During the PG Open Round 2 competition that was held in Rotorua, some of our members visited the Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust and enjoyed a great day learning about the work they do for endangered and at risk birds of prey and had an opportunity to handle these fantastic birds.

A request was made to the committee to consider sponsoring Wingspan as a worthy cause. The details of the sponsorship can be viewed on their website, please go to www.wingspan.co.nz for further details, but essentially, for a donation of $100 or $500 we get to name a wild or captive bird of prey, receive updates of the progress of the bird and gain free admission for club members to the Wingspan centre in Rotorua.

We have created a poll to give everyone an opportunity to say what they would like the club to do in this matter. Please click the link or see the poll in the left hand sidebar and have your say. Note, this poll is only open to club members, so you have to login first. If you still can't access the poll contact the web admin.

Here we go again! The weather for this weekend will be very wet, so I have postponed the working bee at the Karioitahi track for 2 weeks. The new date is Saturday 11th of September from about 10:00 a.m. onwards. A large truck is coming to dump tons of "65 Slag" on the track in places to fill in the potholes. Please bring metal rakes and shovels. Most of the work will involve spreading material around.

Here is the content of an article that will appear in the next Airborne Mag.

Note that I have proposed a date for at least one league comp to be based in ( or near Rotorua ) at the end of Feb but there is plenty of room in the calendar for short notice leagues to be run at any of our sites.

The cut-off date for any bids to run a NZOpen in the next season is 21 June. Following the huge success of the Rotorua PGOpen last season I am keen to preserve our reputation by avoiding running it again this coming season. The only bid for a NZ based PGopen at present is from Wanaka. Mark hardman will be organising another Wanaka Festival at the beginning of January 2011.

The rules allow for one of the NZOpen comps to be held in Australia and several pilots are keen for that to be at Canungra.

OK, all of you Auckland Club Computer Pilots, here's a challenge.

I recently competed in the pgSim Competition Event, French North Alps Open, and did pretty well even if I do say so myself.

(see the results: http://www.paraglidingearth.com/pgSimCompEvent/events.php?event=3 My id is "Tony Cowley")

Looks like I can fly a Simulation better than the real thing, go figure?

So here's the challenge.

There's a new comp starting next week, Flying In Greece.

Wetpac Rescue Helicopter TrustAs we have done in the past, the club has made our annual donation of $750 to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust. The attached image is a copy to the photo we received in appreciation for the donation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dr2ZB36p9Y&feature=related

If you were wondering why I wasn't at the Paeroas for Easter there were two reasons. First was a planned motorbike trip to the South Is, second was NZs first paramotor comp in Christchurch. No I haven't gone completely to the dark side but I have to say this comp was good fun. A little different starting and finishing every task in the same flat paddock. Quite social and definitely better for the spectators. There were 2 Australian reps and 12 Kiwis entered.