Depending
on where you were for most of it, you may be
surprised that we flew at all today. Many of the
people who did the flying were. The prospects were
so dismal in the morning that duty instructor Bob
Turner planned to DI only GYK to squeeze in a few
training flights for Guy Templeman before we got
rained out. Tony Sorensen, Barry McCarthy and I
agreed.
However
the Friday fanatics are made of sterner stuff.
Arthur Mailey and Bob Hainsworth got IKW ready,
which involved removing and pumping up the tail
wheel tyre, while Judith Smith prepared the pie
cart and Mike Grady got SPA out of the hangar.
The
result was nine flights, five for the Blanik totaling
1:27 and four totaling 1:31 for the Twin. And no
glider or pilot got wet in the process. Well, not
quite:
Steve
Bowtell took Guy for all five training flights,
adding spin recovery to his flying repertoire. In
the Twin Astir it was mutuals all the way, with
the rest of the crew sharing the cockpit in
various combinations. Flights were not long in the
overcast conditions: best in the Blank being 23
minutes on Guy’s last flight; Judith and I got
30 marvelous minutes in the Twin, skirting around
clouds at 3,000’ to find lift on their outer
edges.
And
everyone can now claim to be current in difficult
cross wind take offs and landings!
John
Knox and Kevin Rodda also dropped by the pie cart
before going about their other business, which in
Kevin’s case demanded being at the hangar at
1200 precisely for a lunch date with Bert!
We
finished the day with the first mass member
viewing of GQA’s gleaming new paintwork, and it
looks great:
The
occasion was moving the IS-30 into Kevin’s
hangar for the final touches before coming back on
line in a couple of weeks:
And
we all went home under a sky as grey and gruesome
as the one we arrived to, but with a surprising
good day of flying in between. So on behalf of Guy
and his training flight ground crew,
Good
flying for the weekend!
And
don’t forget the Pacific Dakota open day
tomorrow - we’ll have the Libelle on display.
