Head out to Titahi bay, and follow the signage to Whitireia Park. Park at the big concrete pads or in the little car park further up.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&m ... 11a086dfaf

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When I visited Wellington and flew with a mate (a few years ago now) I remember flying from this great southerly site, access off breaker bay road, walk up hill looking out onto the sea, channel on your left and road on your right.

It's an awesome slope and certainly good for DS'ing too.

Do you guys still fly from there?

Perfect for learning- theres only a few trees (I still managed to find one) - the bank is easy to land on- and theres a huge field below to land on.

Suitable for small gliders to slope soar. I tried the larger Windrider Fox there today, and was able to keep it in the air for a while, but a smaller glider would fare much better, as the ridge is not very high. It is, however quite steep on the south side. Plenty of large bushes, so you need to beware you don't let the glider out of sight.

I tried this site in a light to moderate westerly last night and the lift was just amazing. A gentle launch over the edge and the plane went up like an elevator, as high as I wanted to go and still going up. The lift was silky smooth without even a ripple of turbulence. You can fly as far as you want in either direction, and even a long way out to sea.

The only issue is the landing zone makes a pocket handkerchief look like a paddock!

Next time I'm going to try a bit further along the hill where I think it should be possible to land in the paddocks behind the edge of the hill, but from the current site there is the distinct possibility of landing in the trees, as I did on my last landing. Fortunately retrieved ok, but a bit of a mission.

So if you're good at spot landings or don't mind climbing trees this is a great site. For my money it's worth the risk to have such great lift - best I've ever flown in.

I don't think you'd want more than a moderate west or nor west because your glider would never come down!

I'll update once I've tried the alternative launch/landing site.

Jason

The site is an inland slope, having both sites for NW and S winds (Wellington's regular winds). The air can be a bit messy and blustery and the landing spaces are all but non-existent, so it's definitely a foamie site - leave your precious models at home. There are two NW slopes right next to each other. Depending on the wind, one tends to be better than the other. The more northerly site is better in NNW, and some good slermals can be found 50 metres out or so on the right days around the mid-day to early afternoon. Best conditions are NW or NNW about 20-40KPH

Park at the end of Parkvale road and follow the walkway up to the ridge line. Then follow the track over the little cattle-stop and then set up just 10-20 further around. Its about an 800 metre walk up to the site. Less for the Southerly site.

NW or W wind you can stand on the sand dunes and fly over the beach.

Needs a good stiff breeze, and even then not nearly as good as Whitireia, but flyable when other places are clagged in. Probably would be good in a lighter breeze with a floaty glider - I'll try it one day and let you know .

Jason

Park at the end of McLintock St in Johnsonville and follow the track up to the ridge (in blue). Depending on how high you want to climb up the ridge, there are plenty of spots to try/explore. There may also be some possible DS spots along here, but it prob is not the best.

LZs are tight, but prob not as tight as Skyline walkway. Still probably best to stick to foamies.

Anyways, try it and post here what you think of the spot.