|
"Before"
|
"After"
|
|
|
--------------------
From: Nicholas
Sheahon
Date:
Sun, Mar 22, 2015 at 9:24 PM
Subject:
Better than expected Saturday
To:
cgcmem@mailmanlist.net.au
|
|
|
|
I did not hold too
much hope of flying at YCAB on Saturday with
overcast skies, expected showers and no AEFs or
MIRs booked. Regardless of this, the duty crew of Kevin
Rodda, Steve Chapman, Dave Donald and myself arrived
and with a call from the car park from Simon and
Carlo Brodie, we wheeled out SPA and GYK and after
a short discussion about 30, we setup on 06.
It was a good call and soon after, all traffic
followed our lead to the now more correct runway.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Steve
Chapman had SPA ready for action.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Carlo
and Simon Brodie with GYK en route to the flight line.
|
|
|
I
also called a work colleague who
had been interested in taking a flight
with us for some time, and
told him we were flying and to
get to the field ASAP as there
was in fact some blue sky trying to
peak through the cloud.
Young Carlo was first into GYK and
impressed Dave with his flying skills
for someone so young even completing
the take off on the second of two
short (both 11 minutes) but
valuable training flights.
Kevin was actually AEI for the day,
but with only the Blanik on the flight
line, he called on a slightly lighter
Bert Persson to take my friend Peter O'Brien for his
first glider flight (Kevin
made me include a photo as proof that
I do have one).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Simon
Brodie and Bert Persson ... no shade required today!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nick
Sheahon (right) and his guest today Peter O'Brien.
|
|
|
|
Bert
treated Peter to a great flight making
good use of a tow well above
cloud base to 4500' and
the limited pockets of lift to
take the flight of the day at 53
minutes. Peter, an avid
photographer, took a very large and no
doubt very expensive camera on the
flight, and shared the very
cool shot of the GYK front cockpit
while on tow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bert
Persson (rear seat) with Peter O'Brien ready to launch
...
|
|
|
|
|
|
rolling
on RWY 06 ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
and
"in station" behind the tug during take-off.
|
|
|
|
From
there, it was game on as Kevin
challenged me to a longest flight
competition from a 3000' launch. Of
course Kevin would be solo but I had
not flown in some time. I would also
require the services of Duty
Instructor, Dave Donald, which sort
of evened the weight issue. The
only other issue of who would
fly first was decided by a quick bout
of 'rock paper scissors', which I
promptly lost.
|
|
|
|
Kevin must have used up all the
remaining lift (that Bert did not use)
and/or flew superbly using the 'McThermals'
over the industrial area to
record an impressive 44 minutes from
his 3000 feet launch (while dodging as
much as possible the scattered rain squalls that were
by then sweeping through the local airspace).
So here comes the
excuses ... with the conditions rapidly deteriorating,
Dave and I only managed a tow to
little over 2000' before cutting Steve
loose and finding nothing but
sink. In fact, if I had not given
Dave a quick go on the controls over
the 'McThermals', we may have been
back even quicker than our 14 minute
flight. Well done Kevin, I owe you a
beer mate.
We had all the toys packed away when
Garrett called to let us know that he
was out of hospital (great news) and
that there was some serious weather on
the way.
Stats for the day are pretty easy with
5 flights, all in GYK, totaling 2
hours and 13 minutes.
Good to hear that the Friday crew got
in some good flying as Sunday was
unfortunately a washout so fingers
crossed for some better flying
weather in the coming weeks.
Until next time, safe flying and happy landings.
|
|
|
