The beautifully fine Easter weather continued at
Caboolture today, attracting another small crowd
of Watts couldabeens to the pie cart.
As mentioned in David Higgs’ Saturday report,
he had the pleasure of welcoming Laurie Simpkins
and Stewart Hamey back to the airfield to fly
their Cirri (plural of Cirrus?) in skies which
they happily conceded are more challenging yet
strangely rewarding than the open spaces
they’re used to around Warwick. Their friend
Bruce was also back as the support team.
Lindsay Mitchell, Speedy Gonsalves, Rod
Elsworth, Alan Graham, Wayne Burgess and Rupert
Perry were the day’s local contingent, with a
flying visit from Peter Stephenson in his Super
Ximango
Other Peters were also around. Peter John took
off in his Thorpe for a trip to Wondai and power
pilot Peter Pretorius cruised by aboard his new
stealth approach vehicle
But the glorious sky in these photographs did
not invite as many flights as you’d think. The
problem being that the weather was just TOO good
for our standby tug and its hundred or so
horsepower less than the Pawnee!
With hardly a breath of wind to put on the nose
of the tow combination, even the single seaters
stayed on the ground until midday and launching
the IS-28 would have to wait until the windsock
lost its languid droop.
The Cirri and Ka-6 with Lindsay aboard took off
between 11:57 and 12:28 and Speedy self-launched
at 12:15 in his Ka-14 to see four gliders
airborne in the space of half an hour. For the
crew on the ground, that was the most active
half hour of the rest of the day.
The wind never got up to the strength required
for a safe launch of CQC, so by the time I took
over from David as L2 there was nothing much to
do but chat in the shade, eventually bow to
reality and walk the two seater back from RWY12,
and prepare for the return of our small but
happy squadron.
How happy? 3:05 hours for Speedy, 3:03 for
Laurie, 2:56 for Stewart and 2:06 for Lindsay.
That’s a lot of smiles, and with enough income
for the club to make our Treasurer smile too.
However that was not the end of our flying.
Rupert Perry put on his RAAus cap and went on a
Bribie beach patrol in a Foxbat, PJ returned
from Wondai with an average 145 knots behind
him, and David Higgs pipped that with about 400
knots. But he was not pilot in command and he
may have even had a second beer before landing
in Sydney!
With more light and variable winds expected for
Monday, we will see how a Blanik goes behind the
Decathlon. And of course the Club Libelle is
there for all members qualified to fly it. So
come out for more glorious weather - and a few
more flights - to give the weekend a big finish.
Garrett Russell
