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Club Libelle GJY receives some
loving care at Hangar 22 [photo: Nick Sheahon] |
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David Guzzwell and Jacob Mason
doing the daily inspection of IS-28 CQC [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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| Speedy
had sent me a text to say that he had the Kookaburra
out of the hangar and ready for us. However when we
arrived at YCAB, it was back in the hangar. Speedy and
Bert had gone for second breakfast and thought it
prudent to put GLM back in the hangar as it looked
very much like it could rain. That didn't curb
Pete's enthusiasm to get into GLM's cockpit ... even
if it was only while she was stationary in the
hangar (not surprisingly he had seen more than a few
pics of her and been told enough about her!). |
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Peter Alderdice at the controls of
Kookaburra GLM [photo: Kevin
Rodda] |
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| With
the sky not giving us any encouragement whatsoever
to rush to the flight line, let alone tow out GLM,
it was off to Macca's in search of Speedy and Bert. |
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I had been contemplating (whilst assisting Sharon
with the end-of-moth invoicing over the last couple
of days) as to how long it
had been since there had been a calendar month like
Jan'14 where there had not been a flight
charge to my account. |
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| My
unusually long absence from the airfield (my last
flight at YCAB was a 2 hour flight in GLM with
Speedy some 6 weeks ago on 15-Dec-13) was emphasised by both Speedy and
Bert greeting me at Macca's with a handshake endorsed
"welcome back". |
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| And then I spotted
it ... Pete had been glancing at the newspaper and it was
lying on
the table in front of us with a huge advertisement
on display that said ... |
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Documented evidence ... was it the
truth or did we read it in the Sunday Mail? [photo:
Kevin Rodda] |
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| We
eventually made it to the flight line at around 10:30 to find
Steve Bowtell and Jacob Mason up in CQC (the first
flight of the day ... launched at 1021) and Lindsay
Mitchell getting ready to launch in GJY. Not long
flights at 16mns and 13 mns respectively ... however
showing enough promise for us to hang around in the
chance that we could get a flight some time during
the day in CQC. |
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| More and
more interest was starting to be shown by others in flying CQC
as the threat of rain diminished and the early cloud
cover burnt off ( to be replaced with some cu's
starting to develop and a decent cloud base). |
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| So,
after a while, Pete and I decided to ignore the
warnings about how difficult it is to get the new
covers off the Blanik's wings and headed out
on Safari to
bring GYK over from the tie-down area. |
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| We
established that the secret to removing the wing
covers on GYK is
to make maximum use of the "gap" at the wing tip
end of the aileron to utilise the minimum wing width
that is ONLY available there to get the skinny end
of the cover on sideways over the Blanik's unique
wing-tip profile. |
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| It really does work! |
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I
promise!!! |
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Loki is definitely one of those
"the grass is greener on the other side of the
fence" type dogs and sometimes lives up to the
reputation of his namesake ... the Norse Giant/God
of mischief [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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| At
the flight line were Barry McCarthy (Duty
Instructor), Steve Bowtell (Instructor), Lindsay
Mitchell (Air Experience Instructor), Mike Grady
(Tug Pilot), Nick Sheahon (Duty Pilot), Jacob Mason,
David Guzzwell and Tony Sorensen. They were joined during
the day by me, Peter Alderdice, Neale Hood (our
"blow in" AEF passenger), Lynette McCarthy, Bernard "Speedy"
Gonsalves (with his K14 Motorglider) and late in the
day by Shane Burgess ... and, of course, Loki Dog. |
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With
16 aero-tow launches plus Speedy's 2hrs 41mns
self-launched
flight in the K14 it ended up being a fairly big day for the
club! |
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Pawnee SPA on final to RWY12 - any
noise complaints should now be directed to
"ABOOLTURE GLIDING CLUB", not us! [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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| It
is very seldom that Speedy feels a need to make use
of the "iron thermal" that sits
permanently directly in front of him as he sits in
his K14, however it did happen today (and he is
always the first to declare that he used his motor
