St Arnaud Paragliding League & XC Camp - Nelson NZ
11 - 19 February 2016
Paragliding League Specifics
Comp Dates: February 27 – March 1, 2015 (Fri-Sun) or February 28 – March 2, 2015 (Sat-Mon). Precisely which 3 days 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: At the St Arnaud comp. base/HQ; day and time to be advised on the forum of the NZHGPA website.
Sites: Inwoods, Mt Murchison, Mt Robert (walking access, depending on attendees). Others to be advised, most likely Blowhard will be available too.
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 Feb 26 – Mar 3, 2015 (Thurs-Tues).
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 6 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 3 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.
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 which sleeps 6 (125 Main Road). Contact Tim if you would like to reserve a place in this bach or 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 82km respectively).
Traditionally March is a good time for flying these sites, for example, on the last day of March last year Nick Taber clocked up a 103km (3 turn-point) flight flying from Inwoods Lookout!
Transport
Mt. Murchison and Blowhard require 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