NHGC Meeting 28/1/2022
Zoom only
Meeting start 7:30pm
Present: Adriaan Mulder, Jamie Oorschot, Brad Patfield, Ian Ladyman, Gary Herman, Harry Daniels, John Harriot, Craig Hand, Billo, Ken Harris, Allan McMillan
Apologies: Hairy Karl, JOD, Don Gardner, Frans Henskens
Last Minutes – 1st John Harriot, 2nd Ian Ladyman
Business from last Minutes
Tilting Weather station poles for Lake St Clair, Hooley Dooleys and Hickson St – Jamie and Patto have been working on these over the past month. Lake St Clair and Hickson St finished and Hooley Dooleys + new weather station nearly finished and will be installed sometime in next two weeks. Lake st Claire Holfuy weather station is still down, Jamie and Patto have not been able to get it running. They have tried Optus, Vodafone, Aldi and Telstra without any success.
No new progress with Watagans. Royce is waiting for a response from Forestry about attaching weather stations to trees as an alternative to poles.
Flying
Billo’s son hit the rocks below Bombala (?) launch
Craig caught a bubble at Strezzi and got super high,
Adriaan and JOD flew to the gun club and back
Just to mention a few
John Harriot’s take on Corryong – Light to moderate conditions all week with 4 out of 7 comp days. ~65+ pilots entered with a very large amount of those in floaters. Running of the comp was seamless and very safe. Hubert was excellent and the whole vibe was very fun and friendly. Marty Hand from central coast made goal in front of a whole field. Some hard landings and lots of broken down tubes! They included Todd doing a low turn in bombout, Ken Harris bad landing in bombout and the worst an advanced pilot on the last day stumbled on launch, fell onto his basebar and did a ground loop into the trees. Fortunately he was ok with only abrasions but his glider was a write off. Overall the comp was a great success.
Comps
NSW state titles is 3 weeks away. We have 25 pilots registered and expect more last minute. The club needs a vhf for the comps (Jamie will organise) Ian Ladyman has one to lend and possibly buy (Godfrey is sold out). Alan McMillan also has one we could borrow. Alan also offered to do the weather, thank you. Karl is not sure if he will run Manilla HG Comp. If he doesn’t then Jamie will do it this year. NDIS incompetence created a huge amount of stress for Karl at Barraba Big Toe that made the comp very unpleasant. Looking on the bright side Karl is keen to improve facilities at the Barraba airfield to include Disabled facilities, showers, kitchen and camping. NSWHPA have indicated they could help with funding. For NSW state titles Billo is doing the scoring but said this is the last time. Billo has been doing the scoring for the past 30 years and would like to go to pasture. Billo has had dramas with the new “Airscore” system and does not want to learn it and will not be using it for Manilla. The club will need to find a new scorer for any future comps, starting with Barraba Big Toe in November. Anyone up for that task please let us know. Big thanks to Billo for doing scoring over the past 30 years.
General Business
The club T-shirts Adriaan ordered were no good. They have been a nightmare to deal with. They have agreed to give a full refund without the need return the t-shirts. If you’re a tightass and not fussy then Adriaan might have a free t-shirt for you! Adriaan is going to try another company. Long sleeve uv shirts are a possible alternative. They are a bit more expensive but are better quality and offer more protection from sunburn. Patto has offered contact details from the mob in Sydney that do the NPGC t-shirts.
Alan McMillan asked if Powered HG Pilots could join the club and if they should be a ‘Sub-group” of NHGC (ie have separate meetings etc) or be combined with all other pilots? Many pilots will be away at the NSW HG comp in late Feb so discussion on this topic will be in March. John Harriot noted that there is a general trend for HG and PG clubs to combine and for clubs to be all-encompassing of different aviation types. For example Central coast is PG+HG+powered. Canungra clubs have also combined to PG & HG.
The Crackneck weatherstation pole is being replaced. The old pole will be available for re-use in the Watagans (Jamie – John Harriot)
Hickson St launch is going to need a working bee soon trimming bushes. NPGC is also keen to do some work there also so we should try organise something together.
Carmel’s needs a new windsock. NSWHPA has offered to pay for a full aviation windsock similar to what’s going up at Crackneck.
The Office of Sport has another $1000 grant up for grabs. All we need to do is apply (thanks Adriaan😊)
Allan McMillan would like to organise some Aerotowing at Pete Mahine’s in March. If anyone is interested please let him know.
Adriaan created a new “Event” form on the club website. Once you have logged in you will be able to access it at the forms page.
Safety Issues
A pilot on the central coast crashed into trees and busted his ribs.
Ken Harris had a bad landing at Corryong and busted his coxis. Ken landed in the bombout going downhill. He did a high flare and came down hard on his legs which could not support him. He said he took his attention off the windsock and didn’t realise he was in any danger.
Alan McMillan brought to our attention that changes of class E airspace in the Hunter Valley means the new ceiling is 4500ft for those without vhf and transponder!
Treasurer’s report
Main account $17,254.90
Solutions on account $529.42
Paypal Account $2200
So we are still looking good with over $20k.
Recent expenses include Xmas Party, t-shirts and Carmel’s slashing.
Meeting Ended 9pm
