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The
Duty Crew of Barry McCarthy (Duty Instructor), Kevin
Rodda (Air Experience Instructor), Steve Chapman (Tug
Pilot) and Adam French (Duty Pilot) were joined by
Alan Graham, Karl Bodi and Rupert Perry to ready CQC
and XQ and head for Runway 30 where the first launch
was taken at 9:53. (Space Control to Major Tom ... we
did not see or hear from the rostered second duty
pilot, Florian Poff).
QA
was also unwrapped to be made available as a static
display for the team of Air Cadets who were being
hosted to an Airfield Orientation Day at YCAB by Peter
John.
It
was great to welcome back to YCAB (as CGC's
"newest" member) an ex long-term Club member
in Robert Hart ... who has been until recently a very
active cross country pilot and coach/mentor at
DDSC.
One
of the first people Robert bumped into as he entered
the airfield from the Aero Club car park was Bert
Persson ... his "partner in crime" in a
legendary flight from Chinchilla to Caboolture in the
"Concrete Swan" (our Twin Astir IKW which is
currently on cross-hire to Gympie). That was Robert's
first ever cross country flight!
It
was a day of reminiscence for Robert as he was then
confronted at the flight line by (and took a flight
with Bert in) the Blanik XQ ... which was the glider
he first went solo in many years ago.
Their
landing in XQ at the (by then) Runway 06 flight line
absolutely oozed experience and ability!
Conversation
around the pie-cart led to some of us wondering just
how many pilots would have flown their first solo in
XQ ... Barry McCarthy commented that he was amongst
one of the many.
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