St Arnaud Paragliding League - First Briefing, Comp Message Board etc.

Righteo - we're getting very close - it must be time now for an update on the St Arnaud Paragliding League regional competition. 1. Confirmed Dates and First Briefing The St Arnaud Paragliding League regional paragliding competition will be held over the dates Friday, February 17 to Sunday, February 19.  First briefing for the regional competition will be at the comp HQ, 125 Main Road, St Arnaud, on Friday morning (17th) at 9:15 am.  Registration, to fill out competition entry forms, begins from 8:15 am. 2. Competition Message Board Daily information on both the St Arnaud Paragliding League and the St Arnaud XC Camp will be published here: https://starnaudxccamp.wordpress.com/ (note that this is a different web location to what was detailed in Airborn magazine). 3.  Update on the Sites for the Regional Competition Mt Murchison is available to us.  Strictly 4WD only. Inwoods Lookout and Blowhard are available. The Hanmer Springs-Wairau Hydro Electricity Road is currently open to the public (road toll $25). 4. Competition Waypoints You should endeavour to load the Nelson area competition waypoints into your vario and/or GPS before the event.  Make sure you bring your own cables, and any fancy software you might need to download/upload your tracks, with you. The competition waypoints may be downloaded from the Paragliding Competition Downloads page of nzhgpa.org.nz, look for "Nelson Competition Waypoints 2016". (Note that the waypoints are unchanged from 2016). There are four files: “Nelson Competition waypoints 2016.wpt”.  The waypoints in GPSDump/OziExplorer format. “Nelson Competition waypoints 2016.gpx”.  The waypoints in .gpx format. “Nelson Competition waypoints 2016.csv”.  The waypoints in a simple, comma-separated formatted (useful for importing into a spreadsheet application). “Nelson Competition waypoints 2016.pdf”.  A .pdf format list of the waypoints for printing. It's useful to have that on hand for reference. 5. Topographical Maps I have a limited number of colour map photocopies, left over from the 2016 Nelson Open, which will be distributed on a first come basis for a $2 donation to the Tasman Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club. If you were just purchasing one colour, paper-printed map, then Topo250 Map 18 – Murchison, 1:250 000 scale, is a good overview map to have. Of the 1:50,000 scale topo maps, NZTopo50-BR25 Tophouse and NZTopo50-BS25 Severn would be useful. Or, instead of those two you could look to get the St Arnaud National Park map which I think is 1:100 000 scale. Note that image files of Topo maps can be downloaded from Land Information NZ. 6. Safety A reminder that all pilots attending the XC Camp and/or regional comp should have the following equipment: reserve, back protection, GPS, UHF radio and maps. A GPS is still mandatory, even if you aren't entering the regional comp, because you really need to know what the winds are doing when flying in mountainous terrain. 7. Weather Outlook, three days out At the time of writing the weather forecast for Friday for the Nelson Lakes area suggests that Friday will be taskable with light northeasterly winds forecast.  Perhaps it will be a day to fly from Mt Murchison.  The forecasts for Saturday and Sunday seem to be changing daily, so I think it's best if you check the forecasts again later in the week.  I have been looking at the MetVUW 7 day forecast. ~/~/~ Please do not hesitate to contact me directly for any specific queries. If the weather cooperates then I look forward to seeing some old and new faces visiting the Nelson region for some of the flying that is on offer  :) Cheers Tim Percival, St Arnaud League Organiser 47A Brook Street, Nelson ph: 03 548 7397 or 022 646 3864 email:  percival@actrix.co.nz

St Arnaud Paragliding League and XC Camp

Hi Recent Competition and/or XC Pilots...

For those of you who may be interested, here is a reminder (or first notice if you have missed it in Airborn magazine), of the concurrent St Arnaud Paragliding League and paragliding "XC Camp” events being run during the period Saturday, 11th February to Sunday, 19th February. The league is a Regional Competition, part of the NZ competition calendar, while the XC Camp is a freer format event with the aim of creating opportunities to fly cross-country in the company of others.

Please contact me if you have an interest in attending and require further information on accommodation etc.

