Thank you to the Gliding Family

Sadly Issue 32 of SoaringNZ, will now not be printed until mid January. There is NOTHING we can do about this. And yes, we're not very happy. We did everything we could to get it to the printers in time, but there were gremlins in the files and by the time that was sorted, it was too late.

Here anyway is my editorial for the issue. It's heartfelt and personal. The gliding family rocks.

\\0// \\0// \\0// \\0// \\0// \\0// \\0// \\0// \\0//

I’ve observed before that the gliding community is more like a family than a group of clubs. It is small enough that you don’t have to be around very long before you manage to meet many of its members and learn of many more. Some people you don’t see very often, some people you don’t like very much, and other people you adore, just like a family. The gliding community has certainly felt like a family recently.

We’ve been down to the South Island Regionals, which is an annual pilgrimage for our family. This is the start of the summer for us, when we set up the caravan in the Omarama camp ground for the season. Once the caravan’s set up, it makes it easy to pop down for the odd weekend, or longer periods between work commitments. Lots of other people do the same. The summer campground regulars come from all around the country. Some people stay a week, some stay longer. For many of us, this is the only time we actually see each other in the flesh all year. For years, my son Robert would measure himself against Paul Barrett’s (not that short) lovely wife Linda to see if he was taller. It was a ritual. For many years she was in the lead, then one year they were level pegging. Now he towers over her.

There is a large wood round acting as a door stop at the entry to the ablution block. That block of wood was first in use four or five years ago, as a step stool, so that Leah Ruddick from Wellington could reach the sink in the Ladies to wash her hands. She hasn’t needed it for two summers now. My kids have grown up with the gliding equivalent of aunts and uncles to spoil and discipline them and a pile of cousins to get up to mischief with and measure themselves against.

Nick Oakley and my son Alex grew up together, spending summer holidays swimming, biking, boating and learning to fly gliders. Now, together, they’re off flying in their first international competition – Australia’s Youth Nationals – Joey Glide. Their team manager, helper and crew person is their “Uncle” David Tillman.

Another thing about family is that sometimes it never occurs to you to ask them for help, but they’ll offer it anyway.

Earlier in the year, when Alex and Nick announced their intentions of going to Joey Glide, we started trying to work out where the money to pay for it would come from. Neither of our families could afford to send them off with a pat on the head and a packed lunch. The boys’ ultimate aim is to fly in the FAI Junior World Championships in Australia in 2013. We thought that would be interesting to potential sponsors. We put a considerable amount of effort into grant applications to various trusts, those ones out in the community that provide funds for up and coming young sports people. It was a huge amount of work, made more complex by having to explain what the sport of glider racing is all about, before we could even get to explaining why these young men were worthy of the attention and the money. Ultimately it all came to nothing. None of the sources approached came through. How much of that is to do with the obscurity of gliding as a sport, we will never know.

Meanwhile, the boys were working hard to earn funds. Nick works as a farming contractor and Alex is a student. He has a casual part time job working at a petrol station. He thought he’d found a job for the university holidays working with one of the Geotech companies, drilling samples all over Christchurch, sadly they haven’t come back to him about when he can start. By November he had enough money to cover the camp, but had nothing left over for next year at university. Alex is young, and has no problem with the thought of extending his student loan to cover that, even if his parents aren’t so sure that’s a good idea. It did mean he had enough money for the trip.

And then, at the Regionals, the gliding family got behind the boys. The Mike Rix trustees agreed to pay airfares, but it was the generosity of individual people that leaves me teary. Many people donated to the cause. There is now enough money to completely cover the costs of the trip for both of them, with some left over. The remaining moneys will be kept aside for their on-going training, leading up to the Junior Worlds. It is only a fraction of the money that will be required for the whole campaign, but it is such a generous start.

As I write this, the boys are in Australia, enduring temperatures in the 40’s, and getting to know the gliders they’ll be flying next week in the contest. And that reminds me of some more people who need to be thanked, the Australian gliding community. Complete strangers have reached out to help the boys. Alex has a Cirrus to fly, for free. Thank you Adam Woolley. Adam simply says that he has got a lot out of the sport; he wants to pay it forward. To our extended gliding family out there, if you’ve stepped up in any way to help the boys achieve their goals, we thank you so much. Know too that the boys are doing their very best, to be worthy of your trust.

