base in Indonesia an elated man having had some great flying and announcing his engagement. The team at GlideOmarama congratulate the ecstatic couple and look forward to welcoming them both back to Omarama in due course.

Phil Penny and instructor Hugh Turner. Note the snow on Mount Benmore!

Phil Penny, a Mountain Guide from Wanaka, discovered new challenges to add to an already adventurous life of mountaineering, sailing and heliskiing in a learn to fly programme with Hugh Turner. Encouraged by theGlideOmarama emphasis on training soaring pilots Phil flew for 90 minutes on his third solo flight, then initiated the 2008/9 list of the elite 2K Club with an outlanding and relight on the confined Ben Omar strip.

Our international staff all arrived back on site by early October. G Dale entertained us with stories following his success at the World Championships in Italy where he was the highest placed British team member, winning two days and finishing tenth overall.. Lemmy related how he avoided the worst UK soaring season in years by working with Soaring Nevada at Minden. This years staff training week worked at consolidating our Mountain Soaring knowledge, standardising teaching methods and flying sorties with each other.

Ash in the Fatman with a beautiful lenticular over Mount Benmore.

New tow pilot Ash Hurndell, conscripted from YouthGlide Omarama and professional flight training duties in Dunedin, delivered the beautifully reworked GA200 Fatman from Southair in new GlideOmarama livery. We have had difficulty prising him out of the driving seat ever since! We are also pleased to welcome young pilots Devin Bargainnier from Nevada and Matt Plumridge from the UK. Matt is an aerobatic champion and Devin on the US National Junior Team heading for Finland.

Gerry overhead Mount Cook

Gerry Ruhlz from California joined GlideOmarama for 2 weeks of flying at the end of October and was treated to some spectacular experiences in typically volatile and variable spring soaring conditions. An immediate enthusiast for Omarama he has plans for return weeks of flying through the season.

Wave clouds over Lake Pukaki on the return from Mount Cook with Gerry.

Our permanent residents of Gavin, Mandy, Hugh and Philip invested considerable winter preparation effort into redeveloping the GlideOmarama website (check out the new weather movies on the weather page), preparing the new South Island Gliding Maps (SIGMaps) and an update to the GlideOmarama Landout Book. These will be available mid November for use during the South Island Regional Contest being run at Omarama by the Canterbury Gliding Club and Omarama Soaring Centre. Hugh & Mandy rose to the challenge to find a version of smart and casual clothing in GlideOmarama livery that the staff would want to wear. They seem to have been successful in their mission to tidy up the fashion free elements and we are now well branded in Orange, Brown and White. The new Nor'West sleeveless waxed jackets are proving a boon against the cold elements and popular with our guests.

And finally, we were treated to joining in the celebration of one of those significant 0 birthdays - The Godfather benign and paternal; happy birthday Gavin.

Gavin without facial hair for only the second time in 40 years! Relax, it is growing back fast!