18Aug13 - Quiet morning, massive afternoon

Quiet morning to massive afternoon

18-Aug-13

It started out as a quiet day at the tie-down area.

[photo: Nick Sheahon]

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From: nicholas sheahon
Date: Sun, Aug 18, 2013 at 9:40 PM
Subject: Quiet morning to massive afternoon
To: cgcmemlist@vicnet.net.au

Well with only the one AEF flight and the 'possibility' of one student member on the schedule this morning (being young Theo Mus), you would have been forgiven for thinking (as a few of us did) that we could be in for an early finish and home in time to do a few chores around the house.

That's how it started anyway, but with the arrival of Dan Kershaw and a beautiful blue sky, the decision was made to take both the IS-28 and the Blanik down to Runway 12.

The one that got away? ... Mick Moloney, Kevin Rodda and Karl Bodi.

[photo: Nick Sheahon]

Peter John (Duty Instructor) had a couple of quick flights with Theo in GYK releasing from only 1500 in order to work on circuit entries etc while Dan clocked up 20 minutes in CQC on his own.

AEF passenger Ian Nye ... with Mick Moloney.

[photo: Nick Sheahon]

The look of the day was obviously too much to resist as soon enough David Crocker and Rupert Perry (and friend Peter Krenskc) arrived along with Ian Nye (the only scheduled AEF Flight) and his partner Karen Otto who had organised the flight as a surprise. Karl Bodi was flying the tug at this stage and Mick Moloney got to take Ian for his flight (in lieu of AEI Kevin Rodda) due to a minor operational issue. This particular issue did not come into play however with Karen who also decided to try gliding and this time Kevin was not giving up a second AEF flight.

AEF passenger Karen Otto ... with Kevin Rodda.

[photo: Nick Sheahon]

About this time, we put Dan in GYK with the hopes to clock up an hour flight in his log book. Sadly, he fell agonisingly short as the lift just kept moving to the west and away from YCAB. This was however still well and truly the longest flight of the day at 55 minutes so still a large well done there Dan!!

Dan Kershaw returns in CQC.

[photo: Nick Sheahon]

Karl Bodi (Tuggie) had to head off a little after lunch time and with the arrival of David Higgs, Peter John took over flying the tug.

At this point the activity around the pie cart really heated up with a second AEF for a 50th Birthday calling in. And as Kevin was picking up that party of four guests, he found two more walk-in AEF’s in the carpark.

Rupert quickly snuck in his flight with friend Peter (while Kevin was gathering AEF passengers) and David Crocker had three quick flights with Mick Moloney.

The last few flights were David and Sharon Voyce who, after driving a V8 SuperCar at Willowbank this morning, and decided to come to YCAB to kill a couple of hours in the afternoon before flying back to Cairns tonight. They are going to be even more tired tonight than our CGC duty crew.

David Higgs then 'tie down' flighted the Blanik with Kevin's son Aron rather late in the day.

As the following photo shows, we packed all the toys away just in time to enjoy a stunning sunset.

Stunning sunset at YCAB today.

[photo: Nick Sheahon]

Statistics for the day:

GYK 7 flights at 2 hours and 27 minutes

CQC 7 flights at 2 hours and 41 minutes

The bottom line is that, while it was a great day for the club, no one on the Duty Crew got any jobs done around the house today.

Please be sure to place your orders for more of the same fine flying weather at YCAB in the weeks ahead.

Safe Flying and Happy Landings,

Nick Sheahon

Duty Pilot