Fly before you buy!

Had a note from competition pilot last week asking if Sports Class and Club Class will be held at Taupo in 2010.

Yes they will!
The classes to be contested will be.
Open Class
18 Metre Class
Standard/15 metre Class
Club Class
Sports Class(which includes PW5s)

It occurs to me that a number of pilots will not have flown a competition from Taupo. Especially those from the Canoe of Maui (yep ewes Omarama types).

With magic of Google Earth you can now fly around the Taupo area with Google Flight Simulator.

Get Google Earth pointing at Taupo then press Ctrl +ALT +A choose the aircraft (I dont recommend the F16 if you want a glider pilots view) and then click your mouse in the middle of the display. Voila, your mouse is now a "joystick".

I had some great fun in an F16 beating up Omarama then flying VFR up the coast(compulsory beatups of Christchurch and Omaka) before leaping the Straits and doing a Paekok beatup at 1100 knots - 600 feet (eat your heart out Vaughan) before popping in to Taupo.

The scenery is excellent, fly slow and low and you get the full impact of what fun you will have in a glider at Valentine Glide. Fly high and you get the layout of the competition area.

Keep it up!

Roy