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Contrary
to popular belief, it seems most glider pilots do have
mothers. The proof is in how few came out to fly last
Sunday (13-May-12).
Apart from the rostered crew of Tony Sorensen, Mick
Moloney, John Ashford and Kevin Rodda, there were only
David Higgs, Lindsay Mitchell, Chris Weir and me, and
that includes late arrivals still smelling of flowers
and coffee.
Add a blue day with south westerly gusts strong enough
to knock the thermals around but not consistent enough
to produce good wave and you have all the ingredients
for a quiet day.
Just six flights in fact, five of them under half an
hour and not particularly newsworthy.
However the sixth flight, which was the flight of the
day at 50 minutes, is well worth reporting for the
valuable lesson it holds for all members at all levels
of flying experience:
It
happily ended in the first outlanding around Caboolture
for almost 10 years, with Kevin Rodda bringing CQC to a
safe stop in a paddock just beyond the forest that marks
the approach to runway 24.
A happy
ending because the pilot came out of the paddock in one
piece and the glider in the right number of big pieces
for both to fly again.
A valuable lesson because it reminds us all that an
outlanding is a real and constant possibility on every
glider flight. Heavy sink and gusty winds are as much a
part of our world as cumulus clouds and thermals.
In this case Kevin made the prudent choice between
landing in a paddock he could definitely reach
and landing on a runway he might manage
to reach – with the third alternative being the trees
between them!
Lindsay was the only one of the retrieve crew who’d
been around long enough to recall any previous
Caboolture outlandings – he mentioned just four
others, many years ago and years apart – so this is a
rare lesson for us all to remember.
Garrett Russell
for the Sunday (retrieve) Crew
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