We all agreed that it was warm even before we headed for runway 30 with CQC, GYK (thankyou to our maintenance crew) and GJY. It looked as if we were going to be busy with two new members, Anton Szabo and Warwick Parkinson, to introduce to gliding. Warwick has seen the light and is converting to a purer form of flying. The birds were certainly showing us how to do it as we set up so we sent Shane Tuck off in GYK to see what the birds were up to.

 

Instructor, Bob Turner, was ably assisted by Tony Sorensen and Barry McCarthy, and later by Steve Bowtell  who took care of Warwick’s first flight with us. Therefore, the usual but nevertheless sincere thanks go to them for their dedication to duty.

 

Bob had several items on members’ wish list to attend to before we could schedule their flights however. Shane was after the elusive ‘hour’ and we were all most disappointed to see him return far too soon. Barry had taken to the air in GJY to check what was going on up there but he too returned reasonably quickly with the comment that it was too rough to be enjoyable. Thereupon, Charles Hoch took over JY and got the second best flight of the day at 24 mins, also commenting that it would be nicer to fly in CQC today, such was the nature of the conditions.  

 

Unfortunately, by this time, conditions were disappointing and the wind had increased.

 

As we departed from our spot on 30, everyone was keen to see how John Nestor managed with his ‘outlanding’ across 06 so we were a small crew collecting up the few chairs remaining with the van. What is it with chairs disappearing now? Four are all we have left at this stage. Not enough for a day with 15 people at the flight line. Maybe we need a lock on the van? Guess we can’t since the door is missing. Bright ideas anyone?

 

Back to the outlanding – John had to try again to please Bob and by that time, the van was on 06 so we could all see the result! Well done John!

 

Over the industrial area ...

 

 ... and a nice landing from southwest to northeast across the 06 undershoot.

 

While this was going on, Bob Hainsworth took friend, Lois Closter, for a flight in CQC to show her what keeps him coming back. He scored the best of the day with 1 hour 16 mins – approximately an hour better than most of the other flights achieved. No other flight recorded in excess of 20 mins apart from Charles’ effort in JY. However, Ken Mitchell’s scores for the day of 1 minute and 2 minutes after instructor, Tony Sorensen released far too early on his two flights definitely had a detrimental effect on the average times. Ken was philosophical about it, looking forward to another flight to end the day but a search for a lost wallet changed plans.

 

Peter John joined us on 06 for a spell and, for old time’s sake, took over in SPA briefly, giving Karl Bodi a break from his busy day and joined us sheltering from the  scorching sun. Thanks to both. Also, safe travels to the cold of Tasmania, Peter.

 

While he should not appear on the flight sheet since he was flying his own self-launching glider, Kevin Rodda, wearing his Treasurer Hat, called in to check we had everything under control. Unusually, his launch in his new glider GHG ended with him also being unable to make anything of the afternoon sky.

 

Stats:  GYK, 1.47 from 7 launches; CQC, 1.19 from 2 launches and GJY, 41 minutes from its 2 flights.

 

May the weather gods be kind to the weekend crews and allow you to have some great flying.

 

Stay safe,