Just if you wonder what I do when I don't fly...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10603649&pnum=0

Found this aged video I made of some flying I did with some friends in 2001. Captured off VHS tapes so not the best quality....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrA8GTljtgY

This in from Rick hawkswood..

Further to my notice on August 18, this is a reminder that the ENTIRE Kaimai Site situated at the end of Barton road ( known as the Kaimais ) is still closed until further notice.

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

The Kaimais is in the process of an ownership change.

A new farm manager has been appointed and negotiations for continued site access have begun.

The new farm manager has indicated that as of September 1st 2009 through to mid October ( or beyond ), the ENTIRE KAIMAI SITE will be closed to public access for lambing. This means no vehicular or pedestrian foot traffic will be allowed from September 1st until further notice.

A number of years ago I listened to hang glider pilot Carl Driesen describe how by ‘joining the dots’ it may be possible to fly 100km in Auckland. Several years later a lot of us listened in awe of how he completed his flight from Muriwai to Mercer, just short of 100km. My thought at the time was there was no way an Auckland paraglider could do anything similar without committing time to a trip to Hawkes Bay or further afield.

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.