Sunday 17 June - by Chris Bowman

A much better day than Saturday.  Light breeze from the South West and scattered Q’s all day.  The temperature rose to about 18̊C.

Chris Carr was Duty Instructor and Juho in the Tug.

Jay Vine, an Air Force Cadet, arrived to fly out his scholarship.  After a check flight with Chris he did an easy 2 hours in the Junior, most of the time in company with a very large eagle.

I turned up with a friend, Wendy Canning, who was keen to experience gliding.  After a check flight in the Grob GFP with Chris I took Wendy for a 40 minute flight towards Manilla.  Some good thermals of 5 knots with cloud base at 5,000ft.

Otherwise a quiet day that slid into one of those exquisite Keepit late afternoons with the warm winter light slowly softening and the Kangas quietly munching on the strip ......

Chris

Monday 11 June 2012

Last day of the four day weekend. The day dawned somewhat grey and very cold. The weather forecast was very pessimistic with showers predicted, but lookout-the-window.com indicated that the weather was OK for winch training and outlanding practice. The showers did not materialise, but it remained cold all day.

Nigel Holmes needed an outlanding check in order to complete his C certificate, so after removing the tailwheel in the Puchatek, inflating it and replacing it, off we went. We used the Puchatek as it is lighter than the Grobs, and the strip at Gaineys is a bit short. Ian towed us over towards Gaineys, and we discussed various paddocks along the way. One of the ones Nigel selected was the one we used to use for outlanding practice, which I thought was a good sign. We landed safely at Gaineys, and were met by the owner who came out in a quad bike to tow us back to the end of the runway, where we were surrounded by children excited to see an aeroplane and a glider.

An uneventful tow back, and opportunity to practice cruising on aerotow.

Meanwhile Allan Buttenshaw was running a winch operation. He flew with Bob Emery, and sent him solo and then with Christian Linnet, and he went solo also. There was a light breeze, but the Twin ll was getting 1800 to 1900 feet on the winch. Communication again proved to be a problem, but this was solved by using UHF radios to do the launch instead of the airband ones.

After a break for a late lunch, we repeated the paddock landing exercise with John McLeod, and were welcomed back by all the children at Gaineys. John had done an outlanding exercise before, but thought it was cheating as that one had been in a huge paddock.

Ian and I did two winch launches together, with Allan Buttenshaw driving the winch under the supervision of Harry Medlicott. Nigel and John McLeod did the retrieving.

During the weekend, we had one GPC signed off, one C certificate achieved, and  nine pilots revalidated on winch flying including several instructors, and six of us refamiliarised with winch driving - so a pretty successful result I think. The next four day weekend (July) will be more of the same.

Jenny

Sunday 10th June 2012

Another good day. After a lengthy briefing on dual ops, we set off to go flying. First we had to rig the Jantar, after it had its belly repaired by Ray Tilley, for which many thanks Ray. Tricky operation as the fuse was upside down, and the repaired radio had to be installed.

John McLeod had refulled and checked the winch. He drove the retrieve buggy along with Wendy Medlicott during the day. Matthew Minter and I did two launches together for Matthew to regain instructing currency on the winch. After doing a solo to consolidate he  flew with Jay and Dave Shorter for them to regaing currency also. I flew with Rod Ferrier and John Stewart in the other Grob 103.

Meanwhile Garry Speight instructed Mike L(not sure of last name) from Hungary  by aerotow in the Twin Astir. Mike then did two solos in the Twin Astir, and later on two more in the Junior. Well done Mike - back into gliding after a break of 50 years!!!

Nigel Holmes was converted into the Jantar by Allan Buttenshaw, and had nearly two hours in it. He said he was very comfortable in it, so it must have been a very good briefing and seat adjusting session by Allan. It's always a challenge to get comfortable in the Jantar!  Nigel finished the flight with a very nice controlled landing, so a successful day for him. Chris Bowman aerotowed in the LS6 again (see OLC for details) while Jay Anderson and Dave Shorter winch launched their JS1s, as did Harry Medlicott. Heights of nearly 8000 ft were mentioned, and cross country flights were achieved. I didn't hear Dave call any 12 knot thermals though.

There were 19 winch launches and about 9 aerotows performed during the day. John Stewart renewed his winch driving currency, then Peter Shiels took over and drove for most of the day. There wasn't much wind, but we were getting 1500 ft 2 up in the two seaters, and about 1800ft on the solo flights.

Rod Ferrier, visiting from Southern Cross, soloed on the winch - he hadn't done it for about 30 years, he said, but he hadn't forgotten much.

As the day wore on, batteries were not at their best, and communications with the winch became difficult, and tempers a little frayed. There was some heated discussion around the dinner table about how to improve the communication between the winch and the wing-man - I hope we will get it sorted.

Anyway a very active and productive day - several personal achievements, and great conditions considering we are approaching the shortest day.

Jenny

Saturday 8th June

Very busy day at the club. The blipmap forecast indicated that the soaring conditions would not be good, but the xc skies forecast indicated that it would be reasonably good for a short time. Nether of them was correct, because it was pretty good for a long time!