The primary place where I will be publishing updated information on this event will be the Competitions forum of the NZHGPA web site.

 

Cheers

Tim Percival
Tasman Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club

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St Arnaud Paragliding League and XC Camp  
Saturday 11th February to Sunday 19th February 2017
(Incorporating a Tasman Regional Competition)

(This expands slightly on what has been published in the November Airborn magazine).

The St Arnaud Paragliding League will be a NZHGPA Regional Competition, giving the opportunity to gain National Ladder (pilot ranking system) points. It is also in the process of being sanctioned as a FAI Category 2 competition, giving the opportunity to gain international WPRS points. Come along just for the XC Camp if you’d prefer to just fly XC without a set task and designated flying time. The events’ HQ will be a rented holiday cottage in St Arnaud. 

Here is a location photo:

 

Paragliding League Specifics

Regional Comp. Dates:  Feb 11 – 13, 2017 (Sat-Mon), with reserve dates in case of bad weather of Feb 17 - 19, 2017 (Fri-Sun).  Any bad weather postponement to the reserve dates will be advised during the week before on the forum of the NZHGPA website.

Contact: Tim Percival percival@actrix.co.nz 03 548 7397 or 022 646 3864

Task Format:  Standard competition tasks.  First Briefing: To be advised on the forum of the NZHGPA website closer to the day.

Sites:  Inwoods Lookout, Mt Murchison, Mt Robert (walking access, depending on attendees), others to be advised.

Cost:  $5 suggested donation per day, maximum $15.

Required for Safety:  PG2 + 20 hours, reserve, back protection, GPS, UHF Radio, maps.

XC Camp Specifics

Come along just for the XC Camp if you’d prefer to just fly XC without a set task and designated flying time.

Dates: To be run concurrently over the days Saturday, February 11 to Sunday, February 19, 2017.

Day format:  Fly XC and see how far you can get. There should be opportunities for comp pilots to over-fly goal on the comp days. Come for the whole 9 days or just the good days.  Lodge your flights in person or by telephone to the HQ each evening if you wish to enter the friendly XC competition (your best four XC flights count). Verification by GPS track log or by traditional means (i.e. take off and landing witnesses) if, say, you forgot to turn your track logging on.

Sites:  Same as above.

Cost:  $5 - $10 suggested donation for the week.

Required for Safety:  PG2 + 20 hours, reserve, back protection, GPS, UHF Radio, maps.

General Information for Both Events

Accommodation

St. Arnaud is an excellent place for a long weekend with a variety of accommodation available including good tenting in the DoC campground, backpackers, and cheap holiday houses and baches for easy rental if you are a little organised. It has a shop and an all important bar. The events’ HQ this year is a bach/holiday house. The beds of the HQ bach have already been allocated, but contact Tim if you would like to coordinate with other pilots for renting a different holiday house in the village.

Sites

The sites we will be using are high sites (up to 1450m ASL), so they make for some very scenic and exhilarating flying around the St. Arnaud area, which is the northern-most end of the Southern Alps. (The site records for Inwoods Lookout, Mt Murchison and Mt Robert are 116km, 95km and 91km respectively).

Traditionally February is a good time for flying these sites, with fairly settled weather.

Transport

Mt. Murchison requires 4WD vehicles so if you have one, it would be good to bring it. Vehicles used on forestry access roads must be equipped with fire extinguishers (be sure to contact Tim beforehand if you will need to get one for your vehicle).

For more information contact: Tim Percival, 47A Brook Street, Nelson, ph. 03 548 7397 or 022 646 3864, percival@actrix.co.nz

 

Dropbox photos from Round 2 PG Open - Nelson

Greetings one and all,

Here are the links to view and to upload photos from the PG Nationals in Nelson.
Please feel free to share yours.

To view:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2smqc2qp7kh4sgy/AADy3RmkP9Fr_MrWT1bmFMY6a?dl=0

To share (upload):
https://www.dropbox.com/request/4l7gIjB55pdFRAwnlOTC

Happy daze.
Peter Allison.