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False
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22-May-15
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From: Garrett
Russell <gjr@powerup.com.au>
Date: Sat, May 23, 2015 at 8:45 AM
Subject: False Start Friday at YCAB
To: cgcmem@mailmanlist.net.au
We
had a bit of a false start on Friday which reduced our
morning flying, but still managed a total of almost
three hours in the air.
The
problem was with IKW, grounded by a mechanical glitch
revealed in the DI. Duty instructor Bob Turner's eagle
eye and ear had found the problem, so while he
consulted with Speedy on the ground and with Lindsay
on the phone, the rest of us had only GYK and GJY to
take out to RWY24.
Only
three seats to share between Tony Sorensen, Barry
McCarthy, Arthur Mailey, Bob Hainsworth, Charles Hoch,
Judith Smith, John Nestor, Kevin Rodda, Jessica
Bellamy and myself. Not to mention an AEF passenger to
4,500 feet!
The
silver lining was that the conditions which sent us to
24 were also contributing to fairly short flights:
strong blustery winds, clear sky, no workable thermals
and, for most of the day, no mountain wave. The
longest flight time was just 26 minutes, shared by
Tony and Arthur on the day’s first launch and Barry
with the AEF passenger. The other flights were mostly
timed in the teens and there was a constant huddle of
members in the sunny lee of the pie cart - the only
place we could get away from the biting wind. Not the
most enjoyable airfield day.
There
was a bright spot when Al Harford generously offered
to take one of us in motor glider GHM on a hunt for
wave out on the mountains. John Nestor was quickly
volunteered as a motor glider virgin and he came back
beaming - but also reporting that they could not
connect with any wave.
Around
the same time Kevin Rodda took off in his own self
launcher but came back with a flat battery before
being able to start his own wave hunt.
Even
the arrival of a knight in shining armour, in the form
of Bert Persson to tell us he’d spent the morning
inverted in IKW’s cockpit and the glider was now
airworthy again, didn’t improve the situation much.
The Twin Astir’s two subsequent flights added up to
just 35 minutes.
The
second of those launches was a tie down flight because
by shortly after lunch we all agreed to call it a
short day and get out of the wind.
That’s
when Bob Turner found 33 minutes worth of lift on the
way back to the tie downs in GJY. And Barry McCarthy
as pilot in command shared one of the best Blank
flights I’ve ever enjoyed - 57 minutes of working
wave between 3,000 and 3,500 feet over Caboolture
township. We fell just short of the hour, but flight
of the day, on a tie down flight, in the lowest
performance glider on the field, was a pretty good
feeling.
And
proof that even a “bad day” at the airfield can
end up being “pretty good”.
With
special thanks to Dan Kershaw, who filled in at short
notice to fly the tug all day, and a get well soon
wish to tuggies John Knox and Mike Grady, the days
stats:
IKW
2 flights 0:35
GJY
3 flights 1:13
GYK
4 flights 2:04
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Garrett
Russell
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for the
Friday Crew
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