Next issue we’ll bring you the Joey Glide report.

Enjoy your summer

Stay Safe

Jill McCaw

The Joy of Soaring

 This post was originally written and published in Kiwi Flyer magazine Dec 2010. I felt it deserved a wider audience, particularly among my non-gliding/flying followers. I've mentioned the joy I get from flying gliders briefly on a post at the Writer's Forum. This goes into it a little more.

I promise to write something about Alex and his 1000km flight very soon.

During the recent South Island contest at Omarama I was preparing for my daily role of time keeper when I was kidnapped off the grid by Terry Delore. Terry wanted company for: “A brief half hour flight ... have you back before the launch.” Yeah. Right.

Terry Delore is a legend in soaring circles around the world. He was adventurer Steve Fossett’s pilot (Fossett was relegated to a co-pilot role) for all of the duo’s world record flights and also holds several world records in his own right. Terry doesn’t “do” competitions anymore, preferring instead to share his knowledge with others in the gliding fraternity by taking them for rides and giving hands on examples of how he does what he does.

Following Steve Fossett’s death in an air accident two years ago Terry bought the glider the two had used for their flights. Named ‘Athena’ the ASH 25 Mi is a super ship for long distance flying. She is self launching with a Wankel engine with retractable prop. She has an enormous 25.6 m wingspan and looking out along the wing it seems to go on forever. The little Grob Single Astir that I usually fly has a wing span of 15m. You could nearly park it under Athena’s wing.

Terry Delore loves gliding. He doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone. He has flown further than any other person but one in the whole world. He soars for the sheer joy of it and on Friday 19 November he took me along for a ride. Terry doesn’t do short flights.

We took off under our own noisy steam and climbed to around 2000’ AGL before shutting down the engine. Then started one of the best flights of my life. We climbed into wave and headed south. A week earlier Terry had taken my husband John on a similar expedition, they had ended up turning north again over Patterson Inlet on Stewart Island, a turn point exactly 300km from their take off point at Omarama. They were prepared for a long wave flight. I wasn’t. I was wearing shorts and tee shirt, short socks and trainers. I did have a hat and I was sun-screened. I had none of my usual gliding paraphernalia, not even a drink bottle or a muslei bar. Didn’t matter.

Fortunately it was a warm day and for most of the trip we had a clear sky. On oxygen we flew alongside lenticular clouds marking the wave at around 12,000 feet. We kept the airspeed to around 100 kts and at one stage the computer was showing a ground speed of 216 kph. With the sun out it wasn’t cold. Terry is a fantastic teacher, explaining tactics and intricacies of wave flying as well as letting me fly the aircraft. The long wingspan makes her very heavy on controls and she needs a lot more rudder than I am used to. She’s heavy on rudder too needing all my strength to “boot her in”. Terry ribbed me on the “windscreen wiper” effect the yaw string made across the canopy.

We travelled south down a wave system formed by the Dunstan Mountains and crossed the Nevis valley through gaps in the cloud. Overhead Kingston at the south of Lake Wakatipu we could see that a front was moving up the country, the winds were changing direction and we wouldn’t be able to travel too much further south. I was fine with that, among other things I didn’t have was my usual equipment to deal with in flight “relief”. I was fine, but I didn’t want to be up there all day. Terry was sharing his water and some huckery muslei bars and lollies he found in the side pocket. We did manage to sneak down across the Mavora lakes and tip toed out across Southland in an area of zero sink as far as Mossburn. The south coast and Lake Te Anau were in sight and we’d gone far enough. High overcast was starting to cut off the sun and we turned north to run for home.