for other than initial launch). Barry McCarthy
and I were both aware anyway ... it was either that
or someone was busy manicuring the edges of a couple
of cu's directly over the airfield with a lawn
mower! |
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David Guzzwell in IS-28 CQC with
Lindsay Mitchell doing the "wing man"
honours [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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CQC on final to RWY12 [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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| Lindsay
Mitchell was well involved in the longest aero-tow
flights of the day ... 44mns in the Club Libelle
from a 2200ft launch taken at 12:12 and 51mns from a
3500ft launch taken at 13:50 (with Air Experience Flight
passenger Neale Hood). |
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The flight line at RWY12 ticked
along well all day ... in this photo is the tug
Pawnee SPA (with some tuggie-type discussion in
process between Tugmaster Steve Bowtell and
Assistant Tugmaster Tony Sorensen), the Blanik GYK
(with Barry McCarthy about to climb in behind Nick
Sheahon to act as human ballast) and the IS-28 CQC
(Jacob Mason making ready for another flight). [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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| Jacob
Mason (a "B" Certificate rated Air Cadet
pilot) achieved another milestone today when, after
three training flights that included two rope-break
simulations, he was signed off by Steve Bowtell for
conversion to the IS-28. |
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| His first IS-28 solo was a
tidy 25mins thermaling flight close to the airfield
from a 2500ft launch that ended in a beautifully
controlled and executed landing. And, as always, it
was a good circuit that led to a good landing! Well
done Jacob! |
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Steve Bowtell (at right)
conversion Jacob Mason to the IS-28 CQC [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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Shane Burgess (no truth in the
rumour that he could be the love-child of Shane Tuck
and Wayne Burgess) was keen to fly the IS-28 CQC [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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| At
one stage we (Pete and I in the Blanik) found
ourselves sharing a "thermal" with Lindsay
Mitchell in the Club Libelle, close in and
to the southwest of the airfield. It took us less
than two
orbits in the fairly week and patchy
"lift" to confirm that the Club Libelle
could out-climb the Blanik! |
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| Pete
had only just commented that it was the first time
that he had been so close to another glider when
Speedy appeared and made it three. |
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| Pete
said "wow ... now we've got three" ... my
immediate sarcastic reply was "and all we need now
is some *#@%$ lift!" It was about then that
we heard Speedy on the radio saying ...
"nothing there" ... before he disappeared
rapidly to the north west. |
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Steve Bowtell assisting Tony
Sorensen with the seat belts in the Club
Libelle GJY [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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Lindsay Mitchell and Barry
McCarthy ready to launch David Guzzwell in the IS-28
CQC [photo: Nick
Sheahon] |
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| The
McCarthy's (Lynette and Barry) each made it onto the
flight sheet once today ... on each occasion it was
a case of "human ballast" ... Barry with
Nick Sheahon in GYK and later Lynette with Tony
Sorensen in CQC. |
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| It
was great to see Tony Sorensen showing his
versatility by recording non-instructional
"fun" flights in both GJY and CGC. |
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| David
Guzzwell's usual enthusiasm around the tie-down are,
the pie-cart and the flight line made for a relaxing
enjoyable day for all ... including the Duty Crew.
Thanks David! |
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| All
in all, a great day of Club flying that could have
easily been cut short by premature speculation (of
the weather not improving from the fairly ordinary
skyscape that presented itself this morning ... and
has it had done so at the start of our
the last three flying days). |
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| Well
done however to the members and guests who
persevered to see us clocking up 29 aero-tow flights
across Fri/Sat/Sun while we experienced the
"next door neighbour" weather effects of
the two separate cyclones that toyed with
Queensland's coastline further to the north. |
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| The
days stats: |
| CQC
- 9 flights for 3hs 12mns |
| GJY
- 4 flights for 1hr 49mns |
| GYK
- 3 flights for 1hr 14mns |
| Totals
- 16 flights for 6hrs 15mns |
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| Kevin
Rodda |
