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Old February 14th 18, 07:32 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Bruce Hoult
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Default Minimum number of flights for winch sign off?

On Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at 8:33:19 AM UTC+3, Frank Whiteley wrote:
On Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at 8:36:27 PM UTC-7, Nick Kennedy wrote:
At 3:40 on that Eden soaring vid, they are going into land. My question is how do you find the airfield? Everything looks exactly alike!


My first glider club in the UK was hard to find. Pilots told us they never saw it after overflying the area. One member got lost over the top and landed in an adjacent field. 800yard turf main and 600yard turf cross in the middle of barley fields. There were 50ft white chalk circles at the ends of the runways that sort of worked. Returning home from cross countries, we'd just follow the Peterborough to Colchester Roman road (only straight line around) until we could see Hadleigh over the nose. The gliderport would then be off the port wing. Local knowledge was pretty useful.


Wellington Gliding Club has always been pretty easy to find!

Old site (50+ years until 2016):
1) locate Kapiti Island, 9 km x 2 km x 1700 ft high, 5 km offshore from a small peninsular/bump in the coast.
2) the airfield is 1 km inland, in the middle of the bump.

New site (since 2016):
1) locate an apple orchid covered by bright white plastic, roughly a triangle with sides 1 km, 1 km, 1.5 km. Easily visible from 50+ km away.
2) 500m SE is a river. The main runway is next to the river, extending 2 km to the NE to a 90 degree bend in the river. Another river joins near opposite the midpoint of the runway.