CGC - Christmas Tuesday 2011

Christmas Tuesday

27-Dec-11

David Higgs and his merry duty crew elves (Mick Moloney, Kevin Rodda, Simon Descovich and John Knox) plus Alex Horvath were on hand to get the three two-seaters and the tug out to Runway 30 ... Steve Bowtell arrived later in the day to take over tug duties from Knoxy.

The early morning sky above the airfield looked much better than had been forecasted for Tuesday during the previous few days (probably impossible to have been worse than some of the TV weather forecasts that I saw).

The wind was from the north-east but only fairly light ... however a change later in the day was expected to bring some substantial storms in from the south-east.

First flights for the day were four Air Experience Flights that had been purchased by Pam Spicer as Christmas presents for her daughters Natalie and Jane as well as Peter Horobin and Mike Howey.

Mick Moloney (in QA) and Kevin Rodda (in CQC) had the passengers raving about their first-time gliding experiences despite the overcast conditions and the lift-drought ... our "saving grace" was that visabilty was quite good, cockpit conditions very comfortable and the air very smooth.

Then David Higgs rewarded Pam (for supporting the club so well) by taking her up as his passenger in GYK (a nice gesture David ... much appreciated by them and this certainly "put the icing on the cake" re their day with us). This lovely family group made it a very enjoyable couple of hours of activity around the pie-cart from 1100 to 1300 hours.

Simon Descovich, Kevin Rodda, Mick Moloney, David Higgs and Alex Horvath kept the IS-28, the IS-30 and the L-13 Blanik busy with another seven flights before we started to pack up shop at around 1530 hours (with radar showing some substantial storm activity heading through the Northern Rivers area of NSW from Kyogle towards Byron Bay to link up with the weather beginning to come in from the south-east towards YCAB).

All up there was twelve flights for the day with a total of 4:31 (CQC four flights for 1:58, QA three flights for 1:31 and YK five flights for 1:02 including the shortest flight of the day being a 0:02 simulated rope break sprung on Alex Horvath above the airfield/highway boundary by David Higgs).

The longest flight of the day was flown by Kevin Rodda ... being the hangar flight in QA (0:34) ... closely followed by his two morning passenger flights in CQC (0:33 and 0:32), Mick Moloney's morning passenger flight in QA (0:32) and Mick Moloney/Simon Descovich hangar flying CQC in the last flight of the day (0:30).

The fact that all of these five "30 minute plus" flights were from 3,500' launches scattered throughout the entire flying day pretty much tells the story of the gliding conditions above YCAB today.

It was however a very enjoyable day of passenger and club member flying!

Simon Descovich was busy with his camera (in between pie-cart paperwork and retrieving gliders etc) so we have photos of the morning activity at the glider tie-down area as well as at the flight line at Runway 30 (see below).

Kevin Rodda

for David Higgs and his Christmas Tuesday Elves.

(The following photos are courtesy of Simon Descovich)

"Guess we should be doing the Daily Inspection"

David Higgs, John Knox, Alex Horvath and Mick Moloney.

"But we might need some supervision"

David Higgs, John Knox, Alex Horvath, Mick Moloney and Peter John.

"Now we're in to it"

Mick Moloney, David Higgs, Alex Horvath and Peter John.

"The tug heads for Runway 30"

John Knox at the controls of SPA.

"Stretching out the experience by piloting CQC during the retrieve"

Kevin Rodda (obscured behind the rudder) with Natalie Spicer (in the cockpit) arrive back at the flight line with an abundance of moral support on hand from Jane Spicer, Pam Spicer and Mike Howey.

"Back on the ground after thoroughly enjoying the flight"

Natalie Spicer with the IS-28 (VH-CQC)..

"A wider shot shows the full story"

Natalie Spicer and her supporters (Mike Howey, Pam Spicer and Jane Spicer).

"And we all had a great time"

John Knox, Natalie Spicer, Kevin Rodda, Pam Spicer, Peter Horobin, Mike Howey, Jane Spicer, David Higgs and Mick Moloney.

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