Saturday Gliding Report, 16th November 2013

Two birthday AEI flights booked, the sky looking a bit dubious.

The day started before I got there with Loki, Kevin Rodda, Mark Thompson, Lindsay Mitchell, Mick Maloney and Dave Higgs already there. 

When I got there Lindsay already had the nose off of the 28 to try and fix the front cable release, so we were down to one Blanik for the day's activities. 

I’d forgotten my hat and Lindsay was kind enough to lend me his spare one.

Lindsay Mitchell hands the first spanner to CGC's newly appointed AAO (Airworthiness Administration Officer) Rod Elsworth while Bernard Gonsalves and Bert Persson add their support.

We saw runways 6 and 12 in use so decided to go for 30. Obviously. Surprisingly the powered guys started to fall in with us, but I suspect it was Bryan Carpenter's appearance at the threshold that swayed them rather than us.

Kevin contemplates the mysteries of life

Our first passenger, George Simonsen, with his folks Dean and Nathalie showed up just as we were finishing setting up camp. 

AEF 15th Birthday passenger George Simonsen with Dad (Dean) and Mum (Nathalie)

Kevin took off with George into an uninspiring sky, nice clouds but no lift brought him back after 19 minutes.

1/2 an hour later Kevin decided to give George another flight as his passenger and managed to find some lift but this time George found himself not feeling too well. There were no sick bags in the Blanik so Kev must have felt pretty lucky to gotten back without sacrificing his hat :) 24 minutes.

We moved to 06 and whilst Kevin was away, Mick flew our second passenger, Colin Pevreal. Colin had flown some powered aircraft previously and really enjoyed his 26 minute flight.

GYK returns to RWY06 with Mick Moloney and AEF passenger Colin Pevreal on board.

A big grin on Colin Pevreal’s face tells the story

Mark, SPA, GYK and worsening weather on 06

I hadn't flown in a few weeks, so I really wanted to take a quick flight. Mick came and sat in the front of the Blanik whilst I flew a hanger flight. With the cloudbase at 1500 feet, Mark found a sort of a hole and we flew up into brilliant sunshine. In front of and below us were unbroken beautiful white fluffy clouds. And a bolt of lightning.

Reaction time seems to be the time taken for your brain to talk nonsense at you before it allows your body to take action. Mark was waving his wings nice and clearly and I got a second or so of thinking "was this a set up from Mick because I need to get off this tow right now anyway" wafting through my head before I came to and grabbed the release.

A 180 degree turn and we were racing back as fast as I dared with Airbrakes out to the last available (shrinking) hole got us back to the airfield at 1500 feet.

We got back on the ground just as it started raining, Mark arrived back a couple of minutes after us. A really fun flight and a good reminder that weather changes really fast in storm season.

I had a great day, and a fantastic 11 minute flight, so thank you guys! 

Bright sunshine after the torrential rain

Total time 1 hour 20 minutes, 4 flights total.