GLIDING and LIGHT AIRCRAFT FLYING BLOG by Arthur Gatland
Since the beginning of time, humans have wanted to be in the sky.
After millennia of wonder and wishing, in 1783 a Frenchman invented a hot air balloon that could lift people into the sky. Since then there has been no looking back and invention after invention followed to allow people to fly. Now, flying is ‘common as muck’.
Pretty much all of us have flown - one way or another. But how many of us have spent time in the air in silence with just the noise of the air flowing over the canopy? How many of us have felt at one with the sky, winds and clouds?
Arthur has.
Take it away, Arthur!
I had a perfect start to my life of flying, thanks to my father’s involvement in gliding. I had my first glider flight in 1963 at age 13 and was hooked.
The minimum age to fly solo was 16 years old, so I flew intermittently with instructors over the next 3 years, accruing 89 flights and 30 hours, before being able to fly solo. I took the day off school (with permission) to achieve my first solo on my 16th birthday.
I continued gliding enthusiastically, and at 17 years old I was appointed as an instructor and had accomplished some reasonable cross-country flights. I was keen to hire a Club glider and compete in the NZ Gliding Nationals at Matamata, but my father suggested we share-fly his Schleicher K6E.
Arthur competing in 1968 NZ Gliding Nationals at Matamata
My logbook says I flew on four days, finishing 14th, 5th, 7th and 16th. I think Dad did slightly better and we finished around 8th overall. It was great fun, great experience and a steep learning curve for me. By the time I left NZ to join the RAF in March 1968, I had accrued almost 200 hours gliding, including 65 hours as an instructor. I am sure my gliding experience (and some sporting successes) had helped my chances when I applied to join the RAF.
In March 1970 the RAF gave me 3 weeks off from flying training to return to NZ for the trials for the 1970 Commonwealth Games fencing team (successfully). I used the time to do another 17 hours gliding as well. Since my last trip, Dad had bought a new Schempp-Hirth Open Class Cirrus (ZK-GFZ), the state of the art in high performance at the time. He used it to win the Rothmans Gold Cup challenge trophy for being the first pilot to fly a glider non-stop from Auckland to Wellington, an impressive feat even with today’s high-performance gliders. During this NZ trip, I did 8 hours fun flying in the Open Cirrus.
Arthur in Open Cirrus glider at Matamata
Youngest sister acting as crew and pretending to be interested
In 1971 at the end of the RAF fast-jet course on Gnats it was announced that we could take 4 weeks leave. I immediately phoned RAF Brize Norton VIP transport squadron and asked “Do you happen to have any VIP world trainer trips going anywhere near New Zealand over the next few days?” The answer was yes, a VC-10 aircraft will leave at 0100 tomorrow morning, and I should be there by midnight with my “Indulgence Travel” form signed and I can hitch a ride for a fee of £7.
I approached my Boss and asked if he would sign my Indulgence Travel Form so I could fly to New Zealand later that night. He asked, “How are you getting back?” I said I had no idea, but I’m sure it will work out. He said, “You are a totally mad Kiwi, you know!” Funnily enough, it has been said before.
After a flurry of activity, paperwork signed, I drove the 5 hours to Brize Norton to arrive in time for the flight. A few days later I turned up unexpectedly at the farm at Papakura and walked in around 5pm. Big hugs with Mum, but with no visible surprise but a big grin on his face Dad said, “What are you doing dressed like that? Get your work clothes on and gimme a hand with the milking!”
After more gliding, the trip back to UK worked out after a few phone calls. I bought an air ticket to Sydney, hitched a ride with an RAF C-130 to Singapore and an RAF Britannia to UK.
After 9 months of holding awaiting a Harrier course, I was sent back to RAF Valley in Anglesea for a Gnat refresher course before starting a weapons and combat course in Devon. With good weather we finished the 8 weeks course in 4 weeks, so once again we were given 4 weeks leave, and once again I hitched a flight back to NZ for a few weeks!
