Gliding & Soaring, Omarama New Zealand - Wave and Mountain Soaring courses and Glider training

Join our occasional email newsletter

***********

Rebecca’s GlideOmarama Blog

My name is Rebecca Loncraine, I'm a British freelance writer and I'm in the privileged position of being the first Writer-in-Residence at GlideOmarama.com. I'm spending this southern summer in Omarama developing my flying skills and writing about many aspects of flight. I’ll be writing the GlideOmarama.com blog, talking about what’s going on here in the soaring mecca of New Zealand.

4th February, 2012

Guest Profile

This is Sue Hunt's third visit to Omarama with her husband, Colin. Sue doesn't fly but she enjoys spending time here. She likes to stay in one of the chalets so she's close to the airfield. And the golden evening light reflected off the Benmores is a spectacular view from her chalet. On her first visit, Sue toured all the local sites, Mount Cook, the lakes, local towns, but this time she really enjoyed the luxury of the peace and quiet of Omarama, and the chance to catch up on reading and craftwork. She had planned to do a guided walk at Mount Cook but she ran out of time! The Kahu Cafe is a great place to socialise, and the wifi on the airfield means she can keep in touch with friends and family when she wants to. Sue and Colin, from the UK, spent one week in Omarama as part of a six week visit to New Zealand. Colin loves to fly in the Southern Alps, and they hope to return for a fourth visit.

Gliding isn't an Escape

2nd February, 2012

My response to the question is gliding escapist is as follows: For me gliding isn't escapist in the sense of leaving life behind. The levels of concentration demanded by gliding mean I can't become distracted and let my mind wander, as I often do on the ground. Part of the liberation of gliding is the way it forces me to focus and concentrate and make decisions. Far from being an escape, gliding allows me deeper into myself and deeper into the natural world: I am confronted with myself when flying and forced to face self-doubts and fears. I am also confronted with the details of nature as it plays out in the landscape and in the sky. The glider pilot must pay great attention to the natural world in order to read the sky. What direction is the wind blowing? Where is the sun shining on this ridge? What will that terrain below mean for thermals? Is that thermal forming or collapsing? I must observe what's really going on out there right now and notice how the conditions are constantly changing from minute to minute. On the ground, my thoughts are often preoccupied with what happened in the past and what might happen in the future, and with a stubborn refusal to recognize change. Gliding requires quite different thinking to this grounded mindset: in the glider we have to make certain predictions but I have to let the recent past go (no point agonizing about mistakes) and deal with what's really happening and changing right in front of me. Now. So, for me, gliding might mean escaping from some things but it also means going towards and into something very real and fully alive - myself and the elements.

1st February, 2012

Guest Profile

Ricco did the mountain soaring course with GlideOmarama 4 years ago and since then he’s returned most seasons to further develop his flying. He brings his own glider, a 2-seater Pipistrel Taurus, and flies solo and with GlideOmarama instructors to continue to learn about how to fly in this extraordinary environment, in which the pilot is confronted with so many different conditions. “The situation here has so much to teach you”, he told me, and “the people here also have so much to teach you.” Ricco was always destined to learn to be a glider pilot because he's named after his uncle Ricco, who tragically died in a gliding accident in Switzerland the day before his nephew was born.

Ricco plays the Quattro and sings, and he often entertains us at the Thursday night dinners at the Kahu Café. His version of the Hawaiian ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ is particularly great, and strikes a chord in this sky-minded mecca.

Guest Profile

Chris Leathart, pictured here on the veranda of the Kahu Cafe, enjoyed 3 days of instruction in mountain gliding. He's a frantically busy GP in Christchurch but he managed to get away for a few days to develop his soaring skills. Some of the things he likes about gliding: the beautiful design of the gliders, sleek and elegant; the challenge of soaring unpowered; gliding is the closest you can get to being a bird; the freedom of the view from the cockpit; the feel-good release of adrenalin and dopamine; the audacity of defying gravity.

