Friday after the BIG wet

08-Mar-13

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From: Judith Smith
To: members@glidingcaboolture.org.au
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2013 20:44:44 +1000
Subject: Friday after the BIG wet

Hardy crew that we are, we flew despite the possibility of showers and whatever else the weather may throw at us today and ended the day feeling we had done more than we appeared to do.  I suspect many of us left for home feeling rather weary as a result.

Bob Turner and his team, Arthur Mailey, Charles Hoch, Ken Mitchell and John Nestor were preparing to escort GYK to runway 12 once SPA and John Knox were ready. This simple activity encountered an early bump in the road in that the pin securing the tailplane of GYK was found not to be secured. In fact, movement of the elevator encouraged it to un-clip rather easily.  A ‘drive-through service call’ at Bert’s hangar saw that fixed with a new, shorter pin en route to the flight line. Guess that’s a reminder of the reason we do DIs! 

Thanks to Garrett’s warning, the van was parked parallel to the fence ready for action on 12 today to avoid the soggy verges of the strip. Soon after setting up an ex-member, Chris Guy, arrived to renew his membership of the club and to renew his acquaintance with the Blanik. This gave Bob three members after check flights but things were not going to go smoothly for us. SPA launched the first flight in GYK but past problems emerged when John tried to start it for the next launch. After wasting an hour or more of our time, it started and never faltered again for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Charles had gone back to get QA since no showers appeared to threaten in the immediate future and my call to them to collect a membership application form for Chris on the way back caught them at the intersection so, once they learned the state of play, QA was put back in its spot in the tie-down area rather promptly. Obviously, since we could not fly, we all sat and observed the few who could, including a youthful butcher bird with a damaged beak who begged for food and entertained us at any opportunity and even followed us back to Kevin’s hangar.

When John’s final attempt to start SPA proved successful, he set off on a circuit to check it out before preparing to launch our second flight of the day at about mid-day. At this point, Steve Bowtell arrived to take over from John and checks continued. There were three member flights as well before impending rain forced Steve to return SPA to the hangar via one of the shortest refuelling stops I’ve ever seen and our tug was home safe and dry while GYK was still being retrieved.

GYK was dried down and wrapped up again before we paused to find a membership application for Chris and sort paperwork. Arthur reminded me that the placard in GYK has come loose and needs to be fixed in place, please.

Judith on behalf of the Friday crew