On this trip I did another 14 hours gliding, including a 300km flight from Ardmore to Te Aroha, then Otorohanga, and back to Ardmore in my father’s new Standard Cirrus (ZK-GHP) taking 5 hours 45 minutes. It was somewhat of a struggle with very weak conditions for the last 2 hours. I was pleased to complete my Gold C and Diamond Goal, some of the gliding benchmark awards that all glider pilots aspire to achieve.
STANDARD CIRRUS HP AT MATAMATA Photo courtesy of Peter Layne
1974 NZ trip:
While in Germany on Harriers, my wife and I were able to take a four-week holiday in NZ over December 1974 /January 1975. It was timed to coincide with the NZ Gliding Nationals being held at Omarama, and my father, Frank, had invited me to share-fly with him in his Schempp-Hirth Standard Cirrus, flying alternate days.
I hadn’t done any gliding for three years, but I managed to do five hours’ practice before the event started. I competed on six days, with unspectacular results between 8th and 15th out of about 30 competitors, but I did manage to win one day. It was not a very good weather forecast for the day, and the task was to fly twice around a 100 km triangle course, as quickly as possible. As half-expected, no-one completed the task. I used my military instrument training to climb up inside a cloud to a height of 10,000 feet, which gave me a good start. I finally landed after covering 160km of the 200km task, enough for first place for the day.
I also attempted a “Diamond height gain” from Omarama but only managed to climb to 16,700ft, not quite enough. (I subsequently achieved this over the Kaimais from Matamata, climbing to 23,000ft.)
On two days at Omarama, I was offered the opportunity to fly a Salto glider, a V-tail fully aerobatic fibreglass glider. The Pilot’s Handbook confirmed it was approved for virtually any manoeuvre, including flying inverted, tailslides and flick manoeuvres, as well as the standard loops, stall turns and spins. I had fun and so did the spectators who watched a glider doing things they had never seen before.
Somehow word got back to the German manufacturer about the displays, because I was invited to visit them in Saulgau, in Germany, and do an aero display which we managed to do in September 1975. Of course, it was helped by the fact that we were living in Germany at the time.
Arthur landing the SALTO at Omarama after aerobatics.
After my return to NZ from the RAF in 1979, I got back into gliding on a more regular basis and was persuaded by my father to accept the position of Chief Flying Instructor of the Auckland Gliding Club, a role he had previously held. I was CFI for 8 years then Club President for a couple of years. Both were enjoyable and rewarding positions.
NZ 100km Multi-seat Record:
In 1982 my wife (crew and turn-point photographer) and I beat the NZ Gliding Record for speed around a 100km triangular course for Multi-seat gliders. The plan was to take an aerotow from Matamata and have a remote start / finish line which allowed me to position one leg of the triangle along the Kaimai Range and land at a particular paddock on a farm, which I had checked from the road that morning. We achieved an average speed of 105 km/hr, which was good enough to beat the previous record. But the landing didn’t go as planned.
The chosen paddock now had livestock in it, so I had to use my Plan B. I was also a bit lower and slower than I had hoped, so the landing was poorly planned, and I finished up doing a heavy landing which cracked the rear fuselage of the Twin Astir.
In fact, I demonstrated all those poor human factor traits that I now train Air NZ pilots and glider pilots to avoid – needless to say I felt suitably embarrassed. I was going to forget the Record, but I was persuaded that we should apply for it anyway. The record was approved and stayed in the Record Books for quite a few years.
Glider Agency and imports:
In the 1984 I was lucky enough to get the NZ agency for Schempp-Hirth gliders (Germany), and subsequently I added Siren (France) PIK 30 motor gliders. The first container of 4 gliders arrived in Nov 85 with 4 exciting first-of-types – a Janus CM, Ventus bT and two Discus. The Janus M was a self-launching glider with retractable motor, and the Ventus “Turbo” had a smaller but lighter “get you home” motor. I test flew all 4 on 20 Nov 1985 with considerable interest in the local gliding fraternity.
