At last a weekend forecast that looks half ok. It is time to dust off the vario and other paraphenalia of xc flying and have a little competition. The Auckland Club plans to hold a Local pg comp at the local sites or at Pukemore or Te Hoe on Sat/Sun 6 and 7 Feb. Right now Pukemore looks OK but that could change so watch here for another posting on Thurs night to confirm the meeting place.
If you plan to fly in the NZ Open at Rotorua this is a good opportunity to practice or learn about comp flying.

No sooner do we announce the AGM/Xmas BBQ/Award night than here here we are with another event!

On Sunday 15^th of November, the AHGPC is having a social evening at Extreme Edge www.extremeedge.co.nz at 40 Morrin Road, Panmure from 6:30 till 9:00 p.m.  

We will have a party area on a raised platform in the middle of the main climbing floor with enough space for the entire club. (It’s huge!). BYO chips, nibbles and soft drinks. You can also order Hell Pizza too. (We can get an order together for them to deliver.) Since this is a climbing zone, NO ALCOHOL. (Save it for the event on the 27^th…) This will be a great night for the whole family!!

If you want to go rock climbing, the charge for one adult is $20. If we get 10 or more members who want to climb, we can get a 10% discount. (If 25 or more want to scale the walls, then we get 15% off.) If you think you will have a climb, then e-mail me so that I can get an idea of numbers.

Notice of Annual General Meeting

To be held at 6.30 pm, 27th November 2009,

The Loft, 4 Sir Peter Blake Parade, Bayswater, Northshore.

How do you know it’s the start of the season? It’s AGM time!!

This year we have decided to combine our Annual General Meeting and our Xmas BBQ together in to one never to be forgotten event! (Just like last year!!!).

Once again, Wings and Waves have generously offered us the use of their facilities at The Loft. It’s a great spot to have a beer and a bite while watching the sun go down.

We will kick off the evening with the AGM agenda and move on to the BBQ as soon as we have things wrapped up.

Please review the AHGPC Accounts beforehand as you will be asked to approve them at the AGM (click on the "Read more" link below and then look for the PDF document at the bottom of the page).

This year there are a couple of extra things your club committee would like you to have a say about. That is nominations for the…

• “Flying Spirit” award for outstanding contribution by a club member to the activities of the club or in the sport of hang gliding or paragliding.
• “Duck” (or should that be the, “oh, *uck !!” award) for the most noteworthy flying related “activity” that none of us would be proud to talk about!!
•  Crash of the Year for …….. well, the name says it all.

Weather Stations All up and running

After may trips to moirs, dills and kario we have finally got all weather stations running and giving correct data.

A number of us have spent many hours in all sorts of weather stuffing around with wires, putting up posts and making structures.

Thanks for everyone's help who was involved. You know who you are.

2009 NZHGPA AGM 1-2 August Wellington 

Our president Xen Zambas has been elected to the NZHGPA Executive committee as president.

We would like to wish him all the best in his new role which I am very sure he will excel at for the good of the hang gliding and paragliding community.

xen

On Sunday a few of us went up to Moirs to put up a new gate through the fence.

It was a windy rainy day so no chance to fly and therefore we got a lot of work done.

There will be no need to climb the fence any more.

Gate Construction

Twhat? you mak ask. According to the Twitter website "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

For our purposes we can use it to answer questions like-

• Which site are you heading to?
• What are the conditions like right now?
• Where did you land?

The principle is pretty simple really - you send a short (140 character max) message to Twitter and anyone listening can receive it. We can use this to immediately communicate with other pilots. It will help us to find out where other pilots are heading, find the best conditions, organise retrieves, etc.

To get started read the instructions on the Twitter page under the About AHGPC menu. It only takes a few minutes to set up and it's free.

This service is currently only available to AHGPC club members. If you are logged in to Cloudbase and you do not see the Twitter block on the right hand side of the front page it is probably because you don't have Club Member role on Cloudbase. In this case please contact the web master and provide your name, NZHGPA PIN and Cloudbase username.

2010 NZ HANG GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The HG competition committee is calling for bids from clubs that wish to hold the 2010 NZ HG Championships. All bids should be forwarded to Matt Barlow either by email or phone, no later than 30 Jun 09. Bids should contain proposed dates of the champs, venue, and experience level of comp organising committee. North Island bids have priority over South Island bids as the champs were held in the SI last year.

Matt Barlow
Chairman
HG Comp Committee
matt_barlow@slingshot.co.nz
hm 03 324 3838
Cell 027 226 5053

NZ HG COMP COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS

The current HG comp committee consists of Andrew Bridger and Matt Barlow. Shane McKay has recently stood down as he has other HG duties ahead of him on the Exec Committee. Accordingly, anyone wishing to fill the 3^rd place on the comp committee should make themselves known to Matt Barlow or Andrew Bridger.

Yes, due to a bit of inclement weather the organisers have decided to postponed the league to the reserve dates of 28-29/03/09.

Watch for a further post on Thursday 26/03 for the latest update on what will be happening for the weekend. Hopefully the weather gods will smile on us long enough to get a few tasks in......

Keep praying,

Xen.

A small firm in the UK have built and successfully test flown the a prototype para-car. Capable of being driven on road like a standard car (closer to a buggy really), and flown like a powered trike, the "SkyCar" is intended for eventual commercial production.

What better way to get to flying sites, and do retreives!.

Parajet home page

BBC Coverage