NHGC Meeting 24/11/2021
Zoom only. Start 7:35pm
Present: Adrian Mulder, Jamie Oorschot, Brad Patfield, Craig Hand, John Dingle, Andres, Royce, John Hariot, Ken Harris, Ian Ladyman
Last Minutes; 1st Brad, 2nd Craig
Flying – lots of coastal flying as summer is finally here and covid restrictions have eased. Nice to see pilots flying Strezzi, Dicko, Merewether and Dudley again.
General Business
Watagans – Hunter Astro Turf has been moved to launch and laid by Royce, Adrian and a friendly camper. The tree removed at NE Heaton launch was reported by Royce to Mike at Forestry. Mike wasn’t happy as it was a habitat tree. Adrian sent a letter Mike saying that we don’t know who it was. It could have been one of our members but it could have also been a camper. In any case we do not condone such actions by club members and we will to our best to stamp out any such rogue behaviour in our club. Royce would like to organize a working bee in the Watagans to finish laying down the Astroturf at NW Heaton, NE Heaton and fix any fire potholes.
Hooley Doolies – Brad has been working on getting this site up and running again. It has recently been bought back off the Chinese by an Aussie and he is keen to get pilots back flying there. Brad is going visit there before xmas and talk to the farmer grading the road up, fixing the weather station, clearing and laying down Astroturf. Hopefully a working bee can be organized early in the new year.
The club xmas parties will be held at Jamie and Rachel’s house this year in Kahibah on the 11th of December. Adrian will send out an invite.
The parachute repack night at Airborne went well. We had ~25 pilots rock up. A good chunk of them got their parachute repacked. The BBQ and beers were demolished very quickly. It was a very pleasant social event. Big thanks to Airborne for the use of the hanger, and big thanks to Rory and Tony who pretty much spent all night helping people pack their parachutes.
Comps
Barraba Big Toe – It was touch and go for a while there whether this comp would go ahead with covid restrictions and bad weather. Fortunately it did. 22 pilots registered and 14 were there to the end! 1st and 2nd day were blown out. Monday had a reasonable 50-60km task. Tuesday was the longest with a 119km triangle and 8500ft base. This was also the day John Boy had his tumble accident (details in Safety section). Thursday the guns amazingly made it around the course in light 20-50fpm lift. Friday was just glides to the ground! Comp ended early on Friday as Huge dumping rain and flooding was forecast the next few days. Karl did extremely well to organize and run the comp given that he is now confined to a wheelchair. Him and his wonderful NDIS carer slept in the hanger. Barraba once again demonstrated that it is a wonderful place for hang gliding and showed big potential for it to turn into an airpark. BBT ran at a loss of $340. This is pretty impressive considering the low turnout and less than ideal weather. Big thanks to Hairy Karl for making it happen.
Manilla state comps – it is encouraging that people are enrolling for the Manilla state comps. Karl is going to need some extra help to run the comp this year. Anybody willing to help please get in contact with him.
New Business
First Aid coarse next Wednesday at the Airborne training office, Belmont airfield. 14 participants have signed up. Please finish online course, preferably not last minute on the day!
NSWHPA Grass roots application funding grants +1k$. Contact John Harriot for more details.
Adriaan has added to the club website a ‘webforms’ page. Here you can find forms for comps, other activities and also feedback.
Safety
At BBT John Spencer tumbled his topless glider at Barraba Big Toe. A detailed description was given by John Harriot. It was John’s third tow on the best day of the comp. At about 2000ft him and the trike hit a big thermal. John made the mistake of holding on too long. he went into a lockout and released under extreme pressure. All this energy resulted in a vertical climb and subsequent whip stall followed by tumbles. John threw his parachute but noted he was still falling very fast. He radioed the ground he had tumbled and was falling very fast and to please call an ambulance as impact with the ground was going to be hard. Fortunately the ambos spotted his parachute from town and were already on the way. John sustained a broken arm, leg, ankle and pelvis. John re-packed his PDA parachute 330 on the club parachute pack night. This is a new fancy parachute that should have slowed his descent to 5-10km/hr. So exactly why he had such a fast descent is still unknown. Hopefully he will be able to provide some answers in his accident report. From everybody in the club we wish you a speedy recovery and hope to see you flying again soon.
Also at BBT Mr. Hoss twisted his ankle landing in a furrowed field despite doing a good flare.
Treasurer’s report,
Main account $18,069
Secondary account $50.92
Paypal $2057.37
End of meeting 8:15pm.
