Sorry no pics this time - just a lot of words!
Last Thursday was pretty grey all day and nobody flew. John Wakefield turned up to do a job on the Junior, and I persuaded him to look at the Duo Discus transponder which needed reprogramming with the correct Flight ID, and also the transition lights on the engine controller. He was able to reprogram the transponder OK, but the transition lights defeated us for the time being.
New members from WA Jason Kath and Shelly Heinrich arrived for a visit. They have bought a share in the new hangar that is being built. Both are hang glider pilots, Jason has a Speed Astir, and Shelly has an RV7A. Dr Death (Al Giles) also arrived by motorbike, spurred on by my reports of great soaring conditions last Tuesday. They swapped hang gliding stories all evening!
Thursday's forecast for Friday was pretty miserable, but on Friday, the forecast was revised and it turned out to be another good gliding day - cold, blue skies once the high cloud had passed through, and nice cu. Geoff Sim arrived in his Lancair at about 9.30 am. Al decided to fly our ASH26E. Trevor West arrived wanting to fly, so I quickly pulled the tug out, also urged Geoff to fly to keep Trevor company! Jason and Shelly couldn't bear to see the sky looking so good and not be in it, and were asking me about my hang gliding tow gear - that was all too hard to organise so they took Grob 103 GFP for a local flight.
Everyone flew for about an hour and a half, Trevor is the only one who put his flight on the OLC. Not bad for the shortest day of the year, especially since we didn't get going till 1300.
At the weekend there was quite a bit of activity with winch launching of Matthew Minter's gang of Juniors, and Jay Anderson flying in with a plane load. The big excitement was Allan Buttenshaw's arrival with his brand new (to him) toy. A beautiful Nimbus 2, with a brand new Anschau trailer, and professionally built rigging aid, and a full set of covers.
Bryce Vidler from Tamworth arrived at the club and joined as a full member, and commenced gliding training with Nick Singer. He is already a power pilot, but described that as "boring holes in the sky"! They had an hour soaring.
Jason and Shelly flew together again in the Grob, John Stewart flew in the LS7, Garry Speight in the Discus 2b and Christian Linnet in the Cirrus, Peter Kemp in the Junior and Tim Carr in the Duo. Most people had soaring flights in excess of 2 hours, including Allan Buttenshaw - first flight in his Nimbus two and a half hours - See OLC!
Geoff and I flew to Moree - no not in a glider, in my plane - for a visit to the hot springs. They have been completely refurbished and are a great place to visit - only 3km walk from the Airport. As well as the hot pools, there is a 50m lap pool at 23 degrees C - I had it to myself! Blue skies, fantastic Cu (maybe we should have gone by glider) absolutely brilliant winter's day - topped off I'm told by another fantastic dinner cooked by Joy Downes.
On Sunday, another perfect winter day - Shelly commenced gliding training with Nick Singer, Steve Hedley flew with Julie in Nimbus 3 OZ, Allan Buttenshaw flew his Nimbus again, and Dominic Williams, who came up with Jay Anderson, did 40 min in the Junior, bringing it back for Peter Kemp to fly. Jay was anxious to get away due to terrible weather forecast on the coast, so that fitted in well.
In the evening, there was a mass gathering of club members at the Royal in Manilla to celebrate Garry Speight's Birthday. I baked a cake for the occasion, but I think Garry ate less of it than Geoff Sim, whose birthday was the next day!!
On Monday, another brilliant cold sunny day, and I flew the tug to Armidale for its 100 hourly inspection. One of the few occasions when you could get into Armidale without scud running!! Geoff Sim brought me back in his Lancair, which was a lot faster than the trip to Armidale in the Tug. I was very glad of my freezer suit, as there is no cabin heat in the tug, and the temp at Armidale on the ground was 8 degrees! Much lower than that of course at cruising altitude.
Ian Barraclough self launched in the ASH25m and flew to Kaputar and back - the cumulus looked fantastic again (see OLC), but that was the only glider flight on the day.
The Tug should be back on Wednesday or Thursday.
Today, Tuesday, is very rainy and low cloud, so nothing doing flying wise. However it looks as if it will clear up this afternoon.
Jenny
No comments:
Post a Comment