Page 49 - MFW June 2024

LAKE STATION

Another successful event at Lake Station, near St at all. The investigation was completed within a few days,
Arnaud, Nelson. Over 20 fliers from as far afield as and we were granted access to prepare the model flying
Waiheke Island and Invercargill joined together for a runways.
very successful aerotow event.
In coordination with Thomas and the Gliding club the
The location is in the Buller River valley with low hills about airfield was NOTAM’d closed for the 4 days. Several
a kilometre either side along the valley walls. A long way families camped on site in motorhomes and caravans.
from the coast, the winds are often lighter and the thermals
stronger than at coastal sites. The runway is 1.4km long The weather forecast was not promising to the point where
with lovely park grass and a smooth surface. Mostly it is I stopped looking! In the end we had near perfect soaring
used by the Nelson Gliding Club and some local training conditions all day every day, with just some heavy
operators. overnight rain one night.

Special thanks to Sam and Peter for negotiating access to There were many highlights ranging from massive
the Airfield and preparing a perfect pair of runways for us thermals with lots of Gliders happily climbing and Vario’s
to fly from. Thanks also to the Farm manager Thomas for singing loudly. There were some impressive models flown.
going beyond expectations to make this happen for us. A Ricky Bruce’s ASG29 by Tomahawk Models in Germany
week prior to the meet there was a tragic full size glider at 9m was quite a showstopper when it flew. Towed by Rob
accident on the airfield, the investigation into which made Johnstons 1/3 scale Piper Cub and flown by Ricky and
it look as though we would not have access to the airfield Dave Griffin.

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