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Saturday
flying - against
the odds |
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01-Jun-13 |
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Given the lack of
flying recently due to lousy weather and lack of a
tug, the first Saturday in June dawned with what
appeared to be the ultimate double whammy:
the
sky was overcast enough to deter all of our
passengers booked for the day and the small group of
members waiting at the airfield for the arrival of
Pawnee TOJ from Boonah soon learned that it had been
turned back by the weather! So we followed the
experienced lead of Bert and Speedy and went to
McDonalds for a Hobbit breakfast.
The
trick worked because Peter John soon called to say
that TOJ was finally on its way. |
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Thus
it was that tuggie John Ashford, duty pilots Adam
French and Tash South, AEI Neil Muspratt and sole
“civilian” member Michael Burnett were just
getting established on RWY 12 when our long-awaited
standby Pawnee flew into the circuit. We had decided
to take only GYK out to the flight line, leaving CQC
DI’d at the tie downs and in reserve for any later
arrivals.
Meanwhile,
Bob Hainsworth and Karl Bodi got on with their
tireless wrenching, welding and no doubt more than a
little swearing under the Barina.
But
just when we were settling in for a happy ending, we
were hit by the third eternal Curse of Caboolture:
the Shell fuel pump decided to play up again!
This
time it would only accept payment by Shell Card,
forcing Kevin Rodda and me to empty our wallets of
enough cash to pay the Mustang crew for enough fuel
to ensure a safe flight to Redcliffe and the
never-fail (touch wood) BP pump.
A
crew made of less stern stuff would have given up by
then. But with fine CGC spirit we sat it out until
we were finally ready for the day’s first launch
at precisely 1315. By that time David Guzzwell had
also joined us, but decided that he would leave CQC
at the tie downs and concentrate on helping the rest
of us launch and retrieve.
Michael
Burnett took three more flights towards his
transition from petrochemical-powered to
solar-powered pilot and Adam French turned the tie
down flight into a very satisfactory 21 minutes for
flight of the day. |
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Total
time for the afternoon: 1 hour 10 minutes
And
the last word for what turned out to be a good day
against all the odds goes to John Ashford, who
cunningly combined tup duties with blatantly
advertising his other recreational pursuit in the
Whitsundays ... |
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| Regards, |
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| Garrett
Russell |
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