Schempp-Hirth Ventus with retractable Turbo
NZ’s first Siren PIK 30 at the factory at Issoire, France
The first PIK 30 arrived shortly after, and after test flying, I undertook to deliver it to its new syndicate owners in Motueka, near Nelson. The flight involved a short hop to Matamata to show the next customers, then a partly-motor partly-gliding flight to Paraparaumu to refuel – then take-off and climb to 9,000ft for the Cook Strait crossing, gliding the second half at 90kts. Then I did a short display flight for the 4 syndicate pilots, followed by a class and exam to give them all a Motor Glider rating. A long but exciting day!
In Jan 1987 I achieved a Diamond Distance badge with a 500km flight, flying a Discus that I now owned with two partners. The previous day I had attempted the flight but only managed 330km, taking 6 hrs 30 min before the day clouded over preventing any thermals - rising warm air that glider pilots use to gain height. The following day’s forecast was promising – although mid-flight it started clouding over again. I could see sunlight hitting the ground in the distance, so I carried on at best gliding speed until I reached the spot, and sure enough found some weak thermals and was able to complete the 500km task taking 7 hours 30 minutes!
Exactly a year later I used westerly winds and wave activity over the Kaimai Range to climb to 23,300ft (using oxygen of course), achieving my third “Diamond”, this one for height gain, becoming 3-Diamond number 67 in NZ.
Aerobatic displays:
My logbooks tells me I have done over 30 glider aerobatic displays over 40 years. These include:
· Several NZ Gliding Nationals air displays
· Display for FAI Conference delegates Nov 1980
· Hamilton Aviation Showcase Nov 1980
· Two displays at Gliding Nationals at Matamata for CAA Director Kippenburger in Feb 1982, with fully aerobatic Cobra, and PIK 20E, the first self-launching motor glider in NZ. The Director asked for my recommendations for Rules regarding motor-glider registration, pilot licensing or ratings etc, which effectively were accepted as I suggested. I then wrote the course for an NZ Motor Glider Rating.
· Wings and Wheels display at Pukekohe, using a PIK 20E high performance motor glider
· Auckland Gliding Club Open Day – formation aerobatic display in PIK 20E with a DG-400, another motor glider. We climbed to 3000ft, retracted motors, and I flew formation on the DG as he flew an aerobatic routine down to landing.
· Ardmore Airshow Displays
Arthur with crew after Discus aeros at Ardmore
Discus display at the Auckland Gliding Club
· Palmerston North Airshow display in a borrowed DG-200
· Display at Woodbourne, Blenheim in a Mini-Nimbus (in light rain – see notes below)
· Several Warbirds Airshows at Ardmore
· Auckland Expo Airshow in a DG-400 motor glider (see notes)
· Waipukurau Fly-in display in a Twin Astir (see notes).
· Further displays at Admore Airshows, including the “Mosquito First Flight” airshow
· Piako Gliding Club 60th Anniversary aerobatic display in 800ft cloudbase! (See notes and video)
Auckland Expo Airshow Nov 92:
I flew a DG-400 high performance motor glider for this display, with the added flexibility of self-launching. I flew it over to Auckland Airport on the Friday and received permission to do a practice display in “pure glider” mode. However, when I was down to 600ft, ATC said “we have a B737 on approach, clear south of the runway and hold.” I complied, thinking I might have to land on the grass, but by chance I found a “thermal” of rising air and was able to circle and maintain height until the B737 had landed. One of the Air NZ pilots saw me a few weeks later, and laughingly said “I couldn’t believe that ATC asked your glider to hold to the south, but to our utter amazement, you did it!”
2008 RAANZ NATIONAL FLY-IN WAIPUKURAU:
I was invited to come down to Waipukurau for this event, held over the 7th to 9th March 2008. I did a glider aerobatic display in the local Grob Twin Astir and was one of the two guest speakers during the prize-giving dinner.