Guest Profile

Matthias Dietrich really enjoyed his week on the mountain soaring course. He was utterly amazed by the gliding conditions at Omarama. He flew every day and each flight was different to the previous: he flew in wave over 500k up to 25,000 feet and couldn’t believe he experienced 40knot climbs. His final flight to the coast was beautiful, with snow showers and golden sun on the beaches below. By the end of the week, he was quite exhausted and is returning to Germany to absorb and reflect upon what he’s learned.

27th January, 2012

Is Gliding Escapist?

I asked some glider pilots to list the best and worst things about gliding. We agreed on some things and not others. Interestingly, some things appeared in both the best and the worst categories.

The big question we disagreed about was - Is Gliding Escapist? - what do you think? I'll leave that open ended for now.... Tell me what you think through the GlideOmarama facebook page.

The Best things about Gliding

Adrenalin, Grace, the feeling of soaring, the eagle's eye view, the physical feeling of being one with the glider, lyricism, non-linear movement, the satisfaction of a good landing, seeing the world upside down, intimacy with the landscape, 100% mental commitment, being fully present, the competitive spirit, joy.

The Worst things about Gliding

Adrenalin, frost bite, trepidation, inflight peeing, whistling canopies, buzzing tape, pressure to perform, the competitive spirit, sore back and numb bum, frustration, fury at not being able to grasp the lift or read the sky.

What do you think are the best and worst aspects of gliding? Tell me what you think through the GlideOmarama facebook page.

26th January, 2012

Staff Profile

Annie Laylee is a tow pilot and gliding instructor and she's done 10 seasons at Omarama. She flies at Lasham in the UK in the northern summers, where she has a share in a DG100. Annie told me that Omarama is a great place to tow because of the wide range of conditions you encounter. Cross-country mountain soaring inevitably means the occasional landout. Annie enjoys flying into the mountains, over lakes and braided river valleys to remote top-dressing strips to collect gliders. She said she finds mountain soaring challenging and has great respect for the mountains. Annie also runs exhausting Tabata classes in the early hours of the mornings, encouraging glider pilots to get fit.

Staff Profile

G Dale is a highly skilled and experienced glider pilot with over 7000 hours gliding. He has been a professional instructor for 23 years. He is currently in the British gliding team and is also coaching the British Junior team. He is going to Argentina at the end of 2012 to fly in the World Club Class Championships. In the northern hemisphere summers he is Deputy CFI at Lasham, in the UK.
G always wanted to fly in mountains so he was drawn to Omarama because, in his view, it's the best place in the world to develop pure mountain soaring skills during the northern hemisphere winters.
G is also a trained pianist; his prior experience as a piano teacher means he enjoys working one-to-one with clients. He also loves to share his deep knowledge of soaring techniques through his detailed briefings and lectures. He has a real gift for dissecting the complex web of interactions between the terrain and the atmosphere that make the spectacular soaring here possible. G can often be heard playing Chopin at the Kahu Cafe.

Guest Profile

Richad Brown is a British easyjet pilot based in Madrid and he came to GlideOmarama for a one-off cross country flight as part of his holiday in New Zealand. He flew with instructor Bo Nilsson into the mountains. He was amazed by the mountain soaring skill of flying right up close to the peaks. He has now caught the Omarama bug and is determined to come back to do the Mountain Soaring course.

23rd January, 2012

GlideOmarama is Global

I was struck by the truly international flavour of the GlideOmarama team and guests in the briefing this morning, when I realised that in a room of 15 we had people from Japan, Germany, Israel, England, Wales, Canada, France, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland and Australia.