A few of us went to Dave Seib's memorial at Manilla, and Jay Anderson took over the running of the day so that I could go. Many thanks for that. Dave was a hang glider pilot who learned to fly sailplanes at Lake Keepit, and I had a bit to do with his training. I remember doing his outlanding checks. He was a natural pilot and progressed through our fleet rapidly. He died sadly in Brazil, at a hang gliding competition.

There were many visitors to fly - John Stewart came out with some friends, Garry Speight had a trainee pilot in his twin astir, Bill Gleeson-Barker was flying with Nicola, one of the airforce cadets, and Matthew Minter had a group of his school students to fly. We ended up not using the winch but there were heaps of flights.

John Hoye came out and flew in LL, which he now has a share in, and ventured north along a cloud street to Upper Horton. Dave Shorter Jay Anderson and Allan Buttenshaw also progressed north along the hills for some way. Wendy Medlicott flew her LS8 - not sure where she went. A visiting pilot from southern cross flew in our LS7, and President Chris Bowman had his first flight in the LS6 which went very well, and he landed nicely on the wheel.

I took a lady up for an air experience flight for her birthday - we were able to climb to 5000 ft before  I left the thermal to allow her to do the flying. She got her full 30minutes, and had a great time.

Fantastic day for the middle of winter - though it was cold in the morning and evening. The was much talk about the minor earthquake we experienced the night before, but the only damage we heard of was the death of an ornament in the Matthew Minter household.

Jenny

Friday 8 June

1st day of our 4 day weekend with the stated goals of winch currency, and GPC attainment. After a weather briefing by Ian, we spoke a little about the content of the GPC syllabus - most of the people present were sufficiently experienced to have covered all the items - they just need to fill in the form and put it before the training panel for ratification before sending off the the GFA with a photograph and $20. We discussed a few items that we thought may get missed in the normal course of training - for example steep turns and side-slipping, and a little about radio procedures.

Present were Harry and Wendy Medlicott, Garry Speight, John McLeod, Bob Emery, Dave Shorter Greg Nelson, Peter Shiels and later on Jay Anderson. Before getting the winch and gliders ready, we discussed how pilots launching would communicate with the winch if they wanted increased power, and settled on "Slower" if we wanted the winch driver to reduce power, and "more speed" if we wanted the driver to give more power.

In the event, I don't think anybody said anything while on the launch!!

As it was some time since I had driven the winch, I did that during the morning, with some guidance from Harry for the first one. I was relieved in the afternoon by John McLeod.

Garry flew with Greg Nelson and Bob Emery on the winch, John McLeod flew the Junior and soared for a time, and Wendy and Harry Medlicott both launched and got away - I heard talk of 6 knot thermals to 6000 ft!

Jay Anderson and Dave Shorter both launched their JS1s behind the tug, and had good soaring flights. We had one air experience passenger who took a winch launch with Garry.

Peter Shiels in the Junior was launched by John McLeod on the winch, and got 2000ft - probably the highest launch for the day, but most were getting at least 1500.

I wanted to get current myself, and took a launch with Bob Emery in the Grob 103 - we found some reasonable lift even though the sky had clouded over and soared for about half an hour. I then took the last launch solo in the Grob - first time I have flown it from the front seat for ages.

Winch Drivers view of the sky

A surprisingly good day's soaring, and winch launch day. Though out the day the winch was more often waiting for a glider to be ready rather than a glider waiting for the winch rope - but we could be more efficient if we practised more!

Maintenance Week - David Bull

Dear Members,

Our Annual Maintenance week is scheduled from Monday 20th August to Friday 25th August. As has been the practice in the past, the aim of the week is to carry out the Annual Form 2 Inspections and complete all necessary documentation on the Club Aircraft. Could you please note these dates in your calendar.

Depending on the number of volunteers we have for the week we would also like to carry out Form 2 Inspections on participants private gliders.

I plan to follow the format established by John Trezise, which proved to be very successful and organise participants into Teams and allocated Tasks.

The week not only provides the opportunity for participants to acquire a better working knowledge of aircraft, it is a tremendous help to the club and your chance to contribute and enjoy some good camaraderie. By members carrying out this work we save a significant amount of money, which in turn will help to keep our club in a sound financial position.

At this point I am looking for volunteers which will include qualified Form 2 Inspectors, persons qualified in Replacement of Components and any club member wishing to help and be part of a team. Please email me if you can help.    davidannb "at" bigpond.com

The following members, as far as I am aware, are qualified to carry out Annual Inspections (Form2): David Bull, John Clark, Bob Dirks, Graham Holland, Jenny Ganderton, Laurie Murray, Garry Speight & Ray Tilley. If I have missed anyone please let me know. We are a bit thin on numbers in this department....  

Again, I request your assistance in this very important task, so please make a note in your calendar and make arrangements for accommodation. Lunch and Dinner will be provided for all participants during the week at a small charge.