With
skies so blue, the usual Friday crew
assembled knowing their day out would be
dependent on our tuggies, in particular,
Steve Bowtell who returned it to
Caboolture and then passed it on to Karl
Bodi and, later, John Knox. Once we
heard SPA overhead, our efforts to DI
gliders, GYK, GXQ, CQC and GJY gathered
urgency.
The
members busying themselves under Garrett
Russell and Barry McCarthy’s
supervision were Bob Hainsworth, Shane
Tuck, Arthur Mailey, Charles Hoch, John
Nestor and Theo Mus who is enjoying
school holidays. With the combined
talents of this crew, we set up on
runway 06 in no time as some
optimism-inducing cloud started to
appear and when Garrett and Theo set off
in GYK, we all waited to see how they
fared.
Without
waiting, Barry and Shane set off for a
check since Shane has been unable to
join us for a few weeks and their
efforts in CQC indicated that conditions
were, indeed, good since it took them
one hour and five minutes to return. By
the fourth launch, Arthur decided that
it may be good enough to see what the
Libelle would do. Two hours later, he
also returned leaving those still on the
ground hopeful of a good flight - but
not all of us were favoured by the gods
in control of patches of lift. Also
worthy of note, with the recent wet
weather leaving lots of boggy patches,
anyone landing too long was sent off to
give the glider a good wash; the
spectacle of a glider landing in a gush
of muddy water was not what we wanted to
see too often nor were the retrieves
involved. After all the dry weather we
may have become forgetful of this trap
for the unwary. Beware.
However,
it was not a day entirely wasted because
we had The Card belonging to SPA for
secret financial business returned to us
by Tony Sorensen so those hoping to fly
in the immediate future owe him a
sincere thank you.
Our
other visitor of note was Ken Mitchell,
playing the role of grandad, and his
wife, Terry. The aforementioned grandson
was far too young to be included in the
day’s activities but was a keen
observer. Maybe a pilot one day?
GA
flying was somewhat quiet for the day so
we had few delays or distractions but
the appearance of a latter-day Red Baron
captured our attention and later a
lovely DH Devon had us all watching its
activities, enthralled by it for a few
minutes. Then we returned to our quieter
version of flying. Maybe someone got a
photo though?
Stats:
YK, 4 flights for 1.02; CQC, 2 flights
for 1.32; XQ, five flights for 1.06 and
JY had two flights for 2.20. Well done
everyone.
We
wound up the day just before 15.30 and
packed up with 13 flights logged and
everyone declaring themselves satisfied
with their flying for the time being. We
are getting a trifle weary of the task
of putting gliders to bed so please
everyone keep fingers crossed for good
news about the progress of our planned
hangar.
And
finally, until we meet again, we wish
everyone good flying and a very happy
and a very safe Easter break.
Stay
safe
Judith
Smith,
on
behalf of the Friday crew
