Ian Downs was the duty instructor on Friday and I got back into the tug. It was last August since I last flew it so I did three take offs and landings before towing, and Phil Anderton was present to revalidate me. Ended up doing 11 tows, which was good fun.
The Puchatek was the weapon of choice for instructional purposes and Greg Nelson from Tamworth had three flights with Ian. Jay Anderton and David Bull launched in LS6 and Discus 2 respectively and disappeared for quite some time. Matthew Atkinson self launched in the DG 400 HDB and did not come back till late, but confessed to using the iron thermal once or twice.
It was not a particularly easy day, with most of the good clouds being just out of reach for a 2000ft aero tow, but it seemed that those who made it to the clouds had a pleasant couple of hours soaring.
Chris Madden, ex Caribou pilot, flew with Ian Downs a couple of times in the Puchatek in order to learn more about thermalling, but the tuggie obviously didn't tow them to the right place - sorry guys.
Later in the afternoon, about 3 o' clock-ish, the clouds spread out a bit, and it started to look a bit dead, however John McCloud, Vic Hatfield in respective Cirri (?) launched and flew about for ages, reaching 7000ft, and didn't come back till nearly 5 'o clock. Chris Madden took another launch with Allbuts this time and managed a good hour. Funny sort of a day.
On Saturday, it was all hands on deck with the working bee, but Allan made sure the less experienced pilots who had come along, got to fly. Lots of chainsawing, mowing, earthmoving, repairing, plumbing, painting and cleaning got done. Flying wise, Allan flew with Chris Madden and Bruce Paulson in the Puchatek and then they both did some solo flights. Andrew Rankmore did the towing.
After all the work, we had a great Chez Dircks - good company, excellent food. Music by Brad Edwards. Thanks Bob and Jan.
On Sunday we had an excellent talk by Bruce Taylor about thermal structure, and how to centre them - can't wait to try to put it in to practice before I forget it all again. Andrew Rankmore had to leave early so Jay Anderson stepped into the breach as tuggie.Lyndon Waddell turned up for a couple of flights but had to fly early so he could get home in time to do his school homework. Allan Buttenshaw flew with Lyndon in the Puchatek, and I flew with Chris Madden in the Twin Astir. As both these pilots had done about 6 solos, we covered the altimeters and gave them their A certificate test flights, which both managed perfectly. Chris flew the twin astir so nicely, I decided to put him into the Junior for his first single seater flight.
No one else bothered to fly except Matthew Atkinson in HDB. There was hardly any lift about, but nice and smooth for training flights.
Sunday night Ian and Joy put on a Barbecue, and we had another very convivial evening in the Club House. We were joined by a father and son team of Qantas Pilots, who were to do a mini-course with Ian for the first half of the week. They seemed to enjoy our company, but sadly the rain set in on Monday, and they decided to come back later in the year.
Jenny Ganderton
