Page 44 - MFW June 2024
P. 44

Levin Glider




                  Fun Day





                   9th March 2024


                   Words: Stew Cox
                   Photos: Ross Gray
    This was the third Levin Glider Fun Fly and the second of
    this summer. Attendance was again excellent with thirty-
    two fliers present on the day plus a number of spectators.
    Fliers  came  from  seven  different  clubs  including
    Palmerston North Aeroneers, Ashhurst, Hawkes Bay,New
    Plymouth, Kapiti, Wellington and Levin. It was great to see
    strong  support  for  the  event  from  Kapiti  (9  attendees),
    PNA (5) and Ashhurst (6). It was also pleasing to welcome
    twelve  fliers  who  had  not  previously  attended  the  two
    previous Levin Glider Fun Flys.

    Levin was well represented with ten members flying and a
    number  coming  along  to  watch  or  help  which  was
    appreciated.

    It seems that there are a lot of people who have gliders
    tucked away and are welcoming the opportunity to join
    with others to fly them in a low key fun environment. I
    suspect that Glider Fun Flys would be a success in other
    regions if clubs put them on and promoted them well to
    other  nearby  clubs  –  something  for  other  clubs  in  the
    country to ponder.

    The intention of these Glider Fun Fly days is to encourage
    people to pull out gliders of whatever shape, size or level
    of  sophistication  and  come  and  fly  and  mix  with  like  The  weather  was  flyable  all  day  with  plenty  of  thermal
    minded people from Levin and other clubs. There were  activity from the get go. The expected sea breeze swing
    relative beginners there right through to two of NZ’s RC  didn’t  happen  until  mid-afternoon  which  produced  a
    soaring World Champions. Everyone is welcome at these  spectacularly nice period of convergence with the whole
    events.                                                   sky seemingly going up for an hour or so for those that
                                                              were still flying.
    One of the really pleasing things that was evident on the
    day  was  the  amount  of  helping  and  mixing  going  on
    between  members  of  different  clubs  along  with  the   Top to bottom:
    amount of sharing of knowledge and experience that was    Paul Robertson’s (Levin) ASW28 looked great against the sky.
                                                              Stu Hubbard (Ashhurst) launching his Easy Glider Pro.
    informally taking place.                                  Levin Glider fun fly 2024 group photo.






















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