Page 30 - MFW June 2025

Graeme Rose with his good mate Ross Brinsley. All in all, a very relaxed and most enjoyable day of
Andrew Hiscock and wife Jane also timed their Cook thermal soaring in perfect conditions.
Strait crossing to coincide with the event and turned up in
their campervan on their way home to Hawkes Bay after The tentative date (subject to the bailage harvest) for the
a long sojourn in the South Island. Regular attendee next Levin Glider Fun Fly is Saturday 29 November with
Dave Crook also made the trip down from Waverley. the wind date being Sunday 30 November – put those
dates in your diary now. All welcome!
Most fliers had several models with them with some flying
three or four on the day. There must have been between
70 and 80 different models flown on the day. Popular
again were Radians and Phoenix variants, Gentle
Lady’s, a range of TopModel designs such as the Malibu,
Sport and Pegasus, 2M eRES models such as the
Medina and OzRes, F5K models such as the Snipe and

Above:
One of several 2400 Phoenix's
under an afternoon Cumulus
cloud.
Right:
Tarquin Brook's 2m glider on
the bungee.

Blaster, and DLG’s such as the Snipe and Yoda. A list of
all the model designs flown would be extensive but if you
want to see a wide range of soarer designs, eras and
technologies in one place, come along to a Levin Glider
Fun Fly!
Levin’s Ivan Huntley and Linda Lambess did a great job
organising the BBQ lunch and a large number of
sausages were consumed in next to no time. Many
thanks for your efforts!

Some highlights from the day in addition to the
spectacular weather and very good attendance included
several people having flights over an hour long, Gary
Wilson (Ashhurst) seemingly spending most of the day
trying to get his brakeless 2.3m Goldberg Electra Lite
electric soarer down out of lift, Rowdy (Kevin Botherway)
cutting power of his 4m span Plus X F5J model at about
30 metres and then thermalling away to good height
while doing continuous loops, and John Pfahlert’s
(Kapiti) vintage 1950 Leprechaun and Trevor Glogau’s
(Wellington) vintage and elegant 1940 Comet Sailplane
sharing the same thermals as modern hi-tech carbon
machines and models of every level of sophistication and Top to bottom:
John Pfahlert with his electrified 1950 Leprechaun which flew well.
era in between. Later in the afternoon some of us did
Couper Bartosh after another long flight with his Radian.
some flying off the winch with F3B gliders and it was great
to see Tarquin Brooks (PNA) maiden his new to him David James (DJ) with his Medina 2m eRES. (right photo)
Cobra. Tarquin coped with the model and the winch Young Couper Bartosh and Ross Monk show contrasting flying
styles.jpg
launch very well and by the end of the session had the Tarquin Brooks about to take his Cobra up the winch line for the first time
Cobra well tamed. as Peter (Peewee) Williams takes the winch strain.
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