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Published: February 28th 2014
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Glide Omarama
Martin finished helping me into my parachute After a great night's sleep I wake up excited to head out to Omarama. I was inspired by a video of NZ that Heidi had sent me a few months ago that had a glider soaring around the peaks of NZ. Some Google research indicated Omarama had world class gliding and with the help of i-Site Christchurch booked I booked a one hour mountain adventure!
I arrived early to Glide Omarama and chatted with one of the instructors. It wasn't long before my pilot/instructor, Martin, landed and I 'suited up' for my ride. We were required to wear a parachute and as he helped me into mine, explaining how to deploy it I joked that I might even get a parachute jump at no extra charge! Since this was technically a lesson, he explained the instruments, most of which I was familiar with being a pilot. But a few were new to me - one being the Variometer (similar to a vertical speed indicator) which shows you how fast you are ascending or descending. It also has an interesting audio component that changes frequency depending on if you are climbing or sinking.
Martin showed me
Takeoff
Tow plane assistance on the takeoff. For you pilots out there, notice the piece of string on the canopy? Glider pilots use that in place of the turn coordinator to confirm if they are in a coordinated turn! Clever! how the oxygen system worked, optimistic we would get above 10,000ft today. We hopped in the glider, strapped in and the tow plane took off! The glider popped up before the tow plane was even off the ground! It didn't take long before we were both in the air with the tow plane heading straight for some nearby hills where we would get lift from updrafts. It was weird being towed and strange watching the tow plane break off somewhere around maybe 4000ft leaving us on our own to find lift. Martin flew us what I thought was way to close to the hills but he knew what he was doing as pretty soon the Variometer was pegging out at 10! The glider was climbing faster than my Cessna 172! It didn't take us long and we were at 7,500ft. "This is Great!" I thought "We will be able to fly to the mountains!". But alas, the gods of glider lift were not with us and we could't quite get the altitude needed to safely fly over to the mountains.
So, we stayed in the valley while Martin taught me to look for sources of lifts (cumulus
Getting Some Lift
Geez - I think we are getting a little close to that terrain! clouds and upwind sides of hills and mountains) and it wasn't long before he turned the controls over to me to fly around and try to keep us aloft! I missed my attitude indicator that I hadn't realized I had become so dependent on but I quickly got the feel of the aircraft. It was amazing - so quiet! No engine noises and no headset needed. This is what it must be like to be a hawk! Quietly lifting and turning and soaring! We vacillated between 5,500 and 7,500 feet and eventually my hour was up. All that hard work getting altitude and now we had to lose it. Martin took back the controls to do what all pilots live for - the Landing! He executed a perfect engine out landing and my glider adventure came to an end.
I said my goodbyes and went to check into my next stay for the night - Top Ten Holiday Park were I had a cute cabin to myself. There I met two girls from Austria, Andrea and Phelinoma (or something like that), who had been touring NZ for months in a camper van. Camper vans are a VERY
We have company!
Another glider above us taking advantage of the updrafts! popular way to tour NZ. They invited me to join them at a nearby winery for dinner so I gladly accepted as I was yearning for some good conversation and, of course, NZ wine!
They were lovely, fun girls and we talked about our various travel adventures, what we did for work and where we lived. We bought a bottle of wine and returned to the Holiday Park and continued our discussions. Eventually the party came to an end. I said goodnight to my new friends and went to my little cabin for a good rest. Tomorrow I was to end my driving adventure in Queenstown!
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