Keepit Regatta - Practice Day 18th February - by Jenny Ganderton

This was a club day as well as being the practice day for the Regatta, and there were heaps of people wanting to fly. Tim Carr was duty instructor and, as well as having an AFR or two to do, there were four passenger flights and an ab-initio student.  Then there was a phone call to day that there was a paraglider pilot coming over some time who probably wanted a flight sometime - all very vague.

It turned out that the "paraglider pilot" was Johnny Durand Jr, Australian National Hang Glider Champion for the last 10 years, and pretty much unbeatable. He's thinking of crossing over to the dark side so all the other cross-over hangies will have no place to hide!! I think the rest of us had better look out too. Not sure who he ended up flying with, but heard on the grapevine that whoever it was didn't need to touch the controls. John did confess that he had been flying the Dragonfly tug so had some prior 3 axis experience.

It had been a long time since I had seen young Johnny on a hang gliding site. He used to tag along with his dad at the age of about 10, and carry peoples harnesses, and stuff battens in gliders for money!!

All that aside, there were at least 19 sailplanes wanting to launch, and some of them more than once so it was a busy day. The weather was good and the task was an AAT to Quirindi Mullaley Edgeroi Manilla and back to Keepit with quite large circles except for Manilla.

Weather started brewing up a bit to the south, with a few showers toward Quirindi  so most only just nicked the Quirindi circle. Dave Shorter was boasting climbs of 11 kts, but the best I got was about 6 to 8. As we progressed past Mullaley, there was a radio call that there was a thunderstorm warning for Tamworth Keepit area, and many turned for home. Not your intrepid writer however who thought she knew better than to believe in thunderstorms, and was stranded out at Edgeroi when it arrived! Luckily by the time I got back to Keepit it had all dissipated, and the sun was shining again.

Saturday night we had a welcome dinner, with everyone sharing a delicious meal prepared by Joy Bartrup, Ann Bull and Lou Ransby. This is a great feature of this regatta - the fantastic dining experience, which is pretty much compulsory!