|
We
were a small group gathered at the tie-down point getting
ready under our L2’s watchful eyes while John Knox
organised our fresh-as-a-daisy SPA for what could have been
a very ordinary day on 12. Bob Hainsworth and Charles
Hoch were there to fly CQC and Ken Mitchell was back from
his travels to continue his training in GYK as was Natasha
South. YK was first to depart for the flight line as we only
had one tow-out vehicle.
Once
settled on 12 Barry Natasha and GYK set off to find out what
was happening in the air and continue her training while Bob
and Charles got CQC across to 12. Their subsequent
flight time, 58 mins, turned out to be the flight of the
day. A clear sky and warm sun were not enough to
overcome the cool breeze down the runway so there was little
lift to distract those flying later. During this time
Shane Tuck let us know he was coming out so Barry had
another member requiring his attention as Shane returned to
continue his training, too. Ken’s second flight
provided the shortest flight of the day when he experienced
a simulated low rope break and, therefore, recorded a time
of 1 minute.
Karl
Bodi also arrived so we had a stand-by tuggie if the need
arose but Steve Bowtell arrived for the afternoon shift so
Karl was able to join Bob and make use of CQC in a search
for lift. Waiting for the air to improve proved to be a
waste of time so Charles and Bob hangar flew it at the end
of the day.
We
were delayed when the bowser refused to supply fuel to SPA
when Steve required it so he had to fit in a trip to
Redcliffe to refuel. Luckily it was reasonably quick so we
were under way with minimal delay. Nathan let us know
that SPA had been refuelled successfully ready for Saturday
as we returned with the van.
YK
and Barry’s workload increased when Shawn Twomey arrived
to complete his Club membership application form late in the
day and they set off for two flights before we finished,
landing only just before 17.00 when everyone else had
transported the van, etc to their usual resting places
beside the containers. Natasha, Ken and Shane each had
three flights, Shane settled for two and Shawn got two.
Add in CQC’s three and we had a total of 14 flights for
the day – YK recording 2.56 and CQC, 1.37.
I
hope members flying next note the entry in the maintenance
release recording a noise emanating from the area around the
main wheel of YK – a scratchy sort of noise that we were
unable to locate.
As
we finished packing up Speedy commented that he was looking
forward to flying his Ka6 but I wondered if even Speedy
could have gone too far today. Maybe tomorrow?
Judith
On
behalf of the Friday crew
|
