It’s
not often that the last hangar flight is the longest
of the day, but at 44 minutes in CQC that’s just
what Bob Hainsworth and Charles Hoch achieved on
Friday 14th March. It was flight number 13, lucky
and unlucky on a day when the weather really tricked
us out.
It
all started modestly enough with a 15 minute solo
for Ken Mitchell, also in CQC. The sky was
comfortably flyable but did not appear very
soarable with a lot of overcast cloud around -
perfect weather for training flights, which
commenced from the second launch when Neil
Schaefer made his first tow take off with Tony
Sorensen and Garrett Russell behind him in GYK.
The
training continued with Barry McCarthy taking
Charles Hoch on a CQC jaunt in preparation for
conversion to the Club Libelle, Chris Hansen
picking up on his ab initio training with his
fifth and sixth flights in the Blanik, and Tony
combining a check flight for Shane Tuck with more
tug practice for Neil.
Meanwhile,
with John Knox in SPA, Arthur Mailey set out in
GJY (yes, it was a three glider day) to show that
there was some
lift about. Well, 33 minutes worth, at least.
And
that’s when the weather started playing games
with us. Bob Hainsworth could only find 14 minutes
worth of lift on GJY’s second launch. Bob
Turner, with an overseas visitor aboard, could
only get 20 minutes in CQC. Shane Tuck only made
12 minutes on a solo in GYK. And Arthur’s second
try in GJY was only good for 19 minutes.
With
the cloud thickening overhead and a definite
coolness in the air, the crew towed GJY back to
the tie downs while our afternoon tuggie Karl Bodi
took the last few launches for the two seaters. It
looked like an early wrap and maybe even a bit of
a race to get the gliders covered before the rain
lurking north and south descended on the field.
And
then, with the pie cart back from RWY12 and the
tug back in its hangar, the weather turned and we
could only watch in wonder as we waited for that
last, longest flight to land.
The
day’s final stats:
CQC
5 flights 2:13
GYK
5 flights 1:16
GJY
3 flights 1:06
Not
too bad for a bunch of gentlemen of a certain age
on a day of tricky weather.