Staff Profile

This is Gabriel Briffe's second season as an instructor with GlideOmarama. He instructs in St Auban, France, in the northern hemisphere summers. Gabriel explained to me that competitions aren't the primary focus of his flying, but he was given the opportunity to join the French team in the Junior World's in 2009 and 2011, in which he came 4th and 5th. He loves flying in the diverse conditions created by the mountains here in New Zealand. He particularly enjoys soaring in thermals over the mountains, feeling in touch with the wild terrain below. In addition to showing visiting pilots the wonders of mountain flying, Gabriel is learning to play the harmonica and sometimes he entertains clients by practicing when flying high in wave. The thinner air, he says, creates a better sound.

Guest Profile

Robin Howorth from the UK did the Mountain Soaring course and flew in wave all week, reaching 21,000 feet, a personal height record. He particularly enjoyed flying low over the icy expanse of the Mount Brewster glacier. "I don't think any of my future flying", he said, "will be as good as my flights here."

Occasional GlideOmarama instructor Trevor Mollard won the New Zealand Club Class National competition last week. He won a watercolour painting of the Mackenzie Country landscape by Sue Wild.

20th January, 2012

Guest Profile

Tomas Petricek from the Czech Republic spent a week flying with Gavin Wills on the Mountain Soaring course. "Every flight was an epic adventure" he said, when I caught him at the bar after another day of wave flying deep into the mountains. "Flying with Gavin", he commented, "is like driving with Michael Schumacher." Tomas described the soaring here as "adventure flying", and was amazed by the environment. He said that not only is the flying here exceptional, but the landscape is so varied, with two oceans, glaciers and mountains to wonder at. He is determined to come back next year.

Guest Profile

Klas Westman took GlideOmarama.com's Mountain Soaring course this week. He is from Sweden and is used to flying in wave in the freezing cold north of Sweden, launching and landing on ice. Klas had excellent flying conditions here in Omarama, soaring in wave three days running. He was able to set off in his shirtsleeves rather than 5 layers of clothing, as he does flying in Sweden during the winter wave season. His wave flights this week were "marvellous", he said. He flew to 27,000 feet in the lea of Mount Cook. He thoroughly enjoyed the "extraordinary landscape", and was amazed by the sharp and dramatic mountains of the Southern Alps.

18th January, 2012

Glide Omarama Creative Writing Workshop

I managed to convince several glider pilots to come along to two creative writing workshops on writing about flying, held in the GlideOmarama.com briefing room. We talked about how to improve our descriptions of land- and sky-scape in writing about flights, how to express the emotional and psychological aspects of flying, and why we might write about our flights at all. I was struck by the very different opinions gliders had about how to control their emotions during long cross-country flights. An interesting evening full of rich discussion. Some really good descriptions of flying emerged.

15^th January, 2012

Guest Profile

Terry Duncan and Neita Montague fly in Nevada, USA and took GlideOmarama.com’s Mountain Soaring Course this week. Terry said she was amazed at how flying out of Omarama meant she experienced thermal, ridge, wave and convergence soaring conditions often all on the same day. The weather was great; they made several long flights deep into the mountains, reaching both Mount Aspiring and Mount Cook, and got to 18,000 feet in wave. Both women agreed that the teaching was “extraordinary”. The instructors explained why they made certain decisions and showed them ways to navigate these complex conditions to achieve fantastic soaring flights. “I learned more here in one week than I would have in several years of flying back home”, commented Terry. Neita learned a new way of thermalling, and enjoyed G’s lectures. She’s determined to put what she learned at Omarama to use back in the US in her own work as a gliding instructor. Neita is the President of the Women Soaring Pilot’s Association.

Staff Profile

Ash Hurndell is a tow pilot and glider instructor at GlideOmarama.com. He learned to fly gliders with Youth Glide Omarama. He is a power plane instructor and is hoping to become a commercial airline pilot. This is his 4^th season at Omarama. He finds the dynamic and challenging soaring environment here fascinating. Ash also speaks Japanese, which is very useful for GlideOmarama.com’s Japanese clients. He can often be found practicing the piano at the Kahu Café in the mornings.

************