A small but enthusiastic group of aeronauts assembled under clear blue skies in the vicinity of YCAB,  and under Garrett Russell's leadership prepared GYK and CQC for flight, while waiting and hoping that conditions would improve.  Mark Thompson assumed tuggie duties (which he handed over to John Knox late in the day).  And did the conditions improve?  Did they ever!!

 

While there was little wind initially, in the expectation of a breeze from the east, we moved to 06 and were generally followed there by our powered colleagues.  Garrett commenced the day's trading with two brief training flights with Jonathan Manifold and Theo Mus respectively.  

 

Jacob Mason (who has been flying with regularly with CGC since Jan'14 as visiting Australian Air Force Cadet has now joined CGC ... welcome Jacob as our newest member!  [photo: Kevin Rodda]  

  

Jacob Mason took dad Tony on a 23 minute flight in CQC, after which Kevin Rodda treated recent Soloist Theo's mum Beatrice to 49 minutes of aerial experience in the 28.  

 

And then to emphasis how good the conditions became, every one of the subsequent seven flights exceeded one hour - Lindsay Mitchell and Knoxy flying a mutual in GYK, Theo Mus in GXQ which had also been brought into service, Alan Graham in CQC, and Garrett and Jonathan again in Yankee Kilo.  

 

Johnathan Manifold (another visiting Australian Air Force Cadet) has been flying with CGC from time to time since Aug'13. [photo: Kevin Rodda]  

 

 However honours for the day go to the single seaters with Karl Bodi achieving a 1hr 53min effort in the Libelle, only to be beaten by Kevin who took his K6 for a 2hr 27min jaunt.  Lindsay and I rounded out the day in what I expected to be deteriorating conditions, but which nevertheless allowed us to thermal to 4500ft over Wamuran.

 

Overall a very successful Mother's Day at YCAB.  We particularly enjoyed the company of the parents of some of our younger members.

 

For the statisticians: GYK  4 flights for a total of 2:39  GXQ 1 flight for 1:34  CQC  4 flights for 3:22 and GJY for 1:53 (plus KJR in GRV for 2:27) 

 

On a technical note, a bungee cord similar to that used to secure the Blanik dolly was found on the airfield.  We are unsure of the source of the item, however our concern is that any similar item left lying out on the field could easily be sucked up by a passing propeller.  To reduce this risk, and also to make the dolly easier to carry, Garrett has recommended that item be rigged as illustrated in the photo below.