Matt Hall approached us last week with an unusual request: the Discovery Channel is featuring him in a series and could they film him flying his Giles at Warkworth?  Matt had all the paperwork from CASA sorted out but he still needed a venue.

The filming took 2 days with many flights and interviews.  They have already filmed the gliding segment of the show in New Zealand, so they didn’t need to shoot any of our gliders.  The programme will go to air later this year - probably around October.  We can’t show you the photos we took until after it has been shown, so here’s a few photos from Matt’s practice session last year.

The recent hot weather hasn’t been ideal for gliding.  With no cumulus clouds in the Hunter Valley, we have been forced to fly far and wide to get some shade.  Dave Pickles flew to Lithgow on Saturday.  That is probably the furthest south that a glider has ever flown from Warkworth.

Jim Crowhurst, a Queensland pilot of some repute, had a ride in the Duo on Saturday.  He was given a tour of the “stepping stones” out to Widden valley.  The final glide back home got very close to the mountains to the south of Warkworth as we were picking thermals off the rocks and ridges.  Jim was suitably impressed.

Sunday was also excellent, with climbs above 12,000ft available towards Rylstone under cumulus.  David Stuart had his first flight in the Junior.