What a fantastic week!
Firstly, the weather has been fabulous; almost the best of the year. Early in the week we woke to mornings that looked less than promising - grey skies and high clouds. But by midday the sky cleared and the cumulus started to develop nicely. Then each day the afternoons just got better and better with the result that tasks have been almost without exception under set. By late in the day it has been common to achieve climbs to 8,000 ft.
And we have been busy!
Firstly we have hosted a visit by 9 members of the Jakarta Soaring Club led by Bob Gondohusodo, the President. Most of the team were visiting to achieve their distance tasks for the Silver C. In Java they have no trouble doing their 5 hours and 1,000m climbs, but the 50km task is a bit challenging because of the dearth of outlanding opportunities. The average landholding is a bank bound rice paddy of about ¼ acre. Try getting a glider into that without making a terrible mess of it!
On hand to show the team of 7 pilots the ropes was Ian Downes, Allan Buttenshaw and Gary Speight. They had a full on job doing thorough check flights and showing the team our geography and environment. And what a team it was; all young, including 4 girls and 3 boys ranging in age from 13 to 38. If only we could have the same strength in young members in our Club.
Nearly all were good English speakers so communications were easy once colloquialisms had been purged. No “rigi-diges” or “shell-be-right mates” were allowed and John Clark with his “munga” and “wobla” (does anybody know what these words mean?) was banned for the week!
Taqwa, the most experienced member of the team who had 600 hours, easily did a 200kms on his third day in the LS7, beating Chris Bowman home by a comfortable margin. He received a Club Polo for winning the first annual JSC/LKSC Grand Prix.
Jan Dircks excelled herself by putting on her first ever Indonesian meals on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. After the visitors had passed the food as authentic on Tuesday the entire Club joined them for Wednesdays feast and voted the menu a huge success. You can expect Rendang and Satay to feature regularly on Jan’s menus from now on along with lots of rice. And the State Park Kiosk now does a great Nasi Goreng for breakfast – fried rice, sausage and chicken topped by a fried egg and sprinkled with Sambal Olek and Kechap Manis. It did take some time for this cultural transfer to be achieved!
Keen to sample true Australian hospitality the team demanded a BBQ on Saturday night which was voted a huge success by the 40 people who attended.
To cap the Indonesian visit, on the weekend the team was joined by Mr Yudi Suyoto, Executive Chairman of KONI, the Indonesian National Sports Committee, and his family. KONI coordinates all sport in Indonesia and sponsored the visit.
And then running in conjunction with this has been the Steve Hedley 20m Grand Prix which commenced on Monday. Six aircraft participates, the ASHs of Brad Edwards, Geoff Sim and Paul Mander, the Nimbuses of Steve Hedley and Shinzo and the Club Duo with Nick Singer at the controls.
Every day was a great success with each including exciting finishes. What a great racing format the Grand Prix is. It makes you look forward to our Qualifying Grand Prix in November. If we get a good rollup it should be fantastic.
And congratulations to Steve Hedley for coming up with the idea, promoting the event and organising it so well. A great member’s initiative. There should be more.
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