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Winter
Friday
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08-Jun-12
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From: Judith
Smith
Date:
Fri, Jun 8, 2012
Subject:
Friday 8th June - Winter
To:
members@glidingcaboolture.org.au
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Weather
gods are not to be dismissed lightly. Chill winds
and increasing showers of rain were forecast and so it
came to be. Cloud bearing the showers greeted us at
dawn, challenging foolish people keen on a day in the
fresh air with occasional patches of blue that were
answered by malevolent looking cloud on the horizon.
Still we dared to gathered at Caboolture to indulge a
desire to soar like eagles.
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All
of this proves I’m no creative writer so I’ll stick
to reports: The winds were certainly chill and the
cloud bearing the showers we were to see later in the
day encouraged us to get on with preparations with a
certain sense of urgency and care as we disrobed CQC and
QA. Our one stroke of luck here was finding CQC
was just short of the time for its required attention to
the lubrication of ‘hotliers as we commenced the DI
process. Saturday fliers, please note this is due
to be done.
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Now,
all we needed was the tug but it was still snoozing in
its hangar until our L2, Barry McKenzie, called John
Knox who came to our aid by looking after SPA. It
was such a hasty change of plans that we must apologise
to Pat for being left on his own while John went flying
without him.
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There
was sporadic activity on 12 so that was where we settled
for the day but due to delays of the fixing and checking
order our first launch was later than we had hoped.
At 10.39 Barry and Ken Mitchell launched for the first
flight, followed by Bob Hainsworth and Arthur Mailey in
QA, both for very ordinary times. After that it
was time for our first visitor, Adrian Maxwell, to
discover what makes us so determined to go flying on
such a cold, cloudy day. Kevin Rodda was to score
the flight of the day with this passenger at 25 mins and
no sooner had he returned than he was off again with the
next visitor, Yvonne Verhagen who came back 19 mins
later and seemed to be happy with her visit to the Club.
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We
welcomed Steve Bowtell, and Nathan, who hitched a lift in
one of our returning vehicles just before John had to
depart so we must thank them both for their help on a
miserable day. Members flying on Saturday will be
pleased to know that the Falcon has ample fuel for
another weekend or so. We were not prepared to
gamble on it having enough to get the van back to its
parking spot so filled it and the retrieve when Steve
refuelled SPA.
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After
the departure of our visitors, and as gliders became
available, Garrett Russell and Ray Sharkey headed off
for a training flight and normal Club activity commenced
for the remains of the day. What remained of the
day was not enough to encourage anyone other than our
trainee members to continue their flying though Bob and
Arthur were kind enough to take QA for another flight so
it would not be too far from the tie-down point. By this
time the wind was getting cool enough for anyone not
actively involved in dispatching or recovering gliders
to seek shelter in the environs of the pie cart and
jackets were pulled out again.
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About
this time, Steve was reporting rain in the distance so
we were all ready to call it a day at ten flights, seven
in CQC for 2:09 and three for QA for 19 mins each.
Not great soaring weather. Strangely, GA traffic
was more active than normal through the middle of the
day despite the weather so maybe they were getting in a
flight before the rain came.
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As
for the rain, it arrived on my windscreen on the way
home. May the weather gods look upon us all more
kindly in coming weekends.
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Judith,
on behalf of the Friday Crew
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--------------------
From: Kevin
Rodda
Date:
Fri, Jun 8, 2012
Subject:
Friday 8th June - Winter
To:
members@glidingcaboolture.org.au
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At
around 3.00 pm the intersection of the YCAB runways looked like
a scene from the great Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 movie thriller
"The Birds" (this photo was taken about 3:30 when most
had returned to the tip). Bob Hainsworth, Arthur Mailey and
I were towing QA back to the nest and I commented to Bob that
there were hundreds ... Bob's succinct reply was "no
thousands"!
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For those who
may not be aware, "Pat" (short for patience) is
Knoxy's very well behaved and most lovable canine side-kick.
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