GNM playing in the sun

[Alfashark]

A few snaps of GNM, a Discus CS owned by a friend of mine based in Tauranga... Another of Wolfgang Piper's freeware models - excuse the cr@p tail reg, just using that as a reference point for the time being.
Once I get the hang of the Aerosoft DiscusX texture sets I'll be doing a much more detailed paint for that model





And the real deal:

[Adamski]

I can see you're getting into this!!! I didn't see the "real deal" line at first and was gobsmacked at how "real" your "screenshots" looked. Beautiful looking glider, isn't it? Just a tad better looking than my old clunker of a Ka ...

[Splitpin]

Great shots AS I love that #3 reminds me of "Jonathan livingston seagull" for some reason.
#4 Fooled me as well......great pic, but i thought it was a screen.

Thanks for posting.......glide on dude

[ardypilot]

Saw a glider over the Hunua ranges today whilst on my way back to Ardmore- its amazing how quickly they can climb!

This guy was obviously in a thermal circling his way up towards a Cu cloud with a rate of climb that looked like it would definitely exceed my ole 172. What sort of performance is average for a machine like that in your screenie Alphashark?

[Alfashark]

Depends on the strength of the thermal, and the wing loading... Anywhere from 4-7kts (4-700fpm) is considered an averagely good thermal in the North Island, although you can strike 10kt+ here and there - In wave lift however I've struck a constant 30kt climb from 3800' to 10500', which had Christchurch control getting an ident on my squawk code nearly 6000' higher than they had expected to find me

In terms of outright performance, a Discus like GNM will pull a 42:1 glide ratio all day, with full ballast tanks (184L)

[Ian Warren]

Aye , Steve .. Christchurch did have a very impressive gliding client group and most weekends Christchurch sky,s were fill with sailplanes 'gliders' for many years , we have lost that now , the highest i cruzed to was 4000 , was bout the max over the port hills , it was great , maybe reason we had the big 'shakeup' they should reopen the Wigram airfield , COOL SCREENS

[Adamski]

My first glider solo was in a T-21 Sedbergh. A bit like a bathtub with wings ... but such *huge* wings. Though incredibly slow (you wouldn't want to do cross-country with it!) - when it caught lift it went up like a rocket.

The flight was meant to be a simple circuit/landing. Almost immediately after my winch launch to around 1200ft, I hit a huge wave of something and ended up at 2,500ft at the end of my downwind leg (even with full spoilers!!). I couldn't believe it!! The thing just did *not* want to come down! No radio in those days - I could see the instructor (and crowd of other tainees) all doing crazy semaphore, basically telling me to get the [****] thing *down*. Many wonderful figure of eight turns later I reluctantly landed. Memories don't come much better than this!

[Alfashark]

You'd be surprised at the huge distances covered, even by modern standards by early birds like the T-21... Big balls and wide open spaces

I can remember a wave flight in GKM, where it looked very marginal to start with - Left the gear down after tow release as I was expecting to be stuck in the rotor/downwind side of the wave bar and have a quick trip home.
Pens and bits of grass getting tossed around in the 'pit due to the massive sink and turbulence, when all of a sudden the vario pegged at 10+ and she started climbing away very rapidly... 5hrs 45 minutes spent between 9000 and 13000, surfing the wave from Nongotaha to Whitianga
Got bored/frustrated with the fact that I was restricted to 13000 in half hour bursts due to not hooking the O2 system up (wasn't expecting flyable wave to this height) and got great pleasure in deliberately spinning her down to 6000' numerous times.

[ardypilot]

QUOTE (Alfashark @ Dec 23 2010, 07:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

5hrs 45 minutes spent between 9000 and 13000, surfing the wave from Nongotaha to Whitianga
Got bored/frustrated with the fact that I was restricted to 13000 in half hour bursts due to not hooking the O2 system up (wasn't expecting flyable wave to this height) and got great pleasure in deliberately spinning her down to 6000' numerous times.

That's an awesome story! Are CHCH Control all good with having unpowered aircraft up in their airspace?

And whats the deal with mountain waves- the updrafts must be perfect for you guys, but what happens if you get stuck in a nasty 5000ft/min downy or even a rotar with no power to get out?

[Ian Warren]

Trolley , Andrew , all gliding closed down over the city now gone the days off airshows and general aviation over Christchurch

[Alfashark]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Dec 23 2010, 07:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's an awesome story! Are CHCH Control all good with having unpowered aircraft up in their airspace?

And whats the deal with mountain waves- the updrafts must be perfect for you guys, but what happens if you get stuck in a nasty 5000ft/min downy or even a rotar with no power to get out?

CHCH never had a problem with us, probably because wave flying was a pretty regular thing out of NZTG - a good strong emphasis on comms and airspace in the training there. I can recall an instance where one of our extremely competent x-country pilots was asked if he could sit in a holding pattern at 15000' at the tip of the Coromandel while a longhaul flight cruised West on descent into NZAA... Not a problem due to: A) pilot experience, B) local conditions (lift everywhere) and C) CHCH having a good understanding of A+B and knowing how we operate up there

As for 5k'/min on the downwind side of a wave bar, what are you going to do in a C172? We have a pretty good idea of where that's gonna happen, so we avoid it... Or if we cant we either put the nose down and punch upwind to the leading edge of the wave, or turn downwind and jump back to the next bar - either way, the waves themselves are pretty easy to spot so if you found yourself on the trailing edge, you either deliberately flew there or you were having a momentary lapse in reason.
Same goes for rotor, although most wave flights in Tauranga involve a tow through rotor so it's a case of tightening the harness, tightening your butt cheeks, being ready to stay in formation with a Cub that keeps disappearing out of view below the instrument panel and having faith in the manufacturer that anywhere in the green arc on the ASI supposedly = gust/shock induced stall rather than structural failure

[Splitpin]

Ive only been glider flying twice....first time in a little thing called a Grob (something) but it had an engine......and huge wings......that was out of wigram, second time was down at Omarama,and the Pilot was some crazy german dude.......both times were amazing.