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Could
do better Friday |
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22-Nov-13 |
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From: Judith
Smith
Date:
Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 6:40 PM
Subject:
Could do better Friday
To:
Judith Smith
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Wednesday: Bert Persson on his
fourth full day of working on the construction of a
replacement port horizontal stabiliser for GXQ using
"skin and innards" from GVB and Llewellyn modifications
from GXQ. A very complex and tedious process ... using
his incredible skills and Blanik experience to great
effect to do an excellent job!
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Well,
the year is nearing its last gasp and, with the sky
looking so very
good
today, we had all hoped to get in some extraordinary,
fantastic,
last-minute
flying before this year ends and we have to start all
over
again.
We had a very manageable crew on hand to get CQC and
GYK as well as
the
van set up on runway 06 ready to go before 09.30. Well
done crew!
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Friday regulars explaining to Arthur
Mailey the concept of cash going into (not out of) the
fridge.
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First
up was Kevin Dobbie was taking a training flight with
our L2, Bob
Turner,
and that was where things started to go sour. Despite
the windsock
pointing
straight down 06, the power mob were intent on using
12 so after
aborting
a launch, we all packed up again and moved to 12 since
Tony
Sorensen
had taken SPA down there and left us stranded! En
route, we almost
met
Kevin Rodda but he dived off to help Speedy who seemed
to be in
roof-fixing
mode. Walking gliders that far meant that some of us
got a good
day's
exercise one way or another. But, what a waste of a
fabulous sky
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David Higgs and Kevin Rodda arrived
at the container at exactly the right time this
morning to assist Bert in work that required more than
one set of hands on the tail of XQ. The
fuselage of XQ was at that time still located down the
right side of this container where Bert had been
working without ventilation, shade, lighting or
sufficient room to fold down the horizontal stabilisers.
They moved the fuselage of the Club Libelle out of
Hangar 22 to make way for XQ's fuselage to create a
better work area for Bert. The photo above provides a rare
opportunity to compare the relative size (particularly
width and depth) of a set of Blanik wings versus a set
of Club Libelle wings.
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Obviously,
Kevin and Bob's second, and successful, try was on 12
over an
hour
later. Bob Hainsworth and Charles Hoch quickly
followed in CQC and came
back
after 1.15 - after we did everything possible to
interrupt their flight
because
we had an unanticipated passenger celebrating his 18th
Birthday with
a
glider flight and we needed their glider back. Luckily
David Higgs had
dropped
in so he was nominated as AEI to take Adam for his
first experience
of
gliding in CQC, all 42 mins of it while Bob continued
with Kevin in GYK.
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By
the time Adam and family departed, most of the cloud
we'd been so
delighted
to see earlier had become a sulky looking blush of
white across
the
sky though there was an odd cloud to help Shane Tuck
to register a 35
min
flight. Unfortunately, he could not repeat this
performance to get his
second
half-hour. And after that, Arthur Mailey and Barry
McCarthy (who has
just
returned to flying) took CQC back to 06 after all the
wildlife had been
chased
out of the way. To finish the list Kevin Rodda, who
resurfaced to
show
off his work on the Barina, joined me in a short
hangar flight in GYK.
Our
total of eight flights from 12 break down into three
flights for GYK and
five
flights for CQC, each recording just over two hours
flying. Could have
done
better.
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By the end of today's operations at
YCAB, Bert had "manufactured" a replacement
port elevator from our collection of old Blanik parts,
and, after Speedy had touched up the paintwork on it
as well as the port horizontal stabiliser, had the new
tail completed and in place (with about another full
day's work required to complete the job). He was very
pleased to have made so much progress today as he had
hoped to do just that ... however he had one of those
mornings where every direction you turn there is
another unexpected complication that stands in the
way.
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Then
Tony could take SPA to the bowser to be refuelled.
For such a great
looking
day, interruptions made for in a very early finish
just prior to
14:00
and once everything was packed up, Bert and Speedy
asked for some help
extracting
XQ from the container and installing it in Kevin's
hangar. To
fill
in the rest of our day, those of us with nothing
better to do stopped
for
a little rehydration and a chat while Bert worked on
XQ.
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May
power traffic be more cooperative for the weekend
members. Stay safe
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Judith,
on behalf of the Friday crew
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[photos and captions courtesy of Kevin Rodda]
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