Glider flight over Mount Cook, New Zealand

12th November 2007

Being a glider pilot I had planned to try and find somewhere to fly while on holiday in New Zealand. Most clubs only operated at week-ends and this did not fit in with our itinerary very well so while driving from Queenstown to Christchurch we called in to Omarama to see what their options were. They had a competition on so no club flying but the Duo Discus would be available later in the week so we made a provisional booking for the 13th November, as we had to be back in Oamaru on the 14th. We traveled back to Omarama on the 12th, having made a booking at the local hotel for 2 nights, and went back to the club in the afternoon to confirm the arrangements for the following day. When we arrived there we were told that the forecast for the following day was not good but the competition gliders were hill soaring to good heights and the Duo Discus was available. A quick change of plan was made and a short while later Chris Rudge and I were towed to the nursery slope at 2,000’. After a couple of beats we had determined that there was some very good lift over a bowl at the northern end and after a few S-turns we were high enough to move downwind to the main hill where we quickly climbed to around 6,000’. Chris said that we would need at least 7,000’ to get to the Barrier Mountains where there should be some wave but the hill didn’t look like it would get us that high so we pushed into wind towards some likely looking clouds which turned out to be rotors. We weren’t climbing too well in them but we were able to maintain around 6,000’ until we caught a good one just downwind of the Barrier Range and this got us into the right spot at a little over 7,000’. We found the wave but it was not very strong so we widened our search area before returning to the spot we had first found. The climb got better as we climbed and we could now see a good lenticular to the north, near Lake Pukaki, so as soon as we were high enough we set off towards it while Chris explained that this was known as the Barrier Wave and was usually very good. This turned out to be true for as we ran northwards along the edge we started to climb rapidly and went on to oxygen. Before long we were averaging 16.7 knots climb and as we passed 16,000’ we started pushing the speed up to over 100 knots with the lenticular now far below and another above us stretching all the way along the Tasman Glacier to Mount Cook which we could now see jutting through the lower cloud. I handed control over to Chris so I could take some photographs and by the time we got to Mount Cook we had reached 19,650’. We then turned South-westwards and headed back towards the Barrier Mountains above cloud and before long I could see the airfield in the distance to our left in the middle of a large gap. We continued past this and above more cloud until we reached an area known as the Omarama Saddle where we burnt off enough height to get below the controlled airspace above the airfield which we then returned to, arriving overhead at around 4,000’. This gave me a chance to look around the local area before we landed after a little over 3 hours, having covered some 260 kms.

View across Lake Pukaki to the Tasman Glacier from above the Barrier Range 800x583 01TasmanGlacierPB121723.jpg	Lake Pukaki and beyond it Lake Tekapo 800x600 02WaveOverLakesPukaki_TekapoPB121724.jpg	Looking back over the Barrier Range 800x600 03WaveOverBarrierRangePB121725.jpg	Wave clouds over Lake Pukaki 800x600 04WaveOverLakePukakiPB121726.jpg
The wave cloud over Lake Pukaki starts forming, when we got there we were climbing at 16.7 knots average! 800x600 05WaveOverOmaramaPB121727.jpg	The wave cloud over Mount Cook 800x600 06WaveOverMtCookPB121728.jpg	Another view of the wave cloud over Mount Cook - even at nearly 20,000' it was way above us! 800x600 07WaveOverMtCookPB121729.jpg	Mount Cook from 18,600' - note the sliver of ice forming on the canopy. 800x600 08MountCookfrom18600PB121730.jpg
Approaching Mount Cook 800x600 09WaveOverMtCookPB121731.jpg	Mount Cook from 17,900' 800x600 10MountCookFrom17900PB121732.jpg	Another wave cloud has started to form over Mount Cook below us 800x600 11WaveOverMtCookPB121733.jpg	Mount Cook from 19,600' and the wave is well established now. 800x600 12MtCookFrom19600PB121734.jpg
Heading back over the Barrier Range. 800x600 13OverBarrierRangePB121735.jpg	A last look back at Mount Cook as we leave 800x600 14WaveOverMtCookPB121736.jpg	Chris Rudge and the Duo after landing 800x600 15ChrisRudge_DuoPB121739.jpg	That's me after our epic flight. 800x600 16Duo_MeOmaramaPB121743.jpg
That's me again! Low cloud and rain took over the next day! 800x600 17Duo_MeOmaramaPB121744.jpg