My brother-in-law, John White, and I decided to enter the navigation competition in his Impulse carbon fibre microlight, but we needed a navigation protractor (for measuring angles and headings) as we didn’t have one. I grabbed a piece of cardboard, and with a pen divided it by eye into 4, then each quadrant into 3, and marked it off with degrees around the cardboard up to 360°. This was our protractor. Then I marked off distances on the cardboard using the latitude grid on our map, and that was our distance ruler.
Following the cryptic instructions, we plotted our route and target points, then rushed off to the aircraft to fly the task. We flew the calculated headings and tracks as well as we could, not helped by a gusty south-westerly wind, and found what we thought were the probable targets.
To our total amazement we won the navigation competition.
2008 RAANZ NATIONAL FLY-IN, WAIPUKURAU
JOHN WHITE’S IMPULSE
We won the navigation competition using a protractor made of cardboard
Blenheim air display:
I was asked to do an aerobatic display at this airshow and offered the use of a Mini-Nimbus glider. On the day there was a good cloud base but constant light drizzle, so I was unsure how many aerobatics I could do with the glider’s wet wings. I was pleasantly surprised that it performed fine but with a more rapid loss of height with each manoeuvre, so I cut the display short at low level and landed with a 5-knot downwind.
After landing the glider owner seemed very happy with the display, but I suspect it was more relief that I returned his glider in one piece!
Piako Gliding Club 60th:
I was asked to do a Discus glider aerobatic display for this event. The weather was not ideal and despite waiting for an improvement, I eventually decided to go ahead with an 800ft cloud base – not ideal as the attached video shows. Naturally it was quite a conservative display but well received by the event organisers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKcOG77HdrQ
Air combat with Tiger Moth:
One day I was doing a routine thermalling local flight from Drury, when a Tiger Moth flew towards me and started turning around me while I was circling. I started air combat manoeuvres to “get on his tail” and he accepted the challenge and responded with air combat type manoeuvring.
However, not only could I out-perform him, he lost height faster than my glider. Eventually he conceded defeat, but flew away and climbed for more height, then came back for another go. Once again, I got behind him and “shot him down”. I have no idea who the pilot was, or whether he recognised my glider registration – but it was great fun.
2007 – Light aircraft flying:
After I “retired” from my Air NZ management position, I found that magically I had some more spare time on my hands. I had toyed with the idea of purchasing a share in a light aircraft (or Warbirds-type) for some fun flying.
I discussed the possibility of putting together an Air Combat training package for Warbirds pilots and had received enthusiastic support from quite a few pilots. I arranged to get a type rating on the Harvard and YAK-52 with Doug Batten, and also had flights in a Pitts Special, Tiger Moth, and Titan Mustang.
I was also invited by glider pilot buddy, Simon Gault, to come and fly his Thunder Mustang with him – an opportunity too good to miss. This aircraft is approximately 3/4th scale version of the famous North American P51-D Mustang from World War 2, with a 640HP motor, which actually out-performs the original.
I carefully squeezed into the small back seat, which was comfortable enough once in position. Simon took off from Ardmore Airport and we flew south 50km to the Te Kauwhata area where there is an area known as The Swamp for obvious reasons, with no houses or people to annoy.
Simon ran through his aerobatic display routine for practice, and then said “Your turn”. I basically copied what he had just done, although being less familiar with the aircraft I did raise the nose a bit higher on low level “derry turns” for safety. After, I taught Simon how to fly low-level attacks against various suitable targets we found. A fun flight! The aircraft was great to fly and flew aerobatics very well.
THUNDER MUSTANG Ardmore Airport
We trialled my air combat training detail with three other pilots, all with RNZAF experience, in two Harvards. After a suitable briefing we took off and started the various exercises, finishing with full-on air combat fighting (as much as a Harvard can do anyway). Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the flight, and then the review commenced as to how practical it would be to have an air combat training programme under the NZ Warbirds umbrella. For various reasons it was never put in place – disappointing but there is no doubt it would have been quite expensive for pilots wanting to participate.
Currently, my gliding and Pawnee glider-towing continues but at a slower pace thanks to the impact of Covid and the appalling 2023 weather patterns! Maybe this summer will be better?
Arthur Gatland
