Considering
we had blue skies all day and not a cloud in
sight, the conditions were surprisingly good for
a relatively chilly day.
Today
the on-field crew was yours truly (AEI), Karl
Bodi as (Tug Pilot), Rod Wilson (Duty Pilot)
with Mick Maloney (Duty Instructor) keeping an
eye on proceedings.
We
were supplemented by Tony Sorensen, David Higgs and
Garrett Russell.
In
the “back-office” at the tie down area,
Lindsay Mitchell beavered away all day on the
Twin Astir (thanks Lindsay … another sacrifice
to keep our aircraft airworthy).
We
were also joined by Guy Templeman who is a very
very very near solo student.
First
flight of the day was an AEF for Christina
Hoseason who was visiting from Aukland with her
brother. We launched @ 10:30am into blue skies and
I was fully expecting to be back on the ground
shortly thereafter. We did pass through some
hopeful bubbles and with some meager thermals we
squeezed out a 35 mins flight … but I was
hopeful the next one would be better as the day
warmed.
Next
up was Christina's brother Mark Levesley who was
visiting from the London. That flight was a
solid 1hr 10 mins and dive brakes were
reluctantly used to bring us down to earth as
another AEF had dropped in and was waiting.
The
last AEF was a young lad Ben Findley who is
currently an accountant and looking for
something different to do with his spare time and
possibly a career change. He’s had a couple of
powered training flights and was now trying
gliding. Unfortunately I couldn’t repeat the
1hr plus flight but we did squeezed out 40 mins.
Importantly,
all 3 passengers thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Whilst
I was entertaining our 3
passengers in GQA, Mick
was putting Guy through
his paces with 3 further
training flights in GYK (including
boxing the slip stream).
Other
flights included annual
check flights for
Mick Moloney, David
Higgs, and Garrett
Russell.
Speedy
(Bernie Gonsalves) brought
out the Kookaburra and
took Ceri Owen up for a
short flight.
By
2:30pm we had already
clocked up 10 flights with
more to come.
Unfortunately
the tug oil pressure
indicator started playing
and although it’s likely
just a faulty indicator,
no quick fix was available
and we didn’t want to
risk one of more valuable
assets.
With
3 aircraft ready to launch
– including Guy quite
possibly for his last
flight before solo, we
reluctantly started towing
the gliders back to the
tie down area.
The
last pic is of Kevin Rodda
in the Kookaburra ready
for launch and about 30
seconds BEFORE he was told
that the tug was out of
action ... I didn’t take
an AFTER photo!
Hopefully
the tug oil pressure
indicator can be fixed
tomorrow otherwise Sunday
operations are seriously
in doubt.
Safe
flying everyone ...