When you put Athena’s nose down she just goes. The ASH 25 might be old technology, they have been around since the mid ‘90s but there is still not much that beats them. With a lift/drag (L/D) ratio of 57 at 51 kts it goes for miles without losing any noticeable height. We ran at what Terry reckons is best L/D of 120 kts for distance covering and were back over the Clyde Dam in no time at all. By then the high overcast had shut the sky down and the front was chasing us. Individual clouds were still marking the Dunstan Wave but it was nothing like the long smooth lenticulars we’d come down on. At around 10,000 feet we needed it to get us home.

It was not a problem (few things with Terry ever are). Terry showed me how to point the aircraft at a cloud and pull up and away as we came into the lift, gaining a thousand feet in height as we did so. It was glorious fun. The whole trip was glorious fun and the lines from John Gillespie Magee’s poem High Flight were running through my mind.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

We were back on the ground at Omarama ahead of the front after three and a half hours of wonderful flying. I was cold and desperate for a bathroom visit and wonderfully happy. I couldn’t stop smiling. This flight reminded me of something I often forget in the seriousness of editing SoaringNZ. Gliding is fun. Gliding is like nothing else I know for making me feel happy and joyous and that is why I do it. This flight with a good mate who just happens to be the world’s best soaring pilot was one of the most fun things I’ve done in ages. If you’d like to give the fun sport of gliding a try, look up your local club on the Gliding New Zealand website www.gliding.co.nz

I’d like to thank Terry for taking me for a “short flight.” One day I’d love to go with him on a long one.

For subscriptions to SoaringNZ email soaringnz@mccawmedia.co.nz

Have a wonderful flying summer. Happy Christmas.

Jill McCaw

Virgin Blog

I made the decision a while back that I ought to join the blogosphere which in turn brought on a huge case of writer’s block. I always have things to say, thoughts to share, but the idea of putting them on line brought me to a complete halt.
First of all I had to decide what this blog was for. Was it solely a vehicle for SoaringNZ, the magazine I edit and publish? Was it a chance to rabbit on about my attempts at writing fiction with side helpings of doings of the family? I have decided it is all of the above. I am a multi-talented, multi-faceted woman. In fact I use to sign on to a science forum in the early days of such things as “EXTRAordinary Woman”.
There will be blatant advertising for the magazine here but I hope also to share with you some of the processes involved in producing SoaringNZ. There will be references to writing fiction, I may even share snips and I will be talking about the family and our lives. I’ll also be sharing my everyday things, I hate housework, love walking the dog, maybe share a recipe or two. I discovered a great and simple green fish curry last night.
My aim is to get a post up at least once a week. That seems achievable. As I learn how to do this I also hope to customise the page so it is less generic and more me.
SoaringNZ issue 15 is lodged for posting today so should be in people’s mailboxes by the end of the week.
In the meantime, the highlight of the week was Alex’s 18th birthday party on Friday night. Alex has grown to be such a fantastic young man. I am in awe of his gliding achievements, being probably the youngest pilot ever to achieve a 500km diamond goal flight. He has a quiet determination to achieve and the ability to goal set and work through the steps necessary to achieve it. We are very proud of him. The party was to celebrate Alex although he himself was a little reluctant to inflict a house full of drunken teenagers on the house. So we compromised; he asked some of his friends and we asked some of ours. The carpet is a little the worse for wear and the lawn around where the brazier stood will probably never recover, but a good time was had by all. It was delightful to share the evening with Alex’s friends and friends of the family.
In these days of smaller families and more physical separation within families, kids these days don’t have the hundreds of cousins and the crowd of uncles and aunts to help raise them that my generation did. We are extremely fortunate within the gliding movement to have something that approximates that extended family situation. Within the Canterbury Gliding Club our kids have been raised with a passel of other kids and been overseen and disciplined by a group of adults outside of their immediate family. This is all good. The old adage about how it takes a village to raise a child is very true and these days it is harder and harder to find that village. I had no idea when I took up gliding back in my 20s that I was joining a family. Inside that family are surrogate grumpy uncles, grandparents, sister-in-laws and nephews and nieces. I have also found best friends, flying buddies and mentors. I am so pleased my children are part of this community.
To all my friends – thank you sincerely, for helping me raise my children.

cheers
Jill