The
closer I got to YCAB on Sunday morning
the less it looked like a flying day.
8/8ths low cloud with occasional
misty precipitation doesn't aspire to be
a good soaring day. Tony
Sorensen and I were soon joined by Alex
Horvath then Mick Moloney and David
Higgs. We had a Duty Crew
and were discussing the possibilities or
lack off when we were joined by Jacob
Mason.
Covers
off or leave on, de-rig Alex's K-6 or
hope for improvement. Occasional
lighter patches would look hopeful for a
minute then close over.
David, Bert and Speedy retired for
second breakfast leaving the duty crew
to make decisions. Mick took
the time to sit down with Jacob to do
his C Certificate oral test.
Tony chose to have some loving time with
SPA and I used the time to slash the
grass and trees around and between the
containers.
David
Guzzwell arrived feeling hopeful.
The clouds were lifting but were still
8/8ths although thinning and no more wet
stuff. Speedy convinced Alex he
should fly so finally at 11:12 he took
off only to return 8 minutes
later. David Higgs had been
so inspired by the conditions at Watts
Bridge on Saturday he came prepared for
a long flight in the Libelle only to
return after 26 minutes of very hard
work. Mick and Jacob took to
the skies with Jacob in the back seat.
After
a couple of hours Speedy again convinced
Alex conditions were improving so the
K-6 became airborne again for 44
rewarding minutes. A big credit to
Alex as conditions certainly were not
good. I decided to do a
hangar flight in the Libelle that turned
into a 1 hour 21 flight. I was
able to get to better conditions to the
West in the Libelle.
Experience, knowing your aircraft,
experience, reading the conditions
and did I say experience certainly
helps. Lift was minimal but the
bonus was sink was also minimal.
David
Guzzwell had 2 hardworking but rewarding
flights. Patience is a
definite necessary attitude when gliding
be that on the ground or in the air.
Sunday was a day of patience.
Those present had the patience to
wait for the conditions to improve, the
patience to pick where they wanted to be
towed to and the patience when in the
air to tip-toe around finding the areas
of lift and avoiding the areas of
sink. Flights on days such
as Sunday are often more rewarding than
day when you can do no wrong.
I'm sure Alex and David will have learnt
a lot in their flights and gained
valuable experience.
Blanik
GYK
4
flts.
1:06
hrs
IS-28
CQC
2 flts
0:46 hrs.
Libelle
GJY
2 flts
1:47 hrs
K-6
XOF
3 flts
1:29 hrs.
A day of
little promise early turned into a
rewarding day of 11 flights.
Jacob completed his C Certificate
oral, he is now back-seat rated and is
solo in the Blanik.
And the
BIG one. Kevin's new pen has
survived a day and is/was still on the
clip board. Do we need to
run a book on how long it remains there?
Have great
safe fun flying.
